Contagious (19 page)

But Ted could.

I couldn’t find any real faults with him. He was kind, though stern at times, and accepted me like his own daughter. He had a good job, had a nice house, and bought me a puppy for Christmas. He was good to me, and even better to my mother. He was everything she wanted and needed and I hated him for it.

That summer was the last good summer I had with my grandpa. We went hunting and fishing, camping and hiking. He taught me how to survive if I got lost, which plants to eat and which to avoid. I learned how to track, how to sit perfectly still in a deer stand for hours, how to make traps, and how not to rely on anyone but myself.

“
Orissa?” Padraic’s voice pulled me to the bloody present.

“
Yeah?”

“
I think you should sit. You look like you’re gonna fall.”

“
Oh. I feel fine.”

Sonja turned on the foyer lights. My stomach churned. I barely made it outside before I retched up nothing. I tripped going up the stairs. Padraic caught me, lifting me up and carrying me to the living room couch. He gently brushed my messy hair out of my face and looked into my eyes.

“
Stay with me Orissa,” he said when my eyelids got heavy. “Orissa, try to stay awake.”

“
Ok,” I mumbled. “The lights hurt.”

“
I know, but I’m afraid if you close your eyes you’ll fall asleep.”

“
And why is that bad?”

“
I think you hit your head harder than I initially thought.”

“
Ok.” I closed my eyes.

“
Orissa,” he began.

“
I’m not sleeping. See I’m talking.”

“
Ok, keeping talking then.”

“
Ok.” I was slightly aware of the shuffling going on around me. I heard Zoe’s little voice ask what was wrong with me and Raeya gently tell her I hit my head, but not to worry as I’d be ok.

“
You’re not talking,” Padraic said.

“
Thank you, Captain Obvious.” I opened one eye to glare at Padraic. He laughed softly.

“
What is your name?”

“
And I’m the one with the head injury? You know my name.”

“
Not your full name.”

“
Orissa Lynn Penwell.”

“
How old are you?”

“
Twenty-four.”

“
What is your favorite color?”

“
Black.” Argos’ wet nose pressed against my face. I reached out to pet him. Someone closed the front door, the sound hammering my eardrums. I felt sick again. I didn’t even bother to mention it; I had nothing left to come up.

“
Black’s not a color,” Padraic noted.

“
Yes it is.”

“
It’s the absence of color.”

“
No,” I argued. “White is. Black is all colors mixed together. And it’s my favorite.”

“
How did you hurt your head?”

“
I chased the gnomes through the magic mirror.” I let Padraic suffer a few seconds of panic before I opened my eyes. “I’m fine, ok? I know who I am, my age, where we are and what happened. I just want to shower and sleep.”

“
Shower?” Lauren was eavesdropping. “We can shower?”

“
Assuming the water pump still works, yes,” I replied tartly.

“
I call dibs on first shower,” she said hurriedly.

Padraic interjected. “I think Orissa should be the first to shower. This is her house and she needs to rest more than anyone right now.”

I think Lauren actually stomped her foot. “I haven’t showered in God knows how long. Do you know how oily your skin gets from eating junk food?”

I tugged on Padraic’s sleeve. I opened my eyes just enough to look into his. “The water takes forever to warm up in this house,” I whispered. He smiled a bit deviously.

“
Fine,” he said with authority. “But we have to agree to a two minute limit on the showers, since we all want to take one. Lauren, go ahead, be first. Remember you only have two minutes.”

I asked Raeya to take Lauren into the master bedroom’s bathroom and make sure there were towels. She led Sonja upstairs to the second bathroom with a shower. I hadn’t been in this house in over a year. I wanted so badly to walk around and let the memories come back, see everything I had missed so much. At the moment, I wasn’t sure I could functionally move. Someone padded into the room. A cold hand gripped mine.

“
Will she be ok?” Zoe asked.

“
Yes, she will be just fine. She hit her head and is very tired,” Padraic summed up. Zoe began asking something else and was overcome with coughing. There was a quick shuffling of feet; Hilary must have rushed over to help her. No sooner did they leave than someone else came into the room. A body sank down on the couch by my feet.

