The Aftermath

After arriving back at the motel my headache still persisted.

"You should head inside and get some rest" Ray suggested "you deserve it you crazy bastard"

"Hardy har har asshole" I said jokingly "I could use a little rest to get rid of this miserable headache. You two should get some rest too you know"

"After what you did the least we can do is unpack" Allison chimed in

"Fair, thanks you two" I said "I'm glad I was able to make friends like you"

As I stepped out of the truck another message popped up in my vision

"What now" I thought

-augmentation-

Pain tolerance enhancement: disabled

I immediately felt pain like no ither shooting through my leg. I immediately fell to the ground groaning in pain. I could barely move.

"What is it, you all right?" Ray said running over to check on me, Allison in suit.

"I think I twisted my ankle when I fell of that damn shelf" I said grimacing through the pain

"Quick, get him to his room" Allison ordered

Both Ray and Allison picked me up, making sure not to hurt my leg as much as possible. They carefully placed me in my bed, and got a couple nearby branches outside to splint my ankle. I thought the pain from walking was bad, but before they could fasten the splint I blacked out from the pain.

When I woke up I saw Ray and Allison sitting in chairs asleep at my table. I got out of bed and hopped over making sure not to move my ankle too much. In the middle of the table was my notebook with the different creatures in it. They apparently spent time making an entry in my absence.

Mutant Coons

Mutated racoons that are very smart and good at strategy

Strengths: pack hunters, mutations (see known variants), intelligent, can still eat just about anything

Weaknesses: Guns did a good job, further research required

Variants:

Multiple heads

Extra limbs

Acid spit

Invisibility

"Not bad" I said under my breath

After saying that Allison began to stir. I quickly hobbled back into bed and acted like I was still asleep. I didn't want her to think she woke me up.

As she woke up I heard the chair creak as she groaned. I guess she was stretching. She stood up and walked over my way. She stopped at the edge of my bed before saying "I know you probably can't hear me, but this is for saving my life"

I then felt a warm sensation on my cheek "Did she just kiss me" I thought in a panic "okay, okay, play it cool, be natural. You're supposed to be sleeping, just keep your eyes closed and she'll never... "

"You flinched a bit" she said suddenly

"It's a trap, don't respond"

She suddenly blew on my face which was weird, either way I still needed to keep my eyes closed.

She then said "Here's a fun bit of trivia, when you blow on someone's eyes while they're sleeping nothing will happen. When they're faking it though, their eyelids flutter. I'm not stupid you know"

"Okay, okay you got me" I said while opening my eyes "I just didn't want you to scold me for hobbling over and checking on you two. Great work on the notebook by the way"

"You got out of bed... " she said while staring daggers and speaking in a not so pleasant tone "you should be resting you know"

"That's exactly what I didn't want to happen" I responded

I then sighed and was quickly reminded that my ankle was hurt as my foot began to throb. The pain was at least bearable now.

"Sorry I can't help with the water situation" I said

"Oh, we already sorted that out." Allison responded "I did the wiring for the switches and the tubing while Ray set up the system. I'll let him explain when he wakes up though, he was pretty proud of himself you know."

"I can't wait to hear about it, how long was I out by the way"

"I don't know, me and Ray fell asleep after doing the notebook entry so we don't even know what time it is or even what time it was when you blanked out"

"That makes sense"

We then waited for Ray to wake up. After he woke up and checked on me I asked "So, I heard you did a pretty good job on the water system"

Ray's eyes immediately lit up and he started explaining excitedly "Yeah, I cleaned out the gutters, and made them as squeaky new as I could. Then I set up the extra wire fencing to filter out any stray leaves from the gutter system and prevent more from falling in. After that I got the gutters to flow the water into one set of trash cans to act as a buffer, then... "

After that I tuned him out, but made sure he still thought I was listening. I figured I could just check it out when I got outside. After he was done explaining I said "I'll have to see this contraption with my own eyes once I recover. We all can probably get showers now too as long as you hooked it up to the hot water tank."

"I did, don't worry, just focus on recovering okay. I'm gonna head off to take a nap in my own bed. Get better soon man!"

Ray then went out the door and to his room. Allison also started towards the door. She reached for the handle and opened the door. She took a step outside and looked around for a bit before walking right back into my room. She then locked the door behind her and closed the curtains.

"Since he's gone I'm gonna have to make sure you don't get out of bed again" she said, turning off my room light and walking back over to the bed. She then laid down across my chest.

"What in the world are you doing" I asked in a panic

"I'm, uhh... Well you can't go anywhere without waking me up now so..."

She then giggled and said "I can feel your heart racing you know, just relax and fall asleep. You need the rest anyways"

Her laying on top of me added some comforting weight and warmth that made me fall asleep almost immediately.

I dreamed about my life before the apocalypse. I went to Walmart with all the usual hustle and bustle. As I was grabbing a box of bite sized brownies a man next to me had his wallet fall out of his pocket. I picked it up and handed it to him only for him to turn around and show that he's a zombie before biting a chunk out of my neck.

I woke up yelling again, but was unable to sit upright due to the now awake Allison laying on top of me.

"Bad dream?" she asked

"Yeah, a zombie got me" I responded

"Well right now I got you, and you're safe. You shouldn't worry so much." Allison said comforting me

"You're right" I said before drifting back off to sleep.