I was laying in the dirt.


    My ears were ringing and my head was throbbing. It felt like I still had the dogpile on my chest. I could taste ash in my mouth as I tried to move my tongue around to wet my very dry mouth.


    When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t lying in the street. I was in some sort of makeshift tent and in between two rows of something green.


    I blinked a few times as I rolled over and dusted the dirt off the top of the purple root.


    Carrots.


    Of course it’d be the purple variety. Those were bitter, but it was better than nothing. The orange ones were the best, but the purple ones could grow almost anywhere, so that’s what most places devoted time into.


    “He lives!” The sing-song voice assaulted my ears and begged me to make it stop.


    “Fyga...” I turned and ran my hand over my face to rub my eyes. That’s when I realized that I was rubbing my eyes.


    My goggles were gone.


    I quickly shut my eyes as I tried to hone in on where her voice had come from.


    “How''re you feeling?” The loud woman slapped me on the back, sending a wave of needles rolling over my skin.


    I winced and pulled away as I sat up.


    “Where are my goggles?” I held out my hand.


    What was put in my hand was way too heavy to be the pair of goggles that she’d given me in Gher. The rims were huge and clunky, not to mention impossibly thick.


    I still put them on.


    The world was darker, almost dark enough that my night vision kicked in. Honestly, I was wishing it would because I was pretty sure I could see better with it.


    “You got busted up pretty good.” Fyga opened a container of water and offered it to me.


    I took the water and that got me to look down at myself.


    There were holes all over my pants and I wasn’t wearing a shirt. My skin was so numb that I hadn’t noticed until now that there was a breeze that was able to directly touch it. I pulled the blanket that I’d been lying on up and draped it over my shoulders to partially cover myself.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    “What...?” My mouth was too dry to finish the question. I put the water up to my lips and it felt like I hadn’t drank anything in a week as I guzzled the whole thing and still felt dry.


    “What happened?” Fyga gestured at the flap of our makeshift tent. “You blew yourself up. Broke your goggles, destroyed half the city, and shook up Master Val pretty good.” She began looking me over. “Gave us quite a scare for a few days.


    “Days?” I swallowed and it felt like my throat was sticking together.


    “Days.” Fyga nodded. “You’ve been out for four days. Val was out for one. Eveth and I had to dig the two of you out of the wreckage of those houses. No clue how either of you survived. Especially all the Humans that were with you.”


    “They lived?” I croaked as I talked. “Water.” I held out the container.


    “You’ll have to wait until Val gets back.” She shook her head. “She’s been having a time trying to take back the city.”


    I nodded. It felt like sandpaper moved through my throat when I tried to talk. I had a horde of questions, but it was draining to try to speak at the moment. I found myself wishing that I was as numb as I’d been when I’d first woken up.


    “Alright, give me a second…” Fyga put her hand over the mouth of the container and I felt a chill blow through the tent.


    “It’s cold and it’ll have to melt.” She offered me the metal container. “Never was good at making only water.” She grumbled almost under her breath.


    “Thank…” I took the container back and it was definitely ice cold, but there was a little water around the massive ice cube inside. What little water there was was very cold, but also refreshing. “Thank you.”


    Fyga blushed a little, then waved her hand away. “It’s just to tide you over until Master Bokor gets back.” Her voice deepened as she mocked Val’s title.


    “Where are we?” The words weren’t hurting as much if I sipped on a little water before I talked.


    “Vegetable garden.” Fyga patted a carrot beside her. “A couple sections of the city weren’t breached, so we’ve set up the Humans in them. Unfortunately, whatever that thing was got most of the warehouses, so the food we’ve got is whatever is in the ground. Eveth is trying to take back the docks so people can try fishing again, but that’s been difficult even with her weird abilities.”


    I tapped the clunky things on my head. “Can you fix… my goggles?”


    “Maybe.” The blue-eyed woman shrugged. “It depends on the setup they have in the crafting sector and how much survived.” She shook her head. “I’m not kidding. When you blew that thing up it took out almost half the city.”


    I felt guilty. I knew she’d said that the Humans that had been with Val had all survived, but she hadn’t said anything about the rest of the people. I had a feeling that she was exaggerating, but I wanted to see for myself.


    “Where do you think you’re going?” She put her hand on my chest and pushed me back into a sitting position.


    “I need to help.” I nodded at the tent door.


    “How are you going to help anyone when one of these kids running around here could knock you over?” She glared at me through her goggles. “What you’re going to do is rest. You’ll have plenty of time to kill Zombies tomorrow. Trust me, those two aren’t going to clean them all out today.”


    I tried to resist her, but she grabbed my shoulder and pushed me down as she slid on top of my chest.


    “If you’re going to be a bad patient, I can just sit here so you can’t go anywhere.” She smirked. “Actually, I could get used to this.” She puffed out her chest. “Bokor Fyga and her team.” The small woman chuckled.


    Despite her barely weighing over a hundred pounds, I couldn’t move her. I quit straining and relaxed.


    “Good.” Fyga patted my cheek. “But I’m not getting up until Master Val gets here.”