Along came Reid

9. With a Vampire

“They’re still there.” Courtney whispered as he peeked behind the dingy brick wall to view the two men wandering aimlessly along the avenue. If not for Barron, neither Jamie nor Courtney would've known there were strangers trailing them.

Well trailing was a bit of a stretch. Jamie was pretty sure neither thug spotted them while they raided a local drugstore. However, since they left the drugstore both men somehow managed to follow them despite not having seen her group.

They looked as if they were searching for something, like dogs trying to catch a scent. Their movements were unsure and from the way the dark haired one kept returning to his partner and arguing, it appeared they were confused and frustrated about something.

Perspiration dampened Jamie’s brow and she pressed her back against the wall, taking in a deep breath. Other survivors weren’t uncommon, but aside from the two brothers and Reid, she hadn’t seen anyone for months.

Nothing in her wanted to hang around to figure out what those two were searching for. Memories of the last group of men who hunted her down haunted her thoughts. Momentarily Jamie blanked with nothing but the chill of fear stalling all action.

“Jamie!” Courtney hissed, tugging on her arm. “We have to get out of here! Come on!”

His hand on her arm returned her from the dark recesses of her memories. Jamie swallowed hard and nodded. Together they quickly padded through a side street with Barron hot on their heels.

“Let’s take the long way home, just in case they were following us.” Jamie advised, readjusting her backpack full of bathroom supplies.

“You think they’ll follow us?” Courtney asked as he bravely stepped forward to take out a wandering deader with his hatchet. Barron helped by mercilessly tearing into the the creature’s ankles until it became unbalanced and fell over.

“Good boy; I’m not sure.” Jamie admitted as she tossed Barron a treat. “I don’t want to take any chances. Even though our group isn’t a bunch of pushovers, the last thing we need is to rouse the interest of another batch of survivors.”

Courtney nodded, wiping his sweat dampened brow with his arm. “That’s true.” he agreed.  “People are crazy nowadays.”

They continued home, being careful to cover their tracks. Jamie never liked bumping into people. Survivors were wildcards that she never could decipher. Fortunately Reid, Courtney and TJ proved to be the lesser evil on the spectrum of humanity. They were they rare exception to the rule.

“How was the outside?” TJ asked with eyes alight as he sifted through the pile of stuff in the conference room at the office. With a bemused chuckle, Courtney handed his little brother the prize he was searching for.

“Here Teej.” Courtney said, tossing his brother a batman action figure that he’d found in the toy aisle.

“Cool!” TJ exclaimed, tearing the packaging open. “Thanks!”

Both Courtney and Jamie shook their heads good naturedly as TJ busied himself with his new toy, reenacting some crime scene that involved Iron Man. Suddenly, Jamie felt a heat at her back and she turned her head to find Reid behind her, looking over her shoulder, inspecting their haul.

“TP?” he asked, taking a roll in hand and tossing it to Courtney as if it were a football.

“What?” answered TJ.

“Toilet paper Teej, not you.” Courtney clarified as he tossed the roll back to Reid. TJ shrugged his shoulders and went back to his activity.

“We needed more.” Jamie informed, taking out the toothpaste and placing it with the mouthwash. “I wasn’t too keen on using newspaper.”