Finn day 3 part 6

All episodes can now be found on their own Flickr page located here: www.flickr.com/photos/200688024@N05/

 

Photo and story creditto Sofia.

 

I watch them both on the ground, the girl is looking at me a little puzzled, now I can actually see her face she looks somewhat familiar, a patient maybe, we have a lot of girls her age in and out of the A and E all the time. I've probably seen her there. The guy reaches out and takes my hand, I give him a gentle pull to help him up and he brings his friend up with him. I watch the girl brushing off his back while he introduces himself, "I'm Jim, thanks for the hand up." he pauses only to gesture towards the girl, "And this is Sofia." Before looking back to me. From behind them I can hear the other girl talking to Raven. I think she introduced herself as Tiff and her friend as Mira. But my focus quickly turns back to Sofia, her name rings a bell too, but from where? I'm trying to rack my brains to place her but just can't do it, until she speaks. "Finn Abel? You're not Dazey's husband are you?" She asks me. I turn to her so fast I felt a little dizzy spell hit my head. Dazey! She knows Dazey! Maybe she knows where she is too. So many thoughts now swimming round in my head. "Yes I am, How do you know my wife?" I ask her while watching her face for any clues she might not want to give me. "We go drinking sometimes. I haven't seen her in a couple of weeks though." She tells me. So that must be where I've seen her face before, on some of Dazey's night out pictures. Ok that fits. I want to ask her if she knows where she might be now. If there was another club Dazey would have gone too. But my head is spinning with so many thoughts and questions. I really need to make them stop so I can think straight.

 

Before I can say anything else Jim speaks again. "So, Are we safe up here or do we have more hills to climb?" he asks me, I can tell from his tone he is hoping I don't say more climbing. I turn back to him and lift my hand with the bat and point it over his shoulder. "Come and see for yourself." I tell him, as I step past them both. Grateful Sofia didn't ask anything else. I'm trying with everything I have not to think too much on these kind of things. It's taking all my will power not to go back for her as it is. As I'm walking towards the trees, I see Raven is talking to the other two girls. I almost wish I could hear what they are saying. Something tells me with his smart mouth, watching him talk to girls would be funny as hell. I hear them both shuffling behind me, following me into the trees. I make my way slowly past the low branches, pushing them out of the way as I do. Until I reach the opening where me and Raven had left our bags.

 

As they reach the opening, Jim steps out first. Kicking one of our bags as he does and falling flat on his face. I move to help him up but stop when I hear two girls giggling hard. Turning my head I turn to see Sofia is laughing so hard her face has gone red. The other girl is looking to her and laughs, "Oh hey Sof, The Dreamboat finally fell for you." She says through her laughs. I have to hold my own laugh now as I see Sofia instantly stop laughing and quickly turn in embarrassment. She proceeds to lean over Jim and lower her hand to him again, "Come on you, up you get," I can hear in her voice she's fighting back laughing again. She pulls him to his feet and begins brushing him off again. He's looking at her with the same shade of red faced she has. Seems like they have liked each other for a long time. Kind of like a couple of kids who are far too shy to tell each other. Cute. I smile to myself and turn back to the opening.

 

Tiffany steps past everyone and walks towards the edge of the cliff, Raven and Mira follow her like two little puppies. I watch Tiffany's face as she's looking around puzzled. She must know this place too. She turns back to us and asks, "Where's the hill gone?" Before I get a chance to speak Raven steps in with, "It went on vacation, didn't even leave a note." His quick one liners make me laugh, he's so quick with them it catches you off guard. I laugh quietly to myself while watching everyone quickly turn towards him with even bigger puzzled looks. Except for Mira. I watch as she brings her hand up and hits herself in the forehead. I have to bite my lip to stop myself from laughing out even harder. She did it as if she has known him for years and was expecting the quick sarcasm from him. Sofia turns from Raven back to us. "So what do we do now? It's getting dark." she asks us. I should have seen Raven's sarcasm coming this time but I was expecting one of the people she came up the hill with to answer her. But I was wrong, "Funny you should ask. We were just about to make camp before Santa answered our prayers." I have to turn away at this point because I saw Mira slapping her forehead again. If I hadn't have turned away I would have risked laughing in her face.

 

Gathering myself again, I turn back to the group and take a step towards them. "The way I see it, we have safety in numbers. We should stick together for the night, then we can see where we go from there." I tell them. I hope they accept and stay with us. It will be a long night if it's just me and Raven. Even with his smartass it isn't enough to keep my thoughts quiet. And I really need them to be. I watch Jim looking around. He looks like he is weighing up his choices before he turns to me. "Sounds good, Let's gather some rocks and if possible, any dry branches and plants for a fire." He says. The others look to him in agreement and I nod towards him to, relived of the company, and help we might need to get through the night should any of the infected make it up here.

