The Scavengers by Gen Griffin

much about it.
    Kennedy came stomping into the open doorway without knocking and let out a yelp of surprise when he saw Seth standing in the middle of the room with me.
    I'd expected Kennedy to react to Seth the same way Drake had. I stood nervously next to the bed, waiting for scrawny little Kennedy to pull one of his knives and attack Seth the way I had sensed Drake had wanted to the night before.
    It didn't happen.
    Instead Kennedy grinned and walked the rest of the way into the room. “I wondered if you were around here somewhere,” he said to Seth. “I saw the tracks from your chopper in the mud outside.”
    Seth shrugged. “Just having a look around.”
    “Your stomping grounds,” Kennedy said with notable deference. “Fine by me.”
    I noticed Kennedy wasn't looking Seth in the face. It suddenly occurred to me that there probably weren't too many people who were willing to look into that cold, dead eye, regardless of how pretty the opposite iris might be.
    “You know you're not going to find a radiator big enough for that bus just laying around out here, right?” Seth asked.
    I slipped my hand back into the depths of the jacket and felt the gun resting snugly against my mid-section. Seth had done a hell of a job creating a hiding place for it. I was willing to give credit where it was due on that. Dad would have respected Seth's quick thinking.
    “I know that. You know that. Damn Drake is just wasting our time making us slog around in the mud when I've already told him we're not going to get that lucky.” Kennedy sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “I'd bet my best pair of boots that the real reason he wanted us all to leave was so that he'd be alone with that slutty little blonde bitch.”
    I tensed, hoping like hell Kennedy was just joking around. He didn't laugh. In fact, he looked pissed off. Seth shot me a quick, pointed glance and then turned his attention back to Kennedy. “Drake still screwing everything he can get his dick in?”
    “Hell yeah. You know how he is,” Kennedy seemed completely unaware that he was taking the last part of my girlish innocence and smashing it into tiny little shards of broken glass. “You should have seen Shayla yesterday while we were working on that engine. Crazy bitch was taking off her dang top and messing with herself just to get his attention. She played like it was for Conner but I know it was Drake she was after.”
    “Fun for everyone.”
    “Man, I wouldn't touch that nasty hoe with a ten foot pole and your dick.”
    I choked on my own saliva again and Kennedy suddenly blushed bright pink. “Aw, shit. Sorry Pilar. I don't guess you wanted to hear that.”
    “It's fine,” I told him even though it wasn't. Suddenly all I could remember was the minty taste of Drake's tongue in my mouth. I purposely avoided looking at Seth. I felt like a completely fool, especially since I'd just wasted entirely too much of my breath arguing with him about how much I loved Drake.
    I hoped like hell Kennedy was wrong about Drake and Cya, but I knew he was telling the truth about Shayla. I'd seen that spectacle with my own eyes.
    I bit my tongue and tried to swallow my own hurt pride as I forced myself to focus on what Kennedy was saying now.
    “Been meaning to get up with you,” Kennedy was saying to Seth.
    “I don't have a radiator for that bus. Maybe in the Mylon Junkyard but that place is so damn full of zombies it’s not worth walking in to. I'd get a new bus, if I were you.” Seth was fiddling with a box on the dresser and he almost had the lid open when Kennedy shook his head no.
    “I wasn't meaning about the radiator,” Kennedy clarified. “I was wondering if y'all were still wanting a mechanic?”
    Seth paused, visibly surprised. He nodded. “We could always use another mechanic. You thinking about retiring?” He put heavy sarcasm on the last word.
    “Conner got ate yesterday.” Kennedy frowned down at his feet. “It wasn't worth dying for. Stupid girl