The Road - 6. Part 6

When I woke up the next morning Troy still had his eyes closed.

"Troy?" I whispered.

"Yes?" he whispered back.

"Are you still asleep?"

We both laughed.

"I'm not sure, I could be dreaming. How about you give me a kiss?" I lifted my head and kissed him long and tenderly. "Yep, definitely dreaming," he said, grinning, and I giggled.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

"All warm and happy inside. And a little turned on."

"Only a little? Do I have bad breath or something?"

He laughed.

"No, but that was more of a loving kiss than a sexy one, right?"

"I guess. And just so you know, I'm not aroused either, not even in the slightest." I said sulkily.

He took my hand and pressed it against his private parts. He did have a pretty hard erection.

"Is that arousal enough for you?" he asked.

"That could be because it's the morning."

"It's not, I've been awake for a while now."

I kept my hand on his erection.

"Do you have a headache?"

"Yeah, but it's not too bad."

"Want me to take care of you?" Before he could answer Lucky climbed out of his bed and raced up Troy's leg, so I let go of him. "I'm starting to think he's doing that on purpose. I guess he doesn't want us to have sex," I said, a little disappointed.

"Did you want your parents to have sex?"

"No, eww."

"There you go."

The kitten rubbed himself against Troy's face and then discovered my hair, which was probably pointing in every direction. He reached for it and then lay down on his back, took a strand between his paws and chewed on it.

"Troy, control your kitten," I said jokingly and he laughed.

"Can you blame him? Your hair is awesome after all."

"Apparently so."

Troy tickled Lucky with his finger, which he immediately tried to grab. Troy pulled it back and the kitten raced after it and threw himself on his hand.

"Someone's perky this morning," he said.

"Well, we didn't play with him for two days, so he must've built up some energy."

"I'll play with him later."

"I should feed him."

"Then I'll clean his litter box in the meantime."

"No, you're staying right here mister, you still have some healing to do."

"I'm fine Cody. I just need a couple of painkillers and I'll be as good as new."

"No, I don't want to take any chances."

"Well, I'm not staying in bed for another day and tonight we're gonna sleep upstairs again."

"No, Troy."

"Stop worrying so much," he said and kissed the tip of my nose, which made me giggle even though I wanted to stay serious.

"Ok, but if you get worse you'll never hear the end of it."

"Fair enough. Now come on, we have a lot of driving to do today."

"You mean I have a lot of driving to do, don't you?" I asked sharply.

"No, I'll drive."

"Troy, even if you had fully recovered yet, remember what happened last time you were behind the wheel? You crashed a car so badly that it freaking exploded."

He laughed.

"That wasn't my fault. There were freaks on the road."

"Oh sure and you weren't too fast to stop in time, you just smashed into them for the heck of it."

"I can see your point, but the RV isn't a 300 horse powered sports car, so it's perfectly safe."

"Yes, it will be, because I'll be doing the driving from now on."

"We'll see about that."

"Troy, don't be a jerk, I had the worst day of my life because of you, so you owe me this, don't you think?"

He hesitated for a second.

"I guess you're right. I'm sorry."

"That's better."

We got up and after I had taken care of Lucky we converted the bed back into a table and had breakfast.

"We'll get to Nevada soon, how about we catch a tarantula?" Troy said.

"Why would we possibly do that?"

"Cause they're cool. We could keep it in a bucket."

"Even if just talking about it didn't give me the creeps so badly that I'm having goose bumps right now, it would still be a horrible idea. What if Lucky eats it and dies?"

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Maybe if we find a proper cage in California we could get one then."

"We'll never have a pet spider Troy. Now swear to me that whenever you see one you'll kill it immediately."

"Are you really that scared of spiders?"

"Yes I am."

"Do you consider Spider-Man a horror movie?" he asked, smirking. I almost giggled, but looked at him sharply instead.

"Troy, I'm serious! Now swear!"

"Come on, why can't I play with it a little and then release it outside?"

