Page 39 of Unrest
He shook his head. “She questioned me yesterday.”
She was his questioner when we arrived? The thought of them alone in a small room together, her in a power position over him, made me uncomfortable. I crossed my arms over my chest so he couldn’t see me making fists. I knew I was being jealous, though there was no reason for it. I needed to stop.
“Whelp,” Texas Harry said with a stretch. “See y’all on the flipside.” Josh shot us a peace sign, tapping it to his chest. Tater saved his last glance for Remy before they left us. She looked at me, confused. He’d been hot and cold with her for days.
“You know where to go?” Rylen asked me.
I did. “I remember passing the med room in the main hall yesterday.”
“All right then.”
He started to walk away, and I quickly said, “Ry . . . be careful.”
“Always am.” He rewarded me with a soft look before going.
Remy grasped my arm and whispered, “Can you teach me the time thing before you leave?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s basically a twenty-four hour system instead of twelve and twelve. For morning hours you turn them into hundreds instead of saying o’clock. Like, one in the morning is oh-one-hundred. Then, instead of starting back over after noon, you keep counting past twelve. So 1:00 PM is thirteen hundred. 2:00 is fourteen hundred. If it’s 3:30 you say fifteen-thirty, and so on.” I had no idea if I was making sense. I’d never had to explain it to anyone before.
“Oh.” She looked relieved. “That’s not so hard.”
I nodded. “You okay?”
She was still a little paler than normal with bags under her eyes. I knew her energy had to be low. The infection was still in her system. When I peeked over her shoulder I noticed that three whole tables of guys were watching us. I let out a small sigh.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. Have fun with the dentist.”
“Rest when you can,” I said. “And don’t feel like you have to play nice with any of these guys if they start to hassle you.”
She turned to see who I was talking about and quickly whipped her head back to me with huge eyes, hissing, “They’re all staring!”
“I know,” I said. “Please, just ignore them. Be a bitch if you have to.”
I walked with her back to the kitchen so she could introduce herself to the people in charge of food production, and then I headed to the med clinic. It was two doors down from the room where I’d been questioned, but this room was bigger and had more cabinets.
A thirty-something man with an Army buzz and a white lab coat over jeans peered at me through round spectacles. He wasn’t big, but he looked soft in the middle, like he hadn’t done PT—physical training—in too long.
“Miss Tate?”
“Yes, Amber Tate.” I stuck out my hand and we shook.
“Captain Jerry Ward.” He sighed and looked around. “It’s not too busy around here, but it’ll be nice not to have to be on call twenty-four-seven.”
“What kind of stuff do you see?” I asked.
“Occasional sprains and strains when the guys horseplay. We had one broken arm, which was a joy, let me tell you.” He looked grim. “Never had to reset a bone before. Hope I never have to again.” I tried not to smile. Bones were awesome. I’d seen plenty reset.
“I have experience with that kind of stuff.” I gave him a bit of my background information and his shoulders seemed to relax with relief as I spoke. It had to be stressful to be expected to do things you’d never been trained to do.
“Most of the women here are on birth control,” he said. “And all our meds are kept locked up. We have a limited supply.” He pointed to a single cabinet with a padlock. “This place is sanitized regularly, but if some sort of bug were to come through here, we’d be wiped out. I’m hoping they’ll send a mission team next month to raid pharmacies between here and Salt Lake City.”
If they weren’t raided already,I thought.
He showed me where all of the supplies were and where he kept track of all of his visits. They weren’t bothering with electronic records.
“How’s the girl you came in with yesterday?” he asked. “Miss Haines?”
“Yes, Remy Haines. She’s much better, but she should probably still be in bed.” After yesterday’s hike, we should haveallstill been in bed.
