I felt something warm and fuzzy wrap around me, just as a man neared me with a shotgun in hand and aimed at my stomach. My eyes snapped open. I was greeted with the back of a white couch. My ears slowly adjusted and I noticed the sound of the bus slowing down. Mentally I started taking count of every ache and pain in my body trying to trace a damage assessment without moving or alerting one of the other two, I assume it's just Brittany and Josh, to my being awake.
With a jolt the bus stopped. It took a few minutes before the engine were turned off. My eyes flicked from left to right over the back of the couch, just listening to the world I couldn't see.
I could hear paper rattling and being crumpled somewhere. Vaguely I realized my backside hurt and felt sorta crusted, as if some liquid had solidified back there... I tried not to visualize and went back to focusing on the sounds. "Brittany, we're just about an hour and a half from Nashville, are you sure that you want to do this?" Josh sounded concerned. Something must have happened and Brittany had made some sort of decision I wasn't privy too.
"Josh... I need to do this. I just can't... Not after what happened. I've made up my mind and there is no changing it." I heard Josh's chuckle and felt myself smirk. He really had a nice chuckle. "Brittany, you're being a little dramatic are you not? I mean we will miss you but I'm sure he will understand. You need this and I wish you the best of luck where ever that might lead you."
I felt a part of myself die. Brittany was leaving. While she was just a friend she was a part of our weird team. What ever happened back there in Cincinnati must be to blame. That must be it.
I could hear Josh's deep sigh. "Keep an eye on him, I have to go and cipher some gas from those trucks over there, we have a quarter of a tank left but I'd rather not have a surprise and end up running out of gas."
With that I listened as Josh stepped down the steps off the bus and ran off to get some gas from nearby big rigs. I felt the couch move a bit as someone sat by my feet, I felt my muscles contract and tighten up as I felt a clawed hand on my leg.
"Shhhh, Calm down, it's only me." I jerked my leg and kicked away the hand. A growl crept from my throat. "Don't, touch me." All thoughts disappeared from my mind as I started shaking violently.
I could vaguely hear shrieking, crying, pain, oh the pain, and then, after what seemed like minutes I felt a calm, soothing clawed hand on my back. All the sound, the shaking, everything just seemed to stop. All I could hear was someone crying.
Reaching up I touched my clawed hand to my cheek, oh it was me crying. Big surprise... Slowly I rolled over and pushed the blanket off me to see who it was touching my back.
I vaguely heard someone cough and murmur something about being back in a few. All I could see was his dark, brown hair. I slowly looked lower into those brilliant red eyes that I had not so long ago first peered into in a dark room, alone, by myself, ready to die.
I felt ready to die all over again. Josh chuckled and kept staring into my eyes. "You should probably pull that blanket back up, Brittany had to leave. Seems she's not really interested in finding out if her fuzzy memory is right."
I felt like it was the hardest thing to look away, after straining against my muscles I glanced down. I gasped out loud and quickly wrapped the covers around me. I blushed a deep shade of red.
Josh just chuckled and smiled at me. I glanced up from where my eyes were on the floor and blushed even harder if that was possible when I seen the humor in his eyes, I glanced back down at the floor. I felt his clawed hand cup my chin. He slowly tilted it up for me to look back in to his eyes.
"Don't hide, I think you're beautiful. No matter what happens now I'll protect you." I realized I was being cliche but I could help but gasp and feel a smile tug at the sides of my face. Without warning I just reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck giving him a big hug. "Thank you Josh, god thank you." I closed my eyes and smiled, I could feel a few tears escape my eyes.
A few more tears escaped my eyes as I felt Josh's arms wrap around me and embrace me. It was when he started rubbing my back that I couldn't hold back. The tears flowed freely as I cried over his shoulder.
After a few minutes I pulled back and smiled at him. "Thank you Josh." Josh returned the smile, his sharp teeth would have looked horrifying or just weird if I had been human but by now I was so used to it I just let out a small laugh. My head rolled back as I laughed and I felt my eyebrows raise as far as they could and a huge grin break across my face as I looked him in the eyes again.
A loud cough to my right caught me off guard and I snapped my eyes over to the sound. I smiled as my eyes landed on Brittany. "Um, sorry bout that... How about you come over here and you two, can explain what the hell happened back there? Please leave out details I'd rather not know."
Josh helped me sit back down on the couch without losing the blanket around my waist. Brittany took a seat at the table and Josh sat down next to my on my left.
