I sat there for a long while with the wounded goblin. It was strange, I had never felt like someone who needed companionship to be happy, but I suppose that was because I spent all of my time inside the game playing with my friends and guild members. Now I had found it in the most unlikely place, and I realized that ever since I had woken up to the apocalypse, I had been lonely. There had been so much else to worry about. I had been so busy flailing to secure food and safety and waging my war for my floor. I hadn’t noticed how alone and isolated I had felt, and now... Now I had a pet goblin, at least temporarily.

I had no way of knowing exactly what the creature wanted, or how long it would stay, but I knew that right now it wanted to be with me. I took a glance at its wounds, and what I saw was not good at all. Pus seeped out from the deep gouges across its face, and there were blood stains and tears on the shirt it wore, which implied many more unseen injuries. I needed to do something about this before it got worse, but it was too dangerous. I needed a way to restrain the goblin, or it would just bite me and run away.

My first objective was to secure the floor. I got up, and the goblin followed me as I walked to the far stairwell and locked it. The poor thing was so weak. It was stumbling around but trying so hard to keep up with me. Next, I reached through the goblin holes and opened the two doors this goblin had broken into, one of which was alarmed. The poor creature cowered and whimpered like a puppy in a thunderstorm until I smashed the alarm control.

The rooms were clear, and with the hallway empty and the stairwell doors locked, that meant this floor was secured. The only goblin here was the wounded one following behind me. One of the rooms still had its first aid kit. I looked at the goblin again, and I didn’t know how long the poor thing could last. It stood there waiting for me to do something, and it swayed back and forth. I had to treat it now, or it was going to die. This was going to be very… interesting.

I took the goblin’s green little hand and led it into the bathroom. I thought of the time when I was younger when my dog had run through some cholla cactus on a camping trip. Most of the cactus came out easily, just a single tug with a pair of tweezers, and the largest piece of cactus came out with most of its spines, but a few tiny balls studded with cactus needles had made it between the pads of one of his feet. I couldn’t pull up because the spines had spread each and every way they could. I had to use scissors and cut off each and every spine before I could take the little ball out, and my poor dog cried the whole time, but he trusted me and didn’t fight me. He only pulled his foot away from me gently and looked me in the eyes, begging me to stop.

With the ball out, I could finally start pulling out spines. After I had pulled out about five of the needles, I saw a change in my dog’s face. The poor thing realized I was trying to help and that I was making it better. Instead of trusting me and enduring what I was doing, he completely relaxed and stopped trying to pull his foot away. Every once in a while, he would jolt, tense up and whine in pain because I had slipped or the needle I was pulling was stuck in a particularly tender place, but he would immediately relax again and let me finish my work. As soon as I was done and said, “Okay!” he hopped right up and licked my face.

This wasn’t going to be as easy as that had been. I searched through the medkit, reading labels and hoping I wasn’t going to have to pour alcohol on this poor creature’s face. That would likely end in me getting bitten. I found something called “Bacitracin first aid, antibiotic ointment.” That sounded like exactly what I needed. I flipped the tube over and read the back.

“Uses: First aid to help prevent infection in minor cuts, scrapes, and burns.” This was not exactly a minor cut or scrape, but it would have to do. “Directions: Clean the affected area. Apply a small amount of this product (an amount equal to the surface area of the tip of a finger) on the area 1 to 3 times daily. May be covered with a sterile bandage.” Yeah, I was going to be using a whole lot more than that. I had to disregard all the warnings completely. All of it was to consult a physician before use on anything larger than a paper cut, and I didn’t have that option.

I started the shower and set it as hot as it could go. While it heated up, I patted the good side of the goblin’s head and pulled off its shirt. His shirt. The goblin was male and not wearing a loincloth underneath the shirt. “Oh god…” I couldn’t help but mutter as I saw the poor goblin’s body. Just about every part of the creature was covered in dark, purple bruises, cuts, and scrapes. This was going to be a lot of work. I started to nudge the goblin over towards the shower, but the poor thing started quivering in fear. I should have figured from the smell that it had never had a bath before. I was going to have to do this by hand.

I grabbed a hand towel and some soap and began to gently scrub at the goblin’s body. His face needed it the most, but I knew that was going to hurt the poor thing terribly. The creature was not happy at all. My dog had hated baths too.

As I washed the dirt away, more cuts revealed themselves. This creature had been clawed and beaten to within an inch of his life. All too soon, the rest of him was clean and it was time for his head. He had winced at the pain as the soapy rag had rubbed over the various cuts on his body, but none of those cuts had been as deep or as infected as the ones on his face. First, I pressed his face into the spray of water, and the goblin flailed and screamed but didn’t lash out. I watched as the pus was washed away. I saw the agony on the creature’s face, but he only hit me with a hateful, betrayed glare. He bore the pain, likely through fear, but it reminded me so much of my dog. Any hatred or fear I had for this goblin in front of me had been washed away.

