by Sky Winters
In those first few months there was still hope. Bill and June Hepford smiled and air hugged their daughter, to avoid passing germs, as they boarded a bus for the Recovery Center. The centers were opening all over the country and it was against the law to stay amongst the general population once you started showing symptoms. Raven remembered smiling back at them. She wanted to be brave and show them that she would be okay. In her heart she knew they were never coming back.
As Raven walked down the middle of the two lane highway everything seemed very surreal. It was completely empty. There was no traffic and no movement in any of the houses that she passed. Raven had travelled this road many times. Her aunt lived in Cloverdale. No one in Tillamook seemed to know anything about how other communities were dealing with the virus. Raven hoped that she could just walk down the road for maybe a day or two and find a thriving community of survivors, and maybe even catch up with her friends.
Her head cocked to the left as a low humming came from off in the distance somewhere. It was coming from the North. It definitely wasn’t any of the vehicles that Travis and the others had taken. The military collection of the Tillamook Air Museum didn’t have any small quiet cars in it. Raven could still hear the deep rumblings of the heavy trucks that had left her to die in the dusty old hanger that was now a museum.
The compact car was whining under the weight of a metal trailer. Raven wasn’t sure what she should do. There had been reports of looters roaming the highways. She had personally never seen any of them, but she really wasn’t ready for that to change. Raven felt much better than she had days ago, but she was still feeling weak. Her body was running mainly on crackers, she had granola bars too, but she was trying to conserve them so she only ate one per day.
As the car got closer Raven decided to get off the road and take cover in the trees. There was a small farm house in sight and she could see the winding Tillamook River was just to the south of her hiding spot. As she weighed her options in her head, Raven dropped to the ground when she heard the brakes squeak in front of her. Three men got out of the small car. Two were all big men, over six feet tall and well-muscled, their faces were covered in bumps and weird scars. A shorter man with a screeching voice was barking orders. The men all had the same splotchy, reddened skin.
The driver’s dark, scraggly hair was blowing in the breeze as he walked up to the farm house. He kicked the front door in without even breaking stride. The looters made quick work of the house. Raven cringed with every crash of broken glass as the fast moving crew slammed and banged their way through the small house. The thieves loaded their treasures onto the wagon before pulling away.
As they pulled away Raven decided it would be safer to follow the river. She didn’t want to run into any more trouble. She waited for a while after hearing the car pull away. The sun was high in the sky as she finally stood up from behind the bush. The river bank was covered in thorny brush that cut at Ravens jeans and shirt. She was trying to find a clear spot to walk, but the path was not often travelled. Raven could feel the tiny cuts all over her body as she pushed through the brush.
The smell was the first thing that Raven noticed. It was hard to really see the dark brown cabin in the dim light of the woods. It was pine burning in that fire. Raven had always loved the smell of a pine fire. The brush seemed to disappear the closer you got to the cabin. Raven wanted to go and get some food, but she wasn’t sure what was going to come up against if she knocked on that door.
“Grrrrr!” The snarling sound of an angry dog caught Raven’s attention. She had risked walking closer to the cabin to avoid the thorns, but Raven had given herself away. She turned around to talk to the dog and found herself face to face with the long snout and greyish fur of a timber wolf. It was the biggest she had ever seen.
Raven had been through outdoors training. Her parents had sent her to take survival courses in Portland. They thought that living so close to nature their daughter needed to know how to take care of herself in the woods. Raven knew what to do. First you should make a lot of noise. Second you never turn your back to the wolf, and don’t try to out run it. The third thing to remember is that you never show fear. Raven knew all of this.
Raven couldn’t remember any of her training as she ran for the door of the cabin. It was 30 feet and the wolf should have caught her, my fear must have super-charged my legs. Raven thought as she slid down the inside of the door and sat on the floor of the cabin. The door had been left open, but the heavy steel door had nearly taken off Raven’s leg as she ran past it. The pain had been delayed by fear. It wasn’t until Raven got the door closed that she realized what had happened to her leg.
