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Catch up on A Warm Place!

A WARM PLACE – PRELUDE

A WARM PLACE

A WARM PLACE 2

A WARM PLACE 3

A WARM PLACE 4

A WARM PLACE 5

A WARM PLACE 6

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

EPILOGUE

OTHER TITLES

ABOUT ME

ONE

“What’s wrong with Megan, and where is she?” I asked, staring down into Delilah’s intensely blue eyes. I tried to force control over myself, but fear was already beginning to flood me. From the worried look in Delilah’s eyes, that fear was threatening to turn into panic.

“We don’t know anything for sure,” Delilah replied quickly, and she must have seen the terror she had cast onto me because she made a visible effort to collect herself and calm down. “She went with a team, away from the town, to track-” she hesitated and looked around, sudden aware of her surroundings, “-something. They’ve been gone too long.”

I relaxed slightly. Okay, so, she wasn’t presently dying or being held hostage.

Well, at least as far as they knew. Missing was almost as bad, though, but I knew Megan. She’d been tough when we had first met, and I’d seen her skills and tenacity sharpen and harden over the months we’d spent together.

Wherever she was, I figured there was a good chance she could handle it.

The fear came back into Delilah’s eyes. “Chris, Pine Lake got hit by one of those storms. One of the really, really bad ones we ran into on the highway.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, the fear coming right back. I hesitated, looked from her to the others, who had gathered in a loose knot nearby, looking uncertain and uncomfortable. My gaze shifted to Lindsay, who was approaching. I nodded quickly to her and she smiled nervously and nodded back. I needed a minute to think and get the details. I looked around, but there wasn’t any obviously good place in the room around us. “Um,” I looked at the others, “grab a seat and get your strength back. We might need to leave again. I have to figure this out. I’ll be back inside in a minute, okay?”

They all looked nervous, but Lara, surprisingly, appeared the calmest, and she seemed to step up and take charge. “We’ll be here, Chris. Go figure it out.”

“Thanks,” I said, then took Delilah’s hand and led her out the front door.

I guess it made enough sense. Although Lara wasn’t the best at dangerous survival situations, she’d no doubt navigated hundreds of socially awkward or uncomfortable or intense moments. The cold hit me as we stepped back outside. I looked around and saw no one in the fading twilight. There was a barrel near the front entrance that was alive with flames, left there for people to step out and catch some air and probably also as a beacon for travelers.

“Okay, Delilah, tell me everything you know,” I said.

She nodded and made another effort to compose herself. “We’ve had a run of really, really shitty luck. It started with a pair of hunting accidents about a month ago. A hunting team was mauled by a pack of wolves. No one died, but three of our best hunters were down for awhile with bad injuries, and two got an infection. A few days later, another hunter fell and broke his leg. The storm came just a few days after that. Since me and Elizabeth and Megan knew what to look for, we managed to warn Lisa, and we managed to get everyone into reinforced buildings and gather up supplies. Unfortunately, the storm was really bad, worse than the last one. It lasted for almost two days and I think it got colder. The people managed to survive, but it killed just about all the animals and all the plants for several miles around the town.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, the implications building in my brain. That would be a good way to kill the whole settlement. “But what about-”

“The hydroponic garden we were setting up around the time you left? It was ruined. The cold killed most of the seeds we had stored and we didn’t get a chance to properly reinforce the hydroponic building. Most of the equipment we’d found or cobbled together broke. They said it got too cold and snapped or cracked. Whatever happened, it’s gone now.”

“And the food stores?” I asked, the fear digging its frigid claws deeper into my guts.

She looked crestfallen. “The building they were in collapsed. We managed to salvage some of it, but a lot of it was lost in the rubble.”

“Holy fucking shit,” I muttered, turning away briefly, staring at the setting sun. Whatever I decided, I knew we had to make at least some more progress towards Pine Lake tonight. I looked back at Delilah. “Then what happened?”

“We spent a few days hunting and foraging, but that was when the full implication of what had happened really sunk in. Megan led a team to check out a big house that someone had seen while out exploring. It was about eight miles away and even out to there the storm had hit. She was searching the house and they came across a dead guy, and he had a map on him, with stuff written on the back. I don’t know all of it, we didn’t have much time to take with all that was happening, but basically it was supposed to lead to a bunker full of supplies. The guy had been on his way to it when he died in his sleep or something, I don’t know. But Megan left about two weeks ago with Melanie and a few others to track it down,” Delilah explained.

“And they never came back?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. There were more storms, a lot more storms, but more normal ones, after they left, so Lisa thinks that might’ve slowed them down, but she’s...she’s really nervous, Chris. I am too, we all are. It’s really bad. I think she’s really desperate. When I reminded her that you probably would be back sometime soon, she ended up asking me and Lindsay to go here and wait for you, or see if maybe we could find you some other way.”

“How’d she know I was here?” I asked. “Or that I’d been here?”

“Some traders visited a week after you left and mentioned this place and you,” Delilah replied.

That made sense. Jesus fucking Christ, this was bad.

I felt all sorts of awful emotions rolling around in my guts, but mostly I felt guilt, and shame. I’d gone out to fucking ‘find myself’ and Pine Lake had been brought to the brink of extinction while I’d been off fucking around with Hannah and the others.

“Oh, Chris, I missed you so much,” Delilah said suddenly, and hugged me again.

I hugged her back, holding her tightly against me. “I missed you too, Delilah. Fuck, I missed you so much...how’s Elizabeth?” I asked.

“She’s doing okay. There weren’t any big problems or anything. Me and Lindsay have been hanging out with her a lot, especially since Megan left. She misses you too. So much.”

“God, I’ve missed you all a lot. More than I’ve ever missed anyone.”

She pulled back suddenly and looked up at me. “Did you...figure it all out? Are you going to stay with us?” she asked.

The question, the way she asked it, and the look on her face might have been the most vulnerable I had ever seen Delilah, and it threw me off a lot. She was always so confident and sure of herself, it was unreal.

“Yes,” I said, “I figured it out and I’m staying with you. I’m not leaving.”

The relief on her face was like the sun breaking through the clouds. She smiled broadly and kissed me on the mouth, holding me to her again.

“What are we going to do?” she asked as she pulled back once more.

“Um...if I remember right, there’s a house about a mile down the road, right? You can see it from the highway?”

“Uh...yeah. Yes. I remember that. We saw it as we came in.”

“Did it look like anyone was there?”

“No.”

“Okay, good. I want go there. But first, I want to get all the food this place is willing to trade to us. Tell me you brought stuff to trade,” I replied.

She nodded. “Yeah, I did. Lisa loaded Lindsay and I up with stuff to trade for food in case we ran into anyone.” She paused, and then a familiar small smile came onto her face. “Chris, was that four super attractive women I saw following you?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Are you fucking them-”

“Yes.”

“How-”

“I’ll catch you up to speed later,” I replied. “We have to move now.”

My expression and tone seemed to sober her, bring her back to the moment, and she nodded. It was interesting seeing her like this. When we’d first met, Delilah had been very casual and laid back, and due to the nature of our original arrangement, pretty much happy to let me solve problems and run her life. That had changed slowly over the months that we’d known each other. She’d found a niche for herself and had settled nicely into it, though from what I’d seen, she’d largely seemed to switch to letting Lindsay make bigger decisions for them. Or me, depending on what was up. Now it seemed like she was the one stepping up.

We got back inside and I quickly scanned the interior of the inn’s main room. I saw my people sitting around the largest table off in one corner, talking quietly to each other. I saw Brandy, the woman with the facial scar I’d first hooked up with on my way out of Pine Lake, behind the bar, looking at me surreptitiously, no doubt curious about what the hell was going on. Two others were deeper in the room, also behind the bar, talking quietly. I vaguely recognized them as being part of the group that ran the place. There was another pair of people sitting at a table, seemingly trying to mind their business. Okay, so, two groups to trade with.

I walked with Delilah over to my group.

“What’s going on?” Hannah asked.

“Things are bad. The town’s in trouble. Right now, what that means is we’ve got another mile to cover and quickly, but before that, we need to trade for as much food as we can. Get all of our extra trading shit out on the table. Delilah, Lindsay, will you go to those other two and see if they have any food they’re willing to trade?” I asked.

“Yeah, we’ll get on it,” Delilah said. Lindsay got up and joined her, heading over to the unfamiliar pair.

I began to turn towards Brandy, prepared to ask for whatever food she was willing to give me, but then hesitated. I turned back. “Everyone, I’m really sorry to be short like this and just dump this all in your lap, but it’s an emergency. I’ll bring you up to speed once we’re at the house.”

“It’s okay, Chris,” Jessica said, “we get it. Go do what needs doing.”

I looked around and the expressions on Susan, Lara, and Hannah’s faces told me they seemed in agreement.

“Thank you,” I replied, and headed off to the counter.

That was one thing off my mind, at least. This situation was stressful enough as it was. Like the fact that I was going to have to ask Brandy for help. I genuinely didn’t know how it would go, or, fuck, if she even remembered me. I didn’t get the impression that she was a jerk from our brief time together, but I did get the impression that she was a hardass and might think I was trying to fuck her over with a sob story that I thought she was more likely to believe just because we’d fucked. That tended to piss people off.

“Brandy,” I said as I approached. “Uh…” I thought about how best to approach this, felt the press of time, and decided fuck it. “You remember me, right?”

She stared at me with a mostly flat expression for a few seconds, then grinned. “Yeah, Chris. I remember. After that night, I’m not going to forget you anytime soon.”

Well, off to a good start, at least. “Same, honestly,” I replied. “Uh, I need to trade. For food.”

“What’s going on, exactly?” she asked. I hesitated further because my thoughts were starting to get jammed up in my head. “Just tell it to me straight,” she added.

“The town I’m from got hit by a brutal storm that wiped out our food stores and killed off almost all the plants and animals. We’re fucked for food, I’m just finding out right now, and I have to grab as much food as I can and get back there pronto.”

“Shit, I remember that storm,” she replied. “Although I don’t think we got the worst of it. It wasn’t that bad out here. But yes, Chris, I’ll help you out. We’ve got some food to trade. Lemme bring it over to your table and we can figure it out.”

“Thank you, Brandy,” I replied. “I really appreciate it. Literally everything you’d be willing to spare.”

She nodded and went to talk with the others.

I rejoined my group and then took off my pack and started pulling out all the extra stuff I’d been gathering over the past few months that had potential trade value. Mostly it was jewelry, whatever was leftover of the weed, booze, and cigarettes I’d managed to come across, as well as that bottle of pain meds I’d found way back when I’d first moved in with Lara and Susan. Susan had talked up taking them, but she’d only had a few, and as much as I wanted to hang onto them, I knew they were powerful trading items.

By the time Brandy came over with two others, each carrying a plastic bin full of food, the table was scattered with an assortment of odds and ends. Rings and old batteries and cash (some people still valued it), drugs and office supplies and some paperback novels. We only haggled for a few minutes, and it went like how I hoped it would.

Brandy and her people took everything off the table. At first glance it might seem like a lot, but if this was a real negotiation, I knew she’d be holding out for something bigger and better, like guns and ammo. Or medical supplies. Fire-starting materials. Rare stuff. That she didn’t meant she really was giving us a good deal, especially given the amount of food she was offering. Between the bins, there were almost thirty assorted cans of food, a dozen jars full of pickles and peppers and seasonings and other foodstuffs, and probably about fifty pounds of meat either wrapped in wax paper or sealed in plastic containers.

It was a pain in the ass, but we managed to get it all stuffed away into our backpacks, as well as Lindsay’s and Delilah’s packs, when they came back. They reported that they managed to do some trading, but the two travelers just didn’t have as much to work with, so we put the leftover food into their backpacks.

“All right, is there anything else that needs doing here that anyone can think of?” I asked as I got my now overstuffed pack onto my back. No one had an answer for me and after a moment of consideration, I couldn’t think of anything else. The daylight was fading fast. Even as it was, I doubted we’d actually make it there before dark, but we had to try. Another mile traveled today probably meant we could make it back to Pine Lake by tomorrow night. “Okay, head outside and wait for me by the fire barrel. I’ll be out in a minute.”

They all nodded and headed outside. I moved over to Brandy. “Thank you, seriously. And I’m really sorry I can’t spend the night. Last time you said-” I hesitated, and couldn’t help but grin, “...well, I’m sure you remember.”

“Oh yeah, I remember,” Brandy replied with a grin of her own. “I remember everything about that night, Chris. You’re not as sorry as I am that you aren’t sticking around. And I don’t mind helping you. Listen, if I come across any traders, I’ll send them your way and tell them you need food. And the hunting isn’t too bad around here, from what we’ve experienced. We can’t feed a whole town, but I wouldn’t be against you sending some people up here and using this place to sleep for a hunting expedition, and also for trade, as we always try to keep a lot more than we need, as you can tell from the trade.”

“Thank you for the offer, I’ll definitely mention it to my people.”

I started to turn away but Brandy reached out across the bar and gripped my wrist. “Hey, not so fast. Give me a kiss before you go, I want something before you wander off with half a dozen attractive women.”

I laughed awkwardly, looking back at her. God, she was so wicked hot. When we’d slept together, I could tell that, although she tried to hide it, she was somewhat self-conscious about the big, obvious scar she had down one cheek, but I’d done my best to convince her I thought it looked good. And I did. She was one of the most uniquely attractive women I’d seen in a long time. I leaned across the bar and she grabbed my coat, pulled me closer, and kissed me on the lips for a long, wonderful moment. Then she let go of me.

“Come back sometime,” she said.

“I will,” I promised.

And then I headed back out into the cold, back to my life and my now desperate responsibilities.

TWO

“So, Chris...want to tell me about the four model-level attractive women that are following you?” Delilah asked.

I glanced at her. We were walking side-by-side, leading the others down the road. My own group, and Lindsay, seemed to pick up on the fact that Delilah and I needed some more time to talk, and seemed amenable to it given we’d been apart for months now. I was considering grilling Delilah for more information, but it occurred to me that she’d told me everything relevant. It also occurred to me that regardless of what happened, there was absolutely no way I was making it to Pine Lake tonight. And as fraught with horror and guilt as I was, I had to at least try to keep my mind occupied. And it was good to see Delilah.

So good. I really had missed her tremendously.

“The tall brunette and the little goth chick are, respectively, Lara and Susan. I met them first. About a month after I left, I was in some woods a ways north of here, and I came across Lara being chased by a wolf. Saved her life. She...kind of instantly fell for me, and she was living with Susan nearby. They’ve been best friends forever. Susan was extremely distrusting of me. So...it was a lot like when you and me and Megan all first met.”

“Sounds like it. How long before you fucked them?”

“Lara and I fucked immediately. She basically threw herself at me and we fucked like crazy. Susan took a few more days, and it was tenuous, but we hooked up and…”

“And now they’re both with you, right? Like they’re your girlfriends. I don’t even need to ask, I can see it already.” I began to respond but she interrupted me. “Wait, wait. One thing I have to know first: is Lara down to fuck? Honestly, I can live with not sleeping with the others if they aren’t, but I will fucking die if I can’t have Lara.”

I laughed. “Yes, she is. Honestly, the only one who isn’t down to fuck is Hannah.”

“You told Lara all about me, didn’t you?”

“I did. You two are a lot alike. She’s like you but ten years older.”

“And hotter. I mean, I get it, I’m really hot. But Lara is something else. She’s a fucking goddess, and her tits look huge! Are they?”

“They are. They’re fucking massive. And they’re real. We are having a lot of threesomes,” I replied.

“Oh thank God. Now, the other two...they look related. Are they sisters?” she asked.

“No.”

“They’re not related?”

“Yes, they are.”

“But they aren’t siblings?”

“No.”

“Are they...Hannah’s the younger one. And you said the older woman is J something...Jessica. God, that’s a sexy name. Wait, is Jessica her mom?” she asked.

“Yes,” I replied, a little awkwardly.

Delilah stared at me as she walked, and her eyes widened suddenly. “Chris!” she gasped. “You didn’t. You’re fucking both of them, aren’t you?!” she whispered harshly.

“Yes. I did, and I am. And I’m going to tell you this now: they are each aware that I’m sleeping with the other, and they’re working on figuring out how to deal with it, and they would appreciate it if you wouldn’t talk about it. Okay?”

“Okay, okay, fair enough. I can be discreet if I have to.” I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “I can!” she added indignantly, glaring briefly at me.

“All right,” I replied.

Delilah sighed. “How did you manage it? I mean guys talk about that fantasy all the time but I’ve never actually seen it…”

“It’s a long story,” I replied. As I considered where I should begin there, considering my relationship with Jessica actually began with me helping her cheat on her husband, I suddenly didn’t feel like making a decision one way or another and instead shifted topics. “Tell me about what you’ve been up to since I’ve been gone. How are things going with Lindsay?”

“Good,” Delilah replied. She was silent for a few seconds, then glanced back briefly over her shoulder. I joined her. Lara and Lindsay were talking, with Susan chiming in occasionally. They seemed to be happy. Jessica and Hannah were a little farther back, also talking. I focused on them for a second, wondering if the conversation was dire, but they both seemed, if not happy, at least neutral. That was good, at least.

“I don’t know if I ever fully told you this, but I was nervous. In the beginning. She’s my best friend, and then we were apart for years, and then she changed while we were apart. I mean, for the better, honestly. She’s more confident now. But I didn’t know if it’d actually work between us. And then there was you…”

“What about me?” I asked.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to come out like that. Just...I know I kind of played off how our relationship was in the beginning. That it was casual, and I mean, I know we’ve cemented it since then.” She paused. “Sorry, I’m stumbling. My point is: Lindsay didn’t quite realize how serious I was about you, in the beginning. You made her nervous. I mean you’re an amazing catch. Eventually, I got through to her that you aren’t competition. So it’s going well now. I mean, right now it’s kind of strained, but that’s just because our lives are strained. Speaking of that, will you be able to have a threesome with us tonight?”

“Yes,” I replied, “I will definitely be able to do that.”

“Okay good, I wasn’t sure if you’d maybe been neglecting one of your four new girlfriends and they had dibs on you for the night.”

“I’m not neglecting anyone.”

“I know, I was just teasing. You gotta admit, though, it must be tough to balance everyone. I mean God, first it was just three of us, now seven? I don’t quite know how you plan to do it.”

“I’ll figure it out,” I replied. “Uh, speaking of seriousness and us…”

“Yeah?” she prodded, glancing over and up at me, curiosity clear in her gaze.

“So, I had a serious conversation with Lara, and...it made me realize something. Something really important.”

“Which is?”

“I love you.”

I expected a look of surprise or uncertainty or maybe even anxiety, or fear, but none of that happened. Delilah just smiled. “I know,” she replied.

“You do?”

“Yeah, Chris, obviously you love me. And I love you.” She paused. “You didn’t...know you loved me?”

“I…” I stumbled mentally for a moment. This wasn’t entirely what I had expected. “I have trouble with that phrase, Delilah. I’ve been broken up with over the word love. Twice. So I’d just made myself stop thinking about it, especially considering all of my relationships ended after, at most, a month. Usually after a week. So...I guess in a way, I knew. I mean, once I was confronted with it, and realized it, it occurred to me immediately that I love you, and Megan, and Elizabeth. But I’d never...communicated that to any of you.”

“You communicated it to me plenty,” Delilah replied. “All the nice things you did for me, said to me, how good you made me feel. How you listened to me and respected me. And you did that for Megan and Elizabeth, too. But...hmm, okay, I can see it. I guess I just thought it was obvious. That you just didn’t communicate it with those words, but I guess I missed that. I forgot how big of a deal it could be for some people.” She hesitated. “You never told Megan directly that you love her? Or Elizabeth?”

“No,” I murmured.

“Oh. I mean...I’m sure they know,” Delilah said, but now she seemed less certain.

“Great,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry, Chris. I didn’t mean to...ugh, I seriously forgot what a big deal that word could be. But, I mean, Chris, I’m sure they know. Okay? I mean, you’ll be able to see Elizabeth tomorrow and tell her yourself. And I’m sure Megan’s okay. And when you find her, you can tell her.”

“What if she freaks out? What if she has baggage related to that word? What if it makes her panic and break up with me?...what if she’s already decided to?”

“Chris, oh my God, she’s not going to break up with you. How could you think that?”

“Delilah, you were just asking me if I was actually going to stay.”

Delilah sighed. “Yeah, but it’s not the same thing. I love you, and so does Elizabeth, but we both know that if it really came down to it, we would choose to stay in Pine Lake. If it was you or a stable life. Because that’s just...who we are. But not Megan. You are more important to her than anything else. She would follow you anywhere, Chris, if you asked her to. It was so hard for her when you left. But she understood why you did it. Just trust me Chris, she thinks you’re the greatest person on Earth. You two are perfect for each other.”

I considered a few responses, feeling my own insecurities bubbling up, and decided now really wasn’t the time to dwell on this shit. “Yeah, I guess so,” I replied finally. “I miss her. I really hope she’s okay.”

“I’m sure she’s fine...I’m sorry I freaked you out earlier. I was really freaked out myself, and I saw you and I just...you make everything better, Chris. After all the shit we went through, the way you saved my life, twice, and then rescued Elizabeth, and then helped put an entire fucking town back together...I just saw you and I knew you would fix this problem, and I’ve missed her too, so much. I’m so worried about her, but I’ve been worried about everything.”

“We’ll figure the problem out,” I said, but I didn’t feel as confident as I hoped I sounded. Because this seemed bad. I was hoping that maybe Delilah was overplaying it, that Lisa would have better news for me- “How’s Lisa?” I asked suddenly.

“Stressed, angry, anxious. She misses you, she’s pissed that you left, but she knows it isn’t your fault or anything.”

“God, I feel so fucking shitty about leaving now-”

“Chris, don’t. You couldn’t have known. There was literally no way. You’ve done more than enough for us, for everyone, so it’s not like you abandoned us. I could tell how bad it was for you, the weeks before you left. You did so much for us, I was honestly glad when you had the chance to go. I figured it would make you happy, and I had hoped you’d find the answer out here. And you did. And also four attractive girlfriends. Which, by the way, we had a bet going, and we all lost.”

“A bet?” I asked.

“Yeah. Megan and Elizabeth were talking about who you’d bring back, because after they heard me say that I fully expected you to come back with another girlfriend, they got to talking about it. Elizabeth thought you’d bring back one girl, and Megan said you’d probably find a hot bisexual couple. I decided to go all out and kind of joked you’d bring back three women, and you fucking brought back four, Chris. How!? Also, let me just say again, Lara is beautiful.”

“She was an actress in California before the snow,” I said.

“I believe it.”

“Also, Jessica was a model.”

“I also believe that. You and your fucking redheads…”

“We’re almost there,” I said suddenly, pulling my pistol out.

“Here we go,” Delilah murmured.

We came to a stop at the head of a small side road that led into some private property where a house resided. The sun was gone now, and thankfully the moon was out and there weren’t many clouds in the sky. There was enough light to see by and the house seemed vacant. No firelight flickering in the windows, no smoke curling from the chimney. I couldn’t see any footprints in the snow. I studied the house for a bit longer, then looked at the others.

“Everyone wait here, I’m going to check the perimeter. Yell if you see anything,” I said.

Then I was off, forcing awareness and focus into my brain. I was distracted. Upset, anxious, guilty. Horny, honestly. Seeing Delilah and Lindsay was reminding me of how fucking awesome it was to have a threesome with them, and that wasn’t even counting all the sexual possibilities my brain was creating now that I had actually seen Delilah and Lindsay interacting with or just standing next to Jessica, Lara, and Susan.

But something I’d learned early on into this frozen apocalypse was not to lose your patience. Losing your patience, and your focus, was a quick path to an icy grave. It had been a pain in the ass, and it still could be, but I’d learned how to put everything aside and focus on the here and now. Because right here and right now, I needed to be absolutely sure that this house was empty and secure, or one or more of us could fucking die. I couldn’t put off my issues indefinitely, because I wasn’t a sociopath, but I could at least push them aside for now.

I made tracks around the outside of the house, taking it slow, looking into the area beyond the house and through the windows. There didn’t seem to be any evidence of occupation accumulating, but I remained vigilant all the way around the house. By the time I reached the front door again, there was nothing.

Waving to the others, I hung out by the front door while they approached. I tried the knob, pistol still in hand, and found it locked. Well, could be a good thing. Maybe that was what kept people from getting in. It sounded stupid, but you’d be surprised how much stuff was leftover from the past, how many things we had ingrained in us that hung around. Though two of the windows had been broken and boarded over, the place still seemed largely intact. As the women approached, I knocked on the door, waited, listened.

Nothing. The place was as quiet as a tomb.

“All right, Hannah, we’re going in. Cover my back,” I said.

“Got it,” she replied, her own pistol out already.

I spent a moment trying to just force the door open by leaning into it, sometimes that worked and I’d like to keep the door as intact as I could, but it wouldn’t budge. After that, I pulled out my knife and started working it between the edge of the door and the frame. It depended on the door, and it was easier with a credit card or ID card or something like that, but I no longer had any of those on me, but sometimes you could-

“Gotcha,” I muttered as the door popped open. The deadbolt hadn’t been engaged, just the handle, and if you could get the latch pushed into its niche, that was basically the same function as unlocking it.

Slipping the knife back into its sheath and pulling my pistol back out, I opened the door and looked around. An open living room awaited beyond, to the left. The door opened into a wall to the right, which had another opening further into it. The living room was mostly empty, just a small end table and the remains of a couch and a long-dead fireplace. I got my flashlight out, as the moonlight wasn’t strong enough in the house to see by, and flicked it on.

From there, Hannah and I slipped inside and got to searching. The house wasn’t especially large, though it was bigger than several of the smaller homes I tended to find out here. We cleared three bedrooms, a kitchen, the living room, and a pair of bathrooms. I had hoped the locked front door indicated a more untouched house, but I knew it was extremely unlikely given the location. Now that I thought about, I bet Brandy’s people had been here more than once and might even have found the key, or gone in the way I had, and locked it to try and discourage people. Maybe they were planning on expanding here at some point.

Whatever the case, there were still three beds and enough pillows left around for us to use. As we got settled into the house, it again occurred to me how much I liked traveling in a group now. There was so much to be done when you woke up or went to sleep, winding down or waking up the ‘household’, wherever the household was, and if you were alone, it could take awhile. Starting a fire, finding firewood, preparing food, washing clothes, melting snow, securing the perimeter, prepping a bed, and that didn’t even cover the stuff that might need to be done otherwise like cleaning a gun or repairing an article of clothing or treating a wound. Let alone trying to find time for something that was actually more enjoyable, like reading.

Having just a single other person around could considerably ease that burden, but six other people? It was almost a vacation.

And it would have been if I didn’t have the looming specter of anxiety and guilt following me around everywhere I went.

Once the house was actually secure and locked down, it was much harder to keep those feelings away from my awareness.

It was a bit easier while there was still things to do. Delilah and I searched the house over carefully while Jessica and Lara prepared dinner, Susan and Lindsay gathered firewood, and Hannah made sure everything was secure. We didn’t talk much, but it was a very pleasant silence, the kind I liked enjoying with the women in my life. We hunted through each room slowly, carefully, occasionally pausing to ask a question, touching each other in passing, sometimes sharing a kiss. Just being around Delilah really drove home how much I’d truly missed her.

I could imagine what it would be like with Megan and Elizabeth, or even Lisa and Melanie. Although we weren’t as close, or weren’t quite close in the same way, (both women, for her own reasons and in her own way, had kept a bit of a barrier between us, even after a few months of intimacy), I still missed them a lot.

“Chris,” Delilah said as we finished searching the final room, the master bedroom, where me and Lindsay and Delilah would, hopefully, be staying for the night. Still had to work that out.

“Yeah?” I asked, turning towards her.

Delilah was looking at me with an unusual intensity. She looked...worried. And empathetic. “Don’t blame yourself for the way things turned out. I know you’re really upset about all this, and it’s upsetting, but I also know how you think by now.”

“Do you, huh?” I asked, unable to keep from smiling at least a little. I’d garnered that, for the most part, people did not like to be read.

Unless it was by someone you cared about, someone you wanted to know, and be known by, on an intimate level.

Then it was great. It meant they loved you, they were paying attention.

“Yeah. I know I probably won’t be able to talk you out of your bad feelings, and even the admittedly amazing sex that Lindsay and I will be having with you tonight will make you feel better, but I wanted to at least try...Chris, we got it. I’ve spent the past two months talking with Megan and Elizabeth, even with Lisa and Melanie and Lindsay, about why you left. Melanie and Lisa get it the most, Megan got it the least, but...by now, they understand. We all understand, and we don’t blame you. Figuring yourself out is important, and it’s a thing that needs to be done, and sometimes done again, because things change. And you couldn’t have known that this would happen. You can’t just put your life on hold because of what might happen, and we all understand that. So don’t think we’re mad at you for not being there when bad things happened.”

I looked at her for a long moment, and felt something shift inside me, almost like a loosening in my chest.

It felt...better.

It was tension, I realized. Tension I’d been holding onto since the second I’d learned that Megan was in trouble. And it wasn’t gone. It wasn’t going to be gone for awhile, probably not until things got back to normal and it was clear that Pine Lake was no longer in danger, but the weight had been lightened, the tension eased.

“Thanks,” I murmured. “I appreciate that.”

Delilah smiled and walked over to me, taking my hands in her smaller ones, looking up at me. “You had some trouble figuring out what love meant, and maybe you aren’t out of the woods quite yet, but at least try not to worry about how the others will respond. Megan and Elizabeth and I love you, Chris, and we already know that you love us. I think it’ll be important for Elizabeth and Megan to actually hear it from you, and to be able to say it back to you, but I very much doubt it will be a surprise for either of them. Now...come on, let’s eat dinner, and figure out how we’re going to tell your other girlfriends that you are mine for tonight.”

THREE

We all ended up around the fireplace in the open living room, mostly sitting on the floor. Lara and Susan sat on the couch after finding a pair of bricks to use as suitable replacements for two missing legs. They had put together a pair of pots worth of deer meat and vegetable stew. As we started eating, a sensation settled over me. It was like a blanket or settling into a hot bath after a long day: deeply comforting and relaxing.

It pushed away the awful anxieties of what had happened, and what was yet to come.

Being around the women, both those I’d met on my travels and those I’d left behind, was wonderful in a way I hadn’t felt for awhile. I didn’t say much, instead happy to listen first to Lara and Susan tell their story of how they’d gotten to this point in space and time, and then listening to Jessica and Hannah tell their own story.

That one was more uncomfortable, given the fact that I’d had to kill Jessica’s husband and Hannah’s father, but I was at least glad to see that both of them still seemed resolute in how they felt about it: a grim but necessary task.

By the time they wrapped up their own story, I was getting anxious to sleep.

“We should discuss sleeping arrangements,” I said.

“I saw a king, a queen, a single-wide bed,” Lara replied. “Now, I’m guessing that since they have been apart for so long, Delilah, Lindsay, and Chris would like to spend the night together, and seeing as they’re the guests of honor, I think they should get the king-size.”

“You guess correctly,” Delilah replied with a warm smile that hinted at something more. Though she was touching me, she was looking at Lara intently. Lara paused and looked back at her with an equally intent stare and a slightly raised eyebrow.

I knew they’d get along.

“Extrapolating from that, I think it makes the most sense that Susan, Jessica, and I take the queen, and Hannah takes the other bed,” she said, looking almost apologetically at Hannah.

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Hannah replied with a look of resignation.

Great. I was going to have to say something to her. Even if she understood the situation, it still probably didn’t feel too good.

“Works for me,” Susan said.

“Good. I want everyone asleep within the next hour if you can manage it. I’m going to aim for waking up before sunrise. I want us to hit the road as soon as possible. We have to make it to Pine Lake as quickly as we can, and I think, if the weather stays in our favor and we push ourselves and get an early start, we can almost surely make it there by sundown.” I hesitated and looked around, again realizing that I was very abruptly asking a lot of these four women who had basically just given up their previous lives and agreed to come with me. “I guess now’s the time to explain what the actual situation is…”

I spent the next ten minutes painting the whole bleak picture as I knew it, with Delilah and Lindsay chiming in occasionally to answer a question or add emphasis. By the time I was done talking, I felt about as nervous as they all looked.

“I’m sorry about this,” I said uncomfortably after a moment of silence passed. “I know this isn’t exactly what you signed up for when you agreed to follow me back to Pine Lake. Honestly I feel pretty blindsided by it, too. I thought everything was fine when I left…”

“Chris,” Susan said, staring intently at me, “I know we’ve had a rough ride, and a weird beginning, and we haven’t known each other that long...but Lara and I have thrown in with you. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to us. We trust you. We love you.” She paused briefly, glancing at Delilah, but Delilah just smiled her kind, pleasant smile, and Susan continued. “Part of love is helping, and understanding that life is going to be hard sometimes. I appreciate that you’re considering our feelings, but I don’t blame you for this. It just...is. It happened, now we’re dealing with it. Okay?” she asked.

I nodded. “Okay.” I looked at Lara, at Jessica and Hannah.

“That pretty much covers how I feel about it. I want to help, Chris,” Lara said.

Jessica nodded. “Yeah, same.”

I looked at Hannah. She looked a bit grim, but also determined. “Chris, being with you...everything that’s happened since the snowfall began...it’s taught me a lot. Here’s what I think: shit’s going to go wrong. Sometimes it will be your fault, sometimes it will be my fault, sometimes it will be nobody’s fault. But ultimately it doesn’t matter. We’ll handle it. Even if it means dealing with disaster, I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be.”

I honestly wasn’t sure what to say to that. They were all serious, I could tell that much. Why? Did they really love me that much? I didn’t think so. Maybe it was more that they loved what we had, all of us together…

It didn’t matter, I guess. The why didn’t fully matter at the moment.

What mattered was that we were together, and we were all going to help each other.

“Thank you,” I said. “I don’t know what else to say, just...thank you.”

“Thank you is enough,” Lara replied.

I yawned, and it seemed to break the intensity of the moment. I sighed quietly. “I guess we should start bunking down for the night.”

“We should. You three head off, we’ll get everything wound down,” Jessica said.

“You sure?” I asked as I got up.

“Yes. Go, Chris. They’ve been without you for long enough.”

“Yes, we have,” Delilah murmured as she and Lindsay got up. I felt a stirring of lust, like a strong undertow, rising swiftly, as I followed them towards what would be our bedroom, but hesitated. I glanced back, saw Hannah staring into the fireplace as the others began cleaning up the meal. “You two go on ahead, get the bed ready, I’ll be in in a minute,” I said.

“Don’t keep us waiting,” Delilah replied, and they slipped off towards our bedroom.

“Hannah,” I said, getting her attention. She twisted around to look at me and I nodded my head, indicating I wanted her to come over. She stood silently and joined me. I took her hand and led her into one of the side bedrooms, then mostly closed the door. “I’m sorry I can’t be with you tonight,” I said. I felt like the others would really understand, not just because they were older and more experienced, but also because they had each other.

Romantically speaking, Hannah only had me.

“It’s okay, Chris, I get it,” she replied, smiling a little ruefully.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I don’t like it, I know I can’t hide that from you, but I get it. They miss you. You miss them. It’s been months. Of course you should go be with them. They’re important to you. I need to start accepting that some nights I’ll just have to sleep alone. I want to be with you, and being with you is going to come with some caveats, and I accept that. I know you love me, and...I think we have something none of the others have. Except maybe Megan…”

“What’s that?” I asked, curious.

“None of them can keep up with you out there, in the wild. They can’t survive, hunt, kill, like you can. But me. I can do that. I know I still have a lot to learn, a lot of practice to build, but I can feel it, Chris. Holding a rifle, a bow and arrow, it just feels...natural. It feels good. I’m a huntress. And you love that about me. I see the way you look at me when we’re out hunting, after I make a great shot. It’s not the same with the others. And don’t worry, I don’t think I’m your number one girl or anything, I don’t think I’m better than everyone else, that you love me more than you love them...even I know that in a relationship like this, you don’t love any of us more, just differently. But this is special. We get to share it,” she explained.

“You’re right,” I said, and she was, I knew exactly what she meant. I did love that about her. It attracted me to her in a way that attracted me to none of the others, except Megan. Seeing them meet was going to be interesting. I hugged her and gave her a long kiss. “I love you, Hannah.”

“I love you, too. So much,” she replied. “Now go before they start without you. I can tell Delilah’s as much of a slut as Lara.”

“Wow, that’s...blatant,” I replied.

She laughed. “They’d both admit freely to it. It wasn’t an insult.”

“Yeah, that’s fair. Okay, goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Chris.”

I left her in the room and then shared kisses and hugs with each of the others, told them I loved them and wished them goodnight, and then I slipped into my bedroom for the night. I found Delilah and Lindsay completely nude, washing up quickly beside the bed.

I took a moment to admire them.

Lindsay looked different. She always stuck out among the women I hung around, not only because of her smooth olive skin, but mainly due to her height. At six feet, she was the tallest woman I knew. Her long, lean body looked a bit more toned than I remembered, her soft brown hair cut shorter. She smiled a little awkwardly when she noticed me staring at her.

“You miss me that much?” she asked as she washed up.

“Yeah,” I replied, and began taking my own clothes off.

“Well I missed you too. You’re a good roommate and, uh...sex friend.”

“Is that what you call it?” Delilah asked with a laugh.

“Yes,” Lindsay replied. “I think it fits.”

“Well, we are friends, and we do have sex,” I replied, now studying Delilah. She looked as gorgeous as ever. Maybe even more so, although that could just be our time apart. Slim, pale, at least half a foot shorter than Lindsay, her red hair was longer now and her tits, big as ever, looked just as fantastic.

“Your hair is shorter,” Delilah said suddenly as I finished taking everything off.

“Oh yeah,” I replied, reaching up and running my fingers through my hair. “I buzzed it when I met Lara. Honestly, I want to do it again. I think I will before I set out to track down Megan.” I felt a pang of misery at that.

She could be dying or freezing to death right now…

“Hurry up,” Delilah said, derailing my train of thought. One look at the sympathy on her face was enough to tell me it had been intentional.

She was right. I had to focus on here and now, because there was nothing I could do for Megan in this moment.

As soon as the two women finished running their soap and washrags over their bodies, they dried with a small towel and climbed into bed. I was quick to finish my own washing. It had been a long day filled with a lot of activity, and if they were going to put my dick in their mouths, which I hoped they would, then it only seemed fair to clean up. Both of them watched me impatiently as I finished up, and I quickly climbed onto the bed with them.

Laying down in the middle of the bed, the two women pressed themselves against me. I wrapped an arm around each and spent the next several minutes just enjoying them, kissing them, touching them. Kissing Delilah was like coming home. I lost myself for several moments there in their smooth, slim, warm bodies and their wonderful lips and tongues, in the way they embraced me. Lindsay was more reserved, but Delilah pretty much threw herself at me. Her hand soon found my erection and began massaging it.

I groaned as Lindsay cupped my balls in her hot, soft hand and started gently massaging them.

“I think he likes that,” Delilah murmured with a smile.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” I replied.

“Let me get to work,” Delilah said, and she slipped down and started dragging her tongue all across my head.

I groaned loudly, shivers of pleasure tearing into me immediately.

“Will your new girlfriends be jealous?” Lindsay murmured as I cupped one of her breasts and kissed her again.

“No,” I replied, then hesitated. “Maybe...Susan or Hannah might.”

“I hope they won’t be too much,” Delilah said, then slipped my dick into her mouth and took it all the way in, until she was gagging on it.

“Fuucck,” I groaned, panting. She started bobbing her head, her lips slipping up and down. “They’ll be fine,” I managed. “Just...you know, be nice to them. Don’t tease Susan or Hannah. They’re…”

“Like Megan?” Delilah asked.

“Yeah. Kind of. Sensitive. They’ve been through a lot,” I said.

“Noted.”

Lindsay and I kept kissing as Delilah sucked me off. My hand found its way down her smooth, warm body, to her hip, then over her pleasant, athletic thigh, and then my fingertip found her clit. Lindsay let out a startled moan of bliss as I began to rub it. She kissed me with more passion as I pleasured her, massaging her clit for several long minutes, and then slipping a finger into her and fucking her with it. Then with two fingers.

I kept going until she orgasmed, and held her as it ripped through her body, and she moaned and shuddered with ecstasy.

“Switch,” I said, when she was finished.

She nodded. “Mmm-hmm.”

“My turn,” Delilah said with glee as Lindsay took her place and started sucking me off, still massaging my nuts in her hot hand.

“Your turn,” I agreed as I began sucking on one of her huge, pale breasts and started fingering her.

She let out a loud sound of pleasure. “Oh fuck, your fingers are so strong...ah yes!”

It didn’t take long to get her off, and then she was as hungry for sex as I was.

“Get on your back,” I said, shoving her down as Lindsay got out of the way.

“Yes, sir,” she replied immediately, laying on her back and opening her legs.

I got on top of her, holding myself up on two hands, and felt her reach down between us, grip my cock, and guide me into her.

And then there was that moment of pure, wet perfection as I slipped inside of her.

Both of us shared a moan of sexual unity as I penetrated her, going deep inside, working my length into her. Our eyes were open, locked together, and I quickly lost myself as we began to make love. Delilah let out a series of loud moans of pure bliss as I fucked her, working my way deeper until she had taken in my entire rock-hard length, and the ecstasy was blinding. Her pussy felt so fantastically tight, clenched hard around my shaft. The feeling of raw, wet pussy as I drove into her again and again was unlike anything else, and even now, even after I’d fucked Delilah dozens of times, it still was an utterly satisfying experience.

I wasn’t sure how long I screwed Delilah, watching her big, perfect tits bouncing in sync with our sex, but eventually I became aware of a hand on my back that didn’t belong to her, and finally I glanced over.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry, Lindsay,” I said.

“I would like my turn,” she murmured, grinning.

“Of course,” Delilah said. She reached out ran a hand up and down one of her arms. “I’m sorry, babe. I just really missed him.”

“I understand,” she smiled as I pushed her onto her back and she opened her legs for me. “I missed you too, Chris.”

“Fuck did I miss you, Lindsay,” I replied as I looked at those fantastically long legs of hers, her beautiful pussy, her trim stomach up to her perky breasts…

“Show me,” she said, her voice husky, “show me how much you missed me.”

I showed her. Lindsay began yelling as we made love, and I held her to me, kissing her deeply as I drove into her, stroking smoothly into her sweet pussy. It felt like our relationship was always a little awkward, that she was never fully comfortable around me for a reason I’d never entirely been able to determine, but when we had sex…

It disappeared. She relaxed and let me into her completely, kissed me and fucked me and touched me with reckless abandon.

It was wonderful to feel.

