I stood underneath the showerhead. Not moving an inch. Steaming hot water poured down on me. It felt like heaven. It had been weeks since I last had a shower, let alone a hot one. After a bit, I sat down and crossed my legs, just enjoying having the water running all over me.
I was at the house we Misfits had taken. I chuckled. For the past couple of days, Tori and the others had been pouring in and out of the school, checking up on me. Cottle had taken to calling us a gaggle of misfits, and the nickname stuck. We were the new group in town, the Hollywood Misfits. I suggested the Hollywood part.
The past few days hadn't brought any new changes or anything. Cottle had pronounced me healed enough to travel about a day after I woke up, but he kept me in the makeshift hospital in order to watch for signs of infection. After a couple of mind numbing boring days, Cottle let me out to explore the town. The first thing I did was hit the shower. Who cares about a town when there is hot water to be had?
The door to the bathroom opened, and without turning my head or opening my eyes, I announced, "I'm not getting out, so either join me or leave"
"Uh…well I need to shower so you're going to have to move then"
I opened my eyes and pushed the curtain back to see Tori, standing in the doorway. "Not going to be prudish right now Vega? I hope you're not going to shower with your clothes on. That's weird, even for you"
Tori glared at me. She sat down on the toilet and harrumphed to herself. I chuckled and let the shower curtain fall back.
"You're not the only one taking multiple showers. Cat was in for an entire hour, only came out when Beck threatened to turn of the hot water. Trina tried to stay in for even longer then that, but Cat turned off the hot water after about ten minutes" Tori said mirthfully.
I chuckled under my breath. "How long were you in here for?" I asked
Through the shower curtain I could see Tori look towards the door. "Only for thirty minutes"
I stared at her, and I knew Tori could feel my eyes on her. After half a minute, she cracked "Thirty minutes, four times"
I laughed. "That's what I thought Vega"
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, so that my face was receiving the shower in full. It wasn't just that I was enjoying the shower; I was enjoying the fact that I was enjoying the fact that I was alive. From what Cottle had said, I came pretty damn close to dying.
I ran my hand over my stomach until I found the stiches. I had to keep them in for a bit longer, but I would always have the scar there.
"I was…scared that you weren't going to make it"
I snapped my head forward and opened my eyes. Tori had spoken so softly that for a second I thought that I she hadn't spoken at all. I was at loss of what to say.
"I'm still here Vega. Can't get rid of me that easily," I said smoothly after a few seconds
Tori chuckled entirely without humor. "That's good, don't know what I would do without someone to raise my blood pressure every day"
I laughed. "I don't think it's healthy to get mad everyday."
"Who said it was about being mad? Besides, aren't you mad everyday?"
I shook my head, scattering the water everywhere. "Not all the time. I'm just never happy"
Tori didn't have any way to respond to that, and I was kinda grateful. I wasn't in the mood to have a heart to heart over emotions. (ew) Turning off the shower, I snapped back the shower curtain. Stepping out, I headed over to get a towel. I was well aware of the fact that Tori was staring at me. Staring very hard.
"Don't strain your eyes Vega," I teased.
Tori went scarlet in the span of a second and quickly looked away. I smirked and wrapped the towel around me. I headed to my room. I got dressed and headed out to explore Eden, announcing this to Andre who was sitting in the living room talking to Jane. Jane and I glared at each other. Jane because I had head-butted her when I woke up the first time, and later I punched her in the jaw when she made a crack about Cat. I glared at her because I couldn't escape the nagging suspicion that she was hiding something.
Heading outside, I walked to the wall. Outside the wall lay dozens of corpsers. The defenders of Eden knew what the hell they were doing. Later, they would go out and burn the corpsers in order to prevent the spread of disease. At the base of the wall, near the gate, lay the crumpled explorer. Andre had been driving and in his desperation to get me some help, he slammed the car into the wall. Getting them Eden's immediate attention. I stared out over the road. I grabbed one of the crossbows that were left lying around. I hadn't intended to take up a watch, but I really wanted to shoot something. Mainly to avoid the nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. I didn't know where that feeling had suddenly come from, but it was there and it wouldn't go away. I shook my head and adjusted the sight and waited. I got lucky.
