Meetings

  “I mean it! I've got my own AK 47!” yelled a familiar male voice. 

  Everyone stirred. 

  Bleary-eyed but curious, they went out to the balcony and looked down at what was causing the commotion. 

  It was Varjak, unsurprisingly, and judging by the distance between him and the onslaught of bullets and arrows following him he had just flitted out of their way. 

  “Varjak!” yelled Kate down to him, shaking a fist. “Get back up here now! What the Hell have you done?”

  “Nothing!” he whined, reappearing at their side less than a second later. “I was out collecting berries and wood and I was flitting about the place searching for it when suddenly these psychopaths pounced on me!”

  “Oh well done!” James growled beside him, staring. “You're a complete idiot. You can't go flitting about freely in human parts of the forest!”

  “Well I know that now James Genius!” he yelled back, as all four stared down at the retreating artillery, which was replaced by vague shapes of people coming through the din of the forest. 

  It wasn't hard to see why the undead had picked here to set up camp. 

  It was the ultimate cover.

  The people emerged, holding their arms up to shield their eyes. 

  They looked up at the group and the group looked down at them, both silent. 

  “The French group!” cried Varjak suddenly, standing right at the edge of the balcony. “I mean I've heard about you guys but I've never actually seen you before! You speak English, right? If you don't its cool. I'm quite fluent in French myself.”

  “No, we do speak English,” said a girl in a thick French accent, staring up at the group with her hand shielding her eyes. Her eyes had visibly widened. “Oh mon dieu, it's him! It's Varjak Swinton!”

  The others adjusted their sight and looked similarly awed and impressed, apart from one of the boy members, whose expression didn‘t change. 

  There were four of them. 

  Two guys and two girls. 

  One of the guys was significantly older. 

  The group looked to Varjak questioningly, but he was too busy standing on his cliff rock face like the king of Pride Rock. 

  “You've heard of me, have you?” he said, looking proud of himself. 

  “Only because you're on the undead most-wanted list,” said a girl with short, spiked red hair and a lean smile.

  Varjak's expression fell. 

  “Surely you've heard of my latest heroic antics then, have you not? Jumping off a cliff? Risking my life to save my friends?”

  “Nope, none of them,” said the girl.

  His expression soured again. 

  “Yeah, and who the Heck are you exactly?”

  “My name is Camille,” she said. She turned and encouraged the others to introduce themselves.

  The gruff-looking, older male spoke. “My name is Lucas.”

  The girl who had first spoken said, “Er, and my name is Sophie.”

  The last one looked at his team-mates as though they had all just gone mad.

  “And he is called Tristan,” Camille said, as though this display of rudeness was a common occurrence. 

  “Well you don't have to stay there in the sun all day,” said Varjak, “Come up here and we can all talk.”

  “Oh we wouldn't like to intrude,” said Camille, in a taunting, Varjak-like way. 

  Varjak responded with gritted warmth. 

  “Oh it would be my pleasure Camille.”

  Kate watched on with a sickened expression. 

  Firstly, the way those two were acting around each other was as if they were long lost partners in annoyance. 

  Secondly, jealousy instantly burst inside of her at Camille and Varjak's antics. 

  As if to agree, James groaned. 

  “Just come up here already,” he yelled impatiently down to the French group, as he grabbed a couple of logs that they were intending to use for the fire and setting four of them in a diamond-shaped circle. 

  It took the French group a minute to trek the longer way up to the cave - obviously none of them were able to flit. 

  Once seated, the French group facing the American group, they began to find out more about each other and their current predicaments with the undead. 

  Through the exchanges the American group learned more about the individual personalities of the French group - in spite of first appearances with Camille, it appeared that Lucas was the real leader of the French group. 

  He was fifty and in brilliant shape for a man of his age. He had a commanding, powerful voice and clearly had the brains to match his sturdy, hardened exterior. 

  It was no wonder the others elected him as leader. 

  Sophie was the most delicate of the four. She seemed slightly nervous around everyone and most often avoided eye contact. 

  When she did pipe up to explain something that Lucas wasn't sure about, however, it was clear her purpose was far behind the trench line, concocting new plans for the more physically adaptable three to carry out. 

  She wore round, channelling Harry-Potter-glasses, mousy brown, shoulder length lank hair, and a large pink jumper and jeans. 

  She was quite pretty in a natural sort of way, since she didn't wear make-up. 

  It was revealed in later conversation that Sophie had also been a scientist before joining the group, which only made Ben's gaze at her all the more admiring.

  Camille seemed the strongest, most cutting of the lot. 

  It was very possible that she was ex-military, given her behaviour. Lucas may have been wise and old, but clearly Camille, in spite of her cute pixie looks, was the one most cut out for the leader role. 

