Treyson's POV
I woke up, groaning as burning pain ran through my eyes. I sat up, wincing as I tried to blink away the pain, and then I froze, gaping in awe as I looked around the room and realized that I could see…
"Trey? What's wrong?" Bree mumbled sleepily.
I looked over and smiled at the sight of her blinding beauty as I reached out and cupped her face. Her skin was blinding pale against my dark skin, and her short platinum-blonde hair enhanced the angles of her face. As I looked into her steel-gray eyes, Bree gasped when she peered into my eyes.
"Trey, your eyes are no longer milky-white; they are now a dark golden yellow."
"I can see, Wild Cat…" I whispered as I leaned in to touch my lips to hers, "I can see you."
Bree climbed onto my lap as she straddled my waist. She wrapped her arms around my neck and peered into my eyes, "How is this possible?"
"I believe it might be from drinking your blood… because animal blood has never healed my eyes before…"
"So, you have never had human blood before?" she asked as she cupped my face in her hands.
I shook my head, "No… I have never desired the taste of human blood until last night…" I looked at the sinking sun through the window…" Or I should say morning…" I said with a shrug.
"Do you think it's a permanent fix?" she asks, "And what do we tell my brother? He will go postal if he learns that you bit me…"
"I don't know, Wild Cat, but I hope it is… but for your brother and the others, we will just tell them it was the result of the fresh animal meat and blood that cured my eyes temporarily."
I froze when I heard the sound of JR stirring in the room down the hall, "Your brother is waking; we should get dressed."
Bree nodded as she leaned in for a light kiss, then slid off the bed to grab her scattered clothing. I smiled as I watched her move around…The sight of her lean, muscular body as she moved made me want to shove her against the wall.
With a painful groan, I rose from the bed to grab my pants as I heard the sound of boot steps making their way down the hall.
There was a knock on the doorframe as JR appeared in the doorway.
"Awesome, looks like you two are already awake," JR says as he surveys the scene. When his eyes settled on me, his face scrunched in confusion as he noticed my eyes, "Why are your eyes yellow now?"
I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, "I forgot to mention that when I eat fresh meat, my eyesight returns… But it's only temporary."
JR crosses his arms, not really looking convinced… "If fresh meat and blood heals you that well, then why don't you do it more often?"
I rubbed at my chin with a shrug, then turned to look at Bree with a smile, "I never really had anything worth looking at before."
Bree rolled her eyes as she clipped on her vest, making me chuckle.
JR nods his head, " I totally understand that… I feel the same way towards Izzy. For all that it's worth, I'm happy that the two of you have found each other."
Bree's face lit up with a smile, making my heart skip a beat… My god… she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen…
"We need to head out soon if we want to make it to Mohawk by daybreak," JR says with a nod.
Bree returns his nod, "Alright, Bub, we will be there shortly."
As JR walked away, I couldn't help myself as I stalked over to Bree to pull her in for a deep kiss. Being able to see her now was got to be a delicious torture for my aching cock.
Back to Bree…
I pulled away from Trey with a smile, "While you get dressed, I'm going to go get Hope. Do you have a clean shirt that she can wear? That hospital gown she is wearing is filthy."
Trey nodded as he reached for his pack, "I should have something in here."
I watched as he pulled out a black t-shirt with a skull on the front; "That should work," I said with a shrug as he handed it to me.
With a quick peck on the lips, I exited the room and entered the one next door, freezing in the doorway, when I spotted the serline curled up in Hope's lap while she stroked its scaly body with a smile on her face.
"Looks like you made a new friend."
Hope looked up at me with those mismatched eyes and smiled. "She was lonely. Would it be okay if I brought her with me?"
The serline looked at me with its reptilian eyes and mewed with a flicker of its forked tongue.
"I don't mind; she should be small enough to live with us in the colony," I said with a shrug, "Have you given her a name yet?"
Hope nodded, "Yep, I named her Mew."
"I like that name," says Trey as he steps into the room.
Hope looked up at him, looking into his eyes with a cock of her head, "Your eyes have changed…" she murmured, then turned to look at me, "And your scent has changed…you smell more like Treyson now…"
I felt all the blood in my body rush to my face, making Trey chuckle as he wrapped his arms around my waist from behind before pressing a kiss to my cheek.
I stepped away from Trey with a roll of my eyes as I held out the shirt in my hand, "Would you like to change into something clean?"
Hope looked down at the filthy gown she wore, then looked up at me with a nod.
