“Why don’t you tell me where you two are from?” Coralee drawled, looking us over. Cole was leaned against the car, sullenly keeping watch.
“Is there a reason you want to know?” I retorted, eyeing her with suspicion.
She smirked, “I’m assessing your character.”
“What for?”
“We have shelter, you look like you could use it,” she answered, raising an eyebrow at us. It was true, we were thin and tatty looking. Our clothes were mixed and matched bits and pieces that we’d picked up along the way, now scuffed at the edges and fraying, and dusted with the grime of days of wear. Our hair was dirty and our skin flecked with the remnants of travel. I could see where she’d derived her opinion from.
I tried to relax, despite her unrelenting stare, “We’re from Odessa, Texas.”
“And what are you doing out here?” she questioned, “You’re a way from home.”
“We’re walking,” I replied, simply. I could see her trying to figure us out, judging my answers.
She cocked her head to one side, “Where to?”
“Arizona,” I answered, deciding to divulge only half of the truth. Coralee sent a questioning glance over at Cole, who gave her a hefty shrug.
“Okay. You’re in luck. Want a ride?” she asked, gesturing to the car. I hesitated, unsure of whether to accept. Hallie nudged me and nodded vigorously.
“Please Auntie Maz,” she begged, “I’m so tired and my feet are killing me.”
I pursed my lips, torn between the two options. Hallie’s chocolate eyes pleaded with me silently, wearing down my resolve.
“Why don’t you stick around and think about it?” Coralee offered. “We’ve got errands to run, anyway.”

The pair set off down the street, casually weaving around the littered piles of bones. Something that you at first try to ignore, but that eventually blends into the scenery. You forget the abnormality of passing by the debris of the dead when you do it regularly enough. Hallie tugged on my arm impatiently.
“Come on Auntie Marina, we won’t have to walk. Please can we go with them?” she pleaded, her face full of hope.
“Hal, we don’t know them,” I retorted, though Coralee’s offer was tempting, I had to admit. My feet were hurting more than I would ever admit to, and I was exhausted to my very bones.
“We won’t know anyone we meet, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t trust them,” Hallie reasoned.
I sighed, “I’m trying to be sensible about it, Hallie. What if we get in that car and they kill us?”
“My feet can’t hurt when I’m dead,” she grumbled. “They’d be doing us a favour.”
“That was a bit morbid,” I remarked, unable to hide my smirk. “Eleven year olds aren’t supposed to be thinking about the comfort of death.”
“Can we just go with them? Please?” Hallie asked, her big brown eyes staring me down. I closed my eyes, as though that might make it easier to make the decision. Everything was so uncertain in this world. There was no guidance, nothing to compare with, just the constant pressure to make decisions in situations I didn’t understand.
“Fine, we’ll take a gamble,” I relented, uncertainly.
“Thank god!” Hallie exclaimed, throwing her head back in relief. “I thought we were going to be walking forever.”
“We have been walking for a long time,” I agreed, “California didn’t seem so far when we had a car.”
It’s not that I’d not tried to find a car, but it had proved more difficult than my abilities could cope with. I didn’t know how to start them without keys and most had been abandoned with no gas anyway. After a couple of months, we’d pretty much given up checking vehicles unless they looked promising, and even then there was always the anti-climax of them not running for whatever reason. Being on foot may have been tiring, but it had one big advantage at least. Less noise meant less detection which worked heavily in our favour, and it was easy to duck into buildings for cover.

We sat against the side of the building closest to the car, waiting for Cole and Coralee’s return. Hallie was aimlessly chattering, meandering between subjects in a way that allowed me to lean my head back, close my eyes and not pay much attention. My thoughts were exploring Coralee and Cole instead, wondering about their odd pairing. They had an unusual dynamic and I couldn’t work out if they were related, or perhaps just two unlikely strangers thrown together by an event that had put them at each other’s side. I only snapped back to reality when I noticed the ominous silence. Hallie’s incessant rambling had come to a halt.
“What happened?” I asked, looking over at her. She shushed me urgently, gesturing for me to listen. There it was, difficult to make out but distinct enough to send a cold rush of panic spilling out from my heart.
Click. Click. Click.
“It’s one of them,” Hallie mouthed at me, her eyes wide with fear, as we listened to the terror inducing cracking. I put my finger to my lips and kept listening. My heart thudded as I concentrated, it sounded like more than one.
“We need to go,” I whispered, grabbing her arm and pulling her up with me.
“Where are they? I can’t tell,” Hallie whispered back, looking around to try and catch a glimpse of them. It was difficult to know which direction to go in when we couldn’t see where they were, the last thing I wanted to do with run into them headfirst.
“There,” Hallie gasped out, as four looming figures turned onto the street. They moved slowly, almost purposefully. They must have heard us, and now they were looking for us. We didn’t have time to hide, and I couldn’t take on four of them.
“There’s four,” I uttered, my voice wobbling as I tightened my grip on Hallie’s arm.
“I can count,” she sassed, giving me a shove. “We have to run. Go!”
She called out the last word right as their eyes fell upon us.

