Chelsea stood next to the bed, a shocked look on her face. “Sorry,” she said.
I sighed in relief and leaned the bat on the nightstand between our beds. She had not turned, just a slip up while getting up, unless she turned and was able to retain speech, but that would be too advanced for the contaminated I think, “You okay?” I asked.
She nodded, “Yeah, I think so. I just was getting up to go to the bathroom. Guess I forgot about our little contraption.” She gave a nervous laugh at that while her free hand played with the ropes tying down the other.
I moved towards her to help with the knot, all the while tripping over and stubbing my toes on the pans in between the beds. Once loose, she slid her hand out from the tie and gave me a quick hug before darting off into the bathroom.
Deciding not to stand in the bedroom, basking in the most glorious sounds of peeing, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. A slight patter was moving from the basement, then a thud of hollow aluminum. I opened the refrigerator without thinking about it and pulled out wet cat food. I sloshed a bit of it around in the can with a fork before placing it in the cat’s plate. It smelled almost good, the wet cat food. I had always been tempted to try a bit of it, but I could never work up the courage, not to mention that the cat would probably kill me if I took her food.
She ran up the stairs of the basement as soon as she caught its scent, howling meows of delight the entire way. “Breakfast time, Coal,” I said to my cat. She was shorthaired and primarily black other than the white of her feet and lower leg, a dot of white next to her nose and a streak of white across her stomach. I was only able to catch a quick look from her yellow eyes before she began to devour the last of her favorite wet cat food. We still had some dry food left, but the wet food was her favorite. It was her specialty meal.
She ate with strange intensity though I had not been starving her. Actually, the cat was probably eating the best out of anyone in the house. She made light grunting sounds as she ate. Whether it was from enjoyment or because she ate too fast, I did not know.
I pet her back as she ate, my hand flowing across her soft fur all the way down to her thin tail. I don’t know how long I had been sitting next to Coal, but after a while I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. A few seconds later, Chelsea emerged from the hallway.
“How are you feeling?” I asked. She did not look any paler than the previous day, but actually looked as if there was more color in her cheeks. Maybe she was getting over her disease, only to be plagued with another one.
“Better,” she said in an unconvincing tone. I gave her the eyebrows of disbelief. “Okay, well maybe not better, but certainly not worse.” Chelsea walked into the kitchen and sat down on one of the seats surrounding the plain round table in the center of the room. “I don’t feel any worse anyway. Maybe I’m getting over the cold or whatever it was.”
I placed my hand on her forehead. It was warm but not excessively so. No sign of fever was a good sign. While she may not have noticed, every time our eyes met I was searching for some sign on yellow, some sign of a change, a contaminated type of change.
Finally satisfied with my checkup, I stood up and turned on the stove burner with a frying pan on it. “Scrambled?” I asked. She nodded as I pulled out the last two eggs in our collection. I sighed, holding them for her to see. “These are our last two eggs, and I don’t think that I can go to the supermarket for more.”
She saw the worry in my voice, “Well do you still have any of the frozen bacon in the freezer? I mean if we have to, I guess we can eat that for breakfast.”
I cracked the eggs and dumped them into a bowl to scramble the yolks with a fork. Once finished, I poured the contents onto the frying pan. Sizzling protein commenced.
“I’m sure that we’ll be okay, though I’m beginning to doubt the convoy’s return.”
Chelsea laughed at that, a sweet and honest laugh. It had been our inside joke that the convoy would return some day. Whether it was before or after the total destruction of the world was yet to be seen. She began to settle down as I flipped the eggs without a spatula, way cooler and chicks dig cooler things, though Chelsea really didn’t have a wide variety of males to currently choose from…
“Hey,” she said, grabbing the back of my shirt in a gentle and affectionate way. “I’ve never really thanked you for everything.”
“Everything?” I asked.
She smiled, “Yeah, for all of this. You took me into your home and have provided more than what should have been expected from a boyfriend only dating me for a few days before this all started.”
She was standing now, arms around me. “You have really taken care of me better than I could ask for. So, thanks!” she pecked me on the cheek at that.
I stood, awestruck
