Rose’s first instinct was to run away. These people were like an anchor that very well could drag her down to her death in a sea of infected. But down at her core, Rose knew that she couldn't live with herself, alone in the woods hiding from the infected, if she left all these people to their likely deaths should she abandon them. The CDC had been one thing, a faceless collection of scientists and bureaucrats. But here...here there were men, women and children all just trying to survive that could very well not do so without her help.
Rose knew she’d already made the decision to stay but it took her a while to allow herself to give in and accept it. The police officer in her was winning out against the lone survivor. Paimpol needed her help and she would do her best to help these people stay alive.
Slowly, Rose lifted her head meeting Rene’s gaze. Breaking the long silence, Rose slowly extended out her hand and shook Rene’s. “I suppose you make a good argument-sir. I’ll help out where I can and make sure your people are safe, but once they are, I still need to move on.” Rose’s thoughts flashed back to her Humvee parked and hidden outside of town. Having that safety net for escape made her feel better about the decision to stay.
“Merci ma chère” said Rene in French. “I will have Adeline help you with your French as well. Most here only speak minimal English.”
Rose couldn’t help but smile at that. More time with Adeline would be something Rose looked forward to with much anticipation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over the following weeks, the iciness between Aaron and Rose slowly began to thaw. Aaron was still shadowing Rose whenever she left Rene’s house, but his assistance with translations had narrowed the gap between them. That was helpful because Rene hadn’t been lying when he said most people in town only spoke French. There were a good portion that understood what Rose was saying, but didn't have the words to answer. When they did answer, they did so either entirely in French or in such broken English that Rose just had them answer in French so Aaron could translate. It’d been slow-going at first, but had gotten better recently as Rose began to pick up more words.
Rose had started helping out by training people how to shoot. While not a firearms instructor or marksman herself, she initially had to learn as she went. Rose had to do the best she could when issues came up with the guns or when someone was having trouble picking up the skills. But now, weeks later, it was all old hat to her. The techniques she was teaching were probably not exactly what a true instructor would have taught, but her students were able to put rounds across a field and into a target with pretty good accuracy. Rose figured that was what mattered.
Rose had also accompanied Aaron and some others on expeditions to places further out than the town’s scouts had previously ventured. They needed to scavenge for more supplies to reinforce the walls. They’d found several old barns that had been ransacked for supplies, but the structures themselves remained. The teams had slowly torn them down and fixed the worst spots in the fence. The fences were far from perfect, but they were better than they had been.
After another long day of firearms training, Rose rode with Aaron back to Rene’s house. It was dusk and getting dark quickly. Power coming into Paimpol was becoming less and less reliable each week that passed, and Rose expected it to be completely gone by the time winter came. Rose wasn’t sure of the exact date anymore. There was little to no cell service here, and so she was unsure if her phone had the right date or not. Either way, it was probably close to mid-September. The nights were coming sooner and they were getting much brisker. Aaron however, was still wearing his faded UMass t-shirt that he wore most days. Rose figured he was probably cold but just acting macho since Rose was around. Rose secretly found this quite amusing. As they’d started to become friends, Rose had noticed a subtle change in Aaron’s behavior. Aaron seemed to find Rose more and more amusing each day and was starting to act more protective of her. If Rose didn’t know better, she was pretty sure Aaron had developed a crush on her. As they rolled through town to Rene’s house, Rose smirked and reached over to her phone plugged into the ATV’s sound system playing Led Zeppelin’s “Four Sticks” and cranked the volume. “If he only knew,” she thought to herself, smiling.
Pulling up to Rene’s, Rose unplugged her phone and hopped out of the ATV waving to Aaron as she walked toward the house. “See you in the morning!” she said, not turning back to him as she went. Rose could feel Aaron’s gaze linger for sometime as she made her way to the front door. Rose could hear Aaron distantly say, “See ya,” and pull away. There were candles lit in the house, and the front light was still on which meant there was at least someone home. It seemed like Rene spent most of his days and nights at the Town Hall making sure everything in town was running as smoothly as possible. It ran him ragged, but Rose could tell he wanted it no other way. He liked being in charge and being aware of everything that was happening. This was fine for her. That meant that there would be more time for Rose to get some French lessons from Adeline.
The lessons had started simply the next day after Rose had agreed to stay in Paimpol. Rose had no experience with French and Adeline had never taught it before. She’d just learned it while growing up. Luckily Adeline had several of her mother’s old French books she’d found in the attic which had that helped a lot. Doing book lessons were the only times Rose could concentrate. At first Rose had been so enamored with Adeline that she felt awkward and uncomfortable around her even though Adeline was five years her junior. This age difference showed sometimes with some of the things Adeline said and some of her interests, but usually they had a lot in common. Adeline was developing a great appreciation for Rose’s music as Rose was picking up more and more French from Adeline. They’d become much closer since working together; much closer than any other relationship Rose had with anyone in Paimpol. At first, Rose had been glad to get these lessons as she had ulterior motives. The last person she’d been in a relationship with had been Kate, but now Kate was gone and she was still young. Rose had thought that she might be able to satisfy some of her more physical urges with the help of Adeline, but as time had gone on, they’d become more like sisters than lovers. Adeline was also clearly attracted to men, not women. She was twenty years old and isolated in northern Quebec inside a town with only a handful of boys her age. Her options had been limited, but she had her pick of men. The guy she’d been walking with the night Rose had been captured was old news, and Adeline had since moved on to a new boy. Rose hadn’t been thrilled to talk about Adeline’s sexual exploits, but as the two of them had grown closer, it was clear Adeline had no one else to talk to. The population of girls around her age in town was also limited and they didn't appreciate the disproportionate amounts of attention Adeline garnered from the boy population. That left Adeline almost as isolated as Rose and Rose as her only female option for friendship.
