Surrounds (Bonds) (4 page)

He once again points at the waterfall, lowly growling. She cannot understand, so Alasa shakes her head a little. He turns away from her, his clawed hands cupping a handful of water. She watches him splash the water onto his face and scrubbing it with his hands. It was odd. He looked back at her and she openly stared, not because of lack of understanding of what he wanted, but because it was... odd. He wants Alasa to wash herself, she understands full well what he wants.

At her absence of a response, 'he' then blinks, hands falling to his sides. A second later he holds up his left hand, waving it in front of his face. Alsas stares. He then pinches his nose and shakes his head, pointing at her.

He's saying I smell?
She lightly ponders. Something splits inside of her, something very fragile. A giggle, a little unhinged falls from Alasa's dry lips, tarring through her achy throat. It was funny, really, really funny. Her giggles intensified into full-blown laughter as she bent over, holding her abdomen.

She worries for her state of mind.

'He' watches her while this goes on, his look one of confusion which hardly helps her fit of laughter. After a while Alasa begins removing her filthy clothing, then to the waterfall, cupping her hands underneath the water, she began scrubbing her body. The water is cold but the young woman was more focused on removing the layer of grim over her skin. When 'he' appears beside her she freezes, the tiny smile on her lips fading as she thinks of her predicament, how naked she is.

Her apprehension fades slowly when he begins washing himself, splashing water over his body.

(L)

Chapter 8

Lacey

Henderson waits until it's pitch dark outside to move, they snuck out the backdoor. She's behind him now, ducking low behind his neighbors old van. They stayed behind it for nearly ten minutes, Lacey pressed into Henderson's back like a barnacle as he froze, gaze on the blanket of darkness before them, unmoving. He was like a Perry dog, alert and focused. She thinks his left ear actually twitches.

She frowned when his inaction went on for nearly ten minutes. She was getting a cramp. Her pulse, which had been going wild inside of her at first, but the more they stood standing, unmoving, the 'normal' of the night, her pulse evens out. Her face twists into an annoyed frown. There were no cannibalistic creatures, no signs what-so-ever of the world being a changed place. Nothing, nothing but a creep level fourteen, a cramp, and her annoyance.

Finally, Henderson moves, grabbing her wrist and quickly tugging her after him, over an overgrown lawn and briskly through the area between two wooden fences. He then leads her behind houses, his hold on her wrist tight as an iron cuff. The quiet of the night fades from being normal in her mind and quickly became frightening, there were no sounds, nothing but her own haggard breathing and awkward foot falls.

Stains of sunlight appear above them in the black horizon before Lacey's body refused any more movement. They were along a back road, debris covered and vacant. They hadn't used any lights and more then once the girl wondered how Henderson had done it without falling.

"Henderson," she whispers with a burning throat, "can we take a brea..k?" Her voice cracks pathetically at the end and she wonders how she's suppose to survive the apocalypse being allergic to exercise and all.

Henderson's dark gaze bores into her, filled with second guessing, self-doubt, and she thinks she even sees a hint of judgment. Her jaw clenches. As if it was her fault he had went all creepy kidnapper on her and kept her locked up in a basement for months. It wasn't her fault the world went to shit.

"It's not... exactly safe here, Lace." He whispered, still staring at her. She bit into her lip. Really, unsafe? There was nothing here! No growling cannibals, no mutated beasts...nothing. "There's a house I stayed at a few times a few miles up, we'll rest there."

A few miles up? Horror hit the teen square in the gut, the fact that Henderson said a few miles up as if saying it was a few blocks over. If Henderson thought a few miles was nothing... she was surely going to die.

A whimper slips between her lips, making her sound much like a wounded animal. Henderson glances at her again. "It's not far." He assures, his brown eyes dark. Lacey bites back a snarl.

