"I'm okay," Bunny told her. "Or I will be. Thanks to you."
The woman snorted. "Don't thank me, thank Marco. He's the one who carried you in here."
Bunny turned to look at the dead man in the doorway. "Thank you."
He nodded. "I should go check up on Peyton."
The woman nodded and Marco vanished. "I know the situation isn't normal," she told Bunny as she stepped across the room and turned on some lights. "But you really should get some rest. You look like you need it."
"No rest for the weary," Bunny told her.
"Tell me about it," came the answer. "Oh, me and my manners. Rosa Drummond. I run the clinic."
"Hi, Rosa. Bunny," she answered.
"So Marco told me." Rosa laughed as she checked Bunny's pulse. "What were you doing out there, running through the streets like that?"
"Me and some friends were trying to make it to Washington Park. I crashed my car and told them to go and leave me behind. I knew I was messed up and didn't want them to get killed trying to save me," she admitted.
"Pretty noble of you," Rosa observed as she pulled out a stethoscope and applied it. "Pretty foolish, too."
Bunny shrugged. "Never been known for my common sense."
"Obviously." Rosa laughed as she put the stethoscope away and looked at Bunny's eyes closely.
"So, am I going to live?" she asked.
Rosa smiled at her. "You are, yes, though I wouldn't recommend fighting them again any time soon. You’re lucky you don’t have a concussion, but you still hit your head pretty hard.”
"Yes, not fighting, that's been an option since this whole mess started," Bunny told her wryly.
Rosa chuckled as she went to a cabinet and dug out some painkillers, tossing them to Bunny. "Granted, but I'd still say take it slow for a little while. You're probably going to have bouts of dizziness for a few days."
"Thanks, doc," Bunny said as she downed a couple of the pills and got off the bed. "Anything else?"
"Avoid operating heavy machinery," Rosa replied, deadpan.
Bunny laughed at that. "I'll see what I can do."
Rosa led her out of the room and into the hallway, where Bunny saw Marco again, looking out a window at gathering darkness. He looked over his shoulder at them, then back out the window.
"How long was I out?" Bunny asked.
"All day. You took a solid knock to the head, like I said, but I think exhaustion was more the culprit here. Either way, you're lucky to be alive," Rosa told her. “Hungry?”
"Starving," Bunny admitted.
"Come on. We've got a cafeteria with a decent amount of food. We'll get you fed," Rosa said with a smile, tugging her arm towards a staircase.
"Can I ask," Bunny said as they headed down. "What's the deal with Marco. I mean, he is one of them, isn't he?"
Rosa stopped and looked back up the stairs. "He is, yes. I don't know why he's different, but he is. Saved my life when everything was going insane last night, too."
"Can you trust him?" Bunny asked her.
"Marco? Oh, I'd say he's safe. All things considered; he seems to have whatever this is under his thumb. Regardless, it's not him you should be worried about," Rosa admitted as she started back down the steps.
"Who should I be worried about, then?" Bunny asked as she trailed after her.
Rosa looked up at her, eyes dark. "Peyton."
Chapter Eight
AS BUNNY FINISHED her third sandwich, she noticed Rosa looking at her strangely. It took a moment, but she realized she hadn't been eating, she’d been shoving the food down her throat. With a grin, she wiped her mouth and shrugged.
"Told you I was hungry."
"So I see," Rosa commented dryly. "All done?"
"I think it'll do for now," Bunny admitted.
Rosa nodded and handed her another bottle of water, which Bunny took gratefully. It had been too long since she'd eaten or had much of anything to drink. More and more she was realizing she was lucky to be alive.
"What will you do now?" Rosa asked as she sat across the table from Bunny.
"Get some more sleep, I guess," Bunny admitted. "Then head for Washington Park. Try to find my friends."
Rosa nodded. "You think they made it?"
"I hope they did."
Rosa looked away for a moment. "I don't want to get your hopes up, Bunny. It's bad out there."
"I picked up on that," she answered.
"No, you didn't," Rosa told her darkly.
Leaning back, Bunny admitted the other woman probably knew more than she did. "Tell me then."
"It's not just the dead you have to worry about out there. Plenty of those still alive have lost it. Gone feral, you might say. Then there's the gangs, those still alive, who think this is a free pass to do as they please," Rosa told her.
“I wouldn’t think they would pose much of a threat right now,” Bunny replied.
“You weren’t here last night, and slept all day,” Rosa pointed out, the look in her eyes a mix of darkness and sorrow.
"One day," Bunny said softly.
"One day?"
Bunny looked up at her. "It's taken one day for it to come to this."
Rosa sighed. "I'm surprised it took that long."
"Why's that?"
“We've always been on the brink of this, I think. As long as I can remember, anyway. Civilization, I mean. Just teetering on the brink of total collapse. All we needed was a little push, and when it came, we went over like a house of cards. I really am surprised it took a full day to just get this bad. Though, to be honest, I think the worst is yet to come," Rosa told her as
