Apocalypsis: Book 3 (Exodus) (4 page)

The smoke from the mosquito sticks was making me dizzy and sick, so I turned my head, trying to find some fresh air.  My eyes locked on the strong leg that stood by my bedside.  I looked up to see who was visiting.

Paci was standing by my bed, a bottle of water in his hand.  “Hey,” he said, looking intently at my face.  “Feel better?”

“No.  I feel worse, actually,” I said weakly.  I couldn’t for the life of me sound as strong as I felt in my brain now, knowing I had a plan.  My body was still too wasted to perform, but my mind was getting stronger by the second.  I struggled to sit up, but Paci sat down on the edge of my pallet and pushed me back.

“Stay.  I just came to see how you were and to bring you some water.  Here … drink.”  He pushed the bottle into my good hand, pausing to unscrew the cap for me.

I took a long sip and then dropped my head back, balancing the bottle on my stomach.

“So, how’s your leg?” I asked.

He glanced down at it.  “It’s okay.  The bullet went through the meat.  I’m going to be fine.”

“What about Kowi?”

“He’s going to be okay, I think.  He’s too stubborn to get sick over it.”

We both smiled.

“So …,” started Paci, clearly a little uncomfortable.  “You … uh … had some issues with Coli.  What’s that all about?”

“Do you really have to ask?” I said, rolling my eyes.

“She
is
a pain in the butt, but I got the impression it was more than that.”

It
was
more than that, but I wasn’t sure he was the one to be my confessor.  Something in his eyes, in his body language, made me nervous.  He reminded me of Bodo in some ways, and that made me feel both guilty and sad.

“It’s nothing.  Boring girl stuff.”

Paci stared at me for a few seconds, before reaching over to squeeze my shoulder.  “Okay.  Well, I’m here for ya if you need to talk.  I won’t tell anyone anything you say, just so you know.”

“Thanks, Paci.  I appreciate that.”

“Everyone needs someone to confide in,” he said mysteriously.

I should have said nothing, but I couldn’t just let it hang like that.  “Who’s your confessor?”

He shrugged.  “I don’t have one.”

He’d been so nice to me from day one, even though he’d followed Kowi’s orders to grab me when he first met me.  I’d seen him fight enough times to come to the conclusion that even then, he’d held back and not used everything he had against me.  He was always standing around, smiling, interjecting humor when things got too intense.  All of this made it impossible for me not to respond.

“You can confide in me if you need someone.  I won’t share either.”

He smiled.  “Thanks, Bryn.  Maybe someday I will.”  He stood up, my eyes following him automatically.   “Keep the water.  I’ll come see you at dinner.”

“Okay, thanks,” I said, tipping the bottle towards him before taking another sip.  He walked away before I was finished.

I swallowed, thinking about what had just transpired, letting the water bottle rest beside me.  Paci was a good guy, maybe even a good friend.  It was hard to believe he didn’t have anyone he could talk to; he was a pretty popular guy, always laughing and joking around with everyone.  He was cute, too … really cute.  And I’d seen lots of the girls watching him and acting very interested.  But I also knew that sometimes it was hard to open up, and when you found someone you could do that with, it felt like coming home in a way - to a safe place.

I wanted to be that for Paci, but a part of me felt like I’d be cheating on Bodo.  But I told myself that was stupid, because there was nothing wrong with talking to someone, and I was going to go find Bodo soon anyway.

My mind drifted to his rescue, but my plans were interrupted by Peter who’d arrived again to boss me around, apparently.

“Finish that water and then come on.  Kowi wants to see you.”

I sat up with the plan to gulp the rest of the water down, raising the bottle partway to my lips, when the world started to go faint, my vision narrowing down to a tunnel of grayness in front of me.

I heard Peter say, “You don’t look so good…,” and then a buzzing filled my ears.  The tunnel shut down completely and everything went black.

***

I woke up in my hut, Peter and Buster asleep at my side.  As soon as I moved, Peter sat up quickly, his hair sticking out all over the place.

“What?  Who? …”  He looked around, lost in his dream world for a few seconds until he laid eyes on me.  “Oh.  Hey, Bryn.  Do you need anything?”

“Water?” I asked, my tongue nearly sticking to the roof of my mouth.

