Restless in the African Plains

As I approached the girl, her eyes remained fixated on the sky. I had never seen such a beautiful sight as this. She was at peace, as if she were a part of the heavens themselves. A tear ran down her cheek, but there was no expression on her face to show any sadness. It was as if the teardrop itself was a part of the universe she had become one with.

“Hikaru?” I said softly, my voice barely carrying across the wind to reach her ears. “Hikaru? Can you hear me?”

She did not move or make any sign that she heard me in return. Her eyes remained locked on the sky, and I could feel a sense of dread creeping over me. This wasn’t right, something wasn’t right here. Why hadn’t they given her any sedatives? Why hadn’t they used restraints? She was obviously out of it, possibly even experiencing some sort of post-traumatic shock from what happened back at the house before we arrived here. Was she going to be okay? Shouldn’t somebody have stayed behind to take care of her? Maybe I should have stayed myself... but then again, who would have taken care of Daisuke? He would probably have been just as useless trying to calm Hikaru down as I would have been in taking care of him after he got back from his trip into town.

I looked over at him sitting quietly on top of a rock a few meters away. He didn’t seem to be too bothered by it all, though he had kept his distance from Hikaru when she first started acting strange and running around in a panic like that. He seemed more interested in playing with his Gameboy than anything else right now, so he probably wouldn’t be much help with this situation either. Would I even be able to rely on him for help if things went south with Hikaru? No... no I don’t think I would be able to do that... maybe this is why the others had left us alone here together. They knew he wouldn’t be much help in times like these... but that also meant they knew he wasn’t dangerous either! But still...

I took another step closer to Hikaru as she continued staring upward into space, oblivious to my presence and unaware of my worries about her condition. Her cheeks were red and flushed with heat despite sitting on this grassy plain out in the middle of nowhere where there was no sun to beat down on us. That wasn’t normal... or at least not normal according to what the adults had told us back at the compound when they told us how normal people were supposed to behave when exposed to extreme temperatures like these. When exposed to temperatures like these, their skin would turn pale and clammy due to blood being drawn away from their skin so it could cool down other more vital organs like their brain and heart instead... but for some reason, Hikaru was doing the exact opposite of that! In fact, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong with her at all! She looked perfectly fine! There wasn’t even any sweat dripping down from her forehead like there was for me and Daisuke! How was this possible? Had somebody made some kind of mistake here? Had someone forgotten about something important when they brought us out here into this place? What could it possibly be?!

When I finally gathered up enough courage to reach out and touch Hikaru on the shoulder and try shaking her awake without startling her too much... I couldn't believe what happened next! It felt like my whole body suddenly went cold all over! My mouth went dry as sandpaper, and my cheeks flushed warm like they were filled with lava while my skin felt like it was freezing over all at once! It didn't make sense! None of this made any sense! How could just touching Hikaru's shoulder cause such an odd reaction inside me?! Did it have something to do with whatever had caused Hikaru's feverish state!? Did she actually know what was going on around here and somehow managed to keep it from us!? Did that alien have something to do with this whole thing?!

As quickly as my strange reaction began, it ended just as fast as well. My body returned back to its normal temperature just as fast as it had changed out from under me earlier, leaving me feeling confused and disoriented by what had just happened for a moment before returning my focus back onto Hikaru and wondering what exactly was going on with her now that I'd touched her and felt whatever feelings she'd been experiencing before this whole thing began happening in the first place! If only she weren't so far gone right now... maybe then I would be able to see what exactly was causing this whole thing in order to get some answers before things got worse or worse yet... ended up getting even stranger still!