Bryan and I ran side by side, each of us scanning the rubble left behind by the grenade. There wasn’t a lot to blow up since vines had covered almost everything, but the little bit that had managed to hang on was scattered across the ground, making the path even more hazardous than the vegetation did. I slipped on something wet just as we reached the end of the alley and tried my best not to think about what—or who—it had once been.
Then we were through the alley and once again out in the open. I shoved a mass of wet hair out of my face as I lifted my head and gazed at the clouds. They were dark and brooding and seemed to be fluffier than usual. It wouldn’t be long before they opened up and dropped buckets of rain on us. After four years I knew the weather patterns these things had created pretty well. We usually got weeks and weeks of drizzle leading up to a big storm, one that would bring wind with it and drop rain on us that was so heavy we’d be forced to stay inside for days. When that happened, it was impossible to see more than a foot in front of you. I could only hope that it would impede the aliens as much as it did us. If so, we might just stand a chance.
“Storm is coming,” Bryan said, echoing my thoughts. “We need to find shelter.”
I nodded as I looked up and down the street. People darted here and there, and a few of the creatures scurried up buildings or hopped from wall to wall. The buzz of their wings was persistent but more spread out now, and the pop of gunfire had eased off. Occasionally an explosion would echo through the air, followed by shouting or a screech from one of the aliens that I hoped meant they were in pain. I didn’t know if the low number of explosions was a good or bad thing. Maybe it meant the aliens were grabbing people before they could pull the pins on the grenades, or that the creatures had stayed close to the building we’d been trying to draw them away from, or it was even possible that people were just running and looking for a safe place to hide like we were.
A fat drop of rain hit me on the arm and I scanned the street, searching for a building that wasn’t too covered with vines. Right across the street from us sat an old coffee shop. The windows were surprisingly intact behind the greenery that now twisted up the side of the building, and the front door wasn’t yet covered, meaning we could get inside. It would be risky considering how fast the vines were growing, but with the clouds about to open up, we didn’t have a lot of options available to us.
At the end of the street an alien screeched and I turned toward the sound. It stood up on its back legs and let out another sound, flapping its wings at the same time. Then it scurried down the building and took off down the street. All around us the creatures let out similar sounds before following the first one’s lead and hurrying off. A few of them had men or women in their grasps, their claws sinking into flesh as they ran. Based on how little blood I saw, I guessed the sharp spikes were only surface deep. Just enough to keep the people under control but not enough to fatally wound them. The aliens were keeping them alive just like Bryan had hypothesized and it sent a shiver down my spine.
A bug dropped to the ground next to us, less than four feet away. Its wings were buzzing at an incredible rate, so fast that I could feel the air from them. It was already chilly outside and the soft drizzle coming down combined with the buzz of the animal’s wings had me covered in goose bumps in seconds flat. The creature paused next to us and turned his head in our direction. His eyes, three smooth black ovals lined up across his face, seemed to consider us.
I tightened my grip on my gun while Bryan calmly pulled a grenade off his belt. What would I do if this thing grabbed one of us? Would I let it drag me back to the hive and hope I was able to get away there? I thought about the red vines Bryan had described and another shudder shook my body. No. I’d pull a grenade and blow the asshole to bits before I let it use my body as an incubator.
The bug seemed to understand what Bryan was doing, seemed to recognize the grenade, because it reared back. A second later it turned away and hurried down the road after its brothers, leaving us alone.
That’s when the clouds lost their battle with the rain and opened up.
It was like a bucket of water being dumped on my head. One second I was chilly and damp, and the next I was drenched from head to toe and shivering. Bryan grabbed my arm, and even though he was right next to me, I could barely see him. I tried to blink the water away, but before my eyelids had even gone up and down once the rain had blinded me again.
“There was a coffee shop!” I yelled over the rain.
“I saw it.” He turned away from me but I knew looking for the store now was pointless. The rain was coming down too hard.
“Head that way,” I called, pointing in the direction that I’d seen the shop.
I barely saw it when his head bobbed, and then he started walking, pulling me with him through the monsoon. Puddles had begun to collect on the street and my boots were filling with water. The one pant leg I had left made me feel like I was being dragged down to the bottom of the ocean, but my other leg was covered in goose flesh from the cold. My jacket was singed and ripped from the explosion and did little to cover me. It was so saturated that I wanted to rip it off and toss it aside. At this point it was only making me colder.
I nearly tripped when we reached the sidewalk. Thankfully, we were able to take shelter under a small awning that had somehow survived the last five years. The building behind us was nearly greened out with plants, making it impossible to tell what it had once been let alone get inside, but with the rain temporarily off our heads we were able to get a look around. The coffee shop was only two stores over.
“You ready?” Bryan called.
I nodded and prepared myself to go back out into the rain. It was impossible though, and when I stepped out I was nearly overwhelmed by the power of the shower as it thumped down on our heads. Bryan’s fingers tightened on my arm and he pulled me forward, but I could tell that he was struggling just as much as I was. With the way it was coming down, I was inhaling water with every breath I took in, and I suddenly knew what it must have felt like to drown.
