It seemed like the perfect safehouse, complete with a small raised bed about a foot deep and 2 feet by three outside the door and pots of some sort of pretty yellow flower and basil out front. In the back, the poor chickens were clucking away hungrily, feet from the vegetable patch. It was also the only safehouse they'd seen thus far that had bodies inside. An older woman, and a younger woman about Nick's age, and a dead dog that looked like it had turned as well.
"Day or two, couldn't be more." Nick shivered. "Not bloated yet, no maggots…" The look of disgust on his face was plain as he went through the pockets of the younger woman. "Heh, gal after my own heart. Basil sprigs in her hoodie pocket. Been way too long but I know that smell a mile away." Nick pocketed them and closed the woman's eyes, "Ashes to ashes, thanks for the treasure kiddo."
"The older woman turned." Rochelle examined her eyes with a flash light. "One gunshot to the head. They look enough alike to be family."
"One to the mouth here." Nick shook his head as he examined the younger woman's corpse. "Pretty thing like you with everything to live for… damn shame."
"Couldn't stand that ya shot yer ma could ya?" Ellis asked the younger woman as he hefted her corpse up. "Well, we'll bury you tomorrow, right next to yer kin, don't you fret."
"Nick gimme a hand with the older woman." Coach took her shoulders, Nick took the feet. The two were placed outside under a jasmine bush.
"Hang on." Ellis placed the two womens' hands in each other. "Know it don't mean anything to the two of them now, but it just don't seem right."
The door to the safehouse clanked shut behind them. One by one, Coach, Nick, Rochelle and Ellis closed the curtains to the old farmhouse to disrupt the line of sight of any smokers or spitters nearby. Coach found a battery powered lantern and turned it on on a dim setting. The four of them checked the rooms, upstairs and down, and when no zombies showed themselves they relaxed.
"What a kitchen…" Coach marveled at the garlic, onion and cayenne pepper wreaths that hung on the center wall. "And if that clucking out back is any indication we might even have eggs for breakfast."
"Sweeet." Nick took a deep breath of the basil he'd found on the dead woman. "Jeezus I never thought I'd smell that again. Gonna have to find something to wrap it in for the next time we're stuck going into a stinkin sewer, might quiet my germophobia some."
"These cayenne peppers, I think I can make something for my knee with them." Coach broke a tiny piece off one and ate it. "Mmm baby, the one burn that doesn't mean somethin's wrong witcha."
"Check it out, mushrooms." Ellis called out from one of the bedrooms. They were growing in a great big box full of coffee grounds sitting on the windowsill.
"Porto bello, heh I want grilled mushrooms for supper. Please tell me they had a campstove, or a grill?"
"Tiny one…" Coach pulled a small grill about the size of a shoebox out of a cabinet. "Complete with wood for it. Want me to roast you a mushroom Nick?"
"And a head of that garlic. Man up in Jersey they had the best itallian."
"We can carry some too, garlic keeps a long time." Ellis nodded sagely. "We might be able to rest here… I know the swamps are hot as hell and just as humid but you can't ignore the food growin here. We haven't had much to eat lately."
"Agreed." Coach looked at the other two for their input.
Rochelle sighed. "Unless I can find birth control pills my cycle is coming soon. If I don't keep clean in that, and I can't go traipsing through swamps, I could get TSS."
"I thought that was from tampons…" Ellis made a face.
"No hon, its caused by a bacteria that normally doesn't hurt people, living on the skin. It just changes sometimes if women don't keep themselves clean during their period and makes us real sick." Rochelle sighed in disgust. "I can't fight with my clothes risking turning into a walking pietri dish. At the very least I need to find something or a place to rest and keep clean."
"We can forage in town a little later, I thought I saw a conveinance store."
Rochelle nodded, poking through the cupboards in the kitchen. "Vinegar? Why's it say raw on it? These folks sure had some… organic tastes."
"Apple cider vinegar Ro, thats a premium probiotic and preservative right there. Good for candidiasis."
"If it will help keep me from getting sick I'll take it." Rochelle sighed in resignation.
"There was a liquer store in town too, might be able to get some disinfectant." Nick said hopefully.
"Long as we can boil water I think I'll be good but damn…" Rochelle shook her head. "No hot baths…, those painkillers are overkill for plain old cramps… I'm gonna look for something upstairs and then go to bed." she sounded annoyed, upset even.
Coach kept going through the cupboards. "Nuts and fruit, we'll take these with us on the trail… heh… what have we here?" He opened a sealed box full of wood chips and grinned. "We'll I'll be, Beets! Not tonight maybe but… yeah I think this is enough. You two go get settled in, I'll figure something out to cook." Coach shooed Nick and Ellis away from the kitchen.
