Collide by Shelly Crane

  Tonight the pay person was Margo.

  Merrick flashed her a quick glance and smiled to steady her nerves as she moved between the pumps and crossed the parking lot. She was freaking out, I could tell, wringing her hands as she marched stiffly. I watched her, while trying to look like I wasn’t watching.

  The attendant came over the intercom and asked if the lady inside was authorized to use the card for both vehicles. Merrick said yes and we heard the click of him turning off the intercom.

  I folded my legs up in the seat under me, twirling a curl of hair when I saw Margo exit and head back swiftly towards the van. I felt Merrick staring at me. I wondered how long as I’d been watching Margo. When I caught him he smiled sheepishly. I shook my head in disbelief.

  How could he still look at me like that? That look of awe and wonderment. Gashes and bruises, not a stitch of makeup or mousse for days. Ugh.

  Danny’s snore startled us both, and I giggled. Merrick replaced the gas cap and climbed in, waiting for the vans huge gas tank to fill up.

  “Feeling ok?” he asked me, reaching for my hand, intertwining our fingers.

  His thumb rubbed little circles on the inside of my wrist.

  “Mmmhuh. You?”

  “Yeah, I’m ok. I’ll be better when you two are safe somewhere. I don’t like being out at night. Especially now.” He let out a frustrated sigh.

  “I don’t like it either but we’ll find something.”

  “Well, we’d better find something fast. Come daylight, it’s gonna be a lot harder to blend all these people in somewhere, let alone find a place to hide.”

  “It’ll work out, Merrick. It has to.”

  “So optimistic,” he crooned smiling. “It’s one of the things I’ve always loved about you.”

  I was having trouble concentrating because I realized he just said the ‘L’ word again.

  “Well if you could get in my head you’d see the internal argument is usually quite different.”

  “I’m sure. I’d still love to see it,” he said still smiling.

  I smiled too and then it faded as I saw the attendant coming to the car.

  Merrick turned to look and I felt his hand tense. I was thinking, if it was one of them, he’d notice my mark if he came any closer. I wondered if he was thinking that too.

  “Hey! The woman left the card on the counter,” the man said in his slight southern accent, holding it out for Merrick to take.

  Lies. Oh no.

  “Thanks,” Merrick said as he reached for it, not looking at the name on it. I tightened my grip on his hand several times to warn him. “I’ll make sure she gets it.”

  “Say? What happened to your arm?” he asked looking at me.

  “Accident,” I mumbled quietly but loud enough for him to hear.

  He could clearly see the bandage on my shoulder with my tank top on. The jacket I had wrapped around the front of me had slipped down to my elbow. I pulled it back up.

  “What kind of accident?”

  I didn’t know what to say? He was obviously trying to bait me.

  “Bird. A freakishly big bird clawed me. Weird, right?”

  Knowing I wasn’t so good with the lies I figured I’d tip toe around the truth. He eyed me wearily. Merrick continued to assess things but didn’t give any indications yet.

  “Huh. That is weird. What kind of bird?” the man asked, taking a small step forward.

  “I’m sorry. We’re kind of in a hurry?” I smiled to soften the blow. “Is there something else you need from us? Gotta put the kiddies in bed.” I motioned to Danny sleeping the back and rolled my eyes.

  “Nope, that’s it. Ya’ll be safe. Guard you in all your ways, brother.”

  That stopped Merrick’s heart and I looked to make sure he was ok. He stared at the man and slowly released my hand to get out of his now open door. The man stepped back but didn’t show any emotion. When I thought about it, I’d heard that said before.

  “And you as well...brother,” Merrick said but he didn’t seem convinced.

  “It’s ok. I had to make sure first,” the attendant said. “There are more of us, a couple more. There’s a cellar under the store.” He waited with that, gauging Merrick’s reaction.

  To my surprise Merrick looked at me questioningly.

  “Is that the truth, Sherry?”

