shine bright

Despite how desperate i’ve been for food,

I'm so sorry about that, man. I got some snack bars left over, still.

I see. I feel no love Val. No love at all. 

You'll totally feel the love when you get hurt and need pain meds. You can thank me for that.

Did you get me anything?

I wish. I just got medications for the hospital, we ran out of a lot of stuff.

So what stopped you?

My partner got shot.

Are you really surprised though?

Well, yeah. We were at a big pharmacy and everything.

Ethan never saw her smirk, keeping his eyes closed. He honestly didn’t want to focus on the road or her driving or anything outside of himself. He clamped his hand over the injured arm, falling silent for awhile after that. The painkillers started working after a little bit, vastly improving his state of mind. The pain was fading out and his brain was starting to feel warm and fuzzy instead of overloaded like before. This was nice. He actually felt happy all of a sudden- or at least content. He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at her, realizing all over again that she was topless. His face broke into a smile as he watched her driving the car like that.

Valerie looked over at Ethan as he rambled about their date, not sure why he was actually bringing something like that up. It was odd that he was smiling and staring at her, but she wasn't going to hold it against him. Some people just got loopy on the pain medications sometimes, so she was going to let whatever happened between now and the time they wore off pass without any trouble after the fact.

Ethan was relieved when she admitted defeat, though her followup apology only served to annoy him a little more. He didn’t dwell on it though, too preoccupied with getting into the bottle of pills with only his left hand.  It proved to be an irritating endeavor and when he finally got it open he tossed a generous dose into his mouth to swallow. He had glanced over the dosage info on the side of the bottle but he was less interested in how safe it was as long as it relieved some of the pain.

I’m gonna want to apologize for most of this later. Valerie smirked slightly at that, accelerating a bit when she noticed a few straggler zombies on the side of the road. It was less out of fear of the undead and more out of not wanting to see what former humans were still stumbling around. She was already stressed out and generally anxious from this supply run, she didn't need a waterfall of tears because of the infected dead people.

Ethan was starting to get really pissed off as she spoke about other people needing the medications he was trying to find for himself. 

Valerie shut up as Ethan became more upset with her, not wanting to risk him getting more upset and somehow bringing more pain to himself. It wasn't like she could really stand up to him anyways — he worked for the mayor, he had the power to kill her if he really wanted to. So who was she to keep him from getting what he wanted?

Ethan grabbed onto the armrest as she started abruptly braking, gritting his teeth at the pain. He looked over at her with an irritated frown, wondering how she’d feel with a hole in her arm.

Ethan was impressed as she listed off what she’d found, thinking any of those would do. He’d be willing to try anything right then to help with the pain he was in. He frowned as she said he’d have to wait and then proceeded to distract him with dreams of pie. Again- this chick was unbelievable. He rolled his eyes and unbuckled his seatbelt, twisting around in his seat to grab at the bag in the backseat.

"H—Hey! Ethan, put that back on!" Valerie exclaimed, starting to break when he started to grab stuff in the back seat. She didn't want to risk anything, especially when he was already injured. It was one thing to be shot — most likely non-fatally — but breaking a neck was something completely different. 

Ethan looked over at her with a withering glare in response to her joke, watching in disbelief as she pulled his seatbelt across him. Sometimes it was hard to believe that these things were actually happening when he was around Valerie- she was insane. It wasn’t the first time that he’d felt this way about her but this was definitely the strongest occurrence of it.

"C'mon, Ethan, I'm trying to help you out here," Valerie said, not appreciating him snapping at her. Granted, she knew exactly the reasoning why, but it didn't make it any better on the receiving end of it.

Ethan leaned his head back against the headrest, closing his eyes and focusing on the lightheaded feeling. He kind of wanted to pass out and just wake up whenever they got back to town- that way if they were intercepted and killed on the way he would never even know. He opened his eyes again as she spoke, lifting his head to look over at her. He was caught off guard by her sudden topless-ness, frowning in confusion.

"Say please, Ethan," Valerie said, trying to joke her way out of the stress. She reached over, pulling the seat-belt over him and clicking it in to make sure he stayed safe while she drove. Who knew if she was going to hit a zombie on accident on the way back?

Ethan refrained from saying what he wanted to say when she asked if he’d been shot, wondering if that could be any more obvious. He leaned on her as she arrived at his side, knowing he shouldn’t bite off the head of the one person that was here to help him.

Valerie nodded to his directions, helping him walk to the outside. It was a relief to go from the loud and wet inside of that pharmacy to the outdoors, but only slightly. As expected, the sounds of the alarms had alerted a good amount of the zombies. They were still far enough to avoid, but close enough to make Valerie panic slightly. 

Ethan could see Valerie in his peripheral vision as she moved past them, hoping that she actually had a plan to get them out of this. He was momentarily impressed as he realized she’d pulled the fire alarm, his ears reeling from the miserably loud siren as the sprinklers started raining water down on them. He didn’t have time to full appreciate her idea though, the armed man not reacting calmly to the sudden disruption. Gunfire rang out and Ethan felt a sharp pain, unable to fully realize what was even happening as it all took place in a matter of seconds. He fell hard against a shelving unit, attempting to grab onto something to keep himself from falling but only managing to pull a large part of the display down with him. He was half buried in "As Seen on TV" products and he could feel his own warm blood pouring from somewhere on his body. It was hard to pinpoint the source of the pain yet, his brain too overloaded with extreme sensory responses. Pushing his way out of the pile of Genie Bras and Perfect Bacon Bowl kits he managed to reach over for his handgun that was laying on the floor, grabbing it and pointing it towards the man. The man was still caught off guard by the fire alarm and Ethan taking out the store display with a complete lack of grace- reacting too late as he saw Ethan reach for the gun. Ethan squeezed the trigger as the man tried to point the gun towards him, shooting the man directly in the chest. The man fell backwards against the aisle shelving, catching a few more bullets from Ethan’s gun before he crumpled to the floor. 

Hearing the scuffle and the gunshots terrified Valerie. This wasn't supposed to happen. The sounds of displays knocking over and boxes falling didn't help the situation and fear that was overwhelming her. But Ethan would be okay. He worked for the mayor, he knew what he was doing. He wasn't going to die, right?