Chapter 25: Home Sweet Home
EDWARD
After piling the church zombies in the centre of the street, we decided to just explore the neighbourhood. With our zombie camouflage still coating us, we did a circuit of the small community of about thirty houses, checking for any pockets of dead that could be a problem, but the majority of them were trapped in houses or had been in the church. So, we felt safe enough to split up. Bella and I decided to explore the south side of the community while Rose and Emmett were going to search the north side. Then, we would meet up again at the front gate at midday.
As we walked through the town, I began to see its possibilities.
Seemingly untouched houses were ripe for the picking hiding any number of useful items. All we needed to do was clear the houses and with four of us I couldn't see that being a problem.
The convenience store even had a small pharmacy section that we could use to restock our supplies.
A couple of streets down, we found a barbecue. I'd never used one before, but probably Emmett had. The idea of hot food made my stomach growl. Now, all we needed was water and food to cook.
Bella hoped that we would find a vegetable garden, but we only seemed to find flower gardens. As a thank you for saving her, Alice had given Bella packets of vegetable seeds. However, Bella was nervous about planting them. She worried that she'd do it wrong and kill off any chance for us to have fresh food. She worried that a herd of zombies would overrun the town and we'd have to leave our crops behind. By planting them, it would mean that we were committing to this place and that was a big risk. But Alice had given Bella a list of what to plant and when to plant it and that time was quickly approaching. I was worried about all of that too. Hunger was in the back of my mind all the time. I could see in everyone's faces that we were getting thinner, having only had rations since leaving the farm. And I was thirsty, really thirsty. How long can someone live without water? I knew that it wasn't long.
At the end of one of the streets, we found ourselves in front of a two-storey square brick house with a chimney and pitched roof that was far enough away from the main gate for us to not attract the attention from any outsiders. But the biggest selling point was that it had a high sturdy, privacy fence.
Whoever the fuck had lived here had been paranoid. Not only did they live in a gated community, but also had a fence hiding them from the others who lived in this gated community.
"I'm going to check it out," I said to Bella.
I scaled the fence and looked around inside. Besides being a good sized house, it also had quite a big back yard.
This place could be something really special. Maybe even a home.
I called to Bella.
"Bella, come take a look," I said.
After a few seconds, Bella joined me in the yard.
Together we walked around the house and looked in windows. I couldn't see anyone dead or alive moving around inside which was a good sign. Then, we checked out the front and backyard, looking at the fence. I pushed on it in a couple of places to see if it was steady and I was relieved to feel that it was.
"This place could be what we're looking for," Bella said with a smile that warmed my heart. "It looks like a good size house which will help with the cabin fever in the winter and this fence means we wouldn't have to board up the windows."
"Yeah, and there is space out here where we could plant a garden," I said, imagining what the backyard would look like.
"We wouldn't have to worry about going outside," Bella said, with a grin. "Once we secure the house, we have the community's wall and this house's fence to keep the dead away. We could spend the afternoons outside and not need a lookout. We'd hear the dead coming before they got close and even then it would take them time to break down the fence."
"We could really live here long-term," I said. "No more running."
Bella ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.
Then, weaving her fingers into my hair, she pulled me into a searing kiss. I threw myself into kissing her, enjoying the feeling of being happy for once. It felt like it had been a really long time since I'd had anything to be optimistic about.
We lingered against each other's lips until Bella pulled away.
"Let's go get Rose and Emmett," she said, pulling me towards the fence.
We found Emmett and Rose at the front gate, sitting up against the wall. I came to a halt in surprise when I saw that they were soaking wet.
"What the hell happened to you?" I asked.
"We found a pond," Emmett said with excitement in his eyes. "It isn't big, but it's enough to get wet. I had to get this zombie crap off of me. You'd think that it would have dried by now but I was sticking to everything I touched."
Rose was busy finger combing her hair with a look of contentment on her face.
The minute he mentioned it, I felt disgusting. My hair was sticking to my forehead and I could feel my shirt stuck to my stomach and back which pulled every time I moved.
And I stunk. The whole point of our camouflage was for us to smell dead, but now the stench was more than I could handle.
