Walk Again

Trust Issues

Mia's POV:

We'd been drivin' and stoppin' for about a week and Jasper had said maybe two words to me the whole time. Maybe I pissed him off. Good.

I looked over at Samuel and his wife, Alicia while trying to listen to Jasper bark orders at everyone but me. He was sayin' how we needed to only take enough from the department store for us to be able to carry if things went south. Who was gonna care? If we had to leave in a hurry, we'd have go bags filled with stuff we absolutely need. Everything else could stay.

I noticed Alicia grab her stomach and wince in pain just before everyone stood to get out of the RV. We had to ditch the truck about 30 miles back due to it being old as dirt. All those supplies were dwindling with the extra mouths and such anyway. Didn't mean I trusted Jasper enough to sleep with both eyes closed, though. I was still mad as hell that he kept s**t from me for so long.

Alicia being pregnant ruined all trust I had altogether. Or at least, I thought she was.

"Alicia, are you pregnant?"

She looked at me like I was the boogeyman.

"I'll take that as a "yes". You got any vitamins? How far along are ya?"

"I don't have vitamins. Haven't been able to find any. Only about 4 months along."

"Why'd ya hide it?"

"We couldn't risk you denying safe harbor for Emily and Tyler."

"Just don't go dieing on us. Jasper, maybe you should stay here with her. Make sure she's okay and safe?"

"No. I wanna help, I'll be fast, I promise."

"Sorry, can't risk it. Jasper?"

He looked so pissed, I almost laughed.

"Like hell I'm stayin' in this RV with my family out there. Besides, I'm in charge, not you."

"Oh really?"

"Damn right, little girl."

"I wasn't so little when I blocked that woman from giving you a beat down a week ago." I gestured towards the bedroom.

"Speaking of...Maria! Get on out here, you can't be a lazy drunk forever. You're helpin' or you're starvin'."

He looked at me with fury trying to pry its way out of him while I smirked with satisfaction. I won the argument again.

That imposter came stumbling out of the bedroom and grabbed the baseball bat as her weapon. Dumb f**k. Tyler stepped towards me and spoke up for the first time in hours.

"I'll go while my father stays here with my mom and my sister."

Samuel thanked him and we headed out the door of the RV.

I had my trusty Katana that I snagged off some collector's wall a few days before, Jasper had his machete, Tyler had a hatchet, and Maria had a bat. We impaled Risers through the brain and Maria kept missing with her drunken bat swings. Soon, we were at the door with dead bodies at our feet. Jasper hit his machete against the door just loud enough to draw the ones inside towards us.

We waited for at least five minutes to be sure we didn't miss one. We opened the doors and for the first time in a week, Jasper and I were perfectly in sync with each other. We had our backs to each other while we sliced the Risers' heads in half. Well, I sliced, he diced.

The Risers cleared and we turned to look at each other, breathing heavily. He looked sexy with all that blood all over him and I didn't even feel bad for thinking it because we weren't really related. If I wasn't so mad, I would've told him. Probably....probably not.

Jasper's POV:

I watched as Mia's chest rose and fell rapidly, all covered in blood. I wanted to wipe it away with my bare hands just to be near her. We were supposed to be angry with each other, but she made it so hard. I saw her truly smile at me for the first time in days and I wanted to see that smile for the rest of my life. We grabbed shopping carts, being sure to grab ones that weren't squeaky and went shopping.

She went down the cat aisle and grabbed a collar and some food for Captain Mew. I stayed close just in case we missed a Riser. I grabbed a stuffed mouse toy filled with catnip for the poor guy. Next, the paper aisle. We both grabbed a few things. I got paper plates and plastic silverware. She grabbed toilet paper. She went down the feminine aisle and grabbed a few things that I guess were for Alicia. Some tampons and some condoms. I wondered what those were for. Maybe just planning for the future.

I grabbed a box of my own in case we came across someone that I fancied and mutually fancied me. Medicine aisle, the usual pain killers, vitamins, anti acids and some prenatals. She grabbed gummy vitamins for Emily. I loaded up on bandages and creams and whatnot. Food aisles, we took whatever was non perishable. We got four cases of water. (The big cases) I glanced over and saw Maria loading her cart with liquors of all kinds.

"Don't we need clothes and shoes? At least, an extra pair in case something happens to the ones we have?"

"I packed clothes."

"Yeah, but Mew got scared and tore up some of them. We're both down to what we got on."

