by Lake, D. K.
"Do I know you?" I asked, confused.
"The name's Duke. I was freed from one of the cages at the Blood Gang's hideout. If it wasn't for that little stunt you pulled to get yourself put in the Pit we'd all still be inside those cages."
"Oh, well it's nice to meet you, Duke." I smiled.
"Don't listen to any of the others, what you did saved lives, you're a real hero."
"I'm just a nobody who decided to do something." I shrugged.
"Not to me, and not to a lot of the others. You went up against Ray when no one else would, you killed the Blood Gang off, and while doing all of that you were able to walk among the dead as though you're one of them. You're somebody. Somebody worth fighting for, and we're indebted to you."
This was all a bit too much. I smiled and scanned the area, searching for a familiar face and saw Pom running towards me.
"Alex, you're ok!" Pom threw her arms around me before I had a chance to catch her and we toppled into Duke.
"Hi." I smiled when she finally let go.
"I've been telling them to let you go. People should be thanking you, not locking you up."
"It's ok, I understand people are scared of me."
"Not me. You saved our lives. I can't believe you did all that! You're awesome, and I don't care what you look like, you're still amazeballs."
"Amazeballs." I laughed.
"Pom?!" I heard Sully calling her.
He walked around the building and saw us standing together.
"Alex," Sully greeted me.
"Hey," I smiled.
"I think I owe you a thank you. I've heard about what happened. You put your own life on the line to save our people. I don't care what anyone else says, you're ok in my book." Sully held out his hand to me and gently shook my hand. "If anyone causes you any trouble just let us know and we'll sort it out for you." Sully said.
Pom kept smiling at me and jumping up and down.
"Are you coming to the party tomorrow?" she asked excitedly.
"Um..." I had only just woken up, I hadn't even had time to think about what I was doing in the next hour. Hopefully sleeping.
"Oh, please come to the party, Alex. You have to come. There are a lot of people that want to meet you properly."
"Uh...ok?"
"Yay!" She clapped her hands.
"Come on, give Alex some space. We need to help sort stuff out at the farm." Sully said, leading her away.
I took a moment and searched the camp again.
"If you're looking for your boyfriend, he's over there on the picnic bench." Duke pointed and I saw Drew waiting for me.
Boyfriend? Had Drew told everyone he was my boyfriend? No wonder Lane was sulking.
"Oh, and um...apologize again to Drew for our little misunderstanding the other day."
"Ok?"
I said goodbye to Duke and left him sunbathing on a deckchair with a Jane Austen novel. I think he was one of the bodyguards Alice had stationed outside. As I walked towards Drew I noticed people were turning their heads to stare at me and other people were just stopping what they were doing to openly gawk at me. I pushed the sunglasses further up my nose and walked a little quicker. Drew jumped down from the picnic table and walked towards me. He opened his arms for me and I jumped into them and wrapped my arms around his neck.
"Hey, Pretty." Drew squeezed me tightly.
We broke apart and I studied his face and saw some cuts and bruises that he must have got the other night. Drew was wearing brown cargo pants, his usual boots, and a green t-shirt that matched the ends of his hair that had recently been cut and was a lot shorter than how I remembered it, and of course, he had his crossbow slung over his arm.
I ran my hand through his short hair. It had been cut shorter at the sides and left a little longer on top so there was still enough for my fingers to toy with.
"Come with me." Drew said, quickly removing my hand from his hair and leading me away from all the prying eyes.
"What's wrong?" I asked when we were out of sight and tucked down the side of a trailer in the shadows.
"I don't trust anyone, they've all been waiting for you to make an appearance."
"It's ok, I don't think anyone is going to try and hurt me out of the blue." I reassured Drew as he peered around the corner.
"Still..." Drew mumbled and I pulled him back to me.
"Hey, look at me." I said.
Drew reluctantly let me pull him closer and braced an arm above my head to look at me.
"Are you ok? You seem a little stressed."
