Elliott grasped Junie by the shoulders, and he looked into her blue eyes earnestly as people bumped and jostled them. “Junie, where did you see Shavian?” Never had he felt more focused. “We need to find her.”
The dogs both circled back and were pushing against Junie’s legs, vying for her attention. The animals seemed to love her. She gave each of them a quick scritch behind the ears and then began pushing her way through the crowd. Junie had barely even acknowledged Fipps, who had caught up and simply looked relieved to have found her.
“She was back this way,” she said over her shoulder. The hall was filling with the flames of panic, and it licked at the last pretenses of control. To Elliott it had the feel of a powder keg, a mob of heavily armed men and women just one poorly secured straight jacket away from Bedlam.
“Was Higgins with her?” Roger asked.
Junie shrugged. “No, unless he was a doctor too. They all look the same to me.”
“Junie, no one’s a doctor,” Elliott explained. “And how do they all look-” He stopped at a look from Roger, realizing he was about to engage the crazy. “Never mind.”
“Of course there are doctors you silly goose,” she looked deadly serious for a moment, “It’s hard to know how many, they all look the same. Still, that seems like a flaw in the plan,” she added pensively as Elliott scanned the crowd for red hair. “We’re in the zombie apocalypse. Why didn’t anyone think to kidnap a doctor?”
Roger chortled. “Yeah, Elliott why didn’t you think to kidnap a hot, red-headed, shallow doctor?”
Elliott directed a sharp elbow backwards into Roger’s solar plexus. The big Scot barely seemed to notice and it interrupted his laughter not at all. “She’s not shallow she’s- right there!” Elliott threw his hands in the air, waving wildly to catch Shavian’s attention. He’d spotted her near the door, slipping out un-noticed, somehow. She saw him out of the corner of her eye and jerked her head towards the door. Junie brandished the tactical mug a little more than she did usually and the path cleared a lot quicker.
They exited the armory and when Elliott turned to his right, she was there.
Later Roger would tell him, with great attention to detail and where Shavian could hear him, just exactly how horrible she looked in that moment. Hair uncombed and dull looking, her face pale and drawn, dark circles under her eyes, the milky skin of her arms dotted with tiny wounds, and wearing a doctor’s lab coat, not in the standard white, but in a color that was designed on a molecular level to flatter no one, anywhere, ever.
But all Elliott registered was: Shavian and then alive. Two great things that went great together. Until then it didn’t seem entirely real. Sure, Junie had said she saw Shavian but in the same breath confessed that all doctors looked the same to her. A little doubt, he felt, was justified. But now he knew.
Relief flooded her face, and she threw her arms around him.
“Aw!” Roger, Junie, Fipps and Aubrey cooed as one.
Then Shavian pulled away and threw a short jab into his solar plexus and Elliott bent over in pain.
“Yikes,” Junie hissed.
“Ouch Express, next stop Elliottown,” Fipps said.
“Karma’s a bitch!” Roger exclaimed.