An (Incomplete) Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse: Chapter 12
March 18th, 1999 - 4:00 pm
By the time they start driving through the desert several days later, Rachel is confident that they'll have enough supplies and gas; she can't help the lingering worry, however, and finds herself biting her lip as they pass by a weather-worn sign that proclaims 'next services, 143 miles'. She knows the stretch of road they're driving from Arizona clear through Texas and into Oklahoma is sparse, and will be very lightly populated, by zombies and supplies.
"We're going to be fine," Tom says, reaching over and placing a warm hand on her thigh. She glances over at him to see that he's made himself comfortable, one leg crossed under him and the other up on the dashboard. "We have plenty of gas and plenty of food. The main concern will be one of us killing Tex by the time we get to Baltimore."
Rachel chuckles; she knows Tom doesn't mean it. He and Tex had become pretty good friends since he had saved Katie. They had gone together on several supply runs, and Tom had commented that he felt safe with Tex watching his back.
"If we have to kill and eat anyone, pretty boy, it's gonna be you," Tex quips from the back, and Tom grins.
"We don't eat people, dad," Katie admonishes him, and Tom laughs out loud as he turns to face them. Rachel glances in the rear-view mirror, watching as Tex grabs Katie and messes her hair up. She squeals and darts away from him, hiding behind Kara, who is laughing too hard to be much help.
"We won't kill you to eat you," Tom says, shaking his head as he settles back in his seat and scans the empty landscape laid out in front of them. "It'll definitely be because of one of your terrible jokes."
Tex doesn't dispute this, just shrugs and smiles as he leans back against the wall of the van.
These past few days, Tom has come to understand why they made the decision to take all of the seats out of the back of the van. There's still not much room, but there's at least some, and they're able to move around and stretch out during long days of driving. It also makes it possible for them to sleep in the van if necessary, though they do try and find safe places to sleep when they can, so that they don't always have to be cramped together. Last night they'd been able to find a fenced in area that Tom was fairly certain used to be a dog park, and had created a fire and slept out under the desert moon, secure in the knowledge that they would have warning if any of the undead came upon them.
It had been nice, Tom thinks, remembering how well they had all rested. He had slept next to Rachel, a respectful six inches between them, though he had longed to close the space. Since their kiss, they had spent more time getting to know each other, and he was falling for her more and more every day. She was funny, and cute, and smart, and he was halfway in love with her already.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Rachel asks, and Tom rolls his head, looking over at her in the driver's seat. She's beautiful even now, he thinks, even though none of them have showered in almost a week and there's definitely still a little blood in her hair even though he'd done his very best to clean it out after her whole ordeal with being kidnapped. Her green eyes are focused on the road, even though it's currently empty and she doesn't need to be on such high alert.
"Thinking about you," he says honestly, quietly, so that the others in the back would have to be purposefully listening in to hear them.
Rachel blushes. "Oh really?" she asks, and Tom hums in affirmation.
"I was thinking about last night. I was thinking about how I wanted to be closer to you."
Rachel blushes and bites her lip, looking down at her hands and breaking eye contact. Tom can see that she's fighting a smile, so he continues, reaching over and taking her free hand, entwining their fingers and settling their clasped hands on the console between them.
"I wanted to hold you."
"You should have, then," she says, and turns to briefly meet his eyes before turning back to the road, and he can see the challenge in them.
"I wasn't sure if it was too quick."
Rachel shrugs, sighing and relaxing back into her seat. She'd been tense all day, driving through the empty roads and watching the gas gauge trend closer and closer toward empty. But now, talking to Tom, listening to his voice rumble through the mostly silent van, she can feel herself calming down.
"You should try next time, see what happens," she says, and Tom grins.
"I'll have to do that. When are we stopping for the night, again?"
Their little bubble of privacy bursts when Danny makes a gagging noise from the backseat. Tom turns around, glaring at the man, but he can't stay mad at him. Danny is grinning despite his fake disgust, and Tom knows he's happy for him and Rachel, so he lets it slide.
