by Fitch, E. M.
“They got in?”Jack asked, startling Kaylee from her reminiscing and dragging her forcefully back to the present.
“They were already in,”she whispered, angry at the tears that were forming as the memories assaulted her.
“You lost someone,”he said and Kaylee could feel his eyes on her but she refused to meet them.
“Hasn’t everyone?”she asked evasively, turning away and patting her sleeve over her damp eyes.
“But you lost someone that night,”he prompted and Kaylee let out a small breath before turning her eyes on him. He was watching her intently, not a trace of judgment in his features.
“My mother,”she answered in a soft tone.“She was bitten and stayed behind.”
“I’m sorry,”he said, offering a condoling smile. She nodded and took a deep breath before returning her gaze to her empty mug, the spoon rattled against the side as her hands shook slightly.
“So where are you going? Somewhere cold?”she asked after a few loaded moments in attempt to change the subject. Jack laughed and Kaylee looked up in surprise.
“You are damn perceptive!”he said, grinning at her.“Somewhere cold. Because no oranges, right?”Kaylee nodded sheepishly and he laughed again.
“Well, you’re right. We’re going somewhere cold.”
“We?”
“Quinton and me,”he clarified, though his gaze had now turned on her and he lifted one eyebrow.“Unless you’d care to join us? I mean I have to say, I thought I’d be disappointed when I finally saw you with a shirt on but I’m not, you’re still very pretty. I don’t think I’d mind you tagging along.”He smirked at her and Kaylee’s jaw dropped.
“You…you—”she spluttered at him, her cheeks heating up but he interrupted her.
“Handsome bastard?”
“Just bastard would do,”Kaylee muttered, crossing her arms as she set her gaze on the far wall. Jack was unaffected by her shift in attitude and he laughed as she frowned.
“So, for how long do I have to tolerate your presence?”she asked through set teeth.
“What, you mean your not tempted by my offer?
Kaylee scowled, turning in her chair to face him as she answered but was interrupted by a throat clearing in the doorway.
“Am I interrupting?”Andrew was standing in the doorframe, shifting from foot to foot with nervous energy even though his eyes were bleary with too little sleep. Kaylee smiled widely as he eyed them suspiciously. She jumped up, throwing her mug into the now empty camp chair where it rattled against the spoon. Running towards him with her arms outstretched, Andrew’s mouth finally quirked up into a grin.
“You’re okay?”he breathed into her, holding her tightly as he asked.
“Mhmm,”Kaylee murmured, pulling back a bit and looking him over.“You overreacted, didn’t you?”
Andrew’s eyes dipped to the rooftop and he smiled sheepishly.“I was worried, so was everyone.”
“Silly boy,”she chastised lightly, grinning up at him.
“Anyone else up?”Jack interrupted, standing and stretching before walking over to the pair. Kaylee felt a flush creep up her neck without really understanding why and she pulled out of Andrew’s embrace, he letting her go only grudgingly.
“Your friend,”Andrew answered, his tone had a slight edge.“But no one else. We don’t normally get up so early.”
“So I was told,”Jack said, scooping up Kaylee’s mug and spoon with his own and turning once to scan the sky.“Nice clear day though and we have some scavenging to do, so…”he trailed off and headed in the direction of the stairs.
“You will consider my offer though, right?”he asked, turning suddenly to look at Kaylee from the mouth of the stairwell. She grit her teeth.
“To be eye candy for you and your friend? Oh sure, I’d just love to,”she answered, hoping the sarcasm dripping from her voice would put him off. She could hear his laughter as he descended the stairs.
Kaylee turned back to Andrew and noticed his raised eyebrows, his look of agitation.
“Sorry,”she offered, shrugging through her blush.“He’s kind of an, an…”
“Yeah, he’s an ass,”Andrew supplied through grit teeth.“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we’re not alone. But, I mean seriously! After all this waiting we get some jackass eighteen-year-old and a grisly old man with plans of world domination. You should hear them talk! According to them there’s an underground force somewhere up north that they’re escaping to, some place where the infected never penetrated and you can live free and clear of all this shit.”
Andrew kicked the edge of a tomato planter and grunted before turning to the edge of the rooftop and staring into the masses. Kaylee knew from the set of his shoulders and the force at which he spewed his words he was angry. Jack’s arrival had seriously shaken him.
“I just don’t believe it,”he continued, his voice more steady and calm than before.“This isn’t some big, huge city. We’re nobody’s, nothing, here. If we can’t even keep them out of this little space, how’s anyone doing it anywhere else? I don’t think that we’re all that’s left, but a whole colony? A whole town of people eating, sleeping at night, going to school, running business, and all that? It’s not possible.”
“But if that’s not possible, why should we even try?”Kaylee whispered, almost regretting it as she saw Andrew tense further.“Isn’t that what we’re trying to do? Live normally? With more people it would get easier, wouldn’t it?”
“It would; if it were possible, if it were true. I just don’t think it is.”
