This is a collection of A Warm Place – Prelude, A Warm Place, A Warm Place 2, & A Warm Place 3.

For the sake of clarity, I have provided a precise list of what you will get if you decide to purchase this collection.

A WARM PLACE – PRELUDE (Unchanged from the stand-alone novella.)

HIT THE ROAD (A new 4,700 word short story that takes place between Prelude & A Warm Place.)

A WARM PLACE (Unchanged from the stand-alone novel.)

A WARM PLACE 2 (Unchanged from the stand-alone novel.)

A WARM PLACE 3 (Unchanged from the stand-alone novel.)

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Website (www.mistyvixen.com)

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Email (mistyvixen@outlook.com)

Table of Contents

A WARM PLACE – PRELUDE

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EPILOGUE

HIT THE ROAD

A WARM PLACE

ZERO

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY ONE

TWENTY TWO

TWENTY THREE

TWENTY FOUR

TWENTY FIVE

TWENTY SIX

TWENTY SEVEN

EPILOGUE

A WARM PLACE 2

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY ONE

TWENTY TWO

EPILOGUE

A WARM PLACE 3

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY ONE

TWENTY TWO

TWENTY THREE

TWENTY FOUR

EPILOGUE

OTHER TITLES

ABOUT ME

A WARM PLACE PRELUDE

ONE

I was oddly suited for the end of the world.

Or, I should say, I was oddly suited for this end of the world. The one where everything turned to ice and snow dumped from the sky all year round.

Before it happened, before the snow started to fall and ice began to creep over every last thing in a pitiless, ceaseless tide, I don’t remember feeling like anyone special. If anything, I had the distinct impression that I was painfully average.

I was a shift leader at a grocery store. I played video games most nights with some of my friends, but some weekends I went camping and hunting. It was something I’d done with my father and uncle growing up, and I’d discovered that I was actually half-decent at it. Sometimes I’d go out camping by myself, but mostly I went with my friends and whatever girls they roped into going to feel like a badass and get away from the city for a few days.

Okay, yeah, and to get pussy. I’m not going to lie.

But as the snow began to fall and the weather started getting freakier and freakier and shit started getting more concerning, like on a global scale, I began to learn that I did have something a bit more unique to me.

I wasn’t panicking.

I’d like to believe that it’s because I’m a born hardass and flourish under pressure, but that would be a lie. Or at least twisting the truth. I mean, I was fucking scared, yeah. But I think, as I watched the layers of civilization start to peel back as it became more obvious that the world was getting colder and it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, I knew that if worst came to worst, I could survive. I mean, provided it didn’t get down to a new average of like negative one hundred.

Then we’d all be fucked.

But it didn’t, and it hasn’t.

The new normal seems to be, basically, pretty damned cold. Below freezing. Dangerous definitely, but not if you know what you’re doing. And you’re careful to keep clear of any hostile humans or wildlife, and you don’t let yourself get caught in a whiteout. And you don’t get too sick. Or run out of food. Or have a serious medical condition.

Okay, so, yeah, it was kind of hard to stay alive.

I guess that was my point, I’m oddly suited for this frozen apocalypse.

I still don’t know whether to feel good or bad about that.

~

I had been making my way along the same road for almost six days when I finally caught sight of a building up ahead.

It felt a little like an omen, a good one. Although I didn’t believe in anything superstitious beyond random chance and luck, I had to admit, this shitty new world was making me kind of lean into that. It had been a really lousy week. I’d been run out of a little village built around some truck stop and a few outbuildings around it. I’d liked it there, but some jackass had been fucking with me since I’d shown up and I finally had had enough.

When he came up to me to talk trash while I just trying to have a goddamned drink after a long day of hunting game and chopping wood, I warned him. Flat out. But he just took that as an invitation to finally throw a punch my way. I don’t know what the fuck possessed him, but he was probably wasted.

We tangled, then his buddies jumped in, and after I knocked two of them unconscious, it became clear that they were out for blood.

One of them damn near blew my head off.

It was pure luck I’d been too tired to drop my pack off in the room I’d been renting. I snatched it up and booked it when it became clear that the people watching weren’t going to get involved and help me, and I’d already taken a beating at that point.

So, with a black eye, a split lip, and more bruises than I’d care to admit to, I ran into the woods and didn’t stop until I found a place to crash for the night. It was some old shit shack that at least had a bed and a really simple jury-rigged wood-burning stove, and there was a storm coming on. I’d counted on the storm to keep my ass covered and stop them from coming after me, but starting any kind of a fire was a hazard because you can see smoke from miles off. Without the fire, I’d die, though, so it was kind of no contest there.

But they’d never shown up. After sleep, I’d left and walked until finding this stupid road that led through, apparently, fucking nowhere.

I’m pretty sure that I was somewhere in the Midwest now, but I had no idea where. Possibly Missouri, but maybe I’d wandered as far as Kansas.

That would sure explain the total lack of fucking anything.

On top of a lack of finding anything except for the occasionally long-abandoned vehicle or empty shed for the past six days, there’d been hardly any wildlife, and very little of the grow-anywhere fruits and vegetables they’d started sprinkling around everywhere when it became obvious that the snow was here to stay.

I was running very low on supplies.

Of course, I might be fucked anyway. That building could be totally empty. If it was...I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Keep going, I guess.

I listened to a sound that had become almost meditative over the past year or so, ever since I’d finally struck out on my own and said fuck it to what was now laughingly referred to as ‘city life’: my boots crunching in the snow.

The cold air burned in my lungs, as it always did now, and my heavy black boots crunched through the recently fallen snow as I made my way along a road that I did not know the name of, between vast fields of ice and snow. I was glad to see that there were trees now, in the distance. Forests, as skeletal and bare as they were nowadays, still heralded wildlife. Rabbits and wolves and deer and other things still gathered there. A threadbare facsimile of the natural order still played out with a sort of manic desperation among the frigid wastelands of Earth. And I was there to take my own place in it, ready with a rifle, a pistol, or sometimes a bow and arrow.

I’d gotten quite proficient with all three by this point.

There was maybe a day’s worth of food left in my pack. Just some rabbit meat I had in a plastic container and an old candy bar. At least water wasn’t a problem. There was always more damned snow to melt, provided you had the proper equipment, which I did. I had to admit, I was still pissed about the stuff I’d left behind in my room. My rifle had been there, so that was gone. And the ammo. Several paperbacks. A lot of clothes. Some food. This was why I carried as much as I could around with me all the time, you never knew when you might need to just up and go.

As I made my way down the road, keeping an eye out for, well, anything, I tried to get a feel for what I was looking at. But as I finally got close enough to get even a half-decent look at it, I could tell by the things sticking out of the ground in the middle of the parking lot that I was looking at a little, middle-of-nowhere gas station. That was good. Besides the fact that this place seemed relatively untraveled, even now, gas stations tended to have a lot of shit. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean anything.

You were always playing the odds.

And despite what some people believed, you aren’t ever due for a lucky break, even if you’d been getting your ass whupped for weeks.

There was nothing anywhere saying you couldn’t keep on getting the ass-whuppings piled on for weeks to come.

Anything could be in there. Bare shelves and empty cupboards, a camp of cannibal assholes looking for some fresh human jerky, fuck even a damned bear could’ve made the place its home. The only way to find out was to walk in there and see what was what. As I planned to do exactly that, the surreality of my situation struck me, as it sometimes did. This far into the apocalypse, it happened with less frequency, but it could still creep up on you.

I think the thought that came to mind the most was that, in a twisted sort of way, I had gotten my wish. My wish being, when I was younger, I would look around at all the buildings in my city. The houses, the stores, the restaurants, the apartment complexes, the warehouses, everything. I’d look at each building and want to go inside and look around. I wasn’t interested in breaking and entering, or stealing, or even people’s secrets.

No, I just wanted to explore.

There was a...not exactly a thrill, maybe closer to a satisfaction, or even just a simple gratification, or a joy, in exploration. Now, with some exceptions, obviously, if I saw a place, typically, I could just go inside and poke around. If anything, it was practically mandatory to my survival at this point to take the time to thoroughly investigate every structure I came across. After six days of damn near nothing, I had exploration blue balls.

I also had real blue balls because I hadn’t managed to get lucky once in that town, although one of the women who worked at the bar was eyeing me, I didn’t get a chance to make a move. That night I was actually going to hit on her and invite her back to my place. And before that, I hadn’t gotten in good with any woman for another two weeks.

Fuck, when was the last time I’d been laid?

Over three weeks now. Yeah, it had been with a woman who was part of a little caravan I’d run into. They had made camp at some big house in the middle of nowhere and the only serious hunter among them had apparently frozen to death a week ago. So I traded my wares: hunted and killed a deer and two rabbits, even skinned and prepared them for the group. All they had to do was give me a fair cut of the meat and, to sweeten the deal, one of them had offered to fuck me. She was a hot blonde with a trim body, and I couldn’t say no that.

It had been sweet, but quick.

I’d wanted more, and I was even willing to work for it, but apparently she was only comfortable with doing it as a quick one-off thing because the place they were heading for had her husband waiting for her.

So...yeah.

Still felt kind of bad about that one.

Again, I don’t believe in shit like karma, but...maybe I’d earned what happened in that town. I sure as shit wouldn’t want that happening with my wife. Not that I’d ever had what you might call a serious life partner.

The gas station was close now, and as I made a final approach to it, I saw that there were two cars in the lot. One of them was a shitty old green car with busted windows and no wheels. The other, however, looked to be a pretty sturdily built jeep of some kind. Holy shit, if I could find a fucking car, like a real car…

It’d invite new challenges in my life, but it would eliminate certain others.

I came to stand in front of the gas station, hand settling on the pistol on my hip. Could be anything in there. I looked through the plate glass windows, one of which was boarded over halfway, and didn’t see much of anything in terms of life. That didn’t mean much. People were good at hiding. Intact windows always surprised me. It seemed like humans got so much satisfaction out of shattering glass. I don’t know why, but I knew it was true. I’d done it often enough myself in the beginning, just pick up a brick or something solid and just fucking hurl it through a window. Listening to that shattering sound was so oddly gratifying.

I’d stopped after it occurred to me, I mean really occurred to me, that I could be killing people, or at least making it way harder for them. What if someone came upon that building I’d smashed the windows out of during a blizzard in the middle of the night, looking for shelter, and froze because all the windows were smashed out? I don’t know, but I stopped being destructive at some point. I think it occurred to me that it might lead me towards worse, more violent tendencies. So far, it seemed to have worked.

Not that I couldn’t be violent if necessary.

I walked slowly towards the gas station. It was a clear day out, the sun wasn’t too bright, so I could see through the windows. Careful to keep an eye open for any movement of any kind, I checked out the cars first. The torn-up green one was clear, no one ducking down, hidden in the back. The jeep was in surprisingly good condition. It was obviously very weather-worn, but the damage I saw to it seemed pretty superficial. It made me wonder what was truly wrong with it. While it was possible an intact jeep could have been abandoned here for a year or longer, it didn’t seem likely. If it worked, or was easily fixable, it would be somewhere else by now.

Though it was obvious now that it was leaning to one side, and sure enough I saw a slashed tire on the left front end. Not too hard to fix, provided I could find the proper gear. I looked in through the windows, but they were too frosted over, so I tried the handle. The driver’s side rear door stuck a little, but it wasn’t locked. I opened it up and looked in the middle seat. Some clothes tossed onto the back, but nothing else. It took a quick peek in the back, the trunk space that was easily accessible from the middle seat, and saw some suitcases. The front seat was empty. I would have to look for keys and pray for luck later.

Time to check the gas station.

I pulled my pistol out as I approached the door. Carefully, I pushed it open. I expected that irritating ding! that all gas stations seemed to have, but there was nothing. Just the distant cracking of ice and the occasional whisper of the wind. It was dead silent in the store. I stood in the doorway, waiting, pistol in hand.

It was like stepping into a tomb.

Half the building was in my view right then. A long, double-sided shelf divided the main area, left-to-right, and it had obviously been cleared out. More shelves to the right, and some cold-cases to the left. Also pretty cleared out. I could do a more thorough investigation later. For now, I just wanted to know if I was alone. I took a step in, closing the door most of the way behind me. The place was decently warm, if only because the sun had heated it up above freezing today. I moved carefully around the large shelf and was happy to see that not only was there no one hiding behind it, but there were a few food items gathering dust.

I moved back to the counter and slipped behind it. There was enough light to see beneath the counter, thanks to a pair of little skylights in the ceiling. No one under there, either. I began to head for the opposite end of the counter, towards the door that would let me behind the coolers, but as I did, I checked down a little hallway I found that led to the second half of the building, no doubt where an office or bathroom would be.

I froze. There were bootprints tracking snow in from the door at the back. They tracked a little ways down the hall, and in through another door to my left. It was closed. I stood there, considering it. Okay, so, I wasn’t alone. Those were recent tracks. Someone was almost certainly still in here. How to proceed…

I walked slowly down the hallway to the door, not standing in front of it, and tried the knob. It wasn’t locked, so I twisted and pushed it open. It swung open slowly, began to come back, and then stopped.

Nothing happened.

I decided to try a reasoned approach. “I know someone’s in there,” I said, keeping my voice neutral. “I’d rather not have any kind of fight right now, so I think you should come out to me so we can talk.”

I waited. Nothing, though now I could definitely hear someone breathing.

I sighed, getting frustrated. I had a lot of patience, but it had been a tough week. “Look, can you just come out here? I’m not looking to hurt you. If I have to go in there to try and find you, and you step out at the wrong moment or surprise me another way, you’re liable to get shot, because I do have a gun. Like, we’ve all seen this movie. So...can we just talk? I’m not looking for problems.”

I waited, and just when I had decided to walk in anyway, because I couldn’t just leave this situation alone, I heard a timid: “Okay.”

A woman. She sounded scared, and cold. I didn’t blame her. All of us were nowadays. She cleared her throat. “I’m coming out.”

“Okay,” I said, retreating a few steps to give her some space. I heard hesitant, slow footsteps and kept my pistol out, but pointed at the floor. I waited. Finally, her shadow fell across the floor and she pulled the door open, then stepped out into the hallway.

She looked...lost.

She also looked very attractive. She was average height and weight, her skin pale, her brown hair shoulder-length. She looked at me with anxious green eyes. She was wearing a heavy brown coat, jeans, and boots. I didn’t see the straps of a backpack on her, which was uncommon. Practically everyone had a backpack now.

Her eyes dipped to my gun and she tensed.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Mary,” she replied, her voice tight. “Mary Walsh...what are you going to do to me?”

“Nothing,” I said, and holstered my gun slowly.

The movies are hit-or-miss about a lot of shit, but they were right about how dangerous a post-apocalyptic environment could be thanks to your fellow human. I don’t think that everyone, or even most people, are monsters. That wasn’t the reality. No, the reality was that it was shockingly easy to become a monster, under the right circumstances. I think I even remember seeing some new school of thought before this all went down that anger was a form of temporary insanity. You know, if that was true, it would explain a lot.

But I knew that Mary had an extra layer of anxiety about running into someone like me out here in the middle of nowhere. I was obviously bigger and stronger than her, and I probably looked intimidating. A lot of people told me that. Like I said, oddly suited for this new world. Unless she had a knife or a gun on her, in her mind, there was probably not a whole lot she could do if I assaulted her and tried to force her to do things she didn’t want to do. Of course, I had zero intention of doing that, but too many guys would if they knew or even thought they could get away with it. I continued trying the reasoned approach.

“My name is Chris Weston. I’m alone. Are you alone?” I asked.

She hesitated, then sighed softly, her breath puffing on the air. “Yeah. I’m all alone.”

I considered it. She could be lying. This could be a trap. Some pretty brunette, scared and all alone, pretending to be terrified and vulnerable while her boyfriend or whoever crept up on you from the back to smash your skull open or pop a round into your brain and steal your stuff. But I had gotten good at sniffing those out, and this had all the markers of a genuine situation.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I’m lost,” she murmured after a moment. I waited. She sighed again and looked down. I couldn’t quite tell if she was ashamed or embarrassed. “I was with a group. We were traveling. I thought I saw something in the woods we were traveling through and fucking stupidly went off on my own. I thought it was a rifle leaned up against a tree, which,” she said, looking back up at me almost defiantly, “would be an amazing find.”

She looked back down again and hugged herself, rubbing her arms. “Wolves showed up. I panicked, ran. The leader of the group came back to get me. The wolves got him instead. Killed him. The others drove off the wolves, but they were really pissed. They didn’t like me too much anyway. They told me to leave or they’d kill me. So I left. That was two days ago. I wandered until I got here. As I was coming in the back, I saw you heading up the road and...panicked. I ran in here and hid. Then you came in,” she murmured.

I thought about it. How had I missed her? She should have been fairly obvious...then again, I had the impression that the land behind the gas station sloped off, so that might have done it. I kept studying her.

“So where does that leave us?” I asked finally.

She sighed. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to help me?”

“It depends on what you mean by help, I guess. That’s a pretty general word.”

“I guess it is,” she admitted, studying me. Something changed in her expression as she looked into my eyes. A kind of shift between anxious to...devious? No, coy, maybe. It looked good on her. Calculating, maybe, and a little smirk, like she was examining the odds and liked them. “Maybe we could strike a deal.”

“What kind of a deal?” I asked.

Oh fuck I hope this was going where I wanted it to go.

I would love to have sex with this woman.

“You take care of me,” she said, crossing her arms and standing up a little straighter, “get me food, keep me warm and safe, and ultimately get me to civilization. Some form of it. A village, anything. In return, for as long as we’re traveling together, I will be your...mistress.”

“Mistress, huh?” I replied, unable to keep from smirking just a little.

“Yeah. I’ll fuck and suck you as much as you want. That will be my end of the deal. Any time, night or day, you want sex, you want your dick sucked, I’ll do it, no complaint.” She hesitated. “Okay, I’ll probably complain, but I will do it...what do you say?”

“Show me your tits,” I replied.

She laughed. “Fine,” she said as she unzipped her coat, “but just for a few seconds. It’s fucking cold in here.”

“Fair’s fair.”

She opened her coat, then pulled up a sweater and a tanktop beneath that. Then she pulled up the sports bra she was wearing and oh man…

The thrill of lust that slammed into me and rolled through my body, giving me an erection immediately, was intense. She had a goddamned sexy rack. Nice, round, pale c-cups with excellent pink nipples.

“You got yourself a deal,” I replied.

She laughed and began pulling everything back down. “Good. Now, if you don’t mind, can you make it warm in here? I’m fucking freezing. Also, I’m starving.”

“I’ll get right on it. But as soon as I’m done, I’m wrecking that pussy,” I replied.

She gave me a coy smile. “I’m looking forward to it.”

TWO

Everyone has a weakness.

Mine is women.

I’m sure a lot of guys say that, and have that said about them, and I’m certain it’s true a lot of the time. A lot of guys get fucking stupid for women.

In that regard, I had been at least decently lucky. Although I didn’t think I was much to look at, I had managed to adopt a minor obsession with lifting weights and running cardio in high school. Already being a good six foot two, I managed to get a pretty good physique by the time I graduated. I always thought that my disposition never really matched my body. I was an awkward silent type in the body of a jock.

Everyone thinks I’m a douche-bro just by looking at me.

The upside of that is that it’s a lot easier to convince women to spend time with you. I didn’t actually fully realize this until maybe two years before the apocalypse began. The upshot of this is that way more of the women I ran into were willing to have sex. Either to trade, or just for fun. Or desperation. There certainly was something about looking down the barrel of the end of the world that made you want to just kind of fuck all the time, if only because you know it was way likelier that you’d die tomorrow.

But when I say weakness, I really mean that.

Before, I indulged in shit fast food and drinking occasionally. Sometimes I smoke weed, but not often. I never got into any of the harder stuff, it just struck me as too dangerous. I’d seen people with drug addiction and that shit fucking terrified me. Besides the obvious physical side effects of prolonged drug use, I was uncomfortable with the notion of ever becoming heavily reliant on anything. Another bonus: I valued independence in its many forms. I think, in the back of most people’s heads, they like to imagine that they could just pick up and go live in the wilderness if the situation demanded it. Most of us are delusional in this regard, and I’m not saying it was easy for me, but I think I was better positioned to do it when reality forced my hand.

But once it became obvious that I might actually have to fight, literally and in every sense of the word, for my basic survival, I cut everything out.

I stopped drinking, stopped smoking weed, stopped eating crap.

I knew how to eat healthy by then, and got right to work on learning how to be more self-sustaining, making whatever fruits, vegetables, and meats I could find last longer.

But sex…

My desire for it had only grown since the snow began to fall. Over the past two years, I’ve found myself doing some kind of stupid shit for sex.

I wasn’t crazy about it. Like, I wouldn’t kill someone just for the opportunity to fuck some hot chick. I wasn’t going to rob a place in exchange for pussy. But risk my life to keep someone else safe or get someone somewhere that would be a huge pain in the ass and make it that much harder to survive? I mean, I like to think I’m a decent person, I help people as often as not, but...yeah, I have to admit, if there’s a hot chick involved and she promises sex, I’m going to do it.

With my head already beginning to swell with visions of what Mary looked like naked, and how awesome her tits looked with her standing there flashing me, I prepared to finish the process of searching the gas station. Just to be safe. Even stupefied by the promise of good sex, I wasn’t about to abandon the usual procedures I had.

“What first?” Mary asked as she hung around in the hallway.

“First, I need to finish checking this place out,” I replied. I looked into the room she’d been hiding in and found a little bathroom. Just a toilet and sink and trashcan, nothing else. Where the fuck had she even been hiding? There was nowhere to hide. I left it and checked the door at the back. Here was an office that seemed to have doubled as a storage room. The shelves were mostly bare, the desk had an old PC on it with a boxy monitor. Holy fucking shit, I didn’t even know they had those anymore. It was the 2030s for fuck’s sake, how old was this place? The back door Mary had come in through was ajar.

I walked over to it, opened it, took a look around. Yeah, the ground did kind of slope off at a steep angle there. I guess she would have gotten up to the top and seen me, I’d be pretty obvious, maybe when I was looking down at my feet or studying the scenery in another direction for a few seconds, and then slipped in. The land spread out away from the gas station for a few miles before eventually hitting a broad forest. I had hoped to see something useful in all that wilderness, but all I saw was a simple shack way out, maybe half a mile off, between where I was now and the snow-capped forest.

Closing and then locking the door, I went back and checked out the last room. Just a break area, though it looked like whoever had run the place had turned it into their own little living space. I guess, when you lived this far out, maybe sometimes it was easier to just spend the night. Or maybe even it was a retreat from a life that sucked. I had come across too many people who would literally rather sleep at their jobs than go home to their spouse or family. So, as a result, we now had access to a little twin bed that might just be big enough for my giant ass and her. It would be a tight fit but, well, that was a good thing right now.

“Oh, nice,” Mary said as she poked her head in.

“Yep,” I replied, looking around. Besides the bed, there was a simple trio of cabinets in one corner which supported a sink and a microwave, neither of which would provide much use, I was sure. Everywhere had frozen pipes or non-functional utilities, and it was hard as hell to find power fucking anywhere now. Generators were rare and half the time they were broken. There was a table and a pair of old metal chairs with cracked seating that might hold up if you sat in them. There were just two windows, both of them high up and small and frosted over. The most important thing in the entire building, however, was a little metal contraption squatting in the far corner.

“Oh thank you,” I muttered as I walked over to the wood-burning stove and checked it over.

“That’s good, at least,” Mary murmured, lingering in the doorway.

“I’ve got a job for you,” I said as I looked over the stove.

“Another one?”

I chuckled. “Yeah. Not that fucking me isn’t appreciated, but I would like some help. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to do anything dangerous.”

“Fair enough,” she replied. “What is it?”

“Go around the store and start gathering anything useful you can find. Food, supplies, whatever you manage to find. Bring it here and set it on the counter.”

“Okay, I can do that.”

She set off to her task. While she did that, I concluded that the stove was in working condition and tossed what few bits of wood were left in there. I’d have to find some more, make a little stockpile. I wasn’t sure how long I planned to be here, but if I could somehow get that vehicle working, I’d take as long as I needed.

I got a fire going, then went to work.

~

The daylight drained from the gray overcast skies as we worked.

I took a walk outside, moving around the perimeter of the building, checking for any useful supplies that might’ve been dropped by past visitors, signs of dangerous wildlife, or landmarks in the distance. There was still that shed off a ways behind the gas station. Out front, the two vehicles still waited, and off in the other direction, nestled up against a cluster of trees, was a house. Could be something worthwhile there.

I also gathered up some wood from a little bin out back and some twigs that had blown this far, gathering it by the fire.

I checked out the wrecked car top to bottom, hunting around in any possible hiding spots, though really all there was to check was beneath the seats, in the glovebox, and the trunk. Nothing. Not one damned useful thing. That was how it went sometimes. A lot of times, actually. I was good at sniffing out hidden caches, no idea why, stuff other people had missed or overlooked but sometimes there just wasn’t one damned thing left.

The jeep on the other hand had some shit. There were those clothes in the middle seat. I checked them out. They could be useful, always great trading supplies, though none of them really looked like they were meant to stand up to cold weather. Nothing beneath the seats and nothing of any real value in the glovebox. Just some pamphlets, old receipts, a few pens, hey, those might be useful. I took them and slipped them into my pack. After that I popped the trunk and walked back around. Opening it up, I looked into the back section.

Probably the most appealing thing about this vehicle was that it could easily be used as a kind of mobile outpost. If you laid down the middle seats, you’d have just about enough room to lay down and sleep for the night. Set up a sleeping bag and find some sort of mobile heater, and you’d be pretty set. Of course, those were rare, but even so, the car was a big find. I checked the pair of suitcases back there. One had clothes, the other had more clothes. I sighed softly. So, not the worst find, per se, but it definitely could’ve been a lot better.

I grabbed both of them and set the cases down on the snow, taking an opportunity to look around me again. Although it’s hard to sneak up on someone in snow, as the crunching gives you away when there’s no wind, it’s possible. Plus, I might be being observed from a distance. I didn’t see anything, and my instincts weren’t saying anything, but it never hurt to double-check. I pulled up the floor of the trunk and checked the compartment underneath. My hopes sank. No spare, no axle, no jack. Well, that sucked kind of hard.

Closing the trunk, I grabbed the suitcases and set them inside the gas station, then returned to the car and started hunting for a key. I might be able to hotwire it, but I didn’t want to have to do that every damned time I wanted to start the fucking thing. I checked the glovebox again, under the seats one more time, the dashboard, the sunvisors, and turned up nothing. Finally, I started reaching up under the wheel wells.

That did it.

Luck had found me again. I found a little magnetic box tucked up under the back driver’s side wheel well and, popping it open, discovered the key. Just to make sure, I slipped into the driver’s seat, inserted the key and turned it.

Nothing. Not a damned thing. Just a click. The engine didn’t do shit.

Okay, so…

I’d at least have to replace the battery. I reached down and popped the hood, pocketed the key, got out and headed around to the front. Propping it up, I studied what I saw. The engine block was frozen over, as expected. I didn’t really have much in the way of mechanical knowledge. What I did know, however, was that this was a newer model, probably built within the last few years, which meant it would have a more efficient engine. And maybe no gasoline. The batteries, though, were said to hold onto a lot of power. After the whole Peak Oil thing started happening in the mid-2020s, they’d really started investing in electric cars. Finding power was hard, but not impossible.

This could actually work.

But if it did, I’d need a jump or a new battery, and new tires. Even ignoring the flat, it was obvious these tires weren’t snow tires, and I wasn’t planning on driving far without some of those. After a bit, I had a checklist in mind:

-Axle

-Jack

-Four snow tires

-New battery

-Gasoline?

And I probably should find some new oil, though I wasn’t too concerned. They’d started mass-producing some kind of synthetic oil or whatever the fuck they branded it as that, among other things, lasted a lot longer and also took way colder temperatures to freeze at.

As I stepped back inside, I had to admit to myself that it wasn’t just the heat from the fire I’d lit calling me back. Mary was crouched down to the right, checking out the lowest shelves, and hot damn if her ass didn’t look absolutely incredible in the jeans she was wearing. Honestly, it was hard not to make good on that deal right here and right now. That was another way I guess I was suited to several aspects of the new world. I found a lot of different types of women attractive. On the one hand, yeah, I could really appreciate a woman who put on a lot of makeup and effort into her appearance. But most the girls I’d seriously dated couldn’t be bothered with makeup and did little more with their hair than brush it and put it into a ponytail.

There was something really appealing about that.

And almost no one wore makeup anymore. The only ones who did were the women who were well off for one reason or another, or high class prostitutes. But now the world was starting to be populated by more and more rugged women. There was something immediately attractive about a competent, confident woman.

Although, I had to admit, I was getting the feeling that Mary wasn’t super competent. Not that I was judging, I mean, this whole thing was bullshit. How many people who were just trying to live their lives were thrown screaming into this frozen hell? Most didn’t deserve it. And, like I said, I was still a sucker for traditionally attractive women. And even miserable, exhausted, and half-frozen, Mary was still a very attractive woman.

And, I mean yeah, I’ll own up to the fact that there’s certainly a part of me that likes having an attractive woman look to me for safety and survival. Call it sexism or caveman holdovers or whatever, the end result was a good one. I was always careful not to extort sex out of anyone. The closest I came was paying for it, and it’s not like I was ever paying some asshole who had women chained up somewhere.

I had seen that.

And more than once I had stopped that.

That’s where some of my worse scars came from.

I shook my head. There was work to do. Surely there would be time enough to ruminate on the miserable past soon enough. For now, I actually had something to do, and that was fucking awesome. Not just something to do, but something I could actually do right now and see actual, meaningful progress being made.

Not like walking fifteen miles down a fucking road through the snow and it never seeming to end.

With the car’s to-do list now tucked firmly in my mind, I got to work helping Mary. For a reason that I had never quite understood, I was good at searching places. I mean, there’s obvious stuff. Mainly it’s just: look everywhere and be diligent. But I’d figured out that there was more to it. For whatever reason, stuff kind of jumped out at me. Like hidden panels in the floor or the ceiling, furniture that was moved, hiding places, nooks and crannies, stuff other people overlooked more often than not. I’d managed to find some really cool shit that way.

Neither of us spoke as we picked through the front of the gas station. That was something else I had noticed. Overall, people seemed to talk less. I’m not sure if it was one thing or a combination of things. For me...I guess I had just gotten used to the quiet, and come to prefer it. Not always, for me, a good conversation was a new form of currency, and certainly there were times where the need for human contact crept up on me and, occasionally, cracked me over the head. It was weird what isolation could do to you.

One minute you’d be fine, even happy, then suddenly this wave of loneliness that seems unlike anything you have ever felt before hits you with such intensity that you fight not to vomit or burst into tears.

It was unreal.

Though the front shelves and the cold cases were totally cleaned out, even the area behind them, for some reason, there were still some goodies tucked away on the remaining shelves and beneath the counter. Altogether, we managed to collect half a dozen canned goods. Three cans of beans, a can of peaches, and two tins of tuna. That was as far as the search got before my stomach got the better of me. Okay, and maybe my cock.

The sooner we ate, the sooner I could fuck Mary.

She was already fucking teasing me.

“All right,” I said after we’d put the food back on the counter, where I saw she’d managed to find a can of ravioli and a container of salt, “I’m going to lock this place down and we’ll wind down for the night.”

“What’s for dinner?” she asked.

“Rabbit and beans,” I replied.

“Yummy,” she murmured, and I couldn’t tell if she was being serious or not.

While she cautiously took a seat on one of the old chairs in the break room that was now our new home, I moved around the store, checking the windows. They were easy enough to lock, and most of them were, the locks frozen over, actually, and they’d serve their purpose. If someone wanted in bad enough, they’d have to smash the windows. The back door and the front door were the only real ways in, and they still had deadbolts, which I put to use after going out and taking a good, long look around to see if I could see any figures in any direction.

But we might as well have been the last people on Earth for all I could see.

I locked the store down as best I could and came back to the break room and the fire, where I shrugged out of my backpack, slung it around, and unzipped it. Digging around in it, I pulled out the little collapsible pot I cooked in, then I pulled out and set three bottles of water out. Two on the table and one on the floor near the stove. That one was going to be washing water in the morning. Setting the pot up, I pulled out my can-opener.

“Pass me a can of beans,” I said.

“Okay...what kind?” she replied, picking two up and looking at them. “Kidney or black?”

“Which one do you want?”

“Black beans are definitely better,” she replied.

I held out my hand. “Black beans it is.”

She passed the can to me and I opened it. The process of preparing dinner went smoothly and methodically.

In the beginning, when I’d actually begun settling into some semblance of this new life, it was...taxing. Mainly because I hadn’t even begun to realize how fucking stupid and scatterbrained I’d gotten thanks to my phone. Although I didn’t get super into social media and those dumbass little mobile games and all the other bullshit they crammed onto every phone, it had definitely worked its way into my life. There were people I texted, a few channels I checked, and, okay, yeah, I’ll admit to actually finding and liking a few good mobile games. It occurred to me that I couldn’t do fucking anything without needing to check my phone.

It was optimization, I eventually realized. The myth of optimization. Why just cook your meal or take a shit when you could also be playing a game, texting, or watching something? In fact, if you weren’t doing that, then you were wasting time.

I guess it’s not that I disagree with the notion. It makes sense to, say, sharpen your knife or make conversation or wash your clothes while your meal was cooking or water was boiling. But now it was like...the dial had been turned down, back to something saner. Something that wasn’t constantly screaming at you to do more and more and more.

I dumped the beans in, pulled the wax paper out of my pack and dumped the rabbit in, then pulled out a spoon and stirred it up. Then I let it sit.

“So, Mary,” I said, “where are you from originally?”

She laughed. “Nebraska. You?”

“Florida.”

“Oh wow. Fuck, you must’ve gone insane when this started.”

“Close to,” I replied.

“So, like...were you a fireman or something? A cop? Like, before all this?” she asked, staring at me intently. Her eyes were so damned green. They caught the light of the fire from the stove and seemed to sparkle. Inside her pale, weather-worn face, they looked like precious gemstones.

“What? No,” I replied.

“A Marine?” she asked.

“No. Why do you think that?”

“You just...have that look, I guess. I don’t know, you’re fucking tall and you look built under your clothes and you just seem so...confident, I guess.”

“Fuck, I worked at a grocery store,” I replied, for the first time in awhile actually feeling kind of embarrassed.

Her eyes widened. “Are you kidding me?”

“No, I was a shift leader at this dumb little store called Marge’s Mart. I think. Maybe it was something else, fuck it’s been two years now. But yeah, I got the job after high school and, I don’t know, I was good at it, I guess. They liked me. Gave me a few raises, a promotion. I think I was on my way to running the liquor department when the end of the world happened.”

“Fuck, you were either one hardcore shift leader or you really changed when the snowfall happened,” she muttered.

I considered it. “A little of both,” I replied after a moment. “What about you?”

She looked down, again that embarrassed look. “I...don’t know,” she said after a minute. I stirred the meal, she toyed with some debris with her shoe. Finally, she sighed. “I guess probably not much chance of scaring you out of sticking your cock in me, huh? Or is that really arrogant?” she asked, looking back up at me.

“No, it’s accurate,” I replied. “You’re really pretty and I’m really horny.”

She laughed. “I kinda thought so...and thank you. You’re, um, like really fucking hot.”

“I’m glad you think so,” I replied. I still didn’t know how to take fucking compliments, especially ones that I felt weren’t even true. It was one thing if someone complimented my strength, or my aim, I mean I am strong, and a great shot actually, but even then it just made me feel awkward. But I’d never felt attractive.

More like I got into the attractive club on a technicality because I happened to work out.

“Then fuck it,” Mary said, letting out her breath in a long sigh and blowing at a few errant strands of brown hair. “I think one of the coolest things about meeting so many people thanks to how we live our lives now, is that you can just be brutally honest with them. You can tell truths to some people that you couldn’t tell your closest friend or relative.” She laughed softly. “You’d think after saying something like that, I was about to confess that I was like a prostitute or a murderer or something.

“I used to tell myself I was a free spirit. I drifted from job to job, often from boyfriend to boyfriend, sometimes to girlfriend, across several cities in Nebraska, after dropping out of high school. I guess what the apocalypse showed me was...I wasn’t really a free spirit. I just was afraid to commit to fucking anything. Not even like a relationship, but a job, or a life. You know?”

“I actually know exactly what you mean,” I replied. “You grow up hearing that you can do fucking anything, and you believe it for a little while, and then it becomes this problem. Like, fuck, if I can do anything, why would I do something I don’t like? Where’s this perfect job that’s going to make me money and satisfied and fulfilled? Not to mention how long it takes to actually learn and get good at a job. What if you piss away five years at a job and find out it sucks?”

“Fucking exactly! Fuck!” she snapped. “I thought maybe I wanted to be a vet in the beginning, because I love animals. But I could tell right away I just wasn't smart enough for that, or dedicated enough. Or have the fucking money for college! Ended up working for a pet store, but that didn’t last because I kept getting into fights with the people who ran it because they were basically abusing or neglecting the fucking pets! And fuck, it’s like, what can you do? Even if I somehow had the money to get in there and buy every pet and give them great lives, they’d go replace every last one of them and keep abusing and neglecting them! I could open up my own pet shop, but even if I was successful, there’s still all those other stores! It’s like...” She shook her head angrily. “It’s like they showed us how big the world was, and how big the problems were, and at the same time let us know that it was beyond impossible to fix it all, or even most of it, or even some of it. I always felt like...an ant trying to move a mountain or something.”

“I know how you feel,” I said, stirring the meal again. “It’s a little different now, huh?”

She laughed bitterly. “You could say that. Now I get to be a useless drifter and somehow try to survive fucking snowmaggedon.”

“Why do you think you’re useless?” I asked.

She heaved a sigh. “I don’t know, I’ve just never...gave a shit about anything. I don’t even know how I’m still alive, like for real.”

“You never gave a shit about anything?” I tasted the food. It seemed to be about as ready as it was going to get so I took it off the stove and held onto it, stirring it to release the excess heat before we dug in.

“I mean, you know, I had movies and songs and some books I loved. My friends, a few pets. But everyone likes that shit.”

“What about something not everyone likes? I mean, you said you liked animals.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I liked them enough for it to matter. Fuck, I don’t know...I’d have to think about it,” she replied. She frowned and stared at me as I set the food down on the table between us, then pulled out another spoon from my pack. “What are you asking for? Why do you care, anyway?”

I shrugged. “Making conversation,” I said. “I like hearing about people. People like talking about themselves. It’s human nature.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” she murmured, accepting the spoon. “Thanks,” she added quietly.

She studied me as we started eating. Outside, the wind was picking up, and the light was pretty much gone now. The only light in the room came from the fire, providing a sullen glow. She looked very beautiful in that glow. Something occurred to me and I silently turned and pulled out a second bottle of water from my pack and set it beside the first that rested on the floor by the stove. Then I went back to eating.

“You’re weird,” she said quietly. I looked up at her. She blushed. “I mean, not like in a bad way. It’s just...this isn’t like how it goes when I meet new people. I guess...you’re nice. And you don’t look nice.”

“I don’t, huh?” I asked.

She sighed. “I guess this is coming out weird. You look like a hardass, you know. Most guys play at being hardasses nowadays, especially the ones who already look the part. It’s a lot more effective when you look like, well, you. I guess I expected you to be more, you know, controlling.”

“Do you want me to be?”

“No.” She paused, considered it, then a small smile appeared. “I mean...maybe a little...” she murmured.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

THREE

We ate our meal and just sat there for awhile.

Personally, I think ‘just sitting there’ had kind of taken on the role of what used to be watching TV or listening to podcasts or whatever. Taking a load off. Yeah, sometimes there was reading now, but I’d seen a lot of people just…

Sit down.

And life demanded so much of you nowadays, even in the towns, that just taking a seat was a pleasure all its own.

I sure enjoyed it, even in an uncomfortable chair that felt like it might break under my weight.

“What are the bottles of water for?” Mary asked, finally breaking the silence again.

“Cleaning,” I replied. “I wash before I go to bed, and, if I can manage it, when I wake up in the morning. I’ve got some soap and a few rags.”

“Wow,” she said, “that’s...impressive. A lot of people I’ve come across just, like, gave up on hygiene.”

“Yeah. I guess you could call it one of my few remaining vices. I don’t always manage it, but part of what’s kept me sane is washing. Also...I’m going to want to fuck in the middle of the night, and I’m going to come inside of you, so I’ll be expecting you to wash after we get done.”

“All right,” she murmured, and I could see some discomfort on her face. Well, now was the time to address this part.

“So, before we begin, I want to put you at ease. Have you ever heard of the gold mesh? Or the Midas Mesh?” I asked.

“No...wait, maybe? That sounds familiar...”

“It’s technically a birth control implant for dudes,” I said. “I’m not completely sure about the specific scientifics of it, but what they told me was they implant like...a nano-fiber mesh in my cock, like the urethra. It was some kind of, like, breakthrough. It was fucking expensive, too. I was actually still paying it off when this shit went down. Lucky for me, I guess.”

“So what does it actually do?” she asked.

“For one, I can’t get anyone pregnant. That’s like a one hundred percent guarantee. But for two, STDs can’t come into my cock or travel out of it. As far as I know, I don’t have anything. So, safe, unprotected sex,” I replied.

She stared at me for a moment. “How do I know this isn’t just BS?” she asked finally.

“Because you can see it.”

“What? For real?”

“Yeah.” I stood up. “I’ll show you.” I unzipped and pulled my cock out.

Her eyebrows raised a little. “That’s...nice,” she murmured. “That’s a pretty decent size.”

“That’s what I’ve been told,” I replied, angling it at her. I was mostly hard now because I kept thinking about fucking her sweet little brains out.

“Holy shit, I can see it,” she said, leaning forward. “It’s like a little golden spark. Wow! Can you feel it?” she asked.

“No, I can’t. I thought I could for a little while, in the beginning, but it was just my imagination. I forgot it’s there most of the time.”

“Okay, I’m sold,” she said. She looked up at me. “So do you wanna do it now?”

“Yes, but I need to wind everything down for the moment. Go get naked and get in bed,” I replied.

“Can do,” she said, standing up.

I went through the process of washing the dishes, using some of the water and one of the rags, then I set them out to dry on the table near the fire. I checked out Mary’s ass as she pulled her pants down. Damn that girl had a nice ass. Nice bit of padding to it, just enough there to get a nice handful when you grabbed, sweet, smooth skin. Great hips.

Goddamn she was going to be a great fuck!

And she seemed eager, which was nice. So far, and I didn’t plan for this to change, I had never forced a woman to do anything. Not made nor coerced nor extorted. The most I had done was trade and although sometimes it was a little obvious that the woman wasn’t really into it, that was as far as I’d gone down that particular road. I saw sex work as a valid job, now more than ever. If a woman was willing to sell her pussy and I was willing to rent her pussy and we both agreed to it, then I didn’t entirely see a problem.

Provided everything was on the up-and-up.

It was one thing to buy sex from a woman who was willing to sell it. It was an entirely different thing to buy sex from someone else selling a woman to you.

That shit still didn’t fly with me.

Mary got into bed beneath the blankets that were there after checking the bed and shaking the blankets out, making sure there wasn’t anything in the bed that there wasn’t supposed to be. I finished washing up, then slipped back out, over to the bathroom, where I found a mop bucket, and then, because I was sure I’d seen some back there, I double-checked the manager’s office and found, yep, some toiletpaper.

Now that was worth it’s weight in gold nowadays.

I set it and the bucket in the corner. “Toilet,” I said.

“Thanks,” she murmured, watching me with the blankets pulled up to her chin.

I closed and locked the door, then dragged a chair over and put it up under the handle. I wanted plenty of warning if someone was going to try coming in here. After that, I pulled out my pistol and set it on the floor beneath the bed, I think without her noticing. She wasn’t watching me anymore, instead staring at the ceiling.

Trust was hard to come by, and I was asking a lot of her. It was harder for women to trust men nowadays. Or I guess that had always been true. But she was fully capable of taking my gun, blowing my head off, and robbing my corpse. But I didn’t think she would. I was good at reading people even in high school, and I was only better at it now. I thought that she thought she needed me. It was probably true, if what she told me was true.

She seemed like the kind of person who had gotten by on luck and kindness so far, but those wear out eventually.

I stripped naked after that, then grabbed one of the bottles that had been sitting near the stove and used it and a rag and a thin bar of soap to wash myself. I had one more, wrapped in wax paper, that was handmade in some village a hundred miles back. I was hoping it would last me months, as the other had. Although now that there were two of us, we’d see.

“Do you want to wash?” I asked as I began cleaning up.

“Do you want me to? I don’t sweat much,” she replied.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, although you gotta at least wash your crotch if you expect me to go down on you.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You eat pussy?”

“Yeah. Though not tonight. I know it’s a lame excuse, but I’m too tired. Tomorrow.”

“Hey, I’ll take it. I haven’t had my pussy eaten in months, and I haven’t had a proper one in over a year,” she murmured. “You any good?”

“I mean, the women I’ve hooked up with seem to think so.”

She smirked. “I guess I’ll find out...” She lost her smirk as I washed up. “You have some bad scars...”

“Yeah. Accidents. Falls. Fights.”

“With who?”

“Idiots, mostly. Sometimes wolves. A mountain lion came after me once.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah, that was fucking scary.” I finished washing and hung the rag up to dry, then replaced the soap, and took a moment to check over the fire. With what I’d gathered, I’d probably be able to make it last through the night and have some leftover. I tossed a bit more in, rearranged it properly with an ashy poker leaned against the wall, then closed the door.

Finally I crawled in bed with her.

Mary scooted over to make room.

As I finished laying down and pulled the blankets back over me, I felt an amazingly powerful thrill of lust and excitement and desire pulse through my whole body. My cock was as hard as a rock now and throbbing with anticipation.

For a moment, I just looked at her. She was just visible in the flickering firelight and the vague moonlight now coming in through the windows.

She was painfully beautiful, staring back at me with those vibrantly green eyes. She had a small, almost shy smile on her lips, her chestnut brown hair wild and messy. She reached out and laid a hand against my cheek.

“You’re one of the only guys I’ve seen who doesn’t have a big beard,” she murmured, rubbing the stubble there.

“A weakness,” I replied. “A lotta shit stopped bugging me, but hair didn’t. I still shave once a month or so.”

“It looks kinda nice, actually.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

I slipped a hand over one of her bare breasts beneath the blankets, and she shivered as I made contact with her. Fuck, she had some really nice, perky tits. As I began to grope one of them, feeling her nipple pressing into my palm, I was amazed at how powerful this still was. I hadn’t exactly been starved for attention before the apocalypse, and after it I found myself in a position to convince women to go to bed with me more than ever, but somehow, it never lost its thrill. And not just a thrill, but an intense one.

It was like an electric shock.

Especially when I leaned in and kissed her. There was a spark, a hit of raw emotion and desire as our lips met, and I could tell she was feeling it just as much. She leaned into the kiss and moaned, pushing herself against me. She was hot and soft beneath the blankets, and everywhere our skin touched was like magic, each point of contact a new pulse of excited lust and aching need. Her hand went down between us as she began to make out with me and it sought, and found, my cock. I felt a shiver of my own as her slim, warm fingers wrapped around my shaft. She smiled into the kiss as she started massaging my cock.

“Fuck, you’re big,” she whispered.

At this point, I couldn’t tell if she was just stroking my ego or telling me the truth, but I guess it worked either way.

“Think it’ll fit?” I asked.

She laughed. “We’ll make it fit.”

Mary resumed kissing me, slipping her tongue slowly into my mouth. There was the taste of dinner there, but also her own natural taste.

I liked every aspect of sex, from the undressing and foreplay to the cuddling afterward, but I had a real love of kissing. I don’t know quite why beyond the fact that it just felt good and satisfying, especially when the girl was good at it. And I liked tasting women, for their own, natural tastes. As I moved my own tongue forward to meet hers and felt them touch and begin to twist and dance together, I slid my hand down her body, to one of her hips, then to her thigh. The pad of her thumb went over the head of my cock repeatedly, sending sparks of pleasure into me.

I gently pushed her onto her back and got up closer to her, then parted her thighs with my hand. She gasped as I ran a fingertip between the taut lips of her pussy.

“Oh my God...” she whispered as I touched her clit. “That’s...oh my...I haven’t gotten attention like this in way too long...”

“Good thing you found me then,” I replied. “I like giving attention.”

She kissed me hard on the mouth and let out a cry of pure pleasure as I began rubbing her clit. I had forgotten how good that felt, to get that reaction out of a woman with her pressed against you, nude, beneath some blankets while the wind screamed outside and a fire crackled nearby. I often felt like I was the last person on Earth, walking the desolate wastelands of America by myself, but in moments like these, it felt like me and the woman I was with were the only two people in all of existence, and it felt wonderful.

Mary continued pushing her tongue into my mouth, twisting and dancing it with mine as I rubbed her clit. I did up and down first, then began to make little circles, pressing harder and faster as the seconds slipped by. She was a sensitive woman, I could tell that. Either that or she was phenomenal at faking. After a minute or so, I stopped rubbing her clit and instead slipped a finger inside of her. Oh wow she was wet.

Really fucking wet, and so hot inside.

She broke the kiss, letting out a loud moan of bliss.

“Oh yes!” she cried as I pressed up, hard and fast, over and over. She bucked her hips with my hand as I fingered her. “Yes! Yes! Oh Chris! Fuck!” She grabbed me suddenly and stared at me with wide eyes. “Put it inside me. Now.”

“Yes ma’am,” I replied, spreading her legs open and getting in between them.

Maybe it was weird, but my favorite position was missionary. Don’t get me wrong, doggystyle was great, and being ridden was awesome, and there were a lot of other things that were great fun, but missionary was just…

Mmm. I think I was an intimacy junkie.

Despite what people thought, intimacy during sex could be achieved while having a fling, even with a stranger. If both people were receptive to it, and I always was. And missionary was the most intimate position, at least for me. You were right there, right against each other, staring at each other, faces inches apart, doing the most physically intimate thing you could with another person, bathing in the pure pleasure of the act in union.

I settled in between those nice thighs of hers as she spread her legs as wide as the bed would allow. Looking into her eyes, I propped myself up with one hand while using the other to grip my cock and guide myself into her.

“Easy,” she whispered.

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She smiled and reached up, laying a hand on my cheek. “You’re the first person who’s told me that in a long time that I actually believe.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m glad you believe me,” I replied, and began to penetrate her.

She gasped and a violent shiver ran through her as contact was made. I worked my way slowly, carefully into her. She was fucking tight, and I really didn’t want to hurt her. As I got more comfortably into her, I leaned down and began to kiss her. She moaned as we resumed kissing and I continued penetrating her. She shifted with me, giving me better access to her, making the penetration smoother, easier.

Before long, I had gotten my entire dick in there, and, like other things, I was amazed at how good it felt.

It was like I forgot what pussy felt like within a day or two, let alone fucking weeks.

I began stroking smoothly into her and good lord, the feel of her raw vagina clenched around my bare cock, of sliding into that pussy again and again and again…

It was wet, hot paradise.

It was the best feeling in the whole of existence.

And judging by the expression on Mary’s face, the way she opened her mouth, breaking the kiss again, and closed her eyes and started panting, and the moaning she started up with...yeah, I think it was pretty fucking great for her.

“Fuck, Chris,” she whispered, grabbing at my back. “You are big. That’s just...oh wow. Oh my God, that is some really good dick.”

I kissed her again. “And you have got an awesome pussy.”

She laughed and moaned again. “You like it?”

“I fucking love,” I replied and started driving into her harder.

She screamed in pleasure. “Yes! Oh yes! GIVE IT TO ME! GIVE ME THAT DICK!” she shrieked, and goddamn did she have a good voice for sex screams.

I could hear the bed creaking and then the frame hitting the wall repeatedly as I stuffed my cock into her. The pleasure washed over me, filled me, welcomed me like a long-lost lover. A few weeks without sex might as well feel like a few years. I had to fight not to bust my load and drain my nuts into her within the first few minutes. She could be lying, but it sounded like she hadn’t enjoyed good sex for awhile either and I was going to be damned if I’d bust before she did. For me, getting sex was a priority, to be sure, one of the reasons I kept going, but also being good at it was just as important. I wanted to make for damn sure my partners enjoyed it, too.

And she was on the way. I could just tell.

I could read it in her body. Feel it in her movement, see it on her face, hear it in her voice. The way she was letting out those panting cries of ecstasy, the way they were getting higher in pitch and closer together.

Leading her right into…

“OH CHRIS!”

God I loved hearing women scream my name.

I especially loved it when they started coming all over my dick. She let out an inarticulate, almost strangled scream of pure sexual release as her vaginal muscles began going crazy, clenching wildly around my cock as she got hotter and wetter. She shrieked madly, bucking her hips and thrashing around, and I groaned long and loud as my own orgasm burst through the gates and I started just pumping my stuff into her pussy.

I drained my nuts into her.

I fucking shot a huge load inside of her.

It felt like it lasted for a really long time, and it fucking blinded, deafened, and overwhelmed me. For I don’t know how long, there was just the way my cock was twitching inside of her tight, hot wet pussy and the feeling of my seed leaving me in hard contractions, and the pulses of blinding pleasure each one of those contractions set off like a shockwave. The orgasm was an earthquake rocking my entire body and the epicenter was my cock and it was the best feeling in the entire goddamned motherfucking universe.

My blue balls disappeared as I finished busting inside of her. My cock dry-kicked for like another ten seconds before finally it was done.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “That was...oh wow. That was incredible. That was amazing sex, Chris. Holy shit.”

“Yes,” I groaned. “Fuck, that was good. That was really good.”

“That orgasm...” She let out a long groan of bliss and shuddered. I pulled out of her and rolled over onto my back. Staring up at the ceiling, I could see everything spinning. It was kind of like being pleasantly buzzed. “Holy shit,” she whispered, reaching down and covering herself. “Holy shit, you came so much. Oh my fucking-wow!”

“Go clean up. I’m going to want more pussy tonight,” I replied.

She smirked. “Yes, sir.”

She got up and I looked at her ass as she used some of the toiletpaper to wipe at herself. Fuck, I had blown a huge load.

“Fuck, man!” she cried as she cleaned up. “How long’s it been?”

“Too long. Three weeks since I fucked, and I haven’t jerked off for like a solid week.”

“Shit, no wonder!” She turned to me. “Here, face me, rolled over...I wanna see it.” I rolled over and she stared at my dick. I was still about at half-salute, covered in both our sex juices. “Damn, that’s a nice dick,” she murmured.

I laughed. “You think so, huh?”

“Yeah. You ever do any porn?”

“No.”

“You sure could have, with a body and a cock like that. You fuck a lot of women, don’t you?”

I yawned and began pulling the blanket up. “I mean, whenever I can,” I replied. “There’s not really a reason not to if they’re into me. And I’m into most women.”

“So was my pussy awesome?” she asked as she finished up and got back into bed with me. She got in between me and the wall and laid down facing me.

“Yes. It was absolutely awesome,” I replied, laughing and giving her a kiss.

“It sure sounded like it. You’re noisy,” she said.

“That a problem?”

“No! I love it! Too many guys don’t say shit or make any noises. Keep that up.”

“Noted. Now roll over,” I replied.

“Okay...”

She rolled over and I got up against her and wrapped my arms around her. She let out a contented sound and settled a bit. We laid there with only the sound of the wind occasionally shrieking by outside and the crackling of the fire.

“You’ll keep me safe, Chris?” she murmured after a bit.

“I’ll keep you safe, Mary,” I replied, and gave her a small squeeze.

“I believe you.”

FOUR

I remember waking up twice in the night. Once I took a piss and both times I checked the fire and threw in some more wood.

Both times I was just too tired to pound pussy.

But not the third time I woke up and saw sunlight. I was awake.

I was horny.

My erection throbbing, I pushed Mary over onto her stomach and got onto her.

“Mmm, what’s happening?” she muttered.

“Shut the fuck up,” I replied and slipped my cock in between her thighs, up into her vagina. She cried out as I penetrated her.

“Oh, fuck!” she moaned.

“Yes...” I groaned as I stuffed my almost painful erection into her sweet, sweet pussy. She was really goddamned wet. “You like that you little slut?” I asked as I began pounding her into the mattress. “You fucking like that?”

“Yes!” she screamed, her face buried in the pillow as I fucked her. “Oh yes!”

“You want it hard you stupid bitch?” I asked.

“Yes! Harder, daddy! Please!” she shrieked.

I pushed myself up and began stroke hard and fast into her, looking down the smooth, pale curve of her back to her ass. Damn, this girl had a nice ass. Fit from walking everywhere, no doubt, but with some nice padding to it. A nice bit of thickness and hips to support it.

I was definitely fucking her in the ass at some point, and soon.

For now though…

“Yes! YES! YES!” she shrieked and I felt something give inside of her and she started coming all over my dick. I groaned as something gave inside of me and I started coming in her pussy. I unloaded my nuts into her, pumping that amazingly tight pussy full of my seed one more time. I laid down against her, reached under her, grabbed her shoulders from below, gripped them tight and thrust deeper and harder into her as I blasted my load inside of her. She shrieked incoherently in bliss as I fucked her orgasming vagina and shot my stuff into her.

I fucking pumped that pussy full.

In the end, it was short, but oh so sweet. Morning sex usually was. I couldn’t last in the morning, I was way too turned on.

When I was done, I pulled out of her and got to my feet.

“You are going to fucking destroy my pussy,” she groaned.

“Told you that when we set this deal up,” I replied.

“Did you...” she yawned. “Did you fuck me in my sleep? ‘Cause I don’t remember you waking me up for more sex last night...”

“No, I was too tired. I’d been walking for six days,” I replied.

“Fair enough. Speaking of tired...” She yawned again. “Can I go back to sleep?”

I walked over and smacked her ass. “Yes. But clean up. I might want more pussy.”

“Yes, sir,” she murmured. As I took a leak, she got up and cleaned herself up. “Is it weird if I call you daddy?” she asked.

“No, though I prefer master or sir,” I replied. “Was I too rough on you?”

“Mmm...no. Not at all. That was good. Hot.”

“Tell me if it’s too much. You got a safe word?”

“Yeah. Strawberry.”

“Good. I’ll remember.”

She looked over at me and favored me with a tired but really cute smile. “You’re so sweet,” she said after a moment. “Like...it’s so weird.”

I laughed. “I know.” I walked over as she finished cleaning up and began washing my own self off. “Everything thinks I’m an asshole until they get to know me.”

“I like you,” she said, then yawned again. “Going back to sleep now.”

“All right. I’m going to finish searching the store, make sure we didn’t miss anything, then I’m going to take another look at that jeep out there.”

“You think you can fix it?” she asked, laying back down and pulling the blankets around her.

“That’s what I’m hoping.”

“Good luck.”

I nodded. I was going to need it. Using the water bottle I’d left within reasonable distance from the fire, and the cloth and soap, I washed up, giving myself a basic once-over. Then I washed the cloth best I could and let it to dry on the back of the chair for her to use. With that over, I went through the process of pulling all my clothes back on. After that, I put my gun back on my hip, grabbed my snow-melting pot, and began to head for the door.

“Chris,” she murmured.

I stopped, turned to look at her. “Yeah?”

“Thanks,” she said, staring at me with sleepy eyes. “For being nice to me.”

I laughed softly and walked back over. “You’re welcome, Mary.” I leaned down and brushed some of her messy brown hair back, then kissed her forehead gently. “Go back to sleep, I’ll be nearby.”

“Okay,” she said quietly.

I got to work, feeling better than I had in a long time.

~

First thing was to pull some kind of grain bar out of my pocket and eat it. I always ate breakfast and I always kept it light.

Basically just something to get me going.

After that, I set some snow to boil. I walked out and packed the pot with snow. Mary was back asleep by the time I came back and set the snow on the stove.

After that I took two hours to finish combing over the store, carefully checking everything over again after going through the office/storage room. There wasn’t nearly as much in there as I had been hoping. The most I managed to find was some shit to throw on the fire, some office supplies that some people loved, and I could understand that, wanting to draw with a pen or a real pencil was appealing. I found a pair of paperbacks that I held onto. I tried not to burn books if I could help it. But beyond that, it was mostly just random crap that wouldn’t really help me. Not long after I was done, my snow was melted, boiled, and properly purified.

I set it to cool on the table, then went outside. Mary was still out. I didn’t blame her. I’d fucked the shit out of her twice and it sounded like the last two days had been rough. Not to mention, everyone was more exhausted now in general.

Fuck, even just walking around in the snow could be exhausting, plus the cold just kind of sapped the strength from you some days.

I had done a quick survey of the perimeter when I’d gone out to get the snow and found it empty, and as I went out to take a more thorough look at the car, I did it again. Things could change. If someone or something was coming up on me, I wanted to know about it as soon as possible. But the vast expanses of white in all directions still remained unbroken. Though anything could be hanging out in the trees.

I took some time to more thoroughly check the car over, making sure I hadn’t missed anything upon my initial inspection. I didn’t find anything tucked away, but I did look at the engine again, and I was almost sure that this model ran on electricity, not gas, but there was certainly some way to tell that I was thinking of…

“Oh,” I said aloud as it occurred to me, “holy shit, you’re a dumbass,” I muttered as I walked towards the rear and started looking for the telltale of the spot where you put gasoline in. I found one, and forgave myself a little for not thinking about it, because I must’ve seen it and not realized it, maybe just filed it away because I expected to see it, so it didn’t occur to me, but as I opened it up, I saw an outlet, not a hole for gas.

So it did need power. Great.

More of a pain, but possible to deal with.

I tracked down a ladder on the side of the gas station then and carefully climbed up it. The reason being twofold. One: there might be shit up here. People hid shit on roofs, sometimes. Two: I wanted to survey the region. I made it up without too much trouble, only almost slipping once, and spent ten minutes poking around. Ultimately I found nothing hidden in the handful of little niches, and from there I took a long look around the area.

There was a lot of snow.

There were a lot of dead trees.

There was of lot of miles of snowed-over ground.

I saw that house I’d seen earlier, across the road in front of the gas station, down a gentle slope maybe a mile off, with just the barest hints of a road leading out to it. Probably some mile-long gravel driveway back in the day. It was nestled up against a treeline, and I could just see another structure behind it, probably a shed or maybe a garage. Nothing else over there. I knew there was nothing back the way I’d come, I mean, nothing obvious. Off to the right the road kept on going for a ways, but ultimately disappeared into some trees. Finally, out back, there was that huge field, with a lone shack sitting in the middle of it, and more trees behind it.

I couldn’t see anything else.

Not a lot to work with, unfortunately.

I headed back down and walked inside. As I walked back into the back room, closing the door quickly behind me to preserve the warm atmosphere, I found Mary washing up. She covered herself reflexively, then offered a small laugh and went back to washing.

“How are you?” I asked.

“Hungry,” she replied.

“Me too. Though we aren’t going to be eating much until I manage to secure us some more food, I have to warn you.”

“That makes sense,” she murmured, frowning at what we’d collected.

I nodded, pulled out my funnel from my pack and went about replacing the water I’d taken out of the bottles yesterday. I had once had a canteen not too long ago, but it had been left behind when I’d had to run, so now this was all I had. After I finished that up, Mary started drying off and I walked over to our supply of food.

There wasn’t as much as I’d have liked after searching the gas station, but I knew we were lucky to find anything.

Plus, I hadn’t actually searched this room yet.

Right now, we had a can of black beans, a can of kidney beans, a can of peaches, two tins of tuna, three candy bars, and four breakfast bars.

Not exactly a full pantry.

“You like tuna?” I asked.

“Well enough to eat it,” she replied. I opened up the tin and handed it to her. “Thanks.”

“Yep.” I grabbed the kidney beans, remembering she didn’t like them. I thought they were okay enough. We sat down opposite each other as I opened it up, grabbed the two spoons I’d cleaned last night, and passed one to her.

“Are you eating that because I don’t like them?” she asked, nodding at the beans.

“Yeah,” I replied. “I don’t mind them.”

She stared at me for a moment. “You are so fucking weird.”

I laughed. “You keep telling me that.”

“It’s a compliment...I mean, I mean for it to be. I don’t know, nice seems to have died along with most of humanity.”

“You’ve really run into that many assholes?” I asked.

She sighed. “Useful is the new pretty, I think. Although pretty works well enough, sometimes. On the right people. I’m not really useful, and once people figure that out, they determine I’m a drain on their resources. Which, I mean...I am.”

I stared at her for a few seconds. Fuck, I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to be encouraging, but I wasn’t very good at it. That was part of the reason I liked the new normal of less talk: I was shit at conversation. Or at least I was shit at making people feel better.

“You’ve survived this far, you can’t be completely useless,” I said finally.

She laughed. “I mean, I’ve gotten lucky a lot. I lived in a little commune for the first year. I did the jobs no one wanted. Cleaning out toilets, washing up after dinner, finding firewood so we wouldn’t have to trade for it.” She sighed. “I would still be there if it hadn’t burned down. I still don’t know what happened, but I made it out and it was just crazy, half that little town burned down. Some people said there was another place we could go, and the people I was friends with wanted to go, so I went with them. But when we got there, the place had too many people and we couldn’t stay, so we moved on, and I’ve just kind of drifted ever since.”

“What were you doing out here?” I asked.

“Heading for another town. There’s supposed to be one like thirty miles down that road out there. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but the people I’d hooked up with were being led by a guy who had been there before. He said there would probably be people there. I figured it would be a place to try and stay, maybe find a job. I don’t know...” She set down the tin and hugged herself suddenly. “I’m just so scared most of the time.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say.

“Are you scared?”

“Sometimes,” I replied, shrugging uncomfortably. “I’m scared of freezing to death, of rabid animals, of getting sick, of assholes with guns.”

“Anything else?”

“Spiders.”

She laughed. “I don’t see many of those now.”

“No, that’s been nice.”

“What about being alone?”

I looked down at my mostly-eaten can of beans. “I mean, yeah. Sometimes. But I don’t know, sometimes I think I must be some kind of freak. I like being alone. Not always, but more often than most people, it seems. Even before all this, I lived by myself. I moved out of my parent’s place as soon as I could. I’d go out and hit up bars or clubs or whatever when my friends wanted to, but mostly I just looked forward to getting home and closing the door and there being no one around. I never wanted a roommate and I always wondered if I’d have trouble living with a girlfriend.”

“Do you still feel that way?” she asked.

“Kind of,” I replied. I shifted in my chair, listening to it creak beneath me. Well, if it broke, it’d make good kindling at least. “It’s like...I got this bug in me. That’s what people say, right? I can’t ever settle down. Even if I find a pretty cool place to live, I’ll stay there for maybe a few weeks at most, and then it’s like...I gotta go.”

“That’s so weird,” she murmured. “I hate traveling. I just want to find a place to settle down.”

“I think most people do. I don’t even know why I want to move on, I just do.”

“Maybe you just haven’t found the right girl,” she said.

I grinned, though it was a little bittersweet. “That isn’t it. Well, I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. But I’ve left a few really great women behind, because I wanted to leave and they didn’t. It wasn’t anything they did. They were great. But...I don’t know. It’s like I’ve got something in me that just makes me leave. Sometimes I wonder, though, if I’ll ever meet someone that makes me want to stay. Who kills the wanderlust bug.”

“Whoever she is, she’ll be really lucky,” Mary said.

“You think so?”

“Fuck yes. No one’s nice anymore. And you’re nice. And you obviously don’t have to be. You could treat me like shit and I’d still suck your dick dry every day and let you fuck me, just so long as you kept me alive.”

“Oh, well, now that I know that, I’m locking you in the bathroom and putting snow down your pants,” I said.

