James smiles. “Any chance one of you could hand me the water? Feeling mighty thirsty over here.”
“Sure.” I help him sit up and hand him the water. “You want me to get Rachel for you?”
He takes a big drink, finishing the entire glass in only a couple of gulps, and hands it back to me. “Told you I was thirsty.”
“You can say that again.”
“And yes, if you would, that would be great. She’s still feeling guilty about the whole nearly killing me thing.” He shrugs but I see the amusement in his face.
“And she should. She damn near killed us both.” I hold up a hand when he tries to protest. “It’s fine, I’ll play nice, don’t worry so much.”
I sit in the chair and Mikey helps me put on my socks and boots, and I’ll be damned if they don’t look as good as new. I check the underside and see what he means about the soles of them, though: the tread is nearly worn away. I’m definitely not going to get much longer out of them—maybe a couple of months, tops. They’ve served me well in this hellish world, I guess.
I put the thought to one side and together Mikey and I head out. “Be right back, James.”
“I’ll be here.” He laughs. “Oh, and Nina?”
I look back in. “Yeah?”
“See if you can find me a chocolate cookie.” He grins.
I roll my eyes and laugh. “Sure thing.”
The hallway is gloomy; small lights have been set up on strings all along the top, but they don’t do much to light the way. Several doors lead off from here, but most are closed. As we pass them, Becky looks out of one.
“Look after my patient,” she says to Mikey.
“Will do,” he replies, and we continue toward the main exit.
Mikey slips behind me with my jacket and I shrug it on. As we near the door at the end of the short hallway, my breath becomes more evident in the air, and a small sliver of light shines from under the door.
Mikey reaches for the handle, pressing down on it. It screeches, metal against metal, and then there is blinding light as my eyes adjust to the white world outside.
“Jesus, snowed a bit while I was out, huh?” I say without any humor.
“Just a bit, yeah,” he replies.
Everywhere I look is white. The entire world drowned out by snow, the earth is still and quiet for now. Around us are various brick buildings of all sizes. I look at Mikey.
“I’m hoping one of those is a mess hall.” I nod to one of the other structures.
“Always hungry.” He laughs. “That’s my girl.”
Chapter 23
The mess hall is a mixture of heat and the smell of cooked food. It’s a delicious sensory overload as the scent of potatoes, meat, vegetables and gravy invades my nose and makes my head swim.
“Have I died and gone to heaven?” I ask in seriousness.
“Nope, this is just what happens when people work together.” Mikey shrugs. “Come on—let’s get you something to eat. You’re all skin and bones.”
I raise an eyebrow at him, but he only chuckles and puts a warm hand on my lower back to guide me toward the food. He grabs a tray as we get close and places two plates on it, loading all sorts of different things on each of them. It’s a self-serve community, which I find surprising since I would have expected everything to be rationed out to everyone individually. He pours me a glass of fresh water and then leads us to a table, placing the tray on it and then pulling out my chair for me.
I smirk. “Turning into a real gentleman, Mikey. What’s that all about?”
“Gentleman? Me? No way.” He smiles. “Aah, shit, I forgot the forks, I’ll just be a sec.” He strides off to a small stand and grabs what he needs.
I can’t help but pick at the delicious food on my plate with my free hand, delighting at the feeling of warm food traveling down my throat. I lick my fingers with a sigh.
“You’re an animal—and here I was thinking that you were a lady.” He chuckles as he comes back and sits down.
I grin. “Me, a lady? Well, that’s as ridiculous as me calling you a gentleman.” I take the fork and start to eat. “This…is…so…good,” I mumble between mouthfuls.
The food barely touches the hunger inside me as I scoop, chew, swallow, and repeat until my plate is empty. I pick up my glass and down the water, and then struggle to contain a burp.
Mikey is still eating. He’s not going easy on his food, either, which just goes to show how hungry I must have been for me to finish before him. “That was so good,” I say, more to myself than him.
