Chapter 11

What joy that had been rekindled that afternoon dissipated very quickly over the next few hours. Knocks at the wall grew more and more frequent until it was a chorus of bangings and scratchings. Todd and Jack reinforced the barricade with several larger pieces of furniture, but that didn't stop a few rotting hands and arms from breaking through the gaps and groping blindly for the survivors within. The air was thick with anxiousness and the stale odor of the dead Smoker. Todd pulled Dee to him and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Jack isn't the only intelligent one," she muttered hopelessly into his shirt, "we're screwed."

"Royally," Todd agreed, "but we've gotten out of tough spots before. We just have to be smarter than they are. I think we can do that."

Dee pulled away to look up at him. She searched his grey eyes for fear and saw none. She buried her face in the comforting warmth of his chest again and tightened her arms around him. His firm squeeze was comforting and encouraging. Maybe they'd make it, like he said. Maybe what they had together could be enough to survive. Maybe.

Todd loosened his grip, draped one arm around Dee's waist, and cupped the back of her head with the other hand. He had become an expert at making false confidence look and sound convincing. There was a fair amount of guilt that came with it, but he needed to stay strong for her. He stroked her hair and let himself feel the warmth of her body against his. He needed that. He needed her.

Jack picked up an empty can and hurled it at the groping dangerous hands. The Dark was pressing on all sides of his head. His broken eye hurt. Why did he have to hurt so much? He snarled at the pain and slapped his hands against the floor. It had hurt less when he didn't remember. But did he really want to forget Wesley and Sheryl? The Dark stabbed the inside of his head. Maybe he did.

He looked at the mark on his arm. He should have died. He wanted to, back then. But now… He looked up at the confusing woman and nice man. They were his now. He felt that nice feeling when he thought about them. He had to stay for them. He didn't save Wesley that night, but he could save his two people now. That made the Dark angry, but he didn't care. He had things to do.

Todd jumped when Jack screeched and leapt at the barricade. He pulled Dee off of him and pushed her behind him. The Hunter was clawing and biting at the rotting hands that stuck through the gaps. Jack was on the attack, sure enough, but he was still in control. He screeched through one of the holes at the Infected on the other side. Another Hunter's call responded. This seemed to agitate Jack. He suddenly began tearing at the barricade to widen the gaps. Todd took a tentative step closer.

Jack was having a hard time making the Dark stay away. He'd told them all on the other side that the people were his, but one Hunter disagreed. The Dark wanted him to attack. It wanted blood. For the first time in a while, so did Jack. He wanted it very much. He wanted all of them dead for thinking they could take away his people. That scared him.

Jack abruptly stopped and turned to face Dee and Todd. He snarled once more at the Infected on the other side of the barricade before climbing down and shuffling over to them. He seemed unsure and awkward in his movements, as if he didn't know what to do with himself. Dee sat next to him and put a comforting hand on his. She really wished they could speak to each other. How much easier that would be.

Jack looked at the confusing woman with the eye that still saw. She looked sad for him. He didn't like that. That's all his people seemed to do. He slowly pulled his hand away and patted her shoe. He ducked deeper into his hood. He was safe from her sadness there. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his back. He looked up. It was the nice man.

There was something in the nice man's face. It wasn't sadness, like the confusing woman's looks. It was something nice that he couldn't place. He'd seen that something before… or had he felt it? It was warm and friendly. It was safe. It was like having a friend but stronger, somehow.

"How's your shoulder?" he asked.

Jack frowned and rolled his shoulder. A small growl escaped his cracked lips. Todd retrieved some gauze and ointment from their supplies. Jack tugged off his hoodie and tore through his old bandages with a swift swipe of his claws. The wound looked awful and smelled septic. Ointment wouldn't do much at this point. Todd rubbed the stubble on his face and pondered Jack's bullet wound. If the infection spread, Jack would be a goner. As much as he wanted to avoid the thought, they had to get to Mercy. He turned his attention to Dee.

"What about your arm?"

Dee flexed her arm tentatively. Pangs of pain arced across her nerves, but they weren't nearly as bad as a couple days before. She unwound her bandages. Her scabs cracked a little as she peeled away the gauze, but the wound was still clean and healing.

"It looks pretty good, actually," she replied, still looking at the scabbing, "I might be able to start shooting again in a week or two."

"We'll take it slow," Todd nodded.

It was a relief that at least one of them was healing properly, but the thought of travelling to Mercy in their state was not a promising one. He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to think. A dangerous idea crossed his mind, but he shoved it away. No. He couldn't even think of that. It was too much of a gamble with all of their lives. He kissed Dee and walked to the hall.

"Does the shower work?" he asked her.

"I haven't tried it. Let me know if it does."

Todd piled all of the glass and debris in the bathroom into one corner, complete with the old man's knife that was left in the tub. He tested a knob. Water spluttered a little from the shower head before a weak stream hissed from it. There was no warm water, but at least it was running. He stripped off his clothes and stepped into the cold water though his entire body protested. He looked around. Thank God. The bottle of body wash was almost empty, but it was enough. He reveled in the menthol smell of it and wondered if Dee would like it, too.

Dee inspected Jack's shoulder. He snarled at her a few times when she prodded swollen parts of it, but stayed still. She put some antibacterial ointment on it, but doubted it would do much good. When she started to wrap his shoulder, he pulled away from her and held out a clawed hand. He made a small keening noise. She raised her eyebrows.

"Do you want to try?"

He wiggled his fingers in response. She put the gauze in his hand and watched him as he wound the gauze under his arm and over his shoulder like Todd had done. There was such intelligence in his movements, even if they were a little clumsy. There were thoughts constantly firing in that brain, she knew, but they had no way of escaping. If only he could just speak. Just broken words would suffice. It would help if she had a clue.

