by Lake, D. K.
"Why didn't she just give them to me herself?"
"'Cause she thought it would be better coming from me."
"Ok. I'll try them out I guess."
"Thank you." Drew kissed the top of my head.
"Five minutes and we're leaving!" Alice shouted.
"You gonna be ok to travel?" Drew asked.
"No idea but do I get a choice?" I groaned. "Anyway, I don't want to hold them up." I added.
"I'll find you some sick bags for the journey." Sophie said and disappeared.
Alice started rounding us up like cattle and I found myself saying a quick goodbye to Pom and Josh, and thanked Doctor Flynn for fixing my face every time I bust it open before I was herded into the back of the truck. Alice decided Duke was going to be the designated driver and she was going to sit shotgun and navigate. The motorcycle was for Pope and he was going to ride in front and circle back to us in case there were any problems on the road up ahead. Nick hopped up into the back of the truck and Margo insisted on sitting inside and made Lane sit with her which left Sully, Hutch, Sophie, Drew and me sitting in the back of the truck. It wasn't too bad, they had boarded up the sides so nothing could reach in and grab you and it provided a little protection and shielded us from view. It was a bit cramped as all the supplies didn't fit into the trailer so I was sandwiched between Drew and a load of sleeping bags, but I wasn't complaining and snuggled down, thinking the only way to stop myself from throwing up anymore would be to fall asleep. And that's exactly what I did.
Chapter 12
"Alex, wake up! Are you hungry?" Drew asked.
"Huh?" I opened one eye, thinking we'd still be on the road but the truck was stationary and the others were nowhere to be seen and Drew was the only one with me. I sat up, looking around confused. It was dark outside. Why was it dark? How long had we been on the road?
"What time is it?" I asked as Drew handed me a water bottle.
"Nearly nine."
I chugged the water bottle. "In the evening?" I asked and nearly spat my drink out.
"Yes." Drew chuckled.
"How have I slept all day?"
"You must have been tried. We've been on the road for nearly eight hours, we stopped for lunch but you wouldn't wake up so we left you asleep. We got back on the road and then they decided they wanted to stop for the night. It's not really a good idea to drive in the dark anyway. When we arrived here I left you sleeping but now it's getting late and you haven't eaten all day." Drew reminded me.
He reached behind me and picked up a paper plate that was covered over and put it on my lap.
"Don't show the others, I only went hunting for us. They're all inside eating that packet shit."
"So what's this?" I asked, peeking under the napkin.
"It's just rabbit, but I thought you could do with the protein. You're dropping weight."
"Well, between getting kidnapped by crazy savages and turning into a hybrid it's easy to forget to eat properly. You can't say it hasn't been crazy lately."
I nibbled the meat and Drew sat quietly next to me.
"Where are we?" I asked. I couldn't see anything from back here with the sides of the truck all boarded up.
"Ohio. Pope drove ahead and found this place, it's some luxury ranch, untouched. Gated all around. It's safe."
"Lucky us. So if things go as smoothly as they have done today we'll be in Washington tomorrow?"
"Yup." Drew rested his arms on his knees, watching me. "How are you feeling?"
"Better." I replied. "But I'm never drinking again."
"Famous last words." Drew grinned.
I finished the meal Drew had gone to the trouble to catch and cook for me, feeling tons better after my belly was full. I hopped off the truck to go and pee behind a bush, and quickly brushed my teeth, and then Drew showed me inside the house. It was an open-plan layout, most of the walls were glass, wooden floors, and wooden walls, a modern kitchen with all the appliances, shiny counter tops, bar stools, a large fireplace that was burning, and cream leather couches. Very stylish. Most of the group were seated on the couches, surrounded by candles, and Pope had set up a bed on the floor near the sliding glass doors and appeared to be fast asleep. Sophie looked up and smiled at me and patted the spot next to her. I slipped onto the couch and she offered me a bowl of nuts. Duke, Sully, Alice, Hutch, and Sophie were in the middle of a very serious game of Clue.
"Which one are you?" I whispered to Sophie.
