Chasing Colorado: (The Zombie Zovels #2) (18 page)

“Full of surprises.” I said, looking at my pitchfork, wondering what to do with it.

I couldn't manage the reins and a pitchfork, and I wasn't about to take up jousting with the deadbies.

“You don't need that anymore.” Drew said, taking it from me and leaving it on the ground.

I grabbed the saddle which felt like a million miles away. Was I that short?

After a few attempts, (Drew laughing didn't help), I finally made it into the saddle.

Drew walked the horse over to the stream where she bent her head down and had a drink.

“What if she takes off with me on her?”

“She won't not unless she gets frightened.”

“Frightened, like, say a bunch of zombies come running out of the trees.”

Drew rolled his eyes at my choice of words.

“Yeah a bunch of deadbies would probably frighten her, but she's quicker than deadbies, so if you come across any hold onto the reins. Tight.”

Drew walked beside us while the horse walked through the stream. After twenty minutes of Drew giving me a few tips and a free of charge riding lesson as he put it, he left me to go and find some breakfast, but it was close to noon so it was actually nearly lunchtime now.

“Just keep following the stream, I'll catch up to you.”

“But what if you don't?”

“I will.” he called over his shoulder.

The horse and I, that I had named Chestnut because of her color, ambled along the steam. It wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be, but then again she hadn't bucked me off yet. Every time she saw a nice tuft of grass she would stop to taste it. I had no idea what the time was, Drew was the only one with the time, not that he needed it, he could usually guess the right time from looking at the sun. The hottest part of the day passed and the hours drifted by with still no sign of Drew. I knew he wouldn't be able to keep up with me on the horse even if he said he could.

So I found a nice spot beside the stream and when the horse came to a stop I managed to lift my leg over and jump down. I quickly grabbed her reins before she got any ideas about galloping off. I tied her to a tree that was close to the stream so she could still reach the water and graze on the grass at the same time.

I sat down in the overgrown grass and opened my bag. I had waited hours for him to return and he was nowhere to be seen, and I couldn't believe I had managed to put off eating until now, but I couldn't wait any longer and devoured the
Mars
bar I had left in seconds, and filled myself up with water from the stream. I was just about to rip open a packet of pre-packed food when I spotted something moving in and out of the trees further down. I abandoned the food packet and crawled through the grass, and over to Chestnut, and looked between her legs, trying to stay hidden. I saw two legs walking this way through the stream. Two familiar legs. I stood up and walked around the horse to greet him. He had something slung over his right shoulder, with his crossbow slung over his other shoulder.

“Honey, I found dinner.” he said, dumping it on the ground in front of my feet.

“What is that?”

“Deer.” he said, resting his crossbow against a rock.

Then he reached for me, grabbed my hand, and pulled me over to him. My heart suddenly fluttered from the close contact. I wondered what he was doing...then he pinched the knife from me and I took a step back feeling stupid. Of course, he just wanted the knife. What else would he want from me?

“You killed a whole deer?”

“Whole deer? What, you wanted me to just kill a bit of it?” he said, trying not to laugh.

“You know what I mean.”

“Well it was either this, Mr. Moose back there, and you said no... or that snake that apparently followed me back to camp.”

“What!” I said, searching around my feet, horrified to see a snake slithering its way toward me.

Drew quickly but gently pushed me out of the way, and stalked over to the snake, and picked it up.”

“Snake handler as well?” I said.

“Man of many talents.” he said, looking for a rock.

I turned away as he killed it.

“Is it dead? I hate snakes.”

“Yeah, it's dead.” he said, throwing it into the grass.

Then he walked back over to the deer.

“I can't believe you killed this just for us two to eat, it's huge.”

“It's not that big, it's a young un'”

“A baby deer? It just gets worse.”

“Stop complaining and make yourself useful.”

He wanted me to make a fire while he skinned Bambi. He handed me the pocket watch before he got started.

“5.20pm already, how did it get so late? I guess this will be dinner instead.” I said, looking at the deer.

“This is gonna take a while.” he said, dragging the thing over to a tree.

I built a fire, trying not to look as Drew hung the thing up in a nearby tree with the rope we had taken from the barn. I had to look away when he started making slits and skinning it. I entertained myself by chucking stones into the stream and keeping the fire burning, waiting patiently. Drew came back covered in blood and washed his hands in the stream.

Drew cooked the meat, I had no clue when it came to cooking. The only thing I knew how to cook was soup, warming up soup to be precise, and warming up Pop Tarts when I was at home. Mom did all the cooking, even if some of it was inedible. She didn't like people in the kitchen when she was being creative. So I never learned to cook. I'm sure that was something I would have learned eventually from my mom if things hadn't turned to crap.

Chestnut settled down on the grass while we ate in silence. Drew wasn't a chatty person anyway, but I could tell there was something on his mind bothering him.

“Is it okay?” he asked.

I didn't want to admit I liked eating baby deer, so I simply said, “Yeah, it's okay I guess.”

A few minutes later Drew broke the silence again.

“So do you really love this Lane guy?”

I thought it was strange he was bringing this back up again, hadn't I already told him this?

“I guess.”

“You guess?” He said it in a way which made it sound like he was annoyed with me.

Jeez, what is with him today? He's being so frigging weird.
I thought, looking across the fire at him.

“I dunno, we were together for a while, living together outside, sharing everything, we just got used to each other and he grew on me.”

