The City, Part Four, Oh Sh*t

CHAPTER 12

What the hell was that? From inside the store, a noise escapes, like someone absolutely butchering a recorder. Oh shit, Rye! I run into the Dollar General, towards the scream, and see a walker clawing furiously at a fallen over shelf. The shelf isn't lying flat though, something is under it. Shit..

The zombie turns towards me. It's a former worker here, still with the I.D. on its chest. It runs towards me. I grab something next to me and point it towards the walker. It's a broom. The zombie impales itself on it, not even noticing as it tries to get to me. As fast as i can, still trying to hold the broom, I pull the spear out of its sheathe on my back. It's handcrafted, but that doesn't mean it's not sharp. 

I slash it into the walker's head from the side. the skin is tough, and the bones are in the way, so i grimace, having to push deeper, to its brain. Once I reach my target, the walker screeches, like nothing else I've ever heard, and falls, dead. 

"Rye! Shit, are you okay?" I run towards the fallen shelf, seeing him under. I almost break my back pulling the heavy chunk of metal off of him. He's not moving. Getting closer, I can see his chest rise and lower slightly, but it's bent at an odd angle, with a dent in it. "Shit, shit, shit.. Rye, c'mon, wake up.." I have to take him somewhere. I don't know anything about medical stuff, but Fern does, she can help. 

How do I pick him up though? If I do it wrong, I'll only make him worse. what can I do? I can't bring him to Fern, and if I leave him here, he could get attacked by another zombie.. Fuck. Ok. I look around the Dollar General. Maybe I can find something. 

Turning to the zombie, still on the floor, I can see something on its belt. A colourful stick, attached to a key. A key to what? Why does it have something so big attached to it? Now isn't the time for questions though, maybe if I can find somewhere to put Rye.. 

That's it! The key leads to the bathrooms! I can lock him in one of those while I run to get Fern! But will he be okay, all by himself? What if something happens? What if he has a seizure? Would he have a seizure? I don't know, but my only option is to get someone who can help him.

Carefully, I drag him to the bathroom, along with some yoga mats from an aisle next to him. I lay them down as cushioning, putting him on top of them. "Please, just stay like that for a minute.. I'm gonna be back soon, I promise.." I can't help but stay and stare at him for a second, willing him to magically heal and wake up, so we can just go home. But he doesn't, and I have to go and get Fern before something happens to him. 

CHAPTER 13

"He's passed out, huh? Are you sure the walker didn't bite him?" Fern and I are back at the Dollar General, and I stop unlocking the door when she asks me this.

"I.. don't know.. I don't think so? I guess he did have a cut of some sort.." Hearing this, she pulls out her dagger, having it at the ready. But thinking of what she's preparing for makes me feel sick, so I don't. 

I open the bathroom door and luckily, he hasn't moved. Fern puts her knife away and walks in, setting down her bag and digging through it. Rye is still breathing, very shallowly. After looking him over, Fern sighs, clearly annoyed. "He's not too well off. One of his ribs are broken, and it might've punctured his lungs. Not to mention how easily that scratch could get infected.. Even if I fix him up so he's all better, we don't have time for that before it gets dark out. We're going to have to stay the night here." 

"Oh, damn, sorry.."

"Don't worry, I wasn't gonna do anything else today anyways" She pulls out a gauze pad and a container of alcohol, taking a sip before dousing the cloth with it. Then, she pads the scratch carefully, fresh blood staining it. After cleaning and covering the wound, she turns to me. 

"Ok, now I need to set the rib. You need to hold him down incase he wakes up. Or starts seizing.." She shows me where to hold, his head and arms, and she sets her hands on his chest. Quickly, she pushes down, causing a loud popping noise as his rib sets back into place. 

He tries to jump up, but I stop him, and he groans in pain. He lies there for a minute, and I think that he's passed back out, but then he opens his eyes, looking confused. "Blaze..? Fern? What the hell? Did you just break my rib?" 

She scoffs at him. "No actually. I set it back into place. You're welcome." "Back into place? So it was broken before.. when the shelf fell.." He stops for a moment, thinking, until fear crosses his face "The walker! It's not locked up anymore! It's still here!" He tries to sit up, but he winces, and I help him lay back down.

"Don't worry. I took care of it." He looks up at me. He knows I hate killing them, he does too, but what else was I supposed to do? "Hey, quit chatting. I need to check your lungs. Take deep breaths." Fern glares at him. Most people think that she's mean, but we know her well enough to know that she's nicer than she seems.

Rye has to shut his eyes from the pain, but he breathes, and fern listens carefully. After a minute, she sits up again. "Sounds like there's no leaking. You should be good, just take it slow." "So.. can we go home now? Puff's been alone all day.."

He probably wants to go home so he can rest. The yoga mats might be better than the floor, but they still aren't very good. "We cant, it's too late to get there before dark.." He looks down. "Oh.. ok."

CHAPTER 14

The next morning, we say goodbye to Fern as she heads back to her house. Her instructions were that Rye move as little as possible until she checks up on him again, so he rides in the cart with the cat food. Rye puts on a smile as he waves goodbye to her, but it fades once we're out of sight. 

"Everything okay in the cabin, cap?" He looks weary as he replies, "Yeah, just tired. Didn't get much sleep last night.." Of course, I know he didn't get much sleep. He didn't get any sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he would shuffle around, fighting imaginary monsters. 

"How're you feeling?" I can see him wince every time the cart jostles, but still, he tries to smile as he replies, "Fine," even though he has to breathe it to avoid more pain. I feel bad, but there's not much we can do.. Most of the medical supplies, especially pain relievers, were among the first things to be raided at the beginning of the apocalypse.

Once we reach the apartment, we come across a problem. One thing we didn't think about is how we were going to get Rye up the fire escape. He looks dauntingly up the building. "What are we gonna do..?"

"Well, I guess I'm gonna have to carry you up there.." Gently, I scoop him up, sitting him on top of my shoulders so that I can climb. He wraps around my head, afraid of falling, and we head up.

By the time we reach the apartment, my energy is completely drained. I carry Rye over to his bed, setting him down as gently as possible while shaking from exhaustion, before plopping down next to him. His eyes are closed. Is he asleep?

"Rye?" at the sound of his name, takes a deep breath in and opens his eyes. "Yeah?" "You feelin okay?" I know I've already asked him this, but I want the real answer. I look him in the eyes as I ask.

"My ribs hurt?" He says it like it's a question, guessing what I want to hear. I nod. "Ok, what about.. mentally? You didn't get any sleep last night." He turns away from me. "I told you earlier, I'm fine." Ok. If he's not gonna talk about it, he's not gonna talk about it. I'll wait until he's ready.

"Hey. Get some sleep. I'm gonna go get the cat food." "Ok." He closes his eyes, and I get up, prepping for my second climb.