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

A WARM PLACE 7

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

EPILOGUE

OTHER TITLES

ABOUT ME

“Do you see the trail?” I asked after Susan and I had brought the ATVs to a complete halt and killed the engines.

The immense silence that always fell after riding around on them for long stretches of time always felt heavy, somehow intense.

“...maybe,” Susan replied.

“Look slowly.”

“How do you look slowly?” she asked, and I could hear the annoyance creeping into her voice.

“I mean move your eyeballs slowly, don’t dart your gaze around,” I replied evenly. She was walking that razor’s edge where she was sliding towards a bad mood but was still far away enough that she could be brought back from it.

Honestly, I was amazed at how much I had managed to learn when it came to reading the women I now shared my life with.

“Okay yeah,” she said suddenly, perking up. “I see it. Them. Two trails of boots. It looks like they’re going up to that hill.”

“Let’s walk up there,” I replied, getting off the ATV and looking around, taking stock of the area surrounding us.

A whole lot of frozen Kansas desolation and not a lot else.

I popped the little hood and detached the starter from the engine. I was lucky these things didn’t run hot.

“We’re gonna be like right there, do we really gotta take them out every time we’re gonna go more than five feet away?” Susan asked as she stood and stretched.

I stared at her from behind the darkened goggles I’d taken to wearing while riding.

She heaved a sigh. “Yeah, yeah. Risks are stupid, playing it safe is playing it smart. All right,” she said, walking around and repeating my action on her ATV.

“You’re learning,” I replied. “As stubborn as you are about it. Remember: you asked for this. You asked me to take you out here. You were adamant about it, actually.”

“I know,” she muttered, pocketing the starter.

The ATVs were an absolute game-changer when it came to getting around. They were a bit dangerous to drive around in the snow, but if you were careful, and with a bit of luck, they were mostly just fantastic to have.

I could cover so much more distance so easily.

And they were solar powered. The way the panels worked meant that they were pretty much always passively gaining energy so long as they were in the sun.

I looked up and around.

Today was a bright sunshine kind of day.

It felt like a good omen.

“Come on,” I said, heading off towards the hill, “let’s see if there’s anything obvious.”

Susan followed after me, our boots crunching in the snow.

A week. I’d been working for a solid week now.

After all the shit with the bunker, getting it back home, and helping give Pine Lake a reprieve from our impending doom, I’d taken a break for two days because I’d been so physically and mentally exhausted, and battered, that my body had almost given out. I probably should have taken three or four days off, but there was too much to do, and I was getting restless.

I had at least agreed to light duty for the first few days.

That largely meant bouncing between meeting with Lisa and Melanie and Hannah actually, (Lisa had partially taken her on as an assistant because she seemed to have a mind for organization on top of being just generally sharp), figuring out precisely how fucked we were, and doing smaller things like gathering firewood or helping the people hunt through the ruins of the township. Lisa was getting a little desperate and had most of the population going over the fire-gutted ruins of the buildings that remained for anything useful.

We had found a few things so far, but we were over halfway done and didn’t have much to show for it.

After that, I’d personally gone out to visit both the junkyard outpost and Brandy’s inn to make sure that had our agreements were ironed out and actually get our operations flowing.

The ‘contract’ with the junkyard was simple: they dedicated themselves to hunting game and picking any eatable plants they could find and gave us the excess, and in return we helped them with any problems that might crop up, but mostly we promised to absorb them into our population once we had a permanent solution for our ‘staying alive longer than a month’ problem.

Right now, that was looking like resettlement.

To where, no one knew.

There were options, but moving an entire population of people across the snowy wastelands of the Midwest was a risky proposition at best.

Our deal with the inn-owner Brandy was a little bit different.

She and her crew were happy where they were, and happy to amass a store of stuff to trade. And because she had an odd fondness for me, (I think I was the only guy to have sex with her who actually got off on her general badass attitude and facial scar), she gave us a sweet deal: we brought her shit to trade, they gave us any excess food they could scrounge up and would start dedicating more time to hunting game and foraging as well.

So that was another thing we were trawling the ruined town for: anything worth trading.

I had learned over the past two and a half years that this could mean so very much. There was obvious stuff: guns, bullets, medicine, food, tech. But there was other stuff like jewelry and scrap metal and even money.

Yeah, some people still used it. Or wanted it, at least.

Although I was wondering if that was beginning to fade. Even though she liked me, Brandy hadn’t seemed too impressed with the five grand we’d managed to come up with, saying fewer and fewer people seemed to give a crap.

Couldn’t blame them. Personally I’d just use the stuff as fuel for a fire.

My trip up to see Brandy had been solo and I’d ended up spending an extra hour out there making good on a promise I’d made her.

I had to do that again sometime soon. And bring one of my girlfriends with me this time.

After those initial two trips, others had taken over the ATVs and the jobs of going out and hauling back food once every three days.

When that was out of the way, I was still recovering, (I was bruised and battered and cut from all the falls and fights I’d had going after Megan and that stash, even now I still ached), but I had energy to burn so I ended up spending time with the girls on their jobs because for now, Lisa didn’t really have an immediate use for me.

Everyone was pitching in, somehow, someway.

Lara, Susan, Delilah, and Lindsay tended to go on foraging expeditions. Lisa had begun systematically having teams search the areas for traces of life that had survived the storm. Not all the plants had died, we’d found, but too many of them had, and all that was left was to find the survivors and harvest them in the hope of extending our lifeline a bit longer.

Every little bit helped…

But I was still worried.

I’d gotten good at hiding it, I think a lot of us had, but this really sucked.

Susan and I made our way up the hill. I glanced back briefly at the ATVs out of habit, reassuring myself they were still there, and no one was creeping up on them.

While having those ATVs was indeed an absolute game-changer, it also painted a huge potential target on your back.

A lot of people would most definitely kill to get their hands on even one of them.

Or at least try to take off with it. Taking the starter out was my little insurance policy. Couldn’t even hot-wire the damn thing without a starter.

“Okay, that looks like a place they might go,” Susan said as we finally got up to the top of the hill.

It gave on a large snowbound field that was covered in big lumps about as tall as I was, things buried in snow that I recognized as bales of hay. A farmhouse, a decent and expensive one by the looks of it, even from this distance, sat within the boundaries of a wooden fence that had long since lost its integrity to time, weather, or desperate hands looking for fire food.

I took a long, sweeping look around the area.

At the moment, we were tracking a pair of wayward people who’d gotten lost during a storm.

Just yesterday, a group of about a dozen had shown up out of the blue. They were hungry and in poor health and low on supplies. Apparently they were the only survivors of another settlement dozens of miles away that had suffered a fate not too dissimilar from Pine Lake’s, although their fire had been an accident it seemed.

They’d been wandering, desperately looking for a place to live ever since.

Lisa was reluctant to accept them, and even more reluctant to send out a search party, but in the end she did both.

Especially when she learned that one of the missing people was a nurse, and that two of the new arrivals were veteran hunters.

Hannah and I had gone out on the ATVs, trying to pick up a trail, but hadn’t had any luck last night.

This morning, Susan asked to go, and Hannah had taken a little convincing, but she’d relented when she saw how much Susan wanted to and I’d asked her to say yes.

She was still learning about compromise, something she was taking a furiously fast crash course in given the fact that she was sharing me with six other women.

I was still wrapping my head around that, so I could just imagine how she felt.

She wasn’t really in a relationship with any of the others in the same way I was, except for Megan. There was something there, but I wasn’t sure what yet.

I think they weren’t either.

Right now, there was too much shit going on anyway.

I brought my binoculars up after raising my goggles and studied the farmhouse. I didn’t see anyone moving around, but the front door was hanging open.

Don’t know why but that pinged my radar.

“All right, yeah, let’s check it out,” I said, heading back to the ATVs.

Susan followed after me and after reattaching the starters, we fired the vehicles back up and drove up over the hill, down the other side, and crossed the big field separating it from the farmhouse. Personally, I was eager to find these people and get back home. We’d been using these ATVs for hunting expeditions during the off days, driving out past the perimeter of the dead territory we were now at the center of to try and do some hunting of our own. I wanted to go on one of these expeditions and I was finally feeling up to it.

I subconsciously clenched most of my muscles as we got through the fencing and headed for the house.

I was expecting a gunshot to ring out.

The ATVs weren’t exactly what you’d call subtle. Their engines weren’t overwhelmingly loud, but certainly they were kind of annoying, and with snow blanketing everything, they announced you from a fucking long way off.

We got up to the front lawn without a problem though, and I saw no activity in the windows or the open front door.

No one peeking out at us, from what I could tell.

When we’d started out again today, I didn’t like our chances of tracking them down. But we’d gotten lucky, found a shack that showed clear signs of occupation not that far from where they’d last been seen.

Susan had climbed a nearby tree and spotted a half-collapsed cabin in the distance.

It was enough of a trail to go on.

Now it had led us here.

We killed the engines as we parked near the porch, making sure to turn them around first so they were facing back the way we had come, (in case we needed a quick getaway, yeah, I know, the starters, but even the few seconds of having to reverse and turn around could be the difference between life and death), took out the starters, and then pulled out our pistols and set to work. We made a quick perimeter sweep, finding more evidence they were here, or had been here. So that was what prompted me to do what I did next.

I cleared my throat as we walked in through the front door. “Is anyone in here?”

I waited, listening. Couldn’t hear a thing, but that didn’t always mean it was empty.

“My name is Chris, I’m looking for two people named Marty and Opal! Your friends sent us to find you!”

I waited and listened again.

Still nothing.

“What do you wanna do?” Susan asked.

“Stay here and watch the door and the ATVs. If they are here they might be freaked and stressed. Don’t want them to try and run while I’m searching.”

“I’ll yell if I see anything,” she replied.

I nodded and then headed into the house. It looked like it had once been pretty decent, but the environment had not been kind to it. Or maybe just passing people. A lot of windows were broken out, and there were holes in the wall.

Snow had gathered in piles in most of the rooms.

I definitely found evidence that people had been through recently. Disturbed stuff, bootprints in the snow.

Frozen blood.

Not a good sign.

I searched the first floor, then moved up to the second story. Both of them looked pretty damn ransacked, and both of them revealed no hiding or dead people.

There was some evidence that they had begun setting up camp, but had abruptly stopped in the middle of it.

Why?

Two ideas came to mind: someone or something dangerous had abruptly arrived, or they found a better place to make camp.

Since I couldn’t find any corpses, they obviously hadn’t died in the middle of making camp. But all that was left was a shed out back.

I mean, it was a nice shed, obviously a lot of work had gone into it, but I didn’t think it would be that much of a better place to stay than where they’d initially set up. The living room had a fireplace and its window had been boarded over pretty firmly, keeping out the cold for the most part. Well, no other choice.

“Nothing,” I said as I rejoined Susan and began leading her to the back of the house. “They might be in the shed, though.”

“Why?” she asked.

“No idea, but it’s the only place left to search.”

We got up to the shed. It looked like one of those you could buy from the bigger industrial stores, have shipped out and put together. The kind of thing made of durable material. Given we were now in permanent winter, it had held up pretty well.

I peered cautiously in the single window, but I couldn’t see much. It hadn’t broken, but it had iced over.

Walking up to the door, I knocked on it a few times. “Anyone in there? I’m here to help! Jay sent me!” I waited.

No response.

I had Susan back up and carefully opened the door. Moving cautiously inside, I cleared the shed. There wasn’t a lot in it, not a lot of places to hide, but something immediately leaped out at me: there was a cellar door built into the floor at the back.

If that led to what I thought it did, then yeah, this would be a way better place to camp out.

There was blood on the floor, and faint prints of snow heading towards the door. I quickly checked any potential hiding places, then had Susan come in.

Just in case someone was standing on the other side with a gun, I made sure we were out of the way as I pulled open the cellar door.

It wasn’t locked, but I could tell the lock had been broken.

“Anyone down there? I’m looking for Marty and Opal! Jay sent me!”

This time, I was almost positive I heard something. Harsh whispering. Peering cautiously over the edge, I saw a stairwell leading down into the earth.

Something shifted deeper in.

“Seriously, I’m here to help. Your group found me and sent me to find you. And if you have no idea what I’m talking about, just tell me so and I’ll go away. I don’t want problems.”

After a pause so long I began to try again, a reply finally came.

“How do I know you aren’t full of it?” a man asked.

His voice was hoarse and tired.

I had actually prepared for this.

“Your name is Marty Sanders. Your group leader, Jay Peterson, sent me. He’s got a scar on his forehead. He says your favorite food is sardines and to prove he sent us, to remind you about that one time the two of you found that pink cellphone.”

I had no idea what the fuck that meant, but Jay had seemed sure it would work.

It did. I heard a faint laugh, then a groan. “Shit, that’s Jay...what’s your name?”

“Chris. I’ve got a friend named Susan here with me.”

“Me and Opal are in bad shape, how far away is it?” he asked.

“About forty five minutes. We’ve got rides. ATVs.”

“...for real?”

“For real.”

“All right, we’re coming up.”

“Okay.”

I stepped back and we waited for them to come up. I had to admit, I was intrigued by whatever was down there. Either a storm shelter or a prepper bunker. If the lock was broken, then there was a good chance it had already been plundered, like the house, but people missed things. Or one man’s trash was another’s treasure.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to search it, our priority here was these two.

After a lot of shuffling, two people finally emerged. A tall, decently built, dark-skinned man appeared, supporting a pale woman who did not look good. I knew fever delirium when I saw it. I’d been through that shit before.

“She’s sick?” I asked as they came up.

“Yeah. Fever. And we don’t have any medicine. I think I’ve got an infection now, too. Wolf got me on the run,” he replied. “Cleaned it best I could.”

“All right, you trust us to help?” I asked. “Because we have supplies and knowledge.”

He eyed the MP5 slung across my chest nervously, but finally nodded. I think he just knew it was this or death for both of them, which was a shit situation to be in.

“Yeah,” he said finally.

I helped ease Opal down into a sitting position against the nearest wall, and then Marty sat down, wincing. The bite was obviously on his leg, as his right pant leg had a fair amount of blood on it. He pulled up the jeans he was wearing.

“Fucker got me on the calf, hurts like hell,” he muttered.

“I can do a decent patch job,” I said as I set my pack down and dug out the medical supplies. Susan was doing the same, looking at Opal.

“Is she hurt?” she asked.

“No, just sick. Caught a bug a few days ago, but it’s gotten a lot worse,” Marty replied.

“Okay. I’ve got a few things for that,” Susan muttered.

“We’ve got an actual doctor that can look at you,” I said.

“So you have a settlement?” he replied.

“Technically yes. Your people made it there.”

“Why technically?”

“It’s no longer sustainable. Storm came in and froze everything to death. The plants, the animals, some of the people. We can’t hunt or forage enough to realistically sustain even a relatively small population right now. We’re working on a more permanent solution. But try not to worry about it. For now, just know that we’ve got a secure location with reasonable people and decent supplies, and we’re working on the problem.”

“Fine by me,” he muttered, then winced as I worked.

“Quick question, what did it look like down there? Were there still supplies or was it looted?” I asked.

“Looted pretty thoroughly from what I could tell, but it was dark,” he replied.

I nodded and kept working.

It took another ten minutes to patch them up and get them onto the ATVs, but we did it.

As we drove away, I was already formulating how I was going to word coming back here to more thoroughly check the bunker to Lisa.

We made it back to Pine Lake without incident.

I was grateful every time I came back into town and saw the buildings and the people. Now more than ever I had a secret fear that I’d come back to find the place burning or destroyed somehow or everyone dead.

I had nightmares about it.

One recurring nightmare I had now was waking up and finding either everyone just flat out gone, or everyone dead.

I’m still not sure which one was scarier.

We brought the ATVs first up in front of the infirmary and flagged down a few of the staff. It sucked that Opal, the nurse, ended up being so sick she was almost delirious, but you couldn’t have everything.

Melanie and a few others came out and helped our two newest arrivals into the infirmary.

Susan and I left them to it, bringing the ATVs into their makeshift bay we’d built between the apartment HQ and the old bait shop, and took the starters. We left one with whoever was ‘on duty’ with the ATVs. There was usually someone whose job it was was to make sure they were tended to and ready to go at a moment’s notice and that they were getting their sun.

They reminded me a little of horses in a stable.

Then we headed for the entrance to the apartment building.

“Did you and Lisa make up yet?” Susan asked with a small smirk.

“What do you think I was doing last night?” I replied with a sigh.

“I thought I heard her shouting...good shouting.”

“Oh yeah. She’s gotten a lot more...rough.”

“Next time we do it, I want it really rough,” she said quietly, although it seemed like we were alone as we made our way into the basement of the apartment.

Despite everything, Lisa had never actually moved her office out of there.

The more time went on, the more I understood her need to have a place that was hidden away from everyone else and kind of hard to get to.

It probably helped that it was almost quite literally a hole in the ground.

All I had was a motel room, not that I was complaining, given who I shared it with.

Waking up next to a pair of hot, naked, horny women every morning was absolutely the best way to wake up.

I thought about my ‘fight’ with Lisa. My most recent one. It wasn’t even a fight, just yelling over nothing. I made a joke to try to lighten the mood, she lost it because she thought I wasn’t taking it seriously enough, I got pissed because I felt like I’d been working my fucking ass off for having nearly died half a dozen times in the past week, and that made her feel bad. I didn’t even blame her, she was stressed out of her mind.

We both were.

It was so easy to just snap over the tiniest things when you were that stressed for that long.

When Susan and I came up to the door, I found it slightly ajar and knocked.

“Come in,” Lisa said. She sounded calmer, at least.

The fight had happened yesterday, before I’d gone out searching the first time, and we’d ‘made up’, (passionately and very loudly), in her apartment after I’d gotten back, but I still felt like things weren’t entirely smooth between us.

I expected to find her place as much of a wreck as it always was, tables and desks overflowing with trash and the remains of meals and whatever half-dozen projects she was personally working on at the time to try and help people.

But the place was almost spotless.

It was actually different.

Her desk was still in the same place, and it was a bit cluttered, but it was a damn sight better than I had ever seen it. The two tables normally cluttered with stuff in the corner behind the door were gone and in their place was a pair of decently comfortable looking armchairs and a small bookshelf with a dozen books on it. In the other corner, a little round table with a pair of chairs had been set up, what looked like a little dining area.

The couch she’d taken to sleeping on had been spruced up with padding of some kind and more blankets and pillows.

She had an apartment to sleep in and usually did, but some nights she just laid down on the couch and passed out.

Presently, Lisa was behind her desk, looking over some papers, and Hannah was stretched out on the couch, apparently napping.

“Hi, Chris, Susan,” she said, a little warily.

I wasn’t sure if she still felt like things might be shaky between us, or if she still felt bad about implying I was being a little lazy, or just bracing for more bad news. “How’d it go?”

“Good. Possibly great. We found them, they’re battered but alive, we got them back safely. That’s the good news. The possibly great news is that we found them in a house that had like a full-blown prepper bunker built under it. Now, the place was ransacked, and the two people we found said the bunker was ransacked too, but I didn’t get a chance to actually look at it, since they were in pretty bad shape and I wanted to get them back home. So I want to go back and look.”

That look that came across her face immediately told me she was going to say no. She grimaced slightly, then looked at Susan, then at Hannah.

“Ladies, can I have the room?” she asked.

“Uh...yeah. I’m going to go check in with Lara,” Susan said. “Don’t leave without me.”

“I won’t. Love you.”

“Love you.” She gave me a kiss and headed off.

“Hannah, I know you aren’t sleeping,” Lisa said.

Hannah, who was facing away, sighed and rolled over. “How?”

“The quality of your breathing changed when Chris first started talking, now may I please have the room? I need to have a conversation with Chris,” she said.

Hannah frowned, then stood up and walked over to me, fixing Lisa with a stern gaze.  “I don’t want to hear that you are treating my man poorly.”

Lisa laughed, just a little. “Understood,” she replied.

“Love you, Chris,” Hannah said, and gave me a long kiss on the mouth.

“Love you too, Hannah.”

“Is Susan really that attached to riding out with you?”

“We’ll talk about it later,” I replied.

She sighed but relented, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

I looked at Lisa, waiting.

She looked nervous, not quite meeting my eyes at first, then she abruptly stood up and walked around her desk. Coming over to me, she wrapped me in a hug.

Okay, so that was unexpected. I hugged her back.

“I’m sorry. I can’t even remember if I apologized for flipping out on you last night but on the off chance that I didn’t-”

“You did, and I forgave you, and I still do, and we had awesome makeup sex, and we’re okay from my end,” I said, holding her tightly. “I know you’re stressed, Lisa. I am, too.”

She sighed heavily into my chest and for a second I thought she might cry. But she didn’t, though probably only through sheer force of will.

She stepped away from me and I released her.

“So basically I just wanted to clear the air. I didn’t want you thinking I was making decisions based off emotions. I’m-this is a lot. But I need the ATVs back for today. We can’t risk putting off those deliveries.”

“Fuck, that is today,” I muttered.

“Tomorrow, I promise,” she said. “If you think it’s worth investigating, then I’ll give you the ATVs.”

“Okay...how are we doing? The bitter version, not the sweet version,” I replied.

She sighed heavily and walked back over to her desk. “I’ve been trying to keep track of it all, and so far no one’s been fucking around and stealing shit. I hate to think what we’ll have to do if we have to face that...a few people have left. I agreed to give them a few days’ worth of food because ultimately it’s one less mouth to feed permanently each time. I hate seeing people go, but...so far it’s been people I wasn’t surprised about. People who are more ‘I gotta look out for myself’ more than the community, which is...fair, I guess.

“But as for where we’re at right now? Best estimate is two months. More realistic is a little north of one month. I’m unfortunately having to deal with variables right now. I’m not sure how much our foraging teams, and how much our deals with the junkyard and Brandy, are going to bring back. By the way, she sounds scary from the way people describe her. I would ask what drew you to her but given the company you’ve brought back, and Megan, I think you get hard for scary women.”

“...well I also get hard for competent women. And submissive women. And highly sexual women…”

“You get hard for fucking any woman, you’ve got the broadest range I’ve ever seen. You are just as happy to fuck a twenty two year old as you are a fifty two year old.”

“Delilah and Melanie are both very hot, but yeah I am into Melanie even more than I would be because she’s older.”

Lisa grinned a little and leaned forward. “Is that why you like me?”

“I mean...I wouldn’t say you were older exactly...but you do have a, you know, cougar thing going on. You’re mature. And competent...we should really get back on track.”

She sighed heavily. “Yes. We should.”

“So, let’s say it all gets cut off today, no more food coming in. How much do we actually have?” I asked.

“Two weeks.”

“Fuck’s sake.”

“And that’s with the rationing. Which people are okay with now but...it’s not going to be all that long before they start to get antsy, Chris. Like really antsy. I don’t want to say people are going to riot, exactly, but...we owe them an answer, Chris. We’re the ones in charge.”

“I know,” I said, sitting down heavily in one of the chairs in front of her desk, rubbing the bridge of my nose and closing my eyes for a moment. “How the fuck did I get into this mess?” I muttered to myself.

“Thanks to your dick, mostly. But also you grew as a human being and stepped up when people needed you. Speaking of which, go and see your girls. Tend to your...flock.”

“Is that what you call them?” I asked.

“What do you call them?”

“Thanks to Lara and Delilah, my harem,” I replied.

“Wow. You know I can see some of them leaning into that, but Megan? Hannah?”

“She’s...you know, adjusting.”

“That girl has grit, but she needs to temper it. She’s a bit too intense. She did make me organize my office though. She yelled at me, just a little. Said I’d feel much better, and she helped me do it,” Lisa replied.

“And? Do you?”

“Feel much better? I don’t know about much better...I do feel less stressed and more focused, so yeah, it was the right call. She’s a great girl, but she’s going to get into a fight one of these days. You should help her...burn off some of that energy.”

I laughed. “Yeah.” I got to my feet. “What needs doing?”

“What doesn’t? But what can you do? Help them in the burned section. We’re about three quarters of the way finished by now and the more bodies I can throw at scouring that place, the better. And you’re good at it.”

“If that’s my only job for the day, then I want lunch and to see some of my girlfriends. Where is everyone?” I asked. It was getting hard to keep track of them all.

“Um, Lara, Jessica, and Delilah are all out right now, foraging. Ah, fuck, I should’ve mentioned that to Susan...oh well. Elizabeth’s tending kitchen. Megan’s cleaning guns at your home. And you probably know where Susan and Hannah went more than I do,” she replied.

“All right. Uh...we should fuck again soon. You need more stress relief,” I said.

“Oh do I now? How utterly altruistic of you. It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that I let you fucking make the biggest mess in my pussy or all over my face, could it?” she asked, pursing her lips.

“...it might have something to do with that,” I replied.

She laughed. “Yeah. Not tonight, I’m sore from last night. You really fucking gave it to me. I need a day or two longer. But yeah, I want more of that dick.”

“Good, because I want more of that pussy.” I gave her a kiss, told her to keep me updated if anything else happened, and then walked out.

~

As it turned out, Hannah had gone to get some food as well.

I saw her sitting in a corner booth at the cafe where meals were served, and nodded to her on my way to the food line.

Before I could even properly get in it, though, I saw Elizabeth step up to the door to the kitchen and wave me over almost a little desperately.

Worried something was wrong, I strode over.

She took my hand and led me into the kitchen, then back to a storage room that was pretty much emptied out save for a single table.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I’m fucking ovulating and I’m fucking horny and you haven’t had sex with me in four days!” she snapped.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry Elizabeth, I’ve been-”

“Busy, I know,” she said, hopping up onto the table and spreading her legs. She was wearing a black dress with leggings, but as she raised the dress up, I saw she’d torn a hole through the leggings, right over her vagina. And not worn anything beneath it. “You’re not busy right now. Fuck me.”

I hesitated and she sighed and slipped down the straps of the dress she was wearing over her shoulders.

Her huge tits fell out and it was like getting hit by a bolt of lightning.

They were still so amazingly big from her pregnancy still.

I didn’t say anything, just made sure the door was locked and then stepped up to her and the table while unzipping.

As I did that, she grabbed me and kissed me with an intense passion.

I reacted just as passionately, kissing her back, cupping her big breasts in my hands, groping her, feeling her against me.

It wasn’t long before I was out of my pants and inside of her.

“Oh yes!” she cried.

“Shh! Fuck, everyone’s gonna hear you,” I whispered harshly.

She wrapped her legs around me and grabbed one of my hands. “Then keep me quiet.”

Elizabeth brought my hand up to her mouth.

Well, okay then.

I pushed my hand firmly over her mouth and she moaned in response, pushing back against me with her hips while squeezing with her legs for a moment, then giving me enough slack to work with. I wrapped my other arm around her, holding her as I stroked into her, in and out of that wet pussy of hers.

She felt so slick and good inside.

I could hear her moaning and yelling occasionally against my hand, her voice very muffled, and I did wonder if someone was going to come check.

She was still being kind of loud.

But no one did. Either way, neither of us lasted too long. Staring into her eyes as I fucked her, glancing down occasionally to get a look at her bouncing tits, I felt her start to go and heard that loud, long, muffled moan as a strong shudder went through her, and then I was going. I had intended to pull out in some capacity, because she was at work and this was a quickie, but it didn’t happen. I unloaded everything into her.

We held each other tightly, her arms and legs wrapped around me as we orgasmed, locked together in a union of bliss.

Then it was over, and we were left panting.

“Sorry,” I murmured, getting my breath back. “I meant to pull out but…”

“I figured you wouldn’t,” she replied with a sultry smile. She reached down between us and I saw she was wearing a dress with pockets sewn on. Her hand came back out with a damp washcloth and she laid it over herself as I pulled out. “You have a bad habit of that.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “If I ever actually find a way to turn off my mesh, I’m going to have to be really, really careful.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You seriously considering kids?”

“I...am considering acting as a sperm donor to women I love,” I replied cautiously. “And I’m still, you know, figuring out the rest.”

“I understand,” she said, smiling at me. “I mean you’d make an excellent sperm donor. And not just because you’ve had so much practice, you’ve clearly got great genes.”

“If you say so...I should probably get to eating soon. Hannah’s out there and she’s annoyed that I let Susan go with me today.”

“Did you find those people?” she asked as she finished cleaning herself, carefully folded the cloth, then, after a moment’s indecision, put it somewhere out of the way.

“Yes. They’re alive but not in great condition. They should be okay though. Found a cool house and prepper bunker, too, but it’s been mostly ransacked. Going to go back tomorrow,” I replied.

“That’s good at least. Come on, I’ll get you some food,” Elizabeth said, taking my hand after fixing her dress, putting those wonderfully big breasts of hers away.

“How’s everything going with your son?” I asked as we headed back into the kitchen and went over to one of the stoves.

“Good. Happy. Healthy. Loud. Delilah and Lindsay are doing so good with him. They babysit a lot and he’s pretty much adopted them as aunts.”

“I’m really glad he’s doing good, you’re a really good mom, Elizabeth.”

She let out a little laugh that was almost nervous, more surprised though, and blushed as she ladled me some stew. “I...um, thank you,” she murmured.

“Did you...does that surprise you, that I think that?” I asked.

“No...it doesn’t. It’s just...I was just thinking about something else.”

“What?”

“Delilah and I were talking. She’s getting a little...baby crazy, she calls it. She knows it’s a terrible time for it, but she’s a lot closer to wanting a child of her own. And she won’t have anyone but you do it.”

“Huh. Well, I would if I could. And if we can find that...there’s something I can take to make it ineffective for a window of time. But obviously it’s really rare. But maybe I could find it at a hospital or a clinic or something...I’d have to talk with a few people. I know Hannah’s out. So is Susan. Neither of them wants to be pregnant ever. Pretty sure Jessica’s out, too...uh, what about you?” I asked as it suddenly occurred to me.

I’d discounted asking Elizabeth because she already had a kid and had just given birth a few months ago.

“...it might not be out of the question,” she murmured without looking at me.

“Wait seriously? You wanna get pregnant again?” I asked.

“Only if it’s you,” she replied, her voice still low, almost awkward. Suddenly she reached out, took my hand, and placed it against her belly, still looking down. “I really wouldn’t mind if it was you.”

“I, uh...I mean...I’d be really happy to,” I said, unsure of what else to say.

She laughed and finally looked at me. “I figured that much.” She frowned and glanced over at the window dividing the kitchen from the dining area. It was getting busier. She let go of me. “I guess I should get back to work. That was a really good break, though.”

She gave me a kiss, and then I headed out.

I made sure to sign the logbook they’d hauled back out.

The person running it made a half-joke that I didn’t really need to, given all I’d done, but I just sort of laughed it off and signed for my properly proportioned meal.

I was not heading into that particular territory.

I know rank hath its privileges and all that shit, but it also breeds resentment from one end, arrogance from the other.

Plus, I was trying not to be a hypocrite.

At my core, I do believe that we should all have to follow the same rules.

Exceptions could and should be made if the situation calls for it, but honestly, I wasn’t looking for special treatment.

I sat down with Hannah.

“Took you long enough,” she said, with just a hint of a smile.

“Elizabeth was...needy,” I replied.

“Yeah. She mentioned that. You...ruin sexdrives, you know that?” she said, leaning forward.

“What?”

“You heard me. Every single woman that you’ve hooked up with comes away hornier from the experience. And it keeps getting worse. I am, like, a million times hornier than before you took my virginity. You asshole.”

“You literally asked me for it.”

She sighed and sat back, crossing her arms. “Yeah, I know. I’m just saying, Susan, Lara, Megan, I’ve talked to them all after I realized this. And they all agree: they’re hornier now. Only I have it the worst because I’m the only one not into girls enough to have sex with them.”

“Speaking of that, how’s things going with you and Megan?” I asked.

Ever since coming back and settling back into my life, my idea about how all my relationships would fall was basically accurate. Delilah mostly had Lindsay to keep her busy. Lara and Susan spent a lot of time together. Jessica was definitely becoming more involved with the community, and she seemed to be bonding closely with Elizabeth.

And Hannah and Megan were the ones I tended to be closest with largely because we lived together.

Though women sneaking into my bed in the morning was a common occurrence.

“Good,” Hannah said, although she sounded a little cautious, or maybe uncertain. “We haven’t had any fights, but it’s kinda easy for her to get in a bad mood…” I looked at her, raising my eyebrows. She sighed and sneered at me. “Okay, whatever, it is for me too. It’s weird...being naked around her, and seeing her naked. And all the sex. Sometimes I wake up and we’re spooning. I gotta admit, it is actually really awesome to feel bare tits against your back. She’s offered to do stuff for me but said it’s no big deal if I say no.”

“And?” I asked.

Hannah pursed her lips. “...I don’t know,” she said finally. “The only thing I know for sure, is that I’m way closer to considering doing sex stuff with a girl than I was before I met you. Hell, I’m way closer to it now than I was before like a week ago. Megan is...there’s something about her. She’s doing something for me that no other girl has. I don’t know if it’s because I see her have sex with you all the time, and I have sex around her, or I’ve seen her naked so many times...I watched her masturbate, while you were having sex with Lisa…”

“Wow, that’s hot,” I murmured, glancing around. No one was sitting around us and our voices were pretty low, but I did wonder how often people overheard this stuff. The women in my life were mostly surprisingly cool with talking about this in public places.

I guess the apocalypse had stripped us of a lot of social norms.

“It was really hot,” Hannah admitted, blushing. She cleared her throat, then took a drink of water. “But I still don’t know. And, you know, don’t worry. I don’t feel pressured or anything. I really do believe that you and Megan would be okay with it if I never went any further than I already have, or if I backed off. You two are really, really good about that. And I appreciate it. Guys have tried to pressure me into stuff before and it’s never worked, but it never feels good. I hate it. And I’ve never felt pressured with you, so...thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome, Hannah,” I replied.

“Okay,” she said, leaning forward again, switching gears abruptly in that way that she had, “so what’s up with Susan? Why’s she so adamant about going out on the ATV all of a sudden?”

“I’ve been wondering that myself,” I replied. “I think she wants more time with me, but more significantly, I think she’s itching to get out more. I think you’re inspiring her. She’s been asking me to teach her more stuff recently, when we have time. Asking me questions. She was the one who went out and did stuff when it was just her and Lara. She knows how to hunt, but only enough to get by. Plus there’s the pressure of all this new shit happening, she’s probably realizing that it’s not just her and Lara anymore, more people are relying on her.”

Hannah sighed. “Yeah, I know the feeling. But honestly, I like here about a million times more than anywhere else I’ve been during this apocalypse.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You’re here. My mom is here. My dad isn’t. Most people here are either cool and neutral. Your girlfriends are awesome. Also hot. Even if I never go full bi, I still appreciate hot chicks and boobs. God, Lara has the most amazing tits. So does Delilah...all of them are so hot, and in different ways. Lara’s so porn star, Megan’s so rough, Susan’s so willowy, Elizabeth’s so MILF...it’s awesome seeing them fuck you. And you fuck them. And then making them watch me fuck you.”

“Making them?” I asked, laughing a little.

She smirked. “Okay, maybe making is a strong word, but I like the connotation. There’s a little bit of kink in there, I’ll admit to that.”

“Oh really?” I asked, suddenly struck by an idea.

“Yeah...what? Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“I just got an idea,” I replied. “That’s a real kink, you know. Like a roleplay thing…”

“Oh yeah. I’ve seen a few of those porns. Where some chick fucks another girl’s boyfriend better and she has to watch?...you think any of them would be into that?”

I slowly nodded. “I think so.”

“Who?”

“You probably know, but lemme talk to her first.”

“All right.” I looked down at what remained of my meal. I’d been grabbing bites during the conversation and it was mostly gone. I was still hungry, and I knew it’d get a little better as it settled, but goddamn.

This sucked.

“So did Lisa give you the ATVs?”

“No. Today’s the delivery day and they really need it. Tomorrow,” I replied. “And yeah, Susan wants to go back with me.”

She groaned irritably. “Fine, but I get it next. I fucking love riding that thing.”

“I’ll talk to her,” I replied. Then I quickly finished off my meal and stood up. “Anyway, I’ve got to go work in the burned area looking for stuff.”

Hannah sighed, then nodded. She stood up and kissed me. “Go on, I’ll deal with the bowl.”

“Thanks love.”

~

I decided I should swing by home first and see Megan and maybe Susan.

Since Lara was out, good chance Susan was at my place.

And she was indeed, both her and Megan sitting on the floor, cleaning a pile of guns. Pistols mostly.

“Hey! I missed you,” Megan said, getting up and hurrying over to give me a kiss and a hug.

“I missed you too,” I replied.

Ever since we’d gotten back from that trip to the bunker, she’d been a lot more expressive. I don’t know if it was that run-in with the bear or the run of bad luck or something else, but I think maybe she was trying to appreciate aspects of her life more.

I certainly appreciated the extra attention, and the generally better mood.

“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m all right, you?”

“Good. Cleaning guns is...calming,” she replied. “Susan’s been wanting to learn.”

“That’s good,” I said. “I can’t stay for long, I’ve agreed to go search the burned section.”

“I’m hoping this will be the last time,” Megan murmured, losing her smile. “It gets more and more dangerous each time we search it.”

“I know. I had...concerns, when Lisa first suggested it, but so far it was the right call. No one’s died or gotten seriously injured, and we’ve actually managed to find some stuff. I mean mostly stuff to trade but we found some food and medicine in there.”

“Yeah, I know, it’s just...risky.”

“It’s all risky,” Susan murmured, and we looked at her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“No, that’s a fair point,” Megan said. “I just-goddamnit. Things were going good...it was really nice for a bit. Finally. And now it’s all going to shit.”

“It’s not going to shit,” I said, hugging her again, holding her against me. I kissed the top of her head. “We’ve figured out harder things.”

“Have we?”

