Chapter 9- Names Galore
"Ravei? Is… Is it really you?" The confusion and shock that showed on Veronica's face made me smirk just a little wider. She was pale as recognition dawned on her. "But… we… the guys and me…" She was stumbling over her words… how cute.
"You guys left me for dead." I stated, my eyes swiveling away from her to look over at the wall across from us where the dark letters they left me remained. "It wasn't that hard to figure out." I turned back to her shocked face, and she gazed down at her hands, her thumbs circling one another. It amused me to see how subdued she was acting.
"I… I'm the whole way back here now? After making it by the skin of my teeth away from the safe zone… I'm here?" She cursed under her breath, her eyes moving to look anywhere but at me.
"Seems that way, girlie." I raised my hand to my mouth, trying to hide my smile behind it at how she seemed to lose what little hope she had left before her words caught up to me. "What do you mean making it away from the safe zone?" Her eyes flickered to me for a moment before she averted them again.
"We… were overrun by the infected…" She pulled her lip between her teeth. "I… Ruth, Tomas and James… I don't know if they're…" It seemed like she was having trouble coming to terms that our old pals may just be rotting corpses, or wandering dead. "Ruth pushed me out of the area and told me to run so I did."
"Seems like we both went through a little bit more hell then." I muttered, taking my eyes away from her to stare off in thought. The four of them had been a great team, I didn't understand how they could let a horde of the infected get through them so quickly. I blinked back to look at her as she gazed about the room, a shiver rolling through her. She seemed a bit more unhinged than I originally thought. I was glad that I had found her hidden gun when I decided to look her over again. She had it taped around her waist, hidden under her hoodie. I chuckled slightly as she felt at the area it was hiding.
"Looking for something?" I picked the gun up from the floor beside me, twirling it on one of my fingers. She started to get up, maybe to come over and take it back from me. "Woah there, careful. You've got some nasty scrapes, maybe you should just relax and let them heal a bit before trying to move." She stopped in her tracks for a moment, her gaze hardening. "Besides, I'd rather you not shoot my new companions either." I shrugged.
"You mean… there are other survivors?" Veronica gasped, her voice laced with some form of hope. I had to stop and think for a moment about how to break the news to her more gently than what I had originally intended. I was still angry about how she and the others had just up and abandoned me, but they had become something of a family since this whole shit show started.
I heard a low chuckle and a soft growl coming from the steel door and glanced over at it. Veronica did the same, tensing, which made me smirk. I rested my chin on the heel of my palm, an over dramatic sigh escaping me. "Great timing guys." I saw the hunter poke his head in first, almost timidly. He was currently outside of the other girl's view at the moment. His pale eyes gazed over at me in question and I shrugged, motioning for him and his companion to enter.
Veronica gasped, and I turned back to her for a moment. There was terror written all in her body posture and her face as the two infected strolled into the room. The hunter was almost immediately at my side, crouched down and putting a hand on my outstretched leg. His claws dug into the material of my jeans for a moment, not strong enough to pierce the skin underneath but still strong enough to tell me it was there. The jockey took position at his friend's side, down by my foot. His eyes seemed brighter as he stared at the now awake girl. She sputtered indignantly for a moment, which had my grin come back. "Meet the one that saved me, and the one that saved you." I pointed out each infected in turn. "Guys this is Veronica."
"What the fuck, Ravei?" Her voice reached a pitch I didn't think it was capable of for a moment, and I saw my hunter wince at the noise."What the hell is going on here? Are you playing some sort of sick, twisted joke on me?" Her normal emerald gaze seemed to turn to a boiling acid as she stared me down, anger radiating off of her in waves. "Have you become infected too?!" She snarled at me, which just made me quirk a brow at her.
"Nope." I shrugged, which only seemed to anger her further. "Hell, if it wasn't for this guy," I reached over and placed a hand on the jockey's shoulder, "you'd probably be dead by now." His beady eyes were on me for a moment at the touch before they went back to staring at the other girl. "And I even, out of the goodness of my heart, patched up every single wound you had on you; you should be perfectly okay in a few days."
I drew my outstretched leg closer to me, making the hunter release his grip. He stood as I used the wall to leverage myself up. His arm was around me in a moments notice, steadying me. I smiled up at him and leaned down to tap the jockey on the shoulder. "Can you watch her? Make sure she gets some rest?" His beady eyes were on me for a moment, his grin stretching as he cackled at me. I took that as an affirmative. I bit on my lip for a moment, thinking about what I could do next, remembering about the hunter's wounds. He really needed to be tended to as well.
