by G. Benson
Xin sighed. “It has.”
Joy pulled away, giving Xin some space. “Want me to go?”
“No.”
“Okay,” she said. “I’ll stand by the door.”
Xin stood, wobbly, and closed the cubicle. She hadn’t gone to the bathroom since this all started.
A sign she was dehydrated. She’d drink some water. The last thing they all needed was for someone to be out from dehydration or hunger. She plopped down on the seat, resting her elbows on her knees.
She needed to pull herself together. What was the best distraction she could think of?
“So,” Xin said, voice trembling, pulling off the now warm wet paper towels Joy had put on her neck and dropping them in the toilet. “What’s going on with you and Taren?”
There was resounding silence, so she flushed the toilet, coming out of the cubicle and giving Joy a grin.
Joy stood with her back against the frame, eyebrows raised. “Hospital gossip?” she asked. “Now? Really?”
Xin washed her hands, then ran some water and rinsed her mouth a few times. If she kept this conversation going, and didn’t stop talking, that image of ketchup wouldn’t bubble up in her mind. The way blood had spread like a pool around the two Taren had taken down. The expression on Joy’s face after she had.
Just keep chatting.
Xin stood, water cold on her chin, and grabbed a paper towel. “Now seems like the perfect time, to me.”
She tried another smile, and could only hope it didn’t tremble the way it felt like it did. Like something fragile she was stringing up on her face.
There was a beat, in which Joy was probably going to roll her eyes or lead the way out. But she cocked her head, taking Xin in. Finally, she sighed. “Nothing is going on with Taren and me.”
Xin snorted, leaning her hip into the sharp edge of the basin. “Uh-huh.”
“It’s not.” Joy shifted uncomfortably. “Anymore.”
A grin, not at all trembling, unfurled on Xin’s face. “So what was that in there just now?”
“Nothing happened.”
“Right.” Xin managed to elongate the vowel for far too long. “But something happened before that?”
Joy went pink, the colour creeping up her neck and into her cheeks. “No.”
A delighted little laugh escaped Xin before she could stop it. “Knew it.”
“Yes, you’re a detective.” That pink wasn’t going anywhere. “Don’t tell Taren I gave it away.”
This time, Joy looked so genuine.
Xin squinted at her. “Why? What happened? You obviously like her.”
This time, the discomfort was far more obvious as she shifted her feet. “Like her. Ugh. This is as if I’m in high school all over again. I like her.”
Xin couldn’t stop grinning. “Well, you do like her. Maybe a lot?”
“You can stop smiling now, I well and truly made a mess of it.”
Xin sidled past, leaving behind the slightly sour smell of the bathroom and her unsettled mood with it, pushing open the door.
“I think Taren doesn’t care anymore that you made a mess of it,” Xin said.
Joy’s eyes followed her out. “Why? What makes you so sure of that? Xin!” Her voice dropped to a hiss. “Xin, get back in here.”
The door swung shut behind her and she snickered to herself.
Taren
End of shift time, in another world
Ro handed Taren a steaming, overly squishy hamburger. She’d always imagined the burgers back here having been cooked in a pan.
Nope. They were frozen, then microwaved.
She shuddered. Then jammed it in her mouth anyway. She groaned. It was gross, microwaved, and far too soft.
It was absolutely divine. The tomato sauce—which Xin always called ketchup, which was just weird—exploded over her tongue and there was tacky, plastic-like cheese. Divine.
“Good?” Ro asked.
“Splendid,” Taren answered, nearly spitting it everywhere.
“See anything out there?” Ro asked.
Taren had just come back from ducking her head to check the hallways they’d come through. She shook her head.
“You said to take a few extra burgers? As well as one each for the other two?”
Taren nodded vigorously, still chewing.
“There’s some aluminium foil I can wrap them in, keep them warm for your friends.”
Already having shoved another mouthful in, Taren gave them a thumbs up.
They snorted. “Have you lot not eaten all day?”
Taren shook her head.
“Since lunch?”
She shook her head again.
