Boo! | Simon 'Ghost' Riley

9) Call

The person sitting behind the counter was on his phone, eyes almost closed. He hardly noticed our arrival.

"Excuse me, Rebecca Chambers left something for me," I said to the half asleep medic. "Drugs, prescription?"

The man took a second before realising that he was supposed to be doing something.

"Oh, yeah, Sergeant Redfield," he said. "One second."

He left the counter for a moment, he returned with a packed medicine. He read the prescription as he walked. His face turned from exhausted to slightly horrified.

"Some serious stuff here, sergeant," he commented. "These are some lab stuff."

"I know, I'm a lab stuff," I nodded.

He put the prescription in the package and the package on the counter.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, sergeant," he said. "And you, sir, heard cool stories about Ghost."

I made a face at him, as if telling him that it was a bad idea to bring that up, mouthing Leave him alone. He looked back at me, paler than before.

"Anyway," he moved on. "Twice a day each. There's pain meds, take only if you need it."

"I'm familiar. Thank you," I said. "Have a good night."

"My pleasure, ma'am," he replied.

From there, we left to the mess hall.

There were still people here. A group of three drunk men, very clearly just returned from LA. The news was that there were thousands turning and it was quite chaotic compared to the previous outbreak in Colorado. It was still not completely contained yet.

On the other corner, a younger soldier was crying by himself, his whole body shaking. Looking at his uniform, clearly he was fresh. A rookie.

I looked at Simon, he only looked back at me.

"Last man standing," I quietly said.

So, from there, I walked over to the lonesome rookie.

"Hey, man, go for a shower," I suggested, carefully putting a hand on his back and rubbing it lightly. "Wash the blood off, makes you feel less awful."

Said rookie looked at me.

"Come on, you want me to walk you there?" I continued.

"No, ma'am," he replied.

"You can find your way there?" I asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded.

"Go, then," I said. "Shower. Eat if you can. Try getting some sleep, spend the night in the infirmary."

"Will do, ma'am. Thank you," he nodded.

I patted him on the back gently. With that, he stood up and walked away.

I got some water before sitting on a table with Simon sitting across me. More sitting in silence went on for a few minutes. Simon was looking at me differently this time. Maybe we were thinking about the same thing. Shower would not make anyone feel less awful.

"The first time that happened to me, Chris didn't even care. He just... looked at me and said that he's glad I'm alive and walked away," I started. "He didn't even care the other times either."

"At least he said something," Simon said

"Well, it would've been nice to have support," I shrugged. "So, I always try."

"That heart's gonna get you killed, Cae," Simon said.

"I should cut it out and put it in a freezer?" I asked.