Chapter 18- Boiling Point

BELLA

"I think we should stay with them, at least for the winter," I said to Edward as lay in bed that night.

"Are you sure? Once we commit to doing this, we can't back out because we'll have already pooled our resources and not looked for another shelter," Edward said, staring up through the skylight.

"I know, but I'm not sure we'll be able to make it through a winter alone. It's already getting colder. We weren't thinking this far ahead," I said, carefully.

"I wasn't thinking this far ahead," he said, a pained look on his face.

I hated that he put this kind of pressure on himself, so I pulled him against me and kissed his throat as I buried myself in the crook of his neck.

"No, that's not what I meant, and you know it. Our survival isn't just on your shoulders. We're a team, right?"

Edward didn't respond to that, but I knew that he was thinking hard about what the future held for us.

"Emmett can help us get our supplies from the car on the highway. If we ration our food, we might be able to balance our diet for the winter as long as we have other food to supplement it. We need to maintain our nutrition. We can't just eat meat and potatoes all winter. But with two other mouths to feed, we need a lot of food," he said after a while.

"So, have we committed to this?" I asked, turning on my side so that we were face to face in bed. "I really think we should, Edward."

Burrowing my face in his neck, I kissed him along his jaw. "What do you think?"

"Ok," he said, pulling me in for a kiss.

The next day dawned clear and cold.

Emmett and Rosalie were already up and eating breakfast around the fire.

When we exited the RV, Emmett looked up at us with a broad smile while Rosalie's was more tentative.

"Mashed potatoes and carrots?" Emmett asked, holding up two plates. "It's the breakfast of champions."

I smiled in response.

"Thanks," I said, taking the plate and sitting down.

Edward did the same with a quiet thank you.

He'd been quiet all morning. I knew that he was nervous about trusting them. However, he agreed that we didn't really have an alternative.

Emmett must have sensed our nervousness because instead of being his boisterous self, he was quiet as he ate.

I waited for Edward to speak, wanting him to make the final decision.

"Emmett…" Edward began, but then paused to clear his throat.

"Yeah?" Emmett asked, looking up from his plate.

"Bella and I want to join you for the winter," he said apprehensively.

Emmett let out a great whoosh of air in what sounded like relief.

"That's awesome, guys. You won't regret it, I promise you."

I took hold of Edward's hand and squeezed it. He squeezed back with a tight smile.

Then, I looked over at Rosalie who had been silent during the whole conversation. With a sinking feeling, I saw that she was frowning.

Walking up the rocky driveway, I looked at the house that would be our home for the winter.

Today, our plan was to divide and conquer. Rose and I would go through the house and decide on what we could use and what should be thrown out. It was going to be tight in the house with the straw bales, so we needed all the space we could. I also planned on cleaning and airing the place out while we had the chance. Edward and Emmett were going to drag straw bales onto the veranda, so that they could staple plastic sheeting around them before moving them into the house. This allowed them to keep an eye out for the dead while we were busy working.

I didn't really understand what we needed the straw bales for, but I didn't question it. Edward and Emmett were working well together and both seemed confident in what they were doing, so I didn't want to interrupt.

I wished that I was working with them because things were uncomfortable with Rosalie. Since we'd agreed to join them, she'd been quiet, almost sullen with me and nearly hostile with Edward.

Any time he would comment or question something we were doing, Rosalie would snap at him. It was wearing on Edward and I knew that it would have to be dealt with before we were crammed in a house together all winter.

I could feel that Emmett knew it too because during these exchanges he would look at the two in worry.

When we reached the veranda, I turned to Edward and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"I'll see you in a few hours," Edward said, squeezing my hand before heading towards the barn with Emmett.

Rosalie was already in the house, pulling open curtains and opening the windows.

Walking into the house, I took a few moments to take in our new home.

It was an old-style farmhouse, but it was clear that it had been well-taken care of. Even through the dust, you could tell that the people who had lived here had taken pride in their home.

