Blaine looked up, a sign of relief that I was all right washing over his face. I could see that there was truth in what Saundra had said. Both Blaine and Jared had wet hair, and their faces looked clean shaven. There was a look of approval by Blaine when I sat down next to him by the fire.
“Look at that, you clean up real nice, Kara!” Jared chimed.
“Thanks, you do too,” I said, mumbling. Looking up at Blaine, I noticed he had cut himself shaving. Although he was not bleeding, he had a small area that was raw. Raising my hand to his face, I carefully touched the tender area, frowning. “Ow,” I whispered.
“Guess I am a little out of practice,” he scoffed lightly.
The rest of the day was full of conversation and activity. If the previous events until this point had not occurred, it would have felt as if we were on vacation. We shared stories, laughed, and avoided any talk of the Intruders. After lunch, Blaine mentioned that he wanted me to learn to shoot, and we headed out for a lesson on how to use the crossbow. Jared announced that he was going to the creek to fill the water supply.
When we all got to the edge of the creek, Jared waded into the water off in the distance. Schooling me on stance and sight placement, Blaine balanced an empty bean can on the lower branch of a tree away from the direction of our camp. Standing behind me, he molded my hands in his, showing me how to hold the crossbow. As we took aim, he said, “Make sure you don’t touch the trigger until you are absolutely ready to fire. It is a really sensitive—“ THWANG! The arrow fired prematurely, and we heard what sounds like a dog yelping in the creek. The sound of water splashing is followed by Jared cussing. “She shot me in the ass!”
In shock, I dropped the crossbow as I watched Blaine run to Jared’s side. Jared was on the shore now, hopping around in circles, repeating the same line, “She shot me in the ass! Right there! Get it out, now! Oh crap, please tell me it wasn’t a poison-tip arrow!”
“It’s not, dude. Calm down.” Blaine tended to his friend’s injury, removing the arrow. He asked me to turn around, so Jared could remove his pants to clean the wound and bandage it.
“I am so sorry, Jared,” is all I could spit out while staring into the woods away from the guys.
“Sorry?! You should be, Kara. You shot me in…the…ASS!”
“You’re lucky it was your butt, man. It could have been worse!” Blaine came to my defense, but he didn’t have too. I felt absolutely horrible. As a professional klutz, I needed no excuses.
“But, she shot me right in the – “
“Yeah, we know, and now you are all bandaged up. Although, with the way you are reacting, I think I used the wrong bandage.” Blaine sounded short.
“What?” asked Jared.
“If I would have known you were going to act like such a girl when you got hurt, I would have packed some Hello Kitty Band-Aids for you!”
Blaine and I exploded into laughter and, when Jared had been covered properly, Blaine grabbed my hand to turn me around. Jared’s face was red, but not with anger. He was stifling a laugh as well. As much as he would never admit it, he knew he had overreacted about the injury. He finally accepted my apology and we made our way back to camp.
When we joined Matt and Saundra, we had to explain Jared’s limp. As we finished telling the story, Saundra asked, “Jared, how awful. Are you okay?”
Jared replied with a nod.
With that confirmation, they took the opportunity to burst into laughter, and we all joined in again. After we had a good laugh, we prepared what little we had for dinner and settled in for the night. Matt and Saundra had the first shift, so Jared, Blaine, and I prepared for a short night of sleep.
After last night’s full rest, I found it hard to sleep. Blaine lay beside me, face to face, his back to Jared. Holding my hand, he brushed the hair off of my cheek with the other. We hadn’t kissed since the bunker, and I ached for his mouth on mine. But I was conflicted, by the soft safety of his kiss, and the visions it brought to me. “What are you thinking about?” he asked, as though he could see the conflict on my face.
“I’m scared. I hate not knowing when something is going to happen, but I hate it more when I see it happening,” I said, lowering my gaze to Blaine’s chest.
He took his hand off of my shoulder and pulled my chin up, forcing my eyes to meet his. “You don’t have to be afraid of what you see. It doesn’t always happen the way we see it. I have seen some things and not known the outcome, but it ended up being good. Like when I knew I could only give you three days to come and find me. I had no idea if you were going to make it, I spent all that time worried that I may have been wrong, and we had to give you more time. But you made it, and with some time to spare.”
