by Jim Goforth
What he settled for was something of a confused grimace, the corners of his mouth twitching, uncertain if they were trying to grin or scowl.
Behind Corey he could hear the others conversing in low tones and the sounds of the boats being dragged down to shore.
He didn't turn his head to look; he continued to gaze evenly at Lee waiting for the fellow to react.
He knew Lee was far from happy that he'd ignored Lee’s wishes in extending his offer of sanctuary to the women. However he also knew, or suspected, that the majority of Lee's animosity was fueled by the belief that Raven's renegade crew and her thug army of Pleb brutes, Tim's murderers were hot on their trail and a fear that he too was going to be slaughtered.
Lee's reaction upon Blaise and Desiree's disabling of the dodgy bridge had been one of pure relief, almost joy, and it wasn't until Melissa curbed that joy by solemnly vowing that their pursuers would keep chasing did Lee resort to his angry outbursts and blame tactics.
With no boats to chase them across the waters just how did Raven and her bloodthirsty hordes expect to continue the hunt?
Corey didn’t know what sort of long distance swimmers the Plebs were, but he was pretty sure Raven and her traitorous girls weren't prepared to swim the entire way back to the other side of the lake.
If all these women possessed guns how did they expect to keep them dry?
"It's a long way to swim isn't it?" Corey continued when it became evident that while he was thinking hard about what Corey said Lee wasn’t yet deigning to comment on it. "With guns. Have to keep them dry or they're no threat to anybody. There might be another way across the river, but how 'bout the lake? I bet there isn't another way except right around it."
Lee stepped out from under Tasha’s arm, but not so far that he lost contact with her.
Her hand still rested on his shoulder and she made no effort to move it, neither did Lee attempt to shake it off.
His eyes narrowed pensively as he stared at Corey.
"You know," he said slowly, after a deliberate pause in which several hours seemed to have elapsed. "I bet you're right. I bet they get here and find the boats gone and realise they're fucked."
"And maybe give up?" Tasha added hopefully, although Corey detected a note in her voice which suggested she felt otherwise.
Corey felt otherwise too, he was merely attempting to allay Lee's fears and luckily Lee hadn’t seemed to notice this tone in Tasha’s voice.
"Yeah, maybe." Lee mused. "Why would they bother carrying on if there was no way across the lake? I bet you're right Corey. What's more I bet the Plebs can't swim very well. If at all."
"Hey!" A strident voice rang out from behind them, the unmistakably bossy tones of Melissa. "This isn't a chat room you three. Pedal to the metal, let's get the hell out of here."
Swiveling around in his boots Corey saw that the troupe of women had the boats right down to the shore on the very edge of the water, ready to push off and set sail.
The bunch of girls, commanded by Melissa laid various weapons inside the crafts as they most likely discussed seating arrangements or the like.
"Come on," Tasha urged and linked her arm in Lee's who looked slightly pleased by that.
Tash also extended an arm to Corey and he didn't refuse.
Whether it was a gesture of friendliness from her or just an indication that she needed their support to walk down the sandy bank Corey wasn't entirely certain.
Probably a little bit of both factors.
Once they reached the others another possible problem presented itself to Corey.
His original assumption about the boats back on the shore of the lake, back when it was just Tim, Lee, him and the boats before anybody else had arrived, had been that the holding capacity for them had been maybe ten individuals.
Here and now it seemed as if there were too many people and too little boats.
Quite literally, two little boats.
The party planning to set sail in these crafts numbered eleven which was one more than Corey imagined the two boats could handle.
Were they all going to fit?
Lee apparently was thinking along similar lines.
As the trio composed of Lee, Corey and Tash came to a halt where the others milled around, done loading the crafts with weaponry, Lee flashed a frantic look in Corey's direction. The panicked query in his eyes seemed to say 'Am I going to be left behind? I was the only dissenter in the pack, the troublemaker, the one who wanted to disagree and refused to be co-operative.
