-Chapter II-

Making New Friends

Is she alright? I didn’t go up the wall too fast, did I?

I ask her again, since I don’t think she heard me, “You good? I hope I didn’t give you a scare…”

She takes a couple of seconds before responding, just giving me a look.

“I… I’ll be fine. Just questioning my life choices. Asking myself how I ended up here…”

I cross my arms in front of my chest and give her a knowing nod, “Ah, I can sympathize with that.”

She gives me another look and clasps the bridge of her nose, “Never mind, not important… The Sergeant, where is he? You said he was up here?”

“Oh ya! We were doing that, huh. Sorry I got distracted, hahaha. He’s over this way.” I wave behind me for her to follow, “Come on.”

I lead her across the roof, her flashlight never leaving my person. I look up and see the Moon hanging high up in the sky. A beautiful and clear sky with the stars showing.

“You know, I doubt you need the light. The moon is basically full you know?”

“Just keeping you in sight, I don’t want you turning into a shadow and trying something, or running off. I don’t have much reason to trust you other than your word after all.”

“Fair….”

Turn into a shadow? The heck is she talking about? Hmmm, it's something I can ask about later.

We arrive at the stairwell, and I point to it, “Alright, we're here. He is inside and resting."

“Open the door please.”

“Ok…?

Must be paranoid, I’ll just play along until she relaxes. At least she isn’t pointing a gun at me anymore…

I open it and walk in only to stop as I find the barrel of a shotgun aimed at me. The Sergeant had woken at some point and scooted himself into a corner, he looks a bit delirious, and he is having a hard time keeping the gun steady, but it is most certainly aimed at me.

“Freeze! Hands where I can see them!” he orders.

I slowly raise my hands, “I’m not armed soldier, please put down the gun. We really don’t need the wildlife getting riled up again.”

He stops for a bit as if to check that his eyes are working properly.

“Who are…? What are you?”

I ignore him and turn to the lady, “Hey, you mind getting in here and telling your Sergeant to chill out? He’s still injured, and we don’t need him making his wounds worse.”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Sgt. Lenz! I’m coming in. Please put down the gun.” She calls.

“Rookie? Is that you?”

She pokes her head around the corner, before walking in. Seeing her, the Sergeant starts to relax a bit, but the barrel of the shotgun doesn’t move away from me as I continue to stand there with my hands up.

“Rookie… Uh, what the hell is going on, who or what is this thing?”

“Rude!”

“She says her name is Lain, and that she is a mutated human. Calls herself an Imp. I met her downstairs. Said that she pulled you out of the rats and fled up here with you. Supposedly, no signs of the others; they are suspected to heading back to the fallback point Sir!”

“Hmm, where are we?”

“Roof access stairwell. Sun has set Sir.”

“Alright. Now you…”

“Lain!”

“Eh, right… Now Lain… You mind explaining to me what it is you're doing here. Following us around and stalking our Rookie here like some perv? That was you, wasn’t it? The Shadow?”

“Stalking!? I ain’t no stalker! I just followed you guys for miles on end from the shadows without approaching and… Huh… Holy shit I’m a stalker… But it wasn’t intentional, I swear. If she wouldn’t have kept spotting me, you wouldn’t have even known I was here!”

“She didn’t deny the perv part.” The Rookie whispers to herself.

“Oi! I heard that!”

“I know you did, I wanted you to.”

“Hey!”

“Enough! Both of you! I asked you a question. Why are you following us?” He demands.

“Eh, how about you put down the gun first so I can check on your wounds, and then I can tell you?” I ask with a smile.

“No. Talk now or leave.”

My smile becomes a bit cramped.

“Alright… I’ll give you the short version, but then you need to let me tend to your wounds. OK?”

He waves the gun as if to signal me to go on.

“Ok… So, one of your convoys picked up my family and brought them down here to Kentucky. I got left behind and had to walk all the way here. While they were getting evacuated, I got mauled by a dog and almost died. I get home, and everyone is gone. Next thing I know I am mutating, and I turn into an imp.”

I point to myself with another smile.

Rookie looks like she wants to ask a question, but I stop her. “Questions after the story please.”

“So, I leave home, and I walk and walk and walk until I finally get here. I’ll skip over everything that happened during my journey because I could probably write a whole book about the ordeal, and we don’t have all day..."

“Anyways! I finally get to the base, but I obviously look like I do, and I don’t want to get shot just for walking up to the front gate. So, I figured that if I could find some soldiers outside the base, I could maybe negotiate with them for safe passage and be reunited with my family. I ended up following you guys after I saw your little stunt with the APC. I didn’t want to risk not catching you guys on your way back so I followed and figured that I would just wait until you were heading back to base to finally show myself. You guys' sort of messed that up when you went guns a blazing deep into monster territory…”

I give them a few seconds to digest that, the Sergeant finally lowering his gun a bit, but still keeping it aimed in my general direction.

He speaks up, “Where did you come from, before you left to catch up with your family?”

“Ohio.” I tell him.

“Hmm, that matches up. The last group of refugees we got from the north all came from Ohio about a month ago.”