He leaned in and kissed my cheek, sending electricity through my entire body. There was something about Blaine’s touch that that I could not describe. All I knew was that if we were ever separated again, I would surely die. As dramatic as that sounds, it wouldn’t be a situation where I would become so depressed that I gave up on life. No, I was sure that if anything were to happen to him, my heart would stop beating entirely. I could feel this every time we touched, and it was stronger when we kissed.
My mouth tingled at the thought of kissing Blaine again. My eyes wandered toward his lips, atop his freshly shaved chin. As if he could feel my gaze, his lips parted. Leaning into me, he stopped his mouth just before it touched mine and breathed, “Is this okay?”
I couldn’t speak. Jerking my head with a half nod, I braced myself for another vision and fell into Blaine’s lips with mine. Soft and warm, he kissed me carefully, gently. I knew the delayed vision was coming, but I enjoyed the moment I had before it. I wrapped my hands around to his back, pulling him closer, into a tighter embrace. My body felt light, but my heart was heavy. I was caught in the moment, a sensation that the world was spinning, and then darkness.
I opened my eyes to the woods, bouncing up and down around me. I was being carried, my shoulder raging with a fiery pain, sweat pouring from my hairline. I was tired, my whole body ached. As I looked up at my courier, I saw Blaine’s face. He looked aged, angry, and worried. There were dark circles encroaching on his eyes, and his skin was pale. He was exhausted, and I could feel his knees getting weaker as he carried me…
And then I was back in the tent, staring at Blaine as he pulled away. He looked like he was going to be sick, his eyes wide with fear. “What? What is it?” I asked, hoping I was interpreting his reaction incorrectly.
“You were sick. I was carrying you,” he said, his words broken and strangled.
Amazing, that was exactly what I had seen too. But I had no idea what it meant. What are the odds of us having the same vision? Being new to this whole vision thing, I had no idea what the odds would be, but I had a feeling they were pretty slim. This must have meant, whatever it was, it was serious.
“I saw the same thing,” I admitted in a whisper.
Shocked, Blaine snapped out of his stare almost instantly and looked into my eyes. “Remember what I said? Nothing is set in stone. It can change.” It was as if he was directing this statement to reassure himself as well as me. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
It took me a moment to realize that I had been shivering, mostly from fear, but partially because it was the coldest part of the night. Aware of my discomfort, Blaine had me turn with my back toward him and pulled the covers up over my shoulder, and up to my chin. He wrapped his arms around me firmly, and whispered, “Try to get some sleep,” and gently kissed the back of my head.
Chapter 31
That night I barely slept. Between the restlessness of my mind and drifting in and out of hazy nightmares, sleep was difficult. Hearing the guys stir for their night watch shift, I gave up on sleep and rose with them.
Matt and Saundra disappeared into their tent for the night as Jared stoked the fire, and Blaine checked his gun to be sure it was loaded. Jared walked away from camp to answer the call of nature, while Blaine an
d I set a blanket on the ground near the truck so we could rest our backs against it.
Just as we were settling in, Jared returned from the tree line. “So, what’s the plan?”
Confusion struck me. “Plan?” All this time, I thought our traveling, our attempt at escaping the Intruders’ violent tantrums, was the plan. Wasn’t survival the ultimate goal at times like these?
Comprehending my disbelief, Blaine replied to Jared, “We need to find out more about them. Why they only come out at night.”
“And why they avoid cars,” added Jared.
“Or motorbikes,” I interjected.
“Right,” Jared continued, now at a whisper. He leaned in closer, carefully ensuring that our new company did not hear. “If only you guys could see why they are here, what they want.”
“It doesn’t work like that.” I found myself getting defensive, as if this new found gift was more useless than anything. “I can only see things when Blaine and I kiss,” I hissed, feeling my face get warmer at the thought. “Besides, what I can see plays like a movie through my eyes alone. Unless I become one of the Intruders, I doubt my visions will be of any help.”
