They Walk

Chapter Eighty Seven

I’m a drift and have been for what feels like forever, lost in the dark abyss of the uncertainty of life and death. I have no feeling of pain, touch, or even fear and oddly I’m okay with that. It’s safe here in the dark. I’m alone in it yes, but at least I’m not afraid of dying. After being suspended this way for a while, the feeling of anything is a shock to my system. My mind and body is pulled back to itself, I cling to the dark not ready to leave. But don’t really have a choice, I never did.

My eyes open with a gasp. Shudders ripple down the length of me. Pain ruptures through my skull causing my eyes to water. Blurrily, I wait for my eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room. As I do, little things pick at me about where I could possibly be. For one thing, it’s painfully noisy. How I was sleeping I have no clue. For another, I’m clearly not alone. At first this makes me terrified, but when I realize I’m not being eaten, I begin to relax as much as I can.

It seems that I’m in a medical ward or something. I lean towards the or something because it’s clearly outside and not in a hospital, but definitely medically related. I blame this theory on the fact that I’m lying down in a clean bed with needles hooked in both my arms, and the air supplying mask that is a little too snug over my nose and mouth. Unless of course dead things became smatter over my nap, yeah, I don’t think so either. Mine isn’t the only bed in here either, there are at least a dozen or more occupied ones, and even more empty. Each bed appears to be separated by thick clear plastic curtains, with only a little breathing room in between.

The reason I’m guessing this place is outside rather than in? Well, there are no walls to speak off, at all. Okay that’s not completely true, there are tent like walls. The sound everywhere is ridiculous. I wonder if it’s what woke me up, but I know it’s not. The people that are obviously with me, given that they are sitting close to my bed within my curtain space, are still asleep. All four of them if you can believe it, and I’m starting to think maybe my pounding headache is what woke me.

I wonder what a girl has to do to get some pain pills around here, if they’re available anyways.

As much as I want to sit up and call out to the cutie on my right, I feel so exhausted still. A sigh fogs up my oxygen mask causing me to cough. The noise startles my visitors enough that they start to stir into waking. One by one they sit up straighter and open their eyes. And one by one they notice that I too am awake. Shocked silence plays over all of their expressions. It almost makes me want to laugh at the sight. The tears in their eyes are what stop me from saying or doing anything.

The image of them is eerily too familiar and with me waking after being hurt again. My eyes were starting to clear up a little, but now are overrun with free flowing tears. Gabe rushes even closer to the side of my bed. His chair scratches across the ground in his hurry. The sound of it snaps the others out of their shock and they too get closer to me. My tears flow faster and seep into my face mask. It fogs up even worse than before. This time a coughing fit over takes me. The tears flow faster.

I see a helpless pattern forming.

Taking pity on me, Gabe reaches out for my mask. “May I?”

I nod. He gently removes it. I can breathe easily again. Of course without the distraction, my headache comes back, but really I couldn’t really care. Not when I’m surrounded by everyone that I thought I’d never see again. Gabe reaches out a hand to cup my free cheek and I lean into him before he gets close. I breathe him in. Not just the freshly clean scent of him either, just him by himself, here with me. Worry knots up wrinkles between his eyes, but it makes him even more beautiful to me. I watch as his eyes water, making mine flow faster.

“Wow, I wondered if I’d ever see the two of you this way again.” Dan’s voice turns my head to find him on the other side of the bed, he’s smiling. “It’s as sickening and disturbing as I remember.”

He’s as clean as Gabe is and just as openly worried about me. It makes me afraid of what happened after I passed out. Obviously it’s not good, if their faces are any indication. Plus, there is the fact that my head hurts and that I’m so weak I can’t even form words. I can see though and what I see are my other two visitors. Maria and Michael cling to their chairs near the foot of my bed, both quiet in their observations of me. It’s clear they are equally worried, but I also see relief. It makes me feel relieved too.

Dan leans in close, “How are you feeling kiddo? That was some nap you took, I’m so jealous.”

As if in response, the pain in my head reaches my pressure point, making me cringe and cry out.

Moving as one entity, they all flock closer like worried mothers. My eyes slam shut. Gabe’s hand slips from my face, a whimper escapes my lips.

The curtain moves, making my eyes travel to Gabe holding it. “Hey! Can we get some freaking help over here please? She’s finally up and in pain.”

Dan laughs quietly, he doesn’t look up though. His eyes tap mine in a pain filled bubble.

A soft admonishing voice calls out to Gabe, who simply shrugs back at them. The voice comes again. It must appease him, because Gabe comes back to my side. Not long after he gets comfortable and takes my hand in his, someone pushes into the tight space of my “room”. It’s a woman, a cute and young one. Too young a clearly be a doctor. I must make a face because she smiles brightly at me, making tension in the others ease up.

“Your awake I see, that’s good, makes my job better when patients survive.” She pauses to look at the clipboard in her hands, and then glances back at me. “I hear you’re in some pain then? I think I can help you out with that, but could you tell me how bad it is first?”

