Surrounds (Bonds) (8 page)

If she was willing to think insane thoughts, she would swear Wolf had a sense of humor.

Deciding to take a page out of Wolf's book, Alasa reaches for his other shoulder.

"It's not big thing huh, Wolf?" She asks quietly. "Stuff like this happens..." Her shoulders move up and down in a shrug.

Her fingers brush across his wound her smile in place, even as a spark of blue wiggles beneath her skin and seeps into Wolf's.

(O)

Chapter 20

Alasa

When she went to bed an hour later, she was smiling and so tired it only took a few minutes for her body to relax.

She's not afraid anymore. Not afraid of Wolf and maybe that's a mistake, but he would watch over her. She was sure of it.

Alasa dreams of darkness, a darkness filled with dark monsters and fear. She's running, but it's not her, not truly. As she continues running she begins feeling things, fear, pain, a large calloused hand holding hers, leading her out of darkness and away from fear.

She, who Alasa is dreaming of is 'so' tired, lungs burn, legs ache, body weak. Blind. Something bites into her arm, Fangs. Hot. Agony. All at once Alasa finally hears it, the cries and barks of unseen monsters.

She cannot breathe.

Then something smashes into her back and her hand slips from 'his' and she's thrown onto the ground, somehow landing on her back. Something bites/claws into her neck and her arms and she's screaming.

Then 'he', it's him, she cannot actually see him, but Alasa is sure it's her 'hand which leads her away from fear' who rescues, who yanks fangs from her neck and pulls her onto her feet. Then they are once again running, through inky darkness, reminding her so much of so long ago when she had been running through the tunnels, afraid and unseeing.

Then like in those tunnels a light appears, but unlike before in the tunnels, hope fills her and nearly spills over a figurative brim.

'He', a boy, a teenager, with brown hair and wide brown eyes, she can finally see in the light, he helps her off the high door, only for a second later a wave of those black, gray, white creatures bodies slam into him, hitting him onto the ground, small bodies swarming his.

'She' is shocked at first, frozen. Blood pools around 'him', his body missing underneath a sea of wiggling evil. She can feel it, the evil, its why she cannot breathe.

Then 'she' is out of her own mind and seeing what was before her, finally seeing who she was about to be without. Her body springs forward, picking up a blade nearby and using it in attempts of ridding 'him' of those 'things'.

Dust, the creatures, one, two, three, then half of them flash to dust in a blink of an eye. It was working, why and how could be thought about when it actually mattered. 'He' was what now mattered, nothing else. The others fall and become ash.

She turns away from 'his' bloody body, face to face with a sea of bloody eyes, watching her, starving for her, but afraid, uncertain. They witnessed her power.

Sh -

Alasa wakes up with a gasp. Wolf appears beside her, hunched and sniffing at her neck and hair. Alasa weakly bats him away, desperately trying to catch her breath.

"I'm fine..." Alasa whispers frowning after finally catching her breath. A dream, it was her first one in months. It was so real. Her body shivers, her shaky hand landing on her neck. Nothing. No bites, no claw marks. Nothing.

Wolf notices her shiver apparently, because he nudges back onto the ground with a heavy hand on her shoulder and yanks her blanket back over her. Wolf growls lowly, sitting himself beside her, obviously telling her 'sleep'.

But that is impossible now.

"I had a bad dream, Wolf." She whispers, swallowing, blue eyes on him. "It was scary... A lot of tiny creatures biting me and I was running... but... it wasn't actually me..." Wolf only looks back at her. She notices his skin is still covered in dried blood but all his wounds were gone. Alasa had done that. Her head shakes. "Am I making any sense?"

Wolf stares at her for a few minutes before he once again growls, his own eyes fluttering shut. That was her go, obviously. Alasa forces herself to sleep once again.

