Survival of the Unfit

Chapter 35

April

Hailey wasn’t at work for the weekend, for obvious reasons. I felt bad. I felt really bad. I didn’t have her phone number or address to send her any get well packages, and didn’t know who to contact since the only mutual connection we had was Levi, and he was in the hospital for another four days. 

He was eventually able to give me her cell number though, and we talked for an hour or so about what happened and how she was doing. They took her when she was walking back from a friend’s house a mere house away, hauled her to the warehouse in the industrial part of Rushwood, told her what to say but she refused to say it. I asked her why, she said she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. To betray us, despite getting the shit beat out of her.

Which, was actually an understatement. She did get punched and knocked around a decent amount while being held hostage, but her only bad injuries were a bruised cheek and bruised arms. Her stomach was sore too, but the pain meds she had been taking were helping. She told her parents she fell down the stairs at her friend’s house, and somehow, they believed her. Hailey assured me they were an oblivious type of folk. 

So Hailey was fine, and Levi was just trucking along. He’d be released Tuesday or Wednesday, it would depend on his progress, but his arm was feeling a lot better. A lot more useable, he said. Still wasn’t able to lift it very high on his own without pain, but he was coming along. 

I visited him most of the day Saturday and almost all of it Sunday, talking and bringing him good food instead of hospital stuff. I made a new CD, titled “Levi’s ‘I was shot’ Playlist”, and he really enjoyed that. His sister picked up an origami book from the library for him, and he could do most of the projects with his arm in a sling. 

Of course, his stomach was a little messed up still, so the bed was where he liked to be. Apparently the kick gave him some bruising on his ribs and general bruising on his stomach, but that could be handled with simple painkillers too according to him. Levi liked to think he could be a doctor. I talked to him about going into to medicine, and he said he had actually been thinking about it since he liked to help people and all. And instead of hurting the enemies, he could just help the hurt ones. I thought it was a good deal, and it was always so cute when he asked the doctor or nurse a ton of questions when they checked up on him. Why do you do this, why do you check that, on and on like a curious little four year old. He was secretly so into the medical field, being all hospitalized himself (ironically).

I didn't get beaten up at all thankfully, just a bad cold. No bruises or injuries to explain to my parents. Although I did have nearly four guns, seven knives, three switchblades, two spray cans of mace, and three magazines stuffed in various nooks and crannies within my car. All I needed was a bag of meth and I'd be in juvy. 

But, it was a long night that just got longer after calling the ambulance. Getting all his weapons off him, tying a strip of my shirt around his arm. I took his leather jacket off to save any of my fingerprints and sewed up the bullet hole in the arm for him. Took everything as far away from the scene as possible, through back alleys and forests. I didn't run, since I couldn't. It was more like a slow stumble all the way back to my car, parked down the street from the warehouse. The slowest, most pained stumble imaginable, but I knew if I stopped, I'd be in a way bigger mess than I was at the moment.

So I took all our evidence to my car and then stopped at home, climbing through my window to get dry, warm clothes on. I kept the wet ones in my car and took them to the Laundromat the next morning. But after getting decently cleaned up, I went to the hospital and waited for an update. They made me call my parents though, and they ended up taking me home, and I cried again and wanted to stay, but the teenage girl doesn't usually win in an argument with their parents. The only save I had to make was the question about my wet hair, and I said I took a shower before bed. They didn't know I killed a girl.