by D. K Lake
Chapter 13
Day 7
Sensitive eyes, runny nose... sort of like hay fever symptoms. But on the bright side at least my headaches finally gone.
A loud squawk woke me up. I opened my eyes to the early morning sun, half blinding me. I squinted but could hardly see anything, I shielded my eyes with one hand and tried to sit up, only to find my other arm was trapped... under Drew. He had rolled onto his side in the night and now had his head nestled into the crook of my neck, and his arm hooked around my waist, holding me close.
I tried to wriggle my arm free without waking him up but it didn't work and his eyes shot open. I stopped wriggling and he looked at me a little confused, our faces only an inch away from one another, then it dawned on him I was trying to pry my arm free.
“Uh.. sorry.” he said, quickly moving away and sitting up so he wasn't facing me. He ran his hand through his hair trying to wake himself up.
“The sun's up already, what time is it?” he asked.
“I have no idea, I don't have a watch, remember?”
“Right, no watch.” he said, searching his own pocket for his pocket watch.
Okay, so maybe waking up in each other's arms was a little awkward and unexpected. Drew was certainly acting a bit weird. He mumbled something about wanting to take a piss, and then he scrambled off the roof as fast as his legs would carry him. I was left yawning and stretching, still waking up, wondering what the hell just happened. Maybe he was freaking out because he thought he could catch the virus from being too close to me. Well, whatever it was he couldn't get off the roof quick enough. After I had woken up properly and felt okay to climb back down, I grabbed my bag and crawled back over the roof and dropped the bag on the ground below.
Halfway down Drew appeared at the bottom of the dumpster and waited for me to climb down, I jumped off the dumpster and Drew caught my arm to steady me, then he pulled his hand away like he'd done something wrong. Today was going to be fun, Drew was being weird and I didn't know why.
“I'm just going to use the bathroom before we leave, I don't know if I'll get the chance to use one again.”
Drew nodded and motioned to a tree he was going to wait beside. I went in through the back door again and ducked into the ladies restroom. I used the toilet and grabbed my panties which were still hanging up on the cubicle door. Then I freshened up at the sink, Josh had no toothpaste in his bag which was a bummer. I rinsed my mouth out with some water, really wanting to brush my teeth, but I thought it was a bit naughty to use Josh's toothbrush in case we met up with him and he wanted his stuff back. Today I could smell something strange, I lifted my T-shirt up and looked at the dressing that was covering the bite mark, I could see a nasty yellow stain starting to appear through it. All my clean dressings were in my own bag which I didn't have, and Josh didn't have anything in his bag except Band-Aids which were all too small and were more for paper cuts. I remembered seeing a First Aid box on a shelf in the kitchen. Great, I would have to go back in there. I left my stuff and went and found the box and carried it back to the restroom. I rolled up my T-shirt and braced myself as I carefully peeled the large dressing off. The bite mark looked infected and was oozing. It had a crusty edge, and it smelled bad.
“Yuk! Yuk! Yuk, and yuk!” I said, throwing the disgusting dressing in the trash can in the corner. I cleaned it up the best I could with paper towels and water, I was tempted to squeeze it but it was so sore, I hadn't noticed until this morning just how sore it was, it felt like a tender bruise. I dried it up and put a fresh dressing on which helped mask the smell. I had managed to get rid of most of the stench, I think most of it was coming from the old dressing I threw in the trash. I tidied everything away and packed everything from the First Aid box that was useful.
Drew was still waiting by the tree when I emerged from the cafe. He didn't say anything and just started walking, I hitched the bag up my back and trailed behind him. The air was warm, and I used a spare hair elastic I always kept on my wrist, and tied my shoulder length hair into a little bun, just to keep it off my neck. We stayed under the trees and in the shade, but after an hour my legs were feeling yesterday's walking, my calf muscles hurt every time I went to take a step. I tried not to be too obvious, I wanted to keep moving and I didn't want to slow Drew down.
My nose kept dripping which was becoming a nuisance, my hoodie sleeve caught most of the drips 'cause I didn't want to use all the toilet tissue up on my drippy nose.
My stomach had just started to notify me I was hungry this morning. I offered Drew some almonds but he refused and said he wasn't hungry, and didn't like nuts of any kind. So I managed to polish the whole bag of almonds off in less than five minutes, and my stomach was still growling.
I washed it down with a can of Coke. The food energized me to walk for another thirty minutes, and we walked into a ferny area in the forest, I found myself surrounded by ferns and I spotted a patch of mushrooms.
“Mmmm.. a mushroom.” I said, bending down and picking one.
I wasn't a big mushroom eater, but I was hungry this morning and I knew we needed to ration what we had left in the bag. Drew had noticed I was crouched down and quickly walked back to me.
