by Maya Riley
Our pace slowed as the cabin came into view. We knew we were going to have to face the others, but we didn’t know how and we weren’t quite ready yet.
My thoughts flicked back to what Lincoln had said about the others having feelings for me. I finally accepted that I cared about them too, and had no idea how fast things were going to change. We probably should’ve talked about what to tell them while we were on our way back, but we were busy just enjoying each other’s company. It was nice with just the two of us.
Maura charged Mateo with a sword and he tossed her to the ground like used coffee grounds. The girl had perseverance and I had to admire that.
Jonah was the first to notice us, ever observant as he was. He looked at our hands before they broke apart, and then our faces. The look in his eyes showed that he picked up that something was different. I signed later to him, we’d go into it with everyone soon enough.
We reached the group and Adam came over to detach the jugs from our packs and helped carry them up to the porch. Setting them down, he turned to face us. “We were trying to decide how long to wait before sending out a search party.” His eyes looked above mine, noticing my messed-up hair, and narrowed in concern. “Glad to see you both back. Did everything go smoothly?”
I gave a small smile, deciding to keep the answer vague because I didn’t know what exactly I was answering at the moment. “Enough.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “That’s not exactly the kind of answer I had hoped for. And,” he sniffed the air, “is that smoke I smell?” His eyes pierced mine with concern. “Why do you smell like smoke?”
“It’s a long story.” I gave him a small smile, feeling guilty for keeping secrets, but we had something more important to get out first. “We’ll tell all of you together.”
He gave a nod and stepped forward, grabbing an arm and inspecting it.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking for injuries. I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait for an answer, so the least I can do right now is see if you’re hurt.”
I couldn’t help the small laugh that started to bubble up from within me. He would very soon know why that may not be an issue anymore. If I really had developed some weird long-term healing ability, then my injuries should be the least of their worries. Which was funny to think about, since me getting injured is what banded us together in the first place.
Shaking my arm out of his grasp, I responded, “I’m okay, I promise, I have no injuries on me. All good.” I rubbed my hands together. “Now, let’s get back down there. I want to see how Maura is faring against Mateo.”
Adam chuckled. “She is a persistent one, I’ll give her that. It’s been fun to watch.”
They followed me back outside without Lincoln saying a word. He was really bothered by all of this. I joined Jonah at his side, catching his attention, and then bumping his shoulder with mine to garner a smile from him. I didn’t get to see his smile all that often, which was a shame since it was so adorable with those dimples of his. Puppy’s nose nuzzled into my hand, greeting me, before running her nose up and down my legs, and my cheeks flushed as I realized what she might be smelling. I tried to shoo her away before anyone else noticed, trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible.
Maura threw one final jab at Mateo, which he dodged effortlessly, and fell to her knees in defeat. “You are good,” she panted. “I call it a day.”
“Let’s go inside and rest,” I suggested.
Once everyone was piled inside and seated comfortably, passing around a bag of snacks and bottles of water, I cleared my throat to get their attention. “So,” I started, “we have something to share with you.” All eyes were on me. “Has anyone noticed anything… different, about themselves?”
Silence.
“No? Just Lincoln and I?”
“What do you mean by ‘different?’” Adam asked for clarification, while Mateo glared at me, Jonah eyed me with his full attention, and Lincoln sat in silence. Maura continued to look on, still exhausted from her day of training.
“Different, as in, well, different. Something you can do now that you couldn’t do before.”
Silence. I swear I could hear the crickets chirping all the way in Timbuktu.
“Take me, for example. I seem to be able to do, um, accelerated healing. Remember my sprained ankle? Yeah, that was healing slowly, but then there was the question of if I was infected? I didn’t think I’d been bitten or scratched, and I have no idea if there’s any correlation, but ever since then, I could heal.”
The rage emanating from Mateo’s corner was almost tangible. “You said you weren’t bitten or scratched.”
“I told you that I wasn’t sure. I said that I didn’t think I was, but I couldn’t guarantee it.” I shot back at him. “I’m sorry for putting you all at risk, but you wouldn’t let me leave. So, don’t make me feel worse than I already did or do.
“Now, the point I’m trying to get to is I have this weird healing ability. That day we were attacked by scavers, I was in the bathroom noticing how everything on me seemed to have been healed, or healing. Then yesterday, when Maura got me with the stick, it drew blood and should have bruised. I lifted my shirt to check it out and actually watched the wound close up, leaving no trace that anything had even happened in the first place. I could even show you if you want, visuals tend to help. This is wild, you guys. Watch this.”
I reached to pull a dagger from my pocket and was stopped by Adam’s hand. “No, not now.” He shook his head. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but you’re not stabbing yourself. I don’t care if you heal, I’m not going to stand here and watch you stab yourself.” His voice was firm and left no room for argument, so I relented and put the blade away.
“Are you sure you’re not just a fast healer? This is… unbelievable,” Mateo chimed in, from where he was leaning up against the wall with crossed arms and his ever-present scowl.