I gently patted the jockey's shoulder again, but noticed something odd sticking out of the tattered remains of his pants pocket. The hunter seemed to notice where my eyes were lingering for a moment and reached down to pluck the object out. He cheekily handed it to me, the jockey didn't seem to notice anything happened. I looked it over before my mind clicked. It was an old wallet. I slowly opened it, leaning my shoulder into the hunter so I could use both of my hands to sift through it. There were the usual things; credit cards, membership cards, and business cards on one side of it. My eyes widened as I caught sight of an identification card in the next part.
I slipped it out and looked it over. The man in the photo had dark hair and a goatee, wearing wire frame glasses with really dark brown eyes behind the glass. He wasn't really a bad looker when he was alive, it made me sad for a moment. He had been a person, with a life and family and happiness. I let my eyes wander over to the name on the card, a smile coming to my face. 'Joshua Lee Garrix' was inscribed on it, twenty-six years old and a current organ donor, but that wouldn't be of any use now.
The hunter was leaning over me slightly, staring down at the card as well. I glanced up at him and smiled, a hum almost like a purr came from his throat. Had they known each other before the infection? I gently elbowed him to bring his attention back to me. "Did you know him like this?" He stopped to think for a moment, a claw softly scratching at his chin which made me chuckle. He grinned down at me, nodding vigorously. I chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Josh?" I said the name out loud, letting my eyes fall to the back of the jockey. He stiffened, but turned to look up at me after a moment. His head tilted in the kind of cute puppy way, almost as if he was wondering what the word was. "Josh." I tried again, to which the infected released a huffy sounding chuckle. It made me think of him asking 'what?'
My gaze wandered from the jockey, Josh, to the hunter and then to Veronica. I put the card back in the wallet before tossing it over to her. "His name is Josh." She looked up at me like I was crazy for a moment, then decided to look through the wallet absentmindedly. I shrugged at her reaction, patting Josh on the shoulder one more time. "Anyway, please keep an eye on her, Josh." He nodded at my words. I leaned down, scooping my backpack off of the floor and turning to the hunter. "Come on now, lets go get your wounds patched up." He helped me back to the back rooms, to which I detoured off into the small bathroom.
I sat down on the side of the tub, leaning over and twisting the knobs. I heard the pipes rumble before water started coming from them. It started out as a rusty color before turning clear, which made me giddy. I then checked the temperature, humming in approval as it actually came out warm. Most of the showers and baths I'd been in since getting to this city seemed to only run on cold, so this was a brilliant surprise. I then reached down to the backpack, pulling out some towels, wash cloths and unscented, medicated soap. The hunter was once again crouched low by my side, staring at the water a little apprehensively.
I chuckled at the look on his face, which in turn made him huff up at me. "This is how I'm going to clean you up." I popped the p sound of the last word. He tensed at the words, eyes narrowing at me. A growl came from him as his eyes darted from me to the water and back. "I thought it would be best if you had a full bath. I mean you're pretty smelly." He hissed as I stood, moving toward him. He quickly scampered back, backing out of the room and into the room with the small bed. Oh no, he was trying to run… this could be fun.
"You have no say in this matter." I sing-songed as I started to approach him again. He continued to lowly growl, and I thought of any of the times I'd have to give a cat a bath. He didn't want this, which amused me. I got close enough to him that he could reach out and claw me if he wanted to, his arm was even cocked back in the motion to do so. I chuckled before quickly pouncing on him. He screeched out his displeasure as I knocked him to the floor, quickly moving to straddle his stomach. He was trying to flail and wiggle himself out of my hold. I caught his arms and quickly pinned them to the floor above his head.
"You're getting a bath." I grinned down at his scowling face. He huffed in disapproval, trying to wiggle his lower half to get me to move off of him. "Uh uh, stop fighting it." I decided to pull out my puppy dog eyes, making him growl lowly at the face. "Pretty please with canned meat on top?" He continued to scowl, but released a breath in resignation. I smirked in triumph, moving off of him and helping him back to his feet once I was standing. I pulled him back into the bathroom, and gazed up at him. He was glaring heatedly at the water but turned his gaze back to me.