She laughed loudly. “You do that I’ll put snow in my vagina just to fucking spite you.”

I shivered. “God, that’d be awful.”

We shared a laugh, then went back to eating. After I finished off my food, I took some time to wash out the can, then turned it upside down to dry. People wanted cans, sometimes. People wanted things that could hold stuff. After that, I spent about half an hour carefully combing over the room, moving stuff around, poking through every last nook and cranny. I managed to find a little stash of stuff tucked way back up under the bed and had to pull it away from the wall to get at it. I found another two cans of peaches, which was nice, I liked peaches, a bottle of generic painkillers, and a damned lighter! Now that was a decent find.

It was half-full of fluid but it produced a flame.

“Whoa, nice,” she muttered. “It’s hard to find those.”

“Hell yeah,” I agreed, slipping it into my pocket.

“So now what?” she asked as I pushed the bed back into place.

“Now, I’m going to take a little walk. There’s a shack out back, I imagine you passed it as you came in. Did you look inside?”

“Yeah, but I was freezing so I didn’t search for long. There’s some stuff in there, but it all looked pretty old,” she replied.

“Well I’m going to go check it and see if there’s anything useful. I want you to stay here and guard the stuff.”

“I’m not much of a guard,” she murmured.

“I guess mind the store is better. Unless you really want to come with me,” I replied.

She considered it, then shook her head. “No, I’d rather stay here, honestly. I could do without being outside for at least another day or so.”

“Okay. So be it.”

“Wait,” she said, and a look came over her face, a coy one with a small smile. “Why don’t you let me give you a blowjob for...good luck.”

I immediately began to stiffen. “Good luck, huh?”

“Yeah...sit down.”

“All right.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed, and she grabbed the pillow and put it down on the floor, then got down on her knees on it. I sat back a little, resting on my hands, as I watched her work my pants open. She got my belt undone, my button next, pulled the zipper down. Finally, she pulled my boxers down, freeing my cock.

“My, my,” she murmured, “already at full salute.”

“You have that effect on me,” I replied.

She wrapped her hot, soft fingers around it. “Good.”

My eyes were glued to her as she stuck her tongue out and slowly began to drag it across my head. I groaned as she started to lavish the pleasure onto me. Fuck, how long had it been since my last blowjob? Like a month. During that last lay that woman had kind of sucked my dick for about fifteen seconds before telling me to put it in her. I liked a good blowjob, and not to sound like a snob, but I ran into a lot of women who just…

Weren’t good at it.

Sometimes I thought maybe it was me, maybe I just wasn’t as sensitive or something, but sometimes I figured maybe not. I didn’t know what went into a great blowjob beyond the fact that it felt really fucking good.

I noticed that older women seemed to be able to do it better with more consistency.

But Mary was doing a good job. She licked slowly, that hot, wet pleasure starting the fantastically slow burn into me, filling me up the way warmth fills a cold room after you get a fire lit. She kept that up for a good minute or two, then she slowly slipped my cock into her mouth, between those nice lips of hers. I groaned louder at the burst of pleasure that came from slipping between those lips. They were hot and wet and full and she looked remarkably sexy as she started sucking my dick. She moved her lips all the way down the entire shaft, taking the whole thing into her mouth until the head hit the back of her throat, where she kept it and swallowed.

I groaned louder, felling all those tight, wet throat muscles close around the head convulsively, sending a shock of ecstasy into me. She did it again, then took it back out and started bobbing her head. She moved her head up and down with a brisk pace and smooth precision, focusing on the head each time she came to it, and fuck did that feel good. She was on fucking point with this. I just sat there and let her work, watching her do her thing, which added to the whole experience. Her lips looked so good wrapped around my cock.

After about another minute, I triggered.

She was working it really good with that wonderful mouth of hers and I inhaled sharply, then started busting in her mouth. Listening to her moan and feeling her continue to suck just made the whole thing beyond amazing. I felt my seed spurting out of me, leaving me in hard contractions as the pleasure started blasting through me.

I came in her mouth and she sucked me dry.

Mary kept sucking after I was done, and once I’d stopped dry-kicking, she finally took it out of her mouth. “So, was that a ‘good luck’ blowjob or what?” she asked, looking quite satisfied with herself.

Well, she’d sure as hell earned that.

“Yes,” I managed, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly, relishing that post-orgasmic warm glow that seemed to saturate me. “Hell yes.”

“Good.”

I sat there for a moment longer as she got a drink, then put my cock away and stood up. I grabbed my backpack and began sorting it out. There was always a bit of anxiety during this part. When I had to leave the place that was my home to go investigate another place for resources. I needed to leave enough room that I could bring back an appreciable amount, but take enough with me that I could survive if I was forced to leave all my resources behind.

It was a delicate balance.

I finished up and pulled on my pack. “Okay, I’m leaving now. I’ll probably be gone for an hour or two. Worse comes to worse and something happens, like someone shows up, just run towards the shack and scream your head off.”

“Okay,” she replied.

“I’d leave you a gun but I’ve only got the pistol,” I said.

“It’s fine. I’m not a great shot anyway.”

“All right.” I paused. “You read?”

“Since the apocalypse, yeah.” I tracked down the two paperbacks I’d located in the office and set them on the table for her. “Thanks,” she said.

“You’re welcome. Come on, lock the door behind me.”

She nodded and followed me out the room and to the back, in the manager’s office. “When I come back,” I said, looking at her intently to make sure she was paying attention, “I will knock three times slow, then twice fast. If it’s not that, don’t open it. Do you understand?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Good luck,” she murmured.

“Thanks. I’ll be back,” I replied, and gave her a kiss on the forehead, then I left.

She closed the door behind me and once I heard it lock, I started walking.

~

Walking was so much of my life now.

Before, so much of my life had been doing meaningless shit in a grocery store or being stuck in traffic. I had to admit, walking was a big improvement. It was simpler, sure, but I was doing it for me. Or, at the very least, I wasn’t doing it for anyone else. I suppose I was doing it for Mary, too, but that wasn’t the same as having to go to a place and do shit for eight hours because your boss would get mad if you didn’t and you’d get fired and you wouldn’t be able to pay your bills anymore. It’s not even like I was some fucking jacked-up super libertarian, obsessively declaring that everything I owned was mine and no one else’s and fuck anyone who thought they could tell me what to do. Although I certainly preferred working for myself, I didn’t mind taking orders.

It was just that…

I did not give one shit about that job.

And I’d tried, but it very rarely didn’t feel like a waste of my time. I mean, not that I thought my time was so great anyway, I just felt like…

I guess like, I should be doing something else, I just wasn’t sure what.

I sighed softly as I made my way away from the gas station, down the incline and into the big field out back, trying not to let thoughts of my old life invade my mind. Of course, what the fuck else was I going to think about?

Mary, I guess.

She was pretty great.

Although I was already feeling guilty. I could tell she liked me. A lot. That not-so-subtle ‘you just haven’t met the right girl’ thing had ‘you should stay with me’ written all over it. I don’t even think I was being arrogant to think so, I mean I could see why she’d want to latch onto me. She obviously found me attractive in a number of ways, and more than that I could, quite effectively, take care of her. And I mean yeah, she certainly held appeal to me.

I had that kind of personality that meant yes, I liked to wear the pants in the relationship, or whatever the fuck people wanted to call it nowadays. It didn’t mean I had to be overbearing or abusive or a narcissistic control freak or that I’d flip out if my girlfriend made more money than I did. Not that that was a thing anymore.

I sure liked assertive women, too, and that could definitely work.

But yeah, I could see myself staying with Mary for quite awhile, if…

If I didn’t have the wanderlust bug infesting my brain.

I could already tell what was going to happen, provided all went well, because it had happened before. We’d get to the next settlement, we’d find a place to hunker down for awhile, I’d find a job or go hunting regularly or whatever paid the rent, we’d fuck like rabbits for a few weeks, maybe a month, and then I’d get bored or antsy or whatever form the wanderlust bug took this time around, stick it out another week or so, and then I’d leave, and she’d be sad and I’d feel like a fucking asshole. The only thing I could hope for was that she’d understand.

Fuck, why was I thinking such depressing shit?

I guess it was because I was living in a frozen hellscape of a post-apocalyptic nightmare. I mean, I was well-suited for it, yeah, but it still fucking blew.

I turned off my brain as best I could as I marched across the field, listening to the wind blow and the snow crunch beneath my boots.

The sun was out today, at least, so it was half-decent in terms of warmth.

I couldn’t see anything lurking around. No wolves, no bears. I’m pretty sure this was bear country...or, wait, was it?

It didn’t help that not only did I not know much about the Midwest, but I wasn’t even sure what goddamned state I was in. I still felt like this was Kansas, it was fucking boring enough to be Kansas, but it could be Missouri or Nebraska.

Shit, it could be Colorado, although I seriously doubted that. It had been too long since I’d looked at a map.

Finally, I got to the shack.

It was in shit shape and there were holes in it and the single window it had was broken, but it was still standing at least. I checked around the outside, then pushed the door open, my pistol in hand. Someone could be inside. But as I looked in, I didn’t see anyone. There was enough light to see by, so I went in and started poking around.

There were some boxes stacked to the right, a withered, rusted old bike frame missing tires to the left, and a workbench pushed up against the back wall. Over it was a board obviously meant to hold tools, but they were long since gone.

Feeling that same thrill I still felt even now, over a year since I’d really started searching places, I set to work pulling that shed apart.

There was nothing hidden around or under the bike. The drawers of the workbench proved to be just as sadly empty and cleared out as the board that had once held tools, and the boxes weren’t a whole lot better.

The top one was empty. I flattened it and set it aside. Good burning material. The next held a few glass jars that would have been useful if they weren’t broken. With a sigh, I dumped the glass out on the workbench and flattened the second box. The third and fourth held a bunch of random bullshit. A few remotes that didn’t have batteries, some random scrap metal, a handful of paperbacks so rotted and weathered that they were useless as anything but fuel, and some kids toys that I ended up hanging onto. I could see someone trading for that.

Or shit, I’d give it away honestly.

Being a kid nowadays? It must be truly fucking awful.

Then again, maybe not. Kids were really adaptable and resilient, or so I’d heard.

I stuffed whatever was useful into the remaining box, then looked out the window again. Everything was still good out there.

Now was a perfect time to indulge in one of the things that kept me sane.

I sat down on the floor with my back to one of the walls and pulled my journal out of my inner coat pocket.

No one knew about this. No one.

If you asked me point blank about why I wouldn’t let anyone even know that I kept a journal, I’d have to answer honestly: I don’t know. All I know is that it just felt right not to let anyone know that I wrote in a journal. I wasn’t embarrassed by it, exactly. It was more just that it was mine. And I wanted it to stay mine in every way possible. My best working theory was that I didn’t really get too attached to anything I owned as a necessity. It might break, or get stolen, or need to be traded, or get lost. This was true of everything.

Nothing I had on me right now had been with me when I’d set out on this new life a year ago.

Except the journal.

That had stuck with me. If I lost it…

I’m not sure how I’d react.

Poorly, I imagine.

But I’d been writing in this journal for fifteen months now. Sometimes I’d go for weeks without updates, and it wasn’t even like I had a lot to say. It helped me keep track of the date...sort of. I had to admit that the whole ‘waiting weeks to update sometimes’ thing had almost certainly thrown my chronology off, but I still felt pretty confident that I had the month right, at least. There were still some places that claimed to keep good time.

Right now, I was almost certain it was August 2038.

This was also another reason I’d snagged those pens.

I sat there in that shack for a good twenty minutes. I wrote out another entry, dating it as best I could. It had been about a week since I’d last updated. If you asked me why I wrote in a journal, I couldn’t answer that either. Someone had suggested it nine months or so into the apocalypse, and I just...tried it one day.

And it felt good.

So I kept doing it. And now I did it kind of regularly.

I wrote about the assholes chasing me out of town, the shit six days I’d had after, and meeting Mary and the fantastic sex we’d had. After I was done writing, I tucked it away firmly, then sat there and just...chilled for a few more minutes.

It was nice to sit down and relax, even if it was on a cold concrete floor.

Finally, I got back up and started heading back.

FIVE

It started to snow while I was walking back.

The wind began to pick up and I didn’t like the ugly shade of gray the sky had gotten while I’d been searching the shed and scribbling in my journal.

By the time I was crawling back up the incline, the wind had really picked up and the snow was coming down harder.

Clearly, a storm was brewing.

There went the rest of the fucking day, at least in terms of being able to go outside. Well, probably. It might blow over in a few hours, but with weather being what it was nowadays, it was hard as hell to tell, and you didn’t want to risk getting caught in a whiteout. It could and would kill you. Visibility got down to something like three feet, sometimes even less, and besides the fact that you might run into a dangerous carnivore with way better senses than you and no compunction about ripping your throat out, you could wander in circles around a building that was like ten feet away and freeze to death while doing so.

I’d been caught in a blizzard more than once and it was more chance than anything else that I was still here to ruminate on it.

I walked up to the back door, banged on it three times, then twice quickly. Then I waited. I hoped she’d remember, or that nothing had happened while I was gone. But within a minute I heard the lock being thrown and the door opened and there she was, looking relieved to see me.

“Any luck?” she asked as I came in, kicking snow from my boots.

“No,” I replied. “Not really. Just some random bullshit that might be useful someday.”

“That sucks.”

I nodded and closed and locked the door behind me, then we went back into our living area and shut that door. I put the stuff I intended to use as fuel by the dwindling pile. There was enough there for another night, but we’d need something a bit more substantial. Well, there was enough stuff scattered around the gas station that I could build the pile up a bit more.

“So...now what?” Mary asked.

“Now we’re stuck in here for probably the rest of the day, unless the storm dies off, which I doubt it will. Which means I’ve got to take care of some stuff,” I replied as I headed back out into the front of the gas station.

She followed after me. “Like what?”

“First,” I said, picking up the pair of suitcases I’d salvaged from the back of the jeep yesterday and stowed in the corner, “we sort through these. Well, you sort through them. See if there’s anything that fits. You could do with more clothes.”

“Yeah, I could,” she murmured.

We went back and I set the suitcases on the bed. “What happened to your stuff?”

She sighed. “They took it. They basically robbed me when they kicked me out.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah, although I kinda feel like I earned it. I got their leader killed and he was a pretty popular guy. A useful guy, too.”

“Well...sort through it and put whatever you don’t want in a pile on the table so I can have a look,” I replied, not sure how to respond to that.

“What are you going to do?”

“Boil some more water. I want to wash my clothes. Yours too, if you’d like.”

“Yeah, that’d be nice...thanks.”

“Yep.”

I set out to boil some water.

~

A storm had definitely come, I saw as I gathered the snow to melt just out the back of the building. But unless it got worse, I didn’t think it was going to be one of those miserable fuckers that lingered for days.

I settled into my routine as I packed the snow, went back inside, got the fire restarted, and set it to boil. From there, I stripped naked and pulled on my other set of clothes. I only had two sets now, pretty identical: black boxers, black socks, a pair of heavy jeans and a pair of construction-style work pants with heavy pockets, (definitely preferred those), two pairs of thermal underwear to go under, two thin long-sleeve shirts, two heavy shirts, (a gray hoodie for one and a dark gray sweater for the other), and then a bigger coat that went over that. Then there was my hat, one of those simple wool beanies, and a pair of wool gloves.

While I was doing that, Mary sorted through the clothes. Half of them seemed like they were for kids, and while those would be useful, they weren’t any use to us. After she was done grabbing some clothes that seemed like they would fit and then stripping naked and trying them on, I found it hard to focus.

She had a nice body.

But I got the job done. Didn’t find anything I’d fit into, so I zipped it all back up into one of the suitcases and sat them both in the corner.

Clothes were great trading material.

After that, I tracked down another bucket from the manger’s office and set the melted and boiled snow to cool, at least a little.

“Hey, Mary,” I said as I waited.

“Yeah?” she replied. She was folding the new clothes up, wearing nothing but a pair of panties now. She glanced at me.

“What’s something that took you awhile to get used to?”

“What do you mean?” she asked uncertainly.

“It’s just a conversation starter I have. Like something that took you awhile to get used to that isn’t super obvious, like the weather or the lack of government. Something you did like all the time in everyday life, but you don’t have to do anymore.”

“Oh...okay, yeah.” She fell silent, thinking about it. “Maybe it sounds dumb, but putting on makeup and taking care of my hair.”

“No, I get it,” I replied. I knew how much of an investment of time that could be for some women and, if they didn’t like it but felt they needed to do it, how irritating it could be.

She sighed. “I started it in high school when I started actually getting really worried that I was ugly. That’s what some of the girls told me. I was ugly.” She frowned and stared at me for a second. “I’m not saying guys had it easier, necessarily, but...there were some days where I’d take getting straight up punched in the face over the psychological torture some girls could manage. The way they’d chip away at you bit by bit, like acid eating into your self-esteem, and their friends would join in, and they’d keep insulting you until they found that one thing that just cut deep, and then they’d focus on that. Like if you secretly thought you had crooked teeth or misshaped boobs or that your forehead was too big, if they found out that it bugged you, like really bugged you, they’d go to that. God, it was fucking torture.”

“I think you’re right.”

“About what?”

“I would rather get punched in the face than put up with that shit.”

She laughed. “So yeah, that’s what I don’t miss. Besides the fact that you can’t hardly find makeup anymore, no one really expects that from us. No one expects us to look really good anymore.” She grimaced suddenly. “You know what I fucking hated? Those guys who were like ‘I don’t mind if girls don’t wear makeup!’ or ‘I just like the all-natural look!’ No, these fucking assholes actually just like it if you’re wearing so much makeup that you make it seem like you aren’t wearing any. If you actually don’t wear any makeup, they ask you if you’re sick or didn’t get any sleep or something. It was annoying.”

“Yeah, that would be,” I agreed.

She relaxed and sat down on the bed. “Sorry, I got into a rant there.” She laughed and looked away. “Shit still pisses me off from like two years ago...” She looked back at me. “What about you? What took you awhile to get used to?”

“Not having to carry my wallet,” I replied.

She thought about it, then nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. It took awhile for me to trade my purse for a backpack. And I guess there legit wouldn’t be a need to. No need for ID. Credit cards aren’t worth shit anymore. Money isn’t worth shit anymore.”

“Yeah. I held onto it for like...fourteen months, I think. I stayed in a town for about a year after the snowfall began. And finally I left. I held onto it for another two months, but eventually it became obvious that everything you carry needs to be justified one way or another. And I’m not against carrying something that has recreational value or sentimental value, but ultimately I realized that I was carrying my wallet out of habit.”

Something seemed to occur to her. “What about pictures?”

“Admittedly, I’ve never been one for pictures. All the pics I wanted to keep were on my phone. Which went too, at some point.”

“That’s a good point.” She smiled. “You know, you’re the first guy I’ve complained to about makeup that I feel like wasn’t just fucking half-listening or nodding along, trying to get in my fucking pants.” She laughed. “I guess it’s because you already have.”

“I mean, that’s not the only reason.”

I got up and poured the water into the bucket, then went about the process of washing my clothes. It took a little while, especially with Mary’s clothes as well. She ended up taking up one of the paperbacks and laying on the bed, reading. I focused on my task and listened to the wind howling outside. While it wasn’t exactly a pleasant sound, there was a certain comfort to being inside a warm place and listening to it, knowing that you were in here and it was out there. It was especially pleasant if there was an attractive woman nearby.

After finishing that up, I hung the clothes out to dry on the backs of the chair and the side of the table, near the stove.

After that, I went back through the gas station, scouring it for stuff to burn and, because I had the time, for anything I might’ve missed. Nothing in the cold case or the front, but a more thorough investigation of the manager’s office turned up a hefty stack of papers, a few cardboard boxes, and a chair that was shitty enough to be broken down to its base components and burned. I took the time to do that, and added the stuff to the pile of burnable shit by the bed. By the time I was done, the storm was in full swing.

Looking out the window only gave a view of a swirling mass of gray and white.

After I’d completed my chores, I ended up standing by the front plate glass window and looking out it. I almost didn’t hear Mary come up behind me. She came to stand next to me and we stood beside each other for a few minutes.

She’d since pulled on some clothes.

“Why do you think this is happening?” she murmured finally.

“The snowfall? The end of the world?” I replied.

“Mmm-hmm.”

I thought about my response. It was something almost everyone talked about. “I’ve got a theory,” I replied finally.

“What is it?”

“I think the government, I don’t know which one but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was ours, or maybe a few of them, finally admitted to themselves that climate change was a real thing, and they tried some bizarre, out-there, top-secret sci-fi way of fixing it. I could swear I read an article about a whole bunch of new weather satellites being launched maybe two years before it started. But it might’ve just been a false memory or something unrelated, I don’t know. But it sticks with me. I think they were trying to fix it, and someone fucked up big time, and they accidentally sent us into a new ice age,” I replied.

“That sounds...really likely, actually,” she murmured.

“What about you?”

She sighed and shrugged. “I dunno, really. Science was never even close to my thing. At first I thought it was just freaky weather. But then it became obvious that it was more than that. I kept hoping it would just...stop. I’ve heard people say it’s God. Like how he did the flood back in the day when man got too fucked up? Only now he was doing it with snow to freeze us all to death, instead of drowning us all.”

“I’ve heard that one, too. I think that’s what a lot of people default to.”

She was silent for a few seconds. “Do you think it’s true?”

I glanced at her. “Do you?”

“...I don’t know.”

“I don’t think it’s true,” I said, looking back at the snow. And I didn’t. I wasn’t just trying to make her feel better. Whatever wrestling I may have been doing with theology and religion ended sometime over the past year.

“You sound so sure,” she murmured.

“I am,” I replied. “Although it’s more of an emotional certainty than a logical one. Logically, only the dead have seen what comes after life. We can sit here and argue about it, as we have for literally thousands of years now, and ultimately it won’t matter to us.” I sighed and turned away from the glass. “But this is kind of depressing. We should go have sex.”

“Okay,” she replied, turning to face me with a grin.

I reached out and grabbed her wrist, then started pulling her back to the break room.

I’d met women who really liked being taken control of, being thrown around or pulled across the room or told what to do. Although I’ll probably never fully understand the why of it, I’d sure come to understand that I was apparently quite good at it. Partially because of my size, but also because of my disposition.

I guess I just had that authoritative presence, for whatever reason.

“You’re going to do as you’re told,” I said as we came into the room.

“Yes, sir,” she replied quietly.

“You’ve been good so far. So I’m going to give you a reward. Strip down, wash up, and lay on your back with your legs open,” I instructed as I shut and locked the door behind us.

“Yes, sir,” she repeated, and began stripping.

I did the same, taking my clothes off, staring at her hungrily as I felt a wave of lust and desire do a slow burn through my body.

She washed her crotch as soon as she was naked and I did the same thing after I finished getting naked. She laid down on the bed, looking very excited. One thing I really loved about eating pussy was that I was apparently very good at it. Or, at the very least, from my perspective, I received intense return on not too much investment. I mean, my jaw and tongue could get worn out, but that was it. And women went fucking nuts when I ate their pussies, and I loved getting that reaction out of them. Making women come was probably my favorite pastime.

Once I was washed, I got up and walked over to her, nice and slow. She was shivering occasionally in anticipation, giving me a small smile, staring at me with wide eyes. I wanted to give her a really good time, now that we actually had the time with the wind and the snow screaming outside. Mary seemed like she’d been through a hell of a lot and it had been too long since someone had been nice to her.

I was going to be really nice to her.

I leaned down over her and placed my hands on either side of her. Leaning down further, I kissed her on the mouth. She let out a little moan and kissed back. Before we could begin making out, I kissed lower, on her jaw, then lower, in the hollow of her neck. She gasped softly and shivered. Lower still, across her collarbone.

It wasn’t universal, but I’d come across several women who had sensitive, (in a good way), collarbones.

Further down, pausing at her breasts. I licked slowly across one of her wonderfully pink nipples and she moaned and shuddered.

“Oh wow, this is...way better than everything else that’s happened to me for a long time,” she whispered, almost panting now.

I licked again, and again, dragging my tongue slowly across her nipple and her breast, then shifting to the other and repeating the process. She shivered and moaned in response. Then I started sucking on one of her beautiful, firm breasts.

There was a visceral, intense pleasure to sucking on tits.

For both of us, it seemed. She moaned louder and ran her fingers through my hair. “Oh fuck, Chris, yes...” she panted.

I gave her breasts some attention, and while I did, alternating between sucking on her nipples, my finger found its way between her thighs and to her clit. She cried out as I began to massage it. Her breath began to come even more rapidly and she really started to cry out as I pressed down harder. After about a minute, I finally got down into position, between her thighs. They were nice, smooth and pale with a fair amount of padding.

Looking at her pussy, I gently parted the lips with my thumbs.

She stared down at me, her breath slowing, her eyes wide.

I got to work, going nice and slow, like I’d learned from the women who had come into my life over the past few years. A few of them had known exactly what they wanted, and had given me instructions on how best to eat pussy. That didn’t necessarily translate to all women, but it was apparently a pretty good guide, based on the reception my skills had received so far. I started tonguing her clit and she let out a groan as she shivered intensely.

I did that for a good minute, just massaging it slowly with the tip of my tongue, listening to her start to pant and moan, to her wonderful sounds of bliss. She’d given me a really good blowjob, and I wanted to return the favor.

Increasing the pressure and speed and amount of my tongue being used, I increased her pleasure, and she let out a little shriek of bliss.

Oh what a sound that was.

I kept going, licking at her clit, pleasuring her pussy, feeling her shiver and shake and twitch in response to my actions. Listening to her voice as it quickly overrode the winds outside and the crackle of the fire. Tasting her. Feeling that sexual energy build up between us, filling the room like an invisible gas, prepping to explode.

“Oh Chris!” she screamed as I used my lip as well as my tongue.

I got her to explode not much later and she grabbed my head and her hips bucked and she started coming. Mary screamed at the top of her lungs, an incoherent babble of pure pleasure as she orgasmed, and I slipped a finger inside of her and began fucking her with it, feeling that hot, wet climax coming out of her, and she screamed louder.

Her orgasm went on for a good half minute.

When she was done, she slumped back against the bed, panting furiously. I sat up, studied her nude, pale body. She glistened with sweat in a few places and the way her breasts swayed back and forth with her panting breaths was intensely arousing.

“Thank you,” she gasped finally.

“Mmm-hmm,” I replied. “Now, Mary, you’re going to ride me until my dick fucking explodes inside you.”

“Yes, master,” she said.

I slapped her thigh. “Get to it.”

“Yes, master,” she repeated, getting up.

I laid down in her place and as soon as I was on my back, she got down between my legs and started sucking my dick again. This time she was basically just lubing it up, working up a good mouthful of spit and distributing it with that excellent mouth of hers. The pleasure was good, but brief, and before long she was mounting me.

“That’s a good girl,” I said as she started working my cock into her pussy. Fuck was she wet as hell and really tight. I groaned as she slid me into that slippery vagina, the pleasure consuming me. “Fuck my dick, you fucking slut.”

“Yes, sir,” she moaned as she finished settling onto me, taking my dick all the way inside of her. She got settled, resting on her knees and shins, and started fucking me. The sexual ecstasy hit like a hammer as her bare pussy started slipping up around my rock-hard cock again and again, like a hot wave of absolute pleasure. I laid back and just let her fuck me. Her tits bounced and swayed with her and I loved seeing her hips and thighs as she worked her body. I especially loved watching my dick disappearing into her again and again.

Unprotected sex with a hot woman who was super into you might be one of the best feelings that life had to offer.

“Am I doing...a good job, sir?” she moaned as she leaned forward and placed her hands on my chest.

I reached up and did the same, groping her tits. “Yes.”

“Thank you...” she whispered, panting and moaning. “Fuck, you have a big dick,” she added breathlessly. “Like, goddamn, it’s almost too much.”

“You seem to be enjoying it,” I replied.

She grinned down at me. “I mean, I am, but I’m going to be sore before long.”

“I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” I replied. “Make me come, bitch.”

“Yes, master,” she replied and started fucking me faster, putting her hips to use even more. I watched her slick pussy slide rapidly up and down my cock and the pleasure spiked. I groaned, groping her beautiful breasts and letting myself be enveloped by the sexual bliss and then-

“Ah, fuck! Mary!” I cried as I started letting off inside of her.

“Oh yes, Chris...oh fuck, I can feel it,” she moaned as I came in her pussy.

She pushed herself down all the way, taking my entire twitching length into her, and let me fill her pussy with my seed. I groaned loudly, grabbing her and pulling her down against me, kissing her mouth and hugging her tight against myself, feeling her nude, hot body against my own. She moaned along with me as we kissed and I shot my load into her. I held her, feeling her firm tits pressed against my chest, and my cock jerked and kicked and spasmed inside of her. God-fucking-damn did that feel good!

I blew my load, emptied myself out and filled her up, then I let go of her and went slack, panting, swimming in that sea of bliss.

She sat up and smiled down at me, her brown hair a mess, her face flushed. She looked radiant and beautiful.

“I really like you,” she murmured as she ran a hand across my sweat-slicked chest.

“I really like you, too,” I replied.

She stayed like that for a moment before getting up and going to clean herself off. When she was done, she got back in bed with me, and we laid there, naked and relaxed.

I held her against me and listened to the wind blowing outside.

SIX

“I want to go with you today.”

I glanced up. It was the next morning and I’d just finished doing my morning routine of grabbing a bite to eat, replacing the water, checking the perimeter, yada yada. Today, I decided, I was going to check out that house.

“You sure about that?” I asked as I loaded my backpack.

“Yeah...unless you don’t want me to,” she replied uncertainly.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that. You can come, I just want to make sure you’re sure. It’s going to be an annoying walk. It’s pretty cold out and there’s fresh snow everywhere.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure. I’m starting to go a little stir-crazy in here. Not much, but a little.” She rolled her eyes. “God, I’d be able to hang out in places for days before all this shit happened and be fine, but now it’s like I start going nuts within a day or two of being in the same building.”

“I think the difference there,” I replied as I finished loading my pack and pulled it on, “is that before you used to have stuff to distract you. And even nowadays, there’s a key difference between being in a place like this and being in a town. So that’s fine. We’ll walk over to the house. Maybe we can find you a new backpack and you can help me haul stuff back.”

“Okay,” she said. “...thanks.”

“Yeah.” I gave her a kiss. “Come on.”

We headed out of the gas station. The skies were clear, but the cold was intense and bracing. I pulled my coat on a little more securely and tugged my cap down. I didn’t like the cold, but goddamn did I hate it during these bitterly miserable days. You couldn’t even stay outside too long before running into some trouble at these temperatures. I imagined it was below zero right now. Mary shivered violently as she joined me.

I headed off and she moved alongside me. We made our way across the street and into the field of snow beyond, towards the house in the distance. I had noticed that Mary seemed preoccupied with something today, and didn’t think much of it until, after about ten minutes of silence, she finally spoke up in a hesitant voice.

“I’ve got something to tell you, but I’m worried you’ll be mad,” she said.

I glanced at her. “Tell me,” I replied.

“Promise you won’t be mad?”

“Yeah, I promise.” I may look like an asshole, but I had a decent check on my temper, more so now than ever before given all the patience I’d been forced to develop.

“I passed a garage on the way in to the gas station,” she said.

I looked at her, waiting. “...okay, and?”

“Well, there might be what you’re looking for there,” she said.

“Okay...why did you think I’d be mad about that?” I asked, because I honestly wasn’t sure where this was coming from.

“I didn’t mention it earlier,” she replied. “Because I’d forgotten about it. I just remembered it this morning.”

“Oh.”

“I just thought you’d be mad that I waited this long to tell you, or annoyed that I’d forgotten something important like that,” she continued.

Okay, now I saw where this was coming from, kind of. “I’m not mad or annoyed,” I said, and she looked relieved. “Did you run into that often? People being mad about that?”

She sighed, her breath puffing on the air as we kicked our way through the snow. “Yeah. People think I’m such a fucking ditz or an airhead or whatever. I had one friend who’d always ask me if I wasn’t a blonde and was just dyeing my hair. I forgot shit, or fail to notice things. I don’t know why. Maybe I’ve got ADD or something like that, or I’m dumb or something.”

“I don’t think you’re dumb, Mary,” I said. “Some people just forget stuff. Some people just get distracted. Plus, it really depends on what your brain files away as important, which you don’t necessarily have control over.”

“I guess so...”

We stopped as I spotted some branches that had blown clear of the nearby trees and gathered them up. “Here, you get to carry these,” I said.

“Okay,” she replied, accepting the branches. We kept walking. “Oh! I also thought more about something you asked me earlier, what I gave a shit about that not everyone does. I thought of something.”

“Yeah?”

“When I was in high school, I got into, like, wood-crafting. Like carving figurines. I used to be really into it. I used to carve like houses and animals and people. I was kind of good.”

“You should pick that back up.”

“Why?”

“Maybe people would like carved stuff. Or even just you’ll like doing it. Enjoying doing something is enough of a reason. I’ll see if I can find you a few good bits of wood and you can use my spare knife, if you’d like.”

“I’d like that, yeah,” she murmured. She looked at me again. “This is going a lot different than how I thought it would. I know I keep saying this, but I honestly thought I’d just get treated like baggage. But you’re actually treating me like...”

“An equal?” I asked.

“I was going to say like your girlfriend but yeah, I guess that’s better. And more accurate. It’s not like everyone treats their girlfriend like an equal. Especially not now.”

I shrugged. “Everyone’s on a power trip these days,” I replied. “I mean, not everyone, but now a lot of people who felt powerless and marginalized are finding different ways of gaining power, and a lot of people are petty, and want to just lord their power over other people. I don’t want to do that.” I hesitated. “Well, you know, for the most part. I guess I like doing it enough during sex.”

She grinned. “Yeah. You’re good at it, too.”

“Apparently.”

We made our final approach on the house a little while later. I pulled my pistol out. “Be ready to run towards the house if something goes wrong.”

“Goes wrong?” she murmured.

“Like if someone’s in there with a gun.”

“Towards the house?”

“There’s no cover anywhere else,” I replied. “If something happens, run towards the house and duck below the windows. I’ll do what I can. I don’t think anyone is in there, though. But you never know.”

“Okay,” she murmured, and I wondered if she was regretting her decision to come with me.

Nothing happened as we walked up to the house. I didn’t see any movement in the windows, and there didn’t seem to be any signs of it being recently disturbed. I wouldn’t consider myself some kind of forensics expert, but I’d gotten good at picking out little clues like that. We moved around the side, along it until we came to the back, where there was indeed a decent-sized shed waiting. Beyond it was a big cluster of snow-capped trees.

“Wait here,” I said as we got up to the small door that granted access to the old garage. It was covered in ice and peeling green paint. There were several holes in the wooden exterior and I peeked through the nearest ones, as the windows were still intact and mostly covered in dirt. There was enough light coming through that I got an idea of what was inside: a junker of a car took up most of the space, with the edges mostly clear.

I pushed the door opened and stepped in. I tried not to move too quickly as I began hunting around, but I wanted to get inside of a more sealed building. It was cold out today. I might even try to get a fire going in the house if it wasn’t warm enough inside. Actually, given Mary was with me, I almost certainly would, as this would be a job that was going to take at least a few hours. I’d gotten used to the cold, and the near-constant movement of searching a place combined with the relative warmth boost of being inside of a building would typically support me. But I’d agreed to take care of her and I could tell she was pretty damn cold. Plus, she was probably over a hundred pounds less than I was, not quite skinny but certainly not bulky, which meant more tendency to get cold. Another reason to get through it quickly.

I didn’t think there was anything serious in here beyond, potentially, a jack and an axle. I could already tell there weren’t any tires and unless someone had secreted away a battery, which seemed absurdly unlikely, I didn’t think I’d find anything else worthwhile. Over the course of the next twenty minutes, I managed to gather up a few old oily tools that were in good enough condition to possibly be worth something to someone, and thank fuck, the axle and jack I was looking for. They weren’t in the best condition, but they looked like they’d do the job. I fit the supplies, save for the axle, into my pack and just carried it as we headed over to the house.

“All right,” I said as we slipped in through the back, coming into a kitchen, “stay here and be quiet. I’m going to search the house.”

“Okay,” she replied softly.

Mary waited by one of the counters, hugging herself and rubbing her arms. I set the axle carefully against a cabinet door, then pulled my pistol back out and started making my way through the house. It was extremely quiet, only the occasional gust of wind outside, and the boards creaking under me. As I moved through the house, I was struck by questions that I normally was when in a situation like this: Who had this place belonged to? What had their life been like? Where were they now? There were billions of stories out there now, of people and places and events. And most of them were already lost, probably.

How many things had happened where everyone who knew for sure was dead now?

I checked out a bathroom, a living room, a bedroom, and a few closets on the ground level, then headed upstairs and found another bedroom, another bathroom, more closets, and an office. All of it long empty, and clearly people had been through here over the past two years. I walked back downstairs and into the kitchen. Thankfully, the stove here was wood-burning as well. It seemed to be more common in this part of the country, especially in more isolated places like this. It meant I could work in relative comfort.

“Okay, we’re clear,” I said as I came back into the kitchen.

“Thank goodness,” Mary murmured. She sighed. “Everything’s so fucking scary now. It was bad enough before, being alone in the wrong part of town at night, but now...I mean fuck, there’s not even the threat of cops anymore.”

I wanted to ask if she’d ever been assaulted before, out of curiosity more than anything, but didn’t. I think one of the few things that had come out of this apocalypse scenario was that it was now not only feasible but easy to leave your past behind you. Even something that happened last week, you could literally walk away from and unless you were really infamous or had made some large impact, you could make up anything you wanted and people would probably believe you. And, nowadays, we all carried tragedy in our blood like a virus.

What I ended up saying was, “That won’t happen while I’m around.”

She smiled and hugged me close to her then. I hugged her back. Even through the layers and in the cold, hugs were still nice.

“I’m going to get a fire going,” I said as she let go.

“Thank fucking God,” she replied. “It’s fucking freezing today.”

“Yep,” I agreed, crouching down and pulling open the oven. There was still some wood left inside of it. I tossed in some of the burnable stuff I’d gathered in the building out back and then put the lighter to use, getting the fire going as quick as I could to preserve the fluid. Once I had it going, I got to work hunting through the kitchen.

“Do you wanna talk?” she asked after about five minutes.

“Sure,” I replied.

“Okay...what do you miss?” she asked. “From before.”

I snorted. “A lot.”

“Me too,” she murmured.

“I miss electricity. I miss some TV shows. I miss fast food. I miss my apartment. I liked it.” I paused. “I miss rain.”

“Oh wow, me too,” she replied. “Rain was the best. I miss my phone. I mean like, you know, it working. There being a cell network for it to work on. I miss being able to order shit online and have it delivered. I miss some of my friends. Movies. Dance clubs. Listening to new music. Warm toilets. I miss hospitals.”

“Yeah, those were pretty great. You know, except for the crippling debt,” I muttered. “What’s better now?”

“Shit,” she said, pursuing her lips. “What’s better now? Um...” She was silent for a few moments. “I don’t have to pay bills or do taxes. What about you?”

“It’s probably going to sound shitty, but freedom, I guess. Honestly, I know I’m pretty lucky with regards to the fact that I’m good at survival. I mean, yeah, I worked at it, but the stars pretty much aligned for me.”

“How do you mean?”

“Fitness, for example. I happen to like working out. I happened to start liking it from a relatively young age. I happened to be in a position where I had consistent access to workout equipment. I happened to be born without any serious physical or mental impairments. I happened to not get into any accidents that would have prevented me from consistently working out. And while, yeah, I did indeed choose to go and start putting in the hours and the effort to get in great shape, I also didn’t have much stopping me. I mean shit, just liking working out puts me head and shoulders above most people, and I didn’t chose that. If I’d fucking hated it, I’d probably be in way worse shape. But that’s just one point of what I meant.

“I’ve been lucky enough that I have a particular disposition and skill-set that lends itself towards survival in a hostile, lawless, frozen environment. As a result, I get to enjoy the freedom that comes from surviving in such an environment. I can go pretty much wherever I want. I can move independently. I can defend myself or other people. I can set goals and work to complete them, and usually I’ll do it.”

“You couldn’t do that before?” she asked.

I sighed, considering it. I wasn’t having much luck with the kitchen. The cabinets were cleaned out, but I’d expected that. Kitchen is probably the first go-to when you’re hitting up a new location, given how important food is. “I mean, I could, and certainly the stars had aligned in some ways for me in the society we used to live in, but it wasn’t the same. I guess my biggest problem was that I didn’t fucking know what to do. In some weird way, I almost want to say that my life was just preparing for this. But of course I had no idea it was coming, so it’s not like I was doing it intentionally. But I hated my job and I didn’t really see a clear path to follow. Like we were talking about earlier. What should I have done?

“Go to college? Why? To learn things, I guess that’s fair, but I’m not sure I want to go two hundred thousand dollars into debt just to learn some things or, at best, for the slim hope that my degree will land me a job that not only will pay well enough to get me out of debt relatively quick, but I also don’t hate. I was considering going into like HVAC or something before this happened. Or maybe construction or metalworking or car repair. I could have seen being a mechanic. I don’t know if I was smart enough for it, though.”

“I think you are,” she said.

“I dunno, don’t confuse being good at survival with being smart. There’s a difference between being smart and being good at something simple. Take hunting, for example. Killing, skinning, cleaning, prepping an animal. Most people can learn it. The process itself isn’t complex. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do it and then doing it. Dumb people can be great at things,” I said as I kept hunting.

“I think you’re smart,” she replied finally.

“Well, I’ll accept that,” I said after a moment. Then I sighed. “Smart’s overrated, anyway.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I’ve seen too many ‘smart’ people do stupid fucking things. And I’ve seen too many smart people do evil fucking things. Executives and stockbrokers who fucked people out of all their money? They were probably smart in the technical sense, just evil. God, I fucking hope they’re all dead. That’s probably a shitty thing to say, but I fucking hope all the greedy fucks in business suits are fucking dead and forgotten.”

“I don’t know if it’s shitty, but I agree,” Mary said.

I finished my search of the kitchen. All I’d managed to find was an old can of mixed vegetables tucked way in the back of a cabinet. I slipped it into my pack and went to crouch before the stove for a moment, warming my hands.

“You gonna stay here where it’s warm or come with me while I search?” I asked.

“I’ll go with you,” she said.

“Okay.”

I warmed up a little more, then I went back to work.

~

I wouldn’t call the house a bust, exactly, not with the find of the jack and axle, but it didn’t hold as much as I’d have hoped. Mostly there was just furniture, and a few things up under the furniture and in some of the drawers and cabinets and other little places here and there. Mary and I chatted while I searched. I had to admit, it was really nice to have company again. I think before all this went down, the average person didn’t really understand the concept of literally not seeing another living human being, or even being near one, for a solid week.

Most people fantasized about it, and I’m sure most of us could do with some isolation now and then, but it honestly began to change you, I think. Like your brain, the way you thought, the way you perceived things.

Even though I preferred to be alone, I was still human, and I think one of the things it is to be human is to be social. We evolved to work together, to be around other people. Even cavemen had tribes. And so I liked having someone around, and not just because she was hot and I was fucking her. Although that was a massive bonus.

And, honestly, I found it difficult to focus near the end because I kept thinking about having sex with her again. I kept glancing at her, seeing the curves at her hips and chest, obvious to me even though they were just hinted at by her heavier clothing. And her eyes, her face. She was a beautiful woman, and knowing that she liked me, that she wanted me as much as I wanted her, was exciting. Knowing that I could have her at pretty much any moment I wanted sent my stomach roiling with a lusty excitement.

I made myself finish the search, which took about three hours altogether, and then we went back to the kitchen.

“So is that it? Are we done?” she asked.

“We’re done,” I replied, putting my backpack down on the floor.

“...what?” she asked when she noticed the way I was staring at her.

“Turn around,” I replied.

“Why?”

“Turn around, Mary.”

“Okay,” she murmured, and turned around, a small smile coming onto her face as she no doubt figured out what was about to happen.

I walked up to her and pushed forward, bending her over. She let out a gasp as she braced herself against the counter. Reaching up under her, I got her pants undone and pulled them and her panties down, revealing her smooth, pale ass.

“You need it that bad?” she murmured.

“Shut up,” I replied as I pulled my cock out and rested it at the entrance of her vagina. She gasped again as it touched her. I could feel the heat and the wetness. I was fully hard and pulsing in anticipation.

I started working my way inside of her.

Mary let out a loud moan of pleasure and bent over a little farther. Hands on her warm hips, I pushed into her, relishing that hot blast of wet pleasure. Her pussy was a place of paradise and wonder. I gripped her hips more tightly, digging my fingertips in, and once I was completely inside of her, I started stroking smoothly into her.

“Oh fuck, Chris...” she moaned loudly, her head hanging as she held herself against the counter.

“You like that?” I asked, speeding up a little. “Do you like getting fucked like a slut?”

“Yes,” she groaned.

“What?” I asked, smacking her ass and fucking her harder.

“Yes!” she screamed. “I love it!”

The sexual gratification hit hard and fast, adrenaline and lust pulsing through my system, and fuck was it ever satisfying. I kept pounding away at her pussy and I had to admit, there was intense satisfaction to not just the knowledge that I could grab Mary and fuck her raw whenever I wanted, but actually doing it.

I screwed her hard and fast, and when I was ready to bust I pulled out of her abruptly, pulled her up, spun her around, and shoved her down onto her knees. She seemed ready for it and took my cock into her mouth immediately.

“Ah! Oh fuck! Oh yes!” I groaned as the pleasure blasted me like a pressure-washer. A hot flash of powerful bliss pulsed through my body, erasing any aches and pains that were nagging at me, taking my focus wholly. I came in her mouth as she sucked my cock, and I fucking drained my nuts into her mouth, down her throat as she swallowed everything. She took it all and when I was finished, she took it slowly from her mouth and grinned up at me.

“Good?” she asked.

“Great,” I replied, staggering over to the counter and leaning against it.

I tucked my cock back into my boxers and fixed my pants while she stood and pulled her own pants back up. Even after fucking and with a room warmed by a fire, it was still unpleasant to have your bare genitals exposed.

She walked over to me and stood next to me. I wrapped an arm around her and we leaned against the counter together for a bit, just relaxing.

I’d said it before and I’ll say it again: fucking like that made pretty much everything worth enduring.

It was probably stupid and immature to think so, but…

What the fuck else did we have to look forward to anymore?!

Finally, my drive to keep going, to keep getting shit done, made me straighten back up. I snagged my pack and pulled it up, then, after getting it on, grabbed the axle.

“Come on,” I said, “let’s get back to the gas station.”

~

We were about halfway across the field back towards the road when I heard something.

It was slight, really slight, but it happened during a lull in the winds and it instantly set my instincts on edge.

“Stop,” I said firmly as I pulled out my pistol and turned around.

My heart jerked violently in my chest and my eyes widened.

Mary turned around as well. “Oh God,” she whispered.

Three wolves, sleek, dark gray forms against the white of the snow, were coming at us. They were moving slowly, slinking along, hunting us.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“Get behind me,” I replied. “Take this.”

She took the axle I’d been carrying and moved slowly behind me. The wolves were coming faster now. I’d dealt with this before, a few dozen times at this point, but they still scared the shit out of me. Wolves normally didn’t fuck with people, or that’s what everyone always used to say, but that hadn’t really been my experience since then. Maybe it was because the snow was killing off their normal food sources and they were getting desperate.

Whatever the reason, they were coming for us.

I took aim with my pistol.

At almost the same moment I squeezed the trigger, they began dashing towards us. But as that single shot echoed across the land, they immediately changed course, frightened by the sound. I’d missed, just by a fraction, because they’d started running. I could see the snow shoot up just behind the lead wolf before it ran off.

“Go, now,” I said. “Back to the gas station.”

I heard her start moving away, feet crunching rapidly in the snow. I stood where I was, watching as the wolves raced back to the treeline behind the house we’d just been at. They disappeared from sight and when I didn’t see them reemerge, I began making my way back with her. I caught up to her and neither of us spoke until we got back to the road. With blacktop beneath our feet, I looked back again. I expected to see dark forms slinking across the white field once more, but there was nothing. Mary hesitated beside me.

“Go on, I’ll be inside in a minute,” I said.

“Okay,” she replied, still obviously frightened.

I knew how she felt. I’d come across bodies eaten by wolves, I’d seen men attacked by wolves. They could be absolutely brutal when they wanted to be. I’d been bitten twice now, and fuck did it hurt. Mary slipped into the gas station and I waited, watching for a full minute before finally relenting and heading back inside. She stood there, waiting for me behind the glass, watching anxiously. She smiled tentatively as I came inside.

I locked the door firmly behind us.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, just...I fucking hate those things,” she replied.

“I know. Come on.”

We headed back to our temporary home to sort through what we’d found.

SEVEN

“Oh! OH! OH! CHRIS! AH!”

Listening to Mary scream in sexual pleasure and satisfaction was the best thing I’d heard in a very long time. Especially the way her voice began going up in pitch, the way her moans began to come quicker, closer together. The way she looked, completely naked on her hands and knees, her pleasantly padded, pale ass right in front of me, my hands wrapped around her beautiful hips. The way my cock looked driving into her, pounding her sweet pink pussy again and again, her screams of bliss coming out each time I thrust deep into her.

“OH FUCK I’M COMING!” she screamed in nearly incoherent bliss.

I groaned loudly as I felt her pussy start fluttering and clenching wildly around my rigid length, felt the hot, wet bliss increase, magnify two, three times in the space of a few seconds. The female orgasm was a wonderful, beautiful thing to behold.

And then I was joining her, thrusting my cock as deep and as hard into her sweet, climaxing vagina as I could, my hips slapping against her ass as I began to come inside of her. Both of us moaned in mindless bliss as we came, locked together in a union of sexual ecstasy. I shot my load into her, pumped her wondrous, bare pussy with my seed in hard spurts, each fresh squirt of it releasing a pulse of absolute rapture throughout my entire body.

It was the best feeling in existence.

When I was finished coming in that wonderful pussy of hers, I rested there like that for a moment, naked and sweaty on my knees, then I patted her bare ass and pulled out of her.

“Good girl,” I said as I stood and stretched, my back popping.

“Thank you,” she murmured tiredly as she fell forward and caught her breath.

I began washing after that.

After the wolf thing, I’d felt like I’d had enough of the outdoors for that day. So we’d stayed inside the rest of the day, sorting through the supplies, talking, reading, sharing a meal together, then finally fucking and sleeping. When I’d woken up this morning, barely an hour ago, I’d had to piss so fucking bad that I hadn’t had a chance to fuck Mary. I still had a weird thing about pissing in the same room as other people, (I almost never went in a public bathroom back in the day if I could help it, although oddly enough I didn’t have a problem taking a leak if a woman I had been intimate with was having a shower in the same room), so I threw on my clothes and then took a leak in the bathroom. It spoke of psychological conditioning that even now, after all this time, I reached out and tried to flush after I was done.

Since I was already up, I ended up restarting the fire, grabbing my water melting pot and my pistol, and heading outside. As soon as I stepped out, my stomach dropped out from under me, because I’d seen paw prints in the snow. I froze, looking around, prepared to leap back inside, but there weren’t any wolves around. I set the pot down and began a slow check of the outside. Although I didn’t like what I’d seen, I at least didn’t see any wolves. The prints made a complete circle of the building, with several collections of them near the front and back doors, and one of the windows, like they knew that’s how to get in.

And then they walked away, not back towards the house they’d initially come from, but in the opposite direction, behind the gas station.

The way I had to go today.

I gathered my snow after that and when I came back in to begin melting it, I opened the door to find Mary butt naked on the bed, on her hands and knees, showing her ass to me and looking back over her shoulder at me.

“Please?” she asked with a sleepy but sultry smile.

And, I mean, how could I do anything but oblige her?

“Wow, that was good,” she murmured as I washed up.

“Yes it was,” I agreed. I sighed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have bad news.”

“What?”

“The wolves paid us a visit last night.” She sat up. “Don’t worry, they aren’t around, as far as I can tell, but there are paw prints all over the exterior, in the snow. And they walked off towards where you first came from, where I need to go today.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t go,” she murmured. “Maybe you should wait.”

I shook my head as I finished washing and started drying. “No, I don’t think waiting will help much. And I’d like to get it done either way.”

Yesterday, one of the things we’d discussed at length and in detail was the garage she had told me about. She told me how to get there, what to expect on the way there and at the location itself, and how long it might take to get there and back. Although she admitted that she didn’t have the best memory, I thought that I should be able to get there and back within a day, and if I was very lucky, I’d find the battery and those tires.

Hauling those suckers back here, though, was another story.

She’d also mentioned that she’d passed another structure on the way out there, what kind of looked like a barn or a big shed, and I made a note visit it, too.

“You’re really brave,” she said finally.

I sighed and began dressing. “I guess so. Believe me, I don’t fucking feel like going out there with those furry assholes roaming around, but if I do run into them, I can probably handle them. You saw how they ran from the gunshot. And I’ve handled wolves before.”

“I still say you’re brave,” she replied.

“Well thanks,” I said. I finished dressing and began sorting through my backpack and then emptying it out, then placing in the bare minimum I’d need to survive a worst case scenario out there. When I was done, I pulled it on and then checked over my pistol and my ammunition. That particular situation wasn’t looking particularly good. My pistol was a black and silver sidearm that held nine millimeter rounds in fifteen-round magazines. Since reloading yesterday, I had one fully loaded mag, and six spare rounds in a second magazine I kept ready to go in my pocket. Just in case. Just twenty one bullets to my name.

The problem with life today was that twenty one bullets might last me two months, or two minutes, depending on what kind of situation I stumbled into.

I again lamented the loss of my rifle and its ammo with a bubbling anger. If I ever found those shitheads again I’d knock their fucking teeth down their throats. I didn’t usually hold onto grudges, I tried not to anyway, but dammit!

They’d run me out of town over nothing!

I shook off the bad thoughts and finished gearing up.

“I’m going to be gone for longer this time,” I said. “Come on, clean up and throw on some clothes. I need you to lock the door behind me.”

“Okay,” she said, getting up and doing just that.

I waited while she quickly got ready and once she’d thrown some clothes on, we headed to the back door. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

“Hard to say,” I replied. “At least five hours, probably longer. Maybe the whole day.” I hesitated as we reached the back door. “If I don’t come back after two days, gather up whatever you can and start walking along that road, try to get to that settlement you were heading for.”

She sighed. “Come back.”

“I’m sure as hell gonna try,” I replied. “Try not to worry. And same thing as before: I’ll knock three times slow, twice fast. Otherwise don’t open it.”

“Okay.” She paused, then gave me a hug and a long kiss. “Good luck.”

“Thanks. I’ll be back,” I promised, and then I went outside.

~

Today, at least it was less brutally cold.

The sky was clear, the sun was out, and it was above freezing, I think. I used to have a thermometer but, again, it was left behind. I scoured the area with my gaze for the wolves, but I didn’t see anything. Feeling probably about as good as I was going to about this whole expedition, I set off down the slope, towards the shed I’d already searched and the woods beyond it. Mary had described the route I was to take in as much detail as she could. Given her own admission of her lousy memory, I took it with a grain of salt.

But I did still have a compass, and so at the very least I could almost certainly find my way back if this didn’t go the way I’d hoped. But I was good with navigation. For whatever reason I just had a good sense of direction.

I crossed the field, passed the shack I’d searched earlier, and then found the rough trail among the trees that Mary had followed in coming here.

As I began walking it, keeping an eye out for wolves, or anything else that might want to kill me, I found my mind drifting to a place it sometimes went. A place that I didn’t really like, not least because it could turn dark at a whim, but also because it just made me uncomfortable to think about it in general.

Sometimes, my mind asked: to what end?

I knew that I was good at staying alive, but more than once I had genuinely asked myself: to what end did I intend to keep surviving? What was the endgame? I think that’s a problem with the human mind, the human psyche, we don’t really have an endgame beyond, well, dying. Before, when globally connected civilization was a thing, there was a lot more you could strive for in your life. What was considered top tier endgames were leaving a legacy. For the rich and powerful among us, it meant stuff like building an empire in one form or another, or leaving your mark on the world in a way that people would speak of you for centuries to come and your memory would live on in the minds of those you had impacted, and their children, and their children’s children. For the more ‘common’ among us, the closest we got was reproduction.

Neither had ever really interested me. I don’t think this was a decision I made so much as a gut reaction. The concept of leaving something that would last beyond my death just didn’t pique my interest because in my mind, practically speaking, it would make no difference to me. I’d be dead. I wasn’t against leaving some kind of legacy that people would benefit from, I wasn’t selfish, at least no more than the next person, but the idea didn’t drive me. As a result of this, I think I grew to be more prone to living in the moment than most people. But not stupidly in the moment, not like taking risks all the time, doing whatever the fuck I wanted in the moment. More just focusing on the task I was currently doing and not worrying too much about what lay beyond that task in a broader sense. As a result of that, I think I was good at being happier with the current state of affairs as opposed to worrying about what the future might hold.

But I wasn’t impervious to it.

Sometimes I looked ahead. Sometimes I asked myself what goal was I striving towards, like, overall?

I think that’s maybe the reason I kept wandering, because I didn’t fucking know. I had no greater goal that I wanted.

And I had to ask myself: was that a problem?

Before, we at least had the illusion of the endgame. Getting rich. Getting famous. Becoming a CEO or star or whatever the fuck you dreamed about. It was always over the horizon. I mean, it was bullshit, but that was the whole point of the American Dream, wasn’t it? Technically just about anyone could become rich and famous, but ninety nine percent of people weren’t going to, and to anyone who had a fucking brain it was clearly slanted in certain people’s favor. Not to mention the fact that the system was designed, refined, and perfected to keep the poor poor and the rich rich. And that isn’t some kind of ‘conspiracy theory’ or ‘cynicism’, it was just fucking reality. Anyone who thought otherwise was either benefiting from the system or a fucking dumbshit.

But what could you hope for now?

I guess to become the leader of a settlement, a new kind of ruler for a new kind of world. Certainly there were people who were already jumping on that. But I didn’t care about that. I mean, not in the sense that I wanted to run a whole town. Maybe I wouldn’t mind being in charge of a group of people. Not like a dictator, but being a leader? Yeah, I could see that. Maybe. But then what after that? Do it until I die?

If you’re going to die at the end, does any of it have any meaning?

I had to answer honestly...probably. I think it had meaning while you were alive. What you did had meaning to you, and it had meaning to the people it affected.

But was that enough?

More and more often, I found myself leaning in the direction of yeah, it was enough.

Huh.

Normally this line of reasoning made me anxious and worried and uncertain, but as I wandered through the woods, sorting through my thoughts and keeping an eye out for landmarks and dangerous things, I wasn’t bothered.

If anything, I was kind of comforted.

So what the fuck did that mean? What was different this time about my thoughts than all the other times?

I sighed and ultimately just left it alone, because right now, I felt good, and I’d been feeling shitty enough lately, (well, before I found Mary), that I wanted to just enjoy that feeling. Instead, I focused on the things around me.

The snow-capped trees that swayed gently in the soft wind.

The sound my boots made crunching in the snow.

The natural, frozen beauty of the forest around me.

The call of birds, the occasional movement in the distance of a rabbit or a fox or a deer. The birds flitting among the branches.

Eventually, the forest came to an end, opening onto another field that Mary had told me about. And there was the first real landmark: an old barn. It might once have been red, but now it was mostly just faded gray, the surface scoured by two years of brutal permanent winter. As I approached, I saw that the roof was partially collapsed, and there were holes in the walls, planks of wood missing. I imagined this thing was very old even before the snow set in. Kansas (if that’s where I actually was), seemed like a place of old, old buildings.

I walked up to the front doors, which were a little open. One was shoved a few feet inwards, the other locked into place. I carefully poked my head in. No footprints, or paw prints, around that I could see. Inside, the place looked pretty old and abandoned. A big, rusting tractor took up the middle, and overhead, at the back, was a loft packed with old bales of hay. I started my search, moving slowly around the outer walls, checking out everything I could see. There was always a bit of pressure to not linger for too long, because of how unpredictable the weather could be, or dangerous wildlife could show up, or dangerous people.

That pressure was only relieved when I was in my nomadic phases, traveling across the land. Then, I brought my home with me. Home was wherever I was. Certainly being inside was almost always better than being outside, but it wasn’t as bad. Times like this, however, the pressure came back. Because now I had a home. Even if it was temporary, it was where my stuff was, and I had already lost over half my stuff recently.

And, most importantly of all, I had someone waiting for me.

I had met a lot of people who thought I was a sociopath, that I didn’t care about anyone but myself, and to be honest, I let a lot of those people think that. Sometimes, letting the silence play out is a more effective threat than any words that can come out of your mouth. I’d learned that people tended to fill in the gaps themselves, and because we humans are a pessimistic bunch, they tended to worst-case things more often than not, or at the very least lean towards more dangerous conclusions. If people thought I was dangerous, nine times out of ten they would be less likely to try and fuck with me. Which was fine by me.

But I did care. Which was itself, admittedly, a weakness. And no, I’m not one of those assholes who thinks being kind is a pathetic weakness. I actually believe in the value of kindness and empathy. The problem is, with the way the world was today, far, far more people were very likely to take advantage of that kindness in one way or another. Too many people would kill you if they thought it meant they got to live another day. Not everyone, but enough, and it could be hard to tell who was who. But I cared about Mary.

I wanted her to be safe, and, if possible, happy.

And I would fight for her.

I knew she was worried that I was gone, anxious for my return, even if only because I was likely what stood between her and death, or at least suffering. I also thought she was more capable than she thought she was.

Nonetheless, I wanted to get back to her.

There wasn’t much in the barn. I found an old, broken ladder leaned against the wall. A pair of wooden shelves that would make great kindling if I could only haul them to a fire. I guess if I got trapped here they’d make great fuel. I found a table, some chairs stacked up, some farming equipment that was useless to me.

In the end, I found two things that I could use.

The first was a sled, in good condition, big enough to haul a stack of tires and a battery.

The second was less practical, but I grabbed them anyway: some pieces of wood. Sturdy stuff that wasn’t too large, but wasn’t too small.

I thought they would be perfect for Mary to practice doing some whittling on, maybe make a wood horse or something.

I stuffed the wood in my pack and picked up the sled, tucked it up under my arm, and left the barn. Outside, there were still no wolves, and the skies were still pretty clear. So far, this was shaping up to be a good trip.

I kept on walking.

~

Mary had more or less gone in a straight line, using the position of the sun to guide her, she’d said. So it was relatively easy to reproduce her path. I moved across the field, then along a rough natural path that lay between two sections of woodlands beyond it. I settled into the rhythm I so often did while traveling this desolate wasteland that America had become. The world had become, I guess was more accurate.

Although…

Sometimes I wondered. Were there places untouched by this frozen apocalypse? Or, what if it was just America? Unlikely, but then again this whole thing had been unlikely.

But the rhythm was good. I liked it. Thoughts came to me less and less, like my mind was going into sleep mode, passively observing the world around me as I traversed it. It was nice. I’d developed my senses well enough that little things I might not consciously be aware of would sort of activate me. Pretty sure people called it ‘instincts’.

So when, almost an hour later, I caught sight of some paw prints crossing my tracks, I noticed immediately and stopped, pulling my pistol out while looking around. The path I was on had continued between the two stretches of woodland, then into more woods, across a few open areas, past a frozen lake, and then into some more woods. I knew I had to be getting close, because of the lake. They were definitely wolf prints and they looked relatively fresh. I didn’t see anything in the woods around me, but they were good at hiding. They could be watching me right now. After a moment, I got a move on again, but kept my pistol out.

Less than five minutes later, I saw it: the garage.

It became obvious to me through the trees up ahead and a little to the right. I looked around again, almost desperately seeking some sign of the wolves. It’d be great to face them before having to do this, but it looked like there was no dice there. I hated doing things with a potentially immediate but not obvious threat looming over my shoulder. With a sigh, I pressed on, picking up the pace and tromping through the snow.

I cleared the trees and crossed the open space, coming up on the back door of the garage. There were a few old barrels arranged in a loose collection, and a few old car doors leaned haphazardly against the back of the corrugated siding of the structure. I walked up to the back door and looked in through the dirty window. I had a decently clear view of the room beyond and it seemed empty. Trying the door, I found it locked.

Sighing, I considered smashing the window, then decided to go around front and try that door. I’d either have to use my fist and risk slicing my hand open, something potentially life-threatening nowadays if you got an infection and didn’t have antibiotics, or enough of them anyway, or go hunting for a rock or sufficiently hefty stick. And I really didn’t feel like hanging around outside any longer than I had to.

Trudging around to the front, I found a simple parking lot, no cars, and the vague indentation in the snow leading away, indicating a road. Probably a gravel one. The garage door was tightly shut, but the front door was open.

I pushed it in and stepped inside, looking around the derelict interior.

“Anyone here?” I called, waiting, listening. Nothing. Just the occasional muted gust of wind outdoors. I looked around at what I had: a counter dividing the room in half, a pair of old vending machines on my side tucked between a handful of uncomfortable chairs for people to wait in. The machines were long since smashed in and emptied out. I set the sled down, then moved around behind the counter and checked out two of the doors there. One led to a simple little office, the other to what must have been a miserable bathroom even back before the end of the world. Finally, I stepped into the other half of the building: the garage portion.

There were no vehicles in the pair of bays where they’d normally be worked on, but I saw a lot of stuff stored haphazardly around the room. And I saw a big stack of tires in one corner that made my heart skip a beat. Before rushing over to them, I took the time to check out the room thoroughly. To make sure no one was hiding in the shadows or a closet I didn’t notice at first, and that there wasn’t some tucked away hole in the wall where a wolf could get in. That had fucking happened to me before, and let me tell you, that was pretty fucking bad.

People had this idea that you were safe inside of a building and, from certain things, it was usually true.

But not always true.

However, my diligence paid off: I was alone, and secure. At least against animals. I moved right over to the tires. There were a good dozen of them, most in stacks, with a few errant ones leaned against the wall or sitting on the floor. I took a look at the most promising collection: a stack of four heavy-duty looking tires, and sure enough they seemed to be exactly what I needed. Snow tires, and they looked like they’d fit the vehicle I had on my hands. I lifted them one by one and inspected each, trying to see if anything was wrong with them.

But no, they looked good. They looked like exactly what I needed.

Sometimes it worked out like that.

Of course, I also needed a battery, and that might be a lot harder to find. With the tires found, I began a more thorough search of the garage. I moved slowly, pulling out my flashlight and putting it to work to help light up the shadowy areas the sunlight couldn’t reach. Fuck, I missed being able to just flip a damned switch and light up the whole room.

The big industrial place was a wasteland of oil stains, dusty tables, and old tools and equipment. It was something of a treasure trove, at least. Every tool I found I stuffed into my backpack. People went nuts for that shit. Well, people who knew how to use them anyway. I found a few boxes of nails and screws and nuts and bolts, also really useful. I checked shelves, I pulled open drawers, I cracked open crates and yanked open boxes and got down onto my hands and knees to look up under everything that had even an inch of space beneath it.

You’d be amazed what rolled under stuff and was forgotten.

I was beginning to get worried that I wouldn’t find that last, all-important, crucial component needed to make this entire expedition worth it when finally, hidden away in a small storage room just off the back of the garage, I found it.

A battery.

The kind I needed. It was still actually in a factory-sealed box, unopened, hidden away beneath a few other boxes, and between a wall and an old desk that had been shoved inside. I cut open the box and pulled the device out. It was small and surprisingly lightweight, definitely one of the newer ones they’d been producing near the end. The thing was a bright blue square of metal and weighed maybe ten pounds. There was a little screen on the top and I pushed the button that would show me how much of a charge it had.

