Murphy's Law (Roads Less Traveled Book 2)

by Dulaney, C.

  After coming to again, I opened my eyes and saw the lights once more. They were brighter and straight ahead of me. I blinked several times, still unable to pick my head up to get a better view.

  I’m probably riding into a cannibal camp, I thought, then promptly passed out again.

  I woke up the next time by getting the air knocked out of my lungs.

  “Shiiiit,” I hissed with the last bit of breath that escaped my chest, my lips barely moving. My eyes were still open, and I noticed I was seeing stars instead of the lights from earlier.

  Okay, NOW I’m dead.

  I let my diaphragm relax and take its time expanding again, and when it finally did, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I wondered why I could hear shouts if I was, in fact, dead. I wondered if maybe I’d been infected and was in the process of turning into one of the things I’d been fighting against for the past five months. That’s irony for you.

  “Kasey!” the same male voice from earlier shouted.

  Okay, I definitely heard that.

  I tried to move. I was still numb from being soaked, then frozen like a popsicle in the cold night air, but I thought I could feel my muscles trying to respond. I tried turning my head to see where I was. Nothing. My body was out to lunch. I tried wiggling my fingers, but didn’t know if they moved because, you got it, they were numb. My mind was on its way out again as another wave of unconsciousness loomed, my eyes slowly closing, when the owner of the voice suddenly appeared in front of my face.

  “Kasey…Kasey, you’re okay. Don’t move,” Jake said.

  No shit, Sherlock.

  I tried to say it, but was so incredibly exhausted it hurt to even think about talking. So I blinked instead. He smiled, looked up at someone I couldn’t see, then looked back down at me.

  “Yeah girl, you’re okay. Stay with me.”

  I was lifted and carried down the road. At least, I assumed I was being carried. Either that, or I had suddenly acquired the ability to levitate. I chuckled at that thought, thinking I was laughing inside my own head again, soon realizing it must have been out loud because Mia answered me.

  “I’m glad you think this is funny,” she said, lowering her face in front of mine.

  She was walking beside whoever was carrying me. Apparently my head was flopped to the side because all I could see was the road in front of us and a humongous stone building.

  I thought this was supposed to be a 4-H camp or something, I thought, then passed out again.

  * * *

  “Someone get those blankets out of the oven, and put more wood on the fire,” Nancy was saying when I once again regained consciousness.

  Everything was fuzzy, visually and audibly, yet my wits were starting to come back to me. Couldn’t feel a damned thing, but at least I could think straight again.

  “Hey,” I croaked and blinked my eyes open. Nancy’s smiling face came into focus in front of mine.

  “I’m really getting tired of nursing you back to health,” she said. “Got yourself a touch of hypothermia this time.” I closed my eyes again. “Kasey, stay with me. Open your eyes.” She rolled her knuckles over my breastbone.

  “Ow, quit it,” I mumbled and rolled my shoulders inward. I opened my eyes again and noticed an orange glow behind Nancy’s head. And heat. Yes, it was definitely warmer. “Where am I?”

  “You’re at the country club. You made it, Kasey. And you’re going to be fine, we just have to get you warmed up.” Nancy started rolling me around on the couch I was laying on, wrapping hot blankets around me, apparently the ones she’d asked for earlier. Fresh from the oven, nice and toasty.

  “That’s nice,” I whispered.

  Feeling was gradually starting to come back to my extremities, and it did feel nice at first. Cozy. Until that warm fuzzy feeling was suddenly replaced by unbearable pain. Something like that feeling you get after your leg has fallen asleep, then you move around a bit, and it starts waking up. Except on a much broader and insanely slower scale.

  I groaned and tried to pull my knees up towards my chest. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and tears rolled down my cheeks.

  “I know, but it’ll pass,” she said, wiping my tears and doing what she could to comfort me.

  The fireplace snapped and crackled in the background while Nancy finished tucking me in, then with a pat on my shoulder she stood to check on the tea. Her knees popped when she straightened, her hands went to her lower back for support. The blaze of the fire blinded me for a moment when Nancy stepped away, but I couldn’t shade my eyes because it seemed my hands were still on strike.

