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They've been travelling for three days and four nights at this point. Cody has made himself keep count just not to lose his mind. Walking through the forest is scary enough with the sun, but at night is frightful. Every shadow is a possible danger, every breath of wind a lewd whisper to his ear before a vicious attack. And when there's nothing, and everything around is quiet and serene, it's even worse. That's when the sound of the their hearts become louder, and it's harder to stand next to each other. He can feel his own body waking up, wanting and calling for Matt's just a few feet away.
Matt has grown more and more restless every night. He has given in more than one time. He has roughed him up, willing victim of a genetic call he doesn't know the mechanism of yet. But it's becoming harder for Matt to let him go after, to release his hold, to remain civil after their thirst is sated. And this is making him upset. Cody can tell. This is the reason why they're making this trip, after all.
To get Cody somewhere safer, given that a place like that even exists anymore.
They reach the top of the mountain as the sun sets on the sixth day. Cody doesn't know what he was expecting exactly from a refuge, but it's not this for sure. This is not a cabin at the edge of the forest, as the name had suggested, not a makeshift shelter inside a cave or something like that. This is a winter designer house nested against the side of the mountain. A modern structure that is well-kept and functioning, lived in even, because it is not overgrown by nature in the slightlest.
He stops confused a few feet from the little road – a driveway, really – that will take them all the way up to the entrance door. Matt stops at his side and he smirks, the smallest of breaking in the constant tension his body has been in so far. “Does it meet your expectations, cupcake?”
“No,” Cody shakes his head, and then he quickly adds, “I mean, it surpasses it. Are you sure this is the right place? It seems... too much.”
This time Matt laughs. “They are too much, sometimes,” he says, a little mysteriously. “But they are good people and this is the right place.”
“How come they haven't been raided?”
“Because we're armed,” a man says, coming out of the house with a shotgun in his hands. Cody realizes that he hasn't even heard the door open, which is not a very smart thing. He takes a step behind Matt. “And the whole property is alarmed. We knew you were coming the moment you took a step inside the borders.”
The man is smiling, despite the weapon in his hand. He looks friendly enough, but a lot of them do in the beginning. He looks around forty, maybe even a little younger. He's got a mane of black curls and eyes as golden as Cody has never seen before. He wears a pair of simple cargo pants and a shirt, pretty much what Matt wears, but he looks well-kept and at ease, as you would expect by someone who just stepped out of his own comfortable home.
“Blaine,” Matt says as a way of greeting.
“You're a bit late.”
“I'm a bit alive,” Matt corrects him with a grin. “It's been a longer three days than I expected. We encountered roamers, I had to be careful.”
Blaine frowns. “Roamers? Around here?”
“A few miles back, over the river. But closer than they were last summer,” Matt says. “I'd keep my eye out, if I were ya.”
“Is it him?” Blaine nods towards Cody, who hides even more.
“Yeah, man,” Matt gives Blaine a very meaningful look. “Can we come in?”
Blaine seems to consider the situation – not him specifically, Cody realizes, but the scene before his eyes, which is unusual for him. All men see when he's around them is him – and then he nods. “After you,” he says, making room for them to pass so he can close the rear. “No funny business, please. Leo is armed too.”
Blaine speaks lightheardly enough, but Cody can feel he means every word anyway. He's here to help or not, it depends on what they do.
But he wants no trouble, only a safe place from men wanting to tear him into pieces.
And he hopes he just found one.