I turn and open the tent, "I'm leaving Meg. You need to stay here and help out okay. They need the extra hands."
She wakes and instantly gives me a snarl, "No. I'm coming with you."
I shake my head, "No you need to stay and hang with Mary. I'm taking Will to the farmhouse. I'll be back in a couple days."
She lays back, "Fine."
I look at Leo, "You coming or staying?"
He stretches out on the sleeping bags and snuggles into Meg who laughs sarcastically, "Ha. He likes me better."
I roll my eyes, "Traitor."
I zip the tent back up and walk back to Will, whose eyes sparkle in the morning light.
"What?"
He shakes his head, amused by me for something, "You're funny Emma."
xxxx
The walk back down the mountain is less painful and considerably faster than the walk up. My feet don’t hurt and Will keeps a fast pace. Unlike Meg, he never speaks.
When we make it back to the meeting tree, we both take a pause and listen. I lead across the open field with a sprint.
We make it to the edge of the field. I crouch down to look out for any signs of life in the driveway. The barn door swings open and shut.
They're back. I know I sealed the barn door completely when I left. I can hear Will's breath on the back of my neck as I watch the house silently.
I turn and whisper, "Let me go look first."
He shakes his head and points to the barn door. I turn and look again.
I almost jump as I see them. It feels as though they're watching me. As the barn door swings open and shut a pair of eyes watch from inside. Stains of bloody tears streak the gaunt cheeks below.
My stomach twists and turns.
I back up but Will puts his arms on me to stop me from running away.
"Stay still."
His words make my skin shiver, as his hot breath lands on the back of my neck.
I don’t move. The barn door opens and closes several more times. Then suddenly it opens and the eyes are gone.
I look up at the loft window to see the thin figure pass by it. The window over looks the field perfectly. We will be seen. Suddenly I'm on the ground, in the hay and wrapped up in Will's long body. He holds me close to him.
The wind plays with the hay around us, it whispers to us.
I can feel his heart beating against my chest. We are face to face but my eyes dart around us. I hear footsteps. I hear something else, it’s the way an exhale sounds when your throat is a ragged mess.
The infected are near us. I want to pull my shirt up over my face. I want to run. I need my mask but I've left it behind. Another rule I've broken.
Will strokes his thumb along the back of my neck, where his left hand lays. He's trying to calm my nerves, before I give away our location.
In the gusts of warm wind and the calm silence of the ragged exhales, I hear a sound I don’t expect. It's the hollering of men and the high moans of the infected.
The footsteps leave the hay around us. The moaning and ragged breath becomes harder to hear, as distance is put between us and them. It's always us and them.
Will whispers into my forehead, "Oh my fucking god." We lay in silence for a moment.
He peeks his head up to look around, but I pull him back down, "One more minute."
He frowns but as I speak it the barn door closes several times hard. A raucous noise fills the air, different types of commotion begin after it.
"We need to leave now." I whisper into his throat.
His jaw nods against the top of my head.
He pulls back a bit and looks at me, almost through me with his intensely blue eyes. He tilts my chin with his free hand and lightly feathers his lips against mine. His kiss isn’t intense like Jake's was or soft and uncertain like Mary's. It's somewhere in the middle and filled with more of everything. He kisses beside my mouth and whispers into my cheeks, "We're going to crawl from here and then make our way to the forest on the other side from where we came. We don’t want to lead them to the camp."
He kisses once more just along side my lips and lets me out of his firm grip. He moves away from me and slithers backwards, away from the farmhouse. I follow him. The hay slices along my skin giving me small cuts. When we get to the halfway point between the forest and farmhouse, he stands and walks hunched right over. I do the same listening intently to every sound.
We make our way into the forest where he breaks into a run. I follow him until we reach the bigger trees. He climbs one of them quickly. I look around and start to feel uncomfortable. I don’t like being on the ground without Leo. I climb the next largest tree. I scramble up the branches until I'm as high as he is.
The farmhouse, my farmhouse, is nearly the entire view. I can see the field I've crossed too many times to count. Pain creeps around inside of me as I imagine my bunker and my rations and my clean little spaces, all torn apart by the infected.
"So Jake and Anna were here with you?" His voice betrays his lack of hope.
I nod.
