Haven Chapter 12

Chapter 12

            I could hardly believe we’d made it, but then another part of me never doubted that we would. All the familiar faces seemed like little miracles, I had been so concerned about the safety of the others I think I convinced myself I would never see them again. But as it turns out, my concerns were valid, and not everyone was alive and well.

            Malcolm had been injured, in an incident everyone had been shady about, Nicole said she would tell me about it later. Originally he hadn’t seemed badly injured, but the next day he collapsed, and he’d only woken up sporadically since. Nicole said he was lucky, we had used up most of the IV supplies on Chris, and there wouldn’t be enough to sustain another unconscious patient. But it had been a long time since he last woke up.

            ‘Will he wake up?’ I asked Nicole when we were alone in Malcolm’s room, well, the section separated from the rest of the area using shelves and cloths

            ‘There’s no way to tell,’ Nicole answered definitely, she was becoming far more confident in her clinical expertise, ‘I don’t know what damage has been done, he may have fractured his skull, or just have a bad concussion. All I can do is keep his head cushioned and do what I can to keep him stable, it’s up to his own body to fix what is wrong’

            I refused to believe it was up to chance, ‘but all those medicines from the hospital, can’t they help?’

            ‘Most of those were antibiotics, useless in this type of injury, and as I said I don’t know what is wrong, a medicine that might help one diagnosis might worsen his condition if I was wrong.’

            I knew she was right, I was learning to trust her opinions more and more, medical or non-medical. ‘How did this happen?’ I asked, although I’m not sure whether it was her I asked, or myself. Nicole turned me around and pointed at a spot on the wall where a section of ventilation was missing, ‘it fell right on top of him, Lauren and Brooke were there when it happened. We had just found something strange and Malcolm was coming to get them’

            ‘Something strange?’

            ‘Food scraps and empty containers, as well as a sleeping bag that according to Malcolm wasn’t there before, someone had been staying here before us, but after we ransacked it.’

            I tried to process this information as quick as I could, someone else here? Was it that Anthony guy? The leader of the marauders? ‘Were they still here?’ I asked, worried we’d be thrown back into jeopardy just as we thought we were safe

            Nicole nodded grimly and I was filled with dread, ‘they were hiding in the ventilation when it fell.’ She walked over to one of the “walls” and pulled back the cloth, through the shelves I could see another bed, but the patient on this one was a young girl.

…

            Jade, Connor, Daniel, and Chris were being updated by Will and Lauren when I came over and sat down next to them. ‘Did you were about this?’ Jade asked shocked, the others were all wearing similar expressions

            ‘Nicole just filled me in,’ I reply exhausted, not for the first time I wished I hadn’t stepped forward to be the leader

            ‘Did you speak to our new guest?’ Connor asked, more than slightly concerned over the issues she could bring with her

            ‘Not yet she was resting, Nicole said she’d find me,’ I took and deep breath before speaking again, trying to sort my thoughts before getting any new information, ‘how’s everything else been going here?’

            ‘Well,’ Will started a bit shamefully, ‘Brooke and Nicole got themselves sorted but to be honest the rest of us…’

            ‘We were too worried about you to really start doing anything,’ Lauren finished for him.

            A flash of unreasonable anger came over me, ‘oh great so while we’ve been out struggling to survive, risking our lives to get back here you’ve just been laying around sitting on your asses!’

            ‘Hey!’ Chris stood up angrily but Daniel stood in front and held him back

            ‘It’s not like that Todd,’ Will said quietly, ‘we got to the station and organised ourselves, it felt like we had our lives back, we could look to the future and see something real. Even when we were separated from you we still felt like we had some hope. But then Malcolm collapsed and it just felt like everything was going wrong, and there was nothing we could do,’ his voice broke as we spoke, and everyone was silent, ‘it was like I was on the rooftop again, losing a friend, and it was all my fault. I couldn’t imagine doing anything, I was too afraid of losing someone else.’

            I wanted to say something, I wanted to comfort my friend, but part of me was angry, I don’t know why, and another part of me was so affected by his words I couldn’t find any of my own, so I just walked away. I saw Daniel, Lauren, and Chris walk off the other way, and Jade followed me but I didn’t really want her to. Only Connor stayed but I doubted he could help Will much.

            I walked outside to Brooke’s empty shooting range, grateful for the privacy. Angrily I picked up one of the paintball guns and quickly fired a few shots, and missed the target each time. ‘Damn it!’ I swore, I didn’t know why I was so angry, was it because I was genuinely upset with Will and the others? No. To be honest I couldn’t blame them, I had been in the same position just a few days ago, on the verge of giving up, but I knew the others had made it out of the station alive. As I looked out on the horizon I could see some smoke from the still smouldering wreckage of the station, fire from the explosion must have set the building ablaze, god knows what they must have thought when they saw that.

            I wasn’t angry anymore, just sad, but unlike before I didn’t feel depressed, or like giving up. I felt like changing things for the better. I never wanted to hear something like that again, I would make sure of that.

            ‘So have you calmed down now?’ I turned around and saw Jade walking towards me, she must have waited inside a while before following me, smart move. ‘Yeah,’ I smiled bitterly

            ‘Good, ‘cause you were out of line there,’ She leant against the wall Brooke had made

            ‘I know, I don’t know why I said that’

            ‘I do,’ I turned sharply to her as she spoke, ‘you were scared, scared of not making it here, scared of what you would find, and when you did get her you find we almost lost another friend. You weren’t angry at Will, or Lauren, or even at yourself, you were just… scared’

            ‘Even before all this you knew how I was feeling before I did,’ I laughed

            ‘That’s not that hard seeing how slow you are about it,’ she moved closer as she spoke.

            We stood there silently for a moment, enjoying being together, safe, again. ‘I’m sorry we haven’t been talking that much recently Jade,’ I apologised, looking in her eyes as she looked at the ground, ‘or spending much time together at all’-

            ‘It’s okay Todd, I can hardly blame you for not being the perfect boyfriend while also leading a group of apocalypse survivors,’ she laughed

            ‘But still, I want that to change, maybe the reason why things at the station went to hell, and why I came so close to giving up is because I didn’t have you to clear my head, and tell me how I was feeling’

            ‘Well I guess that’ll have to change,’ she spoke quietly as she leaned in close.

            ‘Todd!’ I cursed under my breath as Nicole burst through the door, ‘She’s awake!’