Page 27 of Uprising

A wave of nausea creeps up my stomach, tightening around my throat. My body clams up; a cold sweat breaks out across my skin. And the closer he gets to the door, the more I instinctively clutch my stomach. My mouth waters uncontrollably, a bitter taste creeping up my throat. I take a deep breath, blowing it out of my mouth slowly. Trying anything to stop the bile from rising up further, but it’s too late. The narrowing fight is useless.

Stomach bile spews from my mouth all over the welcome center desk.Oh god,the sound, the mess coming out of me is embarrassing—that doesn’t even cover it. I’m too exposed. The instant I gag at the contents leaking out of my mouth, Reed's head snaps to me.

Breathing heavily, I rest my hands on my knees. Physical relief comes only moments before the embarrassment burns hot on my face. I slam my eyes closed,mortifiedthat Reed just saw me throw up. I feel the lack of control slipping through my fingers. My eyes burn as I will myself not to cry. Trying to collect myself seems close enough to impossible. I think I'd rather drag myself through shards of glass. A nerve-wracking burn of humiliation burns over my body. I’m aware of Reed turning back around towards the door, his movement slow and steady.

I force myself to stand up and wipe my mouth with the back of my sleeve. From the corner of my eye, I watch Reed reach for the door handle, not daring to breathe as he twists and jerks the door open.

“Shit,” I breathe out when nothing but dust flies up. The closet is empty, and it dawns on me that I threw up from a panic attack. I force a shaky laugh out, awkwardly smiling at Reed.

“We’ll rest here tonight and hit the road at first light,” he announces not too loudly.

I nod my head. “Good, great. Awesome,” I’m making a fool of myself. As if I hadn’t just done that already. “Well, now that that's been settled, I’m gonna…” pointing towards the bathroom. “Yeah, I’m gonna go.” I barely get the last word out before I’m hiking up my invisible pants that must have fallen off and running towards the restroom.

* * *

I setmy bag down on the bench outside the two bathroom shower stalls. Thankfully this welcome center must have also been a truck stop, because I’m in desperate need of a shower. I make quick work of shedding off my clothes and jumping into the freezing water.

While I was bougie in my old life—still am in other ways—I’ll take a cold shower over not having one. So even while I rather take my sweet time showering, I also refuse to die naked. I can’t imagine being in the nude when a zombie attacks. My options would be to try and fight the dead thing or run out and have Reed save me. Whichwill nothappen. Worse than dying naked from a dead guy would be running into Reed while my dick is swinging around.

So unfortunately, while I would like to stay in the shower and reminisce about the good times, I need to focus and think logically. I also need to eat, brush my teeth, and sleep. Daylight is going to come before I know it, and I don’t function well on little sleep.

Stepping out of the stall, I make quick work of drying off and slipping on the extra clothes inside my bag. I should clean my week-old clothes, or at least try to. Biting my inner cheek, I think about it for a total of two seconds before needing some part of normalcy to win.

Dumping my dirty clothes into the sink, I pour some body wash over them and turn the faucet on. I don’t understand how in the olden days our grandparents washed clothes in the river because this sucks. I move the clothes around, watching the water turn from a light grey to almost black. Draining, I repeat the process until the water is mainly just light grey and I can somewhat see inside the sink.

“Well, fuck,” I mutter as it dawns on me that I have to hang these up to dry or try and use the hand dryer. I squeeze out as much water as possible before heading to the dryer, feeling even more irritated with myself. There's nothing embarrassing about needing to dry your clothes, but something in my brain tells me it is. I rush through trying to dry most of them before Reed walks in, even though I know the chances of him coming in here are slim. Close to nothing. It’s the women's bathroom for one, which is why I chose it, because I doubted he would come in here looking for me. But something I’ve learned about him is that he’s going to surprise me. When I think I know him just a little bit more, he does a one-eighty and shocks me.

So, there I stand looking stupid in my head, holding m?—

“Noah?”No, please don’t tell me…“What are you doing?”

I open my mouth to be smart with him; I mean, what does it look like I’m doing? But the words die in my throat. Reed stands there in his black jeans and thin grey t-shirt. His broad shoulders strain against the material. My mouth begins to water in a different way. I’m not dumb; Reed is attractive. He has this whole bad boy,don’t mess with meattitude. Which is probably the reason I do mess with him more than I should. But right now, my cock definitely notices how good he looks.

“I–I’m, well, what does it look like I’m doing?” I roll my eyes.

“Why?” Reed asks, crossing his arms over his chest. I swear I’m near drooling at the mouth. I need to get laid, preferably by him, but honestly anything but my hand would do.

“My clothes were gross; I—” I refuse to think about the fact zombie brain matter was on them. “Why are you in the women's bathroom?” I decided to ask instead. Anything to get my mind off begging to see his dick. I bet he has a massive package. My entire body heats at the sight of him.

“Noah, what did I say about the next time you stare at my dick?”

My eyes meet his and widen as he approaches me. I might have been staring a little too hard, but I didn’t think he’d notice.

“Reed,” I say, too loudly for my liking. I wince at the sound of my voice, horny from the lack of attention my dick has gotten lately.

His eyes narrow at me. And for some reason, while I should welcome this attention he’s giving me, I’m shaking my head, my clothes slipping from my fingers.

“Don’tReedme,” he grunts out. His steps eat up the space between us a little too fast. My heart thrums in my ears at how close he’s getting. My entire body begins to tremble, a tingling at the base of my spine. Instead of dropping to my knees like I normally would have, I find myself growing tense.

“What did I tell you, Noah?”

I shake my head, not thinking clearly. I can’t remember what he told me he would do. It couldn’t have been good, not if he’s watching me with this murderous rage. Did he say he was going to kill me?

Oh god, he’s going to kill me. That was totally it. He said he was going to smite me, and now I’m never going to have the chance to see Rue and her feisty self again. I’m never going to see Mallory and her quick mouth but terrible self-awareness again.

“Reed, no.” I try to make my voice sound stern. Though I’m sure it betrays me because Reed acts like I’m a mouse and he’s a damn lion about to pounce and murder with his bare hands.

The sound of the dryer dies just as Reed stands within two feet of me. Taking this as my chance to get away, I make a poor attempt at a fist and swing. Of course my lack of survival skills should’ve told me to just make a run for it. I’m smaller and could—hopefully—run faster than him.

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