Just before we fell asleep, I whispered to him. “Boggs?”
“Ya Zoe?” He asked sleepily.
“Our clothes are downstairs.”
“Ya they are.”
“Shouldn’t we get them?”
“Why?”
“What if Gus and Emilie see them? They’ll know…”
Boggs chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” I asked quietly.
“Zoe, I’m sure they just heard us.”
I didn’t say another word, horrified. We clung to each other, our bodies intertwined on top of the covers.
I listened to Boggs’ breathing until it became slow and even, indicating he was asleep. I gently placed my hand on his chest and felt it rise and fall. “Life,” I whispered to no one in particular.
Chapter 10
I woke feeling cold, stiff, and tired. I could hear Boggs breathing next to me. We were both still naked. The small candle on the vanity had long since burnt itself out and the room was completely dark. I felt silly doing so, but I felt my wrist to make sure I had a pulse. Convinced I was still alive, I rolled out of bed and stood. I felt my way along the edge of the mattress to the headboard, and reached up in search of the drapes covering the small window. My hand met plywood where the window should be, and I remembered that the glass had been shattered when Boggs had shot through it to save Gus from the zombie in the yard.
“Zoe?” Boggs mumbled from the bed. “What’s wrong?” I heard him stretch.
“I woke up cold,” I said softly.
“Come back to bed?” he whispered. “Please?” I heard him shuffle in the bed.
“It’s so dark in here,” I said.
“C’mon, Zo, come warm up.”
I felt my way back along the bed. Boggs had pulled the covers down for me. I climbed in and snuggled up next to him, enjoying his warmth. He pulled the covers over us both.
“Boggs?” I asked in the quiet of the room.
“Hmm?” he said sleepily.
“Have you thought about trying to find your parents?” I felt him tense. We hadn’t talked about people dear to us yet. “Sorry Boggs, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
He breathed deeply and I felt his body start to relax. “It’s ok, Zoe. I guess we have to talk about stuff like that sooner or later.” He ran his fingers through my hair. “I can only hope they’re ok, but I know chances are slim. Maybe one day we can look for them, but Arizona might as well be the far side of the moon right now.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we got better rules?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Zombie rules. In so many movies and books they either can’t come out in daylight or are slow. Stuff like that.”
I felt Boggs laugh silently before he spoke. “Ya Zoe, better zombie rules would be awesome.” He turned on his side and kissed me on my nose.
We heard a knock on the door.
“Ya?” Boggs called out.
Gus answered. “You guys ready for the day? It’s just starting to get light outside and we need to burn those bastards.”
I groaned, not wanting to get out of the bed that was just starting to feel warm again.
“Be right there, Gus,” called Boggs.
I heard Emilie giggling from the hallway.
Boggs kissed me on the forehead, then the neck, and then my bare breast. “I have to go help, Zo. Do you want to stay here?”
I shook my head no, and then realized it was too dark for him to see the gesture. “No, I want to be with all of you. I can help.”
“Ok.” He moved to my other breast, and sucked on it longingly. I felt desire stirring inside of me and wished Gus wasn’t outside the door. I wished we didn’t need to get up and go outside.
There was another knock on the door. “C’mon, up and at-em,” said Gus. Boggs groaned against me, and then climbed out of bed. He stumbled to the vanity and I could hear him searching blindly though one of the drawers. After a moment his lighter cast the room in a dim glow and he lit a fresh candle. It wasn’t much to see by, but I pulled the covers up to my neck and clutched them to my chest. I smiled, seeing that Boggs was physically excited and ready for the morning. I watched him dress in a pair of old jeans from the armoire. Whoever had lived here was bigger than him, so the jeans were baggy.
“Wearing someone else’s underwear is kind of gross,” he said.
“At least they’re clean,” I said. “At least you can hope they are.”
“Ok, Zoe, get yourself up and dressed.” He paused in thought. “That way I can undress you later.” He grinned at me.
