Fallen

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The camp was built by the time I stumbled into it a good six hours after I escaped the subway tunnel. Traveling from there to the camp was hard since I had the bite on my calf but also because I had to get out of the maze that was Seattle. Once out, I had to give the Settlement a wide berth so they would not spot me.

Past the Settlement, the camp for the United Regions soldiers was seven miles away. That was what Martin said over the communicator though it felt much longer than that.

I walked past the outlooks. The two soldiers nodded to me. Their eyes lingered down at my shirt. A quick glance down explained the shocked look on their faces. I was covered in dry, smeared mud. Blood had leaked down my leg but the wound had stopped bleeding and started to scabbed over.

Touching my forehead, crusty dirt fell to the ground. Great.

"Where's Admiral Sparrow?" I asked. Dad said he would be here when we talked about the plan a few days ago.

"You'll want to see Commander Martin. Big tent in the middle."

Thanking the soldier, I passed him and walked into the camp. Small one man tents were scattered around the dead, Wasteland forest. The soldiers sat around in clusters, talking to one another. A few of them glanced up and stared at me.

Past them, was three large, military tents. Assuming the middle one was the command tent, I walked in.

Men stood around the table in the center of the tent. Maps and tablets littered the foldable black table. "Commander Martin."

Martin, Dad's second in command, looked up at me from the head of the table. When I first met him, he reminded me of the perfect military soldier. A fresh, clean face. His hair short combed to the side. His face blank of emotion, but upon seeing me covered in dirt, he seemed surprised.

The rest of the men turned toward me. Most of them I didn't know for they were general military. But there was –

"Dear god Mel, what happened to you?" Commander Cedar rounded the men and came to my side.

"Don't go through the Seattle subway," I smiled at Cedar, glad to see one welcoming face. "Where Admiral Sparrow?"

"He is in York," Martin said. "There was something that needed his attention there. Anything to report?"

"Nothing new. The plan still goes. After I get my leg looked at and get some rest, I'm going back into the Settlement at night to meet up with Colt and Ben with your finalized plan."

"What the hell happened to your leg?" Cedar looked down at it. "It looks like you got bit!"

"Yes, I did and don't ask please."

"Doctor Hunt is in the tent to the right. When we are ready, we will tell you," Martin said.

I nodded and left the tent.

In the next one, Doctor Hunt was sitting at a makeshift desk. "I don't think you'll like what I got," I said in a way of welcoming.

Hunt looked up at me from the reports he was reading. "Try me."

"A radiated human bite."

"Shit. Get on the cot."

To the side of the tent was a cot with a small, white medical cabinet beside that. Hunt went to it, pulling out the things he would need to clean and stick up the bite. Lastly, he pulled out an IV bag.

Sitting on the cot, he put in the needle that pumped fluids and antibiotics into my body to clean out whatever got into my body from the bite.

I laid down on the cot and Hunt looked at the bite. "It's not that bad. They didn't take a chunk of skin out. But tried to. I'm going to numb the area, clean it out and then stitch it up."