Breathing the Dead ~ H.S

Chapter Nineteen

Max cleared his throat. "Well, lately on my patrols I've been noticing some different cars coming & going from the town square – about one every few days,"

Harry frowned. "And...you've kept this to yourself for how long?"

"Uhm...about two weeks?"

Harry looked at him blankly before he slapped his forehead in exasperation. "Fucking hell, Max! If you notice something weird like that, you have to notify us immediately. How hard is that to understand?!"

"Woah, sor-ree, I just thought it wasn't that important until it became more frequent,"

Harry inhaled sharply and closed his eyes; clearly trying to keep his cool. Seeing that he was about to lose it, I placed my hand on his shoulder and quietly told him to breathe. After taking several deep breaths, he finally faced the group once more.

"OK. Cars in the town square – we'll look into it," he sounded much more composed, and I shared a secret triumphant smile with myself, "have you caught any glimpse of the types of people that got out of those cars?"

Max shook his head. "Nope. Sorry,"

"Of course not," Harry rolled his eyes, "OK – whatever. Anything else anybody wants to bring up?"

After the group slowly began to shake their heads, Harry nodded.

"OK, fine. Meeting over."

The group nodded & dispersed; going their separate ways and leaving me & Harry all alone.

"Thanks for calming me down back there," he said to me as he took my hand.

"No problem," I beamed at him, "hey, can we go to the garden? I'm kind of in the mood for orange juice,"

He smiled at me. "You go on ahead, love. I'll meet you there. I just need to check on the radio quickly,"

"Oh, OK," I gave him an understanding nod, "any luck with that, by the way?"

His face fell before he sighed and shook his head. "I try so many stations, but I can't get anything,"

"Haz, you don't have to keep trying," I placed my hand on his arm, "even if we do catch someone's signal I doubt we'll be very much help to them, or vice versa,"

"Yeah, but...it's just...it's nice to know that there's someone out there besides us. Kinda gives you a new hope in a way,"

"I suppose," I nodded slowly, "OK. I'll leave you to it. If you need me, I'll be picking oranges," I smiled at him and pecked his cheek before making my way over to the agricultural block.

***

"Nothing?" I asked as I saw Harry approaching.

He shook his head and sighed. "Maybe we just have a shitty radio,"

"Well, Harry, don't forget that most people these days are just plain awful," I told him before giving his hand a quick squeeze, "they do whatever they can to survive and don't care who they hurt in the process. So it's technically a good thing that nobody's sending a signal,"

"Yeah...you're right," he gave me a soft smile.

"And besides – there's still those cars Max has been spotting," I reminded him, "obviously that's a sign of people, so...don't lose hope, OK?"

Harry sighed. "What I don't understand is what they're doing out here," he said.

"Obviously they've decided that this place is good for supplies," I bit my lip, "that's probably why we should check 'em out ASAP – because they're probably grabbing stuff that could've easily been ours,"