A/N: So here's the other chapter based around Yan. I'll be honest though - I had a REALLY hard time writing this and I'm not a hundred percent happy with it. Hopefully I can get some constructive criticism...please? FEED THE AUTHOR.
UPDATE 7/28/15: Like stated above, I wasn't very happy with the original version of this chapter so I changed it around A LOT. Hopefully this one is better... we'll see though.
UPDATE 4/2/16: Okay so this is the FINAL version of this chapter. I basically rewrote everything except the first four paragraphs...not that most of the characters were deleted/their names were changed. Yan is still the same lovable Asian though.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7YXXAh2HBv
Death had been a big part of everyone’s life for a long time. For some even longer. Not everyone was lucky enough to find a safe haven for the night. Much less the rest of their lives. Happy memories went from birthdays and holidays to outrunning those things, finding a good meal, and your loved one dying in a dignified way. Meeting new people became something to be weary of, trusting people became nearly impossible, and loving people who weren’t blood was downright insane. Even so, Kevin’s heart broke at the sight of the man tied to a tree branch with a couple of belts.
He was dirty and bloody, underfed, wheezing out each breath painfully. Wistfully, as he climbed the tree, he thought of how social this forest was compared to the rest of the world. There were those people a couple of days ago, now this fellow. It had been a long time since he’d met so many new people in such little time. Kevin took a seat on the branch just next to the sleeping man’s and leaned his foot out to tap the guy on the shoulder. He stirred a little, but didn’t wake. So Kevin shook the tree and kicked the bark off onto the man’s face. That seemed to do the trick.
First thing the guy did was flail his arms around and curse. Then he threw his arms to the side and grabbed at the tree, regaining his balance so he didn’t flip around the branch and dangle by the belts. Kevin snorted – which in further examination, wasn’t the nicest or smartest thing to do at that particular moment. The guy reached down to his boot and pulled out a crowbar, sitting up as best as he could and flicking his head around. “Whoa, calm down there partner.” He gave the guy a kind smile.
“Jesus fucking Christ you scared the shit out of me.” The man said, undoing the belts and tossing them to the ground. “If you’re planning on robbing me you’re shit out of luck.” He said, clutching his only belonging, the crowbar, to his chest. Kevin hopped down from the tree, watching the man carefully climb out after him, his eyes locked on Kevin’s the whole way down.
“Wasn’t gonna rob you. Just saw you sleepin’ up there and I felt a little bad.” He rubbed his chin, hand dragging along the stubble forming over his skin. The stranger gave him this look like he could barely understand him. Probably the accent, Kevin thought.
The man raises his brows. Kevin gets a good look at his face and wonders how his dad would feel about a ‘Chinaman’ in their group. “You felt bad?” He says the words like they sting his whole mouth. “That’s a new one.” He giggles softly and shakes his head. They sit in silence as the stranger runs his hands through his short hair. Kevin begins to realize that there are things about him that just don’t add up. He’s clean cut. He’s healthy looking. Properly groomed and not coughing up a storm from a cold, despite that he was sleeping out in the cold. He’s not just some random strangler without a group to cling onto. He’s somebody.
“My name is Yan,” he says softly. “Just in case you were wondering.”
They shake hands. “I’m Kevin.”
He learns very quickly that Yan comes from a secure area nearby, he doesn’t elaborate, but he does mention that he had been kicked out for unjustifiable reasons. Kevin sees no reason not to trust him, nor does he find one to trust him. So he just keeps his hand on his holstered weapon and walks Yan around the forest. “You hungry pal?”
“Starving.”
Kevin tosses him a scrap of beef. He and his group had managed to figure out how to preserve beef for longer periods of time a while ago, essentially turning scraps into beef jerky for outing missions. Yan thankfully scarfs down the meat. Kevin explains, while Yan is still working through his first couple of bites, that he’s not alone. He does this partly to ensue conversation, partly to offhandedly warn Yan about attacking him. The others will come after you if you kill me, he says without moving his lips.
