The Scavengers

by Gen Griffin

  Chapter 10

  “I've been waiting to be alone with you all day,” Drake said as I finished burying the empty cans that had made up our meager dinner. He put his arms around my waist and leaned down so that his breath was hot on my ear. “You look good now that you've found some clothes that fit. Must have been a good hunt for you today.”

  “I did alright.” I fingered the neckline of the fitted shirt I'd found amongst the clothes Seth had selected for me. I wondered what Drake would think if he knew he was complimenting Seth's taste, not mine. I'd been right about the kind of items I'd thought I would find in the bag. Everything was close fitting and practical. No loose fabric to snag on tree branches. No thin, fragile fabrics. And yet everything had been distinctly feminine. The shirt I was currently wearing was pink and interwoven with shiny, silver threads. It fit like a glove and left very little to the imagination.

  Drake nibbled my ear.

  “Not now, Drake. We can't.” I tried to ignore the shivers that his touch sent down my spine. I desperately wanted to trust Drake but it was rapidly becoming apparent that there was more to him than the hero that I'd worshiped from a distance since I was 12 years old.

  “Now,” he told me. He leaned down until his lips were a fraction of an inch from mine. “Unless you've suddenly gotten shy on me?”

  “I'm not shy,” I admitted as I put my hands on his chest and pushed him back a couple of inches. I gestured back towards the campsite that was a scant few yards away from the tree line where we were standing. “We need to talk about Cya.”

  “I don't want to talk about Cya.” Drake's smile instantly faded into an irritated scowl. It wasn't the most flattering expression and the cruel cut of his brow made it easier for me to control my raging hormones. It was starting to disturb me how my hormones kicked into gear every time Drake came near me, even when the logical side of my brain was becoming increasingly aware that Drake Bledsoe simply wasn't the man I wanted to believe he was.

  “She told me that everyone wants her dead, including you. And they may get their wish. Her leg looks awful. It’s definitely broken and I'm starting to wonder if it’s infected as well.”

  “Fuck,” Drake cursed and crossed his arms over his broad chest. “Did you disinfect it again?”

  “No, she wouldn't let me touch it.” I frowned, trying to decide whether or not I should confront him about Cya's accusations.

  “She wouldn't?”

  “No,” I took a deep breath, unsure of what else to say.

  “She was making accusations again, wasn't she?” Drake asked unexpectedly.

  I didn't even try to hide my surprise. “You know?”

  “I know everything about my Scavengers, Pilar. Everything. Don't ever think you could possibly keep a secret from me.” Drake reached for me again.

  “She thinks you want to kill her,” I admitted after a moment. The pressure of his arms around my hips drew me against his broad chest and it took all the strength I had not to just melt against him. I was exhausted, both physically and mentally. I desperately wanted Drake to be the good guy in all this. He was so damn handsome and it just felt so good to be with him. I wanted nothing more than to trust that Drake was the hero and Seth was the villain. Seth deserved to be villain, with his badly scarred face and blank, dead eye.

  “She'd deserve it if I did,” Drake said. “She's been on five hunts, counting this one. She's been a liability the entire time. She screwed up on her second hunt and got three other girls killed. When she was questioned about why she'd locked her fellow recruits in a warehouse full of zombies, she tried to blame it on Conner.”

  “She did what?” I asked.

  “She, Conner and three other girls who were all on their first or second hunts were down in a small grocery store warehouse we'd found. They were supposed to fill their bags with cans and then come back up to the bus. Simple pick up and deliver.”

  “Something went wrong?”

  “An entire family of zombies were in the basement. Conner was loading the bus when one of the girls inside the warehouse opened the basement door. Our girl Cya ran out of the warehouse and locked the front door behind her. The other three recruits were torn apart by ravenous zombies.”

  “Oh god.” I sucked my breath through my teeth.

  “Cya tried to tell the Powers That Be that we'd traded those girls for rock candy crystals,” Drake said. “Is that what she told you?”

  “Yes,” I admitted after a moment of hesitation.

  “I'm glad you told me.” Drake gently stroked my cheek and then gave me the tiniest peck kiss. “Thank you.”