“I mean, we made it ninety miles down a highway with just you, me, and Delilah, and then a very pregnant Elizabeth. And all the shit before then. The bunker journey for fuck’s sake. We have each other. We have help, friends. We’ll figure it out.”

She let out a long sigh after awhile. “Honestly,” she murmured into my chest, “I believe that. I’m just mad that we have to. I’m so tired of having to do this shit. Of having to figure it out.” She paused, then she leaned back slightly and looked up at me. “But, I have to admit, coming home to you and Hannah, and having all these other really, really hot women to have sex with, is kinda worth it.”

I laughed. “Yes, it is. Speaking of which…” I released her and looked at Susan. “Can I talk to you about something sexual outside?”

“Is it about me? Because if it’s about me, I don’t care if Megan hears. She knows what I’m into,” Susan replied.

That was another potential bullet dodged that I was very grateful for. Susan and Megan were getting along pretty well. Despite her anger and how abrasive she could be, I did think that Susan’s submissive side was responding to Megan’s dominant side, and they had a nice little dynamic going on. They got along pretty well.

“It’s more about something you might be into that we wanna try later,” I replied.

“Ask away,” Susan said, and now Megan was looking between the two of us, quite interested.

“So how would you feel about, uh...a roleplay scenario where you were made to watch me fuck someone else? Like a punishment? I gotta admit, I don’t have the vocabulary for this…”

“Oh!” she said, her face lighting up suddenly. “A humiliation scenario! Yes, I would like that, actually.” Megan and I were both watching her interestedly now, and some of her natural shyness seemed to come back. She cleared her throat and blushed. “What?”

“Nothing, I just, uh, I find it interesting and arousing to talk about what people are into,” Megan replied. “And let’s just say that I’m more aligned with Chris and Hannah in what I want than you and Lara and Delilah. And Elizabeth.” She looked at me. “You attract a lot of subs, you know that?”

“Yay for me,” I replied.

“Me too,” Megan said, turning her gaze and her grin back at Susan, who blushed harder and looked back down at her work.

“So is that a yes? Hannah wants to try this out,” I said.

“Yeah. Megan, maybe you could like...hold me down and...make me watch,” she murmured so quietly we almost couldn’t hear her. “Maybe tie me to a chair…”

“You are such a fucking freak and I love that about you,” Megan replied.

Susan laughed nervously. “Um...that’s good.”

“Well all right then. I’ve got work to go to. Why don’t we see if we can track down some rope? There has to be some in storage. I guess ask Lisa? If there’s some sitting around and it’s not going to immediate use, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind us using it for...uh, personal reasons. As long as we put it back,” I said.

“Oh I’ll find some rope,” Megan replied. “When do you think you’ll be back?”

I checked my windup watch and found it to be a little past noon. “Let’s say seven PM?”

“We’ll be here, waiting for you,” she said coyly. “Won’t we Susan?”

“Yeah,” Susan murmured.

“All right, come on, come say goodbye before I head out,” I said.

Megan gave me another hug and kiss, and then so did Susan, and then I was out the door, back into the cold and the miserable part of my life.

~

It was a long day after that.

The wrecked part of Pine Lake was more depressing than ever before. A lot of the rooms and even whole buildings had collapsed in the months since the fire, and I knew they’d all come down eventually, but we had gotten good enough at being careful that we could search through them without running too much of a risk.

A building did almost fall on me about three hours into my shift.

I heard it starting to go and managed to get out before it collapsed.

After that, I took an early dinner and then got back to work.

The thing that sucked the most was how little we were getting for the searching. In the six hours I spent working, I managed to find some scrap metal, a ring in half-decent shape, a few dented cans of food, and some random trinkets and items that might possibly be trade-worthy. By the time I’d headed back, checked in with Lisa, and, hearing nothing new from her, began to head home, it was past dark and I was tired.

Though I was really looking forward to the unique sexual encounter coming up.

Between Susan, Lara, and Delilah, I’d definitely engaged in roleplay before. It was fun, and interesting, and definitely could add an extra spice.

But I’d never actually tried this specific encounter before.

I was curious to see how it would go, because normally I was the most active one in the session, being the dominate one. From the way this was sounding, it would be both Hannah and I being more dominate over Susan.

And maybe Megan, too.

As I walked in, I was surprised to find that they were already waiting for me.

I actually froze mid-step as I looked at the scene before me.

Hannah was laying on the bed wearing nothing but a pair of fishnet stockings.

Megan stood in the middle of the room, her hands on the back of a chair, wearing nothing but a pair of black panties.

Susan was presently tied to the chair, gagged, and she appeared to be wearing nothing at all.

I quickly shut and locked the door.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hello, Chris,” Hannah said in a surprisingly seductive voice. She’d been getting more sexually confident by leaps and bounds, and she’d already started from a pretty confident place, given her personality and how goddamned hot she was, but this seemed new.

“Susan’s been a very bad girl,” Megan said, turning to look at me. “And we decided that the time has come to put her in her place and punish her severely.”

I came very close to jerking or shouting in surprise when I heard a slight sound come from the far left side of the room, where Delilah and Lindsay used to sleep on a mattress, and saw Lara was sitting in a chair, mostly in shadows, but I managed not to show my surprise too much. I hadn’t even fucking seen her.

That was how distracting the scene before me was.

“Is that so?” I asked.

“Yes,” Hannah replied. “We need your help. You’re her man, and I think she wouldn’t like it at all if she had to watch you get fucked by someone who can actually fuck. Someone who’s actually hot and not an ugly little goth wannabe.”

My heart nearly leaped into my throat at that, because that felt like not just walking onto thin ice with Susan, but jumping on it.

I flicked a quick glance at Lara, who instantly seemed to read my concern. She just smiled and gave me a thumbs up, then made a little shooing gesture towards the others.

Well, okay then.

They had worked all this out before I got home and decided to surprise me with it. Part of me wished I’d been here for the setup, because I’d feel more comfortable with Susan’s more obvious consent and also being able to get a gauge for how she’d feel about being humiliated like this, but another part of me really liked that they’d done this.

And I trusted them all enough that that’s the part that won out.

“Susan,” I said, hoping my voice sounded as authoritative and disappointed and vaguely threatening as I wanted it to, (from the way she shuddered in her seat, I think it worked), “I warned you about this.”

She mumbled something from behind the gag I couldn’t make out as I walked over to her. I stood beside her for a moment, just out of view.

She tried to look over at me but Megan grabbed her head. “Face forward, you little slut,” she whispered harshly.

Susan let out a little moan and shivered again.

I lingered, slipping into my role as much as I could. I’d gotten good reception so far, but I always felt like I couldn’t tell if I was fucking it up or not.

I think I was lucky enough that my voice and my physical size were enough.

Finally, I walked back over to the door, took off my coat, hung it up, and began to walk to Susan again. I let my footsteps be slow and deliberate.

Tension was very important and practically an aphrodisiac during these sessions.

I stepped in front of Susan this time. She was looking at the floor, her eyes downcast. I could hear her breathing heavily.

“Look at me, Susan.”

She slowly looked up at me.

It was very easy to read the arousal in her eyes.

“I warned you about this,” I said, reaching down and doing the thing I knew she liked the most: running my finger across her throat.

I’d done it out of instinct once and now it was our thing.

“I told you if you were bad that I would go out and find a real woman to fuck, and you’d have to watch.”

She let out a muffled begging cry, staring up at me. I listen to her for a minute, then reached down and undid the gag.

“Please! I’ll be good! Don’t make me watch! Please! I promise I’ll fuck you better and I’ll be good-” I put the gag back in place.

“It’s too late for that,” I replied. “You’ve been a problem ever since I agreed to let you stay with me. You’ve made promises and not kept them, and you’ve been bad. The other punishments aren’t working, so maybe this will.” I walked over to where Hannah lay, posing like a porn star, lying on her side, smirking at Susan.

Wow, she was really into this, I could see it in her eyes.

Well, it tracked with her personality.

“Hannah here looks like she knows how to fuck, and how to properly suck dick, and she’s got a set of decent tits,” I said, running my finger down Hannah’s bare thigh.

“I can fuck a lot better than her,” Hannah replied smugly.

Susan let out a muffled plea but I ignored her, turning away from her and starting to undress. “Megan, make sure she watches. If you don’t watch, Susan, it’s just going to happen again.”

“I’ll make sure,” Megan replied.

She sounded pretty into it too. From our earliest interactions with Delilah, I could tell Megan was pretty dominant, but she’d been cautious to let that show beyond a certain level. Even after she got comfortable with me, it took time.

She was wearing it more now.

They had my washrag and soap and water ready for me on the table next to the bed, so that was good. I finished stripping and began washing up, again, taking my time.

Susan watched me raptly, her eyes wide.

Once I was done washing up, Hannah made room and I laid down on the bed on my back. My wonderfully fit redheaded girlfriend laid partially atop me and we started making out. I groped her firm breasts for awhile, then ran my hand down to her side to her smooth hip, around to her fantastically fit ass.

Hannah was definitely being more performative, I could feel that in the way she ran her hands across me, the way she kissed me, made more promiscuous use of her tongue. The way she kept looking over at Susan with that smirk.

After awhile, I pushed her head down and she got the message immediately.

Slipping down, she looked directly into Susan’s eyes as she gripped my cock. “Let me show you how a real woman sucks dick, you little bitch.”

Then she took my cock into her mouth and started bobbing her head.

Susan groaned and shuddered in the chair, writhing like she couldn’t sit still.

Megan was holding her head firmly now.

Hannah sucked pretty good, and I didn’t have to make much of a show of enjoying.

“All right,” I said after several minutes, letting go of her head. I settled more onto my back and put my hands behind my head. “Ride it. Susan can’t fucking ride worth a damn.”

“I can ride really well,” Hannah replied, getting on top of me.

She slipped me inside of herself and let out a loud moan as she began fucking me.

The hot ecstasy was immediate and powerful. Her pussy was so slippery and tight. That was something I particularly enjoyed about Hannah in her fit, slim glory: how goddamned tight she was. Susan was also pretty fucking tight and then I got to thinking about that time I’d fucking absolutely pounded her ass…

I was drawn back to the here and now by Hannah’s big tits bouncing and swaying over me. After a bit, I reached up and groped them, then ran my hands down to her hips. She had such excellent hips. She just looked absolutely incredible and as she bounced on my cock, it occurred to me that she often did show a certain style of display, almost sexual showmanship, when someone else was watching. It was just more exaggerated now.

And she was clearly enjoying it.

I let the display go on for another few minutes, then made Hannah get on her hands and knees and I started hitting it from the back, groping her fit, smooth ass. Doggystyle seemed like the next most performative position and Susan was squirming in her chair even worse now. Megan was still holding her head, saying things to her occasionally.

Mostly about what a bad girl she’d been.

That really seemed to work on her.

I was considering how best to finish when the decision was made for me and I started busting inside of Hannah’s wonderfully tight, slick vagina.

Groaning, I hunched forward, her hips in my hands, just unloading into her.

She moaned loudly, pushing against me, letting me come deep inside of her, fill her up.

The pleasure was monumental, more intense than usual given the hotness of a new situation and all these hot, mostly naked women around me.

I finished coming inside of her and got my breath back for a few seconds, then pulled out of her and got to my feet.

I looked at Lara. “Is your place empty right now?”

“Uh...yeah. Jessica’s with Elizabeth right now,” she replied, clearly still distracted from the performance.

“Okay. Megan, untie her. Susan, put your clothes on. I need a bit of time alone with you,” I said as I dressed.

“All right,” Megan replied, setting to work.

I checked Susan’s expression as best I could. As far as I knew, this had been new for her, and it was hard to tell how you were going to feel after a brand new experience. And this had to be more intense than usual.

She seemed happy as she got up and started pulling her clothes on.

“How was it?” Hannah asked as she cleaned herself up.

“Good,” Susan murmured with a small smile.

I still wasn’t sure if she was just putting up a good front, but regardless, I wanted to get her alone somewhere, ask her about it, and give her some aftercare to bring her back down from being tied to a chair and mock-humiliated.

Once we were dressed, I told them I’d be back later and left with Susan. Once we were outside, I scooped her up off the ground and she let out a happy little laugh. I carried her the short distance to her and Lara’s and Jessica’s shared room, and she opened the door for us. I carried her in, closed the door with my foot, then set her on the bed.

She started taking all her clothes back off.

“So are you okay? For real?” I asked as I locked the door and began undressing again as well.

“I’m okay,” she said. “It was really intense, but I enjoyed myself. I was a little scared, I thought maybe it might go wrong and then it’d get all awkward. Hannah is, um...she’s really into humiliation, huh?”

“Apparently,” I replied. Once I was naked, I laid down in bed next to her and pulled her slim, petite, nude body up against my own, spooning her.

She let out a happy sigh and pressed herself against me.

“Thanks for taking care of me,” she murmured.

“You’re welcome. You know I love you and I think you’re fucking awesome in bed and you’ve got a kickass body, right?” I asked.

She laughed. “Yes, Chris. I know none of it was meant for real. I know I’ve got problems, but honestly...it worked like it was supposed to. So much of the time I get paranoid that people are talking shit behind my back, or to my face but trying to hide it, or saying one thing but thinking another, but I don’t feel that with anyone in this group. I trust you. I trust Megan. I trust Hannah. There were so many women out in California who would just tear you down for the hell of it, or jealousy. Mostly jealousy. But also to build themselves up. It was awful. They got good at hiding insults in ‘compliments’ or ‘innocent’ questions. But there isn’t any of that.”

“Everyone here is pretty nice. I’m really glad you chilled out. I was scared you were going to fight with Megan,” I said.

“Me too, honestly. But we’ve got a nice little dynamic going on. She’s nice to me and...I don’t know, my submissiveness pings her domination in the same way it does yours, in just the right way. You both know how to react to me without laying it on too thick. And not even during sex, just during normal interactions. Hannah’s a little...brasher.”

“She’s got a ways to go. But you gotta remember, she’s twenty. How brash were you at that age?” I asked.

“Fair point.” She shifted suddenly. “Will you fuck me? I’m really horny from that display.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I was hoping you’d asked.”

She giggled as I pushed her onto her back. “I figured, I can feel that against my back.”

I was mostly hard, and by the time I got on top of her, in between her spread-open legs, I was solid. I slid into her and let out a loud groan that matched her own.

“Oh fuck...you can’t tell anyone else...but I think your pussy is my favorite,” I whispered as I stroked into her.

“Really?” she asked.

“Yes...oh my fucking-you’re so tight. Like goddamn you’re so tight, but also wet. It’s perfect. It feels so fucking good,” I groaned as I started fucking her faster and harder.

“Is that why-ah!-you usually don’t last with me?” she asked, panting.

“Yes. Fuck, I can’t believe how good it feels fuck to you sometimes.”

She grinned, a look of smug sexual superiority coming onto her own face. “Mmm...your secret is safe with me.”

I didn’t last much longer after that, but I made sure to last long enough that she orgasmed, and then I unloaded into her.

After we cleaned up, we laid together for awhile, until finally I decided I should head home for the night.

“Will you send Lara back? I’d like her here, I wanna talk about...the experience I just had,” Susan said with a tired smile as I dressed.

“Yeah, I’ll send her back,” I replied. Once I’d dressed, I leaned down and gave her a kiss, told her I loved her, and headed back. I found Megan and Hannah laying together in bed, naked, talking with Lara, who was sitting on the chair Susan had been tied to.

“How’s she doing?” Hannah asked. “I didn’t make her mad did I?”

“No, she’s fine,” I replied. “Lara, she does want you, though. She’s sleepy.”

“You fucked her, didn’t you?” Lara replied as she got up.

“I mean obviously, she was horny from that,” I replied.

Lara laughed. She gave us all kisses, wished us goodnight, and headed home. I stripped one more time after winding down the place for the night, making sure everything was secure and locked, that the fire was going to keep, and then I got into bed with Megan and Hannah.

“So she’s really okay?” Megan asked. “I wasn’t sure if we were too harsh on her.”

“She’s really okay,” I promised. “She likes you two a lot. You both did a perfect job. It went off exactly as intended.”

“Oh good, because I enjoyed the hell out of that,” Hannah said. “Like goddamn, that was a new thrill. I know why you fucking pervs are into kink and roleplay now. I orgasmed hard. And it just felt different.”

“Yeah, we’re the fucking pervs,” Megan replied.

Hannah laughed. “Fair enough. My point is, I’m perverted too. You’ve all perverted me. Congratulations.”

“Speaking of which...I noticed I didn’t get fucked tonight,” Megan said, running a finger slowly across my chest.

“I’m really gonna need a minute,” I replied. “Although…”

“Although?” Megan pressed.

“It’d really help if the two of you made out.”

Megan looked over at Hannah and grinned, making a little inquisitive sound.

“You are a really good kisser,” Hannah replied.

They sat up and came together over me, kissing, naked, groping each other.

It didn’t take me all that long to get hard again.

~

“How you feeling about this one?” Susan asked as I shone my light down the dark stairwell that led into the earth, to the bunker below.

“Fifty-fifty,” I replied.

“That’s how you feel about everything,” she muttered.

“That’s because everything’s really random. You look for clues and signs, but honestly shit can go sideways or perfectly and it’s really hard to truly predict that. Although I always feel pretty fucking good about my odds that you’ll open your legs or drop to your knees if I tell you to,” I replied.

She exhaled sharply and even without looking I could tell she’d started blushing.

Susan always reacted strongly when I dropped one of those sex bombs on her, and she liked it every time.

I waited for her to say something, and she seemed to try to, but ended up just clearing her throat instead.

“All right,” I said, back to business, “pistol out, stay behind me. You’re going to guard the stairwell, I’ll check it out.”

“Got it,” she replied.

True to her word, Lisa had allowed Susan and I to take the ATVs out the following morning. After fucking Hannah, (it was Megan’s sleep-in day and she was too tired and grumpy to be woken up for sex), I’d hurried through my morning routine and gone to collection Susan. She was becoming more of a morning person, I was glad to see, and we were off pretty soon.

I understood about the ATVs, they were two of the most precious, crucial things in the entire settlement and they helped facilitate so much.

On the one hand, I couldn’t monopolize them all the time.

On the other, I was out here getting shit done, because I apparently seemed to be the best person in the entirety of Pine Lake when it came to ‘going out and getting dangerous shit done’. Certainly there were others good at it, and more were getting training and experience given the circumstances, but they still came to me for a lot.

I didn’t really smell anything as I hit the bottom of the stairs and looked around. I was worried I might smell death, or something rotting, or blood, but no, nothing. My flashlight revealed a long, narrow corridor of concrete with several doors along either wall. This definitely had a more home-brew, but still very knowledgeable, feel to it.

There was trash and some frozen blood strewn across the floor of the main corridor, but I figured that was likely from Marty and his wolf wound. I began the process of checking out all the doorways, seeing where each one led.

The first led to a completely empty concrete room, the only thing in it a naked bulb attached to the ceiling.

The second led to a bathroom that had been gutted.

I found what must have once been a bedroom, a kitchen area that probably showed the most promise, what was likely the generator and water filtration system room, (both were also gutted and broken beyond repair, hardly anything of them actually left), what might have been an office, and another two empty rooms.

There wasn’t a soul down here.

“Okay, it’s clear. Close the door and start searching,” I said.

“Do we have to?” Susan asked, though I heard her start back up the steps.

“I know it’ll be really dark, but I don’t want anyone sneaking up on us. You can’t really open that door without making noise or revealing sunlight, and there’s no other way in here,” I replied.

“All right, point made.”

“Also, that’s why I gave you the storm lantern.”

“I said point made!” she groused, shutting the door and coming back down the stairs. She turned on the storm lantern and then jumped slightly when she saw me staring at her.

“I don’t know who you think you’re talking to like that,” I said.

“Sorry,” she murmured. Then she bit her lower lip and started looking around.

“No, we’re not having sex here,” I said. “Much as I’d like to bend you over and fuck your brains out, we really need to search this place and get back.”

She sighed dejectedly. “Yeah, I know.”

We got to work.

It was definitely a better job than digging through fire-gutted ruins, but even my initial pass deflated a lot of my hope for finding anything useful here.

Still though, persistence was one of the most crucial things in my life today.

We moved through each room, checking through the trash, in the drawers, under the furniture, keeping an eye out for any hidden compartments or carefully concealed places. This was definitely one of the locations that had been hit by passing survivors and scavengers, and hit hard. But it wasn’t all a bust.

We found a little surplus of cans, a few high-grades flares, a box of matches, a little emergency medical kit tucked away way back beneath the bottom of the bed, and a few loose items that I’m sure Brandy would love for trading.

But by far the most interesting discovery came when I was searching the office.

There was a desk, and all the drawers had been cleared out. But I had an eye for hidden stuff, and consequently, I noticed that one of the drawers had a false bottom. It took my knife to work it out, but I got it done and found a slim manila folder inside.

Someone had written, in neat black razor thin marker, APOCALYPSE PLAN.

I almost laughed, but I was curious.

Pulling it out, I set it down on the desk and started reading over it.

There wasn’t actually much inside the folder, just a few sheets of paper.

One was a map, a pretty broad one, showing hundreds of miles, including this area. There was an X way to the north, on an island.

One was a map of the immediate area, though it didn’t seem like it had any relevant information on it.

One was covered in notes. As I started reading them, I immediately felt a spike of excitement. I tried to temper myself, telling myself this could all be either bullshit or, more likely, something that had never actually manifested.

But…

“Susan, I found something!” I called.

“What?” she asked, appearing in the door to the office.

“Whoever lived here, they had a plan for Armageddon. Says here they had friends all over the country, and they all agreed that if the worst came to pass, they would gather on a little island in a lake a ways north of here and just try to survive there...there’s even a radio frequency so they could all stay in touch.”

“You thinking they might have succeeded, and maybe they’d let us stay?” Susan asked.

“Yeah, hopefully. At the moment, though, I think this might be our best bet to get out of this fucked scenario we’ve gotten into.”

Barring having actual sex, I felt about as good as I had since before Delilah showed up telling me that something had happened to Megan.

Susan and I finished our search, found a few more useful items, and then hustled back to the ATVs and drove home as quickly as we could. While I drove, my mind was already turning this information over in my head.

It was a long shot.

But barring that, if we actually got in touch with them, they were actually there, and they were willing to let us live there…

How would we do it?

We had about sixty residents now, with the latest inductees. Plus another dozen or so from the junkyard.

According to the map I’d studied, the place we were looking for was like three hundred miles away. How were we gonna walk seventy plus people, some of whom were not in the best condition, across three hundred miles of snowy apocalypse?

It would be a risky enough proposition with even a small group of hardened survivors.

Lisa wasn’t going to like it. She had become very risk averse over the past few months. I think she was sort of coming out of it, but the storm had clearly traumatized her. It was basically like the fire all over again.

I felt so bad for her.

Helping her was a not insignificant reason why I’d been working my fucking ass off ever since getting back.

But this seemed like a damn Hail Mary pass right now.

A lottery ticket that might actually pay out.

As soon as we got back home and parked the ATVs in their bay, I headed directly into the apartment, Susan following after me. We made our way through it, down the stairwell, then through the basement towards Lisa’s office.

She was there. She was almost always there.

“What did you find?” she asked, apparently reading the excitement on my face, or maybe the way I almost stormed into the office.

“A map to a prepper society and a radio frequency to contact them. But I’m going to tell you right now, it’s a long shot,” I said, placing the folder on her desk.

She took it, opened it, started leafing through it.

“How far away from here?” she asked.

“Three hundred miles.”

She stopped leafing through the papers and looked up at me, her good cheer gone almost immediately. “That’s...too far.”

“Maybe,” I said. “But it might not be, if we can find some method of getting there. I don’t know...I think a good first step would be at least attempting to call them up. Do we have a radio anywhere around here?”

Lisa sighed. “No. We don’t have anything like that, unfortunately. At least not that I know of. Maybe we found some kind of radio and I missed it...but it’d have to be really powerful to reach that far. Like a military radio.”

“All right, how about this? You get with Fay and talk about this. I’ll take Hannah with an ATV and ride up to Brandy’s and see if she can help us out. Sound good?” I asked.

Lisa sat back in her chair, lips pursed, staring at me but not really seeing me.

She was running it all through her head, I could tell that much. There were a lot of things to consider, and she had a much better mind for that type of stuff than I did. I tended to be a one-track kind of thinker, focusing on the problem immediately in front of me. Lisa had a brain that operated more like a web, able to keep multiple things in mind simultaneously. I’m sure she had to weigh this against all the other projects she had going on right now, and exactly how likely it was to succeed, what kind of resources it would cost…

“Fine,” she said. “But don’t spend the night. I know how much you like to stay up there and fuck her all night.”

“Jealous?” I asked, unable to keep from smirking.

“Hardly,” Lisa replied, rolling her eyes. Then she frowned. “Don’t tell her I said that. I just have more that needs to be done and you’re my best...doer.”

“Am I now?” I asked, leaning forward and placing my hands on her desk.

Her breath caught in her throat and she blushed a little. “Of things. Doer of things. Tasks,” she murmured, then cleared her throat.

It was actually really nice to be able to get that reaction out of women. Especially older, fiercely independent, competent women.

Susan giggled.

“I’ll go visit Brandy and be back today,” I said, checking my watch. It was still before noon. It was just about an hour up to the outpost if it was just one ATV and two people and good conditions. “Just see if you and Fay can figure out if this is even plausible by then. Maybe also start brainstorming on a way to make the journey…”

“If they’re even there,” Lisa murmured.

“We’ll get it figured out,” I said, then I came around the desk and leaned down to give her a kiss. She wished me and Susan farewell, and we headed back outside.

“So, I noticed you said you and Hannah were going up to see Brandy…” Susan said as we stepped back out into the sunlight.

“Yeah. Sorry. Hannah’s getting...antsy, not being able to ride on the ATVs.”

“Oh. I guess I wasn’t really paying attention...well, she did give me what I wanted last night very effectively. So fine.” She paused. “Hmm, wait, you’re just taking one of them, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe I can go out on the other with Lara to do a foraging trip or something…”

“Whatever you do, just be careful, okay?”

“I will,” she replied.

We got back to the motel room and found Hannah and Megan talking and apparently preparing to go out on some kind of job.

“What’s up with you?” I asked.

“Guard duty,” Megan replied. “You?”

“Hannah gets to come with me up to Brandy’s,” I said.

“Finally,” she whispered.

“But we’re only taking one ATV.”

She sighed. “I get to drive.”

“You can drive up there, I’m driving back,” I replied.

“Whatever.”

“You need more deference.”

She crossed her arms. “I’m not Delilah or Lara or Susan.” She looked over at Susan. “No offense, though.”

“We are who we are,” Susan replied. “But...deference to Chris isn’t the worst thing, you know,” she murmured, grinning up at me.

“Speaking of which…” Megan said, and we looked over at her. She sounded, and looked, uncomfortable. “Susan, we’re...good, right? We never got a chance to talk and I wasn’t sure if you ended up feeling good about all the mean shit I said and did to you…”

“We’re good,” Susan replied, walking over to her immediately and wrapping her in a hug. “I’m sorry, I should’ve talked to you earlier. Chris fucked me tired last night after and I pretty much just passed out not long after Lara came back. I’m okay. I had a great time, you did great. You’re very good at being, uh...in control,” she said.

Megan smiled. “Well good. I really enjoyed myself. You’re really fun to dominate.”

“She’s almost designed for it,” I said, coming up behind her and running a finger along the side of her neck.

Susan exhaled sharply and shivered. “I more think you’re designed to dominate me. You’re perfect at it…” She chewed on her lower lip for a moment. “Can we-”

“Unfortunately not, as much as I’d like to,” I said. “Hannah, we gotta go. Clock is ticking.”

“Wait, why? What’s up?” Megan asked.

“Susan didn’t tell you?” I replied.

“Sorry, I got distracted,” she said.

“We found a map to a prepper town that may or may not be our salvation. It’s three hundred miles away. We’re looking for a radio to get in touch with them,” I replied.

“Holy shit, that’s a huge development,” Megan said. “Why are you going to Brandy’s?”

“Need to know if she’s got a radio or anything that might help in the location or reparation of a radio,” I replied.

“Well fuck, good luck.”

“Yep.”

We all shared kisses and hugs, and then Hannah and I were back out the door.

~

Hannah took the wheel and drove us away from Pine Lake, up towards Brandy’s inn.

It seemed to make her pretty happy, and I understood how she felt. After a few years of walking around through the goddamned snow everywhere, it was pretty great to have something like this. Although snowmobiles would’ve been even better.

My thoughts drifted between whether or not I’d have time to have sex with Brandy, and the big potential problem we now faced of moving a population.

I had a few ideas, but they all seemed pretty distant unless we won the luck lottery.

Vehicles were the most obvious choice, but it was hard enough to find one functional vehicle, let alone a convoy of them. The ATVs alone were a massive find. Were we going to be able to find something like that again?

But I was getting ahead of myself.

Holding onto Hannah as we rode, it was hard not to grope her breasts, even through the heavy coat she was wearing. I felt her laugh a few times and tried not to do it too much, since I didn’t want her distracted.

I was still considering it all as we pulled up to Brandy’s place and got off. After pulling the starter, we went inside.

The inn actually looked a bit different than the last time I’d been here, which wasn’t all that long ago. Mostly, it was cleaner. Everything had been reorganized and straightened up in the main area, and consequently the whole place was much more appealing. It even seemed bigger. There didn’t seem to be any customers around at the moment, and it was just Brandy behind the bar. She was staring at me with an expectant look.

“Hi,” I said as Hannah and I walked up to the bar. “Came to ask a favor.”

“Well you’re in luck, because I also need a favor. We can trade,” she replied with that small but sultry smile of hers.

I sensed Hannah shift uncomfortably beside me.

Since meeting her, Hannah had been a touch nervous around the woman. I think she was just the first woman Hannah had ever met who full-on intimidated her in a primal sort of way. Either that or she thought Brandy brought too much competition to what Hannah largely saw as her own arena. Nothing had happened though.

Yet.

I was hoping it never would.

“You go first,” I said.

“One of my guys is missing. He went out yesterday for hunting and never came back. He usually comes back just before dark, but by the time we started worrying, it was past the point where we could reasonably send someone out after him. I sent two of my people out this morning. They picked up a trail but got forced back by wolves, one of them was injured. I was going to go out there with another of my crew, but now that you’re here…”

“Help you track down your friend, I can do that,” I said.

“Excellent. What do you want in return?” she asked, and leaned forward on the bar. She was wearing an unzipped hoodie and a low-cut t-shirt under that, and her wonderful breasts, which were already being showcased nicely, became overwhelmingly distracting.

Hannah shifted again, though I couldn’t tell if it was discomfort or arousal.

Or both.

“Well, I need a radio or radio parts,” I replied.

“Hmm...I’ll have to double-check, but I’m almost sure we don’t have anything like that. Why do you need a radio?”

“Have to get in touch with someone far away, potentially.”

“Why?”

“Because…” I paused, then sighed. “I don’t know how much Lisa wants me saying at this point. It’s not that I don’t trust you…”

“No, I get it. Fair enough. Well how about this? You go find my friend and get him back here, whatever condition he’s in, and I’ll hunt for a radio or radio parts while you’re gone. And if I can’t find any, then I’ll think of another way to say thank you and...pay you for your time.”

I started to reply, the word got caught in my throat, and I laughed awkwardly and cleared it. “Sounds good.”

Brandy just smirked in reply.

“Let’s go,” Hannah said.

“He was headed west,” Brandy offered.

“Thanks. We’ll find him,” I said, and we headed back outside. I checked the skies and readjusted my coat and the MP5 hanging off my shoulder. We’d ended up settling on Hannah having the rifle, me having the SMG. Once I felt like everything was ready for a long walk, we set off, heading around the side of the inn and then moving behind it, towards a forest.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Fine,” Hannah replied.

“You’re not jealous, are you?”

“No,” she snapped. I waited. She sighed. “Not jealous, just...I don’t even know. You like her. A lot.”

“I like you more and I like all of you a lot.”

“It’s not...the same. With her. I don’t know.”

“I think some of it might be because, and I mean this with a lot of love, she could take you in a fight.” She glared at me and I knew I was on thin ice again. “I’m not wrong,” I said, because for some reason, I felt like this was something that needed to be explored, something that she needed to be pushed on.

Hannah exhaled sharply and looked ahead. “I know,” she grumbled.

“I’m not saying anything bad about you. Hell, she might be able to take me in a fight. The biggest advantage I have is that I’m just big. I mean I’m fast, but I’m positive she’s faster. If it really came down to it, she might be able to lay me out.”

“It’s not that,” Hannah muttered. “I don’t know, I’ve always been a little weird around her, but after what we did with Susan...something’s different. Hmm.” She was silent for a few seconds, mulling over it. I didn’t like where this was going. Her face lit up suddenly. “I need her to watch me fuck you before she gets to fuck you.” She glanced over at me. “What?”

“...I’m not sure if this is something I want to encourage,” I replied.

“Why not?”

“This is getting into uncomfortable territory, Hannah.” I’d been a little worried about this. I wanted to stop and have this conversation facing each other, but someone’s life might be at stake so I pressed on regardless. “I’m getting concerned that you might be taking away the wrong idea from this particular kink.”

“How do you mean?” she asked slowly, almost nervously.

“Establishing dominance over someone in the bedroom isn’t the same thing as actually establishing dominance over them.” I paused, tried again. “Dominating sexually is not the same as dominating socially.”

“I’m not trying to dominate her socially.”

“Aren’t you?” I asked.

“No, we’d be having sex.”

“But that’s not why you’re doing it.”

“I don’t get it.”

I sighed, reconsidering. “I’m not even sure I fully get it. It has to do with how you treat her outside of the sexual encounter. You’re hostile with her, and not in any way that can be construed as good. And if you just aren’t going to get along with Brandy, then fine, whatever. You can’t get along with everyone. But it’s that you decided she had to watch you fucking me that makes me nervous. You need to keep those two things separate, Hannah. Because that’s a path I don’t want you going down. Right now, it’s you dominating Susan or Delilah during sex, playing humiliation games with them, and that’s fun and fine. You have their eager consent, and you’re kind to them outside the bedroom. But if you aren’t careful, this can turn into bullying. I can see this bleeding into your social interactions with them, or other people, and I don’t want you to become a bully, Hannah. I really don’t.”

I heard her suck in a breath to respond immediately, but it was a testament to how far she’d come since I’d met her that she didn’t.

We hit the forest and started hunting for a trail of some kind, heading west, deeper in, while she considered it.

“I think I see what you’re saying,” she said finally, her tone of voice indicating begrudging admission. “It’s like...flying to Mars, right? The distance is so far that one tiny fuckup now can lead to a massive fuckup in the future.”

“Yeah that’s a good way of putting it.”

“Meaning I should get this shit under control now, instead of letting it develop into a huge problem five years from now. And hurting people a lot along the way. My mom told me something similar about my anger issues. And she was right...yeah, I don’t want to head down that path.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I can very easily see you developing into a ‘shut the fuck up and do what I say’ kind of person, in all aspects of your life, if you don’t keep it in check. Diplomacy is crucial. Compromise is crucial. Being able to stand up for yourself, being able to take charge of a situation and make decisions, yes, those are also crucial. But it’s so important that you make sure you keep a check on yourself and don’t let it get out of hand. It’s shockingly easy to go from ‘I am making the most logical decisions because of my experience and intuition’ to ‘shut the fuck up and listen to me, I’m the boss’.”

“I guess you’d know,” she murmured.

“I would, and I do. You have to keep a grip on it.”

She began to respond, but stopped as, somewhere up ahead, a wolf let out a long, lonely howl.

I fucking hated wolves.

By now, I’d gone past the point where I’d had enough to fill a lifetime. Two lifetimes. I mean, where the fuck were they even coming from?

Although I had to admit, if it was a choice between wolves and bears, mountain lions, or even people, I’d prefer the wolves.

If this was a video game, they’d be the trash mobs.

The land went up at a steep grade, and it was tough to maintain hold on my MP5 while also heading up and not slipping in the snow. Hannah managed it a bit more gracefully than myself, but after a moment, we were up at the top of the rise.

The forest thinned out, giving us a better view of the area, and I saw a few uncertain shapes, gray and low to the ground, moving about up ahead.

They were circling a small structure.

“Hannah, get ready. Take down as many as you can, don’t fire unless you’re absolutely sure you aren’t going to hit the structure,” I said.

“Got it,” Hannah replied flatly, putting her rifle to her shoulder and staring through the scope.

I moved ahead and to the left, out of her line of sight, so that I could get closer and take down any of the wolves that she missed. Because they were definitely going to start coming for us once the shooting started.

I’d made it about a fifteen paces before Hannah fired off the first shot.

It echoed through the dead forest and I saw one of the wolf’s heads snap to the side in a mist of blood that stained the snow as it collapsed into a heap of gray fur and limbs. The others, I counted five, reacted immediately.

One of them ran off in the other direction, the other four came for us.

The rifle cracked again as I dropped to one knee and took aim, waiting, tracking them as they rapidly advanced on us.

Another wolf dropped, shooting up snow as it skidded to a halt.

This only seemed to enrage and encourage the survivors in equal measure and I could hear their paws beating the packed snow as they charged through the trees.

Hannah fired one more time, again bringing down another wolf, leaving only two of them now. It was my time to shine, although admittedly I didn’t feel quite as good about shining with a goddamned submachine gun versus a pistol.

It was a lot easier with an SMG.

I squeezed the trigger as the first wolf got within range, coming for me now that they detected me as the more imminent piece of meat, and popped its skull with a well-placed burst of bullets. The final wolf changed direction abruptly as Hannah’s rifle sounded again, and missed. I missed, too. The quick bastard had gone around a broad tree, kicking up snow as it went, growling menacingly as it weaved through the trees in a slightly more circuitous route to get at me. I didn’t let myself panic, tracking it with the barrel, waiting for the perfect moment.

