Reaping Read Online Free PDF

himself up onto his elbows and offers us a strange smile.
    “Hello.”
    “What are you doing,” Eli says. It’s more a statement than a question.
    “I hallucinated.”
    “You what?” Soren stares down at his friend.
    “I think I’m dehydrated. I don’t think this wild food is good for me. I took a positively explosive shit earlier.” He looks up at me with an embarrassed smile. “Sorry to be so descriptive, but anyway, now I’m out of water.” He holds up his empty water bottle and shrugs, resigned to his fate. “I thought I heard a waterfall, and I saw this beautiful albino fawn who looked just like Moriana, except for it being a fawn and all, and albino, and I followed her here because she told me to. Then she disappeared and I realized I was going crazy, and that I was out of water, so I lay down. Then I realized I was lost. I mean, where the hell are we, anyway?”
    After all that, Miah’s face cracks and he starts laughing like it’s the last time he’s ever going to laugh. Desperate, awful; a pouring out of giggles, hee-haws, and uncontrolled hiccups culminating in a crying cough that leaves tears streaking down his cheeks and disappearing into his beard. Bear and I exchange worried glances.
    “Well, shit.” Soren joins him on the ground. I unscrew the cap to my mostly-full water bottle and offer it to Miah. He nods his head in thanks and tips his head back, draining half the bottle in a few gulps.
    “Ok,” I say, “We’re about two miles to the river. We were some fifteen minutes from the crossroads when we stopped, so that’s another half-hour from here, and another forty or so minutes after that if we slow our pace. I think that’s the nearest water source.”
    “Let's look at the map again.” Eli pulls may plasma from my pack, and we both peer at it. “Maybe there’s a stream or spring or something closer. Miah,” he looks down at him, “don’t drink it all at once. That can make you sick, too. The rest of us need to ration our water so it lasts until we get to the river. Let’s make sure this idiot doesn’t die out here, okay?”
    We’re lucky we’re so close to Normandy, I think, as we plow on. The sun rises to its noon height then fades, snuffed out as the air stiffens and shivery grey clouds like sinister wisps of smoke sidle in. Bad weather. My stomach growls. I’m thirsty. We tell Miah funny stories about Rhinehouse, about Eli’s antics at base, our reconnaissance missions, and anything we can think of to keep ourselves entertained. He grunts and half-laughs and keeps his head down as if watching every footfall was a requirement to propel himself forward. At half-past noon, we reach the river, though the sun has completely dissolved into the mist and the temperature has begun to drop. After the river, thankfully, the terrain won’t be too rough, the elevation change is minimal, and we’ll have the vague path of an old world highway to guide us.
    I fill all our bottles and treat them with the probiotic UV filter. Eli and Soren prepare a light lunch of leftover fruit and meat from a trap Bear set yesterday evening. It’s far less than what we should eat, but it will have to do. I attempt to scrub the dirt off my face and rinse my hands and arms with the cold water. Predictably, Miah’s mood lightens soon after he eats.
    We set out again on our slow, meandering way, but Miah disappears again into the woods not twenty minutes after our meal and when he returns, it’s clear he’s every bit as ill as he was earlier.
    “Damn,” he shakes his head and whispers when he walks back our way. I stick out my tongue in disgust.
    “Anyone else hear thunder?” Soren asks, casting his eyes skyward, a sly glint in his eyes.
    “Fuck you,” Miah returns.
    It’s well into evening by the time we make it to Normandy, and we’re all just as filthy as we were before the river, and twice as hungry. But Miah especially is a pallid, glassy-eyed mess. He strongly resembles an oversized