We Survivors [Published Version]

9: Creature Comforts | Nadia

We didn't have to wait long after my dye job was finished for Coby and Jake to pick us up. Jake was riding shotgun, so I slid into the seat behind Coby and Zara sat beside me.

"Don't you love Nod's hair?" Zara asked after Jake slammed the door shut.

I blushed and looked out the window for a moment, absently running a strand of still-damp hair between my fingers. "Looks nice," Jake said.

"Think so?" I asked. Coby shot me a thumbs-up from the driver seat.

"Yeah," Jake said. "It works on you."

"Thanks," I said, unable to avoid smiling.

"I think I could've had an amazing career as a hairstylist." Zara said. "Good thing Nadia is still alive so I have someone to use my mad skills on."

We neared the hospital. Coby parked and we got out, entering through the glass doors.

Once inside, the first thing I noticed was the flickering lights. It had been half a year since I'd experienced electricity, and much longer since it had been reliable.

Jake was beside me and I stared at him, too amazed to form full sentences. "How?"

My stomach flipped when he grinned. "There's a generator here," he said.

"How'd you get it going?" I asked Jake.

"Magic," Coby answered, a gleam in his eyes.

Zara rolled her eyes. "It's easy. The generator runs on natural gas, so you just change out the nozzle to use propane. We've done it a bunch of times."

"That's awesome," I said.

"We got enough tanks from the home improvement store for a few days." Coby said.

"Hold up, does this mean we can have hot showers?" Zara asked with an intense look at Coby.

He laughed. "If the water heater's electric and the running water still works."

"It's worth a shot. Let's go," Zara said. She grabbed my hand and ran down the hallway.

After searching through half of the first floor we found a locker room with three shower stalls. We both held our breath as we turned the knob all the way to red, and we whooped for joy and hugged each other when steaming water flowed gloriously from the showerhead.

I pulled my trusty towel and shampoo bottle out of my bag and entered my stall as Zara shut the door of hers. We both showered until every drop of hot water was gone. Zara sang in the stall next to me, her voice echoing throughout the room. When I got out of the shower I examined my fingernails and smiled. They'd lost their usual crescents of dirt and had become clean and white again.

Afterwards, we found the least creepy room we could—one with wide windows overlooking a pond—and claimed hospital beds for ourselves. I tried to figure out how long it was since I'd last slept on a mattress, but I couldn't remember. Way too long.

"I feel like a real person again," Zara said, raking a comb through her hair while perched on her chosen bed. "So clean."

"I know exactly what you mean." I lay back onto my bed, tucking my hands behind my head and crossing my legs. I'd toweled my hair and a bit of the dye had come off, but now I took a strand between my fingers and examined it. Still turquoise on the ends.

"Do you want some music?" Zara asked, pulling something from her bag. It was a portable CD player, the kind I hadn't seen since I was a kid. She threw me her case of CDs. She had a good mix of 1980s rock, pop punk classics, and contemporary indie bands. I popped in a Green Day album, then put on headphones, turning the volume low enough so I could still hear Zara.

"Thanks," I said. "I've missed this."

"I don't think I could live without it," Zara said.

I fanned out the piece of hair and brushed the aquamarine strands against my left palm. "This is perfect," I said after a song or two.

"Can we stay here forever?"

"Yes. Let's do that. I could get used to this." I stared at the white ceiling tiles and sighed. "It's been so hard for so long."

"I know, but it'll be easier now that we've found you and Jake."

"For us, too."

Zara smiled at me and examined her nails for any chips in the polish. A few bottles of nail polish sat on the bed beside her—red, black, and deep purple.

I remembered something I'd wanted to ask her. "So, you and Coby..." I blurted before I had time to chicken out.

Zara's lips pulled up into a coy smile. "You mean have we...?" She wiggled her eyebrows to complete her sentence.

"Yeah," I said, my face warm.

She laughed. "No, we haven't."

"Really?" I asked, looking up. "Nothing?"

"Nope," she said, swiping polish onto her thumbnail. "He's not really my type. I like shy. Nerdy. Not that we can be choosy these days. And you and Jake...?"

"No," I said, willing myself not to blush.

"But you want to," she said, shooting me a knowing look from beneath her thick lashes. I shrugged, failing at nonchalance, and she laughed. I dug through my bedside table, finding a phone book and some pens.

"Hey this could be useful," I said, thumbing the phone book's pages. "Maybe the adoption agency is in here. What did Coby say it was called?"

"Yeah, sure, change the subject," Zara said, still grinning at my discomfort.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in!" Zara called. "We're decent!"

The door opened a crack. Oh God, it was Jake. How much has he heard? "Come quick," Jake said. "Both of you."

"What is it?" I asked. "Is Coby okay?"

"Yes, he's fine. Just come with me." He sailed down the corridor. My pulse quickened, and I exchanged an alarmed glance with Zara before we ran after him.