"Miss Scarlet." Sophie said, flashing me her cards.
"Nice. Whenever I used to play when I was little I got stuck with Professor Plum."
Drew lifted himself onto the counter in the kitchen, watching us.
"Where's Nick?" I asked.
"He went to bed. He said he was exhausted. I don't know why. All he's done all day is sit inside the truck whining about being claustrophobic."
"So uh...where's Lane and Margo?" I whispered, not wanting Drew to hear me. I wasn't bothered, but I was curious.
"Just wait for it." Sophie giggled.
"Wait for what? I said confused.
A few minutes went by and strange noises started happening upstairs. Thud. Thud. Thud.
"They're not?" I whispered.
"Yes, they are." Sophie tried not to laugh. "It's been going on for the last hour. That's why we're all down here, waiting for them to finish so everyone can go to sleep...I mean, how long does it take? They must be on round three." I bit my lip to stop myself from laughing out loud.
"There are four bedrooms, those two up there are in the master bedroom, Nick is in the children's room but Sully is going to bunk with him, Hutch and I are in another, and Duke and Alice are in the fourth." Sophie explained.
"I guess Drew and I are on the couch." I shrugged.
"Drew said he wanted to sleep downstairs anyway so we all figured you'd be with him, but if you don't want to sleep down here you can join Hutch and me. We can share the bed and make him sleep on the floor." she whispered.
"What's that about me sleeping on the floor?" Hutch said.
"Nothing." Sophie giggled.
"It's ok, I'll stay down here. I don't think I'm gonna get much sleep anyhow seeing how I slept all day."
The noises upstairs eventually died down. Hutch got knocked out when he wrongly accused Alice of being the murderer and Sully joined forces with Duke to pin the murder on Sophie who was, in fact, the murderer. Miss Scarlet in the dining room with the candlestick. The others all took themselves off to bed and left Drew and me on our own with the exception of a snoring Pope.
"This place is nice." I murmured, walking into the kitchen where Drew was scattering nuts all over the countertop.
"It's ok. Can't say I care much for the raccoons upstairs making all that noise."
I just smiled and cleared up the mess along the countertops after he was done.
"Stay here, I'll be back in a minute." Drew randomly said before leaning down to kiss my cheek and disappearing out the door. I packed away the board game and added it back to the collection of other games under the coffee table. This place would be the perfect location to stay at for a while if we needed shelter but we would be back on the road in the morning, and hopefully, we'd make it to Washington by lunchtime and in one piece. But who knew what tomorrow would bring. I tidied up the living room, moving Lane's bag he had forgotten about to the side of the couch and not right in the middle of the floor where everyone would fall over it. I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I walked back into the kitchen as Lane appeared, his hair a disheveled mess. Sex hair no doubt. I didn't think he'd been asleep.
His footsteps slowed down when he saw me standing in the kitchen. He pulled his eyes away from me and went over to the crate of water on the counter and grabbed a bottle. He turned his back on me and started to walk away.
"So this is what it's going to be like all the way to Washington? You ignoring me?" I said to get his attention.
He stopped and turned around and shook his head.
&nbs
p; "I'm not doing anything, Alex. I just came down to get a drink. I didn't know you'd be down here."
He turned his back on me again, searching the room for something.
"Your bag is over there." I pointed.
He crouched down and pulled out a packet of cigarettes.
"Sounded like you were enjoying yourself up there," I blurted out before I could stop myself.
"I don't want to talk about this with you." Lane sighed, standing back up.
"Why not? Was it that bad?" I said just to piss him off.
"No, I just don't want to talk about that stuff with you." Lane quipped.
"Why not? I thought friends tell each other everything."
"We're not friends, Alex." he snapped.
"Oh, so the past few years meant nothing to you?"
It hurt that he had flipped a switch this morning and now he was treating me like this. Giving me the cold shoulder.
"They certainly meant nothing to you as you were so quick to throw them away." he threw in my face. "We're just traveling companions now." Lane added.
