Taoree: Taoree Trilogy #1

by Michele Notaro

  I saw him look behind the couch, but I didn’t waste the energy to see who was standing there. He looked back at me and said with a soft voice, “Okay. I was just going to get a blanket, but Cal’s bringing us one.”

  I nodded, but didn’t let go of his shirt until he scooted onto the couch with me and shifted around until I was lying on his shoulder. He hugged me to him and his body was so warm I just wanted to crawl inside, so I scooted impossibly closer to him until as much of my body was touching him as possible.

  I felt a blanket being draped over us. I sighed in relief as a new rack of shivers ran through my body. Colt started rubbing my arms and back, obviously trying to warm me up. Cal lifted my head and made me sip some water, then I lay back on Colt’s shoulder and fell asleep.

  The alien was just sitting there staring at me with sad eyes. He didn’t say anything, he simply held out his hand, which I readily took in mine and sat down next to him. Nothing was said, but I felt that same warmth growing with each passing second. I felt it blooming in my chest, but also another similar warmth flowing into the hand the alien was holding.

  I looked at him and he looked back with his sad, black eyes. Then I leaned into him, placing my cheek on his shoulder. We didn’t move all night.

  ***

  I woke up hours later, still in Colt’s muscled arms. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Colt was lying there awake looking at the ceiling with his hat back on, so I ran my hand over his arm up to his shoulder, grabbing on tight. Then I lifted my head a little and bit lightly on his bicep. Yum. That might be my favorite muscle.

  Colt turned his head to me with a little grin. “You feeling better?”

  “Much,” I answered, taking in the darkened room. It was clearly night now. “I actually feel completely normal right now. I have energy… more than I had earlier today, at least.”

  “That’s fantastic… strange… but great,” he admitted.

  I felt my stomach grumble. “I’m starving though.”

  “Let’s get you some food, then.”

  He started to lift us both up to sitting. I expected to get dizzy again after all that blood loss, but I felt fine. I blinked, looking around the small living room and found Cal sleeping on a little love seat across from us, and Nolan sitting on the coffee table between the two beige couches, looking at me.

  “I think we have some canned soup,” Nolan said. “I think you’re supposed to drink liquids after losing a lot of blood,” he said with a half-shrug.

  I nodded as Colt stood and held out his hand, so I allowed him to pull me up. Again, I felt fine—no dizziness or anything. I took a step forward and both Colt and Nolan tried to grab me, even though I didn’t stumble or anything.

  “I feel fine, guys. I’m just hungry,” I told them, brushing off their helping hands.

  I saw them exchange a look, which made me roll my eyes and walk around them. They both followed me like I was a little toddler about to fall over at any moment. So I ignored them and found a can of soup in a backpack.

  “The stove is gas, so we can heat it up,” Nolan said.

  I looked at him, surprised. “Really? That’s fucking sweet.”

  Nolan smiled, taking the can out of my hand, getting a second one from the bag, and walking into the kitchen with me trailing behind. He cooked the soup in a few minutes, poured three bowls and handed them out. Cal was still sleeping, so Colt, Nolan, and I sat at the dining room table and ate a hot—for once—meal and it was amazing, even if it was in the dark.

  “I never thought I’d be so happy to eat warm soup,” I said as I scarfed it down.

  “This is freaking delicious,” Colt agreed.

  “It’s nice,” Nolan stated, “especially because it’s colder tonight and we don’t have our sleeping bags anymore.”

  Now that I thought about it, I could see our breaths in the air. “We’ll make it home tomorrow, right?” I asked them.

  “We should,” Colt answered, “We’re pretty close.”

  “Good. I think my dad still has that camping gear. We might have some sleeping bags,” I said with a small shrug.

  “I’m pretty sure Cal and I have sleeping bags somewhere in the house too,” Colt told us.

  “When we get there, we’ll have to gather all our supplies together and figure out…” Nolan trailed off, waving his hand in the air.

