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Catch up on A Warm Place!

A WARM PLACE – PRELUDE

A WARM PLACE

A WARM PLACE 2

Table of Contents

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY ONE

TWENTY TWO

TWENTY THREE

TWENTY FOUR

EPILOGUE

OTHER TITLES

ABOUT ME

ONE

I had seen destruction before.

Burned down buildings, collapsed buildings, places that had been shot up.

But I don’t think I’d ever, in real life, seen so much destruction.

The rise in the land we had come out of the forest onto dipped gradually towards a frozen river maybe half a mile away, and the township of Pine Lake lay maybe another half mile beyond that. The incline continued until about the river, where it leveled out with the rest of the ground the town was built onto, so we had a decent view as we hurried through the snow. And I kind of wish we didn’t have a decent view.

It was making me a little sick with worry and anxiety.

There had probably been about eighty to a hundred structures grouped together in the town proper, and the fire had destroyed or seriously damaged damn near all of them. From what I could tell, the only part of the town that still showed any activity was an untouched section of ten or so buildings closest to us, set slightly apart from the rest of the settlement. There were twin rows of structures situated along a stretch of road that was probably intended to be the city’s primary entrance or main street.

I saw people moving among the buildings, but not as many as I would have liked to see.

“What do you think happened?” Megan asked as we hurried along. We’d slowed after five or so minutes, as it was obvious that whatever had happened was already over with and although people likely needed help, it probably wouldn’t make that much of a difference if we arrived there a few minutes early. That and a mile through snow and cold wasn’t something you could just marathon your way through, at least not quickly.

Plus we had Elizabeth to think about.

So we settled into a slower but steadier pace.

“Either some kind of accident, maybe a generator or a fire got out of control, or some dipshit with a cigarette did the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or they’ve got an arsonist problem. Or there was an attack that got way out of control,” I replied.

“God I’m almost hoping Lindsay didn’t come here,” Delilah muttered.

“We’ll find her,” I promised, “one way or another.”

“Yeah,” Delilah replied quietly, and said no more.

We reached the river not much later. It wasn’t a massive river, I was glad to see, and it looked pretty frozen solid. We took the time to move a little ways to the left, where it narrowed to maybe six feet across and looked pretty firm, and then walked over one by one. No one fell and the ice didn’t shift or crack even a little, so lucky break there. I always hated walking on ice. Even when it looked three feet thick, I was still paranoid that it would give way beneath me. I hadn’t taken a plunge so far, but there was a first time for everything.

I tried to get a sense of what was happening and found myself wishing for binoculars. People weren’t running around, I could tell that much, but they were moving with purpose, it seemed. I heard some sounds come echoing out: voices, hammering. It was hard to tell if there was anything happening in the dark mass of burned buildings beyond because so many of them were still smoking, but I didn’t think there were any active fires left.

Hopefully not, anyway.

My mind began running through a list of things that were likely going to have to be taken care of, or at least checked on. Ninety percent of their town had just burned down, and while there was certainly the possibility that either some stores of supplies had survived in the burned out parts, or that they had stashed a healthy cache elsewhere in the region, or they’d lucked out and one of the buildings that had survived intact had been a massive cache of food or medicine, I figured they would need help anyway.

Good settlements had systems in place, but no system, no matter how good or how quality the backup might be, needed some amount of help when some huge wrench got thrown in the gears like this. This was a full-blown disaster.

Then again, depending on how many people had died in the fire, their new population might also reflect their new levels of supplies.

Dark, but it would take a lot of the pressure off, potentially.

I was still thinking about this when the people actually seemed to take notice of us and began reacting. I was in the process of preparing what I was going to say to them once we got close enough when, abruptly, one of them raced to the edge of the town and opened fire on us with a pistol. Delilah shouted and dropped to the ground. Megan went down on one knee immediately, grabbing for her rifle. I stepped in front of Elizabeth.

“STOP! WE’VE GOT A PREGNANT WOMAN!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. We were lucky: sound carried pretty well here, and we had managed to get close enough that they heard us. It was the first thing that popped into my head and apparently it worked, because the shooting stopped right away.

A few other people approached the one with the gun and they began to talk, though I couldn’t make out a word.

“Megan, relax,” I said. She had the rifle out and shouldered.

“If they feel like turning hostile-” she began.

“Then we’re probably fucked,” I replied. “There’s no cover out here. Maybe we might be able to do something, but I’d rather not start shooting what are probably innocent people who are dealing with the aftermath of a disaster that probably killed most of their population.”

She sighed and lowered the rifle. “Fine.”

I offered Delilah a helping hand. She looked a little embarrassed as she got up out of the snow, brushing it from her clothes, but if Elizabeth hadn’t been with us, I’d’ve been joining her in diving. In a way, I was a little surprised, (though not unpleasantly), to discover that my natural instinct was to step in front of her and try to shield her with my own body.

The little conference seemed to end and one of the people, a blonde woman, I thought, it was hard to tell at this distance, separated from the group, stepping closer to us.

“What do you want!?” she called. Yes, definitely a woman.

“We’re looking for someone!” I replied after a moment, deciding honesty was going to be the best policy for now. “And we need a place to stay.”

A pause. “I’m sorry, but unless you’ve got an amazing trade, we can’t afford to take on any more people!”

“We’ve got a lot of guns and bullets to trade!” I shouted back.

Because hey, we did.

Another pause. The woman turned around, talked with the other three or four people gathered there in a loose knot for about a minute, and then turned back.

“Fine! Come over here to me! Nice and easy! Then we can talk!”

“On our way!” I said. As we started walking, I talked to the others. “No sudden moves, and keep your hands away from your guns. They’re obviously jumpy, and I’d say from their reaction that either this was done to them on purpose or they suspect it was. Outsiders suddenly showing up likely won’t be viewed as good, at least at first. Even with the guns to trade we’ll probably be operating from a weak position, so don’t get pissy.” I paused. “Got it, Megan?”

“Yes,” she growled. “I’m not stupid.”

“I know you aren’t stupid, it’s just that you’re-”

“Emotional. Yeah. I get it. Don’t worry, I’m not going to fuck this up,” she replied, and she sounded calmer, at least. So that was good.

Probably reminding herself that most of their friends and family had just been set on fire probably the previous night.

The whole ‘someone else has it worse’ argument tends to be pretty hit or miss with a lot of people, honestly miss with most people from what I’ve seen, but when a horrific example of that argument is dead on front and center for you, it works a lot better.

Pain has a way of motivating people and tragedy has a way of humbling them.

As we crossed the final distance of snow between us and them, I knew for sure that I was going to offer my help. I mean, unless it turned out they were total assholes or something. If anyone needed help, then fuck, it was these people.

I could tell that even as we finished drawing closer. There were five of them standing in a little group, and more people had stopped, strung out along the road behind them, looking at us. They all looked tired, haunted, and grim. Most of their faces were marred with either ash and soot or dried blood.

The woman who had spoken, who I could tell right away was their leader, pale, blonde, and not much bigger than Delilah, stared hard at us. Maybe five and a half feet, not petite but she seemed slim under her heavy brown coat and dirty gray snow pants. She had a revolver in her hand and the way she held it, the stance she had, told me she knew how to use it quite well.

“Okay, that’s close enough,” she said when we were about five yards out. She regarded us each one after another with tired brown eyes. “I’m coming over,” she said after a minute, holstering the pistol, “try anything and my people will shoot you dead.”

“Understood,” I replied simply.

That seemed to surprise her, just a little. She turned around and hesitated. “Get back to work!” she yelled at the dozen or so people scattered about the street.

Oh yeah, she was in charge.

She had that voice.

That ‘pay the fuck attention to me and do what I say right goddamn now’ voice.

She walked over to us and three of the people slipped pistols from their holsters, not actively aiming at us, but clearly ready to draw and fire, pregnant woman or no. Fair enough, I supposed, but it did make me quite nervous.

She stopped maybe two yards out and up close, I could tell two things right away: she was mature, both physically and in her authoritative air, and she was very attractive. She reminded me of Hazel.

“First, show me what we’re talking about here. We’re not looking for fucking pea shooters. We need actual guns,” she said.

“Okay,” I replied, and carefully got out of my backpack, then motioned for Megan to do the same. We put our packs down in the snow and unzipped them. I pulled out five pistols, all gotten from the assholes who’d tried to kill us before the blizzard, and showed each to the woman.

“Four nine millimeters and a thirty-eight. All presently unloaded. We’d have to formally go through it all, which I’d like to do in a better environment, but I’d say there’s enough for two full loads for each pistol.”

“What about one of those rifles?” she asked.

“I’m afraid they’re non-negotiable, but we are willing to work with you, and Megan and I here are very good shots,” I replied.

The woman considered that for a moment, staring at us hard, probably trying to figure out if we were full of shit or not.

Her eyes cut to Elizabeth, then down to her belly.

“I hate to ask but...can you show me your stomach? I’ve had people try to bullshit me before about pregnancy, they think it’s a sympathy ace to play,” she said, sounding honestly apologetic.

Elizabeth looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders, indicating it was her call.

“Fine,” she said. She unzipped her coat, then lifted her shirt and undershirt, exposing her pale, rounded belly. “Satisfied?”

“Yes, I’m sorry,” the woman replied.

Elizabeth quickly bundled back up.

The woman’s expression hardened again after a few seconds as she looked at me. Great. “I’ll take these five guns and one full load for each as an entrance fee to consider further trading.”

“Wait, let me get this straight,” Megan said, and I tensed. “You want five guns and all those bullets just to consider allowing us the pleasure of trying to trade with you?”

“Yes. Take it or leave it,” the woman replied bluntly.

“We’ll take it,” I replied.

“Fine.” She turned and gestured at the group standing guard. Two broke away and began walking over. “Get the ammo out, once we have it collected it up, you can walk with me to the gas station over there and we can negotiate further.”

“All right,” I replied.

She frowned as we got the bullets out. “If we do reach an agreement, whatever it is, good trade or no, all four of you will have to pull your own weight if you intend to stick around. And there’s a shitload of weight to be pulled, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“I understand,” I replied, accepting and quickly checking the magazines Megan handed to me from her pack before setting them carefully down next to the pistols.

The woman stared at me a moment longer as I zipped up my pack and slowly stood back up. The two men came to stand beside her.

“Grab it,” she said. As they did so, she looked into my eyes. “I’m Lisa.”

“Chris.”

When they were finished, she turned and began walking away. “Come on.”

We followed after her. I could tell Delilah wanted to ask about Lindsay, or at least wanted me to ask, but I looked right at her and gave my head a very short but firm shake. Not yet. As I’d said, we were already playing from a disadvantage, and although I was getting good, just strained, vibes from Lisa, I didn’t put it past almost anyone to take advantage at least some of the time. If our hand was weak now, then letting them know how desperate we were to find a specific person, or giving them a name too early might make the situation worse for us. Although that game could only play out for so much longer.

We were going to have to put our cards on the table, and soon.

The gas station she’d indicated was the first structure on the left side of the street. Directly across from it was an old restaurant, what might have been a Tex-Mex place, judging by the faded red sign over the front entrance.

At a glance, I counted a grand total of nine buildings left standing. I spied an apartment building at the end of the road, one of those long, low motels that was a string of a dozen or so rooms, and the rest could’ve been just about anything. Stores, shops, or restaurants of any kind. Lisa’s armed entourage followed in our footsteps while she walked ahead of us. Nobody said anything. I thought I heard someone crying somewhere nearby. The people were moving things around the street. Several were carrying dead bodies.

We walked into the gas station and an old bell dinged loudly as we did. Lisa walked right up to the front counter, got behind it, and faced us.

“What, exactly, are we negotiating for?” Megan asked.

“What do you want?” Lisa replied.

I glanced back. Two of the men stood out front, two stood just inside. They stared hard at us. I looked back to Lisa. “A place to stay for the four of us. Preferably all in one room.”

“That’ll be expensive,” she replied. “You’ll have to make a pretty big down payment just to get a room, and then we’ll have to assign you work. And you’ll have to do it, and not whine about it, and not do a shit job, either.”

I heard Megan begin to draw in breath and responded quickly. “I’m sure we can manage,” I said, walking closer.

“Show me what you’ve got.”

I set my backpack on the counter, and had the other three women do the exact same thing, and also empty out their pockets. I could tell she wasn’t bluffing about the down payment. She must be desperate for supplies.

“You’ve got wounded?” I asked as I started pulling things out of my own pockets, and then my backpack.

“Yes. Any of you a doctor? A nurse?” Lisa replied, and I could tell she was trying to keep the hope , and desperation, out of her voice.

“No, unfortunately,” I replied.

“Well, one of you is going to have to help out there. Changing bandages and checking temperatures isn’t that hard.”

“Okay,” I replied.

It took half an hour, and Lisa basically cleaned us out. I let it happen, because I knew it was going to a good cause. She wasn’t just taking all our shit for the fun or greed of it, she needed this stuff and that was obvious.

All the spare guns went, and even some of the none spare ones. Delilah and Elizabeth both lost their sidearms. I didn’t like that, but I didn’t think they’d be heading out anytime soon. Whatever happened, they were staying in town for now. Megan and I both managed to hang onto a nine millimeter. I took the one that held twenty round mags, her the fifteen-round one. And we each managed one full load and one spare. We both kept our rifles, though we now only had ten bullets apiece.

I managed to hold onto my thermos and most of my other cooking supplies, some matches, a bit of basic medical stuff, and some of my personal grooming shit. We all were allowed to keep our thermal blankets and a single set of spare clothes. Delilah kept her novels. I made sure of that. But everything else went. All our food. All our other medicine and fire-starting gear. All our spare clothes, blankets, anything of any trade value, spare knives. My compass, my hand-crank flashlight. Delilah’s and Elizabeth’s backpacks even.

It was a tough trade, but it did get us something that I wasn’t actually sure we were going to get: a room to ourselves. I imagined space was at a premium now, and I wasn’t sure if it was my cooperation, Megan’s fuming, or something else, but Lisa seemed to ease up there near the end of the trade. When it was all said and done, and we all put what was left of our stuff back, Lisa seemed a lot less tense. She almost seemed kind.

“Come on,” she said. “I’ll show you to where you’ll be living.”

With that, we headed back out into the cold.

TWO

“Megan, you’re good with a rifle, I heard Chris say?” Lisa asked as we walked through the snow, across the street, heading towards the motel.

“Yes,” Megan replied. “I am.”

“I’m going to extend some trust then, and make it a bit of a stipulation. If you insist on holding onto that rifle and staying here, then you get guard duty. You’ll be pulling two four hour shifts a day on top of that building,” she said, pointing down the street to the apartment building, which was by far the tallest intact structure left standing at four stories.

“Fine,” Megan replied.

“What’s your name?” she asked, looking at Delilah.

“Delilah,” she replied.

“You think you can handle blood and burn wounds?”

“Yes.” I wondered if that was true, but Delilah sounded rather sure of herself.

“Then you’re going to be a nurse and do whatever you’re told to help out. You’re probably going to pull twelve hour shifts.”

“Lisa, that’s not-” I began, but Delilah cut me off.

“I can handle it, Chris,” she said.

I looked at her as we walked, then just nodded. I trusted her, and it wasn’t like we were in a position to argue further, to be honest.

“What’s your name?” she asked Elizabeth.

“Elizabeth,” she replied.

“How far along are you?”

“Seven months.”

“I’ll try to be accommodating. You’ll work in the kitchen, preparing meals. You can take more frequent breaks if you have to. And…” she hesitated, considering. “You can have double rations. Speaking of rations, we are rationing right now. You gave us some decent food but we’ve got at least forty people here who need three meals a day, and I imagine that’s only going to get worse as we find more survivors. We’re figuring out a system to make sure everyone gets their fair share, but no one takes more than they’re allotted. Do I even need to warn you that stealing, threatening, fucking around of any kind will not be tolerated?”

“No,” I replied. “We’ll behave.”

“Good.”

I thought she’d tell me what I would be doing next, but she fell silent as we approached the motel. I figured she’d either put me on something that involved physical labor, like chopping or hauling firewood, or dealing with corpses, or maybe hunting, since I also insisted on hanging onto my rifle. No fucking way I was letting this thing go.

She brought us to the very last room in a row of them that was the motel. Whatever it had been called once was now lost, no sign to be seen.

“Wait here,” she said, and walked down the row of rooms to the main office at the other end. I couldn’t help it, I glanced at her backside.

She had a nice ass.

“Chris, what about Lindsay?” Delilah asked as soon as she was out of earshot.

“I’ll ask,” I replied. “Let’s get settled for now.”

“I wonder what she wants you doing,” Megan murmured.

“I’m positive we’ll find out soon enough,” I replied.

“God, I can’t believe it’s this bad,” Elizabeth whispered. I looked at her. She looked paler than usual and very worried.

“Hey,” I said, stepping up to her and hugging her. “Don’t worry. It’ll be okay. I’m going to take care of you. Understand?”

I felt her nod against my chest. “Yeah, I just...this is scary,” she murmured.

“I know. It sucks. But we’ll make it work, okay? We’ve been lucky so far. We have a place to call our own and access to food and firewood. We’ve got the basics taken care of, and that goes a long way towards helping us stay alive.”

“Yeah. I just...need some time to adjust. This is all so...fuck, everything has changed so much for me recently. But...thank you. For being there.” She pulled back slightly. “All of you. You three have been so good to me.”

“You’ve been pretty good to us,” Delilah replied with a small smile that, in turn, made Elizabeth smile and blush.

Lisa was coming back. We separated and waited for her. When she came back, she handed each of us a key.

“Don’t lose these,” she said, unlocking the door and opening it up before handing me the final key. I pocketed it inside my jacket for extra safe keeping. Before heading inside, she pointed the way she had come. “There’s firewood stacked near the front office. It should be replenished twice a day. Don’t take too much. Each of these rooms has been outfitted with a wood-burning stove, so you shouldn’t freeze.”

She walked in and we followed her. It wasn’t a very large room. In fact, it was smaller than the cabin I had first met Delilah in. The most important feature, however, was that it had a king size bed that should fit all four of us. There was also a pair of chairs with a table between them, a dresser, and a bathroom and tiny closet. The stove was fitted into a corner. No kitchen area. The carpet was stained and threadbare.

It was home, for now at least.

Honestly, I thought it was great. After some of the dives I’d slept in, sleeping in literal caves, it looked like paradise.

Especially considering the company.

“I’ll give you an hour to get settled before you report for your jobs,” Lisa said, then she looked directly at me. “I need to talk with you outside.”

“All right,” I replied. “Megan, will you get some firewood?”

“On it,” she said.

“I’ll come with you,” Delilah murmured.

Elizabeth yawned. “I need a nap.” She hesitated, then she walked over and gave me a hug and a kiss, then walked to the bed.

I stepped outside with Lisa and closed the door. Before saying anything, she reached into her pocket and fished out a cigarette and lighter. She lit up and took a few pulls on the cigarette, closing her eyes, breathing out smoke.

“You the father?” she asked.

“No,” I replied.

“What happened?”

“We just met less than two weeks ago,” I replied. “She was on the run from her abusive husband. Me and the other two found her totally at random. I couldn’t just leave her, so I offered to help. The husband showed up, things got out of hand, we had to kill him.”

“I see. And the other two? How long have they been with you?”

“About three or so weeks. I rescued them from some assholes who captured them and were trying to sell them as slaves.”

“Hmm.”

She looked at me directly now, and I knew exactly what she was thinking: it sounded too good to be true. No doubt she thought I was painting myself as a white knight, and doing a poor job of it, over-exaggerating my heroic deeds.

“And if I ask them about it?” she asked.

“You’ll get the same story,” I replied. Before she could continue, I went on. “Look, I know what it looks like, okay? Big, tough guy with three attractive women. I gotta be taking advantage of them somehow, right? I’m not. And I get it, you don’t know me from anyone, why trust me? Ask them whatever you want, I’ve never done a single shitty thing to them. I’ve done nothing but help them. Okay?”

She continued staring at me, then finally nodded, slowly. “All right. But I’ve seen a lot of abusive shitheads in my time. A lot. And I’ll tell you right now, if I find out you’re holding any one of them hostage, forcing them to suck your cock, extorting sex out of them in any way, I don’t care how fucking useful you are, I’ll put a bullet in your head.”

I stuck out my hand, making her jump slightly. “Deal,” I said.

She looked down at it, then up at me, in surprise. She didn’t shake it, but she did let out a little laugh that I couldn’t quite read.

“You’re a weird one,” she muttered.

I let my hand drop. “So I’m told. What’s my job?”

Instead of answering, she asked me a question. “Who are you looking for?”

I considered it for a moment and decided all my other cards were on the table right now, why not just lay one more down? “A woman named Lindsay. I don’t know her last name, but Delilah will. She and Delilah were best friends once, and she thinks Lindsay might be here.”

“We do have someone named Lindsay here, and I know she survived the fire.”

That was good news at least. “What actually happened here?”

Lisa sighed bitterly. “Yesterday, a gang showed up. There were a good two dozen of these fuckers. Guns all around. They basically strolled in wild west style and tried to just take us over. Told us they were running things now. It didn’t exactly go that way. We’re a strong community, and we told them to fuck off. Got into a gunfight, they started throwing fucking molotov cocktails around like absolute pieces of fucking human garbage. Lit fires, they raged out of control. We just...didn’t have the capacity to deal with it. A...a lot of people died last night.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Yeah.” She sighed. “They’re still out there. I know a lot of them got away. If they’re smart, they’ll have run, but I don’t think they’re smart. I think they’re proud, and that’ll make people do all sorts of stupid shit.”

“Is that what you want me to do? Hunt them down?” I asked.

She turned and looked at me for a long moment. She looked exhausted and miserable, but also firmly resolute.

“If it comes to that, yes. I would appreciate the help. Despite my misgivings you do seem...competent.”

“I am,” I replied simply enough.

“Well I’d like to find out if that’s true or not. If it is, then you’re exactly the kind of person we need to get us off life support and start rebuilding. I don’t know what your plans might be, but for now, we need all the help we can get.” She killed off the cigarette and flicked it into the gutter, then reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. Unfolding it, she showed it to me. It was a map. “Here’s the local region,” she said. “I know some of our people ran in the night. I want them back. You’re going to go find them.”

“You sure they won’t shoot me too?” I asked.

“Tell them I sent you,” she replied. “It’ll probably be enough.”

“You’re being pretty cavalier with my life.”

“Look, you said you wanted to help, this is what I need.”

“Fine,” I said. “Where do you want me to go?”

She pointed out a spot on the map, a square to the northeast, not far from three more, smaller squares within the boundaries of what I realized was the forest we had initially come out of. I’d have to cross the river again to get there.

“That’s a hunting lodge,” she said, “and those are hunting cabins. Very good chance some of our people ended up there.”

“How am I going to tell the difference between your people and the arsonists?” I asked.

“They were all wearing this black leather, like a biker gang. None of our people wear that stuff,” she replied.

“Okay then,” I said, studying the map a moment longer, then folding it up and putting it in my inner pocket. “So, walk up there, see if anyone’s there, if they are, escort them back here?”

“Yes, then we’ll talk again.”

“Fine. But first, we need to confirm something.”

Megan and Delilah were coming back, holding bundles of firewood.

“Come back out after you drop it off, Delilah,” I said.

She nodded and they hurried inside. A moment later, she returned. “Yeah?”

“Describe Lindsay to her.”

Delilah’s face lit up and she turned to Lisa. “She’s really tall, about as tall as Chris. And skinny. She’s got brown hair and blue eyes. She’s half-Italian, so she’s got tan skin.”

Lisa was nodding. “Yes. She’s here. And I know that she survived the fire. She left earlier today, though I’m honestly not sure why. I think to look for other people.”

“Oh thank God,” Delilah whispered.

“If we see her, we’ll let her know you’re here,” Lisa replied. She hesitated. “Can I talk to you for a moment alone?”

Delilah glanced briefly at me, confused, and then a look of understanding came onto her face. We’d faced this before.

“Sure,” she said.

I headed inside and closed the door. Megan was getting a little fire going.

“So, what’s up?” she asked.

“I have to go track people down,” I replied. “And convince them to come here.”

“Alone?” she asked.

“Apparently.” Megan sighed. “I know, it’s kind of bullshit, but they’re desperate right now, and we’re literal strangers. Trust takes times. Honestly, I feel like everything that’s happened so far has been a huge extension of trust. We’re lucky to have this.”

“Yeah, we’re lucky to be forced into labor and live in a shitty, tiny motel room with a single bed,” Megan muttered.

“Megan.” She growled and finished making the fire.

“I know. Yes. Fuck. We’re lucky. Don’t worry, like I said, I’m not going to cause problems. I’ll do my job and I’ll do it well. I won’t start any fights.” She paused. “But I will finish them if someone stirs up some shit with me.”

“Fair enough. Lisa’s going to give you the ‘is he hurting you’ inquisition soon, and you too, Elizabeth,” I said when I saw she was still awake.

“That’ll be easy enough to handle,” Elizabeth said with a tired smile. “You’re nothing but great to us. I don’t have to lie about anything.”

“Yeah, just tell the flat truth. I explained how we got together. All of us. She’ll want to check our stories, don’t make it seem like you’re overselling me or anything. We have nothing to hide,” I replied, trying to consider all the angles.

“Okay,” Megan said.

“Chris…” Elizabeth said, looking up at me from the bed.

“Yeah?”

“Do we have time for…” She raised her eyebrows.

I felt pure lust stab into my guts in a wave of dark excitement, and genuinely considered it for a long moment. Then sighed unhappily and shook my head. “No, unfortunately.” I paused, reconsidering, then shook my head again. “Fuck. No. We don’t. I’ve been tasked with potentially saving lives and I can’t really justify putting that off even for twenty minutes banging a pregnant chick, crazy hot though she may be.”

Elizabeth smiled and laughed softly, blushing again. “Well...tonight?”

“Tonight. Definitely,” I promised.

“You’d better save some for me, I’m fucking horny,” Megan complained.

“I will,” I replied.

I walked over to the dresser and pulled off my backpack. As I began looking through it, making sure I had my minimum loadout given what I was about to do, the door opened and Delilah walked in. Lisa poked her head in. “Can I talk with you out here, Megan?”

She sighed. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

As Megan headed out and closed the door behind her, Delilah came over to me.

“She say anything new?” I asked.

“No, mostly just asked me questions. God, felt like I imagined it is with cops questioning abused wives,” she murmured.

“Her heart’s very much in the right place,” I replied. “This type of shit was way too common before there were no cops to enforce rules...whenever they actually chose to and weren’t, themselves, abusing their own wives.”

“Yeah, I know. I think I’m just getting to the point where I’m feeling offended on your behalf...but oh my God, Lindsay is actually here!” she said, excitement coming onto her face. “I can’t believe it! I honestly thought...shit, I don’t think I truly believed she’d be here. It felt like such a distant chance.” She gripped my arm as I finished zipping my pack back up. At this point, I was practically down to minimum loadout as it was, after trading away damn near everything. “Chris, if you see her, please-”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll get her back here, or at least let her know. If she needs help, I’ll help her. I’m sure she’ll be absolutely thrilled to know you’re here.”

“I hope she hasn’t forgotten me,” Delilah murmured, her hands falling from my arm.

“I have a hard time imagining anyone forgetting you,” I replied. I gave her a hug and long kiss on her sweet mouth, and she gave me some tongue in return. Elizabeth did the same thing when I went to kiss her goodbye.

“Please be careful out there, Chris,” Elizabeth said.

“I will,” I replied. “Try not to worry. Just...stay focused, yeah? These people are desperate, and strangers to us, and desperate people can do stupid, desperate things. And neither of you have guns anymore. I’m going to see if I can do something about that, but for now we’ve got to play by their rules. I just...don’t want anything to happen to you while I’m out.”

“We’ll be careful,” Delilah promised.

The door opened and Megan came in.

“Your turn,” she said to Elizabeth, sitting down heavily in one of the chairs and stretching out, a few joints popping.

“Do I have to get up?” Elizabeth complained. I looked at her. God, she looked tired. And it was just a few hours past noon by now. I wondered if Lisa, or the people who would work with Elizabeth, would allow her to come back here and sleep if she really needed it.

“I’m leaving,” I replied, pulling my backpack on. “You can talk in here.”

“Wait,” Megan said, getting back to her feet. She hugged me and gave me a long kiss on the mouth. It almost felt like she was making a point, and I guess she was. Honestly, I was touched. They were coming to my defense, and I appreciated that.

“Be careful out there,” Megan said.

“I will,” I replied. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

With that, I left our new home and headed back outside.

Back out into the cold.

THREE

Now I was alone again.

As I set out away from the remains of Pine Lake and made my way yet again into the hungering cold, I realized that I had kind of missed it. For a few seconds I felt guilty for enjoying my own isolation, but I soon told myself it was normal. Natural even. I had never really understood, or trusted, those couples who had to do everything together, go everywhere together, like they didn’t trust each other enough to let either out of their sight for too long, or they were so desperate to ensure that everyone believed they were truly, deeply in love that they did every single activity together. I didn’t buy into that at all.

You could love someone with all your heart, but eventually you were going to want to be away from them, or even just by yourself, and it had nothing to do with them and everything to do with you. Sometimes you just wanted to be fucking alone. And some of us wanted to be alone more than others. And I think that was me, at least some of the time.

Either way, despite the fact that I’d just walked away from a burned-down town where probably over a hundred people had died, and the fact that the monsters who’d done it were still probably around, and I was by myself in the freezing cold…

I felt good.

I felt bad about that, too, but I knew it was for a good reason: I had purpose. Like, immediate and obvious purpose. And it was going to help people in a very direct way. I wonder if this is how cops or firefighters or doctors felt when they were saving someone’s life. I’d been really hung up on purpose recently and the conclusion I’d come to was feeling more right than ever. I wanted to do this. In a way, I felt compelled to do this.

It felt right to be here, doing this.

Of course, I also had to contend with the next big problem. Perhaps my last one? God, wouldn’t that be nice. Although, some problems followed you for decades, even to your grave. And this problem was: my wanderlust. I was happy to be here now, but how long before it settled in again? Weeks? Months? How long before my desire to roam overcame my desire to stay here with these fine women? I very seriously doubted that Elizabeth was going to want to move once she had gotten settled and felt that she was secure, which I intended to make happen. Especially with a baby on the way. She wouldn’t want to go anywhere for years.

And I didn’t blame her one bit.

I wouldn’t want to either.

Even now, I could already see it in Delilah’s eyes: she loved Lindsay. As a lover, as a friend, as a soulmate? Did it matter? I could tell that if I managed to find Lindsay, which I intended to also do, and Lindsay reciprocated that love, then she was going to want to go with Lindsay and not me. And I could live with that. I liked Delilah, a hell of a lot, and I would probably like Lindsay too. I doubted they’d want to pick up and go, most people didn’t, so that left Delilah out of this theoretical picture. Or maybe I should say eventual picture.

Once I had started walking last year, I hadn’t stopped. Not really.

So that left Megan.

I thought she would come with me, and I thought she was really starting to like, respect, and trust me. I felt the same way about her. I still felt about fifty-fifty on whether or not we would drive each other away with our personalities. She was brash and aggressive, which I liked a lot in a woman, but she was also bitter and angry and cynical, which I liked less, but could understand. I had some of those anger issues myself, and therein lay the problem.

Putting us together long-term might be like storing gasoline next to a fire.

But now wasn’t really the time to worry about all of that.  It was in the future, and it was a ‘cross that bridge when I come to it’ kind of problem. And it might not even be a problem at all. No sense worrying about it in that case.

Not that that always worked.

Instead, I focused on my surroundings. The occasional hill, big rock, and lonely tree, or small collection of trees and low bushes, lay scattered across the area. All of it snowbound and locked in ice. The skies were clear and blue overhead, and it was probably in the low twenties right now, with the winds that were blowing occasionally making it ten degrees colder. But that was fine. It wasn’t bothering me. Mostly. I was enjoying the walk, the atmosphere, the fresh air. Everything was beautiful and still and almost silent, save for the occasional gust of wind and the far off sounds of the people in Pine Lake, which was already mostly faded by distance.

Although I was worn out from the long trip along the highway, by now I was used to a lot of activity, though I’d sleep like the dead tonight.

After banging the fuck out of Elizabeth.

Fuck I wanted that pregnant vagina already and knowing that she was back there willing to give it up raw, with two other women willing to do the same, did make it difficult to focus. I had to admit, this was the luckiest I’d ever been in my life. Three women, all of them really hot, all of them wanting to fuck me bareback, all of them really into each other, too. And Delilah seemed at least somewhat confident in the idea that Lindsay would be into me, and I was already imagining how hot she would be. I’d never fucked an Italian chick before, even a half-Italian. I tried not to put much emphasis on race, but…

To be complete honest, that did really boost a woman’s sex appeal in some cases.

I figured it was true for most people. How many women went crazy for smooth-talking British guys, or Australian dudes? I know some people got weirded out by putting any kind of emphasis on country of origin or race or whatever, but I don’t know, if some foreign girl was into me just because I was American, I’d be down for that.

And then there was Lisa…

She was hot in a really rough and tumble kind of way. She kind of had the look of a tough older teacher who was a real hardcase and ruled her classroom with brutal authority. If I had to guess, I’d say she was in her late thirties or early forties, though she could be plus or minus more than that. Good genes or hard living, either could affect how old you looked. She could be a well-aging fifty something, or a burned out early-thirty-something. Either way, the crow’s feet around her eyes and the somewhat weathered look of her skin wasn’t doing anything to turn me off. And she looked like she had a great figure under her clothes. Plus, that personality. Women weren’t the only ones who got turned on by confidence and authority.

I crested a rise in the land and finally caught sight of the hunting lodge in the distance. Perfect. And there was the river, also perfect. It looked just as frozen as before. I walked down the incline and up to the river. Finding a suitably narrow spot, I stepped through the brittle remains of some scrub bushes and crossed it without a problem. With that out of the way, I continued along, picking up the pace towards the lodge.

It did seem like a good place to go in event of emergency. I didn’t see any activity, but I was still a good mile off at least. I kept on walking, my pace brisk, keeping an eye out for anything threatening. And then, while I was at it, I pulled out the map and studied it. Should probably get an idea of what I was working with.

The township of Pine Lake did indeed reside roughly in the middle of the region. It seemed to be almost totally surrounded on all sides by forests, with a few gaps, especially to the north. I saw a scattering of structures around the area: a lone gas station to the south, probably closer to whatever the main road was around here, a watchtower that I’d missed back near where we’d initially come in through, probably hidden by the trees, and a lake northwest of the town that sported an observation deck and a lakehouse.

Don’t know how I’d missed the observation deck and the lake, but I guess I wouldn’t been too focused on the burned-down town, or maybe it had been obscured by smoke. I tried looking for it now, but I was too low to see much of anything beyond snow. Well, that was probably on the list of places to check, I was sure.

I folded the map up and put it back.

Right now, I was intent on making myself an asset. Lisa didn’t trust me, and I wanted her to. And no, not just because I wanted to bang the absolute shit out of her and pound that sweet, older pussy all night long, but because her people needed help, and I honestly felt I was uniquely qualified to offer a lot of it. I hope I wasn’t becoming arrogant, but there was a difference between arrogance and owning it, it being whatever you were good at. And if what I was good at was helping people, then fuck, that’s what I was going to do.

So I had to make sure this job got done right, and quickly.

These were the thoughts that I was thinking as I came on final approach to the hunting lodge, which was a two-story structure of wood and glass, and I nearly got my head blown off for the second time that morning.

A gunshot cracked out and hit the snow beside me, sending up a geyser of the gray-white stuff, and this time I did hit the deck.

“Cease fire!” I bellowed, and then waited for the end.

“That was a warning shot!” an older man’s voice called out. “Now who the fuck are you!?”

Slowly, I got up. I saw him standing on the balcony of the lodge now, a scoped rifle in his grasp, and I couldn’t make out more than that.

“My name is Chris! Lisa sent me to find people!” I called back.

A pause. “You don’t look familiar!”

Well, honesty was still the best policy, I thought. “I’m not from around here! Just showed up this morning! I offered to help!”

Another long pause. “All right, come on up here, nice and slow! No sudden moves!”

“Understood!”

I made my way up to the hunting lodge nice and easy. While I did, the man said something to someone hidden in the shadow of the door up there letting onto the balcony. When I got up to where a parking lot was, he spoke up again.

“Close enough.”

I nodded and stopped, keeping my hands visible. A few seconds later the front door opened and a younger man who resembled the other one appeared.

“Just hold still,” he said.

I nodded again and waited. The older man disappeared into the door and a moment later joined us down on the ground level. They were both men with dark beards and wild hair mostly kept hidden by hats. The older man wore a beanie, the younger man a baseball cap. I caught movement behind them, so there were more people around.

No one was wearing leather, so that was good.

“You from Pine Lake?” I asked.

“Yeah. Who are you exactly?” the older man asked.

“Chris Weston. I just walked into town this morning. Offered my services after meeting Lisa,” I replied.

“Lisa made it?” the younger man, who was probably around my age, asked.

“Shut up, Nate,” the older man muttered. “You’re well-armed,” he said to me.

“You honestly expected me to walk two miles through open country without a gun?”

He laughed a little. “Fair point, I guess.” He stared at me for a long moment, then sighed and slung his rifle over his shoulder. “You don’t look like one of them, so I’m going to take you at your word. Why are you here, exactly?”

“Lisa sent me up here because she said some of the people might’ve come up here during the fire. She’s trying to put things back together again and needs all the help she can get.”

“Well that sure makes sense,” the man muttered. He seemed to consider it for a moment longer, then looked at, I assumed, his son. “Nate, stay here and watch the others. Okay?”

“What are you doin’?” Nate replied.

“Me and Chris here are going after Willow. Just stay here, okay?” Nate began to argue but the older man cut him off. “Now don’t argue with me, dammit!”

“All right, dad, fine. I’ll stay here.”

“Good.” He looked at me, then walked over to me and offered his hand. I shook it. “Markus Peterson.”

“Chris Weston,” I replied, even though I’d already said it once. I knew some people put a lot of emphasis on what they called a ‘proper introduction’.

“Good to meet you. If you really are here to help, then follow me.”

And with that he turned and set off.

I followed after him.

“So what’s happening precisely?” I asked.

“We came out here last night, me, my son, and three others we grabbed. We come up to the hunting lodge with other people to, well, hunt, to help provide food for the town. Sometimes I’ll just come out here and live for awhile. It’s nice and quiet. But when the attack happened and the fire got going, I figured we’d best get. So we got. I figured there’d be some people still alive down there, and that they’d need food, so me, my son, and another guy went out hunting early this morning. Some wolves found us before we found them. Got the other guy in the leg bad. We’ve been meaning to head back, but we can’t move him without a stretcher. Now, I know there’s a stretcher and some medical supplies in one of the cabins not far from here, but I was dealing with the wound, so Willow offered to go grab it. That was two hours ago.”

“Shit,” I muttered.

“Yep. So we’re gonna go find her, and the stretcher and the medical supplies that’re with it, get back to the lodge, and then go back home and start helping.” He paused. “What’s it like there?”

“Bad,” I replied. “Lisa’s there, I don’t know who else because I don’t know anyone, but she said there were forty people around, a lot of them injured. There’s eight buildings left in good condition and that’s where everyone seems to be.”

“Shit,” he growled.

We walked for another few minutes into the woods not far from the hunting lodge. “You seem to trust me awfully quick,” I said after a moment.

“I don’t,” Markus replied. “But you seem on the level enough, and I’m one hell of a quick draw, and if you do anything to me, my son’ll hunt you to the ends of the motherfucking Earth. So I feel pretty decently covered. Plus, I’m fuckin’ old, man. Old and tired. Never thought I’d live to see the end of the goddamned world. I’m not ready to die, but fuck if I’m tired of living some days.”

“Well...all right then.”

He laughed. “I hope you aren’t fulla shit, you seem pretty okay.”

“You’ll be happy then, because I’m not full of shit. Not that my word exactly matters right now, but I’m here to help, at least through the worst of it.”

“Why?” he asked, after a moment.

I considered it. “I want to.”

“Huh. Well, a good a reason as any, I guess. Most people won’t step into a steaming pile of shit willingly.”

“Don’t get me wrong, this sucks and a part of me would really rather be in my motel room with a meal and a woman and a fire, but this needs doing.”

He laughed loudly. “A man after my own heart.” He broke off abruptly as we came into a clearing, and then muttered, “aw shit.”

I knew exactly what he meant. There was a cabin there, and the front door was thrown open, and there was blood in the snow, and paw prints all around.

“Cover me,” he said, transitioning quite smoothly from foul-mouthed old man to competent hunter pretty quickly.

I nodded, getting my pistol out, and walked with him across the bloodied snow to the cabin. I didn’t hear or see any wolves around, but that could change fast.

“Willow!?” he called, waited, listened.

Nothing. Just the wind.

“Hell,” he muttered. “I’m going inside, wait out here.”

“Got it,” I replied.

He walked into the cabin and I heard him muttering and rummaging around inside for a few minutes. I looked around. Just snow-capped trees and naked bushes and paw prints all around and the blood. There wasn’t a lot of it, but it looked bright as hell. I looked for evidence of a fight, like a spent shell casing, hoping the blood came from a wolf and not this Willow, but it was impossible to truly tell one way or the other.

After a moment, Markus came back.

“Well, she’s not in there. I think maybe she had just got done searching this cabin and was going onto the next one when some wolves jumped her and she maybe shot one and ran.”

“Why wouldn’t she go straight to the cabin with the supplies?” I asked.

Here, he looked embarrassed. “I, ah, forgot which one they’re in.”

“Oh.”

He looked at me and I think he expected me to give him shit for it but I didn’t, just waiting for him to continue.

“Well, come on, let’s go find her. Next cabin’s not that far from here.”

We continued on our journey.

FOUR

Back in danger again.

Exactly where I was positive I was heading, knew I hated being in actual danger, and yet I’d walked right into it anyway.

My focus was honed down and I was opening up my senses to the world around me. I became more aware of the trees, the wind, the sights and sounds of the frozen forest. We were following along a simple trail between the trees and there was evidence that probably Willow and definitely wolves had gone this way. The blood didn’t continue down the path, so I didn’t think she’d been wounded. She’d wounded a wolf and then it had taken off, then she’d run and they’d followed. I paused as I spied something on the side of the trail.

“Wait,” I said, stepping off the trail and crouching.

“What is it?” Markus asked impatiently.

Something clearly manmade was sticking up out of the snow and it looked a lot like the handle of a gun. I pulled it up and sure enough out came a pistol.

“Shit, that’s Willow’s,” Markus muttered.

“Great,” I said, tucking it down the back of my pants.

He looked like he might object, but then he just turned and hurried on. I followed after him. We made our next discovery not much farther. The trail turned and that was when we caught sight of a lot of disturbed snow and more blood.

“I think they got her here,” I said.

“Yep,” Markus said, and hurried on once more.

A minute later, we were in another clearing. I skidded to a halt, raising my pistol as I spied a wolf pawing at the front door. It caught wind of us immediately, turned around, and issued a growl deep in its throat. The gray-furred thing was big and menacing, and it started barking viciously as it came for us. I saw another one appear from behind the cabin, and it made a beeline as well. Markus was indeed, I saw, a hell of a shot and a fast draw.

He aimed and fired fast as fuck, and put a bullet in the brain of one of the wolves, killing it instantly and dropping it like a bag of bricks.

Luckily, I managed to perform just as well. I aimed and fired my own pistol, and I shot out the thing’s left eye, blowing the back of its skull off in a disgusting spray of gore. It joined its brother, skidding to a halt and sending runs of snow shooting up before coming to a rest. I looked around, eyes wide, heart thundering, blood pounding, ready for more wolves. But there didn’t seem to be anymore in the area.

“Willow!?” Markus called.

“Markus!?” came a response a few seconds later. “Oh thank God! I need help!”

We jogged over and he tried the door. “It’s locked!”

“Fuck! Hold on!”

We heard grunting, a cry of pain, something being knocked over, something glass breaking, more grunting and heavy steps, and finally the lock disengaged and the door opened up. A very pale woman with glasses and dark hair, maybe my age, fell onto her ass as it did so. It was obvious that the wound was in her thigh and she’d done a hasty job patching it up.

“Ah hell,” Markus muttered as he came in and crouched by her.