A month! I figured it would have been like a week or so. Just how long did I spend mutating in bed before I woke up!?

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Rookie asks me a question, “You said a dog bit you, and that’s what caused you to mutate?”

She looks worriedly at the Sergeant, who is covered in bite marks and not looking very good.

“Don’t worry, I doubt that he will mutate. I’ve seen plenty of other people that have been bitten or scratched up by these things and I’m the only person I know of that has actually been changed from it.” I say with a shrug.

“She's right, just think of how many people we have coming into the hospital with injuries from monster attacks. How many have you seen mutate Rookie?”

“…. None sir, but to think that there is a possibility of it happening.”

He leans his head back against the wall and lets out a long breath, he looks utterly exhausted as he finally lets his hold over the shotgun slacken some.

“So… can I check on your wounds? I would rather not have one of the first two people I’ve met in a while bleed out on me. Being alone sucks… Well, I guess I wasn’t really alone. I have this cute little Kobold friend named Sky, but she is still learning English. So, we're only able to talk so much…”

“Kobold friend!?” Rookie asks, sounding excited.

“Mmm, yes you can check my wounds, just stop rambling so much…”

I give a salute, “Yes sir!”

I walk over, having finally receive permission and wave for the Rookie to come over and help.

He refuses to be taken out of his armor, so I try to work around it. Undoing the quick bandage work that I did earlier, I get to work on applying rubbing alcohol where I can and using a tube of liquid bandage (Basically medical glue) that they had with them, to seal up his wounds before wrapping them where I can in gauze. The glue is good, but it isn't a proper replacement for surgery and stiches. Some of these wounds are deep.

His armor managed to keep the worst of the damage from happening and curling up in a ball had helped him protect his neck and face from suffering more than a couple of cuts. The worst of his damage is on his extremities in the areas where his armor couldn’t cover.

The back of his right leg is looking particularly bad where the rats had been able to take a couple of bites out of him before I could pull him out. Walking is going to be painful for him.

By the time that we finish patching and wrapping him up, he is already on the verge of passing out.

“Alright Sergeant, we’ve done the best that we can for now. In the morning we are going to need to get you out of here and back to a hospital. You're not going to bleed out, but you can’t do anything to extensive, or you will open your injuries and start bleeding again. For now, just get some sleep and let your body rest.”

“Mmmmm, right…. Rookie, you're in charge while I’m asleep. Don’t let anything eat me while I’m sleeping…”

He leans back and he is soon out like a light. Just laying on hard concrete without a care.

“Well, that’s finally taken care of.”

I stand up and head over to the wall where I left my stuff while I was setting up camp earlier. For this trip I brought a smaller bag with just the necessities and my Sledgehammer that Sky gifted me. She gets upset if I try to leave home without it. Not that I am going to complain, a 20Ib sledgehammer swung around with my strength has a hell of a lot of power behind it. One hit to the head with it will take out almost anything. She even went and made a leather wrap around the end of the handle where she hung one of the bear teeth from as an ornament. She’s so sweet.

I hope Sky is doing ok back home, she gets worried if I spend too long away from home. At least I was able to stock up on meat for her before I left, so she shouldn’t go hungry.

Digging around in my bag, I take out some water and wash the blood off of my hands and drink down a bottle.

As I am looking for my book, the Rookie comes over acting a bit nervous like she wants to ask me some questions.

Finding my book, I throw my pillow down on the ground and sit on it as a cushion. Cracking it open, I get to reading. The Rookie is still awkwardly standing there like she wants to talk to me. But I’ll wait until she starts the conversation.

In regard to my book, I had finished the first one and found myself rather liking it. So, I had gone out of my way to find the last three of the series while scavenging around the area where Sky and I settled down at.

Luckily, I was able to find a house where the previous owners had owned the entire series, so I was able to upgrade my paper back copy into a hardback collection. They take up more room, but I have always liked to collect things, so having the whole set is worth it in my opinion. The second book has a picture of a red dragon while the first has one of a blue dragon. Not particularly important, I know. I just think they look nice.

My ADD fueled rambling aside, the Rookie is still standing behind me and being awkward.

If I just ignore her, will she just stand there all night?

...

I’m not going to be able to focus on my book like this…

I clear my throat, “Mmmm, Rookie, right? Um, did you need something or…?”

“Sorry, I… just wanted to ask you some stuff.”

Why is she looking so embarrassed all of a sudden? Earlier she was going full soldier and ready to shoot me if I did anything.

“Well, go ahead and ask me whatever you want; we’ve got all night.”

“Ah, I was just curious about your mutation. What was it like, did it hurt…?”

“Hmm? Well, I mean ya. It hurt a lot.” Grimacing a bit as I recall it all.

I show her my left arm with its scars.

“After the dog bit me, my skin started turning grey and my entire arm was constantly flaring in pain. It got so bad, that when I realized something was happening to my arm, I even tried to cut it off. Pain was driving me nuts.”

I wiggle my clawed fingers at her and smile.

“At one point my fingernails even started to rot and I had to pull them out to make room for my claws to grow in. Eventually it reached my heart and then I was out.”

