Castle coeds, p.11
Castle Coeds, page 11
This whole thing was one giant mess of trying to figure out the best thing to do in rapid-fire succession.
And right now, I had a big-ass monster mess to deal with.
“The elevator is working now,” Nora said and nodded to Olivia. “If you want to go look around with the others. You shouldn’t have to take the stairs.”
It was probably an out so she wouldn’t have to be around while I dealt with the unicorn, and I appreciated Nora for giving it to her. It would make the work I had to do a little easier if I didn’t have to do it with a disgusted audience watching me.
“You and I can start moving the couches,” Gwen said to Nora. “The ones from the north lounge to set up how Isaac wanted.”
“That sounds good to me,” Nora said. “There should be a master key behind the front desk, if it isn’t there in the second drawer to the left, that means the head of housing took it with them when they left for spring break and you’ll just have to break into the rooms.”
“Got it,” Asha said. “Come on you two, let’s go see what we’re missing.”
The nursing major stood up, then bent down to help Olivia to her feet with both of the crutches now. Once she was settled, Asha and Arden helped her off toward the entrance to the upper floors.
“Do you think they’re actually going to find anything useful in those other rooms?” Gwen asked once they were out of earshot.
“I have no idea,” I said. “But I figure it’s better than having too many cooks in the kitchen down here. Besides, maybe they will. Who knows what’s in here that we might be able to use to our benefit.”
I didn’t say the other thing I was thinking, that they’d all probably be safer upstairs, too. I was more worried about the watchtowers than I wanted anyone to think yet, mostly because I didn’t have a full plan in place. It was something I was keen on keeping to myself for now.
Maybe I was just being paranoid, but the entire time I’d been outside dealing with the unicorn, I’d felt like I was being watched. It could have just been the fact I was outside in a strange, hostile new world, but it had certainly felt like there were eyes on me from all angles.
I tried to put myself in the position of the people who may have built the watchtowers.
If a strange, large building suddenly appeared out of literally nowhere in the middle of a valley I was watching for some reason, I’d probably freak out and want to send someone to investigate.
The question that remained was would whoever came to investigate be friendly?
I could certainly hope so, but there was no real guarantee of that.
There was no guarantee of anything, so I was just going to have to play it by ear until I figured things out.
What the hell could go wrong?
“Come on,” Gwen said to Nora. “Let’s go barricade the door.”
“I’m so excited for more physical labor,” Nora said, but she at least tried to sound cheerful in her sarcasm.
I could appreciate that.
I gave the two of them a little salute before making a beeline for the kitchen.
The food court in the building hadn’t been the largest on campus, but it wasn’t tiny, either.
Three separate stations had doled out food to college students. One of them had been a made-to-order breakfast bar with a skillet and griddle, the next was a hot bar that tended to put out things like burgers and fries, and then there’d been a section dedicated to pizzas and pastas.
None of them screamed “large knives” but according to Olivia, she’d seen some in the back kitchen.
It was strange to walk through the food court like this. I’d never actually seen it empty before today, and it felt wrong, like seeing a teacher outside of school.
Maybe it was just my feelings about everything else that was going on, however, leaking into this, too.
I slipped past one of the barricades that separated the student section from where the employees worked, and then I walked into the back kitchen.
It wasn’t a large setup, but it was full of giant ovens probably meant to preheat the food that came frozen, as well as a huge fryer. There were a few more large, commercial-grade appliances that my eyes skimmed over as I looked around for what I needed.
Finally, my eyes landed on a rack of knives mounted to the wall over a large metal prep table. The largest knife was a big chef’s knife, which wasn’t quite the butcher’s knife I was hoping for, but it would have to do.
I had my Benchmade Flyway knife in my kit, but it wasn’t great for things like cutting through bone, and I was frankly going in blind as far as what the best tools for cutting up an evil-ass unicorn were. So, while I’d hoped for a butcher’s cleaver, a big-ass chef’s knife was good enough in combination with the bone saw I had.
I also grabbed a paring knife, and for good measure, I grabbed a pair of metal-mesh gloves that looked like they were meant to be used with a meat slicer.
Given the other weird parts of the unicorn’s anatomy, like its insane teeth and the general grossness about it, who the hell knew what was inside the thing’s body? It was better safe than sorry to have the gloves on while I did the butchering. I had a pair of leather gloves in my hunting bag that I could use to be extra cautious of any weird bits of the monster’s anatomy.
I also found a large, industrial-sized roll of Saran Wrap and decided that could come in handy, too, when it came to wrapping and preserving the pieces I cut off the monster.
I took my bounty back out of the food court and made my way toward the entrance of the building where the unicorn’s body was. From my new position, I was in the perfect place to watch Gwen and Nora talk softly to one another as they moved the furniture.
They seemed to work well together, though they also didn’t seem to know each other that well at all. I was glad they seemed to get along at least. Right now, Olivia was the permanent odd man out in these situations.
