When Helena had woken up, it only took three minutes for her to realize that she was both deaf and blind in her right eye and ear, thanks to whatever damage had occurred in her head. Upon the realization, Helena had become scarily quiet, and everyone pretended not to notice the tears that ran down her cheeks.
"Maybe it's just temporary," Sam suggested warily, not really believing it. Emily noticed the way her friend cocked her head to the side when trying to listen. Her stomach clenched in pity.
Helena didn't reply. She shook her head and pushed herself up. She looked at James' arm, where blood had continued to stain the sleeve. Emily looked away angrily and clenched her jaw. In any other situation, Emily would have started shouting at James for being such an idiot, but she didn't want to upset Helena even more.
"James, come, let me look at your arm." Helena was shaking, and Emily could see the battle going on in her dark eyes as she tried to push away her emotions. James stood up and sat down on the couch next to Helena.
Helena cleaned the wound again and tied a new bandage around his arm, pulling tighter in order to keep the wound closed.
"Don't aggravate it," Helena murmured. "It needs to heal."
James looked up apologetically at Emily, who made sure to glare hard back. She wasn't having any of James' self-pitying looks. He looked down at his hands, his face falling.
Helena looked around anxiously. She had to turn her head extra far to make up for her blind eye. "Where is Brendan? Is he okay?"
Rory pursed his lips and snorted from where he lay on the opposite couch. "Oh, he's more than okay." Emily felt another wave of anger roll over her at the mention of Brendan. Oh, how she wanted to punch in his stupid depressing face. She saw James clench his fists out of the corner of her eye.
No one wanted to tell Helena about the fight with Brendan. Everyone knew it would upset her even more.
Sam had finished packing up their bags, handing them over to everyone else. He had been unusually quiet since the fight, his brown eyes uncharacteristically serious.
"We could listen to the radio again in case we missed something," Sam said, changing the subject. Helena wasn't dumb, though, and her eyes narrowed. Sam looked at his feet, avoiding her accusatory stare.
"Sam, where's Brendan?"
Sam shrugged awkwardly and kept his eyes averted. Sam hadn't commented at all on his friend's behavior, Emily noticed.
Emily watched as her friend looked pleadingly at the others. She had to look away when Helena's big dark eyes landed on her. She looked so sad and lost, Emily wanted to reach over and give her friend a hug.
Eventually, when everyone else stayed silent, Helena pressed her lips together and stood up. She left the staff room without another word.
It was almost eleven in the morning and Emily was getting restless. She knew that they had to keep moving and look for help, they couldn't stay in the Walmart forever.
James was pacing around the room, looking out the door occasionally. His wound had eventually stopped bleeding again. Sometimes, James would turn towards Emily, hope in his eyes, but Emily was having none of it. She turned away and sat down on the couch, where she still stayed.
Rory's head was fine, only a headache remained. He was splayed out on the couch with an arm draped over his head. The radio was spitting out information. So far they learned that a minor nuclear spill had occurred at the plant and had spread through underground sewers, pooling under the highway 2. The radioactive waste had somehow mutated in the gross sewer environment and had become lethal, travelling up as a gas through the air. Authorities weren't sure how exactly how the disease worked, but clearly it moved fast and vicious.
