by Maya Riley
The smell of cooking meat filtered through my nostrils, jarring me awake and back to the present. That couldn’t be right, though, I hadn’t been cooking anything before I fell asleep, had I? Where did I even get the meat? I hadn’t caught any animals and the package of beef jerky I had previously stuffed into my bag certainly didn’t need to be cooked.
The sound of strangled laughter snapped my eyes open and my body went stiff. In front of me stood two large tents, side by side, but they weren’t my tents. I didn’t have any tents of my own and I hadn’t seen anything like these yet. So, whom did they belong to?
Fear iced my veins as the memories started flooding back in. I was at the river, walking downstream, when a crazed psychopath of a rotter showed up. We went into the water. Patting myself up and down, I noticed I was dry now. How long had I been out? And… Puppy! I bolted upright.
What happened to my dog? Stifled laughter reached my ears once again and I frantically looked around, searching out the source and I saw it—a strange man attacking my dog.
Oh hell no!
Ignoring the pain in my shoulder, I flung myself into a standing position and started to rush over, only to end up sprawled across the ground with a yelp with an intense pain shooting up my right leg. I looked down to see my bare foot wrapped in a brace.
Fuck.
I must have gotten injured during my tumble with the psycho rotter. No time to ponder that though, or to wonder how I got away. I needed to save Puppy. Turning back to face the direction I was heading, I used one palm to push myself up onto one leg and began to hop over, only to tumble back down with a cry a couple hops in. I cursed, wanting to try again once the second sting of pain subsided, but before I knew it, I was engulfed in fur as a warm tongue licked me clean, leaving a trail of slobber down my face.
Laughter bubbled up from my chest as I threw an arm around the familiar body and snuggled my face into the warm, coarse fur, before sagging with relief. I breathed in the dirty and familiar smell of dog and finally relaxed.
A hand on my shoulder had me jolting, and I looked up to meet a familiar pair of coffee-colored eyes.
I jerked back, keeping my hold on Puppy, and reached for the knife in my pant leg, only to find it was no longer there. Cursing, I glanced around to see my pack leaning against a nearby log with a knife poking out of a side pocket. I dove toward it, crying out at the pain in my shoulder and wrapped a hand around the hilt. Pulling it out of its sheath, I spun back around to face the familiar guy, brandishing the tiny blade in front of us. He may have saved me once before, but I had no idea what his intentions were—friend or foe—or what he was doing here with me. Better to be safe than sorry.
“Stay back!” I growled the warning through clenched teeth. I had no idea what happened while I was unconscious, and I was a firm believer of cutting first, then asking questions later. My tumble with psycho rotter left me hyperalert once again.
Lincoln backed up and sat on his haunches with both hands raised in the air. “Whoa there, no need to go around pointing knives at each other. Remember me? We met on the rooftop when you were hiding out on a dumpster. You were trying to become one with a brick wall, the weirdest meditation exercise I’d ever seen.” A hint of humor flickered in his eyes and I raised an eyebrow at his poorly made joke.
We held eye contact, neither of us daring to make the first move. A wet tongue lapped against my cheek, breaking my lead in the stare off. I could feel Puppy’s steady heartbeat against the hand that was over her chest and I realized she was very calm, which only confused me because she should be ripping this guy to shreds right now. At least, she should’ve been doing that if they were a threat to us. I needed answers. “Explain.”
“Put down the knife.”
“Explain.”
“Put down the knife.”
Stubborn fuck.
Refusing to let go of the knife, but still needing answers, I simply lowered the blade so I could immediately raise it again if needed, not once tearing my eyes away from his. With a nod, he held out one hand, and after another moment of hesitation, I took it with my own. Rising up on his feet, he pulled me into a standing position with him. I barely had time to catch my balance before he bent down and placed one arm behind my back, and the other one behind my knees. He scooped me up and carried me around the camp. I hated feeling this vulnerable, but my annoyance was lessened when I noticed Puppy trotting along beside us as though she belonged here. The traitor.
