I woke the next morning to find myself in considerable discomfort. My muscles were killing me, and I didn’t feel like moving right away, but after some encouragement from a happy Sarah I got stiffly to my feet and started the day. The first thing I wanted to do was to check on the dog. It had been inside the laundry room for the whole night, and I hoped that it hadn’t destroyed anything or made a mess. I walked over to the door and placed my hand on the knob. I was about to turn it when caution struck me, and I pulled out my knife. Michelle wasn’t around, and the dog had previously been wary of me. I eased the door open and the early morning light fell upon the prone form of the large dog. His eyes were locked on me, and his ears were perked, but he showed no signs of aggression. “Bear?” I said quietly. His ears focused on me and I smiled, “Come here, boy.” Bear climbed to his feet and padded gently over to me. I sheathed my knife and put a hand on his broad head as he sat down. “You’re not so tough, are you? Come on boy,” I said opening the garage door and letting him run out into the cold morning air. He made a beeline for a tree, and I raised my arms high to stretch and let out a big yawn. I whistled for Bear when he was done, and he came running over to me. “So we know you know your name and to come when whistled for,” I said out loud, “What else do you know? Sit.” He sat. “Lay down,” I said point to the ground. He followed my command. “Roll over.” He didn’t move a muscle, just looked at expectantly. “Ok, so you don’t know that one. Uh, how about…Stay,” I said putting up a hand in a halting motion and backed away. Bear stayed exactly where he was until I said, “Come,” and he sprinted to me. “Good boy,” I said rubbing his head. I walked into the garage, Bear following me, and found an old baseball. Back outside I chucked the ball onto the front lawn. Before the ball even left my hand Bear was flying. He grabbed the ball with a growl and ran back to me, depositing the drool covered ball into my hand. “Yuck,” said wiping my hand on my jeans, “I guess you fetch too.” I threw the ball again, and I was rewarded with an even more drenched ball. I threw the ball a couple more times before putting the ball away and heading inside with Bear in toe.
People were up and starting their days but paused as the big dog caught their attention, “Is he ok to be out?” asked a nervous Hannah.
“Oh yeah, he’s fine. It looks like Bear here came with all the upgrades. He’s very well trained,” I said rubbing his head again. “In fact, is Michelle awake yet?”
Liz shook her head, “Not yet. I was just about to wake her, though.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll do it,” I grinned.
“James, what are you going to do?”
“Me? Nothing at all,” I said still grinning and leading Bear towards the girl’s room
I passed the last person I wanted to see that morning, Jasmine. When she saw me, she cast her eyes to the ground but not before they widened at the sight of Bear next to me. I could see that her neck was lightly bruised from where I had grabbed her, and I felt mixed emotions at the sight of the product of my aggression. I was disappointed in myself for doing that to someone, especially a woman, but at the same time, I felt a sense of satisfaction at getting my point across. I knocked gently on the door and found only Christina and a sleeping Michelle. “James! What are you doing and why do you have that dog?” she questioned frantically.
I put a finger to my lips before grinning and saying, “Just watch.”
I led Bear over to where Michelle was sleeping, having some difficulty because he instantly became excited after seeing her. I eased up on my restraint and Bear let out a bark before bounding around the room and attacking Michelle’s sleeping form. She woke quickly, startled by the bark but then laughing as Bear began licking her face.
“Bear lie down,” I commanded, and he settled down to lay next to Michelle.
“He listened,” she said excitedly.
“Yep. He knows lots of things,” I smiled.
“You were right,” she said wrinkling her nose, “he does need a bath.”
I laughed, “Well then that can be your job for the day. You can wash him, dry him and brush him. He’s your responsibility now, ok?”
“Ok.”
“Good. You might want to get dressed and get him some food and water, he looks hungry.”
“Ok,” she said getting to her feet. I left her so she could get dressed and had Bear come with me. I liked the dog, and I believed that he was probably ok, but I still didn’t feel comfortable leaving such a strong animal alone with little Michelle. I was showing everyone what Bear could do when Michelle appeared and watched along with everyone else. “Now come,” I ordered, and Bear walked over to me, “Good boy,” I said.
“What else do you think he can do?” asked Matt.
“I don’t know. He doesn’t roll over,” I replied, “Hmmm I wonder. Michelle, do you think you could get me a piece of beef jerky from the pantry?”
“Sure,” she said before doing what I asked.
“What are you going to try?” asked Sarah.
“Something I could never get my dogs to do,” I said as Michelle handed me the food. I broke off a small strip and fed it to Bear. Then I had him sit, and I balanced another small piece on his short nose. “Ah,” I cautioned as he started to move his head. “Stay.” He calmed and waited until I commanded, “Ok,” and he let the jerky fall into his mouth. I laughed.
“That’s actually pretty cool,” said Justin.
“Yeah, I could never get my dogs to be calm enough. Good boy Bear. Ok, Michelle, he’s all yours.”
“Come on Bear,” she said in her small voice. Bear couldn’t have been happier to follow her command.
“We're going to need to get some dog food, he can’t just eat our canned food,” I said.