I looked over at Bella and saw the same look on her face. She peeled her pony tail off her neck and flicked it back over her shoulder.
"Lead the way," she said, excitement replacing the disgust.
I nodded in agreement. The house would still be there after we cleaned up.
We followed Emmett and Rose down another street until we came to a house that was set back off the road and almost completely shrouded by overhanging trees. There were no sight lines which made me nervous because you wouldn't be able to see any zombies coming with so many trees for cover. The people who'd once lived here clearly had had no fear of someone sneaking up on them in the night which was just stupid.
Emmett and Rose led us behind the back of the house where we saw a pond. It wasn't huge, but large enough that we could have a good soak which made me smile. It must have been fed by some sort of underground spring because there wasn't even any build-up of algae on the surface.
I looked over at Bella and saw that she was already pulling her shirt off over her head without any thought that Emmett and Rosalie were standing only a few feet away.
Screw modesty, I thought in my excitement to get clean.
However, my thoughts soon got fixated on something else- naked skin… Bella's naked skin.
I heard a throat clear behind us.
"We're going to check the woods for zombies and then we'll keep look-out," Emmett said.
I couldn't even acknowledge them because I couldn't form any thought besides nakedness. I heard the two of them snicker as they walked away.
Before I'd even reached her side, I was down to my underwear and so was Bella.
It felt weird for a minute being out in the open like this, but I was too excited to care.
I scooped her up which caused her to squeal in surprise. We'd barely touched each other since we'd left the farm because there hadn't been any opportunity for us to be alone in the cramped RV.
I'd been too stressed to think about sex and we'd had no privacy. Now it was all I could think about, but I tried to push that thought away. This couldn't be the time or place. We didn't know this area well enough.
I growled in frustration which caused Bella to giggle.
The water was a little chilly as I took a step into it. I wanted to ease my way into it, but suddenly my foot slipped out from underneath of me which toppled us both forward and into the water.
Bella burst from the water with a gasp and looked at me with a scowl.
"Edward…" she whined.
"Oops," I said with a grin.
Her frown disappeared with a grin of her own. It was a mischievous smile, like she had a secret that she wasn't going to share with me. It was really sexy.
"Let's clean up," I said, trying to keep my thoughts PG.
But it seemed like Bella had a different idea.
As I washed my face and hair, I couldn't help but notice that was Bella was struggling with something under the water.
"What are you-" I started, but then the words got stuck in my throat.
Bella had taken off her underwear and was throwing it onto the shore.
I cleared my throat to hide the groan that came out of me at the sight.
But when she threw her bra onto the shore too, I had to say something.
"Bella… this isn't a good idea…" I tried to say firmly, but it came out shakily.
"Come on, Edward. Rosalie and Emmett are keeping a look-out and we've checked for herds. We're as safe as we'll ever be in this world. I've missed you," she said as she reached out and dragged her index finger across the curve of my jaw.
"I want you…" she said in a low husky as she came closer.
It's a bad idea, I tried telling myself, but my will power was slipping.
I had to do something before I gave in.
So, I decided to tease her.
"I want to kiss and lick every part of you," I said with a growl.
Bella's eyes widened at my words and she shivered in delight.
"But I can't… because you stink," I said and then dropped under the water before she splashed me.
Swimming under the surface, I slid my hands up her legs, hips, waist, tickling as I went. Then, I yanked her under the water with me.
With a swift kick to my ribs, Bella broke out of my arms and swam to the surface.
When I came up out of the water, Bella put her hands out to ward me off.
"Fine… let's get cleaned up," she said, and began to wash herself.
It felt good to get clean even though the faint scent of pond water stayed on our skin. It wasn't a bad smell. It was the earthy scent of vegetation.
I tried to keep my focus on the task at hand, but my eyes kept drifting towards Bella. It was hypnotizing the way the water droplets shimmered on her skin.
I pulled the elastic out of her hair and spread it out so that she could wash it. I insisted on helping because I just needed to touch her. Finally, I was able to run my fingers through it which turned me on more than I thought it would, especially when she moaned as I massaged her scalp.
