Segment 5 (My eye is hurting*)

"You can't get to where you want to be by just standing there Solider. Come, we must make it past the marsh before the sun dies"

I nodded, agreeing and shuffling behind the torrid pace of my leader.


What was it that I said so long ago... What was it that I spoke for or against that would have altered the difference a minor degree? Or did I already charge that burden unto the shoulders of those who've failed to represent the best interest?

"Watch this here." Alfred stuck out his tarnished machete in the direction of the aboriginal plant life. "The green ones aren't too harmful I reckon but the violet and amber ones have been known to kill people".

"Really?" I naively asked hanging on every word.

"Of course not Jerry I was just checking to see if you were paying attention"

"Now what the hell else would I be doing stuck out here in the wilderness?" I retorted.

Alfred's voice was unusually low and dreary. "Dreaming I'd imagine... That's what I'd be doing"

"Not very bloody likely Alfred."

"Oh? You beyond that at this point?" his tone shot back up to it's normal buoyancy.

"Not at all. It's just that dreaming is for the poets or the clever, neither of which I am"

"And what makes you so god dang certain all this is not some faraway dream you've been lulled into by a powerful dose of medicine and or spell from the decrepit wizard's hand? Hell how do you even know that right now you're not just dead somewhere. Sitting, waiting, sleeping, sitting, waiting, watching, waiting, and sleeping away the penance?"

I withdrew the small nagging blade that clung aboard the side of my ankle and ran the sharp jagged edge down the closest seam of my hand. The crimson darkness rapidly seeped out from the rift and bled, flowing flawlessly towards the ground.

"This is how I know the world I live in is real Alfred. This is how I detect what I understand and appreciate; by the sense of feel and the searing tingle of pain that currently jolts through my palm."

Alfred and I held our gaze intently on the leaky faucet of human nectar.

"Do you believe me now that I am authentic?"

*Mine, not the characters/story relevant. Just me. So don't mind any mistakes for the time being. Sorry!*