Jared’s expression went from hopeful to hopeless with every word. “Oh, well it was worth a shot.”
“No.” Blaine looked up from his gaze at the ground.
“What?” Jared asked, trying to read his best friend.
“Kara is only partly right. We could see things without having to kiss if we knew how to control it.”
“Okay,” I interjected, “And how is that? Because before we tried it at the bunker, I never could predict anything. I mean, surely I would have seen some of this coming, right?”
“No. Not predictions, feelings.” He paused, trying to process his theory. “Every vision you had, you described the way it made you feel, as if you had actually already experienced it. When I see things, I see them in a different way. I see things happen. Things unfold in front of my eyes. But I never actually feel them. The day in my truck, when you saw something that made you cry, you never said it was anything bad. You just snapped out of it and started bawling. I have seen some pretty horrible things, even seen what they look like, horrifying enough to terrify me. But I have never felt anything in those visions. You know what people want before they even say a word because you feel what they are feeling at that very moment.” He looked at Jared, then back to me. “Kara, you and I both have a gift. And together, it gets stronger. But I think that if you concentrated hard enough– “
“–I could feel what the Intruders are feeling.” The realization hit me like an ocean tide. Blaine was right. This wasn’t something that just happened because I kissed the guy I loved. It must have been an ability I had all my life. I just didn’t see it before. And in the next three minutes, a flood of recognition overpowered me. I was reminded of the many occurrences in my life where I had used the gift. All the times I had ever purchased a gift for someone, knowing that they would love it and their reaction so shocked that I would know exactly what they wanted. Each night as a child, without being asked, I spent holed up in my room playing quietly while my parents discussed important adult matters. Knowing exactly what to say to people to keep them happy, and of course my first kiss with Blaine – which I finally remembered – when my mind was unsure if he wanted to take that big of a step outside our friendship, but the perception that it was okay overwhelming all of my senses.
The whole concept seemed harder to swallow than when I first learned that I could have visions at all. Conscious that my mouth was gaping open, I snapped my jaw shut and looked up, clearing my throat. Staring into Blaine’s eyes, although the world around me seemed like a crazy dream and getting crazier by the minute, I couldn’t help but feel grounded. He was the reason my life now lacked boredom, why I had something to look forward to, in a world where the future was uncertain. With Blaine by my side, I could brave anything the universe dropped in my lap or already had. Suddenly, a jolt of fearlessness struck me like a lightning bolt and before any thought was put to it, I said, “What do we need to do?”
We spent the rest of our watch shift mulling over different ways for me to tune into the intruders. Suggestions varied including asking myself to dream about the Intruders before sleeping, focusing on a drawing of one (done by Blaine’s recount of their appearance) and even meditation. Finally, we had come to the conclusion that based on the method of my recalling certain images by kissing Blaine, touch would be the most likely method. But that was out of the question.
With the sun no longer hiding behind the horizon, and the sky becoming lighter with the morning, I rose to my feet and dusted off the back of my pants. Blaine did the same, and we began to pack up the items that were used near the truck. I held one end of the blanket while Blaine met me with the other end, working to fold it. When our fingers touched, he let go of his end of the blanket and held my hand in his. I looked up from his hand, my eyes meeting his, and he said, “Why don’t you go rest this morning?” “I’m fine,” I lied. I was exhausted, and I knew Blaine would want me to help around camp before our weapons lesson in the afternoon.
He gently pushed the hair behind my left ear, and then replied, “No, you’re not.” He grinned.
“What about the water jugs? I need to get into the creek and fill them for the day.”
His face grew serious. “You are right. I need it to be done. But that doesn’t mean you have to be the one to do it. I will get Jared on it, you go rest.”