They check the snares Kevin put up days ago, each one bearing some woodland creature. Each one that’s big enough to skin for meat Kevin puts on his belt. Squirrels and rabbits and a few possums hang from his jeans by the time they’re done. Their hands are speckled with blood, Yan’s adorning a few cuts here and there from his shaky hands as he was made to reset the traps.
The sun begins to set, surprisingly so, and Kevin sits them both down on some boulders. Yan stares at the trees around them, feeling strangely calm sitting next to someone he just met. “You seem like a good guy Yan,” Kevin says softly. “Hell, I can’t find a damn thing wrong with you. Except you being booted from your last group and all. What’s with that anyways? What did Yan do?”
“Yan didn’t do anything wrong.” He starts. “We had this leader, asshole of a guy, and he sent some real good people out there to die. I lost it. I lost my mind, my temper, and eventually my home.” He leans back on the rock, palms pressing into the cool stone. “But I think that it’s for the better. Less bullshit when you’re alone.”
“Do you really want to be alone? For the rest of your life.”
“Not sure yet.”
Kevin sighed. “Well I can tell you now, if you do chose to be alone you won’t be long for this world man.”
“You asking me to join you?”
Shrugging, the man stood up. “It’s up to you. I’m going to head home, before it gets too dark, and if you follow me... well I just don’t think that there’s anything I can do to make you not follow me.” Yan has to stop himself from smiling as he jumps to his feet and rushes after the other man, stepping into pace and knocking their shoulders together. “Good choice.”
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She watches from her section of the camp. Eyes glued to the small opening in trees where hours earlier the only capable member of their group went off alone to grab some grub. Her nails dig into her arms, anticipating the lonely night as the sky becomes purple and blue. “You know,” she jumps at the voice, twirling around with her first pulled back. Daniel grabs her wrists before she can throw her arm. “If you sit here all day you’re going to lose your ever-loving mind.” When he lets go of her, she shoves at his chest. He laughs that asshat kind of laugh.
“Screw you Danny.”
“Aw, you ain’t got no love for your baby brother?” His fingers tickle at her stomach and she smacks him again.
“No, I don’t. What do you want.”
He shrugs. “Not sure yet. I’ve been thinking about chocolate though for a couple of days, so maybe that. Or hey, what about some of those little sweet tarts that you get on Easter. Those sound fucking good right about now.” She crosses her arms and ignores his childish requests. He was twenty-one and still could only think about candy. Useless. “I’m just joking Jules, don’t be so serious all the time.” His hands come up to her shoulders and he squeezes. Three years older than him and she was still a foot shorter. “He’ll come back, he always does. He probably just got caught up in something. Chasing a deer or…”
“Something.” She supplies. He nods and rubs small circles into her shoulder blades, staring at the same section of trees she had been for the past five hours. Daniel, much to his dismay, decides to do the right thing. So he waits with his sister, no matter how much his feet begin to hurt, and stands by to watch the woods with her. He figures at some point she’ll get tired or hungry and want to go sit down. He figures wrong. She stands there until not one, but two figures stumble out of the forest, smacking away tree branches with each step.
It takes everything in Jules’ mind to not sprint for him and smack him upside the head for making her worry so much. Instead she puts on her best bitch face and glares at him as he walks over to the siblings. “Babe,” he mumbles, leaning in and pressing his lips to hers. She presses a hand to his chest and pushes him away. Her eyes flick to the stranger and he smiles. “Julia, this is Yan, Yan, this is Julia and Danny. I told you about them.”
The stranger nods and introduces himself to the siblings. He quickly give them the rundown of what took so long. Then apologizes to them both for taking up so much of Kevin’s time. Kevin shakes his head. “Nah man, totally worth it. Now c’mon, we got dinner to make.” He lifts up the carcasses on his belt and Daniel licks his lips.
“You said three hours.” Julia quips before Kevin can drag the boys too far off. He looks back at her, eyes calm, dead almost. He doesn’t speak a word.