The serline lept from Hope's lap as she slid from the bed and pulled off the hospital gown while Trey turned his back like a gentleman, making me smile.
The smile on my face faded when I noticed all the scars that covered the poor girl's body… I wish I could bring those scientists back to life just so I could kill them all myself…
Hope looked from me to the scars, "These were caused by the bad people," she mumbled as tears filled her eyes.
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm sorry for the things they put you through," I said as I placed the clean shirt over her head, "As long as I am around, nothing like that will ever happen again."
Hope's tears dripped down her cheeks as she threw her arms around my waist, "Thank you, Bree."
I lowered myself to my knees so I could hug her back…The poor girl sobbed as she held onto me. I flinched when a thumb brushed against my cheek; I opened my eyes to find Trey knelt before me, wiping away the tears.
I reach out and pull him into our hug; these two are rapidly becoming important to me. They were mine now, and I refused to let them go.
"Mew!"
I looked down as the serline rubbed against my leg, making me smile, "Yes, Mew, I will hug you too," I chuckled as I pulled the cute serline into my arms.
The serline purred as she rubbed her scaly head against my face.
"Alright, we need to head out before my brother has an aneurysm." I explained as I stood up, then looked over at the giant mutant lion, "Will you be able to carry Hope while we are outside?"
The lion huffed as he leaped from the bed and lowered onto his hunches. With a shrug, I pulled the moth-eaten quilt from the bed and used it to cover the thorns, then helped Hope climb onto Demoysa's back.
"Do you feel any thorns?" I asked as I handed her the serline.
Hope shook her head, "Nope, I'm all good."
After returning to the room next door to grab my pack, we headed for the kitchen, where my brother was pacing like a caged animal.
"It's about time!" He yells as he dramatically throws his arms in the air, then motions with his arm to come on," We need to get going!"
"How are his eyes yellow?" asked Phoebe as I followed behind her.
I quickly caught her up on what Trey and I discussed.
"Oh, wow! I wish humans could heal like that!" She exclaimed as we made our way down the road.
"There is no way that a little bit of animal blood could heal a birth defect!" yelled Xavier, "I know of nothing in this world that can heal rapidly like that."
"How do you possibly know that?" I asked Xavier, "We lost a lot of knowledge during the war; who knows what scientists knew back then that we don't know now."
Phoebe nodded, "I agree, and for all, we know… all the ghouls are caused by the world trying to evolve… everyone seems to see them as freaks and mutants when I believe we need to learn from the ghouls… what does the world know that we don't?"
Xavier shakes his head in disgust, then stomps further ahead to walk behind JR.
"That man needs to get over himself," Phoebe mumbles with a shake of her head.
I chuckled as I bumped my shoulder with hers, "I totally agree."
I looked over at Trey, who was gaping open-mouthed at everything as he looked around in awe. I couldn't help but chuckle as I moved to walk beside him and lace my fingers through his.
Trey's yellow eyes glowed in the moonlight as he peered down at me; he looked so exotic, almost like he was something out of one of those fantasy books I used to read about elves and dragons.
He wrapped his arm around my waist to pull me to his side, then leaned down to press a kiss to my temple. His face was lit up with a smile as he looked down at me.
"Hey, JR, is there another route we can take to avoid the reaper den?"
JR stopped walking and then looked back at me as he pulled the worn map from his vest. I pulled out my flashlight, clicking it on as I stepped up next to him.
"This is where the reaper den is," he says, circling where he marked an X with his finger, "and this is the route we followed to get here."
I looked over the map, using my finger to map out another route that would take us home… "Here is another road that will take us home, "I explained, taping the road labeled 92, whatever that means… "If we follow this road towards the town called Jefferson, we can follow 11E; we should make it to Mohawk by sunrise."
JR rubbed at his chin as he contemplated the new route, "We can try that new route, but for all we know, the route could be worse…"
Xavier snorted, "What could be worse than a large den full of reapers?"
I looked over at Trey, "Do you know of anything that could be worse than the reapers?"
"Ghouls?" He said with a shrug, "Human's?"
"Do you think taking a different route is worth the risk?" I asked.
"Why would his opinion even matter?" asked Xavier.
"Because, Xavier, Treyson has seen more of the outside than any of us combined," I explained with a shrug, "I would trust his opinion over yours any day."
"What if his opinion got someone killed?" asked Xavier, "What about then?"
