Gina surprised me with her strength. She must have been in horrible pain with all those cuts, bruises, and the rape, but she acted as if nothing was the matter. Perhaps she didn’t want to appear weak to Alec who had made it obvious that she was a burden. Had I been in her shoes there would have been tears and I don’t know if I could have gotten up.
We made our way down the hospital hallway one step at a time. Gina told us that the pharmacy area had been crawling with zombies the last time she had seen it. They could have moved onto bigger and better things like the morgue, where there were dead bodies to feast on. I prayed that they had because the last thing that I wanted to do was kill anyone, zombie or not.
It was strange how silent the hallways were. I had expected the zombies to be loud with their steps and possibly even moan, but there was nothing. The only noise heard was that of my group’s breathing and footsteps.
“They broke the glass door.” Gina mumbled as we approached a hallway, she had leaned against the wall and peered around the corner. I had her scoot over and did the same. There was a doorframe that had once had a glass panel in its center.
“What would they want with drugs?” Alec asked in a whisper.
She shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“Do you think there will be anything left?”
“I don’t know.” She repeated to him, “I told you, it’s been a while since I was last here.”
“There is only one way to find out then.” I peered around the corner to see if I could detect any zombies. “Looks like they’ve abandoned the area.”
“Those bastards can hide anywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew we were here.” Gina whispered to me and then grasped her gun handle tighter.
I gave a nod and looked up to Alec, “Do you want to take point?”
He shoved past us and looked towards the door. “Yeah, cover me.”
As Alec made his way to the door, he kept his back toward the wall. I peered around the corner, before leaving my hidden position so I could better protect him. A rumbling noise came from Gina. I turned my head to look at her, and she grabbed her stomach while mouthing the word sorry at me.
As I went to turn my head back to Alec, I felt a sharp pain to my side and my feet leaving the ground. With a hard thud, I landed on the linoleum floor with a heavy weight atop of me. Gina screamed in fright, when I felt the sharp pain in my neck. It was then that I realized one of the zombies had tackled me.
When he pulled his mouth away from my shoulder, I could see his dark facial features and blank eyes. I struggled to fight him off, but he was much stronger then I was. I cried out for my brother, not realizing that he was dealing with his own problems.
Gina couldn’t shoot her gun, because she may have shot me as well. Instead, she turned the gun around and started to beat my attacker in the head with the handle of her gun. Blood from his head wound splattered across from my face, but he didn’t seem phased nor did he act like he knew of Gina’s presence.
He pawed at my clothes, and I realized then that the bite had merely been to stun me. Murder was not his intent in those moments, which made the entire situation even more frightening to me. Gina pulled the gun up as far as she could before delivering a final firm blow. He went limp and his full weight pressed my body against the floor. With help from Gina, we shoved him off me, before I turned my eyes to Alec.
Three zombies were trying to not only keep him away from me, but most likely kill him as well. They always seemed to be more aggressive towards him then me. There was no doubt in my mind now what their reasons were. There wasn’t enough room for him to shoot had he wanted to, but he was more interested in keeping away from the zombies then killing them.
Jumping to my feet, I raced closer towards the brawl. One had gotten a hold of Alec’s arm, so without hesitation I shot the one furthest from him. Gina was right behind me and let out a shot. I don’t know what she was shooting at, but she didn’t hit anyone. Better she hit nothing then one of us, I had thought, before I shot the other one that didn’t have a grip on my brother.
Alec tried to beat the zombie off him with his gun, but realized that it was useless. He dropped it and reached for the hand gun in his belt. Shoving it into the belly of his attacker, he fired. Gina cried out beside me as the bullet landed in her right upper arm. The zombie fell limp to the ground with the others, and Gina kneeled down to hold her fresh wound.
“Shit, are you alright?” Alec ran over to her and fell to his knees in front of her.
“You shot me.” She cried out. There was more shock in her voice, then anger.
I touched the wound on my neck and could feel the deep gashes. Alec looked up at me and immediately noticed the blood on my face and shoulder.
“Are you shot?”
I shook my head, “No, zombie bit me.”
He jumped to his feet and peeled back my layer of clothing. “It’s pretty bad.”
Gina stood up, still holding her arm, and checked my wound. “Yeah, we need to stitch that up. I hope we can find some Novocain and sutures.” She looked around as if she could find them in the hallway.
Alec nodded and ran into the pharmacy, while Gina went to check in one of the nearby supply rooms. I was left to watch the hall, though I was beginning to feel lightheaded. As I watched a small puddle of blood form under my dangling hand, I realized that the wound must be deep.
I was lucky enough that the zombies had no interest in the supply closet, and Gina was able to find some sutures. Alec, however, found that the pharmacy had been mostly picked dry. He found a large bottle of ibuprofen pills and some Hycodan.
“Nothing that I can give to her through a syringe?” Gina asked as he held up the small and large bottle, neither were very powerful dosages.
He shook his head and Gina dropped the syringe in her hand.
“Let’s wrap this up and get out of here. This might take a while, and I don’t think it will be safe.” Alec said.
Gina agreed and began to bandage my wound up, ignoring the fact that she was bleeding from her own arm. When some of the bleeding had stopped, Gina turned to her own wound. My stomach began to hurt and my lightheadedness continued. I didn’t bother to tell either of them of my new symptoms.