“Earlier?”
Taren nodded, swallowing before she was ready to, the food a giant ball she could feel going down her throat. “We were stuck in a stairwell for most of the afternoon. To be honest, after everything, I don’t think any of us were hungry. We shared some nuts that Raj had in his pocket.”
“Yum. Pocket nuts.” Ro slipped two of the burgers, this time veggie ones, into the microwave and set the timer. “Who’s Raj?” They leaned against the kitchen bench and crossed their arms, fingers moving all the time over their bicep, tapping away. They winced when they put pressure on the well-wrapped cut. “Xin mentioned he was with you guys, but like—what’s his deal?”
Taren tried not to look at the bandages. What would they do if they thought it was a human bite, after all? Abandon the kid? Leave them here alone in the canteen to turn, or run into one of those things on their own?
Could they do it?
Owen flashed into Taren’s mind. The sight of him licking his own blood off the glass. The strange, mottled green of his skin. Blood bursting from his neck when the patient in A&E had launched at him.
They would have to do it. Leave the kid behind, if they weren’t convinced.
They’d have to.
It didn’t necessarily mean they could, though.
“Raj—” Taren licked her lips and rolled her neck. She could do this. Normal chat. Not staring at the wound and debating life-altering decisions. “Raj is surgical, like Ayton.” Ro looked confused, so Taren tacked on, “Joy, she’s Doctor Ayton. But Raj is a baby surgeon. Still learning. I don’t really know him very well. He’s nice, though. He’s there, he went with Natalie—she’s a nurse, like me, but in a different area. I didn’t actually know her before today. She dislocated her shoulder, so they stayed together to get medications and stuff. We’ll all be meeting back in the stairwell.”
“You all split up?” Ro asked, brow furrowed and mouth hanging open like Taren was an absolute fool.
“Yeah.”
“Xin mentioned this before, but I think it just hit me. In the middle of this horror film, you split up?”
“I—”
“You’d be the ones that caused everyone in the cinema to throw popcorn at the screen. You don’t split up in a horror film.”
Taren huffed. “Yeah, I know. But Natalie was injured, we didn’t know what would be here, and Ayton needed food as soon as possible, but would also need meds as soon as possible. It was to save time.”
“Why does she need meds?” Ro opened the microwave door before it could beep, and to be honest, Taren was relieved. Ro threw a look over their shoulder. “I can’t stand the beeping.”
Taren gave them a small smile. “Me neither.”
Should Taren share Joy’s private information?
“I have diabetes.”
Well, decision made for her. Joy had walked in, Xin behind her looking a little washed-out. Taren raised her eyebrows at Xin, their universal ‘all okay?’ that they’d perfected in A&E. Xin gave her a tiny nod. She was a bit sweaty, but fine besides. Amused, even.
“Oh,” Ro said. “My aunt has that. Is that why you were inhaling biscuits?”
Barely covering a very put-upon sigh, Joy nodded.
“Your burgers are there.” Ro g
estured towards where they’d left them, nice and hot.
Xin ate hers much more carefully than Taren had, taking a few tentative bites. At least she was eating. Joy picked at hers.
“Full from the sandwich?” Taren asked.
“Yes.” Joy’s gaze kept flitting away from Taren, who bit down a smirk. Under any other circumstances, Taren would be mad right now. Mad that Joy had been such an idiot as to ice her out over an illness Taren saw pretty much every day, in one way or another. Angry at being treated like someone Joy wanted absolutely nothing to do with, after a night of sex. Of really, really good sex. Sex that was repeated! Which is what Taren had told herself when feeling vulnerable and rejected the days after: if it hadn’t been good, Joy wouldn’t have invited her back to her house after the restaurant.
She’d mostly managed to convince herself.
Lola hated Joy. As any good friend slash cousin would.
Was Lola okay?
Taren sucked in a breath. She had to be okay. Here was Taren, in the middle of all this, thinking about sex with Joy. When this virus was running rampant. When Owen had been…had become infected. In front of her. So quickly.
When Lola could be in trouble.
