His Petite Luna

Chapter 18 Once blood is spilled

Chapter 18 Once blood is spilled

ANA'S POV

It all happened too fast and I wasn't able to react fast enough. Obviously, Samuel had lost his sanity and fiercely throttled me. I tried to remove his hand from me but it was futile. Of course, he's a lot stronger than I am. As I struggled to breathe, I became increasingly angry and had no choice but to harm Samuel.

Thankfully, I had a dagger strapped on my leg earlier. I always have this all the time with me. It was also the same dagger I used to kill the wolf. As soon as I touched the dagger, Samuel was knocked unconscious.

Someone picked him up and took him away, and Leon appeared with his handsome and cold face.

I held her neck and coughed continuously, "Get out, you can't be here."

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

The fabric that I used to cover my mouth and my nose had been removed when Sam throttled me. Although, I wouldn't worry of getting infected since this body have been infected before. But Leon...

"Sam's mother was infected with the smallpox," I said, putting the dagger back to my leg.

"What?"

"That is why you can't be here. Sam's mother is already fine since I have given her the appropriate medicine. But I have something for you to do," I said.

He didn't say anything and I went on. "I will give you the prescription. Ask the healer, Mr. Kaz's help to make it and make sure everyone in Lockwood take it. Tell villa head to check the whole village and see if there are any other infected person."

A cough came out of me and Leon watched in alert.

"You can't stay here, Ana," he said, pulling my hand. He was about to drag me out but I used my foot to brace against the door..

"I can't leave.It affected the whole life in the Lock Wood, including Melissa, Carla, Ismael, and Clarisse!"

He paused.

I couldn't read the emotion in Leon's eyes. I just picked up Samuel's pen and paper, wetted it, and wrote a prescription: "This is a prescription for preventing smallpox. Fortunately, all the medicinal materials are available in the village. "

"What about you?"

"I won't be infected with smallpox." I smiled and replied, "Smallpox is ineffective on me."

"Why?"

"Because those who have had smallpox before won't be infected again." I smiled brightly, but in reality, it was because the original owner of this body died from smallpox, which caused me to travel through to here.

Leon was surprised. He obviously didn't expect that I had suffered from smallpox before and miraculously survived. It was worth noting that in this era, people who contracted smallpox could only wait to die and would be isolated to prevent the disease from spreading. Those who had contact with smallpox patients would also die and be killed by the county government.

"I'll take care of it right away."

"Ask villa head for help, don't panic, and calm the people down." I reminded him, "And get more dolomite stones. Block villa. There shouldn't be anyone who comes in and goes out. Sam's mother had only been in the village so she must have gotten the infection inside here. Which means there might be another person here that is also infected. Check the houses one by one. Find the source and isolate them in a separate room."

"Okay." Leon agreed, but his stern face couldn't hide his panic.

Suddenly, I grabbed Leon, who was about to leave, "Close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you to."

Clearly, Leon didn't know what I was doing, but he obediently closed his eyes. I injected him with the vaccine that I had prepared earlier. Leon had been in contact with us and had to be vaccinated to prevent infection.

He squirmed but did not open his eyes. "Open them now."

He looked at me and at the spot where I injected him.

"Get going," I said.

Leon nodded and patted my head. "Take care of yourself."

I watched Leon leave and then tied up Samuel with a rope to prevent him from going crazy and attacking me. I took out disinfectant from my space and disinfected everything in Samuel's house inside and out.

I only have a few disinfectant from the cube space and I couldn't disinfect the whole village with it.

I could only hope they would get a lot of dolomite.

*

LEON'S POV

I don't know what the f**k was happening. My heart was racing and I couldn't remember the last time I was this scared.

Ana is inside the house with two infected people. She said she wouldn't be infected anymore since she had once been infected.

I couldn't believe she had survived that deadly virus. I couldn't believe she was able to get the virus under control for Sam and his mother. And she also did the same to me.

I looked at the red spot on my arm where she did something earlier. I have no idea what it was as she had me close my eyes. But she said it was so I wouldn't be infected.

I knocked on the village head's house. Knocked relentlessly until someone answered the door. Mr. Julian came out, brows furrowed. Before he could say anything, I beat him to it.

"Sam and his mother have been infected with smallpox," I said, panting.

"What?"

"Please make an order to block Lockwood. Nobody shall come in and nobody shall leave. Also, please gather men who will go to the Sun Mountain to get dolomite. The more, the better, and please tell them to get as much as they could."

"Leon-"

"We need to get dolomite. Ana is at Sam's house. She's exposed to the virus. We need to do things quickly."

"Leon!" the village head snapped and I seemed to have been pulled back to reality. I started breathing slowly.

I handed him the paper that Ana wrote earlier. "Sam's mother has gotten the infection just inside this villa which means there is someone out there who's also infected and unattended. We need to find them quickly. Ask the people to start wearing fabrics on their mouth and nose to stop the spread of the virus and have them check each household." I started wrapping a piece of fabric on my face to cover my mouth and nose.

