Salvaged

by Maya Riley

  “Did I stutter? Or are you deaf? You’d be the first to go,” she sneered, the corner of her lips turning up into a cruel smile, the kind that took glee out of tearing others down.

  Oh. Hell no.

  Before I even knew what I was doing, I had the bitch girl pinned to the wall with an arm over her chest and my blade at her throat. “Insult him again,” I threatened. “I would love to cut that pretty little neck of yours and watch as you paint the floor with your blood.”

  Her eyes widened in panic, and shouting could be heard behind me. I didn’t even have to look back to know my guys had Ben, her companion, subdued. Whatever it was he’d tried to do, it sounded like it took at least two of my guys to hold him back.

  Adam was right, we could take on these two, no problem. The only question now was how many people were going to walk out of here alive.

  Puppy stood next to me, growling at the girl I had pinned. Her teeth were fully exposed as her growls reverberated around the room. This girl should be glad I didn’t throw her straight to Puppy. While Puppy may have no idea exactly why this was happening, she knew this girl pissed me off and wouldn’t hesitant to tear the flesh off her bones if needed. At the level of pissed off I was currently at, that actually didn’t sound like too bad of an idea.

  “You are a vile human being who I shouldn’t even let live. You’re worse than a scaver,” I spat in her face, which paled even more with each word. A switch had been flipped and I was a completely different person than I was a moment ago. No one insults my people and gets away with it. “If I ever see the likes of you again, I won’t let you walk away alive. Hell, you’ll be lucky to even leave this house.”

  I angled the blade so I could press it lightly into her throat without breaking the skin. I intended to scare her as much as possible before doing actual harm. If that ended up resulting in lost blood, then so be it. She needed to know she wouldn’t survive much longer in this world by treating survivors like she did. Hell, if she were to spray her bullshit from her mouth around scavers, they wouldn’t let her live long enough to even know she was dying.

  Unlike scavers, I would make sure she felt every bit of pain as I drew her closer to her slow death. I had no patience left for mercy.

  I lowered my voice, still high enough for the others to hear, but also low enough for her to think I was the only one in the room. “Apologize.”

  The corner of her lip curled up as she spoke. That damn curling lip. “Why?”

  She grunted as I applied pressure with my arm over her chest. It was slow at first, so she’d think it was simply a slight increase in weight. Then I kept going, until her sternum was crushing her lungs and threatening to break. I could see her eyes grow wide as the realization hit her, panic showing through the white of her eyes.

  “Alright.” Her voice was barely a squeak.

  I let up on my arm slightly, enough to allow only a bit of air. She gulped in the tiny bit of air that could fit, and I loosened up entirely. I let go, and she collapsed to the ground, gasping.

  “Stacey,” Ben called out. “It’s okay, it’ll be okay. We’ll get out of this.” He struggled against Mateo and Adam, but with no luck. “Wait until we get free. You’ll pay for this.”

  I laughed. “Your lackey has such high hopes. It would be a shame to crush them. He seems so sweet otherwise.”

  “Bitch,” she breathed out between pants.

  “You’re the one who came in here, into our claimed shelter, and then began spatting shit and insulting us. Yet I’m the bitch?” I shrugged. “Whatever, I’ll take it.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Ben was still struggling, so when the guys let go of him, he tumbled to the floor. It took him a moment to scramble to his feet and collect himself before standing next to the door. How those two were surviving in this world was beyond me.

  Right when they turned to leave, there was a break in the low static of the radio. Call… survivors. We… safe haven… Salvaged Lands of Beaumont, Texas. Beware… claiming to be… scientist… Come find us… south.

  I mentally cursed, not happy about these people having heard that. Whether or not they were headed there already was irrelevant. If they tried to stick with us, they needed to redo that plan. My grudge against them would be fully activated for a while.

  A grin crossed over Ben’s face. “I knew it.”

  “You knew what?” I asked.

  “Beaumont, Texas. We’d heard a transmission on the car while still up north, but it was too broken up. Each time we heard something, it seemed to get clearer the farther south we went. Now, we’re so close.” His grin widened, apparently proud of something. “Come on, Stacey. We’re so close.”

  They turned and ran to their car and quickly got in. I watched as Stacey put a key in the ignition—huh, that must be convenient—and then they drove away.

  I groaned. “They’re going to get there before us.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. We don’t know what their journey holds. If anything, they could probably take care of a few rotters for us.”

  “Yeah, what’s up with that? Did you hear that earlier? They rarely come across any rotters, which is so strange, because it’s as though every rotter out there finds us.” I slipped the blades back into their sheaths in my pockets and went over to pick up my bags. “It’s as though they’re attracted to us or something. Or attracted to me. So they leave regular people alone and come for us instead.”

  “It’ll be alright. There’s really nothing we can do about that now.” Lincoln walked over pick up some bags too. “May as well hit the road and see if we can find a faster way down there than they do. I’d prefer not to keep running into them, and I’m sure Maura prefers that as well.”

  I sighed. “Alright, let’s go. Pack up the car and I’ll get it running.”

  The others headed out with Jonah at the end of the line. When he went to pass me, he stopped in front of me instead.

