Hollowland

As soon as he was gone, I pulled up my shirt to look at the bite. Red and swollen, with blood and pus soaking onto my shirt, it did not look good. This would be just my luck. I"m immune to the zombie virus, but a good old fashioned infection kills me.

 

I got up and limped over to the kitchen. I rummaged through two drawers before I finally found a dishtowel with blue flowers on it. I pressed it against the wound and sat back on the couch.

 

Lazlo seemed to take forever. It gave me plenty of time to worry about whether or not I made the right choice in not telling anyone about the bite or my zombie immunity. It also gave me lots of time to wonder if Max was even here, and what I planned to do if he wasn"t.

 

I"d been so certain if I just got to the quarantine, I would find him, but so far, nobody had even heard of him. Maybe this was the wrong place. Or maybe he"d never even made it here.

 

What if he hadn"t made it here? It didn"t mean that he was dead or even injured. If he wasn"t here, I"d have to leave. I"d have to keep searching for him until I found him. And if I never found him, I"d never stop searching.

 

 

 

– 17 –

 

 

 

Lazlo rushed inside, the screen door slamming shut behind him, and Blue followed a few seconds later. I"d been lying on the couch, but I sat up when they came in. Blue wore blue scrubs and carried a green tackle box with him, and my heart soared at the sight of him. Since I"d thought he was dead for a minute, it felt good knowing he was alive.

 

“I got him as fast as I could, but he had to get his stuff.” Lazlo sounded out of breath and pointed to the tackle box. It was Blue"s equivalent to a doctor"s bag.

 

“What"s going on?” Blue set the box down on the table next to me, and his gray eyes searched for signs of trauma.

 

 

 

 

 

Lazlo hovered behind him, watching us with intensity. He crossed an arm over his chest as he chewed on his thumbnail.

 

“Can we have some privacy?” I asked as nicely as I could, and Lazlo stopped biting his nail long enough to look hurt. “Doctor/patient privilege and all that.”

 

“Remy, it"s just me,” Lazlo brushed his dark hair from his eyes and stared at me.

 

 

 

“I know, but…” I shrugged helplessly.

 

“Lazlo, why don"t you give us a minute?” Blue asked.

 

Lazlo sighed loudly, rolled his eyes, and sulked down the hall. When he got back to the bedroom, he slammed the door as loud as a pocket door inside a trailer would allow. Once he was gone, Blue turned back to me.

 

“What"s going on, Remy?”

 

“You"re a doctor, so you can"t tell anybody, right?” I asked seriously. “I mean, you have to promise that you won"t tell anyone.”

 

“I promise. I won"t tell anybody,” Blue furrowed his brow. “What"s wrong?”

 

“This.” I pulled up my shirt, revealing my wounded hip, and his eyes widened. “I was bitten.”

 

“By a zombie?”

 

“Shh!” I glanced down the hall. I didn"t imagine that this place was very sound proof.

 

“Yeah. Over three days ago. And… nothing happened.”

 

“You"ve had no symptoms?”

 

“No, not that I know of,” I shook my head.

 

“You"re immune?”

 

“I think. But you can"t tell anybody. I can"t end up trapped somewhere, not until I find my brother.”

 

“No, I won"t tell anyone,” he promised. “But you should"ve told someone sooner. This is getting infected, not with the lyssavirus, but with things that could kill you just as dead.”

 

“I know, but I couldn"t tell anyone else. At least not any of the soldiers or doctors. You"re the only one I can trust.”

 

“You don"t have to be so paranoid.” Blue opened his tackle box and put on a pair of rubber gloves before digging out some kind antiseptic and gauze. It stung when he started cleaning my wound, so I looked away.

 

“I"m not paranoid,” I winced as he rubbed at it. “So, have you seen my brother?”

 

“No, but I haven"t seen much of anything yet.” He hit something, making a shooting pain go through my body, and I nearly screamed. “Sorry.”

 

“It"s okay. So… you don"t know if my brother"s there?”

 

“No, I don"t know. But I"ll look for him. His name is Max, right?”

 

“Yeah.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Blue pull a syringe out of his box, and I grimaced. “That"s a pretty fancy box you got there.”

 

“Thanks. You might feel a small prick,” Blue warned before injecting me with something. “This is just an antibiotic. Zombie mouths are notoriously dirty.” I think that was his attempt at a joke, so I tried to smile. “I actually had to kind of steal this. I mean, I"d get to use one eventually, but it"s sorta my first day on the job.”

 

“So they"re like standard procedure for house calls?” I asked.

 

“Kinda.” He dabbed the area around the bite mark with gauze, drying it. “I don"t think they want anybody in there, not like regular civilians. If you guys need medical treatment, the doctors are supposed to go to you. There seem to be a lot of scientists and specialists and army officials in there. The first floor is soldier quarters, but the higher up you go in the building, the more specialized the research. I think. They haven"t let me past the second floor.”

 

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