But what if she was the cure to the disease? We would not be able to live our happy and dangerous life here in this small contaminated town any more. We would have to find help somewhere, some form of scientific life people who could take blood samples and create an immunity out of Chelsea’s own.
I decided to put the thought to the back of my head and try to get some sleep. I wanted to try another run tomorrow, but it was not for the supplies. If we had to travel somewhere, I needed to know my enemy. I needed to know how tough they are and how to beat them in more effective ways.
My thoughts wandered from place to place, restlessly keeping me awake. I did not get to fall into an actual slumber until near five in the morning, and awoke an hour later with another clattering of pots and pans. “Sorry,” I heard her whisper
I mechanically got up to go undo the bonds on her arm, “Why are you up so early?”
“I don’t know,” She said. “I guess I just can’t sleep for some reason. A bit restless is all. Sorry for waking you…again.”
I smiled a tired smile, “It’s fine. I need to feed the cat anyway. She’ll get annoyed if I don’t soon.”
Chelsea and I went downstairs together and into the kitchen. Once there I fed Coal without even thinking about it and proceeded to start up breakfast. Chelsea seemed to be bobbing in and out of sleep.
“I was chatting with the guy in Colorado today,” I said, starting up conversation.
Chelsea looked up, too tired to respond, so I just continued. “He showed me an article about the contaminated, how long it takes to change and the likes. You should be sucking my blood right now, according to the article.”
Chelsea looked appalled at first, then understood. “Does this mean-“
“I don’t know yet, and there’s no reason to get hasty,” I opened the box to make pancakes for breakfast. Thank god I only had to add water. “But I think it would be best if we didn’t jump to conclusions but played it safe. Can’t hurt.”
Chelsea jumped up and wrapped me in a clumsy, half asleep hug. She kissed me on the neck over and over and over, tears running down her face. “I’m going to be okay then?”
“I think so.”
Chapter 9
“I feel fine, actually I feel pretty great!” Chelsea said three nights after my first encounter with the world map of darkness. “Really, I think I’ll be okay.”
I checked her forehead out of habit to see if she had a fever. Even if she did, I wouldn’t know what to do about it. My eyes moved from her head to her toe, stalling somewhere along the way, to inspect her appearance.
She looked fine from my inspection. Color was fully back in her face and lips, she wasn’t clammy or pale, and her eyes were deep blue, not any shade of yellow. There were no signs of any contamination as far as I could tell. The back of my hand rested on her forehead with a slight warmth coming from her, though nothing out of the ordinary.
“Alright then,” I said, a stupid smile uncontrollably coming to my face. “I think that you might just be okay, although I might still have to tie you up…”
She giggled like a little girl, “Maybe I should tie you up. You have killed many of the contaminated, and might just be too dangerous to leave free roaming around me.”
“Woah, slow down there. I still may have to defend us should the situation occur.”
“Well I think that I can handle it.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Is that a challenge?” she asked.
A thought occurred to me just then – Chelsea had no experience fighting the contaminated. We both needed to be stronger and more able if we were ever to leave the house, or be forced out.
“Actually, let’s make it one,” I said. Chelsea gave me a confused look in response. “Well, I doubt that we will be able to stay here forever. Besides, we know almost nothing about the contaminated. What their weaknesses are, the most effective way to kill them, what their strengths are. I mean, I may have killed a few, okay maybe four, but that doesn’t make me an expert slayer of contaminated.”
She looked up in thought, hands resting on her hips. “I do believe that you are right, though I’m hardly in decent shape for such vigorous activity.”
“Start running now, then,” I said with my hands extended like claws.
She stood perfectly still, no sign of amusement or emotion on her face. “Oh fine, have it your way. But you should really start doing something to get into decent shape. After all, you were pretty sick for a while and haven’t been able to do much in terms of exercise, well neither of us have.” I began to pace around the kitchen, thinking up ideas. “Why don’t you run a few laps in the field behind the house?” I finally suggested.
She gave a sly smile, “Not a bad idea. This can actually work out for the both of us. While I’m running, you can be on guard duty. If a contaminated approaches, you can smash them to pieces,” her smile was oddly wide when she said that. “This might work out better than expected.”
We put the plan into motion, both of us changing into more comfortable exercise clothes. I put on a cold resistant nylon shirt with a t-shirt over it and sweatpants that were just a bit larger than my body could handle. Fortunately us skinny guys had the wonderful tightening strap to