“Who are you?” she asked, staring at me, grimacing.

“Chris. I’m here to help,” I replied.

“Markus?” she asked uncertainly.

“So far he ain’t seemed full of bull,” Markus replied distractedly as he stared at the wound. “Shit. I’m gonna have to take these bandages off and redo them.” He looked up at me. “Go on to the third cabin. You can see it from here, dead ahead from the front door. Door should be unlocked. Stretcher’s in the tub, medical cache is under the sink. Bring it back here.”

“On it,” I replied, and stepped back outside.

I swept the area again for wolves, saw nothing but the corpses, slowly leaking blood from their ruined skulls, and focused on the third cabin. I could, in fact, see it. Just barely, through the trees, maybe fifty yards distant. Holstering my pistol, I set off at a jog. The next several minutes passed quickly as I shifted between the trees, dodging, knowing I had to get there and back as quickly as I could for more than one reason. The snow crunched beneath my boots and the trees raced past me as I dodged them, trying hard not to run face-first into one of the frozen trunks while also keeping an eye out for wolves.

A few moments later, I came into another clearing the third cabin was built into and took the minimum amount of time necessary to check around the outside, then tried the handle. It wasn’t locked, as promised. I pushed the door open, gun in my hand now, in case any of the asshole arsonists had decided to call this place home. But as I stepped inside and looked around, I saw that the place had the feeling of emptiness and abandonment. I went straight for the bathroom door and opened it up. There was the stretcher, bundled up and ready for transport. Dropping to my knees, I pulled open the cabinet doors so hard I almost ripped one off.

I found a black case that someone had placed two red strips of tape on, crossing them to make a plus symbol. Perfect. Grabbing it, I shook it gently, heard things shift around inside, tested its weight and found it adequate. This was probably what we were looking for. Reluctantly, I holstered my pistol, then snatched up the medical box in one hand and the stretcher in the other, then headed back outside. As I hit the forest and began making my way back to the second cabin, I kept expecting to see something coming after me.

A wolf.

A jackoff in a leather jacket.

Shit, even a bear.

But I made it back without a problem.

“Got it,” I said, setting the items down just inside and to the left of the door. It looked like Markus was just finishing up dealing with Willow’s wounds.

“All there?” he asked.

“Looks like. Didn’t get a chance to look inside the case,” I replied.

“It’s locked anyway. I’ve got the key...okay, done.” He stood and offered Willow his hand.

“I don’t think I can walk on my own,” she said, looking a little embarrassed.

“Easiest solution would be for me to carry you,” I said, itching to get back. The longer we were out here, the more a chance of something going wrong there was.

She looked up at me reluctantly, then over at Markus, who shrugged. “He looks a lot stronger than me, and I don’t think I can carry you safely. For either of us. And we need the stretcher for Ian. He’s more badly wounded...I think.”

“I don’t trust you,” she said flatly.

“I’ll be right here,” Markus said.

She still held out and an idea abruptly occurred to me. “Will this make you feel better?” I asked, pulling her pistol from the back of my pants and handing it over to her grip-first.

She stared up at me in surprise, then slowly reached out and took it, then quickly pulled it from my grasp. “Seriously?” she asked.

“Yes. You can hold it if you want, just don’t, you know, point it at me. I’m not going to do anything to you, but we have to go. There’s probably more wolves around and this is the quickest, easiest way to deal with this.”

She sighed finally and nodded. “Fine. Pick me up.”

Carefully, after making sure everything was firmly attached to my body and nothing would fall off, I knelt and scooped her up slowly in my arms. She felt tense, not that I blamed her, and I stood. By the time I was finished, Markus had the stretcher in one hand, the medical case in the other, and was standing outside the cabin.

I walked out to join him and we started walking back to the lodge.

~

“So you really just...showed up?” Willow asked.

We were almost back to the lodge and I’d been explaining my...self, I guess. “Yeah,” I replied. “With three others. We’ve been heading here for weeks. We’re looking for someone.”

“Who?”

“Lindsay.”

She paused. “Why?”

“One of the people I’m traveling with, a girl named Delilah-”

“Oh my God, Delilah actually came here?” she asked, staring up at me with wide eyes from the cradle of my arms.

“Yeah. You know her?”

“Lindsay talked about her a lot. She said they used to spend so much time together, but they ended up splitting apart before everything went to hell. And this is where they’d meet up. But Delilah never showed...fuck, I can’t believe she actually made it. That’s so nuts. Lindsay’s been here for like six months now, waiting.”

“When was the last time you saw her?” I asked.

“A few days ago...I hoped she survived.”

“Lisa said she saw her today, she’s somewhere out here.”

Willow looked relieved. “That’s good, at least. Probably looking for her damn cats.”

“Cats?”

“She, among other things, tended to a few cats. She lived in a former pet shop. She helps people’s pets, she used to be a vet. Or was training to be one, anyway...so you’re like Delilah’s boyfriend or something?”

“Something like that,” I replied.

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“I got the impression that Lindsay like...liked her, you know? I wonder if that might cause problems.”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

“You don’t seem too worried.”

“Given the fact that I just walked into a disaster area and promised to help, I’ve got bigger concerns at the moment.”

“Why’d you promise to help?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Because it’s weird. People see something like this, they’ll at best turn around and go the other way, or at worst try to take advantage...you know Lisa’ll shoot you in the face if you try to fuck her over, right?”

“She told me as much. Don’t worry, I’m not here to cause problems, I’m here to fix them.” I paused. “But I guess it takes time to build trust, so just...let me work, I guess. Eventually you’ll all figure out that I’m not some fuckhead in disguise here to rob you blind or kill you in your sleep or something.”

She didn’t seem to know what to say to that, and we didn’t speak the rest of the way back to the lodge.

This time, I actually got to go inside. There was Nate, and two other people. A man and a woman. The man was laying on a couch, his leg bandaged more heavily than Willow’s. He looked very pale and weak. I thought he and the woman beside him might be a couple, from their body language. Yeah, he was gonna need a stretcher.

“Aw shit, Willow,” Nate said, and his expression seemed abruptly torn between worry for Willow and white-hot contempt for me.

I parsed that in about three seconds: he had the hots for her. Whether she felt the same way was in the air, but she didn’t seem interested in me at all, and although I would fuck her if she was interested, I was plenty fine not getting involved with this.

“I’m fine, Nate,” Willow replied with a vague but practiced irritation that made me think they’d been bugging each other for months, if not years. I walked her over to a second couch and carefully set her down, then stepped back and away from her.

“I’m going back,” I said.

“Why?” Markus asked.

“Those two wolves, that’s several meals’ worth of meat, and we all need it right now. Is there a sled or something we could use to bring them back?”

“Yeah, actually,” Markus said. “That’s a good idea. All right, try not to take too long. We’ll get ready while you’re gone.”

“Yep,” I replied, and quickly left the lodge.

~

All in all, I thought this was off to a good start.

Perhaps even a great start, considering the circumstances.

I managed to make it back to the second cabin, grabbed each of the wolves by one of their hind legs, and started dragging them back through the woods, and got them back to the lodge without running into any other wolves or impediments.

So that was nice.

By the time I got back, everyone was outside. The injured man was laid out on the unfolded stretcher, and Nate was carrying Willow, while Markus and the woman were making final preparations on the sled. It wasn’t very big, and I can see why they didn’t think to use it to haul either of the injured people. There were some supplies on it already: some tightly folded clothes, a backpack that might’ve held anything, the medical case, and several cans of food tied very tightly together, all held in place with some bungee cords.

“Perfect, just in time,” Markus said as I approached.

We got the wolves onto the sled and applied another bungee cord to hold them in place. I stood up and looked at Markus.

“We’re gonna be relyin’ on you if something happens,” he said, somewhat reluctantly. “Linnie and I are gonna be holding up the stretcher, Nate’ll be carrying Willow, and none of us can just drop our load to shoot a wolf or a raider. So the responsibility will be yours.”

“I can handle it,” I replied.

He scrutinized me for a bit, then nodded once, tightly. “Fine then. Let’s go, people! We’ve got a long, hard day ahead of us.”

And with that he rejoined Linnie, the woman I’d seen in the lodge, and they each grabbed an end of the stretcher and lifted it up. Nate readjusted his hold on Willow, she grimaced but otherwise held silent, and I grabbed the leashes of the sled and set out.

I took the lead.

~

It was a long but thankfully boring walk back across the snowy wastelands. The only anxiety-producing part was crossing the frozen river, and only then because we were paranoid about it. Nothing happened and we continued on our merry way afterwards. There was enough going on and distracting me or forcing me to pay attention that not a whole lot was running through my head. I considered trying to strike up a conversation with someone, but decided against it. I’d probably squeezed about as much good favor out of our initial encounter as I could. I was honestly surprised they hadn’t shown me more distrust than they had.

Maybe I was getting more personable?

I had to admit, there was a really good chance that traveling for weeks with Megan and Delilah, and then Elizabeth, as constant companions had upped my charisma game. I never thought of myself as particularly charismatic, but I could be reasonable and, perhaps on some of my best occasions even charming now and again. But one thing I was not was disarming. I made people nervous, now more than ever.

How much of that was something I could change?

Maybe more than I had initially anticipated. I thought I’d had a lot of luck since arriving here this morning, between my interactions, getting the motel room, and being entrusted with these important jobs. If I had shown up by myself, they’d probably have just told me to fuck off. Or hell, maybe they’d have decided not to risk it and just shot me outright. Or maybe that was it: the women who were with me. Maybe I hadn’t gotten any better at anything, it was just the fact that I had three disarming women traveling with me.

Dana had made that point.

All of my thoughts abruptly ceased as we got within about fifty yards of the town, or what was left of the town.

Someone screamed.

It was a clear and obvious sound, despite the distance. Sound and light travel quite well in snowbound environments, especially when the winds die down, like they had over the past hour. And I thought I knew the voice that had just screamed.

Elizabeth.

“Stay here!” I snapped, dropping the sled and sprinting off, pulling my pistol out.

That wasn’t a ‘you startled me’ scream or an ‘I tripped and hurt myself’ scream. That was a panicked, terrified scream. I don’t know what had happened, but if any single one of those motherfuckers had hurt or even tried to hurt her…

I was already starting to see red as I finally got to the buildings. Panting heavily, shaky with adrenaline, I got up to the edge of the building on the right side of the street, the side our motel was on. Edging along the outer wall of what had once been that Tex-Mex place, I listened carefully. Someone was shouting orders, a man. He sounded panicked. Someone else was talking, or trying to talk anyway, sounding calm but direct.

Lisa.

Shit. Fuck. This was bad.

I got to the corner and looked around.

Everyone was frozen in the street, staring at two people maybe halfway down it, and I felt my guts freeze and shatter as I fully realized the situation.

Someone was standing in the middle of the road, and they had a gun to Elizabeth’s head.

FIVE

For a few seconds, I couldn’t breathe.

I was so consumed by pure, white-hot rage that I almost, almost lost my shit and just bumrushed the fucker. But something in me kept control, something in me warned me that if I went at this without a level head, she might die.

Would probably die.

And then I saw something, behind them both, creeping up the street.

Megan.

With her rifle, getting into a good shooting position.

Fuck, if someone looked at her, gave her away…

I had to get in there and distract the fucker. Part of me was aware that maybe it wasn’t the best idea that I get involved, I was too pissed off right now. But another part of me recognized that my present state was as good as it was going to get, and I was getting involved regardless. So I guess I just tried to make the best of a bad situation as I headed out. I rounded the corner of the building I’d been ducking behind and began walking right towards Elizabeth and the dead motherfucker putting a gun to her head.

Pushing my way through a crowd of people, I listened to Lisa trying to negotiate with him.

“What do you want?” she asked.

I could see Megan getting into position now, aiming the rifle. Did she have a good shot? I seriously doubted she’d risk Elizabeth’s life if it could be helped.

“Just...stay back!” the man snapped. His eyes were bugging out and he looked a little delirious, but I couldn’t confuse the look on his face with any kind of psychosis or drug-induced haze or drunken behavior. He was here, he was mentally checked in, and what’s worse, I could read a sort of sick satisfaction in what he was doing. “Send two more bitches over here with backpacks full of food! Understand?!” he demanded.

“Okay! Just...don’t hurt her,” Lisa replied. She was playing for time but I thought it would only be so long before he noticed someone looking not at him but behind him.

“Then do it! Hurry up! Or I blow this pregnant slut’s head off!”

I was surprised that Elizabeth wasn’t crying, but the look on her face spoke more of shocked terror than anything else.

Abruptly, Megan stood up, slinging the rifle and pulling out a pistol instead.

She must not have been able to get a good shot. She began moving forward, trying to be silent. He was going to hear her boots in the snow, shit.

I stepped forward out of the crowd.

“Let her go,” I said, and I didn’t even have to try and pull myself up to my full height or be intimidating, because my near total fury was making that my natural state. The man immediately turned to face me, some part of his brain probably instantly recognizing me as the biggest threat. “Right fucking now.”

“Back off!” he snapped.

“You aren’t going to shoot her,” I said, taking a step closer. “Because you know that the second you do, you’re fucking dead. Let her go right now, and I won’t kill you.”

It might have been a lie, I honestly couldn’t tell in the moment, but I could see fear and doubt begin to cloud his face.

He made the next potentially logical move, in his mind at least, and pointed the gun at me instead, keeping his other hand firmly around Elizabeth, holding her in place.

“Back off and I won’t have to kill you,” he snarled.

That was the signal Megan apparently needed, because she suddenly dashed forward.

What happened next happened fast and all at once, it seemed.

The man heard the noises behind him and began to turn around. He must have loosened his grip on Elizabeth, and she must have reacted on instinct, because she stepped forward, slammed an elbow into his gut, and then began running away. I started running towards her and the man. The asshole in the dark leather jacket was in pain and trying to decide which threat to face. He didn’t stand one single goddamn chance.

Megan got up to him and hit him in the side of the head with her pistol.

I barreled past Elizabeth and tackled the motherfucker right into the snow.

Any semblance of control I had hit the emergency eject and then all I knew was that my fists were making brisk, hard contact with his face.

Again and again and again.

At some point I became aware of the fact that someone was screaming my name and I felt hands on me. I shook them off violently, went to punch the fucking piece of human shit in the face one more time, and then I heard Delilah right next to me.

“CHRIS, STOP!”

That broke through. I stopped.

I looked up, saw people standing around me in a ring, some nearby, like Delilah, Megan, Elizabeth, and Lisa, everyone else cautiously farther away.

I looked back down at the guy and suddenly wondered if I’d beaten him to death.

Then he gasped and coughed up a spray of blood onto the snow and weakly tried to get me off of him.

“Are you okay?” I asked, growled really, looking back at Elizabeth as the haze lifted. I was still more pissed than I could ever remember being, but some part of me was hitting the emergency brakes because I knew I’d snapped.

“F-fine,” she managed.

“Get off me,” the man said weakly.

“Motherfucker,” I growled, and pulled my pistol out.

“Chris-” Lisa said.

“Not right now,” I snapped, and put the barrel against the bottom of his chin. “Where are your friends?” I asked.

“P-piss off,” he managed, but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it.

He was fucking scared.

Good.

“Where are your friends, or I’m gonna shoot your balls off. One at a time,” I said flatly.

What little color he had left behind the mask of blood his face had become, (shit, I’d really beaten him to a pulp, his nose was shattered, he had several broken teeth, and his eyes were swelling up), and he swallowed.

“Up in the lookout, by the lake,” he said, and I was pretty sure he was telling the truth. He’d broken easily enough. Then again, most ‘hard’ men really weren’t. They’d act tough until the tables were turned and you threaten them a little and they’d spill, most often.

“How many?”

“I...I don’t know. Fifteen?” he managed. “Please don’t kill me.”

“That’s not for me to decide,” I replied, and started to get off of him.

And apparently I had misjudged him, because he rediscovered some of that ‘courage’ and shoved me off of him. Initially I thought he was just pissed that I’d humiliated him in front of a few dozen people, and was looking for some semblance of retaliation, even just sending me sprawling in the snow. Part of me flared at that, wanting to finish the job I’d started and literally pound his fucking skull into paste with my bare hands, but the rest of me was willing to let it go, because I’d probably scared the fucking shit out of people enough as it was.

I didn’t need to go full caveman on them.

But as I fell onto my side and began getting back up, I heard someone scream and Megan called my name in a tone of voice that indicated immediate threat. I twisted back to face him, snatching my gun up, and saw that he’d liberated a little pistol from somewhere, probably his boot.

He was aiming for me.

I was the quicker shot, and I put a round right through his forehead.

He jerked, twitched a few times, then went slack against the cold ground. For the next few seconds, it was completely, totally, dead silent.

I slowly got to my feet and looked around, panting. Everyone was staring either at me or at the dead body.

Lisa was the one who broke the silence.

“Okay everyone, get back to work. And pay more attention, goddamnit,” she said.

Slowly, the people began to drift away, back to work. Lisa waved three guys over, those who’d been part of her initial entourage. She snapped off quick instructions to them and they split up, heading in different directions, guns out.

“They’re going to see if there’s any others,” Lisa said as she looked at me uncomfortably.

I looked around again. Now all that was left were Lisa, Elizabeth, Megan, and Delilah. Megan looked angry, and maybe a little sympathetic. Delilah looked very concerned. Elizabeth just looked disturbed. Lisa looked...worried, but mostly just appraising. She looked me over with a cold, somewhat calculating gaze.

“Are you okay, Elizabeth?” I asked, more calmly this time.

“Um...I-I think so. Yeah,” she replied.

“What. Happened?” I asked slowly, looking at Lisa.

“I don’t know,” she replied. We looked at Elizabeth.

“I was, um, they asked me to take some food over to the people in the makeshift hospital.” She gestured vaguely and I saw a picnic basket on the ground, broken open, food ejected from the impact and left to lay in the snow. “I didn’t see him, but he grabbed me just a few steps out into the street. I think he was waiting beside the building…”

I looked directly at Lisa and she seemed like she had to fight not to take a step back. “You are going to give Delilah and Elizabeth sidearms and ammunition right fucking now, because this is fucking unacceptable.”

“We can’t be expected to watch everywhere at all times! It was just...bad luck that someone you give a shit about happened to be snagged,” Lisa replied. “You don’t get to make demands just because it happened to be her. You wouldn’t be doing this if it had been one of our people.”

I considered that, my anger flaring again, and I just stared at her. She had a point, even if I wouldn’t admit it out loud.

A cold wind blew.

Neither of us spoke for several seconds.

Finally, she sighed. “Fine. They can have twenty-twos and one load of ammo. Did you at least do your job?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied, putting my pistol away and then going looking for my rifle. It had fallen sometime during my meltdown. I saw it sticking out of the snow. I knelt and snagged it, then began brushing it off. “For your information, there were five people up there. Two are injured, wolf bites. I brought them, two dead wolves worth of meat, and some medical supplies.”

“...oh,” Lisa murmured.

“So yeah, I did my job.” I looked at the dead man. “And I saved you the trouble of having to figure out what to do with him, because I doubt we have time or resources for prisoners.” Technically, he had saved us the trouble, because I was going to let him live if he hadn’t pulled that gun, but apparently Lisa agreed with me.

“Yeah,” she murmured. Then she sighed and looked around. At the end of the street, I saw Markus and the others. They had brought the sled I’d abandoned. “I need to deal with them. Chris just...stay right here, okay? I need to talk with you.”

“Fine,” I said.

She lingered a moment longer, then jogged off towards Markus’s group.

“Chris?” I turned and saw Delilah, she looked genuinely worried. “I…” She didn’t seem to know what to say.

“What the fuck was that?” Megan asked, walking up.

I sighed and shook my head, silent for several long moments. “I...snapped,” I admitted. “Lisa was right. When I saw that he’d grabbed you I...I saw fucking red, Elizabeth.” I shifted uncomfortably. “Sorry you had to see that,” I muttered.

“Well...it got the job done,” Megan said, and the way she said it, the way she looked at me, seemed to indicate that she accepted it.

“That was...really fucking scary,” Delilah managed.

“I’m sorry, Delilah.”

“No, I mean, I get it. You...you saved her. It’s just...it wasn’t like this, the other times. You looked like a psychopath or something...does that happen often?”

“No,” I replied. “Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve ever fully lost it like that before. I just...it won’t happen again, okay?”

Was I lying?

I honestly didn’t know.

I looked at Elizabeth, she still looked disturbed. “Elizabeth?”

She looked at me, complicated emotions playing across her face. “Thank you,” she said, and walked over to me. I couldn’t tell if she was making herself do it or not, and the idea that she was afraid of me now, that any of them might be, hurt. But I couldn’t blame them. She gave me a hug, and I hugged her back gently. “You saved me.”

“Megan definitely helped,” I said.

“That was way too close for comfort,” Megan muttered.

“You should probably, uh...sit down for a bit,” I said. I was caught in a weird place, in some strange twilit area halfway between absolute fury and guilt plus worry.

“You should too,” Delilah murmured.

“Maybe.” I realized Elizabeth was still holding onto me and I wondered what that meant. Delilah almost seemed to be keeping her distance. I was suddenly stricken with the urge to ask her if she was afraid of me, but I managed to hold my tongue.

I might not like the answer.

We stood there together in the snow, near a corpse that was rapidly growing colder, for several long, uncomfortable moments. None of us seemed quite sure what to do or say next, and none of us seemed to want to be the one that broke the uneasy tension. Thankfully, it was broken for us as Lisa returned.

“Elizabeth. Delilah. Here.”

Elizabeth finally let me go and gave me a look I couldn’t really interpret, and not just because she looked away from me too quickly.

Both women accepted the pistols and bullets that Lisa gave, as well as holsters. I took the opportunity to check each one. They were both indeed twenty-twos. Delilah either got back her little six-shooter or it was just the same model, and Elizabeth got one that held a ten-shot magazine. Not great, but it was a gun and some bullets, and it would sure stop someone, which is all it really needed. They checked out, so I passed them back.

“Thanks,” they both murmured.

“Why don’t the two of you take an hour?” Lisa suggested. I looked at her. She looked firmly back at me. “We can’t afford more than that, not even after what happened.”

“It’s fine,” Delilah said. “Thanks. Come on, Elizabeth. Let’s go...lay down for a bit.”

“All right,” Elizabeth replied. She thanked me again, and I was at least heartened when they both gave me hugs and kisses, and they didn’t feel forced, though still they both seemed off in their own way. Megan gave me a brisk hug, but really I thought she was just kind of shaken up by the whole incident, not necessarily my involvement in it.

Though she was probably a little more paranoid than she was before.

I would be, to be honest.

“I’ve got to get back to my job,” she said. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah,” I replied. I looked at Lisa. “Now what?”

She looked back at me for a long, silent moment. I could feel the calculation in her gaze. Finally, she said: “Let’s take a walk.”

SIX

“Where are we going, exactly?” I asked.

I had to admit, this isn’t what I’d pictured would come next. At worst I thought she’d ask me to leave, at best I thought she’d ask me to clean up the mess I’d made. Instead, we’d struck out of the city, heading southbound.

Just the two of us.

On the one hand, I was admittedly a little worried she’d decided I was too dangerous to have around and was going to take me somewhere and execute me. If it was just the two of us, she could make up any story she wanted, maybe about how she’d asked me to leave and I’d gone berserk and she’d killed me in self-defense. I doubted any of the three women would buy it, but worst case scenario: Lisa had forty friends, they were just the three of them. I didn’t like that particular line of thought, so I at least tried to calm myself by telling myself I didn’t have the upper hand in this particular situation.

Whatever was going to happen, there wasn’t presently a whole lot I could do to change it.

It wasn’t comforting, but it was calming, in a bleak sort of way.

Instead, I decided to extend some trust to her, because so far, she’d done the exact same thing to me, and it was only fair.

“There’s a lone gas station over that hill, a few miles off,” Lisa replied finally, at last breaking the only sound of our boots crunching in the snow. “I figure there’s a good chance some people might’ve gone there as well.”

“Hmm,” was all I could think to say to that.

We walked on for another few moments.

I decided to let her speak first, if she was going to. Obviously she couldn’t just let this go, she was going to have to somehow justify keeping a dangerous, volatile, but useful man like myself around to herself somehow.

Finally, she did break the silence once more.

In fact, she didn’t just do that, she actually stopped, about-faced, and looked me dead in the eye. “Chris, I need to know if I can trust you. More specifically, I need to know if I can trust you not to lose your temper and hurt someone, or worse.”

“You can trust me,” I said, and I meant it. “I...lost control back there,” I admitted reluctantly, “but that hasn’t happened for a long time. It...the situation caught me off guard. But I understand what you’re asking, and saying that you can trust me not to snap, and to do the jobs I agree to do, and not to hurt any of your people.” I paused. “Well, put it this way: I won’t start any fights, but I will finish them if I have to. I doubt you can personally account for the trustworthiness of every single individual under your command. And while I’m not looking for a fight, and I’m willing to live and let live, there are some things I won’t tolerate.”

“Such as?”

“Any intentional harm coming to Megan, Elizabeth, or Delilah. Bullying, too, on general principles.”

“Fair enough,” she said, and then she scrutinized me for several long, cold minutes. Finally, she let out the smallest of sighs. “I’m not in a position to turn away help, and you did a very good job from what I heard from Markus and the others. He seemed to respect you, and that’s...very rare. His son is going to hate you.”

“I don’t care as long as he does it quietly and from afar,” I replied.

She laughed softly, then shook her head slightly, seeming to refocus herself. “What I’m saying is: we can keep working together, because I need you, and because...I believe that you believe what you’re saying. I don’t think you’re lying to me, and I don’t think you’re intentionally lying to yourself. But I’ve seen anger, and I’ve seen how it can get out of control. Like a rabid dog breaking its leash. So we can keep working together, just...don’t become a liability, Chris.” She hesitated, a look of discomfort on her face. “That isn’t a threat, I don’t want it to be interpreted that way, it’s really more of a genuine plea. We’re in a very precarious situation, much more so now that we know those dickheads are still around and apparently they’ve got the high ground on us at the observation platform down by the lake. And I can’t afford any more mistakes.”

“I understand,” I replied. “I want to help.” I paused, then muttered, “but that guy really had it coming.”

“He did,” she agreed. “He deserved it. I don’t disagree with what you did, I’m just concerned because...God, Chris, you should’ve seen yourself. You looked almost like a fucking zombie or something. It was like you’d checked out mentally, like no one was home upstairs anymore. It was fucking terrifying to see.”

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“Yeah,” she said, apparently unsure of what else to say. Abruptly, she turned and resumed walking.

I followed after her.

We walked in silence again until we reached the rise in the land and as we got up over it, I finally caught sight of the gas station she’d mentioned. It looked sad and lonely and isolated, all by itself out there in a field of snow and ice.

“If we’re going to work together, I want to know more about you,” Lisa said as we walked.

“What do you want to know?” I replied.

“Tell me about your life.”

I thought about it for a minute, then told her. I told her of growing up in Florida, what it was like when the storms hit, when everything froze, when the true horror of the end of the world finally settled into place like an immovable glacier, freezing itself in permafrost. I told her about my first year, carving out a life, wanting something more, and eventually going for it. Walking north and then west. Crossing state lines that no longer meant anything, if they ever did. Meeting people, settlements I’d come across, dangerous things I’d dealt with, unique encounters I’d had. I went more in depth about meeting the girls.

“What skills do you have, exactly?” she asked.

“I’m a great shot with pretty much anything. I can hunt, skin, clean, and prep kills. I can cook pretty well. I know a decent amount of basic medical stuff. I know how to forage pretty well, what to look for. I can read the weather with at least semi-decent accuracy. I know how to build fires really well. I’ve got a lot of endurance.”

“Apparently,” she murmured.

I paused. “What’s that mean?”

“Just...you and those three women are obviously fucking, so you’d have to have a fair amount of endurance.”

I hesitated for a few seconds, then just shrugged.

“What’s the exact nature of your relationships?” she asked.

“They didn’t tell you while you were interrogating them?”

“I was well within reason to ask them those questions away from you,” Lisa replied curtly.

“I know. I’m not upset about that...mostly. I mean, I get it, truly. It just...it gets old. Getting questioned all the fucking time. I’m not a rapist, I’m not a monster, I’m not a slaver. I just look like one, apparently. But I get it, you don’t know me from anyone else, so none of that means anything, and the fact that you pushed to ask means you care, and I appreciate that. Because I’m sure you’re right, too many women have been taken advantage of now.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” she muttered. “But I asked because I wanted to hear it from you, now that I know I can trust your answers. Or trust you within reason.”

“Fair enough. Delilah cut a deal with me: pussy for security and safely getting her here, and now finding her friend. We like each other a lot, though I can tell she likes Lindsay more. Which is fine, I’m not upset about that. Honestly, it’s nice what we have. We had a business relationship that also happened to be pretty fun for both of us, not just one of us, because we were both into each other. I’m guessing she’d be fucking me even if she didn’t have a deal to strike up. Elizabeth and Megan were both just attracted to me and none of them...entirely mind sharing, and they like sex, so we all figured ‘why not’ and started fucking.”

“Elizabeth really has a thing for you,” Lisa said.

“Maybe not anymore,” I muttered. “I think she’s scared of me now. Delilah too, maybe.”

“Maybe,” Lisa said, “but I don’t think so.”

I didn’t know if that was just wishful thinking on her part, so I didn’t respond with anything more than a noncommittal grunt.

We walked until we reached the gas station, and then moved around the outside, pistols at the ready, checking for wolves or leather-jacket-wearing dickheads. There was nothing, and it also seemed as though no one had come this way. Nonetheless, we went inside and began looking around the stark interior.

“What about you?” I asked.

“What about me what?” Lisa replied.

“What’s your story?”

She sighed. “Miserable. I grew up in Iowa, went to college in Wichita where I met my husband. We got married, got jobs, had kids, settled there. When the apocalypse happened, we decided to go live on some land we’d purchased and prepared for just such an occasion. It was...paradise, honestly.” She stopped, frowned.

I really didn’t like where this was going.

“A year ago, some raiders showed up to rob us. We fought. They killed my family and burned down the house we had there. I...got away, but then I hunted them down and killed every last one of them. After that, I didn’t know what to do. I wandered. Eventually, I ended up here about four months ago. I guess I’m pretty efficient at getting shit done, because I found myself in a leadership role within a month.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

She sighed. “Yeah. We all say that a lot nowadays, don’t we?”

“So did you end up town mayor?” I asked.

“No.” She paused. “I mean yes, now I am, but I wasn’t before. When the dust settled early this morning and we started gathering in what was left of the town, it became obvious that I was the only one left who had the strength of will and the know-how and the desire to actually lead people. They all looked to me for guidance. So now I’m guiding them.”

“How do you feel about that?”

She snorted derisively. “How do you think? Glad I don’t have to fight about it, afraid that I’ll fuck it all up, anxious that we’re doomed regardless. All it’ll take is one bad blizzard to put us over, or one more big raider attack. I don’t know if staying here is a good idea...but it’s too early to tell. And where would we go? Next real settlement is fifty miles away.”

“You seem to be doing a good job so far,” I said. “If it makes any difference.”

“Thanks,” she said, and her tone was neutral enough that I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or dismissive or genuine.

In the end, we did find some evidence of someone having come through the place at one point, and a cache of supplies that was supposed to be there had been taken. And it was well-hidden enough that we both thought that someone would have had to have foreknowledge of it, meaning it was someone from the settlement, and someone who knew their shit. Which was encouraging, at least. We ended up back outside.

“Now what?” I asked.

“There’s a house and a garage west of here, past those trees,” she said, indicating a forest off in that direction. “There’s a great chance someone went there. There’s also some supplies there, or should be, that we can use.”

With that, she set off.

I followed after her.

~

“Tell me something,” I said after about fifteen minutes of trudging through the snow.

“Depends on what it is.”

“Why are you out here doing this yourself all of a sudden? I understand the gas station, but don’t you have to get back? Not that I’m complaining.”

She was silent for a few moments. Probably considering either if to lie, what to say, or how to say it. Finally, she spoke up. “I needed a break,” she admitted.

“This is a break?”

She laughed. “Compared to the last day, yes, it’s a vacation. I used to hike, even after the snow came. It’s...meditative. Calming. This is like hiking. Or close enough, anyway. I need to clear my head. And things are calm enough for the moment, and my people know what to do for a few hours without me. Though I will be getting back after this next trip.”

“I’m surprised you felt comfortable enough to go anywhere alone with me.”

She laughed. “Chris, if I didn’t feel like I could handle you on my own, I wouldn’t be running this show. You tried anything and I’d either shoot you dead or, if it came to it, claw your fucking eyes out, rip your throat out, or tear your balls off. I’ve done it before.”

“...which one?”

“You’ll have to guess,” she replied.

I laughed. “You’re crazy.”

“A little,” she replied. “Sometimes a lot. Mostly I don’t have the luxury of being crazy.” She paused, regarded me as we walked. “I guess that’s true for you too.”

“Yeah. I definitely wouldn’t have made it this far if I gave in every time I got pissed.”

“True. Although…” she smiled suddenly. “I’m guessing you give in when it comes to pussy.”

“Eh...let’s not go there,” I replied.

She laughed. “Thought so. Well, at least they seem happy.”

“I hope they are,” I murmured.

She lost her smile and looked at me again, that kind of appraising look on her face back once more, and then she just looked ahead, and we didn’t share another word as we finished crossing the open plain of snow and headed into the woods. It didn’t take too long to get to the house and the garage. I studied it as we approached through the frozen trees. It was an old, large, three story building, the kind of thing that looked like it had been built by someone with some decent money who’d bought some land maybe fifty or sixty years ago. Maybe a retirement thing, buy some land, have a house and a personal garage built not too far from civilization, but not too close either. And the garage was a proper one, large, and from the way she specifically mentioned it, I thought it was more of a garage you could bring your car to get fixed in.

There are worse retirement plans.

As we made our way through the last of the trees, one of the windows popped open and a man with a pistol leaned out. “I told you if you came back here I was gonna shoot you dead!”

“Leonard!” Lisa yelled out as I fell back into the trees, going for my gun. “Goddamnit, it’s me, Leonard! Don’t fucking shoot!”

A long pause. “Lisa?”

“Yes! Fuck!”

“Oh hell, I’m sorry, I thought you were them assholes again,” he said. “Who’s that with you?”

“His name is Chris, he’s here to help. I’m coming in, Leonard.”

“Okay, I’ll get the door unlocked.”

The man disappeared and the window was shut. We resumed our approach.

“Friend of yours?” I asked.

She sighed. “Gunsmith,” she said. “Or, close to. Used to be a hunter, but now his eyesight’s gone to shit and we don’t have glasses. He’s decent at fixing guns, though.”

As we got up to the front door, it opened up and a worried looking middle-aged woman appeared. She looked anxiously at me, then focused on Lisa.

“Thank God you’re here,” she said. “Lisa, it’s Jonathan. He’s sick. Really sick.”

“What is it?” Lisa asked.

“I think it’s pneumonia. We were going to go see Mel today, but then the attack happened last night and we ran...he’s bad. Bad fever.”

“Shit,” Lisa muttered. “You give him any medicine for it?”

“The only thing we had was some old cough medicine and that’s gone. It definitely wasn’t this bad yesterday, it’s gotten a lot worse since the fire.”

“All right, we’ve got medicine back home.”

“Mel will look at him?” the woman asked hopefully.

Lisa shook her head regretfully. “No, I can’t find her. But don’t worry, we’ll get him home and better.” She looked over the woman’s shoulder as Leonard approached from deeper in the house. “Leonard, who was here, earlier? Who were you threatening?”

“Two of them assholes in leather come up and told us to give up all our stuff. I told them to fuck off. They said they’d give us some time to think about it and when they came back, either we give up the stuff or they’d just kill us and take it. Told them if they came back I’d shoot them dead,” Leonard explained.

“There were two of them? You’re sure?” she asked.

Both Leonard and the middle-aged woman nodded.

“Chris?” she asked, looking at me.

“You want me to kill them?” I asked.

“Yes. Can you do that?”

“I can,” I replied. I looked at the others. “What were they armed with?”

“I only saw pistols,” Leonard said. I glanced at the woman and she nodded.

I looked at Lisa. “Prep them to move,” I said, pulling out my pistol and checking it over, making sure it was ready to go, then doing the same with my rifle. “I’m going to go kill them and strip them of whatever they have on them. Sound good?”

“Uh...yeah,” Lisa replied, looking mildly concerned. “You can handle this?”

“I can handle it,” I said, finishing with my gun and looking at her. “Anything else?”

“No.”

“Good. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Which way did they go?” I asked.

The woman pointed to the left, roughly northeast from our current position.

I nodded and headed off.

SEVEN

I genuinely was not sure if I was as up to killing these two guys as I made it appear.

On the one hand, I did feel pretty calm, and also still angry. I mean, they’d killed like a hundred people, and not on accident either. They probably hadn’t intended to burn down the entire town, but even if they hadn’t, fuck them, they’d thrown goddamned molotov cocktails simply because some people wouldn’t just immediately bend over and take it when they showed up and unzipped. So yeah, fuck them.

But was it a good idea to create that particular feedback loop?

Get pissed, kill people?

Probably not.

Then again, murder was apparently becoming increasingly necessary for not just my own survival, but that of other people I actually gave a shit about.

Bottom line though, as much as I didn’t want to get comfortable with putting bullets in peoples’ heads, or throats, or hearts, Lisa and I were in agreement.

This needed to happen.

Their trail was pretty easy to follow. They’d made their way back the way we’d come, perhaps fifty yards to the north. Fuck, we must’ve just missed them at some point. I was honestly surprised and concerned that I hadn’t heard them or seen them. Then again, this forest, dead though it is, was pretty dense. Or maybe I was just more distracted than I was willing to admit. A lot had happened recently, and I was beginning to get the impression that I had some more thinking to do. The feeling of intense focus was still there, but I could also feel shifting beneath the surface, like some vast, terrifying creature from the deep, deep ocean.

It would rise, eventually.

And I would have to deal with it.

That might be tomorrow or six months from now.

I heard someone laugh up ahead and grabbed for my rifle. This had to be them. I kept going, shifting through the trees as silent as I could be, both following them and ensuring that no one was following me. That’s all I fucking needed, a wolf to creep up on my ass while I was hunting these two idiots. A few moments later, I neared the edge of the forest, and I stopped about two yards away from the treeline.

There they were. In their dark leathers, they stood out, clear as day. One had a long mane of shaggy, dark blonde hair and the other was wearing a black beanie. One wore a plain leather jacket, the other had a flaming skull emblazoned on the back. These were my guys all right. I knelt carefully and felt my whole body going still and calm as I prepared to do the worst, putting the rifle to my shoulder and the scope to my eye.

They were maybe twenty yards away, side by side, walking slowly, bullshitting about something. I waited for just a few seconds as I got the scope on the back of the dark blonde’s head, a tickle of doubt worming its way into my skull.

Then I caught a snippet of conversation.

“...just like that stupid bitch we found last month and beat the shit out of. Goddamn she was a hot fuck!”

“Yeah, too bad we had to kill her.”

Okay, that was more than enough for me.

He’d barely finished the sentence before I squeezed the trigger. In my scope, his head exploded, spraying the other man with blood and gore and tufts of long, stringy, dark blonde hair. The second guy didn’t even get a chance to scream. He jumped to the side, issuing a shout of surprise, and as I zeroed my sights in on him, he just looked down at his now dead partner, like he couldn’t fathom what in the hell had happened.

I squeezed the trigger again.

He went down as his head popped and blood sprayed the glistening white snow.

I waited, listening to the last of the crack from the rifle going off finish echoing away over the icebound landscape.

Somewhere, a bird called, high and lonely.

Nothing happened. No one shouting, no return fire from anywhere. Just the cold and the death. With a soft sigh, I began walking forward. All I could hear was my boots in the snow and, occasionally, the call of that bird, somewhere in the dead woods. Nothing else. As I cleared the trees and approached the two corpses, trying not to focus on the pattern the blood made in the snow, I realized that from this side, I had a much better view of this observation platform that I’d been hearing so much about lately. It was big.

Maybe a couple miles distant, near the center of the region, sat the frozen lake. A hill on the east side of the lake rose a few hundred feet up, casting a shadow over that area. Built into the side of the hill was a building with a big wooden deck, a platform, overlooking the whole area. It was hard to tell, but it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. They might not have a perfect view of the town, or at least the area of the town all the people were in. Although I wouldn’t know for sure until I was standing up there myself.

And I intended to, at some point in the near future.

Of course, by then it would be a moot point, because if I was standing up there, they wouldn’t be. But right now, I didn’t see any activity at all out on the deck. I would kill for some binoculars though. I stripped the thieves down, taking every last thing they had on them, clothes and all. Couldn’t afford to waste anything out here. Unfortunately, they didn’t have much on them. They each had a pistol, no spare ammo, some hand-rolled cigarettes and a single lighter between them, some matches, a bag of nuts and dried fruit, a switchblade, and, I shit you not, one of them had a fucking severed doll’s head in his pocket.

I left that behind. It could either be really fucking creepy or really fucking depressing, the reason for why he had it, or just fucking strange, but either way I didn’t need it and neither did anyone else. Otherwise, they had nothing else useful.

As I finished packing the stuff into my pack, I looked at the pair of pale corpses for a long, long moment.

“This is getting too easy,” I finally muttered, zipping up my pack and pulling it back on.

As I got back to my feet, a particularly cold gust of wind hit me and I looked up. Clouds were coming in, dark gray ones.

“Fuck,” I whispered, and took off back to the house.

~

“I think it’s gonna snow,” were the first words out of my mouth as soon as the front door opened and Lisa lowered the pistol she was holding when she saw it was me.

“You sure?” she asked, stepping out onto the porch with me and looking up at the sky.

“Decently.”

“Goddamnit,” she muttered. “Did you take care of them?”

“They’re dead,” I replied flatly.

“All right then. Help me with the gear.”

I followed her and looked around. The house was old but nice, or had been nice at one point. Coming into a living room, I saw Leonard putting out a fire in the fireplace while the woman was tending to a pale, shivering teenager stretched out on the couch. He looked bad. And being around him while sick wasn’t a great idea, even with a good immune system like I had. I couldn’t afford even a mild sickness right now.

“Can he walk?” I asked.

“We’ve got a sled,” Lisa replied. “It’ll have to do.”

I expected the teen to jump to his own defense, I remembered how fucking desperate I used to be to make sure anyone questioning me knew how capable I was, but either he was less of a shithead than I and most other people had once been in our youth, or he was even more fucked up than he looked. If his fever was high enough, he’d be in a sorry state.

“Then let’s hurry, we really don’t want to be out there if it snows bad enough,” I said.

Lisa nodded. “Come here.”

We went into the kitchen, where I saw a table of stuff, mostly cans of food. “Someone used to live here?” I asked as I started shoving whatever I could into my already straining pack.

“No, it was an emergency cache,” she replied. “I wish we’d added more to it but you know what they say about wishing.”

“They say a lot of things about wishing,” I muttered. Once my pack was filled up, I zipped it shut again and shrugged it back on. When Lisa was done, she did the same and we returned to the living room. The woman was gone and Leonard was talking quietly to, I’m guessing, his son. I went back to the window and looked outside, watching for wolves, raiders, or snow while I waited for them to finish up with their tasks.

Mercifully, I saw nothing at all while they did, and we were still in the clear by the time the mom came back with the sled and we got the kid loaded up onto it and swaddled in blankets. With that out of the way, we set off, me in the lead with the rifle, Lisa covering our back, and the two parents handling the sled through the trees.

~

It was a long and miserable, but uneventful, walk back through the snow.

We managed to make it through the forest and maybe a third of the way across the plain between its edge and the town before the first brittle flakes began to fall. The snowfall was thin, thankfully. The winds were bitterly cold, but not strong. Luck or something else continued to stay with us as we kept walking, the snow staying thin and weak enough for us to make it back to what remained of Pine Lake without a problem.

By the time we got home, my head was aching, and not just physically.

“You got anything unpleasant that needs doing?” I asked Lisa as soon as we’d offloaded the family by what had once been a cafe, I think, that was now serving as their infirmary.

“I’d send you back out to look for people, but…” She glanced skywards.