My will was holding on by a thread. How dangerous could it be?Emmett and Rose are on look-out.
I searched the trees around the pond, checking for any sign of movement or the tell-tale smell of zombie. But I didn't find anything.
My will broke.
"Enough washing… Let's move on to the sexing," I said, but when the words left me I realized they didn't make any sense. The blood in my head rushing elsewhere had clearly affected my ability to talk.
"Did you just say sexing? That isn't even a word," Bella said with a laugh. "We're not in some porno."
With the word "porno," my heart started to pound and I felt almost light-headed.
Grabbing her arm, I dragged her towards me and said, "I'll never get to see my first porno. I'm so depressed."
Bella struggled to get away from me at that point, but I wouldn't let her go.
"I guess I'll just have to make up for it with you," I growled, pulling her into me for a ferocious kiss.
All teasing disappeared with that kiss. Bella let out a little moan as I desperately kissed and nipped at her lips, chin, and then the crook of her neck. I couldn't get enough of her. It was like a frenzy had taken over with that kiss. She shivered and gasped as I continued my journey south, pulling her up so that she could wrap her legs around me. With her feet, Bella pushed down my underwear far enough that I kicked them off under the water.
As I nibbled and sucked on her breasts, I shuddered in pleasure as her heat pressed against me.
"Are you too sore to have sex?" I groaned, not knowing how long something like that took to heal.
"Edward," she said with a giggle. "That was days ago…" Then, she leaned in and whispered in my ear, "I was ready the next day."
I let out an embarrassing whimper at her words and pushed my hips towards hers, causing me to slide against her heat. It was her turn to whimper, so I did it again and again.
"Let's get out of the water," she moaned.
I mumbled my agreement against her breast.
Breaking my hold, Bella slid down off of me and pulled me with her out of the water.
Barely three feet from the water's edge, I dragged her down onto the grass with me.
I rolled her onto her back and started to kiss every inch of her as she tried to do the same to me. With one of my knees, I spread her legs and settled between them.
I slid myself against her again, every part of me tingling in anticipation.
As I moved against her, Bella shocked me by adjusting her hips under me so that the next time I pushed myself against her I slid inside.
Bella let out a breathy moan and I hissed at the sensation, dropping my head to her shoulder. It was even better than I remembered.
And this time I won't be hurting her, I thought with glee.
Now if only I can last more than a minute, was my last coherent thought.
My whole body was shaking as I moved in and out of her. I could already feel the build-up coming and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It just felt too fucking good.
"Bella-" I began, but was cut off as she pushed on my shoulder and rolled us until I was on my back.
"Jesus…" I rasped, looking up at her. I'd never seen such a beautiful sight.
As she lowered herself onto me, my eyes rolled back in my head. The feeling was too much, too intense.
But after a few good hip rolls, she froze her whole body going rigid.
"Bella…" I whimpered. "Don't-"
"There's something in the trees," Bella said, her eyes wide as she looked straight ahead.
Carefully, she lifted herself off of me and reached for her gun.
For one irrational moment, I thought "Jesus, can't I just get a fucking break?" and slammed the back of my head on the ground in utter frustration.
But quickly the danger of the situation hit me, so I rolled onto my knees and reached for my own gun.
By the time I was standing next to Bella, five… no seven zombies stumbled out of the trees way too close to us for comfort. Thank god Bella noticed.
"You take the ones on the left. I'll take the right," Bella said as she raised her gun.
Together, we started shooting. I was furious. Seven zombies wasn't a big deal to kill, but they still fucked up what otherwise was going to be a mind-blowing orgasm.
When the last zombie dropped, I screamed "Fuck!" and kicked at an innocent rock that was in my way.
"Well, well, well… Is nudity our new dress code?" Emmett said from behind me.
I spun towards him, finding an outlet for my frustration.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE ON LOOK-OUT!" I shouted, jabbing my finger at him.
Emmett just stared at me with raised eyebrows.
Actually all of them were staring at me that way.
I spun away from them and stalked off towards the water.
Grabbing my clothes, I splashed back into the pond and began scrubbing them roughly.
Bella joined me in silence, but then I heard her start to laugh quietly.
