Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/2049276.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Of_Mice_&_Men_(Band)
  Relationship:
      Alan_Ashby/Austin_Carlile, austlan, cashby_-_Relationship
  Character:
      Austin_Carlile, Alan_Ashby, Aaron_Pauley, Tino_Arteaga, Phil_Manansala,
      OFC
  Additional Tags:
      Austlan_-_Freeform, Cashby, Apocalypse, Post-Apocalypse
  Stats:
      Published: 2014-07-30 Updated: 2014-11-29 Chapters: 4/? Words: 5543
****** War All The Time ******
by orphan_account
Summary
     Post-apocalyptic Austlan where one act of kindness flipped Austin's
     new world upside down.
Notes
     So since this is post-apocalyptic, that means there will be gore ad
     there will be zombie-like characters (not necessarily zombies).
     This hasn't been posted on mibba yet, so if you like please tell me
     you do.
     I'm more writing this for myself than anything, but feedback is
     always appreciated.
     Chapter two should be up soon, I've just been busy with class ):
     Also the title of this was inspired by the Thursday song of the same
     name. :)
***** Red *****
Austin and Phil had a silent language, one that consisted of varying hand and
head movements, occasionally using their eyes. The taller of the two motioned
to the red door they were standing in front of earning a nod from the slightly
shorter, long haired man across from him. They turn to their third member,
Tino, who was standing at the ready on the small gravel pathway that led to the
stairs to the porch. He gives a nod as well and readies his gun. Just in case.
The tallest of the three, Austin, breaks the small window next to the deadbolt
and unlocks the door after a few seconds of fumbling with the lock. You would
think by now he would be used to it, but it never got easier. It was always a
race against the clock, even if the house was empty. When his gloved hand was
out of the door and gave the head nod for the long haired man to bang on the
door several times.
Then there was a wait with ears perked. Three rules; no talking, no fidgeting,
no heavy breathing. There needed to be complete silence, just in case.
Phil and Austin share another glace, Austin’s eyes going quickly to the
doorknob, then a quick nod, telling Phil to open it when he was ready.
There’s never really a time when you’re one hundred percent ready to open a
door that led into a dark space that could be crawling with those things, but
it’s crucial to survival. They had friends to protect, their family. Phil
quickly twists the knob, then pushes in a little too forcefully, letting the
wooden door slam into something they couldn’t see. “Shit.” It’s a quiet murmur
from Phil’s lips.
“If that won’t bring ‘em out, I don’t know what will.” Tino mutters from his
place on the gravel, finger on the trigger.
Austin shrugs. “Give it a minute longer?” He questions.
“I think we’re good, but you’re going in first. Your call.”
“Let’s just go.” Austin takes his flashlight from the carribiner used to attach
it to his backpack. “It’s getting dark.”
Phil looks at his watch. “It’s three.”
“The sun sets around 6:30.” Austin makes his way to the open door, pushing the
small button the bottom his flashlight so he could see. “I don’t feel like
walking back to camp in the dark, do you?”
“Not necessarily.” Phil mumbles as he follows Austin inside.
“That’s what I thought.” Austin states with a small laugh, shining his
flashlight into the small room next to the front door. “Don’t worry about
grabbing anything just yet, let’s make sure it’s clear.”
The process of clearing each room was a slow and mostly boring job. The group
of three went to each room in the house and repeated the process of knocking
once then opening the door. If the room was clear, they checked the closets,
Austin opened the door while Phil and Tino stood with knife and gun ready, just
in case.
After clearing, they worked their way back, checking each room for valuable
supplies, food was always first. If it wasn’t molded or smelled like complete
death, into the bag it went. Next in importance was anything that could be used
as a weapon, then toilet paper, then everything else.
“I’m so glad we didn’t run into one of those assholes.” Phil mumbles as he goes
through a dresser drawer.
“You’re telling me.” Austin laughs from the bathroom that was across the hall.
“That was the last thing I wanted to deal with today.”