But I could deal with the emotional mess of the group later. Right now, there was a dead unicorn to focus on.
I quickly grabbed my field dressing supplies from my camping equipment and pinched the Flyway knife between my fingers.
I hesitated with the knife in my hand as I studied the dead creature’s anatomy.
I knew how to butcher all sorts of big game, thanks to my hunting background, but I’d never cut up a horse before, much less a unicorn.
It didn’t look too dissimilar to what I was familiar with, at least not in theory. So I sucked in a deep breath, readied myself for the worst, then set to work field-dressing the creature.
The knife was blessedly sharp, and it cut through the creature’s thick hide like it was made of butter. I didn’t need to worry about peeling back the flesh to get to the meat to butcher it properly.
It would have been easier just to hack the damn thing up, but I was going to do this properly. We needed every part of the animal to potentially use for later, so I was going to take my time with it.
My knowledge of anatomy and butchery was helpful because I knew where the joints and ligaments in an animal were so I didn’t have to worry about cutting through bones.
It was messy work, but I was able to lose myself in it. After I skinned the creature, I broke down each of its limbs and then managed to break apart its torso into two large parts. I removed all the unicorn’s entrails and set them aside before I started to flay off hunks of meat.
Even the monster’s bones could be useful, and I wanted to make sure we had access to as many as possible. I even cut off the horn with the help of my bone saw.
I was covered in blood and gore by the end, and the floor I was working on wasn’t much better, but the beast was cut up into moveable pieces.
I took each of the pieces I’d chopped apart and began to wrap them in layer after layer of plastic wrap until they were tightly contained. I did that with each of the large chunks until there was no blood seeping out. It wasn’t professional-looking, but it was better than it had been before.
Frankly, it looked a little serial killer-esque.
“Gross,” I muttered to myself when I looked at the blood staining everything in the area. I could clean it up in a moment though, after I got the large hunks of meat back to one of the deep freezers.
It took me three trips in total to lug the meat back into the food court, even with the use of the dolly I’d managed to wheel the unicorn in on in the first place. The wrapped logs of meat hadn’t wanted to stack properly, and I’d rather make a few trips than have to balance them and keep stopping.
I tossed them onto one of the empty shelves in the freezer away from the other meat, and I scribbled a note on the whiteboard on the outside of the metal walk-in. I doubted anyone else in the building would waltz in there and assume it was edible meat, but I didn’t want to take any chances, especially since there was other meat in the freezer.
Another quick look around the kitchen led me to find a few mop buckets, some cleaning solution, as well as a bottle of bleach. I hesitated before filling one of the buckets with a mix of water and the cleaning solution, and then only water in the second.
“That’s so gross,” Nora said from over by the entrance to the building.
Her lips were pursed into a line, and her nose wrinkled at the blood smeared all over the tile floor.
I gave a slight shrug. “I’m doing the best I can to get it cleaned up.”
“I meant the blood on your clothes,” she said. “I bet we can find you something else to wear in here. I’m sure someone left their boyfriend’s clothes lying around.”
“Hopefully,” I said. “But if not, I have a change of clothes in my camping bag. Can you go put the rest of the camping stuff with the other supply bins?”
“Sure,” Nora said. “Do you want me to move the guns over there, too?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” I said as I continued to mop. “The bows, too.”
“I’ll help,” Gwen said and walked over to join Nora.
The tall, willowy woman looked a little out of breath, and I couldn’t blame her. She and Nora had just moved three couches in front of the glass doors that led to the inner doorway of the building. They’d managed to flip them up onto their sides so they were stretching up toward the ceiling with only a narrow little space to act as a peephole. The couches were entirely rectangular in what was a less-than-stellar design choice, but it made for stellar blocks to cover the doors.
It was a pretty impressive setup, and I couldn’t find any major faults with it, especially not for something they’d thrown together so quickly with so few materials.
The transformation of the building so far with the limited things we had to work with was impressive.
We’d been in this new world for maybe six hours, and already we’d managed to shore up our defenses, consolidate supplies, and get some semblance of a plan going.
We were doing better than I imagined most people would be in this situation.
Or at least, I assumed we were.
“Thank you,” I said to the two women as they began moving things over toward the stash of supplies we’d left in the center of what had once been the dining area.
It wasn’t the best place to leave everything long-term, but for now, it was the ideal place. It was easily accessible by all of us, and there was enough room to keep everything spaced out so we could see what we had to work with.
I finished mopping as they carted everything over and got it set up in the right places with the other supplies we were working with.
I’d used the dry mop to soak up as much blood as possible, then rinsed it out in the bucket with water before I went in with the bleach and cleaning solution. But now the floor was relatively clean and smelled like lemons, so that was a plus in my book.
“Here,” Nora said. “You need to change, and we probably need to like… burn those clothes, I think. I don’t think washing them will ever be able to get that smell out.”
