Perhaps We'll Meet Another Day

Familiar Faces

"Well," Law started, inspecting Penguin's bullet wound carefully and with a slight grimace, "it's at least still healing properly, but I'd still be worried about infection if nothing else. We don't exactly live in the most sterile environment nowadays."

"Another infection? Dammit, that shit hurts." The hatted man complained, pulling by his arm and rolling down his sleeve when Law released the limb. He returned to his place beside Shachi.

The group was seated beside a small stream about 300 feet from the highway. At night, Law preferred the cover of the trees, in case the weather turned bad or if somehow another group of survivors came traveling by at night, but felt uncomfortable without the sign of an open and readily-available exit route in sight. Plus, sticking close to the road meant they wouldn't get lost or confused as to where they were heading.

"We've just been lucky to have enough antibiotics up to this point." Lexi commented, rummaging through her bag to take inventory. She'd done the exact same thing that morning but, given that we wanted to be sure nothing had fallen out or inexplicably been stolen, she did it again just in case. She grabbed the tube of antibiotic ointment, wincing at just how little there was left. "This only has a few applications left in it. We'll need to try to find some more as soon as possible. That will still take several days to heal."

"We should be coming up on a large city soon. I'll bet a clinic or two might still have stuff in it." Shachi drank a few sips of his water before wiping off the extra with the back of his hand.

Lexi sighed. "If there's anything left..."

"There are so many buildings in a city that big, I bet survivors haven't had the chance to loot them all. There aren't that many people left, anyway." Shachi reasoned with a smile, trying to cheer her up a bit.

Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a positive thing quickly turned sour, at the reminder that the human population had dwindled to extinction levels. No one wanted to think about that, and Shachi's smile slowly fell. The group went silent for several seconds, no one quite sure what to say.

Law turned his head away, towards the deepening trees, as if dismissing the subject entirely. The brunette thought that maybe it was how he coped with everything. Disregard whatever you couldn't control. Or whatever you didn't want to think about. Back in the old days she doubted that would have been healthy but...now, it was almost second nature.

Lexi put the tube back in her bag and zipped it up, placing it on the ground in such a way that it could be used for a pillow. Her jacket would have to be blanket enough to keep her warm. "I'm turning in. Wake me up when it's my watch." She said quietly, and the others nodded absentmindedly. She put her back to the group and laid on her side. The ground was rocky and dozens of twigs and sticks littered the area, poking into her side and back uncomfortably. But they didn't have the luxury of a manmade structure to sleep in tonight, and the sun had already set an hour ago. It was too dark to continue on and look for better shelter. Closing her eyes, she couldn't help but feel like there was a pair of eyes on her back, but she pushed the thought away. Shachi's comment from earlier was probably just getting to her.

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Lexi jerked awake in a panic when she felt a hand on her shoulder, but a crouching Shachi shushed her quickly. "It's just me. Your turn for watch."

Her heart was beating a steady rhythm in her rib cage, but the underlying panic behind it disappeared when she saw her friend. She nodded and rose to her feet with a small amount of difficulty. Sleeping rough wasn't kind on the body.