“But …” I protested. Dropping the blanket to the ground, Blaine put both hands on my shoulders, forced me to turn toward camp, and gave me a gently shove in the direction of the tent. As I walked toward my impending nap, I took in my surroundings. Jared was stoking the fire, adding more wood to the dying flames. Matt opened his tent, releasing both dogs to do their business in the woods. And before entering our tent, I looked off to Blaine in the distance, packing up the rest of what was left by the truck. I began to get an overwhelming sense of security, one that I had not had since my family’s initial move from New York. Where I was right now, in that very moment, that was home. And the people around me were my new family. I reveled in that idea while curling up in my sleeping bag and drifting into a relaxed sleep.
Chapter 32
I awoke later to the sound of silence outside of the tent. As I sat up, I assumed the guys had gone hunting, leaving Saundra behind to keep an eye on me. Exiting the tent, I was surprised to see everyone right outside, near the fire. Besides the barely audible whines of Matt’s dogs, nobody was making a sound. It wasn’t until I approached the group and took a seat next to Blaine that I noticed the tension among the four of them. “What’s up with everyone?” I whispered to Blaine as he slipped an arm around my waist.
“I have no idea,” he answered in a hushed tone. “They have been like this all day. Won’t talk to us, barely even look at us.”
Raising my eyebrows in response, I added, “Odd.” Then I turned to Matt and Saundra and said, “Is there anything you guys need me to do?” I hoped, desperately, that they were not upset because I spent most of the day sleeping.
“Nope,” Matt mumbled, barely audibly, then whistled at the dogs and walked toward the woods.
Seeing that dinner was on the fire, I made an attempt at conversation with Saundra. “Smells good. What is it?”
Saundra did not look up at me to answer. Even so, her response was short and concise, “Stew.”
I searched Blaine’s expression, feeling lost. What could have happened to cause Matt and his wife to act in such a manner? It was only last night that we were laughing and carrying on as a group, trying to make the best of a bad situation. Now they treated us more as strangers than they did from the moment we had met them. I could tell something was very off.
Registering my concern, Blaine whispered, “See? Only thing I can think of is that maybe they didn’t get enough sleep.”
Trying to put myself at ease, I accepted this as a logi
cal explanation. People can get pretty coarse when they haven’t had enough sleep, I could attest to that. I tried to push any other theories aside and just sat with the guys, waiting for dinner to be finished.
If there was any question about whether or not Matt and Saundra wanted nothing to do with us, it was answered during dinner. As soon as the stew was warm enough, they dished up and zipped themselves, and the dogs, into their tent.
As the sun began to set, I was thankful that we had the first shift tonight. After sleeping the majority of the day, I was not ready to start sawing logs any time soon. Trying not to look bored, I picked the bark off of a stick while Jared fiddled with his pack and Blaine worked on the fire. “Bored?” I was surprised at his question. I must not have been very good at hiding it after all.
Before I had a chance to answer him, Jared yanked something out of his pack, holding it above his head. “Ha! Anybody up for some Texas Hold’em?” he chimed with a grin.
“Nice, man!” Blaine was smiling right along with Jared. Blaine and Jared, aside from their obsession with video games, loved to play cards. In fact, they pretty much loved anything that could even mistakenly be construed as competitive.
“Kara, you in?” Jared asked, his eyes pleading. We had not done much of anything as a group since the flare. Well, if you don’t count strategizing about our survival.
Having absolutely no clue how to play the game, I still accepted the offer. The guys taught me how to play, filling me in on rules, and the terms used. By the end of our shift, I had almost grasped the concept of the game, winning most of my acorns back. When the moon was at its very highest point, Blaine went to wake Matt.
Little was said between the two groups before we retired to our tent. By then, I found myself still unable to sleep. Lying in my sleeping bag, listening to the sound of Blaine and Jared’s breathing, I tried to think about the Intruders. Closing my eyes, I tried to picture them roaming the land at night, trashing every building they came across, with no regard for human life. But even with the description of them given to me by Blaine, I couldn’t connect the image of an Intruder with the destruction we had encountered up until this point. Just when I thought to be hopeless, I was startled by a light crashing sound, followed by the sound of feet shuffling quickly across the camp. Assuming it was the dogs, I tried to close my eyes and relax again. Then I heard another sound, a clang, like a wrench being dropped into a metal bucket. A metal bucket, or…a truck bed!