I clap my hands and shrug, scratching the back of my head I continue, “I don’t know how long I was unconscious for, but I’m guessing it was like a week or so. When I woke up, I was covered in this horrible black slime that smelled just utterly disgusting! I honestly don’t want to talk about that part. But ya, woke up and I was like this. 0/5 stars, would not recommend, but the end results have been rather nice.”

“Oh… I’m sorry to hear that.” Cringing a bit and glancing over at the sleeping Sergeant.

“Eh. It is what it is. I’m saving the crying and freaking out over it for when I reunite with my family. Will be a big emotional event.”

“I’m sure it will be… If you don’t mind, I wanted to…”

“Ah, I want to ask you something first. Why are you suddenly so shy? You had this whole soldier girl thing going on and now you're all meek.”

She seems to jump a bit at this, becoming a bit self-conscience.

“Eh! Uhhh… I’m sorry, I get like that when I’m working. I’m normally pretty reserved and quiet, I guess… I don’t do well with new people.”

“Hmm? Oh, you’ve got modes.”

“Modes?”

“Modes, yup. At least that’s what I call it. You know how people might act differently when they are online or talking on the phone vs. how they are normally. Or even how people act when they are alone vs. being with others.?”

She nods her head.

“Ya well, it’s that. Your normal mode is probably just very shy and earlier you were in work mode. Let me guess, when you get behind the scope of that rifle you become a like a different person. All serious and focused?”

“Ya, at least that what people have told me. How’d you know that?”

“Just a guess, it seems like it fits your character. Anyways, sorry for prying, my curiosity got the better of me.”

Ahh… That was weird. Why the hell did I bring that up? Gotta find something normal to talk about…

“It’s alright, I don’t really mind…”

I hope she doesn’t think I am weird now. Maybe we ca talk about books or movies? Maybe she likes Godzilla?

I get pulled out of my thoughts as she moves to talk again.

She continues after thinking for a bit, “Uhmm, I was going to ask you, earlier, about when you were following us around. I kept getting the feeling like I was being watched and occasionally I would end up spotting you… Were you watching me specifically? And if so, why…?”

She knows I’ve been watching her! Shit! Don't panic!

“Eh, A, a aaaaa… I wasn’t watching just you, but all of you… obviously.”

What the hell was that?! could you look any less guilty? Don’t blush or she’ll know we’re lying damn it. Self-control!

“That didn’t sound very reassuring…” She says and gives me a look.

“I wasn’t! My gaze would just land on you sometimes, that’s all…”

The rookie is suddenly not so shy anymore as she starts to smell bullshit.

“For some reason I don’t believe you. Tell me why you were watching me before I have to force it out of you!”

“It was nothing! I swear!”

She gets very close and stares me in the eyes, “Lies!”

“I’m telling you; it was nothing! Just a coincidence…”

Look her in the eyes, if you look away, she will know you're lying!

She grabs me by the shirt and pulls me forward, the smell of dirt and her sweat fills my nostrils, and I can no longer fight the blush growing on my cheeks. Feeling flustered with her being so close, I break eye contact and look away.

“Tell me you little Imp, why were you watching me all the time! Don’t make me ask again.”

“Ah! Ok! Yes, I was looking at you! I was staring at your butt!”

No! I said it! Damn you mouth, you traitor!

She looks as if she just got shot as the words hit her brain.

“My, butt…?

“Yes! You look really good in that uniform, and it makes your butt look amazing. I couldn’t help but watch as you walked, especially when you get low! There’s just something about a girl in uniform that really does it for me!”

Ahhhhhhh! Shut up mouth, shut up!!!!

She lets me go and backs away.

Flooding with embarrassment, I clasp my hands and hide my face. Rolling around on the ground I moan in dismay.

Ahhhh! I’m such an idiot! That the first time I’ve told a girl she’s cute and I’m a freaking idiot! This is why I wanted to just ignore her and read. Ahhhhh!

“Sandy was right! The stalker was a pervert!”

She points at me with a blushing face full of shock and declares me guilty.

“Stalker, Pervert, Fiend, a Degenerate of the highest order!”

“Nooooooo! I’m not a pervert!”

“Perv!”

“Noooooo!”

“WILL THE TWO OF YOU SHUT UP! You're both perverts for all I care! I don’t give a flying shit if you go off and fuck each other senseless, just do it where I can’t hear you! I’m trying to sleep!”

“Ahhh, Sergeant, it’s not like that…”

“That’s an order Rookie, either fuck or be quiet! Just get it out of your system.”

“Yes sir….”

I had stopped rolling around on the ground, now peeking through my fingers. She turns from the Sergeant who has gone back to sleep, back to me with an angry blush on her face. I give her a little smile.

“So, uh…. You want to go….?”

She doesn’t let me finish as she turns away and walks over to a corner. Sitting down, she hides her face with her knees and turns off her flashlight. The room instantly becomes pitch black except for the sliver of moonlight finding its way through the open door. I choose to ignore the fact that I can still see her just fine...

I guess that’s a no…. Is this my first rejection?

Ah, so that’s what it feels like. It hurts….

But at the same time, I am oddly proud of myself.

Huh…