Surge (69 page)

“Absolutely,” I agree. “Thanks for checking up on everyone, I’ve been slipping lately.”

“You haven’t been slipping,” Whitney counters at the same time Mike says, “You have not.”

“Thanks for the support guys,” I say with a self-deprecating grin. “But I have. First with Victoria, then with Kelly, and finally yesterday with the girls. If I’d been using my head, I could have prevented all of that.” I don’t even see Whitney’s hand moving since it comes so fast, but I do feel the sting on the unburned, left side of my head.

“Shuddup,” she replies and I laugh. Momma Bear Whit has arrived to lay the smack down. “Victoria wasn’t your fault, and neither were the rest. She tricked us all, same with Kelly. All of us welcomed them with open arms, gave them shelter, fed them, clothed them. And what did they give us in return? Nothing. Absolutely nothing but misery and pain.” Whitney grabs my shoulders and squeezes.

“If you want to blame anyone for our misfortunes, put it on the shoulders responsible, and lighten your own load. It hasn’t belonged there, and does nothing but pull you down. You’re only twenty-three and I can see you’re already stressed more than a forty year old man working in the failing stock market. Let it go, relax a little, and live your life.”

“Yes ma’am,” I say and tip my imaginary hat at her like a southern gentleman. Whitney laughs at that and taps my cheek.

“You cheeky, rascal,” she replies with a smile. “Go see your girl, she’s good for you.”

“I think so too,” I say easily, which makes Whitney’s smile widen. Standing up, I point at Mike and Whitney. “Don’t work too hard. We’re here to rest and heal up for the journey. I want to make it to compound with the group intact, and no more mishaps.”

“We can try,” they revise in unison.

“Alright, you pair of cynics,” I agree and they laugh. “We can
try
and succeed.”

“Ay-ay Captain J, of the S.S. Optimist,” John the smartass replies with a salute.

“Was I talking to you, Cassie?” I ask and he scowls. “Didn’t think so.” I look at the twins. “You got anything you wanna add?”

“Only that you’re looking mighty purty today, lova boy,” Carlos answers with a grin.

“Yeah, is that a new haircut?” Oscar inquires. His grin matches his twin, so it’s like I’m seeing double without the help of alcohol.

“Listen, Thing One and Thing Two,” I begin and see their grins turn to glares, making me give a grin of my own. “You’re just jealous that I dressed as the badass villain known as Freddy Krueger for Halloween. Sure, it’s a little early, but so what? I happen to like Halloween, so screw you.”

“Can I be Peter Pan to Olivia’s Tinkerbell?” John asks.

“Hell no!” I exclaim. “She’s not being Tink.”

“Then what’s she being?” Oscar asks.

“Jared’s dream girl, also known as the Tomb Raider,” Carlos answers with a smirk. I scowl at John, and the bastard assumes an innocent expression, so I know that he’s spilled that secret. Gossiping prick. I say one word that’s guaranteed to shut John up, one word that we’ve made a pact to never bring up.

“Bianca.”

“You wouldn’t,” John says.

“I would.”

“Vacuum,” he counters. Fuck, John’s pulling out the big guns. We battle it out with a staring contest, until I hear Oscar’s voice.

“I can see Olivia as Tomb Raider,” Oscar comments with a nod. “She’s already got the attitude and the look.”

I stare him down before he starts naming the attributes that complete that particular look, such as the large chest, full lips and tiny waist. Mother fucker will swallow his teeth if he dares to mention any of them.

“I think we best move on before Jared pops a blood vessel,” Carlos remarks and the three of them start laughing. I flip them off and leave the room.

