Chapter Ten

Seven Days

"Tasha."

...

"Tasha!"

My eyes snapped up to Luke's who had an annoyed expression on his face. I kept zoning out whenever he would talk to me, and I could tell it was getting to him. But I honestly couldn't help it... All I could think of we're the people I had murdered... Their blood was on my hands.

"Sorry." I mumbled as I continued to cut pieces of wood with a saw.

"What's gotten into you? For the past two days you've been actin' weird." Luke's eyes softened as I grabbed the piece of wood and put it in a pile.

"I'm just kind of stressed." I told him honestly, cutting up another piece of wood. It wasn't the entire truth, but it was better than full-out lying. I had two options; staying here and joining Carvers group, or making a plan to leave, find somewhere else to go.

"Why?" He asked as he stopped what he was doing. I set down the saw and looked up at him. "Do you ever just wanna leave? Go out into the wilderness and find someplace better?"

Luke was silent for a moment. "It isn't safe out there." He said quietly, almost cautiously.

"It isn't safe here, either. I mumbled as I felt myself almost regret bringing this up. "Luke, I know you hate it here, too. You me, Becca, Alvin, Carlos, Nick and the others should leave."

Luke stepped towards me slowly, leaning down closer. "You really think that?" He whispered.

I nodded. "Things are only gonna get worse..."

Luke leaned back, a smile on his face. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to a table. "What do you have in mind?"

"Parker's Run, you know where it is right?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, not far from here. Why?"

"I say that's where we go too first- ah fuck." I mumbled as I began to head out the door. "We'll talk later, okay?"

"Where're you going?!" Luke trailed after me.

"I told Nick I'd eat supper with him!"

"You're late." Nick said as he smirked up at me. I rolled my eyes as I sat beside him, setting my plate next to his. "It wasn't my fault, Luke is horrible at collecting wood."

The truth was, I hadn't told Nick what had happened. How do you just tell someone that you killed three people and expect them to accept you? If I was going to make a plan with Luke, that would mean spending an incredible amount of time with him... I knew that would put strain on Nick and I, but it was something that had to be done.

"I don't get why you would choose that job out of all the others you could do." Nick said as he took a bite of fish. I sighed. "I didn't exactly have a wide range of choices, Nick. Carver wants me to do things that can help him, not the rest of the group."

"Why though?" Nick asked as he finished his food. "He didn't used to care what you were doing, as long as you helped out."

"I don't know." I lied, taking a deep breath. "All I know is I don't mind the job, it's better than actually working on the fencing. Right babe?"

Nick smirked, wrapping his arm around my waist. "Hey! It's not that bad."

I rolled my eyes, leaning up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "I don't care, I prefer being inside. You know that."

Nick nodded. "Yeah, I know. I just don't like you being alone with Luke all day." Nick admitted, his voice becoming quieter.

I looked up at him slowly. "Don't you trust me?" I asked softly, holding his hand tightly,

"Tasha, of course I do, but Luke-"

"I'm your girlfriend, Nick." I told him as I sat on his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck. "I love you. I don't love Luke." Honestly, I didn't love Luke. It was difficult enough to have to spend over six hours with him everyday, but the fact that I was still angry at him didn't help anything.

"I think we should make sure we start getting stocked up on medicine." Luke said as we began to make a pile of wood in the corner. I nodded in agreement. "We should try and take whatever we can without anyone noticing now, so that we don't have to risk people being seen to get it later."

"That's my girl." Luke said as he rubbed my shoulder. I rolled my eyes slightly as Luke grabbed a piece of wood from me.

"You hittin' on Tasha, Luke?" I heard Troy say as he walked behind us. "I don't blame ya, she's one fine piece of ass."

Luke opened his mouth to speak but I grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight. "Thanks, Troy." I replied sarcastically as he whistled at me, leaving the room. I let go of Luke's hand slowly, taking a deep breath.

"You can't do anything, Luke. You'll get us separated and then we're stuck here." I began to cut another piece of wood. "We just need to stick it out and kiss ass for the rest of the week, and then we'll be free of these assholes, alright?"

Luke nodded, brushing my hair away from my face. "I don't like the way he looks at you."

I scoffed. "Yeah, and I don't think Nick likes the way you look at me, but that doesn't stop you, eh?"

