Their last stop for a while was a secluded mansion, which belonged to Strand. He informed them that the manor had a very sophisticated and up-to-date infrastructure that allowed it to power itself, so they would have electricity and running water so long as the systems received the necessary maintenance. The place would be safe and its systems would allow them all to stay there for an indefinite period, which was why it was their safest bet, and hence why they were headed there.
It was nearly 2 a.m. when they finally arrived at their stop. The second they all entered the mansion, Strand stated that there were five rooms, two of which were master bedrooms and the rest had twin beds, he made it clear that everyone would have to share a room except for him of course and he headed to one of the master bedrooms.
Everyone was exhausted and they each headed to their rooms almost automatically paired: Madison and Travis to the other master bedroom; Daniel with Ofelia; Nick with Chris; and Alicia with Elyza to the other bedrooms.
Alicia threw herself on the bed as soon as she entered their room; Elyza closed the door behind them and leaned on it as she stared at Alicia's limp body on the mattress. She looked beautiful just lying there with her hair all over the place. Alicia had closed her eyes but she knew Elyza was by the door staring at her, "What?" she asked Elyza.
"Nothing. I was just thinking it's a shame there's two beds instead of one." She said as she finally moved to her own bed next to Alicia's. Alicia was too tired to bury her laugh so she let it free and Elyza bit her tongue at the feeling Alicia's laugh gave her.
Alicia wanted to sleep, but she had to solve the mystery of how Elyza had showed up at just the right time. "How did you find us? How did you know where we were?" she asked.
"Lucky I guess," answered Elyza. Alicia laughed again, not believing her for a second.
Elyza liked seeing her like this, relaxed. She didn't know if it was the exhaustion from having just gone through hell combined with the lack of sleep that was making her this way, but she didn't care. She was just grateful to get to see her in this state.
Alicia turned her face to Elyza without moving her body and opened her eyes this time when she spoke, "I'm serious. Why did you follow us?" she said softly.
"I didn't really plan on following you." she lied, "I heard you and your mom talking last night about... Anyways... early morning I might have, maybe, hypothetically speaking, broken into your truck in hopes of finding a map for my possible future adventures and I might have, maybe, found the base you guys talked about marked with a pen. Hypothetically speaking, of course" she said as she conjured up an innocent face to hide her guilt, never losing her comicality.
"You broke into the truck?!" Alicia said, raising her head slightly from the mattress, "to steal a map?" she added, only to express her confusion, and how absurd the idea was to her.
"Hey, maps come in handy in a zombie apocalypse. I lost mine a while back. And by lost I mean it got drenched in zombie blood. And I said hypothetically" said Elyza.
"You could've just asked for it" complemented Alicia.
"I didn't take the map by the way, I just had a look to get an idea of where to go," Elyza cleared up after a short pause as she began changing into more comfortable clothes that she borrowed from Alicia's bag without permission. Alicia didn't seem to mind, and she seemed to be getting used to having Elyza change in front of her. Alicia looked up at the ceiling but Elyza could have sworn her eyes lingered on her body for a moment while she was in between clothing, before looking away.
"Anyways, I left after I saw what I needed but..." said Elyza.
"But?" asked Alicia, keeping her gaze fixed on the ceiling.
"But we both know you couldn't survive without me princess" she joked, earning yet another laugh from the brunette.
"The truth is..." Elyza began again but Alicia interrupted her without thinking, "I knew you were a stalker." Elyza simply chuckled as she finished changing and laid back on her bed after pulling her hair into a loose bun.
"What I didn't know was that you are reeeeaaally dramatic. I mean, I kinda knew you were into theatrics from when you plunged into a pool from the second floor balcony, but crashing through the church windows on a motorcycle yelling 'surprise motherfuckers' was... I mean, really? The only thing missing was background music. " added Alicia.
"What, you don't like grand entrances princess?" joked Elyza. They both laughed out loud at each others comments.
After a few moments of silence, Alicia spoke again, with a more solemn tone this time. "I don't think we would have made it out of there alive if it hadn't been for you. Thank you for saving..." me, "...us."
I did it for you, thought Elyza. She wasn't one to usually shy away from feelings. She pretty much always said what she thought and she would have said it this time except she thought maybe it was too honest, too soon. She chose to sit in silence instead.
"I knew you heard me and my mom talk last night. I'm sorry about what she said," said Alicia not long after.
"Don't worry about it princess. Besides, your mom is right not to trust anyone. She was right about me too. I am a thief technically. I broke into your truck to steal your map remember?" she said.
"Now you sound like Nick, and my mom." Said Alycia as she turned for a second, to check Elyza's expression. It was soft and warm so she supposed Elyza hadn't been offended by what had come out almost like contempt. She was glad about it; she hadn't intended to accuse her of anything. "How very mature of you to admit your wrongdoings" she added with a smile, pretending to sound like an adult.
"Good thing you're not a cop. I don't do well with those, though I do them well if you know what I mean," answered Elyza, who could not help herself from taking the chance to be a little naughty.
"Gross", Alicia giggled at the comment. "I'm an undercover cop actually. I would arrest you right now, but I'm too tired for it. I'll cuff you tomorrow" Alicia said as she met Elyza's gaze for a split second, only to see her biting her lip, and then Alicia went red at the realization of what she had just implied. She had meant it as an innocent joke, but what she was thinking after seeing Elyza biting her lip was anything but. Oh crap! She immediately looked back at the ceiling and she felt the air in the room get heavy. She pushed thoughts of Elyza in a cop outfit and her cuffing Elyza out of her head. She was thankful Elyza was a bed away right now because who knew what the woman would have done if she had been closer to her. After all, she had a way of ignoring Alicia's boundaries, and Alicia needed those with her.
