( pain ain't nothin' but somethin' to be survived. it don't hardly trouble him. gene's fallen off'a near every structure in conecuh that's tall enough to climb, had broken most'a his own bones bein' feckless an' wild all before he turned twelve. his metric for it is surely hell an' gone higher than most folks, so in turn there's just an acceptance of it, an' a dismissal in turn.

once the wound's clean enough he's satisfied, he slathers it with a medical ointment an' then starts the process of dressin' it. he makes sure there ain't no edges of the dressin' peekin' out beneath the bandages, lest the blood wick out an' make more of a mess than it is now.

the whole process, from cleanin' to clippin' the edge of the bandage with a safety pin, takes about three minutes all told. )

Your shoe's full'a blood. If'n you're worried about bein' tracked, we ought to find you another pair. Reckon there's a store back a ways, got wrecked by monsters already. An' the name's Gene, by the way. Gene Hicks.