"Because your boyfriend won't let you touch him with those hands for a week if he catches you."

"Fine, I swear," he said and rolled his eyes at me.

"Thank you."

"How do you feel about snakes?"

"How do you feel about living in a different house than me in California?"

"Alright, got it."

"It'll probably be pretty warm in Nevada, so it could get really hot in here when we use the wood burner to heat up milk for Lucky."

"We still have the camping stove. We could just use that instead."

"No, I want to save it so we can take a bath or two when we find a house."

"Well, then it will get hot in here, but to be honest I don't really mind, cause I'd rather sweat than freeze my ass off all the time."

"We'll run out of deodorant pretty quickly and then we'll start to smell, I'm not looking forward to that."

"I probably will, but I can't imagine you ever smelling bad. Even when we met, you didn't exactly smell fresh or anything, but you didn't reek either, not by any stretch of the imagination, which really surprised me. I always wanted to ask you why that was."

"I just washed myself every day and my clothes every week. I felt bad enough already, so I didn't want to feel filthy too. But that doesn't mean I can't stink."

"I bet you look really hot when you're sweaty. I'm getting hard just thinking about it."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough."

"I can't wait."

We finished our breakfast and then took our seats in the front. Troy buckled up without me having to urge him to do so. I guess after surviving a near fatal accident he had learned to appreciate the benefits of a seat belt. We started driving. The scenery was rocky and bare, but after maybe an hour we came to a more mountainous and slightly greener part of the country. Troy had Lucky on his lap and was busy playing with him, so we didn't talk a lot. I suspected that his headache was worse than he admitted and that he was grateful for some peace and quiet. A couple of hours later there was another monster walking at the side of the road, which wasn't really unusual, but when we came closer it suddenly started to wave and I realized that it was a person. His beard and hair was white, so I assumed he was old.

"Look, a human," I said.

"Just keep going, it could be a trap."

We drove past him and I could hear him beg for help from outside. He was maybe seventy and looked the worse for wear, so I stopped the RV.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Troy asked sharply.

"We're going to help him."

"Like hell we are."

"Troy, didn't you see him? He's really old and in bad shape. We can't just ignore him."

"Yes we can and we fucking will. Now let's go."

"I'm using my 'trump card' for this, so I win and we're going to help him whether you like it or not."

"Jesus, fuck, Cody! Have you learned nothing?! Do you need me to show you my bullet wound?! I mean, what the fuck are you thinking?!"

"This discussion is over, ok?"

"Christ! Fine, have it your way, but this is a mistake."

"We'll see."

He just shook his head. We went to the door and opened it. It took the old man a couple of minutes, because he was limping, which made me sympathize with him right away. When he was finally standing in front of us Troy pointed his shotgun at him like he was highly dangerous, which seemed ridiculous considering how frail the poor guy looked.

"God bless you boys, I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't stopped. Can I maybe trouble you for some water and something to eat? Only if you can spare it of course," the old man said.

"Yes, sure, come on in," I answered.

"Not so fast, you're gonna take off all your clothes first or you're not going anywhere," Troy said.

"Excuse me?" the man asked, surprised.

"Troy, is that really necessary?"

"Yes, Jesus, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry mister, but I'm afraid we have to check you for bites, but then you can have all the water and food you need."

"Oh, sure, I understand. Whatever it takes," the poor man said and took off all of his clothes. I was so embarrassed for him that I looked away. When Troy was satisfied he let him get dressed again.

"Now give him your backpack," Troy said and the man complied. It was very light and there was a handle sticking out of it.

"You can come in now," I said and he slowly got inside. Lucky raced over to me and climbed up my leg.

"Jesus, he reeks," Troy said.

"I'm sorry about that," the man replied.

"It's ok, you can take a shower after you've eaten and we'll give you fresh clothes."

"That's not gonna happen. Now get your tarp Cody, he's not sitting down on the upholstery reeking like that."

