"I...I think that was the last fragment." Edwin muttered, his face strawberry red.

Sure, as a former medical student Edwin had seen naked women, but those hadn't been breathing...and looking at him with a curiously neutral look. Putting down the now blood-stained knife on the floor Edwin reminded himself...for the hundredth time he was sure...that he was crouched down in front of a nun, a nun dammit!

"A...are you okay?" Great, she's still bleeding a little and obviously in pain after him having removed the small pieces of the bolt that had torn a shallow wound over a large area of her exposed stomach...and she asked if he was okay! "You...you're red." She took a deep breath, gritting through the pain.

"Erm, yes...just focused." Edwin looked away, feeling his blush somehow getting worse. "Could you put the top part of your armour back on now? You might need it I mean."

"S...sure...hang on." Joan breathed, still in pain judging by her tone.

Looking away from the dressing battle sister Edwin grabbed the knife on the floor and cleaned it as best he could by wiping the blade off the heavy bench to his left. The room they had found was some sort of maintenance room, and it had been none too soon...he was still unsure how long they had simply slept right on the floor after having managed to close the door behind them...they had simply collapsed after the seemingly long march.

The place was dimly lit by a single bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling by a once white cord. The desk to his left was dark and filthy from a long exposure to the sewer, the piles of steel grills and metal rods was a sure sign that whoever had used the place had used the bench as simple dumping ground. At least they had found a small box there containing a somewhat mouldy sandwich...

Edwin grimaced, after having cut off the worst of the mould he had been forced to share the already too small meal with Joan, and with her injured he had forced himself to give her the lion share...his stomach now regretted that. At least it had been something to eat...and with the sink and tap over to the right of the door they had been able to quench their thirst, not to mention clean up their wounds.

There was another bench over on his right, this one was almost bare however, a few rusty tools spread out across it. That and quite a lot of blood...someone had died there...then walked away, Edwin glanced over to the door and its damaged lock. Would it hold for a sudden zombie attack? He sure hoped so... "You think it's safe to sleep here?"

"I'm not sure it's safe to sleep anywhere, but it's safer..." Joan answered, groaning as she put something heavy back on. "And...I need to rest."

"Understandable." Edwin muttered, still eyeing the door. "C...could you do that whole praying thing? Keep the undead at bay you know?"

He turned at the surprising sound of hearing the woman chuckle, the now fully dressed battle sister smiling at him. "Sleeping and praying at the same time? Now that would be a feat..." Edwin felt fresh embarrassment even as the smile of the woman faded. "...I...I don't think a single person praying could do that however, especially not when..."

Edwin realised she wasn't going to continue talking. "Especially not when...what?"

"Nothing." Joan muttered, eyes downcast, fingers fiddling with the thick bolter in her lap."I should really clean this thing up..." She was right, it was covered in sludge and looked awful compared to the pristine weapon he'd seen over in the chapel...but so did them both. "It is a tool of the emperor and deserves the proper attention..."

Blinking Edwin realised that she was looking for an excuse to ignore the pressing need of her weapon. How surprisingly...human. "And you're a tool of the emperor as well, guess which one deserves the most attention?"

"Heh, guess you got a point." Joan agreed, not the least difficult to persuade as a weary smile crossed her lips, her head already falling back to rest against the wall. "I really need...rest." She was still pale, blood loss...Edwin wasn't sure his small help would be enough to keep her going when they didn't have enough food to help her regain her strength.

Sighing he glanced down at himself. Somewhat washed off he could see that the wound across his left knee wasn't as bad as he'd first thought, now cleaned it was a minor irritant, something he could easily ignore when he needed to. The hand was worse though...and still stung from the small cut he'd made over the fleshy part of his thumb. At least he had managed to press out most of the liquid in it, reducing the extremity to its original size and giving him back dexterity to it...he only wished he had some bandages for it.

"Rest would be good...I just hope I'll be able to sleep. I don't know about you but I'm scared of the nightmares I get all the time." Edwin licked his lips, the weariness pressing against his temple. "It's really no good rest...right Joan...Joan?"

Looking over he found the sister having her eyes closed, her body relaxed as she slowly breathed the breath of sleep...it was odd seeing one of the ever vigilant sisters sleep, her pale face so...human. Even as he watched Edwin saw the small lips press together in a grimace, a whimper escaping the now sleeping woman.

He smiled, shame she was a sister...if one got over the nose she was really quite...beautiful...he found his eyes closing as his head leant against the wall. When had that happened? He didn't want to...sleep...

Darkness...death...feeding...

Edwin had barely begun to become assailed by the nightmares when the door was slammed open.

Jerking up he managed to hit his head in the wall, making his vision swim and dropping him back unto the ground. He heard shouting...and the clatter of feet striking floor. "Oh...what's happening?" Rubbing the back of his head he looked up at a tense sight.

Somehow Joan had gotten to her feet, filthy bolter levelled at the two new arrivals with a blank look on her face. "Identify yourself."

"Sergeant Ron Lembrant of the twenty-third." One of the pair replied, his lasgun aimed at Joan. The dark skinned man had shortly cropped black hair and equally dark eyes...and looked as friendly as an arbiter with anger management issues. "And you are?"

Both of the new arrivals wore stained green uniforms of the guard...though they were both so torn and stained by blood that it was difficult to tell, none of them wore a helmet either. To Edwin they looked more like deserters then soldiers...

"Joan Kernian, of the sisters of the order of Our Martyred Lady." Joan replied, voice flat. "And her?" She motioned for the second figure.

Far shorter than the man the female trooper to his left had her gun levelled at Joan as well, though she seemed far more inclined to fire than him as she squinted her almond shaped grey eyes at the sister, her long mane of black hair stringy with grime. "I'm Li Hessian bitch, and you better lower that gun of yours before I burn a hole through your skull."

"Calm down Li, we're not dealing with the undead here." The man growled, lowering his rifle slightly, the woman merely snorted.

"Great, zombies wishing to eat us, astartes attacking us for no reason...and now the guard wants to shoot us." Edwin complained, too weary to fear the two armed psychopaths as he slowly got to his feet.

"Shut your hole you fucking civ." The female trooper barked, not taking her eyes of Joan, or rather...Joan's gun. "And stay there or I'll-"

"Private! Stow it!" The man growled, silencing the woman instantly. "We're not here to fight other survivors if they don't fight us. So I suggest we all lower our guns now..." Slowly the three lowered their rifles, though the foul mouthed woman seemed so itchy to begin firing again that Edwin found himself wishing he wore armour like Joan, embarrassing fit or not...

"It is good to see other survivors, how long have you guys been here?" Edwin asked, looking the weary pair up and down. "Looks like quite some time...you stink worse then we do, which I didn't think possible..."

Ron grinned, the mask of unfriendliness disappearing all of a sudden. "Heh, yeah I guess we've been here for quite some time, now..." The grin disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "Wait...what did you say about astartes?"