Together Tomorrow

Chapter Eight: Unexpected Rescue

            The scent of opening bakeries wafted temptingly through the air, teasing Lea as she painted near the end of her morning run. Steve was at her side, running with disgusting ease. She swallowed her indigence and focused on keeping her feet going. She wiped the sweat from her brow, wishing that her headphones hadn't broken. The lack of music was killing her motivation. She took another gasp of air, trying to conceal how hard she was breathing. Did she usually pant this hard? She wasn't sure. She had never had to listen only to her own breath before after running eight miles.

            She gritted her teeth as she rounded the corner, forcing herself to take the slightly longer route back to the apartments. She was in the middle of mentally complaining and promising herself that she would go buy new headphones that afternoon, when a familiar sound tickled her ear. She abruptly quit running, her sneakers cementing to the ground with a jerk. She cocked her head and closed her eyes, listening carefully. Steve stopped half a stride later, considerably more gracefully then she had.

            "You know, you can walk whenever you wa-" He started, but she shushed him harshly and held a finger to her lips.

            A quizzical look drew his brows together as she closed her eyes and cocked her head, holding her breath. "Lea?" He began again.

            "I said Shh!" She scolded, her eyes snapping open. Their grey blue depths only partially focused on reprimanding him as her ears strained for that sound again.

            Steve folded his arms and looked around, waiting patiently for her to explain. Instead of doing that however, she wordlessly backed up a few steps and walked away from him down a side ally. He shook his head before he followed her, caught between curiosity and amusement.

            Lea walked carefully down the filthy back ally, gingerly placing her feet to make as little noise as possible-and avoid some of the more disgusting filth. She tilted her head and listened very carefully while surpassing her loud breathing. Each time she heard it, a snippet from her child hood would filter up through her thoughts. It didn't take her long to located where the sound was coming from, her ears leading her like a finely tuned radar.

            Glaring at the massive green dumpster in front of her, Lea scowled and put her fists on her hips. She chewed her lip; she had to be sure before she climbed in that thing. It was right behind Bobs Burgers, and smelled absolutely vile even with the rubber lid closed. She heard it again, the very faint whimper.

            "That's it." She muttered and stood on tiptoe to shove the lid open. She grabbed the lip of the dumpster and bounced on the balls of her feet, testing. But the lip was just over her eye level, and she didn't want to chance falling in.

             "Steve, give me a boost." Lea instructed him over her shoulder, both hands still gripping the lip of the dumpster.

"Into the trash?" His tone expressed his thorough befuddlement of why she wanted in the trash, even after the sound had stopped.          

"Yeah, just up to the edge." She insisted, not letting go of the bin.

"Okay..." Steve walked up behind her and picked her up around the waist.

Lea made a surprised squeak. When she asked for a boost she was thinking more along the lines of him giving her a leg up, or cupping his hands for her to step in, not being completely lifted off the ground with ease. The squeak was quickly drowned out by a gag however as her face was lifted over the rim of vile discarded bits of food and other miscellaneous things.

She set her jaw and held her noise as she leaned forward and gently moved a few cardboard boxes. There really was a lot of old food in there, not to mention all the paper towels drenched in old grease from the Burger join. Lea fought down another gag as she picked up an old to-go paper bag.