"Get a room," he groans, and Tom laughs, pulling his and Rachel's entwined hands to kiss her knuckles.
"I would love to, believe me, but this van doesn't offer that amenity."
"Fine, then next time we find a house, you and Rachel are breaking the 'everyone sleeps in the living room rule' because dear god, if you don't resolve some of this sexual tension, I'm going to lose it," Tex comments, and Tom glances over to see Rachel's cheeks bright red. She's grinning, however, and Tom raises his eyebrow at her. She meets his eyes, not backing down, and he smiles and winks. He would very much like to do something about the tension, and hates the fact that they're currently traveling through an empty desert for the foreseeable future.
"I thought that was one of the rules we never break," he comments, and Rachel shrugs.
"Caught Danny and Kara going at it in the shared bed once. We made an addendum to the rules that night."
"Really," he says, and glances back at Danny and Kara in the backseat, who are very pointedly not meeting his gaze. "Exhibition does it for you guys, huh?"
Danny shots hims a glare. "No. But there's no privacy, man. None. We do supply runs together. We hunt together. We sleep together. There's a limit of what you can put up with."
Tom chuckles, turning his attention back toward the front. He wants very much to give Danny shit for this, but he's hoping that Danny will remember this moment when he inevitably stumbles across him and Rachel at an inopportune moment. He's curious though, and doesn't completely drop the topic.
"Like, you were having sex? Or just like, heavy petting?"
Kara's face is redder than Tom thinks he's ever seen it, and he can't help laughing. Danny wraps his arm around his girlfriend, but it's Tex that pipes up next, clamping his hands over Katie's ears before he speaks.
"We didn't ask. There was a lot of yelling and a lot of skin on display. I never wanted to become quite as acquainted with Danny's ass as I was that night, so we sent them off to the guest room."
"That was the time I woke up to Tex spooning me. Not sure if what happened put him in the mood, or what," Rachel comments, and Tom can't help it. He's laughing so hard his stomach hurts, and he finds himself grateful, once again, that he found these people. The world is shit and most of the population is dead, but they can still laugh together, and that's something.
"Fuck that's hilarious," he finally chokes out. "Don't worry, exhibition does nothing for me. There won't be a second showing."
Tex sighs, and flicks the pencil he'd been writing with at the back of Tom's head. "I might actually enjoy that show," he says, and sends a lecherous grin toward the front of the van. "Rachel's hot. You are, too, and there's a distinct lack of porn in this new world."
"There will be no threesomes," Rachel says firmly, and Tom drops his head back against the headrest, covering his eyes with his arm.
"Hey, I wasn't suggesting I get in on the action. I'd just watch."
"No," Rachel says, and Tom rolls his eyes.
"New topic, please," he requests, and Rachel laughs at him, reaching out to lay her hand on his thigh. He can feel the warmth of it through his jeans, and he realizes what Tex and Danny mean about the sexual tension. He can feel it in the air; even Rachel's gentle touch on his leg is enough to make him want more. He really hopes that Rachel feels the same, and by the way she keeps glancing over at him, eyes traveling the lines of his body, he thinks she might.
The van is quiet for several moments, and then Kara speaks up.
"Rachel knows where the condoms are. She found an entire bulk size box at the last hospital we visited. Just so you know."
"Oh my god," Tom says, and drops his head into his hands.
Why are these people his new friends?
March 18th, 1999 - 7:15 pm
They stop for the night a few hours later, the road and the land around them empty of other cars, buildings, or any other signs of life. It's eerily quiet, and Tom can't shake a feeling of unease.
"Think it's safe out here?" he asks, eyes darting around as he opens the portable camp stove. There are no sticks, leaves, or debris within a few miles, and so Rachel had shown him where they kept the gas cans and the stove. He'd pulled them out, along with cans of pork and beans and a box of crackers, and set to making dinner while Kara and Danny worked on setting up a perimeter.
