Brazen was returning from the supply tent with new bandages. There still hadn't been much change in Plissken's condition. He had been awake twice for a few minutes but he hadn't moved. The fever seemed to be breaking but the rest was still looking grim. Susan tried desperately to keep her hopes up. After three days of nothing she couldn't help but feel the pain of some impending loss. Her thoughts distracted her as she walked back across the compound toward their site. She had moved him to their own tent on the old site near the brush. It was a small comfort to inhabit the site again.

"Dear."

Brazen had thought the voice was a hallucination until she heard it a second time. She froze and slowly looked up to see a woman sitting on a stool by the edge of the path. She had a smell about her that Brazen instantly recognized. The woman smelled like a crazy. Susan was taken aback by her sudden appearance and the look. Her eyes seemed to move like a chameleon independent of the other. The cataracts glistened oddly in the sunken sockets. She was wrinkled and shaking as her hand rose from her lap. If it wasn't impossible Brazen would have assumed she was well over a hundred.

"Come here." The feeble hand motioned slowly. Curiosity pushed Brazen to walk up to the woman. The old woman gazed up at her from those unnerving eyes. Susan stared unable to tear her eyes away until the cold hand took hers. The hand shook with age. Brazen wanted to pull away.

"He loves you."

The statement was clear and filled with more certainty then the woman's earlier statements. Confusion plagued Brazen as she watched the woman.

"Who?" Susan had to ask though she had an idea who she might be talking about.

"Your broken viper." The elderly woman sighed heavily letting Brazen's hand slip from hers.

Susan nearly panicked as her mind returned to her earlier thoughts of Plissken. She was so sure he was dying.

"You worry for him too much." To Brazen's surprise the woman stood with little difficulty. A sweet smile appeared on her face. It was an expression of knowing something.

"He is already on his feet." She added.

"He can't be." Braze couldn't hide her incredibility. There was no possible way for Snake to be up.

"That is why." The old woman laughed in a way that reminded Brazen of a cackling harpy.

"What?" Susan wanted away from this woman but the unanswered questions in her mind prevented her from running to the tent.

"That is why because you believe he can not." Her scrawny claw like finger came up and waved at Brazen. "You do not believe he will live. His spirit knows what you think. He will prove you wrong like he always has."

Susan watched the still crowing woman move past her toward the main compound area. Something in the air or the moment brought an uncomfortable feeling. That woman bothered Brazen so far inside that it sent chills through her body. Suddenly, Susan needed out of that place on the path and started for the tent in a rushed, clipped pace.

"Snake?" Susan threw open the flap staring blankly at the empty sleeping bag.

"What the…?" She murmured glancing around. His boots were gone and his bandage lay on the floor. Susan turned looking first toward the path where the crazy woman had been. How had that woman known?