Chapter Four

The next morning I woke up slowly. For an hour I refused to get out of my sleeping bag; the floor had never felt so cushiony. “Mmmph,” I mumbled as I hugged it. Evan tried with no avail to get me up. Eventually he resorted to kicking me square in the ribs. He was pleased that this had worked, but less so at the fact that I had then grabbed his foot and twisted it so that he fell to the ground.

I pushed myself off the floor and stretched. I looked down and realized I was wearing a sports bra and pajama shorts; a fact I would not care about were Jesse not staring at me from across the room as I stretched. I cocked my head to one side and looked back at him. “Can I help you, sir?” I asked. He blinked a few times then shook his head and proceeded to pour himself a bowl of Lucky Charms.

I helped Evan up off the floor. He glanced over at the couch where Kim was sleeping. “Should we wake her?” I asked him. He looked down at his feet.

“No,” he whispered. “Let her rest. She’s been through a lot.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “Let’s go have some breakfast.” I followed him into the kitchen and joined Jesse at the table. I poured myself some cereal and milk and put a spoonful in my mouth. Evan sat on the counter and leaned forward, his hands on his knees. “We need to get packing today,” he said. “The first thing to do is take inventory of the food. We can separate breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the few snack foods we have. We’ll start once we finish eating and the girl wakes up.”

“I have one question,” Jesse interjected. “What are we going to do about that girl? I mean not that I don’t feel bad for her, but she may be a bit of a problem with making progress. Like…she may get in the way of our work.” A footstep came from behind me and I spun around to see Kim. She looked down at her feet.

“I,” she mumbled. “I, uhm, I didn’t mean to intrude. I’m sorry.” She walked out of the kitchen sulkily. I turned and glared at Jesse. He looked at me wide eyed.

“I’m sorry!” He stammered. “I didn’t mean…I didn’t see her there! I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings, I just--” I couldn’t hear the rest of what he said over the pounding of my footsteps as I stormed out of the room after Kim. I found her crying quietly in the chair she had slept in. I walked over and sat down next to her, laying my arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to me, her arms wrapping around my torso.

“Kim,” I said. “Don’t listen to Jesse. He doesn’t mean what he says. He’s just kind of freaked out about all the flesh eating demons from beyond the grave banging on our walls. We can find something for you to work on. You’re not useless and we won’t just leave you out there to die. You’re with us now.”

“My name isn’t Kim,” she said into the pillow. She looked up at me. Her eyes were a piercing shade of blue that looked as if they were staring straight into your soul. I mentally shook myself from the daze of being lost in the pools of blue. “Alex and I have been friends since we were small. When I told her my name was Cameron, she misheard it as Kim, and she’s called me that ever since. Or at least she used to.” She paused for a moment to wipe her tears and take a breath. “I can help organize the food, if you want. Whatever I can do to get us out of here.”

I brushed her short black hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. And there were her eyes again; blue as sapphire and bright as a supernova. Her pupils looked like a black hole that was sucking every emotion I had out of me. I took a deep breath and pulled myself out of her arms. I stood and smiled down at her. “We’ll put you right to work, then.” I said, and walked into the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and shook myself.

“Those eyes,” I said to my reflection. “Those damned eyes. Those eyes are going to be trouble.”