“Everybody’s a stranger until you get to know them,” Eshe said stoicly.
“Thank you for that great advice,” Winchester said drily. “I, too, saw 21 Jump Street in theaters a million years ago.”
Eshe laughed and shook her head. She looked back at Velvet, who was candidly waving her arms around while she talked to Grey. Velvet really cared about that cat, which made Eshe worry a little bit. Would the little creature be able to find them? They could go search the apartment building where Velvet had been staying.
“Velvet left the apartment building that she was hiding in really fast,” Eshe said.
“What?”
“She left fast when she heard the kid. She left her cat.”
“I don’t care about cats, Eshe,” Winchester said.
“If she wants to stay with us when this is all over, she can bring the cat,” Eshe looked up at him.
“No fucking way. We aren’t having cats.”
“Not cats, plural. Cat. One cat. Singular.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No,” Winchester said.
Eshe spun around and jabbed him in the chest with her finger.
“I never ask you for shit, Win. You’re doing this for me. We’re keeping her, and we’re keeping her damn cat.”
Chapter 14
As it turned out, each person in the little group had their own space. Ryan and Ambrose bunked together on one floor, and Grey and Winchester were on another. Eshe seemed to be the only one who didn’t have a roommate, but Velvet didn’t get the impression that Eshe cared too much about that.
“Do you have a guest floor for me?” Velvet asked nervously as everyone wandered off for the night. She was alone with Eshe, which made her nervous. Eshe made her feel uncomfortable and fidgety, like it was impossible to stand still.
When was the last time someone had made her feel like that?
Usually, people didn’t make her anxious or unsettled. Most of the time, Velvet was the kind of person who was comfortable in any type of situation, but something about Eshe threw her off balance just a little bit.
“No guest floor,” Eshe said. She walked to the center of the room and lifted up the candle that had been burning all evening. “You can bunk with me. Come.”
She blew out the candle, switching it out for a flashlight, and reached for Velvet’s hand. Velvet grabbed her backpack, slipped it back on, and allowed Eshe to lead her from the room. They went one floor down. The lobby area was pretty neat and well-organized.
“This is my floor,” Eshe said.
“You’ve spruced the place up,” Velvet said. She couldn’t see too much of the space because it was so dark, but it was clear that Eshe took the care of her home seriously.
“Thanks. I do my best.”
“Are the other floors this neat and organized?”
“I don’t know. I don’t really go there.”
“No?”
“We try to give each other space,” Eshe explained, leading Velvet through the lobby and down the hallway.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Velvet agreed. “If you’re all going to live together, it’s probably important to make sure that everyone has their own area where they can just relax.”
“Exactly. I’m nobody’s mother. It’s not my job to make sure people sweep.”
“Unless you start to get bugs,” Velvet pointed out.
That made Eshe laugh, and she shook her head as she looked over at Velvet.
“You’re something else, Vel.”
“Vel?”
“Is it okay if I call you that?”
“Sure.”
Velvet wasn’t used to nicknames. Then again, she wasn’t exactly used to a lot of things. She wasn’t used to people thinking she was special. She wasn’t used to people paying this much attention to her. She certainly wasn’t used to people who wanted to give her a name.
“I think Velvet is a pretty name,” Eshe added.
They made their way halfway down the hallway, but then Eshe stopped.
“My room is here,” Eshe said. “It’s halfway down because I like the view from the windows in this room best.”
“That’s smart,” Velvet said quietly. “It’s always important to like the view from your windows, right?”
“Right,” Eshe agreed. “The other units are empty, but if you want some time to yourself, I can bring you like, I don’t know, a sleeping bag?”
Velvet paused. Should she take Eshe up on that offer? Sleeping in a sleeping bag wouldn’t be bad at all. It wouldn’t be a big deal. Velvet was used to sleeping alone. She really always had.
Now, though, she missed Dennis. She was worried about the little girl they were going to go get.
And she had a chance to not be alone.
Did she really want to turn that down?
“Can I stay in your apartment?” Velvet found herself asking. Nervousness washed over her even as she said the words. She didn’t want Eshe to think she was coming on too strong. She didn’t want Eshe to think she was being obsessive or clingy, either.
But she had a chance to not have to fall asleep listening to silence. Instead, she could fall asleep listening to the sound of Eshe breathing, and maybe it would be nice. Maybe she wouldn’t feel quite so alone.
Eshe looked at her for a second. For just the slightest fraction of a moment, Velvet worried that Eshe was going to say no. Was Eshe going to tell her to get lost?
She kind of thought so.
Eshe didn’t, though. Instead, she nodded.
“Of course. Of course, you can stay with me. It’s right through here.”
Eshe pushed the door open, and Velvet stepped through it with her. Somehow, she knew that whatever happened next, there was no going back. Staying in this room with the leader of the group wasn’t a commitment, but it was saying that she wanted to build trust with their group.
