The Survivors (Book 2): Autumn (19 page)

I nuzzled my face against his firm thigh and closed my eyes
.  Before I had time to ponder another thought, I was fast asleep.

I slept deeply that night.  My dreams were full of knights, princesses, and beautiful young girls with dark eyes and long, Rapunzel hair.  I awoke just after dawn, feeling warm and comfortable – until I realised that the firm thigh I’d been using as a pillow was rigid with tension.  I looked up, and saw Michael’s jaw was clenched and his face was set in a mask of intense concentration.

“What’s wrong?” I whispered, jerked fully awake by the look on his face
.  He started at the sound of my voice, then let out a deep breath, as though he’d been so tense that he’d forgotten to breathe.

“There’s something outside,” he whispered back
.  “I’ve heard it walking around out there for the last few hours.  It hasn’t tried to get in, though.  Seemed safer to wait until dawn before we go see what it is.”

“Good thinking,” I agreed, easing myself up into a sitting position
.  “Let’s go find out, then.”

Both of us had slept fully clothed that night
.  With Priyanka in the room, it felt inappropriate to disrobe – and neither of us liked to let our guard down in unknown territory.  As reluctant as I was to leave the warm nest I shared with my beloved, necessity required it.  We extracted ourselves from bed and found our weapons in the semi-darkness, then we headed for the front door.

I peeked through the curtains that hung over the nearest window and saw nothing
.  Room by room, we checked each window to see if we could get some idea of what was out there, but we saw and heard nothing.

Michael was ahead of me as we crept down the corridor towards the back
.  Suddenly, he froze and jerked a hand up to silence any questions I might have had.  He tilted his head to one side, silently communicating that I needed to stop and listen.  I did so.  From the other side of the barricade, we could quite clearly hear the shuffling of feet.  I opened my mouth to say something, but an unexpected sound interrupted my train of thought: a faint whine.

We stared at each other in surprise, not quite sure what we were hearing.

“Was that a dog?” I whispered.  Michael hesitated and then nodded, probably for lack of any better explanation.  For reasons that I couldn’t guess at, domestic canines had been a rare sight since the plague hit, but they weren’t completely unheard of.

As if to answer our question, a low, pitiful howl came from the other side of the door, followed by more whining and whimpering
.  We both stared at the door, and I saw my own indecision mirrored in Michael’s face.

“If it’s hurt, then we should help it,” he said, echoing my thoughts
.  “But, it also might just attack us on sight.”

“There’s only one way to be sure,” I answered, shooting a glance at him
.  “We have to go look.  I think we should go out the front and walk around, rather than move the blockade.  That way we can always run back in and lock the door.”

“Sounds like a plan,” he agreed with a firm nod
.  Together, we returned to the front end of the house.  Priyanka still slept soundly on the couch, so we left her there and we headed out the front door with our weapons at the ready.  I led the way down the front steps and swung around the house in a wide arc, treading lightly across the grass-hewn gravel.  Now that we were in daylight, I could see that the little bungalow sat in a small, overgrown clearing amidst the trees; to the rear of the building, I saw a large, open shed that backed up to the house.  It seemed like a safe assumption that whatever had been making the noise was hiding inside.

Michael fell in beside me as we tiptoed around the edge of the building
.  I swung out wide to try and get a look inside the shed before we exposed ourselves in danger, but the long shadows of sunrise made it hard to see.  I could only just barely make out the outline of the creature hiding within.  What I did see was that it was leaning hard against the back door, and I heard it whining pathetically.

It didn’t seemed to have noticed us even though I was standing silhouetted against the morning light
.  I glanced at Michael, then looked back at the animal and let out a whistle.  Its head came up immediately, ears pricked, then it struggled to its feet with some difficulty.  With slow, hesitant steps, it limped towards me, swinging its head slowly from side to side.

When it stepped out into the light, I realised that it wasn’t sick, just elderly
.  I’m an animal person by nature, so the sight melted my heart.  Michael seemed to feel the same way.  He handed me his gun and knelt down, making soft clicking noises and calling the dog until it turned its head towards him.

“Come here, buddy
.  Come on,” he called, snapping his fingers to attract the dog’s attention.  It came towards him slowly, swinging its head back and forth as if trying to isolate the sound of his voice.  A few steps closer, it paused and sniffed the air, then whined again and inched closer with its tail wagging shyly.

Michael held out his hand and let the dog sniff it, which it did
.  The creature’s breath made wuffling noises between whines, and then it licked his hand.  Michael took that as an invitation and reached over to rub the old dog’s ears, making comforting noises to keep it calm.  As soon as he did, the dog’s tail started wagging frantically.

“Doggie?” Priyanka asked from behind me, just about scaring me out of my wits
.  I glanced back to find her hiding behind me, staring at the creature with wide eyes.  Her gaze shifted up to me, her expression one of apprehension.  “Doggie will bite?”

“No, I don’t think he’ll bite you unless you’re mean to him.”
I extended an arm out to her.  Priyanka ducked beneath it gratefully, and cuddled up against my side.

Together, we watched Michael talking to the elderly canine, ruffling its ears and making comforting sounds
.  The dog’s tail wagged so hard I could practically hear the old joints creaking, but it seemed thrilled to feel a human’s touch.

“You know, the doctor’s going to kill us if we bring home two strays,” I commented dryly.

Michael laughed and nodded, keeping his voice low to avoid scaring his new friend.  “But he doesn’t have a choice in the matter; he was my first stray and he knows it.”

“I am stray?” Priyanka asked, looking bewildered by the comment.

“You were a stray,” I corrected her gently, giving her a sideways hug.  “But you’re not any more.  Now, you’re our friend.”

“Oh… stray means not friend?”
Her brows furrowed in obvious confusion.

