Independents: Taoree Trilogy #2

by Michele Notaro

  Orrean smiled softly at her. “They are my friends—”

  “Family,” Cal interrupted, “we are his family.”

  Orrean looked over at Cal in surprise, but also in happiness, then he turned back to the woman. “Family. They’re my family. We are making our way to a safe place.”

  “Nowhere is safe,” she said.

  Orrean told her, “There is a Taoree Independent camp southwest of what used to be Denver, Colorado. It is a safe haven for Taoree and humans alike.”

  “It’s the Taoree that are causing all of this. I’ve seen them ordering the zombies around. Why would they need a safe haven? The zombies don’t even attack them,” she argued.

  “You are correct. Taoree that follow Emperor Thelonious Serparla are, in fact, responsible for all of this madness. But there are many Taoree that have defected from the emperor and are fighting against him. They want peace with humans. They want to live side by side with humans,” Orrean explained.

  “So, you’re actually telling me that there are other Taoree like you,” she nodded at him, “that want to help humans?” She looked past Orrean to the rest of us. “And you actually believe him?”

  I spoke up, “We do. Orrean has done nothing but help and protect every single one of us. There is no other reason for him to do that. If he were a member of the Taoree Legion, he would have killed us long ago. The Emperor’s Legion are the ones responsible, not the Independents.”

  She eyed me for a long moment before asking, “How long have you known him?”

  “We’ve been traveling with him for almost five weeks, but I met him over two years ago,” I answered honestly.

  Her eyes widened. “You knew him before all of this happened?” She didn’t believe me.

  “I did. Not well, but I knew him, yes.”

  She looked me up and down before looking back at Orrean. “I don’t know if I believe you.” Well, okay, then. At least she’s honest.

  He inclined his head again. “Fair enough. Would you like to travel with us, at least for now? We have food and water. I don’t think we should stay here. There will be Ferals coming from the noise of my gun. We need to move before making camp.”

  “If I come with you, you won’t stop me if I choose to go my own way.” It wasn’t a question, she was telling us a fact.

  “As you wish,” Orrean said before turning his back on her to address us. I didn’t look away from the woman as he spoke. “Is everyone okay to travel for a few hours?”

  Everyone else answered in the affirmative, but I was too busy protecting Orrean’s back.

  “Jeremy?” Orrean prompted. “Are you well?”

  “Yes, let’s go,” I responded, still not looking away from Tabitha, who was looking right back at me.

  “Are you okay to walk?” Nolan’s quiet voice drew Tabitha’s attention to him and she nodded. “We’re heading west,” he said as he pulled out his compass. “You can walk with me.” She nodded again and the two of them started around the house so we could head in the correct direction.

  I walked over to Orrean with the sudden urge to make sure he was uninjured. “Are you okay?”

  He gave me a little smile. “I’m fine.”

  I reached out and squeezed his upper arm and saw him shiver, so leaving my arm there, I asked, “Are you cold?”

  I heard Cal snort behind me, but didn’t turn to see what he was laughing at. I was concerned for my alien friend, who answered me, “I’m okay, Jeremy, thank you.”

  I nodded and released his arm. I felt a strange tug in my chest, so I rubbed at it, then turned to follow Nolan and Tabitha around the house with Orrean next to me. Wes, Cal, and Mandy followed. Mandy decided to walk for a while, so she held her older brother’s hand, and Cal kept swinging their arms wide, making her giggle. It was always nice to hear her laugh, especially knowing that she was still able to after everything she’d seen thus far.

  We walked for about two more hours before I saw Wes rubbing his temples again. He hadn’t said anything yet, but he was clearly in pain—again. I elbowed Orrean, who was still next to me, and nodded at my brother.

  Orrean grimaced, then called out, “We need to take a minute.”

  Everyone stopped and turned to look at Orrean. The two of us walked over to Wes and Orrean said, “You need to tell us as soon as you feel it. It will be easier for all of us if we can take care of it right away because it will take less energy that way.”