  “Yes,” I said, beaming inside.

  He trusted me.

  “Who are you?” Merrick asked the man.

  “I’m the son. My mom’s the Special, her Keeper’s name is Max.”

  That did it. Merrick loosened and reached for the mans outstretched hand.

  “You scared me,” Merrick said, blowing out a breath of relief.

  “Sorry. Max told me to say that to people I suspected were on the run. That only a Keeper would know what it meant. Look, they are downstairs. If you want, even if you don’t stay, could you just come down for a minute? We’ve been here a long time. You’re the first ones with a Keeper with you.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Well. That poor lady that came in was scared out of her mind and can’t act one lick so I pulled out my binoculars. I saw all those people loaded in the van, and then your arm and face,” he pointed at me. “I assumed you’d all been fighting with something, everybody looks so scared, so I decided I’d give it a try. I was beginning to think that Keeper was out of his mind with all those crazy stories about Lighters or whatever their called.”

  “You have no idea,” I said as I slid out of the seat and stood up next to Merrick. I extended my hand. “I’m Sherry, the sister. This is Danny, the Special, if that’s what you want to call him. And this is Merrick, the Keeper.”

  Merrick’s protective arm was already around me out of habit and I saw our new friends questioning eyes dart to the hand on my waist and then back up to us.

  “I’m Phillip. Nice to meet you.”

  Jeff’s face was priceless. We parked in the back in a big shed and Kay pulled the van in behind us to some old mechanics shop or something. Phillip lead us through the back of the store and the storage room. Under a roll away shelf was a fall out door. He lifted it with ease and we followed him down the dark stairs.

  Merrick went first, cautiously, peeking left and right as we descended. Phillips mom’s Keeper, Max, came around the corner wearily, hearing more than one set of feet.

  Keeper’s apparently can sense each other, or maybe they just speak in the mind with each other so quickly, I don’t know, but there was no more hesitation the moment he laid eyes on Merrick and Jeff. Merrick and Max joined in a brotherly embrace and then Max and Jeff. It was very heartening to see.

  Even though they didn’t know each other personally, they knew they were akin and that was enough. If only humans could be like that. The Special, Phillip’s mom, Trudy, an older but very attractive women came to greet us.

  Phillip looked maybe a few years older than I, taller than me, of course, sandy blonde hair left a little too long, past his ears. He was slim but muscular and he apparently thought himself attractive by his manners towards me. He hadn’t stopped looking and glancing at me, smiling and tilting his head at me.

  His mother on the other hand was nothing if not southern hospitality. Her completely shiny silver locks were ear length and curled in big loose curls. She was wearing a matching pant and sweater suit, loud but still tasteful, she could pull it off. Her makeup was perfect and so was her attitude.

  I thought Trudy and I would be good friends. She was the friendliest person I’d ever met, no exaggeration. When she shook my hand, she called me sugar and I fell in love.

  The fall out shelter was good sized, but once we all got down there it looked pretty skimpy. It seemed to run along the length of the above ground store. We followed the narrow hall into a commons room.

  We all sat down, most of us sat on the floor, as we talked and shared stories. Jeff’s description of the Marker attack was graphic and hard to listen to but he was clueing Max in since they
thought there weren’t anymore of them around. Phillip seemed very into it.

  “Freakish bird?” he asked me smiling.

  “I can’t lie. I’m really bad at it,” I explained.

  “But you can sense when someone’s lying? The guy asked you outside if you thought I was telling the truth.”

  The guy? He was sitting right next to me.

  “Yeah. I always have. I don’t know why or how, but I can just tell when people are lying, most of the time.”

  “All the time,” Merrick corrected.

  “Hmm. Anybody else got special powers we should know about?” Phillip said and looked around jokingly to everyone else, laughing as they did.

  It was light conversation, everyone laughed and talked and joked. It was nice meeting someone new, in the same situation.