“Obviously, the two large tents for shelter, along with the noticeable clothesline with drying laundry, are set up right over there.” He gave a slight nod with his head to his left before nodding off to the right and continuing, “Over there, just beyond those pine trees, is the latrine. There’s a shovel sticking up from the ground and against one of the trees, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.” I scrunched my nose at that. I made my own latrine when and where I wanted. I didn’t need anyone telling me where I could and couldn’t shit. “That there is the firepit, we have some rabbits cooking that should be done soon.” He tilted his nose into the air and sniffed. I mimicked the movement, recognizing the amazing smell I’d woken up to, then froze. What did he mean by ‘we?’ Who else was here?
“The wall of logs and large debris surrounding the camp is the temporary wall. It’s not enough to fully protect us, but would at least slow down any threat that could catch us off guard.” He gestured to the walls of trash cans and other large items that were piled up in a line around the camp. It would be enough to buy an extra couple minutes of time at the least, which could make a huge difference in the name of survival. “Well that’s pretty much the whole tour. The only thing left to show you would be my brothers.” I swung my head around at that. Brothers? So that was the ‘we.’
“Is your whole family here?” I arched an eyebrow, waiting for an answer.
He just smiled at me and gave my arm a squeeze. “Technically. It depends on how you look at it. We’re friends that banded together years ago. We’ve been inseparable our whole lives. They’re my brothers, blood or not. Even after the outbreak, we continued to stick together, protecting each other when the rest of the world didn’t.”
That’s actually kind of sweet. If what he said was true, they would be the first decent people I’ve come across in months, since I’d lost Don. I wondered if he knew the other two guys I’d recently met. I also noticed the slight dip in every step he took with his right leg. He still had the slight limp I saw from a couple days ago.
We rounded the fire and paused before he set me down on a log. Right as my butt hit the wood, Puppy took off running and jumped up to greet the unknown man exiting the tent. I abruptly stood up, putting the weight on my good leg, ready to face any threat. We were in unknown territory and I still had no idea exactly where I was, and how far we were from the shelter I had finally begun to call home. We had set out in search of Goldilocks and Bubble Butt, and neither of these guys were them.
My hand started to rise, slowly lifting the knife still gripped in my palm, when a calloused hand stalled the movement. I looked up to meet Lincoln’s coffee-colored eyes. He shook his head in rebuff and I dropped my hand, glancing over to see Puppy’s eyes closing with her tongue lolling out of her mouth as she was scratched behind the ears. The strange man must not have posed any kind of threat after all. Even if I didn’t trust all of these guys just yet, I would at least trust Puppy’s instincts. They hadn’t steered me wrong so far.
Behind the unknown male, two others emerged and I immediately recognized them as the ones I was looking for. I guess I somehow managed to stumble across their camp after all.
Goldilocks, hair now in a man bun, threw a grin in my direction, while Bubble Butt’s scowl deepened at my presence.
“She’s awake,” Lincoln stated the obvious, before stepping around me to check on the meat in the fire. “Dinner is ready.”
I watched as they worked together, the grumpy one cutting the meat off the rabbits and onto the plates that the
others produced. I remained silent and observed, while Puppy was anything but subtle in her attempt to sniff every last morsel, before grabbing a large chunk of cut meat and running behind a nearby log to hide and eat it.
“What the fuck? That was on my plate,” Bubble Butt cursed, his eyes wild and fixed on the spot where Puppy disappeared to. The rest of us laughed and Lincoln placed a hand on his chest to hold him back.
“Dog’s gotta eat too, man,” Goldilocks countered, and added another slice to Bubble Butt’s plate. “Here, you can have one of mine to make up for it. Now calm down and let this be a pleasant meal. We have a guest.” He smiled in my direction, a toothy grin that lit up his face. It was a contagious smile, one that I couldn’t help but reciprocate. My cheeks reddened and I looked away, not used to anyone smiling at me.
Okay, now to get some answers.
“How exactly did I end up here? The last thing I remember was being surrounded by water and the psycho rotter. What happened between then and now?”
