Chapter Seven

Kendra thought that she’d slept very little that night. So, she was surprised to discover her aunt and Rex sitting by a roaring campfire while enjoying fresh, hot pine tea and some good conversation. How did she miss her aunt getting to know him enough to trust that it was safe to release him? She’d kept one ear on the alert, hadn’t she?

“You look like a frightened rabbit,” Olga teased as Kendra slowly approached them.

“More like a frightened squirrel come down from the tree,” Rex knowingly chuckled.

“You saw me?” Kendra gasped.

“I did,” he nodded.

A scowl consumed the smooth, sun kissed flesh of her oval face, but it in no way diminished Rex’s appreciation of her beauty. “Why didn’t you say something?” Before he could answer, she raced away from the camp while informing them that she had to pee, but she’d be back in a jiffy and expected an explanation.

Olga openly laughed at Rex’s surprised look over her niece’s unabashed innocence. “She’s led an isolated life.”

“I see,” he mused as he put his cup to his lips. His eyes showed his amusement as he looked at her over its rim.

“None of us have had much contact with people since… well… you know,” she added.

He heaved a sigh. “It’s been the longest decade and a half that I could ever imagine. Yet, it passed by with surprising speed. If that makes any sense.”

“Call me crazy, but I get it,” Olga replied.

“What’s he doing untied?” Felix barked as he clumsily climbed out of the lean-to. “Why didn’t you wake me for my turn? I should have helped with the watch.”

“To tell you the truth,” Olga said with a patient smile, “I started chatting with Rex and the time just flew by.  Before I knew it, the sun was peeking over the tree tops.”

“You’re going to be too tired to go very far today,” Felix complained as he looked accusingly at Rex.

“Don’t you give him that evil stare of yours,” Olga snapped. “He’s our guest and I expect you to treat him with kindness and respect.”

“Our guest?” Felix said, incredulously. “Since when does a thief in the night deserve to be called a guest?”

Rex put his hand up to stop Olga from reprimanding Felix any further. “He’s within his rights to feel that way.  After all, I did sneak into the camp and steal food and drink.”

“That you did,” Felix said as he folded his arms over his chest. “You’re a thief.”

“That, I am,” Rex admitted. “Although, it was my first time at it.  Sheer desperation drove me to it.” Then, with a twinkle in his eye, he asked, “How’d I do?”

“You got caught, didn’t you?” Felix snipped.

Rex nodded, “That, I did.” Then, with a chuckle, he added, “So, now I know that it’s not the profession for me.”

“Rex has been wandering this area for a few years,” Olga said with enthusiasm. “He knows where there’s an abandoned camp that might make a good homestead.”

“A camp?” Kendra said with eagerness. “Where?”

“That’s the only thing,” Rex said with obvious remorse. “It’s a few miles into zombie territory.”

“Oh, hell no,” Felix firmly said.

“It’s something Kendra mentioned just last night,” Olga offered as she eagerly addressed Rex. “Did you see any zombies when you went through there?”

“I can’t lie.  I did,” he admitted, “but only a few stragglers.  They tend to stay in large clusters.  You’ll find them in larger numbers deeper into the territory.”

“What did you do when you saw them?” Felix asked with genuine curiosity. “Did you kill them?  Can you kill them?”

Rex studied Felix carefully. “I’m surprised that you’re worried about them.  What, with you camping here and all.  I killed two just last week not far from here.”

Olga and Felix gasped while Kendra scowled her displeasure at Rex’s bit of information.

“Tell us about the camp,” Kendra said as she poured herself a steaming cup of tea and grabbed a sizzling piece of meat from the cast iron frying pan that rested on a rock near the flames.

“Kendra killed our breakfast,” Felix said with pride. “She’s a very adept hunter.”

“Then, I guess I was lucky that she didn’t shoot me with that arrow last night,” Rex said with a smile that sent unfamiliar chills all over Kendra’s body.

“Rex is a widower,” Olga said with sadness. “He lost his wife and two children to a band of renegade aliens a few years back.”  She slowly shook her head. “So much has changed.”

“I was ten when the bombs were set off,” Rex said with emotion. “I was the only survivor. My mother, father, and sister were near the blast.  They died within hours.  I was on a camping trip with my uncle. It was something he and I did every year for his birthday.  The radiation spread to our campsite and I was exposed, but not enough to do too much damage.”

