Born (11 page)

I point, "I thought they were
here."

Leo doesn’t like the struggle going on.
He leaps in between us and knocks Will to the ground.

He has him by the scruff of his shirt and
is making a noise I've never heard before.

"Leo."

He ignores me. I sit on the ground and
make a whistle sound. He tugs once more on the shirt and backs away. He turns
and saunters to me. He's overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed. He curls up in my lap.
I stroke his ears. He trembles.

Will stands up and walks to me. Leo
growls and snarls in my lap. I look up at Will, "I wouldn’t move if I were
you."

His dark eyes play in the dim light of
dusk, "They're alive?"

"Last time I saw them."

His jaw tenses.

I turn to see a ruggedly handsome man
walking up to where we are. "Will I need to go over some things with
you."

The white haired boy sees the man and
starts his tirade all over again. He is stamping his feet and pointing at Leo
who trembles. I wrap my arms around him and glare at the young boy. I hate
children.

"Stop that you little brat. You'll
get us all killed." I hiss at him. The noise will no doubt draw the others
or worse.

Will laughs at me, but his expression is
lost.

Meg walks up to me in a clean dress with
patches. Her hair is slicked back and wet. Her face is stark without the film
of dirt she has been covered in since I met her. She is holding a platter of
sorts covered in meat and something white.

"Em thith ith cheeth. You have to
have thum." Her mouth is near bursting as she speaks. I grimace watching
her stuff her gourd, as my granny always said.

She sits beside Leo and I. He raises his
face instantly and starts eating from her plate. She doesn’t even bother to
fight him for her food. I suspect she brought it to share with him. His body
vibrates as his jaw reaches for the food.

The man beside Will has picked the boy
up. He's crying and reaching for the brown haired lady with the doe eyes.

"You little monkey." She twirls
him around. She loves him so much. I can see it on her face. I think she loves
everyone, in the whole world.

Meg sits cross-legged with her skirt
hiked up. I laugh seeing her tanned legs and underwear.

The dark haired lady scowls, "Megan
sit like a lady."

Meg looks up with a drumstick of a bird
hanging from her lips. Leo makes the same face with a large chunk of dark meat.

Will bursts into fits of laughter.

Meg frowns at me, "Wha?"

I shake my head, "Nothing." She
brings levity that no one can resist.

"I can see your under garments
Megan."

Meg looks up at her and frowns,
"Then give me back my pants. Or stop looking."

I snicker at her saucy ways.

The doe eyed lady frowns, "Those
pants are being burnt. We will have new pants for you in a bit. Until then try
to act like a human being."

Meg blushes and pulls her skirts around
her knees, "Yes mam."

She glances up at me with a hidden smirk.

Leo is making his weird wolf noise that
he makes when he's happy. It nearly sounds like a cat purring but it's lower
and deep inside of him.

The platter is empty and I've had
nothing. I can't stop looking up at Will, who is talking with another man. He
glances at me every now and then. I can see he wants to talk to me.

"The people I'm looking for, Anna
and Jake. Will is their brother." I point to him subtly.

Meg raises an eyebrow, "You think
that’s why Leo brought us here?"

I shrug, "Maybe. I think he smelled
the food."

Meg grins with food in her teeth,
"Thank god for Leo and his belly."

"I'm worried about where they are
though. If they're not here where could they have gone?"

"The farms." She says it
nonchalantly, even though I know she fears the idea of it whether she has met
them or not.

My skin prickles thinking about them in
the farms. Anna is old enough to be put to "work" and Jake is strong.
He will be made to work hard labor.

I look up and see people eyeballing us.
They pretend to be working near us, but they watch Leo eating. It makes me
smile. If only they knew what a pussycat he is.

I feel fingers bite into my skin,
"Wolfie mine." He shouts into my face.

The little brat is back. I hate him. His
greedy little fingers are wiping an orange paste on my shirt. I lean away from
him.

"Don't look so horrified. He's just
a kid." Will picks the little monster up and carts him back to the doe
eyed lady. I feel sorry for her. Her life must be horrid.

I look at the orange stain mixed with
debris smeared across my sleeve.

I glance up at Will, "Is there
somewhere I can wash up?"

He nods at the dark haired lady,
"Mary can take you."

She smiles, "Follow me." She
passes the evil beast with the white hair to a man next to her.

I look at Meg who nods, "Just don’t
get roped into the dress and them brushing your hair. It's a bad experience.
Leo's fine with me."

I walk away from him, not looking back. He'll
see my fear and follow. I don’t want him anywhere near the little monster. It's
going to touch him and hurt him and Leo will bite and they’ll defend their
little brat. Then we'll have to leave and it will ruin my plan to have a good
night sleep.

"You've never seen a child before
have you?" Mary asks sweetly as we walk past a grouping of tents and
lean-tos. She leads me down a steep narrow dirt path.

"Not in over ten years. Just the
ones left behind when the mom's get taken. I don’t hang around long enough to
get to the know them though."

"That's horrible. You leave little
kids alone?"

I don’t care if she judges me. I am
alive. "I was a kid too Mary. I barely took care of myself and Leo."

She crosses her arms, "He gets tired
once it's after six. He really is a sweet boy. Once you get to know him, you'll
love him."

I try not to be rude but speak my mind,
"He will get you killed with noises like that. The infected love noisy
things that lead to food."

She looks back aghast, "We never
leave the camp. None of the children do."

"So you have an agreement with the
infected and the others that they stay out of your camp so the kids can be as
noisy as they want?" My sarcasm is filled with more sarcasm.