"Troy, you're being rude. I'm sorry mister, he's usually much nicer."

"Don't worry about it son, I'm just grateful you're willing to help me."

"Just get the fucking tarp," Troy said.

I handed him Lucky with a disapproving expression and went to the back. I took the tarp and a can of beans and filled a bottle with water. I put the food and water on the table and spread the tarp over the bench. The old man sat down and I brought him a can opener and a spoon.

"Here you go. Do you want me to heat that up for you?" I asked.

"No, it's fine like this, thank you son."

He emptied half the bottle with a couple of big gulps and then opened the can. We sat down across from him and watched him eat the beans eagerly. Troy was pointing his shotgun at him the whole time.

"Search his backpack," he said to me, so I did. There was not much in it, except for a machete, an empty bottle and a small pouch in the front pocket. I opened it and found maybe twenty rings inside, which surprised me, so I showed them to Troy.

"Jesus, he's a psycho. He probably took these from the people he killed," Troy said.

"Good golly, no, I would never hurt anyone. I took them from corpses or dead abominations. They're all wedding rings. I thought if I'll ever find a refuge I'll give them to couples who want to get married."

"Aww, see, he's a romantic," I said.

Troy picked up a couple of rings and held them to his nose.

"They don't smell like death," he said.

"I cleaned them of course."

"With what?"

"Cleaning products I found in a house a week ago."

"They don't smell clean either, they smell dirty, like someone who hasn't washed himself in a while."

"I like to look at them and come up with romantic stories about the people who wore them and how happy they were. It keeps me going."

"I don't fucking buy it."

"But I do, so please just let it go and try to be nice to him, ok? Please?" I said and looked at him puppy-dog-eyed.

"Whatever, he's almost done eating and then he's gone,"

"We can't just throw him out Troy," I said matter-of-factly.

"Why the hell not? What else are we gonna do with him?" he asked, frowning deeply at me.

"We could take him with us to..."

"Don't fucking tell him where we're going! And what difference would that make anyway?"

"It could be safe there and we could find him a nice place to live. It's the right thing to do Troy."

"It's the stupid thing to do. He'll kill us at the first chance he gets," he said almost aggressively and he looked at me very grimly. He was obviously starting to lose his patience, which worried me.

"No he won't. Isn't that right mister?"

"Of course not. How about we get to know each other a little, so you can see that you have nothing to worry about from me?" the man said.

"Great idea. I'm Cody, that's Troy."

"I'm Frank, I'm seventy-two and I managed a small grocery store before judgment day happened."

"Have you been on your own the whole time?" I asked.

"Yes, most of it, but occasionally I came across some nice folks like yourselves who were kind enough to help me out. I didn't want to burden them though, so I always moved on after a couple of days."

"See how considerate he is?" I said to Troy.

"He's lying. He only stayed with them for a couple of days cause that's how long it took to gain their trust and then he killed them."

"Troy, what's wrong with you? He's a sweet old man, can't you see that?"

"You're so fucking naive Cody."

"And you're a jerk."

"I don't want to cause any problems, so I think it might be best if I would just leave," Frank said.

"Nonsense, you're staying, I insist. And Troy, can you please try to behave like a human being? For me?"

"Fine."

"That's such an adorable kitten you have there. What's its name?" Frank said.

"Don't fucking touch him!" Troy barked.

"Troy!"

"What? He's obviously scared of him and with good reason, animals can sense evil."

"It's just the smell Troy and didn't you just agree to be civil?"

"Sorry," he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Tell me a little bit about yourselves boys. How did you end up on the road together? You don't look like brothers."

"I'm gay," Troy blurted out and I looked at him in surprise. "And he's my boyfriend. I love him. You got a problem with that?"

I was really touched by this and it made me incredibly proud of him.

"No, to each his own I always say. As long as you're not planning to sodomize me I'm happy you boys found each other."

"I love him too," I said, smiling.