“Yeah, I think we’re in for the day,” I replied. “I’ve seen storms like this. Decent chance it’ll get just worse enough to kill visibility and it’ll probably last into the night. I think it’s a slow burn storm. But you got anything else?”

She studied me for a moment. “Why unpleasant?”

“Because I’m in an unpleasant mood and if I’m already miserable, then I might as well be doing work that’s miserable,” I replied. She gave me that appraising look and I sighed. “I killed three people today, Lisa. I might’ve done it easily, but I didn’t do it lightly.”

She pursed her lips, then nodded. “If you truly want an unpleasant task...we have a few teams coming and going from the remains of the city, looking for supplies and for...the dead. It’s dangerous work, and probably the most unpleasant thing we have to do. If you don’t want to do that, though, there’s other jobs-”

“It’s fine,” I replied. “Where can I find one of these teams?”

“They use one of the apartments as a rest area.”

“Okay, tell me where to drop this stuff off and then I’ll hop to it.”

“Come on, I’ll go with you,” she replied.

~

The rest of that day was long, cold, and miserable.

Well, almost all of it, anyway.

Lisa brought me to a building where they were gathering supplies and I emptied my pack of all the stuff I’d found out there. With a much lighter load, I followed her down to the end of the road where the apartment building stood. There, we went into the first apartment on the ground floor, where a group of four people were preparing for what looked like a cold weather emergency expedition. She introduced me, we all swapped names, and then we were heading back out into the cold. Into the dark, broken city of the dead.

It was a nightmare environment.

The smoke had mostly died off by now but you could still taste it in the air. Pretty much all of the buildings had fire damage of some kind. Some had just been scorched, with holes in their walls now, others had been reduced to piles of charred lumber and ash and twisted metal. We worked our way through the settlement, going off a map they had. There were three teams of four, each assigned a different building.

They were basically clearing the area building by building, searching for corpses or anything that might be useful to their own continued survival.

They hadn’t made it very far, but it had been less than a day.

I worked. I pondered.

Like computers that mostly no longer functioned, my body ran on autopilot while other programs ran in the background, sorting themselves out.

At first, the team was a bit wary of me, but I hardly noticed. I was too distracted by my own thoughts and my own desire to just throw myself at some big, ugly task. Once they realized I not only would but could do the jobs, they relaxed. Most of what we were doing was going into rooms and carefully hunting through them. The first structure we entered was an old grocery store that had been turned into food storage.

It was painful to see the place gutted by fire. The flames had raged through here bad and the ceiling had collapsed in several places, allowing snow in. The storm had picked up enough that it would be dangerous to leave the city limits, but not enough to hinder this kind of work. I picked my way slowly among the debris and through the back rooms, checking for survivors or anything that might be at all useful.

Mostly I didn’t find much of anything. A lot of it had been outright destroyed by the fire. But sometimes I’d find an intact can or jar of something and add it to my pack. While this was happening, I thought about things.

Mostly murder, and the act of doing it.

I’d killed more people in the last month than I had during the entire apocalypse up until then, and I suppose I was having a lot of trouble with that. It bothered me, of course it did. I wasn’t a sociopath, and we have empathy for a reason. It’s ironic, our caveman brains are hardwired to kill, making the actual act in that moment easier, and yet we have no real mechanism for the emotional fallout of actually having murdered someone.

You just had to live with it.

Some people could, some people couldn’t.

I guess I was lucky. I could.

Ultimately, I realized two things were bugging me. The first was nothing quite new: what bothered me was how much it didn’t. I guess I felt like I should be more upset after straight up murdering three people. I mean, the first guy was in-the-moment self defense, no questions there. He totally would’ve blown my brains out if I hadn’t done the same thing to him. That was easier to parse. I’d shot those two other guys in the back.

Well, of the head, but same principle.

I felt bad but not that bad. I’d probably have nightmares tonight but that was normal. I guess, what did I want? To be a shambling wreck who could hardly function? To be so wracked with guilt over it that I broke down? Why? Where would that get anyone? Who the fuck would it help? If it was useless, then why did I get the impression I’d feel less like a monster if I did have some kind of a breakdown?

It was fucking stupid but again, nothing new, exactly.

No, it was the second thing that was really bugging me.

I kept coming back to the notion that my kill count had jumped dramatically just recently. I suppose it would be easy to somehow blame it on the women who had come into my life, but when hadn’t there been at least one woman in my life? I guess outside of week-long stretches, maybe a few weeks at most.

No, it was something else, and it was something I was going to have to take responsibility for.

Because I had made the decision to be more proactive. To help people. To get more involved in the world around me. And given the nature of the world around me, and my own skillset, I was going to have to face the reality that getting more involved meant committing more murder. Not only that, there were a lot of ways to help, but one of the ways that would pop up more often than not would be: I would encounter someone who either needed killing, or who would force my hand, because way too many shitheads were out there now who were willing to either commit awful acts, or murder people, or both.

I wasn’t comfortable with my role as judge, jury, and executioner all in one, but practically speaking, I was going to have to accept it, comfortable or not.

And that was something I hadn’t quite connected, at least not like I was now.

Helping more people meant killing more people.

It was ugly and miserable and I hated it.

And I wasn’t entirely sure if I was ready to face this new reality. Of course, that wasn’t a luxury I had at the moment. I was already committed, and I had no real reason to back out. In fact, I had a ton of reasons not to.

Maybe the thing that was really bothering me the most of all was the fact that there was a part of me, and not an insignificant part, that wanted to hunt those assholes down and put a bullet in their heads. Picking through the remains of the fire, especially when I find a pair of badly burned corpses at one point, only fueled this even more. These shits clearly had been operating on a fucking power high, thinking they’re so fucking great and everyone just needs to bow down to them. Honestly, fuck them. They deserved to die, especially if they were going to keep doing this kind of stuff. And if it had to be done, then why not me?

By the time I’d worn myself down mentally, I’d just about done so physically as well. Me and the team I’d been assigned to worked until the sun was starting to dip behind the horizon. We managed to clear out the entire grocery store, and a smaller building that could’ve been anything, before heading home for the night.

I was beat, and looking forward to sleep. It had been hard work, exactly what I’d been hoping for. I wouldn’t say I’d solved my problems, but I’d figured them out at least, and exhausted them for the moment, which could be as good as solving them in the short run.

As I headed back into what remained of Pine Lake, I wanted to just go home and see the women in my life. I was sorely tempted to, actually. I was horny, starving, and exhausted, and I was missing them. Also...I wanted to see how they’d react to me, given the last time we’d actually interacted, I might have scared at least one of them off, maybe two.

But first, I decided that I needed to go see Lisa.

EIGHT

“Lisa.”

She looked up from the desk she sat behind, startled. I’d finally found her tucked away in the boiler room in the basement of the apartment building. It was an interesting place for an office, isolated enough, I guess, if you wanted somewhere quiet to work. There wasn’t much there. The boiler itself took up one corner. A metal drum with the sullen glow of a low fire sat in another corner, beneath the only window in the room, one of those little slit windows high up by the ceiling. It was open, letting the smoke out into the night air. There were a few chairs stacked beside a very old couch along the other side of the room.

The couch was where I imagined Lisa slept, as it had some pillows and blankets heaped on it. Her desk was a mess of paper and the remains of meals.

“Chris,” she said. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” I replied. “I’m done with my job. We found some food and three corpses today, cleared out two buildings. Not much else, unfortunately.”

“What kind of shape were they in?” she asked.

“Two were bad, one mostly intact. They said they’d take them to the usual place?”

“Yes, we’re storing our dead for now.” She sighed and set down the pencil she’d been holding. Sitting back, she rubbed at her eyes. “You want something.” It wasn’t a question. “You might as well have a seat.”

“Thanks,” I murmured. I was beat. I wanted to sleep now, honestly, but there was still more to do before sleep. I’d been considering how to approach this next part. “So, I do want something. I want to be a little more involved in helping out here. I want more information. I want a look at the bigger picture and I think, if I’m going to be taking on the tasks of rescuing and hunting humans, I deserve that information.”

She looked at me for awhile, that appraising look again. It was becoming familiar.

“I think by now you trust my motives, and you probably trust my judgment and my abilities, within reason,” I continued.

She sighed finally and popped her neck. “I guess I do,” she replied. “Trust doesn’t come naturally to me, even less so now. But you make fair points. You proved that today.” She sat forward suddenly. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

“First, give me an idea of what we’re working with, in terms of supplies, people, and the buildings we have left.”

“Fair enough.” She shifted through the papers and pulled up a hand-drawn map that I immediately recognized as the buildings that were left standing. I looked down at it as she began pointing and explaining.

Five on the south side, four on the north.

“Starting here,” she said, pointing to the southwestern most building, “where we’re at now. The apartment buildings. They serve as headquarters, living quarters, and watchtower. We’re full up now, but if we absolutely have to, we can have people squeeze in a bit more. I’d rather not have to, though. Next door to us is the bait shop. That’s one of our infirmaries, where the injured are kept. People who have broken bones, concussions, anything that’s a physical injury. There’s about a dozen people there right now, resting up, healing. Some are going to be there for awhile. Next down the line is the old pet shop. We started using it to store our dead and pretty much have just kept it frozen and kept putting dead bodies in there. Soon, I intend to create a graveyard behind it, so that we can start burying the dead and having funerals.”

She stopped, sighed, shook her head. “What a long fucking week that’ll be.” She pressed on. “Next to that is the old cafe. That is our second infirmary, where the sick are being held. People with any kind of sickness are kept in isolation there. Or as isolated as we can manage. God fucking knows we don’t need sickness spreading. We’ve got masks and we’re doing our best to keep them separate and get them antibiotics and whatever else they need but it’s...not a good situation right now. Finally, the gas station. We’re starting to put more dead there, because the pet shop is filling up.”

She shifted her hand to the north side now, directly across from the gas station where we had initially met. “The restaurant. That’s where all of our food is stored and prepped, where all the meals come out of, or the people go to get them. We’ve got a system in check to make sure everyone gets their fair share and no more, and someone I trust in charge of checking and upholding it consistently. Next down the line there is the general store. All of our spare firewood and any extra supplies go in there. It’s under constant guard. Then there’s the motel, where we’re putting the extras who can’t fit in the apartment building. Finally, there’s the old bookstore. Presently, we’re in the process of transforming it into a place for more people to live in, at least for now. We’re good for room for the moment but I anticipate at least some more people coming and it would be nice not to be packed in like sardines.”

“Okay,” I murmured, thinking it over. “Where are we at with food?”

She sighed and shifted through the papers for a moment. “I just got this report from my person who runs the restaurant. Based on what we’ve got left, even after the boosts from the excursions, the wolves you killed, whatever was found in the city today...altogether, we’ve got maybe three days of consistent meals left. Even with the current rationing.”

“Jesus,” I whispered.

“Yeah. We’ve been finding enough in the ruins today that I’m not too immediately concerned, but long-term? We’re in trouble. The two buildings where we kept big stores of food burned down to the foundation. They were one of the hardest hit. And the few others we had spare food in were also hit decently hard, it seems.”

“Goddamn. Medicine?”

“We’re in a bad state there, too. We need antibiotics more than anything else, but we’re short on damn near everything. We’ll start feeling the burn on that tomorrow night, at the rate we’re going through supplies.”

“What about people?”

She sighed and opened up a book bound in red leather. “This is the ledger,” she said. “My previous boss was surprisingly meticulous about keeping track of who was living in her city, so thankfully, we have a pretty accurate record of all the people. Before the fire, there were a grand total of two hundred and six people living in Pine Lake. As of today, one hundred and sixteen have been accounted for, dead or alive, and three more according to your latest report, although I’m not sure if we’ll be able to identify those two burned up bodies.” She sighed.

“Right now, we have sixty five survivors and fifty four corpses, which is probably the bulk of the survivors, but that leaves eighty seven people who could theoretically still be alive out there somewhere. Though again, I severely doubt more than maybe ten of them are alive and well outside of the city. Though maybe that’s my pessimism talking.” She sighed and closed the ledger. “And that number incorporates you and your girlfriends, in case you think my math was off. Out of those sixty five, we’ve got twenty who are injured or sick, six healthy children who can only do so much, two people too old to do much physical labor, and four emotionally traumatized people who simply cannot help right now. Which means we have thirty three people doing the bulk of the labor, and that includes you, your girlfriends, me, and the healthy people you found today.”

I sat there considering that for a moment. That wasn’t many people, given all that needed to be done right now, and the various threats.

“So we need more people,” I murmured.

“Right now, yes. Although we also desperately need more food and medicine, and we also need those assholes dead, so that we can get those things,” Lisa replied.

“Who’s Mel?” I asked. “A doctor, I’m guessing.”

“Melanie, yes. Our town doctor. She’s gone missing. Like Lindsay, she left sometime this morning. I think she went looking for survivors as well, or maybe to track down an important medical stash she has somewhere. Either way, we’ve yet to hear back from her. We need to find her, and soon,” Lisa replied.

I nodded. Fuck, a lot to do.

“Regretting getting the bigger picture?” she asked with a wan smile.

“It’s just making me tired more than anything,” I muttered. “God, what a nightmare.”

“Tell me about it.”

I thought about it for a long moment, looking at the map, at the papers scattered across her desk, trying to figure how best I fit into this whole mess.

Finally, I spoke.

“I’m best as a doer,” I said, and she let out a sharp laugh unexpectedly. “Not like that.”

“Apparently like that. Those three are really hot and they like you a lot. But go on,” she replied.

I sighed. “My point is, I’m put to best use by going out and doing stuff. Which I think you saw in me when you sent me out this morning. For whatever reason, that’s where I’m most effective, and that’s where I can make the biggest impact. For now, I think I should hit up the other likeliest locations, see if anyone’s there, and get them back here. And, if at all possible, I’ll track down the doctor and see if I can figure out what she’s up to, let her know she’s desperately needed back here. And once I gather up the people...I guess I’ll go after the raiders. Unless you’ve got some kind of a magic fix for food?” I asked.

“We kind of do, actually,” Lisa said. She got out her map of the whole area and pointed to a region far to the northwest of the town, past the lake. “This spot, here,” she said, tapping the point in the far corner of the map, “there’s a frozen pond where we go ice fishing and there’s also a good square mile or so of land that, for whatever reason, is particularly fertile and those ultra-seeds they spread around with the drones really took to. There’s tons of fruits and vegetables up there for harvesting. If we can get there safely again…”

“Good point. Well, killing the raiders should solve that problem. I’ll get to it.” I stood up, then hesitated. “Although I’ll be needing two things, considering the value of the work I’m offering.”

“I’m listening.”

“More ammo. I’m fine with the guns I’ve got, although I would like some cleaning tools, but I will need more ammo. I also want Megan to come with me. I get shit done but so does she, and two of us out there in the field with be extremely effective.”

Lisa considered it for a long, silent moment, then nodded. “Okay, fine. You’ll have what you need ready to go tomorrow. Stop by the lobby of this building tomorrow morning, before you head out, I’ll make sure you have the ammo you need. As for tools…” She reached down, opened a drawer, fumbled around in it for a bit, then pulled out a small kit and set it down. “Those are mine, so be careful with them and give them back when you’re done tomorrow.”

“I will,” I promised. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.”

I accepted the tools and slipped the kit into my pocket, then stretched and popped my back and neck. “Fuck it’s been a long day.”

“Yes, and there’s more ahead of us,” Lisa murmured unhappily.

“You should probably get some sleep.”

“So should you,” she replied. “Megan and Elizabeth should be off duty by now. And…” she paused, considered something, then scribbled something down on a slip of paper, tore it off, and handed it to me, “if you want, you can swing by the infirmaries. I’m not sure which one Delilah is in, but if things aren’t terrible there, that’s a go home early card, so you can take her home.”

“Thanks,” I said again. I hesitated for a moment, then said, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Chris. See you bright and early.”

I turned and headed to the door, but stopped and looked back over my shoulder as I got to it. I saw her smiling a somewhat uncharacteristic smile, which she immediately lost and then began to blush. It was so startling that I forgot what I was going to say.

“Yeah?” she asked, now sounding annoyed.

“Uh...nothing,” I replied, then turned back and walked away.

Was she into me?

Couldn’t be. Although I didn’t think she was old, she had to have a minimum of a decade on me, but very possibly two.

Then again...so had Hazel, and she’d obviously been into me, even after finding out I was twenty one years her junior. Although how common was that? I know cougars were a cliché, but how common was it actually? Women seemed to be into guys older than them...I guess until they got older? Then it probably flipped…

Why was I thinking about this?

I guess because I was actually on the market and, if she was into me, I could totally fuck her. And I definitely wanted to.

I really wanted to, I was finding, now that I actually was thinking about what she might look like naked and how great she might be in bed.

But she’d been married, had kids. She was a full-on adult, basically running a town, and I was...I mean, I was an adult too, there was no denying that at this point, but it didn’t feel the same. I was freaking twenty five. I didn’t feel young, not anymore, but I felt young next to her. Ah shit, I’d deal with this later, or never.

When it came to someone like Lisa, I was intimidated enough to let her make the first move.

Or maybe not, maybe I’d make a pass later, when things weren’t so crazy.

I stepped out of the apartment building into the cold night and looked around. Pine Lake had a surprisingly calming ambiance and atmosphere to it right now. The sun was basically gone, the night sky barely visible overhead. The snow had calmed down a bit, fat flakes falling in perfect silence, coating everything.

This was the kind of snow I think people used to envision when they thought of Christmas.

Several fires burned on the street in trashcans, a few people stopped by them, warming up in between walking among buildings if they could afford the time, sharing conversation. There was activity behind several windows. The place actually felt alive. It was nice to be here, as much as I could prefer intense isolation at times.

I decided to check the injured infirmary first, given it was both the nearest structure and I was less likely to get sick there. Walking up to the front door, I peered inside through the window. What had she said it used to be? A bait shop? If that was the case, it had definitely been cleared out entirely at some point, as there was no indication it had been anything but a generic structure. I saw curtains hung at regular intervals between beds, some of them pretty makeshift, some literally just mattresses on the floor.

Not ideal, but better than nothing.

I walked inside and got a better look around. The interior was warm, almost uncomfortably so. There were ten spots to either side of me, each one divided by a curtain or a sheet or a blanket, anything they could find, usually hung from the ceiling with nails. Most of the beds were occupied. I saw several people with their legs splinted. Two people with their heads wrapped. Someone with an arm splinted. Someone covered in bandages. Things seemed quiet. I saw someone sitting at the back of the room behind a desk, an older man with glasses and a mostly bald head. Three others, two women and a man, all younger, were moving around, checking the people. Delilah was one of them. I felt such relief when I saw the way her tired face lit up when she saw me.

“Chris, is everything okay?” she asked.

“Fine,” I replied. “Found some more people. Are things quiet here?” I asked.

“They seem to be.”

“Then I’m going to try and get you out,” I said.

“Oh no, you don’t have to...I don’t want you to cause problems for me…”

“It’s okay,” I replied, pulling out the paper Lisa had given me. “Boss’s orders. She says you can come home if things are quiet here. I’m guessing he’s your boss?” I asked, nodding to the older man, who was scrutinizing us now.

“Yeah.”

“Be right back. Also, I’m sorry, but I haven’t found Lindsay yet, or any sign of her.”

“Oh...all right. Well, if you can get me off work, I’d like that.”

Without really thinking about it, I said, “I can definitely get you off.”

She smiled suddenly. “I know,” she murmured.

I headed over to the older guy. “Hi, I’m Chris. I’ve got a note from Lisa here that says if things are calm enough, I can take Delilah home for the night,” I said, producing the note.

He took it and scrutinized it, then looked like he might want to argue. And then he just sighed and nodded, handing the note back. “Yeah, it’s quiet enough. You her boyfriend?” he asked.

“...more or less,” I replied. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.”

I headed back over to Delilah. “Okay, get your coat and let’s go home for the night.”

“Thank you,” she said, giving me a quick kiss before hurrying off. I moved back over to the door, and a moment later, she came back with her coat on. We headed outside into the cold and began walking towards the restaurant.

I was starving.

But I stopped in the middle of the street, out of earshot of anyone else, and she noticed and stopped with me.

“What’s up?” she asked.

This was bugging me too much. “Are we...okay?”

For a few seconds, she looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Earlier...when I killed that guy...you looked really fucking scared…”

“Oh.” She looked down briefly. “I just...I was. You really freaked me out. I was...yeah, I was kind of scared. I’d never seen you like that before. And I mean, there was a part of me that just kind of wondered…”

“What?” I asked.

“What if I found myself on the end of that anger one day?” she asked. That hurt, but it was a fair reaction. She stepped closer suddenly and took my hands. “But I thought about it, really thought about it, and...I trust you, Chris. I don’t honestly believe you could do that to me. Not just because you like fucking me or something, but because I really think that you would only do that to someone evil. And I don’t think I’m a fucking saint or anything, but I know I’m not evil, and I don’t associate with evil people. And, bottom line: I trust you. So we’re okay. Don’t worry about it. I don’t want you to be worried about this.”

“If you’re sure,” I said.

“I’m sure,” she replied firmly. “Chris, what you’ve done for me...look, I’ve said it before, and I meant it: my door will always be open to you. Like, forever.” She paused, and then a mischievous look came onto her face, like she couldn’t help it, and she added, “My legs, too. They’ll always been open for you.”

I laughed and the tension broke.

“Okay. I’m sorry you had to see it, though,” I said.

“Me too, but that isn’t your fault. That dickhead got what he deserved.” She kissed me again, then shivered suddenly. “Can we eat? And get inside? I’m starving.”

“Me too. Let’s grab some food and go home.”

NINE

I was glad to find that the process of getting food was pretty basic.

There was a ledger, a large one. Basically each day was a page that had a list of names down one side and three columns across the rest of the page. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. You had to sign your initials each time you got a meal. Crude, but effective, I thought. Provided the person running it was effective. And the older, stern-faced woman with gray hair and a heavy black sweater that vaguely reminded me of a librarian seemed pretty effective. We each got deer meat and lettuce sandwiches and thermoses of vegetable soup.

A quick glance at the ledger revealed Megan and Elizabeth had already gotten dinner at some point. We took our meals back to the motel and I knocked twice on the door. There was a pause, and then the door unlocked and it opened up, and a smiling Megan greeted me.

“You’re back, finally. Christ, I was starting to worry,” she said as she made room for us.

“Long day,” I replied as we came in.

“And they finally let you off?” Megan asked.

“Chris got Lisa to write me a note,” Delilah replied.

Megan shut and locked the door behind us.

“What’d you do, go down on her?” Megan asked.

I laughed. “No. She offered.”

“What, to go down on you?”

“No! To write the note. Lemme just...eat, okay?” I replied, feeling the fatigue catching up with me. I set my stuff down, took off my pack and my coat, and looked around the room. It was already scattered with our stuff, and it was cozy and pleasantly warm.

It already felt like home.

Elizabeth was laying on the bed, the remains of her own meal on the floor beside her. She smiled at me. “Hey.”

“Hi.” I sat down on the bed with her and started eating after grabbing a bottle of water for myself. “How are you?”

“Good. Tired,” she replied.

I wanted to have a similar talk with her as I had with Delilah, but when I started eating, I found that I couldn’t stop. I really was fucking starving. So I tore through the sandwich and finished off the soup pretty fast. I was still hungry when I was done, but I knew that the hunger would calm down and go away once the food had a chance to settle a little.

Finally, I turned to Elizabeth.

“I need to talk with you about something,” I said.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Did I, uh, freak you out earlier? I want to know if you’re...worried, or anything.”

She bit her lip and blushed suddenly, not quite meeting my eyes.

“Elizabeth,” I said, unable to keep the words from coming out, “I would never hurt you-”

“Oh no!” she replied immediately, looking back at me now. “No, Chris, no, it’s not that. I don’t-I’m not scared of you. What you did...I mean, it startled me, to be sure, but the whole thing startled me. Scared me. No, Chris, you saved my life, and you may have gone a little overboard, but I’m not scared of you. That isn’t, uh, the problem.”

“So there is a problem?” I asked uncertainly.

“Yes, but not with you. It’s a, um, it’s a personal problem.” I waited. She looked at me, then over at Megan and Delilah. Then sighed. “Well, you’ve all seen me naked and had sex with me by now, I guess I can share my personal problems in front of you…”

“We’re not going to laugh at you or anything,” Megan said.

“Yeah, you know you can trust us, Elizabeth,” Delilah said, sitting down closer to her and taking one of her hands. “What’s wrong?”

She was blushing worse now, or maybe it was just because she was so naturally pale, like Delilah. It was so obvious when they blushed.

A lot of people were pale nowadays.

She sighed. “I’m...embarrassed. By the, uh...reaction I had, to what Chris did.”

“Being startled? Because it even startled me,” Megan said. She looked at me. “Also, no, we’re cool. I don’t think you’re going to be punch my skull in or anything.”

“Uh...thanks,” I replied.

“Not startled,” Elizabeth said. “When it happened, I was...uh…”

“What?” Delilah asked.

She hesitated for another twenty seconds or so before finally sighing. “I was horny. It turned me on. What you did.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Yes. And I feel like...I mean, that’s fucked up right? So many fucking assholes think beating the shit out of someone is supposed to be so hot to most women, but really it’s not, it’s just terrifying. And I mean it was, at first, but then it just...it really got me going for you. I mean, what the fuck does that say about me?”

“Elizabeth,” Delilah said, “it’s honestly not that uncommon. I mean you’re mostly right: alpha bros being violent douchebags are bullshit and they shouldn’t be rewarded for that shitty behavior, starting fights over fucking nothing just to look tough, but...sometimes violence is called for. And I mean I remember there being a fair amount of science about fear and lust being linked. Like sometimes they activate the same part of the brain, I think? I don’t know, I can’t remember the specifics, but it can happen, and we don’t get to choose what makes us horny.”

“That’s the thing, I’ve never been turned on by violence before. Like ever. Even when my husband was being an asshole and getting into fights every now and then, I just hated it and honestly it turned me off. But today…”

“Maybe it was because Chris was saving your life?” Megan suggested.

“Or maybe it was just because it was Chris,” Delilah said. “I mean, you obviously really like him.”

“Yeah…” She looked at me. “How do you feel about that?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’d rather not go looking for excuses to be violent, but on the other hand...fucking you is awesome. So I guess...I’ll take it?”

She laughed. “I’m glad you think so.”

“I know so,” I replied. I took a moment and rubbed at my eyes. “Megan, you’ve got a new job,” I said, moving on to the next thing.

“What?” she asked cautiously.

“You’re with me. We’re going to rescue and/or kill people.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

“Yes. That’s the last thing I wanted to talk about before I fuck all three of you and go the fuck to sleep.” And because I liked to multitask, I got up and started stripping, preparing to wash up. “I talked with Lisa. Got her to agree to promote me, basically.”

“That was fast,” Elizabeth murmured.

I sighed. “I think she’s just desperate for help and she wants to believe I’m the man for the job. She doesn’t seem to actually have a second in command. And she seems really overwhelmed. Honestly, I’m surprised she’s done as well as she has. It hasn’t even been two days since the fire happened and she’s managed to get all this set up. But she can’t burn that brightly for much longer, I think. So we’re going to help as much as we can. She’s going to allow you to back me up, Megan. We’re going to check some likely places for other survivors, help them if they need help, and then we’re going to go after the raiders and kill them. They’re the biggest threat right now. If we can get them out of the way, the rest of this will be a lot easier.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Megan murmured, staring at the fireplace now as I finished undressing and began washing up. “Okay, yeah, I’m down for this. These guys need to go and I’d much rather be tromping around out there with you, getting shit done, than standing guard all day. I appreciate downtime but this is going to get old fast.”

“How are things going with you two?” I asked, looking at Delilah and Elizabeth.

“It’s okay, I guess,” Delilah replied. “I mean, I wasn’t exactly looking to have a job as a nurse when I got here, but it isn’t difficult and I like helping people. It’s easy enough, although it’s kind of brutal sometimes. And things are bad with medicine...painkillers are going to run out soon.” She looked at me. “Chris, you have to find more meds. And a real doctor. They say there’s supposed to be an actual doctor living in town but she’s missing…”

“Melanie,” I replied. “Yeah, I know about her. I’ll be keeping an eye out for her as well as Lindsay. And more meds, too. Don’t worry, we’ll get it taken care of. And soon...hopefully, anyway. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.” I looked at Elizabeth.

“I’m fine,” she said. “I mean, I’m tired a lot, but that’s normal. That trip really took it out of me, but this work is way easier on me physically compared to those days of walking. And I like cooking, honestly. It’s relaxing. So I’m honestly happy where I am. I mean, considering the circumstances.”

“How are you about what happened today?”

She sighed. “I’m still kind of shaken up but I’m mostly calm again. I think my capacity to move past insane shit quickly has increased a lot since the end of the world. I’ll probably have some nightmares, but there’s a chance of that every night nowadays. Now...can we fuck? Please? I’m still so fucking horny, I just want to be pounded from the back.”

“I can do that,” I replied, finishing with my washing. I moved over to her and helped her begin getting out of her clothes.

“You gonna have enough energy for all of us?” Megan asked.

“I think so,” I replied. I yawned. “Probably.”

“Well, we should probably get started with each other then,” Megan said, walking up and cupping Delilah’s breasts in her hands.

“I really like the sound of that,” Delilah replied with a smile, and they kissed.

I soon had all of Elizabeth’s clothes off and I eagerly got into bed with her, happily running my hands over that wonderfully pregnant body of hers. Her big, soft, warm breasts and her thick thighs and her pleasantly padded ass. Her skin was fantastically soft and hot today, and her lips were like fire as she pressed them desperately to my own. I kissed her back, and soon she had her tongue in my mouth and I had my finger in her pussy.

I fingered her, finding her crazily wet, soon slipping two fingers into that tight pussy of hers, very much wanting to get something else inside of there. She broke the kiss after a long moment, crying out, and I took the opportunity to suck on her tits.

There was an intense, deep pleasure in sucking on those big, pregnant breasts of hers.

Delilah and Megan were soon naked and joining us in bed, writhing around together as they embraced and kissed and groped and pleasured each other. I got Elizabeth off after hardly half a minute and her back arched as she let out a cry of bliss, her thighs tensing, legs spreading as she orgasmed around my fingers, getting even wetter and hotter. She put one hand over her mouth, now that we were back in civilization, and I listened to her muffled screams of blissful ecstasy as she heaved and I sucked on her perfect pink nipples.

When she was finished, she fell back, panting. “Fuck me, now,” she groaned.

“Okay, get up,” I replied, pulling my fingers out of her.

I was sure horny enough to skip any other foreplay.

I helped her rearrange herself, which was really just more of an excuse to touch her more at this point, and then she was on her hands and knees and I was behind her, looking down at that sweet, pale ass of hers.

Fuck me did she have a great ass.

It was so exaggerated in a way, because she had such an otherwise petite frame. It looked so awesomely thick and padded, as did her hips and thighs. Her pussy was a perfect glistening pink slit between her thighs and I rested my cock at its entrance. I could feel that fucking heat and she moaned and shuddered as I made contact.

Then I pushed inside of her.

“Ohhhh fuck!” she moaned, hanging her head as I slid into her. “Fucking sh-yes!” she cried as I gripped her hips and started fucking her. “Fuck, I keep forgetting how big you are...YES! OH YES!” she screamed as I got all the way in and began stroking smoothly into her.

“You have got to be more quiet,” I groaned.

“I can’t-ah!-help it!”

She buried her face in a pillow and screamed into it as I started hitting it harder. I knew how she felt, I couldn’t stop fucking this sweet, perfect pussy either. After today, it felt so fucking good. I had been having a lot of sex recently, and with Elizabeth even, but even so this just felt amazing. I felt myself becoming utterly lost in this pregnant vagina, in her voluptuous body, in her perfect wet heat, the way her pussy was so tight around my shaft.

“That is never not amazingly hot to watch,” Megan murmured, then moaned loudly.

I looked over. She was on her back with her legs open and Delilah was going down on her. They both looked so intensely erotic that I almost started shooting my load into Elizabeth. It was through sheer will that I managed not to.

Women doing sexual things with other women was an intense and powerfully erotic thing to see, for me at least.

I kept pounding that pussy, sliding my cock in and out of it, shifting my attention between Elizabeth bent over and screaming into a pillow and the fucking beautiful shape her hips and ass made, and Megan and Delilah fucking. Delilah made Megan orgasm with her skilled tongue and fingers at roughly the same time I achieved a second one in Elizabeth, ramming my cock deep and hard into her. Oh fucking shit that was so good…

I lost it about halfway through her full-body orgasm, crying out and hunching over, my body going into autopilot as the climax took over. I started coming fucking hard into that hot, raw pussy. I could feel a huge gush of my seed coming out of me in that first contraction, my dick jerking violently inside of her, and then again and again as more of it spilled out and filled her up. I pumped one load after another into her, draining my nuts into her and enjoying every blissful, ecstasy-filled, mind-numbing second of orgasm that we shared.

At some point, I had nothing left to give, and when my cock was done dry-kicking, I pulled out of her and staggered to my feet.

“Ugh...get me something,” she groaned as she curled onto her side. “You came sooooo much, Chris.”

“Yeah,” I managed, my head swimming from lethargy and post-orgasmic bliss. I found a rag, wet it, and passed it to her before sitting down heavily at the foot of the bed.

“Hey, why don’t you come here and let us take turns riding you before you pass out?” Delilah suggested. “I want to fuck your dick at least once before I sleep.”

“Good idea,” I replied.

As Elizabeth cleaned herself up, I crawled over to the other two ladies in my bed, and laid down between them. Megan started kissing me while Delilah got on top of me, and I groaned at the intense burst of pleasure as she took my slowly softening cock into her pussy and started fucking it. I hardened right back up and grabbed her hips.

This was definitely the best thing in the whole world to come home to.

TEN

“Oh my God! Oh fuck! Oh Chris!” Delilah cried.

“You like that, you little fucking slut?” I half groaned, half growled in replied, my hands pushing her shoulders down into the mattress as I pounded her fucking brains out.

“Yes! Yes! I love it!” she cried, and within seconds she was squirting all over my dick.

I groaned loudly and fucked her harder and faster, and a few seconds later I was letting off inside of her, filling her sweet pussy up as I’d been aching to do to Megan, but she didn’t want to have to clean herself up and I was horniest in the mornings so I was going to make a huge mess, and Delilah apparently didn’t have a problem cleaning herself up.

We finished coming and I pulled out of her, took a moment to get my head level again, then got up and started stretching.

I was sore, and there was a lot to do today.

I didn’t even remember finishing the sex last night. I know they took turns riding me, and I remembered coming while Delilah was atop me, and then…

Nothing. Just waking up extra horny with gray sunlight coming in through the window and Megan complaining that she wanted to be fucked hard.

So I’d fucked her hard, and then gone onto Delilah after Megan had gotten her orgasm.

Elizabeth was still asleep, and given the fact that she’d slept through that meant that she must be fucking tired.

“Chris,” Delilah murmured as I finished stretching, popping a few joints.

“Yeah?”

“When we have more time, will you be rough with me again? I think Elizabeth had a point: seeing you like that kind of made me want more of that good, rough sex again,” she said sleepily, yawning.

“You sure?” I asked.

“I’m sure I want it,” she replied. “If you’re not comfortable with it anymore-”

“No, I mean, I am. I’ll do it. I’ll do it gladly, just...wanna be sure.”

“I’m sure. And I think she wants it too,” Delilah said, looking at Elizabeth’s sleeping form now. “It’s too bad. If she wasn’t pregnant you could be pretty rough with her. You still can, even now, you just gotta be careful.”

“I think that would make me too nervous,” I replied.

“You do seem to treat her like she’s made of fine china,” Megan murmured as she washed up.

“I can’t help it,” I replied, joining her, washing all the sex from this morning and the previous night off my body. I was sore, but not terribly so. I thought that once I got food in me and got into the rhythm of the day, I’d mostly be okay. “I’ve never really been around a pregnant woman before. Or, I guess, involved with one. I’m just so scared of hurting her or her unborn child on accident, I just...it’s hard to react any other way.”

“I guess I get it. It’s kind of cute, actually,” Megan said.

“It’s definitely endearing,” Delilah murmured, then yawned again. “Goddamnit, I don’t want to get up.”

“How long before you have to go back to work?”

“I gotta be in at ten. Ten to ten is my shift. They said they’ll give me an hour warning, given we don’t have watches and not everywhere has clocks.”

I walked to the window and glanced out. “I’d say you have about two hours or so,” I replied.

“How the fuck do you know that?” Delilah asked.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure, I just kinda do. You want to get breakfast with us?”

She shook her head, yawning again. “No, I’ll just slow you down. I’m going to lay here for awhile before finally getting up and starting the day.”

“Don’t fall back asleep,” Megan said.

She laughed. “If I do, they’ll wake me. Shit, I think I may, actually. Elizabeth is so fucking hot and soft and comfortable to curl up against.”

“Yep,” I agreed as I finished washing and started pulling my clothes on.

Once Megan and I were dressed, I set some snow to boil, threw another log on the fire, and warned Delilah about the boiling water, that it should be ready about the time someone came looking for her. She promised to take care of it, and Megan and I finished by grabbing our stuff and heading outside.

The cold hit me like a slap and I looked around. The township of Pine Lake was awake already, though most people were inside right now. It was probably hovering somewhere between ten and zero degrees, so that sucked. Although there were gray clouds in the skies, I thought the snowstorm had passed for the moment. Either way, we had to seize the day. There was a lot to do. We headed off to the food store and got in line. Today was fruit salad and slices of venison. We signed our names, took our fair share, which I noticed seemed to be a little smaller than yesterday, and found a seat by the window, then dug in.

The meal was over quickly, conversation basically nonexistent. I could tell that Megan was in much the same mood I was: raring to get out there and do some good work. Once we’d finished off the food, we returned our plates and silverware, and headed back out into the biting cold. Crossing the street, we walked into the lobby of the apartment building and found Lisa talking with two other people off to one side, near a fire barrel beside a cracked window. She saw us as she walked in, held up a finger, and resumed her conversation.

“Fuck,” I whispered sharply as something abruptly occurred to me.

“What?” Megan asked as I walked over to a couch beside a low coffee table, set my pistol and my rifle out on it, and then sat down and began unloading them.

“I completely fucking forgot, I was supposed to clean my guns last night. Shit. Goddamnit. Lisa loaned me her cleaning kit. You should clean yours too.”

Megan sighed and agreed, sitting next to me and unloading her weapons. “We can do it in about ten minutes probably,” she replied.

I finished unloading and pulled out the kit, then began cleaning quickly. We were about halfway through when Lisa finished up her conversation and walked over.

“Forget something?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “Sorry, I’m just, uh, this is a lot to deal with. But don’t worry, I can handle it.”

“I know,” she said, then paused. “Well, I believe you. But don’t worry, I’m not upset.” She sighed. “I almost pissed myself an hour ago.”

“What?” Megan asked, glancing up.

Lisa laughed, rolling her eyes. “I forgot to piss. Somehow. I woke up having to piss so fucking bad, but there were other things that just needed doing, and I got distracted, somehow got distracted enough that I forgot to piss, and when I finally got two seconds, I sat down at my desk and started nodding off. Almost immediately started dreaming about taking a piss…”

“Oh God, that’s the worst,” I said.

“Yeah. Thank God I jerked awake and then made time for it...ugh, anyway, we’re all overwhelmed right now. It’s fine. How is everything?”

“Delilah and Elizabeth are fine, but exhausted. They’ll be good to do their jobs, though we really need some kind of clock or watch…”

“I know, we’re working on it. We have so few they’re distributed at the primary locations for schedule keeping. Anyway, wait here, I’ll go get your stuff.”

“Thanks.”

“What stuff?” Megan asked as Lisa walked off deeper into the building.

“More ammo,” I replied.

“Oh thank God, we’re gonna need it if we’re going hunting.”

“That’s what I said.”

By the time she got back, we’d finished cleaning our weapons and I’d just finished reassembling her kit. I traded her the kit back for more ammo. We each got three more magazines for our pistols and a box of thirty rounds to split between us for our rifles.

“I’m trying to hold onto the rifle rounds for now,” she said as we reloaded our weapons and pocketed the remaining ammo. “For our own protection, but also because once we’re in the clear, I intend to organize several massive hunting parties to shoot whatever deer, wolves, rabbits, birds, and any other animal whose meat we can eat so that we can rebuild our stock of food.”

“Good idea,” I said, standing as I finished up. “Well, we’re good to go. Any idea where we should go first?”

“There actually aren’t that many places left, not within easy walking distance,” Lisa replied. “But you should walk to the docks and then the lakehouse. They’re opposite the observation platform and for a decent portion of that walk you’ll be exposed. If they have a rifle…”

“Great,” Megan muttered.

“Don’t suppose anyone has binoculars?”

“Unfortunately not,” Lisa replied.

“We’ll manage,” I said.

“Good luck.”

“You too.”

We headed out.

~

“So is this what you pictured yourself doing a month ago?” I asked.

We were walking through the snow now, not yet in sight of the observation platform as we moved northwest of Pine Lake, towards...what was probably also called Pine Lake. For the moment, things were looking good.

I wondered how long that would last.

“Fuck no,” Megan replied, walking beside me. “My life has taken quite a turn. I’ve helped people before, gone looking for missing people, stuff like that. But nothing like this. Nothing with so much responsibility. Or that I’d ever really meet someone like you, or Delilah. It’s been...a really wild, weird ride.”

“You like it?” I asked.

“Kind of,” she replied after a moment. “It’s scary, but a lot of shit is nowadays. But yeah, I’m kind of starting to like it here. What about you?”

“Yeah. I like it. It feels good, helping people like this. It’s a lot of responsibility, but it doesn’t concern me as much as I think it should, and I can’t tell if that’s because I’m confident in my abilities...or overconfident in my abilities.”

She considered me for a moment. “I guess I can’t tell one way or the other, admittedly. I don’t think you’re particularly overconfident. I mean, you’ve got good reason to be confident. The way you’ve handled all the shit we’ve run into since we’ve met. I mean, I got captured, and you straight up launched a rescue mission. Successfully. And then there was Elizabeth and her asshole ex-husband. And the blizzard. And now this. I mean, I get it, it pays to stay humble, but it doesn’t pay to stay too humble. If you know you can help, you should step up and do it. And you are. Just, you know, make sure you keep paying attention and stay focused.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied.

We fell silent as we finally came out from behind a hill that made up about half of the south side of the lake, and the ground leveled off with the natural waterline, and we were given a good view of the lake itself. It was a large expanse of smooth pale ice, mostly covered in drifts of snow. About halfway up its east side, to our right, that hill continued on and rose sharply, and I got a better look at the observation platform up there.

It was a tourist trap sort of thing, a big wooden platform built high over the lake with probably a little cafe and gift shop built in, chairs and tables out on the deck to eat at and take in the atmosphere, maybe some of those quarter-fed binocular things to look at wildlife off in the distance. I wondered if they could be used now. We stopped just beyond the natural protection of the hill and pulled out our rifles.

I put the scope to my eye.

“See anything?” Megan murmured after a bit.

“No, nothing,” I replied. There was no activity up there, but the windows were showing too much reflection from the sun, so I couldn’t see jack shit through them. They could be having a fucking party up there for all I knew.

I sighed and lowered the rifle. “Maybe they left.”

“Would be nice, three of their friends are dead now,” Megan muttered, doing the same.

We lingered a moment longer, then slung our rifles and started walking along the edge of the lake. Ahead of us and a little to our right was the docks that Lisa had mentioned. It seemed that most of the wooden tongues of the docks themselves had been chopped up or ripped out over the past two years, there was hardly anything left. Same with a couple of boats jutting up out of the ice, frozen forever in place until someone came along with an ax or mallet and some determination. There seemed to be two actual buildings built close to the lake’s edge. One of them was still intact, what looked like an equipment or storage shed.

The other had partially collapsed at some point. And as we were looking, someone emerged from the shed.

Megan and I both froze and grabbed for our rifles.

I thought it was a woman, and she didn’t notice us. She seemed to be looking for something. I put the scope to my eye and checked her out.

“Bad guy?” Megan murmured softly.

“No,” I replied. “No leather.” I kept studying her. “In fact…”

“What?”

“I think that might be Lindsay.”

“Delilah’s friend?”

“Yep.”

