Ravaged Land - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (20 page)

“Seth?” Still he didn’t blink, “Stop it Seth you’re scaring me.” But he didn’t stop, he kept staring until I dropped his hand and shakily started to back away from him. He didn’t seem like himself at all. He didn’t seem like he was even there, he looked like Seth but what was in there didn’t feel like Seth. I felt like I was stuck in this room with a stranger, one that was really creeping me out. His eyes followed me as I slowly backed out of the room. There was nothing I could do to stop the scream that escaped my lips. I swung my arms wildly when I back into something. It was Dean who was coming up with a thermometer they had found.

He grabbed me in his arms and looked at me, “Ros, it’s me! Stop screaming!” and I collapsed into his arms while he held my shaking body tight against him.

“Christ, what was that about?” Owen asked but he wasn’t specifically asking me. He had no doubt heard the screaming and seen how terribly shaken I was. He wanted some answers.

Ryan peaked around the corner at Seth, who must have returned to his original laying down position. He hadn’t said anything about how creepy it was for Seth to be staring like that, so he must not have seen. “Ros what happened?” he asked putting his hand carefully on my back. Dean held me tight. He didn’t offer me to Ryan. If he had any guesses about Ryan and I being together, he didn’t care and right now I didn’t either as long as whoever had me didn’t let me go. If they had, I felt as though I might just melt into a pool of water and seep through the floor until I soaked into the earth below this house. While the tornadoes and hail storm had been scary this had been bone chilling in a completely different way.

“It’s going to sound stupid,” I said, knowing I could never retell it with the same eerie quality it had as experiencing it first-hand.

“Tell me what happened? Are you hurt?” he said talking slowly as if he was talking to a child which only briefly infuriated me before I shivered. All I needed is more people thinking about how incapable I was at handling things. I just shot a feral dog-beast for god-sakes, I can do stuff.

“No, I’m not hurt,” I said and told them all what had happened, trying to imitate what he did as best as I could, but surely it did not suffice. “It was like a horror movie, he’s not himself,” I added.

Ryan handed the thermometer to Owen and gestured for him to go take it. When Owen came back with the results a minute later I was still in Dean’s arms my face pressed into his chest. He held me so tightly I didn’t think he wanted to ever let me go.

“104.9,” Owen said, “I don’t think that’s good.”

“Wet cloth on his forehead, and one on the back of his neck. It might bring him down some,” I said finally pulling myself from Dean, “I can get them.” I offered since I had done it hundreds of times before, applying the wet cloths to Seth just felt like my job even though I didn’t want to do it.

“I’ll do it,” Sienna said rushing to the bathroom before I could argue. I couldn’t decide if she was trying to be helpful or if she was trying to prove something. It didn’t matter.

“He’s lying there in his boxers, not sure a wet cloth will make any difference,” Owen said with a frown. Owen and Seth had been friends for a long time, I could tell the weight of what had happened was finally settling in for him. He paced nervously.

“It’s something to try,” I said shrugging then crossing my arms in front of me. “Maybe give him two aspirin too, if you can get him to take them, oh and antibiotics, do we have any of those downstairs?” Not that any of us would even have the slightest idea of which ones to give him.

“We can check town tomorrow,” Ryan said.

“You can’t leave us alone here with him,” I said sounding frantic. I didn’t think Seth could do much in his condition but I was still fearful of that small chance I was wrong.

“I can stay, I’m sure Ryan and Owen can manage it,” Dean said rubbing my shoulder. Ryan was starting to look annoyed. Now that I had stepped back and composed myself somewhat, Ryan wanted Dean to back off. It was subtle, but it showed in his eyes.

Owen stopped pacing, “Or I could just go now, I know the way, I’ll be fast!”

Ryan looked at him for a minute contemplating but realizing how dangerous that would be, he’d never agree to it. Owen could handle himself, but it was almost night, he wouldn’t be back in time. They had never went out at night not even together, no one knew what it was like out there at night. “Not going to happen, we can’t afford to let anything happen to you Owen, I’m sorry.”