The minutes slid away, time losing meaning as I screwed Lindsay, pounding her into the bed, and then switching back over to Delilah when she became impatient and complained at us. I went back and forth between them, enjoying the immense pleasure of their hot, smooth bodies and their tight inner warmth until I’d made them both orgasm and then could no longer keep my own climax at bay. Delilah was riding me, and she could tell.

“Here it comes,” she said with a grin as I grabbed her slim hips and started bouncing her on my cock. She was so light it was easy to do. She let out a series of loud cries and I groaned in increasingly powerful pleasure until…

“Fuck, Delilah!” I cried and I started coming, shooting my load into her wet, willing pussy. I became lost again as I drained myself into her, pumping her full of my seed, each contraction releasing a fresh jet of it and a new pulse of overwhelming rapture. She laid down, pressing her huge bare tits against my chest, and I kept groaning, holding her there, hugging her to me. “Oh Delilah, I love you! I love you so much!” I moaned as I finished up.

“Mmm...I love you too, Chris,” she murmured, grinning with a dreamy gaze, her face inches from my own.

For a long moment, as my orgasm tapered off and I was left in the aftermath, I just laid there, looking at her, holding her.

Then it occurred to me what we’d just said and I glanced over at Lindsay. She was studying us. She didn’t look upset, but she didn’t necessarily look happy either.

“Uh...that isn’t a problem, is it?” I asked.

“You know that I love Chris, Lindsay...right?” she asked, looking over as well.

“I do,” Lindsay replied, a little reluctantly. “I know you two love each other, I know you have a relationship, I know...that I shouldn’t worry.”

“But you are worried?” Delilah asked. Now she looked worried.

Lindsay sighed. “It’s stupid,” she said, rolling over onto her back.

“It’s not stupid,” I said. Delilah got off of me and got closer to her.

“Come on, we’ve never had trouble talking before, tell me what’s wrong.”

Lindsay sighed. “You remember Peter?”

Delilah rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I remember that piece of shit.”

Lindsay looked at me. “I had a boyfriend in high school. His name was Peter. The short of it is: he cheated on me. More than once. I broke up with him when I found out but it...left more of a scar than I’ve ever admitted.” She looked reluctantly at Delilah. “Even to you. And I’ve mostly gotten over it, but it’s my damage. It hurt so bad and I decided I wanted to try experimenting with open relationships after that, because cheating is less of a thing in an open relationship. And now I’m with you, and you’re my best friend, and I love you, and I know you love me, Delilah, I just...you’re a lot to handle, Chris. You’re so intimidating.”

“What exactly is your fear here?” I asked. She hesitated for several long seconds. “Just say it, as plainly as you can.”

“I want to work this out, Lindsay,” Delilah said, taking her hand and holding it in both of hers. “You know I’m here for you.”

“I know, I know…” She sighed. “I’m scared you’ll love Chris more than me, I guess is the best way I can put it. I’m scared it’ll happen slowly. And if I see it happening, and bring it up, I’ll just seem overprotective or jealous or crazy…”

“You trust Delilah, right?” I asked.

“Yeah, of course I do,” she replied.

“Do you trust me?”

“...yes, I do. I guess I wouldn’t have sex with you and sleep next to you naked if I didn’t.”

“Then I think you should trust that the relationship won’t be compromised, and trust that if it is, if you perceive it to be going wrong in some way, that we’ll talk with you about it. You can come to us with concerns and fears and anxieties, and we won’t just brush you off.”

“He’s right,” Delilah said, and hugged her tightly. “I’ll always listen to you, Lindsay. What I have with Chris is special, but what I have with you is just as special.”

Lindsay hugged her back. She sniffed suddenly and blinked several times. “Ugh, I hate crying. I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s okay,” Delilah replied.

She reached out to me, which surprised me a little, but I hugged both of them, holding them both close to me, feeling the soft warmth of their bodies. Lindsay began to cry, and Delilah and I didn’t say anything. It wasn’t a full-blown sobbing session, which I was a little grateful for, if only because Hannah or Susan might feel obligated to come check. They could certainly account for screams of ecstasy, but crying might worry them.

After several minutes of soft crying, Lindsay took a deep breath and then let go of us. She wiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s okay,” I replied, reaching out and running a hand across her soft brown hair. “It’s been so stressful for you, it’s a completely reasonable reaction.”

She laughed softly. “I guess so. Ugh, I’ll feel so much better once we get all this bullshit settled. I can’t believe what a run of bad luck we’ve had.”

“That’s just the way it goes sometimes,” I replied, then I yawned again. “We should probably get to sleep.”

“You feeling okay?” Delilah asked.

Lindsay nodded. “Yes, I’m better. And...thank you. Both of you. For listening to me.”

“We’ll always listen to you, Lindsay,” I replied, and gave her a kiss.

“We will,” Delilah agreed, kissing her as well.

We settled in for the night and, once Delilah had cleaned herself up, she got in between me and Lindsay.

And the sleep I drifted off to was one of deep, secure comfort.

FOUR

The next day passed in a strangely torturous way.

I awoke when it was still dark and although I was tempted to go back to sleep, I made myself get up and checked the sky out the window. It was a bit hard to tell, but I thought dawn wasn’t too far off. Either way, I was up, I knew that. Delilah and Lindsay were out of it, so I left them to it. I began prepping for the long journey ahead, trying to be quiet. By the time the very first hints of predawn light stained the skies, Hannah quietly joined me in preparing. We made breakfast together after I secured the house and got some water boiling.

A bit before breakfast was done, I woke up the rest of the household. To varying degrees, everyone got up and got ready. Delilah and Susan were the worst, irritable and sleepy-eyed, and Jessica and Lindsay were like Hannah, morning people. Lara seemed somewhere in the middle. But none of them argued with me, at least.

By the time the sun was actually beginning to hoist itself up over the horizon, we were fed, washed, dressed, packed, and on the road.

I had been very nervous of the weather. If it turned against us, we might be delayed an entire other day. Possibly two. But the skies were clear, and I didn’t see any clouds around. The temperature was almost warm.

We hit the road and kept up a brisk pace for five hours. We broke briefly for lunch, and then pressed onward again, our pace relentless.

I felt bad about pushing everyone on, but we were all in decent shape, none of us injured or sick, and there was a fuse burning that we couldn’t see. The sooner we got there, the better. Thankfully, they all seemed to understand.

I caught up with Delilah and Lindsay while we walked, hearing a few stories about things that had happened while I was gone. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Two couples were expecting now, one of whom I was familiar with. That made me think of Lara and her discovery of my impregnation fetish. Which made me think about the various women I was walking with now and how they might look pregnant and how nice it might be to get them pregnant…

“What do you think about having kids?” I asked, looking at Delilah.

“I’m not against it,” she replied with a surprising ease. Normally that question made people either nervous or almost self-righteous, like they had to defend their decision to have or not have them. “Although…”

“Although what?” I asked.

She smiled and blushed. “If I were ever to get pregnant...I’d want you to do it.”

“Oh wow, really?” I asked, feeling a shockingly powerful pulse of lust.

“Yeah…” She looked at me with a fresh smirk. “You want to, don’t you?”

“I mean, yeah, I’d like to get you pregnant, if I’m being completely honest. I don’t know how Lindsay would feel about it, though…”

“It’s something we’ve discussed. I mean, obviously she can’t get me pregnant, and she doesn’t want to be the one who gets pregnant, though she’s not against starting a family. I think being around Elizabeth and her son has warmed her to the idea. And I mean she has to know that someone would have to be the one to knock me up, and...why not you? She likes you, she’s had sex with you, she knows you and I love each other.”

“Lara told me the same thing,” I murmured, glancing back at her.

“What, that she’d let you get her pregnant?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow. Interesting. God, she’d look amazing pregnant.”

“So would you.”

We were quiet for a few seconds.

“So...would you?” she asked in a surprisingly soft voice.

“Would I what?” I replied, already getting distracted by thoughts of her and Lara and Susan, all of them really, nude and pregnant.

I don’t know why, but pregnant women just really fucking did it for me.

“Get me pregnant?”

I glanced at her. “I mean...it’s a moot point. I can’t.”

“But if you could. Tell me,” she said, almost demanded, really.

I thought about it for a long moment. “I still don’t know if I’m ready or even capable of being a parent,” I replied finally, uncomfortable.

“What if you didn’t have to worry about that? I mean, I know what we have is special, and it always will be, but Lindsay and I would be mostly raising this theoretical child. I’d have to actually talk it over with her, but as far as I’m concerned...you could be as involved as you want to be. So if you could, theoretically, get me pregnant and then basically not have to worry about raising the child...what about then? Would you do it?”

I laughed, still uncomfortable. “If you want the honest truth: yeah. I would. I mean it sounds like you’re looking for a sperm donor at that point.”

“Yeah. Although in your case maybe a...more regular sperm donor.” She lost her grin after a few seconds, then let out a forlorn sigh. “I guess it won’t matter if we don’t get this problem solved. I’m scared. This is the kind of thing that seems like it could result in a lot of desperate, dying people...I mean right? I’m not over-exaggerating, am I? I’d love to be wrong here.”

I sighed. “No, you’re not over-exaggerating. Things could get really dicey if we don’t figure out some kind of solution.”

“Have you thought of anything?”

“Honestly? Relocation. That’s the only thing that genuinely comes to mind. Moving to another settlement, or making another one. But whatever happens, we’ll figure something out, Delilah. We’ve worked too hard, come too far, found too much happiness to give up now.”

She looked at me tentatively. “You won’t leave? Even if it gets really bad?”

“I won’t leave. Even if it gets really bad,” I replied.

“Do you promise?”

“I promise, Delilah.”

She smiled and took my hand. “I love you.”

I felt a surge of warmth and gave her a kiss. “I love you, too.”

We kept walking after that, and although the conversation still flowed occasionally, a dark cloud had settled over me and I couldn’t shake it no matter what. Delilah eventually traded spots with Hannah, who joined me in leading the group, and we talked about things. Mostly inconsequential things, because we were both mired in our own darkness, and talking about it wasn’t really going to help. Eventually, she let Lara take her place, and by the time night was just beginning to be hinted at, I had talked with everyone for a length of time.

It occurred to me, as we got off the road and began making our way across a field, towards a forest we had to traverse to get to Pine Lake, that this was going to be much more common. This division of time, rotation of attention. God, how had I gotten myself into this? I was in a relationship with seven women, all of whom I loved.

Loved.

It frightened me sometimes, but it also brought such an intense burst of pleasure…

I had the idea that I was going to be figuring out my emotions about these relationships for quite a long while, especially considering all the real-world problems like survival that kept cropping up in my life lately.

Twilight was in full swing when we finally caught sight of the remains of the township. With the frozen lake to our right, the hunting lodge and another distant treeline to the left, we marched on through the snow.

I made sure we swung around a little so that we could approach the front of the town, clear and obvious, in much the same manner Delilah, Megan, Elizabeth, and I had arrived months ago. This time, at least, the reception was much better.

“Who’s that there!?” someone called.

“Chris and Delilah and Lindsay, with some friends!” I called back.

Things had changed since I’d left. Someone had built a two-story tall wooden platform at the head of the road and two people stood atop it, both armed with rifles, barely visible in the dying sunlight.

“Chris?! Holy shit!” a semi-familiar voice called. “You found him!?”

“I found him!” Delilah called back, sounding delighted.

I felt bad that I couldn’t immediately recognize the owner of the voice as he climbed down the ladder while we resumed our approach. I had gotten to know a lot of people while living in Pine Lake, but I had never been great with names and faces, and there were dozens of people. Normally I kept a low profile when I hung around a settlement, so my whole time at Pine Lake had been weird. Though not entirely in a negative way.

We walked into town, and I saw several people in the main street, staring at our group. I wanted to disappear, the guilt I’d been trying to keep at bay now overwhelming. I’d wandered off to get my dick sucked and people had been here fucking dying. How angry would they be? Or disappointed? Or disgusted?

I found out a moment later as everyone gathered in a loose congregation and I was forced to a halt.

“Chris, thank God you’re back.”

“We need your help again.”

“You need to talk with Lisa.”

“You can save us, right?”

For a few seconds, I simply froze up. I recognized several of the people in the group. There was Nate, the kid (who actually was only a few years younger than me) who I’d met at the hunting lodge when I’d first arrived there, and Willow, the woman I’d saved up there, too. Nate had started out hating me because he thought I was a threat because he clearly really liked Willow, though she didn’t quite seem to feel the same way. Although at some point that had changed. I’d seen them together, as in together, not long before I left.

I also saw Stephen and Lena, a pair of people I’d found at the lakehouse way back when. I’d helped Stephen hunt a giant old bear with his double-barreled shotgun. And there were others I’d come to know over the course of my time here.

They looked tired, hungry, miserable, desperate, and...hopeful.

Jesus fucking Christ, they were all looking at me to solve this problem.

I felt my guts tighten and cold fear shoot through me, but something helped me maintain my focus. My worry about Megan, probably.

“Where’s Lisa?” I asked.

“In her office,” Stephen replied.

“Okay. I’m going to talk with her right now. Don’t worry, I’ll get it sorted out,” I said, and struck of in what I hoped looked like a meaningful and confident stride.

Something I’d learned: how people felt could genuinely make or break a situation. Morale wasn’t just bullshit and hope could make people endure or do things that they thought impossible. If they believed they weren’t well and truly fucked, then they were that much more likely to perform better and improve our odds.

And I did intend to fix this.

Somehow. Someway.

“Is Lisa’s office still in the same place?” I asked as I led my group down the snowy street.

“Yep,” Delilah replied. “She never moved.”

“Of course not,” I muttered.

Lisa’s office, which she had assembled in the wake of the fire that had ravaged the township and killed over half its population, was in the basement boiler room of an apartment building. She always intended to move somewhere else, but she was still there when I left. I thought she liked the place, liked the way it was kind of hard to find and unpleasant to get to. Her own private little hole to hide in, underground and away from everyone else.

Honestly, I could relate.

The others let us go, a few welcoming me back, and I still felt awkward about that. I thought it might be easier to accept their anger than the burden of their hope. But I couldn’t lie, even to myself: this was what I had signed up for when I’d agreed to stick around and, more significantly, when I had made the decision to not only come back, but to stay permanently. I clearly wasn’t the only person who could save them, but there was no denying that I would play a pivotal role for...some reason. I still didn’t know what qualified me for that.

“Chris?” Lindsay asked as we walked towards the apartment.

“Yeah?” I replied, pausing.

“Do you mind if I go check on my cats and our place and Elizabeth?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” I said.

“I should go too, she’ll be so excited,” Delilah said.

“Make sure you drop off your food at the storage,” I replied.

“We will,” Delilah replied. They each gave me a kiss and then hurried off. I glanced longingly at the motel that was once again my home. I missed Elizabeth. She was probably there right now. I wanted to see her, hold her, kiss her, tell her that I was in love with her. But that would have to wait. I pressed on until we got to the apartment building. Leading Hannah and the others deeper into the structure, we headed down and walked through the basement area until finally I tracked down Lisa’s office.

The door was open a few inches. I waited and listened, but didn’t hear anything. Peering in through the crack, I saw her asleep on the couch, as usual.

“Wait here,” I said, and gently pushed the door open. Stepping inside, I looked around. The place was messier than I remembered, her desktop was covered in papers and books and the remains of several meals. While I stood there in the doorway, trying to think of a way to wake her without freaking her out, she opened her eyes suddenly and looked right at me.

She blinked a few times.

“Chris?” she asked finally, sounding exhausted.

“Hi, Lisa,” I replied.

She sat up slowly, rubbing one eye. “Is it seriously you?”

“It’s seriously me. Delilah and Lindsay found me and we came as fast as we could. I’m here to help,” I replied.

“Oh my God,” she whispered harshly, and shot to her feet. She hurried across her office and all but threw herself at me. I hugged her tightly as she kissed me hard on the mouth, squeezing me. It was a long, desperate kiss. “Chris!” she said, pulling back and staring at me. “You...oh you took too long to get back! You bastard!” she snapped, then she kissed me again before I could respond. I settled my hands on her ass and squeezed it, I couldn’t help myself. When she stepped back once more, studying me, I studied her.

She looked as I remembered her: average height, blonde hair that was shorter than when we last parted ways, skin paler than usual, brown eyes still full of fire, even if they were very bloodshot and baggy. She had definitely lost weight and it didn’t look healthy, her face gaunter, harder. She looked like she’d aged a little in the past two months, and I felt very bad for her.

The stress had to be eating her alive.

Abruptly, she looked around me and her eyes widened. “Oh my God, are they-are they with you?” she asked, staring in disbelief.

“Uh...yeah,” I replied. “Meet our four new residents. We, uh...met. While I was out there.”

She blushed suddenly. “Well, you all know my relationship with Chris now, apparently. So, um,” she stepped to the side, so she could see them all more clearly, “I’m Lisa. I run the settlement. Uh...come in. We have a lot to talk about.”

I made room and the others came in. They all introduced themselves quickly, and then Lisa sat down behind her desk, quickly slipping into business mode. She looked at me from behind her desk, her expression grim, but also pleading.

“Tell me you have good news for me, Chris,” she said.

“I have good news for you,” I replied. “First, we found three top-notch solar panels, brand new, still in their original packaging.”

“Okay, that is good news, although more in the long-term, admittedly.”

“I figured. The more immediate good news is that the outpost you sent Delilah and Lindsay to is friendly. We managed to trade for a ton of food from them, as much as we could realistically bring back, and the woman who runs the place, Brandy, says that she’d be open to helping us out. We could send some people up to trade for food, and to hunt in the area. They said the storm that hit us didn’t reach that far and there’s still animals around.”

“Oh thank God, I’ll get right on that,” she muttered, looking down at her desk and sorting through a few papers. She looked up suddenly. “Did you fuck her? This woman Brandy?”

I chuckled awkwardly. “Uh...yeah.”

Lisa snorted. “Of course you did. Um…” She looked around at the others. “I guess if you’re going to be living here I should get to know you all a little. How, uh...did you all meet? What can you do? Because we are in desperate need of help.”

“Susan and I were living together when Chris saved my life,” Lara said, stepping up to the plate first. “He saved me from a wolf. I invited him back to the house and we...got to know each other. And then he and Susan got to know each other as well. Susan’s a pretty decent shot, but otherwise we don’t have a lot of specialized skills. We can cook, gather firewood, and forage.”

“Sounds good, we can use all that right now. At this point we just need warm bodies to do stuff,” Lisa replied. She looked at Hannah and Jessica. “You two?”

“Well, I’m honestly best at cooking,” Jessica replied. “But I’ll be glad to do whatever unskilled labor might need doing.”

“Perfect. Hannah?”

“I’m an amazing shot, I’m quickly learning a lot of survival tactics, but I can’t help here in town,” Hannah replied.

I looked at her. “What, why?”

“Because I’m going with you, Chris. And you can’t talk me out of it. I’m not letting you go alone, and I know that’s what you want to do,” she said firmly.

I hesitated, then looked at Lisa. I hadn’t actually fully considered what my journey to track down Megan and the others might look like. I had a vague notion of maybe someone coming with me, but I wasn’t sure who. I definitely didn’t want to put Susan, Jessica, or Lara through that after the huge journey we’d just made.

“She’s right, Chris. I can’t afford to send anyone with you,” Lisa said. “Just sending Megan and Melanie and the others was already too much and I hate to send you off as well but this needs to get done…” She sighed and rubbed her eyes. “So Delilah’s caught you up?”

“Yeah, although I was hoping you’d have better news for me and that maybe she was exaggerating a little?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, if anything she doesn’t know how bad it is. As it stands right now, with rationing and our food storage, we’ve got maybe three weeks. Maybe. I’ve been having our people comb over the burned part of the town for lost supplies we might’ve missed earlier, and we’re finding a few things, but not much. And we’re finding almost nothing out in the woods. No animals, no plants, nothing. We’re having to go father and farther away to search. And still we’re not finding much of anything. That deal with Brandy will help string this out for a bit longer, but it isn’t sustainable,” she explained.

“What about the lake?” I asked.

“We’ve been fishing it, but we haven’t had anything since the freeze. I think all the fish died,” she replied bleakly.

“Fuck,” I muttered. For a moment I felt overwhelmed by all the things that needed doing, and the weight of responsibility.

“Come on,” Lisa said, standing and grabbing her coat, “let’s get the solar panels and the food stored safely, then I can show you all to your homes. I’m sure Elizabeth will really want to see you.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, still lost in thought.

We followed her out of the office, towards the exit.

FIVE

A tense silence fell over the group as we headed back out into the snow.

We tried not to look too worried, given that I didn’t want the people who saw us to get the impression that things were as bad as they were. Lisa led us over to the food storage building and we spent awhile unloading everything we’d brought with us. The people who were guarding and also organizing it looked grateful and relieved as the cans and packages of meat came out and got added in with the rest.

I eyed the food, the containers and cans and boxes, and thought it looked like a lot. But there were around sixty people living here.

That was a lot of food consumed daily.

Once we had that settled, Lisa began guiding us back to the motel.

“Lisa…” I murmured as we walked.

“Yeah?”

“They’re all looking at me. They’re all acting like...I’m going to fix everything. I don’t-I’m not sure if I can.”

“I know, Chris,” she said, putting a hand on my arm. “I know it’s a lot of responsibility. But you’ve done so much already, you had to know it would have an effect like this. You were so visible and active in the wake of the fire, you just showed up out of nowhere and started solving problems. And all the things you handled in the months after that...people really like you. They believe in you. They look up to you.”

“I didn’t know it was going to be this intense,” I muttered. “And I wasn’t really looking for it. I just wanted...a place to live and fit in.”

“Well, you got it,” she said with a smile. “But I don’t think any of us expected this run of bad luck. And I’m sorry to dump all this on you, I know it isn’t fair...and I’m sorry that I had to send Megan out there, but she was the best we had after you.” She paused. “I’m sure she’s okay, Chris. You’ll find her, and be with her again.”

“I hope so.”

She hesitated once more, then lowered her voice even more. “Are Jessica and Hannah...related? Is Hannah her daughter?” she whispered.

Should’ve seen this coming. “Yes.”

“And you’re banging-”

“Both of them. Yes. They both know, they don’t want a big deal made out of it. They’re...handling it. It kind of got out of hand...I’ll tell you later.”

“I’m more impressed than anything else,” Lisa replied. “Also, my lord Lara is beautiful.”

“That she is,” I agreed.

We arrived at the motel and I almost just walked right up to Elizabeth’s door, hoping to see her right here and now, but Lisa wasn’t done with me yet.

“We rearranged some of the living conditions and the room next to Elizabeth’s opened up. I kept it open for you Chris because I was pretty sure you were going to come back with someone...although I didn’t expect four someones. Not that I’m complaining, you’ve all already been a huge help. But you’ll have to figure out the sleeping arrangements for yourself. Uh, Chris, Hannah, I would like to see you back in my office bright and early, soon as you can. I’ll have supplies laid out for you to pick from...although,” she eyed my MP5, “it looks like you’ve managed to do pretty well on your own. But I’d like you two to head out as soon as possible tomorrow. I’ll make sure you have a map and anything else we can think of.”

“We’ll be there,” I replied.

“Good.” She looked at the others. “Take some time to get settled in, but I’ll have to put you three to work tomorrow before noon. I’ll have someone come by who will have a list of jobs that need doing, and you choose the ones that make the most sense for your skills. If there’s any problems or difficulties, I’ll be around town or in my office. Please come talk to me and I will get it sorted out. Any friend of Chris’s is a friend of mine. Any questions?”

There were none. Everyone, including myself, was eager to get inside and start bedding down for the night.

“Okay, see you all later, and, uh, welcome to Pine Lake.”

Lisa gave me a pair of keys that both worked with the third motel room that now belonged to us, turned and marched off. No doubt she had a dozen things that needed doing. I looked at the group, my group, the women I’d taken into my life and marched with across the frozen wilderness just to bring them here into this mess.

“I think Jessica and Susan and I should take the spare room,” Lara suggested, breaking the silence. “It makes the most sense.”

I nodded. “It does. Why don’t you three start getting settled and I’ll come see you after a bit?” I replied, passing Lara the keys.

“We will,” she said, accepting them. I watched the three of them go, then turned to Hannah.

“Come on,” I said, heading for my own room. “I guess it makes sense for you to sleep in mine and Megan’s bed. Although I’m almost certainly going to be spending the night with Elizabeth. For which I’m sorry, but we-”

“Haven’t seen each other for months. Again, don’t worry Chris, I know. I’m not mad, I’m going to get you all to myself for awhile,” she said with a grin.

“It’s not like this trip will be a vacation,” I replied.

“No, but it’ll be just you and me for a bit. And then you’ll have to fuck my brains out. And that’ll be great.”

“It will be great,” I agreed.

My door was unlocked, and I found Lindsay laying on her and Delilah’s bed, which was no longer a mattress on the floor but a mattress on a hand-made wooden frame. All three of her cats were laying in bed with her.

“Kitties!” Hannah said as we came in. One of them flattened its ears and then scurried off, hiding under my bed. The other two raised their heads, looked at me and Hannah, then seemed to determine that we weren’t a threat and went back to sleep.

“Kitties,” Lindsay agreed. “Delilah’s with Elizabeth. You should go see her before she blows up or something. She really misses you.”

“Good idea. Hannah’s going to be sleeping in here tonight,” I replied.

“All right...um…” Lindsay winced slightly, looking at the redhead. “Do you have a problem with girl-on-girl sex happening in the same room as you? Because I’ve got to be honest, I’m stressed and horny and I really want Delilah.”

I glanced at Hannah. She was blushing fiercely. “I...wouldn’t mind,” she replied, awkwardly.

“You can watch if you want,” she said. “I’m still a little nervous about it but Delilah loves it and you seem nice. And you’ve already been with Chris so I guess it wouldn’t be too weird.”

“I wouldn’t mind watching,” Hannah said. “You’re both so pretty.”

“Thank you! You’re drop dead gorgeous yourself,” Lindsay replied with a smile that became a little enticing.

“Barking up the wrong tree,” I said.

“Oh,” Lindsay murmured, and blushed.

“Sorry, it’s nothing personal, I just...I’m not really into girls in terms of actual sex…” Hannah said, shifting awkwardly.

“You don’t have to apologize, Hannah,” Lindsay replied. She offered her a kind smile. “And don’t worry, I get it, feeling awkward like this. It’ll pass. Delilah and I are really easy to get along with. We just want things to be nice and pleasant in our home.”

“Glad to hear it,” Hannah replied, looking relieved.

I gave Hannah a hug, told her I loved her, and then headed back outside. So much to do, not enough time. But I was going to make time to see Elizabeth. I hurried over to the next door and knocked on it gently.

It opened almost immediately, and then I found myself staring at Elizabeth.

She looked even more beautiful than I remembered.

“Chris!” she gasped, and hugged me immediately.

“Elizabeth.” I hugged her back, enfolding her in my arms, holding her. We stood there like that for several minutes. Behind her, I saw Delilah sitting on the bed, cradling Elizabeth’s son in a bundle in her arms, smiling at both of us.

“I missed you so much,” Elizabeth said after awhile. “I can’t believe you’re finally home.”

“I know. I’m sorry I was gone so long,” I replied.

“Delilah said you’re staying?”

“Yes. I’m staying.” I paused. “I mean, okay, I have to leave tomorrow morning, but I’m coming back and then I’m staying once I find Megan and Melanie and the others. I’m going to help figure all this out.”

“That’s such a relief,” she whispered, still clinging onto me like her life depended on it. I felt so bad for her, this whole nightmare had to hit especially hard because of her son. After a bit, she realized we were standing in the open doorway and quickly led me inside, though she still seemed unwilling to let go. Not that I blamed her.

“How have you been?” I asked, beginning to rub her back as she clung to me.

“Lonely. Desperate. Exhausted. Terrified,” she replied. “Although that’s only been recently, since all the bad things started to happen. Before that things were nice...except for the missing you. But don’t worry, I don’t want to guilt you, I understand why you left. I’m just glad you’re back and that you’re happy.”

“Well, I was happy. I mean, I’m sure happy right now. I missed you so much,” I said. “It’s so good to see you again, Elizabeth.” I almost told her that I loved her, then and there, but held back. It didn’t seem like the right time, not yet.

Soon, though.

Before the night was over.

I still also didn’t feel quite right about how I’d left things with the others, and I also wanted to introduce Elizabeth to them.

“I take it Delilah’s told you about my new...friends?” I asked.

“Your new girlfriends? Uh, yeah. Four women, Chris? I’d say I don’t know how you manage it but I know exactly how you manage it,” she replied with a smile that promised lustier things as she looked up at me.

God, she was so beautiful. Her smooth, pale face, her soft black hair, her bright blue eyes. Although she did look more gaunt, exhausted, like Lisa. She was still so beautiful, though. I gave her a kiss and she held me there, standing on her toes to reach me.

“I want to meet them,” she said.

“Great. Let’s go,” I replied.

“You got him?” Elizabeth asked as she pulled her coat on, looking back at Delilah.

“I’ve got him,” she replied. “Go on, Aunt Delilah will keep him safe.”

“Thank you, Delilah,” Elizabeth said.

We headed back outside and over to the next door down. I knocked on it and it was quickly answered by Lara.

“Hey,” she said, then looked over. “You must be Elizabeth...oh my, Chris was right.”

“Right about what?” she asked as we came in.

“You are so hot.”

“You really are,” Susan murmured, stepping up next to Lara.

Elizabeth laughed nervously. “I, uh...don’t know what to say,” she murmured.

“Let’s try some introductions. Everyone, this is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, this is Lara. This is Susan. And this is Jessica. There’s one more, and she’s over in my room with Lindsay.”

“It’s nice to meet you...how did you all meet? This is, well, not unexpected exactly, just a little...surprising.”

“I’m getting that a lot,” I replied.

We spent the next half an hour chatting, mostly about how me and the newer women had met, and then how Elizabeth and I had met. Eventually, I started getting antsy about time, so I decided to wrap it up.

“Hey, I’ve got something to say,” I said, garnering their attention. “So, I’m leaving tomorrow. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to track down Megan and the others. Hopefully not long, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.” I hesitated, rubbing the back of my neck. “I still feel bad about all this. I dragged you halfway across a state through all that crap, just so you could show up here, live in a crappy motel room, and immediately be put to work while I head right back out…”

“Chris, you really need to let it go,” Jessica said. “We all chose to come with you, for better or for worse. I mean, this is a bad situation, but I don’t regret coming, Chris. And you’re a very capable man. Of course people are going to come to you to solve problems. And you need to go find your girlfriend and your other friends and whatever is going to help us here.”

“She’s right,” Lara said.

Susan was nodding. “Yeah. Chris, listen, you need to focus. Whatever you’re going to have to do out there with Hannah will probably be hard. So I don’t want you worrying about us back here. We’ll miss you, but we’ll be waiting here for you, helping the town, helping each other. We can watch out for each other. You don’t need to feel like you have to do everything. And it’s not exactly like you took us away from some high life to come here. I liked living with Lara in our own little house, but it wasn’t sustainable, and this is so much better.”

“You saved me and Hannah, Chris, and brought us to a better life. Don’t feel bad about that,” Jessica agreed, her voice firm.

I hesitated, then glanced briefly at Elizabeth.

“I’ll...wait outside,” she murmured, and slipped out the door.

I walked up to Lara and hugged her, then pulled Susan against one side, and Jessica against the other, and they all hugged me back.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I love you. All of you.”

“We love you too, Chris,” Lara said. She squeezed me tighter. “Now go fuck your hot MILF girlfriend that you haven’t seen in two months, and then kick ass out there. We’ll be here, doing what we can to hold down the fort.”

“I will. And I’ll talk to you in the morning, before I go.”

I gave them each an individual hug and kiss after that, wished them goodnight, then joined Elizabeth outside.

“You really bonded with them,” she said as we started walking down towards my own room.

“Yeah. It was an intense few weeks,” I replied. “Just so we’re clear, uh, I’m hoping to spend the night with you.”

She smiled a small smile. “Oh yes, it’s clear, Chris. It’s going to be just you and I tonight. I’ve already enlisted Delilah and Lindsay to help.”

I wasn’t sure precisely what she meant until we entered my own motel room and I found Delilah there holding Elizabeth’s son, sitting on her and Lindsay’s bed with Lindsay, while Hannah laid on her back on my own bed. She sat up as I came in.

“Hey, is everything okay?” she asked.

“Everything’s fine. I’m gonna spend the night with Elizabeth, and then we’ll head out in the morning. I’ll be over around sunrise, then we’ll grab our stuff and some breakfast, get any more information we can from Lisa, and then head out,” I replied.

Hannah nodded and swung her feet over the side of the bed. She rubbed her eyes, then stood up and walked over to me. “In that case, I’m exhausted, and need to sleep. Is there anything we need to talk about?”

“No. Just wanted to introduce you really quick,” I replied. “This is Elizabeth.”

“Hi,” Elizabeth said, smiling at her. “It’s good to meet you.”

“You too, I’m Hannah,” she replied, offering her hand. They shook and studied each other. Hannah frowned and glanced at Lindsay and Delilah. “So...I guess I wanna say this now: I’m sorry if I’m weird or off-putting. Chris is my first...I guess you could real relationship, but also definitely my first, uh, open relationship. I’m not really into girls, so from my perspective, just me and him are dating. So I’m getting used to...all the other women. I’ve also got some anger problems, and as much as I don’t want to be judged based on my age, I’m twenty, which I’m told matters.”

“Wait seriously?” Elizabeth asked. “You seem much older.”

“She’s a real hardcase,” I replied. “She’s made remarkable progress in her survival training during our time together.”

“I can see why you like her so much,” Delilah murmured.

“Don’t worry, Hannah,” Elizabeth said with a disarming smile. “We all play nice here, and we’ll try to accommodate you. I think I speak for everyone when I say we all want to be friends here. If you ever want to talk, even if it’s embarrassing, we can talk.”

“Yeah, we’re not that far apart. Lindsay and I are both twenty-two. Although Elizabeth’s right, you seem older. Then again, I thought Chris was in his mid-thirties when we first met.”

“Same, actually,” Lindsay said.

“I think most of you thought that,” I replied.

“Well...thanks everyone, I really appreciate it.” She yawned. “I’m going to sleep.” She walked over to me and gave me a kiss. “I love you, Chris. Goodnight.”

I tensed very briefly. I had been hoping to say that to Elizabeth before she heard me exchange it with anyone else, but I guess that wasn’t a possibility now. “I love you too, Hannah. Goodnight.”

We wished Delilah and Lindsay goodnight, then headed over to Elizabeth’s place. It was quiet as we shut the door.

“Elizabeth, uh...I wanted to talk with you about...our relationship,” I said, uncomfortable again.

“Can it wait?” she asked. “Until after we have sex? I’m tired, and horny, and worried, and I just want your dick.”

“Yeah, it can wait,” I replied.

We quickly took off our clothes and washed up. A few minutes later, I found myself lying naked in bed beneath the blankets with Elizabeth. She quickly embraced me, kissed me, ran her hands over my body, and I did the same to her. I groped her wonderful breasts and then down to her pleasantly padded ass, her hips, her thighs. Our tongues met and danced and twined together, and I could feel a desperate need in her movements.

Before long, my finger found her clit and I was pleasuring her.

She cried out, panting.

“You’ve had some kind of relief since I left, right?” I asked.

“Yes...after waiting about a month after my birth, Delilah began...helping me. Ooh! She ate me out a lot. I hooked up with Megan a few times, too. And once with Lindsay...but that’s it. It’s not the same, not like it is with you,” she murmured, then moaned again.

“I’m sorry I was gone so long, I missed you so much,” I replied, kissing her deeply as I slipped a finger inside of her. She was so wet and so hot, so eager and ready. I kept going until I had her orgasming, and she cried out, clearly trying not to be too loud. She thrashed and twisted in the bed, moaning and panting as the climax tore through her body.

When she was finished, she fell back, her nude, pale body slicked with sweat.

“Do me,” she whispered, “now. I need it right now. Inside me. Fuck me hard, Chris,” she moaned, desperate for me.

I was pretty desperate for her, so I complied quickly.

I got in between her spread open legs and she reached down, gripping my erection and guiding me in. “Fuck, I forgot how big you are,” she whispered, then moaned as I penetrated her.

“Oh my God, Elizabeth,” I groaned as I pushed into that sweet wetness, that perfect heat. I watched her face as she felt the bliss of our coupling and worked my way deeper. And once I was all the way in, I was stroking smoothly into her, feeling the slick perfection of her pussy, its pure pleasure. We moaned together, kissing passionately, and she grabbed me and wrapped her legs around me.

“More!” she cried.

I started going harder and she moaned loudly.

“I missed you so much,” I groaned between kisses.

“Please promise me you’re staying,” she panted, pushing up with her hips, inviting me deeper. “Please, I know it’s not right to ask but please…”

“I’m staying, Elizabeth,” I replied. “I’ll be here for you. I promise.”

“Oh Chris!” she moaned and suddenly she was orgasming again.

I groaned loudly, a fresh surge of sexual ecstasy hitting me, and I started going faster and harder, unable to contain myself.

I pounded her hot MILF pussy until-

“Oh, Elizabeth! Oh yes!...Elizabeth, I love you!” I cried.

I hadn’t meant for it to come out during sex, but I couldn’t help it.

“I love you too!” she replied immediately, and kissed me.

And we lost ourselves in each other as we orgasmed, coming together in a wonderful sexual union.

When we were finished and we’d washed up, we laid together, embracing. I laid on my back and she lay partway on my chest, resting her head on my shoulder.

“You love me,” she murmured sleepily.

“I do, and that’s what I wanted to talk about,” I said. “I, uh, had a conversation with Lara while I was out there. About what love means. And I also have my own shitty history with that phrase, that word. I got broken up with when I said it, twice. So I stopped saying it. But she made me realize that I shouldn’t stop. She made me realize that I do love you, all of you. And that I should say it. So...I love you, Elizabeth. You’re very important to me.”

She smiled and hugged me closer. “I love you too, Chris. I feel like I basically said that not long after we got here. I told you I would marry you if you asked me.” She hesitated. “I wanted to apologize for that. I...our relationship has been a bit odd, and some of it’s my fault. When we first met…” She smiled suddenly. “My favorite memory of you, Chris, my strongest memory, is the first time we met, and you had to carry me. I remember looking up at you, and you holding me in your strong arms, and finally feeling...safe. You were so kind to me, so patient with me, you never hesitated. You’ve been nothing but good to me.

“In the wake of all that happened, I was desperate. That’s why I clung to you so much. I just wanted someone to tell me I was going to be okay, someone to love me, and you loved me. I’ve known it since we got to Pine Lake. You told me with your actions, with your kindness. But then after that, once things got settled, I started to get scared. The time I fled my ex-husband was the worst of my life, and I never wanted to be in that situation again, and it made me feel like I should be more independent. So I kind of...pulled away from you. And I’m sorry about that.”

“Well, I forgive you,” I replied. “It’s not like I can complain: I’ve been gone for two months, trying to find myself. And...I don’t want the fact that I love you to put any extra pressure on you or anything, Elizabeth. I like what we have. And we can get closer if you want, or keep it the same, or relax things a bit...I just want you to know that you’re loved and I will stand by you and help you however I can.”

“That’s just about the most significant fact in my life right now,” she said. “It means so much.” She squeezed me tighter, then kissed me on the cheek.

I yawned. “Ah...sorry,” I murmured.

“No, it’s fine. You need to sleep, Chris. You have to go save Megan and Melanie and the others. And then you all have to save all of us.”

“Yeah, no pressure,” I muttered.

“You can handle it. I know it’s a lot, but I’ve seen you in action, Chris. You’re a natural leader, a natural survivor, you’re amazing at this stuff. And Hannah looks tough. You two are going to be a power couple.”

I laughed. “You know she said the same exact thing?”

“She’s sharp. And...okay, correct me if I’m wrong, but Jessica-she’s her mom, right?”

I sighed. “Yes. She is. Yes I’m fucking both of them, yes they are both aware, and yes they’d rather not talk about it. They’re...handling it.”

“You...are something else, Chris. Also, will you forgive me if I have sex with Lara without you? Because I don’t think I’ll be able to keep my hands off of her if she offers.”

“She’ll offer, and I’ll forgive you. But I want a threesome with you and her.”

“Oh my God yes,” Elizabeth replied. Then she yawned. “Okay. Sleep.”

“Sleep,” I agreed.

I had a long, long day ahead of me tomorrow.

SIX

It was go time from the moment my eyes opened.

I had a nightmare about finding Megan dead and frozen that was so stomach-churningly vivid that I almost started crying when I woke up. But I didn’t. I got myself under control and got up, then peeked out the window.

Sunrise wasn’t too far off.

I got right to work, washing and then dressing with quick, efficient movements.

I woke Elizabeth briefly, telling her that I loved her and having a short conversation. I promised to be careful and then grabbed my shit and headed out. I repeated that next door with Jessica, Susan, and Lara, all of whom were still asleep. I made sure to tell each that I loved them, and that I would be back as soon as I could, and then I headed for my own room. When I opened the door, I found Hannah already awake and dressed.

After another quick conversation with Delilah and Lindsay, Hannah and I double-checked that we had all the gear we wanted, then headed out.

As we walked to the apartment, the sun began to rise over the horizon, painting the landscape pale yellow. I noticed Hannah had a bit of a strut to her step.

“Eager?” I asked.

“Yes, actually. And...it’s been awhile since I’ve been around people. And I’ve never been around a lot of people with a guy that I fully respect and feel good standing next to. Plus, I get you all to myself for at least a few days,” she replied, grinning.

“There is that,” I replied.

I had to admit, I was looking forward to the time alone with Hannah to a certain degree. There was a particular unique satisfaction to wild sex with someone like her: supremely hot, young, and fresh on the scene.

It still blew my mind that I had taken her virginity.

We entered the apartment and headed downstairs into the basement. Navigating the dark, cramped space, I was glad to see a flickering firelight in the crack of the mostly-closed door leading to Lisa’s office. As we approached, I heard her muttering to herself.

I knocked on the door.

“Chris?” she asked.

“Yep, we’re here,” I replied.

“Good. Get in here.”

We stepped inside and I saw that she’d cleaned the place up considerably. I took it as a good sign. Something I’d learned about Lisa was that when she was feeling overwhelmed and even a little helpless, she tended to let everything get disorganized. But she whipped her surroundings into shape when she felt back on top.

There was another table that I’d either failed to notice earlier or had been brought in since last time, off to the right, behind the door. It was scattered with all sorts of gear and survival supplies. “Take whatever you need,” she said when she saw me eyeing it. “This mission needs to succeed, Chris.” She paused. “So, Delilah did fill you in, right?”

