by Kate L. Mary
It’s slower this time than it was before, less urgent and desperate. It isn’t about forgetting the horror that’s going on—although it does that too—but this time it’s more about celebrating life and the fact that we got away when we had little hope that we would.
This round I finish ahead of him, tightening my legs’ grip on his waist as my back arches off the bed. Gasping into his mouth while he continues to move, driving me into a frenzy that makes it impossible to catch my breath. He’s right behind me, though, his body shuddering against mine only seconds later as he tucks his face into the crook of my neck.
When he rolls off me he’s gasping, and so am I.
I scoot closer to him and lay my head on his damp chest. My hair sticks to my face and the back of my neck, and no matter how hard I try to brush it aside I can’t get it all. Like it’s been glued to my skin.
“I can’t believe I had the energy for that,” he says.
“Magnum is going to be worn out tomorrow.”
“Magnum?” Curiosity and amusement coat the word.
“I named him,” I say, grinning into his chest.
He lets out a deep laugh that vibrates against my head. “I like it.”
“I figured you would.” I close my eyes, the exhaustion seeping back inside me now that we’re done. “Honestly, I don’t know how you walk around with that thing.”
“You mean without making other guys die of envy?” he whispers, sounding once again half asleep.
“Yeah.”
Literally seconds later, Riley’s breathing is heavier.
How the hell did he do that?
Even though I’m tired I lay awake, staring into the dark, unfamiliar corners of the room. It’s hard to sleep with the world gone to shit like this, but I should try. I know I should. Maybe being with Riley will keep the dreams away. We slept on that desk in my old English class and I didn’t have any dreams. Maybe he’ll help me forget in sleep just like he does during the day.
Maybe…
The mattress shifts, causing the bed to groan, and I crack one eye. Instantly, I regret it. The sun shining through the windows is so bright you’d think the house was built on the surface of the sun.
I pull the covers over my face. “Why is it so bright?”
“No blinds on the windows,” Riley says. “Probably a farmer thing. They get up pretty early.”
The floorboards groan under the weight of his footsteps and I peak out to see what he’s doing. His pants are already on, and as I watch he pulls his shirt over his head. His dark hair is messy from sleep, but he looks a lot more rested than he did yesterday. He must have slept well. I did too, if I’m being honest. No dreams. Almost like Riley is a good luck charm or has some kind of voodoo magic talisman that keeps the ghosts away at night.
He heads for the door and I throw the covers off, braving the bright morning. “Where are you going?”
“To check on Jim and Tori.” Riley grabs the bat that’s leaning against the wall. “He was supposed to wake me up so I could take a turn standing guard.”
My stomach clenches. Shit. Did something happen to them while we slept?
When I bolt out of bed the blankets fall away, and despite Riley’s tense expression, his gaze sweeps over my breasts. He’s still looking at me when he tries to turn the knob, and even though he struggles to get it open I know it isn’t because I’m naked. I mean, I’d like to think my body is mind-blowing enough to render men incapable of preforming simply tasks, but I know it’s not. The doorknob, like the rest of the house, is old and sticks.
Riley finally manages to get the door open and is heading down the hall as I pull my dress over my head. I hurry to the door, not bothering with my filthy underwear.
Riley’s footsteps creak against the stairs on his way down, and my heart pounds so hard it thumps against my ribs. I’m close on his heels, and thankfully we haven’t made it far before Tori’s soft laughter breaks the silence. Thank God. Riley shoots me a relieved look, and together we jog down the stairs.
Jim and Tori are standing in the middle of the kitchen, cooking. I blink, trying to figure out how they managed it since I know there’s no electricity or gas, but it still takes a moment for it to really sink in. They have a camping stove set up on the counter, and on it sits a skillet and a metal coffee pot. It all looks pretty old, but I’m not going to complain.
“You were supposed to wake me,” Riley says, letting out a deep sigh as he sets the bat down.
“No big deal.” Jim flips the sizzling sausage patties one by one, his gaze focused on the skillet. “I don’t need a lot of sleep and you were up for a while. I can nap later.”
“Is that sausage?” I ask, licking my lips. Last night all I got was some dry cereal, and the smell of cooking meat makes my mouth water.
“Found it in the freezer,” Jim answers.
Tori picks up the coffee pot and carries it to the other counter where four mugs sit waiting. “Looks like the electricity hasn’t been out for long here, because most of the stuff in there is still good. Assuming we can use it in the next day or two.”
“Or get a generator,” Jim adds.
Riley leans against the counter and tilts his head toward the stove. “Where’d the camping stove come from?”
“We found a storage closet under the stairs.” Tori pours coffee into a mug, then hands it to Riley. “They have a ton of camping stuff. It’s probably from the early nineties, but it will be useful.”
“Only there isn’t much propane left for this stove.” Jim scoops the sausage patties out of the skillet and plops them onto a plate. “We’ll have to see if we can find more somewhere. I think if we went through this place we’d be surprised at what we could find that would be useful. These were simple people who didn’t have all the modern technology the rest of the world had come to depend on. No computer or wifi here, no iPads. It may be beneficial to us.”
