you,” he reassured. Then he looked at me and asked. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” and nodded toward the dance floor.
Quickly, I hopped over the booth and ran for the crowd of dancing people. Luckily, the last song just ended, so everyone was calm for a few seconds. I frantically searched for the beautiful woman I needed. Everlong, by the Foo Fighters, started playing and I just about lost hope when the thick crowd started jumping and dancing around me.
Two soft hands reached from behind me, grabbing my shoulders, and turned me around. She then grabbed my face and our lips crashed against each other’s. I picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around my waist. My head was tilted as far back as my neck would allow, and hers craned over mine.
Her body, embraced against mine, filled me with the love I’ve been yearning for. How could I have been missing out on this? The best feeling in the world. She broke our rousing kiss, and rested her forehead against my own—baring her teeth in a huge grin.
“What took you so long?” she asked.
“I had to go to the bathroom and freshen up,” I told her. She laughed, and kissed me passionately.
The best feeling in the world.
22. Evil, in His House
Her warm, naked, leg rested over my waist as she slept. Her head rested against my chest, and I couldn’t help but watch her sleep. Is that creepy? I kept asking myself. But I didn’t care. I would pay to watch her sleep…now THAT’S creepy. Her beauty was well worth it.
Several violent knocks on the door got me to my feet. I grabbed my pants from the floor and slipped them on—hurrying to see who was at the door. Gabriel stood on the opposite side of the eyehole, waiting. I opened the door, and the sunlight behind Gabriel stung my eyes. He lightly slapped me across the face.
“Wake up,” he said. “Let’s get moving.”
Gabriel changed his clothes—wearing a black tank top, brown cargo pants, and his Chuck Taylor’s. I was feeling too lazy to search for a new pair of clothes, but Alyse already had them laid out for me. She was getting dressed when I walked into the bedroom, and she had another clean pair of jeans and a white shirt spread out over the bed.
“Thank you,” I said and walked behind her—giving her a kiss on the top of her head. She answered with a smile.
We hit the road early that morning. This time around, the trip was enjoyable—even with the cloudy skies and glum atmosphere. Alyse and I chatted about various subjects—mainly focusing on each other’s personality and past. She and I had much in common, and I had a hard time deciding if that was for the better or for the worse. At this point, I couldn’t care less what the millions of dating experts would say on the subject.
Math was her best subject, but she had a passion for the arts. She was a horrible singer, just like me. She only liked sports when she was involved in them—I do not enjoy watching either. Fight Club is her favorite movie—awesome. And like Gabriel and I, she was suspended from school her senior year. Her reason was the most honorable in my opinion.
“I punched a cheerleader,” she said through a smile.
“What?!”
“She thought it was funny to put fake blood down the front of my pants and on my chair while I was asleep in class,” she begun to explain.
I looked at her, confused, “It looked like I had my period,” she clarified. I laughed, and she gave me an evil look, “That’s not funny,” I quickly said. She continued.
“Everybody laughed at me…it was so embarrassing.”
“I’d imagine so,” I said trying to paint the scene in my head—little Alyse running while everybody points and laughs.
“Well, that night, at a football game while she was cheering, I walked right up to her and broke her nose.” I could only stare at Alyse.
“Awesome. So wait, why do you have a Scottish accent if you lived in the States up through high school?”
“We lived in St. Andrew’s until I was in what you call ‘middle school.’ When we moved to the U. S., everyone made fun of my accent. Which gave me all the more reason to keep it…I’m really proud of my heritage.”
“That’s so cool…” I said admiringly.
“So what did you do to get suspended?” she asked curiously—turning her body to face mine.
“My english teacher gave me shit all year,” I started to tell her. “Giving me ‘F’s’ on papers I worked hard on. Calling me an ‘idiot’ in class. And a few times, he claimed to have caught me cheating on his tests—I don’t cheat. So I hacked his computer, and planted pornography on it.” She started laughing.
“Clever,” she said with an upward inflection.
“And I tried to find the sickest kinds, like I remember one where this guy was taking a dump on a girl’s chest…” I started gagging as I spoke. “It was so gross…Long story short, they found out it was me. They were quite disappointed,” I said, remembering the faculty’s reaction.
