Chapter 12: Nikki

 

I knew it was silly to want to travel by foot even after what had already happened. If a character in a zombie movie had made that decision, I would have yelled at the screen. But I trusted Koriv’n to protect me, and we both wanted to spend time alone before adding other people to the mix. Things always got complicated with more chefs in the kitchen, and I wanted to enjoy things as they were now—just the two of us.

I hadn’t missed his reaction to me touching his horns. Who knew horns were erogenous zones? I blamed my stupid neck for ruining everything. I was going in for the kiss when it seized up. By the time my neck calmed down from the medical device, the moment was long over. I was also suddenly too tired to keep my eyes open.

Koriv’n had explained later that it was a common side effect of the healing device. I’d woken up with him curled around me on the bed. He’d been tired and needed the rest, too.

I’d lain there watching him as he slept. His features looked so much younger in repose, though I couldn’t really tell age on these Xarc’n hunters.

Koriv’n worried I’d leave with one of the men from New Franklin, or what was left of the settlement, but his fears were unfounded. Unless he did something horrendous now, I doubted I’d leave him.

I wasn’t sure I’d be ready for anything serious for a long time, but I didn’t mind starting something fun with Koriv’n. Dating I could handle. It wasn’t like we were getting hitched or anything.

Koriv’n had been sure the rest of our travels to the compound would be eventless, and he was correct. I hadn’t needed to use the axe again. Not even once.

We found a bigger, more comfortable bike for me to ride, and I had to decide between the bike and the axe since riding with it was difficult. I had no effective way to strap it onto my body without it also getting in my way. I chose the bike and left the axe leaning next to a tree, but not before I thanked it for saving my life. Maybe it would save another life in the future.

Traveling through the later part of the afternoon, we made it to the compound right around sunset. I couldn’t believe we’d made it all the way across Franklin before sundown, even with all the detours and distractions. I had the bike to thank.

We reached an industrial area blocked off with tall fences and a gate. Koriv’n passed his communicator over the lock at the gate, and it opened. He stepped through, leading me by the hand. I hesitated.

“You’ll like it here. I promise. And if you don’t, you can hide out in my shuttle and pretend it’s just us."

That would be nice, just him and me in his shuttle, but I knew I needed to make an effort to get to know these people. This was their compound, after all. We’d have time alone together later.

He unlocked the door to one of the buildings with no windows on the first floor. A soft light shone from the second-floor windows. The inside was lit with artificial light instead of a campfire; with the other group, we’d used dung fires, which was why everything smelled so bad. I blinked a few times, taking everything in.

The first thing that hit me was the smell of food. Real food. With meat, and veggies, and spices and—my stomach growled. I’d made a lot of the meals for the ex-military group, but I hadn’t had much to work with, so most meals were rice, beans, and powdered mash potatoes. We’d found tubs and tubs of that stuff from some prepper’s stash over the winter, and we were all sick of it.

The place looked so clean and…normal, aside from the strange-looking stairs. The stairs had been knocked out halfway down, the bottom half replaced by a five-step rolling ladder. Whatever worked, I guessed.

The first floor was a big open space with a myriad of rugs lining the concrete floor. Several mismatched couches formed a semi-circle facing the back wall, and on the back wall was…a screen? This place didn’t scream post-apocalyptic like the place I’d just come from. And it didn’t stink.

“Nikki?” Meghan’s voice came from one of the couches. Her face popped up over the top, followed by several men’s faces. “You made it!”

She hopped over the back of the couch, hurried toward me, and gave me a hug. Then she shrank back when she realized how close she was to Koriv’n. She still had fear of the hunters.

“Meghan! Can we believe we both got out in the end? You’ve met Koriv’n, right? He said you told him my name.” I tried to ignore the questioning faces staring at us from the couch. I wasn’t ready for that yet.

Meghan had other ideas. She took my hand, the one that wasn’t attached to Koriv’n’s with a death grip, and pulled me toward the couches.

“You’ve got to meet the guys from New Franklin,” she said eagerly. “Well, old New Franklin. Do you remember how we used to whisper about finding them? They’re going to take us back when they leave here!”

Koriv’n’s hand tightened around mine, and I squeezed it, hoping he understood that I didn’t intend to leave him high and dry. He was safe, and we had a good thing going.

I smiled awkwardly back at Meghan as she excitedly pulled us in front of the couches, not sure how to tell her I wouldn’t be leaving with her. I’d been the one who’d been so adamant on New Franklin to begin with.

A bunch of men, women, and hunters stared back at me, and I instinctively stepped closer to Koriv’n, as if using him as a shield to protect me from all the new faces.

“Koriv’n, my man, you rescued the fair damsel,” said a middle-aged but still robust man. “Good on you!”

“This is Curtis,” Koriv’n said, gesturing to the man. “He fought next to me on the roof during the swarms.”

“Yep,” Curtis said, drawing out the word. “I’m here to avenge my Bessie. Those buggers took her.”

