Barely Alive (27 page)

Everyone laughed. We needed it. After an eon of hell and worry, the worry wasn’t gone, but we were almost safe, or relatively safe. Heather’s grandma was the last person we needed to ensure Dominic wouldn’t have a weapon to hobble us with.

The further we drove, the closer we got to certain safety. I hoped.

A long-ass bridge spanned dark water. Lights on the other side announced we’d made it to Sandpoint. The highway slowed and curved, traveling right through town as the main street. Heather directed Travis to drive north of the small town. An intersection just across the river glowed alone in the night with a street lamp on each corner.

“
To the left is Canada. We’ll go east, straight.” Heather pointed forward, her fingers leading the way over the dash. I wanted her to look at me. I’d say so much with my eyes, she’d be speechless. Then James really could tell us to get a room. She didn’t look my way, even as my gaze bore into her shoulder, her neck, the small shell of her ear, the slope of her cheek.

I shifted again in my seat due to a different source of discomfort.

The headlights’ powerful beam didn’t dissect the tar-like night further than twenty feet in front of the vehicle. We fell into a more comfortable silence. James’s breathing stabilized after his joke.

As usual, with less immediate problem solving to address, my thoughts turned to the ever-present Dominic. His actions didn’t surprise me anymore. At least he was only lying about having a cure and who was to blame for the virus. I’d half-expected him to report holding fifty babies hostage until they got him a way out.

The guy was a snake and would escape. He’d make his way north. The issue wasn’t
if
. I was fine with him searching us out. I preferred the frontal attacks, the ones you could see. It was the sneaky manipulative crap that I hated. Coming at you from the flanks and then the shoulders before striking at your throat was the way I expected Dominic to fight.

If I looked beyond face value for what he said, I’d find the true angle in his handling. But hunger pulled at me again and I didn’t have a complete grasp on my thought processes. I’d give anything for the ability to sleep.

Travis and Heather had done awesome so far, not getting any real rest. “I bet you guys are exhausted, aren’t you?” I’d love to get onto some land and not have to fold up any longer, that’d be my idea of rest.

Heather’s excitement was cute. She bounced in her seat and pointed at a mailbox painted white and red like a barn. “That’s Grandma’s.” She looked over her shoulder and smiled. Our fight was on hold, but for how long? “Not as bad as I thought I would be. My grandma has plenty of rooms. We can all get some sleep.” She fingered her hair and faced forward. “I would love a shower before bed.”

And I would love a shower with her. Or alone. I hadn’t had a solid shower since the change. I’d cleaned with rinses and sponge baths, but not with hot water and soap. Us guys hadn’t been allowed to use the showers at the compound. Images of a slippery Heather covered in bubbles filled my mind and I missed Travis taking the turn onto the driveway. If I’d been driving, we’d be in trouble.

I snapped to as we rocked and tilted on the worst maintained driveway I’d ever seen. Rain had washed away large sections on the sides and down the center. Snow patches mingled with weeds and brush over the drive. A large low hanging branch scraped across the roof. I winced at the metallic screech. Oh, that was going to cost Mom a bit when she returned the car, if she could.

“
What’s with the driveway?” I got out before my teeth clacked together.

Heather had a grip on the oh-shit-bar above the door. She glanced at me with a hint of a smile. “Grandma’s a fan of conspiracy theories. She calls the driveway her ‘first line of defense’ against intruders.”

Holy crap, I wouldn’t go in there if I were looking to steal something. Grandma seemed smart.

We bounced along the drive for fifteen minutes. I leaned forward to ask how much longer when the headlights lit upon a white wrap around deck covered with an overhanging roof. Windows reflected the lights as far up as three stories that I could count. The details like color and design were hidden in the dark.

The house looked empty or like the inhabitants slept.

“
Park over there.” Heather pointed to a flat spot by a shed.

Travis pulled in and shut the engine off. We piled out, but gave Heather a moment to lead the way. Travis, Mom, and I stood by the open back door, and watched as Heather jogged up the front steps and across the porch.