If I recalled right, they were supposed to come from the factory charged, and they were alleged to hold charges for years if untapped.

The little screen flickered, then showed me a bar that was about three quarters of the way full. I let out a very long sigh of relief.

Good fucking God, I had found it.

Now I just had to get home.

After stuffing the thing in my pack and wrapping my clothes around it to keep it safe, I seriously considered abandoning my search and just going back to Mary. But I knew that I really wouldn’t feel like coming all the way back here. It had been a good hour and a half walk, and that was under good conditions. I glanced out the window. The skies were still clear. I needed to take this opportunity while I had it.

I got to work.

~

An hour and a half of work went by.

By the time I was finished, my knees were aching and my lower back was killing me, and I still had a walk to make, but it had been worth it. Even just finding the battery and tires would have made it more than worth it, but there was some stuff in the garage.

Besides a few more tools, which I managed to secure in a metal toolkit I found instead of my backpack, I located a little stash of canned goods secreted away in the office, some more office supplies, a bottle of painkillers, a little .22 revolver and a small box of bullets that was going to be really useful, and a handful of other random items of varying value. I also tracked down some tarp and some bungee cords, which I used to secure the tires to the sled. It was just big enough that I set them in stacks of two right next to each other, and then placed the toolkit across the top of them, then laid the tarp over it all and cinched it down tight with the bungee cords.

And then I was ready to go home.

Once everything was set and I had the sled behind me, pulling it by rope, I set off into the cold desolation, prepared to retrace my steps and get back home. The one nice thing about short-term goals: once you finished them, it felt good to cash in on doing them. I could get back to the gas station, make the repairs to the vehicle, fuck the shit out of Mary, and then drive to that settlement. I’d have to figure out a way to keep people from stealing it, but there were easy ways around that: like taking some crucial component out of the engine whenever I left it and keeping it on me at all times. People could still steal it, but they’d have to rob the car and me, instead of just the car. I didn’t know how long I’d keep the thing, but hey, even a couple of months, or even weeks, out of the cold would be pretty nice. These were my thoughts, keeping me warm and cheery, as I headed home.

I made it back to the frozen lake before the wolves found me.

I noticed the first one dead ahead, coming at me from out of the woods I was intending to go through. As soon as I saw it, I froze and dropped the rope, my hand falling to my pistol. A growl from the left and I snapped my gaze that way. Two more, coming at me. Fuck. A stick snapped behind me and I looked back, pulling out my pistol.

Another two were coming at me.

Well, I might be fucked.

I took aim at the one coming to me from the front and that was when they decided to charge. Growling deep in their throats, they came at me. I fired, squeezing the trigger the second my iron sights were locked onto the front wolf.

The gunshot blasted into the air, sound echoing and overpowering the growling of the wolves and the sounds of their feet beating the snow. The shot was a good one, even if it wasn’t a killshot. I winged the furry bastard, saw some blood shoot out of the side of its chest, and it lost whatever bravado it had, whining as it turned tail and ran. I turned and fired again, too fast, the round going between the two wolves coming that way, but it had the proper effect. Already frightened by the first bullet, their confidence collapsed and they ran back into the woods, dashing away in sprays of snow as the second bullet smacked into the ice between them.

I spun around, maybe I could get out of this without getting hit.

That hope was squashed as I saw how close the other two were. One was in the lead, staring at me with an intense animal malevolence as it raced at me with an awful speed.

I fired once.

I missed.

It leaped right at me.

My heart went into overtime as I threw my arm up, the wolf coming at me over the sled, clearing it easily. Its jaws locked onto my forearm and pain burst into existence as it clamped down. I screamed as I went down to my back. I began jerking violently, trying to throw the thing off of me, but I knew I had to kill it and fucking fast, because next stop was ripping my goddamned throat out. It had my right arm, as I’d stupidly thrown that one in reflex, and so the pistol was out of the question. My left hand was already going for my knife though.

As I wrapped it around the hilt, I felt a fresh explosion of pain as the other wolf got to me and bit my ankle, sinking its teeth in through the boot.

“Fuck!” I screamed, and ripped the knife out.

I brought it back into the air as I wrestled with the wolves, and drove the blade into the thing’s neck. It let out a strangled yelp that apparently startled the second wolf. Both of them released me. I used the opportunity to kick the shit out of the second wolf, driving my heel right into its face. The wolf let out a loud whine. I did it again and the thing yelped, then turned and ran off. The first wolf was trying to get away but it was bleeding all over the place. I stabbed it again, intent on extracting my toll from these motherfuckers for all the trouble they’d caused me.

I stabbed it three more times in rapid succession before it stopped moving.

After shoving the thing off me, I laid there for a few seconds getting my breath back, trying to calm my heart, which was thundering in my chest. I was shaking all over, the adrenaline surging through my body from the near-death experience. I could see my breath fogging rapidly on the air. What finally got me moving was when I heard a long, lonely howl not too far off. With a sigh and a grunt, I sat up.

There was blood all down the front of me, some of it mine. I winced as I looked at my forearm and my ankle.

I had work to do, and fast.

Getting out of my pack and digging for my medical supplies, I got to it.

~

“Oh my fucking God, what happened?” Mary gasped, staring at me with wide eyes.

“This fucker happened,” I replied, stepping aside and indicating the sled I’d hauled all the way back. After fixing myself up and doing a bit of cleaning, so the blood wouldn’t freeze to my skin where it had hit, I’d attached the wolf to the sled, laying it over the tarp and setting it in place with a spare bungee cord I’d grabbed.

“Wow...you killed it?” she asked. I nodded. “Like...with your bare hands?”

“Yeah. Tried to shoot it, but it got too close too fast. Like half a dozen of them jumped me. I grazed one, kicked one in the head a few times, and scared the others off. And I stabbed the shit out of this asshole. Look out.”

“Wow,” she murmured, stepping back. The door was just wide enough to admit the sled, tires and all. I got it inside and began locking up behind me. “I gotta admit, I never used to go for the ‘rugged outdoorsman’ type before, but...killing a wolf with your bare hands is...hot.” She finally noticed the bandages peeking out from beneath my coat. “Oh fuck, are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” I replied. “Two of them bit the shit out of me.”

“Let me look at them. I at least know how to deal with that stuff,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” I replied, walking past her and leaving the sled in the office after making sure the back door was locked up tight.

“Yes,” she said, following me. We went into our shared room. The fire was dwindling. I took off my backpack and coat, then took a moment to get it going again, throwing some more wood on the flames.

There was a storm coming in, a bad one.

“One of the people I lived with for awhile was a med student. She did what she could to teach me the basics. I don’t like it, but if I have to, I can sew something up, clean wounds, apply bandages,” she said, watching me closely as I began to slowly take my clothes off.

“I thought you said you didn’t have any skills.”

She sighed. “I said I didn’t have any that everyone else doesn’t already have.”

“What? Not everyone else can do that shit.” I pointed to my backpack on the table. “My medical stuff is in there.”

She walked over to it and began digging around. “I guess it just feels like everyone else knows just about everything I don’t,” she muttered. A moment of silence passed as I finished stripping naked, glad to be inside and warm again. “Did you find the stuff you were looking for?”

“Yeah, actually. We got really lucky,” I replied. “Plus that wolf corpse is going to provide a fair amount of food for us. And other bits and parts we can chop off and sell. People like wolf skins, although it’ll be a job to actually get it ready.”

“Sit down, let me see,” Mary said.

I sat down, a little surprised. I think it was the first time she’d ever told me to do something. She sat opposite of me and gingerly peeled back the bandage I’d hastily thrown on there. I waited. Minutes went by as she cleaned the wound. It wouldn’t require stitches, thankfully, but it was ugly looking. A line of holes in my skin, really painful, really nasty. I had some antibiotic cream thankfully, and she put it on, wincing as she did.

That shit hurt, but I’d kind of gotten used to pain over the past two years.

Well, over the course of my life, I guess. Working out a lot hurt.

After doing a better job than I had on the wounds and sealing them up with a fresh bandage, I got up and moved over to the fire and one of the bottles there. I wanted to be clean after all that mess. I glanced over at her.

“There’s a present for you, in the backpack,” I said as I started washing up.

“Really? What?” she asked, a smile coming to her face.

“Look again.”

She dug through my pack for a bit. “Is it this wood?” she asked.

“Yeah. I thought you might like a chance to carve it. Look in the right outer pocket, there’s a knife in there you can use.”

She pulled out the knife and studied it and the wood for a few moments while I finished washing up. Then she set both on the table and looked at me.

“You got these for me?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“And you remembered that I gave a shit about carving wood?”

“Yeah, obviously,” I replied. She looked confused, and she walked over to me, looking up at me. I hesitated, wondering if maybe it hadn’t been a good idea. “I mean...if you don’t like it-”

She interrupted me with a kiss to the mouth, a hard, long one. “Of course I like it,” she replied quietly. “Let me show you how much I like it.”

She began to get down on her knees.

EPILOGUE

I was right, the storm was a bad one.

When the winds began kicking up in the middle of Mary showing me exactly how much she liked my gift, first with her mouth, then with her fantastic pussy, they didn’t stop for a solid two days. Which was fine by me.

After all I’d gone through yesterday and with my arm and my ankle hurting like shit, I was in the mood to just chill out.

I carved up the wolf while Mary carved up one of the pieces of wood. We kept the fire going, we boiled snow, we organized our supplies.

We read, we talked, we slept and ate.

We fucked, a lot.

Finally, the blizzard let up, and then disappeared.

When I stepped outside to gather snow for boiling the morning of the third day, I found the land covered in glistening white powder and the skies a clear, clean blue as far as the eye could see. The temperature was up above freezing and a miniature artificial rain fell from everywhere up high the snow melted and ran from.

After going through the early morning grind, I set to work on fixing the car.

The work was a little taxing, as everything was in the cold, even the relative niceness of above-freezing, but it paid off. I swapped out all the tires, keeping two of them that had held up relatively well. One for a backup, one to trade. After that, I swapped the batteries and tried it out. Mary was with me as I turned the key.

The engine groused and died.

I tried it again, and once more.

Third time was the charm.

“Holy shit!” she cried as the car came to life and then idled quietly. “It actually works!”

“I need to check a few more things, but I think we’re good,” I replied.

I spent another hour looking over the vehicle. The oil level was low and it was probably shitty oil that was in there, and a few of the engine parts didn’t look to be in great condition, but I felt like the car could at least get us to the next settlement.

And if not?

Oh well. We could walk there.

Not to mention, I had seen some really old and shitty cars just go and go and go.

We took another hour to scour the store and make sure that we had everything. We took the mattress and managed to mash it up in the back of the jeep. It was just small enough that we could squeeze it in there and there was just enough room for everyone else in the space left. When the packing was done, we got into the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

I slowly backed out of the lot and onto the snowy road, facing the direction that I had yet to go. Facing the unknown.

“So...now what?” Mary asked.

“Now we drive carefully to that settlement you mentioned and hope it’s a nice place,” I replied.

“And then?” she asked.

“That’s up to you. I’ll probably stick around for awhile,” I replied.

“I want to stay with you,” she murmured.

I looked at her, frowning. “I won’t be around forever. Not even for very long. I normally don’t stay anywhere longer than a month, maybe two at a stretch.”

Surprisingly, she didn’t try to argue with me, or beg me, or plead with me. That had happened before, and it always kicked me in the heart.

“I know,” she said. “But it will be nice while it lasts, won’t it?”

I smiled, leaned over, and kissed her. “Yes,” I agreed, “it will be very nice while it lasts.”

She laughed, kissed me as well, both of us giddy on the elation of success and the possibilities that felt within our grasp in the immediate future.

I put the car into drive and began to head off down the road.

Towards the future.

Towards the unknown.

HIT THE ROAD

“Oh fuck yeah, Mary, that’s a good girl…” I groaned.

“Fuck, it feels so big…” Mary whispered, panting.

It was my lunch break, and I had opted for a quick meal so that I could enjoy something I’d been thinking about ever since I’d fucked Mary doggystyle that morning.

Her ass.

I wanted to enjoy that sweet, tight ass of hers and I’d been thinking about it for around six hours now. Consequently, as I got her into position and began sticking my rock-hard cock up her ass, I wasn’t too gentle about it.

Luckily for me, she liked that.

Gripping her slim hips tightly, I listened to her cry out as I finished working my way into her ass, then tightened my hold on her and really started pounding her.

“You like that, you little fucking slut?” I growled at her, feeling positively electrified with lust and sexual energy right then.

“Yes! Master!” she cried, panting.

Mary looked absolutely fantastic on her hands and knees, just taking it like a pro. She had a seriously tight ass and the pleasure was intoxicating. I knew I couldn’t keep this going for too long, it was going to have to be a quickie, because there was still a lot to get done. Here I was again: caught between wanting to leave and wanting to stay.

I drilled Mary’s sweet, tight ass for another few minutes until I started coming. I let out a loud, long groan as the bliss hit me like a drug and swept through my body. I shot my load into her ass, gripping her hips tightly and pulling her against me, my cock jerking and twitching and spasming in pure rapturous release.

When I was done, I let go and pulled out of her, then sat down on the edge of our bed, getting my breath back.

“I’m going to miss you a lot,” she murmured as she laid down, doing the same. “You’re really good at sex.”

I laughed. “Right back at you.” I hesitated. “I’d stay but…”

“No, I get it, you already explained it well enough,” she replied. Then she smiled and reached out, laying her hand on the back of mine. “Honestly, you’ve done a lot for me. And everything you’re doing for me before you leave is really sweet.”

“Just doing what I can,” I replied. I took her hand, gave it a little squeeze, then got to my feet and started washing up. “Speaking of that, I’ve got to get back to work.”

“Okay. Just make sure you aren’t too tired for tonight,” Mary replied with a coy smile.

I laughed. “Yeah, there’s no way that’s happening.”

I finished cleaning myself off, then pulled my clothes back on, grabbed my shit, and walked back over to Mary. Leaning down, I gave her a kiss, then straightened up and headed back outside. Back into the cold.

There was work to be done.

~

It had been several weeks since I’d met Mary, and it hadn’t taken us long to find a place once I’d gotten the car fixed up.

The settlement wasn’t anyplace special. About a hundred people had gathered around a little cluster of building that had once been a large rest stop. There was a garage, a two-story motel, a gas station, a little grocery store, a strip joint, an adult book store, a cafe, a restaurant, and a handful of houses scattered about the region.

Not a bad place to live.

We’d gotten settled in pretty quickly, scoring a room at the motel after trading a gun, some bullets, and some wolf skins, and I took a job as a hunter.

I think my average time for sticking around a settlement was two weeks, but that could be offset by a particularly attractive woman that I was sexually compatible with. And Mary was both of those things. So I was fucking the hell out of her every day, hunting or exploring the area between that, and ultimately keeping an eye out for someone I could leave her with. Because I knew the wanderlust hadn’t left me, and I didn’t want to just leave her by herself. Even though I’d warned her from the start that I would leave her, and probably within a month, I still didn’t want to leave her by herself. She was kind of…

I don’t really know what the right word was, but I didn’t like the thought.

I’d finally found someone a week ago. Another woman had rolled into town, a hunter, like me. Or huntress, in her case. We’d noticed each other pretty quickly and ended up going hunting together. Her name was Lena and I liked her right away.

In more ways than one.

I respected her and I really wanted to fuck her.

She probably had ten years on me, and she was a skilled survivalist. She was also looking for somewhere to bunk down for awhile, months at least, maybe longer if she liked the place enough. Her last settlement had burned down to the ground and she’d been one of the few survivors. Now she was looking for a new place to live and she liked the looks of the rest stop village. We’d gotten to know each other over the past several days as we took hunting and hiking trips together, shared meals together out there in the wooded wilderness. I got the feeling she liked me, too, and liked what I was doing with and for Mary.

Day before yesterday I’d finally introduced her to Mary.

They seemed to get along well. We’d hung out all day, talking about ourselves, and the two women got to know each other. I’d tried to tease out whether or not Lena might be A) up for the job of moving in with Mary and making sure no one tried to take advantage of her and B) even wanted that job. It wasn’t that I thought Mary was stupid or anything. She could take care of herself well enough, but I did worry about her.

People liked to take advantage of conventionally attractive women.

Honestly, people just liked to take advantage of women.

And I could see a lot of people waiting to move in as soon as I was out of the picture. I didn’t like that idea, but Mary didn’t want to go with me.

So this was the next best thing.

Although the wanderlust had gripped me hard, I could stave it off long enough to make sure that Mary was, if not in good hands, then at least going to be okay.

Or as close to it as we could manage.

Normally I didn’t do stuff like this. I mean, it wasn’t like I cut and ran in the middle of the night with no warning, or even that I just walked out one day. The women I shacked up with knew what was coming, and although I did tend to leave them with a decent stash of something: food, bullets, trading material, something, it usually wasn’t a tremendous amount.

Enough to feel like I’d done a fair job in repaying them for the sex and company.

Mary seemed like a unique combination of compatible and vulnerable, so I was working that much harder to make sure she’d be okay.

“That was quick,” Lena said as I walked down the highway and approached the cafe where we’d parted ways not too long ago. We’d been out hunting all morning and had come back for a break. She said she’d wait for me there.

“Gee, thanks,” I replied.

She laughed, her breath puffing on the air. “Just saying.”

“Mary’s ass is really tight and we have work to do,” I replied as we started walking towards the side of the highway. It would take us down towards the nearest woods, where the wildlife was thickest. “Told you that earlier.”

“Well that’s honest,” Lena said with a laugh. “You fucked her in the ass, huh? I’m surprised you’re willing to give her up, you two seem pretty compatible.”

“We are,” I replied. “I like her, a lot. I just...like wandering even more.”

“I guess I can understand that. Hell, I can respect it.” She smirked suddenly. “I gotta admit...I don’t have entirely the most selfless motivations for seriously considering your proposal.”

“Just so long as you don’t take advantage of her,” I replied. “And you’re nice to her.”

“Don’t worry, I can do nice, and I won’t take advantage,” Lena said, rolling her eyes. “But goddamn am I looking forward to having that hot little brunette just waiting for me at home to eat my pussy every night.” She heaved a sigh as we crossed the snowy field between the highway and the forest. “It wasn’t until I was twenty eight that I even acknowledged that I was bisexual. Took me another four years of being too ashamed to actually do anything about it when a sexy lady caught my attention or I caught hers. I’m thirty five now and I’m fucking done pretending I don’t like women. I feel like I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

“Makes sense,” I replied. “You still good let me take you for a spin?”

“Oh yes,” she said, looking over at me. “Definitely. I said I’m bisexual. Having the two of you at the same time...oh it’s gonna be sweet. You just better not be lying about that implant thing.”

“Don’t worry, you can see it. And if I was, Mary would be so knocked up by now.” I paused. “So would another woman in town.”

“Oh?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “Who? Come on, tell me.”

I hesitated, considering it. Mary knew, and given the fact that they were going to be lovers and roommates, I doubted Mary would keep it from Lena. So why not tell her?

“Fine, but you have to keep quiet about it,” I said.

“Why?”

“Privacy. And...other reasons.”

“What other reasons?” she asked with a smirk. “Why are you being shifty all of a sudden? What, did you fuck someone’s wife?” I didn’t say anything. She reached out and smacked my arm. “You fucker! Who?!” she demanded.

I was glad that she found this more amusing than amoral.

It could really go either way.

“I’m sure you know Alicia by now,” I said.

“Oh shit, really?” she asked. I nodded. She was silent for a few seconds, considering it. “Why?” she asked finally.

I sighed. “Because she came onto me and because I don’t like her husband. Now, to be clear,” I said, and immediately didn’t like how defensive I sounded, “that’s not the only criteria. I think he’s a bad husband, and I think they shouldn’t be together. I think he takes her for granted. Heavily. I’ve seen how they are with each other.”

“Why is she still with him then, if she agrees enough to have sex with you?” she asked.

I sighed. “I asked her the same thing. She basically said she relies on him for too much, even now. She’s not good with survival stuff. I taught her a few things...maybe you could help. Unfortunately, if you’re going to be single, you need to be independent. Now more than ever. The guy’s a doctor, so obviously he commands a lot of respect. Probably another reason to stick around. I don’t know.” I just shrugged.

“Do you feel bad about it?”

“I mean yeah...sorta. I’ll admit it’s a weakness of mine,” I replied.

“Was she good?” Lena asked.

I thought about that tight little redhead and how fucking good she looked and felt bouncing on my cock. Mary had been watching and they’d taken turns fucking me.

“Yeah,” I said, “she was good. Really good.”

“I’ll have to see if I can hit that,” Lena murmured. I glanced at her. “What?”

“You’re something else,” I replied.

She laughed. “Yes. I am. Now let’s hush up, or we’ll scare the game away.”

I nodded and shrugged my rifle carefully off my shoulder as she did the same thing and we headed into the trees, looking for more animals to kill and harvest. I was trying to gather up a decent store of them for Mary and Lena, both to survive off of in a practical sense, but also in an earning sense. Those skins could be worth a fair amount.

We set to work.

~

Six hours later, Lena and I finished hauling our third deer and fifth rabbit back home.

We traded in two of the rabbits for some more bullets, then started heading back to my motel room. I was really, really looking forward to tonight.

Lena seemed happy to tease me, the way she kept looking at me and touching me and some of the things she was saying.

When we got back, I was going to fucking tear into her.

Sexually speaking.

As we walked back through the cold and the light snowfall that had begun not too long ago, I thought that I was going to have to delay my departure by at least a few days. The notion of having sex with Mary and Lena was just too good.

Mary was great, but I’d never had Lena before, and on top of that she was just…

So confident.

And that appealed to me on a deep level.

And, clearly, she was an attractive woman. She had naturally tan skin, dark red hair, and bright green eyes. Combining that with a build that was trim and athletic, and the fact that she was a bit taller than average and just…

Ah! Fuck! I wanted her really bad.

We’d developed a nice rapport over the past several days and despite the fact that she was hiding it behind a wall of calm confidence, I could tell she was into me. Clearly she was into Mary. Which meant this was going to be a great night for me.

I kept an eye out as we got back to the motel, having her head inside with the deer, (I’d set up a wildlife prep station at the back of the room, not exactly ideal but what was at this point?, and we’d done a fair amount to mitigate the smell at least, by now, we hardly noticed it), while I took the opportunity to check around.

Having a car was a double-edged sword.

It was helpful for traveling long distances, it granted you respect and had a sort of halo effect. People saw you with a car nowadays, they assumed you were smart, competent, successful, whatever, and they wanted you in their town.

It was also a huge target, so I always kept the starter with me, so no one could hotwire it even without the keys. I hadn’t had much opportunity to actually use the thing, only doing so once to help with a cargo job to the next town over and another to help search for someone gone missing. But I always had to be on the lookout.

I’d had three people attempt to rob me so far.

I hadn’t had to kill any of them, thank fuck, but it was a near thing with one of them. Each time I was lucky and there were witnesses, so when I dragged the fucker into the rest stop, which had been converted into a sort of communal home, and pretty much publicly announced what they’d done, and I had people to back me up, it was easy to not only not get them to do it again, but also to give others even less of a reason to take a shot at me.

Public humiliation was a shockingly effective method of punishment.

It wasn’t that I really relished doing so, but...fuckers tried to rob me. Hell, two of them had outright attempted to kill me.

They were lucky that all they walked away with was a split lip or a black eye and some humiliation.

Once I determined there was no one waiting for me or lurking around in the shadows, I went inside and locked the place down.

Mary was already stripped down to nothing but a pair of panties, lounging in the bed, idly staring at one of her figurines. I was very glad to say that she had taken my advice and gotten serious about her woodcarving.

She was actually quite good at it.

Lena was stripped down to her bra and panties now, sitting in front of the wood-burning stove, just enjoying the heat.

“How we doing?” Mary asked.

“Looks good out there,” I replied. “And in here, too. Good lord you two are hot.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve buttered my bread enough as it is, let’s talk business so that we can get to pleasure,” Lena replied. “Figured you’d want to be in here for it.”

“I do,” I replied as I started taking all my stuff off. Damn did it feel good to be inside of a warm place after a long, cold, hard day. “So you formally agree?” I asked.

“Yes,” Lena said, looking first at me, then at Mary. “I formally agree to move in here within the next few days, and to take care of Mary, and provide for her, in exchange for her becoming my sexy little brunette fucktoy.”

“Mary?” I asked as I took my clothes off.

“I formally, and happily, agree to be your fucktoy in exchange for being taken care of,” she replied with a smile as she set aside the little wooden cow she had carved. “And I promise that you will be very happy with my services.”

“I’m looking forward to finding out,” Lena said. She was staring at Mary now. “You’ve got some really nice tits, I must say.”

“I bet you do, too,” she replied.

“Not as nice as yours.”

“I think Chris and I will be the judge of that,” Mary said.

Lena shrugged and got back to her feet, then started taking her bra off. Both Mary and I looked over as that happened.

“Oh yeah, you’ve got some great tits,” I murmured.

She had some nice, generous double-ds that I’d been dying to see ever since we’d first met. It had been worth the wait. She just laughed and finished stripping, revealing the rest of her pleasant body. “Okay, come on, I’m getting impatient.”

“Yeah,” I said, joining her by the fire in grabbing one of the bottles of water Mary had set there to stay warm for us to wash with.

“I’m already clean,” Mary said. “Ready for fucking.”

“Good,” I replied as I hurriedly ran a rag and a thin bar of soap over my own body, watching Lena do the same.

We both finished washing a few minutes later, dried, and climbed into bed with Mary. And then we were taking turns kissing and groping her, running our hands over her body, and Mary looked just thrilled to be the center of all this attention. I soon kissed my way down to her breasts and spent awhile sucking on one of them, and soon Lena was fingering her, and Mary just moaned and twisted and writhed.

And then Lena decided she wanted a piece of me and we switched places and I was kissing this hot, older badass survivalist chick, groping her big breasts and getting pleasant handfuls of her well-padded ass while she massaged my cock.

“I want this thing inside me,” she murmured, grinning into the kiss we were enjoying.

“I want it there, too,” I replied.

She laughed softly. “But first, let’s make good use of little Miss Slut here. I want to see you ramming her from the back while she eats me.”

“I’m also very down for that,” I replied.

“Same,” Mary said, grinning like she was drunk or high.

Some people just fed on sexual energy, and Mary was definitely one of those people.

Lena got into place at the head of the bed, spreading her legs and grinning down at Mary as she got onto her hands and knees and planted her face in her crotch. I got behind her, running my hands across that sweet ass of hers again, and stuck my cock in her glistening pink pussy. She let out a loud, muffled moan as I penetrated her.

“Ah fuck yes,” I groaned, slipping inside. “God, you are so fucking wet, Mary.”

“She’s a horny little whore,” Lena said, then moaned loudly as Mary started eating her out.

This was exactly the kind of shit I was living for nowadays. Hot threesomes with hot women. Honestly, I’d hardly had any in my life. This was a rare occurrence for me, and I was intent on enjoying it tonight, because I wasn’t sure if the opportunity would come up again. Lena and I were in really high demand around town, me more so than ever because word had gotten around that I was leaving, and there were jobs people wanted done before I headed out. Shit, even right now, I was fucking tired. Here was hoping this wasn’t the only one.

I drove myself deep and hard into Mary’s wonderful vagina, enjoying all that hot, tight wetness clenching around me, her hips in my grasp, watching her go to work on Lena, who herself looked just so sexy and rough and desirable with her legs spread wide, her hands on the back of Mary’s head, fingers in her hair, mouth open in ecstasy.

Mary was very good with her mouth.

We used her like a fucktoy and she enjoyed every second of it.

As soon as Lena orgasmed, she released Mary and fell back, panting.

“Okay girlie, now I want some dick,” she said, her face flushed.

“I can really sympathize with that,” Mary said, then groaned as I pulled out of her and gave her ass a smack.

I was eager to dive into Lena.

As soon as Mary was out of the way, I laid down atop the beautiful, older woman and slipped right into her.

She moaned loudly as I penetrated her. “Oh! Oh yeah!” she moaned. I started stroking into her, enjoying the feel of a brand new woman, raw, nothing between us. That hot, perfect pleasure of unprotected pussy enveloped me as I listened to her cry out in bliss. “Aw fuck, Chris! Goddamn you got a big cock!”

“Glad you like it,” I replied, kissing her hard on the mouth as I continued pumping into her, pounding the fuck out of her.

She moaned and cried out, wrapping her legs around me, pressing her naked body against my own, taking my rigid length again and again deep inside.

I fucked her until she had another orgasm. I could feel it sweeping through her body, the way she twitched and jerked against me, the way she gripped me tightly, the way she moaned deep in her throat, then cried out, her eyes closed. The way her vaginal muscles clenched and fluttered wildly around my cock as she came, hot liquid coming out of her.

And then I was coming, groaning loudly, my body doing much of the same as I pumped her pussy full of seed, blasting thick spurts into her as the shockwaves of hot pleasure pulsed through me. I grunted, thrusting deeper into her each time I shot another spray of seed, coming deep, deep inside of her and losing myself in the experience.

And then we were finished, left panting on the shores of ecstasy.

“Fuck,” she whispered. “That was really good, Chris. Hot damn. I wish we’d fucked sooner. I wasn’t too sure about you at first,” she murmured. “Thought you were a one and done type guy to be totally honest.”

I laughed, then groaned as I slowly pulled out of her. “Why?”

“Big tough-looking guys tend to rely too much on their good looks or big dicks, if they got them. But that was a good, solid fucking. Mmm...that’s what I like after a long day of work. Orgasms given to me by someone else.”

“I can definitely provide that,” Mary said with a smile, reaching out and running a hand up Lena’s arm. I could already sense a lot of good vibes and chemistry between the two of them, which was putting me at ease.

After a bit, I stood and stretched, popped my neck, then yawned.

“Well, as much as I enjoy your company, I have to sleep. I’m fucking exhausted, and I’ve already agreed to help haul a load of shit tomorrow,” I said.

“Yeah, I gotta hunt,” Lena said. “So I’m right behind you.”

“You two wash up and sleep, I’ll wind everything down,” Mary said.

“I’m liking you a lot already,” Lena replied. She got up and kissed Mary, then moved over to wash herself again. “Boy, you came a lot. Damn.”

“I do that,” I replied. “Especially when I love the pussy I’m fucking.”

“Well I’ll take that as a compliment then.”

I joined her in washing up, looking forward to drifting off to sleep.

~

I ended up staying the next day, and the one after that.

I was right in my prediction about the threesome: it was the only one we had. There wasn’t time for more, which sucked, but I was itching to go by the time the second night rolled around. I did have some great sex with Lena and Mary separately though.

Now I stood in front of my car with Mary in the early morning sunlight.

The day was clear and I was more eager than ever to get a move on. It was almost like a physical force tugging at me, and I desperately wanted to follow it.

I’d gotten a lot of work done, gathered a fair store of supplies for Lena and Mary, and for myself for the coming however long I was going to be traveling.

“I’m going to miss you. A lot,” Mary said, and I could tell she was close to crying, which made me feel bad.

“I’ll miss you too,” I replied, and hugged her to me. It wasn’t a lie, it wasn’t even a stretch of the truth. I would, in fact, miss her.

And not just because she was a submissive little slut who was very attracted to me.

I liked her. We clicked pretty well and she was sweet, and not in a bland way but a genuine way. In the way she apparently thought I was.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again,” I said as I let go of her and looked down, “but if I do, I’ll be very happy to.”

She laughed. “I’ll be so thrilled to see you, too. I...really wanted to thank you. You’ve done more for me than most people in my life and you...you made me feel good. And wanted. And like I wasn’t stupid.”

“You aren’t,” I said, kissing her forehead. “Just remember that if you find yourself thinking about it again. You aren’t stupid, okay?”

“Okay,” she murmured. “But thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And thank you for all the nice things you did for me.”

She laughed again. “It was a little self serving...that dick feels so good.”

“I feel the same way about your pussy,” I replied. “So I guess we’re even.”

“I guess so.” She looked like she wanted to say more, something else, and I kind of did too, but it seemed that we’d run out of things to say.

“Goodbye, Mary,” I said finally.

“Goodbye, Chris.”

She gave me a long, lingering, bittersweet kiss, and then I got into the car, turned it on, and began getting onto the highway.

I’d already said goodbye, and had goodbye sex with Lena, last night, as she had to get up early this morning for another job. So we were square. And Mary and I had had some bittersweet goodbye sex before I got up and began prepping for my departure.

I glanced in the rearview.

I was going to miss her. A lot.

But it would fade. I knew it would, because I’d been through this before.

And she was going to be okay, or as okay as you could be, I think, in this new world.

I got onto the highway and started driving north.

It was time to see where this path took me next.

A WARM PLACE

ZERO

I can no longer remember the exact day that the snowfall began.

I know it was in June, two years ago now.

Some days I’m convinced that it was the fifteenth of the month, but other days I seem certain, absolutely certain, that it was twenty first. And then other days, I just don’t know. I guess it doesn’t really matter anymore. A lot of people argue and debate over when the end of the world began, I suppose that’s why I still fixate on it from time to time.

There are those who say it began in this decade or that decade of the previous century. Some even say it began during the Industrial Revolution. They all probably have a good point. It wasn’t any one thing that led us here. It was a lot of little things, a few big things, and mainly just people, rich people, who either didn’t care or actively fought against saving the world.

I mean, I think. I could be wrong.

Shit, it could be aliens for all I know.

But for me the end of the world began when snow fell in June.

I was in Florida when it happened. That was where I had lived my entire life.

There were warning signs. You kept hearing about freakier and freakier weather all up through the 2030s. For me it was ‘out of season’ hurricanes, or ‘unusually strong’ hurricanes that just kept coming. Eventually they wiped Miami completely off the map. And then the news started talking one day about how California was burning again, only this time it didn’t stop.

I remember seeing the Hollywood sign consumed in flames.

I think that’s what finally made it real for a lot people.

Or maybe it was the tornadoes ripping through the Midwest, leveling whole cities.

Or maybe it was the rain. Before the snow, we had rain, and I remember coastal cities just being totally flooded.

They had to evacuate New York City. As far as I know, no one ever went back.

I swear to God, it was like a goddamn disaster movie. Only it didn’t stop.

It just got worse.

Even with all that, I still got floored when it started getting cold, as in cold cold, in the middle of June. I went outside one morning and saw my breath on the air. It felt like stepping into a parallel universe. A few days later, a blizzard hit my town. I think that was when it really clicked home for me that this wasn’t going to just go away. I don’t know why that was the straw the broke the camel’s back for me, but it was.

I still wonder how long the politicians knew. Obviously the scientists knew, but I do wonder how many of them kept silent...or were silenced.

That’s still a really clear memory for me, though.

Stepping out of my apartment building and just stopping as the cold hit me like a hammer. It had been seventy five degrees the day before.

My breath on the air.

My lungs burning in the cold.

Miserably gray clouds overhead.

That was when I knew, somewhere deep, that this was it.

This was the beginning of the end.

ONE

I opened my eyes and was met with confusion and pain.

For several seconds, I had no idea what was happening, what had happened, or even where I was. I tried to move. My body was well on its way to numb, my muscles sluggish and unresponsive. I groaned and shifted again.

I was constrained by something, it was across my chest.

I blinked a few times, looked around, shivering, and finally my brain clicked back on at least part of the way. I was inside my damned car. But something was wrong, deeply, frighteningly wrong. I groaned as a wave of pain rolled through my body. My seatbelt was what was holding me in place. I reached down and fumbled with it, trying desperately to figure out what in the fuck had happened. Because obviously something had happened.

That my jeep, I realized all at once, was tilting slightly to the right. And there was a crack through the windshield, a big one. I hit the release and pulled the seatbelt up. My thoughts came slowly, like they had to crawl to get to where they were going. I knew I had to do something. I just wasn’t sure what the fuck it was.

Jesus, how hard had I hit my head?

Judging by the headache that was being kept at bay by the cold, probably pretty hard.

The cold. That was it. The cold. I had to get out of the cold.

“Come on!” I snapped, and jerked my whole body. A bolt of pain seared through me and I felt several different parts of my body cry out in pain. It hurt like fuck, even through the numbing cold, but it served its purpose.

I was more awake and aware.

Okay, I’d been in a crash. I’d been driving along a highway perched up on a steep incline and...I must’ve gone down over the incline. Why? I was pretty careful with my driving. Especially given how fucking foggy it had been.

Then I remembered.

Someone had appeared out of the fog. I’d been going a little faster than I should have. I’d swerved, gone right through the guard rail and down the incline. Shit. After all I’d gone through to get this damned car, the luck of finding it, and I’d only managed to hold onto it for a freaking month and a week!

I looked around, shivering worse now.

Maybe it wasn’t a total loss. But that could wait. The driver’s side window was broken out, as was the back windshield. I could hear the wind shrieking and knew that meant a storm was on the way. As I looked back out through the cracked windshield, I saw from the big fat snowflakes that were tumbling down from the iron gray skies overhead it was already here. Fuck. If I didn’t find somewhere secure in a hurry I could freeze to death.

I tried the door. It wouldn’t open. Feeling a bit of panic, I shoved against it. It should open if it hadn’t been too damaged in the crash, given that my side was the one that was angled slightly up in the tilted car. I began shoving harder, leaning into it and pushing against whatever I could. The door groaned and suddenly popped open.

I fell out into a drift of snow.

“Fucking-fuck!” I snapped, anger and pain briefly overwhelming me as my whole body cried out in anguish. I struggled back to my feet and automatically reached back into the car, towards the passenger’s seat, where my backpack full of all my most crucial shit was. My heart skipped a beat as I failed to find it. I crawled back into the vehicle, pain momentarily forgotten as fear started to overwhelm me.

No, it had to have just fallen down in the-

I looked on the floor, below the glove compartment, which itself hung open.

It was empty.

“Oh fuck me,” I whispered.

Someone had robbed me. I looked in the back fruitlessly. They had even taken the fucking mattress I’d had back there!

There was nothing left.

I stepped out of the car, my head suddenly clearing, my panic suddenly zeroing out.

In the ensuing months of the apocalypse, I had learned that I was oddly suited for surviving in it. Perhaps even thriving in it. One of the reasons, and this was one I had nurtured once I had recognized it for what it was, was that when the shit went down and fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, it was almost like a circuit breaker was flipped in my head. My panic, my anger, my fear, after a certain threshold they just drained away in a hurry.

Leaving my head clear to act.

I stepped up on the seat I had just been sitting in, getting my head above the car and taking a look around the area. Behind me was the incline I’d crashed down and the highway above. Well, I called it a highway, really it was more of a route through desolate nowhere, not one of those big four-lane jobs everyone thought of when you said highway. Nothing back there for me. There wasn’t much to see to my left because the land rose a good six or seven feet. To the right was a relatively flat stretch of land and I could see some trees scattered about.

Dead ahead, though…

The visibility was shit and getting shittier. But through the blowing snow I saw it: a building. It was small, almost certainly a cabin of some kind, but it was, ideally, four walls and a roof. Even that could mean the difference between life and death. Hopping back down, I immediately set out. Marching around the front of my vehicle, I headed off, kicking my way through the snow, careful as I could be to keep from falling in any holes in the ground. That had happened way too often for my liking since this whole thing had begun.

I paused only once, glancing back at my jeep. It was a lonely sight, and a sad one. I’d found that thing six weeks ago and worked hard to fix it. And now it was probably fucked. Well, that was the way of the world now.

Or I guess it always had been, it was just more obvious now.

Telling myself to get over it, that whining about it, even inside my own head, wouldn’t change shit, I marched on.

The cabin grew closer as the winds picked up. Yes, definitely a blizzard. I fucking hated blizzards. Well, I guess that wasn’t entirely true. Some of the most sex-fueled nights I’d had were during bad blizzards.

I tried to think as I marched across the open space towards the cabin, but it was too hard to think. My head was hurting and that, combined with how fucking cold and in pain I was in other places, and the damned blizzard, made it too hard to think about the before or the after. I guess all I should worry about was the right now.

There wouldn’t be an after if I didn’t get my ass in gear and stay alive.

As I got closer to the cabin, it became obvious that the front door was open. Great. That could mean nothing, and I didn’t notice smoke coming out of the chimney. But someone could’ve just gotten there ahead of me, seen me coming, or maybe heard my crash, (how long had I been out?), and was now laying in wait for me. Fuck, and I didn’t have any weapons on me, either. Or did I? I began checking my pockets patting them down. No, the holster on my hip wasn’t just empty, it was gone. Knife was gone, too.

And my-

A wash of fear broke through my stoic dam as something occurred to me and I reached into my inner pocket.

“No,” I muttered as I began digging deeper into the pocket, even as I knew it was empty. “No, no, no!” I snapped.

My journal!

My fucking journal!

For a moment I was almost overwhelmed by anger, pure, white-hot anger that I hadn’t felt in a very, very long time.

I was fucking livid.

But a particularly strong gust of wind almost knocked me over and a throb of pain cut through my body and it was like a dash of cold water across me. I could be angry later. Someone had stolen my journal, but I would deal with that later.

Of all the fucking things that could-

“No,” I muttered as I tromped on towards the cabin. “Fix it later.”

As I approached the open front door, cutting down to maybe twenty feet of space, I realized there was someone inside. They were laying on the floor, apparently passed out. I got a little closer and shifted, trying to get a read on what I was seeing. A woman. An attractive woman. Fuck. I looked around immediately.

This screamed trap.

But I didn’t see or really sense anyone out there. Didn’t mean no one was out there, but normally my instincts were good. Of course, I’d just been in a car wreck, a bad one that I was lucky to walk away from, and in a worsening storm.

And I was unarmed.

Not quite defenseless, but definitely unarmed. I moved forward until I hit the front wall of the cabin and peered cautiously inside. I saw some things: a bed, a kitchen area, a fireplace, but no people other than the unconscious woman. Time to do a perimeter check, see if someone was hiding out back or something.

I considered the possibilities as I walked around, scoping the situation out.

This seemed like a trap because I knew a lot of guys, not every guy, but too many who were out and about nowadays, would find an unconscious woman and do exactly what you think they would do. I wouldn’t, because amazingly, there was more standing between me and doing unforgivable evil than ‘I’ll get away with it’.

The apocalypse didn’t wipe out everyone’s moral compass, in fact, I’d seen some genuinely self-sacrificing, heroic people since the snow started to fall.

But I think most people don’t realize that a shocking number of us don’t really have a moral compass, or maybe even just a shitty one.

And all these cliché tropes about civilization being the only thing keeping us from turning into barbaric savages was way more true than we’d like to admit.

In a way, it was true for me.

Before, I never would have killed someone.

Now? I had killed people. Not many, and I avoided it if at all possible, but sometimes it literally was you or them.

And it wasn’t going to be me.

I moved around the side, tried to peer in one window, but a curtain was pulled over it. So far, no sign of anyone. I kept going.

It was also possible that the woman had been running from someone, and that someone might still be around, looking for her. All the more reason to get inside and get secure. I came around back. Still no one. Just a thick forest about twenty feet away, barely visible now. Hustling along, I quickly completed my circuit and became about as certain as I could, given the circumstances, that I was alone save for the woman.

I carefully moved inside, ready to fight for my life if I had to, making damn sure to check either side of the open door before I got in.

No one was pressed up against the wall with a gun or a knife or something else to smash me in the head with.

Once inside, I closed the door and the howling of the winds quickly became blessedly muted. Working as fast as I could, I checked the building out. It was small, the kind of place people rented out, usually one, maybe a couple, to get away from everyone and everything for a weekend. So the kitchen, living room, bedroom, all one room. There were only two other doors. One led to a narrow closet that was basically empty with no place to hide, the other led to a bathroom with a shower stall that was going to be useless.

I checked the shower, I checked under the sink and under the bed, I checked everywhere a person could conceivably hide.

Finally, satisfied that I wasn’t going to get jumped, I moved over to the woman.

Crouching, I began to assess her.

She was still alive, that much was obvious, and I couldn’t see any blood or wounds. She wasn’t quite dressed for cold weather, wearing just some jeans, hiking boots, and a thin jacket over a shirt. She was very cold to the touch. Chances were, she passed out from exhaustion and being cold. Something I felt close to doing.

But I couldn’t, not yet.

Carefully, I picked her up and crossed the room. I got her situated on the only bed, a double-wide that was just big enough to hold two people. I got her under a blanket, made sure her head was comfortably on the pillow, then went back to the closet and pulled another blanket I’d seen in it down. Throwing it over her, I moved over to the fireplace.

For a moment, I was stymied. Normally I’d have supplies to start a fire, but I’d been motherfucking robbed and…

There. Relief flooded me as I saw a pack of matches peeking out from underneath a nearby footrest. I retrieved them, opened them up. Only six left, but hey, it worked. I pocketed them and then checked around the fireplace for stuff to burn. There was nothing left in the fireplace itself, and there were just a handful of twigs and a single, somewhat more substantial log left in an area that was clearly designated for fuel.

I threw it all in and then hunted around for a bit longer. There was a desk in the corner to the right of fireplace, beneath a window next to the front door. The top was bare, but as I rifled through the drawers, I found some papers. Good tinder. I set some in after ripping them up a bit and adjusted the fuel as best I could.

I’d need more, I didn’t think I was going anywhere for the rest of the day, but this would do for now. Working carefully and diligently, I got to work.

Firs things first: I checked that the chimney was clear. It was.

God fucking forbid I die of carbon monoxide inhalation after all the shit I’d survived.

It took a few minutes and two of the damned matches, but I got a fire going. It was small but growing. I crouched there, tending to it, making little adjustments and just relishing the warmth. Well, sort of.

Warmth meant my body was going to lose the numbness that was acting close enough to a painkiller. All that pain I was in was going to hit me full force. Making myself leave the primal comfort of the fire, I moved back over to the woman and checked on her. She was breathing less shallowly now and her color was coming back.

I wondered who she was. She looked young, maybe late teens or early twenties. Not too much younger than I was, even if I no longer felt twenty five.

I didn’t know what age I felt, other than old, most days.

She was obviously attractive, a redhead who would have easily been a cam model or vlogger or whatever a few years ago, with a lot of subscribers desperate for her attention. Even bedraggled and half-dead her beauty was obvious. I left her in the bed and walked back over to the door. Might as well scavenge for wood while the storm had yet to go into full swing. I opened the door, glanced back one more time at the mystery woman, then I left.

Back into the hungering cold.

TWO

The storm was worse, but the full brunt of it wasn’t here yet.

Based on everything I’d learned over the past few years, I thought I had maybe ten minutes before it got so bad I wouldn’t be able to reliably find my way back to the cabin even ten feet from it. I’d found people frozen to death like five feet from buildings before, that’s how shitty visibility was inside a blizzard.

I’d seen a bin on the back of the cabin and there had been a little firewood there. Not much, but it was a start. Hurrying back, I snagged any sticks I saw poking up out of the snow. Every little bit helped. I had no idea how long I’d be in there. Worst case scenario, I could break down some furniture, I guess.

I had done it often enough in the past.

I got back to the bin, grateful for the cold and the way my pain was retreating now. Warming up when you were in pain was a really double-edged sword, but I could avoid it only for so long. And I still had no painkillers. There were three decent logs in the bin, and a handful of other wood scraps. Seeing them reminded me of the last woman I had been intimate with. She was dozens of miles away now, somewhere back to the south, farther probably. I couldn’t be sure how far I’d managed to travel in the two weeks since I’d left her.

Putting that out of my mind, I finished gathering what I could, finished my circuit of the cabin, grabbed a few more sticks and branches, and then headed back inside. Closing the door with my foot, I dumped the stuff on the floor next to the fireplace and spent a few minutes putting a bit more fuel in the fire. The fact that my journal was missing kept wanting to leap back into the forefront of my awareness, but I wouldn’t let it.

It was theoretically possible, I supposed, that it was back at the jeep. That somehow it had fallen out of my pocket, but I didn’t think it likely. If it had, it was weatherproof, or at least up to a certain point. But I knew there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it right now, and so I might as well ignore it for the moment.

Easier said than done.

I’d never been without my journal since I’d first started writing it.

Once the fire was stable and would burn for at least a few hours, I headed back over to the little kitchen area and started hunting. I would do a more thorough search, a much more thorough search, soon. But life after the apocalypse had taught me something crucial: don’t do one thing if you can be doing two things at the same time.

For example: I could be searching the cabin for supplies and boiling snow into water.

My efforts were rewarded. I found a pot tucked away in a cabinet, walked back outside, packed it mostly full of snow, then came back in and set it by the fire. With that out of the way, I went to the next thing on the little checklist that was in my head.

Security.

In this brave new world of snow and ice, murder was a lot more commonplace than before. That and thievery, although the two seemed to go hand-in-hand too often. The fact that I had been robbed, but not murdered, struck me as incredibly odd. But I’d been passed out, so I guess it made more sense. It was pretty difficult to successfully keep people out of an average building, so the goal wasn’t necessarily to keep them out, but to force them to make a lot of noise if they wanted in. Breaking a window, kicking in a door.

There were ways to do this, but for the moment I thoroughly checked the place over. The front door had a deadbolt, and a chain, which I locked down tight. There were four windows, and they were all thankfully intact and lockable. I made sure they were locked and couldn’t be opened. Too many windows had suffered from neglect and would actually open even though they looked locked because they weren’t actually locked.

I didn’t see any trapdoors in the floor or the ceiling, and there didn’t appear to be any weak points among the structure, so I figured this was as secure as it was going to get. I pulled the curtains over the windows and hoped no one was around. Once the storm settled, the smoke coming out the chimney would be obvious enough.

Then I set to work doing one of the things I actually really liked doing now.

Searching. Exploring.

I don’t know why it appealed to me so much, but it did. Even when I was a kid, I remembered looking at buildings and just wanting to get into them. Not to like break in or steal shit, but just to be inside and see what was in there. Just to explore. Hell of a way to get my wish. Now, I could go into damn near every building I saw.

With the fire crackling and the warmth filling the cabin, I began a thorough search.

I was good at it, for some reason.

There’s a science to it, to be sure. Well, more just a diligence: check everything. You see a desk, check all the drawers. You see some cabinets? Check them all, all the way to the back. Most of it was just persistence more than anything else.

But there was an art to it, I had found.

For some reason, things just occurred to me. I could just look around a room and, given a little bit of time, I’d get an idea of where a person might hide something. Sometimes it was secret compartments, some times it was panels in the walls, sometimes it was taped up under a table, hell I’d found stuff hidden inside of those old boxy TVs some people still had. I started to the right of the front door, where a little dining area was, and a coat rack. Nothing on the coat rack. The dining area was just a long, narrow table pushed against the wall with four chairs around it. Nothing under the table, nothing in the chairs.

They’d make good firewood, at least.

Beyond that was the kitchen. Cabinets, a sink, a little narrow dishwasher, an equally small oven, and some counterspace. This was probably going to be the most promising place to search. As I started hunting through the cabinets and the drawers, which had obviously been picked over by prospecting hands already, my body began coming back online and damn was I missing my painkillers. It seemed like everything hurt.

My joints, my back, my limbs, my head, my chest, my jaw, my hands and feet. It was either sore, bruised, or aching.

I’d been in worse pain before, but this was pretty lousy.

My mind went back to the moments before the crash. I had been taking a risk. I knew I should have just stopped, buttoned up, and waited out the bad weather. Especially when the fog had rolled in and the winds had made it worse. But I’d been in a shit mood, and I was pissy, irritated, and maybe feeling a little ‘fuck you’ towards the world in general. Hell, towards the weather itself. I had a lot of patience, but sometimes it wore thin.

And I had paid for it.

That was the lesson: your mood doesn’t matter. Respect reality.

I sighed as I finished searching the kitchen twenty minutes later. There was some old silverware, a few plates and cups, and a little bit of food. Not as much as I would have liked. I set everything I found on the table, then checked on the woman again. She was still breathing, and still out. I left her to it and headed to the next area: the closet. Its door was tucked a little awkwardly against the counterspace.

The closet and the bathroom were pushed up into the corner right next to the kitchen. I opened up the closet and slipped inside. Still narrow, still basically empty. I hunted around anyway, using what light I could, mostly going by feel. There weren’t that many places to put stuff. They’d be either on the floor or on the high-up shelf that ringed the top. Nothing tucked away up there on the shelf, a single t-shirt hanging from a single hanger beneath it, a handful of socks, and nothing else. Wonderful.

Better than nothing, technically.

I dumped it on the table, then moved to the bathroom and checked that. The shower stall was empty, but I looked at it longingly anyway. How long had it been since I’d taken a shower? Since I’d had a bath?

Way too long.

Some places still had working showers, but they were pretty expensive, and ultimately I found that there were other things I wanted more.

Nothing hidden away in the toilet, its tank, or behind it.

The mirror wasn’t the kind you could open up and I ducked down and poked around in the little space under the sink. There was a little basket there, obviously meant to hold stuff, but it didn’t hold anything now. I looked under and behind it, felt around along the edges, trying to find even a single wayward pill.

My body was aching more and more and fuck me what I wouldn’t give for even just a single painkiller.

But no, nothing.

Pushing aside my frustration and anger, which were on tap far more than usual because my journal was missing, I stepped out and checked on the woman again. Her breathing was fully steady now and her color was back. I thought she might wake up soon, but maybe not. I had no idea what her circumstances were.

I considered looking under the bed, but put it off for the moment. Didn’t need her suddenly waking up with some guy right there, looking under the bed. She’d get the drop on me if she was quick enough. I’m a pretty big dude, and it was clear that she was definitely more towards the petite side, but I’d seen some shit and learned not to underestimate damn near anyone. Humans could be downright brutal if they really wanted to be.

Big, small, man, woman, didn’t matter.

We all had the capacity to be absolutely brutal.

I moved on to a little sitting area next to the bed, which was pushed up against the wall that the bathroom created, giving the living room area a sort of illusion of being its own room. I looked under the pair of chairs there and found nothing. I checked along the floor and the mantle above the fireplace. Again, nothing. All that was left after that was the desk. Coming to it, I completed a full circuit of the cabin, as the desk was tucked up against the wall, beneath a window directly to the left of the front door.

I checked out the drawers again, pulling them open and hunting for basically anything at this point. Finally, a bit of luck: a breakfast bar pushed up against the very back of one of the bottom drawers. I pulled it out and then put it with the rest of my meager findings on the table. I looked down at it and frowned.

Not exactly a great situation to find myself in.

The woman shifted in the bed and groaned.

And it wasn’t just myself I had to look after, unless she had a group nearby or a stash somewhere. But I doubted it. She had the look of a person who was ill-suited to being alone and staying alive. I could be wrong, it wasn’t just that she was a petite woman, just something about her, and the fact that her clothes weren’t quite the type a good survivalist would wear. Of course, that might not necessarily be a choice on her part.

I checked the snow I’d set to boil. It was ready. I set it over on the oven to cool, then I took a seat in one of the chairs not far from the fireplace and waited.

It didn’t take long for her to wake up.

She opened her eyes, looked around, confused, wincing, then she rolled over, looked at me, and let out a strange sound of surprise and fear.

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

She tried to say something, coughed. “Water,” she managed.

“Okay, I’ll get you some. Hold on.” I got up, grabbed one of the two cups I’d found, and carefully poured some of the water into it and walked back over. “I just got done boiling it. It’s still kinda hot.”

“That’s fine, I’m still kinda cold,” she murmured, taking it. I moved back over to the chair, to give her some space, and sat down.

She took a moment drinking the water. When she had finished it, she set the cup down and sat up, putting her feet on the floor.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

“You’re welcome.”

“Who are you?”

“My name is Chris.”

“I’m Delilah.”

I waited. Neither of us spoke for the next few seconds. Outside, the wind shrieked and howled. She was studying me. She still seemed nervous, but less so now. She began absently rubbing her arm, running her hand slowly up and down it. “It’s really going out there, huh?” she muttered.

“Yeah, it’s a full storm,” I confirmed.

She looked around the cabin, then finally looked back at me. “So...what’s going on?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?” I asked.

“I was walking through the snow, freezing, running from some assholes...” That made me tense. Great, and me without a gun or even a knife to my name. “I found this place. I was so close to passing out. I opened the door...”

“You must have passed out,” I said. “I found you right in front of the open door, sprawled out on the floor maybe an hour and a half ago. I put you in the bed, started the fire, got some snow boiling. How do you feel?”

“Like shit,” she muttered, “but thanks. You probably saved my life...what about you? You look like hell.”

“Feel like hell,” I replied. “You know the highway not far from here?” She nodded. “I was driving down it.”

“You have a car?” she asked, immediately perking up.

“Had a car. I crashed, got knocked out, got robbed. I think the car is wrecked, but I won’t know until I go check it out later.”

“Shit. That sucks.”

“Yeah, tell me about it...so what’s your story? What are you doing around here?”

A look of disgust passed across her face and she hugged herself. “There’s a group of assholes living in some campgrounds nearby. I escaped from them. I’ve been heading north for awhile, trying to get to a settlement, and I was traveling with a group of people. We came through the area, saw the campgrounds were populated, went to trade.” She sneered. “They ended up trading me.”

“Oh wow...fuck,” I muttered.

“Yeah. Fuckers. The assholes who live at the campgrounds do that. They trade women. That was two days ago. They locked me in a closet to ‘soften me up’. I guess I’m just lucky they didn’t fucking rape me. When they came to get me today, I was ready...sort of. They’d barely fed me anything, but I got the jump on the one that came to get me. I punched him in the eye and kicked him in the nuts and then just ran away. The storm was coming on. I thought I remembered a place like this and I just ran and ran and finally saw it, I got inside and just...passed out.”

“Do you think they’ll come after you? How far away is this place?”

She sighed. “Shit, I don’t know. Maybe a mile? We’re kind of hidden by some trees, but they’ll come looking for me, probably.” She looked at me suddenly, and I saw something in her eyes that I’d seen before.

She was appraising me, probably really taking note of my size and how ‘tough’ I looked, (dunno why, but if I ever wanted to be an actor, before the apocalypse, I probably could’ve gotten roles as a villain, or at least a henchman,) and she was making some calculations. To be honest, I didn’t really mind that she was sizing me up, thinking of how best to use me.

Because what normally followed was something I really liked.

“Would you protect me?” she asked. “I could give you something in return.”

“Doesn’t look like you have much on you,” I replied.

She gave me a smirk, a sultry one, and I had to give it to her: she had some confidence. She looked like the kind of woman who knew how attractive she was, and I could respect that. Arrogance was a turn off on both sides of the gender line, but inversely, confidence was just as big a turn on for men as it was for women.

Or, at least, it was for me.

“Let’s not bullshit each other,” she said, straightening up and focusing on me. “I’ll make you a deal. It’s got two levels to it. I’ll offer you two things in exchange for two things.”

“I’m listening.”

“The first part: you protect me and take care of me, I’ll give you pussy. And head. Whatever you want. Second part of the deal: I think I know who stole your shit. I can help you find them. In exchange, you get me to the settlement I want to go to.”

“Is it the assholes at the campgrounds?” I asked.

“No, not them. I don’t think, anyway. There’s two groups of assholes in this area. They kind of steer clear of each other, I think.”

“Fine. How far away is this settlement? What is it?”

“Last time I saw a sign on the highway, it said it was like ninety miles away. It’s north, called Pine Lake. Kind of a small town near a lake in upper Kansas. Like really small, even back before the apocalypse it had like five hundred people maybe.”

I considered it, looked her up and down.

She stood up suddenly. “Maybe this will help.”

Delilah took off her shirt, took off the shirt under that, and then took off the sports bra she was wearing.

I felt a hot pulse of lust hit me hard as I saw her tits.

She was kinda scrawny, but...fuck me if she didn’t have some great tits. I’m not saying they need to be big to be good, but goddamn.

“What cup size are you?” I asked.

She grinned again. “Double-d.”

“Fuck. All right, I accept your deal. I’ll keep you safe and fed to the best of my ability, and I’m pretty good but I’m not perfect, and I’ll get you to Pine Lake. In exchange, you help me find my stuff and let me fuck you as much as I want.”

“Deal,” she said.

“Good, now put your stuff back on. We need to discuss a few things and it’s going to be too hard to focus with your amazing tits out.”

She still had that confident smirk and she laughed softly. “Okay.”

THREE

She put her clothes back on and joined me at the table.

“Not to rain on our parade, but we’re currently kind of fucked,” I said. I indicated the meager collection of supplies gathered on the table. “At present, this is all we got.”

“Holy shit, that’s it?” she murmured.

“Yep.”

I took inventory of everything we currently had to our name.

A can of baked beans.

Two cans of peaches.

A can of peas.

One breakfast bar.

Two cups, two plates, some silverware.

And that was it.

“I don’t suppose you can offer up anything to help?” I asked.

She sighed. “No, they took everything I had and I didn’t get a chance to grab anything else. Although...” She looked around. “I’m really good at searching places.”

“So am I, actually. I looked the place over, although if you want to have a go ahead at it, be my guest. I’d love to be wrong in thinking that I got everything here,” I replied.

“I will. Um, there’s some other places I know about. They aren’t far away. There’s a little convenience store like a few hundred feet from this place, back towards the campgrounds, which is to the north, on this side of the highway. There’s also an old farmhouse and a barn a bit farther in that direction, but still an appreciable distance from the campgrounds.”

“Why didn’t you end up there?” I asked.

“I wanted to keep going, to get as far away as I could, and I wasn’t sure if the storm was going to get worse or not. It did. I was originally going to cross the highway, I know there’s some buildings on the other side of it, but I ended up here,” she replied.

I nodded. “Okay. I’ll check them out tomorrow,” I said.

“Not today?”

I walked over to the window over the desk and looked out. The skies were darker and the storm was worse than ever. I could hardly see three feet beyond the glass. “No,” I said. “Can’t be sure, but I’m guessing this is going to last all day, maybe even into tomorrow. I also don’t know what time it is, but it was well past noon before I crashed. So we’re in for the night.”

“That makes sense,” she murmured. Her stomach growled. “Fuck, I’m hungry.”

“Same,” I replied. “But we aren’t going to have much of a dinner.” I lined up the cans. “Do you hate any of these?”

“I fucking hate peas, everything else is fine,” she replied.

“All right, I’ll eat the peas,” I said. “Eat one thing. If you can, don’t eat all of it. Save some for tomorrow.”

She stared at me for a moment. “Um...thanks,” she said, taking one of the cans of peaches and beginning to peel it open. Thankfully, all the cans were the kind with peel lids.

“You’re welcome,” I said. I retrieved her cup and grabbed the other, then poured the rest of the water out into them. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any real way to store water besides these three items at the moment. And I guess the cans, as we empty them.” I sighed and spent a moment rubbing my temples. My headache hadn’t gone away yet and I doubted it would. Although an orgasm usually helped.

“I’m getting more water, then I have to break down two of those chairs for wood, then I’m going to fuck you,” I said.

“Okay,” she replied demurely.

I had to admit, I really had a thing for women like her: those who actually liked being ordered around to a certain degree.

Of course, I also liked tough hardass women too.

I guess I just liked women in general.

I grabbed the pot and went to the door.

~

By the time I was actually ready to fuck, the sun was mostly gone.

I boiled up some more water, then ate the breakfast bar. My stomach complained for more, but I ignored it. I then broke down one of the chairs, reducing it to so much firewood, and stacked it with the rest. I then siphoned off the new batch of water into the cups and the empty can Delilah had produced, drank some more, and then went to boil a third pot of snow. I seemed to be right about the storm, it didn’t peter off at all.

I broke down a second chair and then set the water on the stove to cool. I then grabbed two of the socks I had found. They looked clean enough and would serve their purpose as washrags for now. I then started stripping.

It was time to get a look at my body, and see how bad it was.

Delilah watched with interest as I got naked. My clothes came away bit by bit. My black skullcap, my leather coat that I hung up on the rack, followed by my gray hoodie, then the old t-shirt I was wearing under that. I kicked off my boots and peeled off the thick socks I had on. After that came my cargo survival pants with all the pockets, my thermal underwear, and finally the black boxers I had on.

“Wow,” Delilah murmured as I finished.

I looked down over myself. Lots of bruises, a few cuts on my hands, but I was in surprisingly good shape for a car accident.

“Good wow or bad?” I murmured as I finished studying myself.

“Mostly good. You’re hot,” she said.

“Good to know.” I soaked the sock in the can of water, set aside for now to hold the cleaning water, and then began rubbing myself down. I usually had soap, but that was gone now. It wasn’t perfect, but hey, even this felt great.

“I guess I should do that too,” Delilah said, standing up.

I got a chance to see her totally naked as she stripped down.

And damn was she hot.

She was a redhead, with stunning blue eyes. I fucking loved redheads. I’d take any hair color, but I was an absolute sucker for redheads. She was trim, with slim thighs and nice firm little hips. Her vagina was totally bald, no pubic hair, I saw as she took her panties off. She saw me looking and glanced down.

“Oh yeah, I managed to get that laser hair removal thing done before all this shit happened.” She raised her arms. “Under my pits, too. And on my legs. I hated having hair there, but I hated shaving and waxing more.”

“Lucky you,” I said as she walked over.

“Yep.”

She grabbed another sock and began washing up as well. Hot damn was she sexy.

It was time to have the sex talk, to put her mind at ease. Inasmuch as I could, but she already seemed fairly cool about it.

“Did you ever hear about that dick implant guys could get? The Midas Mesh?” I asked.

“Yeah, I did...” She glanced down at my mostly hard cock. “You got it?”

“Yeah. That’s how I got lucky. I was still in debt over it when the snow started to fall. You can actually see it, if you want,” I replied.

She got down onto her knees and reached out, gripping my cock.

That sent a pulse of lust through me.

It had been like a week since a woman had touched my dick, and that may not sound very long, but when the world is a frozen hellscape, a week could be a long time.

“Holy shit,” she said, staring at my dick. “I can see it! That little golden spark just inside your cock. Do you feel that?”

“No, actually. I thought I could in the beginning, but it was just my imagination. I forget it’s there now, mostly.”

“So it actually works? You can’t knock girls up, you can’t get STDs?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit, how?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” I admitted. “They explained it. Something to do with nano-fibers, and something coating the inside of my urethrae? All I know is, it works.”

“Very nice.” She looked up at me and there was that confident smirk again. “You know, since I’m down here on my knees already...”

“You might as well get to work,” I replied, glad I’d already washed my cock about as much as I could under the current circumstances.

She didn’t say anything else.

She got to work.

Delilah gripped my dick and wrapped her lips around it, just beyond the head, and then she began to run her tongue along it. Immediately that sent pleasure sparking into me, that wonderfully welcome feeling of a woman’s mouth interacting with my cock. Something I had become a lot more familiar with since the snow began to fall. Not every woman was more willing to fuck in the wake of the apocalypse, but more than ever before were. Especially if you could convince them that STDs and pregnancy weren’t going to be a factor, which I could. I mean, it wasn’t perfect, oral was still a thing, but so far I was in the clear.

My latest partner let out a groan and began bobbing her head smoothly. She clearly knew what she was doing. Either she’d watched a lot of dick-sucking videos before the internet had collapsed, or she’d had a fair amount of practice. I was surprised by how many women told me they’d actually watched videos to get a good idea of how to suck cock. It made me wonder if I should have watched more pussy eating videos, but I apparently was pretty good at it already. I stopped thinking as she really started pleasuring me.

“Fuck, Delilah,” I groaned, putting my hand on top of her head. She looked fantastic sucking my dick, the way her lips slid up and down my shaft, the way she cupped my balls with her free hand, massaging them gently, her skin soft and hot now. The way she wrapped her first two fingers and thumb around my shaft and moved it in tandem with her lips. The way she slowed down, letting her lips glide up and then back down slowly each time she reached the head, going in for maximum pleasure, no doubt trying to make a good first impression. Well, she didn’t have to worry about me kicking her out or giving her up.

