Surge (27 page)

Stepping out of the bathroom, I show Olivia where the variety of soaps, shampoos, conditioners, disposable razors and teeth supplies are before handing her a few towels and leaving her to it. I exit the master, again remembering not to close it all the way, and make my way to the great room.

<~~~<~~~
~~~>~~~><~~~<~~~
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John’s already called the meeting to order, so everyone except Oscar; who’s on watch, is in the room. Including Mike, who is sitting on a chair brought in from the office. Seeing him able to make the trip out here shows that his recovery is imminent, so long as he doesn’t get an infection as Akio feared.

Looking around to make sure that the remaining thirteen members are present or accounted for, I begin the meeting. Before I propose Olivia’s option of going to the military compound, I refresh their minds with the dangers of staying here. Citing Olivia’s recount of
‘The Screamer’
incident, and the possibility of retaliation by the remaining raiders, I then inform them of the wheezer packs becoming more and more common. With the risks now firmly in their minds, I present Olivia’s solution. There are concerns raised, same as the last meeting, but they are voiced in a much more orderly fashion this time around.

Giving everyone a turn to ask their questions, either John, Cory or myself field the responses to the best of our abilities. Maybe it’s because they’ve seen the evidence of the raiders, or maybe it’s because they like the idea of a protected compound in the somewhat near future, but for whatever reason; the group agrees to give Olivia’s plan a try before we give in and go south. With the plan agreed upon, the group disperses with the exceptions of Tommy and Carlos, who I’ve asked to stay behind. I wait for them to walk over before speaking.

“Carlos, could relate all the details to the plan to Oscar?”

“No problem,” Carlos answers.

“Make sure he knows when and where we’re going.” Carlos nods and I continue. “And Tommy, I’m going to need help moving a body down from upstairs. Are you willing?”

“Damn, she works fast,” Tommy comments.

“Let’s just say that he pissed her off, and she ended it as soon as she got what she needed,” I reply vaguely.

“Alright, let’s get it done,” Tommy says.

I follow him upstairs and enter the condo. The raider, Frank, is still slumped over and has slightly stiffened in his final resting position, while Victoria’s still strapped to the chair next to him. She glares at us as we enter, but we just ignore her, as we cut away the restraints to the dead man. Making quick work of the duct tape and ropes, Tommy takes the guy’s feet and I take up a grip under his arms. His head lolls back revealing the gash in his throat. The bloody wound has dried up some, but is no less gruesome, so I avoid looking at it directly.

Carrying Frank’s corpse out of the condo, we ignore Victoria’s mumbled words and make it back to our floor. There’s still the pile of bodies from earlier this morning, so we add another to it. We’ll figure out what to do with the rest later. Especially since it smells like death in here. And that honestly cannot be healthy for us to live with.

<~~~<~~~
~~~>~~~>

Finished with disposing of the body for now, Tommy switches with the twins for watch duty, and the three of us head inside the condo. Immediately smelling something delicious, I follow my nose to the kitchen. A few steps away I hear things being thrown, then see John bounding from the doorway at full speed, with something in his hand.

“John, you greedy bastard!” Olivia’s voice shouts. “Stay the fuck out of my kitchen, or I’ll skin you alive!” Chuckles echo from the room as John holds up his hand to show me his bounty; a steaming slice of bread, with a grin plastered on his face.

“Fucker, give me a piece,” I demand and go to wrestle him to the ground. Before I make contact, John stuffs the entire slice into his mouth. “I hope you fucking choke, so I can refuse to give you the Heimlich, you selfish prick.” John ignores me as he chews his mouthful, swallows and licks his lips with a moan.

“Scrumptious,” he says with an unrepentant grin. Olivia comes from the kitchen with a wooden spoon in her hand. Coming up behind an unaware John, she raises it up and I don’t warn the greedy bastard since he deserves it when she smacks him on the back of the head. John yelps, making me grin evilly, while he spins to face her; rubbing his smarting skull. “What the fuck?”

“Don’t you
‘what the fuck,’
me, mister,” Olivia orders as she waves her spoon at him. It’s fucking hysterical, seeing her chastise a man over a foot taller than her, but I refrain from laughing, or else I’ll undoubtedly get a matching wallop from her weapon of choice. “I said to wait for it to cool a little, but did you? Of course not, and now your tongue is burnt, isn’t it?” John looks away, revealing that she’s right. “That’s what I thought. Now, you won’t be able taste supper.”

“Damn it, I wasn’t thinking,” he replies with his
‘ah shucks’
toe scuffling look. Olivia views it and smirks a little.

“Go wash up, it’ll be done soon.” Olivia moves her gaze to me and shoos me to join him. “You go too, and I’ll give you an extra slice of bread if the two of you come back squeaky clean.”

I’m already shoving John’s lanky form down the hallway when she said
‘extra bread,’
and ignore the laughs that follow behind. Whoever’s laughing obviously hasn’t tasted the heaven which is Olivia’s cooking, so I’ll be having the last laugh later. Right now, I have to get this fucker in front of me clean before I can collect my reward. Shoving John in the master bath, I collect a bucket of rain water from the nearly empty barrel for bathing, run back and hurl the contents at a sputtering John.

