by B.R. Paulson
Chapter 22
The Monaghans were wrong. We weren’t attacked the next night.
Shots started down the street soon after our soup. On my watch.
I jumped to my feet beside the AC and heating unit on the roof – the thing large enough to hide beside as we watched our perimeter.
The stars hadn’t quite reached their full potential yet. Time was relative.
Flashes accompanied the shots.
Who were they shooting at?
I shimmied across the roof and slid over the edge of the access port John had found. Feeling with my foot, I found the first rung in the ladder he made out of pallets so getting up and down would be easier – even in the dark.
Another shot rang through the night.
Hand over hand I climbed down the makeshift ladder. From the bottom rung, I dropped into the room below. Forcing my fear into a compact place in my chest, I whispered loud as I darted to the bedroom. “John, someone is shooting on the north side of town.” I shook his shoulder and he sat up, hand going to his waist. I never noticed a firearm there. The memory of a day when he had to protect himself constantly with a weapon had turned into his present.
Sitting up, he patted my shoulder. “Okay, get Bodey up. We need to get out of here. Inside we’re sitting ducks. Outside we can go, if we need to. Grab the bags and some food and get out. I’ll be lookout until you’re clear.” He stood, bending and shoving his blankets into his bag. He kept everything ready, like Mom had. The quality endeared me further to him.
John left the room and I turned to Bodey.
He sat up, rubbing his eyes. “I heard. Let’s get our stuff.”
We packed in silence. An odd tingling of déjà vu rushed over me and I swallowed back a whimper. Bodey and John weren’t the only capable ones. I’d gotten my mom away from Charlie and into an empty shop safely. I could go into some woods to wait. Men weren’t the only capable ones.
I could do this.
We swung our bags onto our backs. Bodey slipped his boots on and we scampered to the backdoor. John stood watch, his back to us as we closed the panel.
Bodey grabbed the straps of his bag. “Okay, Dad, we’re ready. Want me to take your pack, too?”
John nodded, handing over the bag and peeking around the side of the building. He turned, pointing into the woods past the other side of the street. “Once you hit the trees, pace out fifty steps and wait for me. I’ll come to you.” He dug his fingers into Bodey’s jacket sleeve. “Don’t come back for anything, you understand?”
Bodey’s eyes pierced through the dark, his jaw tight. “Yes, sir.”
He reached for my hand and pulled me along beside him. More flashes lit up the street a few blocks down. John disappeared around the building. If the town was burned, like John’s house, where would we go?
We reached the forest line and Bodey stopped rushing to deliberately place step after step. I followed, his hand my anchor while my stomach twisted. Each time I glanced back, I stumbled. So I focused on staying upright and looking forward.
Bodey hit fifty, suddenly stopping and pulling me to a tree where we sat down. The sound of the shots didn’t reach us through the thick foliage and multiple tree trunks.
Wrapping his arm around my shoulders, Bodey pulled me close. His low voice rumbled as he worked on talking quietly but normally. Probably to keep me calm. “I remember the first time I saw you.”
I pulled away from him to search his face in the moonlight. “You do?”
His eyes met mine and then he traced my face with his gaze. “Yeah. You were in your track suit and stretching. I’d never seen a girl with so much focus before. When you stood up, you brushed your hair out of your face. I wanted to help, so bad.” He raised his finger and moved a stray strand from my cheek. My skin tingled.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” I blushed. He saw me my freshman year. That was so long ago. Three years. Time we could’ve spent together. “I’m so embarrassed. I always had a crush on you. I thought you knew and were always just being nice.” I scratched behind my ear, nervous but unwilling to take the confession back.
“What would I say? I didn’t think you were interested. I didn’t even go to your school.” He smiled, his hand dropping to reclaim mine.
I watched him for a moment, the angles of his face softer in the shadows. “Why have you been so… friendly… since I got to your place? Like we’re siblings or something?”
He huffed a slight laugh. “Can you imagine if we didn’t work out? Talk about the most epic awkwardness I can think of. I’m not interested in living with the fallout, if we didn’t work, you know? Or what if I revealed my feelings and you didn’t feel the same? Too many variables.” Bodey threaded his fingers with mine. “But… Am I wrong thinking you might feel the same? If not similar, right? This isn’t a crush for me, Kelly. It never has been.”
How could I be sitting here with Bodey Christianson with him asking if I feel the same way as him? He hadn’t defined his feelings completely, but… if my excitement were any indication we had similar feelings for each other.
The best news I’d gotten since leaving school was finding him alive and now this? He felt the same about me all that time? My chest heaved. I was so glad I wasn’t a happy crier. Finally no tears in reaction to something since leaving home.
Footsteps falling in the woods nearby drew a gasp from me. I hunkered into place beside Bodey.
I had almost leaned in and kissed him. If I died, I would regret not doing it. I turned to face him, uninterested for the briefest moment about who or what was in the woods with us.
Carefully, I placed my palm on the side of his cheek and turned him to look at me. Emboldened by the dark, the intensity of the moment, and the chance we were being hunted, I leaned toward him, closing my eyes.
Our lips met with soft uncertainty. The kiss grew with heat, as we pushed closer and more confident the other wouldn’t push us away.
Another foot fall and John’s voice broke us apart. “I’m off getting shot at while you two are kissing?”
Bodey and I jerked apart. I didn’t know what to say. Embarrassed seemed too mild and yet, I reached euphoria with the contact with Bodey. I had liked him for so long. And he liked me, too!
I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry, John. You were shot at? I thought you were just checking things out.” Stumbling over my ability to speak without sounding like a complete idiot, I couldn’t make myself pull away from his son. I wasn’t the type to hide my actions. John saw us kiss, my bet was holding hands wouldn’t be too hard on him.
He squatted in front of us, unfazed by the lack of distance between Bodey and me. He folded his hands together, wringing them as he spoke with metered gravity. “I tried pulling the attention from the Monaghans. They’d already killed Tim and his oldest son. But they just shot at me and continued rounding up the family. We need to hide out, until they leave.” He shook his head, ducking but not until after I spied a lone tear trickling down his cheek.
“Do you think we’re okay here?” Bodey squeezed my fingers again. The guy had a deep desire to console me. Dang, he was so sweet.
John lifted his head, shaking off the sadness. “No. We need to find a place with more shelter. I’m not sure how long they’ll be in town and we don’t want to get stuck out here without any protection. I was thinking the junkyard. The old cars grouped together in the back would be good to sleep in. Any smoke from fires we could spread by fanning. I think old man Shorty even had a manual well in the back we could get some water from.”
Standing, John offered me his hand. I had to let go of Bodey’s to reach for it. That wasn’t my favorite thing to do, but I did it. John pulled me to stand beside him and Bodey followed suit.
We followed John to Shorty’s Stuff and waited while he checked out the grounds. In seconds, he returned and we followed him into the yard.
The junkyard stood sentinel on the far side of town, opposite the direction of Bayview. The exterior didn’t en
courage visitors with its trashed out old cars bordering its edges and towers of tossed out tires forming the fence.
Trails through piles and piles of shapes and shadows twisted and turned as we walked. I would probably never find my way out. John led us to the back, showing us the cars and pointing out separate ones for us to put our things. He was a dad, I liked that about him.
But while we waited for the world to come to its senses, how was I going to be able to kiss Bodey again with him so far away?