She was tall, definitely, though I wouldn’t exactly call her skinny. She had long, dark hair, pulled into a ponytail that sprouted from the back of her head and hung down past her shoulders. Her skin was tan-olive in color.

“Come on,” I said.

We slung our rifles again and started walking. She was moving around in between the buildings, clearly looking for something. What had Lisa said...her cats? Well, she looked like a woman who was looking for a cat.

She got down onto her hands and knees and peered into some wooden rubble near the partially-collapsed building.

Did she seriously not hear us?

Megan and I weren’t being exactly quiet in our approach, she had to hear our boots by now, we were within about ten yards of the buildings.

She reached down under her, looking like she was scratching her stomach or adjusting her shirt, then abruptly her hands came up with a pistol, aimed right at us, and she looked dead at us.

“And that’s close enough,” she said smoothly, getting to her feet.

Megan and I froze and Megan grabbed for her rifle.

“Relax,” I murmured, forcing myself not to do the same.

I didn’t react well to people pointing guns at me.

“What do you want?” she asked. “You from Pine Lake?”

“No,” I replied. “I’m Chris, this is Megan. Are you Lindsay?”

“Who wants to know?” she asked as she finished standing. Damn, she was tall. Almost my own height.

“Friends of Delilah’s.”

The surprise on her face was immediate and obvious, though she was slow to lower the gun.

“You know Delilah?” I nodded. “Describe her.”

“Petite. Pale. Redheaded. Absurdly attractive,” I replied.

She laughed softly. “Yeah, that’s her. You her boyfriend?”

“More or less,” I replied. “I helped her get here looking for you. She’s staying back in Pine Lake, working as a nurse right now. We’ve come a very long way to see you.”

“She’d have to,” Lindsay murmured. For a moment, she just stared at us, frowning. “I’m having a hard time believing she’s actually here, but I guess I’m not sure how else you could know her. She came looking for me?”

“Yes. That’s the entire reason we’re here.”

“Holy shit...I just can’t believe it. Fuck.” She began to say something else, but then jerked her head to the side, in through the open doorway of the half-collapsed building. I thought I heard a faint meow. “Oh you little motherfucker! Hold that thought!”

She dashed in through the door.

“Was that a cat?” Megan asked as we started walking forward.

“Yeah. Lisa said she looks after cats. Let’s, uh...see if she wants help,” I said.

“You already want to fuck her,” Megan said.

I glanced over at her. She was smirking. “I mean...you don’t?”

“Fair point.”

We finished crossing the distance and I took one more look at the platform, saw no movement on it, and headed into the ruined building with Megan. The place was a wreck, only part of the second story still standing, the rest of it having fallen in with the roof. It seemed like a lot of people had come in and cleared out whatever wood there was to burn from the roof and walls that had collapsed, so that made walking around the ground floor easier, at least. I thought the place had been a boat rental at some point, maybe also a gift shop, as there were the remnants of shelves along one wall, but most of the interior was covered in snow.

I saw paw prints leading through the snow and Lindsay was standing up on the remains of a sturdy counter, peering up at what was left of the second story.

“Just come down from there, you little fuck!” she snapped.

“Here, let me go up,” I said.

Lindsay looked at me for a moment, perhaps judging my motivation, then shrugged and stepped down off the counter. “Be my guest, I’ll be right back.”

As she headed out, I got up onto the counter and stepped up to a fairly sturdy looking cabinet. There was no obvious way to get to the remains of the second floor now, so this would have to do. I got up atop the cabinet and was now high enough to peer onto the next story. There was the cat, a pretty sizable black cat.

“Don’t fall, Chris,” Megan said, coming to stand nearby.

“That’s the idea,” I replied as I considered my next move. There were about five feet of width between me and the next floor now. I looked at the cat. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to just come here?”

The cat meowed morosely at me. I sighed.

“I take it you’re not a cat person?” Lindsay asked, coming back in. I looked over at her. She was now holding one of those pet carriers.

“I mean, I’m not really a pet person,” I replied. “I like animals just fine, cats included, but I’ve never really had a pet. I didn’t want the responsibility.”

“Fair enough,” she said. “I actually respect that a lot. I’ve seen too many people with pets who obviously shouldn’t have them because they don’t care or can’t handle it or just do not have the right environment, and the pet suffers a lot as a result...so, you really think you can get up there?”

“Gonna find out,” I replied, and jumped.

Megan shouted my name in shock as I gripped the edge of the second floor. It was definitely a risk, but the space where I would land was pretty clear and flat, and I was usually pretty good about landing on my feet if I fell, or at least in a way that wouldn’t hurt anything. I grunted as I caught the edge and, thankfully, got a good grip.

“You fucking idiot!” Megan snapped as I started to pull myself up.

“That was stupid,” Lindsay said, sounding amused. “I guess I can see why Delilah’s into you. She always had a thing for kind of benignly stupid guys, with just a little bit of jackass in them.”

“I took a calculated risk,” I replied as I finished getting up onto the second floor. I crouched there for a moment, looking at the cat. It was hidden under a chair, staring at me unhappily. “I’m not stupid or a jackass.”

“You liar,” Megan said.

I sighed again and began heading towards the cat. “Be ready with that carrier.”

“Tossing it up now,” Lindsay replied.

“No, don’t-” I began, but then it landed behind me with a crash.

The cat jumped and dashed out. I dove after it and somehow managed to get a hold around its midsection. Careful not to hurt the giant animal, (how big was this cat?), I twisted and wriggled my way over to the carrier, which had thankfully not only landed upright but with the metal mesh door swung open.

“Just...relax!” I growled as the cat growled right back at me and writhed in my grasp trying to get out.

“Yeah, Socks is a fighter,” Lindsay said, still sounding amused.

“Socks!?” I snapped as I got the cat into the carrier and closed the door behind it, securing it. The cat let out a hiss and started settling in the carrier after realizing it couldn’t get out. I didn’t think I’d hurt it, but I peered in and watched him? Her? I couldn’t tell. However I might feel about pets, I would feel like shit if I’d accidentally hurt the cat.

“Yeah, you didn’t see his paws?” she asked.

“Oh...I thought that was snow,” I murmured. The cat eventually settled facing the opposite way of the door, seemingly very intentionally not looking at me, no doubt indignant and enraged. “So it’s like he’s wearing socks.” I got back to my feet and dusted myself off.

“Yes. Hence the name,” Lindsay replied. “Is he okay? If you’ve hurt him I’m going to be very mad at you.”

“I think he’s fine,” I replied, picking up the carrier. The cat growled and shifted around inside. Honestly, I was sympathetic, I’d hate to be in a cage, too.

“Well I’ll know for sure soon. Here, pass him down to me, okay?”

I got over to the edge, laid down on my stomach, and lowered the carrier down as far as I could. Lindsay, tall as she was, reached up and got hold of it, then lowered it and looked inside. “Oh Socks, much as I love you, you deserve this for putting me through so much bullshit.”

I got up, then sat down on the edge, my feet dangling over. “Make way,” I said, then twisted and turned, shifting until I was hanging off the edge by my hands, then I dropped and landed with a grunt on the floor below.

“Okay, now that you have your cat back, will you return to Pine Lake and see Delilah? She’s been dying to see you,” I said.

Lindsay shook her head. “Unfortunately not, there’s a problem.”

I stared at her. “Of course there is.”

ELEVEN

“I was actually on my way back to Pine Lake from the lakehouse a little ways north of here,” Lindsay explained as she set the carrier down on the counter, then shrugged out of her pack and set it down next to the carrier, unzipped it, and began to dig around in it. “There’s a group of survivors up there. I found them while I was looking for this little guy. They’re typically responsible for this patch of land where stuff grows.”

“Did something happen to the land?” I asked.

“Not exactly.” She pulled a can of tuna out of her pack and peeled the lid off. As she did, the cat immediately perked up and began turning back around. He meowed. “Oh yeah now you’re talking to me now that I’ve got something you want.” She sighed, carefully opened the door, slipped the tuna in, and closed it again. The cat began chowing down. She zipped her pack back up and shrugged into it, then turned to face us again. “There’s a bear.”

I felt my stomach go cold. “A bear?”

“Yep. I guess they’ve seen it over the past several months, but it’s always kept its distance. Something changed. Now it’s freely roaming over the grounds. It killed one of their number yesterday. They’ve decided they need to kill it. Which isn’t an unreasonable reaction. We need regular access to that land and, honestly, that bear would provide a lot of meat. Of course, killing a bear isn’t exactly all that easy. It’s...large, from what I hear.”

“And you were on your way to get backup?” I asked. She nodded. “Okay, backup’s arrived.”

Lindsay stared at me for a moment, then a small smile came onto her face. “Okay, yeah, I can see why Delilah likes you.”

“You haven’t even talked with her yet,” Megan said.

“If she came all this way with him and he calls himself ‘more or less’ her boyfriend, she likes him. I know how she works. And I’m coming with you,” she said.

“You don’t want to take your cat home?” Megan asked.

“Not yet,” Lindsay replied.

“She should come with us anyway,” I said, “do you know about the observation deck?”

“What about it?” Lindsay asked.

“The assholes that burned down your town are staying up there. We confirmed it yesterday. No idea if they have a rifle, but if they do…”

“Well fuck,” Lindsay muttered. “That’s a long walk…”

“Megan and I are good shots,” I said, shrugging briefly to indicate the rifle slung over my shoulder. “We can cover you and whoever else that heads back to town after we deal with the bear and make sure the food area is safe.”

“Good,” she said. “Let’s go.” She grabbed the cat carrier and gently lifted it up off the counter, then grunted. “Heavy goddamned cat,” she muttered.

“You want me to carry him?” I asked.

“No, I want you and your good eye to protect us,” Lindsay replied.

“Fair enough.”

We headed out.

~

“So how did you actually meet Delilah?” Lindsay asked as we walked through the snow. You could see the lakehouse from the docks, though it was about a mile farther up the shoreline, roughly at the northwest corner of the lake.

It was in pretty clear view of the observation deck.

Still didn’t see any activity up there.

“It isn’t a happy story,” I replied.

“Tell me anyway, I need to know.”

“All right. She had been ‘traded’ by the group she was traveling with to another group of assholes looking to sell her as a sex slave. She’d escaped when I found her, ran until she passed out in a cabin during a snowstorm. I got her warm, and when she came to she asked me to get her here.” I knew I was skipping over some stuff, but it was enough for now, I thought.

“What happened to those assholes? Anything?” she asked.

“Yeah, Megan and I killed them.”

“Huh. Good on you.” She fell silent for a bit. Occasionally, Socks would complain from his carrier, but mostly he seemed content to lick the tuna can. “I just can’t believe she actually made it out here. That’s so nuts. I can’t wait to see her.”

“She really misses you,” I replied.

“That’s good to hear. I missed her, too.” She looked at me again after a few moments as we walked for the lakehouse. “So what’s your deal? You literally just stumbled across Delilah, decided ‘hey yeah I’ll walk…’ how far did you walk?”

“About ninety miles.”

“Jesus fucking shit. So you just decided to walk ninety miles through the snow and fuck knows what else to get this random girl you found to some middle-of-nowhere town?”

“Yeah basically,” I said with a shrug.

She laughed. “I’m guessing she still looks like a fucking supermodel and...well, ‘more or less boyfriend’ has gotta mean you two are screwing.” She frowned. “So how about you? I don’t recognize you from around town.”

“I came with Chris and Delilah,” Megan replied. “We’re friends.”

“Friends, huh? Okay.”

“Yeah. What’s with you and the cat?” Megan asked.

“I found some strays after moving here,” Lindsay replied. “Before all this shit went down, I was training to be a vet. I got through a few years of school, and I’ve taught myself some shit here and there since then. And I really like cats. So I’ve been taking care of them. They all got out when the fire happened. They’re survivors, and I’m convinced they made it out alive. I was right about Socks at least.”

“How many are there?” I asked.

“Three.”

I looked again to the platform. Still nothing. Damn that was making me paranoid. My attention was returned to the fore again as I heard the distinct sound of a door opening and a gun cocking. The lakehouse’s front door was now open, and a man in jeans and a heavy coat was holding a pistol, aiming it at us.

“It’s just me!” Lindsay called, waving with her free hand.

The man lowered the gun. “Who’s that with you, Linz!?”

“Friends! They’re here to help with the bear!”

“You got back fast!”

“They came to us, met me halfway by chance!”

We finished crossing the distance and the man, middle-aged with a graying beard and a lined face, let us inside. There were more people hanging around in the living room, gathered around a fire, all of them dropping their conversations and looking to us.

“We have a problem,” I said. “Those assholes that burned down the town are in the observation platform right now.”

Several of the others exchanged worried glances.

“Who are you, exactly?” the older man who seemed to be in charge of the group asked.

“Chris. This is Megan. We just arrived yesterday and are offering help. Lisa sent us.”

The man looked uncertainly at Lindsay. “They seem legit,” she said with a shrug.

“All right then. If you’re really here to help, why don’t you help us kill a bear?”

“I can do that,” I said.

“Good. We were just gearing up to go grab my shotgun. One of us already headed out to grab it and he hasn’t come back, so it may also be something of a rescue mission. Willie, you’re coming with us, okay? Grab your shit.”

“Fine,” a slim man with a black beanie and a scar down one side of his face stood and began gathering some things.

“Megan, will you stay here? If they start trying to snipe us…”

“I’ll handle it,” she said. “Just, you know, handle your end. Don’t need you fucking dying out there.”

“I’ll be fine,” I replied.

She nodded, hesitated, then gave me a hug and a quick kiss. I saw Lindsay raise a single eyebrow at that, but otherwise she didn’t say anything, just walked deeper into the house with her cat. I checked over my gear.

“I’m Stephen,” the middle-aged man said as he stepped closer to me. “I take it you can handle yourself with a gun out there?”

“Yes,” I replied simply.

He scrutinized me for a few seconds. I’d gotten used to that at this point. Finally, he just nodded, seemingly satisfied, and looked at Willie, who wrapped up getting his gear together and joined us. He looked at the others. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. When we come back, I want Walt and Lena ready to join us in tackling that bear.”

“We’ll be ready,” another man with a large black beard probably ten or fifteen years older than me said. A stern-looking woman with glasses checking over a pistol looked up and nodded at the mention of her name.

With that, I followed Stephen and Willie back outside, and then we were heading into the cold one more time.

~

“I was just curious...is there a particular reason you hid a shotgun out here in the middle of nowhere?” I asked as we made our way away from the lakehouse and towards the treeline to the north of us.

I threw a glance back at the observation deck every now and then. It still had a pretty clear view of us, but I trusted Megan to watch my back and I still hadn’t seen anything. I was beginning to wonder if they’d scrammed.

Wouldn’t that be lovely?

“I guess in case of something like this,” Stephen replied. “Wanted to put it relatively nearby, to keep it from prying eyes and grasping hands. Someone found it once in the lakehouse, so I had to move it out further.”

“Surprised they didn’t take it.”

“They knew it was mine. They knew better.”

As we walked across the snow and then into the trees, Stephen started asking me the things that I imagine I would be asked every time I ran into someone new around here. Who was I, why was I here, where had I come from. Was I full of shit. It was all fair enough, I was a stranger and I’d come in right in the middle of a huge attack committed by strangers. I was trying not to let it get to me. I’d had to convince people I wasn’t a jerk, to varying degrees, for most of my life. It was probably one of those things I’d be living with forever.

Especially in a world where the average stranger was just as likely to walk up and put a bullet in your head as ask you for a trade or a place to sleep.

In a way it had forced me to be more personable.

I wondered if that had had anything to do with my luck with ladies since the apocalypse had begun, but I somehow doubted it. I think it was my intimidating demeanor that made me all the more appealing now that killers did actually roam the streets as much as we used to believe they did thanks to the fucking news cycle. The primal instinct to protect and to seek protection was suddenly much more relevant in day-to-day life, and I seemed to fit into the role of protector more than most other guys.

It was a double-edged sword, though.

More appealing to women: awesome.

More threatening to other guys: less awesome.

Honestly, I’d never gotten along super well with other guys. There were exceptions, obviously, but mostly I was either alone or hanging out with a woman. And that was true now more than ever. We started moving through the trees then and I looked around, seeing nothing but frosted trunks, dead bushes and branches, and snow. So much snow, surrounding us. There were footprints, too, leading due north, that we were following.

“How’s the town?” Stephen asked quietly after a few moments of silence passed following his calm interrogation.

“Bad,” I replied. “But there’s still a good fifty people alive hanging around. There’s injured and sick, and we need food and meds, but Lisa’s on top of it. She seems pretty qualified.”

“She is,” he said. “She’s sharp as a tack and she knows how to crack the whip. One of the few people I’ve seen who’s actually very brave and not just lacking fear because they’re too stupid to recognize the danger. Thank God she made it. And at least we’ll get the food situation under control once we put a dozen bullets in this fucking bear.”

“It’s that big?” I asked.

“It’s pretty big,” he replied.

“Great.”

As we kept going, following the path and the footprints in the snow, I became aware of a sound that immediately put me on edge: growling. My pistol was already out, but now I readjusted my grip on it and started looking around even more carefully. It could be pretty difficult to get a clear reading on where things were in a forest.

“Is that wolves?” Willie asked softly.

“Think so,” Stephen replied. “Be ready.”

They both had their pistols out too. Well, time to fight wolves again, apparently. I hated fighting wolves. They were vicious and brutal and downright mean, but maybe the worst part of it was that I could always see a glint of cunning in their eyes. It wasn’t just dumb animal survival instincts, there was some type of intelligence going on in there. It was both scary to fight, but also it made me feel bad in the same way I felt bad when I had to kill a person. At least it didn’t make me feel so bad that I hesitated when the time came.

And the time was rapidly approaching.

The growling grew louder as we drew closer. I heard jaws snapping and the awful sound of animals feeding. Stephen made motions to us: break left and right. I went right, aiming my pistol as I caught dark movement through the trees ahead. We moved slowly forward until we were almost to the treeline, and I got a good view of the horrific scene at last. In a clearing where a dilapidated wooden shed stood, a man lay surrounded by a half dozen or so wolves. They were feasting on him and there was blood everywhere.

One of them raised its head and issued a sharp bark.

“Fuck!” Willie snapped.

“Shoot ‘em! He’s gone!” Stephen yelled, and opened fire.

I did the same, but the wolves moved like fucking magic. One second they were there, the next they were dashing at us in a spread-out line. I caught one of them in the chest and heard it yelp. It took off. I saw another go down as a bullet connected with its skull, and I was tracking two more that were still coming my way.

Fuck they were so fast!

They were like sleek, dark gray blurs coming right at me, like sharks of the snow almost.

I kept firing, pumping out round after round trying to put them down as they rapidly closed the gap between the two of us. I had scant seconds before they got at me. My bullets just kept barely missing, kicking up miniature eruptions of snow each time they landed. Finally, I caught a shot, right in one’s open mouth. It died in a split second, going slack and skidding to a halt. The other abruptly lost its nerve as its friend died and another bullet came dangerously close to it, maybe even grazing it. With a yelp, it turned tail and ran, crossing the clearing in the other direction and putting the shed between me and it, and then no doubt disappearing into the forest. As I turned to see how the other two were doing, I heard a wild, piercing scream of fear and agony.

Willie was down, I saw, just at the edge of the clearing. A wolf was atop him, digging into him with its awful teeth. Stephen screamed and surged forward as he put down the wolf that was hassling him, neatly putting a shot into one of its eyes. I rushed along as well. He got there before me, hauling off and kicking the attacking wolf like a football player, his booted foot connecting solidly with the thing. I thought I heard something crack and it was dislodged from him. Willie screamed and jerked violently as it detached, and I felt my stomach flip as I saw a great gush of blood come out of his ruined throat. The wolf had a hunk of fresh meat in its jaw that it had torn loose when Stephen had physically removed it.

We both shot it at the same time, killing it quickly, and then Stephen was crouching by Willie, laying a gloved hand over his torn-out throat.

“Get your medical kit!” he snarled.

Willie was gurgling and reaching up, staring with wide, panic-blind eyes, pain no doubt wracking his body. I was pretty sure he was dead and gone, his brain just didn’t quite appreciate the fact yet, but I didn’t want to seem like a heartless piece of shit, so I dropped to my knees beside them while I shrugged out of my pack. Unzipping it, I looked around hastily as I started digging for the medical supplies, in case any more wolves were creeping up on us. Nothing. I think we’d either injured or scared them all off.

“Come on, dammit! He’s bleeding out!” Stephen snapped, but the tone of his voice had already changed. I think he knew.

He had to.

Nonetheless, I spent the next minute or so with him desperately trying to stop the bleeding. Willie’s thrashing soon became twitching, and twitching soon became sluggish movement as his eyes began to glaze over. Stephen was cursing occasionally as he tried to get the gauze in place around the huge wound in the man’s throat.

“Stephen,” I said, when it became obvious that the life had drained out of him.

“Yeah, I know,” Stephen whispered, panting. He shot to his feet suddenly. “Fucking goddamn wolves!” he screamed, and kicked the nearest one twice, hard as he could, I thought. While he stood there fuming, I salvaged what I could of the bloodied gauze, which wasn’t much. I looked down at Willie, and he looked…

At nothing. Not even the sky overhead.

Because he was dead.

His heart didn’t beat. His blood didn’t pump. His brain didn’t fire.

I felt a strange numbness begin to settle over me as I put the medical supplies back, zipped my pack up, stood, and pulled it back on.

I reloaded my pistol. “Why don’t you grab the shotgun and I’ll stand watch in case any of them come back?” I suggested.

Stephen didn’t speak for a few long seconds, and I wondered how long we’d have to wait for him to feel up to the task again. It wasn’t that I didn’t have any compassion, I did, plenty honestly, but the longer we stood out here, the more opportunities wolves, bears, or men had to wander by and put an end to us.

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” he said finally, and started marching off. He paused by the second man’s corpse, the wolves had really torn into him, and shook his head. “Goddamnit,” I barely heard him whisper, and then he kept going.

He disappeared into the shack and I kept watch for wolves. It was a lonely, but thankfully not particularly lengthy task. After several minutes, Stephen emerged, frowning and grim-faced, hauling a sled with a backpack stuffed near to bursting and a few lengths of bungee cabling.

“Will you help me get all the dead bodies loaded up on here?” he asked.

I nodded and we set to our unlovely task.

TWELVE

“What the fuck happened?!” Lena demanded as we approached the front door dragging our miserable load behind us.

“Wolves,” Stephen replied simply. He was the one hauling the sled, allowing me to keep watch over us. Either because he might concede I was better for the job, or because he felt it was his responsibility given I was the stranger here and he, presumably, knew the two men who had died pretty well.

“Jesus H Christ,” Walt muttered, coming to stand beside Lena in the front door. I could see Megan in the house behind them and she looked like she had something to say.

“Anything happen?” I asked.

“I went to check out the back when I heard the gunshots,” Megan replied, “leaving them in charge of looking at the observation deck. When I came back, they said they’d seen someone moving around up there. I looked through the scope but I didn’t see anyone.”

“Wonderful,” I muttered.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Fine,” I replied. “We got the shotgun.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to go and get this bear killed now. Willie and Fred here,” he said, indicting the first man we’d found dead, the one who had gone to get the shotgun in the first place, “will need to find their graves. Willie’s dad and Fred’s girlfriend, if they’re still alive, need to be told what happened and make some peace.”

“Then let’s kill this fucking bear,” Lena growled.

“Who’s getting the shotgun?” Walt asked uncertainly.

Stephen sighed, looking between us. “It’s got a hell of a fucking kick to it, and I don’t think you or Lena could handle it, God’s honest,” he said. “And I took that fall yesterday. I can still handle the pistol, but…” He looked at me. “Can you handle it?”

“Yes,” I replied, looking it over. It looked old but clean and well-kept.

“It’s an eight-gauge,” Stephen added.

I sighed. “I thought so. Goddamn, how old is it?”

“It was my gandaddy’s, and he might’ve gotten it from his own father. So, old. But it’s been well maintained. Kind of a family heirloom. Kept it under the table, so to speak, seeing as it was illegal to own a working one. This is Kansas, though.”

“And the shells?”

“Had ‘em custom-made too. Just in case.”

“In case of what?” Megan asked. He raised his hands to indicate the world around us. “Fair point,” she replied.

He chuckled grimly. “Yeah. Was hoping I’d be wrong, but I’m glad I saved it. Anyway, you’ll do it?”

“Yeah,” I said, accepting the double-barreled weapon and checking it out. He set a box of shells on the coffee table and I cracked it open and loaded two of them, then put another dozen shells in my pocket, just in case. Though I was really thinking I’d be able to straight up fucking decapitate this bear if I got it with both barrels. I listened to the others murmur among themselves over the recent deaths, and prepare for the next battle that was ahead, while I continued checking out the double-barrel. I was tempted to take it outside and test-fire it, but something told me that would be a bad idea. Drawing unwanted attention or wasting ammo or maybe something else. Unfortunately, I was going to have to undergo a trial by fire with the thing.

I was not at all looking forward to fighting a fucking bear.

I’d done so before. Mostly, I just avoided them. Some still seemed happy enough to avoid humans, but more and more I’d been finding and hearing stories that they were going the way of the wolves: finding a hunger for human flesh. So far, I’d tangled with three of them, and so far I’d managed to get away with a lot of luck and a few scrapes. There were a lot of things to be scared of relating to bears, but probably the most terrifying thing I’d learned was that those furry motherfuckers were goddamned fast!

I couldn’t believe how fast they moved.

Megan came to stand beside me. “You want me to go with you on this one?”

“Kinda,” I admitted. “But I’d still rather you stay here and keep watch. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything stupid. Bears...freak me out.”

“Yeah, me too,” she murmured. “Well, good luck out there, then.” She sighed. “Are we ever going to catch a break?”

“We’ve caught breaks,” I replied.

“Yeah, for a few days at a time, maybe. I don’t know, it just feels like shitty things keep happening. I get captured. Twice. We get hunted by wolves how many times. Elizabeth’s shitty ex. That fucking storm. Now all this.” I frowned as I saw that it was really beginning to get to her at least somewhat. “It’s bad luck.”

“Try not to think of it like that,” I replied. “It’s good luck. The world is what sucks, so the shitty things that are happening are, unfortunately, normal. This is our new reality. But we’re lucky to have come this far. We met each other. I got you out of several of those, you got yourself out of several of them. We’re still alive, and largely undamaged, and we have friends. And sex. You could’ve died or broken a bone or got a horrific infection at any one of those events, but you didn’t. So try to think of it as lucky.”

She sighed. “Yeah, yeah, Mister Fucking Optimism. Fine.” She glanced back behind me briefly, deeper into the house, where I could hear Lindsay complaining at her cat. “You and she and Delilah gonna...you know, later?”

“God I hope so,” I replied. Anything to take my mind off what I’d just seen back there.

“Same. I want a piece of her,” she murmured quietly.

“I want all of her all night,” I said.

“You like tall girls?”

“And half-Italian girls apparently,” I replied.

“All right. Go kill the bear, then we can go home and figure out what to do next. And see if maybe there’s fun in the future.”

“Oh there’s definitely fun in the future, just a matter of figuring out with who,” I said.

She laughed and kissed me, then resumed her watch at the window. I looked at Stephen and the others, who were somberly finishing up their preparations. I quickly finished my own, making sure my weapons were ready to go and the ammo was in easy reach in the (likely) event that I would need to reload rapidly.

“All right,” Stephen said, getting everyone’s attention, “are we ready to handle this?”

We all gave affirmative replies.

He looked around at us, then sighed softly. “Then let’s get it over with.”

~

I like to think that normally I’m either pretty chill, or at least keep a pretty level head in dangerous situations. Personally, I think my survival record speaks for itself. But there were definitely places where I had room to grow. Like my blowup earlier, and my rising anxiety right now. To be fair, I was going to fight a goddamned bear, and from the way they were describing it, it was a fairly sizable one, at that.

On the other hand, this needed doing. I couldn’t just avoid stressful situations my whole life, it was impossible, so the logical answer was to just adjust to the stress and take things in stride. I was a lot better at that than I used to be, so that was good.

But I was still fucking scared right now.

I tried as best I could to keep it off my face. They’d entrusted me with the shotgun, so it was only fair that I keep it together and do my damn job. The four of us crept through the snow after heading away from the cabin, now westbound, and made it into the forest once more. I had moved among so many trees in my life, even before the apocalypse. All those camping trips. Even here and now, stalking a bear through a dead snowbound woodland, I felt strangely at home. My friends used to make fun of me, saying that I was one of those guys who was going to disappear one day in my forties to a log cabin off in the mountains, living off the land and off the grid. Chopping my own firewood, killing or growing my own food, with solar panels and a gas generator for backup, and my own filtration system. All of it totally independent and self-contained.

I had to admit, there was a part of me that found that rather appealing, even now.

But I knew I needed people. I didn’t hate people. I mean, not completely. The right person could make my life light up, like Delilah or Elizabeth or Megan. Mary, from a few months ago now. So what was perfect?

Maybe living in an isolated house near a place rich in game and food that grew in snow, with a generator of some kind and a working fucking shower at least, with three (or more) very hot, sexually active and submissive women, with a settlement of a few hundred people within reasonable walking distance.

Even as I thought it, I wondered if it was bullshit, because if that was true, I could’ve had that by now, I think. If I’d really put my mind to it, I could’ve had it by now. I didn’t because I kept getting up and leaving every few weeks.

Would that happen here?

I honestly didn’t know.

“Hold,” Stephen said quietly, and we all froze, and waited. “Chris,” he murmured.

I joined him. He pointed. “Look.”

Fresh tracks. Big fresh tracks.

“Goddamn,” I muttered. “Looks big.”

“It is. It’s very big,” he replied. “Probably nine feet standing up on its hind legs. Just be ready with that shotgun.”

“I am,” I said, shifting my grip on it a little.

We started following the tracks, keeping a careful eye out for anywhere the bear might be hidden. We were heading into thicker woodlands and some of these trees were big. In a way, I suddenly felt like I was in a movie and we were hunting a goddamned raptor or something. Cool to watch, awful to live. I also knew that as much ammo as I might have on me, I was probably only going to get one shot, so it was going to have to be a good one.

The tracks continued along, weaving their way along a rough natural path through the trees. Now the fear was really setting in, because this was it. We were actually going intentionally towards hundreds and hundreds of pounds of killing fury. I tried to stay loose, stay ready, as we stalked through the trees. I listened and watched. Heard the sounds of birds somewhere overhead, a crow cawing occasionally. I heard the dead branches swaying in the light winds, occasionally smacking against each other or nearby trunks. I heard the others breathing, the snow crunching beneath our boots. Mostly, I saw snow and dead vegetation.

The trees began to thin out, and that was when I began to notice the plants. The live plants. We passed several stalks of corn, growing in rough rows right out of the snow. We passed some peas that looked a bit more organized. A not-there-yet orange tree. Blueberries. I had to admit, it was really surreal to see.

Then we came into a large clearing maybe fifty yards wide, and I saw more plants, not just in number but in variety.

Okay, yeah, they had a good setup here.

I could see why this was worth fighting for. It was rare to have access to such a renewable resource like this.

The huge paw prints continued across the way and disappeared into the treeline further north. It had crushed a lot of plants in its wake.

We slowly walked into the clearing, and then came to a halt.

“What?” I asked.

“Just trying to get a feel for the thing,” Stephen murmured. “Done a fair amount of hunting in my life, only hunted a few bears. They’re more clever than most people give them credit for. Wish I knew what had upset it enough to changes its patterns...maybe it had eaten everything in the vicinity, had to go looking for fresh meat.”

“Could be,” I agreed, scanning the treeline all around us.

Overhead, a crow cawed sharply. We both glanced up and saw a huge black crow take flight from somewhere off to the left, winging skywards.

It felt like an omen.

“Uh, Stephen, I think...oh fuck!” Walt screamed.

I heard gunshots as I spun around, raising the shotgun.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

I saw Walt and Lena. Each had their pistols raised and were firing frantically, though Lena seemed calmer than Walt.

And that was because the bear I saw bursting forth from the treeline near them was coming at him like a juggernaut. He must have felt like a man tied to tracks with a speeding train bearing down on him.

The bear roared, a huge, dark brown thing of fur and claws and teeth.

It was massive.

I saw bloody holes opening up on its vast dark-furred body as it tore ass through the snow, and the bullets only seemed to enrage it further.

I also saw that I wasn’t going to be able to act anywhere near fast enough to save both of them.

Even as I shot forward, already taking aim with the double-barrel, I could see that the bear was going to reach Walt before I could. Sure enough, it crashed into him, mauling him as he screamed for help at the top of his lungs. I saw a huge gush of blood fly out and coat the bear’s fur as it slashed at him with its massive claws across his chest. He spun around, arms flying, pistol tossed off in some random direction. Lena and Stephen were screaming and firing into the thing as it continued coming after him. Walt hit the snow and the bear hit him.

It tore into him, locking its massive jaws around his whole head.

I kept running forward, knowing this was dangerous, that it could very well do the exact same thing to me if I missed or fucked this up somehow. But this had to end fast, as in right now, I knew that much at least.

The more seconds this thing was alive, the more likely it became we’d all die.

I was just a few yards from the bear now. It looked up at me, staring with hate-filled eyes as it released what was left of Walt’s head from its bloody maw, and it roared at me. A cloud of bloody steam escaped its huge mouth.

I aimed and fired both barrels.

The thing kicked like a fucking mule. I cried out as I felt it slam into my shoulder and collarbone, driving the breath from my lungs and the feet from beneath me, but the relief I felt even as I fell right on my ass was immense as saw everything above the bear’s neck disappear in a vaporized cloud of gore. I’d blown its head completely off.

That shot had been fucking perfect.

I didn’t have time to celebrate my victory, though, as I groaned and slowly got onto my hands and knees. Gasping, trying to reinflate my lungs, I saw Stephen and Lena standing over Walt, who, even from my disadvantaged point of view I could tell was dead, the bear had damn near decapitated him. Neither spoke. Looking at them, I had the impression that both had dealt with gruesome, miserable loss before now. Perhaps they’d had a lot of experience with it even before someone had burned their town to the ground.

Or maybe even before the snow began to fall.

After getting back to my feet, retrieving the shotgun (and my rifle, which had somehow come loose), and brushing myself off, I realized Stephen was looking at me regretfully. I didn’t exactly like that look, but made myself relax.

“Something wrong?” I asked, then glanced briefly at Walt. “Besides the obvious...I’m sorry, I tried to save him but-”

“No, I know,” Stephen replied, coming over to me. “You did good, actually. Really good. I’m impressed. You probably saved the two of us. I’d forgotten how fast they are.” He sighed heavily. “I just have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“I’m almost positive this bear’s den is a cave maybe a quarter mile north of here.” He pointed and I followed his finger, spying a trail between the trees. “That trail leads to another clearing where you can access it. I’m almost certain that one or more of our dead ended up there, in that den, and I was wondering if you’d be willing…”

“To go check,” I said. He nodded. I considered it for a long moment, looking at the bear. Between this, the human corpses, and the wolf corpses, we had a long day ahead of us, but we also had a great haul of food. “Yeah, I’ll do it,” I said.

“Thank you,” he replied.

I winced, carefully moved my arm.

He chuckled grimly. “Kicks like a son of a bitch, don’t it?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Mind if I hang onto it a bit longer?”

“Not at all.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded and returned to Lena. I cracked open the shotgun and reloaded it, then snapped it shut and turned around.

The way ahead of me was clear enough, the path laid out. I tried not to wonder if there were wolves, or worse things, ahead of me, and instead just started walking. There was a job to do, and I intended to see it through to the end.

THIRTEEN

By the time I reached the clearing, it was quiet.

The voices of the others had faded behind me, even the birds seemed to have fallen silent. Something about it made me nervous, but also curious. I knew bears slept in caves usually, did they call them dens? No, that was wolves. Wolves had dens. Unless...they both did? Whatever the case, I’d never actually seen a bear’s home after it had died.

Did it have cubs? A mate?

Fuck, I hoped not.

Today had been difficult enough as it was.

The second clearing I found was about as lush as the first, though obviously the bear had trampled over a lot of the food. Looking around, I tried to find signs of wildlife. There were just some birds, hanging around. A single crow perched high on one of the trees, staring down at me. I looked back, and it regarded me with beady black eyes and stony silence. I resumed looking around. If I remembered right, crows were one of the birds that could actually remember human faces, and hold a grudge, and communicate it to other crows.

Or maybe that was ravens.

Or shit, maybe both.

Either way, some of the black birds could do that, and there was something really freaky about that. I didn’t see anything beyond the birds, so I started making for the cave that I could just barely see through the trees ahead of me. I left the clearing and headed back into the trees, shotgun in hand. If there was another bear, it was going to be quite the trick to get out of this one alive. I was basically banking on it being the only one.

Which was admittedly stupid.

I emerged in another, smaller clearing that butted up against a sharp rise in the land where the cave was burrowed into. Immediately, I caught scent of the smell of death and knew I’d come to the right place. I gripped the double-barrel more tightly and peered cautiously into the cave. It wasn’t a very deep cave, I could actually see one of the corpses already. Well, it would probably help Lisa with her checklist.

Unless we’d gotten lucky and one of the raiders had gotten mauled to death and dragged off. I kept walking, then came to stand near the entrance to the cave. I stood and waited and listened, ready to blast off with that shotgun in a second. I kept expecting a big giant bear head to poke out around the turn at the back of the cave, where I saw it went deeper, but nothing happened. I heard nothing. Despite my tension, I had the impression that the cave was empty. Well, the only way to do it was to just fucking get in there and do it.

And that’s what I did.

I walked inside, shotgun at the fore. My progress was slow at first, the tension rising and rising. If there was going to be a real-life jumpscare moment, it was going to be pretty soon. I kept listening for any hints of movement or breathing or anything, but it was just me in that cave as far as I could tell. Finally, I got up to the body, stepped over it, and peered cautiously around the turn at the back of the cave. I expected to see a giant furred face staring at me, ready to maul me to death in an instant, but there was just more cave.

And not a lot more, either.

In the light from the sun, which was bright today, I could see basically the whole cave. From what I could tell, there were another two corpses back there, neither one of them wearing leather, unfortunately. Although they were chewed up pretty bad.

They were going to have a hell of a time identifying them.

There were no other bears. I pulled out my lighter and wasted some fuel checking the place over, just in case there was something I was missing, but there wasn’t. So I gathered up the first of the corpses and started the process of getting it out of the cave.

When I was finished, I stood a few yards away from the cave’s entrance, catching my breath, trying not to puke.

It smelled fucking awful in there.

Finally, after reaching into my pack and finally just tying off a t-shirt around my mouth and nose, wishing for a ski-mask, I went back to get the next body.

Fuck, this was gonna take a long time.

~

I was right.

It took a long time.

I got the three corpses within sight of the entrance to the cave, then walked back to join the others and let them know the situation. I ended up carrying Walt’s dead body back through the snow and trees with Stephen, while Lena stayed behind to begin the process of harvesting the bear for everything it was worth.

Given all they’d sacrificed for it, they intended to squeeze every last useful bit out of that fucking bear and those wolves.

We didn’t share a word as we walked back to the lakehouse. Once we got back there, we emptied off the sled and Lindsay and Megan joined us to begin the long, arduous process of gathering up the bear meat so that we could take it back to the settlement. It and the dead wolves, as well as the dead men and women who had fallen to the wolves and the bear. There were, thankfully, another pair of sturdy, heavy sleds at the lakehouse that they normally used to transport the harvest that the land provided.

Sadly, Stephen and Lena were the only survivors from the original group that had fled up to the lakehouse.

They had a lot of containers and cans and wax paper and twine that we packed the meat from the bear and then the wolves into. It was grim, bloody, and cold work, and we started a small, very carefully controlled campfire near the bear that was watched at all times by someone, so it didn’t do any more damage to the plants than had already been done. We took turns carving up the meat and passing it off to be stored and dealt with later. I took four long turns at the knife. Despite the gruesome nature of the work, I found it oddly calming. I could lose myself in that bloody task for long stretches of time.

I think it helped knowing that I was helping feed a shitload of people who really needed it.

But in the end, between the kills, we ended up with over a hundred pounds probably of usable meat, plus several skins that would make for great clothes or blankets in the right hands. Once we’d hauled everything back out of the clearing to the lakehouse, we had a debate about who should stay and who should go.

Eventually, Lindsay managed to convince Lena and Stephen to at least visit Pine Lake and check in with Lisa, and then come back with at least a few others who could help occupy the lakehouse and start making use of the fertile land again.

After we mounted either an expedition to or an assault on the observation deck, and soon, to either determine if anyone was up there and kill them, or gain control of it for ourselves. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to that, knowing that I’d already volunteered myself, but I was kind of hoping there was no one up there and they’d just turned tail and run. Because by the time we were actually ready to make the expedition back home, Megan reported that she hadn’t seen any activity at all up there while we were working.

I made sure to take one more look before we started making the pilgrimage back.

It looked clear.

When all was said and done, Stephen, Lena, and I ended up hauling a sled apiece. Stephen and Lena took on the extra supplies, the skins, and their dead friends. I got all the meat. Lindsay carried her cat and some of the supplies that had been stored at the lakehouse, and Megan led the way with her rifle, keeping watch.

And so we set off, heading first for the docks.

For awhile, we just walked through the snow, making decent headway. No one spoke. The wind was picking up a little, but a few skywards glances reassured me that snow wasn’t in the cards today. Although I could be wrong, I didn’t think I was. I just put one foot in front of the other, trying not to think about much beyond entertaining myself with thoughts of what Lindsay would look like naked. What she’d look like having sex with Delilah, or Megan, or Elizabeth. If she had a bush or not. (Laser hair removal had gotten extremely popular somewhere in the late 2020s.) Personally I preferred bald vagina but it wasn’t like I’d complain about pubic hair. I also thought a lot about what she’d look like sucking or riding my cock.

Damn did I want that woman.

She was really hot, and not just physically. She had that same kind of confidence that Delilah had, although...definitely she was different. I’m not sure what it was, the more time I spent around Lindsay the more they reminded me of each other, but Lindsay seemed more reserved than Delilah. Something else, too, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I didn’t know if whatever I was picking up on would be a problem or not, but right now, I had more problems to worry about. For now, I just wanted to get home, reunite these two so that I could finally check that off my mental list, deliver the food, and then wargame with Lisa to figure out what the fuck we were going to do to deal with this group of assholes.

This is precisely what I was thinking when I heard a distant gunshot ring out.

I reacted on instinct, dropping to the snow while simultaneously grabbing for my rifle. I heard someone shout in pain and someone else shout in surprised anger. I managed to get my rifle up and get back onto my knees before I heard a gunshot much closer. Looking up and across the lake, I saw three figures standing on the edge of the platform and right as I looked, one of them lost their balance as their head snapped back in a spray of blood. The other two recoiled away in opposite directions, then were stumbling away, back inside, as the middle man, the shooter, pitched forward and went right over the edge.

We all watched as he, and his rifle, tumbled down the frozen cliff sheer, hitting several times, before smashing into the ice and crashing straight through, disappearing into the frigid waters of the lake below.

“Holy shit you are a good shot,” Stephen muttered.

Megan worked the bolt and took aim again at the platform.

“See anyone else?” I asked, looking around hastily for any threats on the ground. If they were smart, they’d hit us from two points at once. If it was me, I’d have sent at minimum of one person with a rifle to the dock, but I didn’t see jack shit over there. Honestly, I didn’t see jack shit moving anywhere all around us now.

“Nope,” she replied.

I joined her in looking after double-checking the area and didn’t see a damn thing either. Finally, I lowered my rifle and looked back. Lindsay and Stephen were crouching over Lena, who was in the snow, grimacing.

“Is it bad?” I asked as I joined them.

Megan went right on watching, still as a statue.

“No, winged her,” Stephen replied.

“Hurts like a bitch,” Lena snarled.

“Patch her up, we gotta move before they come back,” I said, then I turned to Megan. “Megan, I want you to keep on going. Get down to the docks and clear it out, make sure no one’s waiting for us down there. If it’s clear, shout ‘clear’ once you’re done. I’ll cover you while you go down there and do the job, then you cover us once the job is done, good?”

“Good,” she replied.

I took up her position and began watching the observation deck while she hurried off along the lake’s edge.

Her footsteps receded.

Stephen and Lindsay fussed over Lena.

