DR KAMIYO
They retreated to the castle under the starry night sky, barricading the sally port and posting teenage guards on the wall. Panic erupted when people learned Vamps, or the creature wearing him, was somewhere in the forest, and that the wounded demon had fled to a nearby village.
Kamiyo sat on the brick surrounds of an ancient well and hung his head in despair. The rain fell heavy, matching his mood. The hope of saving this place slipped away, and he now felt the same thrumming dread he used to feel on the road—only this was worse. Instead of fearing his own death, he now feared the death of three-dozen children.
With Eric’s death, the number of familiar adults dwindled, which caused the children obvious distress. They huddled together around the remaining grown-ups, but kept their distance from Aymun. Nobody knew the man enough to trust him.
This is my fault. I should never have been so careless with Vamps. My eagerness to actually heal someone blinded me to the danger. I thought Vamps was better. He seemed fine.
Kamiyo had risked the entire camp.
Hannah shuffled over to him, stepping out of the light of the campfire and entering the rain-soaked shadows. “Hey, Doc. I brought something for your wounds.”
Kamiyo almost asked what she meant, then remembered Vamps had crushed his hands. The pain was so constant it had become the new baseline of how he felt. Agony was normal now. “You found supplies out there on the road?”
She handed him a packet of pills. “Ibuprofen was the strongest I could find, but we have plenty of antiseptics and dressings.”
“Thank you. It should help. I’m not sure how bad the damage is yet; my hands have swelled too much to assess.”
Hannah took his hands and examined them gently. “Wow! Regan really did a number on you.”
“Regan?”
She smiled. “Yeah, you know, the girl from the Exorcist. She was possessed by a demon too.”
Kamiyo chuckled. “You’re a film geek?”
“Not much to do on a base in peacetime but watch movies.”
“Well, the demon in the Exorcist was named Pazuzu. Regan was the innocent girl, so your analogy doesn’t work.”
“Well, whatever, you were lucky to survive.”
“It was toying me.” Kamiyo thought back. “Whatever’s inside Vamps is smarter than the other demons.”
“The big bad from what I’ve heard. The Red Lord.”
Kamiyo nodded. Every time he had been alone with the Red Lord, he’d felt a soul-consuming fear. The Red Lord was a creature no human was ever supposed to encounter, one of the universe’s vile secrets. “It wants us all dead. It’ll be back.”
Hannah lay Kamiyo’s hands palm-up on his knees and wrapped them in fresh bandages. She had a surprisingly delicate touch for a soldier. “We’ll face what comes when it comes,” she said. “What else can we do but that?”
“You lost your rifle.”
“I know. I could cry. That bastard threw it into the sky like a frisbee. I might try to find it in the daylight, but it was running low on ammo, anyway. Time I learned to rely on something else.”
“Plenty of bow and arrows.”
“Yeah. Suppose I could be a little less GI Jane and a bit more Lara Croft.”
“I can see you pulling that off.” Kamiyo grinned a little leeringly and hoped it didn’t offend. His social manners were a little rusty.
Hannah laughed, but didn’t seem to mind his leer. “Don’t get too excited, I bat for the other side.”
“Oh!”
She laughed again. “Yeah, well, maybe I’ll have to change my preferences, because Jackie is the only other woman in the world as far as I know, and I think she might have a thing for Ted.”
Kamiyo cackled, forgetting his pain for a moment. “You’re kidding me?”
“Nope. She lights up around him. I think I saw him crack a smile the other day too, which is saying something.”
“Wow, I suppose love never dies. Anyway, Jackie isn’t the only woman. There’s Carol. She’s stopped coughing up phlegm now by the looks of things.”
Hannah pulled a face and whispered. “She’s a bit too old. Plus, I don’t think there’s a lot going on upstairs.”
“Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“I ain’t begging yet, Doc. I have to believe that, somehow, out there in the world, is another lesbian. One day, I’ll go out there and find her.”
“That’s beautiful,” said Kamiyo, beaming. “And one day I’m going to find an Amazon warehouse and rip open every box I find until I have all the fun stuff.”
Hannah frowned. “Like what?”
He shrugged. “I dunno. Drones? Comic books? Figurines.”
“Wow, you’re still a wee ben, ain’t you?”
Kamiyo blushed. “I never got to be a child when I was actually supposed to be one. I’d just like to try it on for size, and forget all the horror, you know? I had strict parents, and they decided I would be a doctor before I was even born.”
Hannah had finished wrapping his hands, so she took a seat on the well beside him. “It’s not what you would have chosen for yourself?”
“I don’t know. Maybe if it wasn’t thrust upon me, I might have been more passionate about medicine. When I was a kid, I remember wanting to be a comic book artist. I wanted to create superheroes and monsters.” He laughed to himself. “I suppose at the time I was trying to create friends and family to keep me company. I used to draw myself alongside all the crime fighting giants. My parents used to think I was doing homework, but I would hide my pad behind a textbook.”
“Sounds sad, pet.”
Kamiyo nodded, then pointed up at a pair of teenagers standing on the castle’s rear wall. “I still had it better than these kids do.”
Hannah glanced at the shifting shadows of the children. “Puts things into perspective, don’t it? Maybe one day, you’ll get to draw your comics again for these kids to enjoy. Hell, I enjoy a bit of Wonder Woman myself. You seen the jugs on that chick?”
Kamiyo smiled. “Can’t say I have, but I’ll keep an eye out next time I’m in a
