Undead Rises

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɴɪɴᴇᴛᴇᴇɴ

ᴢᴏᴇʏ ʙᴜᴄᴋɪɴɢʜᴀᴍ

After saying goodbye to Tobias; Joseph, Jasper and I walked towards the hospital wing of the base. We were lost at first, but some friendly soldiers escorted us. We were placed in a room that looked a lot like a conference room and we were told to wait. Joseph already made himself feel like home by sitting down in one of the chairs and closing his eyes with a sigh, none of us were used to waking up so early and thrown into work.

"I wander what the others are doing right now." Jasper muttered as he stood in front of a painting with his arms crossed over his chest. I heard a low chuckle come from the other end of the room. A woman was standing in the doorway.

She had electric blue hair that immediately caught my eyes. She has a strong but gentle facial structure and she carried herself well. She wore her lab coat with pride, and her wide smile was inviting. "Believe me, you do not want to be them right now. Basic training is literally the worst. Hi, I'm Doctor Willow." she told us before walking up to each one of us and shaking our hand.

"They placed you with me. I'll give you a tour, give you each a task and key card. Researchers usually stay until late, and nurses have rotations. Just stick with me, ask me questions and you will be fine. Alright, let's go." Doctor Willow had a slight Australian accent; it was hardly noticeable. We followed her out of the conference room and into one of the many white hallways.

She gave us a tour of the research labs, as well as the different sections for the hospital wing. We were walking through injured soldiers when I noticed a door at the end of the hallway. There were black bold letters written on the frosted glass; restricted level 10 access. 

It was almost as if Willow knew I was staring at the door because without turning back, she answered a question I was about to ask. "I know you are probably wondering why there is a restricted section. There are high levels of radiation throughout the compound due to machinery and the poor souls in there, have been exposed. We keep them in a very clean, non-contaminated area."

"Any other questions?" she asked, none of us said a thing so we just continued to walk away from the suspicious door. Even if they didn't want to contaminate the area, why would someone need to be level ten just to get inside another hospital section. I shook the paranoia from my mind, I didn't know the first thing about medicine, and I had no idea if what they were doing was wrong.

Willow walked towards a nursing station and turned to Jasper and me. "This is your stop. Lilly will be here soon, and she will go through rounds with you, rotations, do's and don'ts. You will get a lunch period and we'll let you guys sign off early today. Goodluck." she sent us thumbs up before walking away, Joseph didn't follow her straight away.

"I'll see you kids later." he bid goodbyes and started to walk away but before he was completely out of view, he turned around and sent us a sarcastic thumbs up, clearly mocking Willow. Jasper and I couldn't help but release the soft chuckles that bubbled up from our chests.

"I don't know why they put me in the hospital wing. You know way more than me." I sighed turning to Jasper, I leaned against the wall and felt the light urge to make the white wall dirty, but I pushed it away. "Sure, I was training to be a paramedic, but Cora probably went around telling everyone how caring you are. Guess you're stuck with me, kid." he teased while messing my hair up. I slapped his hand away, while fixing my hair I questioned, "You do know I'm older than you, right?"

"Not in the medical field, I'm the wiser and more educated one here." Jasper built his ego up and all I wanted to do was knock it back down. "Well, this is definitely a new side to you, never would've thought you'd be big headed."

"I'm kidding, I get like this when I'm nervous. I haven't exactly been practicing my skills, I'm not sure if I can do a good job."

"You will do a great job."

The woman named Lily had found us and had done exactly what Willow explained. Lily was the head nurse and explained to us all of the rules, what days and hours we would be working, what was expected of us, rounds and rotations. She showed us the basics of changing dressing, and IV's, and exchanging bed pans. Jasper already knew how everything worked but I did find it extremely interesting. Lily had also given us a bit of a learning textbook on the basics of being a nurse. 

Jasper and I were at each other's side the entire day, helping each other back and keeping watch when one of us had to put our feet up for a second. We were errand runners for doctors, and we practically walked the entire day.

When Lily said it was time for us to go, we were relieved. I wasn't even hungry, just tired. We walked towards the cafeteria in hopes to find the others and explain the day we had.

The table we had sat at this morning, was currently occupied by our friend in green. Tobias was the only one at the table, and I wasn't sure where everyone else was. I wanted to surprise him, but his gaze was already on me, as well as the small smile tugging on his lips. I sat down beside him before he grabbed my waist and pulled me in for a kiss.

"You know I love you, but babe, you smell." I laughed as I pulled away, he chuckled. Willow was not wrong when she said we did not want to be them. "It was a really hard day, give me a break." he kissed my cheek before leaning on the table and turning to Jasper. "How was your guys' day?" he asked, looking back at me. 

"A lot of walking but it was okay compared to what you look like. We just did all of the doctors bidding." Jasper sighed before placing his head on his arms that were crossed on the table. "Where are the others?" I questioned while looking around, none of them were in the line to get food either. 

"Cora went to talk to Aria, Ben is taking a nap, I don't know where Joseph is, and Kai is doing what he does best."

"Being a over hyperactive child?"

"Yes, he is distracting Aria's dad so that Cora can speak to her. He is not the most accepting, and Cora really needed to talk to her without getting any of us in trouble." he explained while releasing a yawn. I was drained and it was clear he was too. "Do you want to go to bed?" he gave me a firm nod before I finished my sentence. Jasper said that he would stay up a bit longer to make sure Kai didn't get us kicked out.

Tobias and I walked towards the common room, getting the things we needed from our bunks. We found fresh clothes and body wash. Tobias went to shower first before I did. Once we were clean, we got into the single bottom bunk together. Both of us almost falling off of the sides but completely comfortable being in each other's arms.

"Zoe?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you marry me?"