  “Figure out what?” I prompted as I lifted the bowl up to my lips to finish off my food.

  He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Figure out what to do next.”

  I stared at him for a long moment and thought about what he said. It was true, we needed to figure out what to do next… our houses were way too close to a Taoree camp to stay there for long. Finally I said, “Let’s worry about one thing at a time, okay?”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “You assholes having a nice family dinner without me?” Cal asked from the archway between the living and dining rooms.

  Nolan answered, “If you grab another can of soup, I’ll heat it up for you.”

  Cal’s eyes went wide and a smile appeared on his face. “The stove is working?” Nolan nodded and Cal excitedly said, “Fuck, yes.” He disappeared for a minute and reappeared with a soup can that Nolan took from him as he went into the kitchen. Cal sat down across from me. “How you feeling?”

  “Better.”

  “Have you checked the wound since you woke up?”

  I shook my head. “Is there a mirror somewhere?”

  “Probably in the bathroom,” Colt told me.

  “I’ll go look now. I gotta piss anyway,” I said as I got up and Colt started to get up too, resting his hand lightly on my back. I turned to him. “I’m really okay. I promise I won’t fall into the toilet.” I meant it as a joke, but he didn’t even smile.

  He eyed me, but relented. “Fine. Just yell if you need me.”

  Nolan shoved something into my chest, saying, “Here, take the flashlight. There’s no windows in there, so you can turn the light on.”

  I leaned down and pecked Colt’s lips before walking away and slipping into the bathroom. I turned the flashlight on and sat it upside down, so the light was shining up to the ceiling, then I pissed in the toilet—but didn’t flush since it would make too much noise and might not work anyway—and walked over to the sink. I didn’t bother turning the water on, but I searched the cabinets and found a bottle of hand sanitizer, so I used that, then closed the cabinet and prepared myself to look at my wound.

  I pulled the tape and gauze off to reveal a lot of dried blood. I looked around, found a hand towel and dabbed a bunch of hand sanitizer on it. Then I held my breath because I knew it was going to burn like hell. I wiped my neck gently, trying not to touch where the stitches were. I could only see some dark black thread, but I couldn’t really see the cut because there was so much old blood in the way. It took a few minutes to wipe everything off around the stitches.

  There was a knock on the door. “You okay in there?” Colt’s voice was muffled through the wood.

  “I’m fine. Just cleaning my wound a little.”

  “You want some help?”

  “Nah, I’m good. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  I heard him huff, but he said, “Okay.”

  I moved closer to the mirror because I was still having trouble seeing the wound. I literally could only see the thread sewed into my skin. I dropped the towel and ran my fingers over it. I gasped out loud at the sensation. I had expected to be in pain, but the wound only felt a little sore, almost like it was an old injury that happened weeks or even months ago, and not only hours ago.

  I ran my fingers over it again to double-check what I found there, and sure enough, the wound was closed up somehow. The thread was still imbedded in my skin, but the rest of it was healed. I dabbed more sanitizer on the towel and began wiping the wound area more thoroughly. It stung where the stitches were, but it wasn’t too horrible. Then I searched the cabinet until I found a pair of scissors. I cut the stitches, which was aw
kward and gross, but I pulled them out, only wincing slightly.

  What I was left with was a healed, slightly pink slash with the little holes from the stitches. I ran my fingers over it again. It was sensitive, but one hundred percent, completely closed up. How in the fuck is this possible? I stared into the mirror for another minute before I walked out of the bathroom.

  I almost walked right into Colt, who was leaning against the wall next to the bathroom door.

  When Colt saw me, he asked, “Are you okay?”

  “Uh… yeah.” I replied. Then I amended, “Actually, my neck is…” I chewed on the inside of my cheek for a moment, trying to figure out what to say.

  “What is it?”

  I blew out a breath. “My neck is healed.”

  A look of doubt crossed Colt’s face as he stared and slowly said, “That’s not possible.”