"It isn't fucking funny…" I muttered.
"Come on…" she said, her snickering turning into a laugh. "It's a little funny."
I didn't respond, too wound up and angry to be coherent anyway.
After I finished scrubbing my clothes, I stormed out of the water and left them.
Even with the humour, we were more on guard after that. After we ate our rationed food for the day, Bella and I led Emmett and Rosalie to the fenced in house we'd found.
I climbed over the wall first, pulling out my axe the minute I dropped to the ground.
Once I sounded the all clear, the others came down next to me and we started looking through windows. We took our time looking in all them. I hadn't seen any movement earlier, but that didn't mean anything. Someone this paranoid probably had a bomb shelter or something, so a living person could still be inside.
The front door was unsurprisingly locked, but as we checked the windows I found one whose latch wasn't securely fastened. With my knife, I was able to slide my blade under the window and force the lock open. Then, one by one we crawled through the window and into the house.
My first impression of the place was open space with high ceilings. We'd crawled through the window of what appeared to be the living area, but the dining room and kitchen were tucked into opposite corners of this wide open room.
The open area was only interrupted by a large wooden staircase that started in the foyer by the front door and journeyed up to the second floor where through the bars of the railing I could see a line of closed doors which I supposed were bedrooms.
I banged on the walls a couple of times to see if I could wake up any living or dead inhabitants but I heard nothing.
We all looked at each other in surprise after a few minutes of waiting because the place seemed too good to be true.
We carefully checked through the house, making sure to look in every closet and under every bed. We'd learned that the living and the dead could be where you least expected them to be.
It looked like the home had once been owned by a family— a mother and father and two boys. One of the boys seemed to be either ready to graduate high school or was in university by the look of his room. The other boy was considerably younger, which was clear from the teenage mutant ninja turtle action figures and posters in his room. In my mind, I laid dibs on the master bedroom. Bella and I had been the ones to find the house, so it was only fair. Emmett and Rose could have the teenager's room which was conveniently at the opposite end of the hall.
After checking each room we ended up back in the kitchen. We were all dumbfounded when we found a treasure trove of food, fancy pastas, canned meals of brown beans and a variety of soup, and every variety of expensive booze.
However, the bad luck of it all was that without a gas powered stove, we couldn't eat most of it.
"Holy freaking Jesus! Look at this!"
I spun towards the sound of Emmett's voice.
Emmett stood in front of the pantry, inspecting whatever was inside. "It looks like Willy Wonka's goddam chocolate factory in here… For the love of god! There's Oreos!"
In almost his next breath, he had ripped open the package and was busily stuffing a stack of them in his mouth, the black crust already forming in the corners of his mouth.
"Save some for us Emmett," Rosalie said.
Emmett grinned. "Rosie. There's three more packages in here! One for each of us!"
I shook my head with a smile. There were times when Emmett seemed like the youngest of all of us.
Like Emmett said, the pantry was full of treats. I looked over the rows of pudding snacks, cookies, and other goodies and sighed. Whoever had lived here had had a real sweet tooth.
A man or woman after my own heart, I thought with a grin as I grabbed a couple of pudding snacks and went into the kitchen to find the drawer with utensils.
Emmett and I clinked our spoons together in cheers as he started to chow down on one of his own.
"I hate to burst everybody's bubble, but there's nothing very nutritious in here," Bella said,
"Don't be a party pooper, Bella," Rose said, lightly. She was slowly spinning herself around on one of the bar stools at the kitchen island, grabbing an Oreo every time she passed the table.
"Yeah, Bella. A little sugar rush never hurt anyone," Emmett said, grabbing her and putting her in a headlock. "Eat a cookie. It does the body good," he said, shoving an Oreo in her mouth.
Bella groaned as she took her first bite which made me freeze. I hadn't fully calmed down from what had happened earlier. I was still hyperaware of Bella just like a current of electricity that would zap me whenever she did something like that.
I cleared my throat and tried to think of something else which unfortunately was how thirsty I was.
"Do you think this place has anything to drink?" I asked around a mouthful of my second chocolate pudding. Maybe all this sugar wasn't such a good thing. I felt ten times thirstier.
