Hi everyone! Sorry for the wait. This chapter was difficult to write. I re-wrote it three times before I felt good about it. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 27: Introductions
BELLA
As we were getting ready to leave for the water-well, I put on Charlie's police jersey and my tool belt with my weapons. I felt more confident going into a possibly dangerous situation when I was dressed in my work clothes.
Seeing me putting them on, Edward smiled and then kissed me forcefully.
"What was that for?" I asked with a grin.
"Brings back memories, that's all," he said with a sad smile. "We've come a long way, babe."
I kissed him back tenderly.
He held me tightly for a few minutes. I knew from our whispered conversations in bed last night that he was terrified about doing this. He knew that we needed to check it out, but he was afraid that it was a trap set by James. All night, he tossed and turned with nightmares. I knew that his mumbled words of Garrett meant that he was reliving his time with Garrett's crew.
It was even clearer to me the next morning when he loaded and re-loaded his shotgun several times. He'd always felt like he'd been responsible for Garrett's death because he'd forgotten to load his shotgun.
Jasper noticed it as well and the pained look on his face made me think that Jasper wasn't as cold-hearted as I'd thought.
It took us a couple of days to get up the courage to go to the water-well. Jasper had scoped out the area, but hadn't gone so far as to go to the exact location on the map. He never saw any signs of people which made him extremely anxious. He couldn't understand how someone could get so close to us and then disappear without leaving any trace. So we went through the water that we had before even considering going there. Alice was fine after taking the vitamin that first night and seemed to get healthier every day with each additional one she took. However, it was a big step to actually go there because it meant that we were walking into a potential danger zone where we were at the disadvantage.
Just before leaving, Edward tried one more time to convince me to stay.
"I wish you'd stay behind with Rosalie and Alice," Edward said, stepping in front of me as I reached for my gun.
"Edward, I'm just as good a shot as you are. I can fight," I said.
"I know you can, but you don't have to. Emmett, Jasper, and I can check it out," he said.
"I want to go. I need to stay with you," I responded.
"Bella…" he said, shoving his left hand into his dishevelled hair which was a classic sign of his stress.
"Would you be able to stay behind if I was going into a possibly dangerous situation?" I asked in a calm way, trying to reason with him.
"Of course not. But-" he began. However, I cut him off.
"Good. I'm going," I said.
I stepped around him and grabbed my gun, sliding it into my tool belt.
Don't leave my side, okay?" Edward asked me quietly as we followed the others out the door and down the road.
"I promise Edward… Nothing's going to happen to me," I said, taking his hand and squeezing it.
"Just stay close," he said again as we hurried to catch up with the other two.
A drizzling rain had begun to fall that morning and didn't show any sign of letting up as we walked through the town. The grey misty haze that covered the sky and blotted out the sun made our trip to the well seem more ominous.
It was about a ten minute walk to get to the house marked on the map.
As we got closer, all of us had our weapons drawn and every sense on alert looking for anything suspicious.
It was a large farmhouse style home that had been renovated to a more modern style. The water-well was probably in the backyard where there was a wide open field.
Quietly, we slipped behind the house and took in our surroundings. There were many places where a person could hide. The grass was tall which meant that any number of people could be lying in wait for us. So we inched carefully through the grass, heading for the flattened down patch that we could see a few feet away.
When we came upon it, I half expected to find some old fashioned well where you filled a bucket with water by lowering it down into a hole. Instead it was a pipe jutting up out of the ground with a hand-pump attached to it. We all held our breaths as Edward stepped forward and began pushing down on the handle over and over. At first we heard nothing but a gurgle and my heart began to sink, but then with a gush the water started flowing.
Forgetting for a moment the danger of the situation, Emmett and I let out a small cheer and high-fived because clean water was a miracle.
We hadn't brought enough containers to fill with water because we didn't want to be weighted down with too much in case of an attack. However, that didn't stop each of us from getting down on our hands and knees and shoving our faces under the water taking great gulps while the others watched. It was probably one of the best things I'd tasted in a while. We'd gotten so used to drinking dirty water that this fresh water was like ambrosia on our tongues.