I kept watch.

After a long, cold minute of nothing happening, I sighed softly.

A long fucking day just got longer.

~

Sometimes, there’s nothing better than an anticlimax.

That was what we got to enjoy that day, walking along the lake.

It was tense as fucking hell, waiting there, staring at the platform. But I got the job done. It was probably a solid twenty minutes before I finally heard Megan give the all clear, and in all that time, I didn’t see any movement at all up there. When I double-checked that she was in position and watching our asses, we got to moving. Me, Stephen, Lena, and Lindsay started hustling down along Megan’s path. We got to the dock and from there, it was a more strained version of what we’d been doing earlier, hauling cargo and keeping watch.

But we didn’t see any further movement up there, and definitely suffered no further attacks.

We got off lucky, as far as I was concerned.

I kept expecting an ambush of them to be waiting for us somewhere along the southern side of the lake, lying in wait behind that rise of land that would protect us from view of the platform. But there was nothing. I was beginning to suspect that this group of assholes was a lot like most of the other groups of assholes now roving the wilderness: stupid and wild and willing to be cruel. You didn’t have to be particularly cunning, or brave, or smart, or charismatic if you had a gun and the willingness to use it. That was an unfortunate reality of our world.

Sure, it almost certainly wouldn’t work in the long run, which was why so many of these asshole groups were so mobile.

But all bad things come to an end eventually, and we finally made it back to Pine Lake without so much as a single shot thrown our way.

Maybe it was their only rifle.

Well, if that was the case then it was fucking gone. I’d just caught sight of it plunging into the water along with the guy Megan had shot.

It took probably an hour and a half, but we finally ended up back in town. I pointed Megan and Stephen to the wounded infirmary after we dropped the food off in front of the food building and I made for sure the stern woman in charge knew it was there. When we brought all that fresh meat, a look came onto her face, one of actual happiness and, more significantly, joy. It was like the sun breaking through a thick miserable cloud cover for a just a few moments. Then she became cold and distant again and began snapping orders to her workers, Elizabeth among them. We embraced and kissed briefly, then she had to get back to work.

Megan, Lindsay, and I then walked the corpses over to the pet shop.

“You have got to be shitting me,” Lindsay groaned as we came to stand in front of it. “Seriously? My pet shop? They turned it into a fucking cemetery?”

“Temporarily,” one of the men who came out to deal with the dead said. “Sorry, Lindsay.”

“Fuck’s sake,” she muttered.

“Okay, now that we’ve finally offloaded all this goddamned stuff, come on,” I said, heading straight for the isolation ward. Delilah hadn’t been at the wounded infirmary, so she was almost surely at the other one. I doubted it was the best place for a reunion, but I didn’t think either Lindsay or Delilah would much care.

As we approached, I saw someone already standing beside the building, leaning against it, not far from a fire barrel.

It was Delilah.

She looked over as she saw us approaching and her eyes widened.

“Lindsay?” she gasped.

“Delilah!” Lindsay replied, and then they were running at each other.

Megan and I stood to the side as they rushed up to each other, Lindsay took the barest few seconds to set her cat carrier down, and then they were hugging intensely, squeezing each other and laughing. Happiness radiated off of the two of them.

“It’s been so long-” Delilah said, and Lindsay suddenly interrupted her with a kiss.

It lasted for two seconds, and then Lindsay suddenly pulled back, letting go of Delilah. They both stared at each other in shock.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” Lindsay said, beginning to blush fiercely. “I-that was too much. I just got so excited and-”

This time Delilah interrupted her by grabbing her and kissing her.

And this time the kiss lasted longer.

“Wow,” Megan murmured. “They make a hot couple.”

“Yep,” I agreed, staring with her at the two very attractive women sharing a long, wonderful kiss. And Delilah was putting some tongue into it, I could see. They actually started making out before they parted again.

“Oh wow. So, um...oh,” Lindsay said, and I could tell that her composure had collapsed completely. “Oh my.”

“I missed you,” Delilah said. She looked a little nervous, but definitely more composed.

“I missed you, too. Um...so I guess we have a lot to talk about? That was...uh…”

“Good?” Delilah hazarded.

“Yes! Good,” Lindsay replied, laughing. “It was many things, but one of them was most certainly good. Wow.” She suddenly seemed to notice that we were still standing there and when she looked over at us, so did Delilah.

“You found her! Thank you so much!” she said, and then she rushed over and leaped at me. I caught her and kissed her and crushed her happily against me.

This one felt good. This was definitely a win.

Things that felt good were more important than ever nowadays.

She thanked and kissed and hugged Megan as well, then we all moved to stand closer to Lindsay, who seemed caught between several different demanding lines of thought. She looked between me and Delilah several times for before finally settling on me.

“Chris. I need a favor. Two favors,” she said.

“Okay,” I replied.

“First favor: will you take my cat to...wherever you are staying, and get him set up there? Um, here.” She dropped down, getting out of her pack and opening it up. “I’ve got tuna, and some loose dirt that I’ve gathered in two jars. It works as a great substitute for catlitter, actually. If you could just put some in some kind of container, something flat and low…”

I thought about it. “I guess I could flip over the toilet tank lid.”

“That’d be perfect! I just need somewhere for him to be inside and safe and warm for a little while as I get everything unfucked and figured out. And, actually, I think I could do some good here with Delilah in the clinic…”

“I’ll do it,” I said, accepting the tuna and two jars of lose soil, putting them into my own pack. “What’s the other thing?”

“If you could keep an eye out for my other two cats, that would be just great. I get the impression you’re going back out there again, so if you see them, give them one of those cans of tuna, then grab them and...I don’t know, put them in your pack, I guess? I’d really appreciate it.”

“I would also really appreciate it, and you know how appreciative I can be,” Delilah said with that seductive smile of hers.

“Yeah, I’ll grab them if I see them. What do they look like?” I asked, putting the stuff away and pulling my pack back on.

“Tabby is...well, a giant tabby. Mostly gray and black. She’s about as big as Socks here. The other is Squeak. She’s little and white as snow, with a dark spot on her face, above her eye. She’ll be harder to spot.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” I promised.

“Okay.” Lindsay grabbed the cat carrier and passed it to me. “Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome. Um, I need to go check in with Lisa. I’ll drop off Socks first and make sure he’s set up with food, water, and a toilet. Delilah can show you where we’re staying. I’ll be by before I head out again, whenever that’ll be. I imagine sometime today or tonight.”

“Okay.” Delilah gave me another long kiss. “Thank you! You really came through.”

“Glad I could help,” I replied.

Megan and I began heading for our home.

FOURTEEN

“So that was interesting,” Megan said as we walked back to the motel.

“Very,” I agreed.

“I was kind of wondering if something like that was going to happen. Just the way she looked when she talked about Delilah. I wonder how long they’ve been into each other. Or if anything ever happened before now.”

“Delilah said nothing had but...maybe she was just protecting Lindsay’s privacy,” I replied. “Maybe something happened and then Lindsay made Delilah promise to never talk about it, or just seemed awkward about it.”

“Maybe. Boy, this gets us one step closer to sex with both of them,” Megan murmured. “Although...tell me something. I know Delilah’s all like ‘my legs will always be open for you’, but if it really came down to it, would you make her choose?”

“Of course not,” I replied. “I like Delilah a lot, but we’re not a couple, and I don’t know if I’ll even stick around for a long time.”

“That’s good to hear. Plus...you’ve still got me and Elizabeth to fuck you.”

“That does help.”

We got back to the motel and stepped inside. While I went about the process of checking the fire, which was almost out, getting it restarted so that it would smolder and keep the pace warm while we were out, then started to get things ready for the cat, Megan asked me something that I wasn’t entirely prepared for.

“So what’s our actual relationship?”

“What do you think it is?” I replied.

She laughed. “That’s evasive.”

“More just...I’ve been through a lot today,” I replied. “And I don’t want a fight.”

“I’m not looking for a fight,” she said, kind of sharply. I glanced at her. She sighed. “Sorry. That’s...no, that’s fair. I know we had not the best start to our...friendship. But I guess...I mean, this is basically dating, right? We share meals together, travel together, share our feelings, sleep together, literally and figuratively. I mean, that’s dating. Right?”

“Seems so to me,” I replied as I wiped down the inside of the toilet tank lid.

“So we’re dating? You agree?”

“Yeah. I would say that by that logic I am also dating, to varying degrees, two other women, with perhaps a third on the way,” I replied.

“That’s true.” She fell silent.

“Got something specific on your mind?”

“How would you feel about it if I saw another dude?”

I glanced at her, then went back to my job, now pouring the loose soil into the makeshift catbox. “To put it bluntly: I don’t want you to see other men romantically or sexually. If you do, we’ll have to end our relationship. I realize that I am being completely unfair and hypocritical, and I do apologize for it, and if that leads to your breaking up with me, then I will accept that without any hard feelings...how does that work?” I asked.

“Well, it’s sure honest,” she replied. “I appreciate that. And…” She was silent for a few seconds, then she sighed. “Damn if I don’t care.”

“About what, exactly?”

“That you’re a hypocrite. You’re fucking other women on the side pretty regularly but we’d break up if I fucked another dude. It should make me angry but it doesn’t. I guess it’s a matter of practicality: right now, I don’t want to fuck any other dude. You’re filling that slot pretty nicely. And honestly it’s just fucking great fucking you and hot women at the same time. Delilah is the most attractive person I’ve ever hooked up with, and it happened thanks to you.”

“So what happens when some guy catches your eye at some point?” I asked.

“If we’re still together...I will evaluate the situation as it stands then,” she replied. “But to be totally honest, you’ll probably win out.”

“Okay.”

She was silent as I finished preparing everything. I set a can of tuna near a bowl of water I’d poured, made sure the catbox was ready to go, then released Socks. He came out in a dark blur and ran right under the bed, growling the whole way there.

Well, he’d get used to the place. He could explore while we were out.

When I finished up, I looked over and saw Megan staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re so fucking weird,” she said. “I’m just...having trouble processing, I guess. Almost every relationship I’ve been in has been ruled by jealousy in one form or another. Yeah some of that is my fault, but I’ve met some really fucking jealous and insecure guys who would straight-up fucking walk out on me if I’d had this conversation with them. Why are you so secure? What’s your fucking secret? Because I’d love to be like that.”

I sighed and sat down on the bed for a moment, resting. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “It’s not like I never have insecure thoughts. Maybe it’s something stupid, like it just comes from having just the right brain chemistry, or from being a big, built guy? I guess it’s because life has taught me that I’ll typically get things I go for. It happens often enough that when it doesn’t happen, I know I don’t need to panic over it. Just move on. Try something else. But I think there is something to be said for choosing to be secure in yourself. I know that sounds like bullshit, but if you keep telling yourself ‘I can handle this’, and that a certain amount of doubt and fear is natural, healthy even, then eventually you’ll finally catch on. The insecurity will stop coming, or at least it’ll stop attacking with the same power or venom as before...is this helping?”

“Maybe,” she murmured.

“Well, here’s something practical I can tell you: you don’t really have much to be insecure about. I mean, you obviously are very tough. You know how to shoot. Like, really well. You can take care of yourself. You clearly aren’t stupid. You’re smoking hot. And hot damn are you good at sex.”

She laughed and shook her head, looking away. “Yeah, yeah.”

“No, seriously. You are such a fucking pleasure to fuck. You’re really skilled and honestly enthusiastic. I love the enthusiasm, how engaged you are when we have sex.”

“Well...it feels great, and you’re pretty good at it yourself,” she replied.

“Thanks,” I said, then I stood and popped my neck and sighed. “Come on, we’ve lingered enough. We need to talk to Lisa about this problem.”

Megan lost her good cheer and agreed glumly.

We headed back outside.

~

We found Lisa in her underground office again.

“Chris!” she said as she looked up. “Please give me good news. We had two people die since you left this morning.”

“What happened?” I asked as I sat down with Megan in chairs in front of her cluttered desk.

She sighed, tossing the pencil she’d been using aside. “One of the injured had brain swelling and we did what we could, but they died. The other was a suicide, just an hour ago. Found them in their apartment. A man named Marvin...we confirmed today that his family died in the fire.”

“Jesus,” Megan whispered.

“Please, good news?” Lisa asked, looking strained and pale.

“Yes and no,” I replied. “Your source of food is secure, and we got a surplus from killing a huge bear and several wolves, over a hundred pounds of meat at least, delivered here to the settlement. Unfortunately, it cost us. Six more of your people are dead. Two were killed by wolves, the rest were killed by the bear. Three before the attack, one during. We recovered their bodies and brought them back as well. We also found Lindsay, so she’s back.”

“Who was up there that’s still alive?” Lisa asked.

“An older man named Stephen and a grim-looking woman named Lena. They’re both injured but it isn’t too bad. Stephen said he took a fall at some point before we met, and Lena got winged by a sniper on the way back. We killed him. They were indeed up on the platform. The good news is he went over the edge and so did his rifle, and the two guys who were standing there with him hid back inside the whole time, letting us get back home.”

“Shit,” she muttered, sitting back in her chair. Her eyes drifted down to the desk for a long moment. I remained silent, letting her process all that.

It was a lot to dump on someone who already had so much dumped on them.

Finally, she sat back up and refocused on us. “Okay then. That secures the food and lets us know the situation at the lakehouse and the docks. Lindsay was a good find. She isn’t exactly a doctor, but she’s got a lot more practical knowledge and experience than the average person.”

“She’s catching up with Delilah and working at the isolation ward.”

“Thank God. Okay, so the next logical step will be to remove the raiders. They’re obviously up there and obviously still dangerous. We can’t abide that.”

“How do you want to handle it?” I asked.

“I want the two of you to lead a strike team up there tonight, just after sunset. I’ve got a few people in mind who would be good for this, someone who knows the way and a few fighters. We’ll get you whatever gear you want that we can find.”

“All right,” I said, standing. “In that case I guess I should head back into the city with a team, help try to find resources and corpses-”

“No,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “You two need to be in top condition for tonight. You’ll be no good if you’re too tired. Go take a nap and rest up the remainder of the day. Make sure you eat, shave, fuck, I don’t care, whatever you need to do to block out distractions. It’s going to be dangerous up there, I have to assume.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Try not to worry too much. I have done this before.”

“I guess that doesn’t surprise me. Okay, go on,” she said. “And...thank you. Both of you. For all your help. Today was a huge win.”

“You’re welcome. Also, you should go talk with Stephen and Lena. Stephen was very adamant that he wanted to get some people together and go back to the lakehouse to secure it and restart the food gathering operation. We managed to talk him into coming back with us and, ideally, waiting until we’ve dealt with the raiders, but he seems to be a surly old son of a bitch, and I imagine if you don’t talk some sense into him he’s gonna walk back up there himself before tonight.”

She sighed and stood. “You’re right and he will. I know how to handle him.”

As she started pulling on her coat, Megan and I headed back out of the apartment building and into the cold.

“So, sex and sleep?” she asked, taking my hand.

“Sex and sleep,” I confirmed happily, and we began making for the motel.

~

“Chris...time to wake up.”

I came awake to a hand on my shoulder and felt awareness settle over me quickly. “Is it time for the attack?” I asked, rolling over as I recognized Delilah’s voice.

“No, not yet,” she said. I could see Lindsay and Elizabeth standing behind her. Elizabeth looked tired but happy, and Lindsay looked...uncomfortable.

“How long?”

“About an hour and a half,” Delilah replied. “I thought you’d appreciate time to, uh, wake up.”

“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my eyes as I sat up, considering it. According to what she told me, I figured I’d been asleep for around five hours. Definitely a good enough nap. And I was fucking horny, although it abruptly occurred to me that I, and Megan, were both naked in a room with basically a stranger to us, even if we were still largely under the blankets. Megan still seemed passed out, but she was stirring slightly.

“Not that I mind guests, but...you don’t think it’s a little weird to bring Lindsay here now? You had to know we’d be naked,” I said.

“Well, that’s part of the reason I brought her. We’ve been talking about, well, a lot of things, catching up, and certain topics have been broached that neither of us had the guts to broach before,” Delilah replied.

“Such as?” Megan murmured sleepily, rolling over.

“Oh, you’re awake. Hi. Well, such as...the fact that we would really enjoy having a threesome with a hot guy, and you absolutely fit that criteria,” Delilah replied.

I looked at Lindsay. “So, you’re into me?”

“Duh,” she replied with a little laugh. It was weird seeing her so awkward and nervous after her display the first time we’d met.

“Why duh?”

“I mean...look at you,” she replied. “Are you into me?” she asked.

“I guess I’m going to fire that duh right back at you, followed by ‘fucking of course I am, look at you’,” I replied, throwing the blankets back and getting to my feet.

“Oh wow,” she murmured as I stood. “You weren’t...exaggerating.”

“Told you,” Delilah said.

“You’ll be fine. I had the same...concern,” Elizabeth said.

“About what?” I asked as I stretched for a moment. I was horny and sore and although part of me was looking forward to getting on with this assault, most of me wasn’t. I wanted to stay here with these four beautiful women, fucking and relaxing the night away.

But there was work to be done.

Although there was play to be had before the work, thankfully.

“Your dick,” Lindsay said. “Delilah said you were...uh, well-endowed. I kind of thought she was playing it up a little, but she isn’t.”

“If you say so,” I replied, walking over to where I had the water and soap set up. After my frantic fuck session with Megan, I’d passed right out. I started cleaning myself up. As I did, I began looking around for Socks.

“So this is really happening?” Lindsay asked after a few seconds. I glanced over and saw her look at Delilah in surprise as the redhead began stripping quickly.

“Yeah, unless you change your mind,” Delilah replied.

“Wow. Okay…”

“Do you have a problem with people watching?” I asked. “Because Megan and Elizabeth are going to want to watch.”

“We can leave, if you want, though. It’s not, like, conditional,” Elizabeth said. “I was pretty nervous the first time, myself, when Megan and Delilah wanted to watch.”

“I’m not against it, exactly. But...it does make me nervous,” Lindsay said. She paused. “You really want to watch me fuck?”

“Hell yes,” Megan replied. She threw back the blankets and got up as well.

“Oh wow, you are just...amazingly hot,” Lindsay murmured.

“Thanks,” Megan replied. “You are too.”

“I’m surprised you’re even considering letting people see you during your first threesome,” Delilah said. “From what I remember, you were always so awkward and anxious.”

“I still am, sort of. The past two years have been extremely...forging, I guess you could say. I do feel tougher. But at some point I decided I was just going to bullshit people.”

“Did it work?” I asked.

“I mean apparently,” she replied. Her eyes widened as Delilah’s bra came off. “Oh wow. I’ve been waiting years to see your tits and just...holy shit, Delilah.”

“Everyone has that reaction,” Delilah replied. She shrugged and they bounced slightly in response to the movement. Megan joined me in cleaning up as Delilah finished stripping. She stood naked before Lindsay. “So you’re sure you want to do this? Because it’s happening. You’re about to get into a threesome with your best friend and, basically, her boyfriend.”

Lindsay seemed to think about it for a moment, looking between everyone, then finally turning her attention back to Delilah. “Yeah, I want to do this. And you two can watch. I trust Delilah, and I’ve gotten good feelings from the rest of you, so I guess I can’t see a downside.”

“It worked out pretty well for me,” Elizabeth said as she took a seat. “By the way...I have to ask: is there going to be any chance we can hook up? You’re very beautiful and I would absolutely love the opportunity to make love with you.”

“I...yeah, sure,” Lindsay said. She laughed suddenly. “Wow, I’m popular all of a sudden.”

“You’re really gonna tell me you weren’t popular before?” I asked.

“The tall thing kind of threw a lot of people off. Especially guys. But admittedly I’ve been in self-imposed isolation, sexually and romantically, for awhile now. For maybe the last six months. Let’s just say I haven’t met anyone here in town that I wanted to take to bed who also wanted to take me to bed. Either they weren’t interested, or I wasn’t. So this is like...starving for days and then being shown to a feast of your favorite meals.”

“You gonna strip?” Delilah asked. “Because I want to see you naked as much as you want to see me naked.”

“Oh...yeah. I guess I should. Where’s my cat?”

“Here,” I said, finally finding the cat hidden away under the bed. “You’re not gonna want to stay under there,” I muttered as we locked eyes.

Socks just let out a low meow.

“He’ll figure it out,” Lindsay said as she got out of her coat and kicked off her boots.

While she stripped, I tended to the fire. Which took longer because I kept looking at her as her clothes came off.

FIFTEEN

Lindsay was a very beautiful woman.

Her shirt and pants came off, revealing her smooth olive skin and her long limbs and, I was interested to see, some muscle definition. Not a lot, but enough to notice. She had a body like a swimmer or a dancer: lithe and limber. She took off her underclothes: thermal underwear and a t-shirt, and stood there before us in a black sports bra and black panties.

“Wow,” Delilah murmured. “You look...so different. What happened?!”

Lindsay laughed and rubbed one arm nervously. “I started working out,” she replied. “I was tried of being a stick all the time. Gained some weight and started lifting weights and doing a lot of cardio. I was hoping for a little more definition, but honestly, I like where I’m at. I think I look half-decent finally and I feel pretty good most of the time and can run a damned mile finally.”

“Man, you really changed,” Delilah said. “I feel like a slacker.”

“To be fair, and I mean this without malice, you did basically coast off the fact that you’re an absolute ten.”

“That’s fair,” Delilah replied after a moment. “Now finish getting naked.”

“All right, all right,” she said, and took off her bra, then pulled her panties down. “Another bonus: my boobs got bigger. I’m officially a c-cup now and I feel like they’re just the right size,” she said, looking down at her chest.

I had to agree with her. She had some fantastic tits. And she had also gone in on the laser hair removal, I saw as I looked down. Her pussy looked so smooth and inviting in between her trim, long, athletic thighs.

“So, Delilah said we don’t have to worry about pregnancy?” she asked. Then her eyes went wide and she looked abruptly at Elizabeth. “Not that I think there’s anything wrong with that-”

Elizabeth laughed. “It’s fine. I’m totally cool with the fact that some women don’t want to get pregnant. Don’t worry, you won’t offend me by wanting to enjoy risk-free sex.”

“Okay, awesome,” Lindsay replied. She looked back at me and raised her eyebrows in inquery.

“Yes,” I said, “I’m on basically perfect birth control. I can’t get you pregnant. If I could, Delilah and Megan would be so pregnant by now.”

“Yeah ‘cause you never fucking pull out...not that I’m complaining,” Delilah replied.

“Though it’s not like we’d be showing yet,” Megan said.

“You all would look so hot pregnant,” I murmured.

Elizabeth laughed. “You’ve got a fetish for that, huh?”

“Yeah. Makes me a little sad that I got that implant. A little. Mostly it’s great, but it’d be nice to impregnate someone.”

“Would you stick around after?” Megan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s the other problem with the fantasy,” I replied. “Now, I’m working on a timeline, so you can grill me about my fetishes later. Right now, I need to have a threesome so that I can make this assault with a clear head.”

“Oh, that’s how you’re justifying it? Having this threesome will help keep you alive?” Delilah asked with a smirk as we headed for the bed.

“Yep,” I replied, and shoved her. She let out a shriek of surprise as she flew off her feet and landed on the bed with a bounce. She flipped over onto her back, laughing.

“You know, I always had a suspicion you liked being tossed around,” Lindsay said as she climbed onto the bed.

“It’s fun,” Delilah replied.

A moment later, I ended up on my back with Lindsay straddling me. She smiled down at me and for the first time, I got a real impression of how anxious she was. That’s what had been throwing me off earlier, the difference between her and Delilah. Confidence, at least confidence of a sort, came naturally to Delilah, and I thought that Lindsay had a point: Delilah had been coasting off her natural beauty for most of her life.

Simple rule of reality: life, on the whole, is easier for physically attractive people.

They like to bitch and moan about it, claiming it’s not true, but it is.

Life basically hands them cookies on a silver platter, even now. Maybe even especially now. If you were hot, you could get people to do things for you much more easily than if you were ugly or even just average looking.

I thought Lindsay was very attractive, but she was right: tall girls scared off a lot of guys. It must be a point of contention with her, because how many six foot women had I run into in my whole life? Not many.

“Lindsay,” I said.

“Yeah?” she asked.

I reached out and settled my hands on her firm hips. “Try to relax. We’ve got enough time, and I’m super easy and easygoing. This is just a fun, chill experience. Okay?”

“Okay...yeah,” she said, then she took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. “Sorry, it’s been a very long few days.”

“I understand,” I replied.

She leaned down and kissed me. She was tentative at first, and I let her move at her own pace. I could feel those perky, firm breasts of hers against my bare skin, could feel her dark brown nipples, too. I slowly slid my hands up her hips and around to her ass, groping it. Fuck, that was a nice ass. She deepened the kiss then, moaning softly, and tilted her head. I kissed her back more firmly, and she slipped her tongue into my mouth. Before long we were really into it, making out with intensity, and I could feel heat coming off of her, not physically but sexually. She was fucking horny and I had the impression we’d just lit a massive sexual fire in her.

Abruptly, she pulled back, coming up for air. She brushed some hair out of her face as she sat up, then looked at Delilah. “This is so weird!” she said finally. “I’m making out with your boyfriend and we’re naked and...you really aren’t going to be mad about this?”

“Lindsay, he has been fucking those two regularly since we met. With me involved or me watching,” Delilah replied easily. “Trust me, I want this to happen. I know what a great, fantastic fuck he is, and I want you to enjoy that. You deserve it. Also, you know, I want to fuck you, too. So I’m a little selfish there.”

“It’s not selfish,” I said, reaching up and cupping her breasts, “everyone in this room wants a piece of her.”

“Okay, I’m just...getting the hang of this,” she said, letting me feel her up for another moment before leaning back down and resuming making out with me.

We kissed for several long, pleasant minutes before I slipped her off of me, got her onto her back, and started gently massaging her clit.

“Ohhhhh…” she moaned loudly, twitching as I stimulated her.

“You like that?” I murmured, kissing her neck.

“Yessss...fuck!” she cried as I went a little harder and faster.

“Can I get involved now?” Delilah asked.

“Yes,” Lindsay panted.

Delilah got up on her other side and joined me in pleasuring her best friend. They began making out and Delilah slipped a finger inside of her as I continued rubbing her clit. She let out a muffled shriek of bliss, and then another as I got lower and started sucking on one of her firm breasts. Seeing that was like a hit of raw, uncut lust. It was a perfect sight, a pure erotic visage. It didn’t take Lindsay long to get into the grove of making out, and it took Delilah no time at all. We both kept going, kept stimulating that sweet pussy of hers, until she had a full body orgasm. She had put a hand over her mouth because she couldn’t stop screaming from the raw pleasure burning its way through her body. She writhed and twisted and screamed.

When it was over, she fell back, panting, her hand falling away.

“Holy shit. Oh my fucking God. I haven’t come like in so long. Oh my. Whew.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a long, shuddering sigh as tremors of aftermath bliss ran through her. She closed her eyes and breathed deep for several seconds. “Oh wow, I’m just...seriously, it’s been like six months since I’ve gotten laid or had another person make me come. Now, it honestly feels like six years. Jesus. Um…” she looked at me. “I’m pretty good with my mouth, if you’re interested. I feel like I owe you for that.” Then she looked at Delilah. “Both of you.”

“I’m down,” I said.

“Same,” Delilah replied.

We switched places and I took her spot. They both got down there, laying on their stomachs, and I watched as they began to lick up my shaft, working towards the head. Whew, there was nothing quite like that thrill of having a new sexual partner for the first time. The wave of pleasure and lust that hit me like a tsunami was intense as hell as I watched Lindsay lock eyes with me while licking up my cock. Her tongue hit the head and began to drag slowly across it. She was, indeed, good with her mouth, and my reaction seemed to be pleasing to her.

I had to imagine it was kind of nerve-wracking, those first few seconds when you started doing something sexy to someone for the very first time. Kind of a make-or-break moment: would they be into it or not? Were you up to the task of pleasuring them? Because I had to admit, trying to pleasure someone sexually and failing was a really bad feeling. It made me feel glad that I was just fucking easy to please, apparently.

The longer they went on, the more comfortable she got, and soon she was sucking me off with an ease that was like we’d been dating for awhile.

Which, goddamn that felt good.

Watching my cock disappear into her beautiful mouth was an amazing aphrodisiac. And the way she closed her eyes after a little while, focusing, the way Delilah looked so utterly in bliss as she watched Lindsay suck my dick.

After awhile, Lindsay passed it to Delilah and my little redheaded slut got to work.

They kept going like this, back and forth, until I was ready to pop.

“Do it in her mouth,” Delilah said, panting, her voice husky.

“You want me to come in your mouth?” I asked, looking at Lindsay, who currently had my dick in between her lips.

“Mmm-hmm,” she replied, and kept bobbing her head.

Well fuck, all right then.

I came in her mouth.

It didn’t take much longer for me to bust, and I groaned loudly, my whole body convulsing as that wave of pure pleasure rolled through me, exploding out from my core as my cock jerked in her mouth and I released a thick spurt of my seed. She let out a surprised sound but didn’t stop sucking. Ah fucking God how it felt when you were coming in a woman’s mouth and she just kept sucking. And then I felt Delilah’s hot, smooth hand cup my balls and start to massage them and I started coming harder, now crying out instead of groaning, and just…

Fuck.

Lindsay sucked me dry and then sat up when I was finished.

“Shit that was a lot,” she gasped.

“Told you,” Delilah said.

“How much exactly did you talk about our sex life?” I asked as my head swam and the post-orgasmic ecstasy settled over me.

“A lot,” Delilah replied. “I think it was only fair considering I was trying to talk her into fucking you with me.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Can I get a drink of something?” Lindsay asked.

“Here,” Megan said, passing her a bottle of water.

She thanked her, accepted it, and drank deeply, then passed it back. “Can we fuck now?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“You need a minute?”

“No.”

“Oh.” She looked down. “I guess not. Um...okay. Can I be on my back?”

“Yeah,” I said, getting up, eager to get inside of her.

“Oh, and just so you know, because Delilah warned me you’d want to,” Lindsay said as we traded spots, “you can come in me.”

“Fucking thank you,” I replied earnestly as I got in between her slim thighs.

“You’re welcome, and please be gentle...I mean, at first.”

“I will,” I replied. “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” I said, running my hands slowly along her thighs and then settling them on her hips. She shivered at my touch. I rested the head of my cock in between the lips of her pussy and rubbed it there for a few seconds, feeling her shudder, listening to her gasp and then start to pant softly.

Then I started carefully working my way inside of her.

Hot fuck was she tight.

And wonderfully wet.

I was careful as I worked my way into her, going nice and slow. As I did, Delilah laid down beside her. “Let me help a little,” she murmured.

And then she reached down and started rubbing her clit.

Lindsay let out a shout of unbridled pleasure. It helped me get deeper into her, and I kept going until I’d buried my whole rigid length in there. And then I started stroking smoothly into her, and she let out a loud, long groan and enjoyed a second orgasm within ten seconds. I enjoyed her enjoying it, feeling her vaginal muscles clenching wildly, a hot spray of her sex juices escaping her. Fuck, it felt so fucking good.

I started fucking her harder and faster.

“Yes! Oh fuck! Yes! Harder!” she screamed.

I gripped her hips and really started giving it to her. She had to hold her hands over her mouth again as she screamed in incoherent bliss. I thrust deep and hard into her for another several minutes until finally she waved me off.

“Okay...okay...okay…” she gasped. “Shit...I need a break. Oh my God. Uh...Delilah, tag in,” she groaned.

“Happily,” Delilah replied.

I got off of Lindsay and Delilah got onto her hands and knees, presenting that wonderful pale ass of hers, and I immediately got into position behind her and started hitting it from the back. She let out a long, loud moan of bliss as I stroked smoothly into her and goddamn if this wasn’t the best feeling in the world. I grabbed her hips and started hammering away at her pussy, enjoying every last second of it, just going and going and going.

“Holy shit,” Lindsay said, and I glanced over. She was staring at us with wide eyes. “This is the first time I’ve ever actually watched someone have sex, like, in the flesh. I didn’t know it would be so...powerful, to watch.”

“You can see why we wanted to watch,” Megan said.

“Yeah. Oh my God. This is amazing.”

I went back to fucking Delilah until she had a wonderful orgasm, and then Lindsay wanted her turn again.

“Can I ride you?” she asked.

“Yep,” I replied.

“I like being on top, honestly,” she said as I pulled out of Delilah and laid back down. Lindsay mounted me and slipped my cock into herself. She gasped, then moaned as she worked it back into her pussy. “Seriously, fuck, that’s big.”

“Enjoying it?” I asked.

“Yes. Holy shit. It’s been fucking forever since I’ve done it raw and fuck is it so good without a condom,” she groaned as she began bouncing on my dick.

She looked glorious, her long, dark hair wreathing her beautiful face, her perky tits bouncing in rhythm with the rest of her. Her hips and thighs worked beautifully as she rode me, taking my rock-hard cock into her hot pink pussy again and again, sending waves of bliss rolling through me. I wanted so badly to come inside of her, but I wanted to get her off again first. Coming at the same time as the woman you were fucking was even better.

Plus, getting someone off was just a nice thing to do.

I reached down and began rubbing her clit with my thumb. She let out a shriek of surprised ecstasy and really started fucking me, grabbing my shoulders and rapidly slipping her pussy up and down my dick, moaning in pure bliss.

It wasn’t long before she started coming again, which meant it wasn’t long before I did, too.

I exploded inside of her and started pumping her pussy full of my seed. I felt it leaving me in hard spurts, and the bliss it brought was blinding. I could feel her vaginal muscles clenching and fluttering wildly, and that hot spray of sex juices just made the whole thing that much better as I shot my load into her.

We moaned and yelled and writhed together, locked in a union of utter bliss.

And then the orgasms were over, and we were left panting and shaky and sweating, staring at each other.

“Wow, you are a really good lay,” she panted.

“So are you,” I replied, grinning up at her, swimming in that sea of bliss that came after blowing my load inside of a woman.

“I can definitely see why Delilah likes you so much,” she said as she got off me. She sat down and looked down at herself. “Oh my lord, you weren’t kidding about that either. Holy shit, how did you have that much left inside you after the load you blew in my mouth!?”

“No idea,” I replied, sitting up.

“Uh-uh,” Megan said, walking over and pushing me back down. I realized she’d never gotten dressed after getting up. “My turn.”

“Fine, but this time I’ll need a minute,” I replied.

She smirked. “We’ll see about that.”

SIXTEEN

By the time I showed up at the apartment building, I felt almost actually ready to do this.

Either way, I felt refreshed. After fucking Megan’s brains out and getting her off, we’d washed up, dressed, and caught a quick meal. The sun was just about gone by now. We’d said our farewells to Elizabeth, Delilah, and Lindsay, but I could tell they were nervous. I didn’t blame them. This was going to be dangerous.

Lisa and four people in dark clothes were gathered in the lobby, checking over several weapons. I mostly saw pistols. Actually, upon closer inspection, I only saw pistols. Well, it made enough sense given we were probably going to have to do close quarters and Megan and I were going to be the ones providing rifles, just in case.

“How are we doing?” I asked.

“Good, I think,” Lisa replied. “Well, probably as good as can be, given the circumstances.”

I looked around. I recognized two of them as part of her original entourage that’d been protecting her when we had first approach the town. Two men and two women made up the team, I didn’t recognize either of the women.

“I don’t suppose we have any body armor lying around?” I asked.

“Unfortunately not. We had some bulletproof vests at one point but they’ve since been lost in the fire,” Lisa replied. “I guess introductions are in order.” She indicated one of the men, tall, with a wiry frame and weathered features. “This is Luke. He’s pretty much in charge of security now. Used to be a cop.” She nodded to the other man, who was shorter but more filled out, more bulky with musculature. “Drew, one of our hunters.” Next was a slim, frowning woman with tan skin and dark hair. “Amy. She’s a chef but she’s quite a good shot and she’s got nerves of steel, so I trust her with this.” Finally, she nodded to the other woman, who was average height and weight, with short cut red hair. She looked a little wild and maybe even a little unstable. “Brie. She also hunts for us.”

“Sometimes humans,” she murmured.

“Everyone, this is Chris and Megan. Chris is in charge of this operation,” Lisa said.

I managed to not show the surprise on my face, at least I think so. I’d been intending to lead this operation, but I thought I’d have to fight Lisa for it.

Well, no sense in letting them know I was surprised or anxious.

“Is anyone going to have a problem with that?” I asked as neutrally as I could. I wasn’t inviting a fight, it was a genuine question and I hoped they got that.

They all shook their heads.

“Boss ain’t exactly an enviable position,” Luke said. “Why I was always the deputy, never the sheriff, if I could manage it.”

“You’re doing fine so far,” Lisa said.

“We’ve been lucky so far.” He focused on me again. “But no, no problem. I just hope...you know what you’re doing. From what I’ve heard, your actions seemed to speak for themselves, and Lisa trusts you, so that’s enough for me.”

“All right then. Which one of you knows the way up there the best?” I asked.

“I do,” Brie said. “It’s pretty straightforward.”

“Describe the path we’ll take from the town to the observation deck,” I replied.

“We’ll need to cover about a half-mile of open land, then we’ll hit the bottom of the hill the thing is built onto. It’s got a path that leads up through it. There’s some steps built in, but mostly its a natural trail. It’s not too hard to navigate, even with the snow. Unless they have people actually on it, it’ll offer us decent protecting. It eventually lets out into an open lot with picnic tables and an equipment shed to the right, with the observation deck and the tourist center attached to it to the left and ahead. That’s where we’ll be hit, if we’re going to be hit.”

“Huh,” I muttered, considering it, trying to picture it in my head as best I could. “All right. You’ll guide us to the path, then I’ll take point. Once we start going up that path, I want Megan behind me and Luke behind her. Everyone else bring up the rear. Keep talking to an absolute minimum, same for sound. This is a stealth strike. Be ready to have a shootout. Try not to do anything stupid and don’t just rush in there. Once we’re actually up in that lot with the picnic tables, if they haven’t attacked us yet, we’ll reassess and go from there. Any questions?”

No one seemed to have any, so I had us go over our gear. As I suspected, everyone was armed with pistols. I saw a pair of automatics and a pair of revolvers. I figured I should trust the people involved to know which gun they felt most comfortable with. After we’d gone over our gear and the plan one more time, I had everyone assemble outside. While they did, I went over to Lisa, something bugging me.

“Yes?” she asked.

“There’s something I need from you,” I said.

“What is it?”

“Your word that, if something happens to me and I die up there, you will take care of Delilah and Elizabeth and Megan and Lindsay.”

“You have my word,” she replied.

I looked at her for a few silent seconds, then nodded. “Thanks...I’ll be back when I can.”

“Good luck,” she murmured as I walked out of the lobby.

~

I hated traveling at night.

It was fucking cold when the sun went away. Even now, with relatively light cloud cover (good for us, as it obscured the moonlight and helped keep us hidden, hopefully), it was fucking freezing outside.

We struck out in a loose line northbound from Pine Lake towards the hill. I could just make it out, rising in the distance, against the thin light of the moon and the stars. From this angle, the deck was mostly obscured, but they could’ve found any number of perches on the hill itself and if they had nightvision goggles and a good rifle, they could pick us off like fish in a fucking barrel. I kept my eye out for the glint of light reflecting off a scope or anything else. The others were dead silent as we made our way through the snow.

I kept watch, just behind Brie, as she led us unerringly onward.

To be honest, I liked looking at landscapes during the night. Especially if the moon was out in force. The ethereal white light that fell like magic from the skies during those rare nights, reflected by the eternal snowscape that entombed us all, was beautiful to behold. Some nights I’d just sit by a window with a fire crackling somewhere nearby, the curtain drawn back, and look out over the frozen landscape.

It was different being out in it, though. I’d traveled enough nights, forced to for one reason or another, to have grown to largely hate it. Besides the excess cold, it was so much easier to get hurt. Easier to trip over something, easier to fall down a hill you hadn’t noticed, easier to get attacked by animals that hunted in the dark, easier to miss if someone was lying in wait for you. So I was looking forward to getting this over with.

As far as I could tell, the raiders were now the worst threat to this entire situation. Sickness, starvation, unrest, the cold, all of that could be kept at bay with enough willpower and the right luck, and I thought we were well on our way to dealing with these problems, at least in the short term. Enough that they could be held at bay while the populace was allowed to rest and recover, and then pick the pieces of civilization back up and put them back together again. But not if these fucking dickheads with guns and fire and malice attacked again.

But we had a chance to end that, here and now.

I intended to take it.

Brie led us to the path we were looking for promptly and without a problem. It was at the base of the hill, marked by a wooden sign, and it led up a crevice carved into the hill. It looked relatively easy to navigate, but I didn’t like the way I could already see little side areas off the path, places where people might conceivably hide and spring traps.

I took the lead and gestured. Megan and Luke joined me, the others got behind us, and we began our slow march up the path.

The next half an hour passed in a slow kind of agony.

I hadn’t fully appreciated how many hiding places there were, and we had to not only move very slowly, but check everything to make doubly sure we weren’t passing people in the dark and letting them get in behind us. A pincer maneuver in this place would basically be the end of us. I listened hard and kept my eyes open, trying to open my senses up to the world around me. Hunting in the woods had taught me a lot about picking up on tiny things. I think it was like tapping into your primal instincts or something.

Right now, I wasn’t getting anything but tension.

Finally, after a long, freezing, miserable walk up the path, we made it to the summit. As we approached it, passing by a signpost that Brie had warned me about, letting me know that once I saw it, we were extremely close, I roused myself. I kept expecting to hear something, but there was nothing save for the sounds we were making.

Were they all asleep?

Certainly it was possible. If that was the case, maybe I could get in there, kill whoever they’d left on guard, and we could eliminate them in their sleep.

Honorable? Fuck no.

Would I feel good about it? Again, fuck no.

But it would solve the problem, and we were living in the real world. Honor was good and all, but here was something I’d come to realize: most bad guys were counting on their enemies to do the ‘honorable’ thing. They’d lie, cheat, and steal to get their way. They’d say or do anything to maintain power. They agreed to a knife fight? They wouldn’t hesitate to bring a gun and just shoot you dead, because they were fucking evil.

I didn’t doubt there were some dickheads out there who actually would stick by their word, but ninety nine percent of them wouldn’t.

So yeah, I wasn’t proud of killing monsters in their sleep, but I’d do it.

The trench the path was made in let out onto the area with the picnic tables like Brie had said. I didn’t see any flicker of firelight in the windows, no hint of movement, no sign of a sentry, no smoke coming from the chimney.

What the fuck did that mean?

Were they just that dedicated to laying a trap?

I didn’t think so, but I couldn’t be sure. Everyone finished coming up the path and gathered around me while I scoped the situation out.

When they’d finished, I addressed them.

“Okay,” I whispered, “Luke and Brie are going to come with me. Brie, I want you to go around the back and also check that shed, Luke and I will go around the front. We’ll check the exterior and surveil the interior. If we can, I want to take them out quietly, if they’re asleep. We’ll go inside once the exterior is clear and we’ve looked at the interior. However...there is the remote possibility that they have vacated the premises and then some of your people have moved in, so don’t go in guns blazing until we are sure that it’s them. Understand?”

They all nodded.

“Good. Megan, I want you to hang back and cover us with the rifle. You’ll have a good line of sight through a lot of those windows. If things get hairy, take down who you can. Drew, I want you focusing entirely on the way we came: make sure no one sneaks up behind us. Even if the gun battle starts, you stay focused on our six. Amy, stay here with Megan, but be ready to charge in if things go sideways. Everyone understand?”

Again, they all nodded.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

We got to it. Crouching low, Luke and I went left, towards the front, where the observation platform was, and Brie headed off to the right, to slip into the alcove of space between the hill, which continued to rise up in that direction, and the back of the building. I kept expecting a bullet to leap out from somewhere and strike me in the head or the back or the neck, and the tension was singing through my body as I navigated between the picnic tables in the dim moonlight. I kept looking for someone crouching, someone lurking in a shadow, hell, someone fucking laying down beneath a table with a gun or a knife, ready to kill.

But there was nothing.

I still didn’t hear jack shit, even as I got to the platform and confirmed there was no one hanging around on it. After we finished our recon of the deck, we moved over to the building. I had Luke look in the big panoramic windows on the front while I moved around to the far side of it, making sure no one was there. All I found was another, smaller deck and the remains of some trash and some furniture that had been broken up for firewood. Brie was already there, peering in through one of the few windows on this side.