Owen opened his mouth to argue, but he didn’t say anything. He knew Ryan was right. He grabbed a box of pop-tarts off the counter and threw it at the dining room wall, it popped open and the packets of tarts sprinkled the ground. “Arrrrrgh!” he growled in frustration.

Ryan reached out and put his hand on Owen’s shoulder. Owen’s head bowed. I wanted to hug him and tell him things would be OK, but I didn’t know if they would be. I just let him have his moment.

“Let’s put him in my bed, I’ll stay on the couch, until he’s well,” Owen offered, his voice raspy. They carried him upstairs while Sienna and I waited. Seth didn’t wake, but I heard a few whimpers as they climbed the stairs.

“Ros, can you bring up the fan?” Ryan yelled down to me after a few minutes.

“I got it!” Sienna shouted back as she unplugged it and dashed up the stairs.

I didn’t wait for them to come down, I went to my room and I went to bed.

* * *

Lying in bed staring at the ceiling, I wished we would have at some point stashed a car somewhere nearby for quick trips to town, like in the case of needing medicine. Or perhaps even for a fast getaway, I mean who knew what could happen, we should plan for anything and everything. It would have been smart. I made up my mind to suggest it to the others tomorrow, but there was no point in doing it tonight, it wasn’t like someone would run out and search for a working car now.

I heard someone starting the generator. I assumed they were going to use the fan to try to cool Seth down, Sienna probably put new cloths on him by now. Hopefully he would be feeling better in the morning and if not they’d go out to find antibiotics if need be. And Dean would stay here with Sienna and me… just in case.

Ryan came into my room what felt to be an hour later but I didn’t really know how long it had actually been. I was just happy he was finally here.

“Come here,” I said sitting up crossing my bare legs in front of me.

“Gladly,” he winked and tore off his shirt.

“I want to see your arm.” He held his arm in front of me while I slowly peeled back the bandage. It looked OK still, maybe a little redder than it should have but I was happy to see it wasn’t bubbling and that there wasn’t any pus. I didn’t think it was infected, heck, the bandage had barely soaked up any blood.

“How does it look doc?” he asked jokingly, “Am I going to live?” Now he was just being over dramatic. I rolled my eyes at him, not really thinking this was something to joke about, but he was probably just trying to keep the mood light. We’d had enough stress for one day, more than enough to be honest.

“Looks all right I think. Not even on the same spectrum as Seth’s, thank God.”

He moved close leaning in to kiss my neck. For a second I was going to object, after everything I was worn out, but when the tingles shot through me, I decided this was exactly what I needed to take my mind off of things. He eased me down positioning himself lightly on top of me. While I was enjoying it and attempting to let my thoughts go, my body must not have caught up to my mind. I must not have been responding how I should have because he abruptly stopped, “What’s wrong Ros?”

“Nothing,” I lied with an insincere smile. I leaned into him and kissed him once on the mouth.

“OK, now really, what’s wrong?” He backed off waiting for the truth, or an answer he’d accept to be the truth. He was already able to tell when something was bothering me and I guess that shouldn’t be surprising considering all the time we had spent together. Practically 24 hours a day for months, I supposed I wasn’t much of a mystery at this point.

“Why do you even want to be in here with me? I’m such a baby. A coward,” I whined.

“What are you talking about?” He took my hand, but I pulled it away and shook my head. My eyelids started to flutter and my eyes felt warm as they threatened to fill up with salty tears. “You saved my life today. And what about with that biker creep? He wanted to kidnap you, probably rape you and maybe even just leave you for dead when he was done, but you pulled your gun on him. You saved yourself. Ros when it comes down to it you become aware, you’re present and you are more than capable.”

