Chapter 57 New addition to the family

They met in the morning and the nurse emotionlessly gave them a room number. They wandered through the floors and found the room. They went in quietly. It looked like a normal hospital room. They saw Sarge sitting up in bed. He was wearing hospital clothes. There was a plaster stuck to his nose and several on his temple. He was lying on his tray. He looked up as they entered.

"You're the first."

Lina ran up to him first and held out a card.

"Everyone has signed it." 

Luke and the others approached. 

Sarge smiled. "Thanks."

He reached for the card. Luke looked around, irritated, because he could have sworn he heard snoring. Sarge pulled the blanket down a little, now Luke could see Liz sleeping soundly snuggled against him, the snoring coming from her. The cat collar had given way to a gold chain. Sarge put his free hand on her head.

"She didn't want to be alone in a room. Doc gave her a sedative." Sarge looked at the card.

"She took off and came in here anyway. I found her like this when I woke up. "

"But what did the doctors say?"

" Nothing, I told them everything was fine. " 

He put the card on the side table next to the bed.

" Thank you for the card." Leonore took a closer look at Liz. 

"Why did she have red eyes?"

He stroked a curl from Liz's face.

" She was beaten hard by her sister. The veins have burst. "

"Where are the two guys?"

" They're on the run from their two sisters. They made the mistake of going on a bender together and grabbed two rabbits and then acted like idiots and not once. They only found out late on that they were Liz's sisters."

"Oh my!" came from Eddi.

"But why do they avoid them, do they get beaten up by them?"

Sarge laughed, Liz grumbled and hugged him tighter.

.

"No, they're both bachelors with a passion, they beat up ... no. " He looked at Liz. 

"Their sisters are weaker. " Then he looked at the four of them. 

" We were the test victims for the Generfresh after Alex. The data then became the Generfresh for the masses. There were 12 test victims, only the three of us had no complications. So Earl, the geneticist, had to make improvements. That it worked for us too."

"Earl?" asked Leonore. 

"You'll find out who Earl is. Well, Luke already knows him."

Luke nodded.

"What if Liz catches the sisters?"

Sarge tapped Liz on the nose with his finger, she groaned and opened her eyes. They were still bloody, but it was getting fainter. 

"If you're going to listen, tell them."

" Those two haven't dragged a guy into the box in over two months and if they're the ones from because those two are pissing me off. They'll grab them and eat them up and never let go," she snuggled up to Sarge, closed her eyes and the snoring promptly resumed. 

They looked at Liz in irritation. 

"Sarge, why are they so relaxed?" 

" Medication, kids. They pumped me full of it. They weren't sure my system could take all the bites and scratches from the infected. And then the radiation from the suit. "

They looked at him.

"Actually, you wear a suit and a helmet like in an airplane. Then it doesn't matter how long you're in it. "

He considered. 

"I'll let the class ride around in discarded planes sometime. "

A doctor and a nurse came in. The doctor stared at Liz. 

"She's been instructed to stay in bed, hasn't she?"

He came closer.

" Sarge you can't get better like that, she's been pressing on the wound."

"She's lying next to herself. Can't you put another bed here?" 

" It's not that easy, we'd need special permission. This damn plague has tightened the rules for people who have had contact with infected people, and you've been bathing in them. " 

"Well, I didn't bathe in them..."

The doctor looked at his tablet and cleared his throat. 

"In front of the shower, where Jannet dragged you, thankfully. You were 120 percent contaminated on the surface. The technicians who got you out and Jannet had to take a shower too."

"Hence the wet hair..." commented Luke.

 "That you're still whole inside, I'd say. Should we thank the little bugger. "

" You didn't call him, did you?"

" We had to Sarge. 21 bite wounds, 47 scratch wounds, 7 gunshot wounds, 9 cuts and then the radiation."

" 7? I was sure I was only hit 3 times..."

" We didn't know what to give you, so we had to call. He then gave us a treatment plan."

Sarge scratched the back of his head.

"And then there's this," he pointed at Liz.

"What about her?" 

"She's fine, she's fit as a fiddle, apart from the lack of sleep and the nerves. It's about you, Sergeant. When they brought you in, I thought you'd been hit by a car. But no."

He looked at Liz. 

"Madame must be in a rage ..."

Liz looked at him.

"I apologized," she said quietly.

He grabbed his face.

"Sarge, you know the head doctor is a stickler. If you want her in your room, you need permission from someone higher up than him, and he's higher up than you." 

Sergeant sighed.

"Military higher or medical higher?"

" Medically higher. " 

Sarge held out his hand to Luke. 

" Your cell phone, I'm still getting mine, my old one was used as a bomb."

