Wrapping the thick white bandage around my knee, I send up a prayer to whatever is out there that no infection sets in. Finn had helped me to clean it out with some hydrogen peroxide he had found in his first aid kit, but the nurse in me makes me wary of what can happen without proper medical care.

Shaking my head, I hobble over to where Finn is standing in front of a window, watching as the last of the sun's rays start to set. The view from his house is amazing. With it sitting on a hillside, the large windows on this side of the house allow for us to see almost the entirety of the downtown.

Some of the buildings, mostly the larger ones, seem to have smoke coming from them. From this far away, it is impossible to tell if they are still on fire or not, and the darkness conceals the color of the smoke. Everything else looks almost peaceful, but I bet if we were down there right now, we would be fighting for our lives. Those creatures from before seemed to stay in the shadows and moved freely within them. All there is now that the sun is almost completely set, is darkness. The people from before that I had seen while we were driving flash through my mind, and I try to shake those thoughts away.

Finn looks over at me briefly once I stop beside him. His arms are crossed over his chest, and his mouth is turned down into a severe frown. It's a weird look to see on him since he has almost always been smiling since I met him earlier today.

"Those poor people down there," I say, my eyes fixed on the city below.

Finn shifts, his arm brushing against mine as he shrugs his shoulders. "There is nothing we could do."

His indifferent words don't match the upset look on his face from earlier, so I don't take them to heart. He can try to act as detached as he wants, but it is impossible to miss the sadness emanating off of him.

Something pulls on my pant leg, and looking down, I am met with the sight of the chocolate lab puppy that Finn had been holding earlier. The puppy looks to be about twelve weeks old, and his long legs make him very clumsy as he trips over himself in his excitement.

The puppy pulls on my pants again, seeming to take pleasure in the makeshift tug of war.

"Hey now," I mumble, trying to use a stern voice, but it is hard to keep a straight face when the puppy is staring up at me with big brown eyes. "If you pull any harder, you're going to end up pantsing me."

"Well, it's not like anyone in the room hasn't seen what's hiding under those pants anyway." Finn looks over at me, a sly smile on his face.

My eyes narrow mockingly at him. "I don't want to blind the puppy with the brightness of my briefs. He would never forgive me once he recovered from seeing the atrocity that they are."

Finn barks out a laugh, which ends up surprising the puppy into letting out its own bark. This just throws us both into laughter, and the puppy seems to take great delight if its wagging tail is any indication.

The throbbing in my knee begins to become too much, though, just from the few minutes of standing. Finn must see the pain on my face because he grabs onto my arm to help lead me over to the couch.

"You should probably get some rest. That wound needs to heal." He sets me down on the couch, before bending down to pick up the squirming puppy and placing it on my lap. "You wait here and watch him while I get the guest bed set up."

"Finn, I can just sleep here, that's not-" He waves his hand, cutting off the rest of my words before walking out of the living room. The puppy clambers around in my lap, walking in a circle until it deems my lap comfortable enough and plops right down. Reaching out a hand, I scratch behind his ears, which he seems to enjoy. "Well, looks like it is just you and me until your owner comes back.

A wave of exhaustion comes over me. Today has been exceedingly long. The thought that those monsters managed to finally succeed in reaching the West Coast shouldn't be that surprising, but I am still greatly disturbed by the fact that none of the government's efforts were successful in stopping them.

We were all blissfully ignorant, believing that we would be able to escape what was destined to happen. I guess Finn's parents were correct in what they said about the United States thinking they could stop this disease in its tracks. It isn't going to be that easy, as everyone has just learned today.

Finn walks back into the room, his footsteps so light that I don't even realize he is back until he is hovering over me.

A spike of fear runs through me at the sight of him not being there one minute and then in plain view the next. My heart feels like it is about to beat out of its chest, and the puppy lets out a groan of disapproval when I jump in my seat.

"Jesus, a little warning would be nice. What are you, a hobbit?" I question, rubbing my hand over my racing heart in an effort to calm it.

A smile spreads across Finn's face and he raises a questioning brow at me. "A hobbit?"

"Yeah, you know, the small people like creatures with hairy feet and who like to eat all the time?" Finn helps me up from the couch, scooping the puppy up under his arm and wrapping his other around my waist. He doesn't answer my question though, which is a little worrying. "You have read the book, haven't you?" Finn's smile grows a little wider as he shakes his head. "Tell me you have at least seen the movies."