When this was all over, when they rescued the kid, then Velvet was going to have to make some hard choices.
Was she going to go back to living on her own?
Or did she want to ask if she could stay?
Already, being part of a group seemed nice. This group had a nice dynamic going, but Velvet knew perfectly well that even adding just one new person could change the entire aura of a group.
She didn’t want to be responsible for hurting people or making things fall apart.
“Thank you,” Velvet said, trying to remember her manners.
“It’s nothing.” Eshe closed the door.
“It’s not nothing,” Velvet pointed out. “You’re giving me a place to stay.”
“You would do the same for me.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just know it.”
“But how?”
“Don’t overthink things.”
But that was what she did. That was Velvet. Velvet always overthought things. She was constantly thinking about things in a way that didn’t quite make sense. She was always thinking about how she could find the answers to the things she was looking for.
She thought far too much. More than was good for her.
“I’m surprised you’re letting me stay, that’s all.”
“Why?”
Velvet paused.
Why?
That was a loaded question, and it was one she wasn’t quite sure how to answer. What was she supposed to say to Eshe? Was she supposed to be honest? How honest? How much about the past was she supposed to reveal?
Because the reality was that Velvet didn’t have a huge past, but she still had one. Everyone had a past.
Didn’t they?
Wasn’t that the whole thing with being a human in your 30s?
You’d seen some shit.
“It just seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a stranger,” Velvet finally said.
Eshe looked at her for a long moment before she spoke again. When she did, her words were carefully chosen.
“Velvet, I get the feeling
that not a lot of people have been kind to you in your life.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Chapter 15
Eshe sat on her bed while Velvet got comfortable on the floor. It was a strange situation: having someone over. It felt both normal and wildly out of place. Eshe watched as Velvet carefully wiggled into the sleeping bag and then laid down on the pillow.
Luckily, Eshe was something of a hoarder. Even though she knew she didn’t need to be, breaking old habits was hard, and she’d taken to keeping things like pillows and blankets even though she, like everyone else in the damn apocalypse, didn’t like having guests around.
Inviting people into your home was a risk, and it was a risk most of them couldn’t afford to take. If Eshe was going to invite someone over, how did she know that person would be safe?
How did she know that person wasn’t going to double-cross her?
She didn’t.
That was the easy answer. She didn’t know.
“So,” Eshe said, looking down at Velvet. “Are you comfortable?”
“Yes.”
“You sure? You can have the bed.”
“I don’t want your bed,” Velvet said softly.
“Oh.”
“Not like that,” Velvet said quickly. “I’m sure it’s a perfectly nice bed.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s just that I don’t want to impose,” she said.
“You wouldn’t be imposing. I’ve slept on the floor plenty of times,” Eshe pointed out. Plus, she did have a couch. She wondered if she should have asked Velvet to sleep on the couch in the living room instead of here on her bedroom floor. This felt a little more personal.
It felt a little more intimate.
That wasn’t something that Eshe could worry about, though. Not right now.
Why would she worry about something like that?
They weren’t dating. Weren’t planning to. Eshe definitely wasn’t planning on making a move. She hadn’t missed the fact that Velvet had said she was gay, but nobody had ratted Eshe out. Nobody had said that she, too, was a lesbian. She had to give her friends credit for that.
There was something to say about the way she felt when she was with her little group. Even though they complained and whined and gave each other a hard time, the reality was that they all loved each other. They’d all done everything that they could to be safe. They’d worked their asses off, and they’d gone above and beyond with making sure that the apartment building was safe, secure, and taken care of.
They were all in this together, really.
The fact that nobody had said, hey, Eshe is gay, too, really spoke volumes. It really meant a lot to her that she could trust them. Even though she didn’t really have anyone else left in the world, she could trust them.
“How long have you been here?”
“In the city?”
“In this building.”
“About a year.”
“Really?”
“I think so. Sometimes I’m not sure. Sometimes I’m not even really sure about how many years it’s been, though.”
“Me too. I know it’s about ten, but I don’t keep track.”
“There are calendar people for that.”
“Yeah,” Velvet laughed, shaking her head.
Calendar people were the ones who kept track of how many days it had been since the first reports of a zombie virus. They had an official name, yeah, but nobody really knew what it was. All Eshe knew was that sometimes at a market, or when they’d wander to a new town, they’d meet people who followed a calendar. They’d track every single day that had passed, and they’d tell you.
Eshe thought that job sounded properly boring.
“Anyway, I think it’s been about a year. Feels that way.”
“How can you tell?”
“Changing of the seasons, I suppose.”
“Which one’s your favorite?”
“The seasons?”
“Yeah.”
“Before it all happened, I’d say autumn hands down,” Eshe said. “It was great to eat pumpkin bread and know that winter was coming.”
“Yeah, I used to love winter,” Velvet agreed.
“It was fun,” Eshe murmured. Now, things were different. There were no longer family holidays filled with cakes and presents and laughter. Now, everything felt hard and heavy and forced.
