You Can't Survive Alone

Part 6

Back to Reality

"Cool story," I say. "What's with the AK-47 though?" It really is a very interesting story; I feel bad for Zack having to live through that.

"That's Kat's. I don't even know how she knows how to fire it." He frowns, thinking. "Do you think Kat would be awake yet?"

"She might be. Why?"

"Do you want to go meet her? She's a very, ah, let's say interesting person."

"Sure, let's go."

10 minutes later

We find Kat in one of the third floor bedrooms; right across the hall from Zack's room. Zack knocks quietly on the door, and pulls it open.

"Zack! I would hug you, but I can't really get up," Kat says. Kat has long brown hair and green-gray-blue eyes. "Who is this? Is this that girl we were looking for, Ash?"

"Yeah, it is," he says to her, then quietly turns to me and says, "I thought she would need to know that you were a girl, to easier identify you."

Zack looks kind of worried that I would be mad at him about this, so I put him at ease by saying, "I would have done the same in your place." I then turn to Kat and say, "nice to meet you. Thanks for keeping Zack alive while we were trying to find each other." This wasn't precisely true, as I hadn't been able to go anywhere to look for Zack until about a week ago. But during my times on patrol, I looked for him.

She laughs and says, "No problem. It wasn't that difficult; he's a pretty easy guy to work with." She tries to stand up, but her leg buckles beneath her weight. Zack rushes over to help her back into the bed, and she winces. "Staying in bed is difficult. I need to be doing something, need to have something to keep me busy."

Zack opens the top of my bag and grabs out a small black book and some pencils that I had never seen before. "I went back to the base and grabbed this, to give you something to do."

She opens it, revealing page after page of sketches. They're really good sketches, too.

"Thanks, Zack. I was going to ask you to bring it, but you already did!"

Zack and Kat seem to know each other well. Like, really well. I don't think it's in a best-friends way though, so I don't have to worry about it. Only that she doesn't break his heart.

Kat starts sketching something, and Zack motions that we should probably leave now. Before we go though, I ask, "Are you hungry? Is there anything that you need?"

She looks up, slightly startled, and says, "I'm good, thank you. Actually, maybe could you bring me some water? I haven't had much to drink..."

"Sure, I'll bring you some in a minute."

It couldn't hurt to be on good terms with my best friend's new crush.

I walk out into the hallway, following Zack, and head to the kitchen. Zack splits off and heads to his bedroom, and I bring a water bottle back to Kat.

I take the opportunity to ask her, "What's going on between you and Zack? Not in a hostile way or anything, I'm honestly just curious."

"Nothing much really. You're really lucky to have a guy like him."

"We're not dating, only friends. If you have the capability to make him happy in that way, go right ahead." From what I'd seen, she was a pretty nice girl, and she seemed to make Zack happy. Zack had had girlfriends when we were in high school, had dated on and off. They never really seemed to stick though. I was always happy for him when he had one.