What Walks Among Us (book one)

You Stink

I sat on the couch in between Beck and Chester, telling them what had happened during the trip. They were quiet for the most part, but when I mentioned the part where the horde of zombies showed up, and Sam shoved me down, Beck growled a bit which earned him a punch in the arm from Chester. After that Beck got up and finished sweeping the floor. Chester pressed play on his movie, and I don't think I ever got around to asking what he was watching, before I fell asleep against him.

I was half asleep when Beck picked me up off of the couch so that Chester could get up to pee. I could hear them bickering quietly, and then somewhere Cody was telling them to shut up, or they'd wake me up. When Chester replied I was fully awake, just keeping my eyes closed.

"We're not going to wake her up, look at her, she's snoring," Chester said, in a whisper shout.

I nearly opened my eyes to yell at him, but Sam spoke up, "She doesn't snore you idiot, and unless you want to wake her up, be quiet," he said.

Chester grunted, "Well maybe I do, Beck hogged her when she got home."

Beck's arms tensed around my body, and I rubbed my eye, making them all aware that I was awake. Mainly because I didn't want them to argue, and partly because I felt like I was eavesdropping, and I didn't like it one bit.

"Beck," I said softly, peaking up at him lazily.

He was already looking down at me, and he lifted a single eyebrow in question.

"I gotta go to the bathroom, can you put me down?" I asked, realizing a few beats after I said it that I really did have to go to the bathroom.

Beck nodded softly and set me down on my feet, his arm lingering on my back to make sure I wasn't going to fall over or something. I gave him a thankful smile and looked around. Chester was standing behind the couch, while Sam and Cody were in the kitchen taking advantage of the fridge.

"Sunshine, do you want a sandwich?" Sam asked.

I nodded and ran my fingers through my hair, "Actually do you think I can hold off on that? I want to take a shower and say hi to Mabel."

Sam nodded and turned away, I passed Chester on my way to the stairs, and ruffled his hair. He ducked down to evade my hand and then fixed his hair with a grumble about how he'd get me back. I smiled, glad to be home again.

Upstairs I hovered outside the door that led into the room Mabel and I were borrowing. The reminder that it was Cody's room, had me wondering when the house for Mabel and I would be done. It was conflicting, I wanted to be out of their hair, but at the same time I loved being here so much, that I didn't want to leave any time soon.

I opened the bedroom door, well, barely. The room was trashed, and not in the ransacked sort of way. Mabel had managed to get this room completely filthy during the duration of my absence. My stuff was dragged out across the room, and I was half sure she had taken it upon herself to actually use some of my clothes because she was too lazy to go and wash it herself.

I shook my head and started to pick up everything on the floor. I was tired of it already. Mabel seemed to have no drive to do anything, and I wasn't even sure that she had bothered to start learning to defend herself yet, and the thought made me mad. I wasn't sure if it was due to the fact that I had actually had to defend myself, or the fact that there were so many people who didn't get the luxury of living in a compound, and she was taking advantage of it.

I looked over at the bed where she lay, and decided that I would deal with it tomorrow. I finished picking up, and put my hands on my hips. The stuff in my bag wasn't exactly clean, and I didn't feel like putting on the stiff clothes that I had washed at the car wash.