"Stressed? Alex, they've had you locked up for two days, of course, I'm stressed! I was in the middle of planning a breakout."
"Aww. Drew so serious."
"How are you so calm? Are you not mad they kept you locked up in there? They wouldn't let me in to see you and they parked the Terminator outside to stop anyone from walking in."
"The Terminator? You mean Duke, the big teddy bear reading Pride and Prejudice?"
"Teddy bear my ass. Did you see what he did to my face?" Drew pointed to his purple eye. "He thought I was trying to get in to hurt you."
"Aww, diddums."
"I can't believe you're not mad at these people."
I shrugged. "What's the point? They're just being careful, they don't know me, I could be anyone, and they all thought I was infected. I think I would have thought the same thing." I mumbled.
"I spoke to Nick earlier and he said you were ok, you're not reinfected or anything."
"No, but..."
"Alex, it's ok. I already saw your eyes. They changed right before we climbed over the wall. One minute they were brown the next they were translucent...it was hard to miss."
"Yes, well...Nick doesn't really know what happened, but he thinks it has something to do with when I got infected with the knife Ray cut me with. Something about combining two elements. You know he's calling me a hybrid."
"As long as you're not infected it doesn't matter, right?" Drew asked, lifting my chin with his finger.
"I guess, but I don't think I can take off these sunglasses ever again in case people start to panic and try to kill me."
"Come on, take them off, it can't be that bad. I saw them in the dark and they were pretty bright, they can't look that bad in the sunlight."
"They still look weird."
"Show me."
"No, you'll think I'm a freak."
"Pretty," Drew soothed.
"No. They stay on my face."
"Please, I want to see your eyes, I don't like talking to your sunglasses." Drew said, gently lifting the sunglasses off my face and I looked straight down at the grass.
"Alex, look at me." He held my face in his hands and tilted my face up to look at him and I looked straight into his eyes.
"See, I'm a freak." I muttered, quickly looking away from his eyes again.
"No, you're not. You're beautiful, and it doesn't change the way I feel about you." he said, resting his forehead against mine.
"I thought I had lost you." I said, grabbing the front of his t-shirt and twisting the fabric in my fingers.
"Nah, I just got a little distracted trying to keep Lane alive while we were inside that place so I couldn't focus on escaping as soon as I would have liked. I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you when they kidnapped you."
"It's ok. It was part of my plan anyway."
"You wanted to get kidnapped?" Drew raised an eyebrow at me.
"It was plan B. Plan A was to find one of them and torture them. Plan B was to get kidnapped so they would take me to where you were."
"You willingly got kidnapped by a bunch of savages in hopes of finding me?"
"Yes, but it didn't exactly go to plan, Margo kinda ruined it. But I wasn't going to stop until I found you. You wouldn't."
"You know I'd do anything to find you."
"Well, me too." I smiled and he gently pressed his lips to my forehead.
"Do you think it will be alright if we get my stuff and I get cleaned
up?" I asked, feeling gross and wanting to get out of these clothes.
"Sure. I'll come with you."
"To the shower?"
"Uh...yeah. I'm not letting you out of my sight again."
"Then you have to promise not to go wandering off on one of your little walks in the woods again. I hated it when you went missing. I always assume you're coming back, and then you didn't come back and I couldn't think about anything else other than finding you."
"I know. And I'm sorry I went off like that but I was angry with you."
"Why? Because you jumped to the wrong conclusion and thought I'd decided to go back to Lane?"
"Pretty much."
"Have you seen Lane? Is he ok?"
"He's out running errands. He's alright, apart from the big shiner I gave him at breakfast."
"Drew!" I scolded.
"He started it. Every time he walked past me he tried to start shit. He still thinks he has a shot at getting you back."
"Why would he think that?"
"Maybe because you told him to be careful and that you didn't want to lose him when you sent him off to free the other prisoners...and you kissed him."
"I meant in the friends kinda way I can't lose you. And I kissed him on the cheek! It was a friendly gesture."
"I know, but I don't think he quite got it."