Luke hesitantly gave him his cell phone.

" What did you do with your cell phone?" 

Sarge took it and dialed Babsi's number, which appeared as a speed dial.

" It blew up in some idiot's face when he picked it up. " Luke could hear Babsi.

"Luke, I thought you wanted to do something with your friends. Why don't you bring them later?"

 Luckily, Luke only heard the others standing next to Liz, admiring the tattoos she had liberally done.

"Hi Babs."

"Why do you have Luke's cell phone?"

"Mine's broken, he gave it to me to call. Do you know anyone who can arrange for Liz to move her bed into my room?"

"I thought I told them she couldn't be alone."

"I guess it didn't come across, well and since Liz sneaks up on me all the time anyway... never mind. So the doc told me the head doctor needs a consent form."

"And a medical justification," Doc said quietly. 

"And a justification." 

"Tell them I'll sort it out later when we get to your place and don't let them out of your sight." She hung up. Sarge handed the phone back to Luke.

Doc looked at him. 

"She'll talk to the chief resident later, you'll see how he scrambles."

" How high up did you call him? "

" High? I called his aunt," he pointed at Liz, who was clutching her stomach.

"I'm hungry ..." 

" Don't eat until after rounds " he looked at the four of them. 

"You four go down to the cafeteria and get something, they've already slept through breakfast anyway."

" Oki..." they left the room and trudged to the cafeteria. 

 "When do you think Sarge will be out?" began Eddi. 

"I hope soon. Babsi's lessons are boring..." came from Leonore.

"We should ask Sarge when he gets back what he's been up to," said Luke.

"You mean like with the refugees?"

He nodded.

"I mean, who uses their cell phone to make people's faces explode?"

"My mom said this morning that Sarge's name will never be mentioned. He's just called the nameless soldier from the north block. "

"My mom said she's gotten countless requests from the refugees about how they can thank him," Luke said. 

They looked at him. 

"Well, talking to everyone, that's her job. "

"Speaking of jobs, have you thought about what you want to do when the class is over?"

Kams from Lina.

"I want to open a flower store or do landscaping," said Leonore. 

"I want to go into the movie business," came from Eddi, who grinned. 

"I'll help my mom in the clothes store. Luxury clothes," giggled Lina. 

"I don't know what I want to do yet. " They looked at him.

"Not a graphic designer?"

" I don't know yet. " He stopped at the window and looked out. 

" Look ..."

Luke looked out onto the lawn, where there were benches for the patients to sit on. He saw the two from yesterday running.

"Aren't those the two from yesterday?" came from Eddi.

"They're in a hurry..." Lina began.

"And they're finished..." she finished. 

Luke nodded, he saw Mei and April throw the two to the ground and cling to them tightly. They kept walking when they realized that nothing was happening. They were out of breath and lay on the grass breathing heavily, each holding onto one.

 They arrived at the cafeteria, which was sparsely populated, and had to think about what to get.

 They simply decided to take the menu of the day twice, lots of snacks and sweets and two six-packs of beer, luckily as they had all reached the age of 18, the cashier didn't queue up. They packed everything into bags and dragged them back. 

In the aisle in front of the stairs, Luke's mother came towards them with a box. She saw the four of them and smiled. 

"Hi Mum..." he didn't know whether to be happy or surprised to see so many relatives. 

"Hi kids, where are you going?"

"We should get some food for the two in the room." 

" Uhh the box is heavy, that's good, I have to go too."

"Do you need help?" asked Eddi. 

" No, I can manage. "

Luke didn't say anything, even when Lina and Leonore gave him a punishing look.

"What, my mom is stronger than she looks, she takes full advantage of her looks."

Sue laughed and walked up the stairs. 

"It's true..." he followed her. 

"Compared to my sisters, I'm the weakest."

"Mom, I think we're about to have a new addition to the family..." 

She laughed and smiled at the four of them.

"I know, I slipped Mei and April where they are right now. "

"So evil...," Luke muttered. 

" Luke's mom, uh... Do you know these two?"

" One of them, he worked in the same department as me for a while. Ethean. He's a military doctor, he was." She thought about it. "Yes. Before it started, he was a doctor in the Marines. Was in the Middle East on a hospital ship when it started and Danny he was in the Marines too. Was a mercenary when it started, as he'd heard from Ethaen, Danny was in Scotland guarding some movie star when it started. "

"Yes. Liz said they often went on pub crawls..." Lina interjected.

"Yep, pubs, nightclubs, strip clubs, always on the hunt for bunnies. George was often there too, but not so often because he had to work more. Ethean was more quiet and worked his way up the ranks and Danny too, he used to hang around the exo department. I think they're both majors now."

