"Alright, Tits. It's you and me on the next run. We're leaving in an hour. Get your shit together." Jasper called over the various noises of the men around me training.
My heart stopped. It would be my first time outside the compound in seven months, and I was itching to get away from the smell of man sweat and constant oggling.
Olan held out his fist and I gave it a light bump before running off to pack my travel kit.
My boot knife was finally back in its rightful place, but it felt foreign, as if I'd never worn it before. Amelia had brought me a pair of jean shorts and a tank top to keep me cool in the sweltering heat.
In my bag, I packed a small first aid kit; which, if I'm being honest, is a bottle of vodka and some gauze, a few baggies of dried fruits, and my canteen.
"Ready?" Jasper startled me as he yelled into the women's bunk.
"Yeah." I sighed as I threw the bag over my shoulder.
"Go by Joaquin's and get the list of stuff he needs. I'll meet you out front." He called as he walked away.
I rolled my eyes. I'd been doing my best to ignore and avoid Joaquin at all cost. The few interactions we'd had were short and awkward, and mostly consisted of conversations about my training. Needless to say, I shattered his expectations of my limits and surpassed his week and a half guess by a long shot.
I knocked on the door to his office and there was no immediate answer. I knocked again, louder this time. When there was still no answer, I tried the door to his room.
When he pulled the door open he smiled at me.
"Well, hi there Matthews. Can I help you?"
"I just need your list. We're about to head out."
"First run, huh? How exciting is this?" He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. "You're going to catch a pretty wicked case of sunburn if you run around like that." He nodded to my sleeveless shirt.
"Can I please just have your list so we can go?" I sighed, earning a chuckle.
"Here." He pulled a folded slip of paper from his back pocket. "Good luck out there." He commented before closing the door in my face.
"Rude!" I screamed through the wood and heard another chuckle from the other side.
I stopped by Amelia's room on my way out. She smiled up at me when she opened her door.
"Is there anything special you'd like me to try to find for you?" I tucked a stray lock of curls behind her ear.
"I'm good for now, I think."
"Alright. See you in a few days." I grinned as I stood to my full height and turned to walk away.
"Wait. Jordan. There is something I need."
I turned around and could see that she felt uneasy about whatever she was about to ask for.
"I'm running low on... supplies... for..."
"Say no more. I read you loud and clear. If you need any while I'm gone, there's some stashed in my footlocker." I whispered to her.
"Thank you." She sighed with relief.
"No problem." I walked to the front of the compound to find Jasper sitting on the bench outside.
"There she is." He called out as soon as he saw me. "Got the list?"
I handed him the paper and he scanned over it.
"Same basic shit as always. Meds and food if we find it." He looked up from the page. "Right, let's go." He took off and I followed behind him.
We walked in silence for hours on end. It took me a long time to get up the courage to speak to the man who was my new companion for the next few days.
"What's your story, Jasper?" I quietly asked.
His steps faltered as he pause to think over his answer. "Why the fuck would you want to know that?"
"I don't know. I don't know anything about you and I really just want to talk about something to pass the time."
"You're an odd duck. Normally these trips are quiet. I like them that way."
"Well, I don't. So, tell me."
"It's not really an impressive story."
"Come on. Seven months I've known you, and I don't really know shit about you."
"Alright, Tits, we'll talk." He sighed. "I grew up in some shit hole community that didn't really have a name in Polk County, Georgia. My family was what many would consider white trash, but I never knew that when I was little. We lived in an old run down trailer home with a floor that was falling in and a roof that leaked every time it rained. Mom was a drunk, dad was a druggie who wasn't around for a majority of my life. As I grew up, I came to realize that other people weren't living like that. I was about eight years old when somebody called child services and they took me out of that fucking place. I bounced around from one foster home to another until I turned eighteen and aged out. I was actually homeless for a while. Then, one day I met an older couple while I was begging for fucking scraps of food. Mia and Earnest were their names. They felt sorry for me. They let me stay in their guest house and helped me get on my feet. I got a decent job working for the city digging ditches and filling in pot holes in the roads. My life was finally getting on track until the day the virus reached us. Earnest got sick and he died. Mia and I moved around for a while, but eventually, she just couldn't do it anymore. She went to sleep one night and just never woke up. Then it was just me again until Joaquin found me. Told me about his set up and shit. Asked if I wanted in. I jumped on that shit so fucking fast my head was spining."
"Wow." It was the only reply I could think up.
He nodded. "Yeah. Fucking wow."
We continued on in silence until the sun started to set.
"We'll make camp here for the night. Get a move on first thing in the morning." Jasper said as he placed his bag on the ground.
"How much further are we going?" I sighed as I sat on a half rotted stump.
"We'll make it there by noon tomorrow if we leave as soon as the sun comes up." He kicked the rest of the fallen tree, knocking chunks of wood off with his boot. "Hand me the fire starter."
I dug through my bag until my hand rested on the magnesium fire starter. "Here." I tossed it to him as he piled the wood up.
The sparks hit on the tender and a small flame started. He blew on it, encouraging the little flicker to grow. Soon, we had a fire big enough to light the area around us.