The walls were painted cheerful colors and almost every free wall space was decorated with family photos that I couldn't quite bring myself to look at. It was hard enough to know that we were moving into a family's home that had killed themselves when the dead began to rise.

Rosalie had moved upstairs and I could hear her rattling around in one of the rooms, so I decided to begin in the kitchen.

I began by cleaning up the dust and dirt that had accumulated over the year before moving on to the cupboards. I pulled out everything in them, looking for anything usable. Besides dishes, though, there was nothing.

It would have been too easy for there to be canned food.

Without really thinking about it, I walked over to the refrigerator and yanked open the door.

The stench that hit me was almost worse than any zombie smell. I let out a small cry of disgust before pulling up the bandana from around my neck and covering my mouth and nose.

At my cry, the front door flew open and Edward dashed inside.

"Bella?" he called out.

"I'm in the kitchen," I mumbled through the material.

I didn't even think to warn him.

"Holy shit! What the fuck is that smell?" Edward said, skidding to a halt in the kitchen doorway.

"Rotten food…" I said, shutting the door and picking up the rubber gloves and garbage bag that I'd found.

"Can't we just keep it shut and saran wrap it closed or something?" he asked, through the sleeve of his shirt that was pressed against his nose and mouth.

"There might be something sealed that we can eat in there," I said, preparing to open it again.

"Better you than me," he said and backed out of the kitchen and left through the front door.

"Here goes nothing…" I said, cringing as I opened the door again.

A half an hour later, I'd dug through all the rotted vegetables and leftovers to find a jar of unopened pickles and a bottle of what looked like strawberry jam. My mouth watered at the sight of the jam. I wanted to open it up right then and there and eat it all with a spoon. We hadn't had anything sweet in close to a year.

I looked around at the cleaned out kitchen, searching for any nook or cranny I might have missed that could have food, but I couldn't find any.

Now that the kitchen was clean, I almost felt like I'd gone back in time to pre-apocalypse Earth.

The house reminded me a lot of Nana Swan's. I could almost picture her standing over the stove heating up a saucepan of milk to help me sleep. I used to stand by her side, fascinated when she'd light a match and a blue flame would flicker to life.

I froze as a feeling of excitement filled me.

Then I scrambled to the front door and threw it open, meeting two pairs of very startled eyes.

"Do you know whether you need electricity to work a gas stove?" I asked.

We'd purged the house of non-essentials and Emmett and Edward had insulated both the kitchen and living room with plastic wrapped straw bales.

I'd cleaned out closets and found that there was clothing that would fit Rosalie, Edward, and me, but nothing for Emmett.

Tomorrow, they had to finish insulating the rooms upstairs and start covering the windows with boards. It made me sad because I knew that it meant that the cheery little house would become dark and gloomy and it would stay that way for three months.

The one little glimmer of happiness in the whole thing was that we'd at least have home cooked meals during the cold winter nights. The gas stove could be lit with a match which meant that could use the burner.

We put the vegetables that Emmett and Edward had dug in the root cellar, but it was still not enough. We were going to have to look at other farms and eventually into the nearby town which would have other essentials. We had no idea whether the vegetables would last the winter. How long did it take carrots and potatoes to rot? We needed canned food and other supplies like matches. What good was a gas stove when there were no matches that we could use to light it. I hated the thought of going into town. Every time we'd gone in the past was a horror show. We barely made it out alive each time.

The sun had almost gone down by the time we headed back to our campsite. None of us liked being out after dark, but the days were growing shorter and the night snuck up on us.

I was aware of every sound as we walked as quietly as possible down the dusty road and past cornfields that could hold any number of the dead.

It was the odor of decay that was our first warning that they were near. It was faint at first, but as we walked it became stronger.

We froze at first searching for the dead, but as of yet we couldn't find them. So we continued walking slowly this time, trying to look everywhere at once.

Then, the sounds of distant moans could be heard.

"Emmett…" Rosalie said, looked around nearly in a panic.

"It'll be okay, Rose. Just stay with me," Emmett said, pulling her close.

