Come Morning Light

Her chest heaved rapidly as she rested her head against the soft covering of her backseat. Sweat had dried on her skin leaving her sticky and her hair was in a disarray, falling carelessly in tuffs around her face. She would reach up and pull the ponytail out of the knotted mess and just let it be, but she lacked the energy and the soreness in her arms was beginning to get to her. The man she had rescued was fast asleep next to her with his head resting against the window. Renee watched him through half open eyes, cradling his arm tenderly. After leaving the roof he and Renee had killed two corpses and found a kitchen area where they stopped long enough to cauterize his own wound. The smell of burning flesh still filled her nose and she wrinkled it constantly in disgust. Once they’d made it down the fire escape and into her car, Renee had given him water and wrapped his stump with a small portion of the bandage she had left in the first aid kit. He hadn't eaten anything, though she offered, and quickly passed out in the back of the car.
Outside the corpses had begun to drift away though most of them were still pressed against the fence, gnashing their ugly rotten teeth at her. Exhaustion began to creep its way into Renee’s body, slowly shutting down her wandering mind and letting her heart beat slow steadily. Darkness began to make the corners of her mind grow dark and fuzzy. Slowly that darkness overtook her consciousness and in a matter of moments she was fast asleep.

Blinking her eyes awake from another dreamless slumber Renee forgot temporarily that she was in the back of her car in the middle of an abandoned city with a strange man. She blinked in the new morning sun and uncoiled her body feeling the ache and stretch of her sore muscles. It wasn’t until he spoke that Renee remembered the man beside her.
“Well gooood mornin’ sleepin’ beauty.” Her heart pounded in her chest in surprise as she stared at him with wide eyes. “Didn’ think you’d ever wake up.”
Memories from the previous day flooded back into her mind and she drew in a deep breath to calm her nerves. Exhaling she reached up to push her hair out of her face and retrieved her hair band, shaking out her long messy locks. The night had cooled the temperature around them but the air was stuffy and constrictive. She opened the car door just a bit and let fresh air current inside. Looking back over at the man she saw he still didn’t particularly look good, his face had regained no color and a subtle sheen of sweat coated his skin, but it was a vast improvement in itself from the day before.
“How long have you been awake?” She finally asked. Her voice was raspy from sleep and thirst.
The man shrugged.
“Off and all on night. Haven’t got too much good sleep since all this shit went down.”
Nodding in understanding, Renee shut the car door again and leaned her head against the window, her eyes shifted to his bandanged arm.
“So what happened?”
He gazed down and let out a small chuckle.
“Some prick cuffed me to that ol’ roof up there. Left me to rot.”
“Why?”
“Why you askin’ questions?”
“Curiosity.” Renee narrowed her eyebrows. “And I was wondering what someone has to do to get handcuffed to a roof.”
“I ain’t done nothing, just a misunderstanding is all.”
He wiped his nose quickly with his one hand and shrugged his shoulders, his blue eyes avoiding hers for a while. There was obviously more to the story but she knew it would be unwise to push it. Instead, she changed the subject to the main reason she saved the man to begin with.
“So you were with others…in a group?”
“Yeah, me and my brother and a few others.”
“Where are they?”
“Some camp outside the city. We were coming to look for more supplies, the bastard that did this to me…” He held up his arm for emphasis “He was new, I ain’t never seen him ‘fore. …And now thanks to him I’ll pro’ly never see my brother again.”
A soft sadness crept over his harsh features as he thought. Renee could see by the pained expression in his face that he had a soft spot for his family.
“I’m looking for my family too.” He looked at her this time and raised an eyebrow. “My brother and I…we got separated in New Orleans. I don’t know where he is now or even if he got rescued. We have family here so I came up here searching for them. Their names are Joe and Lorraine, Natalie and Nicholas.”
“Ain’t no one by those names at my camp.” The man answered shaking his head. “Sorry.”
Renee’s heart began to sink. She could feel that familiar lump growing in her throat making it painful to swallow. It was stupid to get her hopes up that this random man would be the answer to everything. A mistake she would try not to make again.