Kaylee bit her lip, feeling tears of frustration well in the corners of her eyes. If it weren’t possible, then what was the point? She wanted to scream at Andrew, ask him why they should even consider having children if this was the only life they could offer them. Even Andrew’s dream of finding a home in the country and setting up a camp there, farming for food and living night and day to protect it seemed weak and unappealing next to the fantasy of a whole town to live in. Kaylee dragged her sleeve over her eyes, ensuring that no moisture clung to her lashes before she looked back to Andrew.
He was watching her intently and his gaze faltered as she met it.
“I’m glad you’re okay,”he whispered, his eyes traveling over her in a way that made her feel very warm.
“Was everyone in a frenzy last night?”
He rolled his eyes and offered a weak laugh, leaning back against the rail and crossing his arms.“It was ridiculous! Here you come, getting carried in by some guy we’ve never seen. Emma’s rambling in your wake. He’s insisting it’s‘just a scratch’and you’re barely moving. Anna was caught between glee and professional mode. She was tending to you and barking orders to Emma and then boasting and gloating over the fact that she was right to my dad.”
Kaylee laughed at the scene Andrew presented, mostly because she somehow knew this was exactly what had happened.“How was my dad?”
Andrew’s gaze faltered just a bit.“He was not as excited as Anna was. Actually, I think he was just…terrified.”
Kaylee bit her lip and looked to the rooftop. Ever since her mother had been infected, both girls had been treated as porcelain dolls: precious, breakable. They were barely allowed out of the building and even then only to enclosed courtyards and secured fields and only at night when the chance of encountering an infected was the least. Last night would have been the first injury either of the girls sustained and Kaylee could only guess at the level of fear that must have pierced her father.
“Anna reassured him,”Andrew said hesitantly,“said you’d be fine. He wanted to stay with you all night—”
“Right next to you, I’m sure,”Kaylee interrupted, grinning slightly. Andrew blushed but nodded.
“Yeah, but Anna kicked us out, said we were overreacting,”he mumbled. Kaylee felt the strain of the shift in her relationship with Andrew fill the space between them. In times past she would have joked that he needed to get over her, nudge him and wink and try to tease his blus
h deeper, something that was never that hard to do. But now she felt frozen, unsure how to tread in the light of these new days.
“What’s Quinton like?”she asked in a jumbled rush after a few tense moments, wanting to break through the uncomfortable haze that had settled. Andrew perked up immediately.
“He’s pretty cool,”he offered with a shrug.“Grizzly and sort of rough but in a safe kind of way.”
Kaylee knew exactly what Andrew meant. He must be someone you’d be able to rely on in a fight and these days that translated to being safe.
Andrew suddenly barked out a laugh.“I went out to look for him," he said, "Jack set off a flare on the roof and said Quinton would know to follow it so I was waiting for him on the road. Well, he wears really dark clothes, kind of blends in with the night. The guy appeared out of nowhere, I couldn’t see him coming and he scared the life out of me. I jumped and yelped like a girl!”
Kaylee stuck her tongue out at him at the jab to her gender but he just grinned.
“But seriously, this guy knows what he’s doing.I think he must have been military back in the day. You have to see—”Andrew broke off as he peered over the side of the roof to the pavement.“Actually, wait, come here.”
Kaylee joined him at the railing and followed his pointing arm. It wasn’t hard to see what he was pointing at. When your landscape doesn’t change in two years expect for the occasional kicked over trashcan and broken window, any new object is bound to catch your eye.
A large dark object the shape of a Hummer was parked outside their building. Kaylee couldn’t be sure if it was truly a Hummer because almost every inch of it was covered in sheet metal that had been fused to the various parts. The metal was twisted and dented and in places looked burnt but it seemed to serve its’purpose. Layers and layers of chicken wire and grates covered the windshield and windows and though it would have made it very difficult to see, it would also have been nearly impossible to smash.
“You see how the top is higher than it should be?”Andrew asked, pointing again. Kaylee nodded although she had not initially noticed that.“They tore the roof off and built it up, leaving space for Jack to stand and shoot if he needs to. And all the seats were torn out for extra storage space. They’ve been driving that thing all over the country and nothing’s taken it down yet.”Andrew seemed grudgingly excited by their creation.
“It’s impressive,”Kaylee conceded, not so much at the car but at the fact that they had indeed made it this far without getting bitten.
“I keep telling Dad I could do something like that with one of the fire engines, but he doesn’t listen,”Andrew grumbled, pushing away from the wall and moving towards the stairs.“C’mon, let’s get downstairs and maybe get some more sleep. It’s going to be a long night tonight, believe me.”
Kaylee nodded and followed, but she knew there was no way she’d be getting back to sleep.
Chapter Five
A soft knock brought Kaylee out of her light doze. She stirred and mumbled for whomever it was to enter, pushing her warm blanket away from her and sitting up.
After she had left Andrew on the stairwell, turning away from the smirk Jack shot her from the supply room where he must have camped the previous night, she had opted out of returning to Anna in the infirmary. Instead she tiptoed down the hall to her own room. Emma was snoring lightly, curled up into a tight ball with her blankets twisted all around her. Kaylee had decided to let her sleep.
