Chapter 16 Ouch, Love and Forgiveness?

Authors Note: Some of you may have wondered how the relationship has developed so fast between Scott, Julie and Cindy. Well as hinted in previous chapters, Julie and Scott were already there, they just needed that little push. As to Cindy and Scott? The suspension bridge effect is a phenomena, where when people face danger together and rely on one another, they feel like they are in love, however the danger is even more extreme and constant here. Will it last? Read and find out. 

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Julie gets up and goes to get on her feet. “And where do you think you are going miss? The Doc asks agitated.

Julie looks a the elderly man, Doc, He is about 5 '10” wearing a lab coat, stethoscope around his neck, in his late 50's no hair on top but has trimmed gray on the sides, his face slightly wrinkled with a pronounced nose sticking out. He is very skinny.

“I think I will accompany Scott, Doctor?” she says then questions.

"Yes I am your doctor, but I would prefer if you would stay in bed for a bit Julie” He says concerned.

Julie shakes her head no, “No I am fine now Doctor” and with that she moves and grabs my right arm.

The Doctor sighs then mutters to himself something incoherent and makes his way to other patients.

All in all 8 other people were in beds with bandages and IV's in them, some awake and talking to people at heir sides, others were asleep while someone was watching over them with care.

I look at Julie, she gives me a nod and we follow Rick the Sheriff to where everyone is gathered.

We enter the crowd and the Sheriff begins,” Folks as most of you saw I changed. Why I have no idea, and the person next to me might be able to shed some light on what is going on. Folks this is Scott Smith, like me, he changed too, and next to him is Julie Matterson, she too, changed. I am now going to turn this over to Scott so he can explain. Scott?”

The Sheriff looks at me and smiles then steps into the crowd.

"Hello everyone, I am Scott Smith. I am 41 years old, well I was until 3 days ago, and am a retired Marine of 20 years. What exactly is going I can not tell you, as I too, do not know, but I can share with you what I have seen and saw and some ideas as well.

I then go into day 1 to present of all our adventures, the goblins at the mall, the Worgs and Zombies. I even tell of the biker gang incident but leave out the final part. This was to emphasize that there will be groups out there who are only interested in themselves and will hurt other to gain their needs. Julie then steps in and talks about Magic and her ability to heal. We take turns answering questions about the system as far as we know it. We also mention that one has to drink a potion or kill a creature to be initiated into the system, then we emphasize the pain that follows, everyone looks to the Sheriff and Paterson who both nod.

“Now, once a person is initiated that is only the start, then they have to level, you do this by killing monster. As far as I know, there is also murder of fellow Humans to gain xp. What comes after are titles, skills and professions. Once you select a profession, your inventory will open to you and the items to get started will appear. Equip Vibroblade” I say. I take the blade and turn it on. “This is not made by our current technology. From what I understand that anything can exist as long as you believe and understand it.”

A few more questions are asked and answered to the best of our abilities.

"Folks the first priorities is safety and food. .Those who have been initiated will have to do the runs. Those

who wish to be initiated can come to me later and we will discuss it with the sheriff.” I look to the sheriff and he nods.

“Once initiated you will learn to defend yourselves and grow stronger and be the protectors of the community” I say with a stern voice looking over the crowd. I see a few eager faces, but for the most, they are pale and have fear in their eyes. The few and the proud huh? I think to myself.

With that, I end the discussion, and many people erupt with questions on going to save their kin else where in the city or checking on loved ones the next town over.

“FOLKS!” I yell loudly, “Understand, we have to prioritize here. I know all of you are scared and also want to be with your families, but our first and foremost concern here is safety and food! We will discuss after, other options. I am sorry.” I walk away with Julie on my arm.

“JULIE!!!” someone yells very loudly

“JULIE!” A man about 6 ft, runs at Julie with a giant smile on his face. He has thick black hair, somewhat un-kept, a lean build, a pretty face to be honest, almost girl like. He is wearing Blue jeans, and a red sweater.

He reaches Julie and pulls her into his arms giving her a hug “”Julie, oh my little Julie. it is you isn't it?

“M..M.. Mark?” Julie stutters, her hands outstretched away from her body. He pulls back and takes her face in his hands then plants a kiss on her. Julies knee jerks up and catches him in the crotch immediately and without hesitation.

Ooooh that has got to hurt I cringe, note to self never ever piss of Julie!

