The door to the cabin opens up and I glance up from my laptop to look at the front door. Somebody I don’t recognize steps through the door, A small girl with brown dog ears that match the color of her hair. She’s infected like us, which puts me at ease. Her eyes sweep across the cabin before finally landing on me. A figure I do recognize steps into the cabin right behind her; Kay closes the door behind the two of them, turning to give me a slight wave.

“A-amiya?” The newer girl looks surprised to see me, her eyes widening as she looks at me.

“Oh yeah, I forget that you’re popular.” Kay chuckles. She swings her shovel up onto her shoulder, walking past the new girl and towards me.

“She is?” the new girl asks.

“I guess I am.” Chuckling, I look over at her. “You’re surprised? You’re the one who recognized me.”

Shuffling a little uncomfortably, she glances away. “I… I keep having these visions of things that don’t make sense. And you’re in some of them.”

Nodding, I gently close the laptop I’ve been using so I can focus my attention on the new arrival. “The memories from Terra.” I stand up from the couch. “I know the kind.”

“...Memories from Terra?” Her expression turns confused and I realize that Kay must not have told her anything.

Kay takes this moment to turn towards the kitchen swiftly. “I’m gonna make us some lunch.”

I turn my head to shout after her. “Don’t take your shovel into the kitchen!” She groans and I can hear the gentle clank of her shovel being placed on the floor and leaned against the wall. Ever since we figured out her focus was a shovel and managed to recreate it, she’s had a bad habit of keeping it with her all the time. It’s not the cleanest thing to have dirt trailed around our kitchen, so I remind her when I can. Turning back to the girl still hanging out by the front door, I gesture for her to come closer and sit on the couch. “What’s your name?”

She sits down gently, still looking nervous. Her eyes follow my ears above my head and I hold back a chuckle at her distraction. “Uh, my name is Madison.”

I try to hold in a sigh at hearing her name, one of my small hopes being dashed. So this isn’t Debbie then. I smile anyways, trying my best to mask my disappointment. “It’s nice to meet you, Madison. You’re probably confused about a lot of things… Do you know anything about what’s going on?” I gesture up to my ears, wiggling them while she looks, “I can see that you’ve got some cute ears of your own now.”

Shaking her head, she drops her eyes back down away from my ears. “I don’t know anything. I started noticing these changes a week ago and now I have these ears and I look like someone else entirely… And I keep having those visions.”

“These changes, have you noticed any black crystals around your body at all?”

“Black crystals? I think I’ve seen mention of something like that in the news…”

Holding my arm out, I roll up my sleeve to reveal my wrist. She gasps when she sees the sign of infection on my wrist. I glance down at it myself. It’s big, but it’s still not as big as it is in my memories. The infection isn’t growing as fast as the first couple of weeks, which means that it’s gotten as big as it will be for now. “These crystals are a sign of infection.” I drop my hand and she looks up at my face. “This might be some hard news to take, but… the reason that we change is because we’ve contracted a disease known as Oripathy.”

She holds my stare for a few moments, her expression drooping once more. “I’ve heard that word a couple times in my visions. It’s really bad, isn’t it?”

I nod. “A deadly disease with no cure. Yet, at least. Rhodes Island is working hard to find a cure.”

Her ears perks up at the mention of Rhodes Island. “Rhodes Island? That’s who I worked for… in those memories. Actually… you were there too in a lot of those memories now that I think about it…”

“I’m the leader of Rhodes Island,” I say with pride, sitting confidently. I’ve been practicing my speech for a couple days now and it feels weird to actually say that out loud. Thankfully, my nerves don’t get the best of me and I’m able to continue.

“You’re the leader?” she asks, her voice skeptical. She looks me up and down hesitantly before continuing. “Aren’t you, uh, a little young?”

I sigh, shaking my head. “I was older before the change. I just look young.” She looks suitably chastised, so I continue, “I’ve been working hard to get Rhodes Island back up and running here so that we can get back on track to creating a cure.” I turn back to my laptop, turning it and running a search. “I’ve also been keeping an eye on the news regarding this and things are turning out more like we expected than I would have hoped.”

I turn the screen towards her and she leans in to look. Wincing, she leans back. “I’ve looked at some of it…” she sighs. “I don’t know what I expected after the pandemic…”

Nodding, I turn the screen back around. “We’re still small right now, but… we’re working on expanding.”

