Simon smiled as he tugged at her shirt. He ripped a filthy piece of cotton from the bottom and handed it to her. She glanced at it for a moment then pressed it over the open wound.
Simon hissed at first, then howled as she pressed it harder. He gripped the top of her jeans with his good hand and squeezed as she continued to press the cotton into the wound. He could swear that he could feel bone fragments crunching as she applied the pressure, and once she leaned back, he fought to catch his breath.
“Sleep now.” She rolled off him and he slapped at the side of the dog food bag, searching for the bottle. She pushed it closer and he gripped the cap with his teeth. “Stinks,” she commented as he sucked down the contents.
“It makes my head feel better,” he panted as the pain continued to throb in his upper arm. He fished for the bottle of pills and almost whimpered when he came up empty. “Find me pills.” The look in his eyes was more of begging than ordering.
She rolled off the bag of dog food and stretched. She glanced toward the aisles then shook her head. “Where?”
He lifted the bottle and pointed toward the rear of the aisles. “Small box. About this big. Bitter pills inside.”
She disappeared into the store and Simon collapsed back on the bed he’d created. “And hurry.” He could feel the alcohol start to take effect and his eyelids drooped. He lifted the bottle once more and took another long pull before setting it gently on the floor next to him.
He closed his eyes slowly, just to rest them a moment before she returned. He fully intended to give her a ride before he called it a day.
Sleep overtook him instead.
5
“How’s he doing?” Hatcher asked.
“In and out.” Candy sniffed back an unshed tear then turned a hateful look to him. “Where the hell have you been?”
Hatcher avoided her gaze. “I went to track them down. We found where they’re hanging out during the day.”
She gave him a surprised look. “We?”
“Buck followed me out there.” He held a hand up to stop her. “I tried to send him back, but it turns out the kid is a pretty good tracker.”
She bit back the curse that she wanted to let fly. “Where are they?”
“An old grocery store turned sewer processing plant.” Hatcher shook off the questions that he knew were coming. “There’s no way to tell how many may be in there, but—”
“Are you going after them?” She seemed almost excited as she spoke.
Hatcher shrugged. “We want to. But only to get Simon.”
Candy’s brows knit. “What?”
“As Buck pointed out, if the cure works, there’s a bunch of innocent people in there and—”
“INNOCENT?” She came to her feet so quickly that she overturned the folding chair she had been sitting in. Roger groaned in his sleep and she forced her voice lower. “How can you call them innocent? They attacked us. Killed eight of our people and almost killed Roger.” She shook her finger in his face. “Blood for blood, Hatcher.”
Hatcher sighed heavily and gave her a sad stare. “Candy, if it weren’t for Simon, they probably wouldn’t have attacked.”
“You can’t know that.” She planted her hands on her hips. “For all we know, Simon is just a drone.”
“He was leading them down the street.” He raised a brow at her. “He taught them to use bows and arrows.”
“Again, you can’t know that. They might have evolved on their own.”
Hatcher nodded, holding a hand up to stop her. “He’s the only one that we KNOW was a criminal before he got infected. He’s the one we’re holding accountable.”
“Let me see if I understand this. Just hours ago they were ALL trying to kill us. Tried to burn us to the ground. But you’re going to give them a pass on that because they’re infected?”
Hatcher opened his mouth to reply when she continued. “But Simon, who may or may not have been ‘leading’ them, gets to pay for their crimes?”
Hatcher waited a moment to make sure she was done. “Yes.”
“That is absolute bullshit, Hatch, and you know it.”
“Candy, we can’t know how many people are left in the world. If the cure works and we go after the Zulus for all of the shit they’ve done? We might as well just kill them all now and be done with it. None of them could have survived this long if they hadn’t done some pretty heinous shit.”
She raised a brow at him. “And?”
“And?” Hatcher stared at her with disbelief. “Seriously?” She continued to stare at him. “So, just fuck the human race so long as Candy gets her pound of flesh?”
“Fuck you, Hatcher.”
Vicky stepped into the recovery room and glared at them both. “That’s enough. From both of you.” She pointed to her brother. “You go do whatever it is you came back to do.” She pointed at Candy. “And you…if you intend to stay in here, you’ll need to keep it down. I’ve got a ton of people trying to recover, some from pretty major surgery, considering it was me carving on them. They need their rest.”
Hatcher felt his cheeks reddening. “Sorry, sis.” He turned to leave then glanced back at Roger. “Tell him I was here, will ya?”
“Tell him yourself when you’ve finished saving the world.”
Vicky stepped closer. “I meant it, Candy.”
Hatcher didn’t stay to watch how it played out. He turned and pushed his way out of the infirmary.
Carol read the printout and shook her head. “No, this isn’t right.”
“I really wish you could explain.” Kelly appeared worried as she watched the researcher. “In a really dumbed-down way, I mean.”
Carol sat down hard, the paper still in her hand. “According to this…you don’t have our cure inside you.”
“Wait. What?”
Carol held the paper up. “You developed your own resistance to the virus.”
“I did?” Kelly smiled to herself. “Yay. Go