"Lets go see if there's any water running!" Ellis ran towards the bathroom.
"Shit ELLIS! NO WAY YOU'LL GET GREASE IN THE TUB AGAIN!" Nick protested, running after him. He tore upstairs after Ellis, only to get the bathroom door slammed in his face.
He heard water running and the lock on the bathroom door click shut. "Whoopie! I thought that was a solar water heater on the roof! Hey Ro you can soak tomorrow!"
"Fuck you Ellis!" Nick yelled. Rochelle hopefully poked her head out of the bedroom she wanted to lay claim to, only to realize Ellis got to the hot shower first and close the door with a disgusted snort.
"Not till I'm clean… sweetheart." He teased. Nick heard the click of a lock.
Nick growled. "You dumb assclown! I want that shower!"
A raspberry was the only reply Nick got.
Going through rooms, muttering in disgust, Nick found a liquor cabinet, finally. Inside were a couple of home made jars of hard apple cider, some bottles of herbs and vodka that Nick guessed were medicinal tinctures and finally. "Aaah, whiskey!" He pocketed the bottle and started going through the drawers in what was some kind of study. "Man all these seeds… what's this one? Calendula… huh, that was outside." He looked inside one of a number of sealed containers on another shelf. "Willow Cambium… what the fuck… you'd think this gal was a witch or something. Where's her eye of newt?" A crying noise echoed in the distance. "Speaking of…"
From one of the rooms, Rochelle heard an all too familiar cry that made her groan in frustration. "Damn witch…" The only one who didn't hear the witch was Ellis over the water running.
Coach was muttering over his cooking about the witch somewhere in the distance. "Fuck if she keeps this up I'm seriously grabbing a shotgun and crowning her." Muttered Nick as he came back down into the kitchen. "Hey coach, what's willow bark used for?"
"It has natural asprin in it. Might whip up a poultice for my knee. It started acting up in Whispering Oaks but there wasn't really time to do something about it."
"Knock yourself out, but please tell me we are gonna shut that witch up." Nick pleaded as he set the jar of willow on the kitchen counter.
"If she doesn't in one hour. Don't go alone I'll go too." Coach warned him. "I found a chrome shotgun in the living room on a gun rack. So we got two shotguns now."
"Deal."
Ellis came downstairs with a huge grin on his face, soaking wet. "You used all the hot water didn't you?"
Ellis simply stuck his tongue out at Nick. "Tell you what, when you can beat me in arm wrestling you can go first. I punched out a Jockey this morning, ballsiest move gets the first shower."
"Fuck no, I broke a bottle over a charger's head last week I should be the one to get the first shower!" Nick was not giving up.
Ellis got right up to Nick. "Smell that? I'm nice and clean… they had lavender soap… the good stuff."
"Careful boy you're playing wi…" Coach started.
Nick snarled and stomped on Ellis' toes. "I wanted that FUCKING HOT SHOWER!" It was either the toes or punch him in the face. Ellis leered at Nick.
Nick fumed, grabbed his grilled mushrooms and stormed upstairs to his room. Worse, there were three rooms, and four people. Ellis may have gotten the comfiest shower, but he'd be damned if Ellis was getting the full sized memory foam mattress in the master bedroom. He dropped his backpack on the bed and sat down quietly to eat his mushrooms by flashlight. The earthy scent of the portobellos filled his nostrils and only then did Nick realize how badly his stomach was growling.
"Nick…" Coach knocked on the door frame a few minutes later and poked his head in. "Hey… i know you and Ellis are out of sorts tonight, but can you share a room? You can have your own tomorrow night if you want but Rochelle needs her privacy. That leaves the three of us to rotate who has to share."
"Eh why the fuck not, at least he won't get mechanics grease all over the bed." Nick sighed and ran his fingers through his hair irritably. "Coach I like to be CLEAN. Its not always possible I know but when he tracks crap all over the safehouse it makes me wanna strangle the kid. And then he took all the hot water, that just tears it! I haven't had a hot shower literally in weeks."
"Rochelle just made it clear to him he has to share the hot water. She'll need some too you know."
"I know… I'm not happy but I'll deal with it. Besides. I got whiskey." He held up the bottle.
"Oh baby, that sounds like a party." Coach chuckled. "I got first watch tonight, leave a shot of that out for me will you?"
"Sure why not. Who's got second?"
"Ellis. He's younger he can take the strain of lack of sleep." Coach told him. "Then tomorrow night you get first and Ro gets second."
