The Blind Wanderers

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley,” I stated in a hushed tone. I held my daughter Ryne’s hand tightly in mine, pulling her along quickly. We maneuvered through streets and back alleys. This being her first time outside, she was doing great. She knew the rules of movement and stayed quiet until it was safe to respond. The sun had disappeared on the horizon about three or so hours ago, so we were in complete darkness. That was the best time to move without being noticed.

“Really?” She whispered. Ryne had this way of looking at me when she wasn’t quite sure if I was just messing with her. Behind the tint of the plastic mask, I could see her round eyes searching mine, I smiled down at her reassuringly. She couldn’t see my mouth, but I hoped she would see my cheekbones rise and my eyes squint and know that I was indeed smiling at her.

“Yes, sweetie. There were no dragons here at all. These empty homes used to have people in them. Families too.” I said, gripping her hand a little tighter as we turned another corner leading down another dark alley.

“People? You mean the Blind Wanderers?” Ryne asked sounding a little breathlessly, prompting me to slow my pace a bit. I didn’t want her to get tired. There was still an hour or so until we were on the other side of the valley and in a safe zone. At that point, we were in the worst possible spot we could be in. We were right in the middle. The Red Zone.

“No not the Blind Wanderers exactly. Believe it or not, they weren’t always like that either.” As I said this, a large shadow swooped over us accompanied by a low growl that caused the ground to shake. I pulled Ryne close, and we ran in the opposite direction before ducking behind an old dumpster. I covered her with my body and prayed it didn’t see us. It stomped past knocking over brick walls of dilapidated homes and stores until it was out of sight.

We waited for what seemed like hours until the creature’s silhouette could no longer be seen, its footfalls no longer felt beneath our feet and his growls went silent. We came from behind the dumpster, and I checked her over. We adjust our face masks and check our suits and gloves for holes. I was relieved to find everything was in good condition. She gives me a thumbs up and we are on our long journey once again. After feeling safe enough to speak low, I resumed my story.

“As I was saying, the blind wanderers weren’t always like that. They were regular people like us at a point.”

“If they were like us then what happened to them?” Ryne asked after a while.

There was so much I wanted to say but I would have to save that for later but at some point, she would have to know. I had done a good job of keeping her safe, but she was getting older, and she would have to be prepared for what was lurking in the darkness.

“They all got infected. It did something to their minds. Over the span of a few days, they changed. Now they just stand or wander,” My throat began to become uncomfortably dry as a spoke, but we pressed on.

We had our rules: cover your eyes, mouth, and nose. Stay quiet and when cornered, stay hidden and don’t make a sound but most importantly; do not cry. Ryne didn’t know why but she was an obedient child and didn’t question the rules whatsoever.

“But why, Mama? Why do they do that?” Ryne asked, sounding breathless again. I slowed down as much as I could, but we only had a few hours before the sun came up, so as much as I didn’t want to rush; we had to. The Blind Wanderers always took their post at the first glimpse of light then there would be more dragons.

“It’s the bug. That little worm I told you about. It attaches itself to their brain first and then takes over.” I uttered, my eyes narrowing watching my surroundings intently. This area was slowly being taken over by nature. I saw that we were coming up on a thicket of trees in the middle of the road. I looked down at my daughter as I noticed how quiet she was.

“That makes no sense though. How could a bug call dragon?” Ryne questioned.

I had every intention of answering. I thought that over the years my eyes had become conditioned to see in the darkness, but I was wrong. As I looked up again, we found ourselves coming up on a group of them. Ryne stifled a gasp. There were a dozen or more frozen in place and some lay scattered lifeless on the ground. Their arms and legs splayed out like starfish. We were too close to turn and run. We would have to wade through them and hope we wouldn’t be detected.

Ryne did what she was taught. She trained her eyes at the sky as if she were searching for something, her arms flopped down beside her as she shuffled her small feet across the ground. I held my head down like an old person nodding off. We moved through the crowd at a snail’s pace. Stopping every few steps to give us time to steady our heart rates and breathing so we wouldn’t be detected. The infected weren’t particularly active at night but the worm within could smell fresh uninfected bodies.

We had all but made it through when to my horror, I made a fatal error by lightly kicking one that was laying on the ground. As soon as its eyes opened, its mouth came open. The sound of its jaw cracking violently sent shivers through me. A loud cough sent a cloud of eggs into the air. I didn’t look back as I grabbed Ryne’s hand and we made a run for it…

There weren’t always dragons in the valley but they are the least of our worries.