Josh placed his hand on my leg. He took a deep sigh after a few minutes of silence. "Well, I was the first to wake up. Their drugs didn't really seem to affect me, didn't help any though. They were just taking us out of their leaders office when I came too. I guess the guy was some huge legend who helped a lot of the citizens escape from various prisons and penitentiaries. Most of the people there were loyal to him but they knew the drugs he used on new victims were pretty bad on infected. So the guys holding us weren't surprised when I woke up. Naturally when I asked what was going on they were more than happy to divulge their dirty secrets."
Josh exhaled deeply and sucked in again. "They told me something about how the airport was home to all types of criminals and since most of them had the same ideals' crime was at an ultimate low. Even more so under the command of who ever the boss really is, I never really got a name." Josh paused for a second and glanced down at his hand that was massaging my leg.
"They said we were being taken where all infected, intelligent or feral, were taken, the brothel. There we were to be trained as sex slaves and used as any criminal so wished. Gender of the slave didn't matter." Josh paused again and didn't pick up this time. He just stared at his hands.
Brittany huffed at the silence. I glanced over and looked at her. "I woke up not long after they started changing us out of our clothes into, pretty much nothing. God I was so pissed, they dare lay a hand on me, too bad they had my hands chained otherwise I would of murdered that guy. He kept grabbing what ever skin he could. Bastard."
I watched as Brittany balled up her fists and her eyes seemed to blaze with anger. I glanced over at Josh. He gave me a small smile and put his arm around me.
"I'll take it from here Brittany. Well after we were cleaned up and put into our new clothes they sent us to the room where all the new toys are taken. It was when a guy came in and noticed you were still out that he decided you'd be first. God I hated watching him violate you. I tried my best to get at him but... The straps they had used to bind us just wouldn't give. It wasn't till... Well it wasn't till then that I could, with Brittany's help, yank our bonds off and attack that rapist. God... I'm so sorry Wolfy."
Josh pulled me closer to him as he spoke of the memory. I blushed as I realized Brittany was smirking. "After Josh castrated that monster we bolted. That was fun. And then we rode on his back, over the wall, and I mean, man, Wolfy, you missed so much!" Brittany was full out grinning and using her hands to explain their, as she put it, "fun" time.
"Brittany's sorta right, since we escaped we've been on the road heading toward Nashville. Decided that we might as well head south and try to supply ourselves in another city. Josh pulled me closer. We also thought it might be fun to explore a bit, we'll get to Cali but it'll just take us a little longer. I mean there's nobody in the world to dictate our speed limits or stealing so we'll be fine."
I smiled up at Josh as I pictured, in my mind, strolling through a Vegas Casino, running up and down the hallways of a fancy hotel, taking anything we want from the mall to wear, all the souvenirs we want from the Route 66 gift shops, oh and maybe I could find me some more model trains!
"Josh, your a genius, now lets get ow!" I stopped trying to stand up. Josh quickly wrapped his arms around me and slowly lowered me back down to the couch. It felt as if I had just been stabbed in the ass. I could vaguely feel myself shaking from the pain. "Shhh, Calm down Wolfy, Just relax." Slowly Josh pulled my legs up into his lap and turned so that my head was resting against the arm rest.
Now just, lay there, I'll be right back, the bus needs some more gas. I nodded my head through bleary eyes. I felt tears slip from my eyes and down my cheek. The pain had gone but the utter and absolute humiliation that I couldn't even stand up without pain and had to have someone help me lay back, god it was terrible.
I clamped my eyes shut and turned facing the couch. A muffled whimper escaped my mouth as I soaked in my humiliation and tried to fall asleep. I was finally rewarded with sleep after what seemed like hours.
Images flashed by my face; razor sharp claws barely missing my face, hot, passionate sex, a smoker in ripped, blue jean shorts with a ripped, purple coat, faintly the last image was of a bright light then there was darkness.
Snapping my eyes open I found myself still in the bus. Quickly looking around I realized I was alone. I pulled the blanket with me as I turned to be sitting up on the couch. I gently dug my claws into my scalp and scratched an itch that just didn't want to go away.
I slowly stood up, and holding my blanket, walked to the back where the box with my clothes were. I quickly opened it up and pulled out a shirt and pants. I didn't pay much attention to what it was and walked into the back bathroom. I ignored the underwear, I'd rather not wear anything yet, my rear is still sore and all underwear would do it make it chaff.
As I stepped out of the bathroom in the back I noticed Josh and Brittany walking back from the building near the bus. It seemed they had been clearing out commons of this, very rich looking building. The red brick arches and the white pillars were a striking sight.