  “I know, but look.” I turned and pulled down my shirt a little so he could see it better.

  He examined it, reached his hand out and softly touched the healed skin with his fingertips. Then he pushed me backward into the bathroom, shut the door and shined the flashlight on it. He reached out and touched the scar. “How is that possible?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered honestly, and started chewing on the inside of my cheek again. I had no answers for him and while I was happy that I was healed, I was also freaking the fuck out.

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Not really. It just feels weird.” Eventually, I asked, “What do you think it means?”

  “I don’t know, Honey. This is really weird. Maybe it’s from that dome thing you made appear last night. You had to have stepped on some kind of Taoree technology or something,” he said as he brushed the hair out of my eyes.

  “Did you guys find anything lying around afterwards?” I asked. He shook his head. “What about the things they shot us with? What did they look like?”

  “They were little balls with spikes that pulsed with electricity… but all of us were hit with them, so why would it affect you differently?” I guess he made a good point.

  I lifted my shoulders. “Maybe they hit me with a defect or somethin’.”

  “I guess that’s possible…” He looked away. “We’ll probably never know.” He looked back at me and stepped close, then grabbed my hips and leaned his forehead down to rest on my chest. I put my chin on top of his head and looped my arms around his shoulders. He whispered, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

  “Me too,” I told him, placing a kiss on his hair. “I wasn’t ready to leave you.”

  “Thank god.” He moved closer, putting his arms around my lower back and resting his face on the uninjured side of my neck. I reached up to his neck and started rubbing the muscles there; he was a little rigid. He whispered against my neck, “Let’s go warm up under the blanket. Your fingers are fucking freezing.”

  I laughed a little. “Let’s go.”

  We made it back to our spot in the dark and sat on the couch. Colt covered us up and snuggled in close. I fell asleep half sitting up, half lying on top of him seconds later.

  ***

  The alien was already sitting against the tree when I got there, and he looked at me from his curled-up position. I gasped at the sight of him. His face was sunken in, he looked impossibly paler, and he had dark circles under his eyes. He looked small and frail despite his actual height and muscular frame.

  I went to him immediately and knelt down, placing my hands on his forearms. His skin felt unnaturally cold.

  “What happened?” I asked him.

  All he did was shake his head slightly.

  “Are you sick?”

  “In a sense,” his voice was hardly even a whisper and it sounded raspy, as if it hadn’t been used in a long time or he hadn’t had anything to drink in days.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, scooting closer to sit beside him.

  I put my arm around his shoulders and pulled him to me so he could rest his head on my chest. He came easily and almost burrowed into me, wrapping his arms around my waist. I put my other arm around him and hugged him tightly. I heard him sob into me, so I started rubbing circles on his back with one hand and petting his thick, strange-feeling, braided hair with the other.

  “Shh,” I whispered, “It’s okay. I’m right here.” I felt tears well up in my eyes. Seeing and feeling his pain was torturing me. All I wanted to do was make him feel better, make him okay again.

  His sobs eventually turned to quiet crying, then finally tapered off until he was just lying there in my arms in silence. I continued holding him, rocking him, and rubbing his back and hair all night, offering him as much comfort as I could. I could feel his heartache in my chest as if it were my own.

  When I woke that morning, I felt something tugging at my chest, as if the dream I had was real and the pain I felt pouring off of the alien was a tangible thing. I had to rub my chest to try to make it disappear, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of sadness… of loss, and it put me on edge as I lay there stretching the sleep away.

  But eventually, I just ignored it and got up to help the guys get ready to—finally—get home. We were determined to get back home today. I was anxious, but also excited to see my family. I hadn’t seen any of them since I left for school in August, so I couldn’t wait. Especially to see Mina. I planned to make her show me her violin solo when we got home. I was even looking forward to seeing my annoying younger brother, Wesley. He usually drove me crazy, but I still loved him and was worried about him, especially because of my weird dreams. If my dreams were anything to go by, Wes was having a rough time, and as his older brother, I wanted to help him out.

