“So where are we going?” Kenji asked.
“Colorado. Rio Grande Forrest more specifically. I have someone we need to meet there, to help us stop all this.” Rae replied to him, the van went silent again and Rae fell back into thought. She couldn't help but wonder if José was okay, if he was alive but she didn't know what she wanted the answer to be. She didn't love him anymore, but she still cared. He was a big part of her life, a painful part but he had given her something to live for. Jake. But he had also taken him away from her. Tears brimmed her eyes and she quickly wiped them away along with the thought. Emotional turmoil had no place in her life anymore, she had to be more like Kenji. Make everything black and white. Jake was dead. José probably was too. She had to move on from that.
Rae tuned out of her thoughts and back into the van. The radio was playing, and Kenji was singing along in a surprisingly husky, well-toned voice. Nix on the other hand, was smashing out a range of tones that didn’t have any tune at all, but he was grinning while doing it, so she smiled and relished in his upbeat mood. “I don't have enough alcohol for this singing.” John sighed loudly, placing Everlynn in the seat next to him and buckling her in before reaching behind him, into the boot for another bottle of whiskey. The song changed and Rae smiled, it was a song she could get behind. Good old ACDC.
Infected with Nix’s good vibes, she started humming to the song, John even humming with her. Kenji maintained a low voice as he sung the words but Phoenix of course, was taking it to the next level, belting out the words and assisting his performance with his air guitar moves.
“Thunder, uu ah uu ahah.” He jammed turning around to Everlynn, trying to show her how to strum along with him on their air guitars. Rae chuckled at the enthusiasm he was putting into it, then continued to sing along with the words, refusing to let her thoughts ruin the peaceful moment, one that had been a long time coming.
“You've been, Thunderstruck!” Phoenix and Everlynn screamed out together, both strumming their air guitars in circles together, laughing when their hands connected and messed up their moves. They head banged along with the beat, continuing their fun.
“I'm going to thunderstruck you in the head in a minute if you don't quieten down.” John snickered towards Nix playfully. Rae smiled and was about to bite back at John when James gurgled from beside her. He giggled as he looked at her, his feet kicking happily as he reached up his hands for one of the strands of hair that was loose and hanging over his capsule. She smiled tentatively. Her hand reached out to his, it shook unsteadily as she brushed a patch of his soft blonde hair away from his eyes. He squealed happily and she was glad everyone was too distracted by their song to notice how much she was taken with the little boy. Her fingers ran over his stubby fingers that were reaching for her and before she could pull away, he grasped it tightly with his squishy palms. He pulled it to his mouth, suckling on the tip and thanks to the walls she had built around her heart, the swelling it did when James latched on to her, didn’t cause her to crumple or pull away. She kept her hand there despite how much it reminded her of Jake. She smiled gently at the baby who kicked excitedly again, gnawing on her finger with his two front teeth. Rae left the baby with her hand to play with as she checked where they were. The next road sign said they weren’t far from the next town, so she interrupted everyone’s jam session to make a plan.
“We should stop in Sharon Springs, it’s an hour away from here.” Rae suggested.
“Good idea.” Kenji called back from the front, using a louder voice rather than turn down ACDC “Everyone can stretch and have something to eat there. We should probably crash there for the night too since it’ll be dark soon” He continued. Rae agreed.
“Hey Jenny, is there a map in the glove box in front of you?” Raelynn asked. She waited for a reply but only got a chuckle from Kenji as a reply.
“Jenny doesn't speak, I suppose I should have clarified that earlier. She watched Ma get eaten alive and then our father get his head chopped off, so I guess the whole silence thing is expected. I mean I’d be quiet too but then I'd be left to my thoughts and that shits scary, so instead I overcompensate and talk too much.” He rambled on and Rae nodded in understanding. Jenny was going to be scarred for life with memories like that. She was about to respond to Kenji when John spoke up.