When Gina was done, we began to make our way out of the hospital. I prayed that Mabel was alright, and hoped that the group we had left behind was still waiting for us.
As we entered the abandoned building, we made our way to the room where we had left the others. Our eyes met with an empty room, which had been no surprise to either Alec or myself. There were a couple bags left, no doubt filled with clothing or other items that the group didn’t want to drag about.
Neither Alec or I said anything, as we knew we had made the decision to leave the items with them and that it was our own fault. I made my way over to check the bag, while Alec went to fetch Mabel. Gina kneeled down beside me and was looking at all the footprints in the dust.
“Look there.” She said as I pulled out a pair of pants for her.
When I looked up, I saw a message in the dust. ‘So Sorry - Tim’ was how it read and I pressed my lips together not believing the message.
We had explained to Gina about the men traveling with us as we left the hospital parking lot. She knew there was a good chance that they wouldn’t be here when we returned, along with our food.
I said nothing about the message, “Here, these pants are mine. They might be a little big for you, but I have a belt you can cut another hole in and you can roll up the legs.”
She took the black slacks and pulled them on. They had at least another eight inches on leg length that she couldn’t use, but was only a couple inches too big around the waist. “Could I cut them?”
I nodded, “Sure, I won’t be wearing them again.” I turned my eyes away from the slacks to find her a shirt. All I could find was one of Alec’s white undershirts, which I offered to her. “You could tie it around your waist. We used all my shirts as rags and bandages.”
Pulling off the jacket that Alec had given her, she yanked on the shirt and knotted it in the front. She looked rather frumpy, especially when I gave her a pair of my sister’s shoes. We had removed some of the items from Olivia’s corpse, that which wasn’t covered in blood. Our sister had smaller feet then I did, but they were still too big for Gina so she had to stuff the toe with newspaper from the ground and put on a couple pairs of socks.
As she was stuffing her shoes, Alec returned with Mabel. They both were carrying a bag of canned food. I grinned when I realized that Alec had hidden some of the food with her. It wouldn’t last us long, a few days at most, perhaps longer if we ate less. Not that we weren’t already eating the minimum.
“Gina!” Mabel cried out and dropped the bag of canned goods when she ran over to the familiar person.
Gina hugged her back, “Oh, Mabel, what happened?”
The girl ignored her question, “Uncle Cole said you were taken by the zombies!”
“I was, but your friends saved me.” She stroked the girl’s hair as Mabel laid her head against her chest.
Alec brought the canned foods over to me, seeming to ignore the touching moment that was happening before us. “Take a couple Hycodan, so Gina can stitch you up. It’s still going to hurt like hell though.”
He held out the large bottle to me and I took it from him, “What about the bullet in her arm?”
“She’s going to have to walk one of us through the removal of it. Going to hurt like hell for her too.”
As I swallowed down two of the pills without water, I looked up at Gina who was watching us. Mabel was crying a bit at the reunion, but probably rather happy to be around a familiar person again.
“With my arm the way it is, would be better if you sutured both of us.” She said to Alec. “I’ll have to walk you through it, but I don’t know if I could have a steady, precise hand.”
“It’s stitches not surgery.” Alec said as he sat down beside me.
“Fuck, Alec, it’s my neck.” I hissed, “If she says she can’t do it, then she can’t do it. You’ll just have to suck it up and do it yourself. You are the one who shot her after all.”
“It was an accident!”
“You shot Gina?” Mabel asked.
Alec turned his eyes to her, “On accident.”
My brother made his way over to Gina and handed her two Hycodan. She seemed reluctant to take them, perhaps due to there being no water or something else.
“We didn’t grab any surgical equipment.” Alec told her as he kneeled down to look at her wound.
“I grabbed some surgical knives and a couple tweezers. They are in the jacket that you gave me.” She pointed to the camouflage jacket beside me.
Picking it up, I pulled out some items that were wrapped in gauze. She probably wanted to keep them clean. There was also two small bottles of Hydrogen Peroxide and Iodine.
“Who goes first?” Alec asked.
“Elliot. She is bleeding profusely and we need to get that under control first.” Gina stood up with Mabel still clinging to her.
In truth, I think Gina wanted to see Alec’s skill with the needle before she let him dig a bullet out of her arm. I really didn’t care at the moment as I was beginning to feel ill, and having touched my bandage I knew that it was soaked with blood.
“Remove your jacket and shirt.” Gina told me.
I did as she asked, which left my bra as the only cover for my chest. The last time that Alec had seen me without a shirt on, we had been kids taking a bath together. He peeled back my bandage and I felt a few blood droplets fall free of the gauze.
“Eww.” Mabel cried. She was still holding onto Gina.
“It looks worse now.” Alec said, there was a slight choke on his words like he was trying to stop himself from gagging.
“It’s swollen up a bit.” Gina nodded, “It’s amazing to me that this was done with a human mouth and in such a short time.”
I was beginning to feel left out of my own wound. Not being able to see it and the way the others were reacting was beginning to make me nervous.
Gina used her uninjured arm to touch my wound, “It doesn’t look like the artery was cut.”
“Why is it bleeding so much then?” Alec asked the question and I remained silent.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t look like it’s clotting. Maybe there is something in the saliva of the zombies that does that or maybe...”
“Will you two stop chatting about it and sew me up already?” I barked.