"Nowhere's safe, probably," Tex responds, setting down a crate filled with plates, bowls, and cups. He shoots the beans a disgusted look as he settles in beside Tom, passing him the can opener. "But we haven't seen any of those fuckers in miles and miles, so we'll probably be fine."
Tom hums noncommittally as he dumps four cans of beans into the pot and stirs to mix them together. It doesn't look great, he has to admit, but they'd had pasta every night for a week, and he was willing to eat just about anything else at this point.
"We gonna sleep outside tonight?" he asks, and Tex gives him a look before chuckling.
"Yeah, probably, but there's a thirty foot minimum distance requirement if you're planning on getting up to anything."
Tom rolls his eyes and doesn't respond. He wouldn't do that; he respects Rachel more than that, and has enough self control to wait until they have privacy. Besides, as much as he wants to be with her, he's not sure they're quite there yet. They've been spending more and more time together, and he can feel the electricity between them, but all he really wants to do tonight is hold her in his arms, feel the warmth of another person against him, and smell the vanilla lotion she uses. If it were before, and they were just camping under the stars, a situation like this could even be romantic.
Tex is distracted as Katie comes out of the van, passing him the bag of supplies to check her blood sugar. Rachel had been backing off a little over the past few days, unless she was needed, and letting Tex and Katie both learn how to check her numbers, measure the medication, and administer it. Katie was old enough that she should know, Rachel had reasoned, especially since there was no guarantee they'd always be together.
Tom looks up as the woman in question walks out of the van and heads toward him. He smiles at her, still half focused on the pot of beans, and pats the hard ground beside him. She elegantly folds her legs under her and sighs as she leans against him.
"Tired?" he asks quietly, and she nods against him, reaching one hand out and playing with the skin and hair of his forearm. She's tracing mindless patterns against his skin, and it feels good. It feels easy, sitting like this under the dark and silent sky. He can hear Danny and Kara in the distance, talking and laughing as they walk the perimeter of the camp they've set up, and it's nice.
"You can take the last shift tonight," Tom tells her, shifting so he can wrap his arm around her. He plays with the hair cascading over her shoulders while he stirs their dinner with the other hand. "That way you can sleep straight through, since you insist on driving every day."
Rachel chuckles softly. "Tex drove once and used the van as a battering ram. It's very hard, picking zombie guts out of the grill of the van, you know."
Tom laughs; it sounds like a very Tex thing to do.
"Plus, I know where we're going, and... it makes me feel in control, a little bit, to be in the driver's seat."
Tom hums and leans down, kissing her forehead softly. She melts into him as he scratches her scalp, running his fingers through her hair.
"You know," she finally speaks up again, and Tom makes a noise to indicate that he's listening. "I was serious, earlier."
"Oh yeah? About what?" Tom asks, though he thinks he already knows.
"You should sleep next to me tonight. It can get cold in the desert."
"That the only reason?" he asks, grinning, and Rachel swats his arm.
"No," she admits. "It sounds nice... to be that close to someone. To you. I feel safe with you, and I think I'll sleep really well if you hold me."
Tom presses his lips to her head again, letting them linger for several moments. He's comfortable here, despite the hard ground and the chill in the air. He somehow feels less alone than he had before the shit hit the proverbial fan, and he knows he's only known Rachel for a little over a week, but it feels real, what they have, what they are together. Her body molds perfectly into his. He can hear them breathing in tandem, and it just feels perfect.
"That sounds nice," he finally says, and Rachel hides her smile in his shoulder as she presses closer to him.
She doesn't move out of his embrace until the pork and beans are warm, and then she helps him split the pot between the six plates, passing them out along with water bottles and spoons. Tom portions the crackers to go with the beans, and everyone eats quietly for several moments, the only sounds in the night air the scraping of spoons on bowls and of crackers being crunched.
"I'd kill for a fresh tomato," Danny laments, breaking the silence as he pops a cracker in his mouth.
"Broccoli," Kara chimes in, sighing wistfully. "Broccoli with butter and salt. Mmmm."
