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“You ever think about what’s gonna happen if they get you?”
The words struck Kristi as she wrapped Stacey’s arm. The gash wasn’t too deep, but it did cross several inches on the outside of her forearm. Apparently she’d fallen doing repair at Colony House. She was lucky it was just a cut.
“It’ll suck and then I’ll be dead.”
“No, I mean, what happens to the rest of us when our resident doctor is gone?”
Kristi finished the wrapping. “How’s that feel?”
“Fine, I mean not great but it’s fine.” Stacey hopped off the gurney, moving her arm, testing the comfort of the bandage. She stilled, looking at Kristi, her face reading more with fear than pain.
“I guess… I guess I don’t know. Maybe someone else will turn up with a medical degree. Maybe even a finished one.” Kristi smiled, the gentle joke falling flat.
Stacey’s right hand fluttered over the bandage. “I was thinking… you know how people go every Sunday and listen to Father Khatri? What if you did that.”
“I’m not much of a preacher. Or a religious person at all really.”
“No, I mean… we’ve gotten good at… at sharing resources. Physical resources, even labor. But what about what we know? We grow food and we fix buildings and… and other stuff. I know people think Colony House is just about partying and feeling good but what if…”
“We started a school?”
“Kind of? I’m sorry.” Stacey’s voice shook. “That’s silly, it was just an idea.”
Kristi hadn’t spoken much to Stacey. The woman had been here since before Kristi arrived. She was a good worker, usually on the quieter side but with a drink in her hand, she had the loudest laugh in the room. There was so much to do day to day that Kristi hadn’t considered the woman much beyond that. She kept her head down, kept her thoughts to herself. Like most people, just trying to make it through to day in order to make it through the night.
But she had a point. They were already limited by supplies but if something did go wrong, if those things did get Kristi or even any other myriad of ways to die in this place happened…
“It’s not silly, it’s a good idea.”
“Really? Because I was even thinking about how to do it.” Stacey’s words came out in a rush. “Father Kahtri pretty much wrote down the whole bible but I was thinking, we don’t have a lot of paper so what if we wrote on the walls? Like put the medical information on the walls of the clinic, that way anyone can take a look. I know some of my friends would probably really like helping with that, making a… a medical mural.”
Kristi smiled. “You’ve put some thought into this.”
“It passes the time.”
Most people did not pass the time daydreaming about how to create a medical school. As far as Kristi was aware, most people daydreamed about home or getting out of here or… whatever dark thoughts led them to.
“Let’s talk to Sheriff Boyd, maybe we can coordinate with Mrs. Liu and Kenny about what supplies we’d have for that and see who else would be interested.”
The bell rang out, its clangs causing both women glanced outside at the twilight sky.
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow. Now get on home, I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll grab breakfast at the diner.”
***
Kristi lay awake that night, knowing it was safer to sleep. If she slept, she couldn’t hear them as they walked about outside, straying to the quiet windows, tip tapping on the glass, entreating those within to let them inside, please, just a moment inside, it’s so chilly out tonight, our hands ache, you’re a doctor aren’t you, why don’t you take a look in case it’s something serious, don’t you want to help, help us please, we’re scared, scared of what might hap—
No. It was no use doing their job for them. Kristi still remembered how convincing they were her first night, how she had almost… but she didn’t. She was here, in bed. Tomorrow she’d meet Stacey at the diner and they’d propose the idea of a medical class to Boyd and ask Mrs. Liu about supplies.
Mrs. Liu.
Another thought formed in Kristi’s mind. She’d have to talk to Kenny. And with his responsibilities helping Boyd, he may not have time but it might work. And there might be others interested with other skills to offer.
She eventually dozed off, thinking of what tomorrow could bring. The first night not falling asleep to the tearful idea of her.
***
“Did you talk to Donna about this?” Boyd looked uneasy in the booth, glancing between Stacey and Kristi.