"You mentioned that you're headed some place safe. Where is that exactly?" Frank asked.

"California and we just hope it's safe there, we don't actually know for sure," I answered.

"Cody, for fuck's sake!"

"He has to know where we're going so he can decide if he wants to come with us."

"I'd love to," Frank said quickly.

"Yeah, I bet you would, but that's not gonna happen grandpa."

"Oh my god, Troy, I've had it with you. Is it really too much to ask for you to behave half way decently? For me? Or do you love me less than you hate him?"

"Jesus Christ, I'm gonna fucking lose it!"

"Yeah, great, that's just perfect Troy."

"Enough! Where's your gun?!"

"In my backpack. Why?"

He handed me Lucky, took the machete and went to the back. He returned a minute later and put his shotgun on the kitchen counter.

"You trust him, right? He's just a sweet old man?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied, determined.

"Alright, I may not agree with him and I certainly don't like it, but I'm tired of arguing and I trust Cody, so it's decided, you can come with us. Here's your welcome gift, so you can defend us, in case we get attacked. At least this way you won't be completely fucking useless," he said to Frank, pulled my gun out of his pocket, and handed it to him.

"What are you doing?" I asked, frowning.

"Giving him the benefit of the doubt. That's what you wanted, right?"

"I guess."

"It's not like I handed him a loaded gun. I'm not that stupid... Wait. There are still the empty shells in the barrel, right? You didn't reload it yet, did you?"

"No, I did, yesterday," I answered nervously.

"Oh shit," Troy gasped and we both looked over at Frank, who got up, turned the safety off and then pointed the gun at us.

"You should've listened to your boyfriend you little deviant," he said to me. My eyes widened.

"No. We helped you. We wanted to take you with us to California," I said anxiously.

"Shut it and get out of my RV. And leave the kitten, I'll have him for dinner later."

"No! Lucky! You have to kill me before I let you have him!" I replied in panic.

"Oh he's planning to. When we're outside he'll shoot us in the back of our heads and then take our rings. Isn't that right, Frank?" Troy said, oddly calm.

"Yes, now get a move on."

I was so scared I started to cry.

"Do you still think he's a sweet old man?" Troy asked.

"Please don't kill us, please," I whimpered.

"Shut it little deviant or I'll make you watch how your boyfriend slowly and painfully bleeds to death."

"I guess that should prove my point sufficiently," Troy said and reached for his shotgun. It was like I was suddenly seeing everything in slow motion. Frank pointed the gun at Troy and pulled the trigger.

"NO!" I yelled and pressed my eyes shut. Then I heard a clicking sound and a couple more after that.

"Guess what, scumbag, I can lie too," Troy said and I opened my eyes again.

"Now hold on a minute, let's talk about this," Frank said, alarmed, and put the gun on the table.

"Let's not."

Troy walked up to him and smashed his shotgun in his face. Frank stumbled back a few steps and held his nose, which was starting to bleed.

"That's for calling my boyfriend a deviant," Troy said hatefully.

"You broke my nose, you son of a bitch," Frank replied indignantly, like he was the victim in all this and Troy was the bad guy, not him. He didn't seem to feel any guilt whatsoever.

"Shut the fuck up and get out, before I break more of you."

"What about my things?"

"You should be grateful that I let you live. Now let's go. I'm not saying it again."

Frank reluctantly went outside. Troy closed the door behind him, got behind the wheel and started to drive.

"Throw his shit out the window," he said, so I did and then joined him in the front with Lucky.

"How could you let me think that he was going to kill us? I was scared to death," I said in an accusatory tone.

"Are you fucking shitting me? Your stupidity and stubbornness would've gotten us killed. And aside from that, you were such a fucking dick to me I shouldn't even be talking to you right now."

"But you were a jerk first."

"To a fucking psycho murderer who wanted to kill us and then eat Lucky."

"We didn't know that at the time."

"No, YOU didn't."