“Mostly, why don’t you go over it?” I replied as I walked to the table and began looking through the gear.

“Megan found a map leading to a bunker, some kind of rich-guy prepper bunker. It’s supposed to be full of supplies: food, medicine, weapons, survival gear. The map looked legit, but to be honest, we’re taking a gamble here. I’m that desperate. So your goal is to find Megan and her team, then get them to this bunker, crack it open, and then find some way of getting all the supplies that are hopefully inside back here. And then we need to figure out a long-term solution.”

“Great,” I muttered.

“One thing a time, you two just focus on this next part,” Lisa replied.

I nodded and, finding another table that was folded-up and leaned against a wall, Hannah and I opened it up and used it to dump everything we were carrying onto it. I wanted to make sure our packs were packed as efficiently as possible, and also that I got the best gear I could, because there were some choice pieces there.

I saw a better compass, a wind-up watch, a nice lighter, a very sharp and shiny hunting knife, a better thermal blanket than what I currently had…

And a better backpack for Hannah. Mine was still better (to my eye at least) than the ones Lisa had managed to gather, but one of them was definitely a step above Hannah’s. She took it gratefully and began packing.

Once we’d grabbed everything that I could think of, we took the extra time to clean our weapons. I was eager to be gone, but I wanted as few things going wrong as possible. After some deliberation, I ended up deciding to take my forty-five, the hunting rifle, and the MP5. Hannah also settled on her nine and her own hunting rifle after learning there was more ammo for it. No more forty-five rounds, but there were a fair number of bullets for the rifle, which I took gladly. The MP5 still had its four magazines, as I was trying to use it as little as possible. We cleaned everything with our gun cleaning kits, the one I’d already had and another Hannah took from the pile of proffered supplies. And then we were finished.

“Is that everything?” I asked.

“I believe so. Emergency medical supplies, four days of food, thermal blanket, fire-starting gear, extra ammo, spare set of clothing…” she rattled through the supplies and I listened, making sure we’d thought of everything.

After considering it for another few minutes, I finally pulled my backpack on, settled my guns into place, and then turned to Lisa.

“Ready for breakfast and then we can go,” I replied.

“Right. Before you do that, here’s the map,” she said, passing me two pieces of paper. “We made copies, obviously.”

“Good thinking,” I murmured, studying it. There were several legs to the journey. We’d have to get to a highway heading westbound first, follow it a ways, get off onto a side road, follow that until we reached a dirt road, and then apparently we’d have to navigate some wilderness for awhile before finally arriving at a house and the bunker.

“Easy enough to follow,” Hannah said.

“That’s what I’m hoping,” Lisa replied. “Now, as for the team. There’s Megan and Melanie, obviously. We also sent along Ryan and Eddie, for muscle. And the final member of the team is someone you haven’t met, a woman named Fay. She’s a survivalist, but she’s also an engineer. She’s very sharp. She showed up about two weeks after you left, a wanderer like you, and decided she liked us. She’s been helping out ever since. I figured we might need her expertise to get into the bunker once they found it.”

“She sounds nice,” I replied.

“I’m sure you’ll be nailing her in no time, you seem to have that effect,” Lisa said.

“Apparently,” I muttered, not sure what else to say.

“Come on, let’s get breakfast.”

~

I never fully relaxed as we left the apartment and got breakfast.

By that point several people were up, including Elizabeth, Delilah, and Lindsay. We ate breakfast with them and I said my goodbyes one more time. After a quick meal, we swung by the motel so that Hannah could talk with her mom one more time, and I had another brief talk with the three women, because honestly…

We might never see each other again.

As much as I believed in myself, in them, bad things happened. I could die, Hannah could die, something awful could happen while I was gone and any one of them could die. Or all of them. It was awful to think about, so I did the only thing I could do and told them I loved them and promised to be back as soon as I could.

Once the conversations were wrapped up, Lisa walked with us to the western edge of town.

“Okay,” she said, “this is it.” She hesitated. “I don’t want to lay the pressure on anymore than I already have, but I’ve got to press this onto you.” She looked at Hannah. “Both of you. Chris and the others have vouched that you’re about as competent as he is, and we’re in desperate need of people who can go above and beyond, so if you plan to stick around, you’re going to be asked to step up. But what I have to say is this: do this well, and do this fast. Because we can’t afford failure.” She paused and looked around nervously, then lowered her voice. “Even with the food you gave us, working with the outpost, and finding a good deal of supplies, I don’t know if we’ll be able to last more than three months before we start starving. Unless we find some amazing hydroponics, I don’t really see a way of sustainability. So when you get back, we need to start working on some sort of plan, something, or we’re all dead.”

I sighed. “I understand. We’ll figure something out, just...hold down the fort back here.”

“I will, Chris. And thank you. Both of you. For doing this. It means...well, you know how much it means.” She paused, then she gave me a hug and a long kiss. Then she hesitated again and looked at Hannah. “I’m sorry if that was over the line-”

“No, it’s fine,” Hannah replied. “I know you two are fucking and I don’t expect you to stop just because I’m in the picture now. Honestly I get it. You’re very pretty, and very tough. He likes tough, I’m learning.”

Lisa smiled and blushed. “He does,” she murmured. “Although he also has a thing for slutty and demure, if I’m reading Lara right and she’s anything like Delilah.”

“I...have many tastes,” I replied awkwardly.

They both laughed.

“Well...good luck,” Lisa said, the moment gone as she sobered, her tone turning somber.

“To you too,” I replied.

And then Hannah and I turned towards the southwest and began walking.

~

Despite the sour mood, the first few hours were pretty pleasant.

The sun was out, the weather seemed to be with us for the moment, and we managed to make it to the highway that was the first leg of our journey without running into any real problems. Hannah and I spoke little, simply enjoying each other’s company.

But as we reached the highway and started making our way along it, I felt a dark mood begin to infiltrate my thoughts.

There was so much to worry about, in the long term and the short term.

My mood seemed to infect Hannah as well, because her own expression darkened, and it wasn’t long before she spoke up.

“Chris…”

“Yeah?”

She hesitated for a bit, then sighed softly. “I’ve been thinking. I guess...are we going to hit a point where we just can’t survive? Like, as a species? I feel like it’s going to run out. Animals. Plants. Eventually it’ll all run out. And if it will...I mean, will we live to see that extinction? Or will it be in a few hundred years?”

I sighed, considering it.

“Sorry to be so depressing.”

“No, it’s fair question. I mean, I don’t know. But it’s obvious some changes are going to need to happen. We need more sustainability. We need safe, heated places to farm. To breed animals and to grow crops. Maybe underground? I honestly don’t know. I’ve thought about it a lot myself. Honestly, the best I think we can hope for is to be able to live out our lives pretty much as we do now, if we’re lucky.”

“This could be a lot worse. For us personally,” Hannah murmured. She sighed after a moment. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to kill the mood, it’s just freaking me out.”

“I understand, and it’s important to be thinking about stuff like this, at least sometimes,” I replied. “You don’t want to get into the habit of just avoiding your problems.” I fell silent for a few moments, looking out over the vast Kansas desolation. This particular area of the state we’d come to was what it was most commonly known for: flatlands, plains. They’d started planting genetically modified fast-grow trees over the last decade, which was why we encountered so many forests now, but they hadn’t gotten to this particular area.

It seemed to go on forever off to the south.

“We’ll figure it out, Hannah,” I said finally. “It’s what we do.”

“And if we can’t?” she pressed.

I looked over at her. She stared back at me, her expression mostly flat, but a little grim. I think that was the difference between Hannah and Megan, and everyone else in our little social circle: they kept pushing until they got the bleak hard truth out of me.

“Then we all die a slow, painful death,” I replied. “Or, if we’re lucky, freeze to death in our sleep.”

She sighed and looked away.

“You asked,” I said, quietly.

“I know. I do that. I...don’t want lies, or platitudes, or bullshit. I want to know the truth, but I guess I already knew it. Maybe I just had to hear it.”

“I respect that,” I said.

She looked over at me, her expression changing from grim to more speculative, contemplative. We walked along for several moments in silence.

“What?” I asked finally.

“I was just thinking...of the difference between our relationships. Your relationships with us, I guess. And don’t worry, I’m not getting hung up on who you love more. You’re right about that. I’m having problems with some insecurity and jealousy, but I agreed to this. I agreed that you would have the others, and I agreed that you would be the only guy in my life, and I don’t regret that. Honestly, I haven’t ever met another guy that could measure up to you. But I am curious about the dynamics, about what you like in all of us...tell me.”

“Tell you what I like in each of you?” I asked. She nodded. I thought about it. “Well, obviously for you I like your tenacity, your hunger for knowledge, your willingness to learn and to do the right thing. Your bravery. I like Delilah’s honest sexuality and easy confidence, her kindness and friendliness. I like Elizabeth’s bravery as well. She went through so much. I like how dedicated she is to the community. I love Susan’s determination and grit and her-well, how much she wants to be dominated by me.”

“Dominated like...do you hit her?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Oh wow,” Hannah murmured. “I didn’t...I mean I’ve heard of that. How have you not broken a bone or something? She’s so tiny and you’re so huge.”

I laughed. “It’s less hitting more slapping...and choking. Tossing around. We haven’t done it that much. Also, keep that on the down-low. She doesn’t really want it talked about. The only reason I’m telling you is because you’re part of the group now.”

“Okay. What about Lara? Besides the obvious.”

“Besides the fact that she’s a goddess? Her confidence, or raw sex appeal and how she owns it, her social grace...her fat ass and her huge tits…”

Hannah laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Next.”

“Megan’s a lot like you. Tenacious, brave, intense. I love how, despite how much she’s endured, she’s still willing to at least try to change, to give people a chance. And I love how badass she is. She’s as good a shot as you are, better, probably, because she’s had more practice. I love that she’s trying, and succeeding, to grow and change for the better.”

“What about my mom?” Hannah murmured.

“I love her strength,” I replied. “How much she cares about everyone. How far she’s willing to go to help people. How much she’s stepped up after decades of stepping back more often than not. How much she cares about you.”

We were quiet for several long minutes after that. Hannah seemed to be processing it.

“I think it’s going to take me awhile to really adjust to the fact that you’re sleeping with me and my mom, and that you love us both. I don’t know if it’s something I could tolerate with anyone else, but you...I guess, I’m so glad she has you. It’s weird and uncomfortable and I don’t really want to talk about it, but despite all that, my dad treated her like shit for years, and not only did she not deserve it, she never let it make her into a bad person. And she deserves just...a great guy who treats her amazingly, and that’s who you are and what you’re doing.”

“She feels the same way about you,” I said. “She’s so happy that someone like me is your first real relationship. Although I think she’s conflicted because being with me also means I’m going to turn you into a survivalist who risks her life for other people…”

“I was going to do that anyway. If anything, I’ll be more effective at staying alive and better protected because I’m with you,” Hannah replied.

“Yeah, that’s why she’s conflicted. Your mom is more of a...I want to a ‘stay at home and not do anything too risky’ kind of person.”

“I know. I’m just glad she doesn’t try to talk me out of stuff like this.” She paused. “Well, she doesn’t try too hard, anyway...fuck, man. I can’t believe how far we’ve come. When I met you I was so fucking mad at you, I hated you so much I wanted to punch you in the face. And now I’m in love with you and we’re traveling the countryside to rescue people.”

“It’s been a pretty wild ride so far.”

She grinned. “I intend to make it wilder. You owe me a lot of sex, because I have been holding myself in check for days now and I am fucking losing it, Chris. Especially after watching Delilah and Lindsay have sex last night.”

“How...was that, by the way? Did it weird you out?”

“I thought it might, but...it was hot. Didn’t last too long, though. Delilah asked my mom to take over babysitting for a bit so they could, you know, get it on. But Delilah felt bad about passing it off to my mom, even though she was happy to do it, so she cut it off early. But, uh, Delilah and Lindsay both look great naked. And although I’m not into girls far enough to actually...do anything, I do really like to watch, I guess. It was...intense.”

“We’ll get it sorted out,” I replied. I looked ahead of us, at the great stretch of snowy highway that lay before us, and sighed softly. “Let’s pick up the pace.”

SEVEN

“Hey, there’s a building,” I said as I caught sight of a structure up ahead, on the north side of the highway, among some trees. We’d been walking for four hours now. I wasn’t interested in stopping to search the cars we passed beyond a bare basic scope, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to see if there were any clues in any of the buildings we’d pass.

“What do you think it is?” Hannah replied.

“Not sure, maybe a rest stop or a garage of some kind. Good chance Megan’s team stopped there. Let’s check it out.”

I noticed some vague reluctance in Hannah’s posture as we began drifting towards the right, but she didn’t say anything. Did she not want to stop? I mean, I didn’t want to, but we had to be diligent. We had no idea what had happened. For all I knew, they could all have been massacred, or froze to death in their sleep.

It was a gut-wrenching thought, but I’d rather know than pass them by and just keep on searching for them forever.

Maybe something else was bugging her. Bad things had happened to her. I’d killed her dad. She’d not only had to murder another human being for the first time, and violently, but several. She’d had to leave the place that was her home, even if she hated it, march across the state, and come to a new home only to find she immediately had to pick up and embark on a rescue mission, or stay behind and help desperately hold the new home together as it threatened to come apart, which seemed inevitable no matter how hard we tried.

Only…

Stopping to look at it, I had to admit that none of that felt right. Jessica, Susan, even Lara, they had all forced me to confront my guilt over this. Most of it wasn’t my fault, despite how I felt. Hannah understood the situation with her father wasn’t going to end in anything but bloodshed, and that if that was the case, then he had to die. I thought the battle with the hunters had shaken her up, but overall she was handling it pretty well.

And she had volunteered, actually pushed her way onto this trip.

So what the fuck was bothering her?

The crisis back at Pine Lake? Maybe. It was sure bothering me. But she’d actually seemed happy, up until we started heading towards the structure. It was much closer now. I didn’t see signs of life, but I pulled my pistol out as we began making our way slowly down a hill beside the highway. Was it the building itself? The fact that we were breaking to search? No, obviously I was missing something, but if I’d learned anything over the past several months, it was that women were my blind spot. Or maybe it was just human interaction.

It was probably super obvious and I just wasn’t seeing it.

“Stay sharp,” I said as we hit level ground and began approaching the structure.

“Yep,” she replied, her own piece out now.

She at least still seemed to know when to focus up. Pistols out, we advanced across the snowscape, our boots crunching in the powdery substance. It was quiet, the winds dead, the trees unmoving. I felt my guts beginning to churn, an anticipation building, and genuinely couldn’t tell if I was picking up on some subtle sign or if I was just so worked up over the state of Pine Lake and Megan being missing.

The building definitely looked like an old garage, the kind of place a semi-retired mechanic might keep to take on more basic jobs when he felt the urge. There was probably a house somewhere nearby, but I couldn’t see it anywhere.

We did our usual thing, making a perimeter check, peering cautiously in through the windows, (most of which were broken or so covered with dirt and snow that they were opaque.) The tension still hadn’t abated as we came around to the front door, and after a moment’s indecision, I decided to go back to the side-door I’d seen. Hannah didn’t ask as I led the way back there. I listened closely as I came to rest outside the door.

There seemed to be nothing to hear.

I tried the handle. The door gave with some resistance and way too much sound. Well, there went the element of surprise, not that I thought we had it to begin with, honestly. If anyone was inside, unless they were passed out, they had to know we were here by now. I aimed my gun inside, looking into a dimly lit room that might once have served as a simple office. I saw the vague remains of frozen bootprints on the floor.

Someone had been here recently.

Hannah and I moved as silently as we could across the office, checking any potential hiding spots and finding nothing. The only other door in the room was open, leading into a large garage bay that took up about two thirds of the structure. It was a large, mostly empty room, with only a collection of old tires, vacant shelves, broken furniture, and boxes along the edges. We checked it and the final two rooms: a little entrance lobby and a bathroom. Everything came up empty. There was more evidence of someone having been through semi-recently, multiple someones. A fire had been started in an old barrel and I saw the remains of a meal.

“I think they took shelter here,” I murmured, studying the barrel, “but they wouldn’t have been that much slower than us. Which means they saw something dangerous and were trying to wait it out, or a storm came on.”

“Probably a storm,” Hannah said. “I heard there were a ton of them over the past few weeks.”

“Of course,” I muttered. “Hope we don’t see any. All right, go back and check the office, then the other two rooms, see if there’s any notes or anything, any useful supplies, I’ll take the garage. Move quick, no in-depth search, we have to keep going.”

“Got it,” Hannah replied, and hurried off.

Five minutes passed, then ten, and finally a quarter of an hour crawled by in chilled, agitated mystery as I hunted for some kind of clue. I wanted desperately to move on, but I was also strangely paranoid that I might miss something important. No one was dead or injured, at least not here, from what I could tell. What was I searching for then? I guess food or other useful supplies Megan might’ve missed.

In the end, we ended up together in the garage, nothing in hand, and itching to move on. This time, we headed into the lobby and went to leave through the main exit. As I reached for the handle, I paused, something catching my eye.

“What?” Hannah asked immediately.

“A sign,” I replied.

There, on the wooden frame of the door, someone had drawn a crude heart with charcoal. Inside the heart was M+C.

“Megan and Chris,” Hannah murmured. She sounded uncomfortable.

“Maybe she thought I’d come after her,” I said, studying it. It was possible that it meant something else, but...I didn’t think so. It was recent, and she had a distinctive way of making Ms for some reason, and it looked like hers. They all told me she missed me, so it all added up to: Megan had drawn this before leaving.

Maybe because she was lonely, or because she hoped (or worried) I’d have to come after her.

I knew that if I had to go on a journey like this, I’d want her with me, but that hadn’t been an option when she set out.

“Come on,” I said, opening the door and stepping back out, “let’s get back to it.”

~

Hannah’s mood had soured, and I kept waiting for her to speak up.

We walked for two solid hours in silence once we got back onto the highway, and she didn’t say a single thing. I couldn’t tell if she was mad at me, mad in general, or some other unhappy emotion, but finally I’d had enough at around the two-hour mark.

“Hannah,” I said, and she jumped, startled, looking over at me. “You started this trip so happy that it was going to be the two of us. And now you’re pissed off or upset about something, and it’s been two goddamned hours. What is it? If we’re going to have to march through the snow together, we should at least try to be happy. I mean, we’re in a brand new, awesome relationship.”

She offered a weak smile and looked away briefly. “I’m worried,” she admitted, looking back in my direction, but not quite at me.

“About what, exactly?”

She sighed. “Megan.”

“Why? I mean if you’re worried she won’t like you-”

“It’s not that,” Hannah said, then grimaced slightly. “I mean, I guess that is a concern. But that’s not what I’m worried about. It’s just-” She hesitated, a look of intense unhappiness clouding her beautiful face. “I just fucking found you! I’ve never had a good relationship in my life. At most, they were kind of fun. I just never connected with anyone, not like this. I’m in love with you. I’ve never felt like this before! I didn’t even know I could feel like this! I thought people talking about love was just bullshit but obviously it wasn’t, I get happy just seeing you, having sex with you is the most amazing thing ever, I love just being in a room with you, and I’m not used to this! But I know that I want to keep this going, and I’m scared of losing it, and I knew going into it that there would be other women, but I was just...hoping to get more time with you before…”

“Before what?” I asked. “What do you think is going to change when we find Megan?”

“It’s obvious she’s more...I don’t know, significant to you. I suspected it before I actually met the others, but now it’s obvious.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked. “I told you, I love you all-”

“Equally, but differently. Yes, I know. And I believe you, honestly. But you can’t deny that it’s...different. With her. And with me. Lara and Susan love you, but they have each other. Delilah has Lindsay. Elizabeth has her son to raise. My mom...I mean, it’s obvious she’s so into you, but I think she misses having friends, and she’s going to settle right in and be happy to work around town and build friendships with other people. But you and Megan have each other. And I’ve always had...difficulty, bonding with people. Part of it is I just don’t really want to. I mostly liked being alone, doing my own thing, but it’s different now. Meeting you...changed that. All of it. I’m not saying I want you all to myself, but I’m saying that what you and I have is kind of different than what you have with everyone else...except for Megan. And that’s going to change once she comes back.”

We’d stopped walking, much as I didn’t want to, because I could tell this was important, and Hannah was close to losing it.

“Come here,” I said, stepping closer and opening my arms. She immediately hugged me, clung to me really. “Hannah…”

“I know I’m being difficult,” she muttered.

“You’re scared and upset, that isn’t just ‘being difficult’. You’re having a problem, and it matters, and I want to help you.” I considered my words for a moment as I hugged her, then gently pulled her back and stared into her eyes. She was maybe three inches she shorter than me, the tallest of my ‘harem’, as Lara would put it. “Our relationship is going to be difficult at times,” I began, “not just because of regular stuff, but also because we’re both going to be so busy. And I think you have to start preparing yourself for that fact.

“It’s not just that there’s going to be the others in the relationship, but also what Lisa said. You’re an exceptional person, Hannah. You’re smart and fast and brave, you’re willing to do difficult and dangerous things, and that is in very high demand right now. You’re going to be expected to step up, like I did, and continue to do. Sometimes, we’ll get lucky, and it’ll be something like this: something we can do together. But sometimes it might mean being apart for a few days, or a week, or maybe longer. And we’ll have to learn how to be apart from each other. That’s the life we’re choosing. And you should think about the time I spend with Megan, or any of the other girls, as a smaller version of that. Sometimes Megan will want me to herself for a day, sometimes you will, sometimes Lara will. That’s fair, we agreed to that.”

“That’s easy for you to say, you’ll never be the one alone,” she replied.

“I mean...yeah,” I admitted.

“It’s okay, I’m not really mad,” she murmured. Now she just seemed tired after the emotional eruption. I knew how she felt. “I mean that. I don’t want you thinking I’m bitter and jealous because you go spend time with the others. Honestly, Chris, I can only handle one real relationship. I’m a loner, and as much as I love you, and love being around you...my mom warned me about this a few years ago when were talking about relationships. She told me at first, when I really fall in love, I’ll never want to be apart from the person. I’ll want to be around them every minute, awake or asleep. But after a few weeks, maybe a few months if you’re lucky, I’ll start slipping back to normal, because you can’t stay that way forever. And my ‘normal’ is ‘leave me the fuck alone’. I don’t think I’ll say that to you or anything, probably, unless you really piss me off, but I will want days to myself. So I think it’ll all even out in the end.”

I stared at her for a moment. “Wait, if you knew that, why’d you freak out then?”

She sighed heavily. “Because I’m in love for the first time in my life, I have anger problems, and I’m having an overload of emotions right now! On top of the stress of what happened to Pine Lake, and the fact that they’re looking to me to help solve their problems!”

“...yeah, okay, that’s fair,” I said.

She laughed and started walking again. “Come on, we should keep going.”

I caught up with her and we resumed our walk. “So you feel better?”

“Yeah, although…”

“Although?” I hazarded.

“I guess my real problem is that Megan’s the only one that intimidates me.”

“I thought you said Lara intimidates you?”

“I mean...okay, she does, but it’s not the same anymore. You showed me something without realizing it, I think.”

“And that is?”

“Big tits and a perfect fat ass are great, but at the end of the day, you want someone who can keep up with you when it comes to survivalist stuff and staying alive. And that’s me...and Megan.”

“So you think she’s the only real competition.”

“...yeah. If I’m being arrogant and honest. Don’t get me wrong, I love and respect all the others, but...am I wrong?”

I thought about it for several long minutes. “This is getting uncomfortably close to ‘who do you love more’ territory…”

“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to. But give me an honest answer.”

“If I’m being totally honest...yeah, I guess you’re right. But we all value different things, and I find different things attractive in different people. I’m not measuring Lara or Susan or Elizabeth on their survivalist skills. I’m not measuring you on how good you suck dick.”

“Was that a shot!?” she cried in honest surprise.

“No,” I replied.

“But you’re saying I don’t suck dick as good as the others?” she asked, staring at me in a way I couldn’t quite tell if she was actually mad or only playfully mad.

Maybe it was some of both.

Probably shouldn’t have said it, but I did want to kind of nip these comparison games in the bud. She kept coming back to them.

“You’ve never done it before, of course you aren’t as skilled as the others. I didn’t say you were bad, though. And honestly, practice makes perfect.”

“I cannot believe you,” she said, “how, in the same sixty seconds, can you insult my dick-sucking skills and then ask me to suck your dick more!?”

“I didn’t insult them!...are you mad? Like for real?”

She stared at me for a long moment, lips pursed. “No, not really,” she admitted finally. “Maybe a little irritated, but yes, I’ll admit it: you have a point. We all offer different things. I should stop it with stuff like this.”

“You’re pretty sharp,” I murmured. “I do like that about you. Although it means I’ll probably never be able to successfully lie to you.”

“You’d lie to me?”

“I mean, probably not, but what if it was important? You’re saying you’ll never lie to me, ever?”

“...I’m not saying that exactly, I guess...I’m more asking how we feel about lies, as a couple? Is it okay to lie?”

“I don’t know. Let’s just agree to lie to each other as little as possible. Sound good?”

“Fine by me,” she replied.

We marched on.

EIGHT

“So did I miss something? Why are these cans of shredded beef so common?” Hannah asked.

I glanced over. She was down on her hands and knees, probing beneath the space under the counter of the small convenience store we’d discovered after another few hours of walking. We’d decided to check it for supplies and signs of Megan’s crew.

I hesitated before answering, standing behind her and checking a nearby shelf. Her ass looked so amazing in the cold weather pants she wore.

She was such a fit, sexy woman.

“I’m not entirely sure why, but I do remember there was this huge surge of popularity in shredded beef at the beginning of the decade,” I replied finally. “I remember seeing it everywhere. Although it seems to have been especially popular in the Midwest. I’ve come across a ton of them. Just one of those things, I guess…”

“You sound distracted,” Hannah replied as she went back to searching.

“Your ass is amazing.”

She laughed. “Is it now?” She shifted back out from beneath the counter and looked back at me over her shoulder, then wiggled her ass at me. “Can I entice you into fucking me?”

“Hannah, you can always do that. Easily,” I replied. “You are insanely hot.”

“Then fuck me,” she said.

“Like that, on the floor?” I replied, stepping forward.

“No,” she said, and stood. “It’s too rough on my knees.” She walked slowly towards me, smirking, swinging her hips, then walked past me, around the counter to the front of it. There, she leaned forward, bracing herself against it with both hands. “But I don’t mind being bent over.”

“You’re getting more adventurous,” I murmured as I walked over behind her and settled my hands on her hips.

“I’ve always been adventurous,” she replied, then grunted as I pulled her back a bit farther by her hips, then pushed her down more. “It’s just that now that I’ve actually had sex and I’m around someone I want to have sex with...I can be sexually adventurous.”

“You want foreplay?” I asked as I reached around and up under her and started to undo her pants. I sighed suddenly and got out of my pack, then helped her quickly out of her own. They were bulky and in the way.

“No, I’m wet and horny now. We really just need a quickie, honestly,” she replied.

“Yeah,” I agreed, myself already hard and ready to go. I got her pants undone and pulled them, the thermal underwear, and her regular pair of panties down, exposing that tight, pale ass of hers. She shivered slightly as I pulled my dick out.

“Come on, hurry up,” she murmured.

“Stop complaining,” I replied.

“Hey, I’m not one of your little submissive sluts,” she fired back.

“That’s what they all say,” I replied, “and then…”

I slipped a little bit into her and she moaned and shuddered. “You have a lot of nerve if you think...aaaahhh...shit…” she moaned.

“What was that?” I asked. “If I think what?” I started stroking deeper into her, relishing and bathing in the hot, wet pleasure that was her slick, tight pussy.

“If you think...that I’m gonna...oh my fucking God this is so good,” she whispered, panting. She hung her head, losing her train of thought again.

“Still haven’t finished your sentence, Hannah,” I murmured, running my hands across her ass and settling them on her hips as I fucked her, burying my whole rigid length into her again and again. God, she felt so fucking good!

“I’m not gonna-mmm!-just roll over and submit, goddamnit!” she snapped.

“You sure about that?” I asked.

“Hey, I enticed you,” she replied, then moaned loudly.

“Yes you did,” I said. As I kept fucking her, Hannah pressing her hot ass against my lap, inviting me deeper into that wonderful pussy of hers, something occurred to me. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked, head coming back up.

“Nothing, just...not sure where I’m gonna come,” I replied. For a moment, I was suddenly reminded of doing almost this exact thing with Jessica not all that long ago in another abandoned store. That made the orgasm want to come out that much faster. “Your pussy will make a huge mess and you hate the taste…”

“Just...pull out and bust between my legs,” she said. “Onto the front of the counter or the floor, I don’t care.”

I hesitated, then realized she was right. “Oh...okay.”

She laughed, then moaned. “Did you seriously never think of that before?”

“I...shut up for a minute…” I replied.

She began to respond but was cut off as I started fucking her faster and harder, and then all that was left was her panting moans of ecstasy.

I went for as long as I could, then pulled out. Apparently, she was ready. As soon as I pulled out, my dick falling out of her and between her legs, she reached down, gripped it, and started jerking me off. I groaned as I started shooting my load onto the floor. I heard her gasp in surprise as I did, but she kept going, pumping me as the pleasure erupted and shattered my ability to think for several long seconds.

She drained me and then slowly released her hold on me.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I tucked myself away and zipped up.

“That was so much,” she said as she pulled her own clothing back up. “Fuck, it startled me, the first time your dick jerked. It was really strong. It feels so...forceful.”

“It is,” I replied. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That was good.”

“Yes,” she agreed, turning around and favoring me with a satisfied grin. It faded suddenly. “...I wanna do it again.”

I laughed. “Me too, but we have to keep moving.”

“Ugh, this sucks! I finally start having sex and there’s no time for it.”

“I promise, we’ll fuck tonight. Several times, it’ll be great.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she replied.

I glanced over towards the door and paused as I saw another hastily scrawled charcoal heart next to it, again with the M+C.

I took it as a good sign.

We resumed our search.

~

The first day came to a close half an hour after sundown when we found an abandoned camper in a small field beside the highway.

Part of me wanted to keep pushing, but I’d already pushed too far and we’d been lucky to find the camper as it was. I was just desperate to find Megan. It helped that after we secured it and made sure no one was inside, I found another heart scrawled on the wall next to the door and there were signs they’d been there.

Someone had rigged up a little wood-burning stove on the counter that vented out a window, and after making completely sure we were alone, Hannah got a fire going and I checked the locks on everything. Remarkably, all the windows were intact, though a few were cracked, and most were too caked over with frost or dirt to see through. I made sure they were all locked, not that it mattered too much, given the level of frost covering them. It’d be next to impossible to open them from the outside even if they were unlocked, and then get into the camper quietly.

But...I was a paranoid person.

More paranoid than ever because my nerves were jumping like grease in a frying pan thanks to my intense desire to find Megan, Melanie, and the others.

So far, we hadn’t found any signs of death or bloodshed or combat, but it would be easy to miss in a place that was covered in snow and had experienced several storms recently. Once I was done securing the place, Hannah and I went through the motions quickly of bunking down for the night. We gathered firewood and snow to be melted, and then we ate quick dinners. I ate two cans of tuna and a can of peaches.

Part of me wanted to just tough it out and ration, but I knew how much hunger weakness could affect you if you had a hard, long walk ahead of you, and we sure as hell did.

“How far did we make it?” Hannah asked as she got her boots off.

“Not completely sure, but probably about three quarters of the way of our first leg. We should hit the off-ramp we’re looking for before noon tomorrow if we have similar conditions to today. I doubt we’ll reach the end of our next leg by tomorrow night, but we should be able to make decent progress,” I replied.

“Cool...can we get to bed? I’m so fucking horny,” Hannah said.

I glanced over at her. She was staring at me intensely, stripped down to her underclothes already. She was tense, almost like she was ready to pounce on me.

I had to admit, I did miss being with a woman who was exploring sex for the first time. It had only happened to me a few times.

“Yes, go wash up,” I replied.

“Thank you!” she said, grinning fiercely as she gave me a quick kiss and then hurried to the back of the camper. It wasn’t a very large vehicle, there was hardly any real privacy. The bed we were going to be sleeping in was in its own little niche at the back, up against the rear wall, with only a curtain for privacy, had we needed it.

I went through the chores that needed to be done as quickly as I could. Although it was probably only around seven PM at this point, I was tired, and I’d be more tired after the sex and probably be asleep before nine. Which was fine by me. Meant I could wake up somewhere around five in the morning, get all the shit out of the way, and be hitting the road by sunrise, making the absolute most out of the daylight while we had it.

Once everything was done, I started stripping.

Hannah was already completely naked, laying on the bed. Posing, actually. She was smirking at me, lying on her side with one knee drawn up, her hand propping up her head, like a porn star modeling. She looked absolutely fantastic.

“Good fucking lord you are hot,” I said as my clothes came off.

“Thank you,” she replied, blushing.

“I imagine you hear that a lot. Or have.” I finished stripping and I saw her eyes dip briefly to my cock. I had a full erection at this point and I was desperate to use it.

“Yeah, I have,” she replied. “It gets old after awhile. ‘Wow you’re so hot!’ Plus about a thousand variations on the same dozen pickups lines.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean yeah it’s nice to know people are attracted to me, but it’s...different with you. I mean we’re dating and in love, but also you really appreciate things about me beyond the fact that I’m really physically fit and have red hair and clear skin. You like...the whole package.”

“I sure do,” I said, washing up quickly.

The second I was done cleaning up, I jumped onto her. She let out a shriek of surprise as I landed, my hands on either side of her head, knees on either side of her legs.

“Fuck, you scared me!” she said, then laughed.

“It’s exciting,” I replied, “it’ll make you hornier.”

“I’m already so fucking horny I’m gonna-”

I interrupted her with a kiss and she moaned, reaching up and grabbing me. I lowered myself until I was laying at her side, partially on her, and cupped one of her firm breasts in my grasp. Her tits felt so amazing, so perky and firm and they fit perfectly into my hand. I groped her as she shoved her tongue into my mouth, as her hands roved over my body, touching me everywhere she could. She was hungry, starving for attention.

I got to work attending to her.

My finger found her clit, and as they rejoined merrily for the first time in a little while, it didn’t take long to work her into a frenzy. She screamed and moaned, her body twisting and thrashing in the little space we had, and I had her coming within a minute. Then I started fucking her with my fingers as I sucked on her perfect tits, and had her coming again inside of another two minutes. After that second orgasm, she laid back, panting, gasping.

“Oh fuck,” she whispered, “that was such a release…”

I laid on my back. “How about you get some more dick-sucking practice in?”

“You know, Chris,” Hannah said, a stern tone entering her voice as she sat up and brushed some of her vividly red hair back from her face, “I’m not like Lara or Susan or...some of the others. I don’t get off on being told what to do.”

She started shifting position.

“And yet,” I replied as she wrapped her fingers around my cock and leaned in, “you’re doing it.”

She looked up at me. “Because I’m nice and I’m your girlfriend. If I were you I wouldn’t be such a smartass with your dick and balls so near my hands and mouth.”

“Is it really bugging you?” I asked, reaching down and running my fingers through her hair.

She laughed. “...actually, no. I kinda like the...is it fighting? Are we fighting? Like play-fighting?”

“I prefer the term teasing. Friendly teasing. I did the same thing with Megan when we first hooked up and it kind of kept up. I’m not actually trying to be mean.”

“I know. You’re too nice for that. You do change when you get naked and have sex, though.”

“Change how?”

“Hmm...it’s hard to describe. You’re more...caveman, almost? Not stupider or meaner or rougher...well, actually, yeah. You are rougher. Not that I’m complaining. You get more commanding. There. That’s the best way I can describe it.”

“How do you feel about that?”

She blushed. “I...like it.”

“Even though you’re ‘not like the others’?”

She sighed. “Yeah.”

“Fine then.” I settled my hand over the back of her head and pulled a little. “Suck me.”

She let me pull her head into my lap and started licking my cock. I let go of her and put my hands behind my head, watching her work. Her lips looked so good, sliding up and down my shaft, her head bobbing smoothly. She seemed cautious and I was grateful, remembering the first time when she’d accidentally used her teeth. Hannah sucked me off, occasionally pausing and licking across the head, sending shivers of pure hot bliss into me. I could tell she was impatient. When she stopped again and looked up at me, I spoke up.

“Okay, let’s fuck,” I said.

She looked grateful. “Can we do it doggystyle? That was really hot. And it feels so good.”

“Yes,” I replied.

We quickly got into position. It was tough, given how tall I was, but there was just enough room for her on her hands and knees and me on my knees behind her. I ran my hands over her bare ass. It was so damned fit and taut, so smooth and pale and athletic. Hannah was a picture of physical fitness, made of long, lean muscle, trim and spare and beautiful. Her pussy was a glistening slit between her slim thighs.

I quickly began working my way into her. She moaned loudly, her head hanging as she began to lose control. It wasn’t long before I’d slipped all the way inside of her, burying my whole cock in that fantastically tight pussy.

Grabbing her hips, I started stroking into her.

“Oh my fucking-OH CHRIS! YES! FUCK! IT’S SO GOOD! KEEP DOING IT! HARDER!” she screamed.

“You asked for it,” I replied. Then I gave her ass a hard slap, got a better grip on her hips, and started hammering away at her.

Submissive or not, Hannah definitely liked rough sex.

I kept at it for as long as I could, feeling the trailer shifting with the motion of our sex, and got her to come twice more before I started losing my hold on my own orgasm.

“You gonna come soon?” she panted, looking back at me.

“Yep,” I replied.

“I wanna take it in the mouth.”

“Well I won’t say no to that. Sure you can do it fast enough? ‘Cause you’ll have to go pretty fast once I warn you.”

“I can do it,” she replied, giving me the same look she gave me when she was trying to convince me that she could handle something dangerous.

I had to give it to her, she was pretty confident in whatever she did.

And that just made her hotter to me, which meant-

“Okay go!” I called, pulling out of her.

A look of surprise came over her face but she was already in action, twisting around to face me. She just barely managed to get my cock in her mouth and start sucking before I began letting off. I let out a loud cry of absolute rapture as she sucked me off, taking my load in her mouth. I lost myself for a bit there, the pleasure blossoming, expanding, consuming me. Hannah took it all, sucking me dry as I pumped my load into her willing mouth.

She sucked until I was done, and I gently patted her head, gasping for breath.

She took it out of her mouth, made a face, then grabbed for a bottle of water she’d set nearby. She drank from it, got some more, swished it around in her mouth, then spit it on the floor, out of the way. I almost said something but what the hell, we weren’t staying here for that long.

“Gross,” she muttered.

“Sorry,” I replied, “but you offered.”

“I know. It’s actually not as bad as last time.”

“Why’d you offer? Not that I’m complaining.”

“I want round two, and it’ll come quicker if I don’t have to clean up my pussy,” she replied. She reached down and started toying with my dick, which was still semi-rigid. “Think you can get it up again? I want to take a ride.”

“Yeah, go for it,” I replied, laying back down.

She grinned and began mounting me.

NINE

The next morning was uneventful.

I woke up once, cold, and found that the fire had gone out. That panicked me a little, but I managed to get it going without any real problem. It was just that we weren’t used to this setup of stove. When I woke up in the morning, it was almost dead, but we restarted it again and began our morning routine.

There was a brisk efficiency to Hannah that I appreciated and even admired. I could quickly tell that we worked excellently together as a team. We woke before sunrise and fucked furiously until both of us had come, then washed and set to it. All of her movements were much like my own: fast, quick, efficient.

We didn’t really need to say anything to each other as we moved around the RV.

We hit the road and were underway as the sun rose on the frozen landscape around us. As we walked, I suddenly found myself thinking of my journal. I hadn’t written in it for some time. Weeks. Months, almost. That wasn’t exactly unusual, but still…

It was exactly where it always was, and still, no one knew about it. Or, at the very least, I thought no one knew about it. If they’d noticed somehow, no one had said anything. For awhile, I’d tossed around the idea somewhere in the back of my mind that I’d show it someday to the woman I loved, if she wanted. But now I loved seven women, so I had a conundrum. It wasn’t that big a deal, I supposed. It wasn’t like it was some kind of fucking manifesto or I wrote down fucked up shit in there, because fucked up shit didn’t go on in my head.

...mostly.

Ultimately, I guess, there was nothing in there I wouldn’t say to someone I loved. Maybe the only thing that might bug one or a few of them was the list at the back.

The list of all the women I’d slept with since the apocalypse had begun.

The last time I’d looked, the number was approaching fifty. God, fifty. That was a lot. Or was it? Maybe it wasn’t much for the kind of life I was living. I’d turned women down before, I’d had to choose more than once. How it used to go was if I came to a settlement, I tended to hook up with someone and then, most of the time, they’d move in with me or I with them. We’d fuck regularly until I left. But I could’ve had a different girl every night, if I’d really put in the effort. Only I tended to want even the semblance of a relationship.

Would Susan be mad about that list? Would Megan? Hannah?

Lara and Delilah would probably high-five me.

I wanted to show the journal to them, I realized as I walked along that frozen, snow-swept highway. But I wanted to show it to Megan first, which made me feel guilty. But it just felt right. Megan and I...she’d come first, besides Delilah, but Delilah would understand. Things like that didn’t bother her. She was just confident, and honestly she had every reason to be. But I knew it would bother Megan if I showed anyone else first, and it would mean a lot to her if I showed her first. That was a decision I came to quickly: I’d show her my journal.

Let her read it.

Maybe she wouldn’t care, but it was a thing that meant a lot to me.

I’d literally killed men for it.

My initial guess turned out to be right: we found the off-ramp we were looking for about an hour before noon. (It was so nice having a watch now.)

We broke for lunch after getting to the bottom of the ramp and finding a car, and then we kept on pushing, now following a road heading southbound. It was a long, lonely stretch of road, only a few derelict, snow-blanketed cars for company. We spent the next several hours walking, pushing ourselves forward, stopping only to check the vehicles as quickly as we could and then moving on again.

I wanted to see Megan. I wanted to know that she was all right.

And then I wanted to finish this job, which was, itself, going to be a huge pain in the ass. I didn’t even know how we were going to haul a shitload of supplies back to Pine Lake. We’d obviously have to find some sort of vehicle, but…

One thing at a time.

That was how I’d dealt with all my other problems.

“I got a question,” I said as we made our way down the road after a few hours of silence.

“Shoot,” Hannah replied.

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, and don’t think I’m trying to push you into anything, but...would you ever, like...experiment, with another woman?”

She looked over at me and I immediately felt heat rushing to my face. She laughed. “You wanna see me do it Delilah or Lara, huh?”

“I mean...yeah. I’d also like to have some threesomes with you,” I replied. “But honestly, I genuinely do not want you to feel pressured into doing anything, okay?”