We reached the coffee shop and found the door unlocked. No surprise, really. It had been five years and there had been plenty of people out searching for supplies during that time. Coffee wasn’t essential, but it was more than welcome during late nights of keeping watch. This place had probably been cleaned out during the first few weeks of stocking our building. In fact, I kind of remembered drinking out of some of the paper cups with the shop’s logo on it.
We burst inside, followed by a surge of water and wind. Getting the door shut with the rain pounding against it proved to be a challenge, but between Bryan and me we managed it.
Once we had it closed we stood side by side, our clothes dripping onto the floor until a puddle of water had collected under our feet. I was shivering, but I knew this building wouldn’t have anything useful to stop that. No change of clothes and no blankets. The most we could hope for right now would be a few aprons to cover ourselves with.
Of course, there was always body heat.
I ripped my sopping wet jacket off and rung it out. Water splashed against the stone floor, making the puddle bigger than ever. I did it a second time with the same result, and then spread my jacket over a table in the hope that it would somehow dry. With as wet as the air was, I decided I shouldn’t hold my breath.
Next to me Bryan did the same thing with his own jacket, and then reached for his pants. I turned my back even though I’d seen him in nothing but boxers plenty of times over the last few days, and instead focused on getting my boots off. I dumped the water on the floor and then rung as much of it out of my socks as I could. As an afterthought, I decided my pants and shirt could use the same treatment. I removed the Kevlar vest and pulled the rest of my clothes off. Taking the body armor off was such a relief that I decided I wouldn’t bother putting it back on when we left. Not only did it make me feel like I was being wrapped in a bear hug, but I knew from our time on the street that it did nothing to protect us from the alie
ns’ claws.
That left me in nothing but the black tank top and underwear. It was the same thing I slept in and I knew I shouldn’t be self-conscious in it. Not after what we’d been through and not when Bryan had seen me in this position more times than I could count, but I couldn’t help it. Something about being here after fleeing, about knowing we were probably stuck for a while, and could possibly be facing death, made this feel more intimate than those nights in my bedroom. Even last night when he’d climbed into bed with me.
When I turned to face him, the look in his eyes told me that he felt the same way. It was dark, but his blue irises seemed to glow in the little bit of light that seeped in through the windows. The light also seemed to accentuate his muscles, to highlight the dips and planes of his chest, and the tattoo that curled up his arm.
I ran my fingers over it, tracing Michael’s name and the swirl of lines that intertwined with it. I’d wanted to ask about it since his first day in the settlement but had held back. There was a part of me that didn’t want to bring Michael into this, that wanted to keep my most precious memories of my husband to myself. Even though I knew Bryan had been a part of his life for much longer than I had, Michael had been my husband. I was the one who had been with him in the end, I’d watched him die, I’d cried myself to sleep and then later had nightmares about the moment over and over again. For five years it had felt like my pain alone, but now I knew that Bryan had suffered too. That he’d missed his brother and had felt regret and guilt that had probably matched my own misery. The name of his dead brother on his bicep proved that.
“When did you get this?” I asked.
His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed. “A few months after joining the militia. There was a guy, he’s dead now, who’d been a tattoo artist. We were all drinking one night when we had a few days off and it just sort of happened. It was an impulse that was definitely aided by alcohol, but I’m glad I got it.” Bryan looked down at his arm. “I’ve missed him.”
“I have too,” I whispered.
He looked up, but the expression in his eyes told me that he was only partly thinking of his brother right now. The desire that swam in them was thick, and when he reached out to grab my hips his hands were firm. They were also hot against my skin, and welcoming. Like a warm blanket, which I desperately needed since I was covered in goose flesh.
“What do you think he would say about this?” Bryan whispered.
This. He meant the thing that was happening between us, which we still hadn’t spoken about. This attraction, this fire that seemed to build in intensity with each passing day. What would Michael think about it? I tried to imagine, tried to remember him, and it suddenly hit me that most of my memories were now so fuzzy that I had a difficult time telling the real ones from the dreams I’d had. Just like the image of his smile had faded from my memory long ago, the memory of who he’d been had as well. What I had left was the knowledge that he’d been a good man, and that he would have been proud of what his brother had become. I also knew that he’d loved me, and at the core of that love was the desire for me to be happy. I knew that Michael, the real Michael who had loved and kissed and held me tight, wouldn’t be angry that I was finally moving on. No, he would smile and say, it’s about time.
“He would be happy for us,” I said.
Bryan smiled and I could tell that he thought the same thing, and then he pulled me against him and covered my lips with his.
Unlike that day in my room, I didn’t stop him. I pressed my body against his and dug my nails into his back as I raised myself up on the tips of my toes, desperate to be closer to him. His body heat sank into me, chasing away the goose bumps that had taken over my body. My heart thumped in tune with his, a rhythm that sounded desperate and needy, but hot at the same time. It caused desire to build inside me that reminded me of how the clouds had looked just before they’d opened up, how they had seemed ready to burst. That’s how I felt. After five years of closing myself off to the world, I felt ready to explode.