“She said ‘Fuck it, it’s better than sending folks down the hill every time they have something bigger than a boo boo.’ So I think that’s a yes.”
Stacey seemed revitalized, her eyes more animated than Kristi had ever seen them. Her hands painted the idea in the air as Boyd listened. The classes. The mural. Colony House people who were already on board. His body relaxed more as she spoke but his eyes were still sharp, calculating the pros and cons.
“What’s that gonna do to our medical supplies?” Boyd looked to Kristi.
“In an ideal situation, we’d have real supplies they could practice with but obviously we can’t do that. We can use scrap fabric in place of bandages and figure out other tools to create a practice set for people to use. We can talk to Nathan about when he kills animals for food and have students train using tools like the scalpel then.”
It was a hack job of a medical school. More of a glorified first aid course really but it was something.
Boyd leaned back, taking a sip of his coffee. He seemed tired but then they all did. “You think you got time for that? Teaching and running the clinic?”
“No but it’s not like there’s another doctor here. Teaching people would not just help me out down the road but also better our chances if I…”
Boyd waved his hand. “I know, I was thinking it too.” He sighed. “Okay, we can talk to Mrs. Liu, see what’s in back that you could use.”
Stacey beamed, drumming her fingers on the table as Kristi spoke, “I was also thinking we could-”
“More coffee Sheriff?” Sarah stood there, pot in hand.
“Please.”
Sarah poured. “What’re you all talking about?” Her friendly smile couldn’t hide the way her eyes flicked to Stacey, the slight surprise at the woman’s presence at the table.
Boyd gestured across the booth. “Stacey had the bright idea to start some medical classes. Spread the skills around like we do supplies. We actually gotta talk to your brother about it.”
“Nathan? Why, he’s not a doctor.”
Kristi leaned forward. “Just to get a sense if maybe we could work with him and the animals to help with training.”
Sarah nodded slowly, “Oh, I see. I don’t know if he’d be okay with that but you can talk to him.” She paused, then. “He’s protective of them.”
It was Kristi’s turn to smile, to put Sarah’s nerves at ease. “We’ll figure it out.”
Sarah’s frown didn’t disappear but she nodded before moving on.
“What else were you thinking?” Boyd picking right back up.
“Oh, just that… I’m not the only one with skills. We could ask if people have anything they’d want to teach. Maybe we could even have language classes, Kenny could teach some Mandarin. If he has time.”
Boyd’s face turned to Mrs. Liu as she served breakfast to those just getting in line. The morning was wearing on and she’d been up since the sun but still didn’t miss a beat. Her body moved in a now well practiced rhythm of the diner.
“Mr. Liu still goes in and out and I’m sure it’d help Stevey to communicate with him.”
“That’s gonna be up to Kenny.”
“But you’d be okay with it? As his… boss.”
Boyd laughed. “Guess I am his boss, sure hope he doesn’t ask for a raise.” He turned back to Kristi and Stacey. “But yeah, if he doesn’t mind doing, I don’t mind him taking time for it.”
***
Stevey rushed over as the supplies clattered to the floor. “It’s fine!” Kristi knelt down, already gathering up the mess. “Go check on Mr. Liu.” Her voice came out sharper than she meant, sharper than Stevey deserved but they were already headed for the other room before she could apologize.
It took her entire being to put it all away neatly instead of chucking it as hard as she could. But why? Why did she want to break and make a mess of things? So what if Kenny hadn’t said yes? Wasn’t an “I’ll think about it” fine? It wasn’t a no.
Except the look on his face. The look on his face that said he was just being polite by saying he’d think about it. He said it was because he didn’t know how to teach a language and besides, Frank had been acting out again, drinking too much too often. There was a lot on his plate.
Which was fine. After Stacey had left for Colony House to round up the people who wanted to take classes, Kristi had checked in at the clinic and Boyd had gone around town to ask about people who wanted to teach. A lot of people had said no, some had said yes. There was even talk of creating a curriculum for the kids. Meaghan apparently was excited by the idea of going back to school. People were pitching in left and right.