And though she had initially thought sleep would evade her, as she lay on her side staring towards the bright sunlight filtering through her window she felt her eyes drift close. The warm sensation of safety, security, washed over her and she was pulled unwittingly into slumber.
“Kaylee? Emma? Who’s up?”The soft voice that followed the knock sounded unsure and nervous.
“I’m up Dad,”Kaylee answered as his head peeked into the room. Emma gave a loud snort and rolled over. Nick seemed to sag as he strode into the room and he very nearly pulled Kaylee out of her bed as he hugged her.
“I thought you were with Anna and I went there and you were gone and I didn’t know what that meant or if you were okay or—”
She laughed into his shoulder, interrupting him in an attempt to lighten the mood.“I’m okay,”she reassured him and she heard him inhale quickly before he let her go. He looked tired, even more so than usual. His eyes were drawn and heavy lidded and he closed them as he rubbed his fingertips into his forehead, his thumb holding anchor by his temple.
“You’re not picking corn ever again,”he breathed as he sat next to her on her rumpled covers. Kaylee rolled her eyes and chuckled.
“Normally I’d jump at the chance to get out of a bit of work, but it’s really not necessary, Dad.”
“You have to be more careful, Kay,”he continued, his voice hardening as his eyes flashed open.“It’s not a joke and it’s not like we can just take a drive to an E.R. any old time we like.”
“I know,”Kaylee mumbled, getting up from the bed and crossing to the shelf on which she kept her few belongings. Emma mumbled under her breath before heaving a sigh.“I’m always careful. It’s not like I was expecting some guy to jump out at me.”
“You should always be expecting it. You were just lucky that he happened to be uninfected,”Nick pressed.“It’s against my better judgment to let you and your sister out at all, when I do I expect you to watch out for Emma. She’s young and—”
“She’s not that young, Dad,”Kaylee interrupted with a frown. She understood her father’s overprotective tendencies, she really did, but hearing him talk like this scared her. Their confined little space could become downright suffocating at times and to be told that she may be restricted even further would be intolerable. Besides, she didn’t think her father would talk about Emma in quite that way if he had seen her in action. After all, Emma had responded much more effectively than she had, knocking Jack to the ground and nearly braining him with that rock.
Sure, I got in a good right hook, but after that I just slammed into the ground…stupid sharp rock…
“I was going to say she’s too reckless,”Nick continued, eyeing Kaylee from his perch on her bed.“She doesn’t take this any more seriously than you.”
“I’m taking it seriously, Dad,”Kaylee argued, gritting her teeth as she twist her hair into a ponytail.“But you can’t keep me locked up in here, Emma neither. We’re fifteen and seventeen—”
“Youngest people on the planet,”came Emma’s scratchy voice.“I take it from the annoyingly loud irritation that is your voice that you’re okay?”
“We are not the youngest people on the planet,”Kaylee corrected her sister.“We might be the youngest uninfected. And yeah, I’m okay.”
Emma grinned from beneath her blanket.“Good. I wouldn’t want to have to do all the washing around here.”
“It’s not funny, Emma,”Nick said, his jaw muscles tensing as he stood from the bed and faced both his daughters.“You and your sister are entirely too relaxed about this whole thing! If it weren’t for Jack you might not have gotten Kaylee back here.”
“If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt in the first place!”Emma returned, shaking her head in disbelief of her father’s argument.
“The point is you’re both too irresponsible! This could have been very bad; Kaylee could have been seriously injured. A head injury is not a laughing matter—”
Emma rolled her eyes and hopped out of her bed.
“Don’t you roll your eyes Emma Marie!”Nick said, his voice rising steadily in volume.
“Dad, wait,”Kaylee interrupted, her hands raised.“You’re right. I’m sorry, I should have been more careful.”Nick turned towards her and Kaylee shot a warning glance to her sister, who was making a face and rolling her eyes again though this time it was in reaction to Kaylee’s words.“I’ll watch out for Emma, I will. And we won’t have to go out for a few days anyway so I’ll have time to make sure I’m really okay before I try it. It’
ll be okay, really.”
Nick seemed to calm as Kaylee spoke, his hands relaxed and his shoulders sagged again. It was not the father that she remembered from her youth, the days before the infection. As a young girl she remembered thinking her father was invincible, comparing him in her mind to an old picture of Atlas that she had seen once in the back of some textbook, the entire world sitting on his shoulders and he not even seeming the least bit effected. Nick wasn’t like that any longer. There was a permanent sag to his shoulders now that seemed to weigh down his whole frame. His eyes very rarely left the floor and often when they did they were flashing in anger or grief. And he didn’t talk so much anymore, not like he used to. He was never a conversationalist, not in the least, but he was a storyteller. It was always he who tucked his girls into bed, regaling them with fairytales and fables, most of his own creation. But he wasn’t that father any longer, the infection had taken just as much of him as it had of their mother. They were both empty shells now.