“That means a trip to Safeway,” said Carrie.
“Yeah. I hope that the rain didn’t do too much damage. Those doors were still open when we left.”
“Why didn’t we close them, it would have been smart,” said Sarah.
“Well if you remember we were a little busy. I wasn’t exactly thinking about the doors,” I said calmly.
She paled and then reddened at the memory of that day. “Sorry,” she said quietly.
“It’s fine.”
“What happened?” interjected Jasmine.
I glanced at her quickly before deciding to ignore her. “Ok guys, let’s get to work. I want to see if we can finish the storage today.” We ate breakfast and headed outside to try and complete our biggest project since first putting up the fence. We took an impromptu break when a soapy Bear bolted past us followed by a drenched Michelle and Liz. Michelle looked like she was having fun, but Liz looked like she was ready to kill not only Bear but anyone who dared to laugh at the scene, which was pretty much everyone. It seemed that while Bear was perfectly content to obey commands, he was less than enthusiastic to be bathed. By the time they were able to wrangle him in he was far dirtier than before they’d began. They hauled a panting Bear to the front to finish his bath, or rather start a new one. The day was spent working on the storage and sweating. With plenty of effort and groaning, we were able to almost finish the entire project. The digging was done, support beams were in place, and the entire thing felt pretty stable. All we had to do next was decide whether to install shelves or just carve them into the walls and add a door.
By the end of the day, we were tired and our bodies hurt but we could proudly look on at what we had completed. “You know,” said Matt, “This has to be the best thing I’ve ever built.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Well, except maybe that time we built a trebuchet in woodshop.” Their heads turned to look at me “What? It was fucking awesome.”
“Ok so that does sound awesome,” agreed Michael, “I never got to do that.”
“Whatever guys, this is still cool,” said Jason.
It was a little after five by the time we all got inside and cleaned up, and I was ready for a nap. I was sitting in my chair when Thomas limped by, heading towards the guy’s room. “Hey
man, how you are you doing?”
“Not bad. You?”
I thought back to last night and shrugged, “Can’t complain. How’s the ankle?”
“Not that bad. Doesn’t really hurt that much.”
“Really? You still taking the pain meds?”
“Not for a few days now.”
“Hmmm,” I mused, “Think I can take a look at it?”
“Yeah sure,” he said sitting on the couch and putting his foot up on the coffee table.
I leaned forward, and the first thing I noticed was the smell, “Aw man that thing reeks.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Well, I can’t really tell much with the cast still on.”
“So…?”
“So the good news is that we can take that off and check how it's doing. If we need to put a new one on then, we can, and that means you can wash that.”
“Awesome.”
“Yeah just be careful, there’ll probably be some swelling, and it’ll be sore.”
“Ok, when can we take it off?”
“Now if you want.”
“Great, let’s do it.”
“Alright, I’ll get everything to remove the cast and put a new one on if you want to get the stuff to clean your leg. You’re not going to want to walk on it right away, even if it is healed.”
“Sure,” he said getting up to get what he needed.
I headed to the laundry room where we kept our ample medical supplies. After digging around for a few minutes, I was able to find a pair of casting shears that I had grabbed at the hospital as well as some more casting tape and gauze. Thomas was waiting for me along with Christina. “Ready?” I asked after lining everything up.
“Hell yeah,” he said enthusiastically.
“Ok, this shouldn’t hurt a bit,” I said slipping the blade of the shears under the edge of the cast. I began cutting a line down the side of his leg towards his heel. When I reached the foot, I started a new cut that came up from his foot to join the first cut. I then repeated the process on the other side of his leg and removed the shell. The skin beneath was very pale, and you could see the layers of dead skin that had accumulated. Even with some minor swelling, you could see that his muscle had deteriorated considerably from disuse.
“Wow that’s so much better,” groaned Thomas once the cast was all the way off.
“Be careful and remember to support the ankle.”
“Ok,” said Christina as she dipped a washcloth into some warm, soapy water, “This is really gross.”
“I’m sorry,” Thomas blushed a little, “Thanks for doing this, though.”
“No problem babe,” she said as she did her best to breathe through her mouth.
“I’ll be back when you two are done,” I said as I got up. By the looks of the ankle, he might have to have it cast again. I went to my room to give them a little privacy and to close my eyes for just a second. Turns out it was more than just a second, more like forty-five minutes. When I got up, my body ached, but I knew I had to check out Thomas’ ankle. Thomas and Christina were still sitting on the couch, all signs of the cast were gone, and his leg was clean. I yawned “How’s it feel?” I asked cracking my neck.
“Feels great to be out of the cast.”
“Don’t celebrate too soon. You might have to get it back on.”
“Yeah I know,” he said disappointedly.
“Let’s take a look,” I said sitting down and gently picking up his ankle. I slowly put his ankle through a series of stretches and positions, noting when he would cry out in pain and, more importantly, when he didn’t. “Well,” I said as I put his leg back down on the coffee table, “I don’t think you need another cast, at least not the same kind anyways. You have two options. I can put another cast on using the casting tape, or you can use an air cast instead. The drawback of the air cast is that you can’t put much weight on it, which means less walking.”