  “Daisy is in one of the outbuildings. I’ll move some junk out of there tomorrow, it’ll make a nice little barn for her,” John said.

  He and Michael were standing with their heads together somewhere behind me, talking in low voices. Jake was perched on the end of the couch, by my feet, and Gus had trotted over from wherever he had been sleeping and was thankfully blocking the light from the fire. Two big, blurry dog eyes stared into mine as he shoved his nose in my face and sniffed several times.

  “Hey,” I croaked.

  He started licking my face, which made me smile no matter how gross it was, then he hopped up next to me and snuggled up against my blanketed chest. Which I’m sure he just loved. Hell, I would have too, if it weren’t for the pins and needles that still throbbed throughout my body. I crooked my neck and nuzzled his face.

  Why does his breath smell like chocolate? I was very irritated at the possibility that someone would dare give a dog chocolate. Like that’s what I should’ve been worried about. But cut me some slack, hypothermia and all.

  “You’re crazy, you know?” Mia said. Her voice startled me; I’d closed my eyes again and didn’t know it.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” I blinked a few times and drifted off again.

  The pain was easing up in my limbs and was being replaced by sensation again. Which was great, don’t get me wrong. It also sucked because I could finally feel how badly I had to use the bathroom. I think I could have slept for days if it hadn’t been for that. I finally felt safe and warm, I knew my friends were here and okay, but I couldn’t rest because I had to pee. It’s always something.

  “I need you to drink this, Kasey,” Nancy was saying while I tried to ignore the protests coming from my bladder. She had kneeled down in front of me again and was holding a cup of hot tea. I think I must have made a face, because she laughed and looked towards the end of the couch. “Does she not like tea?”

  “Yeah, she always used to,” Mia answered from somewhere in the vicinity of my feet.

  I shook my head a little and made a face again. “No, I have to pee.” My throat was still dry and screaming for something to drink while at the same time my bladder was screaming the opposite, which caused my kidney to start aching again. What a strange sensation.

  “Oh…oh!” Nancy said. “Uh, Michael? Where is the closest bathroom? And I do mean the closest.”

  I heard footsteps behind me again, the sound of pant leg brushing against the arm of the couch next to my head, then I saw Nancy stand and move aside to make room for Michael. Gus opened his eyes and looked up, then lifted his head and licked his lips, beating his tail against my leg. Michael stroked the dog’s head before brushing him off the couch, then very carefully slid his arms under the blankets and underneath me.

  “Easy does it, just roll into me,” he said, lifting me up in a pile of warm blankets and slowly swinging me around.

  I did as he instructed, tucking myself in towards him and pressing my face against his chest. It felt like I was in a cocoon, and as a matter of fact, the only thing that kept me from falling into a dead sleep right then and there was the imminent danger of pissing all over him and the faint discomfort of the stitches still above and below my lips. I couldn’t see where we were going, but I could hear another set of footsteps besides Michael’s. Hopefully Nancy or Mia was accompanying me to the shitter, because I seriously dou
bted I’d be able to take care of business on my own.

  “I’m going to set you on your feet now, but lean against me, okay?” he said.

  I braced myself for what I was sure would be an amusing fall. That fall never came. After setting me down feet-first, Michael wrapped his arms around me and Nancy (I could tell by the smell…she always smelled like cooking, Mia, on the other hand, always smelled like gun oil), steadied me with both her hands on my hips. I leaned my head back and away from his chest and tried out my sea legs. A little wobbly, a little weak, but otherwise not as bad as I’d expected.

  “You okay?” He stepped back a bit and moved his hands to my shoulders, his eyes scanning my face, watching for any sign of pain or faintness on my part. His eyebrows were knitted together, causing that worry line that some of us are blessed with to wrinkle between them.

  “Yeah, I think so.” I turned my head as much as my stiff neck would allow, and watched the two try to switch positions and pull the blankets from around me. That was the first chance I’d had to get a good look at my surroundings.

  “Holy crap,” I croaked. “Nice bathroom.”