“I don’t, Chris,” she said, reaching out, taking my hand, and squeezing it briefly. “You’ve been very good about that, and I appreciate it. I feel safe with you and I trust you, and I honestly don’t think you’d ever try to push me into anything I wasn’t comfortable with. But as to the answer to your question...I don’t know,” she admitted after a moment. “I mean, I could see making out with a girl. I could see groping some tits. Maybe even sucking on some tits...that sounds nice, that gives me a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach, in a good way. And watching Delilah and Lindsay have sex...it did things for me. I mean, I used to watch lesbian porn sometimes, back when there was internet. But I don’t know, to be completely honest. As for threesomes...well, you know, I’ve been thinking about watching you have sex…”

“Yeah, and?” I pressed.

She laughed. “You’re really excited about this, huh?”

“It’s sex, yes I’m excited,” I replied.

“If I don’t mind making out with women, then I don’t think it’s really a stretch to join a woman in sucking your dick. And I also don’t think it’s a stretch to take turns riding your cock. I guess, I’m not comfortable with the thought of eating pussy. I don’t know why, it kinda weirds me out. Same with strap-on sex and rubbing pussies together. I don’t get the same feeling. But we could do threesomes as long as no one expects me to go, like, all the way with the other girl.”

“Oh my God, Lara is going to be so happy. Delilah, too. And-”

Something caught my eye and in a flash I grabbed for my rifle, dropped to one knee, and put the scope to my eye. I could hear as much as sense Hannah doing the same. Goddamn that girl’s reflexes were good.

Maybe a hundred yards ahead of us was a van on the side of the road. The back doors were open and I saw a leg sticking out, hanging over the side.

“Think they’re alive?” she murmured.

“Not sure. Probably not, but...let’s watch a minute longer,” I replied.

We held our position, cold air burning our lungs, waiting. Waiting.

The leg didn’t move an inch.

I sighed. “Stay here, keep watch. I’ll go down there and check it out. Once I give the all clear, I’ll keep watch while you join me.”

“Got it,” she replied, her voice tight.

I stood up and slung my rifle, then made sure my pistol was easy to get to, the holster undone. And then I started walking. Something like this could be a trap. I let my senses spread out, trying to get a feel for whether or not I was being watched.

It was a long, long walk down that isolated stretch of road.

But it wasn’t lonely, at least. Not with Hannah at my back.

As I finally came upon the van, I got a more decent look at the situation. There was frozen blood on the back bumper, smeared, and more of it inside. The man within, the one whose leg was dangling out the back, was definitely dead. I saw a layer of frost on him, and several bloody wounds. I vaguely recognized him, but that mystery would have to hold off a little bit longer. I quickly checked out the rest of the van and the area around it, found no one hiding in wait, and then gave the all clear to Hannah.

Pulling my rifle back out, I gave her cover while she hurried down to join me.

“What’s happening?” she asked as she came up.

“Dead guy. I think he’s part of Megan’s team,” I replied, and then hauled myself up into the back of the van. “Keep watch.”

“On it,” she replied, pulling her pistol out.

I thought back to what Lisa had told me about the team they’d assembled. The dead man was named Ryan. He was someone I’d seen around town while I’d been living there, but I’d never really gotten to know him. He struck me as a loner, never really with anyone, often doing jobs by himself. He had a strong work ethic, and frequently I saw him going into the burned part of the city to do whatever jobs were required in there.

It was dangerous work, and I suddenly had a clear memory of watching him go into the ruined part of Pine Lake, and thinking: He’s looking to die, he just doesn’t want to do it himself. He always struck me as sad, in a hopeless kind of way. In a ‘life has lost all meaning’ kind of way. I’d wanted to ask Lisa or Melanie, someone who’d know, what had happened to him. His brand of sadness, for some reason, reminded me of Tanner…

Maybe that was why I’d avoided him and never asked.

Well, apparently life had finally obliged. He’d obviously been attacked by wolves. There were bite marks along one of his legs, one of his arms, and on his neck. I imagine Megan and the others had fought off the wolves and then dragged him here to try and patch him up. There were some signs of that having been attempted, but he’d clearly bled out before they could do it. He’d been searched, anything valuable save for his clothing taken.

The first casualty, as far as I knew.

“So do you know him?” Hannah asked quietly as I emerged.

“Yeah. He’s from Pine Lake. Name’s Ryan. Wolves got him,” I replied.

“I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t know him too well, but I’m sorry, too. I guess this means we’ll need to be more careful, keep a better eye out for wolves. Though there’s not a lot of places for them to hide…”

I took a look around. In the distance, farther down the road, was the beginnings of a forest, and a couple more cars strung out along the way.

“All right, come on,” I said, and struck off once more.

Hannah followed me, and our pace was quicker than before.

~

We walked for another hour.

After passing the cars and checking each briefly, (and finding nothing), we finally hit the forest. It was big, definitely one of the fast-grow forests that had been planted earlier in the decade. Now all the trees seemed like huge, bare gravestones. Monoliths presiding over a dead, frozen world. I saw movement in the forest. A deer off to the east maybe fifty yards out. Some rabbits jumping among the bushes along the forest floor. Birds flitting among the bare branches overhead. And darker shapes shifting around that could be wolves.

They were farther off, at least.

The road cut a path straight through the forest, leading dead south. In my mind’s eye, I could see the map. We had a ways to go down this particular road, but eventually it would lead to a dirt road that was going to be a bit harder to find. There was a landmark on the map, at least: a Y shaped tree. Hopefully it hadn’t been knocked over or chopped down.

I noticed Hannah was anxious, even now, an hour later she still hadn’t relaxed. I guess I hadn’t either, but I had learned how to maintain awareness without being too wound up...mostly. I think Hannah had developed a particular fear of wolves after that incident at the ranger’s station where almost a dozen of the gray bastards had come into the building after us and it had been a very near thing that we’d been lucky to walk away from. And why not be afraid? Wolves were fucking scary, especially nowadays.

We were about half an hour into the forest when it hit: the primal awareness that something was wrong.

I pulled out my pistol and looked around, going still otherwise. Hannah did the exact same thing. She looked to her side of the forest, and I looked to mine.

“Movement,” she said.

“Yep, here too,” I replied immediately as I saw three sleek gray shapes moving among the trees. Getting closer. “How many?”

“Two...no three. Maybe four? Shit,” she muttered.

“Get ready, we’re going back to back. Open fire as soon as you have a clear shot,” I said.

“Got it.”

We shifted to a better stance and I took aim, tracking the nearest wolf. Definitely three of them, heads low, and I heard one of them start growling as I aimed the pistol for it. They looked big, which might be a good sign. It was the scrawny wolves you really had to worry about, because they were fucking desperate. They needed to get meat or they were going to die. The bigger ones might be warned off if they weren’t starving.

I decided to see what we were dealing with here and pulled the trigger.

I missed, but one of the wolves on my side lost its nerve and turned tail. Fine by me. I shifted aim and fired once more as the lead wolf came at me, apparently undeterred. His buddy was hesitating. Behind me, Hannah opened fire. I heard her popping off several shots. I missed the second time, but the third shot nailed the lead wolf right between the eyes as he came within about ten feet of me. He skidded to a halt between the trees, his body kicking up snow. The final remaining wolf had decided to come for me but hesitated again when he saw his leader go down. I aimed and fired once more, hoping to put him down.

The bullet graze the wolf’s leg and that was enough to send him turning tail with his friend.

Hannah was still firing behind me. I quickly turned around to join her, but as soon as I took aim, I saw only the back legs of fleeing wolves.

“Did you kill any?” I asked.

“No. I wounded one but they all ran,” she replied. “You?”

“Got one,” I replied. “I’ll grab it and then we can get the hell out of here. If we’re lucky, they’ll stay away from us and we can put some distance between us and them.”

I holstered my pistol and jogged over to the dead wolf. It was a hefty bastard and I didn’t like the idea of hauling the corpse around, but food was food and something told me to do it. I got the thing slung over my shoulders, unhappy that it began bleeding onto my jacket, but there was really nothing to be done about that for the moment and I could clean it up later. Once I had the thing in my grasp, I rejoined Hannah and we set off.

~

Two long, unhappy hours passed.

Hannah took over the job of carrying the wolf for about half an hour out of that, but she just didn’t have the building for it like I did. She even asked at one point why we were bringing it, and the best I could do was that I wanted to gut it for food once we got somewhere to bed down for the night. Maybe that was true, or maybe I was just feeling the residual guilt of Pine Lake again. It wasn’t like they were all starving yet, but I had felt the tension there, before I’d left. Seen it in their haunted eyes. They didn’t think they were doomed, exactly, but they sure saw death hovering on the horizon, just waiting to come and get them.

As we came around a bend in the road, I saw that the right portion of the forest opened up into a clearing maybe fifty yards away.

And in that clearing, I saw what appeared to be a random collection of debris and vehicles.

“Get your rifle ready,” I said. “Might have to dive for the trees.”

“Got it,” Hannah replied.

We kept walking. As we got closer and more of the mishmash of stuff revealed itself, I realized I was looking at something a bit more intentional. Stacks of crushed cars. It took me a minute, but I finally had it: I was looking at a junkyard. As we drew closer, I realized it looked even more intentional than I’d initially thought. There were walkways of wood along the tops of the car-walls. The walls were about four cars high and there didn’t seem to be much in the way of gaps. A few of the walkways had crude fences.

As we got about halfway there, a figure appeared atop one of the walkways, saw us, and called out. “Hold it!”

“Don’t aim your rifle,” I said as we came to a halt. “They might be friendly.”

Hannah just grunted out a response.

“Hello!” I called.

“What do you want?!”

“We’re looking for some friends who passed by this way!”

A pause. Someone else climbed up onto the walkway, conferred with the man briefly, and then stepped back down.

“What’s that you’re carrying?!”

“Dead wolf!”

Another pause. “Okay, come closer! Slowly! We can talk!”

He was holding a rifle, though not actually pointing it at us, so that was a good sign at least. Hannah and I started walking.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked.

“There’s an excellent chance Megan and the others passed by here. We’ll talk with them, see if we can get any information out of them, maybe trade with them, at least get a feel for them. Probably we can trade this wolf for something. But be ready for the worst.”

She nodded and we walked on. The man stayed on the walkway, watching us, as we came closer, all the way until we got near the entrance, where a large door made of what appeared to be welded-together sheet metal set up on a very rudimentary rolling apparatus sat closed.

“Okay that’s close enough. Hold on a minute,” he said. I heard someone, a woman with a somewhat familiar voice, ask something within the camp. The man looked back briefly, then looked at me, then looked back again. “Yeah, he’s pretty big.” Another question, the man looked at Hannah now. “Yeah, she’s a redhead...why?”

I started feeling excitement stirring in my chest. Was she here?

It didn’t sound like Megan, but I couldn’t quite tell, the voice was muffled.

Suddenly, a familiar figure clambered up onto the walkway and looked down at us. “Chris!”

TEN

“Melanie!” I replied, relieved but also a little disappointed that it wasn’t Megan, and then feeling bad about that. It was Melanie, she was obviously okay, did that mean Megan was nearby?

“That’s definitely not Delilah,” she said, glancing curiously at Hannah.

“This is Hannah. She’s...my girlfriend,” I replied.

Melanie just cocked an eyebrow, then smirked, then looked at the man wielding the rifle. “Let them in. They can help.”

He hesitated briefly, studying us, deliberating.

Help with what? I didn’t have time to help.

“Okay, open the gate,” he said. “Be cool,” he added, looking at us.

“Got it,” I replied, and that appeared to put him at least a little more at ease.

There was a loud grinding squeal as the gate was rolled open. Hannah let her rifle hang by its sling, but kept her hand not far from her pistol, as we walked inside. I looked around, taking everything and everyone in as the gate was wheeled shut behind us. The interior of the junkyard had been cleared out and converted into a little settlement that had one of the most cobbled-together looks I’d ever seen. There were a pair of old RVs, three tents, two of them small, one of them the big square room-sized kind, an old van, an actual building that was little more than a trailer, similar to those you’d see at construction sites, and three small shacks that had been cobbled together with wood, sheet metal, and anything else that could be found.

Around a dozen people lingered in the area, all of them looking wary and uncertain with two strangers in their midst.

I took the opportunity to finally dump the wolf in a pile of snow, then popped my neck and back as Melanie walked over. I looked her up and down as she did the same to me. She looked as good as I remembered: tall, curvy, looking excellent in her heavy snow coat and jeans and hiking boots. She had a pistol on one big hip and a rifle across her back. I noticed she looked worse, though, than when I’d last seen her. She was a bit gaunter, a bit older, stressed.

Still really hot, though.

At fifty plus, she was the oldest woman I’d ever hooked up with, and judging from the look she was giving me, I had the idea that she wanted to pick up where we’d left off, as we’d kept hooking up about twice a week when I was living in Pine Lake.

She was an awesome fuck.

“Where’s Megan?” I asked.

“Gone on ahead with the others,” Melanie replied. “A few days ago. I had a feeling, well more of a hope, that you’d show up.” She looked over as the man holding the rifle came down and I took a measure of him now that we were standing eye-to-eye. He was tall but obviously had missed a few meals. He looked miserable, but steadfast, most of his face hidden behind a dark beard streaked with gray. He studied me with a wary, but confident, gaze. “Quinn, I need a quiet place with these two. We have some catching up to do.” When he hesitated, she pressed on. “You can trust him as much as you can trust me.”

Quinn studied me for a moment longer, then Hannah, then nodded slowly. “Okay, take my RV,” he said.

“Thank you. Come on, you two. We need to exchange some words,” Melanie said, then about faced and marched off with purpose in her stride.

Though I noticed she had a limp.

Hannah and I followed, and I couldn’t help but check out her ass. It still filled out those jeans, broad and thick and damn did I want to fuck her doggystyle right then. But I had to focus. Megan wasn’t here, which meant I needed to move on since Melanie seemed fine, but apparently she wanted my help, and I also wanted to know what had actually happened. Because the fact that we’d made it this far in just under two days, and they’d been gone for two weeks, meant that a hell of a lot must have gone wrong.

We followed her into one of the RVs and took a seat around a little dining nook.

“It’s so good to see you,” Melanie said, smiling at me. Then she hesitated and looked at Hannah. “You said girlfriend. Does she know…”

“I know about the other women. I know you two fuck sometimes,” Hannah replied.

Melanie laughed. “Blunt. A woman after my own heart. Figured you’d come back with another one.”

“He came back with four of us,” Hannah replied, and I couldn’t tell if she was annoyed or...bragging? About me? I guess it’d make sense, since she was in love with me.

Melanie raised an eyebrow again. “Four, Chris? You found four new girlfriends out there?”

“Yes,” I replied. “We’ll talk about it later. I got back to Pine Lake. Talked with Lisa. Things are bad there, obviously, and she caught me up to speed. She sent us after you. So what the hell happened? What went wrong?”

“What didn’t go wrong?” Melanie replied bitterly. She ran a hand through her red hair, sighing unhappily, looking out the window. “It was storms, mostly. You know how hard it is to travel even in a storm that isn’t all that bad. Honestly, we probably could’ve pressed on through one or two of them, but that storm that hit, the bad one...I’ve never seen anything like it. It scared the shit out of us, even Megan, who had lived through one already. We kept getting scared another one would whip up...but I guess you know all about it, you’ve been through two now, from what I hear.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I have. And I get it. It’s awful.”

“Yeah. Well, we set out, made it to a garage right as a storm hit. It was a bad storm and we lost a few days hanging out in that garage. Finally, the weather cleared up, we pushed on, and then the same fucking thing happened when we got to a rest stop. Had to hole up there for a few days too, then waste another day hunting, because we’d used so much of our food by then. It was almost a fucking week before we finally got off the damned highway. Once we got off the highway, that’s when the wolves hit us. There were a lot of them, and they killed Ryan. I tried to save him, but…”

“We came across him,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

She sighed softly. “Yeah. So was I. We fought, ran, then another storm came up out of nowhere. We got lost. Wandered for awhile, managed to find a house out in the woods and stayed there for another few days. Also had to waste more time hunting. By the time we finally found this place, our supplies were running low, and Fay was sick.”

“That’s the engineer, right?”

Melanie nodded. “Yeah. Quinn’s group has made this place their home for awhile now. Almost a year. They agreed to take us in, because we were pretty desperate, in pretty bad condition. We rested up here for a few more days, doing some hunting, helping them out as they helped us out. Their own situation is bad, too.”

“Why’d you stay behind?” I asked.

“You might’ve noticed my limp. I took a bad fall when I was out hunting a few days ago, just before Megan left. I’d just slow her and the group down. I tried to convince her to stay a bit longer, but she was getting desperate, and Fay seemed to be getting a little better. So the three of them left, to keep going and try and find their way to the bunker…” She hesitated, then her expression turned dire, almost beseeching. It was weird to see, given how confident Melanie normally was. She looked desperate. “Chris, we need your help. I know you want to press on, but we need your help. People are going to die if you don’t help right now.”

I glanced at Hannah. The look she gave me told me that in her eyes, it was my choice, I was the one leading this particular mission.

I looked back at Melanie. “Okay, what’s the problem? What can be done about it?”

The relief on Melanie’s face was obvious. “Everyone here has had a run of bad luck. There’s injuries, sicknesses, and they’re running out of food. That’s what I was doing when I hurt myself: going hunting. But there’s a lot of wolves in the area. And they don’t have that much ammo. There’s a potential quick fix to this, but it’s dangerous, and it might not pan out anyway. Regardless though, even you going hunting for the rest of the day would be a big help.”

“What’s the quick fix?” I asked.

“About half an hour’s walk from here, up a trail that’s hard to find, is a refugee camp built around a house. They managed to locate it only recently, but before they could get there, they got ambushed by wolves. And you have to go through wolf territory to get there. If you and Hannah could get there, and search the camp, see if there’s any food or medicine or ammunition, it would help a lot. I’d do it myself, but again…” She indicated her leg. “It’s not broken, but it’s in poor shape, and even if it wasn’t, I’m not as quick on my feet as I used to be.”

I considered it briefly. It was dangerous. Wolves were always dangerous, but I had to admit I was used to danger at this point. If it was any other circumstance I’d do it without hesitation. I think I’d proven that in the state park, when we’d stopped to help that group dealing with the assholes coming after them.

But Megan…

“How is she?” I asked finally. It was hitting me that I missed her even more than I realized.

“She’s...tired. And sad. But she’s been doing better,” Melanie replied, knowing immediately who I was asking about, her expression softening. “She misses you a lot, but she’s very close with Delilah and Elizabeth. Her and Lisa have gotten a lot closer too, and I’d say I’m friends with her. She’s gotten into far fewer fights than when you all first got here. I think she’s finally settling into a community, finally remembering how to trust people…” She paused, then reached out across the table and took my hand, making me look at her. “She’s okay, Chris. And she’ll be happy to see you.”

I smiled and tried for a light laugh but couldn’t manage it. “That’s good to hear,” I replied instead. “I’ve missed her a lot.”

“She missed you, too...come on, if you’re gonna help, we should get you started. And you should probably get used to the idea of spending the night here. By the time you’re finished with the job, I imagine it’ll be dark,” she said.

I sighed and stood up. “Yeah, probably.”

“I think you’ve got alternative reasoning for that,” Hannah said as they both got to their feet as well.

“Can you blame me? Chris is the only person I hook up with and it’s been months. You’re welcome to watch if you want,” Melanie replied.

I saw Hannah blush and laughed. “So you just assume I’m gonna say yes?”

“Chris, are you really gonna sit there and tell me you’ve had your fill of this?” she asked, pulling her shirt down and leaning forward, exposing more of her bountiful breasts.

“...no. No I’m not,” I replied.

“Thought not. Come on.”

We went back outside and I took another look around. The people I saw were indeed in poor condition, I realized as I looked closer. Some of them moved pretty slowly, they all looked pretty thin, several were coughing.

“Where’d you get that, by the way?” Melanie asked, reaching out and gently tapping the MP5.

“A weather station a ways north of here,” I replied. “Some Marines had set up an outpost there at some point...it was an ugly scene. They’d pulled a firing squad on several of them and then pulled out. No idea why, but I found a few weapons stashed and this was one of them.”

“Got any ammo?”

“Yeah, actually. Not a ton, but more than enough for a few encounters.”

We came to stop by the gate, where the man from before, Quinn, stood waiting, an inquisitive look on his face.

“They’re gonna help out, Quinn,” Melanie said. He regarded us with an uncertain glance. “He’s slow to trust, but he trusts me, and he trusted Megan. Right?”

“Yeah,” Quinn replied after a moment. He sighed softly. “She mentioned you. Talked pretty good about you…” He hesitated further, then looked out over the camp, rubbed the back of his neck. “We’ve been fucked over a lot of times, man. Sometimes it’s big and obvious, sometimes it’s hard to spot. People want to move in. They do, get settled, everything looks good, and then, when they get sick of you, they steal everything they can and run off.” Finally, he turned to look back at me. “But at this point, I’m fucking tired. And I guess we don’t really have a lot of choice. None of us are in good enough shape to hit wolf territory. And Melanie and Megan have proved trustworthy, and they seem to think you’re badass. I gotta admit, you look the part. Been a long time since I’ve seen someone packing an SMG. So yeah, if you’d be willing to help us, then we’d be really grateful. But at the very least, it’d be fantastic if you could just not fuck us over.”

“I’ll help,” I replied. “Really, the only bad thing I have to tell you is that I can’t stick around and help for longer. I have to move on tomorrow. Otherwise I would stay and help longer. We’ll track down the refugee camp and see if there’s anything there. We’ll also hunt any game we can.” I pointed to the wolf I’d tossed to the side. “You can have that. Start gutting it and prepping the meat for meals. Give us a map and we’ll be back with as much as we can as soon as we can.”

“Here,” Melanie said, handing me a piece of paper. I glanced over it. The route seemed simple enough. We’d head west, away from the rear of the camp, into the forest, until we found a path leading up a cliff, and then we’d be there. Not too far. “Thank you. Both of you.”

I nodded and passed the map to Hannah. “Don’t worry. We’ll get it done.”

“I know you will, I remember everything you did for us when we first met,” Melanie replied with a grin.

Oh yeah, she was definitely jumping me tonight. I could tell already. Back when I’d been living in Pine Lake, we were friendly when we ran into each other, but every few days she’d hit me with the look. With that look, the one that said: the cougar’s hunting tonight. It was as intimidating as it was arousing.

I couldn’t help but grin at least a little.

“Okay, got it,” Hannah said, folding up the paper and slipping it into her pocket.

Melanie leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “For good luck,” she said.

“Always appreciated,” I replied. I looked at Hannah. “Ready?”

She nodded. “Ready.”

“Then let’s do it.”

They hauled the gate open and we went out and they closed it behind us.

And then we were marching off to help another group of people yet again.

ELEVEN

Hannah and I set out into the forest, our pace quick.

I was distracted. By worrying about Megan. By Melanie and all her mature sexuality. By the happy feelings of being with Hannah. The anxiety of Pine Lake. This was all becoming a bit much. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to center myself.

“You okay?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah, just...a little overwhelmed. But I’ll be okay,” I replied. I looked around. “Keep an eye out for anything moving at all. If we see any deer or anything, I’d like to bring it down, even if we can’t go get it right now. We can always grab it later.”

“Got it,” Hannah replied. She sighed softly as she adjusted her rifle. “Maybe I should’ve brought by bow and arrow set…”

“It was probably for the best you didn’t. This type of situation isn’t exactly the best time for practicing,” I replied.

“Yeah, you’re right. I was half-decent with it, though.”

“You’re already pretty great with it,” I replied. “Once we get back, we can practice on some targets. You’ll nail it quick.”

“You have a lot of faith in me,” she murmured, sounding vaguely uncomfortable.

“You’ve proven yourself a ton of times since we’ve met. I mean you’re still a bit overconfident and sometimes you don’t know when to shut up-”

“Gee, thanks.”

“But you are a natural at a lot of stuff. You’re talented and hardworking. Honestly, those two things combined make for a hell of a person.”

“I’m glad I have you to help me,” she murmured after a moment. “Being self-taught is hardcore and all but...I like this so much better. It’s about as storybook as I could hope for in a snowy apocalypse. Falling in love with a hot, badass yet sensitive guy who can help train me to survive, it can be this thing we do together and fall deeper in love while overcoming the elements...it’s pretty romantic,” she said, grinning at me.

“For an apocalypse, yeah,” I agreed. “Although-”

I froze as I caught movement ahead of us and to the right. Drawing my rifle, I took aim. It was a deer, maybe forty yards out. This time, it was going down. There were a lot of trees between us, but not so much that I couldn’t make the-

A shot cracked out and the deer dropped.

I lowered my rifle and glanced at Hannah. She lowered her own rifle and smirked at me. “I thought you were taking too long,” she said.

“You’re being a smartass,” I said, slinging my rifle back onto my shoulder.

“If I recall, you got to be the smartass last night,” she said.

I gave her ass a particularly hard slap that made her let out a yelp. “Get walking,” I said as I set off again.

I kept waiting for her to have some kind of comeback, but apparently she couldn’t think of one. She just followed after me. We walked until we got to the deer, and I crouched by the corpse. She had indeed made a perfect killshot.

“Damn,” I muttered. “You are fucking good.”

“Yep,” she agreed, regaining that smirk of hers. I began to say something else, but a low growl caught my attention and froze the blood in my veins.

There was a wolf, staring at me, maybe fifteen feet away, growling deep in its throat.

“Oh fuck,” Hannah whispered. I heard snow crunching behind me and knew there were more. Fucking hell, they were sneaky bastards. Or we hadn’t been paying attention. Didn’t matter right now. Right now getting out alive was what mattered.

“Get ready. Take the ones to my back,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” she replied.

I saw another two wolves step out from behind the trees. One of them had blood on its leg...the one I’d shot earlier.

He was back, with friends.

“How many?” I asked softly as I slowly reached for the MP5. Pistol wasn’t gonna cut it, not this time.

“Four,” she said.

Fuck.

In a flash, the wolf that was growling at me came for me. “Go!” I yelled, bringing the MP5 into play and spraying the motherfucker down. I slightly panicked and a dozen bullets came out, most of them hitting the wolf. It did an awful, stuttering dance as it was thrown backwards, the bullets chewing into its gray fur and spraying the surrounding area with its steaming blood. The other two wolves split apart and came at me. I cursed, choosing to track the one on the left. It was the wounded one, moving slower, but apparently pissed and looking for revenge. I tracked it, but trees kept getting in the way and Hannah was firing behind me.

I could almost hear the borderline panic in the way she was firing.

We had to wrap this up fast because these wolves were going to be on us in seconds and if that happened, we might be fucked.

There!

The moment of fire came and I took it, reacting instinctively as my hunting skills shouted at me. This time I sent out a spat of four bullets and three of them hit their mark in the wolf’s chest, knocking it to the ground and putting it down.

I wasn’t sure if I had enough time to track the final one before it-

“Fuck!” I screamed as the third wolf came at me as a gray blur, leaping, propelling itself forward with powerful hind legs. I fired off a few haphazard shots and then the wolf crashed into me, jaw locking firmly around my forearm. I screamed as an explosion of burning, jagged pain erupted and I lost my balance and went down in a thrashing of limbs with the wolf. I punched it twice in the head, but it wouldn’t let go.

It snarled and shook its head viciously and I felt some of my skin tearing and more pain exploded into existence, almost blinding me.

Groping blindly, I managed to snag my pistol and rip it out of the holster. Putting the barrel to the wolf’s head, I squeezed the trigger and blew its brains out.

There was more commotion happening behind me and even through the haze of outright agony, I felt a terror grip me as I heard Hannah still firing. Flipping over, I looked up and saw a wolf rushing right at me from her side. I screamed, got my gun up and fired in pure reflex. The bullet entered its mouth and exploded out the back of its skull, spraying its brains across the snow and the trees. I looked around, preparing for more, gritting my teeth as tears were driven from my eyes because the motherfucker still had my arm in a death-lock, even with the top of its head blown off! But there were no more wolves.

I saw two dead ones.

“Chris! Are you okay?!” Hannah asked, immediately coming to my side.

“Fine,” I grunted, then yelled out as I shifted and the wolf corpse still attached to me shifted as well, digging a little deeper into my arm.

“Here, hold on, just-don’t move. Let me get him off you,” she said, dropping into a crouch.

“What happened to the last one?” I muttered, panting as I tried to block out the pain.

“Ran off,” she replied.

It took some effort, and it hurt like shit, but she managed to get the wolf’s teeth dislodged from my forearm. I looked unhappily at my left arm. It had bit through the coat and the layers beneath, obviously, and blood was seeping out.

“Fuck,” I growled, getting up onto my knees and then shoving my pistol back into its holster. “Start building a fire.”

“Why?” she asked, though she got to her feet and began gathering firewood.

“Obviously we can’t-agh!-can’t carry these corpses back fast, and there’s wolves around. Gotta-ah! Dammit!-gotta keep the wolves away from the bodies. Fire helps with that. It’s not perfect but it should help,” I replied.

I got my backpack and then my coat off. While she built the fire, I rolled my sleeve up. It was definitely going to need some work. I started pulling out medical supplies. I worked fast, first disinfecting the wound.

That got a yell out of me they probably heard back at the junkyard camp.

But once it was properly cleaned up, I started patching myself up. The bite was kind of bad, but it wasn’t terrible. I wouldn’t need stitches, I didn’t think. It would just be a huge pain in the ass for awhile. But I’d made do with this type of shit before.

“Chris, I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“What for?” I grunted as I finished applying the bandages. “This was a pretty good deal: six dead wolves and a dead deer and we just had to exchange a few bullets and an injury.”

“I just...hate seeing you in pain,” she replied.

“I’ll be fine,” I muttered. I studied my arm as I finished the job, knew Melanie would be able to do a better job and counted on it once we got back, then pulled my sleeve back down and popped a few heavy-strength painkillers, hoping for the best. They were out of date but that didn’t always mean they didn’t work. It’d be nice to get some willow bark but I didn’t have time right now. I looked around at the blood, the corpses, the fire.

Hannah had just gotten it going. Damn, she was good. She was clearly in distress about me, but I feel like most of the others would’ve insisted on patching me up instead of letting me do it myself. Not Hannah. She knew it was more efficient to do it the other way. She was a hell of a partner. She looked up at me, worry obvious on her face.

“I’ll be fine, Hannah, and you’re doing great,” I said, then I bent down, grabbed a wolf by its ankle, and dragged it over to the deer, which was nearest to the fire Hannah was tending. “We’ll pile them up here and hope for the best while we search the refugee camp. I’d say it makes more sense to either leave one of us here to guard or to send one of us back, but I’m unwilling to split up right now, and I’d rather just get the refugee camp out of the way.”

“That makes sense,” Hannah replied quietly.

“I’ll be fine, really. I didn’t lose that much blood, I cleaned out the wound, and we’ve got Melanie really close by. She’s an excellent, actual doctor. Don’t worry, okay?”

“All right,” she said after a few moments. Finally, she finished up the fire and got back to her feet. “Is that it, then?”

“Yeah…” I looked around in the woods, hunting for more wolves. I didn’t see any, but that clearly didn’t mean they weren’t there. “Let’s hurry this up.”

We set off towards the trail that would take us up to the refugee camp.

~

“Well, there it is,” I muttered.

Finding the path had been a bit of pain, but the map helped. Once we found it, it actually wasn’t too hard to get up. Coming to the top brought us to a hilly area where we could see the remains of a refugee camp set up around a three-story house.

“You ever been to one of these before?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah. I stayed in one for awhile near the beginning,” I replied.

“We didn’t, came across several though, but they were always abandoned, ripped up, like this,” she murmured.

I knew what she meant. In the beginning, when it really started hitting that the snow was here to stay and people really panicked, the government response was...confused, to stay the least. They set up a bunch of camps that were basically emergency tents, ideally within a chainlink fence, usually around some sort of central structure. A garage, a house, a grocery store, a gas station, anything that could serve as a sort of Command HQ for the poor saps they’d put in charge of running the camps and rationing the food and resources.

It held together for awhile, but eventually it seemed like they all fell apart for one reason or another. Either they were abandoned because resources stopped coming or a better location opened up, or they were attacked by opportunistic assholes, or extremely desperate people, or they tore themselves apart fighting for power, or some other disaster hit them. From what I could see here, this place had just been abandoned probably two years ago. Large portions of the hastily erected chainlink had collapsed and was buried in the snow. There were about two dozen tents in the front yard, side yards, and presumably around in the back as well.

From what I could see, they were mostly shredded. Some were burned. Some had long frozen blood on them.

I saw some bullet holes.

Come to think of it, maybe this was one of the ones that had torn itself apart.

The house itself was partially collapsed, half of the third story caved-in, most of the windows broken, some boarded over. The front door was missing. I saw a few frozen corpses around, mostly naked, as we stepped into the perimeter.

“What an ugly place,” Hannah muttered.

“Yep. Let’s start by searching these tents, see if there’s anything useful,” I replied, grimacing as my arm sent out a fresh pulse of pain.

I hated pain. It was such an irritation, or worse.

I’d put up with a lot of it in my life. It got easier, sure, but it never got what I’d call easy.

We got to work, splitting up, heading for the two nearest tents. The cold minutes washed over me as I hunted through this dead place. It felt like invading a mausoleum, or some ancient tomb. I stepped into the first tent. It wasn’t very big, and I saw the remains of some basic furniture there. A pair of cots, one of them shredded and collapsed, each tucked into a corner. I remembered what it was like, as I’d lived in one of these tents for a bit. There was a cot, a washbasin, and a kind of footlocker for your stuff, and not much else.

It had been a bleak, terrifying time, but also, in some ways, an interesting time. I’d started figuring out that some of the skills I had could actually be put to use. Looking back on it now felt strange. There had been a part of me that had hoped the snow would clear up and things would go back to at least some semblance of normal. Not just hope, but expected. I think a lot of us had that feeling. But the days turned into weeks turned into months, and still the snow persisted. The bitter cold, the ice, the driving winds, the chaos…

I wanted to be done with this. My arm was hurting and I wanted to help these people and I desperately wanted to see Megan.

And have sex with Melanie.

I searched the tent, peering briefly through the huge rip in one wall and seeing all that bleak desolation out there, and found nothing. The minutes ticked by in lonely silence while Hannah and I worked as briskly and efficiently as we could. Occasionally I’d find a can of food or a loose match that might still work, I found a few bullets, too. But after an hour, the tents turned up nothing truly special beyond that.

“Now we gotta go in there, huh?” Hannah murmured as we stood at the front entrance to the house.

“Yep. You good?” I asked.

“Yeah, just nervous. It doesn’t look too stable.”

“I know, but if there’s anything we’re gonna find…”

“It’ll be in there.” She hesitated. “Let me go upstairs, you search the ground floor and basement if there is one. I’m lighter than you by a lot, so it makes more sense.”

I didn’t like it, because it felt riskier to go up higher, but she had a point. And she’d been level-headed about the practical stuff so far, so I should too. “Okay.”

She smiled suddenly and gave me a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Hannah,” I replied.

“I just wanted to say it, and hear it again, in case...anything happens.”

“I understand how you feel. Now let’s do this.”

She nodded and we walked in through the front door. Well, she walked in first, pistol out, wary. We hadn’t done our traditional search of the place because I wanted to spend as little time as possible in there, so someone could be inside. I followed her into a living room filled with more cots, most of them shredded, some of the bloody. Fuck, what had happened to this place? Something miserable and gut-wrenching no doubt.

We got to work. She found her way upstairs and I hunted around the ground floor, looking for food and medicine. It was slow work, made slower by caution and paranoia. All around us, the house groaned and creaked, and I couldn’t tell if it was the wind or something worse. The whole thing could come down on us, or maybe it was way more stable than it looked. That was the problem with not knowing.

I shifted from the living room to the kitchen and started checking cabinets. Most of them had the doors ripped off and were totally bare. I managed to find a couple of cans of tuna stuffed way at the back of one of them. Once I was done with the kitchen, I moved on, noting a stairwell that led down to a basement, then checking out a bedroom that had the frames of three triple-stacked bunk-beds, most with their mattresses missing, and then a bathroom, and finally what had once been an office. I saw a gutted military radio on the floor beside a desk that had been smashed to a pile of pieces. More blood. Nothing of value, though.

From there, I went into the basement. I wanted to get in and out, because that would be the absolute worst place to be if the house collapsed.

The basement was an absolute mess. There were a few corpses and very old frozen splashes and sprays of blood and spent shell casings. Another ugly tale, frozen in time. I pulled out the flashlight I’d brought along and got to work. I looked under a desk, behind a big stack of chairs, among the dead, hoping to find something for all the trouble of coming up here. I guess, even if it was a bust, that was still a lot of meat back there. But they needed more than that. I sighed as I kept on looking, listening to Hannah doing the same somewhere overhead.

“Oh shit…” I whispered as I saw what appeared to be the corner of a metal case poking out from beneath a dresser shoved up into a corner.

Dropping down onto my knees, I gripped it and worked it out. I was rewarded with a heavy gunmetal gray case stamped with an official-looking logo. Thought it was faded, and the case had obviously been here awhile, it still looked intact. I picked it up and brought it over to the desk, then set it down and cracked open the seals.

“Yes,” I whispered, staring at the treasure trove that was packed tightly and neatly within.

I saw military-grade food rations and medical gear in there, as well as a pair of sleek silver pistols and several magazines of ammunition for them. This would definitely help those people, and at this point I figured Melanie would already be wanting to have them migrate to Pine Lake. More mouths to feed, but also more potential hands to help. Someone had packed this thing and either left it here on purpose, intending to come back and get it, or it had been shoved up under there and no one had noticed in all the chaos.

Well, it was mine now.

Or, to be more accurate, it was the junkyard camp’s now, but whatever.

Job done.

I sealed it back up and started looking for Hannah.

TWELVE

Hannah was stubborn, but thankfully it didn’t cost her. This time.

It didn’t really gain her anything, either, I guess beyond the sense of a job seen through to the end. Even after I told her what I’d found, she insisted on finishing searching the upper stories. I think she was just scared and wanted to overcome that fear. Typically that was a good thing, but it wasn’t always a great idea.

She didn’t find anything, but she also didn’t fall and break something.

Consequently, we eventually left the refugee site and headed back down the trail.

“It’s so hard to believe something like that could have been left behind,” Hannah said, glancing at the case in my hand.

“I know, but that’s how it works sometimes. A good rule of thumb is if you are looking for supplies in a place you think is a total waste of time because it has to have been cleared out by now, do it anyway if you’ve got the time. Because maybe everyone else thought that exact same thing and passed by, leaving the valuables inside,” I replied.

“That makes sense.”

“Yeah, although in this case it’s more of a situation of diligence...fuck, I hope Megan’s okay,” I said, unable to escape that thought.

It kept coming back, again and again.

“You make her sound pretty tough, Chris. I’m sure whatever she’s doing out there, she can handle it. We’ll get up early tomorrow and head out after her. We’ll catch up to her,” Hannah replied, her voice surprisingly soft.

Part of me regretted bringing it up at all, and not just because Hannah probably still had mixed feelings about Megan, but also because that part of me hated looking weak in front of her. I’d gotten good at burying that particular ugliness. I’d run into too many guys obsessed with looking and acting tough. I’d seen what that pressure could do, I’d felt it myself, but I’d never let it get too far. It was why a lot of guys killed themselves: they had no way to release the pressure, no one they felt they could turn to for help.

I’d felt that resistance to opening up to Delilah and Megan, but it had passed. I’d never really felt it with Lara or Susan or Jessica. It had been there a little with Elizabeth. But for some reason Hannah was bringing it back now. Maybe because she herself was so hardcore. It wasn’t just that she acted tough, it was that she was tough. Spend enough time in desperate situations or dealing with physical labor and endurance, and you got so you could read certain things about people. A lot of people had to try to be hardcore, and honestly, I respected that. That was effort. But Hannah...it just came naturally to her. She just did shit and didn’t seem to worry too much about it, not because she was ignorant to the risks, but because she knew them and had confidence in herself and her abilities. And most of the time she was right.

Maybe I was just feeling insecure because she was so amazing, and I was scared of losing her, and I’d lost women before by being vulnerable around them.

I wanted to stop thinking about this and made a fist with my left hand, flexing my muscles in my forearm. That sent out a pulse of intense pain and tore me back to the present. We reached the bottom of the trail and came back to the site of our battle. The fire was still going, barely, and I couldn’t tell for sure, but I didn’t think anything had come to disturb the heap of carcasses.

“Here, grab one and put it over your shoulders, might as well get two back since we’re here,” I said, setting the case down.

Hannah grabbed one and I grabbed another, and then we headed back to the camp.

~

“We were just about to send a few people after you and...that looks important,” Melanie said as we came back through the front gate.

“It is,” I replied, then grunted as I tossed the wolf where I’d tossed the other one and Hannah did the same thing, both of us glad to be free of the load. “We hit the jackpot. Where’s the most secure place?” I asked.

“My trailer,” Quinn replied. “Come on, show me what you found.”

The three of us followed after him.

“Chris, your jacket looks torn up...is that a wolf bite?” Melanie asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “Need you to look at it.”

“I will. Christ, you should’ve come back sooner,” she muttered.

“Had to finish the job and it turned out to be the right choice,” I replied.

We went up into Quinn’s RV and I laid the case down. As soon as I opened it up, he dug in and started inspecting the gear inside.

“Holy shit, you weren’t kidding. This guy’s the real deal,” he muttered as he held up one of the military-grade food rations.

“Honestly it was luck,” I replied. “Although there are three more dead wolves and a dead deer out there that I need to haul back.”

“You need to sit down first,” Melanie replied, grabbing an emergency medical kit. “Take off your coat, roll up your sleeve, sit on the couch.”

“Yes ma’am,” I murmured, getting my pack and coat off and then sitting on the couch. I rolled my sleeve up, grimacing, and saw that I’d definitely bled into the bandaging I’d wrapped around my arm. She sat down next to me while Hannah leaned against a nearby wall, watching the two of us. Melanie cracked open the medical kit and then started peeling away the bandaging I’d used, frowning as she scrutinized the wounds.

“Jesus, Chris,” she muttered.

“It’s not that bad,” I replied.

She sighed and finished pulling the bandages off, then set about cleaning the wounds again, making me wince. “I’d accused you of trying to be a hardass but you do have a high pain tolerance,” she said as she worked. Then she smirked. “Although I think maybe you’re just trying to impress your new girlfriend.”

“He does not need to impress me,” Hannah replied, “that’s well taken care of. And I imagine the same could be said for you.”