Kevin wraps an arm around Yan’s shoulders and practically drags him away towards the center of their camp.381Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb9pCzXid9j
“Stole all them tents from a Dick’s,” he says, gesturing to the yellow and red pitched cloths around the camp. “Except that one, my dad was a big camper when I was a kid.” Yan whistles. The main tent in the group is huge. Probably twenty feet long. Big enough to fit fifteen people. “I know,” Kevin leads him towards the open zipper of the tent, ducking his way inside. Daniel and Yan follow in suit. “Dad!”
They stand in silence before a wall of gossamer is pulled back. An older looking man with side burns to the edges of his lips and eyebrows like caterpillars comes hobbling out from what looks like a makeshift bedroom. He visibly cringes at the sight of them and takes a seat on a white (now brown with dirt) patio chair. “Whaddya want?” He growls, spreading out his knees and resting back in the chair.
“Nothing.” The voice that comes out of Kevin’s mouth is not the same one he had been using with Yan that morning. It’s assertive, almost frustrated that he had to even answer the question. “Just wanted to introduce the new guy to everyone.”
“I’m not everyone.”
“Well, you’re someone. So that’s a start.” The tension is thick with words and testosterone. Kevin practically spreading his brightly colored feathers in order to get his father to see him as a ‘real man’.
Yan introduces himself with a handshake. Kevin’s father doesn’t look very impressed. He mumbles something about his own father in war but Yan figures it best he not try to figure out exactly what he said. He doesn’t get a name in return so Kevin does it for him. “My dad, Larry.” He says, his whole body taut sans his slowly moving lips. “He’s the – uh – leader. I guess.”
“Get on outta here boy,” Larry orders. “You ain’t got much sunlight left.”
No more words are exchanged as Kevin pulls the other two of the tent almost fast enough to give them whiplash. Daniel rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. “Still not getting along with the old man I see.”
“No.” Kevin snaps. “I’m not. Let’s go Yan, I’ve got lesbians to show you.” They walk off with Kevin ordering Danny to start frying up a couple of squirrels. Danny holds the belt of dead animals arm’s length away gagging at the smell and sight.
There are three other tents in the group besides Kevin’s fathers and Julia’s. He points to each one as he talks. There’s a pair of lesbians in the yellow and gray tent, both very hot. He stresses this fact by running his own hands along his chest to demonstrate just how ‘big their honkers’ are. Yan shakes his head with a laugh. In the red tent there’s a loner guy, much like Yan, who they picked up a few years back. “Don’t know much about him, but he’s a good guy so we let him stay.” The black and red tent is Daniel’s, and sometimes Julia’s if they get into a fight. “Word of advice, don’t marry your rebound chick.”
He introduces Yan to Kelly and Leigh. The latter does most of the talking, explaining where they’re from, introducing herself and her girlfriend. “We mostly do supply runs. I ran track in college.”
Brian is the last he meets. The man is reserved when they sit down to talk to him. He just wants to them out of his tent and Yan doesn’t argue. “We think he lost his family,” Kevin explains. “He’s got this wallet, one of those old leather ‘Dad Wallets’. He’s always staring at it.”
Yan sits around a campfire, for the first time in at least four years, that night. He watches the six people chat quietly, laugh at small jokes, rip flesh from animal bones, and sip purified river water from old Camelbaks. Leigh does the most talking. She talks with her hands and with a boisterous attitude he’s solemnly matching to Maverick’s way of talking. He asks for a notebook and pen and Brian supplies them. He scribbles down notes on each member. Old habit. Back at the Safe Zone he had three binders full of information on each member. Greg liked to use them against people. Yan liked to know who he was entrusting his life to.
The fire dies out when he’s finished writing a profile on Larry. He looks up to the stars. The same ones he had seen nights before. The same ones that he fell asleep to alone. Kevin grips his shoulder to tell him that it’s time to go to bed. He cries a little at the notion. “Thank you so much.”
Kevin leans down hugs the side of Yan’s body. “No problem man.”
ns 15.158.61.20da2