“I’m Nikki. And I’m sorry about your Bessie.”

A few of the men cleared their throats, and one laughed.

“Bessie was his best dairy cow,” a black man with a shaved head explained. “I’m Terrance. I fought beside Koriv’n on the roof as well.” He stuck out his hand.

I shook it, sensing no malice from any of the people in the room.

Then Terrance turned to Koriv’n, and the two bumped fists like two friends greeting each other on a Saturday afternoon. Everything felt surreal. I had a feeling I was going to meet a lot of people in a very short amount of time. Oh boy.

“This here with the injured leg is Roger,” Meghan said with a little too much pep in her voice.

Roger wore a full-on Mohawk. Now I knew who’d hoarded the entire hair gel supply in Franklin after the collapse.

“Yo.” He nodded to me but didn’t get up to shake my hand. I understood. He probably didn’t have much use of that leg, especially if it got the bug toxin in it.

“And next to him is Lenny.”

Lenny looked like he should be rushing off to his exams. He wore glasses, messing up my theory about people with poor eyesight not making it.

“How do you fight with glasses on?” I blurted out awkwardly. Then, feeling like I had to explain, I told him about my theory about how people with vision impairment would rarely make it during a zombie apocalypse.

Lenny took his glasses and dropped them purposefully to the floor. I gasped. But Lenny just picked them up nonchalantly and put them back on his face. “These things are nearly indestructible, and I have two extra pairs. When I fight, I strap them on my face with a retainer strap.”

“Wow! The more you know. Maybe bad eyesight isn’t a death sentence during a zombie apocalypse after all.”

“I loved Zombie movies back in the day too!” said a man with a mop of messy brown hair and a voice that sounded older than he looked. The voice sounded familiar like I’d heard it on tv or something, but I couldn’t place it.

By now, I was already starting to forget the first person I’d been introduced to. The panic must have shown on my face as Meghan continued around the couches throwing names at me, because a small blonde stood and cleared her throat.

“Meghan, maybe let Nikki sit down and have a meal first before bombarding her with names.”

“Oh right, sorry. I got so excited.”

Meghan and the blonde picked up two bowls from a long table set up with gas stoves and filled them with food as Koriv’n found a spot on the couch next to two men and sat down, pulling me into his lap. They both gave him fist bumps. I was glad for the ability to hide next to him for a while. I was getting a bit overwhelmed by all the new people.

The blonde handed me a bowl of stew. “I saw you back at the building when they took me in. I’m so glad you got out. I’m Evie, but if you don’t remember my name tomorrow, I don’t blame you. This is a lot of new faces.” She went to sit next to a Xarc’n hunter with slightly graying temples.

That left Meghan to hand her bowl to Koriv’n. She did so gingerly, as if she thought he would attack her. She frowned at my position on Koriv’n’s lap. Then, as she walked back to her couch, she turned back and said, “Thank you for going back for her.”

Koriv’n grunted, nodded his head just once.

As I ate, I listened to the group chit-chat and make plans for the next day. The food was delicious, super flavorful compared to the bland crap I’d been cooking. I recognized chunks of the nutrition bars in the stew and what looked like fresh vegetables. Hadn’t Koriv’n mentioned a rooftop garden?

Everyone seemed so normal, despite Xarc’n hunters and humans mingling and working together.

The hunter next to Evie pulled out a wire cage covered in a sheet, and Evie told everyone about the baby chicks they’d brought back from their supply run. Baby chicks! They were planning on raising chickens! The whole group at the compound had been working on erecting a proper greenhouse today, and they intended to keep them in there eventually.

Meanwhile, my old group’s plan for the foreseeable future had been to continue strongarming other groups of their supplies. I was glad this group had so many hunters. Those degenerates had gone after lone hunters before, but they’d think twice about messing with a group this big, especially with their dwindling ammo.

Something fuzzy caught my eye, and for a moment I thought I was hallucinating. Was that a squirrel on one of the hunter’s shoulders? I rubbed my eyes. Yup, the squirrel was still there.

A lady with a mass of dark, curly hair and a tan complexion sitting next to the hunter waved her fingers and grinned at me across the room. She pointed to the poster I hadn’t noticed on the wall, of an overweight hand-drawn cartoon squirrel with the words “DO NOT FEED THE SQUIRREL!” in big, bold, all-capital letters. As the rest of the group assigned tasks for the next day, she picked up the squirrel and turned him sideways, showing his belly.

Oh yeah, he was a chonker. I could tell it was a boy because I could see his nuts from here.

The woman eyed Koriv’n, pointing to her eyes, then at him, then back to her eyes, as if saying she was watching him. Koriv’n tried to hide a sheepish grin, and I suppressed a giggle. So he was one of the culprits responsible for the overfed rodent.

Distracted by the chubby squirrel, I didn’t realize the conversation had turned to us, and I suddenly found dozens of pairs of eyes on me. Overwhelmed by the attention, I pressed back against Koriv’n to hide in his familiar presence.