Crashing Down - A Post-Apocalyptic Novel (The Ravaged Land Series Book 3) (7 page)

Dean reached out his hand to me while he shot Dominick a dirty look. I took it and he helped me back up to my feet. He wrapped his arm around me as if he was trying to warm me. If I was cold, I hadn’t even realized it. There was dirt on my pants and stuck to my hands. I brushed it off while glaring at Dominick. He kept his smug, satisfied expression glued to his face.

I knew Dean was holding himself back. If this had been a different place he probably would have floored Dominick for treating me that way. Penn would too for that matter. But since nothing major happened other than he had been rough with me, they were letting it slide in favor of bullets being exchanged and one of us getting hurt or killed. It wasn’t worth the risk. At least not yet.

“Let me show you around,” Dominick grunted.

W
e followed
Dominick as he led us through his camp pointing out various locations to us. I held on tightly to Dean’s hand as we weaved around the camp. People stared at us as if they were afraid of us. They’d hide behind buildings, peek out of windows, or walk away quickly when they saw us coming their way.

I wondered how much of their fear and hate was because Dominick had put it inside them. If the resistance was really adding people often, why did they seem so afraid of us? It was strange how they all lived together, but at the same time they seemed overly cautious and withdrawn.

The camp was a hive of workers going this way or that. A few wandered around as if they had nothing to do, but most everyone else had more focus.

There were people of all ages and pretty much everyone looked rather unhealthy. Dominick, Dezzie and Mack, however, didn’t seem to be suffering quite as bad, but times were hard for everyone. No one looked well. For all I knew they all had the same thoughts when they looked at us.

The biggest building, the one I had noticed when we first arrived, seemed to have been a church at one time. There were large windows coated with a fine layer of dust and dirt. The building had thick, wide double doors at the front. Dominick took us inside and showed us around.

“And this is where most everyone sleeps,” he said pointing out the dirty blankets and pillows scattered all over the floor. There didn’t seem to be anywhere near enough bedding for all the people that were here.

“Is this where we’ll sleep?” I asked even though I already knew what the answer would be. If it wasn’t for the dog-beasts I’d have rather slept outside, rather than be crowded in this building with complete strangers. And I was sure Dean, Penn and Sienna felt the same.

“Yes,” he said looking at me as if he wanted it clear that was the way it was. The sleeping arrangements weren’t up for debate.

I had zero trust in any of the people in this camp. For all I knew they could wake up in the middle of the night and stab me to death just because they wanted to. And surely they didn’t trust us either. I was just happy at the moment that Dominick hadn’t told them about Penn’s background. Hopefully, he didn’t have any plans to either.

Even though we all were on common ground with our dislike of HOME, that wouldn’t be enough to base trust on. We’d have to sleep in shifts to keep ourselves safe.

“This is also where we gather for meals and, well, pretty much everything really,” Dominick said as he led us back outside. “You’ll spend most of the time you aren’t working in there.”

I nodded hoping that we wouldn’t be here that long that I would have to worry about it. We’d stay long enough to get some food, recharge and then hopefully we would leave. There wasn’t anything here for us with the resistance… we didn’t belong here, and I just knew the others would agree. We would stay as long as necessary until we could safely get away.

“The bathrooms are over here,” he said pointing to the porta-potties that were only a few feet away from the main building. It was better than nothing, at least that’s what I told myself.

“What are all the other buildings used for?” Dean asked as he looked out over the buildings that could have been used as shared homes. There were also man-made shed-like huts that were scattered around the camp.

“Storage.”

“What kind of storage?” Penn asked quickly.

“The kind used to store things,” Dominick said not even bothering to put on his smirk. He squinted at Penn before he threw his fist into the air at his side as if he were lightly punching an imaginary person. “It’ll be dark soon. Why don’t you guys make yourselves at home,” he said gesturing towards the main building.

It was clear he didn’t want us roaming around the grounds. Maybe he was afraid we’d snoop around his storage sheds.

There was a big old country house that looked as though it had been a neighboring house to the church at one point. I had no idea what they used the home for, but it looked as though it would have made a far better home for his people than the church floor. For all I knew, some of the people in the camp were already staying in there because I wasn’t sure if one hundred people could fit inside the church building. At least not comfortably so.

