It was beginning to get dark now, and I was starting to worry. I could see it in Jake's face too. We weren't in a good situation.
As we went further down the road, something moved in the forest to our right. I pushed Jake to the side, standing in front of him with my machete ready.
The leaves moved more, and there were multiple footsteps.
"Get in the car," I whispered, taking my pack off and handing it to him.
"Wha-"
"Get in the car Jake," I pulled the gun out of my belt and handed it to him as well, opening the door to the car and pushing him in, "Stay in until it's safe. Got it?"
"Will you be okay?"
I turned to him for a second, a smirk growing on my face, "Do you even have to ask?"
I pulled the mask to my mouth before shutting the door quietly, getting back in stance.
"Who's out there?" I looked up, confused, "We heard whispers. Who is it? We're unarmed. Well, we have a shovel and a baseball bat, but we don't have any guns or anything of the sort."
I stood up a bit straighter, but didn't move. The mask stayed on my face and I stayed ready to fight.
They moved into view and I almost growled. There were five or six of them. The two with the weapons were male, bulky. This wasn't a good scenario for me. I didn't think I could take on all of them.
"What the.. You a psycho chick?" The one with the baseball bat dropped his defensive stance and looked to me confused.
"Lemme at her! I bet she's bitten," The one with the shovel walked forward, but the teenage girl with them stopped him.
"No! She could be fine," She put her hand on his chest, "Seriously Mike, don't."
My eyes narrowed as I began to talk, "Send one or two over to talk. No weapons though. I'll put mine down if they begin to walk here."
My voice was only slightly muffled by the mask, but I still held it a little away from my face so it could be louder.
They looked to each other and began to talk before the teenage girl and an older woman who looked like she could relate to the teenager began to walk over. I placed my machete on the roof of the car and gave Jake a quick glance, shaking my head a little. He looked worried. I wasn't going to let him out here. He was going to be a secret.
"We're unarmed," The teenager said, walking over with her hands raised. The other girl wasn't as lenient to my commands as the teenager was, but she had her hands raised non-the-less.
I nodded, but didn't pull my mask down. As they came closer, I stepped forward a little to try to take attention away from the car. My mind was on him more than anything. He was my responsibility now.
"You can take the mask off," So the teenager was going to do the talking.
I shook my head, "No bites? No scratches? No blood?"
She nodded, "We've been clean. We put down or release the ones that get hurt. We do daily checks for bites and scratches. We're good."
I took my mask off slowly and tried to not seem so tense.
"I'm Hanna, and this is Finny," The teenager - Hanna - said with a small smile. She was maybe 15, 14 at the youngest.
"I'm Tessa," I nodded in return, rubbing my brow, "Er, I didn't mean to scare anyone."
"It's okay. It's bad times now. Always gotta be ready," Finny spoke now. She couldn't be too much older than me, she had to be a sister.
"You were talking to someone else, right?" Hanna stepped a little closer, feeling it safer to come near me now.
"No," I sighed, "It's habit to whisper things when I'm trying to think. Helps me out with traveling alone and such."
Finny studied me carefully. She could read people, like me. I saw it in her eyes.
She turned to whisper something in Hanna's ear before Hanna nodded.
"So, Finny says she saw someone else."
I looked to Finny then, locking eyes with her, "Probably was the walker I killed."
"There's no blood on your weapon?" Finny didn't believe me.
I smiled, "You think I always need a weapon? I look like a psycho, remember? We can do powerful things."
Finny laughed, "You're able to do it. But then your mask would have more blood on it."
Her eyes went to the car then, something catching her line of vision, "Oh, what do we have here?"
She began to walk towards the door and my hand went to my mask, pulling it up and grabbing my machete with my free one. My body was blocking the space between her and the car.
"Oh, I don't think you want to do that."
The men started to come up then, ready to smack me with their weapons. I twirled my machete around a little bit before I heard a knocking on the window and the door opening slightly. I put my free hand to the opening and felt the cold metal touch my fingers.
Idiot gave me the gun?
I didn't know what to think then. But I did what he was insisting on me doing, I checked to see if it was loaded and aimed it at the head of one of the guys.
"Wanna re-think your situation?"
They stepped back then, suddenly alarmed that a gun was aimed at their face.
"Okay, calm down," Hanna put her hand up to me and pushed Finny back, "No need for guns."
"No one opens that car door, got it?"
"We get it," Hanna nodded, but Finny shook her head.
"No, we don't. We wanna know what's in the car."
"No, you want to know what's in the car," I corrected her, "And you aren't opening it."