"I look forward to it babe," answered Elyza with a grin, who noticed Alicia blushing and trying to force her breathing back to normal. She felt a tingle between her legs at the thought of Alicia handcuffing her, and she couldn't help but smile at this girl who was always desperately trying to hide her emotions without realizing how transparent she was. It was adorable, but it made it even more difficult for Elyza to control herself around her.
There was a long pause and once again, the silence hung between them. "I kinda thought I wasn't going to see you ever again." Said Alicia, still avoiding eye contact while fully aware that Elyza was now sitting on the bed gazing upon her.
"Well, you weren't going to, that was the ... plan but... I needed to see you." Said Elyza with a small pause, making sure to gage Alicia's reaction to the sentence. Alicia had not expected that last part and she swallowed hard as she opened her mouth to say something though she wasn't certain exactly what, but then Elyza continued, "you had forgotten something. I was on my way to wherever, when I noticed I had accidentally taken..." as Elyza spoke, she reached inside her bag that was placed by the bed, and Alicia turned to notice something familiar being taken out of it. She sat up straight and jumped at Elyza, almost falling atop her.
"My IPod!" she practically screamed as she took it from her. Alicia looked from the IPod to Elyza with wide eyes, not knowing what to say.
"Anyway, figured you'd want it back... so I headed for the spot that had been marked on the map" said Elyza with a smile. Alicia simply held her IPod, pleased to have it back in her possession.
After she was satisfied with looking at it, she looked up to meet Elyza's eyes. They briefly stared at each other. You look better in my clothes than I do. How can someone look so beautiful in pajamas and a messy bun? Alicia was thinking. Involuntarily, she took a quick look at Elyza's lips, and then back at her eyes. Elyza gripped the sheets on her sides and breathed in as her look intensified. It was then that Alicia perceived just how close she was to Elyza as a result of having leapt for the IPod. She cleared her throat and moved back to sit on her bed, increasing distance between them again.
Alicia was about to thank her for the favor of returning her electronic but she didn't, instead she found herself asking her all the questions that were now troubling her, "Wait, you went to the base? If you saw me there why didn't you give it to me then? And if you didn't find us, how did you know where we'd gone?"
"Like mother like daughter" was all Elyza said.
Alicia was more like her mother than she knew; she was questioning her just like Madison had the night before. Nonetheless, they were reasonable questions, but Elyza didn't want to answer them. The truth was that Elyza had indeed seen her and the rest at the base, but she stayed back and hung on to the device just a little longer. She had followed them discreetly down the road until they had run into trouble and Alicia found herself in danger, and that was when she had finally decided to step in. She could have answered her really, could have told her that, but telling Alicia these things might have meant telling her how and why she had really ended up with her IPod, and perhaps it was too soon for that too.
Alicia knew that Elyza was deliberately avoiding her questions, but perhaps if she asked the right ones, she could find what exactly it was that Elyza was avoiding. She knew that it was a lot of trouble for someone to go through to return an IPod; she could have gotten herself killed with that little church stunt. She told herself that Elyza could tell how much the IPod meant to her, but she knew deep down, that it was not a good enough reason to drive for hours to go find her and risk her life in the process for such an insignificant thing.
"Aren't you gonna change babe? Or do you plan on sleeping with those clothes?" asked Elyza, interrupting Alicia's thoughts.
Alicia looked down at herself; she had completely forgotten to change out of her clothes and into her pajamas. She didn't get up from the bed, instead she moved across it and simply extended her body in full length and reached for her bag where she pulled out some PJS. There was no bathroom in the room and she knew she had to go to the bathroom in the hall to change but she was too tired for that. She decided to change in the room, under the sheets.
She got under the sheets and tried to change, but she struggled to do so. She heard Elyza chuckle at her useless attempts. She took her head out from under the sheets only to find Elyza watching her with her eye brows raised, and then give her a "Really? Under the sheets?" Alicia ignored her and went back to finishing her task. She heard Elyza scoff but she ignored that too.
It had been several minutes and she was only half way through. She considered just changing in front of Elyza. It was dark after all; Elyza would not be able to get a good look of her. Not like she hadn't seen her before, but that had been without her intending to be seen, this would have been different. No. Bad idea. She stopped herself. Elyza might interpret that the wrong way and she couldn't afford that. She committed to changing under the covers.
It took her a while longer but she succeeded at last. She turned to Elyza who had closed her eyes already. She adjusted herself in her bed and tried to sleep too. She was so tired, she knew it would be a matter of minutes before she dozed off, but a thought stopped her. Elyza.
She didn't know whether or not Elyza was awake, but she spoke anyway after some thought. "You didn't accidentally take the IPod with you did you?" No answer came for a few seconds and she assumed that meant that Elyza had fallen asleep.
"No" She heard at last.
Alicia hadn't really had high hopes for an answer at all, much less this one. She didn't ask anything else after that. No more questions were necessary. It was evident; Elyza had taken the IPod to have a reason to follow her. She had taken it for her, to see her again. The idea gave her butterflies.
She didn't bother hiding her smile in the dark, there was no point. She drifted into a peaceful sleep not long after, filled with thoughts of strands of blonde hair, blue eyes and a beautiful smile.