Goldilocks was the first to answer. A good man doesn’t leave a woman waiting for long. He made strange hand motions in the air as he spoke. While I wasn’t familiar with hand signs, I thought it looked something like sign language, but I didn’t understand why they’d be using that. I could hear just fine. “We had just reached the tree line near the river to fill up some bottles when we saw you go in. Jonah here,” he indicated the fourth man who was now seated on another log, “took off running alongside the river, and by the time we caught up, he was already pulling you out.” The new man, who I had not yet been officially introduced to, looked down at his feet as a slight red tinted his cheeks. The world was damned, and a guy could still get embarrassed in front of a girl? That was fucking adorable. Although, was he the reason these guys were all speaking with hand motions? “The rotter that went in with you was carried along the current, and that was the last we saw of him.” I shuddered at the memory. I assumed all rotters were the same—slow, dead, and weak—but if they had superhuman speed and strength as well? This world was even more doomed than I had originally thought.
“So, Jonah, is he,” I pointed in his direction, “deaf?”
“Yes. He got meningitis when he was seven and lost his hearing as a result. He can read lips too, but it’s much harder for him so we tend to speak and sign simultaneously,” Goldilocks explained as an unreadable expression crossed Jonah’s face. I got the feeling he didn’t want to elaborate, but my question was answered.
“So, where are we?” I looked around at each of the guys, changing the subject back to me. I had more questions that I wanted answered. “I mean, I know we’re obviously at your camp in a clearing, but where exactly is that?”
Lincoln was the next to answer. “We’re about a couple miles from where we met on the dumpster,” he replied, along with some hand motions while Goldilocks placed a plate of delicious smelling meat in my hands.
Fabulous, so not too far. I could probably hobble my way back to my shelter if needed. It was always good to have a plan.
The scent of the freshly cooked meat reached my nose and my stomach growled in longing. This was going to be amazing. As I reached out a hand to grab the first piece, Bubble Butt interrupted with a question of his own. Fuck, I really needed to get the rest of their names. “Where were you staying? We could drop you off and be rid of you.”
My body stilled at his words and the seriousness evident on his face. Wow, and I thought I was bad with words. He crashed to the ground as Jonah shoved him off the log. Good. Now I see why Puppy is so smitten with him, he just became my favorite one of this group too.
Apparently I wasn’t welcomed by all of them. Coming here could’ve been a mistake if it’s going to cause problems between them.
“Look, I really don’t need to be a bother. I’ve done just fine on my own. Tell me where my bag is and point me in the direction of that dumpster, I can find my own way after that.” I went to stand up, but Lincoln pressed down on my good shoulder to keep me in place.
“You’re not leaving. You have an injured shoulder and a badly sprained ankle. You can’t even walk or fight properly. You’re staying with us.” At his words, I looked up to see him and Bubble Butt in an intense stare off. I could almost feel the electricity in the air as their eyes fought a silent battle.
“How bad are my injuries, exactly?” I geared the question toward Goldilocks.
“Your ankle was pretty swollen when we got you back to camp and took off your boots. It could take awhile to heal, but since there’s no doctor around, it’s hard to say for sure” He sighed before continuing, “Your shoulder has some bruising around it, indicating some trauma, but we can’t be sure exactly what kind. Again, there’s a lack of doctors here. I was studying nursing before I left to pursue flight school, so I don’t know too much more than the basics.”
I nodded, acknowledging his words. “Flight school, huh?”
“Yeah, it was a pretty amazing few weeks. Until the outbreak happened. It’s still an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.” He pulled a chain out from under his shirt, and held up the small, light blue orb decorated with clouds. “I got this as a kid from a teacher on the last day of school one year. She gave something small to all of us, before she retired. I decided that day that I would see the clouds close up.” I smiled. That sounded like a lovely dream to have. “The only reason it took me so long was because I went to nursing school first, to please my dad. He wanted me to go into medicine. Then one day, I couldn’t do it anymore. I dropped out and enrolled in flight school all in the same day.” He smiled at the memory before dropping the small orb and chain back behind his shirt and carried on inspecting my ankle.
