Don't Whistle Past the Graveyard

Ch. Forty-Two

Then it was back to boring for what was probably a few weeks. I think the most notable thing to happen was that Shane got the random idea to teach all of the kids to drive. And he didn't teach them in the SUV.

He told me that everyone should know how to drive a stick, and had looked at me like I was going to argue. I mean, maybe I should have with Sam and Vik, with them being thirteen and twelve respectively, but what's to argue?

It was a valuable skill. That would be like me questioning when he had taught Sacha to make a fire, or when he'd taught Vik how to use the sun to read the time. Just plain stupid.

Hands down Sam was the best with the stick, only stalling out maybe four or five times. Vik was the worst, forcing Shane to eventually just let her learn the mechanics in the SUV. It was either that or risk her shelling the transmission.

But gas was getting hard to find, so we couldn't afford to waste it with someone learning throttle control.

I knew it was going to be a bad day when we would have to eventually leave the vehicles, but it hadn't come quite yet.

We were in another town. I should probably say a new town, but it wasn't really new, you know? I'd already seen this town, thousands of times before. There wasn't anything unique about it. All that mattered about this place in a plethora of places was what it had to offer.

Food. Gas. Water. Supplies.

That's what a town is. It's not the buildings. It sure as hell isn't the people anymore. All a town is is a super-sized shopping mall.

We had split into groups of twos. Danny and Sam. Kyle and Sacha. Cas and Viktoria.

Shane and I hadn't been alone together for a while.

We'd been winding up on long stretches of empty roads at night, and things had been... communal.

We got through maybe two houses in our assigned section of town. Pickings weren't exactly lush, but we had managed to find a few things. We found enough to make it worth it, let me put it that way.

Shane jimmied the lock on the third house then surprised the hell out of me when he swept my feet out from under me, picking me up and carrying me inside.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "A little archaic, don't you think?"

He didn't even grace that with a response. He just secured the door and found the closest bedroom, his mouth hungry on me the entire time.

I know, probably not the best timing but... it had been awhile. And imagination is only so satisfying.

Shane lingered in ways that were probably not advisable and should definitely be illegal, but I wasn't complaining. And it wasn't like it was taking all that long to go through these houses anyway.

It's very hard to get dressed when you both keep stopping to kiss.

But we eventually made it out of that house and continued on, probably both wearing the stupidest possible grins.

We still didn't find much. Some canned goods. Batteries. A half empty box of nine millimeter ammunition. Or is it half full? I guess it depends on how you look at it right?

Shane stood looking at the last house, then looked over at me.

"What?" I asked, a more quizzical smile crossing my lips.

"Blood on the windows." Shane nodded his head at the house in question, and my eyes found the brownish streaks on the glass. There wasn't anything marring the white paint of the exterior though.