If it turns out that we've too many people, surely I am going to be the one sacrificed and left behind to be massacred by Raven and the Plebs'.
Corey shook his head shortly, trying to convey to Lee the message that he was sure whatever the faults of the various women, leaving one person behind to suffer the bloodthirsty wrath of the pursuers wasn't likely to be on the cards.
Asking the question would do one of two things.
It would either ease Lee's mind or dump it right back into troubled dismay.
"Are we all gonna fit?" Corey asked warily.
Already in his head he was envisioning Melissa's response as she turned to glare at him with an unpleasant burst of scathing laughter.
'Sure we will,' she said in his mind. 'All of us except your little punk friend. He didn't want to be around us so now we don't want to be around him. That's right Dreadlocks go and sit on the bank, smoke your pot and when the Plebs come to collect your corpse maybe you'll be too stoned to care.'
Back in reality, Melissa looked evenly at him and offered a smile which appeared most unusual for her and didn’t really relieve him any.
"Yeah," she said. "We'll all fit. Except Lee. He's not coming. He stays."
"What?" Chorused Lee and Corey in unison.
A sly grin stole across Melissa's visage and behind her identical cackles sounded from Blaise and Desiree while even the tall taciturn brunette Jess also cracked a smile.
"Just kidding boys, just kidding. What kind of coldhearted wenches do you think we are? We wouldn't leave you behind Lee, no need to overdose the blood pressure. 'Course we're all going to fit, we've had more people in these two dinghies than this."
"Yeah, that was the day they overturned," Jess added in a laughing murmur.
Lee glanced from Jess to Melissa to the grinning faces of Desiree and Blaise.
He looked as if he still wasn't sure who or what to believe.
"That for real? You loaded up the boats and they spilled over?"
"Yeah that happened," Melissa said. "But that was only one occasion and only because somebody...Blaise...kept fucking around."
"Seriously, chill out some Lee-man," Blaise said. "These boats will hold twelve people if necessary and they won't sink or tip over or anything."
"Unless people fuck around right?"
"Right."
"Okay. Got it. No fucking around."
"Absolutely no fucking around. Until we get to Corey's house."
Corey wished Blaise hadn't elected to add that comment.
He wasn't completely certain that Lee was alright with all the women coming back to Corey's house, in fact he was pretty sure Lee still had plenty of reservations about the whole deal and was really only playing nice so he didn't actually burn all his bridges and get his ass left behind.
Besides Corey didn't really know what the feisty redhead meant by it.
Coming from Blaise it did have an exciting ring of promise about it, but then again it could just as easily be a more sinister reference along the lines of just what Lee warned him about.
He didn't think the girls intended any malice and he certainly wasn't going to renege on his invitation now, not when Desiree seemed so keen on the idea, but all the same worrisome little thoughts were there in his head to plague him.
"There will be five in one boat and six in the other," Melissa said. "Of course somebody in that six may want to sit on somebody else’s lap, I don't know."
"That's what I'm
talking about," enthused Blaise. "I'll do the lap sitting. Preferably on Corey or Lee."
"Not likely you heathen harlot," Desiree countered. "Not Corey anyway."
"Or Lee," Tasha piped up. "I'll be sitting on his lap. I can't sit next to people or I'll squash my legs and they hurt enough already."
"Done." Melissa said. "Lee, Tash, you're in the six seater. Blaise you are too, but you'll be rowing so I don't see how you'd be able to sit on anyone's lap."
"You'd be surprised at what I can do sitting on someone’s lap."
"Nothing you do surprises me."
"I'll tell you what," Blaise said. "You gotta be quick round here, the men get snapped up by all you man-eaters in no time. You better have some friends you can call round Corey, I was really keen on getting my claws into your other..."
Realising how tactless she would have sounded finishing that particular sentence, lamenting the fact that she hadn't gotten a piece of the now dearly departed Tim, Blaise let the statement die on her lips and busied herself pretending she was greatly interested in the back of Melissa's head.