<~~~<~~~
~~~>~~~
>

It isn’t until I reach the second floor, that I can no longer hear the trio’s echoing laugh, but I don’t care about any of that. My goal is to find Akio, check in on Tommy and get back to Olivia, in that order. Mental list set in stone, I turn left this time to head away from Olivia’s room in hopes of finding Akio down this way. Knocking on doors as I pass them, I finally hear a response from the second to last one. Turns out, I was knocking mostly on closet doors, but oh well, pays to be thorough. Especially when I find both Akio and Cory in one fell swoop.

“You’re next,” Akio says absently, without pausing in his task of redressing Cory’s burns, to look at me.

Cory has fewer than I do, but his hands are worse off than mine. While mine have a few now popped blisters and cuts on my right, Cory’s have bloody knuckles from punching out a window and biting them in his frantic state. That, along with large blisters encapsulating his entire palm and the underside of his fingers; makes it looks as if he had a bad allergic reaction that made them swell to the size of a balloon.

“If you stopped grabbing the door handle, you wouldn’t have a set of oven mitts for hands right now, Betty Crocker,” I say to Cory. He lifts one of the mitts in question and scowls at it when he can’t flip me off like he no doubt intended to do. It’s confirmed when he verbalizes it.

“Fuck you, Freddy,” Cory retorts. “I was a little preoccupied trying to keep Olivia breathing, and our asses from burning to a crisp, to pause and say,
‘maybe I should wear gloves.’
So, excuse the fuck out of me for putting our survival over a little bit of discomfort.”

“I know,” I agree and drop the smirk. “The reason you couldn’t open the door to begin with, was because there was a metal chair blocking it.”

“I figured that,” he says while rubbing his bandaged left hand over his face, since the Doc’s still working on the other. “That’s why I moved on to the window
,
thinking that I could bust out a few bars. I had just gotten started, when you popped in like a freaking wannabee fire brigade.”

“I couldn’t sit back and let you guys burn,” I point out. “It was my fault it was allowed to happen in the first place. You told me to watch out for Kelly, and what did I do? I sent her for a walk where her demented mind was free to plot away.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Cory says. “I sent you to the woods. I ignored the scuffling outside the door thinking it was you. And I should have protected Livi better.”

“Jesus Christ, why aren’t
you and John holding hands and crying in the corner together?” I ask and Cory looks at me like I’ve lost a few screws. “Pity parties galore. ‘
I shoulda done this, I shoulda done that.’
Shut the fuck up, you can’t go back and fix it. It’s over and done with, so stop your bitching, brush yourself off and move the fuck on already.”

“How about you both take that advice?” Akio proposes. A stunned Cory, and a scowling me, turn and observe the Doc. “Don’t you scowl at me. You’ve had your fair share of moping, so take some of you own medicine, shut up and sit your ass down so I can doctor you.” Akio gives me a look. “Always nit picking over the others’ health, but do you even give a damn about your own? Fuck no.”

“Where’d you find your backbone, Doc?” I ask once I’ve recovered from my shock. Cory still looks a little dazed for being chastised by two men, one several
years older and one three years younger than him; and both lectures having occurred in less than five minutes. But I’m able to bounce back, and claim a seat in wait of Akio to do his worst.

“Let’s just say that mine is picking up the slack to accommodate for the whining ninnies,” the Doc answers. “Now, shut up, and let me work in peace.”

I listen to his orders for, oh I don’t know, four minutes. It was enough time for him to smear antibacterial cream over my cuts, and burn ointment to my right hand, before I can’t take it anymore. I start fidgeting and biting my cheek, which hurts like a mofo, to prevent myself from speaking.

“Just say it already,” Akio snaps. He adjusts his glasses, and pulls the roll of gauze tight, as he waits for me to speak. Giving a sigh of relief, I spill my concerns in a rush.

“Okay, Olivia can’t eat, and she’s freaking pint sized already, so what the fuck can we do? Then there’s the fact that she can’t drink, so eventually she’s gonna get dehydrated, and start puking and then she’ll choke to death, and I’ll have a heart attack and die. Never mind Cory, who’ll probably retreat in the nearest cave and starve himself to death over his grief. And then there’s Tommy, who has locked himself away and won’t speak to anyone. The group’s upset over losing Lenny and the hens. Sarah’s crying in closets, John’s the new miserable bastard, and my burns sting like some mother fucker sprayed salt in them! Are those going to scar? Because I don’t care all that much about vanity, but that doesn’t mean I want to live the rest of my life looking like Freddy freaking Krueger!”