I joined her and looked in on a small office that was dark and empty. We moved on, checking each window in passing as we moved to join Luke back at the front. I saw another room, totally cleared out, and there was a section with small rectangular windows high up, certainly the bathroom. We joined Luke and peered into the main structure.

It was empty.

No fire burned in the fireplace at the back. No people slept or moved. There was no one in there at all.

The place looked deserted.

“What the fuck?” I whispered softly. “Okay, we’re going in. Brie, was there a back entrance?” She nodded. “Go back and try to get in through it. Luke and I will hit the front. Nice and easy, they might be hiding...somewhere.”

But I didn’t think so, I thought the place was really abandoned.

Couldn’t be sure until we were sure though, and two things this world had drilled into me were patience and thoroughness.

So we split up again and Luke and I got inside. The door was unlocked, and the interior was cold. I saw no lights anywhere, though in the moonlight I could see signs of people having been here. There were dark splotches on the wooden floor. Blood. Someone wounded? Or maybe runoff from those two guys who’d gotten splattered when Megan had all but decapitated their shooter. There was trash, bones, kindling spread around.

The next several minutes were cold and dark and tense as we cleared the place, room-by-room. There was a main hall where I imagined people had once sat and ate or chatted. We cleared that office and the empty room, the bathroom as well, and a kitchen area, and what was probably once a gift shop. All of it empty.

The place was, in fact, vacated.

“Well shit,” I said as we gathered back in the central room.

“Now what?” Brie muttered.

I sighed, considering it. “Let’s go get the others.”

I went to the door and waved Megan and the other two over, telling them it was all clear. They joined us quickly.

“Luke, take Amy and go back to the settlement. Tell them what happened. The rest of us will stay here for the night in case they come back. Brie and Drew, go with them to the bottom of the path, make sure they head off without a problem, then get back up here. We’ll sleep in shifts. Megan and I will start getting this place ready. Luke, I want you to either come back with a few people, or send a few people. We should camp this place out at the very least to make sure that they don’t move back in here again. Can you make it back by sunrise?”

He nodded. “I’ll send a couple of people with supplies to stake it out for the next few days.”

“Perfect.”

They seemed to agree with that plan, and the four of them went off back to the path. The first thing I did was to march over to the fireplace and begin assembling a fire. There were still just the barest hints of some embers among the ashes, and there were several pieces of broken furniture piled up nearby, so I got to work.

“Where do you think they went?” Megan asked, grabbing a chair, hauling it over, and sitting down next to me.

“Only a few places they could go, I think,” I replied. “Probably not the lakehouse or the docks. I doubt to that gas station south of here, they’d have to pass the town, which they could do, theoretically, but it seems like a lot of extra work. There’s a house and a garage way off to the southwest. There’s also a hunting lodge and a few cabins up to the northeast. There could be other structures I don’t know about. Maybe we got lucky and they fucked off. Obviously your kill rattled them. Probably that combined with the fact that I’ve killed three of their people so far.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Megan muttered. “We really gonna spend the night up here?”

“Yep. We came here to do a job and I’m not half-assing it,” I replied.

“Fair enough.” She sighed. “Fuck, I want to be home in our bed. That thing’s actually pretty comfortable.”

“I hear you.”

I got the fire going and then we started checking the place over. I had to admit, as much as I was prepared to battle here, I’m kind of glad it turned out this way. I’d rather not murder, if I can manage it. If we were genuinely lucky, they might have finally decided this place wasn’t worth their time and moved on.

Although with these types, chances were they’d had their fucking pride wounded and were just going to double down.

Megan and I had just about finished searching the place over, finding not much more than some loose matches, a few cans of food tucked away in one of the cabinets, and, thankfully, a few bedrolls that would serve us as an uncomfortable but serviceable sleeping place, by the time the others came back.

“Anything?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Brie replied. “Now what?”

“I figure it’s about midnight. We’ll take shifts. We get two hours each...anyone got a watch?” I asked. Drew pulled a small wind-up watch out of his pocket and passed it to me. “Thanks. I’ll take first watch, then Megan, then Brie, then Drew. Drew, wake Megan and I when your shift is over.”

“All right then, I’m eating, then going to sleep,” Brie said as she walked over to the fire. Drew nodded and joined her.

“I’ll stay with you for a little while,” Megan said. “Honestly, I’m not that tired given our nap.”

I thanked her, but I didn’t think it would last. She looked tired, as I’m sure I did. Consistent tension had a way of draining you, and we’d been tense for probably a solid two hours now, even after we’d cleared the place.

I settled in for a long night.

SEVENTEEN

“Chris.”

I jerked awake as I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was quickly withdrawn as I rolled over, grabbed the gun I’d put under my pillow, and sat up, drawing it.

“What?” I snapped, looking around.

“What is it?” Megan asked, coming awake beside me.

Drew looked nervously at me. “It’s dawn.”

I blinked a few times, then sighed and lowered the gun. “Sorry. Thank you for waking me,” I made myself say. “Did anything happen?”

“No, nothing.”

It had been the same for the other shifts. No activity. “All right, get some sleep,” I said as I got up and made room. Megan did the same. “We’ll hang out here until the others show up.”

“Okay, thanks,” he said as he laid down where we had.

I desperately wanted to wash, but I didn’t think there’d be time and I wasn’t exactly eager to get naked around these people. I glanced over to the other side of the room. Brie was still passed right out, snoring softly. I looked at Megan. She stared back at me bleakly, her eyes bloodshot and baggy, her hair a wild mess. I was sure I looked much the same.

We stumbled out of the kitchen area where the bedrolls had been set up and into the main hall. I checked the fire and saw that Drew had tended it before coming to wake us.

“I’m going to check the perimeter,” I said.

“I’ll be here,” Megan murmured.

I walked outside and the cold hit me like a slap. It wasn’t as bad as last night, and it might’ve been better than yesterday, perhaps even approaching freezing, but still, it was tough when coming from a sleepy, warm state.

It helped me wake up, though, and I needed that.

There was more work to be done today, a lot more, possibly.

I took a walk around the perimeter, found no evidence of anyone having been here, and ended it at the head of the path. I got there just in time to meet a pair of people coming up. There was a moment of tension as we each were unsure of who we were looking at, but then we all relaxed. I vaguely recognized the two of them from around the town.

“Chris?” one asked.

“Yep. Luke send you?” I replied as we started walking back to the building.

“Yeah.”

“How is everything down there?”

“Peaceful, thankfully. The food that was found yesterday has helped a lot.”

“Anymore people found?”

He sighed. “Yeah...all dead, bodies pulled from the wreckage.”

I grunted. Great. We went back inside and I updated them with what I could on the situation, let them know that Brie and Drew were sleeping in there. After that, I sat back down with Megan and we had a quick breakfast. I drank some water and ate a can of beans. Not exactly a gourmet meal but it was fuel for the day.

“Can I borrow those for a minute?” I asked, indicating the binoculars hanging from a strap around one man’s neck.

“Yeah, just don’t go anywhere with them,” he replied, passing them to me.

“I’ll have them right back. Just want to do some recon.”

He nodded. Megan followed me after we’d finished packing our stuff up and I headed back outside.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Gotta look around first,” I replied. “Do some thinking.”

I checked around from the observation deck. Spotted a few people walking towards the lakehouse from the forest where the food area was. I tensed, but then relaxed as I recognized Lena and Stephen among them. So apparently they’d gone back. I looked around a bit longer, didn’t see anything of interest, and then headed in the other direction.

“What are you doing?” Megan asked as I began climbing up the hill behind the building.

“I want to see the other side,” I replied.

“Don’t fucking fall,” she muttered as she joined me.

“Obviously.”

It was a pain, but we both ended up standing atop a relatively flat piece of land maybe twenty feet higher above the observation platform. For a moment, I just looked without the binoculars. What a goddamned commanding view it was. After enjoying the scenery, I looked around. First at the town. I could see people moving, and they didn’t look panicked. Then along the treeline of the forest that held the watchtower I’d missed coming in, according to the map, and the hunting lodge and its cabins. I didn’t see any activity beyond a few deer roaming around, but that didn’t necessarily mean jack. They could be at either location, just hiding.

I looked to the gas station and didn’t see anything there either.

Finally, I checked on the watchtower one more time, because I wanted that to be my next destination in my search for people. Either friend or foe.

And I saw something. Dark gray movement near the treeline not far from the watchtower, which I could just barely make out maybe fifty or sixty yards back from the forest’s edge. For a second, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.

Then, as the moving thing darted into the trees, I abruptly realized.

“Oh you motherfucker,” I whispered.

“What? You see them?” Megan asked, sounding excited.

I sighed heavily. “No. I just saw one of Lindsay’s cats. Which means I gotta go after it.”

“Jeez, you want Lindsay to keep fucking you that badly?” Megan asked with a grin.

“For the record: yes, I’d like to keep sleeping with Lindsay. And Delilah. But more significantly: I promised. And I want to help the cat.”

“Maybe it’s happy out there.”

“I doubt it. It’s fucking freezing. Probably ran away in a panic and it’s sad and scared and alone…”

“All right, all right, fuck, you’re ripping my heart out,” Megan muttered irritably.

“That’s why I want to go get it,” I said as we made our way back down the hill. We headed back inside and I passed them back the binoculars, then we headed back outside.

“You want me to come with you?” she asked.

“No. Go back to the town, check in with Delilah and the others, let them know we’re okay, then with Lisa, tell her everything, maybe plan with her for our next move. Let her know I’m going to check the watchtower for survivors or raiders and I’ll be back as soon as I’m done.”

“Will do,” Megan said.

We started walking down the path.

~

And so this is what it had come to: hunting for a cat.

Not that I felt embarrassed about that or anything, just a little weird. There were killers out there and people possibly on the verge of freezing to death or bleeding out somewhere in the wilderness, and I was hunting a cat.

I guess that was how I justified it: I was hunting this cat and looking for other people. Either to kill or help.

It all depended on who I found at the watchtower.

Despite the tension of worrying about a bullet leaping out of the treeline and punching my brains out through my skull, or the fact that there might be wolves or another bear among those trees, I felt good as I walked across the snow. I was still sore and tired and I wanted a wash, but I was getting something done, it was a clear morning and the temperature was about as close to the good old days as it ever got. As I walked, I suddenly was struck by a thought that I had every now and then: was it like this everywhere?

I know the news was saying mostly that before the news stopped coming. I remember seeing snow dumping onto the Pyramids in Egypt, huge mountains of snow in the Sahara Desert, shit like that. It was wild...in a terrifying kind of way. I mean, I didn’t think there really existed a place on Earth where it had never snowed, or at least not in recorded history, but certainly where it was very rare, and never in the quantities that we were seeing then. But that was then. It had been over two years. Were there places that had gone back to normal? I’d heard rumors of the mythological ‘green zones’, where the snow had receded back to normal times, where it even got back up to the seventies or eighties. But it just sounded like high hopes to me.

I’d like to believe that someday whatever had happened would reverse itself, or maybe there were geniuses toiling away in some secret bunker, deep under the Earth, working frantically to fix whatever mistake had occurred, or reverse whatever disaster had struck us. And to be honest, there probably were. It was at least likely.

What I thought was unlikely was that they’d actually succeed.

Something people had a hard time with accepting was that some problems were so massive, it would take decades of consistent work to fix, or even begin to fix. There were some problems so big, you might not even live to see the solution.

But your children would.

Didn’t that make it worth doing?

Then there was the whole God thing. Was this punishment? A modern ‘flood’? Covering the Earth in ice was, sorta, covering it in water. Just frozen water. Were there arks somewhere that people who’d been chosen by God had built and now hid His people? Would they emerge years from now, decades, or their children’s children centuries on, to rebuild the world? To be honest, I doubted it. I didn’t believe in any of that.

But I couldn’t really rule it out.

As I reached the treeline, clambering back up the hill me and the girls had first come down a few days ago, (shit, just a few days?, felt like a few weeks now), I was glad to find that this train of thought wasn’t upsetting me as much as it used to.

If anything, it was more of a mental exercise than a concerning sting of anxiety.

Maybe it was because I was actually doing something with my life now, instead of just drifting around, staying alive, fucking women.

Well, I was still doing that.

I didn’t think I’d ever stop doing that.

Why would I?

Once I crested the hill and reached the treeline, I spent a few minutes walking up and down it, hunting for the prints in the snow. It wasn’t snowing and the wind was pretty much nonexistent right now, so they would be well-preserved. Sure enough, I found them after a bit. They led into the woods, in the rough direction of the watchtower that I could see better now among the thick forest of trees. It stood a good forty feet high or so, and I did wonder exactly why it had been built there. It didn’t give a commanding view of very much.

Maybe they hadn’t spent all their budget by the end of the fiscal year, and, desperate to maintain the same level of budget, they’d hastily erected a watchtower without really putting much consideration into the location.

Stupider shit had happened.

As I followed the paw prints through the snow, I saw that there were other prints that the first set soon intersected with.

Probably a rabbit that the cat was hunting.

Well, hopefully she liked tuna more. It was the other big cat, Tabby. I had at least been able to tell that much from a distance.

After a few minutes of wandering through the trees, occasionally looking up and around, I finally saw the cat up ahead. Perfect. She was crouched in the snow, and as I came to the edge of the clearing the watchtower was built into, I saw that she had made her kill: she was chewing on a dead rabbit. Maybe I could grab her, but I thought it would be best to try the tuna approach first. As I got out of my pack and pulled the can of tuna out, Tabby turned to regard me. Her ears flattened and her tail twitched. Probably concerned I was out for her kill.

“Tabby,” I said, “come here.”

She regarded me with those slit-pupil eyes a moment longer, then went back to her kill. I sighed. “Tabby, come on, I’ve got some tuna you little fucking...cat. Or, well, big cat,” I muttered. Still she ignored me.

I cracked open the tuna can, pulling back the lid.

That got her attention at least. She perked up and turned around, raising her nose to the air. I crouched down, slowly extending the can.

“Yes, tuna,” I said. “That’s better than raw rabbit, right?”

She looked back at her kill, then finally turned and started padding over to me. Perfect. I could just grab her while she was eating and stuff her in my pack. Not ideal, I’ll admit, but I wasn’t lugging a fucking cat carrier all over the goddamned region with me every time I went out on the off chance I’d find a cat.

As she approached from halfway, she stopped suddenly and looked off to my left. I heard something right after that and cursed, dropping the tuna, going for my pistol, and standing up all at the same time.

Too late.

Someone in dark leathers stepped out from behind the tree, raised something in my direction, and the next thing I knew I had been sent careening into an explosion of pain. For some uncertain length of time the world went white and my whole body was jerking and erupting with pure pain. I heard sounds, but they were distorted, confused.

I thought I heard gunshots.

Someone shouting.

I heard a thud somewhere in there.

And then the white was receding from my vision, and the pain was receding from my body, and I was staring up at the sky.

I couldn’t move.

I heard footsteps coming closer to me, slow and measured, crunching in the snow. I tried to move, still couldn’t. I jerked my body and got some response. Everything hurt, all my muscles ached, my head sang with agony.

The footsteps grew closer.

Well, I thought with a strange sense of detachment, I guess this is how I die.

A mature, weathered, female face appeared over me as the footsteps came right up next to my head. She stared down at me, her mouth pursed, her eyes clinical and distant. Finally, she crouched and her fingers went to my throat.

I tensed, but I realized she was taking my pulse.

“You got hit by a tazer,” she said, her voice a little rough. “How you feeling?”

“Like shit,” I managed, then coughed.

She grinned sardonically. “I imagine so...who are you?”

“Chris...I’m with Lisa.”

“Well, I made the right call then. I was gonna blow your head off. Thought you were one of them. Why don’t you rest there a minute and I’ll check you over, then I can help you up to the watchtower and you can catch your breath.”

I just closed my eyes.

Fuck I hurt.

I’d never been hit by a tazer before. Holy shit it sucked.

I heard a sound close by, what I realized was eating. Opening my eyes, I slowly raised my head and looked around.

Tabby was crouched by my feet, eating tuna out of the snow from where I’d dropped the can. I sighed heavily and laid my head back down.

“You little…” I groaned.

“Hey, that cat saved your life,” the woman said.

“How’s that?”

“I was gonna shoot you, like I said, but then you started trying to coax the cat over. The way you were talking to it...and you knew it’s name. I figured you had to be someone from town I didn’t know, or someone who was working with someone from town.”

I considered that. “Well, it is a tabby.”

“Yeah but you weren’t just saying that, the way you said it, I could tell you knew it’s name. You familiar with Lindsay?”

“Yeah. That’s the main reason I’m over here. Saw the cat go into the woods from a distance. I agreed to try and bring her cats back to her.”

“Huh. Hold still,” she said, and began to check me over.

Suddenly, who she was clicked in my head. “You’re Melanie. The doctor.”

“That’s me.”

“Lisa sent me to look for you.”

“No surprise there.”

“Why haven’t you come back yet?”

She sighed. “Miserable story. I’ll tell you once we get up to the tower.”

“All right.” I paused. “So what actually happened? Who hit me with the tazer?”

“Two of those leatherbound assholes were trying to kill me.” She paused,  sneered. “Well, first do something else to me, then kill me. They were chasing me over the woods all morning. I finally got to the watchtower. I was laying a trap for them. It worked, but you stumbled in at the last second. While they were busy with you, I shot both of them in the head from my high perch...okay, you look like you’re good to go. Come on. Up.”

I groaned as she helped me up. I took a step closer to the watchtower, paused, then reached down and got hold of Tabby. She complained, but didn’t start thrashing about the way Socks had. I held her to my chest and she kind of just let me.

Maybe she was sick and tired of being out in the cold.

I know I was.

The three of us headed towards the stairs that wound around and up to the top of the watchtower. It was time to get in out of the cold again.

EIGHTEEN

I set Tabby up with another can of tuna and some water that I poured into a bowl I found among the contents of the watchtower’s top.

After making sure the windows were all properly shut, and the door was closed firmly, I took a seat and looked around. The place was decently well-stocked. Two desks, scattered with supplies. Some boxes taking up one corner. A single-wide mattress on a basic wooden frame in another corner. A mini-fridge with a microwave atop it, both very old and obviously out of commission. There was also a little sink installed near it and a single, tall cabinet for storage.

I was sitting in one of two chairs on either side of a tiny table and just relaxed.

“So who are you, Chris? How are you tied up in this mess?” Melanie asked, leaning against a wall, folding her arms, and fixing me with an intense green-eyed stare.

I spent the next several minutes telling her a rough version of my story as to how I’d ended up in Pine Lake. While I talked, she seemed to relax, then began moving around the room, checking over things.

I found it impossible not to check her out whenever she was bending over.

Melanie was tall, a little thick, and a redhead. She was also mature. She was certainly older than Lisa, maybe even older than Hazel had been.

And she had aged like fine wine, apparently.

She wore jeans that showcased her thick ass perfectly, and when she took off her coat, I saw that she was wearing a button-down over a t-shirt that, when she leaned forward for one reason or another, gave an absolutely perfect view of her stunning chest.

Melanie had some awesome tits.

“What about you?” I asked. “Where have you been all this time?”

“Out and about,” she replied. “Looking for people, mostly.” She sighed suddenly, putting her hands on the sink and lowering her head. “Last night was the worst. I finally found someone. I’d been tracking them for awhile out here in these woods when I finally found signs of them. A wolf had gotten them. I managed to scare the thing off, almost killed it but it got away, and then I got the guy to a little shack where we spent the night as I tried to keep him alive. He was too unstable to move any further and I knew that if I left him to go get help, he’d be dead for sure. As it was, it didn’t matter. Woke up this morning to find he’d died in his sleep anyway. Lost too much blood.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Yeah...how’s the town? What’s happening?”

I spent another ten minutes filling her in on the state of the town and all we’d been doing to try and put it back together. She seemed to perk up at that. At some point, she turned and fixed me with an intense stare that lasted about ten seconds as I explained things. I was just about to ask her if something was wrong when she suddenly seemed to come to a decision, turned around, and marched over to a little pot-bellied cast-iron stove squatting in the corner. She got a fire going while I finished up my updates on the happenings of Pine Lake.

“So, you coming with me and Tabby back home to help out?” I asked after I’d wrapped up and a moment of silence had passed.

“Yes,” she said. “I have something that needs doing, and from what I’m hearing, if you aren’t full of bullshit, you can help me out.”

“Well, Lisa will back me up and if it’s important, yeah, I’ll help.”

“Hmm.” A little smile came onto her face as she resumed her original position, leaning against the wall and staring at me with her arms crossed. Only it was different this time. For a second I thought I was going crazy, or horny-crazy, because she suddenly seemed sexier. Which was something, given how sexy she already was.

I realized I wasn’t crazy. The way she was folding her arms had changed so that she was pressing her breasts up, and she was leaning forward a little bit. And the way she was standing...her hips were cocked a little, showing them off more.

God did I want to fuck her.

“How old are you?” she asked suddenly.

“Twenty five,” I replied.

“Phew!” she said, her eyes widening a little in genuine surprise. “You look older,” she murmured.

“Is that a problem of some kind?” I asked.

“Nope, not at all. Just most twenty-five-year-olds I’ve known are kinda useless, or at least not exceptionally useful. I’m just impressed is all…” She continued to study me. Finally, she asked, “Before we head back into town, do you want to have sex with me?”

The word yes was out of my mouth before she’d finished the question.

She laughed. “Figured you were eager, not quite that eager...been awhile?”

“No,” I said as I stood up. My body protested but my mind didn’t care.

“Really? When was the last time you got laid?”

“Last night.”

“Really?...am I gonna have to fight a jealous girlfriend? Because I can, and I don’t want you to get all mad when I gotta knock someone out,” she said.

God, I was liking her more and more.

“You won’t have to worry about jealousy,” I replied. “They’re not jealous.”

She raised her eyebrows. “They?”

“Uh...yeah. I’m involved with three…” I hesitated. “I guess four women. Although I’m not sure about the fourth one.”

“Jesus fucking-and they all know about each other?” she asked with a grin, like she was just marveling at me.

“Oh yes,” I replied. “They are very aware of each other.”

“Shit, kid,” she muttered, “you are quite the catch, huh? You got any STDs?”

“No,” I said. “Not as far as I know. I’ve got the mesh implant in my cock and I’m pretty sure I’m clean.”

“Okay,” she replied after considering for a moment. “Take your clothes off and wash up. I’ll ride you ‘til we both come, then we gotta get back. Consider this a test drive. You don’t tell anyone about this, you hear?”

“Yeah, I can respect that,” I replied as I started getting out of my clothes. “What about my girlfriends? I won’t tell them if you really don’t want me to, but they are my girlfriends…”

“Fine, you can tell them if you think they can be discretionary.”

“They can be.” I paused as I got down to my boxers. “We gonna do foreplay or not? I’m all for it, but if so, I want to wash.”

“I’m plenty wet as it is,” Melanie replied. She was down to her bra and panties now and damn was she in good shape. “If this goes well enough for round two, we can take more time later at my place for foreplay. Sound good?”

“Sure,” I replied, and took my boxers off.

“You look pretty good naked,” she murmured as she pulled the sports bra she was wearing off and released her tits.

“Holy shit so do you,” I replied. She had some big tits. Probably about as big as Delilah’s, maybe a little bigger.

“They aren’t what they once were,” she said as she pulled her panties down. Her pussy looked pretty nice too, between those well-padded thighs of hers. “And at this point, they’re more annoying than anything else. Lay down.”

“Yes ma’am,” I replied, laying on the cot. She walked over to me and spent a moment staring down at me, which was fine, because I could stare up at her in all her naked, mature glory. It was obvious that she was older, definitely into middle age, but honestly, I didn’t have a problem with that. “How old are you?” I asked.

She pursed her lips and continued staring at me.

“Hey, you asked me.”

She sighed. “I suppose that’s true, I just don’t want to scare you off at the last minute.”

“I don’t care what number comes out of your mouth, you aren’t scaring me off by now.”

That brought a smile back to her face. “That into me, huh?”

“God yes, you are so fucking hot. And I am finding that I am genuinely in love with older women the more I run into them.”

“Okay then. Time to put your money where your mouth is,” she said as she settled onto me. There was just enough width to the bed for her to comfortably straddle me. “I turned fifty one years old a few months ago.”

“Oh wow,” I said.

“Good wow or bad one?”

“Very good one. You’re going to be the oldest woman I’ve ever hooked up with,” I replied, reaching up and cupping her large, bare breasts in my hands. Fuck, they felt good.

She laughed. “I gotta admit, it’s good to be so intensely enjoyed at my age. Last two lays I had were a bit older than you and they seemed to regret it halfway in.”

“I won’t,” I replied.

“Let’s find out.”

She reached down as she rose herself up, using her big, firm hips, and gripped my erection. Bringing it between us, she spent a moment rubbing it against her pussy.

“Can I come in you?” I asked, shuddering at the contact.

She considered it for a few seconds. “Oh what the hell, sure,” she said, and then she lowered herself, taking me into her sweet, older pussy.

I let out a loud groan as I slipped inside.

Fuck she was wet!

She moaned loudly as she penetrated herself with my cock, then let out a series of sharp huffs as she kept working her way down, going until she’d gotten the whole thing into herself. “Lordy, you’re a big boy,” she whispered, running her hands across my chest.

“And you are a really wet woman,” I replied, then groaned again as she began to ride me.

Holy fuck this was amazing.

I had to admit, I’d always had a sort of upper limit in my head of ‘how old is too old’? I didn’t have anything against old women, but I did think that there was a point at which they crossed the threshold from ‘older’ into ‘old’, and I wouldn’t be into them anymore. I mean, there existed women I wasn’t into that I’d come across, to be sure, because they were past that threshold. Again, I didn’t have a problem with them, I just wasn’t seeking to sleep with them. But I remember distinctly thinking at some point within the past year or so that the highest I’d go was probably mid-to-late forties. Only that had changed maybe ten months ago.

One town I’d come across had this woman who ran a lodge and goddamn if she wasn’t one sexy, mature lady. I’d wanted to fuck her really bad. I had never succeeded, but I’d been shocked to learn at one point that she was fifty eight years old.

That right then had told me that beauty, in its many forms, but even superficial beauty, had less of an age restriction than I thought.

I didn’t like to put too much emphasis on certain things, like age, but I also did enjoy reveling in the fact that I was banging a woman over twice my age.

Having Melanie satisfy her hot, wet, fifty-one-year-old pussy on my mid-twenties cock was a fucking amazing experience.

Her huge tits bounced wonderfully as I released them, my hands instead seeking first her broad, firm hips, then back around to her fat ass. And damn if she didn’t have a fat, thick, well-padded ass that felt amazing to grab.

If I was lucky enough to fuck her again, I was definitely hitting it from the back.

“Oh yeah...oh fuck...oh that’s so fucking good…” she moaned as she fucked me, her head back, mouth open, satisfaction obvious in her every movement. “Goddamn this is good dick...I haven’t gotten laid in fucking forever.”

“Why not?” I panted.

“One, I’m an old lady, two, it’s typically not a good idea to fuck your patients, and this whole town consists of my patients.”

“You aren’t old,” I groaned.

She laughed and looked back down at me. “Yeah, I don’t feel it right now.” Then she laid down against me and kissed me hard on the mouth.

We made out as we screwed, and there was an intensity to her that I loved. She was tough, and experienced, and I guess that didn’t surprise me. She kind of looked like I imagine Delilah might look thirty years from now, so I could just imagine what a fucking stunner she’d been at my age. Or maybe that was just the fact that I loved redheads with big tits. Either way, I was enjoying the ever-loving fuck out of this.

I could tell Melanie was too and how fucking satisfying it was to know that I was satisfying this smoking hot, mature redhead. She’d taken off her hat and now her chin-length red hair was down, framing her hot, ruggedly beautiful face, and I couldn’t get enough of her. She started panting and moaning in an ever-quickening cadence that I knew meant she was about to come. I let her keep going, feeling her hips starting to maneuver in a specific way, using whatever particular method she’d perfected over the decades to get herself off.

“Yes! Yes! Fuck yes! Right there! Oh fuck me!” she screamed, and then bam! There it was, she was orgasming all over my dick and what a fucking sight it was.

She gripped my shoulders, her muscles going rigid, her thighs clenching as she jerked back and forth, stirring my cock around inside of her pussy as it convulsed and got immediately hotter and wetter. I groaned as the pleasure washed over me, letting it come, letting my own climax rise to the surface, and then I was joining her.

I got lost in that bliss. All I could feel for a few seconds was the pounding pulse of my orgasm, my seed pumping out of me as rapidly as it could, shooting into her, filling up that sweet middle-aged pussy in blindingly powerful ecstasy.

We came together, lost in a timeless place of rapture, and then it was over, and we were coming back down like leaves drifting on the wind.

We stared at each other, panting, hair wild, covered in sweat.

Finally, Melanie regained some of her composure and she took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, then got up off of me. She found a rag somewhere and began to clean herself up.

“Goddamn,” she muttered.

“I know,” I said. “They all tell me the same thing: I come a lot.”

“Yeah. You fuck pretty good, too,” she replied.

“Feels like I didn’t do a whole lot,” I murmured as I laid there. The pain was slowly coming back, a dull ache that seemed to cover my whole body, though it was focused in my chest, but it was pushed back a lot by the pleasure released from the orgasm.

“That’s the point,” she replied. “I just needed you to lay there, look pretty, and be a dick to fuck, let me do my thing. And you did that without me having to tell you. You’re good at reading people. Next time, I’ll let you call the shots.”

“I very much appreciate it, and thanks for the opportunity. That was...really good.”

She laughed as she finished washing up, then she began pulling her clothes back on. “Glad we’re in agreement. You just lay there for a bit now. Admittedly, you really should rest after getting hit by a tazer. Though I figured you’re in good enough shape that I could take you for a ride.”

“It helped,” I said, then grinned. “So I don’t count as a patient?”

She sighed. “At this point, I’m willing to make an exception,” she said as she put her bra back on, then pulled on her jeans and boots. “A lot of guys think women get less horny the older they get. That may be true for some of us, but it is not a universal constant. I’ve always been pretty horny, and that hasn’t stopped since I’ve gone into my fifties. Just gets harder to get laid.”

“Sucks, you would’ve done super well back before the apocalypse. Go to any porn site and look at a video with an older woman, forties, fifties, even sixties, and you’d probably see at least a dozen dudes going ‘I’d fuck her’. And yeah, I know some guys are all talk, but there definitely existed a cougar culture.”

“Mmm...cougar. I have to admit, I’ve always liked the idea,” she said. She finished getting her clothes back on and then pulled her hair into a ponytail. “Maybe you can help with that.”

“I will help you live out that fantasy every fucking day you’ll let me,” I replied.

She laughed. “You sure you’re gonna have enough energy left after doing your other four girlfriends?”

“I will find the energy. You are just...wow you are hot,” I replied.

She stared at me a moment, then chuckled and began pulling on her pack. “You really mean it, you aren’t just bullshitting me. Huh.”

“I definitely mean it,” I replied.

“Well, we’ll see what we can do once this mess gets cleared up. I wouldn’t mind have a boytoy come pay me a visit every now and then.”

NINETEEN

I let myself lay there for another ten minutes before getting back up.

Melanie wanted me to lay for another five, but hedged when she saw I meant it. I did take a moment to at least wash my junk and midriff and thighs off. She’d fucking squirted good. After pulling my clothes back on, I carefully put Tabby into my pack, making sure that there was nothing in there that would hurt her, and she could lay down on my spare clothes folded up at the bottom. She complained some and tried to get out once, but when she saw that it was going to happen, I’m guessing she concluded that she might as well just trust me and let it happen, since she curled up in the small space provided to her.

“That is one compliant cat,” I muttered as I zipped my pack shut and carefully pulled it back on.

“Some of them are,” Melanie said.

Once we had our stuff, we left the watchtower, walked to the edge of the woods, moved down the incline, and started walking back home.

When we’d passed the two dead bodies of the guys who’d hit me with the tazer, I saw that Melanie had already stripped them.

I thought about that, and about how many might be left now.

I’d killed the asshole who had grabbed Elizabeth.

Then I’d shot those two bastards who were threatening the people at the house.

Megan had capped the would-be sniper.

And now Melanie had popped two more of them.

That was six altogether. What had the guy said when I’d interrogated him? Fifteen? Was that fifteen plus him? I’d assume yes. So at least sixteen, and six were dead, leaving ten. He could be lying, there might be more, but I thought he was telling the truth. More might’ve shown up in the meantime...but I guess it was just as likely that some might’ve run off or died to other means in the meantime as well.

So I’d assume, for safety’s sake, there were about a dozen men left.

Shit, that was a lot.

Although this time I’d have some actual backup for the eventual battle that I might have to face down, not just one or two people. Plus, if it was in a place basically anywhere but the lookout platform, I’d be able to have Megan or someone else hang back with a rifle and provide sniper support. But that was all in the future, and right now, I just wanted to get back home and maybe rest for a little bit before helping Melanie with whatever it was she needed help with. If she said it was important, then I was inclined to believe her.

As we made it back into town, people immediately responded to Melanie’s return. Several of them stopped what they were doing and walked up to her, asking if she was all right, if she was going to help whoever it was that was close to them who was currently injured, if she’d seen any of their missing people out there.

She promised to catch up with them when she could, and insisted I take her to the isolation ward so she could do her job.

I did, bringing her over to the building and poking my head in to see if Delilah was around, (she wasn’t), then told her I’d meet up with her later and told her where she could find me. She thanked me and went inside. From there, I made a beeline straight for the motel. First thing was first: I wanted to let this cat out of my backpack. I couldn’t imagine it was particularly comfortable in there, although Tabby hadn’t complained much at all while we’d walked back. I honestly felt bad for having to put her in the pack, so the sooner the better.

And maybe she’d be happy, rejoining her friend.

I unlocked the door and came back to an empty motel room. Well, almost empty. Socks was still there. He dashed under the bed as soon as I came in and regarded me with a grim expression from the shadows.

“Hello to you too,” I murmured as I closed the door and got out of my pack. Gently setting it on the bed, I unzipped it and tipped it slowly over.

Tabby came out onto the bed and spent a moment looking around, then she dropped down onto the floor. She noticed Socks under the bed, stared at him for a few seconds, then started wandering around with intent. A moment later, she found what she was looking for: the toilet. She climbed into it and began to relieve herself.

“Thanks for not doing it in my pack,” I said, and then, realizing she might’ve, I poked my nose in and took an experimental whiff. No, no bad smells. Well, besides the faint smell of blood. I zipped back up and then took a moment to refresh their food and water. Once that was done, I went back outside, locked the door, and headed straight for the apartment building.

I was eager to keep the ball rolling, although that was mostly mental eagerness. Physically I wanted some time off. Getting tazed had seriously taken it out of me. But it would have to wait. I got the impression that the heat was on now and we weren’t going to get a serious break until the situations that plagued us were truly dealt with. And right now, the two biggest problems left were the raiders and the medical supplies.

I was hoping that Melanie could help deal with that, but I’d forgotten to ask her.

The apartment lobby was empty of people, though I could hear conversations coming from a few of the apartments that had their doors open. I walked downstairs into the basement, navigated the storage areas down there until I found Lisa’s office. Sure enough, she was there. Megan was there too, the two of them talking.

“Chris! You’re back,” Lisa said. “Any luck out there?”

“I found Melanie,” I replied.

Her eyes went wide. “Oh thank fucking God. Is she okay? She’s alive, right?”

“She is alive, safe, and here. She’s helping at the isolation ward right now.”

“Oh fuck me…” Lisa whispered, sinking back into her seat. “That is such a weight off my shoulders, you have no fucking idea. Shit. Thank you,” she said with emphasis.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, sinking into the seat besides Megan and grimacing. “Two more of the assholes are dead, too. Melanie killed them after they tazed me.”

“Oh shit, are you all right?” Megan asked.

“I should be fine. Melanie checked me out and she seemed convinced I would be okay. How’s everything back here?” I replied.

“Fine...you know, all things considered. Stephen and Lena took a few people up to the lakehouse to begin gathering food again now that the bear is dead and we control the platform. Still no sightings of the raiders, but apparently they’re still around from what you say. For now, our more immediate concern is medicine. We need more antibiotics. A lot of what we had was useless, way out of date, and three more people have fallen sick since yesterday. We also found another survivor among the ruins early this morning, half-frozen. I think he has pneumonia.” She sighed and shook her head. “I need to ask Melanie if she knows where there are more meds or what kind of alternatives we can possibly look at for the situation.”

“She said she had something important to do after we got back, and she wanted my help, but she didn’t say what it was. Maybe it’s that.”

“Maybe, I’ll go have a talk with her. Why don’t you take a bit to lay down. You had a hard night last night and got fucking tazed this morning…”

I considered it, looked at Megan. “I’m free for the moment,” she said.

I nodded. “All right. Just a bit. I could use a nap and some food.”

All three of us got up and left Lisa’s office. We parted ways as we came back outside. It was still a nice day out, though off in the distance I could see gray clouds that probably would mean at least some level of snow perhaps tonight or tomorrow.

Wonderful. I just loved snow.

“You had lunch yet?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she replied.

“Let’s check on Elizabeth and grab it.”

We made for the restaurant and as we came inside, I thought the place had changed. The atmosphere, I realized, was less dour. There were more people around, as lunchtime was just rolling around, and damn near everyone seemed happy. There was a lot of chatter and good cheer. Megan and I got in line and I saw that Elizabeth was on the serving line. Judging by what she was dishing out, it looked like some kind of stew.

I would’ve thought I’d’ve had my fill of soup and stew by now, given how often I made it, but I honestly hadn’t.

It was just good stuff. And convenient.

As we got up to the line, Elizabeth’s face lit up with a beautiful smile.

“Hey you two!” she said merrily. “We’ve got bear meat and vegetable stew today.”

“I will happily take that,” I replied. “How are you doing?”

“Good. My feet and my back hurt, but I’m pretty happy. Everyone’s in a good mood and it’s infectious,” she replied as she ladled up two bowls.

“Can you eat with us?” Megan asked.

“Lemme check.” She passed us the bowls. “Aggie!” she called back into the kitchen. “Can I take my break now?”

“Hold on.” I heard someone get up, then footsteps getting closer. The stern-faced older woman who ran the place appeared alongside Elizabeth. She eyeballed the main room. “Yeah, it should be fine. Go on.”

“Thanks.”

“Uh-huh.”

Elizabeth got her own food and then had us come back into the kitchen with her, where she led us to a break room off to the side. We all sat around a table after getting some water and then dug into the meal.

I was fucking starving, I quickly realized.

I ended up finishing it off before even attempting to pick up a conversation. I glanced at the door, then got up and shut it, then came back and leaned forward. I wasn’t able to keep a grin off my face. “Guess who got laid by a smoking hot fifty-one-year-old badass doctor?”

“You fucked Melanie?” Megan asked.

“You found that doctor?” Elizabeth asked. “And fucked her?”

“Yep,” I replied. “She was...she came on strong.”

“I doubt you had a problem with that, given your choice in women,” Megan said.

“I take it she’s hot?” Elizabeth said with a smirk.

“I think so. She’s a tall, curvy redhead. Goddamn does she have some big tits. She wants to do me again later. I take it there won’t be any kind of problem?” I asked.

“I don’t care,” Elizabeth replied. “I’m happy as hell right now.”

“I’m okay with it, but see if you can convince her to let me watch. I gotta be honest, you and Delilah have really gotten me addicted to live porn.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I replied.

Megan began to say something else, then hesitated, glancing at Elizabeth, and seemed to reconsider. Instead, she shifted to asking me for more details about my encounter with Melanie. I told them about it, both listening intently, and we ended up sitting around talking for close to half an hour. When I yawned, Megan stood up.

“Come on, you should have your nap.”

“You doing something else today?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yeah, don’t know what, though. Melanie has something in store and she wants my help. After all that’s happened, I could use some rest,” I replied.

“Okay.” Elizabeth got up and gave both of us hugs and kisses. “I’ll be here and then probably home by the time you get back later on.”

“All right,” I replied.

Megan took my hand and led me out of the break room, then back into the cold and towards the motel we called home. I wondered what it was she wanted to tell me, because her body language seemed to suggest she did want to say something to me.

Finally, we got home and as soon as the door was closed, Megan turned and looked at me with something like excitement.

“I think Lisa wants to have sex with you,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” I replied, feeling a thrill of lust at the thought of that. I was lucky enough to have gotten with Melanie, but Lisa too?

That would be amazing.

“We were talking and she started asking questions about you. About our relationship. What you’re like. I admit, I played you up a little, not that I really had to, but I could tell, as one horny woman to another, that she wanted you. She was trying to hide it, but she’s got a crush on you,” Megan replied.

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure. You should go for it.”

“You think so? You don’t think she’s too busy with, like, everything else?” I asked as I took off my pack and started to undress.

“I think that’s why you should do it. You’re not only a good guy but a good lay. You’re exactly what she needs right now: a guy she’s turned on by who will fuck her really good and there won’t be any complications. No worry about pregnancy or STDs, no worry you’ll shame her or try and force her to do something she doesn’t want to do, no relationship, no drama. Just good, safe sex. An orgasm or two would go a long way towards letting the pressure off that woman’s brain, I can tell you that much from the last conversation we had. And she deserves it. She’s doing a great job and a shitload of really hard work.”

I considered it. There was no question that Lisa deserved to feel good and take a break, and I thought Megan had a lot of good points.

Plus, well, I did want to fuck her.

“Well, if you think she’d be into me…” I said finally.

“I’m sure she’s into you,” Megan replied as she stripped down. “Now, can we fuck? Because right now I’m into you. You can hit on Lisa later tonight.”

“Yeah, we can fuck,” I replied, and finished taking my clothes off.

~

Some time later I awoke to the sound of the door unlocking and opening up.

As I rolled over, somehow sure that I hadn’t been asleep for more than an hour, I was greeted by the familiar sight of three people coming into my motel room, one of them kind of a stranger, (though I guess she was on the same level as the other ‘stranger’, given what had transpired between us), with me and Megan naked in bed.

“You found Tabby!” Lindsay cried, the first to speak.

“Uh, yeah. Got her home safe and sound. She’s a nice cat,” I replied sleepily as I tried to come back online.

Delilah and Melanie were the other two people walking in. They shut the door behind them and Lindsay crossed the room, knelt by the bed, and gave me a hug and a long kiss on the mouth. “Thank you so much,” she said. “This means a lot to me.”

“Glad I could help,” I replied. She got up and moved over to where Tabby lay curled at the foot of the bed. She began to check her over and pet her.

“I missed you,” Delilah said as she came over now.

“Sorry I didn’t come see you, it was...a long morning,” I said.

“Megan filled me in on some of it, Melanie the rest of it, so I understand. I’m just glad you’re okay,” she replied.

As I hugged her, I looked over her shoulder at Melanie. “You catch up with Lisa?”

“Yes, and she’s green-lit my project. I’m also ready to actually do it, now that I’ve had a chance to check in on all the sick and the injured. So if you’re ready, I’m ready.”

“I’m ready,” I replied as Delilah let go of me and I pulled the blankets back. I got up and started washing myself off. A good wash always helped wake me up and focus me. Or even just a basic wash, to be honest. “What are we actually doing?”

“I hid a cache of medical supplies a little ways from here. They were more intended to be in a place for people farther out to go in case of emergency, but it seems that the other couple of caches I had stashed around have been tapped out one way or another at this point. There’s a lot of stuff there, but mainly there’s good antibiotics. We really need those right now. It’ll be probably about half an hour there, half an hour back, and it’s a bit of a hike so be prepared if you’re still game.”

“I’m game,” I said. “Let me get ready.”

“All right…” She looked around at the others. “So, you’re the girlfriends?”

“Delilah and I are, Lindsay...likes him. Not a girlfriend,” Delilah said.

“I’m strongly considering it after he found Tabby,” Lindsay murmured. “And how good he is in bed.”

“Know what you mean,” Melanie said.

Lindsay looked over at her, surprised. “You fucked him? Jesus when did you find the time?” She looked at me. “You do get around.”

“I’m not turning down an advance from someone like her,” I replied.

“I don’t blame you,” Delilah said, staring at her.

