A New Dawn_Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series by Mike Kraus

Author:Mike Kraus [Kraus, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2018-08-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The Waters’ Homestead

Outside Ellisville, VA

“How is she?” Jason stood next to Sarah, his arm wrapped around her shoulder and her head on his chest as he looked at Dianne. Dianne glanced behind her at Tina, who was lying on the couch looking smaller and frailer than ever.

“Alive, still.”

“Any idea how serious the wound is?”

Dianne shrugged. “My emergency response class was a long time ago. If Tina hadn’t pointed out that I needed to seal the wound to keep air out, I wouldn’t have even remembered.” Dianne pulled her jacket to the side and pushed two fingers up against the soft part below her right clavicle. “She got hit right about here. She’s not coughing up blood and her breathing’s improved a bit so I don’t think that her lung got punctured, but I really have no clue. Any guessing I’d be doing in the course of trying to repair the damage might do more harm than good. We’ll take shifts watching her tonight and keeping guard. We need to be monitoring her temperature and making sure she’s breathing and not bleeding out.”

“We just have to wait and see what happens,” Sarah looked up at Jason before wrapping her arm around him. He winced slightly and she pulled back, an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry, hon. Sort of forgot about your wound in all of this.”

“How are you doing, Jason?” Dianne focused on him, studying him closely.

“Hanging in there, like us all.”

“You look like crap. I’ll take first watch. Mark can take second, then you, then Sarah.”

At any other point in time, Jason would have vigorously argued with Dianne, insisting that he could stay up the whole night keeping guard and watching over Tina. His body, older than he wanted to admit, wasn’t having any of it. “Fine,” he sighed. “Two hours each. We’re all so sleep-deprived that we need to keep these shifts short.”

Dianne smiled and nodded at him. “Get some rest, you two. I’ll wake up Mark in a couple hours and he’ll wake you.”

After Jason and Sarah slowly made their way upstairs, Dianne was left in the dark, quiet living room. Tina’s gentle wheezing was the only sound that was audible and, for a moment, Dianne seriously contemplated how cozy and comfortable her chair was. Before the urge could overtake her, though, she stood up and shook it off.

Rifle in hand, Dianne walked over close to Tina and pulled back the blanket to check the bandages on Tina’s shoulder. “Stay with us,” Dianne whispered. “We need you. Now more than ever.”

***

Out beyond the Waters’ homestead, past where the dirt road turned to gravel and then to asphalt, beyond the turn at the edge of town leading past the forest, fields and the long ditch, more whispering was happening. As the five men loaded their gear into a pair of trucks, they did more than a small amount of quiet talking amongst themselves while stealing quick glances at the silhouette that was still stomping around inside the community center.

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