Besides the fact that I didn’t do that, I wanted her around.

I didn’t last long.

I’d finally stopped being embarrassed from not lasting long from head. It really depended on who was doing it but I seemed more susceptible to head than the average guy, apparently. It was easier to make me bust and so far, just about every woman I’d been with had been grateful. My cock was thick enough, apparently, that it was annoying to suck for more than a few minutes at a time. But I was especially quick right now because A) she was so fucking hot, B) she was actually really good at it, and C) I hadn’t come in like five days.

Like, I hadn’t even found the time or inclination to jack off.

I groaned loudly, grabbing her head with both hands and forcing my cock deeper into her mouth, down her throat.

She didn’t seem to mind.

Grunting, I started coming down her throat, my cock spasming violently as a huge load of my stuff shot out. She swallowed and I cried out in shocked bliss at all those hot, wet muscles clenching around my orgasming head. She did it twice more and fuck me that just felt so fucking good. I forgot everything as I came down this tight little redhead’s throat, my hands gripping her head, pleasure surging through my body.

I drained my nuts into her mouth and when I was done, let go. She slowly extracted my cock from her mouth, keeping her lips pressed together and sucking whatever was left as she did, and then it was out and she was looking up at me.

“Wow,” she said.

I looked down at her, panting. “What?”

“You came a lot. Like so much,” she replied, grinning.

“It’s been awhile,” I said.

She stood up and rinsed her mouth out with some of the water, swishing and spitting into the sink, then taking a few drinks. “I could tell.” She looked down at my cock, which had softened somewhat, but not by much. “Wow, you’re still horny.”

“Yeah, get in bed,” I replied.

I saw a little flash in her eyes, a mix of excitement and lust, and felt grateful: she was certainly one of those women who got off on being told what to do.

I could work with that.

“Yes, sir,” she murmured demurely, and then walked over to the bed. I finally got a good look at her ass and oh wow, it was really great. Pleasantly padded, given her somewhat skinny frame, and it was going to look great doggystyle.

Lust was still coursing through me, so I didn’t think of much else as I walked after her. She laid down on the bed and looked up at me, nude and beautiful and so incredibly seductive. I laid down beside her and began kissing her.

I didn’t want to think about anything else, just for a little while.

My body still ached, less so thanks to the orgasm, which was a great natural painkiller, and I could do with a second dose. It had been awhile since I’d been so thoroughly fucked and without resources, and I knew I was going to have to do a lot of hard work over the next several days to keep not only my ass alive, but hers as well.

But for right now, I could just focus on her, and enjoy this gift she was offering to me.

Her wonderful body.

I ran my hands over her, finding her skin hot and soft and smooth. I groped one of her large breasts right away. People always went on about if you were an ass person or a breast person. I was what you might call on a sliding scale. It really depended on the woman, and right now, right here with Delilah, I was really into her tits.

They felt fantastic to touch, and her lips were wonderful to kiss. We made out as I groped her, running my hand all over her body, down to her firm thighs and her smooth hip, back around to the pleasant swell of her ass. Her hand was on my cock, massaging it. As she started jacking me off, I decided to return the favor.

My hand came back around and slipped in between her thighs. She gasped as my fingertip found her clit and began to rub it.

“Oh fuck...” she groaned.

For a few moments I just kissed her and listened to the sounds she made. There was a particular satisfaction to hearing a woman make sexually pleasured sounds. I’m sure it had a lot to do with how we evolved to respond to those sounds and our brain rewarded us each time we did, especially if we knew we were the ones making them happen. But I wasn’t complaining. When the world was nothing but snow and cold and ice and misery, you took what you could get.

Delilah pushed her slim, pale body against my own, and that skin-on-skin contact was electrifying. It hadn’t just been about a week since I’d orgasmed, it had been that long since I’d fucking touched a woman in any real capacity. Being a traveler now meant you could go a really long time without seeing even a single other human, let alone interacting with one.

It took a toll, even if you often preferred to be alone.

Feeling her hands running across my body, her skin rubbing against my own, her lips against mine, it was overwhelmingly wonderful.

I had a theory that because we spent so much more time without being overstimulated now, thanks to the fact that power was roughly a thousand times harder to come across and the internet and cell phone networks didn’t exist anymore, and we spent so much time just surviving, everything we did took on a more powerful meaning in our minds. I’d noticed that even bland food tasted better, getting a drink of water was just phenomenal.

And sex?

I mean, I’d had sex before the snow fell. Not a lot, I’m not going to pretend like I was some kind of player, I wasn’t, but I’d at least found some women who were interested. And it had been great. But sex after the apocalypse? Sex you had after enduring a week in snowy isolation with no TV, no internet, no games or smartphone or even other people?

It was a fucking event.

I was utterly focused on Delilah as I continued simulating her. She was panting now, groaning loudly, her legs as wide as they could go in the bed.

“Fuck, Chris...fuck...” she groaned loudly, inarticulate with the bliss I was giving her. “That’s just-oh! Shit!” she yelled, and suddenly she bucked, hard, as I put my finger inside of her and began rapidly pressing up into her most sensitive spot.

That was enough to make her come, apparently.

I’d found her sweet little orgasm button.

Some women had them, some didn’t.

Some women needed a lot of priming, some didn’t.

I tried hard to make them all come, regardless.

Delilah let out a low moan somewhere deep in her throat as she began to twitch and writhe and spasm. The orgasm tore through her body, no doubt consuming her as it had me just a few minutes ago. I felt her coming around my finger, a hot spray of sex juices getting onto her thighs and my wrist. We were gonna have to deal with that before going to sleep. The bed wasn’t quite big enough to avoid the wet spot. Another irritating problem with not having enough stuff.

When she was finished coming, she fell back against the bed, panting, her eyes open wide, staring up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, they cut my way, locking onto my own eyes.

“Fuck me,” she groaned. “Please. Now.”

I just grinned and got on top of her. I was careful not to crush her, given she was almost a foot shorter than me and probably about a hundred pounds lighter. There was a particular satisfaction to fucking petite women when you were a big guy. Again, probably just that stupid old caveman part of my brain responding to something about that situation, or maybe just my particular personality. I knew it wasn’t universal.

But I fucking loved banging shorter chicks.

Of course, I also had a real thing for banging tall women too, taller than me if I could manage it, which was hard, given I was over six foot, and it was rare to find women taller than that. Not impossible, but rare.

I felt her fingers on my cock and she had me lined up with her slick, hot, wet opening. As soon as I was, I began pushing inside of her. She moaned loudly, accepting my length into her. I worked it inside carefully. It was honestly a fucking a dice roll, I had found, as to who could handle what. I’d found women Delilah’s size who didn’t have too much problem taking my dick, and then I’d run into women nearly as tall as I was and not super skinny either who had trouble with it. And I wasn’t so sure it was a matter of how sexually experienced or active they were as opposed to something a bit more biological. I could be wrong, but it was just one of those things.

Delilah seemed quite capable of handling my cock.

She groaned loudly as I finished getting inside of her, and I groaned too.

Holy fucking God was her vagina amazing.

She was just stunningly tight, that was probably the best part of her: how goddamned tight she was. But then there was that intense wetness to her from her orgasm and arousal. She was so fucking wet right now. And the heat of her, being inside of her, raw…

Fucking hot pussy had taken on a completely new meaning in a frozen apocalypse of a world.

“Oh my fucking God, Chris, you’re so fucking big...” she moaned, putting her legs in the air and spreading them open wide.

“You are really fucking goddamn tight,” I grunted in reply as I stroked into her.

I hated to admit it, but I was not lasting long.

This was exactly what I tried very hard to make chicks come before I stuck my cock in them. I’d gotten decent at lasting, but sometimes the pussy was just too fucking good and it was looking like this was one of those times.

“You okay up there?” Delilah asked. I looked down, she was staring up at me with a knowing smirk. Fuck, she knew exactly how I was doing.

“Yeah,” I grunted. I was holding myself up on my hands, again as not to crush her, and fuck, just that body of hers. Her fucking tits bouncing as I thrust into her again and again, her slim waistline and relatively flat stomach, (I didn’t give a shit if women had a bit of a gut, I knew how fucking next to impossible it was to have a completely flat stomach), my cock slamming into her smooth, pale pussy between her trim thighs.

“You’re really tight,” I managed, looking back up at her. She had such a beautiful face, like goddamn.

It was the kind of face you’d see in ads or on billboards.

“It’s all right,” she said, panting, “you can come.”

“Oh, it’s all right, huh?” I asked. I reached down, grabbed her legs, and just about folded her in half. She gasped in surprise as I grabbed her ankles and damn near pushed them into the pillow on either side of her head, readjusted myself, and then started really hammering that fucking sweet pussy of hers.

“HOLY FUCK!” she screamed.

I was nailing her right in her g-spot. If I wasn’t lasting long, neither was she.

“You like that?” I snapped at her. “You fucking like that, Delilah!?”

“I LOVE IT!” she shrieked wildly.

Staring down at this tight, pale redhead with big tits as I slammed my cock into her again and again as the pleasure burned into me, building and building, was about as close to heaven on Earth as I’d ever gotten.

Listening to her screaming incoherently with bliss as I rammed the fuck out of her, I managed to get her to orgasm a second time right before I triggered.

When I did, it zeroed everything else out.

It was just me, draining my nuts into her, feeling that explosion of absolute ecstasy. I grunted and cried out as my cock kicked hard inside of her fantastically tight pussy, the first of my second load jetting into her, and immediately a second pulse of bliss shot out into me as a second spurt of my seed shot out into her.

I fucking pumped her pussy full of it over the next however long.

It was absolute rapture.

When I was done, I stared down at her and released her legs.

“Good thing I’m flexible,” she murmured with a small and surprised grin on her face, putting her legs back down.

“Yeah, sorry,” I replied. “I figured-”

“It’s fine,” she said. She laughed. “This is what I agreed to. I don’t mind. Use me how you see fit. I can take it.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “I think I’m going to like you.”

“Good.”

“Go wash your pussy, I’m going to want more in the middle of the night,” I said as I got up off her and stood up.

“Yes, sir,” she replied, getting up.

While she cleaned up, I stripped the mattress, tossed the sheet onto the floor, then flipped the mattress, and laid both blankets and pillows back down.

“One of the things I’ll want you doing is cleaning the bedding while I’m out.”

“Can do,” she replied as she washed up.

I checked on the fire, putting more of the wood I’d broken down in and making sure it would burn for several hours, then I got into bed. A moment later, she climbed in with me and I wrapped my arms around her slim, nude body.

“You’ll protect me?” she asked.

“I’ll protect you,” I replied quietly in her ear.

She shivered. “Good. I like you.”

“I like you, too. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

FOUR

I fucked her twice in the night.

The first time I woke up, I wasn’t sure what had woken me up, but I looked around. The fire was lower, but still steady, everything seemed secure.

And I had a throbbing erection.

I was still up against her. I pushed her over onto her back, pushed her legs open, got in between them, and slipped myself into her.

She was still wet.

“Wha...fuck...oh...” she groaned as I began fucking her.

“Shut up,” I grunted as I slid smoothly into her, just hitting it hard and fast. I was so fucking horny I couldn’t stand it.

“Oh fuck, Chris,” she moaned.

“Shut the fuck up, Delilah,” I growled and fucked her harder.

She grabbed me and held me and let me screw her brains out. I lasted maybe sixty seconds hammering away at that sweet pussy of hers and then I was coming again, groaning, grunting as I came inside of her, emptying my cock into her again.

It was totally mind-blowing pleasure.

When I was finished, I pulled out of her and fell onto my side.

“Clean up,” I murmured.

“Yes, sir,” she replied sleepily, getting up.

I fell back asleep before she came back.

The second time I woke up, the fire was low. The wind was still howling, but not quite as strongly, and I hauled myself up out of bed and moved over to the fire. Blearily, I tossed more fuel into it, adjusted it, then went back.

I had a throbbing erection again. I’d been having some kind of sex dream.

I rolled Delilah onto her stomach this time, made sure her head was laying on its side, so she could breathe and wasn’t facedown in the pillow, then I looked at her sweet ass and got onto her. Slipping my cock into her pussy, I started hitting it from the back. She groaned but she didn’t say anything. I kept fucking, grunting, feeling as much as hearing the bed shake under our weight. My cock felt like it was being consumed by pure, hot, wet bliss. I groaned as I pounded her into the mattress, utterly satisfied.

I managed to fuck her, come inside of her, and pull out apparently without waking her up. I checked on her after I finished.

She was fine, just passed out.

I laughed softly, surprised that she could sleep through that, then fell back asleep myself.

~

I woke up to sunlight and someone moving.

Opening my eyes, I caught sight of Delilah’s sweet ass as she walked over to where the water was. “You came in me again last night,” she said as she began to clean up.

“Yeah, I did,” I replied. “I’m surprised you didn’t wake up.”

“Me too,” she murmured.

“Hurry up, you’re going to ride my dick until it explodes inside you,” I said, laying on my back and stretching, popping my neck.

“Good fucking lord you are goddamn insatiable,” she muttered as she finished up and then came back over.

“Yep,” I agreed.

She pulled the blanket back, revealing my naked body and my morning wood. “That’s going to be the biggest part of your job. And definitely expect to take care of the morning wood every morning,” I said.

“Yes, sir,” she replied as she climbed on top of me.

She looked exceptionally good as she began working my cock into her glistening vagina. “I get morning wetness myself,” she murmured, then moaned as she pushed me deeper into herself. “I get really fucking slutty in the morning, so, lucky you.”

“Lucky me,” I said, putting my hands behind my head and watching her work.

She was an excellent fucktoy and she knew it.

I laid there and watched her big, pale tits bouncing in rhythm with her as she rode my cock, slipping it into herself again and again, the pleasure washing over me in waves. I could tell from the look on her face that was using me as much as I was using her, fucking herself with my dick. To be honest, I didn’t mind being used as a living sextoy either. Maybe I was weird but, to a certain degree, not always, I wasn’t really upset at the idea of someone not ‘liking me for who I am’, and instead was just using me for sex.

As long as they were being respectful and honest about it and had a vested interest in getting me off, too.

It’d be different if they were pretending to like me.

It sounds painfully ‘edgy’, but I don’t deal with posers, or fakers, or whatever the fuck you want to call them. I’m not interested in liars. I never have been, I never will be. I’m not sure why, I mean I know that lying has its place, not that I always or even often agree with the reasoning, but one hundred percent truth one hundred percent of the time is kind of stupid. But I don’t know, I can tell, usually, when someone’s faking and it just pisses me off on a basic level. Like smelling shit or getting hit with a jump scare, it was just an automatic reaction.

But more than that, I respected people who were consistently honest.

It didn’t take much longer for either of us to come. Apparently, like me, Delilah was extra horny in the morning.

My morning fuck sessions didn’t last long when they happened.

I managed to hold on long enough for her to start to get off. She let out a strange, strangled sound of pure sexual release as she stopped bouncing and instead grabbed me and started furiously grinding, stirring my cock around inside of her and rubbing her clit against me. She panted and grunted as she orgasmed, and I felt her sex juices coming out onto me.

Then I was coming, busting my load into her, draining my nuts into that sweet, tight pussy of hers. I groaned loudly, my voice joining hers as I grabbed her hips and thrust up into her hard enough to make her cry out in surprise and almost throw her off. I pulled her down hard against me, shoving my cock as deep into her as it could go, jetting my seed out into her as she orgasmed along with me. For some uncertain length of time we were locked together in a blissful union of climax and gratification, lost among it all.

And then we were finished, the pleasure receding, ebbing away, leaving us panting and sweaty, staring at each other, flushed, smiling that feral smile of pure, naked sexual satisfaction.

“Wow,” she said, brushing some of her hair off her face. “You are...really good.”

“So are you,” I replied. “Up. I’ve got work to do.”

“Yes, sir,” she said with a demure smirk, and she got up off me, my softening cock falling out of her.

I stood and stretched for a minute, taking a bit to work my stiff joints and aching body. There was a lot to do today and without any painkillers, (besides the natural one I’d just been hit with), it was going to be a bitch.

There was no more wind screaming outside, at least, and the sun looked bright, peeking in around the curtains of the cabin.

I popped my back and neck and shoulders after stretching for a bit, then joined her by the water, which I’d set by the fireplace. The wood I’d gathered was almost gone, and I tossed what was left into the dwindling embers before grabbing the can and refilling it with whatever water was left. I’d left the water by the fireplace so that it would be warm when we needed it in the morning. Using my sock, I started washing up.

Delilah joined me.

“Delilah,” I said as something occurred to me. Something that really should have occurred to me last night, before all the ‘activities’.

“Yeah?”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty two...why?”

“I’m just curious. I’ve met older people who look younger, and younger people who look way older.”

She laughed. “It’s not like there’s laws anymore.”

“I’m still not interested in breaking that one,” I replied.

“Wow. That’s...weird. I mean hey, bravo, just weird. Unless you’re lying. But why would you?” she said.

“I don’t lie...usually. Not to people I’m working with, anyway.”

“Huh. Well, let’s just say, I’ve seen a lot of shit since this all went down.”

“Me too,” I muttered. I tried to steer the conversation back towards more pleasant topics as both the fact that my journal was gone and there were sex-trafficking assholes nearby tried to crowd in on me. “So who were you before all this?”

“No one special, really. I was a waitress through high school and after I graduated. I had no idea what I was going to do. I still don’t have any real idea of what to do, but that means something different now. I mean, at least the answer is clearer: stay alive. That’s hard enough on its own now. I don’t need to worry about finding a ‘real job’ or buying a house or how many fucking followers I have or how economically viable I am. Because none of that shit matters anymore.” She sighed unhappily. “But I’m still bad at this world, too.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I’m shit at survival. I can barely build a fire. I don’t know how to hunt, or mend wounds beyond really basic shit. All I know how to do is look good, and I don’t even know how to do that, I just do. People are nice to me...” she hesitated, then looked at me with an oddly shy expression. “This is the first time I’ve actually done this.”

“Done...what?” I replied.

“Traded sex for something.” I stared at her, trying to figure out if she was lying, because that didn’t seem true. “Seriously!” she added.

“That’s a little hard to believe,” I admitted.

She sighed. “I know, I can walk the walk and talk the talk, but I’ve never outright traded pussy for something.”

I shifted uncomfortably. “Do you...not want to?”

“No, I actually am having a great time with you,” she replied, laughing a little. “I thought it’d be worse, but you’re great. What we’ve done so far feels like...how I think people fantasize about it. I mean, I think that’s the basis for a lot of fantasies, and books sometimes. Not just guys, I mean I know a lot of guys would love to be in your position. But you’d be surprised by how many women I’ve come across who like the idea of being in the position I’m in right now.” She paused, frowned. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning what those fuckheads over there tried to do to me. I never will. But, for whatever reason, I like this particular setup we have.”

I felt a bit more comfortable with that. “You like it because you don’t really have to give anything up. You want to have sex with me. It’d be different if I was more unattractive to you or not as useful,” I said.

She frowned again. “Yeah...that’s true,” she admitted. “Whatever. Point is: I like what we have going. I was worried I might not, but I do. And that’s great.”

“It is great,” I agreed.

We finished washing up and started pulling our clothes on. As soon as I was dressed, I drained what was left in my cup of water and had her do the same, then poured what was left in the pot I’d left on the stove that hadn’t evaporated last night and drained that, too. We were going to have to be as efficient as possible with our water, given I didn’t have many places to store it. I picked up the pot and the can we used for cleaning water and set them on the desk by the front door, then I took a moment to make a quick circuit of the cabin’s interior, looking carefully out of every window that was available to me at the moment.

It was clear out there, at least as far as I could see.

No people. No animals. No snowstorm.

I ended up back at the front door and opened it up. Grabbing the can, I tossed out the dirty water we’d used to clean up with and then set the can upside down in front of the fireplace, then I grabbed the pot and headed out.

Packing it with snow while I took another look around, I saw that I could see my car from here. It didn’t look good and my hopes of ever driving it again fell further. Oh well. I finished gathering the snow and came back inside, then placed the pot in front of the fireplace.

“So, um, what’s the plan for today?” Delilah asked.

“First, I’m going to go gather more wood. Then I’m going to check my car. Finally, I’m going to go investigate the buildings you told me about and scout the campgrounds. I want you to stay here and not leave at all, keep the door locked. I’m almost positive they’ll be looking for you and unfortunately, I’m in a very poor situation to defend us at the moment. While I’m gone, I’d like you to search the place again, see if you can find anything I missed. Sound good?”

“Yeah, it sounds good,” she replied.

“Good.”

With the pot set to boil, I headed for the front door.

~

It was clear but cold out today.

I made sure to take a good, long look around as I hunted for firewood. I could see the general store Delilah had mentioned, though there were trees beyond it, with just a narrow road between the edge of the incline next to the highway and the forest, so this place was decently hidden. Or, at least until you came walking down the road.

I moved fast and thankfully didn’t see any sign of people or animals hanging around. That could change in an instant, though. There were woods behind the property, right up to the narrow strip of backyard that the cabin was afforded, so that was good at least. More firewood would be pretty freely available.

In the end, I gathered up two big bundles of wood, sticks, and scraps, whatever I could find, and piled it all by the fireplace. It should get us through the day and the night. Probably. I was reluctant to let the fire go out simply because we had so little in the way of matches. Right now, our fuel far outweighed our capacity to restart the fire.

Delilah was hard at work already, poking through the kitchen.

She was down on her haunches and I had a great view of her ass. It was really tempting to hang around and nail her again. I really wanted to fucking slam her doggystyle, but that would have to wait. I made myself focus on the job.

“I’m heading out now,” I said, getting her attention. “Lock the door behind me, and don’t answer unless you hear my knock. My knock is three slow, two fast. Understand?”

“I got it,” she replied.

“Hide as best you can otherwise which...I know isn’t a great option in here.”

“Hopefully no one will come,” she replied.

I nodded, then walked over and kissed her. She kissed me back, deepening it and using a bit of tongue, then smiled at me as she pulled back. “Good luck out there.”

“Thanks,” I said, unable to keep from smiling.

Then left I left. I waited until I heard her lock the door, deadbolt and chain, then I started heading off towards my car.

I began thinking about my deal with Delilah.

For as long as I’ve thought about it, I’ve been comfortable, (for the most part), with the idea of prostitution. If we could sell our bodies for hard labor, or to science, or to protect others, or another hundred thousand types of jobs, then why couldn’t we sell them for sex? I understood that there were a lot of instances of abuse, and I had tried my best not to take advantage of anyone. If it really came down to it, I’d help a woman who had nothing, and nothing to offer, for free. But I was fully comfortable accepting sexual favors if women were okay with offering them and they didn’t feel like they were being pressured into it.

There were some jobs I hated to do, but I was willing to do them if it meant I had a place to get in out of the cold between my wanderlust phases.

So if women were willing to put up with letting me fuck them in exchange for something else, then I respected that.

I sighed heavily as I got closer to my car, my breath foaming heavily on the air. What a waste. The frame was dented and bent and all fucked up, including the area around the engine. The hood was partially popped and I pulled it open as I got close enough. My questions about whether or not it might be salvageable in the immediate sense died right then and there as I saw the battery I’d worked so hard to get was missing.

Whoever had robbed me must’ve taken it.

I set to work after that, checking in, around, and beneath the vehicle for anything at all that might have been dropped or missed.

I’d found the jeep six weeks ago at an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere Kansas. I’d been walking and surviving for five or six days at that point after having been run out of the town I was staying in thanks to some assholes not liking me for no reason. They had guns and numbers, so I’d been forced to flee without being able to get back to the apartment I was living in. So I’d had to leave like eighty percent of my stuff.

At the gas station I’d also found a really pretty girl named Mary, a brown-haired beauty who’d tossed me the same deal Delilah was now: pussy for protection. And ultimately to get her to civilization. She’d been a really sweet woman, if a bit disheartened. Then again, who wasn’t in this day and age?

I’d fucked her, fought some wolves, and ultimately salvaged a battery and some snow tires for the vehicle. Then I’d made it to the settlement she was trying to get to. We’d lived together for almost a month there. I hunted and did odd-jobs around the place, she did a few odd-jobs herself and had started doing some woodworking, something she cared about. In the end, the same thing happened that always seems to happen to me now.

I got the wanderlust again and left her behind.

Not like I literally just up and left her one night. She knew it was coming, I had warned her. She’d been sad, and so had I. She had really liked me, and I’d liked her a lot to be honest. But I didn’t like her more than I liked just wandering.

I have no idea why I want so desperately to wander, to be out and free.

I just do.

In the end, I didn’t find jack shit among my vehicle. They’d cleaned it out. Nothing under it, nothing under the seats, nothing in the little compartments. They hadn’t taken my mattress I’d found. No, they’d just tossed it out the back and cut it open, shredding it and probably looking for stuff hidden inside it.

Something I hadn’t bothered with.

Disgruntled and cold, I left my jeep for the last time, my sights set on the general store.

FIVE

The general store looked old, like it had been built in the eighties or maybe even the seventies. It just had that old and dated feel to it.

It was probably heightened by the fact that it had sat, largely untouched, for two years in a frozen wasteland.

Possibly longer, if it had been derelict before that.

I kept on a constant surveillance as I approached the store. Most places were abandoned, but it was a complete dice roll as to whether or not one or more people might be inside, either hoping you’d go away or looking to jump you.

And I was in no damned position to defend myself.

I mean, if it came down to it, I could fistfight, but damn near everyone had guns or at least knives nowadays. America had fucking jacked off to guns for so long that there were probably five times as many guns as there were people, and that was before like three quarters of the population had died off. But I didn’t think there was anyone in the store.

I walked through the parking lot, seeing no cars, unfortunately, and made a quick circuit around the outside of the store. Always a good idea. I looked in all the windows I could. The place wasn’t very big. It seemed to be one big room and probably a handful of back rooms. The side door I found was locked, as was the back door. Some windows were broken, but I’d only go in through there if I had to. Too much risk of slicing your hand open on a shard of glass and God fucking help you if you slashed a tendon or an artery or something.

The front door, at least, was open.

I walked in after finishing my perimeter sweep and looked around.

A single checkout area to the right, and a lot of shelves attached to the floor took up most of the open space in the building. I did an interior check, looking behind the counter, along the shelves, and then checking out the four doors I found along the back. One led to a small ass bathroom, another to what must have been a narrow, miserable break room, another to the manager’s office, and finally, what took up the most space, the storeroom.

I didn’t like the looks of the place in terms of resources, it seemed as if people had already been by and depleted it. Given the fact that Delilah said there were two groups of shitheads in the area, combined with two years of wandering survivors, I didn’t doubt that this place had been picked over more than once.

But that didn’t mean they’d gotten it all.

Settling in for the long haul of searching this whole place as much as I could, I began ruminating on things.

Namely: the immediate future.

Even if it had taken me awhile to realize it, I was always a goal-oriented person. It wasn’t until after I’d given up trying to live in the shambles of my old life and headed out into the great white unknown that I’d really learned that, and capitalized on it. Setting goals, figuring out how to do them, and keeping that shit clear and clean in your head was a great way to actually get shit done. Also, being adaptable and not sitting there trying to argue with the world when it didn’t go your way, like a lot of rich, upper-class douche-bags I’d run into over the course of my life, tried to do. So I knew I needed to set some goals.

Before anything else, I had to get some more supplies. Gear, food, something to protect myself with. That last one could be hard to find, despite how many guns existed. All the obvious places had already been picked over.

But after that?

I didn’t intend to let the sex-trafficking fucksticks keep on going. True, at the moment all I had was Delilah’s word, but I didn’t have much reason to doubt her. At the very least I fully intended to scope them out and if it was as she said, I might end up killing some people. I tried to avoid it, I tried to give people second chances.

I’m not a fan of playing judge, jury, and executioner.

But sometimes…

Some people were just evil. And if you let them go, they’d just keep doing it. And I just could not abide that.

So, find supplies, keep Delilah safe and fed and warm, scope out and probably take out the assholes living just north of here, and get my shit back. It all felt so distant and I knew I was lucky to still be walking around, and that one false move, one bad turn of luck, and I could be just another frozen corpse out here.

I had to take it slowly and carefully.

Gradually, the old general store gave up its secrets.

My first find was my most significant find, and I wondered how everyone who’d been through here had missed it. Shoved in the very back of a shelf, beneath the counter that held the cash register, was an old .22 six-shot revolver. I looked it over, carefully inspecting it for any obvious signs of damage, but it seemed in good condition. I pulled the trigger. Except for the fact that it was completely empty of bullets, it seemed to work.

I stuffed it in my pocket and then intensified my search for ammo.

Unfortunately, there was none.

Not one single, solitary, motherfucking bullet.

Disheartened, but still determined, I pressed on.

Here and there, scattered across the store, I found some food. Two cans of tuna. Another can of peaches. A can of shredded beef. A can of green beans. Two more breakfast bars. Not a lot, but hey, it just tripled our food supply, maybe even quadrupled if we were careful. The bathroom was empty, and so was the break room. Nothing but furniture and dust and trash in there. In the manager’s office, I found some paper and a paperback novel. The paper would be good to burn, the novel I intended to keep if at all possible.

I took a moment to look it over. It was one I’d already read at some point, a sci-fi adventure, the fourth part in a series, but hey, reading material was reading material.

The final two crucial things I found were in the storage room. Judging by the barrel in the middle of the room and the trash, it was obvious someone had used this place as their home base at one point or another. Or multiple someones, likely. Next to the barrel, abandoned almost certainly in error, I found a small bottle of basic painkillers.

Picking it up, I rattled it. Still some inside.

Popping the top, I looked in. Six left.

“Thank fucking God,” I muttered, pulling one out and dry-swallowing it.

Better than nothing. Pocketing the rest, I kept my search up. Ultimately, the fruit it yielded came in the form of a small backpack tucked up in between a wall and a table pushed almost up against it. I pulled it out and looked inside.

There was nothing within, but I didn’t care. A backpack was its own treasure.

After finishing my sweep, I loaded up everything I’d found into the pack and headed back outside, then pressed on, towards the other two structures Delilah had told me about. I stayed away from the road, what little I could see of it under all the snow, and instead headed for the collection of trees. Even through them, I got an impression of the structures I was heading for, dark against the endless white of the snow.

She’d said they were a barn and a farmhouse.

As I cleared the trees, I saw the barn was closest. The doors were wide open, so that wasn’t a great sign. I waited for several minutes just behind the treeline, trying to catch movement of any kind that wasn’t natural or just the wind. I didn’t see anything and set off, heading towards the barn first. My boots crunched in the snow and as I approached the barn, I realized I was already starting to feel better. Some of it was probably psychological, given that I was now in the company of my favorite kind of person: an attractive woman who was willing to fuck me. And I’d consummated that fucking more than once now.

But some of it had to be the painkiller. It had been awhile since I’d had any. I tried to keep use of them to a minimum, not just because they made for excellent trade or because they were rare, but also because it also made them more powerful. Your body got used to painkillers if you used them too much, same as everything else. You needed more to get the same effect. Or maybe I was wrong and that was just in my head too.

Either way, it worked in my favor, and I was feeling better right now.

I was also getting angrier. My fucking journal.

I felt a little stupid for being so pissed about it. I mean, it was a journal. Shit, I didn’t even really write much down in there that I wouldn’t tell anyone else. It was more that was mine and if I was being completely honest about it, I think it had taken on extra meaning. I’d talked to a few therapists and psychologists and they all said, in different words, that people had to figure out ways of dealing with what had happened.

Even if you didn’t have it all that bad, or if you were a normally stoic person, a change of this magnitude affected you.

And you might not realize it at first, maybe not for weeks or even months.

But it had affected you, and you had to deal with it, eventually.

I didn’t really know what they meant until I started seeing a few psychotic breaks. I mean, some of them were from people who you’d expect. Businessmen who’d been on top because they’d spent years perfecting and implementing the craft of fucking people out of money, and suddenly money meant jack shit. Technologists who’d relied on the internet like it was their blood. Or people who suffered from severe anxiety problems.

But some of them adapted, remarkably well, too.

No, sometimes it was just average people who seemed to be doing fine. Sure, they’d suffered through the upset of the snowy apocalypse like we all had, but they’d come out the other side basically intact and had found a new place to live, a new life to live.

There was one guy, I’d lived with him for three months after I resettled to northern Florida in the wake of the snowfall. When it became obvious this wasn’t just going to go away, and that the people who used to be in charge were either dead or gone, and we were stuck with what we had, society kind of reorganized into something vaguely resembling what it had been before. At least, it had for me and my town.

You had a place to live. You worked a job in exchange for the shelter and the food and the protection, but also to make sure it happened. I took on a job as a hunter since I knew how to do it. So I’d pretty much settled in. I’d traveled north with some people and one of the guys I’d met was a few years older than me, and he seemed pretty cool. Pretty chill, at least. We ended up being roommates in a little apartment. He took a job as a cook down at one of the restaurants that was still running. And so it went for like three months.

He always seemed chill. But then one day I came home and found the apartment trashed. At first I thought we’d been robbed, and I found my roommate passed out in the bathroom. I thought he’d been attacked, but he seemed fine other than being passed out. I got some help and when he came to he just started freaking out and screaming. Eventually we got him to calm down and I kept thinking something must have happened to provoke such a response, and shit, I don’t know, maybe something did and I just never found out.

But eventually it became clear that he’d just...lost it.

There was a lot of incoherent ranting and raving and something about his eyes...it was like he wasn’t actually there anymore, not really, like he wasn’t checked in. He reminded me more of someone sleepwalking than anything else.

They ended up bringing him to the little clinic in town that was serving as a hospital. I went to see him a few times, but fuck, I don’t know. It’s like he went away somewhere in his head and never fully came back.

Eventually he just stopped eating and finally he went to sleep one day and never woke up.

That really scared the shit out of me, because it made me wonder: could that happen to me? Could I just think I’m doing fine, but actually I’m headed towards a psychotic break like that? I started trying stuff out after that. Stuff I thought I’d like. It was a weird process, but after awhile, I finally settled on writing in a journal.

It just felt…

Good.

Right.

I’d been writing in it for over a year now and it wasn’t even like I poured my heart and soul into it. It probably read like a military journal. Short, blunt, to the point. Maybe more personal than that. And I also kept a list of the women I’d hooked up with since this whole thing started. Maybe that was narcissistic, or sexist in some way I don’t know about? I didn’t brag about it, and no one had ever seen the journal so far. I always wrote in private. I hadn’t ever mentioned it to anyone. And it’s not like I obsessed over this collection of women I’d fucked. I just...felt like maintaining the list for some reason. And I thought it was fair to do.

Sometimes, wanting to do something is enough of an excuse to do it.

Sometimes, not if it results in you being a fucking asshole to someone. More like, not everything we do needs to be fucking justified in a cost-benefit analysis. Sometimes you can just relax or do something fun because it makes you feel good.

I sighed and tried to keep myself from getting frustrated as I entered the barn and looked around. Damn near empty, just like I thought. There was hay scattered around, a broken ladder, some empty forty-gallon drums, a scattering of other stuff. I moved around on the ground floor, checking in any of the places where something might be hidden, but it only took me ten minutes in the cold to finish my sweep. There was nothing.

I looked at the loft and the not-broken ladder leading up to it. Not in the best condition, and I wasn’t exactly a light guy, but…

Something made me feel like something might be up there.

Figuring I should just chance it, I grabbed the ladder and started climbing. It groaned, but held. I poked my head up over the top of the loft’s floor and immediately was greeted by a dead body. I felt a moment of pure fear at seeing the figure of a man up against the back wall, almost directly across from me, but relaxed as I saw it was just a body. Frozen. I hauled myself up and checked around the area. Nothing up here, which meant that either this guy hadn’t had anything but the clothes on his back, or someone had already been through and grabbed his extra shit.

I took a moment to check around his corpse, in his pockets, which was no easy task when everything was frozen. As I hunted, I looked at him.

He looked maybe around my age, he had long, dark hair and a heavy beard, a scar down the right side of his face. He seemed made of compact muscle, not bulky but lean, under the clothes. He’d been wearing snow pants and a heavy jacket, but it hadn’t done him enough good, in the end. I couldn’t help but wonder: who was he?

How had he ended up here?

Were people out there, looking for him? Had they given him up for dead? How long had he been here in this barn?

Ice and cold preserved things so well.

And as I finished, finding nothing, I sat on my haunches and looked at him for a few seconds longer. At his cracked, iced-over skin, his closed eyes, his stiff, unnatural form. He looked less like a human and more like a prop on a movie set.

And I saw myself in him.

How many dead bodies were out there now? How many people went to sleep thinking they’ll probably be fine, and never wake up?

I think human life is one of the biggest contradictions ever, at once both shockingly fragile and insanely resilient.

I’d seen people die who, by all accounts, should have lived.

I’d seen people survive absolutely brutal encounters and absurdly long odds.

It did well to remember that you weren’t special. You could wind up a body just as easily as everyone else if you weren’t careful.

With a soft sigh, I stood up and left the loft, then the barn altogether. Nothing but nothing in there. At least I could check it off my mental list. I took another look around and began heading for the farmhouse itself. That would certainly be more promising. Listening to my feet crunching in the snow again, I made it about halfway there before I froze.

Something had changed.

I looked around, hand falling to where my gun should be and then growling in frustration at my lack of defense.

Nothing to the left, nothing behind me or ahead of me, to the right…

“Oh fuck me,” I whispered.

A wolf, slipping out of the trees that I’d come through not all that long ago. Fuck! I began running as fast and as hard as I could manage through the snow. It was tough going, but I’d gotten better at managing it over the last two years.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I snapped as I heard the thing growl and start running towards me.

It was going to be close.

I listened to the furred fucker catching up on me as I ran for all I was worth. I hit the back door, grabbed the knob, prayed it wasn’t locked, and twisted. The door opened. I rushed through and slammed it shut.

The wolf slammed into it and let out a loud yelp.

That still made me feel bad. I fucking hate hurting animals. Even ones that are trying to kill me. I locked the door and looked around the room I was in. I’d come into a kitchen. I breathed a sigh of relief as I heard the wolf begin walking away. Though as I looked out the nearest window, I saw that it didn’t go far.

Instead, it began to circle. Like a shark that smelled blood in the water.

Great.

SIX

I took a moment to let my heart calm the fuck down, just looking around the kitchen.

After a bit, I got to work, letting the adrenaline wear off. Although it didn’t go away completely, not when I could look out the window and see that fucker still hanging out in the snow. Looking at me. Wolves were fucking scary.

I know people used to be all ‘um, actually, wolves usually don’t attack people’, but that wasn’t true anymore. I’m guessing the shift in environment, the general retreat of mankind and advance (sort of) of nature, combined with the overall death that the cold shrouded everything in, had made the animals either bolder or more desperate. Wolves, bears, mountain lions, shit even stray dogs, I’d seen people attacked by them all.

And not rarely. It was common now.

I did a sweep of the inside of the house, checking the first floor, making sure there were no broken windows the bastard could jump in through, and that the front door wasn’t open. It wasn’t, and the windows were intact. I checked upstairs for people, but this place had a dead feel to it. The only thing I ran into was a locked door at the end of the hall upstairs. I tried it, pushed on it, but it would have to be kicked in.

Great.

I went back downstairs for the moment, back to the kitchen.

I tried to put the stupid wolf out of my mind as I began opening drawers, opening cabinets, probing their depths for stuff that would keep me and Delilah alive. It was slow but soothing work. Like almost everywhere else I poked through, this place had clearly been ransacked. But it wasn’t a total waste of time.

I guess technically nothing was, at least in my head. Even if the thing you had just searched turned up empty, you could safely mark it off the list.

There were three candles in the very back of one of the bottom drawers. They weren’t really big or of fantastic quality, but they were candles, useful in their own right. I added them to my growing collection in my pack, finished my search of the kitchen, and then moved on. There wasn’t as much as I hoped to see on the ground floor.

A living room, a dining room, a small office, a bathroom.

Most empty.

The minutes drifted by in the cold solitude of the farmhouse. Every window I passed I glanced out of, seeing mostly trees and snow. For the most part, it had faded into the background, my awareness of the fact that every time I looked outside, I was gonna see snow or ice. But sometimes it bugged me. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes I was just so sick of it.

But sometimes…

Sometimes I was in just the right mood, or maybe I saw something just the right way, and it struck me as remarkably beautiful.

Even now, after two years in the miserable cold, I could generally appreciate the fact that there was a lot of beauty in winter desolation.

I marched up the stairs, back to the second story, after I’d done my sweep. The first floor hadn’t yielded much, but it was more than I’d hoped for, honestly. In the bathroom I’d found a few errant band-aids, and those were always useful.

Upstairs turned out to be a bit more fruitful.

First door led to a bedroom that looked like it had belonged to a kid. I stopped in the doorway, looking around, feeling my heart ache and my gut twist. What had happened to the human race was absolutely brutal, and the amount of suffering it must have caused, was still causing, would go on to cause…

It was staggering beyond imagination.

But it was worse for kids. The only small solace I took from that particular situation was that when they grew up, they would be shockingly adept at survival. Although how tough did you want your kid to have to be? Good parents didn’t want their kid to have to suffer enough to be a hardass. And it brought up the question: was it worth surviving?

Sometimes, I envied the dead.

But the world was what it was, and it probably wasn’t going to change. We were stuck with this. I sighed softly and began my searching, stuffing my feelings back and down and away. I didn’t want to think about what awful things might have happened to this family. Where they might be now. I didn’t find much of anything in the room beyond some pens and pencils and some more paper in a little desk. I stuffed it all into my pack and moved on.

I found a closet that was empty, and a second bathroom.

Sorted through it and found a whole lot more nothing.

Finally, I came to stand before the final door. The one that was locked. I tried the knob again, still nothing. I put my ear to the door, waited, listened for several minutes. I didn’t hear anything. Finally, I straightened up and cleared my throat.

“If someone is in there, could you let me know?” I asked, trying to sound neutral. I waited and listened. Still nothing, no indication that I wasn’t alone. I sighed softly. “Look, I’m gonna kick the door in, because I want to the search that room. But if someone’s in there and they want me to go away, just tell me and I’ll go away.”

Reasonable enough, I thought.

Still nothing. Not a cough or a creaking of floorboards or anything at all.

“Okay, I’m coming in,” I said.

I kicked the door in. It took two hard kicks, but the door flew in and banged against the wall. It came most of the way back, then fell back into place. I didn’t see anyone in what view I had. I waited again, to see if there was some kind of reaction, but still nothing.

Carefully, I stepped up and looked inside, scoping out the situation.

I saw a desk, a dresser, some chairs, a bed-

“Shit,” I muttered as I saw a figure lying in the bed. I prepared to run, just in case, but they hadn’t moved at all. Looking closer, I saw why: they were frozen solid. So, another corpse. Great. I took the time to carefully check the room out, make sure no one was hiding under the bed, under the desk, or inside the closet.

My instincts were right: I was alone.

I took a moment to study the body. Just another corpse, I told myself. I’d sure seen enough of them. It still freaked me out at least a little. This one was a middle-aged woman. She’d died curled up on her side and with a small smile on her face.

I’d seen more than one corpse with a smile and I always wondered: why? Had they been having a good dream? Did they know they were gonna die and they were relieved? Did they think they were going to go see their dead loved ones?

Did they see it as some final victory over this frozen Armageddon?

Were they delirious?

Or were they just glad to finally be done with it all?

They were all possible, I guess. I wondered how long she’d been there. Again, it was hard to tell, but I thought maybe she’d been here awhile. Then again, maybe not, since the door had stayed locked and shut. Or had people come here searching, like me, only unlike me they’d left it closed. Maybe out of some strange sense of respect for a locked door in someone’s home? Or had they perhaps rightly guessed what lay beyond?

Who was she? Who had she been?

Again the questions. I sighed and searched the body. Nothing on it, nothing in the pockets, nothing in the bed with it.

But the room, however, held some useful stuff.

I found a thermos, a quality one in good shape, in the dresser of all places. I checked it out, sniffed the inside. No smell, so it had probably been used for water. It was empty now. I stuffed it and the clothing I found a few drawers down into my pack. A shirt that looked like it’d fit me, a pair of jeans that was in pretty good condition in roughly my size, some socks and boxers, a few pairs of panties, some leggings.

All good stuff. The last thing I found was in the desk. A collection of three double-A batteries that may or may not have a charge. I scooped them up and secured them in my backpack. Those were good damned trades...if they worked. Even if they had a little juice left in them, which they probably would. People fucking flipped their shit for batteries.

After one more sweep of the area, I left, closing the door as best I could. I guess out of a sense of respect for the dead, and began looking out windows. I didn’t have to look long. Exactly what I was worried about was still out there, still circling the house like a fucking furred land shark. That wolf was limping slightly as it walked, always looking at the house.

Looking for me.

Waiting.

At least it didn’t have any friends. With a sigh, I sat down in the middle of the hallway in the second story, put my back to a wall, and waited.

I wish I had my fucking journal.

~

It took another hour before the fucking wolf finally left.

I finally saw it wander off into the woods, thankfully to the back of the area, not back towards home, or the way I had to go.

While sitting there, I had decided to take a chance and scope out the campgrounds for myself. From a distance. I checked around the house one more time after I’d come downstairs, didn’t see the stupid wolf, and went out the front door. It was a chance, a stupid one to be sure, but I was here now and I wanted to get a feel for the land. If it was much farther than she said it was, I’d just head back and do it later.

I hurried across the front yard until I was in the next treeline, heading north. Stopping there, I turned and looked, surveying the area one more time. No sign of the wolf. I kept going. Keeping a decently steady pace through the trees, I pressed northbound for about five minutes before I saw a rise in the land up ahead. I went with it, looking behind me and to the sides periodically. I could hear sounds now.

Voices. Someone hammering.

Someone yelling.

They sounded really pissed, whoever they were. I carefully edged on my belly up the incline to the top and cautiously poked my eyes up over it. Judging from the sounds, it seemed like they were at least somewhat far off, and I was right. The campgrounds lay about a football field’s length from where I currently was. The trees continued down the incline’s other side and extended maybe twenty meters before cutting off into what had once been a big parking lot and now only held the rusting skeletons of a few vehicles.

I studied what I could. There was a row of cabins along the right side, six of them. At the head of the camp area stood what might have been a central office. There were two more cabins to the left, then an old brick building that looked like a public bathroom, and finally a pair of sheds just beyond it. I saw a few people moving about the central courtyard of open space, and saw one guy with a pistol on top of one of the cabins.

I counted four people altogether, but who knew how many more there might be hanging around in the buildings?

There was a solid fence around the whole thing, something that might have holes or weak points in it. The more I listened to the shouting, the more I thought it was a woman. Suddenly, one of the guys picked something up, walked over to one of the sheds at the back, and screamed “Shut the fuck up!” while hurling the rock at the shed.

The shouting stopped.

Well, that was pretty bad. I fell back behind the rise in the earth, scooted down a few feet, and then turned around, putting my back to the snow. I did it mostly to keep an eye on the other direction, in case the wolf had decided to follow, and also to think. I had to do something. The longer you left someone in captivity, especially in a situation like this, the more likely it became that the captors would do something brutal.

If they hadn’t already.

Well, fuck. This fucking sucked.

I had to do something.

For the moment, that something involved going back home to think and get more information out of Delilah about the place and the people. As I began making my way back, I paused as something caught my eye. To the right, maybe a hundred feet away, I just caught sight of what might have been the remains of a campfire. It might also be nothing, but right now, I couldn’t afford to let any stone go unturned.

Moving quickly, thanks both to the threat of the wolf possibly still lurking in the area and the assholes just over the ridge, I slipped between the trees, trying to keep my steps light. Basically impossible to walk in snow without it crunching to some capacity. I saw a rabbit dash away to my left, and farther on caught movement that almost certainly was a deer. Just another frustration: I could be hunting. Our food situation was only going to get worse and worse as time went on, and it would be a hell of a lot easier to slow that situation if I could hunt. But there was no point in wishing for things to be better.

You had to make things better, or get lucky.

And you couldn’t really count on luck.

I got to the area I was heading towards and found that yes, indeed, it was a campsite. And someone had left in a hurry, apparently. The site couldn’t be more than a week old, though whoever it was could be long gone by now. Maybe they’d hit the highway and headed that direction, or gone deeper into the woods.

Either way, they’d left stuff behind, stuff I could use.

No guns, no bullets, but I poked around in the snow and managed to find two extremely useful items: a knife, like an actual, decent hunting knife, complete with a leather sheath, and a book of matches. They were half gone, but ten matches were better than none. I looked around for a bit longer, not just for stuff but for clues as to what had happened, but there wasn’t much point. The snowstorm had covered everything, and it wasn’t like I was some amazing forensics analyst. I took another look around, saw nothing worthwhile, and started going home.

~

As far as homes went, the cabin wasn’t so bad.

I’d had a lot of homes over the past year.

Some gas stations.

A lookout tower.

A maintenance shed.

A few caves.

Sometimes just a tent in the middle of nowhere. Well, maybe more than sometimes. I liked camping as much as the next outdoorsman, but it had certainly lost a shitload of its appeal thanks to the motherfucking snow and ice everywhere.

So yeah, as far as homes went, this cabin was pretty great. Especially considering the fact that I had Delilah waiting for me. I got up to the front door and did my knock, then waited. She opened it right away, like she was waiting for me. Probably had seen me coming through the window next to the fireplace.

Her genuine smile as she opened the door and saw me actually warmed my heart.

Sometimes I forgot how goddamn good it could feel to have someone who was actually glad to see you, actually waiting for your return.

“How’d it go?” she asked.

“Okay,” I replied as I kicked snow from my boots and then walked in. I shut and locked the door behind me, then walked over to the table and began emptying all the stuff out. “I managed to find some supplies. Including a gun. No bullets, unfortunately. Though I also found a knife.”

“Well that’s good at least,” she murmured.

“Did anything happen while I was gone?” I asked.

“No, nothing.”

I finished pulling everything out and stared at it for a few seconds. It was a decent stockpile, I guess, compared to what I’d had yesterday. Although fucking anything looks better than nothing, to be honest.

“What about your car?” she asked hopefully.

I shook my head. “It’s fucked. Even if it wasn’t, whoever robbed me took the damn battery. So that’s out.”

“Oh...shit.”

“Yep. Now, what about you? Did you find anything?” I asked.

She regained her smile. “Yes.” She walked over to the desk, where she’d collected two items, and came back. She presented me with a silver key and a tiny, unopened bottle of vodka. What they called an airplane bottle.

“Wow, shit,” I said, taking them both. “Where were they?”

“The vodka was under the bed, the key was in one of the drawers, kind of hidden because it was stuck in a crack at the back.”

“Well, you’ve sold me,” I said. I was sure I’d swept that desk firmly. “Your skills probably exceed my own. Certainly you’re good.”

“Thank you,” she replied, practically beaming. “I think it goes to the cabin,” she said, indicating the key, “but I couldn’t check because you said not to open the door at all.”

“Thank you for listening,” I replied. “We can find out right now.”

I unlocked and opened the door, then tried the key. It worked. “Thank God,” I muttered, closing and locking the door again, then pocketing the key in my inner pocket. “The ability to lock this place from the outside is pretty crucial.”

“What now?” she asked.

“Now you are coming with me,” I replied.

“Where?”

“To that general store. I’m going to watch your ass while you do your search, because we’re close enough to trouble in terms of resources that I think it’ll be worth the risk to head back out there,” I said.

She hesitated, but only briefly, to her credit. “Okay,” she said.

“Let me get ready, then we can go.”

SEVEN

I put out the fire since we had more methods of restarting it now, and because I was nervous to leave it completely untended. Not to mention, with people around, it would be more dangerous to be on their radar and give ourselves away via chimney smoke. Once that was done, I hid everything in the back of the closet, high up on the shelf as best I could. Everything that I wasn’t taking with me. I already had a plan for how to deal with the assholes, or at least how to begin to deal with them, but first I needed more info.

I made sure to warn her about the wolf as we left the cabin. Again, it made her hesitate, though not much. And I had to admit I wasn’t sure if it was because she was very brave, or because she had more faith in me than maybe she should have. But right now it was a time to gamble, unfortunately. Playing it safe was usually the right course of action in this snowy wasteland, but sometimes a situation forced your hand to do otherwise.

“Tell me everything you can think of about the people at the campgrounds and the campgrounds themselves,” I said as we began walking.

“All right, but again, I didn’t see much,” she replied.

“Anything will be helpful.”

“Okay...”

I listened to her talk as we walked to the general store, my eyes continually scanning the area. That wolf had me on edge. It was just as likely gone as it was lurking still. Given that I’d seen wildlife around, maybe it’d be busy stalking bunnies and deer.

Between what she’d already told me and what I’d managed to get a glimpse of, I didn’t learn a whole lot. There’d be at least six of them, maybe one or two more. I knew there could be a whole lot more I might be missing hanging out inside those buildings, but something told me that wasn’t the case. I’d seen operations like this before and they preferred to keep it lean, especially in a location like this. They had some guns, but probably not a whole lot. She described the meeting between her group and theirs, and normally when you had a group of unknowns rolling up, you wanted to put on a show of force.

Not everything, but damn near.

She’d seen two pistols, a rifle, and a shotgun between them. Probably more, but they might not even have enough to all be armed.

These were all assumptions, and those could be deadly, but I didn’t have a lot else to go off of at the moment.

“How are you gonna deal with them?” Delilah asked uncertainly as we came to the store and walked inside.

“In the long run? I’m not sure beyond ‘violently’. But in the short run? I’m going to bluff them,” I replied quietly. Anyone could’ve shown up in the store since I’d last been here.

“How?” she asked.

“Let’s search this place real quick, make sure we’re alone,” I replied.

We did that and five minutes later, we were in the small office I’d been in not all that long ago, confident we were still alone.

“I’m going to try and purchase the woman they have,” I explained.

“Seriously?” Delilah asked.

“Yes. It’s the only thing I can think of right now. I can’t outgun them, I don’t have any bullets and that’s stupid dangerous anyway. I don’t want to wait until night to sneak in there, even if that was an option, which it kind of isn’t because I’m not great at sneaking, to be honest. So I’m going to appeal to their business sense and try to buy her off them.”

“I don’t think we have enough stuff for a trade...” Delilah murmured.

“I don’t either, but I might be able to work something out.”

“Why do you think that?”

I sighed and looked away for a moment. “People respond certain ways to me, I’ve noticed. It was subtle before the snow, but now it’s super obvious. Women, like you, either get really interested or really frightened. Guys either get really intimidated and, as a result, puff out their chest and try to act hard, or they want to be buddy-buddy with me. And it’s always the pieces of shit who want me to be buddy-buddy, because they look at me and see one of their own. I look like a guy who breaks thumbs to collect payments or an asshole bouncer or a piece of human shit who’d run an operation like what they’re running.”

“You aren’t, though,” Delilah said, her voice surprisingly kind. I looked at her. “You don’t get to choose how you look, but you do get to choose what you do,” she said.

I nodded. “Yeah...I know. I mean, it’s an asset, a tool I use whenever I can for the good. I just...hate that fuckheads look at me and their first reaction is ‘ah, a fellow fuckhead!’, you know? It sucks sometimes.”

“I understand that,” she murmured. She offered me a small, unhappy smile. “Lots of guys look at me and think ‘a great piece of fuckmeat’.” I shifted uncomfortably. “Not that I think that about you. I mean, I know, our arrangement, but I offered to let you fuck me like a slut, obviously you’re gonna. But you’ve been really nice to me, and you didn’t have to be.”

“I like being nice,” I said after a moment.

She smiled. “That’s good. Don’t lose that.”

“I hope not to. Now...” I looked around. “Show me your skills, because I scoured this place over earlier. I want to be wrong and there to be more shit here.”

“I’ll get to it, but I’ll need time,” she replied.

I thought about it. “Two hours,” I said.

“Okay, I can work with that.”

She got right to work.

I left her to it, heading back out into the main area. I walked over to the counter, standing on the customer side of it and, tracking down a chair, plopping it down and taking a load off. To be honest, I fucking hated every single minute that ticked by without me directly acting to get that woman out of there. I’d never actually been locked up in any real capacity before, at least not by a person, by a storm? Yeah. Tons of times. But it was different, I imagined, when it was a person intentionally locking you away.

I think a lot of people would look at what I was doing and start immediately hunting for a reason as to why I was such a fucking ‘do-gooder’. Why I wanted to help people. I’d heard all the usual stuff so far. I wanted to be a hero, I wanted respect, I wanted pussy, I was fucking ‘white knighting’ or...shit what had they been calling it? Virtue signaling. God, what a stupid fucking phrase. I mean yeah, obviously there were going to be people who lie through their fucking teeth and try to claim the moral high ground while not, in the real world, actually doing anything moral. Just paying lip service to it. Fuck them.

But as for me? Why did I help people?

Maybe I’m stupid, or simple, but I had two reasons.

The first was that it’s the right thing to do.

The second was that it feels good. Even if no one else knows, even if I get nothing for it, (which is often the case), shit, even if I have to give something up, it felt good.

In an honest, genuine, no-bullshit way, I actually believe that a good deed is its own reward.

It’s not like I’d fucking die for a stranger, but I do feel like how far I’d be willing to go to help someone out was a lot more than the average person.

Did that make me better? Shit, I don’t know. I tried not to think like that. I just wanted to help people. And, okay, yeah, sometimes to fucking punish shitty people.

That, too, was its own reward. One that I was admittedly somewhat uncomfortable with how comfortable I already was with.

But I needed to rest up, mentally and physically, and probably get laid one more time before doing this. Because I could die, but also it’d keep me limber, both in my body and my head. I might need to think on my feet. Or just run. I listened to Delilah moving behind me, the sounds carrying easily enough in the otherwise dead silent store. There was another thing that I was really lucky with regards to: silence.

It didn’t get to me.

I knew a lot of people who were bugged by silence. I think a lot of it was just being constantly stimulated like all the time. Music or TV shows or vlogs or audiobooks or podcasts running in the background, combined with the hum of heating or cooling and electricity in general, it had gotten us really used to having some kind of noise all the time. And some people even damaged their hearing and developed something called tinnitus, which I’d heard was basically a subtle ringing sound you always heard, but only when it was silent.

And damn but was this world silent.

Sure there were storms and wind, but snow absorbed noise otherwise. It was like the blanket of snow that always covered everything consumed sound.

I liked it, or at least was neutral towards it, that’s why I was lucky.

An hour and a half went by. Delilah searched all three rooms in the back, and some of the rear area of the main section. I called her up.

“Find anything?” I asked as she joined me by the counter.

“Yeah, actually,” she replied, and pulled out a magnifying glass.

“Holy shit, where was this?” I asked.

“Way back up under the desk in the manager’s office,” she replied.

“Well fuck, good job,” I replied. “I think-”

I froze as I heard something.

“What?” Delilah whispered. I held up my hand, waited, listening…

Conversation. Footsteps. Outside. Getting closer.

I grabbed her and pulled her down behind the counter, still on the customer side. The voices drew closer. Hot damn was I glad I’d thought to put the fire out. Even with the treeline hiding the cabin, it’d be pretty damn obvious if I hadn’t.

Suddenly they were right there, probably not more than a few feet beyond the plate glass, with just it and the counter standing between us.

Delilah stared at me, her eyes wide, face paler than usual, obviously terrified. I tried to keep my own expression neutral, not too tense, not too worried, to keep her from freaking out.

“Do you think she went in there?” a voice asked suddenly, and it was close enough that I could easily envision someone pressing their face against the glass, staring in.

“Shit, I don’t know. We already looked here, remember? She’s probably up on the fucking highway, long gone by now,” another voice growled. “If I find that bitch-”

“You know we’re supposed to bring her back without hurting her.” A pause, then, more frustrated, “Or sampling.”

“I don’t give a shit,” the second voice muttered. “We find her, I’m sampling her for a fucking hour before bringing her sweet ass back. She fucking deserves it. Kicked me in the fucking nuts.”

“We should talk with Tanner, see if he’s seen her. Maybe she ran to him.”

“Maybe. For now we’ve got that other bitch, although she’s even more of a fucking handful than the first one.” Another pause. “You know, a lot of bitches say they’ll bite your dick off if you stick in their mouth, but I think this chick is the first one I actually believe.”

A snicker. “Why don’t you go find out.”

“Fuck you, you find out-”

They both stopped talking as a gunshot cracked off, what sounded like a pistol. Then another one. And then several more.

“Shit! It’s gotta be those fucking wolves again, come on!”

Then running footsteps, going away, back towards the campground. I sighed softly in relief. Delilah kept staring at me. I held up one finger and mouthed wait. We waited. The footsteps disappeared. There were more gunshots.

After about five minutes, I got up.

“Stay here,” I said.

“Okay,” she replied.

I headed for the door, opened it up, poked my head out. I saw footprints in the snow, first coming, then going. I didn’t see any movement among the trees.

“Okay, come on, let’s go,” I said without taking my eyes off the direction of the campgrounds.

She joined me a moment later and we started hurrying back home.

~

“What are we going to do? They’re looking for me...” Delilah asked quietly.

“I’m going to figure out a way to deal with this,” I replied as I sorted through everything we’d found so far. I’d already put a bare minimum of stuff in the backpack, what I called my ‘survival minimum’ sometimes. Basically, enough food and water to last at least two days, (though really the bare minimum for water I could carry now was that thermos), a bit of medical supplies, and the lighter I’d found. After that, I put in everything I was willing to potentially part with.

“How?” Delilah asked. She’d been pacing ever since we’d gotten back, obviously shaken up. She finally looked at me, seemed to noticed I was actually doing something.

“First, I’m going to try and trade for that woman,” I replied. “I doubt even if I gave everything we own it’d be enough, but you never know. At the very least I need a pretense to get in there and get a feel for their setup. I’ll also try to give them a false trail, make them think you’re gone already,” I explained.

“You think that will work?” she murmured.

“I hope so,” I replied.

I put in most of the spare clothes, the magnifying glass, a few cans of food, and the batteries where I could get to them easily. Not a lot to trade with, unfortunately. I also made sure that the hunting knife was on my hip, fixed to my belt in its sheath, and the pistol, empty as it was, was tucked down the front of my pants, both clearly visible.

Sometimes bluffing actually worked pretty well.

I pulled the backpack on and made sure everything was secure, then I turned and looked squarely at Delilah. “If I don’t come back by tonight, then I want you to gather up everything you can carry, hit the highway, and head north. Just get out of here. It’s your best shot, unfortunately.”

She looked scared, but she nodded. “I will.”

“Good.” I stepped up to her and opened my arms. She immediately leaned against me, hugging me, and I encircled her with my own, much larger arms. I’ve been told by several women, especially much smaller women, that being hugged by me like this felt extremely comforting. It made them feel safe, they said.

I hoped it was working for Delilah.

It seemed to. By the time she stepped back, she looked calmer. I gave her a long kiss on the mouth, and she grabbed me and deepened it.

“Good luck,” she said.

“You too, remember the knock,” I replied.

She nodded. “Three slow, two fast.”

“Good girl.”

I gave her one more kiss, then I left the cabin.

~

This was getting complicated.

I had the weather and the snow to worry about killing me.

I had wolves to worry about killing me.

I now also had two groups of assholes to worry about killing me.

I wondered who Tanner was, but I figured there was an extremely good chance that it was the other group Delilah had mentioned. I felt a swell of some strange mixture of anger and excitement as I realized that Tanner was almost certainly the man who had robbed me. But I forced myself to focus, because he would wait for later.

For right now, I needed to be one hundred percent here and now.

The first thing I did was walk to the general store and scope the situation out. No more guns or people around, but I thought I heard a few distant voices. I then walked to the back of the store and into the woods behind it. Keeping the campground’s position roughly in mind, I walked deeper. Eventually, I got to a depth I felt like I couldn’t be seen from from their perspective, then I started heading north again, towards the camp.

My plan was to make it look like I wasn’t coming from the direction of the cabin. I needed whatever tricks I could think of to get them to believe no one was that way. Although a lot of people that were survivors had more discipline than the average person in the past, a lot of them were still living like fucking outlaws during the Wild West. Probably there was one guy in charge who was actually halfway smart, and everyone else was an idiot looking to live the high life. Or whatever high life they could manage during the icy apocalypse.

I spent the time getting into character as much as I could. I never liked playing a douche-bro, nor did I like that I was apparently effective at it.

After a bit, I emerged from the trees at the edge of the parking lot in front of the campgrounds. I looked around and caught eyes with someone standing on the roof of one of the cabins about the same time he caught eyes with me.

“Freeze!” he shouted, pointing the pistol at me.

I put my hands up. “Whoa! Not looking for trouble!” I called back.

“Just stay there!” he yelled.

I stayed put. The guy walked to the edge of the roof, looked down, said something I was too far away to catch, probably just telling other people in the camp relevant details. Finally, he turned his attention back to me, covering me with the pistol. A moment later, three figures came into the parking lot and one of them waved at me.

“What do you want?!” he called.

“Trade!” I called back.

“Come on over then, nice and easy!”

Okay…

Showtime.

EIGHT

I was surprised by how good I’d gotten at keeping my cool.

I’d always been half decent at keeping anxiety off my face and mostly out of my body language. At least, I thought so. But after all the shit I’d been through, it was even easier now to actually calm my own internal self. My stomach was calm, my breathing was normal, my pulse felt a little elevated, but not much.

I could die, but I had at least some level of control over that.

I walked over, not too fast, not too slow, studying the men I saw as I did. The one in the middle was about average height and weight, wearing a heavy fur coat, with what might be considered a ‘fashionable’ amount of scruffy dark hair and beard. The two guys flanking him looked like opposites, and I sized them up quickly.

One guy had more tan skin and dark eyes. He was smaller in frame and had a kind of flightiness about him, like he couldn’t quite stand still. He was going to be the brains, I decided. The man in the middle was the leader, the decision-maker, but the brains was there to let him know if he’d missed something or was getting fucked over somehow.

Then there was the other guy. Huge, blonde-haired, taller even than me, and built. He was muscle. Pure intimidation. But I could just see it in his gaze that wasn’t too bright. Perfect muscle: intimidating, but easy to control.

“Welcome to my home,” the man in the middle said with an at least somewhat not-fake smile. “My name is Ryan.”

“Chris,” I replied, stopping an appreciable distance away.

“You have things to trade?” he asked.

“Some things,” I said, then chuckled ruefully. “Not as much as I’d like.”

“I think we’ve all been there,” Ryan replied. “Come on inside the camp.”

He gave me an appraising sort of look, although I couldn’t exactly figure out why. Maybe it was just the ‘how likely is it that I can fuck this guy over?’ look, but I thought maybe there was another reason. Either way, so far, so good.

I followed him and his two cronies inside.

There was a bit of an art to intensely studying every detail you could, but making it look like you weren’t doing exactly that.

I’d like to think I was half decent at it. Naturally, curiosity would get most people, so I looked around, counting people. So far there were the three who’d come to see me, the lookout on the roof, and I caught movement inside one of the buildings. Another guy, I saw through a window, pacing around.

“So is this, like, really your home?” I asked.

“Yes,” Ryan replied. “We moved in here months ago. We’ve got a decent setup here. There’s game around to hunt, places to search that might have supplies, and people come through the highway to trade.”

“Looks nice,” I said. “Where were you, when it happened?”

An ice-breaker if there was one nowadays.

He laughed. “Chicago,” he said. “I was living a great life. I was a drug dealer,” he said. “Imported coke from South America, sold it in Chicago, down in Miami, over in Hollywood, New York, shit, I had the good life. A mansion and a few bitches in every one of those cities.”

