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Seemingly hours later, Tal and Fin reappeared, jogging over to him. Tallahassee opened my door and said,
"It's clear, only a few bodies. Come on, let's get moving." He reached in and put an arm around my back to help me down. My head was light, but if wasn't spinning like it was earlier. Tal kept his hand on my back, steadying me when I needed it as he led me to the room he had picked out.
The room was on the second floor, to one side of the building, easily defendable with a quick escape route if something was too happen. It was a very excellent choice, one that I would've made if I had been with him.
Once we got in the room, Tal had me immediately lie down on the bed further in the room. As soon as my head hit the pillow, my head started throbbing again. I half-heartedly laughed in pain as I said, with eyes clenched shut,
"Guess I hit my head harder than I thought." I heard Tal growl as he tossed his backpack and duffle onto the other bed. He started riffling through one of them as he said,
"You probably have a concussion, so you need to sleep and let you body heal itself. Since you can go to sleep and never wake up again, I'm going to keep waking you up throughout the night to make sure you're okay." I heard a pill bottle rattle around and soon after that, the crinkle of a water bottle.
"Here," I cracked open my eyes to find Tal kneeling beside the bed, holding out a pill and an open water bottle.
"What is it?"
"Ibuprofen, it'll help reduce the swelling of your brain."
"Tal, I know what Ibuprofen does, you didn't have to explain it." I took the pill and put it in my mouth before taking the bottle and carefully drank the pill down.
"Drink the rest of that too." Tal said as he stood up and walked into the bathroom. I heard a faucet turn on, so I asked,
"This place has running water still?" Tal's muffled voice answered,
"Yeah, a little bit, but I don't trust it for drinkin' though." Tal walked back in, carrying a wet cloth. He knelt down beside me again while he was folding the wash cloth. He laid it across my forehead, saying,
"This will help with the headaches as well." He was right, it immediately lessened the pain a bit. I closed my eyes, focusing on the coolness of the cloth for a bit, before I managed to say,
"Thanks, Tal." I couldn't see it, but I could hear the smile in his voice as he said,
"No problem, Spit Fuck." The last thing I heard was the coils of the other bed compressing as my mind faded off into sleep.
As promised, Tal woke me up periodically throughout the night to check on me. The final time I was awoken, it wasn't by him, it was by sunlight glaring into my eyes. I groaned, I didn't want to get up but I knew I had to, so I sat up and put my feet on the floor.
Sitting up caused my head to throb again, but it was much less intense than it was the night before. I rubbed my face before I looked up at the other bed, which was occupied by Tal.
He was fast asleep on his left side, arms crossed over his chest. He was facing the door, so his back was too me.
Finnegan was curled up between our beds. I almost stepped on him when I had thrown my legs over the side of the bed. He lifted his head, looking up at me, his brown eyes were soft.
I patted the bed beside me, calling him up. He happily obliged and jumped up beside me and laid across my lap. His boney elbows dug into my thigh, so I shifted him into a more comfortable position before I stroked his head.
I noted that he wasn't covered in blood and gore anymore, so Tal must've given him a bath. I ran my hands over his legs and body, looking for any wounds, luckily I couldn't find any. Whoever trained him had trained him brilliantly.
I gently moved Finnegan aside and stood, head only dully throbbing now, and stretched. My back and shoulder popped before I lowered my arms and walked to the window, bare feet silent on the short carpet.
I pushed the curtain aside slightly, looking back at Tal to make sure the ray of light that woke me up wouldn't do the same to him; the light was across his stomach, so that was okay. The morning sun was just barely grazing the horizon still making most of the sky a light blue already.
Across the street I could see a zombie stumbling down the sidewalk. It didn't seem to be in a rush, nor was it heading toward us, so I ignored it, knowing that if Tal woke up and I wasn't there, he hunt me down and feed me to the zombies himself.
I returned the curtain to its normal spot before walking over to my backpack, which was on a chair in the corner, and pulled out a clean set of clothes. With fresh clothes in hand, I walked into the bathroom. I reeked, and seeing how we hadn't come across a place with running water in a few days, it was understandable.