It came right as the wolf leaped into view and I squeezed the trigger.

Two shots punched into its skull and I sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the wolf as its now lifeless body flew through the air from its pounce and hit the ground.

The last echoes of our gunshots died away, leaving only an immense silence.

“Sorry,” Hannah said as she approached when it became clear there were no more wolves around. Or at least no more coming for us.

“Can’t hit them all,” I replied. “You did great.”

She smiled at that. We started walking towards the shed.

I imagined the guy was in there, probably injured, and they were just waiting him out. I was hoping he hadn’t died of his injuries in there, if that’s what had happened.

Or maybe it was something unrelated.

“You’re one of the only people who has ever told me something like ‘good job’ or ‘you did great’ and I actually believe you and feel good about it,” Hannah said as we moved through the trees.

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Yeah. You and my mom, and maybe a teacher or two that I liked. Everyone else, it felt fake, or forced. I feel like...you mean it. With no other motivations.”

“That’s because I do mean it,” I replied. “I’m very proud of you, and often in awe of you.”

She snorted. “Come on, seriously?”

“Seriously,” I replied flatly.

She looked at me. “Why?”

“You’ve made amazing progress since I first met you, Hannah.”

She smiled again, then frowned. “I still feel like I’m living in your shadow…”

“What? Why?”

“You’re amazing at all this stuff and I’m still learning.”

I laughed. “Hannah, you’re gonna catch up soon at the rate you’re going at. Don’t go too fast. I don’t want you to get seriously injured or make some big mistake. You’re doing fine, all right? You’ve far outpaced basically everyone else in the group. You don’t think some of them might feel a little like they’re living in your shadow?” I asked.

She frowned as she considered that. “I guess you’re right...on both accounts.”

We came into the clearing that held the simple structure. It was little more than a shed that was at least sealed enough that wolves couldn’t get inside.

“Anyone alive in there!?” I called as I looked around, making sure there were no more wolves hanging around. When no one responded, I realized maybe they were paranoid I was an unrelated party and I’d just murder their ass. “It’s Chris! Brandy sent me!”

By now, I had at least a passing acquaintance with the other people who lived at the inn, so hopefully that was enough.

“Could use some help in here!” came the reply, finally.

“Incoming!” I called back, and we hurried over. The voice sounded familiar. I twisted the knob and pushed the door open and found one of Brandy’s crew sitting against a wall across the shed. There wasn’t much in there, just a few boxes and barrels, a vacant shelving unit. He was wincing, looking like he was in the process of changing bandages for a ravaged arm.

“Aw shit,” I muttered. “Hannah watch the door.”

“You saved me,” the man, his name was Gary I remembered suddenly, said.

“They got you bad, didn’t they?” I muttered as I crouched next to him while shrugging out of my pack. His arm had multiple bite wounds.

“Yeah,” he replied, wincing. “I lost a lot of blood. They jumped me, bit me several times while I was trying to get here, barely made it...just managed to patch myself up and get a little fire going before I passed out. When I came to, they were still out there…”

“They’re dead now,” I replied.

“Good. Fuckers.”

I pulled out my emergency medical supplies and worked on him quickly, pulling off the scraps of cloth and bandages the guy had managed to use and quickly cleaning the wounds. I’d cleaned more than my fair share of wolf bite wounds over the past two and a half years. It sometimes depressed me how good I’d gotten at it, because it directly correlated to the patchwork of scars my right forearm had become, since that’s what I tended to throw up when a wolf was going for my throat. Ripped up forearm was better than a ripped out throat.

After cleaning the wounds, I bandaged them a bit more effectively, then helped him get his coat on, because it had to be a bitch to move his arm now.

“Thanks,” he muttered as he got to his feet.

“Yep. You good to get back to the inn?” I asked.

“Yeah, they didn’t get my legs.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

~

I grabbed a pair of the dead wolves on the way back and we helped Gary get back to the inn.

Brandy seemed at once both relieved and irritated at the turn of events, and told me she was still searching her stores for radios or parts. Hannah and I used the opportunity to get the rest of the dead wolves back to the inn and, after some negotiating, Brandy agreed to let us take our fill of the wolf meat, or what we could fit in our packs.

Yeah, we’d killed them, but it was on Brandy’s turf.

Yeah, it was while we were saving a member of her crew, but she was already repaying us for that debt, or trying to, at least.

Business relationships were a balancing act, and it took more nuance than most people realized, I think. Mostly you wanted to keep the peace. Sometimes you pushed, and sometimes you gave. I was happy to come back with some extra wolf meat.

By the time I’d finished carving up two of the dead wolves and packing the meat in plastic containers and wax paper and filling our packs, Brandy had finished.

“I’m sorry, Chris,” she said as she nodded to me and Hannah and called us up to the bar. “No radio, no radio parts, no nothing.”

“Shit,” I muttered.

“I don’t want to send you back empty handed, though,” she replied, a coy smile coming onto her face. Although with her features and scar, it looked more devilish than coy. “Come on, lemme show you two my new bedroom.”

I followed her over to the door that led to the basement section of the inn, which surprised me. She’d mentioned renovations at some point, but I didn’t realized she’d moved herself downstairs into the basement.

I’d never actually been down there.

Hannah and I followed her through the door and down a concrete stairwell. We came out into a small room, a simple access point. One door was heavy and metal, and locked firmly shut. That had to be their primary storage. The other two were more regular. One was open a little, and I could see some shelves with random stuff on them. Probably their overflow storage. The final door was shut, and she opened it up and led us through.

The room was small, but cozy.

Most of it was taken up by a custom-built bed, almost a king size, with a big headboard that had several compartments. There was a squat pot-bellied cast-iron stove sitting in one corner, with an exhaust pipe rigged up to a tiny window up near the ceiling, a few chairs around a table scattered with stuff, and a small bookshelf that looked handmade.

It smelled nice in there, like cooked meat and something scented.

“It smells wonderful in here,” Hannah murmured.

“Got my hands on some scented candles,” Brandy replied, shutting the door. She caught my eye and nodded her head. I saw there was a washbasin behind the door. “Wash up, I want a ride.” She eyed Hannah. “If that isn’t going to be a problem?”

“No,” she replied, a little tersely, “it won’t be. But I intend to ride after, and if I gotta watch, then you gotta watch.”

“Hmm,” Brandy said, her lips pursing.

I hesitated, wondering if she was going to make an issue of this, if either of them were. It could honestly go either way.

Then Brandy relaxed and shrugged. “Fair’s fair.”

Hannah relaxed as well, then went and sat in one of the chairs.

Brandy joined me at the washbasin and we started stripping everything off.

“You owe me this,” she murmured as her shirt came off, then a tanktop under that. She wasn’t wearing any kind of bra, and her big, firm breasts dropped out and bounced amazingly.

“Is that so?” I asked.

“Yes. We had amazing sex and I wanted more but you’ve given me several IOUs and from the sound of it, you’re leaving for good sometime in the near future.”

“That’s the goal,” I replied, but that wasn’t a secret at this point. “And I’d love to take you with me, you know…”

“I know. Part of me would like to, but I got a really good setup here, a reliable crew. I like it here. It’s nice. And this is probably my favorite bedroom ever. Which yes, I realize how sad that is,” she said as her pants came off.

“It’s not sad, it’s a nice bedroom. I’d like it down here,” Hannah said.

Brandy glanced at her, a little surprised. “Thanks,” she murmured. Then pulled her panties down. I glanced down at her pussy, finding it almost smooth, in between two thick, athletic thighs. She smirked. “I’ve taken to trimming ever since you showed back up.”

“It’s very much appreciated,” I replied.

I finished getting naked and felt her eyes on me as I started washing up quickly. The clock was ticking, but I figured I could afford to take some time for this given that I was bringing back some much needed food.

She did the same, and it wasn’t long before we were in her bed and making out.

I don’t know what the hell it was about her and that scar of hers, but she turned me on in a way not a lot of other women did. There was a ferocity to her, a threat, or maybe even promise, of imminent violence held at bay, and that translated to vigorous, furious sex. Already she was practically shoving her tongue down my throat.

I grasped one of her firm breasts, groping it, basking in the feel of her fit, athletic body. Her tits were awesome but her fucking thighs were something else. And her hips were to die for. She was clearly kind of thick, but also in excellent shape. Like ‘work out every day’ shape. We made out for a few minutes, rolling around on her bed, tongues eagerly exploring each other, and then I pushed her onto her back and made my way down lower.

“Oh, so that’s how it is?” she murmured, unable to keep the excitement off her face.

Women really seemed to like it when my mouth started heading towards their pussy.

“You did say I owe you,” I replied.

She grinned fiercely. “Yes, you do…”

I settled in between those glorious thighs and set right to work. Brandy immediately let out a loud moan that I was almost positive was exaggerated. Although as I kept going, licking at her clit, the sounds she made forced me to reconsider.

Maybe she was just that into the oral.

Or it had been that long.

A lot of the women I ran into and licked clit for told me it had been, at the very least, months for them since it had last happened.

That was an excellent shortcut to making a woman really, really like you.

I ate her out until she orgasmed, and then she insisted on returning the favor. I was all too happy to lay back with my hands behind my head and watch her work as she took my cock in her mouth and started sucking me off with, admittedly, more enthusiasm than skill.

Not that I was complaining.

“Oh fuck, Brandy…” I groaned, reaching down after a bit and running my fingers through her hair. She’d cut it shorter than last I’d seen her and it worked really fucking well on her, only adding to that intense vibe.

She moaned and bobbed her head a few more times, coating my cock in her saliva, then released it and began climbing onto me.

“Here we go,” she whispered as she straddled me. Gripping my cock, she slipped it into her tight, hot wetness and I became utterly enraptured by her for the next several minutes. Everything about her was fucking amazing.

How goddamned tight she was from that wonderfully fit physique of hers.

How amazing her firm, beautiful tits looked bouncing with the rhythm of her sex.

How excellent her hips appeared as she worked them and her thighs, taking my dick all the way into her pussy again and again.

How fantastic her voice sounded as she moaned loudly and cried out.

She was a very loud lover.

I let her ride for as long as I could stand it, grabbing her hips, thrusting up into her, and then I flipped her over onto her back.

Something about Brandy called to a deep, primal urge in me. An urge to just fuck like a mindless animal, to absolutely wreck her pussy.

She didn’t seem to mind as I shoved her onto her back and began driving furiously into her. It wasn’t long before her headboard was banging against the wall. Fuck, we were being loud, but I was so far beyond caring it barely registered.

“YES! CHRIS! FUCK ME! FUCK ME LIKE A SLUT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs.

She apparently didn’t care either.

I banged the living fuck out of her, knocking several things off her headboard in the process, and had her squirting before too long.

That was too much for me. I let out a loud, long groan of pure brainless bliss as I started unloading my nuts into her. I pumped Brandy’s pussy full of my seed in hard contractions, spurts of it coming out of me, each one sending a pulse of blinding rapture careening through me. It was a hard, intense orgasm and I could hear myself grunting and groaning, feel my hips moving in time with the pulses, forcing me deeper into each as I filled her orgasming vagina. The moment felt long and somehow timeless and perfect.

When we were done, we laid together, grinning at each other, panting.

“Worth the wait,” she murmured.

“I want my turn, before you get soft,” Hannah said.

I glanced over. She stood at the foot of the bed, nude now, a look of intense arousal on her beautiful, pale face.

I responded by pulling out of Brandy and rolling onto my back, inviting her.

“Good God, you are a beautiful woman,” Brandy murmured as we watched Hannah climb onto the bed, coming for me.

“Thanks...so are you,” she replied.

“Mmm, no. Not like you. I know I scare a lot of people.”

“You’re really, really hot Brandy,” Hannah said, more firmly. “Honestly, I’m uncomfortable with how much I’m attracted to you.”

Brandy laughed loudly and shifted, laying on her back to get a better view and placing her hands behind her head. “Okay, I’ll take the compliment. Now give me a good show.”

“You got it,” Hannah replied, straddling me and reinserting my softening cock into her wet, wet pussy.

I groaned, instantly hardening up again, and my hands went for her hips.

“I’ve got a present for you. A gift, no strings attached,” Brandy said. She was digging around in the huge headboard while Hannah and I finished pulling our clothes back on.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, intrigued.

“Yep. I like you two a lot. You’re a fierce woman, Hannah. The world needs more of those now more than ever. I’ve got a lot of respect for you. But being fierce takes it out of you, and the world’s a meaner place than ever before. Even if it’s a more honest place. So I’ve come to value the little things that help you just...relax,” she said.

We were both looking at her now. She made a little triumphant sound, still completely naked, (she’d cleaned my mess up off her thighs and pussy though), and her hand came out with a baggie that had about a dozen hand-rolled blunts.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

“Yep. Weed. Good stuff. We grow it ourselves in one of the rooms upstairs...uh-oh, Hannah’s not liking this,” she murmured.

“No, it’s fine. It’s-whatever,” she replied. “Don’t mind me.”

“What is it?” Brandy asked.

“Hannah’s got a...thing about weed,” I murmured.

“No I don’t,” she said.

“Come on, Hannah. You clearly do.”

“You wanna talk about it?” Brandy asked.

She sighed heavily. “Fine. It’s not like a big mystery or anything.” She looked at me unhappily. “The only guy I ever dated that I actually liked, like really liked-we broke up over it. He smoked weed a lot, and the thing was, I didn’t even fucking care. Like seriously, it didn’t bother me. I thought it smelled weird but otherwise I didn’t give a shit. But I wasn’t interested in doing it myself. I just...didn’t want to. And he got so mad about that. He was kinda weird about it at first, but as time went on, he started pushing, trying to get me to do it. We’d argue about it. Eventually, it became this whole thing, like I was judging him for doing it. He’d take the slightest comment and blow it out of proportion, everything I said suddenly became me thinking he’s a loser and that quickly devolved into him thinking I was cheating on him…”

“I’m sorry,” I murmured.

“Yeah, that really fucking sucks,” Brandy said.

“I broke up with him. I couldn’t take his fucking shit anymore. But now, whenever I’m around weed, that’s what I think of. It’s not the weed, it would’ve been anything that was the central point of a conflict like that.”

“Hannah, you know I’ll never try to make you do it, or anything, and I’ll never get mad at you for not wanting to do something...right?”

She sighed softly, and then hugged me suddenly. “I know, Chris. That’s part of the reason I love you so much. And I’m getting more used to it again. I doubt I’ll change my mind on weed, maybe, but I don’t think so, but I don’t want to stop you and Megan and the others from doing it if you enjoy it. And you clearly do. You work so hard, you deserve to de-stress. And honestly, the bad memories are slowly getting edged out by the good ones that I have when you and Megan smoke and we fuck, or just sit around and talk for hours. It’s a lot of fun. So...don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

When we let go of each other, we noticed Brandy was giving Hannah a funny look.

“...what?” she asked.

“I just...okay so, real in your face here, but: it’s obvious you were kind of threatened by me. I can’t understand why, you two have a fucking amazing relationship,” Brandy replied.

Hannah chuckled awkwardly. “I don’t really know why either, I’m just-you’re intimidating. And Chris really likes you. I think...he likes you in a way he doesn’t quite like anyone else in the, uh...group.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Brandy said, nodding slowly. “I do give off a certain vibe most other women don’t, and you do seem to react pretty strongly to that. And hey, if I could have him to myself, I’d take him. But I can’t, so I’m happy with what we have while we have it. You don’t need to worry. I couldn’t take him from you even if I tried as hard as I could.”

“She’s right,” I said. “Mad respect, Brandy, and you are wicked fucking hot, but I love my girls too much. I don’t think there’s anything in the entire world that would make me leave them.”

“You should tell them that, everyone else would be really happy to hear that,” Hannah said. “I know I’m happy…”

“I will. But we should go. Thanks for the sex and the wolf meat and the weed, Brandy.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, giving me a long kiss. She paused and looked at Hannah. “I normally don’t kiss too many girls, but you’re something special, so…” She arched an eyebrow inquisitively.

“I’d love a kiss,” Hannah replied.

Brandy smirked and gave her a long kiss with just a bit of tongue that was very, very nice to watch.

“Okay, let’s go before we start fucking again,” I said.

~

I drove us back home, feeling pretty good even though I’d technically failed in my mission.

I figured there was at least a decent shot that Brandy would’ve had something to help us radio-wise. But hey, I got laid, I got food, I got weed.

I saved a life, and I felt like I’d finally made some progress with Hannah on something that had been bugging me almost since day one.

Now I knew her problem with weed, and now that we’d discussed it, I could tell she felt better about it now.

We parked and went down to Lisa’s office. I could hear her talking with someone and as I approached and knocked on the door, realized who it was: Fay. Our wayward engineer who wasn’t so wayward anymore.

She’d decided to stick around.

“Come in!” Lisa called.

I stepped in and my eyes fell on Fay.

As we looked at each other, our eyes briefly locked and look of uncomfortable significance passed between us.

As we’d traveled together when I finally caught up with her and Megan, she’d been pretty blunt in the fact that she found me attractive, and that she was very down to fuck. But she’d been brutally sick at the time, and had been in recovery for awhile. Honestly, I’d been terrified she wasn’t going to survive the trip back to Pine Lake.

But she had. After her recovery, she’d been super busy. We all had.

So there was this lingering mutual attraction between us.

Both of us wanted to have sex with the other, it was just a matter of making it happen.

I had to admit, I was liking the tension. It kept building each time we ran into each other.

“I know that look, you fucked Brandy,” Lisa said.

“Yep,” I replied simply, sitting down with Hannah in front of Lisa’s desk.

“Did you find a radio or parts?” Fay asked.

“Nope,” I replied.

“It was a long shot anyway, and we have another lead,” Lisa said. I focused more closely on her, she seemed excited.

She was invested in this now. I wonder what had changed.

Maybe it had just caught up with her: that this was our best, most realistic shot at solving this impossible problem.

“What is it?” I asked, having a pretty good idea already.

“The junkyard,” Fay said. “I’m almost positive I remember seeing a radio there. Like a real one, a powerful one. Whether or not it worked, no idea. However, we should ride up there and check, regardless. Also update them on the situation.”

“Yes, since we made that deal with them,” Lisa said.

“Plus, there’s a radio station not too far from the junkyard,” I replied.

“There is?” Lisa asked.

I glanced quizzically at Fay, who had her face screwed up in an expression of confusion. “Holy shit, yeah, there was a radio station. I’m sorry, I forgot. Or rather, I thought it was just a dream. I was so fucking out of it from the fever and exhaustion, I still have a hard time remembering what actually happened...but yeah, there’s an old radio station not too far away. That would be an excellent place to look for parts.”

“Then go do it,” Lisa said. “Chris, Fay, take an ATV and get up there. Make sure they know about the development. And take a sledge.”

“Okay,” Fay relied, getting up off the couch.

“Before I forget, do you partake, Lisa? I can’t remember.”

She looked up at me, confused. “Partake?” she asked. I mimed puffing on a joint and then the penny dropped. “Oh! You mean weed...I’ve been, um, known to dabble, from time to time...why do you ask?”

I reached into my inner pocket and pulled out the baggie. “Present from Brandy.”

“Oh yeah? What for?” Fay asked, grinning a little.

“For-”

“For fucking the shit out of her,” Hannah interrupted. “I thought he was gonna break her headboard he was going at it so hard.”

“Not quite how I’d have put it, but yeah, basically.”

“You and your women are so fucking wild,” Fay muttered.

“Nothing stopping you from being wild, too,” I said.

She laughed. “Nothing but time, anyway.”

“Right.” I looked back at Lisa. “Anyway, I might be persuaded to part with one or two of these..depending on her persuasive you can be.”

“Oh, is that so?” she asked, fixing me with a more intense stare.

“That is, in fact, so,” I replied.

“I’m sure we’ll find some time. You know exactly how persuasive I can be,” Lisa said firmly.

“Yep. Let’s go.” I about-faced and led the others back outside. Hannah and I took the time to drop off the extra meat we’d picked up, and then went back home while Fay went to prepare for the trip up there. Megan was out, as were Jessica and Elizabeth, but Lara and Susan and Delilah were home. I talked with them quickly, dropping off a few things, packing a few other things, updating them on the situation.

With a promise to be safe, I kissed them all goodbye, including Hannah (she was clearly frustrated she was being left behind again), and then headed back over to the ATVs.

By the time I got there, I found Fay in the process of getting it ready.

“We good?” she asked.

I couldn’t help but grin. She was giving me that look she’d been giving me for the past week. That ‘I’m gonna fuck you real good’ look.

“We’re good,” I confirmed, getting onto the ATV after making sure the sledge was attached. It would slow our trip, but not by that much.

“Take me for a ride, handsome,” Fay said as she got on behind me and wrapped her arms around me.

A few moments later we were out of Pine Lake, heading towards the junkyard.

~

I hadn’t really been back out to the junkyard after that initial set of trips.

When I’d left, they’d been getting back on their feet. As I pulled up and then Fay and I headed inside through the main gate, I was glad to find that the mood of the camp was decidedly more upbeat. People seemed happy.

I actually noticed a few new faces, among them some kids.

Jesus fucking Christ, to be a kid in this mess.

Quinn, the leader of the camp, was approaching us. He’d trimmed most of his big gray-streaked beard off since last I’d seen him and that plus his much more easy demeanor and smile made him look a lot younger.

“Chris! Glad you’re back! Fay, you too!” he said, all smiles and handshakes. I knew the vibes he was giving off, it was those ‘I almost fucking died but now everything’s turned around’ vibes. They could put you in a good mood for weeks.

“You too,” I replied. “I have news and a question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“First, we might be onto something. We found a map to a prepper community on an island. That’s the good news. The bad news is, it’s three hundred miles away and we don’t even know if it exists. The question is: do you have a radio? Like a powerful one that could reach that far,” I asked.

“Sort of,” he replied, processing all this. “In that we did manage to get our hands on an old military radio, but it’s busted.”

“That’s perfect, actually,” Fay replied. “Let me have a look at it. Honestly, with the right parts and tools, I can make it work.”

“Right this way,” Quinn said.

He showed us to the radio, which was back in the main structure, tucked near the rear of the building with a lot of other stuff that would probably be useful at one point, but not immediately. Fay shooed us away, wanting some time alone with it, and Quinn led me up to the top of the wall that surrounded the junkyard.

He broke out a pair of hand-rolled cigarettes, stuck one in his mouth. “Want one?”

“Sure,” I replied. I didn’t smoke, really, but I’d had a couple of hand-rolled tobacco cigarettes after Armageddon and I had to admit, they were more appealing than I thought they’d be. I wasn’t sure if I was too keen on this habit I was getting into, but goddamn I was feeling the stress lately. I never really thought I’d be looking out for more than myself and one, perhaps two women, if I was very lucky.

That had changed so much.

“How you holding up?” he asked after we both lit our cigarettes.

“Fine, mostly,” I said, caught off guard by the question. Man, was I that transparent?

“It’s fine. I know you’re not running the show, but you kinda are. When I visited Pine Lake last week, I saw how people looked at you, some of the interactions you had. You’re definitely in a leadership role, and that’s a lot of people in a desperate situation. It wears you down. I know how it feels.”

“How’d you end up leading?” I asked, deciding I wasn’t entirely comfortable talking about this. Not necessarily because of Quinn, the more I’d gotten to know him, the more I thought he was a pretty cool dude, but because I wasn’t too sure of my own feelings right now.

“Very stupidly,” he replied, then laughed. “Short version is, our previous leader died, and everyone looked at me because I’m the oldest.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Fucking. Seriously. I mean, I guess there were worse choices, but someone actually said that. ‘Quinn, you’re like forty, you know what to do, right?’” He shook his head, took another pull on the cigarette. “I mean, it worked out. But it’s exhausting. And in ways you don’t really think about or realize at first. I’m not a great leader. I give too much of a shit, fret over every little goddamned thing. Even with a dozen people it’s always something. We had a few new inductees.”

“I saw that.”

“Yeah, a family rolled up two nights ago. They were in bad shape. Still not great, but they’re a hell of a lot happier, at least. We agreed to take them in. We had the space, although we’re basically at maximum capacity now.” He paused. “So level with me, how long of a shot is this?”

“That’s the problem: no idea. Could be a total dud. We won’t have a clear picture until we get a working radio and see if anyone picks up. If we do that and if there is actually a prepper town and if they’re cool with taking us in, then...we still have to figure out how in the hell we’re going to get like seventy or eighty people across three hundred miles. Walking it almost seems like suicide, but if it really comes to it…”

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” he muttered.

“You got any ideas?” I asked.

“Not really. Bunch of cars? Bunch of snowmobile? But where the hell we gonna find those? Shit man, I got nothing.”

“Same.”

We both remained silent, standing there smoking, until Fay called up to me. “Chris! I think we can work with this, let’s hit the radio station,” she said.

“Okay,” I replied. I took another pull, then stubbed out the cigarette on my boot and gave him what was left. “Thanks for the smoke.”

“Yep.”

“Do you got any meat or stuff ready? We brought the sledge for the radio, but if you’ve got anything you can pass along…”

“Yeah, we’ve got some overflow. Next shipment’s gonna be light if you take it now, though.”

“That’s cool. Might as well do it now.”

“All right then. We’ll have it ready by the time you get back.”

I nodded and began climbing back down. “Probably be a few hours.”

“Understood.”

Fay followed me back outside and we detached the sledge for them to load, got the ATV going, then started heading for the radio station.

“Huh, I remembered it being way, way bigger,” Fay said as we looked up at the radio station.

“Not a sentence a dude ever wants to hear,” I replied.

She laughed. “The building, idiot. For some reason I have this massive four-story monolith in my memory. And...is there a ton of graffiti on the inside?”

We started walking towards the front entrance. “No.”

“Huh. Weird. God, I must’ve been flat-out hallucinating during some of that. Did I say anything mean or bad to you? I’m sorry if I did. I feel like we’ve never really talked about this.”

“Your conduct was fine, from what I remember,” I replied. I pushed the front doors open and looked around, MP5 in hand, ready for action.

But the place seemed as dead as when I’d last been here.

“Good.”

“To be honest, a lot of that is a blur to me, too. I was so fucking desperate to find Megan, and then after that so desperate to help people…”

“You really love her, huh? All of them.”

“All of them,” I replied. “I love them all.”

“That must be stressful. And exhausting.”

“Not as much as you’d think...well, on that first one. Exhausting? Yes. Come on, let’s make sure we’re alone here first, then we can find radio parts,” I said.

She nodded and we buttoned up, making our way through the vast, mostly empty building. It didn’t take long to confirm that we were indeed alone, and once that was done, we started a more thorough search.

“Where are you from?” I asked. I felt like sex with Fay was a lot closer and honestly, I wanted to get to know her at least a little more.

“Chicago, originally. But I’m an Army brat. Moved all over the world. Dad was in communications, mom was a housewife. I spent most of my youth moving around, losing my friends every year, and tearing up tech equipment. Anything I could get my hands on, I wanted to know how it all worked,” she replied.

“Obviously that panned out pretty well,” I said.

She nodded. “Yeah. Got myself a lot of scholarships, mom and dad paid for the rest. Even though dad was pissed I didn’t sign up. I knew right away I was way too independent and hardheaded for military life to work for me. Got a degree at a really, really nice college and signed on with a big telecommunications corporation after. Did that for a few years, quit, signed on with IT for a big internet security company. Then I became a mechanic because I was bored and wanted more hands on stuff. That got me into camping, which got me into hunting and fishing...why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, an amused smile on her face.

“You’re just...really turning me on,” I replied, shifting uncomfortably, my erection already straining against my pants.

She laughed. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, makes enough sense. It’s funny, most guys seem to want a helpless girl they can protect and provide for. But you want someone to hunt and fight alongside you. Although with the company you keep, I guess you get the best of both worlds, huh?”

“None of them are helpless,” I replied. “But...yeah, there is a certain appeal to providing some of the more intense necessities for some of them. And there is definitely an appeal to dating the survivalist types.”

“I can see Megan’s appeal, and Hannah’s. They’re both so goddamned intense. I wish I could do relationships. I just can’t. Even though I feel like I’m probably going to stick around here, I still just don’t want to be like with anyone...but I do like sex, from time to time, and you seem like a really safe bet. Can’t get me pregnant, no STDs, obviously you’re not just skilled but kind, or you wouldn’t have seven women willingly dating you at the same time…”

“So what are you saying, exactly?” I asked.

We were in the second story now, in the last room. It held little more than a table and some trash. I was beginning to wonder if we were going to find anything here. The main room with all the equipment had long since been gutted.

“I’m saying I know you’ve got a little sex on the side deal going with at least a few women in town...maybe that’s what you and I can have. I don’t have a high sexdrive, so I can only really see myself doing one person, and it would have to be someone of mutual attraction, but also is willing to just let me be most of the time and not bug me for relationship stuff or sex stuff unless I want it. And that seems like you. So...how about we do a trial run and then set that up if it goes well?” she asked, staring at me intently.

“That sounds good,” I replied, already intensely aroused by now.

“Perfect.” She shrugged out of her pack and set it on the table.

“Wait, you mean like right now?” I asked.

“Yes. I’m very horny, and I brought a blanket. Eat me and fuck me and I’ll let you come inside of my pussy,” she replied as she dug through her pack.

“Deal,” I replied, taking my own pack off.

“Make it quick, it’s cold in here,” she said as she unzipped her coat and then unzipped the hoodie she wore underneath it, revealing a thin t-shirt. “And I can’t just unzip and go like you.”

“Noted,” I replied, considering pointing out that my dick was about the absolute last thing I wanted to expose to the cold, but then reconsidering when I figured she would no doubt feel the same way about her pussy and her tits.

And I was definitely getting her tits out.

Fay got everything below her waist off and hopped up on the table, spreading her legs. She was clean and smooth and beautiful.

I got down on my knees. “You shaved today?”

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Were you planning this?”

“Sorta. I figured today was the day, just wasn’t sure when. I was going to make time.”

“And if I couldn’t?” I asked, looking up at her as I leaned in between her slim brown thighs.

She smirked. “Then I was going to convince you to. I’ve seen the way the other girls do it. Doesn’t take that much to-haaaah!” she gasped as I went to work with my tongue. “Whew, oh wow. Yeah...right there. You just dive right-ohhhh yeah…” she whispered, trailing off and letting out her breath in one long, satisfied sigh.

Her moans of bliss filled the empty radio station as I gripped her thighs and ate her pussy.

I felt electrified with desire and an intense satisfaction as I pleasured her, listened to her voice moaning in ecstasy for the first time. We’d been dancing around the issue for what felt like ages. I usually didn’t do the ‘will she/won’t she’ game. I tended to be up front and just ask. No was fine, yes was great, but I didn’t play fucking games.

Mostly.

In this moment, though, damn was I thrilled to be hooking up with her. In the same way there was a fierceness about Brandy, there was a toughness to Fay. Made all the more alluring by her small frame. She wasn’t as petite as Susan, but she was pretty small.

And wonderfully fit.

I ate her until she orgasmed, which happened fast. Her moans began coming closer together, becoming a rapid series of panting cries of increasing pitch, and then she was coming, her whole body contracting, thighs bunching to either side of my head as I licked her.

When she was finished, she pushed me back and got to her feet.

Tossing her discarded clothes onto the floor, she knelt on them and began unzipping me.

“What do you think of me?” she asked as she dug my erection out.

“In what way?” I replied, a little thrown by the question.

She smiled and looked up at him with her clear brown eyes. “Any way. Just tell me while I suck you off.”

“...okay.” I let out a harsh exhale as she licked across the tip of my dick. She let out a little laugh, and I could feel her hot breath against me. She slipped my dick into her mouth and started bobbing her head, her wonderful lips slipping up and down the shaft. “Uh...you’re really fucking hot. You’re clearly smart as hell and good at survival...ah, fuck, that’s good, Fay. You’re also really tough. You made it through a hell of a lot during that trip to the bunker.”

She took me out of her mouth and grinned. “Mmm...but you helped. A lot. You and Megan. I really liked watching you fuck, and you’re bigger than I remember,” she murmured, then licked up the bottom of my cock and slipped it back into her mouth.

I groaned and put my hand on her head, then, without really thinking about it, grabbed at the ponytail she’d put her dark hair into.

Fay let out a little moan as I gripped it and continued bobbing her head, lubing me up.

After a bit longer, she stopped. “Okay, we should have sex now. I want to get that radio equipment. Fixing that radio’s going to be a fun challenge.”

“There’s nothing here,” I said as she stood and hopped back up onto the table.

“We haven’t hit the roof yet,” she replied simply, spreading her legs.

“Oh.” That hadn’t occurred to me. Duh. The roof. There was tons of tech and gear up there. I stepped up to her and pulled her t-shirt up, revealing her taut stomach and small, firm breasts. “You’re hotter than I remember, and I remember you being pretty fucking hot.”

She let out a little laugh. “Enough talk.”

“Okay then, you asked for it.”

I slipped into her and she gasped, then moaned loudly, grabbing at my shoulders as I worked my way inside of her.

Like Susan, she was quite tight.

And so, so wet from her oral and orgasm.

She tried to say something but it was lost to a loud cry of ecstasy as I pushed deeper into her. I looked down between us as we started fucking. She had such a tight, hot, fit little body and I loved the way her tits looked, swaying and jiggling between us, how I looked pounding into her pussy again and again, her legs wrapping around me…

It wasn’t a long fuck.

We kissed and screwed and went hard and I was surprised I made her orgasm again shortly after I pushed her onto her back and she stuck her legs up in the air, spreading them wide, screaming in pleasure as I screwed her raw.

Then I was coming inside of her, filling her up, the rapturous bliss overriding every other sense.

The orgasm didn’t last as long as I’d have liked, but that wasn’t because of Fay. It was just the fact that we were in an unfamiliar location, and a cold location at that. I pulled out not longer after I was done and she quickly cleaned herself up and pulled her clothes back on.

“So, how’d I do?” I asked as I put myself away.

“Fine. Great. That was amazing sex,” she replied, sounding a little dazed. “Two wonderful orgasms. I’d forgotten what it felt like to have someone else give you an orgasm. It’s been awhile. What I said earlier, about becoming friends with benefits, I’m now sure of it. I want this a few times a month, so long as everyone is amenable.”

“I sure am,” I replied, pulling my backpack on. “And none of the others have a problem with me sleeping around or with you in particular. I know Megan really likes you.”

“I like her...okay, come on. I wanna see what’s what.”

We finished gathering our things and tracked down the stairwell that led up to the roof. It took some work on my part, but we managed to get the door open. I had the idea no one had been up here for awhile, even before the end of the world, but made sure to check around anyway. Good rule to follow, always be cautious and vigilant.

Yeah right, just after I’d finished getting my dick wet in an unfamiliar location.

But I finished my check and found us to be clear. There was a lot of stuff up on the roof. Some satellite dishes, some old air conditioners, big metal boxes I didn’t really recognize. Fay seemed right at home though as she walked up to the biggest satellite dish and dug in with some of her tools, prying a side panel off the base and going at it.

I walked around the edge of the roof, looking out over the vast, desolate, frozen landscape. It was a great view, and I was struck by another one of those moments of wonder at how much beauty nature could still hold, even as a graveyard.

Those moments were coming fewer and more far between now.

Was that just because I was busier? Losing hope? Too enamored with fucking seven different women?

I settled on a combination of the first and third and just enjoyed the view for awhile.

The icy field. The snow-capped trees. The winding road. The blue skies.

Some crows, I think, flew off in the distance. I saw a deer moving slowly among the trees maybe a hundred yards away, just barely visible from where I stood.

Wildlife that was still alive impressed me with each passing month.

How were they surviving?

Same as always, I guess, it was just harder now.

Would that last? Or was there a fuse burning?

I guess technically there’d always been a fuse burning, but there was a vast, almost immeasurable distance between ‘the sun will explode someday’ and ‘all life on Earth will die within the next decade’. Or even the next century.

I didn’t like thinking about this either, so I finally wandered back over to Fay. She seemed pretty happy digging around in the guts of the equipment.

“So what are the chances of this actually working?” I asked.

“The prepper island? No idea. Me fixing the radio? Should be fine. I took a look at it and it’s mostly intact, just needs some replacement parts that I can probably scrounge up here, and a power source. Which I have. Whatever I can’t find here, I’m almost sure I’ve got back at Pine Lake. I’ve been gathering parts and tools ever since I showed up and I’ve got my own private collection that I bring with me anywhere. Between all that, the radio should definitely work.”

“Oh...well cool.” A few seconds passed. “You’re really confident.”

“Yep,” she replied, pulling out another tool and going back into the technological innards of the radio equipment. After another moment of silence she finally looked over at me. “Why? What are you thinking?”

“That I want to have sex with you again,” I replied.

She laughed and went back to work. “Later.”

This kind of stuff was beyond my scope, so I basically just trusted Fay when she told me she was finished, given she was the expert here.

We headed back down to the ATV and drove back to the junkyard.

I’d left the sledge behind and they had packed it for me, securing the radio and whatever extra food they’d managed to gather so far. I updated Quinn and then double-checked the sledge. I was glad that no one took offense to that.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them to do a good job, it was just a safety precaution, making sure nothing had been overlooked or any mistakes made.

It was secure. I told them we’d be in touch and then drove back to Pine Lake.

As I drove, my thoughts turned to lewder things. I did really want to fuck Fay again, she had been a really good screw, but something else was invading my thoughts. A particular fantasy that I’d had ever since I’d met Jessica and one that had only strengthened more and more until it grew to a certainty when she’d agreed to come home with me.

I wanted a MILF threesome.

I wanted Jessica and Elizabeth at the same time.

It was just a matter of time, really, and I’d been tracking everyone’s schedules as best I could, and they were both free tonight.

Or they should be, anyway. A lot could change rapidly.

