Uprising (25 page)

He was so sweet. We both feel asleep last night and he’d stayed with me. I could see how uncomfortable it was. His head laid back awkwardly on the back of the couch. I smiled and silently thanked him for always thinking of me.

I turned after laying the afghan on Mitchell and ran right into Miguel. He grabbed my arm to keep me from falling.

“Oh! I’m sorry.”

“That’s alright. I got no qualms about catching the pretty ones,” Miguel said and winked, releasing my arm.

“Thanks.” I looked around. “So, everyone is going on the run?”

“Just about. Everyone that can go, at least. We got a lot of stocking up to do before the need warehouses screw it all up for us.”

“Yeah...” We slowly walked to the hallway together. “Well, I can go, I guess. If you need me.”

“You don’t sound so sure.”

“Well, Mitchell doesn’t want me to,” I admitted softly.

“Well, then. I wouldn’t go. Those Keepers seem to know what they’re talking about. If he doesn’t want you to, he must have a reason.”

“Hmm. Ok. Makes sense.”

“So.” He leaned on the wall beside me. “You’re pretty young, ay?”

“Yeah.” I ducked my head and tucked my hair behind my ear to cover my blush. My age has always been a sore spot for me, since I had been married so young so I try to joke. “But I can legally drink and rent a car.”

He laughed and nodded.

“True. So. Coming with? Jeff and I could always use another pair of hands.”

He looked at me expectantly.

“Um.” I glanced at the couch where Mitchell still slept. Then spotted my sweet tour guide, Cain, in my peripheral, coming from his room in the hall. He smiled at me and punched Miguel’s arm as he walked by. “I don’t think so. Next time. Definitely.”

“Ok. Maybe, uh, we can talk more later? When I get back?”

“Sure,” I said and smiled.

You couldn’t deny how nice he was.

“Alrighty, then. See you later, Lillian,” he tipped his head to me playfully.

“Miguel,” I said and did the same.

He laughed as he walked away. I turned and caught Cain’s gaze from the stairs as him and Merrick made their way out. He smiled at me again and even from this far, I could tell just how blue green his eyes were.

Merrick eventually pushed him forward and he disappeared along with the rest of them making their way out of the bunker. I kinda felt bad for not going, but for some reason, I felt like I needed this time off. This one time to just let someone else do what needed to be done. I needed this one time to show Mitchell that I cared about what he thought.

I thought about what I could do today, while everyone was gone. I saw Sherry, bouncing around in the kitchen in a mad dash to organize some breakfast before the others woke up. I smiled and saw her reaching for something on the shelf. The shelf she had no way of reaching, so I made my way to her. We had some catching up to do anyway.

The Need For Speed

These runs get worse and worse. Sitting in the van, waiting for Cain to exit the store so we can pack the vehicle quickly and head back home. I’ve never felt so useless in all my life. But what else is there to do?

I flick the radio from one station to another. It’s what I do on these runs. I started going along with them a few weeks back since we have more people to go into the stores and more vehicles to take, they needed more packers.

This new development did not thrill Sherry in the least. It took much convincing that I would be safe and she even cried a little the first time I left and when I returned.

I had once made a vow to always keep her with me, at all times, and we stuck to that rule for some time. But, after we started making weekly store trips to stockpile supplies, I think it’s better for her to stay at the bunker instead of coming with us. Marissa is with there her and Danny. Both use compulsion and can thwart and enemy if need be. We’ve added a few precautions to the trap door and such as well. As much as I hate leaving her, I mean hate it, but I’ll never tell her that, she’s safer there. But, had it not been for Lily, I’m not sure I could’ve convinced her to stay.

Nothing has been the same since what happened that day, with the fight with the Lighters. She worries about me. She never seemed to worry about me before, thought I was invincible or something. Now that she has seen the death first hand...she worries.

She knows, we all break the same.

I stop the radio on a station blaring some rock tune that I’ve never heard before. I just need to stay awake at this point. I close my eyes for a minute and wonder where Cain is. He’s taking a long time. I try to hurry him along, with some encouragement in his mind.

For the love of all, Cain. If I
had
a grandmother, she’d be faster than you.

Cain has taught me many things these past couple months. Sarcasm being the main thing, I think. I really only use it on him. He’s been almost a brother to me. Almost catching up to Danny which is saying something. He saved Sherry’s life and has been there for us both more times than I can count. He still puts himself in danger everyday to work at the diner but that’ll soon change when the need warehouses come.

Regardless, I’m probably the most at ease with him than I am with any other human male other than Danny. I can laugh and joke and say just about anything I want and he just rolls with it. Sherry, him and I wind up spending a lot of time together.

I startle as I hear a tap on the window and look up at a human face I don’t recognize. He has dark sunglasses on, though the sun isn’t out and he’s tapping the window with a club of some sort, a night stick.

Ah crap.

I roll the window down lazily and nonchalantly in hopes of seeming uninterested.

“Yes?” I ask.

“You can’t sleep here. You need to remove your vehicle from the premises.”

“I’m waiting for someone. He’s in the store.”

“Why are you waiting out here in the cold? Why didn’t you go in as well?”

I practice the story we made up.

“I’m sick. Not feeling well. Just came along to help him load it all once he get’s done. He’s a whiner. My roommate. If I don’t at least drive him, he complains to no end,” I state and roll my eyes for dramatic effect.

“I see.”

He pauses. I wonder if he bought it. He seems to have.

“Alright, well. This is really against the rules...no manned vehicles. No loitering. I guess I can let you slide this time but the next time, you have to go in with him or stay home. Got it?”

