“Get your gun off her, now!” I told him through gritted teeth, Nia clung tightly to my back, she was shaking and the little whimpering noises coming from her mouth only fueled my anger more.
“Bbb but she’s bleeding, we need to take her for a check-up and into quarantine” he stammered. He was a tall man but stick thin, his military uniform hung off him. His dirty blonde hair was thinning on top and he had little beady eyes. They reminded me of Deacon and I immediately took a disliking to him.
I pointed my gun back at him and we had a standoff, “get that damn thing off her, now!” I shouted the last part, he looked wearily at me but lowered his weapon.
“George?” Nia’s voice was real quiet, I turned to her as she let go of my shirt and just in time to catch her.
“Nia” Will’s panic, cut through me like ice, I dropped my gun, the metal hitting the cold concrete sounded too loud as it echoed off the walls.
I swept her up and into my arms, moving as fast as I possibly could to the tent that they had set up to check on the casualties. My legs burned but I pushed through it.
“We need a doctor” I called, the leg of Nia’s Jeans was soaked in blood.
The doctor and her team, placed Nia on a gurney, strapped her down and covered her in a blanket. They began to wheel her to the medical area just off the side of the main building in our compound. I placed both my hands on my head, no not Nia. I needed to go with her, be near her when she woke up.
I tried to follow, but lieutenant Jacks stepped in front of me
“Sir, Captain Cooper asked me to ask if you would help to secure this compound. He requested the help of yourself and Mr. Perry.”
“But, my friend is hurt, I want to make sure…” I started angrily trying to sidestep him.
“Yes. Sir I know, but this is important for the whole community. Please?” he had a determined look in his eyes. I was just about to argue again when a large hand clasped onto my shoulder.
“We got this, right George? We can do a good sweep, assess the damage and then go see Nia. She will be out of it for a while. Let’s let the doctors do their job.”
“I still don’t see why it needs to be us” yes, I knew that I sounded like a child and that I was pouting.
I knew that Will wanted to go and see Nia much more than I did, she was the only real family he had left, I considered his eyes and could see the pain in them.
But I knew that he would put the needs of the camp before his own needs as he knew I would too.
“Maybe I’m sick of putting others before the ones I love Will” I spat out.
He winced at my words “George I – “
I immediately felt bad, it wasn’t his fault that I had lost my family, I had saved many more lives by sticking around with Deacons crew, some of who now were my family. But nothing would make up for the loss of my wife and children.
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders “Ok then let’s go, Billy, would you mind taking a walkie to the medical wing and letting us know of any … complications?” He nodded and looked scared, but took the walkie offered to him by Lt. Jacks who gave me another. We all knew that complications meant being bitten. We knew that she was badly injured but not what had caused it.
Lt Jacks motioned to the table at the back of the room, on it was a roughly drawn map of the compound they aptly named, living quarters 2.
“Ok so I know you’ve been inside the building, that’s been secured now. What we need to do is secure the exterior, see what fences need fixing and get some ideas on how to create a safe passage between the two compounds. We really need all hands-on deck for this”
“Why us?” I didn’t understand why the Captain had requested us to help when he had so many men at his disposal
“I’m not sure, everyone has a job here. You must have said or done something to allow the captain to trust your judgement. Perhaps he just wants to see what you can do? I’ve been with the Captain long enough to know that everything he does has a reason”
“Ok, George and I will go with you quickly and then report back to Captain Cooper but then I want to see my niece. Understood?” Will used his no nonsense voice, and crossed his arms, challenging the Lt to argue.
“Yes sir, understood.” The soldier nodded and signaled to the other guards that we were heading out.
We walked around the perimeter, checking the stability of the fence and noting any weak points, Lt. Jacks marked the areas on a smaller map drawn into a notebook and wrote notes. As we walked, Jacks kept Will talking by discussing the plans for the area. Pointing out where they thought would be a good place to grow crops, where they would set up new class rooms for the children, and finally the point that they would like to use as a fenced in run way between the two areas so it would be safe to travel between the two
