by Lake, D. K.
"Hey, you're up." Lane cleared his throat.
"The sun woke me up." I lied. "What time is it?"
"I think it's just gone nine, we all overslept." Lane replied.
It didn't feel like it though, it felt like I had been woken up too soon. Josh finished his conversation with Tobias and came over to Lane and me.
"We're going to start making a move in a bit. Make sure you grab a sleeping bag and any spare clothes you need." Josh said.
I looked at my pink bag with daisies and thought about trading it in for one of the plain black rucksacks that were on the shelf but then I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from everyone else's because they all looked the same. And the thing was slowly growing on me. I rolled my sleeping bag up and pushed it back into its tiny bag that had a carry handle because there was no way the thing was going to fold into my bag. I grabbed a few things I wanted from around the store, casually glancing out the store windows in search of Drew. I covered my greasy hair with a black beanie that had a picture of a raccoon on the front.
I wanted to freshen up but I remembered the water in the toilet wasn't clear and looked more like dishwater. I would have to wait until we found a river and hope Rosie wanted to stop also because I knew the boys weren't as bothered as I was about cleaning up every day. Ugh. It looked warm outside so I took a chance and tied my new sweatshirt around my waist. I knew exposing my arms was dangerous but so was getting heat exhaustion, and wearing too many layers wouldn't help. I didn't have any sunblock and I planned to stay in the shadows. After everyone had gathered up everything they needed we all headed outside. As I stepped outside I spotted Drew leaning against a tree. Josh walked past and caught one of the fishing rods on my beanie.
"Careful!" I cried, grabbing my beanie and saving it before Josh shredded the thing.
"Ah, sorry. Here, you can hold one." Josh said, pushing a rod into my hands and then handed out a few more to the others. A few of us excused ourselves to go and use the bathroom and then we started on our way.
Everyone sort of trailed off into their own groups. Rosie, Tobias, and Nick. Josh and Lane and I stayed together, and Drew was in front of us wandering in and out of the trees. We walked until noon when the sun was high up in the sky and we were all feeling the warm weather today. Our water bottles were nearly drained and we would have to look for a river soon or something. We passed two small diners and a gas station but none of them came up with anything good, but we managed to find a few cans of Fanta at the bottom of a drinks machine but that was about it, and I did swipe a few fancy dish towels which had an owl pattern all over them from one of the diners. Any sort of towel or fabric always came in handy.
I was dawdling next to Josh when Rosie turned around and smiled at me and dropped back to walk next to me and we slowed down and let the boys go ahead.
"So am I the only one that is dying for a wash? It's so warm today." She held her t-shirt at the front and fanned herself.
"No, I'm desperate to get cleaned up as well. I feel sticky and gross. As soon as I see water I'm gonna strip off."
Rosie chuckled. "It's nice to have another girl to talk to. We haven't seen anyone since we got separated from my sister. I really miss her." she said.
"I'm sorry. I really do hope you find her."
"Me too."
"Do you have any siblings?"
"Um," For a second I thought of my mom and the unborn child that I never got to meet but I quickly answered, "No. I did have a best friend, though. She was a little like having a sister. She was always at my house, we used to braid each other's hair and dress up dolls when we were little."
"What was her name?"
"Pippa."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know. A few weeks after the outbreak her family was contacted and they were taken to a safe house. I never saw her again."
"She could still be there." Rosie said, noticing the flicker of sadness on my face. "I didn't know the safe-houses were even real until you guys told me they were, so who knows, right?"
I shrugged. "Yeah, maybe."
I doubted it though.
"Zombat combat?" Rosie said randomly and I looked up expecting there to be a deadbie or something but there wasn't anything.
"Huh?"
She smiled and pointed to the bruise on my cheek from where Drew had elbowed me.
"Oh, that yeah. I forget all the bruises I have. You get used to it." I replied.
"What happened to the rest of you, your head?" she asked.