“Sorry girly, I only go for guys,” Melanie replied.

“How do you feel about an audience?” Delilah asked.

“I’d consider it, especially considering that you’ve shared him with me.”

“Awesome,” Megan murmured.

“So who’s the third girl?” Melanie asked.

“A pregnant woman over in the restaurant, Elizabeth.”

“Huh. Interesting. Well, I know for a fact I’ll be meeting with her, given I’m the only real doctor in town. How far along is she?”

“Somewhere between seven and eight months,” I replied, finishing lacing up my boots. I grabbed my pack and quickly sorted through it, making sure I had the minimum survival kit in there to leave room for the meds and anything else we’d find, then I zipped it up and pulled it on. “Okay, I’m ready to head out.”

“All right then,” Melanie replied, heading for the door.

“Bring him back in one piece,” Delilah said.

“I intend to.”

TWENTY

Melanie was already ready to go, so after I said my goodbyes, we headed out of town.

We went directly south first, so that we didn’t have to endure the misery of walking through the burned up part of Pine Lake. Once we were clear of it, we began heading west, taking the same rough path that Lisa and I had taken when heading for that garage and house. I’d ended up popping a pair of painkillers before long, as I still had a number of aches and pains, but given how crucial this was, there was no way I was letting it stop me.

“I have to admit, I’m impressed,” Melanie said as we marched through the snow, keeping an eye out for raiders or wolves.

“With?” I asked.

“You. You roll into town with three attractive girlfriends and immediately start saving lives and getting shit done. Were you in the military before?”

“No, a lot of people ask that, though. I’ll save you the trouble of guessing: I mostly stocked shelves and worked a cash register.”

“Shit, really?”

“Yeah. I don’t really have a good-sounding answer for why I’m as effective as I am. I just had a lot of good habits, I probably had a good upbringing for it, and I probably have good brain chemistry that makes me actually do stuff and stay motivated. Or at least allows me to more easily put up with mindless drudgery.”

“That all is very possible,” she replied. “I’d say it’s even likely. You’re very lucky. Your genetics and upbringing happened to align like the stars...do you ever feel, I don’t know, crushed under the weight of responsibility? I imagine people rely on you for a lot.”

I hesitated, considering how best to approach this. “I...make certain things clear in my relationships,” I replied after a moment.

“What does that mean, exactly?”

“When I start a relationship, I make it clear that I’m not going to stick around for very long. I’m more confident than ever that the time I do share with the women I’m with will be good, it just won’t last. Because I like to travel, and basically no one else does.”

“Hmm...that’s fair enough, I guess. If you’re honest about it from the beginning, I can respect that. What about nonsexual relationships?”

I sighed. “I mostly have looked at them as jobs. Which is what they were. But this? This is different. And I willingly entered into this. Again, though, I don’t know how long I’m going to actually stick around. At least a few weeks, I know that, and I’m fine with putting in the work, helping people, doing what needs to be done or, at the very least, earning my keep.”

“From the way I’ve heard some people talking about you, you are not just earning your keep,” Melanie said. “You’re going above and beyond the call of duty...and I’d say you have to be careful. If people come to rely on you too much, it can be a lot of responsibility. And I think it’s in most people’s nature to expect a thing they have to rely on to stick around for as long as they want. They won’t like it if you remove yourself from the picture.”

“I know,” I said. “But this is important.”

“I agree. You’re doing the right thing. I guess I’m just...warning you. What about your relationships? Those girls like you. A lot. I could tell that. They may even love you.”

I sighed. “I don’t think they do. Anytime someone has said that to me they just thought they loved me. I’m not the kind of guy you fall in love with.”

“Why would you say that?” Melanie asked, sounding surprised.

“I leave. That’s why. Lots of guys do, but I’m honest about it. And it’s not even like it’s because of them, it’s because of me. I just have this fucking bug in me that makes me want to wander. I’d be happy for the company, but ninety-nine out of every hundred women want to stay in civilization. They don’t want to live out in the miserable winter wastelands and I don’t blame them. I don’t like living out there, exactly...but I do love traveling, and exploring, and testing myself, I guess. All I know is that it just bugs the shit out of me eventually and I start going crazy and I just have to leave. It’s happened ever since I started wandering.”

“How long’s that been?”

“Sixteen months or so now.”

“Huh.”

We were silent for a long moment.

“Got any advice on how I can stick around?” I asked.

She sighed. “Not really. I think it’s a thing you have to figure out. But maybe you might have to just accept that you’re the kind of person who will forever wander. That’s the life you’re meant to live. On a certain level, I believe we get to choose some things, but not all things. You don’t get to choose your kinks or who you’re attracted to or your favorite foods. You discover those things. The only thing you get to choose is what actions you take. You could choose to put down roots, but...good chance it’ll just make you miserable.”

“Great,” I muttered.

“I also believe that if you keep working at it, keep studying it, keep experimenting, then...maybe you’ll find a solution that’s the best of both worlds? Or at least a compromise. Maybe you could put down roots somewhere, but strike off into the wilderness one week out of every six or eight? Maybe something like that?”

I thought about it. “Maybe…”

“I don’t know, but I do know those women like you a lot. And you should be good to them. Pain is...way too common nowadays,” Melanie murmured.

“I know. I’ll be good to them,” I replied. “I always am.”

We entered the forest and soon made our way past the house and the garage. We stopped to check them out briefly, to see if any of the raiders or survivors from Pine Lake had come since it had been most recently abandoned, but it was as empty as when I’d last left it. From there, we plunged deeper into the forest, still westbound.

“So, uh, what’s your story?” I asked as we navigated through the bare trees.

“Probably what you’d expect. I was born and raised in Georgia. Knew I wanted to be a doctor since I was young, before high school. My parents were both doctors. Dad a general practitioner, mom a surgeon. So I kinda had the way paved for me. Accelerated classes in high school, college credit hours, went through college and stripped on the side when I could find the time.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Yeah. I wanted to keep in shape and that’s a hell of a workout. Plus, you know, they always say ‘if you got it flaunt it’, so I did. It was a fun few years. Got through med school and then residency and then became a doctor. I got sick of Georgia sometime during my second year as a full-fledged doctor, moved around for awhile. A year in California. Two years in Colorado. Five in Oregon. I loved that place. Bounced around until I finally wound up in Missouri. That was about five years ago. Started living in small towns. I liked the idea of being a ‘country doctor’, you know? When the apocalypse happened, I took to wandering. Eventually wandered here and decided I liked it enough to stick around for awhile. That was about nine months ago.”

“Wow,” I murmured.

“Yeah. A paragraph to sum up half a century. I mean, there was a shitload of other stuff in there, but I was a very career-oriented person. No husband, no kids. Dated around a lot. I’d get serious with someone in all of the cities I lived in, but I seemed to attract the same kinda guy every time: just like me. Career-oriented, understood that at some point one of us was gonna leave. I stripped again in my late thirties.”

“I believe it,” I murmured. “You could still do it now.”

She laughed ruefully. “No, not anymore. I just do not have the body for it anymore. And by that I mean I don’t think I could physically handle it more than once a week, maybe. You gotta be athletic to do it right, and I’m in good shape, but I’ve certainly slowed down. I’m built more for endurance than anything else nowadays.”

“Prove it,” I replied.

She glanced at me and chuckled. “I intend to, but I doubt I’d outlast you. Your girlfriends are pretty sweet. That redhead reminds me of me when I was your all’s age. I bet she fucks like a demon, right?”

I laughed awkwardly. “Yeah. She does. She was the first one I met. Delilah’s...something else.”

“I bet. You’ve got a sweet setup going on…” She trailed off as we came out of the treeline once more and her expression changed.

I saw why.

The land past the forest’s edge on this side ended in a steep drop that led down into a valley maybe a hundred feet down.

“It’s down there,” she said.

“Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“Great.”

“Told you, it’s kind of a pain.”

“How do we get down?” I asked.

“I’ll show you.”

We walked forward a bit more, covering the distance between us and the edge. I didn’t fuck with valleys or gorges or quarries if at all possible. Too many stories of people falling and dying. Or worse, falling and then eventually dying after laying there for hours or maybe even days with broken limbs or neck or spine.

As we got to the edge, I saw the way Melanie intended for us to go: a narrow, treacherous path that began up here and ran along the length of the cliff wall on our side.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“Yeah. We originally were going to try and find a better way down and explore it some more, for resources, left-behinds or natural, and I did the initial scouting and creating the medical cache since this is kind of my thing. Lisa came with me a few times. But ultimately the plan fell through for one reason or another, so now we’re stuck with some good medicine down at the bottom of this trail. It’s rough, and dangerous, especially with the snow, so stick close to the wall, go slow, be careful, and let me lead. Okay?”

“Okay,” I replied.

She nodded and then set off down the trail.

I followed after her, telling myself I’d done more dangerous things. Like that ultra-blizzard I’d gone out into. I’d made it through that. Having done insane shit and survived intact did help, but I still knew that it only took one fuck up to kill you. So I kept this in mind and followed her lead and advice as we slowly made our way down the narrow path. It was irritatingly cautious progress, especially since I kept looking up once every couple of minutes to make sure someone hadn’t come to either edge and was getting into position to snipe us.

I had my rifle with me, but this would be a really bad place to get into a sniper battle.

Time passed. The cold minutes ticked by.

Once, near the three-quarters mark, I slipped and fell on my ass. Melanie reacted quickly, making sure I didn’t go over the edge, (there was still roughly a twenty foot drop), but other than that, it was really just nothing more than the passage of strenuous time that harassed us as we descended. Finally, our feet hit the valley floor.

I looked around as we took a minute to relax. It was fairly beautiful down there. A bit barren, but the trees and big rocks and the narrow creek that ran through it all provided a nice atmosphere. The only signs I saw of something around were some rabbit tracks. Maybe they were safe down here, away from wolves and other predators.

The thought appealed to me, for some reason.

“It’s over there, you see it?” Melanie asked after a bit, pointing to the north.

I nodded. In the opposite valley wall, through some trees, maybe fifty yards off, I could just make out a cave.

We resumed our walk. It was peaceful down on the valley floor, just the two of us moving through the snow, past dead bushes and trees, along the winding, frozen creek. At one point, I saw several rabbits hopping around farther on down, past the cave we were heading to. Part of me was tempted to go hunting, but I didn’t for a few reasons. We had a specific job to do. I was beginning to get worn down, like really worn down. And last, in a strange way I really couldn’t explain, it was almost like doing so would be wrong.

Something like it would violate the sanctuary of this valley.

Didn’t I do that every time I went hunting? I doubted animals saw a forest or a glade or a grove as any less of a sanctuary than a valley.

I guess maybe because I felt like, in a way, the rabbits kind of reflected something in me.

Seeing them down here, free from predators (maybe, couldn’t know for sure), with some of those special vegetables growing in here and there, in this peacefully little existence, reminded me of the sort of life I someday wanted.

Or more accurately, I wanted to want.

Somewhere quiet and peaceful, relatively isolated but not completely, free from predators.

Such places had to exist, or maybe that was just a false hope.

We reached the cave not much later, weaving our way through the trees. Overhead, a few birds were hanging around on the branches, little brown-feathered ones. They regarded us with a detached, mild curiosity.

“All right, let’s be careful,” Melanie said as we approached. “No idea what might have moved in and set up shop since I was last here.”

I pulled out my pistol, agreeing with that assessment. She grabbed a flashlight, what I actually recognized as the hand-crank one I’d traded in when we’d first arrived, and flipped it on. She aimed it into the dim opening. Inside, raw rock and earth was revealed. There didn’t appear to be any signs of life in the recent past.

“Okay, let’s go,” she murmured, and walked inside.

I followed after her.

There was something creepy about caves, and yet something also somehow simultaneously welcoming. I’d had to spend the night in enough caves since the apocalypse came. I wondered if that welcoming feeling had anything at all to do with our generations upon generations of being cavemen, literally living our lives in the caves. Or at least around them. But caves were also dark and damp and held the potential of something dangerous.

Like a bear.

But this place didn’t smell of death and raw meat like the other cave I’d been in recently had. It didn’t really smell of anything. We walked through it, Melanie’s flashlight lighting the way, guiding us deeper. After a moment, we came to the cave’s end, which looked pretty unassuming.

“So, where’d you hide it?” I asked.

“Why don’t you tell me?” she replied.

“Hmm.” I held out my hand for the flashlight and she passed it over. I spent a few moments slowly panning over the end of the cave, looking for anything obvious. I saw nothing during my first pass, but upon my second, slower pass over the area, the light stopped on one rock on the ground out of several.

“There?” I asked.

“How’d you know?” she replied, walking forward and crouching. She picked up the rock and set it aside, revealing a hollow opening in the ground.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “It just kinda...stuck out for some reason.”

“Then you’ve got a good gift.”

“I seem to have a knack for finding hidden stuff,” I replied.

A satchel bag and a duffel bag resided within. She pulled each out and spent a moment opening them up and checking through them. Once she was satisfied they were as they should be, we spent another moment getting it all transferred over to our packs. When everything was secure, she put the rock back and we navigated our way back out of the cave. I kept feeling tension creeping into my body, like I was expecting the other shoe to drop, something to happen, someone or something to attack us, but I guess that was normal by now.

As we stepped back out into the sunlight, I took a long look around in both directions to see if I was missing anything.

I hesitated as I looked off to the left, the way deeper into the valley.

“Melanie.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I see smoke over there.”

TWENTY ONE

“Definitely smoke,” Melanie murmured as she lowered my rifle and passed it back.

I took it and looked through the scope. It was a little tough to make out, with the trees in the way, but someone had lit a fire maybe a hundred yards further down the valley. But all I could see was the smoke, not the actual fire or any people.

“We gotta check it out, huh?” I replied, lowering the rifle.

“Yeah,” she said. “Could be one of our people, laid up and hurt, or even just not realizing that part of the town is still there. Could be a raider that needs putting down. Could be a total stranger that might need help. Either way, I gotta deal with it.”

“I’ll join you then,” I said.

“I was hoping you’d say that. You’re pretty useful to have around,” she replied as she started marching off in that direction.

“Glad you think so,” I said, following after her.

We continued along through the trees, which began to thicken beyond the cave. I tried to listen for any signs of life, man or animal, but couldn’t hear anything. Well, whatever was waiting for us over there, we’d deal with it, one way or another.

I tried to be careful as we made our way through the woods, along the valley floor, listening and watching, moving with a diligent patience as I saw Melanie was. She was clearly no stranger to the outdoors, and I imagined she hunted in her spare time, or had at one point. The way she moved and reacted to things spoke of experience.

We crunched through the snow, moving as lightly as we could, and finally emerged from the trees to arrive at a little mostly-frozen pond that ran almost the width of the valley. There were narrow strips of frozen land on either side between the edges of the pond and the valley walls. The source of the smoke was finally visible: a small campfire lit near the entrance to a cave maybe a dozen yards beyond the far edge of the pond.

There were more trees, tightly packed in a dense forest, just beyond the cave.

I didn’t see any activity, and something about it made me nervous.

I reached out and gently touched Melanie’s elbow as I looked up, checking the edges of the valley’s tops for snipers. “Could be a trap,” I murmured.

“I was thinking that, but I don’t see anything,” she replied. “We need to verify one way or another. Be ready for anything.”

“Yep,” I replied, refocusing on the ground level.

We got up to the frozen pond and began moving along the treacherous strip of land. It was a pain and a slow walk. I could tell right away that if either one of us slipped, we’d go right through that ice. This far from civilization…

It would be bad.

It didn’t even feel that far, but I knew that between the walk back through the valley, navigating that already difficult trail, and then walking back through the forest and across the plain to get back to the settlement, all of it through the cold, it would seem like a forced march through Hell itself. But we managed to reach the other side of the little pond without slipping or falling, so it was halfway dealt with at least.

There was a clearing in front of the cave, with the thick forest wrapping around the north and eastern sides of it, the pond edging up against the south.

Melanie pulled out her pistol and I did the same. She motioned for me to wait where I was and crept forward.

“Is anyone in there?” she asked.

“Who’s there?” came a reply after a moment. The voice sounded young and strained.

“Melanie.”

“Oh my God, Doc Mel? Seriously? I’m not losing it, am I?”

She sighed and put her gun away, apparently recognizing the voice. She walked in front of the cave and put her hands on her hips. “No, Zachary, you aren’t losing it. What in the name of God’s green Earth are you doing all the way out here?”

“I don’t know,” he groaned. “I ran during the night of the fire, I got lost, I was with some others, we were going for the garage...I almost fell down in here and died.”

“You woulda died if you’d fallen, it’s a hundred foot drop. What’s wrong with your leg?” she asked, walking into the cave.

I followed after her and stood in the entrance to the cave. Beyond the fire, I saw a teenager with an unhealthy pallor and a bloody pant leg.

“Wolf,” he groaned. “God, are they gone? They were out there…”

“Chris?” she asked.

I looked around. I didn’t see anything, but the woods were dense, and could hide anything. “I don’t see anything,” I replied.

“Keep watch while I deal with this.”

I listened to them talk while I kept watch. He told his story of how he’d ended up in this cave, while complaining or yelling whenever she hit something sensitive as she checked his wound. She wrapped it up with, “Ah hell, you got a fever.”

“I do?” he groaned.

“Yeah. Gonna give you some antibiotics and painkillers, and then Chris and I are going to get you out of here. People are gathering back at the town.”

“Isn’t it all burned down? That fire was so huge, it was almost like a bomb going off…”

“No, some of it survived, and some of the people are still alive. Lisa’s still alive. Stephen and Lena. There’s around fifty people there.”

“What about the guys who did it?” he asked, accepting some pills and drinking them down with water from a canteen she passed him.

“We’re working on it. Chris and I here have killed at least a third of them.”

“Oh wow…” He looked at me and I glanced back. Yeah, he looked like shit and we’d need to get him somewhere safe if he had a chance of fighting off the infection that had surely set in thanks to his wolf bite. “Who are you?”

“Just Chris, the wandering adventurer,” I replied.

“We’ll get you home, Zach, don’t worry.”

She finished patching him up and then slowly got him standing, or tried to. I heard him cry out, fall, and cry out again.

“Dammit, Zach!”

“Sorry! My leg!” he groaned.

“Chris, get in here and help me get him up,” she said.

I reluctantly took one last look around the area, I thought I’d seen some movement somewhere in the woods, but it might be nothing, then tucked my pistol back away and joined her. I got him standing and then she took his weight.

“You bring anything else with you? Anything we can use?” I asked.

“No, everything I have left is in my pack here,” he murmured. “Phew, that feels better already, actually.”

“Yeah well it’s not gonna, we’ve got a long walk ahead of us, son. All right, Chris, I’m gonna need you to-Chris?”

But I wasn’t looking into the cave anymore. I was looking out.

“Oh fuck,” she whispered.

There were six wolves out there.

Apparently, my idyllic vision of this untouched valley was way off base.

I glanced over at the frozen pond. Two more of them stood by its edge.

“Holy-how did they get in behind us?” I muttered.

“We might be in trouble,” Melanie said.

“Don’t move,” I replied, and edged over to the fire. Zach had gathered some wood in a little pile not far from it. I crouched slowly, taking quick glances to make sure my hands and feet were going where they were supposed to, but mostly focusing my attention on the wolves, which were still staring at us intently.

I picked up the biggest stick and stuck it in the fire.

“Here’s the plan,” I said in a low voice as I slowly stood. “We’re going to start making for the pond. I’ll try to force the two wolves in that direction back. You two just go, as fast as you can, back to the trail. Get out of the valley. I’ll hold them off and kill as many of them as I can.”

“Chris…” Melanie said, reluctance obvious in her voice.

“Got a better idea?”

The silence played out.

Finally, she sighed. “No.”

“Then get ready. Both of you.”

They let me know as soon as they were ready to make the move barely half a minute later. I kept watch on the wolves. All in all, there were eight of the furry bastards, and they were all staring at us with an eerie, animal calm.

I was going to have to be really, really good, and lucky, to get through this one.

I came slowly and carefully out of the cave, holding the pistol in one hand and the makeshift torch in the other. As I did, the wolves shifted in anticipation, but otherwise held their place. God, they were fucking creepy. I drifted out and to the right, towards the pond, allowing Melanie and Zach to get in between my back and the wall.

I wanted to make as much progress as physically possible with the wolves just standing there, watching us. Because once they started moving, everything would get a whole lot more complicated. Listening to Melanie’s and Zach’s progress, I tried to keep up with them, sidestepping slowly, trying to keep the relative position of everything firmly in my head. If I went into the pond, I’d be truly fucked. Damn, this sucked.

We made it most of the way there before the wolves moved.

The two near the pond began coming forward.

“Shit,” I whispered and prepared myself to attack.

It could go a few different ways with wolves. Some were brave. Some folded like origami. It was basically impossible to tell which ones were which. Although I had to admit, these ones looked pretty gutsy.

Glancing over, I saw that Melanie and Zach had made it to the narrow strip of land.

“Don’t. Stop.”

Melanie made an affirmative, quiet response.

The other wolves were closing in now, and some had begun to growl deep in their throats. This was getting bad. As the two closest to me got close enough, I took a swipe with the torch. They flinched back, but didn’t run. I took a few more swipes, and then I lunged forward and smashed the torch into one’s face.

It yelped and fell back, pawing at its snout, but it didn’t run.

The other leaped at me and I raised the pistol and fired. It was a good shot, taking the beast in the skull and killing it, but the others immediately began coming for me. I cursed and rapidly backed up towards the strip of land, firing at the others as they rushed over. Seven were coming for me now, the first one having largely shaken off the blow I’d landed on its face. These were tough fuckers. Several of my shots went wild, punching into the snow and sending up puffs of the stuff. A few connected. One hit a leg, another grazed fur and flesh, another was a lucky shot that buried itself in a wolf’s brain, through its eye.

Two dead, one wounded enough to fall back.

That still left five.

And the gap was almost gone now.

I threw my torch at them and ran. I had ten shots left and probably no time for a reload, or time to grab my rifle. A strange calm had settled over my mind as adrenaline was dumping into my veins. Melanie and Zach were most of the way to the other side of the pond now. It wouldn’t save us, but it would help.

I stepped onto the strip of land and started hustling over as fast as I could without falling in. Even then it was a real pain to keep from slipping.

“Chris!”

I’d just stumbled and barely managed to keep from falling or dropping my pistol when Melanie yelled out at me. Whipping around, I barely managed to get my arm up in time as I saw one of the wolves leaping right at me. It, apparently, did not give a shit about whether or not it fell into the pond. Or maybe it was just that much more confident that it wouldn’t and had decided now was a great time to rip my throat out.

Its jaws clamped down onto my left forearm and-

“MOTHERFUCKER!”

Goddamn did that fucking shit hurt!

Pain shooting into me, I wrenched violently, first left, smashing the wolf’s body against the valley wall, then right. It came free of me, ripping another scream from me as its teeth tore out of my skin instead of just peacefully extracting. But it was gone, flying out onto the pond a few feet, hitting the ice, and going right through.

Now there were four left.

Growling, I took aim and fired at the next in line. They were still after me, the tenacious fuckers. I missed twice and then shot it in the skull, dropping it. I fired into the one behind it, managed to shoot it in the chest after another three bullets, then I turned and started running. I had to get away. I could feel blood rushing out of me.

As I made it to the halfway point I suddenly heard gunfire open up. Melanie had finally gotten into a good position a little further down the pond on her side and could fire without fear of hitting me. She kept the wolves at bay as I hustled over, slipping twice but somehow managing not to go into the frozen water both times.

The second I hit the other side and stable ground, I turned around, raising my pistol. There were only two wolves left standing by this point: one I had shot in the leg, which hung back at the treeline, the other that had managed to drag itself out of the ice.

I raised my pistol.

“Save your bullets, they’re done,” Melanie said.

I hesitated, then sighed and lowered my pistol. She was right. The wet-furred wolf was already retreating to join its injured brother.

Decent chance they both wouldn’t last the night.

Holstering my pistol, I looked at the corpses. “We should grab a few. We could use the meat and the furs,” I murmured.

“No,” Melanie replied. “Between your injury, Zach’s, and that treacherous trail, we’re going to have a hard enough time as it is. Now lemme see your arm.”

I walked over to her, looking down at my forearm. There was blood on my leather jacket. I thought it would help protect me a bit more, and maybe it had, but still, damn. I was going to have to patch it up again.

I carefully pulled my arm out of the jacket and let Melanie roll up the torn, bloodied sleeve of my shirt. “I’ll have this patched quick,” she murmured. “It’s gonna hurt.”

“Already does,” I replied.

She had me sit down in the snow, then got out of her pack and crouched beside me. Unzipping it, she started pulling out medical supplies.

“Have a seat, Zach, this’ll take a minute,” she said.

“Uh...yeah,” he murmured. I looked up, he was already leaning against the valley wall. Now he carefully lowered himself to the ground, wincing. I did the same thing as Melanie started to clean up the bite marks.

“You got a lot of these,” she murmured.

“That’s what the forearm is for, I think,” I replied.

“Technically yeah. But you seem to get into a lot of fights with wolves. Other arm look this bad?” she asked.

“No, not this bad. I’m right-handed so I try to keep it more intact.”

“I was curious...why do you keep going out into dangerous places, doing dangerous things? Is it really just a compulsion?” she asked.

“I guess so,” I replied. “It’s different now.” I winced as she got more disinfectant over the bite marks. Fuck that stung like a motherfucker.

“Different how?”

“I’m trying to help people.”

“Sounded like that’s not new.”

“I mean...it’s not. Just the extent is different. I’m really trying to help people now. I can fight. I can survive. I’m pretty strong and I’ve got a lot of endurance. I don’t fuck people over. I figure that puts me in a pretty good position to help.”

“You aren’t wrong.” She began to bandage the wound. “Why the change?”

I sighed. “I guess you could say I got a wake up call. Short answer is that I saw my future self in a man I was forced to kill, a really shitty man, if I didn’t get my shit together and really start living for something beyond the next sunrise or the next chick that agrees to fuck me. I mean, I still like taking pleasure in the small things, but it’s not enough.”

“That’s pretty brave,” she said. “Not many people actually act on those thoughts. Most people want to change, few of them actually do.”

“I guess so,” I murmured, looking down at my wounded arm.

I wondered how long my change of heart would take to kill me, because that seemed the likeliest outcome. You keep putting yourself in danger, you up the risk that you’ll die. On the other hand, I could have cancer or a brain aneurysm ready to pop or a fire could go out at the wrong time while I was sleeping and I could just die anyway.

If you’re gonna die anyway, might as well help people.

“There,” Melanie said, standing back up.

I looked over the bandaged section of my arm. “Thanks,” I replied.

“It’s my job.”

She packed everything back up while I pulled my sleeve back down and put my arm into my leather jacket again.

“We good to go?” I asked.

“Are we?” Melanie asked, looking at Zach.

“I’ll need some help getting up, but yeah,” he said. “I’d love to get out of here.”

I went to help him back to his feet.

TWENTY TWO

It was a long, cold, unhappy walk.

First back through the valley, and then, worst of all, back up that trail. It took half again as long as it had the first time due to the injured. I popped some painkillers shortly after we set off, but even then, my arm was still bugging me. It was a long, harrowing journey back up, but we finally made it out of there.

Thankfully, nothing was waiting for us up top.

From there, it was just a matter of walking back to Pine Lake. We took a few breaks, but otherwise didn’t run into anymore wolves, or bears, or asshole raiders wearing leather. Now that I thought about it, I’d been pretty lucky that my leather jacket looked different than the ones they seemed to wear.

Once we got back into town, I went with them over to the injured ward and headed inside at Melanie’s urging.

Also because Delilah and Lindsay were there.

Delilah came over as soon as she saw me.

“Need any help?” she asked Melanie.

“I got him, why don’t you see to your boyfriend?” she replied.

“What happened?” she asked, now focusing on me as Melanie helped Zach over to one of the beds.

“Wolf,” I replied. “Bit my arm.”

“Shit, come here,” she said, guiding me over to a free spot near the back of the room. I got out of my pack, my jacket, and my shirt, leaving on just a t-shirt underneath. The wound had clearly bled while I’d been walking. Delilah started taking the bandage wrap off so that she could check it over. “How did it go otherwise?”

“Well, we found that guy there, saved his life. Killed half a dozen wolves, but didn’t bring any with us. The place we went was a valley and it was damn hard to get into and out of. Bottom line: we got lucky. Could’ve been a lot worse,” I replied. “How have things been here?”

“Better, actually. Not a lot has changed, but finding Melanie was a big deal. Most of the survivors know her and like her. The fact that she’s here and helping is a huge boost. And they know you went out to get more meds...tell me you found them, please,” she said.

“In our packs,” I replied. “Get them distributed as soon as you finish up.”

“Thank God,” she muttered. “We’re almost out of antibiotics and a few other things. Although admittedly I’m worried about the long run. What you found will hopefully get us through this mess and have us set if nothing goes really wrong, but...what about next month? Two months from now? The nearest real settlement is like fifty miles from here. This place is pretty isolated.”

I was silent for a few moments while she checked my wound, then began to wrap it again. “We’ll figure something out,” I replied.

She just nodded. It was the best I could do right now.

Once she was finished with that, she took me into the back room where another pair of nurses were taking a break. We spent the next several minutes emptying out my pack, getting everything organized and put away in the proper place. When that was done, we went back out and saw Melanie finishing up with Zach, who had fallen into a deep sleep. I kind of wanted to do the same thing, but there was always more work to do.

“I’m going to go check on everyone in the isolation ward and deposit my half of the meds over there. You got everything squared away here?” she asked, looking at us.

We both nodded.

“Got everything offloaded,” I replied.

“Good.” She paused, stared at me. “You were really good out there.”

“So were you,” I replied.

“See you around. Thanks for the help.”

I nodded and she left. I yawned, then said my farewell to Delilah for now, then said my proper hello and then goodbye to Lindsay, then headed back outside. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to do. Then I thought that I should just ask Lisa, she’d know what there was to do. And then that thought sparked another and I began to head for the motel. Megan might be there, though it felt like a bit of a slim chance.

However, as I unlocked the door and stepped inside, I found her sitting on the bed, getting out of her boots.

“Hey,” she said as I came in. “Everything go okay?”

“Well, yes and no. We found the meds and we found another wayward survivor. He should be okay, got him back safe. I got bitten by a wolf. I should be okay. It hurt like shit though,” I told her as I came in.

“I’m sorry,” she replied. “You get it checked out?”

“Yeah, it’s wrapped up tight. What have you been up to?”

“I ended up making a pilgrimage to the observation deck. Well, technically I was running security for a pair of runners who were bringing them some more food and to get any news, since apparently no one has any fucking radios in this whole town. Still no sightings. I just got back. Nothing happened there or on the way back. Maybe they really ran?”

“I hope so,” I murmured.

“What are you doing?”

“Well...I was thinking I was going to take your advice and maybe try to sleep with Lisa. How would you feel if I spent the night with her tonight?” I replied.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ve got three hot women to keep me company tonight.”

I laughed. “That’s true. You gonna do anything with Lindsay?”

“Yeah. We talked briefly and she’s down to fuck around, so that’s really nice. Delilah’s thrilled. I think she’ll fuck Elizabeth while I’m fucking Lindsay...you know, I didn’t used to be so fucking sex-obsessed. I don’t know why I am now.”

“Everything’s more...extreme, now, I think. Everything sucks harder than ever before, but, on the flip side, the good things are even better. Even an average meal tastes amazing now. Getting to just sit the fuck down and not do anything in front of a fire is like a vacation. And so sex, which was already pretty awesome, is now mind-blowing.”

“That makes sense,” she said after a moment. She yawned. “Well, I’m off for the next couple of hours. I volunteered to go into the town later today and help them search for stuff. So go see if you can get lucky. I’m pretty sure you’ll do fine.”

“Hope so. Lisa is...intimidating,” I said.

“More intimidating than Melanie?”

“Yeah. I mean, Melanie just jumped me pretty easily. Lisa is...I don’t know really how to describe the situation. She’s more daunting.”

“I get it. But just consider: that will make the sex that much better.”

“Very true.”

I walked over and gave her a hug and a long, pleasant kiss on the mouth, then headed back out into the cold once more.

~

Lisa was, once again, in her office.

She looked up as I came in, and I thought she looked more tired than before.

“Do you have more good news for me? I could use it,” she said.

“I do, actually. We got the meds, there’s a fair store there that should see us through the worst of what’s happening now, and we found and rescued another person from the town. A teenager named Zachary.”

“Holy shit, that is good news,” she said, flipping open her leatherbound book and looking through it. She made a mark. “Thank you so much, Chris. Honestly, I fucking needed this. The work crews have found like thirty people today among the ruins and they’re all dead. And we’ve only identified half of them. There’s some I’m afraid we’ll never be able to identify.”

“How many are left missing?” I asked.

She sighed. “About thirty altogether by now.”

“Any sign of the raiders?”

“No, nothing.”

I stared at her for a moment while she looked over another piece of paper. How should I approach her about this? Part of me wanted to just come out with it, but I thought maybe that wouldn’t be the best way with Lisa.

Thing was, I was actually bad at stuff like this.

I think I’d only gotten worse at it over the past few years. Normally either women came onto me or we cut some kind of deal. I didn’t really have to woo or flirt, which was great...because I was bad at it. Or maybe that was just my perception?

I decided to go for something really simple.

“You want to get lunch?”

She glanced up, opened her mouth, then hesitated as her stomach growled. She sighed. “Yes, I suppose it’s high time I do that.” As she got up and pulled on her coat, she looked at me suddenly. “Is there...any specific reason you’re asking me?”

“You seemed like you could use some company and you also seem to like me,” I replied.

I mean, it technically wasn’t a lie.

“True enough,” she replied, finishing pulling her coat on. We started walking out of the basement, back up towards the lobby. “Your girlfriends?”

“Elizabeth and Delilah are working. Megan’s sleeping and then working. She was the one that suggested it,” I replied.

“Oh…” I glanced over. Was she blushing? “Did she...say anything else?”

“Like what?”

“I mean…” She hesitated, then mumbled something under her breath. “Nothing.”

I considered pushing at least a little to see what she’d say, but decided against it. We walked back outside and started making our way across the street. Several people waved and said hello, to which Lisa responded to and I largely just nodded, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure why, but maybe I was thinking about what Melanie had said, about these people coming to rely on me. I guess I hadn’t quite considered how true that was.

Another side effect of helping people: the assumed responsibility. Help someone once and there was a good chance they’d expect you to do it again.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

We came into the restaurant and when we grabbed lunch, Elizabeth was serving again and she looked at me, then at Lisa, then back at me and just smiled and didn’t say anything beyond a simple ‘hi’. When I glanced at Lisa, I saw she was blushing again. We took our meal, bear and veggie stew again, not that I minded, and took a seat off by ourselves near a window. For the first few moments, both of us just ate.

“What happened?” Lisa asked suddenly.

I glanced up from my meal. “To what?”

She nodded. “Your arm. I just saw the bandage.”

“Oh. Wolf bit the shit out of me while we were rescuing Zach. Like eight of the damned things showed up. We barely got out of there,” I replied.

“Fuck. That’s...intense.”

“Yep,” I agreed.

We went back to eating for a bit longer, and I decided to try and keep a conversation going. Maybe about something other than the pains of the apocalypse.

“What do you do for fun normally? Besides hiking,” I asked.

“Normally?” She considered it. “I draw, sometimes. I read. Mostly I’m too busy for fun nowadays. But yeah, mostly hiking and reading. You?”

I considered it. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess I find survival stuff fun enough that it’s just what I do. I suppose...if I’m being honest, I have sex.”

“I imagine you must be the kind of person who’s never single,” Lisa said.

“I...yeah, that’s true. Now, I mean. It wasn’t true before the snow.”

“Seriously? Why?”

“Big and scary works great if you’re looking for protection, and I imagine makes me more attractive. Doesn’t work so much in normal society. Women are more willing to overlook the fact that I’m unattractive if I can protect them.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? You’re not unattractive. How the fuck could you even think that when you’ve got Delilah, Megan, and Elizabeth all over you?”

“Like I said: protection. Delilah and Elizabeth met me when they really needed help being protected. Delilah from slavers, Elizabeth from her crazed ex. Megan...we’re still working that out. But my point stands.”

“You’re not unattractive,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Honestly I find that offensive.”

“Seriously? Offensive?” I replied, surprised.

She sighed. “Maybe that’s too strong a word. Frustrating. There. You’re clearly ruggedly handsome and you’ve got that dash of ‘bad boy’ that women go so fucking crazy for. It’s your eyes. They’re so intense. You do look kinda dangerous, but a lot of women find that attractive. Much as they might not like to admit it. I guess I’m just being unfair. I spent a long time feeling unattractive. I guess a lot of people do.”

“Apparently,” I replied. “I’m hoping that shit will at least calm down with other things to worry about. Feeling ugly is pretty fucking awful. Since Armageddon hit, I legitimately can’t complain, but...let’s just say that high school left some scars.”

“I think that’s true for everyone but the extremely attractive, popular assholes,” Lisa said.

“What were you like in high school?” I asked, honestly curious.

She laughed. “Extremely nerdy but also athletic. I guess an overachiever. I was in chess club, band, and swim team. On top of perfect As.”

“What instrument?” I asked.

“Drums. I didn’t like them too much. Saw them as a challenge, really. But I got good at it, then abandoned music totally in college...what about you?” she asked.

I sighed. “I wasn’t very academically inclined. No extracurricular stuff. Middling grades. Mostly I wanted to be somewhere that wasn’t school, not that I was sure what that looked like. For awhile I was just killing time. Working out. Then camping. Then fishing. Hunting. Learning about survival stuff on the internet. I used to read wilderness survival novels.”

“Boy did you luck out,” she murmured.

“Honestly, yeah, I did.”

We finished up our meals and returned the bowls, then walked back outside. For a moment, we stood together in the cold. I looked up. The clouds were much closer now.

“Gonna storm tonight, I think,” I said.

“Great,” she murmured.

“Probably won’t be too bad...what now?” I asked.

She considered it. “Well, I was considering knocking off a few hours early, if nothing serious was going wrong. I’m fucking exhausted and everyone keeps telling me to take a break, they’re worried about me. Now that you and Megan and Mel and some of the others are here and helping so much, I feel like I might actually be able to do that. So right now I’m going to make the rounds and check in on everyone. You want to join me? I think people like seeing you.”

“God I hope not,” I muttered.

She laughed. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know, just...I worry about people coming to rely on me too much. On the one hand, I like the idea. On the other...it scares me.”

“I understand. But right now, people need you. You’ve pulled off some serious shit so far, and people are talking. About you. To put it bluntly: people need people to look up to. It’s an unfortunate side of the human condition, but it’s how we’re wired. And if there has to be someone to look up to, I’d rather it be not an asshole.”

“You don’t think I’m an asshole?” I asked.

“No. Those girls you’re with? They would not put up with an asshole. Maybe Delilah or Elizabeth might have before, but not anymore. Not now.”

I sighed. “All right, I’ll walk with you.”

“Good. Come on.”

~

We spent about two hours walking through town.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about what she had told me, nor how I began to notice that people were looking at me or the way people reacted to me, now that I was actually focusing on it. Because she seemed to be right. People were happy to see me. I thought they were reacting to her at first but no, they specifically wanted to shake my hand and thank me for something or other. I accepted it as best I could, and Lisa clearly found it amusing.

I guess it was fair, considering I found her blushing amusing.

Mostly I just shook hands, said ‘you’re welcome’, and listened to them.

Was this what being a celebrity was like?

Shit. This just made me feel weird. Not to mention, it was draining. I couldn’t really tell if I was an introvert or an extrovert, but today I definitely felt like an introvert. It didn’t take all that long for me to want to just be alone, or at least alone with just a few people that I liked. But I stuck it out. Partially because, yeah, I was still figuring out how to approach Lisa about sex, but also because she had a point: people liked seeing me, and if anyone could use a boost in mood, it was these people. They’d been through a shitload.

We did a tour of the town, and she checked in everywhere.

Everything was running pretty smoothly, or at least there was nothing directly she could do. We were good for food and we were good for meds, and firewood, too. People would be fed, warm, and healthy, for awhile.

Now all we had to do was confirm that the raiders were gone or hunt them down.

Either way, I was finally having to admit to myself that I was in no shape to do much of anything else today.

All my exhaustion was catching up with me.

We ended up back near the apartment building at the end of our tour. Lisa hadn’t said anything to me since we’d left the last place and started walking over here. As we walked into the lobby, I saw that it was vacant.

She turned to look at me, and I thought she was going to say something, but she didn’t. She just kind of stared at me expectantly.

I thought by now it was pretty obvious to her that I was trying to sleep with her, and that she was into it. But maybe I was off base? I didn’t think so, I thought she was just too nervous. Why? What the fuck did she have to be nervous about?

Did she genuinely think I was going to turn her down?

I decided to just take the plunge for her.

“You want to invite me up to your apartment?” I asked.

She looked relieved. “Yes. I would.” She started walking towards the hall at the back. “It’s up on the top floor,” she said.

I followed after her.

TWENTY THREE

We made it up a flight of steps before she paused and looked back at me. “Will there be...any, uh, problems? If you...spend time with me at my apartment?”

I laughed a little bit. “No, there won’t be problems. They all know that I’m going to...‘spend time’ with you at your apartment.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay.”

She led me up to the top and unlocked one of the doors. We walked inside and I looked around. It was sparsely populated by furniture. A couch. A pair of chairs around a small table. A dresser pushed up into one corner. A double-wide mattress in the back. It was a tiny apartment, a studio size. “This is yours?” I asked.

“Yeah. I was originally sleeping down in the office on the couch but when the others found out they insisted I have an apartment. That couch is uncomfortable enough that I finally I gave in. Though I’m going to give it up soon and figure something else out. We’ve got too many people now and not enough living space.”

“We’ll figure something out,” I replied.

She walked over to a small wood-burning stove and fired it up. While she did, I took off my backpack, my coat, and my boots.

I sat down on the couch and waited. Lisa, I think, took longer than necessary to get the fire going. And then she moved around the apartment for a bit, doing...something. I tried not to act impatient. I mean, honestly, I wasn’t. I was going into this prepared for the possibility that she would change her mind and I’d go home for the night.

Finally, she came and sat down beside me.

When I looked at her, I hesitated. She looked more anxious than I’d ever seen her before, which was saying something.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m just...nervous,” she replied, looking down briefly at her hands folded in her lap. “I just-I want to be absolutely clear. So there’s no miscommunication: we’re hooking up, right? You want to have sex with me?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I want to have sex with you.”

“And the others…?”

“Delilah, Elizabeth, and Megan are aware of this, and encourage it. And, if it helps put your mind at ease further: I have a birth control implant that makes it impossible for me to get you pregnant, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have any STDs. The implant also makes it harder to get those. And if you change your mind at any moment, I won’t argue or get mad.”

“I...yeah, that helps,” she said, “a lot, honestly. At this point, I do trust you. It’s less you I’m worried about and more…” She trailed off again, looking down for a few seconds before meeting my eyes again. “I haven’t had sex since I lost my husband.”

“Oh...wow,” I murmured, and suddenly felt another weight of responsibility come crashing down on me. I was going to be this woman’s first hookup since losing the love of her life? Jesus fucking Christ. “Lisa...shit. I’m not sure if I’m the best for this…”

“You’re perfect, actually. I’m not looking for a relationship, Chris. Maybe a casual one. At this point, I’ve grieved. I haven’t moved on, not entirely, but I don’t think I ever will. But I am ready to be intimate with someone again. And to be honest, I just want to sort of...dip my toe into the waters? Or I guess more accurately cannonball in and then get back out again after I’ve had my fun. And from what Megan hinted at during our previous conversation, you’d be really perfect for that. All I really want, right now, is great sex with someone I find very attractive.”

“And you find me very attractive?” I replied.

She laughed, some of the tension seeming to go out of her. “Obviously. I’m more surprised you find me attractive. I know I’ve been looking my age over the past few years…”

“I’ve got a serious thing for mature, badass women,” I replied.

“Which is kind of surprising, given your...harem. Delilah and Elizabeth are just gorgeous. Like models. I know Delilah’s younger than you, she has to be, I’m not too sure about Elizabeth. And Megan is beautiful in a different sort of way, she reminds me more of myself...grimmer. But she also has a very obvious beauty to her.”

