Dead Living (16 page)

“Hey Sam, you in here?”

She spun around, not
expecting to see Aaron's face. His eyes grew wide when he saw Sam's
body, pretty much
all
of it.

“Wow.”

“Aaron! Get out!”

He quickly pulled his head out and leaned
against the door. He waited patiently while Sam put on some light
clothes, and cussed at him from her room.

“Okay, you can come in.”

He did so and closed the door behind him.
“I'm sorry, Sam, really. I'm not used to knocking, and I thought I
heard you in here.”

Any anger she felt disappeared when she
looked at him. She burst out laughing. Aaron looked down at
himself, trying to figure out what was going on.

He had his shirt slung over his shoulder. He
still wore his backpack and quiver of arrows, and carried his bow
in his right hand.

“Please tell me you didn't walk around all
day like that.”

“Yeah,” he said. He dropped his gear to the
floor. “I didn't have anywhere to put my stuff.”

“So what do you think? Are you gonna
stay?”

He frowned. “I still don't know.”

She felt her heart sink. “What do you
mean?”

“Sam, I've already made one enemy. And the
women keep giving me weird looks.”

“That's cause you're running around without a
shirt on.”

“Not just me. It's hot out there.”

“Well no one else looks as good as-” She
stopped herself short. Luckily for her, Aaron had no clue what she
was thinking.

“What's that again?”

“Nothing.”

Aaron smiled when he remembered why he came.
Seeing Sam's gorgeous body, even in near darkness, threw him off a
little. “Oh, hey, look what I found in the storeroom.”

He pulled a game of checkers out of his
backpack.

She laid halfway on the mattress on her side,
crossing her ankles. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she
was.

She patted the mattress. “Grab a candle and
set it up.”

They played for an hour or so. As the night
wore on, Aaron heard the people outside pack up whatever chores
they were working on and head inside. There were footsteps and
voices outside in the hall. He would see the flicker of candles
pass by every so often.

“So you haven't found a room yet?” she asked
as she jumped two of his pieces.

“No.”

“Look, don't get the wrong
idea. We're
not
bunk-mates. But if you want to sleep here tonight, you can.
Just this night.”

“Thanks, Sam, but I know
that makes you uncomfortable. I
did
find a nice place to sleep. It's not a room, but
it'll do fine.”

They played one more game before Aaron
decided he'd worn out his welcome. She walked him to the door.

“Listen,” she said before he left. “If you
leave tomorrow, come find me first. Okay?”

“Sure.”

She closed the door after him and rested her
head against it. She didn't want Aaron to leave, and the thought
bothered her.

*****

Aaron set all his gear on the ground near the
Pit. It wasn't exactly Baltimore, but he had a half moon, the
familiar song of the undead, and a few magazines he found in a pile
in the school.

He lit a candle, shoved it in the dirt, and
rested his head on his backpack. He gave the undead in the Pit a
quick glance. They didn't react, but he saw Sweatpants staring at
him.

“Hi guys,” he said. He spoke to them like he
did when touring the streets of Baltimore at night.

If he stayed, he wouldn't be able to do that
again.

“I don't know, I'm not
sure if this place is
me
,” he said to the undead. “The
people seem nice enough, and of course there's Sam, but I just
don't know.”

He thought back to some of the people he met.
Richardson, of course, was decent enough. Larry had many jobs, did
a little of everything, seemed to be everywhere. Susan took care of
the vegetable garden. Paul Sorenson raised the chickens. He met a
woman named Carrie, who kept watching him as she walked away. A
very pretty woman.

Not as pretty as Sam.

He forced the thought away, and wouldn't let
it return.

“I guess we'll see, won't we?”

He read until the sounds of the undead lulled
him to sleep.

It was early in the morning when Sam stepped
into one of the outdoor showers. She could finally put her full
weight on her ankle. The shower was a tub suspended on a six foot
high wooden frame. A hose ran from the drain which acted as a
shower head. A curtain wrapped around the frame to give some
privacy, but Sam never showered nude. She wore an old two-piece
bathing suit. They had several of the showers lined up in a row.
Everyone stood in pans so they could boil and reuse the water.

