PART TWO
Jake stood starring out the front window, his eyes straining against the dark of night to see anything that might be out there. He yawned and stretched a bit, jumping up and down to get the blood flowing and to keep himself awake. They'd been in the house for four days now, longer than they'd stayed anywhere in a while, and everyone except his wife seemed content. Some had expressed thoughts of trying to make it a longer stay, even a permanent one. They'd had little bother from roamers, a few here and there that were easily dispatched, and no other people had entered the area. Jake agreed they'd been safe so far, yet he remained uneasy about the warning feelings Summer kept getting. She'd been unable to relax, barely able to sleep, because of them, and she didn't let Bobby out of her sight.
Everything seemed quiet yet again though, could it be that she was finally wrong for once? Could they have found somewhere to make a home for longer than a few nights? No sooner had these thoughts floated through his brain than he caught a movement in the dark. Too fast to be a roamer, had to be someone alive.
He glanced behind him at Allen who was watching the back of the house, then back out the front. His eyes searched the darkness for the shape he'd seen moving, but there was nothing now.
"Psst, Allen," he whispered towards Allen, who turned and moved to his side.
"What is it?"
"I saw something."
"Roamer?"
"No, too fast for a roamer. Living."
"You think you saw a person? Just one? Where?" Allen stared out the window, his eyes searching but seeing nothing.
"Last I saw, they ducked behind the car across the road. I haven't seen them since."
"Do you think they are still there? Do you think they know we're here?"
"Why else would they be sneaking around this neighborhood at night? What do you say? Should we get the others?"
"Yeah, probably better safe than sorry," Allen said, then jumped as he turned to find a large, dark figure watching them through the sliding glass door at the back of the house. He pulled his pistol out and aimed towards the figure, who raised his arms up in a movement of surrender.
"Get the others, I'll hold him here," Allen said as Jake ran for the upstairs where the rest of the group rested.
Allen merely stood his ground, watching the figure, who likewise stood motionless at the door, his arms raised up, and his hands free of weapons. He just waited.
"Oh my god, what are you waiting for? Shoot him!" Molly called as she came into the room and saw the large figure at the door.
"We don't know he's a threat. He hasn't moved, he doesn't have his weapons out, he's put his arms up in surrender. Maybe we should see what he wants."
"What do you mean what he wants? He wants to kill us all, possibly rape some of us, and take our things. What else do they ever want? Shoot him!"
"Don't shoot him, Allen. We'll talk to him first. Calm down Molly, you're so quick to give orders to make us murderers but you're not even capable of killing a roamer let alone another human being yourself. Why don't you just go stay with the kids and let us handle it?" Summer said, sliding her knife from its holster and moving towards the man at the door.
"I'm going to open the door, and you're going to stay where you are or I'll cut you where you stand. Do we have an understanding?" Summer said.
The man nodded, and Summer slid the door open, her knife ready to make good on her threat if need be.
"Let's start with who you are and what you're doing coming around here at night?" Summer watched the large man for any muscle twitch that would give warning of a coming assault. None presented itself. So far, so good.
"My name's Drake. I'm alone. I've been watching your group for a couple days, you seem like good people. I'm looking for a group, people to be around, I've been alone too long. You get kind of crazy if you are alone too long."
"You've been watching us?"
"Nothing pervy, just seeing what kind of group you are. You can't be too careful. It seems like your group is pretty sane still. I could use a group like that."
Summer looked into the eyes of the very large black man standing before her. Nothing about him seemed to immediately set off her warning bells, and it was true that being alone for too long in this world could lead to very dark places for people, but it was impossible to be sure who was on the up and up and who was running a game on you. She had the group and especially the kids to think about before she allowed someone new to get into their midst.
"You understand we're a bit leery about letting new people in," she finally said.
"Yeah. Like I'm leery of putting myself in a new group of people. But you outnumber me. I'm the one taking the greatest risk here."
Summer chewed on the inside of her upper lip as she thought. "Wait here. I'll have to discuss this. You make a move and it'll be your last. Don't test us." She closed the door and moved backwards towards Jake, Allen, and Mark.
"What do you guys think?" she asked, her eyes never leaving Drake.
"He says he's alone, and if he wasn't it would probably just have been easier to attack than go this route for his group right?" Mark said.
"Possibly. Depends on how many of them there are. How much of a threat they deem us to be."
"We're a group of three kids and five adults, I don't think many feel threatened by us." Mark muttered.