(O)

Chapter 21

Lacey

Henderson doesn't wake from his fretful sleep by morning and Lacey gets no sleep at all. Instead she watches him all night, constantly wiping his feverous body down with semi-warm water and desperately trying to get water into him.

Now morning, he's not as hot as he had been yesterday, half his wounds aren't bleeding, and his breathing isn't as haggard.

She was no nurse, but the girl understood stopping his bleeding still was important, along with making certain his wounds didn't become infected. She assumed her alcohol was helping, but the way he would screaming whenever she touched him with it was horrible.

As soon as daylight hit the covered windows, Lacey was searching through the hallway closet until she found a book bag filled with old school supplies. Dumping out the contents, Lacey swings her new bag onto her shoulder, grabs Henderson's machete and leaves him his gun on a nearby coffee table, carefully. Just in case.

Then with one final look at Henderson, Lacey leaves in search of supplies and food.

Quiet, its painful. Lacey never was very fond of silence. That's why she was one to babble and why she was often times annoyed with Henderson aka 'King' of silence. It was annoying, silence could be heavy, empty, and loud. It unnerved her.

Like now, the end of the world was a mute bitch and silence always seemed foreboding now, like any moment now the clouds would bleed red and screeching monsters would appear. If not, then huge men-creatures who would drag her into a house before torturing.

Her footsteps seemed loud and her breathing louder. Henderson's machete clinked against her belt at times, scaring her into almost crapping on herself.

The nearest house was about half a mile away, but it was missing half of it. The next house was a mile away, snuggled at the top of a driveway on top of a hill. She began up with after kicking at a few rocks in annoyance. This was for Henderson...

The two-story home's doors are locked because everything is hard for Lacey. A sigh leaves her as she frowns into the home, forehead against the glass of the backdoor's glass, She glances around her, settling her gaze on a stack of what was obviously patio stones, for what was obviously an unfinished deck.

Her back screaming in protest, the girl picks up one of the heavy stones, nearly dropping it. With a burst of energy, brought to her by pure annoyance, the girl puts it through the window.

It's loud, insanely loud. Lacey freezes, staring at the hole, ears listening to movement around her. Now she notes her plan wasn't a very good one.

"Way to go, Lace..." The girl whispers approaching the glass, "What if one of those things heard you? Stupid..."

Deciding whining about her own stupidity isn't going to solve anything, she carefully slides into the broken door and into the home. Its dusty and dark and she ends up inside a very spacious kitchen.

Adjusting the bandage wrapped around her neck, ignoring the blood seeping along her neck from her wound, she bolts for a cabinet.

The cabinets were filled with canned foods, beans, noodles, tomato sauce, corn, soups, even a canned ham. Lacey smiles as she finds herself struggling to close her backpack. If her back wasn't hurting, she would have burst into a giggling, happy dance, especially when she found a few jars of apple banana sauce.

They should have never went into that grocery store, the girl admits, homes are much safer. Placing her backpack by the broken door, she finds another in a bedroom on the first floor in a closet. Then she finds her way to the bathroom next to the bedroom, grabbing anything she can find.

When she's finishes, she has one bag filled with food and another with a first-aid kit inside. The girl also grabs Henderson another shirt because his was in shreds now.

(O)

When she finally returns five hours later, Henderson hasn't even moved an inch. She warms up both of them soup on the gas stove and shakes Henderson awake.

The girl can smell his sickness. He only moans, weakly trying to open his lids.

"L - ace..." His voice is weak and dry.

Henderson isn't weak, she's never seen him sick before. He's not ever suppose to be like this. "Here...eat this." She whispers.

Henderson manages a few spoon fills before throwing them up right after. It wasn't a good sign, but the girl had no choice but to no give up.

She tries for hours, force feeding her friend soup and other liquids, hoping he would be able to keep it all down. It wasn't until it was dark outside again does Henderson keeps his soup down and finally sleeps peacefully after she had wrapped his wounds again.

She cleans up after he's out and wraps her own wounds with shaky fingers.

