What Walks Among Us (book one)

The Shapes in the Sky

It took a while for me to settle down enough for the storm to become nothing more than background music, Sam kept holding me, ensuring me that everything would be alright and that I had nothing to fear. Somewhere in the back of my mind I wondered if he was right. Did I really have nothing to fear? Was it better to not have a healthy dose of fear for the things I knew went bump in the night?

But on the more sane part of my brain I knew he was most likely just trying to calm me down enough so that I would go back to sleep.

The storm itself was relentless all night, and I knew this because my sleep was the exact opposite. Sometime in the night Sam woke up Trish for her to take watch. I didn't have time to think about why he wouldn't just have me get up to take watch, considering I wasn't actually asleep, because he crawled into his makeshift bed and held my hand under the blankets.

I nearly jerked my hand away at the sudden touch, but instead I opened my eyes to look at him. He smiled softly and mouthed that I should sleep. I swallowed back my complaints, because in the end having him hold my hand felt like he was grounding me. The small touch somehow left me with the knowledge that I wasn't in it alone, that someone was right next to me, looking out for me.

I closed my eyes, having no great response for his gesture of kindness, and let myself drift off to sleep.

*

*

*

When the sun finally broke through the clouds, it was well into the morning and we were all packed up. Cody had successfully fixed up one of the cars, and taught me how to siphon the gas from the other cars. Trish was siphoning cars as well, and Sam was loading up our jeep.

The ground was soggy, and the air felt clean somehow, like the world had taken a shower. I finished siphoning the gas from the last truck and looked over at Trish, who had some how managed to fill up four jugs, while I had only managed to get three of them. I wrinkled my nose but decided not to take it as her being better than me, but that we worked together to get a nice stash of gas.

I grinned softly at the thought of not having to walk anywhere and brought the gas over to Sam, who smiled at me and loaded it up, positioning it so that it wouldn't fall over and spill. We hadn't spoken since we woke up, but that didn't matter, as I was pretty sure I wouldn't know what to say. Trish walked over and gave me a look that was pretty smug as she held up her I moved over so Trish could hand her jugs to Sam, and caught sight of Cody watching the sky.

He had his hands settled on his hips and his mouth set into a straight line. Eyes trained on the clouds, he was focused so intently that he barely noticed when I stepped up next to him. I followed his eyes up to look at the sky and noticed that the clouds were a very pristine white, a stark contrast from the angry black ones that had plagued the sky a few hours prior.

I crossed my arms and shifted my weight onto my right hip while I looked at the clouds.

"That one looks like a baby elephant in a tutu," I murmured, softly, almost to myself.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw him give a little start, he looked over at me while I kept my eyes on the sky.

"Oh really?" he said, sounding a tiny bit amused.

I nodded very serious like, "What do you think it looks like?"

He watched me for a second more before looking up at the sky, "which is it again?"

I smiled softly and pointed out the elephant, "That one."

He was quiet for a moment before rubbing his jaw. I had noticed that both he and Sam woke up with scruff on their faces, making me wonder what they would look like with beards. Cody's scruff was more on his jaw rather than his chin, his scruff was also dirty blond, like his hair.

"It looks like a dinosaur on a skateboard," he said after a while.

I laughed softly, "Yeah, I don't know where you got that from, but okay, I can ... sorta see that?"

He was crazy, absolutely bonkers. The cloud looked nothing like a dinosaur, but I wasn't about to burst his little bubble. I grinned softly as he looked at me, a grumpy from upon his lips.

"You don't see it," he accused.

I raised an eyebrow at him, putting my hands behind my back, "Cody, no two minds are alike, so just because you see something a certain way, doesn't mean everyone else will see it also," I tilted my head slightly and shifted my weight to the left, "besides. Wouldn't it be completely boring if everyone thought the same?"

He was watching me, intensely, "You're like her, you know?" I sucked in a breath, while he looked towards the clouds again, "my sister, Stephanie" he adds, "she used to come up with the weirdest shapes to describe the clouds, and every time I would contradict her, she would come up with some way that they were similar... or just say that I was programmed differently."

I watched him in fascination, he never talked about himself. Or his sister. I knew so little about him that with him talking, I didn't ever want him to stop. I wanted to sit down somewhere safe and ask him every little question that swirled around my brain. But I knew if I so much as spoke, the spell would be broken. He would go back into his shell, the wall that was temporarily down would be back up again, and I had no doubt it would be up with more barricades than ever.

"She was really smart too, just like you. But she was soft, and that was my fault. I shielded her, and didn't do anything to make it so she could defend herself against... them," he said the words as if spitting it out. His grumpy light blue eyes were hard as he recalled the memory. He blinked and shook his head a little, glancing at me as his eyes softened, "She was also really brave."

I opened my mouth to ask him what he meant about it being his fault, but was interrupted by Trish walking over. Cody cleared his throat and leaned away from me, he looked back up at the sky. I turned my attention to Trish, putting on a smile.

"Hey, are you two done canoodling?" she asked, her voice sharp and taunting.

It probably would have had more effect if I had known what canoodle meant.

Cody turned and looked at her, "Look Trish, we get it, you're pissed of at Kodi for something, but could you take your attitude and drop it. Or at the very least grow up a little and save it for the compound."

He shook his head as he walked to the Jeep, and Trish stood there with her mouth slightly open and a surprised expression on her face. I smiled, recalling something I once read in a book, and said it as I walked past her, following Cody to the vehicle.

"You should close your mouth, you're catching flies."