"You enjoy it?" He asked the teen.
"What?" Rasmus looked at Martin confused.
"Watching us, Bella and me last night." Rasmus looks down.
"I've never seen her like that before, it made me feel strange."
"It made you feel strange? You mean horny?"
"Is that what it is?"
"You can't be serious." Martin says but as Rasmus looks at him he can't help the sinking feeling in his gut. "You were masturbating. You have to know what it is to be horny!"
"Masturbating?" Rasmus asks and Martin groans.
"Touching yourself." He says and Rasmus flushes.
"I only feel like that when I think about Donna. Don't tell Simone! Please, she'll yell at me. She did last time. She said it's wrong that I'm not supposed to do that but I couldn't help it."
"Jesus. Look, it's not wrong. It's perfectly healthy. God knows I did it a hell of a lot before Belle and I started having sex."
"You and Donna are married and having babies?" Rasmus said heartbroken.
"No. Shit, is that how your sister explained it?"
"Simone said I didn't need to know more than that sex is what two married people do to have babies."
"Fuck. Listen, sex isn't something shared just between a married couple. It's a way to share yourself with someone else usually, hopefully with someone you love."
"Like Donna."
"Yes, I mean no! Look, Donna is my girlfriend. If the rain hadn't happened then maybe the two of us could have been married by now, but it did. I don't think there is much of anyone getting married these days. Just look I know you have feelings for Donna. I also know that you've spent most of puberty apparently locked in a bunker with no one but your sister and an old crush on Donna." Martin would go on like that for the next half hour as Simone prepared for them to leave for their journey to Sweden.
Just Outside the Bunker
Rasmus couldn't help the uneasy feeling raging within him, screaming that something was wrong. "Simone, Donna is meeting up with us once the others fall asleep right?"
"Rasmus for the last time, yes. She said she'll leave when they switch guard duties. She even has her things set to go." Simone lied as Rasmus nodded his head believing that Simone knew about her truck and trailer.
"Do you think we can make it without the others?" Rasmus asked worried for Donna as he remembered what Martin had said about the people in the city. She's coming alone.
"Yes, of course we can. We'll be fine Rasmus. Come on, let's go."
"The city is dangerous. What if we meet people there?"
"We just have to get through unnoticed. We'll reach the next bunker before dark. We'll be safe there."
"I don't like it. Simone, we should wait for Donna. Something is wrong."
"I know, . . . but we're going to make it." You and I.
Inside the Bunker
"Mgh" Lea groaned as she stretched from the cot she laid on with Bella. "Who's playing music?"
"Boys." Belle groaned as she lifted the pillow from beneath her and used it to cover her face as she turned over throwing the blanket over her head for good measure sending Lea into a fit of giggles. Belle let a smile slip onto her lips before burying herself into the quilt she'd kept in her pack until she was a firmly wrapped and tucked Bella-Donna quilt burrito as Lea slipped her shoes back on and left the room.
"Where are Rasmus and Simone?" She asked Martin who was playing table tennis with Patrick as Ida watched on, after looking around and not having found them anywhere.
"They left for Sweden, to find their dad." Martin tells her shaking his head.
"Ready?" Patrick asks Martin.
"Yes."
"Their dad is in Sweden?" Lea put her hands on her hips as she had seen Belle do so many times before when she wanted an answer.
"Does it matter?"
"Uh, yes. They shouldn't go without us. They can't make it on their own."
"They can. We're not going."
"Not going where?" Bella-Donna asks as she pulls her hair up into a ponytail.
"What's up?" Beatrice asked scowling as she comes out of the room she rested in and stands to Lea's other side.
"Sweden. Martin has kicked out Rasmus and Simone."
"You what?" Bella-Donna looks to her boyfriend of 7 years.
"No, I haven't. They can do what they want."
"What's in Sweden?" Bella-Donna asks Lea as Beatrice simultaneous ask "Where did they go?"
"They think their dad is in Sweden and that he can save the world."
"We're going too." Beatrice says arms crossed.
"Hell must have frozen over because I actually agree with you." Bella-Donna said as she stared Martin down.
"You what?"
"If their father can save the world we have to help them." Who knows what kind of reward that would bring.
"Aside from that, Simone and Rasmus lived in a bunker for 6 years and you just let them walk out. Martin, they've had no contact with the outside world before us. They might be older than they were when the rain started but mentally? How could you let them just leave, Martin?"
"Martin, they helped us when we needed it." Lea throws in.
"It's not just about surviving, it's about hope. And we're going with them" Beatrice speaks having seen the crack in Martin's armor the moment sweet little Belle had expressed her disappointment. I throw in my lot just before he gives in and I might just be able to use it to play with Belle of the ball's head later.
"Listen, it's fucking dangerous." Martin puts the paddle down as he leans forward, grey-green eyes locked on emerald.