I heard a knocking on the door again and turned to look through the window, my gun still aimed at the group of people. Jake was shaking his head, pulling on the handle to open it. I shook mine in return, he wasn't coming out.
"Who's in there? Someone's that bit?" Finny growled, "We ain't letting a bitten person stay here. We need to put them down. Guys, back me up."
"She's right," The man with the baseball bat said, his bat hanging in a loose grip on his side, "It's not even about us anymore. It's about morals."
I snorted, "Morals?" I looked back to them, humor in my eyes, "No. There are no morals. Not in this world. Back off. No one's looking in the car. I'll put my weapons down if she stays away."
The man with the shovel nodded then, putting his weapon down and pulling Finny back, much to her disagreement. The man with the baseball back stayed this time.
"I'm Kyle," Nodded to me, "It'd be good if you'd put the gun down."
I sighed, knocking on the window and handing the gun to Jake through the open space. Then, I put my machete back on the roof of the car and pulled my mask back down.
"I'm Tessa. I didn't mean to startle anyone. It came to that."
"Yah, there's times when you gotta do whatever you can to protect what's yours to protect. Can we know what's in the car though?"
I looked to the window before rubbing my brow again. I was doing that a lot lately, "Someone. He's not bit, he's not harmed. He's just.. Innocent. He doesn't know how to survive in this."
"Oh," Hanna seemed to understand my actions now, "I would've done the same for my little brother if he was here.."
"He's not related to me, and he's only a year younger than me. But he's my responsibility."
"Well, Tessa, where ya staying tonight?" Kyle looked to me, a small smile on his face. He was a lot more corporative than Finny.
"Dunno yet. But we might wanna get going to find a place. So can we keep this conversation short?"
"Why not stay with us?" Tessa seemed cheerful. She was going to get on my nerves.
"I'm not really comfortable with that."
I was pushed forward from Jake forcefully opening the door now. He was obviously tired of waiting.
"We'd like to stay with you, yes."
I looked to him in disbelief before smacking him in the arm, "You can't make that call."
"You said I could," He retorted, rubbing his arm with his hand, "And we're saying with them. It's safer than staying out here."
Hanna smiled, "Yay! Then, it's settled. C'mon, follow us."
Jake took me by the arm and made me follow, handing me my machete with his other hand, "Please."
I growled to him. I knew letting him tag along was a bad idea.
We aimlessly followed them, Jake holding onto my arm to make sure I didn't run off. He was pretty strong for such a thin boy.
"Dale," Hanna sang as she walked up to a large, barbwire fence, "Let us in! We have guests."
Another door opened behind the fence that I didn't even notice before and then the door in the fence opened.
"Hurry."
We walked in, the man eyeing both Jake and I suspiciously as we followed behind them.
"You know we gotta give them a look over too, right?"
Kyle nodded, "Chill out old man, we know the rules."
When I turned around to see where we entered, I noticed we were in a half built house, just the walls build high. The barbwire fence was stretched around the outside. It was like the outer shield. Then the door to the house was there.
"Did you finish building most of this yourself?" I questioned to no one.
"Yup," Kyle answered, "My brother Hank and I were contractors before the invasion. This was a house we were working on. It was supposed to be a lot better than this. Have rooms, floors, and a ceiling. But we fixed up what we could when we started hearing the rumors. Ain't no way we'd let ourselves get screwed."
"How'd you get the vehicles in?" I noticed a few trucks, a van, and a camper were in the back of the area.
"We put in a garage door, and there's a bigger door in the fence to pull apart so they could get 'em out if we needed them to."
I nodded. This was a place I couldn't even think of seeing in this world. The rumors obviously weren't listened to by much. So since they took such time building this, in the woods, they must've had more help. I wasn't going to question though. It seemed like fencing for a prison, but it was enough to have for a few days.
A few fires were spread out, there was a place you could call a kitchen, tents spread out, and blankets hung in certain areas. I figured they were designated restrooms. At least they were half decent.
"So, we can find you guys a tent to crash in for a few nights if you'd like," Kyle began. I cut him off though.
"Would it be okay if I slept on the camper?" I didn't mean to be so sudden, but it was a habit to sleep on a higher area, "He can sleep wherever, but I'd like to sleep on the camper. And hold my things there."
"It's Dale's camper, it's his choice."
I looked back to the older man, forgetting about Jake holding onto me until he let go so I could turn, "I wouldn't be in the way. I'd stick to one small area, you can still sit up there."
Dale looked at me a moment, he must've been confused.
"I'd like to be with her," Jake suddenly added. I looked to him, rather annoyed yet relieved at the same time. He was going to be closer to me. I could get him if something happened. I was determined to protect this boy until I could find someone who can. I didn't think these people were the people that could.