“Damn, you are grumpy today.” Alec teased as Gina began to explain how he should create the stitches and how far apart they should be.
It took him an hour to stitch me up, mostly because some of the stitches didn’t please Gina and she made him try again. The hour had to be the longest and most painful in all my life. The Hycodan did little for me as Alec poked and stabbed me with the needle. I kept calm and tried my best not to move.
“You did very well for your first time.” Gina patted his back. “You should have become a doctor.”
Alec chuckled, “I failed science.”
Gina giggled, “Maybe not then.”
I tried not to roll my eyes as the two had been flirting since they began torturing me. It was just harmless banter, but something about a happy conversation being had while I was in pain made me annoyed.
“Alright, my turn to be tortured. I’m feeling pretty good from those pills now, but from the look on Elliot’s face, it’s still going to hurt.”
Gina tried to pass Mabel off to me, but she didn’t want to let her go. I finally pulled her away with a can of pineapples slices, so Alec could begin removing her bullet.
The next day we began to move. Gina remembered that the group was going to head west, and she had a pretty good idea of where the ranch was. She told me that she had been there once before with Cole. We began our journey and by the next evening, we would be out of the city. Though there would be other cities ahead of us. We had been discussing taking the long routes around the cities, as we knew large groups of zombies would be within. With as little food as we had left, we didn’t know if we could survive the long routes.
We had made camp in an alley that had a dead end. This way they could only come at us from one side. The four of us had to share a can of beef stew. When it was obvious that one can wouldn’t be enough for us, Alec opened a can of sauerkraut. It was disgusting, but we ate it as that was all we had.
Gina and Mabel were the first to fall asleep and for the first time in a few days, Alec and I were relatively alone. I knew that he wanted to talk to me from the worried stares he tossed my way.
“What is it, Alec?” I asked when I could stand no more.
He cleared his throat and shook his head, “Nothing, it’s nothing.”
With a roll of my eyes, I crossed my arms. It was something that I had done all my life that told my siblings that I knew they were lying.
A gentle sigh of defeat released from his lips. “You don’t think that virus will effect you now, do you?”
“What?” I asked with my eyebrow up.
He nervously pointed at his own neck to indicate my own.
I touched the bandage that was wrapped around my neck, and shook my head. “They aren’t really zombies, Alec. It’s just a nickname, a joke, remember?”
With a slow nod, he again cleared his throat. “I know, but… you know, it has me worried.” He poked the small campfire that we had built with nearby debris. “If you start to feel sick or anything, you’ll tell me, won’t you?”
“Yes, of course.” I swallowed. I had felt light headed and sick to my stomach, but I had thought it was due to blood loss. Now, Alec had made me concerned, but I wouldn’t say anything until tomorrow evening. “I wouldn’t put you or the others in danger. You know that, don’t you?”
He continued to nod in a way that informed me he was still nervous. I decided that I didn’t want to prolong the conversation, so I ignored his behavior. I chose to look into the fire and ignore the gaze that Alec was giving me.
“I see them when I look at you.” Alec said.
My eye rose from the flames, “Who?”
“Olivia, Lesley, Mom, and Dad. They are all there in your face.” He ran his dirty hands over his face while he sighed, “At first, I hated it. Now, I am glad to have you around to remind me of them. I don’t want to lose that. You’re all I’ve got, Elliot.”
I grinned sadly, “I won’t leave you.”
“I know you won’t mean to, but if it comes down to you having the virus, I… I…”
“Will kill me. I know and I appreciate that you won’t let me suffer.”
Alec returned the grin that I had given him, before turning his eyes to the fire.
“You remind me of them too. I’m glad you’re here with me, Alec. I don’t know if I could have made it this far without you.”
Before he could respond, we heard a blood curdling scream in the distance. It was so loud that both Gina and Mabel awoke. Mabel jumped into her arms, while Alec and I stood up to guard the entrance of our camp. We pulled our guns and prepared for an attack.
We saw a man running towards us. He was bald, thin but muscular, and wore nothing but a pair of pants. The look in his eyes told of the pure terror that he was experiencing, neither Alec nor I rose our guns to him. He ran past us, leapt over the fire, and crouched down in the corner. With his head in his hands, he started to mumble to himself.
We turned our attention back to the darkness in front of us, and found two zombies running down the alley after him. Lifting up our guns, we fired at them. It was strange that we didn’t hesitate as we normally did, or even question if they really were zombies. Both men fell dead before they reached us. Once we were certain they were dead, we turned our attentions to the stranger in our camp.
He was still mumbling to himself in the corner.
“Are you alright?” Gina asked him, still holding tightly to Mabel.
The man didn’t answer her.
I stepped closer to him and he shuddered as I approached. He knew that we could help him, but seemed terrified of us anyway.
“It’s alright. We aren’t going to hurt you.” I said as I kneeled down in front of him.
I noticed then that his age wasn’t much more than my own, but the strange thing about him was his bald head. It didn’t look like he had any hair follicles on his head, nor hair on his arms. I ignored it for the time being, and reached out to touch his arm. I excepted him to yank himself away. Instead, he looked at my hand and then into my eyes. He had pale blue eyes, and was strangely handsome.
“Are you hungry?” I asked and took his hand into my own. Standing up, he followed me and I placed him around the fire.
Alec was opening a can of kidney beans, he offered it to me when I settled down beside the man.
“Here you go.” I handed it to him and before it left my hand completely, he was already digging into it with his other hand.
“What is your name?” I asked him when he had eaten half the can.
He mumbled something that I couldn’t understand.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear that.”
“Vion.” He said slightly louder, before shoving more food into his mouth.
“What did he say?” Gina asked.
“He said Vion.” I responded to her then looked over my shoulder at my brother, who looked as confused as I was. “Vion is a strange name, where are you from?” I asked when I turned my attention back to the stranger.
He looked at me like I was speaking another language, before slowly scooping another handful into his mouth.
“Elliot, I need to speak with you, now.” Alec growled and walked down the alley.
I followed behind him and we stopped near the bodies of the zombies we had just killed.
“This guy is really strange. He might be a zombie, I think we should ditch him or kill him.”
I looked over at Vion, who was drinking the liquid from the kidney bean can. “He seems foreign to me and perhaps a little shocked. I think we should give him a day or two to come around.”
Alec frowned, “We have others to care for, Elliot. We can’t…”
“We can’t just ditch people because they seem weird. I won’t let you do it. One of us is always awake so we can watch him. Just give him a day or two, and then we will talk.”
“Why do we have to keep every person we come across. We barely have enough food…”
“Safety in numbers, Alec. The zombies don’t attack people in large groups, we will just have to figure it out.”
“What about food?”
I sighed, “If we have to eat dogs or rats than we will. Hopefully, we will find Gina and Mabel’s group soon. Now, let’s go to bed.”
In the morning, Vion seemed like a different man entirely. Perhaps it was because he knew he was now safe with us or that he was fed and not being chased by zombies. Either way, I was glad to have another male around and hoped that he would be able to over come his fears to help us in the future.
When I had first awoken, Vion and Mabel were sitting next to the fire. He was laughing at her as she made circles with her fingers and then placed them over her face like glasses. For a brief moment, I thought he might be mentally handicapped, but for some reason or another, I just couldn’t accept that explanation. Who was this man? And how did he survive for so long? Judging from the night before I couldn’t imagine him surviving on his own.
Standing up from where I had been sleeping, I sat down around the fire. Gina was on guard in the corner, though it seemed she had drifted to sleep during her shift. That was unacceptable, but I wasn’t going to cause a fuss. The last thing I needed was Alec to throw a fit. No harm, no foul, but I would talk to her later when we were alone.
“Morning, Elliot!” Mabel said cheerfully.
“Morning, Elliot.” Vion echoed, but with less enthusiasm.
I smiled at each of them, before noticing Vion’s incredibly light eyes. The center was a gray that was outlined with a dark blue, but I had never seen eyes like that before. There was something strange about this man with us. He was almost inhuman in the way that he looked, but on the same token he was most definitely human. I suppose the best way to describe him would be that he looked like an angel. If at any moment two dove-like wings popped out of his back, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
Looking over my shoulder, I heard Alec stirring from his slumber. At times, he could be hard to wake. I knew, though, that even though he was laying down, he could still hear us talking.
“Vion, how have you survived this long?” I gathered up the courage to ask over a few moments.
He looked at me with confusion, “Survived this long? I don’t understand.”
I hadn’t heard it the night before, but I could detect an accent this morning. I just couldn’t put my finger on where I had heard it before. “From the infected ones. The ones chasing you last night.”
“I stay hidden most of the time. They caught me while…” He stopped talking briefly as if he were thinking, “while I was digging through the trash for food.”
I brushed off his pause as embarrassment. I wouldn’t want to admit that I ate trash either, so I nodded. “Where are you from?”
“Here.” He responded quickly.
“Oh, you have an accent, I thought maybe…”
“No, I’m from here.” He snapped and looked at the fire before him.
“Alright, I didn’t mean to offend you.”
Alec came to sit next to me. He frowned at Gina, who was still asleep in the corner. “How long has she been asleep?” He growled.
“I told her to nap.” I responded before Mabel could answer.
I don’t think that Alec believed me, but he wasn’t going to argue with me in front of the others. He had told me and Olivia that we needed unity and that little things had to be allowed to slide. He was practicing what he preached in those moments.
He began to dig through one of our bags with the canned food, “Not much left. It might last us three or four more days if we stretch it.”
“We have to find meat.” I told him, “Rats, dogs, anything will do. There has to be something around here.”
“We should see an animal or two as we move out of the city. Speaking of which we should get moving.” His eyes wandered over to Vion. “You aren’t hurt, are you? You can carry some items, right?”
Vion’s eyes were blank as if he were trying to understand what my brother was saying, “Yes.” He answered right before Alec was about to repeat himself.
“Yes, you are hurt or yes, you can carry some shit?”
“He’s fine, Alec.” I snapped. “What the hell is your problem this morning?”
He didn’t answer me, instead got up and shook Gina quite roughly. “Wake up, we need to get moving.”
Gina’s eyes turned to me with annoyance as Alec walked past her and began to gather our items.
“We can’t have our shit spread out like this!” Alec barked, “We have to be ready to go at any moment!”
Mabel looked frightened from his sudden outburst. She clamped onto Vion’s hand. It surprised me to see that she would turn to this stranger for safety. From the look on Gina’s face, I think she was just as shocked.
Vion stood and dropped Mabel’s hand, “I will help.” He told Alec while he picked up one of the bags.