Fortunately the words hadn't seemed to register with Lee.
He was smiling kind of dopily at being the chosen one to have a girl sit on his lap.
Corey supposed he couldn't begrudge Lee that little gem of luck.
He caught Desiree's eye and she shrugged with a little smile as if to say 'Oh well, plenty of time later'.
"Okay load up. Blaise, Tash, Lee, Caroline, Britt, Rachel you're in one, the rest of us in the other. Blaise you're rowing your boat, I'll handle the other."
That left Corey with Melissa helming the boat he was to be in along with Desiree, Jess and the slightly chubby blonde girl who hadn't yet been referred to by name.
Even if she wasn't sitting in his lap at least Desiree was in his boat.
As they all boarded the craft Corey made damn sure he was sitting next to her, Jess crammed in on the other side of her.
The no name blonde sat herself on the boats floor at their feet, obviously so as not to impede Melissa's rowing abilities.
"That was well thought out wasn't it?" Melissa said scathingly once they were all seated. "How the fuck are we gonna get mobile, half on the bank, half in the water?"
Corey didn't wait to be asked.
Hastily he pushed his jeans up to his knees, took off his boots and vaulted over the side, praying he didn't step on a poisonous stonefish or some other calamity.
He gave the craft a solid shove, no easy job with it loaded with passengers, and then waded after it as it floated away from shore.
Desiree and Miss Nameless helped haul him back onboard where he flopped down on the seat near Desiree.
"Much more graceful effort than last time," was Melissa's unnecessary opinion, as if Corey needed any reminder about the previous time he'd attempted to clamber from a boat.
"Boats aren't my forte," he said, settling in next to Desiree, her thigh firm against his. "Guns are more my speed."
"I'll say," Melissa said admiringly, stroking out into open water with strong movements of the oars. "You dispatched those two Plebs like they were sitting ducks."
Corey shrugged and blushed as if he was in the habit of shooting Plebs for fun every other day.
Desiree patted him on the thigh with a petite perfect hand and snuggled a fraction closer though it was nigh on impossible for them to be much closer.
"So are you a bit of a firearms expert or something?" Asked Melissa, never once breaking her rowing stride.
"Not really an expert, just spent more than my share of time messing around with all sorts of guns. My dad was in the army, taught me everything."
"So, what was Lee saying in the midst of his tantrum? You have a lot of guns at home?"
"A few," Corey replied warily, cautious of revealing too much. It wasn't as if he didn't trust Melissa, but with the thoughts Lee had implanted in his mind it would definitely pay to remain on his guard.
"I see. Live alone do you? Or with Lee? Or parents?"
"Parents are dead," Corey replied bluntly. "I live alone."
Even that right there might have been too much information to volunteer, but Corey figured with Desiree along, not too much in the way of danger would be forthcoming from Melissa and co.
He hoped that was the case anyway.
Melissa must have sensed that the path the conversation was taking wasn't making Corey exactly comfortable.
She grinned at him.
"Sorry, not trying to give you the third degree or pump you for info. Just curious."
"Trying to find out if you're fit lover material for Desiree more like it," put in Jess from the other side of Desi and various factions within the craft burst into laughter.
"Do I pass?"
"That'd be up to me, nobody else," Desiree said. "And I'd say with flying colours."
"The big test is yet to come," said Melissa, emphasising the 'big test' with a lewd throaty chuckle.
Face burning scarlet but secretly pleased, Corey gazed out at the other boat, bouncing and bobbing through the wash.
Even with the added weight of an extra body onboard it was moving along at a fairly pacy clip under the masterful guidance of skipper Blaise.
It seemed to be miles ahead of Corey's crews’ boat.
That was probably due in no small part that somebody within that company must have had the foresight to remain outside the craft to shove it off into the water.
Unlike Corey and his fellow simpletons who'd merely piled in with no further thought of added responsibilities.
Corey wondered how Lee was holding up.
