To Be A Hero

Chapter 43: Grown Ups

"At least let me stay in the booth," Sam begs.

"We have more than enough people on this project already, Mr. Yao," Janine replies sternly.

"But it's a shower for my baby! My baby who got kidnapped and nearly eaten, and then Paula nearly died, and I nearly died, and you nearly shot your brother, and we thought Runner Five was gonna die, and she found out she had a weird zombie lookalike that was actually her old Mullins operator..."

"Do you have a point, Mr. Yao?" She asks while I snicker quietly.

"Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I think my point is we've all suffered, and been terrified, and almost everyone died, and now there's all that stuff going on with Ellie and Dr. Dee and Vikings and the manuscript, and... right. Well, that's still not a point. Yeah, okay. My point is that I just cannot take anymore surprises, not even a little one."

"Then it will probably be beneficial for you to increase your surprise tolerance by considering the question, 'I wonder what decorations Abel Township will use to celebrate the birth of my child?' Thus, Runner Four, Runner Five, Dr. Lobatse, when you leave Abel Township in around forty-six seconds, I will take charge of our search for decorations, not Mr. Yao."

"Uh, yeah. That's another thing," Sam says. "You've been going pretty hard these last two days. Kefilwe could give you something for your wrist."

"Oh, Janine still has two pills in her pocket that I gave her when we reset the bone," Kefilwe states, and I hear a small noise of shock come from Sam.

"What? I saw you swallow those."

"She's trained to make it look as if she swallowed them. I've seen it before."

"Sam, it's just decorations," Jody says with an eye roll. "Besides, you'd only spill our plans to Maxine and Paula."

"I would not!"

She purses her lips. "That's what you said about my surprise baby sweater."

"Aw, you put tiny elbow patches on it. I got excited."

I laugh. "We'll be fine. There's no need to worry."

"Uh, have you met yourself, Five? When's the last time you had a mission that didn't invole you almost dying? Even if this is a decoration run, I'm definitely going to worry."

"Janine will be sure to watch your girlfriend under a keen eye," Jody teases, and she looks at me questionably when I smile. What?"

"You called me his girlfriend," I reply, still smiling.

"Yeah. You are his girlfriend."

"It's just really awesome when I hear other people say it."

"Never change, Five," Sam chuckles.

"Out, Mr. Yao," Janine says sternly.

"Alright. Alright, I'm going," He sighs, and then the door squeaks open and clicks shut. Janine sighs in relief.

"Very well. He's gone. I want to make this perfectly clear, Runners. I am determined to give Abel Township's newest arrival the single best baby shower ever conceived. We will gather decorations, we will gather gifts, we will not rest until our work is done!"

Jody gives me a sideways glance, obviously confused by how forceful she said that. "Uh... okay."

"Good. Now, gates up and move out."

The gates raise up, the alarms go off, and the three of us run. It's weird that it's only been two days since we found out Sam is immune. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. I mean, I only started talking again in the middle of October. I haven't even been talking for two whole months yet, and already all of this has happened. It's like crazy events come up in spurts. We'll have nothing happen for months, and then all of the sudden, multiple things happen within a day.