[EternalPen]

Synopsis: Trey is diagnosed with a deadly virus that is believed to have wiped out the Roanoak colony back in the 1500's. The virus was dubbed "The Croatoan" and there is but one cure. The cure only has a small chance of success but, as Trey is about to find out, the Indian roots of the cure go farther back than even the doctors knew. He must face his fears in his own mind to survive, and ultimately cure, the virus.



NOTE: Like the chapter before, this one is a bit long. I have split this one in two, also.

***Tracy And Her Fears***

Trey tried for almost an hour to re-open the door but it wouldn’t budge. He yanked as hard as he could and his grip failed him. He fell back and landed on the floor, exhausted and sorrowful. He cried for Wallace, not knowing if he was still alive or forever gone. He swore to Wallace, wherever he was, to spread his adventures and give his legend eternal life.

After lamenting a moment more and honoring The Great Captain, he decided that this place was somewhere he had been taken as a result of the medicine he drank back in his apartment. With this in mind, he thought that the best thing he could do right now would be to press on and try to find some answers.

Door number two was staring him in the face and he opened it and entered.

The door clicked behind him and, as he anticipated, it wouldn’t open again. He guessed he would need to find the “Captain” of this place to get that door working again. A Captain of a ship wouldn’t be hard to find either.

The window in front of him proved what he thought. He was on a ship, as the carving on the door had implied, that was in space. This ship was more modern, he thought, because of all the tools and metal around. Not to mention that he wasn’t floating and, to his knowledge, artificial gravity hadn’t been invented yet.

He didn’t have much time to look around. He didn’t know how much time had passed by and he only had a week.

“Hello?” he called out. “Is anyone there?”

“Wha… is someone back there!?” a voice rang out.

“Yes!” Trey yelled, “I am! Where is the door?”

A metallic knock echoed through the room again and again, originating from one spot. It was to Trey’s left and he turned to see that a part of the wall he had seen a moment ago was slightly different. There were hinge-like objects connecting the five feet section of wall to the roof.

“I found it!” He yelled towards the door, “How do I open it!?”

After a short pause, an answer came.

“I don’t know.”

***

After three long, long hours, the door was open. As it so turned out, it had been jammed from the other side. Trey had moved a nest of some kind that was made from what looked like a mixture of dirt and metal. Trey whacked it as hard as he could with a loose pipe that was lying to the left of the door and it fell. It bounced twice and rolled away. It was quiet, but still seemed to screech out in a crying voice of terror. For a moment, Trey thought that something inside the ball was terrified and alive.

He discarded the thought; realizing metal could make that noise when dragged across a floor made of the same substance.

Four humans greeted him on the other side of the door where the rest of the ship laid in an almost worse state than the cluttered room he was stuck in. It looked as if the men on board had thrown everything around with no regard for the ship in search of something very important. It was as if a mechanical beast had released the contents of its insides on the floor. You couldn’t look half a foot without seeing a crumpled piece of paper, a broken pipe, scraps of metal, packaging wrappers (Apparently from foods by the way names like Crunchy Max had been printed on them), or-

Blood. Trey had just noticed very minimal amounts of blood on the floor about every ten feet, whereas the storage room, where he had first come in, had none. He was about to ask but looked suspiciously at the four people in front of him. Could they have done this?

There were two white males, a white female and a dark brown colored man. They all looked as if they hadn’t eaten in days and none of them wore full clothing, except the female. The three men were wearing nothing but their boxer briefs.

The girl, as he now saw she looked younger than eighteen, was on the floor with her back to the wall, holding her knees to her chest. She was wearing a pair of blood-stained blue jeans, and a jacket that was completely zipped up, all the way to her neck. Beyond her jacket, sticking to her throat as if it were trying to choke her was the top of a turtle-neck sweater. She also wore a pair of shoes and socks, though Trey didn’t recognize the brand of shoes. They had no laces or Velcro.

The oldest-looking white male stepped forward. The man had grey hair that reached to his ear lobes and hadn’t shaven for at least a month. His beard wasn’t neatly trimmed, the hairs stuck out as if they were alive and looking for food before they had been frozen solid by a cold December night. His chest glistened with sweat and it made Trey realize how truly hot it was. He shed his denim jacket and, feeling exhausted, just let it drop to the ground.

“My name’s Kyle.” The man said, his voice somehow gruff, weary and slightly annoyed all at the same time. “I’m the Captain of this ship and through the month and a half me and my crew has been here, give or take a few days, not a single peep has come from that room. Suddenly you start making noises and we get you out, where we see you have a full set of old time clothing back from the 1990’s and you are completely comfortable. We open the door, and then you realize that it’s hot and take off your jacket. Who or what the hell are you and how did you get on board my ship?”

Trey thought this man was just curious until he heard the slight effort to sound demanding and furious on that last sentence. He figured that, if the man had the strength to do so, he would have meant serious business. He decided not to get on the captain’s bad side and save his own questions for later.

“My name is Trey.” He said, “And to be dead honest, I don’t know how I got here. I just came through that door,” Trey pointed towards the door inside the storage room. “And need to get back in. Do you think you could get it open, Captain?”

Kyle stared at Trey for a moment and finally answered.

“Not yet.” He said, nothing in his voice now but an urge to lie down and sleep until he died. He was tired and Trey understood. He wished he could help.

“Crew!” Kyle called out, not showing any more effort than to reach his crew members, “Fall in and apply.”