Once we had our fill of water, we scoped out the area. The only sign that people had been using the well was the flattened grass around it and a path that headed away from it and into the neighbour's backyard. However, as we followed it, we lost the trail when we reached the home's gravel driveway.
So, we decided to search the farmhouse. Emmett and Jasper took the tool-shed and garage that were set back from the house while Edward and I took the house. While I searched the kitchen, Edward was looking through the upstairs.
It was clear that someone had come through the house and taken everything useful. I sighed in disappointment because we were running out of our canned goods and soon would need to find a new source of protein. However, I continued searching just in case something had been overlooked. I'd just finished searching through the cupboards over the sink when I noticed that hidden behind the opened door of the pantry, was another door which probably led to the cellar. I felt a touch of excitement because that was where people often stored food.
Jumping down from the counter I'd been sitting on, I walked across the room and without thinking opened the door.
The minute I pulled it open, I realized my mistake. The tell-tale odor of decay struck me a second before I was thrown backwards with the weight of the dead that tumbled out.
I crashed to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs with the dead that had tripped and fallen on top of me.
I let out a breathy scream as I struggled to push them off of me, but their combined weight was pinning me down. I couldn't even raise my arms, so the only thing I could do was try to rock back and forth and jerk my head to the side as the dead woman who I was face to face with snapped at my face. My stomach lurched in fear and disgust as stringy hair got in my face and eyes as I tried to avoid each gnash of her teeth.
"Bella!"
I almost sobbed in relief as Edward pulled one of them off of me which lessened the weight. Pushing up against the woman, I rolled us over so that I was on top of her.
The woman hadn't been dead long. Her skin had only started to turn green with decay and the blood I could see through the tears in her threadbare housecoat was still a burgundy colour not the black that I associated with the walking dead. Even her bites and movement seemed more precise than the other dead that I came across. Yanking my icepick out of my tool belt, I brought it down into her head, causing her to immediately go limp.
However, before I even had a chance to turn around, I was being jerked backwards by my shirt as another dead lunged for me. I struggled to turn around and face it which caused my shirt to rip at the seam. I grabbed for my icepick that was still impaled in the woman's head, but it was stuck. So, I pulled my butcher knife out of my belt and spun on my knees. Just like the woman, the dead man was newly turned, so it was faster and stronger as it tried to yank me towards its gaping mouth. Being on my knees the dead man was looming over me, making it impossible for me to stab it in the head. I fought to get to my feet, but the hard wood floor was slippery. It was the kitchen cupboards that saved me. The back of my heels slammed into it as I slid across the floor, giving me enough traction to push myself to my feet. With all the strength in my body, I jabbed my blade upward, praying that I'd hit him under the chin. Thankfully, the blade didn't hit the dead man's jawbone and sunk in until the man fell boneless to the ground.
I spun towards Edward and saw that he had three zombies bearing down on him as he struggled to remain standing. Out in the open, three zombies would have been nothing for Edward. But we were in a confined space in the kitchen and couldn't use our guns for fear of shooting each other by accident. It was making it almost impossible to protect himself as they tried to kill him.
As I yanked my blade out of the dead man, one of the corpses attacking Edward collapsed at his feet with a well-placed jab from Edward. However, in the process it pushed Edward off balance and he was knocked to the ground with the remaining two zombies on top of him.
I cried out in fear as I lunged for them and yanked at one with all of my strength.
I could hear Edward grunting and cursing as he struggled with the remaining zombie while I fought to pin down the one I had. When I was finally able to kill it, I looked desperately over at Edward who was still under the now motionless dead man.
"Edward!" I cried, crawling towards him.
A strange sound escaped Edward's lips as I got close enough to pull the dead man half off of him. All the air left me when I saw that as I pulled it away, the side of Edward's face was covered in gore and pieces of zombie flesh.
