“Those? Oh, those we trashed.”
“What!” he yelled, “You threw away my fucking drums?”
I laughed, “Calm down, we moved them to the Pole Barn. I didn’t have the heart to toss them.”
“You’re a bastard you know that.”
“Hey, I have to have a little fun.”
“Whatever,” he said rolling his eyes.
We got inside after I helped to get Thomas onto one of the couches I called everyone’s attention. “Ok guys. I know some of us got a little roughed up, but it could have been a lot worse. Now, we have a new member to our little survival club. This,” I said having Michael stand next to me, “is my brother Michael.” Silence. Some mouths dropped, eyes widened, but no one said anything for a long minute before Jason broke the silence.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Nope.”
“I thought your brother was dead?” he asked.
“Yeah, me too. Michael, this is…” I introduced him to everyone, including a passed out Thomas, and finally Sarah, “and this is my girlfriend, Sarah.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me and smiled, “Nice to meet you guys.”
They all got up and crowded around him, asking him where he came from, how he ended up with Luke and everything else they could think of. My brother was the center of attention, and he rose to the occasion. He was always good at dealing with people he didn’t know and was comfortable slipping into his jester persona. He was very sarcastic and was good at judging his audience. I took a minute to look him over. At seventeen he had light brown hair and brown eyes and had grown several inches to be close to my height. He had lost a few pounds since I last saw him and it looked like he gained a little muscle. Another change I noticed was his eyes. They used to hold a humorous spark like he knew a really funny joke and was just waiting until the perfect time to tell you. They still held that familiar spark, but they were harder, colder. To tell you the truth I wasn’t the least surprised, not after some of the things he told me he went through. I took the opportunity to slip away from the group and get to my room. I closed the door quietly and quickly pulled up my pant leg, inspecting my leg by the light of a flashlight. It didn’t look too good, the skin around the bandage was black and blue, and I knew I had to work quickly if I wanted to keep it from Sarah. I took a towel out of my closet and sat it on the ground. I placed my leg on the towel and pulled out a syringe, a bottle of water, gauze, alcohol and a needle and thread. I began by pulling off the sloppy dressing that I had put on earlier and inspecting the deep cut that George had put in my muscle. I wet some gauze and wiped the dried blood from around the wound. I wiped away some caked blood from the gash and winced as it started to bleed again. I took the needle off of the syringe and set it aside. I drew some water into the syringe and placed it near the gash. I sent a small jet of water into the wound and gritted my teeth. I poured some of the alcohol into the remaining water and shook it up. Drawing the solution into the syringe, I again doused the wound. “Fuck,” I said through clenched teeth. I dipped the thread and needle in some alcohol and began stitching my muscle and skin back together. I was about halfway done when there was a knock at the door. “Hold…”
Sarah opened the door, and after her eyes widened at me bleeding on the floor they narrowed, and she glared at me. “How did you do that?”
“Uh… George may have stabbed me a little,” I said lightly.
“George stabbed you… a little. How the fuck can someone be stabbed a little?”
“It’s not that deep. I’m ok.”
“Well, if you’re so ok why did you hide it from me? I could have taken care of it while we were still at the compound.”
“I didn’t want you to worry. Plus we had to get Thomas back here, he’s worse off than I am.”
She didn’t look like she believed me, “So when were you planning on telling me?” she said kneeling next to me and grabbing my calf.
“Ahhh,” I gasped, “I was considering tomorrow.”
“Whatever,” she said taking the thread from me and finished sewing me up. She wasn’t gentle in the slightest and actually seemed to enjoy the small grunts of pain I let out. She wrapped my leg in gauze and added some tape to keep it tight. She stood and went to wash her hands, having gotten some of my blood on her. She came back in with some antibiotics and told me to take them.
“Thanks and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” She rolled her eyes again and walked out of my room. The argument wasn’t over, she just wanted to let me know she was angry and that I would pay later. I sighed and got to my feet and headed back out to the living room.
“Where’d you go?” asked Carrie.
“Oh, I had something to patch up,” I said gesturing to my leg.
“Holy shit, how’d that happen?” asked Christina who had just joined us with Michelle.
I glanced at the tired-eyed Michelle and said, “I just had a little accident. I’m ok. Shouldn’t you be in bed?” I asked Michelle.
“I wanted to make sure you were ok,” she said yawning.
“Well, we are. Michelle, I want to introduce you to my little brother, Michael. Michael this is Michelle.”
“Hi Michelle,” he said smiling and offering her his hand.
She smiled back and shook with her tiny hand, “Hi.”
“Ok Michelle, you need to go back to bed.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes you do,” said Sarah from behind me.
At least she’s not yelling at you in front of everyone, I thought as I watched Michelle padded her way back to the girl’s room. “Is Thomas still out of it?” I asked.
“Yeah, but we can wake him if needed.”
“No, I’ll talk to him tomorrow. Let him sleep where he is. That being said, it’d be best if everyone caught a few hours. I know I will.”
“Where can I sleep?” asked Michael.
“You can sleep anywhere but my room or the girl’s dorm.”
“Ah come on. I’m sure the girls have room for me,” he said grinning.
