by Fitch, E. M.
“And how long will you be staying here?”Anna asked tentatively, looking from Nick’s rigid back to Quinton. He noticed her eyes shift and paused to search each face in the room before he answered. Kaylee didn’t know what he saw in her gaze, she wasn’t sure herself what she was feeling, but it did seem as though he stared at her for an awful long time.
“We’ll give you some time to think about this. Perhaps a week,”he answered softly.“I think I’ll retire now. Jack and I have been scouting all day. Jack?”
“Right behind you, Quinton,”Jack answered cheerfully. And without a backwards glance, the two newcomers left the group to their thoughts.
Chapter Six
“Hold up, that’s an eight thrown on an eight,”Emma said, grabbing Andrew’s wrist as he went to put his card on top of the growing pile.“So, you’re skipped. It’s Kaylee’s turn.”
“This is a stupid game,”Andrew grumbled as he pulled his hand, and his card, back.
“You’re just lucky she didn’t penalize you, she is the President, she could—”Jack cut off and Kaylee looked up to him in confusion, fumbling her hand as she did. She was about to throw her last ten, it would have brought her down to only six cards, though that was still two more than Emma. Jack’s look was all too innocent, an expression Emma shared, and Kaylee cast her eyes around, searching for the source of their synchronization.
“Oh geez,”Andrew mumbled, dropping his cards as he slammed his thumb on the table.
“Thumbs, right,”Kaylee exclaimed, placing her thumb on the edge of the table all too late. Emma laughed and gestured for Andrew to mark Kaylee’s blunder down.
“You are terrible at this,”Jack rumbled underneath a laugh.“You’re actually very lucky we can’t play this with alcohol. You’d be smashed.”
“So, if we have to take extra cards for every mistake we make, how are we ever supposed to catch up?”Andrew asked grumpily. He was frowning as he looked from his cards to the pile in the center of the table. Kaylee had been skipped after she was the last to put her thumb down and now Emma was looking apologetically at Jack.
“Sorry Jack, it’s not that I don’t like you or anything.”Emma’s grin was just a bit too smug as she drew one of her remaining four cards and threw it towards the middle. It was an eight. Jack grinned with his hands raised in defeat.
“So, it’s my turn now?”Andrew asked, the lack of excitement evident in his tone. Kaylee grinned towards her sister, knocking her with her knee. It was extremely obvious that Andrew was not enjoying the game Jack introduced to them, though whether that was the fact that he couldn’t seem to win a hand or because a steady dislike of Jack seemed to be growing Kaylee couldn’t be sure.
Kaylee couldn’t seem to make her mind up about Jack. One minute he was very nearly annoying the life out of her and the next she found him strangely…fascinating.
The things he had done! Of course, Kaylee knew they could just be stories, tall tales and fabrications designed to impress her group. But Quinton never seemed to contradict him and though Jack told the stories with conviction, it never seemed like bragging.
He and Quinton had literally been a two man wrecking crew through the lower half of the United States. Once they had decided to decimate the areas of highest infection contamination, no city was too big for them. Birmingham, Memphis, Nashville, Fort Worth, Tulsa, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Pittsburg were all in the process of becoming“livable”again; at least that what Quinton called it. He continued to insist that they were making the world livable again, Jack just seemed to enjoy blowing things up.
Kaylee wasn’t quite sure how she felt about it all. In this process of taking their world back, Jack and Quinton were destroying some of the very best things that civilization had built up, weren’t they? Was Cleveland’s Terminal Tower or St. Louis’s Gateway Arch still standing? Or were those skylines forever altered? Did Memphis and Nashville still hold their many museums, or did some become rubble to contain the roaming infected. They were questions Kaylee both wanted to ask and was afraid to have answered. There were moments when she wondered if it mattered either way, it wasn’t likely she be going to see for herself. But it did feel almost tragic, that these places where people had lived and worked and fought and died for were now nothing more than graveyards, a few of those not-yet-dead still wandering over them.
Andrew had played his hand, and Kaylee had fumbled until she was able to throw a King, Emma had frowned at her but also threw a King.
“Again, sorry, Jack,”Emma muttered.“She left me no choice.”Jack grinned good-naturedly and everyone else had to knock out of their turn.
Emma’s opinion of Jack had changed in the last three days. His friendly nature and casual charm had won her over easily and it wasn’t unusual to see them chatting and joking. Unfortunately it was usually at Kaylee’s, or even worse, Andrew’s expense. Andrew didn’t take well to it at all, but Kaylee knew no harm was meant, at least on her sisters’part. Quinton had also helped to soften Emma. He had been teaching her the finer points of handgun and rifle tactics and she had taken to it with unchecked enthusiasm. Of course, their father had no idea that Emma was spending so much of her free time on the roof taking pot shots at parked cars.
Nick had holed himself up in his bedroom. Kaylee thought he was most likely pacing and staring. He did come out for meals and for the weekly chores. There was still crop tending, canning, fruit dehydration, safety checks, and raids to be done, as well as the normal maintenance that had become necessary throughout the year. The rainfall had been less as of late and Bill and Nick had set up collection points in other locations than the top of their building, the hinges on the main doors were rusting and cracking from the general abuse outside, and the one generator they had was breaking down regularly now when they did monthly tests.