I take a proper look around us, taking in everyone else in here. There’s maybe ten or so people, all sitting at different tables, eating greedily. The sounds of silverware upon plates and low mutterings fill the space. Occasionally eyes glance my way, the odd smile even gets thrown, but everyone seems to be so focused on eating right now that I’m generally ignored. It’s fine by me; I’m not in the mood to chit-chat right now.
“You okay?” Mikey places his fork on his plate and gulps his water down.
I nod. “Yeah, this place seems great. Weird, but great.”
“Weird?”
“Yeah. Civilized, I guess,” I chuckle.
“I try to take my girl to all the nice places,” he laughs back. “You want coffee, or more food?”
“Coffee? Fuck yeah.”
He laughs again and wanders off to get the infamous coffee for me. My mouth waters in expectation.
“Hey.”
I look up at the sound of someone’s voice. It’s the trigger-happy blonde, Rachel. Awesome. Just as my day was getting good.
I roll my eyes. “Hey.”
She sits down in Mikey’s chair. “Can I sit for a minute?”
“Seems like a dumb question, given that you already did,” I snap.
“I wanted to apologize, you know, for—”
“Shooting me? Nearly killing me? Which one?” I raise an eyebrow. God, it feels good to speak my mind.
She doesn’t flinch at my harsh tone, though. Instead, she huffs. “It’s a graze.”
“Well, hand me a gun and let me shoot you then,” I snap.
She looks away, her face statuesque, not showing any emotions. Her hair is tied back with a bandana and she fiddles with it nervously while she contemplates what she wants to say, but I don’t have the time or the patience for her.
“Great, well, thanks for the dandy apology,” I huff out, scraping my fork along my plate to get some leftover gravy on it.
“It’s Nina, right?” she asks, looking back to me. I notice then that her eyes are different colors: one is a mixture of green and brown, and the other blue and brown. It’s subtle, but gives her an almost hypnotic stare.
I continue to stare. “Yeah. What of it?”
She huffs and stands, her chair scraping back as she does. “Forget it. I’m sorry is all I wanted to say. I know now that you’re all okay—not assholes or whatever. I did what I did to try and protect us. I’m not sorry about that.” She starts to walk away without looking back.
“Rachel?”
She looks over her shoulder at me, and I bite down on my lip.
“James wanted to see you.” I look back down at my plate before she can say anything else.
I feel guilty for a minute, but then the burning in my shoulder returns and the anger glows deeper again. Closing my eyes, I take a couple of deep breaths—some to calm my frayed temper and some to control the pain in my shoulder.
“Everything okay?” Mikey comes back and sits down, placing two mugs of steaming coffee in front of us. “I gave you cream and sugar—figured you could do with the glucose even if you don’t normally take it.”
I take the mug, my hands wrapping around the heat, and I stare into the milky brown, the smell wafting up to my nose and taking me back to another time. I think back to Steve, and the coffee he made for us when we were running from the Forgotten. I remember his chickens and his vegetable patch and his missing wife Jane.
�
�Hey.” Mikey’s hand touches my chin, wiping away the tears I hadn’t realized I was crying. “What happened?”
I look back up to him, his handsome face full of concern and worry. “I’m fine. The smell,” I nod toward the coffee, “brought back some memories.” I bite my lip, not wanting to cry anymore—certainly not in front of a room full of strangers. I wipe away the tears and pick up my coffee and take a sip, savoring the taste of it.
Mikey returns his hand to his own mug and mimics my action. “Yeah, I get that. I’ve had a few of those types of moments recently too.”
“Do you think…do you think Steve is dead?” I ask quietly.
Mikey frowns hard. “What do you mean? Of course he is. I mean, you saw him . . .” His words trail off. I know what he’s thinking, of course. I was there and I saw the same as he did. The image of Steve being eaten alive, deaders dining on his innards as he swigged the last of his Jack is still very vivid.
“That’s not what I mean.” I look away guiltily. “I mean, do you think he’s dead-dead or did he come back? He’d hate that, to come back as a deader.” The last part of my sentence is almost whispered. “I can’t help but think that we should have finished him off at least.”
