Page 8 of Deceptively Dead

“What about the cheese though?” I ask. Cheese is important.

“We have a cow that we saved from the camp. She’s with the rest of our group.” His voice and face are bland when he responds and I get the idea that the topic of cheese is now closed to me. I also call so much bullshit I’m surprised I’m not choking on it.A camp of survivors wandering about the zombie infested woods with a bloody cow in tow? I think not my friend.“Tell us your story” he demands again, probably reading on my face how much I want to call out his unlikely cow story.

I close my eyes and pull in a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for what I’m going to have to say and trying to figure out how much I tell them. I don’t want their pity, but that’s what I’ll get if I give them the gory details, so I decide to just give them the facts, no embellishments or feelings.Straight facts. Definitely not pathetic if you stick with facts.

I quickly recap the events that led to my becoming a captive and the last twelve months and where I spent them. I leave out the gory details, such as the beatings, the unwanted attentionand the breeding program Jacob is fixated on, in place of generalised, detached descriptions about how the compound works. I can’t quite look at them while I tell my story, but I do manage to keep my voice calm and even. I skirt the wholerapetopic all together, it’s definitely not something I can talk about right now. Maybe not ever.

There’s some movement to my left and I look up at Chase as he stands and starts to pace. He looks agitated and keeps casting me speculative glances and I can tell he knows it’s not the whole story.

“Anyway” I decide to conclude, “after a… series of unfortunate events… I managed to escape when zombies attacked the compound, that’s what all the gunfire was a few nights ago. I used the distraction to climb the fence and lost myself in the forest. It took me about three days to make my way down to the town and I guess in hindsight it was fairly predictable that that’s where I would go, so it’s no surprise the Knights set up an ambush for me, really. I thought I could snatch a car and run as far as it would take me, away from Jacob and everything that happened.”

“What happened to make them chase you so hard though, Angie?” asks Hunter softly. By now it’s well and truly dark outside and the single candle barely illuminates his handsome face. I don’t know if it’s the light or the softness of his voice but I’m suddenly a little nervous about telling these strange men that I happily killed a guy. Doesn’t matter that I somehow think they would understand, maybe even celebrate it. I won’t risk it, they may be helping me now, but that could change in an instant so I must use caution when it comes to these guys. Cheese or no cheese.

“Yeah. Well, Jacobs not really in the habit of being crossed.” I say instead. “If he says you’re not allowed to leave the camp, youbetter fucking die there. I’ve seen him hunt people that escaped for weeks. I’m not really surprised he came after me.”

“Hmm, it seems like he sent a lot of people out after you though. After just one girl” Hunter prods in his silky soft voice.

I open my mouth to answer him but no words come to mind, just a feeling of being drowned under the guilt of what I’d done.No, that’s not rightI think to myselfyou feel guilty for not feeling guilt. You’re ashamed of the fact you enjoyed killing Ben.My mouth opens and closes as I try to argue with my brain why that’s not true. I start to feel unbalanced as I struggle for words. They must see my trembling hands and ashen face because Chase growls “Enough” at Hunter at the same time Nate says “I think you need to rest” and abruptly starts to shoo the other two towards the door. Hunter gives me a cool, assessing gaze as he moves away under the Doctors orders. I try not to flinch from his look but I fail.

Sighing heavily, I turn away from them and arrange myself in the bed. I startle a little when Nate appears above me again. He picks up the candle and holds it closer to my face as he scrutinises me, then without a word he hands me three little white pills and another bottle of water. I eye them suspiciously.

He grunts an amused sound and says in his lazy drawl “they’re just pain killers, Trouble. Nothing to worry about. They will help you sleep and tomorrow you will show me your other wounds, I need to make sure they don’t get infected.” And with that decree, he turns and heads out of the room, taking the candle with him and closing the door.The good Doctor seems like he might be just a wee bit bossy.

Chapter Nine

“Owww” I growl at Nate as he pokes at the entry site in my shoulder. He’s been poking and prodding at my wounds for what feels like hours now. I sit as still as possible and scowl at the door, remembering that I was actually glad to see him when he came through it this morning carrying his little bag of torture devices. Or, as he calls it, his medic kit. My glare at the door intensifies as he hits a particularly sore point in my wound, and I’m mildly surprised the stupid thing doesn’t just combust from the death stare it’s receiving. I let out a huff of air and turn my mind back to why I was in a good mood this morning. I slept like the dead (the real dead – the ones that stay that way) and when I woke, I was able to dress myself in my now mostly clean bra and underwear, without too much of a struggle. I even found a massive black, button up shirt and some loose shorts folded up next to the clean water in the bath bucket. I don’t even know when they could have changed the waterwithout me knowing but being clean for the second day in a row feels amazing.

“Fu-“ I bite back the urge to curse at the beastly man behind me, as he tugs at a stitch in my shoulder.

“Sit still.” he grunts at me, and I have to forcefully remind myself why I shouldn’t jump up and stab him with one of his pointy instruments.