“Yes, sir. Got it.”

He begins to walk away but then turns back.

“Where do you live, son?”

I find it comical that his body can’t be more than five years older than mine but he’s referring to me as son, as some kinda degrading show of authority, I’m sure.

“Out off the interstate,” I answer.

“Where off the interstate.”

“Way out. Off I-70. Near the Casey exit,” I tell the most truth I can without telling it all.

“What are you doing in Effingham? Just shopping?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You boys go to school? College?”

“No, sir.”

I rubbed my eyes with my fingers and yawned, trying to look bored and uninterested.

“What do you do then?”

“My roommate works in town. I don’t do much of anything.”

“You don’t have a job?”

“No, sir.”

“No wonder he’s on your case boy,” he said laughing and shifted from one foot to the other.

“I guess.”

“Your friend sure is taking a long time.”

“Mmhhmm.”

“Why don’t you go in and check on him.”

What the..? What’s up with the third degree?

“If it’s ok with you, sir, I’ll just wait. Like I said, I feel like crap. He should be out anytime. I’m fine waiting here, really.”

He continued to look at me, or I assume he was. Couldn’t tell because of the dark of his glasses where his eyes were actually looking. He leaned back to glance in the van and saw all the seats had been removed. He stilled.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

He returned back to me slowly.

“Expecting a big load, son? How much stuff can two kids need?”

“We don’t need much,” I lied. “We use the van for other purposes. If you know what I mean.”

I had no idea what I was saying. I hope he bought it. I knew human males said things like that, macho stupid things about nonchalant sex and other extracurricular activities.

“Hmmmm. Well, I know what you mean. You need to be careful with things like that. A boy could get himself into trouble.”

Just as I was about to agree I see Cain. Loaded down with two huge mounded shopping carts full.

Crap.

“What’s this?” the man asked suspiciously, as I knew he would. “This your roommate? You lying to me boy? What’s going on here? What do you need all this stuff for?”

As Cain approached, looking weary, I jumped out, grabbed the man while he was distracted and placed him in a head lock, pressing my thumb into the pressure point on his neck. He passed out quickly and I placed him in the van. Cain was less than pleased.

“What the hell?” Cain asked as he began to frantically unload the carts.

“He made us. I had to do something. Let’s hurry before he wakes up. We’ll drop him off somewhere. Like last time.”

“Gah, Merrick. I can’t leave you alone for five minutes,” he teased.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first human I’d had to drop on one of our trips to town. Of course, no one knows that but Cain and I. And I’d prefer it to stay that way. Times were getting desperate and I didn’t want Sherry or anyone else to freak out when we were so close to the need warehouse deadline and needed these trips now more than ever.

“That was quite a bit longer than twenty minutes, pal. What happened?”

“I had a problem with the credit cards. Most of them are empty now or not enough to cover this amount of stuff. Took me a while and they were starting to wonder about me. This was a tricky trip. That’s for sure,” he said as he pushed the mans legs further in to start loading the bigger boxes of toilet paper and rice. “Oh, and by the way. If you had a grandma, there’s no way she could beat Maggie, ok.”

I chuckled.

“I’m sure. Well, it’s almost over. Coming to town won’t be necessary at all anymore. For me anyway.”

“Yeah. I don’t know what I’m gonna do when I can’t work. I’ve worked everyday since I was fifteen. That’s eleven years, in case you’re Keeper mind can’t keep up.”

“Well, I’ve worked everyday for six thousand years. All day, every day, no sleep. So stop whining.”

“So, you’re an old man. That’s what you’re saying?”

He lifted an eyebrow at me so I threw a bag of rice at him and he laughed as it hit him in the stomach, making his ‘oof’.

We got everything loaded and I started the van. A while later I pulled the van over behind an old house on our way out of town to drop off the nosy man. I laid him out comfortably in the grass, though it was yellow and scratchy. I’m sure it provided him no real comfort.

We left him there, with his sunglasses still intact and on his face. As I pulled back onto the road Cain began to question me about Lillian. Which I was grateful for. I always hated this long ride and welcomed the distraction.

“So. I came home last night from work and Lillian was asleep on the couch. Her head was in Mitchell’s lap,” he scoffed.

“So?”

“So? He had his hands on her,” he said like he was disgusted. “In her hair and on her back. He was asleep too. They looked a little more than cozy.”

“Mitchell was Michael’s Keeper. She’s close to him, it’s not uncommon.”

“Yeah, like you and Sherry? That’s what I’m worried about. All these woman are jumping on the Keeper wagon. What about the ones of us who are left, huh? What about me?”

“Well, they can’t help it. They can just see how wonderful we are. It’s just pulls them in, like a fish on a rod,” I said grinning at him.

I loved to goad him. Even though he knew I was doing it, he’d take the bait every time.

“Bite me. And. I saw her talking to Miguel in the hall this morning. I wanted to punch his stupid grin right off his face.”

“You really like her? You just met her yesterday.”

“I like her, I’m not saying I want to elope,” he said and gave me a look that said ‘like you’.

“Well...I don’t know. She hasn’t said anything to Sherry about either of them. I wouldn’t be too worried yet. Like I said, it’s not uncommon for humans to have close relationships with their Keepers. Most of them are different, special in a different way. He lost his charge and she lost her protector. It’s natural that they would team together and become friends. They had no one else.”

“I know. I’m being shallow but I can’t help it. I feel like I’m in a fish tank and all the food is slowly being gobbled up by the other fish. Man, she is hot though, isn’t she? When she came out of the shower...ah, I thought I was having a heart attack. Gorgeous.”