I looked around to see who said that. I always tried to keep a mental log of preferences. Allergies, even. Just because they were homeless didn’t mean they didn’t deserve the same care and attention as everyone else on the fucking planet.
I saw them casting glances behind me every once in a while, though.
“It’s okay, they’re just with me. We’ve got some weirdness happening in the woods around us. My brother wants to make sure I’m safe,” I said.
The people gathered around me slowly nodded, but I noticed how quiet it went.
“Do… any of you guys know what’s going on in the woods right now?” I asked.
A few of them looked at one another before one of the younger guys looked at me. “People are being taken by the boogeyman.”
My ears perked up. “The boogeyman? Have you seen him?”
The kid quickly shook his head and took off with his bag back toward the building.
“Has anyone seen the boogeyman in the woods?” I asked.
And yet again, all I got was silence before everyone funneled back to the building.
“Fuck,” my brother grumbled.
I wasn’t done yet, though.
They knew something.
“Here,” I said mindlessly as I passed off the first empty tote. “I’m sure there are people that didn’t come outside.”
“I’ll come with you,” Dozer said.
“No, you will not,” I said simply as I headed with the second tote toward the entrance of the warehouse.
When I felt my brother fall in line behind me, I spun around and shook my head at him. The last thing I needed were thesepeople feeling too intimidated to speak to me. There was a young woman’s life on the line.
We had to figure out what the fuck happened.
My brother ground his teeth together but nodded just the same, and then I disappeared into the warehouse. Sure enough, there were a couple of people that were injured, their bodies bruised and bloodied.
“My God, what the hell happened to you?” I asked breathlessly as I rushed over to one of them and dropped to my knees.
Her eyes were wide with terror and she flinched away from me.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said softly as I stilled my hands. “I just need to see what kind of damage was done. You may need a doctor.”
She just scoffed. “Doctors don’t help us.”
“I’ve got access to a doctor who will,” I said, thinking about Doc, “but I have to take a look. Will you let me?”
The older woman scanned my face for a long time before handing me her wrist, which was so clearly dislocated. She hissed every time I attempted to move it, and the makeshift sling she had her arm in wasn’t doing her any favors.
“Do you have feeling in your fingers?” I asked.
The woman with the wrinkles on her face looked at me for a while before she shook her head.
“How long has it been like this?” I asked.
A smaller voice ended up at my side. “Could you look at my leg? I’ve got a gash.”
I looked over at the much younger woman. She couldn’t have been more than nineteen. “Of course, just sit there and give me a second.”
