Author's Note: Don't look at me like that - you didn't really think I was going to immediately reveal what happens after the last chapter, did you? Ha! What a silly idea. Of course not! And now, a little break for an entry from Zack's journal.

No, I did not forget how to count, nor did I miss a chapter. This is intentionally Day 4. You'll see! ;)

Thanks again to all my reviewers! And a special thanks to my "anonymous" reviewers - I don't get the chance to thank you directly like I do with the others, but I want to let you know that I still appreciate all your comments! This chapter was a bit of a challenge to write (but then all of these are, considering they're journal entries and not simply first-person POVs), but I rather like how it turned out. Hope you enjoy!

Oh, and this will probably be the last chapter I'll be able to post before Thanksgiving ... probably ... since I actually don't have the next chapter written yet, and I need to work out some pesky timing issues with what I do have written/planned! You think these alternating storylines are torturous for you, you should try writing them ... Anyway, hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! ... And this was supposed to be a Halloween fic ... clearly, my ambition is greater than my time or speed. :P

Chapter Six

Zack's Journal, Day 4

… Wow. … Not quite sure what happened to me …

Everyone says I've been totally out of it for the last day or so.

Guess those kimaras really can be poisonous. Sucks if the guy with the only Heal materia loses the dang thing. Should probably write Allen up for that, but guess I can't really blame him.

Oh … I should probably go back to the beginning and say what happened. Sorry, my head's still fuzzy from whatever it was they gave me. I should probably be sleeping, but someone's gotta be taking the notes here. Besides, they won't let me get up and do anything else. I …

Oops, spaced out for a second there.

What was I …?

Oh yeah, back to the beginning.

Yesterday. Um, so we'd gotten up in the morning and split into search parties to look for the monsters. Of course, we kept within about a hundred yards or so of each other, so we could still hear in the event that something went wrong. Would have let them go further out, but the jungle is pretty dense out here.

I'd gone with N'kim and Walker, and each of the Thirds paired up with an infantryman. We'd gone a fair distance out from the camp, and everything was going smoothly – as in the few monsters we came across were all successfully vanquished – until about mid-afternoon. A call came from my right, from Hammerson and Allen's direction, so I repeated it down the line to Stover and Harley, and took off for their position.

Before I knew what I was getting into, I had already hurdled into a kimara swarm so dense, it was like someone let lose a whirlwind in a rose shop, only worse. The giant red bugs were everywhere! I'd swipe at a cluster of them, only for three or four more to arrive and land on my sword before I'd even finished the swing! The intensity of their buzzing made my head vibrate.

We'd be eaten alive in short order if I hadn't made good use of my Barrier materia. It's still only at Level 1 since I keep forgetting to use the blasted thing, but it was all I had. I made sure my party was good and covered by it, then blasted my way through with Ice and Lightning to find Hammerson and Allen and get them secured. Thankfully, Hammerson's Fire did a good job of holding back the bugs, so we set about scorching that whole area.

I think we made a noticeable dent in the swarm by the time Stover and Harley finally arrived. They joined in. I assigned Allen to hunker down with Walker and keep him alive; was about to do the same for N'kim, but he turned out to be pretty handy on his own – used a Stop materia and a spear he carried with him to cut down the bugs.

We were in the fight for a while – turned out Hammerson had stumbled onto a nest of the things. All the materia casting was wearing me down; I had to resort to using my Osmose to restore my energy, which was pretty desperate, considering bugs don't carry much magic in them in the first place.

My Barriers had failed multiple times by now, and we'd all been jabbed and gnawed on to various degrees. I think there was still a head with its mandibles imbedded in the back of my calf, if the sharp pain was any indication. Anyway, about the time the bugs finally started to thin out, I began to wonder that, if it was a nest, where was the queen and could we get rid of her for good?

I need to stop wondering things I don't wanna find out the answer to.

There was a shout, and I looked up to see N'kim on the ground with one heck of a gigantic bug standing over him, about to spear him through.

The bug was gold. It was taller than me. I guess that was the queen I was looking for.

Seeing that the other soldiers were still engaged in their own skirmishes, I broke away from mine and sprinted for N'kim. The rest of it happened in a blur.

The queen had pinned N'kim by the leg and his spear was just out of reach. I arrived and sliced off the first claw as it jabbed downward. I was about to slice off the second one, but my foot landed in a sinkhole and pitched me forward. So I missed.

Still saved N'kim, though. The bug's second claw also missed. But only because it stabbed through my arm instead.

I'll never forget the look on N'kim's face when the claw stopped inches short of his head. It was priceless. Wish I could have laughed.

I can't really remember what happened after that. I remember a lot of shouting, watching a bunch of trees zipping by, and then looking up and seeing N'kim and Hammerson bending over me. The guys tell me that the queen flung me away, but that the bug didn't last much longer because they mobbed it and sliced it to pieces.

After that … the only thing I remember is suddenly staring up at the inside of my tent. It was dark orange. I remember that … There was a lot of orange. Orange and black, light and dark. The fire was orange, N'kim was orange, even the awful drink he was forcing down my throat looked orange. I couldn't see much beyond the flickering orange, but I could hear voices out there. There was also a voice in my tent, and I think it was probably orange too. It was also very deep and hypnotic, and I think I fell asleep listening to it. That was probably a good thing, because the orange was hot and uncomfortable, and made my head ache.