Josh and Brittany climbed up onto the bus. Josh was the first to realized I was dressed and up. He gave me a small smirk. "Nice to see you finally grabbed your balls and got dressed." Brittany glanced at Josh before raising her eyebrows and then smiling at me." It's good to see your feeling better Wolfy. Just in time, we think we found a place to stay for the night."
I glanced from them to the building. "And what is the name of this place to stay at?" Brittany glanced from me to the building and back for a few seconds. "It's the Opryland Hotel. I mean, really even Josh knew it by the look of the building." I slowly nodded my head taking in the information. I'd been here once but I'd been really young at the time and the memories were fuzzy.
When I came back out of my day dream I realized Brittany was already gone and Josh was patiently waiting on me. "There you are, welcome back to Earth, Brittany already went off to claim her own room. We both agreed that you should sleep with me until you are more healed." I nodded, not really understanding what he meant by more healed. I felt fine as is, just a sore ass...
Josh stepped down off the bus and I slowly followed behind him. As soon as I was off he closed the door and locked it. "Come on Wolfy!" Josh threw his arm up in the air. It landed around my neck. "Lets go explore this hotel and find a place to sleep." I glanced up from the ground and gave Josh a small smile. He gave me a large grin and hugged me closer to him.
As we entered the building I was shocked to find the floor was covered in marble, and specks of blood. That there was nobody around, not even commons, because they were already dead and lying on the floor. Josh pulled me through rooms one after another, none of them registering till we walked through two french doors into an indoor jungle.
"I'd like to welcome you to the Opryland Hotel's most prized possession, the atrium. Now where would you like to sleep?" Josh lead me into the untamed jungle that had, by now, grown out of control and had started taking over the room. Looking up I realized instead of breaking through the glass some of the plants had just started growing along the top rafters.
Looking around as Josh led me down a brick path next to a little river I found the perfect room on the second floor over looking the atrium." Oh Josh, how about that one up there. You could probably see all the waterfalls." I heard Josh snort and turned to look at him quizzically. "Okay, I know your gay Wolfy, but that was just too feminine."
I looked at him aghast and then glared at him before storming away. "Fuck you too Josh. Oh god fuck me I'm still doing it. That was not an offer! ARG!" By the time I was done ranting I was reentering the hotel going off to look for my room.
It didn't take me long to find a stairwell and go walking along the rooms to find exactly which room I had pointed out. By the second room Josh had caught up and was out of breath. As I stormed into the third room I called over my shoulder. "Don't you dare talk to me yet, I'm still pissed at you! When I find the room I'll think of letting you talk. Fuck! Still not it!"
I angrily swept past him to explore the next room, and then the next one, and the one after that. By the seventh room I finally found it. I opened the doors to the balcony and stepped out. I took in a deep breath and smiled at the beautiful view of a jungle with waterfalls, in a building. It was gorgeous to me.
I vaguely felt Josh move to stand next to me. Without thinking I elbowed him. It wasn't till I heard his pained grown and noticed someone kneeling next to me that I realized I hit him square in the gut.
I smiled sheepishly at him. "Uhm, sorry bout that Josh... You can talk now but... Uhm... Oops?" Josh coughed a few times and tried to give me a charming smile. "Nah it's okay, I ve had worse, was shot a few times." I gave him a small smile and tried to help him up. He waved me off. "Just go, lay down on the bed and take a nap... It's been a long..." Josh coughed for a second before groaning. "Long day, I'll take first watch."
The idea of taking watches didn't really strike me till I had already fallen on the bed. I vaguely remember moving my limbs but nothing registered in my mind. It seemed like time had messed up, like the last thirty minutes had flown by, that the last ten minutes didn't even exist. Then I realized I didn't remember walking over here or falling into the bed. Slowly my mind started panicking and working on puzzles that seemed to fly into my mind now that I was lying down. The last thing I remember before sleep took over my mind was a simple thought coming to me.
Maybe, just maybe, I really was losing my mind and these lapses in memory and rushes in time are just reinforcing my insanity. Maybe I am insane.
Author's Note:
Another chapter come and gone. Things between Wolfy and Josh might be heating up, or cooling down. What is going on with Brittany? Why the flip Nashville? I promised more adult content is this is? To most of those questions I have no answer to and just wanted to state to confuse you. Next chapter is going to be very emotional on my end of things so it's going to be really hard to write. Then again I took on an original fiction to work on the side as well so that doesn't really help as I also near graduation and am working on resumes and portfolios.
I have plans for this story and they involve new and old characters with plot lines that have been hinted at but never revealed or revealed and never hinted at. Things have taken a turn and the result of this turn will be more obvious in chapters to come.