by Leela Ash
She fell asleep uneasily, unable to trust her surroundings enough to rest. It had been a long time since she had to sleep with one ear open. She would just have to do her best to stay on her guard and head out as soon as the sun touched her face.
***
Jax woke up with the sun and headed outside, knowing that he had to get to Hex quickly. If Layne was suffering alone, he wouldn’t forgive himself. She meant everything to him.
The familiar path began to open up to him, and he slowed himself down, opting for caution. He dismounted the bike and hid it, walking slowly, deliberating every step. He felt deeply uncomfortable, unable to count how long it had been since he’d tried to get in touch with Tobi. With any luck, she would be able to break away from the group quickly to meet him. He had a whistle that he used to summon her when they were far away sometimes, and hopefully she would know it was him and be able to meet him in their usual spot.
He climbed into the tree and whistled, something mixed between a Robin and a bluebird. He usually waited there for about 20 minutes, but this time he was worried that Tobi could have left the tribe or that she was off doing something else. If that was the case, he would have to wait there for a long time, and he didn’t feel like he had a long time to wait.
But he was resolute about avoiding other tribes, and opted instead to occupy his mind the only way he could – with memories of Layne. The last time they’d been intimate together had been soon after he returned from the north. After that she had become surly and sick, though there were times when she would surprise him.
He’d been woken up in a fit of longing, and opened his eyes to realize that Layne’s soft hands were stroking his groin. She looked gorgeous in the moonlight, her clear eyes shining as she squeezed and tugged him, eliciting helpless grunts of pleasure from deep within him. The short sounds quickly turned into a full on moan when she leaned over, curling her hot tongue over the head of his penis and engulfing him in her wet mouth.
Jax shifted on the tree branch as his body began to awaken to the memory. It would be a long time before he would try to call for Tobi again, and he glanced around, making sure nobody could see him as he gripped his hard shaft in his hands, desperate for relief. It had been so long since she had been in a mood like that, but nothing turned him on more than the silver slope of her breasts, naked as she sucked on him. His shaft pulsed as he remembered her hard nipples pressing against his thigh as she bobbed her head, licking and fondling him until he erupted without warning right in her mouth.
Jax squeezed himself hard, groaning as his abdomen tingled. His palm filled with hot liquid and he wiped it off on the cloth he used as a handkerchief after he put himself away.
Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound and quickly looked down at the ground, worried that he had been spotted. His hand hovered over the knife he kept sheathed at his side, ready to attack, but then he sighed in relief. There was Tobi; her familiar bushel of curly, wild hair gleaming copper in the sunlight.
She looked up at him and a wide smile lit up her face. He smiled back at her and she climbed up into the tree with him, perching on her usual branch. They were able to relax there, completely concealed from anybody above and below.
“I seriously started thinking that you were dead or something,” she said, reaching over to slap him on the shoulder. He grinned at her and shook his head.
“Actually, I found someone and we’ve kind of settled down somewhere together.”
“You’re kidding me,” she exclaimed. “I bet that feels nice, having someone and somewhere to go all the time. If everybody had that there wouldn’t be so many stupid tribes.”
“How are things with you?” Jax asked her, grinning. It had been a while since he had had a conversation with anybody but Layne, and he hadn’t realized how much he missed his friend.
“Pretty much the same, except I broke up with Kelsey,” she said with a frown.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. You guys were doing so well last I heard,” Jax said, sincerely saddened.
“Yeah well, some people just are not compatible after a long amount of time,” she said with a shrug. Jax pursed his lips and silently hoped to himself that he and Layne would be exempted from this category.
“So how have you been staying busy?” he asked her.
“Actually, I have a new girlfriend now,” she said with a sly grin. “It’s someone I’ve had my eye on for a long time. Maybe you’ll remember her.”
“No way, you don’t mean Sam do you?”
Tobi bit her bottom lip, smiling and nodding proudly.
“I can’t believe that, it’s perfect,” Jax said, running his hands through his dark hair in relief. His mind fixed on the image of the no-nonsense woman with the caramel colored skin and deep brown eyes. She had been Tobi’s crush ever since she laid eyes on her, but Sam had always been obsessed with scribbling medical journals and collecting herbs. She was far too busy for relationships. She was determined to keep her knowledge alive and apply it however she could.
“What’s perfect?” Tobi asked, puzzled.
“Sam was the doctor here right?”
“Well she’s one of them. They started to prefer one of the guys they kidnapped from this other brainy tribe further west. Sam’s amazing but they don’t think a black woman can do the job, even though she’s gotten them this far. But I guess the new guy is pretty good at what he does.”
“Do you think Sam would be able to tell if somebody was pregnant?”
“Oh no, Jax. You didn’t!” Tobi said shaking her head in horror.
“What do you mean?” he asked, shirking away from Tobi, suddenly feeling as if he had done something very wrong.
“Who the hell would want to have kids in a world like this?” Tobi asked, sighing and shaking her head more slowly. “Most guys around here pull out, you know.”