"I hit it on something, I can't really remember what."
Inside a helicopter, but I couldn't say that.
"Hey, girls!" Josh called to get our attention and we both looked up.
"What?" I asked, only then noticing everyone was starting to head off into the trees to the left.
"River is this way and I thought we could put these to good use." Josh waved his fishing rod around. I had managed to hook mine through my bag straps so I wasn't carrying the stupid thing.
"Yay. Let's spend five hours standing next to a river." I mumbled when Josh had turned his back on us again.
"I don't even eat fish." Rosie said.
"Oh...I forgot. Do you have anything in your bag you can eat?"
"I have a protein bar and there are still some of those cookies left over in Nick's bag."
"I think he's guarding them with his life. He has a weird obsession with tea and cookies, he can't drink his tea unless there is a cookie to dunk in it."
"Do you think they'll let us clean up at the river? I really need to do something with my hair. I mean, I know we're trying to stay alive and not get killed and all but I prefer to do it with non-greasy hair." Rosie said, laughing.
"Don't worry, I feel the same and they won't have a choice. They can fish while we get cleaned up."
"Aren't you worried about them peeking?" she whisper-giggled.
"Actually I think they have all pretty much seen me naked at one time or another."
She turned to me with her mouth open with comical shock on her face.
"Not like that!" I laughed. "Lane has obviously. Nick had to get me changed once." I lied about the specifics. "And Josh walked in on me changing."
"Uh-huh, and Drew?"
"We did spend some time together out in the desert, I'm guessing he looked when I was getting changed."
"Desert?"
"On the way through from Utah were the prison is."
"Oh, I bet that was horrible. How did you even survive in that heat without water?"
"We somehow managed. Drew's good at finding water and living off the land."
"You mean killing squirrels and stuff, like last night."
"At first I wasn't a fan of killing animals, I'm still not but if there's nothing else to eat and it feeds me for a day then I don't complain. Well, I sometimes complain, but I am grateful." I smiled.
"Do you think they'll catch any fish?"
"I don't know, maybe. Drew and I caught a few fish before, he showed me how to gut them and everything."
"Gross."
"It was but it actually tasted surprisingly good."
"You and Drew spend a lot of time together, on your own?" She raised an eyebrow at me questioningly.
"Not usually, but we did get separated this one time in the desert from the rest of the group."
We picked our way through the trees, Josh was a little way ahead but not too far in case he needed to get to us in a hurry and the others were all walking in a group at the front, and Drew had gone on ahead.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" I asked.
"Sure."
"Last night when you said that stuff about Drew and me being together,"
"You mean when I put my foot in it and upset Lane and he hasn't really spoken to me since."
"Yeah...I know you told him you guessed that Drew and I were a thing or whatever, is that true?"
She tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and looked up at the rest of the group to make s
ure no one was listening before she turned to me.
"It's the way he looks at you."
"Like how?"
"He's always looking at you. Or looking for you. I know I've only known you guys since yesterday but as soon as you walked through that door, he was checking you over, watching you, wherever you went in the room his eyes would follow you. And I know I don't know him and I don't want you to get the wrong idea, I'm not a judging person, but he doesn't join in with the rest of the group, he seems a little off, kinda moody."
"Yeah, that's kinda the way Drew is."
"But when I saw him talking to you, he had this look on his face, like there's something going on between you, some secret between you, and there's always a faint smile on his face when you talk to him but nothing when he talks to the others." Drew, secrets? Drew had a whole cupboard full but he wasn't about to share them with me.
"Wow. You picked all that up, huh?"
"It's just what I saw, but what do I know. I don't know you guys well enough to make assumptions."
"No, it's ok. I actually like having someone else to talk to. It's not like I can say all this to Lane or Drew."
"So do you like Drew?"
"It's just he confuses me a lot, I never really know what's going on in his head. I still don't understand. Sometimes I think he likes me more than he should, and sometimes I think I like him a lot more than I should but I don't know what's happening. I'm with Lane so there shouldn't be anything happening. I guess that's what you picked up on the weird vibes between us."