I brushed the mushroom off and opened my mouth about to take a bite when Drew smacked it out of my hand once he realized what I was doing.
“God, woman! Those are poisonous, for fuck's sake.”
“Oh, I didn't know. I didn't know poisonous mushrooms were just randomly growing out here.” I replied while wiping my hands on my leggings.
“Where else do you expect them to grow?” Drew snapped.
What was wrong with him? Had I done something to piss him off and not realized it?
“I was hungry and I'm trying to ration what we've got left.”
“Me too, but I'm not scavenging off the ground.”
“You just told me you weren't hungry five minutes ago.”
“Yeah, I'm not eating that packet stuff you've got left over.”
“We have one tin of beans and a tin of soup, do you want some beans for breakfast?”
“Save 'em.”
I stood back up and stared at the poisonous mushrooms. My persistent stomach was getting the better of me. I can't believe I had nearly eaten a mushroom without thinking about it, of course, some mushrooms were poisonous.
“Maybe someone needs a lesson in mushrooms today.” Drew said, stomping on the mushrooms.
“No, it's okay, I just won't try to eat any more.”
Drew looked around at the forest then back at me.
“I'm gonna head out for a bit.” he said, searching his pockets for his lighter.
Drew was a smoker but nothing like Lane. Drew frowned when he tipped his cigarette box upside down and the last one fell into his hand.
“You going hunting?” I asked.
“Um.. yeah, see what's about.”
I think I was slowing him down, he just didn't want to tell me.
“I won't go far. If you get into trouble, holler and just run, I'll come find you, all right?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Oh, and Alex,”
“Yeah?”
“Don't eat anything off the ground while I'm gone, okay?”
“Yes! I get it, don't eat random shit off the floor.”
He veered off through the ferns and into the trees and it took me two minutes to realize I was walking the wrong way and was headed back the way I had just walked. Damn these identical trees.
I wandered through the trees, not in any rush, I knew Drew would find me again but without Drew in front, I found myself dawdling.
After what I guessed was an hour, I came out near a small stream. I washed my hands and splashed some water on my face to cool down. I filled my empty water bottle, I wasn't so worried about catching anything anymore, what else could I catch? I followed the stream, it was shallow enough to cross over, and I climbed up the grassy slope on the other side. The view on the other side was breathtaking. Trees
as far as my eyes could see in one direction and in the other direction, if I squinted, I could just about see the tall rocks, and Drew had told me the desert was on the other side. One more day of walking and we would be in the desert.
I sat on a rock to rest my legs. I could see everything from up here and felt safe to rest for a few minutes. I let my mind wander and got lost watching the birds. Something dark appeared in the grass to my right, and my heart skipped a beat for a second, not knowing what it was at first. I was about thirty yards away but I still panicked when I saw movement. But there was nothing to panic about, it wasn't a deadbie or another human. It was a frigging moose! I think. It was bigger than I expected it to be. It had crazy big antlers, I wondered how it held them up all day and didn't get neck ache.
“There you are.” Drew said, walking up the slope to reach me.
At least he didn't just pop up and scare the crap out of me which is what he normally did.
“Is that a moose?” I asked, pointing at the moose.
“Okay, you're not that far gone that you can't tell if that's a moose or not.”
“Shut up, I've just never seen one before... Well, I have seen a moose before, obviously! I meant I've never seen one up close before, I've only ever seen them on TV and in books.”
“Yeah, it's a moose.” he said, slowly lifting his crossbow and walking around me.
“What are you doing?” I whispered, grabbing his arm before he could get away from me.
“That's breakfast.”
“What! No! That's not breakfast, that's a walking miracle. I can't believe it's still alive.”
“Exactly. We should put it down before it gets eatin' by deadbies.”
“Drew, no. Please don't kill it. I won't eat it if you do.”
“I thought you were hungry?”
“I am but I don't want you to kill it, it's such a beautiful creature.”
“Fine,” he huffed, lowering his crossbow. “I'll go find us something smaller, any requests?”
I shrugged. “I don't know, go find some rabbits or something.”
“Rabbits are like snacks, not much meat on 'em.”
I pulled a face. “Find something else then. Anyway, what have you been doing all this time, didn't you find anything to eat?”
Drew moved past me and began walking back down the slope.
“No but I found something you might like.” he said on his way down.
“Like what?”
I grabbed my bag and hurried down the slope behind him. When I reached the bottom I saw a horse tied to a tree. It was a chestnut brown color with reins and a saddle.
Drew crossed the stream and walked over to the horse, and stroked its nose.