He slowly put one of his claws into the zipper of his hoodie, slowly drawing the metal down until it opened. He shrugged it off, laying it lovingly off to the side. The shirt he wore under it was one of those bright green soda tee shirts. The logo was faded and there were rips and tears in the material, probably from his claws. He took my hands in his for a moment before tapping his claws against the back of them. His face was a mix of sheepishness and a plea. He released one of my hands to point at the claws on his opposite one then to his shirt before making a shredding motion and shaking his head.
"You don't want to shred the shirt?" I questioned, and he nodded. Sighing I took my hands from his, moving them to the hem of his shirt. "Raise your arms up." He did as instructed, and I slowly pulled the shirt off of him, being extremely careful when I took it over his hands. "This must be one of your favorite shirts if you needed help with this." I watched him nod before looking him over.
His skin was slightly gray, like most of the other infected. Yet it was strange, his body bore no boils like the other hunters I had run into. I could definitely make out the muscle definition in his chest and stomach, as well as his arms. It was lean, but it was powerful if any of the moves he pulled off told me anything. He had a wound in his left arm from a probable gunshot, most likely from one of my former companions. I then spun him around to finally have a look at his back. Ouch. The witch really did a number on him. Four long claw marks marred the flesh, but seemed to be healing nicely all things considering. It would leave a nasty scar though. I traced over it slightly, watching him to see his reaction to it. He tensed and hissed, leveling me with a scowl.
"Sorry." I muttered. I then moved myself over to the toilet, closing the lid and sitting on it. "Sit on the edge of the tub so I can get your shoes off." He huffed, but did as I instructed. His eyes were nervously on the water as I lifted one of his feet up onto my knee. Even though the fabric I could feel the muscle definition on his legs. I undid the grimy shoe string, gagging slightly in my head at the thought of all the nasty shit that was on it. I removed the shoe as gently as I could and tilted my head at what I was met with.
His toes had poked through the once white socks. Claws dominated those as well, but were shorter than the ones on his fingers. I removed what was left of the sock and felt the clamminess of his foot as I looked it over. I couldn't help but chuckle at the thought that came into my head. His toes were slightly on the short side making me giggle just a bit more. I felt him shift slightly and couldn't help myself. "You've got hobbit feet." He swiped his claws playfully at my hair, but I could see the smile on his lips. I quickly did the same with the other foot and cleared my throat at the next stage.
"Well this is going to be… interesting." I mumbled more to myself than him, biting at my bottom lip. I glanced up at him, and he seemed to smirk at me. Oh no, what was going through his head? He raised his claws up, pointing to his pants before raising his shoulders in a shrug. "What." I deadpanned at him, having a feeling that I wasn't going to enjoy this and just embarrassed myself. "Don't tell me you don't want to rip these?" His smirk grew as he nodded, in turn making me groan.
"Oh hell no." I leaned back to let my head hit the wall behind me. I heard him grumbling slightly, but it was lighter. It was as if he was laughing at me, shoulders shaking and everything. "Fine then." I picked up one of the towels I had laid out, wrapping it around him just above the hem of his pants. "Hold this here." I held the ends together as he took them from me, still releasing those grunts of laughter. I knelt down slightly, carefully reaching up under the towel to find the fly of his jeans. "Here goes nothing." I grumbled, quickly undoing the button and grabbing the hem of both the pants and whatever underwear he had on underneath. I pulled them down quickly, letting them pool at his feet before standing and backing away. Was it hot in here? Oh no thats just my face wanting to melt off in embarrassment.
He stepped out of the pants, shaking one of the legs off of his foot. This was the most embarrassed I had been in god knows how long. Here in front of me was a basically naked zombie and the only thing that popped into my head was that one damn meme, 'Oh no, he's hot!' Some of the thoughts running amuck in my head were down right perverse and made the heat come back tenfold. I couldn't even look him in the eye right now! I felt a small amount of pressure under my chin, one of his knuckles was turning my head back to face him. He looked sheepish, and a little nervous about the whole situation as well.
I coughed to distract myself, grabbing one of the washcloths I had laid out. I handed it to him and turned my back on him. "Use this to cover your privates when you get in the tub." I heard some cloth shuffling around before the sloshing of the water. My mind continued to try to distract me down the more devious road the entire time. This blush wasn't leaving any time soon. I felt a tug on the back of my shirt and turned back around. The image of him sitting in the tub, one hand over his crotch area with the rag clutched in his claws and his knees bent oddly in the too small tub made me chuckle. Oh what I wouldn't do to get a picture of that right now. He scowled at me for a moment which only made me laugh harder.