"We're not doing anything dangerous, right?" Jean came up from behind the three women, stuffing his face with another food bar.
"Really Jean?" Ida looks at him with narrowed eyes. "We want those to last and here you are snacking, in the middle of the fucking apocalypse. Again! It's not like we can go out hunting! The animals are infected!"
"Luna isn't." he says as he takes another bite only to realize that everyone is staring at him.
"Man." Patrick speaks lowly, but loud enough to be heard in the silent room as he just shakes his head and backs away.
"Run." Beatrice's voice whispered from his side.
"Excuse me. I must have misheard you Jean because for a moment there it almost sounded like you suggested we eat Luna, for meat." Bella-Donna's eyes were narrowed and seemed to glow a poisonous green. Jean gulped and glanced around quickly to find Beatrice who had been standing at his side was across the hall, Lea's eyes were narrowed as she stood beside Bella-Donna as Ida walked up to stand at his other side.
"Wanna correct yourself now before you get the beat down of a lifetime curly-cue?" Ida asked.
"I didn't mean to! It just came out, I swear!" Jean spoke quickly.
"Pack the bags, we're leaving for Sweden. Hopefully, Rasmus and Simone will be fine until we can catch up." Bella-Donna says. Lea, Jean, Ida, and Beatrice you four go ahead. The three of us will pack all we can and meet up with you."
"Bella" Martin begins but instantly shuts up when her narrowed eyes turn to him. "Sounds like a great plan."
The others had just left to catch up with the Andersen siblings when Donna tossed bags at them. "I'm going to gather anything we can use for medical supplies, we're running low on those. Martin grab the food, all of it. Patrick fill the canteens than find anything else that could be useful. You have a talent for finding things that can double as something else in a pinch that would be overlooked otherwise."
Ida & Simone
Burger King
"Why is it that the city is so dangerous?" Rasmus asked. "Martin said the people but why?"
"There was a lot of food here, at first. People gathered and infected each other. The ones that survived were so desperate that they stole from each other. Now they're killing each other for food." Beatrice says watching him. I wonder if I could flip him. He has to know by now that Belle and our fearless leader are screwing each other. I bet he's never touched a woman in his life. I can see it now. He'll be so thankful he'll do whatever I say just for me to use him again and again. Corrupting him could be so much fun.
"People suck." Rasmus says and Beatrice can't help thinking of him sucking at her flesh or maybe sucking on his. Of course, he'll have to clean it off me and return the favor. I can already picture trapping him between my legs as he licks me up.
"Fuck." Ida's voice speaks. "Time to go." She says as she sees a group just a few yards away from the Burger King they're in come into view. The others question her. "We're about to have company of the unfriendly variety so pack your shit. We have to go, out the back. Shit, move! Run!" Ida says throwing her bag over her shoulder. "Shit, I said run!" She grabs Simone and pulls her along.
"Rasmus! Rasmus!" Simone yells for blocks until finally Ida has had enough and slaps her across the face.
"Listen to me and listen very closely. You're hear screaming dragging who even knows to find us. We barely got out of there! Let me get one thing clear right now, Simone. I'm not dying for you. So shut the fuck up. We need to get to cover before it starts raining. Got it?"
"Y-yes." Simone stutters out. It's as they are walking that they pass a fence littered with papers that have been stuck to it. Each paper she sees is a missing person flyer.
HAVE YOU SEEN ANNETTE?
SAVNET/MISSING
MISSING
WE'RE SEARCHING FOR JOSEPHINE. SHE'S DEEPLY MISSED.
It's as Simone continues to look through the flyers that she catches sight of a young blonde haired boy behind the fence as thunder rumbles overheard. "Hey. You shouldn't be here. It's dangerous. It'll start raining soon." Simone doesn't notice as Ida pulls a flyer down. "There's got to be someone who's looking after you." Thunder rolls and lightning strikes across the sky. "Ida, this way." Simone says as she squeezes through an opening in the fence. She never notices Ida fold the flyer and put it in her pocket.
DANMARK ER UNDER KARANTÆNE
SØG SYDOVER DER KOMMER INGEN HJÆLP/
DENMARK IS IN QUARANTINE
GO SOUTH NO HELP COMING
"Where are your mom and dad?" Simone asks the boy as the three hide out from the rain. "Are you all alone?" Ida rolls her eyes before closing them and leaning her head back against the wall. "What is that?"
"Nothing." comes the boy's raspy voice.
"What is it? May I see?" Simone takes the box from his hands as Ida glances down from where she is leant against the wall and looks at it.
"It's Morphine. You shouldn't be eating that kid."
"Is it morphine?" Simone asks the boy and Ida wants to slap the girl for not listening but takes a deep breath instead.
"It makes my stomach stop hurting."
"You shouldn't be taking pills." Simone tells him. Like the kid has a fucking choice out here Ida can't help thinking as her hand slides to her bag and she hands a nutrient bar to him.