Tori hands me a mug and I inhale the rich scent of the coffee. This was one thing the school did not have.
“We found a cellar lined with jars,” Tori says. “Seems they canned their own food. I’d also be willing to bet they have chickens and other animals out in the barn.”
“Looks like we got off at the right exit,” Riley replies thoughtfully.
He takes a sip of his coffee, then presses his lips together like he’s trying to work something out. Maybe he’s making a mental list of the things we need. I know I am.
“We only found the one gun last night, but now that the sun is up we should look for more. There’s a good chance this man was a hunter, and it’s possible he has some hunting gear too.”
Jim turns, holding a plate piled high with sausage. “Let’s go on out to the dining room. There’s something I’d like to run by you.”
We move out, and even though I have no reason to be worried, my stomach clenches from the uncertainty. Is he thinking of not going down to the Keys? I think it would be a bad decision. We aren’t that secluded here and this farm won’t provide us with much protection. Sure there are fences around it, but they won’t last forever and they won’t stop people from wandering through. I don’t like it.
We sit around the table, and even though my stomach is uneasy I take the sausage Jim offers me. It’s greasy and hot, but tastes delicious when I bite into it. I almost moan in pleasure.
“What’s on your mind?” Riley asks, ignoring the sausage.
Jim pushes the plate into the middle of the table and scratches at his beard. “I was thinking it would be a good idea to hang out here for a bit.” Riley frowns, but Jim raises his hand. “Just for a few days. We could gather supplies and take our time loading up. Maybe find a trailer to pull since the SUV has a hitch. We’ll gather some cans of gas so we don’t have to stop and siphon along the way, and hopefully make it to the Keys without stopping except to pee and refuel.”
Riley’s still frowning, but he nods. “Might not be a bad idea. I think we should limit it to two days, though. The longer we wai
t the more desperate people are likely to get, which means we could run into trouble.”
“Very true.” Jim picks up a sausage and takes a bite, sinking his teeth into it slowly like he’s savoring it, but I have feeling he’s just thinking things through.
“I found a phone book and I think I figured out where we are,” Tori says. “If I’m right, there’s a town not too far. It seems small, but there’s still a Wal-Mart and a couple drug stores. Even a small hardware store.”
“No place to find guns? A place to buy hunting or fishing gear, something like that?” I ask hopefully.
“Not that I could find.” Tori shakes her head.
Damn.
“We can check surrounding houses,” Jim says. “Bound to be something.”
We spend the day planning. Going through every closet, drawer, and cabinet in the house. Filling boxes—thankfully these people seemed to have had some hoarding tendencies and there are tons of them in the basement—with jars of green beans, beats, peaches, corn, several different kinds of beans, as well as some homemade pickles. To name a few. Whether they were preparing for the apocalypse or just had more vegetables than they knew what to do with is hard to say, but it works out for us.
Before afternoon has moved into evening, we have such a big pile of stuff by the front door that there’s no way we’d ever be able to fit it in the SUV. We have to find a trailer.
“They could have one, you know.” Riley wipes his sweaty brow and lets out a deep breath. Despite the good night’s sleep we got, he looks exhausted again. “Who knows what’s in that barn.”
“You have a good point.” Jim scratches at his beard again and I find myself wondering if he’s not used to it. Did he have it when we arrived at the school that first day? I can’t remember. “I’d like to take a look at the well too. I have a feeling that if I could get my hands on a generator in town tomorrow, I could get the water running. I wouldn’t want to waste too much power on it, but if we could just keep it on long enough for each of us to get clean it would be helpful.”
I’m all for the idea, and Tori seems to be too because she grabs Jim’s hand and gives it a squeeze while she beams up at him.
“Well, no time like the present then,” Riley says, stretching. “Let’s get another solid hour of work in before we have dinner, then once the sun goes down we can plan for tomorrow. Make a list of what we need to do and what supplies we need to look for.”
“I’ll have to decline,” I say, wiggling my toes as I point at my feet. “No shoes, remember?”
The woman who lived in this house had insanely small feet, which is no help to me and my size nines.
Riley plants a kiss on the side of my head as he moves to the door. “We’ll be back.”
“I’ll go through the office since we haven’t done that yet.”
The others head out and I move into the office. It’s a small room that’s insanely cluttered with papers and books, most of which will be useless. But still, I pack a box with some of the classics that line the shelves. Books I’d always meant to read but had never gotten around to, like Of Mice and Men, Jane Eyre, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Treasure Island, along with a handful of my favorites. Someone in this house loved the classics. Other than that, the office is a dead end, so I carry the box back out to the living room and set it on top of the others.
A picture catches my eye and I scoop it up. It was probably taken in the seventies and the couple in it is young. Smiling. She wears a simple white dress and the man has on a pair of black pants with a white shirt, as well as a tie with a hideous paisley pattern on it. They’re standing in front of a building that can’t even be called a church really, more like a chapel, and the woman is holding a bunch of wild flowers in her hands. They look like something that could have been picked from a field on the way to the church that morning.
The couple looks thrilled to be starting their new life, like the world is full of promise and there’s nothing in their future but happiness. Little did they know. Little did any of us know.