We pulled into town somewhere around five, not long before sunset, and I went through the quick work of getting the sledge unloaded, making sure the food went to where it was supposed to go and then doing the heavy lifting of the military radio. Fay was clearly extremely eager to get to work on it. Honestly, she seemed more eager for that than she had for sex with me. I tried not to take it personally, I knew some people were just like that.

Different priorities.

It also had occurred to me that I definitely had a hyperactive sexdrive. Not overactive, hyperactive.

That I could even begin to keep up with seven women was a testament to that.

I dropped the radio off at her apartment, (she had snagged herself a place, a studio apartment all to herself given her skillset), and wished her luck.

She thanked me and basically kicked me out after that.

I had to admit, it had to be nice to be that obsessed with something, especially something that was so useful.

So I headed back downstairs and into the basement, where finally I didn’t find Lisa. Her office was dark and empty. I jogged back upstairs to her apartment and knocked a few times, waited, knocked again, waited, and almost started to leave when I finally heard her coming. She opened the door, rubbing one eye sleepily, looking barely awake.

“Chris, is everything okay? Are we good?” she asked, worry starting to infect her voice.

“We’re fine. We got the radio, and a bit of food they had ready for us. Fay seems pretty confident she can fix the radio, she’s working on it right now,” I replied.

She let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks. Nothing happened while you were gone…” She pursed her lips, seemed to consider something. “You wanna…?”

“Very, very tempting, and I will if you really want me to, but tonight is Jessica’s night,” I replied.

“Mmm...yeah, I shouldn’t. I’m too tired right now anyway and you should spend time with the women you love,” she said.

“It’s not like I don’t love you, just...in a different way,” I said. She opened her eyes more fully and straightened up a bit, staring at me. “Sorry if that was too much-”

She hugged me. “It wasn’t too much, Chris. Just a little unexpected. I love you too, as a very good friend who I rely heavily on and have sex with sometimes. You’re amazing and I’m really happy with what we have going.”

“I feel the same way, Lisa,” I said. “If you really need me, just say so.”

“I will.”

“You promise? You’re bad about asking for help.”

She pulled back and rolled her eyes at me, but she was smiling. “I promise.” She gave me a kiss. “Go fuck your redheaded MILF.”

“Okay. Get some sleep.”

“I will.” We shared another kiss and then I headed back downstairs, outside, into the cold. The sun was just about gone. I thought for a moment about where Jessica should be right now, the day catching up to me. Honestly, it hadn’t even been that tough of a day, work-wise. Or maybe it had been. Fuck, I don’t know.

I was losing perspective.

I was still considering where Jessica should be when she found me. She was walking up to me smiling, looking exceptionally good in her coat and snow pants.

“Hi, Chris,” she said as she came to stand in front of me. “You done for the day?”

“With work? Yes,” I replied.

She grinned. “But not with play?”

I reached into my inner pocket and showed her the baggie of blunts. “Haven’t even begun with play. You, me, and Elizabeth,” I said.

“That’s what I was hoping,” she said. “Elizabeth’s already back at home. She was negotiating with Susan and Lara to be babysitter for a few hours so we could get my place to ourselves. Since we both wanted to have sex with you and I...I’m not entirely comfortable having sex with you in your bed.”

I nodded, understanding immediately.

Because it was mine and Hannah’s bed.

It would be weird.

“Okay then, let’s go.”

“Can we take a little walk first? I was hoping to talk with you, catch up a little,” she said.

“Yeah, sure.”

I offered my hand and she smiled and took it, and we started walking slowly down the road. “Let’s just talk about this right now: how is my daughter doing?”

“Hannah’s doing good,” I replied.

She frowned a little. “There was a note in your voice. A little bit of uncertainty.”

“She’s...figuring some things out. Sexually speaking.” I hesitated.

“Tell me what you think you can, I know how to be objective,” Jessica said.

“Okay. She’s exploring some kinks. She’s having a little bit of trouble separating sexual from social. I think I caught it in time, before it turned into something worse. She still has a lot of anger and aggression, and she’s handling it much better, but...it’s still looking for some kind of outlet. I’m trying to make sure the outlet doesn’t turn...mean.”

Jessica sighed softly. “It is easy for aggression to turn ugly...how else is she doing?”

“Great, honestly. I feel like she was unsure at first, when she got back to Pine Lake and saw how bad it was, when she realized the full weight of the fact that she was in love with someone...who was also dating and in love with six other women, including her own mother. But she’s really thriving under the pressure, honestly. She’s working hard, but she isn’t pushing herself too hard. Mostly. She’s getting along with Megan and the others.”

“She’s not drinking, is she?” Jessica asked, giving me a surprisingly stern look.

“She’s not drinking,” I replied. “Or smoking. I don’t think she’s gonna, not for awhile at least. She’s got the right idea, she wants to be as reliant on as few things as possible. It’s how I am...or was. I’ve been drinking more. Well, smoking more.”

“You’ve been under a lot of stress.”

“She’s been under a lot of stress.”

“Yeah but she’s also twenty. It’s...too young to start. I don’t really know when a better time is, but it’s not now. Although I guess I don’t really have much control over her anymore.”

“You have more than you think,” I said. “She loves you a lot.”

Jessica smiled. “I love her, too.” We came to a halt. “And I’m so, so happy that she has you. I wished for years, prayed really, that she would find a man, or a woman, or both, didn’t care, still don’t, that would treat her right. Respectfully. Kindly. But also let her know when she was fucking up. Give her help when she needed it, space when she needed it. Make her happy. You are the best man I’ve ever met, you’re absolutely perfect for her. You and Megan both.” She paused briefly. “So are they...together? I shouldn’t be asking but I don’t fully know the dynamic…”

“They’re really close,” I replied. “Put it this way, we all share a bed.”

Jessica thought about that, probably wondering which way I meant it and surmising that I meant it both ways: sexually and literally.

And decided not to pursue that particular avenue.

“Anyway, I’m glad she has you. And Megan.”

“She actually feels the same way about you and me. She’s really glad that you have someone who treats you right and...satisfies you.”

She smirked. “You sure do that.”

I laughed and we started walking again, this time in the general direction of home. “So tell me about yourself. How are you settling in?”

“Very well, actually. Everyone here is very nice, even while stressed. Or at least polite. There’s a real sense of community here. I’ve been going out foraging and collecting firewood, mostly. Some time in the kitchen. Getting to know people. I’d been moving with such a small group for so long that I was honestly kind of scared I wouldn’t know how to reintegrate into a society of any kind, even one that isn’t all that big.”

“But you have,” I said.

She nodded. “Yes. I really love it here.” She paused. “I’ve heard we might be leaving? I haven’t really had a chance to talk with anyone about it, just heard stuff that people are saying…”

“Found a map to a potential prepper town. We need to contact them by radio, see if they even exist, let alone if they want us,” I replied.

“Oh. Wow.”

“Yeah. We’re working on the radio problem right now. Hopefully we’ll know one way or the other by tomorrow.”

“Perfect. Let’s go have fun,” she said, and I felt that wonderful thrill of desire pulse through me as we approached her door. I should probably check in with the others first but...good chance I’d run into Hannah.

I’d rather run into her after I banged the fucking shit out of her mom, not before and also after.

We walked in as she unlocked the door and found Elizabeth waiting for us in Jessica, Susan, and Lara’s shared bed.

I’d found my way there more than once since coming back.

She was smiling seductively, the blanket pulled up in such a way that a lot of her breasts were shown off, everything above her nipples.

“Chris…” Jessica said behind me, the door closing and locking. I turned to look at her. There was definitely a new note in her voice. She was staring at me intently, wearing a confident smirk. “Lara’s let us in on a particular fetish of yours.”

“Oh yeah?” I replied, feeling my heart skip a beat.

Where, exactly, were they going with this?

“Oh yeah,” Elizabeth replied, her voice husky.

I looked at her. “What would that be?”

“That you really like the idea of getting women pregnant,” Elizabeth replied.

“That you really, really love the idea of knocking women up. Us specifically,” Jessica added.

I felt not just a pulse but a damn kick of lust hit me as I looked back over at her.

Her eyes widened a little. “Holy shit, I can actually see a change in you. Damn, you are into this, aren’t you?”

“Yes, and I’m gonna warn you now, if you push this button, I don’t fully know if I’ll be able to get through much warm up, or any, and I also don’t know how long I’m gonna last,” I replied. “Because that button is really powerful.”

“Well Chris,” Jessica said, walking up to me slowly with that same sultry smile, “it’s obvious that you’ve been working very hard, and you should enjoy yourself. Elizabeth and I agree on this. And we both love you and appreciate you, so we want to indulge you.” She put her hands against my chest, looking up into my eyes. Good lord was she beautiful. She just radiated beauty and, in this moment, raw sexuality. “So I want to push that button.”

“Me too,” Elizabeth said. She pulled back the blanket, revealing her nude, pale body. “Get me pregnant, Chris. I really want you to get me pregnant,” she murmured, slowly opening her legs.

“Come on,” Jessica murmured, taking my hand and laying it flat against her stomach, “knock me up. I want you to breed me, Chris.”

“Holy fucking-” I swept her off her feet and her eyes went wide and she let out a little shriek of surprise. I kissed her hard on the mouth and then tossed her onto the bed, at least present enough to miss Elizabeth with Jessica’s body. “Get your clothes off, now.”

“Oh my goodness, yes, sir,” she replied, rapidly shedding her clothing.

I shrugged out of my pack and set it aside, had the state of mind to carefully set my weapons somewhere safe, and then kicked off my boots while ripping out of my jacket, my overshirt, my undershirt, just shedding it as fast as I could.

“Oh my fucking God, Chris,” Elizabeth said, “you look crazy.”

“You fucking asked for it,” I replied, grabbing for my belt, torso bare now.

It was like a lust bomb had gone off inside of me. I was already gravitating towards the bed. My zipper was stuck. Or I was having trouble operating it.

I couldn’t ever remembering being this horny.

Maybe that one time with Lara, our first time together.

Jessica finished getting naked as I reached the edge of the bed. She opened her legs, laying beside Elizabeth, both of them wonderfully, gloriously nude. “Breed me, Chris. I want you to be the father of my child. I want you to breed me like a slut,” she said, grinning at me with a mixture of lust and something like awe.

She was probably surprised she was producing this level of reaction in me.

Honestly, I was kind of surprised too.

I’d never had the button pressed this hard or directly before, certainly not by two women at the same time.

“Hurry up, Chris,” Elizabeth said as I struggled with my zipper. “Breed us. Both of us. Use us like fucktoys and knock us up. Pump us full of your seed,” she murmured, rubbing one hand slowly over her lower belly, gently caressing her pussy with her other hand.

Finally got the zipper undone.

“Fuck it,” I snapped, not even bothering to get my pants off.

I just pulled my cock out, which felt so hard that it seemed to be pulsing in time with my heartbeat, which felt off the charts right now.

“I think we’ve just created a monster,” Elizabeth murmured.

“You have no idea,” I almost growled at her as I crawled onto the bed.

I got onto Jessica first because she was the closest. She opened her legs a bit wider, inviting me in, and I laid down against her, kissing her and groping her roughly and trying to get my dick inside of her all at the same time.

Somehow we managed, and it was fucking GO as soon as I was in.

“Oh Chris!” she yelled as I started fucking her.

I made sure not to hurt her, still present enough in the moment for that, but when it became clear that she was wet as a waterfall and eager to take my dick, I didn’t hold back. I banged the fuck out of her and she grabbed onto me, letting out a long series of blissful cries.

“Holy shit! Oh fuck! It’s so-oh! CHRIS!” she screamed and began to orgasm.

I kept right on fucking her, kissing her, groping her, feeling her hot, smooth body against my own. Taking in all of her: her scent, her taste, her voice.

Everything.

After she finished coming, she seemed to remember the narrative that she and Elizabeth had decided to kick this whole thing off with.

“Mmm, oh fuck, breed me, Chris!” she moaned.

“Oh shit…” I groaned, struggling not to bust right then and there.

“I think he likes that,” Elizabeth said. “But when do I get a turn?”

“Right after-oh!-Chris breeds me-ahhhh! Yes-like a filthy-mmmph.” I had to put my hand over her mouth as continued driving into her.

“Shh, shut up!” I groaned. I felt like I was caught between two impossible forces. The insane desire and drive to just fucking pound her brains out and the need to keep from coming at least for a bit longer.

It was a losing proposition.

“Yeah, come on, let me have some of that,” Elizabeth said. She grinned. “Breed me, Chris. Get me pregnant.”

“Oh fuck!” I groaned, and pulled out of Jessica, then shifted over to Elizabeth in a hurry.

Repeating the process of getting into her, I found her very wet and ready, and she let out a long cry of bliss as I started drilling her.

“Oh yes! Oh my God, Chris, you are a fucking beast!” she cried as stroked madly into her, kissing her, groping her wonderful breasts.

“Holy shit this is hot to watch,” Jessica said breathlessly.

Elizabeth tried to say something but it was lost to a long, loud cry of pleasure that transformed into a series of panting moans and then suddenly she was coming hard.

I lasted for as long as I could.

I was out of my mind with lust.

At some point Elizabeth started in with her dirty talk again and that was it.

“Mmm, yes, Chris,” she moaned, grabbing at me. “Breed me like a slut! Get me pregnant! Come on-oh fuck!”

I began going harder and faster and unloading at the same time, grunting and groaning in absolute rapture.

That orgasm was insane, blasting through me like a tsunami.

I dumped everything I had into Elizabeth, just pumping her full of what felt like a massive load, spurting out of me in hot jets of blinding bliss.

Vaguely I could hear her moaning and crying out as I continued thrusting into her.

When I’d run through the orgasm, I found that I was still very horny.

“Fuck, Chris! How much was that!?” Elizabeth cried.

“Don’t know. Not done,” I grunted, pulling out and switching back over to Jessica.

She started to say something, then cried out as I reentered her. I gave her a very similar treatment, listening to her cries of rapture as I fucked her furiously.

When I came a second time, it was almost as powerful as the first.

Though I doubt the load was anywhere near as big.

When I was finished, I pulled out and collapsed between them, gasping for breath, slicked with sweat, staring at the ceiling. My head felt like it was spinning and after a prolonged moment of just catching my breath, I finally got my pants and thermal underwear and regular boxers off, then settled more comfortably in between them.

“Chris, I have never seen you like that,” Jessica murmured, reaching over and putting a hand on my chest.

“Yeah, Chris. Fuck,” Elizabeth murmured. She was slowly getting up, holding something over her vagina, no doubt going to clean herself up. “I mean fuck, that was the biggest load you’ve ever blown in me. And that was so intense.”

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” I asked.

“I’ll certainly be sore in the morning,” Jessica replied. “But I’m fine, I liked that.”

“I’m good, Chris,” Elizabeth said.

I let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry, but I warned you.”

“I didn’t think you’d go full fucking animal. What possessed you?” Jessica asked, grinning broadly at me, looking very amused. “Do you just really like the idea of getting a woman pregnant that much?”

“Yes,” I replied. “No idea why. It just-I really like it.”

“Do you like the idea of getting a woman pregnant, or do you also like the idea of having sex with a pregnant woman?” Jessica asked.

“Definitely both,” Elizabeth said. “Good lord, you weren’t here for it but Chris would not leave me alone when we first met. Not that I’m complaining, I loved the attention and I was horny. Being pregnant turned me into a horny slut for Chris. Like fuck’s sake, he would not keep his hands off me. And the more visibly pregnant I became, the worse it got. Again, I loved the attention. Honestly, I felt bad. Megan was getting jealous and I think even Delilah was getting annoyed.”

“Yeah, it was...oh man, your pregnant body was so...mmm. But, um, don’t take that the wrong way. I’m still very attracted to you,” I said.

She laughed. “I could tell by the vigorous sex we just had.” She finished cleaning herself up, then looked down at herself and sighed. “Although I have to admit, I don’t like the stretch marks.”

“They should fade a bit more, but they won’t go away completely,” Jessica said, looking down at her own stomach. “Working out does help, and you were already in pretty good shape, it seems.”

“Yeah, just...never gonna be like how it was when I was a hot teen.”

“Now you’re a hot MILF,” I said, waving her over.

She smiled and came over, climbing back onto the bed with me and laying partially on me. I wrapped my arm around her.

“You do make me feel sexy,” she murmured. “I was kinda scared after you left, that you wouldn’t like me as much. I was very pregnant when you left, and now I’m not and I’ve got these marks and...but you’ve been very nice to me.”

“I love you, Elizabeth. You’re beautiful to me no matter what, and on top of that, you’re still really fucking hot.”

“Thank you,” she murmured, kissing my cheek. “It’s so nice to feel loved and desired.”

“It is,” Jessica said, getting closer to me on my other side. I put my arm around her. “Chris helped me with that, too.”

“I still can’t fucking believe anyone wouldn’t desire you. You’re one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen,” Elizabeth murmured.

“Thanks. I feel the same about you,” Jessica said, smiling as she reached over and traced a finger slowly along Elizabeth’s jaw.

“You’re both wicked hot and amazing girlfriends and I love you so much,” I said, kissing each in turn, hugging them a bit closer to me.

They both laughed. “I think you’re just easy to please,” Jessica said.

“Just because that’s true doesn’t negate what I said,” I replied.

“Fair enough...how much time do we have left?” Jessica asked.

“Probably another hour,” Elizabeth replied.

“Mmm, okay...can we just lay here together?”

“I’m okay with that,” Elizabeth said, settling more closely against me.

“Same,” I said. I’d honestly worn myself out with that display.

We settled in and relaxed and just enjoyed the company and ambiance.

Lisa looked up as Hannah and I walked into her office.

She seemed more refreshed, but still obviously tired. I was right there with her. After that threesome, I’d gone back and fucked Megan.

Hannah was…

“Hey, Fay’s still fixing the radio...what’s wrong?” Lisa asked, immediately picking up on the mild tension between the two of us.

“Nothing,” I replied, figuring Hannah might not want to talk about it.

Lisa arched an eyebrow, looking at me, then over at Hannah, who sighed heavily, standing there with her arms crossed.

“Chris fucking banged the shit out of my mom and they were loud about it!” Hannah snapped, and I couldn’t quite tell if she was still actually mad or annoyed, or just playing it up. It was a thing she liked to do for humor’s sake, but the problem was, it was hard to tell when she was joking. I was still trying to figure out how to explain that to her.

“Oh...uh...not touching that,” Lisa said.

“I already apologized,” I replied.

“You aren’t sorry,” Hannah said.

“Should I be? It’s their fault, they’re the ones who said-”

“I don’t want to hear this!” Hannah snapped, and this time it was all real.

“Okay, okay. I said I can just drop it.” I looked at Lisa. “Tell me you have good news.”

“I do, actually. Sort of.” She looked down at a map she had laid out on her desk, eager to switch topics. I was right there with her. “So word of the latest development has spread, and I got a visit early this morning from one of the new people. They told me they passed some train tracks up to the northeast, followed them for awhile, and came across a tunnel. There’s one of the bullet trains tucked away in the tunnel. They said it looked like the train had once served someone as a base of operations, but it was locked down tight.”

“You think we could get in?” I asked.

“I think Fay could. But she’s still fucking with the radio. She says she should have it fully functional today,” Lisa replied. “I worked with the group to get an idea of the route they took and I think I’ve reverse engineered it. I want you to take an ATV and ride out to the tunnel and confirm that there’s a train. Try to get in if you can, but either way come back. By the time you get back home, Fay should be finished with the radio. Even if she isn’t, when she’s ready, I want you two and Megan and her to ride back out there and get onto that train, if it’s there. This could be our actual ticket out of here. Hell, even if the prepper town is gone, this train will help us regardless. We can ride it until we find a new place to live.”

“It’ll be a long shot that it’ll even work,” I muttered, but I was feeling excited. This might very well be our winning ticket. “But yeah, we should definitely check it out.”

“Excellent.” She reached over and grabbed another piece of paper, handed it to me. I looked over it, saw a recreation of the map on it, smaller, with a path laid out in decent detail. I knew some of the area, I’d been out about halfway there during my trips, so I had a vague idea of what was up, and I could find my way there with this and a compass. “ATV should be ready for you. Good luck. We’ll be waiting for you.”

“Yep. Be back as soon as we can,” I replied, turning and walking out of the room. Hannah followed after me, but didn’t say anything.

It was a curious alchemy of emotions: hope for the train, fear that it wasn’t there, the general guilt and maybe a little shame at Hannah’s anger…

We reached the ATVs and found one ready to go for us. I climbed on and looked at Hannah. “Are you still mad at me?” I asked.

She looked at me, pursing her lips. Finally, she sighed. “I’m mad...and you were involved in the thing that caused it...but it’s not your fault. So I just...don’t know.”

“I am sorry,” I said. “Really.”

She sighed heavily and stepped closer to me, seeming to relax. “I know, Chris. I know you wouldn’t do something to hurt me. It wasn’t even that loud. But I did hear it and it was just...it was really weird.” I stared at her, a worry forming in my head, but before I could even fully form the thought, let alone voice it, (I wasn’t going to), she shook her head. “No, Chris, I don’t want you to break it off with my mom. You’re really good to her, really good for her. I just...can there be a bit more separation? Can we work something out?”

“Yes,” I replied. “We’ll figure something out.”

“Can you figure it out? I don’t want to talk about this to either of you, to be honest.”

“I understand. I’ll figure something out. I promise.”

She relaxed further, then she climbed onto the ATV behind me, grabbing me.

“Feel better?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“I love you, Hannah.”

“I love you too, Chris. Now let’s go find this thing.”

I nodded, turned on the ATV, and set off.

~

The bullet trains had started cropping up near the beginning of the decade.

They were supposed to be part of some big government investment in infrastructure and transportation around the country. I’m pretty sure it was just a bunch of CEOs and politicians jerking each other off. Some company got a fat contract and billions of dollars, some politicians got to look good by pretending like they actually gave a shit about the average person. But some tracks did get laid, and some fancy new trains were actually designed and built. They had a sleek design and I remember them looking cool.

Solar powered, eco-friendly, efficient, fast, could carry a lot of people, they were supposed to be a good answer to more long-term travel.

No idea if they actually were, because it didn’t matter anymore.

But one of these things might be our salvation.

Probably a little dramatic but hey, these were basically the End Times.

I followed a road that was little more than a path through the forest at the eastern edge of town, up into the very same forest Delilah, Megan, Elizabeth, and I had first approached the town through. Followed that all the way through the forest and hooked a left onto an actual road, moving past clusters of derelict vehicles I’d already checked over during my two month tenure here after helping bring the town back from the brink, but before leaving.

I still felt bad about that, but not as bad as I once had.

Right now though, I was feeling a lot better. Having someone mad at me never sat right with me, like an ache between my shoulder blades that would, at best, fade a little, but never completely exit my sphere of awareness.

It was more like a full-blown migraine if it was someone I was dating who was mad at me.

Things were basically smooth between me and Megan and me and Susan. Hannah was the one who was still getting angry.

Honestly, I couldn’t even blame her.

I’d lost control last night, really should’ve done more to keep at least Jessica quiet. I knew Hannah liked it when I fucked Elizabeth, or at least was neutral about it if she wasn’t horny. But yeah, that whole thing…

It was awkward.

It always would be.

The road eventually ran out and then we were making our way across a plain, towards a big water tower in the distance. Now we were going beyond what I was familiar with. We rolled on through the snow, keeping an eye out for anything dangerous, though I was trusting Hannah to be my eyes for that more than myself.

I had to focus on actually driving and navigating.

She’d tap me a specific way if anything came up.

One tap for We need to stop but it’s not an emergency.

Two taps for I think I see something.

Three rapid taps for Emergency!

Squeeze for I love you.

That one had just kind of developed, and it felt good when Hannah did it. Or Susan. Whoever was on the vehicle with me.

We passed the water tower, found another small road that led northeast and followed it for twenty minutes before finally finding the train tracks we were looking for. From there, it was relatively simple to just follow them until they came to a big tunnel built into the side of a large hill. I brought us to a halt a safe distance from the entrance and killed the engine. Waited. Listened. Nothing but the occasional gust of wind and the ticking of the engine.

Both of us got off the ATV. I covered Hannah while she extracted the starter and secured it, then we started slowly walking up to the tunnel.

It was pretty good sized, about twenty five feet tall, almost forty across, if I had to guess.

The sunlight didn’t extend too far in.

The train tracks led away into an ominous darkness.

“All right, I’ll take the lead. Stop when I stop, we don’t want to make too much noise,” I said as I got my MP5 ready.

“Got it,” Hannah replied.

I was still very glad to see that she was great at switching into professional mode. I did the same thing, activating the flashlight that I’d attached to the MP5 this morning. I’d practiced with it a little, it was a small but powerful flashlight they’d manage to scrounge up. One of the people from the new group had it, I think, and they’d turned it in to the local supply, figuring it could be of good use for one of the people heading out into the field.

How right they were.

It didn’t change the weight of the gun that much, at least, and it had a long battery life. The light opened up a vast hole in the darkness, pushing it back, revealing much more of the tunnel. It looked to be in good shape, probably fairly recent, blasted and smoothed out within the past decade for the bullet train. They needed specialized tracks to run, I remembered that. Although honestly these didn’t look all that different than the other tracks I’d seen in my life.

There were signs of life as we went deeper in.

Or, well, not life exactly, but that people had been here. Our latest additions could account for that, but it was impossible to know for sure. We passed bootprints in the snow that had blown in this deeply, which eventually gave way to dirt.

We stopped every dozen paces or so, listening. I played my light across the walls, the tracks, looking for anything that might represent danger.

This place, like so many others in the world, felt dead.

I was just beginning to worry when finally the light revealed the back of the train. I let out a little sigh of relief. We walked up to it, checked on both sides, then picked the left and started walking slowly alongside it.

“It’s pretty big,” Hannah whispered.

“Yeah,” I agreed, getting more eager by the second.

It looked in decent condition, though there were obvious signs of damage. None of the windows were broken, but some were cracked, and they looked sturdy. Tough. I tried the first door we came to, but it was shut firm. Could they even be opened without power? Fay would know. Well, hopefully. It suddenly occurred to me how much we were counting on her for this. But even if she didn’t know about bullet trains specifically, she was smart enough to figure it out. That much, at the very least, I believed.

The doors in the last car were different from the rest, I realized as we moved along the lengthy gray vehicle. They were bigger, broader.

Cargo, maybe?

That’d be convenient.

All in all, I counted six cars. Hopefully cargo at the back, four very similar looking ones, and one that was clearly the engine.

The door to the car behind the...shit, what was the front engine car called? Something weird. After a moment, I think I had it. Locomotive? Whatever, the train’s cockpit for all I cared. The car behind that had a door that had seen a lot of attention. There was a lot of damage around it, like someone had tried to beat their way in.

There were also a pair of corpses around, long frozen.

One of them wore something like military fatigues.

Hmm.

“What do you think?” Hannah asked quietly.

“I think we aren’t getting in here without Fay’s help,” I replied. “See if you can get inside somehow, I’m going to scout ahead. Be back in three minutes.”

“Understood,” she replied, hanging her rifle off her shoulder and pulling out a flashlight.

I left her to study the door while I moved on ahead. There were more signs of conflict around. I saw a few spent shell casings in the dirt. Some trash. An old bloodstain on one of the metal support beams. Another few corpses up ahead.

Lowering my light and giving myself a bit of time to adjust, I realized I could just barely make out the light at the end of this particular tunnel.

It felt oddly symbolic.

Was this the light at the end of the tunnel? Only one way to find out, I guess.

There was no one around here for the moment at least. I hurried back to Hannah and discovered she’d made no progress, not that I figured she would, but it was worth a try at least. I said as much to her and she just grunted in response.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Let’s go home and report. Hopefully Fay’ll be ready to come out here,” I replied.

We started marching back out of the tunnel.

~

An hour later, we were back home again and walking into the apartment building.

I had mixed feelings about the train. It was a great find, but I didn’t want to put too much hope on it being our savior.

But it was the only thing that could realistically work.

I almost ran straight into Lisa as she came bounding down the stairs.

“You’re back! Perfect!” she said, as excited as I’d seen her in awhile. “Fay’s almost got the radio working. I was going to go get the frequency.”

“All right, we’ll meet you up there. Also, we found the train. It looks in...okay condition, but we couldn’t get inside. We’ll need Fay’s help.”

“Excellent!” She gave me a quick kiss and then was off down to her office.

“She’s in a good mood,” Hannah murmured.

“Yep, let’s go,” I replied, heading upstairs.

Hannah followed after me. We headed up two flights of stairs and walked to Fay’s door. It was left open a crack, so I knocked on it while opening.

“Fay? It’s Chris and Hannah,” I said.

“Find the train?” she replied, still in the same place I’d last seen her: at the table parked in the corner of her living room. Though it was no longer scattered with parts and gear and tools and other stuff I couldn’t identify.

It was clean, and the radio looked almost new.

Damn, she hadn’t just repaired it, she’d refurbished it.

“Yep. Need your help getting inside,” I replied.

“I can probably do it,” she murmured, clearly distracted.

We came closer and saw that she was fiddling with a microphone.

“Cool.”

A moment later we heard running footsteps and Lisa reemerged in the apartment. She closed the door and walked over, laying a piece of paper flat on the table beside the radio gear. “Here it is, are we ready?”

“Just...about...okay, hold on,” Fay murmured. She stopped fiddling with the mic and set it on the table, then plugged it into the radio, then reached out and flipped a switch. There was a hum of power. So far, so good.

At least to me.

She then took the paper, studied it, and then started fiddling with the radio. I waited, listening to crackles of static.

After another thirty seconds or so, she scooted the chair back and stood.

“That’s the frequency,” she said, stepping away from the table. “I dunno who wants to actually do the talking. Just push that button and speak into the mic when you’re ready.”

Lisa, Hannah, and I all looked at each other.

Finally, Hannah and I looked at Lisa.

She sighed. “Yeah, I guess I should do it.”

She sat down in the chair, scooted closer, and leaned in.

Hannah and I tried not to crowd her as she cleared her throat, then pushed the button. “Hello...is anyone on this frequency?”

There was a long pause.

We waited. Listened.

“Are you sure-” Lisa began to ask, and then a crackle of static came over from the other end.

“Yeah...who’s this?”

I felt my heart skip a beat.

I hadn’t actually expected to get a response, mainly because I liked to keep my expectations in check, but even then I hadn’t figured we’d get one so quickly.

“Is this Persistence?” Lisa asked.

Now the voice took on a decidedly suspicious tone. “Who’s asking? Who is this?”

Lisa made a visible effort to control herself. This was a crucial moment. “I’m sorry. My name is Lisa Slater, I’m...well, I’m in charge of the township of Pine Lake.”

Another long pause. “Wait a few minutes.”

“Understood.”

She remained rigid and upright in the chair, all of us stood frozen, waiting. The minutes seemed to stretch longer and longer in Fay’s apartment.

When the sound of a response did come, we all jumped.

A new voice came onto the air, an older woman this time. “I’m to understand that I’m speaking to someone who lives in Pine Lake, Kansas?”

“Yes ma’am,” Lisa replied. “My name is Lisa Slater. I manage the people here.”

“Okay. How did you find this frequency? How do you know the name of our town?”

“We were searching the surrounding area for supplies and came across an old house with a bunker beneath it. We found plans there, plans explaining your town.”

“I see. Were you personally there?” she asked.

“No.”

“I want to talk to who was there,” the woman replied.

“Okay. He’s here.” She stood up and motioned for me to sit.

Well great, here I was, on the spot. I sat down, anxious I was going to say something to fuck this all up.

Our lives were more or less in these stranger’s hands.

“Hello. My name is Chris. I found the house and the bunker,” I said.

“Hi, Chris. I’m Amanda. Did you find any dead bodies in the house?”

“No,” I replied.

“What was the state of the place?”

“Ransacked. The house worse than the bunker.”

“Yeah. I figured.” She was silent for a moment, then sighed softly. “That was Tommy’s place. We never did hear from him once it all went down. I knew him. I’m guessing, if you found the plans there, he didn’t manage to get home first. I suppose it doesn’t matter now.” Another pause. “Tom was my friend,” she murmured.

“I’m sorry to be the one to have to deliver the bad news,” I replied.

“Well, it doesn’t change reality...so, Chris. Lisa. You found the plans and more than likely a map to our town. What do you intend to do with it?” she asked.

I glanced at Lisa. She motioned for me to continue. Apparently I was taking charge of the negotiations now. Fucking great.

“That’s why we called,” I replied. I’d negotiated plenty of times before, just never over a radio, and never with so much at stake. I was a ‘lay your cards on the table’ kind of person, mostly because I fucking hated bullshit, and I felt that certain types of people respected that more. It was hard to get a measure of a person over a radio, but it was what my gut was telling me to do in the moment. “We’re in dire straits. Suffice to say, we’ve suffered more than one catastrophe and Pine Lake is no longer a viable place to live. These plans we found are basically our Hail Mary. We were hoping to come and live with you.”

“Interesting. You might be in luck. How many people are we talking here?” she asked.

“Around eighty,” I replied.

She let out a little whistle. “Pine Lake, if I recall correctly, is quite a way’s south of us. Hundreds of miles.”

“We’re working on a solution for that. But if we do get there, would you be willing to give us a new home?” I asked.

A brief pause. “I can’t answer now,” Amanda said, and there was truth in her voice. “And I don’t want to give you too much hope, but I think the answer may be yes. We do have a nice community set up here at Persistence, and an expanded population isn’t out of the question, but I’m not the one running the show. I need to talk with others about this. I’ll need at least a day. But one thing that will help is: have a list of skills and abilities you’re bringing to the table.” She paused. “I feel like this goes without saying, but I also believe in being completely honest: don’t lie, and don’t try to fuck us over somehow. We are fully capable of defending ourselves.”

“Understood,” I replied simply.

“Okay then. Appreciated. I’ll get back in touch tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you. We’ll be here.”

I sat back and let out my breath in a long sigh. “Thanks for that,” I murmured, reaching up and rubbing the back of my neck.

“Sorry to put you on the spot like that,” Lisa said, putting a hand on my shoulder, “I just thought it seemed to make the most sense. She seemed to respond better to you than to me. But we’ll handle it from here. I gotta go make a list of our most valuable people. You and Fay and Melanie and Hannah and Megan...shit. We’re going to need someone here on the radio at all times…”

“Can we move it out of my apartment then?” Fay asked.

Lisa grimaced as she considered that. “I hate to take it off the air, but...if we’re gonna do it, now would be the time I guess. Stay here with it for an hour, in case they need to call us back and ask any questions. I’ll figure out another place to put it, a rotation of people to guard it. Fuck, there’s so much to do all of a sudden…”

“We’ll get it done, Lisa,” I said, getting up and facing her. “Don’t worry, it’s not like we’re starving or anything. We have time.”

“Yeah...you’re right. Although we shouldn’t necessarily dawdle, that could change at any moment…”

“We won’t dawdle, but we won’t rush. We’ll get to work, and work hard, but make sure we do it right,” I said. “I want to get Fay, Megan, and Hannah out to the train so we can see about getting inside and learn about the state of it. That’s still a big, huge gamble right now.”

“You’re right. That’ll take both ATVs as well...mmm. Okay. Chris, Hannah, go take an hour off. I want to make some things happen and I might need your help. Probably won’t, but I’d like you here anyway. You can ride back out there after an hour and get into the train,” Lisa said.

“I’ll be here,” Fay replied.

“Thank you. Uh...okay, do your things, I gotta go,” she said, turning and hurrying out of the apartment before any of them could respond.

“Poor Lisa,” Hannah murmured.

“Honestly, I think she’s happy. She has something to do now. Something more than just maintaining life support,” I replied. “But yeah, she’s gonna try to do it all at once and maybe get overloaded. But she’ll get it sorted out. Uh…” I thought for a moment, sorted through some stuff in my head, and realized I didn’t have all the relevant data for what I wanted to do next. “Hannah, would you go update Megan and make sure she’s ready for all this?”

“What are you gonna be doing?” she asked, almost a little suspiciously.

Probably thought I wanted to go do something sexual with her mom, though that wasn’t what was on my mind. “I need to catch up with Lara and Susan.”

“Oh...all right.”

“See you in an hour,” Fay said as we headed out of her apartment.

“See you,” I replied, already distracted.

Last night had...done some things to me. Mostly good things, but a few things that were making me think. And about something other than the immediate future. There were some questions that needed to be answered.

Hannah and I walked back to the motel. She went on to our shared room and I walked up to Susan’s and Lara’s and Jessica’s place and knocked on the door.

I heard quiet conversation happening there and a moment later the door opened. Lara smiled brightly as she greeted me, giving me a hug. I hugged her back tightly and gave her a long kiss, and she let me in.

Susan was laying on the bed, smoking a joint. I’d left a handful of them over here after finishing up with Jessica and Elizabeth.

“What’s up?” Lara asked.

“Good news. The prepper town does exist, and they’re seriously considering letting us come stay. We found the train, though no idea if it’s going to be functional or not,” I replied.

“Holy shit, that’s great news,” Susan said excitedly as I sat down on the edge of the bed. I held out my hand and she passed me the joint without hesitation. I smiled before taking a few puffs and then giving it to Lara.

There were so many little things we all just did now, we were getting used to each other in a very comforting and loving way, and I’d never actually been this deep into a relationship before. Or at least not successfully.

Let alone seven of them.

“I wanted to talk to you both about something unrelated, though. Something a little more hypothetical and further down the line,” I said.

“We’re listening,” Lara said, sitting down on the bed and passing the joint back to Susan, who nodded as she accepted it.

I was silent for a few seconds, considering how I was going to approach this topic. “I take it Jessica told you the contents of what happened last night?”

Lara smirked. “Yeah. She told us about it beforehand and we...sure heard the reaction it got out of you. I know exactly what fantasy roleplay us three are doing next.”