"I'm gonna check the bra and panty aisle. You really wanna come along?"

"I wanna make sure you're safe."

"Whatever."

I tried not to pay attention to what she was getting, but it was too difficult. I glanced over at her to check on her and she was holding lingerie in her hand. Lacy, sexy lingerie. I guess she just wanted it because she never had money for that kind of stuff before. I glanced towards Tyler and he was trying to find a pack of maternity underwear for his mom.

"Just try the larges. She looks like she wears medium clothes without the baby."

"How would you know?"

"Just observant."

He nodded and set the large pack in the cart. Mia caught up to me and she had many pairs of panties and five different kinds of bras in her cart.

"Don't get more than you can carry."

"I think I can carry thongs, thank you. And, I'm probably gonna find one of these bras that I like and ignore the others. What usually happens."

I shrugged and went to the male section while she waited. She found a t-shirt she wanted and placed it in the cart. I grabbed what I wanted and we moved on to the other side of women's clothes. She grabbed shorts for sleeping and a whole outfit. We grabbed shoes and went towards the hygiene section. Got everything we needed over there. On to the pharmacy. We took anything that could be useful in an emergency, especially antibiotics and the strong pain medicine. The kind my high school friends got hooked on.

I looked away for a second while grabbing pills and I heard her struggle. I looked over to see a Riser grabbing her shoulder from behind the shelves.

"Jasper, help me!"

The commotion drew in a few more we had missed and we had to slice and run.

Of course, we took the carts, but we had to leave Mama. Tyler made it out with us.

Mia's POV:

"Maria, let's go! Don't make me leave you!"

I yelled at the woman I thought was my mother. Tears welled up in my eyes because she did raise me and she was a wonderful woman when she was sober.

"Mia, come on!" Jasper grabbed my arm and drug me and my cart out the door. We loaded up and I watched as we drove past the store that my tormentor was left to die in.

I went into the bathroom once we were far enough away from the store and puked my guts up.

*knock knock*

"You okay, Mia?"

"Jasper, who's driving?"

"Samuel."

"You trust him?"

"Kinda. We're gonna have to learn how to, right?"

"Right. I just have trust issues."

"I'm sorry about that."

I stood and opened the door to the tiny bathroom. I leaned against the frame and sighed.

"Will you help me get a bath ready?"

"The jug bucket of bath water is getting cold."

"That's alright. We'll find more water later and boil it for warmth. I'm covered in blood and puke."

"Okay."

He stepped away to get the bucket and said something to Samuel. The Sam nodded and Jasper made his way back to me.

"You wanna use the water after? I know it's kinda gross, but you're covered in blood."

"I'll just wet a rag and wipe myself down."

"Use soap too."

"I will."

He poured the water in the small tub and I had to have help removing my clothes due to getting banged up. I was bruised in several places and I had a cut along my arm from Jasper trying to kill the Riser without killing me.

I was naked before him and he didn't bat an eye. He grabbed my waist and helped me in.

"Am I not attractive to you?"

"What?"

I felt like I could tell him anything with that bathroom door closed. The walls weren't super thin despite it being an RV, so no one could really hear everything.

"I want to know if you think I'm unattractive."

I turned to face him before sitting down and his eyes scanned my entire body, like he was seeing a naked woman for the first time. As his eyes raked over every inch of my body, I felt my face flush.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"I think you're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Why do you seem disgusted?"

"I'm not. Believe me."

I nodded and sat down gently in the lukewarm water. He sat on the toilet lid and handed me each soap I needed. When I was done, he handed me my towel and went to get my clothes.

"Grab the Freddy Krueger shirt and the kitty sleep shorts."

"What about undergarments?"

"The turquoise t-shirt bra and the turquoise thong with pineapples on it."

"Okay."

He left for a minute or two and came back. He turned around while I dressed, but I couldn't understand why. Hadn't he already seen me fully naked?

I heard Tyler say something to him in a rude tone when he exited before me.

"What'd you say, Tyler?"

"I said he was a backwoods, incestuous, hillbilly."

"For your information, we aren't actually siblings. The woman we left behind was his mom, not mine. She lied to me my whole life, telling me I was her daughter and damning me to hell in the same breath. You don't know s**t about us."

"Then, why did he say you were siblings?"

"She made him tell that lie for 18 years."

I walked towards the bedroom and took my beat up ass to sleep. At least, she kept the bed clean.