Edward swung his crossbow down from across his pack and I checked my shotgun to make sure it was loaded.

Then, from the grass, we saw them coming, two, then three, then six, and more were coming from the tree line.

"Oh god," Emmett said.

"Let's move…" Edward said quietly.

Picking up the pace, we started down the road.

But it was impossible, the dead were coming from all directions, including in front of us.

"We're going to have to cut some of them down," Edward said, quietly.

"I'll take the ones from the right," I said, turning so that I was facing the open field. There were around four which were far enough away that I'd be able to take at least two of them out before they got too close.

"Okay. Edward, you take the ones coming from the tree line over there," Emmett said, pointing left. "I'll take the ones closest. I'm better with an axe than a gun."

"Rose can stay with me," I said, knowing that Emmett would be busy fighting hand to hand.

"No-" Rose began, but I cut her off.

"Emmett needs to be focused. He can't worry about protecting you. He's the one that will be in the most danger," I said, trying not to let the frustration enter my voice.

"It'll be okay, babe…" Emmett said, kissing the side of her head.

"One, two, three," Edward counted down and then we started shooting.

I took two of them down before they'd even reached the road, but the sound made the other two move more quickly.

"Get behind me," I said to Rose, pulling on her arm.

She stumbled backwards and practically fell before stepping behind me.

I reached for my icepick on my tool belt and held it out to her.

"No-" she began.

"Rosalie, you need to be able to take care of yourself. Take it!" I demanded as I shoved it into her hands.

The last two dead were close now.

I could hear their shuffling feet in the grass, see their milky eyes staring straight ahead and the faint moaning, always the moaning.

The two women's arms were outstretched as they searched blindly for us.

Both of their mouths were slack as if they were tasting the air. The gore that was the remnants of their deaths, didn't touch their faces but below their necks was nightmarish. One of the women was having difficulty walking because a huge chunk was taken out of her thigh while the other was having trouble staying upright because of gashes and bite marks in her stomach and shoulder.

I pulled the trigger, bringing the first one down, but the second was harder. Her wobbling head made it difficult for me to get a head shot, so she was upon us before I could take the next shot.

With a yell, I yanked a knife out of my tool belt and jumped on her.

I landed awkwardly on top of her, banging my elbow painfully on a rock.

Not only did I hurt my elbow, but when I slammed the blade down into the ground, missing her head, the blade snapped off.

I was used to my ice pick which was a lot sturdier.

Fighting to get out my other knife, the dead woman snapped at me, her jaws making a clacking sound as she bit at the air.

"Stay the fuck down!" I growled, finally getting my knife free. I grabbed her chin, to keep her from moving and brought my knife down easier this time.

With gasping breaths, I stared down at the body of the limp corpse. It had been a while since any of them looked like people to me, but this one still had almost a normal face which made me think that she hadn't been dead long.

With a sigh, I stood up and looked towards where Edward was.

He was hand to hand now with four dead, but like always Edward was all fire and power, slicing and stabbing at the dead that surrounded him. If I tried to get involved, I would only distract him. Been there. Done that. Had a huge gash stitched without anaesthetic as a result.

I looked to Emmett and saw that he too was in control of his fight.

So, I turned to Rosalie, expecting to see her hiding behind a rock.

But instead she was standing over the corpse of a woman with my ice pick in her hands.

The sight filled me with hope that she could learn to take care of herself, but then I saw the look on her face.

Her eyes were so wide that I could see the whites around her irises. She was taking great gasping breaths that looked like at any second they'd turn to screams.

I began to walk towards her as I saw three dead approaching from the east, but I was suddenly yanked off my feet.

Rolling onto my back, an elderly man was looming over me. He was a disgusting mess, so I tried to tune that out and focus on the ways to kill—neck, under the jaw, eyes.

Raising both of my feet I slammed them into his chest, knocking him off his feet and to the ground.

As quickly as I could, I was on all fours and then standing before I realized that he wasn't moving.

