For a short while, I was without worry, the weight of the world that I had previously felt was now only as heavy as the sheet that covered me. That feeling didn’t last long, and as I woke the weight slammed on me with such force, I thought my shoulders would buckle. I had the group to worry about, Jasmine and the threat she could represent and now I had to lie to nearly everyone about Jasmine. As the weight settled, I opened my eyes and pulled my arm from underneath Sarah. I checked my watch, it was ten after six and I had been asleep for a little over an hour. I really wanted to close my eyes again, but I wanted to get everyone up and get them ready to meet Jasmine. I got up, stretched, yawned and caught a whiff of my own clothes. “Whew,” I said quietly. I needed a bath and a change of clothes, clothes that were currently in the room with a sleeping Jasmine.
Everyone was still asleep, probably a result of the last nights drinking, so I grabbed the two large buckets from the kitchen and slipped outside to get water. I walked to the well house, filled the buckets and headed back inside. Setting the buckets on the counter, I glanced at Sarah’s sleeping form. I know I say it a lot, but I still couldn’t get over how beautiful she was. Her hair was messily fanned out on the pillow, and her brow was slightly creased, her reaction to something she was dreaming. I smiled and walked over to her sleeping form and leaned down to whisper quietly in her ear, “Come on, it’s time to get up beautiful.”
She didn’t open her eyes but responded, “You stink.”
I chuckled, “I know. I’ll take care of that later. Think you can wake the girls for me?”
“I guess.”
“Thanks,” I said as she sat up and put her hair in a ponytail.
“No problem.”
I walked into where the guys were sleeping and woke them a little more violently than I did Sarah. Matt was sleeping closest to the door, and I grabbed his pillow from underneath his head. “Everybody wake up,” I said throwing the stolen pillow at Justin who groaned. “Come on, up.” This was similar to how my dad used to wake me up. He was always very creative when getting me up for school. He’d alternate between flipping the light switch on and off, tapping his ring on my metal bed frame and yelling in German for me to get up. “Let’s go,” I said walking out. Next up was Michael who, true to his word, was still awake. He looked tired and ready to crash, but he was still awake. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said gruffly.
“She try and get out?”
“Nope. Didn’t make a peep.”
“Alright good. You can grab some rack time. You look pretty tired.”
“Oh really?” he said sarcastically, “Maybe that’s because I’ve been up all night.”
“Quit your bitching and go to sleep.”
He threw up a hand dismissing me and heading to bed. I wanted to wait until everyone was gathered and I could explain a little about Jasmine. I didn’t want everyone bombarding her with questions so I would make it clear that I would be the only one to ask questions. I cleaned up the bedding and pushed the couches back to where they belonged and sat down in the La-Z-Boy to wait for everyone to emerge from their rooms. I unknowingly drifted off and was woken suddenly by my chin dipping and hitting my chest. My head shot up, and I looked around the room. People were up and getting ready for the day, some making breakfast, others starting on their chores. I stood and announced to the house, “We need to talk.” Like before this kind of announcement usually heralded a mission or, more often than not, trouble. They stopped what they were doing and joined me in the living room, sitting down quietly and patiently waiting for me to speak. “So as all of you know we have an unconscious guest.” They nodded, and some frowned. “Well, she woke up late last night. We learned that her name is Jasmine and she seems to be recovering just fine. Now, I’m going to bring her out so you can meet her and she can tell her story, hopefully answering any questions you might have.” I paused to look around at the group before sighing and getting up, “I’ll go get her.”
“Wait,” said Liz. “That’s it? She woke up, and all you learned was that her name is Jasmine?”
“That’s right.”
“Why didn’t you ask her anything else?”
“Because she was scared, crying, hungry and tired, I figured the interrogation could wait until morning. She wasn’t threatening or hostile, so I let her sleep. Now unless you have any more objections, I’ll go ahead and grab her. Sarah, you think you could come with me?”
“Sure.” We walked out of the living room, and once we were out of earshot Sarah spoke quietly “Wow, a little testy this morning are we?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“You snapped at Liz.”
“I did not.”
She raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, you did.”
“I did?”
“Yeah.”
I shook my head, “Damn. I didn’t mean to I just…I just hate lying to them, and I don’t know how this is going to go over.”
“It’s ok. Don’t worry, I have your back,” she smiled.
“Oh well then everything’s going to be just fine, now that I have the mighty Sarah watching over things,” I said sarcastically.
“You’re damn right,” she said confidently, I smiled. “So,” she said as we neared the bedroom door, “Why did you need me?”
“You mean other than to make sure everything turns out just fine?”
“Yeah, other than that.”
“Well, she trusts you, not me. She’ll feel better with you there.”
“I guess.”
“You played the part of concerned mother pretty well last night.”
She darkened, “I wasn’t playing, but that was before I knew who she was.”
“Very little has changed since last night,” I pointed out.
“Except that, she might want to kill you. Remember?”
“How could I forget?” I sighed and knocked on the door.
There was no response, so I knocked again, this time receiving a small, muted, “Come in.”
