CYOA Page 133
Sep. 13th, 2013 01:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12You saw the blood before... and you're processing it now -- Joel is hurt! -- but the first thing you have to do is throw yourself into his arms and hug him for dear life. "Joel!"
That's all you can say for a good thirty seconds as you squeeze the fuck out of him. He holds you just as tightly. "Are you all right?" he finally asks you.
"Yes! Oh my God-- what happened? Where were you?" Now you pull back a little and try to assess the blood caked on one side of his head, but it's difficult with the lighting (or lack thereof) in the room. "Are you -- Fuck -- what happened?!" you ask again, even though you're not really giving him a chance to answer -- and now you're kissing him, stroking his face, his beard, feeling the blood under your fingertips and not caring in this moment... "I was so scared for you! Why did you take so long?"
But Joel is now busy listening. Listening in the direction of...
"Oh! Yeah. I trapped like six of them in that vault," you announce proudly. You don't even hear anything from this distance, but he must hear the muffled-as-fuck sounds they're making in there. "And I didn't even get to see what was in there! A bunch of nothing, I think, but I didn't get a good look. Jesus, Joel, your head... let's go back to the lobby and clean you up. Does it hurt? -Wait, don't answer that -- of course it hurts. Are you ever gonna tell me what happened?" You're tugging him by the hand back to the front of the bank now.
He waits a moment to answer you. "You done? 'Cause I think you've asked me three or four times what happened but I can't get a word in edgewise," he teases.
"Um, no, I totally gave you a chance to answer but you just stood there listening! You're lucky you're hurt or I'd slug you right now."
"Mm. Real lucky."
You stop short when you reach the end of the hallway and take in the scene in the lobby. It's a mess of broken glass from a shattered door, dead infected littering the floor, blood and guts everywhere -- and the two horses, calm now, hanging out as far back from the doors as possible. "Holy shit."
"Yeah. Good thing they only busted through the one door, or the horses mighta took off when the bastards started headin' for the back."
"Where did all these infected come from?" you wonder. Seriously! You thought you'd taken care of most of them yourself, but now you see it was only about half.
"Who knows. Good thing you were able to trap a bunch of 'em. That was smart thinkin'."
"Wasn't it, though?" you reply cheekily. But you're not really feeling cheeky; you take Joel to a couch that's away from all the glass, push him down (gently!), and proceed to climb into his lap. Because you have to hug him some more. "I was so scared when you weren't coming!"
He holds you tight. "I'm sorry. I was scared, too, when I saw 'em goin' back there."
"Then why didn't you follow them?"
Joel chuckles. "Oh... I figured you could handle it. You had a few bullets an' some arrows, after all." Before you can express proper outrage at this, he continues. "You think I didn't want to? I was comin'. I was. Only had a couple left. The horses... they didn't like all the chaos. Yours was skitterin' around over there by the hall door, an' there was a Runner over there. I was afraid to shoot at it, with Lucky right there... reckoned I'd better bare-hand it... I rush over, an' the goddamn horse rears back..."
"No!" you gasp, afraid you know where this is going. You wriggle up a bit to take a closer look at the head wound you're supposed to be dressing right now.
Joel kisses the part of you closest to his lips -- just under your eye. "Yep. I mostly got out of the way... could've been a lot worse."
"So he... kicked you?"
"He didn't mean to."
"Lucky!" you turn and glare daggers at your horse. "How could you do that to Joel?!"
"Don't rush to judgment, now," he says lightly. "He must've trampled that Runner real hard. 'Cause I sure as hell didn't touch it, but there it was, layin' right there next to me when I woke up."
"You passed out?!" ...Well, duh, why else would he have taken so long -- and you did notice how quiet it had gotten out there, which made you imagine the worst...
"I must have. I didn't just decide to take a nap... an' I don' know what happened to the other Runner left in the room. He must've decided to go join his buddies an' hunt you down."
"Fuck," you breathe. "Maybe it thought you were dead and it was gonna come back and eat you later. Do they do that?"
He gives a little shrug. "He prob'ly heard the others yellin' an' shit... or maybe he was scared of the horse after that."
"But it didn't, like... bite you or anything, then. Right? It just left you alone? You'd know if it bit you... right?" No need to panic... NO NEED TO--
"Right. I'm fine. Just got a little bit of a headache."
You believe him. You have to, because Joel CANNOT get infected. It's not allowed. Though you suspect his 'little bit of a headache' is actually more along the lines of 'raging migraine.' "Shit -- your head is bleeding again. I really need to stitch that up for you. I'm sorry -- I was gonna do that right away and instead I've just been hanging all over you! Some nurse I am."
Joel smiles. "Different kind of nursin'. I like your way better."
"Me too, but do you want to bleed to death?!"
"I ain't gonna--"
"That's right, cuz I won't let you!" You give him a quick kiss before reluctantly extracting yourself from his arms to do what needs to be done. And then I'd better make him rest a while... you know head injuries can be tricky. Danny will just have to wait! Oh, Joel will probably try to argue with you, saying he's fine when he's not... but he'll be too weak to do anything about it. Maybe not physically weak, no matter that he's feeling shitty -- you hope he recovers quickly! -- but he'll be too mentally weak to resist your..."different kind of nursing."
You can be very persuasive when you want to be.
If you'd like to start another adventure, return to page 1.
Carlos
Date: 2021-06-09 05:11 am (UTC)RE: Carlos
Date: 2021-06-09 12:14 pm (UTC)