We went inside and claimed the far corner of the room to hide ourselves in. Penn picked the spot because he could put his back to the wall and see everything. Or more importantly, everyone. There were a few people inside laying on the floor. I couldn’t tell if they were sleeping, sick or dying. Or maybe all of the above.

As time went on, more and more people started filtering in. When the room was full, a woman carrying a basket walked over to us and handed Penn two bottles of water, two cans of baked beans and a tin of processed meat. He passed me the water bottles, and I opened one to take a sip. I wanted to chug it all down, but I knew we had to share.

“Dominick told me to give this to you all… a welcoming gift,” she said smiling as if we should feel honored to get the can of slimy meat.

“Uhh… tell him thanks,” I said forcing a smile. She gave us a single plastic fork and a single plastic spoon.

She started to walk away and then stopped. “Don’t throw those away, we reuse them,” she said over her shoulder. She waved at the air like there was a fly by her ear, and then moved on to the next group of people.

“Ugh,” Sienna groaned looking at the plastic spoon. She spun it in a circle in front of her eyes examining it carefully. “That’s so gross,” she muttered under her breath.

Penn put a chunk of the meat into his mouth with the fork and looked as though he was having a hard time swallowing. Sienna stuck out her tongue and shook her head. The idea of using the used plastic utensils was gross, but I assumed they washed them.

Even though I didn’t really want to, I ate my portion of the cold meat product. Before all this happened my body would have rejected it, or so I thought. But now, since I was so hungry, I somehow managed to keep even the grossest things down.

After we finished, the girl with the basket walked around and collected the spoons and forks. She also politely told us where the trash bins were located for future reference.

When Dominick walked into the room, everyone stopped what they were doing to watch him. He looked around the room and gave a brief wave as if he were royalty. I was almost surprised when all of the women in the room didn’t swoon, although maybe some of them had.

“Today we recruited four new members to join our cause,” he said waving his hand, palm up, in our direction. Some of the people delicately clapped while others nodded. I couldn’t even force myself to smile at them. “Beyond that there is nothing new to report for the day. You saw the termination process of the three HOME members that were discovered snooping around. I’m happy to say it was a complete success. Let’s hope for another great day tomorrow.”

And with that he disappeared through a side door with Dezzie and Mack close behind him. They closed the door with a startling
bang
and everyone went back to quietly talking, resting, reading or whatever it was they did to pass the time.

“I need to pee,” Sienna said wiggling her legs back and forth eyeing each one of us carefully. She was waiting for a volunteer. I didn’t blame her for wanting an escort.

“I’ll take you,” Penn said standing and reaching out his hand to help her to her feet. She accepted with a smile and they walked towards the main doors together. They walked close together as if they were afraid something might jump out at them, like they were inside of a haunted house. Something could pop out at any time and they wanted to be ready for it when it did.

I couldn’t remember the last time Dean and I had been alone together. He looked at me, and I could still see the sadness in his eyes. I wondered if anyone else had been able to notice it when they looked at him. I wished I could take it away from him. I wished I could make everything OK again, but fact of the matter was things weren’t OK. Nothing would ever be the same again.

“Are you all right?” I asked entwining my arm around his.

“Yeah… I’m fine,” he said forcing a weak smile. Dean shrugged, “You know….”

And I did know. The longer he looked at me the more his smile seemed to improve. It had almost appeared to be his normal smile again but only for a second before he leaned it to kiss me.

I released a gentle sigh and pressed my lips to his. And just like that I let the current world vanish. How I would have given anything to have gone on a real date with Dean, maybe the movies or even just a drive in the country. But here we were secretly sharing a kiss in some beat up old church in the ruins of what was left of the world we had once known.

Dating no longer existed. Instead we were sitting on the cold, barely carpeted floor with random pillow and blankets that hadn’t been washed in who knows how long. Soiled with who knows what. This was our date. This was how it would be.

He pulled back as if he could tell something was on my mind. Dean tilted his head at me curiously, “What is it?”

