Surrounds (Bonds) by S.L. Simps Read Free Book Online Page A

like and accusation, harsh and hateful. She ignores her own tone.
    If he notices, he ignores it. "It’s going to be awhile before we find a place that wasn’t hit by them." He explains standing and offering her a large hand.
    She takes it after a moment of hesitation. His hands are very rough but also slick with sweat.
    He offers her a weak smile, nearly invisible behind lines of worry and dark bruises from exhaustion underneath his half-open eyes. "You don’t have to worry though." He assures his weak smile twitching into something stronger.
    She believes him.
    Chapter 15
    Lacey
    She finds herself constantly looking at the cloudy sky, afraid she would see crimson. But it had been a day since then and it was still blue. Her whole body aches, every inch of her felt as if it was a big sore, one big bruise. They had slept in a shed last night, amongst gardening tools and pesticides, oil, and lawn mower gas, it hadn't been a good night. Every house they came across had been destroyed by the hoard. It was horrible. The air was stiff and quiet now, like the calm before a storm. Lacey hopped not, her mind was still reeling from yesterday's mess.
    "Hey, Henderson?" She winces, her voice oddly loud in the cursed silence.
    "We’ll stop in a few hours I promise." He tugs on his backpack strap, attention still ahead of them.
    "I wasn’t going to say that, Henderson." Lacey says dryly. Henderson glances at her.
    "Oh, sorry." He tugs at his sweaty hair. "What were you going to say?"
    "I was going to say…" She flicks a dirty strand of dark hair over her shoulder, lightly glaring at him. "I… uh…" She bites her lip, face falling out of its glare. Flashes of clinging to Henderson in that tiny closet hits her hard, her shamelessly whimpering and blowing snot on his shirt also entered her mind. He had somehow kept it together. He hadn’t broken down like her. "I… Thank you." She whispers, as she quickly looks away.
    When she finally looks at Henderson, he’s smiling a little. "You don’t thank people often. This is serious… are you sure you’re alright?" His lips begin twitching with the need for a wider smile.
    Blinking slowly at his joke, the girl only shakes her head. "I’ll never do it again then." She nods slowly to herself, still staring at him. Henderson’s jokes usually ended up like this… bad. A small smile curves its way onto her lips. She had actually liked such a thing about him. Henderson is such an oddball. He once was her oddball.
    Both of their shadows are long once they make it out of the hoard’s path and houses and business no longer lay in ruins. A lonely grocery store is now their destination and Henderson unclips his machete from his hip and pushes open a door blocked by broken crates.
    "Wait here, I’ll check it out."
    This wasn’t unusual. Henderson usually checked out what was inside a dark, dusty, cramped space, while it was her who stood outside of it as ‘look out’. But they both understood it was Henderson with the truly dangerous job.
    As she watches Henderson vanishes into a darkened hall she feels off.
    (O)
    Chapter 16
    Alasa
    She wonders how old he is. Her fingers still in their actions of scaling a fish to stare at ‘Wolf’. His long black hair shields his face as he works, his pale flesh washed-out and paler underneath the fire’s glow. He had not a wrinkle, not even the tiniest of blemishes on his skin. There was no clear indications of his age besides him being over sixteen and possibly under forty. It was odd, his agelessness. He had finally found a better food substance then Rats and she was insanely happy about that. This she could work with.
    She watched him sharpen his machete on a rock, oddly not intimidated by it at all. She begins scaling the fish again before opening her mouth.
    "Hey…" She calls out hesitantly, wincing at the volume of her own voice. Wolf looks up slowly, pinning her down with a blank stare. Alasa shifts onto her behind and off her bruised legs,