I was almost sure he was lying, just something about the way he was saying it.

“What about you?” he asked.

“I was down in Florida,” I replied. “Not much special. I was,” I laughed, “I broke thumbs.” He glanced at me as we approached the main office at the back of the campgrounds. It was an older reference, I guess. “I helped collect money,” I said. “People didn’t pay what they owed, I’d break their thumbs. You know how it goes.”

He grinned fiercely. It was an ugly grin. “I do exactly,” he agreed. “Everyone’s got a fucking story. Everyone’s got a fucking excuse. Everyone wants drugs, no one wants to pay. The shit I had to put up with...come on. Let’s get in out of the cold.”

We went inside. It wasn’t what I’d call a fancy setup, but it was decent. The entrance lobby of the campgrounds had been set up like a living room. Some nice couches, a few bookshelves, coffee tables, some bottles of booze on the tables, a few packs of cigarettes, I even saw some weed and a few porn mags. Extremely valuable commodities nowadays.

As I sat down, I heard some distant banging, and then the woman shout something angrily.

I glanced at Ryan. “What was that?”

He chuckled. “Just a problem that we’re in the process of solving,” he replied cryptically.

“Problem? Sounds like you got someone locked up,” I replied.

The two cronies, who sat down on their own couch, glanced at Ryan, something like apprehension on their faces. Otherwise, they’d been silent. Ryan didn’t look at them. He was staring at me, sizing me up again.

“You were involved in the shadier things,” he said after a moment.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Tell me...would you be interested in some companionship?”

I leaned back, playing it cool. “What does that mean, exactly?” I replied.

“You seem like a man who has no illusions about how fucking awful the world is, so I’ll level with you. I’ve got a girl locked up out there. Found her wandering yesterday. She’s not exactly the best-looking woman, I’ll admit, but hey...hot pussy is hot pussy, right? She’s fiery. I’d be willing to part with her in exchange for something,” he said.

I made a show of considering it, keeping my outright contempt off my face. Jesus fucking Christ, he didn’t even hesitate to sell her to me like a fucking cigarette. I could see it in his face: that woman out there was no more than fucking livestock to him.

“What kind of price?” I asked.

“What do you have?” he replied.

I sighed. “Honestly? Not enough for a whole woman.”

“Well...I could loan her to you for a time. We’ve got rope and a spare bed. I can knock her out and you can have some fun with her and be on your way. Or...”

“Or?” I asked.

“Do a job for me, and I’ll give her to you.”

“What job?” I replied.

He grinned. He thought he had me. In a way, I had him. “Across the highway, roughly opposite of where we are now, is a church on a hill. Inside the church is a cache of supplies. A black suitcase. There’s supposed to be guns and ammo and medicine and booze inside. You find that, you bring it back to me, and I’ll give you the girl.”

I made another show of considering it. “Why haven’t you gotten it?” I asked.

“We tried.” He chuckled ruefully and looked at the large man. “Tony here tangled with some wolves. There are a lot of them in the region, unfortunately. But a big, tough guy like you, I imagine, properly motivated, could get it.”

I thought about it some more. “You’re sure it’s there?”

“Yes. We learned about it from a traveler who found a map. Someone left it there, drew a map for a friend to find, I guess. Someone else found it, sold it to us.”

“Okay, but I have two conditions,” I said.

Big Tony shifted and locked eyes with me, but Ryan leaned froward easily. “I’m listening.”

“The first is, I’ll need something stronger than a twenty-two to go up against some wolves. A gun and some ammo. A nine millimeter or something. I’ll give it back when I’m done.”

“You can have a nine millimeter and two magazines, but you have to leave some stuff here as collateral,” Ryan replied.

“Deal.”

“The second thing?”

“I want to see this chick and get a minute alone with her,” I replied.

He grinned. “That’s fair. I’d want to see the merchandise too.” He stood up suddenly. “Come along, I’ll show you. Tony, go get the pistol and two magazines.”

“Right, boss,” Tony replied. His voice was deep.

The other guy, the weaselly-looking bastard who had yet to speak but started grinning the moment we started talking about the woman, joined us.

We headed back outside.

“By the way, I have a question for you. On your way in, by chance, did you come across a woman? A beautiful, young, pale redheaded woman?” Ryan asked.

My heart skipped a beat but I kept calm. “Actually yeah,” I said.

He stopped and turned to look at me directly. “Where was she? Was she alone?”

“Yeah, she was by herself.” I turned and pointed in the direction I’d come from, off to the west, into the forest. “That way. Maybe two miles away was when I saw her, earlier today. I was gonna grab her and, you know, have some fun with her, but she had a gun and she looked wicked pissed, so I just left her alone. She ran off.”

“Damn,” he snapped. “Where’d she get a gun?”

“One of yours?” I asked as we resumed walking.

“Yes. That little slut...we traded for her not too long ago and she got out. I thought she went up to the highway...dammit. Well, if you see her again, and you recapture her and bring her to me, I would be willing to give you a lot of compensation.”

“I’ll definitely keep that in mind,” I replied.

We got up to the shed, where I heard heavy breathing.

“Okay, so,” Ryan said, laying his hand on the knob, “you can feel her up, sniff her hair, get a look at her tits or her ass, whatever. But no trying it before you buy it, got it?”

“Fair enough,” I replied.

“Two minutes,” he said, and opened the door.

It was dark and smoky inside the shed. There was hardly anything in it, just a tiny wood-burning device someone had cobbled together at some point, probably to keep her from freezing to death. No windows, the only light coming in from the door behind him and the hole cut in the roof that the exhaust pipe was shoved through. There was a small table next to the woman with a jug of water and an empty can.

The woman herself was chained to the wall, ankles and wrists.

“Two minutes,” Ryan repeated, then shut the door behind me.

I walked over to her.

“You fucking touch me and I rip your fucking throat out with my teeth,” she growled. She looked almost feral in her anger, but she also looked exhausted. She had somewhat tan skin and dark hair, which was a wild mess. She had a lean build and was maybe five nine or five ten. She wore a ripped brown sweater and some jeans with some hiking boots.

She looked awful. She smelled awful.

“I’m going to save you,” I said quietly as I got close to her.

That seemed to catch her completely off-guard, but it didn’t last long.

“Bullshit,” she snarled.

“I don’t have long, so just listen. My name is Chris. I’m trying to get them to sell you to me. They agreed if I went and retrieved something for them. I’m trying to save you from them. Once I have you, I can get you somewhere safe and if you want we can part ways.”

She looked at me with naked distrust, but beneath it I could see a wretched sort of hope. She wanted very badly to believe me.

“Why should I believe you?” she asked finally, at least keeping her voice down.

“You won’t truly know one way or the other until I have you. I’m just letting you know now. I’ll be back in a few hours. Now, headbutt me.”

She blinked in surprise. “What?”

“You heard me, headbutt me, in the forehead. Now. Otherwise they might get suspicious.”

She nodded suddenly. I leaned in. “Fuck you!” she screamed and headbutted me.

Stars washed across my vision as I stumbled back. Goddamn she didn’t pull her punches at all! “Fuck!” I shouted, hand going to my head.

Behind me, light flooded the room as the door opened.

I heard laughter. “What happened?” Ryan asked.

I laughed. “Fucking bitch headbutted me!”

“You wanna sock her one? I think that’s fair.”

I made a show of considering it, then shook my head and joined them at the door. “Nah, I’ll save it for later. Be seeing you soon, you fucking slut. You’d better get used to the idea of choking on my fat cock from now on,” I said, standing in the doorway.

“I’ll fucking bite it off, you fucking prick,” she snarled.

“Like we’ve never heard that before,” Ryan said, slamming the door. She screamed a stream of obscenities at us, but Ryan ignored her. I glanced over as I heard footsteps in the snow. Tony was coming back, a black and silver pistol in his hand.

“It’s loaded,” he said, offering it and a single spare magazine to me.

“Thanks,” I replied, checking it out and then tucking it down the back of my pants after pocketing the magazine. I looked at the shed. “Man am I looking forward to breaking that bitch in. I’m gonna beat the fucking shit out of her, and no fucking cops to stop me anymore.”

Ryan laughed darkly. “Yep. It’s a new world, my friend.”

I ended up handing over damn near all my supply of stuff on me as collateral after that.

“I’ll be back with the suitcase today,” I said, and started walking.

“We’ll be here,” Ryan replied.

NINE

I shook off the shitty feelings as I made my way away from the campgrounds, towards the rise in the land that would take me up to the highway.

Or tried to, anyway.

I felt like an asshole. It didn’t seem to matter that I was just acting, that I was actually doing something good. They were so easily convinced. Were they that gullible or was I that convincing? I’d never know.

As I found my way to the only moderately steep embankment and started trudging my way up it, other, more practical thoughts began to crowd in on me. I was doing something pretty dangerous. The most likely thing that could go wrong was I’d get the stuff, go back, and they’d just blow me away and rob my corpse.

In my experience, there was rarely actual honor among thieves.

It was also possible that I might get the woman away, offer to let her stay in the cabin with me and Delilah for however long she felt like she needed, and she could decide to kill me, or us, in our sleep. I didn’t think it was likely, but this kind of thing was always, to some degree, Russian Roulette. But that was life now.

Or my life, anyway.

And this wasn’t even counting the danger I could run into out here. I could run into wolves, or some other dangerous thing. I could fall down and break my neck. I could run into other humans happy to donate some lead to me at high velocity for no other reason than the fact that they get a brutal rush out of killing people.

I’d seen that before.

More than once.

I’m still shocked by just how accurate that whole idea of ‘the thin veneer of civilization is the only thing keeping most people civil’ shit was. It was pretty fucked up that there were a lot of people out there who are or have done or will do shitty, unforgivable things to other people. These people who literally the only thing holding them back from raping or murdering or torturing was the fact that they would probably get caught.

How many unspeakable evils had been committed out in the middle of nowhere?

I reached the top of the steep, snowy ground and found myself standing atop the highway I’d been driving along not too long ago. There were a handful of long-abandoned cars stretched along its length, dirty and gray, covered in snow. Looking at them gave me a chill, and not of the cold variety. When I thought back to movie posters and book covers and concept art of the apocalypse, something that became a trope, and thus an intensely recognizable image, was abandoned cars. Normally it would show hundreds, even thousands of them, packed in bumper-to-bumper on some anonymous highway. But even now…

I’d had two years to get used to the idea that we might actually be seeing the end of the world, and I’d like to think I’d handled it better than most people, but sometimes…

Fuck.

Sometimes the enormity of it, the sheer, mind-numbing immensity of Armageddon would come crashing down on me like the weight of a sun.

And sometimes all it took to remind me that probably ninety percent of the world’s population was dead was some small little thing.

Like gazing at a few abandoned cars.

But, thankfully, my more practical side kicked in and I turned away from them. When I was finished with this mess, I’d have to come back and search them. You never knew what you might find hidden inside of a car.

I marched forward and got over the guardrail, then moved across the highway that served as a decent dividing line in this region. As I walked over to the opposite side, I had, for the first time, an unobstructed view.

It was beautiful.

The only time I’d been able to have a look over this part of the region was when I was in my vehicle, and visibility had been absolutely shit then.

I took in the beauty, but also surveyed what I saw.

Back to the south, the way I’d initially come, I made out the off-ramp, and I could just see a little cluster of buildings that sat basically on the opposite side of where my car had crashed. One of them might be a gas station from the looks of it. Almost certainly was, given its positioning. I saw a lot more trees, a whole forest spread out across that whole side of the region. Within the trees, maybe a mile, mile and a half distant, I saw a frozen lake with a few cabins or lake houses around it. More places to check out.

Directly across from me, on another rise that seemed to overlook the land, I saw my destination: the church.

I looked down.

The incline on this side was even steeper. I looked back to the south, the way I’d come in, where the off-ramp was. I could go walk down that way and have a safer time of it, and if I wasn’t to the point where I was feeling every second, I would have. But there was an invisible clock ticking, and I needed to be done with my task sooner instead of later.

Incline it was then.

As I got over the second guardrail and began carefully making my way down, I kept an eye out for wolves. For the next several minutes, I worked my way down the incline, careful not to fall on my ass. So far, I hadn’t broken anything, and the most pain I’d endured was when I got the stomach flu last year.

Good. Fucking. God.

The stomach flu.

I hoped I’d never have to put up with it again. Before the apocalypse it was bad enough, but after? Jesus. Being miserable and uncomfortable was worse enough on its own without the crippling pain of a stomach flu.

But I fully intended to keep myself in prime shape, which meant avoiding breaking anything. Plus, I had to make it back now. Besides the whole point of getting that woman out of there, I hadn’t managed to get a chance to put it in Delilah again before running off. I guess that was a pretty good motivator.

Although I had to admit, if I had to go out, her being the last lay I’d gotten would make me closer to okay with it.

Finally, after what felt like too long, I reached the bottom. There was a sort of gully between the edge of the highway and the hill the church resided on. It was pretty sheer at the back of the church, so I ignored it and instead began heading around, looking for a better way up. My breath fogged on the air, my lungs burned with the cold, and my face stung, but I was feeling good. Whenever I was doing something, whenever I had a clear goal in mind and I was progressing toward it in an obvious fashion, it was so much easier to feel good.

That was one of the perks of this new lifestyle.

I had goals every single damned day. Find food. Find firewood. Find shelter. Hunt for resources among the abandoned buildings and cars I came across.

Try to get laid.

That one was more abstract and a bonus more than anything.

I marched through the snow, moving around the right side of the hill, and continually scanned the treeline a ways ahead of me for movement. There wasn’t anything yet. I wanted to keep it that way. After several minutes of kicking my way through the snow, huffing and puffing, I finally found the road that was supposed to lead up to the church.

Getting onto it, I kept on going.

The higher I got, the more land was revealed to me. As I finally reached the top of the somewhat more shallow incline leading up to the church from this side, I got a better view of the forest between here and the frozen lake. It was pretty sprawling, but now I could make out a few clearings with other buildings in them. Likely houses or cabins. This was definitely the kind of place where people came to get away from it all.

I only saw smoke coming out of two of them, though.

One in a house by the lake’s edge.

Another in a house much deeper into the forest.

One of them had to be Tanner, but which one? I sighed. I could ideally pry more information out of Ryan once I got back. Speaking of getting back...I turned my full focus on the church. Just a little parking lot out front, no cars, and the front doors were closed. I walked across the lot, listening closely, hearing only the occasional gust of wind, a distant bird calling every now and then, and nothing else. I walked up the steps, careful of an icy buildup under the layer of snow, and pulled out the pistol they’d given me.

I had to admit, I felt so much better with a working pistol.

Trying the knob, I found it wasn’t locked. Turning it, I pushed inward, pistol at the ready. The door creaked as it opened up, an ominous sound in the quiet. Beyond I saw a simple entry room where people could gather, maybe talk after a sermon, or grab a cup of water, or maybe take their noisy kids for a few moments to quiet them. The place was mostly empty. Just a chair, a broken water-cooler in the corner, a pair of tables.

There was a cork board mounted on the wall with a dozen different pieces of paper pinned to it. Mostly they were religious sayings, a few schedules, some help wanted ads. I ignored them for the moment and tried the first of four doors I found. It led to a small bathroom that was empty. Same with the one next to it. As I headed for the single door in the right-hand side of the room, I considered closing the initial door I’d come in through. Unfortunately, what windows there were in this part of the church were too dirty to provide adequate light and I didn’t have any kind of flashlight on me, nor did I want to waste lighter fluid.

The next door led to a little supply room that would normally be locked up, but someone had long ago kicked the door in and raided it. There wasn’t much left inside, and certainly no places to hide. I then turned my attention to the last door. Opening it led to the church proper. I was met by what I had expected to be met by: twin rows of pews all aimed at a stage with a pulpit front and center on it. I could easily imagine a priest giving a sermon to anyone who felt willing to show up. As I began hunting around, I wondered.

A lot of people had a lot of theories about why we found ourselves in a winter wasteland. But I’d certainly heard tons of tiny variations on ‘God did it’. I didn’t believe it, but I was admittedly a little surprised by how many people I found who did believe it. Then again, I guess religion is what you fall back on when you’re really frightened.

And the end of the world was pretty frightening.

There was another door at the back of the room. I moved around the large preaching area, looking around to see if I could find the suitcase. I was surprised he’d told me what was in it, but not where it was. Maybe he’d forgotten, or maybe the note hadn’t specified beyond ‘the church on the hill’. Shit, it could be outside, for all I knew.

I went around the exterior part of the room, making sure no one was hiding. Call me paranoid, but I’d had too many situations where I’d come into a place, thinking it was empty, and then it turns out someone’s in the fucking closet or under a bed or something. But no, I was alone so far. I didn’t see any footprints in the light layer of dust that had gathered on the floor. From there, I went through the final door at the back of the room.

Priest’s quarters and office. So the godly man or woman had lived here, at the church. Talk about no work-life balance. I saw a little single-wide bed shoved up in the corner besides a little fireplace, a desk that was totally clear of stuff, a dresser that had all its drawers yanked out and emptied. One was actually on the floor, cracked from the impact of when some overzealous survivor had torn through them, looking for goodies.

Just one more door at the back of the room. I opened it up and looked inside. Another bathroom, this one more personal, small. Just a shower stall and a sink and a toilet wedged between them. Finally, I was alone for sure.

With that clock still ticking, I began my search.

This time around, I got lucky.

I found the suitcase in question shoved as far back under the bed as it could go. Given it was black, it was pretty easy to hide in the shadows. I hauled the bed aside, grabbed the suitcase, and carried it over to the desk. No locks, thank God. I hit the latches and propped it open, and lo and behold, the note they’d found had been right on the money. I saw two pistols, I saw several magazines of ammo and two boxes of bullets. I saw a pair of first aid kits that were intact and full. I saw a stash of breakfast bars, several books of matches, a thing of lighter fluid, and yeah, there was even an unopened bottle of some fancy expensive booze.

I laughed. This would be a hell of a find under any other circumstances. It’d be the motherlode, a total jackpot.

And I had to give it up.

I frowned, considering it for a moment. Maybe I should be smart and take something. That box of bullets. One was of three fifty sevens, the other was full of twenty twos. Did they have like a general idea or an actual, annotated list?

If I got caught skimming off the top, how bad would that go?

Time to roll the dice again.

I grabbed the box of twenty two caliber bullets and opened it up. There were thirty six rounds inside. I took out my revolver and loaded it up, one chamber at a time. It felt good to load it and snapping the chamber back into place after I put the last one in released a bit of tension in me I’d been holding ever since the realization that I was weaponless hit me. I’d have to give back the nine millimeter, but now I had a gun and bullets of my own. I put the box in my backpack, made sure it was secure, then closed the suitcase up.

It was time to shift to the next leg of this journey.

Hefting the suitcase, I frowned at how heavy it was. I considered transferring everything to my backpack, but something about that told me they might not react well to it. They might think I’d skimmed, which I had, if they didn’t see the suitcase. I suppose I could transfer most of the stuff to my pack, carry the suitcase, and then transfer it back once I got up to the highway. But it was hard to tell what kind of visibility they might have, and if they saw me fucking around with it, they might decide to just cap me right away.

If they hadn’t already decided that.

No, it’d make the most sense to just muscle through it like I did most other things. Honestly, that was the advantage of being the big, dumb type. You got used to just workhorse-ing your way through stuff. Tightening my grip on the suitcase, I headed out of the church, passing between the rows of pews and looking around as I did. I knew a lot of people felt a lot of things when they came into a place of worship, but I never did.

I wondered if that was something in me. I guess it had to be, but I’d never been able to fully determine if it was a failing or nor.

On the one hand, I’d seen way, way, way too many fuckheads use religion as an excuse and a shield to do and say fucking awful things. Like, every day. Even in the 2030s there had been stupid shits mouthing off about how gay marriage and casual sex were immoral, while at the same time hiding all the nasty shit their own priests did behind closed doors, or covering up the fact that they beat their spouses or their kids, or fucked people out of money.

They’ll drone on and on about how abortion is an unforgivable sin...right up until the point their little mistress on the side needs one.

Yeah, religious people clearly had a superior moral compass.

But on the other hand, I’d seen actual, good people who used religion like it was supposed to be used: a means of strength and comfort in times of pain and terror. And I mean if it worked, and you weren’t also fucking other people over, then hey, it worked.

I just didn’t think it’d ever work for me.

Heading back out into the cold, I prepared for another long walk and miserable struggle down and then up and then down some snowy inclines. I fucking hated snowy inclines. Way too easy to fall on your ass.

I began making my way back down the side hill, prepared to retrace my route. I made it about halfway back down the hill before I became aware of the fact that something was wrong. Like, really fucking wrong.

A growl to my left.

Paws beating the snow.

I jerked my head that way and saw three wolves coming at me from out of the woods in that direction, making a beeline right for the road I was on.

“Fuck!” I hissed, almost dropping the suitcase.

I pulled out my pistol with my free hand and fired off two shots in rapid succession. One went wide, into the forest, the other sent a plume of snow shooting up right in their path. The wolves skidded to a halt and I took the opportunity to start booking it away. Hopefully I could make it away while they were considering whether or not to follow me. Sometimes they ran when you fired at them, but not always.

I hit the bottom and started booking it for the steep incline.

I admit, I was panicking a little.

The last time I’d tangled with wolves, it had given me a fresh scar, and I had been lucky to get away with only that. I kept going and almost made it to the incline when I heard more growling and more pounding paws.

Shit.

They had decided to come after me.

Time to stand my ground, which this place would be better to do so in, given I wasn’t on an incline. I dropped the suitcase as close to the ground as I could manage, the spun around and raised the pistol. Taking aim with both hands, I saw the three wolves spreading out as they came for me over the hill the road was built into.

My hands were thankfully steady, and when I pulled the trigger the first time, it was a dead-on shot, nailing the lead, middle wolf right in the head and killing it in an instant. It dropped like a rock, skidding along the snow, limbs flopping. That seemed to give the other two some pause. I twisted and fired a second time. The shot just barely missed another one. I think I actually shot some fur off. That did it.

They turned tail and sprinted away.

I stood there for a few seconds, waiting, and then slowly lowered the pistol.

Staring at the dead wolf, I sighed heavily and began walking over to it. It was going to be an extra bitch and a half to haul that fucking thing around in addition to the suitcase, but that was at least a few days’ worth of food for three people, (providing I got the woman safely out of there and she felt like sticking around), plus some fur to trade.

I holstered my pistol and began gathering it up.

TEN

“So, you did run into some trouble,” Ryan said as I walked up.

I had the suitcase in one hand, the wolf in the other, slung over my shoulder. It was a bit lean, and a fuck and a half to manage, but I’d done it. I’d just made it up the hill, took a five minute break to get my wind back, then resumed my journey.

“Yep,” I said. “But I nailed this fucker.”

“Whoa...headshot. Nice,” Ryan said. His eyes dropped to the suitcase. “So that’s it?”

“Yeah. Everything’s in there that you said. Guns, bullets, some meds and booze,” I replied. I held it up and Tony, who was standing to the right and slightly behind Ryan, stepped forward and accepted it. He hefted its weight easily, staring at me in something that wasn’t quite a glare. Maybe he was pissed at me for doing what he couldn’t, threatened by me. I felt for him...or I would if he wasn’t attached to a goddamned outfit like this. Sometimes shit just went wrong no matter what you did. But again, fuck this guy.

Fuck them all.

“Come inside,” Ryan said, and turned away.

We walked back across the camp. I saw a new face, a grinning frat-house asshole type who looked like he got off on ‘pranks’ that involved brutal public humiliation that could lead people to blowing their brains out. And they’d fucking laugh over it. I’d seen the types before. There was a lot to hate about the old world, and I wasn’t happy to see that some of the shittiest elements had survived and in some cases even thrived.

I dumped the wolf carcass in the snow outside and we went back into the main office and Tony set the suitcase down on one of the tables and opened it up.

“Whoa, nice,” Ryan murmured, looking through it.

“Yep,” I replied, pulling out the nine millimeter.

Tony’s hand immediately went to the gun on his hip as he tensed up.

“I’m just giving it back,” I said, keeping my movements slow.

“You can relax, Tony,” Ryan said.

I set the gun and the ammo on the table. The heavy sounds they made getting set down seemed loud in the following silence.

“So, we all good?” I asked.

“Yes, but...” Ryan turned to look at me. I tried not to tense. “I wanted to offer you something more.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. We’ve been considering making our way to the north. There’s apparently a small settlement a ways on. We’re considering either setting up near it and maybe running a brothel, or, if it’s small and weak enough...taking it over. With a guy like you, I think we could manage it. I could definitely use another enforcer.”

I kept my face mostly passive. “That could be interesting,” I said after a moment. Finally, I gave my head a small, indecisive shake. “Maybe. It’s intriguing. But I need to sleep on it first. And now that I’m going to have that bitch to break in all night, it’ll be a good sleep.”

Ryan grinned an ugly, mean grin. “Yep. Okay, cool. You know where we are. Let’s get you your stuff back and the girl, and you get it figured out.”

“Okay. It’ll probably be a yes,” I said.

“That’s what I like to hear.”

I got my stuff back, put it in my pack, and we headed back outside. I grabbed the wolf and slung it over my shoulder. It had bled down the back of my coat a little, but I could deal with that. This was going surprisingly well.

I just had to keep it going a bit longer…

Then, you know, figure out the rest of the plan on how to deal with these fuckheads. I’d counted six for sure.

“So if you’re really thinking about doing this, how many people you got already?” I asked casually as we walked over.

“Six,” he said, and I felt at least some relief. None of them looked terribly intimidating, besides Tony, and if I got really lucky I might be able to get my hands on a rifle somehow and pick them off from a distance.

Some would call it gutless, I’d call it smart.

“If the town’s small enough, we might be able to pull it off with seven of us,” I said as we approached the shed.

“That’s the spirit.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out some handcuffs and a small metal key, handing them both to me. “For your new whore,” he said.

“Thanks,” I replied.

I had to get out of here, I was gonna lose my shit.

We got inside and the woman stared at us angrily.

“Consider yourself lucky, girly,” Ryan said as he walked over to her and began undoing her restraints. Tony walked in and pointed a pistol directly at her head. She froze, all her emotion replaced by fear when that happened. “You’ve been bought. Chris here looks like he knows how to show the ladies a good time, you should be so lucky.”

She made like she was going to say something, but whatever it was died in her throat.

As the last of the bindings came off, I walked up to her and clapped her wrists together with the handcuffs. “Walk,” I said, giving her a little shove towards the door. She walked out into the light and we followed her.

“Where are you gonna take me?” she asked quietly.

“You’ll see,” I replied. I turned to Ryan. “I’ll be back tomorrow if there isn’t a fucking blizzard or something.”

“Perfect!” he said, grinning and offering me his hand.

I made myself shake it, then started walking out of there with the woman, giving her a little shove. “You try and run and I’ll shoot you in the fucking knee, you understand me?” I asked. “And I’ll fucking do it, too. The only thing I need your legs to do is spread, you stupid fucking bitch. Do you understand me?!” I snapped.

“Y-yes,” she said.

“Good. Hurry up.”

We headed out of the campgrounds and to the west, into the forest, back in the misdirection I’d originally come from.

~

“Hey, I’m really sorry about all that,” I said as we stopped in a clearing.

We’d walked in silence for about five solid minutes until I was sure we were out of sight of them and none of them had followed.

She didn’t say anything, just turned to stare at me. She looked defiant, and defensive, and afraid. Mostly, she just looked tired.

“I can get your cuffs off now,” I said.

Slowly, she raised her hands. I walked up, fishing the key out of my pocket, and dropped the wolf onto the ground. She jumped slightly as it hit, still staring at me. I unlocked the cuffs. “Now, I think-” I began as I took the cuffs away.

That was when she reached out in a flash and snatched the six-shooter out of the front of my pants. I made a grab for her but she backed up and aimed it at me, both arms extended, eyes wide, chest heaving as her body no doubt flooded with adrenaline.

Well, shit.

I put my hands up. “Please don’t,” I said.

“How the fuck do you know that I can trust you?” she snarled.

I sighed, keeping my hands up. “For one, I wouldn’t have done exactly what I’d said I do when we first met. For two, I wouldn’t have gotten you safely away from them. You know they offered to tie you down and let me just fuck you there in the camp? For three, I took your fucking cuffs off, for Christ’s sake,” I growled.

She hesitated and I made myself relax.

“Look, you’re terrified, and livid, and tired. I get it. I really do. I’m not going to try and make you do anything you don’t want to do. Honestly, if you want, you can just leave right now, if you have somewhere to go. Although I will want my gun back, it’s my only one. But if not, I can take you to a cabin I have nearby. It’s shelter, and food, and some security.”

She kept staring at me, keeping the gun trained on me, though it was wavering now.

I waited.

Our breaths foamed on the air.

Somewhere distant, a wolf howled, long and lonely.

Finally, she lowered the pistol, her hands trembling. She kept staring at me, her lips pressed together in a firm line, and then finally she took a step closer to me, handing the pistol to me grip-first. “My name is Megan...thank you for saving me.”

“You’re welcome. I’m Chris,” I replied, accepting the gun and tucking it back down my pants, this time down the back.

She looked around. “Where, uh, where are we going?”

“This way,” I said, and began heading back to the south again.

She followed after me. For another few minutes, we just walked in silence.

Until suddenly she spoke up again. “There was another girl,” she said suddenly, like it had just come back to her. “I heard them talking about another girl who was giving them trouble...I think. I’m not sure.”

“There was another girl,” I said. “But she got away, and we found each other. Don’t worry, I took care of her.”

Megan stopped in her tracks. “What the fuck do you mean ‘took care of her’?” she snapped.

I put up my hands. “I’m sorry, poor choice of words. She’s back at the cabin that we’re going to. She’s safe and sound, and happy.”

Although I had no intention of telling her right now that we’d worked out a deal where she sucked my cock and I protected her.

Let Delilah be the one to explain that.

“...all right,” Megan murmured, and we started walking again.

“I am sorry,” I said after another minute of walking through the snow, between the tall, dead trees that loomed all around us. “For the things I said. It had to look real.”

“No, I get it,” she said, and now she just sounded a bit weary, no longer wary. She adopted the tone of someone who was used to putting up with having to do bullshit they hated. “You did the right thing. I mean, provided you don’t rape and kill me later.”

“I’m not going to,” I said, trying not to sound annoyed.

Words were cheap as hell now. Only time could prove trust.

“I guess we’ll see, it’s not like I have much choice,” she muttered. “I’ve got nothing on me, no one waiting for me, nowhere to go.” She sighed heavily.

“You can stay with me until you figure something out,” I said.

“What do you want in return?” she asked, almost automatically.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “We’ll figure something out. Right now, I just want to get in out of the cold and start dealing with this wolf. I’m fucking starving.”

“God, me too,” she groaned.

We walked through the trees some more. I looked for wolves or dangerous people while I considered how to proceed. I mean, at this point, I knew I was gonna risk my life taking those guys down. At least Ryan needed to go, but probably all of them. There’s a lot to debate on murder, I’ll grant. I believe in redemption, but…

I also believe that there’s a lot of people out there who, if caught and forced to face what they did, will smile and try to say all the right things, promising, swearing to God and on their mother’s life that they’ll never do it again and they’re so sorry, when in reality they’re just sorry they got caught, and in their head they’re thinking I’m gonna do it again the first fucking chance I get. Ryan and Tony and the other guy I’d seen up close struck me as those kind of guys. The kind of pieces of human waste who would rape and rob and murder without batting an eyelash. They’d have a fucking laugh over it. They got off on it.

I didn’t have a problem putting down people like that, beyond the visceral reaction of actually taking a human life. Mentally I was pretty okay with killing monsters, but physically? I wasn’t stone cold, and the people I had killed so far still haunted me sometimes. I looked at Megan as we drew closer to the cabin.

Her face was brooding, cloudy with sullen rage.

“Megan,” I said.

She looked over at me, startled, tensing. “What?”

“I’m gonna kill them, just so you know. At the very least I’m gonna put down Ryan and Tony and his other crony.”

“He calls himself Dice,” she said, and offered me a really wicked smile.

I rolled my eyes. “Of course he does,” I muttered.

“I want to help,” she said.

“Did they do anything to you? I mean, beyond kidnapping you and chaining you up?”

“Not really,” she replied. “They punched me a few times, slapped me a few times, but I’ve been knocked around before. That’s nothing new. Tony wanted to ‘break me in’ but Ryan said something about ‘damaged goods’ and told him no.” She shuddered. “Fucking psychos. Make me so angry I want to fucking puke.”

“I know,” I muttered. “Me too.”

“I wanna knife them,” she growled.

“No,” I said, and she looked at me, curious. “You remember all those movies, where someone wants to get revenge, and instead of just fucking killing the person, they waste time trying to get their nice and slow revenge? And then they fucking die?”

She frowned, staring at me hard for a moment, like she wanted to argue, then she sighed. “Yeah,” she said.

“Let’s not be those idiots,” I said. “When you mean to kill someone, I mean really mean to kill them, like you’ve made the decision, you do it fast and don’t fuck around.”

“You killed a lot of people?” she asked quietly.

I shook my head. “No, I’m not a killer.” I paused. “I mean, not really, honestly. I’ve had to do it before, but I don’t really go out of my way to do it. Not unless I run into some monsters like that. Otherwise, I mostly keep to myself.”

“Hmm,” she said, and that was it.

We made it back to the cabin and I did my knock after having a look around and dropping the dead wolf in the snow next to the front door. The door opened up right away and Delilah began saying something, then stopped, looking at Megan, surprised. Had she forgotten? Or maybe hadn’t expected me to succeed?

“You did it,” she said.

“I did,” I replied, coming in. She backed up as Megan and I walked in. “Delilah, Megan. Megan, meet Delilah.” I shut and locked the door, then went over to the fireplace to get the fire going. It was fucking freezing.

“Did you get hurt? I see blood,” Delilah asked uncertainly.

“I’m fine. Shot a wolf, carried it all over the damn place, bled on me,” I replied as I adjusted the firewood. “So we’ll have food,” I added.

“Thank God,” she muttered.

After I finished getting the fire going, I stood up, turned, and regarded the two women now sharing a cabin with me.

For a moment, I just looked at Megan.

I don’t know what the hell Ryan was talking about, Megan was plenty beautiful. Light tan skin, messy black hair, beautiful brown eyes, good body from what I could tell. Even scowling she was pretty, though in a way that I guess you wouldn’t see on any billboards. Maybe it was a racist thing? She looked biracial, maybe one Mexican parent? Ryan seemed stupid enough for the fact that she wasn’t white to bug him.

“So...” I said, taking off my backpack and stretching. I groaned as I popped my back and neck, relieving a lot of tension. “There’s something we need to discuss, because I’m admittedly not polite enough to stop doing it just because someone new is around, and you aren’t going to be able to avoid knowing about it. So we need to address it and maybe figure something out.”

“...what the fuck are you talking about?” Megan replied, but Delilah was blushing slightly and smiling. When I glanced at her, Megan looked at Delilah, then right back at me. Understanding hit her pretty quick. “Oh, you two are fucking,” she said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Delilah, you should tell her the specifics of our, uh, relationship. I think it would make her less angry...or maybe not...to hear it from you.”

“What specifics?” she growled, crossing her arms.

“I offered him pussy in exchange for keeping me safe and eventually getting me to a settlement I’m trying to get to,” she replied.

Megan glared at me, then at Delilah. “You were the one they had locked up earlier?” she asked. Delilah nodded. “And so the first thing you, after escaping from people who were going to fucking sell you for your pussy, is to sell your pussy?!” she snapped.

Delilah shrugged. “It’s mine to sell, and I like him. He’s really nice.”

Megan looked angry and I waited. She looked at me again. I’d faced stuff like this before. “Look,” I said, “I didn’t force it out of her. I’m not extorting her. She offered it first. I accepted. I’m not making her. I understand why it seems shitty, but I’m of the opinion that if you want to, you can sell yourself for sex, and you shouldn’t be shamed for that.”

Megan kept staring at me, and I could see her mind churning. She was mad, but probably for personal reasons, and she didn’t really have a logical outlet for the anger, and she was probably trying to find something to latch onto, some way to express it without sounding like an idiot. I felt for her, honestly. I had no idea what she might have had to go through. Even just being kidnapped and locked up like that was fucked up enough as it was. I didn’t want to fuck with her, I didn’t want to piss her off or humiliate her or anything like that.

“Well I’m not selling you my fucking pussy!” she snapped finally.

“Okay,” I said, raising my hands. “Although I’m gonna be honest, you’re gonna need to pull your weight-”

“I can fucking pull my own weight!” she snapped, like I’d just insulted her to her face. Maybe I had. She seemed really on edge, and maybe not necessarily because of what had just happened or the fact that we were living in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world. Some people were just really defensive and confrontational. She looked between me and Delilah again and then growled angrily. “Whatever, I’m going to go get firewood. You two get your fucking done and out of your system because I don’t want to have to put up with it.”

“That...might be a problem,” I admitted.

She heaved a sigh and started walking towards the door.

“Megan.”

“What?!” she snapped, whirling back on me.

“We aren’t that far from the campgrounds,” I warned, “so please be careful and be vigilant out there. We’re basically playing hide and seek with them. All it will take is one of those idiots to come this way and see the smoke coming out of the chimney or one of us out there and our gambit’s up. So just...be careful, okay?”

Her features relaxed a little, at least. “Yeah, I’ll be careful,” she said, and then left.

ELEVEN

I sighed softly, looking at the door.

“She’s...angry,” Delilah murmured after a moment.

I laughed. “Yeah. I mean, she’s been through a lot.”

“She’s gonna be even angrier when she realizes the only good place to sleep in this cabin is the bed.”

I looked around, and all I saw in terms of another place to sleep was the semi-comfortable chair not far from the fireplace. Great. I wondered if I could talk her into sharing a bed with two naked, horny people, but it seemed pretty unlikely. Especially considering how small the bed was. A thought occurred to me.

“Delilah...if I ever was to convince her to get freaky, would you fuck her?”

“Oh yeah,” Delilah replied immediately. “She’s really hot.”

“She is,” I agreed. “Cool. Now, take your clothes off.”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

After all that, I needed a good fuck. We both stripped naked. I was fucking horny. Part of me felt a little guilty because a lot of the horniness was a result of Megan. Something about her really got to me in that way, and I felt bad partially because I was gonna fuck one woman and might be thinking about another, but also because Megan had just gone through a lot. But whatever, I told myself what I always told myself.

Stuff that happens in your head stays in your head.

Everyone has shitty thoughts, that doesn’t make them a shitty person.

It was what you did that mattered.

And what I did was push Delilah onto the bed the second she had her clothes off. She let out a delighted little yell of surprise.

“Hands and knees,” I said as I got my boxers off.

“Yes, sir,” she replied enthusiastically.

I had to say, there was a tremendous satisfaction and joy to doing it with a woman who wasn’t just into you, wasn’t just horny, but was enthusiastic about the encounter. Delilah was good at projecting that. I hoped she wasn’t faking it, but I didn’t think she was, and not just because of my ego. I’d gotten pretty decent at reading people.

The second I laid eyes on that fantastic pale ass of hers and the smooth, glistening pink slit of her vagina as she got onto her hands and knees, everything else was catapulted out of my head. I hopped onto the bed with her, got up against her, and began working my way inside. She moaned loudly, hanging her head.

“Oh my fucking God, you are wet, Delilah...” I groaned as I slipped into her.

Seriously, she was fucking slippery and slick.

“You make me really went...” she moaned as she pushed against me, forcing me deeper into her. Fuck me this felt way too good.

I grabbed her hips, stared down at her ass and my cock disappearing into her vagina, and started just fucking pounding her.

The pleasure was unreal and it was probably that adrenaline high you get from doing stupid, dangerous, or crazy things.

Like I’d just done over the past few hours.

I kept pounding her good and hard, just drilling that pussy, listening to her moan and cry out and sometimes just yell in pure ecstasy.

Something caught my attention.

Even in my sex-addled state, my senses didn’t take a vacation, not entirely. There was a window directly across from me, to my right, next to the fireplace. The curtain was drawn, but, I saw as I, without turning my head, just using my peripheral vision, it wasn’t completely covering the window. There was a slit of space between its edge and the edge of the window. And right now a brown eye peeked through that crack.

A certain someone was spying on me and Delilah, naked and fucking furiously.

I had to admit, that only made it hotter.

Of course it’d be different if I was being spied on by someone I didn’t want to fuck. But damn did I want to fuck Megan. There was something about grim survivalist chicks who weren’t afraid to punch me in the face, even though I probably had over half a foot and hundred pounds on them, that really fucking turned me on.

So I didn’t clue her in that I knew she was watching in secret. Instead, I just reached forward and gave Delilah’s hair a yank.

“Oh yes!” she cried.

Hell, maybe this would make her want to fuck me. That’d be pretty great.

“You fucking like that?” I growled at Delilah.

“Yes! Fuck! Yes! I love it!” she cried as I kept tugging on her hair and hammering away at that fantastically wet vagina of hers. I let go and smacked her ass hard, making her moan loudly. “Again, please...” she begged.

I smacked her harder.

That got her. She began to orgasm almost right away and I groaned, hunching over her, humping her wonderful pussy, shoving my whole cock in there again and again. I started going faster and harder as she screamed into a pillow. Pretty quickly I started letting off. I groaned loudly, letting my voice join hers, and the orgasm felt even more intense than I thought it would. Probably because a hot chick was watching me fuck another hot chick. It rolled over me in waves, hit me in pulses, nothing but pure hot pleasure radiating out from my core as I busted a huge nut inside of her. Fuck, I just filled that pussy up as my stuff blasted out of me and blinding ecstasy rolled through me. It was like being in another world, even if only for a short time.

When I was done busting inside of her, I stayed there like that for a moment, both of us did, getting our breaths back.

“God, you fucking come so much,” Delilah murmured as I started pulling out.

“Yeah. You want it on your or in you?” I asked.

“It’s easier to clean on me...but it’s so much hotter when it’s in me,” she replied as she fell forward, holding a hand over her pussy.

I laughed. “Yeah, it is. It really is.”

We took several minutes to get cleaned up and then I pulled my clothes back on and sat down at the table. “I have good news,” I said.

“What?” she asked.

I picked my gun up and raised it. “I found bullets.”

“Oh thank fucking God,” she muttered, looking deeply relieved as she sat back down on the bed. “How many? Like a few or...”

“Thirty six,” I replied.

She looked even more relieved. “Well, that’s good at least.” She frowned. “What about...them? Are you gonna, like, kill them?”

“Probably. Megan really wants to. I need to think about it first, but it should be sooner instead of later. The longer we stay here, the more of a chance they have of stumbling across us, and we’ll be well and truly fucked if that happens.”

“You’ll keep me safe...right?” Delilah murmured in a voice so soft that it surprised me.

I looked over at her. “Yes,” I said.

She smiled, and there was something very genuine in it. “I don’t just fuck you because we made a deal, you know.”

“I know,” I said. Then I got up and stretched. “I’m going to get started on that wolf. We can have wolf meat for dinner tonight. Not the best, but, you know, it’s food.”

“Yay,” she muttered, and I didn’t blame her.

Unseasoned wolf meat…

Was not good.

But it was food, and right now that’s what mattered. I headed outside after getting my boots back on and securing my .22. I found Megan around the back, gathering up firewood. She’d gotten a good start on it, but we’d need a lot more.

“You know, you wanna talk about security concerns?” she asked as she heard me coming. “I’d be surprised if they didn’t hear her screaming.”

I stopped and looked at her, crossing my arms, considering that. I originally wasn’t going to say anything, but something about Megan, especially now, brought out my antagonistic side. Not in a bad way, more in a ‘fucking with your best friend’ kind of way.

Playful insults, stuff like that.

“Enjoy the show?” I replied as she turned to look at me.

Okay, I had to admit, I liked the look on her face. The pure shock, followed by the pure embarrassment and guilt, was something else.

She began blushing fiercely.

“How’d you know?!” she snapped finally.

I laughed. “I saw you,” I replied with a shrug. “I have good peripheral vision.”

She heaved a sigh and threw a stick at me. “Of course you,” she muttered.

“I’m not mad, if it helps,” I said.

“Whatever. Just...let’s just forget about this,” she growled, and went back to work.

“Okay,” I said, but I thought she’d have a hard time forgetting about it.

I went to go to work gutting the wolf.

~

Megan managed to last almost an hour.

I was most of the way through getting the good meat off of the sliced open wolf. I’d finally decided to just abandon any attempts to get anything else out of it for the moment. I wasn’t all that good at doing the stuff with the skins anyway, and it’s not like I had a lot of time or resources to fuck with it at the moment.

“You know, it’s not like that’s even weird,” Megan said after I heard her boots crunching in the snow as she approached me. “I mean, like, I heard about this survey they did. You know, back before all the fucking snow, and something like nine out of every ten people who took it admitted they would spy on people having sex if they knew they wouldn’t get caught. It’s like...common. I mean, it’s sex. We’re, like, programmed to want to see it.”

“I know,” I replied. “I said I wasn’t mad.”

She was silent again, no doubt frowning deeply, stance hostile, maybe even aggressive. I was still cutting into the wolf.

“This doesn’t mean I want to fuck you,” she said suddenly.

“I know,” I replied.

“You’re such an asshole!” she snapped.

I stopped what I was doing and turned around while standing up. A look of fear played across her face, very brief, but very noticeable, and I felt bad. I didn’t like intimidating people who I liked, or even didn’t actively hate.

“I’m an asshole?” I asked. “I saved your fucking life. I’m offering you a place to sleep. I’m carving up a wolf to make your dinner.”

She sighed heavily, looking away, sullen and still angry, but now ashamed too. “What I meant was...you’re doing that thing,” she muttered.

“What thing?” I asked.

“That thing where you say one thing but you clearly are thinking another. Yeah, you’re saying you know I don’t want to fuck you, but you’re thinking ‘oh yeah, she definitely wants to fuck me.’ You smug fuck.”

I sighed. “Even if that were true,” I said, and...I mean, yeah, it was true. I wasn’t going to armchair psychologist her too much, but I thought she did want to fuck me, hated herself for it, and was overcompensating with aggression. “I’m not holding it over your head, I’m not treating you like shit. I’ve treated you with nothing but respect since we met, and the only times I didn’t, I was acting, and you acknowledged that. I even apologized.”

“Shit,” she muttered after a moment. “Whatever.” She paused for another minute, then shivered, not quite meeting my eye. “I collected firewood. I’m going inside. I’m cold.”

“Fine,” I said.

She walked inside and I went back to work. I felt kinda bad. I wasn’t looking to piss her off...okay, I mean like not for real piss her off. I know that there’s a clear and important distinction in terms of ‘fucking with someone’ and ‘joking around’, and that too many people said they were just joking around when in fact everyone fucking knew they were just trying to piss the person off. Like all those stupid fucks who played ‘pranks’ know they were going to piss people off, and then pretending like the other person was at fault for getting worked up.

It’s just a prank, man! Why are you so fucking sensitive?!

I wasn’t into that, not at all, and if I thought I was actually hurting her feelings, I’d stop. Flat out. But I thought that there was something in Megan’s personality that was aggressive, in a playful way. A part of her that liked to be teased, and liked to dish it right back to you. But I guess I should probably ease back on it for awhile, because we’d just met, and as much as I wanted her to feel comfortable, I needed a better way to do it.

I guess, ultimately, I just needed to let more time pass without bad things happening.

Although I couldn’t promise that. This world was just chock full of bad things.

I finished with the wolf fifteen minutes later and gathered up all the meat. A bit of inspiration had struck shortly into the carving when I’d realized I didn’t have a great place to store it all, save for the pot, and we still needed that. I was thinking about cold places to put it, and that got me thinking about freezers, and that got me thinking about ice dispensers, which our freezer had! I’d grabbed it. It was basically just a plastic container a few inches deep for ice to fall into out of the maker. It was clean enough and I laid a bed of snow in it, then put all the meat in. Ultimately I’d have to stick it somewhere inside, to keep other animals from getting into it.

But I thought it was a decent start.

I honestly don’t know how I’d missed that the first time.

I gathered up the remains of the wolf and brought them all about two hundred feet back in the forest, hopefully far enough away to keep any wandering predators from showing up. Then I went back inside, where Delilah was laying on the bed, reading through the single novel I’d found earlier, and Megan was sitting in the chair, staring into the fireplace.

“We good in here?” I asked as I came in with my icebox of meat.

“Fine,” Megan murmured. She sounded sullen.

“Sorry if I pissed you off,” I said as I shut and locked the door, then got my boots off, set the icebox down on the table, and walked over to the fireplace to start warming up. I wasn’t good at apologizes, and I figured the best way to handle them was directly and honestly.

“Were you two fighting out there?” Delilah asked with a small smile.

“No,” Megan growled. “And it’s fine. I’m not a fucking fragile princess who needs to be fucking fawned over-”

“I was just trying to fucking apologize!” I cried, incredulous.

Fuck, she did love to fight.

She stared at me pointedly for a long few seconds, then she sighed heavily and her shoulders slumped a little. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I’m just so fucking stressed out.”

“I get that,” I said after a moment. “I’ll make dinner, then we can eat, and then talk about how to take down those bastards.”

She nodded, and a glint in her eye said she had an idea. Well, here’s hoping it was a good one. I got to work on dinner.

~

I ended up making a sort of stew, more like a mush.

I knew there was a word for it, but I either didn’t know it or couldn’t remember it.

I cooked up the wolf meat and then mixed it in with a can of the baked beans. It had to admit, it didn’t smell great, but I knew for a fact it’d taste better than just straight-up meat. I mixed it up as best I could and made sure we had enough for three reasonable servings. Then I put out two plates of the stuff and kept what was left for myself in the pot that I’d have to clean out later.

“I know it’s not a lot,” I said as we started eating. “But we need to be careful for now. Until we get a bigger store of food, between the three of us, we have to assume the worst.”

“Yeah,” Delilah agreed glumly.

“Uh-huh,” Megan said with the resigned misery of someone who was used to scraping and scrounging to get by.

“So, Megan...care to talk about yourself at all?” I asked.

“You first,” she replied. I thought it was, more than anything else, a tactic to give her enough time to eat. She was probably starving.

So we spent a good ten minutes apiece telling her what we’d already told each other. That seemed to mollify her a little bit. She looked more relaxed, at least.

“There’s not a lot to say about me,” she began. I didn’t think that was true. I thought that what she meant was ‘there’s not a lot I want to say about me’. But I held my peace. “I grew up in Detroit. Miserable fucking city. Grew up poor, of course. Third generation immigrant. My grandma came over from Mexico, legally,” she added with emphasis. “And fuck anyone who says otherwise. Mom pretty much raised me herself because for awhile dad was there, but not really there, and then he wasn’t there at all, not even pretending anymore. It was just us two. I spent my whole life scraping by,” she said, her voice growing bitter.

She looked at the nearest window, as though she could see through the curtains drawn tightly over them at the snow and ice that beyond. “I was in Kansas City when it went down, when the snow started to fall. I was kinda good with computers, and I figured IT was going to be my ticket out of poverty. Went into fucking debt to start earning that degree. I was halfway there and it felt, you know, real. Like the real deal, like I was actually gonna do it, you know? Because I got it. I got the computer shit, I could do the work. And then this happened. Sometimes I run into places that still have computers, but it’s super rare.”

She laughed, more bitter than ever now. “It’s ironic, growing up poor sort of prepared me for this. You learn how to ration, you learn how to look for opportunities, you learn how to think about keeping your own ass alive while working with the slimmest of resources. Trying to make a hundred bucks last three months. Do you know how fucking hard that is? Or was, anyway. I fucking hated it, but it’s what’s kept me alive so far, at least.”

“Sorry,” was all I could think to say.

She laughed, and it was a bit more genuine and a bit less bitter this time. “Yeah, I guess I wouldn’t know what to say either.” She frowned, looked at me more closely. She looked a little guilty. “I know I said it already, but thank you, for saving my ass, and giving me food and a place to stay. And not trying to force sex out of me.”

“Your welcome,” I said. “Thanks for not shooting me.”

“She was gonna shoot you?” Delilah asked.

Megan sighed. “I saw an opportunity and I wanted some answers,” she said defiantly. “I noticed people tend to spill the truth when they’ve got a gun pointed at them.”

“That’s a fair point,” I said. “At least it gave us some common ground. I didn’t want to have gone to all the trouble of getting your ass out of there for you just to wander off and freeze to death.”

“You think I couldn’t have made it?” she asked.

“You said it yourself: you had nothing on you and nowhere to go.”

She sighed and took another bite. “Fine. Fair point.” She finished off her food and the next time she fixed me with her gaze, it was more intense, more focused. “I think I know how we can kill these guys without seriously putting our own asses on the line.” She paused. “Well...without putting anyone but your ass on the line.”

“Great,” I muttered, then I gave her my attention. “Let’s hear it.”

“The only reason I was in that situation was because I got hit by some hardcore bad luck. Off in the direction you were originally taking me, maybe four or five miles away, I was with a group of people not too long ago. We were traveling, we stopped and made camp for the night. The fire went out and before anyone woke up and took notice, two of us had frozen to death. I think, if we’d had those two people, we might have been okay when the next thing happened. The next day, we were moving on, and a wolf pack hit us. I know for sure two other people died, and I’m pretty sure the other one died. I ran. I just ran and ran.

“Eventually I ended up at the campgrounds, where they captured me. I was so exhausted that it was pretty easy,” she said, looking angry and embarrassed. “But my point is this: if we go back to where my people were killed, there’s a decent chance we find a rifle in good condition, and I’m a great shot.”

I thought about it. Thought about the hill I’d spied on them from.

Yeah...it could work.

TWELVE

Right away, I knew there was no doing it today.

The weather seemed to be turning sour. Not wretched, but sour. By the time I was done eating, little snowflakes were spitting from gray skies in fits and starts. I considered how to handle the rest of the day for a bit.

“Megan, would you clean the dishes thoroughly, and then boil some water? I need the thermos topped off and as much water on standby as we can manage. Which, right now, is two cups and that pot,” I asked.

She looked at me for a moment, her eyes briefly darting to Delilah, probably wondering why I didn’t ask her to do, and then remembering almost at the same time that Delilah was paying the rent on her back, and then just nodded. “Okay.”

“Thanks. I’m going to go find some more firewood and maybe see if I can find any of those super-food plants around,” I said as I pulled my boots back on.

“I haven’t seen any for a while,” Megan murmured.

“Yeah but you never know,” I said.

I went to the door and looked back at the two women briefly. I wanted to say something like ‘play nice’ but I didn’t think it’d come off as anything but condescending. I couldn’t pretend that there wasn’t an unhappy narrative potentially brewing here, or that Megan wouldn’t see it. Delilah getting to laze about just because she was attractive and willing to sell her pussy. Megan wasn’t willing to, and that wasn’t an unreasonable position. Ultimately, instead of trying to head off a problem that might not even manifest, I just headed outside.

Maybe they’d get along.

I had my doubts, but I’d been wrong before, and although I was good at reading people, usually I was good at reading them in relation to myself, not necessarily each other. It felt like there was a wider margin for error there.

I spent the next three hours doing work.

It was pleasantly mindless work. I was already tired, but doing this meant I’d be bone-deep weary enough to pass out early and wake up early, well-rested and ready to tackle the day ahead. Because tomorrow was going to be…

Difficult.

And dangerous.

I mostly collected firewood and kept my eye out for super food.

There was a better name for it, just not a more memorable one. Super food was what the common people ended up calling it. At some point after it had become obvious that shit was fucked and it wasn’t going to get unfucked anytime soon, someone, I still don’t know who, concocted a scheme to seed hundreds of miles of land with, well, seeds. They were genetically engineered versions of fruits, vegetables, and other eatable plants. They were basically meant to grow in extremely cold conditions. I don’t know how they worked, but they did work.

Sometimes.

It’d be really weird, walking through a forest and, in the middle of nowhere, coming across a frosted over single stalk of corn.

But I didn’t find anything out there that day. Some places had been passed over, and some seeds just didn’t take.

I ended up managing to gather an appreciable amount of firewood and by the time the sun was starting to fade, I ended up back at the cabin, dead tired.

Something in me worried that I’d come back to something awful, like finding the place ransacked, door open. Or, less seriously, the two women arguing. Something about them just seemed to be a recipe for disaster in regards to that.

But as I came inside after dropping off the final batch of firewood, I was happy to find the two women laughing, sitting at the table.

“How’d it go out there?” Megan asked.

“Fine,” I replied, shutting and locking the door, then getting my coat and boots off.

“You look exhausted,” Delilah said.

I nodded, then yawned. “It’s been a long fucking day. And we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow if the weather doesn’t go to shit.” I sat down heavily at the table. “We should discuss sleeping arrangements.”

“I’m gonna sleep in the chair by the fireplace,” Megan said.

“Okay,” I said.

There was something in her gaze that said she wanted to say something else. I waited, watching her. She sighed.

“And...I’d be okay with, uh, you two doing it even though I’m in the room. I guess, if I’ve already seen you doing it once...”

“Wait, you were spying on us?” Delilah asked, sounding delighted by the possibility.

Megan looked sharply at me. “You didn’t tell her?!”

“I thought you’d be glad!” I replied.

“I’m not mad,” Delilah said. “I’m okay with it.”

“Don’t you get tired, being angry so often?” I asked, looking at Megan, who seemed to be yet again on her way to getting pissed. I was a little surprised by the question, as it had kind of just slipped out, and she seemed surprised too.

She stared at me, fuming, and then her anger seemed to collapse. “Yeah,” she said wearily. “I do get tired being angry so often.”

“You don’t have to be angry around us,” I said. I decided to take a stab at something. “It’s not like I’ll take you less seriously if you don’t fucking argue with me eighteen times a day.”

She stared at me, maybe trying to judge what I was attempting, then she just shrugged. “Whatever,” she said. It felt like a concession, but one she didn’t want to necessarily confirm or deny had been given.

I accept it and let it drop.

“Well then, I think we’ve got enough clothes and water for you to wash up and change,” I said. “We’ve been using socks as rags. No soap, yet. You can do it in the bathroom, if you want.”

“Fine,” she said, getting up, grabbing a sock from the pile, and one of the cups of water. She went into the bathroom and closed the door.

“So she was spying on us fucking?” Delilah murmured as she began taking her clothes off and I started doing one more check of the outside, looking through the windows.

“Yeah,” I said. “Wasn’t sure how you’d react.”

“I think it’s hot,” Delilah said with a smirk. “And I think she likes you. A lot,” she added in a soft whisper.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. She just needs to admit it to herself. Give her time.”

I nodded. A few minutes later, Delilah and I were naked and washed off as much as we could be, and getting into bed. Megan walked out in new clothes, cobbled together from whatever I’d managed to find so far. She hesitated as she walked into view of the bed, staring at the two of us, laying there naked, and blushed.

“You still okay with this?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she said. She laughed nervously. “There was this town I was in earlier this year...they had a brothel. And guys could fuck some of the women for free if they agreed to do it publicly. Because people paid to watch it live. Some people came and fucked publicly in exchange for food or stuff sometimes. I’d go and watch sometimes. It was...wild.” She walked over to the chair and found the blanket I’d left for her there.

“Thanks for this,” she murmured as she got settled beneath the blanket.

“You’re welcome,” I replied. “Now, let’s get to it.”

Delilah and I started right in. We made out, we touched each other, rolled around on the bed as much as we could. Delilah looked so fucking good naked, and I had to admit: it was noticeably more erotic and arousing with a hot chick intentionally watching. I hoped I looked good fucking, and, okay, call me a shithead, but I thought this was a big step towards her wanting to sleep with me. I think doing this, even if she maintained otherwise, was going to make her a lot more comfortable with the idea of fucking me.

I could be wrong, and I was totally willing to let it go if I was, but I still thought she did want to fuck me, but either she was naturally very stubborn, or just in a bad place right now thanks to the shit she’d gone through, and her wanting to fuck me made me her pissed at herself. It probably didn’t help that I was still throwing off the same douche-bag vibes the assholes who’d kidnapped her had. Not that I could help that.

Before long, I wound up on my back with my cock in Delilah’s mouth.

“He’s got a big dick, doesn’t he?” Delilah murmured as she massaged the head of my cock.

“I mean...yeah,” Megan murmured awkwardly. She was breathing a little more heavily now and she looked flushed. She seemed to regain some of herself as she caught eyes with me. “That’s not everything though.”

“Oh I know,” Delilah murmured. She licked my head, causing me to groan and shift. “He eats pussy really good, too.”

Megan frowned. “You eat her out? Why?”

“Why the fuck wouldn’t I?” I replied, slipping a hand over the back of her head as she took my cock into her mouth and started slipping her lips up and down its length.

“She agreed to be your fucktoy, your sex slave. Why would you do anything extra for her?” Megan replied.

“What fucking part of ‘I’m nice’ don’t you fucking get?” I asked. I was tired, and there was some real anger in my voice that I couldn’t keep out of it.

“I-sorry,” she stuttered finally. Then sighed. “Whatever, ignore me, just go.”

“Fine,” I said.

Delilah sucked me off for a bit longer, then I had her stop and we switched places. I was tired. I wanted to bust my nut and get to sleep, but not before I made her come first. Plus, I wanted to bust inside of her. Or maybe on her face. So I got to work eating her out. I did a really good job partially because, well, I liked Delilah and wanted her to feel good, but also because I wanted to prove Megan wrong. I mean, I get where she’s coming from.

Back when the internet was a thing, you could hit any sex message board and come across a woman complaining about how guys were fucking lazy lovers and didn’t see the female orgasm as necessary.

They’d fuck, they’d bust, they’d go to sleep.

And think they’d done a good job.

Fuck, with so many assholes like that, no wonder so many women are reluctant to sleep around. They could just stay home and fuck a vibrator or even their hand and have a better time. But I wanted to let her know I wasn’t like that, even with a woman who had sold her body to me. Just because she’d done so didn’t mean I was gonna treat her like shit.

And, okay, I’ll admit, maybe I was using Delilah as an audition for how good I’d fuck Megan. And given what she’d said so far, I didn’t think Delilah would have a problem being used in such a fashion.

She seemed just as into her as I did.

God, how fucking awesome would a threesome be with these two?

I ate that pussy until Delilah had to clap her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming her fucking head off because she was orgasming so hard.

When I was finished, I sat up.

“What position you want?” she murmured, getting her breath back.

I looked at Megan. “Since we’ve got an audience...what would you enjoy watching the most?” I asked.

“Oh...um...well, I’d like to see her ride your cock,” she admitted after a moment.

“You got it.”

I laid down on my back and Delilah mounted me with something like glee. I had the notion that she was really into the idea of sex as performance art. I guess I could see it, under the right conditions. I will admit that my own notions of it were a bit more narrow. Delilah slipped me inside of her and fuck was she wet tonight.

“Oh yeah, right there...” I grunted as she worked me into herself.

She let out a loud moan as she took my length into her, and then she started bouncing. Those fantastic tits of hers bounced with her and she looked like she was enjoying herself tremendously as she rode my cock. Delilah fucked me like a porn star and that raw, unprotected pussy was exactly what I felt like I needed after today.

Honestly, I needed it after damn near every day now.

I grabbed her hips and she let out a loud cry of bliss as I thrust up into her. I could hear Megan breathing more heavily now. Was she masturbating? That’d be pretty awesome. I didn’t want to look at her and make her mad. I kinda knew how she’d feel. Even if there were people in the room that were aware you were masturbating to them, you might still want to have that sort of illusion of privacy. I thrust up into Delilah again and again, gripping her hips tightly and pulling her down against me, making her shout in bliss.

I was a little less worried about noise now as the winds were up. Listening to her panting and moaning, crying out in that sexy voice of hers, was a pleasure all its own. And then there was her smooth pale body and her sexy red hair.

I fucking loved redheads.

Honestly it seems like most dudes were down for redheaded chicks and I don’t know why that was, but I had definitely fallen under that spell.

“Oh fuck yes shove that huge cock into me...” Delilah moaned loudly, going even harder.

I watched her tits bounce and her beautiful face twist in pleasure, her mouth hanging open several times as she lost herself in fucking my dick, her eyes losing focus. For one long moment she chewed on her lower lip. Listening to her pant and then gasp in raw pleasure was wonderful. And my fucking dick inside of her…

It was pure, wet, hot ecstasy.

I was getting ready to bust a huge load. But a thought occurred to me. “Delilah,” I said.

“Yeah?” she replied.

“I’m going to bust on your face.”

She smiled. “I’d love that.”

Part of me wanted to bust in her pussy, but part of me always wanted to bust inside the pussy I was fucking. It just always felt so fucking good and satisfying. But going all over a woman’s face was a better visual, and I had to admit I wanted to let loose all over her sexy seductive face. And hopefully Megan would like it.

“How do you wanna do this?” Delilah panted.

“Like this,” I replied, then I grabbed her, sat up, swung my feet over the side of the bed, planted them on the floor, and stood.

She let out a cry of happy surprise, then a loud moan of total bliss as I began bouncing her on my cock, using my hips and my hands to slide her up and down it. I hadn’t fucked many chicks like this, but it was nice and I was sure strong enough for it now, especially with Delilah’s little frame.

“Oh! Fuck! Oh! God! Chris! Oh fuck!” she cried, incoherent with pleasure.

I went for as long as I could, then gave her a quick warning. She was on it. She put her legs down and let me out of her, then dropped to her knees as I let go of her. Looking up at me, she gripped my cock and started jacking me off. Barely a second passed before I started shooting my load onto her face. She moaned loudly, mouth open, eyes closed, tongue out, as she jacked me off onto herself. I, apparently, had to bust a huge nut.

I watched a lot of my stuff come out of me in thick, stringy spurts. It got onto her cheeks and her chin and forehead, and it went into her mouth. Gotta admit, there’s a primal, base thrill to watching a hot, naked woman jack you off into her mouth.

She took it all and then when I was finished, eventually only dry-kicking, she put it in her mouth and began sucking and slowly pulling it back out from between those sexy lips. I groaned at the final burst of pleasure this hit me with.

“Satisfactory?” she asked, her eyes still closed.

“Yes,” both myself and Megan said at the same time.

“Good. Could you get me something to clean up with? You fucking came so much.”

“Yeah,” I said, glancing at Megan. She had sounded a bit strained and when I looked at her I saw she was sweaty and she looked...embarrassed? Aroused? Focused?

I grabbed one of the cleaning socks for her, wet it, and brought it over to her. She thanked me and began cleaning up.

“I...should go into the bathroom,” Megan murmured after a moment.

“You were touching yourself, weren’t you?” Delilah asked as she washed up.

“Maybe,” Megan said.

“You might as well finish in here, where it’s warm and comfortable and you’re already settled. I mean it’s not like we’ll be weirded out by it, you literally just watched us have sex,” Delilah said.

Megan stared at me, and I looked back at her, feeling kind of weird. It was still weird to be naked in front of someone I hadn’t been intimate with, but I could tell she liked what she saw. I shrugged and she sighed.

“Whatever,” she muttered, and shifted, then I saw the area around her crotch, beneath the blankets, began to shift as well. She gasped and closed her eyes.

I let her do it and tried not to focus on her too much. Instead, I did one more sweep of the area, just for my own peace of mind. Checking out all the windows as subtly as I could manage. I saw nothing but darkness out there and snow falling. I felt about as confident as I could that we were alone and secure still, so I tended to the fire, getting several logs in place so that it’d burn for several hours without needing to be fucked with.

And then I laid down in bed with Delilah, and held her against me.

We fell asleep listening to Megan quietly orgasming.

THIRTEEN

When I first opened my eyes the next day, it was still dark.