Renee could feel the man watching her, his eyes scanning over her face, noticing the way the new day sunlight caught her brown eyes making them shine golden. Her olive skin was covered in filth but it was still looked soft and though her hair was in a tangled mess the darkness of it complimented her features. He could easily say she was pretty.
“Say…” He began, “why don’t we try to go back to my camp? We got food, water, shelter.”
Something in his tone made Renee squirm uncomfortably. “I could repay you for saving my life…”
Lifting an eyebrow she forced herself to look at him, not particularly liking the turn in atmosphere.
“Besides…a pretty girl like you out here in an ugly world like this…” He began to shift closer causing the adrenaline to increase in her body. Her eyes shifted to the floorboard between their feet where that damn knife hid in plain sight. The fingers of the man’s hand touched the side of her knee causing her to pounce.
In one fluid motion Renee reached down and wrapped her fingers around the blade of the knife and held it to the man’s throat. She moved so quickly even she had to blink in shock.
His blue eyes went wide but no hint of fear could be found in them. Slowly he lifted his hand and a small smirk began to twist his mouth up.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Eeasy there darlin’. Didn’t mean no harm.”
How much could she trust him? What had he done to get handcuffed to a roof and left for dead? He’d done nothing to her while she slept but he was certainly trying now. Was it worth keeping him around? Without information on her family, he was just another mouth to feed, and wounded would probably do more harm than good. Renee also realized she didn’t want to have to sleep with one eye open. What if he decided to take her supplies in the middle of the night and leave her? She couldn’t risk it.
Lowering her voice and her eyes she pressed the knife closer to the skin of his throat.
“Get out of the car.”
Surprise temporarily distorted the man’s features, but he shook it off quickly and chuckled again.
“Awe, come on. I told ya I was just playin’.”
“I said...” Renee started speaking through clenched teeth. “get out…of my car.”
Sighing he dropped his shoulders and reached behind him to open the door. Still watching him and still keeping the knife close, Renee leaned across the seat and got out of the car with him.
She shut the door behind her quickly and stuck her hand in her pocket for the keys, all the while not moving her eyes away from his face which was growing angrier by the minute.
“And how you reckon you’re gonna get out of here darling?” The man asked raising an eyebrow. “Looks to me like you’re shut up in here pretty well.”
Clutching the handle of her knife Renee gritted her teeth. She knew locking herself in would pose a problem, but it had also guaranteed a good night sleep. Ignoring the man’s mocking features she concentrated hard on what she could possibly have to undo the lock.
In the compartment to the left of her steering wheel was where she always kept a stash of hair ties and bobby pins which was perfect. Still keeping an eye on the man she made her way to the drivers side of the car and reached in, hoping she had a few left.
“You gonna at least leave me some supplies or somethin’?” He called to her.
Renee knew she should, and sighing, retrieved a handful of granola bars and a bottle of water.
“This is all I have to give.” She answered dryly, shoving the food against his torso.
The man said nothing; instead he just looked at her with harsh blue eyes and a puckered mouth, his face twisted sarcastically. Renee wondered why he didn’t try to stop her as she made her way towards the gate, bobby pin in hand, he simply watched in stubborn silence. She had only ever picked a lock a few times in her life and she prayed that she could recall how with clarity.
The padlock was weighty against her palm as she held it steadily, not far beyond the gate, corpses wandered aimlessly. The gently ripple of groaning was unnerving to her ears as she bent the bobby pin as straight as possible and slid it into the lock. She could feel the mechanisms inside begin to give way and just as it clicked she felt her body collide with the metal of the fence.
“You know, I’m gettin’ awful tired of being the one who get’s left behind…” His voice was low, almost to a growl, against her ear. With his one hand he had her wrists behind her in a firm grasp, and with his stump he held her head firmly against the metal. “Like I said…a pretty girl like you out ‘ere in a ugly world like this…” He paused and snickered. “Ain’ gon’ last too long. So if ya don’t mind…I’ll be taking your belongings.”
Anger was boiling hot and quick in Renee’s stomach. How stupid she was to stop and save this man. His body was pinning hers relentlessly to the fence and he was a great deal stronger than her, even weakened by blood loss and fatigue. In one fluid motion the man had lurched her forward and forced her head to come into contact with the metal pole of the gate. Then, before she knew it, everything went black.