Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 213: Asking For Help

Chapter 213: Asking For Help

I watched as Rip hung back, creating more and more distance between us and the rest of our party.

Chang Guo Zi and the others seemed to have gotten the answer that they were looking for, and they picked up the pace, no longer worried about the forest literally coming alive around them.

Cheng Bo Jing looked over his shoulder at us before turning his attention back to the men in front of us.

"I take it I did something wrong?" I asked with a sad smile. It was pathetic that I always assumed that I did something wrong and not that he just wanted some privacy.

"No, nothing wrong," he assured me, giving me a small kiss on the forehead. "But I think we need to remove the contact."

"What?" I gasped, looking up at him.

"When... you do what you do... your eye turns opaque. Like a filmy substance covers them..." He sighed like he wasn’t sure what he should or could say.

"I think that by covering up one of your eyes, you are covering up some of your power," he continued as he dipped his forehead down so it was touching mine.

"Then maybe I should cover both eyes," I grunted, not liking just how vulnerable I was feeling.

Which was stupid. I was so concerned about being the Healer... hating my powers and how people reacted to them. But now that it turned out I was... more... I hated that more.

Why couldn’t I just go back in time to when I first got here? I could have made sure that the apocalypse didn’t happen. That I didn’t get vaccinated with something that changed my fundamental genetic code...

And I could have been normal.

"Because then we wouldn’t have met," shrugged Rip, and I realized that I had just word-vomited all over him. He came to a stop and stepped just off of the path so we were hidden on the forest floor. Ever so slowly, he put me back down on my feet, and I rested my upper body against him.

It sounded so stupid, but I loved the fact that I didn’t even go up to his chest level. It was like I could hide in his embrace and never come out if I didn’t want to, and no one would be able to see me.

"I know. I have never believed in regrets, and I am not one for second chances... but now..."

"I never believed in God," murmured Rip when I trailed off. "I thought He was nothing more than something to offer people comfort—someone to blame so they didn’t have to blame themselves for how their life turned out. And then I died. But instead of going to Hell, I opened my eyes, and I was here."

I nodded at that feeling. It was so different and yet so much the same.

"I now believe in God because He brought me to you, and for that, I’d be willing to die over and over again if it means that when I wake up again, I can see your face."

I laughed. "We seemed to be getting a bit off topic," I grunted. But I saw where he was going.

"Fine. Out here, while we are all in danger, I’ll remove the contact. However, it goes back in the second we get back to Sanctuary," I murmured.

The contact was in for a great many reasons, and I would fully admit that most of those reasons were because it acted as a band-aid, keeping in all my insecurities and keeping out the hateful comments and weird looks. Essentially, it made me feel less of a freak.

But after Camp Hell, when everyone knew that the Healer had two different colored eyes, I kept it in place so that I didn’t have to deal with the fallout.

However, if taking it out could save our lives....

"I’ll kill anyone I need to," grunted Rip. It was still annoying how well he could read my mind with nothing more than a twitch of my mouth. "But I think that you could kill them easier than me."

"Me?" I asked, my brows furrowed. So far, I have looked at my gift as a passive thing. Not defensive or offensive like the other gifts, but just... there.

"I think what you can do to Reavers, you can do to anyone and anything. You just haven’t tried."

I cocked my head to the side, thinking about what he had said. If one of the fighters had come into his cabin... had attacked me... would I have defended myself in the exact same way? Absolutely.

Especially given the fact that I didn’t even know what I did then.

"But how do we test out that theory?" I asked, looking around to see if anyone was listening in. It felt like someone was watching us, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was just that annoying feeling on the back of your neck.

"I’ll think of a way," shrugged Rip. "But we should get back to the group before we fall too far behind. I can take on a Reaver horde by myself, but even I would have an issue with zombies."

I nodded my head in agreement. I knew that there was nothing around here that we needed to be worried about, but that didn’t mean that couldn’t change.

"Help."

"What did you say?" I asked, turning around to look at Rip, confused. Why would he need help?

"I didn’t say anything," he replied, looking down at me with concern.

"Yes, you did; you asked for help," I shot back, putting my hands on my hips. "And just because I look to you for everything doesn’t mean that I am not willing to help you, too. You don’t need to ask me so softly or cautiously."

"Little Bird. You give me everything I need and more. I am not afraid to ask you for help. But I haven’t done so," he insisted.

"Help," came the voice again, this time a little stronger. Since I was looking directly at Rip, I saw for a fact that his mouth didn’t move.

But if he didn’t say it... then who did?