I see a small cluster of men fighting the infected like fools. They will get sick. They will become infected and maybe they will die because not everyone is able to live with running sores and bloody tears.
"God, they should have run."
I recognize one of the men. He is the man who shouted the loudest when the man with the evil grin peed on the fire. The man named John who pulled down my pants.
"Those men held me captive. They're the others."
"Do you know where their camp is?"
"Yup. I'd like to avoid it."
"What if they have Jake and Anna?"
The pain in his eyes hurts me somehow, "I never said I was going to avoid it. I said I'd like to. I'm betting they have Jake and Anna."
I take one last look and know it will be a long time before I ever come back, if I ever do. I take my last look at the white siding and the small windmill in the front yard waves goodbye to me.
As my feet make their way back down the tree, I see something that makes me feel the smallest amount of fear and hope simultaneously.
On the ground is a small bandage and above it is a broken branch. I look deeper into the forest and see another broken branch.
"They got away. They're this way." I point.
Will looks at the bandage and frowns, "Emma that could belong to anyone."
I shake my head, "No it's not. It will smell like tea tree and the branches." I point to them, "I told Jake it was how I always found my way through the woods."
He bends his face to the ground and sniffs the air around the bandage, "It is tea tree."
I turn to run, but he grabs my arm as he stands and pulls me into him, "One thing first." He puts his hands on the small of my back and lifts me into his arms. His lips meet mine with desperation and excitement. His tongue slides into my mouth, caressing mine. He sucks my lower lip and nibbles it. His hands take up most of my back and rub and caress me. Suddenly his hands make their way lower. I don’t feel uncomfortable as he cups my butt and lifts me into him. He wraps my legs around him. I'm feeling the way I used to when I read the romance novels granny had stored at the cabin. I feel a heat rising low in my belly.
He lets me slide down his body, till my feet touch the ground again. Air rushes between us. I open my eyes, not realizing I had closed them, and look up into his face.
He grins, "I am going to have a hard time staying focused."
I giggle like a schoolgirl, as my granny always said. It is the first time that has left my lips, a giggle that is.
He kisses me softly one last time and walks away toward the broken branches.
"I never imagined they were alive. I went back to where they were when I got taken and I couldn’t find them. I knew Jake was young and not very responsible. Well neither of us were." He runs a hand through his dark shaggy hair.
"Anna told me you guys were pretty bad for paying attention."
He chuckles and I catch myself staring at his butt. It is round and firm and when he takes a step, it moves in a way I enjoy. I realize when I watch him I feel a small amount of guilt. Jake kissed me too. Jake made me smile and made me laugh.
Will makes me scared of him but safe against the world, where as Jake makes me feel the opposite.
Chapter Twelve
The sun sets as we reach the top of a hill I have never climbed. It is in the opposite mountain range from where I've been and I am nervous of it. I don’t know what lies on the other side. My feet hurt and I'm tired.
He lays a bunch of bows on the ground and gives me a very appealing look. It makes my stomach hurt.
I walk to where he has chosen to sleep and smile at it. There are branches on the ground making a mat for sleeping. He has chosen a huge tree with great bows to protect us in case it rains. He is like my father, more than I expected him to be. Not that I ever expected to meet him.
"They think you're dead."
He puts the last bow down and sits on it. He takes the jacket he has brought with him out and puts it down. He pats it for me to sit beside him.
My steps hurt my feet now that we've stopped walking. I drop onto the ground beside him and watch his eyes sparkle as darkness takes over the night sky. I tuck my bow and quiver next to me, always close.
"I was taken to the work farms. We were hiding in this old house like your farmhouse there. I wasn’t smart like you though. I never even thought about bunkers or having a few different houses and traveling between them. I was an idiot. Anyway they came. I hid Anna and Jake and let them take me."
His face is stoic. I want him to kiss me again. I start to wonder if he's going to.
"How did you get away from the farms?"
"I met some people while I was there. Doctors who were forced to work the breeder camps and other scientists. They convinced me I needed to start a revolution from the outside. I escaped with some of them." He shakes his head, as if his thoughts entertain him and brushes his hands through his hair again. He looks at me and smiles, "You know of a good spot to clean up around here?"
I shake my head, "Never been here before. You're starting a revolution?"