Chapter 21 #2
“Well, let’s see if anyone’s home,” I say.
If it’s an apartment, it might have some food and blankets at least, and being on the second floor will give us an extra layer of security, so up it is.
I help Melody hop up the stairs and at the top, we repeat the process from before: open the door, wait a tick for anything inside to hear us and come running—or to open fire on us, if it’s someone of the breathing variety.
Nothing.
Melody practically melts with relief and I know she’s gotta be nearing the end of her mind-over-matter capabilities.
We step inside and I quickly sweep the room.
It’s much brighter up here, the late afternoon light shining in through the windows and sliding glass door to the small balcony that juts out from the back of the building.
It’s an apartment, like we guessed, with a large open space that makes up the living room, kitchen, and dining room, and a hallway leading towards the back of the place with a few doors branching off of it.
Melody is pale and shivering nearly uncontrollably, and worry spears through my chest. Was it cold enough for hypothermia to set it?
I don’t fucking know, but I’m not taking any chances.
“Need t-t-to clear the r-rooms,” she gets out through chattering teeth. I nod and lead her to the couch.
“I’ll clear, you sit.”
She doesn’t argue, which tells me all I need to know: she’s absolutely hitting a wall and is going to crash out soon.
I make quick work of clearing the rest of the apartment.
There’s a small bathroom, bedroom, and closet off of the hallway, with the larger master bedroom and adjourning bathroom at the end.
No threats to speak of. I’ll do a deeper dive and explore more later, but for now, I need to make sure Melody’s ok.
She’d shed her wet jacket and managed to get one boot off by the time I get back.
I drop her pack and kneel down in front of the couch.
I reach out and unlace her other boot with numb fingers, but force my body to obey.
She clenches her fingers into the couch cushion as I ease her shoe off, pulling her sock off right after.
I whistle low. Her ankle is already bruising and swollen.
I can’t tell if it’s actually broken or just really badly sprained, but either way, I know that it must hurt like hell.
“I can’t believe you ran on this,” I mutter, my muscles suddenly clenching up as the cold hits me hard. I guess I’ve been running on adrenaline too, blocking out the worst of it, but now it’s coming on strong. A violent shudder racks Melody’s slim frame. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Fire. We need a fire. I glance around to find something I can burn in the grate, beyond thankful the apartment has a fireplace.
“Clothes off. N-now,” Mel says effectively stopping my search of something to start a fire with. I pull back to look up at her, arching a brow. She rolls her eyes. “Body heat, you j-j-jackass.”
Oh. Right. Of course. I try not to think about the fact that that means I’m about to be up close and personal with a naked—or at least nearly naked—Melody, our bodies pressed together…
She shoves me away and stands, keeping the weight off her injured foot. She unbuttons her jeans and I rise to my feet, pulling off my shirt and tossing the wet fabric aside. I yank my boots and socks off, and start on my pants, a tiny thrill of nervousness running through me.
“If your boxers come off, I s-swear to God I will castrate you,” she says and I huff out a laugh.
“Boxer briefs, actually,” I correct as I work on getting the wet tactical pants off. “And, ok, they stay on.”
I grab a blanket from a stack in the corner and when I turn back, all thoughts of being cold fly from my head.
Melody stands in nothing but her underwear.
Black, lacy boyshorts with a matching bra that make my mouth fucking water.
The top of a tattoo peeks from the beneath the lace at her right hip bone and I need to know what the rest of it look like, just how low it dips down. ..
I shake myself. Doesn’t fucking matter right now. Focus.
Despite the situation, I swear her eyes blaze for a second when she takes me in, her gaze traveling down my bare chest and stomach, further still.
..I swallow hard and mentally slap myself.
How about make sure that neither one of you are going to lose any extremities due to frostbite before you worry about eye fucking each other, you asshole.
I throw the blanket around my shoulders and pull her close, wrapping the blanket around her as she snakes her arms around me.
Already the heat within the blanket feels like heaven.
I try to ignore how close we are, how much of our skin is touching, how little fabric separates us.
I ease us down onto the couch, shifting so that she’s in my lap, keeping us as close as possible.
I think she’s going to argue, but she sighs in relief, and rests her head in the crook of my neck.
We stay that way for a long time, neither of us saying a word, just letting the heat fill us. After a while, her shivering slows, and I’m hit with the painful sensation of numb fingers and toes regaining feeling.
“Don’t read anything into this, Traeger,” she says against my throat. “This is about my desire not to freeze to death. Nothing more.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I say. “Though, you know this is more effective if we’re completely naked…”
“Don’t press your luck.” I swear there’s a smile in her voice and I laugh lightly.
I tighten my arms around her and she settles more firmly against me.
Despite everything that had happened between us, despite the fact that, as she said, this has nothing to do with anything but our bodies’ needs and survival, I can’t help but feel so fucking content with her in my arms.
“Better?” I ask after what feels like hours.
She exhales and nods. “Better.”
