But the torch, I hand to Samick.
He considers me coldly for a beat, then takes it.
“Needs new batteries.”
That’s all I say.
He sets it down, then looks over my head as bootsteps thud on the rug.
I crane my neck just as Arwyn comes in.
His leathers glisten as though damp, like he’s been in the powder room back in the kitchen, using the tap water to wash himself.
For a measly sink, he did a decent job.
But he isn’t impressed with me.
Those glacier blue eyes land on me, and the moment they do, his jaw flexes—then he’s storming over to Mika’s side.
No one speaks.
Not a word as the stew cooks, then Samick dishes out massive servings into fresh bowls looted from the kitchen.
We eat.
Spoons clattering off porcelain, water sipped from waterskins—and the best thing that’s ever happened to me…
Samick makes a small pot of coffee.
It’s stale and tinned, another thing looted from the kitchen, but I have no complaints in me at all as I sip on a steamy mug of what can only be described as an elixir.
My lashes shut on the bliss of it.
I savour it, every sip, taking my time.
Unlike the others who down theirs, as though it doesn’t scald their insides to do it.
Patience holds in the group.
Not so much for me taking my time with a coffee. I suspect more for Mika who might have beaten the poison but doesn’t look all that great. Not with the sweaty sheen over her sickly pale face, her softly slumped shoulders, and the way she rubs her head every other moment, like she’s trying to knead away a brewing headache.
She needs more time.
In the lazy, relaxed vibe, Samick ventures off into the house. He leaves me with them in the waiting room, and he’s gone a little while before he returns with a handful of assorted batteries.
He drops them onto the rug, then tosses down the torch.
I don’t ask how he knows what a battery is, where to find them, and what they look like.
He knew how to use the shotgun.
He knew how to load it.
Maybe there’s some curiosity in him, like he observes more than the others do while they slaughter their way through our world.
I replace the batteries, toss aside the spent ones, then wrap the rest in socks and underwear before packing them into my backpack. I don’t want them rubbing together and sparking a fire in my bag, and I certainly don’t want to leave them behind.
Batteries are too valuable to abandon.