I’m heaving out breaths and gulping air from the lack of oxygen during that spiel, Akio’s blinking at me, and Cory looks like he wants to sedate my crazy ass. He might have to, because I can’t take it anymore. There’s so much shit depending on me, that I can’t keep up, and I think I might be having a heart attack right now. Is it possible for a fit twenty three year old man to have a heart attack? I’d say fuck yes, because I’m definitely experiencing one. My chest is on fire, and it feels like I can’t get enough air. I’m wheezing, and my hands are shaking, and...that’s it. John was fucking right, I’m infected.

‘Run! Run before it’s too late!’
I’m mentally projecting it at them, but they’re just sitting there and are staring at me with dumbfounded expressions. My chest is heaving out panting breaths, so I can’t verbalize my warnings. I try again, hoping that my supercharged wheezer blood gives me some new psychic powers before it takes over completely.
‘Save the others, save yourselves!’
When they still aren’t getting it, I meet Cory’s eyes and mimic a gunshot to my head.

In response, the asshole laughs, and struts over. No doubt about it, he’s relishing the fact that he can finally kill me and have Olivia all to himself. Fuck you, you selfish prick! My infected brain’s mental curse is abruptly cut off, instead of by a bullet like I expected, but by Cory’s backhand across the left side of my face.

“You asshole!” I spit that out along with some of my infected blood on the floor from my bitten cheek. “Kill me like a man, don’t pussy out on me now and go for cheap shots! I can’t have Olivia, you should be happy, and doing a jig on my dead wheezer corpse, not wasting time
.
” I point at my eyes that must be tinting red by now. “I can only control it for so long, eventually it’s gonna overpower me, and I’m gonna go ape shit in this mother fucker and eat everyone in this freaking house like an all you can eat buffet!”

“You aren’t infected,” Cory says with a roll of his eyes, as if I’m not turning ape in front of him.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demand and raise my shaking arms as evidence. “I can feel the infection coursing through my veins, you blind bastard!”

“It’s a panic attack, you fucking moron!” Cory shouts. I cock my head, and slowly lower my arms.

“Huh?”

“Panic attack, anxiety, a breakdown, a spaz fit, any of which are pretty much one in the same.”

“So, no King Kong for Jared?” I ask carefully, because I’m still not completely convinced that my current condition could be something as simple as anxiety. Cory shakes his head. “No foaming at the mouth, or red eyes?” Cory shakes his head in the negative again. “No,
‘King Kong ain’t got nothin, on me’
?” He huffs out a laugh at the
reference to
Training Day
.

“No, Denzel, you will not be going
‘King Kong,’
or
‘ape shit in this mother fucker,’
” Cory replies and points to the Doc to explain.

“He’s right,” Akio agrees. “Sometimes with a panic attack it feels like you’re underwater and can’t breathe, your heart races, you can get jittery, some people see spots. Everyone’s different, and you just experienced one of your own.” He gives me a hard look. “You’re doing too much, and your body can’t handle it. It’s been through trauma and it needs rest to heal properly. Now relax, let me finish wrapping you like a mummy, and then go see Olivia. She looks worried about you.”

I glance toward the direction he’s looking in, to find Olivia standing in the doorway, worrying her bottom lip. I’m not a blusher, but damn my cheeks to Hell for betraying me now. This only further embarrasses me after my breakdown, which was witnessed in its entirety by not only Cory and Akio, but Olivia who no doubt came running when she heard shouting. Nothing gives masculine pride a low blow quite like showing your weakness through a hissy fit in front of the girl you want to impress. Especially when said girl is ten times stronger than you already.

It’s even worse when she glares at Akio and Cory, before softening her expression to ask me if I’m all right through hand signals. Nodding, I turn back to Akio and hold out my other hand to be wrapped, all the while looking at the floor. Just shoot me now, and put me out of my misery, is all I can think; when I hear the pitter patter of soft footsteps walk over and a tiny ungloved hand tilt my chin up. Her concerned eyes meet mine, so I project as much confidence in mine as possible, hoping she takes the bait and gives me time to lick my wounds. No chance, because I feel the bed dip slightly with Olivia’s weight, as she plops down beside me and threads her naked fingers through my gauze covered ones. And isn’t that another role reversal.