it back to the clinic where Maverick, Cyler, and Kemper were. It felt like the weight of the day was sitting on my chest.
My entire body seemed to give out from the exhaustion of the day. Everything that had happened was crashing into me, and it was hard to stand up. I couldn't remember the last time I ate, and running all over the empire, trying to save my men and Payne, was finally catching up to me. Not to mention, I’d endured a severe accident and had fought off an infected Walker.
When I walked through the door, I noticed that everything had been cleaned up. Kemper made quick work of fixing what equipment was left and making the space usable. My eyes immediately went to the quarantine room, where Maverick was sitting on the floor, his eyes closed as he slept. I watched his chest move up and down in shallow breaths. My eyes grazed over him, and it didn’t seem like more boils had formed in our short time away. But his skin looked almost green, dark circles were under his eyes, and each breath was low and slow.
"Babe?" a voice croaked. I turned my attention to the healing pod. Cyler was sitting on the floor with his back resting against it. His long legs were thrust out in front of him, and he was cradling his now healed arm while rocking. One of the downfalls of using a healing pod was that it left residual pain for a couple of hours afterward. He looked good though, despite the bloodstains covering his shirt.
I swayed as I walked, knowing that if I didn't eat and drink water soon, I would be in no better position to help than Maverick. Slinking down to my knees, I wrapped my arms around Cyler and squeezed him tight as the other guys started helping Kemper with the last bit of cleaning. "I was so worried about you," I said in a soft tone while resting my head on his shoulder. Cyler grunted while propping his arm up on my shoulder. We held each other there for a moment, and all the unspoken tension just lingered between us.
After a while of just sitting together, I twisted to look into his deep, brown eyes. "How is he?" I asked, not sure that I wanted to hear the answer.
Cyler swallowed before answering. "I'm not sure. When I woke up, he was asleep. Kemper filled me in, though."
Every case of X was different. Some lost their mind quicker than others. Some lost their ability to stay awake. Some got boils faster than others, and some died almost instantly. It scared me, not knowing what kind Maverick would have. We still had twenty hours before Payne would wake up and the time capsule serum would be out of his system.
Cyler stared at the glass door of the quarantine room with trepidation. “I’m going to try to be strong for you, Babe. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared shitless right now.” He trembled before squeezing my shoulder once more.
“You don’t have to be strong for everyone all the time, Cyler Black,” I whispered.
“Neither do you,” he replied. I closed my mouth and stared at the quarantine door with him, watching the steady rise and fall of Maverick’s chest as he slept. After a while, I turned to face Kemper who was working on a small, handheld machine he found in a locked cabinet.
"Did Maverick write down the instructions?" I asked.
Kemper gently set down the machine before lacing his fingers together and staring at me. "He did. I'm trying to make sure all the machines we need are working. I might have to run out tomorrow to find some more materials. For the most part, we have everything we need. I just need a couple more things.”
Jacob’s mindspeak immediately broke through the tense conversation. "Make me a list, and I’ll go out tonight."
Patrick interrupted as well. "I'll go with him." We were all eager to feel like we had something to do. The waiting game was getting to us.
I'd be lying if I said it didn't terrify me for all of us to split up, but I knew we had to work in tandem to get everything we needed. “Maverick assured me that it’s a fairly simple process,” Kemper choked out. “It’s a good thing he’s had time to research while we were searching for Payne. I don’t understand all of it, but the machines do