I brought the soapy rag up to his face and started scrubbing the healthy side. Then it was time for the infected mess, and it howled in pain. I cleaned out the wound as gently as I could and did the same for the remnants of his ear. Given how raw the wound was, I couldn’t imagine it had happened more than a few days ago, but I really had no idea how fast an infected wound healed or even a normal one, for that matter. I knew my own healing was artificially accelerated by my hibernating, so that wasn’t much to go on.

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Finally, the goblin and all of its wounds were clean. I grabbed the Bacitracin and smeared far more than I probably needed over each and every one of his cuts below the neck. Most of the cuts were small enough that all they needed was a couple of bandaids. There were about eight larger ones that looked like they needed stitches, though. “Good boy. Good boy. You’re doing great.” I said to the goblin, but the only response I got was a pitiful, hateful glare.

Skill Improved: First Aid First Aid has reached level 6

I opened up a suture pack and looked the goblin in his eyes. He had endured everything so far, whether out of fear of me or fear of me leaving, I didn’t know, but if he was going to snap and bite me, I figured it would be when I stabbed him with the needle. He seemed to sense what was about to happen and turned away. He hid himself as best as he could in the corner of the shower. I gently but firmly grabbed his arm and pierced the needle through the edge of a cut on his upper arm. He shuddered and whimpered, but he didn’t struggle or fight back.

I paused for a moment. I was sure he was going to bite me. I had prepared myself for it, even accepted it. I couldn’t understand why he was so passive. He had to believe I was torturing him. I couldn’t imagine that these goblins had physicians or medicine of any kind. I started stitching again, and I got halfway through when the goblin shifted. He hadn’t moved much, so I kept going without looking up. When I was finished and tied it off, I looked up, straight into the eyes of the goblin.

There was little fear or worry in those eyes. What I saw now was a look of confusion and curiosity. He had another deep cut on one of his shins, so I grabbed his leg and started to work, but I watched his eyes this time. He was totally enraptured with my work, he would still wince in pain now and again, but it seemed he had finally reached the same epiphany as my dog had all those years ago. He knew I was helping. His fearful submission was gone, and when I finished that stitch he felt it with his fingers. He poked it and winced, but smiled at it. The only problem with that is that a goblin’s smile is absolutely horrifying, even when half of its face didn’t look like something out of a horror movie.

Skill Improved: First Aid First Aid has reached level 7

I suppressed the shudder that forced its way down my spine and smiled back as well as I could. I was suddenly remembering a goblin chewing on the leg of that poor woman like a turkey leg at the fair. This wasn’t a dog. It was a goblin. ‘I’m losing it! I have to get out of here right-’

I was brought out of my panic by the goblin tapping my arm and wiggling his shoulder at me. The back of his shoulder had another deep cut, and my mind began to relax again. I had no idea how long it would take me to find humans or safety. If I kept doing this alone, I would snap under the pressure. I had to take what I could get.

People always assumed that gaming was only for loners but for me, it was always about being something more than myself. About doing things, I could never do and doing it with people I cared about. Gaming full time with people made for strong friendships, and eventually, I even came to see them as family. I wasn’t a loner, and now I was lonely enough to accept even a goblin’s friendship.

I sewed up his shoulder, back, belly, and all the other large cuts. Then it was time for his face.

Skill Improved: First Aid First Aid has reached level 8

Skill Improved: First Aid First Aid has reached level 9

Unlike a dog, I could communicate on some level with the creature. I saw the intelligence behind those eyes while I was working. I squeezed some of the Bacitracin on my finger and held it up in front of his eyes. I pointed at the cream and then his face. I went back and forth with my finger a few times before the goblin stuck his chin straight out as far as his neck would stretch and then snapped it back before turning to present the wounded side of his face to me. It was somewhat like a nod, but I focused on his eyes and saw the acceptance there.

I slathered his ruinous facial wounds with the antibacterial cream, and the poor thing tried to put on a brave face. I began stitching, but there were large chunks of flesh that were missing. I stitched what I could and used bandages to cover the rest. Unless I found antibiotics, there was nothing more I could do.

Skill Improved: First Aid First Aid has reached level 10

First Aid Bonus Level 10: Reduces bleeding by an extra %10 after treatment

I celebrated silently. I didn’t want to spook my wonderfully behaved patient. This bonus will make a huge difference the next time I get hurt. This poor goblin had been so badly wounded that I had gotten more first aid experience treating him than I had from every other treatment since the apocalypse had started combined.

As I got up and moved away, the goblin immediately started fussing with his bandages and wounds, and I had to swat his hands away. The last thing I needed was him re-opening his wounds. Then he ran for his dirty, disgusting shirt, but I couldn’t bear him smelling like that if he was going to stay with me. I grabbed his hand and walked to the wardrobe of whoever had lived here, and picked out a new t-shirt for him. He gingerly accepted the shirt I handed him and carefully put it on, and then he started dancing about merrily. He was such a strange creature.

We walked back to the pile of food, and I handed him some, and the look on his face was like that of a dog when you gave them a hamburger patty. I started to believe that maybe this was right. I thought that I could make this work, and then he trotted away about ten feet, squatted, and took the most rank shit I had ever smelled right on the carpet of the hallway.

This was going to be harder than I had thought.