She laughs, "You really don’t have
any social skills do you?"

I shrug, "I've made it this long out
there, alone."

She looks shocked, "How long have
you been alone?"

My anger and pain is pulled away from me
when I see it. I stumble past her and sigh, "Since the beginning."

The walls surrounding it are high and
rocky. Nothing can get to the massive lagoon of crystal clear dark green water.
The only visible path is the one I'm standing on. I pull my boots and socks
off. My scabs sting on the dirt and rocks. I pull down my pants and rip off my
shirt. I look back at her and smirk. I run down the remainder of the path. I
run out onto the huge flat rocks that make a platform in the water. I dive in
before I can chicken out. The cold rips through me instantly but I have never
felt this clean. I remember my baths as a small kid. They were filled with
bubbles and hard plastic mermaids. This is much better. The freshness of the
water makes me feel alive in a good way. I lie on my back and float. The huge
rocky walls surrounding me are amazingly high and rugged. The tops are high enough
that even if I was spied upon I wouldn’t know who they were and vice versa.

I look over at Mary as she jumps off the
rock. I blush as she enters the water with a big splash. She had been
completely naked. I've never seen another naked woman before.

"So where are your parents?"

Apparently she has no problem going for
the personal details right off the bat.

I lie back again and watch the sky grow
dark blue, as the evening fully starts to set in.

"My mom died when I was really
little. She had cancer."

"Back then everyone had
cancer."

"Yeah I guess so. Anyway she died
and it was me and dad and my grandparents. My dad was a survivalist so when
things got bad we got out early. He taught me a lot of things I needed to
know."

"Wow I heard about those people. I
remember hearing my mom and dad call them wing-nuts and crazy."

I laugh bitterly, "Yeah. That’s how
I felt about him. Well until the infection hit and Japan had those massive
earthquakes and the tsunamis hit the west coast. Then I was pretty impressed at
his resources."

"Did you get separated?"

I shake my head, "No we hid at a
friend's bunker till we could get out of the urban areas. We were on our way to
my grandparents cabin when we were in an accident. He was pinned under the
jeep. The hunters were coming. He told me to run."

I don’t look at her. I have always been
ashamed of that moment.

"After he was taken I was on a
hillside and I heard a gunshot. I knew it was him. I ran for weeks until I got
to the cabin. I was there alone until a few weeks ago."

She splashes me. I look up at her grin
and frown, "How many times have you swam in the last ten years?"

I feel confused and lost in the
conversation suddenly, "Uhm three times. Once I was being chased by the
infected. I've crossed rivers without really swimming lots though."

She laughs, "How great is this
moment?"

I'm annoyed by her randomness, but I nod,
"Really amazing."

Her eyes are glassy under the light of
the dark sky, "Then leave the rest of it where it happened. They ruined
everything ten years ago, we can't let them ruin the future too." She
splashes me again.

The anger is sucked out of me. She's
right. I've lived afraid of making friends and helping people.

Suddenly a noise rips through the air. I
turn as several people jump into the water. The waves and splashing take over
the lagoon.

"Oh my god it's freezing." I
see a blonde girl who's a little older than me next to me. Her teeth chatter. I
realize suddenly mine are chattering. I see a huge hand come up behind her and
push her face under the water. I swim away quickly in a panic. A young guy
laughs as she breaks the surface and shoves him, "Ass."

They're playing in the water. Memories of
people playing in the water flood my mind.

"Kim you know you love me." He
pulls her into his embrace and kisses her with force. Suddenly she is pressed
against him and they're kissing like people did in the movies, before.

I feel someone swimming up behind me. I
turn suddenly to see a huge hand coming for my head. I try to swim away but my
foot is grabbed. I am sucked under. I panic kicking as hard as I can. My legs
are pulled back and I'm squished into a warm body. I swallow water before I'm
able to break the surface. I push on the skin I touch and force my head above
the water in a panic.

I
hear a man's voice over the sounds of my own choking. "Jesus calm down.
Are you okay?"

I sputter and cough. I feel sick but also
terrified. I never drink water that isn’t boiled or fresh from my wells. Anyone
of them could have the infection. It could be in the water. I swim for the big
rock and pull myself up onto the platform. I lie on my stomach against the cold
stone. My skin trembles and shivers.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I look over at Mary at the edge of the
rock. I nod and push myself up. I pick up my clothes and run up the hill toward
the tents.

"Asshole."

"What?"

"Mark you have to be careful. She's
lived alone since she was a kid. She doesn’t get it."

"I didn’t mean to."

I run faster to get away from their
voices. I feel like a freak. I make my way to the nearest fire. I am alone,
until I feel the warm breath at my hip. His cold nose feels warm against my
bare skin. I go to pull on my stinky dirty clothes but Mary is suddenly there.
She holds out a pile.

"Here." She is dripping wet
too. We stand looking at each other in the firelight. She is so beautiful in
her soaked dress with the water dripping from her.

"Thanks." I put my bundle down
on the dirt and take the pile she offers. They smell funny. I pull on the shirt
and the pants over my soaked underwear. I pull my bra off when the shirt is on
and covering me.

She takes it in her hands, "What's
your name?"

I feel my lips tremble, "Emma."

She leans in and kisses me softly on the
lips, "Emma it's okay. You're safe here. No infection and no others and no
military. We take care of each other." She takes my soaking wet bra and
picks up my pile of filthy clothes and leaves. I stand alone by the fire
realizing she kissed me. I liked that she kissed me. It was a nice feeling. Not
nice the way Jake's kiss was. Hers was sweet and soft. It makes me feel happy.