Chapter 7: Cures from Mass Production

So she finally did it.

Sestiva swung the door open, letting Helen inside. They sat down at the table in the center of the room, pulling up two chairs. Helen gently set down the polished, wooden box onto the table, unlatching it and slowly opening it. The rifle lay in the best condition possible. There were no scratches, no tarnish, no splinters, and not even the slightest dent in either the metal or the wood.

Such a condition was hard to come around. The rifles that Helen often bought often were used and damaged from the rough shipments on the way from Marleybone. Most of the time, they were broken, and she had to fix the rifles herself. It took her days, and sometimes, up to months to fix, depending on the severity of the damage.

"Do you want to practice with that, Helen?" Sestiva suggested, knowing that with each and every different gun that Helen had, she had to adjust to it. She had to know each gun inside and out, treating it like it was a human being. "We can go up to the cave if you'd like. I'm sure you can spend plenty of time getting used to it there."

Helen stood up without a word, taking the rifle with her. Sestiva followed close behind, grabbing the leather bag with the potions and slinging it over her shoulder on her way out. She'd left her staff up in the cave just in case she had to carry more books when she went back.

Helen pushed the long vines aside from the entrance, holding them aside for Sestiva as she entered a few seconds after her. Helen, going to a far side of the room, considered that her rifle was the most accurate, and etched a small circle onto the cave wall.

Sestiva on the other hand, moved the table to the small room in the back and stood off to the side to avoid interference with Helen's training.

Though I can already tell that this is a good rifle, I cannot trust the bazaar owner's words. I will have to see for myself. If he has lied to me, then I swear the I will go to the second floor on which he lives and leave a mark to remind him not to trick his customers.

Helen lifted the rifle to eye level. The weight of the rifle was surprisingly light. It seemed like it was made out of a lighter wood, meaning that it would have a higher chance of flying out of her hands from the recoil. She would eventually get used to it, but she had to test the fire power on the new rifle.

She found the small target, about the size of her fist, on the wall, and took aim, the crosshairs on the scope fixed perfectly on the center. Helen exhaled, not moving the rifle, then pulled the trigger, a charge flying out of the barrel, sending sparks in all directions. Helen couldn't tell when the charge had hit the wall. It went far too fast for her to track, unlike her old rifle.

Helen approached the wall, checking for any damage done by the charge, and if it truly hit the center of the target.

"Sestiva, it's kind of dark in here and I'm trying to see if the charge did any damage," Helen stated, continuing to walk closer to the wall. Sestiva looked up at her, cast a spell to light up the unlit torches around the room, then went back to her duplication spells. Already, Helen could count at least ten potions sitting in the corner, and she noticed that Sestiva seemed to be completely out of energy. "Thanks."

Helen could finally see the damage clearly. Right in the center, there was the smallest hole, about size of pen, going directly through the center of the target etched into the wall. Scorch marks lined the outside of the hole, spreading as far as a foot from the outer circle itself. She took a nearby torch and held it close to the hole, to see how far it penetrated into the wall itself. The hole was still pitch black no matter how hard she tried to look. Maybe if she came eye level with the hole, she could see it it went through to the other side, and out into the open areas of Skull Island.

She knelt down, pressing her eye right up to the hole, trying to see if it went all the way through. She knew it passed all the way through when she saw a little bit of light through the small hole on the other side, leading out to the Skull Island skies.

Sestiva watched Helen as she examined the hole, at the same time, wondered how she should distribute it. She could easily distribute it in whole boxes for entire islands, but there was a large chance that no one would believe her about a new disease that randomly appeared in the middle of the spiral.

However, she could always take a needle and inject the antidote into the new food shipments the night before the morning they unload the ship. It was most likely the plan she would go by, but that also meant she couldn't get caught.

Meanwhile on the sandy beaches of Skull Island, bits of scrap metal washed up on shore from the remnants of ship debris from nautical battles. The scraps traveled everywhere. They could come from Valencia, and somehow make it to Skull Island, however, the scraps were small and often went undetected by the people there.

Unfortunately, it was the time to be a little more cautious, as Pathogen might have spread around the world after being unnoticed and then growing deep under the sand, coming way above the surface where they least expected it. On Skull Island, it was the same situation, though, the crystals were only just starting to burrow themselves into the sand.


As far as uploads are concerned, I'm writing whenever I have time, and will update as soon as I'm finished. Hopefully I can catch up soon, especially with spring break coming up in about two weeks. I'm terribly, terribly sorry. I will try to finish up the chapters and catch up as soon as possible.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review! It will help me become a better writer in the future! :)

-SamanthaHawkins