stay alive // jack metzger

three

"Hey," I said, sloshing through the mud of the yard. I called out to Jack who was walking with Adam and JJ to the house from the woods. "Metzger."
   Jack looked at Adam and JJ and waved them off to not wait up. He wiped his hands on his jeans as he walked towards me.
   "Wilson," He said smiling as he approached me. "I see you're on laundry duty today with Aubrey and Elisha."
   "Lucky me," I laughed. "Don't even think about touching these clothes with those dirty hands, I just scrubbed them with a rock for about an hour."
   He laughed and wiped his hands again on the fabric of his jeans and displayed the smile of his.
   "We were just our checking the fences back there," Jack said, pointing to the tree line. "When we found this place, we lined a fence around and cleared everything inside of the fence so we could still use the woods for personal use."
   "Is everything okay?" I asked, looking back at the forest.
   "There's a tear in the fence so we are adding some hardwire to the list of this to get on our next run," He said. "Which, you are coming to."
   "Finally," I said with a sigh of relief. "Id rather risk my life than do laundry in the river again."
"Oh but laundry is such a privilege," Jack laughed, sarcasm filling his words.
"Yeah, not with your girlfriend breathing down my neck like 'well you should be grateful Jack even saved you' or my favorite: 'just know the door is always open for you to leave'."
"Aubrey is like Ryan," Jack said, reassuring me. "She's apprehensive when we bring someone knew in. Just look at it this way, Aubrey's best friend Kiana? She was apprehensive about bringing her in. Now they're inseparable."
"Yeah, but I don't see her liking me anytime soon," I said, nodding towards the back porch where Aubrey was standing with her arms crossed. "Especially when I'm talking to her boyfriend."
"Don't mind it," Jack smiles at me. "She's super chill."
He started walking back towards the house, Aubrey smiling as he turned around.
"Hey Metzger," I called out to him again. He turned around again to face me. "I don't think I ever said thank you for saving me."
"It's my job," he smiled, holding open his arms. "Welcome in."
"Thanks," I said smiling, and we parted. Him going to the house and me going to the clothesline where Elisha was hanging her clothes on the line with clothespins.
"Remind me to ask one of the guys to add new clothespins to the list," Elisha said, struggling to open the pin. "It's times like these I miss electricity."
"I'll add it," I said smiling. "And tell me about the whole electricity thing."
"Right? I miss my stove, Adam and I's New York apartment with out Roomba going around," She laughed, hanging up a shirt. "I miss hot baths, hot tea, hot-"
"Stop," I laughed, hanging up my shirt over the line. "You've got me missing a lot now."
"I'm sorry," she laughed. "I'm just a bit mad at the world these days."
"Aren't we all," I said. "We are beating clothes on rocks in the river and eating rabbits over a fire. The true pioneer style."
"Yeah, but with rabid corpses running around trying to kill you every second," She laughed.
"Have there ever been any attacks here?" I asked quietly, changing the subject to a darker tone. The wind picked up and darker clouds rolled in.
"Fuck me," She said. "You're telling me we just hung all of these clothes up to just get wet again?"
I laughed, pulling down the damp clothes from the line and Elisha did the same she threw them in her basket and we walked up the hill to the house.
"To answer your question," Elisha said as we walked, the wind picking up more. "I'd knock on wood if I could, but we haven't had an invasion yet."
"That's good," I said, looking back at the forest line where Jack, Adam, and JJ came out of. "How long have you guys been here?"
"Since the winter," Elisha said shrugging. "We needed to escape the cold and it was just sitting here like hidden treasure."
"Lucky you guys," I said in sarcastic laughter. Before the tone of the conversation could change, rain started pouring down and we yelped as the cold of the water.
Elisha and I ran as fast as we could up the hill to the house, trying to escape the rain.
***
I lit the center candle of the dinner table as Amanda and Elisha lit the candles around the kitchen. We all started setting the plates out for supper as everyone else was cooking or coming up from the cellar.
"How many plates?" I asked standing at the China cabinet.
"Thirteen," Amanda said, setting out the silverware.
