Love In The Time Of Pandemic

Chapter 10

"Why do I have to be the one who babysits Genevieve?" I thought to myself, as I woke up in the warmth of my tent. The good thing about being in a casual camp such as this, I could probably treat the prisoner as I wanted. Especially considering that everyone had such a poor opinion of her. And such a high opinion of me.

I wondered if I did beat her up for being a bitch, would anyone suspect me for it? Would they believe me if I said it was because she provoked me or tried to run away?

I could hear the birds chirping outside, and I wanted to pull out my gun and shoot all of them down. Thankfully, I was able to keep a hold on my temper.

I should say, thank God, I had been able to keep a hold on my temper all of this time. No one really knows my true nature. Which was intentional.

I stretched up to the sky and decided to go check up on our prisoner. She better be where I left her. I had given her a drink with some sedatives in it last night, before I tied her up, so I imagined she would still be exactly where I left her, in probably the exact same position.

As I pulled on my pants, and scrambled out of the tent, I noticed that we had a visitor.

God, why was Sharon here so early in the morning? She was such a busybody. She really had no clue how to keep to herself. I wish she would go and... I should not complete that sentence – it would be bad for my karma.

Either way, I smiled at her, and said, "Sharon, what brings you here so early in the morning? Didn't you sleep at all?"

She looked up at from staring at Genevieve and said, "Nah, couldn't sleep. The birds were chirping so loudly. That's one of the things I will not miss about sleeping in tents. When all of this is over and I get a place of my own, I am going to get a soundproof apartment. I don't want to hear another bird or cicada until the day I die." Sharon said all of this with a grin on her face. She might have been joking. I should laugh, but as I agreed with everything she had said, for the first time in our acquaintance, I nodded instead.

"Yes, yes, I agree. I hate birds. The foul creatures. Every one of them should be shot and eaten. Although there wouldn't be enough meat on them to matter." It was still early. I was unable to control myself.

She looked at me as if she was waiting for me to start laughing, but I didn't. I was serious, and I stuck with my earlier statement.

"Ah, yeah. Sure. Well, did you drug her last night? It looks like she's still fast asleep, even though anyone would have woken up through the cacophony of bird, cricket, and cicada noises right now."

"Yeah, gave her a sedative." I said, as I spit to the side. I hated mornings. I hated birds. And I hated when my actions were questioned.

She could sense my anger, but she plowed on. That was what I loved about Sharon. She wasn't a weak-willed sort of woman, who would balk at the sight of confrontation. She kept on going, no matter if all the indicators told her to do the opposite.

"Well, next time, could you please consult either Gordon or me, before you drug such an important prisoner? What if she had a bad reaction to it? Even Akbar wouldn't be able to do anything for her, if I was too serious. All we have are a couple of epinephrine shots."

She was being quite reasonable and logical about the situation. But it made me angry. I was a soldier, and I did what was necessary in the situation. It would be foolhardy for me to go back to them, every single time I wanted to make a new decision.

"I understand what you are saying. But if I had to come to you for every decision about a prisoner, I would never get any sleep. Either way, I assumed that Cellie's body would be strong enough to handle any sedatives I gave her. Let's wake her up and see how she's doing, shall we?" Before she could answer a yes or no, I slapped Cellie, hard on the face.