"You know my sister has always told me to do what makes you happy, sure people won't always like it, and you might hurt a lot of people along the way, but life is short, and nowadays our expiration date was like yesterday. You should think about what you want, not what everyone else wants."
"It's not that simple though."
"It never is." she said, briefly looking in Tobias's direction and I think she was talking about herself as well.
"You and Lane are close, I can tell, he's very protective of you, maybe a little too much?"
"Sometimes. He gets easily jealous. We have known each other a while even before we got together. I guess we've grown too used to each other, too attached, a little dependent on the other."
She smiled to herself and picked a long piece of grass from the ground and twirled it between her fingers.
"I used to go out with this boy called Jonny. He was funny, popular, he knew exactly what he wanted to do when he left high school, my parents loved him, and we dated for three years...yeah do the math, we started dating when we were fourteen so yes we were really close and we grew up together, but as we got older things changed, and so did we, and I wanted different things."
I think she was possibly talking about Tobias, who may have been her teacher.
"Sure everyone was upset and mad at me to start with but I felt so much happier when we broke up, I felt free. And within three weeks, Jonny was going out with one of my best friends. Things have a funny way of working out. But you shouldn't stay with someone because you think it's the right thing to do or because you're scared of hurting that person, you'd be hurting them more if you stayed with them because you felt like you had to, it would eventually come between the both of you."
"You're really easy to talk to." I said.
It was nice to talk to another girl about my problems. You'd think the zombie apocalypse and possibly the end of the world would be my top priority, but sometimes a girl's love life gets in the way.
"I try." She smiled as Tobias walked back to us.
"What are you girls talking about?" he asked.
"Birds!" I blurted out.
"Periods!" Rosie said.
Tobias gave us both a look.
"I don't want to know, do I?"
"It's girls stuff, babe." Rosie grabbed onto his arm and reached up on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek.
"Ok, I'll leave you to your girlie stuff." Tobias said and rejoined the group.
Rosie and I chatted about growing up, our favorite music, favorite movies, and school stuff, and it kinda felt like I was talking to Pippa again and we were back in my bedroom.
We eventually caught up with the others and found the river.
"The water doesn't look too dirty." Rosie said next to me.
"I know, is it weird that I can't wait to get naked and dive in?"
"Me too." Rosie laughed.
The boys were sorting out fishing rods and Drew had rejoined the group and they were deciding on a spot to go fishing.
"Hey, I've got an idea." I said to get everyone's attention. "While you boys are playing with SpongeBob and whatnot, Rosie and I will be over here getting cleaned up."
"Why don't you wait until after we've eaten?" Josh suggested.
"You mean after you've stood around for hours, caught a few fish, gutted the things and then cooked them? No thanks. We'll be over here and you can stand over there. and we'll meet you back here. No peeking!" I wagged my finger at Josh.
"Ok, but take your weapons, and if you see anything you call us. Anything, ok?"
"Even a fluffy squirrel?" I teased and Josh gave me a pointed look. "Ok, Josh!" I sighed and grabbed Rosie's arm and we left the boys at the side of the riverbank and walked along the edge and through the overgrown trees until we came to a clear spot that wasn't too far away from the others but far enough away so they couldn't ogle us like silly twelve-year-olds.
Chapter 23
We both dumped our stuff on the ground and kept a little distance between us as we got undressed. I didn't really care about Rosie seeing me naked, we were both girls and had the same parts and it's not like she was going to make fun of my stubbly legs that needed a shave because I caught a glimpse of her legs and noticed she had left hers completely untouched. I dug out a dish towel and the bottle of body wash.