"Edward," I wailed, grabbing a hold of his face and turning it so that I could look for the wound I expected to see.
"I'm fine, Bella," he said, calmly and then strangely laughed.
I looked at his amused flushed face in astonishment for a minute before, wiping away the smeared blood.
There was a red patch that was already starting to turn purple where the skin had been pinched and I even saw small indentations left by the teeth.
"Stop laughing!" I snapped, suddenly furious at him as I looked at the red patch of skin.
Edward laughed even harder, tears forming in his eyes.
"What the fuck is so funny Edward?! You almost died!"
"I really didn't, Bella…" he said and then pointed at the dead man's face. "Look."
I looked at the dead man confused until I looked at its mouth. At first, I thought that its jaw was dislocated or half ripped off its face, but when I looked more carefully it all made sense. Dangling out of the dead man's mouth was a set of dentures.
The look on my face set Edward off laughing again.
However, instead of finding it funny, I burst into tears.
The laughter immediately stopped as Edward sat up and pulled me into his arms.
"Hey… hey… no tears… I'm fine, Bella," he said, soothingly.
"I'm sss…. sssorry…" I sobbed, guilt overtaking me. "I didn't check. I always check…"
"Shhhh… It's okay. We're both okay," he said, pulling me into his lap and rocking me.
"Holy fuck!" a booming voice interrupted the silence between us.
"Welcome to the party," Edward said dryly to Emmett and Jasper.
"Are you guys okay?" Jasper asked.
"We're fine," Edward said. "Just a little shook up."
They didn't ask what had happened. It was clear from the number of zombies sprawled from the cellar door to where Edward and I sat that they'd come from downstairs.
"Did you get a chance to check the cellar?" Jasper asked.
"No," Edward and I said in unison.
"I'll check it out," he said, slipping past us and down the stairs.
With one last shuddering sigh, I sat up and looked around the room. It was completely destroyed, showing the fight to the death battle that Edward and I had fought.
I looked at the dead lying next to me and noticed again how little decay showed on its body.
"These guys haven't been dead long. They haven't really started to rot yet," I said, to Edward and Emmett as I sniffled.
"Do you think they may be the ones that left the supplies at Jasper and Alice's?" Emmett asked.
"I don't know. None of them look like they would have been able to sneak in and out of their house without Jasper catching them," Edward said.
Jasper had joined us at this point and was busy looking over each corpse.
"You're right. There's no way that any of these guys would have been able to get into the attic and out without any of us noticing," he said.
"So that means there's more of them out there…" I said, looking around nervously.
After our close call at the farmhouse, we were all more cautious as we searched other houses. It was clear that there were others living in this community with us, but they were staying hidden.
I didn't blame them for being cautious, but it was dangerous to not know who was sharing our foxhole with us.
We methodically started to expand our search of houses, always in pairs. I never let my guard down again as I looked through houses. I'd almost gotten Edward killed because I'd foolishly believed that our little community was safe.
However, besides the dead that had been trapped inside their houses when the apocalypse began, we didn't find any signs of people.
That's why when one of them showed up on our doorstep, we were all shocked beyond belief.
It was Edward who found the little boy when he got up early to make breakfast. The little boy was just sitting on our front steps waiting.
"Holy fuck!" he shouted which caused the rest of us to bolt out of our rooms and fly down the stairs.
Emmett and Edward filled the doorway so I couldn't see what they were looking at.
"What? What's going on?" I asked, trying to push them apart.
"How the hell did you get in here?" Emmett demanded.
Now, I was scared. Who was on our doorstep?
"Hungry," a little voice said, shocking me into stillness.
I looked at Rosalie and she was just as confused.
When Edward and Emmett didn't move or say anything, the little voice spoke again. "Hungry… breakfast?"
"Move guys," I said, shoving my way between them.
The boy was young, probably around six or seven, but small for his age. He had light brown hair that feathered around his face in a haphazard sort of way that reminded me of Edward. He seemed well-fed and clean which meant that he hadn't been on his own all this time, so I looked around quickly, checking to see if there was anyone else within the fence with him. When I didn't see anyone, I crouched down so that I was at his eye level.