Luke had his arm wrapped around my shoulder as we walked back to camp, making it frustratingly hard to walk. "Dammit, Luke! You weigh more than you look."

"Oh, fuck off." Luke grinned, letting go and nudging my side gently. "I don't understand how such a pretty girl like you could be so mean."

I let out a loud laugh. "Oh! That's rich, coming from the 'sweetheart farmboy' over here." Luke chuckled as Nick walked up to us. He had a weird look on his face, but didn't say anything. Nick wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me close against him as we walked to get dinner. "How was work today?" I asked as I nuzzled my head against his neck.

Nick sighed. "Fine..."

"What's wrong, Nick?" I asked after a few moments, knowing from his tone of voice that he was almost angry.

"Carver came to me today, said he wanted me to tell you that he wants you to have dinner with him and his friends, or whatever."

I tried to conceal the fear on my face as I pulled away from him, tying my hair up slowly. "Why didn't he just come to me?"

Nick shrugged, biting his thumb as he stared at me. I sighed deeply, touching my forehead to keep from screaming. "Okay... Okay." I leaned up, giving Nick a quick peck on the lips. "I'll see you tonight, okay?"

Nick just nodded, turning away from me. If only Nick knew how scared I was, he wouldn't be giving me the cold shoulder. I didn't understand why he seemed angry at me. Did I do something wrong? I shook my head as I walked towards Bonnie who was sitting with Troy, Johnny and Carver... Greaaaaaaat.

"Ah! There she is!" Carver said with a smile as he indicated for me to sit in between him and Bonnie. I slowly sat down, setting my plate of food on my lap as I stared awkwardly as the ground.

"So Tasha, how you like workin' with Luke cutting wood and all that?" Carver asked, and I almost felt like shooting myself right there if it meant I didn't have to hear him speak another word. He was trying to manipulate me, and I was going to do it right back.

I forced a smile. "Oh, it's fine."

"Troy here's been telling me that Luke's taken a liking to ya." This made me cringe as I felt my insides churn.

"I guess." I shrugged. "I haven't really noticed."

"Are you kidding?" Bonnie asked, staring at me incredulously. "He's in love with you."

I shook my head. Why was my love life of interest to them at all? Weren't they trying to make me join them? This was just starting to annoy me. "I'm with Nick, so regardless of what Luke feels I really could care less." That wasn't entirely true, I did care, but it was better if they didn't know that.

"That's right, I heard you two were together."

Of course you did, Carver. What don't you possibly know?

Days went by and I couldn't believe that Luke and I had actually came up with a solid plan. I was terrified, if there was one thing I learnt from having dinner with Carver was that he wouldn't stop until I was either dead or on his side. It didn't help that Troy was trying to touch me whenever Carver wasn't looking, the fucking pig.

Nick and I were closer than ever, but even so I could feel us falling apart ever so slightly whenever Nick saw me with Luke. I didn't understand what it was; to me, I thought Luke was just being friendly. After a while though, his flirting was getting so heated, that I didn't know what to do.

"Okay, Pete and you will get the guns?" I asked as I ran my fingers through my hair.

Luke nodded. "Yeah. Tonight I'm gonna get any medicine I can find and hide it."

"Okay, good. We need whatever we can get." I said as I rubbed my forehead. I was so scared our plan wasn't gonna work; it was stressing me out.

"You look so beautiful today." Luke said causing me to laugh as he twirled my hair. "I didn't do anything different."

Luke smiled, his hand on my cheek. "That's the point... You always look so stunning without even trying."

I pulled away slightly, rolling my eyes. "You don't look too bad yourself, Lukie. Now let's get this over with."

A/N: Thanks for reading :3 Remember to leave a review! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!

Fandoms for the win: I hope you enjoyed the chapter :3

RKaarisNK: Clem will definitely be in the story in the near future :3

SpawnOfSatan: I always love getting suggestions :3 Clementine will come in at the cabin, which'll be a few chapters down the road. I really hope you enjoyed this chapter!

horriblepastbeautifulsoul: Yeah, there's always gonna be some sort of grammar mistake considering I write on my phone. I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far :3 if you have any suggestions for future chapters, please leave them in a review! (: