by Baker, LJ
I looked back at the group of girls. One was holding a cloth up to Donna's mouth for the last drops of blood. Debbie was still staring at me with her hands bunched into fists at her sides. I had a bad feeling that next time, there might be more than two of them to worry about.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you will have another opportunity."
Chapter Two
"You wanna tell me what the hell happened?" Janet sat on top of her desk and glared at me.
"Not really, but thanks for asking."
She closed her eyes for a few seconds before speaking. "This is not the day to screw with me, Andi."
Will stood in the corner and leaned against the wall. His look told me I was on my own with that one.
I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "Sorry. I'm just tired of their shit. They all hate me. They give me shit every damn day after training. You had to know it was only a matter of time."
"Can't say you're wrong there. I did hope that you'd find a way to work things out."
"There is no working things out. They think they are back in high school, and I'm so not part of their clique.”
"That's funny, because you’re the one who socked that girl in the face."
She had a point.
"I know. I shouldn't have hit her, but someone was getting hit, and didn’t you teach me that the element of surprise was the best weapon?” I raised one eyebrow at her and hoped she appreciated the irony.
She didn't.
"Against an enemy, not your own training group." She took a breath and held onto her last shred of patience. "What's gotten into you? You're never going to get sent out on mission with Will if you keep this shit up."
I looked over at Will, hoping for some backup, understanding, or something. He shrugged and looked down at his feet.
Janet hopped off the desk and walked over to the window to stare out in silence.
"I'm sorry." I stared down at the floor. She was right. If Captain Riggs found out I was behaving that way, he would never send me out. I'd be stuck there on my own worrying about Will for every mission.
"You'll have to apologize."
"You can't make—"
"Not another word." Her voice was hard, the way she sounded when she first met me. "You will apologize to Donna in front of the group tomorrow. In addition, you can report to Nurse Sue at the infirmary for extra help this week. She's been looking for someone since Crystal got sick."
She waved her hand at me, and I knew that was the end of it. It could have been worse. Fighting usually carried a steeper punishment on the base. I only got off easy because of my relationship with Janet, but I had a feeling she wasn't going to overlook anymore fighting.
I left her office without another word. Pushing my luck seemed like a bad idea. I started for the infirmary to see about the extra duties. There were worse things I could have gotten stuck with. Playing nurse's helper didn't seem too awful.
Will followed me out and grabbed my arm to keep me from getting too far ahead. “Hey, hold up.”
“Thanks for having my back in there.”
“Andi, come on. What did you expect me to say? You did hit the girl. You knew there would be punishment for that. You’re lucky you got off so easy.”
“That’s not the point, Will.”
“Then what is the point?”
“You’re supposed to be on my side. You know those girls give me shit every damned day. Am I supposed to just take it? Let them push me around?”
“No.” He pulled me to a stop and closed his arms around my waist. “I think you should have knocked the bitch out. But that’s me talking as your boyfriend, not your superior officer.” He slid my hair behind my ear and lifted my chin up to look at him. “I will always have your back. And so does Janet. Do you know how much more shit they’d give you if you didn’t get punished for that? She already shows you favoritism. How far over the line do you think she can cross before it gets noticed?”
He pulled me closer, his warmth against me, taking my breath. Any thoughts of anger disappeared, replaced by a strong need for him. My feelings both scared and excited me and I went back and forth between wanting more, and thinking it was too much. He brought his lips down on mine and any uncertainty I was feeling melted away.
“Feel better?” He smiled as my eyelids fluttered open.
All I could do was nod. All higher-order functioning in my brain was at a standstill every time he kissed me.
He ran his hand over my shoulder and down my arm, leaving goosebumps in a trail behind. “I was thinking maybe later we could go for a walk or something. I’ve hardly seen you in weeks.”
“You see me every night you’re not on a mission.”
“Which isn’t a lot and in case you haven’t noticed, you are usually unconscious by the time I get off shift.”
“Thank Janet for that.”
Will laughed. “I’ve seen you girls up on that hill. I wouldn’t wanna do her training.”
“And you’re approved for missions, while I continue to train. Life is unfair.”
“Hey, I had my share of training. This isn’t my first rodeo ya know.”
I sighed. “I know. It’s just frustrating to be left behind while you’re out there. I thought we would have more time together.”
“We have tonight. I’ll be home early, and we can make up for lost time. Now, I gotta get back before they make me stay late.” He kissed me one last time and left.
Nurse Sue was a tiny little thing, barely five foot tall with cropped chestnut hair and matching dark eyes. Despite her small size, she was not the kind of person you messed with. She was hardened from a difficult life and demanded things be done the way she wanted them done. She kept a room at the infirmary and was almost never away from work. She lost her husband and children in the first days of the outbreak and work became her life.
I waited to approach her until she finished taking vitals on an older man missing half of one leg.
"I was sent here to help out this week." I kept my voice quiet, to avoid disturbing any of the ill.
She looked over me and huffed. "So I heard."