"I will go to the healer, Mr. Kaz to make these. Hurry, Mr. Julian!" I said and he seemed to have been stunned by that.

Mrs. Rika came out of the house and judging from the look on her face, I could tell she has heard of what I just said. "Where is Ana?" she asked.

"She's back there, taking care of Sam and her mother."

"Are you out of your mind, Leon? How could you have left her there?"

"Enough, Rika," Mr. Julian pulled his wife back. "It's already been done. Leon was right, I will block the villa to avoid the situation worse."

Mrs. Rika nodded and went back inside to gather his sons. "Don't ask any questions. Put some fabric on your face to cover your mouth and nose and gather all the youths to go to the Sun Mountain to get dolomite. Get as much as you can."

"I will have the farmers stand by the town border and monitor to make sure nobody gets out and nobody gets in. The others will check house to house and isolate the infected." Mr. Julian looked at me. "You should get going, Leon."

I sent a messenger pigeon to inform my man to invite Dortor Ramir, before I went to get the prescriptions from the community aide to start brewing the herbs in a big pot.

The four sons of the village head led the venture to the Sun Mountain to get the dolomite. A couple of hours later, the boys arrived bringing sacks of dolomite.

Ana had given me clear instructions and I told them what to do with it. The dolomite sedimentary rock water doesn't smell pleasant but we had to disinfect the whole village. .The four sons informed the villas not to go out when doing disinfection.

When brewing was done, Mother , Carla and Mrs. Rika started distributing the medicine to every family.

The Third Person's Pov.

There were approximately 20 families in Lockwood and it was easy to distribute the medicine. But when they arrived at old Agatha's house, she refuses to drink the medicine.

"What is this medicine for? Is this your way of getting back at me? Who knows if that is poisoned or not?" she hissed and Melissa just holding back. It was Mrs. Rika who stepped in and started distributing the medicine to old Agatha's husband.

"You really think we would have the luxury of time to poison you, Agatha? A virus has started to spread and this is all you could think about?" Mrs. Rika said then she turned to Agatha's husband.

"Drink it," she hissed and the man drank it immediately despite his wife's complaints. Then Mrs. Rika went to give the medicine to Daniel, old Agatha's son.

Daniel took a sip and grimaced at the taste.

"It's bitter, mom-"

"Drink it," hissed Mrs. Rika and Daniel literally jolted because of fear. He drank the medicine and held his face. Mrs. Rika didn't let her eyes off of him until she saw him swallowing it. His face contorted in disgust and he coughed because of the taste. Clarisse was better at handling the medicine than him.

Melissa took one of the medicine and handed it to old Agatha but the latter looked to the side and refused to take it.

"I will not drink that medicine," she said, crossing her arms. But Mrs. Rika is not going to take up on her bullshit. She walked to Melissa and took the medicine bowl before she grabbed old Agatha's chin, and forced the medicine into her mouth.

Daniel let out a yelp and cowered behind his father.

Old Agatha squirmed but Mrs. Rika's hold on her chin was stronger. Eventually, old Agatha swallowed the medicine and started coughing. When Mrs. Rika made sure everyone has drank, she left without another word.

Agatha was glaring at Melissa but Melissa just said, "You had that coming. Be thankful we have these medicines. The virus is deadly and even if you didn't want to take that medicine for yourself, at least take that for your family." And then she walked out of the house.

"This is an abuse of power. This is not right," she seethed and then ran outside the house.

"This is madness. They are letting us drink this medicine because of this unknown virus. Who knows what this medicine has?" she yelled. Since the houses are quite near each other, people could easily hear what she was saying.

But people just looked at her. No one dared to join her. Not even Marie who likes to stir trouble by gossiping.

Nobody paid Agatha attention.Villas just leave her be. Then Mrs. Rika stood in the center of the group of houses.

"Has everyone drunk the medicine already?" she asked and everyone nodded in response. Old Agatha was still screaming but now she was inside her house.

"No one shall get out of their household. The way to the county has been blocked and we will remain here until we have finished disinfecting every corner of this village. You may be wondering why and some of you might have already known about the virus. It's true. A virus has spread and we won't be disclosing the identities of the people infected. They will be quarantined and taken care of until it's over," said Mr. Julian.

Silence followed. People could almost taste the tension in the air.

"Is it...deadly?" asked one of the farmers.

Leon speak this time. "It's under control. It could be deadly but since you have taken the medicine, it should be fine. For your assurance, the medicine will not kill you. Those were prescribed by Doctor Ramir from the county and we didn't have time to explain due to the urgency of the situation."

Leon didn't said the prescribtion was actually offered by Ana. To say it made by Doctor Ramir would be more convincable.

The whole village relax at that. Then they went inside their respective houses .

"What about Ana? How is she?" asked Melissa.

"We can't go in there. She gave me some medicine that was stronger so I guess I am the only one who could go there to check on her," Leon answered.

One of the people inside the living room was the village healer, Mr. Kaz.