  Her nature mirrored Varjak's, but her humour was dry. Her clothes were a military shade of dark green, complete with black lace-up Doc Martens.

  And, finally, there was the aloof Tristan, who sat on the edge of the log not speaking. It was clear he didn't particularly agree with his comrades' choice to come up here. 

  Kate would eye him carefully from time to time, taking in his behaviour and features. 

  He looked almost...dangerous, and had it not been from numerous confirmations that he wasn't, Kate would have thought straight away that he was an undead. He looked like an undead, though it was clear from the peachier touch to his skin that he was actually human.    

  His eyes were large, but sharply defined. The rest of his features were similarly angular. 

  How Camille and Sophie acted so normally around him, she didn't know. 

  Kate was blown over by him. The only thing that put her off him in her initial attraction was the fact that he was acting like a right big Emo over there. 

  What was the issue with joining in and talking with everyone else? 

  After a while she decided to stop considering him and turned back to the conversation.

  “I’m worried about our chances against these guys,” said Camille, rubbing a twig between her palms. “I mean, we’re only here because we have to be. We’re not just going after them with four people. And we’re just humans, after all.”

  “Doesn't matter,” Varjak pitched in with his soft, American accent, leaning against the cave wall. “We got by perfectly well with five humans the last time. This time, we've got six humans and an undead. The odds are even better than before.”

  “Hold up,” said Camille, looking round at Varjak, brow furrowed. “Who the Hell said we were joining up? It was just by chance we found you here. We're not looking to join up with anyone.”

  Varjak blinked at her, surprised. 

  “Well, I think we should. Seems logical to me, given the fact that there's only four of us in each group.”

  “And because you're the hot-shot undead you think what you decide just goes?” Camille raised her brows. 

  James, who hadn't been saying or doing a lot through the exchanges, looked up at this, eyes rounding delightedly at Camille. 

  Kate caught this look and scowled. 

  Oh great, she thought bitterly, now he's found his female parallel too. 

  Unabashed, Varjak replied evenly. 

  “Exactly. Camille, you're right on the money there.”

  “It is not happening,” she replied darkly.

  “C-Camille?” said Sophie, going over to her and dipping her head slightly to talk, causing her to yet again to push up her glasses. “Why are you so against it? Varjak's right - it is more logical to join up.”

  “Because America needs its American protectors and France needs its French,” she replied adamantly. “If we join up with them, there's no one else in the whole of the United States who know about the undead, or can stop them. It will only be a matter of time before they do something there.”

  “And?” Varjak pressed, causing most of the room except from Tristan (typically) to look at him.

  Camille glared at him. “And what?”

  “What's the other reasons you don't want to join up with us?”

  Camille clearly knew she had been trumped. 

  Instead of denying it she gave Varjak an unfriendly smile, and said, “Because there is no way in Hell I'm letting you take control, which is inevitably what you'll do if we join up. That will cause conflict. That is not useful when you're trying to defeat an army of half-dead people.”

  “Point taken,” said Varjak with a stretch. “So. If I promise not to act like supreme overlord, you'll consider letting us all join up?”

  Camille studied him for a moment. She was chewing her lip. 

  “It's not up to me, it's up to Lucas,” she said simply, and turned away from him, closing the conversation. 

  Varjak turned to Lucas, who had been sitting in between Camille and Tristan. 

  “Lucas old boy? Is it cool or not?” asked Varjak.

  “It's an interesting proposal,” he said in his broad, manly voice, expression pensive. “Whether it will help or hinder us, I can't ascertain yet.”

  “So is that a yes?”

  “Let me think you insolent little boy!” Lucas bellowed, stunning everyone. 

  Instantly Varjak’s well-rehearsed school-boy act kicked in, and he scuttled to the other side of the cave, well away from Lucas. 

  Kate turned away to laugh hysterically in a corner. 

  “Logically, we should take a vote,” said Ben from beside James, who was beside Kate. 

  “I always knew you were smart,” said Varjak, gliding out of his safety corner and ruffling Ben's hair.

  “A vote it will be then,” said Lucas, shooting Varjak a vaguely irritated look. “All in favour of uniting the two groups, raise their hand.”

  Sophie, Ben, Varjak, and James raised their hands. 

  Lucas, after studying the result, also raised his hand in favour. 

  Camille shot him a horrified look.

  He turned to her. “We all have a common goal - to defeat the undead once and for all. If that's really important to us, we won't fight. At least, not as much.”

  Kate had been split in the decision. 

  There was safety in numbers, but the teenager in her was unleashing a bitter dragon of jealousy with Camille. 

