Chapter 9

~Grant~

       Ollie has been asleep for a while and I was really worried about him. Courtney wasn't able to do much to help his wound so he was still feeling very weak. He fell asleep as soon as I climbed onto the hospital bed with him.

       "You know who we need here because you're all useless?" Noah asked. "Josh."

       "Okay, ouch," Dan said. "I got some food and drinks from the vending machine."

       "And Grant and I brought food here that we got from the grocery store," Calvin said. 

       "I don't care," Noah said. "We still need Josh."

       "Who's Josh?" I asked.

       "My older brother," Noah said. "Cleo's husband too. He's a doctor and that's definitely someone we need right now during whatever this thing is. I want to say it's a zombie apocalypse but someone," he glared at Dan, "keeps telling me those aren't zombies."

       And speaking of those creatures...

       Something banged on the door repeatedly, and was followed by some growling. The same exact growling sounds those creatures made. We haven't had any run-ins since we got to the hospital but now that there was some outside of the room, I could feel the anger boiling inside of me.

       One of them majorly hurt my boyfriend and while the one that hurt him was already dead, the rest that were alive were going to pay.

       "Will they leave if we just stay quiet?" Courtney asked in a whisper but nobody had a single reply.

       So I got off the hospital bed before picking up the crowbar. "Someone move that bed," I said. "I'm getting rid of those sons of bitches."

       Dan sighed. "Grant..."

       "No, let him," Calvin said. "When it was just me and Grant, he killed three of them with just a stick. Now he has a crowbar and anger." Calvin moved the hospital bed that was blocking the door out of the way. "Be free, Grant. Slay those creatures."

       There was only one by the door and I hit it with the crowbar as soon as Calvin opened the door for me. I then stepped over it so I could be outside of the room.

       "Where are you going?" Dan asked.

       "In search for some more of those creatures," I said. "One wasn't enough to relieve me of my anger."

       They all knew no matter what they said, I wasn't going to go back into the hospital room so Shaw sighed. "I'll go with him. Just keep the door blocked off until we come back."

       I didn't even wait for Shaw to step outside of the room before I started walking down the hallway. Shaw caught up to me and said, "I get that you're mad about what's happening to Ollie, but it's best to stay in the room."

       "No, it's best to kill as many of those creatures as I can," I said.

       Shaw grabbed my arm to stop me from walking. "I'm pissed too, Grant. Believe me. I saw it happen. I actually saw what the creature did and I get extremely protective over him. He's like my little brother and the fact that he's very injured right now kills me. But going out to hunt those creatures isn't going to change things. It will only make things worse if you get injured."

       I stared at Shaw for a bit before continuing my walk down the hallway. I knew had a point but at the same time, I wanted these creatures gone before they hurt anyone else.

       Shaw followed me and didn't bother trying to convince me not to look for the creatures. I was a stubborn person and he knew that. I wasn't going to listen to anyone trying to talk me out of this.

       When we reached a turn in the hallway, I peered over it and saw two of the creatures walking through the hallway. So I sneaked up on them and killed them both.

       And the anger took over and I wouldn't stop hitting one over and over again.

       "Grant!" Shaw said, rushing over and grabbing a hold of me to stop. "Grant! Would you calm down?! It's already dead!"

       I scowled when Shaw released me and I was tempted to just keep hitting the creature but I didn't. However, not because I had enough willpower to stop. I definitely didn't. It was because a door to one of the doors we were nearby opened and Horatio looked outside. "Grant?" he asked. "You're here?"

       "No," I said sarcastically since I got sarcastic when I was moody. "I'm not here. I'm at school right now."

       "Oh, it was a rhetorical question," Horatio said.

       "Are you here alone?" Shaw asked.

       "Nope, I'm with quite a few people," Horatio said before looking back into the room.

       Moments later, Holden walked out and as soon as he saw Shaw, he rushed over and gave his husband a tight hug. "I'm so glad to see you," Holden said.

       "I'm glad too," Shaw said. "Are you okay?"

       Holden nodded. "Mostly, yeah."

       Everyone else Horatio was with stepped outside but to be honest, I didn't recognize most of them. The only ones I did recognize was Destiny, Kenny, Ariella, and Julian. 

       So some people back at the other room were going to be quite happy.

