by Maya Riley
“There were some last night that Trouble and I took care of, but it was nothing like this.” Mateo grunted as he took out two more at once.
I seemed to be the only one who was noticing the veil that flitted over Lincoln’s face, paling it with beads of sweat before returning back to how it was, and then turning pale once more. He’d reached his limit.
“Lincoln.” My voice was low and stern, letting him know I meant business.
He swayed on his feet for a moment before he turned his pale face to look at me. His eyes were sunken, he’d already exerted himself before I even saw him. I hurried over and threw one of his arms across my shoulders, trying to bear some of his weight.
“Come on, let’s get you back inside. You need some water.” My mind began spinning, imagining all the outcomes, and thinking back to the last time he’d overly exerted himself, which ultimately led to me leaving, running out on all of them. It wasn’t really his fault, I just couldn’t seem to forgive myself for running away from the only people in my current life, something I’d always promised myself I wouldn’t do. If it wasn’t for that, we may still be back at that cottage right now with an abundant food and water supply, and he wouldn’t be in this situation. Oh, how I missed staying in a shelter so close to a water source.
Leaving all that behind with the hopes of finding the Salvaged Lands was worth it though. At least, I really hoped it would be.
As consciousness flitted from him, I began to slow down and sag under his weight. “Linc, honey, you’re going to need to help me get you back over to the house. Only a few more steps, we can do it.” It was slow progress, but it was progress. He scraped one foot after the other across the ground until we were at the porch steps. Unable to guide him any farther, with him being unable to lift his own feet any higher, I guided him down into a sitting position on the stairs. Adam appeared at the doorway and I yelled for him to grab some water.
Jonah dropped his bow and rushed to our sides. He felt Lincoln’s face with the back of his hand, and then began to strip his shirt off, trying to cool him down. I helped lift him until the shirt was freed and tossed to the ground, out of the way.
Within moments, Adam reappeared with a bottle in each hand. I took one and frantically opened it, then poured a little bit at a time into Lincoln’s slightly opened jaw. The drops climbed through his lips and rolled down his tongue, and then his throat. “Come on, Linc. I need you to drink for me.”
His eyes were closed, but he was still aware enough to understand what was happening. He may be upset with himself once he fully came to, but my main concern right now was actually getting him to that point.
I placed one hand against his cheek while the other held a bottle to his mouth, pouring the water in a slow, steady stream. “Come on, Linc, open those eyes. Show me my favorite kind of coffee-colored eyes. You can do this,” I urged him, hoping he could at least hear me.
Jonah took the other bottle and poured a very thin stream of water down Lincoln’s torso. I watched as the drops sizzled and evaporated on impact. He was really burning up, and I didn’t want to find out what would happen if we didn’t get him cooled down soon.
A soft glow emitted from my palm, and my eyes widened in surprise. I still had no idea how to work my powers, and it astounded me every time. Just like Lincoln did, and how Adam was trying to do, I’d need to figure out exactly how to gain control over them soon, so I could heal them on purpose every time, rather than it being a roll of the dice. I had a theory, but I needed to make sure it was accurate every time.
I pulled the bottle away, not wanting to drown him while he was barely conscious, then I pressed my palm to his forehead. “He’s still burning up,” I whispered, unsure if the water Jonah poured over him had even done anything at all.
As I kept my hand there, I could feel even greater heat soaking up into my skin. “I think he’s getting worse.” Water began to collect in my eyes and I blinked it away. My breathing grew shallow as I felt the heat radiate off of him in greater waves. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”
I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to pull everything I had, every bit of healing that was in my cells, and push it into him. I’d helped his leg a little bit yesterday, or at least I thought I did. How would this be any different? Did the amount of healing make a difference? What would happen if one was past the point of my healing power being beneficial—no, I couldn’t think on that. Instead, I opened my eyes and focused. I kept trying.
Adam placed his hands on Lincoln’s bare arm. “Lincoln, come on man, open your eyes. You need to start keeping yourself more hydrated on the off chance that you randomly decide to fry a couple dozen rotters before breakfast.” He was trying to keep the mood light, even though I was sure we all felt the dread that hung thick in the air.
The air around us dropped a couple degrees, barely enough to make me shiver at the sudden plunge. I had an urge to pull my jacket tighter around me, but I resisted. I wouldn’t let go of him.
The heat in Lincoln’s cheeks slowly began to ebb away, and I held my breath to see what would happen next. I let myself dare to hope—the one thing I was stubborn enough to always keep a sliver of hidden deep inside.
A sharp intake of his breath broke the silence, and his eyes cracked open. He wasn’t fully there, but whatever just happened, it was enough to help.
Maura dropped at my side with a bag. Her hands shook as she fumbled around with the straps and dug through the contents. After unzipping it, she reached in and pulled out a first aid kit. “This was all I could find at the moment.”
She opened up the kit and began pulling out bandages and ointments, calling out the names of each one and waiting to see if anyone told her it would help. She continued to do that until every content of the kit was splayed across the ground, mingling amongst the debris that’d become a permanent decoration in the world. I didn’t even bother to care that she was getting dirt all over the bandages, and I doubted anyone else really cared either.
