They decided to try Ned's idea: Take a drink of the river water.
Charlie, Ned, Bert, and Sid each filled a empty plastic bottle with water from the river, and then, they took their bottles into the farmhouse.
They each poured some of the water into a cup, making sure to filter out any dirt in it, and Charlie put a sterilizing tablet into each cup, and let them dissolve.
"Down the hatch!" Charlie said.
With that, Charlie, Bert, Ned, and Sid each chugged the contents of their glasses.
Almost immediately after that, they each felt a tingle in their bodies. the tingle spread from the heads, to the tips of their fingers, to the ends of their toes.
"I think something's going to happen!" Charlie said.
And he was right.
Something was gonna happen.
but who would get it?
Charlie? Ned? Bert? or Sid?
Or would it be all of them?
Or some of them?