I gingerly approached the horse. The only experience I'd had with anything resembling a horse was a small pony. When I was six the circus came to town and my parents took me to see it one evening, I got to have a ride on one of the ponies, the wretched thing bucked me off halfway around the small field and I fractured my wrist.
“It's a horse.” I said flatly.
Drew looked at me with a smirk.
“I thought you'd like a break from walking.”
“You want me to sit on it?”
“That's normally what you do... Have you ever rode a horse before?”
“No. I rode a pony once and I fell off and fractured my wrist.”
“A pony?”
“I was six.”
“Right,” Drew laughed.
“Where did you find it?”
“I found her munchin' grass just further down the stream. She's friendly enough. I don't think she's had any contact with deadbies yet, otherwise, I think she would have tried to run from me. So you wanna take her out for a spin?”
“Are you kidding? She'll probably throw me off and I'll break a leg this time.”
“No, she won't. She didn't throw me off when I rode her back here.”
“Who do you think she belongs to?”
“I don't know, she must have belonged to someone 'cause she's got a saddle and reins, and looks like she's been looked after, but she was on her own. I think whoever she belonged to is gone.”
“How did you even find me?”
“I found the stream and figured if you'd found it you'd probably be relaxing by the water somewhere.”
“Whatever, I only just stopped for a break about two minutes before you showed up.”
“Uh-huh, it looked like you were sunbathing to me.”
“I was not sun-. Never mind.”
“Come on then, I wanna see you up there.”
“You're being serious, aren't you?”
“Yep. You've been draggin' your feet all mornin'.”
“Have not!”
“Have too. A sloth moves faster. Now put your foot in the stirrup and get your ass up there.”
“How do you even know what it's called?” I asked, looking at the stirrup.
“My grampy owned a few horses when I was growin' up, so I know a thing or two about riding.”
“Full of surprises.” I said, looking at my pitchfork, wondering what to do with it.
I couldn't manage the reins and a pitchfork, and I wasn't about to take up jousting with the deadbies.
“You don't need that anymore.” Drew said, taking it from me and leaving it on the ground.
I grabbed the saddle which felt like a million miles away. Was I that short?
After a few attempts, (Drew laughing didn't help), I finally made it into the saddle.
Drew walked the horse over to the stream where she bent her head down and had a drink.
“What if she takes off with me on her?”
“She won't not unless she gets frightened.”
“Frightened, like, say a bunch of zombies come running out of the trees.”
Drew rolled his eyes at my choice of words.
“Yeah a bunch of deadbies would probably frighten her, but she's quicker than deadbies, so if you come across any hold onto the reins. Tight.”
Drew walked beside us while the horse walked through the stream. After twenty minutes of Drew giving me a few tips and a free of charge riding lesson as he put it, he left me to go and find some breakfast, but it was close to noon so it was actually nearly lunchtime now.
“Just keep following the stream, I'll catch up to you.”
“But what if you don't?”
“I will.” he called over his shoulder.
The horse and I, that I had named Chestnut because of her color, ambled along the steam. It wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be, but then again she hadn't bucked me off yet. Every time she saw a nice tuft of grass she would stop to taste it. I had no idea what the time was, Drew was the only one with the time, not that he needed it, he could usually guess the right time from looking at the sun. The hottest part of the day passed and the hours drifted by with still no sign of Drew. I knew he wouldn't be able to keep up with me on the horse even if he said he could.
So I found a nice spot beside the stream and when the horse came to a stop I managed to lift my leg over and jump down. I quickly grabbed her reins before she got any ideas about galloping off. I tied her to a tree that was close to the stream so she could still reach the water and graze on the grass at the same time.
I sat down in the overgrown grass and opened my bag. I had waited hours for him to return and he was nowhere to be seen, and I couldn't believe I had managed to put off eating until now, but I couldn't wait any longer and devoured the Mars bar I had left in seconds, and filled myself up with water from the stream. I was just about to rip open a packet of pre-packed food when I spotted something moving in and out of the trees further down. I abandoned the food packet and crawled through the grass, and over to Chestnut, and looked between her legs, trying to stay hidden. I saw two legs walking this way through the stream. Two familiar legs. I stood up and walked around the horse to greet him. He had something slung over his right shoulder, with his crossbow slung over his other shoulder.
“Honey, I found dinner.” he said, dumping it on the ground in front of my feet.
“What is that?”
“Deer.” he said, resting his crossbow against a rock.
Then he reached for me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me over to him. My heart suddenly fluttered from the close contact. I wondered what he was doing...then he pinched the knife from me and I took a step back feeling stupid. Of course, he just wanted the knife. What else would he want from me?
“You killed a whole deer?”
“Whole deer? What, you wanted me to just kill a bit of it?” he said, trying not to laugh.