Tino was sitting on the bed, meticulously organizing the stuff they had managed
to salvage thus far; a couple of t shirts, some underwear, a half used bottle
of deodorant, some condoms, and a full bottle of pain killers. It wasn’t much
for already doing the upstairs, but it was something. “Almost as bad as going
back empty handed.” Tino states.
The other two men nod in agreement in their respective rooms before going back
to digging in every nook and cranny.
-=-
A can each of pureed pumpkin, cream of mushroom, and peaches were all to be
found in the kitchen, along with a box of toasted chex that had been opened and
consequently, gone stale. Add this to their bedroom finds and their total for
this run was not great.
“Mara’s going to kick your ass.” Tino states as the group heads towards the
pavement at the end of the gravel path.
Austin sighs. “I know, I can already hear her yelling ‘you risked your lives
for three cans and a pack of condoms!? Are you on drugs?’” Austin imitates
Mara’s slightly high pitched, yet terrifying voice.
Phil laughs. “Glad you’re the one who gets yelled at.”
“She doesn’t yell at you?” Austin asks with a slight gasp.
Phil shakes his head. “She’s so happy to have me home safe she just babies me.”
“Fucking figures.” Tino scoffs.
-=-
“Well that brings our food total up to twelve cans and a box of stale cereal.”
Mara sighs as she tucks her blonde hair behind her ear. “Oh, and a small bag of
berries.”
“Are they safe to eat?” Austin asks as he brings a small spoonful of the soup
she had made to his lips.
Mara lifts her bright blue eyes to look at him. “If they weren’t do you really
think I’d just have them sitting here? Especially with all of you around.”
“Hey!” Tino exclaims. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“What do you think?” She asks with a sigh. “Aaron checked them with that book
he has, they’re fine.” She takes a seat on the log next to Phil. “Was that
really all that was left?”
Austin nods. “We searched top to bottom.”
“That was the last house, right?” She asks as she picks up her small bowl of
soup.
Austin and Tino nod at the same time. “Yeah.” Austin swirls the contents of his
bowl with his spoon. “We should probably head out early tomorrow, try to find
somewhere else to hit.”
***** holy *****
Austin and Samantha were up at 6:30 the next morning. A little deal they had
made between themselves before everyone but Aaron and Mara went to bed the
night before. Simultaneously they would relieve Aaron and Mara from night duty,
allowing them to squish into the car to sleep as well as start packing up what
stuff they could.
The sun was just getting ready to pop over the far tree line they could see
from their improvised campground. The packing was easy, as they didn’t have
much stuff anyway. They had found a tent in a house a while back which Phil and
Tino were currently sleeping in. That was really the only challenge, but it was
nothing a couple of loud curse words and the ability to pick battles wouldn’t
fix, they usually just ended up balling up the bright nylon fabric and throwing
the metal pieces into the back of the car.
“Where are we going to go?” Samantha asks as she kicks a slightly burnt log
while Austin gathers up their cooking supplies. Which again, wasn’t much. A
plate and utensils for each of them that all fit nicely in plastic box they had
scooped up from a house.
Austin laughs at Samantha’s question. She was Austin’s little sister and acted
like it. At only fifteen, she still had a lot of maturing to do; it was just
unfortunate that she was going to have to do it so quickly. “Not sure, Sammy.”
“Don’t call me that.” She sighs and kicks the log again. “You have to have an
idea.”
“That’s not a soccer ball.” Austin states looking at her. “We need that.”
“It’s a burnt piece of wood.” She responds.
“It cooked dinner last night, didn’t it?”
She sighs and Austin kind of wishes he could drop her off somewhere for the
day, like a mall or something.
It’s at this time Phil emerges from the tent with a slight stumble over a rock.
Austin tries not to laugh as he closes the top on the box and hands it to
Samantha. “Will you put this in the car, please?
She takes the box with another sigh and makes her way to the car.
“Glad you have to deal with her and not me.” Phil mentions as he takes a drink
from his water bottle.
“Lucky me.”
“Least you know where she is, you know?”
Austin nods. He was pretty lucky, his friends didn’t really know where their
loved ones were. He got lucky that Samantha was staying with him on a break
from school, he had tried to call their dad, but like his friends, he couldn’t
get through. “Yeah, you’re right.”
