Dead love in my hands (Troy Otto story/ Fear the walking dead/ ftwd)

House number 9

I don't know how long it took, but by the time Troy let me go, the dead men were too close. We started hitting their heads at the same time. It was happening pretty fast. When only a couple of them were left near us, Troy yelled to me:

"Start the car! Hurry up!"

I obeyed, even though I didn't understand why we were in such a hurry, since we had almost killed them all. A few seconds later, Troy was in the passenger seat:

"Come on, come on, let's go!" I still didn't understand, but I complied with the request, however I didn't leave it unanswered:

"What's your hurry?"

"Can't you see?" His voice sounded calm, so I did not even tense up.

"See what?"

Troy jabbed his index finger in the rearview mirror: Someone was following us, or rather, someone was catching up to us. It was still dark outside, the car behind us was driving without headlights, and there was so much noise from the walkers that I wasn't even paying attention. How could Troy have noticed? And in advance! As soon as I saw the tail, I felt a little uneasy. I picked up speed, but not very confidently. The only thing on my mind was "evade the chase." And then my spell seemed to come true: the car began to lag a little behind us, and after a couple of seconds it disappeared from sight. I started to smile, but Troy interrupted my applause before it could begin:

"As soon as you get a chance, turn around, we gotta get out of the car."

"What are you talking about? Why?"

"We haven't left them, their car's somewhere turned off, they're gonna reappear at any moment and we don't know if they're alone. There's no chance of getting away from them in the car. We have to hide."

"We can't leave the car! How are we gonna get back?!

"Della, this is no time to argue."

"But, Troy..."

"You will do as I say!" He shouted so suddenly and loudly that I flinched.

A few meters away, there was a turn. I made the turn.

Troy quickly got out of the car, and I followed, to which I heard the same harsh tone:

"Stay in the car!"

This time I decided to let him drive, so I sat down in my usual place and watched from the window as he took one gas can, dragged it to the nearest house and hid it near the fence in the bushes, then did the same with the second and third, and then sat behind the wheel.

"Remember the number of the house: 35, we'll leave the car a little farther away, so that the gasoline won't be found," now his voice became normally indifferent.

I was silent. We drove along the residential area for about 100 meters, if not more, and then Troy stopped:

"That's it, we're on foot from here."

We got out of the car and started running away from it through the yards of private houses, trying not to make any noise, so as not to attract the dead. The farther we walked, the more pointless it seemed to me, and after about 20 minutes of walking like this, I couldn't take it anymore:

- Troy! 

He stopped and turned around, looking at me questioningly. We were in someone's backyard. There were big swings and a half-deflated kiddie pool. I looked up at the sky. It was starting to get light. Then I shifted my gaze to Troy, his eyes still filled with question and now some irritation.

"We've already gone pretty far," I started, sitting down on the rocking chair, "let's stop."

"No, we're going further!"

"But we don't even know who we're running from!"

"And I don't want to understand that!" Troy said in an aggressive whisper, coming toward me. After a couple more seconds, he grabbed my elbow and started to pull me, but I started to speak loudly:

"Maybe these people didn't even mean to catch up with us! Maybe they needed help! Maybe it was my sister! Or...", Before I could finish, Troy had his palm over my mouth. As soon as his fingers were on my lips, I wanted to pull them away and continue the sentence he'd cut off even louder, but he gestured for me to be quiet.

A couple seconds later, I heard a car stop outside the fence. No, two cars. Then rough male voices began to sound, which made us realize that the neighborhood was being combed for us:

"Hey, Chris, we're empty, how you?"

"We found their car at 124, but they got away, and they took everything out of it, if there was anything in it."

I looked at the number of the house we were sitting in: 9, it was less scary. So they met here by chance and are not looking in this place.

"I see, well, if they left with gasoline, then obviously not so far away, hiding in houses near the car, and without gasoline they are useless. Did you get a look at how many of them there were?"

"No, but I think three at the most. If there were more, they wouldn't be running away. If we find them, what do we do, Andy?"

"If you see somebody, shoot, but only don't kill until you know what's with gasoline."

"Copy that."

Next thing you know, the cars started going off in different directions. The whole time, Troy didn't take his palm away from my face. I felt like such a stupid hysteric. Pulling his hand away, I whispered:

"I'm sorry."

"Your being mean was surprisingly helpful," Troy whispered back with a smile, "We would have been spotted if we'd climbed over to that lot, there's a very small fence."

I looked around: indeed, we were just super sheltered here.

"Della, the search for your sister will have to be postponed for a while and sit here."

"How long?"

"I have no idea," Otto said indifferently, then walked toward the house. I stayed on the swing. He pushed open the door, and it opened, and he disappeared. About five minutes later, Troy came out to me again.

"What's inside?" I asked quietly, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he yanked my arm, lifting me off the swing, and dragged me into the house. When we got inside, I wanted to tell him there was no point in grabbing me so roughly now, but I didn't have time.

The next second he had me against the wall and started kissing me, wrapping one arm around my neck and the other dropping everything on the nightstand next to me. A few books, a picture frame, and something glass shattered on the floor.

"Troy, wait," I tried to push him away, but I couldn't. 

"Shut up," he practically growled. I looked into his frantic eyes and instantly became aroused. "So you want rough?"  ran through my head. A moment later, I bit him lip and kissed. It was like he didn't notice it. For the first few seconds I didn't even think the bite was strong enough, but soon I felt the iron tang of blood on my tongue. 

That turned me on even more. Troy unzipped my sweatshirt and traced a trail of kisses from the bottom of my stomach to my neck, leaving bloody imprints with his lips. After that, he moved to my collarbones. I started undressing him. In a couple seconds, his shirt and t-shirt were lying on the floor, as were my clothes, including my underwear. Troy lifted me up and now I was sitting on the nightstand. My hands rested on his chest as he unbuckled the belt on his pants.

It happened so fast I didn't feel any pain. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and dug my nails into his back. Our loud breathing seemed to echo throughout the house.....