And, of course, there was the general undercurrent of argument that Quinton and Jack’s arrival had brought. Nick remained adamant against joining them. Anna and Bill thought there’d be no other time.
“Nick,”Bill had argued in a hushed tone the night after Quinton’s speech.“There’ll be no second opportunity if we let this pass. We can’t stay here, they’re our best shot of getting out.”
Kaylee had been rounding the stairs, heading for the supply room and a new tube of toothpaste, when she overheard their low argument.
“There’s no rush,”Nick insisted, his eyes on the tabletop.
“I’ve always said Andrew and I would stay with you and the girls; but Nick, I’m a fool if I don’t take my boy and go with them.”
“And you think Andrew would leave the girls?”Nick asked. Kaylee thought she could detect a note of shame in her father’s voice at his use of this ploy. She felt he should feel ashamed at delivering this low blow, but she also knew he was right. Andrew would never leave them.
“Nick,”Anna interrupted.“You need to be fair. We’ll all stick together but we can’t be selfish. You need to see what’s best for all of us.”
“What’s best for my girls is for them to be protected,”Nick said, his voice a low and pleading whisper.“I don’t know what I’m more afraid of, that there isn’t anyone left, or that there is. I’m very afraid of what finding people would mean for my daughters.”
Neither Bill nor Anna responded, though Bill did shove away from the table and stalk past Kaylee to his room. He hadn’t even seemed particularly bothered that she had heard them, just gave a look that was an odd mix of sympathy and anger.
Emma was grinning like the Cheshire Cat when Kaylee had finished knocking out. She was practically bouncing in her seat and Kaylee rolled her eyes at how ridiculous her little sister got when it came to winning a silly card game. Jack gave a hearty laugh as Emma threw her pair of Queens. He rapped his knuckles on the table immediately.
“You, on the other hand, are excellent at this game,”he said with an affectionate push to Emma’s shoulder.“I’ll bet that last card is a two.”
“You’ll have to keep playing to
find out,”she retorted, sticking her tongue out at him. Andrew scowled but knocked once on the table.
“Andrew! You in the kitchen?”
“Yeah!”Andrew yelled, answering his father and pushing back from the table.“Guess that’s it for me. Dad needs help with the doors. One of the frames is giving way again,”he continued, not sounding at all disappointed to have to leave the game.“Kay, do you have laundry to do?”
“Nope,”she answered, placing her cards on the table.“Finished already.”
Andrew grunted his understanding, shifting his feet where he stood. He seemed reluctant to leave now and Kaylee thought she knew why.
“Andrew!”
“Coming, coming!”he shouted back. He gave the group one last rueful glance. Jack was looking politely towards Andrew, his hands folded across his chest. Emma’s leg was bouncing and she was staring from the pile of cards in front of Kaylee to the pile lying in the center of the table.
“Can you go on that, or what?”she asked, nodding towards the table. Kaylee rolled her eyes.
“Right, well, bye,”Andrew muttered as he left for the living room and the fireman’s pole that still transverse the three levels of the old station, landing on the floor of the garage.
“Bye, Drew,”Kaylee called before yelling out in pain.“Ouch! Emma, don’t pinch!”
“Can you?”she asked, pointing to the pile. Jack was laughing quietly, looking as though he was trying to keep himself from doing so and failing miserably.
“No, I can’t, okay? You’re so rude!”
“You’re my sister,”Emma retorted.“You can’t be rude to siblings, they just have to get over it.”
“I don’t know who taught you that logic but—”
“Will you just knock already!”
“Fine!”Kaylee all but shouted as she rapped hard on the table. Her knuckles felt the sting but she held in her wince knowing it would only make Emma laugh even harder. Jack, on the other hand, had no qualms about laughing at her anyway. He was nearly doubled over. Kaylee thought it was a bit of an over-reaction.
It’s not that funny.
Emma whooped as soon as Kaylee knocked out of her turn and threw her last card, a two, unto the pile.“I win!”she declared. Jack continued chuckling even as he threw his last pair, nines, after Emma’s.
“And I’m second again,”he added unnecessarily.
Even more unnecessarily Kaylee spoke.“Yeah, yeah, last. I know.”She had lost five out of seven hands. She was getting used to it by now.
“Believe it or not,”Jack said, pushing up from the table and stretching.“It’s really not as much fun with only three players. Do you both want to head into the living room and—”
“Actually, I think I’ll head to the roof,”Emma interrupted, gathering the worn cards and shoving them in her back pocket.“See if Quinton’s up there.”She rushed for the stairs and Kaylee heard her take them two at a time.
“Did I say something?”Jack asked, looking bewildered at her abrupt departure.“Or was that her subtle way of giving us some alone time.”
