by D. K Lake
I let out a breath, loosened my grip on the branch and wriggled away from the deadbie, its hands fell to the ground but it stayed propped up by the branch that was still in its eye socket.
“Here, give me your hand.” Drew held out his hand to me and pulled me up onto my feet.
The side of his mouth curved up into a smile but he quickly tried to hide it as his eyes trailed down my legs. I realized I was only wearing my bra and the boxers Anton had given me. Mismatched was not the word. This was a crime of fashion.
“Don't say a word.” I said, trying not to laugh myself. “Didn't you hear me calling you?”
“Of course, I heard you, I was just finishing my smoke. I thought you wanted me to wash your back or somethin'” he said, with a devilish smile playing on his lips.
Was he flirting with me? I so couldn't figure Drew out.
I quickly splashed back through the stream and picked up the clean T-shirt and yanked it over my head. Then I slipped my leggings back on, followed by clean socks and my boots. Fighting off deadbies half naked wasn't the best idea. I scrubbed my underwear out and Josh's red T-shirt that was beyond saving, the dirt stains were old and stubborn and I gave up and wrung it out. I walked back along the stream and used the larger stones that acted as stepping stones to get back across the stream. I also found my knife I had left behind. Drew strolled back along the stream and came over to me, and I held the bar of soap out to him but he just stared at it confused and his eyebrows scrunched together.
“It's for washing with.” I said.
“I know what it's for, but there's no way I'm gonna strip off with you watching me.”
“I'm not going to watch you.” I said, and I felt my cheeks redden a little and told myself it was the sun warming them. “Like I would want to.” I added, realizing how childish it sounded once I had said it. “What I mean is, I'm going back to the camp, you can wash in the stream and do whatever you want in it.” And that sounded even worse.
I smacked the bar of soap on the rock and started walking back. I rolled my underwear and socks inside my wet T-shirt and stomped off. Five minutes later, I heard footsteps behind me, I looked over my shoulder and saw Drew following me.
“I thought you were going to get cleaned up?”
“And let you walk back alone, I don't think so.” he said, chucking me the bar of soap, I caught it but it slipped straight out of my hands and I had to dive for it. Drew started laughing and I wanted to lob the bar of soap at his head. We made it back to camp but there was no sign of Anton or his wolves.
“Where's Anton?”
Drew ignored me and walked over to the tent.
“What are you doing? You can't-” But before I could finish what I was saying, Drew was already inside the tent.
“Drew!” I hissed. “Get outta there. Now!”
I stood with my back to the tent, keeping watch. A moment later Drew popped his head out and crawled back out.
“Well?... Anything good?” I said.
I was against stealing from good people but I was curious as to what Anton had inside his tent.
“No salt. The rest is just junk and random items of clothing, and a stockpile of more soap bars from Hot Springs Motel.”
“Still, you shouldn't be looking through his stuff. Where is he?”
“Off chasing lizards. How should I know?”
“So what do we do now?”
“You're the one that wanted to stay for the day and rest, so why don't you rest.”
“And what will you do?”
“Wait for you.” Drew said, sitting down on a rock.
“Alex? You like coyote?”
“Wh-what?” I mumbled, rolling over.
The sun had nearly set and the smell of cooked meat wafted up my nostrils. I leaned up on my elbows and looked around, I looked to my left and came face to face with a long snout. Diego, the black wolf, was lying next to me. Only now he was awake and sniffing the air at the smell of food. I edged away and sat up properly and Anton walked over to me with a piece of meat on a stick. Diego sat up and licked his lips, watching the piece of meat on the stick.
“Coyote.” Anton said, handing it to me.
“Thanks.” I said, taking the stick and looking at the burnt meat, well at least it wasn't undercooked. I quickly looked around for Drew and found him sitting in the minivan seats, tearing a piece of meat off his own stick. I looked back at the fire and saw multiple sticks with meat on cooking over the fire.
“You must have been exhausted.”
I realized Anton was speaking to me so I stood up, grabbed my hoodie, and stepped out from under the tarpaulin.
“Uh, yeah, all that walking the past few days must have caught up with me.” I said, pulling my hoodie over my head while trying not to drop the stick with the meat on it.
I had found wearing my hoodie in the evenings also helped to protect my arms from bug bites.
“Sit. Eat.” Anton said, pointing to the fold out green chair.
I picked at the meat on the stick and watched Anton while he cooked the rest of the coyote. I glanced at Drew, and on second look, it looked as though he was eating something completely different to us. I pulled a piece of meat off and popped it into my mouth, I imagined it would taste even better with some barbecue sauce. After three more mouthfuls, I suddenly felt as though I was going to throw up. The meat may have tasted good but my body wasn't having any of it. I cleared my throat and tried to swallow what was in my mouth, but even before it had gone down I could feel my gag reflexes kicking in. I cleared my throat again, left my stick on the chair and quickly walked away. I didn't get far before I was bent over and heaving, and what little meat I had consumed was trickling out of my mouth and into the dirt.