"So I still have Lane to deal with?"
"Yup. He gotta super pissy this morning when I called you my girlfriend."
"Really?" I poked him in the chest. "You called me your girlfriend?"
"Yeah, but I don't like calling you that."
"Oh," I said, confused.
"No, not 'cause I don't want you to be my girlfriend, it's just you mean more than that. Girlfriend doesn't sound right to me."
"Well, I'm either just a friend, your lover, your girlfriend, your wife, or your partner in crime. You have to pick one." I teased.
Something flashed across Drew's face and his eyes seemed to twinkle at something I had said.
"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up." Drew said, and hooked his arm around my shoulders and led me away.
Chapter 3
We headed to Sophie and Hutch's trailer where all of my stuff was still stashed.
"Hey, Drew?"
"Yup?" Drew responded, glancing over his shoulder to check we weren't being followed. "Do Sophie and Hutch know about the vaccine and everything that happened?"
"I don't think there is one person in this camp that doesn't know about it. When Nick opened up and confessed everything it spread like wildfire. Everyone knows." Drew checked over his shoulder again.
"Stop doing that. You're making me paranoid." I snapped, looking over my shoulder. "Do you really think someone is going to suddenly jump out and attack me?"
"Half the community are afraid of you because they think you're one of the dead and the other half think you're a queen." Drew grunted. "I just don't trust anyone."
"What? Me, a queen?" I snorted.
"I heard whispers last night, they're calling you the queen of the dead."
"Well, it sounds better than the queen of the rotting corpses, don't ya think?" I laughed as we reached the trailer.
"Wait...do Sophie and Hutch even want me here? You know, 'cause I'm a freak now and they might hate me." I panicked.
"They don't hate you. You haven't done anything wrong."
Drew skipped up the steps and let himself inside and I quickly followed him in. Inside, Hutch was sitting at the table doing a puzzle.
"You're back!" Hutch said, looking up at me. "You okay? They didn't do anything to you did they?"
"No, I'm fine. Just a little sore from where they knocked me out and the sedatives have made me sleepy."
"Sedatives?" Drew raised an eyebrow.
"You didn't know? They had me sedated until they could figure out what to do with me. Guess they didn't tell you they had me tied up either?"
"What?" Drew looked mad. "How are you not mad? Are you sure you don't want me to punch anyone?"
"No, I think we can do without you hitting someone. It's ok, it's done, it's over. Just be glad they didn't do away with me." I placed my hand on his arm to calm him down.
"They had guards all around that place this morning, no one could get near you anyway." Hutch told me.
"So I hear." I muttered, looking around the trailer for my stuff and saw my pink daisy bag on the seat near the window.
"You got my stuff?" I asked, opening the bag and putting in everything I wanted to take to the shower.
"Yeah, it's all they would let me have was your bag. They wouldn't even let me see you." Drew grumbled.
"Drew...I'm fine. Let's forget about it, ok?"
"Ah, there it is!" Hutch fitted in a piece of the puzzle and smiled to himself. "So come on, let's see 'em." Hutch said, looking across the table at me.
"Huh? See what?" I played dumb.
"The whole of Eden are talking about the girl with the eyes and how she saved everyone and how she can walk with the dead." Hutch picked up his glass of water and finished it off.
Drew shifted around uncomfortably. I felt like a zoo animal.
"There's not much to look at." I mumbled, hitching my backpack onto my back.
"Come on, just one look." Hutch said, sliding out of the table and leaning against the sink.
I let out a sigh and slowly removed my sunglasses. Drew didn't look at me and instead went about getting himself a glass of water. Hutch moved closer and ducked down to my level.
"Huh? They really are bright. Cool." He grinned and I let out a breath.
At least he didn't ask me to leave the trailer.
"Don't listen to anyone else, your eyes are sick."
"Gee, thanks." I smiled just as Sophie opened the door and walked in with a laundry basket.