Nick nodded. Rotation was fair. He respected Coach, didn't agree with him sometimes, but he respected him. Actually he respected all of them, but Ellis could be hard to deal with because of how high strung he was. Nick liked to think things through, he liked to be calculating, it came with being a con artist and a gambler. He was meticulous by nature with both his physical appearance and living area and dealings.
"Coach… with Ellis the problem isn't him its me. I can't take mess. I was many things before the infection hit, a slob wasn't one of them. And its not just that a con man lives by the way he looks either. I NEED clean orderly living space to keep my head on straight and I need to BE clean in the absence of that. Now I've got a nice comfy bed and I'm covered in sweat and dirt and bugbites. I'm not used to sleeping rough, so I need some shut eye on an actual bed. To me its not funny crawling through a fucking sewer, or mud, or falling out of a helicopter."
"I get it man. I'll have a talk with Ellis when we switch watches. Hell even Ro knows. Thats why she was willing to open up about her concerns with her monthly in the first place. She knew you'd back her desire to not get a skin infection as a result. Hell I've even been worrying. We haven't been eating well. We've been on the road almost non stop. How much more can our bodies take before we get pneumonia or… I dunno dysentery or some shit? No we gotta rest and recharge our systems, get some nutrients into us. Or one of these days we're gonna wake up to a rude surprise."
Nick nodded. "I been telling you, not to mention most of the safehouses all thats there to eat are old fashioned K rations and beans. I don't like having to run to the bathroom an hour after eating do you?"
"Hell no." Coach chuckled.
Ellis entered the room with a couple extra pillows he'd found and some spare sheets. He'd changed into a clean white t-shirt and cutoff sweatpant shorts. "Yeah but a city full of zombies isn't a place I wanna take a chill pill man. Anywhere lots of people have been we have to hustle. That bridge? That wasn't a place I wanted to stop and all those tanks that showed up when we were lowering it only made me think I was right."
Nick glared at Ellis. "You still ran ahead and took the shower, and all the hot water!"
"You'll get your turn."
"I'm covered in dirt and I have mud on my suit halfway up to my knees."
"I know, tell ya what I'll make it up to you." Coach left the two of them alone and Ellis tossed Nick a long t-shirt and sweat pants. "I'll give you a backrub."
"I was gonna challenge you to a drinking game for revenge but okay, a backrub sounds like a good idea." Nick chuckled. "Found a bottle of whiskey earlier. Coach just asked that we save him a shot for when his shift is over."
"Sounds good to me." Nick set the bottle on the table and went to change into the t-shirt. He left the sweat pants, his boxers were good enough.
Nick lay down on his stomach on the bed and Ellis began to knead at his shoulders and neck. The hackles began going up the instant Ellis worked on his neck, tickling and tingling wonderfully. His thumbs worked in circles over the skin and knotted muscle, smoothing the tension and letting Nick relax and think for a bit.
Nick was planning on trying something when he'd gotten the chance. He thought Ellis might be more open to it despite being raised in the south and being blue collar. Nick was horny, pretty oversexed on the normal. But his romantic liaison in the Vannah had gotten rudely cut off by the green flu and he hadn't had a good lay since a couple months before then.
He wasn't interested in Coach, Coach was just not attractive to him. And there was Rochelle. Nick would have loved to repopulate the planet with Rochelle. Nothing serious but he could respect her. She was smart and down to earth. She'd make a good mother someday and any kids they had he knew she'd take better care of them than he could. She had good genes. She caught on quickly and adapted quickly. But there were dangers. If he got her pregnant, on the trail with no doctor to assist and attacks from zombies on a regular basis requiring strenuous physical activity, odds were her life would be in danger. In a way he was disappointed they hadn't joined up with the trio on the bridge. There was safety in numbers and with more people one of the women getting pregnant would have been less of a strain on their strength.
But Ellis was attractive enough, strong enough, sweet enough. Nick felt he could get off without burdening the other physically the next morning and knew Ellis wouldn't hurt him emotionally because of his interest in both men and women. Nick had been hoping that a couple of shots and some rounds of "I've never" would open the younger man up, give Nick some idea of how sexually experienced he was and make the mechanic more open to having sex with him. Nick was pretty sure the seeds of it were there. There was the comment Ellis had made about Jimmy Gibbs for example, you don't claim you'd have a man's children if nature allowed it without some attraction to the same sex. There were all the stupid stories Ellis told about Keith that made Nick think whoever this guy was Ellis might have been with him at some point.
"There we go." Ellis had finished with Nick's lower back and he sat back on the bed. "Man you were tense. You gotta learn not to sweat the small stuff man. If the zombies don't first, all that worrying's gonna kill you someday."
