LIZZIE
As I hovered at the top of the steps, listening to the men talking in the kitchen, I rolled my eyes. Great. Ranger was staying the night. That meant I didn’t have a chance in hell of seeing Marla for the rest of the day.
Figures.
After hearing parts of the conversation at the top of the steps, I lost my want for a snack. I turned and lumbered my way back to the bedroom. I flopped down face first, then groaned and regretted the decision the moment a flash of pain worked its way through my skull.
“Fuck all of this,” I grumbled as I rolled over.
With the pain medication in my system, I was pretty much useless. Walking was a chore and a half whenever it rushed through my veins, which meant the only thing I had to do was dwell. I supposed I could have played video games, but those weren’t fun when alone.
Nothing was fun when alone.
I thought about my lieutenant. Did they declare me dead? Were they searching for me? Were they trying to figure out what happened? I was supposed to report back three weeks ago. Wegot home from a deployment, we had three weeks off, and we were supposed to report back.
That felt like it was ages ago.
Pictures. You have to take pictures.
That was something I could do.
Well, something Doc could do.
Man, that meant I had to go find him and talk to him.
“Better than laying here and dwelling on shit,” I mumbled as I shoved myself back up on wobbly arms.
I could still be proactive with things. If I had to continue to be off the grid from my life, then the least I could do was roll up with proof of everything that happened to me. And that required pictures. Was Doc taking meticulous notes on my condition? Hell, I hadn’t even seen a real doctor’s office. What if he was just writing this shit down on toilet paper he used to wipe his ass or some shit?
“Ugh,” I grumbled when I realized my brain wouldn’t let me rest.
I slipped back off the bed and stood, feeling the twinge in my hip. It made me grimace, and as I slowly turned toward the door, my eye caught the gray cane in the corner that I was supposed to use on my walks with Marla.
Or on my walks anywhere.
“Fine, but just this once,” I said as I lumbered over and grabbed it.
The can clicked with every slow movement I made. I rubbed my hand down my face at one point to try to clear my mind, and ended up groaning at the pain that shot through my faceplate.
Was there a part of me that didn’t hurt?
“Come on, we can do this,” I whispered.
The cane made me feel as if I was incapable of shit, and I couldn’t stand that. I worked so hard to become the strong,independent woman that I grew into. It took surviving my childhood. It took surviving school. It took surviving basic.
So much fucking survival.
“Oh my God!”
I flinched at the shrieking voice before peels of laughter poured from one of the rooms upstairs. I hadn’t traveled down that particular hallway yet, and the commotion made me curious.
“You’re fucking joking,” Brutus’s deep voice wafted down the hallway.
“I shit you fucking not,” Doc said through his chuckling, “that’s exactly how it went down.”
“You lie,” Anna said. “You’re lying through your teeth, Dee! There’s no way!”
I paused just beyond the frame of the cracked door when I heard Anna’s voice.