She knocked on the door.

She rang the doorbell.

Nobody answered and the lights stayed dark.

Chapter 22

“
Here, pull him in this way. He can have the room by Grandma’s.” Heather held open the double doors of the house. She’d produced a key for the triple locks from under a rock beside the steps, and then motioned us to join her.

Connie and I followed her directions and she flipped on lights ahead of us after we cleared the threshold. “Let me grab some towels to put under his shoulder.” She disappeared down the hall and returned a moment later with her arms full of clean rags.

The room we entered was decorated with muted browns and blues. We settled James to the queen bed covered with various sized pillows and a fluffy comforter. I tore his geeky shoes off. Connie disappeared out into the hall.

Heather and I were alone with James. We didn’t speak.

I slapped the side of his hip. “James, I’m gonna get you under the comforter so you’re warmer, okay? But all your clothes are filthy.” Heather turned away when I unbuttoned his pants and pulled them off. “Can you sit up for me?” While it was just a shoulder wound, he didn’t have a lot of food in him and every effort sucked at his reserves. He probably could have walked in from the vehicle, but at what cost?

He nodded, but kept his eyes closed. I pulled on his uninjured arm and he groaned as he leaned forward. I wrapped my arms around his chest in a bear hug. “Lean on me, Bro. There you go.” He gave me his weight. I sucked in my breath at his heat. I could’ve cuddled up to my baby brother and stayed warm in a winter blizzard.

Behind his back, I pushed the pillow nest away. He’d never slept on pillows at home, his shoulders too broad for comfort. I slid him under the blankets and he sighed. “This. Feels. Good.”

“
I bet.” I held him up, and called to Heather. “I’m ready for those towels, Heather. Do you have some?”

She turned from the table by the door and retrieved the cloths she’d set on an old style wooden rocking chair in the corner. “Sorry.” She held three folded towels to his shoulder and steadied them as I lay him back. We pushed another pack over the front wound.

“
Paul?” James’s voice cracked and his ragged breathing tore at my heart.

“
Yeah?” I’d never seen him so weak.

“
Why. Can’t. I. Sleep?” His words were thready and weak. I wanted to give him my blood, my flesh, anything to help him.

I sat on the side of the bed beside him and brushed the hair from his forehead. “I don’t know. It’s part of the side effects.” Clasping my hands to his, I squeezed his fingers. “If you try not to think, you’ll end up thinking more. So the easiest thing to do is to pick a topic and think as hard as you can about it. Consider every detail you’ve ever learned or heard. The time will go fast like you slept and your head won’t hurt from all the different ideas.” I met his open eyes. “It’s the closest I’ve gotten to sleep.”

He blinked and gave a small nod. He closed his eyes again. The lights might have been too bright.

“
I’m going to find some meat and get you some, James.” I released his hand. “I promise it won’t be store bought.”

He gave a short laugh that was more of a cough. I stood and let him be. Mom was the nurturer, she was probably going crazy with worry anyway.

Outside the room, Heather and I tried not to bump into each other, but I had no idea where I was going.

We gathered beside the wide bottom of the stairs which swept like the train of a dress into the large lobby. The stairs lined the walls in a circle up to the top floor giving a ceiling-less feel to the bottom floor.

The lighting was soft and pastel from under old fashioned lamp shades. We’d been picked up from the apocalypse and dropped off in the early 1900s. Thick rugs covered hardwood flooring. Everything shined. Arches smoothed the lower doorways into subtle transitions from room to room.

My mom walked toward us down the hall. She wrung her well-manicured hands at her waist. “Is he okay?”

Fear for her safety wasn’t as high as it might have been if she smelled edible to me. “Yeah, but you need to stay back from him. With his injury, I’m not sure how much temptation he can handle.” I leaned in and sniffed her neck. “You don’t smell good to me, so hopefully you won’t to him either.”

She tucked her chin and turned her nose to her shoulder. “I stink?”