"You need actual food, kid. That stuff will kill you." He takes it but falls forward. "Woah! Touching, I don't do touching kid! Simone get him off me, now." Simone pulls him back only for him to fall onto her lap. "Shit did he pass out?"
"Hey! Hey, wake up!"
"Don't touch him! I said don't touch him!" A man's voice comes from behind them. He rushes forward and takes the boys, pulling him into his arms fear prevalent in his eyes.
"Why did you help him?" The man asked after calming down once he realized what had happened.
"He needed food." Simone tells him and Ida glances at her. Seriously? Like you gave it to him?
"That's not normal. Not around here."
"We're not from here."
"You should leave. There are only animals here."
"What do you mean? There are people." Simone says and Ida groans. This bitch is gonna get us all killed because of her naivety. How the hell was Belle friends with her? It's like she has rose colored glasses gorilla glued to her fucking eyeballs.
"No, it just looks like that."
"So why are you here?"
"He's too weak to travel. I-I can't protect him. I wanted to cross the bridge with him. They say there's a doctor." Fuck no! Why did you have to say that!
"A doctor?"
"She's supposed to be in a place called Little Bjärred."
"He might make it there if he gets enough to eat." Simone says before digging into her bag and passing a few pouches over to him.
"You two are the first people I. . . I don't know. Thank you"
"No need to thank me. We have to go find me brother" She tells the man. He gets up handing food to the boy before leading him towards the exit. I da grabs the man from behind.
"Wha?/ Ida!"
"Are you crazy, man? Handing your son food before walking out into the open where those others are starving willing to kill for it?"
"Ah, I wasn't thinking."
"Yea, I noticed."
"Ida, there was no need for that."
"Simone, do yourself a favor. Shut the fuck up." Ida tells her just as a commotion breaks outside. The 4 look outside to find people fighting over a bag of stale chips. "We need to get the fuck out of here, now. Move quickly, don't look back." Ida says she never turns back to see that Simone had paused and taken in what was happening before following after her, catching the attention of someone they didn't want following them.
Beatrice & Rasmus
Townhouse
"I hope Simone got inside." Rasmus says as he follows behind Beatrice as she walks down the hall. Rain could be heard pitter-pattering against the windows.
"I'm sure she did." Beatrice says as she looks around. Well looks like I came from a rich family this time. I wonder if there's still anything good to take around here. She looks at the open window that is banging from the wind.
"You lived here?" Rasmus asks her only for silence to fill the room before the sound of a pigeon wings flapping overheard startle him. He turns back to see Beatrice standing in front of a doorway. "Why haven't you been back all these years?"
"It's a long story." She says her back to him as she looks at the rotted corpses lying on the bed, entangled. Posters on One Direction littering the walls. "I haven't told anyone. My parents were divorcing and my dad had just told me." Beatrice turns away from the room having gathered all the intel she already needs for her story. "I didn't want to talk to them. I just left and went to the cinema to see a movie." She turns away from him shutting the banging window and locking it in place. What to say now? Think, he's about 17/18 so 6 years ago he would've been 11 or 12. Which means he definitely wouldn't have had a phone, not at that age. Perfect. "And when I came back out, everything was gone. He'd been calling and leaving messages. In the first one he said my mom was sick, but that she'd be fine. And in the next one started, feeling sick too. He didn't know what to do. He felt . . . strange. He said look after yourself and never come home again." She continued her back and forth, walking back to look into the bedroom to glance around for anything that caught her interest. "And in the final message, there was nothing. Only silence."
Rasmus walked up behind her and looked into the room. "Seems like they really liked each other."
"They did" Beatrice says teary-eyed as she hugs the door way as thunder clashed outside. Can corpses spread the infection? Why couldn't this bitch have taken off the gold before dying? Beatrice thinks as she stares at the beautiful gold bracelet around the dead woman's wrist.
"It looks like the rain's stopped. Come on let's go up to the roof." Beatrice says one the rain has stopped. "It's amazing to be up this high. You can see everything from up here." She says awed.
"It's crazy there's nobody." Rasmus says.
"Yea, you're right. It would be better if you weren't here." She chuckles. "Relax, it's irony."
"I don't get it."
"It means to say the opposite of what you mean."
"Why?"
"Because."
"Because what?" Beatrice rolls her eyes at his response.
"Come on, let's find your sister." Seriously, I laid down what had to be the easiest prompt to flirt and nothing?
Bella-Donna, Martin & Patrick
The Bunker
"You think the others found shelter?"
"Yea, I hope so." Martin says as he looks out the window of the RV. Sometimes he just couldn't believe the amazing feats that could be accomplished with magic. Bella's abilities blew him away constantly. Just moments before the had been inside the truck when she grabbed our hands and twisted. Making them feel as though they had been stretched thin and sucked through a straw.
