Warm Bodies: The Answer

The Promise

"JOSHUA!" Samuel's voice boomed as he turned back from Foley, his eyes wide with anger and disbelief.

Caleb jumped in his brother's grip, his heart thundering in his chest. But Joshua stood up straight, and faced his dad down.

"Doc Adams is dead," he answered, his voice steady. "He died about an hour ago. Broken neck."

"HOW?!" Samuel roared, thrusting his face into his son's.

Joshua didn't flinch. "He fell sir, tripped over a chair, hit some shelves on the way down."

"And you saw this?!" Their father spluttered.

Joshua nodded. "Came into the room sir, just as he tripped."

"What room?!"

"Quarantine," Joshua answered, and gestured at Caleb, "Doc was treating... Eric."

Samuel's eyes flicked back to Caleb, and Caleb felt himself shrink to a tiny speck of nothing under that gaze.

God above... whatever it is, I'm know I'm guilty of it, I'm sorry, I promise I'll never do it again, I'll-

Another of Samuel's soldiers stepped forward, leaning into the commander.

"Sir, we need to get these men treated asap, Saul's lost a lot of bl-"

"Doc is dead, Stevens," Samuel shot back, his eyes turning away from Caleb. "You wanna tell me how we're supposed to do that?!"

"That kid's a medic."

Silence descended as everyone turned to Foley, who'd spoken up from the back of the group.

Caleb's heart jumped. Foley was pointing at him.

"What?" he whispered, but his voice was overwhelmed by his dad's angry bark of the same.

Joshua strangled Caleb's arm once again, turning to stare at him with eyes wide in warning. Samuel hadn't seen though, he'd turned to Foley.

"I heard him say it," Foley continued, still gesturing at Caleb. "He offered to help doc, but doc was already dead. He said 'I'm a medic'."

Slowly, Samuel turned back to Caleb, and something in his eyes had changed. They were less hard, more thoughtful.

"This true?" he asked.

Joshua's hand dug into Caleb's arm again and he spoke up. "Yes sir, it's true."

Samuel put up a silencing hand again, and moved closer to face Caleb. The nearness of his father made his hair stand on end.

"Is it true, Eric?"

Caleb found himself nodding, and he tried to speak, but his throat had gone bone dry. So he just kept nodding, until Joshua clamped down on his arm again and he stopped.

"You in a fit state to work on my men?" Samuel asked, his eyes tracking over Caleb's face, before he pointed to the IV line going from the bag Caleb found himself suddenly holding, to the needle in Caleb's arm.

Surprised, Caleb stared down at himself, not understanding what he was doing holding a bag of clear liquid. He almost dropped it, but at that moment Joshua pulled him around and nodded at his father.

"He is sir, I'll make sure of it."

Samuel's finger flicked between them both. "The blood on your faces, where-"

"DEAD! DEAD OUTSIDE!"

The entire group turned as one towards the sound, and across the road Caleb saw a woman running from the wall holding a little boy in her arms.