Page 52 of Worth the Ruin
“I can’t believe you ran on this,” I mutter, my muscles suddenly clenching up as the cold hits me hard. I guess I’ve been running on adrenaline too, blocking out the worst of it, but now it’s coming on strong. A violent shudder racks Melody’s slim frame.Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Fire. We need a fire. I glance around to find something I can burn in the grate, beyond thankful the apartment has a fireplace.
“Clothes off. N-now,” Mel says effectively stopping my search of something to start a fire with. I pull back to look up at her, arching a brow. She rolls her eyes. “Body heat, you j-j-jackass.”
Oh. Right. Of course. I try not to think about the fact that that means I’m about to be up close and personal with a naked—or at leastnearlynaked—Melody, our bodies pressed together…
She shoves me away and stands, keeping the weight off her injured foot. She unbuttons her jeans and I rise to my feet, pulling off my shirt and tossing the wet fabric aside. I yank my boots and socks off, and start on my pants, a tiny thrill of nervousness running through me.
“If your boxers come off, I s-swear to God I will castrate you,” she says and I huff out a laugh.
“Boxer briefs, actually,” I correct as I work on getting the wet tactical pants off. “And, ok, they stay on.”
I grab a blanket from a stack in the corner and when I turn back, all thoughts of being cold fly from my head. Melody stands in nothing but her underwear. Black, lacy boyshorts with a matching bra that make my mouth fucking water. The top of a tattoo peeks from the beneath the lace at her right hip bone and I need to know what the rest of it look like, just how low it dips down...
I shake myself.Doesn’t fucking matter right now. Focus.
Despite the situation, I swear her eyes blaze for a second when she takes me in, her gaze traveling down my bare chest and stomach, further still...I swallow hard and mentally slap myself.How about make sure that neither one of you are going to lose any extremities due to frostbite before you worry about eye fucking each other, you asshole.
I throw the blanket around my shoulders and pull her close, wrapping the blanket around her as she snakes her arms around me. Already the heat within the blanket feels like heaven. I try to ignore how close we are, how much of our skin is touching, how little fabric separates us. I ease us down onto the couch, shifting so that she’s in my lap, keeping us as close as possible. I think she’s going to argue, but she sighs in relief, and rests her head in the crook of my neck.
We stay that way for a long time, neither of us saying a word, just letting the heat fill us. After a while, her shivering slows, and I’m hit with the painful sensation of numb fingers and toes regaining feeling.
“Don’t read anything into this, Traeger,” she says against my throat. “This is about my desire not to freeze to death. Nothing more.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I say. “Though, you know this is more effective if we’recompletelynaked…”
“Don’t press your luck.” I swear there’s a smile in her voice and I laugh lightly. I tighten my arms around her and she settles more firmly against me. Despite everything that had happened between us, despite the fact that, as she said, this has nothing to do with anything but our bodies’ needs and survival, I can’t help but feel so fucking content with her in my arms.
“Better?” I ask after what feels like hours.
She exhales and nods. “Better.”
“I’m going to start a fire, and we need to get your ankle wrapped and you in some dry clothes.”
As much as I hate to do it, I ease her off of me, maneuvering out from under the blanket and tucking the edges back tightly around her. I poke around in her pack, eyeing the stuffed dog that she risked her damn life for, and look for clothes. I highly doubt she’ll want to put on jeans right now. “Let me check the bedroom, see if there’s some sweats or something so you don’t have to worry with real clothes right now.”
“Thanks,” she sighs, and I can see the pain and exhaustion hitting her hard. I dig through the dresser and find a goldmine. I tug on some dry clothes myself and come back, holding up sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie, smiling.
“Jackpot. Got plenty of dry, warm stuff for both of us.” I toss the clothes to her. “You change while I grab wood from downstairs to burn.”
I freeze when I reach the bottom of the stairs. I can hear them outside, the screeching and moaning and dragging sounds of Bloodies. The fucking soundtrack that’s constantly playing in the background of this world. I tread lightly to one of the windows where the bottom corner of the wood had broken away. I peek outside and watch as a small herd ambles by. They’re not paying much attention to the barn, so they don’t seem to realize anything is inside, they’re just following along the path they were already on in following us. They’ll move off soon enough,I’m sure, but I’ll keep an eye out once I get back upstairs just to be safe. I quietly grab a small stack of wood and head back up the stairs.
I manage to get a fire going pretty easily. I worry for a second about the smoke being seen by anyone still alive out here, but know that we have to risk it. We’re fairly secure up in the apartment, so if someone does come to call, I’ll be able to handle it easily. I check out the window and am happy to report that the Bloodies have made their way past the barn already. One less thing to worry about for tonight. I wrap Mel’s ankle, give her a protein bar, water, and Advil, and then fish the walkie out of the pack.
“Landry, you there?”
The answer comes almost immediately and my muscles relax a fraction. I’d been worried about the rest of the group.
“Yes, sir,” Landry’s voice comes through the static, clearly relieved. “Are you and Mel alright?”
“Yeah, we’re good. We found a place to hunker down.”
“Thank God. We backtracked to one of the cleared houses and are safe for the night here too.”
“Good work.” I clench my jaw and then ask the question I’m dreading hearing the answer to. I’d seen the blood, the bodies littering the ground, the pieces of my people strewn around that fucking clearing. “How many?” Melody sits up straighter and leans forward. I hold her gaze as we wait for the answer. Despite the distance that’s grown between us over these past weeks, we’re united in this, in our worry for our people, in the regret for the loss of life.
“Six dead, sir.”Fuck. I sit down on the coffee table and hang my head, closing my eyes. I feel like a failure. It’s my job to keep them safe and I didn’t fucking do it. Melody puts her hand on my forearm and I sigh before opening my eyes again. That one touchsays so much:It isn’t your fault. This is the world we live in. You did your best. You have to keep going.