Though she didn’t take her eyes off her work, her smirk turned more into a self-satisfied, sultry grin. “That’s true...he was quite impressive the first time we met.”

“How did you meet?” she asked.

“I almost blew his head off, but a cat saved his life,” Melanie replied.

“A cat?” Quinn asked, glancing over.

“Yeah. I told you about the assholes that burned down our town? I was out and about in the days following the incident, and two of them came after me in the woods. I laid a trap for them and hid, and Chris here stumbles into my kill-zone and I can’t quite tell if he’s with them or not, and he starts calling out to one of our local cats. That’s what tipped me off to the fact that he wasn’t with them: he knew the cat by name. Plus...he looked nice.”

“No I didn’t,” I muttered, then winced again.

“To me you did, and I was right. Yeah you’re big and tough and scary, but you’re also nice. It’s your eyes. They’re kind. Okay, hold still.” She was done cleaning all the wounds on my forearm and now she began re-bandaging.

“Well, uh, thank you, Chris and Hannah. You’ve probably saved all our asses with this find. We kind of had a snowballing effect of bad luck that led to most of us being too sick or injured or exhausted to hunt, combined with the wolves that moved in...but this should get us back on our feet, make us self-sustaining again,” Quinn said as he closed up the case.

“I’m just glad I could help, as soon as Melanie here finishes up, Hannah and I will go grab the other corpses and bring them back,” I replied.

“You really shouldn’t,” Melanie said.

“Probably, but it seems that I’m the least sick or injured person here, except for Hannah, and I didn’t kill all the wolves. You’ve got a limp from your injured leg, you don’t need to be hauling around sixty pound wolves, either. Don’t worry, we’ll get the bodies and then come in for the night. Speaking of which…” I looked at Quinn.

“Melanie told me you two would be spending the night, which is more than fair now. She’s been splitting a tent with someone but they ended up having to move into isolation in the main building where we keep our sick, so there should be enough room in there for the three of you.”

“I’m sure we can manage,” Melanie replied with a small smile as she finished patching me up. “Go do your thing and we can have dinner when you get back.”

“Sounds good to me,” I replied, looking over her handiwork. It was good, a damn sight better than what I managed to do on my own. I stood back up. “Okay, Hannah, you ready to get this shit out of the way?”

“I’m ready,” she replied.

“We’ll be back.”

I pulled my coat and my gear back on, and then we headed back outside.

~

It took about two hours to get the rest of the animal corpses back, partially because the lone wolf survivor decided enough wasn’t enough and came back for more during our second return trip and I had to put him down.

But hey, that much more meat and fur and animal fat to put to use.

By the time I was done, it was getting darker and it was clear that a storm was coming on. I didn’t like staying here, much as I wanted to be in for the night and I enjoyed reuniting with Melanie and even being among people again.

I wanted to find Megan and the others.

But I was just going to have to keep on doing what I’d been doing: trust that she was okay. They’d had a run of pretty bad luck so far, but she was still alive and kicking as of a few days ago, so in a way, it took a load off my mind.

As we finished bringing the last load back, I noticed the overall feeling of the junkyard encampment was very different. It had gone from morose and miserable to almost exuberant. That infusion of food and medicine and ammunition would go a long way, and they knew it. The immediate future no longer seemed bleak, and so the future farther down the road no longer looked bleak. It was amazing what a little hope could do.

After grabbing a meal of wolf meat and vegetable stew, Hannah and I ended up following Melanie into her tent, which was one of the smaller ones. Even though it was smaller, it was still decently sized, about the size of a small bedroom, a square room of thick canvas over a metal frame with some blankets and furs and other things attached to the interior to help keep warmth in and cold out. Inside, there were two mattress on wooden platforms, a small shared table between them, a trunk and a squat two-drawered dresser, and a small wood-burning stove.

Hannah and I sat on one bed, Melanie sat opposite us on the other.

“Thank you,” she said as we started eating. “You almost certainly saved a lot of lives.”

“It’s what we do, apparently,” I replied.

“How many more lives were you saving out there?” she asked.

“We saved about a dozen people who were being hunted down by a group of psychos,” Hannah said. “And I guess you can say he saved the four of us.”

“I definitely saved Lara’s life,” I said. “That’s how we met. I don’t know what might’ve happened if I hadn’t stepped in with you…”

“How about you fill me in on everything? I’m actually very interested to hear about it,” Melanie said.

And so we spent the next hour eating and talking, catching her up on all the wild shit we’d gotten up to while I was out there, away from Pine Lake. She seemed to enjoy it, and I definitely enjoyed telling it, as did Hannah. For the most part. Things got a little awkward when we had to go into detail about her father.

After I got caught up, we all fell silent, and there was only the vague sounds of the other people elsewhere in the small encampment and the winds of the storm that had whipped up. It wasn’t brutal, but I was definitely glad I was inside.

I hoped Megan was, too.

“Well, I’m pretty aroused,” Melanie said, breaking the silence. “So if you’re ready, then I’m ready, Chris.”

“Yeah, I’m ready,” I replied, getting to my feet. Honestly, I’d been ready for a little while now but I wanted to wait for my meal to settle. I glanced at Hannah. “You still good with everything?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I’m actually pretty interested to see what it’s like watching you have sex with someone else. And then I get to fuck you after.”

“Cool. Then sit back and enjoy the show,” Melanie replied as she got to her feet and started undressing.

“I think I’ll get naked, too,” Hannah said. “I want to be out of my clothes.”

“I know that feeling,” Melanie replied.

The three of us stripped as quickly as we could in the close confines of the tent. This was going to be a bit of a problem: not enough room to maneuver around in and we’d have to keep it down. As it was, I was dubious about the mattress. It looked just big enough to hold me, and maybe me and Hannah. I guess we could make it work.

Melanie’s big, luxurious tits fell out of her undershirt as she tossed it aside.

Okay, yeah, we’d definitely make it work. I didn’t really care how so long as I got to fuck her. As Hannah finished getting naked save for her socks, Melanie looked her up and down. “Okay Chris, remember when I was bragging about how good I used to look in my twenties? Her body, a little thicker, is what I had.”

“It’s not like you’re not crazy hot anymore,” Hannah murmured. “How, uh, old are you?”

“Fifty two.”

“Wow. I hope I look that good at your age.”

“I’m sure you’ll better...ah yeah, that’s what I missed seeing,” she said, smirking as my boxers came off.

“This is definitely what I missed seeing,” I replied, stepping over to her and cupping her large breasts. She laughed and wrapped a hand around my erection.

“Oh yeah, I’m sure you’ve seen none in all the time we’ve been apart,” Melanie replied as I fondled her tits.

“He’s seen plenty. He’s actually been regularly playing with bigger,” Hannah replied, sitting down on the other mattress. I glanced over at her and her eyes suddenly went wide. “Shit, uh, I mean, yours are fine-”

Melanie laughed. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’m confident in my tits. You must be around Delilah’s age, I imagine, so I figure stuff kinda comes out of your mouth without thinking sometimes, right?” she asked.

“Definitely,” I said.

Hannah sighed heavily and blushed. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I remember what it was like. You’re young and attractive and, based on Chris’s taste in women, very brash and confident, I imagine.”

“Oh yeah,” I said.

“Yep, so no offense taken. Okay, come on, stop playing with my tits and wash up. I want sex,” she complained, letting go of my cock.

I laughed and relinquished them, getting out the cleaning supplies and joining her in washing up. We worked quickly and efficiently, and then we got onto the mattress and embraced. It was a bit brisk with her. As we began making out and touching each other, there was a sort of need there, an intense need to lose ourselves in the bare, primal promise of pleasure that sex could grant. We were both exhausted, mentally and physically, from everything that had happened, and everything that was yet still laid before us.

I pleasured her with my fingers, grateful that it was my left forearm that got all tore up by the wolf and not my right, and made her orgasm. She ended up down there between my legs, sucking my dick and looking like a porn star doing it. Occasionally, I glanced over at Hannah, trying to gauge her reaction. This could go either way. Either she found that she loved watching me fuck other women, or she would find that she hated it.

She seemed to be enjoying herself.

Melanie looked as good as I remembered, even if she was a bit gaunter from the stress and hard labor. She still was beautiful as hell to me, a sexy cougar who could still give out a vicious fuck even at fifty plus. She sucked me off with a skilled precision, bobbing her head quickly and sending waves of pleasure rolling through me, and then she got up and pushed me onto my back.

“As your doctor, I definitely recommend you let me ride,” she said with a grin as she mounted me.

“Oh, do you now?” I asked.

“Yep. You need to rest that arm. Just...lay there and let me fuck your dick,” she replied.

“I guess if I have to…”

“You have to,” she said with a smirk, and then she slipped me inside of her, let out a loud moan that she tried, and failed, to suppress, and started riding.

The pleasure of her hot, mature pussy was immediate and intense, bleeding into me, filling me, and I lost myself in her sweet, curvy body.

She fucked me good and hard until she got herself off, her huge tits bouncing with the rhythm of our sex, and then she let me shoot a load deep into that sweet vagina of hers. She moaned, settling down completely against me as I began coming, my seed jetting out of me as I came into her and she let me fill her up.

When we were finished, we were left panting and sweaty, and she laid down beside me, catching her breath.

“That was worth the wait,” she murmured.

“Was it?” I asked.

“Oh yeah. That was great.” She smiled and kissed me. “I really missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I replied. I glanced over at Hannah, who was still staring at us intently, her face flushed. She was sweating a little, though I couldn’t tell if that was from the fire or from arousal. “So, how was it?” I asked.

“That was really fucking hot,” she replied quietly. “Like, holy shit, that was hot.” She got to her feet. “I need sex, like right now.”

“Okay, okay, lemme make room. I guess I’ve had my fun,” Melanie replied.

I reached out and smacked her big ass as she got up. “Not yet. I’m going to expect some in the morning.”

“Oh well since you asked so nicely, I guess I can open my legs for you tomorrow,” Melanie replied, rolling her eyes. She stood at the foot of the bed, cleaning herself up, and watched as Hannah climbed onto me and immediately began kissing me.

And then I became lost in her pale, redheaded, fit beauty.

THIRTEEN

The next morning felt hectic and frenzied, but that was mostly because I wanted to get a move-on. Hannah actually woke up first and she woke me up by pushing me on my back, climbing on top of me, and riding me until we both came.

After that, I woke up Melanie by crawling into bed with her, and she accepted me eagerly if groggily.

After we screwed like rabbits, I got up, washed, dressed, and ate a quick breakfast.

“Chris,” Melanie said, sitting up in her bed as we gathered our things, getting ready to head out.

“Yeah?” I replied, looking at her.

She looked anxious. “What do you think, about Pine Lake? What are our chances?”

I hesitated. I hadn’t expected to see a look of such genuine concern on her face. Normally she was so firm and confident, it actually sent a shiver of dread through me that made my own confidence slip just a little.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Short term, we’re rolling the dice here. Hopefully we’ll find the cache and somehow manage to get it back and that’ll buy us a few months. Long term?...I don’t know, I think we’re just going to have to move. The setup we had when I left was stable, but not precisely what I’d call ideal. I mean, not for like a small society meant to last. Those trees aren’t going to last forever. They aren’t growing back because they’re all dead. We need to find a place with more renewable resources, or vaster resources. God, a coal mine would be amazing. Somewhere safe we could set up some big hydroponic gardens, too? Maybe some solar panels. I found a few of those out there, actually. Places like that have to exist, but how to find them?”

“You really think we could move the whole town, everyone?” Hannah asked.

“It’s possible. It’s doable. Just tough,” I replied. I went back to lacing my boots up nice and tight, then stood and pulled on my backpack and my rifle and my SMG. “We have to go, Melanie. I want to catch up with Megan as soon as I can.”

“All right,” she said, and got to her feet. She came over and gave me a hug and a kiss, then shook hands with Hannah. “It was good to meet you. I’m glad you’re involved, you seem like a great person. Good luck out there. I’m going to stay here and keep helping them out, keep trying to talk them into maybe coming back to Pine Lake. I think Lisa would welcome the help.”

I paused, considering it. “You know, maybe we could set up an outpost here and hunt and send food back to Pine Lake as a lifeline to help extend our timeline. Talk to them about that. I’ll be back with Megan and the others as soon as we’ve figured the rest of this stuff out.”

“I will, and I’ll be waiting for your return,” Melanie replied.

We shared another kiss and then Hannah and I were out the door.

~

We slipped out of the camp with the sun just beginning to crest the horizon. Quinn was on guard, and he thanked us again and showed us a side door that was much less noisy than opening up the gate and waking up half the encampment.

It was cold out, and everything was covered in a fresh layer of snow, but as for traveling conditions, we’d had worse. The sky was cloudier than I’d like, but it didn’t really matter. We had tracks to make.

We walked for four solid hours and spoke little as we followed the road. We passed large stands of trees and big empty fields and abandoned vehicles. There didn’t appear to be any other buildings along this road, save for one that looked like it had burned down a long time ago and one that had collapsed and was so utterly devastated by time and weather and plundered for wood to burn that it might as well have burned down too.

We checked each of the lone vehicles we passed for hints or clues of Megan’s passage and didn’t really find much of anything.

As the sun hit its apex for the day, signifying noon, the winds started to pick up. Within about fifteen minutes of me noticing that, the temperature dropped sharply. I looked up and then around. “Crap,” I said.

“What?” Hannah asked.

“I think we’re about to get slammed by a storm.”

“Fuck.”

I looked around. I’d been sort of riding the razor’s edge on the weather for the past hour or so. I wanted to make good time, and I was also betting that a storm wouldn’t crop up. This was the kind of weather that could stay in a holding pattern all day, or it could whip up a blizzard out of nowhere. It was really just the flip of a coin as to whether or not that happened. I’d been looking for places to possibly hole up, just in case it came to that, but even that collapsed building we’d passed was two hours back and I hadn’t seen jack-shit since then save for some vehicles. And they weren’t exactly ideal places to spend a storm in…

It started to snow, all at once. Big fat flakes started to drift down from the sky.

“Fuck,” I muttered. We were in the midst of a forest and the dense, dead trees made it hard to see if there were any possible structures around.

But there was an abandoned vehicle up ahead.

It would have to do.

“Come on!” I said as the wind abruptly picked up.

Hannah and I started going, kicking our way through the snow as quickly as we could, cold and miserable already. We walked and walked, and it seemed to be taking forever. The winds grew harsher, the snow grew thicker as it no longer just fell from the gray skies over us but was driven from it. At one point, I looked up for the vehicle again and felt my heart leap into my throat in fear as I realized I could no longer see it.

I hesitated, but then a brief lull in the winds revealed it again. We weren’t that far away from it. I looked back, saw Hannah coming up to me, apparently having fallen behind a little. Damn, it was so easy to get separated and lost in this mess.

“Take my hand! Don’t let go!” I shouted, struggling to be heard over the winds.

“Okay!” she called back. I could hear fear in her voice.

Gripping her hand tightly, I fixed the car in my mind as well as I could before it disappeared into the whiteout again and started walking.

It seemed to take ages, but it was at least a bit easier to orient myself as there was a treeline relatively close to the road to our right, and it never completely fell out of my line of sight. We marched on, foot by foot, and finally reached the vehicle.

I quickly tried the driver’s side door, found it locked, then went and tried the rear driver’s door. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to break a window, as that would kind of defeat the purpose of a shelter, and my hope fell as I tried the rear door. It was locked, too. Grunting, I went around as fast as I could to the other side. The passenger’s front door was locked, and as I tried the final door, I found it wouldn’t budge.

In a fit of frustration, I gave it a hard yank, and suddenly it opened a fraction.

It was frozen shut, not locked.

I grunted with effort as I pulled a few more times and finally it gave, the ice breaking, and the door opened up. I hustled Hannah inside and then followed her into the back of the car. As I sat down and slammed the door shut, the wind abruptly cut off and we let out sighs of relief. It was still cold as shit though.

“Fuck,” I growled. “I really should’ve pushed for one of those damned heaters…”

“We had access to a heater?” Hannah asked.

I sighed and shook my head. “No. I mean, not really. I brought three of them with me to Pine Lake. One of them broke at some point and we were using the others for the infirmary...although I guess I should’ve asked after them. Goddamnit, my head’s all fucked up. I jumped into this damned trip without thinking about everything…”

“You can’t think of everything, Chris,” Hannah said, shivering.

“Yeah, I guess not,” I muttered. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s not here, we are. We’re stuck in this situation and we’re lucky to have the car...here, turn around.”

She did as I asked and I dug around in her pack until I found a pair of candles. Setting them in the space beneath the rearview window as best I could, I lit them both. They didn’t provide much heat, but it was better than nothing.

Outside, the storm raged. Snow blew past the frosted windows and the cold bled into the vehicle. I looked around the interior as Hannah and I drew closer. It looked like most of the other cars I’d come across in my time: dirty, abandoned, lonely.

Hannah and I embraced and held each other and said nothing for several long minutes.

“It’s not getting warmer,” she whispered after a moment.

“I know,” I replied. “We have more candles and the thermal blankets, but depending on how long this thing lasts…”

I looked around, checking through each of the windows again. If we could just get to even a simple shed, I think we’d have a better chance. Building an actual fire inside of a car was pretty stupid, unless I could rig some kind of something together…

As I was looking through the front windshield, the winds seemed to die away briefly and the snow cleared up a little, the visibility getting better.

And that was when I saw it: a large structure maybe sixty yards away. A big old concrete building with a few satellite dishes and radio antenna atop its second story roof. It felt like a godsend. But unfortunately, in that same moment, I realized we were just about at the edge of the forest. No more trees to help guide us along.

We’d have to just go now and hope for the best.

The lull was still there, the winds dying down.

“Chris-” Hannah said, excitement obvious in her voice.

“I see it,” I replied, snagging the candles and blowing them out, then stashing them back in her pack and shoving the door open. “Come on! Run!”

I stumbled out into the falling snow and Hannah came after me. The visibility was good enough right now that we didn’t need to stay linked, though I wasn’t sure how long that would last. Having to hold hands and stay linked together like that decreased our mobility and speed. We left the car behind, and then we left the forest behind.

With each passing step, I prayed that the brief lull in the storm would hold.

A minute went by, then another, and a third, and we stomped and stamped our way across the snow, through the snowfall, desperately trying to make it to the structure. If we didn’t get there, we were probably going to die.

As we crossed what was probably the halfway mark, a sudden gust of wind hit and it was powerful enough to almost knock me over.

The storm was picking back up.

“Hurry!” I called, pushing myself faster. I could hear Hannah struggling through the snow to my left and just behind me.

Onward we went, the cold eating into us like acid, and then the storm returned full force.

And the structure disappeared from sight.

“Take my hand again!” I yelled, reaching out for her.

She reached out, locked her gloved hand with mine, and we pushed onward still.

It was miserable, wretched, tough going and at this point I was pretty much just hoping that we were heading in the right direction.

Another minute of terrifying snowblind horror passed.

And then one of my worst nightmares was abruptly thrust into real life.

A shape appeared out of the snow ahead and I stumbled to a halt. It was a lean, gray-furred figure, its head low.

The wolf growled deep in its throat. The sound was ominous, primeval in its promise of brutal violence.

Two more shapes appeared behind it as it slowly began to advice on us.

I reacted instinctively, grabbing for my MP5 as all three of them started coming at us. I barely managed to get it up in time before the lead wolf jumped right at me. I put a slew of bullets into its chest as I heard Hannah shout and then the body crashed into me. I went sprawling, twisting mid-fall to try and get it off of me, and ended up landing on my side. A whole heap of pain blossomed all along my right side, but then my head smacked into the icy ground and my vision went white for a few seconds as an atom bomb of pain cracked into my skull.

I cried out and shoved the wolf off of me, groping desperately for my MP5. I heard Hannah shout and a gunshot, followed by a few more. The world swayed sickeningly as I sat up, finally finding my gun and aiming for the wolf I saw immediately in front of me. I squeezed the trigger and wasted several shots, missing as my vision swam, but finally a few connected and the wolf went down. I heard Hannah call my name and I looked her way, preparing to kill the third wolf. But she was coming to my side, tucking her pistol back into its holster.

“Did you get it!?” I yelled over the roaring of the wind.

“Yes! Are you hurt!?” she asked.

“I don’t know! I hit my head! Help me up!”

She grimaced when I mentioned that, but then a look of stern concentration immediately replaced it and she pulled me to my feet. I swayed and stumbled into her, almost knocking us both over. “Should we grab one of them?!” she asked.

“No, we have to get inside!” I replied, then groaned as a fresh wave of pain rolled through me. I was sure I was bleeding from my scalp and I prayed I didn’t have a goddamned concussion. That was all I needed right now.

I leaned as heavily on Hannah as I could manage. We stood by the wolf corpses for a moment, the snow billowing around us, and it almost felt like we were underwater. I had lost all sense of direction from falling on my ass and smacking my head.

“You have to lead us!” I said.

Worry slipped briefly through her firm confidence, but then it returned and she nodded and began leading us towards, I hoped, the building.

The next several moments seemed to take forever to pass. We walked over the wolf corpses, which were already beginning to disappear under the snow. We pushed into the wind as it screamed against us, shrieking wildly, turning the world icy and gray, leaching the life from our bodies. I began to feel grateful for the cold, it was also leaching the pain from my body. Or at least my awareness of it. That I could live with.

All at once, right as I began to seriously start worrying about our chances, the wind seemed to lose strength. I’d been squinting my eyes, looking down, or rather practically being forced to, and so I looked up and there it was.

The structure loomed over us, and I laughed loudly in sheer joy.

“We made it!” Hannah cried.

“Yeah, let’s get inside! I gotta stop the bleeding!” I called back.

That seemed to douse some of our good cheer but not extinguish it. The triumph that came from almost dying and then surviving was a high all its own.

We got up to the dull gray brick side of the structure, followed it to the left until we came to a corner, went around it, and then followed that to a door. The door was closed, but not locked. We both pulled out our pistols and went inside. Still dizzy, I looked around the dim interior, finding a mostly empty room. A lobby of some kind.

“Okay, lemme stand on my own,” I muttered.

“You sure?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. She let go of me tentatively, keeping a close watch on me, and I straightened up. My shoulder hurt, so did my leg, and my head obviously. I swayed a little, but I could stand on my own. I was probably okay.

“All right,” I said, looking around the desolate room, listening to the howling, tormented winds of the storm shrieking around us. “Let’s look around.”

FOURTEEN

The place was a radio station.

Or what was left of one.

It was empty, but there was evidence of a recent camp, and we found one of Megan’s hearts on a wall, again done in charcoal.

There wasn’t much left in the place, but I couldn’t tell if that was because people had taken from it or because the station had been shut down long before the apocalypse. It had the feel of being pretty old and derelict.

Someone had set up a little campsite in the top level, and that’s where we ended up after securing the place. After half an hour the storm was still raging, and I was pretty sure I didn’t have a concussion. Hannah had taken a look at my head and patched me up. I had a cut, it wasn’t too bad, and my dizziness and blurred vision had faded. I wasn’t sick to my stomach and my pupils were fine, according to her.

We got a fire going, I popped some more painkillers, and then we sat down on a mattress beside each other, holding hands, warming up.

“Maybe we should grab lunch while we’re here,” Hannah said.

I nodded, grabbing my pack and opening it up. “Good idea. Let’s keep it light, I want to keep moving as soon as the storm passes.”

She agreed and we each ended up opening a can of something we could tolerate, grabbing some spoons, and digging in. For me it was peaches, for her it was tuna.

“So...now that some time has passed, how do you feel about last night?” I asked.

“Last night?” she replied. I nodded. “I mean it sucked.”

“I...oh. Really?” There was a sinking feeling in my gut.

“Um, duh. Getting attacked by wolves and having to haul a bunch of dead bodies back…” She looked over at me in confusion, then her eyes widened. “Oh! With Melanie, you meant-okay. No, that was great. I thought I said that already.”

“Yeah, but, I just wanted to make sure. Sometimes your opinion can change once you’ve had some time to think about it.”

“Oh. No, I’m good. That was really hot. I used to watch porn but...I’ve never actually seen people doing it like...for real. In real life. First Delilah and Lindsay, now you and Melanie. It’s, uh...it’s really thrilling. It’s a huge turn on. I have to admit, I was worried I’d get jealous, watching you, and at first it was kind of weird, but...then I just reminded myself that it’s not like you’re going to leave me for her, and that I’ve already agreed to share you, and I trust you, and that...well, basically, I’m awesome and you fucking love me and want to fuck me like crazy, and I don’t feel like that’s going to change anytime soon. So I wasn’t jealous, which meant I was just horny.”

“...well, great then. Because most of the women I’m regularly involved with get a kick out of getting watched and watching, and they think you are crazy hot, so they’ll be thrilled by this development,” I replied.

She smiled. “That’s good to hear. I have to admit, I want to see Lara naked really bad.”

“Oh man, she’s just...the curviest woman I’ve ever seen in my life…” I trailed off as something else occurred to me, something of a different subject matter. It was something I’d been considering bringing up with her, with each of them really, for a bit now, as it had been weighing on my mind ever since Lara brought it up, but I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.

Eh, fuck it. Better to just have these conversations.

“So...I’ve got a question. It might be a weird question but I want to ask it,” I said.

“You’re making me nervous,” Hannah replied, looking more closely at me.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. Just something maybe we should talk about. It relates to our relationship.”

“You’re doing nothing to dissuade my anxiety,” she said.

I laughed. “Sorry. Here it is: how do you feel about having kids?”

She continued staring at me. “I think I need to check your head wound again, because where is this coming from?”

“I’m not delirious,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “I just-Lara talked to me about it.”

“You can’t even have kids, right?”

“Right now? No. I can’t. But I remember they told me, as part of the procedure, there was some way of rendering the implant useless for a certain period of time. Basically turning it off. It was some kind of injection that would basically allow me reproductive capabilities again for a window of time, like a month, then the effect would wear off. So I mean, it’s not impossible that I could have kids...provided I could find that injection. But Lara told me...she’d let me get her pregnant. If it ever came up as a possibility and I wanted to, she wouldn’t mind having my kid. And Delilah told me the same thing. So I guess I thought I should probably ask. How you feel about it, I mean.”

“How I feel about you getting other women pregnant or how I feel about the possibility of you getting me pregnant?” she asked.

“Both.”

“Uh. Hmm.” She fell silent, looking down at her can of tuna.

“I’m sorry, I know this is a lot to throw at you...maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“No, it’s a fair question,” she replied. “I don’t want to be pregnant,” she said, looking back at me. “That question is easy. I don’t want to get pregnant ever. I mean maybe I’ll change my mind in ten or fifteen or twenty years, but I doubt it. I just...don’t want to reproduce. Especially not now. I mean, I guess someone should, obviously, to keep the human race going, but I don’t want it to be me. But...hmm, you getting other women pregnant? Women that you love and that love you? That’s, uh, different. That’s a different question.”

“I know. And it’s not like it’ll be coming up soon or anything. Hell, it might not come up at all,” I replied. “You don’t even have to answer now, it’s just-you’re important to me, Hannah. I love you. You’re going to be in my life now and I’m going to be in yours. Even if I impregnate one of them and they’re okay with me not being all that involved...that would matter to you. I mean with Delilah, even though we’re, you know, pretty damn close, I’d basically be a sperm donor for her and Lindsay. And it matters what you think about that.”

She smiled and reached out suddenly, taking my hand. “Thank you for that,” she said. “It just occurred to me, my dad just did so many things. He would just inform my mom of changes that were being made, or sometimes just make the changes and not say anything. And it took me awhile to figure out how fucked up that is. I love you so much. You care so much about me and what I think and how things will affect me…” She looked up and blinked a few times suddenly, reaching up and wiping away a few tears. “I really appreciate it. I don’t really know how I feel about it, but I’ll start thinking about it. And you’ll let me know before a decision has to be made, I’m sure, so I’ll leave that in your hands. And if I come to a decision before then, I’ll tell you.”

“I appreciate it,” I replied, smiling at her, feeling a warmth that had nothing to do with the nearby fire as I looked at her. Even tired and flushed, with chapped lips and dry skin, I thought she was one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. I’d heard a few times that people could become more attractive as you got to know them, if they were good people. It was definitely true. Hannah was already beautiful, but I could tell right now that she’d be beautiful to me forever. In twenty years, in forty. If she was badly burned or scarred, I wouldn’t care.

I set aside my meal and gave her a long, long hug.

We stayed like that, holding each other, until the storm began to abate.

~

Altogether, we only lost about an hour or so to the storm.

When it died down, I had no way of knowing whether or not it would pick back up again, but decided to chance it anyway. I was getting desperate. The camp at the abandoned radio station felt relatively recent, or maybe that was just wishful thinking. It felt like we were close. It felt like if we pushed hard enough, we could make it to Megan today, and the thought was driving me crazy. I wanted to see her so bad.

Even just knowing she was okay would be enough.

I popped some more painkillers, these ones being some of the more effective and longer-lasting ones that Melanie had given me from the cache I’d recovered, and then set a brutal pace. Hannah didn’t have a problem with it, save for the fact that she was concerned I was pushing myself too hard. I placated her as best I could, telling her I knew my limits. She seemed mostly convinced, and after the initial conversation, we got to walking.

The path we got back onto was straight, narrow, and obvious.

All we had to do was walk it.

It was miserable, but as I got into the groove of marching, I found ways of keeping myself occupied. Mainly by thinking.

I tried thinking about nice things at first.

Sex with Lara. Sex with Jessica. Sex with Delilah.

All of them.

And the women I’d been lucky enough to meet and sleep with. Lisa. That really hot woman we’d run into while on the way out to Pine Lake...what had been her name? Shit, I couldn’t remember. I remembered she was blond and tall and fit, and great in bed. Hazel. How good anal had been with that mature beauty.

But my thoughts turned more serious as time wore on.

Was I actually considering getting any of them pregnant if the opportunity arose? I was twenty six years old, and we lived in a snowy apocalyptic wasteland with no real hope of that ever being reversed. It was possible that we could adapt to it, and I guess in some deeper, more primal part of my brain I did believe in continuity of the species, even if only for its own sake. Humans were awful, but they could also be pretty great.

But as for the idea of becoming a father and not just a sperm donor…

I don’t know. I’d come a lot closer towards accepting the idea without even realizing it. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I’d finally ‘settled down’, inasmuch as I could. Although even that was up for debate because God fucking knew how long it was going to be before we actually got settled somewhere we could live. But as it stood, I’d found a group of women I wanted to share my life with, and a group of people I wanted to live with. I’d say a place I wanted to live, but I wasn’t so much connected to Pine Lake as I was to its people.

My biggest real problem was the same as it had always been: I was afraid of how much it would cost me in terms of personal freedom to raise a kid, and also that I might do a bad job. I’d rather just never be a parent than do a bad job.

Only how much personal freedom had I given up now that I’d decided to tie myself to these people?

A lot of it, probably.

That was half the battle, I guess. Apparently I was willing to give up a huge portion of my life to help people. Clearly things would have to change, and definitely a lot of shit would have to be settled, and obviously I’d have to find a way of disabling my birth control, if that was even still an option. But that still left the fear…

Even as I thought about that, I found myself thinking of the phrase ‘it takes a village’. I wasn’t sure if I fully understood it, but the gist I got was ‘it takes a group of tight-knit people to raise a child’. I wouldn’t be doing it alone. I’d have a lot of other people to help. Not even just within my own, well, harem, but with all the other people. With how hard it was to survive nowadays, everyone was generally a lot more invested in the community.

In the end, I turned away from that thought.

Tons more needed to be settled first, and that was a ways off.

Unfortunately, I began envisioning unhappier things. What if Megan was dead out there? What if something else happened to Pine Lake while I was gone? What if Lara and Susan and everyone else died while I was out here? I hated thinking about this stuff but sometimes it gripped me tight and wouldn’t let go.

We force marched ourselves down the road, passing a handful of derelict cars and stopping to give them the barest check-overs for signs of Megan’s team, for two more hours. It was miserable, wretched work and I hated every second of it. I’d done a lot of walking, a lot in my time. I’d walked across half of fucking America over the past two years. This was probably some of my most hated walking. It helped so much that Hannah was here, though. Even though we said almost nothing, her presence was incredibly soothing and uplifting.

The farther we went on, the more desperate I became.

Everything began to hurt after awhile, not just my head and shoulder and both arms now, the right from the fall, the left from the wolf bite, but everything was getting sore and aching from the tension, even with the painkillers.

And then, as we passed that two hour mark, I noticed a building in the distance, off to the side of the road. It looked squat and small, like a remote cabin. It was the kind of place Megan would at least check out, maybe stay at.

We picked up the pace and made it there in ten minutes.

Getting inside, I could almost feel her presence lingering, her scent. Even before I saw the charcoal heart on the wall, I knew she had been here. And recently.

“Chris, they must’ve spent the night here,” Hannah said, looking at the fireplace.

There were still smoldering ashes.

“Yep,” I agreed. “Come on, we have to hurry.”

She looked hesitant, but didn’t argue. We got back outside and kept on going.

“Why do you think they only made it this far?” she asked after another half hour or so of walking.

“What do you mean?” I replied, distracted by my pain and how close we were getting.

“We managed to get here in like half a day. Melanie said they left like three days ago. What’s taking them so long?” she asked.

I thought about it. “Weather could be a factor. Mini-storms pop up a lot. It’s gotten so crazy since the apocalypse began, the weather patterns have become really strange. But Melanie also mentioned that one of them is sick, the engineer. If she’s gotten worse since leaving the camp, that could slow them down considerably. As well as running into wolves or other people,” I replied, but I didn’t like it. It was a good question that probably had a lot of bad answers.

“Yeah,” she murmured, “I guess so. I hope they’re okay.”

“Me too.”

We marched on.

~

After another hour and a half, we came into a forest, and something exciting happened.

We picked up a trail. Three distinct sets of footprints in the snow. The first ones we found were fading thanks to the snow blowing into them from the winds, but they grew stronger as we hurried on. I started looking around for more evidence, anything that might give me a clue if something had gone wrong or happened to them, but the prints were more than enough. There were three sets of them, which almost certainly meant that Megan, the engineer, Fay, and Eddie were still alive and likely uninjured. Or had been up to this point.

I didn’t see any evidence of limping or swaying in the prints in the snow.

No blood, no shell casings, no damage to the trees, so probably no shootouts so far. I hadn’t seen any evidence of wolves around.

The forest we’d come into was thick and densely packed, the dead trees utterly surrounding us, almost seeming to close in on the road, which had grown narrower the deeper we went. My pain and exhaustion were pushed aside for the moment by this development. We were close. We were actually really close.

It was hard to tell, but we were likely within a half mile of their present location. Maybe even a quarter mile.

Shit, maybe even a hundred yards.

The road turned out of sight up ahead not too far away and the trees were too densely packed to see through, but I kept trying regardless.

As we approached the bend in the road, I heard something and froze suddenly.

“What?” Hannah murmured.

“Did you hear that?” I replied.

“No, I didn’t hear anything...I think.”

“I thought I heard a voice-” I cut off as we both definitely heard someone shout.

The voice was female. Familiar.

Megan.

And then I heard a gunshot, and my wonder turned to terror.

And then there were more gunshots, and more shouting.

Hannah and I took off running.

FIFTEEN

I almost got shot in the head as I rounded the bend and a bullet ricocheted off a nearby tree.

Ducking down as I grabbed for my rifle, ignoring the pain that was now roaring through my head, I took in the scene before me. The narrow road continued in between the dense forest. Two groups of people shot at each other from across the street. I put the scope to my eye and kept low, trying to figure out who was who.

“Do you see anything?” Hannah asked, her voice low as she crouched next to me, her own rifle out and up.

“Yeah...hold on,” I muttered, scanning the situation, feeling the pressure of terror and time burdening me with each passing second.

I saw a familiar tan face on the opposite side of the road.

“Okay, people on the left are ours. Start taking out targets of opportunity on this side,” I said as I got up, lowered the rifle, and shifted deeper into the forest.

“Got it,” Hannah said.

I could make out a few figures maybe thirty yards away, deeper into the forest, but they were too well-protected by the trees to get any kind of real shot. I stumbled on, pausing every few steps as I drew closer and deeper to see if I had a shot. I didn’t know who these people were, or what the fuck they wanted, but in that moment I found that I didn’t care.

They were trying to kill Megan.

After several harrowing seconds, I suddenly had a shot. I saw three or four of them, figures in patchwork clothing, not particularly organized. I heard several pistols and a rifle. Frozen, I held my breathing as best I could, and took aim. I caught sight of a man in a brown coat with shaggy black hair and a pistol. He was aiming in Megan’s direction, popping off the occasional shot, shouting something. I squeezed the trigger.

The shot was good.

It took him in the back of the head and shattered his skull. Bits of bone and brain flew onto the tree next to him as he went down in a heap. I heard a few shouts of surprise. A few gunshots randomly stabbed out in my direction. I cursed and ducked down, then heard another rifle shot nearby. Hannah. Someone yelled. More gunfire.

It was chaos.

I shifted several yards to the right and got a bit deeper in, then tried to line up another shot. I almost got myself shot in the process. There was a good line of sight all right, but the person on the other end was holding a rifle and they were aiming for me. I lurched to the side, my feet caught on something, and I went sprawling in the snow. A round scorched by over my head. Cursing, panting, I surged back up to my feet and got behind a tree. Three more gunshots sounded, each one drilling into the tree I was standing behind.

I was stuck.

Abruptly, I heard another shot, much closer, then silence for a few seconds.

“Got him, Chris!” Hannah called.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived as more gunfire sounded. Raising the rifle again, I got back to work.

The next several minutes passed by as we played hide-and-seek in those dense woods, but finally I managed to shoot what I assumed was the last guy in the hostile group and then the last gunshot echoed away and only silence remained.

“Who the fuck is out there!?” a voice called.

Megan. It was definitely Megan. I’d know her voice anywhere.

“Megan! It’s me!” I called, suddenly overwhelmed by the absurdly intense desire to rush out there and see her and hold her.

I started making my way through the trees, towards the road.

“...Chris!?” she called back, as though she couldn’t believe it.

“Yes! I’m here!” I yelled.

A moment later I stumbled out onto the road at about the same moment she did and for just a few seconds both of us stared at each other, maybe twenty feet separating us, both of us too stunned to really believe what we were seeing.

And then we both laughed and started running towards each other. I was vaguely aware of another person standing in the treeline, a short woman with a pistol, and I heard Hannah behind me. Even here and now, as overwhelmed as I was by the moment, I was still aware and conscious of the environment around me.

We were, as far as my senses were telling me, safe.

And then Megan and I met in the middle of the snowbound road and she leaped into me so hard she actually knocked me over. We went tumbling to the ground as we kissed, fell apart from each other, came back together and laid there in the snow kissing and hugging.

The whole world seemed to dissipate in that instant.

It was just me and her, and it wasn’t until she was actually there in my arms, embracing me, kissing me, that I realized the full extent of how much I had missed her.

The past few months suddenly felt like years.

“What are you doing here?!” she said finally, her voice a tempest storm of emotions. She was crying and she wiped at her as she as she sat up and we got into a more stable position, sitting facing each other in the road.

“I got back a few days ago, ran into Delilah and Lindsay, heard everything that had happened, and Lisa sent us right out,” I replied.

“Us?” she asked, and then looked up. Before I could answer, she laughed and then wiped at her eyes again. “Oh my G-of course you found another fucking redhead out there, Chris!...did you see Melanie? You must have…”

“I saw Melanie. She’s fine. We helped the people at the camp. She’s still there,” I replied.

Megan shivered suddenly, then sighed. “I guess we should get up…” I nodded in agreement and we got to our feet, brushing snow off ourselves.

I studied her as she finally stood there before me. She looked thinner than I remembered, just a little, and not exactly in a healthy way, just like Melanie. Her dark hair was longer, coming down from under a black beanie. Her face was a little dirty, and she had a cut on one cheek. Her eyes were baggy and bloodshot. She was wearing a new coat and her boots also looked new. Well, different. She seemed to be studying me as well.

Something occurred to me all at once. “Megan there’s something I have to say to you right now, before anything else.”

“What?” she asked, suddenly looking worried.

“I love you.”

She stared at me for several seconds, and I could tell it caught her completely off guard. Abruptly she giggled and, I thought, blushed. That caught me off guard. I’d almost never heard her giggle. Laugh? Yes. She’d laughed a lot, usually it was short and sardonic, sometimes more of a scoff than a laugh, but I’d almost never heard her giggle.

“You love me?” she said finally.

I nodded. “I do. I love you. I figured that out. I love you and I never want to leave you. I want to stay with you and Delilah and Elizabeth and help the people at Pine Lake.”

A look of great relief came across her face. “Shit, it’s too cold to cry,” she muttered, wiping once more at her eyes and blinking a few times. “I love you too, Chris.” Her smile broadened. “I love you, and-” A harsh, racking cough caught both our attentions and we looked back, behind Megan. The woman I’d noticed earlier was leaning against a tree, coughing.

“Don’t mind me,” she said, sounding weak.

“Shit, Fay, are you okay?” Megan asked.

She coughed a few more times, then slipped a ski-mask over her face. “I’ll be fine.”

“Fuck.” Megan looked back to me. “Uh-Chris. We’ve got to keep moving. Fay’s sick and...ugh, fuck. Eddie’s dead.”

“What? What happened?” I asked.

“He was shot in the head. Just now.” A look of anger came over her face as she shot a glance to the other side of the forest. “Those fucks,” she growled. “Thank God you showed up when you did. I’m not sure about our chances otherwise…”

“Go tend to Fay and strip Eddie of supplies,” I said. “Hannah and I will search them, grab what we can, then we’ll get a move on and find a place to bed down for the night.”

“Okay...Hannah, huh?” she murmured, glancing back over my shoulder at her. I looked back. Hannah was staring at us, her expression neutral, mostly. But I could sense her sizing Megan up, and Megan was doing the same thing.

“Yeah, it’s...a long story,” I replied.

“I can already tell the two of you are together, but...is it serious?”

“It’s serious,” I replied. “Uh...it’s a long story.”

Megan looked at me for a few seconds, then nodded. “Okay. Let’s get the work done and then we can catch up.” She paused briefly, then smiled and kissed me again. “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you too, Megan.”

We split apart, heading back to our respective partners for the moment, the need of the mission overcoming our own personal desires for now.

“Everything okay?” Hannah asked as I rejoined her and began to lead her into the woods.

“Fine. It’s just...we’re at the part where I’m going to have to explain uh...you, and Lara and Susan, and...your mom. I’m not sure how she’ll take it,” I replied.

“She’ll be okay,” Hannah said after a moment.

“What makes you so confident?”

“I can just tell, she’s really tough. I don’t know, call it a gut feeling...I’m guessing we’re searching the corpses?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Faster the better.”

