Page 19 of Dusk & Desire

Chapter 11

Noa

The car barely had enough gas to get us to Choctaw Beach, but the fifteen-minute ride saved us probably close to five hours of walking. Looking at how gingerly Linda places one foot in front of the other, just two hours later, really makes me appreciate the little luck we had with it.

I nudge my brother with an elbow. “Let’s call it a day,” I tell him.

His eyebrows shoot up, and I tilt my chin at my girlfriend. Then I have to resist doing a happy dance at catching myself referring to her as my girlfriend. That would be totally undignified, not to mention my feet hurt too.

Axel rolls his eyes (probably because of my mothering Linda and not from reading my thoughts), but doesn’t complain that it’s only mid-afternoon and that there’s still plenty of daylight. “I guess that’s fine,” he says. “We’re probably better off sleeping around the Bayou and not in Niceville anyway.”

Looking around, I see a state park on one side and assisted living accommodations on the other. “Gators or the elderly?” I ask, making Axel laugh.

Linda stops daydreaming and blinks up at us sleepily. “Are we taking a break?” she asks, a hopeful note in her sweet voice.

I tug on her drooping ponytail. “Wanna see if any of the showers in these buildings work?”

A flush spreads from her cheeks, looking a bit sharper than a week ago, and down to her breasts.Hmm.I’m going to need to make sure she gets enough food. I don’t want any of her curves tobe a casualty of the apocalypse.

“By the way,” I begin, running the palm of my hand over her back. “Since you’re my girlfriend now, it’s only natural that we share a bed from now on.”

Linda was in the process of adorably looking each way before crossing the road, like it’s rush-hour traffic. When my words sink in, she whips her head to me, her eyes bugged out.

“G–girlfriend?” she stammers.

“Mmm,” I hum, nodding. “Got a problem with that, beautiful?”

“I… You want me to be your girlfriend?”

Her voice sounds so small, and my hand on her lower back clenches in anger, bunching up the fabric of her top. I want the names of every person who’s made her feel less than perfect, so I can put a hex on them.

I unclench my jaw, worried she’ll think I’m angry at her. “There’s nothing I want more than for you to be my girlfriend, Linda. Except for maybe my wife,” I whisper.

My brother makes gagging sounds, which I ignore, because Linda’s blinking at me with what could almost be heart-eyes. For a moment, I’m worried she’s only going along with me because I’m the first person who’s been decent to her in a relationship, but I quickly shoo the thoughts away. Iwillmake her fall in love with me.

Letting the subject drop and giving her the chance to come to terms with it, I wrap my arm around her shoulder and guide her the rest of the way across the road in silence.

There are a few cars still in the parking lot of the closest building, though they all have their fuel hatches open. Glass crunches under our feet as we walk up to the entrance. While the building itself is untouched, it looks like windows have shattered from either nearby explosions or the vibrations coming off the alien ships.

“Think the residents made it out?” Linda asks, clearly worried about the retired people who moved here to enjoy the warm climate.

“I don’t see any corpses yet,” Axel replies. “We’ll see how manywe find inside.” Linda looks at him in dismay and I sigh. My brother has zero tact. Not seeing any issues with what he said, he enters the building through a smashed glass panel.

“Come on, sweetie,” I encourage my girl with a hand on her back. I want to cover her behind just in case any looters are still here or have made this their base. She carefully squeezes through the opening and I follow after. While entering the building proved easy, the apartments themselves are a different story.

“Who locks their place when they’re running for their lives?” Axel grumbles when we hit the tenth sturdy locked door.

I look at the electronic lock. “It’s probably automatic. And maybe they thought they’d be back soon. Or hoped.”

“Can’t you just break in?” Linda asks, curiosity on her face.

I exchange a look with my brother. “It’ll make a lot of noise,” I say.

“Worth the risk?” he asks, slapping the baseball bat he kept against the palm of his hand.

I look out the window, miraculously unbroken, at the door, and finally at an exhausted-looking Linda. “Go for it,” I decide.

There’s a click behind us. “Don’t!” a male voice says immediately after.

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