Valkyrie

The last few days have been busy ones. I can't get out of bed, both because I'm still not allowed without help and because the clinic is pretty full at the moment and moving around is hard. It's not that we have an overwhelming number of injuries (though there were a fair number from the zombie attack the other day) but because people are coming to visit Jess in a steady stream, pretty much nonstop since she was brought in.

Yeah, Jess is in here with me now. Her injuries aren't severe but at least the doctors won't have to worry about us trying to engage in painful post-surgical sexy times.

The reason the cannons didn't fire immediately when the swarm came for the walls is because Jess was outside New Haven with a group of kids. They were accompanied by a small contingent of guards and were being watched by the sentries and guards on the wall, but it was still dangerous. Jess and the kids were pulling up clover we'd planted last year, staying inside a designated safe zone where traps hadn't been laid. An escape ladder was thrown over the wall as a precaution so the people outside could shimmy up to escape any incoming zombies. Damn good thing they were prepared.

Things can always go wrong, though.

Jess wasn't carrying her rifle when she went out. She's been practicing with other weapons for a long while now, and working the earth has given her more muscle than at any point in our marriage so far. So, she was carrying a staff. Yeah, maybe not the best weapon with which to actually kill a zombie, but the wife made a show out of holding off several of them with it.

She didn't have a lot of choice there. One of the kids spooked when the sentries shouted their warning and ran outside the safe zone. Poor kid stepped right on one of the spear traps, sent the shaft of wood up out of the ground and right through his calf. Jess ran to him straight away, pulled him back as far as she could until she had no choice but to fight.

According to her, that part of the battle lasted for an hour. According to the guards who moved in to rescue her and the boy she fought like hell for maybe sixty seconds. An impressive minute, make no mistake, as Jess managed to fend off half a dozen undead while protecting a child and using only a long stick. Desperation is a powerful tool.

She took some nasty scratches to her upper arms and shoulders, and she's gonna be here for observation and treatment for another day or two. The wounds look good so far. She's got stitches that look incredibly uncomfortable, so now we're a matched set.

I'm still doing what I can to help by preparing medical supplies and the like while I'm here. Today was a lazy day for me, the staff didn't wake me up until an hour ago. When I came to, Jess and I were holding hands. Had been doing so in our sleep, arms dangling in the space between our cots.

I wish I could have seen it. My wife out there, savaging the hungry enemy for the sake of a wounded child. There was a time when I would have questioned her willingness to do that for anyone, even me, much less a person essentially a stranger to her. In my mind I see her as an unstoppable force, flowing between attacks and striking with perfect grace, a warrior woman of the highest caliber.

Then again, I've seen her trip over her own feet and stab herself in the hand with a steak knife she was carrying in the same hand so my imagination is probably getting a little ahead of reality. I'm sure she had to struggle in the fight and made mistakes. The wounds winding up her arms and across her shoulders are testament to that. Like everyone, she's only human.

That's what makes it so awesome. We're imperfect in many ways, but capable of moments that defy every expectation. My wife, the hero.