“There's a place in Sharon Springs we could go to, not far. There's a couple of abandoned cabins that used to be rented out to rangers on their seasonal breaks, but they were shut down due to the lack of interest they got, Andrew and I stayed in them on our way to Rio a few times.” John told the group and Kenji agreed, following the directions John gave as they moved through Sharon Springs. They hadn’t gone far through the town, but Rae was already breathing faster. The town was deserted. Cars were abandoned, the streetlights weren’t working, making the night seem even darker and even through the dark, Rae was sure she could see the shadows of bodies on the ground. Refusing to look too closely, she eyed Nix who had wide eyes and pursed lips as he looked out the window; he noticed the state too. They would have to rest quickly and move on even quicker. Rae’s hand reached for her gun, her palm wrapping around the grip as her eyes darted to every shadow that made the slightest movement. Everyone fell silent, except John’s directions and the sloshing from his bottle of whiskey. Rae’s body was tense, every muscle tingling, waiting for the next attack. She was on the edge of her seat, her knee shaking as she wished they could just hurry up and get to the cabins when a moving shadow ahead of them on the road, caught her eye. She squinted through the darkness then leaned forward to Kenji.
“Is that someone on the road? It looks like they’re waving for us to stop?” Raelynn asked. Kenji mustn’t have noticed the shadow like she had because he peered through the darkness like her, flicked his lights on high beam to see better, then cursed as he saw a ragged man, waving frantically for them to stop. But they were moving fast, and Kenji didn’t have much time to react, which he must’ve picked up on too.
Kenji slammed on the brakes, hard.
Everyone lurched forward, and Rae clutched the bar in front of her that she had been holding to talk to Kenji, her seatbelt holding her steady enough. Phoenix hadn’t been wearing his seatbelt though, not wanting the constriction on his air guitaring moves but it meant he had nothing to stop the force of gravity when the van came to its sudden stop. He flew forward from his seat, landing face first into the back of Kenji’s seat. Nix groaned as he picked himself off the seat slowly.
“You've been THUNDERSTRUCK!” Everlynn giggled, yelling the last thunderstruck and doing an over exaggerated air guitar strum. Everyone erupted into a fit of chuckles at her taunt as Nix scoffed.
“And the pupil schools the teacher. Next time instead of teaching the child ways to tease me, I might just buckle up.” Nix smirked, before holding his nose and wriggling it gently, screwing up his face. It just made everyone laugh harder. John high fived Everlynn, who had a proud grin on her face. Kenji, still laughing got out of the car to talk to the guy and eventually Rae followed behind.
“Are you bitten or on drugs?” Kenji called out, repeating her questions and the guy shook his head quickly.
“No, no, no I'm clean and I'm fine, I promise.” He yelled out, “Please take me with you! The town has gone insane!”
“Who are you and where are you from?” Rae asked pointing her gun at him, refusing to give him the chance to attack. He didn’t even try and held his shaking hands up in the air with his eyes wide.
“Gavin, my name’s Gavin. I’ve just come from Sharon Springs. Please, I promise I’m fine, just let me come with. I have no supplies and no vehicle. Please.” Gavin begged. Rae dropped her gun by her side but kept her finger along the barrel, ready to pull the trigger at a moment’s notice. She moved closer, walking around him. She lifted his jacket and baggy clothes with her gun to check him over for any bites, drugs and to identify his weapons. He held a knife but other than that, he seemed clear. She nodded over to Kenji.
“
Alright, I suppose your good, get your shit and jump in the front. Rae, sit on his other side with the gun. I’ll get Jen to move to the back.” Kenji said then turned back to Gavin, “Any funny business and I'll kill you.” Kenji threatened getting back into the van, Gavin ran in and Rae followed behind as Kenji started the van once more and they continued their journey. Gavin stayed quiet during the short ride to Sharon Springs and Raelynn watched him like a hawk. Her stomach was turning as she kept the gun aimed at him. He was a stranger; he hadn’t given them anything except his name and where he was but why was he alive and no one else was around? His clothes were rugged and smelt of tobacco, his hair was shaggy and unkept, and even though he was playing the terrified card well, something stirring in her stomach and prickling over her skin told her not to trust him. She couldn’t even explain to herself why, except that he was the unknown and the unknown could get her, and the others killed.
You’re just being paranoid, Raelynn.