I smiled back at him.
“I’ll meet you downstairs,” he said.
“’Kay.”
He pulled a t-shirt on and left the room, closing the door behind him.
I stretched under the covers, dreading getting up and being cold again. It felt like winter was trying to arrive early. I found some pink tights in the armoire and slid them on over a pair of men’s underpants. I still had my bra with me, so put that on next and then used another of the overly large button up shirts that I was becoming accustomed to. I finished the odd ensemble by pulling a pair of men’s white socks on over the tights. They came nearly to my knees. I knew the outfit wasn’t fashionable but hoped it would at least keep me warm. I blew the candle out and left the room, wondering why a pair of pink tights was in a men’s wardrobe. Creepy.
I stopped by the bathroom to tend to morning business. It was lighter than the bedroom since there was a small un-boarded window and the sun was rising. I wasn’t ready to look at my hip again, afraid of what I might find. The pain was less today and I hoped that was a good sign. I looked in the mirror and was glad I still looked like me, even if I thought I wasn’t much to look at.
“Zoe?” I heard Emilie call up to me from downstairs.
I walked back into the hall. “I’m coming!”
I walked quickly down the stairs to join the others.
“Morning,” said Emilie with a smile.
Boggs chuckled. “I like the outfit, Zo.”
I curtseyed slightly and said, “why, thank you.”
The fireplace had been turned back on and the main level of the cabin was warmer than upstairs. Gus cleared his throat. “We need to get the bonfire going outside. I don’t want to risk smoke being seeing all day long. We can do that then grab a snack for breakfast. Zoe, I hate to ask, but is your head clear this morning?”
I looked at him, not understanding.
“I mean, do you…you know…sense…anything?” he clarified.
My face grew warm. I shook my head ‘no.’
“Ok. Then here’s the plan. Boggs and I piled the bodies up in front of the house last night. The area’s pretty open, so there shouldn’t be too high a risk of the fire spreading. There’s a bottle of camp stove fuel in the shed, so we’ll use that to ignite it. We’ll need to add some materials though to keep it burning. There’s lots of scrap wood near the shed, but we’ll need some paper too. I’ll grab the trash from last night’s supper. Y’all ready?”
“Ya,” said Boggs.
“Ok, let’s not waste daylight,” said Gus.
Boggs nodded. “Let’s do it.”
The two men climbed out the window in the kitchen first, followed by myself and Emilie. Being the second one out, Boggs had handed both firearms and the sack of trash out to Gus. Once outside, the stench from the corpses was unusually sickly sweet, making me gag. It wasn’t the normal smell of death. I covered my mouth and nose with the sleeve of my shirt. I looked around and saw the others had done similarly. We walked toward the pile of dead bodies, but kept our distance. Gus left the group to go to the shed and after a couple of minutes emerged with a can of fuel. Boggs stepped toward the pile and tucked paper bowls and garbage into a crevice formed by two of the corpses. Gus walked up to the starter materials and splashed fuel on them, then circled the pile to douse the bodies themselves. Boggs walked to the pile of wood next to the shed and carried several p
ieces of odds and ends back with him.
“Ok, kids, step back,” said Gus trying not to choke from the smell of the dead.
We all obliged, taking several steps backward. Gus took a pack of matches from his pocket, struck one, and flicked it at the pile. His aim was true, and the flame ignited the fuel and quickly traveled and lit the paper plates on fire. Smoke began to rise and before long the heat from the blaze caused us to back away even farther. Boggs wrapped an arm around me. The smell of burning flesh and hair soon caught my senses. It was too much to bear.
“I need to go in,” I moaned.
“Probably best we all do,” said Gus. “I’ll come back out later to…uh…stoke them and add wood scraps.”
I was on the verge of vomiting, so ran to the window and crawled back inside in hopes of escaping the smell. Emilie was soon behind me.
“God that was nasty,” she proclaimed. “Zoe, you ok? You look pale.”