-=-
As always, Aaron rode shotgun while Austin drove, a reward Aaron won by being
the only person in the car to correctly read an atlas. They had tried the GPS
but apparently the satellites were down or something, Austin didn’t know, he
was just thankful that they had found a map and that Aaron could read it.
“Turn up here.” Aaron mentions over the faint sound of the radio playing the
same emergency response message it always played. Temporary shelters have been
set up in the following cities: Akron, Bakersfield, Cincinnati, Cedar Rapids,
Cleveland, Chicago, Chicago –East, Des Moines… Austin could practically recite
the cities by now. Samantha had asked multiple times why they haven’t gone to
one of these shelters and multiple times Austin had answered that they would do
just fine on their own. He didn’t want to tell her that those shelters were
false hope and they could do better on their own, with the family they
surrounded themselves with shortly after everything happened.
Austin follows Aaron’s instructions and makes a turn at the broken stoplight.
“Where are we going?”
“I don’t know, I figure we might as well try these back roads for supplies.”
“Good idea.” Austin slows down a little so they could see better. “You think
there’s any cars with gas in them?” He asks Aaron.
“Austin,” Is called from the backseat; Sammy.
“I don’t know, there could be.” Aaron states as he sets the map on the
dashboard. “We running low?”
“Austin.”
“Hold on, Sammy.” Austin sighs. “I mean we’re good right now, but it wouldn’t
hurt to have more.”
“How do we even siphon gas?” Aaron asks as he adjusts in his seat so he could
look out of the window better.
“Get a hose or someth---” Austin is cut off by the jolt of his seat moving
forward a couple of inches. “Sammy! What the fuck?”
“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the past like, ten hours.”
“You weren’t even awake ten hours ago.” Austin states as he stops the car in
the middle of the street so he can turn around and look at her. “What?”
“There’s a well over there.”
“Your point?”
“It could have water in it.”
“She’s right Austin, we should at least look.” Aaron states. He always tried to
stay out of Austin and Samantha’s business, but this couldn’t be ignored.
“Fine.” Austin turns around and moves the car over to the church the well was
in front of. It looked super old so Austin’s faith that there would be water
was getting a little higher. He parks on the small patch of grass in front of
the church, not bothering to go down the small gravel ramp that led to the
parking lot. “Stay here.” Austin tells Sammy as he gets out of the car followed
by Aaron.
“It’s covered.” Austin states as the two get closer to the small rock well.
“Probably for the best.” Aaron shrugs as the take the cover off to look down.
“You think there’s any water?”
Austin shrugs and looks around towards the base of the well. “Doesn’t look like
there’s a bucket to even get the water out if there was any.”
“It’s probably inside.” Aaron states as he and Austin start to carefully set
the metal sheet down as quietly as they could. The last thing they wanted to do
was make a bunch of noise in an unfamiliar area. “Want to check?” Aaron asks
like checking inside a building was an easy task.
“You sure you’re up for that?”
“I have to start somewhere. May as well be a one roomed church.”
“You know what they say about assuming, Aaron.” Austin teases.
The two walk over to the two large wooden doors. They towered up the side of
the building, dark and intimidating. Wound between the two metal handles was a
chain with a padlock connecting the two ends. Austin kicks up the side of the
small welcome mat to see if a key was under it. No luck. Then he tried the rock
that was placed in the corner of the door out cove. Nothing. “Well there’s no
key, and no window to break open.”
Aaron leans forward and examines the lock, flipping it and pulling it. “Does
your sister have any bobby pins?”
Austin looks at him, slightly confused. “I don’t know, why?”
“I’m going to pick the lock, idiot.” He laughs.
“You know how to do that?”
Aaron shrugs. “Not really, but I figure it can’t be that hard.”
Deciding that this was really the only option, Austin hands Aaron the knife
from the side of his boot and leaves him there while he goes over to the car.
Samantha was sitting on the small bench under a large stain glassed window at
the front of the church. “Didn’t I tell you to stay there?” He asks.
“Tino said I could stretch my legs; he’s right there.”