(L)

It's not far, Henderson says. Only a few miles up, Henderson says. Lacey seriously began to considered murdering Henderson for being a dirty liar after an hour when she tripped over a trash bag and skinned her hands up on filthy end of the world ground. The government crumbled, who was left to throw her in jail? Prisons likely didn't even exist anymore. Henderson was lucky she hated blood.

"Here," Henderson said as he quickly stepped off the empty road, drawing Lacey's attention away from her stinging hands. He was walking towards a small farm house, nestled on top of a hill. A hill surely they would be climbing.

Lacey frowns. More work? She tugged at her now very sweaty t-shirt and fanned her face with her hand. She looked around her half-heartedly, noticing they were in farm land.

"Lacey... hurry..." Henderson urged from about a yard away.

Sighing, Lacey picked up her heavy legs and followed Henderson. The end of the world, Lacey decided, was a perfect way to lose weight and your mind.

Henderson had a key hidden in the home's mail box besides it's door. Not a clever hiding spot at all, but who was looking? So far, Lacey was almost convinced her and Henderson were the only living things left on earth, she hadn't even seen a bird.

Once inside Henderson shut the heavy wooden door, quickly engulfing everything in near darkness. Heavy dark blue curtains hung from the windows, blocking out the cloudy light outside. The teen barely noticed as she caught a glimpse of a navy blue couch and stumbled in it's direction in a nearly drunken fashion. She collapsed face first onto the thing and instantly regretted it as a series of coughs and sneezes racked her achy frame.

"Why so dusty...?" She whimpered weakly with a runny nose and watery eyes. Henderson makes a small noise behind her, which sounds a little too much like a laugh. She quickly turns on him with an unhappy glower. "A few miles you said." She accuses with a harsh whisper. Henderson's smile instantly vanishes, it was a small one anyway. "You're a kidnapper and a liar." She concludes dryly.

Henderson sighs, scratching his sweaty mop of hair. "I'm going to check upstairs. You can rest."

As if she was going to do anything else.

(L)

Chapter 9

Alasa

The air outside is different from the air she had been growing use to for months, fresher, better. Not completely layered with the odors of filth and mold, better.

It had been awhile, too long, since Alasa had felt the warm rays of sunlight on her flesh. It wasn't until now did she actually realize how much she truly loved it. A tiny smile wiggled it's way onto her lips as she lifted her head bathing her face in sunlight, enjoying such a simple thing. Her own nakedness didn't even bother her, nor his.

She ignored him. Sitting cross-legged on the brown stone, her blue gaze on the clear sky of the horizon. Her worn clothing set nearby, drying after her attempt at washing them. It was nice as long as she ignored him.

Then he quietly growls, forcing Alasa to slowly pull her attention away from her weak breath like happiness and settle on her bleak reality. He's quickly tugging on his 'rags', his attention on the horizon, thick brows scrunched.

He once again growls, gaze finding her, his growl is more urgent this go, his order very clear. She climbs onto unstable feet, quickly grabbing up her damp pants and pulling them on. He was ushering her back inside quickly like a sheep dog ushers sheep, forcing her forward by circling her, leaving her shirtless for now.

She was absolutely confused but one thing was very clear, something had him spooked. She hears a low hum before they make it into the cave, and at first the girl believes it to be an air plane. For a fleeting moment Alasa actually thinks she is actually being rescued.

She turns her body at the mouth opening, standing on tips of her feet to see over his shoulders. Was she found? Would she finally get to go home?

Her blood runs ice cold when the big, black, bulky shape appears over head, many miles away, yet oddly still visible easily. It wasn't an air plane, nor a helicopter. It was something she had never seen before.

An animal, it was an animal.

He forced her still body forward with his own body, forcing them both into the blackness of the cave.

(O)

Chapter 10

Lacey

His hand smells like garbage and beans. Not exactly how Lacey would like to be awoken. That and he was literally cutting off her precious air. So, it was no surprise a string of un-lady like curses were on there way out of her mouth before Henderson shushed her like a bitter librarian.