I wanted to say something to Alec about his attitude that morning, but in front of the others was not the best place. I would have to discuss it with him later.
Next Chapter: http://rkphunt.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=64
We made our way down the hospital hallway one step at a time. Gina told us that the pharmacy area had been crawling with zombies the last time she had seen it. They could have moved onto bigger and better things like the morgue, where there were dead bodies to feast on. I prayed that they had because the last thing that I wanted to do was kill anyone, zombie or not.
It was strange how silent the hallways were. I had expected the zombies to be loud with their steps and possibly even moan, but there was nothing. The only noise heard was that of my group’s breathing and footsteps.
“They broke the glass door.” Gina mumbled as we approached a hallway, she had leaned against the wall and peered around the corner. I had her scoot over and did the same. There was a doorframe that had once had a glass panel in its center.
“What would they want with drugs?” Alec asked in a whisper.
She shrugged, “I don’t know.”
“Do you think there will be anything left?”
“I don’t know.” She repeated to him, “I told you, it’s been a while since I was last here.”
“There is only one way to find out then.” I peered around the corner to see if I could detect any zombies. “Looks like they’ve abandoned the area.”
“Those bastards can hide anywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew we were here.” Gina whispered to me and then grasped her gun handle tighter.
I gave a nod and looked up to Alec, “Do you want to take point?”
He shoved past us and looked towards the door. “Yeah, cover me.”
As Alec made his way to the door, he kept his back toward the wall. I peered around the corner, before leaving my hidden position so I could better protect him. A rumbling noise came from Gina. I turned my head to look at her, and she grabbed her stomach while mouthing the word sorry at me.
As I went to turn my head back to Alec, I felt a sharp pain to my side and my feet leaving the ground. With a hard thud, I landed on the linoleum floor with a heavy weight atop of me. Gina screamed in fright, when I felt the sharp pain in my neck. It was then that I realized one of the zombies had tackled me.
When he pulled his mouth away from my shoulder, I could see his dark facial features and blank eyes. I struggled to fight him off, but he was much stronger then I was. I cried out for my brother, not realizing that he was dealing with his own problems.
Gina couldn’t shoot her gun, because she may have shot me as well. Instead, she turned the gun around and started to beat my attacker in the head with the handle of her gun. Blood from his head wound splattered across from my face, but he didn’t seem phased nor did he act like he knew of Gina’s presence.
He pawed at my clothes, and I realized then that the bite had merely been to stun me. Murder was not his intent in those moments, which made the entire situation even more frightening to me. Gina pulled the gun up as far as she could before delivering a final firm blow. He went limp and his full weight pressed my body against the floor. With help from Gina, we shoved him off me, before I turned my eyes to Alec.
Three zombies were trying to not only keep him away from me, but most likely kill him as well. They always seemed to be more aggressive towards him then me. There was no doubt in my mind now what their reasons were. There wasn’t enough room for him to shoot had he wanted to, but he was more interested in keeping away from the zombies then killing them.
Jumping to my feet, I raced closer towards the brawl. One had gotten a hold of Alec’s arm, so without hesitation I shot the one furthest from him. Gina was right behind me and let out a shot. I don’t know what she was shooting at, but she didn’t hit anyone. Better she hit nothing then one of us, I had thought, before I shot the other one that didn’t have a grip on my brother.
Alec tried to beat the zombie off him with his gun, but realized that it was useless. He dropped it and reached for the hand gun in his belt. Shoving it into the belly of his attacker, he fired. Gina cried out beside me as the bullet landed in her right upper arm. The zombie fell limp to the ground with the others, and Gina kneeled down to hold her fresh wound.
“Shit, are you alright?” Alec ran over to her and fell to his knees in front of her.
“You shot me.” She cried out. There was more shock in her voice, then anger.
I touched the wound on my neck and could feel the deep gashes. Alec looked up at me and immediately noticed the blood on my face and shoulder.
“Are you shot?”
I shook my head, “No, zombie bit me.”
He jumped to his feet and peeled back my layer of clothing. “It’s pretty bad.”
Gina stood up, still holding her arm, and checked my wound. “Yeah, we need to stitch that up. I hope we can find some Novocain and sutures.” She looked around as if she could find them in the hallway.
Alec nodded and ran into the pharmacy, while Gina went to check in one of the nearby supply rooms. I was left to watch the hall, though I was beginning to feel lightheaded. As I watched a small puddle of blood form under my dangling hand, I realized that the wound must be deep.
I was lucky enough that the zombies had no interest in the supply closet, and Gina was able to find some sutures. Alec, however, found that the pharmacy had been mostly picked dry. He found a large bottle of ibuprofen pills and some Hycodan.
“Nothing that I can give to her through a syringe?” Gina asked as he held up the small and large bottle, neither were very powerful dosages.
He shook his head and Gina dropped the syringe in her hand.
“Let’s wrap this up and get out of here. This might take a while, and I don’t think it will be safe.” Alec said.
Gina agreed and began to bandage my wound up, ignoring the fact that she was bleeding from her own arm. When some of the bleeding had stopped, Gina turned to her own wound. My stomach began to hurt and my lightheadedness continued. I didn’t bother to tell either of them of my new symptoms.
When Gina was done, we began to make our way out of the hospital. I prayed that Mabel was alright, and hoped that the group we had left behind was still waiting for us.
