Revolution (Collide, #4)(23)

And it made me realize that home is where you make it. Yes, the bunker was a good spot and convenient and we'd been there so long it just seemed wrong to leave. But my home was my family. And we were all right here together. And dancing to Bruno Mars without a bed to our names or a shower to bathe in, but we were smiling and alive.

To me, that was everything these days.

Everything.

Blade of Fire



Chapter 10


Merrick



I didn't dream often. I have no idea why, but it just never happened or I never remembered them. So to have my first nightmare was brutal. And to wake up sweating and panting, having Sherry fuss over me, was worse.

"Are you ok?"

"Fine," I answered gruffly.

"Merrick, don't placate me!" she hissed and I turned to look at her in the dark. "I know you had a bad dream, I heard you. Now what happened?"

I sighed long and loud to show her I absolutely didn't want to tell her. But I did anyway. "I had a dream about leaving you."

She stiffened all the way to her bones. "What?" she squeaked.

"No, not leave you that way." I eased her to my lap and wrapped my needy arms around her. "Leave you like…death." She gasped. "When I…died," I said, because that was exactly what I had done, "I saw this light. Cheesy, I know, but it was all encompassing and it was just for me. Though I knew it was meant for me to go through," I pressed my lips to her temple, "I just couldn't leave you."

I thought she would cry, get sappy, make me console her, but no.

She laughed.

I felt my eyebrow reach my hairline and leaned back to see her face in the shadows of the big room we were all camped out together in. Lily slept on a sleeping bag on my other side and the room was quiet and oddly peaceful.

"And what's so funny?"

She giggled once more and then wrapped her arms around my neck. She let her legs straddle me before whispering in my ear. "I think I'm a little slap happy. I can't sleep and you telling me that you defied death and refused to leave me was just suddenly funny." She leaned back. "I'm sorry," she said, but she didn't look sorry. She looked like she was about to have another giggle fit.

I found myself chuckling a little, too. "Honey," I whispered, "I don't know what I'd do without you. I'd be a very lonely and disgruntled Keeper without you here to keep me laughing and happy."

"Good," she said in return and pushed me down. She lay down on my chest and sighed deeply. I rubbed her back and loved feeling her heartbeat through our shirts as our chests pressed together. Within a minute she was asleep, breathing deeply. I chuckled again, the movement shaking her a little. She was something else.

I let sleep claim me as well and this time, I dreamed of our unreachable future, not the horrible past. I didn't know which one was worse.



In the morning, we all woke and decided that some arrangements needed to be made. Everyone piled randomly on the floor at night wasn't going to work for me or anyone. So Sherry, Lillian and a few others started putting up clothesline rooms; little nooks along the walls that were separated by sheets on clothesline wire. And the rest of us got to moving the crates and going through it all. Making some order to the chaos.

It took us pretty much all day to get everything 'livable'. There was no running water for showers. The ladies pitched a fit about that one. So we rigged a closed off space for taking 'bowl baths' Miguel called it. None of us really understood how good we had it before, I guessed.

There was a toilet. As in one toilet in a small toilet closet with no sink. I shook my head as I looked at it. Could be worse. There could be no toilet.

"Where is the food?" Sherry asked. I turned to find her eager, red face behind me.

"Haven't you done enough today?"

"Nah," she said and wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. "I need to see how we're doing on food so I can have a little piece of mind."

I grimaced. "Well…"

She stopped and ticked her head to the side. "What?"

"There was a crate of canned food," I hedged.

"Yes," she dragged out.

"But it was a whole crate of green beans."

"What!" she shrieked.

Miguel passed us and laughed. "I told you not to tell her."

"Beat it, Aussie." I put my hands on the tops of her small arms. "Baby, it'll be fine."

"How? Explain how the only food we have plenty of now is basically just water and won't help to keep us full or alive."

"We'll just have to do food runs again. No way around it."

She groaned. "Oh, my gosh. We can not get a break!"

"Sherry," I whispered and put my arms around her, lifting her to my level. She sulked and refused to meet my gaze. "Sherry," I sang, taunting her.

"What?" she muttered.

"Look at me." She did immediately. "We’ll be ok. I didn't defy death just to die of hunger, ok?"

She sighed dramatically. "Fine."

"Fine?"

"Fine!" she laughed. "Fine."

"Good." I kissed her forehead and then let mine rest there as I set her feet to the concrete. Her tingling touch was my constant reminder of everything I would've missed if I wasn't on this earth any longer.