"No, that was just luck. You couldn't possibly have known for sure what he was really like."

"Fuck you Cody."

I thought for a minute.

"Fine, I was wrong and stupid and kind of a jerk to you. I'm sorry, ok? But I still don't think I deserved for you to mess with me like that. I was about to pass out I was so scared," I said.

"You didn't deserve that? You wanna know what I don't deserve? I definitely do not fucking deserve a boyfriend who turns against me at the drop of a hat. I mean, it's supposed to be us against the world. At least I thought so. But it was like you were more concerned about his fucking feelings than mine. And you apologized for me, like I was some spoiled child, and instead of having my fucking back you constantly undermined and embarrassed me. And why? Cause you wanna be a goody two-shoes so badly? I'm not saying you can't be, but being my boyfriend should be your fucking priority. Or was it cause you felt sorry for him, cause you liked him so much? But then again, you should feel more strongly about me, since you LOVE me... Unless you don't."

I was totally flabbergasted by this and I felt like I was free falling all of a sudden.

"How can you doubt my love for you?" I asked incredulously.

"How can I not?"

"But you didn't have my back either. What if you would've been wrong about him?"

"The difference is, you were on his side, I was still on yours. All I cared about was keeping you safe, but you were only concerned about being as polite to him as possible and helping him no matter what. So in a way you betrayed me. And now you're complaining about feeling scared for maybe five minutes? Imagine how I fucking feel."

Hearing him say all this was like getting kicked in the stomach, because he was absolutely right and I couldn't believe I didn't see it before.

"You're not having second thoughts about our relationship, are you?" I asked shakily, terrified of the answer.

"No, you don't have to worry about MY loyalty and you never will. It doesn't matter how you treat me or if I'm happy or not, cause I made a promise to you. I'm yours, completely and indefinitely."

That did it. I broke down in tears and sobbed violently. Troy stopped the RV and came over to me. Before I could protest he picked me up and sat down with me in his arms.

"I'm so sorry," I whimpered.

"I know. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so hard on you."

"No, you were right, I'm the worst boyfriend. You should hate me," I said through my tears.

"Just try to calm down and then we'll talk, alright?"

I nodded.

"Come here," he said softly and I clung to him. For what felt like a long time I cried into his chest while he gently stroked my back. When I finally lifted my head again he smiled at me and kissed the tip of my nose. I frowned and looked down.

"No, that's not right, you should treat me like crap," I said sadly.

"Yeah? No problem... Hey, stop being so ugly or I'll choke you! You got that?!" he said sharply and then growled at me. It made me giggle and he laughed too.

"I'm serious Troy."

"So am I. Now you better get a move on or I'll choke the ugly right out of you."

"Oh really?" I asked, grinning.

"Yeah, but don't worry, I've seen how you resuscitate someone on TV, so you'll probably survive it."

I giggled again.

"No, stop trying to cheer me up."

"You're telling me what to do? I guess you need to be properly water boarded too. And while I'm at it I should also brand you, just in case."

I laughed.

"That makes absolutely no sense Troy."

"What?!" he said warningly and glared at me. "I'm starting to think you're not worth the trouble... I wonder if the generator could power a home-made electric chair."

I laughed really hard. Troy just smiled at me.

"Why do you love me so much?" I asked and turned serious again.

"Cause it's very fucking easy, even when it's not."

"I love you too, with all my heart, I swear on my life," I said emotionally and teared up a little.

"No, come on, don't cry, please?"

"Ok," I replied quietly.

He gave me a tender kiss, which turned into a passionate one. When we parted I looked deep into his eyes.

"Troy, I'll never let you down again, I promise. I'll always have your back from now on, no matter what," I said sincerely.

"What if I wanna beat up a bunch of little children?"

I giggled.

"Then I will hold them in place for you," I said, determined.

He laughed.

"Alright, and I'll try to be more polite next time we'll come across another survivor. Especially if it's a psycho murderer."

We both laughed.

