by Maya Riley
“This would be a great time for s’mores,” Adam announced.
I looked over to see him digging through a bag, looking for something. “I’ve never had a s’more before, but I hear they’re delicious. Do you have any?”
Adam’s motions stopped at that. Everyone around me did, too. Right when I began to feel uncomfortable, Adam broke the silence with, “You’re serious, aren’t you? How could you never have had a s’more before? It’s like a right of passage.”
“I just never have. They never had them at the foster or group homes.” I shrugged. “I’d love to try one though if you guys have any.”
Adam let out a breath. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Turns out we’re missing the marshmallows and chocolate. There are some skittles though, would you settle for skittles as a dessert?”
A grin lit up my face at the mention of skittles and I nodded eagerly, clasping my hands in excitement. “Actually, that’s my favorite candy. I’ll gladly accept those.”
He tossed the small bag of skittles to me and I caught it eagerly before tearing into it. “Now, I can’t guarantee that I’ll share. Trusting me with the whole bag is a dangerous thing to do. I might not be able to run with it, but I have daggers and I’ll fight you to the death. So you may want to keep your distance,” I joked, as I began popping the little balls of deliciousness into my mouth.
“That’s alright, go ahead and enjoy. Although, since you won’t tell us your name, from here on out I shall call you Skittle,” Adam teased.
“Deal.” I popped a red skittle into my mouth and savored every ounce of the sweet flavor. It’d been so long since I’d had one, that this was one way to sweeten me up for sure.
As the flames roared on, I could feel myself begin to get sleepy. We all hunkered down for the night as the sun started to go down. The guys were all in one tent, letting Puppy and me have the second one all to ourselves, despite the disapproval of Mateo who wanted to throw me back into the woods. Not that he was going to sleep right now anyway, he’d volunteered to keep watch the first round tonight.
I hugged the furry body of warmth against my own and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
Blyss
Confusion washed over me when I opened my eyes, before I remembered where I was and how I’d got there. I was at a camp, with food and Puppy-approved guys. My muscles stretched out as my good arm reached above my head and my back arched, causing a slightly awkward noise to escape. It had been a while since I had a good stretch, and even longer since I had such a restful night. These blankets they gave me provided much more comfort than the ones at the cottage did.
I reached out my left arm and yelped from the tenderness I could still feel in my shoulder. Yup, still sore, but better than yesterday.
Beautiful scents drifted through the tent and my nose lifted into the air to decipher the smell, and my chest expanded as I took in a deep breath. It was the unmistakable smell of coffee. Was I still dreaming? Coffee was not a common thing to come across, having been one of the first things people scavenged for. It had to be the powdered stuff. Either way, I would make sure to get my hands on it.
I slid over to the front of the tent and unzipped the flap. Flinging the light fabric open, I gave a squeal of excitement as a steaming cup of coffee was placed into my needy hands. The excitement bubbling out of me was so great that I didn’t even care who gave me the coffee cup. The fuckers even put on a cup sleeve so I wouldn’t get burned.
My eyes closed in bliss as the smooth, hot liquid caressed my tongue and glided down my throat. There was even some creamer in there, the sweet bastards. They just wormed their way a little further onto my good side.
I was lost in the bliss of my favorite, and rare, caffeinated beverage. A feeling of weightlessness filled me as Lincoln picked me up and carried me over to my spot against the log, without me taking my lips away from the cup the whole time. Puppy trotted along and sat by my side.
After setting me down in my spot, Lincoln took a seat on the log to my right and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees as he looked out at the clearing and the surrounding trees, seemingly lost in thought.
“Thank you for the coffee,” I said around the cup still in my mouth.
Lincoln looked at me and smiled. “You’re welcome.”
“I do have one request though…” I trailed off, unsure of how to ask.
“Yes?”
“So… I gotta pee.”