“Well, I would prove it to you, but—” I was interrupted by Jonah’s clapping.
Nobody is stabbing anyone. Jonah’s gaze was turned on me, full of concern.
“Can we just move on and come back to that? There’s more to tell you guys. About Lincoln.”
“Fine,” Adam capitulated, “what’s going on with Lincoln? Does he heal too?”
All heads turned toward Lincoln—except for Mateo’s, who kept his eyes locked on me, waves of rage still rolling off of him—to see him still staring at the floor. He was such a strong man, but he carried so much guilt.
“No,” Lincoln answered, “I don’t heal.” He took a deep breath and looked up. His coffee-colored eyes found mine and I gave him a nod of encouragement. “I create fire. I’m the reason the fire station burst into flames and we barely made it out alive.”
Everyone was silent. So silent, that not even the wind was howling.
Missing Assistant
I kicked the charred body of the washed up rotters. They’d been decapitated and set on fire, which was probably the best assurance that they’d be dead for good. Spotting the severed heads a few feet away, I waltzed over to them and bent down to get a closer look without having to touch the nasty things.
These all looked like fully-grown males, from what I was able to observe of them. Both relief and frustration ran over me. It had been months since the outbreak and I still hadn’t been able to find the girl. She was the only one who could put an end to all this. I thought I was doing her a favor when I took her from their clutches. I thought I was doing the whole world a favor, preventing her from doing what she was designed to do. Little did I know that the world would be even more fucked over without her. I was kicking myself for not keeping better tabs on her.
I stood upright again and turned around, heading out and following the river upstream until I reached the scene of some more decapitated and charred rotters.
Scanning the area, I noticed the pile of sticks and leaves. It looked like someone tried to make a fire. Kneeling down to place my hand o
n the pile, I noted that it felt cold, so there was no sign that there had been a fire here.
If the rotters weren’t burned from an actual fire, then what was it…
I scrambled back to my feet and looked wildly around. She had to be around here somewhere.
Blyss
The looks of shock on everyone’s faces belied how well I thought this would go. I mean, I certainly didn’t expect it to be all sunshine and rainbows, but I didn’t expect the deafening silence that greeted us.
Nobody seemed to know what to say, and I couldn’t decide if that was better or worse than the rage still coming from Mateo. He was pissed that we kept this from him, understandably so.
“Do you think this has anything to do with the Void Virus?” Maura voiced what was most likely the same thought going through everyone else’s head. It sure had been going through mine.
“So this might be, what, some kind of freaky magic thing rather than the end of the world like we had thought?” Adam rubbed the palm of his hand against his temple, trying to make sense of everything.
How did L get his fire power? Jonah signed.
“We’re a little fuzzy on that. His first use was when we were attacked by the scavers, but we believe that event triggered it. So it could have been dormant up until then, but he couldn’t recall a time where he could have possibly been bit or scratched. All we know is that right before the scavers’ invasion, I touched his face and we felt this sort of static electricity thing. It could have nothing to do with any of this, and it could have everything to do with all of this. We really don’t know, you guys, it’s so confusing right now.” This was all beginning to give me a headache.
“We didn’t tell you the full truth when we went to collect water earlier. The reason we were gone for so long, is because we went out there to test Lincoln’s fire ability.” Heads snapped up to catch my every word. “I stayed next to the water in case something went wrong, but he spent a good chunk of time sitting there trying to set random things on fire—twigs, leaves, etc. It wasn’t until the rotters came along and one grabbed me that he was able to produce fire.”
“And what happened when he produced this fire?” Mateo asked.
“The entire body of the rotter erupted in flames. A tower of flaming death.”
“Did that kill it? The same as decapitating would?” Adam questioned.
“Yup. They were kaput. Plus, a little decapitation just to make sure,” I answered helpfully.
“How many times?”
“Twice,” Lincoln supplied. I looked over at him, but he didn’t look like he was going to elaborate.
Adam tossed his apple up in the air, catching it with one hand and repeating the motion, lost in thought. “I would normally say this is all too much to comprehend, but with the way the world is now, it shouldn’t surprise me. In fact, I’m pleased that Skittle has this strange healing ability. It makes for one less thing to worry about.” The apple landed in his hand and he tossed it back into the air. “Since that’s all the information anyone knows, all we can do is speculate. Come up with some theories. See what happens in time. Every day is an adventure, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings and wait for any new developments.” He caught the apple once again and took a bite out of it. “Now, who’s up for a game of Uno?”
It wasn’t long before Mateo was raging. I was kicking ass and taking cards, and taunting him relentlessly. I was doubled over in laughter when he threw his cards down and stormed over to the fire. Taunting him was fun and I was feeling so feisty, I was rolling in tears. He threw me a glare before plopping his ass down and taking out his knife-sharpening tool. If he ever lost it, I didn’t know what he would do. Sharpening knives seemed to be his main I’m-pissed-off activity.
The sun began to dip below the horizon and yawns were getting the best of us. Mateo had moved on to sharpening Jonah’s knife now and looked like he might stay up for a while, but the rest of us were ready for sleep.