  How are you? I signed.

  I’m good. Thanks for sticking up for me.

  Anytime. It’s what we do. I hesitated for a moment, before continuing, Sorry if I went a little scary. I can’t stand to see people picked on, especially when it’s someone I care about.

  His eyes softened. Thank you. I mean it. Not everyone always cares. He stepped in close, so that the tips of our shoes were touching.

  He lifted his hands onto my shoulders, and his thumbs pressed in as he squeezed with his gentle touch. His face closed in enough for his lips to barely brush mine.

  I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his a little harder, kissing back, and tasting the sweet and salty flavor of his lips. He was like a candy bar, one with caramel, nuts, and chocolate.

  My tongue darted out to taste his lips, but went no further. Only for a brief moment though. The guy still blushed around me, and I wanted to ease him in, because for some reason he actually cared about me. And I wanted to hold on to these guys for as long they’d let me.

  After another moment, we pulled apart. He looked at me with a smile and a blush creeped up his cheeks. I grinned and chuckled. I lifted my hands into the small space between us, After all this time, you still blush around me.

  His fingers fiddled with each other. Not forming any actual signs, just playing with his thumbs while he tried to figure out what to say next.

  You’re different. And I like it. I like you. The guys called to us from outside and I threw him a smile.

  I like you too. Now, let’s get out of here. They seem to need me to get the car going.

  I placed a hand on his shoulder, guiding him in front of me through the door. I should probably show the others how to hot-wire a car.

  I took one last look around the space, and didn’t see anything left behind that we’d need, then closed the door behind me.

  Blyss

  This time I decided to teach the guys how to do this too, which was slightly different than with motorcycles, so they didn’t need to rely on me each time, making it easier to make quick get
aways.

  I removed the plastic cover of the steering column and then checked out the wiring harness connector. After messing around with the objects inside, I stripped about an inch of insulation from the battery wires and twisted them together, connecting them until the lights on the dashboard came to life. Next, all I had to do was spark the battery wires, the most dangerous part, and then rev the engine to life. I hopped into the driver’s seat, and drove us out of there.

  We were right outside of Memphis, and I followed what was left of the highway signs to cross us over into Mississippi and head farther south.

  The static from the radio was background noise now that we weren’t obsessively trying to find any hidden messages. Maura still fiddled with the dials from time to time, but we knew enough about where we were going that it wasn’t such a dire situation anymore.

  After a few hours of driving, we crossed the Mississippi river. Once we got to the other side of the bridge, I drove down a path that led to the water, figuring we could use a break after a few hours on the road. While we wanted to get to our destination as soon as possible, we needed to revive our souls even more.

  We came to a stop a little bit away from the muddied riverbank and got out. The fresh air felt good on my face, and I closed my eyes as I let the direct sunlight kiss my skin.

  I reached my arms up and then continued to flow into a series of stretches. As I was bent down with my legs straight and palms flat against the ground, I heard a splash. I turned my head to the side and looked around my arm. Puppy had jumped into the water, which was only inches deep, and then continued to prance up and down the shallow area, splashing happily as she did so. Her tongue was lolling out, and every now and then she’d bend down and bite at the water.

  Straightening back up, feeling my muscles now loosened, I walked over to the edge to join her.

  The water was clean enough to be in, but not clear enough to see too far down. Minnows swam around the edge. I took off my boots and socks, laying them on the ground before I turned back and dipped my toes into the water.

  The water was nice. It was cool enough to give relief from the sun, but warm enough so it wasn’t uncomfortable.

  I stepped fully into the water, letting the gentle ripples lap above my ankles as my feet sunk down in the murky depths.

  I could barely make out the outlines of some bigger fish a little farther out, as they came near the surface then disappeared again.

  “Hey, guys, there’s fish in here.” I rolled my capris up to mid-thigh and waded farther out.

  “I’m not surprised, the Mississippi had been a good place for swimming and fishing in the past.” Adam appeared beside me, with his own bare feet in the water.

  “It’s been a while since we’ve washed up.” Mateo was on my other side, looking down at the water for fish.

  “There’s no place to hide here like there was with the waterfall at the other one,” Maura noted from the edge, with hesitation in her voice.

  “It’s okay, Maura. It wouldn’t be a big deal to get in fully clothed. We could hang them out to dry after, maybe tie them to the top of the SUV before we head back out, and let the sun and air dry them rather than having a big pile of wet clothes stinking up the car.” I took another step deeper, and the water was nearly up to my knees now.

  Puppy was still splashing around, except this time when she dipped her head to bite at the water, she caught a fish.

  “Whoa, check out the dog, she is on it,” Lincoln called out from the edge where he and Jonah were sitting on the ground. I laughed as she ran out of the water and into the edge of the tree line before laying down by a tree and chomping away at her prize.

  Hey, Jonah’s excitement shone through his signing, it looks like there’s a canoe over there.

  He was right. Not far from Puppy was a bit of an unnatural green color of an object laying on the ground against a tree.

  Lincoln and Jonah stood up and walked over to investigate.