He was a cute little boy who on the surface looked like any other child, but when I looked into his eyes I could tell he'd seen things that no child his age should have ever seen.
"What's your name?" I asked, gently. "Mine's Bella."
He merely grunted at me and repeated "… hungry…"
I tried again. "How did you get here? Are you alone?"
The little boy just scowled at me and didn't say anything else.
I looked up at the others in confusion. I'd never been around kids, so I didn't exactly know how to talk to them.
My eyes latched on to Edward who had an unreadable expression on his face.
Crouching down next to me, Edward spoke gently to the little boy.
"Hey buddy!" he said in a cheerful voice. "You scared me! I opened the door and wow there you were! You're pretty sneaky."
The little boy looked at Edward with wide eyes and then a devilish gleam appeared in them and he giggled.
"Are you Batman or something?" Edward whispered, like it was a secret.
The boy shook his head vigorously and said, "Noooooo. I'm Chris."
I looked at Edward in surprise at how easily he was able to get the little boy to talk. However, when I looked at him and saw under the happy smile a tinge of sadness, I remembered. Edward had had a sister about this boy's age.
"Well, Chris. My name's Edward," he said. "Come on in and I'll make you some oatmeal."
Standing up, Edward motioned for the little boy to follow him into the house. However, on the way, he looked at Emmett and said, "Check the area. There might be someone watching."
With a sharp nod, Emmett slipped out of the house.
The little boy strode over to the table without a glance at the rest of us and plunked himself down in a seat, picking up a spoon.
When Jasper and Alice entered the house a short time later, Chris was busy shovelling oatmeal into his mouth.
"What the hell?" Jasper asked, suddenly all senses on alert.
"He just showed up alone…" Edward said with a shrug.
"Why didn't someone come and get us? This isn't good," Jasper hissed.
The little boy looked up from his food in suspicion and stared at Jasper.
"He's just a little boy, Jasper," Rosalie said with one eyebrow raised. "How dangerous can he be? We checked the area and no one else is around."
For a moment, he didn't say anything.
"Did you check him for bites?" Jasper asked.
We all froze, tension suddenly palpable.
Could someone really do something like that? Send an infected little boy into our home in order to kill us?
If this was the old world, I wouldn't have believed it possible. However, people in this world were insane and ruthless.
Edward was suddenly at the little boy's side.
"Chris? Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked, seriously.
The little boy looked at him in confusion.
"Do you have any cuts? Did anything bite you?" Edward asked.
The little boy shook his head again.
"We need to check, Edward…" Jasper said.
Jasper strode towards them with a determined look on his face.
"You'll scare him, Jasper,' I said, stepping in front of him to block his way.
"Can I check you out, Chris?" Edward asked, gently. "I want to make sure you don't get sick."
Chris shook his head, but Edward ignored him. Taking the spoon out of his hand, he picked up the boy who was suddenly like a wild animal growling and thrashing as Edward carried him over to the couch.
Pulling off his backpack, Edward searched the boy looking for bites, scratches, anything that could be infected. We all let out a sigh of relief when he didn't find anything.
"Sorry, buddy," Edward said letting go of the little boy.
The little boy stomped back to the table and thumped into his seat without a word.
Jasper looked at the little boy warily, but didn't say or do anything else as he sat down at the table too. Even Jasper couldn't look at this little boy and see him as a threat.
Alice dished out some oatmeal for herself and Jasper and sat down in a chair next to Chris with a grunt of discomfort, resting her hand on her swollen stomach. Chris stopped eating and looked at Alice with both of his eyebrows raised in surprise. For some reason, this struck Alice as funny and she started laughing.
Chris jumped down off his seat and put his hands on Alice's stomach.
"Baby?" he asked, looking up at her with a smile.
We all looked at each other in shock.
Who was this child?
