Chapter 9: Get Some Rest
It was starting to get dark by now and we all needed to get back to our base as soon as we could. It was my shift to cook dinner with some of the other girls in the group and I was keen to please, not so eager to disappoint, no matter what my excuse was. We all walked to the red Ferrari, Lola walking ahead with Glenn whilst Daryl led us there. Rick and I on the other hand stayed back by ourselves for a bit, walking in silence.
“I never thanked you,” I said, breaking the awkward quietness, “for everything.”
“Nah, nah,” chuckled Rick as he shoved his hands into his pockets, “I’m the one who should be thanking you. If it weren’t for you, I’d be dead; Shane too.”
“No, Shane would be alive; he’s too tough for death.” I smiled wryly, “but you? Yeah, you’d be dead.”
“Well thanks.” he laughed.
“No problem.” I replied.
The car wasn’t too far away now, but I was enjoying spending some time with Rick. I needed it. He had saved me after all, and I had saved him.
“You only came back for that hat, didn’t you?” I asked him, tugging on the rim of his Sheriffs hat that was lying neatly on top of the bag when I had first found it.
“Don’t tell anyone.” He sniggered.
“You gave away half of our guns and amo-”
“Not nearly half!”
“And all for a bunch of old farts that were to die off momentarily anyhow! I mean come on, how long do you actually think they’ve got?”
“How long do any of us?”
We finally arrived at the car, swinging open the doors and piling into it just like we had done this morning. It was strange to think about the day I’d had. This morning I had woken up, squared Shane’s jaw, rescued a hat and some guns, nearly got mauled by dead-ones in the process and then got kidnapped. Now I was back here in the Ferrari where my day had begun.
The drive back was nice and smooth, seeing as Rick was driving this time around. Glenn couldn’t drive for shit, and I hated to say so, but it was more than true. It was currently twilight, and the lush green forest appeared to be illuminated at night. The sheer beauty of it was impeccable, something I could get used to seeing every day.
When we had arrived back at the camp, all seemed calm and well; the way things should be and once were. Our car pulled up in the “drive way”, which was actually just a clear and wide stretch of dirt, and parked there. Rick stepped out of the car, Daryl following his lead and then the rest of us. Rick ran swiftly over to where Lori and Carl were, embracing them. Daryl walked with his head down over to his motorbike and strung-up ferrets and Glenn headed straight for the RV. Andrea and Amy stood eagerly waiting for Lola to come over to them and Shane walked right over to me, a twisted expression on his face.
“Jesus Christ, you had me worried sick!” he exclaimed as he jogged up to me, “shit girl, what happened to you?”
“I’m fine.” I breathed, brushing his hand away from my face as he reached up to examine it.
“You’re covered in cuts and bruises, what the hell happened out there?!”
“Shane, I told you I’m fine.” I said again, shaking my head, “why can’t you just accept my answer?”
“Because you look like you’ve been beaten up.”
“It’s just karma for beating you up this morning.” I sniggered.
“Not funny, Zelda, you’re hurt.”
“Okay look Shane, I’ve just come back from a rough day, could you save the questions for later?” I huffed, knocking my shoulder lightly against his as I walked past him.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he said, spinning around and grabbing my arm, “look, I’m sorry.”
I turned to look at him and nodded my head calmly, biting my lip slightly and then continued to walk away from him and over to where the women were all huddled around the fire.
As I got to the fire I noticed fresh, scaled fish on boards of wood and carrots on Andrea’s lap. The three women all looked up at me as I sat down beside Lori. Carol and Lori were both scaling fish whilst Andrea chopped up the carrots.
“Anything I can do to help?” I asked, lifting my hands up to the fire to warm them.
“We’re pretty much done actually,” said Lori as she finished scaling the last fish.
“I can stay and cook the fish.” I offered, reaching out to take the raw fish out of Carol’s hands.
“No dear, it’s fine.” Smiled Carol, “you look like you haven’t had such a great day, relax a bit.”
“Is it that obvious?” I grimaced.
“Well, you look pretty battered, so I’m going to go ahead and say yes, it is.” Replied Andrea as she placed the cut up carrots into the pot that was currently bubbling above the open flame.
“Go and rest up sweetie, we’ll call you for dinner.” said Lori.
I just bowed my head, got up and left the fire.
I was getting bored with nothing to do, and my cuts didn’t bother me in the slightest. Sure, they stung a little, but all in all they didn’t trouble me. I wasn’t sure why everybody was being so, dare I say it, “protective” of me. I wasn’t a child and they needn’t treat me like one. I was a little annoyed about being told to go and rest, so I headed back to the RV with my head down and climbed back up and onto the roof where Dale sat on watch.
“What the hell happened to you?” he asked, giving me an odd look.
I looked down at myself and then back up at him, “what does it look like?”
“You look awful Zel, have you seen yourself lately? You should go and take a break from the day.”
I rolled my eyes and climbed back down, frustrated with peoples anxiety over me.
I entered the RV, hoping to find peace within it, only to see Shane taking apart a gun. I took a step in and then a step back when I saw him. He raised one eyebrow at me before calling me back into the RV. I walked back in with a heavy step.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“Sit down, take a load off your mind.”
“Again!” I exclaimed, turning around and heading out of the RV. Everybody was on my back and agitating me.
I heard the sound of hurried footsteps behind me, Shane reappearing.
“Rick told me what happened back in Atlanta.”
“And?”
“And I’m sorry about that, I truly am.”