  Wes squinted at him. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” Orrean responded instantly, then looked at me. “Ready?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I put one hand on Wes’s forehead and the other on the back of his head.

  Orrean placed his hands on top of mine and I felt his energy run through me and into Wes. I closed my eyes and reached for the place inside myself, that place that felt like pure light. I tugged at it and felt it almost jump with anticipation. The light liked being used and happily flowed from my hands and into my brother’s head. It took less than a minute this time because the Qiren in Wesley’s brain were already being suppressed by us. It was like we had to put a bandaid on them to prevent them from leaking out. Or at least, that’s how I liked to picture it. I could feel my and Orrean’s combined energies intertwining into one light before wrapping around the thirty-one Qiren inside of Wes. I had no clue how I knew that, but I’d stopped questioning all the weird since all of this shit happened.

  Once I heard Wes take a deep breath, I pulled my energy back a little and looked at him. “Good?”

  He sighed, “Yeah. Thanks.”

  Orrean and I pulled our energies back and at the same time we both said, “No problem.”

  I snorted at that and closed my eyes, leaning back a little into Orrean, who’d been standing behind me. I felt even more tired now and I couldn’t resist leaning on him for a minute. He didn’t move away. Instead, he grabbed my upper arm with one hand, holding me in place while he did something with his other hand behind me. I felt him moving around, but I didn’t know what he was doing until he said, “Drink this.”

  I opened my eyes and saw a water bottle in front of me. I grabbed it and drank a few sips, then handed it back to him. Still, I didn’t move away from him. I was perfectly content where I was.

  “We can make camp here,” he said quietly to me, rubbing my shoulder with his thumb.

  I looked around at the field we stood in. The others were about twenty feet away from us; even Wes had moved away. Then I looked up at the sky and saw that we still had at least an hour or two of daylight left, so I said, “No, we need to keep going.” I still didn’t move. I had been missing Colt so much, and this small physical comfort helped soothe my heart a little.

  “Are you sure?” he asked quietly.

  I took a deep breath and pushed off of him. “Yes.” My whole body had a sudden chill sweep through it, but I shook it off and headed toward everyone else with Orrean following behind me.

  When I reached the others, that Tabitha girl was staring at me. “What?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing.”

  I scowled at her, but then ignored her and looked over at Nolan. “Lead the way, Nol.”

  He turned on his heel and started walking with his compass in one hand and the map in the other. I readjusted Colt’s hat on my head and followed behind him after Tabitha started walking beside him. I didn’t want her behind any of us. I didn’t want to risk her attacking someone from behind and I was pretty sure that she understood that. There was no way I was gonna let her hurt someone, even if I did get the feeling that she wouldn’t. We just couldn’t risk it. So I followed behind with one eye on Tabitha the whole way.

  We walked for another two hours, much to the dismay of my tired body, and found another empty old house to set up near. We liked having something solid at our backs when we set up Orrean’s tent. That way we’d only have to watch three sides for an attack.

  While everyone was taking off their packs, Nolan came up to me and whispered so no one
else could hear him, “I know you’re all curious about what happened to Tabitha, but she told me and I don’t think we should force her to talk about it again. I’m sure she’ll tell you eventually, but you need to trust me on this.”

  I looked into his baby blue eyes, so he’d know I meant it. “I trust you, Nol. If you think she’s okay, that’s fine, but I’m still gonna be extra careful with her.”

  “Okay, but I think she’s trustworthy, for what it’s worth,” he said.

  “Good to know.” I slapped him on the shoulder.

  He nodded. “Will you tell the others?”

  “Sure thing, brother,” I said with a smile. He smiled back before walking over to help Mandy find her extra pair of socks in his bag.

  We set up the tent and everyone went inside except Tabitha, Orrean, and me. She was standing there, staring at the tent, obviously having an internal battle with herself. I could tell that she was afraid of going inside with us since we were strangers, but she also didn’t want to go off by herself. I felt for her, but there wasn’t really anything I could do that I wasn’t already doing.

