Born (2 page)

We sit in the dark, waiting for a noise
or a movement. I never turn the lanterns on. I rarely use fuel for anything. If
anything is here it's followed the smell of my smoke.

Suddenly, in the dark of my cabin lit
only by the glow of the fire there is a sound.

The sound at my door is worse than
anything I've ever heard. This category includes women being dragged into
trucks while their children scream on the side of the road, abandoned. Worse
than listening to the infected eating people, who are still alive. Worse than
the sound clothing makes when greedy fingers tear it.

It is a knock.

A simple yet slightly quiet knock. A
timid knock.

It feels as if the person knocking is
afraid to knock, but has no choice in the matter. It's like their failing
bravery can only muster this tiny pathetic little tap.

In the same breath it is pathetic, the
knock is also more frightening than anything I've ever encountered.

It might as well have been one of the
infected, clawing at the door and making the high pitch moans they make. Either
way it means I've been discovered. It makes my stomach hurt like it used to,
before I found the cabin.

Leo looks at me. He too seems confused by
the weak little knock at our cabin door. The very cabin where I found Leo
outside whining and scared of everything in the world, just as I was. The cabin
where we sat together hiding, hoping, praying, we would be left alone.

I stand frozen, holding my gun and
tremble.

Leo slinks into the shadows of the coat
and boot closet. I slide up against the wall and take my breaths slowly.

I don’t move. I watch Leo's yellow eyes.
They are hypnotic the way they never move. They relax me with the way they
wait, focused and calm.

I nod at him, which makes him crouch
lower, ready.

I put the chain lock on, making no noise
just like I've practiced.

I put my hand to the knob.

I step back slowly and position my gun.

I put my finger on the trigger.

Commanding my hand not to shake, I turn
the knob of the door and open it silently.

I've positioned one foot behind the door,
in case whoever it is decides to kick the door open.

In the tiny crack of the door I see two
eyes, blue eyes. They belong to a girl, young than me. She's maybe fifteen but
no older. She has dark hair and a gaunt face. Tears clump her black lashes
together, which makes the pleading look she gives me tremendously convincing.

"I-I-I'm s-s-sor-ry pu-pu-pu-lease
d-d-d-on't hurt m-m-e." Her lips tremble. She is shaking in fear.

She sniffles.

I close the door and click the lock. My
stomach sinks. I know I'm in for the fight of my life.

She is bait. If ever I've seen bait, she
is it.

Leo cocks his head, saunters to the door,
and sniffs. I think about just opening the door and freeing him on her, but his
tail wags. This makes me doubt his ability to eat the adorable girl.

I see his sloppy wolf face emerge and I
raise an eyebrow at him. He retreats moaning.

"Please miss. I need your help.
Please." She shouts, no longer stuttering.

Her voice is desperate. She bangs on my
door, "Please he's dying, my brother is dying, please."

I have watched children left on the road
screaming. I've watched teenage girls dragged into the woods and been forced to
listen. I've survived because I watched and listened. I've ignored everyone at
every cost. Several times I have lain under a truck with my eyes closed and
waited for it to end. Waited for the screaming to stop.

She is bait.

I close my eyes waiting, but the banging
gets louder. If they aren’t already here they will hear the banging.

Dejectedly I open the door again, putting
the tip of my gun through the door. I am ready to shoot. Again I feel the path
of the coward before me.

"If, if you kill me, please just go
find him afterward. He's hurt. They’ll find him. He's in a hole south of here.
Please."

Her words aren’t a plea. She is resigned
to die for him. She isn’t a coward. She isn’t like me.

I slump and pull the gun back. I close my
eyes for a second and let myself acknowledge that this is a bad idea. I will no
doubt regret this.

I open the door.

Leo walks cautiously to her sniffing and
circling.

"Please if you must kill me just go
to him. He's back a ways down the big hill. He's fallen in a hole and broken
his leg I think. He isn’t conscience."

I watch her eyes, they never dart. She
speaks the truth.

I grab the bundle of rope I keep on the
storage shelf and close the door.

"Thank you so much. Thank you. My
name is Anna." She holds her hands together like I've saved her life. Her
tears still pour down her face. She is small and weak, but she appears stronger
than I am. Braver.

I look at her, choosing to ignore her.
After I have gotten her brother out of the hole, she will be on her way.

Leo rubs himself against the girl.

"He's not going to bite me?"

"He might. Let's go. Stay in front
of me where I can see you."

She nods and tucks her long brown hair
into the back of her jacket. She is thin, everyone is thin, but she is thinner
than anyone I've seen in a while. I frown at myself. Who have I seen in months?
No one.

Her gaunt face tells me her brother and
her have been alone since the beginning, like me. And Leo. No one takes care of
her. She fights for everything she has. This makes her my enemy.

I know the exact hole her brother is in,
if he is really in there.

I keep my ears sharp. Thankfully she
never speaks. I know she is a survivor, she has common sense. She walks
silently as I do. Her breathing is even.

As we approach the hole I wait at the far
side, assuming I am being led to be pushed in. I have a bad feeling they will
take my cabin and leave me to die. She gets onto her knees and crawls to the
edge, "Jake?"

"Anna?" A guy's breathless
voice rises from the hole.

She starts to cry, "Jake we got
rope, I found her. She's back now. Everything will be okay now."

My hackles rise at the words 'she's
back', "How long have you been following me?"

She puts a hand out, "Let me have
the rope."

I take a step back as Leo takes one
forward. He senses my agitation.

