To Be A Warrior

Chapter 38: Elastic Heart

It's been six days, and yet I can still see that V-Type staring at us from the cliff in my mind.

The thought of it, and everything else that happened that day, distracted me from the fact that it was my birthday. In all honesty, I didn't care that it was my birthday. I just wanted that day to be over. I thought if it was over then we could move on with our plans on the burns cubes and I could stop picturing that V-Type studying us.

But I still haven't. I still remember. It haunts me. Janine says what happened caused us to feel confused, afraid, disoriented, but I'm not so sure about that. I love Peter, truly. He's my closest friend and the thought of him dying absolutely terrified me, but I don't think that caused to just make up what I saw.

That zombie was watching us, and then it just jumped into the sea for no reason. Zombies don't do that.

I grit my teeth, hastily shucking away my dirty clothes before smoothing out the wrinkles of the clean ones I'm wearing. Even the supply run I just finished didn't help or ease my mind.

I can tell Peter's thinking about it a lot too, although he hasn't said much about it. I really haven't let him. These last few days I haven't been talking to him because one thing that didn't escape me after our mission was the fact that Peter literally jumped off a walkway to lure a V-Type away when he wasn't sure if he was really infected or not!

I've been giving him hell for it the past few days, but he's dealt with it because he knows I'm right. Other than a few angry comments, I haven't talked to him as much, although I've decided I no longer am going to hound him for his actions. I'm sure Janine will be holding this over his head for a while and he doesn't need me to keep bringing it up too, no matter how hurt and afraid I was at the thought of losing another friend.

Plus he did believe he was infected and he didn't want to hurt me and Jody. As angry as I was, I know why he did what he did.

After tying up my damp hair so it doesn't soak the back of my shirt, I head out of the shower area and back to the coms shack. Sam is preparing for another run, since Janine has been packing his schedule with scouting runs to make sure the V-Type horde isn't moving too closely to any settlement. Since we have so few burn cubes, we must make sure our plan will go smoothly and efficiently. One wrong move could mean the end of humanity.

We're almost positive that no more Last Riders remain. Those that followed us to Sigrid's island died by plant gas and V-Types and volcanic fissures. If there were any left that didn't follow us to the island, then there will be far too few for us to worry about. At least, not now. We have bigger things to worry about than a few strays that want revenge.

When I make it back to the coms shack, Sam is there waiting, sitting in his swivel chair and leaning forward to watch the other runners out in the field.

His eyes flicker to me for just a moment, a smile spreading on his face. "Hello, darling."

"Hey," I reply softly. I walk over to him and lean against the back of his chair, smiling as I admire the faux leather pressing against my skin. Sam notices immediately.

"What's that look for?"

"Oh, I'm just grateful that when I pull away there's no duct tape that's going to pull the hair off my arms." I glance down at the spots on my forearms where the hair is slightly different in texture. Those spots are from where the tape from the old chair ripped the hair off and it grew back slightly different. It's nothing too noticeable, but it was painful.

He chuckles. "Yeah.  I really was glad when you found this."

"I'm surprised the one you had lasted as long as it did," Nicole says, and looking through the monitor I can see her running with Paula.