I n f i n i t u m

Chapter Twenty Eight

I woke up more groggy and confused than ever. My body had been laying on the concrete floor with what I assumed to be a balled up jacket propped underneath the back of my head. My chest hurt like hell, more so when I tried to sit up, and once I did, I was able to survey my surroundings. My squad were all around me, just quietly going about whatever they had been doing previously. No one seemed to notice that I was awake.

I touched my bandaged chest, hissing from the pain that seemed to radiate from there. My entire body was so hot that my clothes stuck to my skin and a headache practically rendered me incapacitated. I wanted to groan aloud to express my misery, but my stubbornness won over. My mind wandered for a bit in the meantime.

"Well sleeping beauty, if you're not going to rest anymore, I'm going to take it that you've recovered enough for us to move on with our lives and get back to the base."

There was absolutely nobody else who would talk with that tone of voice, that level of rudeness, and that much sarcasm...nobody else other than the Sergeant Major himself. Appalled, I turned to confirm that it was just my ears playing tricks on me, and saw that Lefevere was perched atop a wooden box out of my peripherals.

"What are you doing here?!" I exclaimed.

His handsome face pinched up in irritation, "Lower it down! You're going to draw them back to the door!"

I cocked my chin as my ears picked up on the shuffling a few levels up. We must still be in the house. Wren came over to crouch down next to me and placed a hand against my cheek, I suppose to check my temperature, "Sergeant Major came as soon as we radioed in to base. We've been waiting for those weird zeds to clear out for the past two hours. How do you feel?"

"Just peachy," I groaned.

He sighed with a sad smile and leaned down to plant his lips onto the crown of my head, "Would you stop getting hurt without me around? Or actually, would you stop getting hurt, period? We're lucky the bullet passed cleanly through."

"It's not like I jumped in its path, Wren, but thanks, I'll take that into account."

Wren only sighed while Lefevere rolled his eyes. I stole a glance at the Sergeant Major, wondering why'd he'd seemed to have dropped everything to hightail it out of Aegis to help us. I winced as I went to stand up and somebody quickly rushed to my side. It was Sidney, and she was covered in blood. My blood. "Fang, I don't even know what to say," she breathed, "I am so sorry."

I huffed, "No worries, a little gunshot wound won't do me in. Anyways, what time is it now?"

"3:30 in the morning," Wren answered.

"The sun will be rising soon. There already beginning to leave," Lefevere crossed his arms, "we need to head out now while we still can."

Well he wasn't wrong. I could also hear that the zeds upstairs were retreating, but who's to say a few smart ones wouldn't stay for shelter? We'd run right into them on our way out and I sure as hell wouldn't put up much of a fight in the state that I was in...but then again, we now had Lefevere with us, who was more than capable of taking care of a few zed-hybrids. As irritated as I was, I looked at Lefevere and gave him a slight nod to indicate that I was agreeing with him. The closer we get to moving, the faster we can get back to Aegis Stronghold.

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The crew moved up the staircase leading out of the basement, Lefevere up front and Wren bringing up the rear. It was quiet for the most part; we were careful and silent enough to avoid capturing the intention of anything with the desire for human flesh.