Re-ans

Re-ans Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Balance

"Okay so, water." Gavin said, he was standing by the door to the motel room, looking like he was giving an oral report in front of an entire class in his boxers.

"Gav." Luke called from his spot on the dresser, he turned to him. "Breath, you can do this." He nodded.

"The problem is when we lost our water we also lost our containers. We have three empty milk jugs in the back of the truck, and that's it other than our empty water bottles. We also need to find something to boil it in, and a place with a decent sightline to boil the water.

When we went to the vending machines last night I noticed a dumpster at the side of the building. Hopefully we'll be able to find some sizable containers in there, and the parking lot's pretty wide open, so it'll be a good place to boil the water." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Luke stood and kissed Jess before popping his clip out to make sure it was fully loaded. He looked up to see her doing the same. He smiled.

"How ya feeling?" She asked, he answered honestly.

"I still feel like I've been drug through the desert. But no dizziness, and very little weakness. I'll be fine, the ankle?" She shook her head.

"It's fine, as long as I don't do any running or jumping it shouldn't be a problem anyway." He nodded.

"Okay me on point, Alissa right behind me then Jess, Luke, Meredith, Levi, Tavish, Denis." He said and they all got into their positions, as well as they could in the cramped hotel room anyway. Gavin lifted his gun and opened the door. There was a re-an up the road in the opposite direction of the dumpsters. He put a finger to his lips and led them left, the side of the building was clear. Gavin waved Tavish forward and the two worked to open the dumpster, it squealed noisily, but they managed to get it opened. The smell was atrocious.

"Luke, Tavish, Denis, help me get the bags out. Levi, Meredith, keep watch, Jess, Lissa, help us go through them when we get them out." Gavin said low and everyone got into position. They managed to find four large juice containers and Gavin spotted an old metal wash tub in the bushes a little ways away from the dumpster. Luke was glad when they were able to walk away.

When they came back around the building Luke could see that the lake was just across the street and threw a thin copse of trees. They made it to its side in minutes. "Luke and the girls are on watch while we fill the jugs." Gavin spoke low and he nodded getting into position. It took them about twenty minutes to first wash out their new garbage containers and then fill them, it was quiet the whole time. There were seven containers of water when they were finished, and Luke was the only one not lugging one back up to the motel. He had his gun outstretched, his eyes scanning the small woods around them. He spun to the right when he heard a twig snap, but it was just a rabbit scurrying about. He turned back left.

"Jess!" She turned just in time to lift her gun and fire at the re-an that was about five feet from grabbing her, but it didn't fire. She cursed and jumped to the side to land hard on the ground, she screamed out in pain. Luke put a bullet in the re-ans head and ran over to her side.

"Is she bit?" Gavin yelled in panic running back from his position a few feet up. The two of them had been in the rear, so none of the others had seen what had happened.

"Jess." He knelt down at her side, she was clutching her arm. He didn't see it bite her.

"It didn't bite me." She said through gritted teeth. When she turned he noticed a pretty good bit of blood seeping from between her fingers. There was a fairly large shard of glass sticking out of her arm. That's when he noticed other shards scattered around, it was a wonder he hadn't landed on one. His mind immediately urged his body to panic but he fought it as hard as he could.