The Survivors Trilogy

BOOK ONE || CHAPTER TWELVE

I don't see Kyle as I enter the house. In fact, I don't see anyone.

Everyone has gone to bed.

Vicky and I creep our way to our room and I slowly close the door behind me, hearing the faint, satisfying click as the lock falls into place.

"How do you think I should ask him?" I whisper as I sit on my bed. I can't really see Vicky, but I know she is looking at me and hearing what I'm saying.

Vicky exhales. "I don't know," she says. "Maybe you should just say it how it is."

"But I can't really walk up to Kyle, kick down his door and say, 'Pack your bags, we are moving to the Wastelands,' can I?" I say, getting into a more comfortable position.

"Well," Vicky starts, "you could say something like that, minus the kicking the door down part."

Sometimes I wish we could just be at the Wastelands right now, it would be so much easier. Sure, we don't know what is out there, and we don't know what would happen if and when we do go there, but it wouldn't hurt to at least try. Would it?

Maybe nothing is out there. Maybe the desert just goes on for a while until, I don't know... we end up in another state or something. We wouldn't be able to survive out there for long without food or water, and once we are out there I'm not turning back.

Not for anything.

"I-I'll figure something out, Vicky," I say. "I need to get some sleep; I haven't for a while."

"Don't remind me," Vicky whispers, shuffling to lay down. "Goodnight."

"Night," I reply.

I don't know why, but a part of me wants to go ask Kyle, but the other part of me doesn't.

Bad scenarios of what would happen out in the Wastelands play on repeat over and over again in my head, then they stay there until I have to shake my head to get rid of the memory, but sometimes even that doesn't work.

I just hope when we do go to the Wastelands, my nightmare doesn't come true.

* * * * *

The sunlight pierces straight through my eyelids as I turn over to lay on my side. I try squeezing my eyes shut hard, but even that doesn't work. I turn my body so that I'm lying flat on my back, pressing my forearm against my eyes. As I peek under my arm, I see Vicky standing there, arms crossed over her chest, looking down at me.

"Good morning," she says sweetly, with a hint of sarcasm in it. Ugh! It's too early for sarcasm.

"Ugh!" I mumble back to her.

Vicky laughs. "Are you going to get up and ask Kyle, or are you going to stay in bed all day?"

I turn over so that my back is facing Vicky. "Stay in bed all day," I mumble. My voice sounds thick and scratchy with sleep, and I have to cough to get rid of the noise.

A forceful hand spins me around. Vicky's hand slams into my shoulder as my back hits the bed. Her face is only a few inches away from mine.

Now I'm awake.

"I don't think so, Xander," Vicky says, smiling. "You are going to get up from this bed, put on those boots, walk up to Kyle, grow a pair, and ask him."

I'm taken aback, but I'm laughing all the same.

"Okay, okay," I say, laughing. "I'm up." I press the palm of my hand to my eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them.