by Maya Riley
A rough palm caressed my arm and a low warmth began to spread through me. I was taken care of, safe, and protected. Then I drifted off to sleep as soon as a pair of lips rested on top of my head.
Sounds of barking brought me back to the land of the living. Well… land of the somewhat living. I lifted my head up to see Lincoln watching something off to the side. I tried to look too, but from my angle, I couldn’t see around the opening to the side of the waterfall.
“What’s going on?” I croaked out, my throat parched.
Lincoln handed me a water bottle that was sitting next to us. “There are some rotters out there. Looks like three, but they’ve got it taken care of. They’re already down. Nothing to worry about.” He turned his head to look at me and his gaze softened. “Have a good nap?”
I flipped open the cap and took a nice, long drink of water, welcoming each and every drop of the refreshing liquid into my heated body. He must have been warming me while I slept. Once I was done, I closed the cap and set the bottle back down. “It was a great one. How long was I out for?”
“Not too long. Maybe half an hour, an hour tops. The others are already dressed and getting some things together to eat.”
At his mention of clothing, I glanced down at myself. I was still in nothing but a bra. Even my damn underwear was back out on the bank, and I still needed to get around to washing them. There was so much to do, and I began to wonder if the nap was even worth it. “Well, shit.”
“I promise I didn’t do anything.” His hands flew up and his torso stiffened. Goosebumps spread across my skin from the lack of contact.
“What? No. You’re fine. I mean, yeah, I’m more naked than I intended to be when sleeping out in the open, but I was thinking about my clothes. I still needed to clean them too. Either that, or burn them. Whichever would be more convenient.”
He reached over on his other side and produced a small pile of clothes. “The others brought these over so you could get dressed as soon as you wanted to. You’re all dried off now.”
I snatched up the clothes with my hand and sat up. “Let me guess. Your hot body kept me warm the whole time?” I waggled my eyebrows at him playfully.
His eyes smoldered, sending tingles down my spine. “You know it.” He leaned in for a quick kiss before pushing me away enough so he could stand up. Once he was on his feet, he reached his arms above his head and stretched. The bottom of his shirt rose up, exposing a sliver of his abdomen that I’d like to see more of.
“Glad I woke up? You could’ve been stuck in that position all night.” I took the old sports bra off and replaced it with the fresh, clean one, before tugging the black tank top over my head. My head popped through and I noticed him looking at me with a serious expression.
“I could’ve been trapped beneath your naked body all night, and I wouldn’t have wanted to budge even once.” His tone was low and serious. It made my stomach do circus tricks. I pulled my hair out from the neck of my shirt, noticing even my hair was dry.
Not knowing what to say to that, whether or not I should keep joking or actually acknowledge the meaning behind his words, I settled on avoidance. I grabbed the clean underwear from the pile, stood up, and held his gaze as I put them on. Then I reached down and did the same with the olive capris. Even with clothes on, his eyes still held longing.
Our stare was only broken when Mateo yelled, “Is she awake yet? Food will be ready soon.”
“I could stay silent and buy us some more time,” I offered, but then my stomach rumbled.
“It might be a better idea to get you something to eat. Here.” He held his hand out to me and I took it. “This ledge extends out from the side of the waterfall and then narrows, but it’s still just wide enough to make it back to land without getting wet again. That way your clothes can stay dry too.” He pulled me along the ledge behind him and I followed him back out to the bank.
“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty.” Adam greeted me with a wide smile.
“Sit down, food’s almost ready.” Mateo was facing a fire, and something smelled delicious.
I sniffed the air, trying to pick out the familiar scent. “I’ve eaten this before.” I sniffed some more, nearly as much sniffing as Puppy was doing behind Mateo. I know I’ve experienced this smell before, at least once. “What is this?”
“Rabbit.” Mateo poked and prodded at the contents that were over the fire. From what I could tell, there was something hanging on a stick. It was one of those contraptions that you’d see on TV. Two long sticks were stuck into the ground on either side of the fire, with one long stick in between, and the meat, or whatever other food, hanging from that. I must admit, I was pretty impressed with their outdoor cooking skills.
“You put this together and started the fire on your own, without Lincoln?”
Mateo stopped and, without turning around, said, “Flame boy isn’t the only one who can play with fire.” Then he continued with what he was doing.
“Flame boy? Really?” Lincoln didn’t sound impressed, but I wasn’t able to suppress the chuckle that came careening out, and Maura laughed along with me. Our laughs continued to grow and filled the silence in the air, and we didn’t even bother to stop until all the laughter was out and we’d finally calmed down.
“Food’s done.” Mateo lifted the stick with the meat and set it on a flat rock that sat nearby. He flipped open a blade he’d produced out of nowhere, and made some cuts along the meat, letting out some of the heat to cool faster.
While his back muscles rippling beneath his shirt with his movements were lovely to look at, my focus was on Puppy. The last time we sat around a fire waiting for Mateo to cut up and serve rabbit, Puppy had snatched a piece straight from his plate and then hid behind a rock and feasted. She had her full focus on the food in front of us, and I bit my lip in anticipation. I had no doubts about what she was going to do.