Lincoln and Bubble Butt were still locked in their stare off. The intensity of their gazes was similar to a fight with fists. If anything, it felt even more threatening, and I was glad I wasn’t on the other end of either of their glares right now. I really needed to get the names of the other two.
Looking down at the meat in front of me, I avoided the awkwardness and lifted the first piece, digging in while it was still hot and ignoring the display of masculinity going on in front of me.
Heaven glided across my taste buds with each bite of magnificence. I used my tongue to roll the savory meat around in my mouth. My eyes rolled back with pleasure as I bit into the most amazing meat I’d ever had. It’d been so long since I’d had any meat other than beef jerky, and I didn’t realize how much I would miss it. The guys weren’t eating as they stared at me, food in hand and frozen partway to their mouths, while my moans of gratification continued until every last bite was gone. I then looked longingly at theirs until they each tore off a piece of their own meat and handed it to me, which I gratefully devoured.
After having my fill, I leaned back against a log with a bottle of water in one hand and rubbed my full stomach with the other, careful to not jolt my injured shoulder.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had food that satisfying. I continued to revel in the deliciousness that danced over my taste buds in the aftermath, before taking a sip of my water and wiping my mouth with the back of my sleeve. “Guys, that was amazing. Seriously. It’s the best meat I’ve ever had.” I paused before, addressing the thoughts that had been swirling in my head.
“Okay, so before any more bombshells are dropped on me or we all decide to kill each other, I need to know your names. Otherwise, you’re going to be getting very unflattering nicknames.” Shooting a glance at Bubble Butt, I added, “Well, yours might actually just be downright adorable, but whatever. Your choice.”
I watched as he turned his stoic gaze on me. He didn’t seem like the type of man who’d enjoy an adorable nickname.
“Mateo.” The name tumbled out of his mouth in a grumble, as though it was an inconvenience to him.
Mateo took a small tool out of his pants pocket and got to work sharpening a knife.
“Adam,” Goldilocks said with a nod. A man of few words. Short, simple, and to the point. I
liked it.
A furry paw landed in Jonah’s lap, begging for some more scratches and promptly breaking the tension. Puppy gave a little doggy smile as she was greeted with a hand stroking along her side, patting with the light thumps that she loved so much.
Clearing his throat, Lincoln asked, “So, B, do I get another letter?”
I laughed at the confused expressions of the others. “When we met the other day, I only gave him the first letter of my name. The second letter is…” I paused for dramatic effect and looked around at the guys, “L.” I took another sip from my bottle as I watched the calculating look on Lincoln’s face, no doubt going through the possibilities of what my name could be.
“Blaze? Blur? Blemish?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at Lincoln’s terrible guesses. Adam joined in with equally terrible guesses, neither of them even coming close to Blyss. Mateo remained silent, focusing on sharpening the knife.
Before I knew it, Puppy had somehow suckered Jonah into not only playing fetch, but also chasing the smart, four-legged creature around the clearing, trying to get the stick back so he could throw it once more.
The sight of the two playing warmed a tiny corner of my heart and I just couldn’t help but smile. Puppy’s paw seemed to be healed and her happiness was certainly soaring. Relaxing against the log once again, I let myself succumb to my surroundings. I participated in idle talk here and there, laughing along as we watched Jonah and his apparently new, furry little companion. Those two were good for each other, but I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen with Puppy when it came time to leave them, or how strong their bond would grow. I’d only had her with me for a few months, it’s not like I had any real claim on her.
My eyes were lost in the flames when I felt fur rub up against my forearm, and I tore my gaze away from the fire to smile down at Puppy. Jonah sat down on my other side and greeted me with a wave. I wished I could talk to the man who’d saved me from drowning in the river. Instead, I settled for a return wave and a soft smile, then carried on warming my hands by the fire. Temperatures were continuing to drop more every night and I was grateful that Lincoln was a whiz with fire. He got the flames going in no time.