“Yeah, Jesus Christ, Chris, I didn’t know you’d lose your fucking mind over that,” Susan added, adopting the same smirk.

“Me either. But it got me thinking some more about...well, pregnancy. I’ve been thinking about it a lot actually. Delilah’s told me that she’s okay with me getting her pregnant, with me being as involved, or as uninvolved, in the child’s life as I want. Lara...you told me you’d be interested in it. But, I mean, how do you feel, Susan?” I asked.

“We’ve talked about it,” Susan said, growing a bit more serious. “I...I mean, I know I never want to be pregnant. But I’ve definitely come a lot closer to wanting to be a parent. I mean, I can’t think of two other people I want to be involved more than both of you. I’d be open to seriously considering it. Although...I mean do you even have a way of making it happen?”

“Not right now. And I can’t even promise I’d be able to make it happen in the future. But I do remember that there was supposed to be something I could take, it was a pill or liquid, something, that would basically turn off the mesh for a given period of time. I don’t think it’s impossible that I could find it somewhere along the way. Basically, I want to talk about this now, so that if I actually do find it, we’ll be that much closer to a decision.”

“I’d love to have a child, and I only want you to be the one to knock me up,” Lara said, looking at me with a sudden intensity. “Your involvement...I’d like to discuss it more. I’d want you involved in raising our child, but I also understand that you’re probably going to be really, really busy on a regular basis for...ever, potentially. It’s just how you live your life, and it’s just a truth that people are going to need you, more than just us, and it’s only fair that you help them. But I still think there’s a conversation to be had about how much you want, or intend, to be involved.”

“That’s a really fair point,” I replied, shifting a little uncomfortably. “This is a really big deal, and I honestly still don’t know. Right now is a crazy time, but it’s not going to be this crazy forever. I mean, I hope. But that is a question I need to answer. Right now? I’m feeling like...it’s a really scary prospect. Fighting wolves or taking on assholes with guns is one thing, but it’s-it isn’t the same. But I’m still figuring it out.”

“I understand, and we’ll take the time we need, and like I said, if you decide you want to be a sperm donor...I think I’d be okay with that,” Lara said.

“I don’t know if I would be,” I muttered. “I love you. I want to be with you, sexually and emotionally and just, have you in my life...well, forever. All of you. But I feel like it’d be fucked up to have what we have now, and I don’t help raise my own kid.”

“I understand how you feel,” Lara said. “A child is a massive commitment. In ways I think some people don’t realize. Honestly, I think it’s the biggest commitment a human being can make. And I think you do get that, so I understand your hesitancy. But...well, we’ll figure it out.”

“I have a question,” Susan said.

“Shoot,” I replied.

“So...how many women do you plan to knock up, exactly?”

I chuckled, then shifted awkwardly when the quality of Lara’s expression changed back to that of a playful, sexual grin. “Yeah, Chris,” she said, “how many ladies are you going to breed?”

“That’s a weird way of putting it,” I murmured.

“It’s kinda hot,” Susan said.

“It’s really hot. I heard what Jessica and Elizabeth were yelling last night. And I heard how you responded to it. Don’t pretend it doesn’t get you off hard,” Lara said.

I sighed. “I don’t know,” I replied, looking at Susan. “Lara and Delilah seem like a lock. Elizabeth strongly hinted that she’d be open to getting pregnant again, if it was me doing it. Jessica seems like she’s out. I mean, she’s forty. That’s not beyond the pale, and she’s in great shape, but yeah, she seemed pretty set on not getting pregnant again. Hannah said she isn’t interested and I don’t think that’ll change. That just leaves Megan. We haven’t discussed it all that much, but if I had to guess, it’d be probably not?”

“And the rest of them?” Lara asked.

“The rest?”

“Your other sort-of girlfriends?”

“I mean Melanie’s too old. Lindsay said no. I doubt Lisa’s interested. Fay probably isn’t-”

“Wait, you and Fay finally hooked up? When?” Susan asked.

“Yeah, when did this happen? I was really hoping to be there, she’s so fucking pretty,” Lara murmured.

“Uh...yesterday. At the radio station. She seemed cool with an audience. She watched me and Megan and Hannah have sex when we first met. So I’m sure she’ll let you watch. But she’s not into girls. She’s also not that sexual, actually. She said she just wants to hit me up every now and then, which is fine by me...we got off topic. So probably you, and Delilah, and Elizabeth.”

“You’d probably have to fuck all three of us at the same time, like a ton, to...you know, make sure,” Lara murmured, blushing now.

“Definitely,” I said. “Plus, I wouldn’t be able to have sex with anyone else...it’d be too risky.”

Susan sighed and crossed her arms. “Fuck, you’re right.”

“Well, it’s in the future. The potential future,” I said.

“Yep,” Lara said. She leaned forward. “But right now, on the other hand, we three are here together in a room with a bed.” She leaned forward a bit further. She was wearing a low-cut t-shirt that did a lot to show off her huge tits. “And we know just how potent that particular fantasy of yours is. So, Chris, would you like to breed us?”

Susan grinned and stubbed out the joint in a nearby ashtray. “Yeah, Chris. Would you like to get us pregnant? We want that.”

“We want it really bad,” Lara said.

“You fucking asked for,” I replied, already getting out of my pack. I snapped my fingers and pointed at the bed. “Both of you, naked, sitting on the side of the bed. Now.”

“Yes, sir,” they both replied.

They were wearing less than me, so they ended up nude and seated while I was still fumbling with my pants.

This time, I didn’t even get my boots off.

All this talk, even genuine, serious talk, about impregnation had already primed me. The second they started trying to be seductive, it was like a bomb going off.

As I quickly approached them as soon as I got everything above the waist off, I was struck by two things.

The first was the interesting sort of yin-yang between the two of them, how they were so different, almost opposites of each other. Lara, tall and incredibly voluptuous and so sexually confident, even when she was acting submissive. Susan, petite and little and still awkward, even after all this practice she’d gotten.

The second was how fucking huge Lara’s tits and hips were.

She was the most curvaceous woman I’d ever seen.

Even now after...what, dozens, fifty times? How many times had I had sex with her? Probably over a hundred at this point. Even now, it still surprised me when her clothes came off. Each time I found myself thinking that I was remembering her as being hotter than she actually was, but no. Here she was, nude again, and just so fucking hot.

“On your back,” I said, shoving Lara back.

She gasped, grinning fiercely as she fell flat against the bed, and Susan lingered, biting her lower lip. I knew what she wanted.

“On your back!” I snapped, shoving her hard.

She let out a little cry as she laid flat on her back. They had asked for it, so I was going to give it to them.

“Breed me, master,” Lara said quietly as I gripped her under her thighs and gave her a sharp yank towards me, so that her pussy was right there at the edge of the bed. This was how I had first fucked her, I remembered suddenly, the very first time we’d had sex.

I felt ignited, even more turned on than that.

“Please, breed me. I need to be filled up,” Lara moaned as I gripped her legs and pulled them up, resting her ankles on my shoulders as I got into position. “Make me a mother, master-oh!” she cried as I penetrated her.

She was insanely wet.

Looking down at her fantastically thick thighs and her broad hips and my cock disappearing into that wonderful, smooth pussy of hers…

I actually almost lost it within the first fifteen seconds. But I held onto it, stroking smoothly into her, listening to her moan and cry out, aware that Susan was watching both of us. She’d have to wait. She’d get her turn, though.

Pretty soon my attention was pulled up, to Lara’s enormous breasts, swaying in time with my thrusting. They were hypnotic and glorious. I shifted and laid my hands across them, groping them. Lara moaned, her face twisting in pleasure.

“Oh master, I’m so horny,” she moaned. “I’m so fertile, I need you to get me pregnant so bad. I want you to breed me like a filthy whore-oh fuck!”

I started going faster and harder, the sound of our skin slapping together filling the room, quickly overridden by her cries of bliss.

That went on for another minute, and then I switched over to Susan when she started up with it. Spreading her legs, begging for me.

“I want to be bred, master,” she said. She brought one leg up and hugged it to herself, exposing that pale pink slit of a pussy she had. “Please? I’m fertile too…”

That was it for me.

I pulled out of Lara and almost jumped onto Susan, shoving my cock down into her much tighter pussy and we both groaned in pure shared bliss.

Lara was a garden of earthly delights, to be sure, but Susan certainly had her own unique pleasures.

Her perky little tits bounced in faster rhythm as I screwed her brains out. It was hard to hold onto my orgasm. I wanted to do exactly what they were begging me for. I wanted to pump them full of my seed, wanted to orgasm into them.

Knowing that, and that I wasn’t exactly sure how much time I was playing with here, I fucked Susan for as long as I could, (that pussy of hers was so fucking tight), and then I pulled out and switched back over to Lara.

I wanted to come in her first.

And I did. Grabbing those huge tits again, listening to her moan and cry out, feeling her moving against me, the bed squeaking as I drove furiously into her again and again, alive and furious like a live-wire of lust…

“Oh yes, breed me! Knock me up like a slut, Chris!” she cried, losing it as she began to orgasm.

That was it. Over the line.

I was catapulted into the sexual abyss of raw pink rapture, shooting my seed into her, filling her up, imagining what both her and Susan would look like pregnant. Their hips and ass and tits getting bigger, thighs thicker, bellies curving out.

Elizabeth had been so horny all the time after we’d gotten settled in…

I came hard into Lara, and once I’d come out of the zone of climaxing, I switched over to Susan and got back to work.

Nothing happened that required my attention after that, and I managed to spend pretty much the whole rest period with Susan and Lara.

But time ran out, and I soon found myself back to work.

Lisa was handling the radio situation, and she sent us out with the ATVs. We promised her one of us would be back before nightfall to update her on the situation.

“You sure seem to be in a good mood,” Fay said as we dismounted from the ATVs, pulled their starters, and started heading for the tunnel.

“I’m surprised you didn’t hear Lara and Susan screaming,” Hannah said.

“What, did they hit you with the ‘get me pregnant’ thing too?” Megan asked.

“Yes, actually,” I replied.

“Wait, is that what got you so fucking wound up?” Hannah asked.

“I thought you didn’t want to know.”

“I didn’t but now we’re talking about Lara and Susan, who are both super fucking hot…”

“You wanna knock some ladies up, Chris?” Fay asked.

“Yes, actually, I do,” I replied.

“Can you? You said you had that implant…”

“Right now, no. I can’t. But I like pretending.”

“We should pretend sometime,” Hannah murmured. “If it gets that strong of a reaction out of you...holy shit, you’ve already got a hard-on. I can see it.”

I sighed. “Yes. Can we focus? Don’t know if anything might’ve changed since we were last here,” I replied, switching on the flashlight.

We made our way back down the tunnel and I hunted carefully for signs of new life, but the train and tunnel were as derelict as when we’d last been here. We managed to get to the door that had seen so much attention, people clearly trying to force their way in over the months, and Fay got an excited look on her face. Well, more excited.

She’d been perky ever since she’d started prepping for this trip.

“Okay,” she said, getting out of her backpack and dropping into a crouch in front of the door. She started pulling things out. “Chris, here, set this up. It’s a tripod.”

“Okay,” I replied, taking the thing she’d thrust at me. While I was fucking with it, unfolding it, seeing it was basically a light mounted on an extendable tripod, she pulled more things out of her backpack, setting them on a simple tarp she’d unrolled on the ground. I got the light set up and told her as much.

“Switch it on,” she said.

I switched it on and a powerful illumination flared into existence, lighting her and the door she was going to be working on up.

“Perfect,” she muttered. I saw a number of tools, some I recognized, some I didn’t, laid out on the tarp, as well as what looked vaguely like a small car battery.

“So you can do this, right?” Megan asked.

“Probably,” Fay replied. “I’ll need time, though. And peace.”

“Got it, we’ll make sure no one wanders by,” I said.

We headed off. Hannah ended up strolling back the way we’d come, and Megan and I walked forward a ways.

“How are you doing?” I asked after a bit.

“I’m...okay,” she replied.

“You had to think about it.”

She laughed softly. “I did. It was tough there for awhile. You were gone for so long-” she stopped suddenly and shook her head. “No, I’m not going to berate you for that. You made the right choice. I just-I missed you. Like really bad. But you’re back. After that fucking nightmare with the bunker, and all the uncertainty and rushing around, working our asses off, not even knowing if we’re going to survive...this is good. I’m trying to get used to good again. I think I got used to shit and sacrifice a long time ago...and then you happened.”

“You sound like you’re accusing me,” I said.

She laughed softly. “Maybe a little. Not really. Just...I was used to things being shit. But then you came along and made me care again, and hope for a better life. And it’s just...I have a lot more to lose now, Chris. So it’s scarier. Caring is fucking terrifying.”

“I understand,” I said, kissing her forehead. “I’m fucking terrified of anything happening to any of you. And that includes Lisa, Melanie, Fay, Lindsay…”

“Yeah it must be so hard having so many hot chicks you fuck all the time,” Megan said, grinning. “Sorry, I’m not trying to downplay what you’re saying. We all care, and it’s scary, but it’s worth it. And I get that. It’s worth caring, it’s just...tough, sometimes. At times like this, for example, when our very existence is perched on a goddamned cliff.”

“We’ll sort it out,” I replied.

“Hey! I got it!” Fay called a moment later.

“Shit, that was fast,” Megan muttered as we started heading back.

“She’s good with her hands,” I replied quietly.

“Wait, you fucked her?” Megan asked. I chuckled awkwardly and nodded. “I wanted to watch!”

“Lara had the exact same complaint. Don’t worry, it’ll happen,” I promised.

“Fine.”

Hannah showed back up at about the same time we did. Fay was standing back from the door, which was still closed, a panel beside it popped open, a thick cable running from inside the panel to the small battery on the ground.

“I thought you said you got it,” I said.

“I did, but I figured you’d want to be here when I opened it for safety’s sake.”

“Oh...good idea.” I shifted grip on my MP5 and stepped closer. “Ready when you are.”

She reached out and pushed a button, then stepped back. The doors slid open, splitting in half and disappear into their niches, revealing a dim interior. I waited. We all waited. No sounds came out to us. After a full minute, I stepped closer until I was up to the actual door. A tiny stairwell led up to what seemed to be a hallway.

I spent a few minutes carefully checking around the door, making sure no one had laid any traps. It could be a total coincidence, but that dead guy in fatigues made me nervous. If the military had set up here at one point, or people who had once been part of the military after it had collapsed, then they might’ve laid traps.

But I found none, and when I stepped onboard and came up the stairs, into the hallway, nothing bad happened.

It was cold inside, and smelled faintly of blood and death.

Something bad had definitely happened here, but it all felt old.

I looked down the length of the hallway and groaned quietly. There were about a dozen doors on either side, each leading to what I was assuming were personal quarters. In the other direction, towards the front, was a partially open doorway. I moved up to it and peered through, seeing a little dining section.

It was surprisingly spacious, and also there was a lot of damage.

And about half a dozen dead bodies, frozen in place.

Lots of frozen blood. Most of them wore fatigues.

“Fuck’s sake,” I muttered, this whole thing reminding me of the weather station.

This was going to take forever to search.

That was technically a good thing, because this seemed like it’d be big enough to carry all of us without too much cramming and awkward living arrangements, but still. In this moment, fuck, it was gonna take awhile.

Then again...I liked searching. Why was I bitching?

All at once, the answer occurred to me: all these doors needed power to open. Meaning I couldn’t just come and go at my leisure, at least not until Fay managed to get power restored to the train. If that was even an option.

“All right,” I said, “everyone up here. Looks clear but we’ve got a lot of searching to do. Fay, I assume the front car is the one you’ll need to get to to start determining the status of the train?”

“Yes, that’s my assumption also,” Fay replied as they started coming onboard.

“Good. Megan, go with Fay to the front. Sweep and clear what you can. Once you’re where you need to be, figure out what it’s gonna take to bring this train back online, even basic power. I’m figuring these doors don’t open without power?”

“Not easily,” Fay said.

“What does that mean?” Hannah asked.

“It means there’s got to be some kind of manual release. I’m sure there was some kind of legal thing about that. But if they’re closed now, decent chance they’ll either stay closed, or you’ll hear it if they open up,” Fay replied.

“Great,” I muttered. “Well, Hannah and I will search what we can. Once you get basic power up and running, we’ll do a more thorough search of everywhere. I want to make sure this place is truly abandoned, and also that it is truly secure after that.”

“We’ll get to work,” Fay said. Megan nodded and they headed off through the dining area up ahead.

“Let’s do the same,” I said, heading in the opposite direction.

Almost all the doors were closed, sealed and maybe even frozen shut, but a couple were open. I checked the first of these and peered inside.

What I found reminded me a little of a luxury cruise liner. The room wasn’t especially large, but it wasn’t what I’d call cramped either. A pair of single-wide beds had been pushed together in the center, with a dresser with all its drawers pulled out to one side, and a little eating area to the other. To the right of the door was a sectioned off area and investigating it, I found a carefully arranged toilet, sink, and shower stall.

“Holy shit, we’re gonna have showers,” I muttered.

“Provided we get it all to work,” Hannah said.

“Yeah, but God, hot showers. That alone will make this whole endeavor worth it.”

“You just wanna fuck us in the showers,” Hannah replied, grinning and nudging me.

“You don’t wanna fuck me in the shower?” I replied.

“I mean yeah, I do. Obviously.”

“So you just wanna fuck me in the shower.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

I laughed. “Honestly, just the hot shower will be enough...come on, let’s finish our search.”

~

It was an hour that felt like three.

Maybe it was the fact that despite how well the train had been designed, it was still a cramped space. Or maybe it was that there had obviously been some form of violent attack. By the time we were finished, I figured that either someone had stormed the train, or there’d been a revolt of some kind. It was hard to tell which, but given the fact that almost all the bodies we found in the train (and there were several), were dressed in military-style fatigues, I was thinking revolt.

Either an enemy had invaded and been wearing the exact same getup, lost almost no personnel, or for some reason took their dead with them, or it had been civil war. My money was on civil war, simply because a group of people were statistically more likely to tear themselves apart, as opposed to another group actually marching out into the frozen wastelands and risking open warfare. I was curious about it all, though.

We found Megan studying something on the wall of the front-most car, what I was just going to think of as the engine, with Fay in a seat surrounded by screens and keyboards and just a lot of fancy tech-looking stuff.

She’d apparently brought a second battery and had it hooked into one of the computers.

“We seem good, but it’s hard to tell for sure. All the doors between the cars were open, and that last one does look like it was meant for cargo. When we go, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to get the ATVs up into it,” I reported.

“Fucking awesome, I love those things,” Megan replied.

“Any progress?” I asked.

Fay sighed. “So, good news and irritating news. The good news is that I’ve been able to turn on the basic operating system that runs the train, which means that at least it’s still capable of turning on. The irritating news is that now I need to set the train’s internal diagnostic program running, which I’m trying to make happen. But even after I make that happen, it’s going to take...I don’t know how long. I also need to determine where we’re at with power. I only have three batteries, and although this thing is actually super streamlined in how it’s designed, ultimately it does need power to draw from to turn on each part of itself and then determine if that thing is running or damaged. I doubt all three of my batteries are enough. There might be some emergency backup power somewhere in here, and maybe we can hook one of the ATVs up, draw power from it…” she let out a heavy sigh.

“So what I’m hearing is: it’ll take time and you’ll get it figured out?” I asked.

“Basically, yeah. Although I want to stress, ‘figuring it out’ means determining if this train is broken or not, and if it is, how broken and if I’m capable of repairing it. I can do a lot. Between Megan and I and all the shit we have with us between here and Pine Lake, we can probably work miracles. But it might just be fucked. Still don’t know yet.”

I sighed softly. “Well...carry on then.”

“Yep,” she muttered, peering at the single glowing screen and then typing rapidly.

Hannah had moved over to stand with Megan, both of them now staring at what I realized was a huge whiteboard mounted on the wall.

It had a map drawn on it in decent detail.

I joined them and looked over it. I could see the train and the tunnel at the center. I saw a forest marked ‘good hunting grounds’.

There were a few other points of interest.

TRANSPORT TRUCK

BUS CAMP

RADIO TOWER

GREENBURG

“These would definitely be worth checking out,” I murmured.

“Yep,” Hannah agreed immediately. “Maybe we could ride out to them, see what’s up. We could always use more supplies.”

There were little lists by each of the locations, written in precise, razor thin handwriting. Stuff like Searched. Cache here. Encountered hostiles. Eliminated hostiles. Wolf territory. There was also a date written in the upper right-hand corner.

February 4th, 2038.

So just about a year ago.

“We’ll get to it,” I said. “For now we have another responsibility.”

“What’s that?” Hannah asked, sounding a little disappointed.

“It’s obvious that regardless of whether this thing works or not, it’ll at the very least serve as a perfect outpost to operate from. We need to search those places, we need to see if the hunting ground is legit, and we also need to finish performing a search of the actual train. Eighty percent of the doors are closed. Could be anything behind them. It could also use some cleaning. Get the blood washed up, the bodies out of here. I want a team out here doing that. Making it habitable.”

“Good idea. Fay obviously has to stay here,” Megan said. “And you’ll have to leave one of the ATVs here for her and whoever stays in case of emergency. So...who goes back with you?”

“Who wants to go?” I asked.

“I’d like to,” Hannah said.

“I’m okay with hanging out here,” Megan said.

I nodded, briefly closing my eyes and running a hand through my hair. It was getting longer. Not long by any stretch of the imagination, but I’d gotten used to buzzing it off and just hadn’t had the time. Lara had been bugging me about it. I thought I looked kind of like a psycho convict with my head buzzed and hey, there were benefits to that, but Lara apparently really liked it. At this point, I think most of them preferred me that way.

I did, too. Stupid in an ice age apocalypse, I guess, but sometimes you had to make stupid choices to keep yourself sane.

I thought it over, what came next, wanting to make sure I had it all right in my head, I wasn’t forgetting anything.

This was far from over, there was still way more to do.

And that was before the part where we traveled three hundred miles.

Fuck.

“Okay, Hannah and I are going back to update Lisa and get her to put together a party of people. They should be able to make it here on foot in about three or four hours, depending on the weather. What should I tell them to bring with them?” I asked, looking at Fay.

“Any and all things technical. Tools, gear, spare parts, old equipment. I can splice and salvage damn near anything,” Fay replied.

“And the basic staples: food, fuel, weapons,” Megan said.

“I think a dozen people sounds right, for a first team?” I asked.

“Makes sense to me. We’ve got room,” Megan agreed.

“Okay then, let’s do this.”

The ride back took longer than the ride out, mainly because I was stopping and also checking out a few side paths.

Hannah didn’t seem to mind.

I think she was enjoying simply being out in the wilderness, but not necessarily in a survival capacity. I was kind of liking it too. There was something about it that was practically nostalgic, reminding me of something that could be done before the world froze over. We were making a map for the team coming out here to follow.

It was obviously going to be different taking a walk out here, and I had to make sure to mark the best route for on foot, as well as see how many little hideaways or buildings I could find and mark. Basically places they could rest if a storm came on or someone was injured or they just needed to take a break for a bit and get in out of the cold.

The whole experience also reminded me of my time spent exploring the wilderness on my own. The months and months of roaming the frigid wastelands largely by myself, and that made me think of my journal.

I’d written in it less and less over the past month.

When I thought about it, I usually told myself I was too busy or having too much fun, because I had to find somewhere isolated to do it, and that was harder to do now. But was that true? Or did I just care about it less?

That was a curious thought.

There was clearly some part of me that still cared, because I hadn’t shown it to anyone, hadn’t even mentioned its existence. That didn’t necessarily mean none of them knew about it. I didn’t think they did, but it wasn’t like I was aware of my jacket at all times, which was where it stayed. In that inner pocket.

It sometimes struck me as a little insane that I’d killed men over it, when it had been stolen from me.

Although it wasn’t quite that cut and dry.

I’d only written in it once since I’d gotten back, and that had been when I’d managed to find some time after getting back from the radio station. I’d put in a quick entry about all the things that had happened, and also added Fay’s name to the list at the back of the book. I still didn’t quite know why I still kept track.

As we rolled back into town and put up the ATV, I wondered about showing it to one of the women. But who?

That felt like a tricky proposition.

It was a little like the ‘I love you’ thing. Should I show it to them all at once? I still didn’t even know if any of them knew but were just keeping it to themselves. I doubted Hannah or Megan had gotten up in the middle of the night and read it while I was sleeping, but...it wasn’t impossible. It’d certainly be a breach of trust, but not an unforgivable one. I’d be pissed, though. But I found myself asking: why did I even still care?

It was a deeply personal thing, but…

Why was it a deeply personal thing?

Simply because it had always been? Or did it still have meaning?

I had to admit, it didn’t quite feel the same the last few times I’d written in it, but maybe that was just a phase. I’d never really been in this type of situation before. Then again, if I was in a unique situation, shouldn’t I want to write about it?

I put all this aside and focused as we headed into the main lobby of the apartment building. We went downstairs and found Lisa in her office, a look of intense concentration on her face as she scrutinized several pieces of paper on her desk.

Actually, there were dozens of them.

“What’s all this?” I asked.

“I’ve been going around, asking everyone to give me a brutally honest list of their skills, anything that could be useful for a community. Stuff they feel confident about,” she replied.

“Anything interesting?” Hannah asked.

“Not really. Lots of useful stuff, though. Sewing, cooking, skinning, tanning, tracking, hunting. Actually, one of the new people is a gunsmith, so that’s a pretty big bonus.” She rubbed her eyes, yawned, then sat back in her chair and fixed both of us with her intense stare. “Tell me you have some good news.”

“Well, so far, yes. We got into the train and although it looks like some kind of battle happened, Fay has managed to get power to the operating system. She’s beginning the process of seeing just how fucked up the train is,” I replied.

Lisa sighed. “I was hoping for something a little more definitive...is there like a guess? I mean is this hopeless or do we have a decent shot at making it work?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I get the impression that this is the kind of thing where we won’t know for awhile, after a lot of effort. It’s...pretty complex, from what I can tell. However, the more pertinent thing I wanted to say was that I want you to organize a team to send out there. There was a map that detailed a few different locations in the region. I want to visit them, use the train as an HQ. The team should be, uh...well, cleanup detail. People who can handle moving corpses and scrubbing blood. Also a couple of hunters and someone with medical knowledge, just in case.”

“Melanie’s been itching to get out town, and at this point she’s trained up enough staff that we should be able to handle anything that happens back here,” Lisa said. “How many?”

“No more than a dozen. Armed, with food and medicine, and also as many tools and parts and pieces of technology we can muster.” I set down the map we’d drawn. “Have them follow this route. Should be a three or four hour walk...any news with the radio?”

“Not really. We moved it out of Fay’s apartment to another one. The three people who live there are comfortable with guarding it and maintaining vigilance over it constantly. So far, there hasn’t been a peep. Although...we should determine a frequency for ourselves. I mean, that train’s got to have a radio, right?”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, though I have no idea how long it will take to activate or if it’ll even work. But yeah, we’ll settle on something and I can tell Fay. We won’t have to drive back and forth each time to give you an update,” I agreed.

“Okay, I’ll get the radio figured out and the team organized. What are you going to do?”

“We’re gonna ride back out there and make sure Fay and Megan stay safe, and also probably check out at least one of the locations in the surrounding area for supplies, and get the train prepped for the team,” I replied. “I also want to take one of the sledges and load it with supplies. The more stuff we get out there, the better.”

“That’s a great idea,” Lisa said. “I’ll, uh, find someone to put together a care package of stuff.”

“Don’t worry, Hannah and I will handle it, you’ve got enough to deal with,” I replied.

“Okay...thanks. Really. Both of you. I honestly don’t think I could do this without your help,” she said, actually stopping messing with the papers and looking at us intently.

“You’re welcome...this is a good cause,” I replied, unsure of what else to say.

“Glad we could help,” Hannah said, apparently in the same boat.

Lisa smiled. “You know...you two do make a really cute couple. A really great couple.”

“We’re not exactly-” I began, but Lisa cut me off.

“I know, I know. You aren’t exactly a couple. Except you are. I can’t pretend to know the intricate inner workings of your...group, but I can tell that you two are a couple, young lovers, who are very much in love with each other, and very good for each other, and very good at working together. You can’t see it from the outside, but when the two of you are handling a situation together...you move like a machine, totally in sync with each other. You’re perfect for each other.”

“Um...thanks,” Hannah said, shifting awkwardly.

Lisa laughed. “And both adorably awkward. Okay, I’ve blathered on long enough about you two. Go on, make things happen.”

“We will,” I promised.

After a very slight hesitation, I shared a kiss with Lisa, and then headed out. My relationships were...I was still getting used to them.

In a way, I thought I’d be getting used to them for a long time.

Maybe even years.

We headed back outside and for a moment lingered in indecision.

“What first? Food or work?” I asked.

Hannah sighed. “I want food. I’m starving, but...if we go eat, I’m not gonna want to get back to work. So work first, then food.”

“That’s called being responsible, and it sucks,” I said as we started walking towards the supply station where they kept the sledges and a lot of spare stuff. One of the things I’d implemented was having about a half dozen emergency supply packs ready to go. Basically quick shipments of food, medicine, and ammo already bundled together and ready to go. They could be hauled in a backpack or attached to a sledge in an emergency.

“Yeah that’s what my mom said about a lot of things, being an adult isn’t as much fun as it was made out to be,” she muttered.

“Come on, it’s not all bad,” I said.

She laughed. “Okay, yeah. We have a lot of fun.”

We checked in with the guards at the supply depot and updated them on the situation. I had to admit, while I had no interest in abusing trust, there was something nice about wielding power and being able to just get shit done. In another time, they’d have to go check with someone else to verify if I was suddenly checking out a shitload of supplies like this, but now I could pretty much come and go as I pleased.

It kind of worried me.

It was a lot of trust to put into someone, and while I had no intention of fucking anyone over, if I was more of a piece of shit, I could very easily just load up an ATV with supplies enough to last me for weeks, months if I was careful, and ride off into the sunset with my girl of choice. It was good for them I liked Pine Lake and the people living there.

And also had an actual moral code that I lived by.

Hannah and I loaded one of the survival packs into the sledge, and then filled in the rest of the space with anything else we could think of. I found a few toolboxes that seemed like they’d be what Fay would want and loaded them up, some boxes of food, blankets and pillows, and a pair of cases of medicine to top it off.

Once it was all cinched down, we put it out of the way, explaining we’d be back to hook it up to an ATV after lunch, and then headed off to the diner.

Elizabeth wasn’t in the kitchen this time around. Hannah and I grabbed our meals and took our usual seat by the window.

“So, Chris...what do you miss from before?” Hannah asked between bites.

“Lots of things,” I replied. “Rain. The internet. Reliable electricity-”

“No, no. What do you miss. Like if you could have anything waiting for you at home right now that you can’t realistically find anymore, what would it be?”

I thought about, frowning. “Certain fast food and some soda brands come to mind,” I murmured. “But…”

“But…?” Hannah pressed.

I sighed. “It’s stupid.”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t want to.”

She looked genuinely surprised, and...a little hurt? “Why not? It’s not like I’ll laugh at you or anything, Chris.”

“I know, it’s just...well, it’s stupid. I’m not even sure why I want it. And...okay, I’ll admit to a certain social anxiety at telling you, of all people, about it?”

“Why me specifically? Would you balk this much at telling...I don’t know, Delilah? My mom? Elizabeth?”

“...no.”

“Now I’m super curious. And why? Is it...some kind of drug? Is that it?”

“No, it’s not a drug,” I replied.

“Just tell me...please? I promise I won’t judge you or laugh at you or anything, I just wanna know,” she said.

I sighed. She was right. Ultimately, I trusted her, it was just strangely embarrassing to admit, and I didn’t even know why.

“If I could have anything I wanted, like...I mean within reason, something I used to have access to in my old life, it would be a television, an NTX console, a copy of Desolation, and four controllers,” I replied, shifting uncomfortable.

“So a video game?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

She looked at me closely for a moment. Maybe she thought I was fucking with her.

I sighed. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”

“No, I-it’s fine. I don’t think it’s stupid or anything. I just...it doesn’t seem like you.”

“That’s part of what makes it stupid. It honestly isn’t. And yet...I miss it.”

“It sounds awfully specific. The NTX...isn’t that kinda old?”

“Yeah. Older than me, actually. It launched in like two thousand eight, the console, and Desolation was released in twenty ten. It’s a first person shooter, kind of like horror and action. You fight aliens that are kind of like demons, or monsters. We weren’t exactly rolling in dough when I was growing up, so it was my first console. But my friends at the time weren’t doing so good for cash either, so they didn’t care. A game was a game, even if it was last gen. Hell, almost two generations old at that point. It’s just...we played so much fucking four-way split screen in that game. Like hours, days, whole weekends. Staying up all night...it was a lot of fun. Video games aren’t really my thing, but I do miss that game. And I guess...it sounds lame, but that’s it.”

Hannah was frowning, studying me, her meal forgotten. “Why me specifically?” she asked finally.

“I guess...it’s also stupid,” I muttered.

“Tell me.” I sighed. She leaned forward. “Tell me.”

“God you are so bossy, you know that?”

“You like it, now tell me,” she replied with a bit of a smirk.

I laughed. “When you really want an answer...fine. In my experience, few women react super well to guys that play video games. I know we were going through that whole acceptable wave in the teens and the twenties, but into the thirties...it just got bad. Playing video games, like on a console or on a decked out PC rig, was a loser thing to do again. And I mean by that point I’d already fallen out of them mostly...and you’re young and so fucking hot and tough, I feel like you might be one of those women, you know?”

“Oh...I mean, I get it,” she said, relaxing slowly. “Like, that games are fun. I’ve played some. And it’s not like I’d look down on you for it. Fuck, Chris, you’re like...the manliest man I’ve ever known. God, you wanna talk about unmanly? How about a grown-ass man throwing a goddamn hissy fit over a meal that isn’t done perfectly? Yelling at a goddamned teenager over it in public.” She shuddered.

“Your dad?”

“Yes. And his fucking friends. Lots of guys like that in California. Fucking man-babies...whatever. I don’t think it’s lame. It’s fine. I’d play with you if we somehow managed to get our hands on all that.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

She grinned. “Yeah. Totally. And then I’d have awesome sex with you.”

“You are genuinely one of the most amazing girlfriends in the world,” I replied.

She laughed. “I know.”

We kept eating.

We made sure that Lisa had all the knowledge she needed for assembling the first team to go out there, double-checked that there was nothing immediately calling our attention, then told her we’d either radio back or return tomorrow afternoon.

Then we hitched the sledge and rode out.

As we drove out there, I noticed a change in Hannah. Except it wasn’t fully a change, it was just something that’d been there that was now becoming more prominent. She was upset about something, or worried.

She was very sharp, but she was also twenty with anger problems.

As good as she was at reading me, I was just as good at reading her.

I pondered over what it could be this time, which made me feel guilty. It sounded dismissive, even just inside my own head.

Gee, what’d I do to piss you off NOW, Hannah?

Like listening to her genuine concerns or hurt feelings was a chore. I never wanted to come off that way, I never wanted to feel that way, but she did seem to have more problems than any of the others. Well, maybe except for Susan.

Although Susan sure was chilling out.

But I loved her, and I wanted to help her.

Of course, she tended to need to be the one to come to me. I didn’t like to prod. I would, but neither of us enjoyed it.

We rode back to the train and, getting onboard, found Fay still in the conductor’s seat, Megan in another seat, leafing through a book.

“What’s up?” she asked, setting it aside as we came in.

“Brought some supplies. Lisa’s putting together a team of people to come out here. They should be here before nightfall. Any news on your end?” I asked.

“A little. I managed to tap into a little reservoir of power still being stored in the train’s emergency backup battery. It isn’t much, but between it and the batteries I’ve got on me, I think it’ll be enough for it to run its diagnostic. Either way, the diagnostic is underway,” Fay replied.

“How are we going to actually fuel this thing, provided it still works?” I asked suddenly. I wasn’t sure how I’d missed that, maybe I’d just been avoiding thinking about it, or figuring it was a Fay problem, not a me problem.

Although it’d be an ‘us’ problem if we didn’t get it figured out.

“The train has solar panels, and actually, those panels you brought back from your trip? We can install them,” Fay said. “So that’ll help. It’ll be our main source of power.”

“Well that’s good,” I muttered. Bullet dodged. Hopefully.

Also, bonus for those solar panels Susan had lugged all over the countryside being useful.

“What now?” Megan asked.

“For now, help me get the stuff inside and the sledge detached and stored. Then I want to go check out one of those places, probably the transport truck. Good chance it’s empty, but you never know,” I replied.

“All right. Fay, you good to stay here alone for a bit?” Megan asked.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied, staring into the screen.

We left her to it, heading back through the train and into the tunnel.

“How’s it going back at town?” Megan asked.

“Good. People seem in higher spirits. Word’s spreading about all this. I’m just hoping we don’t fuck it up,” I replied.

“Or that we aren’t doomed,” Hannah murmured.

“We probably aren’t doomed,” Megan said. “Walking the three hundred miles is...it would be hard. Really, really hard. But not impossible. If it came down to it.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

We came back out of the tunnel into the clear light of day. I scanned the horizon for a bit, making sure there were no storm clouds gathering. If there was a day we really needed clear weather, it would be today. Although maybe that would be truer for when we made the big push and brought the most vulnerable people over to the train.

We’d need a lot of luck.

I turned my attention back to the sledge and helped Hannah and Megan unload the supplies. We stashed it and the sledge on the train, in the dining area of the first passenger cart, as it would be close to Fay and whoever was staying behind.

And speaking of that…

“Hannah and I are going to check out the abandoned truck,” I said, giving Megan a significant look to hopefully ward off any frustration she might have about that. Normally in a situation like this, if it was me and two women, they traded off. Since Hannah had gone with me back home and then back to here, now it should be Megan’s turn.

