Marcus came awake slowly.
He was immensely warm, immensely comfortable. Waking up and moving around were the last things on his mind. Then he realized that he was lying against someone. There was someone in the bed with him. Someone slim and curvy who smelled good. Not good in the way that loads of shampoo and perfume made you smell, but good in a natural kind of way. About the same time that he remembered that it was Maya and everything that had happened last night, Marcus realized that he had his arm around her and he was snuggled up against her. He slowly, carefully began to disengage himself from her, but suddenly she grabbed his arm.
"Don't move," she murmured sleepily. "You're warm and comfortable."
"Oh...okay then," he replied.
They continued laying there for a moment, Marcus feeling an odd mixture of comfort, arousal and awkwardness. Suddenly, Maya shifted and heaved a sigh. "Oh great," she muttered.
"What? What's wrong?" Marcus asked.
"I just had a really clear thought. Everything we said last night...it was over the radio. So a lot of people out there probably know that the Kirkman residence is up for grabs, and we need that supplies if we're going to last longer than two weeks." She sat up abruptly. "Come on, it's probably still early. We need to get there before anyone else does."
"Great," Marcus muttered.
They both got up out of bed. It still was early, probably around seven in the morning. Marcus was grateful that he was in good shape with a good sleep schedule. It meant he could hop up at a moment's notice in the early morning without suffering too much. He was still sleepy, but he could already feel it disappearing as he pulled his shoes on and grabbed his holster. He slipped his pistol into it and glanced over: Ed and Jacob were still asleep.
"Go grab breakfast, I'll get these two up," he said.
"Thanks," Maya replied.
She finished getting her own gear together and walked out of the tent. Marcus watched her go. He'd been worried that she would act all awkward and strange around him their sharing a bed together, but she didn't seem the slightest bit put off. What did that mean? Did it mean she was just extremely confident in herself and her emotions? That she was good at hiding them? Or that she had enjoyed the experience? What if it was just no big deal?
Marcus shook his head. He was being an idiot. Who cared? They had more important things to do. He set about waking the two guys up. Jacob was up pretty quick, but Ed, again, took a lot of coaxing. Finally, as soon as the two men were actually out of bed, standing upright and moving around, Marcus left them to it, moving across the yard to join Maya in the kitchen. The sun was up, but the cloud cover persisted, painting the day and the landscape in shades of miserable gray. He supposed it was appropriate, given what had happened.
He wondered how Danica was doing.
Marcus marched up the back steps and came into the kitchen. He found Maya and Sam eating out of cans, talking quietly. He nodded to them, crossed the room and scrounged around until he came up with a fruit cup, a bottle of water and a Nutigrain Bar. As he started eating, Jacob and Ed came into the room, followed shortly by Lily, who looked exhausted.
"How is she?" Maya asked.
"She's better now. It wasn't as bad as we thought, thank god...she's still pretty shaken up, pretty upset, but she's coherent and she understands what's happened, and that she's safe. I don't really think we need a whole town meeting over it but...I'm guessing we'll accept her into our enclave?" she asked, staring at them all.
"Yeah," Maya said.
The others were nodding.
Lily let out a short breath. "Good...now, I need a nap, just for an hour or two. I spent the whole night with her and I didn't sleep too much."
"I'll check in on her," Sam said.
Lily thanked her and headed outside, to where the others had been sleeping not too long ago. They all finished up their breakfast, then made their way through the church, briefly stopping by what Maya had started referring to as the 'loadout bay': a table, a metal cabinet and some shelves stuck into one corner of the main room in the church that held guns, ammo, some medical supplies, food, water, backpacks, spare clothes, melee weapons and anything else someone might need if they were heading out into the city.
Once they had what they needed, the quartet headed out.
* * * * *
Almost as soon as they got to the house and began searching it, they found evidence that someone had been through. But it quickly became apparent that whoever had done it had been a small group, perhaps three at the most. They were likely scavengers, not very well organized, just taking what they could grab. While that meant that some of the choice gear was missing, it also meant that the majority of the house hadn't been strip-mined. Which was good for a group that was looking to survive this thing for the long haul.
It was difficult being there. The cold, gray light of day showed all the horrors that the night had at least partially hidden. Marcus felt his stomach turn over slowly as he stared at the ripped apart remains of the very people he had laughed and talked with not but a day ago. They were dead. Plain and simple as that. Dead. Gone. Forever.
How could handle that?
Before this, the closest brush with death Marcus had endured was when his aunt had gotten lung cancer and died within a few months. It had been painful and had left him with a few new emotional scars, but he was fundamentally okay. But this? How could he go on from this? For that matter, how could Danica? She had lived with these people, called them friends, maybe even family...how would she ever be okay?
Maybe there was no okay...
Maybe the only way to go on, was to just go on, regardless of how you felt.
Numbly, Marcus helped the group pick through the wreckage. It was an ugly, grizzly task that took a good four hours. Unfortunately, given the fact that their community had grown, and likely would continue to grow, they didn't have the luxury of doing a lazy job. They searched the house top to bottom, packing ever bottle of water, every tube of pills, every blanket and change of clothes and every last bullet away into the back of the jeep they'd driven down for the job. Not long before they finished up, Lily called them on the radio.
