It had always dawned on Tess Dixon that she would end up alone,but being this was the first time that she was actually apart from the group, anxiety and the acceptance of death seemed a lot closer.
Tilting her head back to lean on the tree behind h...
Attempting to seem unfazed and nonchalant about the impending scouting groups return, Tess nervously fingered the delicate chain of the necklace, which hid itself in her décolletage. Her bloodied hands left reddened remnants on her tanned skin. But, nonetheless she returned to her makeshift carving station, a bucket of putrid, stench ridden fish heads and intestines lay between her legs on the ground beneath her.
"Ummm...Tess?" a nervous, flustered murmur caused her to wipe away her stray hairs from her vision with her forearm; cleaning the blood out of her blonde looks would be a bitch. She looked up and smiled warmly, seeing a blushing Carl.
"You alright there bud?"
At the nickname, the infatuated boy began to kick up the dirt beneath him and a few whispers of his growing hair fell into his eyes, as he bent hid head forward to hide the growing blush of his cheeks. Sensing the boys embarrassment, she realigned her gaze and returned to the task at hand, giving a close lipped smile at the endearing, reddening child in front of her. For that is what he was - a child.
"Could you teach me to do that?" Carl gestured to the fish in front of her, "please?", he stuttered, remembering his manners as an afterthought.
Tess gazed over his shoulder and cast a pansophical eye over the camp. She frowned when she saw no sign of Lori - it deepening when she couldn't catch a glimpse of Shane either, who turned instant puppy dog whenever she was around, lapping at her heels. Probably out fuckin' in the woods.
"Where's your mum?"
"I don't know" Carl responded, his expression turning to one of annoyance and irritation, he sunk himself down onto the log next to her, shrugging his shoulders, "I don't care."
Tess sighed and pressed her blade into the wood in front of her.
"She'd only nag at me to do school work anyways," he mumbled.
"Well maybe she thinks this will all be over soon," she nudged his shoulder with her own light heartedly, "and it'll go back to normal," she gave him a hopeful smile, shadowing her real thoughts about the real future of the world around them. But, she wanted to maintain his sense of childhood innocence. Carl lifted his head and their eyes met, she was startled by his penetrating, unblinking gaze.
"No, it won't,"
Tess was taken aback by the boy's intensity and lack of hope. In truth she was torn on how to respond; Lori intended to prohibit Carl having any contact or knowledge with the ever changing world around him, rather pushing him towards a fake normality. As if they were almost all at summer camp, instead of hiding from flesh eating corpses, who were once the living. Tess obviously didn't agree with her methods, keeping him from the dangers would only make him weak, but her upbringing didn't hold her in good stead for making judgements on parenting and childhood.
Plucking the knife from the wood, she rotated her grip so that the handle was presented towards Carl. His mood quickly changed - a beaming grin took over and his hand eagerly lunged towards the blade. Tess retracted it quickly, just as his outstretched fingers were curving towards it. She narrowed her eyes and gave him a pointed look.
"You will be careful," Carl nodded ferociously, "and you will not tell your mother," he nodded again, more animatedly than the first. She smiled, as she passed it to him.
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For the next half hour, Tess and Carl worked through the pile of fish in front of them. Tess offering instructive advice every now and then, to which Carl listened intently - transfixed by the new knowledge. Eager to learn. He would not admit this, but he was somewhat fascinated by the Dixon's and the lifestyle they possessed. The child within him drawn to the unfamiliar and unknown. He was sometimes even envious of their ability to adapt and thrive in the outside world. Even being with Tess now was the most fun that he had in a while, purely because he was being given the opportunity to be treated more like an adult, then some dumb, defenseless kid. He grinned happily and worked in silence. For a short while.
"I don't think my mum likes me being around you," Carl said innocently, drawn in by the hardened exterior of the Dixon, a family trait it seemed. The boy was sticking his tongue out in concentration, cutting through the belly of a small trout. Not bothered by people's perceptions of her, Tess responded playfully.
"Is that so?" she smirked, already completely aware of the woman's disdain towards her. Carl emboldened by their repertoire, had stopped what he was doing.
"Yeah, I think she called you, a um, redneck?", Tess stilled her movements. Watching Carl continue innocently and whole heartedly with his task. For a moment, she felt as sudden burst of rage at the word and was intending to berate the youngster, but then was it more important that the innocence be protected that it is that the guilt be punished? For guilt and crimes were so frequent in this new new world that surely they could not all be punished? In her lifetime, she had been called many names, most of them she had been able to ignore, remembering the drunken ramblings of her father of all people: "Under the Roman Empire, barbarians were the rural trash of their fay. The word pagan is derived from the Latin pagus, meaning country, and Romans used it to describe country dwellers. Likewise, heathen originally meant those rural types who lived under cover of the heath. Both pagan and heathen are ancient verbal ancestors of hillbilly, meaning there has always been out type".
Where her father received such information from, she never sought to ask, for he could never recall any of it again after that night. His drunken bender allowing him to sound like a scholar for a moment, before he finished it with: "the redneck national anthem - settle for what you can get". Shaking her head at the memory, Tess, gazed downward.
"Dumb bitch," she muttered, eyes widening, when she realized that the words had not surfaced from her subconscious but her mouth. Panicking, she looked towards Carl, who's mouth was agape and was snapping open and shout, much like a fish starved of oxygen, his knife dangling from his fingertips mid slice.
"Carl, I-" Tess garbled, in an attempt to explain herself, but before she could finish, a loud snort exhaled from Carl's nostrils, followed by a childish laugh. Smiling nervously, Tess watched him as he threw a hand over his stomach, his bellowing laugh filling the glade. After a while, his laugh dwindled, turning into loud exhales. He picked up his knife from his feet and picked up another fish from the metal bucket. Narrowing her eyes in confusion at him, she watched as he started expertly gutting the underbelly, before he stopped, noticing the silence.
"She is a bit of a bitch," he muttered nonchalantly.
Taken aback, Tess smacked his arm lightly.
"Carl, you can't say that word!", she whispered loudly.
"Why not?" he shouted in reply, waving his arms at her exasperatedly, "you said it!"
Scoffing, Tess put her hands on her hips authoritatively, "I am an adult,".
Carl scoffed, "Oh, okay Tess," His mimicking reply, caused Tess to narrow her eyes and open her mouth in shock at his playful banter. Before she could reply, excitable shouts echoed around them, coming from all directions.
"They're back!" Carl shouted, turning to Tess, with a wide smile on his face. Standing simultaneously, they wiped their bloodied hands onto a dirtied rag, Carl throwing his arms around Tess, before she could step forward.
