Page 2 of Redemption
I lift the blanket from the pile at my feet and let out a relieved sigh when I find our discarded clothes. “There they are.” Sifting through the mixed garments, I find a pair of pants and throw them on, followed by my boots, before holstering my pistol onto my belt. Once situated, I find Aly already by the door, ready to go. But before we leave, I take a moment to check on Cole and Hawk.
Well, don’t they look comfy?
They’re still sound asleep, the occasional snore showing just how deeply. Cole has his arm wrapped all the way around Hawk’s waist, spooning right up against him, and, from the looks of it, he’s holding ontight. I smile at them, my best friends that I’ve known for years, happy they’re finally able to be themselves, even if they didn’t originally see this particular position in their futures.
Gripping the disheveled sheet, I resituate it, gliding the soft fabric over the cuddling duo and tucking the ends in underneath. With a nod of approval, I turn away and grab my rifle before joining Aly by the open door. “Lead the way, baby doll.”
Just as Aly’s about to exit the room, however, a muffled whimper sounds from the corner. We wait a second. And then, from under her mountain of blankets, Sadie’s head pops up. I barely see her eyes in the mess of them, but she sees us, and, without a second glance, bounds out of her pillow fort, heading through the door before us.
While this place is practically perfect in every way, there’s one thing I wish this place had in the main house: bathrooms. Unfortunately, those particular facilities are acrossthe courtyard in a separate building and require a bit of a walk to get to. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers. At least we have functioning toilets within walking distance as opposed to just a sad, barely able to be considered private, bush in the woods. We already have more than most at this point.
Step by step, we descend the stairs and cross the foyer to the main entrance. Cool morning air flows across my naked chest as I open the door, stirring goosebumps as we move out onto the steps. Without waiting another moment, Sadie leaps off the staircase and over to the side where a patch of knee-high grass offers her the perfect spot to do her business.
I can’t wait for her to explore the gardens here to their fullest. There are at least a half dozen of them and, while they’re wildly overgrown and barely manageable at the moment, I plan to restore them. Especially with all the time we’re going have on our hands now that we’re not running for our lives anymore.
Turning to Aly, I confirm, “Good to go?”
“Yes, sir,” she responds, saluting me and making my teeth grind against one another at the honorific title. She knows it drives me nuts when she calls me that, but I’ll get her back later.
“Ok. Got your gear?”
She nods, “Always.”
I grin approvingly. “That’s my girl.” Taking her hand, we walk together down the first couple of steps. “I’ll see you in a few minutes. If you hurry, we can watch the sunrise together when you’re done.”
She gives me a smile bright enough to light up the world even more than the rising sun in the distance and says, “You got it, big guy,” before taking off toward the stables to the left.
If it wasn’t for the dual fence-line barricading this place like a fortress, I would have never let her walk through two buildings on her own just to get to a bathroom. Thankfully, the high walls and treacherous drop offer a bit of reassurance to an otherwise skeptical apocalypse survivor such as myself. But even with the perimeter’s offered security, I don’t move from my spot, choosing to keep watch over the most vulnerable point in the entire place.
The entrance.
While there are wrought iron fences shielding against a breach to the main access point of the property, you can still see through them. Which means anything out there can see us in here and choose to leap over the fence, ram through it with a truck, blow up one of the houses on either side of the outer gates, or simply walk right onto the property just like we did.
Not on my watch.
Eventually, I plan on fixing this deficiency in our perimeter’s security, but, as of right now, it’s blatantly vulnerable.
I lift my rifle over my lap and take a seat, scanning the linking roads for everything and anything that might seem suspicious. I’m surprised yet equally relieved we haven’t seen anything hostile since we got here, only the small grouping of zombies Aly successfully dispatched when we’d first arrived.
A smile graces my lips as I think back on yesterday. The fire in her eyes after she took them all down herself. She’s gotten stronger, more confident in her abilities since we first met. Defiant and stubborn as well, but definitely a mighty little thing to behold. I can’t wait to live the rest of our lives here and see how much more we evolve with one another. We just need toturn this place into Fort Knox or Area 51 to make sure no one ruins what we’ve fought so hard for.
After we left that Phoenix Rising town, I thought for sure they would’ve had someone follow us. I waited up all night at that broken-down barn for one of them to show their rotten face just so I could end their meager existence for daring to spy on us. We were exhausted, weak, vulnerable. All of us, even though I don’t care to admit it. If the malicious intent we each felt back there decided to materialize into something real? Something substantial? I’m not sure we could have defended ourselves against it. At least not without taking on more damage than we could afford.
But it’s been two days since Phoenix Rising. Two days since there was any sense of a hostile presence surrounding us. Two days since there were any signs of humanity other than myself, the guys, and Aly.
Two days... of nothing.
If they were going to do something, they would have done it already. Taken the chance closer to their home base where there was less of a possibility for error. Once we got those motorcycles from the barn, they would’ve had no way of knowing where we were headed. No way of following our trail without us realizing it.
It’s been two days offreedom.
I know I’ll always remain vigilant—it’s in my nature to do so—but, ever since we got here, I feel as if I can finally breathe. Finally take in my surroundings without scanning for imminent threats twenty-four seven. I can actually feel the weight of burden lifting off my shoulders as the minutes go by and it’s... it’s more than I could ask for. To be here with my family...finally safe and, soon to be, secu—
My head perks up as Sadie starts to bark and whine, my attention completely stolen away as a familiar, yet unnatural, sound filters in from somewhere beyond the gates, becoming clearer and more defined as the seconds go by. The mechanical whirring, a distant memory from before The Fall, about to become a nightmare of my present, turns louder and louder.
What in the fuck?
Instantly on guard, I rise to my feet, lifting my rifle and scanning the grounds beyond the gates for the culprit. It’s unnatural, definitely something electrical but the grid has been down for over a year. Whatever electricity we can afford is granted to us in the form of renewable energy like solar or wind power, or mind-numbingly loud generators. This, however, is distinct. Quiet, yet overwhelmingly jarring in the raw silence the world has fallen into. If it were the season for them, I’d blame the noise on a predictable cicada emergence, but as it is, they’re not due for another few years.