"Sure, I don't see why not. Are you sure you'll be comfortable up there though? We can give you a few blankets and pillows, at least. Let us do that."
I nodded, "Okay. Er, Thank you, I guess." I didn't usually thank many people, but I should at least thank these people. Resources were scarce now. It was a reach in the dark to do this.
"We'd like to look through your things while we check you for bites. Kyle will be checking you, Jake, and I will be checking Tessa. Hank will be looking through your things."
I looked to Hanna, who came out of nowhere, before responding, "Can you get another girl to check my bag? So they can be in the room with us? I'm a little over protective of my things."
"That's okay, I am too," Kyle cut off Hanna, "I'll go find Luna."
We were led over to one of the groups of blankets around the areas I figured were restrooms, and waited for Kyle and Luna to come back.
"So, you really aren't gonna run off on me?" Jake looked to me, both surprised and worried, "And you'll really let me sleep up there with you?"
I studied him for a moment before nodding, "Sure. You're my responsibility now. I gotta take care of you."
I started messing with the hoop piercing in the middle of my bottom lip, thinking. Saying that made me feel a connection towards him. I wasn't going to randomly become his best friend or anything. But I felt like I was starting to get onto a common ground with him. I was mad at him for dragging us here, but he was trying to protect me too.
"How do you keep those things in? Aren't they infected or something by now?"
I laughed a little, "Nah. I keep them pretty clean. A few drops of water every other day to wash them. I don't dare take them out though. No way to re-pierce it if it closes."
"And how did you stand getting the bar through the bridge of your nose?" He seemed truly curious about me. I couldn't contemplate how I felt about that just yet.
"No. And before you say anything, the piercing in my eyebrow didn't hurt all that much either. I'm a big girl, I can handle a little pain," I gave him a smile. I was actually getting along with him.
"Well, glad I know I'll have someone like that to keep me company and keep me safe then," He returned my smile before Kyle came back with Luna, and he headed off behind one of the blankets with the man as I head behind the other with the girls.
"Please be careful with my things. Try to not get them dirty. And don't lose the smaller items. Some of those things are really valuable to me," I began to lecture Luna about the things in my bag before she laughed at me.
"I know, sweetheart. I'll keep everything organized. And I won't be taking anything. What's yours is yours," Luna's voice was reassuring.
I was stripped down to my undergarments and examined from head to toe. They checked everywhere, even parted my hair continuously to make sure nothing was there.
"So, is that boy your boyfriend?" Luna asked with a small smirk before Hanna shook her head.
"No, apparently they'd just met," Hanna corrected her.
"Well, you two stand pretty protectively next to each other."
The two girls giggled and I tried my hardest to not act like a jerk to them, "We've made a deal to watch each other's back. In a time like this, traveling with a stranger, you need to know there's some form of connection between each other. We need to trust each other and be protective over each other to make sure we survive."
They stayed quiet then. It took a good half an hour before I was freed, and stepped out in a grey off the shoulder tee-shirt with the words 'Pretty Little Liar' printed on it in black. I still wore my jean shorts though, and my converse stayed on my feet.
Jake came out a few minutes later as I put my mask back around my neck.
"Do you really have to wear that thing in here?" He seemed like he was laughing at me, but trying to hide it.
"I always wear it. Just in case," I was looking down at it thankful I'd cleaned off the blood. It was beginning to annoy me.
"Not tonight," He walked up to me and pushed my hands away, grabbing the mask with one hand and the string around my neck with the other, lifting it off my head, "Tonight, you relax. You need to relax so you can be alert without all the tension when we leave."
He put the mask in my hand and fixed my short-ish black hair before giving me a grin. I just looked at him, not knowing what to do or say. It was sudden, and impulsive. At least that's what I classified it as.
None the less, I put the mask in my backpack and followed him.
"I'll go put your stuff on the camper, and get the pillows and blanket," He took the bag from me before sighing, noticing the gun around my waist, "Give me the gun too Tessa."
"There's no way you're taking this gun from me," That was where I started to disagree.
"Why? You don't need it in here. And you'll still have your machete. You're probably more dangerous with that than a gun."
I shook my head, "No. Besides, when it comes down to it you'd need to have me to kill things at a distance if we're separated in here and something happens."
"You need to stop thinking of me as someone so helpless," His voice was low as put the bag down and pinned me to the side of the camper, one of his hands holding mine above my head while the other unhooked the case from my belt. After he put it on his belt, he let me go.
"Don't start crossing lines, Jake," I threatened, but he had just utterly amazed me. He didn't seem like one to do that. I apparently had been underestimating him. Who was Jake?