  Phillip used the store as a cover. He worked the store while his mom was safe downstairs, and they had a constant supply of food from the store. They had a delivery every two weeks so they never even had to leave the store at all since all this started. I hoped we weren’t messing that up.

  They wanted us to stay. We could, it was cramped but we could make it work. Max started to explain that there were lots of storage closets at the ends of the short halls, this bunker was mainly for storage.

  The rooms, though small, were room enough for sleeping and they have doors for privacy. I was ecstatic at that news. What more can you ask for at this point? Roof, food, company and a closed door for bedtime. Ah.

  The Keepers convened and we assured them all we’d follow whatever decision they came to. I was almost certain they’d want us to stay, but I’d been surprised a lot lately.

  While they talked in the other room, I walked around and checked out the place. One end of a hall was a wall of dirt.

  Curious.

  There were five halls all right next to each other on the other end of the commons room.

  Each hall had three rooms on it. I peeked in one and there was literally only sleeping room. There was a few sleeping bags rolled up on a shelving unit by the wall and I grimaced. Looked like we’d be roughing it after all.

  Trudy was fantastical. She was boisterous and clever, witty. She seemed very taken by her Keeper as well, but not in the same way as I was with mine, well not mine but you know.

  Phillip asked me about Merrick and my relationship, in a very skeptical way, like it was unbelievable or a joke or something. I didn’t really know how to explain it so I just told them all “we’re together” and got the usual response, wide eyes, dropped jaws, questioning eyes.

  Trudy was polite about it but I still was irked. Why were people so freaked by the idea? And was it my imagination or was Phillip giving me the once over?

  He hadn’t stopped staring since we got here, and now that I thought about it, he had kinda shadowed me. Why did I only attract guys at worlds end? Didn’t I make it perfectly clear I was with Merrick?

  The Keepers came around the corner and Max called Phillip and Trudy into the other room so the rest of us could talk privately. The Keepers came and stood in front of us, all together there was only nine of us left. We gathered around as Jeff explained everything to us.

  “They want us to stay. It would be a good idea, for us all to stick together. They have all this security and supplies right here. We have room but one hall could be extended if need be, it was left open for building an addition. We’ll go out and look for others, maybe build as we go. They really want us to stay, but we wanted to make sure you were ok with this first. They have a television, and get the local news. They said the town has made it mandatory for everyone to be checked for the ear mark before any purchases can be made from now on. We knew this day would come. We don’t have much of a choice anymore. What do ya’ll think?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “So we’d never leave, ever?”

  “It’s the best idea so far.”

  “What choice do we have.” A statement, not a question.

  After a quick unanimous vote, it was decided. We were staying.

  Do You or Don’t You?

  Chapter 14

  Our first night in the new hideout proved to be interesting. Celeste and I helped Trudy make dinner for everyone. Mashed potatoes, meatloaf and green beans. After eating pasta and canned soup for a month, it was the most delicious looking thing ever, I could barely wait to finish cooking it and then have to wait to eat it.

  There was no table big enough, so we all just sat around, again, most of us on the floor.

  I tried to ignore Phillip’s constant stare, while cooking and now eating. It wasn’t that hard to do, not with Merrick there beside me on the floor, leaning against the south wall facing one out of the two couches.

  When we were done eating, we sat and watched the news. It’d been a long time for most of us. I wasn’t interested myself, having done so many stories on the visitors but everyone else seemed glued.

  Everyone except Celeste and Danny who were trying to be inconspicuous in the corner. They were whispering and she leaned in to speak in his ear. He had her hand in his, playing with her fingers. No point in trying to end it now. Besides, who cared.

  I honestly couldn’t even remember why I objected in the first place. If we we’re gonna die soon, why not enjoy what little we could until then? I decided I was happy for them. I was happy for myself too, despite what others thought. I could care less, and as I felt Merrick’s arm brushing mine, I cared even less than that.