“You said that you were affected by the radiation,” Kendra interjected. “What did it do to you?”

“Mutants aren’t supposed to breed. How did you manage to get a wife and kids?” Felix asked unsympathetically.  It was clear that he still harbored distrust and resentment toward Rex.

“I have no outward signs of damage.  I get severe stomach cramps if I eat the wrong thing and suffer from frequent, almost crippling migraines.” Rex got a faraway look in his sky blue eyes that made Olga wonder if there was more to what he was saying.

“That’s it?” Kendra said with surprise.

“Isn’t that enough?” Rex asked with a mixture of perturbed amusement.

“I just thought… I mean… I thought that mutants were deformed,” she admitted. “What you claim is wrong with you could be an ailment on anyone of us.”

“The radiation did some pretty ugly damage to a lot of people. Luckily, I’m not one of them.”  He looked at Olga and smiled. “Because of my issues with food, it’s difficult for me to find something that I can tolerate.  I consider myself blessed to have stumbled upon y’all.” Then, with mild hesitation, he asked, “You weren’t affected? I know that there were some who managed to escape contamination, but they were mainly the ones who migrated to inner earth. It’s rare to find someone on the surface who hasn’t been afflicted in some way.”

Kendra and Felix’s eyes locked on their aunt in anticipation of just how much she’d divulge to their newfound friend. She sat in silent contemplation for so long that Kendra wondered if she’d been paying attention to the conversation and if his question had even registered with her.  When she finally spoke, Kendra was actually startled to the point that she jumped a little.

“We were fortunate that my family had a bomb shelter that my grandfather built in the fifties when the threat of nuclear war first became a reality.  It was the in thing to do back then.  It was small -suitable for half a dozen people at the most- but we were lucky to have it.  We were fortunate to receive intel about the impending detonation of the nuclear bombs a few days before it actually occurred.  As a safety precaution, we crammed a few dozen friends and relatives into it.  We ended up living there for months before it was safe to venture out.  Those were miserable beginnings for the misery to follow.”

“Even though it couldn’t have been a picnic to have that many people confined in such a small living space, you were lucky,” Rex mused.

“How long do wanderers stay in one place?” Felix asked.  When Olga and Kendra simultaneously gasped at his obvious rudeness, he added, “I’m just curious. They’re called wanderers, after all.”

“I think he’s asking because he wants to know if you stayed at that abandoned camp long enough to know that it’s really abandoned,” Kendra offered. She had no idea if that’s what Felix meant, but it was a good cover up for his rude question and also something that she wanted to know.

“I stayed for a few months,” Rex said as he drained the rest of his tea from his cup.

“Can your stomach tolerate red meat?” Olga asked as she jabbed a fork into a piece of meat and offered it to Rex.

“I certainly hope so,” Rex said with an appreciative smile. “My mouth is watering from its delicious aroma.”

Seeing her aunt offer food to Rex before taking some for herself made Kendra realize her fopa when she helped herself without offering some to him.  She made a mental note to study her aunt’s interaction with Rex more carefully.  She had a lot to learn about etiquette.

They chatted about the camp, Rex, zombies, and mutants for the next hour.  By the time they were ready to pack up camp and head out, Felix was feeling friendlier towards the new arrival to the extent that he invited him to join them.

Rex hesitated while he waited to see how Kendra and Olga would react to the offer.  When they simply went about the business of packing up.  He accepted the offer and pitched in with the packing.

Having a strong male with no noticeable physical impairment to help pull the wagon was an addition that Kendra was grateful for.  She hadn’t wanted to admit to her aunt or Felix that she not only suffered from a sprained foot, but she’d pulled a muscle in her back during Rupert’s assault. Had Rex not been there to ease the burden from her, she wasn’t sure if they’d have gotten very far without having to stop so that she could rest.

She was helping him pull the overloaded wagon up a steep hill when he noticed her favoring her right side. “You’re hurt?”

“It’s nothing,” she said in a soft voice. Then, as an afterthought, she added, “I pulled a muscle, but I don’t want to concern them with it.  Please don’t say anything.”

He nodded as he pushed her hand off the rod and assumed the job of pulling on his own. “I won’t, but only if you stop pulling.  You could do more damage.”