It was purple and swelling fast, Raven tried to put pressure on the knee, but the shooting pain was heading right up her thigh and into her back. She moved across the floor trying not to move the leg. There was a fridge in the kitchenette. Hopefully I can find some ice, Raven thought as she slid along the plywood floor.
“Ahhhhh!” Raven screamed as she tried to stand up. The freezer on the top of the fridge was too high to reach any other way. She took a few deep breaths. Then in the middle of a really deep inhale Raven pushed herself up and opened the door. She grabbed the door of the fridge for support and grabbed some ice out of the freezer. Raven grabbed a tea towel that had been left out and put the ice inside.
On one leg with the injured knee up off the floor, Raven started hopping over to the bed. The cabin was all one giant room. Even the bathroom was open concept. There was a little oriental blind in front of the toilet. Raven was hopping for the bed when her shoe caught on a rough spot in the plywood.
“Got you,” Raven felt the strong arms wrap around her. She tried to scream, but her voice was gone. She stared wide eyed at the dark hair and bronze skin of the cabin’s owner. She was trying to read his face. He didn’t seem happy to see her. “Are you okay?” He had lifted her into his arms and was carrying her toward the bed.
Raven tried to avoid eye contact with the man who was so easily carrying her across the room. He was at least 30 with a little wisp of grey behind his right ear. He set Raven down and helped her get the ice into place. “You’re cut,” he said as he looked at the lines running through Raven’s jeans. The blood was seeping through the fabric. None of them were very deep, but they were starting to sting.
“It’s nothing,” Raven mumbled to her feet as the man went to the cupboard in his bathroom and pulled out alcohol and band-aids.
“You have to stay to the trails around here,” the man said. He seemed concerned, but also annoyed. “Those thorns will get you every time.”
“I think it will be fine,” Raven was trying to stop the man who was now rolling up her pant legs. As she did he grabbed her arm and rolled up the sleeve. He poured the rubbing alcohol right on to her arm. The pain was nothing compared to her knee, but Raven tensed her face and started blowing on it like her mother used to when she cleaned out Raven’s cuts.
“It hurts because of the infection,” the man laughed. “You don’t need to fight me, I am just trying to help.”
“I don’t know you,” Raven answered. She still could not meet the man’s gaze.
“My name is Jordan,” The man said as he rolled up the other sleeve and poured more rubbing alcohol onto his guest. Jordan didn’t seem to mind that his bedroom floor was getting covered in rubbing alcohol. Raven wanted to move away, but her knee was still very sore. She was still feeling very shaken up from the wolf and everything else that had happened that day. Jordan didn’t seem deterred, he just kept treating Raven’s scratches.
“Oww!” Raven yelped as the alcohol spilled over her shin.
“Sorry,” Jordan smiled. He seemed to be enjoying Raven’s reaction to the burning fluid.
“What’s so funny?” Raven finally found her voice. She was starting to relax as she watched the kind stranger padding her wounds.
“This is funny,” Jordan shrugged. “I haven’t seen another person in almost six months, and now I am h
ere treating the wounds of a woman who won’t even look at me.” Raven’s eyes shot up at Jordan’s. The young woman was embarrassed by how scared she was in that moment. The whole situation made her feel like a wildebeest being nursed by a lion, or maybe a deer and a wolf? Either way the whole situation made her feel uncomfortable. How had Jordan even gotten into the house without her hearing him?
“I’m sorry,” Raven tried to maintain eye contact. This was the first time she had really looked at Jordan. He was older than Raven, but the man had a lean face with broad shoulders. His eyes were the colour of sea ice, and with his dark hair looked as if it were shining. Raven was mesmerized for a moment by his striking features. “I was startled by a wolf, and I am a little worried that you are going to kill me.”
“Ha!” Jordan burst out. “I could see that.” Jordan had finished cleaning the cuts on Raven’s shins and he looked at the beautiful young woman before him with a little smile. “Now, how are we going to get to those cuts?”