"Alright, alright, let's get this over with." I smiled, kneeling down beside the tub and grabbing another washcloth as well as the soap. I dipped it in the water just enough so I could start lathering it up. Dirt was already starting to fill the tub, and whatever else he had been coated in. I carefully took the washcloth to his skin, washing around the wounds first. The areas were still tender from what I could tell, so I was being as gentle as I could be when washing them out. He hissed as soon as the soap touched them, to which I lowly apologised. The witch scratches on his back didn't look as bad once I finally got all the grime cleaned off of them.
I then looked down at the bullet wound, lifting and twisting his arm so I could look at it from every angle. Shit, it didn't look like the bullet had gone the whole way through. "I think the bullet's still in there." I told him, he made a soft hiss as I prodded at it. I turned to reach into my backpack, looking through for a possible pair of tweezers or something. The only thing in there was a pocket knife; never really left home without one of those on me at all times.
"This isn't exactly the best, but it's all we really have to work with." I sighed, flicking it open. "This is probably going to sting a bit." I slowly and carefully dug the knife into the bullet hole, making him hiss in pain. "Sorry." I muttered apologetically. I gently worked the knife to the bullet, using what leverage I could to try to pull it closer to the surface. "Almost…" I whispered more to myself, finally able to bring it out of his flesh. It was so small in comparison to the wound, but I guess thats what bullets normally did.
I tossed the little piece of metal to the side so I could get back to work. I thoroughly cleaned the wound before dipping the wash cloth back into the water. Wringing it out I was slightly intimidated by the amount of red that came out of it. My mind started to wander again as I absentmindedly cleaned the rest of his arm. The thought came to me that I wanted to know the hunter's name. Hell he didn't even know mine really, unless he heard Veronica say it earlier. "My name is Ravei. Ravei Lynn Meyers." I was quiet for a moment, looking up to him as he nodded. A contented purr came from his throat as I ran the washcloth over it.
He made a grabby hands motion toward his old clothes, making me raise a brow. "No, you're not getting out of this tub yet." I took his hand in mine, gently scrubbing away the grime in between his fingers and under his claws. He shook his head, yanking it out of my grasp, a more dramatic point at his clothes. I narrowed my eyes at him. "Well if you're so insistent on getting out of the bath early…" I stood and dropped the wash cloth on top of his head. "You can clean the rest of yourself by yourself." I picked up his dirty clothes, carrying them with me as I wandered out of the bathroom.
"There are towels in there to dry yourself off once you're done too." I called over my shoulder. I threw the dirty heap of clothes into the corner closest to the door and then walked over to sit on the edge of the bed beside the clothes I had picked out for the hunter all those days ago. They were a bit wrinkled since I had been sleeping on the bed, but that didn't really matter; they were still clean.
The water in the bathroom was sloshing so loudly I sighed. The sound of wet feet slapping against the tile in the other room had me rubbing at the bridge of my nose. He stalked out of the bathroom, dripping wet with a towel wrapped around his waist, the ends held in one of his clawed hands. His eyes were frosty, glaring at me as he reached down to the pile of clothes I had dropped. He picked up the jeans and searched through them for a moment, pulling a thick leather wallet out of one of the front pockets. He shambled over to me, grabbing one of my hands and slapping the thing into my palm. I flinched, looking up at him as he nodded before turning around and stalking back into the bathroom. What the hell?
I turned the leather over in my hands for a moment, listening to the water as he climbed back into the bath. The black leather was slightly bowed out with how much stuff was shoved into it, some of the edges rubbed down from use. In this thing were all the answers to the questions of who he was before he was turned. I felt a thrill of excitement spread through me, yet there was fear as well about what I would find in there.
I shook my head, lifting up my free hand to run it through some of the tangles in my hair. I sat it to the side, standing up and smiling to myself. He wanted me to know his name, but there were more important things for me to take care of at the moment. I walked back into the bathroom, knocking on the door frame lightly. His gaze turned to meet mine, a question in his. "I'll look at your name later." I hummed, coming back to the side of the tub and kneeling down again. "I forgot the most important part of being the group medic, which is tending to my patient." I couldn't help my smile, and he grinned toothily back at me. He handed me the soapy washcloth and I got back to work.
