Free Defensive Instinct (Survival Instinct Book 4) by Kristal Stittle

gathered behind her while also lifting up the cooler.
    “No. I mean, yes someone told me, I just forgot is all.”
    “What’s going on?” Clearly Riley was missing some important information given the lack of the usual greeting. People’s minds were preoccupied with something else.
    “Can we have a status update on the boy, please?” Crichton cut Josh and Riley’s conversation short.
    “He doesn’t have an active infection,” Robin told the room. “However, Abby and James, we’d like to run your blood as an extra precaution. Sorry for dragging you away from your duties like this, but you know how paranoid some people get.”
    Abby nodded and got to her feet, Lauren’s hand lingering in hers before she walked with James and Robin down a short hall to one of the exam rooms.
    “He’s grossly malnourished,” Josh continued where Robin had left off, “but we’ve been giving him some liquids. Unfortunately, he’s still unconscious so he can’t feed himself or answer any questions. We’ve cleaned him up and assessed that he has no injuries besides a few on his hands and knees that are consistent with stumbling and falling. There was nothing in his clothes to give us any idea who he is, and he had no weapons of any kind.”
    “May I sit with him until he awakens?” Crichton asked, pushing up onto his feet.
    “You’re welcome to, just let me know the moment he does.”
    Crichton nodded and then disappeared through the doors behind Josh.
    “New arrival?” Riley guessed based on the bits of conversation she had heard.
    Josh nodded. “Yeah, a kid, maybe somewhere between seven and twelve years old best I can figure. He showed up outside the fence and nearly got mistaken for a zombie. Luckily, Abby had heard him cry for help before he collapsed.”
    “Poor sod,” a patient behind Riley mumbled. They had begun to disperse about the room, finding themselves seats.
    “You should have seen how quickly Abby was over that fence,” Lauren added. “She and James went out there to bring him in.”
    “Hence the blood tests,” Riley nodded.
    “So,” Josh clapped his hands as he changed topics, “how are you? Need any help with this lot?”
    “I’m fine. Are some of you okay with Josh running your tests?” Riley asked her group.
    “I’d prefer it,” one man answered. He was here to get a strange discolouration of his testicles looked at. It had originally been examined by one of the male doctors at the container yard, and the man had been acting a little squeamish about the idea of Riley taking a look.
    Shrugging out of her backpack and opening it, Riley took out the patients’ medical files. They were similar to what they had been pre-zombies, only now everything was hand-written. Several doctors wrote too fast, or too illegibly, to the point where they had ‘hired’ a former nurse whose job it now was to go through everything and rewrite it all in a much neater print.
    “I should tend to these first,” Riley told Josh, indicating the cooler while she handed over the medical files.
    “Of course. You know where the lab is. We can catch up later.” Josh looked at the man who had spoken up about preferring him. “What’s your name? I’ll start with you.”
    Riley picked up her backpack and the cooler and left the medical suite. Although there was some equipment in there, the mini lab across the hall was better stocked for what she needed to do. The lab was currently occupied by only one other person, Dr. Edward Owen. He waved to Riley as she entered, then returned to his work. Riley wondered what he might be up to. He could be running similar tests to those Riley was about to perform, or he could be doing a more extensive work up on the blood of the boy who had shown up.
    After placing the cooler on a table and hanging her bag off the back of a chair, Riley located a pair of gloves to snap on over her hands. Then she set to work. There were blood samples to examine for things other than the zombie