Someone touched my back and I quickly covered my mouth, straightened up, and found Drew's concerned eyes looking down at me.
“What's wrong with her?” Anton asked, standing up tall and watching us with guarded eyes.
I cleared my throat again, one arm still around my stomach.
“Coyote doesn't agree with her by the looks of it.” Drew told him, then he leaned down and whispered to me, “Are you okay?”
“No, I think I'm gonna puke again.”
“Okay, not in front of him.” he said, leading me away by the elbow.
“How are those blisters?” Anton said loudly.
We both stopped in mid-stride, and I bent over and heaved into the dirt again.
“What's wrong with her?” Anton asked again, this time, he sounded serious, more on guard.
“Nothing, she's just tired that's all, the sun's not helping.” Drew said.
Anton started to move slowly, I straightened up again and watched as he reached for his spear. This wasn't good. “What did you really need the First Aid box for?” Anton asked, and at the same time all three of the wolves stood up and looked attentive, they sensed the tension.
“Just for the blisters on my feet.” I said, trying to stay calm but Drew raising his crossbow wasn't helping the situation, and I could feel the bile bubbling up inside me.
I doubled over and retched violently.
“Was she bit?” Anton spat, and at the same time, one of the wolves started to growl.
“Look, this can either go two ways, you set your wolves on us and one of them is gonna get an arrow between the eyes, or you let us leave. We don't want no trouble.” Drew said.
I couldn't see what was going on with my head in the dirt. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, wiping dribble and bile away, and slowly straightened up and turned around.
Anton had his spear pointed at Drew with two wolves flanking either side of him, and one of the wolves was now circling us, but Drew kept his crossbow pointed at Anton.
He took a step back and stopped beside me.
“Alex, you okay to go?”
Go? Go where? It was nearly dark.
“They're just blisters, Anton.” I said trying to ease the situation.
“I didn't see
no blisters yesterday when you were lying in the stream, and then when you got back here you put your socks back on, you didn't complain about no blisters then.”
Ah, crap!
Drew and I shared a look, Anton knew I was lying, he wasn't stupid. Anton took a step closer and Drew raised his crossbow higher.
“Now, let's not do anything stupid.” Drew said, nudging me back at the same time.
We both slowly backed away with Anton's eyes glued to us. But after a few heart pounding seconds where I thought I was going to be eaten by Anton's wolves, Anton took a step back and called the wolf that was circling us away from us and it trotted back to his side. Drew pushed me back a few steps and before I knew it we were running through the desert, I didn't even know where we were running to. I didn't look behind me and just kept running, Drew, on the other hand, was checking over his shoulder every few steps.
“Keep going!” Drew urged.
I couldn't believe I was sitting down to eat only a few minutes ago, and now I was running for my life. What if the wolves came after us? It was getting darker and even with Drew's expert shooting I didn't know how he was going to hold off three wolves if they all descended on us. I felt my waist and was glad to find my knife still there. I didn't really want to have to use it on a wolf, though. I'd never had to fight off a wild animal before, I had run into a few disgruntled dogs before but never a wolf, I'd seen a few in Oregon but I'd kept my distance, they were bigger, faster, and could take a chunk of my leg easily.
“Drew!” I said, gasping for air. “We can't stay out here, we're not safe, he might still send the wolves after us for lying to him.”
“Then you better run a little faster.”
“I've been running as fast as I can.”
“Just keep going.” Drew said, looking behind us again.
I didn't know how far we had run, but I was aware that we had made it back to the road.
It was pitch black now but I could still tell the difference between the uneven desert ground and the smooth road. It was so dark and I felt like a blind person stumbling around in unfamiliar surroundings, Drew had me by my upper arm pulling me along and stopping me from falling every few steps.
“Where are we going?” No reply. “Drew? What are we doing? We can't run all night, I can hardly see where I'm going.” Still no reply. “Drew!”
“I don't know, Alex. Why do you always think I have all the answers?”
“I don't but where are we going?”
“For now, we just need to get as far away as we can.”
I let Drew guide me along the road, his night vision was better than mine. The moon was clouded by dark clouds and there were no stars visible and everything just looked black to me.
We slowed down to a jog, and eventually into a walk when I couldn't go any faster. Up ahead I could see shapes and outlines but had no idea what I was looking at.
“What is that in front?” I whispered.
“Building of some sort.”
Drew edged closer to me, gently pulling me with him, and he walked me straight into something solid. Thud.
“Oww! You could have told me there was a car in front.”
“Thought you could see it.” Drew said, opening a door and flicking his lighter on.
“What is this place?”
“Again, I don't know,” Drew said, climbing into the vehicle and fiddling around under the steering wheel.
I stood nervously, bouncing from one foot to the other. After a few minutes, Drew climbed back out and quietly closed the door again.
“Come on,” he said, brushing past me.
“Wait... where are you going? We can't go in there, whatever this place is, it's too dark and we don't know what's inside... Drew!”