While living in New Hampshire, Adeline had been a part of a large group of friends and one of her best friends had been transgender. Sexual orientation wasn’t something that Rose routinely discussed because she was attracted to women and that was the way it’d always been. Very few, if any, “straight” people sat around talking about their “straightness” and Rose was the same; being a lesbian was just what she was and she didn’t dwell on it nor let it define her. Adeline had started down the path of finding an eligible bachelor for Rose and, wanting to avoid any awkwardness, Rose clued in Adeline right away. Adeline had been completely accepting and Rose had a feeling she was keeping an eye out should any fitting female options come along. So was Rose, but prospects were seemingly nonexistent.
Adeline was a very free and open person compared to her father. Rene was usually very formal and rigid, even with his daughter when he was home. Adeline was much more open and liked to joke with Rene to embarrass him. It was clear that Rene had brought Adeline here to protect her, not because he wanted to spend time with her and they both knew it. However, Adeline had accepted that and was grateful since staying in Portsmouth would
have likely have been a death sentence.
Adeline’s French lessons usually lasted about an hour or two, but there were probably only sixty or seventy minutes of actual learning before the conversations drifted elsewhere. Although Rose was still not able to speak French well, she was relying less and less on Aaron to translate to her before she understood what she was being told.
Entering Rene’s house, she found the downstairs completely deserted. A large candle was burning in the living room on a table. There was another in the kitchen, but no one was downstairs. Rose turned off the switch for the outside light, blew out the candles, and walked up the stairs to the second floor. It was almost completely dark on the second floor, the only light was coming from underneath the door to Adeline’s room. She could hear soft noises coming from the other side of the door so she knew Adeline was home. Rose walked over the door, grabbed the handle, and slowly cracked open the door without knocking. The inside of the bedroom was filled with a yellowy-orange flickering glow from a single large candle on Adeline’s desk. Lying on Adeline’s bed was a new man, one she’d not seen yet. He was tall, maybe about six feet, with short black hair and was completely naked. He was lying on his back with his arms crossed behind his head, his eyes closed and a smile on his face. Adeline, also fully naked, her red hair in a long braid stretching down the length of her bare back, was facing the man straddling his hips and writhing her own forward and back. Adeline’s arms were outstretched behind her grasping the man’s thighs just above his knees and her face was pointed up at the ceiling, her eyes also closed. Rose was momentarily transfixed by the gentle bobbing of Adeline’s bare breasts as they moved fluidly up and down on her chest, pink nipples fully erect, soft moans coming from her lips. Rose stood in the partially open doorway probably longer than she should have before slowly backing away and silently closing the door. As Rose moved away from the door, the soft noises continued unabated.
Rose went back to her room, changed into a pair of baggy sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and flopped down onto her twin bed. Rose laughed to herself. The last time she’d walked in on something like that, she’d been in college back before she’d met Kate. Her roommate had brought a “guest” over and had forgotten to lock the door. But this time was different. Rose couldn’t get the image of Adeline, in full-nude enjoyment, out of her mind. The soft moaning that had been inaudible before had gotten distinctly less soft and more audible as Rose lay on her bed. Almost subconsciously, Rose found her hand drifting underneath the waistband of her sweatpants. Her fingers found herself damp and she began to rub herself to the rhythm of Adeline’s moans, now much louder. Rose continued on and on staying in time with Adeline until both reached their climax at nearly the same moment-Adeline with a cry of pleasure and Rose with a heavy sigh and a shudder. Feeling better than she had in a long time, Rose drifted off quickly into a heavy deep sleep from which she didn't emerge until well past daybreak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rose awoke the next morning feeling much more refreshed than she had in a long time. Looking out the window, however, some of that refreshment waned. It was grey, cloudy, and raining outside. Rose could see the fields were muddy with rain and it was running in small rivers down the road outside the house. Rose slowly got dressed and made her way downstairs dreading having to spend the day out in the rain doing more target practice. If Adeline and the man she was with were awake, they hadn’t come downstairs yet. The house looked undisturbed from when she came home the night before. Rose went into the kitchen, filled a kettle with water, and put it on the stovetop. The stovetop was electric so it was anyone’s guess if it’d turn on, but today it did. While the water was boiling, Rose went to the cupboard and found some graham crackers and a jar of peanut butter. The peanut butter was almost gone and the crackers were stale, but it was enough to make a small breakfast for herself. Rose made a cup of tea once the water boiled and sat down at the dining room table to eat. There was nothing to read and Rose was n’t going to get up to find a book so she just sat and watched the rain as it made small streaks down the windows in the morning gloom.