  I showed Cal and Nolan my wound… or non-wound. Then we looked at Nolan’s bite mark that still looked like the stitches were the only thing holding his skin together. It was kinda gross.

  “That is unbelievable,” Nolan said, reaching for my—now—scar, but he snatched his hand back when he realized what he was doing.

  “It doesn’t hurt,” I offered as I grabbed his hand and threw it on my neck to show him.

  He made a disgusted face, and when I let go he pulled his hand back. “That’s really strange, J. I don’t understand how that’s possible.”

  “Neither do I,” I told him.

  “Well, I think it’s badass, so let’s just take what we can get and move on. We’ve been here for far too long,” Cal said, acting like my magical healing was no concern at all.

  “Alrighty then… let’s go,” I said, standing up next to Colt.

  Once we were packed up, Colt pulled out the giant knife that the Feral had stabbed me with yesterday… only for me to discover that it was actually a machete. Having been attacked by two Ferals at the same time meant that I wasn’t really getting a close-up of the weapon, I had only been concentrating on not letting it hit me… because that worked out so well.

  “So now we have the axe and the machete to decapitate them,” Colt said, holding it up while wrinkling his nose in a way that reminded me of Cal. I smiled at that.

  “You’re adorable,” I told him as I kissed the corner of his mouth and moved past him to the door.

  “That’s a disturbing and odd thing to call adorable,” he said. He was still making the same wrinkled-nose face at me.

  “I was talking about the face you made, not the decapitating thing. I’m not that much of a weirdo.”

  “Sure you are,” Cal said, slapping my back—the uninjured side, even though the other side felt fine now. “Come on, bro, grab your boyfriend and let’s get outta here.”

  Colt shot me a look, so I winked at him, then followed Cal out the door. I noticed that Colt’s hat now looked darker and stained so I asked, “What’s all over your hat?”

  He shrugged. “You sorta bled all over it last night.”

  “And you’re still wearing it? Gross,” I said with a little laugh. He just shrugged and readjusted the object of our attention. I shrugged back, figuring I’d probably still take it from him and we
ar it, since he’d had it forever. It was still the same hat he’d been wearing for the last few years while I was crushing on him. So of course I liked it.

  It was eerily quiet outside. I couldn’t figure out why it seemed even more quiet than usual. I’d gotten used to the strange quiet the past week and a half, but this felt different. Without cars, electronics, and people all around, it had been a strange quiet that I had never been privy to before the shitstorm. This though, this seemed different somehow. I looked around, seeing abandoned cars, broken human possessions, and bodies strewn around—and then it hit me… there were no sounds of birds singing or crickets chirping, either. No human sounds and no natural sounds.

  “Uh, guys?” I said in a whisper.

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you hear that?” I asked.

  Everyone stopped walking to listen.

  After a moment Colt whispered, “I don’t hear anything.”

  “Fuck,” Cal said quietly, “We need to run.”

  “Come on,” I said as I took off running down the street.

  Colt was next to me, already panting. “We need to get out of this neighborhood. Come on.” He nodded to the right and started leading us down a side street.

  We ran for more than ten minutes before we were in a field, but we didn’t stop. We kept running as fast as we could.

  “Shit!” I exclaimed when we heard the humming of an alien ship. “Pick up the pace.”

  We pushed ourselves even further, and after twenty minutes we couldn’t hear the humming anymore. I breathed easier once we were out of range, but we knew we couldn’t stop running, so we didn’t. We kept at it until I felt like my lungs were going to explode. I stopped running, slowing down to a fast walk, and the others followed my lead, all of us breathing heavily. I never thought I would be able to run that much, but it was amazing what your body could do when you were petrified and filled with adrenaline.

  “Water,” I stated my one word sentence—totally couldn’t produce more than that—in the hopes that one of them would understand what I’d meant.