Matt nodded at Levi. “I healed Maya.”
The anomalies looked at each other in turn questioningly. They all knew about Maya by this time but what no one else knew besides Matt, Krista and Dennis was how bad Maya was by the time they had reached her. She had bled such a large amount while lying in the snow on that mountain road that Krista told Matt she wouldn’t make it back to the cabin in time to give birth before dying. When Matt laid his hands on Mayas belly, he could feel the distress of the baby as Mayas life force flowed from her. He and Maya were both covered in a few inches of snow by the time Matt had healed her torn and bleeding womb and gotten the babies levels back to normal. When he lifted Maya into his arms and carried her to the backseat of the hummer, she was completely unconscious, but breathing and on the path to recovery.
It was nearly noon before all of the men were able to get up and start moving around again and Lydia and Levi cooked them up a huge meal to prepare them all for the day ahead.
Everyone was still in a deep state of thought over this new information that Matt had shared and Matt had agreed with the anomalies to let them all attempt to heal a man’s wound before he did it. How else were they to learn if they had the ability? His men agreed to this as long as they weren’t allowed to die and this seemed agreeable to everyone involved.
Talking about Maya had brought thoughts of her into Matts mind. He wanted to be with her so very badly but had felt the need to take care of some things before spending time with her. His people needed him but soon he would be able to be gone for longer periods of time while others kept things running smoothly. He wasn’t ready to bring her to the compound yet and share her with everyone else. He wanted some time to create a normal family with her and Cade before bringing more people into her life. It was for his own selfish reasons but he also knew that he had a lot of explaining to do and he still hadn’t decided how much he would tell her at first.
Before starting their planning session for the daytime attack, everyone took some time to mourn the man they had lost. Matt had not known him well but had known him to be fiercely loyal and he planned on avenging the man’s murder to the fullest extent.
Levi, Max and Tina had put together a map of the city and marked the buildings that the freaks preferred for their daytime slumber. They seemed to be split off into groups, or communities if you will. They would come together at night and scour the city together looking for food but during the day they would group off and go with their chosen members to a certain building.
The females had taken to staying close to these buildings at night time and kept the young with them while the men would venture further out in their searches for sustenance. It was only a matter of time before they made it to the forests and mountains beyond the city in their search for food and the concern was that they would start to relocate further and further outside of the city. If they were allowed to continue to breed and grow this way, the remaining human population would be overrun very quickly. It was a scary thought considering the humans had not been able to reproduce yet while the freaks were having no issues with it. The females were almost always pregnant and hordes of little ones crawled around at their feet crying and squabbling.
They decided to start small with only hitting one building today and then would decide if they had time to hit another building before night fell.
Matt and his men loaded their gear back into the hummer while Levi, Max and Tina loaded up their jeep wrangler. It was Tina’s favorite ride because the top was off and she could ride standing up in the back seat and act as the spotter and sniper if needed.
The sun was high in the sky as they headed towards the first building with Levi driving the jeep in front and leading the way. The commercial buildings that the Freaks liked to hide out in were on the east side of town where the blast from the exploding nuclear plant hadn’t turned every building into dust and rubble. The buildings were still in rough shape with all of the windows blasted out, chunks missing from the walls and some with the roofs completely caved in and only half walls still standing.
The Freaks building of choice today that they would hit used to be condos. Matt found it interesting that these creatures were gravitating to places where they may have used to live. Once they got the population down to a manageable level, he planned on studying the creatures more thoroughly to learn more about their abilities and how far removed from being human they really were.
As they rounded the corner of a hospital building, Levi came to a screeching halt in front of Matt and they only avoided a collision because of Matt’s instinct kicking in as soon as he heard Levis thoughts about stopping. Max’s panicked thoughts came through loud and clear as he saw the group of men coming out the front door of the hospital.
Matt climbed quietly out of the hummer and told his men to stay quiet and walked up to the jeep. Levi, Max and Tina were watching the front of the hospital intensely as more men came out carrying supplies and others went in. The group of men had a couple of military vehicles with them that were laden with gas tanks, tools, crates and other various items strapped to every surface possible. The men were all dressed in military gear and carried a lot of weaponry. Matt and Levi exchanged thoughts quickly and put together a plan.
Climbing back into the hummer, he apprised the men of the situation and they all quickly and quietly geared up and prepared for some stealthy surveillance of the men and their movements.
Pairing off, half of the group began to flank the building to see if anyone else was on other sides of the building and the other half found a back door to sneak inside.
Matt paired up with one of his men and went inside along with Max and another of his men. Levi and Tina paired off outside and left one of the Matts men to watch the vehicles.
Matt had a good advantage of being able to talk telepathically to Levi, Max and Tina and keep a status on all that they were seeing.