“I saw the construction on the other buildings outside… How long have you been working on this?”

Kay steps back into the room, plopping two plates with sandwiches in front of each of us. “About three weeks.”

“But I only started hearing about this stuff a week ago…” Madison tilts her head slightly while picking up her sandwich.

“We were some of the first changes as far as we can tell. We’ve been keeping a low profile out here, so it didn’t get around for a bit.”

She nods, taking a bite of her sandwich. She looks deep in thought, so I take the moment to dig into my own sandwich. Kay returns from the kitchen with her own sandwich, plopping herself down right next to me on the couch. "Not to mention the government cover up…" she says, letting her shovel lean against her knee. I roll my eyes at her insistence on carrying it around everywhere.

"We don't know that for sure, Kay."

"Cover up?" Madison asks, looking at Kay.

"Few weeks back they locked down the labs at the college. CDC on site, everything," Kay explains.

Madison frowns, looking down at her sandwich in thought. "I heard about that. They said something about seizing some dangerous samples. That was connected to this?"

Kay nods, "yup." She takes a bite of her sandwich before continuing. "Took a while after that for news to get around elsewhere, but I still haven't seen any mention of what they grabbed from the college. Thankfully they never came out this way." I nod, thinking about Debbie once more.

"I guess you are pretty isolated out here. How many people do you have working for you right now?" Madison says, pulling my attention back to her.

"Just the three of us." I gesture to me and Kay. "Dr. Kal'tsit is our head doctor at the moment, but we're actually in the process of looking for more people."

Kay nods, gesturing to herself. "I'm nearly finished with the first of the buildings out there, so we'll have room for new people soon."

Her jaw drops open as she looks at Kay. "You did all of that work with just three people in a couple of weeks…?"

Kay's tail flicks slightly, letting out a slightly embarrassed chuckle. "Admittedly… most of it has been Mon3tr. He's been pretty helpful with all of the heavy lifting and more technological parts."

Madison turns to me with a questioning look and I offer her an uneasy smile. "Mon3tr is kind of like a robot? Kal'tsit shares a special bond with him. It's been pretty interesting around here ever since the change."

"It sounds like it…"

I continue talking, returning to the original topic. "I plan on putting out a statement to the world later today about Rhodes. We're hoping that we can catch the eye of some people who know me who might be able to help us get Rhodes Island back up and running again. As soon as Kal'tsit comes back, we're going to set the Livestream up."

"O-oh." She stares at her sandwich emptily for a few moments before taking another bite.

"So, did you want to talk about why I found you wandering around the forest?" Madison winces as Kay says that, glancing up at her guiltily. I look between the two, frowning at the implication.

"The forest?"

Sighing, she places her sandwich down gently. "My roommate found out about my changes. She chased me out of our apartment and I just… wound up out here."

I give her a side eye, filled with worry at her story. "We're a couple miles out of town…"

She waves a hand dismissively. "I drove my car to a nearby rest stop. It was just meant to be a walk to clear my head, but… I got a little lost."

I let out a small breath at the explanation, feeling at least slightly reassured. It's still awful that she got chased out by her roommate. Kay nods, swallowing a bite of her own sandwich. “You’re welcome to stay here for a bit if you need. Just a heads up that it might get busy here soon.”

She nods, picking her sandwich back up. The door behind her opens up once more and Kal’tsit steps through the door, an octahedral crystal floating along behind her. Kay puts her sandwich down, sighing. “Finally, you’re back. Took you long enough. Can you get Mon3tr to help me out? I need him to solder something and then make sure the power is running through the building properly.”

Madison turns around to look at Kal’tsit, wilting slightly under her gaze. Kal’tsit nods, turning to look at Mon3tr. Kal’tsit opens the door and the floating crystal floats outside obediently. Kay picks up her sandwich, nodding to the two of us before jogging towards the front door. “Stay safe,” Kal’tsit says as she passes. Kay doesn’t respond, just closing the door behind her. Holding back a sigh, I watch as Kal’tsit turns back to look at Madison.

She steps closer, walking around the chair to stand in front of her. “Get up,” she says.