I look back at Mikey and his face is frozen in horror, possibly mimicking my own, but he doesn’t say anything. It’s something I’ve wondered for a long time now. I hope that Steve is truly gone.
We finish the rest of our coffee in silence, our thoughts consumed with the past and the present but never venturing to the uncertain future. Emily finds us as we’re clearing our things away, and she wraps me in a hug.
“All right, all right, enough with the mushy crap.” I scowl.
Emily laughs. “Whatever. There’s a meeting in the recon center. I think everyone is supposed to go to it. I’ve gotta let everyone else know and I’ll meet you there.” She smiles and wanders off to the other people in the mess hall. She moves around the room and talks to them one by one, and they begin to clear away their things.
“Recon center?” I ask Mikey.
“Yeah, it’s actually the old education center or something like that. They hold meetings there frequently, mainly to distribute jobs to everyone.” He holds the door open and we head out, making our way across the frozen courtyard to another large brick building.
Inside are lots of chairs and benches distributed around a dimly lit room. There are windows on each side, but all the lower ones have been boarded up, and there are same lights are strung up around the room as everywhere else. Mikey leads me to a seat near the back, and we sit and watch everyone else come in and take their seats. Some are dressed in army camouflage, some in civilian clothing. I don’t think it’s an intentional thing to separate people—more like people are wearing what they feel comfortable wearing, I guess. I look down at my own clothes. I’d never considered joining the army, and still wouldn’t, but these clothes are way better than my old threadbare ones. Even better than the zombie-gore-soaked ones I was wearing previously.
Fifteen or so minutes pass by before a man with light brown skin and jet black hair comes in and stands at the front of the room. He’s wearing army wear, with several badges pinned to the front of his jacket. His face is stern, yet behind his steely façade is a warmth that shines through.
“That’s Zee. He’s been helping to run the place while James has been down for the count.” Mikey whispers to me.
“James was running this place?” I ask. James had never mentioned that to me.
“Yeah, he was one of the founders,” Mikey says.
“Founders?” This place is starting to sound like a damn cult.
Mikey nods a little impatiently and I drop the subject, instead looking around the room to get a better read on everyone. Most seem to be pretty rapt to Zee, watching with attention. There’s a good mix of people from the looks of it, though I wonder how many wearing camouflage are actually army issued or are just normal people that lost everything like me.
Zee clears his throat. “Okay, so today’s jobs have been listed on the board, but I’ll give a brief rundown as usual.” He coughs and unfolds a piece of paper. “So, we have Melanie and Mathew on latrine duties.” He looks up. “Sorry. Nova, Michael, and I will be on trap duty. Rachel and Julie, you’re on weapons and ammo check. Susan and Jessica, you two need to be checking on food rations and the consignment shop, please. Becky, you and one of our newest members, Emily, are doing great over at the medical center, so keep that up.” He turns the paper over and continues to read out everyone’s jobs.
I look at Mikey. “This place seems pretty damn organized.”
“It is,” he replies earnestly.
“Seems too good to be true.”
“Chill out. It’s all good, Nina. Stop being so suspicious.”
“Did you tell me to chill out?” I scowl.
“I’d also like to extend a warm welcome to our latest comrade and ally.” Zee continues to talk.
I look up, knowing it’s me that he’s referring too. I feel the heat in my cheeks before I even glance around me and see everyone staring with hesitant smiles. I’m damn glad the room is dark.
“Hi,” I say quickly and then lower my head, hoping to be absorbed into the darkness.
“Would you like to come and introduce yourself?” Zee offers.
“No!” I bark out a laugh. Zee’s face remains unamused. “Umm, sorry. Yeah, sure.” I stand, making sure to dig Mikey in the ribs for the grin that covers his face, and make my way to the front.
“It’s Nina, right?” Zee offers his hand to me and I take it, giving it a small shake.
“Sorry, I’m not good at public speaking.” I grimace.