“Not a chance,” said Jessica.
“Sorry man,” said Justin putting his arm around Michael, “looks like you’re exiled to the man cave.”
I laughed at his face, and he turned to look at me “What are you laughing at?”
“The man cave. It’s funny.”
“Fuck off,” he said punching me in the shoulder.
“Alright guys, I’m headed to bed,” I said limping towards my room. I wanted to ask Sarah if she was going to come with but I didn’t want to set her off in front of everyone. A chorus of good nights was cut off by the closing of my door. I carefully pulled off my dirty, sweaty and blood-spattered clothes. I was still dirty and gross, but I slipped on some clean clothes anyway. I limped over to my bed, got under the covers and closed my eyes. I was very tired and wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but I couldn’t get my thoughts to slow down. I was disappointed that our day ended so badly, upset that I had lost Luke and Adam, not to mention the dozens of innocent civilians, and I was thrilled that Michael was still alive. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t express that excitement, not with the blood of so many on my hands. I was surprised at how calm Michael was and how easily he was fitting in with everyone and how he was handling everything in general. I was glad he was back, but I wondered how he would take to following me, not as his brother, but as the one put in charge by the others. He never did like to listen to me and would argue as long as it took, even if he was wrong. I laid there letting these thoughts run their course when I heard my door open and then close quietly. I didn’t move as I felt Sarah climb over me, careful of my hurt leg, and lay down. After she settled and the silence returned to the room I rolled over and said, “I’m sorry.”
She rolled to face me, “Why can’t you just be open with me? Why can’t you just stop hiding things from me?”
“I wasn’t hiding anything.”
“Yes, you were.”
I sighed, “I just didn’t want you to w
orry.”
“Do you think I can’t handle you getting hurt? I’m not a little girl, I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can.”
“Do you really? Because it looks like you think I might break at the first sign of bad news. You keep hiding injuries from me. You keep trying to keep me safe. You can’t. You can’t always keep me safe. You have to trust me to take care of myself.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know if I can. It’s not that I don’t trust you and it’s not because I don’t think you can handle yourself. I know you can take care of yourself, I know that because you’re the strongest damn person I’ve ever met. You’re stronger than Jason than Matt, you’re stronger than me. I don’t think I can change the way I am, I can’t change the way you make me feel and the fact that I want to keep you safe, but I can try.”
“That’s all I’m asking James, is that you try. Because if you don’t, then I don’t know what we’ll have to do.”
“What do you mean,” I asked, my heart starting to race.
“I don’t want you putting yourself in danger for me.”
“Sarah I can’t lose you,” I said sitting up and turning on a flashlight. She sat up, and I saw that her eyes held no anger, they held fear and sadness.
“You think I’m strong, but you don’t get that I can’t lose you either, none of us can. How do think they’ll react if you die?” she said pointing towards the door, “What do you think will happen if you put yourself in danger and it doesn’t turn out so well if you get more than just a bruise or a cut? They will fall apart, I will fall apart.” A tear rolled down her cheek.
I wiped away the tear and smiled “I’m not going anywhere. I wouldn’t let anyone or anything take me away from you or the others.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Come on beautiful, don’t you trust me?”
“It has nothing to do with trust.”
“Ok then, just believe me. You won’t lose me, I promise.”
She held up her hand and made me seal my promise with a pinky. I brushed her hair out of her eyes and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. As I leaned in, I let out a small grunt of pain caused by my leg. I saw sympathy flash across her eyes and she placed a hand on my chest to stop my movements. “Go to sleep,” she said with a smile.
I smiled back and eased back down, trying to limit the movement of my leg as much as possible. “You still mad at me?” I asked smiling at her.
“I don’t know yet.”
“But I’m in the doghouse huh?”
She laughed, “Oh yeah.”
“For how long?”
She laughed again, “For a very, very long time.”
“Great,” I said putting an arm around her.
“Look on the bright side,” she said quietly.
“Oh, and what’s that?”
“You get to try and make it up to me.”
“Oh boy,” I said sarcastically.
“Good night James.”
“Night,” I paused, “Sarah.”
“Uh huh?.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too, James.”
Chapter 9
I woke to the sound of someone yelling in pain. At first, I was disoriented, having been so violently woken, but after shaking my head, I confirmed my surroundings, Sarah, bed, room, and another yell. I could tell that it was Thomas yelling from the living room. I glanced at my watch and found that it was still very early, only a quarter past five and that I had only been asleep for a few hours. I shook my head again and climbed out of bed, wincing as I gingerly put weight on my injured leg. “Where are you going?” asked Sarah sleepily.
“I need to check on Thomas, sounds like his leg is hurting a little,” I said, my statement underlined by another painful yell, “I’ll be right back.” I limped out to the living room where Thomas spent the night on the couch and saw that he was still lying down but rocking slightly from the pain. “Hey man, how’s the leg?”
“Oh, not too bad,” he said through clenched teeth, his chest heaving to control his pain.
I laughed, “I can get you something to help with the pain, but I can’t knock you out, I need your help to wrap your leg.”
“Sounds great,” he said quickly.