Jax suddenly found his cheeks burning hot with embarrassment and irritation. Whose business was it if he wanted to have a family? It wasn’t exactly the conventional time and place to raise a family, but he knew that it would be all right if they just worked a little harder to make ends meet. That was something that he was willing to do.
“Where is your poor girl?” Tobi asked with a heavy sigh.
“A few days from here, but I cut the time down by biking. She’s been sick, and I’m worried that if she’s not pregnant, it’s something else.”
“I don’t know if Sam and I can go that far,” Tobi said, furrowing her eyebrows.
“All I need is one examination. I can’t bring her this far. I don’t think it’s safe to travel if she isn’t feeling well.”
Tobi put her hand over her face and groaned.
“Okay, you know what? I’ll see what I can do, but it’s possible that Sam hates you just as much as the other people at Hex do. If she was tainted by Shark Tooth’s propaganda, then how are we supposed to trust that she won’t turn you in? And me too for that matter?”
“I know it’s risky, I’m sorry,” Jax sighed.
“It’s more than risky! I mean honestly, there would be something in it for her. She could be reinstated as one of the main doctors here. She took it pretty hard when they started using that other guy.”
“Maybe that just means that she’ll be willing to listen to someone else’s reasoning. What if she’s mad at Shark Tooth too?”
“That is also really possible,” Tobi said with a grin. Jax smiled and gave her a halfhearted shrug.
“Can you at least just talked to her for me? I mean you do hold some sway over her after all.”
“That’s only because I’m good in bed,” Tobi said with a wink, and Jax laughed. They waved at each other before she headed down the tree.
“I’ll try to get you an answer as quickly as possible, okay? But if you don’t like what you hear then you need to get back home to your girl. None of the doctors around here are trustworthy enough to help you. Especially not if you have a good thing going. Don’t try anybody else if this doesn’t work. Just
hope for the best, okay? Don’t make me worry about you two.”
“All right,” Jax said with a nod. He would wait there until sunset, and find out for sure if he was able to find someone who could help Layne. But if Sam wouldn’t do it, at least he would know to head west to look for the group of brainiacs out that way.
CHAPTER FIVE
Layne looked around the town, her face drawn in sadness. She hated the ghostly feel of the deserted neighborhoods. She could always imagine what they would have been like when the residents were alive and happy, but those visions were quickly blurred away by the horrific side effects of the virus that had stricken them all down. Everybody was blindsided by the sickness, and when it first began nobody had a clue how devastating it would be.
Although she had survived, she had pangs of nausea whenever she thought about it. She could remember the way her family had suffered; the way they had begged for relief that they were unable to find. Death had seemed a mercy at that point.
What if her baby wasn’t immune? There were still traces of the virus all over the world. Even if everything were all sterilized, there were still groups of mournful, green-tinged carriers who had the weight of the world on their shoulders. They traveled in groups, many of them drinking and drugging themselves to death, unable to bear the guilt they felt from causing the collapse of civilization. Their minds circled with regrets. If only they hadn’t pulled the strings to be the first vaccinated. Now they were doomed to witness the destruction their immunity had caused for the rest of their lives.
If those bands of carriers ever passed through and touched the foods in the garden or coughed near them, they could find out the hard way that their child wasn’t immune. They would have to watch their baby suffer the way the rest of their families had suffered. It would be a fate worse than dying herself; to have a part of herself forced to succumb to the terrible illness.
She took a deep breath and headed into the first house that caught her eye. If she could find anything useful for a baby on the way so Jax wouldn’t have to keep leaving her, then she would do it. She didn’t want him to feel like he had to take care of her all the time. And if the baby wasn’t immune, there had to be some antibiotics around that would ease its suffering, if nothing else. A baby without immunity would be doomed to suffer. The people and cities were still infested; the virus wouldn’t go away that easily just because many people now were immune to the effects themselves.
When she walked into the house, she could tell that the people who had lived there had been happy. There were toys scattered on the floor and pictures of smiling faces; three children and two adults. She moved cautiously through the house, trying hard not to think about what had happened to the family or look at their pictures and belongings. She was there for one reason – to get supplies.
She began pushing doors open, looking for the bathroom. She would look for medical supplies first and foremost, and hope that there were still some left. At first, all she found were bedrooms, and then, to her dismay, a nursery. It had never been used. There were no pictures of babies; Layne gathered that the family had been expecting a new child.
Her eyes watered despite herself and she walked into the nursery, looking around and swallowing the lump in her throat as she touched the furniture. The baby had never gotten a chance to use all of this. The family was gone.
She would come back to root through the desolate little room later. Layne forced herself to leave the nursery and finally found the bathroom upstairs. She rummaged through the closets and cabinets, relieved to find that they had a little baby grooming kit. Thermometer, nail clippers, a fuzzy little brush all sealed in a hard plastic container beside a first aid kit that had a fuzzy white film over it. She passed over the first aid kit, careful not to touch it, and grabbed the plastic box of grooming supplies. And as she suspected, there were unfinished bottles of antibiotics, meant to preserve at least some semblance of dignity to the people who were diagnosed with the contagion. She grabbed the supplies and walked out of the bathroom numbly, closing the door behind her.