She continued up the stairs. 

"And how do they know all this?" Well, Ethaen texted Danny a lot, with pictures and photos and stuff, and when I was out with my sisters, I saw the three of them. " She smiled. 

Luke said nothing, he knew his mother's sides. The caring one in his childhood and the party monster as he got older. Not to mention since he was here and she dragged a guy around with her every now and then or lately his father. 

He thanked the headphone industry for the soundproofing. 

They reached her room and Eddi opened the door for her, as soon as she was inside Liz looked at Sue crying. She ran to her and hugged Sue. Luke had to take the box off.

"They say I have to wear glasses!"Sue looked at Liz in confusion, then at Sarge .

"Actually, they said they could examine Liz now and not avoid the tests. That she has poor eyesight and glasses would be better for reading."

Luke lugged the box over to Sarge, set it on the bed and then the bags.

"Uh Liz...you wore glasses in high school..." Sue replied dryly." It made me look like a nerd..." 

 Sue sighed. 

"I'll go buy one with you. Okay?"

Liz nodded.

"What's that box?" asked Sarge.

" Well, the council gave in and accepted letters from fugitives, to you."

"To me?" he looked at her doubtfully. 

" Sue, they never really saw me, I lured the last ones into a bunker and locked them up. Okay, there was food and drink." 

"Right, but you also forgot the ones you chased into the tunnel when it started. "George considered. 

"Right, I rushed them in." "He doesn't even deny it," Leonore said quietly.

Sarge opened the box and fished out a letter, opened it. 

" I see... I hate you motherfucker," he reached for the next one. " I hope you're dead. Fine." 

He quickly skimmed through the letters. 90 percent were hate messages. The remaining 10 percent were 9.9 percent neutral.

He pulled out the last letter, opened it and looked at the picture of a fire-breathing monster. Underneath it was a thank you in scrawly children's handwriting. He turned the note over, on which the text was written in neat handwriting. 

"Dear Lieutenant Colonel, I don't know whether to thank you or shout. Your justice towards the bandits is questionable."

He trailed off.

. "Justice... they wrote their deeds on the slips of paper themselves.... . " He searched for the last point. 

"But that's why we survived.We don't know how they managed to distract the infected so we could get into the bomb shelter or get supplies. My husband is addicted to medication, which is why he was able to survive. I couldn't talk my daughter out of drawing a picture. Gez." He looked at the signature.

He looked at Sue. "I can't decipher it. She looked at it. 

"This is Calara Steel George."

" Uh-huh . " He looked at the drawing.

"She and her husband still own the biggest entertainment conglomerate, all the major networks and a few gambling companies. She's the big sister of Tennington the Entertainer? "

" Uh-huh ... tell the Council thanks for the thank-you letters. "Liz rummaged in the box and looked at the letters." I can have them filtered... because there are more coming.... "

"No, leave them unfiltered. But how did she know my rank?"

" She looked at the records when it started and saw it on your uniform."

" Clever woman." 

" Uhh there's another letter" Liz pulled out a jammed bundle that was all crumpled up.

He reached for it.

"What the hell is the religious education, maintenance and care department?" 

Liz had gone to the bags and fished out a beer and lunch menus.

"They put all the religions in one department. "He looked at Liz, then at Sue. "Dear Lt. Col. Sarge." 

He looked at Sue.

.

"One of them is on the council and they knew it.""Hhmm. That's right, I logged into the system there before I left ... hhmm ..."

He looked to the side." We thank you on behalf of everyone who saved them. "

He thought about it, flipping the pages, each page front and back was filled with different handwriting thanking them.

He placed the bundle on top of the drawing and set the box on the floor.

"As I was saying, give my thanks to the Council."

Liz burped, tossed two empty lunches and three cans of food into the box and snuggled up to Sarge.

He pointed to an IV. 

"I'll have to tide this over until my stomach's all right again. Thanks for the visit, I'm tired. "

" I'll come back later with more boxes, come on kids."

Sue shooed everyone out, Luke could still see Sarge pick up the picture and the bundle and look at the box, then he put it back and put his hand on Liz's head. "How did you get here?"

"We walked."

" I'll drive you back, I finally got my company car back."

" Cool."

Sue's company car was a small car, Eddi, Lina and Leonore had to squeeze into the back while Luke had to go in the front.

The drive was nerve-wracking as she accelerated and shot through the bends. The three in the back got off with wobbly legs and said thank you. Sue stepped on the accelerator and bounced along at full throttle again.

"Mom, why did Sarge care so little about the letters?"