“
How ya feeling?” Raeya asked.

“
Peachy.” I tried to sit up and look at her, but gave up when it brought another bout of nausea. “What’s the house like?”

Knowing what I implied, she said, “In order. Well, as orderly as normal.”

“
We’ll have to check the barn in the morning.”

“
Of course.”

My brain fuzzed out. Raeya and Padraic were having a conversation, the words sounding foreign. Raeya shook my foot.

“
Rissy,” she spoke. “Wake up.”

“
I’m awake,” I told her, thinking I was speaking clearly. “I just closed my eyes for a minute.”

“
More like five.”

“
Nah-ah.”

“
Yeah,” Padraic agreed. “You can sleep, but I have to wake you up every half hour, alright?”

“
Ok,” I agreed. I think I would have agreed with just about anything at that point.

Raeya moved off the couch, getting a blanket from the closet. She took my boots off before draping the blanket over me. “I want to sleep in my bed,” I requested. I had been looking forward to it for a while.

“
Where is it?” Padraic asked.

“
I’ll show you,” Raeya told him. I didn’t object as he carried me upstairs. But I did object to getting under the covers of my childhood bed covered in blood, dirt, sweat, and zombie parts. Padraic and Raeya insisted I rest right away. I forced myself to sit up, opening my eyes. When I saw the photos on the dresser, it was easier to pull myself out of the damaged haze my brain was stuck in.

The room hadn’t changed in the twenty-something years it had been mine. The blue floral wall paper was faded, pictures of Raeya and me as teenagers were still pinned to the bulletin board above my desk, which still housed notebooks, magazines, colored pencils, and markers that were sure to be dried out and worthless.

My grandma had picked out the bedspread. It was light purple with little blue and yellow flowers winding their way across the fabric on little vines. It was pretty, I supposed, but extremely girly. With the four post bed, dresser, desk, bookshelf, nightstands, and armchair, the room was crowded. The floor creaked just as I remembered when I wobbled my way to the closet. The only clothes in there were too small for me. Thinking they might fit Zoe or Lisa, I reached for the hangers. I faltered, leaning against the doorframe for support.

Raeya helped me into the bathroom. She was afraid I was going to slip in the shower and hit my head again. She stayed in there, sitting on the counter, talking to me periodically to make sure I was ok. I hated that she was worried. I felt, somehow, that I let her down. I wanted her to take care of herself, to worry about her own survival—not mine.

It felt so incredibly good to have warm water washing over my body. Being clean had definitely been something I’d taken for granted. The soap burned all my cuts and scrapes. I hadn’t realized just how many I had until now. I didn’t want to put my dirty clothes back on. Leaving my dripping hair unbrushed and hanging in a tangled mess down my back, I gingerly wrapped the towel around my battered torso and went back into my room, where I was surprised to see Padraic.

He was surprised too. After letting his eyes linger over my barely covered body for a whole second, he turned away.

“
Sorry! I-I wanted to rebandage the cut on your back a-and make sure your stitches didn’t come out.”

“
Ok,” I simply said and sat on the bed. At this point, I didn’t care if he saw me naked. I just wanted to sleep. I reached behind me to pull the soaking bandage off my back.

“
I’ll get it,” Padraic said as he joined me on the bed. The bandage easily peeled off. “Can you put something on?”

“
I don’t have any clean clothes,” I replied.

“
What about in your closet?”

“
They don’t fit me anymore.”

“
The dresser?”

“
Maybe.” It hadn’t even occurred to me to look in there. Padraic got up and opened the top drawer. He rooted around, grabbed a garment, held it up and checked the size. I knew there were clothes somewhere in this house that would fit me. My grandma was a fan of the long nightgowns. Normally I’d never be caught dead in one. Feeling like I was one step away from death, it didn’t seem like a bad idea.