The floor of the coffee shop was stone and cold, but Bryan fixed that problem by grabbing the cushions off a few chairs and tossing them on the ground. Then we were down, tangled in each other’s arms as we kissed. Every touch of his lips against mine set me on fire, every brush of his fingers against my bare skin made me shiver. He had my shirt off in less than five minutes, and my underwear followed shortly after, leaving me bare to him.
I was naked, but not just physically, emotionally too. For the first time in five years I was allowing myself the chance to be vulnerable with someone, to share intimacy that went much deeper than a primal need for sex. What I felt as Bryan kissed me was a surge of closeness with another human being, and an overwhelming desire to not be alone anymore.
His mouth and hands teased my skin as his body moved against mine. He still had his boxer briefs on, but I could feel his hardness as he rocked his body against mine. The heat that flooded my veins moved through my body and pooled between my thighs as the need to have him closer grew. I arched up to meet his thrusts and my nails dug into his ass as I tried to pull him closer. His mouth devoured mine and his fingers dug into my hips as his grunts and groans mingled with my gasps and the need inside me built.
My body reached a crescendo, and I threw my head back and cried out. The glorious pulse of pleasure that rocked through me nearly took my breath away. I tightened my legs around his hips and pulled him closer, wanting the waves that swept over me to last forever. Wanting this moment with this man to go on and on until the end of time.
When my body relaxed Bryan pulled away long enough to get his underwear off. Then he was back, his mouth on mine once again as he slid inside me. The feeling of fullness that swept over me had little do with his size—although that was definitely something to write home about—and more to do with how long it had been. Five years had passed since I’d had sex. Five years of loneliness and self-hatred, of telling myself I was moving forward while at the same time refusing to allow myself a life. I’d missed out, punished myself, but now I was ready to move on for real.
He seemed to be unable to stop, found it difficult to control himself. His thrusts were fast and needy, and mind-blowing at the same time. His fingers dug into my hips hard enough to leave bruises, but he was hitting a spot inside me that felt so good I didn’t care. I was just happy to be with him. To be with another person at all and to feel alive.
It was over faster than either of us would have liked, but I knew it had been a while for Bryan. Not as long as it had been for me, but long enough that he probably felt like a giant weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
Bryan was panting when he leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Sorry, I couldn’t stop,” he whispered against my skin.
I rested my hand on his cheek and smiled. “You have nothing to apologize for.”
Afterward, we curled up together on the floor, keeping one another warm while the rain beat on the building like it was trying to break the walls down. It was so loud that it seemed to echo through the room, and before long it began to seep in under the door, forcing us to get up.
It wasn’t uncommon for buildings to flood when these downpours started, which was why we didn’t have any permanent residents on the first floor of our own building, but here we lacked our usual escape. The coffee shop was one story and our only way to get away from the water creeping across the floor would be to retreat further into the shop, but that was only a temporary escape and we both knew it. We needed to get to higher ground.
I picked my pants up off the table, shaking my head at the heavy weight. They were still soaked and since I was already missing one pant leg, I decided to chop the other one off as well. It was too cold for shorts, but soaking wet jeans weren’t any better. I did my best to make them even, sure that I’d fail, as the water moved closer and closer to where I was standing. Behind me, Bryan was already dressed and reloading his gun. The grenades we’d brought into the shop with us were lined up along the tabl
e like a reminder of what we were facing, and next to them sat my Kevlar vest. Bryan had put his back on, but I’d already decided I wouldn’t. It wouldn’t protect me from the claws and it was too tight, too heavy. I wanted to be able to move faster, and even though I was sure it was all in my head, I felt certain the Kevlar vest was holding me back.
Even under the cover of the rain I wasn’t sure we’d be safe from the aliens once we went back outside. We’d never seen them out in a heavy storm before, but until today we hadn’t seen them this far away from the hive either. Not since the early days of the invasion. At this point, anything was possible.
When my pant leg was off, I pulled my cutoff shorts on and turned to face Bryan. “What do we do now? Try to make it back to the settlement or find another place to hole up until the storm passes?”
“I don’t want to risk leading the aliens back there.” He hooked a grenade to his belt. “I think we should keep our distance. Find another place to lay low. If we could find something with a view of the city, even better. We won’t be able to see much with this rain, but anything that will give us an idea of what’s going on out there is better than nothing.”
I shoved my feet into my boots and tied them quickly, ignoring the way my wet socks squished between my toes. Finding a way to get dry would be nice, but I had a feeling I was going to need to get used to being wet. At least for a while.
When I was dressed, I reattached the grenades to my belt and grabbed my own weapons, as well as the Kevlar vest. I wasn’t about to leave it behind because we could need it one day, but draping it over my arm was a hell of a lot more comfortable than strapping it on.
I joined Bryan at the door where he was ready and waiting, and then it was pulled open and a wall of water slammed into us. It may have been my imagination, but it seemed like it was coming down even harder than it had been when we’d stumbled into the coffee shop only a short time ago.
The Blood Will Dry Page 13