"Thirteen?" I repeated, trying to count back in my head. Every time I got twelve. "Are you sure?"
"We set out a plate for Camryn," Amanda said quietly. "Keeps Ryan in peace."
"It really hurt him, huh?" I asked, holding the plates in my hand.
"Yeah," Elisha said quietly. "I mean I understand. When I lose Adam, I don't know how I'll react."
I was silent as I grabbed more plates, trying not to notice the impending question in the air.
"How did she die specifically?" I asked, looking at the two. They both stopped moving and looked at each other. "Sorry I shouldn't have-"
The both stopped breathing as I felt a presence behind me. I turned around and saw Ryan leaning against the dining room door frame. He looked different, almost smaller, than usual.
"We were trying to make it out of the suburbs," Ryan said to me in a quiet voice.
"Ryan, you don't have to-" Elisha said, trying to get him to stop, but Ryan waved her off.
"At this time it was just me, Jack, Adam, Elisha, JJ, and Cam. We made it out of the city just fine, but I insisted we check out the nearest town for some supplies just in case."
    Ryan looked away and walked over to the table, pulling out a chair and sitting down. His face grew white as he tried to find words. The words looked as if they were stuck in his throat by emotions.
   "Cam kept saying we should stop for the night. Get some rest and then go out to the town the next day, to not risk it. I didn't listen and told her we needed to go and see what was there. She begged me to let us stop, but I told her how important it was for us to find food."
   I slowly sat down in the chair beside him, careful to not stir any noise as he retold his story. I covered my mouth with my hands and let him finish.
   "It-" he started but I could see the emotion building behind his glasses. "Its all my fault she's gone."
   "Ryan, don't say that," Elisha said, but Ryan brushed her off.
   "We went in after sun fall and I was holding onto her hand as we ran. Her and Elisha were obviously tired, but they knew they had to pull through. I was gripping her hand, but before I could process anything, I heard her scream, and I mean scream, my name."
    He got up from his chair to hide his tears from us and he faced the kitchen door. He held his hands at the back of his head, breathing in as he did.
   "I turned around, and just like that-" he snapped his fingers, something that made my spine tingle. "Her grip was loose in my hand and a group of the dead had her by the back of her legs. She was gone."
    "Ryan-" I said, trying to console him.
    "I didn't get to say goodbye, Ana," He said, turning back around. This time tears were down his face. "I didn't get to say goodbye to her."
    I stood up slowly, trying to be respectful for him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little silver chain with an opal on it.
   "I lost the only thing that had any meaning to me," He said to me. "Yeah I lost my humanity, my way of living, my home-but wherever she was, everything was okay."
    I set down two plates by Ryan's chair, looking back up at him.
    "If a woman had that power on your life," I said, pushing in the chair. "Then she deserves a seat at the table."
    Ryan looked at me, and a small smile cracked from the corner of his mouth. He held out his hand for me to shake, and when I took it, he pulled me into a hug.
   "Thank you," He whispered to me.
   "Woah, what's going on here?" Jack said laughing as him and JJ walked into the dining room. Ryan pulled away quickly and wiped his eyes.
   "Just making sure everything for Sunday dinner is okay," Ryan said, his demeanor and posture changing back into the Ryan I had know previously. "Jack, J,do you guys know what we need for the fence yet?"
   "Yeah, we were just coming up to show you-" Jack said, and before he could finish, Ryan shoved his hands into his swishy jacket and left the dining room.
   "Come show me," Ryan yelled back at Jack and JJ and they stood there dumbfounded. They both laughed and waved us off, Jack smiling a little bit more at me.
   "You better be careful, Wilson," Elisha laughed, setting down the plates that were passed to her. "Aubrey catches you flirting with her man, and-"
   "I'm not flirting," I laughed, rolling my eyes at her.
   "Oh really? Because I'm getting 'oh jack, my hero!' vibes from you right now," Amanda laughed. I punched her arm lightly to get her to shut up.
   "Oh quit it," I laughed. "I'm not getting attached to anything anymore."
   "Too late," Elisha said to me. "You're already apart of the family."