Creeping down a main corridor, Matt could hear the men before he saw them. They were in the cafeteria gathering up as much food as was still edible. He heard their discussion as he got closer and they seemed to be talking about the different women in their group and whom each man hoped to pair up with. Their talk led him to believe that their group of people was quite large and the majority of the group was holed up in some houses outside of town waiting for the men to return so they could regroup and plan their next move.
Matt watched quietly for several minutes while they filled boxes with canned and packaged goods, and then heard them gasp and grunt when they opened the walk-in freezer and were met with the stench of rotted food.
He heard the screams and shots before the other men did but he held still while they ran off down the hall before following them. Matt’s man followed closely behind him, keeping an eye on their rear so no one could sneak up on them.
As they followed the screams and gunshots further into the belly of the hospital, the hallways became darker as the windows became less abundant and smaller. Matt knew what they would find and he sent his thoughts out to the others that they might need backup.
They rounded the corner and were met with a wall of men and Freaks screaming, tearing, shooting, running, bleeding, dying. It was mass pandemonium as more of the military men rounded into the area from other corridors and were met with the fury of the Freaks woken from their slumber. Just as Matt was going to give the order to his man that they were going to step in and help the military men, he heard Tina and Levi outside as they were met with gunfire from the military men that were waiting outside. These men were not taking kindly to meeting other humans and had opened fire without question.
Matt watched the scene in front of him torn for a few before turning around and heading outside with his man to help his people. He didn’t like to leave those men to certain death but it seemed that they were going to be a threat to his people and he couldn’t let any of his people be killed in his absence.
They burst through a side door into the bright sunlight and while his man fought to adjust his vision
to the light, Matt could see immediately and was met with another battle happening outside. Yelling to all of his men he could see and communicating telepathically, he ordered everyone to retreat to the vehicles.
As the injured military men that had survived the freak ambush began coming out of the doors of the hospital screaming for help, they were able to run out of the view of the men outside while they were distracted.
As they rounded the corner of the adjacent building out of view of the hospital, Matt looked back in time to see a man come out the side door with a large gash down his cheek. He immediately recognized the father of Cade and skidded to a stop just around the corner so he could watch this man’s movements. Feelings of jealousy swirled through him before he could stop them and he immediately felt Levis questions to the unchecked emotions.
Matt silenced his thoughts and watched the man quietly while the rest of his people ran back to the vehicles. The man stopped outside of the door and was observing the scene around him. He began yelling to the uninjured men to grab more ammo and get back inside to help the others. One man ran over to him with a med kit and tried to place a cloth on his face to stop the bleeding and he swatted the man away annoyed. “John, go help the others, I’ll be alright but our men are getting slaughtered in there!” “Yes Sir” replied the other man as he hurriedly dropped the med kit and immediately ran back inside.
Matt retreated and ran back to the vehicles and was met with questioning faces. Matt looked at each person in turn before deciding what to do next. “These men are from the compounds that the government created before the virus wiped everyone out. They are dressed in military gear and are carrying a lot of military weaponry, but they are not trained. We will have to consider them dangerous until we can gather more information.”
“We tried to help them by letting them know that their men were in danger inside but they just started firing at us.” Tina exclaimed. She was high on adrenaline and Matt could see a hole in the thigh of her pants where she had been shot and then quickly healed. Everyone else looked to be unharmed otherwise.
“Let’s load up and head back to the castle. We can track them easily by their tire tracks after they’ve left the area but we need a plan first.”
Everyone nodded and climbed back into the hummer and Jeep. The ride home was quiet in the vehicles but full of mental activity between Matt, Levi, Max and Tina. They would need to do a recon with maybe 2 people to track these men to their current hiding place and to see what they were up to. Matt knew that enough of the men had encountered his people and would be telling their leader about it. He didn’t think that the leader would be extending a cordial invitation to meet anytime soon and instead felt that any future run-ins would be more hostile than friendly.
Matt shut off his mind as thoughts of Maya crept in. She had talked very little about her time in the compound and the father of Cade. He knew that Cade’s father was the one that had released the virus in the facility to kill off the weak and Maya had no intentions of reconciliation with him after his cruel actions. But he still couldn’t stop the feelings of jealousy. He would have to work on that, there was no room for jealousy in this world. It would only lead to worse things.
Chapter 24 – Love never left – Present Day
A couple of weeks had passed when Maya awoke to the rumbling coming down her driveway. Matt was back! She lay still and silent while she strained to hear his every movement. The crunch of boots in the snow and a key in the lock let her know when he made it inside the house and she heard several items drop to the floor and the zipper of his jacket as he took it off. She felt him enter the bedroom quietly and she lay silent not sure whether to pretend to be asleep or to let him know she was awake until he slipped into bed beside her and she rolled over towards him quickly. They lay on their sides staring at each other for a few minutes before Matt reached over and gently cupped her face in his hand.
“Maya, I’ve never stopped loving you.” Matt cut off her reply with a kiss and she forgot what she was going to say as her body responded to his touch and his lips upon hers.