She reached into a cabinet and pulled down a pair of pink scrubs to throw at me. "You'll want to wear these just in case anyone pukes or bleeds on you."
I looked down at the scrubs and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Maybe I shouldn’t have hit Donna.
Nah, it was totally worth it.
"Go on then. Stop staring like an idiot and get changed." She swatted the air in my direction.
I went around the corner to the bathroom and hurried into the clothes. I was determined to stay out of trouble and make it to training level two so I could go out on mission. Even if that did mean apologizing to that lousy bitch, Donna.
Nurse Sue sat with her eyes closed and her head back at an oversized desk that seemed to swallow her up. Her short legs were propped up on an overturned milk crate. She looked exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do was interrupt her, but I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing.
"Um, excuse me?"
She opened one eye and raised an eyebrow.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and took a step forward. "What do you want me to do?"
She growled under her breath and jumped to her feet. "We have six patients, as you can see. Vitals checks every two hours. I'll show you how. If they need something, you get it. Jack here," she waved at the older man with one leg."Likes to be read to. Urinals are over there," she pointed. "Bed three and four can't get up on their own. The other's you can walk to the bathroom. You have any medical training at all?"
"Not really."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course not. Well, I'll teach you wound care in awhile. The rest you can learn as we go. Stay where they can see you in case they need anything. I told them you'd be here."
I looked over the six patients. All but Jack were asleep. He sat up in bed smirking at me and I wondered what Nurse Sue told him about me.
Sue returned to her desk and
left me standing there in the middle of the room with Jack still smirking at me.
"Well, you going to come keep me company, or not?" Jack barked.
I took the seat next to his bed and held my hand out to him. "I'm Andi."
"Yeah, yeah." He brushed my hand aside. "The troublemaker. She told us all about you."
"I'm not a troublemaker. I got in a fight. That's all."
"Oh I saw your handiwork. That poor girl was down here for over an hour."
It hadn't occurred to me that Donna would have come to the infirmary for a simple pop in the face.
What a baby.
"Oh."
"Well, did she at least deserve it?" Jack winked.
"She would have if I didn't beat her to the punch. Pun intended." We both laughed. "So you want me to read something to you?"
"Nah. That idiot nurse thinks I'm incapable of doing anything for myself. I lost a leg and last I checked, legs aren't required for reading."
"Okay..." I scanned the room for some other way to keep Jack entertained. "What about cards?"
"Now that's something I can get into." He pulled himself upright and waited for me to get the deck of cards.
"What's your poison, Jack?"
"You know how to play Gin Rummy?"
"I spent months trapped in a basement with my parents and neighbors. I can play any card or board game in my sleep."
I shuffled the cards and counted out each hand.
"Being trapped in a basement doesn't exactly prepare you for this world. Does it?"
"No, I guess it really doesn't. That was a long time ago though. I've had plenty of time to get used to our new world."
"New world," he repeated. "That's one way to look at it. You alone?"
"I was. Then I made some new friends. That's how I got here."
"I was a year into my retirement. Fifty-six years on the job. Me and the missus sold the house and bought a rv, one of those fancy ones with all the bells and whistles. We were gonna travel the country in style." His eyes fell to his cards and he grew quiet.
I wanted to say something to make him feel better, but these days, 'I'm sorry', just didn't cut it. Everyone was sorry and we all had our own similar story. Nothing made it better.
"What was her name?"
He looked up and met my eyes. A small smile pulled up one corner of his mouth. "Sheila. Smart as a whip, but the woman couldn't cook worth a damn. I never could understand how anyone could screw up a meatloaf."
I nudged further, not sure if it would make things worse or better. "You have kids?"
"Nah," he dragged out the word. "My girl was all I ever needed." He reached over the side of the bed and pulled out a photo. "This is her on the day I met her. Carried that picture around all these years."
"She was beautiful."
"Every day until the day she died, she was. I'll tell ya, my Sheila didn't go quietly either. She put up one hell of a fight. Saved my sorry ass." He shoved the photo back down into the mattress on the side of the bed. "That's all I have left now."
His blue eyes looked briefly back to mine then returned to his cards as he began sorting them in his hand. I placed my cards down on the bed and pulled my old camera from my bag. I found a photo of Will and me that Dan took on my birthday, and held the camera out to Jack.
"That's Will."
Jack took the camera and examined the photo. "Not a bad looking boy. I guess that's why you're doing that ridiculous training. To stay close to him?"
I tucked the camera back into my bag and nodded. "Can't hurt to have training. I used to think I was prepared to survive in this world. I was wrong."
"No, no, I don't disagree with the skills part of it. It's the going back out there to fight part that makes you an idiot. All for a boy. Nonsense." Jack waved a hand at me and dropped a king of clubs into the discard pile.
"You think we shouldn't fight?"
"Hell no. I think we should kick some zombie ass until those bastards go straight to hell where they belong."
I shook my head. "Then I'm confused."