He decides that this, like the tent, is not a battle he wishes to fight and
decides to move on. “Do you have any bobby pins?”
Her face gets the same look as Austin’s did before. “I might, why?” She asks
after she gets off the bench and heads to the back of the car, Austin following
behind her. “Aaron thinks he can pick the church lock.”
Samantha laughs as she opens the back hatch on the car and digs through the
items before finding her black and white polka dot bag. “Really?” She begins
rummaging through her bag.
“Yeah, there’s no way to break a window.”
“A rock?” She finds a small patterned bag and finds a small tic tac container
full of bobby pins.
“We’re going to try this okay.”
“Don’t use them all, these are the last few I have.” She hands the box over.
“It’s full.”
“Whatever.”
-=-
It took two and half hours, but Aaron got the lock picked and it only took
about four bobby pins, much to Sammy’s delight.
“Ready?” Austin asks as he places a pistol in Aaron’s hand.
“Not really.”
“Just don’t shoot unless you need to.”
Aaron sighs. “Okay.”
Austin walks over to the door and opens it, he figures that if anything was
inside it would have heard them being loud outside by now and would be at the
door. He waits a moment before walking, motioning for Aaron to follow him.
The entry way into the church is a small room with one door on the right and
one door on the left, and two doors that looked the same as the front doors in
front of them, just smaller.
“Austin.” Aaron whispers, his voice shaky.
“What?” Austin doesn’t turn back but instead walks closer to the door on the
right.
“I found the well bucket.”
“Just leave it there, we need to clear.” Austin places his hand on the doorknob
and motions for Aaron to get back against the other wall.
Aaron nods and scoots back against the wall, staring at the door as Austin
opens the door and raises his gun.
“Don’t shoot!” A quiet, shaky voice comes from within the room.
Aaron lowers his gun instinctually, Austin doesn’t. “Come out here.” Austin
tells the voice as he takes two steps back.
It takes a minute but Aaron hears the sounds of someone walking towards the
door.
“I don’t have any weapons.” The voice belongs to a boy who is just about
Aaron’s height with medium length orange hair and a terrified expression on his
face. “Well, I do have a butter knife but something tells me you would win.”
***** Lemonade *****
Chapter Notes
     TRIGGER WARNINGS: mentions of suicide (not the act, just talking
     about it), the killing of a creature, and blood.
“Are you the only one here?” Austin asks with his gun still pointed.
He nods. “It’s just me and my dog, she’s sleeping the chapel.”
“What’s your name?” Aaron asks, earning an eye roll from Austin. This is why
Aaron didn’t get to come on runs, he was too friendly for his own good.
“Alan, what’s yours?” The orange haired boy replies, voice just a little less
shaky.
“You really aren’t in the position to be asking questions.” Austin cuts him
off. “We just want to get water out of the well, okay? Then we’ll be gone.”
Austin’s idea was to get straight to business, he wasn’t going to be
negotiating with a high schooler when he had his family on the line.
“You came in here guns out for the well?” Alan asks, a confused tone to his
voice. “Because of those things?”
Aaron nods. “To be safe.”
“So use the well and go.” Alan shrugs. “I really don’t care.”
-=-
“It looks like rain.” Phil mentions as he and Austin lead Aaron to the house
that was right down the street from the church. Tino and Sammy were filling
their water bottles from the well while Mara kept an eye on Alan and organized
what little supplies they had left. The three boys decided they may as well use
this brief pit stop to look for stuff they could use before hitting the road as
well train Aaron better so he wouldn’t start carrying on a conversation with a
potential threat.
“Do you think Alan is going to give us any trouble?” Aaron asks. “That kid, I
mean.”
“He had a butter knife.” Austin sighs. “What could he have done?”
“I don’t know.”
“There’s the house.” Phil states. “Think there’s anything inside?”
“Could be.”
-=-
“Fuck.” Austin jumps back from the window when a slightly greyed hand bangs
against it, followed by a snarling face.
Phil’s eyes widen. “Figured we were about due for one.” He sighs as he gets his
knife read to go. “Aaron, do not shoot unless we tell you. Just stay there.”
