Part 14 (2/2)

She stepped onto the pavement, and daggers shot through her feet. In the forest, she'd forced herself not to focus on a problem she could do nothing about, but with the possibility of shoes or medical supplies in every car, the pain flared to life.

The first truck sat empty with its doors hanging open as if its occupants had left in a hurry. She popped the trunk to find it empty as well. The next three were more of the same. Her breath wavered as she limped to the last vehicle nearby. Peeking in the window, she spied a duffle bag.

”Please, please, please,” she whimpered, pulling on the door handles until she found an unlocked one. Crawling onto the back seat of the car, her body clenched with waves of pain from the stress of her journey.

She felt like a child opening a Christmas present-the antic.i.p.ation of the unknown lying in her lap and the hope it would contain what she most desperately wanted. Or in this case, needed.

The duffle bag gave off a pungent smell of something familiar yet strange. Inside, she found gym clothes. The s.h.i.+rt resembled the size of a blanket. If it hadn't been for the stench of old sweat and a gym locker room, she might have even considered using it. But the smell of filth spoke of too many possible germs to risk using the s.h.i.+rt for any purpose.

Tossing the bag and all its contents to the floor, she closed the car door, curled up on her side on the seat, and cried. She was screwed. She couldn't walk on the scratchy pavement with feet this cut up, and going into the forest again wouldn't help, either.

She couldn't even bring herself to look at the condition of her feet. By the throbbing, she knew they were bad. Bad enough she risked infection if she didn't get them cleaned and protected soon.

A knock against the gla.s.s window sent her bolting upright. She looked around frantically. Every window had a person staring at her. She reached for her knife.

”Get away from me. Leave me alone,” she shouted.

”We can help you,” the person in the driver's side window said.

Yeah, sure, right. She almost believed him. None of the people she'd run into so far had wanted to help her. She wouldn't fall for their trick.

”You look like you need help,” the one behind her added, her eyes flickering down to the stickiness making Sara's s.h.i.+rt cling to her body. Blood. She'd been trying to ignore it, but it probably made her look gruesome. She didn't want to think about how it'd gotten there or whom it belonged to. Hers... Chris'.... She prayed the cut on her chest had stayed clean.

”I said leave me alone. I don't need your help.” Sara scooted into the middle of the seat, trying to stay out of grabbing distance of any of the windows, even though she knew she was trapped.

The door opened.

”I'm not afraid to use this!” She thrust her knife out in front of her, swis.h.i.+ng it side to side in jerky movements she hoped would scare them off.

A man with a gentle smile and dark hair reached out to her. ”I'm a doctor, and I can see your feet are in serious need of medical attention. I a.s.sure you, my friends and I mean you no harm.”

”I don't believe you. What do you want from me? I don't have any supplies.” Her voice broke, giving away vulnerabilities she didn't want to confess. ”I have nothing you could want.”

Another person poked his head into the door. ”We just want to help you. We don't need anything from you. We have enough already.”

Sara eyed them suspiciously. If they wanted to attack her, wouldn't they have done it already? Was it possible she'd found people who hadn't lost their minds when their society started to collapse?

The guy claiming to be a doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of bandages still in their packaging. ”I only have a few things with me, but you're welcome to them. At least they will help a little. Or if you want, you can come with us to the colony. It's not a far walk, and I'll be able to clean up your injuries with sterile water and ointments.”

She bit the inside of her cheek, debating. It seemed reckless to go with strangers, but also impractical not to take the opportunity for medical help she desperately needed. What would Dane do if he were here? What was the smart choice?

”If I go, I can leave whenever I want?”

His brow creased as if he was surprised and a little disturbed she'd think anything else. ”Yes, of course. You can stay as long as you need to or leave as soon as you want.”

Sara hesitated a moment longer before s.h.i.+fting toward the open door. At this point she had nothing left to lose. Her feet needed medical care, and these people, whoever they were, had offered some. She had to trust their intentions were good.

She still held her knife at the ready, just in case.

She cringed, wobbling unsteadily and leaning against the car for support, when her feet touched the pavement. Her body felt heavy, weighted down by injury and stress. Hunger gnawed a hole in her stomach as she realized she hadn't eaten anything since sometime the day before. A lot had happened since then, and she felt as if she'd expended all her stored energy.

The doctor put his hand on her arm, but she jerked away from him, forcing herself to stand upright despite the agony.

”We can carry you.” His voice was so kind it almost brought tears to her eyes. How long had it been since she'd heard someone other than Dane speak this way to her?

As much as she wanted to trust them, to allow them to carry her, provide her with help, comfort, and caring, she couldn't. Medical care might be a necessity, but trusting these people wasn't.

”I'll walk.” She took a shaky step to prove her point. Fisting her hands, she pressed her fingernails into her palms to distract herself from the pain in her feet.

The doctor nodded then started off toward wherever they were going. Sara counted to ten in her head again. She'd made it this far. She could make it farther.

She'd make it as far as she had to until she reunited with Dane and her family.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Sara eyed Travis, the doctor. He smiled up at her from his place at her feet. He'd been working on them for a while, longer than she'd expected. Seemed her feet were in worse shape than she'd realized, or maybe worse than she'd wanted to admit.

He'd cleaned her cuts, removed a few splinters, applied ointment to help prevent infection, and applied a thick layer of bandages, hopefully allowing her to walk with more comfort than pain. She doubted it would.

Sara looked around. They didn't have any kind of medical facility set up, just a bed in the corner of the room and a table with supplies. The rest of the warehouse was divided into other areas: blankets and pillows in rows to make a sleeping area, a table and chairs near a wash basin, and a collection of canned goods for a kitchen.

She looked at the other people in the room. ”Why isn't anyone wearing masks or gloves?” she asked. She hadn't been able to find out much information about the infection but maybe these people could give her some. ”Is it true the infection only spreads through bodily fluids? Shouldn't people here still be careful?”

”The virus is only spread through blood, which is why I'm wearing gloves. Otherwise, you're safe.”

”Then why hasn't life gone back to normal yet? Why is everyone still acting like it's the apocalypse?”

”Because it sort of is. If you get the virus, you almost always spread it before you die. You start bleeding from your mucous membranes, coughing up blood. It looks like something out of a horror movie.”

Sara's head swam with the new information. ”Disgusting.”

”The problem is they haven't figured out what to do once the person has it.”

”So what happens?” she asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

”Quarantine them until they bleed to death. And if that isn't sad enough, the mess they leave behind is the very thing to infect the next person. Clean-up is a b.i.t.c.h without the right precautions.”

Sara shuddered. ”Have, um, have you had to clean up the mess here?”

”No. We've been lucky so far. You're the first stranger we've seen in a long time and you're bleeding. I know it's made some of our people nervous, which is why you're down here with us instead of with the rest of the colony.”

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