I was undressed first and quickly dipped my toe in and sucked in a breath and just went for it. I waded in and crouched down, hoping all the fish had swum towards the others. The water wasn't too murky and I could sort of see my legs in it. I got to work quickly and squeezed some body wash onto the dish towel as Rosie squeaked and hopped her way into the water. I scrubbed my whole body from top to toe the best I could, practically scouring my skin with the dish towel.
Then I chucked my dish towel onto the river bank and was about to squeeze out some body wash for my hair when someone tapped my shoulder.
"Hey, don't use that on your hair. You'll never get a brush through it again." Rosie said, handing me a shampoo bottle.
"You sure? This is yours, I don't want to-"
"It's fine, use it. I'm sure we'll find more. It's not like zombats are rushing to the supermarkets to pick up hair products."
"Well, thanks." I turned around again and squeezed some out and held the bottle behind me back for her to take back then I lathered up my hair and massaged my head. It felt amazing. Standing in the chilly river wasn't so amazing, though. And I kept stubbing my toe on a rock. I rinsed my hair off and wrung the water out of it. I was supposed to be keeping my forehead dry but I had splashed the dressing and it had come loose so I carefully peeled it off and flung it away and used my finger to wash the dry blood off. It felt nice to let the wound breathe for a little while. After I was all done I quickly tiptoed out and grabbed my towel. Rosie wasn't far behind me and we got dressed in silence. It was a little odd actually. She had been chatty with me up until we got in the water. I felt so much better and fresher. Rosie quickly got dressed and gathered up her things and said she'd see me back at camp. I stayed by the water and washed out my dirty clothes and changed the dressing on the back of my foot because it was falling off by the time I got out. I was scrubbing my hair with the towel when Lane emerged from the trees.
"Hey. Are you done?"
"Yep. All clean." Lane was looking at my forehead. "Is it bad?"
"It doesn't look infected."
"That's not what I asked."
"It's going to scar really badl
y."
"I know." I touched the stitches gently. "Wanna help me cover it?" Lane walked over to me and helped me stick a dressing over it.
"How's your heel?"
"Ok. Not any worse."
"Did something happen between you and Rosie?"
"No. Why? Has she said something?"
"It's not what she's said, it's what she hasn't said. She's been really quiet since she came back from getting cleaned up. She's not really talking to anyone, and she keeps whispering to Tobias, it's a little weird. I think everyone has noticed apart from Nick because he won't shut up. He's explaining how the bees make honey right now, and the different levels of a beehive."
"It was one of the last books he was reading all about, you should be pleased he's not talking about the bug encyclopedia he memorized."
"So nothing weird happened?"
"No, I don't think so. She was fine until I borrowed her shampoo and then she sort of clammed up and didn't say much after that."
"Did you ask before you borrowed it?"
"She offered! And I accepted, and I didn't use that much, like a small dollop. You really think she's upset over a bit of shampoo?"
"I don't know."
"I'll just apologize, it's no big deal. I thought she was cool, maybe she's crazy."
"C'mon, I want to catch the biggest fish." Lane said, lifting my bag onto his shoulder.
"Seriously?"
"Drew's already caught two! And Josh nearly caught one."
"You're getting competitive over fish now?"
"You can be on my team."
"There's teams?"
"Nick, Tobias, and Rosie. And you can join Josh and me."
"So Drew's not in a team?"
"He didn't want to play."
"What if I don't want to play?"
"You have to play. We have to beat Drew."
"You just said he wasn't playing."
"He's not, but I still want to beat him. You should have seen the look on his face when he caught his first fish...like he's better than us. I'll show him."
"Ohmigawd!" I said, walking past him and up the slope.
I made my way back to the others and saw Tobias and Rosie standing next to each other sharing a fishing rod. Rosie glanced my way but quickly looked back at the water and it looked like she took a small step to the side to be closer to Tobias. Nick was standing on her other side talking to her but it didn't look as though she was even listening to him. Nick was shaking his fishing rod around like it was one of those dusters on a stick reeling it in and waving it around. I'm surprised he hadn't had anyone's eye out yet.