PetrA

Chapter seventy-six: Kim

Kim was utterly and completely confused as to what Ellie had been talking about, however, it had seemed like Timothy understood. She had been asking about her dad's death, which seemed extremely odd to him. Kim would never have wanted to know about his own parent's deaths, or how they looked after being a buffet for dead people. The idea was just too disturbing. He didn't understand Ellie, heck he hardly ever understood girls. They were these complicated creatures who could mess with your head in an instant, who would leave your head a mushy mess and then, when you think you have them figured out. BAM! You don't understand them again. Girls, the most complicated creatures alive. He thought running a hand through his hair. It was getting too long for his liking.

Kim noticed that Ellie had drawn a few nervous habits in the time he had been gone. Like she how she had begun to tug at her hair again whenever she felt stressed or pressured. Although, she did a good job hiding her feelings, Kim had still learned to read her eyes. When or how he learned it he wasn't sure, but it helped him predict her moods, which was very unstable at the time. Most likely because of all the hormones racing through her body. Ellie sat leaned up against him as they had gathered around the fire singing a few Christmas carols. People seemed to be in a good mood as they drank and ate their food. It wasn't anything extraordinary as they still had to think about rations and all that, but people hardly seemed to care. They had decided that people should be sent out on daily hunts, to help keep the stock of fresh meat and eatable plants up in case of another emergency. No one wanted to repeat what he, Joachim, Lewis, Anthony, Nigel, Desiree and Henrik had been through.

Things seemed to pass in a blur as January passed, in which Ellie tried to keep her birthday a secret, which didn't work out too well as Mary walked in on the morning of January 10th singing happy birthday loudly. Soon February and March passed and they dissented into April. Ellie's stomach was now almost impossible to miss, and she could hardly keep on her feet for more than a few hours before her ankles would swell and her back ache. The cold weather was finally disappearing slowly and with the change of seasons, it seemed as though life spread into people as they now went about their daily routines. Kim was just getting ready for a day on guard duty as a girl named Nala ran up to him. She was bouncing with excitement and had a bright smile on her face. Kim knew that Ellie talked with her while doing her chores. "Good morning Kim." She said brightly taking her own bowl of porridge. He had never really talked to her, "Morning Nala." He said giving her a smile. "Ellie's stomach is really growing." She said. Kim smiled and nodded, it was indeed and Kim found himself growing anxious for the day their unborn child would finally show it's face. He tried not to think about the possibilities about what could happen to the baby.

"I think it's a boy." Nala said just as brightly. Kim hadn't given much thought to which gender the baby would be. Although, he was secretly wishing for a little girl. "Anyway, you going on guard duty?" She asked. Kim nodded. "Well good luck and I'll probably see you later!" She disappeared just as fast as she'd appeared. That day Kim found himself thinking constantly about names what would he name a child he hadn't yet met or seen? He had no clue to what kind of names Ellie would like. They hadn't discussed names yet. Somewhere, he was sure that Ellie had thought a lot about names lately. Didn't most girls do that? Then again, Ellie wasn't exactly like most girls. At night, he and Ellie was in the Auto-Camper, which had sort of become their home in the camp. They were the only ones sleeping in there. Kim still had trouble adjusting to the fact that it wasn't full of people. Gemma was gone, so was Bob... Kim frowned. None of them knew exactly what had happened to their huge forty-year-old baby. In a way that bothered Kim, Daniel weren't there either, he'd left camp back in the beginning of March, Cody... well Kim didn't talk much to Cody anymore, he had isolated himself ever since Gemma died, and now Lewis was gone too. Lesley had died pretty early on, it was so strange to think that now they were only five left from the group they started out with, of course they had gained people along the way, such as Gordon, Stella, the twins Lewis and Anthony and Bob.

"Hey what are you thinking about?" Ellie's voice brought him out of his thoughts. She was looking at him with a slight frown. Kim smiled a little at her and smoothed out the crease between her eyebrows. "Just about how we're five left from the group." He said. Ellie's eyes turned a bit sad, "Five?" Ellie asked. "Yeah. Gemma, Lesley, and Daniel's gone. Leaving you, Joachim, Henrik, Cody and me." Ellie propped herself up on her elbows and gazed at him. "I haven't given it much thought." She said. Kim knew that she was on purpose shoving the thoughts away. She didn't want to think about it, and neither did he, but sometimes it just forced its way to the front of his mind. "I wonder how many of our friends from school's still alive." He mused. Ellie was quiet, "I don't want to believe that it's only us." Ellie murmured quietly. "But the odds..." The closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. "Let's talk about something else... please." Kim looked at Ellie. Her eyes were pleading, "Okay." He said. "How about names?" He asked. Ellie blinked for a moment and then laughed.

"Names?"She asked. Kim nodded, "We have to name the kid don't we?" Ellie smiled. Hereyes were still sad, but she was now thinking about other things. "What kind ofnames do you like?" He asked. Ellie frowned as she thought about it. Shesnuggled closer to him. "I don't know really, Sebastian, Joachim, Kim,Alejandro, Cael, Benjamin, Elmer, Avalon, Marie, Clarisse, Annabeth..." Shetrailed off. "So long names?" She laughed, "Oh yeah Helen too." She said. "Whatabout you?" Kim frowned thinking hard. "I guess the names Elmer, and Benjaminare nice. As for girl names? I like Sarah, Meredith, and Eleanor... Avalon andHelen are nice too." They talked about names until Ellie fell asleep.