Scourge

Chapter 9

Gabriel, please don't leave me.

It's okay Jess, I'll be right in the other room. I'll see you in the morning.

. . . .

Jessie, wake up.

...

Jessie.

Jessie!

I wake up trembling in a cold sweat, my heart racing with rapid breathing. Just another nightmare. I try taking quieter breaths, but Mari is already waking up. She turns toward me and rubs her thumb on my collarbone. I grab her hand and kiss it.

"I'm okay."

"Bad dream?"

Her voice is partially back.

"Yeah, but don't worry about it."

She nods and nuzzles her face into the crook of my neck. Her breaths tickle, but I don't dare tell her to move. I am in my happy place. I look over and see that Craig isn't there, his bed fully made. I guess he could never shake the old military habit. There is a note on his bed. I don't need to get up to know what it says, he is probably getting some gas. After a few minutes, Mari taps on my chest and I let go of her. She slowly climbs out of bed and gets dressed. I get dressed not long after she does and join her on the deck. She always wants to watch the sun.

"Mari, these sun dates of ours are starting to become my favorite part of the day."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, I've never seen you so passionate about something. Besides me, of course."

"Dork. Stop being a loser."

"Only saying it because it's true."

We watch the sunrise for a few more minutes before turning away and looking for something else to eat other than fish. But something is off, almost as if I am being watched. Mari catches onto my body language and looks around. At first, we couldn't see anything. I have the same feeling that I had when we first escaped the city. And we thought that we were mistaken and just on high alert. Until a crackling sound breaks through the air and a bullet pierces my shoulder.

Oh.

My.

God.

"Shit!"

A searing white hot pain spreads across my chest and down my arm, blood slowly trickling down. Mari forces me to sit down and lean against one of the corners of the boat. I'm panting and biting my knuckles.

"Gabe, look at me."

I force myself to make eye contact despite my blurred vision. She gives me a sympathetic smile and rubs my cheek.

"I'm gonna need you to take your shirt off. We're gonna use it as a bandage."

We work together to try and remove my shirt with minimal movement from my arm, but it all feels painful. No other bullets had been fired since I went down, but I knew that they hadn't left yet. I am more worried about Craig though, since he hasn't returned in a while.

"Looks like a through and through. I'm gonna rinse it out."

Mari starts to stand up and walk over to grab a bottle, but she quickly comes back down when a bullet ricochets off the railing.

Oh no they don't.

"Mari!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay!"