I chased Drew's shadow around the edge of the building and along a small pathway, passed a pair of stinking dumpsters, and around to the back of the building. I lost Drew ten footsteps ago, and came to a halt, listening to my heart pounding in my ears. I assumed I was in some sort of parking lot around the back of the building. I heard a grinding creak, which sounded like a car door, I spun around and searched for any shadow that could be Drew. Then I heard something moving, like a car rolling past me.
What is happening?
“Drew?”
“There you are,” he said, and I realized he was pushing a car toward the building.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked, falling into step beside him but tripped and nearly fell on my face.
I quickly scrambled to my feet and caught up with Drew again.
“There's a low roof just over there, we can use this to get onto the roof and climb onto the higher roof for the night.”
“Oh, good idea.”
“I just don't want it to make too much...” He moved away from the steering wheel and let the car roll toward the wall, it picked up a bit of speed, though. “Noise.” he said when the vehicle hit the wall with a loud crunch of metal.
“No worries, they'll never know we were here.” he said, climbing up onto the roof of the car. “Alex, hurry.”
I clambered up onto the roof and Drew said he'd give me a leg up. I grabbed his shoulder and he boosted me up, and I grabbed whatever I could get my hands on. After a few attempts of trying to pull myself up and failing, Drew told me to “hang on”, I don't know whether he was being funny or not.
He let go of me and I was left dangling like a monkey.
I heard him climbing up beside me. I had no idea how he had gotten up himself. He scurried past me and before long he was pulling me up onto the roof beside him. Once I was safely on the roof, he was already on his feet. I tread carefully and tried to keep up with him, but he was soon scrambling up and onto the adjoining roof. I slipped on a loose tile and it slid out from under me and shot off toward the guttering and a second later I heard it hit the ground below and smash. I was a little more careful where I put my feet after that, and was testing the surface every time I placed my foot down. I hadn't even made it to the adjoining roof when I heard the roof creak under my weight. I carefully lifted my foot up and went to take another step when I felt the roof starting to give way under my feet.
“Uh... Drewwwww-” I never got to finish that sentence, (which would have been something along the lines of, Drew, this roof doesn't seem very safe), because at that moment I found myself falling through the roof, like something from Alice In Wonderland. I fell straight through and flew backwards, my arms and legs flailing as I went. I braced myself for a hard bump. I did land with a bump, but bounced straight off and onto the floor like a spring. I sat up and felt the edge of the bed.
That is one bouncy bed. I thought before I went into panic mode. I was inside the building, not where I wanted to be.
“Alex?” Drew called.
“I'm-” I covered my head and ducked as another piece of roof debris fell down and landed beside me.
“Alex!?”
“I'm fine.” I said trying not to yell.
I used the bed to pull myself up just as something else came crashing into the room from above and I dived for cover, thinking it was the roof caving in on me.
I crouched into a ball, covering my head.
“You okay?” Drew asked a few seconds later.
I blinked my eyes open and lifted my head.
“Did you just jump down or fall down?”
“If I tell you I fell will you be less mad?”
“Drew! We don't know what's in here. You need to get out!”
“We need to get out.” he said, moving around the bed and checking the window.
“It's jammed shut.” he muttered to himself.
“Of course it is. Why is nothing ever simple?” I grumbled, stepping over the debris.
Drew flicked his lighter on and moved around the room.
“Motel?” I said.
“Motel.” he agreed.
“Well, we can either smash the window and make even more noise, or we can try and find a fire escape, there's bound to be one
down the hallway.”
I waited for an answer but he was hovering by the window and he'd flicked his lighter off.
“What is it?” I whispered, coming up behind him.
“We have visitors.”
I peeked out the window but couldn't see much.
“I can't see anything.” I said, and a second later I heard a howl.
“The wolves? They're here?!”
“Shh,” Drew pulled me away from the window. I could hear them down there, communicating to one another with grunts and growls, and howls. Then I heard one of them jump onto the hood of the car, and I realized I had a death grip on Drew's arm.
“What if it gets on the roof?”
“It can't get on the roof.” And, just as he said it we both heard a thud on the roof.
“You have got to be shitting me.” Drew said, raising his crossbow to the hole in the roof.
We heard lumping and a few more loose tiles hitting the ground outside.
“Alex... door.” Drew hissed, and crept toward the door and waited for me to catch up with him. “You got that pocket knife of mine?”
“Um, yeah,” I said, fishing it out of my boot and handing it to him.
He took it and handed me his crossbow, then he knelt down in front of the door.
“You pick locks as well? Let me guess, you were a part-time criminal before all hell broke loose.”
“I'm not a criminal and I've never been in jail.” he said.
The noises above continued, and it sounded as though the wolf was getting closer to the hole.
“Anyone that knows how to pick a lock is a shady character.” I said, and the door clicked.
“Or I'm just good with my hands.” he said, standing back up and grabbing his crossbow.
“Why did that sound so dirty?” I whispered.
Drew laughed under his breath, then he handed me the pocket knife which I quickly slipped back into my boot, but he could have easily slipped it into his own pocket.