Peter reached over and grabbed the bottle next to him.  “Here.  I guess I fell down on the job.  I was supposed to wake you up in the middle of the night and make you drink this.”

I guzzled the entire bottle and burped when I was done.

Peter curled his lip in disgust but said nothing.  I was probably getting a pass since I was on the injured list.  I wondered what else I could get away with.

“What time is it?”  My watch had disappeared somewhere between punching a canner in the face and being here on the mattress with Buster licking my fingers.  I couldn’t remember the last time I saw it on my wrist.  “Ew, Buster, get away.”  I shoved him over onto Peter’s mattress, but he was back in half a second, deciding that me pushing him away meant I wanted more attention from him, not less.

“It’s about seven in the morning,” answered Peter, enjoying Buster’s torture of me.

Buster was angling for a chin lick, I could tell by the way he was staring at me while his butt wiggled with frantic tail wagging.

“No, Buster! 
No
lick!”

He dove at me and got one in, practically knocking me over in his enthusiasm.

I pushed him away again and held my hand out to stop him from getting close.  “I swear to God, that dog knows when I’m weak and can’t fight him off.”  I waited for him to walk away and then wiped his stinky drool from my face.  “I need some bleach or something.  I probably have an amoeba on my chin right now.”

“An amoeba?  From Buster?  Not likely.  More like e-coli.”

“Are you serious?”  Now all I could think about were the possible flecks of poo on my face.  I scrubbed my chin harder.

“No, I’m not serious, dope.  There’s nothing on your face that isn’t on every other square inch of your body right now.  I’ll help you go take a shower in a minute.  Let me just get some food in you, first.”  Peter left the sleeping area and came back with a basket that had been sitting on the shelves.  “Eat this stuff.  Then we’ll get up and get you clean and destinkified.”

I picked through the basket, not finding anything appealing; but my growling stomach would not be ignored, and the look on Peter’s face told me he wouldn’t be either, so I took out a piece of stale bread and chewed on a bite of it.

“So what happened?  One minute I was getting up to talk to Kowi, and the next I’m cuddled up next to you and the lick master here in the hut.”

“You passed out.  You’ve lost quite a bit of blood and you were just … I don’t know.  Stressed.”  He avoided talking about the reason for my stress.

“Any news?” I asked, chewing on my bread, not looking directly at Peter.  “About anything … or anyone?”

“No.  No news about Bodo.”

I was going to declare my intentions to go after him, but I stopped myself.  Peter wasn’t going to be invited, and I could totally see him tattling on me when he found out he was being left behind.  I changed the subject.  “So what does Kowi want to talk to me about?”

“I’m not sure.  Maybe next steps.”

“Next steps?” 
Hopefully they’re not the next steps of us being kicked out of the swamp.

“Yeah.  We didn’t kill all the canners.  Some of them got away.”

My eyes widened.  “Does he want to go after them?”

Peter shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I’m just speculating.  I have no idea why he wants to talk to you or what everyone is thinking.  I’m not in the loop.”

“You don’t sound upset about that.”

“I’m not.  I just want to live here, make some cloth, bake some bread, cook some stuff, and never see another canner for as long as I live - which I hope is a very long time.”  Peter pulled Buster into his lap, allowing him to lick his hand to death.  “And to be honest, I’m not all that crazy about you going out after anyone, either.  I think it’s a bad idea.”

Good thing I didn’t tell him about my Bodo plan. 
“Why?” I sat up straighter and picked some more food out of the basket.  My appetite was waking up.

“Because.  We’re never going to be able to kill all of them, and every time we piss some of them off, there’ll be more of them out there wanting to come after us.  We don’t need enemies.”

“You’re right about that.  We just need to be invisible.  But that’s not very realistic, is it?”

Peter sighed.  “I guess not.”  He got up and went over to the pantry, absently moving things around.  “I can dream, though, right?”

“Yeah, you can dream.  Maybe it’ll give us something to shoot for.”

“Well, I know you’re happy here and all.  And as far as invisibility is concerned, it’s nearly ideal. But my idea of the perfect home is not a place filled with mosquitoes, snakes, and gators.”  He emphasized his point by smacking his arm and flicking off the dead, smooshed body of one of the many blood-sucking insects that plagued us night and day.

“I hear ya.  If you can think of something better, feel free to share.  This is the best I could come up with.”