“Yep,” she agreed, and set to work.

As I searched the bodies and considered Hannah’s words, the corpses revealed an unhappy story. People attacked other people for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes over wounded pride. Sometimes due to a misunderstanding. Sometimes just for fun.

This time, though, the attack had clearly been out of desperation.

There were five people in the group, and all of them were gaunt and a bit withered. They hadn’t eaten for awhile. And they hardly had anything on them. We collected three pistols and a rifle, and no spare ammunition. They’d almost used up their entire reserve it seemed. We got a couple of odds and ends from their pockets and their packs, which were old and worn. Two of them didn’t even have packs. I wondered if they’d been robbed at some point. I felt bad for them. I had no idea what their story might have been.

But I knew how it ended. Brutally, bloodily.

After we’d gotten everything we could and made sure no one and nothing else was lurking, we rejoined Megan and Fay. I had a brief glimpse of Eddie laying dead in a patch of bloody snow back in the woods.

I hadn’t known him too well, either.

“Is that everything?” Megan asked as we met on the road.

“Yeah,” I replied. “You?”

“We’re set.”

“Let’s go then. Hannah, will you watch the rear?” I asked.

“Yep,” she replied, knowing I’d need time alone with Megan.

“Keep me in the middle,” Fay said, her voice hoarse and miserable. “I’m sick, so don’t get too close to me. Pretty sure I’ve got the flu.”

I nodded. Even with the ski mask on she looked awful just from her eyes.

This was not a good situation.

“We have to find shelter as soon as possible,” Megan said as we started walking.

“Agreed. First suitable place we find we’ll stop for the night...it’s almost dark anyway,” I replied, looking at the sky.

“So, Chris...what happened out there? Obviously you came back with someone…” She looked over at me and must’ve seen the look on my face. “Came back with multiple someones, by that look. How many new girlfriends do I have to share you with now, Chris?”

I was silent for longer than I intended to be. “...four,” I said finally.

“Chris!” she cried.

“I didn’t-it wasn’t intentional!” I replied, wincing, not sure if she was actually mad or not. I didn’t even know if she knew. “It just...kinda happened.”

“Oh my lord,” she whispered. “I love you, but-four?! Four?! That’s-Chris, come on!”

“...it’s more complicated than it sounds,” I added quietly.

She growled. She was getting annoyed now. “How?”

“One of the other women that I’m involved with now is, uh...Hannah’s mom.”

Megan shot me a look of utter surprise, then glanced back over her shoulder briefly at Hannah, then back to me. “Okay, tell me everything. Right now. I gotta hear this.”

“All right,” I replied, and started talking.

~

“If you were anyone else, I’d have called bullshit eighteen times by now,” Megan told me as I finished up my story with the encounter with Melanie. “I mean…” She trailed off. She was mad, I could tell. I didn’t blame her. I had hoped she wouldn’t be, but I couldn’t blame her. It was a lot to dump on her.

I just told her I loved six other women, four of whom hadn’t even existed to her before today.

That was a lot. Especially in the middle of this nightmare scenario.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

She looked over at me, her expression hard, then her anger seemed to collapse. “Don’t be sorry,” she said finally, then let out a long, heavy sigh. “I’m not mad at you, Chris. Not really. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m just...stressed. All this is so stressful. Mostly though, I’m happy. I’m happy you’re here. I’m happy you told me that you love me. I was…” she looked away, “worried.”

“That I didn’t love you?”

“...yeah. I don’t know. It was stupid.”

“I’m sorry I waited so long. It didn’t even occur to me to say it or that you’d feel that way. I mean, like I said-”

“No, I know. I get it. I’m not blaming you. I understand, about how big a deal that phrase can be. I’m not mad at you.”

“When did you know?” I asked quietly after a moment had passed between us.

“That I loved you?” I nodded. She was silent for another few seconds, then she smiled. “About a week after we got to Pine Lake and saved everyone’s asses and got settled in. I remember the exact moment, actually. It was sunset. I was coming back from a hunting expedition. I got home and I found you and Elizabeth and Delilah in the room together. You were all naked, but you hadn’t had sex. You were massaging Elizabeth’s feet. You were listening to Delilah tell a story about something that had happened to her. You looked over at me as I came in and you told me that dinner was there, by the fire, and that you’d massage anything I wanted, and you had waited for me to get home before the sex started. I thanked you, and I took off my clothes, and I started eating dinner. I watched you finish up with Elizabeth’s massage, and then you washed and you massaged my feet. After Delilah finished up her story, you asked me how my day had gone, and I just...knew. All of that, and the way you looked at me when you asked...I knew in that moment-I mean, I specifically remember this thought just coming to me out of nowhere…

“He loves me. This man is in love with me. And he would do anything I asked. That’s exactly what I thought. And it made me realize that I love you, too. But I didn’t want to freak you out or anything, so I didn’t say anything. I wanted-” she laughed suddenly and reached up, brushed away a few tears. “I was being selfish. I wanted you to say it first. But you didn’t. Not to any of us. I would have been mad if you’d said it to the others, but not me, but you didn’t say it to anyone. I figured it had to be some kind of personal thing, because you obviously loved me. You loved us. I could just tell. That’s why I never said anything. I began to worry, though, while you were gone...”

“I’m glad you figured it out,” I said. “That you felt that way. I...well, it’s like I said, talking with Lara and Delilah about it made me realize...you’re not mad? That I love them?”

She laughed. “No, Chris. I’m not mad. They sound great. Hannah is...shockingly beautiful, and rugged. She looks pretty hardcore, I can see why you fell for her. Lara sounds intimidating. They all do, in their own way. But Delilah was intimidating and now we have sex all the time and get along super well. Same with me and Elizabeth. I’ll get it sorted out, Chris. And it’s obvious why they love you. Although, full stop, we’re having sex tonight. I don’t really care what has to happen to get to that, but you are fucking me tonight.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “I am absolutely fucking you tonight.” I glanced back briefly. “How does, uh, Fay feel about-”

“You can’t have sex with her right now, you fucking horndog, she’s sick. It’s too risky,” Megan replied with a laugh, rolling her eyes.

“I know that,” I replied, rolling my eyes right back at her, “I mean about being around people who are fucking.”

“Oh...yeah, that makes sense. We’ve had a lot of time to talk and she knows about you and me and Delilah and Elizabeth. She’s pretty casual and I’m pretty sure she’d like to take you for a ride at some point. She’s super cute so I’d like to see you do her.”

I looked over at her. “You are a really good girlfriend.”

Megan grinned. “I know…” She looked at me, then past me, then stopped. “Look. There’s a cabin.”

I turned and looked. A little ways ahead and deeper into the forest on my side, there was indeed a cabin. The sun was almost down by this point, and it was getting colder.

“Come on, let’s get inside.”

SIXTEEN

The cabin was small, but secure.

It felt pretty damn good to get in out of the cold and the encroaching darkness. I still couldn’t fully believe that I’d finally found Megan.

I had missed all three of them while I’d been gone, but I’d gotten to see Delilah and Elizabeth as soon as I got back. Delilah before I’d gotten back. My reunion with Megan had been prolonged almost to the point of torture.

I kept wanting to go to her and hold her and kiss her, but there was still more to do.

“Fay, set your gear aside and lay down,” Megan said. “On the smaller mattress.”

“That makes sense,” Fay murmured. Her voice sounded distant and tired.

There was a store of firewood already gathered next to the fireplace, so I set to work getting a fire started. Hannah and Megan moved about the small cabin’s interior as I did that, and I felt a bit of tension in the air. I was going to have to do some introductions, and also be introduced, as I hadn’t had a chance to actually talk with Fay.

She was worrying me. She seemed pretty ill, and we still had probably at least a few days to go on our journey.

I got the fire going, then got some snow melting and also quickly threw together a stew of vegetable soup and deer meat.

With that finally out of the way, I stood and looked at the three women I now shared a cabin with. Fay had set her pack, her coat, and her boots aside, but otherwise remained dressed in her layers as she climbed under the blankets of the smaller of the two beds in the cabin. She took off her ski-mask and changed it for a bandanna that she tied around her lower face.

She noticed me looking. “Best I can do. We don’t have any kind of masks.”

I nodded. “Understandable. Uh, I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Chris.”

“Fay,” she said. “I honestly feel like I know you already, Chris. I’ve heard so much about you ever since I showed up. I feel like we have a lot in common. We’re both travelers, survivalists, we both like helping people and we’re good at it. You’re a bit bigger than I thought you’d be. They all made you out to be pretty big but I thought they were exaggerating, but no, you’re pretty tall and built. It’s good to finally meet you in the flesh, I just wish it could be under better circumstances.”

“So do I,” I replied. I hesitated. “If we’re alike then you’ll know that I’m going to have to ask you to keep pushing tomorrow.”

She sighed and nodded. “Yes, I know. I already hate how much I’ve slowed everyone down. This is the sickest I’ve been since this entire apocalypse began. Sickest I’ve been in awhile. But it happens to all of us from time to time. I don’t suppose you have any meds on you? Cough syrup would be great, cough drops, something for the fever.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I’ve got some of that good stuff that’ll lessen the severity of the symptoms and help you sleep.” I started digging around in my pack. “We managed to find a sweet little cache of supplies and Melanie made sure I got some of the medicine in it since she knew I was coming after you. Here it is.”

I passed her the bottle and she thanked me and took some of it. I turned my attention to Megan and Hannah. “I guess it’s time the two of you finally formally met.”

“Chris has told me a lot about you,” Hannah said after a moment’s hesitation, looking at Megan. “He’s told me that we’re...a lot alike, in some ways.” She hesitated further, then laughed nervously. “God, I had a lot of things in my head to say to you-uh, good things! Not bad things. But now that we’re actually here…”

“How old are you, exactly?” Megan asked.

“Twenty,” she replied.

“Interesting. Okay. It’s fine, I get. Come here.” They stepped towards each other and Megan opened her arms, a clear invitation. Hannah leaned into it, and the two women hugged. “If you’re with Chris, then I trust you’re a good person. He wouldn’t have brought just anyone on a job like this. So you’ve got some real grit for twenty, I can tell that already. But…” She pulled back, putting her hands on Hannah’s shoulders, looking at her intently. “You don’t have to worry about me, okay? I don’t want to fight, Hannah. I want to be friends. I don’t like drama, I don’t like conflict. I’ve got enough of that in my life. And I get it. When we first got together, I was dubious about Delilah’s involvement with the relationship. She...intimidated me. But we’re best friends now, and lovers. I love her. I know it will take time, but I want you to feel loved, and safe, and happy, in our little inner circle. You don’t have to worry about drama...mostly. I do have a temper.”

“So do I,” she admitted sheepishly.

Megan laughed and let her arms drop. “So we’ll probably butt heads sometimes, but that’s only natural. You’ll do fine, Hannah. Although I guess the first test is coming up right about now.”

“First test?” she asked.

“I’m having sex with Chris like...now. So I don’t know how you want to handle that...or you, Fay. Are you, uh, cool with that?”

“Yeah, fuck away, I like seeing people do it,” she replied dreamily.

Megan laughed. “Good.”

“I already had that, uh, test. Last night. When he and Melanie fucked. I’m cool watching. Also, uh, should probably get this out of the way now. I...like girls, sort of. I don’t mind kissing, and I don’t mind, I guess, taking turns having sex with him, but I don’t want to ever go, like, all the way. If that makes sense?”

“It makes perfect sense,” Megan replied.

“Okay, good.”

I finally relaxed completely as they talked. I thought they were going to be okay. Hannah had been right. It also made me realize how much Megan had changed since I’d first met her, although was that true? Maybe changed wasn’t the right word. All these good qualities of hers that I was seeing and being reminded of, they had always been there, even from the beginning. She’d just started our relationship from a place of fear and mistrust, having obviously been in the middle of a very bad point in her life.

I guess it was fair to say she’d worked on herself. She was less combative overall, I had noticed that before leaving, and seeing her interact with Hannah now convinced me that she was continuing to deal with that anger that came so naturally to her.

God, what a fucking trio we made. Three people in a relationship with anger issues.

I let them get to know each other and checked on Fay. She was out like a light already, and I left her to sleep, moving back over to the fireplace and tending to the stew and the melting snow. There was still a lot to do, still a long way to go, but I’d found Megan and Fay. That felt like a huge, massive win. I honestly felt a lot better about our chances now. I’d been harboring the fear, the terror really, in the back of my head that something had happened to Megan and I’d find her frozen body. But that fear could finally be laid to rest.

“Chris! What happened?!” Megan called suddenly.

I turned around, startled. “What? To what?”

“Your head!” she replied, coming over.

“Oh. I fell when a wolf jumped onto me a few hours ago,” I replied, turning back to the stew and stirring it. “Hannah patched me up.”

“Damn,” Megan murmured after walking over and looking at my head for a moment.

“If you don’t like that you’re gonna hate my left arm.”

“What the hell happened to your left arm?” she asked.

“Wolf bit the shit out of it. Melanie patched me up, though.”

“That’s good at least...how is she?”

“Tired but still going strong...can you keep watch on this? I want to wash up and take my clothes off,” I said.

“Yeah,” Megan replied. “Also, if you need to take the edge off, there’s a few joints in my backpack.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Yeah. A trader that came through last month had some. I brought them because I figured it’d be nice to have them in case this all got to be too fucking stressful, which good lord has it ever,” Megan replied as she sat down on the floor in front of the fireplace.

“Yeah,” I muttered as I started stripping. I took off everything and then started digging around in her pack until I came up with a joint and a lighter. I stuck it in my mouth, lit the lighter, then hesitated and looked at Hannah. “This gonna be a problem?”

She was sitting on the bed, looking over her stuff. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “No, Chris. I told you I’m not a prude or anything. It was just-we met under really stressful circumstances and you were...confusing.”

“Cool,” I said, and lit up, then took a long, long pull on it, then blew out the smoke in a slowly expanding cloud. “Well, that’s better,” I muttered. Putting the lighter away, I held the blunt between my lips and then started washing up.

“I guess you don’t partake?” Megan asked, glancing over at Hannah.

“No,” she replied.

“For the best, honestly. On the one hand there’s nothing wrong with some de-stressing every now and then, but on the other hand, the fewer ‘de-stressers’ you can cope without the better.” She reached over. “Here, gimme that.”

“Yes, dear,” I replied, passing her the blunt after taking another pull on it and then continuing to wash up.

“God, you’ve got a lot of bruises,” she muttered after taking a drag and studying my naked body.

“You should’ve seen me a few months ago. I was at the top of a watchtower and the stairway collapsed. Fell down onto the metal stairs the next level down. Half my fucking body was bruised,” I said. “It looked wicked awful.”

“Your arms look pretty awful right now,” Hannah murmured.

I studied them for a moment. My left forearm was a patchwork of bandages and my right had bruises all over it now from the fall. There were a random assortment of other scrapes, bruises, and cuts across my body that I noticed now that I was looking. There always seemed to be something like that, given the life I lived, but it was definitely worse than usual. I was pretty lucky that I seemed to heal on the faster end of the scale.

As soon as I was done washing up, I set about washing my clothes as well as I could under the circumstances. Which mostly meant dumping a few bottles of water into the sink in the bathroom, lathering up some soap, and then washing them up and letting them soak for a bit. After the soak I wrung them out and hung them over the backs of a few chairs near the fireplace. By then our dinner was ready.

I pulled on my boxers and Megan and I killed off the blunt, passing it back and forth until it was gone, then passed out dinner.

I was struck by a hard sense of deja vu as I woke Fay up to offer her a thermos of vegetable and venison stew. I remembered doing almost exactly the same thing with Elizabeth the first night we met her.

“Thank you,” she murmured as she sat up in the bed, put her back to the nearby wall, and accepted the thermos.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, rejoining Megan and getting my own portion of the meal. I tried not to eat too quickly, but I was starving. We all were, it seemed. For the next several minutes, no one spoke, just ate and drank.

When I was done, I washed out the thermos and set it to dry, then debated with myself about whether or not to down a few more painkillers. In the end, I decided against it. The weed was helping, and I’d be having at least two orgasms in the very near future, and that would help a lot too. I pulled out a thermometer and stepped up to Fay.

“I need to check your temp,” I said.

“Go ahead,” she replied. I placed it against her forehead and waited. It chimed after a few seconds and I studied the little screen, then sighed. “What is it?”

“A hundred and one,” I replied.

“It was one oh three at its worst,” she murmured. “So it’s down at least.”

“Yeah, still too high for my liking.”

“Nothing we can do about it right now,” she said. Then she smiled up at me. “Megan was right, you are a sweetheart. You’re very caring. I didn’t expect that.”

“No one expects that,” I replied, going and sitting on our bed.

“I’m sorry, I guess that was rude, I’m a little...out of it,” Fay murmured.

“No, it’s fine. I get that a lot.”

“Doesn’t make it less rude.” I looked up and noticed Megan staring at me. She looked...guilty. Why? Maybe she was thinking of all the things she’d said to me when we first met. Well, we’d gotten past that. I offered her a tired smile and she smiled back, a little awkwardly, and got to her feet, then came closer and shed her shirt.

“We should get to fucking so we can sleep,” she said.

“Fine by me,” I replied, reaching out and grabbing her hips, then yanking her forward. She let out a little yell of surprise. I hugged her to me as I sat there on the bed, leaning my face against her bare stomach. She shifted and let out a little laugh. “Your beard tickles.”

I let go of her and rubbed my jaw. “Yeah I gotta shave it soon. Or do you like it longer? I mean I’m buzzing it down either way, but I can’t remember.”

“I like it shorter,” Megan replied with a shrug, then started undoing her pants and kicking out of her hiking boots.

I’d already gotten the washing out of the way, so I just took back off the boxers I’d put on and laid on my back, watching her get naked. Hannah lay beside me, also watching her. Megan revealed that beautiful body of hers, and I saw she was indeed thinner, she was a bit leaner, a bit harder. She’d been eating less and working even more than usual. I got the idea that it was going to be a look we’d all be sporting soon, if we didn’t get this situation turned around. She noticed us looking at her as she started washing up.

“So, still good?” she asked, raising her eyebrows at me.

“Better than good,” I replied. “Still excellent.”

“Yeah...you’re so hot,” Hannah murmured. “Watching you fuck is going to be awesome.”

“Not as awesome as watching you...come on, girl. Show me what you’ve got under there. If we’re going to be sorta-girlfriends, I want to see. You’re keeping me in suspense.”

Hannah laughed. “All right, that’s fair. I guess it’s time I should wash up, too.”

She got up and started stripping. As she finished getting her own clothes off, Megan finished washing herself off and then stared at her.

“Holy crap those are some perfect tits,” she said after a few seconds.

“Yeah,” I agreed, grinning. “They really are.”

“Wow yeah, damn you two are so sexy,” Fay murmured. We all glanced over at her. She laughed softly. “Don’t mind me. I’d join in if I could.”

“I am positive the opportunity will arise in the near future,” I replied.

“That’s as close as he gets to tact,” Megan said as she climbed in bed with me. “He really wants to fuck you.”

“Well that’s nice to hear,” Fay replied.

“Yes, but right now it’s my turn because it’s been months goddamnit,” Megan said, and before I could respond she climbed onto me and kissed me.

Our lips connected once again, and it was like the world dropped out from under me.

I felt her hot, naked body against my own, her searching hands, all her hot, soft skin and her wonderful lips and tongue.

I felt everything, running my own hands over her smooth, firm body. Reuniting with her was everything my longing memories had promised and desired. I felt the need, the intense, unrelenting need, in her, in the way she touched me, how hard she kissed me, how quickly she went from playful and horny to desperate.

It wasn’t long before I flipped her onto her back and got a finger between her legs. She cried out as I began rubbing her clit and kissed my way down her neck, across her collarbone, then lower to her breast, where I began licking across the smooth skin there, getting closer and closer to one of her dark nipples.

“Oh my fucking-oh Chris, this has been-oh wow. Too long…” she moaned.

I said nothing, just slipped a finger inside of her and began licking across one of her nipples. She let out a shout and bucked her hips.

I had hardly gotten started pleasuring her before she had a screaming orgasm.

I held her down as she began thrashing, giving herself completely to the orgasm, and I was hit by a flood of memories. All the times we’d done this, how well, how intimately I’d gotten to know Megan and her body, her mannerisms. The way she sounded when she was coming, the way she twisted, the tendency she had to twitch specifically her right arm and how I had to hold myself just the right way or she could hit me where it hurt on accident. The sound she sometimes made, deep in her throat, when a particularly hard orgasmic tremor hit her in just the right way. How utterly she gave herself to her climaxes, how much she let her guard down when I’d fully gained her trust. How connected I truly felt to her when we were doing this.

Pleasuring her throughout the whole orgasm, I led her back down from it and then released her. She lay panting, glistening with sweat on her lean, tan body.

“I love you,” she whispered, then she smiled. “I love saying it. And hearing it.”

I laughed softly. “I love you too, Megan,” I replied, and kissed her.

“Lay back and I’ll show you how much I love you,” she said.

I laid back, and she got down between my legs and got to work. Hannah finished washing up and laid down beside us on the bed, watching intently as Megan licked all over my cock.

“Enjoying yourself?” I asked.

“Oh yeah. This is...great,” she replied, her eyes wide, face already flushed from arousal.

I groaned as Megan slipped my cock into her mouth and started bobbing her head. She looked up at me with those wonderful brown eyes of hers. I watched her work, mesmerized, until she finished coating my dick in her saliva.

“Okay, come on, give me that big dick,” she said, her voice husky and horny as she got up onto her hands and knees.

“All right. Get on your back,” I replied as I got up and gave her space. “Spread your legs.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied, doing as she was told. I watched as she laid on her back and opened her legs, revealing that beautiful pussy and her wonderful inner thighs. I quickly got up in between them and started working my way slowly inside.

She moaned loudly. “Oh fuck...I forgot how big you are,” she muttered.

“I gotta admit, I never get tired of hearing that,” I replied as I pushed deeper into her.

She laughed, then moaned, reaching up and grabbing my shoulders. “Come on, just get in there!” she growled.

“All right, you asked for it,” I replied, and pushed my way deep into her. She cried out, then wrapped her legs around me as I started stroking into her.

I lost myself in that sweet, familiar pussy. In her wonderful body, her loving, fierce embrace.

I don’t know how long we made frantic love, but it felt like a long time. It felt like coming home. I felt the intense passion between us, the longing and desperate need. The intimacy. The closeness. The vulnerability.

It heightened the pleasure, added to it, multiplied it.

I wasn’t entirely sure how, but I managed to hold onto my orgasm through three of her own. Each time I was sure that I wouldn’t be able to survive the wave of raw sexual rapture as her vaginal muscles clenched and fluttered around me, and a hot spray of sex juices escaped her, and her pussy felt that much better to fuck, but each time I somehow managed to. Until she began to orgasm a fourth time and that was it.

I let out a primal growling shout of raw release as I started coming inside of her.

“OH YES!” she screamed as I thrust deep and hard into her, wrapping her arms and legs around me, kissing me deep as we came together.

It was a long moment, frozen in time, a shared union of bliss.

It blew both of us away, and we took a long time to come down from that high.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to top that,” Hannah said, breaking the silence.

“Don’t worry about that,” Megan murmured tiredly, reaching out and touching her arm. “It was different. We haven’t seen each other for months. You’ve had access to his dick plenty.”

“Fair point,” she replied.

“I’m gonna need a break before we get to it,” I replied, carefully pulling out of Megan. “Crap, that took a lot out of me.”

“And put it into me,” Megan muttered.

“Got you covered,” Hannah said, and passed her a wet rag. “I know what he does.”

“Oh my God thank you,” Megan replied with feeling, accepting it. “You and me are going to get along just fine, Hannah.”

I laughed softly and rolled over onto my back, staring at the ceiling, just...basking.

In the midst of all this frozen hell, all the bad things that had happened, this finally felt like an eye in the storm.

There was more to do, a lot more, but for now, we could rest.

SEVENTEEN

I was very glad that I’d fallen asleep at probably seven PM, because I managed to not only wake up before sunrise, but get a shitload of rest in, too.

Well, a shitload for me.

I needed it after yesterday.

I woke up between Hannah and Megan, both women naked and deep asleep, and for a moment I just laid there. It hit me, suddenly, the these two were probably going to be the women that I spent the most time with, if only because of the factors that they were both the most likely to go on excursions with me, and we were going to share a place together. Jessica, Lara, and Susan would be living together, and Delilah and Lindsay would apparently be sharing a place with Elizabeth now, which meant I still got my old place with Megan, and Hannah would move in with us. How I was waking up now would probably become normal.

I was still wrestling with how to feel about that. I did love them all. In all the time I’d had to think over that, ponder over my varied relationships, I believed what I had told Hannah: I loved them all equally but differently.

But I also believed the other thing I had said: we each offered different things to each other. And I was coming to realize that Megan and Hannah were likely going to be the two women who offered me perhaps the most, in the sense that they were the most compatible with me and how I lived my life. I didn’t think it would cause problems.

I hoped it wouldn’t.

But I supposed relationship problems would be a vacation compared to all the crap we had to put up with right now.

I was careful not to disturb the two ladies, or the third lady across the room, as I got up and stoked the fire, bringing it back to life, but I apparently needn’t have bothered: all three of them were just totally out of it.

They needed sleep. They’d all pushed themselves so hard over the past several days. Longer, for Megan and Fay.

I looked at the engineer, worried. Both about her and about us. I had a great immune system, and I know Hannah did, too. I figured that if Megan was going to get sick from Fay, she would have by now, but that wasn’t one hundred percent. Just one of us being this ill was enough of a problem, it’d be a lot worse if even one more of us fell ill.

I also felt bad because I was going to have to push her, push all of us.

Time was a luxury we didn’t really have.

Every hour we spent out here was another hour of Pine Lake’s life support gone, and I had no clear idea how much life support we had left.

So I got started on preparing for the day ahead.

My clothes were dry and I’d mostly got the blood out. After a quick wash, I pulled on my boxers, my socks, thermal underwear, and survival cargo pants, then studied my arm before pulling on anything else. I’d need to get the wounds looked at, and by someone other than myself. Well, that could wait, I wanted them to get as much sleep as possible. Then I ended up throwing on my shirt and coat anyway because I had to slip out and gather up snow to melt and boil.

As I stepped outside, crouching in the doorway and gathering snow, I looked around. The sun still hadn’t risen yet, and the moon hadn’t quite set yet. It cast an ethereal glow over the snowy landscape, and the dead trees that stood in silent vigil in every direction kind of freaked me out. There was something ominous about this forest, but I wasn’t sure what. Maybe it was just because things could be more easily hidden.

I finished gathering the snow, shivering in the frigid winds, and went back inside. There were no signs of wildlife around, or that we’d been paid a visit by any unwelcome guests while we’d slept. I set the snow to boil and then took my coat and shirt back off. We hadn’t eaten all the stew I’d made last night, just covered it in its pot and left it not far from the fire, so I just poured two more cans of vegetable soup and some chopped up venison into it, added a bit more water, then set it by the fire to heat up. Not a great breakfast, but we couldn’t afford to be picky.

Hannah woke up first, about fifteen minutes later.

She silently got up, washed herself, then pulled her clothes on. A moment later, she sat down in front of the fire with me.

“So, how do you feel about last night?” I asked quietly.

“Good,” she replied just as softly. “I was nervous, but she’s really nice. And she seems pretty competent. I mean she must be to have made it this far through all this crap.”

“She is. I’m really glad you two are getting along.”

We fell silent, just enjoying each other’s company and closeness, waiting for the snow to melt and boil and the meal to cook.

Megan got up next, right around the time the sun began to rise. She washed and dressed, and since she had the most experience, I asked her to look at my wounds. She did, checking my head wound first, washing it and applying a new bandage. That fucking stung like shit and helped finish waking me up the rest of the way. It looked like my wolf bite wasn’t going to get infected, probably. She cleaned it up and applied new bandages there, too. Then I checked out a cut she had on her right bicep and made her let me put a bandage over the cut on her face. Finally, once breakfast was just about ready, I had to wake Fay.

She was miserable, but her fever was down to ninety nine at least.

I helped her as best I could. She took more medicine and changed clothes.

“I don’t care if you look, I got to see you all naked last night,” was what she said as she started taking her clothes off.

Well, I looked.

She was quite attractive. Her body was lean and fit, and she had smooth brown skin, with the occasional scar. I saw a knife scar in her lower back that made me wince. Damn, someone had literally stabbed her in the back. She had a great ass, nice and tight, and when she turned to face us, (I think she was liking us checking her out), I saw a pair of small, firm breasts that were a true pleasure to behold. She looked me in the eyes as she pulled an undershirt into place and grinned.

“I know that look,” she said, “you want a piece of me.”

“I want all of you,” I replied. I thought we’d discussed it last night but maybe she didn’t remember due to her fever and sleepiness.

Or maybe she just wanted to bring it up again.

She laughed. “Well you’re certainly gonna get it. Megan and Delilah and Elizabeth and Melanie have told me how good you eat pussy, so that sounds really great. I don’t normally go for big guys, but with you...I wanna see what’s it like. Although I’m gonna be up front-” she broke off into a cough fit, then cleared her throat sharply, “-ugh, sorry. I’m gonna be up front: not looking for a relationship. Just some fun on the side.”

“Same,” I agreed.

“Cool.”

She finished getting dressed and I glanced over at Megan and Hannah. They were smirking at me. “What?” I asked.

“You and your admirers,” Megan replied.

“There’s a lot to admire,” Fay said.

“Admire later. Eat breakfast now, I want to get a move on,” I said as a particularly strong gust of wind smacked up against the cabin and made it groan. I got to my feet. “I’m going to check the skies, see if there’s a storm coming in.”

“We’ll get ready,” Megan said, her tone going serious. That’s something I appreciated in her as well as Hannah: her ability to drop everything and focus on the task at hand.

I pulled my boots on and laced up, then grabbed my coat and headed outside.

Some birds tweeted now as the sky lightened. It looked clear, no clouds lingering, so that was good, but I didn’t have the best view in this forest. I didn’t feel like there was a storm lurking, but as I’d seen demonstrated recently, that didn’t quite mean jack sometimes. After taking a more thorough look around the whole cabin to ensure we were still alive, I took a piss and then headed back inside. Everyone was eating breakfast, and I joined them.

Much as I didn’t want to, we had to get back to work.

~

“Hey...there it is,” I said, slowing to a halt to confirm exactly what I was seeing.

“Lemme check my map,” Megan replied, and I was already doing the same thing.

We had been walking for about an hour so far, and had finally left the forest behind. That was when we’d begun looking for the side road that would take us along the next leg of our journey. One that was considerably shorter than the last two.

We were looking for a boulder with a flat top, and there was definitely a boulder with a flat top up ahead, maybe ten feet tall, covered in snow.

We both double-checked our maps to make sure we hadn’t gotten our directions screwed up and determined that no, that’s exactly what we were looking.

“How much farther until the, uh, next part?” Fay asked as we resumed our course, picking up the pace.

“Somewhere between one and two hours, then we hit a bridge that we have to cross, then we got to walk another half mile or so, then we have to make our way through some caves,” I replied.

“And then a valley, right?” she asked.

“Yep.”

“Ugh, fuck. I am not looking forward to all this,” Fay muttered.

“We’ll help you however we can. If it comes down to it, I’ll carry you,” I replied.

“You’d do that?” she asked.

“Oh yeah, he’s done it before. He carried Elizabeth when we first met her for a ways.”

“Well I’ll try not to abuse the privilege,” she said.

I just laughed a little awkwardly, unsure of what to say to that. It was obvious she liked me, although I couldn’t tell if she was just naturally this flirtatious, if she really liked me, or if it was her fever state talking.

Or maybe some combination of all three.

We started walking down the side road, just barely discernible under the snow, once we got past the boulder.

Megan and I ended up leading the way again after Hannah and I had led for awhile when we’d first started out. I’d noticed Megan was acting a little awkward, and I thought back to the guilty look she’d given me last night, though maybe it was something to do with Hannah? Hopefully not. I waited a bit for her to say something.

She didn’t. We walked in silence for almost ten minutes.

I gave up. “Megan.”

“Yeah?” she replied, sounding a little startled.

“Something’s bugging you. What’s wrong?” She was silent. I glanced over. She chewed on her lower lip anxiously, not quite meeting my eyes. “Come on, don’t keep me in suspense.”

“I was just thinking...about when we first met. I know we already, you know, talked about it. But I guess I feel like I never really apologized to you. I was so mean to you when we first met. And I know, you’ve told me it doesn’t bother you, I had good reason to mistrust you, and I was insanely stressed almost to the breaking point, but...I still feel bad. But it’s more than that, though. I told you yesterday that I was afraid you didn’t really love me, and...I guess-” she stopped, gathering her thoughts, shook her head, then pressed on. “What I mean to say is that ever since we had sex for the first time, there’s always been this part of me, it was big at first but it got smaller and smaller, but it’s never gone away completely, that’s afraid that you’re going to leave. That you’re going to decide I’m not worth your time. That no matter what you’ve told me, how many times you say ‘I love you’, how much you do for me…”

She paused again and let out a bitter, frustrated sigh. “That one day I’ll wake up and you will just be gone. Because we’ve all heard stories like that. Marriages that lasted thirty years and then just one day: boom, divorce. Or everything seems fine and then out of nowhere they break up with you or do something crazy or awful. That does happen. And I want to believe that what we have is stronger than that, that it always will be, but I know that’s just impossible to predict. I just...it’s bothering me more now that you’ve come back and told me you love me. I thought it would get better and it did, it’s not as bad as when you were gone, but...fuck I’m sorry, I’m being so fucking whiny and clingy-”

“Megan stop,” I said. She sighed softly. “You’re not being whiny or clingy. It’s okay. This is okay. I’m not freaking out or anything. Okay? I’m not thinking to myself ‘man this chick is nuts I gotta ditch her at the next chance’, okay? You’re nervous, and stressed, and frustrated, and it’s amplifying your insecurities. I understand. And you’re right, in that I can’t promise to love you forever. Because people do change over the years, the decades. Sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small ways. But I...trust you, Megan. I trust that you are a good person, a person that I love, and I trust that your core will remain the same as the years pass. And I hope the same is true of me, and that you trust me. That I’ll still be this way in ten years, twenty, shit fifty.”

“I do trust you, Chris. And I do love you,” she replied quietly.

“Let that be enough. I understand it’s not just going to make your anxieties and insecurities go away, but believe in yourself. Trust in your own ability to trust other people. Being in a relationship is scary, because you make yourself vulnerable. But even if the absolute worst comes to pass, I can at least promise you that if I make the decision to leave you, I won’t just disappear. And that if I see a problem that is even in the same ballpark as possibly breaking up, then I will tell you about it. We will be having conversations, serious conversations, long before we get to a breakup. And yeah, all I have are my words, but...I think, as far as certainties go, I’m about as certain as your going to get in a relationship. And I don’t care if that’s arrogant.”

She laughed. “You’re not arrogant,” she said. “You just...recognize your own value. You know what you bring to the table. And it’s a lot. And you’re right, I do trust you, and I do believe you, that you’d talk to me, tell me if there’s a problem...I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I replied, reaching out and running the backs of my fingers down her cheek. “This is what I’m here for: listening to you, reassuring you, getting through tough crap and getting you out of your own head. And you’ll do the same thing for me. We’ll do it for Hannah, and Delilah. We all have problems and insecurities and fears, and we can all help each other.”

Megan laughed. It was a very good thing to hear. “You’re right. And…” She glanced back over her shoulder briefly. “That girl scares me.”

“What?” I asked.

“Hannah is...intimidating. I mean I get it, I’m a bad bitch too. We’re both tough, but I was nowhere near that tough when I was twenty, Chris. She’s in her fucking prime, maybe not, actually. She’s going to go into her prime while having this huge advantage of having people like you and me teaching and training her. She’s going to be unstoppable in a few years. If I could have started training and focusing a fucking decade ago, fuck, I’d be so much more capable…”

“You’re plenty capable, Megan, and it’s not like you’re an old woman. Fuck, you’re like thirty,” I replied.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just...she’s clearly got a lot of drive and a lot of natural talent. I guess I’m just getting that feeling where you see someone who’s just got the deck stacked in their favor. She’s sharp as a razor, fast, fit, beautiful, capable, motivated…”

“Don’t get jealous,” I said.

“I’m not.” She paused. “I’m trying not to, okay? I’m in a weird place right now.”

“I know. Try not to worry.”

“Yeah, not like we don’t have enough to worry about as it is,” she replied. She frowned and glanced back again. “Slow down.”

I looked back too. Fay had fallen behind. Hannah was closer to her now. She looked ahead and gave me a slightly worried look.

“We’re making decent time,” I said after a moment, “and the skies are still clear. We can relax the pace a bit.”

“Mmm...yeah. Goddamnit, this is such a shitty situation.”

“We’ll get it figured out. We always have so far,” I replied.

She nodded and fell silent.

We walked on.

EIGHTEEN

After about an hour, we ran into a problem.

The side road we were following into the wilderness eventually became a small bridge that gapped a narrow but deep gorge.

And it did not inspire confidence.

“This sucks,” Hannah muttered.

“Oh yeah,” I replied, staring hard at the bridge. It was old and wooden, and had obviously seen better days. At some point, it had given away in the middle enough that there was a several-foot-wide gap of open space.

Someone had clearly attempted to bridge that gap with some two-by-fours that formed a very, very rough walkway.

They didn’t look all that steady, even though they’d been nailed in place on both sides. If they held, then we could walk across, one by one.

“So...who goes first?” Fay asked.

“I’ll go first,” Hannah said. She glanced at me, a question in her eyes. Not necessarily asking for my permission exactly, but asking if I had a logical reason why she shouldn’t go first. I didn’t have one, it made sense.

I just didn’t want her to do it.

Honestly, I wanted none of us to do it, but I didn’t see any other way across this gorge, and we had to get to the other side.

“Do it,” I said.

She nodded and stepped up to the narrow, makeshift walkway. Hannah looked at it for a few seconds, took a few deep breaths, then tested it with her weight. The boards creaked unnervingly, but when she stepped out onto it, they held.

She walked quickly across them and to the other side.

Honestly, I’d say we should jump it, but it was just broad enough to make that a nervous prospect. Especially with Fay.

“Okay Fay, now you get across,” I said.

“Fun fun,” she muttered.

“You dizzy?” Megan asked.

“No, I’m okay right now,” she replied. “The medicine is helping. I can make it.”

Megan and I stood nearby anyway, just in case anything went wrong. I felt my guts clench, my whole body tense in anticipation of the worst. This was like walking across a frozen river but way worse. It was a fifty foot drop down into a frozen river. Maybe you’d survive if the ice was thin enough...but it was almost certain death if one of us fell.

Fay stepped onto the boards and walked across them, her gait sure and steady, and she made it over to Hannah without a problem.

“Your turn,” I said to Megan.

She nodded, no doubt already having figured out that I should probably be the last to go because I was the heaviest. If they were going to break for anyone, they were almost certainly going to break for me.

Unless some particularly bad luck managed to hit-

Two of the boards under Megan’s left foot suddenly snapped and gave way. I felt abject, mindless terror as I saw her plunge straight down and heard her scream.

“MEGAN!” I bellowed myself diving forward.

I quickly realized that she’d managed to stop her fall almost immediately by gripping the remaining two boards. She was hanging on by a thread.

I stepped out onto the two remaining boards, reached down, and grabbed her by both wrists. Hauling her up with a grunt of furious effort, I got her back on her feet and then shoved her towards the other side and quickly began following.

The remaining boards beneath me were starting to give.

Right as I felt them give way, I leaped, throwing myself forward, and just barely managed to land on the other side, my heels sticking an inch out over the ledge.

Hannah was waiting for me. She grabbed me by my coat and yanked me away from the edge.

For several long seconds, none of us said anything, we just stood there staring at each other with wide eyes, panting and trembling.

I finally looked back at the gap.

“Well,” I said after several seconds, “however we’re going to get the supplies home, it sure as shit isn’t going to be back the way we came.”

Megan started laughing and it quickly became a wild, slightly unhinged laughter. I found myself joining in, terror and triumph coursing through my veins in equal measure.

Fay started coughing violently, and that put an end to our unstable laughter, grounding us back to reality immediately.

“That was insane,” Hannah said as Fay’s coughing subsided.

“We got lucky,” Fay muttered, clearing her throat.

“Yeah, let’s get off this fucking bridge,” I said, and shooed them forward, following in their wake as they quickly walked away.

It was quiet for the next few moments as we walked off the bridge and then continued following the still barely-discernible road that led deeper into the wilderness. The area was narrowing naturally. A large snowbound hill was off to the right, becoming a sort of natural wall, and to the left, the land dropped off sharply. It was leading us towards this cave that we were supposed to be able to go through.

I didn’t like that part of the plan.

Caves were dangerous places. There was the potential for cave-ins, or bears or wolves might be using it to live out of, or people might be using it.

Dangerous people.

But on top of that, they were just scary, dark, enclosed environments. I didn’t relish the idea of trying to navigate one, especially because there weren’t specific instructions. It was basically just ‘and then go through the cave’. I was hoping that meant that it would be relatively easy to navigate, but that was going to be a roll of the dice.

After another fifteen minutes or so, I saw an anomaly among the snow up ahead and to the left. As we drew close enough, I realized I was looking at the wrecked remains of what might have been a cabin or a small house. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it had burned down at some point. I’d come across enough places like that in my travels. No doubt people who weren’t as familiar with fires and how to keep them tame, or people who’d just gotten unlucky. As we approached it, I could hear Fay wheezing and coughing.

I briefly considered stopping by the ruins for a break, but as I looked around, something caught my eye.

“I think that’s what we’re looking for,” I said, pointing to the right, at the hill.

There was a cave. As far as I could tell, it was the only cave.

“I hate to be a pain in the ass, but can we take a break?” Fay asked.

“Yeah. Let’s get over to the cave, then you can sit down with Megan. Hannah and I will scout ahead and make sure it’s safe,” I replied.

“Thank you.”

We crossed the distance towards the dark opening in the earth. The wind blew around us, the air bitter and cold, the snow whispering across itself as the winds disturbed it. I listened to the sound I’d heard thousands of times before: boots crunching in the snow. I’d traveled alone so often that I’d gotten used to it, but after that last bout where I’d gone into the woods and saw not a single person for several weeks…

I think I was done traveling alone, if I could help it.

Apparently the ‘chemo’ had worked. I’d burned that shit out of me.

I just wanted people now. Well, not just any people, but people.

We got to the entrance of the cave and I took a few steps in, sniffing the air cautiously, trying to pick up any kind of scent, any hint of whether or not something was in there. I thought I detected what might have been blood, but it was extremely faint.