"I think everyone has seen the hobbit movies," he says, leading me out of the living room and over to a flight of stairs.

"It should be a crime to not know about Middle Earth," I mumble, trying to concentrate on not killing myself while climbing the stairs. Finn lets out a chuckle but lets the conversation drop after that.

Once we reach the top, Finn leads me over to the door at the very end of the hallway, setting the puppy down so that he can open the door. There are a few candles lit throughout the space, creating just enough light so that neither of us runs into anything. There are a few windows, but all of the curtains are drawn, making it impossible to see outside of them. To the right is a full sized bed with a plush comforter and numerous pillows.

Finn helps me over to the bed, and I let out an appreciative sigh once I am sitting down again. The mattress is surprisingly soft, much more comfortable than the cheap one that my older sister handed down to me after she graduated from college.

Opening my eyes, I look over at the unusually quiet Finn. His lips are pursed and his brows are drawn together in worry.

"What? What is it?" I ask, looking around the room as if there is something in here that is causing him to look like that.

He reaches a hand up and presses it against my forehead, stilling me from my search to see what is wrong. After a solid twenty seconds, his hand drops away from me and he lets out a worried sigh. "I was worried about this as soon as I saw you pulling out those shards of glass."

"Oh no," I breathe out, already knowing what he is going to say next. A feeling of dread falls over me, and I can feel my exhaustion from before increase tenfold.

"You were looking a little flushed downstairs, and I thought maybe it was just the lighting. But when we got up here, you seemed as if you could barely catch your breath, and that combined with a fever..."

Reaching up a trembling hand, I brush my hair out of my face. It is only when my hand brushes my forehead that I realize how much I am sweating. "Sepsis." I let out a bit of a hysterical laugh, allowing myself to fall back completely against the mattress. "Of course the one time I would get a blood infection would be when we are in a freaking apocalypse."

Finn places his hand on my leg, squeezing it in order to get my attention. "We don't know if it is that bad yet."

I give him my most disbelieving look. Both of us were on the medical track in school, so we both know what the symptoms I am displaying combined with the wound I received mean.

Finn just shakes his head. "It could just be a wound infection instead of a blood infection. Let's just wait a couple hours and let you get some rest. I will come and check on you in two hours. If you haven't gotten any worse, then we know it isn't sepsis, but if your fever is higher than it is now," he pauses for a second, looking away from me and scrubbing a hand over his face before turning back to give me an attempt of a reassuring smile, "we will have to figure something out."

I want to protest, but Finn's plan is a solid one. There is nothing else we can do for now, because of the inability to truly know if I have a blood infection without running any blood work. It is just a waiting game now, which isn't reassuring in the slightest.

Nodding my head, I strip out of everything but my briefs, not having enough energy to be worried about Finn seeing me in the bright pick atrocities. Once I am covered by the comforter, Finn stands up. Bending down, he picks up the puppy off the floor and sets him down on the bed.

"He likes to cuddle, and he seems to have taken a liking to you." He gives the puppy a scratch behind his ears and walks over to the open door. He looks at me once more, giving me a quiet, "Get some rest," before closing the door softly behind him as he leaves.

I look over at the puppy, who is now walking up to my face. It is then that it occurs to me that I do not even know the adorable creature's name. Worming my arm from underneath the covers, I reach out to pull the puppy closer.

It lets out a small whine when I mess with his collar, turning it around so that I can see what is carved into the metal.

Harry Pawter Foster

Wow, Finn named his dog based off of a wizard from one of the biggest children series in the world. With a roll of my eyes, I drop the tag, lifting up the top of the blankets so that Harry can climb under. He does his little circle dance for a minute or two before plopping down beside my chest, letting out a content snuffle once I pull the covers back up.

"Well, Harry, here's to two hours of sleep," I mumble, lifting up his paw in order to force him into giving me a high five. He sends me an unimpressed look the entire time, but I just shrug my shoulders at him. "Got to keep myself entertained somehow." And with that, I snuggle back into my pillow, allowing the weight of the blankets and the comfortable heat coming off of Harry to draw me into the land of blissful sleep.