But I was awake. I knew right away that it was time to get up and I couldn’t go back to sleep even if I tried. Which was fine by me. I wanted up. I wanted out. I wanted to be fucking doing things. Sometimes I got hit by a burst of energy and it was great. Probably because I knew I had so much to do today. And yeah, I’ll be honest, I was not looking forward to straight-up fucking murdering people, but sometimes it had to be done.

And right now, it had to be done.

Megan and Delilah were dead asleep still. I let them sleep, figuring the sounds I’d make would wake them up. Or not. Megan needed her sleep, she’d been through a lot. So had Delilah, but she didn’t have a day of walking and killing ahead of her.

As I got up, she opened her eyes and stared up at me blearily. “Something wrong?” she murmured softly.

“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just getting ready for the day,” I replied.

“It’s still dark,” she said, yawning.

“I know. Go back to sleep.”

She smiled. “I like you.”

“I like you too, Delilah,” I said, and kissed her forehead.

She rolled over and was back asleep immediately.

I got to work. Megan slept through most of it initially, so I figured she must really be tired. I washed, I dressed, I set water to boil and did a perimeter check. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, barely lighting the skies over the region as I did that. No footprints, and the snow had stopped falling sometime last night, so we were probably good. I hated living like this: in constant fear that we’d be discovered.

For the most part, I thought I could handle myself. In the months that had followed the collapse of society, I’d found that I was a quick draw and a good shot. By now, I knew my way around guns well enough. It was Delilah I was worried about. Even if I trusted her with a gun, which I didn’t really, not that I thought she’d do anything shitty on purpose, but that she’d do something shitty on accident, I didn’t even have one to give her.

She was defenseless here.

And then there was the problem of the walk ahead of me. So many things could go wrong. You had to account for the weather, which could turn bad quite quickly. And people you might run into. Animals you might run into. Environmental hazards you might run into. Then there was Megan’s memory. I had to trust that she knew where she was going. Plus, it might be entirely possible that this was all a bust.

And that wasn’t even counting all the shit that could go wrong with the attack.

But I didn’t let it bother me, not yet. Getting up in the morning was sort of meditative for me. It helped everything kinda settle in my head, leaving me clear for the day to come and whatever it might bring. By the time I was finished boiling fresh water, gathering more firewood, and eating breakfast, Megan was awake and at the table, eating some breakfast of her own. I’d had one of the cans of tuna and she was going through the second to last can of peaches.

“So, about today,” I said as I began preparing my backpack for the journey.

“Yes?” she asked, and I was unhappy to hear a bit of defensiveness creep into her voice.

“You said it’s about five miles?” I asked.

She nodded. “Roughly, I guess. I’m admittedly not super great at measuring distances.”

“Do you feel you can reliably find your way back there?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

I hesitated, considering how to approach this. “Are you saying yes because of a pride thing or are you saying yes because you are actually sure? I genuinely need to know, because the weather is making me nervous,” I said.

She looked ready to fight again, but maybe something in my tone or my expression, or maybe something inside of her, seemed to make her relax. “I’m fairly confident I can find my way there,” she said evenly.

“Okay. I’m going to trust you on this. Finish up and we’ll head out. Sooner the better.”

“Fine,” she said, and kept eating.

~

I triple checked everything, just to be sure, before leaving.

Delilah knew what to do and how long to wait. I had my stuff. Megan didn’t have anything at the moment but the clothes on her back. I was hoping we could change that. Most people traveled with backpacks nowadays and I figured there was an extremely high chance that there’d be at least one usable one among the dead.

We set out just as the sun was really starting to rise, into the forest.

I didn’t like the way the sky looked. It had that mean gray cover that meant it could start storming, bad, at any moment. But it just as likely might not. The winds were pretty calm right now and there wasn’t any snow coming down and yet again, I didn’t want to wait any longer than we had to to act on this.

We walked for about half an hour in silence.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she said: “It’s not like I’m a prude or anything.”

I looked at her. “...what?”

“It’s not like I’m not sleeping with you because I’m a prude or something. Like, I don’t mind casual sex,” she said.

I stopped. I didn’t want to, but I felt like I had to. I fully turned to face her, and she stopped as well, looking surprised and a little fearful.

“Megan,” I said, then stopped, considering my words for a few seconds. Around us, a gust of cold wind blew. “Megan,” I said again, “I’m just going to say this once: you don’t have to fight with me. I’m not silently judging you. I’m not angry that you refused to sell me your body. I’m not looking for some way to trick you into sleeping with me. I would, obviously, be happy if you offered, but even if you never do, I will respect that. More importantly, I respect you. I’m not going to take you any less seriously for any of the reasons you might think. I just want to work together to stay alive and get shit done, until one of us decides we’ve had enough of the other, and part ways amicably. Don’t fuck me over, pull your own weight, and we’ll be square. Okay?”

She stared at me for several long moments. I wondered if she’d just leave.

Finally, she said, “I’m sorry. I...” She shook her head. “Let’s walk and talk, this will take a minute,” she muttered.

“Okay,” I replied.

We kept walking.

“I’ve had to put up with people questioning me, looking down on me, distrusting me, disrespecting me, disbelieving me my entire life just because I’ve got a vagina, or just because I’m half fucking Mexican. When you spend years where everyone fucking talks down to you or talks to you like you’re a fucking idiot or just dismisses you, it makes you fucking angry. So yes, I’m really defensive, and yes, I’m really angry, and yes, it takes me time to...relax. And you just...remind me of some people,” she muttered.

“Douche-bags?” I asked.

She laughed softly. “Yeah, honestly. And I know, that isn’t fair. Just because you look like a douche-bag jock who’s gonna talk down to me doesn’t mean you are. If anything, it just means I’m guilty of the same thing I get so pissed about. I’ve been kinda treating you bad because of how you look, and that’s fucked up.”

“Honestly, I understand,” I replied. “It’s been that way for awhile now. And you have more reason than ever to be paranoid of someone like me. I mean look what fucking happened to you at the campgrounds. That’s so fucking common now, shit like that. I’m not mad, I just want to let you know that you don’t have to worry about any mind games with me. I don’t bullshit, I don’t beat around the bush, I just wanna get shit done.”

She snorted. “Normally when people say stuff like that, they’re just looking for an excuse to be an asshole. ‘Hey bro, I’m just telling it like it is! I’m brutally honest!’ You know?”

“Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I hate those assholes. They’re more into the brutal part than the honest part. But I’m not-” I paused.

“What?”

I sighed. “I was gonna say ‘But I’m not like that’, but doesn’t fucking everyone say that? Doesn’t everyone claim that they’re the one that’s different, they’re the one exception?”

She growled. “Yeah. It’s so common. But so far you seem to know the golden rule.”

“And what’s that?”

“Talk is cheap. Don’t fucking say, do.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that’s how I feel about it. I guess I’m trying to talk now because I know what it’s like to live in constant anxiety, or at least I know somewhat about it. I just want to put you at ease, at least with regards to me. Which I understand by its very nature is a shifty thing to say. That’s the problem with bad people and good people. Both of them will try to put you at ease. Bad people will do it so they can take advantage of you more easily, and good people will do it because it’s kind. And it’s harder to tell who’s who.”

“And you’re kind?” she asked with a small smile.

“Yes, actually. I know it seems like my deal with Delilah-”

But she interrupted me. “No, no. I...get it. Delilah seems actually really happy with you, and she also doesn’t seem stupid. I also don’t disrespect her decision to sell her body. I’ve just...had a lot of offers, and I hate it most times. I like sex, actually. A lot. Even if I haven’t had it for awhile. I haven’t found anyone I could trust. But I get it.” She paused. “I noticed you weren’t using any protection last night...”

“Oh yeah, you wanna know if we’re stupid or I have an ace up my sleeve?” I asked. She nodded. I laughed. “I’ve got an ace up my cock, actually.”

“...what?”

“You ever heard of the golden mesh?”

“Oh shit, that like nano-implant thing?” she asked. I nodded. “You got one?” I nodded again. “Does it really work that well?”

“I mean, as far as I can tell, yeah. I gotta admit, I don’t stick around every woman I sleep with long enough to see if they miss a period, but so far none of them have. And as far as I can tell I’m still clean. I know that isn’t perfect but...” I shrugged.

“Yeah, I mean, I feel you. With how fucking shitty everything is, might as well have fun,” she muttered.

We walked on in silence for another twenty minutes before I tried to get a real conversation going. It was quiet out here, and peaceful, for the most part. Our only company seemed to be the occasional gust of wind.

“What was it like for you, when it went down?” I asked.

She offered a short, bitter laugh. “Honestly, not too different from normal. I had a tiny little studio apartment I was living in at the time. I didn’t have much. A mattress a friend of mine gave me, a couch I found on the side of the road, a TV from twenty years ago. Not much food in the kitchen. My most expensive thing was my laptop. I was already good enough with computers that I was basically doing gig repairs. People knew I was smart, word spread around campus, people would come to me with their stupid computer problems. Normally I’d fix whatever it was in less than an hour and walk away with a twenty. Sometimes a fifty. I’d gotten good at getting old laptops and computers from people who didn’t want them anymore or thought they were broken and just looking for an excuse to buy a new one.

“I’d fix them up or scrap them, sell what I could. I had gotten good at it, honestly. I was also doing part time as a, ugh, waitress.” I glanced at her. She sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, that isn’t some slight against waitresses. I mean, I think most people think the job itself sucks to do, but some are really good at it. I was shit at it. I hated it. I’m shit with people, honestly. Couldn’t hold anyone for too long in my bed. They’d stay around for a few weeks, maybe two months, because the sex was great, although sometimes more just for them than for me, and eventually that wouldn’t be enough. The haze of good sex would wear off and they’d get tired of my arguments and paranoia and jealousy. And they weren’t wrong, I’m a fucking awful girlfriend.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I mean, based on what I’d seen of her, she was probably right. She would be difficult to date. Insecure people usually were. I should know, given how insecure I used to be as a teenager. I still was, in some ways, but now mostly I just shut up about my insecurities. I don’t know if that was a good thing or not.

But she saved me the trouble of thinking of something to say, continuing on.

“I was actually good at the apocalypse. I still am...inside a city that has a big enough population. I’m the kind of person who can trade pretty well. I can hold onto shit that most people would throw away and know who to get it to. That became my rep after...” she paused, looked at me. “Did you know about what happened to KC?” I shook my head, I hadn’t heard anything. “Half of it burned to the fucking ground. I still don’t know how or why. Several people said that a plane crashed into a power plant or some building storing like jet fuel or some explosive gas or liquid, and that’s what started the fire. There was some kind of explosion somewhere, I remember that. It happened a few months after everything fell apart.”

“I’ve heard a lot of stories like that,” I muttered. “Too much big, important, complicated shit that will blow up if no one’s watching it.”

“Yeah. But people knew to come to me. They all wanted something. Sex toys. Certain clothes. Certain foods. A specific book. An old DVD player. Batteries. I kind of had a nose for finding out who had what and what they’d take to part with it.”

“So why are you out here?” I asked.

She sighed. “Same reason as always. I fucked up. I’m volatile. I’ve got anger issues and a temper. I’d get in fights with people. Eventually I get in a fight with someone important and everyone decides I’ve got to go.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that either.

This time around I at least tried. “I know what you mean about anger. I used to be angry a lot in high school. And for a year or two after. I evened out a bit before the snow and then after, I guess it occurred to me, like really hit home, that unchecked anger could get me killed easily. So I started working hard on just telling my anger to shut the fuck up whenever it came. Sometimes it’s still useful, but not often.”

“Yeah,” she muttered, “I’ve been trying to do the same. It’s hard.” She paused. “Does it get any easier?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, it did for me. That’s me though. I think for the most part, I was wired a certain way, and living within our society, that wiring sparked anger. But living in this world? Same wiring, different result. Now I feel more like...this is how I’m supposed to be living. If that makes any sense.”

“It does and it doesn’t. I mean, it makes sense in that I understand what you’re getting at, but it makes no goddamn sense that you feel like this,” she opened her arms, encompassing the world around us, “makes sense.”

I laughed uncomfortably. “I know. I don’t tell that to many people. I feel bad, like it seems like I’m glad billions of people are dead. I’m not. I’m just...better suited to this world than the last one,” I explained.

She fell silent for a few moments, then finally nodded. “Okay, I guess it makes sense. I mean, you seem pretty good at survival, you’re strong and fit, you seem to know your shit. I imagine girls like Delilah must just drop their panties for you all the time.”

“Not all the time,” I muttered.

“I guess why wouldn’t you like it?” Her face grew bitter suddenly. “I hate it. Mainly I hate the cold, but I hate that I’m so bad at staying alive out here. I’m not great at starting fires, I’m a great shot, but I’m pretty much no good when it comes to skinning and cleaning animals. I do okay in settlements, like I said, but I always fuck myself over and get kicked out. I hate that I’m going to have to rely on you until we get to a settlement.”

“I’m not that bad,” I replied.

She laughed, despite herself. “Not you specifically, just, you know, another person. I hate relying on people. No one’s really tried to teach me to do this stuff.”

“I could,” I said.

She looked at me as we walked. “You’d really be willing to piss away who knows how long teaching me how to properly gut and skin and clean a wolf or a rabbit or a deer? How to hunt better? How to survive better?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“And if I get good enough that I decide ‘hey, I don’t fucking need you anymore’ and leave?” she pressed.

“Well, that’ll suck, but I part ways with everyone eventually. I hope we’ll have had a good time together before that point,” I said.

She studied me a bit further, lips pressed together, a look like she was judging me. Finally, all she said was, “Hmm.”

After another few minutes, I asked: “So what do you like about the new world?”

She was silent, considering it, no doubt turning a lot of things over in her head, looking for an answer. Suddenly, she offered a nasty smile.

“I guess the one thing I really like is that when we run into human pieces of shit who rape and extort and torture people, who treat people like objects, we don’t have to worry about the fucking corrupt police force to say ‘we’ll look into it’ and then let them off the hook nine times out of ten. Now we can just fucking blow them away like they deserve.”

FOURTEEN

The good news was that she remembered the way there, and it took us less than an hour to get back to the location.

The bad news was that the weather was turning bad.

By the time we found the area where the wolf pack had attacked her party, snow had started to fall in big, fat flakes. The sky had darkened.

“Do you know of any structures in the area?” I asked.

“Yes. There’s a cabin we passed getting here. We cleaned it out for supplies, not like it had much in it, but it was sturdy enough.” She sighed. “We were all so pissed when we found it. If we’d just headed another half-mile deeper into the woods, we could have stayed in that cabin for the night instead of outside.”

The scene itself was brutal.

There was a lot of frozen blood, and two mangled and chewed corpses.

Megan just stared at them for a few seconds.

“How well did you know them?” I asked, then wondered immediately if that was the wrong thing to say.

“Not very,” she admitted. “The guy’s name was Mike. He was kind of an asshole, kind of superior. The girl was Kay. She hardly said anything. I kinda liked her, but we never got to know each other, honestly.”

“Well,” I looked up at the sky again, “let’s get this done. If the weather doesn’t clear up by the time we’re done, we’re going to have to get to that cabin.”

“Yeah,” she murmured.

We set to work. I searched the bodies. Both of their backpacks had been ripped open by the wolves, a few of the weaker cans had burst open in the fray. I rifled through the ruined backpacks and their pockets while Megan searched the snowy ground for the rifle and anything else that might have fallen loose.

I managed to get my hands on a can of vegetable soup and two more tins of tuna. “You guys weren’t very well-equipped, huh?” I murmured.

“No,” she replied. “We’d burned through a lot of our supplies trying to get to another settlement. And this is after we gathered the stuff from the two who had froze to death...oh shit, here it is!” she said, brushing away some snow and picking up a rifle.

I finished gathering up the materials, finding just a book of a dozen matches and some bandages and a few antibiotic pills, (those were damn useful at least), and joined her. The rifle was mostly covered in snow and we took a moment to brush it off. Megan gave it to me and I looked it over. It was a simple deer hunting rifle, a bolt-action single shot with a basic scope mounted on it. I checked how much ammo it had, then sighed softly.

“Five rounds,” I said. “Not a lot to work with.”

“Better than nothing,” she replied.

“Any chance there’s more around?”

She shook her head. “No, I remember that all we had was what was in the gun. And it was the only gun we had.”

“Really? Between six of you?” I asked.

She nodded. “There was a pistol, but it was shit and it broke at some point and Mike got so angry he threw it down a ravine.”

“Jesus fucking-you’re shitting me,” I muttered.

“Nope. Told you he was stupid. There was a shotgun, but we lost it running from a bear. Never went back to find it.”

“Of course.” I looked up, squinted and screwed up my eyes against the snow and the cold wind. “It’s getting worse. Come on, show me this cabin. We’ll wait it out in there.”

“This way,” she said, and we set off.

~

I gathered firewood along the way.

The storm was definitely coming.

As I always did, I hoped it wasn’t one of those big-ass blizzards.

After about fifty feet, we found another attack site. A lot of kicked up snow, a few dropped items, (I policed up a glove and a broken flashlight), and more frozen blood. And there was a trail of it leading to the same place we were going.

I glanced at Megan.

“It has to be Alec,” she muttered. “The only guy I didn’t see die for sure. He ran, but in another direction. I guess he thought to get back to the cabin.”

“Why didn’t you?” I asked.

She looked embarrassed and angry. “I panicked, okay?”

“Fair enough,” I said.

She looked ahead. You could just barely make out the cabin in the distance, through the trees, though it almost immediately disappeared among the snowfall as it began to intensify. “Maybe he made it out alive,” she muttered.

“Maybe,” I replied, but I didn’t think so.

That was a lot of blood.

I finished my little search of the area, then passed her some of the firewood I’d found and headed on. “Come on, we gotta hurry.”

We stopped to grab whatever other wood we could find, but when a particularly strong gust of wind almost knocked us over and the snowfall picked up even more, I said ‘fuck it’ and just hurried towards the cabin. A moment later, we were there. The blood trail, which was rapidly disappearing, did indeed lead through the front door, which was closed. I hurried over to it and dumped my firewood on the ground, then pulled out my pistol.

I hammered on the door. “Anyone in there?!” I called, listening over the winds.

Megan stepped up closer to me and knocked. “Alec!? It’s Megan! Are you okay in there!?” she yelled.

Nothing.

“Okay, I’m going in,” I said.

“Be careful. I doubt he’d attack you if he’s in there, but...”

“Yeah, I get. Back up.”

She backed up. I tried the handle. It wasn’t locked. I pushed the door open, not standing in front of it so I didn’t make a big tempting target, outlined by the pale winter light still coming down, and peered carefully inside. It was cold, I felt no heat coming from within. That was a sign that the place was abandoned, but not necessarily a clear one.

“I’m coming in!” I called. “Not looking for trouble!”

I moved slowly in. The cabin was about the same size as the one I now called home, though not in as good of shape. I scanned the area, finding a simple single-wide bed, a single chair, a broken shelf, a broken table, and just some bits of wood and trash scattered across the floor. The fireplace was dead and cold, though it looked somewhat recently used. I moved over to the only door and opened it up after calling out another warning and waiting.

The blood led from the front door to the fireplace to here.

“You can come in,” I said to Megan, lowering my pistol as I stepped into the bathroom. “It’s safe in here.”

Alec was here, all right.

Or at least I assumed this was Alec.

A pale, scrawny man was hunched up in the shower stall, frozen solid, though that almost certainly wasn’t how he had died. There was a lot of blood and he had several wounds on him. The wolves had gotten to him bad and he’d crawled in here to die.

I heard Megan come in behind me. She looked over my shoulder. “Oh. Alec,” she muttered. “Poor bastard.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You wanna leave him or get him out of here?”

She sighed. “Let’s just leave him and close the door. Bodies don’t really bother me at this point,” she muttered.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m gonna search him. Looks like he’s got a backpack.”

“Yeah, uh...if you give me some matches, I can get a fire going.”

“Sure,” I said, passing her one of the books I had on me.

She left the bathroom.

I took ten minutes to search the body and get the backpack off of it. I’d heard several people make similar claims to the one Megan had just made, but I actually believed her. There were some people who just didn’t get upset by bodies, not through any force of will or decision, more like, the reaction just didn’t occur inside them. Kind of like arachnophobia. You either had it or you didn’t. Although sometimes it could be gotten over or fade, like in me. They used to bug me, but they really didn’t anymore.

Not unless they were like mauled horrifically and you could see inside them.

This guy wasn’t too bad but I wanted to be done with it.

The backpack he had was bigger than the one I currently had on me, although it was unfortunately not very full. I found some more clothes in it, just a basic change, no weapons, a plastic container of what looked to be relatively fresh rabbit meat, and two books. A crime drama and an action novel. Cool. I left it all in there and then performed a search of the bathroom. But it was obvious that this place had been picked over thoroughly. Once my sweep of the small bathroom was finished, I closed the door firmly.

Megan had the front door closed and locked and a fire going by then.

I set the backpack down on the bed, then shrugged out of mine and put it down, then spent a moment transferring everything over to the larger pack. It still wasn’t a big one, but it was bigger, which was enough for me. Once it was done, I held up my old pack.

“Megan, this is yours now,” I said.

“Thanks,” she murmured, coming over and taking it. She looked it over, then set it down up against the nearest wall. “Now what?”

“Now we wait,” I replied.

“Did he have anything good on him?” she asked.

“A few books, some rabbit meat,” I replied.

“Well, that’s good at least.”

She sighed and sat down in the one remaining chair that looked like it could hold any weight. I walked to one of the windows and looked out. It was snowing harder than ever now. Great. I looked at the pile of wood she’d brought in next to the fireplace. We should be fine, but it really depended on how long this snow lasted.

“I’m gonna search this place,” I said.

“All right,” she replied.

She seemed like she wasn’t looking at me intentionally. I paused for just a second, considering that. What had I done to piss her off this time? Maybe nothing. Maybe she was just mad because of the situation we were in and didn’t want to take it out on me.

Or maybe it was something completely different.

Either way, I mentally shrugged and got to searching.

~

The first hour was productive, on my end at least.

Despite what she said, Megan wasn’t half-bad at making and then tending a fire. It was fairly warm inside, but the mood seemed to be souring on both our ends. Megan seemed like something was bugging her and I figured it was probably the fact that we’d confirmed all of her last party was dead now. She sat around for awhile, then paced, finally when I offered her one of the books, she took one and started reading, though she still seemed annoyed.

Things weren’t going great on my end, either.

That hour was basically wasted. I found not a goddamned thing. Nothing in any of the obvious spots, nothing tucked up or hidden away, no compartments or panels or nothing. No hidden items up under any furniture.

Not a damn bit of useful supplies.

The storm was as strong as ever by the time I was done.

With the search finished, I ended up turning my attention to the rifle. I broke it down and looked over it carefully, making sure that it was going to fire when the trigger was pulled. What I saw made me relax, at least. The rifle was in good condition. I really wanted to test-fire it at least once, but we simply couldn’t afford to waste even a single round right now. So I put it back together and loaded it and looked it over as much as I could, then I put it aside and spent another half an hour just looking out the windows at the snow blowing by.

Finally, Megan put aside the book and shifted in her chair.

I turned, because it seemed somehow deliberate, and saw she was looking at me. “I wanted to ask,” she said, then hesitated.

“Yeah?”

“What are your relationships like nowadays?”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

She shifted again, this time looking a little uncomfortable. “I mean, are they all like Delilah? Is every time you get laid a transaction? Or do you have girlfriends?” she asked.

“Why do you wanna know?” I replied. I felt like this was going somewhere, but I couldn’t be sure where.

She sighed. “I’m just curious. I can’t make conversation?”

“Unusual choice for conversation,” I replied. She stared at me, waiting. I decided to humor her. “They’re usually some of both,” I said. “Sometimes it’s just a hookup. I meet someone out here in the wilderness, or someone at a bar in a town, we catch eyes, we hook up. Sometimes, often, I’m willing to trade something for sex. Sometimes women come to me and make a deal. Usually I have a place to live and decent access to food and firewood because of my skills. And I’m willing to share my resources and place in exchange for regular sex. And honestly, most times, I feel like, for a little while, it becomes indistinguishable from a relationship. We’re two people who live together, share resources, and have sex.”

“You don’t think that might just be your perception of it?” she asked.

“I mean maybe. It’s not like I scream at the women if they ever try to tell me no. I never threaten, I never try to intimidate. Sometimes they say they don’t want to, and I don’t push it. Sometimes, yeah, I’ve ‘broken up’ with a few because it became obvious that they were using me, but were unwilling to hold up their end of the bargain. I told them they had to go. I mean that’s fair, right? That was the deal, and if you break the terms of the deal, then I have a right to ask you to leave,” I said, feeling oddly defensive.

“Yeah but you have the power in these relationships. I mean what, if you stopped providing them with food, what are they gonna do, kick you out of your own place?” she asked. “Unless she had a gun, I doubt many women could physically force you to do anything.”

“It’s not like that’s my fault,” I said. “And it’s not like I go around, looking for desperate women and coercing them into fucking me in exchange for food and safety. I’m not a fucking predator.”

“Have you ever hit any of the women who shacked up with you?” she asked.

“No,” I said, then I paused. “Not unless they were asking for it,” I said.

Megan’s eyes popped open and she surged up in her seat. “What the fuck-” she began.

I held up my hands. “Wait, wait! Shit! Sorry, that’s not what I meant. Wow, that came out really wrong.” I sighed, and it was a testament to how far she must have come towards liking me, or at least not distrusting me so much, that she actually waited for me to continue. “What I meant, was that I only get physical with women if they explicitly ask me to during sex. Like BDSM, you know?”

Megan calmed down. “Oh...yeah. Okay.” She relaxed in her chair and actually laughed. “Man did you ever say the wrong thing...although I guess technically you were right. They do ask for it.” She studied me again. “Yeah, I guess you’d actually be really good at that kind of stuff, those girls who like being choked or slapped around or held down. You’re probably really strong.”

“They seem to enjoy it enough,” I said with an awkward shrug.

She looked away from me after that, and I couldn’t tell exactly, but I thought she was blushing. I thought about listening to her masturbating last night, of her watching us have sex. I thought it’d be weirder today, because sometimes people just got weird and awkward after seeing you naked, but for the most part she was the same.

“Something’s on your mind,” I said, deciding to push a little. “This storm isn’t going anywhere for probably at least an hour. You obviously are thinking about something or you want to say something. There’s nothing else to do. And it’s not like I’m an asshole or anything. I’m actually not that hard to talk to.”

She crossed her arms and stared at me, and her body language said she was steeling herself for something. To say something she didn’t want to say, maybe like she was going to admit something or insult me or I don’t know.

“Fine,” she said after a minute, then she sighed. “I want to...make a request.”

“All right,” I replied, waiting patiently. Okay, so I was right, she did have something she wanted to talk about.

“But I want to be clear about this, okay?” She stood up suddenly, defensive. “I’m not trying to make a deal. I’m not fucking giving in. I’m doing this on my own terms. Do you understand?”

“I think so,” I replied.

“Fine.” She paused again. “I want to have sex with you.”

FIFTEEN

I fucking knew it!

I almost said it out loud but I kept myself as neutral as I could. Right away, I could tell this offer, request, whatever, was very tenuous, and I was the one on thin ice. She was ready to retract this offer and shut me out at the drop of a hat.

“All right,” I repeated.

She was scrutinizing me closely, probably expecting me to rub her face in it or something, but I had no intention of doing anything like that.

“That’s all you got to say?” she asked doubtfully.

“Well, I accept,” I replied. “I already said I’d like to sleep with you.”

“Fine,” she said, almost like she was challenging me. “But if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it my way, all right?”

“Okay,” I said. I liked being in charge but I’ll be honest, if it got me inside of Megan, I’d be happy to hand her the reigns.

“Don’t try to make me do anything. Don’t try to do anything on ‘accident’. No fucking ‘oops I put it in the wrong hole’ or ‘I forgot to pull out!’. You want something, you ask, and if I say no, don’t fucking argue. None of this ‘but it ruins the mood’ or ‘I got caught up in the moment’ bullshit, do you understand me?” she demanded.

“I understand,” I said. Then I said, “Jesus fucking Christ, it sounds like you’ve had to put up with some really shitty guys.”

“I have,” she growled. “I’m not fucking doing it again. Now...take your clothes off.”

“You got it,” I replied, and I started getting naked. The bed didn’t look super comfortable, but right now I didn’t give a shit.

I wanted inside of Megan.

I watched with intense focus as she started to take her own clothes off.

“So what are we doing, exactly? Because unless you have some condoms hidden somewhere, we’re gonna have to go bareback,” I said.

“Show me that golden thing, I heard you can see it with the naked eye,” she said as her shirt came off. Underneath it, she wore a white bra.

“You can, and I’ll show you,” I replied.

She kicked her boots off then unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans, pulling them down. She had on a pair of black panties.

“Goddamn,” I muttered as I finished getting my own pants off.

“What?” she asked.

“You’re...really hot,” I said.

“Not as hot as your little redheaded slut back at the cabin,” she muttered.

“I’d say you’re both tens, honestly.”

Megan rolled her eyes. “Give me a fucking break.”

“No, seriously.”

“Look, I know I’m halfway hot, but Delilah is clearly a lot more attractive than I am.”

“I don’t know. She doesn’t have your force of will,” I muttered.

“What the hell does that have to do with how I look?”

“I guess it has more to do with how I look at you, if that makes sense? Plus, you’re a bit more filled out than she is, and you’re taller. I fucking love tall women. And you look...tough.”

“Men don’t like tough,” she said, though now she sounded less combative. She was definitely blushing now. “I know this for a fact.”

“What, every man everywhere doesn’t like tough women?” I asked, taking my boxers off.

She sighed. “Whatever, you know what I mean. In general.”

“Look, I’ve got no reason to lie to you. I think you’re as hot as Delilah. You’re both tens to me, just for different reasons. It isn’t difficult.”

“It is after you’ve had like twenty years of people making jokes about how ugly you are or how your hair looks stupid or how you look like a boy or this or that.” She abruptly shifted topics. “Okay, show me,” she said, looking down at my crotch.

“It’s easier when I’m hard,” I murmured. I was at half-salute right now.

She rolled her eyes again and took off her bra. That did it. Fuck, she had some nice tits. Beautiful, firm c-cups topped by dark nipples. They jiggled and bounced nicely as her bra came off and she tossed it onto the floor.

She smirked when she saw me finish getting erect. “Well, that’s a nice reaction, I gotta admit,” she murmured, then she got down on her knees and reached out. As she wrapped her fingers around my dick, she hesitated, then looked up at me. “I’m not sucking your cock today.”

“Oh, but I’m sure you expect me to eat your pussy, right?” I replied.

She frowned, then growled. “That’s fair,” she muttered. “Will you consider this, like, an audition? I’m actually all about fair play. So if this goes well, and yes, I do want you to eat me, I’ll suck your cock next time.” I continued looking at her, considering it. She sighed. “Come on, look at it from my perspective. I haven’t had a good lay in months, and I haven’t had my pussy eaten in even longer. Not like your precious redhead back at the cabin. And you have obviously been getting your cock sucked and fucked to your satisfaction for a long time now.”

“All right, all right, fair enough. But you’d better not half-ass it.”

She snorted. “Trust me, I know how to suck dick. You won’t regret waiting, now...” She peered into my urethra and nodded. “Okay, yeah, I see it. Fine. We can go raw.”

“Can I come inside you?” I asked.

“No,” she replied, standing up. “Not this time. And not on my face or in my mouth, either. I’m not...ready for that.” She pursed her lips again, considering. “Just go on my stomach. I’ll jack you off if you make me happy enough.”

“Fine,” I said. “I’m pretty sure I’ll make you happy.”

She studied me. It still was difficult not to cover myself somewhat, even though she was almost as naked as I was. “I’d say you’re overconfident but after having seen you perform twice now, I can’t really say that. All right,” she said, turning around and pulling her panties down. Fuck, she had a sweet ass. Thicker and broader than Delilah’s, smooth and with a nice heft to it. “Let’s do this.”

She walked over to the bed and, after checking it over and flapping the blanket a few times to get the dust and debris off it, she laid down on her back.

“How are you about kissing?” I asked as I moved to join her.

“I love kissing,” she replied. “Never understand how people can fuck casually but also not kiss. Like ‘oh yeah that’s where you draw the line? Fucking is no big deal but kissing, no way, that’s too intimate!’, you know what I mean?”

“I know exactly what you mean,” I replied as I laid down beside her.

She watched me closely as I settled into place beside her, between her and the wall. “You are...intimidating, you know that?” she said quietly.

“Sorry, not trying to be,” I replied.

She laughed. “I can tell by now. I’ve seen your intentional intimidation. You’re just...a big guy.”

“I’m not even that tall. I’m just six two. And you’re on the tall side yourself.”

“It’s not just height or even weight. You’ve got a big build, though. No, it’s more like...I guess your confidence. I’ve seen a lot of guys acting tough, but someone once told me something like, what was it? ‘Real confidence isn’t loud’. I guess that’s what you make me think of: real confidence. You’re just...direct and calm and you don’t boast.” She smiled and gave her head a small shake. “Much, anyway.”

“I just have a decent idea of what I’m good at,” I replied. “Shall we begin?”

“Yes,” she replied.

I kissed her.

I have to admit, I’d thought about doing this since I’d first seen her. Then again, I think a lot of people do that. Or maybe I’m just a pervert.

But who isn’t a pervert of at least some caliber?

Now that it was finally happening, it was actually a bit better than I’d imagined it. She kissed me back, her lips pressing to mine, and I got a sample of her natural taste. It was dark and kind of rough, if that makes any sense. It was intense, to be sure. I ran a hand down her arm, feeling the bump of a scar once, down all the way to the back of her hand, then over to one bare, firm hip as she turned towards me. She leaned into me, kissing me harder, and opened my mouth. Her taste really flooded in as her tongue sought mine.

Megan was definitely more aggressive than Delilah.

A quiet moan escaped her as my tongue found hers and they touched together, then began to twist and dance. Her hip was firm and smooth and hot beneath my hand. I ran the hand lower, down one firm thigh, then up again, over the hip, searching until I had one of her breasts in my hand. I gave it a small, gentle squeeze as she stared into my eyes and made out with me. I could feel her nipple pressing into my bare palm and that sent a powerful shock of lust through me. I felt my whole body, my cock especially, throb in response.

She kissed me harder, leaning into me even more, our lips and tongues wrestling. I put a hand on her shoulder suddenly and pushed her firmly onto her back. The kiss was broken temporarily and she looked at me with wide eyes. It almost seemed like she felt that move was a challenge and she was very eager to accept it.

I leaned closer to her and resumed kissing her, keeping her pinned, just a little, with some of my body. Then I slid my hand down to her thighs, working it between them, and she opened her legs for me just a little.

My hand moved up and brushed across her pussy.

She exhaled hard and I felt a shiver run through her at just the barest contact. Was she super sensitive or just keyed up?

Maybe both.

I ran my fingertips along her inner thighs for a moment, getting several more shivers and some moans out of her. Sensitive thighs, for sure.

Then my fingertip sought her clit, and I found it, nestled between the taut lips of her vagina. I made contact with the small white wet nub and began to rub it gently.

“Ohhhhhh...” she moaned loudly, breaking the kiss again. “Oh my fucking God...oh fuck...” she moaned again, shuddering.

“What was that about being cocky?” I asked, rubbing a bit harder and faster.

“Ahhh! Fuck!” she gasped. “It’s been...awhile,” she whispered, breathing much more heavily now. She closed her eyes, concentrating as I pleasured her. “You just...caught me in the right mood, is all.”

I laughed. “Oh, the right mood? What mood is that, exactly? Not bitchy?”

“Fuck you,” she muttered without opening her eyes.

“You will in just a minute,” I replied.

“Ugh, stop talking...” she moaned.

I complied, instead shifting and beginning to lick across one of her beautiful tan breasts. She moaned and shuddered even more intensely as I did that. For the next few minutes, I listened to the sounds of the winds shrieking by outside and Megan moaning in pure bliss. As I pleasured her, I did wonder if Delilah would be jealous or angry, but I didn’t think so. I thought she had been honest when she’d told me that she just wanted Megan to be a part of our own sexual unity, and she seemed like the type of woman who would be cool with it even if Megan only wanted to fuck me. So far, I hadn’t heard anything that clearly put her as straight or bi definitely. Although I thought she might be into Delilah, that just might be my fantasies talking.

“Oh, Chris! Oh fuck! I...oh I’m coming!” she screamed and her whole body spasmed. Her hips bucked as I rubbed her clit more vigorously and her thighs clenched and I watched her go through the telltale stages of a beautiful female orgasm.

I pleasured her through it and watched her twist and writhe, her breasts swaying and bouncing wonderfully as she came.

When she was done, she fell back, panting.

“Fuck,” she whispered. “Okay, I’m ready for the next one.”

“You’re a greedy girl,” I said as I got up.

“I’m not greedy I’m neglected,” she growled. “I haven’t been given an orgasm by another person in over two months, I’ll have you know.”

“I guess I’ve got my work cut out for me then,” I said, getting re-situated between her thighs. Not much had come out of her, so she must not be as much of a squirter as Delilah clearly was. Well, she seemed to have enjoyed herself plenty and it meant cleanup was easier. She also had a fair patch of black pubic hair.

She saw me looking at it. “I haven’t had much reason to trim the hedges for awhile either,” she said, looking mildly embarrassed. “I didn’t think I was going to be naked in front of someone today and it’s not like grooming is high on most people’s minds anyways nowadays.”

“That’s fine,” I said, and dipped my head.

I gently parted the lips of her pussy, exposing her clit, and touched the tip of my tongue to it. A fresh moan escaped her and a new shiver ran through her.

“Oh fuck...” she whispered as I started to massage her clit with it. I intended to do a great job. I wanted her to feel good, but I also wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity she’d given me. This audition of hers.

Having a very attractive woman around who would fuck you regularly was great.

Having two, on the other hand?

That was beyond great. That was amazing.

I listened to her moan and cry out and sometimes outright scream as I ate her out, licking at her clit with more and more of my tongue, and finally getting my lower lip involved. I slipped a finger inside of her and found her to be both wonderfully tight and fantastically wet on the inside. This was going to be great sex, based on everything we’d done so far.

It didn’t take her as long to orgasm a second time. Megan reached down suddenly and grabbed my head and rammed my face deeper into her crotch. I kept eating her as she orgasmed, and felt her shuddering and writhing around me, heard her screams come out again as she lost herself in that wonderful climax.

I did it until she pushed my head away and I sat up, looking down at her.

Hot damn was she an attractive woman.

As she came back down from that second high, she looked at me, saw me staring at her. She looked a lot more relaxed. “You really think I’m as hot as Delilah is?”

“Fuck yes,” I replied immediately.

She laughed softly. “You’re a weirdo.”

“Why?” I replied, distracted by her nudity, by her long, sweat-slicked body, by how fucking hard my erection was and how much I wanted to put it into her.

“You just are. Okay, it’s your turn now. Stick it in there. Nice and easy, you’re...big,” she murmured, looking down at my cock.

“Nice and easy,” I agreed as I eagerly got into position.

I laid the head of my cock, which pulsed in time with my heartbeat in pure naked sexual desire, at the entrance to her sweet, wet pussy.

Then I slid into her.

“Oh my fucking...wow,” she whispered, looking down the length of her smooth tan body at me as I worked my way into her. “You feel...quite large.”

“You can handle it, right?” I asked, just a little bit of a teasing edging into my voice.

She sighed. “Oh fuck off, you aren’t that big.”

“Oh really?”

I pushed deeper into her. She grunted and moaned. “I’m fine,” she growled.

“If you say so.”

I got the rest of the way into her and then started fucking her. She let out a loud, long moan as I screwed her. And I very quickly lost myself inside of her. She was...so good. So fucking good to fuck. I planted my hands on either side of her head, pressing into the pillow, holding myself up and staring down at her. I watched her face twist in pleasure, her eyes closing, her mouth opening, her tongue coming out and going back in. Women had all sorts of interesting involuntary reactions to sexual pleasure.

They were always a joy to discover.

Presently, I was lost inside her.

Just totally lost in that sweet bliss of barebacking a woman I had never before been intimate with. With Megan, I could already tell it was more powerful than with Delilah. I could also tell that I was not lasting very long. That was one of the problems with having unprotected sex with a woman for the first time. It was also a problem when I was really, really attracted to a woman. And apparently I was really damned attracted to Megan.

In a way, I hadn’t even realized just how much she appealed to me until we’d started talking about sex. It was like something had been out of focus for awhile. You knew it was there, but you didn’t quite realize what it was. And then, all at once, it was thrown into perfect focus and you saw exactly what it was.

“Oh, Megan...” I moaned as I fucked her, sliding my cock in and out of her. That slick heat enveloped my dick in a pocket of pure pleasure that spiraled out from my core, filling my body, making me want to come so fucking bad.

“You like that pussy don’t you?” she panted, her eyes opening. She grinned fiercely up at me.

“Yes,” I replied, stroking smoothly into her, making the bed shake. “Fuck yes, it’s so good.”

“I thought you were gonna hurt,” she whispered between breaths. “But I think you’re just right. Not too big, not too small, just right for maximizing how fucking good it feels.”

I regained some of my focus. “So, you like getting fuck by me, huh?”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” she growled, then moaned loudly as I shifted angle and hit a particularly sensitive spot. “Fuck! Why are you so good at this...”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” I replied.

I fucked her for as long as I could. Altogether, I think I managed to pound her for maybe four or five minutes. It was hard to tell, and even that felt like a feat.

Seriously, her pussy was so good!

It was even better than Delilah’s, though I couldn’t say why.

Maybe it was just because she was more the type of woman I’d like to date, as opposed to the type of woman I just wanted to screw.

“Shit!” I yelled right at the last second, and I pulled out of her.

She reached down and gripped my cock right as I started coming. She let out a small gasp as she began jacking me off. I looked down at that wonderful body of hers as I began to spurt. Her hand jacking me off felt fantastically good. I watched my stuff shoot out of me in thick sprays, getting on her belly, up onto her ribcage, then some even onto her tits.

Fuck, I got some of it on her neck.

“Oh my fucking God, Chris,” she whispered as she kept jacking me. “Jesus fucking Christ there’s so much of it!”

I was just moaning in incoherent pleasure, totally lost in that orgasm.

When it was done, I had her let go of me, and then I twisted, put my feet on the floor, and sat on the edge of the bed, taking a moment to catch my breath.

“I need something to wash up with,” she muttered. “You fucking covered me in it.”

“Yeah,” I replied, head still swimmy from the orgasm.

I grabbed my new pack, rifled around in it, and came up with the thermos of water and the shirt I’d found in Alec’s pack. I passed them both to her and she carefully cleaned herself up.

“I guess taking it in the mouth would’ve saved on clean-up,” she murmured.

“Yep,” I agreed.

As soon as she was done cleaning up, I laid down on my back beside her. After only a moment’s hesitation, she laid against me, then partially on me, her nude, hot body feeling exquisitely pleasant. I wrapped an arm around her.

We listened to the wind howl.

SIXTEEN

We laid without speaking for almost half an hour.

I think she dozed for some of it. I was content to just lay there and enjoy having Megan against me and the post-orgasmic bliss I was feeling.

And then she spoke up.

“Will Delilah be mad?” she murmured.

“No,” I replied, laughing softly. “She encouraged this.”

“What really?”

“I think she wants you too,” I said.

“Huh,” was all Megan said to that.

“Can I tell her? Or do you not want me to?” I asked.

“You’re asking?”

“Well I mean yeah. You don’t want me to talk about what we did, I won’t.”

“Interesting. Most people can’t shut the fuck up whenever they get laid, and I thought you’d be giddy over the fact that you convinced me to take off my clothes and open my legs for you.”

“I mean...I am. But it’s your business.”

“I appreciate that,” she murmured after a few seconds. “Yes, you can tell her.” She shifted and then groaned.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Your fat cock made me sore,” she complained, shifting again.

“Sorry.”

“No you aren’t. But don’t worry, it’ll be fine by morning, probably. It’s probably for the best, actually. If I wasn’t sore, I’d be taking you for another spin and maybe that’s not such a great idea,” she replied.

“Why not?”

“We had sex for the first time. After that, it’s best for me to give everything some time to settle. And things have a much harder time settling so that I can see clearly if I fuck a second time. So I just need to...see where we stand with clarity.”

“Makes sense,” I said. I paused. “Hear that?”

“What?” she asked, tensing immediately.

“The winds are dying down,” I replied. “We can probably go soon.”

“Wonderful, back out into the fucking cold.”

“Yep,” I replied. “At least we got the rifle and we both got laid.”

She laughed.

~

Twenty minutes later, we were dressed and on our way back.

The storm was either in a lull or gone completely. If it was a lull, it would almost certainly last long enough for us to get back home safely, and I didn’t want to leave Delilah alone any longer than I absolutely had to.

“Just so you know, this doesn’t mean we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, or friends with benefits,” Megan said suddenly after about ten minutes of silent walking. I was glad to see that there was much less venom in her voice, much less tension in her stance.

Getting laid and having multiple orgasms tended to do that to you.

“I got it,” I replied.

She offered a short laugh. “Right.”

“What, you think I don’t?”

“No, no. I just, well, I guess I’m getting used to the idea that I don’t have to keep reminding you of this shit. Force of habit, I guess. People fucking assume so fucking much! You glance at a guy, he assumes you’re into him. You fuck a guy once, he assumes you’re his girl now. Assumptions fuck everything up.”

“You don’t have to worry about that with me.”

“I’m learning that.”

We didn’t talk after that as we walked back through the recently fallen snow. I figured there was a pretty decent chance she’d want to fuck again. She seemed a lot more relaxed around me now. That could be the fact that she’d gotten laid, or the fact that we’d fucked and it had gone well. Probably both. I at least felt good that I wasn’t lying to her. If she wanted to stop and just go back to being strictly business partners, or survival partners, or whatever phrase made the most sense, then I’d be completely fine with that.

I mean, I’d still want to fuck her, but I knew how to shut the fuck up about it.

We made it back to the cabin without running into any problems. No wolves, no assholes, no bad weather either. In fact, by the time we were back, the skies looked like they were clearing up. Damn I hoped it held. Based on what I’d experienced, you could reasonably hope for three, maybe four days of clear skies at a stretch. A week was on the far end of possible nowadays. I hated how damned insane the weather had gotten.

Fuck did I miss summer.

And I didn’t even like summer before. I hated being stupidly hot and humid all the time. Not like fall was great either for that.

Of course, it was humid most of the time in Florida, but that was a lifetime ago.

I was glad to see that the cabin looked intact, no one was hanging around, and when I did my knock, Delilah answered promptly.

“Oh shit, you found the gun,” she said, looking at once both excited and anxious.

“Yep. It works, though we’re not doing great on bullets,” I replied as we came in.

“I can handle it,” Megan said as she walked right over to the fireplace and sat down on the floor before it, warming herself.

After I closed and locked the door, Delilah stared at me, flicked her eyes briefly to Megan, and then raised her eyebrows in inquiry.

She wanted to know if we had fucked, I could just tell.

I gave her a big grin.

She almost laughed, looking excited, then calmed herself. “So, um, what now?” she asked.

“Now we nail the fuckers,” Megan growled.

“No arguments there,” Delilah replied. “I just...don’t want you two to get hurt.”

“We’ll be fine,” I said. “Probably.” I sighed and took a seat. “The first question is: How many do we intend to kill? Because I feel like we could probably kill them all. But the question is, should we kill them all?”

“Maybe,” Megan growled. Then she sighed. “Shit, I don’t know. I’m not a fucking savage or anything...or maybe I am. I fucking want to kill those bastards. I overheard two of them, his big bodyguard and I think the guy that usually sits up on the roof all day with a gun, complaining that the boss used to let them rape their captives. So I’m cool killing the boss, the lookout, the bodyguard, and his smarmy little smart guy assistant. Dude snuck in and fucking groped me.”

“Okay, that’s four. What about the other two?” I asked.

She sighed. “One of them I didn’t see much, but there’s one who goes out and hunts. He had short blonde hair, like a crewcut kinda. He was really the only one who took any kind of care of me. Bathroom breaks, replaced my food and water. He never did anything fucked up and he actually looked like he felt bad about it.”

“All right, we’ll kill the four of them, and then if the other two put up a fight, we kill them too. Sound good?” I asked.

“Fine by me,” Megan muttered.

“How do you actually intend to do this?” Delilah asked.

“Megan’s the sharpshooter. There’s a little hill in the woods that overlooks the campgrounds. If I can get most of them out in the open, we can put them down. I’m a pretty quick draw and they...” I sighed, disgusted. “They trust me already. They asked me to join up with them and I told them I’d think about it.”

“You aren’t like them,” Delilah said.

“Yeah, I know,” I muttered. I shook my head. “Whatever, this is what I think we should do. Megan, you get in place with the rifle. I’ll go with you and we’ll make sure the guy on the roof is up on the roof. He needs to be the first to die. High ground needs to be controlled fast. But once we confirm, I’ll make my way around to the far side, come to them, try to get them to talk out in the open. Keep a sharp eye on me, I’ll give a signal.”

“What’s the signal?” she asked, standing back up and staring at me intently.

“When I spread my arms out,” I replied, demonstrating, holding them out like I was indicating the cabin around me. “When I do that, kill the man on the roof. Can you get a headshot?”

“What’s the distance?” she asked.

“I thought you said you were bad with judging distance,” I replied.

She sighed. “Yeah, like, on a broader scale. But for shooting I can judge it pretty decent.”

“About a football field, three hundred feet,” I replied.

“Huh. Okay, yeah, I can make a headshot pretty good from that distance.”

“You done this before?” I asked.

She sighed. “Yeah, I’ve had to do stuff like this before. Not often, you know, but sometimes. And I’ve done it often enough for hunting. I at least got good at that.”

“All right, fine. I’m going to spend maybe a minute or two trying to figure out where everyone is. The guy in charge seems to keep his two cronies with him, so hopefully they’ll be front and center. After the first shot, I’ll be pretty vulnerable, so I’m going to pretend I don’t know what’s happening. I’ll need you to take down at least one of them, preferably his big body guard. I should be able to drop the others with my pistol and hopefully I’ll have figured out where the other two guys are. And that no one else is around. There’ll be some playing it by ear, basically. But ideally we’ll be able to cap the four jerks really quick. You stay put on that hill until I signal you. I’ll wave you in when I’m ready. Does that all make sense?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Megan replied.

“I assume I’m staying here?” Delilah said.

“Yep. We’ll be back for you. Once it’s all cleaned up, we’ll come get you. You can help us search the place over for supplies.”

“Cool,” she said, though she still looked nervous.

I felt kinda bad, she liked me a lot already, I could tell that much, but practically speaking, she was relying on me a great deal. If I died, she might be fucked. She was tougher than she thought she was, I figured. She had to be to still be alive after two years. Most people who were still around were tougher than they thought for the most part. But not everyone realized it. The human mind went all sorts of directions, most of them not great.

Megan and I finished warming up, then we drank some water and looked over our guns. Once we were double-sure they were functional, I dropped off all the extra gear, and Megan opted out of hanging onto her new backpack for the moment. I kept mine, though loaded down with not much gear, then I stepped up to Delilah.

“Delilah, try not to worry too much,” I said. “We can handle it. I’ve had to do stuff like this before. I’m still here. If something happens to me, though, Megan will come back and help you.” I looked over at her. “Right?”

Megan sighed. “Yeah, I’m not going to leave you to rot, Delilah.”

“If something happens to both of us, and we’re not back by sundown, I want you to pack everything and leave. And keep a watch out regardless. Okay?”

“All right,” she said, looking more anxious than ever.

I gave her a hug and a kiss, and she squeezed me tightly.

“Don’t worry,” I said, then figured it was probably pointless to say it. She was gonna worry. That was just one of those things you said when you had nothing else to say, I guess.

“Just come back okay,” she replied into my chest.

I stroked the back of her head. “I will. I promise. We can fuck to celebrate,” I said.

She laughed, despite herself. “I’ll hold you to that.” She let go of me after a moment and looked up at me. “Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

I gave her one more kiss, then turned to Megan. “Let’s do this.”

~

I had to admit, I was nervous.

It had been awhile since I’d done something like this, and it wasn’t even like I’d done it all that often. Just a couple of times. I didn’t like it, and my stomach was twisting in knots, my heart rate was up. If it wasn’t so damned cold out I’d be sweating. Megan looked cool and calm though. I wondered how angry she was, how much she was looking forward to this. I wondered if she’d be able to do it. I didn’t think she was lying to me, she probably was a great shot, but it was one of those things where it needed to be correct.

If she fucked up, there’s a good chance I’d die down there.

I was quick on my feet though, a quick draw and a good shot when I had to be, but six bullets wasn’t a lot to work with. Although they’d have guns. Maybe I could grab one of their pistols if things went sideways.

We walked through the woods, past the store and then the barn and farmhouse. No wolves, thank God. Damn that would fuck this up. Maybe they’d finally found and shot a few of them. Our food problems would probably be over. I’d definitely have a lot more guns. They had several pistols and a shotgun between them at least. A rifle, too, I think.

As we came up on that hill again, I focused.

Time to get serious.

We crawled up there slowly, carefully, on our bellies through the snow. Finally, we had a good view, hidden among some bushes growing on its top.

“Wow, this is a great view,” she whispered.

“Yep. And look, there he is,” I replied.

Sure enough, the same guy was on duty. Probably was the best shot among them. Either that, or he was just cool with playing guard all day long. I saw the blonde guy she’d mentioned walking across the way. I studied him. Yeah...something in his posture, in the way he was walking, spoke of depression. Or maybe resignation. I guess I’d have to see how he reacted. Couldn’t see anyone else. They must be all inside, circle jerking about how awesome they were.

“This is a good setup?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ve got a clean line of sight to everyone. Or I will. Go do your thing,” she said.

“All right.” I began to get up but she said my name. I looked over at her.

She kissed me full on the mouth. “Good luck, okay?”

“You too,” I replied, then grinned tightly. “I’m putting my life in your hands. Don’t fuck this up.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

“Okay.”

I got up.

From there, I made the big circle in the woods, carefully out of sight. I spent the whole time getting into character, calming myself, figuring out what I was going to say. By the time I was on approach to the campgrounds, I thought I had it all sorted in my head. Keeping calm, even a little cocky, I walked up to the front gate.

“Yo that guy’s back!” the man on the roof called out. “Stay there!” he said to me.

“Yep,” I replied, keeping chill.

I felt elation as I saw all three of them come out of the main building. Ryan, the leader, and Tony, his big burly bodyguard, and the third guy. Had I learned his name? Shit I couldn’t remember. Not that it mattered, I guess.

They were going to be corpses soon.

It made me uncomfortable how cool I was with that thought.

“Chris!” Ryan said, smiling as they approached me. I took a look around as I walked in to meet him halfway. The blonde dude was in the shack where they’d been keeping Megan. It looked like he was cleaning it up. I didn’t see anyone new in there, but that was something I intended to find out. Because that would be important to know once the shooting started. I didn’t see the final guy. He could be anywhere.

A wildcard. Great.

“Ryan,” I said as we met in the middle.

“How was she?” he asked.

I affected a somewhat guilty though amused look. “Heh, well...I broke her.”

His eyebrows went up. “What’s that mean?”

“I got a little drunk, started in on her, she was a fighter, though. Man was she a fighter. Went in a bit too hard on her and, uh, broke her neck. She’s dead, man,” I said, chuckling ruefully.

“Goddamn man!” Ryan replied, clearly amused. “You are hardcore! I like that. Fuck, well, I’m sure we’ll find another.”

“You got another one?” I asked hopefully, keeping that angry-hate-sick gut feeling completely off my face and out of my body language. Jesus Christ, I’d just told him that I’d accidentally killed someone and he was fucking impressed over it.

“Nah, not yet. But I’m sure we can rustle up some more women. Especially if you agree to join us. So...have you thought on it?”

I took one more look around, my heart thumping. All right, this was it. This was as good as it was going to get. I had hoped to see the sixth guy, and I thought I caught a bit of movement through one of the windows to the left, but I couldn’t be sure and I couldn’t wait any more. I honestly thought this was as good a shot as we were going to get.

“You really wanna move to a town?” I asked. I held out my arms, encompassing the campgrounds around me. “You wanna give up all this personal freedom?” I asked. He looked at me like he wasn’t sure if I was joking or not. I laughed. “Nah I’m just fucking with you. Yeah I think that’d be a great-”

The rifle barked.

We all looked around, jerking in surprise, as there was a nasty wet sound and I just saw the lookout’s head snap back in a spray of not just blood but a lot of chunky brains and skull, too.

“What the fuck!?” Tony cried.

The lookout’s body staggered briefly, then collapsed, falling off the roof. Half his fucking head had been blown off.

“Holy shit!” I cried, turning partway around, pulling out my pistol. “What the fuck was that?!”

“Sniper!” Ryan yelled. “Get the fuck-”

Tony’s right eye exploded like there’d been a fucking bomb inside of it and the bullet smashed out the back of his head in a huge spray of gore.

“Shit! Shit!” Ryan yelled.

Those were his last words.

I turned on him, aimed the six-shooter right at his head, and pulled the trigger. His head snapped to the side, his brains spraying out onto the snow. Before he could even finish falling down, I’d turned and drew a bead on the other guy. He was pointing his gun at me already but there was a look of shock on his face.

I pulled the trigger three times, putting three rounds into his chest.

He screamed, briefly, and then went down, dead on the third shot as it blew his heart out. I immediately twisted to the right. The blonde guy was standing about a foot outside the shed. He wasn’t holding a weapon and he looked dazed, like a man in a dream, just staring at me with wide eyes. I thought I saw some movement in the cabin next to him, but it was still hard to tell.

“Get the fuck over here!” I snapped. “Now! You got a gun, throw it down!”

“I don’t have a gun,” he said, coming back to himself.

“Get over here, right now,” I replied.

He came over to me, his steps steady but heavy. He kept staring at me, occasionally looking at the corpses, then back up to me.

“Okay, close enough, stop,” I said when he was about ten feet from me and the dead bodies. “I’m going to make this real simple for you: lay face down, on the ground, and put your hands on your head. Stay there until I tell you otherwise. If you get up, my sniper will put a bullet through your head. Do you understand?”

Now he just looked defeated. “I understand,” he said, and got down onto his knees.

“Where’s the last guy?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, but probably in the cabin behind me. It’s his. The one nearest the shed where we kept the girl,” he replied, then he laid down.

“Fine, stay there, don’t fucking move.”

“Okay.”

I wondered why he was so compliant. Maybe he just knew he was fucked, but I thought it was more than that. I looked at the cabin. It was the one I’d seen movement in. I glanced at the hill Megan was on, although I couldn’t see him.

“If he moves, shoot him!” I yelled, my voice carrying well.

“Okay!” came her response. Good.

I headed for the cabin. I sensed as much as saw movement through the window, which was only half covered by curtains or a blanket maybe. Stopping about ten feet short of the cabin, I readjusted my grip on the pistol and cleared my throat.

“I know you’re in there,” I said loudly, “so I’m telling you to come out right now.” I paused. Nothing happened. “If I have to come in there, I promise you will not like it.”

Just as I began to start walking towards the cabin, I heard a muffled voice. “Okay, okay! I’m coming out! Don’t shoot me! Fuck!”

“Slowly,” I said.

The door opened slowly. I saw a scrawny guy with shaggy brown hair. He looked shaky, like his control of his own body was tenuous. I hoped he wouldn’t do anything stupid. He looked defeated, but also terrified, and fear made people do crazy stupid things.

“Slowly, towards me,” I said, stepping carefully to the side.

“Don’t kill me, man,” he groaned, lingering in the doorway.

“Just get over here. You probably won’t die,” I replied.

He regarded me with terrified misery. “What do you mean probably!?”

“At this point, it’s not up to me if you live or die. It’s up to her,” I said, nodding off to my left, where Megan was still hidden.

“Who is she?” he muttered, looking that direction.

“That girl you had locked up here yesterday.”

“Goddamnit! I knew we shouldn’t have fucking trusted you,” he muttered.

“Walk,” I replied.

He walked towards me. I directed him over to the man with the blonde crewcut, who hadn’t moved an inch.

“On the ground, hands on the back of your head,” I said.

“Come on, don’t fucking execute me,” he begged.

“We’ll see. Do it or I’ll shoot you in knee,” I replied.

He sighed and grumbled to himself, but he did it.

“Fucking cold,” he muttered.

I couldn’t tell if he was talking about the ground or me.

Without taking my eyes off them, I raised my hand and waved for Megan to join me. After a few minutes, I heard her walking through the snow, into the campgrounds.

“Good work,” she said as she joined me.

“You too,” I replied. “What should we do with them?”

She sighed, staring at them with a deep frown. Then she handed me the rifle. I took it and watched as she stepped up to the pair.

“You, blondie, up on your knees,” she said.

He got up onto his knees. He looked very resigned.

“Why’d you do this?” she asked, staring hard at him. “Why did you help them?”

“We were just-” the scrawny man began but Megan shot him a glance.

“I didn’t ask you a motherfucking thing!” she screamed at him.

Damn she could be intimidating when she wanted to.

The brown-haired guy shut right the hell up.

She looked back at the blonde man. “Well?”

He sighed. “I don’t have any excuses,” he said. He sounded tired. “He just...reminded me of my best friend. Who got killed when we were teenagers.”

“Who did?”

“Ryan, the guy in charge.”

“Seriously? That’s it? He reminded you of someone?”

He sighed and shook his head. “No. That’s just how I got started. I was out hunting a few months ago, ran into Tony, got to talking, he was looking to recruit, said I looked like a hardass. I went back, met with Ryan, joined up. It was a few weeks before I realized how bad they were. By then...I don’t know. I don’t have any excuses. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. I thought maybe I could stay here and try and help the women they did capture. I managed to at least convince him that fucking them wasn’t a great idea if they were trying to sell them...” he just sighed and shook his head again. “I’m not even trying to justify myself. If you’re gonna shoot me, you might as well do it now.”

Megan sighed, staring at him for a long moment, then turned to the other guy. “What about you, skinny? You got something to say for yourself?”

“I was just following orders,” he replied.

“Jesus, that’s the most cliché thing I’ve ever heard in my whole fucking life,” I muttered.

Megan walked over and held out her hand. I slapped the pistol into it. She knelt and pushed the barrel against the back of his head. “You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

“Oh, fuck! Come on! I never touched any of them! I never fucking touched you! I’m just trying to fucking live!”

Megan held her position. The man on the ground whimpered and shook. I studied her, wondering if she was just going to pull the trigger and end him right then and there. Finally, with a soft sigh, she pulled back.

“Get up, on your knees,” she growled.

“Th-thank you,” the man whispered.

“Shut the fuck up,” Megan replied, coming to stand next to me. “I don’t want to kill either of them,” she said. “But they can’t stay here.”

“Agreed,” I replied. “How about this? We let them gather their belongings, no guns though, and a reasonable amount of supplies, and send them on their way?” I suggested.

“No guns? Come on! How am I supposed to fucking defend myself out there?!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Megan snapped, pointing the gun at him again. He instantly cringed away from it. “I could just kill you right now.” She looked back at me. “Fine.”

“All right, let’s do it. Up, you two.”

SEVENTEEN

It took half an hour for them to gather their stuff. We checked it all out, to make sure they weren’t trying to smuggle any guns out or maybe anything really valuable. The blonde guy didn’t put up any kind of fight. In a way, I felt bad for him. I know that to ignore something is to be complicit in it and that is its own form of evil, but I do think a lot of people underestimate what it’s like to actually be faced with that choice.

A lot of people talk tough, but if they ever actually lived a situation where you would have to risk your life to stand up for what was right, they wouldn’t.

The skinny guy who complained a surprising amount for someone with a gun on him tried to pull a fast one on us, sneaking a gun into his pack. When we searched it after they packed, Megan found it, turned, and kicked him square in the nuts.

That took an extra ten minutes just to get him back on his feet.

Finally, the four of us stood up on the highway.

“This is where we part ways,” I said. “Consider yourselves lucky, you could be dead right now. But we’re giving you this chance. Pick a direction and start walking, although I’d advise against north, because that’s where we’ll be heading, and if we ever see either of you again, there’s a good chance you won’t be so lucky.”

“If I ever see you again,” Megan growled at the brown-haired man, “I promise I’ll blow your fucking head off.”

“Fine, jeez,” he muttered.

“Go,” I said.

The blonde guy just started walking south, back along the way I had initially come from. After a moment’s indecision, the brown-haired guy followed after him. We stood there and watched them for awhile, until they were finally just dots.

“There,” I said. “Mission accomplished.”

“Yep,” Megan muttered. She shuddered suddenly and leaned against me. I put an arm around her. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just...that was really intense. I don’t regret killing them, they were monsters, but fuck, that was intense.”

“It was,” I agreed. “Why don’t you head back to the cabin and take a break. Let Delilah know we’re okay?” I suggested.

“What about you?” she asked.

“I’m going to go back to the campgrounds and start gathering up that gear. All we need is for some random person to swing through and scoop it up,” I replied.

She stared at me for a moment, hesitating. I couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t want me to leave her, or because she didn’t fully trust me yet. Maybe it was both. Then she just nodded. “Okay,” she said, stepping away from me.

“You remember the knock?” I asked. She nodded. “Okay. Once you’ve rested up, bring Delilah to the campgrounds and you two can help me search it over.”

“All right,” she said. Megan hesitated, looking at me for another moment, like she wanted to say something else, then she just nodded again and turned away. I watched her make her way back down the hill that led down from the highway. When she’d made it safely down to the ground, I turned back and faced the other direction.

Where the people who almost certainly had my journal were.

I stared out over that large tract of landscape, at the trees, the church on the hill, the frozen lake. That was the next big thing, the next goal.

I was going to get my fucking journal back.

But not yet. For now, there were loose ends to deal with, survival to ensure.

I began heading back to the campgrounds.

~

I had time to frisk all four corpses and then haul them off to the side, in the woods.

Out of sight, out of mind.

The guy on the roof had a pistol. Ryan hadn’t been armed apparently, but his skeezy sidekick also had a pistol, and Tony had one too. A big, shiny forty-five. I recognized the other pistol as the nine millimeter they’d let me borrow. I unloaded the forty-five and tossed it into my backpack, then tucked the nine millimeter down the back of my pants after making sure it was loaded and the safety was on. I also tossed the twenty-two in there too after unloading the remaining two bullets. The nine would serve nicely now.

They didn’t have much on them. Tony and Ryan had lighters, and I found three magazines of ammo between the four bodies. A knife. Some cigarettes. A bottle of painkillers. A book of matches. Not as much as I was hoping for. After getting rid of the last body, I walked back and saw Megan and Delilah approaching.

As soon as she saw me, Delilah ran towards me. When she got to me she pretty much threw herself into my arms, hugging me tightly.

“You really like me, huh?” I asked.

“Duh,” she replied as I wrapped my own arms around her. “You saved my life and you’re the best fucking lay I’ve ever had.”

I laughed. “Well that’s good to hear.”

When she stopped hugging me, she looked off towards where I put the bodies. You could see an arm sticking out of the bushes. “Jesus...you really killed them, huh?”

“Yeah. I got two, Megan got two. She really is an excellent sniper,” I replied.

“Told you,” she said, walking up.

“I just...fuck, that kind of freaks me out a little. I mean, I get it, you were right. They chained us up and were going to fucking sell us as fuck toys. They deserved it. Just...fuck. It’s so intense. And now they’re gone forever.”