But I wanted Hannah somewhere alone.

Something was bugging her and I could tell, and it was getting worse.

The fact that she grimaced slightly made me even more curious. It was somehow related to me, I think. “I, uh, don’t mind staying here,” she said, awkwardly.

“It’s fine, Fay wants my help anyway,” Megan said, and I relaxed. She was going to help me on this, not give Hannah a way out.

I didn’t particularly like this little subterfuge, but something I’d learned early on: to keep things running smoothly, squash problems as early as possible.

Otherwise they just fester, and then there’s a good chance they’ll blow open and do a lot more damage than they would have.

“I...yeah, okay,” she said, sounding a little defeated, but putting on a smile that was almost convincing.

“Come on,” I said, heading out again.

Hannah followed after me.

~

Now the tension was more obvious than ever.

Hannah seemed actually nervous as we rode out, following the map that Megan had made a few copies of with supplies she’d found in the engine car while we’d been heading back and forth between Pine Lake.

At this point I just felt bad. If we could talk reliably over the sound of the ATV’s engine, I’d ask her during the ride, but we couldn’t. And it felt weird to just stop in the middle of the trip and almost confront her about whatever it was that was bothering her. And from her perspective this just had to feel like torture.

Like when you knew you’d fucked up and you’re riding home with your mom and she’s just waiting to scream at you as soon as you’re behind a closed door.

And I didn’t want her to feel that way at all, but I also didn’t know what was wrong. I didn’t intend to scream at her or anything, but what if she’d done something that would make me mad? Honestly, by the time we found what we were looking for, I was nervous.

We drove over several fields, then hit a road and followed it until I found the mile marker we were looking for.

The transport truck was easy enough to spot.

It had crashed into a ditch some time ago. The back was burst open and from where we sat, it looked like it had already been cleared out.

We stopped the vehicle and got off, drawing our weapons, looking around.

There were some woods off to the right. I scanned them carefully as Hannah checked the other side of the road.

A cold minute passed as we waited for anyone, or anything, to make their move on us.

Nothing did. I relaxed just a little.

“Pull the starter,” I said, trying to keep my voice just a bit north of neutral, relaxed, not angry. Because the suspension was going to go on for even longer, because now we had to search the place to make sure it was safe before talking.

As we started checking, I was suddenly paranoid that it was somehow related to our conversation over lunch. Had she been lying about the whole thing? Did she actually think poorly of me because of my stupid desire?

I tried to tell myself to calm down, I trusted Hannah, and I did, but insecurity was a slippery fish, hard to hold onto and keep under control.

Finally, I was sure we were safe here.

“Okay Hannah,” I said as we came to the back of the wrecked faded green truck, “what’s wrong?”

She looked at me for a long moment, and I thought she was going to try and play it off. I mean, it wouldn’t have worked, but a surprising number of people seriously tried that ‘what do you mean?’ thing, even though it was obvious something was wrong.

“I...found your journal,” she murmured. I felt my heart kick in surprise and anger. Christ, I’d just been thinking about this- “I didn’t read it!” she added quickly, reaching out and taking my hand. That, and the earnestly apologetic look in her eyes, doused the anger as quickly as it appeared. And I noticed something very interesting in that moment, something unique to Hannah: she stepped forward when she saw me angry.

Just about everyone I knew, even the women I currently loved, had either backed off or, at best, stood their ground.

Hannah was definitely the first person in a long time to actually get closer.

“It’s okay,” I said. “But this is what’s bothering you? How’d you find it? When did you find it?”

She sighed. “Last night. I was having insomnia. I couldn’t get to sleep. You and Megan were passed out already. I got up, I didn’t want to wake you. For awhile I just sat by the window, looked outside. I got cold, thought about putting more clothes on, but then I saw your jacket hanging on the wall. I wanted to wake you up, I missed you a lot...I know you were right there, but it’s basically like you aren’t there when you’re sleeping. So instead I pulled your jacket on. I figured you wouldn’t mind. Then I noticed the inside pocket…”

I sighed softly, frowning.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured.

“It’s...fine. It’s just...I’ve never shown it to anyone. Ever. No one knows I have it.”

She paused. “Wait...none of them? Like not even Megan or Delilah? None of them know you keep a journal?”

“No, no one.”

“Oh...God, I feel worse now. It’s this big secret thing and I-”

“It’s not like a huge secret, necessarily. I just-I haven’t told anyone. I don’t even write in it that much anymore. It’s not even like I write deeply personal stuff in there. I just...started writing in it one day, and it made me feel better. And I kept doing it. I haven’t told anyone because...I don’t know. I was thinking maybe I finally should. But I didn’t know if that’d be weird, like with the whole love thing, you know?”

“You didn’t want anyone to feel like they were getting special treatment,” Hannah murmured, looking unhappier than ever. “Like they were loved more...fuck. I didn’t mean to force this, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I know. There was no way you could have known. I’m not mad. And...if you really need me, you can wake me up,” I said.

She sighed and looked away slightly. “You need your sleep. What you’re doing is really important. And taxing.”

I gently reached out and put a finger on her chin, slowly guiding her face back towards me. “What you’re doing is important, too. It’s what we’re doing. And I hate the thought of you awake and miserable. Wake me up. We can talk. Or just sit together by the fire.”

She laughed softly and gave her head a little shake. “I don’t deserve you. Or this.”

“You deserve to be happy, and you have people who care…” I looked at her, considering the situation for a moment. Then abruptly came to a decision. “Do you want to read it?”

“Your journal?” I nodded. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously.”

“I mean, I do. But why?”

“I guess, there is a part of me that wants someone to read it. And besides, you’ll be a great test case. I don’t think there’s anything in there that will piss any of the ladies in my life off, but...if there is, you’ll be sure to let me know.”

She laughed. “Gee thanks...okay, if you really want me to, I will.”

I reached into my pocket and extracted the journal. As I passed it to her, there was definitely a moment of hesitation inside my head, but there was also...a sensation of relief. Like a weight being lifted, one I hadn’t even realized was there.

“Okay, last chance to rescind this offer,” she said, holding the journal, staring at it.

“Read it. I’ll perform the search,” I said.

“Okay. I’m gonna sit on the ATV,” she replied.

I nodded and we both got to our respective duties.

~

I searched the truck inside and out, and the area surrounding it.

There was almost nothing, but there at least wasn’t completely nothing.

I found some loose bullets and matches under the seat in the front cabin, and a snowdrift inside the rear cargo hold was hiding a few cans of food and some silverware. On top of that, the engine was surprisingly intact.

Fay might want a crack at it.

I made sure to take my time, to give her however long she needed. But Hannah seemed to be a fast reader, which should have come as no surprise at all.

When I came back, she had closed the journal, her lips pursed.

“Uh-oh,” I said, only half-joking, “that’s not a great look…”

“It’s...I’m okay,” she replied. “I didn’t really expect to find anything fucked up in there, like you’re secretly an arsonist or something and this is your way of telling me. Honestly, I’m shocked that I didn’t learn anything new about you. I mean, I learned stuff you did, places you visited, but like...no new aspects of your personality. I can easily envision all of this.”

“So what’s wrong then? Or is that it? That I’m boring?” I asked.

She laughed loudly. “Boring?! No, Chris. You aren’t boring, holy shit. You’re the opposite. No, it’s the…” she hesitated, losing her smile.

“It’s the list, isn’t it?” I mean, that had to be it.

She frowned and nodded, not quite meeting my eyes. “Yeah...I counted. There’s over fifty names on the list. I’m guessing...they’re all women you’ve hooked up with?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re obviously still maintaining it. I saw Fay’s name there. Mine. Everyone in the group. I saw a couple of names mixed in there that I didn’t recognize. Like after Delilah’s name. Who’s Hazel?” she asked.

“An older woman I ran into when I first met Megan and Delilah,” I replied. “She...was interested. I was interested. We had fun together.”

“And Dana?”

“A traveling trader Megan, Delilah, and I met while coming to Pine Lake.”

“Abigail? She came after Lara and Susan, so I’m guessing she was someone in the region?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah. She was...remember the first place I ever had you check out?” I asked.

“That farm? Where the married couple moved out from?” Hannah replied. I nodded. “Wait, so...she was married?”

“Yes. But she wasn’t cheating. They had an open relationship.”

“Hmm. I see Rebecca’s name isn’t on there. I thought for sure you managed to find some time to fuck her,” she said.

I hesitated. Why did she want to know this? She didn’t sound particularly happy. “I...was going to. But I wanted to get home. She...offered.”

“Huh.” I waited. She didn’t say anything else. “So...I mean, is this a problem? I’ll be honest, I don’t know how much more sleeping around I’ll be doing. I’m finding more and more that I want to be with women I already know...are you jealous?”

“No...maybe. I don’t know. It’s...weird. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I knew there were more, I figured a lot, but I didn’t know it was that many. It makes me feel...do I bore you? During sex?” she asked suddenly.

“What?! Do I seem bored?” I replied.

“No, but...after this many women. I don’t know. What could I offer?”

I sighed and thought about this for a few seconds, how to say this right. This seemed very crucial that I get it right, and right now, in this moment.

“Hannah...it doesn’t work like that,” I said.

“Doesn’t it? Sex with you is like the most amazing thing of my life, but I’m like the fiftieth girl you’ve fucked.”

“You rank really high,” I said, then wondered if that was the right thing to say. Fuck, I was bad with on the spot shit like this.

That seemed to catch her off guard. “Seriously? How?”

“You just do. The sex we have is amazing. You’re a fucking natural at it. Sexual compatibility is...complicated. It’s not like everyone on that list was amazing. Over half of them were single-time hookups. And believe me, some of them really sucked.” I paused, sighed. “That sounds mean. I just-we weren’t really compatible. But just...don’t worry about it. Stop comparing yourself. We have an amazing sex life, okay? It’s not like I’m faking it when we have sex. You’re an amazing partner. You’re super fucking hot, you’re in fantastic shape, you’ve picked up sucking dick really fast, and also having sex really fast, too. God, when you ride it’s fucking amazing. Just...trust me. This isn’t something to get upset over,” I said.

She looked at me for a few seconds longer, then slowly nodded. “Yeah...you’re right. I’m just feeling insecure right now. And I’m still getting used to...the others. And you’ve been trying to get me to stop heading into that territory. That ‘better than/worse than’ territory, because you’re right, it isn’t healthy. I shouldn’t feed that…” She heaved a long sigh and then hugged me suddenly. “Thank you. For helping me with that. I know I’m a pain in the ass sometimes and I make it hard to take care of me, but...thank you. And thank you for letting me read that. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome,” I replied, kissing the top of her head and hugging her back. “Feel better?”

“Much.”

I accepted the journal back and slipped it into my inner pocket again after the hug, and then started wondering about when would be the best time to show it to the others. Now that I’d shown it to Hannah, I had to.

“You’ll keep quiet about this?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’ve made things complicated enough as it is. I won’t say anything about the journal,” she replied.

“Thank you. Now let’s go back and start working on the train.”

“You find anything here?” she asked as I replaced the starter and got back onto the ATV.

“Some stuff, not much,” I replied.

“Well, better than nothing.”

She climbed onto the ATV as well, grabbed hold of me, and we started back.

Whatever I’d said must have actually worked because Hannah didn’t just seem better by the time we got back to the train, she was in a high spirits.

It was a good thing to see.

Everything back at the train was still basically how we’d left it. Megan had managed to haul a few corpses off of it and now there was a line of seven of them in the dirt outside the train. They looked eerie in the harsh light thrown up by the work light that was still there. (Fay had said it had a long charge and was solar-rechargeable, and given it would help us see coming and going, I figured it’d be fine to leave it going for now.)

We found the two women in the engine car, talking.

“How’d it go?” Fay asked.

“Okay, not much supplies, but the engine seemed mostly intact. I figured you’d want to drive out there and take a look at it at some point,” I replied.

“Yeah, definitely,” she said. “Although it’ll be a bit.”

“Any news?” Hannah asked.

“A little, and it’s good. There is a fraction of power left in a reverse cell, and between it and the batteries I have, it should be enough to run a full diagnostic on the train. The irritating news is that it’s going to take like twelve more hours at least. Nothing much I can do until then.”

“Yeah that’s good news,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck as I considered what to do next. But apparently Megan had an idea of her own.

She stepped closer to me, a look of hope in her eyes. “Can we go out for a drive now? I thought we could visit whatever ‘bus camp’ is.”

“Yeah,” I replied, glancing at Hannah.

“I’m okay staying here,” she said.

“Cool.” Megan grabbed her pack and pulled it on. I gave Hannah a hug and a kiss and said goodbye to Fay, and Megan gave her farewells, though paused at Hannah. “Kiss?” she asked.

Hannah let out a shy, somewhat awkward laugh. “Yeah,” she murmured.

Megan grinned and leaned in, kissing her on the mouth. Hannah seemed to surprise her by reach up and groping her breasts quickly, then deepening the kiss for several long seconds, then stepping back. She let out another laugh, this one a little more breathy.

“We should...have fun tonight,” Hannah murmured.

“We definitely should,” Megan agreed.

“I’m down for fun,” Fay said. “Though just with Chris.”

“We can take turns with him,” Megan replied.

“Awesome.”

I started to say something but Megan gave me a little push towards the door. “Yeah we know, you’re very happy about this prospect, but it needs to be tonight. Not now.”

They were getting a little too good at reading me.

~

Megan wanted to drive so she took the wheel and took us out along the path that would take us to the bus camp. She also seemed to be in a good mood and I imagined we all were going to be until something shitty happened.

Things were finally looking up.

We managed to make it out there without running into any difficulties. The place in question turned out to be a pretty simple and straightforward encampment of a pair of old faded yellow buses parked right next to each other and heavily modified. Most of the windows had been covered and when we got inside, we found that the interior resembled more of a camper than a bus. The interior walls of each bus, where the two buses met, had been removed, and a mixture of corrugated siding, wooden, and tattered old blankets made up a handful of rooms. The place had obviously been abandoned for some time.

There were holes in the walls, a few scattered shell casings, some blood, and a lot of trash around. The place had been attacked and ransacked awhile ago, just like so many other places I found myself exploring.

“So what was Hannah’s deal?” Megan asked. “She seemed a lot happier when you came back, did you two fuck?”

I laughed. “No, we didn’t fuck. She was…” I considered how to put it. “She was feeling insecure. We talked.”

“Seriously?” Megan asked. She hesitated, then sighed. “I mean, I’d say ‘what the fuck does she have to be insecure about’, but I also remember being twenty. Fuck, I’m still insecure.”

“What the fuck do you have to be insecure about?” I replied.

She laughed. “Not as much, now. I’ve worked through a lot of shit...I think. Ugh. It’s hard to tell if I’ve worked through my insecurities, or if they just aren’t being provoked.”

“I understand that,” I murmured. Should I tell her about the journal now? I felt like she’d be one of the few who’d actually care, like seriously care, whether I told her earlier or later. All at once, I decided to. “There’s something I should tell you...it’s about what Hannah and I talked about while we were out there.”

“Uh...okay, now you have me worried,” she murmured, looking back over her shoulder at me from where she was crouched, exploring a pile of debris.

“It’s nothing bad. Just...personal. To me.”

“Oh...all right. What is it?”

“I have a journal. And I’ve never told anyone about it. At all. Hannah found it on accident, and felt bad about finding it. That’s why she was acting weird.”

“Oh…” Megan said, and blushed suddenly while looking guilty.

“Wait, do you know about it too!?” I asked, suddenly irritated. How many of them knew about it?! Fuck, I was bad at keeping secrets apparently.

“Yes, I’m sorry,” she replied immediately, standing up. “I...was spying on you. Once.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Yes...I’m sorry, Chris. It was just one time. And I’m sorry.”

“When?” I replied, now genuinely curious.

“It was a week before you left. You were in the bathroom. The door doesn’t shut all the way. There’s a tiny crack of space. I wanted to know what you were doing in there. You thought I was asleep. But I was just...I mean, I had no idea what you were doing. What you would do in private that you wouldn’t do in front of us beyond like obvious stuff? Like taking a piss. By then I’d figured out that there was a difference between you going in there to go to the bathroom and when you went in there to do...whatever it was you did.”

“Now I’m curious, what did you think I was doing?” I asked.

“I don’t know! That’s what bugged me. I mean you drank and smoked weed in front of me. I thought maybe masturbating? That was my only real thought. But then why wouldn’t you just wake me up for sex? Or Delilah? I guess I was also a little worried maybe it was something else...like harder drugs? But that seemed unlikely, you didn’t show any signs, and where would you even get them?...I was worried, and curious, and a little scared. But I saw you writing in a little book and realized you were just writing in a journal and that was just...really normal. So I went back to sleep and never said anything.”

“You never wanted to know what I was writing?” I asked.

“I mean, yeah, but I didn’t have like this burning desire. I never felt like there was anything you’d hide from me. I figured you just wanted to be alone and write some shit down. But it was none of my business, so I never said anything...I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing,” I said. “I forgive you. It’s not like it’s a big deal. I don’t even really know why I keep it...you can read it, if you want. Fair warning, there’s a list of every woman I’ve fucked since I started keeping it.”

“Oh really?” she asked. “Are there like, scores?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

I shrugged. “I mean it’d be meaningless. Except for the occasional lame lay, a lot of the sex I’ve had has been awesome and fun. It’d be a bunch of tens and the occasional three or four. Seems kind of meaningless.”

“Okay, that makes sense,” she said.

“You can read it, if you want.”

“Thank you, I appreciate that. And I will. Tonight. After sex.”

“All right.”

She got up suddenly and came over to me, wrapped me in a tight hug. “I’m sorry I spied on you.”

I laughed and hugged her back. “I already forgave you, stop feeling bad. And besides, it wouldn’t be the first time.”

She groaned and pulled, staring up at me in vague irritation. “Of course you’d have to remind me of that.”

“You’re the one that fucking spied on me fucking wrecking Delilah’s pussy,” I replied.

“You’re the one who was loud as fuck about it.”

“Delilah was loud as fuck about it.”

“Yeah, thanks to you.”

“Fair point...okay, come on, let’s finish searching this place,” I said.

It was slow going, picking over the remains of an encampment that had probably been occupied, abandoned, and picked over fifty times already. You’d think it would have long since been emptied out, but people brought new stuff in, forgot it. Or it was left behind if they were forced out in a hurry. Or killed, and some of their stuff was overlooked.

The biggest find was a hidden compartment that held what looked to be a little survival bundle: flares and matches, a tightly packed medical kit, some food, a canteen, some nine millimeter bullets, a hunting knife, a few other odds and ends.

I added it to my pack and right as I finished pulling the pack back on, caught movement outside a nearby window.

Slowly reaching for my rifle, I quickly determined it was a deer.

“What is it?” Megan whispered, appearing silently at my side. “Oh,” she murmured, before I could answer.

“Think we got time to gut?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she replied. “Solar cells need a bit more recharging.”

“Okay then.”

I carefully aimed at the deer that was about seventy yards away, across an open field, just inside the treeline of a nearby forest.

Its ears pricked up and it looked in our direction the second before I squeezed the trigger.

The shot echoed across the landscape as the deer dropped.

“Perfect,” I muttered, slinging the rifle over my shoulder. “We about done here?”

“Yeah,” Megan replied.

“Okay.”

We wrapped up our search, then took a moment to make sure we were still alone in the area, and then started walking over to the deer.

As we did, I noticed Megan’s mood seemed to be souring.

“You okay?” I asked as we reached the corpse and studied it. It had been a good, clean shot. I pulled out my hunting knife, dropped to my knees, and got to work while she stood guard, making sure no one, or wolves, snuck up on us.

“I’m just...pissed,” she muttered.

“About?”

“Oh, nothing related to you or us. Nothing relevant, really.”

“Tell me about it,” I replied. “This isn’t exactly fun work.”

She laughed softly. “Yeah. All right. I guess...I don’t know, I was thinking about the government. And the military. And the apocalypse. I mean...it’s like, what was the point?”

“Of what?”

“Of all that money? That power? Those resources? What the fuck was the point of having trillions of dollars, entire agencies and departments literally designed to help people in crisis and emergencies, built up and reinforced over decades? What the fuck was the point of training tens of thousands of people in medicine, technology, combat, construction, rescue operations, a hundred other things? What was the point of having the most technologically advanced network of aid the world had ever seen if it led to all of fucking this?” she snapped, raising one arm to encompass the frozen wasteland surrounding us.

“I mean, it’s not like I expected them to pull some miracle Hollywood magic cure out of their ass that saved the whole world and made everything go back to normal. But I’ve seen a lot, and everything fell apart in less than a year. Billions died. Like, they were supposed to be super powerful. What the fuck happened to ‘the best nation on Earth’? What happened to that all that fucking chest-pounding rhetoric about how we can handle anything? They had the goddamned resources! They had the people, the equipment, the food and medicine and building materials and transportation! But it collapsed like a house of fucking cards, like fucking dominoes.”

I sighed. “It’s just human nature.”

“How’s that, exactly?”

“The government and the military, the chain of command, the systems, they’re supposed to transcend human weakness. But they don’t, not really. Maybe there were times when we could’ve handled something like this, but not anytime this century. There’s a million different reasons why it all went to hell so fast, but I think most of it was the fact that the politicians had gotten to the point where they’d stopped even pretending it wasn’t about the money and the power. They never gave two fucks about the common person. They never gave a single shit about infrastructure and reform and law. Not unless they could directly profit from it. Probably some of them did, but I think most of them have spent decades slowly decaying the system from within, gradually eroding it by repealing some laws, passing new ones…

“It’s all sneaky, you know? They slip in a law that changes the taxes for corporations less than a percent one year, then do it again three years down the line, then again, and again. Each time mixed in with a lot of other laws, so no one notices. Or if they do notice, it gets lost in the mayhem because eight hundred other things happened all over the world that day and the fucking twenty-four hour news cycle won’t shut the fuck up about stupid bullshit because they’re in it for the money too. So these laws pass and suddenly corporations are paying barely any taxes at all, but the average person is paying taxes out the ass, and most of those taxes goes right into politician’s pockets. How many times were they allowed to basically investigate themselves anytime a crime or corruption scandal came up, and they conveniently found themselves innocent?

“It’s an ocean eating away a foundation over years, decades. It’s ten thousand different people each taking some for themselves. Bit by bit. Year by year. Law by law. Sometimes big, but mostly small. And clearly they got a lot braver in the last two decades, because they realized they could get away with so much more. Because more politicians were just brazenly, openly lying and breaking laws, and no one was stopping them. They just got away with it. And the voters defended them. So more started doing it. So when an actual emergency came, they were so busy stuffing money into their pockets, and probably stealing supplies for their own personal mansions or bunkers or whatever, that there wasn’t much of a real response. I know the National Guard and FEMA and others made a good effort. There were all those refugee camps, but yeah, we could’ve had this in the bag. We sure had enough resources for it. But no, they fought, or ran, or panicked, and now we have this.”

“I fucking hate humanity,” Megan muttered.

“Well who knows? Surely some of the other countries are doing a lot better. Hell, maybe there’s portions of America that are still basically functionally as they were before? I’ve heard of places like that. It’s disappointing, and infuriating, and depressing. We could have prevented billions of deaths. Kind of easily, too. That’s the most frustrating part. But we didn’t, because we’re greedy and petty. Or, I guess more significantly, we put greedy, petty pieces of shit in charge and then got surprised when they did an awful job.”

“I’d say you and Lisa give me hope, but honestly I know that you’re the exception, not the rule. More places are run like dictatorships than what we’ve got,” Megan said.

“Maybe...maybe not. It’s like way easier to just straight up fucking murder someone if they’re running your village into the ground. Ruling through fear can definitely be effective but...bullet’s a bullet, a human is just a human. Shoot them in the head and they’ll die just like anyone else. Dictatorships tend to crumble on smaller scales. Piss off enough people and they’ll shoot anyone who you convinced to guard you while you sleep, either that or they’ll convince them otherwise.” I shrugged. “I can’t imagine anyone wants to kill Lisa.”

“Yeah, and a lot of people would fight for her. I would.” She paused. “I wonder how many people wanna kill you.”

“That’s seriously a question?”

“Well...kill’s a strong word. Stab you in the head and somehow take what you’ve got?”

“That’s still kill. That’s worse. That’s kill and replace.”

“A lot of people are jealous of you.”

“I wish they wouldn’t be,” I muttered as I kept cutting into the deer.

“Why?”

“Because envy is bitter. It’s corrosive, caustic. I’ve felt it before. It’s awful. I don’t like hurting people. I just want to live my life and help people.”

Megan was silent for a few seconds. “Yeah...you’re right. Envy is awful. It’s-a lot of negative shit can come from it. It hurts.” She sighed. “I envy Hannah...but not as much as I would have even a few months ago.”

“You’ve changed,” I said.

“Have I?”

“You have. You’re calmer, you’re more confident. Don’t take this the wrong way, but a lot of your previous confidence seemed to stem from anger. It was more...aggression than confidence. But now your confidence stems from, well, confidence. You believe in yourself. I can see it.”

“Well...you’re my inspiration,” she murmured.

“I don’t know how to feel about that.”

She sighed. “Fuck’s sake, Chris. Feel good. You’re amazing. You inspire me to be a better person. I love you.”

“I love you, too. I’ll take your word for the rest,” I replied.

“Uh-huh.”

I kept on working.

The rest of the day played out pretty blandly, as far as post-apocalyptic days went.

We got the meat and then headed back to the train with our haul. Nothing had happened in our absence, and the process was still running. There had been a positive development though: Fay discovered that she could fix the radio.

She did and suddenly we were in touch with Pine Lake.

We gave a few updates, got a few updates, nothing major. The first group had been hand-selected, but a storm was beginning to brew up and they were taking longer than expected to put together all the gear they wanted to bring out, so they were going to wait until tomorrow to walk out. Which was a safe bet, as far as I was concerned.

So we locked down the train for the night and settled in to work.

Fay gave us one of the spare batteries she had, showed us how to hook it up quickly and efficiently to a given door to provide enough juice to open it up, and that’s what Hannah, Megan, and I spent most of the rest of the night doing.

I wanted all the doors opened at least once for a quick check, to make sure we were really safe. No one had heard or seen anything so far, but it was better safe than sorry. It was tedious work, but it went fast enough.

Most of the rooms we came across were bedrooms, a few were storage areas, and each car had its own utility room that apparently helped maintain power and water filtration. Those, I imagined, were going to be important.

Between the bathrooms, the bedrooms, the utilities, and the storage, we had ourselves a fully functioning mobile base of operations.

Practically a mobile settlement.

Well, provided it actually started moving.

Unfortunately, due to the way the diagnostic was running, we couldn’t actually see a list of how each thing checked out until it was finished. Stupid fucking design but hey, what did I know? I wasn’t a programmer.

It was obvious someone had come through and cleared the rooms out at some point, either that or the place just wasn’t all that occupied to begin with. Maybe they’d been in the midst of some kind of exodus? Either way, a lot of the bedrooms were bare. Though several of them had wood-burning stoves installed, with exhaust affixed professionally to the single window each cabin had, so that was nice. When we got back to the very last car, it became obvious that this was a bit more upscale. There were fewer rooms, but they were larger.

When we got to the last one, I knew right away I wanted it.

“We’re so calling this,” Hannah said after we’d cleared it. It was twice the size of a normal cabin, had been cleared out to make way for a custom-made king-size bed, had its own wood-burning stove that was also bigger than normal, a pair of dressers, a table with some chairs around it, a desk...it was cramped, but basically the lap of luxury as far as post-apocalyptic living went.

“I’m okay with that,” Megan said.

“Hopefully people won’t get too upset,” I murmured. “Although you realize we can’t realistically call this room. We’ll need a few other people living in here.”

“There isn’t space!” Hannah complained.

“If we shifted things around a bit and maybe stacked the dressers in the corner, used something to fix them in place, we could bring another bed in. Maybe Lara and Susan would be good. I just feel bad about only three of us living in here…”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Hannah sighed.

“It’ll be fun,” Megan said.

“I hope so. Otherwise it’ll just be cramped and unhappy.”

“Come on, let’s finish up and then we can settle in for the night. I’m reasonably sure I can convince you three into a foursome,” I said.

“Oh really?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah. It’s a foursome if all three of you get naked and take turns riding me,” I said.

“...he’s not wrong,” Megan murmured with a smirk.

“You two are so fucking slutty,” Hannah said, staring back at us.

“And you aren’t? You’ve fucked Chris half to death since I’ve met you, let alone how much you were doing it before then.”

“Yeah but he took my virginity barely a month ago and sex is fucking amazing and I’m so fucking horny all the time now!” Hannah snapped.

“So then you know what it’s like,” I replied.

“What, so it just never goes away? I’m going to be this horny forever?”

“Not forever,” Megan replied with a shrug. “But for the next twenty years? Thirty? Forty? Maybe.”

“Besides what are you bitching about? Being this horny is a good thing,” I said.

“I’m not bitching,” she growled, crossing her arms. “Just...observing.”

“Uh-huh.”

“That being said, yes, let’s hurry up, I’m fucking horny.”

“Now who’s the slut?” Megan asked.

“You...are gonna make me do some things,” Hannah murmured.

“Oh yeah? You realize that’s just incentive, right? Unless that wasn’t sexual, because that sounded really sexual.”

“I...it was...let’s just go,” Hannah said, and walked out of the room.

“You’re having fun,” Megan murmured, when she realized I’d taken to simply watching them.

“Lots,” I agreed.

We went out of after Hannah.

~

We finally finished clearing the train, and then managed to get the rear cart open, revealing the mostly-empty cargo bay. We rolled both of the ATVs up into the bay, firstly just to make sure we could, (there was indeed a ramp and it worked fine), but also because I was paranoid of leaving them out there all night, even in the tunnel and even with the starters in our pockets. With that done, the diagnostic had barely hit halfway.

So we made sure the train was locked down, then sequestered ourselves in our new bedroom.

We made a decent meal from the provisions we’d brought along with us, sitting around and talking of hopes and dreams about what the immediate future might hold. It was a nice conversation, if a little unrealistic.

But that’s what you had to let yourself do sometimes: hope for unrealistically good things.

We still didn’t even know if the train would work.

Let alone take us to where we needed to go. So many things could go wrong, so many obstacles, known and unknown, sat between us and our goal.

And even if we got there, more or less intact, and they welcomed us with open arms…

We still had to carve out a living in a grim frozen wasteland of a world that probably was slowly dying permanently.

Although fuck, I suppose some of that was always true, at least for us in the most recent few decades. We just didn’t see it coming.

No, that wasn’t true. We saw it coming, we just didn’t want to believe it, or didn’t care.

“So...uh...now what?” Hannah asked after the food was gone and the conversation had died down and it became obvious where this was heading.

“Now we get naked, wash up, and have sex,” Megan replied. “Unless someone’s changed their mind about it?”

“No, I’m still down,” Fay said. “Although to reiterate: I don’t wanna do anything with you or Hannah, really. I’m basically just into guys and honestly I’m not that sexual any. I am horny tonight, though, so I’m good to take turns riding dick. All good?”

“All good,” Megan said. “Hannah? You look nervous.”

“I’m...shy,” she replied awkwardly.

“Really? Because that’s not been the case with me,” Megan replied.

“It’s different with you! We’re...basically dating. Fay is...hot. And scary.”

“Why am I scary?” Fay asked.

“You’re really fucking smart and hot and good at shit,” Hannah replied.

“I wondered if this was gonna be a thing,” I said.

“A thing?” Megan asked.

“Hannah?” I replied, looking at her.

She sighed. “I...get nervous. Around people that I feel...challenge me, on a certain level. Because I’m so used to not being challenged. And yes I know how fucking arrogant that sounds.”

“No, I mean that makes sense, you’re a fucking genius survivalist model,” Fay replied. “Honestly I don’t even know why you’re intimidated by me.”

“I’m not a genius and I guess I could’ve been a model, but that seems to mean hardly anything nowadays.”

“Don’t play dumb, Hannah,” I said. “Lara and Delilah and Jess-well, they could tell me to jump and I’d ask ‘how high?’ if they were promising sex at the end of it. Beauty is power.”

“He’s right,” Fay said. “It’s easy to talk people into stuff if you’re hot. Mostly guys. I mean you have to know how to defend yourself to stop them from just trying to take what they want from you, but yeah, being attractive makes people so much easier to manipulate.”

“I guess I just reject that. I don’t want people to do something for me because I’m hot, I want people to do something for me because I asked or because they want to be kind,” Hannah replied. “But...whatever, I don’t want to talk about this crap right now. I’m horny, too. So, yeah, I’m down to fuck.”

“So Chris lays down and we take turns riding until we get off?” Megan asked.

“Fine by me,” Fay said.

“Yep,” Hannah agreed.

“If you all are gonna use me I’m going to come inside of all three of you tonight. No complaints,” I said, taking off my shirt.

“If you think you can bust three times in one night then by all means,” Fay said.

“You should not have called his bluff on that,” Hannah murmured.

“Yeah, he totally can,” Megan agreed.

“Seriously?” Fay asked.

“Seriously,” I replied.

“Jeez...well I guess that makes enough sense. All right, let’s do it.”

We stripped, we washed, and I ended up on my back in our new big bed, eager to break it in. And it got broken in. I found myself lost amidst a sea of wonderfully soft, hot skin and breasts and touching hands as all they took turns kissing and touching me and each other. (Fay did a little kissing with both of them, so it seemed it wasn’t completely out of the question, and it was amazing to watch.) Before long Hannah was riding my tongue while Fay and Megan got down and started taking turns sucking me off.

Hannah moaned loudly, writhing atop me as I gripped her thighs and licked her clit. I pleasured her until Fay wanted a turn riding, and then Hannah joined Megan in licking my cock and bobbing her head smoothly, sucking me off with the skills that Megan, Lara, and Delilah had been teaching her for the past few weeks.

She was a faster learner there, too.

Fay joined her and Megan took up straddling my face after that, and it was wonderfully pleasant to feel her running her fingers through my hair, listen to her moan in sheer bliss, see the way she writhed and twisted in pleasure as I licked her.

And their mouths were hot, wet pockets of paradise, bringing me to the edge of orgasm several times.

I was confident I could come three times, although I was a lot less sure about four. It was sheer will I managed not to bust in their mouths, although I came close to coming in Fay’s. Partially because she was so clearly trying to make me come, and also because I wanted to just unload in her mouth for the way she was pushing my buttons.

I got to experience each of them over the next hour as they took turns riding me, bouncing on me, their perfect tits bouncing in sync with them and the rhythm of our lovemaking. Each woman was unique and wonderful, her own feel, her own style, her own beauty. Fay was smooth and confident, a satisfied little smile on her face when she climbed onto me, took me inside of her, and started to put her slim thigh muscles to use.

Megan was, as usual, aggressive and hedonistic, throwing herself into the sex with total abandon, getting off on it as much as on the fact that other people were involved and watching.

Hannah was surprisingly awkward about it, at least at first, but she soon began to ride me with her own form of aggression, more an intensity than anything else. And it became obvious that she was slipping into her own personal fetish pretty quickly. In her mind, I could almost see her thoughts: imagining that she was forcing Megan and Fay to watch as she fucked me better than they had. And, well…

I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but I think she might be right.

In the end, though, I did indeed come inside of all three of them.

Although goddamn did it ever take it out of me.

~

“Okay, come on Fay, the suspense is fucking killing us,” Megan complained.

“Just shut up for a minute,” Fay replied with an intensity that surprised all of us.

Silence fell as she stared intently at the screen, her eyes flicking back and forth as she absorbed and digested the information. She was also writing furiously onto a journal without looking at it as she scanned the screen, one hand working the keyboard, one hand writing.

Goddamn she was talented.

I looked out the window of the engine car, seeing nothing but darkness.

The sun was up by now, though not by much. We’d passed out early, not long after the foursome, and it had been a long day.

There’d been a lot of long days recently.

Consequently, Hannah and I were up early, Fay and Megan not much later. After a quick wash, Fay had grabbed a can of tuna and run off to see how the diagnostic had turned out. Hannah, Megan, and I took a bit more time to wash after I fucked both of them, (even after last night and with a ton to do today, I was too horny not to), grabbing breakfast to give Fay some time to look over the results. But even after nearly an hour she still wasn’t finished.

“Okay,” Fay said after several more long minutes. “Sorry. I do not like distractions when I’m working. I need to mention that now.”

“Sorry,” Megan replied.

“It’s fine. Right now...I don’t have a solid answer, but close to one,” she said, turning in the swivel chair and looking at us.

I resisted the urge to groan in frustration. “Okay, so what’s the answer?”

“I’m mostly sure we can get this thing running, and I’m...halfway sure that it can make it to where we need to go. Or at least as far as this line can take us. According to the map, the rails will take us to within about fifteen miles of the island we’re looking for. Unfortunately, all of this relies on certain things, a lot of factors. The biggest factor is: can I find the parts and tools necessary to repair this train?”

“So let’s say we get a best case scenario: we find all the parts, all the tools, and you manage to fix everything wrong with the train. Then what?” I asked.

“Everything wrong that I’m capable of fixing. Some of this is beyond me, and almost certainly it’s beyond anyone else we have access to. Either that, or it’s too complex and the parts are too rare. However, best case scenario: we have a very, very good chance of getting the train to turn on and go, and maybe a sixty percent chance of it going all the way.”

“What kind of odds of it going like...halfway?” Hannah asked.

She sighed. “I don’t know. That’s the problem. Too many unknowns, too many unpredictable situations. Decent? That’s the best I can do.”

“So the next order of business is finding the parts,” I said.

Fay nodded. “Yeah. I want to check with Lisa about the parts, make sure she’s dug into my stash and is going to send it out. See where we’re at with searching the ruins, the junkyard camp, maybe if Brandy’s turned anything up with trading. But that’s all stuff other people can do. Once we confirm that, I want you, Chris, to take me out to those two places you visited earlier. Those both had vehicles, with engines, and other parts that might be useful, then I wanna check that radio tower.”