---***---
As we entered the abandoned building, we made our way to the room where we had left the others. Our eyes met with an empty room, which had been no surprise to either Alec or myself. There were a couple bags left, no doubt filled with clothing or other items that the group didn’t want to drag about.
Neither Alec or I said anything, as we knew we had made the decision to leave the items with them and that it was our own fault. I made my way over to check the bag, while Alec went to fetch Mabel. Gina kneeled down beside me and was looking at all the footprints in the dust.
“Look there.” She said as I pulled out a pair of pants for her.
When I looked up, I saw a message in the dust. ‘So Sorry - Tim’ was how it read and I pressed my lips together not believing the message.
We had explained to Gina about the men traveling with us as we left the hospital parking lot. She knew there was a good chance that they wouldn’t be here when we returned, along with our food.
I said nothing about the message, “Here, these pants are mine. They might be a little big for you, but I have a belt you can cut another hole in and you can roll up the legs.”
She took the black slacks and pulled them on. They had at least another eight inches on leg length that she couldn’t use, but was only a couple inches too big around the waist. “Could I cut them?”
I nodded, “Sure, I won’t be wearing them again.” I turned my eyes away from the slacks to find her a shirt. All I could find was one of Alec’s white undershirts, which I offered to her. “You could tie it around your waist. We used all my shirts as rags and bandages.”
Pulling off the jacket that Alec had given her, she yanked on the shirt and knotted it in the front. She looked rather frumpy, especially when I gave her a pair of my sister’s shoes. We had removed some of the items from Olivia’s corpse, that which wasn’t covered in blood. Our sister had smaller feet then I did, but they were still too big for Gina so she had to stuff the toe with newspaper from the ground and put on a couple pairs of socks.
As she was stuffing her shoes, Alec returned with Mabel. They both were carrying a bag of canned food. I grinned when I realized that Alec had hidden some of the food with her. It wouldn’t last us long, a few days at most, perhaps longer if we ate less. Not that we weren’t already eating the minimum.
“Gina!” Mabel cried out and dropped the bag of canned goods when she ran over to the familiar person.
Gina hugged her back, “Oh, Mabel, what happened?”
The girl ignored her question, “Uncle Cole said you were taken by the zombies!”
“I was, but your friends saved me.” She stroked the girl’s hair as Mabel laid her head against her chest.
Alec brought the canned foods over to me, seeming to ignore the touching moment that was happening before us. “Take a couple Hycodan, so Gina can stitch you up. It’s still going to hurt like hell though.”
He held out the large bottle to me and I took it from him, “What about the bullet in her arm?”
“She’s going to have to walk one of us through the removal of it. Going to hurt like hell for her too.”
As I swallowed down two of the pills without water, I looked up at Gina who was watching us. Mabel was crying a bit at the reunion, but probably rather happy to be around a familiar person again.
“With my arm the way it is, would be better if you sutured both of us.” She said to Alec. “I’ll have to walk you through it, but I don’t know if I could have a steady, precise hand.”
“It’s stitches not surgery.” Alec said as he sat down beside me.
“Fuck, Alec, it’s my neck.” I hissed, “If she says she can’t do it, then she can’t do it. You’ll just have to suck it up and do it yourself. You are the one who shot her after all.”
“It was an accident!”
“You shot Gina?” Mabel asked.
Alec turned his eyes to her, “On accident.”
My brother made his way over to Gina and handed her two Hycodan. She seemed reluctant to take them, perhaps due to there being no water or something else.
“We didn’t grab any surgical equipment.” Alec told her as he kneeled down to look at her wound.
“I grabbed some surgical knives and a couple tweezers. They are in the jacket that you gave me.” She pointed to the camouflage jacket beside me.
Picking it up, I pulled out some items that were wrapped in gauze. She probably wanted to keep them clean. There was also two small bottles of Hydrogen Peroxide and Iodine.
“Who goes first?” Alec asked.
“Elliot. She is bleeding profusely and we need to get that under control first.” Gina stood up with Mabel still clinging to her.
In truth, I think Gina wanted to see Alec’s skill with the needle before she let him dig a bullet out of her arm. I really didn’t care at the moment as I was beginning to feel ill, and having touched my bandage I knew that it was soaked with blood.
“Remove your jacket and shirt.” Gina told me.
I did as she asked, which left my bra as the only cover for my chest. The last time that Alec had seen me without a shirt on, we had been kids taking a bath together. He peeled back my bandage and I felt a few blood droplets fall free of the gauze.
“Eww.” Mabel cried. She was still holding onto Gina.
“It looks worse now.” Alec said, there was a slight choke on his words like he was trying to stop himself from gagging.
“It’s swollen up a bit.” Gina nodded, “It’s amazing to me that this was done with a human mouth and in such a short time.”
I was beginning to feel left out of my own wound. Not being able to see it and the way the others were reacting was beginning to make me nervous.
Gina used her uninjured arm to touch my wound, “It doesn’t look like the artery was cut.”
“Why is it bleeding so much then?” Alec asked the question and I remained silent.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t look like it’s clotting. Maybe there is something in the saliva of the zombies that does that or maybe...”
“Will you two stop chatting about it and sew me up already?” I barked.
“Damn, you are grumpy today.” Alec teased as Gina began to explain how he should create the stitches and how far apart they should be.
