I jerked my head to the side a bit as I jolted out of my light doze at the sound of approaching footsteps. I bit back an instinctive light growl when I saw that it was only Nina. Nina paused, "Sorry, I didn't think you would be sleeping."

I shook my head and closed my eyes before pushing my hand under the edge of my sunglasses to rub my eyes tiredly, "Don't worry about it. There was no way to tell."

I pushed my sunglasses back against my face and reopened my eyes. About half of the others had headed to bed and the other half were watching us. Nina resumed her walk forward while Daniel kept watch from a nearby chair. "Let's go into one of the back rooms. I want to check those injuries and change the bandages."

I didn't feel like moving, but I doubted she was going to give up and I was too tired to argue. I had been awake all afternoon and most of the evening, my healing body wanted sleep. I knew that I would have peace the rest of the night if I humored her. With that thought, I stood up with a sigh. I hadn't left this chair since I had sat in it earlier and my leg once more protested being forced to work.

Daniel frowned, but remained where he was as I followed Nina out of the room. She went into a different room with several windows that let in a fair bit of light. She gestured to a stool, "Sit down and take off your shirt carefully."

I had no idea how Daniel managed to be around her with the amount of orders she gave out. I exhaled slowly in annoyance as I did what she said. The bandages were pretty blood stained from what I could see. The bandages were above my bra, so at least I didn't have to take it off. I could pretend I was wearing a bikini top. That made this situation slightly more tolerable. I still didn't like it though.

Nina put on long plastic gloves to protect herself from my blood and started unraveling the bandages. I sat still and watched her, "I assume you were the one who patched me up?"

She nodded without removing her eyes from her work, "Yes, I pulled the bullets out too. Getting the one out from behind your heart was a gruesome task. I never want to see another human heart again. The creepiest part was that it had already stopped beating, but would occasionally quiver. I have no idea how your body managed to heal your heart that much in two days to allow it to actually beat."

She glanced up at my face, "The bullet from the handgun barely entered your head. I was able to pull it out with a pair of eyebrow tweezers. We weren't expecting you to wake for several more days."

I was glad that I was only out for two days; I suspected that if I had been out for longer that the bloodlust would have been even worse. Daniel had likely never had a serious wound or the swift healing that occurred to major organs during the first week would not have surprised her so.

Nina unwrapped the last of the bandage and I got my first look at the damage. The one under my collarbone was just a thumb-sized scab over red irritated skin. The one above my lung was larger and looked pretty bad. It also ached with each breath I took so I knew that the wound was barely staying closed. The one above my heart was the size of a walnut and had a finger long cut mark where Nina had opened it up more to get the bullet out.

Nina hummed, "The scabs are holding together, which is a good thing. Not much I can do at this point, other than to put some salve on and re-bandage it. It will keep the scab soft so it doesn't pull or tear. Try not to move too much for several days."

She dabbed some salve on the scabs. She paused and gently ran her finger over an old pale scar the size of my pinky nail on my shoulder. I growled very faintly, that injury was old news. I heard a growl from Daniel in the other room, although the faint warning was low enough that the humans likely hadn't heard it. Nina looked disappointed when I didn't comment on the scar's origin, but started to bandage up my currently healing battle scars.

I couldn't see the wound on my head as Nina looked at it, "This one is healing beautifully. Thankfully the entrance wound is small. Just don't brush or try to move your hair." I was glad she didn't try to touch it. Having someone bring their hands near my head or neck was a huge trigger point for any sane zombie.

I guessed from the radiating pain that it was just above my ear. I was glad that it had been the handgun that had managed to hit my head. I didn't want to contemplate how long I would have been out if one of those rifles had managed a similar shot. It may have taken a month, but it would have healed as long as my head remained attached to my body.

Nina crouched down in front of me to push up the pant leg of my shorts. She unwrapped the blood-stained bandage swiftly enough, revealing the most painful injury. The bullet must have hit at a bad angle, because it was a mess. It probably hadn't helped that I had been trying to run with the bullet in my leg during the fight.

It hadn't healed that much and the barely hardened scab had a few tiny tears in it where blood beaded to the surface simply from my slow walk. My body would have put its energy primarily into healing my head, heart, and lungs. In that order. My shoulder and leg were last on the list.

Nina carefully put more salve on and re-wrapped the nasty wound. I was kind of surprised that Nina was using salve, either she hadn't consulted with Daniel, or Daniel was so far out of touch with his zombie instincts that he was unaware of the secret that allowed zombies to heal faster. I suspected the latter scenario.

She stood up, "That should work unless you do too much and open up those wounds."

I left the room as Nina went off to a different back room. The others had gone off to bed in various side rooms, so I went outside. Nicky was correct, there were three rabbits outside the back door. Despite drinking all that blood in those cups around noon, I had enough room for a rabbit at this point. I also had another plan in mind to help this leg of mine heal faster.

My arms had not been injured and were swift enough to kill the rabbit before it realized what was going on. I still didn't have my belt knife or my grain sickle. I would have to rectify that tomorrow, but in the meantime, my nails were sharp enough to shave the hair away. Since the sun was mostly set, Daniel was probably not going to leave the building unless he had to. I bet he was listening as he tracked where I was and what I was doing, even if only for the lack of anything better to do.

I drained the rabbit and went inside. I headed to the bathroom and sat down. I quietly slid the leg of my shorts up, glad that they were soft material and not jeans. I carefully undid the bandages on my leg. I took notes on how they had been wrapped so I could replicate it afterwards. I didn't want Nina to notice anything unusual.

I examined the wound. Salve worked so well on minor human injuries mostly because it kept the scab or wound moist so the new skin didn't scar or pull. The antibiotics in it were pointless for a zombie since we didn't get infections.

I had kept a small amount of the rabbit blood in my mouth. I used my finger to scoop a few drops out and let them fall into the wound. Blood and zombie saliva. They would speed the healing up by a noticeable amount despite how fast the wound would already be healing due to accelerated zombie healing. It was a potent mixture that only sane zombies could truly enjoy.

I watched as the blood seemed to be magically absorbed by the raw flesh in the wound. It wouldn't absorb my blood, but any non-zombie blood would disappear almost like water in sand. Once the tiny amount of blood I had carried in my mouth was in the wound, I carefully wrapped my leg back up the way it had been.

There was no way for me to put the bandages back on my chest if I took them off, so those injuries would have to go without for now. I left the bathroom to sit back in my chair. Daniel hadn't moved, although he watched me enter the room that was lit up by the fire in the fireplace.

He didn't say anything and I didn't feel like talking. My instincts stirred a bit as the last of sunlight left the sky, but they didn't do much. I was full and my body hurt. My instincts were all for remaining holed up to heal. Sure, I could survive wounds that would kill a human, but they still hurt.

Humans tended to sleep a lot more if they were sick or injured and the same held true for zombies. I dozed a good chunk of the night, although I kept one ear alert for movement or trouble. I woke as Daniel turned on his flashlight and started a pot of stew.

Even if Nicky did cross to the dark side, someone else would be dealing with her today. If Daniel's snarl didn't bother her, then mine wouldn't faze her and I simply didn't have the energy to deal with her. Physically or mentally.

I stood up and walked out of the room. My leg wasn't quite as painful, but the improvement was barely noticeable. I would still take it. Five minutes later, there was one less rabbit outside. I retreated to the bathroom to add more rabbit blood to my leg wound. I could actually see the faint difference that the first application had made. My headache had faded to a very faint ache. I was in my seat before any of the humans were up.