  Not only that, but her close-knit group was a comfort. Too many people seemed less personal.

  “It's settled then!” said Varjak gleefully, vanishing and reappearing upside down above the fire. “Let's all set up home!”

  “Yeah, hang on a minute squirt,” said Camille, attempting to tug him off the ceiling by his hair. “We've got a much more comfortable camp about three or four kilometres from here. On top of that, we've got spare huts and beds and stuff. Probably enough for seven of us.”

  “Oh, so that's how it's going to be huh?” said Varjak stubbornly, folding his upside down arms. “You hate me so I don't get a hut or a bed.”

  “You know full well that you don't need any of that stuff,” said Camille evenly, and successfully managed to wrench him off the ceiling, almost landing him in the fire had it not been for his ability to flit. 

  “Jesus. What were you trying to do, you psycho? Chuck me in the fire?”

  She shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”

  “B***h,” he snorted, then suddenly turned his attentions to Kate. She nearly jumped with the sudden, silent addressing of her. “Well? You didn't vote yes. Do you have a problem with us shifty-vous-ing to their camp?”

  “I don't mind,” she half-lied. 

  She probably wouldn't have minded, if it wasn't for that stupid Camille. 

  Who said she could go about plucking Varjak off the ceiling? 

  And why didn't I think of that? She thought grudgingly.

  “Oh, well that's alright then,” said Varjak, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I thought you would say no.”

  “I said I don't mind,” she said, more bitterly than she intended. 

  Neither of the causes of this bitterness seemed to notice the tone.

  “We will not be there until nightfall,” said Lucas, voice overshadowing the squeaky voices of the younger ones. 

  “Ah crap. My night vision isn't that great,” Varjak groaned. 

  “That's fine, because we'll probably sleep the instant we get there,” said Camille, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. 

  Like a domino effect, Tristan and Sophie instantly did the same. 

  Kate meekly followed, not saying anything - she felt overpowered by all these new voices in the group. 

  “Right, let's go then - quickly,” said Lucas, and his group were the fastest at shooting off.  

  Even Varjak was stunned at the speed. 

  Kate noticed and glowered at him. “You know you could have outrun them.”

  “Can't act like I'm God, remember?” said Varjak with an exaggerated wink, but shot off to catch up with them nonetheless. 

  Kate felt cheated. 

  So now he's found a new bunch of friends to annoy, she thought sadly. 

  He's even got a new me to annoy!

  “I always knew he would do something like this,” said James pompously, coming up behind her. 

  Kate turned her glower to him. 

  He blinked in response, surprised. “Well. Not quite like this. But I knew he was an idiot.”

  “Don't bother about him Kate,” said Ben, appearing beside James. “Let's just catch up to them and forget about it.”

  “Right,” Kate said, voice feeling unused after her silence. 

  They did so, and caught up to the others within the next couple of minutes. 

  It was a very long journey to the camp, and given the weakness of Kate, James and Ben more breaks were also required, which only added to the amount of time it was taking to get there. 

  The sky above them grew darker and darker, its blue hues swirling into reds and oranges and eventually into purples and blacks. 

  Once it was night a familiar formation began to present itself through the gloom of the forest.   

  Kate, James and Ben all immediately exchanged terrified glances - their new camp was far too much like the one they'd just escaped. 

  Annoyingly for Kate, Camille appeared to notice this tense atmosphere, and fell back. 

  “We built it like their camp so we stick out less,” she explained in a perfectly friendly manner to Kate. 

  “Oh right,” Kate said back, her own voice polite. 

  Okay so she felt a bit two-faced. But couldn't have just snarled at her. 

  Now she just hated Camille even more. Nice and could tame Varjak.

  They arrived at what was their equivalent camp fire and dropped their bags. 

  “Okay, well who wants to go where?” said Camille lazily - she was tired and yawning, as they all were. 

  “I'll go with Sophie,” said Kate instantly. 

  “No,” said Camille, looking to her left at Kate. “We have a boy/girl formation. You know. For safety reasons. Naturally boys fare better in a fight.” She grinned. “And that's coming from me.”

  Kate glanced grudgingly at Camille's army-esque uniform. 

  Okay, so insanely pretty, nice, could control Varjak and was ex-military? 

  It was official. She hated Camille.

  “Boy/girl formation?” Varjak and James repeated, looking excited. 

  Kate rolled her eyes - so did Sophie and Camille.

  “Yes, boys and girls sleeping in separate bunk beds,” said Camille, with careful emphasis on 'separate'. “But still in the same hut.”

  “I'll go with Kate!” said the two quarrelling boys, glaring at each other. 

