Chapter 21: They’re coming
Jodi sat on a rock at the campsite facing away from the fire. Part of the reason for her position was so that Hari could more easily examine her, and partly so she didn’t have to meet the two pairs of eyes boring into her back.
When she’d stepped out of the truck there’d been a great cheering, as people congratulated her on being immune to the disease. But two people didn’t cheer, instead they stared at her with all the devotion of puppies. But unlike the devotion of animals, their gazes only served to make her uncomfortable, and so she’d sat on the rock facing away from them as she took of her jacket for Hari.
“what’s wrong with Damien and Nate?” she whispered to the doctor. Hari looked up when she spoke and glanced over her shoulder at the two men briefly. He then smirked slightly and turned back to her pulse.
“nothing’s wrong with them. They’re just relieved you’re alright.”
Jodi scoffed. “so’s everyone else. But no one else is boring holes in my back with the sheer force of their stare.”
Hari chuckled. “well those two are different from everyone else.”
Jodi frowned in confusion. “how so?”
Hari smiled kindly at her. “I don’t think it’s my right to answer your question.” He stood up and dusted himself off. “in any case,” he said, raising his voice slightly so everyone around the campsite could here. “ I pronounce that your fever was due to shock and I’m happy to give you a clean bill of health.” He patted her shoulder and murmured quietly. “ as for everything else, best not let that rest too long. We don’t have a lot of time in this world to sit around with unanswered questions. “
When the doctor moved away, Jodi stood up and turned to look at the two men. Her gaze shifted from one to the other, trying to decide which to talk to first.
Slowly she began to walk forward, around the rock she was sitting on , around the bonfire, until she stood in front of .... Nate.
“hey “ she murmured as she sat beside him.
Nate stared up at her, stunned, for he’d been so sure she’d move to sit beside Damien. And yet here she was, sitting beside him like she would have had this been two years ago. “hi,” he responded.
She stared into the fire for a long time, her face trance-like, a face most people can’t help but make as they stare into a flame. She never removes her gaze as she spoke to him. “Laurie told me what happened after I blacked out. How you saved my life.” She frowned. “that was reckless. You shouldn’t have done that. If you had failed to save me and died what would’ve happened to Jake?”
Nate shook his head and chuckled. “you’re welcome, Jodi.”
She glanced at him in surprise, and then sighed and smiled. His heart almost stopped when he saw that smile, the very first genuine smile she had offered him for two years.
“I’m sorry Nate,” she whispered. “I was wrong to doubt you, but you have to understand that the idea that you still loved me was more ludicrous than that you wanted to kill me.”
“I know Jodi, I’m sorry. “ he reached out and grasped both of her hands in his. “I love you. I realised it as I scoured the desert looking for any sign of you.”
Jodi closed her eyes as a fluttering feeling held in the pit of her stomach. She believed him, now more than ever, but unfortunately in a world as dangerous as the one she lives in now, that might not be enough. Besides...
“you’re a bit too late.” She said.
His hands jerked away from her and his eyes were wide in shock. “you...surely you’re not... with Damien...already?”
“no, no, no!” she waved her hands frantically as though she could waive the thoughts that were obviously on his mind away like that. “no I don’t mean like that. I meant I have feelings for him too.”
“when you say ‘too’?”
She nodded. “I mean both of you. You’re my first love, but he’s my present one. I’m not even sure he knows of it yet.”
Nate ruefully smirked at that, knowing full well of Damien’s feelings for Jodi, but his smile disappeared as he thought of this new twist in their story. She had feelings for the both of them; the both of them who had made a pact to compete fairly for her. This left them all in an awkward stalemate.
“so...what do we do now?” he said.
“complete the mission, I guess. “ she responded. “then...we’ll see.”
He nodded and she stood up to leave. Before she left she looked at him squarely, making sure he’d met her eyes and then smiled, a beautiful, genuine smile.
Then she made her way over to where Damien was sitting. Was she just imagining it or was their a sullen look on his face as he watched her walk over to him?
He stood up before she could reach him and move away towards the truck. “we should start heading off, we’ve rested for long enough.” He called to the rest of the group. they all agreed and packed away their temporary camp, removing all signs of their presence and dousing and burying the fire. It was time to continue their journey.
Jodi stood and watched Damien leave, a guilty feeling eating away at her stomach. She wondered at this, for she could not think of anything she’d done wrong, but she couldn’t get rid of the feeling.
***
It took two days to cross the desert at full speed, before Jodi began to see changes in the land. The seemingly endless waves of sand and desert grass made way to drier, greener pasture littered with trees so large they look almost terrifying. Although it had only been two years since Jodi had once been living almost exclusively within the forests of Victoria, she found the trees to be alien after the many months of endless sand. She found herself staring at the ground in hopes of seeing patches of grassless dirt as the trucks soaring over the forests.
Half an hour later they’d reached the outskirts of the ruins of Melbourne city.
Jake stood behind her, having opted to sit in the soldier’s truck with her rather than in the community’s without her. “welcome home, big sis.” He murmured so only she could hear. She reached behind her and tugged him gently forward so that she could wrap her arm around his waist, since he had grown too tall for her to wrap around his shoulder like she used to.
“this isn’t our home anymore.” She whispered back, her tone gentle.
“we should find a place to camp.” Damien called to Steve who was driving.
