The Diseased Heart

Chapter 23

It was the following morning after I had overheard the strange conversation, and it still had me shaken. I was wracking my brain to think if any other possibility, there was no way they were trying what I thought they were. Shaking off, I turned to the door that had just swung open with a creak. To my surprise, Olive lead in Maple and Jack.

Maple locked eyes with me, as I lay on the floor in the corner of the room, one hand behind my head. Raising my other hand, I gave a half wave, "Heya."

"Holy shit you're actually alive!"

Jack was staring in disbelief, "Seriously, how?! You looked like you got hit by a truck!"

I chuckled, allowing a faint growl underneath, "That's probably because I was."

"seriously?!"

I chuckled again, and sat up, leaning back against the wall with one arm slung over my knee. The group of three came over and all sat down, we were in a rough, spread out circle.

Maple looked at me again, confusedly, "What's that thing for?" Pointing at the torturous brace.

I sighed gustily, "They don't trust me enough to let my Crawler legs out, so I have to wear this torture device."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "Can't you take it off? Or?"

I shook my head, "Can't figure out how to, there's no clasp or lock or anything like that. But, putting that aside, how and why the hell are you guys here?"

Olive beamed, "The doctors and scientists here said they would let us all visit you! After my dad found out you actually saved me, they are letting us come here! All our parents are good friends, so Maple and Jack were allowed to as well."

I stared at her, "Your dad owns the museum, is he really so important he was able to get permission for you all to come here?"

She shrugged, "I dont really know how important he is, actually. It just confuses me."

Jack piped in, "Explaining to our parents the whole thing about going to see you in the forest was freaky. I thought they were going to kill us for 'putting ourselves in danger' or something, but they were actually alright with it -after a lot of convincing. I'm still baffled by that, too."

"I would be, my parents would probably kill me if our roles were reversed." My parents being dead no longer phased me. It had been so long and Crawlers tended to forget relationships that had no current impact, and my parents had been dead for months before I was even infected.

Maple snickered, "Jack looked like he was about to freak, I swear. Your mom is scary though, I'll admit."

"You have no idea."

That made Olive and I laugh. In doing so, I felt a slight pop on my side, followed by faint pain. I winced and looked at my side, "What the..."

The others looked over, Maple yelped at the sight of blood slowly soaking through my hoodie. It was barely showing, but she was always squeamish with this stuff.

Jack spoke slowly, "What is that from?"

I shrugged, "Probably one of the bullets. The people here actually stitched the holes together to help me heal. That was probably the stitches snapping or, whatever word would be right to call that."

Maple gagged at my description, I chuckled, "Did that really gross you out that much? You realize you're talking to a person who eats flesh."

"I'm aware, but that is still disgusting! How are you so mellow??"

I shook my head, chuckling, "My pain tolerance is through the roof at this point, it's ridiculous. I've been through enough pain to not be as influenced by it, and I have the scars to prove it."

She shuddered before looking down at my side again, I rolled my eyes and covered the slowly growing red spot with my hand. It would stop bleeding in a few minutes, and the spot was barely the size of a grape.

"What I wouldn't give to have that kind of pain tolerance. Even just the memory of that wolf hurts." Olive said with a wince. I felt terrible it had happened to her, but I also knew there was nothing more I could have done. This outcome was as good as things could have been.

Jack looked at her, "Guess if you had the choice, you wolfn't have gone back to the forest with us?"

I cringed and Maple turned to him with a blank stare, "I will literally stab you in the throat."

He pointed at me, "That's her job."

I narrowed my eyes, "What are you six?"

"What are you, three hundred and ten?"

I growled halfheartedly at him. It almost made me forget about those two strange scientists and their plans from the night before. Almost.