"Do you kiss all your traveling companions? Have you made the rounds, tucked Alice in and given her a goodnight kiss too?" I sneered.
"Don't start, Alex."
"Whatever." I huffed. "If you want to ignore me and pretend we're not friends then fine. Two can play at that game. I just thought we'd be grown-ups about this."
I think in a way I was trying to convince myself that I didn't need him. I didn't need Lane. He had been so cold towards me. I didn't know what I'd done wrong. Ok, so breaking up with him didn't help things, but he cheated on me. Hello!
He dropped his bag on the floor with a thud and stalked over to me and I found myself backed into the counter, caging me in with his arms on either side of me, glaring down at me.
"I don't believe you." Lane said, watching me carefully. "You care too much, Alley. That's your problem." I turned my face away as his cool mint breath fanned my face. Trust Lane to have fresh minty breath and smell amazing in such a shitty situation, why couldn't he repulse me?
"That's why you're annoyed with me. You don't like seeing me with someone else, but guess what, I don't like seeing you with that feral creature." he seethed.
"You're wrong. I couldn't care less if I never saw you again. You could leave right now and I wouldn't care. And I don't care who you go with." I lied.
It hurt that he was treating me this way. Shutting me out. Ignoring me.
I shrugged and tried to play cool. He was right, it did annoy me to see him with someone else. That person being Margo. Why Margo? So yes I was annoyed, annoyed he was blanking me and hooking up with Margo 'cause he knew how much I disliked her, so I wanted to give him some shit too. But I still cared for him. Not that I would tell him that right now.
"You do need me. And remember, when he decides to up and leave you I'll still be here. You can pretend not to need me and pretend that you don't care but I know you do, but until then we don't need to be friends."
"You're crazy to think he'll leave me."
"He will." Lane's eyes fell to my lips and I frowned, worrying he was going to try and kiss me.
"Am I interrupting something?" Margo sneered, glaring at us.
I was actually pleased she decided to show up and interrupt us. I wasn't so pleased to see her standing there in Lane's long t-shirt. And I doubt she had anything on underneath if her hard nipples poking through were anything to go by.
"Nope, maybe you can help." I shoved Lane off of me.
"With what?" Margo crossed her arms. "It looks to me like you're trying to get your claws into Lane again." As if.
"No. I've already had my turn, he's all yours. But maybe you can help us with a little problem. Lane here was just telling me he thinks he got an infection...down there. Apparently, it's all red and itchy."
Margo's eyes lit up like a beacon as if she believed me.
"Oh. Oooh!" she gasped, realizing she'd just had sex with him. Multiple times.
"Well, I hope you used a condom. Goodnight!" I smiled and tried to leave but Lane blocked me.
"Go back to bed I'll be there in a minute." Lane said firmly and sent Margo on her way. I tried to edge around him.
"Funny." Lane said, grabbing my arm before I could get away.
"Oh, I'm sorry, did I just ruin your chances with Margo? She probably won't touch you with a ten-foot pole now."
"You know if I didn't know any better I would think you were jealous and that's why you're trying to ruin things between Margo and me."
"Uh? No! But she's not exactly the long-term type. She's only using you."
"Who said I wanted long term? And did it occur to you that maybe I'm using her? Sex can be fun without being complicated, Alley. Maybe that's where you're confused. Maybe it isn't love you're feeling for Drew." he said, pressing his whole body against mine so we were touching in places I didn't feel comfortable with anymore. "He's just some stray cat that you felt sorrow for and took in but he'll soon get itchy feet and want to leave again because that's what feral cats do. He doesn't love you like I do, Alley."
"Stop calling me Alley. And get off of me!" I snapped, trying to push him off but he held onto my arms.
"I think it would be a good idea if you listen to her before this feral cat puts an arrow through your head." Drew growled, suddenly appearing in the kitchen.
Lane sighed and let go of me. "Just remember what I said. You never can tame a feral cat." he hissed.
Lane backed off, grabbed his water bottle, and glared at Drew before stalking off upstairs.