"If you want to brave the fridge, go right ahead," Bella said, pulling her shirt up over her nose in preparation for the smell.
I cautiously approached the fridge with my t-shirt pulled up over my face too.
"One, two, three," I said and then pulled the door open.
I held my breath as I looked into the fridge, but quickly let it out when I saw that it was nearly empty besides four bottles of water.
"Guys…" I said. "Look at this…"
The three of them came over to the fridge and joined me.
"What are the chances that someone cleaned out their fridge of everything except for water before the apocalypse hit," I said, warning bells going off in my head.
"There's no sign in the house that anyone else is living here," Emmett said, but I could tell that he was on edge now too.
"There's four bottles and four of us. Is that a coincidence?" Bella asked, coming to stand next to me as if she felt the need for protection.
"Let's not jump to conclusions. We're just paranoid after being on the road. There were four people who lived in this house before us. The water was probably just theirs," Rosalie said.
"I'm not sure we should risk that Rose," Emmett said, a look of suspicion on his face.
"Let's do a thorough search of the place and then we'll check the backyard and the front yard within the fence," Bella said as she lifted my arm and pulled it over her shoulder. She was clearly feeling the need to be close to me and I was only too happy to oblige. I pulled her against my side and kissed her temple.
We stood in silence for a few minutes, our snacks forgotten.
"You're right. Let's be cautious, but I don't want us running scared. We can't just give this place up because of a possibility that this happened post apocalypse," I said. "But we can't let our guard down."
Again, we searched the house top to bottom, looking for any place a person could hide that we missed, but found none. Then, we walked around outside of the house, checking for places someone could get in. I checked the security fence for any loose stones and the gate to make sure it was securely locked. But I realized that even though it was locked, that didn't mean anything. We were able to climb the fence, so anyone else could too. We'd have to do something about that.
Still feeling worried, I decided to try to get on the roof. I climbed out of one of the bedroom windows and up onto the sloped roof. It was pretty precarious, but I needed to get a good view of what was around us. Everything seemed still and calm, but instead of relaxing me, the stillness set me on edge.
We decided to take shifts sleeping that night. We couldn't let our guard down until we were sure no one was going to attack us.
Even when I wasn't on watch, I couldn't sleep. I tried to remain still so that Bella could get some rest, but I was restless. Eventually, I got up and went to join Emmett. He had taken up position at the railing at the top of the stairs. It was the only place in the house that you could get an unobstructed view of the street over the fence.
Rosalie was guarding the back of the house from the little boy's bedroom.
"Are we just being paranoid?" I asked Emmett when I sat down next to him.
"We could be," he said, not taking his eyes from the window. "I'll feel an awful lot better when we have those trees on the other side of the gate cut down."
I nodded in agreement. I'd been feeling the same way.
We sat in silence for a while, each caught up in our own thoughts.
A sound from down the hall brought us both to our feet.
"It's just me, guys," Bella said, coming down the hall with hair and clothes all sleep tousled.
"I guess none of us can sleep," she said, plopping herself down on the floor next to us as we settled back down.
"I've been thinking about history class…" she began, causing me to look at her in confusion. That was the last thing I expected her to say.
"Do you remember in Ancient Medieval history how they talked about the way castles used to protect themselves from army assaults in the Middle Ages?" she asked.
"Ummm, no," Emmett said. "I was too busy thinking about girls and football."
Bella rolled her eyes as she continued. "I remember that kingdoms would protect their walls by using sharpened sticks like spikes. It stopped invaders by either impaling them on the stakes that jutted up from the ground around the walls or slowing them down enough to pour boiling oil on them. Now, the boiling oil part's not possible, but we could make spikes for inside and outside the privacy fence around the house."
Emmett and I looked at each other in surprise. It was a really good idea.
"So what you're telling me is that studying history in school wasn't a waste of time? Who would have thought…" Emmett said, with his trademark grin. "Go get some sleep. We'll start working on your medieval traps tomorrow morning."
Having a game plan took the edge off my stress, so I thought that this time I probably would be able to sleep.
The minute we climbed into bed, I pulled Bella against me and buried my face in her hair.
