The Virus Within: The Road Ahead (Book 1 - SERIES COMPLETED!)

Chapter 33

I jerked my head to the side with an instinctive growl as the sound of approaching footsteps jolted me out of my light doze. I cut off the growl when I saw it was only Nina. In the background, Daniel watched alertly from his chair, ready to intervene at a moment's notice.

The brown-haired lady paused. "Sorry, I didn't think you'd be sleeping."

I shook my head and closed my eyes before pushing my hand under the edge of my sunglasses to rub my eyes tiredly. "Don't worry about it. There was no way to tell."

I pushed my sunglasses back against my face and reopened my eyes. About half of the others had headed to bed and the other half were watching us. Nina resumed her walk forward while Daniel remained vigilant.

"Let's go into one of the back rooms. I want to check your injuries and change the bandages."

I didn't feel like moving, but I doubted she was going to give up, and I was too tired to argue. It would also give me a chance to see exactly what was beneath my bandages. I'd been awake all afternoon and most of the evening, and my healing body just wanted sleep. If I humored her, she would leave me in peace for the rest of the night.

With those thoughts in mind, I stood up with a sigh. I hadn't left this chair since I had sat in it earlier, and my leg once more protested being forced to work.

Daniel remained where he was as I followed Nina out of the room, and I now realized I was in a small motel. She went into the office, where several windows let in the last bit of the evening light.

"Please sit. Do you need help getting your shirt off?"

I carefully removed my shirt instead of replying, gritting my teeth against the pain. As far as I could see, bloodstains had seeped through every bandage. To my relief, the bandages wrapped around my chest were above my bra. Pretending it was a bikini top made this situation slightly more tolerable, although I still didn't like it.

Nina put on long plastic gloves to protect herself from my blood and started unravelling the bandages.

"I assume you were the one who patched me up?"

She nodded without removing her eyes from her work. "Yes. I pulled the bullets out too. Getting the one from behind your heart was a gruesome task. I never want to see another human heart again. The creepiest part was that it had stopped beating but quivered every couple of seconds. I have no idea how your heart healed enough that it could actually beat after just two days."

"How bad was the injury to my head?"

"The bullet from the handgun barely broke through the skull. I was able to pull it out with a pair of eyebrow tweezers. I'll admit we weren't expecting you to wake up for several more days."

Daniel must have never had a serious wound or she wouldn't be surprised by the swift healing that occurred to major organs during the first week. I was glad I was only out for two days. Had I been unconscious for longer, the bloodlust would have been a lot worse.

Nina removed the gauze pads over the injuries, and I got my first look at the damage. There was a thumb-sized scab under my collarbone. The one that struck my lung was larger and looked pretty bad. It also ached with each breath I took, so I knew the wound was barely staying closed. The one above my heart was the size of a walnut and had a finger-long cut mark where Nina had opened it up more to get the bullet out.

"The scabs are holding together," Nina murmured, "which is a good thing. Not much I can do at this point other than put some salve on and re-bandage it. The salve will keep the scab soft so it doesn't pull or tear. It's probably best if you try to avoid moving as much as possible over the next few days."