  Orrean spoke up first, “No one can see inside the tent once the door is closed. We have a heater, so it’s warm in there. There is enough room for you, but it will be a little cramped when we lie down. Everyone will keep their distance as much as possible, but we have food and a warm place to sleep.”

  When she didn’t say anything, I added, “No one is going to hurt you, I promise.”

  She looked me in the eye. “If anyone lays a hand on me, I will kill you.”

  I swear it sounded like Orrean growled and hissed at the same time. I glanced at him and his special brand of weird, before looking back at Tabitha and reiterating, “No one will hurt you.”

  She nodded, then stepped inside, apparently deciding it was worth the risk.

  I looked at Orrean. “What was that?” I was pretty sure he understood that I was referring to his growl-hiss thing.

  He looked at the ground, mumbling, “I didn’t like her threatening you. I couldn’t help it.” Then he practically jumped inside the tent.

  I shook my head, then followed him inside. He was busying himself with the heater that I knew only took ten seconds to set up, but he messed with it for probably five minutes while the rest of us got some food together. He was clearly embarrassed. His reaction was strange, but it didn’t really bother me. Weird tended to follow me around, so I was used to it. Actually, his growl-hiss was kinda funny if you thought about it.

  I decided to put him out of his misery. “Orrean, I have your food.”

  He looked over from his spot in the middle of the tent, but he still wouldn’t look at my face. He mumbled something under his breath that I couldn’t really hear, but was sure it was in Taoree. Then he walked over to me, rubbed his forehead with one hand and held his other in my direction, all without looking down at me.

  I was sitting, so I had to tilt my head up all the way to try and catch his eye. He was pretty good at not looking at me, though, so I said, “Sit down, Orr.”

  He mumbled again and this time I was positive it was in Taoree, which made me stifle a laugh. When he flopped down beside me, he looked straight ahead.

  I elbowed him, but he ignored it and continued looking across the tent. I elbowed him again. “Hey.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning his head to finally look at me. I offered him a smile as I said, “All I had was one can of soup and one can of green beans. Do you mind sharing both with me so I don’t have to eat an entire can of green beans for dinner?”

  He rubbed his forehead again, then whispered, “Sure.”

  “Good,” I said with an easy smile as I passed him one spoon and took out another for myself. “Dig in.” I offered up the first can I had already opened with my can opener and turned my body to face him completely.

  He turned to mirror me and after a few bites, he said, “Thank you, Jeremy.”

  “No prob, Orr.”

  After Nolan and Cal gave Tabitha some food, Cal came and sat behind me. He leaned against my back, so I leaned against his as well. It reminded me of when we were kids, which made me smile. Cal and I used to sit like that all the time in the middle of our back yards or even just in the living room when we were growing up.

  I had noticed over the past few days that Cal seemed like he needed some physical connection with everyone. I had a sense that he was feeling overwhelmed and vulnerable—as I’m sure everyone was—and with what happened to Colt, and now with everything going on with Wes, it was making the situation even worse. Cal and his whole family had always been pretty tactile people. They had never shied away from showing their feelings and it was pretty clear that Cal needed some affection right now.

  After I finished eating, I leaned my head back on Cal’s shoulder, then reached back and patted his other shoulder with my hand. Cal was in the middle of talking to Wes and Mandy, so I didn’t think he even noticed that he leaned a little farther into me.

  After a few minutes, I announced, “I need to go to sleep.” I sat up, then stood to get my sleeping bag out of my backpack. When I pulled it out, I noticed almost everyone else doing the same thing. That was when I realized our dilemma. “Shit. We don’t have enough sleeping bags.”

  Everyone looked at Tabitha, who said, “I don’t need one.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Nolan said. “You can have mine.”

  “I’m not taking your sleeping bag, Nolan,” she said.

  “Yes, you are,” he insisted.

  Before this turned into a big argument, I suggested, “Can’t one of us just share with Mandy?”

