Trust Fall (Deadweight series: Book 1)

Wedged

Reena woke up in her little apartment room and sat up rubbing her head. Ella ran in and jump hugged her making Reena let out a hearty groan. "Ough shit..."

"Mom!" Ella proclaimed in joy as she pulled back and looked at Reena as the coatless guy walked into the room.

"Hey, you're awake. Reena right?"

"Yeah..." She said as she smiled at the man.

Ella grabbed Reena's face and looked her dead in the eyes. "Do you realize how lucky you were? You could've died! From them or hypothermia or or or WALKERS!!" She said as she aggressively shook Reena's head.

Reena pulled away and laughed. "Yeah I know... I know." She looked at the man. "How'd you know I was Ella's Mom?"

"I heard her screaming from the radio transceiver. You dropped it when you rolled away from my brothers bullet. Which, by the way, was impressive."

"It didn't feel impressive." She laughed as the man joined in before walking over to her and extending a hand for a greeting. She took his hand and shook it but still unsure of his name, she looked at him. "Uhm... I'm sorry to... Ya know... make you repeat yourself, again but..."

"Xavier. My names Xavier." He smiled as they dropped the hand shake.

"Nice to meet you." She smiled back to him as she pulled herself to the edge of her bed. "Where's your brother?"

"Oh... Neither of us are very fond of groups but Ella talked me into meeting up with her and bringing you back here."

"Oh... Shit I hope I wasn't too heavy..." She laughed.

He laughed along and shook his head. "Not at all... But, he left after I got you back. I decided to stay to make sure you were okay though."

"Thank you." She smiled widely.

"It's nothing. So, wanna learn how to shoot a gun? And how to deal with the noise?"

Ella hugged Reena one more time and made a face at Xavier but Reena patted her head and nodded to him. "Yeah... I think that's a good idea."

~

September 26th 20XX

It had been nearly a month now since everything started. Reena successfully taught her dogs and even her cat how to stay with her with visual cues and when to do what. Ella and Reena were growing distant because of conflicting views about settling where they wanted to and when something happened, Ella was first to talk about packing up. Which was understandable considering the things that happened but still rather upsetting considering it was hard for Reena to just change scenery constantly.

Eventually, sometime during the night, Reena was about to go and check on Ella but overheard her conversation with Mike. Words about Reena were exchanged between them and it came to Reena's attention that she was trying to parent Ella too much. She wasn't her real parent and even if she had been she needed to let her make her own mistakes.

Reena began distancing herself after that. Reluctantly, but still distancing. Xavier came around and hang out a decent amount of times. Eventually, Reena left on solo missions and those solo missions soon became long journeys before contacting the group again. When Reena finally did come back and started talking to Ella and the others again, it felt awkward.

Ella and Reena went on a mission together but Reena grew fatigued surprisingly fast and decided she should hold up in a hospital where she fell asleep. Ella went on to meet up with Xavier and when Reena finally woke up, she tried to leave but the door had somehow locked itself.

Panicked, Reena tried to remember the frequency on the transceiver for Ella but ended up coming across a different frequency, a man's voice coming through.

"Hey, blue hair, are you new around this city?" He asked straight out, this chilled Reena to the bone as she reluctantly replied.

"Um... Yeah... Kind of." She said as she looked around the hallway she was in and outside to the city.

"Are you in the hospital?" The guy asked.

Reena grew worried as she laid below the window looking into the hallway. "...yeah." She replied as she searched her bag for a lock pick.

"Those doors have a tendency to lock themselves so you should be careful, if you need any help let me know."

"Are you gonna try to kill me if I ask for help?" She asked bluntly.

The guy on the other end of the radio laughed. "If I wanted to kill you I would've done it when I spotted your hair from the apartments." He assured her. "That being said, you should wear something to cover your hair and anything bright on you when you're sleeping."

"Oh... Um... Right, thanks for the advice." She replied.

"Are you alone? Or do you have a group?"

"Mm..." She thought for a moment before replying. "I use to have a group but now I just run with my adopted daughter..."

"I see... Well, do you guys wanna meet up? I usually stick around Lektro."

"Wait... But I'm in Krasto?"

"I came down from there. You slept for a while."

"Fuck... shit." She sighed heavily before replying through the transceiver. "Thanks for not shooting me? Also how did you know I'd reply on this signal?"

"I didn't. I've just been talking into this channel for a few hours hoping someone would reply. Frankly, I didn't even know it would be you."

"Oh... Wait so you... YOU JUST GUESSED?"

"More or less"

"Fucking psychic."

The guys laughter erupted over the transceiver as she laughed with him off radio. Eventually, Ella came back and raised an eyebrow to Reena talking over the radio to someone.

Reena bid him goodbye but set up a meeting place between Krasto and Lektro with the agreement of Ella. On the way there, Reena talked to Ella about what she thought of the guy and his first impression on her.