“Not quite
.  In this situation, a stray is just a friend you haven’t met yet,” I tried to explain, using simple terms that her limited vocabulary could understand.  “It’s a new person, or a stranger.”

“Oh.”
Understanding dawned in the girl’s eyes.  “Doggie is stray, but can be friend if no bite?”

“Yes, that’s right,” I agreed
.  It was close enough until we could expand her vocabulary.  Looking pleased at her new-found knowledge, Priya disentangled herself from me and crept over Michael and the dog.  She knelt down beside them, staring at the creature.

While Michael took over her education and showed her how to let the dog sniff her hand, I stood guard
.  I divided my time between watching Michael's paternal instincts coming out, and keeping my eyes peeled for danger.

I had to admit, I was secretly impressed by his adeptness
.  The years he’d spent raising Sophie, his niece, paid off.  Even though I had no interest in having children of my own just yet, some part of me found his skill with youngsters extremely attractive.  Despite being so physically large with a deep, powerful voice, neither the child nor the animal seemed to be frightened of him at all.

Eventually, I drifted off into my own thoughts while the others played, staring into the bush surrounding the clearing
.  Suddenly, a squeal of delight attracted my attention.  I glanced back and saw Priyanka hugging the dog around the neck while it licked her face, tail wagging frantically.  Michael laughed merrily, and even I found myself unable to resist a smile.

The age of technological and capitalist pleasures was long gone
.  Now, it was the simple joy of a child’s laughter, of fresh food and clean water, and the companionship of lovers, friends, and family that brought happiness into our lives.  As much as I missed my parents, I felt like we might actually be better off for it in a broader sense.  The downfall of our species brought us back to our roots, to what we were meant to be before the Promethean lure of the modern age had turned us into something else completely.

“Doggie need bath,” Priya told me as she disentangled herself from the old sheepdog and hopped up to her feet
.  “We have bath now?”

“You first,” I told her, holding out my hand
.  The young girl raced over to take it and skipped along beside me as I led her back to the front of the house.  Behind us, I heard Michael coaxing the old dog along as well.  Soon, the four of us were safely back inside.

***

Bath-time proved to be a noisy and rambunctious affair that ended with water and soap suds all over the old bathroom.  By the time I’d peeled Priya out of her filthy rags and gotten her into a tub full of cold water, I’d come to the awful discovery that she was infested with all manner of parasites.  Her rags had to go, as did her long, matted hair.

I half-expected a fight, but when I told her that I was going to cut off her hair she seemed more fascinated than upset
.  As it turned out, she hadn’t realised that hair could be cut; her parents had never given her a trim.  She waited obediently while I hunted around for a pair of old scissors, then attacked her mane with gentle determination.  Lock by lock, her tangled tresses fell away into a pile on the bathroom floor, until all that was left was a short, manageable crop.

“Gone?” she cried happily as she ran her fingers through her newly-cut hair, looking delighted by the funny feeling of short hair beneath her fingers.

“That’s right, all gone.  It’ll grow back, but we must keep the yucky bugs out,” I told her, and then promptly dunked her back under the water.  She popped back up again a moment later, spluttering and laughing, then she splashed me playfully in retaliation.

“Yuck, bugs!” she repeated, poking at a patch of floating dirt that had come off her skin
.  “Yuck, yuck.  No more bugs?”

“No more bugs,” I agree
d, amused.  She was a bright kid, and her English was improving with every sentence.  “Close your eyes tight, okay? I’m going to put soap in your hair to kill the yucky bugs.”

“Okies,” she agreed readily, squeezing her eyes closed
.  I found a few unopened bottles of children’s shampoos and anti-nit treatments stashed away in a cupboard, and since the bottles were still sealed I judged that they were likely fine.  With a twist, I opened one and then applied a liberal amount to her head.

The pleasant scent of shampoo filled the room as I rubbed it into her scalp
.  The smell and the feeling of my fingers massaging her scalp drew happy noises from her.  When I told her to dunk her head, she obeyed.  We rinsed the shampoo off, then applied another treatment just in case.

Once she was done, I drained the bath and put her under a cold shower to wash away the last of the dirt, then bundled her up in a big towel
.  Shivering and dripping, she followed me happily from room to room as I searched for new clothing that would fit her.

At first, we had no luck; the three bedrooms we found appeared to belong to parents, and a pair of teenagers – one boy, and one girl
.  Unfortunately, Priyanka was a tiny thing for her age, so their clothing was much too large for her.  But in the back of the girl’s wardrobe, we struck a goldmine: a box full of old clothing that had been packed away when it no longer fitted, but no one had ever gotten around to throwing out.

Priyanka looked delighted by the bright colours and happy patterns
.  It took some doing to teach her how to wear underwear and which way the other garments went on, but she was a clever little thing and learned readily.  With my help, we got her dressed and picked out some spare garments for her to bring along with us.

In the corner of the room I spotted a faded pink backpack, someone’s old school bag tossed aside on that day long ago when the world changed forever
.  I picked it up, and discovered that it was still crammed with faded school books and homework that would never be graded.  Although I felt a momentary pang of sadness for the young woman who had owned that bag, Priya needed it now.  I emptied it out, and carefully folded Priyanka’s new clothing into the bottom of it.

“This for mine?” she asked while I was packing her bag
.  She snatched it up as soon as I was done, and hugged it to her chest.

“You mean, ‘is this for me?’” I corrected, and then nodded
.  “Yes, sweetie, that’s for you now.  The girl who used to live here doesn’t need it anymore, so you can have it.”

“She dead?” Priyanka asked thoughtfully, looking around the bedroom as though seeking some trace of the person who had once lived there
.  “She had pretty things.  I like pretty things, too.  She like me, I think.”