  Nancy was in front of me now as Michael pulled the last of the blankets from around my legs. Everything was very shiny and clean, that was the first thing I noticed. The second was the chandelier that hung suspended from the center of the ceiling.

  Well that’s just ridiculous.

  “Alright, I’ll leave you girls to it.” Michael let go of my hips hesitantly, then stepped away when he realized I wasn’t going to fall into Nancy. I was still staring at the chandelier like a three year old.

  “Okay, Mike. I’ll holler when I need you,” she laughed, shaking her head at me and waiting until he left before backing me up to the immaculate toilet behind us.

  I blinked a few times, then fumbled with the sweatpants someone had apparently put on me while I was passed out. I was also wearing a fresh t-shirt.

  How long was I out?

  Nancy steadied me while I pushed them down, then helped me onto the throne.

  “I feel like such a baby,” I said. There I was, a thirty year old woman unable to use the bathroom on my own, relying on a sixty-something woman to get me onto the toilet.

  “Don’t be silly,” she said.

  I suppose it was a combination of emotional overload and physical stress that made me suddenly tear up, because I know it wasn’t embarrassment. The woman had seen me worse than this before, so it wasn’t that. Instead of laughing at the situation, which would have been my customary reaction, I started to cry. It didn’t help that Nancy was petting my hair like a mother does with a sick kid.

  “Oh I didn’t mean that, you’re not silly,” she said quickly, moving in front of me and leaning down to brush the hair from my face. “I’m sorry, don’t cry.”

  She somehow got down onto her knees on the hard tile floor, no small feat for a woman her age, and was cupping my face in her hands. I was trying not to cry, but couldn’t hold it back.

  “That’s not why I’m crying,” I said through subdued sobs. She frowned and tilted her head as she wiped my face, so I just closed my eyes and cried while I waited for her to understand.

  Eventually she did, as all mothers and grandmothers do, and we sat there together, me on the toilet, her on the floor with her arms wrapped around me, our heads resting on each other’s shoulders, and silently wept together while my bladder finished its business. This little scene would have us laughing our asses off later. At the time it just wasn’t funny.

  Chapter Twelve

  March 27th

  Mia popped her head around the bedroom door. “Happy birthday, to you. Happy birthday, to you.”

  “Shut up.”

  The sun hadn’t been up for long. Not that it made a difference. It was one of those gray, foggy, stay-in-bed-all-day mornings. Mia was still in her pajamas and bare feet, her hair a mess, teeth undoubtedly unbrushed. She grinned at my morning crankiness, taking this as a good sign I was on the mend. I felt better than the previous night. Anything was better than being a human popsicle. I rolled over onto my side, curled the heavy blankets up around my neck, and hid my face with one hand.

  “Happy birthday, deeaaarrrr Kaaassseeeyyy!” Here she paused halfway into the room for dramatic effect. “Happy birthday, to you.” Then she took three big steps, jumped, and plopped her ass down on the edge of the bed. This woke Gus, who snorted, rolled onto his back, and began snoring again.

  “How do ya feel this morning, birthday girl?”

  I had no idea what time it was, and this house was so big, I wouldn’t hear the standard morning stirring noises anyway. I’d also forgotten about my birthday. I know, that sounds ridiculous. End-of-the-World, Zombies-at-Your-Door, What-the-Hell-is-Going-On events have a way of making trivial things like birthdays the last thing on your mind.

  “Ask me again in an hour. Go away.” My voice was muffled in the folds of quilt I had gathered around my face.

  Mia leaned over, propped herself up on one elbow, and tried digging my face out from under the blankets. I squirmed and tried to get away from her, which only succeeded in producing several giggles from my annoying friend.

  “You muuusstt get uuuppppp,” she groaned, trying to sound like Dracula or something. I groaned back and rolled away.

  “Resistance is futile.”

  “You’re an ass.”

  “Aw, love you too, babe. Now get up,” she said and patted my hip. She stood and walked back to the door, opened it a crack, and peeked out into the hallway.