I kept my full attention on Lincoln. I noticed every bead of sweat that ran down the strands of his hair before dropping off and sizzling on the heated concrete. I watched as the deep red of his skin lightened to a slight pink tinge.
I lifted the bottle and let a few more drops of water fall past his lips, and Jonah did the same, but poured the water on his shoulders and abdomen instead. This time, the water didn’t immediately sizzle and evaporate. Rather, the cool droplets sunk into his skin. We kept doing this as the air around us continued to drop in temperature.
Grunts sounded out as Mateo took down the final rotter and then headed over to us. We didn’t mean to completely abandon him in the fight, but he still had Puppy, who I knew was the best partner one could have anyway.
I let out a breath when Lincoln’s eyes shot open, and I could see the colors of smooth coffee swirling around.
Blyss
“Will he be alright?” Mateo’s voice was filled with concern as he reached us.
“Yeah,” I answered, as his beautiful brown eyes shifted all around, checking out his surroundings and coming back to us. Adam let go of Lincoln’s arms and the temperature around us stopped dropping. In fact, the coolness began to dissipate as the area returned to its normal temperature. “Hey, Adam… you alright?”
His mouth opened and closed as though he was trying to figure out which words to say. “I think I did something.”
“I felt it too. You definitely did do something.”
“With the air around us, right? I didn’t imagine that?”
You did not imagine it, Jonah signed. Let’s get him inside and figure some more things out. We’re too exposed out here.
I nodded before returning my attention to the man still laying on the ground. “Here, let’s sit you up, if you’re up for it.”
I reached under to grab his arm, while Adam grabbed the other, and Jonah moved around to support his back. Together, we got him sitting up with ease. By this time, his face had fully returned to
a normal color, and his breathing was less shallow.
“You doing better, tough guy?” I asked.
He nodded. “A little better. Whatever fan you used really helped.”
“That wasn’t a fan, honey.” A smile lit up my face. “That was Adam. He saved you.”
His eyes found my blue-eyed guy, who nodded in confirmation. “I’m not entirely sure how, but I think I got the gist of it now. Of how it works.”
Lincoln looked back over at me. “Didn’t you heal me though? I thought I felt you touching me.”
My face dropped. “I tried, I really did, but it didn’t seem to be working. I don’t know what happened, you only kept getting hotter, and I couldn’t get you to cool down.”
“I have a theory,” Maura piped up. “When you first healed him a while ago, you kind of brought the fire out in him. So maybe when you try to heal him, you bring more fire. So trying to heal him when he’s already burning up actually makes it worse.” She was the only one speaking, all eyes were on her. “So, like, if something happened and you were to try and heal Adam, maybe the result of that would be to keep making him colder or something. Did I explain it correctly? Like, you can’t heal them from the power they already have now.”
Her face was lit up with pride and her eyes wide. I smiled, reached over, and pulled her into a light embrace. “You know, you really are pretty smart.” I kissed her forehead and let her go. “Come on, guys, let’s get him inside.”
We worked as a team, although it wasn’t as necessary now that Lincoln was able to walk again. It wasn’t long before we were back inside with Lincoln on the couch.
We took some time forcing him to stay seated and doing our best to convince him to drink as much water as possible. We may very well be over hydrating him and going to the other end of that line, but this was still new territory for all of us.
I was sitting down on the couch next to him when he threw an arm over my shoulders. “So, do I get another letter?”
“What?” I questioned, mildly confused.
“The last letter you gave me for your name was a Y.”
I caught Adam smirking in my peripheral. I really thought they all had my name by now, but maybe I never actually gave it to all of them. “S,” I told him, settling on going along with it.
“B-l-y-s… hmmm.” He rubbed his chin. “Is that the whole thing or are there more letters?”
“It’s not the last one.”
“Can you tell me how many more?”
“Nope.”
“Well then, I may just have to do something more heroic to earn the next one.”
I slapped his chest in a somewhat playful manner. “Don’t you dare purposefully put yourself in danger for something like that. I could give you my whole name. You’ve more than earned it.”
“No, don’t give in like that. It’s fun, I like this game. Besides, it doesn’t matter what your name is. You’re still stuck with me anyway.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
I nodded, placed a kiss on his cheek, and stood up. “I’m going to do a sweep of the house and see if there’s anything more we could use.”
I did a quick search of the bedrooms, but we’d already picked them pretty clean earlier. I checked the bathroom, but the bottles and containers that were left inside already had their contents emptied, so I made my way to the kitchen. I was at least relieved not to find any secret basement doors with hidden rotters, so that was nice.
I searched the top of all the cabinets and inside everything I could open. Of course the kitchen would have been picked clean as well, but it never hurt to try.
I moved back into the living room to catch the tail end of what was going on.
“Come on, guys, I’m fine,” he insisted, as Maura tried to shove yet another water bottle in his face. “If I drink anymore, we won’t be able to even drive anywhere because I’ll be peeing nonstop for the rest of the day.”
