Chapter six
Jared decided to stay where they were a couple of days more than usual since Jensen didn't look in good enough shape to sit on a horse. The look of despair on his face when Jared had finished the can of tuna for breakfast without offering anything to Jensen made Jared's stomach squirm even though he only kept his word.
He cooked the mushrooms from the day before earlier than he usually did, and added a squirrel that stuck in one of his traps. Jensen ate painfully slow, chewing with the kind of vacant expression that reminded Jared's of the African children in all of those commercials from the world before. He wondered if this was worse for Jensen, who was too young to remember ever having more food than you could eat, or if it was worse for Jared, who still remembered all those times you ate until you felt sick, pizza and burgers and coke and cookies long into the small hours of the night, just because you could. At least he had grown up eating himself full. Maybe Jensen wouldn't live as long as a result of his starvation, like the life-span of the people who lived just a little less than a hundred years before them.
Jared pushed the thoughts away and decided that he would perhaps try and hunt some more, buy more bullets in the next village they visited.
The following weeks went by with no extraordinary occurrances, Jensen couldn't sit properly for a few days and he moved carefully, face pale and pained as he gathered firewood or skinned a critter. He talked even less, and avoided Jared's gaze, so quiet and subdued that Jared couldn't help but miss the few glances of almost-smiles he'd been rewarded with before. It hadn't happened often and Jared hadn't thought he would miss it. But things were the way they were and Jared showed no sympathy or remorse, he'd done what he had to.
Days passed in a blur and neither of them barely said a thing. Then one day they sat on the horse, heading to their next location as Jensen suddenly spoke, surprising Jared. “Maybe we could go back?” he said slowly.
“What are you talking about? Go back where?”
“Y...you know the village we went to with the deer. They seemed...nice”
“That they're nice at first doesn't mean they are. There's no way I'm ever settling down in a town like that. A place like that is just waiting to be overtaken.”
Jensen squirmed on the horse, still sore from the whipping, looking flustered. “B..but don't you ever wanna..you know..”
“What?” Jared snapped, fed up with Jensen's stuttering, and the way he always danced around what he really wanted to say.
Jensen flinched and self-consciously brushed his hair away from his face. “S...settle down” he whispered.
“That's never going to happen” Jared said resolutely. “The minute you try and build something in this shitty world someone is going to set out to take it away. That's the way it is”
Jensen was quiet for a while, then mumbled something.
“What did you say?” Jared asked irritably.
“I said it doesn't have to be” Jensen whispered.
Jared felt his irritation mutate into something more tangible. “Well then you don't know anything.” he responded.
*
A few days later they were riding again, heading down the mountain in search for a village so Jared could get more ammunition. Jared wasn't thinking about anything in particular when he heard a rustling of leaves and turned his head at the direction of the sound, expecting to see a deer. Instead he saw a man.
“Well hi there.” the man said. A gun in his hand pointed at Jared's direction.
Jared's arm tightened around Jensen and he thought of the gun in the waistband of his jeans in the small of his back. He couldn't reach for it now. For a while the novelty of the situation made him mute, he had not seen or heard the man coming at all. It was like he had been waiting for them. He probably had.
The leaves rustled again and Jensen flinched in his arm, rigid as a pole and completely still as another man showed up.
“We're not interested in harming you.” the second man said, with a reddish beard and greasy hair. “We just wondered if you might be interested in selling the boy.” he asked firmly, looking at Jensen up and down.
“Not that he looks much like a boy.” the first man said and snickered.
“He's not for sale.” Jared stated, waver in his voice and he hated himself for letting his nervousness show, for being weak.
“Well in that case.” the red-haired man said, cocking his gun. “You're going to have to give him up anyway. Hand him over.”
Jared could feel his hands shaking, from anger or fear he didn't know. He didn't have a choice. He motioned Jensen to get off the horse and at first Jensen didn't move, like he didn't understand what Jared meant, then he gave Jared a shocked glance and started mumbling no in a quiet voice, hands fumbling with the reins and Jared's arm like he could hold himself on the horse by force.
“Get off.” Jared mumbled and Jensen's face turned pale as one of the men came and dragged Jensen off the horse. The man dragged him to the ground, Jensen too shocked to struggle. The man had an arm secured around Jensen's waist and for some reason that made Jared cold inside, dead and cold.
“We're happy to take him off your hands.” the first man grinned and Jared didn't say a word, not giving away a thing.
“We'll take your backpack too I think.” the man with the red beard said. “Throw it here.”
Jared untangled the backpack and threw it at the men and landed with a thud on the ground.
“He's not to hard on the eyes either. Maybe we should take him to.” the first man said.
The man with the red beard just grinned slightly.
“Nah. He's pretty but he's too tall. He'd cause too much trouble.” he chuckled and the other man laughed.