His elbow slid off his thigh in surprise. “Okay, um, here, let me help you over to the latrine.” The awkwardness in his voice made me want to laugh, but I held it in. Reaching down, he slid an arm under my legs and behind my back and lifted me up, careful not to jolt my injuries. Once I’d done my business and let him know I was presentable again, he carried me back and placed me back down in my spot. He stoked the fire while I gratefully fell into the bliss of finishing off my coffee.
Jonah walked up shortly after, and set down a bowl of berries and leafy greens in front of me with a wink before handing one to Lincoln, and then taking a seat on the log on my other side.
“You guys are really doing a good job of spoiling me.” I smiled as I dug in, enjoying the healthiest breakfast I’d had in weeks. When Adam and Mateo emerged from the tent and stiffly took their seats on an opposite log, I ignored their strained statures as I happily polished off my food and coffee.
When I was done, I set the empty bowl and cup on the ground, rested back, and closed my eyes, enjoying the fullness that came with another delicious meal. I could really get used to being fed by these guys.
A tugging sensation on my right foot had my eyes snapping open to see Adam taking off the brace. “The wound needs to be checked and the bandage changed,” he explained without looking up. Well, I guess it would be nice to have one less thing to worry about myself. If he wanted to take over healing me, I’d be all for it.
“How’s your shoulder feeling?”
I turned my head to face Lincoln. Bending my elbow and rotating my arm a little bit, I answered, “It seems to be much better. Keep feeding me like this and I’ll be back in fighting shape in no time.”
I smiled at Adam’s low chuckle until he opened his mouth. “Not until this ankle is healed, you won’t. I suspect at least a week, minimum. Unless you injure it further before then.”
My head fell back with a groan. I knew by the look Mateo reserved just for me, that I wasn’t exactly welcome here for the time I’d already spent, let alone a whole other week minimum. “So eager to run around and fight rotters rather than have a handful of guys at her service,” Adam chuckled as he finished up his work, Velcroing the brace back into place. I caught Mateo scowling toward him at that comment. If I was going to be stuck with them for a while, I’d at least try to play nice as much as I could. Whether or not he warmed up to me would be his call.
A wet nose left a trail of gunk on the underside of my forearm as it pushed itself underneath my arm to rest in my lap, followed by a sudden onset of dog head. I looked down at Puppy’s large, seemingly innocent eyes in disgust. “It’s a good thing you’re so damn cute.” Moving my arm to attempt to pet the little bugger, I didn’t notice that Jonah had moved to do the same until our hands brushed and I paused, feeling a strange sense of electricity and familiarity. We both pulled our hands back and I caught a slight tinge that began to spread across the tips of his ears and I loved it. I wanted to make him blush more often.
Catching the ever-present glare that Mateo seemed to have, I ignored it all and carried on with loving on my puppy while the others conversed in gentle tones and hand motions. I watched Adam’s hands, mentally memorizing the signs for what I believed were dog and run, I would have to ask about some signs later on. Puppy stiffened in my lap and a low rumble escaped her throat. Low gurgles began to trickle into the clearing from the trees in the direction of the latrine.
When another moan sounded from the trees in another direction, my hand stilled mid-pet and the guys sat unmoving as we l
istened. A moment later, the sounds of snapping twigs and crunching leaves carried over the silence, filling it with moans of the dead. Springing into action, the guys began packing up the tents and supplies as though death was after them—which, in this case, it very well was.
A growing chorus of dreadful sounds filled the air, causing my veins to ice over and my heart to falter. The sheer volume of sounds from the east of us meant we would soon be overrun, and the temporary barrier surrounding the camp would not hold up for long. It would be a repeat of the day I met Adam and Mateo, and we had barely made it out of that with our lives. I rose up onto my good foot, ready for whatever action I would need to take, be it limp away or fight my way through to the best of my ability. The guys increased their pace, throwing food and clothing into any bag within their reach and flinging the bags onto their back as they became filled.