I nod, open my mouth, and…nothing. I seem to be outdone by dry mouth. A cough escapes me again. The woman waves at Dan, who actually blushes by the way, and he reaches for something behind my line of sight. He comes back with a cup of water. Grateful, I sip from it when he lifts it to my lips. It soothes the scratchiness of my throat and even eases some of the pain in my head. The woman watches me intently as I make a mess of myself with the water. No one says anything about it.

“What…” I start, but pause when my voice sounds like someone took a shredder to it.

The woman pushes Gabe out of the way so she can be beside me. I notice there is something that looks like a syringe in her hands now and I hope it’s for me. “You want to know what happened. I was hoping you knew already, but I have no problem clearing the cobwebs for you. Do you remember anything before passing out?”

I nod. The others flinch at her words; apparently they were supposed to confess all to me.

She continues. “Okay good, that makes this easier. Well, from what I was told, you had quite the hit to your head a while back. That hit led to some problems for you I imagine. The reason for that was a blood clot that formed at the point of contact. Which eventually lead to a bleed when it went and ruptured on you. That is why you passed out; it was killing you so to speak.”

The pain in everyone’s expression brings tears to my eyes again. Not Gabe though, he’s seriously glaring daggers at the woman. I kind of want to too, but I don’t, the drug she has to offer makes me want to be nice.

“So how is it that I’m not dead, so to speak?” I ask.

Yes I know I’m being rude, I can’t help it, my heard hurts.

She smiles warmly. “I operated on you and stopped the bleed.”

Operated? I stare around the third world conditions of my “hospital room” in alarm.

“Wait what?” I squeak. Oh good, my voice is back.

She shrugs. “I did what I had to and worked with what we had available. You’re alive aren’t you? Stop complaining.” There is a nervous jitter to her voice. “So how about some of that pain medication you needed? It’ll make the pain less severe so you can rest up to heal.”

I nod. She injects the syringe in one of the tubes in my arms and quickly makes her exit when she is finished. Obviously her brain surgery skills are new; otherwise she wouldn’t be so nervous around me. Whatever. She is right. At least I’m alive, so that’s something. I guess. Depends on what infections I’ve acquired over my little siesta. Preferably none, I’m just saying.

“What the heck happened to me you guys? No half assed answers either, so spill.” My voice is stronger; some of my pain is already ebbing away.

“You really want to know?” Dan asks warily.

I nod. He starts like he’s going to spill the beans, but stops at a look from Gabe. He takes over for my brother. I nearly pass out when he’s finished. Turns out I’ve been in a coma for over two weeks that explains why my body doesn’t really feel like my own and the doctor lady’s problem. She really was nervous and with good reason. I almost died, a couple times. She told them that I might never wake up because of all the physical and mental trauma I suffered. The healing process is a long one she said. No wonder my head hurts. I had freaking brain surgery.

What are the odds of that during a zombie apocalypse?

While I was asleep, they all got used to taking up shop here with me and ’m grateful for that. Gabe also told me the good news too. We all made it over the border and into safe territory, thank goodness. Not that the problem of all the dead out and about has been solved. The little bastards are resilient I’ll give them that. No one knew what’s going to happen next other than just basically surviving to the next day. When I asked them about the giant wall I’d seen, it got a laugh from all of them. That part must have been from the brain bleed, go figure. They did tell me that there are some sturdy fences up though, so that makes me feel relatively safe.

By the time all the air is cleared and I’m fading in and out of consciousness from those miracle drugs, I can’t help thinking about what’s going to happen now. This can’t be the end can it? After everything we’ve been through, that I’ve been through, this can’t end with just me in a makeshift hospital bed. I mean I hope not anyway. How sucky would that be? Me, no longer being a zombie killing warrior princess, but an invalid instead.

Lame.

I close my eyes with a sigh. “So what happens now?”

“I was thinking we should try to go back for mom and dad.” Dan pauses until I glance at him with wide eyes. “That is…when you’re up for it.”

Gabe shocks me by laughing hysterically. It’s not long before Maria and Michael join in on it with him. The irony of this similar situation isn’t lost on me, but I can’t laugh with them. I’m seriously thinking about it. So is Dan. We hold each other’s stare. He knows what I want to do, the question wasn’t needed. Maybe it’s a twin thing, or maybe just a sibling thing, but we’re so similar it’s scary. We smile at the same time. My heart fills full and warm.

“Yes Dan, when I’m up for it, I think that would be a wonderful idea.”

The laughter stops. My gaze shifts to Gabe as if magnetically drawn. As he sits on the bed beside me, I see Maria moving to Dan with tears in her eyes. They are scared, of going back, me too if I’m being honest here. What if there is nothing or no one left?

Gabe cups my cheeks in his hands again. “You just get some rest you hear me? Worry about running off later. We have some time to figure out our next move. Don’t think you’re going alone either.”

Alone? No chance of that. I so need my little team of warriors or no deal.

I smile and nod. He relaxes, and so do the others. Soon I’m drifting off to sleep again. The last thought I have is that I really hope I can start having normal sleeping patterns. All this irregular interval crap is totally for the birds, or however that weird saying goes. A giggle bubbles inside and just barely slips out when I’m down for the count.