With the force of his fall, he had cracked his head on a rock, hitting whatever spot that stopped his animated state.

I looked back to where I'd last seen Rosalie, but she wasn't there. I searched for her, a tinge of panic hitting me. But quickly I was relieved to see that she'd just moved to an outcropping of rock a little down the road.

However, then I looked at what had caused her to move.

I brought my gun up, as a trio of the dead made their way towards her.

When they got closer, though, I froze with my finger on the trigger.

They looked to be a family, a little boy between two adults.

I heard gasps of shock and sadness from around me as they stumbled towards Rosalie.

All of us were in shock for a few moments, but then Edward flew into action.

"Rosalie! Do something!" he shouted as he ran towards them.

Emmett and I were close behind, but Edward reached them first.

With a swipe of his axe, he cut the man and then the woman down. All there was left was the child.

"No… Edward… No, don't…" Rosalie cried, reaching out to grab his arm.

Roughly, he shook her off and then strode towards the child.

With a sigh of defeat, Edward hauled out his gun and with a shuddering breath pulled the trigger.

That night, as we sat around the fire, we were silent at first.

None of us wanted to talk about what had happened. It was horrible, but life now was horrible.

"Tomorrow let's finish insulating the house and boarding up the windows and back door," Emmett said, quietly.

"Then, we need to start looking for supplies," Edward responded.

"We have a car load of food on the highway that we need to get. We crashed the car, so we had to leave all of it behind. There is a good variety of food there," I said.

"How did you get all of that food? Did you steal it from other survivors?" Rosalie snapped. "Everywhere is cleaned out of food and supplies, but you have a car full. There is no way that you accumulated that much food without taking it from others."

"What the fuck is your problem, Rosalie? Bella and I have been nothing but nice to you and you attack us at every turn," Edward practically yelled, jumping to his feet.

Rosalie cringed away from him, but Edward barely noticed. This had been building for almost a week. And I knew that he was still raw from having to kill the family today.

"Edward…" I said, grabbing his sleeve.

"You're just like them," Rosalie snarled. "You try to be friendly, but I can see the violence underneath the shiny veneer. You just gunned that little boy down."

"You're crazy, you know that?" Edward said, but he'd gone pale at Rosalie's words.

"Rose, calm down," Emmett said, trying to take her hand.

"No, Emm," Rosalie said. "He's dangerous. I can tell he's no better than the gang that tortured us. They were friendly at first, too."

Edward looked like he'd been slapped in the face.

"It's not the same, babe," Emmett said, a look of agony on his face. "You know it, Rose. It's not the same."

"Have you killed people, Edward?" Rose said, not letting up.

Edward just looked at her for a moment an unreadable expression on his face.

"Not as many as I should have…" he said and then strode away.

For a few moments, I was too shocked to react.

Emmett slumped to the ground next to Rosalie.

"What did you do, Rose!" he groaned. "You're letting your fear color everything! You're only seeing what you want to see, babe."

But Rosalie didn't bat an eye at Emmett's words.

I glared at her, barely able to contain my fury.

"Rosalie. I don't know what happened to you and frankly right now I don't give a shit. All I know is that Edward isn't the cause of it. You're not the only one who's been hurt," I snapped, pointing at her as I stood up.

"You're naïve, Bella. He's bad. He'll hurt you when you least suspect it," Rosalie said, glaring at me.

"Rosalie. You're out of line," Emmett said, his tone no longer gentle.

"Yes, there are bad people out there. Edward was almost killed by some of them. He trusted the group he was with. He actually saw one of them like a father. But when he let his guard down, James and his men hurt him and killed the man he idolized," I snapped. "You're not the only victim, but at least Edward sees himself as a survivor and not a victim, a lesson that you should learn."

I needed a few moments to calm down, so I shut my eyes and tilted my head back taking some cleansing breaths.

It was the stillness that brought me back to reality.

I opened my eyes and was shocked to see Emmett with his arms around Rose and both of them staring at me with a look of shock and horror.

"Did you say James?" Emmett asked.