  A little later, Merrick grabbed my hand and pulled me up, without a word. He picked the room farthest into the last hall on the left. There will be no fighting this time between friends, nothing to fight over. All the rooms were equally dreary and impossibly small. We grabbed a sleeping bag and though most everyone else was still up, we turned in early, Merrick leading the way, towing me behind him.

  Saying our goodnights and getting a huge ‘uh huh’ smile from Danny, I rolled my eyes at him and caught the disappointed look on Phillip’s face as he watched us go.

  I was a little confused. I must not make myself very clear around others with these things. Bobby didn’t get it and now Phillip wasn’t getting it. Tomorrow I would make a definite point to show him, that I was absolutely not available.

  I scooted as close as humanly possible to the wall for him to lay out the sleeping bag. Flipping the light switch off, I then crawled in next to him and he immediately reached over to grab my waist, pulling me as close as I can get to him.

  He kissed me differently this time. Not slow and easy, not cautious like usual but passionate and his hands had a mind of their own.

  I was euphoric!

  Not wanting to push too far so he stopped, I placed my hands on his chest and forced them to stay there and not move an inch.

  He hovered over me, his hand glided down my hip to my thigh, pulling my leg closer, making me gasp. He’d never done that before. I couldn’t help but pull away to breath and let the electricity fizzle out but no, he trailed kisses down my neck and somehow it was even worse that way.

  He must sense that too because he began to slow down and removed his hand from my leg, so I know this was the end. Always the gentleman. I joked to myself that if he wanted me to marry him, I would.

  I’d waited, like a good girl, I saved myself, but do I really want to die a virgin? Seriously.

  I must have let a slight giggle escape.

  “What?” he whispered against my jaw.

  “Nothing. Just thinking.”

  “About?”

  I couldn’t help but giggle more at the thought.

  “What?” he insisted.

  “Nothing! I I’m just being silly.”

  I have ways to get it out of you, ya know.

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah,” he breathed into my neck and began kissing across my collarbone.

  I couldn’t breath but yet my breathing was embarrassingly loud. When his mouth reached mine again, I couldn’t contain my hands a
nymore.

  Then, I felt his hand come up to my cheek. I put mine on his chin, my palm on the adorable scruffiness on his unshaved face.

  Then we lay there, noses touching for a bit. Soon, I was drunk on his breath. I leaned in to touch my lips to his again and again.

  “I think I may have some competition,” Merrick began, through ragged breaths.

  “You noticed that too?” Then it dawned on me. “Is that why you were so eager to go to bed?”

  “Yes. I’m surprised at how jealous I am about it,” he muttered low making me laugh softly. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be but sometimes my body reacts without my permission,” he admitted like it was shameful.

  “I told him,” I assured him.

  “What did you tell him?”

  “That we were...together. He asked me about us.”

  “You did?” he said seeming genuinely surprised. “Hmm... Well, I can understand his dilemma. You are gorgeous and amazing. It’s hard not to fall in love with you. I’ve tried.”

  “Oh, please!” I said smiling. “I’m gonna talk to him again tomorrow. The staring is kinda freaking me out.”

  “Yeah, it is. If I had to sit out there and watch him watch you another minute...” he drifted off as he nuzzled my neck.

  “Ah! And here I thought you came to bed for...another reason,” I said in mock outrage.

  “Well yeah, that too.”

  I laughed as he tickled me and kissed my neck. I covered my mouth with my hand thinking I was being entirely too loud. Wouldn’t want people to think something was going on in there, especially, when it most definitely was not.

  I imagined trying to go to sleep in this silent enclosed dark space, quiet and hot. Or maybe it was just Merrick. I wiggled out of my sweatpants and he pulled his shirt off. I couldn’t see, but I could feel his bare arms in the dark. I ran my fingers along the contours of the muscles of the arm around me.

  I chuckled when I felt him shiver with goose bumps. These arms never belonged to Matt anyway. He didn’t know how to use them like Merrick.