The Dead World Ch. 08

The place wasn't half bad. It was cold at times during the night, but that wasn't something Charlie felt would end the world for her. Dog was more than happy to sleep close, to fight the chill as the last of the fall season days began to fade into early winter. She slept better than she ever had alone in her room, and after all that had gone down back at the resort before they slipped off in the chaos, waking up with Dog occasionally running a hand along her side and hips was nothing in comparison. At least his company was welcomed.

Still, it was hard not to be cautious that he wouldn't try to push things further. She wasn't an idiot... she could tell by the way he looked at her, how he watched her undress from the corner of his eye, or how, while they rested, he slipped a hand beneath the fabric of anything she bothered wearing to caress her flat stomach or thighs.

It caused a swell of conflicting emotions she never imagined she'd have to deal with. A large part of her wanted to cuss him out and reinforce her demand for boundaries and personal space, but... another part of her felt guilty comfort in it.

Her conscious mind reasoned against her fears that Dog didn't exactly have the opportunity to learn basic societal behavior, like manners, boundaries, or how to treat a woman. So how would he know what was appropriate and what wasn't? Surely he didn't pick up anything but bad tendencies and habits from the group of people he traveled with. All he had to go by was her reaction to the impulsive things he did, and if she was angry, he withdrew... but... for how long would her temporary wrath be enough to dissuade him from crossing the line? She wanted to trust him, she truly did...

She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind for now. There wasn't any use fretting over it now... instead, she focused on her "mission", feeling the slightest pang of self-consciousness over her place in the world. The men of Dog's group were ready, able-bodied road warriors. How they operated made that apparent many times over now—hell, even Dog had a unique skill set honed by the harshness of daily life at the end of the world. It left Charlie feeling inadequate, and hopeful to prove herself. She didn't want to be a burden to him.

In the main building of the self-storage facility, the units housed indoors all seemed to have their treasures, with every one she could get into more interesting than the last. At Dog's suggestion, she spent the first few days at the storage facility, with her flashlight in hand, rooting through the small indoor units dotting the hallway, hoping to find things that might make a long trip easier. She picked through them slowly, not questioning Dog's whereabouts when he wasn't doing the same thing with her. He was more than capable of taking care of himself, alone. Their first real day at their temporary camp, he was gone for nearly the entire day.

Charlie waited anxiously inside the storage unit filled with hotel furniture as he retrieved the battery from the broken-down Ford and pushed the thing off of the main road as best he could, to hopefully throw off his group if they came looking. He returned well after sundown, half soaked and exhausted once again.

Charlie had been wise enough to collect rainwater, despite Dog telling her to stay inside out of view of anyone, and the bucket's-worth served as both refreshment and a crude opportunity to wash away some of the muck and grime from their tasks for the day.

The next few days, however, he returned far more frequently. Only a few hours would pass before he'd turn up, and they would take a break from scavenging supplies to eat, play a card game, or practice handling the handgun. When he left her, she could hear him out in the facility lot breaking into the outer storage units while she took the simpler task of checking those inside. He'd retrieved a crowbar when he went for the truck battery which proved efficient against the basic key pattern locks on the doors, and was less wasteful than just shooting the mechanism off.

Charlie discovered a unit filled with nothing but cardboard boxes, a disappointing first. The next she was fortunate enough to discover what appeared to be an entire house of arranged furniture and upon further inspection, she found herself ever so amused to discover it had been the staging materials for a real estate firm when showing new listings, complete with comforters and arranged beds. It looked like someone lived here!

She shook her head, bemused at how people had been so obsessed with the most time-consuming bullshit back in the day. All the same, she was quick to claim that as their new base of operations, particularly for the small window placed along the ceiling that let in a bit of natural light. It seemed the last unit of every row had one. It didn't open, but it was better than nothing!

The next unit was an assortment of office materials, including numerous boxes of paper files. She found herself quite pleased to find a small dry-erase board with markers, stationary and other knick-knacks that would be nice to kill time or make it easier to communicate with Dog.