  “If it’s a canoe that’s still in good enough shape to take out on the water, that could be a good way to catch some fish,” Adam suggested.

  “But we don’t have fishing poles, do we?” Maura asked.

  “No,” Adam responded, “but we do have supplies we could improvise with. I’ll go see what we have.” He paused before heading out of the water. “Does anyone want me to bring any clothes back? I could put our bags at the water’s edge to make it easier to dig through for clothes.”

  “I’ll help you with that, we have quite a few bags to carry. It may not hurt to get organized at some point.” I turned and walked out of the water with him, until we reached the car. Once we opened the car doors, we dug through until we gathered every one of the clothes bags we could find.

  Carrying seven bags between the two of us, which included six clothes bags plus one bag with extra supplies Adam scrounged up, we made our way back to the riverbank. We hurried, realizing that doing this barefoot may not have been our best idea. Sticks and rocks dug into the bottoms of our feet, denting the skin but not breaking it with cuts. Playing in a muddy river with cut up feet would have been bad news, and at this point, I wasn’t sure whether I could accurately heal every wound on everyone or not.

  After doing a super awkward gait of trying not to walk on things that would hurt our feet, we made it and then set the bags down on the ground before wading back in ourselves.

  The muddy bottom felt nice on the soles on my feet, soothing the indents made from the rocks and twigs on the way back. Lincoln and Jonah sauntered back, carrying a canoe over their heads, covered with peeling green paint.

  Jonah

  We set the canoe down on the ground, and I couldn’t help but grin with pride at our find. There were fish in the river, and this would help us get out there and make it easier to catch some. Lighthouse went back into the water with Maura and Mateo, but Adam stayed on land. He carried a bag over, opened it up, and pulled out the contents before setting them on the ground in front of us.

  We sat down across from him as he put two empty cans, two sets of fishing line, and some random hooks that looked like they belonged to someone’s crafting kid between us. Then he began to explain his plan, while pointing at each object in between signing.

  I could only find two cans, and I’m glad we had them, because this will make it easier. Unless you want to fish with your bare hands. He paused, his shoulders rising and falling with a chuckle, then shrugged and continued, Take the can and wrap the fishing line around it a few times, then tie it off. Make sure to leave about two feet of the fishing line left. Then, tie a hook onto the other end of the line. You can put bait on it, like worms. There may be some worms around here. Then, you toss the hook end into the water and hold onto the can. Once a fish bites the bait, you turn the can so the line twists around it, reeling in the fish. Then continue to repeat that until you’ve got enough fish.

  I nodded along in understanding, impressed with this new genius invention. Looked like we were having fish tonight.

  Adam helped us set up the fishing contraptions, and then hunted down some worms with us to use as bait. We tossed a few worms into the canoe, too, so we’d hopefully have enough until we got back to land.

  Once we were ready, we set the canoe mostly in the water. Lincoln climbed in and unlatched his leg, then handed it to Adam. I pushed the canoe farther in and then hopped inside.

  Adam set the leg far enough up on land to not have to worry about, before going to join the others for swimming.

  There was only one oar that we could find with the canoe, so we would take turns. I guided us out into the middle of the lake and a bit upstream so we wouldn’t have to worry about drifting too far away too quickly.

  Once we got to a seemingly good spot, we tossed in the bait and held on to our cans, waiting.

  It was a peaceful day. The sun was shining, and we hadn’t even seen a rotter yet, which was slightly unusual and also worrisome. The other times when there weren’t any rotters around, it usually
turned into a horde the next time we saw one.

  If what the mean girl said was true, about them not seeing rotters very often, or only a very few if that, then there really was something about our group that drew them in. It could be Lighthouse, or it could be those of us with strange powers such as Lincoln and Adam, or maybe both.

  There was nothing we could do about it now, other than to keep moving forward and continuing to survive.

  The area around us darkened slightly as a cloud crossed in front of the sun, creating some relief from the heat. Especially with the sunlight reflecting off the water, causing us to heat up even more. We probably should’ve grabbed a couple bottles of water before doing this.

  I was debating the pros and cons of eventually drinking some of the river water, when I felt a gentle tug on my can. Jolting back to awareness, the tug turned sharp, and then more frantic. I hurried to roll the line in, and a moment later, I had a good-sized fish flopping in the air.

  Lincoln leaned over, grabbed the fish, and unhooked it. It fell to the bottom of the canoe and flopped around for a couple more seconds before going still.

  We should probably make this trip a fast one. This canoe will really begin to smell soon, and I’m not sure how long it would really be all that bearable for.

  I nodded in agreement and reached down to place another worm on the hook.

  Blyss

  “I’ve missed hanging out with you.”

  I turned to face Maura. “You’ve been hanging out with me nonstop since we found you.”

  “I mean you. Me and you, only us two. Yeah, I like the guys too, but they’re always around. They don’t like to have you out of their sight.”

  I shrugged. “They’re a bit protective.”

  We were all cleaned up—as much as we could be in river water while fully clothed—and changed into something clean and dry. The guys were preparing the fish that Lincoln and Jonah brought back, their impromptu fishing trip a success, and I was walking with Maura up and down the water’s edge.