Desolate

Charlie fought her best to try to keep the pain down to the minimum; despite her initial desperation, she had found a small kit that was in one of the cabinets. It was fairly empty, mostly contained sterile wipes and a bottle, a large bottle, of cleaning alcohol; some bandages, and a bit of hydrogen peroxide. Running a hand through her hair, she picked up the kit and made her way back to the rest of them; Jordan was staring out the door, a look of deep thought on her face. Shrugging past her, Charlie moved all of the way towards the entrance, leaning against the wall beside the glass opening; staring out into the open land, the sun lighting the entire parking lot.

"What's that for?" Oliver questioned, taking at the medical box that was in her lap; her arm tucked into her jacket but not into the sleeve. "Are you okay?" he inquired further, trying to look at her arm; to which she merely moved it out of the way with a scowl.

"Please just don't," she retorted, turning to look at him; she was worried about her arm, and everyone knew she was upset, but no one noticed. He nodded slowly and pulled his legs to his chest; playing with his fingers in the nearly awkward silence.

"You know, I didn't see you much before...this whole thing," he started, watching as she darted her eyes towards him; she never knew what he was going to say, unlike the others. She could always have a basis on what they were going to say, but he was different. "I saw you a few times at parties, and at the store. Hell, I heard about you all the time from Andrew," he commented, making her stare down at her worn out boots; they held the story of this entire apocalypse, all the blood, dirt, and rain. Charlie never replied, she listened to him instead; not that she really had anything to say, because she didn't know where he was going. "He spoke so highly of you, never said a bad thing about you," he continued, she stared at the boots longer; she didn't like talking about Andrew, and he wasn't helping her. "When I saw you for the first time, I couldn't help but agree with him," he commented lowly, in a quiet voice that she strained to hear.

"You both were exaggerating," she replied, her arm burning from within her jacket; moving to caress it softly with her other hand she let him continue. He shook his head, and stared down the end of the store; everyone was talking and joking around, and some weren't.

"No. You were beautiful, smart, rough," he chuckled, making her look away as he continued , "Fun, tough, talented. That's how he described you, and I agreed," he finished, watching as she stared out of the store; trying to block out his words. "He loved you," he commented, watching as she hid her face with her other arm; he silently stood up, brushing his pants off as he ran a hand through his hair. "And I was just jealous of him," he finished, taking steps away from her; hearing nothing but small shaky breaths. Charlie on the other hand, was mentally cursing him; she tried to block these things out, save them for when she could. She wanted to hide them until the end, when it was safe to just let it out all; she wanted to be strong during it, but could cry like a baby at the end.

"You're stupid," she wiped at the tears in her eyes hastily, pulling her gun off the floor and throwing it over her good arm. Alex made her way over, and helped her up, and even pulled the medical kit from her hands. "Thanks," she mumbled as Alex walked off, while Charlie was moving to go and take a seat beside Jordan; who was still staring off into the distance. "You've got a lot on your mind too huh," she commented, gathering Jordan's attention as she nodded; running a hand through her hair, Jordan turned back to her.

"What about your arm?" she questioned, she was changing the subject to something that Charlie wanted to change her subject on. "If it gets too bad, you might have to amputate it," Jordan continued, making Charlie grimace at her arm.

"I'll try to keep it clean, hopefully it will last long enough for this to end," Charlie retorted, motioning to the kit in Alex's hands. "Then when the apocalypse is over, maybe we should gather survivors. At least one doctor should have survived," she finished, moving her arm back into her jacket sleeve; gritting her teeth until it went completely through.

"Hey," Zakk took a seat beside the both of them, his legs extending far longer than theirs; they had to admit he was tall. Zakk was probably the tallest, Darren second, Oliver third, Jordan fourth, Alex fifth, Charlie sixth, and then Bianca was the smallest; no surprise right? Charlie despised standing beside Zakk, because he completely towered over her; she didn't like the feeling. "Did you upset lover boy over there?" he asked Charlie, motioning towards Oliver who was leaning against a rack of clothing; his eyes closed, and he even sported an upset look on his face.

"He's not my lover," Charlie barked, moving to look in another direction; seeing Bianca and moving back to look at Jason and Alex. "We're just...friends," she finished, rubbing her hands together and gave up; moving to sit next to Darren. She moves around a lot, because if you hadn't noticed, they always manage to say the wrong things at the wrong times.

"Please tell me you're not wearing...you know," Darren commented as soon as she sat beside him; she caught Oliver looking out of the corner of her eye. She shrugged in return, Darren gulping from beside her; he checked her shirt and could see lace pop out. "Oh lord!" he stood up, making her smile as he ran to Jason; pointing at her from across the store.

"Okay I get it! Bone her in your dreams, don't tell me about it!" Jason retorted loudly, making Charlie 's face flush as she stared at the boy incredulously; Oliver's eyes were cast at Darren, with his fists clenched he went back to the mattress area.

"H-He's kidding," Darren commented as soon as he came back. "So, should we start hitting the road again?" he questioned, sitting on the floor beside her; he could see red leaking from her jacket and he instantly grabbed her arm. "Is this from that time at the ammo store?" he questioned, looking up at her with worried eyes. Charlie nodded and smiled, because she couldn't help but figure one of the slowest guys she's met is the only one who puts two and two together; he pressed on the skin.

"Fuck don't do that!" she howled, moving to rip her arm out of his grip; holding onto it as she fought back pained tears. "It hurts if you hadn't noticed," she commented again as he pulled it back towards him.

"This isn't good," he remarked, pressing down on her arm once again; making her shout at him in pain. This wasn't the type of pain she was used to, she cursed at him as she fought to pull it out of his grip; she had tears falling down her face as he kept a firm grip on her arm. Charlie felt like her arm was exploding from the inside, fire burning and licking at the skin; a sea of pain was throbbing through her entire arm.

"Stop," she gritted, her voice low and hidden with pained tears; people weren't supposed to see her like this, but the pain was becoming unbearable. Her arm was pulled back towards her as Oliver ripped her from Darren's grasps.

"Don't you hear her, she said it fucking hurt," Oliver commented, his voice was angry; his eyes were narrowed as he looked at Darren. "Shut the fuck up," he said as Darren went to say something; in defeat, Darren stalked off towards Jason, Alex, and Bianca. Oliver lent against a wall, pulling Charlie so that she was seated in between his legs; arm in her hand as she tried to rid of the pain. Her back was pressed to his chest as he muttered calm words into her ear; she couldn't be around him, he was too much like Andrew. They were also very different, of course, but they always knew how to make her feel better; Oliver petted her head as the pain started to return to just the dull throbbing.

"Thank..you," she mumbled as she calmed down; her arm was still bleeding but it wasn't something she couldn't deal with. "I guess he didn-" all Oliver did was wrap his arms completely around her into a tight embrace to make her completely silent. Bowing her head, she let him continue to just hold her; it was something she could have forgotten, but always loved.

"Don't let him touch you," Oliver whispered into her ear, making her shiver as she placed a hand on his arm; lightly touching his cold skin. It wasn't that he was cold, but Charlie was warm; the infection was causing a fever, because her body is trying to raise the temperature to kill the bacteria. Although she didn't know it, she was becoming pretty sick; her arm was in need of medical treatment, but she could only do so much. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, rubbing her aching arm with a cool hand; unlike Darren, it caused a relief to it. She sighed in content as she nearly fell asleep in his arms; her mind wandered to everything but it always came between Andrew and Oliver. He placed a small kiss onto her temple as he helped her up; two men forcing their way from her mind, into her heart.