"Just let me have the rope please,
he's hurt." She pleads.

I shake my head and point my rifle at her
face, "How long have you been following me?"

She slumps, "Two months. We stayed
in the woods outside the cabin. We needed the well water. I'm sorry."

I want to feel nothing but I know, I know
I'm lucky. My father told me about the cabin in the woods his family owned. I
knew I had somewhere to go when it all ended. They were, no doubt, left with
nothing. This doesn’t take away the sick feeling I have in my stomach, knowing
I have been spied on for two months. I glance at Leo and raise an eyebrow. He
slumps slightly under my scrutiny. He is ashamed but doesn’t know why. He knows
my looks.

"I am sorry. We didn’t mean to scare
you. We saw how many guns you had and we knew you had the wolf. We wanted to
leave you alone but we had no where to go."

The voice speaks from the hole,
"Look don’t hurt my sister, just pass me the rope and I'll pull myself
out. We won't bother you again. I know you're scared but we really are just
regular people like you."

Like me. I hear my father's voice, 'it's
us and them Em' and remember there are no regular people.

I lean my gun against the tree. Leo
stands beside it at the ready, just like I trained him to. I turn and tie the
rope around the tree next to me. I toss the remainder of the rope down the
hole. When they're gone I will set up booby traps. I won't be caught by
surprise again.

"Tie it under your arms." I say
toward the entrance of the hole.

I can see the rope moving as he ties
himself up.

"We will pull you up just try to
help a little okay."

"Okay."

I look at Anna and wait for her to come
help. She looks back at me expectantly.

I frown, "I'm not pulling him up
alone."

She laughs slightly. It feels weird for
me. I don’t know when I heard someone laugh last.

She gets up and walks to me. Neither of
us trusts the other. She eyeballs me, as much as I do her. We each take the
rope in our hands. I wrap it around my hand and she does the same.

"Ready?"

She nods, just as he calls up from the
hole. "Ready."

"One, two, three."

We dig in with our feet and pull hard. I
can see her neck straining against the pull.

It is the hardest thing I've ever done. I
grow frightened of just how big he is. He weighs a ton.

I watch a huge hand reach up out of the
hole and claw at the dirt. Anna drops the rope and runs to it. Another huge
hand pops up and digs in. She reaches down and pulls on his arms. I try not to
gasp as a massive man crawls from the hole. I can tell he's thinner than he
should be. His frame towers over Anna.

He smiles at me, "Thanks. I never
thought I would get out of there. I honestly didn’t think you would help
us."

My heart does something it has never done
before. It skips a beat. His dark shaggy hair hangs around his forehead at eye
level. His blue eyes sparkle, even in the faint moonlight, up through his hair.
His smile is devastating, with chiseled features and a strong jaw line. I
imagine the feel of his lips against mine for the faintest of seconds.

"Uhm hello?"
I shake my head, seeing the smile
cross his lips, "What?"

He laughs, they laugh a lot.

"My name is Jake and this is my
sister Anna." He stands on one leg resting his arm over Anna's shoulder,
supporting his hurt leg in the air.

"You'll need that set." I point
at his hanging leg.

He smiles again and I feel a fire
somewhere inside of me being lit. "You can do that?"

I nod my answer and try to calm the
disturbing feelings I am riddled with. I point to the cabin, "Let's
go." I pick up my rifle.

"What's your name?" He asks. I
like his voice.

I walk to him trying not to stare,
"I will help you, I think I'm stronger than her." I don’t trust
myself around him, but the faster I help them the faster they can leave.

His warmth crashes onto me as he clutches
my shoulder. I have never wondered if I am short, but he makes me feel tiny. I
can smell him all around me. His smell makes my insides hurt.

I look at Leo who walks up to Anna and
nuzzles her, encouraging her to start walking.

"Traitor." I whisper.

Jake laughs again, "She's really
good with animals. It's the only friggen reason we are still alive."

I don't know what that means. Is she
going to try to eat my wolf? She doesn't look like the kind of kid who hugs and
pets her food before eating it. I'm not sure there are even kids who do that.

We walk the short bit back to my cabin in
silence. He tries talking but I just listen, not to him but everything around
us. This isn’t how I want to die and I don't know how much noise they've made
thus far. He doesn’t seem to have a clue how to be quiet. His sister is the
opposite. She listens like I do.

I feel considerably better when I smell
the fire of my cabin and see my front door.

"How did you find this place?"
He asks when I open the door.

I put my finger to my lips and creep in
with my rifle raised. I never locked the door. Another rule I've broken.

I clear each of the two rooms and the
bathroom. I check the closets and then turn the small lantern on, creating a
tiny warm orange glow.

He hops along the couch and sits down,
grimacing in pain. My house feels exposed. No one has ever been here before.

"Jake you're going to be okay,
right?" Anna kneels in front of him and looks back at me. I lock the door
and close the curtains completely. I feel vulnerable. His eyes watching me make
me feel worse.

I need them gone.

"He'll be fine, just let me take a
look." I bring the lantern and sit on the floor beside her, "Go sit
by the fire and warm up. There is a stew on top. Get a bowl and eat." She
doesn’t have to be asked twice.

I look up at him. He lays his head back
on the couch and looks like he will fall asleep at any second.

I smirk, knowing he will be wide-awake
the moment I touch the break.

"You can't scream okay."

He lifts his head and smiles bitterly,
"I screamed like a little girl when I fell in the damned hole."