To Be A Warrior

Chapter 38: Elastic Heart

"It's just like anything else in Abel-long lasting," The redhead adds, and I'm sure Nicole rolls her eyes as I push away and head for the bed. I lay down, barely registering the feeling of the soft covers against my skin, just like I can barely register whatever turn the conversation between Sam, Nicole and Paula takes.

Even now, when the air is filled with chatter and the room full of light and comfort, my mind can't stop wondering back to whatever happened with that zombie. My shuddering breath that's released as the memory resurfaces is enough to make Sam raise a brow at me over his shoulder. He lifts his hands up.

'Are you okay?' He asks silently, and I push myself up into a sitting position to sign a reply.

'I'm okay. Just thinking.'

He nods, but before he can think to sign or say anything else, Nicole speaks up.

"I can see a few zombies to the east, Sam. Don't seem to be moving like V-Types. Probably regular zoms."

"Yeah, I can see them on my cams. Looks like normal zombies," He says as he looks back at the monitors. "Still, you should pick up the pace. If they get too close and start making a lot of noise, it could attract V-Types."

"Has any other scouting groups seen where the V-Type horde is heading?" Paula asks, and he huffs.

"Well, I mean, we know they're moving. They don't seem to have a particular place in mind, but we can't get too close to them or else we'd risk either losing a runner or leading a couple hundred V-Types straight to Abel. From what I've picked up on my cams, they move in really weird patterns. I've shared the feed with Ronnie so she can analyze it. Although I think she's more interested in that finger from the uh... healing immortal zombie that bit Peter a few days ago."

"Have you heard anything about that yet?" Nicole asks, and I cock my head to the side, curious about his answer, although the soft sigh tells me it won't be very rewarding.

"No, not really. Even though Veronica's servers are working better because of all that updated equipment we got her, she likes to keep to herself. She was the same when she was human, so I'm honestly not too surprised."

"Do you think she might have mentioned anything to Nadia?" I ask, getting him to glance over at me once more.

"Maybe. I'll send Nadia a Roufflenet message and ask later."

We go quiet for a moment, not really having anything to say and content in the quiet. At least, content for a moment. Just like before, though, thoughts of what happened last week resurface. It's like an itch in my mind, and no matter how much I ignore it I keep coming back to it.

I suppose it makes sense, since last week was something newly uncovered. I'm sure Peter's been thinking about this for a bit too. He knows I'm angry at him for running off when he got bitten, but the fact that he knows that he can make V-Types with cell regeneration... it must be getting to him.

I'll probably see him and Tom later tonight, try to think of some small talk that my help him keep his mind off of it, even if I can't keep my mind off of it.

There was a quote I heard a lot of when I was a kid. "Do as I say, not as I do." I always found it a stupid quote then, and for the most part I still find it stupid even now, but I understand it a tiny bit more in some of these cases when it comes to putting others' mental health above my own.

With a sigh of determination to get these thoughts out of my mind for the moment, I reach down to the floor and grab a book from under the bed. I'd stashed it here a few nights ago before falling asleep when I was too tired to actually go put it away in the coms desk drawer. I haven't had much time to actually get back to reading it.