"Oh, Alex, you're back! I was just on my way down to yell at them again and demand they let you out." She dropped the laundry basket on the counter and stopped when she noticed my eyes.
"Oh...they really are different." she said and I made a move to put my sunglasses back on. "No, I didn't mean in a bad way. They're very pretty." Sophie said, moving closer to get a better look. "They're so unique. You shouldn't hide them. Screw what everyone else thinks. Ain't that right, Hutch?"
"Defo." Hutch smiled.
"Thanks guys." I looked up and smiled at them as I slid the shades onto my head.
"We were a little blown away when we heard about what had happened. It was crazy when they brought you back, no one knew what was going on, everyone was telling a different story, and then Nick told us about the cure. I can't believe you were infected and lived!" Sophie exclaimed. "Do you have a bite mark or anything?" she queried.
"Uh...yeah." I spun around and showed her the lower half of my back.
"Oh my, look at that. So it's all true, you were cured and you're on your way to Washington to deliver the cure." Sophie said.
"Yes, that's the plan, we just happened to meet Rosie and Tobias and they told us about this place and that's how we ended up here."
"Are you still going to Washington?" Sophie asked and I nodded.
Drew didn't say anything and just rinsed off his glass in the sink.
"So uh...I really need to get cleaned up." I said, edging past Sophie.
Sophie smiled and let me pass and Drew followed me outside.
I desperately needed to have a shower, and I wanted to brush my teeth and put on fresh underwear. We walked to the showers and I picked the cubicle on the end. I removed my boots and left them on the grass and sorted my stuff out inside the cubicle, placing everything I needed on the little shelf. Drew took off his boots and rolled up his pants and followed me into the cubicle.
"You're seriously going to follow me everywhere?" I asked.
"Yup. Damn straight." he replied, picking up the bucket and filling it up for me as I peeled off my clothes.
I slipped off my bra and dropped it into the wash bucket followed by my panties, and shoved all my other clothes
in there too. Drew stood up and stepped aside for me to get under the water, but I stood at the side and quickly brushed my teeth because my gums felt gross.
I stuck my hand out, testing the water. It was a hot day and the water didn't feel too cold today. I braved it and jumped under the water but still let out a little squeak and Drew chuckled. Was it weird that I was completely naked, standing in front of Drew and it didn't bother me one bit? It just felt normal. I wasn't quite sure what to do with my arm. It was covered in clean dressings and I didn't want to get it wet so I held it away from the water, wondering how I was going to wash my hair with only one hand.
"So who cut your hair?" I wondered as I rinsed my hair thoroughly and tried to undo the shampoo lid using one hand and my teeth.
"Sophie did it. She insisted." Drew said and ran a hand through his hair nervously. I didn't know why he was nervous, he wasn't the one with fluorescent eyes.
"I like it." I assured him. "Suits you."
He smiled and saw the predicament I was in as I struggled with the shampoo and he took the bottle from me. He shook his head and smiled at me as he placed the bottle back on the shelf.
"What?" I laughed, watching Drew hang up his crossbow on the hook.
"Looks like I'm just gonna have to get naked too." Drew smirked, pulling his t-shirt over his head.
He quickly removed all his other clothes and I couldn't help the stupid smile that appeared on my face. I blushed and looked away. He picked up the shampoo again, stepped under the water and squeezed some onto my head and went about massaging it into my scalp as I held my injured arm away from the water and held onto the wall.
I caught Drew looking at my eyes and it made me nervous. Did he hate them? Was he only saying nice things about them to make me feel better?
"Stand under the water." Drew said, and I moved my head under the water and Drew helped me to rinse the shampoo out.
"You kinda look like that chick from Underworld when she goes all badass." he said randomly, catching my eyes again.
"Hey, that was my first thought too!" I said and we both laughed.
"You don't need to worry about them. They look killer." He smiled and rubbed his thumb across my jawline.
"I'm glad you're still alive." I said, sliding one arm around his neck.
"Good. That makes two of us." he replied with a smile and leaned down to kiss me.