It was surreal experience to have this child in our home. It was impossible for this little boy to be alone. He was too well taken care of. However, there was clearly something wrong with the boy in the way that he spoke in one word sentences and fought like a wild animal when he was held.
Having forgiven Edward, Chris walked into the living room to grab his backpack and then climbed into Edward's lap at the kitchen table when he was done eating.
He unzipped his bag and pulled out what looked like a digital camera.
"See?" he said, showing it to Edward.
The rest of us crowded around the two of them in order to look at what he was showing him.
At first it was just pictures that a little kid would take like birds, trees, toys. However, then there was a picture of a woman. In the blurry picture, she was standing in a kitchen with a gentle smile on her face.
"Esme," the little boy said, pointing at her picture.
I was surprised that he called her by her first name and not Mom.
"Is it, buddy?" Edward asked. "Where's Esme?"
The little boy ignored him and continued to show his pictures. One was of a large white house set off the street and surrounded by trees.
"Is that where you live Chris?" Alice asked.
The boy nodded enthusiastically.
"Do you live with Esme?" she asked.
Again the boy nodded.
"She's nice," he said. The first sentence he'd uttered.
"Well, that's good, little man," Emmett said, ruffling his hair which caused the boy to growl and swat him away.
The little boy reminded me a bit of Jasper in his wildness.
After we all finished eating, the boy didn't want to leave. Edward tried to convince him to let us take him home, but he adamantly refused. He seemed more than content to follow us around as we went into the backyard and worked in the garden.
As Edward used the pitchfork to dig up potato plants, Chris had fun digging through the dirt to find the potatoes.
I watched it all happening at a loss for what to do next. We didn't know who this Esme was or where she lived. We couldn't just keep him here, could we?
"What should we do with him?" Rose said, echoing my thoughts.
"I don't know. We have no idea where this Esme lives or even if she's still alive. Is she the one that left the stuff in Jasper and Alice's house?" I asked, not expecting any answer because we had none.
"Well, there's nothing to be done with him now. Unless he wants to lead us back to his house, but it doesn't seem like he wants to go anywhere," Rose said, looking at the little boy with Edward.
Edward was tossing small clumps of dirt at the little boy with his pitchfork, causing the child to laugh hysterically.
I watched Edward and Chris with a lump in my throat because I could almost imagine him with his little sister and how painful it must have been to lose her.
The rest of the day continued on in the same way and that night I set up a makeshift bed for him in our room.
After he fell asleep, I joined the others downstairs.
"So, what do we do?" Emmett asked.
"I think we have to try to find this Esme. She's obviously been taking care of this little boy. If she's alive, she'll be terrified that he's missing," Rosalie said and we all nodded.
"If Chris doesn't lead us there, we still have a picture of the house on the digital camera which might make it easier to find the exact house," I added.
"A woman who would take care of a little boy that isn't hers could be one of the good guys. I don't think James would allow a little kid to be a part of his group," Emmett said.
"So, let's head out in the morning and hope that Chris will lead us there," Edward said.
That night Edward and I crept past the sleeping little boy not wanting to wake him. However, he didn't budge even when Edward stubbed his toe and cursed softly.
When I woke up the next morning, I sat up and stretched looking around the room sleepily. However, when my eyes looked down at where the little boy had been sleeping, I gasped in alarm.
"Edward! He's gone!" I said in shock.
Edward lurched up out of the bed and searched the room and downstairs, but there was no sign that the little boy had even been here or when he'd left. Even a search of outside gave us no clue as to where the little boy had gone.
ESME
He'd snuck out of the house again. I couldn't believe that he was able to slip out of the house without me noticing. I barely slept at night, worried that he'd disappear and never come back.
However, my strange little visitor would appear and disappear from my life without even a whisper.
I didn't understand how someone so young could have survived. He seemed to come out of nowhere. It had been over a year that I'd been alone in this house with nothing but monsters surrounding me. Yet, he just walked up to my door one day and knocked.
He only spoke a few words here and there at the beginning. He was clearly traumatized by whatever he'd seen, but he still became my reason for living.
