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“What?”
“You might want to put on clothes first,” he said. I looked down at myself and cursed. Sure as fuck I was in a tank top and a pair of panties. I didn’t even bother getting dressed before I came out here. Well, that was a little embarrassing.
“Don’t feel you have to on our account,” one of the men closest to me purred, reaching out a finger and trailing it down my arm in a flirty gesture. In an instant, I had his hand twisted back with him on his knees in front of me. A little more pressure, and I’d be setting two broken bones.
“Do. Not. Touch. Me. Touch me again, and you’ll be carting your friend off into the night to try his luck surviving in the wild broken and bleeding, got it?”
The man hissed but nodded. “B! Let him go, he didn’t know, and you’ve made your point,” Matty ordered. I released the man, and he climbed to his feet, eyeing me cautiously. My gaze snapped to Matty, who took a half step back.
“I’m going to go change. You brought these men here. Tell them not to touch me. I don’t care if you have to tell them why. Just make sure everyone is on board by the time I get back, or they can leave.” I left the kitchen and paused in the hall long enough to hear Matty.
“Listen, my sister isn’t as unpleasant as she seems. She’s been through a lot. We lived with this couple for seven years, and every night, the man… did things to her… assaulted her. So, just no touching, especially without her knowing you will touch her. As you saw, that’s a fast way to get a broken hand.” Satisfied that they were told all they needed to comply, I returned to my room to get dressed.
I quickly pulled on a bra, shirt, and jeans before shoving my feet in socks and boots. Nothing fancy, no such thing in the apocalypse. Grabbing my medical supplies, I rushed back into the kitchen. The atmosphere was much more somber than it had been when I left. I placed my supplies on the kitchen table and noted that they had removed their friend’s jeans. The man who had touched me approached me cautiously.
“Listen, I just wanted to apologize for my actions before. I don’t have an excuse. Who touches a stranger without their permission? Apparently me. Anyway, my name is Caleb, and these are my friends.” He gestured to the men around the room. “Boone, Pike, Ethan, and Gray is the one on the table. We really appreciate any help and hospitality you can offer.”
I nodded at him, “Bailey. And you’ve already met my brother, Matty. I’ll do what I can for your friend.” I grabbed iodine out of my bag along with a clump of cotton and approached Gray’s leg. “I’m going to need you all to keep him still. This isn’t going to be pretty, and unfortunately, I can’t spare the pain medicine to numb him. Hopefully, he passes out quickly.”
They all moved closer to the table, prepared to hold their friend down, while Matty came to stand near me to help. I examined his leg visually first to see exactly what I was working with. He had a compound fracture, the shin bone sticking out of the top of his leg. I swabbed the entire area as gently as possible with the iodine, disinfecting the whole area. “The good news is it looks like a pretty clean break.”
“The bad news?” Gray huffed out.
“The bad news is this really will hurt like a bitch. And I have no way of knowing until it heals that I got it lined up right.”
“Just do what you can, Doc,” Gray said.
“I’m not an actual doctor,” I cautioned absentmindedly as I eyed his leg, taking in the angle of his foot and mentally mapping out the direction I would need to twist and pull to get it set straight, hopefully. “Ok, someone get his belt and stick it in his mouth. Matty, I need you to get in position to help hold his leg still at the knee. The rest of you get ready. I need him as still as possible, or I could mess his leg up even more.”
They all moved into position, placing the belt between his teeth and grabbing him. A couple draped themselves across his torso and hips, two held him down at his shoulders, and Caleb grabbed his other leg to pin it down and make sure I didn’t get kicked in the face. I grabbed Gray’s ankle and foot in my hands and braced one of my own feet against the edge of the table. “Everyone ready?” They all nodded at me. “Ok, on three. One, two, three.” I pulled his leg towards me, and the bone slid back under his skin, hopefully in place. Gray screamed at the top of his lungs as he was held immobile before passing out from the pain.
“Thank God, this part is going to be even worse.” I took a steadying breath, then still pulling backward on his leg, I turned his foot to the proper position. You could hear the bones realigning themselves in his leg. Slowly, I released the pressure on his leg, letting it fall naturally back into place, hopefully meeting up with its other half correctly.
“Matty, trade places with me and hold his ankle still. Don’t let his leg flop or turn.” I felt around at the break site, running my fingers over the bone and probing it to see if it was aligned. I didn’t feel any apparent issues with the fix, so I prayed I had done it. I swabbed the area again before getting my suture kit and stitching the wound closed. It wasn’t pretty, and it would scar, but it was the best I could do.
I grabbed the thin boards I had brought to the kitchen and slid one underneath his leg. “Ok, this is the part I will need help with, and hopefully, he stays down until we’re finished. I need his leg lifted slightly on this board and these other two boards on either side. I will wrap the boards to his leg as tight as possible. This is as good a cast as I can come up with. If he makes it through the next few days and things look like they’re going well, maybe I can make a run to a nearby hospital or clinic and get materials for an actual cast. Either way, I want that wound to heal first.” I wrapped as I talked, and soon we were done. They lifted him, and I led them to one of the downstairs spare rooms, where they placed him on the bed.
“He should be fine here. I’m sure he will call for someone if he needs anything.” I returned to the kitchen and began cleaning up, the other four men helping. Matty was putting all the medical stuff back in the bag.
“Matty, can you go out and collect the eggs? I’m betting everyone could use some breakfast.”
“Sure, B,” he pushed open the screen door, and time slowed as he was shoved backward by a zombie. As he struggled to hold him off, I grabbed the knife I had left on the counter and sent it flying across the room straight into the zombie’s head. Matty shoved it off him as I rushed over and inspected him for scratches or bites.
“Are you ok? Did it get you? Are you hurt?” Panic was in the driver’s seat as I checked him.
“I’m fine, Bailey, really. It didn’t get me; it just caught me off guard.” I breathed a sigh of relief, slumping against the door jam before reaching out and smacking him upside his head. “Ouch! What the hell, Bailey?”
“Did you close the damn gate when you came back?” I demanded.
“I thought I did,” he poked his head out the door and looked to where the gate was. “Ahh fuck. Don’t hit me again, but he brought friends.”
“What?!” I shoved him out of the way and stepped out onto the porch. Sure enough, I had several zombies that I could see meandering around my yard. I let out a tiny growl of frustration as I stomped back inside. Matty quickly retreated, staying out of reach of my hands. I marched over to my crossbow and grabbed it off its hook, slinging the quiver of arrows over my head.
“Five years, Matty. Five fucking years since one of them made it inside the fence. Then you come across these yahoos with a nice little pod following them, and you all lead them back to the house and forget to shut the fucking gate. That’s apocalypse one-oh-one, secure the fucking perimeter.” I stomped up to him and poked him in the chest. “Clean the mess off my porch. I’m going to put the rest of them down before they get into the chicken coop or the barn. It looks like breakfast will have to wait, boys. We’ll be burning dead bodies instead.”
I stomped back out the door, muttering about the stench of burning zombies and how it permeates everything, and I’m low on soap. It will take me weeks, if I’m lucky before I get the smell off of me. Before I stepped off the porch, I heard one of our guests say to Matty, “Bro, she’s kinda scary, but I think I might be falling in love with your sister.”
“Good luck with that,” Matty responded. “My sister doesn’t do love.”