Lola would be fine. It was contained to the hospital. It must be, else why would they have been surrounded like this? Why would they have taken such horrifying measures to contain it?
“Taren?” Xin’s voice shot through her thoughts. “You’ve gone all…grey.”
“I’m fine.”
Joy’s eyebrow jumped up, but she didn’t say anything, her eyes sweeping over Taren.
Across from her, Ro gave her a reassuring smile.
“I was wondering if this—” Taren waved her hand broadly around, gesturing at everything “—was contained to the hospital. Or if we need to be concerned about people out there.”
Ro swallowed so hard Taren heard it. Shuddering, Xin crossed her arms over her chest, hands buried under her arms as if trying to warm them, as if the thought had made her go cold.
Joy straightened, jaw setting. Taren had seen her like that in A&E, as she made a decision she was going to fight for tooth and nail. She’d been wearing that look when Taren had first seen her after their night together, and Joy had insisted she couldn’t give Taren what she wanted right then.
“It has to be.” Joy said it like she believed it. Or like she so wanted to. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be taking such extreme measures here.”
“Right.” Taren jutted her jaw. “Right. That’s what I concluded, too.”
“Everyone out there will be fine, at least.” Ro smiled again, that almost comforting smile.
The ‘at least’ hung in the air. Sunk between them all, heavy. Wrapped itself around the image in Taren’s head of the people lying outside, shot. An image she never would have thought she’d see. Especially in Australia. People don’t really get shot willy-nilly here. That was for the States. A world away.
“Shall we get a move on?” Joy proposed. She moved over to some inventory that was in boxes along a wall. Probably a delivery from that morning someone hadn’t unpacked yet. She rummaged in some boxes, shoving chocolates in her pockets.
“Aren’t you not meant to have sugar?” Ro asked, as if it were any of their business.
Joy answered with a lot more patience than Taren would have expected. “When I take insulin later, I could have a hypo—my sugar could get too low too quickly. Something like this is a great way to bring it up quickly, so I don’t pass out. It’s all a balancing act I’ve not really perfected yet.”
Ro scratched the back of their neck. “Which would be very awkward when zombies are like—” and they held their hands up, miming a zombie from a horror film, groaning “—ready to eat you if you slow down.”
Snorting, Joy turned around, a smile playing on her lips. “Exactly.”
“My aunt doesn’t need insulin, only a pill.”
“Your aunt’s probably type two diabetic, then,” Xin said. “Joy is type one.”
“Got it,” Ro said. But most likely they said it to avoid them all chiming in with a medical lecture. “Shall we make a move?”
Definitely to stop them all giving a medical lecture, then.
They all stood for a moment and as if on cue, Taren’s, Joy’s, and Xin’s eyes all fell to Ro’s arm.
Ro looked from one to the other. “What?”
Xin cleared her throat. “Ro…”
“We need to see your arm,” Joy stated.
“Okay.” They started pulling at their bandage. “It was just a dog, I swear. I mean, saying that like ‘just’ a dog now sounds ridiculous, because getting bitten by a dog is scary and not normal. But now the alternative is, like, zombies biting on it so…just a dog, then.”
Their fingers stumbled with the bandage, and Xin stepped forward to help them. Nimble, having done this so many times before in A&E, Xin had it unwrapped in a moment. The bite itself had an extra dressing over it, one to promote healing, and sutures peeked out between the bits of white dressing. Pausing, Xin glanced around. Before she could speak, Taren reached behind her for the plastic gloves kept for kitchen staff and handed her a pair. Xin grinned at her in thanks, then gently pulled the mesh dressing off.
“Ow,” she murmured. “That must have hurt.”
The wound was jagged, torn in places—or had been; whoever had sutured it had done a good job. It was swollen still.
“It’s all red,” Ro said, voice faint as they gaped down at their own arm. “Is it infected?”
Joy went to move forward, then hung back. Taren caught her eye and did the same.
Xin shook her head. “No, it’s normal that it’s red after so much trauma. But we definitely need to keep up with the antibiotics. Do you remember what you were on?”
