All Quiet

When all the crash, bangs, and rumbling from the moving village stopped, and all the buildings had settled into their new places, Lee let himself fall to the floor in relief, panting hard in trying to calm him down, and wiping the sweat of his face.

Li Chang also slumped downwards to the floor, breathing hard for less than a second before she was already back on her feet and sprinting to the other side of the room, past Lee, and to her child.

Her hands cradled his face, turning his head from side to side, as she examined him for any injuries and to see if any dust had fallen into his tiny mouth and nose during the chaos that had reigned down among them all.

She was apparently satisfied with what she had seen, only now giving out a whoop of joy, seeing her child safe.

She climbed up onto the bed and began peeling away the tarp that had been set up: a single sheet of cloth that had been nailed up the ceiling to prevent any dust from falling down below by catching it all.

Lee scrambled up to try and help her, after she almost slipped off the bedsheets, trying to pull one of the nails out.

"Here... I'll help," he offered her, walking closer to the bed but unsure of what he needed to do.

Li Chang turned around to face him, looking him over once, before she stepped around the sleeping boy on the bed and walked to the opposite side.

"Pull down the nails on your side, but keep the cloth up," she instructed, her voice firm and solid.

Lee did what she had asked of him, pulling out the nails from the wooden ceiling easily, one at a time with only one hand, while using his other free arm to secure the cloth.

The confusion that he felt, when he held two of the nails and was unsure on what he was supposed to do, must have shown on his face, as Li Chang told him to simply," drop them onto the floor. I'll deal with them later."

Lee held up the cloth with both of his hands as she struggled with shaking hands to pull out each and every nail on her own side, a prominent bead of sweat making its journey down her face and to her neck.

"Should I-" Lee tried to broach with her, attempting to giving away even more help from him, when he cut himself off, seeing her shake her head and then yank out one of the nails with both hands and then quickly press the cloth back up to prevent any of the dust from falling downwards.

She kept one hand up to cover the released corner, and pulled out the last and final nail easily, the metal slipping out of the ceiling's hold as if it was silk.

"Alright," Li Chang panted out, looking down at the child sleeping like the image of him would give her strength.

Evidently, it had, as she looked back up to Lee and then, in a softer voice, instructed," When I count, take a step back to carry this over onto the floor."

He nodded, indicating that he had heard her, steadying himself and turning his head around to look over his shoulder.

"One!" she barked out, taking a step forward with her right leg, forcing Lee to take a step back with his left leg and onto the floor.

"Two!" she called out, this time less enthusiastically, but still making her way around the child, with Lee stood entirely on the floor now.

"Three!" she ordered, past the small, sleeping person on the bed and stood only two steps from the floor.

The cloth was beginning to tilt, with Lee lifting his arms upwards to hold his end of the cloth higher to compensate and prevent any spillage from occurring.

"It's all fine now," Li Chang breathed out, pulling her corners downwards to match Lee's height, and slipping off the bed.

"Put it on the floor," she instructed for the final time, the cloth laid down in front of the bed and all the dust on it free for Lee to see for himself.

Coughing and sounding as if she was hacking her lungs out, Li Chang fell onto the floor and began writhing, her body curling up and throwing out spittle across the floorboards.

Without thinking and in a panic, Lee froze up, trying to remember back to what he needed to be done. Looking around him and seeing the masses of dust everywhere, coating every surface, he immediately marched over to the doors and kicked them open, allowing the night breeze to blow through the home, and disturb some of the dust.

He dragged the tarp that he had pulled down with the teenage girl, away from her, and rolled it up to throw outside.

He began emptying the house of all the useless furniture and decorative trinkets it didn't need and were taking up too much space, throwing them out with all the dust that they contained.

He leaned over the boy on the bed, and threw open the windows, letting even more fresh air come in.

The teenager began settling down from her coughing fit, and gasped out breaths larger and larger, breathing in deeper and deeper.

She crawled up to lie on the bed with her son, pulling him to her chest while Lee busied himself with cleaning the house around them.

He looked into the bucket of clean, fresh water that had been collected, and began to skim off the layer of dust that had formed on top of it, before quickly abandoning the venture, seeing how much of the filth had sunk down into the bottom.

He looked over to the pots that he had used to make the medicine and saw that it too was a lost cause, the dirt having been mixed in with the herbs and forming an unpleasant looking sludge at the bottom.