Tom chuckles, setting his empty bowl down before opening his water bottle and chugging half of it in one long gulp. "Even before all this started I was on army rations. I'm somewhere between wanting a fucking vegetable, any vegetable, and wanting a pizza as big as my head."
"I want pie," Rachel adds, closing her eyes at the thought. "Warm apple pie, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream."
"I want chicken nuggets," Katie says, and everyone looks over at her, surprised that she had spoken without being prompted. She had been speaking more in the past few days than she had right after the ambush, but she still didn't typically volunteer information. Tex chuckles and ruffles her hair, grinning at his little girl.
"Of course you do," he says in exasperation. "Always the chicken nuggets. At a Mexican restaurant? Nuggets. Chinese? Nuggets. Maybe we can find you something vaguely nugget-like for your birthday next month."
Katie grins a little, but then shakes her head. "It's OK, dad. I don't need anything special for my birthday."
"Well," Rachel cuts in, and Tom lets the sound of her softly accented words wash over him as he leans into her. He's finished with his dinner, and can already feel his eyelids growing heavy. "We're going to do something for your birthday, love. It's not every day you turn eleven."
Tom takes her hand in his, kissing her knuckles and her fingers gently as she and Katie begin a conversation about what they can do. A small cake, Rachel thinks, should be possible. Katie lets her know that strawberry cake is her favorite, and Tom wonders if they could find some icing that wasn't too badly expired, too. Maybe some candles. It's the least the little girl deserves after everything she's survived.
"What about presents?" he asks, because he knows he'll most likely be on the next team that searches for supplies.
Katie turns to him, a small smile on her lips. "Books, if you can find them! Dad is almost done reading James and the Giant Peach to me, and then we don't have any more new books. We already finished the ones we have."
Tom nods, smiling as he leans more heavily into Rachel's side. She's finished her dinner, too, and has curled up against him to ward off the chill. It's going to be a cold night, he knows, and is glad that he'll get to share it with her.
He's about to propose that they all head off to sleep when Rachel lets out a huge yawn, causing everyone to chuckle. She grins a little bashfully as Tom stands up, offering a hand to help pull her to her feet, too.
"Who's on first watch?" he asks, herding Rachel back toward the van where their sleeping bags and blankets are. "Rachel's got last, and I'll take the two to four shift right before her."
Tex raises a hand. "I can do it. I got us covered until ten, Danny can do midnight to two, and Kara two to four. Sound all right?"
Everyone nods in agreement, and Tex gets Katie settled in the van, wrapped up tightly in her blanket after checking her blood sugar and giving her a shot of insulin. He closes the door most of the way, and then settles down in front of the van for the first watch. Danny and Kara take their blankets and settle several feet away, close enough that they feel secure, but far enough away for a little privacy.
Tom tugs Rachel a little further away, and they silently arrange their sleeping bags and blankets before crawling in them together. As she settles, Rachel accidentally hits Tom in the stomach with her knee, and he lets out a surprised oof. She giggles, and he catches her eyes in the darkness, loving the way they shine in the moonlight.
"You're so beautiful," he says quietly, one hand reaching up to cup her jaw as she finally manages to settle in beside him. They're close, pressed together from chest to knee in the confines of the sleeping bag, but it doesn't feel uncomfortable. It just feels cozy and warm and right.
Rachel blushes and hides her face in the crook of Tom's neck. He breathes out, warm breath disturbing the wispy hairs framing Rachel's face, and then leans down, pressing his lips to her head.
"Goodnight, Tom," she whispers, pressing her lips to his neck as she wiggles against him, settling in more comfortably against his chest.
"Goodnight," he replies, and sighs, closing his eyes as he holds her.
It's perfect, he thinks, being here with her like this.
If only he could chase away the feeling of unease that has followed him since they stopped for the night, he thinks he would have the best rest of his life while wrapped in her arms. But, try as he might, he can't shake it. He can only hope that they make it through this night unscathed.