“I’m going to start a fire, and we need to get your ankle wrapped and you in some dry clothes.”
As much as I hate to do it, I ease her off of me, maneuvering out from under the blanket and tucking the edges back tightly around her.
I poke around in her pack, eyeing the stuffed dog that she risked her damn life for, and look for clothes.
I highly doubt she’ll want to put on jeans right now.
“Let me check the bedroom, see if there’s some sweats or something so you don’t have to worry with real clothes right now. ”
“Thanks,” she sighs, and I can see the pain and exhaustion hitting her hard. I dig through the dresser and find a goldmine. I tug on some dry clothes myself and come back, holding up sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie, smiling.
“Jackpot. Got plenty of dry, warm stuff for both of us.” I toss the clothes to her. “You change while I grab wood from downstairs to burn.”
I freeze when I reach the bottom of the stairs.
I can hear them outside, the screeching and moaning and dragging sounds of Bloodies.
The fucking soundtrack that’s constantly playing in the background of this world.
I tread lightly to one of the windows where the bottom corner of the wood had broken away.
I peek outside and watch as a small herd ambles by.
They’re not paying much attention to the barn, so they don’t seem to realize anything is inside, they’re just following along the path they were already on in following us.
They’ll move off soon enough, I’m sure, but I’ll keep an eye out once I get back upstairs just to be safe.
I quietly grab a small stack of wood and head back up the stairs.
I manage to get a fire going pretty easily.
I worry for a second about the smoke being seen by anyone still alive out here, but know that we have to risk it.
We’re fairly secure up in the apartment, so if someone does come to call, I’ll be able to handle it easily.
I check out the window and am happy to report that the Bloodies have made their way past the barn already.
One less thing to worry about for tonight.
I wrap Mel’s ankle, give her a protein bar, water, and Advil, and then fish the walkie out of the pack.
“Landry, you there?”
The answer comes almost immediately and my muscles relax a fraction. I’d been worried about the rest of the group.
“Yes, sir,” Landry’s voice comes through the static, clearly relieved. “Are you and Mel alright?”
“Yeah, we’re good. We found a place to hunker down.”
“Thank God. We backtracked to one of the cleared houses and are safe for the night here too.”
“Good work.” I clench my jaw and then ask the question I’m dreading hearing the answer to.
I’d seen the blood, the bodies littering the ground, the pieces of my people strewn around that fucking clearing.
“How many?” Melody sits up straighter and leans forward.
I hold her gaze as we wait for the answer.
Despite the distance that’s grown between us over these past weeks, we’re united in this, in our worry for our people, in the regret for the loss of life.
“Six dead, sir.” Fuck. I sit down on the coffee table and hang my head, closing my eyes.
I feel like a failure. It’s my job to keep them safe and I didn’t fucking do it.
Melody puts her hand on my forearm and I sigh before opening my eyes again.
That one touch says so much: It isn’t your fault.
This is the world we live in. You did your best. You have to keep going.
“Mel’s ankle is hurt pretty bad, so we won’t be able to hike out again just yet.”
“We’ll try to find a way to that side of the island tomorrow.”
Mel shakes her head and I quirk a brow.
“They should keep clearing houses. If I can’t walk anyway, they might as well use the time to complete the mission. Everyone can use those supplies, Traeger. This is for all of Haven.”
Well, I can’t argue with that, and I decide not to point out that this means that we’ll be stuck together in this apartment for at least a couple of days.
“Negative,” I finally say into the walkie. “Go ahead and stick to the plan. Clear the houses and you’ll get to us eventually.”
“You’re sure?”
“That’s an order, Landry,” I say, though it isn’t with any real kind of command.
“Yes, sir. I’ll check in tomorrow as we progress.”
“Sounds good. Be safe.”
I toss the walkie into the chair and rise to put another piece of wood on the fire. I wander back to the bedroom to see about sleeping arrangements, but it’s damn near freezing. The temperature dropped like crazy when the sun set, and the fireplace doesn’t really provide much heat this far back.
“Living room camp out it is,” I call out from the bedroom.
The couch is small, really just a loveseat.
I know she could fit fine, but it won’t be the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements and I don’t want her sleeping on the damn floor either.
So I heft the mattress from bed and, after some rearranging and a few half-hearted protests from Melody, settle it right in front of the fireplace.
She still looks too pale, though there’s a flush in her cheeks that I don’t like, and another spike of worry slashes through my gut.
She could easily get sick being that cold and wet and pushing herself too hard.
“Get some rest, I’ll take first watch.”
She looks like she might want to argue but I give her a pointed look and she relents. She really must be hurting. I help get her settled onto the mattress and covered in as many blankets as I can find. I pull a chair from the dining table over towards one of the windows and settle in.
“Thank you,” she whispers softly, surprising me, before passing out completely. My lips curl up a tiny bit. It’s a simple thank you. Nothing more.
But I’ll take it.