Aaron nods. “Okay.”
Phil puts his free hand on the doorknob and looks at Austin. “You grab it, I’ll
shank it?”
“Yeah sounds good.”
Phil opens the door and watches as Austin goes inside. “Aaron, follow behind,
not too close.” Phil enters the building behind Austin, knife ready to go as
Austin lures it towards him with a series of expletives. With a quick movement
he grabs the growler and holds it at a safe distance before Phil comes and
stabs it in the back of the head, getting blood all over his hair and face.
Austin lets the body fall as Phil wipes his blade on the chair next to the dirt
speckled window.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” Aaron states before stepping towards the door
in two steps.
“Not in front of the door, please.” Austin sighs before turning the body over
and checking the pockets. He really hated this part, but there could be
something useful on him. From the looks of it, the man had slit his own throat,
thinking he wouldn’t come back. But he did. Maybe he took himself out and left
some useful stuff. After the day they were having, they needed [i]something[/
i].
“You got any wet wipes left?” Phil asks as Austin retrieves a lighter out of
the man’s pocket. “If there are, they’ll be in the front pocket.”
“Thanks man.” Phil moves behind Austin and opens the front pocket, digging
until he finds the small packet of wipes. “Anything on him?”
“A lighter.” Austin flips it and is surprised to see an orange-yellow light
emerge. “It works, too.”
-=-
“Sammy and Mara around the same size, right?” Austin asks Phil while he goes
through a set of drawers.
“Roughly? Sammy’s shorter.” Phil shrugs. “Why?”
“Sammy needs pants for winter, all she brought with her from California were
leggings.” Austin holds up a pair of jeans to Phil. “You think these would
work? I don’t want to offend her.”
Phil laughs as he stands guard between the room Austin was in and the room
Aaron was searching. “If she won’t wear them, I’m sure we could find some use
for them.”
Austin lazily folds them and sets them on the bed before pulling out more
clothes to go through. He knew that Sammy was still concerned with looking
nice; which he understood to an extent. She’s supposed to be in high school and
it’s brutal, that kind of engrained thinking wasn’t going to go away overnight.
Sammy was smart, if it got cold enough she’d wear the pants no matter how
unattractive they were.
He was really surprised how she was taking this whole thing. At first she put
Austin through hell by rebelling; not telling him where she was going, not
listening, giving him attitude and not helping. But now she was getting used to
life. They still had their issues and Austin knew they always would, he was
being forced into makeshift fatherhood of a sister that he hadn’t seen in
years, and Sammy was having to adapt to a whole different world without her
actual parent. It was kind of amazing they hadn’t killed each other already.
-=-
“It’s definitely going to rain.” Aaron sighs as they set their haul down in
front of the car. They had actually found a decent amount of food at this
house. Finally. Along with the clothes and food they also found some essentials
like batteries and matches, along with some entertainment things like a few
magazines and a couple of books.
“Sammy!” Austin calls as he sees her sitting on the bench a few feet in front
of the car. She was reading something and only looked up briefly before
continuing her book. “I got you some stuff.”
She now looks interested. “What?” She dog ears the page and rests the book on
her lap.
Austin sits next to her and moves his backpack to his lap. “Well winter is
coming up soon and I know you didn’t bring any pants so I snagged some jeans
for you.”
She furrows her brown eyebrows. “Really?”
“I’m not letting you wear leggings when it starts snowing, Sammy.”
“Samantha.” She corrects him as he sets the stack of three pairs on her book.
“You’ll probably hate all of them, and they might be a little big, but we found
a belt.”
She holds the top pair up and examines them. “They’re kind of hideous but at
least I’ll be warmer.” She refolds them. “Thanks, Austin.”
Austin nods and gets up. He was just doing what he promised he would do the
last time he talked to their dad. ‘Take care of Sammy, Austin. I trust you.’
It’s been at the front of his brain ever since. Every decision he made was made
to specifically keep Sammy safe. “Not a problem.”
“Are we staying here?” She asks. “It’s going to rain and I know you hate
driving in the rain.”
Austin shrugs. “We’re making dinner first, then we’ll see.”