Madison gets up hastily, placing her sandwich down and standing up stiffly. Kal’tsit takes that opportunity to look her over, grabbing her wrist gently and checking her pulse. I smile nervously, gesturing to Kal’tsit. “This is Dr. Kal’tsit, the doctor I told you about. I think she’s just performing a quick checkup to make sure that everything is okay.” Madison nods, but I can feel her apprehension rolling off of her in waves. Grimacing, I turn to Kal’tsit. “Kal’tsit, usually it’s polite to at least introduce yourself before performing a physical on somebody.”

Kal’tsit nods, placing a stethoscope against the new girl’s chest. “Hello, I’m Dr. Kal’tsit. I’m just performing a quick checkup to make sure that there isn’t anything terribly wrong. You seem well enough, but sometimes invisible symptoms are the most dangerous. Cough for me, please.”

I feel her apprehension wane and I look over at her, but her eyes are distant. Standing up nervously, I watch as her attention snaps back to Kal’tsit. “Sorry, what was that?”

“I said cough please,” she says, unphased by her lapse in attention. As Madison coughs, she nods to herself, pulling her stethoscope back. “Had another memory?”

“Ah, um, yes, Dr. Kal’tsit,” the girl says quickly. She looks much more at ease now, almost as if she isn’t as put off by what just happened anymore. “It was, um, about you. You’re just the same as when I joined Rhodes Island.” She chuckles a little before catching her own words. “Err, when she did. The, uh, girl I look like. Sorry, I guess you’re not really Kal’tsit either, huh…”

Smiling, Kal’tsit shakes her head. “I am not the same as I was, but that doesn’t mean I am not Kal’tsit.” She steps away, walking over to a box on a nearby table. She pulls a bracelet out, looking at it and glancing over to Madison. “Will you be staying with us for long?”

She freezes, looking between me and Kal’tsit. I hold my hands up gently, offering her a sincere smile. “Please don’t feel the need to answer that. Like Kay said, you can stay as long as you need.”

Kal’tsit walks over, handing Madison the bracelet. Madison takes it, holding it gingerly between her fingers. “You handed me one of these in that memory too…”

Kal’tsit nods, finally taking a seat on the couch next to me where Kay once sat. “It’s an infection monitor. It’s a requirement for working at Rhodes, so if you plan on staying with us for a long time, I’ll need your measurements so that I can make you a custom one for wherever would be most comfortable for you to wear. For now, I’ve made a few in various sizes.”

She blinks, looking up at Kal’tsit with wide eyes. “...Could I work for Rhodes? You don’t even know if I’m qualified…”

“A part of you worked for us once before. Besides, Rhodes Island needs all sorts. Whatever your specialties, I’m sure we could find out how best to utilize you.” I smile, listening to Kal’tsit speak. I look down at my laptop, thinking about my upcoming speech. Kal’tsit’s words are very reminiscent of the ones in my speech that she helped to write. Even knowing exactly why she’s done so, it still surprises me how quick she was to accept putting me in charge of Rhodes.

“...Can I think about it?” Madison says, slipping the bracelet over her wrist.

Kal’tsit nods. “Of course.” She turns to look at me expectantly and I take another bite of my sandwich. “Are you ready?”

Was I ready? I was certainly a lot of things. Scared, anxious, unsure… Instead of voicing any of those thoughts, though, I just nod my head. “Yeah,” I say, trying my best to seem confident.

Kal’tsit nods once, standing up from the couch. “We’re running the stream from the new building. I’m gonna go get everything set up; have you checked our socials at all today?”

I shake my head, turning to my laptop tentatively. “I’ve been a little scared to. Does it have a lot of traction?”

“Mhmm. A lot of traction. Since you added that picture, it’s been circulating more.” She pauses for a moment while I open the laptop. Opening a new tab, I navigate to just one of the socials we made for Rhodes Island and sure enough, there are a ton of notifications. A hundred messages in the inbox that have accumulated over the last couple of days. “There are a lot of people that are looking forward to hearing your announcement. People look up to you, Amiya.”

Sighing, I slowly shut the laptop. Just more stuff to overthink I guess. “Here’s to hoping that we don’t let them down.” I smile unevenly at her and Kal’tsit just nods once in response. She opens the front door to go set up the stream, leaving me alone with Madison. I take another bite of my sandwich, lost in my own thoughts.