Raven looked down at her thighs. The jegging she had stolen from Maclaren’s department store were too tight to raise the legs any higher and there were was all kinds of blood seeping through cuts that ran almost as high as her waist. Raven looked back at Jordan who had a very wide smile glide across his face. “I can take care of that.”
Jordan smiled and handed Raven the bottle of rubbing alcohol. “You can use the bathroom.” Raven felt like a toy with the way Jordan could carry her around. He simply picked her up and put her down in a claw foot bath tub that was over near the bathroom.
“I can’t do it here,” Raven looked at Jordan incredulously. There was nothing blocking her from the stranger’s view.
“Don’t worry,” Jordan said. “I need to take myself for a walk anyway.” Jordan walked over and grabbed a pair of jogging pants from a shelf. “They have a draw string.” Jordan shrugged. “Alright holler if you need me.”
Raven watched Jordan disappear out of the door. Isn’t he worried about the wolf? Raven wondered as she eased her tight pants down over her stinging cuts and massively bruised knee. The jeggings had actually been providing some support and constriction on the swelling knee. Taking the pant off it seemed as though Raven could see her own knee doubling in size. She got the ice right back in place.
The young woman treated the cuts on her thigh and then looked at the pants. The bottom of the tub was covered in alcohol and she really couldn’t get herself out of the tub to put them on. “Alright come in.” Raven heard a loud thud against the side of the cabin. It sounded as if Jordan had been a little too eager and forgotten to open the door before trying to walk through. Raven couldn’t help but laugh. Jordan walked in holding his head. He had also managed to lose his shirt.
“What, why would you have even taken it off?” Raven knew that it wasn’t too hot outside and the woods were lousy with mosquitoes at this time of year. Jordan just shrugged and bent down to lift Raven out of the tub. She could feel the blush rising in her cheeks as his skin rubbed against her thighs. Jordan’s toned arms and chest led down to an eight pack of muscle on his stomach. Raven had put her arms around the man’s neck and she tried to be casual as she let one hand fall along Jordan’s chest and down onto his chiseled abs.
Jordan didn’t say a word about it. He knew what she was doing, he had misplaced his shirt on purpose, but as he saw the look in her eyes and felt her hand running along his skin Jordan started to feel a wave of nerves come over him. It had been a long time since he had been in contact, let alone in any type of relationship with another human being. The sickness, even in this remote location had taken its toll. Jordan was not the man that he used to be, and he was not sure that he could control himself around another human being. Jordan eased Raven down onto the bed.
“I’ll grab the pants,” Jordan walked away. Raven followed with her eyes. She was starting to feel much more at ease.
“I think I’ll be okay,” Raven said as she took the ice from Jordan’s hand, but not the pants. It wasn’t cold in the cabin. The warmth from the fire made the small room seem deliciously cozy. “I am so sorry about barging in like this,” the young woman still had red in her cheeks as she started to explain. “There was a wolf outside.”
“Yeah, he’s always around,” Jordan shrugged. “He seems pretty harmless.”
“Well, I’m sure he doesn’t bother you,” Raven felt like a southern debutante as she heard the words coming out of her mouth. All she needed was a big hand fan and a corset crushing her ribs. I do declare, you are the manliest man that I have ever seen, Raven thought to herself in a southern accent the whole sequence in her mind ended with her falling on to a fainting couch.
The whole situation reminded her of “How Long,” a game that Raven and her best friend from high school Lucy Carmichael had made up. They would take turns suggesting scenarios and then they would decide how long you had to wait to sleep with the guy before you were labelled easy. They had decided that in war time it was at least a weekend, on the front lines, while if you were on a sinking ship you could just choose whoever you wanted and go at it. They had definitely talked about virus outbreaks, but Raven was having trouble remembering how long she was supposed to wait.
“I have some ointment,” Jordan said. Raven cocked her head to the side. “For the stinging…in your legs, the stinging in your legs.” Jordan walked over and sat on the bed with a cookie tin in his hands. He took the top off and released a horrid stench into the air. “A Pawnee shaman made it for me.”
