traded my life [TWD]

『30』

"Dead people risin' and I get hurt chopping fish," Jacqui remarks.

"I got hurt running from a spider.. we're all still human, I guess," I respond.

"Thought you and Glenn ran into trouble in the city?"

"Makes me sound more badass if that's what people think."

Jacqui giggles and delicately punches my shoulder with the free hand not in my lap.

"I sure am glad that we brought this," she says, looking around us.

I glance from her hand, where I was putting stitches in, and look at the ambulance. We were sitting in the back, feet in the dirt with both doors open.

"Wasn't able to pack to whole hospital in here, but it was something."

"It's more than something."

"I'm not even a doctor," I admit with a chuckle, returning to stitching up her hand. "I just drive Big Bertha around."

"Big Bertha?" she repeats. "The ambulance has a name?"

"Does now."

"You know I worked in the zoning department?" Jacqui asks and I nod. "Hard to believe that all the cities have just crumbled now.. Streets that I named.. gone."

"I think the same thing. Glenn does, too."

"What was Glenn before all this?"

"He delivered pizzas," I answer. "And I was an EMT driver."

"Underrated jobs. You know these towns and streets better than anyone."

"Used to write down street names on my arm where most cases were just so I could remember the route.. Plus, Bertha here is so old that her Sat-Nav doesn't work anymore. Stopped six months after I started my job. So, I mostly was speeding to locations blindly."

"Seriously?"

"I complained about it a lot. People's lives were at risk and me taking one wrong turn could be the deciding factor on if they made it or not. So, I paid extra close attention to streets and towns."

"That's.. incredible," she decides.

"I think my OCD helped me out a lot," I lightly joke. "Helped me remember things and memorize places."

"And now you can go into the city and map out runs like no other."

"Until there's an eight legged fucker," I remark.

Jacqui laughs and I pat her wrist once the stitches are done.

"Hyejin," Lori calls. "Can we talk?"

I pull my feet up to rest on the bumper of the ambulance and shrug. Jacqui rubs my arm and whispers a quick 'thanks, baby' for sewing her up. Once she leaves, Lori leans on the open door of the ambulance and crosses her arms.

"What do you want to talk about?" I ask, putting my supplies away in the bag.

"What happened with Ed today?"

"He's a piece of shit that hits his wife and daughter," I answer. "Nothing more."

"Shane could've killed him."

I shove my bag further into the back and rest my arms on my knees. I shrug once again. "But, he didn't."

"And that makes it okay?" she questions.

I recall the feelings it gave me. The deja vu of Shane and I's questions- the first words after a big fight.

"Back in school, there was this bitch that always bullied me. She was mixed white-Korean, so she would always speak in Korean to avoid the teachers knowing what she actually said. She made my life hell, but I allowed it because.. well, because I was a stupid teenager."