20) Bed Rest

After dozing off for a while, they helped me turn onto my back again and I passed out wondering if anyone was feeding the coyotes.

Hours later, after convincing the black haired girl, then the doctor, to remove the tube they had shoved up my man parts and that I would rather fight them to the point of tearing open my stitches then use a bedpan, I got pushed along on the wheelchair to the toilet of what may have been the only gas station with running water left in the area.

After I did my business and washed my hands with pink goop, I got wheeled back.

It wasn't that I was feeling up to the trip, but those pain killers were still working enough that was only agonizing pain getting on and off the shitter, not crippling.

Passing Brad’s salad on the other hand...

No one needs that much fiber.

Then the guy in charge, the Captain, came by to fill me in on what had happened.

"The other five never got any further than the bottom of the ramp. They had to stop to load your ass into your cart, which I have some of my people making a better replacement for, and then haul you out.”

“The Dungeon seemed to have another ambush waiting further in since a surge of Lashers followed the team out. Right into the Claymores we set up.”

He looked down at me from where he stood as if considering something. It was just the two of us in the medical tent since he had chased out the Doc and the blonde guy who had replaced the dark haired girl at some point while I was out cold again.

“The Dungeon still needs to be cleared.”

I raised my good hand and pointed one finger up at the ceiling, the second one in from the thumb.

“Fuck that.”

He wiggled his fingers at me with his palm up like he was waving me over to him. “Explain.”

I glared, he sat down on my poop run chair and began pushing it forward and back in place with his feet. “I have all night, and you aren't getting any more pain pills until we’re done talking.”

I huffed at him. While I could handle the pain, this wasn’t a hill worth dying on.

“I’m wounded. All the magic in the world isn’t going to heal me up that fast. I’m old, you son of a bitch. I don’t heal in days or weeks, or even heal all the way. I might not be able to use this arm for jack shit again even after it heals up.”

I looked away from him. “I may not be able to even go back to dying alone in my own house. I showed up, I did my part, and now I’m done. Conversation over.”

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From the corner of my eyes, I could see him purse his lips in thought before he stood up. Yes, he bought it.

“I’ll give you two weeks to heal up. If the team hasn’t managed to clear the dungeon by then, I’m pretty sure things will be desperate enough that I can make you go back in. As a decoy if nothing else. Have a pleasant night Mr. Bright.”

I guess he didn’t entirely buy the frail, traumatized old man bit.

But two weeks. I’ll take them. Maybe the horse will sing.

Wilyna got up from where she had been curled up with her pups in a corner to check on me. She sniffed at me for a moment and then stared at me until I looked over at her.

“Fat lot of good you did me. Just because you can’t throw an apple doesn't mean you can’t bite someone.”

She snorted at that and then headed over to curl up with her drowsy pups again.

As I waited for the Doc to show up with my meds, I noticed the gray boxes stacked up in the corner of my eyes.

Paying attention to them was enough to make the top one begin flashing at me, then snap open to full size.

[ Lasher Imp Killed. 1 exp point ]

Then it faded away for the next one to pop up.

[ Lasher Imp Killed. 1 exp point ]

Then the next…

[ Your Bonded Spirit animal has killed a Lasher Imp. 1 exp point ]

and all the others...

[ You are now second level ]

[ You have been granted the Life power. Genius Loci ]

[ You have been granted 1 point of Intuition and four free points ]

[ Error. All free points assigned to Health ]

[ You have been awarded 4 condition points ]

[ Please assign all conditions points ]

The boxes finally stopped coming at me, and as the last one faded away I could see a figure standing at the foot of my cot staring down at me with a wide gleaming smile.

Of straight, bright white, real teeth.

“I spent my freebies on a set of new choppers Harry, whats cha going to spend yours on? Don’t bother spending them on your pecker until the rest of you is in good enough shape to do something with it. Sam made that mistake. Should have dealt with the senility first.”

Hiram sat down on my poop chair and settled in. Wilyna looked up for a moment, grunted, and settled herself down again.

My visitor wiggled his finger around to produce a familiar blue and white can of cheap beer beaded with droplets of condensation running down the sides as it was still ice cold. He popped it open and began guzzling it down.

"Of course, my liver's still shot. But I'm up a total of six points of health, so I figure it will hold out until I get another level. Oh, did you want one?”

My liver was fine, and alcohol was only a problem for me because of the diabetes, but like he said, I was up eight health now. So I held my hand out. “Hit me.”

He set his can down on the floor, produced another one for me, shooed Blue away from his can, and hesitated to hand mine over. "They got you on pain meds, right? Make sure you sleep on your side so you don’t drown on your puke. You ain’t a rock star Harry.”

He took a sip of his drink after he opened and passed mine over. "Although I did like those ball bearings though. I'm going to have to look for some more in the factory. Maybe put an M-10 inside a tin can and fill the rest in with some BBs.”

The nice thing about Hiram was you didn't have to keep up your side of the conversation. And if you let him keep going, he would even get around to saying something helpful.

Out of the five of them. Only he and Beryl had leveled up. Him because of the Molotov cocktails he had used to finish up the injured ones on the ramp, and Beryl because she had what he called, “Quests” that gave her exp points.

“I think getting us, that’s the four of us and her from the home for geezers, in there in the first five days did something for her, and dragging you in gave her something too. Good thing we’re old enough to have gotten used to being used by women, huh Harry.”

Nodding I slowly finished my beer. The cheap stuff was as nasty as I remembered.

Why the hell did everyone drink something they added Hops into just to make it bitter? If you want to drink, drink something that tastes nice, if you want to get drunk, drink something with a real kick and get it done and over with so you can sober up to drive home.

Hiram nodded at me, which meant that had been an external old man rant. “There’s something to that Harry, but once you get a buzz going from beer, you can just keep sipping it to keep it going. And it’s cheap.”

I tighten up my lips to make sure I didn’t say anything else out loud.

Dam Meds