Upon finishing her text conversation, Aura looked back over at where Micah was still watching her inside of the dark freezer. Then again, it wasn't like there was much else to look at in there.
“Let me guess, our cuddle time is coming to an end?”
“You're so weird,” she mumbled.
“Flirting with the first cute girl I see after thinking the only female I'll be near for the rest of my life is my bitch sister? How absurd of me,” he teased.
“Cute? You've definitely been exposed to these toxins too long,” she mumbled and shook her head to push past the further reddening of her cheeks. “It's been like an hour, and they haven't killed us yet. Maybe they actually did leave. All they saw was the car after all, right?”
He just shook his head, but didn't elaborate further on his slightly disappointed expression. “Yeah, I guess I'll go have a look.”
“What? No, I should!” she insisted as he moved to open the freezer lid.
“You?” he couldn't help another amused look. “That wasn't just me being happy to see you. I'm the one with the gun in my pants, unless you're hiding one in that pack of yours out there?” he asked hopefully.
“Guns? Guns are useless against them, Micah. They can't even get--” she shook her head again.
He narrowed his eyes slightly at whatever the rest of that sentence was meant to be. “OK, valid. But even our useless guns would probably slow them down more than throwing your backpack at them or whatever your plan was.”
“Trust me, I'm safer out there than you. Don't ask,” she told him in a near whisper, trying to ignore his skeptical look, and knowing she'd have to explain her statement later. But they had more pressing concerns at the moment.
And with that, Aura moved to cautiously push open the freezer lid instead. Micah narrowed his eyes at her slow opening of the heavy steel lid. “I doubt they're just sitting on the basement steps waiting for us to pop our heads out again.”
Aura scoffed, but said nothing more. Though she did move to open the freezer more quickly after his comment, which did cause another smirk to form behind his mask.
Once she climbed out of the cramped freezer, she turned on her phone to cast another look around the basement for anything that could be of use. He easily hopped out behind her.
“Oh yeah. Here,” she stated as she reached for the backpack she had discarded earlier and dug the gas mask out for him. “It'll be way better than that cloth mask.”
“The cloth mask like the one you're wearing instead of the gas mask you just happened to be packin instead?” he stated pointedly as he took it from her hand with a raised brow.
“We only had two. And Ilian took the other for your sister,” she stated in the same hushed whisper.
“Whoever that is,” he mumbled before moving on, “And that still doesn't explain why you weren't wearing it on the way here yourself,” he stated curiously.
“I've developed a semi-resistance to the toxins,” she forced herself to explain even that much.
“In your bunker?” he asked with further skepticism.
“Listen, I'll explain it all once we're safely back there, OK?” she told him with impatience, gesturing for him to put on the mask as she hiked the pack over her shoulder and looked around the basement once more.
“A woman of mystery? Nice.”
“Is that supposed to be more flirting?” she mumbled as she moved toward something that had caught her eye at the other side of the room.
“Thought I was being pretty obvious about it,” he smiled as he finally pulled the gas mask over his head, as she had instructed.
“Whatever,” she mumbled again as she moved to a table with a large plastic water gun on it that had inexplicably garnered her attention.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Not to be all man-splain-y, but I think even throwing the backpack at them would be more effective than that thing. And don't even get me started if they're like gremlins or something, and that gives us thirty more of the ugly bastards,” he said, following her to the table as she picked it up and shook it to determine that there was still water inside.
“And I thought you were supposed to be a genius,” Aura returned, finally allowing a slight smirk of her own.
“My reputation precedes me?”
“Yeah your IQ is like, two or three hundred, as high as it goes!” she repeated Cleo's words in a mockingly high tone, “at least according to your lovely sister.”
Another smirk behind his mask. “Guessing by your tone, you know how ridiculous that statement was. And yours is much higher than hers.” He then added, “And also, that you don't seem to be one of her biggest fans, OMG!” he finished in the same mocking tone.
“Not particularly,” she mumbled as she began digging through her pack, still holding the large water pistol with her other hand.
“But you are a fan of that heartthrob Adan Jacobs, huh?” he tested the waters, but with a pointed tone.
Aura sucked in a deep breath at his words, “He and I were actually childhood friends. Years before he was all hearththrob-y,” she shook her head, but quickly continued. “We just happened to be together when all this shit happened,” she stated softly.