He smiles, which immediately puts me at ease. “That’s okay, this isn’t a test. I’m glad to see you’re up on your feet again. As soon as you feel ready and able, I’ll add you to our list so you can help out. This is a big facility and it works by everyone contributing.”
“Yeah, sure. I’m happy to help in any way.”
“I’m sorry that you had such a bad introduction to our community,” he continues. “We’re not always gun-toting maniacs.” He smiles again, glancing in the direction of the crowd, I’m sure looking at Rachel. “Well, not unless there are zombies or peace-hating criminals involved, anyway.”
The crowd laughs. I laugh too, but my laugh is less manic and more nervous.
He’s either talking about the Forgotten or some other crazy maniacs, and I don’t like the sound of either one of them.
Chapter 24
After the meeting, Mikey takes me back to the medical center to pack up my things. Becky gives me a quick once-over, with Emily assisting her. They check my various cuts and bruises, and she re-bandages my shoulder—even takes a look at the scar on my cheek. Not much she can do for that, though. Fallon completely fucked me over with that one.
In her previous life she was a nurse, working in a hospital, which I find lucky. Upon further probing, I find that she was actually still in training. Apparently it puts people at ease to think she was fully qualified. Me? I’m just glad that she had at least some idea what she was doing when she patched me and James back up. Fully qualified or not, it’s a hell of a lot better than leaving us both to bleed out.
“Keep that dry.” She pins the bandage back in place and helps lower my T-shirt back down. “You’ll need to come back every day to get your antibiotics and pain relief.” Becky smiles. “I know it’s a total pain, but we don’t hand out full courses of antibiotics since it’s all on rations and basically, if you lose it, we can’t really afford to spare anymore.”
“It’s not a problem. I’ll be coming to check on Emily and James every day anyway. I know how boring it can be lying there all day.” I roll my eyes at Emily, who laughs. She’s been intently watching everything Becky does.
“Are you saying my company wasn’t riveting?” Becky says with a playful nudge.
“No,” I laugh. “Not at all. I mean, yes it was, um . . .”
“It’s fine, my bedside manner isn’t what it used to be.” She grins. “And I think he’ll be fine. I hope in a couple of weeks he can go back to his home, too, but he’ll need some help for a while.”
I hop down from the bed. “So do I get the all-clear, then?”
“Perhaps not the all-clear, but more the don’t get shot again orders, please.” She packs her things up and looks up at me through her lashes and smiles.
“Like that’s the sort of thing I get up to on my downtime,” I snark.
Becky heads over to check on James’s IV and Emily follows. Emily continues to watch over Becky, asking questions and learning, I guess. I’m happy to see that she may have found her little place in this new world, maybe becoming a future doctor or nurse in the medical center under Becky’s guidance. It could be a great thing for her. I mean, we all have our parts to play, and I would be happier knowing that she was working here fixing people up instead of fighting deaders and gunning people down.
As we’re leaving, Jessica is arriving, holding onto Rachel. Jessica offers me a smile even as she clutches her stomach and leans heavily on Rachel.
“Everything okay?” Mikey asks, following my stare.
“Fine,” Rachel snaps and barges past us. “We just drank too much last night.”
Mikey carries my backpack—thankfully gore-free—across the frozen encampment as we head over to the housing units. Previously, each home was decked out for various families, but a lot of the facility has been closed off to save with electricity and such. There aren’t that many homes left in the open sections, and people are starting to bunk up and share. It’s at this point that Mikey looks at me uncertainly.
He runs a hand across the back of his neck, his nerves showing as a warm blush rises in his cheeks, even in the cold air.
“Umm, I wasn’t sure where you’d be wanting to sleep.”
I grin, nerves fluttering in my stomach. “Sleep?” I ask with a cock of my eyebrow.
He looks at me, puzzled. “Umm, yeah. Like where do you want to sleep? The women’s housing is over there,” he points over to the left, “but there’s family housing, and couples’ housing. I wasn’t sure if, you know . . .” He trails off.
Odium II: The Dead Saga Page 16