Her head bobbed up and down with each of his movements. Every time he cut a piece off and set it to the side, her ears perked up even more. Her tongue came out and licked her lips once, since she was still fully focused on the movements.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Maura observing the same thing, also waiting with a smirk on her lips. I probably could help Mateo finish preparing the meal, but honestly, it was more fun to watch and wait for his reaction when Puppy finally made her move.
Sure enough, once a few more pieces of meat had been cut and placed on the rock, Puppy pounced. Snatching up one of the bigger morsels with her teeth, she ran away and hid behind a nearby tree. Her sounds of triumph and gratification could be heard by all of us, as she chomped down on her prize. Everyone except for Mateo busted out laughing.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Damn dog’s gotta eat. But why does she have to take the best piece?”
“Awe, it’s okay, Mr. Grumpy Pants. There’ll be more later on,” I teased.
He huffed and continued his work without a word. By the time he finished cutting and separating the meat onto six different rocks, the rest of us had searched through our packs and set out various containers with nuts and crackers.
Lincoln took over the fire to boil some water in the tiny pan he had hanging on the outside of his bag. I pulled out an empty reusable water bottle from mine and placed a tea bag inside. Once the water was boiled, Lincoln poured it in for me, and now I only had to wait a few minutes for it to steep and then cool enough to begin sipping.
Mateo raised an eyebrow, and I waited for him to make another comment about my ‘green tea shit,’ but smart man kept his mouth closed this time.
“Anybody else want any? I have a bunch more tea bags in here. Full of healthy antioxidant type stuff.” I was met with shaking heads, and shrugged. “More for me.”
After we’d eaten, we were all filled up and satisfied. We lay about, watching the fire as the sun set. We decided to go ahead and camp here tonight, then head back to the car in the morning. We could spread out here and the ground seemed more comfortable than piling
six people and a dog into a car. We’d take turns in twos, keeping watch and messing with the radio. Adam had already been turning the dials for a while now, but nothing other than static has come through. The more time that passed by, the more attached he became. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to stay up all night with it.
I reached into my pack, pulled out the long-sleeved jacket, and slid my arms inside. After zipping it up and holding it tightly to me, trying to keep out the cool night air, I placed my pack behind my head and laid down on the ground.
Puppy nuzzled up into my side with her nose sneaking up underneath my arm, and Maura scooted over to lay against my other side. I wrapped my arms around both of them and listened to the mingling sounds of crickets and static, performing the perfect nighttime lullaby.
Until a different crackling noise broke through.
Calling all survivors to the Salvaged Lands. We can provide protection.
Blyss
The message cut off almost as fast as it came through. I perched myself up on my elbows behind me and looked over at Adam. His silhouette stood out, framed by the light of the fire, and I could still make out the frantic look on his face, the cheekbones that stood out with his clenched jaw, and his eyes focused on the object in front of him that he could barely even see in the dark, yet it was currently at the center of his world.
His shoulders gently bounced with the frantic movements of his hands trying to get the voice back. To hear some more of the message. To get more information on this supposed sanctuary.
Until finally, he cursed and pushed the radio over, letting out a guttural growl into the otherwise silent night. The sound was a shocking reaction. Tensions were high, but he was feeling them most of all.
I hopped up onto my feet and ran to him, then rested a hand on his shaking shoulder when I got close enough. “Hey, Pepper.”
He remained sitting back on his heels, his head thrown back, looking up at the sky. “I had it. I was so close. I had it… and then it was gone.”
“It’s not your fault. It must have been the very end of the message, because they cut it off. It wasn’t you, it was them. They call for survivors, yet make it so hard for anyone to find them.”
“If only I’d found that channel sooner, then we could’ve heard all of it and been on our way right now.” I rubbed my thumb in soothing circles on his shoulder. “You mean we’d try and find the car again when it’s pitch-black?”
Adam groaned. Okay, maybe logical humor isn’t the best idea right now.
“Look, there’s no telling for sure. What we do know is that someone is sending out calls to survivors. Someone is out there, claiming to have a safe space. We are heading in the right direction at least. It’s a bumpy road, but we’ll get there. We’ll make it.”
He coughed. “It is a bumpy road alright. It’s… so much time is spent focused on this damn radio, and all we get is a message that doesn’t even help us. The only information this gave us was that they exist, which we already knew. And it’s very possible we could’ve understood the first message completely wrong before, and that it may not even be in the South. For all we know, it could be in southern France. Are we going to keep running and driving all over the entire globe, spending our entire lives looking for something we really don’t know anything about?” He lowered his head and turned to look at me. “We spend so much time struggling and fighting to survive. Discovering that… lab, and the truth behind what started all this. The only thing I’m useful for is the radio, and I can’t even do that.”
“That’s not true—”
“Lincoln can shoot fire from his hands. You can heal your own wounds. Mateo is a fucking machine with knives. Jonah can read lips and figure things out about a person without even letting them know he’s there. And all I do is miss the one message that could save us right now, and we have to keep on surviving and barely scraping by until it comes back again.”
