Chapter Nine: you got me doin' dirt
They watch the sunrise.
It's not meant to be romantic or any type of bonding activity whatsoever; it's just a thing that happens. Neither one of them wants to go back to the vehicle and sit there in awkward silence as Rebekah slept on, snoring her worries away into the darkness.
So they sat at that bench and watched as the darkness unveiled the light and it was beautiful. A sight like that almost made her remember that nature was still a gorgeous sight to see, even if it is marred by ugly walking blemishes.
"Did you ever think that it would end this way?" she asks him.
"Well, the zombies are a surprise," Nik snickers. "I was expecting more of a catastrophic tsunami that flooded the entire world. Something a little more dramatic."
"I wanted volcanoes." She grins. "I don't know, just this huge cataclysm. But there would be these spaceships that would take us to the moon or Mars or something. So we'd all be saved."
"Someone has watched one too many John Cusack films."
"It wasn't my fault." Caroline rolls her eyes. "My friend Elena rented bad movies on Saturday nights, and 2012 was one of them. I thought it was a comedy."
"Are you telling me that it wasn't?"
In this moment, it seems hilarious. She comes to the conclusion that she's tired. Extremely tired. They haven't slept at all during the night. She was afraid that if she closed her eyes then he would leave. Nik wasn't afraid, but rather so awake that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. She genuinely cared like no one else ever has before. She genuinely wanted to help him.
She said never again, and he respected that. He respects it. He does. But when she looks off into the distance, her eyes the shade of turquoise and teal, he can't hold himself back. The temptation to just take her right where she sits, touch every bit of her flesh with his fingertips and mouth.
He doesn't even think before he acts, which he never really does anyway. Impulse, impulse, impulse. He turns her towards him and steals away the longest kiss he can get from her. Her breath feels robbed from her lungs as their lips remain locked together, but she's not complaining. Not at all. She does the farthest thing from it actually.
Caroline moans quietly when Nik's lips travel along her jawline and his hands are underneath her shirt, grazing against the skin of her back. Goosebumps rise on her skin and her face and entire body grows warm with want. A need so desperate she'll do anything to fulfill it.
She pushes him off and switches positions so that she straddles him to the bench. Her hands move over the fabric of his henley as their lips connect again for a brief second before she's arching her back and he's kissing her right where her hearts beats like a racehorse. His fingers work furiously behind her back, permanently screwing up the already too small bra she's wearing. The clasp breaks apart and she lifts her arms to remove her shirt and the offending undergarment. The cool air hits her skin and makes her shiver, but the way his hands feel on her bare flesh warms her from her toes to her fingertips.
His eyes rolls all over her body, drinking in every detail he can get. Her hair falls in tumbles of curls over her shoulders, stopping just above the soft curve of her breasts. And the natural lines of her abdomen that give way to her clothed hips that just beg to be set free. She's beautiful, she's a siren, she's a woman. In the sunlight she is wild and on fire, a creature so exquisite she cannot possibly be tamed. Her eyes mirror the seven vices and her skin feels like fire, scorching his lips when he tastes her again.
"Oh."Caroline sighs when she feels his tongue roll over a nipple. Her breath hitches in her chest while his left hand kneads the flesh around her right breast. She shuts her eyes tightly when his teeth pull gently at the hardened bud. She threads her fingers through his hair and tugs hard at the short locks as a slew of curse words fall from her lips like a sailor.
"Nik," she whispers, her voice laden with lust and fear and worry. Not now. Not yet. "We can't."
"We can, love," he says right back because they can. They will. He knows she wants it just as bad as he does. She wants to writhe underneath his body or whatever position she's in. She wants to feel that wave of euphoria crash over her like she's never felt it before.
His fingers work at the button of her jeans, but she's shaking her head yet not saying a word. Maybe if she just gets it out of her system then she won't have this craving anymore. This unrelenting need to feel all of him consuming her. But what if it doesn't stop? What if then she just wants more and more and more?
Her thoughts are muddled when suddenly she feels his hand cup her underneath her pants. She raises her hips off his lap and locks his strong gaze, biting down hard on her lip when he slowly inserts a finger inside of her slick canal. Heat wells in her chest and she groans as he pumps inside her, in and out, in and out. His thumb strokes her clit and earns a complacent sigh from her as she starts to rock her hips against his hand. She grips Nik's shoulders tightly, digging her nails into the fabric of his shirt and right into his skin. The way he looks at her, his eyes big pools of blue, giving her the most conscientious gaze makes her whole body quake. The way his fingers move diligently inside of her, a motion she'd never before felt in such a way, makes her scream his name so loudly she's afraid some invisible person might hear. Some invisible person will see how easily she's falling apart on a park bench with this man giving her everything she's desiring with his hands and lips and tongue.
