Chapter 20 Jessa
As the only person with two free hands, I wielded the can opener on the creamed corn I’d found. I’d set the flashlight on its end, pointing the blinding light at the ceiling and cast a cold LED glow over the gross living room.
I cranked on the opener as I looked over the inside of the trailer.
Not even a trailer park trailer, no, who ever lived here wanted nothing to do with neighbors.
Or cleanliness. The musty, mildew smell could be blamed on six months of no fresh air or upkeep.
But not even an alien invasion could excuse the hundreds of crushed beer cans, cigarette butts, and empty chip wrappers littering the floor.
The only way this place could get grosser would be if I stumbled upon the owner’s rotting corpse in one of the rooms. I shuddered at the thought and handed Jiith an opened can and a spoon.
“Eat,” I ordered, passing him a plastic spoon that I’d done my best to wipe the dust off of. That’s right, the former occupant didn’t even have metal spoons. I’d found a cupboard full of mouse chewed paper plates and a party sized box of disposable cutlery.
Classy as heck.
“And don’t think I didn’t hear you being a sad, pathetic, cry-baby,” I said.
Part of me cringed at my harsh tone, but I’d gone way out of my way for Jiith.
I’d fed him at my own risk, I’d done my best to encourage him and I was feeding him again.
I’d literally walked over glass to give him a chance at survival and all he wanted to talk about was how we should leave him to die.
Clearly coddling him wasn’t working, so I was shifting strategies to tough love.
“I am pathetic,” he agreed, looking down at the creamed corn with what I could only describe as visceral horror. “Too pathetic to waste supplies on.”
He shoved the opened can at Tovis, who grabbed it just in time to save half the precious food from slopping over the side. I glared at the syto, aggressively opening another can, stabbing another utensil into the corn mush, and slapping it to his chest.
“Eat,” I growled. “Or I will have Tovis hold you down and I will pour those calories into you.”
“I’m willing,” Tovis said, tossing his spoon and upending the can straight into his mouth.
Jiith’s shoulders curled inwards and he ate a tiny spoonful of food. I waited until I was confident he was actually obeying and opened my own can. There’d been an empty box in the kitchen, and I'd filled it with bottled water and carefully nestled the egg in the corner.
I stared at the egg while I ate, wondering if I should fashion some sort of pouch to keep it close to me and provide heat.
The creamed corn tasted amazing, even though I would have turned my nose up at the same meal in a former life.
I scraped the last bits from the corners of the can and tossed it into the trash around us.
There was no point in being tidy, we weren’t staying and this place should be burned when we left.
My stomach pinched, unused to so much food and I picked up a bottle of water, cracking it open with a contented sigh.
“I needed that,” I said, taking a sip and watching in relief as Jiith discarded his empty can. He’d eaten, we were out of the sun and he could rest. I couldn’t force him to want to live, but I could force him to go through the motions.
“Was that all the food?” Tovis asked, scratching his naked belly in a very male way. The motion drew my eye to the chiseled abs that looked a little more pronounced than when I first met him and I frowned.
He’d been pretty solid before we’d been captured. Less cut and more bulky. He’d lost weight, and the way his veins stood out on his arms made me shove a bottle at him.
“You’re dehydrated,” I said. “Drink, there’s more water in the kitchen and a few more cans of food.”
Tovis smiled at me, and I blushed at the warmth in his eyes.
He’d caught me looking, I was sure of it.
It was only because I was making sure everyone was healthy, I told myself.
I wasn’t checking him out, I hadn’t spent our long hike thinking about the way he called me his mate and almost got himself killed protecting me.
I wasn’t. That would be stupid. Now was not the time for a crush, we were in survival mode.
Tovis drained his first bottle in seconds, and I got up to get the rest of the supplies.
When I came back, my arms full of bottles and cans, I saw Jiith hunched over the cuffs.
Tovis was leaning forward so the syto could make full use of the light and Jiith was trying to pry something apart with his fingers.
“Do you need tools?” I asked.
Jiith’s tentacles curled slightly at the ends, the most life I'd seen in the appendages in days. “Something thin and sturdy to pry the cover off would be appreciated,” he said, still struggling with the cuffs.
“On it.” I dumped the supplies on the couch and headed back into the kitchen, rifling around until I found the universal junk drawer and pulling the whole thing out. There was probably more than one useful thing in here, and the only light was in the living room.
Taking it with me, I sat down in front of the couch and balanced the drawer in my lap, picking through everything until I found a tiny screwdriver and passed it to Jiith.
