Chapter 31

I'm leaning against the side of the car with Maria sitting in the passenger seat.

" how are you feeling? ”

Maria: “a little weak, but much better”

She is hesitant to say something.

Maria: “I talked to Talita, and we reached an agreement that I will go first, for… sex, but as I am now I don’t know if it will be good for you”

“You don’t need to worry about it now, when it happens it will happen, it seems like I’m demanding this of you”

Maria: “I didn’t just mean that...”

“I know, there’s no need to rush these things, I like you, I don’t want to ruin what we have so far”

Maria: “I like you too, the truth is that I liked you long before this happened, I just didn't know if you felt the same, you always gave me mixed signals”

I preferred not to respond.

Maria: “I saw mixed signals”, she said, smiling at me.

The tavares with the tallita who are coming towards our car are returning with more cash.

Talita: “These are the last boxes, we can go, do you want me to drive? ”

“You can leave it to me”

The idiot couple seems ready, we get in the car and leave.

As night fell I saw the first signs of sites, but I didn't stop because I realized they were inhabited, most had an armed person patrolling the entrance.

Even if I hadn't seen this I wouldn't have stopped, I could barely see the roofs of the houses and I didn't have much visibility of the surroundings.

We continue for another twenty minutes, now it is completely dark until we find a farm further away, the last one I saw was about five minutes away.

I stopped here because it is almost perfect, it seemed abandoned, the fences around it have several holes, but what really interested me was that the house is on high ground surrounded by several trees, you can barely see some parts of the house.

I think it is abandoned because the road is completely overgrown.

Just to be clear, this farm is on a secondary street that I had chosen before to analyze.

" what do you think? Talita”

She was already looking before I asked.

Talita: “after we fix the fence we’ll talk about it”

She answered me boldly.

Janice got out of her car, where I see her husband sleeping, and came to my window.

Janice: “are we staying here? ”

“yes, we have plenty of land to plant and no neighbors to bother us”

Janice: “right, it's pretty dark, do you want to go there now or wait until it's light? ”

“let’s wait until tomorrow”

She went back to her car.

“Wake up Maria to eat something before bed, we’re going to sleep in shifts today, take the first shift, wake me up when you feel like you can’t do it anymore or midnight”

Talita: “Aren’t you going to eat anything? ”

“only when I wake up”

Talita: “you can sleep, I’ll take care of everything”

At one time or another I have to trust them to keep watch, better now when the dangers are still manageable.

I listen to girls talk about mundane things and I sleep with their voices.

I wake up with the talita poking me.

Talita: “it’s already midnight”

I look at her and see that she is still alert, I don't look very sleepy.

“Did something happen while I was sleeping? ”

Talita: “I heard some animals but I couldn’t identify what was wrong, but they seemed to be far away”

“okay, thanks for staying awake until now”

Talita: “you don’t need to be grateful for these things, we’re in the same boat”

She's starting to look down.

“you can sleep”

I didn't get a response, I see that she's already leaned against the bench and is out of it now.

I look in the rearview mirror and see the tavares' car, Janice is awake, at least she is and smart about keeping watch, I don't know if it's in shifts like us.

I hear a distorted howl, that's strange where I live there are no wolves or coyotes, that must be what Talita meant, I might be curious to see what that could be but I'm not crazy enough to do that in the dark and leave the girls sleeping alone.

That will be for another day.

Tomorrow I have to see how to fix this fence, I'm going to put the fences in to do that, then I'll just see if it's strong enough, but that will have to wait until it's clear.

I'm bored, and it's a little comical to be bored in the middle of an apocalypse, it's going to be a long night.

At the first rays of sunlight the girls start to wake up, during the night I heard a variety of animals that I had never heard of, probably and mutations of known animals... that's a little unnerving not knowing what to expect from something new.

" good morning "

Maria/Talita: “good morning”

“How is leg maria? ”

Maria: “I’m not feeling any more pain, I want to walk a little to see how it goes”

" your wish is an order "

I get out of the car and playfully open the door for her.

She gets up without needing help and walks around the car a little.

Maria: “I'm not feeling pain, just a little discomfort when I force myself to walk a little faster than normal”

“Take it easy today, okay? ”

I get an affirmative nod.

“let’s see what the condition of the house is like, if it can be used or do we have to look for another one”

I walked back to the car after waving at the now awake Nerlon to follow us to the farmhouse.

I pass by the entrance to the fence, there is no gate, we will have to basically build the entire fence from scratch to make it higher, work for later.

I see some fruit trees on the way to the house, some are mature, others are a little strange, I'll have to check them out before anyone gets close.

The house from the outside looked sturdy, still a little dirty and the paint was faded with time, nothing out of the ordinary.