After about five minutes, a corpser shambled past a wrecked car. I waited until it got closer, and when I had judged it close enough, I aimed down the sight and took my time lining up the shot. I only had one bolt and I didn't want to miss. After what felt like eternity, but was really only a few minutes, I pulled the trigger, and the crossbow bolt slammed into the creature's forehead. It dropped like a stone.
A sudden clapping sound startled me. I turned around to see some blond guy clapping and smiling at me. "Nice shot" he said.
"Thanks" I said. For some reason, I didn't feel like being near him. And there was something about him that looked familiar. "You're Jade right? I heard about you from my sister Jane. I'm Mike"
That explains it. "That's nice." I said and I turned back around to stare at the fallen corpser. "Nice day out isn't it?" Mike said, climbing up to stand next to me.
"It was" I responded sarcastically, certain that it would fly over his head like a 747. Mike nodded and smiled a disgustingly greasy smile at me. He edged closer to me. Wow. So it didn't fly over his head, it fuckin rocketed past his head.
I stepped away from him. I didn't like his greasy smile, or the fact that he seemed incapable of taking a hint. But the biggest reason for my unease was the fact that just like his sister, it seemed like he was hiding something. Cottle said that the rumor mill said that there was at least one spy for the skull kickerz in Eden. Could there be two spies? I snorted.
What the hell was wrong with me? I was normally never this paranoid. Had the apocalypse brought this paranoia about? How long would it be before I became paranoid about my friends? I was wrapped up in my thoughts and missed what Mike had been saying.
"You say something?" I asked.
Mike narrowed his eyes and his lip curled a little bit. "Yea, I asked if you wanted to ditch the wall and go the pool with me."
I swallowed a laugh. Out of respect for Cottle, I didn't want to go around antagonizing anyone. (Save for Jane of course)
"No Thanks"
Mike glared and stepped forward and grabbed my arm. I ripped it out of his hand. "Don't touch me."
Mike seemed to get even angrier. "I asked if you wanted to go the pool with me, and you said?"
"No. Thanks. That's what I said. You deaf or something?"
Mike grabbed my arms and advanced on me. I snapped my knee up right between his legs. He went down with a shout. I turned and climbed down the wall. I was a bit away when I heard him swear that I would regret that. I gave him a one-finger salute as I walked away.
So much for staying at the wall. I didn't really want to wander around Eden, but I had nothing else to do. I spotted Tori wondering around, seemingly lost in thought. I glanced at my watch, it would be dark soon, and with Mike around I didn't want Tori staying out by herself. I jogged up to her, and promptly scared the crap out of her.
"Can't you just say hi like a normal person?!"
"No."
Tori fumed until she noticed that I was carrying the crossbow. "Getting better?" She asked.
I shrugged. "Got a corpser in the head, but I spent what seemed like forever to line up the shot. Wont be able to use it in a fight, picking off one of them though, I can do that easily"
"You just need some practice. Still pretty good since you've only used a crossbow for a couple of days. Not including that camping trip you went on before all of this happened."
I nodded in agreement. "Hey Vega, does this anything around here feel odd to you?"
Tori thought for a minute. "Not so much as odd, but more like all of this is going to end. Badly."
"So it's not just me. Yahoo."
Tori smiled. "Nope. We're sisters in Paranoia"
I twirled a finger in a circle. Tori stuck her tongue out at me.
"Hey Vega. Thanks…Thanks for watching over me while I recovered."
Tori beamed. "Don't mention it Jade. Hey, I heard that they had some sort of shopping mall thing on the other side of town! Lets go!"
Tori grabbed my hand yanked me along. I tried to ignore the fact that her touching me seemed to burn all the way down to the bone.
The suspicious feelings towards Jane and her brother hadn't gone away, nor had the bad feeling about something horrible happening at some point. But I ignored it all. I wanted to enjoy the few moments of peace and quiet. Especially if they were with Tori.
Hope you all enjoyed. Now that it's 3 am, I'm going to get some sleep. Seeing as I couldn't sleep without writing this first. Blarg.
-C.H.
