7)

The voice belonged to a woman holding her hand forward to offer to help me to my feet, with the sun at her back I couldn’t get a good look at her and waved her back instead. “I’m good.”

She took a step back. “Suit yourself.”

Getting up I took a few steps back myself to give me a good angle to see into the now burning store and keep her in my line of sight as well.

What I saw was a very curvy young woman with brown hair showing some vivid red roots, and bright blue eyes. She was dressed up in a mix of gym wear and durable military surplus clothing. A machete was sheathed at her side and an empty shoulder holster was under her coat.

From the store, the Fetch slipped out from around the door and flattened itself against the wall as something inside gave off one last pained and frustrated scream that cut off as it sounded as if it had fallen hard against some display that went scattering under its weight.

The Fetch gave me a thumbs up. “Just like we planned.”

The woman looked back and forth between us, noting the matching scrapes and stains on our matching clothes. “Wait, are you Nightmares?”

I waved away at her. “Just it, but it’s linked so if it kills me it dies too. It works for me.”

The Fetch shook its head. "No, I don't, I just have an interest in keeping him alive. And I can’t feed on anyone else unless I kill him first. So basically I’m screwed.” It shrugged.

She looked at it, then at me for a moment. “Thanks for the rescue. The name’s Gracie and I’m afraid I’ve been told I’m not welcome back at the Church if anything happened to the two guys I was with.” She waved her hand around in a circle. “And anything happened. I’m hoping you two will let me crash with your group for the night at least. I would like to get a fresh start to an entire day to find a new safe house for myself.”

I pulled out my cable bill and held it up. She sighed. "I'm standing in broad daylight, and I look human. I'm hoping that's enough because I'm Dyslexic and I never bothered to get the training that would have let me read even in a half assed kind of way. That’s why I’m not welcome back at that other group. Me and the two boys, Phill and Atkins were only tolerated because we did the shopping.”

She reached up to touch a scrap on her cheek, holding up her now blood smeared hand before wiping it on a still standing shelving unit. Pointing at the red blood she shrugged. "There's that too. The real red stuff, not blue goo."

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The Fetch asked. “What was wrong with the other two?”

She gave the now blazing building a sad look. “They were together, the church group didn’t like that sort of thing.” She shook her head. “Atkins tripped, and Phill turned back to help him up. The horse caught them.”

I walked over to where our bikes with the shopping cart and children’s wagon full of Tiki torches and Citronella fuel bottles sat from before we tried to rescue anyone. “I got houses on my street that have been cleared out and boarded up in case I need to place to run to in the middle of the night. You’re welcome to take one as long as you want, or at least until you piss me off.”

She nodded. “Best offer I’ve had all day. I don’t suppose my ride still has tires?” I shook my head. Looking at the bikes she asked. “I hope I don’t have to ride in the wagon.”

She sat on top of the panniers on the older bike, with the Fetch peddling in front. It was less vulnerable to getting its throat cut.

Considering how little it weight it would have made more sense for it to be on the rear rack, but I know how I would have reacted to the suggestion.

Why did I take her? It may have had something to do with her being a very attractive woman, actually a lot. Even completely filthy from being in a burning building she had the face, the body, and even the voice. But I think it had more to do with me being tired of just having only one other human being around to talk to for the last five weeks.

Even someone who might be a dangerous person, or possibly a Nightmare would be a welcome novelty.

I, or now we, made another stop at the drugstore for Suzy's stuff. The pharmacy had been cleared out of drugs, and all the food was gone, but I grabbed some more gauze pads, shampoo, soap, and a sling in addition to the girl stuff. My arm was killing me and I thought getting some of the weight off my shoulder might help.

From there we made our way back to Elm Street. Gracie glanced at the street signs with Elm Street spray painted over Baldwin Ave, but she didn’t say anything.

At the end of the block I pointed at the cage, “If you’re feeling ambitious, you could start taking that down, me and the Mirror are going to set up the torches for tonight.”

She looked at the cage and gave it a hard kick that set the thing to rocking. “I’ll need some tools?”

I walked over and pulled the keys out of the Desantos mailbox. “There’s a bunch of tools in the garage, and the beds got clean sheets on them. Make yourself at home.”

Suzy called out from her front door. “Chris, do I hear a new voice?”

Gracie looked over at the blind girl and called out. "Hi, I'm Gracie. Your friend whose name I just learned says I can stay in the house across the street from you for a while.”

Suzy tilted her head as if she was thinking about whether she wanted a new person around, but finally, she smiled. "Welcome to the neighborhood. I'm Suzy. He’s Chris and the other one is Fetch. We can talk more at dinner. We’re having tuna salad.”

I sighed in relief. I hadn’t been sure until that very moment that anyone else was going to be able to see the young woman. Having it turn out that I had been imagining her for the last five weeks would have been par for the course.

With that, we set to work setting out a ring of torches around the circular turnaround. When Gracie opened up the Desanto’s garage I walked over and began setting out some of the fire extinguishers I had stockpiled inside around the circle.

After setting up for the night, we boiled up some noodles, drain them, and mixed them up with some canned tuna and a small jar of miracle whip with garlic salt, pepper, fresh diced up parsley, carrots and tomatoes scavenged from the gardens from the surrounding neighborhoods.

Gracie seemed pretty happy with the food. “Looking in people’s backyards hadn’t been much of a priority with the church group. It was mostly just hitting people’s kitchens now that the stores are mainly cleared out.”

After heating water for dishes, I took a bucket into my house for a good scrub down followed by another shower and fresh bandages. Then a nap.

An hour after sundown the hounds were on their way back.