He motioned for me to come back into the RV and I did so, following close behind him. We took seats opposite each other at the table and sofa and collapsed in them, Shane reaching over behind him and opening the mini fridge, pulling out two cold beers and cracking the cans open. He passed me one without even asking whether I was a drinker or not. Thankfully for him, I was. I always enjoyed a cold one, despite being the age I was. I was barely of drinking age, but seeing as the world had gone to shit, I wasn’t sure how much age mattered anymore.
“How’d they do it?” he asked, taking a sip of his beer.
“Hmm?” I asked, confused by his question.
“How’d they kidnap you? Was it a gun-to-the-head, get-in-the-van-whilst-we-gag-you kind of thing?”
“More like a rifle-across-the-chest, get-in-the-car-whilst-we-gag-you.”
“So I was close?”
“Pretty close.”
Silence overwhelmed the RV as we drank our alcoholic beverages, me downing my beer faster than Shane. I may be younger than him, but I drank a whole lot faster. I was used to chugging beers on end. Back in the flat Lola and I shared in Atlanta, we used to have a lot of parties. The room would be filled with drunken strangers and myself whilst Lola whined to herself in the bedroom about the noise. We’d get complaints from neighbours too but we didn’t give many shits about that bit. I missed the good ol’ times.
“You do seem like you had a rough day though, why won’t you let anyone show concern over you?” asked Shane again.
“Because I am of nobodies concern.” I said, down to maybe a sixth of my beer in a short time frame.
“You’re of my concern.”
“And why exactly?”
“You saved my life, Zelda.” He said, putting his beer firmly down on the table in front of us, “you put your life at risk to save mine and this is me returning the favour.”
“You don’t owe me anything.” I huffed, barely a twelfth of my drink left to go.
“I don’t think you understand the fact that I owe you my fucking life.” replied Shane.
I didn’t say anything but guzzle the remained of my beer, slamming the empty can back down at full force onto the table, licking my lips in satisfaction.
“How’dya do that?” asked Shane, wide eyed.
“Do what?”
“Drink the beer so fast?”
I got up from my seat, chucked the can in the bin and made my way to the exit of the RV, “that’s not the only thing I do fast.” I said with a cheeky wink as I departed the vehicle.
It was dinner time by now, so we had all gone to gather around the campfire. The heavenly smell of food loitered in the air and infiltrated my lungs as I watched the fish roasting nicely over the open flame. Plastic plates were being passed around; each plate stocked with a fair amount of fish and boiled carrot pieces. We all ate and talked merrily for the time being, sharing stories from the pre-apocalyptic times. Dale had his wise words for everybody whilst Rick and Shane reminisced about high school. Lola and I however simply kept our mouths zipped and listened to everybody else talk, trying to get to know and familiarize ourselves with this group; the group we would be living with for, most probably, the rest of our short and selfish lives.
We had now been introduced to all members of the Atlanta based group. I had gotten to know Jacqui and T-Dog much better than before, I was introduced to the group’s handyman, Jim, and got on better terms with the Peletier family which consisted of Sophia, Carol and her abusive husband, Ed. I was given the opportunity to chat with Carl and Lori, becoming better friends with what seemed like pretty much everyone except for Ed of course. I wasn’t about to become friends with some unmannerly twat.
After dinner, we all headed off to bed, Dale on watch for the night with everybody else scattering off to their tents. Lola had switched tents to be with Andrea and Amy. I noticed that Lola and Amy got very close very quickly. I saw Shane making his way over to me yet again, a smirk painted on his attractive face.
“What are you doing hobbling around by yourself after dark?” he asked as he came up close to me.
“Debating whether to go sleep on the roof of the RV again or break into someone’s tent.” I answered, taking a single step back from Shane.
“Come with me. Oh and grab your stuff too” He smiled, taking a hold of my hand and tugging me gently along behind him and over to a tent.
He motioned for me to enter, and without arguing, I did.
The tent was quite large and spacious, almost sketchy for Shane to have this much room to what appeared to be himself only.
“This is all yours?” I asked him, looking around.
“Not anymore.” He grinned, pointing at a worn down mattress with a bed sheet over it and a doona folded up on the side, purple pillows adorning the head of the mattress. “See that bed? It’s yours now.”
I smiled wildly at Shane, walking over to the set-up and dropping my backpack of stuff right by it.
“Are you pulling my leg here?” I said, unable to hide my content.
“Do I look like I’m kidding?” he chuckled.
“You always look like that.”
I sat down on the mattress as Shane crawled over ton his, pulling off his blue button up shirt and sliding off his pants, then realizing that I was still in the tent.
“Hey, at least I’m not naked.” He chortled, climbing underneath the covers.
“Yeah, I need to change as well.” I said as lifted up the hem of my dirty top before lowering it back down, “could you uh, look away, please?”
“Whoops, yeah, sorry about that.”
I smiled in appreciation as I yanked my top off, pulling off my black skinny jeans and kicking them to the side with my foot.
“Can I turn around yet?” he asked as he lay facing the side of the tent.
“Not yet.” I breathed as I loosened my bra before taking it off completely. I stood there half naked in the tent as I fumbled around in my bag for a clean top to wear to bed. I hated wearing bras to bed so oversized t-shirts were a blessing.
“Now?”
“Nope.” I answered, slipping into a baggy Umbrella Academy top and throwing a pair of mint green pyjama shorts of my black lacy undies, “okay, now.”
He shuffled around under the covers to witness me climbing underneath my doona.
“Nice t-shirt.” He smirked.
“You still pulling my leg?”
“You still think I always look like I am?”
I sniggered as I turned over onto my side, putting out the lantern that was lit beside my bed.
“Goodnight ladder-boy.”
“Hey, don’t call me that.”
“Whatever.”