The Price of Humanity

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

"What the fuck?" I shout at my two brothers, who are now standing on the top of the pharmacy building. They seem shocked at my sudden outburst, surprised that I'm defending a stranger. He's still innocent.

I look between the unconscious body now lying on the floor in front of me and my two brothers. I guess I should try and see it from their point of view before going off on one at them.

They saw their younger sister in the middle of the street with a stranger, a very dangerous creature in this world, who disarmed their darling sibling and was hovering over her like a hormonal teenage boy.

So, maybe they had a right to shoot. But I am not backing down, there are other factors they needed to take into account before firing off rounds in the city.

"Get down here now." I shout up at them again. They look towards each other very confused about the sudden power shift, but after a few seconds they disappear to the back of the roof.

"Come on big guy." I say to the passed-out stranger, I put my arm under his shoulder and try to drag him up into a sitting position, which I somehow manage to do.

By the time I've got him up and leaning on me, my brothers come rushing out the door of the pharmacy. I stumble under the weight and almost come crashing back down again, but I force myself to stay standing.

Zane immediately comes over to me and takes the other side, taking most of the weight off me. I manage to actually stand up straight, since the pressure has been lifted of my shoulders and we start making our way to the door of the pharmacy.

Gale stands on the pavement near the door, looking both shocked and guilty. I glare at him as Zane and I struggle to move the unconscious bastard into the building.

Why did he have to go and pass out? It makes everything that much harder.

"On the counter." I demand, Zane follows my instructions and lifts the stranger up. God, I wish I knew his name. I push his legs up on top of the counter too so he's lying back on it.

I lift his shoulder, which is not an easy task, and feel around on the back, desperately trying to find an exit wound.

"The bullet's still in his shoulder." I tell Zane, who is already in full doctor mode pulling the supplies he recently scavenged out of his bag and putting them on the counter.

"Are we really going to waste supplies on him?" Gale asks from a few meters away, looking very uncomfortable in the situation. Gale doesn't like strangers, let alone ones that harm his family.

Letting Zane take control of the whole 'bullet in the shoulder' situation I storm over to Gale, taking him by surprise and shoving him in the chest.

"Do you ever think before you act?" I yell at him. He tries to stand his ground but falters and stumbles back a few steps.

"He disarmed you." Says, rather calmly, back to me. Bad excuse.

"He wasn't harming me." My voice is slightly calmer but still full of anger. "Every single corpse for miles would've heard that shot, let alone the people in this city. You know what they'll do to us, to me." He falters at that and hangs his head in shame, but I'm not finished.

"And what about the little girl he's with. The frightened little girl who's on her own in this world without any decent training. She's just heard a gunshot out in the scary city that everyone says to stay away from. She can't survive on her own, you may have just condemned her to death.She's all alone and waiting for him. " I point violently at the stranger, the stranger who's now awake.

And violently screaming.

I run over and hop over the counter to get to the other side, since Zane is intently working on the stranger's right shoulder. Surprising both Zane and myself I rush over and grab the strangers left hand, putting my other hand on his shoulder to try and keep him steady.

"Hey dude." He looks over at me, his face contorted with pain. No...agony. Zane has a pair of tweezers in his hand, and currently has them deep into the stranger's shoulder, digging around slightly.

"Look at me okay? Keep focused on me, Zane's trying to get the bullet out of your shoulder so it can begin to heal but if you start calling out to every corpse and human around he's not going to be able to help you as he'll be fighting off the undead."

That seems to shut him up, but he still whimpers. He clenches his hand in mine and I stoke my thumb along his hand, even though I think he's breaking every bone in my hand.

"Almost there." Zane mumbles, struggling to get a grasp on the bullet. I press my left hand further down onto his shoulder to stop him moving but he still keeps shifting under my touch.

I look up at Gale and raise my eyebrows at him, mentally begging my brother to do something actually useful in this moment in time.

He sighs loudly, closing his eyes, but comes over to the counter and places his hands on the stranger's shoulders. The force of both Gale and me holding him stops his movements, but his hand doesn't relive mine of the pain.

"Zane?" I ask, looking up at my brother who has sweat on his forehead and is looking very angrily at the bullet hole.

"Almost...got...it..." He practically growls, I refrain from asking anymore questions since I think he might just snap from the pressure on him.

Zane pulls back his hand and the tweezers pull away from the stranger's shoulder. His hand tightens around mine before pulling away completely. I glance at the tweezers which hold a small metal object on the end of them.

"Tada." Zane sings before chucking the tweezers on the counter along with the bullet.