I smiled as warmly as I could and said, “Good morning Jasmine. How are you feeling?”
“Ok I guess,” she said meekly. She was still in bed, but I noticed that she was dressed and that the plate of food she was brought much earlier was completely gone.
“Good. Well, I don’t mean to rush you, but everyone is waiting to meet you.”
“Oh,” she said quietly.
“Yeah, we haven’t had much contact with other survivors, so they’re pretty excited to see you.” Ok, so that was a small lie. We had had plenty of contact with others, just not very friendly contact, and I didn’t know if anyone was excited to meet her.
“Well then, we shouldn’t keep them waiting should we?” she said suddenly becoming more cheerful.
She stood, and her legs nearly gave out. I moved forward to steady her “Are you ok?” I asked with genuine concern.
“Yeah, I’ll be ok,” she said looking into my eyes and smiling.
I smiled back and let her get her legs under her. After steadying herself, she walked towards the door, and I glanced at Sarah who was glaring at me. “What?”
She shook her head “Nothing,” and turned to leave.
Red flag, red flag, I thought as I followed her out of the room, You just fucked up Ryan. Better figure out how.
Back in the living room, Jasmine was making her way around the room introducing herself. If she was aware of the minor hostility in some of the girl's greetings, it didn’t bother her, or at least she pretended it didn’t. “So Jasmine,” I said once everything had settled down, “Do you think you could tell us your story?”
“My story?”
“Yeah. How you got here. Where you were before. Maybe even where you were before all hell broke loose and the dead started walking around.”
“Oh yeah, sure,” she said. What she said and didn’t say next would be important. If she left anything out or just lied to us then I know she might be a threat. I was willing to keep an open mind, but I don’t think
I could trust her if she lied to me about being Luke’s camp or being with George. “I guess I’ll just start at the beginning.”
“I’ve been told that’s the best place to start,” I said smiling. I wanted her to feel at ease, lessening her need to lie.
She smiled and started her story. “I lived with my mom and dad in Florida, but I guess it all started in California. I was visiting friends at the University of California at Berkley. Anyways, we were out at a party at a frat house when this girl started to shake and throw up everywhere. It was so gross. I didn’t know her, but one of my friends did. Everyone figured that she’d just drank too much and so two guys put her in a bedroom and left her there to sleep it off. But she didn’t sleep because she came out a few hours later and the first thing she did was attack one of the guys. Bit him right on the neck. There was so much blood. Another guy, my friend’s boyfriend, pulled her off of him and he got bit too, on his wrist. It took three guys to hold her still while they called the cops. Me and my two friends left before the cops and ambulance showed up. We left to take my friend's boyfriend to the hospital. He didn’t want to go but Amanda, my friend, wouldn’t take no for an answer. We got to the hospital, and we had to wait in the waiting room for a long time. They said they were having an unusual number of emergencies that night, lots of fights. So after Brice finally got to see the doctor, he got his wrist stitched up, and we left. The night was pretty much ruined, so we decided to go back to the house and just watch a movie. Halfway through The Notebook Brice started complaining about being hot. He had a really high temperature, like a hundred and three, so we took him back to the hospital. They admitted him, and we spent some time in his room until he got worse. He started shaking and throwing up like the girl at the party, and then he started coughing up blood. Amanda got some all over her face and in her eyes. They sent us out of the room and, after they stabilized him, told us that there was nothing we could do and that they would call if anything happened. So we went home. It was like almost four in the morning, so I went to bed. I didn’t get to sleep for very long cause I was woken up by Amanda banging on the bedroom door. I was sharing a bed with Crystal, my other friend, and she woke up too. She must have been banging really hard cause we both sleep with earplugs in. I noticed a bunch of sirens going off outside, but Amanda’s banging distracted me. We opened the door, and Amanda came bursting in, tackling Crystal and knocking her down. I tried to pull her off, but she was too strong, too determined. She ripped into Crystal’s throat like a dog. I screamed and ran out of the house. The streets weren’t any better. People were running everywhere, some being chased, some doing the chasing. Police cars were whipping by, and I thought I saw a fire ways away. Anyways, I was just standing there crying, I think I was in shock when this guy starts making his way towards me. First I thought he was coming after me like Amanda, but then he held his hands up and said, “Hey you’re Jasmine right?” I nodded, still crying and he got closer. “I’m not going to hurt you. Are you ok?” I shook my head back and forth “It’s not safe out here,” he said “Come with me” and before I could object he grabbed my hand and headed toward a house down the road a bit. The pair of us drew the attention of some people in the street, and they started coming after us. We ran for about a block before getting into his house. He slammed the door shut and locked it just before there was a loud bang on the door and what sounded like fingernails scraping on the wood. I screamed, but he smiled, saying, “I’m Cory.” I tried to smile back, but then some glass broke somewhere, and I screamed again “They’re breaking the windows, come on we should get upstairs.” I asked him what was upstairs and he said, “My room, it’s got a lock on the door. It’ll be safer.” I agreed, and we ran up the stairs, the sounds of more breaking glass following us upward. We locked his door and sat in silence, listening to the sirens, bangs and breaking glass for a long time. I was listening for footsteps on the stairs. We were quiet for a bit before I couldn’t take it anymore and choked out “What the fuck is happening?” “I don’t know,” he said, “but it’s nothing good.” “Yeah no shit,” I told him angrily, tears still streaming down my cheeks. “Hey,” he said calmly, “Everything’s going to be ok.” I think his calm attitude made me even angrier because before I knew it, I was shouting at him “I just saw my best friend bite my other friend's throat, like a fucking animal. So no everything is not going to be fucking ok.” She was crying now, her story bringing up long-buried emotions. Sarah sat next to her and put her arm around her, and the hard expressions on many of the girls faces softened. They couldn’t be hostile towards her while she was so obviously upset. Liz produced some tissues and handed them to Jasmine “Thank you,” she sniffed.