“Fine, but you keep that on you. Put it in one of your massive man pockets, so you’ll have it right there when needed.”
“Massive man pockets?” Lincoln raised an eyebrow. “Is that a thing?”
“Uh, yeah. Guys’ pants have much larger pockets than girls’ do. It’s a real thing. And totally not fair. It’s the whole reason why girls always carried purses. They could never fit enough into their damn practically nonexistent pockets.”
“But if girls’ pants had bigger pockets and they could fit more things inside them, then they wouldn’t be as fun to look at.” Lincoln’s eyes grew wide. “And I said that out loud, didn’t I?”
I nodded.
“Well, when are we getting out of here? Is it about time to leave yet?” He straightened himself up on the couch, leaned forward, and rested his forearms on his thighs. “Everything is all packed up, correct?”
“Yup. But I feel like I should change clothes first. I’m not wearing enough pockets,” I deadpanned.
He smirked. “Or you could change into pants without pockets. That could work too.”
“As fun as this conversation is to listen to, we really should get going.” Mateo’s gruff voice cut into our little game, and he moved toward the front where all our bags and supplies were.
Before he could reach them, the sound of a car engine rumbled from down the street, turning all our attention to the front of the house. We listened, not making a sound or moving a muscle, until it stopped right outside. We remained frozen to the spot. Car doors opened and closed, causing chills to run down my spine that weren’t caused by Adam this time. Lately, every time we ran into another person, it never went well. It’d been a long time since I’d met normal survivors who didn’t cause problems.
“Fucking hell,” Mateo grumbled. “What now?” Swiftly, he moved to the window and stood on the other side, so he could see out at an angle. He tilted his head until he could see what was going on. “It’s those two from the grocery store the other day. The ones who nearly got their asses handed to them by Trouble here.” He looked over at me. “I still say you let them off too easily.”
I sighed. “Now that they’re here, I can agree with you. What I’m wondering, though, is why they’re here? Out of everywhere in the entire world they could be, why here? How could they even be following us?”
It’s possible they’re heading south to find the same place we are, Jonah signed.
“Well, that’s fucking annoying.” Mateo looked back out the window.
“What are they doing out there?” Adam inquired. “I’d look, but I don’t think there’s enough space to see them without them seeing one of us.”
“They’re walking around the rotter carnage. I think they’re trying to look at the corpses.”
“So maybe they’ll do that and then leave,” Maura commented, her voice cracking a little bit. Her, out of all of us, would be most afraid of these two after her previous encounter with them.
“Doubt it,” I disagreed. “If anything, they would be checking the buildings for supplies. Like we did, they may start with the houses. And if they’re already inspecting the rotter carnage right out front there, then this would be the first house they’d check.”
“Get ready. They gave up on the rotters and are now walking right toward us.”
“Shit,” Adam cursed.
Mateo moved away from the window and position himself in front of the door. The rest of us stood up with weapons drawn.
“We outnumber them and we have the element of surprise. Remember, we have the advantage here.” Lincoln stood up tall, now fully recovered.
“No fire power from you, tough guy. You’ve used it enough today. We can handle this without it.” I glared at him, letting him know I was serious. There was no reason for him to exert himself over these two. He still had to learn his limits.
Muffled voices sounded from the other side of the door as the duo reached the porch. A moment later, the doorknob turned and then we were staring into faces I was hoping never to meet again.
&n
bsp; Pink lips turned up in a cruel smile, then parted as Stacey said, “Well, well, well. We meet again.” She turned her gaze to Maura. “Hello, dear, how have you been?”
Maura shifted herself to get behind me.
“You don’t need to talk to her,” I growled. “Anything you have to say, you can say to me.”
Her beady little eyes looked me up and down. “What exactly do you plan to do with that knife? Gut us like fish before we even do anything?”
I shrugged. “That depends. Are you going to go away and leave us alone, or are you going to cause us problems? Because I’ll let you know right now, I’ve had enough problems in general.”
She threw a thumb over her shoulder. “All those dead rotters, was that recent? Was that your doing?”
“What’s it to you?” I responded, and she narrowed her eyes.
“That’s just a lot. I haven’t seen that many together, all at once, ever. Until today. Was that all at one time, or were most of them already there and then one or two showed up?”
“You’ve never seen a bunch of rotters at once before?” Adam echoed.
I could guess what he was thinking. It was probably the same thing all the rest of us were thinking too. For a while now, we’d been ambushed on a near daily basis by a massive amount of rotters. All this time, we thought it was pretty much normal. That every other survivor was also getting slammed with big groups of rotters. Surely it couldn’t only be us.
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
Her snarky tone made me want to punch her. Actually, I couldn’t see a reason why I was holding back.
She looked over at Jonah, who had the bow laying next to him. “I suppose the arrows were your doing? What, you can’t use a knife like normal people, you have to get all fancy?”
Nobody said a word. I was certain everyone’s blood was boiling along with mine, and all I needed was for her to say one more word before I snapped.
