Apocalypsis: Book 4 (Haven) (22 page)

She didn’t struggle.  She just keened, sounding very much like a wounded animal.

“Shhhh, don’t cry.  I said a prayer.  He’s gone to the spirit world or heaven.  He’s watching over you.  He wants you to be safe.  Shhhh.”  I tried to pat her on the back a little, but I didn’t want to let her go.

“I didn’t know … I didn’t know …”  Her words were muffled in her hands, but the meaning was clear.  Like so many girls before her, she hadn’t been able to read the mind or heart of her boyfriend. 
Join the club
.

“Listen, we have to get to the ranches with the other kids.  Do you know how to get there?”

She said nothing.  Her crying stopped in an instant and the animal cries disappeared.  I felt her tensing up against my touch.

I let go and jumped back at the same time, falling into a fight-ready stance.

She dropped her arms immediately and put both of them behind her back.

I frowned at her odd movements, wondering what the hell she was doing.

“Watch out, Bryn!” shouted Bodo.  “She hass a knife back dare!”

Her hand flicked out so fast I barely saw it move.  It was only instinct that had me leaning to the side in a jerking motion.

A burning pain sliced through my upper arm followed shortly after by the sensation of blood leaving my body.

I dropped down low and ducked the second knife that left her other hand just after the first.

Reaching up without even looking, I found the hilt of the knife that was sticking out of my upper arm.  She had probably planned to get me in the heart, but lucky for me had only caught the outside edge of my muscle.  That arm was useless now, but my left arm wasn’t.  I slowly stood straighter, moving in closer to her, praying she didn’t have a third or fourth knife in her back pocket.

“You fucking stabbed me, you freak,” I growled.  My fingers probed the area around my wound, trying to figure out how deep the blade had gone in and whether I should risk taking it out.  I knew that leaving them in was better sometimes, but I couldn’t use the precious seconds I needed to look at it.  Taking my eyes off the lunatic in front of me would be the last mistake I ever made.

“I missed.  That’s just a flesh wound.”  She backed up into the hut.  “I was aiming somewhere else.”

“Listen, you crazy nutbag, I’m trying to be nice here.  I’m trying to help you through your friggin’ grief and help you find a place to live.  But if you keep trying to kill me, I’m going to have a really hard time convincing myself to do that!”  Every time I took a step or moved it felt like the blade was cutting me more.  I decided to take a chance on bleeding too much and pulled the blade out.

I screamed with the pain that sliced through me.  Warm blood gushed down my arm.  I breathed a small sigh of relief that it didn’t spurt out with every heartbeat, though.  At least she hadn’t tagged an artery.

“You’re bleeding!” shouted Bodo.  “You needt to stop the bleeding!   Come ofer her and let me help you!”

I side-stepped to get around Coli and into the other hut.  She backed up, putting the pantry between us.

I walked backwards, reaching Bodo’s mattress in a few steps.  “Can you roll over in front of me?  I can cut your ropes off with her knife.”  I was lucky she’d decided to use knives instead of bullets.

Bodo rolled over, doing a backwards somersault off the mattress to land in front of me.  I looked down for just a split second to find his wrists, using the knife to cut him free.  It was so sharp it went through the fibers like they were made of butter.

“Hey!  Leave him alone!  He’s
my
boyfriend, not yours!”  She took two steps toward us.

I frowned at her.  “Shut up, Coli.  Your bullshit isn’t funny anymore.”

She pointed a finger at me like a scolding grandmother, wagging it up and down for emphasis.  “You’re going to be sorry, Bryn.  Really sorry!”

“I already am, Coli!” I yelled, standing again.  I heard the sounds of material ripping and then felt Bodo administering first aid to my arm.  But all my attention was on my would-be murderer.

“Coli, you can come with us out of here, but you have to hand over all your weapons and promise you’ll go peacefully.  Otherwise, we’ll have to leave you here.”  Part of me hoped she’d take me up on the abandonment program.

“Good!  Just leave me.  I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”

“I think you do,” I said, not convinced that was true.  But I had to think that even mentally ill people didn’t want to be alone.  Isolation could not possibly be good for Coli, even though it was decidedly much better for me.

“You killed Kowi,” she said.  “You were jealous of us.  You were jealous of me!”