Layne felt dizzy all of a sudden; numb and scared. Her heart thudded and a familiar surge of nausea nearly brought her to her knees. She tried to hold it back but she couldn’t, and ran into the bathroom to unleash it into the toilet. She would have to rest for a little while. Her night on the ground hadn’t left her feeling particularly refreshed.
Layne didn’t want to be in the pleasant house full of promise and love. She didn’t want reminders of why she was there in the first place. If she was pregnant and not sick, why had she found such a place? Somewhere that reminded her of all the joy and love she would be missing out on if the virus stole her child?
She stumbled back down the hall to the nursery and sat down in the rocking chair beside the little crib, hugging her knees to her chest and allowing herself to cry bitterly. She succumbed to a flood of tears she felt like she had been holding back since the beginning of the end of civilization. She wept for the families who were killed by the virus, and for her own family; for Jax and for herself and their potential child.
She leaned her head back against the headrest of the rocking chair and exhaled out loud, closing her eyes and letting her weary body tug her into a deep sleep.
***
“Good news, Jax,” Tobi said, bounding up the tree. It was late afternoon and he had been waiting in the tree for a little over two hours. “Sam can’t stand Shark Tooth and wouldn’t care if we took off, just the two of us. So I casually introduced her to the idea of maybe helping you out. We’re going to try to do like you did, make it on our own you know? Start out with a trip to visit your little place. And we’ll have a head start. I told Shark Tooth I had some scavenging I wanted to do, just me and my lady. It’ll be a while before they realize we’re gone.”
She winked at Jax and he laughed, shaking his head in relief and disbelief.
“You mean she’ll make a house call for Layne?” Jax asked, his face lighting up.
“Yeah,” Tobi nodded. “She already packed up all her medical supplies. Whether your lady is sick or pregnant, Sam’s the best. She can help her. Though personally I’m hoping for the former, because that’s a lot easier to treat than 18 years with a kid who might drop dead just walking into the wrong area.”
“If Layne and I are both immune that shouldn’t be a problem,” Jax pointed out firmly. Tobi shrugged.
“We’ll see. I just don’t like the odds. It makes me glad I’m a lesbian. Not going to accidentally get knocked up and have to worry about that kind of shit, you know?”
“I guess so,” Jax said glumly.
But there was good news. Tobi had pulled through for him. He was suddenly patting himself on the back for dealing with Tobi’s incessant crush on Sam for so long. It had been persistent and mournful. At least, until she had met Kelsey and the two of them had stuck together like glue for the next few years. He wondered what could have driven a wedge between them; they had seemed so happy.
“Sam is going to meet us by the river. She already left so let’s get going. I told her it was kind of an emergency. I know it’s not like Layne’s dying or anything but you know, it’s better to get it checked out soon in case it is something serious. You’re not sick too are you?”
“Well…” Jax said, thinking back to the way he had thrown up after killing the two desperate wanderers. “I don’t think so.”
Tobi raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing. She turned away and headed as quickly as she could toward the river. She had remembered what Jax said and brought her own bike, which was risky, but Tobi was well known as a hard-ass around the area so she didn’t seem too concerned.
Jax followed along behind her. She never cut through the old neighborhood the way that he did; everybody in Hex had been told to avoid those places and they had become somewhat superstitious about it. That was how Jax knew that he was safe there and could always sleep soundly. They had looted the old buildings as much as they could and the only thing left the
re was nightmares.
They ran swiftly through the wooded area surrounding the neighborhood and Jax stayed as alert as possible. If anybody from Hex found out that Tobi was helping him, she could get into huge trouble. Fortunately, everybody seemed to be busy elsewhere, and they made it to the river in record time, where Sam was pacing in front of the water, a serene look on her face as she gazed into the trees.
“Hey,” Tobi said, running up to her.
“Hi,” Sam said with a smile. Jax wasn’t sure how it was possible but she somehow looked smarter, maybe older and more wizened, since the last time they’d seen each other.
“Hello,” Jax said, nodding at Sam.
“Long time no see,” Sam said with a smile.
“Yeah,” Jax said. “Thanks for agreeing to help me.”
“I’m mostly doing it for your girlfriend,” Sam said. “And mine. Besides, it’s not like you would have any clue what pregnant women go through.”
Jax frowned and Tobi laughed.
“Ease up, Sam,” she said. “Jax might have gotten her into this mess but he knows he will have to help her out as much as he can.”
“Well that’s why you brought me here,” Sam said, hoisting her bag over her shoulder. She had left it on the ground while she was waiting for them to show up, knowing it would conserve her energy. “Let’s go.”
Jax felt nervous about showing anybody the secret land that he and Layne had found and settled. Even though he trusted Tobi with his life, he still wasn’t sure about Sam.
“I don’t want you guys telling anybody about where we live, all right? We’ve worked really hard to set this place up for ourselves.”
“Don’t worry. We have our own lives to live,” Sam said.
“We’ll give you guys some beer, okay? Just to call it even. This stays between us. I mean it. I’ll do anything to protect my family.”