-=-
“Sorry about earlier.” Austin leans against the back wall of the church next to
Alan. In exchange for dinner, Alan allowed the group to use the small wood
stove in the church and let them eat inside like civilized humans.
“It’s whatever.” Alan sighs. “If the roles were reversed I’d do the same
thing.” He takes a bite of his slightly overcooked rice. “I’m probably less
intimidating, though.”
Austin snorts. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You just look like you’d shank a bitch.”
“Maybe.”
“How do you know all these people?” Alan asks. “Did you know them before?”
Austin nods. “Well Sammy is my sister, I’ve known Phil since pre-k, Mara and
Aaron came along at the same time, and Tino from high school.”
“It must be nice to have people you care about to go through this with you.”
“It is.” Austin states truthfully. “Why are you alone?”
“Well I’m not, I have Lemonade.”
“Your dog barely counts.” Austin laughs. “She couldn’t protect you from a
branch.” Austin watches as Sammy rubs Lemonade’s belly happily, the first time
he’s seen her smile since it started. Lemonade probably reminded her of her own
dog back home.
“I’ll have you know that she is excellent at fetch.”
Austin rolls his eyes. “Whatever, you have your dog. Why no people?”
“My dad left to go find supplies like right after it started, after a week my
mom went out after him. Haven’t seen either of them since.”
“Shit.” Austin couldn’t even imagine.
“Yeah.”
“So you haven’t left since?”
“Nope, there was some food here, mostly communion wafers which are even nastier
after that’s all you have to eat. Only went outside to get water.” Alan takes
another bite of his rice. “I wanted to go out, but obviously I have no
protection.”
Austin nods. “Yeah, a butter knife.”
“It’s kind of sharp.” Alan states before looking over to the stained glass
window to his left. A strike of lightning illuminating the chapel. All they had
now was a few candles around the back end of the chapel, allowing them to see.
“I don’t think you guys are going anywhere.”
Austin sighs and walks through the door that led to the small entry, then to
the door that led outside. He cracked it enough to see out only to see nothing
due to the rain making things blurry. It hadn’t rained in a while, so amount of
water coming from the sky was kind of amazing. “Fuck.”
“You’re welcome to stay in the chapel tonight.” Alan mentions behind him.
“Lemonade and I sleep in the confession room anyway.”
Austin closes the door and turns around. “You don’t mind?”
Alan shakes his head. “It’s kind of nice to have people around.”
***** rain *****
“I’m surprised you haven’t burst into flames yet.” Sammy teases Austin as they
set up a makeshift bed in the corner of the church.
“Is that a gay joke?” Austin rolls his eyes. “Rich coming from someone who
should be melting into a puddle.”
“Hilarious.” Sammy fakes laughs and leans against the wall. “I feel bad for
that kid. You said he has no one?” She asks after Austin lies down and moves
his blanket halfway up his body. The main purpose of having a comforter was to
use it when it got cold, but until then Sammy and Austin used it for some
cushion, these seemingly century old floors were not exactly comfortable.
“That’s what he told me.”
Sammy bites her lip. “Maybe he should come with us.”
“You have a crush on him or something?”
Sammy scoffs and kicks Austin’s hip. “No, gross.” She pulls her own blanket on
her lap. “It’s just, sad? Everyone should have at least one other person.”
“It’s not my choice, Sammy.”
“Can’t you ask Phil then? Have a vote? He’ll die.” She lifts her brown, wet,
hair above her head to stretch the black elastic band she had around it. They
all had decided to take advantage of the rain and ‘shower’ by standing in the
freezing rain half naked with soap on their bodies and shampoo in their hair.
It worked fine, especially since they had a warm place to go afterward.
“He made this far.”
“Austin.”
“What?”
“You know that if we didn’t have Phil and Mara we would have died.”
Austin sighs. “Sammy.”
“Why are you being this way? He needs our help.” She look like she might cry
and it’s then when Austin is reminded of how much she’s like their mom and he
can’t stand to see her cry.
He knew that bringing Alan along was the moral thing to do, to just leave him
here with his dwindling stash of supplies would be wrong, he [i]would[/i] die.