Rose had eaten her graham crackers and had almost finished with her tea when she saw Aaron’s ATV pull up in front of the house. This wasn’t uncommon as Rose’s schedule wasn’t routine. Aaron couldn’t always predict when she’d be ready to head off somewhere so he typically came over early and waited. Aaron wasn’t alone in the ATV though, and this was very much out of the ordinary. Aaron was driving and Rene was in the passenger seat. The back of the ATV had a small three foot by three foot flatbed with a six inch rim around the edges. Sitting on the flatbed was what appeared to be a person with arms bound and a brown sack over his or her head. The bound person was being held on either side by two other men who Rose recognized as some of the guards who scouted the woods on the northern side of town. Aaron and Rene exited the ATV and assisted the two men in removing the bound person from the ATV. They didn't appear to be struggling with the person and were carrying the person’s body like a rolled up rug under their arms. Aaron went ahead to open the front door to the house.
Rose got up from the table and opened the front door before Aaron got to it. The rain was pouring down in straight lines like a torrent from the sky and all the men were soaked to the bone. Aaron called to Rose when she opened the door. “Rose, go open the door to the basement. We have a prisoner.”
Obeying without thinking, Rose went to the basement door that had held her captive several months before and opened it for their new captive. It felt strange that she was now on this side of the door, and it hit her how much more a part of this town she was than she’d ever planned to be. This bound person had been her not too long ago. Rose moved aside as the men shuffled by her. This close to the captive, Rose could see that it was a woman. Rose couldn't tell much about her since she was bound and her head was covered, but her clothes were soaked so Rose could see she was fit and her skin had a dark complexion.
Rose followed them down into the basement. Rose hadn’t been back down there since she’d been a captive, but nothing had changed. It was still completely bare except for the cot and the chair. The men laid the woman down on the cot, undid her bindings, and removed the sack from her head. The woman was African American, but appeared Asian as well. She had dark hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and a large lump that was starting to raise on the side of her head. Her face was narrow with strong cheekbones and a sharp jaw.
“Everyone upstairs,” said Rene, and everyone proceeded back up the stairs, led by Rose.
Once upstairs, Rene closed the basement door and bolted it. Without a word, he walked into the dining room and took a seat at the head of the table. Aaron, Rose and the others silently joined him, each taking a seat. No one was talking around the table, but the room wasn’t quiet. Everyone was drying themselves off, one of the men was blowing his nose, and distantly from upstairs Rose could hear Led Zeppelin’s “In the Evening” playing. Adeline must be awake. Once everybody seemed to be a little more settled, Rene cleared his throat and everyone focused on him. “Aaron, please bring Rose up to speed on what’s happened,” said Rene. As Aaron began to talk, Rene stood and went into the kitchen to get a cup of tea.
“Well, me and the guys were out on patrol,” said Aaron, barely able to contain his excitement. “I was up on the north side last night for a little variety. We were making our way through the woods like always when I thought I heard something. Turns out this woman was trying to sneak into camp like someone else we know,” Aaron flashed Rose a toothy smile. “So we crept up on her and I don’t think she knew any of us were there. She had binoculars and a camera with a long lense on it. I think she was scouting the town.” One of Aaron’s men sneezed. “So we knocked her out, snatched up all her stuff, and rode back into town to make Rene aware. Then we brought her back here. She’s been out cold since we got her.”
Rene came back into the living room, steam rising from his cup of tea. “We have to assume that she was a scout
for another group out there,” said Rene. “We have no idea who this other group is or what their intentions are, but if they’re scouting, it’s likely not to make friends.”
“I agree,” said Aaron. “She wouldn’t have had a camera if she wasn’t sent out here to report back.”
“What do you want to do boss?” asked one of Aaron’s men.
“You guys can head back to your houses and get dried off and warmed up. Aaron, Rose and I will wait until she wakes up, and we’ll see what she has to say,” said Rene. With that, both men stood and left, leaving puddles on the chairs they were sitting in and on the floor below them.
“I’m going to go dry off,” said Aaron, standing. He went into the kitchen, likely headed to one of the bathrooms. After Aaron left, Rose turned to Rene. “What’re we going to do with her?”
Rene took a long sip of his tea. “Well, she’s skilled. She made it past our lines almost as far as you did. I don’t think we can use her, though. Unlike yourself, this woman appears to be working for a group of people already. You were alone and had no ties to other groups. If she’s a scout sent out to spy on us, she may feign loyalty to save her skin, but she’ll just run off back to her group the first chance she gets.”
Rose could hear Adeline was still playing music upstairs. Rose thought she could make out Cream’s “Born Under A Bad Sign.” Adeline really seemed to be enjoying the breadth Rose’s musical library. “So we will keep her prisoner? We obviously can’t just let her go back to her group,” said Rose.
Jordan Rose Duology (Book 1): Break Away Page 16
