Ellie set her pen down on the desk, pushing back and kicking her feet up on it. When Joey finally looked up and caught her eyes that was when he came in nonchalantly. Joey looked around the office and said, “Hey...what are you up to, Ellie?”
“Just looking to see who’s up for the day to start off our donations.”
Timmy pulled on Joey’s jersey and said, “What kind of donations? What are you guys talking about.”
Joey said, “She’s a vampire.”
Timmy hid behind Joey which basically made him disappear. Ellie said, “I’m not a vampire, Timmy, my name is Ellie and I am about as close to a nurse as you are going to get around here...or at least if you needed to make a donation, I’d be the one who you get to talk to.”
Timmy didn’t need to think about his answer. He was sure every time that someone asked him about it and the answer was always no. He didn’t do needles and especially wouldn’t mess with them if he had some sort of choice. Timmy who didn’t like to make himself out to be a little kid because until you hit those teen years and realized it very much wasn’t going to slow down, you always wanted that next experience in life. Timmy replied, “Well, you know I’d like to help you out with you being a vampire and all, Ellie, but see I ain’t all that big just yet and I figure that I probably should be five foot tall or something before I start getting rid of it. My sister wouldn’t be too happy either if you go poking holes in my arms.”
“Don’t worry, we don’t try and take anyone as young as you. Besides, I think just Joey was on the list today.”
“No way, you wrote something down wrong. You know I don’t let anyone touch the gun show. I just wanted to see if maybe you needed any help. Not with taking blood but you know helping stuff.”
“You guys want to go make sure that the perimeter looks good maybe? Or do you want to make sure our count is right for what we should have in the coolers?”
Mark knocked on the door before Joey could say anything else. Ellie looked up, smiling, unsure what anyone would want and why so many people would have to come to her office when she was trying to keep her mind off of what was going on today and the billion emotions she was dealing with. Mark asked, “Do you have a free room, preferably a lab, where I can start setting up? I don’t want to waste any time waiting to get things begun once they get back and we know everything worked as expected.”
“Oh, so once they get back, you’ll be set to go, right? Not to rush you, we’ve been at this since day one, stuck in camps to keep us safe, training to make sure we can think on our feet and overall have probably had to deal with more effed up stuff than would be healthy for someone our age. I mean if this thing actually ever ends, could you imagine what kind of therapy we are going to have to get to get right in the head?” Ellie said.
“I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone to listen to you. They had said that there were a few different colleges that might have what I need,” Mark questioned.
Joey, who not to Mark’s offense in any way at all, hadn't really thought of him other than the cover of the book that was portrayed. He wouldn’t admit it, of course, which would be good for him. Joey hadn’t been a small guy when he’d first come to be one of the group and with all of the help and training he’d gone through, he’d definitely taken some of what little baby fat he had had and turned it into his gun show that he was overly proud of. Joey asked, “Is there a reason we can’t go get the stuff, that we can’t pick up the things needed?”
“Well, son, these are very complicated items with really long names.”
Ellie was going to try to stop Joey or to say something but there was no chance. There was a glint of evil in his smirk. She knew whatever it was, was probably well deserved as well she hated people making fun of him or judging him. Everyone on the base had grown to love Joey, who at first might have been a bit standoffish, however, when the world is in need of hugs, this guy never ran out, nor did he ever judge or hold a grudge against anyone.
Ellie always thought that if she’d not been an only child that having a brother like Joey would be a blessing. He’d been there quite a lot while she was going through depression mixed with a changing body and mind on what seemed at times a daily basis. Not having a mother there to be consoled by about the loss of the boy she knew she loved made nothing easier. She felt like the world was on her shoulders at times, knowing that all of this started just because a man and a woman fell in love with each other and then tragedy in the way of something horrible called cancer, which she thought by far were the worst words in the English language, she thought somewhat selfishly, because it was going to potentially take her best friend away. Of course, had she or anyone with a soul known about the repercussions of “the cure” to cancer that Frank Fox had come up with after hundreds of hours of research and development alongside his assistant, who only sped up the end of the world by forging the results in their test subjects, coupled with her mom going faster than