  My joints were still stiff, my muscles, kidney, and face still ached, but I managed to wiggle my way into a sitting position. It was a little chilly in the room, nothing too uncomfortable. Apparently there was still heat in this big beast of a house, and dreary March mornings are chilly no matter what setting you keep the furnace. Just as I was about to slide out of bed and into the fluffy slippers someone had left on the floor for me, Nancy and Jake came tiptoeing into the room behind Mia. Nancy was carrying a cupcake with a candle in the center, lit of course. All three wore grins on their faces.

  “What the…?”

  Jake sat down at the foot of the bed, Mia crawled over me and sat cross-legged on the other side, and Nancy gently eased herself down on the edge next to me.

  “Make a wish and blow it out,” she said.

  I raised a brow and looked around at all their faces. They looked tired, haggard almost. But for the first time in I don’t know how long, they didn’t have that “Shit! Run!” sharpness to their eyes.

  “Gee, you shouldn’t have.” I rolled my eyes, took a deep breath, and blew out the candle. All this fuss over my birthday was making me uncomfortable.

  “Yay,” all three whispered, golf-clapping for a moment before falling silent again. After a few minutes of this, and of them staring at me like the top of my head was about to exlpode, I asked what the plan was for the day.

  “Well, I gotta help the guys on that bigass wall they’ve been workin’ on,” Jake said.

  I noticed he was acting strange. Shy and sheepish. Saying this behavior was strange for Jake would be an understatement. He had one hand resting on my foot, and his other hand was nervously picking at the hem of his shirt.

  “Can’t say I noticed that last night,” I answered. I’d been a little too preoccupied with passing out and falling off my horse to notice a bigass wall.

  Jake just smiled and dropped his head a little, breaking eye contact with me.

  “Why are you being so weird?”

  “I’m not bein’ weird.”

  “Yes, you are.”

  “No, I’m not.” He looked to Mia and Nancy for help.

  The only help they offered came in the form of smiles. It was then I noticed that Jake was taking this all a little too seriously, which told me there was definitely something going on with him. Whatever it was, it was obviously something he didn’t want to talk about, so I played it off.

  “I’m just messing with you, Jakie. W
ho loves ya?” Then he blushed ten shades of red, and I knew we had a problem. Or a potential problem, depending on the point of view.

  “I’ll be watching after the little ones for the most part. Me and whoever isn’t on watch or working on that wall,” Nancy piped up quickly to cut the tension that had fallen. I tore my eyes from Jake, a situation I really didn’t want to deal with just after waking up, and nodded to Nancy.

  “Yeah and I’m on watch ‘til noon,” Mia said. I stared at the cupcake in front of me, wondering if there was coffee somewhere downstairs. Finally I sighed and leaned my head back against the headboard.

  “So what am I doing then?”

  Nancy tucked the quilt in around my sides. “Oh no, you aren’t doing anything today besides rest.”

  “I can’t just lay in bed all day and do nothing, Nancy,” I answered back. She leaned closer and fixed me in a stern stare.

  “You will lay in bed all day, or you can lay around the house all day, I don’t care. But you are not to lift a finger. I want you to rest up a bit more before you get back to work, got it? Besides, it’s your birthday.”

  “Alright, alright, I get it.” I waved the cupcake around. “Well get out of here then, all of you.” I waved them all away and set the cupcake on the nightstand, then pulled the quilt back as they stood from the bed. Gus, who had been awake and waiting for someone to open the bedroom door, was off the bed like a shot. I wasn’t the only one who had to use the bathroom, evidently.

  “See ya at lunch then?” Jake asked just as the three of them were walking out the door.

  “If you’re buying,” I answered, shoving my feet into the stupid fluffy slippers on the floor next to the bed.

  “It’s a date, Boss,” he grinned, then disappeared behind the door. I chuckled lightly, then shoved off the bed and headed to the adjoining bathroom.

  * * *

  An hour later I stood in front of the large parlor window, a steaming cup of coffee in my hand, and watched the guys work on the concrete block wall. The kids played in the den behind me, Abby and Nancy clattered around in the kitchen, and Gus ran back and forth between the three rooms, too nosy for his own good, and too old to keep running from one side of the house to the other.