Zuflucht

19

"Nope, this one's empty too." Richard pulled the hose out of the tank and stood up, sighing once again in defeat.

"Mom, my legs hurt." Ash whined. We had been walking for a few hours and her and Richard seemed to be the only ones complaining.

"I know sweetie; just a little bit longer." She sighed harshly before she nodded, a small whine leaving her lips.

"Damn folks couldn't save us nothin'" mumbled Richard. He was in the very front, Ash and I in the middle, and Curt in the back.

"That's true considering we weren't and aren't the only people trying to survive." I muttered back. 

"Obviously. " He rolled his eyes and sighed for the hundredth time.
Because of Ash, her and I began to fall behind more until we were walking side by side next to Curt.
I ended up having to hold her hand just to help her keep up.

"Hurry up slow pokes!" Richard shouted from ahead. Everyone ignored him which only made him scoff and turn back around.

"Y'know, we've been walking for a while now. If you want to take a break we can." I diverted my attention to Curt who caught me off guard. Milly herself looked like she was almost tired to the max as drool pooled off of her tongue.

"Please mom." Ash pleaded. My opinion didn't matter because before I even answered she stopped walking and plopped down on the hard concrete with a loud sigh. I myself stopped with her and slid my backpack off, opened it, and started pulling out some waters and canned foods."

"Could have warned me." Called out the oldest male as he just now noticed we had stopped.
Curt was a few feet away and was doing the same with his bag.

"Hey, uh, could you spare an old man a meal?" Asked Richard with a wide smile. His smile wasn't persuading at all, but I couldn't let him starve knowing he was carrying my heaviest bag.

"Sur-"

"You can have some of mine." Curt interrupted expressionless. He began pulling another can out of his bag and a utensil to go with it along with a can of dog food.

"Appreciate it." Richard replied, sitting down on the ground near the younger male.

"I don't want beans." Whined Ash as she continued digging through the bag until she found something that suited her interest.
It was quiet for a few minutes as everyone ate; the breeze making everything even better.

"So." Richard broke the silence while chewing on some green beans.

"How'd y'all meet?" I looked at Curt before shugging.

"Nothing too crazy. He found me underneath a desk in a pharmacy." The older man furrowed his eyebrow.

"That doesn't sound too common either though. By the way, why do I keep smelling piss?" Ash couldn't contain herself at the question and found herself laughing and almost choking on her food.

"That would be me." Answered the dark haired male. I found myself smiling and noticed Curt fail at trying to stop his own by clenching his teeth.

"Damn boy, you'd think that kind of thing would have stopped when you were a kid." Now it was me who laughed out loud as Ash joined with me. Curt's smile grew even more into his eyes and I couldn't help but notice I hadn't seen him smile once until now.

"It's-uh, not me actually. I use coyote urine to hide my smell. Helps keep the infected away." I couldn't help my mood sour once I heard the mention of the infected. Sometimes it's nice to laugh and forget the world has become chaos every once in a while.

"Hey, y'know I have my own way of hiding my smell if you ever wanna try that instead."

"What's that?" Curt's deep voice asked. His dark ebony eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"It's, uh, this concoction I made a few years ago. Before everything happened I was a chemistry student." I opened the duffel bag that Richard had been carrying and pulled out the spray bottle full of the scentless liquid and tossed it over to him.

"Is it reliable?" Asked Richard. Curt was currently sniffing the nozzle of the bottle while Milly was leaning over him trying to do the same.

"Yeah, they can still hear me when I run but they never smell me. It's like I'm not there."

"Well hell why didn't you say so. Give me some." He snatched the bottle from Curt before standing up and spraying himself a few times.

"It doesn't smell like anything." Richard smelled the air around him in confusion and wonder.

"That's kinda the point." Ashanti snapped. Curt blew an amused huff of air from his nose while Richard went to snap back at her.

"Uh uh." I warned him as he went to open his mouth. He instead huffed loudly before sitting back down and eating his green beans.

No one spoke for a good five minutes before Milly started barking at the open air. Alarmed, Curt stood up and pulled his pistol out of his holster before walking over in that direction.

"See anything?" I called out before starting to stand up myself. I quickly told Ash to stay in her spot as I made my way over to the raven haired male with my own revolver in my hands.

"This feels familiar. Only this time it isn't me." Richard joked with my daughter whome didn't find it very amusing.

Instead of answering me, Curt pointed into the open air towards a female infected. Her face was sickly rotted as half of it was just about missing. I couldn't help but notice her left arm that looked like it had been torn off. Infected muscle and tissue were still attached and dangling down a few inches from the injury.

"Damn." I couldn't help the sick feeling and bile that tried to rise up into my throat as her contorted body swayed and jerked in many different directions. It looked inhumane as always.

"I'll take care of this one."  Curt answered and I nodded.

"Be careful..." I couldn't help but be shocked at my own words after I said them and hoped he didn't find it awkward or wierd that I did.

"Ash." I spoke louder than normal to get her attention once I had turned around.

"You might wanna cover your ears."

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Please be aware that all of my chapters are unedited 😬🤪