They made love as the moonlight played across their bodies and her baby slept soundly in his bassinet beside them. It was the most intense and emotional interaction they had both ever encountered and they lay quietly together afterwards void of words or thoughts.
She woke with a start the next morning unable to remember falling asleep or if they had even talked after their night of passion. The bed was empty next to her and she slid her hand over the spot where Matt had been and could still feel the warmth.
She could hear him in the next room preparing the coffee and she looked over to find Cade watching her. He smiled when he realized he had her attention and she laughed at his excited expression at the idea of getting breakfast. Of course his breakfast was her boob so it wasn’t nearly as exciting for her considering her breasts were still sore and swollen from last night’s activities.
She tied her robe around her and lifted Cade out of the bassinet before heading into the other room to face Matt. Her mind was swirling with questions and emotions and she could hardly keep herself from crying happy tears at knowing that he still loved her.
When she walked into the other room, Matt looked up and their eyes locked and all of her questions were answered when she saw his open expression of love and happiness. She ran to him and he threw his arms around her and Cade and held her quietly while she cried. All the years of pain and emptiness flowed out of her as he stroked her hair lightly and held her.
When she was able to pull herself together, she laughed and wiped her face self-consciously and began to breastfeed Cade while Matt busied himself with making breakfast.
He slid in the seat across from her as he set their plates on the table and smiled at her.
“I’m sorry I was so difficult when I was here before. I got the riot act from Krista the entire ride home.” He exclaimed and Maya burst out with surprised laughter.
“I couldn’t tell if you still cared for me and I was so afraid of being hurt.” He said quietly. Maya put her hand over his. “I know” she replied. “We were both afraid of being hurt even though I’ve spent our years apart telling myself what a fool I was for walking away from what we had. And then I have you in front of me and I didn’t know what to do.”
“No Maya” Matt replied, “You had every right to walk away. I was young and scared and reacted so badly. You had no idea that underneath it all, I was excited. Excited to be a father and to have a family with you, but terrified that I wouldn’t be good enough.”
“We would have made it work together. I realize that now.” Maya said solemnly.
“Yes, we would have. But fate had other plans.” Matt replied as he looked sadly at Maya.
“But look now, we have a second chance. And how many people get a second chance like this?” and he looked pointedly at Cade who was happily suckling away on Mayas breast. She blushed despite herself and tried to cover herself a little more.
“Of course he will have to learn to share now that I’m back.” And Maya laughed at the unexpected statement and smiled happily at Matt. Never in a million years had she expected the outcome to be like this, but she had wished for it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Their days were filled with bliss and happiness as they quickly began acting like a cohesive family. Dennis still joined them for dinners every evening and some days he would come over and help Matt with a project around the house.
One day when Maya awoke and walked into the kitchen with Cade, she saw another jeep sitting in the driveway with Dennis’ head under the hood while he happily tinkered away. Matt handed her a cup of coffee and smiled “You can’t be without your own vehicle and Dennis was more than happy to get it running in tip-top shape.”
Maya hugged Matt fiercely and later thanked Dennis with a kiss on the cheek which made him blush a brilliant shade of crimson.
Maya didn’t know how long Matt would stay but she didn’t care. She immersed herself in the moment and didn’t question him when he disappeared for periods of time to his hummer. Buddy was always there with Dennis now and Cade found him quite entertaining. She would lay Cade on the floor on a blanket and Buddy would creep over next to him and cover his face with kisses while Cade giggled and squealed with delight. It was truly an amusing sight and Maya couldn’t keep from laughing along with Cade.
The snow and cold was giving way to the warmth of spring and buds of flowers and leaves began to sprout all around. The stream gurgled happily past the driveway again and bits of green could be seen as the grass came back to live.
When it seemed that the nights of frost were over, Maya brought out the array of seeds that she had scrounged up on her many trips to various stores and houses. The three adults built a magnificent garden together in the span of one day while doggie and baby laid happily in the yard watching and playing with each other. Maya couldn’t wait for the fresh vegetables and herbs to present themselves so she could make some homemade soup and stirfrys!
Matt and Dennis would venture out together some days to scout out more supplies at surrounding houses and one day when they returned Matt presented her with a backpack built for carrying a small child. She was delighted as she had begun taking her daily hikes again and Cade was growing too big to swaddle across her front. Cade was happy as well for now he could see up and above his moms head and his hands and feet could wave about happily with no restrictions.
Buddy nearly always joined them on their hikes and she enjoyed his silent presence.
One day while she was out hiking alone, she leaned down to smell a flower that was starting to bloom and heard the crack of a branch behind her.
She swirled around quickly and came nose to nose with a large deer. He was within inches of her face and seemed to be studying her quizzically. His eyes held a level of intelligence Maya had never before seen in a deer and even Cade was quiet as he took in this creature that he had never seen before.
After Days Page 11