It took him an hour to stitch me up, mostly because some of the stitches didn’t please Gina and she made him try again. The hour had to be the longest and most painful in all my life. The Hycodan did little for me as Alec poked and stabbed me with the needle. I kept calm and tried my best not to move.
“You did very well for your first time.” Gina patted his back. “You should have become a doctor.”
Alec chuckled, “I failed science.”
Gina giggled, “Maybe not then.”
I tried not to roll my eyes as the two had been flirting since they began torturing me. It was just harmless banter, but something about a happy conversation being had while I was in pain made me annoyed.
“Alright, my turn to be tortured. I’m feeling pretty good from those pills now, but from the look on Elliot’s face, it’s still going to hurt.”
Gina tried to pass Mabel off to me, but she didn’t want to let her go. I finally pulled her away with a can of pineapples slices, so Alec could begin removing her bullet.
---***---
The next day we began to move. Gina remembered that the group was going to head west, and she had a pretty good idea of where the ranch was. She told me that she had been there once before with Cole. We began our journey and by the next evening, we would be out of the city. Though there would be other cities ahead of us. We had been discussing taking the long routes around the cities, as we knew large groups of zombies would be within. With as little food as we had left, we didn’t know if we could survive the long routes.
We had made camp in an alley that had a dead end. This way they could only come at us from one side. The four of us had to share a can of beef stew. When it was obvious that one can wouldn’t be enough for us, Alec opened a can of sauerkraut. It was disgusting, but we ate it as that was all we had.
Gina and Mabel were the first to fall asleep and for the first time in a few days, Alec and I were relatively alone. I knew that he wanted to talk to me from the worried stares he tossed my way.
“What is it, Alec?” I asked when I could stand no more.
He cleared his throat and shook his head, “Nothing, it’s nothing.”
With a roll of my eyes, I crossed my arms. It was something that I had done all my life that told my siblings that I knew they were lying.
A gentle sigh of defeat released from his lips. “You don’t think that virus will effect you now, do you?”
“What?” I asked with my eyebrow up.
He nervously pointed at his own neck to indicate my own.
I touched the bandage that was wrapped around my neck, and shook my head. “They aren’t really zombies, Alec. It’s just a nickname, a joke, remember?”
With a slow nod, he again cleared his throat. “I know, but… you know, it has me worried.” He poked the small campfire that we had built with nearby debris. “If you start to feel sick or anything, you’ll tell me, won’t you?”
“Yes, of course.” I swallowed. I had felt light headed and sick to my stomach, but I had thought it was due to blood loss. Now, Alec had made me concerned, but I wouldn’t say anything until tomorrow evening. “I wouldn’t put you or the others in danger. You know that, don’t you?”
He continued to nod in a way that informed me he was still nervous. I decided that I didn’t want to prolong the conversation, so I ignored his behavior. I chose to look into the fire and ignore the gaze that Alec was giving me.
“I see them when I look at you.” Alec said.
My eye rose from the flames, “Who?”
“Olivia, Lesley, Mom, and Dad. They are all there in your face.” He ran his dirty hands over his face while he sighed, “At first, I hated it. Now, I am glad to have you around to remind me of them. I don’t want to lose that. You’re all I’ve got, Elliot.”
I grinned sadly, “I won’t leave you.”
“I know you won’t mean to, but if it comes down to you having the virus, I… I…”
“Will kill me. I know and I appreciate that you won’t let me suffer.”
Alec returned the grin that I had given him, before turning his eyes to the fire.
“You remind me of them too. I’m glad you’re here with me, Alec. I don’t know if I could have made it this far without you.”
Before he could respond, we heard a blood curdling scream in the distance. It was so loud that both Gina and Mabel awoke. Mabel jumped into her arms, while Alec and I stood up to guard the entrance of our camp. We pulled our guns and prepared for an attack.
We saw a man running towards us. He was bald, thin but muscular, and wore nothing but a pair of pants. The look in his eyes told of the pure terror that he was experiencing, neither Alec nor I rose our guns to him. He ran past us, leapt over the fire, and crouched down in the corner. With his head in his hands, he started to mumble to himself.
We turned our attention back to the darkness in front of us, and found two zombies running down the alley after him. Lifting up our guns, we fired at them. It was strange that we didn’t hesitate as we normally did, or even question if they really were zombies. Both men fell dead before they reached us. Once we were certain they were dead, we turned our attentions to the stranger in our camp.
He was still mumbling to himself in the corner.
“Are you alright?” Gina asked him, still holding tightly to Mabel.
The man didn’t answer her.
I stepped closer to him and he shuddered as I approached. He knew that we could help him, but seemed terrified of us anyway.
“It’s alright. We aren’t going to hurt you.” I said as I kneeled down in front of him.
I noticed then that his age wasn’t much more than my own, but the strange thing about him was his bald head. It didn’t look like he had any hair follicles on his head, nor hair on his arms. I ignored it for the time being, and reached out to touch his arm. I excepted him to yank himself away. Instead, he looked at my hand and then into my eyes. He had pale blue eyes, and was strangely handsome.
“Are you hungry?” I asked and took his hand into my own. Standing up, he followed me and I placed him around the fire.
Alec was opening a can of kidney beans, he offered it to me when I settled down beside the man.
“Here you go.” I handed it to him and before it left my hand completely, he was already digging into it with his other hand.
“What is your name?” I asked him when he had eaten half the can.