“It’s heavy,” she protested.

“I won’t argue with that,” he said with a grin. 

It was then that she noticed how white his teeth were. He was the second stranger that she’d encountered with beautifully white teeth.

“Why the odd look?” he mused. “Is everything alright?”

“How do you keep your teeth so white?” she blurted out.

He gave her a look of surprise before saying, “I rub them with wild sage whenever I happen upon it.”

“Will you show me what it looks like?” she asked with earnest.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a folded cloth and handed it to her. “There’s some inside of this cloth.  It’s still fresh enough. I collected it yesterday.”

Kendra took the cloth from Rex and unfolded it to reveal a dozen wild sage leaves. “This?  We cook with this,” she said with surprise.

“You can also keep your teeth nice and white with it.”

“I had no idea,” she mused as she folded it back into the cloth and tucked it back into his coat pocket. “You just take a leaf and rub it on your teeth?”

“Simple, isn’t it?” he grinned.

“Amazing,” she replied just as a painful cramp shot from her injured muscle into her side, causing her to stop and double over.

“Kendra?” he bellowed with surprise and concern as he quickly positioned the wagon so that it wouldn’t roll back downhill when he let go of the rods. “Kendra, what’s wrong?”

 His arms felt strong and safe as he wrapped them around her and slowly lowered her to the ground.  Had she not been suffering from a severe cramp, she would have thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

For the briefest moment, her face was close enough to his neck for her to revel in his musky scent. It caused a pull in her abdomen that competed with the cramp.  The difference being that the pull was anything but unpleasant.

Hearing the commotion behind her, Olga turned just in time to see Rex lower Kendra to the ground.  She rushed to them, with Felix not far behind her.

“I just have a cramp, aunt,” Kendra said as Olga worriedly rushed up to her. “I’ll be fine in a minute.”

“She shouldn’t be lugging that pack on her back or pulling the wagon,” Rex blurted out. “She didn’t want to worry you, but since she’s flat on the ground and you’re worried anyway, I’m going to tell you that she’s got a pulled muscle in her back.”

“And a sprained foot,” Felix added.

Rex gave Kendra’s feet a worried look. “I’d have never guessed.”

“My niece isn’t one to complain or pamper herself,” Olga said with both worry and annoyance. “Maybe if she was, she’d be better off.”

“I’ll be fine in a minute,” Kendra insisted.

Rex reached down and boldly removed her boot. She was so shocked by his actions that she did nothing to stop him.

He let out a slow whistle at the sight of the bruise that occupied the majority of her foot. “How can you walk on this?”

Kendra shrugged. “I have no choice.”

Olga and Felix simultaneously gasped.

“I should have looked at it before we left,” Olga lamented.

“We’d have had to leave anyway,” Kendra said.

“Damn that Rupert, anyway,” Felix hissed.

“It’s my fault,” Kendra said as she fought back tears of guilt, frustration, and pain.

“I’m not following. What’s her fault?” Rex innocently asked.

Kendra’s eyes flew wide at his question. The last thing that she wanted him to know was that her own cousin had tried to rape her.  Unfortunately, Felix was quick to inform him of the incident.  Her face went scarlet as she listened to her cousin bare her secrets to Rex and the world around them.

When Felix finished, Rex took his forefinger and gently pulled her face toward his.  His eyes were narrow with emotion. “It wasn’t your fault. Rupert was wrong in what he did. It’s all on him and if I ever run into his sorry ass, he’ll pay for it.”

“I only hurt my back fighting him off,” she admitted. “I sprained my foot while hunting.”

“I see,” Rex said, thoughtfully. He stood up and looked directly into Felix’s eyes. “I know that you struggle with that foot, but do you think you could help me pull this wagon the rest of the way up this hill?”

Felix took a moment to think before nodding.

“Good,” Rex said with a smile. “Take off your pack and put it in the wagon.  Take Kendra’s and put it in it too. It will help you move and, with the two of us pulling, that bit of extra load won’t make much of a difference.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before,” Olga said. “Sometimes my brain just won’t work right.”

“From the sound of things, you were under a good deal of pressure to get your niece away from there and to safety,” Rex offered. “I wouldn’t be so hard on myself if I were you.”