  “Drake, is rock candy real?”

  Drake smirked. He released his grip on my waist and reached into one of his back pockets to extract the little burlap sack I'd seen earlier. “Can you keep a secret, Pilar?”

  “Depends on the secret,” I told him.

  He reached for my hand, pried my fingers open and dropped the little bag into my hand. “Rock candy is real.”

  “Do you have to sell people to get it?” I pulled away from him.

  “Absolutely not.” Drake pulled me back. “Have a little faith in me, Pilar. I'm the captain of the Scavengers, not a murderer.”

  “I'm sorry. Her story just freaked me out.” I allowed Drake to wrap his arms back around me.

  “I wish you'd come to me right away,” he said as he stroked my frizzy curls. “Rock candy is an asset to us but it's not something I would kill for.”

  “Does it work the way she said it worked?” I asked.

  “Depends on what she said.” Drake shrugged his broad shoulders at me. He was still smiling. “Cya doesn't seem able to grasp rock candy's true value, but I think you'll be able to understand a little bit better. I mean, this isn't your first job where you needed to stay on your A-game all the time, is it?”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “You ever work an 18 hour shift at the hospital ward?”

  “I've worked a 72 hour shift,” I admitted, recalling gritty exhaustion and sticky hands covered in salves that rarely worked the way we needed them to.

  “Exactly.” Drake opened the bag I was holding. I hesitated for a moment and then peered inside. A small, hard lump of bright green crystals were bunched together at the bottom of the sack. When I shook the bag, they bounced against one another and rolled to the side.

  “What do they do?” I asked.

  “Take one.”

  “What?” I eyed the contents of the bag skeptically.

  “It’s too hard to explain. You wouldn't understand unless you tried one.”

  “Explain anyway,” I allowed my hips to slide against his. “Then maybe I'll take one.”

  Drake shook his head at me but he was smiling. I loved the way his amber eyes sparkled when he was happy. It was so hard to imagine him being anything but the hero I'd always been told he was. Right this moment I was willing to brush all the criticism I'd heard about him away as jealousy. Unfortunately it did appear that Cya had been telling the truth about the drug usage.

  “You don't get tired anymore,” Drake told me. “You take one of these babies and you'll be more awake then you've ever been in your life. You can see better, hear better, hell, you can smell better than you ever have. If there's a zombie within 1000 yards you'll know it. It’s like being yourself, only 400 times better.”

  “It heightens your senses.” I gave the bag another thoughtful shake.

  “Basically,” Drake shrugged easily. “It makes you like a superhero. Stronger. Faster. Smarter.”

  “Cya said all of you take them.”

  “All of us?”

  “You. Kennedy. Shayla. Conner.”

  “Ah, yeah. Well, not Conner anymore. You know, if he'd taken a rock candy yesterday he'd still be alive right now.” Drake frowned, obviously disturbed by the thought.

  “Why didn't he?”

  “They're expensive. It’s best to save them for when we really need them.”

  “When yo
u really need them?”

  “Yeah. Like tomorrow, we're going to need them. Kennedy thinks we might be able to find a radiator for the bus in the junkyard in Mylon, but Mylon is full of zombies. Bad. We go into Mylon, we can't make a single mistake. Not one.” He reached for the sack in my hand and held it up thoughtfully. “These little beauties are the difference between life and death out here sometimes.”

  “What are you going to do about Cya?” I asked him. “She's not going to be walking anywhere tomorrow.”

  “I'll deal with Cya,” Drake told me. I didn't miss the grim expression in his eyes.

  “Drake, don't hurt her.” I wrapped my fingers around his wrist.

  “I won't have to hurt her, Pilar. She'll hurt herself.” Drake's golden eyes settled hard on mine. “Never forget that you're not safe outside the Cube. No one survives for long without a protector.”

  “You're going to stop protecting her?” I asked.

  “She's made her choices,” he said firmly. “I advise you take note of the mistakes she's made and be careful not to make the same ones. I don't take kindly to betrayal.”

  The cruel look in his golden eyes sent an entirely unpleasant shiver down my spine as he kissed me.