Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 86: I’m Here Beside You

Chapter 86: I’m Here Beside You

"You know there was a small chance that she was here in the first place," growled Cheng Bo Jing. As far as he was concerned, there was no chance of her being at the hospital after all this time. And there was even less of a chance of her dying in the first few days.

His Rabbit knew how to run and hide when she needed to, and that was probably what she had done.

"How are you going to explain her ring in a puddle of blood then?" demanded Bai Long Qiang as he glared at the other man. He wanted her to be alive more than anyone else, but he also had to be practical.

"It dropped out of her pocket," shrugged Cheng Bo Jing. "And now that we have wasted enough of our time here, can we please go home where she is more than likely to be?"

It was taking more than Cheng Bo Jing had to keep a rein on his temper. Bai Long Qiang was still living in an alternative universe, not seeing what was right in front of his eyes.

If his last name wasn’t Bai, there would be no chance he would have stayed as a team leader for so long.

He would have been stabbed in the back a long time ago.

There was only one leader of their team, and until they found her, they would keep with the pretense that Bai Long Qiang was in charge.

"Fine. If you need to be slapped in the face with reality, let’s go home then," sneered Bai Long Qiang as he stormed out of the Emergency Room entrance.

The four men shared a look. A lot was riding on the idea that Wang Tian Mu was still alive. But if they couldn’t find her...

Cheng Bo Jing shook his head, not willing to go there yet. Everything inside of him screamed that she was alive and well. It was just a matter of finding her.

The rest of the team filed out of the hospital close behind Bai Long Qiang.

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"Rabbit?" The tentative voice pulled me out of sleep, my eyes so gritty that I could barely open them.

"Cheng Bo Jing?" I asked, my voice little more than a croak. Every part of my body protested the idea of me moving, but if Cheng Bo Jing was waking me up, then there was probably a reason for it.

Wait...

"What happened to kitten?" I moaned as I rolled over onto my back.

If pain was welcomed because it let you know you were alive, I was going to be praying for death. This was ridiculous.

I heard a low chuckle from behind me as I tried to figure out how my limbs worked. "Rabbit when you are so innocent, Kitten when you show your claws. I haven’t quite figured out what you call you yet, so I am trying a few different ones."

"As long as it’s not bug, I’m good. Experiment away," I shrugged. Maybe rolling onto my back was a bad idea. I had no way of standing up from this position. I was starting to feel like a turtle on my back.

"But never call me a turtle," I continued as I rolled over onto my stomach.

Huh, this was a comfortable position. Maybe I could just stay like this for a little while. Just until the pain stopped.

We were in the medical bunker, so there were more than enough painkillers in the room. If only I could get some.

My brain still hadn’t come up with a way to get me to stand up, but Cheng Bo Jing’s chuckle let me know I was running out of time.

Crawling over to the hatch door, I raised my hand to the lowest part of the wheel handle. My arms screamed their protest as I used the wheel as leverage to pull myself up to my knees.

At that point in time, my legs joined in on the protest that my arms started, and I was fucked.

"Ugh, I can’t move," I grumbled, reaching to the highest part of the wheel to pull myself into a standing position. My muscles burned, my knees and back cracked, and I felt about 80 years old. Then again, I am sure that most 80-year-olds were more mobile than I was at the moment.

"You are doing perfect, Rabbit," said Cheng Bo Jing, and I could feel his presence behind me. He might be nothing more than a figment of my imagination but fuck me if he didn’t feel real.

"Back to being innocent?" I smiled. Now that I was standing, the next part was to be able to put one foot in front of the other and get my ass to the shelf that held the pain meds. Naproxen should be able to help with the muscles.

A hot shower would help more...

"The zombies have left; you can go back home now." As if he was reading my mind, Cheng Bo Jing gave me two things that my heart needed right now: a hot shower and a proper bed.

I grunted, letting him know that I heard him. Stumbling through the room lit only by emergency lighting, I found the shelf I needed and poured two naproxen into my hand. It was more than the label’s recommended dosage, but two wouldn’t kill me.

The fifteen minutes I had to wait for them to kick in just might, though.

It was a long way back home.

Oh well, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...

Turning around slowly, I turned the wheel until it creaked open. The door itself was solid metal, so as soon as I had enough room to slip through, I went, closing it behind me.

Another spin, and the door was locked again.

"Fuck my life," I groaned as I looked down the dark hallway. I really needed emergency lighting down these tunnels, but that just seemed like a waste of electricity.

Raising my right hand, I stepped forward, retracing my footsteps home.

"It’s okay, Kitten; I’m here beside you the whole way."