Not exactly a great sign.

Megan put down a thermal blanket and had Fay sit on it. I took one more look around the outside, then pulled out my flashlight as Hannah did the same. We were lucky to be able to have a pair of them. We each held a flashlight and a pistol. Turning the lights on, we stood in the mouth of the cave. I studied it for as far as the light would allow. From what I could tell, it looked to be a simple rock and earthen tunnel, descending at a slight angle into the earth. So far, there were no signs of life, of any kind.

“Okay, we’ll be back,” I said.

“Don’t leave it too long,” Megan said.

“Fifteen minutes,” I replied, and she nodded.

Hannah and I set off.

The cave tunnel continued along for awhile, with the occasional niche in the wall or tiny offshoot that was little more than an alcove. We moved slowly, the sunlight fading behind us until all that was left was the light generated from our flashlights. Every few minutes or so, I’d have her stop and we’d become total still, listening intently. For breathing, shifting, movement of some kind, voices maybe. Anything at all.

But there was only the faint sounds of the wind behind us and our own breathing.

Finally, the tunnel came to an end, opening up into a decent-sized cavern. We stopped at the threshold and raised our lights. The faint whiff of blood I’d caught earlier was definitely stronger here, although it was still pretty faint. It reminded me vaguely of the corpse Susan and I had had to pass in that tunnel way back when. No doubt someone or something had died in here and frozen over. Hopefully a long time ago.

The cavern wasn’t all that big. I saw three openings along the walls. One to the left, one to the right, and one higher up in the far wall that had a natural path leading up to it. As we played our shafts of light across the earthen walls and ground, I saw signs of previous habitation. Or, at the very least, signs that someone had passed through. There was an empty, ripped plastic bottle. There was a shredded t-shirt. The remains of a campfire. Some faint bootprints. A few bits of trash and random useless items scattered around.

“What do you think?” Hannah asked.

I began to respond, but then my light revealed something else. What appeared to be a large, faint red-brown stain on a good-sized rock near the center of the cavern.

“Old blood,” I muttered, focusing in on it.

“Great.”

“Go back and get the others, bring them closer to here. Once we get them here, you and I will search these side tunnels, see if we can find the way out and if anything dangerous is hiding,” I said, readjusting my grip on my pistol.

“Got it,” Hannah replied. She turned and jogged away.

Listening to the sounds of her receding footsteps, I remained still, letting my light slowly play across the rest of the cavern, looking for anything I might’ve missed. I’d spend the night in caves before, traveled through them, investigated a few of them. They were interesting, but they were also frightening in some strange, old sort of way. You’d think, given we came from cavemen, that I’d find comfort in a cave, but I never quite did.

Even using one as shelter to wait out a storm, I still was uneasy.

Just about the time I was starting to actually get nervous, I heard the echoes of Fay’s coughing. That made me nervous for a whole other reason. It seemed a lot easier to just straight up fucking die from something like the flu nowadays, or pneumonia, shit like that. We didn’t have a hospital to go to. By all accounts, Fay should have been laid up in bed at the very least. But here she was, dragging herself across miles of frozen wasteland, sick as hell, because lives were riding on her. I hated having to keep pushing, but what choice did I have?

And according to the map, it was theoretically possible that we could get to the final destination, a large house on a piece of private property not far from the bunker itself, today. If we got lucky and kept pushing. Then she could get some rest. Though how much depended on how hard it was to get into the bunker, how much shit was in the bunker, and if we found some way to get it all back. I wasn’t too concerned about finding an alternate route back to Pine Lake. That main highway we’d started out on should be pretty easy to find again.

The three women rejoined me a few moments later and Fay sat back down as soon as she could. She coughed a few times, then groaned and leaned her head back against the wall.

“You doing okay?” I asked.

“Fine, let’s just get this over with,” she muttered.

I nodded. “Megan, stay here and watch her. Hannah and I going to check out the tunnels.”

“Understood,” she replied.

Hannah and I walked into the main cavern and picked the right tunnel at random. The walls closed back in on us and I took the lead, as this tunnel was a bit more narrow. I saw signs of conflict before too long. Another bloodstain on the wall, a few spent shell casings on the ground, half-buried in the dirt, one crushed underfoot. Some more trash. Eventually, the tunnel finally terminated in another cavern, this one much smaller.

There was an ugly scene waiting for us.

Someone had made a little home here once. There were a few shredded blankets and a ripped open mattress, both bloody. There was a fireplace, long dead. There was what appeared to be a rudimentary shelf cobbled together from random pieces of wood and metal, broken. There were two bodies, pretty much stripped and frozen, among all the mess, and a middle-aged man and woman, probably a couple.

“What the fuck happened?” Hannah whispered.

“Almost certainly someone came to rob them. They were both shot in the head. Fuck’s sake,” I muttered. “Come on, let’s go.”

We retraced our steps and then decided to check up the natural path. It led to another tunnel, this one a bit narrower, more claustrophobic.

Despite how horrifying the scene had been, I actually took the intact corpses as a good sign. They were pretty easy to get to, and they weren’t chewed up, which meant that there weren’t any animals in these caves. And although I was expecting it and bracing myself for it, I grimaced when I found another pair of corpses at the end of this tunnel as well. More shredded clothes and blankets, the place tossed, useless stuff scattered around the small natural enclosure. There was more here so I decided to at least make a cursory effort of checking it out.

“You must’ve come across a lot of scenes like these, huh?” Hannah murmured quietly.

“Yeah,” I replied, picking up a bloody mattress and checking under it.

“Does it bother you?”

There was something in her voice and I glanced back. She was hanging back, standing at the threshold, looking uncomfortable.

“Yeah. Sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, but always some,” I replied, going back to my search. “You okay?”

“I guess so,” she replied, her voice soft. “I guess...it’s just got me thinking. About that dumb, age-old question that has no real answer: are humans fundamentally good or evil? Because maybe this was done out of desperation, but maybe it wasn’t. I’ve met people who are just...they’re just evil. They know exactly what they’re doing when they hurt people and they like it. Or what about those experiments they did where they had people basically roleplaying a prison, some volunteers were prisoners, some were guards, and they had to basically live it out for a few weeks. At first everyone was all chill and got along, but within like a week the guys who were the corrections officers began mistreating and abusing the prisoners, and it got the point where it was just out of control and they had to shut it down.”

“I heard about that. Read about it,” I replied.

“Yeah, and it’s like, when they asked them ‘why the fuck did you do that?!’ afterwards, they didn’t really have a good answer. They could hardly believe they’d let it get there in the first place. They didn’t know why they did it.”

“Yeah...so where are you going with this?” I asked.

“My point is: while yeah, most people are on the ‘average’ portion of the good/evil slider, it seems like just about everyone can and will turn fucking evil under the right circumstances. Most people talk the talk, but when it comes to time to walk the walk, they won’t actually do the right thing. They’ll rob, they’ll murder, they’ll rape...okay, here’s a better way of putting it. It seems like the only thing keeping most people from being pieces of shit is the fact that they know they won’t get away with it, not because they shouldn’t fucking be evil and hurt people. If given the opportunity, too many people will do evil shit.”

“Okay. Given the opportunity, most people will do bad things, that’s what you’re saying?” I asked as I finished up my search.

“Yeah.”

“And?”

She sighed. “I don’t know, I just...why? Why are people so fucking shitty? Why did people like my dad get so much power? Why do sociopaths end up with so much power? Why did we fucking allow that as a society? Why do they get away with it?”

“Why is the universe such a shitty place?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I sighed quietly and came to stand next to her. “I don’t really have any solid answers.”

“Tell me what you think anyway. You always seem to have something to say.”

“I suppose the universe is shitty because...that’s the way the laws of reality just work out. People who are willing to cheat, lie, and steal to give themselves the advantage tend to win, because they’re willing to do whatever it takes, even fuck over other people. They also tend to reproduce. I mean, think about it. You have two people in a lethal situation. One is a piece of shit, one is a great person. The great person sacrifices themselves for the piece of shit. Well now the good person is dead. Can’t pass on genes if you’re dead. Those genetic qualities that made them so noble or kind or whatever? They didn’t get passed along unless they reproduced already. The jackass who would gladly sacrifice anyone to keep living tends to keep living, so his genes do get passed on.”

I felt like I was starting to ramble, so I stopped, marshaled my thoughts, tried again. “Look, the universe just is. There’s no God, right? I mean, that’s pretty obvious by now. There’s no magical forces making things happen. There’s the cold, uncaring universe that goes on ticking because that’s how it all wound up thanks to things like gravity and evolution and temperature and physics. People evolved to work together, but only up to a certain point. They also evolved to be selfish. The whole point of life is to choose. Life is choice. So how do you reconcile that most people are shit and the universe doesn’t give a fuck because it can’t because it’s not even alive and there is no God or gods? I don’t really know. How I chose to do it was to decide to help whoever I could and try to enjoy the ride.” I pointed at the corpses.

“This? This is fucking awful. What happened to them was probably awful. Maybe they had it coming, but I don’t know. We can’t help them now. They’re long past dead. The people who did it are probably themselves dead at this point, or dozens of miles from here. These corpses are the past, and the past has already happened. You can’t change that. All you can change is what you do right now when you make a choice, and thus you’re changing your future. All we have are our lives and our choices and the people we choose to involve ourselves with. So try to take some comfort in the fact that you’re rolling with a group of good people who are going to help a lot of other people, and also you’re going to get laid pretty often.”

She laughed, and that seemed to break through the bitter malaise that had settled over her, even if only just a little. “You’re right,” she said finally. We started walking back through the tunnel. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get dramatic.”

“No, I get it. I mean, we’re living in an apocalypse. Humans weren’t really meant to live like this. I think we’re all probably broken in one way or another, so this shit is going to crop up from time to time, even if things are going well. I’ve...had my own problems. But honestly, you aren’t asking anything that everyone else hasn’t asked at one point or another. Existentialism sucks. You just have to narrow your focus and keep on moving.”

“It’s that easy?” she asked.

“It isn’t easy,” I replied.

We came back into the main cavern.

“Anything?” Megan asked as we walked down the natural path to ground.

“Just misery,” I replied. “Hopefully this next one is it.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Megan said.

Hannah and I headed for the last tunnel.

NINETEEN

The tunnel seemed to go on for too long.

Our light revealed foot after foot of dirt and rock, everything pitch black. Occasionally there’d be more offshoots, but they often led to nothing at all and once led to another corpse. It looked like someone had gotten shot twice in the gut and crawled into one of the natural alcoves to die, and then had been stripped by whoever had performed the raid on the little cave camp. Was it a random attack? Was it a group of savage assholes who got off on being ‘strong’? Or was it an inside job? I’d seen it happen.

Sometimes one or two people decided they could do better on their own, but they wanted all the supplies for themselves, and also probably not a group of angry people potentially coming after them. So they murdered everyone else in the group, stole all their shit, and went walking away. It was a pretty miserable thing to happen, even by apocalypse standards.

But finally, at some point, I had Hannah lower her flashlight as I did the same with my own, and realized there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“Finally,” she whispered.

We kept going, moving a little faster this time.

As we approached, I started hearing a sound I didn’t like: powerful winds. As we drew even closer, we were buffeted by an intense, frigid blast of air. As we finally came to the exit, I half expected to see snow falling, but there wasn’t any.

“Okay,” I said after scoping the area and seeing no immediate threats, “go back and bring the others. I’ll keep watch here.”

“Got it,” Hannah replied, turning and jogging off back the way we’d come.

I took a closer look. The cave let out into one end of a valley. The walls, cliff sheers mostly, to either side of me, each maybe fifty yards away, rose up into the cloudy slate gray skies. The land rose going forward, so my view was for shit right now. There was a little frozen pond over to the right and a small grove immediately in front of the cave opening. Random copses of trees littered the area to the left, and I saw another dead forest beyond that, eventually taking up a good portion of my view. I saw a frozen creek leading away from the pond, ultimately connecting to the forest. The only real thing of note I saw was what appeared to be the remains of a small camp on the other side of the frozen lake, tucked up into a little niche in the cliff wall.

I wanted to check it out. We had to go over there anyway, the map said to follow the creek. It would lead to a waterfall that would mark a very rough path we could follow up to the final destination. While I waited, I checked the map again, making sure I wasn’t missing anything. I felt excitement flicker through me as I confirmed that all we had to do was make our way through this valley, climb up out of it, and walk about half a mile to a house. And then we would be basically there. The final note said that the bunker was hidden away in a cave a little ways northeast of the house. Kind of nonspecific, but whatever.

It shouldn’t be that hard to find. And just getting to the house would be a big boost. Of course, a lot could go wrong. Maybe a landslide had rearranged the shape of the valley and we couldn’t climb up out of there anymore. Maybe the house had burned down. Maybe the bunker was bullshit. Or maybe it had never actually been built, or even if it had, maybe it had never been properly stocked? What if there was a group of psychotic assholes who had taken up residence in the house? What if there was a bunch of wolves around?

So many possibilities, but it didn’t really matter.

We’d do this as I’d always done things since the snow started to fall: move onward and face challenges as they arrived.

You could sit around ‘what-ifing’ forever.

The sound of Fay’s coughing echoed up to me and my frown deepened. That was another complication. She was in poor shape and getting worse all the time. Even after we managed to get to the bunker, we still had to go home. We couldn’t really afford to hang around and wait for her to get better, although we might not have a choice. But regardless of whether or not the food was there, we needed to get back to Pine Lake. Either to bring them the store of food, or to let them know help wasn’t coming and to step up the plans on figuring out something else. But if we kept pushing her, I knew she could actually die.

Choices, choices.

Again, I’d just have to make some and live with the consequences.

“See anything?” Megan asked as the three women approached.

“There’s an abandoned camp over there,” I replied, pointing. “Otherwise, nothing. No wolves or people or anything.”

“I don’t like those clouds,” Fay murmured, then coughed.

“I don’t either. We could stay here in the caves and make camp, but...we’re really close now. If we get to it, we could be at the house within a few hours, possibly...what do you think?” I asked, looking at them.

“Maybe we should wait here,” Hannah murmured.

“I think we should push on,” Megan said.

We looked at Fay. She was flushed and feverish behind her ski-mask, almost panting, but there was a determination in her gaze, in the way she stood. “Let’s keep going,” she said.

I nodded. “All right. Onward it is then. I’ll take the lead. Keep your eyes open for threats.” I stepped out of the cave, took one more look around, then started walking.

We started into the heavy, chilled winds despite my reservations. Part of me wanted to stay behind in the cave, but another part of me wanted to get out of this valley. As we kicked our way through the snow, walking on and on, struggling into the wind, it abruptly occurred to me that I had never been in a state of mind like this. Not really. Or maybe just not to this degree. I had helped people before, I usually had an inclination to do so. So long as I had a place to stay, my belongings, and a relatively steady supply of food and firewood (and sex), I didn’t really go for much more. People might say I’m not ambitious, but I just liked to think of it as I’m not greedy. So if someone needed some help with something, I usually gave it out for free.

Sometimes it was protection of some kind, though almost always it was physical labor, but it was always pretty small.

Something had changed when I’d arrived at Pine Lake, found a disaster in the midst of happening, and not only found myself in a position to make a huge impact on reversing it, but actively decided to do so.

Looking back on it now, I think that’s more what my sort of freak-out and flight to isolation had been about.

It was a lot of responsibility.

I’d never really dealt with that level of responsibility. Even when I’d first been helping out. That was different. I was still proving myself, but also the situation wasn’t nearly as dire. Now that I’d proved myself capable, they were all looking to me to save them. And this was bad. If we didn’t lock down a good food source or a new place to live, they could all die the slow death of cold starvation. And while obviously I wasn’t doing it all on my own, I had a lot of great people backing me up...I couldn’t help but feel that a lot of them might be placing me on a pedestal. Celebrities weren’t a thing anymore, but as far as I could tell, humans had always had the desire to put people on pedestals and think they can do just about anything.

Maybe I was wrong but…

No, I couldn’t deny it at this point. Unless I was completely, totally delusional, then it was obvious in the way people interacted with me, the way they looked at me, the things they asked of me and said to me.

I mean just returning back to the town, I’d had several people straight up ask me to save them. Or they just assumed I was going to.

I didn’t really want this level of responsibility, but...in a way I had asked for it. I couldn’t deny that. And it wasn’t in me to walk away. Not anymore. Maybe it had been once, but certainly it wasn’t any longer.

I could have walked away from Pine Lake when I met Lara and Susan. I could’ve just stayed there with them and eventually kept on moving. Clearly they were willing to follow me. But no, I didn’t, I couldn’t, I wouldn’t.

And if helping these people ended up killing me then…

There are way worse reasons to die.

We reached the frozen little pond after what felt like too much struggling against the wind. I guess it was coming right down over the wall, and the wall would have dampened the effect somewhat, so it must be pretty bad up top. I hoped it would be mitigated at least somewhat once we got in the forest, among the trees.

The campsite we reached was small, little more than some shredded remains of a tent and a sleeping bag, and a long, long dead campfire. There were some bones and frozen shreds of flesh mixed in among the campsite and we moved on after checking it. Probably someone had camped here and frozen to death in their sleep, and some wolves had come by to eat the remains. Or maybe the wolves had just killed the person while they were sleeping. There was an awful thought. But it put my guard way the hell back up.

There were almost certainly wolves around.

Or worse.

I wasn’t sure we were out of mountain lion territory, and bears were always a possibility.

We started following the creek, making sure to not get too close to it. It was probably frozen solid, and even if it wasn’t, I doubted it was more than a foot deep, but even so: a sprawl in water in these conditions would be pretty damned bad.

None of us spoke as we marched on, making for the treeline up ahead. I continually scanned the area for signs of movement, but lots of things were moving in the wind. The trees, their branches, the snow, the little plant life that remained, the dead, skeletal remains of bushes on the ground. It was a bleak, lonely place to have to navigate, but I guess that didn’t matter. We’d do it because we had to. Because there was no other choice.

Step by step, foot by foot, we made our way deeper into the valley.

The treeline grew closer.

Fay coughed behind me. Even through the wind I could hear it. She was getting worse. I felt caught between wanting to give her more breaks or slowing the pace, and wanting to increase the pace so that we could get to an actual resting place sooner and end this torment. Or at least ease it. I’d been sick before, like really sick, and it was torture enough just being at home doing nothing. It was roughly a thousand times worse being out here in the cold having to march through the snow. I had to give it to Fay: she was fucking tough.

On we marched, bit by miserable bit, until finally we reached the trees.

As we got into the dead forest, it only became a bit better. The wind relaxed somewhat, but it was still miserably cold. At this temperature I was pretty sure we were going to have to take a break at some point in the near future and get a fire going just to warm up.

The trees drifted by, one dead monolith after another, creaking and groaning. It felt like at least some of them were threatening to fall over.

At some point, after some passage of time, I noticed an anomaly over to the right, just beyond the treeline over on that side. It looked like a vehicle, but I couldn’t be sure. Fay’s coughing was getting worse, so I decided it would make a decent place to stop and rest.

“Let’s check that out,” I said, pointing.

There was a general murmur of agreement and we broke to the right. Although it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, it felt like it took ages to get there.

It was, indeed, a vehicle.

A four-door gray car that looked pretty old, maybe from the nineties. It looked like it had crash-landed. I glanced up the cliff sheer and wondered what exactly had happened. Was it an accident? Intentional? I saw no bodies in the seat, though they could have been ejected and buried somewhere nearby in the snow.

Though the basic frame was mostly intact, the windows were shattered, the tires were blown out, and I doubted the thing would ever drive again even with a team of mechanics and a great shop. It was scrap metal at this point.

“Here, sit down, Fay,” I said, yanking open the rear driver’s side door. Hannah was already pulling a thermal blanket from Megan’s backpack and she passed it to the shivering woman, who accepted it gratefully, wrapped up in it, and sat down in the seat.

“I’m sorry about this,” she muttered.

“It’s not your fault, Fay,” Megan replied.

“I know, I just...hate feeling like the weak link. Normally I get to be him,” she said, nodding her head wearily at me.

“Everyone’s gotta suffer sometimes,” I replied.

“Sucks, but it’s true,” she agreed. Then she smiled. “But I’m really lucky. I traveled alone for a really long time, because I just don’t like being around people too much. I like helping them, I sometimes like long, long conversations, but mostly I like to be alone. But, I don’t know, I think something changed recently. I know that this is nice. I’m really lucky because I’ve got good, nice people taking care of me and giving a shit about me. And there’s a part of me that wants to say ‘they’re only taking care of you because they need you’, but I don’t believe that. Not after traveling with Megan and Melanie and the others, and not after meeting you two. You all care. I don’t think you could hide it if you tried.”

“I’d be better at it than most, I think,” I said. “If only because so many people are willing to believe I’m a stone-cold hardass.”

“You are pretty intimidating,” Fay admitted after staring at me for a moment. She stared at me intently for a few seconds longer, the quality of her gaze changing, then sighed and looked away. “Damn I wish I wasn’t sick. It’s been forever since I’ve gotten laid and I haven’t even been thinking about it much, but now that we’ve talked about it and I’ve seen you naked and having sex, I can’t not think about it.”

“We’ll get our time together,” I replied.

“Yeah, and it’ll give Chris a chance to practice something he has little experience with,” Megan said with a smirk.

“Which is?”

“Actually getting to know a girl before you stick your dick in her.”

Hannah laughed and I wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that. She had a point. “I’m...impatient,” I managed finally. “And women are willing. Also, I got to know Hannah before we ever hooked up.”

“That is true,” she said. “That’s another thing we had in common,” she added, looking at Megan, “I really didn’t trust him when we first met. I thought he was looking for the first opportunity to try and trap me into having sex with him somehow. But he put up with my attitude with a lot of patience and respect, thankfully.”

“I, apparently, have a lot of patience. Between you two and Susan, I feel almost like a fucking zen master at this point,” I muttered as I got the trunk open and started looking around inside of it for anything useful.

Might as well while we were taking a break.

“She gave you a lot of trouble, huh?” Megan asked.

“Yes.”

“But I’m guessing Lara and the other woman pretty much just saw you and spread their-” she stopped speaking abruptly, realizing what she was saying, and looked at Hannah. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Hannah replied. I imagine she had to be getting used to this. We were also so used to making jokes and sexual innuendo about each other and now, suddenly, it was weird because of Hannah, me, and Jessica.

There was nothing in the trunk. I moved up to the passenger’s seat and pulled open the glovebox. “I wondered what happened to this car.”

“Maybe it drove over the edge in a blizzard?” Megan suggested.

“Maybe. Or maybe someone just sent it here on purpose. Insurance money. Maybe they cut the brakes in an attempt to kill someone. Or maybe they just had a car they didn’t want anymore and decided to see what would happen if it went over an eighty foot drop. I have to admit, that would be pretty cool to see,” I replied.

The glovebox was empty, too. I spent the next several minutes searching under the seats, but there really wasn’t anything to find. I figured this to be the case, this place had been at least decently well-traveled at one point. Or at least occupied. It would make sense that anything useful would have been gathered.

“Well, uh, I guess I’m ready to move on,” Fay said after another few moments. “I’ve caught my breath and sitting here isn’t going to help me any further.”

She stood and gave the blanket back. Once it was repacked, the four of us set out again, heading back over to the frozen creek that wound its slow, meandering path through the graveyard forest. Again we trudged, ever onward.

A few minutes passed. Then five minutes passed.

And then, almost as if we had crossed some invisible threshold, snow began to come down from the sky all around us.

TWENTY

“Oh come on!” Megan snapped.

“What do we do now?” Hannah asked. Her voice was steady, but I knew her well enough now to detect a note of anxiety hidden in there.

“I think you were right,” I replied, “we should’ve stayed at the caves. Let’s head back.”

Fay let out an irritated growl but otherwise held her peace. I turned around, looking back the way we’d come, and then felt my guts freeze.

“Oh fuck me,” I whispered. “Keep moving forward. There’s wolves.”

“How many?” Megan asked.

“Too many. Seriously, go, now,” I snapped, pulling out my rifle.

They didn’t argue. I heard the three of them press forward, their boots crunching, their breaths coming heavily. I put the scope to my eye and studied the lean gray shapes I saw. They were still a ways back, only barely visible through the falling snow, and growing all the less visible with each passing moment.

There were over half a dozen of them. They weren’t exactly coming our way, they were sniffing around, moving slowly among the trees.

They didn’t have our scent, or, if they did, they weren’t quite sure where we were thanks to the heavy winds.

I intended to keep it that way.

As the snow continued coming down, they faded almost totally from view, and I slung my rifle over my shoulder again. Turning around, I hurried, pushing myself as hard as I could to catch up with the others.

So, we couldn’t go back to the cave now.

Fucking great.

Maybe we could find a little niche to hide out in along the walls, or, if we were extremely lucky, there might be a building down here. A cabin or a little house or even a damned shed. Some kind of windbreak we could build a fire in.

After a few moments, I managed to catch back up with the others. Fay was falling behind, despite her best efforts.

“Are we fucked?” Megan asked as she heard me coming and looked back at me.

“Not yet,” I replied. “At least not from them. Don’t think they can find us.”

“One problem avoided, at least,” Fay said.

The snow was coming down harder now and visibility was getting worse.

“What are we going to do?” Hannah asked as we kept pushing along the creek.

“Make for the valley wall to the left, find a place to hunker down,” I replied. “Build a fire, wait out this fucking storm.”

No one said anything, so they didn’t have any better ideas, I guess. Not like mine was exactly great, but there wasn’t a whole lot we were working with right now.

We kept on walking, moving through the trees. I used the compass to keep us walking towards the wall. We were heading for the south end of the valley, which meant we needed to keep on an eastern course, and not for very long. It wasn’t like the valley was that broad across. Although I began to get worried as I checked my compass again, (it was too easy to get turned around in a storm like this), and still we were walking among the trees.

“Hey, what’s that!?” Hannah called suddenly.

I looked up, groping for my gun, expecting to see something alive and coming for us, but she was pointing to something in a tree up ahead. Something unnatural.

“Hunter’s blind!” I replied.

“Can we use it?!”

“Not really! Keep going!” I replied.

I studied it as we passed the structure by. It was basically a really simple tree fort, little more than a wooden platform and some railings to keep yourself from falling off too easily. Fuck, this was taking too long. I hurried it up, passing Fay and Hannah and joining Megan in the lead. We had to be close to the wall by now-

Megan screamed suddenly and I saw her go tipping over, like she’d tripped on something, but something much worse had happened.

There was a hole in the ground. I don’t know where the fuck it had come from or why it was there, but there was a good-sized hole in the ground and neither of us had seen it because of the falling snow and Megan had put her foot right down on nothing but air. And now she was toppling over into it. She saw something at the same moment I did: a hefty tree branch sticking out over the edge by about a few feet, making a perfect handhold.

She shoved off the ground toward it with her one remaining foot before she completely went over the edge, making a wild grab for it, and I took two running steps towards the half of the huge branch that was on the ground.

Megan grabbed onto it and sure enough, it couldn’t support her weight, it started tipping over into the hole and taking her with it.

I threw myself onto it, diving forward and putting as much of my weight onto this end of the branch as possible. It locked into place and I heard Megan shout and grunt with effort as she was almost jarred loose by the impact.

“Hannah!” I shouted.

“On it!” she replied.

“Fay, help me!”

“Coming!” Fay yelled.

As Hannah scurried forward Fay rushed towards me until she was on the branch with me, holding it in place as Megan dangled over the drop. Now we just had to get her out of there before the thing snapped. It looked solid enough, but you never knew.

I watched in rapt horror as Hannah stepped out onto the branch and then crouched down and reached for Megan.

That woman had perfect balance, she didn’t hesitate or wobble for a second.

“Gotcha!” she said as she took one of Megan’s hands, then grabbed the other. She grunted with effort as she pulled Megan up, backing up as she went. Barely managing to balance on the large branch, the two women hurried off of it. I winced as it bumped harshly up into my ribcage with each step they took, but held it firmly in place with Fay.

Hannah leaped off of it, back onto solid ground, and then Megan did the same thing a second later. “Ugh! Fuck! I hate falling!” she screamed.

Fay and I got back to our feet. For a few seconds, I stood there in the snow, catching my breath, looking at Megan. “You okay?” I asked finally.

“Fine,” she said, though clearly she was still shaky from the adrenaline. I think we all were. She began to say something else but her eyes widened abruptly as she looked behind me. I was already grabbing for my MP5 and twisting to about-face when I heard her scream a warning. The wolves had found us.

“Go! Go!” I shouted as I saw over half a dozen of the dark gray shapes emerging from the snow behind us. Why were there so many fucking wolves around here?!

I aimed and fired as I backed up, careful to avoid the damned hole. The bullets struck true and blew away one of the wolves closest to me, splattering the others with blood and gore. It seemed to give them some pause. I sent another spray of fire at them and hit at least one of them, then turned and began sprinting away after the others.

Or at least running as fast as I could in the snowstorm.

I don’t know how the fuck we made it out of that forest. The next however long was a miserable confusion of falling snow and dead trees and the others as we raced on. I stayed at the back, occasionally firing a shot or two back behind me to try and whittle down their numbers or at least dissuade them from following, or even just buy us a few precious seconds. But then, suddenly, the trees fell away, and we were in an open space.

Ahead, through the snow, I could just make out the barest hints of a structure. It didn’t look very big, but I didn’t give a fuck.

“Go! Get inside!” I screamed as I turned full around and began backing up and taking aim. There were more wolves, somehow. A lot of wolves.

They had to number a dozen, even after I’d killed or injured a few of them.

Fucking hell.

Right before I opened fire, a rifle shot cracked out and blew the top of one wolf’s head off. And then I blasted through the rest of my magazine. Stupid? Probably. But I was desperate. I tagged three or four of them before the magazine ran dry. One I outright killed, its eye exploding into a gory crater as it flopped to the snow. The others yelped or howled, and at least half of them retreated. But some stayed, though they lingered by the treeline.

“Chris, come on!” Hannah snapped.

I let the MP5 hang by its sling, turned around, and began rushing after them. Megan was urging Fay along towards the structure, about a dozen yards ahead of us already. Hannah was aiming with her rifle. She fired one more time as I reached her, then she about-faced and we took off together. The run was harrowing and miserable. I pulled my pistol out and pretty much blind fired a few times when I looked back and saw them advancing on us again.

All in all, it managed to buy us enough time to reach the structure.

Earlier, I’d been wishing for even a shed, and that was what we got. It was a simple wooden shack, I guess it was built by whoever had built the hunter’s blind. I didn’t give a fuck though, it was four walls and a roof in the middle of a snowstorm. And a goddamned wolf storm. As we reached it and I saw Megan was taking over the responsibilities of making sure it was secure inside, I turned around with Hannah to watch our backs.

I could just make out the wolves lingering at the edge of our visibility. They seemed like they didn’t want to give up, but they’d taken too many losses to try another attack. That was fine by me for the moment.

Shit, if I hadn’t had this MP5 we might not be doing so well.

“Clear!” Megan yelled.

We headed inside and as soon as I came in, I shut the door hard and engaged the simple deadbolt that had been installed.

Then I looked around the squalid interior to see precisely what we were working with.

Not much.

It looked like someone had once used it as a small encampment. A cot took up one corner, a small pile of wood and some rocks took up another.

Besides some random debris and trash, that was it.

“Hannah, keep watch. Megan, get Fay set up on that cot. I’m getting a fire going,” I said.

We all got to work.

I felt myself start to relax as I assembled the rocks and wood and some other materials we’d brought with us into a small fire near the center of the shed. The floor was made of dirt, unfinished, so if we were careful, the place shouldn’t catch on fire. And there were enough holes in the walls and ceiling that it would be properly ventilated.

My muscles relaxed. My pain began to abate. My jaw unclenched. My heart rate finally started to fall back to something reasonable.

I got the fire going and made sure it’d stay lit, then looked over our supply of wood. The stuff in the shack with us might last an hour, and we could probably stretch it out another hour with the spare wood we had with us, though I didn’t really want to dip into that. I finished up and checked with Hannah, who was peering through a crack in the wall.

“Anything?” I asked quietly.

“Just snow,” she replied.

“Okay.” I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, and saw the barest hints of a smile tug at the corners of her lips, then joined Megan.

She was just finishing tucking Fay in, who was already passed out.

“How is she?” I asked.

“Not good,” Megan replied, reaching into her pack. “Her fever’s back. I gave her more medicine, but we can’t give too much of this stuff to her.” She pulled out the thermometer and applied it gently to her forehead, having lifted up the ski-mask at some point. She pulled it back, studied it, then sighed and replaced it. “One hundred point four,” she reported.

“Great,” I muttered. “I’m going to get some stew ready for her. She needs to keep her strength up. Honestly, we should all grab a bite.”

“I’ll make sure she eats after she wakes up.” Megan frowned and looked up, as though she could see the cloudy gray skies overhead. “However long this storm lasts, I think we should give her an hour to rest, minimum. She basically collapsed once I got her to the cot.”

“Agreed,” I replied. Once Megan turned away from the cot to face me fully, I gave her a hug. She seemed slightly startled by the act, but quickly hugged me back. First she hugged me, then she squeezed me. Then she looked up and kissed me hard on the mouth for a long time. Then she pulled back and just stared up into my eyes.

“I still can’t articulate how much I missed you,” she whispered. “I stopped letting myself care about people, I mean really care in the way that I care about you, a long time ago. Long before the snow came. And now you’re here, and you love me, and I love you, and we’re together and...it’s kind of terrifying. It’s so intense...I’m sorry, I’m rambling.”

“We just went through a really intense situation,” I replied.

“If it helps...I get it, sorta,” Hannah murmured.

We both looked over at her. She shifted awkwardly and looked away. “I’m sorry, you were having a moment…”

“No, it’s okay,” Megan replied, letting go of me. She motioned to Hannah to come closer, and she did. “We’re all a part of this relationship now. I get that we’re going to want private moments with each other, but we’re all also involved with each other. Let’s sit around the fire and you tell me what you were thinking.”

“Okay...thanks,” she said with an awkward smile.

As we sat down, I had to admit it was strange seeing Hannah shy and nervous. Her combination of natural confidence, anger, and youth meant she was often way too sure of herself. She was blushing, too. Wow.

“What’s on your mind?” Megan asked.

“I just wanted to say...I know I’m a lot younger than you, but I kind of felt the same way about a lot of people. I lived in California before all this, and my dad was a rich douchebag, and I look like...well, this, so I drew a lot of shitty attention. Everyone wanted my attention, but just to fuck me or get money out of me or connections with my dad. Mostly just to fuck me. And I didn’t...want that. I had a few boyfriends but it never went, you know, all the way. Not until I met Chris and-”

“Wait, wait. I’m sorry,” Megan said. “Back up. You never went all the way, as in had sex...until you met him?”

“Yeah. Chris took my virginity a few weeks ago,” she replied.

“Wow, that’s...intense.”

“It was,” she agreed, blushing more fiercely now. “He was also the first person to give me oral.”

Megan gave me a look. “What?” I asked uncomfortably.

“You’d better never fucking break up with her because you have basically ruined her, sexually, if her first experience with sex and foreplay was you, because you are fucking amazing at it. That’s like...your first job paying you a hundred bucks an hour to goof off. Everything after that is probably going to seem lame,” Megan replied. Then she shook her head. “Sorry, I interrupted. Keep going,” she said.

“I’m just saying Chris is the first guy I’ve ever been serious with. It’s not quite the same as what you were saying, but I think it’s close, so I’m saying that I know how you feel. It’s...scary. But I just wanted to say I sympathize and I’m here for you...if you want that.”

Megan smiled. “I do. We haven’t known each other long, but you’ve already saved my life, and you’ve proven yourself very capable and very kind. Those are the two biggest things I care about anymore. Can you carry your own weight, and are you nice? I mean hell, that first one is pretty malleable as it is. It’s not like I hate people with permanent disabilities or anything. And carrying your own weight can look like a lot of different things...but thank you, Hannah. I really appreciate that. I’m glad you’re here.”

Hannah smiled, beamed really, and again I felt some relief.

They were going to be okay. Like Megan had said, they’d butt heads sometimes, but this was going to be a good relationship.

Since we were going to be here for a little while, I settled in and got to work on preparing lunch, just enjoying the quiet moment and the cozy atmosphere.

TWENTY ONE

The storm lasted for about an hour and a half.

Fay slept through most of it. We woke her after an hour to eat her meal, which she did gratefully, and then she immediately went back to sleep. In the spare time I had, I went over my guns and my gear. I didn’t like how much ammo I’d used from the MP5 since getting it, but I guess it couldn’t be helped. And it took nine millimeter, and those weren’t that hard to find. I mean, compared to other bullets. I just had to make sure to keep the empty magazines so I could refill them later. As it stood right now, I was down to just over two full mags.

Not great. Could be a lot worse though.

I took everything out of my pack and then rearranged it back inside. Partially this was done out of comfort: the simple act of doing something you’d done a thousand times before was calming if only because you knew exactly what you were doing and wouldn’t screw it up, and even if it you did it was so low stakes it didn’t matter. But I also did it because we’d used up some of our supplies today and well, when you were carrying your whole life around with you, precisely how much of it there was and exactly how it was all arranged really mattered. If something was uncomfortable or poking into your back, you couldn’t really have that, not if you intended to walk for ten fucking hours with only a couple of breaks.

I had Megan and Hannah do the same, and I ended up doing it for Fay’s pack as well. I was hesitant, because it was hers and we weren’t as familiar with each other, but Megan said she wouldn’t mind and I trusted her. I transferred some of the basic stuff that she was carrying for the group as whole over to our own packs to lighten the load as much as possible. By the time I was done with that, the storm was beginning to slacken off.

“Wake up Fay,” I said as I stood and gripped my MP5. “The storm’s dying. I’m going to see if the wolves are still out there. If they aren’t and the storm does die, I want to move.”

“On it,” Megan replied tightly, getting up and moving over to the cot. I heard her begin waking Fay with gentle words as I moved to the door and took a few moments peering out through the cracks and holes in the wall.

Nothing but blowing snow out there.

But as I watched, more of the landscape was revealed as the storm finally died off. And I didn’t see any wolves.

While Fay finished getting up and getting ready for the walk ahead, the storm finally stopped, and I headed outside to actually make sure we were alone. I stepped out carefully, with Hannah backing me up with her pistol, my own MP5 in my hands, and made a quick circuit of the exterior. I didn’t see any wolves.

What I did see, however, was that we were actually pretty close to our destination.

“How we looking?” Fay asked, and I winced when I heard her speak.

She sounded fucking awful. She hadn’t put her ski-mask back on yet, and her face looked sallow and sweaty and gaunt.

“No wolves,” I replied. “And the storm cleared up. We should move. We’re not far from the trail we need to take to get up to the house.”

“Okay then,” Fay said, and pulled on her ski-mask.

Megan and Hannah shared a worried glance, but we had to keep moving. We couldn’t really stay here, and if the wolves were gone and the storm had died off, then it was an opportunity we couldn’t afford to miss.

So we bundled back up, headed back outside (after making sure the fire, which was already almost dead, was out, because hey, this place had saved our lives, what if someone else needed it a few months or even years down the line?), and then resumed our journey. The creek we had been following was a few dozen yards off to the right, but ultimately it led to the opposite end of the valley where a frozen waterfall sat in silent splendor.

It was quite a sight to behold.

The valley wall wasn’t so much a wall at this end as land with a rather steep grade. There was a rough path that led up it, switchbacking on itself a few times, but ultimately leading to the top. I didn’t like the prospect of climbing it with Fay as sick and weak as she was, but we had no choice. I kept a watch over my shoulder as we made our way to the path, just in case the wolves snuck up on us again. I could see the vague shape of what I was pretty sure was one of the dead ones a ways back, buried under the snow, and I was tempted to go back and get it, but my hands were full enough as it was. Maybe I could come back later.

The walk up to the path went by pretty much without a problem. Fay was a bit slow and Hannah slipped at one point, but otherwise we reached the bottom of the path near the waterfall without any real hiccups.

“This is going to suck,” Fay muttered as we came to stand at the base of the path. She looked at me, her expression flat. “I don’t know if I can make it,” she admitted.

“If you can’t, I’ll carry you,” I replied. “We’ve always got that option.”

She sighed. “Yeah...okay, let’s do it. You should probably stay close to me. I’ll go on for as long as I can, but I’m...pretty bad right now. It’s-I’m fading.”

“Okay. Megan, lead the way. Hannah, watch the rear. Let’s do this quick but safe,” I said.

We all got into position and then up we went.

At first it wasn’t so bad. The initial pathway was relatively even and the grade wasn’t too steep. Megan led and Fay followed behind her, keeping up a decent pace despite what she’d said, and I followed right behind her, watching her carefully, while Hannah brought up the rear, watching our backs in case the wolves showed back up, or some other threat decided to manifest. It was still very cold out, but the winds had largely died off at least. We moved in silence, save for our breathing and footfalls and occasional grunts.

Our progress was unhindered as we reached the first switchback.

From there, it grew a bit dicier. It was steeper, and the snow made it slippery. Nonetheless, we kept moving, going slower this time. We’d come this far, I had absolutely no intent of dying or breaking a leg or letting anyone else do that.

Progress went from okay, to slow, to miserable. Especially when the winds picked up again. We had just made it to the second switchback when a gust came down and pushed all of us. Megan, Hannah, and I managed to keep our balance but I saw Fay go over almost immediately. She was already struggling, and I had just been thinking to myself that it was time for a short break to let her catch her breath, and then over she went. She let out a shout and flailed. I was there immediately, grabbing hold of her and steadying her.

“I think...that time has come,” she groaned.

“I think so too,” I agreed. “Hannah, I need you to take this.” While using one arm to steady Fay, I shrugged out of my MP5 and passed it carefully to her with the other.

She nodded and accepted it, looping the strap over her shoulder to keep it secure. Once she’d taken it safely from my grasp, I had Fay take her backpack off and hold it to her chest so that she wasn’t awkward to carry and handle, then scooped her gently up off her feet. Even with her gear and fully dressed up in cold weather clothing, she didn’t weigh all that much. I got her situated and made sure I was steady, then looked down at her.

“You comfortable?” I asked.

“No, but that isn’t your fault,” she replied. “You’ve got a fine hold on me.”

I laughed. “Okay, good. Let’s keep it moving.”

We started making our way up what I hoped was the final switchback. I had to admit, though, that holding Fay and having her this close was turning me on. It would anyway, but I’d already seen her naked and confirmed we were going to fuck.

Although…

I abruptly became aware of a reservation at having sex with her that I’d never experienced before. After a moment of consideration, as I walked my slow way up the path, I realized that it had nothing to do with her. I was very attracted to Fay. It was actually my full comprehension that I now had seven women that I loved: emotionally, physically, mentally. I guess you could even say spiritually. They were a part of my life now. And I wanted to help each of them, to love each of them, to spend time with each of them.

