Warm Bodies: The Answer

The Lesson

Joshua laughed above him. "Drink it kid, it'll work faster that way."

Rowan peered up through slitted eyelids, trying vainly to ward off the interrogative sun. "What...?" he asked, hoping Joshua would know what he meant.

The man smirked high above him, and truthfully, didn't look much better than Rowan felt. His eyes were puffy and shadowed. A mass of yellowed bruises dotted his neck, and oddly, there were new bruises on his cheek and jaw. He had no idea where those had come from. Maybe last night... what had happened last night?

"Hangover cure," Joshua answered, and he crouched down against the opposite wall. "Tomato juice, cayenne pepper, some other stuff. Adeline makes it, never fails." He gestured with a finger. "Drink it."

Rowan made a face. He hated tomato juice. But, it felt like his brain was collapsing in on itself, so, lesser of two evils.

As quickly as he could, he drank the entire glass. And promptly started coughing as his mouth lit on fire.

"Holy shit," he croaked, and searched frantically for a sink as his throat screamed murder. "Help! Hot! Fuck!"

Joshua rolled his eyes at him, grabbed the glass and filled it with water from the sink before lowering it to him. "Here."

As Rowan frantically drained the glass, trying to douse the lava he'd poured down his gullet, Joshua shook his head at him.

"You're a real lightweight, kid," he said, smirking again. "Caleb used to do three times what you managed last night, and still made room for another shot. Don't they drink back in your city?"

Rowan got on his knees and refilled the glass, and drained it again, leaning back against the wall. Things were coming together in his head now. Despite the hole he'd just burned through his stomach, his head wasn't pounding quite so much, and the light wasn't as bad. He could think. And he did, trying to remember what had happened after he'd been pulled from Julie by Joshua.

He hadn't wanted to go. She'd been in a lot of pain, and it was all his fault. Jesus, it'd been horrible, knowing he'd hit her. Didn't matter that he'd been Caleb when he'd struck her down. Didn't matter at all. And he didn't understand why he hadn't stopped Caleb. When Julie had pushed him away, bringing Caleb up to help Joshua, he'd fallen somewhere deep. He'd been well and truly lost, and only Joshua's threat, whispered in Caleb's ear had brought him back.

It terrified him. What if Caleb hurt her again? How would he stop it?

Would he be able to?

Julie had drifted to sleep then, and he knew if he didn't do what Joshua wanted, the man would just make life more of a hell for them both. He'd made Joshua promise that he wouldn't leave Caleb and Julie alone ever again, and after he had, Rowan brought Caleb up quick, and... and it was all hazy from there on.

Samuel. Samuel had talked to him... about... ugh. The headache started building again, and Rowan knew he was treading shaky ground. He wasn't going to give himself to Caleb right now, forget about it.

So he stopped trying to remember, and gazed across at Joshua, remembering that the asshole had just asked him a question.

Rowan sighed, not wanting to talk to the guy, knowing that didn't matter. "Alcohol's banned in the city."

Joshua's eyes grew so wide, they could have popped from their sockets.

"Banned?!" the man gasped, and opened his mouth as if to ask something else, then closed it and shook his head. "Now that right there is a sin."

Rowan's mouth tugged back a little, despite himself. "I don't miss it. Was never a big drinker."

"You poor fools," Joshua said, still shaking his head. Then he looked back up at Rowan. "We'll fix that. Get you back up to shape."