She tried to brush off the feeling, ignore her gut instinct because it was slightly biased on the whole trust thing. She had trusted Kenji and that had paid off but then she didn’t get the same feeling with Kenji as she did with Gavin. She kept her gun on him the whole drive, but she was trying to stop being so paranoid. It wasn’t going so well. Eventually though, they made it passed the deserted town that was Sharon Springs and up into the mountains where the cabins, John had told them about were. They were stale and dusty, seemingly abandoned and once Rae and Kenji had deemed the cabin they were staying in clear, they began unloading their things inside. It was a typical cabin with wooden walls, and floors, patterned furniture, tattered rugs and wall mounted deer and bear heads. Raelynn made James some food and a bottle, while Phoenix busied himself in the kitchen making food for everyone else with the little supplies they had combined with Kenji and Jen. John went through the cabin, rummaging through the cupboards and wardrobes. He found himself a pair of old slippers, a shotgun, some blankets, jackets and a first aid kit. He dumped it all on the table before sliding his feet into the slippers, his bottle of whiskey in his grasp and plonked down into the armchair, swiping the remote for the television in the other hand.
“Now this is the sort of hotel I like.” He smiled to himself. He leaned back in the armchair, put his feet up, waiting for food. Rae fed James in the kitchen, lowering her voice to talk to Nix as Gavin flicked out a blanket in the corner of the room for his bed. Phoenix cut up the vegetables and stirred them into a pan with some thick noodles, mixing it with some kind of seasoning from Kenji and Jen’s supplies, to make a stir fry that smelled beautiful and made her mouth water. But it didn’t distract her from the stranger.
“I don’t trust him.” She whispered to Nix. He smirked, still watching what he was doing instead of her.
“You don’t trust anyone Rae.” He shrugged. Although probably true, it still hit her that he would say that, and not exclude himself from it. She trusted him, she did.
“I trust you.” She frowned, trying to reassure him. Instead he smiled in a patronizing, half-hearted way that said he didn’t believe her. He stopped stirring the food and looked straight at her.
“You want to trust me, but you don’t. And that’s okay, Rae. I get that there are things you are struggling with, things you obviously don’t want to or can’t tell me and I don’t mind. I’ll wait until you’re ready.” He shrugged going back to his meal. Rae bit her lip to stop herself telling him everything right then. He understood her, wholeheartedly trusted her. Why couldn’t she just do the same? Open up, without feeling like she was making the biggest mistake of her life? Her hand clenched around the bottle the baby had almost drained.
“You won’t treat me the same if I told you.” Rae whispered, her stomach twisting painfully with guilt. She hadn’t caught José or her mother, she had been a part of their experiments that led the world to where it was. She should have known, and she hadn’t because she had trusted everything. She wasn’t making that mistake again but he at least deserved to know why she was keeping things from him. Nix sighed and put the lid on the pan, then pulled her closer into him. James was the only thing stopping her body being against his. He lifted her chin, so she had to face him.
“There is literally nothing in this world that could make me treat you differently or change how I feel about you, so don’t worry about that. Just tell me what you can as you want to. I’ll wait, promise.” He vowed, his thumb tracing her bottom lip. Rae swallowed hard. Her mind was racing, her heartbeat skipping and the blood in her veins, burning. He pushed passed every self defence mechanism she had put in place so emotions wouldn’t storm her body and mind, but they were, and she was helpless against it.
“I wish things had been different. That I had never left.” Rae whispered, clenching her eyes shut so he wouldn’t see the tears stinging her eyes. She tensed as the soft pressure of his lips against her cheek had her skin tingling and her heart pulsing fast against her ribcage. Her skin heated as she wished his lips had been on hers instead of her cheek. He wasn’t like that though; he would wait until she was ready and he knew she wasn’t. She didn’t know how, but he did. Rae sighed as his lips left her cheek, she slowly opened her eyes, looking into his green ones. He was as captivating with those things as he had been in high school. She smiled slowly at him, her cheeks pooling with heat as he stared at her with such devotion. She would have given in to him at that moment, pressed her lips against his but they weren’t alone. And that fact was rammed home when a gruff voice grumbled from the living area.
