Our Days Are Numbered

Chapter 3

My eyes fluttered open when I heard the familiar noise of the alarm sounding as the heavily restructured gates opened. Two Jeeps pulled into the yard before we did, the gates closed with a bang and the alarm stopped, a huge red light shining above it indicating that it was sealed shut. We all sat waiting for the signal to step out of the cars so that the doctors of the camp could do a look over to make sure that none of us had been bit or scratched while out on the raids. I climbed out of the car waiting for one of three doctors to check me over. 

"Your arm is full of blood," she told me stepping back, her face looking alarmed

"What?" I replied stupidly and looked at my arm, thoughts racing through my head as I tried to remember what had happened I was almost sure that no eaters had touched me. I felt the color drain from my face when I couldn't recall how I had been hurt.

"She jumped from one rooftop to the next" I heard Devin's voice cut through the chatter that started up. 

"She'll still be put into isolation" Dr. Green started but she was cut off by Dr. Leonard who grabbed my arm and wiped it with his own sleeve

"It's a scuff mark," he said holding my arm up to Dr. Green "not a bite mark nor nail marks" he dropped my arm and pushed past the crowd of people heading towards the main building.

"Fine" Dr. Green said under her breath "Is that everyone?"

"We have one more" came Frank's voice 

"You what?" snapped Devin "We already don't have enough to go around and you bring another in?"

"We couldn't leave him, we already radioed it in. He can be of value to us." Frank and Devin were getting up into each other's faces, I swear the amount of time I rolled my eyes at the men on a daily basis I could probably tell you exactly how my brain looked.

"Devin" I shouted, "Unpack" I ordered when he turned to look at me, he stalked off and started unloading the bags full of medicine and medical supplies, I walked with Frank to the back of his Jeep. A man lay there unconscious. 

"Oh that's not good," I said pointing at the knife that was protruding from his side. 

"He is from the West. Apparently, he and his raid party had a disagreement over gathering up eaters and using them as 'guard dogs', he passed out a few minutes before we reached camp" 

"Wait, there are camps using eaters? As what exactly" I frowned looking at Frank who only shrugged his shoulders

"Not sure he didn't get to that part" I wiggled my nose looking at the man in the back of the Jeep. 

"Well we are going to need to take him to the operating room," I said turning to Frank, "Not going to get much more out of him if he bleeds out" it took about 3 men to lift the man out and carry him over to the second block of buildings. 

We had taken over a massive school, converting most of the buildings that had been classrooms to sleeping quarters, the second block of buildings was converted to a medical center and the smallest block was converted into an eating area, we were able to reinforce most of the gates and walls to create a fortress that was impossible to get into with out access. Most of the power around the area had been knocked out but the owner of the school seemed to have been trying to cut down on some costs because most of the electricity was powered by solar energy. I let out a slow breath, happy about being back home and happy about the fact that I could go have a shower. Being the smallest and the fastest in the camp I was usually chosen to go on the longer raids because I was able to get in and out of multiple places in the time it would have taken some of the men to get into two places. 

I smiled over at Alice that looked like she was ready to pass out, she gave me a small wave and made her way towards the gym hall that held the showers 

"Zo?" came Devin's voice from beside me "Can you take this to Dr. Leonard?" he said holding up a bag of supplies

"Yeah sure" Dr. Leonard usually kept to himself, he and my father had become good friends when we first started this camp. He had taken on the role of looking out for me when it seemed I needed a father figure but other than that he was always up in his lab trying to find a fix for the mistake he had made. I slowly walked around the buildings humming to myself as I came to huge a set of metal doors. I knocked on the door to his lab 

"Go away" he shouted 

"It's Zoni" I replied "I have some supplies for you" I heard some shuffling and then the door was wrenched open Dr. Leonard gave a small smile and moved so that I could walk in, he closed the door behind me and shuffled back to his seat 

"You can just put it there," he said pointing at an empty table. 

"Anything new," I asked as took out the bottles and boxes from the bag, placing them gently onto the table trying to make as little noise as possible 

"They are mutating," he said very disinterestedly 

"Mutating?" is asked, trying to keep myself from sounding alarmed 

"hmm hm" he hummed but said nothing more, I started to walk out the room when it was obvious that he was not going to say any more than that. I closed the door behind me and made my way back outside towards the bleachers and trees. I sat down on the ground under one of the blue gum trees. Looking up at the sun that was filtering through the branches and leaves of the tree. It had been years since I had heard the birds sing. I closed my eyes listening to the world around me. Hearing the soft groans from eaters walking by, this had become the norm, a norm most of us never thought we would have to face. The children in the camp were usually only allowed in the classes that we had created for them some days we allowed them to come out and play in the sun but these times were kept short to avoid noise levels from going too high. It wasn't a place for kids and most women were taking measures to ensure that pregnancy was at an all-time low, all the woman were given birth control, even the younger girls that were hitting their teen stages, the older teens were put to work to help out around the camp. The younger generation looked after the gardens and plants. 

"Zoni" I heard my name being called and as I opened my eyes three huge black dogs came running at me. oh crap, I ducked my head down holding my arms over my head as the three dogs came to stop and started licking and jumping up on me. I pushed myself off the floor giving each boy a head scratch. 

"They are getting big," I said laughing as Mike walked closer, Mike was the man you spoke to if you needed information on the areas and the animals in that area. 

"Yeah, it's a shame I never found the mother, Porta is looking for you," he said his face dropping slightly,