Jimmy’s figure lingered in the doorway as though he wanted to say something. It felt like there was so much unsaid between us, and yet I had no idea what I actually wanted to say. There was one thing though, and his hesitation provided me with the opportunity to tell him.
“Jimmy?”
He turned to face me, seemingly happy to put off his errand for a little longer.
“What’s up?” he asked, his sapphire eyes burning into mine as a small smile graced his lips.
“I wanted to say sorry again, and thank you,” I uttered, nervously.
He shook his head, “There’s really no need, Marina.”
“No, there is. I’m seriously kicking myself for what I said. You didn’t deserve any of that, any of my hatred,” I muttered, looking down at my feet and biting my lip.
“You don’t deserve it either,” he replied, softly. I met his gaze. How his icy blue eyes could convey such warmth was a mystery to me.
My voice came out almost silently as I asked, “What?”
“You don’t deserve any of the feelings you have for yourself,” he repeated, quietly. I realised I was holding my breath. My hands were trembling with a nervousness of him that I didn’t know I had in me.
“You don’t know,” I argued, gently.
His mouth twisted into a sad smile, “I do know, Marina. I can see it.”
He took a step forwards, the decreased distance between us making my heart race and my skin tingle. I suddenly recognised that the dizzying feeling that was flooding throughout my body was butterflies. A nervous excitement at his words, and a yearning for him to… come closer? Did I want that? I bit my lip, letting the feeling overwhelm my senses. Jimmy took another step forwards, reaching out a hand towards me, but was stopped short.

“REV!” Johnny's screech came from the bottom of the stairs. “Fucking get your ass down here, I’ve been waiting ages.”
Jimmy dropped his hand, instantly severing the almost-connection between us. Disappointment caught me off guard, shredding all the excitement and longing to pieces in an instant. Jimmy’s face read somewhere between apologetic and frustration.
“I have to go,” he stated, wincing at the thought.
I smiled weakly at him, “Stay safe.”
He returned the smile and departed. I watched his figure retreat, loneliness passing him by on the stairs as it advanced towards me, taking his place. I was surprised to find myself wanting him to come back, and the feeling troubled me. There was something deep inside my mind forming, a budding interest. I tried to clamp down on it and starve it before it could grow. The last thing I needed right now was more confusing feelings amidst the already tangled mess in my head. I was pretty sure that Jimmy wouldn’t be returning those feelings anyway, especially knowing what he knew about me, so I tried to silence them. It was difficult though, Jimmy had ignited a tiny but resilient flame in me, and it was threatening to spread like a wild fire.

I wandered downstairs to find Hallie, or rather, a distraction. Much to my surprise, she was pouring over a book at the kitchen table.
“You’re reading a book?” I asked, unable to mask my surprise.
“What do you think I am? A Neanderthal?” she scoffed at me.
“You know that word?”
“Oh my god. Can you stop insulting my intelligence?” she groaned, but quickly let out a playful giggle.
I leaned over her shoulder, “What are you reading?”
“The Catcher In The Rye,” she replied, not looking up from the pages.
“What? That’s a bit… adult for you, isn’t it?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m eleven, Marina, nearly twelve,” she sassed, waving me away.
“Whoa, what’s with the attitude? You’re eleven, not fifteen. Give me a break,” I snorted as she grinned mischievously at me. “Where’d you even find that?”
“There’s a huge library upstairs,” she responded, still engrossed in the book. “Why don’t you go take a look so you can stop bugging me?”
“Wow,” I scoffed, “just wow. Alright Miss Pre-teen,” I quipped, pretending not to notice her glare as I grabbed myself a coffee. “So where is everyone?”
She huffed out an exasperated sigh, finally giving up on reading so she could direct her attention at me instead. I gave her my best winning smile as she rolled her eyes.
“Jimmy and Johnny are out, Matt and Brian are doing maintenance on the perimeter wall and Zach is sleeping,” she counted them off on her fingers as she rolled through their whereabouts.
“Zach’s sleeping? Hasn’t he just slept all night?” I laughed, in disbelief.
Hallie shrugged and returned back to her book.
“You wanna do something?” I asked, desperate to keep my growing interest in Jimmy off my mind.
She looked up from the book at me with a groan, “Really?”
“Come on,” I cajoled, “don’t you want to hang out with your Auntie Marina?”
“No,” she replied, flatly.
“What, too cool for me now?” I teased.
“Can you stop being so happy? I preferred you miserable,” Hallie grumbled.
I cocked my head to one side, “Happy?”
She ignored me, diving back into the book once again. Huh, guess I was second best to Holden Caulfield now. I twiddled my thumbs as I sat with my coffee, thinking about Hallie’s words. Was I happy? Since my conversation with Jimmy this morning, I certainly felt lighter. Jimmy. My mind, now free of distraction, of course went floating straight back to him. There was a moment between us earlier, I was sure of it. Now I was just left with the internal conflict of whether I actually wanted there to be a moment or not. There was a realisation creeping over me, no matter how I tried to fight it. I couldn’t hide from it, and I couldn’t drown it out. Jimmy was sticking in my mind and I… I think I like it.

Notes

N'awww, give in to it, Marina!

Forget Adam, can I get a "Fuckin' Johnny!"?!