And then, all at once, she's screaming out in ecstasy as her climax overthrows her. She clutches his hair and he watches her face the portrait of euphoria and pleasure and vibrance and warmth. So secure, so instant, so fleeting.
"Nik," she mutters, leaning into his neck. He wraps his arms around her bare back, a thin sheet of sweat clinging to her skin. "If we ma-"
The sound is so shocking that they don't respond when they hear it. A loud crack in the air, just across the park. Just across from where they are.
"Rebekah," they say simultaneously.
Caroline scrambles to her feet and slips back into her shirt and buttons her jeans, disregarding the fact that she feels like a cheap slut. What the fuck did she just do?
Nik is already running towards the sound, his lungs pumping like crazy in his chest.
Please god. Please, please, please.
Just a little lapse in judgment, a little bit of temptation, the desire to ravage Caroline until she couldn't even say her own name; that's all it took for this to happen. This of all things:
His sister standing on top of the roof of the SUV, the shotgun in her hands, bringing it to eye level and firing out a bullet at a crowd of walking dead surrounding her. Her hair is all over her face, but he can see the determination etched across her face. She's not dying today. Nope.
Caroline catches up with him, flustered and out of breath, and her eyes widen at the sight of infected clustered around Rebekah. They try to climb up the front of the car, but she blasts the gun right through their skulls.
What do we do?
But before she can even ask Nik he's running again and has his .45 in his hands and Caroline feels completely and utterly useless. What does she have? Nothing. Why didn't she ever get better equipped? Seriously?
But there must be something she can do. The two of them can't possibly take down all those stragglers. One of them is bound to run out of ammo, especially Rebekah. And even though she doesn't particularly care for the girl and through all the death threats and death wishes, she doesn't really want to see her eaten alive.
Nik is perfect at close range. Long range is a task, he figures after that whole ordeal in the cafeteria. Although, miraculously he saved Caroline when she was a lost cause outside of the house. So in dire straits, it must be a 50/50 chance. But right now he doesn't have the ammo for risks or chances.
"Where the fuck were you?" Rebekah screeches when she sees him. "Going to fetch breakfast?"
"Doesn't matter," he snaps.
"The fuck it does!"
Caroline watches them from the hill, shoot and bicker, shoot and bicker. It's a formula, but that way they're not covering nearly as much ground as they could. Caroline's trying to figure out where the hell they even came from. Two dozen stragglers don't just come out of thin air. There has to be a gateway in or they were hiding or something. Jesus Christ. They could've snuck up on them while her and Nik...shit.
So basically, she decides, this is kind of her fault. Right? Because she was there and she was willing and she let him and didn't offer a word of complaint.
If anyone is going to get hurt today, then it's going to be her. It has to be her. She won't allow anyone else.
"HEY!" she shrieks and runs toward them, flailing her arms high above her head. She must be insane. She must be crazy. She must literally be asking to die today or something, because her sudden and stupid plan to be bait kind of works way too perfectly. They turn around and stop working at the SUV and Rebekah and Nik, and they see her. Instantaneously, they start running. And by running, it literally means running.
Shit, shit, shit.
She doesn't know where she's going, nothing seems like the right way. Somehow she's going to end up in a dead end and that'll be the end of it.
Run, run, fucking run like there's a sale at Forever 21!
Her feet pound against the pavement, grass, whatever is on the ground. She can hear them snarling and hissing behind her, smelling like dead fish and skin on fire. Tears prick at the corners of her eyes because no one is going to help her and she'll die right here in Ridgeview, Maryland; a peaceful town by the bay.
Nik is trying his best at taking them down and so is Rebekah, but it's really no use. They're so far away. A distance so large it seems like such a lost cause. He could throw a frag, but what would the point be if Caroline dies in the blast as well?
He doesn't know what to do.
Caroline dives into a tunnel that she's neared and rests against the concrete walls. She can't catch her breath, her head is starting to throb painfully, and her vision is starting to blur. She didn't even get to say goodbye to Nik.
She screams and starts to run backwards when the stragglers find her again. They run at her in droves, the bloodlust clouding any bit of humanity they had. She breaks down as she tries to jet away from them. She didn't get to say goodbye. She didn't get to say goodbye. She never gets to say goodbye. Why? Why, why, why?
Headlights break her field of vision. The world seems to stop spinning when the large SUV drives right up to her. The back door opens and the person in the passenger seat throws something out the window.
"Get in, Barbie!"
Caroline never gets to say goodbye, but she also can't say hello.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
A/N: I smell troubleeeeeeeeeee
If you didn't catch the poll results, then 'Mausoleum' won by 5 votes.
See you guys soon!