Yellow Eyes: Safe Haven

Numb (Ch.16)

  “He came to us five months ago. He said he could help us survive, we didn’t have much, but now we do. We all owe him our lives for feeding us.”
He has experience growing plants and gardening, so it comes as no surprise that he is capable of feeding people.

"Sophia, kick him." I command, and she obeys without question—this time she kicked him in the gunshot wound my girlfriend just inflicted on his knee. A scream echoed from his mouth as he grasped his bleeding knee and cursed in pain.

“Tell me what he looks like.”
“No.” He breathed out through gritted teeth.
“Sofia.” He folded as soon as he heard her name.
He blurted out “Please don’t! He’s Asian! H-He has great muscles! Please I'll take you to him, just don't kill me PLEASE.”

Mun is alive and he’s looking for me. I'll need to find him first and kill him like I should have done a long time ago.

“Take us to him.”

“I can’t my leg is fucked but I can tell you. He’s in Arthur.”

…

This town of Arthur is impressive. Small but still. There’s a well and tiki like built houses surrounded by farmland. At the center of their homestead looks to be a firepit, Mun built this in five months?  He even found people willing to follow him, this is so weird. He is a serial killer, why would people willingly follow a serial killer?

I have to face him alone, I can’t put everyone at risk by having all of us rush head first into danger. Plus Vi is still very much pregnant. Making decisions without thinking it through will put her and our unborn child in danger. Not to mention Killing Mun shouldn’t be the first thing on my to-do list, Finding shelter is. I know everyone is tired from all the endless walking we did to get here, it took us all day but we made it.

Sol plopped to the ground on her knees and fell forward laying on the ground beneath us. Everyone else sat normally, I went to help my girlfriend to the ground carefully and I sat myself right next to her.

We all sat in silence trying to catch our breath for the moment before Veer asked “What now?”.

I don’t know. I thought we could come here to where Mun is and kill him but I didn’t expect a mini civilisation that worships him. I was stupid and careless to lead them here, we’re in no position to be in another fight with anyone…not today. We need to rest. I can feel everyone's attention on me as they search for an answer, but I don't have one. Dropping my head, I look at the ground, embarrassed, and then I hear Vi tell the group “I saw an area near the water we passed an hour ago where we could hole up. As soon as everyone is ready, we'll head there.”

Aviva

After we found that Mun didn’t succumb to the Zoms after he had been banished we took a much needed break. It was quiet, I think everyone is trying to process the fact that once again we have no home, nowhere to go, and no more Lue. Talking won’t mend our broken hearts, keeping busy and focusing on something will. I know that’s what Cam is doing. She’s placing all her focus onto Mun so that she can’t focus on the fact that we lost both our home and Lue in the same day and to throw salt on the open wound Mun is alive and thriving with followers who are likely as deranged as him.

It’s scary to think what him and his people are capable of doing. If their anything like their ‘leader’ it can’t be good for us.

We’re walking to the shelter I saw a while back, it’s dark out so we are all on alert even with how tired we all are.

“Aviva, where the hell are we going?” I hear Solei shout from the back of the group, her feet are dragging and her shoulders are slumped.
“Stay vigilant we’re just a few minutes away.” I answer.

I am really exhausted, my feet ache and my stomach feels like it's cramping. Despite the pain, I must continue to push through it for the group.

“Hey c’mere.” I hear Cam say pulling me into her.
“Get on my back, you shouldn’t have been on your feet all day, I’m sorry.” Before I could decline her offer she swept me off of my feet and my legs were wrapped around her waist and my arms hugging tightly around her neck. As a way to make room for me on her back, she gave her book bag to Sol to carry.

“You don’t have to carry me. I am fully capable of walking.”
“No you’re not, I've been watching you. The way you walked was as if you were pregnant and in pain."
My reply was, "Because I am."
She let out a chuckle “See that’s exactly my point. I shouldn’t have let everyone down a rabbit hole with no plan or weapons, I'm sorry.”
“Please stop apologizing.” I tell her before kissing her.

The day has been full of events, and I know that none of us are going to blame her for bringing us here. We have nowhere else to go.The horde really fucked things up. It’s gonna take a while to get back on our feet but we can do it.
...

There it is, a shed. It’s rusted and the size of two portapotties but it’ll fit us all. Sleep and rest is something we desire immensely at the moment. I doubt anyone is willing to be on the lookout tonight and that’s why finding shelter is important. No one is at 100% and that’s okay.

“Here behind those trees, do you see?” I say pointing ahead. Sakai and Sofia were the first to approach the small metal framed shed, their knives were drawn and their full attention was on what was ahead. They cautiously entered to make sure it was safe for the rest of us.

I went to get off Cam’s back but she kept me in place until Sakai and Sofia declared it safe for the rest of us to enter.

I whisper briefly into her ear “Nothing bad is going to happen.” she then squatted enough to let me down. Sofia and Sakai have finished scoping out the shed and signaled for us to enter.

“Go, I need to talk to Veer.”
“About what?” I question. They haven’t been on the best terms lately so it’s surprising that Cam wants to talk with my brother. I just hope they aren’t going to argue about something miniscule.

“Nothing, just go. Okay?”
Leaving her and my brother to talk, I hear her say this. “I love you.”
"I love you too." I say back bringing her hand to my face, I kissed her on the knuckles before leaving for the dingey shed. My first impulse was to kiss her soft inviting lips, but I know she doesn't like that kind of intimacy in front of people.

Upon entering our temporary shelter I saw Solei and Sakai cuddled together in a corner, Sakai looked to be asleep in Solei’s arms and she and Sofia were talking about going out to scavenge tomorrow.
“Hey chica, come sit next to me.” I bent to sit down next to Sofia and felt immensely relieved once I was finally sitting.
“How you holding up?” Solei asks me with concern.
“I’m fine. Cam carrying me really helped a lot.”

My Brother walked in without Cam, He sat down next to me and acted as if he was avoiding looking at me so I flicked his ear to make him look at me.
“Ow!”
“Where is Cam?” I say glaring at him with anger.
“She’s a grown ass woman so ask her.”
Sofia came to my defense. “Baby where is she?” She spoke.
My brother sighed in defeat. “She’s doing something that will benefit all of us but she said she has to do it alone. She told me to not let any of you follow her and to stay here no matter what.”

My face began to heat up and I could hear my heart beating loudly, I wanted to hit my brother and scream at him for letting her go but I couldn't, I can’t move. The heavy tears that were forming in my eyes have fallen, I feel numb.

“One more thing.” My brother adds. "She told me two names based on whether you have a boy or a girl. I can tell you when you have the baby, but not before."

I'm not having the baby for another few months, is she planning on never coming back?

😧