(O)

She had fallen asleep, she only realizes when she wakes up hours later. Henderson is gone from his spot next to her, which throws her into a panic. Bolting up, she nearly trips over Henderson's forgotten blanket, her insides in a twist. Her bones pop and wounds stretch, she bites back a wince.

"Hen -" He's a few feet away, bent over a tiny table writing something on a piece of paper, barely standing if not for it.

"What in the hell are you doing, Henderson?" She yells, stomping to him. His body is hunched, her awkward bandaging clean. A sigh leaves her. Good. He was no longer bleeding. The wounds weren't as deep as she had originally thought.

"This is a map..." He croaks out weakly, pointing at the well-drawn drawing on a piece of paper in front of him. A few balled up pieces of paper were in piles next to him. "How to get to Mexico..." He quietly pants. He taps a piece of paper with worded instructions on them with his pen. "You're going to have to leave me."

That's Henderson for you, when he's not being a vault of secrets, he is usually straight with whatever it is he's saying. Such an annoying quality, Lacey thinks. When Henderson finally faces her, her hands slams against his forehead with a little too much force. Henderson bumps into the table and winces. Lacey doesn't care.

"Like I thought, you still have a fever." She blurts. "You're talking nonsense."

Henderson takes her hand away from his face, breathing heavily, brown eyes darker. "I... I'm weak... unsafe a... place... too long..."

"Alright you idiot..." The girl grabs his arm and leads him and settles him onto the couch. "I'm not going without you... I would never make it." He frowns at her and opens his mouth. "I'm stupid and I trip over myself daily... You really think I can survive out there by myself?"

He takes another breath before looking her directly in the eye. "You... can do anything." He wheezes. "I believe in you."

Lacey bites her lip, anger spiking, she takes a calming breath. "Thanks, but you shouldn't." The girl laughs a forced laugh. "I'm unreliable."

"Yo -"

"No, damn it, Henderson." She flops down next to him. He winces as his body bounces. "Its not fair..." She avoids looking at him. "Its not fair for you to ask me to leave you here. Am I really that type of person to you? Do you think I would leave you? Why do you always believe the worse in me, Henderson, huh?" Lacey glares at him. "It's always been like this, you being the hero. Not this go around, Hen. I would never leave you."

He opens his mouth but closes a second later. Smart boy, Lacey mentally nods.

"Shit, I wanna be a hero too." She finally says, leaning back into the couch, closing both eyes, showing that the conversation was over.

"Curse... too much..." Henderson whispers weakly, but the girl hears him fine.

Lacey cracks one eye open. "That's why you love me, though, right?" The girls asks smartly.

Henderson eases himself back onto the couch beside her with a small groan. "Yes."

(O)

Four days, its how long Henderson allows himself to recover before he insists on them moving on.

"I don't think staying here another day will hurt anything, Henderson." Lacey says, pausing in her attempts of shoving a blanket into her backpack. Henderson sits a few feet from her, holding his side and looking their food over, rechecking the numbers. "I don't think your well yet...."

He tosses a few cans into his own book bag before glancing at her. "Its dangerous. One of those creatures might be looking for us, something else could have found our scents, and I'm in no condition to fight."

"Well I am..." She crosses her arms with a huff. "I told you about what I did. How I saved you."

Henderson gives her a look, one which shows his skepticism very clearly. He hadn't believed her when she told him she had been the one to save him from his attackers. He certainly didn't believe her when she told him she had done it by turning the little creepy buggers into dust.

Henderson hadn't voiced his disbelief, because he wouldn't, but his face told all.

Lacey presses her lips against one another in annoyance. "You don't believe me." The girl accuses. Her finger pointing at him. "You think I've lost it."

"No..." Henderson actually is brave enough to smile. As in amused by her. Lacey's face grows dark and blank. She hated being laughed at when she wasn't trying to be funny, which was ironic considering it use to happen daily.