But Austin also knew that bringing Alan along would also skew their chances of
survival. Supplies would have to be split two more ways because Austin wouldn’t
make him leave the dog, they would have to find another car. It was double
edged sword and a decision he couldn’t---and wouldn’t---make on his own.
“I’ll talk to Phil, okay?” Austin responds. “We’ll see what we come up with. Go
to sleep.”
-=-
Austin, Phil, and Tino were taking a break while walking back from a house they
had cleared, earning them more supplies. A break was needed as this house was
the furthest away, and the cans filling their two backpacks mixing with the
muddy ground wasn’t ideal. Austin decided that this would be the perfect
opportunity to ask Phil and Tino what they thought about the Alan situation. If
Phil and Tino thought it was a good idea, then they’d ask Mara and Aaron, and
finally Alan if everyone was okay with it.
“What are we going to do about the kid?” Tino asks. Austin was kind of glad he
didn’t have to bring it up.
Phil shrugs. “I don’t know, part of me wants to bring him and the other part
wants to just leave.”
Tino nods. “I know what you mean. What about you, Austin?”
“Sammy wants to bring him with us.”
“And you?” Phil asks.
Austin kicks a rock through the muddy patch they were on. “I think we should.
At first I thought it would be a waste of time, but she’s convinced me. Plus,
there’s no way he’d make it on his own.”
-=-
When the boys got back, they gathered around everyone but Alan and asked them
what they thought about Alan joining the group. Everyone was for asking him,
but Tino and Mara both had hesitations. They didn’t know much about Alan, and
the supply situation bothered them. But both of them figured helping a
defenseless teenager would be worth it. They elected Austin to ask him.
“Can I talk to you?” Austin asks Alan after lunch when he peeks into the
confession room. It was Austin’s first time seeing it, and it was something. He
was used to the almost telephone box like rooms that lined the back of the
church, not an actual room. It was painted a taupe with a blue border that
Austin found kind of ugly. In the farthest corner was a closet looking room
that stuck out, there was a mesh screen and no door to get in. Austin figured
from the furnishings that this also must be an office. There was a couch on the
wall next to the door and a desk across from that.
Alan looked up from the desk, where he was writing something down, and nodded.
Lemonade also got up but Alan told her to sit before getting up from the chair
and walking toward Austin. “Am I in trouble?”
Austin crinkles his nose. “No.”
“Then what?” Alan asks as they head outside. It still looked gross out, there
was no sun, only overcast.
“The group decided that we wanted to ask you if you wanted to come on the road
with us.”
“Like leave the church?”
Austin nods. “It’s your choice, we just thought it’d be a good idea, since
you’re alone.” He stops for a minute, looking at the tree line across the
street. “You can bring Lemonade, too, obviously.”
Alan laughs a little. “Thanks.” He looks down at his shoes. “Can I think about
it?”
“Yeah of course. Take the night, if you need it.”
Alan nods. “Thanks again.”
-=-
The weather outside was still bad; it had been raining on and off for the
majority of the night. Austin got off his bed, careful not wake Sammy, and
quietly walked toward the main room. He couldn’t sleep, the thought of possibly
heading out tomorrow was weighing on his mind.
Tomorrow could one of two ways: Alan could accept their offer and they would
stay at the church until they found another vehicle, or, Alan could decline and
they would leave as soon as possible. They had cleared all the houses they
could so it didn’t make sense to stay somewhere that wasn’t suited to their
needs, the only plus of this location was the well and there had to be other
places near water.
“Isn’t it a bit late for you to be up?” The voice comes from Austin’s right, he
turns from the window to the direction of the voice. Alan.
“Could say the same for you.”
Alan lets out a small laugh. “I have trouble sleeping when it rains.”
“Really?” Austin asks.
Alan nods. “It freaks Lemonade out, so technically she makes me have trouble,
but.” He stops and turns from Austin to the window. “We’re coming with you, if
you still want us.”
“Of course we do.” Austin remains quiet for a couple of seconds, watching the
rain run down the window. “Any chance you know where we can find a running
car?”
"I do, actually."
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