Now everything felt like it was terrible.
“So, what about now?”
“Now, when autumn hits, I know it means that winter is coming. I hate knowing that soon, we’re going to have to fight for everything.”
“You mean food?”
“I mean everything,” Eshe repeated. “We’re going to have to fight to stay warm and fight to stay dry and fight to eat.”
“Have you thought about relocating?” Velvet asked gently.
“The south is way too hot in the summer and the north is way too cold in the winter,” Eshe pointed out. “The Midwest seems to be the only place with viable weather options.”
“There’s always Seattle,” Velvet said dreamily.
“I’ve never been,” Eshe said.
“Really?”
“Really. Always wanted to go, though.”
“Oh, it’s nice,” Velvet said. “Well, it was. I haven’t been in a few years.”
“A few years? Like, you’ve been there since everything happened?”
“Yep. I like to travel around. It keeps me from feeling like the world is dead.”
“The world is dead.”
“I know, but I don’t like to feel it.”
So, Velvet was a traveler, huh? How interesting. She had traveled around, but for some reason, she’d come back to her roots. Interesting.
“You didn’t tell me which season you like now,” Velvet reminded Eshe.
“Oh. Now, my favorite season is spring.”
“Because everything is new?”
“Because it means I can leave wherever it is that I’m living and finally get something fresh to eat,” she murmured.
“Food. I like it. That’s what I care about, too,” Velvet laughed.
“What do you miss most?”
“Food-wise?” Velvet looked up at Eshe, who was leaning over the side of the bed.
“Yeah.”
“Chocolate pie,” Velvet said easily. “You?”
“Pizza,” she whispered. “Double pepperoni with onions, mushrooms, and pineapple.”
“That sounds so gross.”
“No way. It was good.”
Eshe closed her eyes for a moment just thinking about it. If she was careful, and if she focused, she could really just smell the pepperoni wafting up to her. She could really imagine that it was happening, that she was experiencing the pleasure of pizza.
“It’s okay,” Velvet whispered. Eshe opened her eyes quickly, embarrassed that she’d been caught daydreaming. “Sometimes, when I think nobody’s listening or paying me any mind, I make lists of all of the things I miss.”
“Really?”
“It’s so lame,” Velvet whispered. “But it helps, you know?”
“Yeah,” Eshe whispered back. “Yeah, I know.”
She scooted back from the edge of the bed and closed her eyes. She was ready to sleep, and Velvet probably was, too. Eshe didn’t know if she’d actually be able to fall asleep, though. She really had too much on her mind.
She had to worry about Velvet, and she had to worry about her crew, and perhaps most of all, she had to worry about the kid in the apartment building.
Who was she?
Where had she come from?
And where was she going?
Chapter 16
The next day, Velvet woke up before Eshe. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Eshe’s arm hanging off the side of the bed. Eshe had snored all night, but Velvet hadn’t minded a bit because sometimes she snored, too.
Waking up in Eshe’s room felt...normal.
It felt strange, actually.
Ve
lvet couldn’t remember the last time she had felt like a truly normal person. It had been long before the apocalypse happened, long before the destruction and disaster came. In college, she’d been constantly searching for answers as to who she was. Who was she, really?
She’d found some of that during the past few years. She’d learned that she was the kind of person who liked to wake up early and go on walks. She’d realized that she was the type of person who liked animals. She liked taking care of things, and possibly of people.
Maybe that was why she wanted to help the little girl who was trapped.
The sun hadn’t risen yet, but Velvet knew it was morning. Soon the sun was going to start to rise, and she’d have to make some hard choices. She could die today, she knew.
She wouldn’t, but she could.
In a world like this, nothing was guaranteed. There wasn’t anything she could really do to stop the passing of time. All she could do was to hope that she made good choices and stayed alive to live a little bit longer.
Velvet had no idea if she was going to grow up to be old, but she knew with a fierce certainty that she wasn’t ready to die today.
“Eshe,” she whispered.
Eshe groaned.
“Are you ready to get going?”
She didn’t know if she was supposed to be waking Eshe up, but she wanted to get moving. As soon as the sun was up enough for them to see, they needed to go out. That kid was going to be desperate. She was going to be scared and in pain.
“Yeah,” Eshe said, sitting up. “You?”
“I’m ready,” Velvet whispered.
“Then why are you still under the covers?”
“Am I?” Velvet glanced down at herself. “You mean, I’m not already up and doing pushups?”
“You’re not.”
“I think I am,” Velvet teased.
“You totally aren’t,” Eshe shook her head.
“I feel like I am.”
“Come on,” Eshe laughed. “I’ll help you.”
She climbed out of bed and walked over to the sleeping bag where Velvet was actually still huddled up inside of it. Velvet wiggled, not ready to leave the warmth of the sleeping bag.
Beautifully Undead | Book 1 | The Chasing of Zombies Page 7