This pissed off Shawn and Micah, "This journey has already gotten our friend Will killed if you haven't forgotten!" yells Micah.
Shawn nodded frantically, "Exactly, the world is very dangerous no matter where we go; all it takes is a horde of reapers or a shot to the head by a human…we all went on this journey knowing that not all of us would return alive."
JR ran his hands over his face with a sigh, then looked over the map again before looking around at our team, "I believe it would be wise to avoid the reaper den; we will take this new route that Bree talked about."
Everyone nodded in understanding, and then we redirected ourselves to head for Route 92.
We made our way through the town until we found old rusted signs that pointed to Route 92, which would take us to Jefferson City. Along the way, we ran into a few zombies that were easily taken care of, but other than that, all was quiet…
To pass the time, I asked Trey about his home.
"So Trey, what do you usually do to pass the day in your village?" I asked as we walked through the maze of trees and crumpled-down buildings.
Trey shrugged as he laced his fingers through mine, "Most of the time, I'm either training, helping someone with simple tasks, hunting for food, or just simply wandering around; since I usually can't see, there isn't much I can do to help out."
"That makes sense; for me, I'm usually in the lab working night and day to find a cure until my brother or Izzy have to force me to go home and sleep."
Izzy nodded, "She is telling the truth; she will go days without eating or sleeping."
"I made a vow the day that my father died to find the cure for the Undead Virus," I explained to Trey, "I refuse to give up until I do."
Trey smiled as he brought my hand up and kissed the back of my hand, "I believe you, Coacoochee. Just make sure you don't work yourself onto your grave. You can't solve anything if you die."
"I promise to take better care of myself," I grumbled with a roll of my eyes, making Hope giggle.
We walked for about an hour and a half before we finally reached Jefferson City. The town has long since returned to the forest; there are only a few standing buildings. The rumbling of clouds above threatened a rain storm… great… just what we needed, freaken rain!
"What are we going to do?" I asked JR, "We can't walk all night in the rain…"
"Bree, I have been outside many times when it was raining; it's hard to tell when it's actually going to rain…" he says with a shrug, "We need to try to get as far as we can."
I ran my hands through my hair with a sigh, "You might not be able to predict the weather, but there aren't many opinions for shelter."
JR sighed as he looked up at the thick clouds that were streaked with lightning as thunder roared and shook the ground. Hope whimpers as she holds her hands over her ears.
"Without the light of the mood, we aren't save JR; we need to find…" Just as I was saying shelter, the sky opened up and poured water all over us.
"Fine!" yelled JR as he looked around, then pointed to a building not too far away.
We all ran towards the building; as we pulled out our flashlights and clicked them on, the beam of light revealed a door that Trey ran towards and opened, then motioned for us all to walk through.
As we stepped inside, the building was full of dusty shelves of what appeared to be tools of all kinds and many other things that I had never seen before.
Thunder rumbled, making Hope gasp as the lighting from the cracked windows illuminated the store. The beams of our flashlights helped us navigate towards the back of the building, where we found a room with a small couch and a table and a large storage room full of stuff that would have eventually gone on the shelves…I remember Dad talking about stores…places you could go and buy things that you needed…
"We need to send some people to stores like this," I said to JR, "We could use these tools and other things…"
JR nodded, "I agree; I remember Dad talking about stores that sold tools… I believe he called them hardware stores or something…" he explained with a shrug.
We all found a place to rest and pulled out food from our packs. I handed Trey and Hope a few granola bars. I smiled when Hope's face broke into a smile when she bit into the sweet and salty treat.
As I listened to the sound of the raindrops hitting the roof, the echoes reverberated through the entire building. I couldn't help but feel a sense of calm wash over me as the gentle pitter-patter of the rain lulled me into a hypnotic state. It was difficult to gauge how long I had slept at the other place, but the sound of the rain was enough to make me drowsy, causing me to yawn as my eyes grew heavy.
Trey patted his thigh, "Take a nap while you can; we might be here for a while."
"Are you sure?" I asked as I stifled another yawn.
"Yes, I'm sure I will wake you if something happens.
With a resigned shrug, I settled down on his lap. The soft cushion of his thighs provided a welcome relief to my tired body. As he began to run his fingers through my hair, I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh of contentment. The gentle strokes of his fingers on my scalp were soothing, and I felt myself slowly drifting into a state of relaxation. My breathing became slow and steady, and I could feel the tension in my muscles melting away. Before I knew it, I had fallen into a deep sleep.