"My little nerd," I teased. "What would I do without your brilliant mind?"
"Is that all I'm good for?" she asked in a quiet voice.
Before I could answer, I felt her hand slip into my underwear and cup me.
"Holy shit," I gasped, instantly back to where we were three or four hours ago.
With a searing kiss, Bella rolled me onto my back and then had her way with me until late into the night.
It was back-breaking work, but by the end of the day we'd cut down most of the branches that encroached too closely on the community walls and then tossed them over so we could make stakes with them.
While Emmett and I were chopping and sawing at branches, Bella was sitting on top of the fence being the look-out and Rosalie was sharpening the stakes. With the four of us, we were making a lot of progress and I knew that we'd probably be able to finish up by tomorrow evening.
Not willing to drink the water in the fridge, we'd resorted to drinking the pond water. It was disgusting, but it was water and quenched our thirst somewhat.
After we put the stakes into the ground, we planned on clearing the nearby houses. I prayed that the houses would have food in their cupboards. I really didn't want us to have to forage outside of the community walls any time soon.
Once our safeguards were in place, we started to relax into our new home.
Days turned into weeks and then months. We finally started to feel secure enough to begin setting down roots.
We even decided to begin our garden. We didn't use all the seeds, not knowing whether our garden was going to work. However, we planted enough that we would have a good supply of food.
We followed the chart that Alice had given us about when to plant and when to harvest and it was a godsend.
I knew that some of these produce could be stored for a long period of time which boded well for the winter, but we would also have fresh vegetables all summer long.
My life was now consumed with planning for the different seasons. I could barely remember the days when I had nothing better to do than play video games.
That's not to say that there weren't afternoons when Bella and I would lay out in the sun both of us reading or daydreaming. It was easy to almost forget about the outside world.
But there was something that tugged at me on the days when I was working in the garden. I thought about how this was all the result of Alice. I would be able to feed my family because she shared their seeds with us. I wondered how they were faring. Were they still closed up in their apartment scrounging for every meal? Had they found any safety? Had Jasper completely lost it?
On the days when I left the property to do a perimeter check of the community, I looked at all the empty houses and thought about the future. Were we always going to be the only ones to live here? Was that even fair?
I wasn't the only one thinking it. It wasn't very many days later when Emmett joined me on perimeter check.
"Ed, I've been thinking a lot lately," he began all the while chewing on one of our new carrots as he walked. "Without Alice, we would be up shit creek with food. Yeah, the houses we've cleared had some food, but nothing that would maintain us long term. She really saved us."
I nodded. I knew where he was going with this.
"I know, Emmett, but Jasper is crazy. Do you really want him living next door to Rosalie?" I asked.
Jasper was the sticking point. I could maybe forgive them for kicking me out of their home, but I was not willing to put Bella at risk of being hurt.
Emmett nodded in agreement.
"Maybe we could check on them and assess the situation," he said, pulling to a stop. "But it's up to you Edward. You were the one that was hurt by them."
I looked at him, seriously.
"Let me think about it for a bit," I said.
"No problem buddy," he said with a slap on the back. "Take your time."
We finished the perimeter search in silence and were walking back to the house when I broke the quiet.
"Let's go check them out. But if he's just as crazy as before, they're not going to join us," I said, firmly.
"Agreed," Emmett said. "Let's go tell the women folk."
The next morning, Emmett and I headed out. Bella and Rosalie agreed to stay at home after some convincing. For once, I wasn't afraid to leave them. They were safe behind the fence and they agreed not to leave our property. It took some arguing with Bella. I understood where she was coming from. She didn't feel that they deserved our help and didn't think we could trust that they wouldn't back-stab us if they had the chance.
She made some good points, but I had to see them to make the decision.
It was strange being outside of the walls. It had been a little over four months since we'd been outside and it was almost like I'd forgotten what it felt like to be on high alert. I tried to look everywhere at once, my senses keenly aware of any noise coming from around us.