… Re-reading all that, it sounds ridiculous, so I'm going to ignore that I ever wrote it. No one'll ever read it anyway.

I guess what really happened, according to the guys, was that N'kim took it upon himself to carry me back to camp. They say I'd quickly gotten feverish and delirious. Seems that, of all the bugs, it was the queen that was poisonous. Allen would have taken care of it, but in the scuffle with all the other bugs, his Heal was knocked loose from his rifle and lost in the undergrowth.

With no Heal materia, N'kim went back out into the forest to collect some items and make some kind of home-brewed natural remedy. He says that that, and the ritual and chanting he did, saved my life. Walker says that he'd seen the potency of the native "magic" at work before, so he simply helped N'kim. The other guys had no idea what to do, and Restore wasn't doing anything except healing the actual injuries, so they let them do their thing.

… Apparently, the ritual involved scrawling some new decorative lines on my arms and face. And guess what? They're orange.

To add to everything else that I don't remember, the guys say that shortly after they returned to camp, a giant sea worm sprung out of the ground and started wreaking havoc on everything. Now that's really weird, because they usually live along the beaches – they never go into the forest! In investigating it later, Walker concluded that, with the ground in this area saturated with so much Lifestream and water, it must've found a path out here from the beaches and followed it. Probably the rhythm of our footsteps were what prompted it into attacking.

Then they tell me something else bizarre, which I'm not sure I believe. Since this was all before N'kim had a chance to make his antidote, they say I tried to get up and run out to fight the thing by myself. It took both Thirds to hold me down. I … honestly don't remember. I want to believe they're pulling my leg, but none of them were in a joking mood when I finally came around earlier this morning.

It was the two infantrymen and N'kim who managed to defeat the worm. Allen took my Ice to help take it down – guess he must've been paying attention in training; those things are weak to Ice. And I gotta give him credit – that Ice was mastered, yet he still managed to pull off a couple spells. I think he's gonna go pretty far. Might want to look into recommending him for SOLDIER after this. I'd say he redeemed himself for losing that Heal.

I have to give them all a lot of credit, actually. Surprisingly, it was Stover who stepped up to keep things together while I was out. I didn't think he was the type, after complaining about the long flight a few days back.

Anyway … at the moment, I'm stuck here in the main temple chamber. At least they've finally let me out of my tent, even if I'm confined to the building. I'm sitting here against one of the columns at the top of the steps, and I can watch everyone out there practicing in the courtyard … But even though my arm is perfectly fine now, they won't let me get up to do anything until N'kim stops giving me whatever medicine it is he's made, and I've rested for a day or so. I don't see what the big deal is! My head's clearing up pretty well now, unless N'kim forces me to drink some more of that stuff. I might just throw it back in his face if he does.

… He's watching me like a hawk right now. Let's see how long this staring contest will last.

Dang, Hammerson just walked through and ruined it. I was totally winning, too.

… Now Hammerson's giving me a look! Wonder what his problem is? I run out once and deliriously try to fight a sea worm, and now everybody's paranoid I'll do it again. Gaia, they're worse than Angeal when I get the flu.

Wish Aerith was here so she could feel sorry for me. … Or at least pretend to feel sorry for me.

Think I'll just entertain myself with feeding those little furry things that keep running through the camp. They're fun little guys, playing and watching what we do. My two little purple-eyed pals are still hanging around out here too. In fact, there's one on my boot right now, waiting for me to feed it.

Harley and Stover claim that they've seen a bunch of blue-eyed critters. I keep looking for one, or for Hammerson's little brown-eyed friend, because I bet they'd be cute! But I only ever see them with purple eyes.

Oh well, just gotta keep a lookout! I've been randomly taking photos of them, and everything else I see, since it's not like I've got anything else to do at the moment.

Dang, mutinous soldiers.

It really is peaceful here, though, which I'm getting the time to appreciate. Something about the stillness, the quality of the air really makes you just want to lean back against something and sleep in the sunshine, listening to the light chatter of the birds and the insects. There's a faintly sweet, refreshing scent about the place too, which must be from some of the flowers growing around.

… Though if I'm caught napping, I'm never gonna live it down. Bad enough that Angeal's little minions have this whole poison thing to hold over me. If they think I'm still tired they'll probably confine me to the tent and finish the mission without me! As it is, they're already taking a break for the day to keep me with them.

In between feeding the furries, I've been entertaining myself with snapping the occasional photo of N'kim, over there by the fire. He gets a funny look every time he sees me using the camera, and I'm trying to get a picture of it.

… You know, he hasn't really left me since I became conscious enough to realize what was going on. In fact, with the exception of running out to get the medicine ingredients yesterday, he's stuck with me since I was skewered by that kimara.

Wonder if he's finally warming up to me because I saved his life? Well, "warming up" is a relative term, I suppose, since he still doesn't say much. But he doesn't seem as cold as he once did. Though it's not like any of the other guys wouldn't have done the same thing for him, if they'd been able.

… At least his orange paint doesn't seem as permanent as that white stuff. And the white stuff is slowly starting to wear off, thankfully. Just have to keep scrubbing at it!

Awesome, it's almost lunchtime. Just gotta make it until tomorrow morning, and then I'll finally get back into the action!

to be continued …