“I know. Try not to think about it,” I replied. “Why don’t you and Megan get started searching the main house. Go over it with a fine-toothed comb. There’s a table in the main room, right past the front door. I want you to put every last useful thing you can find on that table. I’ll get to work searching these cabins, then we can switch, see if the other person missed anything. How does that sound?” I asked.

“Good, but...” She hesitated, looking around.

“But what?”

“Are we gonna move in here?” she asked uncertainly. The way she asked made it seem like she really didn’t want to.

I had been considering that, leaning towards yes, actually. “I’m not sure,” I said. “You don’t want to?”

“No. It’s...I mean it’s a lot nicer than where we are now, and bigger, just...”

“Too many bad memories,” Megan said unhappily.

“Then we won’t move in here,” I said.

“You sure? I know it’d be better than where we are now...” Megan replied.

“I’m sure. We’re fine in the cabin. Though we may want to consider carrying a bed over so you don’t have to sleep in the chair.”

“Okay,” she said.

“Thank you,” Delilah murmured, looking relieved.

I kissed her forehead. “You’re welcome. Now, yell if anything’s wrong. Also...”

I shrugged out of my pack and opened it up. I took a moment to reload my twenty-two and gave it to her, and the box of bullets to put in her pocket.

“You do know how to use one of these, right?” I asked.

“Yeah. I’m not a great shot, but yeah. I won’t shoot myself, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Delilah replied.

“Okay.”

I considered what to give Megan, then ultimately gave her the third pistol I’d found from our little shootout. It was another nine millimeter. I liked my own new nine, but I thought the forty-five would be a bit much for her. She was strong, yeah, but it had one hell of a kick.

“Thanks,” she said, accepting it and a spare magazine. The way she took the current magazine out, checked it, then slipped it back in made me relax. She knew her way around the sidearm, at least. And she’d proven she was a good shot.

“Yep,” I replied, pulling my backpack on again. I stood. “Let’s get to work.”

~

The rest of the day wound out slowly in the chill of the abandoned campgrounds.

I worked my way through all the buildings, working slowly and methodically, doing my search thing. Under, behind, within. It seemed like despite how stupid they appeared, the group here had at least managed to scour the place in the months they’d been here. But it was meditative, and it went a long way towards calming me down.

Those men deserved to die.

That’s what I believe.

There was doubt, there’d just about always be doubt, but it was minimal here. Honestly, I had bigger doubts about letting that shifty asshole live. I believed in redemption, to be honest. I believed that a terrible person could turn themselves around and become a force for good in the world, or, at the very least, not be a force of evil any longer. I also believed that it was really rare. People don’t want to change. It’s difficult and painful and just no fun at all most of the time. These guys had clearly already long since talked themselves into thinking that capturing women and selling them like pets was totally acceptable.

If I’d disarmed them, beat them, then sent them on their way, I honestly believed they’d just be right back to it in a week or two. However long it took them.

Because how many politicians and business executives and Hollywood big shots had been caught doing sick, twisted shit over the past few decades? How many of them, (a lot of them dudes, I’d noticed, not all of them, but definitely over half), had stared into a camera and solemnly apologized and promised to never, ever do the bad thing they’d been caught doing again? And you knew they were full of shit. Maybe not every last one of them, but almost all of them were just sorry they got caught. And this time around they’d be more careful.

Yeah, I believed in redemption, but it was by far the exception, not the rule.

The rule was: You give them another chance and they’re just gonna do it again.

Maybe that was one of the upsides of this new world, just like Megan had said. Now, we could just put bullets in their heads. No cops to take six months to figure out what to do, no judge to go ‘eh, I don’t wanna ruin their lives, they’re nice young men and I’m sure they won’t do it again’, no society to tell the woman she was a fucking lying slut. None more of that system that was designed to let monsters get away with it.

I preferred this new method, even if I didn’t like it at all.

I still don’t know why people can’t just fucking not be evil. I mean I get it, there’s ambiguity out there, there’s shades of gray, but this shit!?

This was clearly evil.

Like straight-up, no bullshit fucking evil.

And they laughed while they did it. They knew exactly what they were doing. How did they live with themselves? How could they be okay with that? How could they be so inhuman? I think the fact that they were comfortable treating humans like cattle disturbed me a lot more than the fact that I was getting more comfortable with murdering my fellow humans.

These were the thoughts that haunted me as I searched.

We spent the entire day clearing that place out, searching it top to bottom, each of us giving it a go-over and gathering up every last scrap of material, every last resource. When you found a bounty like this, you had to make the absolute most of it, and make it last as long as you could. When we had found everything, we spent almost two hours hauling it all back to the cabin. It took three trips. Two for all the materials, and one more for another mattress we found the same size as the one me and Delilah were sleeping on.

It was to be Megan’s bed.

The whole day, and all of the following day, actually, was a daze to me.

Once we’d gotten everything safely home and set up, and I’d done my chores, I had pretty much just passed out. I was in a shit mood and exhausted and I didn’t want to think anymore. I didn’t even fuck Delilah that night. I did when I woke up the next morning. I fucked her hard and fast, pounding her into the mattress until she orgasmed twice, and then I pumped her full of my stuff and then I got up and got to work on my chores.

I spent most of the day taking Delilah to the convenience store she hadn’t had a chance to finish searching, and then to the barn and the farmhouse. We didn’t talk much and she could tell I was disconsolate. She tried to cheer me up but I was kind of in a funk. I’d had nightmares last night and they had been bad.

For some reason I kept thinking about that blonde guy.

I didn’t want to, but the way he’d just told us why he’d done what he’d done…

I don’t know, it bugged me and I kept trying to put it out of my mind.

When we were finished searching all the buildings that I knew about on this side of the highway, save for the cabin way deep into the woods, I wasn’t willing to go back there, (Delilah managed to find a handful of items among the farmhouse at least), we went back to the cabin and I spent the rest of the day doing chores and sorting through the stuff we’d managed to track down. It wasn’t as much as I had hoped, but it was more than I’d feared.

There was about another two week’s worth of food between the three of us now. There were a good twenty cans of meats, fruits, and vegetables. There was also an assortment of wolf, rabbit, and deer meat, but most of it was fucking useless because the dipshits hadn’t stored it properly and a lot of it had started to fucking rot.

There was also some goddamned toiletries. Oh thank God, praise the good lord, there was fucking soap and toiletpaper! There was even some shaving supplies. And a fucking pair of fingernail clippers. Good lord I’d forgotten how much I had missed having one of those. There were also a few canteens, several more pots and pants and other stuff we could store water and food in. Including two single-gallon jugs, which would be pretty useful as well. There was also some very useful fire-staring supplies. Another lighter and a big box of matches, though the box was damn near empty. And, of course, there was some illicit shit.

They’d gotten their hands on a few bottles of wine, a bottle of vodka, a bunch of hand-rolled cigarettes, and some weed.

As for their arsenal, it wasn’t as big as I’d hoped. The pistols had been a good find, but when we finally tracked down the rifle, it became obvious why the guy up top hadn’t been using it: it was busted. I don’t know what had happened or why, probably something stupid, but it looked like someone had used it like a baseball bat. We took it anyway, because I might be able to fix, but worst case scenario, I could sell it as scrap.

There was also a shotgun, but it was not only drained of shells, (and we hadn’t found any anywhere), but it was in shit condition. It needed a thorough cleaning and repair, and I did not have the tools or supplies to make that happen.

So that meant we’d gotten a pair of nine millimeters, the forty-five, and the gun the scrawny bastard had been trying to smuggle out was a ten-shot twenty-two in half decent condition. All in all, not a bad haul, I guess.

Finally, night fell on the second of two of the longest days I’d felt like I’d gone through in a long time.

And that was saying something.

EIGHTEEN

“And with that, my friends, I am fucking done for the day, and I am drinking,” Megan said as she took off her boots and her coat.

She’d just come in from collecting the last batch of firewood.

The sun was down, the skies were gray, and I thought it was going to storm again tonight.

I sat at the table, looking over the supplies that were still laid out on it. I had been contemplating either getting buzzed or getting high. I was honestly leaning towards getting high. The taste of alcohol had never sat well with me.

But I looked at Megan as she said that, and she must’ve sensed my eyes on her. She turned to look at me. “What...you’re not like a prude about getting drunk are you?”

“No, no,” I replied quickly. “I don’t care if you do. I just...” I shifted uncomfortably, unsure if I should bother approaching the problem or not.

“Come on, out with it,” she said as she got her coat off, then her sweater, and sat down across from me.

Despite the unhappiness I’d sunk into over the past two days, I did notice that she’d relaxed a fair amount, and seemed to trust me more. She was at least being nicer to me.

“Okay, I don’t want to piss you off,” I said, “by it seeming like I’m assuming anything. But I feel like I need to say this, if you’re going to get drunk.”

“Kay...” she murmured, waiting, tensing at least a little.

I sighed. “It’s nothing bad. Just...if you’re intending to sleep with me tonight, I’d like to know now, before you get drunk. Because unless we already have a clearly established relationship, I’m not comfortable sleeping with drunk chicks. I mean, I like it, obviously. Women are...really wild when they get drunk, I’ve noticed. But I don’t want you to fuck me while drunk and then get upset about it the next day. I want, you know, to be completely sure, one way or the other, what my answer should be if it comes up while you’re drunk.”

She stared at me, and I wasn’t sure what to make of that stare.

She looked like...she was having a hard time believing me.

“So you’re serious, right?” she asked.

“What? Yeah. What you think I’m fucking joking?” I asked, my voice a bit sterner than I meant it to be, but I was still stressed.

“No. Sorry. Just...I don’t know if I’ve ever had this conversation. Um...yeah, I guess if we’re gonna talk about it, then yes, I’ve decided that I’m cool with having sex with you. So yeah, you can drunk fuck my goddamned brains out. I want to ride that dick just like Delilah does,” she said with an encouraging smile.

I laughed softly. That did make me feel better, at least.

“Good to know,” I said.

“What about me?” Delilah asked. I glanced over. She had on a low-cut tanktop and was leaning forward, her big, pale breasts nearly falling out of her shirt. “I guess if we’re gonna talk about it...are you into chicks?”

“Yeah, honestly, and you’re one of the hottest chicks I’ve seen in a long time,” Megan replied. “But...not tonight. I need a little more time to get back into the sex game. Soon, though. I promise. We’ll swap oral.”

“Oh fuck yes,” Delilah whispered, grinning broadly. “You are so fucking hot.”

“You two really think I’m that good looking?” she asked.

“Yes,” we both said at the same time.

She laughed. “I guess I’ll just appreciate it and take your word for it. I have to admit, having two hot people wanting to sleep with me is doing a lot for my mood. Plus having those shitheads be gone forever helps a lot.” She reached out and grabbed one of the bottles of wine suddenly, then grunted with effort trying to get the cork out. When she couldn’t, she shoved it at me suddenly. “You’re big and tough, do the big strong guy thing and open this.”

I laughed as I took it. “Oh so you’re cool with that trope?” I asked.

“Nothing wrong with asking for help,” she replied.

I pulled the cork out and passed the bottle back to her. “I happen to agree.”

“I bet you never ask for help,” she said, then took a long drink.

“I ask for help,” I replied.

“Yeah, help busting a nut,” she muttered after the drink.

Delilah giggled and held her hand out. “Mind sharing?”

“No,” she replied, passing her the bottle.

Delilah took it and drank. She looked at me. “I know we’re gonna fuck,” she said.

“Yep,” I replied.

“You want some?” she asked.

“No,” I replied, reaching out and grabbing the baggie that held a collection of hand-rolled blunts. I pulled one out, grabbed a lighter, and stuck the blunt in my mouth. “Hope they didn’t cut this shit with anything,” I muttered as I lit up.

“Didn’t take you for a stoner,” Megan said with a smirk as she took the bottle back and had another healthy swing.

I took a long pull on the blunt, held it, felt it fill my lungs, then coughed it out. “I’m not really,” I said after I was done coughing. “I did it here and there, usually with my friends. I make a habit not to get into addictive substances at all.”

“Weed isn’t addictive,” Megan replied.

“I don’t know about that,” I murmured, staring at the handful of blunts in the little baggie. “I guess I’d agree that the substance itself isn’t addictive, but I do think the state it brings on is. Like, God, if there was a button I could push to just take away my stress and anxiety like weed does most of the time, there were times where I’d burn that fucker out. But it’s better to not come to rely on it. You need to learn to deal with your anger and anxiety and fear and stress without any kind of chemical crutch.”

“What about people who need antidepressants?” Delilah asked. “Or anti-anxiety meds?”

I sighed heavily. “Obviously if you need those pills then you need them, although goddamn are they fucked nowadays. Probably tough to get even a semi-regular supply of that kind of stuff. But it’s not like I had a problem with psych meds before the snow. I wished more people had access to them because I’ve seen what a goddamned change they can make. They aren’t miracle cures, but sometimes they help so much. And it’s not even like I look down on people who drink or smoke all the time. Life is fucking stressful and you get by how you can. I was just lucky enough to win the genetic lottery in that my brain and body are chemically balanced well enough that I don’t get crazy stressed out or crazy anxious, to the point where I need pills to fix it.”

“You sure of that?” Megan asked.

“Yeah, I actually got one of those genetic tests. It checked to see if I had any of the genetic markers for chemical imbalance, for anything that might cause extra anxiety, depression, anger problems. I had some anger problems, and the chemical that caused it, I can’t remember what it’s called, was a bit high, but they wanted to see if I could get it under control through some behavioral therapy and it worked.” I shrugged. “Like I said, I was just lucky.”

“Apparently. You’ve got two hot chicks that want your cock,” Delilah murmured.

I laughed and took another hit. “Yes, definitely extremely lucky there.”

We fell silent after that, just listening to the fire crackle and the wind blow. I got through half my blunt. It was good, and I didn’t think there was anything in it but weed. I could feel it going to work on me, my head feeling light, a sort of lethargy gently settling onto my body, a releasing of tension. I still felt a little shitty, but much less so.

“So, Chris...” Megan said cautiously.

“Yeah?”

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “I mean, I figured you wouldn’t be jumping for joy after what we did, but you still seem fucked up. Are you like...okay?”

I sighed heavily. “Maybe I should talk about it,” I muttered.

“Talking usually helps, I’ve found,” Delilah said. “That’s one of those things people always say but most people also think is bullshit. But if you find someone you can trust, I think just talking about what’s on your mind is kinda like sucking the poison out, you know?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I replied, then hesitated further, frowning at the two of them. They were both so fucking attractive, even looking haggard, hair messy, no makeup, not wearing clothes that were designed to show off every fucking curve and contour. They were both so goddamned beautiful.

“What’s got you hesitating?” Megan asked.

“I guess...a separate issue,” I admitted. “You remember how over the past couple of decades you kept hearing about women who were talking about how they wished men would open up and talk about their feelings more? I know so many guys who did that shit and got burned. Shit, I got burned.”

“Burned how?”

“I’d open up, show some fucking vulnerability, and actually fucking talk to my girlfriend if something had pissed me off or made me sad. And she’d fucking use it against me! Whenever an argument came up she’d use that fucking shit against me. Anytime one of my girlfriends was mad at me they’d go reaching for that ammunition I’d given them. I was feeling self-conscious about something? Oh yeah they’re all sweet and innocent when they want you to ‘open up and share’, but the second they’re pissed, they’re spitting it back in your face, hitting you below the belt, hitting those weak spots that you showed them.”

“Every girlfriend you had was like that?” Megan asked.

I smirked sardonically, crossed my arms, and stared at her.

She stared back, not understanding for a few seconds, then she sighed. “Okay, fuck, yeah. I get it. Point made. I’m being a hypocrite.”

“How are you being a hypocrite?” Delilah asked.

“Chris and I were talking earlier. I kept feeling the need to tell him, over and over, certain things, or distrust him whenever he said something nice to me. And I told him it was because basically every guy I’d been with had used me somehow, which as an exaggeration...so point made.”

“Not every girlfriend,” I said. “But at least half. And I heard a lot of stories. It was fucked up. I don’t know, women go on and on about how they don’t want their boyfriends and husbands to try to measure up to some impossible standard where you’re one hundred percent badass one hundred percent of the time and you’re completely stoic and nothing ever bothers you and you never ever lose even once and you always know how to handle every situation. Which most people would agree sounds fucking stupid, right? But that’s what society has told us we hetero dudes need to be. Especially if you look like me. And women say ‘it’s fine, you don’t need to be like that.’ But then you let your guard down, admit that you don’t know something, admit that you’re scared of something, or hurt, or whatever, and they’ll either use it against you, or it’s like...planting a seed.

“It’s like it’s a seed that grows over the next few years and eventually becomes them leaving you because ‘they want a real man’.” I heaved a sigh and took another hard pull. “I’m probably blowing it out of proportions and generalizing. People are bad about that, I’ve come to learn. And there’s a lot of great women out there. I’ve seen a lot of really great women who aren’t like that. It’s just frustrating because it’s like people lack self awareness. They just say anything that’s on their mind in the moment and assume they’ll feel the same way forever. They want their man to be more vulnerable in that moment? They say that.

“But then they see some fucking meme or hear from their friend or something about what a ‘real man’ is and they think back to that moment of weakness and they start to wonder. Maybe they don’t want him to show vulnerability.” I shook my head. “Fuck, I don’t know. I got off track.”

“I’m not gonna use this shit against you, Chris,” Megan said. “You don’t have to worry about any of those mind games with me. I don’t pull that bullshit.”

“Yeah, and I’m obviously a really big fan,” Delilah murmured.

“But would you still be if you saw me afraid? What if you saw me cry? How well would your fandom hold up then?” I asked.

She shifted, considering it. “I’d like to think that I would be okay with it. And, I mean, it’s not like we’re actually dating...” she murmured.

I laughed. “Yeah, there is that. Okay, whatever. This is what’s up: I was thinking about that blonde guy. He didn’t seem like a terrible person. But he was involved with terrible people. I guess I got to thinking about how easy it is for not-terrible people to make the switch over to doing sick, twisted, awful shit. Like...it’s easier than we all think to talk ourselves into doing fucked up shit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an excuse or anything, I just think not everything is as simple as everyone would like it to be.”

“In my experience, people want to shove everything into a category. Usually one of two,” Megan said. I could tell by her expression and the way she was talking that the wine was going to work on her. “So I’m with you there. I just want to make sure that we’re all on the same page that I don’t fucking care how you got there, why you got there, or anything else: rape is fucking evil, and there’s no fucking excuse for it.”

“Yeah I’m with you there,” I said.

She looked at me suddenly. “Have you ever-”

“No!” I replied. She stared at me. I sighed. “No, I really haven’t. And yeah, I know what that means. I was never one of those guys who kept fucking asking until he got a yes, I never threatened or intimidated, never did it with someone too drunk to say yes, none of that shit. We’ve been over this, Megan.”

She sighed suddenly and looked away. “I’m sorry,” she said, and it was probably the most genuine apology I’d ever gotten from her. “I’ve been treated like shit a lot. And usually by guys that look and sound like you. Not like you, necessarily, physically, I mean. But they have that kind of same persona about them, you know? Tough. Confident and arrogant. It can be hard to parse those two things out. And that isn’t fair to you. I’m a firm believer that actions speak louder than words, and so far you’ve been nothing but great to me, and I’ve been bad to you.” She looked back at me, suddenly smirking. “I’m really gonna make it up to you.”

I laughed a little. “Well...I’m not gonna stop you,” I replied.

“Obviously.”

I felt better after that, although I wasn’t entirely sure why. I guess just talking really did help. Or maybe it was the weed, or the fact that Megan seemed to actually like me now. Or maybe not like me, but trust me. I had the suspicion that she had liked me kind of early on, but she didn’t really trust or even like the fact that she liked me. I could respect that, honestly. People had a way of taking advantage of stuff like that. Just because your gut reaction was to like someone didn’t mean they weren’t a cruel piece of shit who would fuck you over at the next possible opportunity. Trust was harder than ever to come by nowadays.

I finished off the blunt. I wanted to do a second one, but I didn’t. One was enough and they would make excellent trading opportunities. So would the cigarettes.

After she’d polished off about half the bottle of wine, Megan stood up suddenly. “I’m going to go...freshen up,” she said, grabbing one of the thermoses of water I’d made earlier, as well as a bar of soap, a rag, a towel, and one of the razor blades, “so don’t start without me.”

“Don’t be too long, I’m horny when I’m drunk,” Delilah said.

“So am I,” Megan admitted. “I’ll try not to be long.”

I couldn’t help but check out her jeans-clad ass as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

“God, she is hot,” Delilah whispered. I looked back at her. It was obvious that she’d been doing the exact same thing I’d been doing.

“Yeah, she is,” I replied. I stood up after a moment. “Why don’t do you wash up and get ready? I’m pretty horny myself.”

“Yes sir,” she replied with a drunken glee. She took another swig, then set the bottle down and got to her feet, where she almost fell over.

“Jeez, you’re a lightweight,” I muttered as I reached out and steadied her.

“Duh,” she replied. “Fucking look at me. But it means I don’t have to piss away a lot of stuff to get drunk.” She paused. “I was gonna say money, but we don’t use money anymore.” She laughed suddenly and almost fell over again.

“How drunk are you?” I asked.

“Not as drunk as I seem. I’m more just really happy. Like really happy. I’ve got you and Megan here with me, and the bad people are gone, and we’re gonna have sex, and it’s gonna be so awesome tonight,” she replied. “And you’re gonna help me get to that town.”

“Yes I am,” I replied.

She took off her shirt. “And until we get there, I am going to ride your dick like a fucking whore every night and every morning.”

“You really like fucking me, huh?” I asked as her bra came off.

“Duh! You’re awesome to fuck, and I can go bareback with you without worrying. That’s so awesome. I fucking hate condoms,” she said, unbuttoning her pants. I was still staring at her tits. Holy shit it still amazed me how perfect her tits were. They were fucking porn star tits. “They fuck up the feeling and it’s just a lot more, I dunno...like, we’re closer when we fuck raw. It would have been not as close if we’d had to use a rubber.”

“I’m in full agreement,” I replied, and took off my shirt.

NINETEEN

Her pants came off, then her panties. She kept her socks on. We all did, because the floor was cold pretty much everywhere you went nowadays. I stripped naked as well, and went to another pot we’d set aside, by the fire to keep it warm, and got one of the washrags we’d actually managed to find among the possessions tucked away at the campgrounds and another bar of soap, and got to washing up. Delilah joined me, and soon we were washing each other. I ran the rag across her back, and then she ran it across mine.

Honestly, I really enjoyed little stuff like this. Raw fucking like rabid animals was great, but holding hands, washing each other, having a woman run her fingers through my hair, reading to each other, all that stuff made the relationship, I think. Or maybe that stuff is made it a relationship. And what I had with Delilah was definitely a relationship at this point. When you have enough of them, you get to a point where you could just tell, and it could happen fast. Now, that didn’t necessarily mean the other person would agree, they might have been letting themselves slip into relationship mode without realizing it.

Which was fine, I think another part of a relationship is that it has to be a conscious choice on both party’s behalf.

Delilah seemed very happy with where we were. Honestly I was the one having doubts, because I didn’t know how long it would last, but I knew I would almost certainly leave before she wanted me to leave.

But that was later.

Now was sex. Awesome fucking sex.

We finished washing up and dried off, then sat on Megan’s mattress, which we’d put by the fireplace, and let the warmth wash over our naked bodies.

“I wonder if we could convince her to let us put the two mattresses together on the floor,” Delilah murmured.

“It’d be more comfortable,” I said.

“Let’s pitch it to her when she comes out. We’ve got a sheet big enough to put the two of them together now, right?”

“Yeah, although hopefully she won’t see it as us trying to pressure her into doing stuff with you,” I murmured.

“I don’t need to pressure her,” Delilah replied with a smile. “She already basically admitted she’s in lust with me.”

“Who the hell isn’t?” I replied.

She laughed. Then she let out a long, happy sigh and fell back onto the mattress, staring up at the ceiling. “God, it’s been so fucking long since I’ve been drunk. Since I’ve been in a place where I felt fucking safe enough to be drunk.”

“You can’t have been drinking that long,” I replied.

“Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t really wanna through my teen years, so I stayed away from it. It always smelled so bad to me. Then, you know, twenty first birthday, some shit survives even the apocalypse. I was with friends, and they convinced me to drink. I decided what the fuck, why not? I didn’t get blackout smashed, I didn’t drink ‘til I puked, but I got buzzed, then I got drunk, and it was just...nice. It was actually nice. I liked it. Usually enough time passes between drinks that I always forget how good it feels.”

“Kind of the same with me and weed,” I said.

I laid back and we laid there together until the bathroom door opened up. We both sat back up and turned around, looking at Megan.

She came out butt naked and right away I could see what she’d meant by freshening up. She raised her arms. “So, what do you think?”

She’d shaved. Her pubic hair, her legs, under her arms, apparently using the soap as lather. Not as good as actual shaving cream, but I knew it could work in a pinch.

“Really nice,” Delilah murmured.

“Yeah, nice,” I agreed.

“Thank me,” she said as she walked over, “I did it for you.”

“It’s not like I asked you to or gave you shit about it,” I replied.

She rolled her eyes. “I know, but don’t pretend like you don’t prefer it.”

“Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I prefer my women shaved,” I replied. “I had a suggestion.”

“Oh?” she asked, standing at the foot of the bare mattress we were on.

“We could put the two mattresses together on the floor and make it like a queen size that we could all sleep on. You down for that?”

She thought about it, then shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”

“Cool.”

Delilah and I got up and we made it happen as fast as we could. The fact that Megan pitched in meant she was just as turned on and horny as we were. We got the mattresses pushed together, sheets over it, (a towel down for where Delilah was gonna fucking come), and all the blankets and pillows we could gather. I wanted this to be a decadent night in whatever way we could manage, because after all the shit I’d gone through recently, and all the even worse shit these two had gone through, I figured we all had earned it.

All three of us ended up naked on that bed. Delilah pretty much pounced on me right away, apparently unable to contain herself, and started making out with me intensely as she wrapped her fingers around my cock and started massaging it. I started groping her big tits. I’d been wanting to do that all goddamned day long. There was an immediate and powerful joy that hit me as soon as I began feeling her up, grasping her bare breasts. Her lips and her tongue were as wonderful as I remembered and we made out with an intense enthusiasm.

After a bit, I felt Megan’s hand on my shoulder and broke the kiss.

“You gotta share now,” I said.

“Yeah, I know,” Delilah replied, breathing heavily, her eyes wide and excited.

“You like seeing people do it just as much as me, don’t you?” Megan asked.

“Oh yeah, big time,” Delilah replied.

I started kissing Megan. She moaned and kissed me back and then I was feeling her tits up. Damn, she had some really nice ones too. I thought of her sweet ass, how good it looked in those pants she’d been wearing, and slid my hand down to the firm curve of her hip, then back around, groping the thick swell of her ass.

“Fuck, you have such a hot ass,” I whispered between kisses.

She grinned. “Do I now?”

“Yes. Seriously. It’s amazing.”

“It really is,” Delilah said. I could feel her pressed against my back, her boobs pushed up against my bare skin. She was still touching my dick.

“I’m glad I’ve got so much approval,” Megan murmured, then kept kissing me, pushing her tongue into my mouth. I could taste the alcohol on her breath and that gave me another shot of lusty excitement. There was a unique pleasure to fucking a woman who was drunk. Now that I had her permission, I threw myself wholeheartedly into the encounter. I kissed her for awhile longer, then started fingering her and sucking on those wonderful tan tits of hers again. Good fucking hell did I love sucking on tits.

She moaned and enjoyed the attention for a bit, then she gently pushed me back. “Okay Chris, it’s my turn to suck on you,” she said. “I promised I would.”

“Have at it,” I replied, laying on my back.

“Can I join you?” Delilah asked.

Megan smirked. “You just wanna kiss me.”

“Is that so wrong?” the redhead replied.

She laughed. “No, it isn’t...I bet Chris would enjoy having two women work on his cock than just one, huh?”

“I would,” I agreed.

“Okay, you can join me. Maybe we can kiss. You’ve got really nice lips,” she murmured.

“So do you,” Delilah replied.

The two women shifted until they were down lower, their faces by my cock, and they both leaned in and touched their tongues to the head of my dick. I groaned loudly. Now this was a study in hedonism. The two women began licking across my head, dragging their wonderful tongues slowly across it, occasionally licking up the shaft and sometimes touching tongues together. They looked marvelously erotic.

Honestly, I was hard-pressed to think of anything else I’d seen in my life that turned me on more than what I was seeing right now. In this moment, they both seemed like the most attractive, seductive, erotic women on the face of the planet. Delilah turned and kissed Megan’s cheek. The woman paused, smiled, then turned and kissed Delilah on the lips. The redhead hesitated just a second, then she pressed her lips to Megan’s and began making out with her intensely. Apparently it was all the opening she needed.

Megan seemed surprised, though not unpleasantly, and kissed her back.

When they parted lips, Delilah looked at her with that drunk smile and said, “You know, I don’t mind if you both use me to get off.”

“You really like being used like a piece of meat, don’t you?” Megan asked.

“I do,” she agreed. “I don’t know why, but for the right people, I absolutely love being used like a fucking whore, like nothing more than a fucktoy.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Megan replied, and then she took my dick in her mouth.

“Aw fuck, Megan...” I groaned loudly, placing a hand over the back of her head.

She started bobbing it smoothly, and I could tell that what she’d said earlier about being good with her mouth wasn’t a boast. She was good at sucking dick. Her lips glided smoothly up over the head again and again, lavishing me with pure hot pleasure, making my cock throb in response. She kept at it for a solid minute before taking it out of her mouth and passing it to Delilah, who licked up the whole bottom of my cock, starting at the base, then slipped it smoothly into her mouth. Watching my dick disappear between those luscious red lips was an intense pleasure all its own. Especially with the way she stared at me.

“Oh my fucking God, Delilah,” I whispered, staring at this shockingly beautiful redhead as she blew me like she was fucking in love with me. She moaned as she bobbed her head, taking it all the way to the back of her throat and then down it, deep-throating me and swallowing, making me twitch and groan loudly each time she did.

The two women passed it back and forth between themselves, and then Megan looked up at me. “Okay, I wanna fuck now. I’m so fucking horny and I just want a pounding.”

“Get on your hands and knees,” I replied.

“Oh you wanna hit it from the back?” she asked, giving me that tipsy grin.

“Fuck yes I do,” I replied.

“You got it. I really like that position.”

“I want to see this so bad,” Delilah said as they both got up.

Megan got onto her hands and knees and Delilah sat down on our side of the new bed, staring at the two of us with big eyes and a bigger grin. I got behind Megan pretty fast and found myself looking at her sweet ass. She was in pretty good shape and her ass definitely had that hot teardrop shape, narrowing up to her waist and thickening lower down. It had a nice heft to it and her pussy looked so fucking good, so damned inviting.

My erection was so bad it almost hurt.

“Can I come in you this time?” I remembered to ask as I got up against her, laying one hand on her thick ass while grabbing my cock with the other.

“Yeah,” she said, “you can give me a creampie.”

“Oh thank God,” I muttered.

I slid my cock slowly inside of her and found her to be immediately, wonderfully, amazingly wet. She moaned so loudly, hanging her head as I put it inside of her.

“Oh fuck!” she cried.

“You like that?” I asked, well, almost growled at her.

“YES!” she yelled.

As I started fucking her, working my way into that sweet, raw pussy, I felt a surge of joy sweep over me. I knew what it was, and I intended to enjoy it while it lasted: I had done a really dangerous or difficult thing and not only gotten it out of the way, but gotten through it without a problem. There was elation in that, and given how absolutely miserable the world was and could be, you had to learn to take the victories where you got them, and enjoy them while you could. Because there was more than enough despair in your future.

So I fucked Megan doggystyle and loved every second of it.

I loved the swell of her wonderfully fit ass, how she looked on her hands and knees. I loved watching my cock going into her again and again. I loved how that felt, of course. God did raw pussy feel good, especially with a woman I was extremely attracted to and was still discovering sexually. I especially loved the fact that Delilah was there, naked, horny, and watching. I glanced over at her and she was just staring at us with a small, drunken grin. And I definitely loved the fact that I could do what I was about to do.

After pounding Megan’s wonderful vagina for a few moments, I gave her ass a smack, then pulled out and shifted over to Delilah.

“Spread your legs,” I said, shoving her onto her back.

She was one of those women who really liked being handled roughly.

“Yes, sir,” she murmured, opening her legs for me.

“Come on...” Megan complained, falling forward. “That wasn’t enough dick.”

“You’ll get yours, quit whining,” I replied as I slipped my cock into Delilah. Holy fucking shit she was just as wet as Megan.

Delilah let out a loud, long moan of bliss, interrupting whatever Megan was going to say in response to that, and I started right in on her. I looked down at her amazing, slim, pale body and her beautiful, huge tits.

“Good lord, Delilah, you have such an amazing rack,” Megan muttered, then yawned. “I mean wow, I am so fucking jealous.”

“Don’t be-ah! Yours are fucking perfect...oh! Chris!” she cried as my dick hit something sensitive.

I just grinned down at her and kept pounding her hard and fast, sliding my cock in and out of that tight, wet hole of absolute bliss. I reached out and groped one of her big breasts, enjoying that primal thrill of lust that came from grasping a big, bare breast. Shit, I was absolutely losing myself in their pussies. It was times like this that truly reaffirmed to me that sex was honestly one of the few things worth living for nowadays.

Survival was okay, little accomplishments and overcoming challenges provided some nice emotional feedback, eating something that tasted great was nice, and the burst of nostalgia that hit when you found something awesome from your past was sweet, but god-fucking-damn was unprotected sex just an absolute fucking blast. It was thrilling, it felt stupidly good, and because of the way I tended to do it, it gave me a sense of intimacy that I sometimes craved very deeply. When Delilah stared up at me with her drunken, tired, lust-filled eyes, I could tell that she was damn near in love with me, and there was probably no one else in the world she’d rather be fucking right then. I knew how she felt, because I felt the same way about her.

Of course, I had a choice.

I screwed that sweet pussy until I couldn’t stand it anymore, prepared to pull out and hold off that first orgasm, but fucked up and tripped at the finish line.

Fuck it, I thought, and instead of pulling out, just began fucking faster.

Thrusting wildly into her, making her scream, I started moaning loudly as I was shot towards an intense orgasm. It didn’t take more than five seconds before I started letting off inside of her.

“Oh my God! Oh fuck! Delilah! Holy shit!” I yelled, just totally incoherent with bliss as I pumped that pussy full of my stuff one, hard contraction at a time. My cock jerked and kicked and twitched and spasmed. Each time it did, it shot out another spurt of my seed into her. Fuck, if I didn’t have that birth control implant, Delilah would’ve been so fucking impregnated right now. Shit, the thought of me knocking her up just made me come harder.

It was a hell of an orgasm. It was like diving into a sea of pure pink pleasure, washing my whole body in uncut bliss, temporarily taking away all my aches and pains. I filled her pussy up and when I was finished, opened my eyes and looked down at her.

She was staring up at me.

“Were you come too?” I asked, panting.

She grinned. “Yeah.”

“I couldn’t tell...fuck, that was so good.”

“Goddamn, man. That was probably the most intense orgasm I’ve ever seen a dude have,” Megan murmured. She was laying on her side now.

“It was good,” I repeated, getting my breath back. Then I pulled out of Delilah. Megan’s eyes flicked to my cock, which was still rock solid.

“How are you still hard after that?” she asked.

“I’m fucking horny tonight,” I replied as I moved over to her. I pushed her onto her stomach. “You ready for a creampie?”

“Yes,” she replied.

With her laid out on her stomach, I laid down against her backside and slipped my cock into her pussy again. I pushed myself up as I had with Delilah and looked down the length of her smooth back and her fantastic ass and my cock inside of her, then I resumed pounding. I listened to her moan and shout into the pillow, letting me just fuck the hell out of her. Something I liked about sex was all the unique feelings. It didn’t all feel the same. Getting head was its own distinct pleasure apart from pounding pussy.

Fucking one chick immediately after coming inside of another chick was its own unique bliss and I was enjoying that particular pleasure right now. I couldn’t always keep it up after coming, and sometimes my dick was too sensitive to even touch, but not now.

Now I was just fucking horned up beyond belief.

I fucking pounded her so goddamned hard something fell off the table behind us. After that, I yanked her back up into the doggystyle position, reached up under her, found her clit, and started rubbing it as I kept humping her.

“OH HOLY SHIT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs in unexpected pleasure.

Didn’t take long to make her come.

Didn’t take long for me to come again either.

We soon were locked together in orgasmic rapture, coming hard and intensely, pleasure washing through us like a broken dam. I fucking screwed that climaxing pussy as I filled her up just like I’d filled up Delilah.

It was heaven.

When I was done coming in her, I was definitely done...for a little while.

I pulled out and laid down in between them, staring at the ceiling, my head spinning a lot. I just felt...good.

“Wow. That was incredible,” Megan murmured. “I gotta be honest, I usually don’t hand out the compliments, guys are fucking full of their own ego enough as it is, but you are really good at sex. Holy fucking hell.”

“Thanks,” I replied, then I yawned.

“You’re not done are you?” Megan asked.

“No,” I replied. “Go get cleaned up you two, that was just round one.”

TWENTY

I woke up the next day to someone crawling on top of me.

“What’s going on?” I muttered, though it was good to feel hot, soft skin against my own. It felt even better when I felt a hand grip my cock then slide it into a hot, wet pussy.

“Your meat is free game now, and I know how much guys like having their morning wood fucked,” Megan replied in a breathy voice, then she moaned as she pushed me completely into her and began fucking herself with my cock.

I grunted, then groaned, the pleasure waking me up, rolling through me. “Does that mean your pussy is free game too? Can I just fuck you whenever I please?”

“It’s not the same,” she replied. “Are you ever not gonna be in the mood to fuck?”

“Hey, I treat you with respect, you treat me with respect,” I replied, then stopped, surprised at my anger. It was weird to feel angry, like actually angry, and be fucking at the same time.

She paused, then kept going. “Okay, okay, you’re right. I’m sorry. That’s fair. Put it this way: You’ve got as much free access to my hole as I have to your meat, but if I’m not in the mood, I don’t want arguments. I say stop, you stop, got it?”

“Understood,” I replied. Then I grinned, rebounding off my anger into a good, horny mood. “Not like I’ll have to worry about that, you’ve made it obvious what a sucker for my cock you are.”

“Ugh,” she groaned. “Now that I let you know how fucking good you are in bed you’re going to be insufferable aren’t you?”

“Not totally insufferable,” I replied, putting my hands behind my head and watching her fuck me, watching her tits bounce as she screwed my cock.

“Whatever, just shut up and let me come,” she muttered.

“As long as you do the same,” I replied.

She sighed but kept fucking me, closing her eyes. Gotta admit, this is a great way to wake up, and she had a point: I was never gonna complain. But double-standards did still kind of piss me off. Either way, she fucked me until she had orgasmed, and then she let me orgasm inside of her, which was more than enough of an apology, because holy shit was it good to come inside of Megan. I busted a huge nut inside of her.

“God, you fucking come so much,” she muttered as she got off of me and held a hand over her vagina to keep it from dripping everywhere.

“Apparently,” I replied. “Women complain about it often enough. I can’t really help it.”

“I kinda like it,” Delilah murmured sleepily.

“Yeah you would,” Megan muttered as she started cleaning up.

I got right up out of our new bed on the floor. I felt great. I’d been stoned last night, fucked into a coma, had a long, dreamless sleep, and then got fucked again in the morning. And I wasn’t quite living with nearly as much anxiety as I had been. Not only was I well-armed now, I had eliminated the worst threat in the region. Or at least the closest one. The other guys could be a lot worse, for all I knew. But I felt confident, and it was a good feeling.

Standing up, I stretched a few times, then took the opportunity to do some push-ups and sit-ups. What I wouldn’t give for a damn proper weightlifting set.

“You know, I don’t normally get impressed by dudes working out but...I have to admit, it’s working now that I like you,” Megan murmured as she continued cleaning herself.

“Glad to hear it. You getting turned on?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she admitted.

“I am,” Delilah said. “Can we fuck?”

I considered it, then nodded. “Yeah, lemme finish up.”

Ten minutes later I was done with my exercise, I’d made Delilah come and shot another load into her pussy, and was in the process of washing up after having tossed another log onto the fire. I didn’t hear any wind outside, which was good. Not perfect, I still needed to look out the window, sometimes the snow fell in perfect silence.

“So...we killed those assholes,” Megan said as she pulled her clothes on, “what’s the plan? Or are we just wanting to chill here in this cabin for awhile? Gotta be honest, I kind of like it here now that the big bad jerks are gone.”

“The plan,” I said, noticing an unhappy look from Delilah, (she must really want to get to that settlement), “is to first track down my stuff, and then get Delilah to the town she wants to go to. Although I’m not a hundred percent on how long that will take, I do intend to keep working on that first part continuously until it’s finished, and not letting an unreasonable amount of time lapse between finishing that goal and getting Delilah to that settlement.”

I looked at her as I said this last part, and so did Megan.

“Man, you really wanna be in that town, huh?” Megan murmured when she saw the look on Delilah’s face.

Delilah tried to relax. “I just...like being near civilization,” she replied.

I hesitated. Something about her told me she was lying. Did she have some other reason for going to that town? Well, if she did, I doubted it was bad or had anything to do with me. And if there was another reason, that was her business. I had agreed to get her there and keep her safe, and so far she was living up to her end of the bargain.

Although honestly she couldn’t help me all that much more in the second part. I was going to have to do the legwork on getting my shit back.

“Okay, so, your shit. Where is it and why isn’t it with you?” Megan asked.

I sighed. “The only reason I’m here is because I crashed during a bad storm. Some assholes robbed me while I was knocked out. Most of the stuff I can stand to lose, but some of it I can’t. I need it back and I’m not leaving without it. There was a chance the assholes we just attacked might have been the ones who’d done it, but it’s now obvious that they didn’t. None of the stuff there was mine. Which means the other group of assholes in the region must have it. So I’m going to do some recon on them, figure out if they might be open to negotiation, after all, they didn’t kill me and they could have easily, or maybe I can steal it from them. But we’ll see. Today I’m going to go do some legwork and check out what’s on the other side of the highway.”

“I want to go,” Megan said.

“All right,” I replied. Normally I liked being alone during times like this, but I had to admit, I liked having her around now.

“I’ll stay here and keep house,” Delilah said.

“I appreciate it,” I replied. I finished pulling my clothes on and set off to take care of the regular chores for the day.

I wanted to get them out of the way.

I was actually eager to get on with this.

~

We were on our way up the off-ramp on this side of the highway an hour later.

I decided to try and pick up a conversation. “What do you miss about before?”

She looked at me, almost like she was a little startled that I’d spoken, then looked ahead again. “What do I miss from before?” she murmured. “A lot of things. Electricity. The internet. Digital media. How easy it was to just go by a damned burger, like a good one. Maybe that’s what I miss the most: the food. Now you get by on what you can find, and you’re lucky if you can find it. I guess there’s a lot more fresh meat, but unless people have seasonings, it just...isn’t the same. Plus, it’s harder to find condiments now.” She paused, sighed miserably. “Soda. Good lord, soda.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Same.”

“What about you?”

“Rain,” I said.

She looked at me again. “Yeah, that’s a good answer. I hate the snow, I always have, but I got used to it. I miss warm, sunny days but by God do I miss rain. Taking a walk through the park when it was raining lightly, just misting. Staring through a window at a downpour.” She sighed wistfully.

“What’s better about things now?” I asked.

She laughed. “Not much.” Then she paused thoughtfully. “I guess...the gap between the work you put in and what you get out of it feels much narrower. So many people I know worked their fucking asses off just so that they could barely scrape by. But now, in most settlements, you put in a reasonable amount of work and you get something reasonable in return. Although some people are still dicks, the barter system is good.”

“It is nice...I guess for people like me, at least,” I said.

“Yeah, I bet you’re wicked good at bartering. You find cool shit and you’re big and intimidating even when you don’t try to be. You seem to have a decent understanding of human psychology,” she replied.

“I guess so.”

We reached the top of the ramp and crossed the highway over to the other side. For a moment, we just stood and stared.

“Now that’s a view,” Megan murmured.

I’d seen it before, so I glanced at her. “Yeah...it is,” I replied.

She looked over at me and blushed, then sighed, rolled her eyes, and started walking down the opposite ramp.

“You don’t take compliments well, huh?” I asked as I followed.

“No. I don’t. Far too many of them were either lies, or manipulations, or just being polite, or outright bullshit.” She fell silent again.

We kept walking and I looked out over the area once again. The off-ramp let out onto a little rest stop area. There were a couple of derelict cars, and I saw what was clearly a gas station, a little grocery story, and what might have been a restaurant.

I got good feeling when I saw the gas station, but it was just nostalgia.

“What are you ginning about?” she asked.

“Just...that gas station. A little while ago, I was in a bad situation. Got run out of the town I was staying in, walked for six days, got a gas station in the middle of nowhere. There was a woman there, Mary. She was in a desperate situation herself. Pretty much made the same off to me Delilah did. We hooked up. It was...really good. I got her to a little settlement a ways back from here and we got a small apartment together for a few weeks. Had a nice thing going.”

Megan frowned. “So why’d you leave? Why are you here?” She hesitated suddenly. “Or...did she not make it?”

“No, she’s fine,” I said. “I mean, as far as I know, she’s back at that settlement, in that apartment. I liked Mary a lot, but...” I sighed and shook my head. We hit the road at the base of the off-ramp and started heading for the first location of interest: an abandoned car. “I’ve got what I call the ‘wanderlust bug’. You know how it’s like everyone seems to have some sort of bug in them? Like, there’s that one thing they just gotta do? Even if it’s unreasonable?”

She sighed unhappily. “Yeah. Mine is fighting. Knew someone who had the drinking bug. Knew too many people who had the shopping bug.”

“Yeah. I got lucky...I guess. After all this happened, the bug reared its head at some point. And it’s like, no matter how good I have it, no matter how much I like the girl I end up with in a settlement, what job I find, the people I know...I gotta move on within a month or so. Sometimes just a week. And even the first day that I get there, I can just tell. I can just tell, you know? I look around, and it feels like coming to a motel. I know I’m not gonna stay.”

She looked at me in a speculative kind of way as we stopped at the car. I didn’t have much hope for it. The windows were bashed in, the trunk was open, so was the hood, and obviously the engine had been scrapped. But I walked around back and started looking in the trunk anyway. It was empty, but I felt around deeper in for stuff hidden in the shadows, and hidden compartments.

“That’s sad, but maybe it’s not such a bad thing,” she murmured.

“Oh yeah?”

She shrugged, suddenly unsure of herself. “I don’t know. Maybe. I guess...what it made me think of was, like, one of those old ‘pearls of wisdom’ was that kind of the one truly, actually good thing that a person could do to live a good life, like across cultures and ages and whatever, was to not let themselves get content and secure, and to keep improving themselves. It seems like the most successful people have that mindset. Maybe...in this world, that ‘wanderlust’ bug is that. I’ve met a lot of people who found a little place to live and they’re just gonna stay there until they die, be it two months or fifty years from now.”

I sighed, considering it. “I don’t know,” I said after a moment. There was nothing in the trunk, so I moved on to the backseat. “I don’t think any one way of living is any more valid than another.” I paused. “Well, I mean, the way those shitheads were living wasn’t valid. But you know what I mean. I think it’s really just down to a matter of what you want. I think for a lot of people, finding one place to live and putting down roots is fine, it’s what they want. It doesn’t make them lesser in any way. Honestly, I want to...someday.” I paused. “What I mean is, I want to want to, if that makes sense. I’d like to get rid of this wanderlust bug.”

“Huh,” she murmured. “So you wander less because you want to and more because you feel compelled to?”

“Lately, yeah,” I replied. Nothing in the backseat either. Fuck. I moved to the front, started poking around. “I really enjoyed it in the beginning, when I started over a year ago. Just wandering. I started in Florida. I made it here...we’re in Kansas, right?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Damn, that’s a long way.”

“Yep. But lately, I don’t know. It’d be nice to find a place to settle down. I just have no idea what that looks like. And it’s not just because I ‘haven’t met the right woman’. Believe me. I have. More than once. Some of the women I’ve met were a lot like you.”

She paused. “What do you mean?”

“Like you: brave, tough, confident.”

She laughed. “I am not confident.”

“Yeah you are,” I replied, looking up at her. I was now on the passenger’s side, rooting around in the glovebox, and she was seated in the driver’s side. “You obviously are. You got through all that shit that happened before you met me. You didn’t panic or give up. You dealt with it.”

“I was just...angry. And I didn’t really have a choice,” she replied.

I laughed, a little bitterly. “You’d be fucking surprised how many people will give up even when they don’t have a choice. I know confidence. You’re confident.”

She looked out through the dirty, snowy windshield for several moments, then snorted and shook her head. “Whatever.”

I think that’s what she said when she didn’t really know how to respond. I finished my search of the glovebox and confirmed that yep, there was not a damn thing in this car. We got back to walking, heading for the little intersection of buildings.

“Your turn,” I said.

“What?” she replied.

“Something’s on your mind. What’s up?”

She laughed derisively, blushing a little. “Nothing profound, I assure you.”

“Tell me.”

She sighed heavily, a little dramatically. “Fine. I just...can’t fucking believe that I let you come in my pussy. Twice. I let you fucking creampie me. It’s actually been a real long time since I’ve let a guy fucking do that to me. Honestly the lack of protection has killed my sex life. I know we had those big breakthroughs in the late twenties, and we knocked some of those big-ass STDs out of the way finally, but...they aren’t all gone. And having one before now was bad enough. Living with it now? God, it’d be fucking hell. Hell on top of hell.”

“Yeah, I get you,” I agreed. I sighed. “I know I’m not immune, but...shit, I don’t know. There’s still cures out there for the ones that are left, I think. It’s just a matter of finding them. But I feel you. Is that why you’re so free with me now? Now that you’ve crossed that threshold and let me not just fuck you raw but actually shoot my load into you, you see no real reason not to just stay on this side of that threshold?”

“Yeah basically,” she replied. “You’re hot, you’ve got a good-sized dick, a little too big, but I can get used to that, you’re good in bed, you fucking listen. Shit, that alone is worth the risk. That and the fact that you eat pussy.”

“Gonna let Delilah eat you? I bet she’d be good at it,” I replied.

She smirked and shot me another look. “You really wanna see us hook up, huh?”

“Duh, of course I do. You are two of the fucking hottest women I’ve ever fucked.”

“I believe that for Delilah, but for me? Come on. Surely you’ve fucked much hotter women.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’m a more ‘in the moment’ kind of guy. It’s not like what I’m saying is bullshit, but to me, right now, you two are some of the hottest women I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. In an intimate sense.”

She scrutinized me for a moment, maybe trying to decide for herself if I was just buttering her up or not. I wasn’t, I meant what I said, and maybe that decided her. She just nodded. “Okay, fine. I’ll take it.”

I couldn’t help but grin. “Yeah, you’ll take it.”

She groaned. “You’re gonna be like this from now on, aren’t you?”

“You don’t like it? You really seemed to be enjoying that dick earlier.”

“Of course I was. Just...don’t get too fucking cocky.”

“Okay,” I said. We stopped as we reached the section of road that sat between the structures. I looked around. “All right, let’s get to work.”

TWENTY ONE

Something else was bugging Megan.

I could just tell, despite her initial good mood, something was bugging her. Maybe she’d remembered something or thought of something that sent her down that path of anger or misery. I knew that well enough. We searched the two other derelict cars that were there, but they were picked as clean as a dead animal in the desert by vultures. Nothing left but the bones. It wasn’t surprising, and I didn’t expect to find much of anything. This little intersection was prime pickings. Anyone who passed through would’ve almost certainly made the little jaunt down here over the past two years. But I stuck to the search anyway.

We were most of the way through the little gas station, (it was as cleared out as I expected), before I decided to try again.

“Megan, what’s bothering you?” I asked.

She looked up at me. We were both behind the counter, hunting through the area. She looked a little startled, then maybe a little upset. A thing I’d learned about people: they really didn’t like it when you accurately guessed what was going on inside their head. I think that’s why people hate psychologists and therapists so much, movies made everyone think they’re master manipulators or mind-readers or something.

“Nothing,” she said.

“I’ll leave you alone if you want, but I am free to talk. Unless it’s about me. I can understand how that’d be weird.”

A full minute passed before she sighed. “It’s not you. It’s stupid. And it’s nothing new.” I waited. She was staring into the space under the front counter, but I could tell she wasn’t actually looking any longer. “It’s stupid,” she repeated. “I’m just...jealous of Delilah. I’ve known a lot of women like her: beautiful, a little dumb, they get by on their looks alone.” She let out a huff of irritation. “You know how many fucking studies they’ve done that prove, like objectively, that attractive people have it easier in life? People will trust you more, they’ll do nice things for you, they’ll beg for your attention if you’re attractive. Attractive people get promoted more often and make more money. Obviously they get more fucking action.”

“I doubt you’ve ever lacked for action,” I said.

She laughed bitterly. “Maybe. Enough guys have asked. But it’s true, about the bias.”

“Hey, you’ll get no argument with me.”

She looked at me again. “Yeah, you’ve got a great body, but you’re kind weird-looking.” I looked back at her. “Hey, I’m just agreeing! Not even bad-weird, just...scary-weird. Although it’s less like that now that I actually know you.”

I laughed. “Again, no argument from me. I know I’m in a funny-looking fucker. And I’ve seen it. Yeah, traditionally attractive people are playing life on easy. Rich people were playing life with cheat codes. Glad most of them are fucked now.”

“Yeah.”

We kept searching for stuff, but like the car, this place just seemed bone dry for resources. After poking around everywhere I could think of, I marked the gas station off my little mental checklist and we headed back outside. As we hit the little restaurant and started searching, I noticed that Megan’s mood didn’t really lift. I tried to split my attention between hunting and thinking of something to say that might cheer her up.

The thing was, I understood. I wasn’t sure if it mattered how many times Delilah or I told her we thought she was attractive. There was probably a part of her that was just broken and then reset incorrectly, and it had never healed properly. And might never. Lots of people had that stuff. I’d mostly banished my concerns about how attractive I was. My face used to bug me. It is kinda funny looking, and kind of sinister I guess. But I had long since learned that it didn’t really matter. I could hunt, I could survive, I could defend myself.

Those were all way better than being attractive.

But you never completely got over something like that. Sometimes it’d just come back and bug you. And it was way more likely to hang out if you’d been having a run of bad luck or shitty times. Which she most certainly had. Hell, I feel like for most people, even good days now feel like mediocre days at best.

The front part of the restaurant was a bust. Not even the tables or chairs had survived. Judging by the splinters and dust everywhere, hundreds of passers-by must have broken it all down to burn. In a way it hadn’t been for ten thousand years, fire was life for everyone. Same story with the pair of bathrooms tucked away in one corner of the place, not that I really expected anything to be hiding there. But we found a kitchen with a pair of closet-like supply rooms, a walk-in freezer, and an office hanging off the back.

“Megan...” I said as we checked through the second storage room. The first had been utterly empty, no places to hide anything, but there was a shelf and some boxes left in the second one.

“Yeah?” she asked.

“Can I tell you something and you won’t repeat it?”

She looked at me, a look of curiosity on her face. “I guess it depends on what it is. Like if you’re gonna confess to me that you intend to kill Delilah in her sleep or something, I mean, I’m not gonna just sleep on that.”

I sighed and laughed a little. “God, you are so pessimistic!”

“Just being real,” she replied mildly.

“It’s nothing bad. Just...I don’t know. I thought it might help you feel better.” I hesitated, wondering if I was about to say something stupid.

“Okay, now I’m curious, what?”

Fuck it. “It know it’s not a cure for what’s got you down, but...I’m more attracted to you than I am Delilah.”

She frowned, scrutinizing me again, looking into my face, as if she was searching my expression for a lie, hidden somewhere cleverly in there.

“Why?” she asked finally, putting her hands on her hips.

“I mean...don’t get me wrong, I love submissive women. A lot. But I like your personality more,” I said.

She looked genuinely surprised. “Oh come on! Like half the things I’ve said to you since meeting you have been threats or insults or arguments. Probably closer to eighty percent. What, are you secretly a masochist? Are you one of those guys who gets off on being humiliated by a woman? Because hey, I can work with that.”

“No, I’m not,” I replied. “I just like that...you challenge me. Not many people do. Fewer women do. And I respect that...and find it really attractive.”

She laughed. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. But don’t get it confused: I’m not looking to be your girlfriend.”

“I know, I know. This isn’t me trying to raise the stakes on what we have going already. I don’t intend to, anyway. I’m just letting you know. I just thought...normally it helps people, it helped me, when you get told that you are attractive by someone you find attractive.”

“Who says I find you attractive?” she asked, crossing her arms. I stared at her. She sighed. “Yeah, okay, obviously I do.”

“Also, something that helped me stop worrying about it so much: as much as society likes to make it seem, although far less so now, being attractive isn’t the only metric of your value as a person.” I shrugged. “I don’t know, I hope it helps.”

I went back to searching.

“It does, actually,” she said after a moment, and walked over to me. She grabbed me and gave me a kiss on the mouth, smiled, then went back to work.

I smiled, too.

We kept searching.

~

The restaurant wasn’t a total bust.

We found some damned ketchup! It was in an unopened bottle and should probably still be fine. We also managed to find a can of black beans and a can of mixed vegetables. Whatever else we found was long since rotted to pulp.

That was pretty much the same deal in the grocery store. There was food left there, frozen over, but obviously rotted. We ignored it during our search, hunting fervently and systematically across all the shelves, underneath all the furniture, behind all the counters. I even ripped some vent coverings off and looked in there, though that didn’t provide anything useful. After just over an hour of searching, we came up with some matches, a pair of pants someone had abandoned sometime in the past, and a few more cans of food.

I walked back outside, ready to search the two other cars that were within visible distance. But the light was different, I could tell that right away, and so I looked up as I took the first step out of the grocery store.

A front of gray clouds had blown in while we were inside. It was going to snow again. Fucking great. Here I was ready to tackle the day, maybe push on to those lake houses and check them out, and now it was going to snow. I could just tell.

That was when I heard Megan scream my name.

I looked back down, sensing something ahead of me, and froze in pure shock at seeing the furry, sleek form of a wolf. It had come from around one of the cars not ten feet from me, low to the road, and with a growl it launched forward.

I fumbled for my gun but there was no time.

I threw my arm up instinctively as it leaped up to rip my throat out and its jaws locked onto my forearm. I yelled as its teeth dug in and I went down, hard, to the icy road. The pain was enormous, exploding in my arm as the teeth punctured skin. I was on my back, which screamed out in pain as well, the breath driven from my lungs.

“I can’t get a shot!” Megan shouted.

Then I heard a distant gunshot. Almost at the same time, the wolf jerked violently and I took the opportunity to throw it off me. Something warm had splattered my face and neck. It took me a full two seconds to put together that someone had just sniped the fucking thing.

“Get back inside! Now!” I yelled as I dove for the car and put myself alongside it, opposite the side the shot had come from. I glanced at the wolf. It had been a perfect headshot. Shit, how far back had those woods been? Or had they been in the woods? Who was it? The shot hadn’t come from the highway, I knew that.

No, whoever it was had positioned themselves in the opposite direction.

I peered cautiously around the edge of the car, I saw the flash of sunlight reflecting off a scope. Yep back at the woods, had to be a good five hundred yards away, and then another gunshot rang out. I expected either to die or to hear Megan scream, but instead I heard a startled yelp, then I hear beating footsteps, paws in the snow, running.

There had been more wolves. I squinted, staring hard, and could just barely make out a figure among the trees, holding the rifle. After a moment they stood and lowered the rifle. And stared right back at me, like they were waiting.

“Chris, who is it?” Megan asked from the store.

“No idea, but they saved our asses,” I replied. “I think they’re waiting for us to go.”

“I thought we were heading over there today?” she asked.

“No, it’s going to storm, we have to get back home.”

She sighed. “Yeah, okay. Can I come out now?”

“Wait,” I said, and got back to my feet. I walked around the back of the car and put myself in full view of the sniper. They didn’t move. I gave a little wave. I just barely made out a return wave, though it was brief. Huh.

“All right, come on,” I said.

Megan came out and cast a nervous glance at the distant trees, then we started walking away. “Shouldn’t we grab the wolf?” she asked. “That’s food.”

“No,” I replied.

“Why?”

“We’ll leave it as a thank you to whoever just saved my ass. Anyone that can shoot that good is a hunter, they’ll know what to do with a dead wolf,” I replied. “Now come on, snow could start coming down at any minute, and we’ve got a walk ahead of us.”

She nodded and we picked up the pace.

~

Sure enough, by the time we got home, it was snowing.

I’d taken the time to patch myself up during the walk.

By the time we actually got behind a closed door, visibility was down to maybe fifteen feet and the winds were blowing harshly. I hoped our savior had gotten somewhere safe. Might be worth checking out in the future. Could just be someone passing through, but for some reason I got the impression they lived in the area. And if that was true, then maybe they’d have some real information on the jerkoffs who’d robbed me.

But that was later.

For now, we were on snowstorm lockdown. We weren’t going anywhere. And sometimes that drove me out of my head with craziness from cabin fever or just frustration that I couldn’t make any progress on anything that wasn’t inside the four walls (or sometimes cave) that I currently occupied. But sometimes it was actually fucking awesome.

And almost always those awesome times had to do with the fact that there was a woman with me. Now, I had two women with me.

Two women who were happy to take off their clothes and open their legs for me.

And as I took off my coat and boots and pants, I saw Megan give Delilah a look. It was quick, but intense. I recognized that look. It was that I’m so going to fuck you look. I’d been lucky enough to get a lot of those looks since the snow started to fall. In a way, that was a little depressing. It took the end of the world for me to start getting regular action. Although I guess if I’d started acting like an asshole before then, maybe it would’ve worked out better.

Still didn’t understand all the exceptionally attractive women who hooked up with guys that were clearly treating them like shit.

But no, I didn’t want to get started on thinking about shit that bothered me in the past and put myself on track for a bad mood. It was too easy, even now. Instead, I made the decision to have today be a good day. Kind of an extension of the celebration we’d had yesterday, because I was tired. I’d been going for awhile, and I don’t think I’d still recovered properly from that crash. Parts of me were still sore and I’d been pushing a lot ever since the wreck. Sometimes it still surprised me how resilient and fragile the human body was.

Plus, something I’d learned somewhere along the way: you had to enjoy yourself while you could. Because you might not get a chance to for weeks, or months.

I finished getting out of my clothes, now down to a t-shirt and thermal underwear and socks, grabbed a blunt and a lighter, and sat down in the chair by the fireplace.

“So is that it?” Megan asked, taking a seat at the table across the cabin. “Are we done for the day?”

“Yep,” I replied. “At least I am. Getting attacked by wolves takes it out of you.”

“You got attacked by wolves?” Delilah asked. She’d been laying on the bed in her panties and a t-shirt, stretched out, reading one of the books I’d found. Her eyes went to my arm. “Oh shit, are you okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” I replied. “Someone saved us.”

“Who?”

“No idea. I think they’re friendly, or not an asshole at least. They could’ve killed us both, but they didn’t. I waved, they waved back. They were a ways away.”

“Huh,” she murmured. Then a smile came across her face as I put the blunt in my mouth. As I lit up, she got up, waltzed on over, and plopped down in my lap. “Well, if it’s all the same to you,” she said with a sweet as can be smile, “I’d like to get stoned and fuck all day, then.”

“Actually, yeah, that sounds like a really good idea,” Megan said.

Delilah’s eyes lit up with excitement and she twisted around in my lap as I finished lighting it up. I took a pull, held it, let it out slow.

“Does that mean you’re ready to do sex stuff with me?!” she asked, as excited as I’d ever seen her. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but ended up being happy about it. If she was gonna be more excited about having sex with someone else than me, who better than Megan? And it wasn’t like I was going to be missing out on it.

Megan smirked and rolled her eyes. “Yes, Delilah,” she said, a little patronizingly, “that means I’m ready to let you eat my pussy.”

“Good,” Delilah said. “You’ve got no fucking idea what I can do.”

“I saw you in action, you looked pretty amazing sucking dick,” she replied as she pulled one of the blunts out of the baggie and grabbed another lighter.

“Gimme,” Delilah said, turning back to me.

I let her have the blunt and puff on it. She let out a sigh of relief once she passed it back. “God, that’s so good. It chills me out so much.”

Megan and I both agreed quietly.

For a few moments, we all just sat there, getting high, relaxing. In a way, I thought weed was funny. Like, they spent a century making it illegal and fucking people over for no reason at all, even though beer was totally legal and fucked you up even worse, and then finally, when we actually get it legalized at a federal level, the apocalypse happens.

Go fucking figure.

It wasn’t long before I really started to get turned on. It didn’t help that Delilah was grinding her sweet ass into my crotch, and she knew exactly what she was doing.

After about five minutes, I decided enough was enough.

Time to fuck.

TWENTY TWO

“All right,” I said. “Get up.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Get up,” I replied.

She got up and looked at me, and that little smile on her face told me she knew fucking exactly why I wanted her to get up. I had a steel hard-on at this point and it was straining against my boxers and my thermal underwear.

“Take all your clothes off and go wash yourself, you little slut,” I said.

“Yes, master,” she replied demurely, and took off her shirt.

“You’re really good at that,” Megan said. I looked at her, considered whether or not to try pulling some of that ‘shut up and do what I say’ on her, but decided against it. I thought she might be into it, at least a little, but that wasn’t exactly something you sprang on someone, and she was volatile enough that it might piss her off, even with weed in her.

“What?” I asked.

“Telling someone what to do in a ‘you aren’t gonna fucking argue with me’ voice and somehow you sound neither stupid nor like a douche,” she replied.

“Well, it helps when she’s into it and it pretty much only happens during sex,” I replied.

“I guess so.” Megan leaned forward suddenly with a surprisingly wicked smile and fixed her eyes squarely on Delilah, who had just finished getting out of her panties. “Delilah. We are going to use you like a worthless piece of fuckmeat.”

Delilah froze where she was for just a few seconds, staring back at her, then let out a shuddering breath. “I...would like that,” she managed.

“You’re pretty good yourself,” I said. Then I reached out and smacked Delilah’s ass. Hard. “I thought I told you to get washed up.”

“I’m sorry, master,” she replied, and hurried over to the water and soap. I took a few more pulls on the blunt, then stubbed it out on the stone of the fireplace and set it on the mantle for later. Then I stripped down and moved over to join her in washing up. This was going to be really good. One of those fucking awesome sexual encounters. Two beautiful, horny women, one of them extremely submissive, both of them trusting and totally cool with absolutely no protection. Situations like that seemed rare, even now.

While I took the rest of my clothes off, I winced, my arm bugging me again. The weed was helping and I still had a few painkillers in my system, but it was so hit or miss if those things held up nowadays, because of how old some of them were.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Megan asked as she took off her shirt.

“I’m fine,” I replied. “I’ll take the bandage off after we’re done and one of you can look at it. God, I’m gonna have one solid scar on my forearm in another year or two.”

“I saw a lot of other little bite scars,” Megan murmured in agreement.

I sighed. “Yeah, that’s like the eighth or ninth time I’ve had to sacrifice my arm to keep my throat from getting ripped out. Fucking wolves. But whatever, it’s sealed up for the moment, we’ll look at it later, now I just want to relax.”

“And by relax you mean have vigorous sex with the two of us,” Megan said, joining Delilah by the water as soon as she’d finished stripping.

“Yeah,” I replied, doing the same.

All three of us were excited, I could read it in their expressions and the way they moved. More than that, we were eager. I know I was. Once we were washed up, we got into our bed on the floor and Delilah pretty much jumped on Megan now that she’d declared herself free game. She immediately began groping and kissing her, using a lot of tongue.