Footsteps walk into the room at my back and I set the picture down. I know it’s Riley without having to look. Tori’s footsteps are softer and Jim has a quiet way of entering a room that goes with his laid-back personality.
“The owners,” I say, nodding toward the picture. “I wonder what happened to them.”
Riley crosses the room behind me. “Maybe they were in town when the virus hit. Or on vacation. It’s hard to say.”
“It’s strange how this thing spread. How the virus affected some of us but not others. Do you think it’s man made and someone created it that way?”
“I’m not sure I’m smart enough to even take a guess,” he says, stopping right behind me. The heat from his body warms my back.
He’s probably right. I know I’m not.
I lean my head back and when it rests against his chest, he pulls me closer, wrapping his arms around me. It’s incredible how safe his embrace makes me feel.
“Kyra, I know when we started this thing it was only—”
“A distraction,” I say, not wanting him to be able to get another word out. “We needed a distraction.”
He stiffens behind me, but only a second later relaxes. “Yeah.”
He knows the truth. That I’m lying. Lying to him and lying to myself. I barely know Riley, but I’m his now and he’s mine, as long as we both live. That may be years or it may be hours, but I know that I can’t even begin to think about parting ways with him now. Not after everything we’ve been through together.
When I turn my mouth finds his, the kiss is slower than ever before. Softer. He pulls me against him and his hands move down my back, and just like that, heat returns to my body. The pain inside me is like a dull ache, and all I can think about is how it will feel to have Riley ease the pain away.
“Where are Tori and Jim?” I ask against his lips.
He pulls back, grinning down at me. “I left them outside, but based on the expression on Tori’s face, I’d say we have a few minutes.”
I laugh as I slip my underwear off—or more accurately, the underwear I stole from the dresser upstairs. “It seems like there are only two things any of us can think about: survival and sex.”
“That’s because there’s nothing else to do.” Riley pulls his zipper down. “No TV anymore.”
I let out a little laugh, but he actually has a point.
I leave my dress on, and when Riley hoists me onto the table, he’s still wearing his shirt. As soon as I’m there his mouth goes back to mine. His hands slide up my thigh and under my skirt, making me shiver at the light touch.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” I say even though there’s something about just the touch of his hand that makes my legs tremble.
Riley grins down at me. “Is that your way of asking for Magnum?”
I roll my eyes and kiss him.
Chapter 7
We cook chicken on the grill for dinner. The breasts we were able to find in the freezer are still slightly frozen in the middle, and the family has a grill with plenty of extra charcoal. We even find a jar of what looks like homemade barbeque sauce. This woman made everything herself. If only she were around to show us how to do it all.
I sit on the back porch while Riley cooks. The sun moves lower in the sky, spreading its orange glow across the horizon. The sizzle of juice dripping off the chicken and onto the hot coals is one of the only sounds, and it strikes me how eerily quiet everything is. The lack of lights was what bugged me before, but now it’s the silence. No cars or airplanes or even a train in the distance to signal that there are other people around.
I shiver and wrap my arms around myself.
“You okay?” Riley asks.
“Yeah. It’s just so quiet. It’s creepy.”
Riley nods as he pierces a piece of chicken, inspecting it to see if it’s done. He flips it over one more time.
“I hear you. It really hit me how much has changed when we went out to the bar
n earlier. Talking about the animals with Jim and if we’d be able to transport them to the Keys with us, and how we’ll take care of them if we do. I don’t know the first thing about chickens or goats, and neither does he. It’s not like we can look it up on the Internet anymore. I feel lost just thinking about moving ahead and having to adjust to no technology.”
“Damn.” I pull my legs up and wrap my arms around them like if I can just hug my body close enough, I’ll be able to protect myself from reality. “We’re going to have to learn fast, aren’t we?”
“If we want to survive this, yes. We have all the supplies here and we’ll get more tomorrow when Jim and I go into town, and with the trailer we found back by the barn we should be able to haul a lot of stuff with us. But it won’t last forever, and we’re going to have to work hard to keep ahead of it all.”
“Yeah…”
We go silent as Riley finishes cooking.
Once the food is done, the four of us gather in the dining room to eat. We have the chicken and some corn on the cob we found in the freezer, as well as the last little bit of bread in the house. It could be the last bread we have for a very long time. I don’t know how to make it and I doubt Tori does either, and without an oven I’m even more lost. Soon, all the bread in the stores will be moldy.
The future looks bleaker with each passing hour.
“Tomorrow Riley and I will head into town and see what supplies we can load up on,” Jim says between bites of corn. He sounds more like he’s thinking out loud than talking to the rest of us. “Water and weapons are going to be our priority at the moment, but we’re going to grab anything we think might be useful. Antibiotics, first aid stuff, extra shoes for all of us. Any survival gear we can find will be helpful down the road.”
“When do we head for the Keys?” Tori asks.
“If we can get everything loaded and ready to go, the day after tomorrow. I think I figured out how to take a few chickens, but the goats…” Jim shakes his head sadly. “Unless we get a second car and pull a second trailer, I just don’t see how we can do it.”