I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered as the wind blew by us.
"I'll be glad when it's warm at night. The temperature drop is brutal this time of year."
"Did you not pack any different clothes?" He eyed me as he popped a dried apple into his mouth.
"I guess I must have forgot. It's not a big deal. The fire should keep me from freezing to death."
He stared at me as he chewed on his apple. He made a sudden move and turned to his bag where he pulled out an oversized coat. "Here." He threw it to me.
"Thanks." I pulled my arms into the sleeves, but they still lacked about four inches from being able to make it all the way through.
"Next time, be a little more prepared." He scolded as he passed the bag of apples to me.
I nodded and grabbed a few slices of the fruit to nibble on.
After finishing the fruit and taking a drink from the canteen, I laid down for bed and fell asleep quickly.
I woke up to a hand on my arm.
"Share the jacket, Tits. It's cold out here." Jasper pulled my arm out of one of the sleeves and stuck his in so that we were both wearing the jacket over our fronts. My legs were surprisingly warm for being exposed. I cracked my eyes and realized that he had draped a small throw blanket over them.
"Thank you." I sighed as I moved closer to his warmth.
"I'm not sharing next time."
I nodded into his shoulder as I went back to sleep.
The sun had just started to come up when I opened my eyes. The world was blanketed in cerulean blue and the birds were just beginning to chirp. Jasper had started the fire up again and was missing. I started doing my daily cardio and waited for him to return.
He came out of the woods as I was finishing my cool down stretches.
"Where'd you head off to?" I asked.
"Breakfast." He replied, throwing a burlap sack to the ground, a small wet stain of blood soaked the corner.
"Why didn't you get me up? I could have helped."
"You seemed like you were having a rough night last night. Kept waking me up whimpering in your sleep. Figured I'd let you rest as long as possible so you'd be good to go when it was time to get moving."
"Sorry about that. I must have had a nightmare."
"You don't remember?"
"I never remember my dreams. I wake up in the mornings blissfully unaware of what goes through my mind when I sleep."
"Well lucky you." He opened the sack and pulled out the two small doves he had managed to kill and started cleaning them.
"I'll go find some green sticks." I turned to the woods and pulled out my boot knife, slicing off some springy branches from a young tree. I heard a twig behind me snap and I turned quickly.
A large eight point buck stared me in the face, his ears back and his head alert. I froze in my place. I tried to take a slow step away, but the deer kept his eyes trained on me. I must have stepped into his territory.
I took my chance and took off in a sprint, the deer chasing after me.
"Jasper!" I called out as I ran out onto the road.
Jasper's eyes shot up and instantly, he snatched up his hunting rifle.
The deer caught up to me and reared back on his hind legs, knocking me down with the front. I crawled away as he tried to stomp me with his hoof.
The shot was loud and I heard it when it pierced the deer's chest. In an instant, the buck stopped moving and toppled over, barely missing my head with his massive rack.
"You good, Tits?" Jasper called as he ran over to me.
I simply gave him a thumbs up as I tried to control my breathing. I rolled onto my side, holding my ribs in pain. They would be bruised, if not broken, for a while.
"Holy fucking shit, Tits. You're the only person I know who gets attacked by a motherfucking deer."
"I think I was in his area. I wouldn't be surprised if there are a bunch of them around here." I sat up and slid myself beside the deer. "Help me clean it. We can dry the meat. Have some deer jerky. It might take a while, but I don't think extending our trip by a day is going to matter. This'll be enough meat to feed us for a while." I started slicing into the deer's muscle, pulling away the fur and trimming off the silver skin.
"Well, alright then." He knelt down on the other side of me and started cutting away at his own parts of the deer.
Hours of cutting later and we had reduced the deer carcass to bones.
"Thank you, for saving me." I sliced the meat into thin strips and draped them over the fire on the spit.
"Yeah, no problem." He was scraping the back of the deer skin. The plan was to dry it out and use the hide to make things.
"We're going to need another fire or two if we want to get this done in one night." I sighed, filling up the last spot on the spit.
"I'll get on it as soon as I'm done with this piece."
I nodded. "I'm going to go look around. I'm taking this with me." I picked up the rifle and headed out back into the woods.
About a half mile into my walk, I came across what looked to be an old shooting house. I tried the knob, but it was stuck, so I took a running go and threw my shoulder into the door. It came open with a protesting groan.
The bones of who I assumed to be the hunter who stayed here laid on a small cot in the far corner of the house; a shot gun in the bed with him. I walked over and picked up the gun, releasing the barrel to find it loaded.
There was a box of shells on a table below the bed, so I grabbed them too. I pulled the foot locker out from under the bed and opened it up. It was stuffed full of blankets.
"My fucking lucky day." I smiled as I closed the trunk and dragged it out of the building. I found some rope inside and I looped it around one of the handles and pulled the locker back to out small camp.
"Jasper!" I called out to him with a smile in my voice. "You're not going to believe this."
I showed him the trunk with the blankets and the shot gun. "There may be more stuff there. I just wanted to go ahead and bring this over."
"Good fucking job, Tits." He smiled as he looked the shotgun over. "Let's go see what else is up there."