Carrie, a woman a few years older than Sam
that she didn't like, stepped into the shower next to her.

“Morning, Samantha.”

“Hi.”

Sam watched as Carrie flashed the guys smiles
when they walked by. That's how she survived in the new world, and
Sam didn't like it. Carrie survived using her looks and charm,
which she had plenty of, flirting with men to get what she
wanted.

“So where did you find the new guy? Aaron, he
said his name was? I talked to him yesterday.”

“In Baltimore.”

“Really? The city? I didn't even know you
were gone.”

Sam said nothing.

“Anyway,” Carrie went on. “Are you two
sleeping together?”

“Only twice. At his home in the city. I slept
in a lawn-chair. Then in the woods.”

“No, dear. I mean are you
two having sex? You do know what
sex
is, right?”

Sam let loose another blast of water to rinse
away the last of the soap. She felt embarrassed and wasn't sure
why. “That's not really your business, is it?”

Carrie read her body
language. “That means you're not. Shame on you, he's so cute. He's
real nice too, which is a little weird. You don't meet nice people
out in the wild anymore. What's the matter? Don't know what you're
doing? Well, I bet
he
does. You think I have a shot with him?”

No, you don't.

The protective thought came out of
nowhere.

She was quiet. She toweled off and left the
shower.

“If you see him,” Carrie called. “Tell him I
asked about him.”

Fuck you.

Sam dressed in some light clothes and
searched for Richardson. As always, the people of Lexington flashed
a few smiles, but the overall mood was somber. She didn't know it,
but the mood was still heavy from losing Lisa, Robert, and their
baby. She found Richardson with Larry and an older man named Travis
examining the smokehouse in the middle of the old soccer field. She
caught the tail end of their conversation as she approached.

“I'm telling you,” Travis said. “The thing is
ruined.”

“Travis, come on. I know you and Larry can
fix this.”

“Are you kidding? I need wood, more nails, a
saw that's not rusted to the teeth. This whole place is falling
apart.”

The men quieted down as Sam approached.

“Morning,” Richardson said. “What's going on,
Samantha?”

She got right to the point. “Give me
something do to. What do you need help with?”

“Uh, sorry, but I don't have any paying jobs
right now.”

“I don't want payment. Just what do you have
that needs to be done? What can I do to help?”

The three men looked at each other.

“Larry's getting ready to cover up the Pit,
at your friend Aaron's request. Give him a hand?”

Larry and Sam got a piece of fence and some
spikes from the junk room, which used to be the old library, and
headed to the Pit. All Larry wanted to do was talk about Aaron. He
was the new topic of Lexington. Women thought he was cute, men were
amazed he handled Garrett so easily.

As they walked across the field they saw
someone laying on the grass, just near the mouth of the Pit.
Whoever it was didn't move.

“Oh shit, someone kill somebody?” Larry
asked.

Sam recognized him as they drew closer. Her
heart caught in her chest. “That's Aaron.”

She broke into a jog, still slowed by her
ankle. Larry was right behind her. She saw terrible scenarios in
her head, like Garrett beating him and leaving him near the Pit to
die.

Aaron looked up, disoriented. He was just
inches away from the Pit. If he rolled in the wrong direction he'd
fall in.

Sam hooked him under the
arms and dragged him away. Larry dropped to a knee and looked
around for anyone they might have to fight. The walkers were
stirred up. They always made Larry nervous. They made
everyone
nervous.

Sam fell on her butt but didn't let go of
Aaron. She pulled him close and wrapped an arm around his bare
chest. He put a hand over hers, trying to catch his breath.

“What happened? Are you okay?” she asked.

Aaron tried to clear the cobwebs in his head.
He was sound asleep until they came along.

“Who brought you out here?” Larry asked.

“Uh,
I
did?”

“Aaron, what's going on?”