A few months ago, we'd moved the RV a couple of blocks away, not wanting to attract any attention. Now, we had to make the trek to the vehicle out in the open. Almost immediately, zombies came looking for us. They came one at a time at first, but that quickly increased as more and more poured out of the surrounding streets. In the end, we were running to get ahead of the herd. They were slow, but we didn't pull too far ahead of them as we ran because we wanted to lead them away from our community. By the time we'd reached the RV, there were at least thirty following us.
With a sigh, I plopped myself into the passenger's seat as Emmett jammed the key in the ignition. I wanted to kill them to prevent any chance of them following us back home, but we couldn't spare the ammo. So, I had to be satisfied with leading them away.
When they began to get a little too close for comfort, Emmett gunned the engine and we headed out of the suburbs towards the downtown core.
A few streets away from Camden Head apartments, Emmett and I got out and walked. I had to reposition my backpack on my shoulders because the weight from the vegetables I was carrying pulled on me uncomfortably. I also had to make sure that I had full movement to grab my gun or axe if Jasper came at me.
Once we reached the building, I started up the fire escape first. I had the sneaking suspicion that if Jasper and Alice were still here, that he would have laid traps.
I wasn't wrong. When we reached the top of the stairs, I saw that the window in the door had been darkened with some kind of paint on the inside. I was pretty sure from this sign that there was something on the other side of the door that could kill us if we weren't careful.
I waited for Emmett to get past me so that I could stand behind the door when I pulled it open.
Looking over my shoulder at him, I waited for him to give me a sign that he was ready for whatever might come out of the door when I opened it.
With a nod from him, I yanked the door open. There was a loud cracking noise that sounded out followed with a twang of something striking metal.
"Holy shit," Emmett hissed, looking carefully around the door.
I slid out from behind it and took a look as well.
Jasper had somehow rigged it so that when the door opened, a metal bat covered in barbed wire as well as three axes shot forward. One of the axes was firmly embedded in the railing of the fire escape. The others had sailed over the railing to land on the ground with a clang. The one stuck in the railing would have taken me in the chest if I'd been standing there.
"That was fucking close, Edward," Emmett muttered with a low whistle.
I nodded as I looked inside. This might not be the only trap that he's set, I thought as I gingerly edged my way inside.
A maze of metal littered the inside of the hall which would have stopped any zombie and created enough noise that it was a warning to Alice and Jasper that someone was in their hallway.
I didn't want to get too close in case Jasper took us as a threat, so I called out.
"Alice?" I hissed. "Alice, it's me Edward."
I heard movement down the hall, but nothing happened.
A little louder, I called out.
"Alice, it's me Edward. I've brought you some food."
Finally, I heard a voice from down the hall.
"Okay. You can come down," she said.
"I'm here with Emmett. Don't attack us or anything," I said, more to Jasper than Alice.
When I approached the door, it was open a crack and I could see that both Alice and Jasper were peering out.
"I come in peace. I wanted to share with you some of the fresh vegetables that we grew with your seeds," I said with a tight grin.
"You actually got them to grow?" Alice asked, but her voice was strangely detached.
"Yeah. Thanks to you, we have fresh food," I responded.
Slowly, Alice pulled open the door a little more and peered out.
"Who's that with you?" she asked.
"My name's Emmett. I was with Edward last time," Emmett said as he stepped forward so she could see him.
Finally, it was Jasper who opened the door fully and after a few seconds of looking at us stepped out of the way and let us into the apartment without a word.
"You have fresh food?" was the first thing he said.
I looked at him, trying not to let his aggressive tone get to me.
"Yes, there's a good mix in here," I said, offering him my backpack as I looked around for Alice.
She was standing on the other side of the kitchen counter, partly obstructed from my view.
"So, you guys must have found a safe place to live," she said in a distant voice.
"Yeah, we have," I said. "It's pretty secure although it looks like you guys have done okay for yourself here too."
I tried to smile at Alice reassuringly because I needed for them to relax enough to have a conversation. I couldn't gauge Jasper's level of craziness if we continued having a one word conversation.
My words didn't seem to reassure Alice. Instead, she teared up and stepped out from behind the counter.
"There's nothing okay about this new world," she said, pointing downward.
I staggered a couple of steps back in shock.
Alice was pregnant.