Lincoln padded down into his own bed of blankets and looked over at me. I walked over and crawled underneath the covers, and cuddled between his arm and his body. Within minutes I was drifting off to sleep surrounded by his natural campfire scent.
“What the fuck, Trouble.”
My head snapped toward Mateo at his sudden outburst. I sat in my spot, unmoving, and waited for an explanation.
When I didn’t respond, he merely held up his hands and looked at me. “What the hell is this?” The objects in question were two tins. I knew their content was tea, one was tea bags and the other was tea leaves, with two reusable bags that I had managed to scavenge.
I blinked and answered, “It’s tea.”
“Why?”
I shrugged, and he continued to glare at me.
“I thought you were a coffee drinker.”
“I am.”
“Then why do you have this atrocity?”
Was he seriously dissing on tea? Big, tough guy strongly hating on tea? That was adorable. A grin crawled across my face as an idea formed. Turning down the corners of my mouth and twitching my bottom lip, I responded. “What’s wrong with it? Why can’t I like tea too?” I sniffled once, remaining in character. “Tea club back in high school used to be my favorite time of the week. The one time no one,” I looked back up at him, “judged me.”
I caught Maura out of the corner of my eye trying her hardest to hold in her laughter. She would be the one to know, of all people, that I was totally bullshitting him. I only drank tea when I absolutely couldn’t get any coffee. It was merely a caffeine backup, plus it was much easier to acquire nowadays than coffee.
Mateo’s face dropped, falling hard for my act. His face was riddled with guilt, and I thrust out my bottom lip for the full effect. I bit the inside of my cheek to hold in the laughter. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to keep this up.
“Um, yeah that’s, that’s cool. Tea is good too. I just meant, um...where’s the green shit?”
“Green shit?”
“Green tea, you know, that green tea healthy shit. That’s what you need to be drinking, the green stuff.” He set the two containers down and rushed outside, running away. As soon as the door closed, I bust out laughing with Maura.
I scooted over to where he dropped the tins and picked them up. “Come on Maura, let’s drink some of that green tea healthy shit. Apparently that was an order.” We continued to laugh about it as we stoked the embers, brought the fire back to life, and began boiling some water. I added some extra water to the pot to use as ‘safe water.’ I grabbed a water bottle full of safe, boiled water, and started tossing it between my hands as I got lost in thought. No one other than Maura was ready to test it straight from the river. Although, if I really did gain this healing ability from contact with a rotter, then I’d probably volunteer to try it first. I took a good sip from the water bottle.
“So, you and Mateo huh?”
Those few, simple words shattered my train of thought and I sprayed all the water in my mouth all over Maura. She screamed and threw her arms up to shield herself, but it was too late, she was already drenched in backwash.
“Um… what?” I couldn’t seem to form any other words. I wasn’t sure I’d even heard her correctly.
“What was that for?” she screamed, still displeased with her unwelcomed shower. Ignoring my stunned expression, she ran off to find a towel to dry off with.
Her question caught me off guard and I had no idea how to respond. Why did relationships in an apocalypse have to be so complicated?
Aside from the tea fiasco, Mateo had barely even talked to me the last few days. The rage I could sense from him the other night, and a glare here and there, were the only indicators I had that told me he still knew I existed. If I was going to figure out feelings with him, we’d needed to have some kind of conversation at some point.
Fuck, this world was already a shit hole enough as it was. Why’d it have to go and throw relationships into the mix, too? There were more important things at st
ake. Like figuring out these abilities, and surviving.
I poured my tea and carried the porcelain mug to the door. Maura had been excited to continue her training today, and I wanted to get out there and get a front row seat. I may have also wanted to avoid any more of her questions at the moment, but that was beside the point. Or maybe it was the point, who the fuck knew.
She didn’t bring it up again, so perhaps I successfully rerouted her train of thought. The key to avoidance was to cover the person in backwash.
Pleased to see my old chair vacant, I plopped down and began to sip my tea on the front porch, all Southern-style. I’d been told once before about this ‘sun tea’ where you apparently set tea leaves or tea bags in a pitcher of water, and left it out on the porch all day steeping in the sun. I’d wanted to try it, but never did. Maybe one day I would.
I rested the teacup in my lap and looked around for Mateo, wanting him to see me drinking the fucking tea. I snickered to myself and wondered if I would be able to convince him to start drinking tea too. Life was so much more amusing with these guys.
The sound of the front door closing signaled Maura’s arrival and she strode out into the yard toward a waiting Jonah. Lincoln still hadn’t sparred against her, and now that everyone understood why, he was simply left out of the turn list. As if sensing my thoughts, he popped up by my side.
“She’s got your fire.”
My lip twitched at his words. “Is the pun intended?” I peered up to see a hint of humor in his face, which was a contrast to his heavily folded arms.
“She was alone out there for all this time. Running, hiding, trying to survive. Now that she has you back in her life, her fierceness is shining through. The same fierceness that’s in you.”