I rolled my eyes.  “Jesus, Coli, give it a rest, would you?”

“Da only person who is jealous is you, Coli.  Dat’s you.  You are da problem, not Bryn.  You were alwayss da problem here.”  Bodo shook his head, tying a knot over the top of my wound.

I grimaced with the pain, but knew it was the best thing for me right now.  I was fervently hoping that I’d be able to get back to Haven before infection set in.  I had to believe Coli’s knife had been used on that canner first, and I knew he was diseased.  He had to be.  To think that I’d survive the apocalypse to die of some weird canner disease was almost laughable it was so awful.

My morbid thoughts flew out of my head when Coli suddenly looked like she was going to come for us.  But then I calmed down when she walked out of the hut instead.

My pulse picked up briefly when I saw her marching over to retrieve the knife that had flown by, but she never even looked back after picking it up.  She just shoved it into a holster at the back of her pants and trudged through the trees, making a huge amount of noise that included not only leaves crunching but some crazy shrieks and sobs too.  It was so not like her to sound like a buffalo.

“Dat girl is very sick,” said Bodo as we watched her disappear into the darkness.

“Yes.  And she’s very dangerous.  We need to get the hell out of here.”

“Where are we going?  To da Miccosukee ranch or back to Haven?”

“To the pool and the loom hut first.  Then to the Miccosukee ranch.  I need to see if there are any looms left that we can take.”

“What about Rob?  And da rest of da kids?”

“I hope they made it to the ranch.  But we’re running out of daylight, and I don’t want to be anywhere near that looney bird when it’s dark.”

“Me neider.  You want to go clean your arm at da shower?  Maybe dare is some soap dare.”

I nodded.  “Good idea.  Let’s do that first.”

We left the huts and followed the trail to the showers, both of us on high alert, expecting Coli to jump out from behind every tree.

Chapter Six

BODO AND I WALKED TO the showers in silence.  My brainpower was split between worrying about being stalked and attacked by Coli and what my boyfriend was thinking - if he even was my boyfriend anymore.

When we got to the shower, Bodo untied my bandage.  I walked to the water hoses without taking my clothes off.

“Aren’t you going to go naked?” Bodo asked.  He stood at the entrance watching me.

“No.  I’m too tired and sore.”

“I can help you.”

I looked over at him.  “I can’t believe you’re making a move on me in the middle of all this.”  I shook my head in disbelief.  I didn’t know whether to be mad or happy.

“I’m not!” he said, sounding serious.  “It is just a bad idea to be wet all night when you are going to be weak from an injury.  But you go ahead and do it.  It’s not a problem for me.”  He turned around, facing out and no longer looking at me.

Tears pricked my eyes.  I so didn’t need rejection in my life right now.

I squeezed the clips that kept the water inside the plastic bladders that were extended above my head.  Gritting my teeth at the pain of water flowing over my wound, I bent over and took the soap bottle, pouring some of its contents over my arm.  I scrubbed until I nearly wept with the pain.  Once the soap was all rinsed away, I let the clips go and walked back over to Bodo.  Watery blood dripped down my arm and off my hand.

Bodo’s back was rigid.  He was staring out into the evening-lit field that reached the edge of the shower area.

“Can you put the bandage back on for me?”

He turned around and grabbed a piece of his t-shirt at the bottom, ripping another strip off.  “Let me clean it first.”  He walked over to the hose and soap, scrubbing the material and rinsing it well.  When he was done, he came back and wrapped it around my arm, putting the knot once again over the wound.  The mosquitos were out in full force, buzzing around the bandage and my face.

“Let’s move.  I have to get away from these bugs.”

“Do you know where da looms are?” he asked, following behind me.

“Yes.”  I was mad at him, so I said nothing else.  We were in a life and death situation, and he was doing the bare minimum to help me out.

So he was a friend now, and not a boyfriend.  He was making it very clear.  I tried to ignore the painful squeezing in my chest, but it was impossible.  I’d always considered Bodo a caring, loving person.  Peter had convinced me that I was a special person to Bodo, someone he didn’t want to live without.  But every signal he was sending said otherwise.  I didn’t like being this confused or in the dark about my own love life.  Things should be simpler than this.  If you love someone, just love them.  If you don’t, then don’t.  But don’t say one thing and do another.  Why did guys have to be such jerks?

