Dream Diary chapter 55; The Leper Colony.
We enter the life of a plucky teenager doing nothing in particular besides school. One day, her eccentric but beloved grandfather drops by with a plan. He is a cynical, surly sort with an acerbic wit and needs to show her something since “it’s time”.
Using a fancy new GPS that’s sort of like a real time google maps, they travel Westward by car to the hills and valleys of a neighbouring province. Not much is said during the ride but grandpa perks up at seeing their destination on the map; a rocky isle in the region’s largest lake, looking every bit like a peninsula that broke off from the mainland.
Parking as far into the woods as the terrain will allow them, the two step out into the summer eve and start approaching the shore of the lake and the way across to the isle. As they get close, the isle towers above the treeline; a rocky small mountain covered in forestry but with a few large and dilapidated buildings crowning the cliffs. An old metal bridge in a military style stretches across the span, its red paint peeling and flakey from decades of neglect, discouraging signs hanging loose.
Grandpa cryptically insists that this is important and to keep one’s guard up. The two aren’t alone here no matter what it might seem like. He grabs a stout stick, sharpening it into a spear “just to be sure”. Suddenly, the rocky isle comes alive with undulating howls and cries. A terrifying noise that quickly fades, turning to snarls as the isle’s inhabitants emerge from the shadows.
They’re sickly, malformed things, their skin marked with rough, bulbous growths and their twisted bodies are bloated in places despite an otherwise skinny and malnourished build. Whatever humanity they once had is gone, these diseased troglodytes acting like more than a territorial wolfpack than people.
Thankfully, they are just as ungainly as they appear, with poor coordination and an awkward, slow gait. Aggressive but easily avoided, grandpa fends them off with his spear and urges the teen to do the same with anything on hand. These things don’t stop, he says, “just let one touch you and shove it off!”
He doesn’t need to ask twice as a shambling, gibbering genderless creature only vaugely resembling a human locks its knobby, warty(?) fingers around the girl’s wrist. Once the initial shock and terrified scream fades, the creature is knocked over, its grip weak and clammy. With grandpa’s approval, the two quickly flee across the old military bridge as the creatures will not follow.
The spot where the creature grabbed the girl’s arm is sore and flakey, like a sunburn and very concerning but grandpa insists that it’s nothing. Faced with a barrage of shocked, angry questions, he calmly explains that it was necessary. Everyone in the family has to do it at some point. They’re special. “We’re immune.” he explains, and it’s genetic. It just needs some exposure to kick in. Those things will spread, it’s inevitable, and being immune as a carrier is how you survive it. He doesn’t know how many others are like his family but it can’t be too many. Grandpa knows way too much about this and it’s implied but not stated that long ago, on that military isle, he had a hand in creating whatever dwells there now.