Kaylee rolled her eyes. It was not the first suggestive comment Jack had made to her. It was part of the reason he annoyed her so frequently, with his overt and ridiculous lines that were so over the top and embarrassing. It was also part of the reason Andrew disliked him, or so Emma thought.
“No, you were your normal charming self,”she answered dryly.
“Right, obviously,”he said, nodding towards the living room and indicating Kaylee should follow him. She did, for lack of anywhere better to be.“But normally Emma’s not too turned off by my charm.”
“It’s not you,”Kaylee sighed, crossing the threshold to the living room and folding herself unto one end of the couch.“It’s the living room. Emma doesn’t come in here.”
For as tough as Emma was, she couldn’t stand to be in the living room. It offered the best view to their old home and her father was seen all too often staring out the window. Kaylee knew what he would see. Mom. Emma couldn’t stand the sight.
“Because of…”Jack trailed off but nodded out the window towards the high rise. Kaylee jerked her head up towards him, surprised he understood so quickly, and nodded.“Poor kid,”Jack murmured, his eyes still faraway out the window. He turned from it and sat next to Kaylee on the couch.
“You know,”he started after a comfortable moment of silence.“You’re an awfully hard girl to get on her own.”
“I am?”Kaylee asked, surprised. She hadn’t realized he had been trying.
“Andrew seems to have quite a hold on you.”
She stiffened under what felt like an accusation.“It’s just a small building. And it’s very crowded at the moment.”Jack laughed under his breath.
“True,”he murmured and then his demeanor brightened. Kaylee eyed him suspiciously.“Want to get out?”
She laughed.“Oh sure!”
“I’m serious. It’s dark,”he continued, turning towards her and grabbing her hand.“Let’s go for a walk.”
Kaylee drew her hand back. Her palm felt sweaty, not at all expected in this season, and she was suddenly nervous.“My dad would pitch a fit,”she offered as a weak excuse to say no.
“Good thing he stays locked in his room and barely notices a thing then.”Jack grabbed her hand again and stood, tugging her with him. Kaylee frowned but followed as he pulled her to the fire pole.
“I don’t know, Jack,”Kaylee murmured hesitantly, staring at the pole. She very rarely left the building, just twice a week to pick vegetables when they were in season and even then her father and Andrew were watching her until she got inside the chain link fence. Kaylee was pretty sure Andrew had a rifle and ammunition put aside for those nights.
“Don’t you get at all frustrated staying locked up here like a little kid?”
Her eyes flashed as she spun on him, teeth grit in anger. But he merely grinned and rolled his eyes.
“C’mon, ladies first,”he said with a gentle push to Kaylee’s lower back. She shifted away from him.
Why is it I let him talk me into things? Kaylee half-mused, half-scolded herself as she gripped the cool pole. He chuckled at her hesitation and she grit her teeth as she glared at him before she slid to the garage. Kaylee thought Andrew and Bill might see them and attempt to stop her, but they were engrossed in the entrance door. She could hear the hiss of the blowtorch as they fused the old, metal door to the cracking frame.
Jack followed her silently and metal screeched as he pulled back an old car hood that Andrew and Bill had fashioned to block the back exit. Kaylee shifted nervously as she watched him, half hoping Andrew would hear and coming running to forbid her to leave. She blinked in surprise before scoffing at the thought.
When exactly did I lose my backbone? Forbid me? What am I, some weak, useless mess?
She didn’t remember always feeling so pathetic and helpless. She didn’t remember ever feeling so reliant on Andrew to dictate her future. And she wasn’t sure she liked the feeling.
“Coming?”Jack asked, smirking, as he looked her over from the now open doorway. With only a small, quick glance back, Kaylee steeled herself and walked past him into the cool night air.
Kaylee felt a momentary surge of panic that she displaced with a quickly drawn breath. Jack stepped out around her and moved easily into the street. He had to walk around a huddled mass on the pavement, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
“Jack, that you?”
“I’m going for a walk,”Jack answered Quinton’s rough bark of a question. Though Quinton was on the rooftop, he spoke in a volume one would use when speaking just across the room. The night was so still, so quiet, that his voice did not need to be any louder.
“We’ll keep it to the east,”Quinton continued. In the clear air of the undisturbed night, Kaylee could easily hear a gun cock on the rooftop. She stepped out onto the pavement, walking carefully until she reached Jack’s side.
“You’re not used to being out, are you?”he as
ked, strolling casually away from the firehouse. She had to hurry now to catch up.
“I go to the cornfield,”she answered evasively, stepping nearer to him as she avoided a child drawing strained breaths on the sidewalk. He wrapped his hand around hers as she came closer. She cleared her throat and pulled her fingers away, crossing her arms over her chest instead.
“That’s not the same,”Jack continued, unaffected by her rejection.“I’ll bet Andy watches you from the roof the whole time.”Kaylee huffed and rolled her eyes.
“Andrewis just looking out for me.”
“How old are you, Kaylee?”Jack asked suddenly, turning to face her as he walked backwards, his hands now shoved in his pockets. He was smiling down at her and Kaylee found it difficult to meet his gaze.