Jared tried to sit up straighter in the saddle, look older than he was. It didn't matter that he felt about a hundred years old, some people still considered him a kid.
“So where you heading?” the red-haired man asked, sly grin on his face.
“To a small village not far from here, visiting some family.” Jared lied.
The man seemed to weigh in his words. “Mhm that's good. Means we don't have to waste a bullet shooting you. Just keep heading that direction and we won't have a problem.” he said, the smile gone from his lips.
Jared nodded and smacked his horse, urging it to motion he turned it around and started heading away, expecting a bullet in his back any second.
“Jared!” he heard Jensen scream, voice a high-pitched wreck. Jared barely recognized it. “Don't...” he heard him cry out before someone muffled his voice.
He rode for a short while, then stood still. He waited for as long as he thought would be enough and then turned around and went back from where he had come. When he found the place where they'd taken him he got off the horse and tied him to a tree. He followed their trail by foot, walking for almost two hours before he saw their camp.
There were only the two men he had seen and Jensen, plus two horses tied to a tree. He couldn't see much, because there were trees and bushes in the way and he was afraid to go closer in case they had someone on guard. So he waited. He waited until night fell, the voices off the men faint in the distance. He thought he heard someone cry out at one point but he wasn't sure. He couldn't do anything. He forced himself to sit still in the dark, thinking about nothing. Not thinking about Jensen. Or the men. Their hands on Jensen.
When everything had been silent for a long while he cocked his gun and headed down to the clearing, seeing the man on watch asleep sitting up. He saw Jensen tied up, lying on his stomach with his hands behind his back, not seeing him come. Without hesitation he sneaked up to the man sitting, placing himself so the second man on the ground was in close range and then shot the sitting man in the head. The sound was defeaning and he quickly turned and shot the man on the ground in the chest, hearing him scream. Quickly he took his gun away from the ground and shot him in the chest, just to make sure. Everything went quiet.
He turned and sought out Jensen, untying him quickly. Jensen had pissed himself, shaking when Jared tried to urge him to walk. Jensen tried but he must have been tied up too tight or was way in shock, because he kept falling down. Finally Jared just hoisted him up over his shoulder and quickly grabbed his stolen backpack. He also took two extra guns and bag full of the mens supplies, and then set the horses free, not sure what else to do with them. Then he started making his way back, Jensen trembling on his shoulder.
When they reached the horse his shoulders were aching, he hadn't thought he'd be able to carry Jensen so far, didn't know where the strength came from. He set Jensen down as softly as he could and calmed the skittish horse with soothing noises.
“A..are t..they dead? D..did you...” Jensen sobbed, hysterical and Jared didn't know what to say.
“Come on.” he said and helped Jensen get up on the horse.
“Are t..they g..gonna come for us? A..are they d..dead? ”
“They're not coming, they're dead.” Jared said quietly and felt some sick rising in his throat. Quickly he swallowed it down.
“S..so are they coming back?” Jensen babbled.
Jared just shushed him.
They rode like blind men in the dark and the whole way Jensen asked questions, reasoning with himself whether or not the men were coming back. “I..I don't think they're coming because they had horses a..and..you let them go, so th..they can't come right? T..they can't.”
“Be quiet.” Jared said and after a while Jensen stopped talking and started crying instead, maybe reaching some sort of realization or he was just plain terrified.
They rode for hours until Jared could no longer sit up. He was unsure if they were even moving forward or just riding in circles. Jensen sagged in his arms, breaths coming rapidly like he couldn't catch a breath. He was trembling, small and vulnerable in Jared's hold, reminding him of a trapped bird.
Jared didn't set up camp but simply rearranged the packing so they could sleep, shedding Jensen's jeans off under wild protests.
“N..no! I...might..n..need them. They co..could come back.” he stammered, twitching in Jared's grip.
“They're dead.” Jared whispered, so tired he could fall down.
“Okay.” Jensen said and Jared took off his wet jeans.
Neither of them could sleep. Jensen laid quiet for a while. “So y..you killed them” he whispered finally.
“Yes.” Jared said.
“B..but how...you said you didn't w..want to waste any bullets..” he mumbled, like he couldn't see the logic there.
“I took their guns.” Jared whispered.
“M..maybe they're not d..dead..we should...”
“We're staying.”
“But..”
“Go to sleep.”
“But y..you left me with them,. You l...left me so they...” Jensen whispered.
“I didn't leave you. They took you.”
“H..how did you c..come back..why did..y..you come...”
“I came for you. Because they took you.”
“D..don't leave me. I..I don't want you to leave. I..”
“I'm never leaving you. Not ever. Now go to sleep.
“I don't...”
“Sleep.”
After a while Jensen went to sleep or passed out, Jared wasn't sure which.
Jared didn't sleep for a long while.
Chapter seven