I chuckled as she held up the clothing she’d gotten from my camping bag. It was just another pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and another flannel, but it might as well have been designer couture for how grateful I was for its existence.
My current shirt was stuck to my chest with blood and sweat, and when I carelessly peeled it off, right there in the middle of the large room, it made a sickening squelching sound where it had been stuck to my skin.
Nora’s eyes were on me the entire time as I tossed my shirt aside, and I could feel the warmth from her gaze on my skin. I didn’t know if I should have been embarrassed or maybe should have shown some sort of modesty, but Gwen had made herself scarce, and the other women were all upstairs.
Which just left Nora and the clothing in her outstretched hand and her eyes never leaving me as I stepped out of my jeans next.
Thankfully, my underwear hadn’t suffered the same fate as the rest of the shit I was wearing, which I decided to count as a small blessing.
I reached out to take my shirt, then hesitated as I stood there in my boxers. I was still slick with blood all over my chest and arms, and I didn’t want to ruin a clean shirt by putting it on over it.
“Uhhhh,” I began and glanced down at my chest.
Nora’s eyes were practically glued to me, and I could feel the intensity of her gaze like it was a physical thing.
As much as I wanted to rekindle what we’d started earlier in the day, what felt like a decade ago, now wasn’t the time.
“Do you think you could find me a towel or something?” I asked. “So I don’t have to put a clean shirt on my bloody chest?”
“Hm?” Nora made the sound without taking her eyes off me, and it was only when I cleared my throat that she seemed to snap back into her body.
She cleared her own throat and straightened up.
“Right,” she said quickly. “Uh… hang on.”
She left with my clothes as she quickly turned on her heel and disappeared around the corner in the direction of the food court.
I only felt a little fucking exposed standing there waiting for her to come back. I glanced to the left and right to make sure none of the other women had reappeared yet, and thank god they seemed to be preoccupied with their task upstairs.
I had no idea where Gwen had gone, but I was grateful for her disappearing act as well. I didn’t know her well enough to feel comfortable nearly naked in front of her yet. That was a second-transported-to-a-new-world sort of thing.
Nora came back brandishing a damp washcloth and a sheepish look on her face.
“Sorry about that,” she said as she stepped toward me on the newly cleaned floors. “I wasn’t really thinking about that.”
“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow as she took another step toward me and pressed the cool rag against my chest without so much as hesitating.
It was nice against my sticky, overheated skin, and it felt even better when she began to lightly clean off the blood.
Her touch was gentle, and her eyes were trained on the muscular planes of my chest without looking up at me. The air seemed to crackle between us with a thousand unspoken things as she continued to clean me up.
It took all my willpower to keep my hands down at my sides because I wanted to do nothing more than touch her. All I had to do was glance down to get a full look at her tits in her tiny orange tank top, and it was making me a little crazy.
Her proximity was like a drug, even though she was barely even touching me.
I didn’t think I took a breath until she finished cleaning off my chest and arms and finally stepped away with the rag still clutched in her hands.
I swallowed thickly and nodded, though I didn’t know why or what for.
“Thank you,” I said, and my voice sounded a little strained.
“No problem,” she said in a tone similar to my own. “Here.”
She handed me the clothes she’d grabbed for me, but she seemed almost regretful to even do something like that.
A small smirk played at my lips, but I didn’t bother saying anything aloud as I quickly pulled on the new shirt and jeans.
It was about a thousand times better to be in clean, not-bloody clothes, and I sighed softly in relief.
“Thank you,” I told her again.
“No problem, like I said.” Nora shrugged and tossed the dirty washcloth into the mop bucket. “Do you wanna come look at how Gwen and I set up the couches? We weren’t quite sure how you wanted it done, so we did the best we could.”
“Sure,” I said, and I was glad to have something else to do, other than think about the things Nora and I could have been doing at that very moment. “It seemed like the two of you had a pretty decent grasp on what you were doing, so I think it’ll be fine.”
“Still,” Nora said. “I want to make sure we’re as safe as we can be. It’s not perfect, but we tried to make it so we could still move one of the couches easily to get to the door and the little entryway.”
“Smart,” I said. “I’d initially been thinking about stacking the couches long ways, but that would have made it harder to open and close the doors. I think the two of you came up with a better solution.”
We walked over to the doors, and Nora gave a little flourish of her hands like she was Vanna White and this was the Wheel of Fortune.
“There’s a little peephole right here,” she said and gestured to the slight gap between two of the couches that I’d noticed while dealing with the unicorn before. “That way we can see through, and you can get your hunting rifle in there in case you need to fire a shot or something. That’s a thing people do, right?”
I let out a little laugh and nodded. “Yeah, it is. You two did really well. Thank you for getting that done. Speaking of, where did Gwen go?”
Nora shrugged. “I think she went upstairs to make sure the others were doing alright. I don’t know. Maybe she knew I wanted some alone time.”
I gave another little laugh, and a grin split across my face. “Really, and why is that?”