       "We were searching for other people for a long time," Horatio said. "Then we came here to get some first aid stuff just in case someone got hurt, but we noticed there were a lot of creatures here and we wanted to rest before fighting them off."

       "By the way, Grant, this is Priya, Declan, Josh, and Gerard," Destiny said. "Guys, this is my cousin, Grant."

       Out of the four names she said, one stuck out to me the most.

       And it finally stuck out to Shaw seeing as he should have realized it a while ago. "Josh! You're here!"

       Josh knew exactly what Shaw's excitement meant. "Someone's injured?"

       "Yeah, Ollie is," Shaw said. "I think I've told you about him before. He's basically my little brother. He's back where Grant and I were before Grant suddenly decided to go on a killing spree because he's mad."

       "Is anyone else there?" Josh asked.

       "Actually, yes," Shaw said. "And I'm sure a lot of you will be happy to see them."

       Shaw and I led the others to the hospital room with us only running into one creature that I was quick to kill and wanted to hit repeatedly, but Shaw stopped me and even took the crowbar from me.

       When we got to the room, Shaw knocked on the door. "Guys, we've got a whole bunch of people with us."

       "Can you define a bunch of people?" Dan asked.

       "Just open the door," Shaw said. "Your wife is one, and so is Josh and he really needs to take a look at Ollie."

       Dan didn't hesitate to open the door once he heard that Destiny was one of the people here. He let us all into the hospital room, which was thankfully a big one, before all the reunions began; Destiny with Dan, Kenny with Calvin, Josh with Cleo, and Declan with Courtney.

       And Noah saying, "Julian! My twin brother! I'm single so I need someone to reunite with!"

       "Did you get hurt?" Julian asked. "Because I got hurt and normally when I do, it's because you go."

       "He ran towards those creatures when he first saw them," Dan said.

       "Are you that much of an idiot, Noah?" Josh asked.

       "Yes," Noah said.

       I went over to Ollie who was now awake but still looking as weak as ever. I got back onto the hospital bed beside him. "Hey," I said softly. "How are you feeling?"

       "My leg really hurts," Ollie said. "I can barely move it."

       "It's okay," I said. "We actually have a doctor here now to check it out. You'll be okay."

       Josh collected all the medical equipment he could in the room before he started taking a look at Ollie's wound and thankfully, he was okay with me staying on the hospital bed with Ollie.

       "Did any of you see anybody else in Spruceworth?" Dan asked the new group that came in. "Courtney, Noah, Cleo, and I were in here the whole time, Shaw and Ollie were at the city hall before coming here, and Grant and Calvin were stealing food from the grocery store before they found Shaw and Ollie. They didn't do much exploring."

       "Shh," Calvin said. "There's a cop here now."

       "Uh, yeah, I don't care if you guys steal food," Horatio said. "Because to answer Dan's question, I don't think there's anyone else. This was the last place we came after searching around Spruceworth."

       "So why are we the only ones here?" Shaw asked.

       "Uh, it's obvious," Calvin said. "If there was a book series about the lives in Spruceworth, we'd be the main characters. Well, some of us would be the supporting characters. I'd obviously get the first book."

       "Whoa, hold on," Dan said. "I think out of all of us, I'd get the first book. Nothing important happened to you when my life started changing."

       "Fine," Calvin said. "Do I at least get the second book?"

       "No, you might get the third," Dan said. "I think Horatio would get the second since he did all the investigating for the serial killer."

       "Yeah, the killer who was my brother," Calvin said.

       "Are you guys really arguing about who would get a book?" Destiny asked. "There's more important things to worry about. Like why we're the only ones in Spruceworth. How we got to this ghost town state. How we're going to get back. Where our kids are."

       "Fair point," Calvin said. "So... What exactly do we do now?"

______________

ugh i love shaw and ollie's brotherly friendship. shaw really does get protective over ollie so you should expect shaw to make fred's life a living hell in airplanes.

lol jk jk

possibly

but yay all the couples are reunited. 

okay so i have a question? if you were in spruceworth and this happened, who would you want to end up with? i'd want to be with shaw, grant, holden (because i can't separate sholden), ollie (because i love him and i can't separate grollie), and josh. and i guess cleo so she could be with her husband. but if i had to choose one, it might have to be shaw.