Chapter 7 - The gun shop

The wind blew terribly, slamming wood shutters against the side of the old camp master's building. Anni had fallen asleep leaning against Garrett and Kyle was still passed out on the couch, his legs hanging off the arm rest. Six hours had passed and there was still no sign of change from the unconscious boy. Annissina didn't wasn't to leave him there, but they couldn't just carry him everywhere. He was just simply too big. Kyle had told her that if he didn't wake up by the next morning, he would leave, with or without her.

She knew that it was the wisest thing to do, but her feelings for Garrett wouldn't let her believe he was done so close to the end of their journey. Only a few more miles to the airport and they could signal the plane to come and pick them up, just a few more miles….

She stirred in her sleep, the noises of the infected giving her dreams a dark edged lining to her silver cloud. She stopped dreaming so that she could sleep just a little longer. Movement at her side made her jump and reflexively pulled one of her twin pistols from her belt. She aimed the gun at the moving things head and nearly pulled the trigger before she realized… Garrett was moving!

"Garrett!" She holstered her gun and kneeled next to him, placing a concerned hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay!?"

Garrett groaned loudly, rubbing a hand over his head and hissing in pain as it brushed over a raw part of his scalp that hadn't healed from the accident yet. He removed his hand, which was now covered in dried blood flakes that had stuck in his hair. He looked around the room with a single open eye, and frowned.

"Where… where are we?" He moved groggily. "What… happened?"

"We are at a campsite trying to get some rest before we start moving again," She explained, "and as far as what happened, a tank took out the car and almost killed you." She huggeded him tightly, "You almost died! The tank tried to grab you after you fell unconscious, but we got you out of the car and killed it."

Garrett looked over at Kyle and tried to get out of the grip she had on him. "Are you two okay…?"

This was typical of Garrett; he worried about other people's wounds when he was a lot worse off. He tried to downplay his own weakness by protecting other people from theirs.

"We're fine…" Anni replied. "The tank barely paid any attention to us." She smiled and let go of the wounded boy.

Garrett flinched as he stood up, his ribs and back snapping back into place. He sounded like a bucket of popcorn popping and the feeling was a mix of pain and relief. The good news was, nothing was broken. The bad news, well… Let's say that he won't be running very fast. The accident had knocked his kneecap out of place, which no one noticed until he stood up. The bone was about four inches to the left of where it should be. The injury didn't surprise Garrett - his knees had always been bad so he just chalked this one up to being bad luck. He sat back down and pulled his pants leg up over his knee. The damage was worse than he thought, his knee was messed up, his ankle had swelled and turned purple, probably dislocated in the wreck, and he had several fresh cuts running up his leg.

"Shit." He mumbled as he saw the extent of his injuries. "That won't help."

Annissina had turned away to wake Kyle up but looked over when she heard Garrett speak. She covered her mouth when she saw the injuries Garrett had sustained. the sudden realization that she and Kyle never checked him for any possible hemorrhaging or fractures rushed over her like a wave. In fact, they hadn't really checked him at all.

"Anni; can you grab me some towels and a piece of wood please?" Garrett asked with a fake smile on his face.

"Sure…" She said, completely dumbfounded that she hadn't thought of looking for these things. "Here…"

She returned quickly with a few beach towels and a walking stick from the corner of the room. Garrett happily took them, wrapping the stick in one towel and using the others to wipe up the dried blood. He made sure that the cuts were superficial and suspected they were from the fact that he hadn't bled out.

"I suggest you cover your ears…" He stated.

Garrett bit down on the stick and placed a hand on either side of his knee. He took a deep breath and quickly slid the kneecap back into place with a wet clicking sound. He shut his watering eyes and bit harder on the stick, his face turning red from the effort of not screaming in pain.

Anni wished she had covered her ears since the noise sickened her. She shut her eyes and looked away. Garrett took several deep breaths before he felt his ankle. The purple flesh was spongy and sensitive but it had numbed quite a bit while he was unconscious. It wasn't broken, but it was badly sprained. He wouldn't be running or even walking any time soon.

"Anni…" Garrett said through watery eyes. "Do you know how to make a splint?"

"Yes. Let me see if I can find some materials…" She turned and searched the cabinets in the room but only returned with two table legs. "I'll have to use the towels for bandages."

Garrett shook his head. "Look in my bag, I should have some in there."

She did as he asked and sure enough, he had an entire roll of medical bandages.

"The store?" She asked. Garrett nodded slowly.

She worked to splint his swollen leg, the kneecap was now starting to bruise as well and turned an ugly yellow. Kyle woke a short time later and was relieved to see Garrett awake.

"At least we won't have to carry your fat ass now." He grinned.

"Yeah," Garrett replied tiredly. "I wouldn't want you to work too hard."

Anni smiled warmly and helped Garrett to his feet. He said he could walk on his own so they shouldn't wait for him. He limped to the barricaded door and pressed his ear against the wood. He couldn't hear anything but that was never a sure sign.

"How long have we been here?" He asked, to no one in particular.

"Around…six hours, give or take." Kyle said looking at his watch. "We haven't had any troubles with the zombies though."

Garrett nodded and asked if Kyle could remove the barricade.

"It might take me some time, but yeah." He started heaving the desk and pieces of random furniture away from the door.

Garrett reached into his pocket and felt around but something was missing. He looked over at Anni and held his hand out, asking for something. She thought for a moment then realized, I still have his map! She gave it back and blushed.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. I would've done the same." He smiled.

He unfolded the map and traced lines with his fingers, tacking where they had been and where their destination was. He found the campsite with Anni's help and soon mapped a route that would get them to the gun shop without much difficulty. The shop was close, no more than 10 minutes walk, even with his injured leg.

"All done!" Kyle huffed.

The barricade was down, and soon enough the group was back on the road walking for their destination. Kyle led the front with directions from Garrett who was limping along in the middle with Anni bringing up the rear.