Not so bad
I'm still overwhelmed by all the information Luke told me last night. Apparently, Luke and his family isn't originally from Tennessee either, they moved because he got accepted into the University of Tennessee, the same college as my brother.
He knew him. He knew who my brother was. He was friends with him. He knows where he is. Luke's stepdad was holding up a camp close to Knoxville, but he didn't have good intentions. Luke used to be one of his victims until he escaped. Lukes's stepdad, James, was still looking for him, that's why Luke came to live with Thomas in the middle of the mountains. Far away from Knoxville and far away from him.
I sit my bag down on the table and grab a water. Luke eyes my bag.
"And what do you think you're doing?" I turn to him, I'm trying to decipher if he's actually being serious with that question, the way he keeps looking at me it's safe to say that he is.
"You just told me exactly where my brother is. Where do you think I'm going?"
"Correction, yes I told you where he is, but I never told you exactly where he is."
I raise my eyebrows "Okay where exactly is this base?"
Luke sighs and slightly smiles; he looks down at his coffee and traces the rim of his cup with his finger.
"I'm sorry but I can't tell you that" My heart drops "not yet at least" he adds.
"Why not?" I ask hesitantly. Suddenly as expected, there is a lot of emotions running though me, but anger is the main.
"James has this rule, a person for a person." He stopes before continuing "It won't just be picking Jack up and moving on, it'll be a rescue mission."
"Well, you made it clear last night that James is an ass, I didn't think I would be able to walk right in there and walk right out."
"Yeah exactly, we need a plan, we need weather and conditions that we can actually work in."
"Okay well If you give me a map with where the base is I can draw a plan out and if it makes you feel better, I can form my plan before I leave" I empathized "I". This "mission" could end badly and I'm not going to risk Luke getting captured again.
Before I can say anything, Luke starts talking again "No you're not understanding me, I am going with you, Thomas too and we are going to make a plan. A smart well-coordinated plan. Not a rushed one. We also have to wait for the snow to clear up, or we will easily be spotted."
"What? No! No way! I'm going by myself. He is my brother. He is not your problem, he's mine. Plus, I'm not going to take the chance of letting you get captured for something that is my problem."
Thomas lets out a chuckle from behind me. "What?" I turn to him.
He puts his hands up in surrender, "Once Luke makes up his mind about something, you aren't talking it out of him. Trust me and I agree with him, so it's two versus one...You my friend, has been outvoted" he let out a small simple chuckle and with that he walked away.
When I don't say anything, Luke speaks up "Hang on, I'll show you about where your brother is" he stands up from his chair and walks downstairs.
When he returns he slams a map on the table.
He begins showing me where Knoxville is versus where we are.
"Im going to have to draw another map of the facility, that way you and Thomas will know what to expect"
"I cant imagine Jack being in there another minute. But you're right we need to be smart about this" Luke nods at my statement. I figured I'd give Luke some quiet time so he can draw up the map with no distractions. I turn to go find Thomas when Luke stops me
"Hey, thanks for trusting me on this" I nod "Thank you for doing this" I say, he just gives me a smile.
~
"Where are you going?" I holler at Thomas.
He turned around, grinning "Why? you gonna miss me while I'm gone?" He says and slams the tailgate up.
"Hmm depends...You going anywhere interesting?" He shakes his head.
"Unless you're the type of girl that finds a man throwing a bunch of dead bodies in a pile interesting then no ma'am I am not" I laugh at his comment.
"Mind If I tag along?" He glances at me while putting another jacket on "Depends...You still carrying around that attitude?" He shoots me a playful grin.
I walk straight up to him close enough I can feel his breath. From an outside perspective it probably looks like were about to kiss. From an inside perspective it feels like it too. He doesn't break eye contact with me when I reach into my coat pocket, I quickly bring out his beanie that I grabbed from the kitchen, I put it on his head and pulled it down over his eyes and then took off quickly towards the passenger side of the truck.
"Nah, I don't think so" I say.
I hear him chuckle and readjust his beanie.
~
"Hey" Thomas says breaking the silence of the truck. "We're gonna get your brother out" he hesitates "It just may take us a little bit of time" I nod.
