Chapter 9

Once I get out of that building, I walk back to the camp. My hair is a mess, and I think I’m bleeding… in god knows how many places. I open the shed, and my horse is there, safe and sound. I pet her… I never asked for the horse’s name: I’ll find it out later. Grabbing the rein, and guiding her out the shed, I mounted it. I use my heels to make the horse go, it gallops off into the forest. Once it’s at full gallop, I pull out the map occasionally looking up to make sure we’re going the right way. The map says we are… that’s a good sign.

Once we arrive at the camp, I dismount the horse and the man at the gates stops me, getting me off the horse and scanning me, once again turning positive and explaining that I have an implant that sets off scanners. They still point their guns at me.
“You can x-ray me, bloody hell.”
The guard yells to another guard. My ears are ringing– they started ringing sometime along the ride here. Now that I’m standing, I’m not sure why but I’m struggling. Maybe from the blood loss? I’m not sure, I’ll see the medical tent when I go inside. I hear a yell and the guard raises his rifle and points it at me, it’s laser pointer shining in my eyes, I hear a voice- familiar. My vision is blurry but it’s a man and he says something: not that I can make it out. The ringing is getting worse and throbbing in my head isn't helping either. I feel like I'm getting cold. 

My legs give out and fall backwards, my head hitting the ground and the world turns black.

I wake up in what appears to be a converted apartment block that’s been set up as a medical room. The walls were an pea green colour but it’s not like they can just drop to a hardware store and buy paint anymore and the floorboards look like they've seen better days and there are other beds like mine, steel frame, moldy mattress, rotting wooden headboard, who knows who designed the bed… I'm on a bed. There's a man and a woman talking in the corner of the room, the man’s tone seems concerned and the woman seems reassuring. The woman turns around on her heels, looking straight at me. I'm sitting up and the woman quickly runs over, “Deary, can you please lay back down, you’re still recovering.”
She bats her eyelashes at me before I sit up and prop my back up against the moldy head board of the bed. The woman sighs, “That’ll work…”
She looks around, picking up a clipboard off the side table then she speaks to the man who is still staring out the window. The man turns around to look at the woman. It’s Vesper- or his double danger.  

Walking out, the woman pulls her hair tie, in her hair, out so her long, black and braided hair falls down to her waist. I hear her trainers on the ground and her voice in the other room. The man walks over. Blinking at him, I tilt my head trying to work out who it is… my vision is still slightly blurry so I rub my eyes, my vision clears up and it is, in fact, Vesper. He walks over to the bottom of the bed and sits on it.
“Where’s Ashley? Did she make it back, Liora?”
I shake my head. He sighs and facepalms. He then looks up at me, his face not happy but not sad… slightly angry…
“Liora… What happened to Ashley?”
My smile fades at his question, I inhale deeply. “I- she died from the infection. She got infected, so I had to shoot her.”
Before nodding, he stands up. Then walks out, I don’t look at him as he walks, I just hear the sound of his shoes against the moldy hardwood floor of the converted-apartment I was sitting in. I was going to try to comfort him but he walked out before I could. I wasn’t going to kill Ashley, but she was infected and… I had to… maybe I could have been less ruthless but what’s done is done and I can’t change the past but look towards the future. 

I’m about to try to stand up but Vesper walks back in, he walks over and leans on the end of the bed before looking up at me with his puffy eyes– he’d been crying. He sighs, not out of relief out of exhaustion, he’s tired. It’s evident in his posture and body language. “Liora? Where will you go now?”
I shrug, not knowing. All I know is I can’t stay here. Not anymore. Not just because of the guilt– no, I’m not guilty, am I? Maybe I am, but that doesn’t matter. I continue to stare at the bedsheets for a moment before looking back up, meeting Vesper’s gaze.
“I don’t know.”
Vesper nods at me, it’s clear he expected that answer. I lift the bedsheets up and off me before I sit up on the edge of the bed. I hand Vesper a knife, it’s not mine. It’s Ashley’s. I don’t say a word. I just walk to the door. He just stands there holding it. Before looking back at me. I hear a small mutter, something like ‘thank you’. I turn around to face Vesper before I walk out the door. “I- I might come visit some time…”
Vesper smiles at me before turning to look at me, “I’d like that…”

...Maybe Just... Maybe... I'd like that too...