  “That’s fine,” Cal said at the same time that Mandy said, “Ugh.”

  I laughed a little at her, which made her angrily say, “You guys are all jerks.”

  I held up my hands in defeat. “I’m sorry, but you’re smaller than everyone else.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I know, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.”

  “Come on, sis, let’s go to sleep,” Cal said with an easy smile.

  She huffed, “Fine.” Then she threw her sleeping bag at Nolan.

  With that settled, I laid mine out and climbed in, placing Colt’s hat right above my head on the floor. I always put it there in case we needed to run in a hurry. It was something I didn’t want to get left behind, so I always kept it close.

  Mandy and Cal were at the farthest side of the tent, then it was Wes, then me, then Orrean, and Nolan was on the end. Tabitha decided to sleep in the corner closest to Nolan. She was more on an angle than right next to him, so there was a little bit of space once the rest of us scooted closer together. I was sandwiched between my brother and Orrean, but it didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.

  Chapter Two

  Of course, Orrean and I were at the stupid fence again. I was getting sick of seeing it every night, although I kind of liked the dreams, just not the location. I sat down against a tree and Orrean sat down next to me, shoulder to shoulder.

  He was the first to break the silence. “Can I ask you something?”

  “You just did,” I said as I picked at the grass around me.

  He sighed. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do, so go ahead.”

  “Do you like Calloway?” he asked in a whisper.

  I turned to look at him. “You think I like Cal?”

  He wasn’t looking at me, but was staring at the tree across from us as he replied, “Do you?”

  “Why the hell would you think that? Cal’s been my best friend since before I can remember.” As usual, my dream was weird as crap.

  “I saw you hugging him earlier and then you were leaning on him after dinner,” he said, his voice still quiet and unsure.

  “Dude, he’s my friend and he needed some comfort. Of course I gave him a hug. And it was comfortable to lean on him. It’s not like any of us have had the opportunity to sit in a nice chair or anything.” I waved him off.

  �
��So you don’t like him, then?”

  I furrowed my brows at him, even though he still wasn’t looking at me. “Of course I like him. He’s my best friend.” Orrean finally looked at me with an expression of hurt on his face, so I clarified, “I do like him, but not in the way you mean. Cal is like a brother to me. Thinking about him like that is just… gross.” I shuddered for emphasis.

  He gave me a half-smile. “Are you sure?”

  I waved him off again. “Yes, Orr, I’m sure.”

  I eyed him for a moment, then noticed a chunk of his black hair had come loose from his braid. It was the first time I had ever seen his hair come out of his braid like that, so I reached up to push it behind his ear. I was very surprised that it was one thick piece and not a bunch of smaller ones like human hair. Instead of pushing it behind his ear, I rubbed it between my fingers, examining it.

  I noticed him shiver, so I looked at him with a raised brow. He told me, “My hair is not the same as human hair. I can feel it when you touch it.”

  “Really?” I asked, but still didn’t let go. “Does it hurt?”

  “Uh, no,” he said and I swore he started blushing. “Quite the opposite, actually.”

  “Oh,” I said with a laugh, “sorry.” I pushed it behind his ear, then for some strange reason, I rubbed my hand down the rest of his braid and watched as his entire body shivered and he closed his eyes. I pulled my hand back slowly and whispered, “Sorry.”

  He opened his dark all-purple eyes that held so much emotion and said, “It’s okay. I don’t mind. It feels good.”

  Without thinking, I leaned forward and wrapped my arms around his waist, and leaned my forehead against the side of his neck. He wrapped his arms around my back and started rubbing circles on it.

  After a long moment, I asked, “Will you hold me?” I sounded vulnerable to my own ears, but I didn’t care, I was missing Colt. Missing that connection with someone, missing the physical contact with another person. And even though I knew this was just a dream, it still made me feel good. It was even more of a reason to do this here. I didn’t have to be strong or brave here. I could just let this dream version of my friend take care of me without having to worry about anyone else.