"I understand we have to be smart about this, but I don't think I am willing to wait another couple of months to rescue him." Thomas nods.
"But in that month were gonna be preparing, it's not like we're going to be sitting around doing nothing. This is going to take a lot of prepping and planning."
What they don't get is, I do understand that... I'm just battling with being smart versus just wanting my brother back. But then again If I die trying to get him out, he might not ever get out. I am really grateful that I found a group that not only knows where he is but is also willing to help me.
"Your brother is getting plenty of food and water, even though James is a terrible man and leader he knows how to manipulate to keep his people working to their best effect. Jacks smart, he needs Jack. Trust me he's well taken care of." I see him glance over at me.
"I just wish I could see something of the base, just so I can know where he's staying at, or look and know he's in there...You know?"
He sighs "If you agree to the plan and promise me you won't go off by yourself, I'll take you to a lookout point where you can see the base pretty well...We'd still be super far away from it but with binoculars you'll be able to see just what we're dealing with, obviously we will still be far up on mountain top, but you'll be able to get a good idea of it."
"Would you actually do that for me?" I ask, excitement lacing my voice.
"Well yeah, course I would" I'm trying to not let the excitement get to me, I just can't wait to be just a little closer to my brother.
I reach over and grab Thomass free hand, I guess as a way to say thank you, he glances down at our intertwined hands and gives me a smile.
~
I forgot what it was like living with a group. Especially boys. Somehow their noise woke me up from all the way downstairs.
I don't remember much from last night, Thomas and I got in pretty late, we ran into some of the dead on our way home, we thought we could just run them over, but they ended up getting stuck underneath his truck, which took forever to get them out. Plus, I was so exhausted from all the excitement and new information about Jack yesterday.
I get dressed in the best I have clean, not that I have many clothes any way, but I admit I do need to wash the few I have. I make my way to see why the hell I was awoken before the sun.
"Oh, looks who's awake" Thomas says and looks to Luke.
"Woops" Luke says and looks down at the hammer in his hand "Hey the dead don't sleep, they don't care what time it is" Thats a good point, they really don't ever stop. Which leaves us to never being able to stop either.
Before I could ask, they answered. "Had a breach early this morning, probably around 2, somehow they keep tearing down that door on the porch."
"Well, they smell the food, I don't blame them, it smells good." I say and grab a bottle of water that Luke prepared yesterday.
"I'm about to head down to the river to collect the fish, Thomas saw the trap moving in the binoculars this morning."
"The river didn't freeze last night?"
Luke looks at me knowingly and shakes his head with a small smile "No, it did not."
If the weather continues like this, the closer we will be to rescuing Jack. But I'm careful to not give my hopes up as it's only December. The weather on the east side is hard to predict.
~
Living with people again, has me thinking about my old people, my family. I miss them all. I can't help but wonder if some of them are still alive.
When my uncles house got raided by the infected, my uncle Tanner and aunt Esmeralda passed quickly.
It got some of my cousins, not all. Some got away on the boat...and some didn't. And then there's me and Jason who got away by hiding and waiting them out, then walking right out the front door.
My cousins Myra and Jade always hung with me, we were a little trio, all girls, all very close in age and they were always fighters, so I do believe that they got out alive.
One day once I collect Jack, we will head home and find our family.
I can't wait to see my cousin Jason, I talked to him before I left, but he was going to retrieve his girlfriend. Once I got Jack we were to meet back up at home. Him and I were never close and fought all the time, we probably would've killed each other on this journey. But I love him, and miss him tons, and I can't wait until half of our family is put back together.
~
Tennessee is beautiful. I love the ocean, but I can't help but fall in love with the mountains. At nighttime there's so many stars up there. It's been so long since I've stood on a deck and felt safe. I guess this is more of a balcony, there's no steps leading up here, just the door from the house. Just as I'm about to go in, I hear the cabin door open. I assume it to be Luke because he's always the one that interrupts me from going to sleep.
"Hey what are you doing out here?" I was right. Luke sits on the bench beside me.
"Just soaking up the peacefulness" Luke wraps a little of his blanket around me. "I'm going to guess I just interrupted that?" I laugh "No, no, you couldn't."
Luke turns to me "Why couldn't I?" I turn to answer, but realized how close he was to me.