I grit my teeth and remain still.I’ve been through worseI remind myself. I look down at my arms and hands, covered in old scars and shiny newish cuts that glisten with antibacterial cream. Nate insisted on treatingallmy wounds, not just the bullet hole in my shoulder. He scrubbed and picked at all the half-healed skin from David’s last knife skills lesson and covered the raw wounds with the stingy cream. All the while he muttered and cursed under his breath, throwing dark looks at my wounds as if they personally offended him in some way. Honestly, he’s even worse than the harem girls. At least he’s not trying to gossip with me. And there’s no squealing children.

“You got this wet.” comes his accusatory rumble.

“I did fucking not!” I fire up immediately, the pain making me snappish “don’t blame your dodgy work on me, it’s not my fault you apparently can’t stitch a clean line!” Honestly, I’m not even sure what the problem with the wound is but I’m wound tight, and it feels good to argue, even if it’s about something I know nothing about.

He growls at me. Literally growls. He sounds like a pissed off cat and I snort out a laugh before I can help myself, then quickly suck in a sharp breath as the laugh rattles my shoulder too much.

“It is not dodgy work” he sniffs at me, ignoring my snort of laughter altogether, “the wound is mildly infected, you have heat and redness around the site. I’ll have to check it each day. We might need to find you some antibiotics if this cream doesn’thelp.” That’s all the warning I get before he slathers the stingy cream all over the stitches in my shoulder.

I yelp and try to turn toward him, reaching for my missing knife as I do. When I see his smug looking face as I realize I don’t have my knife I settle for a glare and a huff of air to show how very unimpressed I am with him. His look softens and he seems just a little repentant, but I narrow my eyes on him and open my mouth to demand an apology when the door bangs open.

“Alright in here?” Chase asks from the doorway when I swivel around to look at him with raised eyebrows. Chase’s grey eyes dart from my bra covered chest, to the black shirt crumpled up next to us and finally land on Nate sitting behind me, his knees bracketing either side of my waist. His look turns a little cold as he takes a step toward us, eyes tracing each of my numerous scars with clinical precision. “What are you doing, Doc?” his voice is quieter than usual, and he keeps his eyes off the man behind me.

“What does it look like, Soldier?” Nate snaps, not moving from his spot at my back. I shift a little uncomfortably as the tension in the room rises and then jump a little when Nate places a firm hand over my bare hip, stilling me. Before I can turn to question him about touching me like he owns me, my eyes catch on Chase’s as he’s staring at the spot Nate touches me. When he meets my gaze, his eyes are darker, and he looks a little scary.

“Move your hand.” He grits out in a deep, gravelly voice that seems to go straight through me, I shiver, and Nate’s hand tightens a little before he says simply “No” in a voice that sounds like steel coated in velvet. Chase takes another slow, almost predatory step towards us.Fuck, this stupidity is getting out of hand,I think as I lurch to my feet, dislodging Nate’s hand as I go. I get a little dizzy from standing so quickly and by the time I’ve got myself together Nate is standing beside me, squaring up to a seething Chase.

“Would you two just chill?” I ask, exasperated, as I squeeze myself between them, not even thinking about the fact that maybe they might accidentally hurt me until I’m wedged between the two of them, by then it’s too late. I put a palm on each of their chests and try to push them apart, but I can get no real strength in the gesture, I mean I’m flat out just trying to keep my injured arm up and my palm on Nate’s chest, let alone put pressure on it. But they both do me the courtesy of stepping back like I asked them to.

“You hurt her; I heard her squeal.” Chase accuses Nate over my head, obviously willing to do what I ask but not let the anger drop.

“I had to!” Nate defends, “her wounds are getting infected, I had to clean them and apply a salve to try and help the healing.” He sounds angry about having to clean my wounds up and I instantly get fired up again.

“No one asked you too” I snap at him “I’ve dealt with much worse than this on my own and been just fine!” before he can respond I swing around to find Chase smiling smugly at Nate, until he meets my eyes and he suddenly looks a little wary “And you” I point a finger in his chest and he leans back a bit “I. Do. Not. Squeal” I snarl at him before darting around him and stomping off through the door. I slam it shut after me and cringe a little at the noise it makes, having momentarily forgotten that we live in a world full of zombies and death. The noise does serve to break me out of my rage trance, and I blink as I look around, tremors shake my body and I can’t believe I just spoke to them like that. That they let me speak to them like that.What was I thinking?! Where was the caution, the fear? They could have done anything to me for acting like that towards them. If I had done that shit a few days ago I would have needed a lot more stitches, at best!I shake my head at myself and lean against the door, not sure what to do now, after I stormed outso dramatically. I stand there and take deep breaths as I calm the fear that has suddenly, and belatedly, risen inside me.One freaking day with people who haven’t hit you, yet, and you turn into some fiery badass, is that it? God, you useless thing, it’s like you learned nothing at Jacob’s camp, you deserved to be there if you can be so dumb.My inner tirade brings tears to my eyes, especially because that last part sounded suspiciously like Ben’s voice in my head.

Movement, blissfully, catches my eye and I swing my head to the right to find Hunter leaning with his shoulders propped up against a doorframe and his arms crossed, the sunlight from outside throws his features into shadow and he looks a little sinister as he watches me silently for a beat or two as I attempt to surreptitiously brush the tears from my lashes and gulp down some steadying breaths.

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