“
Oh, sorry, Mom.” I forgot she didn’t know what exactly we were dealing with. “No, you don’t stink. I meant, you don’t smell like meat or something I’d like to eat. If there isn’t a temptation for James, it would be better. He needs to eat.”

Connie joined us, the science bag hooked over her shoulder. She hooked her arm into my mom’s. “Maybe there’s some kind of parental genetic marker that ties you to her.” She looked at my mom. “I think you smell delicious, but I won’t eat you. I’m going in to get some samples from James.” She inclined her head toward me. “I’ll watch her and keep her safe.”

As inappropriate as Connie’s humor was, her bluntness reassured me more than she knew. “Thanks, Connie. I’m going to help Travis get settled. He needs to eat something and then sleep. If you don’t mind, I’d like a shower and then I’ll come down and give you a break?”

“
Sounds perfect. I’d like to get out and find something to eat before I’m alone with Travis. The lust issue is driving me nuts.” She winked at my mom and led the way into James’s room.

Mom’s jaw fell slack and she looked at me over her shoulder. A grown woman discussing desire so frankly was new. I stifled my laugh.

Travis stood beside the closed door. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

I turned to Heather. “Your grandma’s not here. Do you think everything’s okay?”

She bit her lip, drawing my gaze. “I’m not sure. I don’t know why she wouldn’t be here. It’s almost eleven.”

“
Does she have a cell phone? Can you call her?” I walked toward Travis and Heather moved with me. I was worried about her grandmother, too. Dominic couldn’t have beaten us there. No way. But everything had worked against me at one turn or another. I wanted her grandma there for Heather’s happiness. One more person who smelled delicious would be more torture for Connie, James, and myself. But Heather was worth the discomfort.

Heather shook her head. “I don’t think so. I was going to try her friend’s house once I got you and Travis settled.” She turned to face the exhausted doctor. “Would you like to take a shower, Travis, or would you like to get to bed?”

“
Bed, please, dear.” He sighed with relief. “I don’t know if I can keep my eyes open another minute.”

Heather walked to the stairs and climbed up the first flight. As I followed, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the wood edges and carpeted center. The house smelled of flowers and cinnamon. Honeysuckle drifted my way.

Travis followed behind me, his steps slow and careful. At the top, Heather stood beside a bedroom decorated similar to the one we’d settled James into, but the colors were yellow and pink. “You have a bathroom off to the right and there’s plenty of hot water, when you’re ready. If you wake up hungry, there’s food in the kitchen at the bottom of the stairs to the left. You can’t miss it.” She closed his door for him.

And we found ourselves standing in the hallway alone. She looked down and tucked her loose hair behind her ear. “Your room is this way.” She walked slower this time, like she didn’t want to be away from me.

I shared the sentiment and matched her pace. Our hands touched and broke contact as they swung between us.

From under her lashes she watched me. I bumped her shoulder and gave her a side smile. She pushed open the door. My room was five doors from the stairs and Travis’s room. “Here it is.”

“
Where’s your room?” Maybe she was just down the hall or on the first floor, close to James, or up on the top floor.

She pointed to the next door. “That one.”

Nice.

In my room, tasteful shades of gray and green intermingled in the décor. I removed my shoes and stood in the thick carpeting, my nerves reveling in the plush comfort. A door off the side led to a bathroom. I could see part of a sink and tub through the opening. I faced her, standing about a foot away. “Thank you. It’s cool.”

A faint blush pinked her cheeks. “I’m glad you like it.”

I stepped closer and lifted her chin with my forefinger. Our eyes met. My skin hurt with the heat from hers. My voice floated between us. “I like
you
.”

Her breathing hitched and the pulse beneath my finger throbbed. Her voice was husky and sizzled between us. “You do?”

“
Very much.” I studied her features, each perfect in its own way. I lowered my hand and enclosed one of hers in mine. “If I wasn’t… well, like
this
, do you think you might be interested… in me?”