“I was asleep,” he said. He climbed to his
feet and helped Sam up. “Is this how you wake everyone up?”

Larry finally noticed Aaron's things. “You
slept out here with the walkers?”

“Yeah. I didn't find a room yet. The noise
helps put me to sleep.”

“Aaron, I told you we could sleep
together.”

Larry turned a chuckle
into a cough. “Samantha, I don't think
sleeping together
means what you
think-”

An icy look from her kept him quiet. He
started securing the fence over the Pit.

“You could have fallen in,” she said.

He playfully grabbed her shoulder, knowing
she didn't like it. “Aww, would you miss me?”

She was quiet. She just looked into Aaron's
eyes. “I have to go,” she said, and started walking away.

He looked at Larry, who was just as confused
as he was.

“Hey Sam!” Aaron called. “If I can't find a
place before the day's over, I'll sleep with you.”

She turned around. “So you're staying?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

She kept walking. Aaron couldn't take his
eyes off her.

Definitely the most unique woman I've ever
met.

He walked to the other side of the Pit and
knelt next to Larry.

“Welcome to Lexington,” Larry said.

“Thanks. What's her problem?”

Larry patted him on the back. “Man, the
fellas and I meet every night in the cafeteria to unwind, just
shoot the shit, and watch Carrie dance, if we're lucky. There's two
mysteries we always talk about. How all this bullshit started, and
women.”

Aaron nodded. He remembered his father and
Uncle Frank having similar conversations.

“I will say this,” Larry continued. “Sam
keeps to herself, has so for years. But she seems pretty attached
to you.”

“Yeah, I like her.” Aaron gestured to the
fence he was nailing down. “I didn't see any of that in the
storeroom.”

“We keep a lot of crap in the junk room, too.
That's what we call it. It used to be the library. People don't
have much use for reading anymore. Hell, half the people here don't
know how.”

Aaron raised his eyebrows. “You have a
library here?”

*****

It didn't take Aaron long to find the old
library. He saw immediately why they called it the junk room. There
was so much garbage blocking the doors he had to push his way
inside.

The place was ruined.

Bookshelves were broken and knocked over on
the ground. Books were scattered everywhere. There were old desks
and furniture with bloodstains deemed unfit to be in the storeroom.
Everything had a thick layer of dust. There was broken glass, dead
rats, parts of old cars. Aaron could barely take a step without
nearly tripping over something.

He had already made the decision to stay at
Lexington for one reason.

Sam.

He wanted to be with his friend. It was that
simple.

But now, he had found his room.

“Let's get started.”

*****

Sam hadn't seen Aaron for the past three
days. She knew he was still at Lexington, as everyone still talked
about him. Aaron's presence made Sam more popular than she wanted
to be. Everyone came to her to ask about the new guy.

She kept her distance from Aaron on purpose.
She felt guilty about it, but she didn't like the way he made her
feel. When she thought he was hurt near the Pit, she knew she liked
him more than she wanted to. Having a friend to care for was
something she wasn't really ready for.

After a morning shower and two scrambled eggs
she went to Richardson. He was talking to Susan by the vegetable
garden. She could see from their faces it was serious. Susan was
having trouble with their second garden being ready by summer's
end. Richardson flashed a bright smile when she walked up. Susan
gave a friendly nod.

“What needs to be done?” Sam asked. “What do
you got for me?”

“Take your pick. Helen needs help in the
storeroom. I'm sure Paul needs help with the chickens. Larry's
trying to fix the shower stall on the very end of the row. We could
use some more bottled water in the spring-house. Hell, Kathy might
need a break from watching the kids. Always something to do.”

Sam nodded. “Okay. I'll help whoever needs
it.”

“Oh, hey, Samantha. If you see Aaron, tell
him he did a wonderful job with the library.”

She was confused. “Library? You mean the junk
room?”

“It's not a junk room anymore.”

Sam had to see for herself. She cut across
the cafeteria and passed the ten people eating breakfast to get to
the library.