Raven could tell the ointment was going to take the pain away, because the smell was going to make her pass out. As Jordan rubbed the cream onto the cuts the stinging subsided almost immediately. Starting at the ankles and working his way up the leg. Raven was watching the way Jordan moved the whole time. The young woman liked to watch his large hands moving gently along her legs. Jordan looked up to ask a question and Raven lunged at him. She grabbed the back of his neck and kissed him furiously. She bit down on his lip, a little harder than she had meant to, because of the pain in her knee.
Raven ran her hands all over Jordan’s muscled body. He was shaped like a nail with broad shoulders and a small waist. Jordan used one arm to lift her and move Raven further onto the bed. She could feel his muscular thighs against her very sensitive legs. Raven could also feel Jordan’s manhood growing against her as he held her close.
Jordan moved his hand off her thigh and went to grab Raven’s neck. “Whoa!” They both yelled as the smell hit them. Their eyes were watering as Jordan put his hand back on Raven’s thigh.
“Sorry,” Jordan laughed. “I forgot what I was doing.” Raven laughed too. Jordan sat up and finished putting the ointment on the cuts and then helped Raven get the jogging pants on. He stood up and went to put the ointment back in the cupboard. What are you doing? He wondered to himself. There was no way that he could start a relationship, not with everything that had happened to him.
“They just left you?” Jordan said as Raven finished her story. She was a little upset that Jordan had not come back to lay beside her after washing the ointment off of his hand. They had been talking for hours about the epidemic and life, but Jordan was sitting on the other side of the bed.
“I was really sick too,” Jordan admitted. “I came here, because I didn’t want to infect anyone else.”
“But you seem fine,” Raven could tell that Jordan was healthy. The sick and dying that she had seen had turned awful colors and were disfigured by the virus.
“The shaman who gave me that ointment told me how to get over the disease.” Jordan looked nervous as he told the story. “He told me too find a wolf and stab it,” Raven seemed shocked, but really with all of the people she had seen die, killing a wolf didn’t seem like a huge deal. “I had to drink the wolf’s blood while his heart was still beating. It was horrible.” Jordan was making a gagging face even as he told the story. “It seemed to work though.”
“So why haven’t you gone back?” Raven wanted to know. She liked being
in the woods, but she wasn’t sure if she could ever live in them.
“There are some complications,” Jordan said. Now he was the one that couldn’t meet Raven’s eyes. “Once I get everything under control…” Jordan just let his voice trail off. Raven knew she wanted to know more, but she could see the subject made Jordan uncomfortable. For the rest of the night Raven could see something was eating at him, but he wouldn’t talk about it.
“I am sure we can share the bed without sleeping head to foot.” Raven protested as Jordan got ready for bed. He was turned towards her, but he chose not to respond. Jordan closed his eyes. He could feel Raven roll over and he started breathing easier. Then she started rubbing herself against Jordan. The slow rhythmic motion was driving him crazy.
Jordan tried to hold it together. He had gotten over the virus weeks ago, but he was still getting used to the changes that it had brought on. Getting too worked up, whether it was excitement, anger, or lust, it all seemed to have the same result. When he lost control the wolf took over. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. That was why Jordan had stayed away from people. Now this beautiful young woman was lying in his bed, and Jordan wasn’t sure if he could stay human through the whole experience. He wanted to find out, but he knew that was selfish.
Jordan watched Raven’s hips as they moved. The beast was stirring in the man’s chest. He traced the curve of the hip with his fingers. Raven could feel shivers running down her spine. She let out a moan as she continued to grind against Jordan’s thighs. He sat up. Raven turned and tried to sit up. Her leg was still bothering her when she tried to move fast.
“I have to go,” Jordan said as he took off out the door. He almost didn’t make it. The wolf was busting free as he reached the door. Jordan was pretty sure Raven hadn’t seen him shift. The door was most of the way closed when it happened.
Raven hadn’t seen anything. She had laid back on the bed in a huff as soon as Jordan had walked out the door. The young woman thought that her companion was trying to be chivalrous. Or maybe he just isn’t into me? She thought to herself lying alone in the dark. Raven tossed and turned for a while before finally falling asleep.