I decided to call him Christopher. It was the name I would have called my son if he'd lived. When I looked at him, I could almost imagine that he was my son because we shared a similar colour hair and eyes. Some part of me thought that maybe, he really was my son. A gift from God who decided to take pity on me.
My relationship with his father had been a mistake. A huge one. We'd only been dating a short time when I'd gotten pregnant. I should have felt more confident about having a baby on my own. I was 31 and had a successful career as an interior designer. However, I'd married Charles anyway even though everyone warned me against it.
Charles Evenson had been a harsh and brutal man who had started hurting me almost as soon as he put a ring on my finger. I think that he'd only married me out of obligation and that obligation made him angry, so angry. I tried to hide the fact that he was abusive because I was ashamed that I'd ignored my family and friends. However, the doctors at the hospital had known.
When Christopher was born and then died shortly after from a lung infection, I knew that Charles was going to kill me. His anger had turned cold and distant which was scarier than his bursts of temper. For a while, I didn't care about what happened to me. I almost wanted Charles to kill me. But then I met Carlisle. When I'd first met him, I was surprised at the emotions that he evoked in me. It was the strangest feeling- half-sick, half-excited whenever he was nearby. Over time, I admitted to him that Charles was hurting me and Carlisle promised to help me in whatever way he could. He gave me money, a new identity and even a new home in a gated community several states away from Charles.
So, I cut off any contact with my family and I only talked to Carlisle sporadically. But even during those small conversations, I knew that I cared more about him that just as friends. However, we couldn't be together because Charles knew that Carlisle and I had become friendly, so was keeping a close eye on him. Charles was a rich man and would have done anything to get me back. I was so afraid of Charles finding me that I'd packed my basement full of canned goods, so that I didn't have to leave my house that much.
I became terribly depressed almost to the point of giving up. It felt like my life was over. I was alone in a strange community where I was too afraid to have a job or even go out and socialize. When he realized how much I was struggling, Carlisle came to me. He spent a week with me and I felt like I'd come back to life. When he left, he promised that we'd be together. He said that it would take him about a month to take care of his affairs and secretly leave the city so that he could join me.
However, then the death virus started to spread and things turned to chaos. The last time I talked to Carlisle before the phones stopped working, he said that things were really bad and that he was coming for me. He told me that he loved me and that we'd be together soon.
But he never came.
For over a year, I waited. I waited while the news showed how the dead were rising everywhere and that every attempt to stop the virus failed. I waited when the power went out and people in the community started to fight for food and then fight each other as the dead took over.
Then, I just waited as silence descended on the community. It didn't seem like anyone else had survived. However, I couldn't accept the idea that Carlisle wasn't coming.
I thought that I'd finally gone crazy when Christopher had shown up at my door. He just stood there looking at me when I opened it and then pushed past me into my house and sat down at the dining room table.
He seemed so comfortable sitting there at my table that after we stared at each other for a while I asked without thinking.
"Do you want something to eat?"
The little boy that seemed no older than seven or eight looked at me and nodded.
And that was how our relationship began. It was like my own son had come back from the dead and rejoined me. It was easier to think that way because Christopher said very little and seemed to remember nothing about his life before.
He wasn't a normal child by any stretch of the imagination. He reminded me of a cat that was half-wild. He didn't want to be still too long and was constantly looking for any opportunity to be outside exploring. He usually stayed the night with me and would sometimes cuddle with me on the couch when I was reading. However, he didn't like to be held for too long. He hoarded food in is room hiding it in different places and when I tried to take it he growled at me. The first time I tried to give him a bath, I literally had to pin him down in the water while he hissed and kicked at me. But over time, he began to trust me and the wildness in him settled down a little.
I tried to keep him at home with me, terrified that I would lose him, but it was impossible. On one of his trips, he found a digital camera that still had a charged battery. He loved taking pictures and then showing them to me before he went to bed.
"See! See, Esme?" he would ask, showing me a picture of anything that caught his interest.