"Hey thanks…" Nick grabbed the whiskey bottle from the bedside. "Few swigs?"
"Sure why not." The two of them passed the bottle back and forth, a gulp here, a swig there. Liquer always burned like fire and Nick liked to drink it slowly, small sips. Ellis took great big gulps and slowly swallowed the stuff a bit at a time. He breathed through his nose and let the alcohol run over his teeth. "You know the one thing I miss is a god damn toothbrush."
"Been looking, so far no dice the packages don't stay closed easily and get walked on and broken open." The two of them were sitting side by side on the bed, probably a little too close. Ellis had a little bit of red across the bridge of his nose. Nick felt his ears burning a bit come to think of it. Well, it was now or never. Nick leaned in a little closer, and a little closer, their noses met, and then their lips.
Ellis hesitated, confused, but he was responding. Just shy and slow to do so. Nick nibbled the bottom of Ellis' lip, prompting the mechanic to open his mouth. The conman slipped his tongue inside and coaxingly started running it along the other man's own.
The nice, alcohol and pleasure induced fog took hold of Ellis. He was confused, but definitely into it. He hadn't thought about this. He'd spent too much of his time with Nick simply running for his life. As Ellis leaned into the kiss he felt Nick gently pulling him to straddle his lap. He felt something hard brush up against his leg, reaching down with one hand to knead Nick's burgeoning erection. Nick moaned into Ellis' lips, kneading his buttocks and resting his forehead against the mechanic's between kisses.
Ellis started pulling at his shorts, not wanting to stand up or move back too far from the stimulating touch on his backside. Nick pulled his shorts off of Ellis' ankles and then pried the mechanic's underwear down enough to get at the the younger man's erection with his hand. Nick managed to get his boxers down with a bit more maneuvering. Ellis started pumping his member and Nick rocked slowly into his strokes. "Mmmm…" Nick rolled the two of them over. "Gimme a second…" he stood up and started fumbling in the pockets of his suit, returning a moment later with a travel size bottle of lotion.
Ellis' eyes widened. "I… um… I never did… that…"
Nick snorted, Ellis was flushed, confused, eyes unfocused from the alcohol with a full erection bared to the cool night air. He looked so tempting. Chiseled abs and pecs but still thin enough that he could be moved easily. "I'll go first, then you can do the same to me." Probably had to hide his interest in men from the village assholes. Every hood's got at least one.
The look in Nick's eyes, Ellis couldn't get his own to focus, but Nick's gaze was hungry as he looked the mechanic over. The two came together again, in a blur of hands and lips and pretty eyes fogged by lust. Nick lifted Ellis' legs to either side and slid down some, taking the mechanic's erection in his mouth and slowly sucking him in. Ellis moaned Nick's name, begging him for more. Nick hollowed his cheeks, providing a bit more suction while using his hands to open the lotion and slick his fingers.
The distraction of Nick's mouth and tongue skillfully lavishing attention on his member meant that Ellis didn't notice until a finger slipped inside of him. Ellis jumped, and Nick hummed reassurance as he slipped a second finger in and began scissoring them. He was looking for a spot, just the right. "Mnngggg…" Ellis threw his head back and moaned in pleasure.
Nick let go of Ellis' member, pulling his fingers out and covering the mechanic's body with his own. He took a few moments to kiss the younger man, pushing his legs back under the thighs. "Just relax." Nick's voice was hoarse with lust. "It'll hurt worse if you're tense, but it will get better."
Ellis wrapped his arms around Nick's neck, wrapping his legs around the conman's hips. Nick kept a steady pace, rolling his hips instead of an outright thrust. Ellis latched his lips onto Nick's neck and sucked at the skin. Nick nuzzled Ellis' ear breathing deeply of the younger man's scent. The mechanic was whimpering in pleasure, short breathy cries interspersed with Nick's name.
Then Nick hit Ellis' prostate and the man bellowed his name. Turning into putty in the conman's hands, eyes rolling back in his head. Ellis hung on for a minute or two like this, head and eyes rolled back, toes curling, howling Nick's name, begging him for more. And then he shuddered, bearing down into Nick's thrusts one final time as he came. Nick managed a thrust or two more, before he emptied himself into the mechanic. The two of them collapsed onto the bed, still entwined. Nick floated off to sleep.
Coach came back to their door around midnight to call Ellis for watch, only to find the two of them still laying in each other's arms. He slowly closed the door, chuckling to himself. Well they were resting for a week, but he'd find some way of taking it out of Ellis' hide later. Coach wasn't about to mess up what may well have been the Mechanic's first time. And maybe getting laid would calm Nick down some.