I lifted myself up and set myself back down, so I was straddling his lap. My hands fluttered to either side of his face, urging him to look at me. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” I looked straight into his eyes, still hidden by the darkness. “We’ll survive. Nothing can take us down, not even the end of civilization. I promise you that.”
“I couldn’t even finish med school and disappointed everyone. I was so selfish, wanting to fly instead.”
His eyes had a faraway look to them in the flickering firelight. They were facing me, but they looked straight through me. Whatever he was seeing wasn’t currently in this world.
I pressed my hands tighter to his face, wanting to take away his pains of the past. Guilt was the heaviest thing to bear, and doing so alone could crush even the strongest of beings.
Bringing my face in closer to his, I could more easily make out the different shades of blues swirling around in his irises. I kept moving closer, until our mouths were only a breath apart, and closed my eyes to block out the rest of the world. The feeling of straying eyes lessened, until even the others were blocked out. It was the two of us in this moment alone.
I felt the steady movement of his cheeks underneath my palms as his jaw clenched and unclenched, and it was my only focus. He was my only focus.
Our lips touched, magnetized by something stronger than either of us. Something we couldn’t fight, even if we’d wanted to.
My fingertips tingled, and warmth danced upon them where our skin met. Our mouths opened and closed in a rhythm that was all our own.
His arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer to him until our chests were touching. His other hand moved up to cup my face, his thumb rubbing along my cheek. Adam’s touch was electric, drawing me closer than our physical selves, and then holding us together. We were bound by the electric heat and gave into it.
I had a very vague feeling of movement around us, but nothing could penetrate our bubble. We were outside of time and space.
My mouth opened and his tongue quickly slid inside. The static in my fingers turned to warmth, and were now beginning to feel like air. They were weightless, so light that I could barely feel them as they danced across his skin.
A light breeze tickled across the tops of my knuckles, and then slipped beneath my palm.
I pressed my mouth harder against his, needing to get closer, needing to lift his worries and help carry as many of them as I could. He squeezed me with his arms before pulling his mouth away to place soft kisses along my jaw, then down my neck to my collarbone. “Skittle…”
His whisper was so light, I would’ve missed it. It was as though it traveled on a breeze, directed for my ears only. “Pepper…” I leaned down to whisper in his ear, making sure the words stayed within our invisible bubble.
The tingling in my fingers stopped and I pulled back, opening my eyes. The veiled bubble around us was lifting, and I glanced around to see the others pretending to be fast asleep, and doing a mighty poor job of it. Except for Mateo, who had his back to us and was watching the area around our little campsite.
I looked back at Adam. The heaviness in his eyes had lifted, and he had a slight glow to his features. “Feeling any better?”
He nodded and wrapped both arms around me before carefully flipping me onto my back. “Much.” He placed a quick kiss on my lips, unwrapped his arms, and lay down next to me. Where normally I’d feel heated after that, I felt cool and light instead.
“I feel different,” he responded.
“A good different?”
“With you, it’s always a good different.” He pulled the thin blanket around us and extended his arm as a pillow for my head. I turned into his chest, and he moved his other arm around my back, and tightening it and holding me close.
My heartbeat slowed down and I breathed in the clean scents around us.
We snuggled and fell asleep like that, listening to the continued static of the radio.
Shouts, grunts, and thuds shook me awake. I was wrapped up in someone’s arms, which gripped me tighter when I began to move.
<
br /> I was trapped, and I didn’t like being trapped, especially when something was wrong. Something had to be wrong, otherwise why would there be shouts?
The sounds of blades clanging together reached me and my eyes flew open. I twisted around so that the arms had to loosen and let me go, then I jumped up on my feet, drawing blades in each hand on instinct.
I spun around, trying to gauge the threat, and react as needed. Adam was already on his feet next to me, doing the same, but without knives. He was alert and taking note of the threat and every movement, planning his first move.
I turned around just in time to see a rotter stumbling toward us, but before I could react, it was being blown back by some invisible force. Looking around, I noticed Adam was as confused by it as I was. Nobody else had seemed to notice, as they were all caught in their own battles. That was a worry for later though, since there were still more coming our way.
A female rotter in ripped, black leggings and a tattered, dark blue shirt underneath the remnants of the black vest with a panda pin was slowly moving toward us. What was left of her poofy hair was left behind on the twigs above as it moved toward us. She was missing her left arm, and the glasses dangled from the face, threatening to fall off at any moment. I was a bit surprised the damn things hadn’t fallen off already. The movements were jagged and slow.
Puppy sank her teeth into the rotter and pulled until the leg popped off at the knee. As the rotter tumbled forward and face-planted into the ground, Puppy ran away with the decaying leg dangling from either end of her mouth.
The rotter reached out an arm, clawing at the ground and trying to pull the remains of its decaying body forward. Finally, the glasses fell off and cut into its shoulder as it continued to try and wrench toward us. The jaw hung unhinged, still wanting to bite and infect whether or not it physically could anymore.
I lunged forward and drove a knife into the skull, twisting until the rotter shuddered into stillness beneath me.