“Alright just give me a sec. Oh, and try to keep it down. I know the Walkers can’t hear you, but I don’t want you waking anymore of the dead.”
“Fuck you,” he said smiling.
“Save it for Christina,” I said before ducking into the hallway as he threw an empty water bottle at me. Back in my room I snagged the med kit from my bag and hobbled back to where Thomas lay. I pulled out a small bottle labeled with the drug name Oxycodone and the name Emily Crown. “Your name may not be Emily, but I think these will work just fine.”
“What?”
I handed him the bottle, “Look at the label.”
He squinted to read the small print. He smiled and popped the bottle open, “Yeah I think they will.” After taking a pill, he handed me back the bottle, and I set it on the coffee table. “So you want to take care of this stupid leg.”
I wiped my eyes, I was still tired, “You think you can sleep a bit more or do you want to do it now? It’s going to hurt a bit and letting the drugs kick in would help, but if you don’t mind the pain, we can do it now.”
“Nah, you look like you’re ready to fall asleep right here. I’ll sleep a bit more, you can go back to Sarah,” he grinned.
“You better watch it. If she hears you talk like that she might break your other leg.”
“Yeah if I’m lucky.”
“Try to keep that leg still.”
“No problem doc,” he said as he closed his eyes.
I went and lay back in my bed. Moving close to Sarah I put my arm around her and smiled as she moved even closer. “How is he?” she asked quietly.
“I gave him some drugs. He’s going to go back to sleep for a bit and then I’ll cast his leg.”
“You can put it in a cast? How?”
“We picked up some materials to do it at the hospital.”
“Oh, ok.”
I drifted off and was able to catch another couple hours of beauty rest before I was, once again, rudely awakened. I felt a something crawling on my face, and I reached up to brush it away. I sniffed and tried to fall back into my deep sleep, but I felt something on my cheek, again and again, I brushed it away. Then I felt it just inside my nostril, and I brought my hand up a little too quick and smacked myself in the face. My small grunt of pain was greeted by Sarah’s laughter. I opened my eyes to see her propped up on one elbow, twirling a long feather between her fingers. She was smiling wide, and I loved the look in her eyes. “Well, that was rude,” I said returning her smile.
“Oh, you poor baby,” she mocked me.
“That isn’t the best way to wake up.”
“Here, let me make it a little bit better,” she gave me a small, quick kiss.
“So I guess you’ve forgiven me.”
“Nope”
“Huh?” I said intelligently.
“You’re going to have to do better than yesterday,” she said giving me another kiss and climbing over me. “Come on, it’s time to get up.”
“Well shit,” I grumbled as I got to my feet and followed Sarah out to the living room.
There were a bunch of people up and moving around, many of them were talking to Thomas. “So is it really broken?” asked Hannah.
“I don’t know, but James seems to think so. Ah, there’s the doctor now,” he said pointing to me.
“Morning everyone. Thomas, how’s the leg.”
“Same as earlier.”
“Hmmm. I wonder why you’re not screaming like a little girl,” I grinned nodding at Christina who was sitting on the edge of the couch.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?” he said looking around.
“Oh come on Thomas, we all heard you,” joked Jason.
“Ha, ha, ha,
” he said dryly.
I laughed along with everyone else and asked, “Seriously now, how is it?”
“It hurts.”
“On a scale of one to ten?”
He frowned before saying, “I don’t know, a six.”
“Alright let me take a look,” I pulled back the blanket that he had used that night and stared down at his leg. The jeans he had been wearing at the time of the break had been cut back to expose the lower leg. I knew one thing right away, he hadn’t broken his leg. His ankle, on the other hand, was a completely different story. It was black and blue and extremely swollen. I carefully grasped his foot and attempted to align his foot and point his toes towards the ceiling.
“Ah fuck!” he yelled, and I quickly let go to not hurt him further. “Are you trying to kill me?” he panted.
“Your leg isn’t broken,” I said happily.
“Well, it fucking feels like it.”
“Nope, your leg is fine. Your ankle is probably fractured in a few places. Without an X-ray, I can’t be sure, but I would guess that you have what’s called a Bimalleolar fracture. That’s when two of the three bones that are your ankle are broken. It’s a pretty common injury with falls. We can throw you in a cast to keep it immobile and let it heal.”
“Great,” he winced, “Let’s do that.”
“Alright, Matt, can you grab me two full rolls of gauze from the medical supplies and three rolls of casting tape.”
“Sure.”
“Liz, could you get me a small bowl of warm water. It doesn’t have to be hot, just warm.”
“Yeah, no problem.”
“Ok, Thomas, I have to correctly align your ankle, which means I have to move your foot and that’s going to hurt.”
“Great,” he said sarcastically.
“Yeah and I’m going to have to hold it there while I wrap. You can take some more meds, but they won’t kick on for a little while.”
“I better take them now.”
I smiled and gave him some pain meds and an anti-inflammatory. We didn’t have any ice so the drugs would have to do. Matt and Liz returned with what I requested, and I had Thomas sit up. I sat on the coffee table and gently propped his leg up on the table between my knees. “I have to wrap it in a layer of gauze before I can put the heavy stuff on. I’m going to move your foot now. You ready?”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 10