Day Zero

Day 12

Strader paced back and forth in the hospital room waiting for the nurse to come out. He had already called Jimmy’s wife, Rhonda who was on her way. She had said that she would call Jimmy’s parents while she was in route. He waited for the nurse to come out and say that he was allowed in, but there was no such luck. Sitting down in the uncomfortable hospital chair, he grabbed a random magazine off the scratched up wooden table before him. Flipping aimlessly, it took Strader about twenty pages before he realized that he was looking at a fashion magazine. Slightly embarrassed, he placed the magazine on the table before he restlessly stood up and wandered to a coffee maker where he proceeded to make himself his third cup of burned coffee in the past hour.

If I still smoked, I would have gone through a whole pack by now Strader thought to himself as he took a sip of the black coffee.

“Strader, what happened?” Rhonda asked as she ran through the front door. She was frantic, her eyes wide. She was dressed in workout clothes, obviously having just returned from the gym. Jimmy said that she did some type of tabata class or something along those lines.

Strader caught her shoulders and held her at arm’s length. “He is going to be okay. He went into mild shock when it happened, but the doctors are stitching him up and cleaning the wounds that he sustained.

“You said that someone attacked him?” she asked.

“This guy was very sick and he suddenly got violent. He attacked Jimmy with all that he had including biting and scratching” Strader explained, although he did decide to leave out the part about him eating his wife. Rhonda was not good with details like that, she could barely watch a horror movie, let alone deal with something along those lines.

“But he is alright?” Rhonda asked again.

“Yes”

“Can I go see him?” she asked.

“As soon as the nurse says it’s alright. Which will hopefully be any minute now”

Rhonda nodded before taking a seat, Strader followed suit watching Rhonda out of the corner of his eye. The fiery redhead was oddly quiet, lost in her thoughts about her husband. She was pale and her eyes wide and watering.

He put a reassuring arm around her shoulders.

She leaned into him gratefully.

“Everything will be fine” he whispered.