Fire In Our Bones (NovaHD)

Chapter 7

Aleks woke up to bright sun streaming through the cracks in the boarded up window above him. Sleepily, he realized that he had slept in and James hadn't come to yell at him to get up. He sat up, scrubbing the sleep from his eyes. God, he thought. I could use some coffee.

He made his way into the kitchen where he could hear low voices conversing. Stepping through the door, he was surprised to see James and Cooper bent over the table, their heads low. They were talking quietly, but they stopped when James raised his head and saw Aleks.

"Look who finally decided to get his ass up," he grunted.

"Morning Aleks," Cooper nodded his greeting.

Aleks smiled at Cooper and gave the finger to James.

"Good morning to you too. What're you guys doing?"

He looked at the table and noticed a map spread out between them. Cooper saw him looking and patted it with his hand.

"I got this baby a while back. It's a map of the area around here, actually. I was showing James."

Aleks walked over to look at it himself. It was large and spattered with stars of different sizes all sloppily drawn with a red sharpie. He couldn't see any labels besides the stars. Curious, he looked back up at Cooper.

"What are these for?" he asked.

Cooper shrugged.

"Just different places of interest I've found. I've never been out of the area of this map," he said, running his finger over one of the larger stars. "This is where I lived at the beginning. This is where it all started for me." He traced up to another, this one especially sloppy. "This is where we camped out for the first few months."

Aleks wondered what 'we' meant, but Cooper looked lost in thought so he didn't ask. Additionally, he could feel James' eyes burning into the side of his head, making it hard to concentrate on Cooper's rambling explanations. It was hard to ignore the urge to meet his gaze, but Aleks kept his eyes fixed on the grimy map and Cooper's finger sliding from point to point. Finally, he stopped on a star on the slightly north side of the map.

"And this is us, boys."

Aleks gave up and looked over at James, but he had averted his gaze and was apparently studying the map. Aleks didn't know if he was relieved or disappointed.

Aleks looked back at it himself and noticed a star almost in the middle. It was larger than any of the others and it looked like the lines of it had been traced over multiple times. He didn't remember Cooper saying what that one meant.

"Hey Cooper, what about this one?" he asked, tapping it.

"Hmm? Oh. That one's not important. Just another campsite that didn't last very long. That area is overrun now anyways."

"Ok," Aleks said, scratching his head.

There was an awkward pause after that. Aleks tried to think of something to say and it hit him that James had been pretty quiet this whole time. He turned to him and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"James, what're you thinking about, man?"

James flinched and jumped a little.

"Huh, what. What?"

Aleks snickered and Cooper laughed.

"He was miles away. Where'd you go, James?"

"Sorry, I was, uh, thinking."

"That's obvious, dude," Aleks said, making a face. "Care to share what you were thinking about?"

"No. No, I don't 'care to share what I was thinking about'," James snapped.

Cooper rolled his eyes.

"I've only been here for three days and you two have fought more times than I can count. I think you boys need some action."

"Whaa..."

"Not that kind of action. For Christ's sakes. I mean I think you should get out of this place. Experience some adventure."

"Thanks, but no thanks. Aleks and I are fine," James said, arms crossed.

"Wait, why not?" Aleks said quickly. He shot a glare at James before continuing. "We do need to get more food and stuff and Cooper's right, I'm getting pretty damn bored just sitting around here all day."

"That's the spirit, Aleks," Cooper grinned. "You don't have to come, Jamesy. Your choice."

"Never call me Jamesy again. And if Aleks is going, I'm going."

"I thought so," Cooper smirked. "Alright. So if the plan is to get supplies, we should go here." He pointed out a star in what appeared to be a town. "This is a small town that has a gas station and a supermarket and shit like that."

"Isn't it probably already completely looted," James pointed out.

"You would think so, but the last time I passed through it didn't look too picked over. The hordes are thick over there though, so that's most likely why."

"Great," James muttered.

Cooper patted him on the shoulder.

"There, there, James. We'll be fine. I wouldn't lead my new friends into too much trouble."

"Yeah, James," Aleks patted him on his other shoulder. "I'm sure the hordes aren't too thick for you."

James glared at him.

"So," Cooper clapped his hands together looking way too excited. "We're going to need Jessica."

"Who?" Aleks asked.

"Jessica, my car," Cooper said, looking at Aleks as if it should have been obvious.

"Oh yeah, your car. Jessica. Obviously."

From behind Cooper, James made a face and did the 'he's crazy' sign. Aleks snickered behind his hand.

"Anyway, we'll take Jessie. It's about a ten mile drive, shouldn't take us too long. We'll leave tomorrow right after it gets light. We'll bring weapons of course. Aleks, bring that pistol you have. That's a fine specimen. James, you can take whatever you want. You seem to be attached to that axe you carry around. And I'll bring my lucky baseball bat. How does that sound?"

Aleks shrugged. "Sounds good to me, man."

Cooper looked at James who was mumbling under his breath.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sounds good. Whatever."

After rolling up his map, Cooper left to 'check out Jessica' as he put it and Aleks and James were alone. Aleks turned to leave when he heard James sigh.

"Aleks, what are we doing here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what are we doing here? What are we doing going out to 'get some action' as that asshole put it and putting our lives on the line in the process? I mean, Aleks, it isn't safe!"

Aleks squinted at him, taken aback. James seemed genuinely distressed. He looked on the verge of screaming, or even tears.

"James, you need to calm down first, okay? You're acting a little weird."

But James did something even weirder. He lunged forward and hugged Aleks. It was firm but brief. Aleks didn't even have time to hug him back and then he was out the door and Aleks was left standing in the middle of the kitchen with his mouth open.

"What the..."

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A/N First of all, I know I'm a terrible person for not updating in so long. I feel awful, but March has been too crazy for words. Now it's spring break so there's that. :) 

I'll upload another chapter before the end of this week and that's a promise. I know this one is short but I had to do something.

Anyone who's reading this, thank you! and I hope your month has been less insane than mine.

-Bowties