"That's amazing, Chris. You're a great photographer."
He would then smile happily at my words.
"More tomorrow," he would respond and then with a sigh roll over and go to sleep.
I didn't like him being in danger, so I did things to keep him at home, like using the generator a couple of hours a day so that he could play the video games that he'd found in one of the neighbours houses. I knew that I was using up our meager supply of gas, but I wanted to keep Chris safe.
It was on one of his adventures that he'd found the strangers. We'd been alone for such a long that I was shocked when he showed me pictures of four young adults living across town in the Chapman's house. I didn't know much about the people in the town, but the ladies from church liked to gossip. They said that the Chapman's were a very suspicious couple that didn't want to have much to do with anyone. There were rumours that they were even in witness protection and that's why they built a privacy fence around their home.
"Let's go," he said, grabbing my hand and trying to drag me out of the house.
"No, Chris. It's too dangerous," I said, tugging him away from the door.
"Come…" he said again, more forcefully.
"No, Christopher. We're not going," I said.
Christopher huffed and then stomped upstairs and slammed his door.
A few hours later, I'd gone up to check on him and found that he'd fallen asleep.
Carefully, I moved him so that I could pull his blankets up and over him and then kissed his forehead.
I went back down to the kitchen to clean up, but was stopped as tears came to my eyes. I wanted to meet the strangers so badly. I was so lonely and I desperately wanted other people to talk to. But from the windows of my house, I'd seen neighbours turn on neighbours. I'd seen people that I met at church kill each other for a small amount of food.
People were not people anymore. They were monsters dead and alive.
I thought again of Carlisle. Was he ever going to come for me?
I woke up in the morning to an empty house. Chris was nowhere to be found. In a panic, I rushed down the stairs and threw on my jacket. This time I knew he wasn't just on one of his wanderings. He'd gone to see the strangers. I was sure of it. So, I ran down the street, looking everywhere at once and hoping that I'd catch him before he reached the Chapman's.
But I didn't see him when I reached the house which gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach. I kept to the tree line and circled around behind the fenced in property, searching for him.
I could hear people talking on the other side of the fence which set my heart to beating quickly. It had been such a long time since I'd heard other people's voices.
"Should we plant the potatoes here or over there?" a woman's voice asked.
"I don't know what kind of sunlight they need. Do Alice's notes say anything about it?" a man's voice said.
Their voices sounded young, but they didn't seem young in the way they talked. They were talking about food storage for the winter and how to plant food that would give them enough nutrition.
Having grown up on a farm, I couldn't help answering their planting questions in my head. I'd always had a small vegetable garden behind my home with Charles, but since moving to Elmherst I'd never even considered it again.
At that moment, I thought I heard something above me.
Looking up, I met the eyes of Chris who was lying on the roof of the house next door. He waved at me excitedly and beckoned for me to join him, pointing at the back door.
I gritted my teeth in frustration at the danger that he was putting himself in, but followed his directions until I was on a balcony on the second floor and then up on the roof to join him.
"You are in so much trouble, mister," I said, trying to sound threatening, but it didn't seem to work.
"Look…" he said, pointing into the backyard of the Chapman's.
I immediately saw the two young people toiling over a plot of land. The girl had long brown hair that was pulled up into a pony tail. She was dressed in a ragged pair of jeans and a ripped grey t-shirt. The boy had reddish-brown shaggy hair and was dressed just as raggedly as the girl. Neither of them looked much older than 20, but they were probably younger than that. This new world aged people beyond their years.
It wasn't long after that when two other people joined them in the backyard and took over working in the garden. They seemed older than the other two.
We watched them for a while and I was amazed to see them laughing and horsing around with each other. I didn't think I'd ever see happy people again.
Eventually, they went inside and we went home.