“I didn’t realize that there’s so many things going on…” I look up at Madison and she’s fiddling with her infection monitor. “I’ve been so caught up in my own stuff that I didn’t really consider that there’s something bigger going on. I feel kinda silly worrying about my own stuff.”

I shake my head. “That’s not silly at all. We all have things going on. Physical changes that alienate you from a large part of uninfected society and visions of memories from a life that you didn’t live are both fairly big changes that would be distressing to anyone. Plus, you just told us that you had been run out of your home by someone you trusted, that’s not a small thing either.” She nods, dropping her hands. “I’m not a therapist, so I can’t offer very good advice, but I am here to listen if you ever need someone to talk to.”

She looks up at me with a complicated look. “Aren’t you gonna be busy? You’re the leader of Rhodes Island, right? I don’t know a whole lot about it, but… from all of those memories, I get the sense that it’s really important.”

“I won’t be so busy that I can’t spare a moment here and there. It’s Rhodes Island’s sworn duty to help the infected.” I get up from the couch, scooping my laptop up as I do so. Chuckling nervously, I glance away. “Of course, once we get an actual therapist on board, we can look into getting you and everyone else on the staff scheduled for some sessions.”

“I haven’t said I would join yet,” she points out.

Turning back to her, I give her an earnest smile. “I know. Of course you’re free to say no, but I do hope that you’ll stay with us.” With a simple nod, I wave goodbye to her while making my way to the door. “I have an announcement to make. Make yourself at home for now! If you need something, Kay will probably be hanging around somewhere outside.” I open the door to leave and see Mon3tr and Kay by the other building. I duck my head back into the house. “Oh yeah. And if you see a huge black crystal-looking snake monster nearby, that’s Mon3tr. Spelled M-O-N-3-T-R. He’s mostly harmless, so you don’t have to worry about him.” She nods once, but gives a confused head tilt. Not wanting to delay any longer, I continue towards the new building. Hopefully that was enough of a heads up.

While walking over to the newly completed building, I admire all of the work put into it. Normally a building would take a couple months to complete, but between Kay’s new strength and command of Arts and Mon3tr’s surprising utility, they were able to complete the first building in record time.

I walk up to Kay and Mon3tr and watch them work. Mon3tr is scanning the power panel while Kay holds her shovel nearby. She looks over to me and I wave, taking a step closer. “Everything okay?”

Mon3tr finishes scanning, flashing a red color before rewiring a few of the wires. I watch as he seems to spool a thin wire out of nowhere, working with precision to completely change the electronics over the course of a few seconds. “I think so. We finished with soldering the additional piping to the extra water tank and then while I was checking the power, Kal’tsit asked him to do something to improve the Internet speed. I don’t understand half of what he does, but everything should still be working if it’s Mon3tr working on it.” After a few seconds Mon3tr finishes and drifts away from the panel and through the open door of the building. “Guess he finished,” Kay shrugs, closing the panel and walking towards the opening of the building.

I follow Kay, glancing again at the outside of the building. The brickwork on the outside hasn’t been painted, so the building still looks rough, but it’s still a huge and sturdy building. As we walk into the building and see the inner hallways I note that these walls have been painted. “You painted the walls? It looks incredible in here!”

Kay nods, smiling. “Yeah, apparently Kal’tsit had Mon3tr paint the inside to look like Rhodes Island used to. He’s kind of insane, to be honest. This would have taken forever to do alone, but most of this work is trivial for him.” Kay gestures up at the lights embedded in the ceiling. “Look at how nice this building is; this place is way fancier than my cabin.”

I giggle at that, bumping into her gently to get her attention. “Maybe if you make nice with Kal’tsit she’ll help you spruce up your cabin?”

She shifts, glancing away uncomfortably. “I’ve told you, I don’t have a problem with Kal’tsit.” She doesn’t say anything further, so I respectfully drop the topic. I can’t force them to talk to each other, after all.

I step to the side and peer into the first door on the left, seeing the unfurnished dormitory in all its glory. It’s not much to look at right now, but there are at least a few beds placed around the large room. We continue down the hall and I watch as we pass by a lab and then by the kitchen that’s connected to the common area.  The next room on the right hand side is the office that we planned to do the livestream in.