She glared at him hatefully. If he was effected in anyway by her behavior, he hid it well. Instead he quickly pointed at the window behind him, before motioning upstairs.

What? The teen glared at him. What in the hell? She understood be quiet, but all his random pointing was doing nothing but annoying her.

A loud, bone-chilling hoot had her nearly jumping out of her skin, her arms latching onto Henderson, nails digging into her flesh. He quietly hissed. She ignored him, staring wide-eyed at the window, hearing shouts and voices.

"Do something..." She hisses at Henderson. The first voices she'd heard in months and none of them sounded 'right'. Henderson's stories flashing through her mind.

Once again Henderson shushed her and pried her nails out of his arm and quickly grabbed her wrist, tugging her onto her feet. He grabbed his bag and hers, quickly tugging them both upstairs. He tugs both of them down the hall and reaches a bedroom and urges both of them inside and into a closet, harshly shoving her inside and he following after.

Lacey holds in a curse as a dusty coat hits her in the face and Henderson's body pushing her further into it. Her stomach churns as moth ball odor assaults her. Henderson crouches down, pulling her with him.

Lacey whines mentally. 'Yeah Henderson, the closet isn't at all an obvious hiding hang out.' 'No one will look in here.' They were through, already, it was so obvious. It wasn't fair honestly, she had only recently gotten out of a basement only to now be trapped in a funky box, minutes away from being enslaved by crazy people...

This is all Henderson's fault.

A loud bang bring her out of her misplaced hatred and she finds herself, once again clinging to Henderson, her face hitting his shoulder. She hears heavy footsteps, voices and laughter. She cringes, someone has a horrible laugh. A few minutes later she hears a woman's scream, which almost has her screaming.

Her body stiffens, breath stuck inside of her. Begging, someone's begging. The woman is begging and sobbing.

"No please... No... No..."

Lacey lifts her head, pulled by some unseen force.

"Help...Someone help, please..." The woman's yells are weak but oddly travel loudly through the home.

Henderson's face is glowing, his brown eyes fixed below him, illuminated by light filtering in through the a hole in the floorboards. Her attention is instantly drawn. No wonder she can hear what was going on so well. A hole in the floor directly gives view to the yellow kitchen below it. There in that hideous kitchen is a man, tall, big, oddly handsome, but not...human looking? He's wearing some type of armor which looks like bones. He has his hands on his hips and is looking at an object the teen cannot actually see, besides a bloody leg. She can also make out another shoulder of another man, but that's it.

Her body shakes, she can smell blood. It was dense, the odor. So thick.

She tries shaking her head, realizing she could still her screaming and laughter but for whatever reason it was registering with her. For whatever reason, everything was surreal. Nothing was fitting.

The man... thing? It grabs onto the woman's withering, kicking leg with a jolt of laughter, producing a frightening blade and slicing off a few of the woman's bloody toes. She watches as he takes only two and pops both into his mouth, crunching on them like candy.

She blinks. Henderson is lightly tugging at her face now, with sweaty, soft hands, desperately trying to draw her attention away from hole, but its done now. She watches it all. She watches until she hears no screaming, until only bones being crunched on is heard.

"It wasn't her." She hears one of the two men say. "Says blood suppose ta be better, normal blood."

It can talk. It talks, which frightens her. It's its deep rough voice which evokes a gasp from her. Instantly the one visible thing/beast below her stiffens, freezes as if he hear her low gasp. His head lifts, his nose in the air, he takes a deep breath, black gaze zeroing in on the hole above him. Henderson yanks her back quickly, hugging her body against him.

Another gasp filters up from below, followed by laughter and sounds of breaking bones. She wiggles out of Henderson's arms and once again to the hole, once again pulled by an unseen force once again.

(O)

They don't actually stay long, those Henderson call 'Changed'. No, they leave barely an hour later, leaving behind beaten body and so much blood it chokes Lacey, and it claws at her stomach. It's an unusual feeling and she's unsure how to handle it.