Smile Always

I'm Glad You Came

"Should we really let Sean just roam around here by himself?" Signe asked the others incredulously.

Everyone seemed to believe that if they gave Sean his space he would be fine. Signe highly doubted it, but none of them wanted her to leave to go find him.

"It's weird that we haven't seen any Infected here yet since this is where everything started." Tyler remarked.

"I agree, but mainly I'm thankful that there isn't." Bob chimed in.

"When do you think Sean will come back?" Mark asked Signe, her anxiousness starting to affect him.

"I wish I knew." Signe sighed.

"I'm sure he'll be back soon." Amy assured her.

"In the meantime, we might as well fix something for dinner." Robin sighed.

Signe dumped out the contents of her black bag she had with her that was previously filled with her art supplies. Inside was canned food like soup and various kinds of fruit, as well as vegetables.

Bob's bag mainly had things like toothbrushes, hair brushes, toothpaste, batteries, shampoo, and conditioner. In addition, he also had cards against humanity.

"I guess cold soup is better than no soup." Ethan shrugged.

"You think they'd have a stove here or something?" Wade asked.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to look." Mark admitted.

Together they all walked out of the hospital room they were camping out in and were immediately plunged into darkness.

Wade kept his fire emergency hatchet with him as defense, and Mark still had the pistol from the lobby of the hotel, providing more protection if it was necessary.

However the one thing they didn't have was a source of light.

They had light provided by the sun through he windows earlier, but now it was pitch black since the sun had set while they were inside. They had no idea where the switch for power was, so they'd have to look for that as well.

"We should go look for light first." Amy advised, squinting in the darkness to see anything at all.

They started walking down the hallway in what they hoped was the right direction, trying but failing to ignore the stench of rotting flesh in the air case they carefully crept through the halls.

"Ow!" Signe winced when she tripped over another dead hospital worker. Their bodies littered the floor, each one covered in various wounds.

She screamed when she suddenly felt a hand wrap around her ankle, Mark quickly coming to her aid by shooting the hand, causing it to fall limp.

Signe felt her blood turn cold when she looked down and saw who she had actually tripped over.

Sean.

His condition had quickly gotten worse, his face only barely recognizable since most of his skin was gone. His right hand had a bullet hole through the palm where Mark had shot him, blood steadily pooling around him.

"H-Hey W-Woosh." Sean stuttered as he managed to smile weakly before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Screw the light, we gotta take care of Sean." Mark scooped Sean up bridal style, gagging at the stench of rotting flesh emanating from him, but still holding onto him.

"I told you we should've gone and looked for him sooner!" Signe yelled at the group as they quickly walked back to the hospital room and laid him back down on the operation table.

"What do you expect, a medal for being right?!?" Robin shouted back, his eyes shining with rage.

Signe promptly fell silent, Robin sighing as he slumped to the floor in defeat, resting his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry." Robin apologized, his words muffled by his hands.

"Forget it." Signe muttered bitterly.

"I-It hurts."

Signe looked back at Sean to see him sitting up with tears glittering in his eyes, holding his injured hand close to his chest.

"It hurts so much." Sean whimpered.

"I'm so sorry Sean, I'm so so sorry!" Mark blubbered as he hugged Sean, being cautious to not hurt him further.

"Rescue will be here soon, then we'll get you fixed up." Mark swallowed hard, trying his hardest to not cry in front of Sean.

"Yeah...I'm glad you came." Sean suddenly fell unconscious again, his head falling forwards against Mark's chest.

Mark held Sean for a moment longer before gently laying him down on the table, smoothing his hair back from his face.

They settled for cold chicken noodle soup and mandarin oranges for dinner before each person found a part of the floor to sleep on since the only furniture in the room was the table Sean was sleeping on. 

Signe slept close to where Sean was, holding his hand that was dangling over the side of the table in hers until she finally fell asleep.