But it was Kenny. And as much as Kristi wanted to justify it by saying she only wanted to be able to communicate better with the Lius, that wasn’t the whole truth. She wanted the excuse to spend more time with him. And that’s what made her want to wreak havoc in the clinic cabinets. Because she wasn’t supposed to want to spend more time with him. Not in that way.
“Crushes are natural, sweetheart.” Her voice whispered in Kristi’s mind. That’s all she had these days, that lovely voice echoing in a way only she could hear. A phantom of her subconscious, longing for the woman she’d agreed to spend the rest of her life with.
Kristi had stopped picturing her in her mind. Not after the nightmares, her fiancée walking up to the window to tip tap tell her to come home, come home.
She didn’t want to picture her like one of them. So she didn’t picture her at all.
And she didn’t need to picture Kenny, he was here, he was real in the way her fiancée’s voice wasn’t. But she would be, once Kristi got out of here. If she got out of here.
A sharp knock on the door. Kristi turned around.
There he was, freckles splashed across his face, making his small smile even more charming. She waved him in.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“How’s the inventory going?”
“Okay.”
“Weird to think this place is gonna be a textbook soon.”
“You can thank Stacey for that. She already came by with Trish and John so they could get an idea of how to plan the layout of all the different chapters.”
“How’re you doing?”
“Fine. Figuring out the syllabus but fine.”
“I wanted to… apologize. About earlier.”
“What for?”
“I feel like I kind of brushed you off? About the whole teaching thing and I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”
“It’s fine.”
“It’s just…" He paused, his jaw jutting out in the way she'd grown fond of. It always meant he was trying to find the words, the right ones because they mattered. "I’ve always been helping translate for my parents and that’s okay. But I’ve always had to do it because not many people even try to learn the basics. And so when you asked if I’d teach, I was afraid that I’d spend all this time figuring out how to do that and nobody would care enough to show up. They’d think it wasn’t worth it if I’m always around to do it for them.”
Kristi held Kenny’s gaze now, his expression so open. That’s what drew her to him, when they first met. How open he was, how much he cared.
“Do they get lonely? Only being able to talk to you and each other?”
Kenny looked to at his hands, fiddling. “I think my mom misses my dad. I know he’s still around but… it’s not the same. When you mostly worry about the person you love instead of being able to live with them.”
A sharpness rose in Kristi’s chest. She took a breath, hoping to soften it. “They’re lucky to have you.”
He grinned at that, the kind of bashful grin that lit up his whole face.
She leaned back against the cabinet. “It can get lonely though, being the only one people have to rely on.”
“Sometimes.”
“Then let us help. Stevey and I at least want to learn, or try to.”
“You really want to learn another language? On top of being the town doctor and teaching people and dealing with the monsters at night?” His look balanced incredulity and hope.
“We can swap. I’ll teach you how to suture and you teach me how to surprise your mom by ordering breakfast in Mandarin.”
He scratched the back of his head, a nervous tic that she knew meant he was about to agree to something he wasn’t sure he should agree with.
“Deal.”
Kristi stuck out her hand. “Well Professor Liu, it’s a pleasure to be in your class.”
He took it. “Same to you, professor.”
“You think this college has a tenure track?”
“Of course it does, you’ve gotta have an in with the dean though.”
They continued joking like that for a while more before Kenny checked in on his father and left to join Boyd for the evening bell ringing.
That night, Kristi once again lay awake but now thinking of lesson plans and supplies. As she edged towards sleep, dreams of her filtered in, interweaving with thoughts of class and Kenny. But this time the guilt stayed away, the longing too. Instead she wandered contented dreams of the three of them, laughing, enjoying each other’s company. No, the monsters couldn’t get her here, not in dreams where she and Kenny and the others had managed to get out. To get home.