Love and the Undead (gxg)

Chapter 9

Not long after the thought crosses my mind, Erebus comes barging straight through the middle of both of us, knocking us over. I fall to the left while Iris falls to the right, both of us letting out exclamations of "what the hell!" As I scramble to sit back up I see Iris, and the look on her face sends me straight into hysterical laughter. Her hair is ruffled, and she looks so flustered and confused that I can't help but laugh. Suddenly she doesn't look confused anymore though, as her gaze has focused on me and it does not look happy. I try to reel in the laughter, but it's not working too well- I'm gasping and panting at the effort, and her adorable "mad face" isn't helping.

"I'm glad you think it's so funny."

She glares at me, but I can see the corner of her mouth tilting up in spite of what she says.

"What? Me? Neverrr." I respond, wiping tears from my eyes. "I was just really, ah, caught by surprise that's all, those are my surprised noises. And then I got dirt in my eye from all of the, you know, being surprised on the ground."

I manage to say this with a straight face, but when she starts laughing it sets me off again and soon we're both giggling. Erebus circles back around to us in that way dogs do when they're over-the-top excited and starts licking Iris's face.

"Aw, gross, come on!" She shouts, pushing him away with one hand.

He then bounds over to me and pounces, probably remembering our earlier wrestling and assuming that I'll want to play with him again. I laugh, pushing him off of me in a playful manner and then start petting the top of his head and behind his ears to try and get him to calm down a bit. There's no way I'm gonna go wrestling around with him in only a shirt. Especially not because Iris is sitting right there.

Once he's suitably calmed down, I get up and walk to my jeans. I can feel Iris's eyes on me and it sets my every nerve on edge; I have to fight myself to keep from turning around. Once I pull them on, along with my shoes, I turn around and head back to Iris. I see her starting to get up, presumably to get her own clothes, so I say "I'll grab 'em for you" and pick them up as well before carrying them back to her. When I hand them to her she just holds them and looks at me expectantly. I stare at her blankly for a few seconds and then I realize.

"Oh yeah, sorry! I'll, uh- turn around now."

As I'm turning around I see the hint of a soft smile on her lips before my vision is replaced with the surrounding trees. A soft breeze blows, and it's getting later so the bright blue of the midday sky has subsided into the soft orange of sunset. I take a deep breath, enjoying the sights and the smells and the quiet. That is one thing that got better after the infected hit- there are actual moments of silence. No more cars or factories spewing their waste into the air, no more airplanes flying overhead, no more shrill rings of cell phones. It's much more... intimate. At that thought my mind returns irresistibly to the girl changing behind me. I can imagine her clearly, except in my mind she's slipping the jeans off, not on. I shake my head to clear it, and pull out another cigarette. I swear, this girl's gonna turn me into a chain smoker.

I hear a quiet "Okay" from behind me, giving me permission to turn around.

I do so, and I see Iris standing there shyly.

"Sooooo...." I say, once again the epitome of elegance.

One side of her mouth quirks up in a smile.

"Shouldn't we, like.. Set up a camp or something?" she asks.

"Oh yeah, right, good idea." I reply, hoping that I don't look stupid for not thinking of it first.

I spin around slowly, looking for a good place to set up my -our- tarp. Finally I see these two trees, and I get an idea.

"How do you feel about trees?" I ask Iris vaguely.

She laughs and says "I speak for the trees" in the voice of the lorax, causing me to chuckle.

"Okay, so, I have an idea then. See those two trees over there?"

I point, and she follows my gaze to the trees, which are set about 6 feet apart from each other. She nods her head, and I tell her my idea, getting a little excited about it now.

"What if we set up a hammock in between them, with the tarp and some rope? That one tree has a pretty low branch, see, so we can hook some rope around it easily."

"Ooh yeah, we should totally do that!" she exclaims, "I've always wanted to lay in a hammock, but I've never even seen one outside of the movies!"

I look down into her excited eyes, surprised. She's never laid in a hammock before? Never even seen one? I smile down at her, and then pulled my mostly gone cigarette out of my mouth and ground it on the bottom of my shoe to put it out.

"Alright, let's do it then."

Let me tell you something, folks, even if I had an insane fear of heights and I was allergic to tarps or something I would still make her this hammock.

- Next chapter soon -
  Love,
  Me