Peter came back to join me, holding his hands out to help me up.  “I’m not really complaining.  Just whining a little.  I’m allowed to do that.”

“Yep, you are.  Where are we going?” I asked, taking his hands and using them to stand up.  I didn’t let go until the dizziness subsided.

“To the bathroom and the showers.  Ready?”

I nodded.  “Yeah.  Just hand me another hunk of that disgusting bread.”

Peter bent down and grabbed it, handing it to me and holding out his elbow.  “M’ lady?”  He was waiting for me to put my hand in the crook of his arm.

“Okaaaay,” I said, doing as expected, smiling at how goofy I knew we looked.

I had to admit, though - it was easier walking a straight line with Peter there to guide me.  We made our way slowly to the outhouse path, with me only tripping once.  I got my business done, without fainting on the toilet, pants down around my ankles, so I considered it a big success.

Our next stop was the shower where I struggled but eventually was able to wash most of the grime off my body.  Peter took my bandages off for me and gave me strict instructions to clean the wound thoroughly.

The stitches were ugly and the skin around them looked nasty.  Winky was right - I was going to have a terrible scar.  But I could tell that the edges of the injury had already started to connect, and so far, I didn’t have any signs of infection.

I started to wonder what Bodo might think about my new scar, but I stopped myself.  I’d cried enough tears for a while … maybe for a lifetime.  I was done with sadness and ready to move on to hope.  Until I saw evidence of his dead body, I was going to assume he was alive and out there somewhere for me to find.

I came out from behind the curtain almost feeling like a new person.  I was clean, my arm was healing, and I had a mission.  Plus, I’d killed a monster that had haunted my nightmares for weeks on end, so that was enough to make me ready to at least face the day and find out what Kowi wanted from me.

“Come on, Peter.  Let’s go find out what Kowi’s deal is.”

“Okee dokee.  Come on, Buster!  Let’s go see the boss!  Yes, yes, yes!” He was baby-talking now.  “The bossy wossy.  The chiefy weefy…”

I smiled, watching the two of them act like complete idiots.  Life did not totally suck, and I refused to wallow in sorrow anymore until I knew for sure that I had a reason to.

Chapter Two

PETER AND I ENTERED THE clinic and went to Kowi’s bedside.  We found him propped up, reading a book.  As we got closer, I realized it was George’s journal.  I bit back the scolding that was on the tip of my tongue.  He had to be bored out of his mind in here, so I could hardly blame him for wanting some good reading material.  I still hadn’t read everything in it, probably because every page was worth studying.

“Oh, hey.”  Kowi held up the book.  “Borrowed the journal.  Hope that’s okay.”

“No problem,” I said, trying to keep my eyes off the bandage that was on his abdomen.  There was some blood seeping through.  “How are you feeling?”

“Better, actually.”  He looked down at his wound.  “If the damn thing would quit leaking, I’d feel a little more comfortable about saying that, though.”

“That’s normal,” said Celia, coming in to join us.  “Hey, Bryn … Peter.  What’s up?”

“Just coming by for a visit,” said Peter.  “How are you doing?”

Celia lifted up her half-arm which was still bandaged.  She seemed to be more comfortable moving it around now, when before she had always kept it glued to her side.  “As good as I can be, I guess.”  She turned her attention to Kowi.  “Here.  Take this.”  She handed him a pill and a bottle of water.  “Drink the whole thing.”

“Yes, boss,” he said, before throwing the pill into his mouth and gulping down the entire bottle.  He handed it back to her.  “There you go.  Ready to poke and prod now?”

She scowled at him.  “I’ll do that later, after they leave.”  She walked away to tend to another patient.

“What are they poking you for?” asked Peter, probably wondering like me if they were doing some weird-ass medicine man stuff on him.

“Just redoing the bandages, seeing if there’s any pus in there.”

Peter grimaced.  “Sorry I asked.”

Kowi smiled.  “Hey, I’m not complaining.  Being poked is better than the alternative.”

“Not being poked?” I asked.

He laughed.  “No.  Being too dead to bother poking.”  Then his smile disappeared.  “Oh, crap.  Sorry, Bryn.  I didn’t … mean anything by it.”

I grinned madly at him.  “No offense.”

Kowi frowned at me and then looked at Peter.