He mumbled something that I couldn’t understand.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear that.”
“Vion.” He said slightly louder, before shoving more food into his mouth.
“What did he say?” Gina asked.
“He said Vion.” I responded to her then looked over my shoulder at my brother, who looked as confused as I was. “Vion is a strange name, where are you from?” I asked when I turned my attention back to the stranger.
He looked at me like I was speaking another language, before slowly scooping another handful into his mouth.
“Elliot, I need to speak with you, now.” Alec growled and walked down the alley.
I followed behind him and we stopped near the bodies of the zombies we had just killed.
“This guy is really strange. He might be a zombie, I think we should ditch him or kill him.”
I looked over at Vion, who was drinking the liquid from the kidney bean can. “He seems foreign to me and perhaps a little shocked. I think we should give him a day or two to come around.”
Alec frowned, “We have others to care for, Elliot. We can’t…”
“We can’t just ditch people because they seem weird. I won’t let you do it. One of us is always awake so we can watch him. Just give him a day or two, and then we will talk.”
“Why do we have to keep every person we come across. We barely have enough food…”
“Safety in numbers, Alec. The zombies don’t attack people in large groups, we will just have to figure it out.”
“What about food?”
I sighed, “If we have to eat dogs or rats than we will. Hopefully, we will find Gina and Mabel’s group soon. Now, let’s go to bed.”
---***---
In the morning, Vion seemed like a different man entirely. Perhaps it was because he knew he was now safe with us or that he was fed and not being chased by zombies. Either way, I was glad to have another male around and hoped that he would be able to over come his fears to help us in the future.
When I had first awoken, Vion and Mabel were sitting next to the fire. He was laughing at her as she made circles with her fingers and then placed them over her face like glasses. For a brief moment, I thought he might be mentally handicapped, but for some reason or another, I just couldn’t accept that explanation. Who was this man? And how did he survive for so long? Judging from the night before I couldn’t imagine him surviving on his own.
Standing up from where I had been sleeping, I sat down around the fire. Gina was on guard in the corner, though it seemed she had drifted to sleep during her shift. That was unacceptable, but I wasn’t going to cause a fuss. The last thing I needed was Alec to throw a fit. No harm, no foul, but I would talk to her later when we were alone.
“Morning, Elliot!” Mabel said cheerfully.
“Morning, Elliot.” Vion echoed, but with less enthusiasm.
I smiled at each of them, before noticing Vion’s incredibly light eyes. The center was a gray that was outlined with a dark blue, but I had never seen eyes like that before. There was something strange about this man with us. He was almost inhuman in the way that he looked, but on the same token he was most definitely human. I suppose the best way to describe him would be that he looked like an angel. If at any moment two dove-like wings popped out of his back, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
Looking over my shoulder, I heard Alec stirring from his slumber. At times, he could be hard to wake. I knew, though, that even though he was laying down, he could still hear us talking.
“Vion, how have you survived this long?” I gathered up the courage to ask over a few moments.
He looked at me with confusion, “Survived this long? I don’t understand.”
I hadn’t heard it the night before, but I could detect an accent this morning. I just couldn’t put my finger on where I had heard it before. “From the infected ones. The ones chasing you last night.”
“I stay hidden most of the time. They caught me while…” He stopped talking briefly as if he were thinking, “while I was digging through the trash for food.”
I brushed off his pause as embarrassment. I wouldn’t want to admit that I ate trash either, so I nodded. “Where are you from?”
“Here.” He responded quickly.
“Oh, you have an accent, I thought maybe…”
“No, I’m from here.” He snapped and looked at the fire before him.
“Alright, I didn’t mean to offend you.”
Alec came to sit next to me. He frowned at Gina, who was still asleep in the corner. “How long has she been asleep?” He growled.
“I told her to nap.” I responded before Mabel could answer.
I don’t think that Alec believed me, but he wasn’t going to argue with me in front of the others. He had told me and Olivia that we needed unity and that little things had to be allowed to slide. He was practicing what he preached in those moments.
He began to dig through one of our bags with the canned food, “Not much left. It might last us three or four more days if we stretch it.”
“We have to find meat.” I told him, “Rats, dogs, anything will do. There has to be something around here.”
“We should see an animal or two as we move out of the city. Speaking of which we should get moving.” His eyes wandered over to Vion. “You aren’t hurt, are you? You can carry some items, right?”
Vion’s eyes were blank as if he were trying to understand what my brother was saying, “Yes.” He answered right before Alec was about to repeat himself.
“Yes, you are hurt or yes, you can carry some shit?”
“He’s fine, Alec.” I snapped. “What the hell is your problem this morning?”
He didn’t answer me, instead got up and shook Gina quite roughly. “Wake up, we need to get moving.”
Gina’s eyes turned to me with annoyance as Alec walked past her and began to gather our items.
“We can’t have our shit spread out like this!” Alec barked, “We have to be ready to go at any moment!”
Mabel looked frightened from his sudden outburst. She clamped onto Vion’s hand. It surprised me to see that she would turn to this stranger for safety. From the look on Gina’s face, I think she was just as shocked.
Vion stood and dropped Mabel’s hand, “I will help.” He told Alec while he picked up one of the bags.
I wanted to say something to Alec about his attitude that morning, but in front of the others was not the best place. I would have to discuss it with him later.
Next Chapter: http://rkphunt.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=64