"Fighting to rid the world of that filth isn't what I'm against. But, how sure are you that's what we’re actually doing here?"
Nurse Sue coughed loudly and Jack's head snapped in her direction.
He lowered his voice and continued. "Look, alls I'm saying is maybe some of what's going on around here isn't what they say."
"What do you mean?"
He put his hand on mine and leaned in close. "I've seen things. Strange things."
Nurse Sue walked in the room and cleared her throat. "I need you to take these pills down to the General."
I jumped up and knocked the cards onto the floor. She just shook her head at me, disgusted. I wasn't sure what I did to the woman to make her dislike me so much, but apparently it was big.
She tossed the bag at me and walked back into her office. "I won't need you anymore tonight. You can come back after your training session in the morning."
“I have a one-on-one session after that.”
“Whatever, after that then.” She huffed.
I cleaned up the cards and put the box away.
"Andi," Jack grabbed my arm before I could turn to go. "You be careful out there, okay?"
I smiled down at my new friend. "I will."
I waved as I walked out the door. Something on Jack's face told me to be careful. I wasn't sure what was going on around the base, but it sure seemed like Jack knew something. Unless of course, he was just a crazy old man.
After dropping off the pills to the General, I went to find Will by the pond. It was on the far end of the compound, away from buildings and soldiers, and all things military. I was sure they were there, for safety measures, but looking around, they weren’t easily noticeable. It was the one place on the base that it was easy to forget we lived in a world where everything normal was gone.
Will was standing on the edge of the water skipping rocks along the calm surface. He looked carefree and young. I couldn’t help but smile seeing him there. I almost didn’t want to disturb him, but he was right, we hardly saw each other for a few weeks and I definitely needed some Will time.
I got halfway to him before he turned, as if he could sense that I was there, and flashed me his signature crooked smile. I melted on the spot and waited for him to close the distance between us.
“Hey you.” He took my hand and pulled me quick against him. “How’s the new job?”
“Temporary. But not bad. Nurse Sue is as bitchy as ever, but one of the patients. Jack, is probably my new best friend.”
“Oh?” Will raised an eyebrow. “Do I have some competition?”
I laughed. “Maybe. He’s seventy-five, missing one leg, and pining for his dead wife. Plus, he’s a bigger smart ass than me, so yeah. I’m pretty sure he’s my soul mate.”
“I thought I was your soul mate.” Will crossed his arms in front of his chest and pretended to pout.
I pulled his arms apart and looked up at him. “You’re my everything.”
His lips curved up and he looped his thumbs into my belt to pull me against him. “That works too.” He brought his mouth down on mine and kissed me until I thought I would fall apart in his arms.
I fell limp against his chest and let him support me, wanting nothing more than to be lost in that moment forever. “Why can’t we just stay like this?”
“Because we’d starve.”
“It might be worth it.”
Will took my hand and led me over to one of the benches near the water. “I think that we can find even better ways to pass the time, though we would need to eat to keep our energy up.”
I almost couldn’t imagine anything being better than kissing Will, but I knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Well you know, if we went back to the basement, we would have all the time we wanted to explore those kind of activities.”
Will’s eyebrows pulled down and he gave me an interested look. “Go back?”
“Yeah
, I mean, you thought we shouldn’t stay here to begin with. Right?”
“Andi, that was when we first got here. Things are good here. We’re safe. We don’t have to worry about anyone sneaking in while we’re asleep and killing either of us. Why would you want to go?”
“Whether we are safe or not is irrelevant, Will. You’re constantly being sent out and you’re certainly not safe out there. And like you said, we hardly ever see each other. This is the first time we’ve even had more than twenty minutes together where both of us were awake and no one else was around. Don’t you want to have more time together?”
“Of course I do, but I also wanna know that you’re fed, and not being fed on. This is the best way for me to keep you safe.” Will gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “Let’s not talk about this now. I know you had a really long day and I wanna enjoy what time I have with you before you start yawning. Okay?”
“Sure.” The last thing I wanted to do was waste my time with him, but we couldn’t avoid the conversation forever.
We spent the next half hour walking, hand in hand, around the pond and talking about anything and everything that didn’t matter in the least. It was nice being there like that. Almost like any other couple our age. Almost like neither of us had spent the last two years chasing off flesh eating zombies and fighting for our lives.
I held in the yawns until I couldn’t stop them anymore and Will insisted we head back to our room. Before we got halfway up the stairs, my feet were dragging and I was ready to camp out right there on the steps. Training with Janet was brutal and after getting in trouble, my guess was, she was going to be extra hard on me. As much as I loved spending time with Will, at that moment, all I wanted was sleep.
Chapter Three
The last thing I wanted was to train with those girls for three hours, but I put on a fake smile and made the best of it. In the end, it would allow me to go on missions and spend more time with Will. Not that I was super excited to go out zombie killing, but at least it kept me from waiting around, worrying about him. I really was starting to believe that leaving would be a good idea, but I wanted to be with Will, above all else. That was what mattered.
