Don't Look

I was woken up to loud knocks on my door. As I shuffled out of bed and opened it I could only glare as I saw Hank. The leader of our little camp staring at me, his light tanned skin covered in wrinkles as he looked down at me with cold angry brown eyes.

"We need you up front." He grumbled to me as he looked down empty hallway. As I leaned to look out I see a few people shuffling about trying to be quick and quite.

"No good morning? No sorry for waking you Angie? No information about what's going on?" I asked as I run my fingers through my hair brushing out some knots and smoothing it down as much as I can.

"Look just get up front. Everything will be there for you to see and to understand." He quickly turned and walked down the hallway, past all the people shuffling about. Damn that man. Damn him, thinking he's a f.u.c.k.i.n.g godsent for setting up this place. I reenter my room and quickly get dressed,pulling my blonde hair back into a loose ponytail as I make my way to the infirmary in the front. To my surprise I was met with a girl who was coughing roughly weakly fighting the two people trying to keep her down. To the bed on the right side of her was a man laying still, his face pale and from this distance he didn't look to be doing to well. I quickly walked over to the man, letting the three fight and figure that shit out on their own. As I looked him over I could only curse, by the looks of it he's been hit in the head a good handful of times. Normally by this point a person should have been dead. I dont have the medical equipment I need to help him, but i'll be damned if I let him die without trying anything. I struggle with him for what seems like forever, doing everything I could remember from being a doctor.

Looking at myself I always felt like an easy way out in this damn place. Of course I happened to run into a huge group that's well protected and seems to have a stable line for food. Of course they would just happen to take me in and make me want to stay because I seem to be one of the only people in the f.u.c.k.i.n.g medical career that survived. If this was anything but my life I would call myself a deus ex machina and I hate myself for it. I wasn't meant to survive in this world of monsters, yet here I am.

I was at work when everything went to shit, I was checking in on a patient when I heard a Janice come on over the p.a system. She was panicked screaming for us to find cover, the sounds of growling easily creeping up on her. I stared up at the system in horror as I heard the growl get closer before her piercing scream came through, the sound of wet meat ripping making my stomach drop and my dinner want to come up. The system quickly turned off and the silence crept through before I heard people screaming and running. I looked at the old man who I was checking on looking at me before we could say anything the screams suddenly turned into more panic and the sounds of crunches and rips filled the hallway. The man ushered me to hide in the closet with a smile.

"I-I can't… W-What about you?" I asked in a whisper as I hurried over and took one of his hands in mine.

"Don't worry about me… It's my time… Though I didn't expect it to be like this…" He gave my hand a tight squeeze before he let go and ushered me. I didn't fight this time as I hid, putting my hands over my mouth to keep quiet. I almost cried when I heard the monsters come into the room, I almost cried when I heard the man greet them. I almost screamed when I heard them make their way into him. I stayed in the dark for ages before I felt safe enough to come out, that point, it was sometime in the morning. As I left the room and walked down the halls I only noticed the blood, there weren't any bodies. I didn't have the heart to walk down the other halls, just grabbed my backpack filled it with medical needs and left. I don't know how long I drove or how long I walked after. I just somehow made my way here, when I should have died. I sighed as I took a seat, looking at the now resting man. It took a lot of work but it seems like I did some good here. I looked over at the girl who passed out about halfway through, the "nurses" seemed to have figured out what was wrong with her and helped her out there.

Looks like they finally got their head out of where the sun doesn't shine. My mind raced as I looked over at the girl. Once she passed out they worked on her, cleaning her up and such, they made it known that she just suffered a sort of…. Trauma to say the least recently. I shook my head as I stood up with a groan and walked over, watching as they finished dressing her in new clean clothes, her body washed down with rags and her hair now cut up to just below her chin. Who gave them that authority, my only guess was Hank as I saw him looking at us through the window in the door. I scoffed at him which caused him to start to walk away as I started examining the girl. She was twenty-three by the looks of it, she was underweight but not drastically. Her hands were rough and scared, she seemed to have a scar that ran from her left temple down to her cheek, freckles littering her face.

"She was screaming isn't she?" I asked a nurse before looking at her.

"Well...More like… She was growling… She almost sounded like one of those beasts… She didn't seem to say anything but she could at least understand us.." She said as she looked down at her hands.

"And ignored us." The other spoke as she put her hands on her h.i.p.s. "Damn brat has a strong swing though." I was able to notice the dark bruise forming on her cheek.

"What was wrong with her?"

"Looks like a heart condition, the more worked up she got the harder it got for her to breathe. Which…. Freaked her out even more and it just made the cycle worse." The one with the bruise said as she shook her head.

"You would think she would know that…" I muttered as I looked back to the girl.

"Unless she had no idea, I mean she's young right? Probably super young when this started." The nervous one said as she walked away to clean up the mess in the room.

I watched her walk away before I left to catch up on the sleep I was robbed from. They two seemed to sleep for days. Four days later the girl woke up and was kicking and screaming. I walked into the room and saw her holding a bar up like one would a knife. She screamed at all of us in there, her back to the boy. The others looked ready to fight her before I walked in front of them.

"Hey now, there's no need for this," I said with my hands buried in my pockets. She let out a scream at me.

"Yeah, yeah scream it out, kid. Look, your friend." I pointed to the boy which made her scream again. "Is sick. He needs help. I can help." I was trying to keep it simple for her.

She quickly looked back at him before looking at me still angry but more scared now.

"Let me help. Okay?" I took a few steps forward until my c.h.e.s.t was pressed against the bar. "We won't hurt you. I won't let them."

We stared into each other's eyes for a while before she slowly lowered the bar but held it close before she looked behind me at the others in the room. I slowly looked behind and motioned for them to leave before looking back at her. The room was silent until they all walked out before it washed over us again, this time it was calmer.

"Do you have a name?" I asked as I slowly walked around her to the boy checking on him to make sure he was still okay.

".....K...Ki...da…" She got out. Ah, so she could speak… Not well… Isolation could do that to a person. Especially if they were young when it started.

"That's a nice name, Kida. It's a strong name." I said as I began to change the boy's bandages. When I finally looked up she was staring at me, not maliciously but with question. I could only smile as I finished and stood up straight.

"My name is Angie. Started today Kida, we are campmates. Whatever you need Im here to help you."