You Can't Survive Alone

Part 12

A few hours later
It's dinner time, and I'm going to get food at the kitchen. I get up and slowly walk to the kitchen. My feet hurt because of the burns on them, but I don't stop walking.
I walk inside and am surprised that the only person inside is Kat, sitting with her AK-47 propped against the table leg.
"Hey," she says. "I have something to ask you."
"Okay. What is it?"
"Well... I wanted to ask your opinion on something. I need your honest opinion, okay? I don't know how to put this..."
"Just say it. I promise I won't be offended or anything."
"Do you like Zack?"
"He's my best friend, but I don't like him in a romantic way."
"Do you mind if I like Zack?"
"As long as he is happy, I'm fine with it."
These answers seem to satisfy her. "Thank you. I've been worried that you would see me as a bad person, or talk about me to Zack badly."
"I would never do that. And Kat, you're not a bad person. Actually, you might just be the best person for him."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
We sat and ate for awhile, until Jess runs in. "Nick's woken up, and he asked to see you, Ash."
"Okay."
"See you later, Ash," Kat says to me as I walk out the door with Jess.
"Bye." I'm excited to see Nick again. I know he's probably hurt and wants to see how I am, but I'm still extremely excited to see him.
About 20 feet down the hallway from Nick's room, Jess stops me. "Be nice to him, okay? He's been through a lot lately, and..." Her sentence trails off.
I think for a second. "Jess... Do you like Nick?"
She blushes furiously and mumbles something that resembles a, "yeah kinda".
"Ok. Thanks for being honest, at least."
"Just don't tell him, okay? I don't want him to be weirded out by me."
"Good luck with Nick. He's a really great guy."
We walk down the rest of the hallway in silence. When we reach the door, Jess steps back. I open the door and walk inside.
Nick sits up in his bed. His face is red from the burns, his hands and arms bandaged heavily. "Hey," I say, and sit on the corner of his bed. Unlike my room, his room doesn't have a chair.
"Hey," he says. He looks at my face, but I can tell he isn't looking at me. He's looking at the burns. "Are you okay? Were you burned badly?"
"I'm okay. The burns look worse than they are; they don't hurt that badly." This is a lie. They do hurt, a lot. But I don't want to tell him that.
"I think I know what caused the fire."
"Do tell."
"I had to use a flashlight because the lights were out. It kept flickering on and off, remember? A spark inside the flashlight must've ignited the gasoline vapor in the air." He looks at my face again, but this time he is looking at me. "I've been thinking about this a lot. The fire was my fault; I should've used a different flashlight, have actually thought. But instead, I had to make more work for poor Jess." He smiles when he says her name.
"There's no way that that was your fault! Anyone would've made the same mistake. Me, Aaron, Zack, Kat, Jess- we would've made that same mistake."
"Yes, but I was the one who actually made it. It is my fault," he says. He smiles again, but sadly this time. "I'm sure you all hate me now."
"No, Nick, we don't. I don't blame you; I don't think anybody does." I'm using the same words Aaron told me today.
He bites his lip. "D-d'you think Jess hates me?"
"Jess doesn't hate you, don't worry." I think about telling him what she told me, but I decide against it. I won't break my promise to her.
"Thank you," he says.
"You're welcome, Nick," I say, and cover his bandaged hand with mine. Not a romantic move; a show of trust, of friendship.

A few weeks later
"You ready to head out?" I look up at Aaron. We're going on a scavenging run, to see what med supplies we can get.
We're low on med supplies. This isn't good because practically everyone in the group has a talent for getting injured in some way.
Nick and I have mostly recovered from our burns. He can walk around now, and has taken his bandages off. Nick even repaired the generator; this time without the help of a broken flashlight.
"Yeah, let's go," I say. My sword is strapped to my back, and Aaron's knife is at his side. Aaron's not much of a fighter-the knife is just for show- so I need to have my sword easily drawn at all times.
We both have large backpacks on, but they are completely empty. We need as much space as we can have to get stuff.
We're going to the hospital Ethan abandoned as he fled the city. The others think this is a bad idea, but it is the closest place where we can get serious medical supplies.
Aaron holds the door for me as we walk outside.

About an hour of small talk later
"There. That's it," I say as I point to the building.
"Cool. You ready?"
"Yeah."
As we walk inside, I immediately notice everything is covered in dust. The reception counters, the chairs; all covered in dust.
There's also a piece of paper folded on one of the counters. It almost looks like...
"A note," Aaron says. There's no dust on it; it's fresh. I go to the counter, pick it up, and start to read it out loud.
"Dear Group,
So you've discovered my plans. Well, you haven't stopped me. I'm still growing in power, and you won't be able to stop me. Even as you read this note, I am winning. I will probably see you again soon.
Ethan"
"The note was fresh. He's been here recently," Aaron says.
"What if he's here right now...?"
We both go silent and turn around. Ethan stands behind us, unarmed. He's alone.
I'm completely surprised. I did not expect him to actually be here.
Aaron jumps, and tackles him to the ground. Ethan hits his head and passes out. Aaron gets up, and says, "Well, that was unexpected."
"Yeah. Definitely."
"What do we do with him?" He nudges Ethan with the toe of his boot.
"I don't know. Tie him up, I guess? We can't kill him. It would be... Wrong." My moral compass is weird.
"Maybe we should take him back to our base." I look at him like he's insane. "What? That's what they always do in the movies!"
"Guess it's as good an idea as any."
We come up with the idea of using a stretcher to roll him back instead of carrying him. That would be even weirder.
We tie him to the stretcher and are about to set off when I realize we didn't even get any supplies.
"I'll go grab some stuff. You stay here and... Watch him, I guess. If he wakes up, hit him over the head until he falls back asleep," I say. Apparently hitting someone over the head repeatedly is okay with me, but killing them when they're helpless is not.
"Okay. I'll see you later."
Ethan and his cronies had this place pretty well cleared out, zombie wise. There aren't any as I walk through the hallways to the ICU section.
"Looks like they haven't looted here yet," I say under my breath. There's stuff everywhere. Cabinet doors are opened, papers strewn over the floors. The only light in the room comes from a few small windows along the side wall.
I go to a cabinet and start shoving stuff in my bag. I grab a splint, some syringes, lots of wadded bandages, and needles and thread. I then decide to stop by the pharmaceutical section to see what medicine I can get.
My backpack is full when I'm done. It's pretty heavy, but I can carry it. When I walk back into the reception area, Aaron stands up.
"How's sleeping beauty?" I ask, meaning Ethan.
"Still hasn't woken up. I'm not kissing him to find out if he will, though." Through his joking tone I can hear tiredness in his voice. "You ready to head out?"
"Let's go."
We take turns rolling Ethan's gurney down the street. We simply let go of it when we're going down a hill and let it roll itself.
When we get back to the base, I hold the door while Aaron rolls the gurney inside. "I'll head upstairs and get the others. Can you stay here and watch him?" Aaron asks.
"Okay. Just get Nick; we don't want anyone to act irrationally, and the best way to minimize that would be to have less people." He nods his head at my logic and goes up the stairs.
I set my backpack down and sit with my back to the wall. The apocalypse has made me paranoid about leaving my back to an open room.
Aaron and Nick come down the stairs a few minutes later. I don't feel like being here, so I go upstairs. It's dark outside already, and it's been a long day. I lay down in my bed and head off toward sleep.