"You know, not that it's an excuse, because it really isn't, but I identified with Frank, I saw an older version of myself in him, one who hadn't been so incredibly lucky to find the love of his life, but who was lonely and miserable instead. I felt like I HAD to help him, like I needed to and I guess that feeling kind of blinded me. When you told me how I acted from your perspective it hit me like a ton of bricks how wrong I was. I'm so sorry Troy."

"Does that mean you feel guilty about being happy?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Why?"

"Because it doesn't seem fair. What have I ever done to deserve to be this blessed?"

"Well, there's this saying, 'God moves in mysterious ways', so maybe it is fair, you're just not able to understand why. And who are we to decide who deserves what anyway? You're a good person and you know and appreciate how blessed you are, that alone makes you more than deserving if you ask me."

"You're probably right... You always are."

"I know, it's crazy."

I giggled.

"Now, let's talk about something else for a minute. I've been dying to ask you about it since you said it."

"What's that?"

"You're gay?"

"Yeah, I am, I'm so fucking gay, it's not even funny," he said, smirking.

"What made you finally figure it out?"

"You for course. I'm so intensely attracted to you in every possible way that I just can't be straight."

"You could be bi though."

"No, when I told you about Maureen I remembered how she made me feel. She promised me everything I had ever dreamed of and at the time I wanted it so desperately that I believed her, but it still felt wrong somehow. With you on the other hand, nothing ever felt more right in my life. It's like you're Nitro and I'm Glycerine, we're the fucking bomb together."

"Aww, that's sweet. But I don't think there is such a thing as 'Nitro', you know?"

"Maybe not, however, there is such a thing as water boarding and it can shut smart-asses the fuck up real fast. You know?" he said and shot me a warning look.

I laughed.

"I love you," I answered dreamily. He smiled.

"I love you too. Now let's get the hell out of here, I wanna put as much distance between us and Frank as I can."

"But I want to be close to you," I protested.

"You can stay on my lap while I'm driving if you want."

"That's not very safe though."

"But if we had an accident at least we'd die in each others arms."

"That's true. Ok, let's do it."

I picked up Lucky, who had been sleeping like a rock, and we switched seats. Troy started to drive and I leaned against him. We didn't talk much, we just enjoyed being close to each other. Occasionally I stroked his chest and every time he gave me a tender kiss and then we both smiled. It was really nice.

At noon we took a break. While I fed Lucky Troy refilled the gas tank and then we had lunch. Afterwards I insisted that it was my turn to drive and we continued our journey.

Our next stop was in the late afternoon, to have dinner.

"How about we call it a day and go to bed early? You look kind of exhausted." I said when we were sitting at the table, eating potatoes with spinach.

"No, let's keep going, I wanna make some headway."

"We already have."

"Yeah, but if we'll drive for another couple of hours then tomorrow we could make it all the way to California."

"How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"Be honest, please."

"My head hurts, but not too badly."

"You need to rest."

"I can rest when we're in California."

"Getting there faster is not worth it if it's at the expense of your well being Troy."

"I can handle it, trust me."

"But I don't want you to."

"Cody, come on."

"No, but if it's that important to you I'll make you a deal. If you lie down and rest, I'll drive for as long as I can keep my eyes open, ok?"

"But it's my turn."

"Troy, you can either agree or I will swallow the key."

"Fine," he sighed, but had to grin.

"Good," I said, smiling, and gave him a kiss on the mouth.

After we had finished our meal Troy reluctantly lay down in bed and I got behind the wheel. About an hour later I was welcomed to Nevada by a big sign at the side of the road.

Driving at night by myself made me kind of uncomfortable, especially whenever I saw a monster or two creep out of the darkness and then fade away again as I drove past them. Around midnight I was starting to get really tired and could barely concentrate anymore, so I stopped the RV. I went to the bathroom and then climbed into bed. Poor Troy didn't even wake up. I cuddled myself against him and fell asleep within minutes.