<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"Just use de trashcan!" Lorenzo Orfeo shouted at the brunette who was starting to regret being his assistant for this job because at the moment there was a large, bushy bearded man laying down on a wobbly kitchen table, twisting in pain and puking his guts out.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">The young lady looked around the decrepit kitchen. The furniture was devoured by nature; wood and paint splintered and peeled, some were broken as if there once occurred a struggle here. The room, the entire house in fact, smelled dusty and earthy, and the floor was covered in dried mud and small trampled weeds. But she spotted the trashcan hidden in a corner.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">She let go of the injured man and rushed to grab the can, taking off the lid and emptying out its contents before rushing back to the table. She helped the doctor roll the man over on his side and cradled his head while she held the trashcan in front of him as he began to hurl again. She had to turn her gaze away as the sour smell hit her again.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Is he going to be okay?” the man who brought the injured man asked with furrowed brows, clearly concerned for his friend’s life, having never seen such a violent reaction before.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">The middle-aged doctor briefly glanced up at the younger gentleman, seeing how he was fidgeting with his hat. As Lorenzo grabbed the tweezers and lifted the patient’s shirt up to expose three 2 inch long, red quills sticking out of his side he said, “Slithervines are nasty little tings. But dey are only lethal to children and de elderly. De weak in general.” Lorenzo clamped down the tweezers onto one of those quills and almost immediately the injured man began to jerk at the sudden pain, “Ahhhrg!"</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Hold him down, I have to get tese out!” Lorenzo struggled as he wiped his sweaty brow. Sighing heavily at the blistering heat that Texas offered today...or every day.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">The younger gentleman quickly went around the table to help the nurse restrain the man.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lorenzo bit down his bottom lip as he pulled out the first quill, inspecting it before dropping it in a jar.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Slithervines. They were a dark-green bush with coiled up leafy vines that stretch and slither around the ground cover in search of prey. When they find one, their bulbous heads reveal a beautiful and fragrant white flower with red stems. Stems that turn out to be ejectable quills laced with a toxin that incapacitates the prey so the vines can curl themselves around it and drag it to the bush for strangulation and consumption.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lorenzo furrowed his dark brows. Usually these plants only went after prey the size of a rat or a rabbit...Well, the ones he encountered at least. According to a local here she said the ones in the wild get bigger and meaner. He looked back at his patient, <i>Quante volte devo dire loro di evitare queste cose!</i></span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">As the doctor reached to retrieve the second quill he noticed that he gained an audience. Almost the entire settlement had gathered around his house; peeking through the cracks of the boarded up windows or simply stepping through the door to see what happened up close.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">With a frustrated sigh he turns to the crowd, “Can someone go look for de slithervine and burn it before a child gets hurt? It’s somewhere at de farm.” He then turned back to the quills and continued to pull them out until he looked up again and noticed that the crowd still didn’t move an inch. Lorenzo dropped the tweezers onto the table with a clang and grabbed a towel to wipe down the man’s side as he raised his voice to the people in anger, “Go! Find it and burn it! Cosa c'è di sbagliato in te gente?!”</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">He then motioned for his assistant to get rid of the people so they could do their job. When everyone left he walked over to the kitchen counter and rummaged through the many jars of herbs, pastes, and powders he had. When he found a brown oily paste he opened the jar and smelled, his head reeling back from the strong cheesy odor. “That’s de one…” He then found the dried version of the paste but frowned at its contents.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Sarah?” he asked his assistant.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Yes?” she said with a sigh, <i>now what? He may be one of the better looking people of this settlement but he’s not worth cleaning up barf for…</i></span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Did you hand out any of de -dried- valerian root?”</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Dried? No, why?”</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lorenzo shook his head, “Just wondering.” Unaccountable missing medicine...He had a pretty good idea where to look for them.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">***</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">The settlement was located just north of Houston, nestled between a very small river and the city. It was a simple one consisting of varying ages, even children. The people didn’t really seem like hardened survivors, like the ones you’d see out on the road. They were simple folk making the best of things.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">They managed to secure a single dead-end street in a suburban area, converted a few houses into facilities for farming, the hospital, and a warehouse where they place their valuables like food and weapons...Lorenzo never thought that was a good idea. Hoarding it all in one spot, they almost lost it all during a raid.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">The rest of the buildings were occupied with several families. People didn’t like sleeping alone anymore in this world. All sorts of things could sneak up on you; slithervines for one.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Now, the only person who didn’t occupy a house was a woman named Lucille Wilder.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lorenzo wiped his hands on his khaki trousers before knocking on the rusty door of the van parked at the end of the street. When no one answered he decided to grab the handle and slide the door open.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Inside was a blonde protesting with a loud groan at the sudden burst of light that entered her ‘home’.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“-The fuck ya doin’?!” she said as she raised her arm to block out the morning sun.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lorenzo ignored her and glanced around the van, almost climbing over her as he spotted a tin can with dried herbs in it.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Whatever the fuck ya think I’ve done, I didn’t-” she stopped talking the moment she saw the tin can being taken away. <i>Shit…</i></span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">“Valerian Root is not for recreational use, Lucille.” he said to her as he grimaced at her condition. Laying down in nothing but underwear and a shirt on her makeshift bed. Surrounded with bottles and potted plants, and whatever debris she scavenged. His skin itched just by the sight of it…</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">One of the potted plants however made him reach out and yank the bundle of mushrooms out of the dirt before Lucille's hungover brain had time to register what he just did. He tossed them on the ground and stomped his heel on them.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"No!" she yelled out and tried to recover the remains. She was now sitting up straight in the van, mouth agape at what he had done to her mushrooms. "I spend 5 months searchin' for them in that goddamned city!" her southern accent strong and her dual-colored eyes lit up with fire.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"You won't need dem where we're going," Lorenzo replied as he backed away to create some distance. He experienced her right hook before...</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"...What? The fuck ya talkin' 'bout?" </span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">" Dey voted last night, you and I are chosen for de trip."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"What trip?"</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"West. Dat sanctuary dey've been talking about. We're to meet de others around noon, across de suburbs."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Well this was news to her. But then again not really surprised that they voted her out. These rumors about Haven had made them rethink her usefulness. Personally Lucille didn't believe in it. There's always some place that claims to be 'it', the sanctuary, paradise, Haven. They're just other settlements who got a lucky start but sooner or later they all fall.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lorenzo stayed silent for a bit, watching her attitude change. "We'll find a new place."</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">She looked up at him, her soft expression turning hard again as she climbed back inside the van to put on some clothes. "Why did they vote ya out? Ya'd think they'd keep ya around?"</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"I volunteered actually..." he said before clearing his throat and leaning against the van, his gaze turned to the buildings to give her privacy.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">She slowed down putting on her dirty white wifebeater when she heard him. She was thinking for a moment and then poked her head out of the van, "Cause yer bored? Or cause ya tryin' to escape Sarah?"</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lorenzo stiffened at the name, clenching his jaws and pressing his chapped lips together.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">Lucille had a devious smirk, "uhhuh..." she said before retrieving her torn jeans and brown boots.</span><br/><br/><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'">"Dey're expecting us all to be at de rendez-vous by noon...Try and stay sober for once." With that Lorenzo walked away to prepare for his departure.</span>