No one spoke as he did whatever it was he was doing and I picked through the drawer idly, dividing its contents up into two piles in front of me.
A book of matches went into my ‘useful’ pile, and a gallon freezer bag of beer tabs went in the ‘trash’ pile. By the time I’d emptied the drawer, I had two pocket knives, a half used tube of ointment, a short length of paracord and a collapsable umbrella.
Something beeped and I looked up in time to see the cuffs pop open. Jiith groaned and fell back against the couch like he’d used all his strength and Tovis rubbed his freed wrist.
“Well done,” he said.
Jiith closed his eyes. “I can contribute something. Now you’re free of me.”
“We weren’t lying to you,” I said, realizing for the first time he may have thought we were reassuring him just so he’d undo the cuffs. “We really won’t leave you behind.”
He cracked his eyes open and looked between us. His throat bobbed as he visibly swallowed and dropped his gaze to his bruised, newly freed wrist.
“If you’re truly willing...” his voice trailed off. “I would be grateful for the chance to come with you.”
“Then you will,” Tovis clapped a massive hand on his shoulder. “This is a new planet, and a chance at a new life for all of us. There is no need to stay trapped in our former struggles.”
***
I took the egg with me as I investigated the rest of the trailer, flashlight in hand. Jiith had passed out on the couch and I’d left him some more water and an opened can of food. Tovis was finishing off a second round of creamed corn and I’d decided I needed some space.
It had been days since I was truly alone with my thoughts. After six months of solitude, I would have thought I’d never want to be alone in my head again, but I felt like my brain chemistry had been permanently altered by my time hiding in the spa.
I needed a moment of quiet, without the pressure of conversation or the weight of other people’s presence. Before everything changed, I hated being alone. I came to work early just to chat with coworkers before my shift, I stayed late to avoid going home and having nothing but my phone for company.
The first month in the spa had been torturous for me and more than once I’d considered painting a face on the wall in nail polish like a bad parody of Cast Away.
I even had a name picked out for my wall friend, Sally.
As in, Sally Hansen. Now that I wasn’t looking at a long miserable existence of total solitary confinement, the thought made me smack my own face in embarrassment.
I wandered into the only bedroom and found a bare double mattress sitting directly on the floor, piles of moldy laundry in the corners and even more beer cans.
From the looks of this place, the former owner’s life probably hadn’t gotten any worse for the world ending.
I kicked a stiff pair of jeans away from the bed and stared at the gross stain in the center of the mattress.
The odds of finding clean sheets in this place were probably lower than finding gold. I shuddered and picked at the too short hem of my dress. I was exhausted, sore and needed to sleep, but way too much of my skin was going to touch that mattress for my peace of mind.
I patted the egg gently. “I’ll make you a little nest, and you’ll be nice and safe and cozy,” I whispered.
“You’re lucky you have a shell to protect you because I’m going to end up with lice or ringworm or something.”
It took a few minutes of searching before I found some clothes that seemed relatively clean and I laid a thin flannel shirt over the worst of the mattress stain and used two undershirts to make a shallow bowl for the egg.
I crawled onto the bed, being careful not to knock over the egg and collapsed on my side, one hand laid protectively against the smooth shell.
“I really hope you’re cute,” I murmured, the sound of my own voice making my eyes well up for a moment. How many nights had I spent, struggling to fall asleep and talking to myself to drown out the silence?
I was struck with a sudden burst of gratitude that Tovis had stumbled upon my spa.
The last week had been nothing short of traumatizing, but I wasn’t alone anymore.
As terrible as it had been, confronting the dangerous world my planet had become, the fear of the unknown had been paralyzing, keeping me trapped in a bubble.
That bubble had been popped, but I was freer for it.
“Please don’t turn into a violent monster,” I told the egg. “I stood up for you and your dad died making sure you had a chance at life, so don’t waste it by making us kill you.”
My eyes closed against my will and I tried to force them open. My nervous system sent a jolt through me, and I twitched, feeling like I should be doing something, keeping watch, looking for useful items.
But I was tired to a level I’d never experienced before, and my body took over, forcing me into a hazy sleep. I surfaced from dreams of running on glass and the Kwin’s bloodthirsty voice yelling after me to find Tovis crawling onto the mattress beside me.
He petted my hair and settled me against his side.
“Sleep Jessa, all is well.”
His sturdy chest rose and fell gently with his breaths, and I let myself fall back into the dark, but this time the dreams stayed away.