Her mind wandered as she went about gathering things, wondering more by the day what sort of young life the mysterious and silent young man called Dog had led. They hadn't had time to get into those sorts of discussions when getting to know one another at the hotel, but who really talked about those things, these days? Everyone had a past, and if you were alive and an adult right now, you had a point when your entire world went to absolute shit just like everyone else's did... The past wasn't a pretty thing to reminisce about.

She wasn't sure about the time anymore. Somewhere toward the eighth unit she broke, Charlie was pleased to find it chock full of clothing of all sorts. She rifled through the unit, musing at the prom dresses and pumps with their frilly accessories... and coming upon a box of thick flannels. She found herself grinning ear to ear, stripping out of the dirty old t-shirt hastily, "Yesss, fucking jackpot!"

The door rattled, startling her for a moment until Dog poked his head inside, and beaconed for her to follow. He wore a similar giddy grin, from ear to ear, leading Charlie out of the main building as she languidly made to button the red and black flannel shirt, rolling the sleeves up as she trailed along after him. "What'd you find, hm? Something better than clean clothes? Ugh—they smell like mothballs, but hey, better than the same shit we've been wearing all week!"

He stopped on the first row of the garage units, lifting a metal door excitedly to expose Charlie to rows of long barrels. The sweet scent of cherry wood stirred her senses. Her dark brows knitted together gently in confusion as Dog looked to her with a smile, and then gestured to one of the barrels, taking the crowbar from her hands and using it to pry the lid off. Immediately, the spicy scent of its contents caused an amused chuckle to escape her lips, and she moved to his side to peer down into the barrel, extending a hand down to swipe the liquid pooled at the bottom.

"Oh... ahahaha, it's bourbon whiskey!" She laughed, "Really good fucking bourbon! I didn't know you could even bring things like this into a storage unit—probably from an old distillery somewhere close, holding onto old barrels for aging."

Dog grinned, and drew his empty canteen looped about his neck, lowering it down into the bottom of the barrel of aged whiskey to let it fill as Charlie shook her head and waved a hand lazily.

"We'll die of dehydration if we drink this and don't find some water! Help me drag one of these empty ones out... and hope the rain picks back up today..."

They backtracked to their safe room as the sun began to set, the thick storm clouds overhead making it seem darker than it already was. Charlie seemed in a much better mood out here, free of the stressors and worries his group had plagued her with while occupying the resort. Dog couldn't help but smile at her contentment, doing his final round to close the garage doors he'd opened while scouring the units for supplies to maintain a low profile during their occupation.

The slightest disappointment had come in the fashion of not yet finding a vehicle to try to salvage. He hoped that someone might actually utilize the garages for their intended purpose... but they had only been here a few days. And in the worst of cases, he knew exactly where he could procure a vehicle, even if it would be an absolutely insane and risky mission.

Charlie waited for him inside their newly chosen unit, the solar lantern set onto an expensive-looking polished walnut coffee table. In her hands was a novel—something exciting and romantic it seemed by her expressions—taken from one of the staging bookshelves. She rested on her stomach on the California king bed, several boxes of clothing scattered about the concrete floor.

She'd gathered a pile of warm shirts, jeans, and thick socks from the unit of clothing, guessing Danny's size as she tried to make herself useful. With a soft smile, he set about rifling through his pack for something edible as Charlie giggled over a part in her book. He offered a pair of apples to her, and tallied the remaining rations. They were running low. He'd have to go hunting, and soon.

"This book is ridiculous... Seriously, you should read it—I'm almost finished. It only took me about a day," She mused, taking a bite from one of the ripe fruits and watching as Dog began to go through the clothing options, wrinkling his nose at anything that he deemed unattractive. Realizing his dislike for the brighter-colored flannels a mirthful laughter bubbled from her lips, and he arched a brow at her coolly.

'What's funny?'

"Are you seriously being picky about color schemes at the end of the world?"

He threw up a middle finger with a grin, and she laughed harder as he opted for the most monochromatic pieces among them, not at all shy about pulling off the damp black shirt and discarding it by balling it up and pitching it into the depths of their safe room. He kicked off his boots and covered a soundless yawn as he moved to flop onto the bed beside Charlie, curiously watching as her eyes swept the page once again, taking an apple to munch on himself.