"What I don't understand is how a little girl like her was able to come up with this kind of prescription," he said.

"She's an apprentice of Doctor Ramir," Leon said and they gasped in surprise. "Lately, she's been reading books owned by Doctor Ramir and of course, I went to the county to ask for the doctor's advice too."

They all nodded. It was the safest answer. If they know that Doctor Ramir had the biggest contribution to this then they wouldn't be wondering how Ana was able to do such things.

"Were there any other people who were infected, Julian?" asked Mrs. Rika.

Julian shook his head. "We couldn't find anyone. Perhaps Sandra left this village and went somewhere else and got infected?"

It could be a possibility. Perhaps Sam was lying to Ana.

Carla stood. "I'll get home and make some food so you could bring it to Ana, Leon."

Leon nodded at her and she went out immediately.

"What about the dolomite sedimentary rock water, Leon? What was it for?" asked Mrs. Rika.

"Sterilization. Basically killing the virus in the house if there are any."

They all nodded and looked at the sacks of dolomite. There were only ten sacks carried by ten people who went to the Sun mountain before sundown.

"Is that going to be enough for the whole village?" asked Melissa.

"Doctor Ramir said vinegar could work." It was actully Ana's idea.

"Seldom families could afford vinegar," answered Mrs. Rika.

"We could make do of these ten sacks of dolomite," said Mr. Julian. The houses here are small. It should be enough for two houses to share one sack of these."

Meanwhile, while the four sons of the village head were walking down the quiet street of the village, they started talking. Isaac, the eldest, walked ahead. Next to him was Azriel the second eldest. Jordan and Baron walked behind. They have just gotten back from delivering the medicine to every household. They were tasked to deliver to the farther houses. Right after getting the dolomite together with six other young boys, they went straight to help deliver the medicine.

"Would Ana be safe?" asked Bryan, the youngest of the four. "It's a smallpox infection. She's bold for taking care of Sam's mother. She's basically knocking on death's door."

"Shut up, Bryan," Isaac hissed. "Ana is a kind-hearted person, that's why. And besides, she's Doctor Ramir's student, I heard. She should be knowledgeable enough."

"Not even the healer would dare care for a person infected with smallpox," Bryan argued. "Only this silly girl dared to do that."

Isaac thought it was indeed silly. But it was her silliness that almost all the people in the village adored her.

"She'll be safe," said Jordan and he looked at the second eldest brother.

Azriel shrugged. "She looks like she's got a lot of motivation. She'll survive."

While they were walking, they didn't notice somebody had listened to their conversation.

It was old Agatha and she heard everything.

Immediately, old Agatha went inside her house and started packing.

"Agatha, what's wrong?" asked her husband.

"We need to leave this place," she said.

"What? Why?"

She looked at her husband. "I know now why they forced us to drink that medicine. Sandra and that little bride was infected with smallpox. It's a deadly one. It would only be a matter of time before it spreads and plagues this village. We have to go now."

Immediately, her husband started packing without question. Daniel followed too. Each of them carried a bag and went out of their house.

*

LEON'S POV

I stood outside the chief villager's house, thinking about what to do next. I was in the middle of it when I heard a rustling sound behind me.

"Come out, Kieran," I said. Seconds later, a man came out from the bushes and nodded at me. I nodded back. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Someone named Agatha was at the border. She insisted she wants to get out of this village."

"That damned old stubborn woman," I hissed and followed Kieran to the border. There are around three entrances to Lockwood village. All lead to different places. The rest of the men villagers were situated on the two borders.

When we arrived at the entrance, Agatha was indeed there.

"Why are you all still here? A smallpox infection is spreading in this village. It would only be a matter of time before we die because of it!"

The men remained unmoving. "If you wish to die because of it then die. We don't want to be involved."

Her voice was loud enough for nearby houses to hear and I muttered another silent curse.

With that news, people would panic. It was enough to send them out of their houses. Suddenly, the news spread like wildfire. That smallpox is infecting the village.

In a matter of minutes, they were crowding the entrance, demanding to be let out.

Mr. Julian came and started to calm them down but they wouldn't listen to reason anymore.

The one leading the riot was old Agatha and her husband.

"Leonidas," said Kieran behind me, waiting for what I had to say.

I watched as people started pushing each other, demanding to be let out.

I nodded at Kieran. "Resort to threats. If they still don't follow, make an example."

Kieran nodded once and signaled to the other guys.

In an instant, flashes of the sword came into view and the people gasped at the sight of it. I thought it was going to end that way. But then Agatha's husband started pushing for the entrance again, encouraging other people.

In a flash, the sight of blood made them all quiet.

One of the men had drawn blood. It wasn't a big wound. Just a gash, just enough to draw blood. Just enough to make people stop and see the demonstration of what was going to happen if they continue to push.

The next thing we heard was old Agatha crying as she went to her husband.

"Those who dare to go out shall suffer death," said one of the men.

The people, seeing that the men will not hesitate to do as promised, took a step back.