Summer rolled her eyes at his assessment of their group. She knew there was more to being threatening than numbers. It was about what you were willing to do, how skilled you were, what weapons you had around, and how well you worked together as a team in combat. Except for Mark, Molly, and the kids, the rest of them rated as a decent threat. Both Jake and Allen were ex-military, and she'd been raised as a prepper in a commune learning to fight and survive all manner of situations her whole life. Anyone would be stupid to underestimate them.
"What do your instincts tell you, babe?" Jake asked, always trusting his wife's gut and feelings.
Summer shook her head. "I don't know. He doesn't immediately cause any alarms. And he looks like he can handle himself. If he's been alone as long as he says, he'd have to be able to. We could use more fighters. And he'd have to be smart too. Can't ignore how important that type of knowledge is. I say we give him a shot. Keep an eye on him, don't let him alone with the kids. We can take his weapons for now."
"Yeah, I'm okay with that," Allen answered.
"Me too," Jake said.
"I don't know, Molly won't like it," Mark replied. "She thinks we should just kill him and be better safe than sorry."
"She doesn't get a vote, what do you think aside from her input?" Summer asked.
Mark frowned. He didn't like to go against his wife, she was so fragile in so many ways that his lack of support could set her off. But he couldn't argue with the logic of the rest of the group.
"Yeah, okay, let's give him a try," he finally said, and Summer moved back to the sliding glass door.
Opening it, she held out her hand. The man shook it.
"I'm Summer. That's Jake, Allen, and Mark. Molly is upstairs with the children. We're going to give you a chance to earn our trust and be in our group, but you're on probation and we'll be watching you. Understood?"
"Understood, Summer. I'm Drake." He shook her hand, then waved a hello to the rest of the group.
"I'll go break the news to Molly. She's going to be upset," Mark said, and moved up the stairs, dreading the confrontation he faced.
Summer glanced around the room and pointed to the couch near the wall. "Rooms are taken. You can sleep there. Any weapons you have are mine for now. We have a watch rotation, you'll join tomorrow night. You're not to be alone with the kids ever. You try to maneuver it so you are, you're dead. You try to take more food than you're offered, you're dead. You try to hurt anyone, message someone to attack us, or anything we don't like and you're-"
"Dead. I get it. It's fine. It'll just be nice not to have to watch out for everything myself, and have someone to talk to. Thanks."
Drake gave a slight smile to everyone, then moved to the couch and setting his bag down, began pulling out weapons. He handed over a couple of pistols without bullets, a hatchet, a couple knives, and a crowbar. He seemed almost relieved to unburden himself of the items. Yes, he was putting his safety in their hands completely not having any weapons left, but it was nice to feel free from using them, even if only for a short time.
"That's everything?" Jake asked.
"Yeah. Kind of nice to get rid of it," Drake said.
"You hungry?"
"No, I'm good. I've got some protein bars I've been making do with, and some water still. Be nice to eat something else tomorrow though, but for right now I just want to sleep. I haven't slept, really slept, in a long time."
"Ok. Good night," Jake said, and moved back to his post at the front.
"I can take over now," Summer whispered, moving to stand next to her husband.
"Nah, I got it. You need to get some more rest. You never rest enough."
Summer sighed. "I won't be resting that much tonight with him here now."
Jake turned towards her and wrapped her in his arms. He kissed her forehead, and rested his chin on top of her head.
"You take too much on yourself. We're all here together, you don't have to take all the pressure. Let us, let me at least, help you shoulder it."
Summer nuzzled into his neck. It felt good to melt into him, they didn't get enough time alone these days, and when they did she never felt like much intimacy. That was her problem, though, not his fault. "I'll try. Thank you."
Giving her one last squeeze, Jake released her and motioned towards the stairs. She nodded, and moved up them. When she reached the top, she glanced back towards the couch where their newest member lay. He appeared to be deep asleep already. She knew that kind of tired, and wished she could know that kind of rest finally.
Moving down the hall, she slowly opened the door to the room she shared with Jake and Bobby. She smiled as she approached the queen sized bed and saw Bobby tucked under the lavender comforter, his arms and legs sprawled out so he took up more room than his small body should have. She slipped off her shoes, and pulled back the comforter, crawling under and pulling her son to rest against her. She felt his fingers slip towards her ear and start to play with her lobe like he'd done since he was a baby.
After the world changed, he'd started doing a lot of things like he'd done when he was younger. She didn't mind that much, once he'd settled into the world and felt capable in it he'd get better. She knew it. He had to. She kissed his little forehead and sighed before closing her eyes and praying for sleep to come.
