Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

A Plan

Hadley stretched her limbs under the blanket as she slowly woke up. She felt well rested, but there was a sharp twinge on her leg when she tried to move it. The snapped tibia. It still hurt, but the pain was orders of magnitude less than before. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Jamila walking up to her. Jamila smiled and knelt next to Hadley, sitting back on her heels. She had some folded clothes on her lap.

"I was just coming over to wake you," Jamila said.

Hadley sat up as best as she could, cupped Jamila's face with one hand as she supported herself with the other, and kissed her, smiling as she did.

"Are you okay?" Hadley asked, pulling away and starting a quick head to toe check on Jamila.

Jamila laughed and swatted Hadley's hand away from her head, where Hadley's fingers were combing through her hair as she slowly massaged Jamila's skull to check for injuries.

"I'm fine," Jamila said, still laughing as she fixed her hair, into a sexy, dishevelled, voluminous mass. "I should be the one asking you that. When Ruq carried you back, you'd been out there for almost an hour, and you... well, you weren't looking so good. It reminded me of the day she carried you out of Mrs. Smith's basement, and I just couldn't..." Jamila sighed. "You two should really stop doing that."

Hadley sat up fully, looked at her hands and flexed her fingers. She rolled her right shoulder too. Her left thumb and broken fingers were fully healed, and her shoulder was back to normal function, healed as well.

"It's all good. I'm perfect! See?" Hadley announced with a smile.

"Except for that," Jamila said, raising a brow as she pointed at Hadley's leg, which was set using a makeshift splint of twigs and ragged pieces of cloth.

Hadley looked down at the leg. It wasn't fully healed yet, but the bone was back under new skin, and she could, if she concentrated enough, feel it healing in real time. She'd be back to normal soon.

"That's just a scratch," Hadley said with a crooked smile.

Jamila laughed. Then she looked down at Hadley's belly.

"May I?" she asked.

Hadley nodded.

Jamila gently placed a hand on Hadley's baby bump at the exact moment that the little one kicked out hard, as if she knew. Jamila gasped at the foot-shaped nudge against her palm.

"She's strong," Jamila said.

Hadley beamed at the statement, enjoying Jamila's touch.

"She already adores you," Hadley gleefully announced.

Jamila laughed and gave Hadley a hug.

Hadley looked around their little camp. The night before, Ruqwik had said it was a section of ruins from before the Human Error and in the morning light, Hadley could finally see that. Most of what remained of the building was covered in vines and plants. They were camping in the only intact section of the ruins. It was mostly square, though one of the four walls was pretty much decimated. It had a concrete floor, rough and cracked in sections where grasses and other tenacious plants forced life into lifeless space. The ceiling was held up by a few cracked concrete and steel pillars and looked like it had once upon a time held another floor above them that was now lost to centuries of weather and nature. It was a good shelter to keep them dry from the storm that continued to rage outside.

The sun's light just barely pierced through the grey, rainy clouds, making it a little lighter outside, the only sign that it was daytime, but it was still early, so the others were asleep around the fire. The humans, that is. For the first time, Hadley noticed that Ruqwik wasn't the only vampire with them. There were others. A group of seven vampires in total. They stood guard at all the "openings" around the camp, keenly watching the forest beyond. Kade was the only other human awake, hunched over a small fire in the corner set up with three stones and a soup pot over the stones. He was stirring something in the pot that smelt divine.