Steve indicated that he had heard and reared off till he was gliding beside the others’ truck. With one hand he signalled for them to rest. Richard, who was driving the other truck gave a thumbs up, in agreement and steve drove slightly faster to lead the other truck. A minute later the trucks were parking on the roof of an abandoned skyscraper.
The passengers in the truck filed out silently. Dusk was falling, but that no longer meant safety and the need to remain undetected was striking fear in all their hearts.
They went about setting up plastic mats and anything else they found on the roof of the skyscraper to shield their fire from any sight, even though they were on such high ground. The smoke would be concealed in the night but the fire wouldn’t be. It was still dusk though, and though it was cold on the roof nobody suggested starting the fire now.
Jodi worked on trying to catch Damien’s eye as they both worked on hiding the camp, but he stubbornly refused to acknowledge her. As time went by Jodi could feel the guilt in her stomach eat away at her and she tried desperately to work out how she’d offended him. Surely it wasn’t about her speaking to Nate? Nate had informed her that before the attack from the vampyres, Nate and Damien had worked out a truce. But if it weren’t for that then why?
Her determination reared up and she ran over to where he was hefting a pretty heavy-looking sheet of metal on its side. She reached over and grasped the other end.
“Damien.” She hissed as she heaved.
He sighed and lifted his head to meet her eyes.
“what’s going on?” she asked him.
“nothing.” He murmured. “nothing according to you that is.”
“what? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“it means,” he said as he lifted the metal into position and turned to look at her. “that you are the most oblivious person in the world.”
Jodi lifted her chin indignantly. “I am not!” she hissed, trying not to attract the attention of the others. “ and I don’t want to hear that from the last person to realise we were under attack by the vampyres.”
He sucked in a breath. “that was nasty.” He growled stepping towards her.
“ this whole situation is nasty.” She hissed. “and you started it with all your brooding and sulking.”
“Jodi.” He murmured in a warning tone.
But Jodi was too angry to care about his tone. “ if I seem oblivious it’s only because you’re the most uncommunicative person in the world.
“Jodi.”
“how am I supposed to know what you feel if you never talk about it?”
“Jodi!”
“what?!” she said, no longer whispering harshly.
“shut up and look there.” Damien was pointing out over the edge of the building’s roof at something in the distance. Jodi went and stood beside him so she could see through the gap in the metal that he was looking through, her anger now giving way to her curiosity.
“what am I looking at?” she asked, her eyes straining against the now dimming sunlight.
Damien pushes his pointing finger out in the distance beside her face and she follows his finger to what looks like a thick black, flat storm cloud, only the cloud rather than being in the sky, is travelling on the surface of the ground.
She leaned hard against the roof wall, trying to look closer. She felt Damien's hands on her waist, as though her was afraid she would fall off. She almost snorted at his protectiveness, but his hands felt nice where they were so she didn’t push them off.
“what is that?” she whispered to herself. All of a sudden the shapes made sense and Jodi reared back in shock.
“Laurie!” she cried. “everyone.” She pointed to where Damien was when she gained their attention. “look out there! Quickly!”
Everyone hurried over, clamouring over the gap, whilst Jodi, shifted some of the sheets of metal, to look at the view all around the building. Almost in every direction there were thick black clouds on the ground heading in their direction.
“what? What are we looking at?” Richard hissed as loudly as he dared.
“Vampyres!” Jodi hissed back. “hordes of them!”
The black clouds were crowds and crowds of vampyres dragging piles of metal towards them. They were coming in every direction, so many of them they resembled an army.
“they’re coming towards us. How did they know we’re here?” she cried.
“maybe they’re not coming towards us, exactly.” Said Alice, moving away from the walls. “you said so yourself, Jodi, there’s something about Melbourne.
Jodi looked at her and joined her in the centre of the roof. “what do we do?” she said.
“I’ll tell you what we’re going to do.” Said Angela. “we’re going to complete this mission, like we set out to do.”
Turk stepped forward. “I agree, we’re too close now to stop now.”
Damien stepped away from where he stood closest to the edge of the roof. “in that case.” He said meeting Jodi’s eyes. “it’s your call. Which way do we go now?”
Jodi bit her lip in hesitation. In truth nothing around her sparked her memory. “wherever we go we’d better get there quickly.” She said carefully. “how long before the vampyres reach us?” she said.
“a day, maybe two at the rate they’re travelling. Unlike us, they’re on foot,” said Seth.
“we need to get to the inner city area. We’re in the outskirts now. A prominent man like Matthews would have had his lab in the centre of the city at least.” Said Laurie. Jodi was relieved that nobody was looking to her for directions, and so simply nodded when Laurie looked to her for confirmation.
“then there’s no time to waste.” Said Alice. She pointed to her husband and Nick. “you two pull down one of those sheets. “she pointed to the metal sheets that blocked the wall of the roof. “I was hoping to get some rest, but something tells me that’s not a priority right now. We’ll rest in the trucks. In the meantime, everyone get in the trucks. We’re heading to the CBD.”
for those of you who don't know the CBD is the Central Business District. it's the centre of Melbourne City. personally i think the food distirct ought to be the centre of the city, but there you go.
anyways sorry this is taking too long but i really don't have much time to spare for this. next chapter should be better - we're really getting to the climax and then i'll have finished my first story. :)
tigerLily_x