“Do you want to talk?” asked Bodo, as we moved along the trail to the pool area and loom hut.

“Yes and no,” I admitted, speaking softly.  Coli was still out there somewhere, but she’d been so out of it and loud earlier, I allowed myself a measure of confidence that I’d hear her before I saw her next time.

“We haff a problem.”

“Yes.  Obviously.”

“Part of it iss my fault.”

“Ya think?”  If this was going to be how I was the bad guy and had caused all this bullcrap, I was going to blow my stack.  I had so little patience right now.

“Yes.  I wass not very forgivingk when you told me about Paci.”

“No, you weren’t.  Nor were you very understanding.  I think you’ve been a real jerk about the whole thing if you want to know.”  It was easier to say these things to him walking in front, not being able to see his face.  I felt more free to speak my mind.

“But Paci is da wrong guy.  If it wass Rob or Fohi, den I would say okay.  But not Paci.”

“Why not Paci?  What’s the big deal about him?”

Bodo didn’t answer for a while.  When he finally did, he sounded as confused as I felt.  “I don’t know.  Because he luffs you, I think.  He iss different.”

My face started burning.  “He doesn’t love me.  He might like me, but there’s no way he can love me. He doesn’t even know me.”

“A person does not needt to know all of your secrets to luff you Bryn.  You can trust me on dis.”

I stopped walking and turned partway.  “It’s all about the secrets with you, isn’t it, Bodo?”

His body immediately took on a defensive posture.  He was practically screaming guilt at me.  “No.  Dare are no secrets.  I know your secret now.”

“But
you
have secrets,” I said, getting mad again.  “You’re keeping secrets from me, I know you are.”

“Why do you say dat?”  He searched my face.

“I know you.  I know when you’re acting guilty.  This is just like when you kept Nina from me, when you acted all mad at me for stupid reasons.  Something big is going on with you, and you’re not telling me.”

“Dat’s crazy.  I’m just Bodo!  Mr. Bryn!”  He reached out to put his hand on my shoulder, but I shied away.  He was trying to smile and laugh me off, but it was so hollow it made goosebumps come up on my arms.

“You’re not Mr. Bryn.  Not anymore.”  My ears burned.  I couldn’t believe I’d actually said it out loud.  I’d been thinking it, and my heart had been feeling it, but now it was out there - a big hulking gorilla standing on the path between us.

His face fell.  “You are breaking up with me?  Like Coli said about Kowi?”

Tears wanted to come, but I wouldn’t let them.  “I can’t be with someone I can’t trust.  You either need to come clean and tell me what’s going on with you, or that’s it.”

He threw his arms up in frustration.  “Dat’s it, what?  We are enemies?”

“No, don’t be stupid.  Of course we’re not enemies.  I could never be your enemy.”  This whole thing was so damn confusing I didn’t even know what I was talking about now.  I was running on instinct alone.  “I care about you very much.  You’re a part of my family.  But you keep a piece of yourself away from me.  Away from everyone.  And until you give me all of you, you’ll just be … like a brother.”

Bodo scoffed at that.  “Ha.  Yeah, okay.  A brudder.  A brudder who you take a shower with and get to the naked with.  I don’t think so.”

I’d bruised his ego, that much was clear.  And I understood it was a fragile thing and that we had work to do before it was pitch black outside, so I decided to call a truce.

I put my hand on his arm.  “You’re right.  Let’s just get all this stuff done and we’ll figure this out later, when we’re back at Haven, okay?”

He nodded once, not saying anything.

Five really awkward minutes later we were walking down the dock that led to the loom hut.  The water in the pool was still but for a small current moving through the middle.  No fires were lit in the hut nor were any lamps glowing.  We walked as silently as we could, and I for one was praying that Coli wasn’t lying in wait.

***

The looms were all still there.  I got really excited for about two seconds until I noticed a figure lying underneath the contraption farthest from the doorway.

My heart sank.  Another dead friend, either Miccosukee or Creek from the looks of her clothing.

“Rraaaawwrrr!”

An unholy screech filled the air, causing me to scream in fright.  I leaped and turned sideways, ready to punch, eye gouge or whatever else I needed to do to protect myself.