“So what did Gabriel do?” she asked, snickering.
“He was working on a twenty-five page research paper on a computer in the school’s library—we didn’t have a computer at home at the time. He was finishing the last paragraph and the computer crashed. Deleted all of it.”
“I think I know where this is going,” Alyse said shaking her head.
“Yeah, he picked up the computer and slammed it down on the ground. He then took the keyboard and smashed it against the monitor.”
“Sounds like he abused steroids,” she said laughing.
“I mean, I would be upset too, but damn. He had to go to court for it too…had to pay for the damage. It definitely didn’t go over too well with her,” I said.
I picked up the radio, “Hey Gabriel, you remember when you got suspended?” I said.
“Damn computer,” he said and I laughed.
“Wait,” Alyse said—deep in concentration. “Who is the ‘her’ that you’re referring to? The girl in that picture?”
Damn. I let out a sigh and said, “Gabriel’s fiancé.” She remained silent. I let it rest as it was.
“What was her name?” she asked softly.
I didn’t want to answer. Instead, I turned the radio up and tried to find a news broadcast.
“All we can do for now is hide, and do as they say,” A woman said. ‘The age of resistance and fighting factions seems to be coming to an end…”
“On that note, we will be back on tomorrow, same time, to talk about the horrors in several findings of biological weapon testing areas…” said another woman. “God speed.”
That was the only airing station I found—we must be in a dead area. Luckily, we only had a couple more hours until we reached home sweet home. Alyse was concentrating on the road, speechless—making the trip boring again. I’d imagine the sympathy she had for Gabriel grew after being informed of his tragic loss. Hopefully she gained a better understanding of his state of mind, his reasons—his anger.
“Hold up Paul,” Gabriel said through the radio. His brake lights brought me to alert.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Your rear-view mirror,” was all he said.
“Oh, gotcha,” I said as I looked back and saw the three trucks pulled over on the shoulder of the road. Gabriel made a U-turn, and I followed.
Chris and Spenser stood in front of the Humvee with its hood open. Gabriel parked in front of them, and I parked next to Gabriel further into the grassy plain.
“What’s the problem?” Gabriel asked as the three of us approached the clueless pair.
“We don’t know. It just started lurching forward, and making weird sounds,” Chris told us.
“Then you’re looking in the wrong place,” I said, laughing.
“What?” Chris and Spenser asked at the same time.
“How was it ‘lurching?’” I asked them.
“To the right,” Spenser said. Immediately, Gabriel and I walked to the right front tire—examining the wheel well. I got on my back and slid under the truck.
“Damn, the spindle broke in hal
f,” I said astonished.
“Can you fix it?” Spenser asked.
I could only stare. “No,” I said flatly.
Gabriel turned to Chris. “Paul and I will go find another vehicle. The next town is only a few miles out.” He started to walk toward the GTO, but Alyse cut him off.
“I’m coming too,” she said. I shrugged when Gabriel looked at me.
“After you,” he said. She pranced over to the passenger door.
“Shotgun.”
“Oh come on!” I yelled in protest—Gabriel laughed as I pouted. Chris ran to Gabriel’s window with a worried expression.
“What if we run into trouble? Like some soldiers drive by and see us?”
“We haven’t seen a bit of traffic since we started this trip,” Gabriel said. “If it makes you feel better, you can go hide in the grass.”
“Alright,” Chris said and took off.
“Hide in the grass?” I asked.
“It’ll teach them to stay cautious.”
“I’m going to laugh my ass off if we come back, and they’re all lying face down in the grass,” I said. A smile inched across Gabriel’s face.
Passing several mile markers, and no town, I started to worry about the crew lying in the grass. And all the abandoned vehicles on the side of the road were cars—no trucks large enough to carry the people and equipment they carried.
“Where is it?” Gabriel kept saying to himself. I noticed with every word he spoke, Alyse stared at him—examining him by the slightest details.
“We’ve been driving for fifteen minutes now, maybe we should…” I started to say, but Alyse cut in, “Over there!”
She pointed out her window to a small village in the