The first rotter broke through the tree line, stumbling into the clearing and limping straight for us. Lincoln and Mateo grabbed for the swords they kept on the ground behind the logs and leapt over the barrier to greet the first few rotters with a slash to their necks. Their heads hit the grass with a sickening thud.
Gripping a dagger in each hand, ready to free them from the sheaths I kept attached on either side of my hips, I prepared to jump into the fight and join them in the bloodshed when suddenly the world started spinning and I was upside down. “You can’t even walk, let alone take on that many. You’re coming with us.” Adam’s voice reached my ears and I pounded on his backside to be let down.
“I can handle anything, dammit,” I responded, while still smacking his back to be let down, but he persisted.
I raised my head to see Lincoln and Mateo take down the last rotter in the clearing when a band of about twenty or so broke the tree line and started heading this way.
Shit.
The grass below blurred as Jonah and Adam took off running, with me still flung over Adam’s shoulder like a ragdoll. Puppy ran toward Lincoln and Mateo, unable to leave anyone behind and always ready to help. Fear filled my eyes as I watched. The three of them were heavily outnumbered. “Puppy!” I called for my pup. I couldn’t bear to lose her. She had no fear, and I needed her to stay with me. Every nerve ending in my body chilled as more rotters closed in on them, their tombstone teeth gnashing together in anticipation of devouring living flesh.
“No! Lincoln, Mateo!” My calls for them were lost amongst the wails of the dead, but I wasn’t ready to give up. “It’s not worth it to fight, we need to regroup! Together!” I shouted out for them to follow.
We’d need to wait until we could get the upper hand. At this moment, we needed to stick together and put as much space as possible between us and the vile creatures.
Once they decided to turn around and run after us, relief flooded through me.
We high-tailed it out of there as fast as we could. When we had put a little distance between us and the rotters, and were able to slow down to a brisk walk, I began to pound on Adam’s backside. “Hey, let me down, I can walk now.”
“You can’t walk,” he stated.
“Fine. Limp, then. Something.” His shoulder was digging into my stomach. I had to keep readjusting so I could breathe.
“You’re not going to limp; we don’t even know how far we’re going.” His voice bounced up and down with every step he took, as he tried to catch his breath after all the running.
“Stop and take a break then?” I continued to plead. “My shoulder aches with this position, plus your shoulder keeps digging into my stomach no matter how much I try to adjust. I’m going to be passed out by the time we get anywhere.” My voice was strained from the uncomfortable position.
In a quick, smooth motion, I found my view of his ass change to a view of his face as he positioned me to be cradled in his arms. “You’re not limping your way through here,” he reaffirmed.
“Okay,” I huffed, and leaned my head against his chest as he continued to carry me through the woods. He smelled like pepper… that was interesting. “I’m going to call you Pepper.”
Adam stumbled at my words, catching himself so we didn’t tumble forward. “What?”
“Pepper. You smell like pepper. I don’t know why, but you do. So that’s your name now.”
His chest rumbled against my cheek as he chuckled. “You can call me whatever you want, Skittle.”
After traveling for a while in silence, I began to doze off until shouts spurred me awake.
“There, up ahead!” Mateo called out after some time and I swung my head to peek around the side of the man carrying me. Flashes of red and gray showed through the trees and we increased our speed again.
A fire station came into view. We ran straight toward it and inside the large door that housed the trucks. Only, there were no trucks inside, most likely having driven off during the outbreak and never returned.
Once inside, Adam set me down on the nearest chair before running around with the others to work on closing the doors and sealing all the exits. Their primary focus was on making this place more habitable for us and safer from the rotters. I held Puppy against me as I watched them work together as a team. They even managed to get the large fire station door shut. The stamina they still had after all that time spent on the run astounded me. They still had the energy of children heading into a candy shop.
After they checked every door on the lower level, the guys stationed themselves in different areas of the room, each looking out a window. A minute of silence passed before they all let out an audible breath. We had been so focused on finding safety that I hadn’t realized I was also holding my breath, anxious at not being able to help.