“Scrub everything visible, or I’ll take your helpings,” I warn.

John growls at me, but starts scrubbing like I told him to. John is known to act like a muddy toddler refusing a bath, when there’s only cold rain water available for washing; so the growl is expected, and ignored as I grab soap and go back to the balcony to approach the bathing barrel. There’s only about three bucket-fulls left, meaning the others must have used it when I was sleeping, or for cleaning up after the bodies, so I just hop right in.

Fully clothed, I submerge myself in the lukewarm water and rub the soap around to the best of my ability in the cramped space. Rinsing off as much as possible, I hop back out of the barrel and walk back into the master with squeaking boots, and a trail of water in my wake. John steps out of the bathroom and gives a spin for my inspection, which I nod to, before we go back out to the great room.

Walking through the empty living area, we see that the dining room has been set to rights by using a tablecloth to cover the holes in the table. I check out the legs, releasing a sigh of relief when I see that they’re all still intact. Whew, that was a close one. Looking up, I see some mismatched chairs, that weren’t broken during the raid, have been pulled up and are being occupied by everyone in the group except for Tommy since he’s still on watch. Seeing the empty seats near Cory, I look around and don’t see Olivia. Giving Cory a questioning look, he tilts his head at the kitchen where I can clearly see Olivia bustling around and collecting things.

Cory stands to give her a hand, while I sit there gawking like a schoolboy. She’s wearing work worn jeans in a faded blue color, a loose long sleeved turtleneck, that can’t hide her heavily rounded curves, and end in her elbow length leather gloves. Those same damn gloves that she wears to hide her scars as if she’s self-conscious of them. I want to burn them at the thought, but am distracted by her hair.

Her midnight black hair is down again, reaching her lower back and shining in the candlelight that’s illuminating the darkening room. All the same length, she pulled a few strands from the front and braided it like a headband, so that I can see her full red lips as she chews on the bottom one in concentration. What I wouldn’t give to bite that lip myself.

Shaking that ridiculous thought away, I walk over with my squeaky shoes to see if she needs any additional help. Olivia spins to face me with an amused look at my boots. Switching her attention from my feet to my eyes, I can see the mirth dancing in her grey eyes.

“I guess you’re really hungry,” she says. “Because here you are, literally squeaky clean, in under twenty minutes.” Glancing at the table to see John, she smiles, making me see red. Fucking pretty boy attracts women like pigs to shit. “Depending on your sidekick’s state, you’ll get your extra bread.”

The sidekick comment punches the jealousy I felt in the gonads, and makes me puff up. Damn right he’s the sidekick in this duo. Robin to my Batman. Patrick to my SpongeBob. I’m the lead man who gets the girl, while the sidekick looks on in envy.

“Great, now you’ve fried his feeble brain with thoughts of food,” Cory mutters with pointed look at me, showing that he knows my thoughts are about anything other than food, and don’t like it.

Well neither do I, I want to shout. I didn’t ask for my insane attraction to the woman in front of me, nor can I help it. She’s gorgeous, smart, and a survivor. What’s not to like? Sure, she has violent tendencies, and armor a mile thick, but she’s the total package that I would love to unwrap as an early Christmas present.

A punch to my shoulder pulls me out of my internal fantasy of Olivia popping out of a box, wearing nothing but a bow. Rubbing my arm, I remove my stare from Olivia’s beautiful backside, to meet Cory’s furious eyes. Is he jealous? What about her being his brother’s girl? Where’s the loyalty?

Probably the same place my dick’s is, which happens to be pointed at Olivia. Well, step the fuck in line asshole, because if anyone is going to seduce Olivia away from her promise to an absent man, it’s gonna be me. Glaring right back at the slightly taller bastard beside me, he gestures between us to say this isn’t over, which he’s damn right it isn’t. He manages to break eye contact with me before Olivia spins away from the stove with a huge pot in her tiny hands.

“We’ve got this, Jared, but thank you,” Olivia says with small smile.

Olivia hands the pot to Cory, who gives a smile in return to her, while flipping a discreet finger in my direction. I flash a bite me grin of my own to Cory, before grabbing a bottle of wine off the counter on the way out. I plan on getting drunk off my ass with whoever’s wine this is, before I do something stupid. Like compliment Olivia, and end up with a knife in my throat from either her, or Cory’s handiwork.

Fuck, I should have put two and two together when I saw her knife handling skills, especially after having been a student to the knife wielding master myself. I’m no better than that brain dead senior who took my virginity freshman year of high school.

I plop down in my usual chair, and ignore John’s amused smirk at who the fuck knows what, in favor of pouring a healthy glass of wine. Chugging down the dry red liquid, I hardly notice the earthy flavor as it rolls down my throat. I go to pour some more, when a miniscule hand in a black glove, whacks it away. Turning with surprised eyes at Olivia, since she just willingly touched me without freaking out, I find that freaking out is the last thing her pissed off eyes have in mind.