These Different Times (Nick Clark FF)

36.

Luciana stared at me as I downed what felt like half of their water, practically wrenching it from my hands when she felt I had drank too much.

She and her friend Francisco had introduced themselves to us as he had looked over Nick's leg.
She shook her head, looking at one of her friends, Francisco, "We just can't believe he's still alive."

Guessing that they were talking about Nick, I frowned, "What do you...wait."

"We were the people you saw on the highway." she confirmed.

"Why didn't you help us?" I demanded, "You saw how much we were struggling."

"We couldn't be sure that he," she threw a glance at Nick, "Wasn't infected. We still aren't."

"He got bit by a dog," I said, "We've told you that."

"But how can we believe you?"

"Luciana," her friend said softly, "These aren't human bite marks."

She stared at the two of us, muttering in Spanish as she turned and left the store.

"I'm sorry about her," Francisco said quietly, "And we're sorry we didn't help out there. She's looking for her brother."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Nick asked, "A-a camp, maybe?"

"We do," he nodded, "We can take you back there. We have a doctor and he can treat your leg properly."

I let out a breath of relief, feeling Nick's hand move to the back of my neck, where he massaged the skin gently.

We were going to be okay.

**

I rest my chin on Nick's shoulder, watching intently as Alejandro stitched up the wound on his leg.

I had always thought the idea of medicine and such interesting so seeing it being done up close by someone who seemed to know what they were doing, was pretty amazing.

Alejandro, noticing my stare, he held the needle up to me, "Would you like to try?"

"Woah, woah, woah." Nick said, sitting up on the bed, "No offence, Taylor but no. You're not stitching my leg up. I love you, but no."

I gave the older man a smile and shook my head, "You heard him."

He smiled and went back to work, leaving me to try and look out of the windows that were on the other side of the room.

"Where are we, anyway?" Nick asked, wincing as the man tugged on some of his skin.

"The Colonia," he replied, "A community. A safe community."

"How many people do you have?"

"Around seventy," he murmured, snipping the thread for Nick's stitches, "I advise you to stay off that leg for a couple of days. Or at least a few hours."

"Thank you," I said gratefully, "Your people saved us out there."

He nodded, looking at Nick, "You can rest here for the night and you,"

"I'll stay here too," I interrupted, "I'll sleep on the chair there."

"As you wish."

I waited until the man was gone before hopping onto the bed beside Nick, who was inspecting Alejandro's handiwork, "Not too shabby, huh?"

I shook my head, "No. It looks so much better now that it's had some proper medical treatment. Though if I had done it..."

"What are you thinking?" he asked, ignoring my attempt at humour, "About this place?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, we've only seen the inside of these four walls, haven't we? But I mean, we could stay here. If they'd let us, of course."

"That's what I was thinking." he murmured.

"Hey," we both looked up at Luciana as she came into the room, "Come on. I'll show you around."

We did as she said and followed her outside, where I could see that the community was one which had a large wall around it and a smile made its way onto my face as I took in the sight of a dozen or so people; some doing laundry, others making some food and then I noticed that there were children playing football.

Nick looked at me eagerly, like a child waiting for their parents permission to go join them and I rolled my eye, unable to at no and as quick as he could, he made his way into the game, calling for one of the kids to pass him the ball.

"Come on," Luciana murmured, while I watched Nick with a fond smile.

"How did this come about?" I asked, nodding to a couple of older women who were washing clothes in bucket.

"When things started to go bad in the city," she began explaining, "The residents of this community started to wall off the area and thus, the Colonia was born."

She showed me everything; where they kept their food, their water and then we came to the fence, where I could see at least two dozen infected milling around a yard which was blocked off by a school bus.

"What is this?"

"Our protection. Anyone wants to come in or out, you have to go through the infected." she said quietly.

Looking further down the fence, I could see a woman standing at the fence; face to face with one of them and it looked as if she was talking to it, "What is she doing?"

"These people," Luciana said, gesturing to the yard, "They are all our families, friends, neighbours. They protect us."

She watched me quietly, assessing my reaction but I saw her visibly relax when I murmured, "That's smart."

"It's kept us safe for a long time."

Nodding, I turned when I heard the kids starting to yell, seeing that one of the little boys had to come out of the game due to injury.

"They're complaining that it's not fair," Luciana murmured, "They're a man down."

"Would you mind if I went...?" I asked and she shook her head with a smile.

"Go."

I quickly jogged over to where they were playing, Nick groaning when he saw me. 

"What?" 

"You're such a cheater!" he cried, "And you dive!"

"It was one time," I shrugged, smiling down at another little boy, "Or are you just scared of being beat by a girl?" 

His eyes narrowed, "You're on, Nelson." 

**

It soon became apparent that while the kids were still on the 'pitch', Nick and I had completely taken over the game; firing shots at each other, diving into each other, doing anything to try and take the other down. No mercy.

Soon, it was only us two left, the kids having got bored of us hoarding the ball and we called it quits when I went in for a tackle, just missing his bad leg. 

"That can't have helped your leg in the slightest. Did I hurt you?" I said breathlessly as we sat down in the dirt. 

"No," he agreed, "I don't think it did and I'm fine." 

"Okay," I smiled, "Good." 

Looking around, we saw that we were the only two people outside now and we looked at each other, "What do we do now?"

"You can come inside and have something to eat."

I looked over my shoulder at Luciana, who was standing with her arms crossed. 

Nick helped me up and the two of us followed her into what looked like a large hall, where there were tables and such scattered all over the place and the people who were cooking earlier, they were serving up the food.

Alejandro saw us coming and he came over, carrying two plates of whatever had been made before, handing one to each of us and he gave us a bright smile, "Welcome to the Colonia."