"It's hard, isn't it?" she asked.

He made a nonchalant noise as he continued winding the gauze.

"No, I mean not being able to… well…"

He looked up at her with his one eye. He finished wrapping his shoulder and touched his mouth with a hand.

"Yeah. The not talking part."

A low rumble started in his chest and he tore his hand away from his mouth. Dee frowned.

"I didn't mean to make you upset. I was just thinking that maybe we could figure out a system or something. I know that there's a lot you want to say… we just need to find a way that you can say it."

Jack wanted that very much. The Dark lurched painfully at the idea. Silence made it far happier than words. The confusing woman was watching him. He didn't like that. He wanted to try to make words, but he was scared of it not working, especially in front of her.

"Maybe we could try little words," Dee suggested, "maybe we can start small and work your way up to bigger ones."

She saw a conflict in Jack's face. He shrugged at her and began to pull the gauze off of his bad eye so he could change the bandages. She sighed.

"Well, if you don't try, we won't know if it will work."

Jack fixed her with another enigmatic look and began winding the new bandages over his ruined eye. He held out a hand when he was done and wiggled his fingers again. Dee looked around. What did he want? He thrust his hand forward and wiggled his fingers again, impatiently.

"What?"

He put his hand to his mouth, held it out, and wiggled his fingers. She still didn't get it.

Jack's heart was going too fast. It scared him to even try. The Dark waited, too, curious as him. He was tired of the confusing woman not understanding. He tried to ask her again.

Jack put his hand to his mouth and made a muffled noise before repeating the gesture he had been doing. Noise… oh! Words! He wanted a word that he could try. She grinned at him.

"Okay, okay… let's try something easy first. Umm… how about 'yes'? Try that."

Jack's face scrunched up in concentration. His mouth moved uncertainly, trying to figure out how to begin. Dee made the 'y' sound a few times to help him out.

It felt like all of him was shaking. The Dark was tearing at him, telling him to stop. No. No! He felt noise rising in his throat, but it didn't sound like the word the confusing woman said.

"EhhhAAAUURRGH!"

The Dark howled inside his head happily.

Todd stumbled down the hall, his clothes halfway on and clinging to his still-wet skin. It sounded like Jack had lost it again. He heard Dee and slowed.

"No, no, come on. It's okay. You only tried once. Try again, Jack."

Todd saw Jack clawing the carpet with his head hung low and Dee ducking to meet his eye.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. Jack's trying to talk," she explained, and then turned to Jack and said pointedly, "and if he'd just try again, he could probably do it."

Jack grumbled and continued to refuse to look at them.

"What was he trying to say?" Todd asked.

"The word 'yes'."

"Wouldn't 'no' be easier?"

"Huh."

Jack took a breath.

"Nnnn… Nnnnn…" the noise tapered into a whine.

Todd clapped him on his good shoulder.

"Well, that's something! We can figure out 'no' from that, can't we?"

Dee smiled.

"I think so."

A hesitant smile spread across Jack's face. The Dark was not pleased.

Outside the door, someone was listening. He carefully posed the cold body of the Hunter in the sitting position before the door so the people inside would see it if they tried to leave. The Hunter's head hung at a strange angle off of its broken neck. He tried to right it, but it wouldn't stay. It didn't matter. It got the point across. He left to the deeper recesses of the apartment building.

The late afternoon blended into night. Dee showered while Todd made dinner. It was a wonderful feeling to scrub away all of the dirt and blood, cold though the water was. It was bracing, in a way. She hummed softly to herself as she worked a little body wash into her hair and loosened the months-old tangles. It wasn't much, but the shower was as close to paradise as she was going to get, these days. She enjoyed every minute of it.

Todd attempted to get creative with dinner. There was only so much spam and beans a man could handle. He scoured the kitchen for new ingredients and found some green beans, jerky, and half a loaf of bread that the old man had left in the freezer. It wasn't frozen, but there wasn't any mold to be seen on it. He heated up the green beans in a pan and added bite-sized pieces of jerky to the mix. He smiled. Anything to break the monotony.

Jack swung into the room. He'd been practicing his "n" noises in the bedroom, but Todd guessed that the smell of dinner had distracted him. He glanced at his friend as he stirred the green beans.

"Any luck?" he asked.

Jack was silent. Todd turned to look at him. A big bloody smile stretched across Jack's gaunt face. Todd turned down the heat on the beans and fixed Jack with a curious look.

"Well?"

"Nnno," replied Jack, his face brightening further, if possible.

His voice was harsh and gravelly, but the word was clear as day. Todd laughed triumphantly and shook Jack's good shoulder in congratulation. He grabbed the bag of jerky and offered Jack a piece. After the Hunter selected a piece, he took one himself and raised it up.

"To you, Jack, and your mastery of 'no'," he grinned.

Jack was a little confused, but happy nonetheless. He held up the food like the nice man did, and then wolfed it down. The Dark was ripping at his insides, but he didn't care. He had a word. He could make them understand a little at a time, now. It would be okay, now. He snuck another piece of food from the nice man's bag, and the nice man made that happy noise again. To his surprise, a noise very much like it came from his own mouth. He liked the sound of it.

Dee was too cold by the end of the shower to even consider letting herself drip dry. She quickly put on her clothes and hugged herself to keep warm. She padded into the bedroom and was contemplating warming up under the covers when she heard something that made her blood run colder. The boarded up bedroom window rattled ominously for a moment, and then stopped. She cautiously sidled up to the window to peek through a gap in the boards, but saw nothing except an empty alleyway. She crept under the covers and waited for a few minutes to see if it would happen again. Nothing. She left the warm covers to see what Todd had put together for dinner.

She was too far down the hall to hear the glass panes shatter.