Drive - 5/26

A bump jostles me in my makeshift chariot.

Once again, I am stuck, bewildered, by Alex’s actions as he pulls me along.

After the whole gun incident, Marcos and Alex had struck a deal to scavenge together. The deal was that Marcos would help find areas he knew that he and Jasper hadn’t already looted, in exchange for their help moving coma girl, Lan, and me back to the tent.

Partway through, Marcos had found the dolly, proceeded to rip the captain’s chair out of a minivan they broke into, tied them both together, and fashioned a makeshift wheelchair for us.

Once the earthquake happened, the plan changed.

Drastically.

“Sure, I can’t just cut off your legs to make you lighter,” Alex groans, huffing as he pulls me over a small pile of debris.

“Not sure we have enough bandages left for that,” Annitta answers for me from the front of the pack.

“True, bastard used up nearly everything we had,” he grunts.

“A parasite to the core,” she jokes, laughing as she begins to carefully make her way through a large pile of rubble blocking the street. I can’t make out exactly what she is doing as I face the opposite direction, but she is always the first to test our path.

Nobody explained to me the deal Marcos and Alex had reached for him to be willingly dragging me along, and I was too afraid to pry. With my few interactions with Alex, it could be absolutely anything. It is more terrifying than knowing I owed him.

Marcos and Lucie are stationed behind me in our makeshift parade, only contributing an occasional comment about something that catches their eye, or to coordinate carrying me over debris. There is a sadness about him that distracted from his otherwise all-business attitude as we moved. Lucie looked as happy as could be next to him.

Worrying.

I hadn’t had a chance to try and talk to Marcos about it all, especially not out of earshot of the others, and I know I will lack the right words to say when the time comes.

Annita finishes finding us a path and calls across to Tony, who is our second in marching order. Normally, he and Lucie would have switched places, but with his arm slightly injured, Lucie was the rear guard, carrying one of the group's two rifles. It still feels like an uneasy hostage situation, but I am just glad to have them on our side for as long as this temporary alliance lasts.

After Tony crosses, Rachel and come girl are the next, with Rachel leading her by the hand as they go. Coma girl still has not spoken to anyone, but otherwise is acting relatively normal around Rachel, who had immediately taken up the role as her caretaker despite the age inversion. I sense that part of our alliance revolves around that pair.

Earlier, Alex had asked me what coma girl's name was.

“Kat?” Alex had asked, looking at me with confusion as he strapped me onto the chair this morning.

“You said she needs a name, right?” I said, looking at the woman on the other side of the camp who was eating with the child.

“So why Kat?”

“Well, she only seems to interact with one person and food,” I said.

“That made you think…of a cat? Are you joking?”

“Not joking. I’m just not creative, is all, and that was the first thing to pop into my head,” I responded, lying a little. Technically, I thought of Kat because she was catatonic most of the time. This explanation seemed kinder.

“Sheesh, should have just let Rachel give her a name.”

“I’m ok with that, or Marcos might have a better one he calls her.”

“No it’s fine, if she wants a different name, she will have to tell us. Least it’s short”

With that, our no longer coma girl was called Kat.

Finally, it is my turn to be ferried across the fallen section of a building, with Alex and Marcos carrying me instead of trying to drag the small wheels over the rough terrain. Lucie, for her part, mostly kept watch behind while remaining close enough to lend a hand on a couple of tricky parts.

Parasite.

Annitta’s words echo in my head as I watch the sky, hoards of vultures slowly move above me. I hadn’t noticed them before when I was stuck inside, but they easily outnumbered the living people in the city now.

I’ll make up for being useless.

Even if I still wasn’t sure how. Alex must have been thinking the same thing.

“I think you will have to be my butler for the rest of our lives for this,” he huffs, setting me down as we reach the other side. Everyone was resting while they waited for the slow caboose of the party to catch up.

“Already decided?” I ask, relieved that this is all he is asking for.

“Yesterday me was a fool, should not have brought you along. Servant for life is the only fair trade,” he gasps out as he catches his breath.

“Well, not sure I’d be the best butler, but I’ll give it a shot when I’m able.”

“I’d like a butler too,” Lucie chimes in as she makes her way over the last of the obstruction.

“Fine, I’ll be everyone’s butler after we get out of this.”

“Ooh, what kind of eggs can you make?” Annitta asks, appearing from somewhere behind me.

“Microwave ones. Take it or leave it.”

“Eww, never mind, I’ll just have you clean for me then.”

“What kind of uniform should we get him?” She asks, starting back off in the way she came. Alex groaned as she did, ending our short break.

“I’m thinking a suit and tie. The classic look, you know?” Lucie says.

“Maybe a suit that weighs as much as you do as payback,” Alex adds. “How about you, Tony, how should we dress our new butler?”

“He’s so bandaged up I won’t recognize him without them, so maybe a mummy outfit?”

“Woh hoo, no. This isn’t Halloween, man, we've got to take this seriously. Only once in a lifetime does any of us get this opportunity, got to use it wisely,” Alex responds. “How about you, Annitta?”

“You said no costumes, but how about a cat maid? We have him wear a nice skirt while he does my cleaning. It’s still a classic, right?”

“Oof, not my style. When he is on your side of the house, maybe.”

“Oh, but I can’t have a mummy butler when he is on my side?”

“Why would you even want that?”

“Cus you said I couldn’t.”

“Fine. Fine. Everyone gets their own outfit that he changes into when he is doting on us. Sound fair?”

Their discussion of my butler activities continued as we traversed further down the mostly clear road ahead of us. Compared to our previous groups, the jovial air these new companions offered was refreshing, if not a little terrifying. Outside of some joking during the book club, everyone else has been all business, save a few comments.

It reminds me of how they laughed when we first met, tossing a gun around like a toy.

Psychopaths.

As everyone began to tire for the afternoon, they find a spot to set up a makeshift camp and eat lunch. It wasn’t hard, given that most of the camping gear had been lost. This time it was tomato soup instead of chicken soup. From the look of their packs, the number of cans left was dwindling quickly despite yesterday's successful supply run.

“Best guess, I’d say we only made it about 5 miles today,” Tony says while looking at a ragged map between spoonfuls. It had been years since I had actually seen a physical map. Without the buildings as landmarks, I can’t fathom how he is figuring out our location.

“Slower than before, but to be expected,” Annitta says through a mouthful of soup.

“Just extends the timeline is all, we will be fine. I can wait for my retirement days and my mommy butler.” Alex says, giving a teasing look toward Tony.

“Mummy idiot,” Tony says, standing up. “You still got work to do until then, may as well look around this area before we set up for the night.”

“Of course we will. Let’s rest a little more, then take a quick look around. Any requests for dinner?”

The group laughed a little and continued about their rest, everyone in a lighter mood than I could have ever imagined for this kind of situation, everyone except for the gloomy Marcos, who sat next to me silently.