“I’m a big baby who’s scared of everything. I was, I mean, I still am scared out of my mind about Seth’s crazy episode before and I’ve been living with Seth now for how long? Months. He’s never once hurt a fly. The worst thing he’s done is back at the shelter he cooked that pasta dinner and it was a little too salty for my taste. And how do I treat him when he needs me? I back away from him. And now I’m afraid of him,” I said flopping all the way back on my pillow not completely unaware of how childish it must have looked.

“You’re too hard on yourself,” Ryan said propping himself up on his arm next to me. He slid his other arm around my middle and lightly stroked his thumb against my side. “We’d have probably all reacted the same way if it would have been us instead of you, don’t worry about it.” He kissed my arm, my shoulder and then to my neck.

“Whatever. We need a car,” I said as he continued to kiss my neck and shoulders, his hand began to wander more freely. Touching my skin as he ran his hand down to my thigh and then back up tugging on my underwear as his hand glided up my shirt and to my bra. “What if we have to get out of here, or we have to get something to save someone’s life, like something from a pharmacy,” I said forcing myself to ignore what he was doing until I could get my thoughts out. “We are so unprepared for emergencies.”

“We’ll get a car,” he said kissing my chin then my lips. His hand was at the back of my neck holding me to him. He tilted my head so my eyes were looking right into his. He was only inches from me and with serious yet lust filled eyes, he whispered, “We’ll get a car, we’ll get the meds, everything will be fine.”

With that his hand was back to roaming, and I felt a little more relaxed. I touched his arm, then I let it slide down his chest absolutely loving the feel of his warm skin. He was caressing every inch of my skin and it was driving me insane. I didn’t want this moment to end. It was quiet moments with Ryan where I was able to completely forget everything else, which was good for my mental health. These parts were easy and far more pleasurable.

I was lying there wearing only my over-sized T-shirt covering my underwear. He must have felt over-dressed because he unbuttoned his jeans and removed his pants. There he was. Ryan Reed. Lying there on my bed wearing only his boxers.

Our hands were everywhere, mine getting lost in his soft hair. I was surprised when he reached behind me and expertly unhooked my bra as if he’d done it a million times. I couldn’t stop my brain from thinking about how many times he must have done that before. My body stiffened at the thought. I wanted to scream at myself for attempting to sabotage the mood.

“Something wrong?” he asked noticing I was drifting out of the moment, “Did I do something wrong?”

“Sorry, it’s nothing,” I lied.

“Ros, seriously.” He was getting too good at this, or I was just an awful liar.

“It’s just that you were pretty good at that, you must have had a lot of girlfriends.” The thought made my stomach somersault. I didn’t like thinking about him with anyone, especially when I was in bed with him.

“Ha! Don’t I wish!” he laughed and kissed my shoulder, I scrunched up my face at him and rolled my eyes. “You really want to know? Now?” he asked.

I nodded apprehensively, did I?

“One girlfriend, lasted about six months, she said I was too moody,” he said looking at me waiting for some kind of reaction, but when whatever he was waiting for didn’t happen. He continued, “That’s all over and done with, I’m with you. How about you then? Lots of boyfriends I’d imagine,” he said changing the subject.

“Yeah right! You know the answer to that,” I said thinking back to how awkward I had been with him the first time we got close.

“I do?”

“I guess I thought you could tell that I’m pretty new to all this,” I said looking away.

“You’ve never had a boyfriend?” he asked raising an eyebrow as if he was suspicious.

“Well, I’ve had a couple, but it was really stupid. It was lame, mostly just hanging out together, I never felt that interested in anyone I guess. I’d always find something about them that annoyed me. It was always over before it started practically!” I started to squirm with how uncomfortable this conversation had gotten. “Let’s be done talking about this, it’s bad enough I’m thinking about how you were with your ex!”

“Yeah don’t think about that because I sure as hell am not going to. I’m here with you, right now, and this is the only place I want to be now and forever,” he kissed me passionately as if punctuating it to prove his point. He was pushing out all of the crazy thoughts from my head with the force of this kiss and it was working.