"He's not used to it, half his childhood that is, until his father married Jannet's mother. He grew up in a biker gang pub. So his father had a pub and was in a gang. His mother died giving birth to him. He then grew up with different partners. Some better and some worse than the others. 

That made him jaded, so when he grew up with Jannet, he went to the same school as her. I think one or two levels higher than her. Jannet once told me that her mother was in charge at home and when he had a midlife crisis and started whoring around, she kicked him out after he signed the divorce papers. 

Well, Jannet was big as a teenager - really fat, you can't imagine today. She was always bullied at school because of it. She told me that it stopped when George started school. He was a pretty boy back then, I think that's why he joined the army. "

She stopped at a stoplight, squealing. 

"Jannet's mom told him he's family now and that they look out for each other. He beat the mobbers bloody when he saw them. He pointed at everyone and said that he would beat anyone mercilessly who hurt his sister. He was suspended for 3 weeks. When he came back, no one dared, actually the very next day.

 The first boyfriend Jannet had was at 16, she was said to have had a real crush on him. She invited him over to her house to study and they made out, she didn't want to stop and more, at 16 she was more like she is now. 

George came out of the room, grabbed him by the hair and beat him, threw him out, took Jannet's mother's gun, which she used to hunt deer with, and shot him between the legs so that he pissed his pants, promising him that the next shot would pulverize his balls if he came back. 

He was already done with school by then and working in a nightclub.She told me he had a long talk with Jannet's mom.The upshot was Jannet had to start boxing and he was sicced on her, the joint was small and rumors spread fast.

He joined the Marines but continued to visit Jannet until she fledged and joined the forces herself. I looked at his old service record, Makelos. Except for the bar fights. He even passed all the psychological tests he had to take, they just noted that he was a bit jaded from a bad childhood and assigned him to frontline missions."

She sped up again. 

"Sarge said Dad didn't say anything to protect Liz, right?"

"Yes. The password for the video message was Liz, too."

"I've come up with my own theory, that somewhere in his heart he loved Liz when she was 17. At 17, she was a klutz when it came to behaving, even when it came to boys, and they were scared of her. That's why no one wanted to dance with her, Mei told me at the time. The teacher just crawled up Gitte's ass."

"When Sarge showed us the pictures on the projector back then, he said that Gitte came on to him and then the teacher sent him to dance."

"Yes, she wanted Liz to have a positive experience. Which she did, she said she had a hottie for a partner." She laughed.

"Jannet didn't find out George was alive until we were adults. By that time Liz was gone, she couldn't get over the death of our grandparents and my mom found out too late. By that time George had been in the Death Squad for a long time and when she introduced him to Alex, it was just what you already know about them. When it came to Liz, he'd send George if he couldn't go in person. 

 Liz once told me when she was drunk that she saw a ghost in Africa and avoided a destination and took an alternate route. She then told me that the target area was in an infected zone and she was supposed to take out a warlord convoy that always passed through there. She had to search and found the convoy torn to shreds by infected. She grabbed the proof of death and fled."

She looked at Luke. 

"Ethean, told me that the shittiest mission they had in Africa was to destroy a convoy and cover up that it looked like they were infected. They had to kill infected people, disembowel them and then distribute them to the wrecks. 

Afterwards they got drunk and picked up women. He told me that George got so drunk that he got into a fight with a mutant gorilla and then picked up the first chick he could and that was Liz. 

He confirmed it to me, he had looked at my cell phone when he walked into my department fresh and said she looked like one his buddy had laid in Africa. I didn't want to believe it, but he showed me an old photo where they were both in it, and to Liz's credit, she was skinny too, and according to her, she was just looking for something to fuck back then."

Luke scratched his head. 

"But they're not acting like a couple, I mean Eddi and Leonore are holding hands and Lina and Ted are holding hands and making out."

"They're a couple, they say it's an open relationship. But I know Liz. The way she's hung up on him and you've seen how broken she is. And he, well. How does he treat her?" "Well, when I first met them, I had the feeling that Liz had been hitting on him a lot and everyone knew there was something between them. But it wasn't until he was teaching our class that she showed up a lot and seemed more affectionate than usual."

"Hhmm, she noticed he was around more often, normally George is rarely there, always out and about."

She stopped in front of the house. 

"I have to get back to the office, I'll see you later. I hope Liz is finally at peace." Luke wondered what she meant by that.

"Mom, why did Liz flinch like that when Uther spoke to her in the square?"

She looked at him.

"He was there?"

Luke nodded and Sue stroked his hair.

"You know him, he's always been there when Liz has had problems. But Liz is too proud to ask him for help."

Luke got out of the car. 

"Oh yeah, if you do your research, you'll recognize Uther's people by the omega sign with the lightning bolts."

Then she darted off.