Broken Dreams(140)

All the anger, all the guilt, all the frustration, and all the sadness had boiled over. I don’t know how much time went by, but the daylight disappeared and the silence of the night moved in. Henry was a soldier by my side, holding me the best that he could in his state.

After an eternity, I was finally able to speak. “I don’t know what to do, Henry. She wanted to be cremated, but that’s not an option.”

“Right. Our only option is burial right now.” I agreed. We decided that, at daybreak, we would bury my mother.

Henry was drifting in and out of sleep when Claire peeked in. “Hey,” she said in her soft, gentle voice.

“Hey,” I managed.

“Thomas and I brought back a bunch of supplies from the medical center. We found painkillers and antibiotics. I was thinking that it might be a good idea to get some into Henry.”

“Yes. Yes, that’s a great idea, Claire.”

“I’ll be right back.” As she turned for the stairs, I got up and grabbed her. I hugged her tightly, and whispered a thank you into her ear. “I didn’t get back fast enough,” Claire said in a soft voice.

“It’s not your fault.” She frowned at me and walked away.

Several minutes later, Claire arrived back in the bedroom with an armful of supplies. She also had water for us to drink and clean up with, and a few little packs of snacks. Henry was sleeping, although it wasn’t peaceful because he was moaning and groaning. I couldn’t imagine what his nightmares must be like. I begged so many times for him to talk to me about them. I just wanted to help him.

“Since he’s sleeping, let’s take a look at your head.” Claire separated my blood-matted hair. “I’m going to clean it and put a little of this antibiotic cream on it. Okay?”

“Yeah.” I winced several times, and shuddered when she washed and applied the cool cream on my scalp.

“How are you feeling?”

“Mentally, emotionally, or physically?”

“Let’s start with physically.”

“Like shit, like shit, and like shit.”

“Excellent.” She handed me a snack pack of Oreo cookies. “Eat these. Oreos make everything better.” She knew these were one of my favorites. “We found them when we were being opportunistic at the medical center.” She smiled at me. I couldn’t help but return it. No matter what happened, I could always count on Claire to bring me back.

She reached over to Henry and tried to wake him. He mumbled in his sleep. I leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Hey, Henry. Come on. Wake up.” I stroked his messy hair and ran my fingertips over his ear. He opened his eyes as much as he could with all the swelling. The brilliant green still had not returned to the shiny state they were in before. I wondered when he would need more blood.

“Hey, love.” His voice was scratchy.

“Claire’s going to look you over and give you some medicine.” He groaned. I wasn’t sure if it was an agreement or not, but Claire went ahead and checked him. She cleaned him up and, before he drifted back to his restless sleep, she asked if he wanted pain killers. He shook his head. Stubborn mule. No wonder we got along so well… occasionally.



***



The next morning, Nick and Thomas dug a shallow grave for my mother, making a cross out of scrap lumber. Sophie and Thomas helped Henry outside so he could say a few words about her. It was very emotional. I cried the entire time during the makeshift funeral, feeling guilty for all the times I was an awful person to her. I felt like a piece of me was buried with her that day.

Nick managed to get Henry into bed, then came back downstairs. He sat on the couch directly across from Kellan. They were staring each other down. Kellan would say something through the gag that was unintelligible, and Nick would smirk in amusement. It was a battle of wills.





Chapter 21





-November 2014-



S





everal days had gone by before Henry was able to navigate the stairs by himself. His injuries seemed to be healing. His face was several nice shades of purple, green, and yellow. The swelling had started decreasing around his eyes, but his lip was still cracked open. His ribs were still bad, and I had to tighten up his support bandage several times a day. I wasn’t sure if it was helping him, but he felt it was.

He made it to the kitchen, and Sophie followed him in. “We need to address our lack of ammo. If we get attacked…”

Henry held up his hand to stop her. “Right.”

“I can take a couple of the others,” Sophie said. “We can go back to your place and get the trunks, plus whatever supplies we can carry.”

Henry stood silent, leaning against the counter. Then he said, “I could go with Claire and Thomas.”