I decided that it might be a good time for a break, so I stood, “Ok guys. Break time. We all have some chores to do, and I’m starving so let’s take care of that stuff before we go any further, ok?” They agreed, and we broke apart to take care of our individual obligations. After quickly eating and asking Liz to show Jasmine around I made a beeline for the bathroom with some hot water and soap. I washed the best I could and threw on a pair of clean clothes. Putting the dirty clothes in a growing pile on the floor I walked over to my bed. I took off the piles of blankets and folded them. I was about to start stripping the sheets when Sarah walked in. She had had the same idea as me and had washed up. She smelled of mint, and it made me smile. “I’ve got to wash the sheets,” I said as I threw one onto the pile.
“How about we burn them,” she said in a way that made me unsure if she was joking or not.
I chuckled and finished stripping the bed, asking, “So what do you think of her story so far?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know. It’s not like we could tell if she was lying or not. Seems like she’s telling the truth.”
“Yeah, I think she is, especially with the way she reacted to the memories.”
“You mean the crying?”
“Not just the crying. Did you see her hands when she mentioned the first attack?” She shook her head “They were balled into fists and pale white. She probably has fingernail marks on her palms she was squeezing so tight. You can’t fake that, not easily anyway.”
“I guess,” she said helping me put a new fitted sheet on the bed. “Hey,” she changed topics, “where did you go instead of coming back to bed?”
“I went for a walk.”
Her face darkened, “Did you go outside the fence?”
“No,” I said hopefully.
“James Ryan!”
“Ok, yeah. I left, but I was completely safe. I had my gun and didn’t run into any trouble, or at least I don’t think I did.”
“What do you mean you don’t think you did?”
“Well, first I ran into a herd of elk that were still bedded down. I’ll have to look on a map of the area and mark where I ran into them, it’ll be good to go back there for some fresh meat. It was after running into the elk that something…odd happened.”
“What?” she said almost accusingly.
“I don’t know. Something was watching me.”
“A Walker?”
“No, no way. A Walker wouldn’t have just watched. No, it was defiantly alive.”
“A survivor?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Too good at concealing its movements, it was too quiet.”
“So you think it was an animal then?”
“Yeah but I don’t know what.”
“Bobcat?”
“No, it wouldn’t have followed me. Once it saw I was bigger it would have more than likely ran away.”
“It followed you?” she said angrily as if it was my fault.
“Only for a bit, but it doesn’t matter.”
“And why not?”
“Because I never felt like I was in danger like whatever was following me didn’t mean me any harm, it was just curious.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Well, thanks.”
She threw
a pillow at me, which I caught. “Next time you decide to do something dumb like leaving the fenced area alone just do me a favor and don’t tell me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She threw another pillow at me, and I allowed it to hit me square in the face, just to make her feel a little bit better. As the pillow dropped she started laughing and I smiled. God, I loved her laugh. We finished making the bed, and I was tempted to test the new sheets with a quick nap but decided against it. I’d only be more tired after a nap, and it would be worth so much more to just wait until bedtime.
As I walked back to the living room, I ran into Michael as he walked out of the guy’s room yawning. “Hey, what are you doing up?”
“Hungry. Couldn’t sleep anymore.”
“Well, there’s food in the kitchen. If you want bread, you’ll have to wait until Liz finished baking it.”
“That’s ok, I’ll be good with canned stuff.”
“Plenty of that.”
“So I’ve noticed. What been going on while I’ve been sleeping?”
“Just been listening to Jasmine’s story.”
“Oh yeah? How’s that going so far?” I filled him in on what Jasmine had told us while he ate a few cans of fruit and some jerky. “What do you think so far?” he asked me.
“Seems legit. Her reactions weren’t something she could easily fake.”
“Good, maybe she won’t be any trouble after all.”
“I don’t know about that, but I’m hoping so.” At that moment Liz and Jasmine came walking inside carrying a large platter stacked with several loaves of fresh bread. I moaned at the delicious smell that reached my nose and reached for a loaf. Liz swatted way my hand. “Hey,” I protested.
“Wait until it cools,” she chastised me.
“Fine,” I said turning my attention to Jasmine who was smiling at me. “You think you might be up to continuing your story?”
Survivors Series (Book 2): Heroes Never Die Page 22