Chapter 6,

"I stopped the infection and stitched it up the best I could but I'm not an expert. She needs a real doctor." I heard Mike say. "I agree. But where the hell are we gonna find a doctor? We just have to make do with what we have." Grace replies. 

I groan. "Ugh. My head is killing me. Hey doc, got any Ibuprofen or Tylenol? A painkiller would help as well." I say, sitting up from my laying position on the couch. Mike and Grace both rush over with relieved looks on their faces.

"I did my best with the stitches and bandaging but I only know a little so try not to move your hands a ton so you don't accidentally tear the stitches," Mike says. I nod and slowly unwrap the white bandage.

"What are you doing?" asked Grace. I smile and reply, "I'm seeing how big the wounds are so I know how cool my scar is gonna look." Mike and Grace laugh and I just smile.

I finish unwrapping the bandage on the hand that had been stabbed all the way through with a glass shard and winced at the sight. Mike puffs out his chest and asks, "How amazing are my medical skills?"

I put on a fake serious look on my face and pretend to study it then look at him with a sheepish smile and reply, "At least it's not infected?" in a half question. A mock look of shock crosses his face. "You dare insult my very professional work?"

Grace and I bust out laughing, quickly followed by Mike. When I recompose myself, I re-wrap the bandage and my stomach rumbles. Mike laughs again and Grace says, "There's half a turkey sandwich in the fridge." I give her a smile and reply, "You are an absolute lifesaver." Grace smiles and walks over to the fridge in the corner of the lounge.

Grace and I have been best friends since we could walk and she knows firsthand how picky of an eater I am. I sigh when I realize that, with everything happening now, I'm going to have to get over my pickiness and be grateful for whatever I can get my hands on.

Grace brings the turkey sandwich over to me and I practically inhale it. When I'm finished, I rub my stomach and give a sigh of contentment. "So, how long was I out for?" I ask. Mike and Grace share a look and Mike sighs and replies, "Four days. You were unconscious for four days." My eyes widen and I stand up too quickly and nearly fall back down.

I wince as I remember the wounds on my stomach. "Shit," I mutter. "Woah, take it easy. Your body's still healing." Mike said. I gave him a pointed look and he closed his mouth. I stumbled over to the windows, surprised their still intact, and looked outside.

"So what the hell caused that...." I began but stopped and my jaw immediately fell open at the sight before me. Collapsed buildings. Fires everywhere. Infected in the dozens. It was absolute hell out there. "How...." I ask. "The government bombed the city," Grace said quietly. "Why...." I begin but Mike speaks up.

"Because of the infected. I think they figured that if they bombed this damn city they could get rid of all the infected." He shared a glance with Grace.

"We have different ideas on the why. I think it's all one big conspiracy. I think that the government created the infection as some kind of experiment and now they're trying to destroy it and everyone who knows." I stare at her for a moment and bust out laughing, thinking she's joking about her theory.

When I see neither of them is laughing, I recompose myself and stare at her and say, "You can't be serious." She glares at me and stomps her foot like a child. "I am serious. I think this whole thing is a conspiracy!" Mike shakes his head.

"It doesn't matter. We just need to get the hell out of dodge and never look back." Mike says, clearly getting annoyed at our back and forth. "We have to find my little sister Eliza first," I said. Mike sighs and gives me a look of pity.

"Look, Farah, I know you wanna go find your little sister but she could be dead, infected, or anywhere in this entire city and we'd have no clue where to look. It's a lost cause." He said, attempting to place a pitiful hand on my shoulder.

I smacked his hand away and glared at him. "Don't ever call my sister a lost cause ever again." I storm away and enter the bathroom, slamming the door closed. I look at my appearance in the mirror and wince.

My face is pale, my hair is tangled, and I have bags under my eyes. I look five years older than I did before all this began. I sigh and look down at my hand. It throbbed with pain from having smacked Mike's hand away and my stomach hurt like hell from storming away too quickly.

I sighed and searched through the cabinet underneath the sink. I found another small first aid kit, rubbing alcohol, extra soap, a few hair ties, and a hairbrush. I placed the items beside me and then searched the drawer.

I found multiple new toothbrushes that were still in the case and a shit ton of toothpaste. I set the items with the rest and opened the bathroom door. I saw Mike and Grace having a conversation in the corner and decided not to bother them.

I grabbed a backpack and took it to the bathroom where I loaded all the stuff inside. I looked around for a moment, wondering if I'd need anything else when my eyes landed on something. I thought about it for a moment and decided to take it. I shoved the toilet paper in my backpack and did one last sweep before I exited the bathroom.

I began searching the drawers in the little kitchen area and smiled widely when I found the one drawer I knew almost everyone had in their house. The junk drawer. Stuff that doesn't really belong with other items and would be a hassle to throw away. I smiled and grabbed a box of matches and stuffed them into my pocket then continued to look.

I sighed when I didn't find anything else of use. I looked over to find Grace and Mike had ended their conversation and were standing on opposite sides of the room. I internally smiled. They are either already a couple or it's gonna happen soon.

I walk up to Grace and ask, "What did you guys find in the cabinets and drawers?" She looks at me and shakes her head, "We didn't look. We figured you would want to go through everything yourself so you know what's useful and what isn't. We also figured it would be better since you are the one who comes up with the plans and you would know if anything could help us escape." For a moment, I felt angry but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

"Thanks, Grace. How many backpacks can you carry and still move comfortably?" I ask. "Just one." She says sighing. I nod and walk over to Mike. "How many backpacks can you carry and still move comfortably?" I ask. "Two. Also, sorry about earlier. I'm just really stressed." He replies. "It's fine," I say.

Then I ask, "Can you cook?" He laughs and answers, "Yes. My dad's a chef and he taught me everything he knew." A sad look passes across his face and I can tell what he's thinking about. I walk away, figuring it'd be better to leave him to himself.

It took me a moment to realize I hadn't asked Grace if she could cook and then I remembered why. I snorted to myself as I remember our sleepover at her house a few weeks back. She had attempted to cook us grilled cheese for dinner and burnt them to a crisp.

She also managed to forget to take the wrapper off the cheese. I remember I had laughed and mocked her and tried to show her how to make grilled cheese and ended up lighting the grilled cheese on fire.

I don't even know how we both had managed to fail that badly at grilled cheese but it hadn't been the first time so I knew neither of us could cook anything for shit. I shook myself out of the memory and grabbed an empty backpack. I noticed it was bigger than the others and smiled.

I searched through the cabinets and found a few pots and pans. I stuffed one pot and one pan in the bag and moved on. I found medium-sized containers of oil and hand sanitizer and put them in the bag. I found a small metal rack usually used for letting cookies cool down and put it in the backpack as well.

I put some silverware and wooden utensils in the backpack and grabbed metal tongs and shoved them inside, filling the backpack to a brim. I zipped up the backpack and set it to the side. I grabbed another backpack and began stuffing nonperishables, boxed foods, and anything that wouldn't spoil, including chips, granola bars, and small snacks.

I zipped the backpack up and found that there was nothing else that we needed to pack. I set the backpack to the side and began studying the room when there was banging on the door. "Hello? Is anyone here? Please, let me in!"


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