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“What the hell are you doing Mark!” Julie yells at him in anger. Everyone stops talking and looks our way.

Mark has fallen to the ground in the fetal position grabbing his crotch area.”But Julie my love” he says weakly.

“You 2 timing cheating bastard! How dare you do that to me!” Julie is raging now. A side I have never seen before. Her face is red with anger

“What happened to that Sarah bitch you were cheating on me with” She fires at him,

“She left me....” he reply’s weakly still in pain

“Serves you right you piece of shit. Mark stay away from me, very far away, for your own good, got that? I am with Scott now. So stay away!” she yells and grabs my arm and begins to lead me away.

“But Julie I always loved you....Julie” Mark says weakly still on the ground now reaching for Julie, as we walks away.

Julie wipes her mouth with the back of her hand” Ugh that creep! I am so sorry Scott, he took me totally by surprise.” she apologies sincerely.

“So that was your High School sweetheart eh?” I ask amused.

“Yeah, sadly so, Oh Scott if only you had been around back then.....” she sighs.

“Well I am here now, and if he bothers you any more I will have a word with him” I say to her with a smile.

She smiles back with relief in her eyes. Then jumps in to kiss me on the cheek,” mmmmmwwwhhaaaa”

We head back to where Cindy is, she is awake” how are you feeling sweety?” Julie asks Cindy.

“Like hell frozen over maybe worse?” Cindy replies with a weak smile

Julie lets go of my arm and sits next to Cindy and places both hands on her. She closes her eyes and a green aura emits from her hands flowing onto Cindy. After a few seconds,” there that should do it” Julie says with a proud smile.

Cindy checks her shoulder and begins to rotate it,” wow that feels better, no even better than better, and I feel a lot better too!”

Julie then gets up and looks at Cindy then me,”I think you two have something to talk about, so I am going to see if I can help the Doc with the other patients ok?”, with that she quickly walks off not waiting for a reply.

“What was that about? Cindy asks looking at Julie as she walks away then at me expecting an answer.

I sit down on her bed and take her hand in mine, “I need to tell you something important honey”.

Cindy observes me, her eyes narrow a bit, and then she comes to a decision and says “I too need to clarify a few things to you. I am not a whore ok? She says defensively. “ The thing with Brad was just for revenge money, I never slept with him.....ever, nor did I have any intentions to, you have to believe me” tears begin to fall.

I will listen to her story and not say anything, it seems she is going to open up, so I will let her.

She sighs and sniffs, “You know sometimes you make stupid choices in life, I know I made plenty “she laughs half hardheartedly,” I needed a lawyer a while back . I got into a car accident, nothing serious you know, but it was the other persons fault, but they were suing me claiming I caused the accident, can you believe that?”.

She sigh again” Brad was referred to me by a friend. God I wish I never had been in that accident, but in any case, I met him and he took my case. He actually cleared it up pretty quickly and I even got some money out of it, not much, about $10000.00 plus the repair costs to my car.”

Then she gets a little angry,” Brad then hits me with his bill. I thought he got a percentage of whatever we won and we were done, boy was I wrong.”

She looks at me with pleading eyes” I simply wanted to get back at him, take him for every penny for trying to take advantage of me you know? Normally I would never ever have done anything like that. But I was so angry, not only was the asshole who tried to sue me, but my own lawyer, was trying to get one over on me.”

She recollects the past, I can see she is being truthful, all the body language her eyes diverting to the right area when recalling something, all which I was taught in interrogations , showed she was being truthful.

“He hit me with a bill for over $30000.00, I was floored. He said it was for the costs of Specialists, expert witness testimonies and so on to win my case.” She pauses,” It as so easy you know?”

“It happened all of a sudden, I did not even hesitate, one thing led to another and we were dating, I had a job, and he was happy, frustrated, but happy it seemed. He wanted to have sex so many times and it took every excuse I could think of to keep him off of me.”

“In the end my debt got settled, but I did not stop and kept milking him like you said, but I never ever slept with that man in any way” she says at last looking at me now with sad eyes.”I wanted you to know the truth, please do not hate me Scott” she pleads close to tears.

“Honey I love you. I wanted you to know that..” is all I said and leaned in taking her into my arms as if to hug and kissed her taking her by surprise. Almost immediately she melts in my arms and returns the kiss with eagerness. It was fierce and passionate. The minutes rolled by and she moaned softly. We finally separated to catch our breaths, upon which she says with a gleeful expression “oh boy”.