Locked to Mathias.

[saved_the_knees]

It came easy to her. Wiping the slate clean as she bundled up her meager belongings, forgetting everything from the weeks before, pushing it so far out of her mind that it might as well not have ever been there. She smiled just as brightly as always, just as carefree, and she went back to following him wherever he went, because following is what

Comments

[plntfood]

"It is," Mathias agrees, because it's clean and there's space for the both of them. It isn't as safe as a bed in the Compound, but he knows they can't stay there forever, sharing the same bed. Of course, he likes living with Stacy. It's easier than he'd expected, which is why he's pleased they're both moving into this new place.

"Which room do you want?" he asks, because it's easier to talk about the new hut than it is to think about the jungle behind them.

[saved_the_knees]

She stepped inside the open doorway, looked left and right, then pointed randomly and said over her shoulder, "That one."

The looked exactly the same, and she didn't stop to think that the one she'd just picked pointed east and would be unbearably bright in the morning.

[plntfood]

Nodding, Mathias steps off the small main room into the other bedroom and lays down his things. Neither of them have much to their name, but he's already come down to the hut and set up makeshift beds for them both. Once he has a bit more time, he'll build proper frames and figure out a way to make real mattresses.

"It feels very empty," he murmurs, wishing now he had more than some clothes and a box of tools.

[saved_the_knees]

"We'll fill it up," she said. She didn't know what with, she had a bag full of clothes and nothing else, but she knew they would, eventually. She felt like they could make this place a home more than the room in the compound had ever been.

[plntfood]

"I can build us each bed frames," he tells her, resting his hand against one of the walls. The sun is already dipping behind the trees, throwing the hut into shadows and he wonders why they didn't think to bring any candles.

"For now I hope what I've put together will do," he continues, pushing away his nerves.

[saved_the_knees]

"It's fine," she insisted, "I like them, it's like camping." But the moment the words are out of her mouth, she regrets them, something twisting shamefully in her gut and a blush staining her cheeks.

Their last experience with sleeping bags wasn't exactly a good memory.

[plntfood]

Mathias says nothing, he doesn't even react to what she's said, although as the words sink in, all he can do is picture that moment, Amy's bones tumbling out white and clean from the sleeping bag.

They'd considered eating her.

"We should build furniture for this main room, too," he says, ignoring what he's feeling. "And for outside. Like a real home. I've already started an air conditioner for your room."

[saved_the_knees]

If she can tell he's desperately trying to block out what he's feeling with the sound of his own voice, she doesn't acknowledge it.

"I real home," she echoes quietly to herself, running a fingertip along the doorframe and trying to imagine what it will look like.

For some reason, she can't.

[plntfood]

"Not like what we had before, but as close as we can get here, I expect," Mathias says, heading into his room to push his things away from the door. For some reason, the realization that they're really here and really dead is driven home by this place and he doesn't like it. His stomach twists uncomfortably and he sits down on his makeshift bed. Stacy will join him or she won't.

[saved_the_knees]

She hesitated, but only for a moment, fidgeting helplessly before finally taking a step forward and sinking down on the bed mat beside him.

"It'll be good," she said, trying to think positively, but it came out sounding like a question, "The compound is too cramped, anyway."

[plntfood]

"Too many people," he agrees and the sun gets lower, throwing the room into a strange orange glow. All these months, he's never spend any time outside of the Compound after sunset. It's strange to think he actually hasn't seen the sun set in more than six months.

"We should have brought some candles or an oil lamp," he murmurs absently.

[saved_the_knees]

"It's not too late. We could still go back and get them," she offered, her lips pressing into a faint but genuine smile. She could tell how uncomfortable he was and all she wanted to do was fix it, but she was already out of ideas from the start.

[plntfood]

"It might be dark by the time we get there," Mathias warns. He isn't sure either of them want to do that. The trek to the Compound from the beach isn't short and he doesn't know about Stacy, but he's never been outside of the Compound after the sun sets.

[saved_the_knees]

"There are lights on the path?" she murmurs, but she's already talked herself out of it. Mathias isn't going, that much is obvious, and there's no way she's going alone.

She shifts, maybe a little closer, fidgeting with a loose strand on her shorts to keep herself occupied, and within moments, she's humming mindlessly to herself, just a string of nonsense notes barely audible even to herself.

[plntfood]

"Maybe we should..." But what is there to do to distract them from the coming dark? To play a card game, they would first need cards and then they'd still need light. It's the same with anything Mathias can come up with and he frowns to himself, trying to think of something they can do.

Instead, though, he listens to Stacy hum and wonders if she'd done that at all on the hill. He wonders if he'd just been too turned inside himself to hear it or if the rain had drowned her out.

[saved_the_knees]

"No, I... I don't want to," she murmured, finally, her song coming to an abrupt end. She still has the tequila, wrapped up in her things, and she thought about offering it -- a distraction, pure and simple, but something stopped her.

She leaned in close, her hair brushing his shoulder, looking down at their lengthening shadows on the hut floor and feeling something icy squirm it's way up her spine.