The second white male stepped forward barely an inch and spoke for the first time. “Jamie Oothulk.” He said as he introduced, or applied, himself. “I’m Thirty, the crew’s mechanic, born and raised on home sweet home Earth, and I think I’m pretty damn good at what I do.”

The black man stepped forward and rushed through his words to get his application finished with. “I’m Miles Hiranik, twenty-two, the crew’s navigator, born on Earth, and I think I’m pretty damn HOT. If you could fix the coolant system-”

The Captain pushed him back and said, “Kyle Armstrong, fifty-seven, Captain, born on some god-forsaken moon as a slave and I’m think I’m pretty damn good at getting stuck on this ship with no way home.”

Trey expected the young girl to talk from where she was sitting, but she simply stared at Trey.

“Excuse the little one,” The Captain said, “We found her on this ship when we first boarded it. She’s sixteen, don’t know where she was born, don’t know her name and can’t seem to get her to do anything, including talk.”

Trey pulled his shirt off, but left his undershirt on.

“Why is it so hot?” Trey asked.

“We have no clue,” The Captain said, “The electronics on this ship are going haywire. Most of them aren’t working, and the ones that ARE won’t give off any electrical waves, so we can’t even tell where they’re coming from or the source of power it’s using.”

Miles turned around and walked down a hallway past Trey.

“Well,” He said, “No food or escape pod, this was dumb.”

Jamie followed him, as did Kyle. As Kyle passed Trey he whispered something. Trey didn’t understand what he said but it sounded a lot like, “Great. Another guy we find, just so she can eat some more.”

A shiver ran, jagged and cold, down Trey’s spine. He walked over to the girl.

When he got next to her he could tell she was terrified of something, but he had no idea what. It could have been him, for all Trey knew.

“Are you okay?” Trey asked as he sat down and crossed his legs in front of her.

She shook her head.

“Are you hungry?” He asked.

She shook her head.

“So you want to talk?”

Once again, she shook her head.

“Hey,” Trey tried one last time, “If you don’t want to talk, I won’t bother you. But please remember that I’m on board this ship, so if you ever do want to talk, I’m here.”

He stood and began to walk where the three others had gone.

“W-wait.” Her voice called out. It was so quiet, Trey had to stop for a moment to decide if that was her or not.

He turned around and walked back over to her. He sat down in front of her again.

“Yes?” he asked as he took his seat.

She seemed to back away from him and Trey realized she might not be that comfortable around men. He backed up about five feet.

“I’m sorry,” He apologized, “I didn’t mean to sit so close to you. Do you still want to talk?”

She eyed him with suspicion at first, then wonder. Then she nodded her head.

“What about?” Trey asked as he started to remove his undershirt. He pulled up the bottom of it and then thought better of himself. This poor girl had to constantly be around men that would probably wear nothing at all if she were on board.

He pulled his shirt back down, retrieved his T-shirt and put it back on, despite the heat.

“Why?” the girl asked.

“Hmm?” Trey mumbled as he pulled his shirt back on.

“Why did you put your shirt back on?” she asked.

Through this full sentence, Trey could finally hear her voice. It was full of desperation, fear and a sadness Trey could not even begin to imagine. He wondered if anyone on board had done anything… inappropriate to this girl.

“I’m in the presence of a lady.” Trey answered her with a bright smile, “I need to look my best!”

Trey blinked and something about her face changed. There were traces of a smile on her face, though they were gone in only a moment. Trey wondered if she really did smile the length of his blinking, or if he was just hoping he was doing something to ease this poor girl’s pain.

“Um,” The girl started again, not quite sure if she really wanted to say what she did, “You can take it off if you’re hot.”

“Good heavens no!” Trey said, “That HAS to make you uncomfortable somehow. Not gonna happen.”

She really did smile this time and whispered a simple “Thanks.”

Trey leaned a little closer, not to close the gap between them, but to ask her a question he would rather the crew didn’t hear him ask.

“Have they done anything to you?” He whispered, a serious look completely masking his smile he once showed her.

“No.” She said.

Her voice rose in pitch as she said that one simple word and broke when she finished it. She buried her head in her knees and her body convulsed once or twice with a small whimper following each jerk of her body. Trey supposed she was lying, if she had to cry after her answer.

He immediately stood, brandished the metal pipe he had used to help open the door and stood next to the girl.

“It won’t happen again,” He told her, “Not as long as I’m here.”

Her head rose from her knees to talk, but she did not look at him.

“They didn’t.” She said through tears that Trey could not see, but knew were there.

Trey dropped to one knee and, not caring how much she was afraid of him at first, stroked her hair as if she were a lost kitten who would forget all of its worries as long as it knew someone was there.

“It’s okay.” Trey told her, not daring to ask what was bothering her just yet, “It’ll be fine, whatever it is. I’ll fix it.”

It was a large promise Trey had made but he intended to keep it. He didn’t know if he would be humanly able to, but he knew that whatever this girl requested he would do for her to the best of his ability. It wasn’t a romantic feeling, nor was it an empathetic act, he simply felt deep inside that all his problems would be gone if this girl was safe. No, Trey knew.

One of her hands let go of her knee and grabbed the shin of Trey’s Jeans.

“Promise?” she asked, squeezing the fabric and trying to hold in her tears.

“Yes.” Trey answered her with utter confidence. “Yes I do.”