Page 11 of In Darkness and Dank

Browning and Hutte exchanged a wary glance.

“If we find the lagoon and I’m wrong and the bacteria there sucks, hey, we’ll go have a lit time digging up more graves.” Kittisak shrugged. “But if I’m right? Then I just saved us from severely pissing off the new cool race of monsters more than we probably already have. You know, the race we literally discovered today.”

Browning smiled. “You’re going to make a wonderful scientist one day, Kittisak.” He nodded. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.”

“Really?” Kittisak grinned.

“Yes. I am adding a caveat.” Browning held up a finger. “If we find the lagoon and the bacteria there sucks as you so eloquently put it, we’re naming it after you.”

“The lagoon or the bacteria?”

“How about both, smartass?” Hutte griped playfully. “Waiting to find the lagoon will at least give me time to work on the new growth media. So, yes, we shall go ahead with your plan.”

“Thank you.” Kittisak clasped his hands together. “Thank you both, seriously. You’re not gonna regret this. We’re doing the right thing here.”

“It has the added bonus of pissing off Denninger,” Hutte mused.

“See? Even better.”

They chatted for a little bit longer, and Kittisak said farewell when it started getting dark. He was relieved that they’d decided to leave the graves be for now, and he was glad they were both so reasonable. He probably wouldn’t have had that same luck with Denninger.

On his way back to his tent on the other side of camp, Kittisak paused when he smelled burning tobacco.

Paiva was leaning against a tree and smoking a pipe, looking over the river and the darkening sky.

“I’m crashing,” Kittisak said. “Gonna try to get some sleep.”

Paiva didn’t say anything.

“Hey. Paiva.” Kittisak whistled.

Paiva jumped, whirling around to face Kittisak. “Oh! Sorry. What were you saying?”

“I’m going to bed.” Kittisak paused. “Are you okay?”

“Fine, fine.” Paiva cleared his throat. “New moon tonight. Watch out for scorpions.”

“Oh. Okay.” Kittisak had no idea what one had to do with the other. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I will be,” Paiva assured him. “There are just so few things left in this world that are sacred. Best to leave them be, eh?”

“Yeah,” Kittisak somberly agreed.

“Go on and get some sleep. Night.”

“Night.”

Kittisak practically sprinted into his tent to make sure there were no other interruptions preventing him from getting to his cot. He turned on his small lantern and then quickly got undressed. He hung up his clothes and hoped they’d somehow dry off in this miserable humidity. He got one of his sacred baby wipes to clean up with, enjoying the cool moisture against his skin.

God, what he wouldn’t do for a shower right now.

He passed the baby wipe over the back of his neck, pressing his fingers down hard when he realized how tender he was there in the crook of his shoulder. Walking all day and then dragging that casket around had done a number on his back, and he moaned lightly as he tried rubbing out a stubborn knot.

Kittisak’s tent was far enough away from the others—on the very edge of camp—that hopefully no one would hear him, and he continued to grind his fingers over his stiff muscles.

So caught up in his massage, he didn’t even hear the soft pad of footsteps coming into the tent behind him, though he definitely felt new pressure seizing his shoulders. It was intense, hard enough to hurt in the best way, and he groaned loudly. Several seconds went by before it finally registered that those weren’t his fingers creating this new sensation.

Kittisak shouted, leaping from the cot and then spinning around to find…

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