“Good to know,” he smiled briefly, not that she could make out his expressions at all anymore. “So wise one, please explain to me the water gun. And what in the fuck you are looking for in that pack now.”
Finally finding her target, she pulled out a small vial of black seeds. He moved toward her to get a closer look. She smiled up at him before beginning to shove a number of them into the plastic water storage container of the toy.
Though she couldn't help the tiniest flinch as they felt hot to her touch now, almost enough so to burn her fingers. Though she refused to let herself dwell on what exactly that meant. Again, they had bigger concerns at the moment.
“Secret weapon,” she told him with a tiny bit of pride as she finished mixing a number of seeds in with the water inside the gun.
“Are you like a woman in black?” Micah had to ask with deepening interest.
“Well, I do only wear black. So, maybe,” she finally allowed herself to return his flirtation, at least in some minor way.
“You just keep getting hotter,” he told her with a slightly sultry slant to his tone, which just caused her to look away, as if he could see the small smile hiding behind her own mask anyway.
* * *
Cleo finished her rather bland pre-packaged meal with a slight scowl down at the now empty plate. You'd think that whoever was in charge of stocking up food for the apocalypse would have at least picked stuff with flavor, knowing there'd be no more restaurants and stores, right? She sighed at the thought, before pushing the plate away and returning her dark eyes to Adan once more.
Throughout her entire meal, Adan had remained sitting there at the foot of the table, staring down at his phone. Cleo cleared her throat to redirect his attention, though he didn't seem to notice.
She shook her head, plastered on that sweet smile of hers and decided to strike up a conversation instead. “So, what happened to your arm, anyway?”
“Hmm?” Adan responded distractedly, worried eyes still watching the two blinking GPS signals on his phone.
“What'd you do to your arm?” Cleo replied more loudly, though still wore the smile just in case he actually bothered to look her way finally.
“Got shot by an alien,” Adan responded in the same distracted manner, attention still glued to the phone in his hand.
“Shit, seriously?” Cleo gasped as she stood from her seat at the head of the table and then moved to slide one of the side chairs closer to him and take a seat there instead.
“Yeah,” Adan confirmed in a mumble, only casting the briefest of glances her way upon the sound of her moving the other chair in closer to him now. Then he just as quickly returned his gaze to the phone.
That time, Cleo's scowl was more obvious. Had anyone been looking her way to see it. “You can relax, Ade. My half-brother's kept me alive for three months already. He'll be fine for one more night.”
“Your br--?” Adan began with disbelief, then just shook his head and decided against finishing that thought. Instead opting to continue looking at the phone instead of the girl next to him.
“Are you OK?” Cleo then asked with a furrowed brow.
Not expecting that particular question from her did cause Adan to take pause, momentarily. “Just really worried right now,” he admitted under his breath.
“Well, relax already. You're hot friend got me here safe. And Micah's pretty good at taking care of himself in this mess, so you don't have to waste time worrying about him,” Cleo assured.
Adan simply scoffed at her words, but bit his tongue to keep from sharing any more of his own right then. Though it was true that Micah was not exactly the one he was most concerned about at that moment; he was very concerned that Aura would be safe with this stranger who he had never heard much at all about, aside from genius, hacker, asshole, and good at taking care of himself. Then there was the fact that Cleo could be so blasé about the safety of her only sibling in this mess, when Adan would have given almost anything to have his own sibling back: The real version of his sibling that was.
Adan shook his head to push that thought away. Instead, opting to return his concentration to the safety of the other person who he loved dearly and who he was desperately afraid of losing as well right then.
Noting that he still seemed to be wholly distracted by that damn phone of his, Cleo took another breath and moved to place her hand over the screen, to finally pull his attention back to her.
She then spoke again, “I mean, we haven't seen each other for ages. And we somehow both survived this. Don't you want--”
“Move. Your. Hand,” Adan said slowly and sharply, the venom in his tone barely hidden. "Please," he added as only an afterthought, his courtesy feigned.
“Geez. Aren't you in a mood?” she blew off his obvious anger. Though she did relinquish her hold on his phone before standing again. “I'll go see if the other hottie can tell me where to find you a drink or something. Geez,” she repeated before moving off in search of her rescuer from earlier that night instead.