“He grew on you?”

“Lane and I are from different worlds.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, Lane liked the attention, he had a lot of friends, we were different. Lane was the popular one at school and I wasn't, I was more of a loner type. At lunch, I would have my earbuds stuffed in my ears, and I usually had my nose stuck in a book. I couldn't be bothered with all those fake friends, and half the school thought I was this freak and steered clear of me anyway so...”

“So you weren't friends before?”

“No, we never spoke.”

“So you think he's your soul mate?”

Again, what is with these questions?

I thought about it for a moment and looked up at him.

“Do you believe in soul mates?”

Instead of answering me his gaze shifted to the pendant hanging around my neck, and he didn't say anything else on the subject. Had I just imagined that conversation?

Something flew into my face and I swatted my cheek instinctively, and then regretted it as my cheek stung.

“I am so out of my comfort zone right now, surrounded by creepy crawlies, insects, frickin' snakes.” I shivered. “Can we please sleep in a tree tonight? I hate all these bugs. Camping on the ground is my worst nightmare.”

“What? No way! We're surrounded by the great outdoors, this is the best thing there is, give me this anytime over staying indoors.”

Another bug flew in front of my face and I waved it away.

“Ugh, distract me, please, tell me something, anything, tell me about where you come from.”

“It's hot.”

“Hotter than here?”

“Uh yeah, it's hotter than here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“How can you live in this heat and not burn?”

“You just get used to it.”

“What did you do in your spare time?” I asked, scratching my back as it felt as though a bug had just crawled up my T-shirt.

“Shootin', fishin', going out on the boat in the swamps looking for gators.”

“Gators?”

“Alligators.”

“Oh. Have you ever fallen out of the boat and nearly being eaten by a
gator
?”

“Um, yeah I've fallen out a few times, mainly 'cause I was drunk but no gators wanted me.” he laughed.

“Have you even been bitten or close to being bitten?”

“I think if I had I'd be missing a hand. But no, I've never been bitten and no one I know has, but we do have this one gator that's a bit famous in Dodge.”

“What makes him so famous?”

“'Cause in Dodge Lake everyone's heard of him, let's just say if you lived out near the bayou and your cat went missing it was probably because Snowser had gotten it.”

“Snowser?” I laughed. “And have you ever seen this Snowser?”

“Just the once. He's an impressive beast. Biggest I've ever seen.”

I took a sip of my water, Drew was just finishing the other Coke can.

“So... did you have a girlfriend back home... or still have one... waiting for you?”

Where did that come from? Why did I want to know?
Just making conversation.
I told myself.

“Nothin' that stuck.”

“Nothing that stuck.” I repeated. “Which means what in boy language?”

“It means, I hooked up with a few girls but none of them ever stayed, there was this one girl, but she was a massive whore.”

Oookay.

“Well, you must be doing something wrong.” I said.

He looked up at me and crossed his arms.

“You're not a serial killer, are you?”

“No, I'm not a serial killer.” he said with a crooked smile.

“Gay?”

“Gay?” he laughed, slightly shocked by the question. “I just told you I hooked up with girls.”

“Yeah, but that could just be a cover.” I said playfully.

“So you think I'm gay? And I apparently look like this uh... I can't remember the name now, Lena did tell me.”

“Oh,” I laughed and covered my face. “Lena told you?”

“Sort of, I wormed it out of her, I wanted to know why you girls were giggling and lookin' at me when we were back at the prison.”

“So not gay?”

“No.”

“It's just you have
nice
hair.”

It was true, Drew had nice hair, it was short at the sides and the longer part flopped perfectly over his forehead, no wispy bits, no split ends, it looked as though a professional had done it, and I had noticed in the mornings if we were near a water source he'd wet it down and run his hands through it to make it look just right. He couldn't be bothered to wash but he always made sure his hair looked good.

“What?”

“It just looks well groomed, and green... why
do
you have green hair?”

“I like the color green. And Lena was good with a pair of scissors.”

“Of course, green, makes sense you'd dye your hair the same color. Maybe I should do mine.”

“What's your favorite color?” he asked.

“Turquoise.”

“Favorite band?” he asked.

“Fall Out Boy, you?”

“Hmm, I think it's gotta be Puddle Of Mudd.”

I nodded, I had heard their music so I knew who he was talking about, I think everyone had heard Blurry before.

Drew rubbed his hand over his unshaven jaw. It was completely smooth when we left the prison, I assumed he carried a razor in his rucksack, but he had lost his belongings like I had. I noticed he was scratching his chin more and more each day, I don't think he liked the stubble.

After dinner, I yawned louder than necessary, looking around at where I was going to sleep. We had stayed next to the stream, it was so nice having fresh water to drink and wash our hands in. I was hoping for a quick wash in the stream in the morning, maybe I could send Drew out hunting at first light so I could have some privacy. I felt safer now having the horse. If anything came along I could just ride off.

“I think I'll sleep next to that tree on the slope, the grass is too long down here, I can't see what's slithering through it.”

Drew chuckled.

“You won't be laughing when one slithers up your leg and you find a snake in your pants.”

Whatever Drew was chewing on flew out of his mouth. He burst out laughing and I went beet-red at how wrong that sounded. Drew thought it was hilarious, though. I waited for him to calm down before I spoke again. “Do you think you should take that down?” I asked, looking at the remains of the deer carcass still hanging from the tree.