 

With that, I turn and make my way back into the trees. I can hear Raven and Jim not far behind me. I don't look back but I can hear the girls shuffling the bags and chatting. Turning of to the side, I just get a glimpse of Jim heading back the way we had come in. I didn't see where Raven went, but he's not behind me which means I now have the first bit of silence I've had since he woke up on my sofa. Alone with my thoughts. I stop to catch a breath. I can still hear the girls quietly chatting. I can't see them though. Looking around all I can see is trees. It's so quiet up here. That's one of the reasons I use to hike out here back when I was doing my training. It's a good place to clear your mind, or just to scream out whatever tension needs to be let out. Leaning up against a tree, I close my eyes, listening to my surroundings and letting my mind wonder off. I see my wifes pretty face, her beautiful blue eyes looking up to me as if I'm the only man in her world. I smile as I think about her, her laugh, her voice, the way she would scream into the bedroom at me if I was sleeping past my alarm. She always did make a better alarm clock than my actual alarm. I miss her so much, all I want to do right now is hold her. Hear her voice. But I can't, I don't know where she is. The pain from that thought hits my chest hard, as if someone just threw a brick at me. A tear escapes my eyes and runs down my cheek, but I quickly wipe it away. It's just my luck Raven will see and give me one of his one liners, and now really isn't the time for that.

 

Over my shoulder I hear some twigs crack. Opening my eyes, I snap my head back to see Raven is making his way back towards the girls with some sticks and rocks. I had forgotten that's what we had come out here for. I push myself from the tree and start gathering a few twigs that are laying around on the ground. I'm having to push my thoughts to the back of my mind now. I can't be letting them take over me like that. With the few twigs I have gathered, I turn back to head back to the group, just catching a glimpse of Jim heading through the trees as I do. I slowly make my way back towards everyone else. Out of the trees and into the opening. I see Raven and Jim knelt down in front of a pile of rocks and twigs. Raven is holding his chest again, he must have strained himself while getting the bits for the fire. Jim is arranging the twigs in the middle of the rocks, so I walk up beside him and drop my twigs onto the pile before moving to the side and taking a seat, watching Jim as he takes a lighter from his pocket and works on getting the fire going. It doesn't take him long to get a little flame from the twigs and the fire comes to life. Within a minute of that I hear Tiffany shout "Here catch!" and see a can come to hit Jim in the face. He rubs his face and he goes to sit beside Sofia.

 

It's not long before the fire is in full force and the food is being warmed up before passed out between us all. I take a look around while eating my barely warm beans. Everyone seems to have made themselves comfortable. Mira is sitting to my right hugging her knees. I suddenly realize I've not heard her say a single word yet. I wonder if that's through choice or if there's something wrong with her. To her right Tiffany is sat on the edge of a blanket they had laid out. She looks lost in thought while she's eating her food. To her right I see Jim eating his food while looking into the fire, Sofia is sat right beside him, quietly eating while looking around at everyone too. And to my left Raven is half sat up, eating a little and has a bottle of JD in front of him. Hopefully it helps with his pain.

 

Finishing my beans, I set the can down by my feet and pick up a beer bottle Tiffany had handed me. Opening the top and taking a little sip. I sigh softly as the warm liquid runs down my throat. Had it been cold it would have been just what I needed. I look up over the fire to see Sofia had finished eating. Everyone is so quiet, I want to break the silence so I sit up a little so I can get a good view in front of me. "So Sofia, How do you know Dazey?" I ask her over the dancing flames. She looks up to me and is frowning. I know I've asked the question already, but I need to hear it again. "We party sometimes, but, I've not seen her in a couple of weeks." She replies before stopping to look right at me and continuing. "Is she ok? Why isn't she here?" She asks me. My heart sinks again seeing the same worried look on her face that I feel inside when I think of my wife. With a heavy sigh I reply, "I don't know where she is, I looked everywhere for her, she was out last night but didn't come home, I checked the club she said she went to, but it was over run." I pause as an image of the bar flashes in my head. There was so much blood there, more than I had seen in the basement at the hospital. I really hope she actually did make it out of there. "I hope she's OK and she's just holding up somewhere." I manage to get out as tears start to roll down my cheeks from the image. I wipe my face and turn my head from her to my bottle, giving it a swirl as I watch the golden liquid spin around inside, "Damn that's hard, I hope you find her." I hear Tiffany's voice somewhat echoing. I can't look up and answer her, fear of the tears falling and not stopping, stops me.

 

A few moments later I hear Jim ask, "So how did you two end up here?" I hear Raven shuffling and just know he's going to have a sarcastic comment about this one. I turn my head to the left and look at him as he answers. "I got shot, Dr.Glorybeard helped me, we heard the broadcast and had to get out of town." I chuckled at the nickname, seems to have stuck with him now. Not that I mind, I am quiet picky with my beard. I like to keep it trimmed to perfection and not ever let it get out of hand so I end up looking like a caveman. "We heard the broadcast as well, I was with Sofia at the time, Tiff was with Mira at her place when she called me telling me she heard it too." Jim replies. I turn to look at him and see Sofia looking up with the softest of smiles on her face. "You guys got phones? Can you get hold of anyone?" Raven continues. Phone! In everything that has happened today I had forgotten all about my phone, maybe there's a message... I quickly pull mine from my pocket before I hear Jim saying he has no signal up here followed by Sofia and Tiffany confirming they don't either. I hit the power button on mine and bring the screen to life. No messages or missed calls. It seems odd that my phone would be so quiet, especially at a time like this. But there's nothing from Dazey either. I confirm I don't have a signal up here either and watch Raven lay down with a heavy sigh.

 

Slipping my phone back in my pocket, I look up to see Raven has gotten himself comfy with his head on one of the bags. Sofia is settling down beside Jim too. Looks like it's getting to sleep time. Sounds like a great idea. Maybe tomorrow will an easier day. I lay myself back against one of the bags and rest my head. Reaching to my side to make sure I can feel my bat in case I need it quickly through the night before I let my eyes drop shut and sleep take me of to a place out of this situation.

Done