“Okay then, let’s do it,” I said.

As I powered across the snow-blasted Kansas desolation, I felt damned good.

Fay’s prognosis of the train hadn’t exactly been what I was looking for, as I preferred more definitive answers, but it was a huge step in the right direction.

My conversation with Lisa had gone well.

The wrecked remains of the burned part of Pine Lake, as well as all the outlying buildings, had been, to her satisfaction, searched. We hadn’t found all that much, but a big bonus was: no one had gotten hurt in the process.

The people at the junkyard were in the process of basically strip-mining the surrounding area for supplies and food of any kind to help with the journey to come.

They hadn’t had a chance to get up to Brandy’s again yet.

But probably most significantly, the first team was coming out, and they were loaded down with just about every spare part, mechanical bit, and tool that they had found. Including Fay’s stuff. Lara and Susan were also among the people who were being sent out with the first team, so that was nice. I was looking forward to seeing them again.

Fay and I had told Lisa the relatively good news about the train, though we didn’t really emphasize the uncertainty of it all for the sake of her sanity, and then we’d geared up and headed out, leaving Hannah and Megan behind to guard and continue to prep the train.

The day was clear again and it felt interesting to be out with just Fay once more.

She seemed thrilled to be riding on the ATV again, and I know I was. I’d half expected her to ask to drive it, but she seemed content to be driven around.

We arrived at the wrecked vehicle first and she immediately dug into the engine, breaking out her toolkit while I stood guard.

An hour passed while she worked, occasionally muttering to herself, sometimes cursing sharply, but otherwise working in silence.

When I did watch her work (from a distance, she hated people looking over her shoulder, or anything close to that), I again began to get a feel for just why Hannah was so intimidated by Fay. I’d seen flashes of it since meeting her, but I was beginning to suspect that Fay was the kind of smart that you didn’t get to see very often.

Not just gifted, but like ‘I got a masters by the time I was seventeen’ smart.

Or like ‘could win the Nobel Prize’ smart.

Genius, in other words.

Or maybe I was overblowing it and she was just really smart, and I was just average. Or below average? Shit, I don’t know.

Intelligence was one of those things I’d never really figured out, and I’d gotten the impression most of the rest of humanity hadn’t either.

I’d seen some dumb shit come out of really smart, sharp people’s mouths and I’d met some really wise but kinda dumb people.

I’m not even sure how they managed that.

“Okay, done,” Fay said abruptly, sealing up her backpack and pulling it on.

“You get anything good?” I asked as we headed back to the ATV.

“A few things, nothing great, but definitely a few items that will be useful,” she replied.

“Cool. You wanna drive?” I asked as we got back and I started replacing the starter.

“Not really.”

“Interesting. I thought for sure you would.”

Fay shrugged. “Chris, after spending so much of my life doing fucking everything by myself, it’s honestly really nice to have friends I can actually trust and rely on do some of that stuff for me, if that makes sense.”

“Yeah I get it,” I said. I hopped on.

“I guess you were doing a lot of the same. You don’t really have anyone who does stuff for you, do you? It seems like you do a lot of the stuff.” She climbed on and hugged me from the back.

“No, my girlfriends do a lot for me. There is a pretty good benefit to being in a relationship,” I replied.

“Hmm...maybe,” she said.

We put on our goggles and headed off to the second site.

~

“You look like something’s bugging you,” I said as I pulled the starter.

The second site, the abandoned bus camp, had been, according to Fay, a little more fruitful. But not by much. She seemed happy enough with the results, but I could sense a growing shift in her on the way back, and her expression when we finally got back and parked outside the tunnel to let the ATV recharge for awhile was sour.

“The radio tower,” she replied, turning and looking off into the distance. To the northeast. I followed her gaze and spied the tower in question. It was built high onto a hill, what looked to be hundreds of feet in the air, presiding over a dead forest, itself a dead monolith of frozen steel and technology.

“What about it? That’s our next stop, right?” I replied.

“Yeah. I had a chance to read over some of their logs. They said the only way they found to access the tower was a network of caves in the hill beneath it, leading up.”

“All right. Is there a problem with the caves?” I asked.

She continued staring at the tower in the distance. “I don’t know, there wasn’t anything in there about problems or danger, but it’s been a year. But the problem...I don’t like caves. Not anymore. Something changed on the trip out to the bunker.”

For the first time since we’d met, I could tell she was truly uncomfortable. Afraid. “What changed? What do you mean?”

She sighed. “I don’t really know. I’ve never really had a phobia before. I mean spiders freak me out but nothing like crazy. I can kill them without much of a problem. But...I was semiconscious during the bear attack, and that, and the sickness, and the caves we had to go through, the storm, the wolves...I don’t know. It all kind of ran together, and now the idea of going into a cave freaks me out. My stomach knots up and my heart speeds up just thinking about it. And I have to go. I can’t not go, I’m realistically the only one who can strip the tower for the parts we need. And from what I can tell, there’s not another obvious way up from the side...but,” and here she turned to look at me, “I will go. I’ll do it. I just wanted you to...you know, be aware.”

“I appreciate that,” I replied. “If there’s something in there, we’ll protect you. Hannah, Megan, and I are probably the best fighters in town. And you’re not too bad a shot yourself.”

“I know, I just…” she sighed.

“What?”

“It’s stupid. I didn’t want you to think less of me.”

“Why would I?”

“Because I’m scared of a fucking cave.”

“I mean caves are scary,” I replied, stepping closer. I put a hand on her hip, and wondered if that was too familiar. Even though we’d had sex twice now and shared a bed, I still wasn’t sure about how she felt about touching or contact outside of that context. But she seemed fine with it. “I don’t like them. Honestly, I think more of you because of this.”

She laughed softly. “You don’t seem the type to placate.”

“I’m not.”

“This seems like placating. Just trying to make me feel better.”

“I’m really not,” I replied. “I mean think about it: you just owned up to a fear, and you’re going to face it down anyway because people need you and you’re a reliable person. That’s brave. I mean come on, you have to know bravery isn’t never feeling fear, it’s feeling fear and doing what needs to be done anyway.”

“...yeah. I do know that. I guess it’s just easy to forget.” She looked up at me for a long moment, staring hard at me as we stood there in the cold. She took my other hand. “I know it may not seem like it, but it’s actually a pretty big deal that I trust you as much as I do. I don’t really let people in. Physically, but also emotionally. Emotionally it’s rare. It’s surface level with basically everyone. You just...I don’t know, man. I feel a bit of a kinship. We’re a lot alike.”

“Except you’re way smarter.”

“You’re probably smarter than you realize. I mean I am smarter but I was just lucky to be born with a fast brain and a desire to learn and then got access to good schooling. But you get shit. You’re on it. You get concepts pretty fast. You’re quick. I like it.” She laughed and blushed. “Plus you literally swept me off my feet and carried me quite a ways and saved my life in a pretty heroic way and you’re also really good-looking.”

“It was probably less heroic than you think and I’m not good-looking,” I replied.

“God, you are bad at taking compliments,” she said, reaching out and giving me a playful shove.

“Yeah, I know, I just...don’t know what to feel. Thanks, though. I at least know what I’m supposed to say,” I replied awkwardly.

Fay sighed softly, twisting her lips. “Yeah, I know how you feel, actually.” She glanced behind me, into the tunnel. “I think I hear people.”

“Yeah,” I replied, nodding to several tracks of prints leading into the tunnel, “I think the team got here. We should go see how they’re doing, make sure they’re settled in, and then…” I looked off at the distant radio tower again, “get this over with.”

“We should,” she agreed. “It’ll be better once it’s done.”

We headed into the tunnel. I did indeed hear people as we got closer, their voices echoing. For one awful moment I found myself wondering if we were wrong, if it was a completely random group of raiders looking for trouble.

I rested my hands on the MP5 as we approached from the rear of the train, the tension building in me as it became obvious that at least some people were in the tunnel with us, and I saw flickering firelight thrown up on the wall beside the main entrance.

Then I relaxed as I heard a familiar voice laughing and, stepping into view, spied Susan and Lara sitting beside a fire they’d started in the dirt.

“Chris!” Lara said, shooting to her feet and jogging over. Susan was hot on her heels. “You’re back! Did it go okay?” she asked, wrapping her arms around me.

We kissed and then I hugged Susan, picking her up off the ground and making her shriek a little, then laugh as we kissed.

“It went okay,” I replied. “Got some stuff, need to hit another spot now. How are you?”

“We’re good. The trip out here went okay. There was one point where some wolves came after us, but we bagged two of them, scared the rest off, got some more meat now,” Susan replied.

“Nice. How are things back at home?” I asked.

“So different,” Lara said. “Everyone knows about it now. Lisa had an official, like, meeting, and told everyone. Oh! Also! We heard back from the prepper people. They’ve decided that if we can get to them, and we seem on the ball, they’ll accept us!”

“Thank fucking God,” Fay muttered.

“That’s another thing off the list, at least,” I said.

“Yeah. So, like...where are we at?” Susan asked. “Megan and Hannah couldn’t seem to give a straight answer.”

“Short answer: don’t know yet, but we’ll probably be able to get it to run, and it might be able to take us close to where we need to go,” Fay replied.

“...huh, that’s close to what they said, actually. I thought something had gotten lost in translation or something,” Susan said.

“We’re about to go make more progress,” I said.

“Cool! You got any orders?” Lara asked. “Because Hannah and Megan had us start cleaning the place, getting it ready, but they mostly seemed to want to wait until you got back.”

“Yeah, I’ve got a few ideas,” I replied. “Go round everyone up in the diner of the first car, will you?”

“On it,” Lara said, and both of them hurried off into the train.

Fay and I followed them up and headed towards the front. We checked the engine car but no one was in there, so we waited in the diner of the first car. I popped a few joints and my neck, then sat down, letting out a sigh of relief. I was used to going hard and long days, but there’d been a lot of them recently, and I’d also had my ass whupped a lot lately. My back and neck ached, my knees hurt, I’d done something to one of my feet and now it hurt if I stepped wrong, and my bullet wound from the battle for Pine Lake still twinged every now and then. And I felt like I still hadn’t fully recovered from the trip to find Megan and Fay, which had happened immediately following a week-long or so walk across the countryside and a big ass fight with a group of assholes.

It was like it never fucking ended.

Except that I knew it would settle down eventually. Probably. I mean I guess it had to, one way or the other.

Didn’t really have an alternative, though.

Susan and Lara returned with everyone else. I recognized a few of the people who’d been sent up with the first group. Two of them were good hunters that I knew. Drew, a pale man with a big, bushy beard and a short but stocky build, and Brie, who was roughly Lisa’s build with short-cut, wild red hair. Both were excellent hunters, though I admitted Brie made me nervous. She had proven effective enough while we’d assaulted the assholes harassing Pine Lake in the overlook all those months ago, and she’d never caused any problems since, but she’d always struck me as a little unstable. Like she might do something nuts.

But she never had, as far as I knew. By now, I just had sympathy for the situation.

How I felt about her must be how people felt about me, that I just looked dangerous in some capacity. Although I guess it was a little true for me, so maybe it was for her.

But she was a great shot and a hard worker, and I trusted her well enough.

I’d always thought we’d end up sharing a bed at least once, and some of the looks she’d given me seemed to indicate she might be receptive to it, but it just hadn’t happened and for whatever reason I’d never actually pursued her.

No time for that now, though.

“All right everyone, listen up. Megan, Hannah, Fay, and I are going to head out now with the ATVs. We’re going to that radio tower you can see off in the distance. We’ll probably be gone most of the day. If you absolutely need to get to us, or we don’t come back after twenty four hours, there’s a map in the engine room of how to get there. There’s also a radio in the engine room you can use to contact Lisa and Pine Lake,” I explained.

“We called them,” Hannah offered helpfully.

I nodded. “Perfect. In the meantime, Susan’s in charge. She knows what she’s doing. Drew, Brie, I want you to pick out two people and go on a hunting expedition. Check the map in the engine car, there’s some territory not far from here marked for hunting. I want your opinion of it, see if we can utilize it while we’re fixing this train, bulk up our reserves as much as possible.”

“You got it,” Drew replied, and Brie nodded tightly.

“I want someone on guard by that fire at all times. Armed. Two hour shifts. You gotta take a shit, you flag someone down and have them take over for you. None of this wandering away, ‘oh it’ll just be two minutes’ bullshit. We’ve all seen that movie. This is a potentially dangerous place. We haven’t seen anyone, but we don’t know who’s around or what they might be up to. Pay attention. Everyone else, your job is to get this train in shape for a drive. Meaning clean it up. Find the corpses, get them out. You see blood, scrub it away. This is going to be our home for we don’t really know how long, make it feel like a home.

“We’re going to be living in these rooms. People, couples, kids, friends, families. We gotta make this work, we don’t really have another choice. So straighten the place up, make the beds, scrub the toilets and the showers. Anything you find hidden or tucked away, I want you to bring it all the way back to the final car. That’s storage. We haven’t had a chance to properly search this place yet. I don’t care what it is: matches, toothbrushes, nail clippers, bullets, soap, clothes, whatever you find, you put it back there and we’ll sort through it later.”

I paused and looked over them, considering how to wrap this up. I wasn’t really good at this shit but they seemed to be paying close attention so that’s what mattered I suppose. “We’ve got a really good opportunity here. Probably the best one we’re going to get for a long, long time. I don’t want to lay the pressure on too thick, but let’s not fuck this up. We’re all capable, we’re all hardworking, we can all do this. It’s just a matter of staying focused and doing the work. Any questions?”

There didn’t seem to be any.

I nodded. “Good, let’s get it done.”

I said goodbye to Susan and Lara, giving them hugs and kisses.

Susan was nervous about being in charge, but less so than she might normally be. She’d changed since I met her. I knew she’d had a lot of natural grit, but it was a little unstable. Sometimes there, sometimes not.

Now, more often than not, it was there.

Hannah and I promised her she’d do fine, and then we stocked up, grabbing extra ammo and preparing expedition packs.

Then we hopped on the ATVs and started driving.

It took about thirty minutes to get there, which was good in my book. I thought it’d take longer. But the radio tower was a clear and obvious beacon no matter where you were, and we managed to find a path through the woods that was mostly clear of debris. We only had to go around two fallen trees, and the only wolves we ran into we managed to scare off.

And so it was, half an hour later, we rolled to a halt in a clearing at the base of the very steep hill the tower was built atop, staring at a cave entrance.

“There it is,” Megan murmured.

“Yep,” I agreed, getting up and looking around. “Hannah, check the perimeter, Megan, take a look inside the cave. I’ll pull the starters,” I said.

They both snapped out quick responses and got to it as I got to work. Fay stood and walked a little closer to the cave, staring at it mutely, a small frown on her face. I felt for her. Facing your fears was fucking tough.

Especially if you knew from a logical standpoint that they were justified.

There could be something in that cave. Something dangerous.

But there was a difference between a fear and a phobia, and from what she’d described, her fear was edging into phobic territory.

But she was right: we needed her. She had to do this.

“Clear,” Hannah said, rejoining me as I pulled the second starter and passed it to her. She secured it in a zippered pocket.

“Clear, I think,” Megan said.

“You think?” I replied, approaching.

“Smells funny. Bad. Otherwise nothing,” she said from the mouth of the cave.

“Let’s just get this over with,” Fay muttered morosely.

“You okay?” Hannah asked.

“Not really. I hate caves.”

“Same,” Hannah murmured.

“Flashlights,” I said, activating the one on the end of my MP5. “I’m taking lead. Megan, you’re right behind me but don’t crowd me. Fay, you’re behind Megan. Hannah, you’re going to be watching our backs. We’re gonna take this nice and easy. Be paying attention. I stop, you all stop. I’ve got no idea what we’re gonna find in there. We’re looking for a way up.”

“We’re ready,” Megan replied.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

I played the light around the floor, the walls, the natural ceiling of the cave. It was just frozen rocky earth, maybe eight feet tall and ten across, relatively uniform. A little ways in I caught a glint of metal and spied a support beam, so obviously someone had done something with the cave before the snow had started to fall.

Not seeing anything immediately threatening, I started walking in.

I could tell what Megan was talking about pretty fast, there was a smell. A bad one. It set me on edge immediately.

The smell of old frozen death.

That didn’t necessarily mean danger, but...it sure increased the odds. Good chance someone crawled in here and died at some point, or maybe it was a wolf den. I didn’t see any prints or tracks in the snow near the entrance or the dirt beyond, but there was almost surely more ways into this cave. I went slow, playing the light over the walls, trying to take it all in. There were signs of life before the apocalypse in the form of support struts and the occasional naked bulb fixed to the roof and the occasional glint of old metal in the dirt, or bits of trash.

The first ten minutes went smoothly enough, the tension spiking only a bit when we came across the occasional side tunnel. We took the time to explore each of these. They all held the remains of campfires, each terminating maybe five or ten feet in, less of a tunnel and more of an alcove, just a little niche in the wall.

But these little camps were long abandoned.

The deeper in we went, though, the stronger the smell got.

And it stopped being so frozen and distant, and instead started becoming more active and rank and raw.

The smell of blood and death and spilled guts and rotting meat.

When the stench really hit me, I stopped, and heard the others stop behind me. I waited, listened, becoming as still as I could. At this point, if we didn’t have to go through this cave system, I would’ve just cut our losses and backed out, because I was pretty damn sure something was in there. I could be wrong, but the chances of a pack of wolves or a bear or something else big and dangerous being in there were too high.

But we didn’t have much of a choice.

I couldn’t hear anything, but it was hard to tell. There was the faint edge of wind echoing through the tunnels, and…

Maybe something else, but I couldn’t be sure.

Finally, I started up again, and the others followed after me.

We kept going until the tunnel walls disappeared, becoming an edge, opening into a cavern. I kept my footsteps as quiet and slow as I could as I approached it, letting the light reveal the cavern foot by foot, to see what it turned up.

It turned up something all right.

Right as I reached the edge, the threshold that led into the cavern, I saw a shape near the center of it. The smell was worse than ever, the stench of rotting carnage, and my heart stopped for a second as it abruptly occurred to me what that shape was.

It was a bear.

A large bear.

Sleeping.

It laid in the middle of the cavern, which itself was fringed with the remains of humans and wolves and deer, and probably other things. I saw bones with frozen meat still clinging to them, ribcages and skulls, ripped up corpses.

I raised my fist in an instant, becoming as still as a statue.

This was pretty bad.

Several long, long seconds went by. The bear was still, save for its shallow breathing, and that was all I could hear now: that steady, rhythmic breathing.

My first instinct was to grab a rifle and put a round in its skull.

But that would be a risky proposition even if I could see its damned head. As it was right now, all I saw was its broad backside.

The light revealed more things, though. There was a natural ramp with rough stairs carved into it to our left, not all that far away.

Theoretically, we could sneak around the bear, along the wall, up that ramp, and get through an opening I could just see at the top.

After debating with myself for a moment, I figured that was our best shot.

Well, no time like the present.

I turned slowly to face the others, who were still in the tunnel behind me, frozen, waiting with looks of various levels of anxiety on their faces. When I was sure they could all see me, I put my finger to my lips, then gently waved them forward.

They joined me, coming up quietly, and we stood in a line at the threshold.

Fay let out the tiniest sound when she saw the bear, but otherwise held her peace.

I got their attention again, and then pointed to the ramp, the exit on the natural shelf it led to higher up in the cave, and then gestured along the left wall. Then I raised my eyebrows in inquiry, to see if they agreed or had another plan.

Megan and Hannah both nodded, looking grim and determined. Fay looked pale as hell, like she was going to vomit, but she swallowed and, with one quick, furtive glance at the bear, nodded. I nodded and then gently tapped my chest, then pointed to my eyes and then the bear. I’ll watch it. I pointed towards the stairs. You go.

Megan nodded and began leading the way.

The path was relatively clear, but we’d have to step over a few bones and rocks along the way.

One by one, they walked past me, slowly, silently. I stared hard at the bear, making double-sure the safety on my MP5 was off and that I was ready to rock on a dime if the situation called for it, my finger on the trigger.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

For several long, long minutes I didn’t even look away from the bear. I tried to blink as little as possible, the tension settling over me like gravity, pulling me down. When I finally did risk stealing a quick glance over to see how progress was coming, I saw that Megan was about halfway up the stone stairs, Fay was just starting, and Hannah was standing at the bottom, watching the bear too. Fuck! I should’ve mentioned that they needed to cover me once they got to the top. But...well, hopefully they’d figure that out.

Time dragged out, second by torturous second slipping by as they made progress.

The next time I looked over, it was because I heard the slightest sound, what I think was a loose rock shifting and scraping beneath a foot. I tensed up, waiting, but the sound had no effect on the bear. I let out my breath slowly. Megan was at the top now, Fay almost there, Hannah was halfway up. She’d stopped and was staring at the bear. When I looked back at Megan, she pulled out her rifle and covered the bear, beckoning me closer.

Okay, good. Time to go.

Holding onto my MP5, I started making my way slowly along the wall.

It was a long, long walk.

I’d taken a lot of long-ass walks in my time, and usually what constituted a long walk in my mind was a whole day of marching across snowbound hell. But my God. This was probably one of the longest walks of my life, and it was maybe forty feet.

It took ages.

My senses were dialed up to eleven and I was watching my feet carefully, being so goddamned cautious not to step on anything that might shift underfoot or make me lose my balance. Which I almost did as I reached the bottom of the stairs.

It was close, but I managed to regain my footing when a rock shifted beneath me.

I glanced again at the bear, which was almost as unmoving as the corpses and rocks surrounding it in its awful lair, and then began making my way up the stairs.

That somehow took even fucking longer.

But all bad things had to come to an end, and I finally made it up to the top with the others. I wouldn’t say we were home free, shit we weren’t even halfway done, because unless we found another way down, we’d have to do this whole thing again, but it was a big step out of the way. Megan kept covering the bear while we moved past her, getting up to the exit. I checked it and found it to be clear, a slanting tunnel that headed up, which was a great sign.

Megan backed up to the entrance and kept watch while I took the lead and Fay came up behind me. Hannah went behind her and once Hannah was in, Megan joined us.

We walked in pure silence for the next ten minutes.

The tunnel twisted several times, but it kept heading up. There were more signs of life: dead fires, discarded trash, the occasional dead body that was chewed up by wolves it looked like, though they all seemed quite old.

And then, finally, we were at the surface again.

We emerged on a snowy field with a scattering of trees about. I looked around, saw the radio tower not too far away, as well as a little utility shed squatting among the snow beside it, and not a lot else. The place seemed vacant.

“Jesus fucking shit, man!” Fay said, trembling so badly she almost collapsed.

“That was close,” Hannah whispered.

“We made it,” I said.

“Yeah but we have to do it again…” Fay moaned. “I’m gonna puke…”

“Deep breaths,” Megan said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Fay. Just, deep breaths. Calm. Look at me.”

Fay looked up at her, then took a deep breath, let it out, took another, let it out, then looked down at the snow. She groaned, shuddered viciously, then straightened back up. “I’m okay,” she said, sounding miserable but steady. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. That was fucking terrifying,” I replied. “I think I about pissed myself.”

Fay laughed. “That’s...a really funny image, admittedly.”

“Oh gee thanks,” I muttered.

“It is,” Hannah murmured.

I groaned, though admittedly I was trying to get their minds off it and lighten the mood. Because Megan was right: we were almost certainly going to have to do that again.

“All right, all right, you can all giggle about me with a dark stain on my pants as we head over to the radio tower and do our jobs,” I said and started marching.

~

According to Fay, the trip was extremely fruitful.

She seemed to get excited, and then to lose herself in concentration when she pried open a panel at the base of the huge steel tower and then dug into it. We spent an hour guarding her as she did her inscrutable engineering things, muttering to herself occasionally. Her happiness actually seemed to double when we searched the shed beside it, (I actually had to shoot the lock off), and located a stash of more tools and parts.

“These are great,” she said as she finished packing her backpack. “Seriously, some of these parts are rare, very unique, and I’m sure I can make them work with the train.”

“I’m still not sure how parts from a radio will make a train go,” Hannah said.

“Tons of parts are interchangeable,” Fay replied. “Not every radio part is just a radio part. Trust me.”

“Oh I do,” Hannah said.

“Excellent.” She zipped her pack up, stood, and pulled it on. “I’m ready to go.” At which point she immediately lost all her happiness. “Into the cave again…”

“Yes. But we did it once, we can do it again,” I replied.

“I guess so,” she muttered.

~

Back in the cave.

I wanted to take the shot from the perch, but unfortunately it didn’t offer a good enough vantage point. The bear was sleeping at a weird angle and the only way to get a solid view of its head was from opposite the stone staircase, on the ground level, and that was pointless. We might be able to make it happen, or we might wake the thing up and die. I thought maybe we could just unload on it from up above, but that was risky, too.

It was a big bear.

And bears were fast.

And could climb.

So I went down to the bottom of the stairs and got over to the tunnel entrance with my MP5 in hand, and then stood watch while the others came down. Fay and Megan were heading down, and Hannah was remaining overhead, watching from above. She had her rifle out and ready, covering the bear. I hope she wasn’t going to try and take the shot.

It was tempting, I understood, but it was too risky.

And so that was how I ended up standing at the threshold of where the cavern met the tunnel, watching the bear carefully, covering it with my SMG, praying that the damned thing wouldn’t wake up. Fay and Megan crept closer.

Closer.

Closer still.

Inch by inch, foot by foot, second by second.

It was torture.

Fay and Megan were almost to me now. I glanced briefly over at them.

Something shifted under Fay’s foot and I saw her ankle roll, fold almost, and she collapsed into a heap on the ground, her equipment banging loudly together in her pack despite all she’d done to keep it secure and quiet.

I snapped my gaze back to the bear as I heard a heavy, sharp intake of breath.

It shifted.

“Run!” I snapped, taking aim and opening fire.

Megan yanked Fay to her feet and then the two of them shot behind me. Overhead, Hannah opened fire, the cave flashing with muzzle fire.

The bear roared and lumbered to its feet as blood and chunks of fur flew from its immense body. I shifted aim and tried to get the head.

And then the MP5 jammed.

“Oh fuck me!” I screamed, squeezing the trigger instinctively a few more times, it clicking each time.

I dropped the gun and grabbed for my pistol as Hannah kept firing.

The bear roared again, coming for me. Drawing my nine, I managed to snap off a single shot before it was too close. I sprinted for the stairs, the cave floor uncertain beneath my boots. I could feel the vibrations through the ground as it got closer.

Hannah fired again and the bear loosed another ferocious roar.

“Chris!” Megan screamed from somewhere behind me.

Instinct took over. I turned and sprinted away from the stairs I’d been running towards and felt something hit my backpack, sending me stumbling forward. I managed to keep my footing as I staggered but stayed upright, but now I was on the fucking ground with this thing still! I twisted back, aiming, and saw it recovering from running partway up onto the stairs.

It would’ve smashed right into me and mauled my ass to death.

Fuck!

I opened fire, trying to remain as calm as I could under the circumstances as the bear finished recovering and shot towards me.

Why were bears so fast?!

Two of my four wild shots landed, but none were killers. The bear kept coming, tearing up the ground, huge claws out, and I found myself wishing vainly for a shotgun. What I wouldn’t give for that level of stopping power.

Or a fucking grenade.

I just became aware of the fact that I’d run out of cave right as I ran smack into the far wall. I cried out, pain shooting throughout my torso and head as I bounced off of it, stumbled. I barely caught sight of Megan at the threshold, her pistol in hand. Hannah was overhead still. Somewhere in the back of my head I’d been counting shots.

A rapid series of calculations ran through my head as a plan came to me, the big animal bearing down on me.

I could go left or right, and give either one of them a shot to its head.

Hannah had fired off all but one of her shots. Megan had more shots in her pistol.

Megan was the better shot...but only with her rifle.

I dove towards Hannah.

The bear followed.

It roared, rising up, arms out, rising up over me like a tsunami cresting the horizon, bearing down on me like a goddamned runaway freight train.

And then I heard the shot from overhead and a portion of its skull blew away in a spray of blood and bone fragments and it began coming down in a heap.

I screamed and rolled out of the way.

It was almost, but not quite, enough. One huge paw landed on my chest and I felt several sharp claws digging into my skin through my jacket and two shirts.

“Chris!” Megan cried. I heard running footsteps, two sets of them, as I struggled to catch the breath that had been knocked out of my lungs.

This bastard had one heavy paw!

Suddenly, the weight was lifted as Megan appeared overhead. She got it shoved off of me and then dropped down into a crouch beside me.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Fine,” I wheezed. “Is Fay okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. I left her partway down the tunnel,” Megan replied. “Fay?!” she called.

“...yeah!?” came the reply, echoing back.

“It’s dead!”

“...I don’t think I can go back in there!”

“That’s fine! Just watch the ATVs! We’ll be out in a bit!”

“Okay!” A pause. “I’m really sorry!”

“It’s not your fault!” I called, then winced.

“She is the one who tripped,” Hannah said as she approached.

“I was looking at her when it happened,” I replied as Megan got her medical supplies out and pulled open my jacket, then pulled up my shirts. There was definitely blood. “She was paying attention. The ground-she just stepped wrong, but it wasn’t through negligence. She was doing her due diligence. It was just bad luck.”

“All right, fine,” Hannah said. “What should I do?”

“Start skinning, I want to bring as much meat back as we can,” I replied, then winced as Megan started cleaning my wound. “We’ll send someone back to deal with the rest.”

“Great,” Hannah muttered, shrugging out of her pack and pulling her knife out.

“I’ll help as soon as I’m patched up,” I said.

I looked over at the bear.

This was going to be a long carving.

“Chris, I’m really sorry,” Fay said as I came out of the tunnel.

I’d already sent Megan ahead after we’d filled her pack up with the bearskin and whatever meat we could put in there, and then Hannah and I stuck behind and filled up our own packs. It took awhile, but finally we were done. We hadn’t gotten even half of the meat, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances.

Fay had been waiting anxiously by the ATVs.

“It’s fine,” I replied, popping open the little hood of my ATV and replacing the starter.

“No, I fucked up and almost got us killed,” Fay said.

I finished up and shut the hood, then turned to face her. “Fay. It’s fine. It wasn’t your fault. I was looking right at you, okay? It wasn’t negligence, it wasn’t carelessness, it wasn’t panic. It was just bad luck.” I glanced down at my MP5. I’d taken the time to clear the jam, but man had that pissed me off. “It finally caught up with us, is all,” I said, looking back up at her. “And hey, it turned out okay. We’re fine and we got a lot more food to boot, and a skin.”

“Megan said you’re hurt,” she replied.

“I’m fine,” I replied. “I don’t blame you for what happened. Seriously, it was just shitty luck. Hell, it almost happened to me on the way up. So...try not to dwell on it too much, okay?”

She sighed. “Yeah, fine. That just felt shitty. All of it.”

“I know. But we got through it. That has to feel good, right?”

“It does feel good to be on the other side of it,” she admitted.

“We good?” I asked, looking at Hannah, who was finishing up replacing her own starter.

“We’re good,” she replied.

“How’d we make out for parts?” I asked, returning my attention to Fay, more to get her mind off the bear than anything else since she’d already given me an idea.

“Great, actually. I think this should actually be enough to fix it, or at least get the train actually running. There were a lot of spare parts in that little cache in the shed,” she replied.

“Perfect. Let’s go home.”

~

There was a part of me that kept expecting something bad to happen, or to be waiting for us back at the tunnel and the train. A part of me that was paranoid that the bear was a false climax, that the real bad thing was waiting after lulling me into a false sense of security. Basically, like a game or a horror movie.

I knew I was being paranoid, but it wasn’t impossible. Life wasn’t like a story, but sometimes it came shockingly close.

But nothing bad happened on the way back, and nothing bad was waiting when we got home.

Honestly, if anything, it felt like we were being rewarded for having to face down a bear in its goddamn lair and me nearly getting my head ripped off.

We unloaded the stuff and Fay and Megan promptly got to work on the train. Fay dug into the guts of the train, going at it with the more technical and complicated parts of the inner workings of the locomotive, while Megan took on more basic jobs, given this wasn’t exactly her area of expertise, but she did have a mind for it, and just enough knowledge to do it.

Susan and Lara and the others had gotten a great start on making the train a home, cleaning it out and straightening it up.

The hunting team I’d sent out returned a little bit after that, and had bagged some rabbits and a big deer. After a rest, I had them take the ATVs out to the cave to salvage the rest of the bear, and anything else they could find, taking the sledges with them.

I checked in with Lisa, and learned that little had happened since we’d last spoken. Mostly she was just happy that work on the train had actually begun. She was in the process of putting together the second crew of people to send out, but mostly she and the townspeople were preparing to uproot their entire lives and put it on a train.

I was used to doing that, and probably some of the others were, but for the most part I had the impression that they’d gotten very used to living in a single place. And that was a thing most people desired.

This was going to be tough.

That was what this world was mostly about though: adaptability.

“When are you gonna come out here?” I asked as we wrapped the conversation up.

Lisa laughed. “What, you miss me that much?”

“Honestly? Yeah.”

“I...oh.” She laughed awkwardly. “Um. I see.”

“Sorry if that made it weird.”

“No! No, not weird, just...unexpected. I have a lot to do here, but I don’t plan to be here until the very end. I do intend to come out relatively soon, even just to see the train with my own eyes, and get a feel for how it’s all going. But I need more time...how about I aim for tomorrow night?”

“I’d like that.”

She laughed again, if anything even more awkwardly this time. I could practically hear her blushing. I had to admit, it was a nice ability to have to be able to get this kind of reaction out of a hot, badass woman who had over a decade on me. “I would, too. Uh, I should get back to work. Is there anything else?”

“No, nothing else, Lisa.”

“Okay. Someone will be here monitoring the radio at all times. Uh...farewell for now, Chris.”

“Farewell for now, Lisa.”

I replaced the radio and then headed back into the rest of the train.

There was a lot of work to do.

~

I came awake in total darkness as I felt a hand on my shoulder.

First there was fear, but it was pretty quickly replaced by lust as the hand slid lower until it wrapped around my cock, which was a throbbing erection because it was sometime around dawn. The hand felt...different.

Megan? Or Hannah?

Or had Lara or Susan slipped into bed?

“The candle went out,” I murmured, remembering finally why there was no light. These train cars had really good protection from the light, on top of being in a tunnel. “I should relight it…”

“No, don’t.”

Oh shit, that’s right. I was wrong on all accounts.

Lisa had me right now.

“You want it in the dark?” I asked, reaching over, groping blindly until I found one of her breasts, bare and firm and wonderfully hot.

“Yes,” she replied, shifting closer, pressing herself against me beneath the blanket. “We don’t have long. There’s a lot to do. And I imagine I won’t get you to myself for awhile after this. God, even this feels like an indulgence.”

“On who’s part?” I asked as she got on top of me.

“Me, all the way. For taking you from your girlfriends and also for sleeping in. So, let me just indulge...mmm…” she moaned as she lined me up with herself and began taking me into her sweet wetness, “...one more time. Oh yes…”

“Fuck, Lisa…” I groaned, my hands finding her hips in the darkness, gripping her as she continued working me into herself, starting to go up and down. I could feel her almost thrumming with sexual energy.

She was like me, like a lot of the girls I knew.

Extra horny in the morning.

“It’s better in the dark,” she whispered, her hands finding my wrists and bringing them up slowly, gliding across her smooth soft skin, up until she got them to her breasts, which I cupped and massaged and enjoyed.

It was weird in the dark, but not bad. I couldn’t see her, at all. I might as well have been blind, I couldn’t get even a hint of motion.

Part of me was freaked at that but I knew we were safe in her room, (she’d dragged me off to whatever room she’d chosen when she’d arrived last night, because she wanted me all to herself, and the others hadn’t complained...well, not much, not loudly), but the rest of me was enjoying the extra adrenaline kick it was giving me.

And there was something kind of awesome about it, about only being able to feel and hear her. I suddenly had a bit of insight into why some people were super into being blindfolded during sex, although honestly I didn’t think I’d make a regular thing out of this.

I liked seeing naked women too much.

The pleasure hit hard and fast, pulsing through me as Lisa rode my cock, her wonderful pussy slipping over me again and again, clenched hard around me as she fucked me faster, building in speed with each passing second.

Around the time I knew I was gonna go, ‘cause I rarely lasted in the mornings, I found her clit with my thumb and started to massage it.

She cried out, yelling her ecstasy from the burst of extra sexual gratification I gave her, and then she was coming.

And then I was coming too, blowing a huge load into her, the pleasure washing over me, blasting away all the pains and aches and soreness and tension my body had gathered over the past days, weeks, months.

Years.

We came together, and then she collapsed against me, panting in my ear.

I hugged her against me.

“Chris?”

“Yeah?”

“...I do love you, you know. I’m just not in love with you,” she whispered in my ear.

“We don’t have to talk about it-” I began.

“No,” she said, rubbing herself slowly against me, “it’s okay. I just wanted you to know that I understand what you meant by it, even if you didn’t mean to say it.”

That phrase had slipped out of my mouth last night.

We might’ve been drunk. A little.

“I don’t want you to think...I mean…” I sighed. It still felt weird. I’d actually hoped I’d dreamed that part up until just now.

“But it’s okay,” she said. “You’re my friend, and my lover, and my...partner in running this town. We have a mutual respect and trust, and that’s a kind of love, Chris. I know that you don’t love me in the same way you love them. Delilah and Megan and Hannah and the others. And it’s okay, really. I don’t even think I’m capable of falling in love in that way anymore, not after...everything that happened. But I never expected to, and I never expected even something like this. This? Having you in my life, someone I can rely on and trust, genuinely trust, and be intimate with? It’s more than I realistically was hoping for. So I love you, as a friend...with benefits. Okay? I don’t want you to think it’s weird between us now.”