"Well," I whisper, "Because you're not a biter" He smiles "How was your day?" he asks
I shrug "It was pretty slow to be honest, I want to start helping you guys more"
I look over to him "What about you? How was your day?"
"Well first of all you can help me anytime I wouldn't deny it." he laughs. "And it wasn't bad, I feel like were finally starting to get this cabin protected."
"Yeah, me too, with all the work you guys did on the porch today there's no way their breaching it again."
"I hope not."
"You didn't eat dinner tonight" Luke suddenly says. I shake my head "My schedule is different it's going to take some time for my body to go to one meal a day to three."
"I figured that's all it was but just wanted to make sure you weren't worrying yourself to death about Jack."
I think about If I should ask this next question "What's it like there Luke?" I immediately regret asking. He looks down and avoids my eyes.
"The easiest way to put it is it's hell on earth" he looks up at me "If Jack is there and does his job though he'll be fine." He reassures me. He starts bouncing his leg "For my sister and I it was worse, because we were "his kids" she really was, I wasn't of course but he always treated me like I was. Drunk or not, I was his kid, and that's just how it was."
"What was he like before the outbreak?" Luke thinks for a moment.
"He had his moments. Mostly when he was drunk. When he wasn't drunk, he was...different but I was thankful for him. I just wanted a dad, and he was always there. But once we lost my mom to this sickness, we lost him too. He became abusive all the time. At the base he'd lock me and my sister up for days, I guess because we reminded him of her. He just wanted control. And looking back on it, all along, that was all he wanted."
Suddenly I feel bad for pushing all day to make the day closer when we could go get my sibling. I'm sure he thought of his sister every time.
"I know you didn't come here looking for people, or friends. But aren't you glad you found us? I've been with people since the very beginning I couldn't imagine being alone out there." He changes the subject.
Am I glad I found them? I figured I would be wanting to leave since the moment I got here but I haven't "Yeah I guess I am glad" I try to find his eyes in the dim light before continuing "I didn't realize how much I had miss being around other people until I found you all, growing up with eight other kids in my house, I was never alone so it was a lot to get used to, you know?"
Luke mouth hangs open "Eight?!" I laugh "Yep, only one bio sibling, Jack of course and then 6 cousins, and with us being on the beach my best friend lived with us every summer."
"I can't imagine having eight siblings, I only had Lianna, and she was enough for me" he laughed. I must admit, Luke has one of the cutest laughs I've ever heard, with him being the jokester of the group I hear it a lot.
Luke scoots closer to me and he grabs my hand "Thank you for trusting me with the time frame of getting your brother out, I'm sure that can't be easy, especially with me practically being a stranger to you and all" I give his hand a squeeze.
"For some reason it was easier than I thought it would be." I pause, "I guess it's because this is the closest, I have been to having the slightest clue of where he could be."
"Well, we will find him. We're in this together now, and we won't give up until he's safe and sound with his sister." I scoot closer to him and grab his arm. "Thank you" I whisper. This is my team now. This is my group that I swore I would never have.
For some reason, it's easy to touch Luke It doesn't feel weird or awkward. It just feels natural. Which is nice after months of no contact.
~AUTHOR NOTES~
.... Um so hi.... My inactiveness is due to lots of reasons which I apologize for. I sat here and thought of excuses, but in the end, honesty is the best way, so I don't really have a reason on my inactiveness. I just took a break. I LOVE writing so much, and I am so excited to jump back into weekly uploads, but I just needed a break, from everything to be honest, I went through a period where life was just crazy busy, luckily life is slowing down now, and I feel like I got my writing spark back! I can't wait to see this story come together more and more! Thanks SO much for understanding!! I thoroughly hoped you enjoyed reading chapter 3 as much as I enjoyed writing it!
P.S How did we like this chapter? We learned more about Thomas and Lukes background. Do we like where this is going? I'm such a terrible writer leaving y'all on chapter 2s cliffhanger like that, and then just going off the grid :( But at least were back on track now...
I'm also writing on some new software and program that I'm not entirely use to yet, so if there's any misspells, double wording or even double sentences please let me know :)
*New Chapters are uploaded every Friday at 10 p.m. eastern time
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