IGNATIUS The Colors of Rage

Chapter b Judgment

Baine guided her into the room with his hand laid on her bony shoulder, and together they came to the bed. Nansen stepped back and flipped open the covers with his arm out as a gesture for her to lie down. Weak and tired, she did so. 

Iggy sat up. He could smell her clothing. It smelt like wet mold and ash. He blinked hard, wishing more than anything that he could see clearer. Mimicking him with blunt and excessive blinking, the young woman pressed up to sitting against the headboard, and danced her eyes all over him, then paused when she saw the bandages wrapped around his head. “You’re uninfected, too,” she pointed out in a whisper. 

Iggy’s chin jerked back at the sound of her hoarse dehydrated voice. “What is this?” 

Her lips spread into a smile and her fingertips pressed into her cheeks. “This is the first time I’ve smiled in weeks,” she admitted. “There aren't many uninfected people where I come from.” She stretched her hand out and planted it onto his naked shoulder. 

“Ah!” he shrieked, jerking his shoulder away. He stammered straight out of bed and marched across the room into his closet. He threw on the first shirt and pair of pants that he felt with his right hand and then, while standing in the threshold between the closet and the room, he barked, “what the hell is this?! Why is there someone in my bed?” 

“You want me to leave?” she asked. “I have nowhere else to go.” 

Iggy balled his fists up at his sides and growled with frustration. “Obviously! Isn’t there somewhere else you can put her?”

Nansen raised his hand, flashing his fleshy palm. “This is Emi. Get back in bed, and be nice to her.”

“Why should I?” Iggy snapped back.

Baine crossed his arms over his large chest and spread his stance. “She’s uninfected and she’s been through a lot. Stop being rude.”

“No way,” he hissed. “If I sleep, I’m going to sleep far away from you.” He plopped himself down on the floor with his legs and arms crossed tightly. 

“You don’t have to…” she replied gently. 

Baine stomped around the bed and snagged Iggy by his upper arm and lifted him straight off of the floor. He tossed him back onto the mattress, threw one side of the covers over him, and pinned him in place. “This is Emi, the Silgria’s New Generation.”

Iggy spat, “whose what?!”

Baine’s face crumpled out of frustration. “She’s the one that we needed to go get. Her survival is just as important as yours.” 

“I don’t know what you are talking about!” he thrashed.

Nansen pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just explained this to you five seconds ago.”

“You’re so selfish!” Baine clenched the blanket in his fists and dug his knuckles into the bed. “You weren’t paying any attention were you? You were only thinking about yourself!”

“You can’t blame me for being a bit self-centered!” Iggy fired back. “It’s not every day that I have someone feast on my face and I practically die!”

Emi leaned nearer, breaking up the building tension between the two. “And…” her voice was so fragile, “you are Iggy. I know about you.” Her hand lifted and her finger pointed toward his head. “How were you hurt? It looks serious.”

Baine stood upright and Iggy propped himself up onto an elbow. He lifted his fingers up toward his face and caressed the rough bandage edge. “It’s none of your business.” His tone had the power to incite anger in others. “Where did you come from, anyway?”

“See?” Baine jerked a hand toward Emi. “She’s had a much worse week than you, and she still has the consideration to ask about your injuries instead of addressing her own! Take a lesson!”

Nansen stepped forward, raising both of his hands. “Alright, alright,” he waved his fingers downward. “You two are getting really loud.” 

Iggy fell down onto his back, then rolled onto his side so that he faced away from Emi. Nansen glanced down at the bowl of cold uneaten potatoes sitting on the bedside table, and he took it in his hands and held it out. “Take this,” he said to her. “You look like you’re starving.”

At the sight of it her mouth watered and she swallowed hard. She hadn’t consumed anything for the last four days other than sips of raindrops that flowed down through the rubble of her home. Dust was still caked to her scalp and the backs of her hands. She scooped the bowl up, poured the potatoes into her mouth from the tilted edge like soup, and only moments later the whole bowl was empty. She returned it to the table and fell back into the pillows. Her arm came up to her head, accidentally brushing Iggy’s tricep with her elbow. 

He impatiently and intolerantly shoved her elbow back into her own bony chest. “Don’t touch me,” he hissed and huffed and then slammed his head into the pillow. His arms crossed over his ribs. Given one minute of silence, his eyes crept shut. Given another, and he was already asleep. 

Nansen and Baine glanced at each other. “After everything that’s happened,” Nansen chuckled, “I’m surprised that he had any strength to even put up a fight.”

Baine pulled his shoulder back. “Oh God, he is stubborn…” He peered down at Emi. “Sorry about-” Then, he noticed that she was also asleep, and he smirked. “Non-infected people are so weak. Look, they’re both sleeping, already.”

Nansen looked, too, criss crossing his fingers and bringing them to his cheek. “Awe,” he cooed and smiled adoringly. “Can you imagine how they’ll be when they are infected? Sleeping all the time. Smelling so good.”

“Sure, whatever,” Baine dismissed his admiration. “I’m out of here.” He turned to leave the room, but Nansen stepped forward with an arm extended. 

“Wait!” he called. Baine turned around and Nansen rushed to say, “I need a break. I have been here since nightfall.”