She said all of this in the darkness, pressed naked and sweaty against me, whispering it into my ear. I ran my hand slowly up and down her bare back. “Okay,” I said. Then I hesitated. “Could you...not mention it to anyone else? I’m not, I mean, ashamed or anything, just…”

“Things are complicated enough for you as it is,” Lisa said. She giggled softly. “Yes, I won’t mention it. Things will keep going the way they were. We’ll work together, sometimes we’ll argue, sometimes I’ll pull you aside and fuck you comatose, and sometimes we’ll share a kiss when we think no one’s looking, and it’ll still be fun, and nice.”

“Yeah,” I said. I gave her bare ass a pat. “We gotta get back to work.”

She sighed and groaned as she sat up, then popped her neck. “Yeah, we do. Mmm, okay, now you can restart the candle. I need to see to clean up and get ready.”

“Same,” I said, and went looking.

It had been a busy two days.

All the rest of the day we’d faced down the bear, and the day after that, which was yesterday, I’d been working my ass off.

Although now two more teams had come out, totaling some fifteen additional people, it was only last night that we finally managed to get the train actually searched and emptied out of supplies. Well, not exactly emptied out, more redistributed to the rear cargo car. The cleaning was mostly done. In fact, I was hoping to have it wrapped up today. And inventory, as well. That’s what I’d been doing. Hauling bodies, scrubbing blood, bringing stuff back to the cargo car, standing guard a few times. And there was still a lot to do.

Fay was working overtime.

All she did was work on the train. I was a little worried, partially because I thought she was still blaming herself for what happened with the bear, but also because she was becoming obsessive. We had to remind her, then basically convince her to eat. Both nights she’d stayed awake later than me, and I was told she was found passed out the first night, in the middle of working on something. It was probably the same case again last night.

We’d gotten into an argument yesterday.

The train needed power. It had some, but not much. Hardly any, actually.

She wanted to roll it out of the cave, so that it could start gathering sunlight. I didn’t want it exposed until we absolutely had to. Ideally, I didn’t want it exposed until were actually on the move, but that might not be entirely realistic.

Finally, she admitted that there was an emergency protocol: detachable cells with solar panels hooked up to them that could be removed and charged. There were four of them, so that was another odd-job I’d helped with: getting them out of the cave and into the sunshine. I made sure they were guarded, three people, at all times.

According to Fay we could charge them up, then plug them back in and basically siphon the power they’d gathered off into the train, then pull them out and repeat the process. It was a lot slower than she would have liked, but she’d also admitted it didn’t really matter, because there was more work than she could realistically do, even working her hardest. In short: she couldn’t outpace the solar cells. There shouldn’t be a time where she was waiting on them.

She seemed satisfied with all the parts and tools we’d managed to gather from the various locations so far, but I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, for her to tell me there was something crucial we needed, or something like that.

It took a minute, but I got the candle lit again and then we started cleaning up. As I stood and did some quick stretches first, I glanced at Lisa and was caught by how fucking good she looked sitting there on the bed. She was looking back at me.

“We’re staring at each other,” I said.

“Yeah...why are you staring?” she replied.

“You look so fucking good naked,” I answered.

She let out a laugh that was almost a giggle and blushed. “Now I feel bad.”

“Why? Why were you staring?”

“You look like shit, Chris,” she said.

I looked down at myself. I did. My chest was still bandaged, but no infection had set in, thankfully. It still hurt, but a lot did. I had a number of cuts and bruises along my arms and legs, and I knew I had a gash on my forehead from where I’d run into the cave wall like a dumbass while I was panicking.

To be fair, a fucking bear was chasing me.

“Well...this is a tough job,” I replied.

“God, Chris, I’m not criticizing you,” Lisa said. “Honestly, it’s-” she hesitated.

“It’s what?” I asked.

“I don’t know...it feels weird to say.”

“I say weird things all the time,” I said with a shrug.

“I suppose so...it looks kinda hot.”

I laughed. “Well...I keep hearing about how chicks love scars, I guess it’d follow that some of them would like bruises and cuts.”

“I don’t know, it’s just like...it’s a sign of how fucking hardworking and brave and just...badass you are,” she said, laughing uncomfortably. “It’s weird. I don’t really go for tough guys, but I like, you know, toughness. Endurance. Competence. Maybe a bit of hardheaded overconfidence. Just a bit. A dash of it. But I don’t tend to get along with guys like that. It’s like I bring out the worst in them,” she murmured.

“I get it,” I said as I resumed washing up. “A lot of guys confuse fear for respect. Or are only interested in fear. Especially from women. You don’t fear me. You don’t fear much, I think. And that does bring out the worst in a lot of ‘tough’ guys. I don’t work like that.”

“No you don’t and it’s really attractive,” Lisa said, still staring up at me, smiling a little smile.

“Apparently.”

I finished washing, dried quickly, then started pulling my clothes back on. There was stuff to do. Breakfast, I needed to check in with the women I loved most, (Jessica, Elizabeth, and Delilah had come out with the second group and were sharing a cabin with Lindsay next door to my own), check up on how everything was going, see if anything had happened last night…

Once Lisa and I were dressed and ready, I opened the door and stepped out.

Right into Fay.

She let out a little grunt as she bounced off of me. “Oh! There you are!” she said.

“Everything okay?” I asked, scanning the hallway, suddenly paranoid. She was the only one in it.

“Yeah, as far as I know,” she replied, looking annoyed, and tired.

“How’s the train coming along? You look worried,” Lisa said.

“Oh, this is your cabin,” Fay murmured. “I wondered who you’d shacked up with...um, the train’s going fine. I’m mad because I’ve had to force myself to pull away from the repairs. I’ve been working my ass off and I started losing focus last night, almost made a mistake. I’ve seen that before in my work, and I need to do something else today. Not the whole day, just some of it. Something. That’s why I made myself go to actual bed last night.”

“So what do you want to do?” Lisa asked.

“I got to thinking about that. We’re good on parts and tools for the train for now, I’m pretty sure I can get it up and running with what we have with us. However, I am basically positive that it will break down along the way. And more than once. I want to find more spare parts, if possible. There’s a handful of places left to search on that map, though the biggest one is an abandoned settlement about five miles to the southeast. Figured it’d be a good place to go, you and I, Chris, and two others, could ride out on the ATVs, make a day of it,” she explained.

I looked at Lisa. “Any objections?”

“No, provided everything’s good here, not at all. Who will you take?” she replied.

“Probably Megan and Hannah again. They’re the best suited for the job. We probably won’t run into anything out there but...if we do, I want to be ready.”

“Okay then, I’ve already had breakfast. I’m going to go get the ATVs ready, come and find me when you’re ready. Sooner the better,” Fay said, turning around and walking off briskly.

“She’s certainly in a mood,” Lisa murmured.

“She’s under a lot of pressure. We’re basically relying almost entirely on her to save all our asses...I know how she feels,” I said.

“Yeah, me too. All right, I’m going to go check up with people. Give me a kiss.”

I gave her a kiss and we parted ways for the day.

Time to get back to the grind.

“Wonder what this place was supposed to be?” Megan murmured as we got off the ATVs.

I looked up at the half-finished building of steel girders and brick, though mostly it was just steel girders. It was like a skeleton.

The long-shredded remnants of some sort of tarp flapped in the cold wind on portions of the half-a-structure.

“Out here? No clue,” I replied, looking around. We were kind of out in the middle of nowhere. It was a weird place for a rather official looking building. Maybe it was something they started trying to put up after Armageddon and had just failed.

“Do you really think anything’s here?” Megan asked.

“Doubt it,” I replied, “but it was on the map. Figured we should check.”

“Let’s hurry,” Fay said. “I thought it was something a bit more...useful.”

“I thought you wanted to get away,” I said as I pulled the starter.

She sighed. “Sorry. I do. I mean, I don’t want to. I want to keep working. But I need to take a break or I’m going to fuck something up. It’s the healthy thing to do, the prudent thing to do, and I really don’t feel like doing it. So sorry ahead of time if I’m bitchy. I’m like super into the work. This is my fucking zone, you know? Working with shit like this.”

“I get it,” I replied. “We’ll be quick.”

The drive out had been pretty simple and straightforward. We’d ridden along the tracks until they’d connected with a road, and then followed that until we found the place we were looking for. Hannah had ridden with me. She’d been kind of clingy all morning. Ever since I’d found her and had breakfast with her and the others, she’d been all over me and I wasn’t sure if it was some manifestation of anxiety, or insecurity, or just loneliness.

She had Megan and the others but…

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to the fact that her relationship with me was unique from all others. I didn’t think it would remain true forever, not as years went by, or at least not as true, but there was something to our relationship that was a bit more intense from her end. She was getting along with Megan just fine, and it was clear that there was attraction there, and it was growing, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about it, but it wasn’t quite the same.

I didn’t mind her clinging to me, but I did hope she was feeling okay, mentally.

We moved on the construction site, Hannah and Megan breaking left, while I circled around to the right and Fay hung back, watching the ATVs and our backs.

I’d made double fucking sure to check the MP5 this time around, before setting out, because it jamming while fighting that bear was about the worst time it could have done so. Really, the only worse situation would be up against someone who could shoot back.

We circled around the perimeter, and then headed inside. As much as there was an inside. The place was deserted.

It also looked cleaned out.

Knowing Fay was waiting, and also wanting to see what was in that little town, I set to work searching what little there was to be searched.

But something was bugging me.

“I’ve got a question,” I said. “Although I guess I should ask Lisa, but Megan, you’ve been here for a few months longer than I have at this point. Why did we not know about this other town? I mean we’re not that far out here…”

“I looked over the logs. It’s not really a town, it’s more of a big rest stop or like, the center of an extremely spread out town? I’m not sure. But based on the descriptions, it’s the same size as what Pine Lake is now, after the fire. But as for why? I don’t know. Either they just never knew about it, or maybe they already went to it like a year or two ago, had no reason to stick around, went back home, and then didn’t think of it in all the chaos after the fire? I get the impression Lisa just didn’t know about it. We would’ve found it eventually, I guess,” she explained.

“Makes enough sense,” I murmured. It was still bugging me, but she was right. People missed obvious stuff, but also stuff that you’d think would be obvious sometimes just wasn’t. I guess I’d have to see the place for myself.

Did it even matter?

We had a train and a whole damned prepper town to move to now, way better than some tiny little abandoned settlement.

The construction site turned up absolutely nothing.

The place looked thoroughly tossed.

“Anything?” Fay asked as we came back.

“Nothing,” I replied. “Let’s keep it moving.”

“Let’s,” she agreed, perking up a bit.

~

The final location we had to check before getting to the town was a bus stop, though it was definitely more than what I was envisioning.

For some reason I kept thinking it was like...a literal bus stop, like one of those little plastic and wood shelters you sat in while waiting for the bus, but this was a full-on rest stop. I’d come across a lot of these since hitting the Midwest.

Right away, I didn’t like what I was seeing.

The place had been shot up.

Windows shattered, some of them haphazardly covered with boards or tables, bullet holes in some of those, and the walls, a few of the outer doors were kicked in.

One of them creaked in the wind.

I saw three distinct buildings all attached to each other, and I was reminded of a rest stop we’d come across during our trip out to Pine Lake.

We approached like before: Fay hanging back and covering us while I went along the front end of the buildings, and Megan and Hannah went around back. I listened carefully as I approached, though all I could hear was the wind blowing, the door creaking, and my boots crunching in the snow covering the blacktop parking lot.

There were just a couple of old, snowbound, rusted-out cars hanging around, and they’d been stripped long ago.

I peered cautiously in the windows of the building as I got up against the front, to get a sense of what was going on inside. I didn’t see any people, no signs of life, but there were some dead frozen bodies in there.

Moving on, I checked each window, and the cars, for much of the same. The cars had been shot up, too.

No one in the cars, no one outside, no one in the building, from what I could see.

No tracks, either. It was possible that this had happened a few days ago, but...I didn’t think so. It felt older than that.

But it was bothering me, in vaguely the same way the town had been bothering me.

Hannah and Megan and I met on the other side and then went in after they reported finding nothing. We spent the next ten minutes checking through the three buildings. One was a little cafe, one was a small shop, and one was presumably where you checked in for your bus. Clearly, the buildings had been converted into a place to live at one point.

And clearly, at some point after, it had met a violent end.

“Fuck,” Hannah muttered as we came across more corpses.

“Yeah…” I murmured, looking around uncertainly. The bus camp had been shot up kind of like this, too.

And so had the train.

Could be a coincidence, or…

“Think they’re still around? Whoever did this?” Megan asked, clearly following along the same train of thought.

“Maybe, though this looks old. Could be weeks, or months, or even over a year,” I replied. “It gets a lot harder to tell in the cold.” I frowned, considering it, looking slowly around. The place had been hit hard. There were half a dozen dead bodies in the bus check-in room, shattered glass and frozen blood and shell casings on the floor.

They were stripped almost entirely of everything, their bodies pallid, their ugly wounds obvious in the stark winter light.

“Could be a roving gang,” I said finally. “But we should be careful.”

We got to searching. This one took a bit longer, given the size of the structure, but it quickly became evident that the place was as stripped bare as the frozen corpses. The building itself was almost like a corpse, laid out among the frozen wastes.

The work was slow and miserable with so many bullet-riddled dead bodies around, but we did it anyway. We went as fast as we could, both because Fay was waiting impatiently and also because we wanted out of there.

It was practically a waste anyway. After nearly an hour, we only turned up a handful of useful items. I’m not even sure if it made it worth it to have paid a visit here. Normally I felt a certain satisfaction from searching a place, even if it did turn up empty. I guess Fay’s anxiety was starting to infect me.

Probably helped along by all the dead people.

We rejoined Fay and started mounting up again.

“So how was it in there?” she asked, looking a bit more subdued. “Looks pretty bad from out here.”

“It was,” I replied, glancing back at the building. “Shot to hell, lots of bodies. Practically nothing left in there.”

“Think there’s anything nasty for us waiting at the town?” she asked.

“It’s possible,” I replied.

“Maybe we shouldn’t kick that hornet’s nest,” Megan said.

“Maybe we should,” I replied. “I have no idea how long it’s gonna take us to get that train going, but I do know that the longer we stick around, prepping, the higher the chance of us getting discovered becomes. So if there is a group of assholes with guns there...I guess I’d rather know. And maybe face them now, when they aren’t expecting it. Instead of having them attack us when we aren’t expecting it. Unless that’s crazy.”

“No it makes sense,” Hannah said.

“Yeah,” Fay murmured.

“I guess so,” Megan agreed reluctantly. “I hate shootouts.”

“I think all sane people do,” I said. “But this is what we signed up for, unfortunately. And it needs to be done.” I finished with the starter and sat on my ATV. “But hey, maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll just be a ghost town.”

~

We had to park the ATVs back in some woods about a mile short of the actual town.

It was more an act of paranoia on my part, because the wind had picked up and would probably mask the engines enough to let us get closer, but I was getting a little jumpy. We found a small open-faced wooden shack and tucked them away in there as best we could, with the sledges attached to them, (we’d slung them along because I was hoping to find a lot in the town), took the starters back out again, and then started hiking.

The only lucky thing was that the woods pretty much seemed to go right up to the edge of the tiny settlement.

We didn’t have a great view of it as we made our way closer, but through the trees I got the impression that it was indeed about as big as Pine Lake was now. So less than a dozen buildings. But hey, that was still a lot of places to search, a ton of potential resources. Right now, we were rolling the dice. We were absolutely doing that.

I’d double-checked my weapons, and had the others do the same.

I wasn’t looking forward to seeing how those dice came down, because it might be out of our favor. I could die in that town.

Or, worse, any one of my companions could.

I trusted myself, and the three of them, to react to whatever the world threw at us, but you couldn’t stay ahead of the curve forever.

Eventually, it’d catch up with you.

And if you came out of that alive or dead, with or without permanent damage, well…

That was rolling the dice.

My MP5 was ready to go, and so was my pistol, and Hannah and Megan both had pistols and rifles, and Fay had a pair of pistols with her.

They were locked and loaded, we all were, but still.

I stopped, holding up my fist. Okay, showtime.

I pulled out my binoculars and studied what I could see through the trees. We were about fifty meters shy of the township now and I could actually see. It was basically a group of buildings clustered around a square that, I’m guessing, was at the end of a road. I became still, studying it slowly, carefully, checking for movement of any kind.

All I could see was snow falling off the roofs.

“Anything?” Hannah asked.

“Nothing,” I murmured, still studying.

As I kept it up, I realized there was actually a ton of snow coming off the roofs…

“Chris,” Megan said, a warning note in her voice.

I lowered the binoculars and looked up. “Aw fuck.”

It was snowing.

Big, fat flakes began falling, blanketing everything. A particularly powerful and frigid wind blew hard through the trees.

“I guess the choice just got made for us, huh?” Hannah asked.

“Yeah, we gotta wait this out regardless,” I replied, putting the binoculars away. “And we need to hurry up. Come on. Guns out.”

SMG in hand, I pressed on, leading them towards the edge of the woods. This whole thing was a shaky enough proposition as it was, but this just made it worse. It was still well within the realm of possibility that I was wrong, the place was totally abandoned. One could hope. I hurried up as another strong, cold wind blasted across me, almost knocking me into the snow. I felt pissed that I hadn’t seen this storm coming, but honestly that was how it was now sometimes.

It just happened, no real warning signs beyond clouds in the skies, but there were frequently clouds in the skies and no snow.

Just had to get inside now.

The walk seemed to take forever as we moved through the snow, among the trees, passing the picked-clean skeletal remains of a deer, but finally we cleared the treeline. As I stepped out, I stopped again and looked through the thickening snow. There was a decent-sized space between the two buildings immediately ahead of us, maybe twenty feet wide, probably meant to be extra parking, just about forty feet from us.

Both buildings looked about the same size and from the back I couldn’t tell what either was, though neither seemed like houses.

We started marching across the open space, wary of threats.

The snow was falling harder now, and I could tell it was going to be a bad storm. God, I hoped no one had been caught out in it. We’d definitely have to wait here, and-

“Wait,” I said, freezing up.

Something was wrong.

I could sense it, I’d heard or seen something just at the edge of perception…

“What is it?” Megan asked.

“I don’t know…”

I looked around, taking in the two buildings ahead of us, the lot in between them, the other buildings to either side of them, the one building I could see across the square farther on, the snow coming down…

“Now!” someone shouted.

“Move!” I screamed, jerking to the side and coming way, way, way too close to getting my head blown off as someone popped up from the roof of the building to the right.

I heard the others shout in surprise, heard Hannah yell in anger, heard a return gunshot, and then more, a rifle and a pistol. Regaining my feet just in time to look up and see the lone figure on the roof take a bullet in the neck, scream, and then go right over the edge. He headed for the ground so fast it was almost like he was magnetized to it, and his scream cut off as his body crashed into the earth with a sickening crunch.

Things happened rapidly from there.

I heard shouting. More gunfire.

Two figures stepped out into the lot of space between the two structures, both of them wielding rifles. I saw a pair of people coming from around the other side of the building to my left, both wielding pistols.

We were caught in the open and the snow was getting worse, the visibility fading.

This had the potential to go so bad so fast.

I was running then, aiming, bringing up my SMG and opening fire on the two men with the pistols on my side. Bullets peppered their bodies and blood splashed across the snow and the wall behind them as I emptied half the fucking magazine into them.

“Fuck! Take him down! He’s got a fucking machine gun!” someone screamed.

Another round scorched by my head, barely missing my ear. I cursed and opened up in the direction of the lot, more to keep them from blowing my head off than anything else. The SMG ran dry as the two men ducked.

More gunfire erupted from the right and I saw more men in cold weather gear with weapons, a pistol and a shotgun, had emerged from over there.

They’d laid a fucking trap.

Megan and Fay were opening up on them.

I sprinted towards the building up ahead. I had to get out of the open. Frantically trying to reload and also keep an eye on the two spots ahead of me where the assholes were ducking down, recovering, I managed to get the magazine out and reach for another one. As I got it, I saw one of the rifle-wielders reappeared, hastily lining me up for a shot.

Cursing, I jammed the magazine home, but I could tell I wasn’t going to get the gun up in time.

Half the guy’s head blew away in a cloud of blood as I heard a gunshot from nearby.

Tossing a quick glance over my shoulder as I kept going, I saw Hannah had fired the shot. She was gritting her teeth, still aiming through the scope, trying to get the second guy I saw.

“Hannah, move!” I screamed.

She fired and someone else, someone I couldn’t see, fired back at the same time. I don’t know if her shot connected but his did.

I saw the round tear into her left arm and she screamed and spun, stumbled, dropped the rifle.

“HANNAH!” I roared.

Megan and Fay were still shooting it out with their own people. I saw the second guy with the rifle at the head of the lot was down, though still alive. Hannah had got his shoulder, and now he was being joined by another two men, both wielding pistols.

Fuck!

I aimed and fired as I ran towards Hannah, having to run through the entire second magazine and also lose all the ground I’d gained. I managed to hit one of them in the stomach and send the other diving for cover, then I reached Hannah.

“Chris!” she cried, her hand clapped tight over her bleeding bicep. “Oh fuck it hurts!”

“Get up!” I snapped, reaching for a third magazine.

“Megan, help her!” I heard Fay scream, then more gunshots from a pistol.

As I finished reloading, Megan appeared and dropped into a crouch at Hannah’s side.

“We need to get inside!” I yelled, finishing my reload and then scoping the situation out while Megan got her to her feet.

There were three around the lot area now, one going for the rifle the man shot in the stomach had dropped, and I saw that Fay was just in the process of putting down another one who was coming from the right side of the area. He screamed as a bullet punched into his chest, then flopped back as another blasted his brains out, going in through his forehead and out through the back of his skull, spraying his brains onto the snow behind him.

A round scorched past me, close enough that it clipped my jacket.

They’d found that rifle.

I let out an inarticulate scream of rage as pure fury swept through me. Almost without thinking, I whipped my pistol out of its holster, twisted, aimed, and fired all in one smooth series of motions, and put a round right through the eye of the man now wielding that rifle, some forty feet away.

It was probably the best shot of my life, and it had been all instinct.

“Holy shit!” someone screamed.

“Go! Now!” I yelled, squeezing the trigger of the pistol several more times and sending the men there scattering for cover once again. “Inside!”

Then we were scrambling, running, fleeing through the thickening snow, which seemed to close in around us, the last of the visibility collapsing.

Bullets fired wildly but I stopped shooting, and thankfully so did the others. No sense giving ourselves away and wasting rounds if we couldn’t see anyone. Of course now I had to hope that my sense of direction didn’t fucking ditch me as we headed for the nearest building. We just had to get inside and then we could keep dealing with this fucking nightmare.

I fucking knew something was up!

They must have seen us from a distance and probably decided to ice my ass and capture Hannah, Megan, and Fay.

Almost certainly the only thing that had stayed their hand while we were making our way in through the trees was that they wanted a sure shot and also us close enough that they could grab the others after putting me down.

Abruptly, the back wall of the building we were looking for appeared and I felt relief hit me. At least that was solved. I could hear them shouting at each other, more than one of them groaning in pain, and occasionally someone would fire another bullet. As we approached the door in the wall, I heard footsteps crunching in the snow, getting closer.

We froze up, waited, and I took aim with my pistol.

A man clad in dirty gray clothes wielding a pistol appeared out of the snow.

I shot him in the mouth and the bullet exploded out the back of his head, splashing the wall beside him with blood.

“Watch my back,” I said, getting up to the door.

I tried it, praying it wasn’t locked.

It wasn’t. I opened it up and found myself looking at some kind of kitchen area. Fine, it’d do. I went inside, making sure the others were following me before having a quick look around. The place was lit enough that I could see.

There didn’t seem to be anyone in the kitchen with us.

Fay shut the door and engaged a deadbolt as soon as she was in.

“Hannah, how bad is it?” I asked, still looking around. We’d come into the back kitchen of a diner, and the serving window gave me a semi-decent view of the eating area beyond. No one out there right now, but that could change fast.

“I don’t know,” she groaned. “Fuck, it hurts!”

“Shh,” Megan murmured, laying her down slowly on the floor. “I got a look at it out there. You were grazed, it didn’t hit center. You’ll be okay, I just need to patch you up.”

“Fay, watch them. I’m going to secure the building, shoot anyone that I can find,” I said.

“On it,” she replied as she reloaded one of her pistols.

I holstered my pistol and switched back to my SMG, checking to make sure I’d actually reloaded it. I had a memory of doing so, but I was fucking wired and shook up right now. It was loaded. Safety was off.

Putting my finger on the trigger, I brought the weapon up and made my way towards the order window. Peering cautiously out of it, I checked the situation and saw that there didn’t seem to be anyone waiting out there, but I didn’t have a perfect view. I moved over to the doorway that led to the counter space dividing the kitchen from the dining area, where the cashiers would hang out. I pushed it open. Nothing happened.

Outside, through the windows that weren’t covered by blankets or boards up front and along either side of the room, I could see snow blowing wildly past.

No people yet.

I stepped out past the door, into the partition area, scanning around for potential hiding spots. Still nothing. I heard a gunshot somewhere outside, then someone shouted something, and I froze. There was a shouted conversation and it was muffled, but I couldn’t tell if it was from distance or the storm or the wall between us.

When the voices faded, I pressed on, crouching a bit, prepared to open up if someone came bursting in through the front door.

They had to know we were inside, or maybe not?

A storm could confuse the shit out of everything.

As I stepped into the dining area proper, pure fear hit when I sensed movement to my right and twitched in that direction, SMG poised.

There was a man with a hunting knife crouched just beyond the counter and he leaped up and slashed at me as I fired. The SMG was knocked aside by his slash, narrowly saving his ass, and then he crashed into me.

“Fuck!” I snapped as the gun was thrown from my hands.

I got one hand up and managed to wrap it around his wrist as he tried to plunge the knife into my throat. We started wrestling around with it, grunting with effort. He was goddamned strong! Gritting my teeth, I stared up into a maddened pale face, half covered by a mat of gray-streaked dark beard, eyes bloodshot and wide.

“Motherfucker!” he snarled, shoving down harder in a burst of strength.

“Fay!” I screamed as I felt the knife-tip dig into my skin.

I was pushing up with everything I had, my muscles burning, whole body tensing as panic flooded my veins.

And then I saw a stubby pistol barrel appear in my field of vision, pressing against the side of the man’s skull, and then came a muzzle flash and a loud bang and the weight let up tremendously. With a furious shout of effort, I threw the guy off of me.

“Fuck!” I panted, coughing, struggling to sit up.

“Chris, are you okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I-”

I heard shouting suddenly and then the front door burst open.

Fay snapped her gun up and opened fire. I grabbed for my pistol, knowing there was no time to track down my SMG. Ripping it out, I rolled away from her, so I didn’t get in her line of fire, and got behind several chairs.

Not really cover, but better than air.

Several men shouted as they rushed into the building. Fay opened fire and someone screamed in agony. I took aim as I got into position, kneeling, and shot one man twice in the chest. He went down. I ducked as another figure appeared in the doorway and opened fire.

“Fall back behind the counter!” I snapped as I popped back up and started unloading.

Fay stopped shooting, taking my command instantly, and hit the counter. She hopped up and over it nimbly, disappearing behind it. I was counting the shots in my head and when I got down to one, I stopped, but my held my position, aiming for the door.

Sure enough, one of the bastards trying to murder us leaned out and attempted to get a shot in at me. I fired the second I had his face in my sights and put a round through his forehead, dropping him in an instant.

I took the opportunity to roll much less gracefully over the counter as Fay came up and covered me. I got over it and then slammed painfully to the floor, already reaching for another magazine. I just had one left on me at present.

Hopefully it would be enough.

We waited, both of us crouching down to protect as much of ourselves as possible behind the counterspace, watching the door, the windows.

“You guys okay?!” Megan called.

“Fine!” I snapped. “Just keep working on Hannah!”

“Okay!”

My head was pounding, my ears ringing from all the gunfire and getting thrown around, adrenaline screaming through my blood.

We waited.

The seconds stretched out.

The storm screamed on.

After nearly two minutes, I finally slowly began to stand. “I’m going to go check it out. Cover me,” I said.

“Check,” Fay replied tightly.

I started walking towards the doorway, looking around at the windows, the spaces between the boards covering the broken ones. There were a lot of places to potentially hide. I kept going, slowly, step by careful step, until I reached the center of the room.

There I waited.

They could all be dead, or down at least, bleeding out, but…

I could sense someone, or maybe that was just my paranoia.

Maybe…

I took another step forward.

Three things happened almost in the same instant. Fay yelled my name. I sensed movement to my left, or saw it out of the corner of my eye, I was so keyed up I wasn’t sure which. I twisted and snapped off three rapid shots in quick succession.

A lone figure standing outside one of the windows went down in a hail of shattered glass and blood as the shots connected.

I waited another long ten seconds.

“You think that’s all of them?” Fay asked finally.

“I’m not sure, but I think so,” I replied, listening, watching. Finally, I sighed. “Let’s get back to the kitchen, make them come to us if there’s any left.”

“Good idea, we can keep watch,” Fay agreed.

We headed back.

~

It was a long, long two hours.

The storm persisted for almost all of it. I spent my time switching between sitting with Hannah and keeping watch at the short order window. Megan cleaned and wrapped Hannah’s wound, and then looked at me. My neck was okay, it was just a superficial cut, even if it stung like all hell. And I’d endured a head wound somewhere in there.

At this rate I was seriously going to wind up with brain damage, if I hadn’t already.

Hannah was okay. The bullet had indeed grazed her, gouging out about a quarter inch of skin in her left bicep. Extremely painful, but the worst she’d have to worry about was an infection, and we’d gotten to it fast.

We’d given her painkillers and she was enduring it pretty angrily.

No one showed up during the storm.

When it faded, we waited a good fifteen minutes in the eerie silence that followed. We didn’t hear a thing the whole time. No footsteps, no voices, no nothing.

Just silence.

“What do we do now?” Hannah murmured, finally breaking the silence.

I sighed heavily. “Get out there and search. We gotta search all these buildings, secure them. Won’t be easy…”

“No, it’s gonna be a huge pain in the ass,” she growled.

I thought about it for a long moment, looking between them, then finally put together a plan. “Fay and Hannah, I want you two up on a roof. You’ll be our eyes in the sky. Megan, you’re with me. We search all of these buildings for survivors, put these assholes down if any of them are still left alive. It’s obvious they have no good intentions.”

“Very obvious. Fuck, I almost died like four times,” Fay said.

“Yeah, they were definitely looking to kill you and wound us...for obvious reasons,” Megan muttered.

“Does this plan work for everyone?” I asked, garnering their attention again.

“Yes,” Megan said.

“Yeah, I’m fine with that,” Fay said, and Hannah nodded, though winced.

I groaned as I took a moment to limber up, refocus myself. I wasn’t looking forward to this at all. But it had to be done.

“All right, let’s go to work.”

“All right, here we go,” Fay said. “Big moment of truth here.”

We all waited, crowding into the engine car.

Five days had led us to this point. Five very long days, but honestly I thought we’d be at this for over a week.

Fay and Megan worked fast and hard.

Hannah, Jessica, Megan, Elizabeth, Lisa, Melanie, Delilah and Lindsay, Lara and Susan, and myself were all in the engine car with Fay.

She had made her final repairs just ten minutes ago, and the time to actually turn the train on and make it go had come.

She punched something into a screen and the whole car vibrated very subtly. I took that as a good sign. Something beeped. Fay typed in a rapid series of commands on another screen, then turned back to the first, typed some more, then, with dramatic flourish, pulled a level next to her.

With a start, the train began to roll.

We all cheered.

“So that’s it, we’re actually leaving?” Lisa asked.

“We’re actually leaving,” Fay said. “We are rolling and the train is green across the board.” She paused. “Well, green and yellow, and red in a few non-critical places, but we’re good! It worked! I told you I could do it.”

“That you did,” I agreed.

“Fuck, I can’t believe it actually worked,” Hannah muttered.

“I’m gonna go tell everyone. Uh...keep me updated, okay?” Lisa said. “Very, very good work, Fay. Thank you so much for all your help.”

“You’re quite welcome,” she replied, grinning broadly.

I watched as we started to come out of the tunnel, thinking back on everything that had gotten us here, to this moment.

Although I knew it was five days, it felt closer to five weeks.

It had been an extremely long, painful, brutal four hours searching the little town after that failed trap had sprung and the storm had passed. We didn’t find a single survivor. It was obvious that some had survived the initial assault, and then bled or froze to death in the ensuing storm. If anyone had survived, then they’d fled and not come back.

It was obvious that they’d been living there for awhile, and although I didn’t know for sure, I think they had been the guys who’d survived the assault on the train. I could be wrong, but I think some of the more violent assholes led a revolt on the train and then moved out to the town, and spent the next year or so assaulting any groups they found, taking everything by force. They sure had enough stuff with them, though they were surprisingly low on food.

So after we’d cleared the place out, we brought the ATVs into town and secured all the most obviously useful stuff. All the weapons and ammo we could find among the corpses and the buildings, and the best of the food and medicine. We’d loaded down our packs and the sledges and then hurried back to the train.

From there, Hannah had reluctantly agreed to take a day off after Melanie looked at her. I couldn’t be convinced of the same thing: there was too much to do. Way too much. Lisa immediately radioed for another group to assemble and come out here, and then she’d headed back with a few others to begin final preparations of transferring everyone and everything from Pine Lake to the train. I’d put together a team of people to walk out to the shot up town, then had taken Megan, Susan, and Brie out with me on the ATVs to get to work on performing a more thorough search of the place, and also to protect our investment.

Anyone could wander up and start raiding the place, or some of the survivors, if there were any, could come back.

I spent all of the rest of that day, and all of the next, at the town. We searched everything and basically strip-mined it, whatever we could find. The group I’d put together made it out and we loaded them down with as much supplies as we possibly could, which included several sleds we found, and sent them back on foot to deliver it to the train. I also got Susan and Megan on the ATVs, having them drive to and from the train, dropping off loads as fast as we could pack them.

It was hard, long work, but it felt good.

There was a decent amount of stuff there. Besides the obvious stuff, it was a good stash of clothes, cooking implements, some booze and home-grown weed and tobacco, and a bunch of random odds and ends that might be useful, even a fair amount of parts around that would help us repair the train when it inevitably broke down.

The next three days after that were spent mostly in Pine Lake, doing basically the same thing.

I’d worked my fucking ass off, and I fell into my bed each night, passed out, and had to drag myself out in the mornings.

Sex had been out of the question, no matter how horny I was.

I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Well, that wasn’t true.

I rode up one time to see Brandy, traded for what I could in terms of food and parts, (she’d managed to get a few from some wandering merchants at some point since I’d last seen her), and we’d had a quick goodbye fuck before I went back.

We made sure that everyone had everything they wanted from Pine Lake. I double-checked that the junkyard people had everything they wanted, then helped get them from Pine Lake to the train. And then we double-checked that everyone had everything. And then we tripled-checked, because we truly were not coming back to this town.

Megan and I had driven the absolute last load out of Pine Lake sometime after dark yesterday.

I wasn’t glad to see the town for the last time, knowing I’d almost certainly never come back, but there was a part of me that was a little relieved.

It was time to turn the page, time for a new chapter.

I barely remember hitting my bed last night.

But when I’d woken up next to Hannah, (we’d slept way in), I almost didn’t have time for breakfast before Lisa showed up and told me it was time.

Fay was finished.

So we’d double-checked that everyone was present and accounted for, and that no one had remembered any last-minute things they’d forgotten back at Pine Lake, and that everyone was inside the train, everything was locked down, and we were actually ready to start going. Then we’d called the good people of Persistence and let them know that we should be on our way shortly, although it would still be awhile.

They were still good with receiving us.

And now…

The train came out of the tunnel. Bright winter light filled the engine car as we began rolling along slowly through the countryside. It would be slow, Fay had told us. Because of the unknown nature of the track, and because we’d want plenty of warning and ability to come to a stop, but also to keep the stress of running after several broken-down years off the train as much as possible, we’d be going at a pretty relaxed pace.

One by one, everyone else thanked or congratulated Fay on a job well done and filtered out of the engine car, until it was just the two of us.

“We did it, Chris,” she murmured dreamily. “We actually did it.”

“That we did. You did a lot of it, though,” I replied.

“Don’t bullshit me,” she said, snorting. “You saved our asses how many times? I saw you working yourself into a coma every goddamned day this week. And the week before that...honestly, since I first met you. You’ve been working like crazy.”

“Let’s just say ‘we did it’ and leave it at that,” I replied. When she didn’t respond, I looked over at her and saw her frowning, staring at me. “What?”

“I’m just thinking...I’ve talked with the others about you. I know why you left, and why you came back. I understand, honestly. I think you and I are alike in that way: we want to wander. We’re still wandering, effectively, but eventually we will settle down...or will we?”

“I’m settling down,” I said firmly. “Once we get to Persistence. I’m done wandering.”

“Yeah, you feel that way now, so do I. But what about next year? Five years from now?”

I sighed softly. “I don’t know. I hope so.”

We were silent for several long moments, staring at each other.

“I hope so, too,” she said finally.

“I guess,” I replied, looking back out the windows at the frozen landscape surrounding us for miles upon miles, “hope is all we’ve really got, at the end of the day.”

“You think hope’ll be enough?” Fay asked.

I nodded slowly. “I think so.”

A WARM PLACE 9 IS COMING WINTER 2021!

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ABOUT ME

I tend to write stories that blend adventure and sex, usually with a harem or polyamorous twist. I separate myself from most other authors in this genre by rejecting typical ‘alpha male’ type protagonists, and creating more realistic main characters. I tend to emphasize things like trust, respect, vulnerability, and communication.

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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.