Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 235: The Rain

Chapter 235: The Rain

I turned my face up to the sky as the first drops of rain fell through the trees. Taking in a deep breath, I let myself soak in everything.

I felt like I had just been putting one foot in front of the other since that night at the hospital. Even in my bunker, I couldn’t pause long enough to collect my thoughts.

But now, out here in the woods, it was like the entire world was holding its breath, waiting for what was to come next.

"You are getting wet," chuckled Ye Yao Zu as he sat down in the mud beside me. Our backs were to one of the massive tree trunks around here, and the sound of rain on the leaves was soothing.

"So are you," I chuckled, not bothering to turn my head and look at him.

"And what is it that we are supposed to be doing? Besides getting wet, of course," asked Si Dong, coming to sit on my other side.

"Nothing," I shrugged. "The whole point of this is to do absolutely nothing. Just open your senses to everything around you and enjoy the peace of the moment."

"And how long is that peace supposed to last?" pressed Si Dong, clearly not comfortable with the situation. I laughed as I heard someone hit him upside the head.

"There is something different about this rain," I said, trying to explain something that I had no idea about. "I don’t know what it is. But for us, it will be a good thing."

"And for others?" asked Bin An Sha, leaning against the trunk. Inside of my head, I saw him standing with his arms and legs crossed in front of him, not happy about getting wet.

I chuckled at his question. The visions inside of my head didn’t go into detail, but I knew that not everyone would be able to take advantage of the next stage.

Seeing all of my men lounging around me, letting the rain soak into them simply because I was, was nothing short of phenomenal.

I don’t know how long we stayed like that, but eventually, I heard a voice inside of my head letting me know that it was enough.

"Alright," I said, coming to my feet. "Let’s get inside and dry off."

"Finally," breathed Si Dong as he jumped to his feet and practically bounced on the balls of his feet as Ye Yao Zu helped me to my feet. "I am freezing my balls off here."

The eight of us made our way to the entrance of the cave where Chang Guo Zi stood, watching us.

"We have a water user here if you wanted a shower," he said slowly.

"Just needed some time to myself," I assured him, my teeth starting to chatter.

"Well, come on in then. Yuan Bao has a pot of soup cooking, and the rabbits your men caught are roasting on the split as we speak," he continued, stepping to the side. He looked over his shoulder at the rain as if contemplating something.

"If you are up to it, you might enjoy dancing in the rain, too," I suggested. I wouldn’t tell him what to do either way. He either listened or he didn’t. That was a decision he had to make.

Turning around to study me some more, he raised an eyebrow. "Is that a suggestion or a recommendation?" he asked, his head tilted to the side.

"I don’t know all the secrets, but I do know that nothing bad will happen to a power user that gets a bit wet," I replied.

He only nodded his head in return, and Fan Teng Fei placed his hand on the small of my back to guide me deeper into the cave.

The guys were standing in a loose semi-circle, their backs to a sheet of rock, looking out. "Get changed," said Fan Teng Fei as he took out a sweater and legging set with large fuzzy socks. He even gave me a towel to dry myself off before gently pushing me into the center of the men.

"We won’t look, I promise," he smiled before going to his spot and turning his back.

Trusting them, I faced the back of the cave and pulled off my shirt.

"Since when did you get a tattoo?" asked Si Dong, clearly not holding onto his promise not to look. But maybe he wasn’t talking to me.

I looked over my shoulder, clutching the towel to my chest to maintain some sort of modesty, "What are you talking about?" I asked, seeing that he was staring at me.

At my response, the rest of the guys turned around to see what Si Dong was talking about.

"The tattoo, it’s nice, but I didn’t see you doing something like that... or that big," blinked Cheng Bo Jing as he cocked his head to the side and stared at my bare back.

"I can assure you that I don’t have a tattoo," I snapped, trying to see my back. However, I had no clue what they were talking about.

"You have a giant black viper tattoo that goes from the back of your neck all the way down to... well, past your pants," explained Bin An Sha as I looked at him in panic. "The scales are superbly done, and the green eyes make the creature seem real."

"I don’t know what you guys are doing, but I don’t have a tattoo," I said again for the third time before I started to panic.

Did the Recruiter do something to me to make me as Camp Hell’s property? I mean, I was missing a lot of time, so it is possible that he marked me.

"Rip?" I asked, tears coming to my eyes.

"I never saw this on you at the Camp," he assured me, knowing what would have upset me the most. And anything tied to my time there would do it.

In fact, if it were something from Camp Hell, I would have had Rip cut it off of my skin immediately.

"So this is a new thing?" mused Bin An Sha. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fan Teng Fei reach forward as if to touch it when he jumped back suddenly.

Then I felt something start moving.

"Uh, guys?" I asked, more than a little panicked. "What’s going on?"