I nodded. “I’m ok. The smell. It just made me feel sick.”
“I guess none of us is used to burning human bodies,” she sighed.
“Let’s talk about something else?” I asked.
“Sure, ok,” she said. “I slept with Gus last night.”
My attention now grabbed, I looked up. She giggled, obviously getting the reaction she had hoped for out of me. “We didn’t do anything,” she added. “We just slept together to stay warm. He’s actually quite a gentleman.”
“He seems really protective of us all,” I said, not really knowing what else to say.
“We were falling asleep and heard a loud thump in the hall.”
I looked at her and she was grinning.
“Ya…we heard that too.” My face felt hot.
“C’mon, Zoe, let’s go clean up the living room.”
She walked ahead of me. I saw the clothes Boggs and I had shed and started picking them up. I was too embarrassed to look at Emilie.
“Hmm,” she said. I heard her crunching on something in her mouth. “We left the chips out but they’re still ok. Just a little stale.”
She crumpled the bag closed and took it and the vodka bottle back to the kitchen. I took the opportunity to grab the rest of our loose clothes and ran up the stairs with them. I heard her giggling from downstairs.
I tossed the articles of clothing into a corner of our room and ran back downstairs. The guys had just climbed back in from outside and Gus was asking Emilie what was so funny.
“Nothing,” she said.
“The fire’s going nicely now,” said Boggs. “We need to think about moving the car closer to the cabin.”
Gus interrupted. “There’s a bit of an incline from there to here, so it may be tricky since we’ll be pushing it. I want it closer but for now we may need to just carry supplies back to the cabin. There’s a wheelbarrow in the shed we can use. We should also take pillow cases to haul smaller stuff.”
“Should we wait till it’s lighter out?” asked Emilie. “The woods can stay pretty dark around here.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Red. I also want to wait till the fire’s died down.”
“I’m starving,” said Boggs with a yawn. “Let’s eat then regroup?”
We were all in agreement so decided on a breakfast of canned fruit, slightly stale tortilla chips, and water. We ate without talking much, although Gus did ask about my hip and I happily reported that the pain was better today.
After breakfast we went to the living room and sat down. The morning became a waiting game. Gus and Boggs went out once to make sure the bodies were burning evenly and to add wood to the fire. Emilie and I were getting bored, so got the decks of playing cards out and began building a house of cards. We made a fair team, working well together. We seemed to anticipate each other’s actions well. I carefully got up to turn the fireplace off, knowing conservation was critical under the circumstances. Boggs and Gus had just come in from overseeing the bonfire and took seats, careful to not demolish our playing card project.
As I walked over to sit next to Boggs, we heard a familiar but unexpected noise. Tires crunched on the gravel out front as a car approached our cabin.
Gus and Boggs were the first to stand, taking their positions at the peep holes.
“Holy shit,” said Boggs. “It’s a big step van. Gus, come check it out.”
The men traded places at the boarded-over front door.
“Emilie, Zoe, please head upstairs and get the spears?” Gus’ question sounded more like a strong suggestion.
“What’s going on? Can you see anyone?” I asked.
Gus answered. “The driver just got out. Male, young. Probably teens. Lots of tattoos. He looks Latino.”
“Is he armed?” asked Boggs, being practical.
“Ya, I see a rifle. Looks like a twenty-two. Girls. Now. Get the spears and bring them down,” said Gus. Even under pressure he had a way of staying calm.
Emilie and I walked the stairs quickly. We had stored the extra spears we had made in the third bedroom, so fetched them and brought them downstairs.
“Where should we set them?” asked Emilie.
“We don’t want to look hostile if they come in, so set them in the corner by the fireplace where they’re not obvious,” said Gus. “The kid is circling the bonfire, and a woman just got out of the vehicle. Oh shit,” he sighed.
“What?” asked Boggs. “What is it?”
“She’s pregnant.”
“What do we do?” I asked. “We have to help them.”
