The night was dragging on and on, and the pale moonight was slowly being swallowed by a giant cloud of green pollution. It added an extra factor of creepy to the already uneasy position we found ourselves in. Alone, in the dark woods, Z's could be anywhere, and a band of cannibals searching for us. However an hour had passed without any sort of distrubance; Sam must have given up for the night.
My pants were soaked and the cold water was seeping into my bones, frezzing me to my core. I needed dry clothes and from the look of him, so did 10k. After digging out a fire pit we gathered some branches, twigs and dry leaves, and soon enough we had a roaring fire!
We still needed to get out of these wet clothes, so we made an agreement to stand on either side of the fire, face away from each other and change.
"No peeking!" I shouted to him as I unzipped my pants. Why did I pick skinny jeans? After what seemed like an eternity I finally got them off and slipped into a dry pair of shorts. I turned around and saw 10k quickly jerk his head away and bend down to dig through his bag for something.
"I said no peeking!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't know if you were done or not!"
I shot him a death glare and bent down to retrieve my bag, not breaking eye contact. His cheeks formed bright red and he rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at the ground. I pulled out a jacket spread it out on the ground. I laid down and used my backpack as a pillow so I could still see 10k sitting across from me, the flames bouncing shadows off of his face. We were silent for a bit, after the awkward encounter but I was over it already so I broke the silence.
"So, tell me about your friends" I said, glancing up at him.
"What do you want to know" he replied blankly, avoiding eye contact.
"I don't know, just anything. How many are there? Where they came from, how you all found each other."
"Well, I ran into them about 3 years ago. I was scouting around on the roof of an abandon school when I heard voices. I saved one of them; Doc, from a Z and then they just took me in."
"They sound like good people"
"They really are... There's Warren, she's the leader, a real badass lady" he smiled warmly. "Then there's Atti, she's Warrens right hand woman. She's like an older sister to me really... Then Doc, he's not a real doctor, we just call him that. He's like an ex hippie gone therapist" he chuckled and glanced down, remembering good times with the old man I'm assuming. I didn't want to pry so I left him to his thoughts and waited for him to continue. "Then of course, Murphy." his face went dark, and hatetred filled his eyes. I was shocked, I had yet to see him this angry... He clearly dispised this Murphy guy.
"Are you okay?"
"There used to be more of us.... Cassandra, Mac, and Garnett.. They all died trying to get that piece of shit to the CDC lab... He's the reason they're dead"
He stared at the fire, stoking it with a stick. His eyes glossed over and I could tell he was fighting back tears. Shit, I didn't want to upset him! I just wanted to make friendly conversation.. What do I do? I sat up urgently and glanced around, unsure of my next step. Finally I managed to gather my senses enough to speak.
"Hey, 10k I'm sorry for whoever you've lost... But we've all lost people, that's just the way of the world now, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.. I was just curious" I stopped to examine his facial features, trying to get a sense of what he was feeling. He stopped poking mindlessly at the fire and shifted his gaze to the ground in front of him.
"It's okay, you didn't know.. I can't blame you for asking."
He darted his eyes up to meet mine for a brief second and smiled weakly, reassuring me that he would be okay. Well shit, now I need to lighten the mood... But how?... Oh yeah! My eyes lit up and I jerked around to search through my bag. After a few seconds of digging my fingers wrapped around the cold glass neck of a bottle. I pulled out a bottle of whisky and displayed it to 10k, an open-mouthed smile plastered on my face.
"Where the hell did you get that?" 10k asked. He shot forward in excitement, and then quickly slumped back into his elbow, as if he was ashamed of being interested.
"I snagged it from the shed" I replied proudly. "Do you want some?" I stared into his eyes enthusiastically for a few seconds, and he reluctantly agreed. I unscrewed the top and help the bottle under my nose, taking a deep breath of the sweet liquor. 10k watched me carefully as I took a swig and my face formed an expression of disgust and satisfaction. I leaned forward and extended the bottle to him. He grabbed it slowly and held it in his hands for a moment too long before I realized. He's never drank before.
"Don't worry, it won't bite" I chuckled in amusement from his cautious approach to something I had grown so comfortable with. Whenever I had a safe place to stay I would drink my pain away. I always had a little red flask hidden in my belt, but I had run out recently.
He held the open bottle under his nose and inhaled the sweet aroma.
"My pa only gave me sips of his beer every once in a while.... I've never had hard liquor before."
He looked at me reluctantly and I shook my head while giggling.
"You'll be fine! Just take a small sip first, you'll get used to it" I watched intently, a grin still stretched across my face. He shut his eyes tight, took a deep breath and brought the bottle to his lips. He took a bigger drink than I anticipated and I waited for his reaction. He swallowed and then let out a small cough. I was still staring at him in amusement when he looked up at me with a silly, relieved grin on his face.
"That's not so bad actually"
"Success!" I threw a fist up in the air triumphantly and reached for the bottle. "And for my second gift!" I reached down into my utility belt and pulled out two packs of Marlboro blacks. I tossed one to him and his face lit up.