“I didn’t choose any of them, exactly...they kind of chose me,” I replied.

“I can’t blame them,” she said. Then she reached out and put a hand on my thigh and damn if that wasn’t like getting hit by electricity. “So, will you spend the night here? I may be a little rusty, but I’m pretty sure I can get you off quite well.”

“I’m definitely spending the night here,” I replied.

She smiled. “Good. Now, um, we should wash up. As I said, this is my first time getting laid in over a year and I want it to be as good as possible.”

“I’ll do my best,” I replied, standing.

“Thank you.”

Despite what she’d said, I was kind of nervous. It felt like a lot of responsibility, and I also just felt bad for her. I honestly couldn’t even imagine what she must have gone through, and to not have been intimate with even a single person since then?

Fuck.

I wanted to do a really good job this time around. It seemed like she needed it, more than just wanted it.

More significantly, she deserved it.

We started taking our clothes off, looking at each other as we did. As her clothes came off, I saw that Lisa was in pretty good shape. She was a little taller than Delilah, and more filled out than her as well, having a sturdier build, closer to Melanie. She had several scars that were revealed as her clothes came off. By the time she’d stripped down to just a tanktop and panties, I saw several on her arms and legs, more as she took her tanktop off. Her breasts came out as she tossed the tanktop aside. She had some nice double-ds, and as her panties came off, I saw a short bush of pubic hair the same blonde as the hair on her head.

“Good thing I found an electric razor and buzzed recently,” she murmured, looking down at herself. “I kinda hoped this would happen, and it had been...well, awhile, since I’d ‘trimmed the hedges’.” She paused, then bit her lower lip anxiously as she stared at me. “Well, uh, this is me.” She sighed suddenly. “I honestly used to be decently confident about my body. At least since I got into my twenties and I filled out a bit. I knew I looked good naked and worked to maintain it. I just sucked at makeup and thought I didn’t have a great face…”

“You’ve got a great face without makeup,” I replied. “And you still look great naked. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Thanks,” she said, blushing again. She shifted impatiently. “Come on, let’s see it. Your naked body. I want to see it.”

“All right, all right,” I replied, and finished stripping.

“Wow. I’m...not disappointed. At all. You’re pretty fit and that is...a bit bigger than I’m used to,” she murmured.

“Everyone keeps saying that,” I replied.

“You’re above average. I mean, what do you think ‘average’ means?”

“Let’s just say, it doesn’t feel above average,” I replied. I shook my head and then walked over to her. She stared up at me and I looked down at her, having a full half foot on her. She had pretty brown eyes, and I told her so.

Lisa responded by kissing me. She slipped her arms around me, pulled me to her, and kissed me full on the mouth.

It was a wonderful kiss.

I loved feeling her naked body pressing against mine as she pushed her lips to my own, slowly beginning to make out with me as she closed her eyes and a moan escaped her. It was a satisfied moan, like the kind you’d let out slipping into a hot bath at the end of a long, hard day. The fact that I was the one making her make that sound was itself very satisfying. I put my hands on her, first on her lower back, then slipped them down to her ass.

She had a really nice ass.

There was a fair amount of padding to it and all those times I’d seen it filling out her pants so nicely, to finally get to touch it bare, to grope and grab it…

That was very satisfying, too.

Lisa moaned louder as I pushed my tongue into her mouth. She darted her own forward and met mine, twisting and twining with it. Her taste flooded my mouth and I enjoyed that, too. We kissed for another long moment, and then she pulled back.

“We were supposed to wash,” she whispered, breathing heavily.

“Yeah...let’s do that now,” I replied.

She was staring at me with wide eyes. She nodded and slowly let go of me. We found some water, some rags, some soap, and quickly began washing up.

“That was amazing,” she whispered. “I haven’t even kissed anyone since...I’d forgotten what it was like. Wow. I think you’re a good kisser but I can’t be sure.”

“I think it’s both,” I replied.

She laughed. “So you’ve got confidence in your kissing, then.”

“I’ve got confidence in my sexual abilities,” I replied. “Just not my looks. I am going to eat you out so fucking good.”

She visibly shuddered as I said that. “Oh fucking...oh just the thought of that...I loved oral so much. So much.”

“You’re going to come a lot,” I said.

“I hope so. I must admit, orgasming has been...elusive for me, at times. If I don’t come, please don’t take it personally.”

“I guess we’ll see what happens,” I replied after considering and rejecting a few responses. I didn’t want to be overconfident, that was a narrow line to walk.

I was glad to see that after that kiss she was quite eager.

Same for me.

We ended up naked and in bed as soon as we were done washing, kissing again, touching, our hands running eagerly over each other’s bodies. I began running my hands over her hips, then her thighs, then her inner thighs, caressing them slowly, working my way towards her pussy. She shivered and shuddered and moaned at my touch. Her return to sex, I thought, should be a slow, gradual, pleasantly long experience.

And unless something went wrong, we had the rest of the night.

As I went to work on her, time seemed to disappear. It all seemed to disappear. There was just me and her in her bed and a fire crackling somewhere nearby and, at some point, the wind beginning to pick up.

But otherwise, it was just us.

I spent awhile getting her off.

She was right that she had a tougher time than most of the other women I’d hooked up with, but it wasn’t impossible.

I spent a good ten minutes alternating between massaging her clit and fingering her, going with just one finger for awhile, then getting to two. She was already really fucking slick and hot inside. We kissed through most of it. She made out with me with an almost desperate passion, clearly trying, (and often failing), to keep from being too noisy as I pleasured her. After awhile I began sucking on her breasts, licking across them, across her nipples.

The first orgasm took the longest and was the most intense.

I had to hold my hand over her mouth as she lost control of herself right as I switched back to rubbing her clit for the dozenth time and she just popped. She jerked violently in the bed, bucking her hips hard, her whole body twitching like she’d been hit with an electric shock. I had to keep her from screaming so loud that surely someone would kick the door in, thinking I was murdering her, because goddamn was she losing it.

It was tough but I kept pleasuring her and muffling her throughout the whole full-bodied orgasm. It went on for almost a minute.

When I took my hand away as she finally calmed down, she gasped: “Don’t stop! Oh God don’t stop!”

So I didn’t.

I kept fingering her until she had a second orgasm, and then I got down between her legs and started licking her clit. She pretty much devolved into a babbling, incoherent mess after that, and I’m very happy to say that I got her to come three more times before she finally had me stop. When I sat up, I saw that she was crying.

“You okay?” I asked.

She tried to speak, but just coughed. Pointed. “Water,” she managed.

I got up and got her a canteen of water. She took it and drank deeply. While she did, I took the opportunity to wash up.

She’d made a mess.

I got back in bed with her after she finished drinking.

“You. Are. Amazing,” she said between deep breaths. “Just...oh my God. I know why you have three women on your dick regularly now. And we haven’t even fucked yet. Shit. I seriously, seriously needed that. Oh my God. You made me come like five times. Just...fuck. I am going to suck your dick so good.”

“I’d appreciated it,” I said.

She laughed, sniffed, wiped at her eyes, then had me lay down while she cleaned herself up. Once she was done, she came back and got between my legs.

“Just lay back and relax,” she said with a small smile.

I did just that, watching as she made a ring with her thumb and forefinger around my cock, put her lips down to it, and then began to slowly lower them over the head. I groaned immediately as a wave of pure, hot bliss hit me.

“Holy shit,” I muttered as she began to slowly, very slowly lower her lips and finger and thumb down my head, then back up, then down again. “That’s-oh wow. That’s something else.” I wasn’t exactly sure what it was she was doing, but wow did it feel so fucking good. I remembered Hazel doing something similar, but not this good.

She let out a little muffled laugh and kept going with her slow, sensual blowjob.

I sank even deeper into mindless ecstasy as she worked my cock with her apparently fucking magic mouth and hand and tongue. I didn’t know if it was a married woman thing (Elizabeth was pretty good at giving head), or just something Lisa had learned on her own, but fuck did it feel good. It was hard to sit still.

“Gonna blow,” I said after maybe another half minute or so.

She glanced up at me with her beautiful brown eyes and kept going.

“Last warning,” I said after a few more seconds. “Gonna fucking blow in your mouth if you keep going.”

She kept going.

And then I couldn’t hold back any longer. I let out a loud, probably way too loud, half-groan, half-shout of bliss as my orgasm burst into existence. She continued sucking as I came into her mouth and for a little while there, I was truly fucking blinded by pleasure. All I could feel was my orgasm as I shot my load into her mouth and she took it all, working my cock with skill that she apparently had not forgotten at all, sucking me totally fucking dry as shockwaves of rapture blasted through me and I drained my nuts down her throat.

She finished me off after a bit and slowly got up to her feet.

“So apparently I didn’t lose my touch,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and smirking at me as she stood at the foot of the bed.

“No,” I managed, “you didn’t. Holy shit.”

“Better than your girlfriends?” I asked.

“Don’t tell them, but yes. Better than all of them. Fuck’s sake you can suck dick,” I murmured, looking up at the ceiling. My head was spinning. I listened to her gargle and spit with something, then take several drinks. I glanced at her as I heard her unscrewing something metal and saw her opening up a bottle of some kind of alcohol.

“Want any?” she asked after taking a healthy swallow. “It’s vodka.”

“I’m good, thanks though,” I replied.

She took another drink, then stared at the bottle for a long moment, then sighed and screwed the cap back on and put it away. “I want to get drunk. I haven’t been drunk in months. But it would be so stupid right now.”

“I understand,” I replied. “Once this is over and things are more stable, I could help with that.”

“What?” she asked as she climbed back into bed. “You gonna protect me while I’m in my vulnerable state?”

“If you wanted me to,” I said.

She stared at me for a moment, then laid down against me. “I bet you’re good at that. I imagine women that get close to you feel safe with you.”

“I sure hope so. Delilah and Elizabeth have told me that,” I replied, putting an arm around her and holding her against me.

“I feel safe right now,” she murmured, then sighed. “As you can imagine, I was fiercely independent. Even after getting married. I believe in independence, even now, perhaps especially now, but...it took me awhile to figure out that you can still want someone to just...take care of you, without giving up your independence and self-reliance. I think what makes it more difficult is that a lot of people don’t see it that way. Too many men I’ve come across think that if you show any kind of ‘weakness’ or reliance on them, it means they own your ass, that you need them, and they’ll treat you differently. Not all of them, just...it can be hard to pick out the ones who won’t. Like you.” She reached out and ran a hand across my chest.

“Megan told me I should do this,” I said, “that a thing I offer is basically safe, attachment-free sex, and that not enough people do.”

She laughed softly. “It’s true. I’ve talked sex with so many women, and almost every last one of them has run into more than one guy who was a lazy lover. You’re actually an outlier. Most of the stories I’ve heard about guys with big dicks is that they’re lazy. They don’t bother with foreplay or good positions or anything because they think ‘I have a big dick that’s all that matters’. It’s...refreshing, to experience otherwise. And so far Megan is right. God, what I experienced even before right now alone makes the encounter worthwhile. You are killer with that tongue and those fingers. I mean just...shit, you’re good.”

“So are you,” I replied. “...can we fuck now?”

She laughed and sat up. “That horny?”

“For you? Yes. Fuck yes.”

“You really like me that much?”

“I do. You are so fucking hot. I seriously have a thing for older and I guess you could say ‘commanding’ women...how do you want to start?” I asked.

“Let’s keep it simple this time: just fuck me missionary,” she replied.

“This time, huh?” I asked as I got up and let her get onto her back.

“I’m having a hard time imaging not doing this again at least a few times. You’d be a great stress reliever, you know. Just come over and fuck me a few times a week,” she replied as she got onto her back and spread her legs.

“I can definitely do that,” I said, getting between them. “Lemme ask this real quick: can I come inside of you?”

She began to answer, then hesitated, blushing again.

“If the answer’s no, that’s fine,” I said, “just tell me.”

“It’s not that, it’s...I want you to finish somewhere else,” she replied.

“Where?” I waited. She didn’t answer, not quite meeting my eyes. “Come on, you can just tell me.”

“It’s...humiliating,” she murmured finally.

“Lisa, whatever it is, you can just tell me. At this point, you’ve said it yourself: you trust me. Trust me not to...I don’t know, laugh at you, make fun of you, think less of you, whatever it is you’re worried is gonna happen if you tell me.”

She sighed. “You’re right. I...like it on my face,” she said.

“Really? Yeah, I can definitely do that,” I said.

“Thanks,” she replied. “Also...be careful.”

“I will,” I said, and started working my way into her exceptionally wet vagina.

That feeling of us being the only two people for miles, maybe forever, closed back in around me and I wondered if she felt the same thing. I worked my way slowly into her, looking down at her wonderful, pale body, at her scars, her breasts, up to her face and her beautiful brown eyes. She stared back up at me with a strange mixture of arousal, confidence, and vulnerability. As I continued inching into her, loving her gasps and moans as I got deeper, I ran my hands up her arms, to her shoulders, down across her chest, settling them on her breasts and groping them for several moments, just enjoying her.

Before long, she’d accepted my whole length, and we really got to making love. I stroked smoothly into her, and she brought her legs up and spread them a bit wider. I moved my hands lower, and ended up hooking them beneath her legs and bringing them up further. Resting on my knees, I fucked that sweet, mature pussy, sliding in and out of her, and the look of deep satisfaction on her face was a reward all its own.

“Oh my fuck!” she cried. “Yes! Fuck! Harder!”

I slid my hands up until I had her ankles and I gripped them tightly, then really started fucking her, pounding her into the mattress. She let out an incoherent shout and after another half minute of this frantic fucking I had her coming again and holy fucking damn did that feel amazing. I groaned as I kept pounding her squirting pussy, making a mess and not caring. I loved feeling her vaginal muscles clenching tightly around my rock-hard cock, fluttering and pulsing as she climaxed. Loved hearing and watching her as she came, lost in the bliss of her orgasm. I screwed her through it all and then kept going afterwards.

“Oh my fucking-yes!” she cried, panting, gasping in rapture.

“Fuck...Lisa...oh God, I’m gonna…”

“Do it!” she moaned. “Do it all over my face! Come on!”

I slammed her pussy more rapidly for another several seconds and then right as the orgasm began to crest I pulled out of her, hurried forward until I was straddling her chest and then I was jacking off all over her. She moaned as I released the first spurt of my seed and it went onto her cheek and her forehead. Another came out, going across her nose and one eye. She opened her mouth and I aimed into there and shot a huge load, the pleasure pressure-blasting my whole body as I jacked off with one hand and put the other against the wall above her head, holding myself up. Watching my seed go into her mouth and all over lips and her face was just…

Heavenly. Divine.

Perfect.

When I was done, I was left shaking and shuddering. I put my cock in her mouth and she knew what to do, cleaning it off, closing her lips and sucking as I pulled it back out. I groaned loudly at the final burst of pleasure that came from that act, and then I was sitting down on the edge of the bed, getting my breath back.

“Chris…”

“I know. Gimme a second,” I managed, and made myself get up. I got her a rag to clean herself up with and then laid down beside her on my back, staring at the ceiling, my head buzzing from the sex high, my body tingling.

“Holy shit you are such a good fuck,” I muttered as she cleaned up.

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” she replied. She finished cleaning up, then got up and took a few more swallows of her vodka, then came and crawled into bed with me. I put my arm around her.

For a long time, maybe ten minutes, we just laid there, naked and sweaty and tired.

Finally, she spoke again. “It’s going to take a legitimate emergency to get me out of this apartment now. I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to fucking move. I just want to lay here and, when I’ve got my strength back, have you just fucking destroy me from the back.”

“I am very okay with this plan,” I said, and she laughed.

After a moment, she looked over and kissed my cheek. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Everything. Making me come like six times. Not making this whole thing weird. Being kind. Helping me save my town. Treating people with respect. Just...all of it. You’re a really great guy, and I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I’m just glad I could help,” I replied.

She nodded sleepily and curled up closer to me.

I squeezed her a little more tightly against me.

And there we laid.

TWENTY FOUR

I came awake with a start in a deep darkness.

For several seconds, I lay frozen, confused. Where the fuck was I? What had woken me up? Whatever it was, I knew it might be bad, because I was feeling an intense anxiety. Someone shifted in the bed beside me.

Somewhere outside, I heard raised voices.

“Chris?”

“Something’s going on,” I replied, sitting up, looking around. It all came back in a snap: Lisa. I was sleeping in Lisa’s bed in her apartment.

Someone was talking loudly outside.

“What is it?” Lisa asked.

“I don’t know.”

I threw back the blankets and got to my feet, then moved to the window without taking the time to even pull on my boxers. As I pulled the curtain aside a little and looked down, someone shouted. It was hard to tell, but I thought I saw several people clustered in a group at the threshold of where what remained of Pine Lake met the burned out section.

It sounded like someone was arguing. Several someones.

“What the fuck is going on?” Lisa whispered as she joined me.

“I’m not sure, but I think-”

As I spoke, gunfire suddenly broke out. Not just down below, but I could see more immediately kick off at the opposite end of the street, at the front entrance to the settlement.

“Holy shit it’s gotta be them!” I snapped, backing away and trying to get to my clothes so fast I almost stumbled.

Damn! Fuck!

I’d left my goddamned rifle at home!

Both of us cursing, we frantically pulled our clothes back on. I got dressed in record time and then I was grabbing for my pistol and a few spare magazines.

“We’ll take them from the lobby windows!” I snapped, and then I bolted out of the room.

I was halfway down the stairs when Lisa caught up to me. Damn, she was fast. We both nearly fell down the stairs making it to the bottom, listening to people scream and gunfire roar. Goddamnit! This was not what I thought was most likely to happen. Either it was the raiders coming to finish the job or a new group looking to take advantage.

Either way, didn’t matter.

There was a fight and I needed to be there.

We crashed into the lobby, my brain screaming in panic as I looked around, trying to clamp down on the panic, or at least reign it in, so I could be effective. Someone staggered into the doorway, clutching their stomach, and I almost shot them. I held off at the last second, recognizing them as one of the locals.

Lisa rushed to his side and began helping him deeper into the lobby while I hustled over to the nearest window and peered out. It was dark chaos out there, but I got the gist of what was going on. Among the closest wrecked buildings, I saw several men wearing dark leather opening fire on a group of people hiding in and around our own buildings. I considered opening fire right now, I had a good vantage on two of them, but something stayed my hand. Abruptly, I stood up and stepped away from the window.

“Where are you going!?” Lisa snapped.

“Out the back, gonna circle behind them,” I replied.

“Shit, okay, be careful,” she said, doing her best to patch up the man that had been gutshot.

I just nodded and raced off, praying that Delilah and Megan and the others were okay. Megan was no doubt fighting by now. Hopefully she was somewhere high, safe, and with her rifle, doing good work. How many of them could there be? I rushed down the corridor and found the door at the back. Being careful not to be too loud, lest I give up my element of surprise, I opened it up and slipped outside.

The moon was out at least partially, and the storm I’d noticed coming in was almost here. No snow yet, but the winds were high and bitterly cold. I hurried to the edge of the back of the apartment building and peered around the corner, my pistol at the ready. No one there. Just twenty yards away was the next building over, where some of the men were hiding inside or around. It was mostly intact, what had once also been an apartment building, I think.

That was just open space between the two structures.

I took a few quick breaths as I looked around, seeing if I was in anyone’s line of sight. I couldn’t tell for sure, but that didn’t matter right now.

This was it.

Had to act fast.

I broke from cover and sprinted as fast as I could through the snow, expecting some gunfire to come my way any second.

The run seemed to take ages.

But then I was behind the other building, no one had shot me or seemingly even noticed me, and I had successfully gotten in behind enemy lines. Time to put it to good use. Every second that passed was another second someone on our side might get injured or die. I moved along the back wall, peering in any windows I could see through for signs of life, and saw nothing. Getting up to the corner, I looked down the alleyway created between the side of this structure and the next. No people visible, but it was partially blocked with debris.

I could hear the gunfire better as I moved down the alley, towards the debris. I could slip through, I thought. As I neared it, I paused and checked my pistol over one more time, just to be sure, then my eyes widened in terror and anger as I realized the safety was still on. Jesus fucking hell! I flipped it off and then moved forward.

Getting through the pile of rubble by passing between its rough edges and the side of the building was easy enough, but now came the hard part.

Surprise attack.

I crept right up to the corner of the partially burned-down building, crouching and getting a view into the road where most of the attackers were. I saw two ducked down behind the wrecked remains of a rusted-out vehicle in the middle of the road. There were two more across the street, firing from inside of a burned-out shop of some kind, the plate glass windows long since broken out. I could hear gunfire coming from very close to me, as well. Someone was inside the abandoned apartment building right next to me. I had an opportunity here.

Time to cash it in and see what it got me.

I got into a stable crouch, kneeling and aiming at the two guys in the storefront. They were the hardest targets, but I wasn’t the only one shooting at them. I waited for one of them to pop up and that’s when I fired. Popping off two shots, one went wide, the other cracked right into his skull and killed him in a flash. He fell forward and landed on the shattered shards ringing the frame that had once held the plate glass window.

Everyone reacted in a shock of panic.

I immediately focused fire on the second man in the storefront while the other two in the street began panicking. I peppered his position with gunfire, still mostly hidden by the building I crouched beside, and finally managed to nail him with a shot to the throat. He went down. He wasn’t getting back up from that. Focusing then on the two men who had been behind the car, I saw that exactly what I had hoped would happen was happening.

As they panicked and broke from cover, the townspeople gunned them down.

That just left whoever was in the apartment building next to me.

As I thought this, gunfire suddenly exploded through the wall just barely above me. I turned, twisted, and leaped out, diving into the snow in front of the apartment building. Landing on my back, I prayed that I would see the shooter before he saw me. Frantically searching the nearest windows, I caught movement in one of them and emptied the magazine into it. I saw his body dance the bloody, jerky dance of death as the bullets punched into his skin and blew out the back, shattering bone and splattering blood.

Then he was dead and I was empty on bullets.

Scrambling to my feet, I ejected the spent magazine, pulled another from my pocket, and shoved it in while I looked around in case anyone else was still alive. But there only seemed to be five them. I heard someone call my name.

“You okay?!” Lisa yelled.

“Fine!” I replied, jogging towards her and the others. “We gotta get to the others! We have to finish them off here and now!”

“Let’s go!” Lisa snapped, quickly ordering two of her people to stay behind at our present location and keep watch in case any more showed up.

And then I was sprinting as fast as I could, cold, cold air burning in my lungs, making for the opposite end of the road.

I tried to get a sense of what was happening, and as I approached, I had the impression that the rest of their group, (they had attacked simultaneously from both ends of the settlement), was now pinned down in the general store where we had been storing all of our spare wood and supplies, directly across from the cafe where the sick were being isolated. Jesus fucking shit, what a goddamned nightmare.

Lisa and I and the others got up to the motel, which was the next nearest building to the store, though it didn’t provide much in the way of cover.

My door, I realized, was open.

I slipped inside and nearly got my head blown off by Lindsay.

“Oh, Chris!” she gasped. “Holy shit!”

I looked around. Megan was at a window beside our bed with her rifle, crouched down and taking aim.

“Nice of you to show up,” she said.

“Where’s the others?” I asked as Lisa came in behind me and we both ducked down to avoid the incoming fire.

“Elizabeth’s hiding in the tub,” Megan replied. “Wait one.” She paused and fired. “Fuck! I can’t hit these bastards, they’re moving around too much in there and the wind is too intense. My shots keep going wide.”

“Where’s Delilah?” I asked.

“She’s over at the isolation ward,” Lindsay replied. “She accidentally brought a thermometer home with her and went to return it, so I imagine she’s hunkering down there now.”

“All right, here’s the plan-” I said, and then froze as I caught sight of something on fire go sailing through the air, towards the other side of the street.

Cursing, I ran to the door and watched in horror as the flaming item one of the raiders had thrown, (and it was a hell of a throw), smashed right into the front of the isolation ward. I watched in sheer panicked terror as flames began to lick up the front of the building, glass shattering from what I realized was a molotov cocktail.

Two things immediately hit me, like asteroids smashing into a planet.

The first was that I needed to get over there and get Delilah out now.

The second was that I would be gunned down if I tried that, and so I instead needed to end this gun battle right now.

“MEGAN COVER ME!” I screamed as I raced out into the cold once more.

I heard her and Lisa scream my name but there was no time.

Part of me knew this was a fucking lunatic move, this was outright suicidal.

But the rest of me just did not give a single shit.

Delilah and everyone I gave a shit about in the world were all in danger, and I had to act right now if I was going to have even one shot at saving them.

I heard myself screaming at the top of my lungs like a fucking berserking caveman as I ran as fast as I possibly could towards the store. It had to be confusing them because it took them until I was about three quarters of the way there to start firing on me. Bullets flew out of the already broken windows, sailing past me.

One of them grazed my shoulder, digging a bloody furrow through the leather and cloth I was wearing, and I grit my teeth and ignored it as I aimed and opened fire while running. I kept firing as I sprinted forward towards one of those windows, saw one of the men inside take a bullet in his forehead and flop back in a spray of blood.

As I dove through the windows, everything came to me like a stuttering series of flashes.

I landed hard among broken glass and blood.

I saw a man coming for me with a knife and shot him three times in the chest.

I rolled, twisted, and scrambled to my feet as another sneering man tried to shoot me, his pistol blasting off, putting holes in the floor and narrowly missing me.

Right as he drew a bead on me and I staggered to my feet a gunshot sounded and half his head was blown away in a disgusting spray of brains and skull.

Megan.

I hastily looked around and saw that there were two more people. One was going for cover, the other was trying to shoot me.

I snapped up my pistol and we both fired at the same time.

My round connected with his chest.

His missed my head by a motherfucking fraction of an inch.

I could feel that bullet as it whipped past my ear.

He went down and I shot him in the head before focusing my attention on the other guy. He had gotten to cover behind a table and was now drawing a bead on me. Shit. This had to end now. I was still in panic berserk mode and so consequently I began running at him and emptying my magazine. Stupid, but I was losing my shit.

I won, but at a cost.

He panicked when he saw me coming at him like a beast and started firing wildly. One of those shots nailed me right in the goddamn thigh. I screamed, staggered, and that consequently adjusted my aim so that the next shot went right between his eyes by pure luck.

Okay, that was done.

They were dead.

Lightning still shrieked through my veins as I looked around, making for damn sure they were dead. Once I was, I dropped my pistol and sprinted out of the building. I could feel the pain in my leg and my shoulder, could feel my leg wet with blood, but it seemed strangely distant. Maybe I hadn’t been hit as badly as I’d thought.

All that mattered right now was helping Delilah, and anyone else in that building.

The whole front of the structure was now engulfed in flames. I saw some people cautiously approaching it.

“Move!” I screamed as I barreled towards them.

They scattered and I didn’t stop, throwing my entire body through the front door. Its structural integrity had failed enough thanks to the flames that it basically fell apart. I cried out as I crashed to the floor inside.

The interior was filled with smoke.

“Delilah!” I screamed.

“Chris!?”

I staggered to my feet, wincing and gritting my teeth as my gunshot wound protested, but I ignored it and looked around. There was already smoke beginning to fill the area. I coughed as I saw Delilah trying to get someone out of a bed.

“Help me! He’s unconscious!”

I looked around as I lumbered over. The beds were all empty. Where was everyone? In a flash, I realized that this place had to have a back exit.

“Where’s everyone else?” I asked as I scooped the unconscious guy up and began following her towards the back.

“I think they’re all out,” she replied. “What the fuck’s happening?!”

“Raider attack. They’re all dead, I think.”

“Is Lindsay okay? Megan? Elizabeth? Lisa?”

“I think so,” I replied, then groaned sickly as we got into a back room and headed for the back door, which was open.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I replied, coughing.

We got outside and I saw a group of people milling about, catching their breaths maybe a few yards away. I went over to them and laid the guy down on the ground with them, unable to carry him any longer.

My leg was really starting to bug me.

“Is this everyone?” I asked.

“I-I don’t know,” Delilah replied. “I think so.”

“I have to go back and check, wait here,” I said.

“Chris!” she cried.

“Wait here!” I yelled as I hurried off.

My adrenaline was still buzzing through me, but I was beginning to come down from the delirium rush of battle and I knew I didn’t have a whole lot of time left before I passed out from blood loss. I should have patched myself up already, but there wasn’t time. Hurrying back inside, I knew I had even less time thanks to the fire. Flames licked along the roof and it was only a matter of time before it collapsed.

I rushed back into the main room, coughing more violently, and made myself carefully check each of the beds. The few that had their blankets still in place I threw back.

“Anyone in here?!” I called.

No one responded.

All of the beds were empty, the stalls, everything was cleared out. They’d reacted quickly, which made sense given they’d just gone through this barely a week ago. Coughing more violently as the smoke descended, I made myself check the three rooms I found at the back. I didn’t see anyone hiding in there.

I was out of time.

I heard part of the roof crack and collapse and I hustled over to the door. As I stepped back outside into the cold and stumbled away from the building, I yelled in pain as my leg finally gave out on me.

“Chris! Oh God, you’re bleeding! What happened?!” Delilah asked as I rolled slowly over onto my back, panting.

I felt weak.

I could feel my blood, my energy, my very life seeping out of my body.

I was freezing now.

“Shot,” I managed.

“Jesus, Chris! Why did you fucking-ugh! Someone help me!” she screamed as she began applying pressure to the wound.

It hurt, but the pain was distant.

Everything was distant.

The last thing I saw as the darkness closed in was her worried, beautiful face.

EPILOGUE

I came awake.

My leg hurt and my shoulder hurt and my head hurt really bad.

I was being carried and I could smell smoke.

I tried to say something but I was already passing out again, too tired to stay awake.

~

The next time I woke up, I wasn’t in motion any longer.

I was laying on something. My leg and shoulder and head hurt, but my leg didn’t hurt as bad now, and someone was moving nearby.

I groaned as something touched my shoulder.

“Sorry, Chris,” a familiar voice said.

Melanie?

And then the darkness came again.

~

Awake again.

Everything burned.

I blinked several times. I was so thirsty and everything hurt.

I was on fire, but shivering.

“Chris?”

I tried respond, but something was happening.

The shivering got worse.

“Chris? Oh my God, Mel get in here!”

And then I went away again.

~

The next time I opened my eyes, everything seemed a lot more coherent.

I was tired. I was exhausted, actually.

But the burning was gone, and though the pain was still there, it had receded a lot.

I could hear wind blowing somewhere nearby, a fire crackling somewhere closer. My throat was dry and I had to piss really fucking bad.

I started to try and get up, and doing so caused an unexpected burst of pain in my leg. I groaned and went slack.

“Chris?”

I tried to respond, but all I produced was a dry croak.

“Oh shit, just hold on.”

I heard movement, and then Delilah was there with a bottle of water. Before anything else happened, she helped me drink, and I ended up finishing the whole thing off.

“I gotta piss,” was the first thing I said.

“Here, hold on,” she said, and went somewhere else in the room. I looked around to see what I could see, and realized that we were in our motel room home. Although the bed that I was laying on was a recent addition, just a simple single-wide mattress on the floor. Delilah returned with another bottle. “Go in here,” she said, and grabbed my cock and guided it into the bottle. I’d pissed in enough of them that it was easy enough.

It felt like a long piss.

When I was done, she went to the window, opened it up, and emptied it. Then she washed it out and set it aside and came back over to me.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, sitting down on the floor next to me.

“Tired. In pain. Out of it. What exactly happened?” I asked.

“What do you remember?” she replied.

“I remember the attack. I remember getting shot. I remember rushing the building and helping you get that guy out of there. Going back in, finding no one, then passing out after I got back out...was I right? There was no one left in there, right?”

“You were right,” she said, reaching out and running her fingers through my hair. “We checked after the fire was done. Everyone got out. What about after?”

I sighed. “I’m getting some hazy memories between then and now. I remember being carried, you and Melanie at one point, I remember...God, thinking I was burning alive…”

“You had a fever. An infection. Okay, let me just tell you what happened. It’s been five days.”

“Holy shit, are you serious?”

“Well, closer to four right now. It’s dawn of the fifth day after the attack. Mel and I worked to stabilize you. We had to do a direct blood transfusion at one point. Thankfully I’m a universal donor. We got you stabilized, but then you developed an infection the next day. You got a fever. During the third day, it got really bad. Your temp was up to one hundred and six. You were roasting alive, hallucinating I think for some of it. We hit you with snow just to get it down so your brain didn’t cook. Mel was really, really worried you weren’t going to make it. But finally the fever went away, your infection is mostly gone now. After that, we moved you in here and got you set up. Me and Megan and Lindsay and Elizabeth have been taking care of you. Melanie and Lisa have been coming by and checking on you multiple times a day.”

“...shit,” I muttered after hearing all that.

“What you did was...really stupid and brave.”

“How many died in the attack?” I asked.

“Two,” she replied. “It could have been a lot worse, but from what I’ve been able to piece together, your surprise attack on the first group, combined with your fucking bum-rush psycho attack on the second group ended it a lot quicker. You saved a lot of people, Chris.”

“Was that all of them?” I asked.

“We’re almost sure it was. We counted thirteen corpses in total, all of them wearing leather, several of the townspeople recognized them from the first attack. If there are any left, there can’t be more than one or two of them, and surely they’ve run off since then. But regardless, Lisa’s been going hard on making sure there’s a guard posted all the time. Megan’s been helping with that a lot.”

“Has anything else happened?”

“No, not really. We’ve all just been recovering, rebuilding.”

I stared at her for a moment. My brain still felt cloudy, my body in pain, though this was definitely the most coherent I remember being since rushing those assholes in the general store. “So...we did it?” I asked. “We’re actually...stable?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling. “We did it. We’re stable. For now. I mean, the biggest threats to our stability are done with.” She frowned. “Whether or not we’ll make it in the long run…”

“We’ll figure it out,” I murmured, settling back down. I yawned. “Shit, I’m so tired.”

“You’re still healing,” she replied. “You need your rest now that you’re finally out of the woods and on the mend. Speaking of which...would you like me to help you get back to sleep and administer some natural painkillers?” she asked with a smirk.

“I would like that very much.”

~

I slept through most of that day and the night.

Once word came around that I was up, a lot of people came to see me. Though Melanie hung around for most of the day to check on me, and scold me for what I’d done, and to make sure no one bugged me for too long.

By the time night was falling, I think damn near everyone from the town had at least popped in. Mostly I said ‘you’re welcome’ because they kept thanking me for saving them. I wasn’t sure if I had, but if I had then fine, so be it.

Megan, Elizabeth, Lindsay, Lisa, and Melanie all ended up either riding or sucking my dick at least once during that twenty-four hour period.

So that was really awesome.

That night, Megan slept in the single-wide with me, and it was a very wonderful sleep.

The next morning, I awoke more clear-headed and with a bit more energy. After pissing, I washed myself thoroughly. Well, Delilah helped me. I figured I’d gotten off lucky: the gunshot wound was from a twenty-two. I’d probably be largely inactive for at least another week, probably two, and it would take awhile for it to fully heal. Not something I was looking forward to, same with my shoulder, but all things considered I was fucking lucky. After washing, I dressed and headed back outside for the first time in nearly a week.

It was cold but the sun was out and the skies were clear.

Delilah and I walked over to the restaurant and grabbed some breakfast. More bear meat and veggies, which hey, I was still cool with.

We found Lisa sitting at a table alone, looking over some papers.

She looked up as we approached.

“Chris! Oh my God, you’re out of your room...hi,” she said.

I laughed softly, unable to help myself. It was rare to see her flustered. “Hi, Lisa. Can we join you?” I asked.

“Of course,” she replied. “How are you?”

We slid into the booth with her. “In pain, but through the worst of it, I think. How about you? How’s everything?”

“I’m fine,” she said. “You really saved our asses. Also, we managed to score some extra stuff from those pieces of shit. Besides the stuff they actually had on them, we finally tracked down where they had retreated to: the hunting lodge. I had Megan lead a team out there and I think they’re all dead, Chris. I think they had committed all their people to that last attack. They didn’t have a ton, but they did have a half-decent store of food and medicine. Also some booze and weed, so that’s been nice, helping people relax.”

“That’s good to hear. How about the food area in the forest? Is it still safe?”

“Yep. Stephen and Lena are overseeing that operation. We’re already in the process of trying to begin plans for a hydroponic garden. We had two before but they were lost in the fires.”

“How about people? Where are you at with your ledger?”

She sighed. “So far, all but six are accounted for, though ten of those ‘accounted’ for are bodies that have yet to be identified. We’ve begun setting up the graveyard. It’s ugly work, but it needs to be done.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Wish I could help.” I considered it. “Maybe-”

“No, Chris,” Lisa said firmly. “You’re not doing anything for at least a week. You’re going back to your room after you’ve done whatever it is you want to out here, and you are resting. Besides the fact that you’ve been shot...twice, you’ve earned a rest. You’ve really earned a rest. You played a significant role in saving this town and these people.”

“All right, all right,” I said. “I’m sure I’ll be getting an earful from Melanie if she sees me out and about.”

“Yes, you will. But…” She looked down at the table briefly and lowered her voice. “I’m sure you’ll be getting visits from both of us later.”

I laughed. “I hope so.”

At this point, they each knew that the other had slept with me.

Lisa was a little embarrassed, Melanie found it funny.

She grew more serious after a moment. “So...what are your plans?”

I frowned, considering that. I hadn’t even thought about it yet. “I...don’t know,” I admitted. “Regardless of what I want, I’m probably here for at least a month. But after I’m all healed up?” I sighed and shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I like it here but...I really like traveling, too. So I guess it’s a ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it’ kinda thing.”

“I understand,” she said. “Whatever you choose, you’ll always be welcome back here.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate that.”

We ended up chatting about lighter stuff while we ate breakfast. After awhile, Lisa said she had more work to do and excused herself.

“What are your plans?” I asked, looking at Delilah.

She seemed suddenly shy. “Well, to put it bluntly: I’m staying here. Lindsay and I have been talking a lot since everything finally settled down. We’re officially a couple now. Now, my policy still stands: I will sleep with you whenever you want. And Lindsay will too, actually. You made a big impression on her. But we want to live in a town. We don’t want to travel if we can help it. We’re...happy here.”

“Good,” I said. “I’m really glad. And I appreciate the offer. I’m definitely going to want to sleep with both of you a hell of a lot more.”

She laughed. “I figured.”

I looked to the kitchen. “Where’s Elizabeth? Is she here?”

“Yeah. She left just before you woke up. I think she’s in the back. I guess you’ll want to talk with her and Megan, huh?”

“I should,” I replied.

“Good luck. I’m going to go find Lindsay and see if she needs any help.”

As we both stood up, I sighed suddenly.

“What?” Delilah asked.

“I never found her third cat,” I replied.

“Oh! She showed up a few days ago. All three of her cats are back! She ended up letting a few families hold onto the cats for now, given we’re so busy.”

“Thank God,” I muttered. “That’s done at least. All right, I’ll see you later.”

We embraced and kissed, and I tracked down Elizabeth. She was indeed in the back, cleaning up from making breakfast. When she saw me, we headed into the break room and sat down next to each other.

“Are you doing okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” I replied. “So I’ve pretty much been caught up on everything, and I was talking with Lisa and Delilah, and basically the question of ‘what next’ came up. So...what are your plans for the future?” I asked.

“I’m staying here,” she replied. “I mean, I don’t have anywhere else I really want to go, and I’m quite pregnant,” she added, smiling as she looked down at her belly. “And I know Delilah and Lindsay are staying, and they want me to stay with them. They’re both really excited to be aunts and to help take care of a newborn and to be honest, I don’t have other people in my life who are willing to do that, let alone be excited about it, and I’m scared enough as it is. So I’m going to move in with them and get settled and...well, probably end up in a three-way relationship with them. I’ve slept with both of them at this point and they’re both very open.”

“That’s good to hear. And it makes sense. I kinda figured you’d stick around.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be here for at least a month,” I replied. “After that? I honestly don’t know. But I at least wanted to let you know. There’s a decent chance I might take off at some point in the near future, but I might also end up liking this place enough to stick around? Shit. I don’t know. There’s a part of me that loves the idea of just settling down here. Between you and Megan and Delilah and Lindsay...you’re all so great and such amazing women. But...I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll go crazy trying to stay here because I want to leave.”

“Do what makes sense to you, Chris,” Elizabeth replied, taking my hand. “That’s something I’ve learned the hard way. Obviously I’d love to have you. You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met and if you’d let me, I’d marry you.”

I blinked, staring at her in something like surprise.

She smiled and blushed a little, but didn’t look away. “Sorry if that scares you, but it’s the truth.”

“Not scares so much as...surprises. I…”

“Don’t worry, I’m not proposing. I’m not even sure if I believe in marriage anymore. But I would spend years and decades with you, if you’d let me. You’re the catch of a lifetime, that much is obvious to me. But I don’t want to try and tie you down if you’ll just be miserable.”

I sighed again. “I’ll have to figure it out,” was all I ended up saying.

She nodded. “Whatever you choose, I’ll be here for you.”

“I appreciate it.”

I gave her a long hug and kiss, and then went to find Megan.

~

Megan, it turned out, was atop the apartment building.

I hate that I got winded climbing the stairs once I spotted her, and even had to take a break at one point, but man my leg was fucking killing me by then and it became clearer than every that those five days and the infection had taken a serious toll on me.

After this, I was going back to bed.

When I came out onto the roof, Megan looked back, surprised, and then a look of anger flashed across her face. “Chris! Why the fuck are you up here!? Shit man, you can’t be walking up three flights of stairs!”

“Well I know that now,” I replied, and groaned as I sat down in a chair that had been put up there. I looked around, but it seemed like we were alone. “I saw you up here and I wanted to come talk with you.”

She sighed, shook her head, and sat down beside me. “How are you?”

I told her the same thing I’d told the other women, and then asked her the question I’d asked Delilah and Elizabeth.

She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she frowned and looked out at the sky for several long moments.

“I want to apologize,” she said, finally looking back at me.

“For what?” I replied, genuinely confused.

“The first week or so we were together, I treated you like shit. And you’ve been nothing but good to me from the beginning.”

“It wasn’t like you had no reason,” I said. “You’d just been kidnapped and literally tied up in a fucking shed, only to be passed off to some guy who looks like me. Of course you were going to have trust issues.”

“I know. But I still feel bad. It was just-it was hard to tell whether you were putting up a front or not. I mean, obviously you weren’t, but I guess it took me too long to figure that out. And I still feel bad for treating you so bad. So I’m sorry.”

“I accept your apology,” I replied. Honestly, I didn’t really think she needed to apologize, but I also knew that apologies were as much for them as they were for you.

She looked relieved. “As for my plans? I’m torn. On the one hand, I really like it here. I’m useful here. People like me. People trust me. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about that, but I feel great. I love it. On the other hand...I really, really like you, Chris. And I know you have your thing about wanting to wander. And there’s a part of me that finds that at least a little appealing, but mostly I just want to be around you. If you left, and you asked me to go...I might say yes. It’s just...it’s really hard to tell right now what I like more: having a life here or having a life with you.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “I...damn that sucks. I don’t want to have to make you choose. But…”

“But you’ll have to choose, eventually,” she said.

I nodded. “Yeah.” I groaned. “I’ve got every reason to stay here. And honestly, right now? Right now I don’t want to go anywhere. But that’s probably just because I’m in pain and the idea of walking more than a dozen yards puts me in a cold sweat. But in a month? Two months? I don’t know. I can’t say if I’ll want to leave or not.” I was silent for a long time, thinking hard. “Maybe...I should actually try to fix that now. Maybe I should try to find some way of sticking around. I mean, you and Delilah and Elizabeth are such amazing women. I love being around you, spending time with you, talking with you, working with you...maybe there’s a way.”

“If there is, Chris, I’m positive you’ll find it,” she replied, regaining her smile.

I gave her a kiss, and then sat back in the chair, staring at the skyline.

The future was coming, and I viewed it with equal parts hope and fear.

A WARM PLACE 4 IS COMING IN APRIL 2021!

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ABOUT ME

I tend to write stories that blend adventure and sex, usually with a harem or polyamorous twist. I separate myself from most other authors in this genre by rejecting typical ‘alpha male’ type protagonists, and creating more realistic protagonists. I tend to emphasize things like trust, respect, vulnerability, and communication.

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