when: july 5th where: hotel, first floor who: @cordiiceps
the tension hangs in the air of the falls like a thick fog. ever since alexei put a bounty on the head of mike’s killer the residents of the zone have turned on each other like animals. ophelia has never had so many nightmares. the night of the hanging she woke up in a sweat, tears streaming down her cheeks. every night since her mother has crawled into bed with her. there’s barely room for both of them and ophelia’s pregnant belly but they snuggle close and katya soothes her back to sleep when opie inevitably wakes in a fright.
she hasn’t stopped looking over her shoulder. every time she closes her eyes she sees the image of mike’s body, of eddie hanging over it with a knife in his hand. she hasn’t said a word of it to anybody but her mother. they both agreed to take it to their grave- but with the recent attitudes of the residents around them, ophelia worries that may be sooner than either of them expected. so when she steps out of the hotel infirmary and hears the name cage thrown at her like a curse her heart skips a beat. she spins towards the two faces closing in on her- soldiers, both with a focused grin on their faces. she imagines this is how lions look at their prey.
“heard you had blood on you after the outbreak. you don’t seem much like the fighting type,” one man says as he grows too close for comfort.
“i’m a nurse, i always have blood on me,” she hurls back, but it doesn’t stop their line of questioning. they almost seem to have a conversation in front of her, taunting her with rhetorical questions back in forth, never giving her a chance to interrupt. you liked ray didn’t you? oh yeah, she was at the burial, think i saw her cry. hmm, i don’t know man, does she really seem like the type to kill? what, she uses a scalpel, is a knife any different? ophelia’s breath quickens, she tries not to let her nerves show but she’s found that pregnancy makes it harder to hold a poker face. lately, emotions bubble out of her without much choice. “i didn’t do anything,” she says plainly, her voice angry and hurt.
“oh i think you did,” the soldier says, his hand quickly reaching for her arm. his firm grip causes ophelia to gasp. she tries to squirm away but he doesn’t ease up. “either way, you’re going to confess.”