Gus looked thoughtful for a moment. “One of us needs to go out and say hello, I suppose. I’ll go and once I feel it’s safe I’ll call the rest of you out. Better we meet them outside, I think.”
“Take the pistol, ok?” said Boggs.
“Ya, good idea.”
The guys explained that the handgun would be easier to conceal, making Gus appear less hostile than the shotgun might.
The cowboy climbed out the kitchen window quietly. It was the only exit he could use and not be seen from the front of the cabin. Boggs stayed at the peep hole to monitor the situation.
“Boggs? What’s happening?” I asked.
I looked over at Emilie, who was chewing on her fingernail.
We all heard Gus call out loud enough to announce his presence, although it was impossible to hear just what he had said from inside the cabin.
“Gus just walked out with his hands out. The two people from the van see him. The kid has the rifle out to his side. That’s a good sign.”
Emilie spoke softly. “I wish we could see.” I could tell she was worried about Gus.
Boggs continued. “They’re talking. The Latino kid has his arm around the pregnant woman. Things look ok so far. The kid just relaxed the rifle and Gus’ arms are at his sides.” I heard Boggs take a deep breath. “They’re shaking hands. Gus just signaled for us to come out.”
I took Emilie’s hand in mine and walked with her to the window exit. Boggs insisted on going first, so climbed out ahead of us.
“Stay next to me, Emilie?” I asked.
“I promise, Zoe. I promise.”
The four of us had grown to trust each other. Changing that dynamic was not something I desired right now. I felt selfish and silently told myself to improve my attitude.
The sun was much higher in the sky now. I judged it to be near noon. The pile of bodies was still burning, but getting smaller. The stench was less offensive now. I tried to not look at the corpses as they burned. Boggs was already exchanging handshakes with the new man and woman. I agreed with Gus, they did look young. Emilie and I approached, hand in hand, and were introduced to the young couple.
His name was Julio, and hers Louisa. She looked like she was about five or six months pregnant, but I’ve always been a bad judge of things like that. She had shoulder length wavy black hair and a small nose. She looked sweet. I thought to myself that I might be able to grow to like her. They told us they had two companions in the back of the step van.
Julio walked
to the front passenger door of the rig and opened it. He called to the two people inside to let them know he was going to open the back. He motioned for us to step around, and I could tell Gus was instantly alarmed and set on edge.
“Don’t mean to sound harsh, but we’ll wait here,” said Gus. I noticed he had his hand near his pants waist, where he had tucked the pistol.
“Sure, no problem,” Julio said with a shrug. He stepped behind the van and unlatched the barn-style doors. They opened with a squeal. “Come on out ladies,” he said. I watched as he held his arms up and helped a woman down over the bumper. She was bald and gaunt, and appeared to be in her fifties or sixties.
“This is Wanda,” said Julio.
Wanda smiled at us. “Don’t let my appearance scare you all,” said the woman. “I’m not one of the dead, just on its door. I have breast cancer, so let’s not let an elephant sit in the corner of the room. It is what it is.” She smiled warmly.
I looked at Boggs, who put a hand on my shoulder.
“Nice to meet you, Wanda. I’m Gus…over there’s Boggs, Zoe, and Emilie. Once we get inside we can talk some more.”
“Nice fire you have here,” she replied. “Oh and nice to meetcha.”
I felt bad for the woman. She moved like she was in a lot of pain.
Julio held a hand up for their last companion and a woman stepped down. She was about my age, maybe a bit older, with long shiny dark brown hair and tan skin. She was tall and slender, and had a figure most women would envy and men would admire. She could easily have been a model and I was growing jealous. Once she had both feet on the ground, she looked up. Her gaze locked on Boggs. I felt his hand drop from my shoulder so I looked up at him. He was staring back at the woman. Before I realized what was happening, she had run to him and wrapped herself around him like she was embracing a long lost friend.
Grace Lost (The Grace Series) Page 13