Dog's stomach grumbled angrily, not at all fond of the fact that he ate only enough to keep himself moving lately, saving what he could for Charlotte. She'd noticed. She was purposely trying to match his efforts, slyly setting aside dried fruit or MREs to share with him later on.

"It's about this smart, quirky college student who can't seem to get anything right... she meets this suave, well-established businessman at a café after she spills her coffee on his laptop and he's in need of someone to help him with his dirty work in his company—now they're secretly dating and building an empire on white collar crimes and getting all caught up with, like, drug dealers and all sorts of crazy shit like that..." He stared at her, amusement in his soft hazel eyes, and she gazed deeply into his own before shaking her head with a chuckle, "...You... don't have any idea what any of that means, do you?"

He reached for a composition book Charlie had dug out of one of the first units, scrawling a note for her.

'No clue. Books are hard... Comics are better.'

"What's hard about them? Just about anything is interesting to read these days..."

'Big words.'

She nodded her head gently, understanding without the need for further elaboration... it wasn't as if there were schools in the middle of the apocalypse after all. With a thoughtful glance toward the ceiling, she nodded her head firmly, and smiled at him.

"I'll teach you, if you want... I'm guessing you were like thirteen or fourteen when everything... well..."

He gave a languid nod of his head, not surprised she had guessed his age rather accurately. Before she could ask, he took the pen, scrawling a '12' onto the paper as she dog-eared her page and frowned contemplatively. It was such a young age to be on your own. There were things that were easy to assume, such as his parents hadn't made it out of the initial absolute fucking madness that was the outbreak tearing across the globe in only a handful of days. He seemed unbothered, though, nodding airily to her book as if to encourage her to keep reading if she so desired. She snapped the book closed and turned onto her side to face him with a smile.

"So you're what... eighteen, or nineteen now?"

He passed a lopsided grin, and shrugged, stretching his arms over his head and interlacing his fingers coyly as she tried to guess. It didn't matter much these days, either way. If you didn't grow up quickly at the end of days, you didn't make it very long.

"...Do you remember your birthday?"

Dog looked pensive for a moment before taking the book and pen and languidly scrawling, 'August 10.' Her expression brightened and she nodded, nudging aside the book as Dog slowly moved to sit up, all but devouring the apple down to the core, collecting the seeds as he did so. His birthday wouldn't have passed too long ago, yet even at the end of his teenage years, he felt much older for the way of the world.

"Happy belated birthday, Danny... you're a Leo! I guess that explains a lot..."

He wasn't sure what she meant by it... but it was nice to listen to her talk, all the same. He bowed his head in thanks for the belated birthday wish, moving to root through his pack for a few moments, a devious curl of a smile upon his lips as he took the canteen from the depths they'd filled with whiskey from the old aging barrel and took a sip from it, grimacing at the sharpness of the aged beverage as it burned all the way down, and warmed him considerably. It was a welcome distraction from his mostly empty stomach. His eyes dropped to her, playfully offering out the canteen, and Charlie stared at it for a moment before shaking her head.

"Aht-ahh—nope! I didn't really drink even before the world ended..."

He rolled his eyes and thrust the canteen in her direction with a smirk, waggling it temptingly before she reached out to take it, and heaved a sigh. "You seriously peer pressuring me right now? Is this what the world's coming to? Fine. Cheers..."

Dog dug out his worn pack of playing cards, moving back to sit as Charlie tilted her head back and took a swig from the container, her sour expression rivaling Dog's own as she took the liquor straight and swallowed, coughed, and sucked in a sharp breath while shaking her head, "Fuck that's awful—fucking hell!"

He shook with silent laughter, taking the canteen to his lips and swallowing another mouthful of the spicy sweet alcohol, the second time around finding it much smoother and relaxing. He shuffled the deck, and Charlie crossed her bare legs, enjoying as the warmth spread through her body from the old whiskey. "Not poker again... Let's team Solitaire—or Gin Rummy?"