“Just thinking about movies, and popcorn, and restaurants and beaches…,” I said letting my words fade.

“First,” he said tilting my chin up so our eyes met, “I would take you out to dinner and then we’d go wherever you wanted. A movie, a walk… making out in the back of my car,” he said with a gentle nudge. Dean seemed genuinely happy as he talked about what we’d do if things were different. But if things wouldn’t have ever happened the way they did, maybe he wouldn’t have ever even noticed me. He would have gone on with his life, with his friends, and our paths would have never crossed.

“It all sounds great as long as I’m with you,” I said looking down at my hands. I started thinking about my future with Dean. But maybe we wouldn’t even have a future. No one knew how long any of us had to live. I could be gone in an instant. There wasn’t anywhere, including Dominick’s camp, that was safe. We could be shot and killed, a dog bite, or HOME could launch some kind of super weapon and I’d be gone. It felt like the Earth had become a bomb and the world would end but we didn’t know how much of the fuse was left.

Dean slid his fingertips along my jaw and curled them around the back of my neck. He looked into my eyes before he pulled my lips to his. The kiss started soft and sweet, and I wondered if we were being secretive enough. I broke the kiss for a second to glance around, but everyone was busy with their own things, no one had even noticed.

Our lips found each other again only this time it was different. The kiss was hard and needy, filled with longing and passion. It was almost like I could feel the life filling his body. He pulled me closer, our bodies pressing into one another. I started to forget about everything, right up until I heard a cough. And then another cough.

I slowly eased myself away from Dean as if I was trying to make myself invisible. My eyes stayed closed for a minute not wanting to see who was behind me. I opened them just a hair to see if I could recognize the shoes and was relieved when I realized it was just Penn and Sienna. My body relaxed some, but I was still sufficiently embarrassed.

“Get a room,” Penn mumbled.

“Gross,” Sienna said pretending to gag.

“If only,” Dean muttered and shrugged his shoulders with a huge grin glued to his face. Penn and Sienna both turned to look at him with their mouths hanging open. They looked as though they couldn’t believe what he’d said. “What?”

Sienna just shook her head. I knew it didn’t really bother her, at least not a lot, but it wasn’t like it was something she wanted to be present for either. Dean put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me back against him. His body felt warmer, maybe he was finally coming back to himself.

“So how do you guys want to do this?” Penn said not bothering to look at any of us. He was too busy keeping his eyes on everyone else.

“Shifts,” Dean said, but we all already knew how we were going to handle things. There was no way we could all sleep at the same time here. No one inside this room other than the four of us could be trusted. Not even the nice lady that brought us our canned meat product. None of them.

It didn’t take long for the room to fill up. I wondered if there had been a curfew as a few more people filtered in through the double doors at the same time. Penn was laying down on the other side of me because once the lights went out he was going to take the first shift. He wanted to be as alert as he possible could.

Dean and I were busy exchanging secret looks and the occasional kiss. We had both noticed when the slightly older guy, maybe in his early twenties, started chatting casually with Sienna.

It seemed friendly enough. He was telling her a little about the camp and how long he’d been here. Then he told her about his job at the camp and how he thought Dominick was doing such a great job taking care of all of them. He even told her what his life had been like just after the storms hit. Of course Sienna didn’t share much of anything with him, but she was polite and seemed interested enough.

They had been talking for a solid twenty minutes before I noticed him inching closer and closer to her. Dean and I had both started paying more attention to what they were talking about and trying to watch Sienna for any signs that she was getting uncomfortable. Penn was shifting his body every so often, but he was probably still trying to sleep.

The room seemed to go quiet and my ears started to ring when the guy slid his arm around Sienna’s waist. She twisted to the side hoping to send him a message, but he didn’t get it. He actually stepped closer.

“You know, sweetie, you’re a very pretty girl. Prettiest girl in this whole camp,” he whispered, and I saw the look on Sienna’s face change from one of politeness into something worse. I was worried when I saw her panicked look. She was afraid.

She tried to wiggle herself free but when that didn’t work she tried to step away from him, no longer caring about being polite. Sienna pushed at him, “Let go of me!”