Black Sun by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 22

Morning found Ryan and Abigail curled up beneath a heavy layer of blankets, their bodies intertwined, safe from the cold that had filled her small apartment over the course of the night. As daylight streamed in through the windows, their minds began to rise back to the surface of wakefulness, followed by the stirring of their bodies. Together, they took the first deep breath of consciousness as Abigail turned toward Ryan and, wrapping her arms around him, buried her face in his chest. However, as she took another breath, she noticed a disturbing odor seeping from his clothes, causing her to back away in revulsion.

“Oh my fucking God!” she said. “You need to wash.” Now fully awake, Ryan pulled his shirt up to his nose and, sniffing deeply, was both startled and disgusted by the smell he had obviously been carrying as they made their way to Albany. What surprised him more was that it had taken this long for either of them to notice. Abigail, on the other hand, was carrying her own unique scent, but somehow, Ryan seemed to reek with far more disgust.

Climbing out of bed, Abigail pulled Ryan out from under the covers and again stressed the need for him to wash. However, upon walking into the small kitchen and turning on the faucet, she discovered that electricity was not the only thing they would be short on.

“What the hell is it with the water?” Abigail asked. Her frustration only mounted as she continued turning the knobs of the faucet, without results.

“Shit!”

Realizing the problem, Ryan walked up next to her and, putting a hand on hers, tried to ease her frustration. “If there’s no power, there won’t be any water,” he began. “Pumping stations won’t work.”

Abigail's chin dropped as she experienced a moment of hopelessness, but Ryan offered what should have been an obvious solution.

“We have bottled water, right?” he said. Abigail was quick to become embarrassed at what lay almost at her feet, contained in several plastic shopping bags were the bottles of water they had procured from the mall. “I didn’t think about that, did I?” she asked. Ryan put his hands around her shoulders and squeezed firmly. The grip he held on her body was immediately met by a relaxed response as Abigail melted in his hands. “Feel better?” he asked.

No words were necessary as she let out a groan of physical relief at the release of the tension that had been building in her since the beginning of their journey.

“Yeah,” she replied.

Turning around, Abigail put her hands around Ryan’s waist as his moved down her back.

“So,” she began. “How do we do this?” It didn’t take much thought for Ryan to suggest a solution. “Well,” he began. “Do you have a tub or a shower?” With the size of her apartment, it didn’t make much sense for there to be a large bathroom, so Abigail had to make due with a small shower stall.

“It’s just a shower,” she answered. “It’s not very big.”

Coupled with eye contact, the way she answered his question seemed to indicate that each knew what the other was thinking. After all, they had become very close in quite a short period of time.

“Alright,” Ryan began. “How about this, give me your keys. While you’re washing up, I’ll take a look around. I’ll lock the door behind me, okay?”

Abigail hesitantly agreed, but knowing that the door to her apartment would be locked made her feel much safer than her experience in the dark storeroom of the mall. By the time they left the mall, she felt that nothing could be more terrifying than the deprivation of complete blackness, coupled with an almost absolute silence. Under normal circumstances, she felt a deep craving for solitude. Now, it was something she had come to fear, never knowing what might be living within the quiet shadows of wherever she happened to be, and she would always be on her guard.