"So why can't we do that when we need to get somewhere and it's raining?" Patrick asks her.
"Despite the travel being basically instantaneous we're still traveling through space and that space is filled with rain that will kill us. Also I can't travel with more than two people at a time and it's actually pretty strenuous the further you go and the uncomfortableness you felt gets worse." Not to mention, I've never been able to go all that far without being disoriented and vomiting, repeatedly. She shivers.
"Why haven't you thrown that thing away?" Martin asks Patrick, watching as he plays with the metallic cube they had taken from the Strangers.
"What if it's a GPS. Maybe they're tracking us."
"If that was the case, don't you think they would have been here by now."
"Not if the rain went down where they are first." Bella says as Patrick continues trying to open in before finally throwing it down.
"Fucking piece of shit." Beeping happens and light filters out from the metal cube.
"What the hell did you do?" Martin asks him as he tightens his arm around Bella.
"uh, I just threw it."
"Is that a map?" Bella's voice questions as she looks at the hologram the cube produces.
"It looks like a wall." Martin says his hand skimming over the red blocks over the blue lines of the map.
"A wall?"
"Fuck, I think we're in a quarantine zone."
Burger King
"Where's Rasmus?" Simone asks as she walks in.
"Hey Simone, Ida. We were just waiting for you two." Jean says as he relaxes in his chair.
"Like the new glasses." Ida nods to him. And just before he can try to startle them Ida grabs Rasmus by the throat before releasing him once she realizing who he is. "Don't fucking do that. There's scavengers. We need to go."
"We need to leave. Now." Simone says trying to take charge.
"What happened?" Lea asks.
"Now!" Simone yells. "Hurry up! Pack your bags." she says but they had already begun doing so the moment Ida had warned them. Simone turns to Rasmus as the others grab their bags not realizing how close Ida is. "I fucking hate you."
"Give me your food." A long haired ragged looking man demands while holding a knife out.
"We don't have any to spare." Jean tells him, implying that they do in fact have food.
"Now!"
"Give him the bag." Ida says noticing how close Rasmus is to the man, literally an arms length. He's in full reach of him.
"Martin always sa-"
"Fuck him!" Beatrice tell Jean. "Give it to him before there are more."
"There's more in the next bunker." Simone says and Ida can't help but want to close her eyes only to open them to a day where Simone Andersen's stupidity did not exist. Has it really only been a single day since I met this bitch? And not even a full 24 hours either
"Simone." Beatrice groans
"What? What bunker? Where is it"
"Nowhere. Give him something from the bag!" Simone turns away and in a blink of an eye. both the man and Ida make the jump but its too late. He has Rasmus in his grasp, knife pointed in his face.
"Tell me where! Tell me where there's more food! Tell me!"
"Let him go." Ida speaks calmly, keeping a single hand raised in view as the other slowly shifts towards her back holster but he puts the knife to Rasmus' throat and she stops.
"You want me to cut him? Where is the food?"
"Let him go." Simone tries to demand in a pleading tone.
"Where's the food?"
"Let him go! Hey! Let him go!" Martin, Patrick and Bella-Donna come from behind the man. Bella-Donna can feel it. Her magic moving, crackling like lightning within her. The man turns his body placing his back towards the booth but keep them all in sight but most especially Martin as he hold the assault rifle at the ready. "Relax. Just relax." Martin tells the man. The man's hold relaxes somewhat. "Rasmus, come here. Get over here. I'm going to count to three. One . . . " Bella-Donna can feel her magic snapping into place as she keeps her eyes locked onto Rasmus' frightened form. "Two . . ." She sees it then, the slight twist in his body.
"Three" The man says but she's already moving. Bella-Donna pushes herself forward magic throbbing in her legs as it quickens her pace before she collides with the haggard man and Rasmus. The fall to the floor. The man crawling back, away from them with a blood-stained hand.
"Donna?" Rasmus gasps out as he looks at the beautiful red-haired angel lying on him. He can feel something warm on his side. She looks at him before pushing herself off, falling to his side. "ₙₒ. ᴺᵒ. No!" Martin rifle shoots, a bullet splatter brain matter before he kneels down next to her pressing his hand down on the wound. Simone tries to grab Rasmus. "Get off of me!" He pushes her hands away, focused on Donna. He moves the red strands of hair out of her face just looking at her.
"Patrick! Bandages. Hurry!" Martin says and he passes him the last bit on conjured bandage they have. The rest in the trailer down the block.
"Match." She whispers. Martin leans down to hear her better not realizing that Rasmus is doing the same. "You're both my matches." Her eyes close as she passes out, Martin's eyes wide finally understanding what it was that was keeping him from just shooting Rasmus as he likely would have done anyone else who spied on them being intimate.
"A bunker. There's a bunker in Amager." Simone says from where she stands, watching.