After that Chris slipped away almost every day to watch them. I argued with him about visiting the strangers because I was afraid for his safety. However, he was insistent on leaving even when I firmly told him no. Some days I would give in and join him. On one of those days, I saw that Edward and Emmett had brought back two more people. It was strange because it seemed like Edward and Bella weren't happy about it even though Edward had brought the couple back to their house. However, after watching them for weeks and getting to know them from afar, I quickly realized why Edward and Emmett had allowed the others to join them. The girl was pregnant. Edward and Emmett seemed like nice people who wouldn't have been able to leave a pregnant woman behind even if they didn't like them. My heart clenched at the sight of the girl's rounded stomach. This world was no place for a pregnant woman or a child. I looked at Chris who was staring excitedly down at them and felt tears come to my eyes.
When we got home that night, I couldn't stop thinking about that young woman. I knew what it was like to be pregnant in a world full of dangers. Without even being aware of it, I began to gather supplies for her. The drug-store had diapers and pregnancy vitamins and Chris added a sock monkey to the pile.
I knew that one thing that had been concerning the group was a lack of water. Chris and I had been using the water-well that was on one of our neighbour's property. The property had been a farm many years ago before the area had been turned into our gated community. I marked its location on a map, but then I hesitated. Giving these things to them would make them aware that we were living in the community too. Even though they seemed like good people, I couldn't be too careful. I'd seen what this new world had turned my neighbours into and it was terrifying. Also, by giving them the location of the water well, it meant that there was more of a chance that we'd run into each other.
So, the pile of supplies sat on the table in our dining room as I tried to decide what to do. But I should have known that Chris would take that decision away from me.
The next morning I woke up to find that the supplies were missing from the table. When I confronted Chris about it, he just shrugged.
"I gave… Jasper and Alice…" he said around a mouthful of food. "Jasper mad…" he continued with a grin.
"Did he hurt you?" I gasped, cupping his face in my hands and looking him over. When I saw nothing, anger overtook the worry.
"Christopher! How dare you do that without my permission!" I shouted. "Don't you realize the danger you've put us in!"
He just stared at me, the smile never leaving his face.
I started pacing the house, trying to decide what our next step would be.
A few days later, I watched from one of our windows upstairs as four of them passed by our home and headed towards the water well. Chris was at my side, tugging on my arm.
"Come… Esme, let's go…" he begged, but I was too scared.
I knew Chris was angry at me, but I just couldn't do it.
Every day he asked me to go see them and every day I said no.
Then, one night Chris didn't come home. I realized that I'd made a huge mistake and now my little boy had left me.
I was all alone again.
It was all too much, so I collapsed onto the couch in tears.
I didn't want to go on living if it meant being alone. I was starting to lose hope that Carlisle would ever find me. Losing Chris was the final straw.
However, as I sobbed, I felt a hand on my head.
"Esme? You sad?"
With a cry of joy, I threw my arms around a surprised Chris and burrowed my face in his neck.
"My little boy!" I cried. "I was so worried."
"I'm sorry… I was with the other guys…" he explained, looking extremely guilty. "Edward is… funny guy…"
I wasn't angry. I was too happy that he'd come back to be angry.
"I'm so sorry Chris. I should have taken you to them. I will go with you to meet them," I said, babbling in my fright.
"It's okay, Esme," he said, patting my head. It was the first time that he didn't fight to get away from me.
Finally with a shuddering sigh, I let go of him and sat up.
"Wanna see some pictures?" he asked, pulling his camera out of his backpack.
"I'd love to, sweetheart," I said, happily.
We'd fallen into our familiar routine for the rest of the day until supper time when there was a knock at the door.
I froze in shock and fear, not knowing what to do.
"Esme… the door is knocking," Chris said.
"Shhhh, Chris… It might be bad guys," I said.
He nodded solemnly and crept towards the door with me.
I carefully stepped up to the door and gingerly looked through the peephole.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I stepped away from it.
I looked down at Chris and gathered my courage. He smiled up at me reassuringly and took my hand.
Reaching out, I grabbed the door handle and slowly opened it.
Before I could get up the courage to speak, Chris broke the silence.
"Hi Edward!"