"How much did you hear? Don't pay any attention to him. He's just jealous and what's funny is he thinks I'm the one that's jealous. And I'm not. I'm just annoyed he's hooking up with Margo, she's a nasty piece of work, and he's ignoring me like I've done something wrong." I rambled on and sucked in a breath once I'd finished. Drew said nothing. "Where did you go? I was just about to come and find-" Drew pressed his lips to mine before I could finish. His lips only touched mine for a split second before he nodded his head at me to follow him outside.
He led me back to the truck where he had set up one of those tents with the front half open and he had made a bed of sleeping bags underneath so we could sleep outside but in the safety of the truck. He climbed into the back and offered me his hand and lifted me up next to him.
"Is this what was taking you so long?" I smiled, crouching down and crawling into the tent. I removed my boots but left everything else on. You never knew when you would have to leave in a hurry so it made sense to keep most of your clothes on. Drew crawled in next to me. It was nice outside, just the right temperature to sleep outdoors. The moon gave off enough of a glow so it wasn't too dark and the sky was clear so the stars twinkled. I laid down and Drew laid down next to me so we were shoulder to shoulder.
"Now this is romantic. Sleeping under the stars." I said.
"I had planned to take you to dinner and go see a movie but I heard on the news that there's this zombie apocalypse happening or something like that." he joked. We were quiet for a moment.
"He doesn't know what he's talking about." Drew said quietly.
"I know." I said, turning to look at him.
"I would never leave you...and if I ever did it would only be because I'm trying to protect you for some reason and I have no other choice and leaving you is the only way. Or if I get kidnapped by a group of savages." he teased.
"I don't need you to leave me to protect me. I can protect myself with or without you, but I prefer with."
Drew smiled to himself. He reached down and laced his fingers with mine and brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed my fingers.
"I prefer with too." he said.
"I love you." I said honestly. "This...this thing between us isn't just a bit of fun for me."
"I know." Drew said. "And I'm not some stray cat that's going to wander off without you. Anyway, what's a feral cat without his Alleycat?"
"One grumpy cat." I teased.
>
Drew grinned and was suddenly on top of me, pressing the length of his body against mine.
"You sure you're feeling better?" Drew asked.
"Yep. Much better."
Drew slid his hand under my sweatshirt. "How much better?" he asked.
"Much, much better." I assured him.
"You tired?" he asked, kissing my neck.
"Nope. I've slept all day."
"So you won't mind if I keep you up all night?" Drew said with a mischievous look.
"Aren't you tired?" I asked.
"I got a few hours sleep when we were on the road, not as many as you but enough."
"So what did you have in mind?"
"You. Me. Naked." he husked.
"I like that idea." I said right before his mouth crashed down on mine.
We spent the night under the stars in each other's arms, enjoying the time we had together before the sun rose and we would be back on the road and on our way to Washington.
Chapter 13
Three weeks later.
The journey to Washington had been tough. And it didn't help we lost the truck the day after we stopped at the ranch.
The morning after we stayed at the ranch we only made it an hour down the road before we came to a bridge that had collapsed and there was no way of getting the truck across the river as it was too deep. We had to detour and we ended up driving through torrential rain and the truck got stuck in the mud, but that wasn't the worst part. While all of us were trying to get the truck out of the mud we spotted a scary tornado in the distance heading our way. I had only ever seen one on the TV before and that was in the movie Twister that I had watched with my dad when I was ten, and I still remembered the scene where the cows fly past the truck. Everyone agreed we needed to find shelter and luckily for us there was a large farm in the distance, and there was even a rusty old tractor sitting in the overgrown field. I was so frightened as we ran through the field, carrying whatever we could grab from the truck. We made it to the farm and found a storm shelter, and when it was all over we discovered most of the farmhouse was gone and so was the tractor. Duke was right to tell us to grab what we could because the truck was long gone along with its trailer and we never found it again. So we made it as far as Ohio with the truck but after that, we would be on foot for the rest of the way. It took us just over three weeks to get to Washington. Amazingly we all made it there in one piece...but I was still waiting for our luck to run out.