“
What about these?” he asked, tossing me a pair of red and white striped thermal pajamas. It would be a tight fit, since the last time I wore these I was in my teens, but it would work. I fumbled to pull the pants on, dropping the towel several times. I grabbed a pillow to hold to my chest while Padraic worked on my stab wound. For a moment I thought it was odd it hadn’t healed yet, since it seemed like Logan attacking me happened long ago when it was really just days. The scene of me killing him flashed in my mind. I quickly pushed it away. I had to do it, I reminded myself.

Raeya got out of the shower just as Padraic finished fixing the torn stitches.

“
Jesus Christ, Orissa, what happened?” she asked.

“
I got stabbed.”

“
Again?”

“
Yeah. It doesn’t hurt any less the second time, though this time it’s not as deep.”

“
When?”

I had to think about it. “Two days ago? It feels like longer than that.” Padraic smeared something cold on the cut. It was soothing at first. Then the antibiotics kicked in and it burned like hell. He pressed a piece of gauze over the wound and taped it to my skin.

“
Ok,” he said. “Now I need your head again.” I began to turn when he stopped me. “You can put your shirt on first.”

“
Oh, right.” I needed Raeya to help me get the sleeves on since I didn’t want to move my arms anymore than necessary. The top was as tight as the bottoms. The front had several buttons under the collar. Not caring if I showed any or too much cleavage, I unbuttoned them in hopes of making myself feel more comfortable.

Padraic told me I would have a nice sized lump on my forehead in the morning. He put the same ointment on my head, apologizing for the pain it caused. With steady hands, he put a clean bandage over the gash, repeated the cleaning and bandaging process with my hand and told me to rest.

“
I’ll wake you up,” he promised. “So don’t worry about anything.”

I didn’t want to protest. I wanted so much to crawl under the familiar comforter and sleep, pretending I was a kid again staying at my grandparents’ farm. Maybe even dream about hunting or fishing or riding horses like I used to. “Someone needs to keep watch. I know it seems safe, but it might not be.”

“
I can keep watch,” he offered.

“
Not while you’re babysitting me. Just let me sleep. I’m fine.”

“
Orissa, who went to medical school? You have to be woken up.”

“
Why?”

“
To make sure nothing worsens.”

“
How long until I can sleep normally?”

“
Twelve to twenty four hours. I’ll let you know twelve hours from now if you need more.”

“
Eleven hours,” I corrected. “At least one hour passed since the whole zombie in the truck thing happened.”

“
You are so stubborn.”

“
She is,” Raeya agreed. “And I can keep watch. I’ll get Jason or Spencer to stay up with me.”

“
No,” I said, shaking my head. Bad idea, now I felt sick again. “I want you to sleep. I—”

“
Seriously, Rissy?” she interrupted. “Don’t even suggest you keep watch. You’re human, you know. You need to rest.”

“
So does everyone else,” I reminded her.

Raeya sat next to me. “Orissa, you are the strongest person I know. We are all counting on you to keep us safe and I know you can do it. But not if you refuse to let yourself heal.” She pulled the blankets back. “Come on, go to bed. For me.”

Damn it. Raeya knew how to speak my language. And she was right. “Fine,” I agreed. She opened the hope chest at the foot of the bed and pulled out two quilts. She offered one to Padraic and draped the other around her shoulders.

“
Can I turn the heater on?” she asked me. “Or should we not waste the gas to run it?”

“
Turn it on,” I said. “It’s cold in here and will only get colder. We can turn it off in the morning, but tonight it can be on since it will only get colder.”

“
You’re repeating yourself.” I could hear the frown in her voice. “Are you sure she’ll be ok?” she asked Padraic.

“
I think so,” he said, though not even I was convinced.

“
Ok. Love ya Riss.”

“
Love ya too, Ray,” I replied.

She turned the overhead light off and went downstairs. Padraic told me to sleep—an order I gladly obeyed—and that he was going to find something to change into and shower. He promised he’d be back in to check on me. The night passed in a blurry haze. I remember Padraic waking me, asking me questions, and letting me slip back into sleep. At one point Raeya crawled under the covers next to me. Padraic encouraged me to take a drink of juice every time he shook me awake. At one point the need to pee drove me from my slumber.