  “And I'll go with Ben,” said Kate dryly.

  James shot her a disappointed look. 

  Varjak snorted in offence. 

  “I know when I'm not wanted,” said Varjak.

  “You don't need to sleep,” Kate reminded him, glad to have reprimanded him before Camille, who had already opened her mouth to do so. “You'd be more useful keeping guard!”

  “I still know when I'm not wanted,” Varjak persisted, and faded into nothingness. 

  One less agitating person to deal with.

  “Let's go to bed,” said Ben, yawning and stretching. 

  Sophie had glanced at him and had turned pink. 

  “Yes lets,” Kate agreed. She turned to Camille, and just stopped a sneer reaching her voice. “Which hut can we take?”

  “Far left,” she said serenely, looking even more like a little pixie as she did so. Her tone suggested that she may have just twigged to Kate's dislike of her. “Tristan and I are sleeping in the one along from you if there's any trouble.”

  “Thanks,” Kate said tonelessly, and Ben followed quietly behind her as all of them split up.   

  Kate glanced at James before she opened the door to her hut - he looked frustrated. 

  She didn't think he had a right to be. She had made her feelings towards him clear. 

  Did he want her to lead him on by sleeping next to him voluntarily?

  “What are you looking at?” said Ben, trying to follow her line of vision - but James had already vanished.

  “Just, went into a world of my own,” she said airily, and stepped into the hut. 

  She fired up the ladder which stretched up to the top bunk - she loved the top bunk. She wasn't going to lie. 

  Ben noticed, and laughed.

  “You're twenty for God's sake,” he grinned, quite happily stripping down to his boxers in front of her. Clearly he was used to doing this in front of women. 

  “Twenty-one,” she reminded him with a giggle, only slightly offended. 

  “Oh yes,” he said, sliding into the covers directly underneath Kate. “I forgot.”

  “I thought you might have at least known my age, considering what we've been through together,” Kate joked. 

  “Actually, I've realized I barely know any of you at all,” said Ben. “I've never taken the time out to do so. I know most of our relationship has been based in captivity by those monsters, but I still don't think I made much of an effort.”

  Kate lay in the dark listening to him.

  Ben let out a sigh. 

  “It's just that I wish I could open up to people more easily. I didn't like people that much to be honest. I was far too bullied at school to even want to form friendships. I only really had my dad...and he's gone now.”

  Kate didn't interrupt. 

  “Kate...you're the first girl that I've - don't take offence, please - that I've not seen as someone just to have sex with. I feel like I can trust you, even though we've barely spent anytime together. I think, as we spend more time together, you and I could become really good friends.”

  “I think so too,” Kate responded. 

  “I think James will stop his behaviour one day,” said Ben, making Kate's ear twitch as she listened. “I think he's jealous of Varjak, and that's why he hates him so much.”

  “I guessed that already,” said Kate with a short laugh. 

  “And, I also think he thinks you might like Varjak.”

  Kate actually sat up at that one. 

  “Like Varjak?”

  “Like like Varjak.”

  “Like, like like Varjak?” she said, horrified.

  Ben chortled. 

  “Yes. And he like like likes you, or so I've gathered, and that's why he's been so agitated. Varjak presents a threat.”

  “Varjak presents a lot of things,” Kate snorted. “But a romantic threat? With a human teenager? I don't think so.”

  “Yes, but this is James,” Ben reminded her. “He may not be thinking rationally right now. And who can blame him, given what's gone on.”

  “He can't be thinking that irrationally that he thinks Varjak like loves me,” Kate said with a sneer, which wasn't directed at Ben. 

  “Who knows,” said Ben, audibly stretching as he did so.

  “Bedtime then,” Kate agreed telepathically, wriggling further into the comfortable bed. “I'll see you in the morning, I guess. Wonder what they do for breakfast here.”

  “Cooked bird with a berry coulis again?” Ben laughed, clearly remembering the dinner they had. 

   Kate didn't like eating the bird they'd found in the forest. She could somehow eat chicken, but not that.

  “Don't remind me,” she said, wrinkling her nose and closing her eyes. “Night then.”

  “Night,” said Ben, his voice indicating he was already halfway there.

Reviews

[w2de35657u687y4324rf]

YES! You have successfully developed Ben's character. Before he was quite a flat character, but now you've pulled him all together. I now only dislike James. Ben is a relatable, excellent addition. I can not say bravo enough to congratulate you on this magnificent accomplishment! On another note, I do not particularly enjoy the French unit. I side with Kate in saying that it distorts the personal connection of the party and can result in a cacophony of personalities and opinions. Still, it's an interesting way to drive the story, but I feel like I would have rathered the initial group to stay alone.