Page 18 of Dusk & Desire

I feel my cheeks color even though we’ve already done so much more than just make out like teenagers. I smile at her, though, and nod. Because that sounds… really nice.

***

We reach Freeport early the following day and all my good mood dissipates.

“What the fuck?” Axel breathes as we pass the third pile of bodies. My eyes are watering from the smell and sight of the bloated corpses and buzzing insects. Not paying attention to where I’m walking, I trip over rubble and almost faceplant. Thankfully, Noa is there to catch me.

“Careful,” she murmurs, her voice carrying a note of sympathy.

“Did the aliens put them like this?” I mumble through my hand, covering my mouth and nose.

“I don’t know, baby,” she answers. Her hand squeezes my shoulder as she steers me past the grotesque hill of bodies and body parts.

Something clatters in the distance and we freeze.

“What was that?” I hiss, my hand going to the gun in my waistband.

“Stay close,” Axel orders us, reaching a hand for his sister’s free one.

We walk past smashed storefronts and abandoned cars, the roads blocked by them like whoever was in them just left… or got dragged out. I shudder and Noa squeezes me again in response. I peer up at her face, her eyes narrowed and alert to our surroundings. A sense of gratitude strikes me again. I’m so lucky to have her in my life. As if sensing my gaze, her eyes meet mine, and the side of her mouth curls into a smirk. She throws me a wink before returning her attention to the possible danger in our vicinity. Something I should be doing as well.

Shuffling footsteps sound over our quiet ones and we come to a halt again. Is it the aliens or more looters? We didn’t hear their spaceships last night, but maybe they use ground transportation too? My hand clenches over the grip of my gun, my finger inchingtoward the trigger.

“Easy,” Noa murmurs as if sensing my intentions. I never thought I’d be a shoot-first, ask-questions-later kind of girl, but this apocalypse is bringing out the vigilante in me.

A man turns the corner behind an undisturbed ice cream parlor. His movements are jerky and unsynchronized, and I wonder for a moment if he took some kind of drug to avoid the harsh reality around us. The man’s eyes land on us and dread pools in my stomach. There’s something so very off about that lifeless gaze. He starts heading in our direction.

“Hey, man!” Axel shouts. “Stay the fuck back!”

Not hearing or not caring, the man’s pace increases. His eyes are locked on Noa and me, ignoring Axel completely. Like he’s not even here. I aim the muzzle of my weapon at the approaching junkie.

“Wait,” Axel says, bending down to grab a discarded baseball bat someone must have used as a weapon during those first couple of days of looting. When the man reaches us, lifting his arms like he’s about to tackle us to the ground, Axel swings the bat. Air whistles around the wooden object, then a sharp crack resounds as the man walks into the path of the swing. I flinch and point the gun down, not wanting to waste a bullet in a blind panic. The man hits the ground with a thud and lies unmoving, his blind eyes open at the morning sky. I quickly look away from the head wound before I empty my stomach on the sidewalk.

Noa tugs on my hand. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“She’s right,” Axel adds. “That was loud as fuck. Who knows what heard it.”

I resist the urge to whimper. Why did he have to say ‘what’ and not ‘who’? Who is bad enough, obviously!

As we sidestep the man, I briefly wonder if he’ll end up on the piles with the rest of the corpses. I’m starting to miss snakes being my most pressing worry.

We slink quietly through the city, avoiding the dead and the living. Though the few that we do see seem to be more concerned with hiding from us rather than attacking like the man did. Ittakes another hour of walking on pins and needles before we finally reach the outskirts.

“It always seemed like such a small city from the car,” Axel grumbles, wiping the sweat off his brow. It feels a lot hotter with all the cement around us than it did around the waterways.

Noa snorts at her brother’s words. “Shows us just how reliant we’ve gotten on modern amenities.”

“I’m sure going to miss having a hairdryer in the winter,” I mumble. “You know, if we live that long.”

“Uh-uh,” Noa tuts. “Don’t talk like that. You’re going to die at ninety-nine, with my head between your juicy thighs.”

“Gross,” Axel mutters as I choke on my spit. Does Noa think we’re going to stay together forever? Does she want to? I mean, she probably does; she tattooed my name between her legs after all. I warm up for an entirely different reason, thinking of that tattoo and what’s near it. I shake my head, backtracking from the tangent. DoIwant to stay with her forever? Am I going to get to that base and fall for some uniformed airman?

As we stop for Axel to check out yet another car, I look at Noa from the corner of my eye. Her neck is damp from perspiration, making the rose tattoo on the side of it gleam in the late-morning sun. The tank top she’s wearing exposes her long, lean arms and the many tattoos there. When she takes a deep breath, her breasts stretch the top’s material, allowing for sunlight to glint off the piercings there. My mouth waters at the thought of the naughty bars.

Darn it. I don’t think I’m going to want anyone other than her for a long time.

“Yes!” Axel exclaims when the orange hatchback’s engine turns over. “Get in, losers.”

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