All The Good Things

Chapter 8 - "Where's Zach?"

The process of cleaning off Ash's hands moved slowly as the medic tried to define what was dirt and sap and what was torn skin and Ash kept pulling her hands away when the pain became too much.

After a few minutes, the medic decided it would be more worthwhile to wait for the painkillers to hit Ash's system before attempting to clean her hands. He hooked Ash to an IV and gave her a protein bar.

By the time she was done with the protein bar, she could feel the relaxed bliss of the painkillers kicking in and she willingly offered the medic her hands.

At some point, she nodded off and when she woke up she found her hands covered in neat, white bandages. She sat up and saw the scene around the cabin had calmed down. Most of the emergency vehicles were gone and there were only a few small groups of people milling about the cabin and the black cars. She looked around for the two medics who had taken care of her but found Agent Lawson instead.

"Ms.," Agent Lawson addressed her with a slight nod. "We need to ask you a few questions about what happened. Do you think you can walk to the cabin?"

Ash took a quick assessment of her body and thanks to the painkillers she didn't feel much. She nodded and swung her feet over the side of the stretcher.

"Go slow," one of the medics warned her, climbing down from the back of the ambulance.

He took her arm and supported her as she stood and didn't let go until he was certain she was steady on her feet.

"I think I got it," she told the medic after taking a few steps on her own. "Thanks," she said before she motioned for Agent Lawson to lead the way.

Agent Lawson led her towards the cabin and Ash followed until they were a few feet from the front door. She looked up and stopped when she saw the front deck. Her eyes jumped to where the lifeless body of the man had been earlier.

"Umm," she stuttered, taking a few steps backward, looking anywhere but at the deck. "Can we use the back door?"

Agent Lawson looked at her questioningly for a moment before he nodded and led her around to the back of the house. They went through the back door Zach and she had escaped through. Once inside Ash tried her best to not focus on anything other than Agent Lawson's back. She didn't need any more memories of this place.

Agent Lawson led her to a room she hadn't seen before. There was a table and two chairs sitting across from each other and sitting in one of the chairs was the woman who had hugged Zach.

Ash went from trying to not see anything to only seeing the woman. Ash had learned how to cope with hard situations by finding a target to point her laser focus on and this woman was her target. Not only did she provide a buffer between Ash and everything that had happened in this cabin, but this woman knew Zach.

"Thank you, Lawson," the woman said. "Ms. Wright, please have a seat."

Agent Lawson shut the door as he left the room.

Ash remained frozen in her spot as she tried to figure out which tactic would gain her the most information from this woman. She looked at the woman and could see the woman looking back at her with sympathy and kind understanding. This woman expected Ash to be scared and overwhelmed and Ash thought she could use that assumption to her advantage.

"...just a few questions we wanted to ask you, if you can sit." Ash caught the end of what the woman had been saying and realized she had zoned out for a moment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said. I don't even know what's really going on," Ash rushed to say as she took the seat across from the agent. "It's just been..."