“So…” I decided to break the silence. “Did anyone manage to grab the coffee materials when we left?”
Lincoln gave a slight half-smile while Adam chuckled, and Mateo looked pissed off. Jonah, on the other hand, just looked at us. Poor guy, I wished I knew how to sign so that I could communicate my words to him too. Adam quickly filled him in with a flurry of hand motions.
“Come on, B, let’s go check the upper level. Shouldn’t get too comfortable in here just yet without scouting out the entire place.” Lincoln slid an arm behind my back and knees, picking me up and cradling me as he headed to the stairs. The sweat from his arms and chest began to soak through my clothes.
“You know, I can move around some. I would love to be able to hop around a bit without being treated like glass every time I moved. And you didn’t answer my question, did anyone grab the coffee? Anyone? Coffee? The elixir of life?”
“Do we get another letter?”
I narrowed my eyes at Lincoln. Sneaky bastard. “Y.”
“Yes, I grabbed the coffee,” Adam announced, pulling a clear plastic container out of a sling bag and shaking it. Hearing the coffee grounds shaking around inside the nearly full container was music to my ears.
As soon as Lincoln stepped off the stairs and onto the second floor, a low moan carried over to us and we froze, before looking around. Mateo signaled to Jonah what was going on and the two of them each brandished a sword and sought out the threat. Jonah followed Mateo with Adam close behind. I nudged Lincoln to follow as well, since I didn’t want to be left out.
Shortly after, we came upon the source. A female rotter’s torso lay on the floor with her arms and legs chopped off. Her dirty blonde hair was tangled in front of her, getting stuck in the bloodied gashes encompassing her face. It was kind of sickening really. Someone had dismembered her without at least finishing the job, leaving her up here to spend the rest of her lifeless existence in even more misery and unable to move. Steel whistled through the air as Jonah finished her. I turned away, my chest tightening with sadness for these pathetic creatures.
The guys spread out with their weapons to check the rest of the small upstairs area. They found a rotter in a fireman’s suit dangling in the air from where he was tied to the sliding pole with its jaw missing. The uniform was embroidered with ‘Sgt. T. Mahon.’ I scrambled dow
n from Lincoln’s arms, landed on my left foot, and inched my way closer.
The decayed nose turned toward me and I watched as flakes of skin slid down his ghastly cheek with the movement. The putrid smell assaulted my nostrils, which was a sign it had been dead for quite some time. It sniffed the air in our direction as our scent alerted it to our presence. My eyes studied the face, searching for what used to be the man behind the rotted flesh. Within moments, the memory hit me.
Back when the outbreak happened, everyone was running, crying, escaping. Even emergency personnel disappeared. 9-1-1 calls went unanswered. Everybody was left to fend for themselves. This guy, however, stayed behind to help others. I hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but now the memories came flooding back.
I remembered running through the woods a couple weeks after the outbreak, when I was no longer safe at the diner. I had no destination in mind other than to just keep going forward. It was some days later when I found myself caught by people meaning to do me harm, trying to take everything I had including my life. They were the first sign of scavers. Then this guy showed up and distracted them while I ran, shouting insults and brandishing an ax, challenging them to fight him instead. I only had a moment to look at him before I fled, but I was positive this was him. I could not forget that fleeting moment those embroidered letters gleamed in the sunlight, my tear-streaked cheeks burning as I ran away. It hadn’t been the last time that I’d seen him either. He’d saved my life on more than one occasion and my heart clenched with regret at losing him again.
The rotter struggled against the rope that bound it to the pole, getting nowhere. Strange throaty gurgles escaped its partial-mouth, begging for flesh it would never be able to chew, and blood that it would never be able to swallow. Chopping off the jaw like that made it so they couldn’t bite. Yeah, it made them less of a threat, but everyone was just better off putting a knife through their brain instead. This ghost of a hero deserved better than this cruel fate.