With the pleasant sensation of Tasha's bottom bouncing up and down on his groin as the boat cruised, Corey supposed Lee was having quite a time of it.
If only it had been Desiree's shapely ass jiggling away on Corey's lap...
'Ah well' Corey lamented to himself. 'Can't have everything. Maybe this boat trip will go a long way towards sweetening Lee’s disposition and making him a little more flexible in his attitude about the women coming to stay at my house.'
Well if a fine female form in your lap didn't do it Corey didn't know what the hell would.
Turning his attention away from the faraway boat and lustful thoughts which began to creep slyly into his head, Corey focused on she of no name on the crafts floor.
She was a pudgy little thing, not grossly overweight but not so svelte either, with dirty brown hair in pigtails.
Multitudes of earrings marched all around her ears like silver soldiers and some ghastly metal creation decorated her left eyebrow.
She sat on the floor, curled up, knees to her chest, chin in her chubby little hands.
Her face was morose and brooding, lips turned down in a scowling pout.
"I don't believe I've caught your name," Corey said pleasantly to her.
Her eyes flickered briefly to him and then back away to vacantly gaze at whatever she was entranced by.
"Serena," she said curtly, not deigning to smile or even attempt to.
"Okay," said Corey and thus ended that conversation.
Corey couldn't fault her for being sullen or upset or whatever mood she was in.
Hell she and previously Lee were probably the only ones out of the entire lot who were acting accordingly to the situation they were in and the prior nightmarish events which had transpired.
Everybody else, Corey included, were merely acting as if they'd been on a field trip to the races or something similar, albeit a well armed one.
They were talking, laughing, carrying on like they were journeying to a party, not fleeing from murderous beasts and traitorous ex friends who'd torched their homes and massacred their friends.
Corey didn't see anything wrong with this though; brooding and mulling over and dissecting the nightmare wouldn't do any good whatsoever.
If you did sit around crying and screaming in despair you wouldn't achieve anything.
It was either get on with life, live in the here a
nd now or go stark raving mad with a dreadful insanity.
In which case the madness could drive you to the edge of surrealism and cause you to do unspeakable things to yourself to end the mental anguish.
Like Corey's father.
After that cheery contemplation Corey decided he was much better off occupying his mind with the previous thoughts. Thoughts of Desiree.
Desiree in his house.
No doubt after a night traipsing through woods, through smoke, being splashed with blood, perspiring, she'd really want to have a shower.
Desiree in his shower.
With the exciting feel of Desiree's delicious thigh pressed firmly against his Corey drifted off into a daydream.
Desiree in his bathroom, slipping seductively out of her clothes and stepping naked into his shower, blasting her supple sensational body with a hot spray of water. Fine shimmering droplets of moisture cascading onto her head, sluicing down her long black hair, bouncing onto her gorgeous breasts and running off her nipples.
Soaping up her body with exaggerated slow motions, trailing the soap over her breasts, over the wondrous globes of her buttocks, between her legs, down her thighs.
Melissa's strident voice dragged him back up out of his prurient fugue.
"Corey! Hey Corey, where the hell are you?"
"At home. In the shower." He replied truthfully.
"Mmm, a hot shower." Desiree said. "That would be absolute heaven."
Jess stared curiously at Corey.
"Somehow I don't think he was merely thinking about taking a shower."
Corey looked suitably guilty and developed a sudden interest in his boots on the bottom of the boat.
"Maybe a cold one," Jess continued, tickling Melissa's funny bone.
Serena just looked more sullen than ever and muttered something which Corey heard to be,
"Wish you lot would just shut up."
Nobody else heard or seemed to for they did not comment, so Corey didn't either.
Let her dwell on the nightmare if she wished, it wouldn’t exactly solve anything.
Corey didn't really know what relationship she may have had with some of the deceased, but he wasn't going to let his grief over losing Tim override everything.
There wasn't any point, what was done was done and there was no way of warping time to fix the mistakes of the past.