"What's up, Lily?" Marcus asked.
He leaned against the front of the privacy wall, watching Maya, Jacob and Ed finished loading up the last of the gear into the back of the jeep.
"The people down at the Tartan Mart, they're asking for help. One of their people hasn't reported back and they're worried about leaving the Mart unattended," Lily replied.
"Got it. We'll go see them," Marcus replied. He explained the situation to Maya, who seemed to consider it for a moment, then turned and began rifling through the back of the jeep. She spent a few moments shoving several things into a duffel bag: a few magazines of ammo, some bottles of water and several medical items.
"You two head on back, get this unloaded," Maya said. "Marcus and I will take care of the people at the Mart."
"You got it," Jacob replied. He and Ed climbed into the jeep and began driving it back up to the church.
Marcus and Maya set off down the road. "What's that?" he asked.
"Peace offering," Maya replied. "Last night got me thinking. It's extremely dangerous in this valley. I think we've been lulling ourselves into a false sense of security. I mean, those people were pretty well fortified, they'd been surviving for weeks. They weren't low on supplies, they had plenty of ammo...and yet all but one of them died. Just like that. We need more discipline, more people, more supplies, if we're going to wait this thing out."
"How long should we wait?" Marcus replied.
"What do you mean? Before we give up and die?" Maya asked.
Marcus snorted. "No! I mean, before we try to escape the valley, figure out if this is a bigger problem or if it's contained to the valley."
"I don't know, not for a while, not until I can pry some answers out of the Army...which won't be easy, especially with what they've been saying over the radio lately..."
Marcus nodded. The Army had been releasing a series of statements over the airwaves ranging from disheartening to downright threatening, essentially advising people to 'lock their doors and wait for this to blow over'.
They came to the parking lot of the Tartan Mart and stood a respectful distance away. The door opened and Logan stepped out, looking worried. "Thanks for coming," he said. "I saw another one of those freaks wandering around, the big one with the long arms...I didn't want to leave the place unguarded or even only one of us here."
"Who's missing and where did they go?" Marcus replied.
"Sophie. She went to that partially constructed house, across the way...I think it's at the end of the road that leads up to your church. Our roof leaks and she thought she could grab some supplies to fix it. She left about half an hour ago. We received a call on the radio that she had made it there, but she hasn't said anything since."
"Don't worry, we'll find her," Maya said. "Also...here." She passed him the bag. He took it and looked inside.
"What's all this for?" he asked, suspicion leaking into his voice.
"Peace offering," Maya replied. "I don't know if you know but...the Kirkman enclave went down last night. Everyone but Danica is dead...all killed by zombies."
"Jesus...we heard all the commotion, but..." he didn't seem to have anything to say beyond that. But we were too scared to come out didn't sound like something worth saying. Maya simply nodded. "I understand. Listen...it's getting more dangerous in the valley. We really need to band together, pool our resources. Will you join us at the church?"
Logan stared at her for a moment, really seeming to consider it. "I'm sorry," he said finally. "It's just better this way. It's better not to rely on anyone else...I know that sounds callous and that's a huge hypocrisy, given what I'm asking here, and I do really appreciate the offering and the help, really, and I'm open to working with you guys...just not leaving the Mart."
"Well...fair enough. We'll be back," Maya said.
Logan thanked them again. They turned and began making their way down the street, moving quick and quiet to avoid the wandering zombies.
"It doesn't make any sense," Marcus said.
"I know. It doesn't have to. They're just too frightened to make any kind of decision, even they probably don't know why they don't want to leave. It's the fear instinct. Until something worse happens and forces their hand, they'll stay there," Maya replied. "And it's too bad they didn't talk to us about that house. We already cleared it out for supplies, so she probably won't find much there. Although I wasn't actually looking for roofing gear, so hey, who knows?"
They managed to get up the road and down the next one without too much trouble. As soon as they were in sight of the skeletal house, they saw the trouble: Sophie was combating a horde of zombies. Marcus and Maya took off running, racing across the street, up the yard and into the house via a hole in the side.
Marcus let his crowbar fly, caving in the back of the head of the nearest zombie. Maya was equally vicious, cracking the skull of a man in overalls and boots. It took the three of them several minutes to kill all the zombies that had wandered in. When the last body fell, Sophie nearly collapsed from exhaustion. She sat down in a nearby folding chair, trying to catch her breath. Marcus and Maya kept a vigil while she did.
"Thanks," she breathed, taking a water bottle from her pack and killing half of it in one go. "I thought I'd bought it."
"Looks like you damn near did," Maya replied. "Your friends got worried about you."
"Yeah, they tend to do that," Sophie replied. She sighed and, after another moment of catching her breath, stood up. "Thanks again for the rescue. I was wondering, would you mind helping me get some stuff back?"
"Yeah, sure," Maya replied.
They started helping her get the roofing materials into a pair of rucksacks.