Page 50 of Resurrection
Jax and I follow, moaning our relief as we lose a good fifty to one-hundred pounds of weight from our backs. My muscles are tight and ache painfully, but more importantly, my stomach growls angrily at my neglect to its needs today.
“Alright, hungry girl, come sit over here and I’ll get you some food.” Cole waves me over as he pulls out a couple of bags from his pack. I go to sit down next to him on the hay-covered floor, but before my butt can hit the ground, he pulls me into his lap and continues to prep our dinners with his arms around my waist. Every so often he plants a kiss to the junction where my shoulder meets my neck before refocusing on his task, almost like he can’t help himself and needs to kiss me to keep going.
And I am one hundred percent, A-OK with that.
He has one of the comfiest laps… ever! Plus, ever since he scared the shit out of us by almost turning, he is perfectly capable of making me sit where ever he wants. Lap, floor, bed, on his dick, on his friend’s dicks, I don’t care.
He picks.
I sits.
Moments later, Cole hands each of us an MRE bag, the warm components already heated using the magic rocks they came with. I don’t even look at mine, too hungry to care. We haven’t eaten since we left the halfway house this morning. It seems the guys are in the same boat, tearing open the packages and devouring the contents blindly.
Once we finish, Hawk grabs all of the garbage and seals it in a plastic bag before stowing it away in his pack for now. “We’re in enough shit as it is. Don’t need bears hunting us too,” he informs me with a crooked smile. “Come on, sweets. Time for bed.”
During cleanup, Jax helpfully laid out all our sleeping bags in a line. I crawl over to the bright blue one in the middle of the others, open the zipper, and crumble in a heap as I settle in. Cole takes the one on my right, while Hawk falls onto the one on my left. But Jax...
“Y’all go ahead and get some shut-eye. I’m gonna stand watch for the first shift. We’re still within a walkable distance, and I don’t trust those assholes not to have followed us. Plus, with what you were saying earlier about seeing something, I don’t think I can fall asleep just yet.” He places a kiss on my forehead before turning and taking a seat just inside the entry doors, peering through the cracks, his handgun prepped and resting on his thigh, his rifle positioned strategically at his side. Sadie trots over to him and plops her happy butt right at his side, ready to stand guard throughout the night if she needs to.
“Dude, I ain’t even gonna fight you for it this time. You want first watch? You got it. But fucking wake me up for the next shift, alright? You need sleep too,” Hawk calls out as he pulls me further into his arms, prompting Cole to follow and shift closer behind me. Despite my nerves and anxiety from the day, I feel surrounded and secure—safe with them around me—even in the middle of nowhere. Even with zombies lurking everywhere just waiting to take a bite out of us. Even with the town full of happy, peppy, looney bin escapees just hours away. I’m safe.
It's not the best accommodations, by far, but between the nostalgic sound of crickets chirping, the occasional hoot of an owl, the heat of Hawk and Colesurrounding me, as well as Jax standing guard, doing everything and anything to protect us, I’m lulled to a contented sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hawk
I bend my knees and cross my arms tighter across my chest. It’s summer, but there’s an unseasonably early morning chill soaking into my bones as the sky continues turning from black to a gorgeous hue of pinks and oranges. The thought of tearing open my pack and getting a sweatshirt went in and out of my mind as quickly as it came. The brisk air, while irritating, is just one more thing that helps keep me awake and alert. It was quiet as I held watch over everyone, protecting all those I love in here from all the nightmares out there. Almost peaceful. The urge to sleep was already pulling at me. The comfort of a sweatshirt would have pushed me there. And I’m not willing to risk the lives of those I love for something as trivial as comfort.
“Anything?”
His voice is gravelly, the sound heavy with sleep and achy exhaustion. The walk alone was tiring enough, but add in the town and all the mixed feelings that went with it? We’re all both physicallyandmentally drained.
“Nothin’,” I reply around a yawn, rubbing my face as Cole steps up beside me, taking a seat to my right. My fingers readjust on my rifle, the motion reviving the stiff joints as we shuffle closer in the cool dawn air, sharing each other’s body heat.
I relieved Jax at about three this morning, two hours past what was supposed to be our scheduled changeover. The stubborn ass didn’t want to surrender his post but had no choice when he realized he was falling asleep at the helm. Reluctantly, he stumbled over and nudged me with his boot, indicating with a wordless grunt that it was my turn, not knowing I had already been silently watching him for twenty minutes at that point.
If he wasn’t going to relieve himself voluntarily, I was going to make him do so. A sentry is no good if they’re asleep. I, on the other hand, have no problem sitting post, more than able to keep myself and my brain occupied as I mentally replay my favorite movies for hours and hours.
As quietly as I was able, I shimmied out of my sleeping bag, grabbed my rifle, and headed over to the partially open door, which is where I’ve been for the past four hours.
“Good,” Cole responds. “Last thing we need to deal with are any surprises.” He looks back at Aly and Jax still huddled together under the sleeping bags. While Jax has been steadily snoring—rather loudly I must say—for hours, Aly has been sleeping in fits, rousing herself every so often with trembling hands and stuttered breaths. “She’s not doing too well....”
Last year, after she was taken by Earl and his gang of assholes, Aly regularly suffered from nightmares and anxiety attacks. With Cole’s help, she was getting better. Even after the encounters with the hordes almost two weeks ago, she was showing signs of being mentally stronger, pushing herself to confront her trauma and look the beast right in its eyes. But then that town happened and, while I hate to say it, I think she might be dealing with a bit of PTSD from her abduction.
“Yeah... I noticed that, too.” I pluck a piece of hay from the bale, stick it in my mouth, and think about everything for a minute, letting the silence lead me to the right decision. “Maybe we should just let them sleep. It’s obvious she didn’t get enough last night to continue walking for an entire day again. Not after yesterday. Not to mention... I mean... Jax is fuckingout.I don’t think I’ve ever seen himthisexhausted before.”
“I think you might be right. Not only that, but maybe if we stay here for another day and night, it’ll prove to Aly that she’s safe. That no one’s following us.”
“It’ll help settle Jax as well. I, for one, have been on edge ever since that town. I don’t know about you.”
“Oh, I’m definitely keeping one eye open. If it wasn’t for Jax taking watch last night, I wouldn’t have hesitated to do so. Which, by the way, is what I’m relieving you of.”
“Fucking magnificent.” I push myself to stand, my legs slow to do so as my back cracks in all the wrong places. With a groan, I grab the E-tool from the survival kit, jutting my chin to the smaller door leading out to the side of the barn, and mumble, “I’ll be right back.” He nods once, readjusting his shoulders as he lifts his rifle, readying himself to be on guard.
Rough, tall grass brushes my calves and thighs as I stomp through it, ambling to the backside of the barn—out of view from the road—to relieve myself. The muffled moans and groans of the infected sound off in the distance, far enough away that I don’t have to take care of them, but close enough for me to still look over my shoulder every few seconds.
My bathroom break is quick, but I did manage to obtain some very useful information as I was doing so. “There’s a creek or some sort of river out back, and from the way it sounds, it doesn’t seem that far away,” I tell Cole as I reenter the building and walk back up to the barn doors, his head, slightly poking out of the opening to look left and right, his weapon following suit. “The water seemed to be flowing pretty well, might be a good place to get some water.”