Seven was a lot. I knew that even though Delilah had Lindsay, and Lara and Susan had each other, and Jessica and Elizabeth would have their own responsibilities...it was still a lot. Because they all wanted a piece of me.

In a loving way, but also in a sexual way.

And there were only so many hours in the day.

It was occurring to me, I guess, that I would reach a point where I’d more often than not have to chose between my ‘inner circle’ and everyone else, and obviously the women closest to me were going to win out.

But…

I glanced down briefly at Fay. That time had not yet come, I think. Which was great, because I really wanted to sleep with her.

And I really wanted Megan and Hannah to watch me do it.

I don’t entirely know why, but there was something extra enticing to having them watch. And not just because I liked being watched (by women) when I was having sex, but it was something about them specifically.

It was a weird thought, though.

Admittedly, at this point, I was used to sleeping with most of the women I desired, because they usually desired me back.

Maybe that’d change.

We were nearing the top. I followed Megan’s lead, watching her body language as much as my footing, (not an easy task), just in case she saw something dangerous. But she got to the head of the trail, looked around, and didn’t react poorly.

“Looks clear, and I can see the house, though it’s a way’s off,” she said.

I joined her and we moved away from the path, Hannah following. I found myself looking across a large, vast plain of snow. There were a few trees and way off in the distance, ahead of us, was a house. There was what appeared to be a forest and a rise in the land beyond the house, which was probably where the bunker was.

“That’s a long walk,” Fay murmured. “I can probably walk…”

“I’ll keep carrying you,” I replied.

“...thanks. I appreciate it.”

I just nodded and started walking. Hannah and Megan fell in on either side of me.

~

It was a very long walk.

It was definitely one of those cases where it probably wasn’t all that long, it just felt long. But it felt like a long fucking time. Part of me wanted to check my watch by the time we finally were making our final approach to the house, but I didn’t bother. I was too tired and just wanted to get inside. About halfway there, I did end up having to put down Fay. Partially because my arms were starting to hurt, but also because we were getting closer and closer to shooting distance and if someone opened up I didn’t want to have to drop her on the ground to grab my gun. As we came up to a privacy fence that was supposed to surround the whole house, I pulled out my pistol. So far, I hadn’t seen any real signs that anyone was around.

The privacy fence was made of wood, and had probably been used at some point for burning. Other portions of it had fallen over. We got right up to one of the gaps and I leaned around, scoping the situation out.

I saw a big, two-story house. Lots of windows, a few of them broken. No smoke coming out of either chimney. No one moving behind those windows. It looked like the kind of place rich people would retreat to during the summer. It had probably been owned by whoever’d had the bunker built and wrote the map. They hadn’t made it back here, but I found it hard to feel sympathy. In my experience, if you were rich, you were almost certainly a terrible person. Or, at the very least, you were likely a greedy asshole.

Maybe I’m generalizing, but I was beyond giving a fuck at this point.

Rich people had been ripping the world apart because they’d rather have six hundred billion dollars instead of five hundred billion dollars, and they were willing to squeeze every last penny out of the impoverished, the sick, the dying, whoever they could get their greedy hands on. And then they had the fucking audacity to exclaim that they earned it because they worked so hard! Fuck them. If there was a hell, most of them were there right now.

“Megan, stay here with Fay. Hannah and I will clear it out, then we can get inside and take a fucking break,” I said.

“Got it,” she replied. She sounded like how I felt: exhausted. But the job wasn’t done yet. Fuck, it technically wasn’t even half done.

Pistols out, Hannah and I slipped in through the gap in the fence and began our perimeter sweep. A lot of things were hurting me right now. My head was aching, and that was flaring up. My arms were killing me, especially my wolf bitten arm, though I was glad it didn’t feel infected. It just hurt. My legs were sore as shit, my lower back, my shoulders, my neck. Pretty much everything hurt. This trip had pushed me farther than most of them I’d taken. Honestly, it might be my roughest outing, if only because normally, when I had to go extra hard for a day or two, I’d take more time to rest and gather my strength back.

We didn’t have that luxury right now.

It made me suddenly realize I needed to be taking myself, my body, my strength and endurance, much more seriously. I’d often just taken it for granted that I was big and liked working out. The workout routine had eventually become replaced by hard labor and long, long walks. I was still in pretty good shape, but I knew I could realistically be doing more. And if other people’s lives were riding on my actions, then I’d fucking better be taking myself more seriously. But that was something for later.

There were no signs of anyone outside, and the front door was closed but unlocked. I went in first, pistol out. The light was still good enough from the sun that I didn’t need my flashlight. I came into a broad, open living room where half the walls were windows. They’d survived mostly intact, thankfully. A few were cracked and one had broken in a few places. I made mental notes of everything as I walked inside.

Where the fireplace was, where the doors were, any signs of life.

Obviously, people had lived here at one point.

There was some furniture, heavily used. Several comfortable armchairs were gathered around a fireplace across the room. One door led to a coat closet, another to a hallway that granted access to the rest of the house. We investigated an old kitchen, a bathroom, and a small office. Up some stairs, we found a bedroom, a bathroom, a few closets, and a master bedroom that held the only real surprise of the whole house.

And it was a nasty one, though I’d seen this particular surprise before.

A man and a woman, presumably a couple, lay dead, holding hands, on the king sized bed in the master bedroom.

“Jesus, what happened?” Hannah whispered.

“They committed suicide,” I replied, studying them. They looked middle-aged. They wore nice clothing, though it didn’t quite fit. They were both pallid, stiff corpses, a layer of frost covering them. I saw the woman had a wedding ring, but the man didn’t. Their eyes were closed, their faces peaceful, each with a small smile on their faces.

“Why are you so sure?” she asked.

“Look at them. They knew they were going to die. They didn’t freeze to death, I think. There’s no blood anywhere. I don’t see any bullet holes or stab wounds. They’re smiling, holding hands. They must’ve taken something, overdosed on some drug that made them fall asleep and probably stop breathing or stopped their hearts. They’re both laying there together, so it had to be a choice. They aren’t under the blankets, they’re dressed. It all looks very deliberate.”

“Fuck,” Hannah whispered.

“I think they might’ve found this place at some point after the snowfall, started living here, maybe with other people…” I sighed softly. “I guess it doesn’t matter now. Help me roll them up in the blanket and we’ll get them out of here. I want to get them somewhere out of sight, outside, so they don’t thaw and start stinking, and check out that shed we saw behind the house.”

“Okay,” Hannah murmured.

We started rolling up the bodies.

TWENTY TWO

It was an unhappy job, but at least it wasn’t all that difficult.

We rolled the two corpses up in the large blanket they were laying on, then secured it with some rope I found laying on a nearby dresser, (I think someone had been intending to do this exact job at one point, but for whatever reason had given up), and then hauled them downstairs and out the back, on the opposite side of where Megan and Fay were waiting. We dumped them quick, up against the side of the house, in the snow, and then moved over to the shed. It was the only other structure on the property. Although it was more than a shed, I realized.

It looked fancy, built at some point within the last few years, maybe even newer than the house. It was also pretty intact and firmly shut up against the elements.

“I’ve got a good feeling about this place,” I muttered as we started looking for a way in.

“I don’t,” Hannah said. She sounded down, dejected.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“I guess...I haven’t really been thinking about it too much because we’ve been so busy, but now that we actually are here, like, how the fuck are we going to get a bunch of supplies back to Pine Lake? We’ve been traveling for days, Chris. We can’t even go back the way we came…”

“Hannah,” I said, stopping and looking at her firmly. “Don’t panic, okay? Don’t despair. I know, it sucks. It looks bad right now, but you have no idea what might be waiting around the next corner. It could be awful, or it could be awesome. Remember what I’ve told you: your best ability is going to be your ability to react and adapt, because a situation always has the potential to evolve in either direction. Good, bad, or something totally random. But you can handle it, Hannah. I know you can. It sucks that you have to, but you can.”

She swallowed, then nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t mean to freak out. God, I don’t know how you manage to be calm like all the time…”

“I’m not,” I replied. “I’ve freaked out a bit during this trip. I used to get in fights with Megan. Nothing serious, but they weren’t just small disagreements. And Susan, too. Hell, you and me used to fight. I’m sure we’ll fight again. Now, help me find a way in here so we can secure it and get Fay inside and warm,” I said, looking back at the shed.

“Fuck, you’re right,” she muttered.

We found the way in, but it was locked. I considered forcing it, but something stayed my hand. Maybe something nice was in there, and if it was, maybe it was secured for now. And I bet there might be keys in the house.

Either way, I was almost positive no one was in that shed and Fay needed to get inside and get warm.

“Why don’t you go inside, start checking the place over for keys and get a fire going?” I suggested. “I’ll get the others in.”

“Okay,” Hannah replied.

We split up and I headed back around to the other side of the house. Megan was watching for me and I saw her inquisitive stare when I appeared.

I gave her a thumbs up. “Looks clear.”

“That doesn’t sound as definitive as you normally are,” Megan replied.

“There’s a locked up shed on the other side. Didn’t get inside, but I didn’t want to keep you two waiting while we dicked around with trying to open it up,” I said.

“Fair enough.”

I found Fay leaning against the fence, out of it. “I’m picking you up now, Fay. All right?”

“All right,” she murmured.

I scooped her up and started carrying her back to the house. Megan followed.

“Is it as nice as it looks from the outside?” she asked.

“Yeah. We’ll want to remake the king bed before we sleep, though. A few people committed suicide in it,” I replied.

“Fucking hell,” Megan muttered.

“They didn’t like blow their brains out or anything. We already took care of the bodies but there’s no mess.”

“You know they killed themselves?”

“Yeah.”

I explained the circumstances as we walked into the house. Hannah had already got the fire going across the living room and I had Megan lay down a thermal blanket on one of the reclining armchairs before I laid Fay out on it. I got her backpack and pistol off of her and set them aside, then wrapped her up in the blanket for now. She was freezing and I was worried about how out of it she seemed. I got her a bottle of water.

“You still with me, Fay?” I asked.

“Mmm...yeah. Tired,” she murmured. “I need a nap.”

“Okay. Drink some of this first,” I replied.

She accepted the water and drank several swallows. I finished making sure she was comfortable, then turned to Megan. “Will you keep watching her? Hannah and I want to find some keys to get into the shed, I think there’s something nice in there.”

“Like what?” she replied.

“No idea, but I want to find out. After that, I’m going to go out looking for the bunker. There’s still several hours of daylight left and I want to use them,” I said.

She nodded and sat down in another chair, watching over Fay, who was already asleep again. I tracked down Hannah deeper in the house and joined her in searching. We found that the place wasn’t completely strip-mined for resources. The kitchen alone held half a dozen cans and two glass jars of food that we came across while hunting for the keys. Which was a good sign. Every bit of food we could find helped. It all added up. Which reminded me: I needed to weigh the pros and cons of going back down into that fucking valley and grabbing those wolf corpses, (and maybe making a few more), and hauling them back up here.

We’d killed probably a hundred and twenty pounds of meat, collectively, and that was nothing to ignore.

Something finally occurred to me after twenty minutes of fruitless searching. Well, fruitless in the sense that I hadn’t found what I was actually looking for. I walked back into the living room, over towards the door, and looked around on the walls.

Sure enough, there it was.

“Son of a bitch,” I said.

“You found them?” Hannah asked, coming over.

“Yep.”

They were hanging from a coat rack mounted on the wall. Sometimes people hung their keys there after coming in for the day, and old habits died hard apparently. There were several keys on the ring. “We’ll be back,” I said to Megan as we headed out.

“We’ll be here,” she replied.

“By the way,” I said as we approached the shed, “I’d like my SMG back.”

Hannah sighed and passed it to me. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.”

“You want a chance with it?”

“I mean yeah, obviously.”

I laughed. “Next one we find is all yours.”

“Yeah, like we’re actually gonna find another one.”

We got to the shed and I tried the first key. It wouldn’t fit, so I skipped over the next one, as it looked extremely similar to the first, and tried the third.

That one did it.

Turning the lock, I made sure Hannah was ready with her pistol, just in case, and opened up the door. I stepped back as I did, drawing my own weapon, and we looked inside.

And saw about the last thing I was actually expecting.

“Holy shit,” Hannah whispered.

“See, I told you,” I replied. “Never know what’s around the next corner.”

“Yeah but do they actually work?”

“Fair question. Let’s check them out.”

We stepped inside of the shed and made sure we were truly alone, then turned our attention to the two things that took up most of the interior, and our attention.

A pair of very modern-looking all terrain four-wheelers, completely with industrial-strength looking sleds attached to their rears.

They were sleek and light gray in color. Though some dust coated them, they looked like they’d never actually been driven. There were some tools and spare parts scattered around the front of one of them on the floor.

“Hmm, maybe they don’t work,” I murmured, my hopes falling a little. Clearly, whoever had lived here before had had access to them, so they must’ve tried them and found them broken. Hence the tools and the undriven condition. But they were so perfect! They had to work. They even had shatterproof solar panels built onto the tire coverings! They were the absolutely perfect solution to our problem of getting the stuff back home.

“Fay will help us get it sorted out,” I said finally. “For now, we gotta track down the bunker and see if it’s even real.”

“Even if it isn’t, these are amazing finds,” Hannah replied.

I nodded. We took another quick look around the shed. The walls were lined with shelves, and a lot of them had stuff on them. Mostly tools and spare parts and other interesting, useful things that would help us out in one way or another. We could catalog and inventory it all later. I shut and locked the door, then hurried back inside.

“You two look excited, what’d you find?” Megan asked.

“Two solar-powered ATVs with big sleds attached to them,” I replied.

She stared at me. “You had better not be joking.”

“He’s not, that’s what’s in there. The only problem is they might not work,” Hannah said.

“Thank God we’ve got Fay,” Megan muttered, looking at the unconscious engineer.

“That’s what we were thinking. Hannah and I are going to go looking for the bunker.” I gave Megan the keys. “Make sure to keep the place secure and do whatever you can for Fay. Maybe get her up to the second bedroom if you can.”

“All right. Good luck out there,” she said, though she looked like she had some reservations about us heading out again. She didn’t voice them, though. I knew how she felt. I didn’t want to go back out there, and I didn’t want to ask Hannah to, either. But we were working against the clock. So I shared a hug and a kiss with her, and she and Hannah hugged, and then we went back out into the miserable, hungering cold.

~

“Do you think Fay’s going to be all right?” Hannah asked as we walked away from the house, across an open field, towards a hilly forest a little ways away.

“I hope so,” I replied. “It’s hard to say at this point. We’ve given her what we can from the stash of medicine Melanie gave us. God, if only we could take more of a break...but we’re already weeks overdue.”

“I guess that’s true. Fuck, if only they hadn’t run into those storms…”

“I know, but it doesn’t matter. What happened, happened. Can’t change it,” I replied, wanting to break her of the habit of getting hung up on shit that had gone wrong. I knew how seductive it was to rant about all the bad luck, all the shitty things, intentional or accidental, and it had a way of seeping into your subconscious and souring your mood. And a sour mood could lead to mistakes. And mistakes in an environment like this could be lethal.

I’m not exactly saying a good mood was crucial for survival, but a neutral one sure helped.

“How do you stay so...not miserable?” Hannah asked after another several minutes.

“You want the truth?” I asked.

She pursed her lips, looking over at me. “It’s something about sex, isn’t it?”

I laughed. “Yes. Honestly I mostly think about sex.”

“I guess you’ve got a lot of memories to call on...do you miss any of them? From before, I guess Delilah. She’s the first, right? Of our group?”

“She’s the first,” I confirmed. “And yeah, some.”

“Any ones that really stick out?”

I thought about it. I didn’t want to seem callous or cold, but honestly, most of them didn’t. It wasn’t that they were unattractive or unmemorable or that I didn’t give a shit. It was more that...we’d hooked up, had fun, sometimes once, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for a week or two, and then we’d parted ways.

“I guess the girl that sticks out the most was named Mary. I actually met her not too long before I met Delilah.”

“What was she like?”

“Physically? Average height and weight, maybe a little skinnier than normal. Pale. Brunette. Amazing green eyes. But what was she like otherwise? Imagine Delilah, but less confident. She thought she was useless and she’d had a run of bad luck. When we met at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, she’d been kicked out of her group, and they’d taken pretty much everything from her. She was in a really bad spot. But she, well, offered me sex in exchange for protection and care. She was really surprised by how nice I was to her. I found a car at the station and fixed it up, then we made it to a nearby town and stayed there for a few weeks. Lived together. Played boyfriend-girlfriend together, basically.”

“And you left her behind?” Hannah murmured.

“Yeah. Although I’d met another woman, an older woman who was more like Megan, tougher, knew what she was doing. She liked Mary, and Mary liked her. We all hooked up, and I basically left Mary with her. When I left, Mary had restarted an old passion of hers, carving wooden figurines. She was good at it…”

“Why’d you leave her?” Hannah asked. Before I could respond, she sighed. “I’m sorry, it sounds like I’m accusing you, but I’m not. I’m just curious.”

“It’s fine,” I replied. “Same reason I left almost everyone: I wanted to move on, she didn’t. She was happy where she was. Or at least getting comfortable. I think she was tempted to join me but...it was good she didn’t. I crashed not too much later, got robbed blind, you remember. If she’d been with me at the time, they would’ve taken her.”

“Ugh,” she muttered.

“Yeah...I wonder what she’s up to right now. Probably back at that settlement still. If I wasn’t tied down now, I might make a pilgrimage. Go visit. But it’s way too far away now. Probably about a hundred fifty, maybe even two hundred miles back east.”

“Well, I’m sorry you probably won’t get to see her again, but I’m not sorry you’re tied down,” Hannah said as we reached the woods and entered them.

“I didn’t mean for it to come out that way.”

“No, I meant that literally, I wasn’t being passive-aggressive or anything. You’re tied down, and I like it. We all do. You do, I can tell.”

I laughed. “Yeah. I do. I just-people usually use that phrase in a bad way. Committed sounds a lot better.”

Hannah laughed as well. “It does...now where is this bunker supposed to be?”

I sighed. “The map was not very specific. Vaguely in this area. We’ve got a few hours to find it, before the sun sets. Keep an eye out for wolves.”

~

“Hey...what’s that?” Hannah asked.

I felt hope flicker in me, and it felt good, because I was about to give up. We’d been at it for an hour and a half. It was dimmer, colder, and I was getting truly miserable. Everything ached, even with the numbing effects of the cold.

We’d found nothing so far.

But I saw what she was pointing to. Off maybe twenty yards away, through some trees, I saw it: a rise in the land, and an opening in that rise.

A cave.

“Let’s check it out,” I replied, and set off immediately towards it.

I got my MP5 out, because caves might mean bears or wolves, and I was in no mood to fuck around.

We stalked through the trees, wary, ready for this to be over.

As we got closer and closer to the cave, I didn’t sense or see anything around, and I felt that flicker of hope grow into a little campfire of expectation.

Something about it looked...right.

We got up to the threshold and pulled out our flashlights. It wasn’t a very big cave. I saw no signs of habitation, human or animal. I took the lead, walked slowly inside, switching to my pistol. Gun in one hand, flashlight in the other, I slowly scoped out the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Everything. Making sure there were no traps around.

If I were going to build a bunker, I might lay traps.

But I didn’t see anything.

We moved deeper into the cave, nice and easy, checking every niche, and I began to feel that little fire of hope die as we saw nothing.

Then the hope almost died completely as the cave terminated in a very small cavern.

“This isn’t it, huh?” Hannah asked as we looked around.

“Maybe…” I murmured, anticipation fading away as my frustration mounted. It was entirely possible the bunker hadn’t been built, or it was too well-hidden for us to find, or this map was just some elaborate ruse, although that was hard to believe given everything else had been spot-on. I played my light slowly, carefully over the walls, turning in a slow circle. I studied everything I could see. The earthen walls, the rocks…

“Wait,” I said, my light falling on a large rock, about as tall as I was, up against the right wall. “That doesn’t look right.”

“...yeah, you’re right,” Hannah murmured.

We walked over to the rock and checked it out. My hope surged into a full-on flare in the night beacon as I realized there was an unnatural crack between the wall and the rock.

“I see a space back here! Help me move it,” I said.

We started shoving, and it took a lot of effort, but it came away, and revealed a door cut into the rock. A solid metal door.

I saw an intricate locking mechanism on the handle but tried it anyway.

Like I thought, it wouldn’t budge.

“Well...we found it, at least,” Hannah said.

“Yeah. Let’s hope Fay is good at picking locks,” I replied. I considered shoving the rock back into place, but who the fuck was gonna find it, and even if they did, were they any more likely to get it open than we were?

Either way, I was so excited that I intended to come right back if possible.

“Come on, let’s go,” I said.

With a renewed energy, we left the cave and hurried back through the forest. Heading back, the trip seemed to take far less time. We were out of the forest in just about five minutes, given that we hadn’t actually gone all that deep into it, we’d just wandered around searching for the bunker. I felt a great weight lifting from my body as we hurried across the field. We had actually found the motherfucking bunker!

Of course, now we had to be able to get into it, but between the four of us I was positive we could find some way to do it.

And, of course, it had to have supplies and no people in it. Although I doubted there were people. Unless there was another way in, or something I wasn’t thinking of, I couldn’t imagine them getting that rock back into place after closing the door.

And also we had to get the ATVs working.

But all of that felt doable. It felt possible.

Sure, it wasn’t a permanent solution, but we’d basically done what we’d set out to do!

We were almost to the house, at the perimeter fence, when Hannah spoke up.

“Oh my God, Chris, what the fuck is that!?” The terror was obvious in her voice.

I felt ice instantly freeze my veins as I turned around and had a look for myself. At first, I couldn’t precisely tell what the fuck I was looking at.

Something huge and dark was emerging from the trees.

And then suddenly it was coming towards us.

Bounding towards us.

“It’s a bear,” I whispered, realizing hitting me like a train. “A huge fucking bear!”

And it was coming directly towards us as fast as it could.

TWENTY THREE

“Shoot it,” I said.

All at once, it was like everything zeroed right the hell out. My emotions flatlined, my body became still, my head clear.

I grabbed for my rifle, dropped to one knee, and brought the scope to my eye.

Hannah did the same beside me.

“It’s so fast!” she whispered.

“Shoot it,” I repeated flatly.

The thing was huge and it was definitely coming for us, absolutely devouring the distance between itself and us as the seconds ticked by.

It was hurrying towards us.

I sighted it and squeezed the trigger. The shot was good, I saw a cloud of blood blow out from its broad back, and a second later, another one as Hannah fired.

It didn’t stop.

I heard a roar echo across the landscape.

If anything, it sped up.

My emotions stopped flatlining. My pulse jumped as panic started to come at me like a bullet. I aimed and fired again. Missed. Hannah hit it, but in its back again. I sighted a third time. It had already covered just over half the distance between the forest and the house. How was it so fast!? But I already knew the answer to that question: bears were fast. You didn’t really know just how fast a bear could cover ground until you actually saw it.

It was terrifying beyond measure.

My third shot was good, but still didn’t slow it down. Hannah missed her third shot.

I dropped the scope from my eye and shot to my feet. “Get in the house!”

“But Chris-”

“RUN! NOW!” I screamed, and did exactly that. Hannah turned and ran with me.

We blew through the fence as another roar chased after us. I could actually hear the thing huffing and panting as it raced towards us with all the unstoppable juggernaut force of an asteroid. We ran as fast as we could, past the shed, and up to the back door. It opened as we approached. Megan must’ve heard me screaming.

“What’s happening!?” she snapped.

“Get out of the way! Get Fay upstairs now!” I screamed.

Thankfully, she didn’t argue or ask, she just acted, disappearing from the door. It was closer now. Hannah got in through the door and the second I was inside, I slammed it shut and locked it.

“What the fuck is it!?” Megan screamed as she urged Fay towards the door at the back of the living room.

“A huge bear!” I snapped, setting my rifle aside and grabbing for my MP5 while backing up, Hannah to my side.

“What are we going to do!?” she cried.

“Get your pistol ready, fall back. If it comes in here, blow it away, stay out of its reach,” I replied, panting furiously.

A loud growl beyond the door announced the arrival of the huge bear we’d apparently committed a fucking war crime against. I wondered if maybe it would give up now that we were actually inside, or if maybe-

The door abruptly shook in its frame and a huge crack appeared down the middle.

“Jesus fuck!” Hannah screamed.

“Okay, we’re doing this! Hannah, go stand in the kitchen doorway, try not to shoot me!”

She hurried off and I found myself eternally grateful that I’d remembered to load the SMG.

With another thunderous crack, the door abruptly exploded inwards, flying into pieces. One of those pieces smacked me right in the forehead and I cried out as I went right down on my ass from the force of the blow. The bear shoved itself through the opening, roaring, maddened, enraged it seemed. What the fuck was its problem!?

I was in a bad spot, but maybe I could kill it right here, right now.

I aimed and fired, squeezing the trigger and gripping the submachine gun as I poured bullets into the bear. It snarled and crashed into the room, thrashing around as many of the bullets pelted its enormous body, (how big was this thing!?), and sprayed its blood across the wall. Ripping the door frame out, it finally came through. It happened so quick I didn’t even get a chance to finish emptying the gun. I was forced to roll out of the way as it came for me and took a swipe. Its enormous paw smashed into the wooden floor, huge claws gouging out chunks of wood as I barely managed to get away from it.

I felt the whoosh of air just behind my head as it swiped at me again. Gunfire opened up from across the room and the bear roared, turning away from me. I was seeing double again from now my second head wound, and blood was trickling down my face, getting into my eyes. Cursing, I staggered to my feet, falling over as I saw the huge dark-furred thing run right towards Hannah, who was screaming and blasting away with her pistol. She must have managed to back up far enough because the huge thing got stuck in the doorway to the kitchen.

Once I managed to get back up to my feet, I resumed fire.

The huge bear roared again, the sound rattling my bones and filling me with a primal terror, and tore itself free of the door. Turning around, it began coming for me. Holy fucking goddamn shit! I kept on firing, hoping to get a lucky shot in its brain, too terrified to aim properly. This was it. I was going to fucking die.

A giant fucking apparently unstoppable bear was going to rip me in half in a house in the middle of nowhere.

One of the bear’s eyes exploded as the MP5 ran dry. It let out a roar so loud I thought I’d gone deaf as it swiped at me again.

I’m not sure if I dropped of my own volition or if my knees just gave out, but it saved my life. This time, the thing’s immense paw actually brushed the top of my head as it flew over me. As I hit the floor and began scrambling away, the panic alive inside me like a live-wire spitting sparks, I heard more gunshots, two pistols going off.

The bear was staring at me, blood leaking down its face from its ruined eye, and still that big son of a bitch was going!

It spun around, lumbering and crashing through the living room. It roared and swiped a chair out of the way, sending it crashing through a window. Glass shattered and rained over me. I could hear Megan and Hannah screaming as I grasped for my own pistol.

And then, suddenly, the bear stopped moving. It went stiff as it again was trying to get through another doorway, this time the one that led to the hallway, and it collapsed.

“Is it dead?!” I called, my voice shaking badly.

“Let me fucking make sure!” Megan screamed, sounding terrified and enraged.

Three gunshots rang out, and I saw its body jerking each time as she fired probably directly into its huge head.

As the last gunshot echoed away, a heavy silence fell.

“Can someone tell me,” Fay began, breaking it from somewhere nearby, “what in the hell you two did to that bear?”

I started laughing.

Sometimes, that’s all you could do.

~

“You sure about this?” I asked.

“Not really, but I’m awake and kinda got a burst of energy from that bear attack, and I’d like to get these questions answered, and we’ve still got some sunlight left, so let’s do it,” Fay replied as she finished pulling on her jacket.

I frowned, looking back at the huge bear corpse. Hannah was staring at it, her arms crossed, frowning deeply.

“Are you going to be okay by yourself?” I asked.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied, then laughed a little shakily. “After facing down this huge motherfucker, I’m feeling pretty pumped.”

“If you could, start searching the house. Top to bottom. Gather everything of use you can find into the master bedroom. Also, if you could get the beds ready, that would be really awesome and appreciated,” I said.

“I’ll get on it, babe. Go do your thing,” Hannah replied, grinning at us.

“Let’s go do our thing,” Megan said, pulling her hat on and then adjusting her rifle.

I nodded and gave Fay an appraising look. She didn’t look quite so bad now, but I still thought this was ill-advised.

Despite that, we headed back out into the cold and began our long walk towards the bunker.

After we were sure, really sure, that the big motherfucker was dead, we’d debated about what to do, and ultimately Fay said she wanted to just get this over with. It was her call, so I let her make it, and we were enacting it.

The walk was another one that seemed to take forever, although I felt a bit better this time. Though damn, my head was hurting worse than ever. Megan had cleaned up my wound and dealt with it quickly, although I apparently still had some blood on my face. I didn’t care anymore. I wanted this to be done.

As we walked, we saw the tracks the bear had made, and I kept coming back to it.

What the hell had that been about!?

It made me nervous. All the animal encounters I’d had over the past few days made me nervous. Back before the snow, it was actually pretty rare that wild animals outright attacked people. Usually they ran away, or at worst tried to warn people off. Bear attacks, wolf attacks, they didn’t happen that often. But it had started happening more and more in the year or so leading up to the snowfall. Scientists theorized it had to do with climate change, new weather patterns and the fact that their homes were being destroyed.

But now it seemed to be getting worse.

I’d never encountered something like that. And that had been one huge bear. Or maybe it just seemed huge to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing was eight hundred pounds. That was a lot of meat though. Maybe that’s why I was in such a good mood. It was so much meat. Although I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to get it back in one trip...no, probably not. Shit. I began wondering about a way to deal with that, but realized I was getting ahead of myself. First, we needed to see if we could get the bunker open.

Then we needed to see if it had food. And if the ATVs worked.

And then we could start worrying about how to haul all this shit home.

After a long while, we hit the forest. After another, much shorter while, we found the cave the bunker was hidden in.

By the time we got there, I was worried about Fay again. She was panting and starting to sway. But she determinedly kept on going.

“Okay, I’ll need light,” she said as she walked up to the door and shrugged out of her pack.

Hannah and I held up our lights, standing at the best angles for it, and Fay studied the lock. I kept waiting for her to say if she could do it, but she said nothing. Instead she pulled out a toolkit from her pack, opened it up, and started working.

For the next twenty minutes, the only sounds in the cave were her panting and the small mechanical sounds of her working.

The urge to ask if she thought she could do it was starting to become overwhelming when, abruptly, there was a loud click and the door opened inward an inch.

“And I’ve done my job,” Fay said.

Abruptly she collapsed, falling onto her back.

“Fay!” I cried, rushing forward. I got her head up as Hannah and I crouched around her. “Fay, can you hear me?! Fay?!”

“She’s out cold,” Hannah muttered.

She was still breathing, but she was burning up.

“We need to get her back to the house,” I said.

“I know, but we’ve come this far. Go on, check it out. I’ll stay with her, get her ready for the walk back,” Hannah replied.

I looked at the door, at the darkness visible beyond the inch-wide gap, and nodded slowly. Pulling my pistol out again, flashlight still in hand, I walked forward and pushed the door open slowly. It was heavy, but it went without much resistance. The light revealed a metal staircase leading down about ten feet. I saw another door and felt a moment of frustration, but it didn’t look intricately locked. Didn’t mean it wasn’t, though.

Walking down the stairs slowly, I began to feel claustrophobic.

Pushing away at the feeling, getting myself under control, I reached the bottom of the stairs and tried the door I found there.

Moment of truth.

The door opened. I let out the breath I’d been holding in relief as I pushed it inwards. The flashlight revealed...a living room. A nice one, actually. I saw a big L-shaped couch, a huge flat-screen mounted on the wall, an empty aquarium, a large bookshelf, several doors. This was going to be someone’s home. Some rich prepper was gonna come here and wait out the apocalypse. Or maybe just live here until they died.

There were a handful of other rooms attached to the main living room.

A full bathroom. A tightly designed kitchen, small but efficient. A bedroom. A dining room. A generator room that also held some complicated piece of plumbing machinery. And finally a storage room. This was the biggest room.

It was, sadly, not nearly as packed as I had hoped. Oddly, whoever had been in charge of this place had opted to add the furnishings before all the crucial food and medical supplies. It seemed that they had been in the midst of loading it up when...well, whatever had stopped them from getting here and finishing the job had occurred.

It wasn’t nothing, though. There was a fair amount of food. Lots of boxes, mostly. Cans, jars, seasonings. I saw some medical supplies, as well. I couldn’t see any guns, though. There was other stuff that would certainly be useful mixed in, but for now I was satisfied. Between this and the bear and hopefully the wolves, it would do.

I walked back upstairs, closing the first door behind me.

As I trudged back up the stairwell, I wondered about whoever had made this place. There was just the one bedroom, the one big bed, so obviously it wasn’t for a family. Probably some rich CEO type and either his wife or whatever chick he was with at the time. Did it matter? It was just one of those billion stories that was lost to time now.

“Well?” Hannah asked.

“We’re good,” I replied. “Not as packed as I’d hoped, but definitely a decent supply down there.” I sighed softly as I bent down and picked up Fay, gently cradling her. “Now, we’ve got a long, long, long several days’ worth of work ahead of us, getting all of it back to Pine Lake.”

“We’ll get it figured out,” Hannah said as we started walking out of the cave.

I grinned. It was a tired but triumphant grin. “Yeah, we will.”

EPILOGUE

I opened my eyes.

I was exhausted, in pain, and yet…

Calm. Comfortable. I felt good, safe.

Even though I wasn’t completely sure where I was. Sunlight was streaming in through the window, illuminating a ceiling that was familiar…

Home. I was home. In my motel room in Pine Lake.

Well, not just my motel room. I looked around me. Hannah was laying on her side between me and the wall, facing away. Megan was laying against me on my other side, partially on me. Both of them, I was glad to learn, were very comfortable sleeping completely naked now. It hadn’t taken Hannah long to get used to it.

For a moment, I considered what I should do. I was still exhausted, even though it was clearly well past sunrise.

Then I decided fuck it, I’d earned a day of rest or two. Actually, now that I thought about it, I recalled Lisa genuinely ordering me not to do any work today or tomorrow, because she, as well as Melanie and several others, were actually worried about me.

I’d given in. It had been a very, very long week.

I had to piss, I knew that much. I gently extracted myself from beneath Megan, and went into the bathroom where we kept our ‘toilet’. God, I missed real working toilets. I pissed in the little chemical lavatory we had rigged. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a damn sight better than a bucket. It was a long piss. I’d been asleep for a long time. Probably around twelve hours. Fuck. I finished up and then walked back into the main room.

Megan was awake, blinking sleepily at me.

“You okay?” she murmured.

“Fine,” I replied, walking around to the side of the bed and sitting down near the head. She made room, then reached up and gently ran her fingernails down my back, making me shudder. “Just in pain. Need a smoke.”

She laughed softly. “Now I bet you’re glad I got that stuff, aren’t you?”

“I’m not the one who’s weird about it,” I replied.

We tried not to smoke too much around Hannah. She didn’t like the smell and I think there was a little more to the weed than she was letting on. Maybe someone she knew had smoked it and it had soured the relationship somehow. But goddamn did I need it right now. For whatever reason, it helped more than a lot of other things. It killed pain, helped me sleep, chilled me out. I was still careful not to do it too often, but the last week and a half had been the most stressful time of my entire motherfucking life.

Or at least it seemed that way.

As I grabbed a joint and lit up, puffing away as Megan continued running her hand soothingly across my bare back, I thought about everything that had happened after we’d finally gotten that damned bunker open.

A lot work, that’s what.

We got Fay back to the house, made sure we were secure, then made dinner and bunked down for the night. We ended up actually bringing the smaller mattress into the master bedroom and putting it on the floor so Fay wouldn’t wake up alone. We had dinner, and Fay did wake up after awhile. She was a little delirious, but she took dinner and some medicine and went to the bathroom, then passed back out in the bed we’d made for her and slept through the night. I’d fucked Hannah and Megan, and then we three had slept through the night as well.

Deep into the next morning, actually.

But I’d made myself get up, and Hannah had gotten up with me, and we’d gotten to work.

We spent two days hauling everything we could from the bunker to the house, carving up that bear to reduce the load of its weight, packing away all the meat we harvested from it, searching the house top to bottom for any other supplies we might’ve missed, recovering the wolf corpses from the valley, (and killing two more of them in the process), and also helping Fay fix the ATVs. They were, it turned out, very fixable.

They just needed some basic maintenance and time in the sun.

We packed as much as we could onto the sleds, and then locked up all the leftovers in the shed. Then we found a map of the area, and discovered a road not too far away that led to the highway we’d initially taken. After that, we mounted up and rode. We managed to make it to the junkyard encampment, where Melanie was very happily waiting for us. Some decisions were made, and some tentative negotiations were worked out.

Hannah and Megan ended up taking their ATV back to Pine Lake, to drop off their load and deliver the news, as well as ask Lisa about establishing a working relationship with the junkyard. In the end, it worked. They hammered out a basic functional relationship with us: they would serve as a hunting outpost and dedicate their time to hunting game, as much as they could, and also picking whatever plants they could manage, and delivering the excess to Pine Lake. In return, whenever we found a real solution for a more long-term survival strategy, we agreed to absorb them into our population and take them with us.

While that was happening, I left Fay with Melanie at the junkyard camp to rest and went back on my own to get another load. Not the greatest idea, but I was determined to get this over with. After that, it was several long, long days of using the ATVs to haul everything we could possibly find from the bunker and the house to the junkyard, and then hauling most of it from there back to Pine Lake. It was only yesterday that I had finally returned. Hannah and Megan took turns riding the second ATV, and I always rode the first one.

They were fairly easy to handle, and took on snow terrain just fine.

With the final load (for now), we also brought back Melanie and Fay with us. Fay was still weak, but her fever was finally down and her coughing was much better. At this point, she’d just need rest and recovery.

I’d been on the verge of passing out when I finally hit Pine Lake last night. I hadn’t been sure if I could even finish the drive and was so close to letting Melanie take over for me, but I was stubborn, and I’d made it. After I’d actually gotten back, though, I remembered staggering like a drunk from sheer exhaustion.

After Melanie had checked me out, changing my bandages for my many wounds I’d accumulated over the course of this whole adventure, she’d helped Megan and Hannah get me home. I remembered everyone coming to see me, briefly, while I got ready for bed. I hugged and kissed them all. Delilah and Lindsay. Elizabeth. Jessica and Susan and Lara. Delilah and Lara clearly were hoping for sex, but I hadn’t even managed to fuck Hannah or Megan before passing out. Although now that I was thinking about it, I did remember having sex at least once at some point last night. I remembered one of them waking me, riding me…

Megan. It had been Megan.

“I love you,” I said as I passed her the joint, because I wanted to say it, and I liked saying it. It felt good to say.

I could hear the smile in her voice. “I love you too, Chris...I’ve never met a man who works as hard as you. I’ve never met anyone who worked as hard as you did over the past few weeks. You are absolutely amazing...and insane.”

I sighed softly, rubbing my eyes. “And still not even close to done.”

“You’re done for now, okay? In fact, get back in bed. Now.”

“Yes ma’am,” I replied, getting back in between her and Hannah, who was still out cold.

After I settled into place, we passed the joint back and forth until it was gone and she stubbed out what was left in the ashtray. And then I held her close to me and felt the pleasant buzzing in my head, felt the soft lethargy washing over me, the pain fading away. Hannah stirred and rolled over. She clung to my other side, holding me, resting her head on my shoulder.

“Love you,” she whispered.

I kissed the top of her head. “Love you, too.”

I held the two of them and began fading back to sleep.

Our problems weren’t over, but for a little while at least, they could wait.

A WARM PLACE 8 IS COMING FALL 2021!

If you’re reading this, then thank

you for finishing my story!

If you would be willing to leave a review,

I would deeply appreciate it!

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Sex & Survival | The Complete Trilogy

HAVEN

The zombies are evolving and winter is falling. One man must assemble a harem of hot, badass women to help him build a place of refuge.

Haven | The Complete Series

SCIENCE FICTION SHARED UNIVERSE

LIKE A FINE WINE

One man. Six cougars. Adventures in space.

Like A Fine Wine | The Complete Series

HELLCATS

A team of hardcore alien babes pass one inexperienced tech around like a sex toy.

Hellcats (Free!) | The Complete Trilogy

ALIEN HAREM

A failing writer gets roped into filming human-on-alien porn with his new sexy alien girl roommates.

Alien Harem | Alien Harem Collected

VALKYRIES

A technician, a badass seven-foot warrior woman, and a mysterious alien beauty form their own mercenary team, fighting and fucking across the galaxy.

Valkyries | The Complete Trilogy

DESIRE

One lucky man gets the ultimate job at a city-sized space station where every desire is satisfied by lusty alien women.

Desire (Free!) | The Complete Series

FANTASY SHARED UNIVERSE

DEMONESS

After rescuing a demoness, one man finds love (and lust) in the strangest place.

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WANDERLUST

One man strikes out into a wild wilderness and learns that there’s a ton of hot monster girls looking for a great time with a human.

Wanderlust (Free!) | The Complete Series

LUST & ADVENTURE

A healer takes a chance with a trio of lusty adventuresses and embarks on the journey of a lifetime.

Lust & Adventure | The Complete Trilogy

PARANORMAL SHARED UNIVERSE

PARASEXUAL

What begins as a roadtrip with his sexy werewolf best friend turns one man’s life upside down when she starts introducing him to all her hot paranormal friends.

Parasexual | The Complete Series

PARANORMAL PASSIONS

What started as a passionate one-night stand with his hot vampire neighbor alters the course of one man’s life forever.

Paranormal Passions | The Complete Trilogy

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.

This is my WEBSITE, (www.mistyvixen.com). Here, you can find free content, a monthly newsletter, alternate versions of my cover art where the ladies are naked, and more!

This is my TWITTER, (www.twitter.com/Misty_Vixen). I’ll post updates and pictures of hot, naked alien, monster, or otherwise inhuman ladies I find on the internet. Also, I respond to pretty much everyone, so feel free to say something!

This is my PATREON, (www.patreon.com/MistyVixen). Here, you can get early access to the first two chapters of my in-progress works, and early access to alternate versions of my cover art where the ladies are naked! They will be released to my website after one month.

Finally, if you want to talk to me directly, you can send me an e-mail at my address:

mistyvixen@outlook.com

Thanks for reading!

A WARM PLACE 7. Copyright © by Misty Vixen.

Kindle Edition. All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entire coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.