About twenty minutes later, I walked out of the bathroom to find Tallahassee just sitting up. My new clothes consisted of a black-tee shirt and dark-wash jeans. I was still rubbing the towel through the tangled mess called hair as Tal rubbed his face, saying,
"What are you doing up, Spit Fuck? You need to rest." I pulled the towel off my head and tossed it onto the foot of my bed, saying,
"I rested last night; I think I earned the ability to take a shower." Tal just sighed and looked at Fin, who was still where I had left him on my bed.
"How are you feeling?" he looked over at me before continuing, "Head still hurting?"
"Only a little, I feel much better." Tal nodded before he stood and intentionally popped his back by twisting his torso before he walked over to his duffle, which was on the low dresser. He riffled through it and pulled out a water bottle, which he tossed over to me, saying,
"Drink that." I caught the bottle and was twisting off the top as he disappeared into the bathroom. I noticed Fin was staring at me, so I figured he wanted some water. I stood and walked over to the dresser and poured some of my water into the small, plastic cup before offering to Fin.
He jumped down from the bed and ran the couple strides over to me and lapped at the water. He quickly finished the cup and sat back, looking up at me for more, so I obliged and poured him some more as I heard the shower turn on.
Fifteen minutes later Tal came sauntering out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his hips. I was sprawled across my bed, reading a book on World of Warcraft I had found a few days ago. I rolled my eyes as he started digging through his duffle, looking for clean clothes.
"You know, it's a lot easier if you get your clothes before the shower."
"You ain't my momma, so I can do whatever I want!" Tal called over his shoulder. I grinned before I replied,
"That's right, I could never give birth to something as ugly as you." Tal sent me the birdie over his shoulder as he finally pulled out some clothes. He glared at me as he walked by, but I could see the smile that wasn't on his lips in his eyes, so I knew he wasn't actually mad.
As he disappeared back into the bathroom, I returned to my book, lightly chuckling to myself. It's good to get a jab in back at him every once in a while.
Around mid-afternoon, Tal was getting a little bit grumpy, complaining about not having any Twinkies left, even though he had just finished off the box that I had snagged for him just yesterday. We are sitting in the hotel still, now discussing his 'Twinkie withdrawal'.
"Come on, Columbus!" I adamantly shook my head,
"No, Tal, there's no such thing as withdrawal from Twinkies!" Tallahassee was practically on his knees, begging me,
"Just one quick store, please! I promise I'll make these last longer!" My arms were crossed over my chest. I stood up and began pacing the length of the room.
"We were just in two stores yesterday so we don't need supplies for at least another day, can't you hold off till then?" Tal sounded like a winey five year old,
"Nooo, that's too long from now!" I kept my eyes on him as I paced, contemplating. If I didn't agree to go, he would just force me to come but stay in the car, meanwhile, if I did agree to go then I could at least watch his back for him.
I stopped pacing and let my arms fall to my sides before I said,
"Alright, fine, but only one store!" Tal jumped up and wrapped me in a big bear hug, lifting my off my feet, yelling,
"Awesome! Let's go then, Spit Fuck!" I rolled my eyes and twisted out of his grasp saying,
"We've gotta get our bags first." My backpack was still on the chair, so I walked over and threw it over my shoulders after shrugging on my favorite brown hoodie. When I turned around, Tal was already at the door with his duffle on his shoulder.
I raised an eyebrow at him saying,
"A bit eager are we?" He gave me a dead-pan look, saying,
"Fucking Twinkies, man, there's nothin' much better than that!" I grinned at him. His enthusiasm is so adorable when it comes to Twinkies; it's rather strange, thinking about a man his size being adorable but he pulls it off with ease.
Tal threw open the room door and hurried out, I patted my thigh, calling Finnegan before I followed Tal out. Tal's enthusiasm is infectious and for one of the first times since the worlds gone to shit I found that I couldn't stop smiling.