Ro shook their head. “Nope. I’m allergic to penicillin though, so they had me on two.”
Turning her head, Xin supported Ro’s arm gently. “Doxy and metronidazole, then?”
“Most likely,” Joy answered.
“I’m sure the others grabbed some.” Xin turned back around. “They would have taken everything they could, right? Not only insulin?”
“I’m sure,” Taren reassured her.
“So? You believe me?” Ro’s fingers twitched at their side, nails picking at the seam of their pants.
“We do,” Joy said. “That can’t be a human mouth. The puncture wounds are clearly longer, animal teeth, and the shape is way off.”
Unfortunately, they were all more aware of what human teeth marks looked like now.
Ro gave a big, heaving sigh of exaggerated relief, grinning as Xin rebandaged their arm. “Great. So, you’ve officially adopted me. I’m with you now.”
That’s how it felt, really. Like they’d adopted an extra.
Raj
The sun was starting to set outside
Natalie nearly killed an actual person.
Or, at least, she’d been ready to. Thankfully, the person tore his arms away from his face and looked up at them without the scary reddened sclera or shocking ice colour of zombie eyes.
“I’m not one of them!”
“Scott?” Raj yelped.
Natalie lowered her IV pole weapon, a grin growing on her face at the sight of him.
“There’s one behind us,” Natalie said. “We need to move, come with us?”
Scott grabbed Raj’s held-out hand and let Raj haul him to his feet. “Yeah—there are a lot in the other ward, don’t go that way.”
Natalie and Raj shared a look.
“We know,” she said.
“Help me with this,” Scott said as he made his way to the line of chairs along the wall in the corner, all joined together. “We can at least pull it into the corridor so it’s like a barricade from Ortho Ward in case they come through. There were…a lot.” He eyed the two crumpled bodies, the drying foam from the fire extinguisher, the blood flicked all over the place. “Do yo
u know what happened here?”
Raj put his stuff down and together Scott and Raj grabbed an end each and lifted, Raj with a seat awkwardly in his grip and Scott with the table at the end that had been against the wall and joined to the seats. Pamphlets scattered off it, littering the floor, and they manoeuvred the line of seats across the hallway.
As they were moving it, Natalie said, “They attacked us. We dealt with them.” Bouncing on her heels, Natalie looked behind her, eyes on the door to the ward they’d just left. “No sign of the stripy-socked one at the window. Yet. Maybe it got distracted by something?”
“Here’s hoping,” Raj muttered.
With the seats moved, Scott and Raj grabbed all the stuff Raj had dumped and they headed back to the stairwell. Natalie scowled every time she adjusted her arm, but refused to take anything more than an anti-inflammatory for it. Raj had offered twice and didn’t dare try again after the withering glare she’d sent him after the second.
“So, the way you two came from is blocked off?” Scott asked.
Raj leaned against the banister rails on his right, sighing. “We don’t really know. We split up from the others so they could go check it out and find food at the canteen, while we stocked up on anything medical.”
“You split up?” Scott asked, the tone of his voice clearly indicating what he thought of that idea. “Like we all mock people for doing in every horror film ever known to humankind?”
“You should hang out with Xin more,” Raj muttered.
Next to him, leaning against the wall, head even lolling against the brick, Natalie snorted.
“Xin is with you?” Scott suddenly sounded a lot more interested.
Natalie snorted again, covering it by adjusting the final strap on the sling she’d managed to fit.
“She’s with the others, with Joy Ayton and Taren. I don’t know her last name; I haven’t worked much with her.”
Natalie shifted, so her back was against the wall and she could put a leg out on the step. Her foot was so close to his leg.
Maybe he was never going to even get the chance to ask her out.
“You know Xin?” Raj asked.
“I mean, not super well. Enough.”
Did he know her like Raj knew Scott? As someone who worked in the hospital and was friendly? Raj didn’t think that was it. The look on his face was like the feeling Raj had in his stomach when Natalie’s foot got so close.