They played for what felt like hours, laughing and joking, passing the canteen back and forth. Despite Charlie's earlier insisting she wouldn't be drinking, by the middle of the night she had a glow to her pretty golden face and a glimmer in her warm, almond-shaped eyes that Dog could only describe as captivating. Everything about her—the way her wavy curls framed her face—or how she laughed and swept her hair over her shoulder and delighted in beating him at the card game... everything about her was mesmeric. An airy sigh slipped from his lips as she caught him staring again, ducking behind her stack of cards in her hand to keep from cheating as he all but lay his own hand in front of them.

"You giving up? Come on... your hand's actually looking better than mine this time, I saw two good sets..." She teased, and brought the canteen to her lips, feeling the weight of it steadily fading as she sunk deeper into their momentary bliss.

Oh... they could stay here forever, couldn't they? At least until the rain stopped and they needed to move closer to fresh water. It was such a fickle thought, especially with how determined she had been to get to the cabin, a few days back... but Dog was right. Rushing off was risky. Walking the entire way would be the greatest challenge she had known in her life. He mentioned doubling back to the hotel to try and steal the Prius at least, or the SUV Ruthless and Diablo were fond of, but he didn't doubt they'd be heavily guarded... so tomorrow, he'd written out his plan to check the nearby town close to the Coast Guard safe zone to see what could be done.

"What?" His eyes hadn't left her, the silly grin on her face a permanent fixture as sobriety became a hazy memory.

He grinned, wickedly, and shook his head as his dark brows lofted innocently. 'Oh, nothing', and she laughed and brought up a slender hand to flip her middle finger in his direction, inspiring him to close the distance between them in an expert pounce, scattering the playing cards about.

"GAH—Dog, you fucker, get off!" She screeched with a cackle as he made to poke and prod her sensitive sides and tickle the crook of her neck, sending her into a giggling fit that inspired swift retaliation. She tickled him right back, almost surprised that Danny could be tickled, and before she knew it they were wrestling over the bed, stopping only when Charlie rescued the remnants of the canteen from spilling all over their resting place.

"Alright, you win, you win! Ahhh, I can't breathe! You're evil, you know that?" Charlie let the canteen slide down from her fingers by the carrying strap until it was cleverly settled on the concrete floor and out of reach. They'd both had plenty, by now. Her entire body was in a pleasantly numb haze, and it felt incredibly warm for being barely sixty degrees inside. She fell back to lie aside Dog, who instinctively curled at her side and slyly curled his arms around her waist, drawing her flush against him as she caught her breath. The next thing she knew, his lips had pressed to hers, and her dark lashes fluttered shut. Her small hands shifted to rest lightly against his toned chest...

She wanted to push him away. A strong, thin-fingered hand rose against her back, gliding upwards to cradle her head delicately as he claimed her mouth with fiery passion and determination. Against her better judgment, Charlie kissed him back, her soft pink tongue teasing the edge of his full bottom lip. What are you doing? Her conscience chided her. She ignored it, looping her slim arms around his neck, tumbling deeper into the lusty kiss, at the mercy of her alcohol-induced impulses. She tasted of fruit, and fire, and sweet aged bourbon. He could feel her reluctance, but he'd drawn her in now, and there was no way in hell he was letting go...

Charlie pulled back after a moment, breaking the kiss breathlessly, but Dog stubbornly drew her back to him seeking to savor her plush mouth against his once again. A chuckle rose in her throat. She pressed a hand against his chest as she weakly sought to break free, but he went on to press silky kisses against her jaw, and teased her sensitive neck with his lips.

"Danny!"

The giggly, breathy purr couldn't be taken seriously... and so he didn't stop there, shifting their bodies so that Charlie was entrapped beneath him, despite her wriggling and half-hearted attempts to put distance between them. He captured her lips hotly once more, ignoring her small hands pressing against his chest or how she attempted to rise to sit, her legs shifting gently pressuring the growing bulge beneath his jeans. She tore away from his lips as a hand coiled in her dark locks, and gently guided her head back, exposing her slender neck to his lips and teeth.