On the left hand side, I see the double doors leading to the single largest room in the entire building. It’s a huge training room that is just as unfurnished as the dorms at the moment, but there are already plans to furnish it as soon as it can be finished. I ignore the office for a moment, pushing one of the doors open to glance inside.

The room is huge and the walls are unpainted, unlike the rest of the building. Eventually this room will see a lot of abuse, so extra precautions need to be taken to fortify it. Whether it’s physical abuse from abnormally strong infected or from stronger Arts like mine. It’s a room that will be especially helpful in directing people how to safely use their Arts, so it’s an important room to have.

I close the door, turning back to the office. Everything has come together so quickly. It’s strange to think that we might have other people wandering around this building sometime soon. “What do you think?” Kay asks, pulling my attention back to her.

“It’s incredible that you were able to finish all this so quickly!” I tell her earnestly.

“Well, it’s not quite finished of course, but it is close. Might take a week or two still before we can fortify the training room, depending on how easy the fortified panels are to make.”

I smile, nodding excitedly. “I can’t wait to see it when it’s done!”

A beat passes between us, Kay glancing at me without turning to me directly. "Any word yet?"

I let out a breath, trying my best to maintain my positivity. "Not yet, no… her socials are still dark." I sigh, shoving my hands into my jacket. "I wish I had copied Debbie's number down on more than just my phone."

Kay shakes her head. "If she's not responding on her socials, it's likely that she wouldn't have the same phone number either." Bumping me in the shoulder with her elbow, she gives me a smile. "She'll probably see your live stream. Then she'll know to come right over."

Smiling back, I nod. "Maybe."

“I’m gonna rest up in the cabin. I’ll be watching your stream from there.” She turns around, giving me a thumbs up over her shoulder as she walks away. “You’re gonna knock it out of the park!”

I watch her walk away, energized slightly by her affirmations. I collect myself briefly before opening the door to the office. “I’m ready, Kal’tsit.” Inside the office, I see Kal’tsit sitting at the computer, tapping away at the keyboard idly. Beside her, I see Mon3tr floating idly in his compact octahedral form.

She looks up at my entrance, nodding and gesturing to the wall directly in front of her. “Just in time. I was just testing the new connections. I’ll send the message for the stream now.” I nod, standing up straight and looking at the camera pointed in my direction. Kal’tsit chuckles, standing up from the computer. “Relax, we’re live in ten minutes. You still have some time to review your lines and everything. We have to wait for people to show up to the livestream after all.”

I let out a breath, stepping forward and setting my laptop onto the desk. “Sorry, I’m just nervous I guess.”

She reaches under the desk, pulling out a water bottle and handing it to me. “Understandable.” I accept the water graciously, taking a large swig to calm some of my nerves. “You’re going to do fine. You’re just letting the world know that Rhodes is back up and running, that’s all.”

“I just don’t want to mess it up.” I sigh, pulling up my speech. As I pull it open, I remember how popular the post we made has gotten. “People look up to me.”

Kal’tsit doesn’t say anything further while I go over my speech once more. I mutter some of the words to myself, making sure I have the broader topics down. The time passes faster than I would have liked and before I know it, Kal’tsit speaks up again. “It’s time.” I nod, closing the laptop gently and taking a deep breath with my eyes closed.

I feel Kal’tsit take my hand and I open my eyes back up. “You’ve got this, Amiya.” She gives me a gentle smile and I don’t have to be an empath to feel her calm. I breathe out once more, feeling some of the stress actually wash away this time.

“Right. I have this.” Stepping back away from her, I position myself in front of the camera. I wait patiently, fiddling with one of my rings while Kal’tsit starts the stream.

She holds up a hand, “And… we’re live.” Her hand turns to a thumbs up and I take one more quick breath before looking into the camera confidently.

“Hello, everyone.” I wave to the camera, smiling happily as I continue talking. “Some of you might recognize me and some of you might not. My name is Amiya and I’m the leader of Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals…”

SylkWeaver

That's all for Hare Apparent for now! Thank you to everyone who's been reading! I do have plans to continue Amiya's story, as well as to tackle the stories of other characters in this same setting. Starting up a new job soon, so I don't know how quickly I'll be able to get everything out, but hopefully soon!