“I’ll take the air cast.”
“You sure?” asked Christina.
“Oh yeah. I was going crazy with that thing on.”
“Ok, I’ll get the cast for you and show you how to put it on and take it off, it’s not that hard,” I grabbed the green and white cast from a cupboard in the laundry room and inflated the padding. I showed both of them how to put it on before strapping it around his ankle. “I’ll see if we can get you something to use as crutches.”
“Thanks, James.”
“No problem man,” I looked at my watch, it was a quarter after six and I was starting to get hungry again. Instead of waiting for everyone to start making dinner I just heated up some canned stew and grabbed a little bread. I ate quickly and decided to call it an early night. “Alright, guys I’m headed to bed. If Sarah asks, that’s where I am.”
“She’s got guard duty right now, so I don’t think she’ll miss you for a bit,” Matt smiled.
“Oh yeah, completely forgot about that. Alright, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“Night, man,” muttered Michael as I passed.
“Night little brother,” I closed my door and crawled into bed, groaning as I was finally able to take some serious pressure off of my muscles. I sank deep into the mattress and fell into an easy sleep. I was soon glad that I had taken those forty-five minutes to rest because if I hadn’t, I might have had another experience like last night.
I woke to a weight on my chest, first thinking that it was Sarah climbing into bed I ignored it. But when the weight refused to leave my chest and I caught the whiff of strawberries I threw the person on me off and halfway across the room. Jasmine squeaked as she flew and landed hard on the floor. I was up and across the room in mere seconds, flashlight in my hands and the light shining in her face. She was wearing nothing more than an oversized shirt, her bare legs poking out from the bottom. She was attractive, something I notice the first time I saw her when she wasn’t on the verge of death. If I had been single and if I hadn’t known who she kept company with I would have been attracted to her. I hauled her up by her arm and pinned her against the wall “James, I didn’t know you liked it rough,” she said trying to sound seductive, but her voice was laced with fear
“Shut up,” I said darkly, “I guess I didn’t make myself clear last night.”
“You’re just playing hard to get,” she said squinting her eyes as I shined the light into her face.
“No. I told you to stay the fuck away from me. If I catch you near me like this again, then I’ll do worse than scare you. Do you get me?”
“I…”
“I said,” I spat, “Do you get me?”
“Yeah,” she ripped her arm out of my grasp, “I get you.”
“Good. Now, get out of my sight” I growled.
She left without a word, and I sat on the edge of the bed. “Oh my God,” I said as I ran a hand through my hair, “What the fuck is going on?”
I sat there for what seemed like an eternity before I was broken out of my daze by the door opening. I looked up, fearing that I would have to take drastic measures if it was Jasmine again, I sighed in relief when I saw that it was Sarah “Hey, what are you still doing up?” she asked concerned.
I shook my head, “No reason.”
She could tell I was lying, “James, what’s wrong?
I was tired physically and emotionally, she looked tired, so I decided to let it go for now “Let’s talk about it tomorrow, ok?”
She frowned, “Talk about what?”
I got up and walked over to her, “Tomorrow beautiful. I promise.”
“Are you ok?”
I smiled, “I’m fine, come on let’s go to sleep.”
The frown didn’t leave her face, but it was softened when I wrapped my arms around her “Ok,” she said into my shoulder.
I locked the door, and we climbed into bed. I wrapped my arms around her, trying to be as close to her as I could. I breathed in her minty smell and smiled. She was all I wanted, all I needed, and I wouldn’t let anyone take her away from me. We fe
ll into a deep sleep, forgetting all about Jasmine and the threat she could mean. I had woken a few times in the night to find Sarah across the bed, tangled up in the sheet, but we woke the same way we fell asleep, in each other’s arms. “Good morning beautiful,” I said kissing her on the forehead.
“Morning,” she smiled.
“Come on, let’s get up.”
“Do we have to?”
I grinned, “Do you know we do this too often?”
“Do what?”
“Staying in bed way too long,” I grinned.
“So,” she returned my grin.
She was so damn perfect, “How did I get so lucky?”
“I don’t know, but I’m glad you are. I don’t think we would have made it so far without your luck.”
“I’m sure you would have been just fine.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” she said getting out of bed.
I laughed and followed her out of bed. After changing and eating breakfast, we started work on the fence again. My muscles hurt and I was dead tired, but I knew that it was important for us to get it down as soon as possible. My lax in security had gotten to me, what with the possibility of a separate strain of the virus causing the Walkers to stay mobile. I wanted the fence to stand up to whatever the World could throw at it, and in reality, it wouldn’t compare to the Great Wall, I wanted it to seem that way. The morning passed quickly, and before I knew it, we were eating lunch in the kitchen. Jasmine was there, flirting with Michael again. I almost lost it at the way she was acting. First, she flirts with him, then she tried to jump me twice and then she’s back to being all over him like nothing happened. I decided that I had to do something before Michael made the wrong choice. “Hey,” I caught his attention after lunch, “We need to talk.”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 26