“You know Andrew has guns, right?” John glared with a thinly veiled threat at Nix. Rae chuckled and stepped back, sitting James up to gurgle over her shoulder as Nix laughed and went back to his stir-fry.
“We’ll talk later.” Nix winked. She smiled and went to change James. She finished and came back into the living area where everyone was eating. She laid James down on the blanket in front of where Phoenix was waiting for her on what looked like a make-shift double bed for them. James kicked happily, rolling over to shuffle over to Everlynn and play with her feet. She giggled and gave pieces of her food to her brother. Rae smiled then picked up her food and ate with everyone else. Once dinner was done, Gavin read his book on his bed, John fell asleep in his chair, Rae tucked Everlynn into a small bundle of blankets next to them then bathed James in the sink while Kenji and Jen took turns using the bathroom. The siblings went to bed after, using one of the bedrooms rather than staying in the lounge with everyone else, which Kenji said was more for Jen’s benefit. Nix took his turn in the bathroom while Rae got James to sleep then she took her turn. When she came out, she leaned against the wall by her bed, gun in her hand.
“Sleep, Rae.” Nix whispered, with his own eyes closed. Raelynn eyed Gavin who was still awake.
“I’m good, I need to keep watch.” Rae mumbled. Nix sighed and snuggled into the blankets, probably knowing it wouldn’t matter how much he argued. That’s when Gavin sat up and put his book to the side.
“I can keep watch if you want. As a thank you for helping me out.” Gavin offered, and it seemed sincere, but it turned her stomach.
“I got it.” Raelynn dismissed him. Nix sighed and looked up at her.
“Get in bed Rae. We have more to do tomorrow and you won’t be any help if you’re exhausted. Let him take watch.” Nix convinced. Rae rolled her eyes and scooted over, to get in the blankets next to him. She looked back at Gavin.
“Keep watch, if you let anything happen, I’ll kill you.” She promised.
“Got it.” He saluted. Pushing aside her fears and mistrust, Rae laid down with Nix, James between them, Everlynn beside them and tried to prevent herself falling asleep. She held out as long as she could but eventually the exhaustion won, and she fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter Nine
Raelynn woke to the stirring whines from James and blinding rays of sun through the window. It was warming the fresh air of winter and as she stretched and sat up, seeing Nix and James together in t
he bed made it possible to almost forget that the world was being consumed by a zombie apocalypse.
Rae sat up and brushed her hair with her hands, followed by tying her brown mop into a messy bun on top of her head that matched Nix’s. She rubbed her eyes to adjust to the light, then looked around the room at the others who were still sleeping. Rae picked up James, rocking him slowly to keep him quiet and went to go make him a bottle, when she knew something was off. It was too quiet. Sure, John was snoring in his sleep, but it was a different silence. One that was eerie and had her tremoring. Raelynn spun to where Gavin’s bed was meant to be and gasped. It was gone and so was he. Not just that, but as she checked the room for any signs that he had just packed his things and gone to the bathroom, she realised he hadn’t just taken his stuff, all their supplies were gone too. Rae cursed loudly through clenched teeth.
“Guys, wake up.” Rae growled, shaking John awake then going through to knock on the bedroom door and wake up the siblings. Nix was stirring as she came back through. She let out an exaggerated sigh and pointed to where their bags were meant to be.
“Gavin’s gone and so is all our stuff.” She continued. The others looked around, inspecting what they had left, which was only the baby bag. She was grateful for that, but it still didn’t erase the anger that stormed through her at how Gavin had screwed them over. She hadn’t trusted him from start and that was why she should have just trusted her gut instinct. Well, she had learned her lesson now.
“I told him no funny business, or I’d kill him, now I have to follow that stupid threat through.” Kenji grumbled groggily to himself, rubbing his face with his hands. Nix stood up, retying his hair on top of his head like she had done.
“He took the alcohol I found, little bastard.” John grumbled, slamming his fist on the side table next to his chair.
Survival Instincts (Book 1): Sacrifice Page 10