"You truly are amazing" he beamed, still staring at the pack like it was made of diamonds. "I haven't had one of these since Utah!"
We opened our packs and lit a cigarette each, inhaling the rich smoke. I know it's bad for me, but I have bigger things to worry about than lung cancer.
After a while of passing the bottle back and forth, I stood up to grab some more fire wood and stumbled sideways, feeling the full affect of how much I had drank. I was tipsy. After sitting back down I lit another cigarette and leaned forward, staring directly at 10k who had been distracted by a bug crawling on the dirt for the past minute or so. He finally felt my eyes on him and looked up, a childlike wonder sparkled in his eyes.
"How ya feeling kid?"
"Reeeaallyyy good.... Actually. Thank you for asking"
His speech was slightly slurred and he was bobbing back and forth to keep his balance.
"I'm glad I got to give you your first experience with the elixir of the gods" I giggled.
He smiled softly and leaned his head back to stare up at the sky.
"Do you ever just, look at the sky, and see all the stars and think about everything that's happened, like in the whole world..ever. And you're just like, what's the point of it all? Ya know?"
"All the time dude...... Do you believe in aliens?!"
"Duuuddeee. Yes"
His eyes lit up again and I couldn't contain my excitement. I was about to blow his mind with my theories. I grabbed the bottle and clumsily scooted around the fire to get closer to him. I sat with my legs tucked under me and leaned close to his face. My mind was fuzzy and the world around us seemed to be wobbling every direction. I tried my best to concentrate and ignore the many distractions that were maniftesting. I placed my hand on his chest preparing him, and opened my mouth to speak..... I stopped dead in my tracks and snapped my mouth closed. I turned my head to the side trying desperately to remember what I was going to say. He grabbed my arm and looked at me expectantly.
"I totally forgot what I was gonna say"
We burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing in the while world. It was so... Innocent. In the whole mess of this apocalypse bullshit we were just two teenagers drinking by a fire without a care in the world. It was like everything just stopped, and we were safe for a night protected by the obliviousness of intoxication.
After the giggling mostly subsided, I leaned back and laid down on the soft grass. 10k was still sitting up on his elbows so I grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him down next to me. He fell back, as graceful as one can when you're drunk, and placed his head right next to mine. The sides of our heads were pressed up against each other and a shiver ran through me. Every time we came into contact, even for a moment it's like I forget everything for those few seconds. I'm just so comfortable around him, I trust him with my life and I'm starting to care about this kid way more than I intended. It was starting to scare me actually.. Getting attached to someone always ends in blood, and that was the worst thing I could think of.
I pushed the thought out of my mind and just enjoyed the innocent contact out heads were making. He suddenly shuffled around on his side facing me and rested his head up on his elbow. He was weirdly silent so I turned my head and gave him a what? Look. He had a huge shit eating grin on his face and gave a slight breathy chuckle and shook his head as if I would never understand what was so amusing.
"What?" I said, as my cheeks flushed pink. I couldn't handle him staring at me like that! I can barely look him in the eyes under normal circumstances, let alone when he's drunk and looking at me like I'm the best thing since sliced bread.
"Nothing" he stated, very plainly as if everything was normal. He returned to smiling and I was getting uncomfortable. That's the face you make when you want to kiss someone... Right? I mean he's just staring at me with wonder and amusement.. No, no, he's just drunk he won't even remember this in the morning.
"Seriously dude, you're freaking me out a little" I laughed awkwardly and looked back up at the stars, avoiding looking into his hypnotic blue eyes.
"Can I be honest with you?"
"Of course 10k"
"I'm glad you saved me, I really am."
"Well I should think so!"
He put his face in his palm and laughed gently, then returned to his previous position.
"No I mean, I'm glad that it was you and not someone else."
"Oh?"
"Yeah.. I mean, I'm glad we met... Its been awhile since I've let my guard down and just enjoyed someone's company. Thank you for this."
I turned to him and mimicked his postion so that our faces were inches apart. He jerked his head back slightly and gulped, suprised by my sudden close proximity. I stared into his eyes for a moment and my gaze wandered all around his face, finally landing on his lips. I shot my eyes back up to his, not wanting to stare too long.
"I'm glad I found you too... We both needed a night off, and I wouldn't have wanted to spend it with anyone else" I smiled at him and he smiled back. We stayed like that for a few seconds, but it felt like a hours. I lost track of time when I looked at him, he was just so intriguing...and stunning. It was past the point of 'acceptable amount of time to stare into someone's eyes without doing anything', and it was ridiculously hard to get a reading on his expression. He was staring.. Not in a seductive, or creepy type of way just... Looking at me. That's it, just looking at me.
I knew what I wanted to happen. I knew that I wanted to kiss him, and part of me thought about trying to make a move, but what good would that do? We would wake up in the morning embarrassed and hungover, not knowing how to act... I didn't want to fuck things up! They were going so well, we just had a bonding moment as friends, it would be selfish and stupid to try anything. I shouldn't... I cant!... I cant!
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Ooohh! Cliff hanger!
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