When she finally pulled back after a good minute or so, Megan’s eyes were a little wide and she was grinning. “Wow, you actually really like me.”

Delilah giggled. “Have I not told you that yet?

“Yeah, just...whatever,” she replied, then she kissed Delilah once more and shifted over to me. My hand found one of her firm breasts as her lips found my own lips. We enjoyed each other, enjoyed all those good feelings that hooking up with a hot person gave you, enjoyed touching and kissing. Before too long Delilah butted in and pretty much demanded my attention. I gave it to her gladly, cupping of her large, pale breasts and slipping my tongue into her mouth. One of them reached down and started massaging my cock, slowly jacking me off, which sent a wonderful thrill of lust echoing through my already sex-craving body.

“Lemme ride your tongue,” Megan said after a moment, staring at me.

“Okay,” I said, and she grinned and started moving. I looked at Delilah. “You know what to do,” I said to her.

“Yes, sir,” she replied, and quickly got down between my legs. She was a nimble little redhead, and very eager to please.

Right about the time Megan straddled my face, I felt that wet heat of Delilah’s mouth as she wrapped her luscious lips around my cock. She started bobbing her head smoothly, and so I went right to work on Megan.

“Oh fucking hell,” she gasped as I started tonguing her clit. “Wow, I keep forgetting how good this feels.”

I reached up and laid my hands her smooth thighs, running them up and down her skin, feeling her wonderful, soft heat against me. I loved pleasuring women and that love had only grown since the apocalypse, I think. Just about everything had gotten better, it seemed. Maybe it was because the new normal was a state of abject suffering. The highs were much higher now. I appreciated damn near everything that happened that was good more than I used to. Although I’d always loved sex, now I practically worshiped it.

And because of how amazing it felt to be pleasured, I had an idea of just how good I could make another person feel. If anything, with regards to that particular line of reasoning, sometimes I thought I was in the better position. Women seemed easier to please, physically, in general. A chick doing stuff to my dick with her tongue was awesome, but when I did something with my tongue to their clit, most girls fucking lost their minds.

Megan had both hands on my head now, fingers in my hair, moaning loudly and apparently fighting to keep from moving around too much. If she lost control she was liable to fall off me or crush my head between her wonderful thighs.

Or at least bang it. I was still dealing with headaches from the crash.

Delilah was doing a great job, putting her tongue and lips and the inside of her cheek to good use. And her hand, too. She was massaging my balls gently in that soft, hot grasp of hers. She really knew how to do that.

Finally, Megan got off of me. “Okay, can I fuck now? Can we fuck?”

“Yeah, but I want you to do Delilah first. She really wants to have you eat her out, and she’ll be less distracted if you get her off now,” I replied.

Megan smirked, looking down at our redheaded sextoy, then she just laughed. “Yeah, okay. Been awhile since I’ve eaten pussy, but it’s one of those things you never forget how to do.”

“Yep,” Delilah agreed, sitting up.

We all switched positions and our threesome really got underway then. Delilah was on her back with her slim, pale legs open wide, her bald pussy glistening with desire. Megan got onto her hands and knees, and damn if she didn’t look really good in that position. I got behind her, quite eager myself to get back into that sweet pussy of hers.

Megan lowered her head, buried her face in Delilah’s crotch, and went to work.

“Oh yes! Oh Megan!” she cried out immediately as Megan started licking at her clit.

I got behind Megan and settled my hands on her ass, admiring it and her for a moment. She really did have a great ass, the kind that came from a lot of legwork, a lot of walking, staying in great shape. Then I looked up higher, at her head as it moved, her face buried in Delilah’s crotch, the insanely sexy redhead moaning loudly, her legs spread out wide, hands on the back of Megan’s head. As I rested my cock at the entrance of her pussy, feeling her whole body shiver in response to the contact, it occurred to me that Megan either trusted me a lot, or was very desperate for physical intimacy. Or maybe it was both.

It had to be incredibly difficult for her to open up, and I thought that she might be the kind of person who, although she would like to be good at compartmentalizing physical intimacy and emotional connection, she wasn’t. If she let someone into her bed, she let them, to a certain degree, into her heart and her head, even if she didn’t want to. That could make casual sex tough. I think most of us dealt with that to a certain degree. And there was a certain elitist stance in the ability to completely divorce sex from emotion.

If you had trouble with it, many people saw you as weak and pathetic and easy to take advantage of. They were wrong, and often cruel, but it didn’t stop them from thinking that. People were always looking for ways to feel superior.

So as I began making love to Megan again, sliding into her from the back, I took a lot of gratification and appreciation in the fact that she was letting me do this. I could be wrong about her, but as time went on I was increasingly sure that I wasn’t. She was a very guarded woman, and she had reason to be, no doubt.

I listened to her let out a series of incredibly sexy, muffled moans of bliss as I stroked smoothly into her from the back. Her pussy was incredible, a thing of absolute sexual ecstasy. Screwing her was a study in hedonism. I pounded that tight, sweet vagina until Delilah sucked in a deep breath and then let out a long, loud cry of intense rapturous release.

“OH MEGAN YES!” she shrieked as her hips bucked and she started coming.

She was quite a sight. They both were.

As soon as Delilah was done coming, Megan sat up and waved me off. I stopped pounding her, pulling out of her, and she straightened up on her knees, stretching her arms out and popping her back and neck.

“Oh yeah...not that that dicking wasn’t appreciated, but I want oral from Little Miss Red Slut here,” she said.

“I don’t mind pounding the fuck out of her, either,” I replied.

Megan reached down and slapped her thigh. “Get up, you dumb little whore.”

“Yes mistress,” she replied, all but hopping up and giving her space to Megan, who laid down on her back and spread out her legs. Delilah got onto her hands and knees and buried her face in Megan’s crotch as I got up against her.

And we went to work using Delilah like nothing more than a piece of meat.

Exactly like she wanted.

I could tell she was getting off on it really hard, too. I started ramming that perfect pink pussy of hers from the back, finding her exquisitely wet and blissfully tight as I grabbed her pale hips, and it didn’t take more than a minute for her to let out a shriek of mindless pleasure as she began orgasming and squirting all over my dick. I kept pounding, making her shriek again each time I plunged my cock into her and making her squirt even harder.

For the next I don’t know how long I lost myself in that sweet, terrific pussy. Lost myself in running my hands over her smooth skin and her well-shaped ass. In reaching up under her and grabbing those big tits of hers. Lost myself in hearing those two women moan in ecstasy. In seeing their naked, perfect bodies writhing in response to me and to each other. For that session, that unmeasured length of time, it was like we were locked away in our own little world, separate from the rest of the planet, from the rest of society.

All the miserable, fucked up things that were happening out there, that were part of our new reality ever since the snow started to fall, all the bad things that had happened to us and would no doubt happen to us in the future, it was like they couldn’t get in. We were separate from them. Even if it was an illusion, it felt real in that moment.

Right now, I felt as close to these two women as I had ever felt to anyone.

And if that was an illusion too, then I didn’t care.

I made Delilah orgasm two more times before I shot my load into her. I comed so fucking much inside of her pussy, busting a huge nut inside of her and draining my balls into that perfect, sweet, pink pussy of hers. She moaned, pushing against me, inviting me deeper, inviting me in to empty my seed into her and to fill her up. The pleasure roared through me, a living wave of total rapturous ecstasy that found every niche, every hidden part of me and pressure-blasted it with pure, mindless bliss. I lived that orgasm from a fantastically long time.

I emptied myself out and filled her up and bathed in the bliss of ages.

It was magical.

When I was finished, I pulled out of her and she flopped forward, resting half-on Megan, who had enjoyed a few of her own orgasms.

I fell onto my back beside the two women, staring at the ceiling, which was spinning. I felt like I’d just had a full-on workout, I was sweaty and my muscles ached. And my arm hurt.

“You’re bleeding, Chris,” Megan murmured.

I raised my arm and looked at it, then grunted and sighed. “Course I am.”

“Gotta change the bandages,” she said, patting at Delilah, who moved quickly.

“Are you okay?” Delilah asked.

“I’m fine,” I replied. “I feel great. Hot damn. That was some awesome sex.”

“Yes it was,” Megan agreed while Delilah went ‘mmm-hmm’ in a dreamy tone.

Megan came over to me a moment later with a bottle of antiseptics and some more bandages. I sighed and sat up.

“This is gonna hurt,” she muttered.

“No news there,” I replied.

While Delilah cleaned herself up, Megan got the bandages off and I let out a bark of pain as she got the disinfectant all over the wounds. Stupid fucking wolves. You know, honestly I was fine with live and let live with wolves, all they had to do was fucking stay away from me. Some did, but too many of them attacked me like assholes. What the fuck was I supposed to do? Lay down and die? If they’d just fuck off, I wouldn’t have to kill them. But that was the nature of nature, I guess. I winced and complained as Megan patched me back up.

“I’d say take it easy for awhile, but we both know that isn’t going to happen,” she murmured when she was done.

“You did a good job,” I replied. “And I’m down for the day, at least. Plus sex and weed are great painkillers.”

Megan laughed. “Yeah, they are.”

I laid back down, and Megan laid down beside me. I put an arm around her, held her nude body to my own. Delilah finished washing up and laid down on my other side. I put my arm around her and held the two naked women, letting the heat from their bodies and the heat from the fireplace wash over me as the storm raged outside.

~

The rest of the day was great.

We lounged for awhile, and toked up a bit more. Finally, we had another threesome. This time the ladies took turns bouncing on my dick, and fuck was that great. Seeing their tits bounce with them, their faces twisting in bliss, feeling that fantastic ecstasy of raw pussy slipping up and down your cock until you busted a huge nut…

This time I shot my load into Megan.

After that, Megan decided she was going to put together a meal for us, like a real one. While she did that, Delilah took some initiative and decided she was going to wash all our blankets and clothes. I figured they could use them, and now that we had a bit of real soap to use and some more pots and pants and an unlimited supply of water, it was as good a time as any. She ended up half filling the tub with boiled water and washing everything in there over the course of the day. Then she’d wring it out and hang it over furniture or off a clothesline we discovered rolled up and attached to a wall near the ceiling. We pulled it out, locked it in place, and put it to use.

The meal Megan put together was good stuff. She’d fried up the rest of that rabbit meat we’d found earlier, as well as all the deer meat we’d recovered from the campgrounds. It needed to be eaten quickly anyway. She threw in some wolf meat and shredded beef, and then made a decent stew out of the vegetable soup she’d found, pumped up with the can of green beans and one of the cans of peas we’d found.

With some of the ketchup, it was a feast.

Between the two of them they polished off that bottle of wine they’d gotten into earlier. The most I indulged in beyond the meal was the rest of that blunt I’d started.

It was a great day. The best I’d had in a long time, even with my arm hurting.

In the end, I found myself stoned and very chill and mellow, going to sleep on clean sheets, beneath a clean blanket, in between two naked women, all three of us very satisfied from another threesome we’d had.

Yeah, definitely a great day.

TWENTY THREE

It was a new day, and although I can’t say that I felt like a new man, I was feeling pretty good all things considered.

I was standing on the highway, alone today, looking out over the vast winter desolation once more. I was looking towards the lake. The skies were clear again and I was hoping that another fucking storm wouldn’t blow in like they had been recently. I could see four structures in a line along the shore of the lake, the last two only barely visible beyond the trees of the forest that partially wrapped around the lake.

Today I’d search them all and maybe find that mystery sniper who’d saved my ass.

As I set off, I considered the two women I was now sharing my life with. Relationships were very different in this new world. There were several new dynamics at play. Ironically, a relationship dynamic that had been evolving much more rapidly over the past two decades had suddenly became very standard in this miserable new world.

The transactional relationship.

What can you do for me?

A lot of people viewed this as selfish and a lot of people were right. Too many people, in my experience, didn’t understand the true nature of a transactional relationship. It was a two-way street. It wasn’t only what can you do for me? It was also what I can do for you? Like symbiosis, two beings working together, each providing the other something. Now that things weren’t really in abundance anymore and it was so easy to die, this was the new standard. I think the problem came in with regards to emotions.

You can’t ditch emotions, not really.

You can ignore them, and maybe sometimes successfully in the long run, but they’re always gonna be around.

And transactional relationships could turn ugly or sour much more quickly, or even start out that way. Plus, by their very nature they could be very ugly. Think about it: you can’t do something so you gotta do something else that’s easy but distasteful or disgusting for someone you might hate just to stay alive. Most people talk tough and say shit like ‘I’d rather die’ but most people are lying. No, you wouldn’t rather die, stop thinking you’re hard and just admit that you’ll do what it takes to live. Tension would be a real problem if Delilah didn’t like me or wasn’t happy with the idea of selling herself in exchange for something.

Despite all the negatives, I had to admit I liked the whole relationship paradigm a lot more now, if only because it was just so much more blatant and honest.

Way, way too many people were only talking to you or befriending you to try and get something out of you back then, but they wouldn’t admit it. Now people are a lot more straightforward. I mean, in general. Obviously there’s still liars out there, people looking to take advantage, but I can flat out say ‘I’ll protect you’ or ‘I’ll hunt a deer for you, what will you give me in exchange?’ and people don’t get all upset over it.

It’s just the way things worked now.

That and the fact that money was out the door. No one gave a shit about money, the only thing it was good for was tinder. I’d heard that they still used it in some of the big cities but I thought that was kind of stupid. How easy would it be to go find some abandoned bank, break in, and get your hands on a hundred grand or more?

No, the barter system was way better.

Or rather, it was way better for me. I could see it being shitty for a lot of people. Hell, I’m sure it still slanted away from women. How many women were skilled in something useful? Car repair, hunting, sewing, medicine, stuff people needed, but the only accepted currency most guys would take was pussy?

I tried to remain self aware about that, but I had to wonder how many women I’d taken advantage of. How many had grinned and took it? But what was taking advantage nowadays? Where did you draw the line?

Shit, I don’t know.

I tried to judge everything as it came to me. Delilah was happy enough to sell me her body, but Megan could only accept sex with me if we went to bed together as equals. We were fucking for fun, not for profit. Which I was okay with.

I let out a little laugh, my breath appearing in a fog on the air as I moved through the little intersection where I’d been jumped by a wolf yesterday. The body was gone. Here it was, the end of the world, and I was still agonizing over moral choices. I guess that meant I kept my humanity. It was worrying how many people hadn’t.

After a good long walk down the road that led away from the highway and intersection, (with just one pause to search a derelict car that yielded a big old nothing), I made it to the lake. The road crested over a hill and I stopped there and just took in the view. I could see just about the whole lake. It was decent-sized, and completely frozen solid. There was a lot of open space over on the far side, but here to my left was more forest and that row of buildings. The first one was another cabin, not too unlike the one I was living in, the next three were lake houses. Fancy places where rich people had once retreated every now and then.

I wondered if anyone was living in them. It occurred to me that this was where the assholes who’d robbed me would probably be, although at a glance I didn’t see any immediate signs of activity. For a moment, I indulged in enjoying the view. It was a nice view. The snow-capped trees, the frozen lake, the ice wreathing the buildings, the clear blue skies overhead. I think places like this, places where there was mostly nature and a touch of humanity, benefited the most from looking good during winter. It was the cities that were miserable, unhappy places. Maybe because it reminded us too much of what once was, barely two years ago.

Well, enough indulging.

I got to work, heading over to the cabin and checking it out. I got my pistol out. I’d taken both the nine millimeter and the forty-five. The nine was tucked down the back of my pants, the forty-five in one of the holsters I’d salvaged from the jerks at the campgrounds. I checked the outside and then went inside. The place was vacant, and it looked very picked over already. As I set to work, I again thought back to Delilah and Megan.

Something was different now.

Something had changed last night, or maybe the change had begun and then fermented while we slept. I thought it was a good change. I noticed, as I went about my morning routine, that Delilah and (especially) Megan were calmer now. It wasn’t the sex, I was almost sure, because we’d already had sex. It wasn’t even that they were calmer, it was that they were more at ease around each other specifically. Delilah was already pretty easygoing. I had the idea that she was surprisingly resilient, given her disposition.

Like nothing could get her down.

Well, not nothing obviously, but she seemed to bounce back quickly. Megan was a lot gloomier. Again, with good reason. I couldn’t blame anyone for being gloomy nowadays. But it was kind of interesting to see how people adapted. Some people were miserable even though they had fucking everything. Some people were relentlessly optimistic despite being in objectively and consistently awful circumstances.

Although I didn’t carry the misconception that it was all willpower.

That optimistic person wasn’t gaining their shiny outlook through grit alone. It was just how they were wired.

That gloom and doom pessimist wasn’t that way because they insisted on being miserable...it was just the way their fucking brain had formed.

I mean yeah, you had some control, but it was the difference between trying to lift a cinderblock and trying to lift a bus in some cases.

Twenty minutes later, I let out a little sigh of frustration and stepped back outside. The cabin was picked clean. I was becoming more and more certain that someone was living very nearby. That wasn’t just the ‘scavengers coming and going for months’ cleared out. No, that was the ‘someone lives near here and has had weeks or months to consistently search this structure’ cleaned out. Well, if that was the case, maybe I could turn this to my advantage. Although to be honest I didn’t think I could pull another scam like what I’d just done at the campgrounds.

They’d recognize me because they had robbed me.

Although they’d rightly assume I wouldn’t recognize them. I felt a pulse of hate and anger touch off and race through me as I thought of my journal again. It’d been simmering in the back of my head for the last few days but I hadn’t really thought about it because I’d been so distracted by the girls. But I thought of it now.

I wanted that fucking thing back.

I still thought it was stupid that I was so attached to it, but whatever. It was mine. Pretty much nothing was specifically mine in this frozen hellscape now. And it wasn’t even like a whole lot had really been mine before then, or if it was, I didn’t particularly care about it. Was that a human thing? Like it didn’t matter so much of what it was as what it represented? Surely some of it had to do with the fact that it was a thing I had created. Not the paper and cover itself, but the words, the sentences, the thoughts.

I had put time in generating those.

That journal represented a long time.

I don’t know. I’m not really smart enough to delve deep into psychology, but I knew I wasn’t leaving without getting it back and maybe I might not step on my anger when it showed up this time around. Maybe I’d knocked some fucking teeth out. That got me thinking on what I’d had to do a few days ago, killing most of that group…

It bothered me how much it didn’t bother me.

I didn’t want to be a fucking sociopath who could just off people like it was no big deal. On the other hand, I didn’t want to freeze up and get my ass killed. On the other hand I didn’t want it to cripple me emotionally or psychological when I did have to kill someone. Maybe I was striking a nice balance: I killed when I had to, and felt more or less okay about it if I felt like it was truly justified. Or maybe I was fooling myself and I was a monster.

Fuck, I hoped not.

I searched the first of the lake houses and found a whole lot more nothing. The place had been tossed and I could see that some furniture had been taken. Though there wasn’t the telltale remains of dust and wooden bits from it being broken down for burning fuel. No, I thought someone might’ve found a chair they’d liked and hauled it off wholesale. And sure enough, as I stepped back outside and started making my way for the second lake house, I was hit with the absolute certainty of being watched by someone.

Looking around, I tried to figure out where it was coming from, and ultimately I decided it was almost surely the last lake house. The sun was reflecting too brightly off the windows, so anyone inside would be hidden from view, but they’d have a damn clear view of me. Well, might as well keep going, I’d come this far.

Heading into the second lake house, I searched it and found nothing as well, though I was just going through the motions at this point.

I fucking hated leaving places unsearched.

The sense of being watched was overwhelming as I approached the last lake house. It looked like the nicest one, perched on a little rise in the land, giving it a nice view of the lake no doubt. It was two stories and looked pretty new, maybe built within the last decade, and even had its own privacy fence going around it.

I made sure my approach was nice and easy, my hands quite visible. Didn’t want to give whoever it was the wrong impression. It was times like this that I was really gambling with my life, but I was going to trust my gut and my gut said I’d probably be okay. Could be wrong, but that was the nature of gambling.

Getting up to the front gate in the privacy fence, I opened it up. As I did, I saw a woman standing on the front porch of the house, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette and holding a black pistol. She looked very comfortable holding that pistol.

“Hello,” I said.

“Hi, there,” she replied. “Help you?”

“Yes. I’m looking for information and potentially to trade.”

“Hmm.” She studied me and I studied her.

She was an older woman, probably somewhere in her forties, mid-to-late maybe. She had crow’s feet around her eyes and some around her mouth, a few scars on her face, which was pretty in a very rough kind of way. Her brown hair, worn in a basic ponytail, didn’t show any gray though, and she didn’t seem the kind of woman to bother with dyeing it. Her green eyes looked very sharp and clear. She wore a heavy brown coat and heavy brown work pants, with gray hiking boots.

“You alone today?” she asked.

Today. As opposed to at all. Which meant she almost certainly had to be the sniper who’d saved my ass yesterday. Or she’d been watching us.

“I’m alone today,” I confirmed.

“That girl of yours back somewhere safe?” she asked.

I nodded, but said nothing else.

She smirked a little. “So you wanna trade, huh? What’ve you got?”

“I’ve got cigarettes,” I replied as she took another pull on her own. That seemed to get her attention, though only mildly. I imagine it was hard to find cigarettes or tobacco out here, unless she somehow managed to grown her own.

Finally, she sighed and looked around, then centered her gaze back on me. “You can come in and we can talk about it. But you mind your manners or I’ll put a bullet in your head faster than you can spit,” she said.

“Yes ma’am,” I replied, which made her smirk a little more.

I knew how to mind my manners.

We walked into her house and, ever the pervert, I couldn’t help but check out her ass. It was mostly hidden by the coat and the pants, but I got a rough idea of its shape, and I could tell that this woman was a fit but hefty lady.

And I was into that.

I was just into women in general. I’ll own it: I’m kind of a whore.

Her place was nice. Really nice. Clean, neat, and full of nice stuff. I made sure to kick the snow off my boots and wipe them off on the mat before following her across a mostly smooth hardwood floor, down a hall and into a living room where one whole wall was just bookshelves. Packed with books. Across from it, in a fancy stone and glass setup, was a very nice fireplace, with a little fire crackling along. There were two long couches, a pair of recliners, and a pair of coffee tables. A flat-screen TV hung on the wall.

Thing was probably seventy or eighty inches and output 8K or maybe even 16K UHD.

It was covered in dust.

“Have a seat. My name’s Hazel,” she said as she sat in one of the recliners. She had a sort of rough voice.

Another attractive thing about her.

“Chris,” I replied, sitting down across from her on one of the couches after taking my backpack off and setting it down in front of me.

She hadn’t put the pistol away or even let go of it, though she was no longer directly pointing it at me. A good sign, I thought.

“What are you looking for and what do you have?” she asked.

“Information,” I replied. “And maybe some books. I guess some other things. Food you might be willing to part with. Medical supplies. Toiletries. Soap.”

“Can’t help you on the medical supplies. Not much food, either. I got soap, though. And books, obviously.” She leaned forward. “What kind of information, exactly?”

I began pulling out the things that I was willing to trade that I’d brought with me. All the cigarettes, the little travel bottle of vodka I’d first found in the cabin, (the girls had insisted we keep the second bottle of wine and the bigger bottle of vodka and I was finding it hard to say no to them), those batteries I’d found, that broken flashlight, and one of the three lighters in our possession. “I’m looking for some people,” I said when I was done.

She stared at the stuff for a moment, then got up and walked over, looking it over. Finally, she reached out and picked up the bag of ten hand-rolled cigarettes. Pulling out, she studied it, smelled it. “If we’re going to have a serious conversation, I want one of these as proof of commitment to a real trade deal,” she said.

“Fine,” I replied.

She looked a little surprised and then set her own cigarette, which was nearly dead, down in a nearby ashtray. At least she used her own lighter to light up. I knew what she was doing: testing me. Seeing how far she could push our little interaction. I was fine with some pushing, but not much more than this.

“What kind of people?” she asked, taking an experimental puff on the cigarette.

“Kind of people that would rob a man of everything he has and not even have the nerve to kill him while he’s passed out,” I replied.

“Hmm. I might know of some people like that.” She nodded over her shoulder. “Back on the other side of the highway, there’s a group that lives in some campgrounds.”

“They’re dead,” I said flatly. “Saw to that personally.”

That gave her some pause and she raised an eyebrow. “So that’s what all that shooting a few days back was about?” I nodded. “All of ‘em?”

“No,” I amended. “Two survived. I let them walk away.”

“Did you now? Interesting. Why’d you kill the others in the first place?”

“They were kidnapping women and selling them.”

“Hmm. Good reason. You let the others go because...”

“They surrendered, and I’m not exactly to the point where I’ll murder people outright in cold blood when they’re on their knees in front of me. One of them, I felt, was genuinely remorseful and had gotten caught up in it. I don’t think he’ll be causing more problems. He seemed ready to accept it if I was going to kill him or beat him within an inch of his life. The other guy was weaselly and panicking...I decided to let him run his ass off and have some luck trying to survive out there on his own. The others we killed outright.”

“We, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m guessing you rescued one of these women? That who was with you the other day?”

“So that was you who shot the wolf?” I asked.

She smirked. “Yeah. Good shot, huh?”

“Excellent shot,” I replied honestly. “And yeah, that’s who was with me.”

“I trust you’re treating her better than her previous situation.” It was almost a threat.

“I am,” I replied. “She could leave with good gear right now if she wanted to. We have an understanding.”

“Hmm.” She pulled on the cigarette a few more times as she looked over the stuff I’d laid out. Then she looked up at me. She seemed to be appraising me in exactly the same way. “Take your coat off,” she said.

“Any particular reason?” I asked.

“I just want a better look at you.”

I thought about repeating that question, but instead stood up and took my coat off, hoping that this was going exactly where I wanted it to go.

Gotta be honest, I wanted to bang her.

I fucking loved older women as much as I loved women my own age. I took off the sweater I had on underneath it, leaving just a t-shirt.

“You’re in great shape,” she murmured.

“Well I travel a lot and do all my own hunting, skinning, and cleaning.”

“I see.” She looked at me for a bit longer, then back down at the stuff. “Okay, I’m willing to make you a deal. I know who robbed you. Or, put it this way: if the people who robbed you aren’t long gone, then I know who it had to be, and I can tell you about them. I’m also willing to give up some books, let’s say half a dozen of your choice, provided you don’t take my favorites. I can throw in three cans of food. What I want in return is all this and...you gotta lay me.”

I raised an eyebrow. Wow. So it was going the direction I wanted it to go, just not in the way I expected it do.

She could have easily gotten more shit out of me in exchange for a chance at her pussy, but she thought she had to convince me to fuck her.

“Deal,” I said.

She smirked. “That girlfriend of yours won’t mine?”

“They won’t mind. We have an understanding.”

Now she raised an eyebrow. “They?”

Oops. “Yeah,” I replied, trying to play it off casual. It was dangerous giving out more information than you had to in most situations, although I honestly wasn’t getting bad vibes from her. Hazel struck me as the kind of woman who just lived by herself and was cool with that.

“Okay then,” she said, grabbing up the stuff and straightening up. “Come on. I got a bed upstairs. Show me a good time.”

“Yes ma’am,” I replied, getting up as well.

TWENTY FOUR

“Just so you know, I’ve got one of those birth control/STD implants,” I said as I followed her up the stairs.

She definitely had a big ass.

“Oh really?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Must be nice.”

“Oh yeah.”

“Is that your way of saying you wanna ride bareback?” she asked as we reached the top of the stairs.

“Yes,” I replied.

She issued a little laugh and didn’t say anything as we walked down a hall to the door at the end. She pushed it open and we went inside. The master bedroom was really nice. Big king-size bed with nice pillows and blankets, nice wooden desk, two dressers, full-length mirror. I could easily envision this place belonging to some CEO or stockbroker, a place they came to for long fishing weekends or summer getaways with their family.

Or from their family.

I wondered where they were now, if they were even still alive.

I knew a lot of people’s plans were ‘get to an isolated cabin, away from everyone else’, when the snow began to fall.

“Well I don’t have to worry about getting knocked up so much anymore,” she said as she set the stuff down on one of the dressers. Then she turned to look at me. “Is it that fancy one you can actually see?” she asked.

“It is, indeed,” I replied, setting my backpack down.

“Show me.”

I started taking my clothes off. Got my boots off, put my nine down on the table beside the bed and began piling my clothes on the floor next my backpack. All of it within reach of each other and the bed. You always wanted to be ready to go in a hurry, just in case.

“How old are you?” she asked.

“Twenty five,” I replied.

She blinked in surprise. “You aren’t lying are you?”

“No.” I got down to my boxers and I saw her eyes flick to my hard-on, straining against them. Seems women had to at least look, even a little, at hard cocks the same way we had to check out cleavage. “I’m really twenty five years old.”

“Shit,” she muttered. “I thought you were older. Thirties at least. But I can see it...damn, you’re a lot younger than me.”

“How old are you?” I asked.

“Forty six,” she replied.

I grinned. I couldn’t help it. And she did the same.

“Oh, you got a thing for older women?”

“You got a thing for younger guys?” I replied.

She laughed. “I do, as a matter of fact. No surprise there.”

“Yeah, I like older women,” I said, and took off my boxers.

“Wow. That’s a nice package,” she muttered, staring at my cock. I suddenly wondered if Megan or Delilah would understand this. Well, Delilah would. Hell, she’d probably think it was awesome. Megan might not, but she understood that this wasn’t exclusive at least. Well, too late now. My own feelings and lust (and it was intense) aside, Hazel said she had information, and I believed her, and this was how I was going to get it.

“Okay, let’s do this. There’s some water in a bucket in the bathroom. Just changed it. Go wash up, young man,” she said, taking off her coat and hanging it on the wall.

“Yes ma’am,” I replied.

She laughed and continued stripping as I headed for the bathroom attached to the master bedroom. There was soap, a fair amount of it actually. I grabbed a bar and a rag and washed up. The water was room temperature but clean. I washed quickly, eager to get to it with her. As I finished up, she joined me in the bathroom, now completely naked. While she stared washing up, I took a moment to study her.

For a woman settling into middle age, she was in great shape. But she lived alone in a frozen world where you had to rely completely on yourself for everything. Food. Firewood. Survival. Protection. That would whip anyone into shape. She was stocky, with a pleasantly padded body. You know the type: big broad hips, thick thighs, fat ass, large breasts. All of it tempered by a lot of hard work and good physical fitness.

“Well?” she asked as she washed up. “You like what you see?”

“Definitely,” I replied.

“I’m a little surprised, honestly. I saw that pretty Mexican girl you were with. She was quite the looker.”

“Oh yeah, she’s...great. Very, very beautiful. But you’re also just really hot.”

She finished washing herself and turned to look at me. “You’re one of those boys who thinks pussy ages like fine wine, huh?”

I chuckled. “Something like that.”

“Good for me then. Come on. Let’s do this. I’ll trade you oral.”

“Okay.”

We left the bathroom and crawled into her big, comfy bed. Hazel didn’t hesitate. As soon as I was in position she pressed herself against me and kissed me on the mouth. I kissed her back, my hand finding one of her big breasts. Fuck, she had some big tits. Bigger even than Delilah’s. I groped her as we kissed, feeling that wondrous thrill of going to bed with a new woman. And an older woman. She might actually be the oldest woman I’d ever gone to bed with. I didn’t get all their ages, but typically the older women I hooked up with seemed to be in their late thirties or early forties. Like most of them, Hazel had an air of sexual confidence about her.

There was no hesitation as we kissed and her hands wandered across my body. I could tell she was really turned on by me, which was a great feeling. I wondered how long it had been since she’d gotten laid.

Her hand found my cock and started massaging it.

“You’re a big boy, huh?” she murmured.

I laughed softly. “That’s what they tell me.”

“Yeah, I bet you fuck a lot of little sluts, huh?”

“I mean, I get around,” I replied.

“Modest. You’re interesting.” She kept kissing me, her tongue probing my mouth. She tasted like tobacco, and that wasn’t as bad as cigarettes. I’d made out with chicks who chain-smoked and honestly I did not like the taste of modern cigarettes. But the hand-rolled cigarettes really weren’t that bad to taste. I slid my hand down after feeling her up for awhile to one broad, firm hip, then back around to her ass.

This woman had a big ass.

I was going to have to try to convince her to do doggystyle. She probably would be down, but it was a position some women got weird about. Some got it into their heads that it was demeaning and that was unfortunate. I never argued with them about it, but it sucked because that was a really awesome position.

“All right,” she said, a little breathlessly, “show me your skills.”

“Okay,” I replied simply, and I began to pleasure her.

First I fingered her, slipping my hand between those thick thighs of hers, finding her clit, and beginning to massage it with my fingertip. She let out a loud, almost surprised groan and I felt a powerful shudder go through her entire body. Yeah, it had been awhile since someone had touched her. She started panting and moaning as I rubbed her clit and then started sucking on one of her big, awesome tits.

“Oh wow,” she whispered. “I...shit, that’s good,” she panted. “You’ve had a lot of practice pleasing vagina haven’t you?”

“Mmm-hmm,” I replied.

“Oh my fucking God, that’s good,” she repeated.

I kept fingering her, eventually getting a finger inside of her. She was wonderfully wet and pretty tight inside. I fucked her with my finger, making her cry out. That rough voice of hers sounded awesomely sexy when she moaned in pleasure. I licked across her breasts, her nipples, alternated between sucking on them as I pleasured her.

I did that until she orgasmed.

“OH!” she cried, again sounding almost startled, and her hips bucked, her whole body convulsed, as she started to come. I fingered her throughout the orgasm as she grabbed onto me, holding me tightly as she came, shouting in pleasured ecstasy as it rolled through her body. And then she went slack, panting.

Without a word, I got up and moved down in between her thighs. Laying down, I got to work keeping up my end of the bargain and started eating that mature pussy.

“Oh holy shit!” she yelled as my tongue found her clit.

I listened to her scream and shout as I ate her, doing my best to get her off a second time and just generally give her a good time. I slipped a finger into her again before long and fucked her with it as I licked her pussy.

Her words became more incoherent as I went on, and after several minutes of work, I was rewarded with one intense orgasm and one satisfied mature pussy.

She came hard and thrashed pretty intensely. I was a little worried she’d hurt one of us, but in the end she fell back against the bed again, panting heavily.

“I can see why you’ve got two women shacking up with you,” she murmured. Then she laughed softly. “Unless there’s more. I’d believe you if you told me there were four. Goddamn. You can fucking eat pussy.”

“Thanks,” I replied, getting up and taking a moment to wash up again. She’d made a mess on me, not that I minded. I hurried back over to the bed, eager to see what that mouth of hers could do. Once I got back into the bed, she sat up, her big breasts swaying pleasantly.

“Okay...my turn,” she said. As she got down between my legs, she murmured, “now let’s see if I remember how to do this.”

She looked at my cock, wrapping her hot fingers around it, and she closed one eye and stared into my urethra.

“Well I’ll be damned, you can see it! Ha! That’s fucking wild,” she said. “You don’t feel that? Like at all?”

“Nope, not a thing,” I replied.

“That’s really wild,” she murmured.

Then she got to work. Hazel stuck out her tongue and made direct eye contact with me as she began dragging it slowly up the bottom of my shaft. I shivered as it reached the bottom of my head and that oh-so-sensitive spot down there. She let out a satisfied little laugh, and I felt her hot breath on my dick. She started dragging her tongue slowly across the head, hitting it from every angle, lavishing me in hot, wet pleasure.

She was good.

I got an idea of just how good as she switched to actually sucking on my cock. She put her lips around the tip and began slowly, very slowly, dragging them down. Once she got to the shaft, she took the whole thing into her mouth, all of it, and I felt it hit the back of her throat, then go down it a little. She held it there, still staring at me, her lips wrapped around my dick. Then she swallowed. I groaned loudly, a shudder of absolute bliss running through me. She looked quite satisfied with herself and swallowed again.

I groaned again, louder, all those wet, slick, hot throat muscles tightening around my dick, convulsing around the head, stimulating it all at once.

She pulled it back out. “Yeah, I still know how to do this.”

Then she resumed sucking my dick.

For the next few minutes I watched and enjoyed her work. She bobbed her head with a smooth sureness, letting her lips lingering on my head, stimulating and pleasuring me, bringing to the edge of orgasm and then…

Stopping.

“Okay,” she said, sitting up, “I want this big, fat dick in my pussy. Right now.”

“You got it,” I replied. I was eager to dive into that mature vagina.

I got up and she laid on her back again, opening her legs. I got between those thick thighs of hers, taking a moment to just check out her body. There were signs of aging, but I always wondered if people made bigger deals out of that than was true. Either the person who had them or the person who was seeing them. They didn’t bother me or turn me off. I thought she looked pretty good. Honestly she could’ve lied and said she was in her late or even mid thirties and I would’ve believed her. I loved her pleasant padding and stout build, her broad hips and her thick thighs. Her large breasts, obviously. She had a really enjoyable body.

“Admiring the view?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I replied, gripping my saliva-slicked cock and getting up closer to her. I rested it at the entrance of her pussy and then began working my way inside. I was wondering how well I’d fit into her, but I was finding getting inside to be a really pleasant experience. She was wet. Really wet. And oh so hot. And pretty tight.

“Holy fuck,” I whispered as I kept going.

“Ooh...nice and easy,” she murmured. “You are a big boy.”

“Let me know if I need to pull back,” I replied. She looked a little surprised and grinned up at me. “Also, can I come inside you?”

She looked more surprised. “Wow you really know how to mind your manners,” she said. “Yeah, you can come inside.”

“Thanks,” I said, and I finished getting inside of her.

Holding myself up, my hands on either side of her head, pressing down into the pillow, I looked down at her body as I started stroking smoothly into her. She let out a loud moan, her legs spread out wide now, and I could see everything. That wonderful body of hers as I slid in and out of her mature vagina, the way she shuddered and spread her legs out further, the way her tits swayed with the rhythm of my stroking.

I saw my cock disappearing into her again and again.

And dear fuck the pleasure of it. The sheer, raw, sexual ecstasy and gratification of screwing this hot, thick, mature woman…

I was bathing in it.

It seemed to reach every part of my body. I started hitting it harder and faster, making her yell as she panted and moaned.

“Oh yeah! Fuck it! Fuck that pussy!” she moaned, and her interesting, rough voice sounded just as sexy and hot as I thought it would during sex.

She put her legs up in the air, spreading them out wider. “Fuck it!” she screamed.

I started pounding her harder and harder, shoving my whole cock into that tight pussy, enjoying every second I was getting with this mature beauty.

After a few moments, I let myself down and kissed her. She immediately kissed me back, kissed me hard on the mouth, her lips pushing against mine, and then her tongue seeking mine. I wrapped it with her own, happy to get as intimate as she wanted.

I fucked Hazel until I got what I wanted: another orgasm.

I reached down and looped an arm under one leg, held it up, shifted onto my knees and readjusted myself, then started hitting it from a different angle. It was a gamble, but sometimes this particular angle I had found really hit their pleasure button.

And it worked for her.

“Oh yeah!” she cried, her eyes going wide. “Oh my God, Chris! Oh fuck! RIGHT THERE! RIGHT FUCKING THERE!” she screamed.

I fucked that sweet spot and that sweet pussy until she started coming again. Groaning loudly at the fresh wave of pure, hot, wet bliss that erupted from her orgasming vagina, I stopped holding my own orgasm back and started hitting it harder and faster. I went and went, fucked and screwed her climaxing pussy until I busted a nut inside of her.

“Ohhhhhh, Hazel!” I moaned, shouting my bliss as that first pulse of pure, unfiltered rapture rolled through my body, my seed exploding out of my cock in a hard convulsion. I started pumping her pussy full of my stuff, coming hard and fast into her, grunting, my hips jerking forward reflexively as I came inside of her.

We orgasmed together for what felt like awhile, making all sorts of sounds, and then we were done, coming down from the high.

I pulled out of her after I was done and flopped over onto my back, getting my breath back. Hot damn that’d been intense.

“So...I coulda sold you my pussy, couldn’t I have?” she asked after a few moments.

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “Yeah,” I admitted. “You could’ve.”

“Damn,” she muttered.

“You don’t think you got enough out of me as it is?” I asked.

She sighed. “I suppose it was a good deal.” She shifted and groaned. “Goddamn, the sex alone was worth it. Jesus Christ, I haven’t been fucked like that since I hit my forties.”

“What, seriously?”

“The dating pool drops dramatically for older women, and it’s not like there were a lot more options after this fucking winter hit. The people who I do come across, well...let’s say most of them aren’t the kinda guys I’d let into my bed.”

“Fair enough,” I replied.

“You’re a lucky fuck in that regards, aren’t you? Don’t gotta worry about some chick trying to overpower you,” she said.

“No, though to be fair I do have to worry about them cutting my throat while I sleep.”

She grunted. “Fair point.”

We were quiet for another few moments, just basking in the glow of that sweet, post-sex bliss. God, orgasms were great, but those intense ones when you hooked up with a new chick that you were really into for the first time, and rode bareback, those could be just...the fucking best. After a moment, she shifted and then got up.

“Fucking how much did you come?” she asked, hurrying over to the bathroom.

“Probably a lot. Your pussy is fucking awesome,” I replied.

She laughed. “Well, that’s good to know, at least.” She fell silent, cleaning herself up. “Goddamn, that’s a lot,” she muttered.

A moment later, she came back. I looked over at her, still laying on my back. She was staring at me, and there was something I didn’t like on her face. On the one hand, I saw an expression of something like admiration and awe.

On the other hand, she looked a little guilty.

“Damn, you’re handsome,” she muttered. “Can’t believe I bedded you.”

“You got something to say?” I asked, propping myself up on my elbows.

She frowned and crossed her arms suddenly, looking at once both guiltier and a bit defensive. “Fuck, you’re good at reading people.”

“Yes, I am,” I replied. I waited.

She sighed. “So, I might have a small confession.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know exactly where these guys you’re looking for are.”

I sighed heavily and fell onto my back.

“I’ve got a decent idea,” she said quickly.

“But you don’t know for sure.”

“I never went looking. Knowledge is good, but keeping out of sight of trouble tends to be better. They learned not to come my way when I shot at them a month ago. Never saw them since.” She paused. “But look, I actually like you. God knows why. I mean, you’re a great lay and really handsome, but that isn’t enough for me to go sticking my neck out for people...but I’ll make it up to you. I’ll help you find them.”

“You will?” I asked, sitting up fully now.

“Yeah. I’m a great tracker, actually. I’m confident I can find them.”

“I’ll take it,” I said, getting up off the bed and going into the bathroom. I started washing up. I needed to tell the others about this.

“I want to make it up to you in a different way, too,” she said, coming up behind me. I felt her push her big tits against my back.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, pausing.

“Yeah. You like anal?”

“Yes,” I replied immediately.

She laughed. “I bet you like my ass too, huh?”

“Definitely.”

“Come spend the night with me. I’ll let you fuck me in the ass, and I’ll suck you off again, too. We can have more sex. Would that help?”

“Very much yes,” I replied.

She grinned. “Okay, then.”

“I still need to go home and let the others know. I’d like to bring one of them, or maybe both of them back here with me-” But I stopped as she frowned.

“I’d...honestly, I’d like you to myself for tonight,” she said.

I thought about it. Frowned. Sighed. “Well...I’ll have to see how they feel. I have an agreement with one of them for sure to protect her, which I can’t really do if I’m not there. But if they both feel comfortable enough being alone...I can come back. If not, I’ll have to forgo the night of pleasure for now. Let me talk to them.”

“All right,” she said. “Well, I’ll get ready and hope for the best.”

“All we can do, most of the time,” I replied.

TWENTY FIVE

That good mood had found me again, but this time it had brought a friend.

I was fucking motivated.

Okay, it was potentially still a long shot. A lot of shit could go wrong. The assholes who robbed me might’ve moved on. Maybe we wouldn’t be able to find them. Maybe Hazel was lying. (I still didn’t think so, she seemed like a hardass, though on the level). Maybe they’d used my journal for kindling by now.

Other things could go wrong.

But this was as close as I’d come to getting my shit back. Honestly, so long as I got that journal back, I’d be cool.

But whatever, I was on the path more than I’d been on the path since that wreck.

Sometimes, while I was wandering, it bugged me that I didn’t have a goal. A purpose. A path. A lot of the times it was nice, freeing even. I could do just about whatever I wanted. Go wherever I wanted, almost. I had the tools, the skills, and often the will to set goals and achieve them. It was a sort of treadmill and I thought I had adapted nicely to it. Whenever my lack of a ‘real’ goal beyond survival began to get to me, I tried to set an arbitrary goal. Usually it was: find a landmark in the distance and then go there.

But this was the clearest goal I’d had in awhile, it felt like.

I walked all the way back to the highway, up over it, and down the other side, getting back to the cabin without running into any trouble. I knocked on the door in the right way, then unlocked it. When I opened it up, I found myself looking at two naked, sweaty, beautiful women, laying on the bed together, Megan in the process of getting up, Delilah still laying on her back.

“Well...hello there,” I said.

“Hi,” Delilah replied with a grin.

“Hey...everything okay?” Megan asked. She looked like she’d been caught doing something really bad.

“Everything’s great, actually,” I replied, closing and locking the door. “I need to talk to the two of you about something...first of all, I met someone. And had sex with them.”

“Who?” Delilah asked, immediately curious.

“Yeah, who?” Megan asked, sound a little closer to hostile.

“Our sniper savior from yesterday. Turns out she’s a she, and she lives by the lake, in one of the houses there.”

“Is she pretty?” Megan asked, and I didn’t like the jealousy creeping into her voice. Although I had to admit, she was taking it better than I thought she might. There was an edge to her voice, but it wasn’t as sharp as it might have been a few days ago.

“I sure think so, although she was surprised I was into her. She was intimidated by you.”

It was a calculated attempt to mollify her, but it seemed to work. Megan looked surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah. She saw you from afar. She’s like twice my age or so, and not what you’d exactly call ‘traditionally attractive’. But I was wicked into her. We cut a deal: I traded her some stuff and pleasured her, and she gave us a few things, and agreed to help me track down the assholes who robbed me,” I explained, reaching into my pack. My hands came out with three bars of soap, which I set on the table. Then I pulled out half a dozen books.

“Oh fuck yes,” Delilah whispered, getting up and walking over. She began picking them up. “These are great, Chris.”

“So what, we’re gonna go off them right now?” Megan asked.

“No, tomorrow. She, uh, wants me to herself tonight.”

Megan’s eye had wandered to Delilah’s naked pale ass, but she looked back at me and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so you’re gonna go hunt cougar pussy tonight then, huh?”

“That’s the idea,” I replied. Maybe getting fucked by Delilah had mellowed her. I also smelled weed in the air.

“Can we come?” Delilah asked.

“She wants me to herself,” I replied. “I think she’s a little shy. Or maybe just selfish. Doesn’t like to share. But here’s the thing: if you don’t feel comfortable spending the night here, by yourselves, tonight, then I won’t go back. I’ll stay here, and we’ll all go in the morning together to her place. Delilah, you’d stay at her place while Megan and Hazel and I hunted these assholes down.”

“Hazel, that’s her name?” Megan asked.

“Yeah.”

Delilah had put the book down and was looking at me, then looked at Megan, who stared back at her. “Up to you,” she said.

Megan sighed, shifting her gaze to me. “I think I can hold down the fort,” she said after a moment’s consideration.

“You just want me all to yourself tonight,” Delilah said with a very confident smirk. When that girl was talking about sex, she was as confident as I’d ever seen her. I mean, she had every right to be, but it was interesting.

“I guess so,” Megan admitted uncertainly. “You’re...really good.”

“Told you.”

“So you’re comfortable with me being away for the night?” I asked.

“Yeah, go get your dick wet. You can come get us in the morning,” Megan replied. “I can handle myself.”

“Remember to lock this place down tight, double-check everything before you sleep, tend the fire,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Megan said.

I considered it a moment longer, but my mind was on Hazel.

And her fat ass.

And my dick going into it.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll be back in the morning. Megan, you’re cool to help me nail these guys, if it comes to that?”

“Yeah,” she replied. “I can handle it.”

“Okay. Uh...well, have fun.” I paused. “Give me a hug. And a kiss.”

“Aw, you gonna miss us?” Megan asked, getting up.

Delilah gave me a hug and a long kiss. “I mean...yeah,” I said.

That seemed to surprise her, but Megan gave me a hug and kiss with tongue nonetheless. “Don’t fall in love with that cougar pussy and forget about us.”

“Not gonna happen,” I replied. “I get the feeling Hazel wouldn’t keep me even if I wanted to stick around.”

I lingered just a moment longer, looking at them, feeling like I was forgetting something. But in the end I decided I was just being paranoid, I was always paranoid about leaving people in my charge or that I cared about alone, and so I gathered my things, told them farewell once more, then headed back out into the cold.

…

“Oh my fucking God, Chris...slowly...Jesus fucking...fuck! You have a huge dick!”

“You okay?” I asked.

I was halfway up Hazel’s ass by now and enjoying myself, but she seemed less certain now.

“I can handle it,” she grunted. “Just...nice and easy.”

“If you don’t want-”

“I said I can handle it,” she said firmly.

Now I wondered if it was a point of pride, but I was enjoying it too much to stop unless she told me to. If she was going to let me keep fucking her in her fat, mature ass, then I was going to keep doing it. Because damn did it feel good.

I spent the next few minutes working my way into her. It felt great to be in for the day, and the night, naked again with her on her big, comfortable bed. Hazel looked particularly good on her hands and knees, taking me up her thick ass.

“Definitely glad I kept that lube around,” she said as we fucked. “Ah yeah...that’s it. That’s getting there,” she whispered.

“So you do like anal?” I asked, my hands firmly on her hips now as I stroked into her. Goddamn was her ass tight. Fuck, I loved that drag and that unique texture it had, how fucking good it felt to fuck a woman up the ass.

“Yeah,” she said, “though it’s been awhile. Ah! Ah yeah...mmm...harder.”

“You asked for it,” I replied.

I started stroking harder into her, going a bit faster too, and she let out a long moan. I watched my cock disappearing into her ass. After I’d made it back, we’d stripped and screwed again, then lounged for a bit, laying around naked, and finally I had decided I wanted that anal because I was still too horny to think straight.

And I could tell, even after busting another nut not too long ago, I wasn’t gonna last much longer. I kept going, pumping my rock-hard cock into that sweet, mature ass of hers, listening to her grunt and moan, looking at her body as she rested there on her hands and knees, taking it up the ass. I gave her big ass a hard smack and she groaned, hanging her head.

“Aw yeah...right there. Fuck my ass,” she almost growled, pushing back against me.

Tightening my grip on her big hips, I started going even harder and faster, and she let out a cry. I went for as long as I could, but before another minute or so I was coming. I let out my own inarticulate, half-strangled shout of sexual release and ecstasy as I started coming in her ass. Moaning loudly, I pushed my cock deep into her and emptied my seed for a third time into this woman, filling her up, pumping her full of it, filling myself with raw rapture. I came so hard my body seemed to constrict, trembling with effort.

And then I was finished, carefully pulling out of her ass, and I got up and walked over to the bathroom, where I started cleaning myself up again.

“God, it’s gonna take forever to get that out,” she muttered, now laying on the bed. “You happy?” she asked.

“Very,” I replied. “You?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy. Like I said, I managed to bed a hot twenty-something who can fuck pretty good. It’s been awhile since I’ve had sex. It’s been longer since I’ve had sex with someone that I really enjoyed it with.”

“Glad I could be of service,” I replied.

Once I was done cleaning up, she got up and we switched places. I laid on my back, hands behind my head, staring at the ceiling, just trying to enjoy the afterglow. I knew I was risking myself here. Helen could be intending to rob me. She might just want to get some good sex out of me before taking my shit and making me leave.

Or fuck, just straight-up killing me.

Getting away with murder is easier than ever before.

But I had learned to trust my gut over the past few years, and I was almost always right. Hazel seemed like the real deal: a woman looking for a good lay, some companionship, and maybe to help someone.

I’m honestly surprised that I didn’t give her any weird vibes like I seemed to give half the women I meet. I’ve just got that ‘asshole’ persona stuck to me, apparently. Maybe I’ve got resting asshole face. But it was really hit or miss whether or not women got that vibe from me. Delilah didn’t, but Megan did.

Hazel came back after awhile and laid down with me. She lit another cigarette and laid there smoking.

“Wanna tell me about yourself?” I asked.

“What’s there to tell?” she replied easily. “I used to be a social worker.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I don’t seem the type, do I?”

I considered it. “I actually don’t know.”

“Fair enough. Hmm, tell you about myself...well, I grew up in Kansas. One of those little towns with less than a thousand people where the biggest deal around is hunting and fishing. Had a real outdoorsman dad and no mom. I don’t know what happened to her. I don’t think she died in childbirth, he would’ve said that, but he was always evasive. I think she split for one reason or another. I never found out. But I spent twenty years in that little town, learning to hunt, learning to fish, learning to clean guns and shoot with a bow and arrow and skin a deer and make a rabbit trap. Main reason I’m alive right now.”

She fell silent, took a long drag on her cigarette, probably lost in her memories.

“So how’d you end up a social worker?” I asked.

She sighed. “When I was twenty my dad died. Heart attack. Not exactly surprising, given the way he lived, but still...that one hurt. He’d made me ready, though, to live on my own. I was already kinda-sorta wanting to leave town, get to the big city by then, but after the funeral, I knew it was time. He left me the house. I sold it and almost everything else, took the money, and drove to Wichita. Enrolled in college, got myself a shitty little apartment, and lived off the money from the house while I went through the classes. For whatever reason, I knew I wanted to be a social worker and help people. Cue the next two and a half decades of me getting my most basic degree needed, getting a job as a social worker, loving and hating it in equal measure, burning out, moving, getting a new job, feeling guilty, going back to social work, burning out, rinse, repeat…”

She heaved another sigh.

“What was it like? I don’t actually know what the job’s like,” I said.

“It’s a lot of different things, but mostly it’s going out to people’s houses, and usually in this state said houses were private property twenty minutes beyond city limit, and helping someone who had some weird, bizarre, crazy, or unique situation and came to us for assistance. I’d take people to food pantries, make sure they got to psych appointments or court dates or the emergency room. Try to help them get their life on track in some capacity. Some people were great. Honestly just good people in bad situations, victims of circumstance. Some were fucking assholes. Some were mentally ill. Some were just...fucked. Like, cursed. I swear. I don’t know. But I always went back to it. Always. Well,” she chuckled bleakly, “not anymore.”

“Maybe this counts,” I said.

“Maybe,” she agreed after a moment.

“How’d you end up out here?”

“Kind of tragically, I guess. When the first really bad snow hit, I was on my way back to Wichita actually. I’d moved to Kansas City when I thought I was done for good with social work.” She snorted. “Had a friend out there who offered me a job as a manager at a restaurant chain she was co-owner of. I figured, why the fuck not? Half the jobs I’d taken in between social work were related to food somehow. Did it for two years, and it was nice at first. But then I felt that damned yearning. In the end, I apologized, let her find someone to replace me, got back in touch with my old boss, who pretty much always said ‘yes’ when I came crawling back, because they’re always desperate for people, because of the high turnover rate and I was actually good at it. And I packed up my stuff and headed out. Hired a company to move my furniture, since I was getting too fucking old to do it all myself. Well, halfway there I crashed.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, it was a whiteout. Bad, bad one. Luckily I was close to a little town. Managed to get there, and a lot of people had come off the highway there. It was a weird scene, though not a bad one. People were actually being nice, helping people out. I got a motel room, ended up splitting it with a few other people, because a lot of folks were coming in and they were running out of places to put them, and the snow wasn’t letting up. It was a blizzard. A really bad one. Went on for like two weeks. We were all locked in, basically. At that point I was already kinda figuring something serious might be on the horizon, I just didn’t know it was so close. My car was totaled, and the weather was so bad that most people didn’t have vehicles to make it to the next town over, let alone fucking Wichita. Long story short, I ended up staying there for like ten months, just helping people. It started out as me helping settle disputes between people, finding food and shelter for people, helping people with breakdowns and panic attacks, then it became me helping people by hunting and skinning deer, making animal traps, stuff like that, when it became obvious that this wasn’t going to get better, and help was not coming. Because help never came.”

“Wow,” I murmured.

“Yeah. Eventually, life settled into something like normal and I woke up one morning and thought to myself...I don’t want to be here anymore. I didn’t know where I wanted to be, only that I wanted to be somewhere else, away from people. So I said my goodbyes, packed my shit, and just started walking to the next nearest town. I kind of just picked a random destination and went. Cue months and months of wandering all over Kansas. Eventually, I found a cabin in the middle of nowhere. There was a family there, dead. They had died from a clogged chimney, inhalation. A couple, two kids, young teens. They’d gone peacefully, at least, in their sleep, then froze. They were rich. Found some stuff only rich people would carry among them. Found a map. They were coming here, to their getaway lake house. So I decided to see what it looked like. Followed the map. Got here a few months ago. Liked it, stayed.”

“Damn,” I said after several moments of silence.

“Yeah.” She paused. “What about you?”

I spent the next however long telling her a basic version of my story. Personally, I thought hers was way more interesting.

When I was done, she asked, “So what were you? Before all this. A cop? Marine? No, a bouncer,” she said.

I laughed. “Everyone says something like that. No, I worked in a fucking grocery store.”

“You’re fucking shitting me.”

“No, for real.”

“Fuck,” she said, stubbing out the dead cigarette. “I guess you turned into a badass after the apocalypse, huh?”

“I don’t know if I’m a badass,” I replied.

“You killed several people not all that long ago because it was the right thing to do, you’ve survived largely by yourself in a frozen wasteland for months now, and you’ve got three different women agreeing to let you put your raw cock in them. I think that counts.”

I laughed awkwardly. “I guess so.”

“So, how about we eat something, and then lounge around awhile longer?” she suggested.

“That sounds fine by me,” I replied.

“Great.”

We got up.

TWENTY SIX

“So you’re sure you’re good to do this?” I asked.

Hazel stared at me, sitting on the bed, topless, smoking a cigarette. She was going to chain-smoke everything I’d given her by tomorrow at this rate, but that was her business. I was in the process of getting dressed, and I had the idea she was trying to figure out if I meant anything by the question. I didn’t, and apparently she decided that.

“Yeah, I’m good,” she replied.

“Okay.”

Something that had bugged me, growing up, about our culture, American culture but it was probably a problem all over the world, was how many people just went along with stuff. Like, how many people felt pressured into saying yes to things, from big to small, because our culture had taught us not only to not take ‘no’ for an answer, but also that declining was rude or somehow wrong. I’d eventually figured out that there was a sort of spectrum to it, you didn’t have to say yes to fucking everything, but you also didn’t have to stand your ground and fight over every time someone pushed just a little to get you to do stuff.

Most people didn’t even realize they were making the other person uncomfortable by continuing to ask.

After the snowfall, I was obviously on the good end of most transactions or relationships when it came to people I came across who were less survival-inclined. It would be incredibly easy for me to start taking advantage of people, especially of women.

In a situation where death was basically always just around the corner, and I had a unique skill-set that allowed me to keep death at bay in most situations, I could easily present the ultimatum: ‘open your legs for me or I’ll leave you here to die’.

I never had, and I never intended to, but there were a lot of ways of taking advantage of someone. It wasn’t black and white, it wasn’t all or nothing.

Like that old mafia trope: ‘Be a real shame if something happened to this place’. A ‘plausibly deniable’ threat.

Because of this, I’d started building the habit of making sure people were really okay with the deal we’d struck. And I was going a bit further than usual with Hazel because I was asking her to help me, potentially, kill some people.

That was a bit more serious than sex for survival.

I finished pulling my clothes on. Yesterday had been really good. After fucking her in the ass, we’d had a long meal and a longer time kind of just laying around. We talked, she told some stories of her wilder clients or more unique situations, I told her some stories about stuff I’d seen or done since the apocalypse, women I’d hooked up with. She wanted to know about that. Some women asked, and it seemed to me that when a woman wanted to know about other women I’d hooked up with, they really wanted to know.

We had sex three more times, and she complained that I was wearing her out each time, though I didn’t think it was an actual complaint, given she initiated two of those three times. She gave me another blowjob which was fucking spectacular.

Eventually, we’d gone to sleep. I was always wary about sleeping in a bed with a new woman. So far, I hadn’t been fucked over. I thought it was because I was lucky, or good at reading people, or both. Probably both. But it could definitely happen. Hell, it could happen with a woman I’d slept in a bed with twenty times. She might suddenly decide it makes more sense to rob me and run away, even if it didn’t.

But I woke up safe and sound and horny, and she fucked me.

She rode my cock until we both came, then we got up, washed, and started dressing.

“What’s the plan?” she asked.

“I’ll go get the girls and grab a bite to eat for breakfast. I want one of them to stay here, for safety,” I replied.

“Hmm.” She pursed her lips. “She’s not like a klepto or a pyro or anything, is she?”

“Not as far as I’ve been able to tell.” I paused. “Put it this way: I trust her to mind her manners,” I said.

Hazel laughed. “Fair enough. Anything goes missing, it’s on your ass.”

“Fine,” I said.

I finished pulling my clothes on and as I laced up my snow boots, Hazel stubbed out the cigarette and finished getting dressed. I checked through my backpack, made sure everything was still where it was supposed to be, then stood up and pulled it on.

“I’ll be back in about an hour, maybe a little longer,” I said.

“I’ll be ready,” she replied.

I started to walk out, then hesitated and looked back over at her. “Any chance I can get a kiss?” I asked.

She laughed. “Yes,” she said. I walked over and she gave me a firm kiss on the mouth with some nice tongue. “You’re a weird boy,” she murmured. “But I’m getting the impression that those two girls are lucky to have you.”

“Well, I’ve been helping them at least. I know I’m lucky to have them around,” I replied.

“I’m interested in meeting them. Plus, now that I’ve had you to myself, I have to admit, it’s been awhile since I’ve watched live porn. I wouldn’t mind seeing you fuck one or both of them.”

“I really wouldn’t mind letting you see that.”

“Good. Go get them. Sooner we get this done, sooner we can all relax again.”

I nodded. She had a point.

I told her I’d be back soon and headed out of her house.

~

I felt better than ever.

Happy, motivated, ready to fucking go.

This was it. This was the day I was going to get my shit back. Or, at the very least, the day I was going to get it back or discover I couldn’t. Even in spite of my happiness, I could feel that darkness lingering at the edges of my mind, wanting in. Wanting to bug me, punch my anxiety or anger buttons. That knowledge that my journal might be gone, or burned, or read. It was still weird to me, that it bugged me so much, because it didn’t bother me for reasons other people might get bothered. There was nothing embarrassing in there. I mean, I didn’t think so. Anything I wrote in there I wouldn’t be too upset if other people knew about it, even enemies. If they tried to use it against me, it wouldn’t really be effective.

I guess it still just came down to the fact that it was mine. Mine more than anything else in this whole world, except maybe my own body.

The only external thing in the entire face of existence that I felt was unequivocally my own and no one else’s.

And someone had stolen it from me.

Yes, I was getting it back today.

I felt it in my bones.

Though there were clouds in the sky, none of them looked particularly threatening. The winds gusted every now and then, abusing me with an icy cold that even two years later still bugged me. How the fuck did people get used to this level of cold? How did people live in places where it snowed year-round? I mean now you had to, but before it had most certainly been a choice. I didn’t know, never would, I guess.

The walk up the ramp and down the opposite one was a simple, easy walk. As far as walks went in the new world. I ran through the plan, inasmuch as there was one, in my head as I walked across the snow, towards the cabin that I called my home for now. Head in, grab some extra supplies, mostly weapons, get the ladies, walk back over to Hazel’s place, then go hunting. Honestly, I was hoping not to have to kill anyone else. Shit, if it came down to it, I might even consider bargaining for the fucking journal back.

Yeah, they’d robbed me blind, but they hadn’t killed me. Again, something about that struck me as odd, even though it really shouldn’t. I’d seen plenty of people robbed but just beaten up, or even robbed and unharmed. Why was it bugging me? I couldn’t put a pin in it and for now, I just put a pin in the notion and set it aside for later. If I could bargain to get the journal back reasonably, I would, because I just wanted to get the fuck out of here. Maybe I could convince Hazel to come with us, though I didn’t think so.

She seemed happy where she was.

But either way, I was planning on sticking around. I wanted out. More importantly, I had agreed to leave the region. We had a long walk ahead of us. Sooner we got to it, the better. Honestly, I was already feeling the itch to keep moving.

I walked up to the cabin and prepared to do my ritual of the appropriate knock and unlocking the door. There was smoke coming from the chimney, but as I came close enough to tell, I realized immediately something was wrong.

The lock was broken, the handle hanging at an awkward angle.

My heart immediately began kicking in my chest, flooding my body with adrenaline. I pulled my pistol out and looked around. I thought I could make out vague footprints in the snow, several of them, but it was hard to tell. Shit. Fuck. I moved quickly up to the door that someone had kicked in. God fucking dammit, something had happened while I was away. I had my nine out, safety off, and I kicked the door open.

Pointing the gun in, hoping I was wrong and that the women were okay, but knowing the chances of that were extremely low, I looked around.

The place was a mess, obviously trashed and pilfered.

Fucking Christ, what a nightmare. I took a step in and that was when I just began registering that someone was rushing up behind me. I began to turn. How had they gotten so fucking close so quickly?! Their crunching footfalls must have been covered by the winds and my own heartbeat pounding in my ears and–

~

Fuck.

I came awake all at once, like someone had hit me with an electric shock. I jerked and let out a hoarse shout as I temporarily flailed, trying to stand up. I got to my knees, looking around, head pounding and swaying viciously, vaguely aware that I was in my cabin and something was seriously fucking wrong.

Trying to stand up, I lost my footing or balance or whatever the hell, I couldn’t even tell right then, and collapsed. Pure luck I fell onto the bed, and I caught a smell of three things: Megan, Delilah, and blood.

That awful mixture reignited my memories and jump-started my brain.

They had been kidnapped. Fuck. Fuck me.

“Fuck!” I screamed as I forced myself back up. Head pounding worse than ever, I looked around, trying to get my bearings.

The place had been cleared out, the table empty, drawers pulled out of the desk. I looked down at myself, saw my holster and gun were missing. Quickly, I began patting myself down, and found that my pockets had been completely cleaned out. Holy fucking Christ this was a shit situation. As I took a step to perform a quick sweep of the cabin, looking for something, anything left, putting together a plan in my head, I was struck utterly by the conviction that I should not be waking up. Why had they robbed me and knocked me out twice now?

Wait. Had they?

It was entirely possible that it was a totally different group of people, but something in my gut told me it wasn’t. Could be wrong, definitely could be wrong, but I didn’t think so for some reason. Why had they let me live?

I wanted to think more on that, because I felt like the answer, or at least part of the answer, was close. Maddeningly close. But not now, there wasn’t time. I had very limited time. There was a trail to follow, hopefully, and it was fading, depending on the weather outside. I glanced at the door. It was closed. Looked over at the fireplace. Embers. Couldn’t have been out that long. I looked out the window. Still the same, didn’t look any different out there. And I saw a single set of tracks, leading away from the cabin, back towards the highway.

Perfect.

Some motherfucker had knocked my ass out, robbed me, and kidnapped two people that I cared a lot about.

Bargaining suddenly seemed off the table.

~

There was nothing left in the cabin, or at least nothing I could use.

No weapons. No guns, no bullets, no knives.

All I had on me was my clothes. I was surprised they hadn’t taken my boots or my jacket. And honestly, the more I thought about it as I followed the tracks, stalking angrily across the snow and over to the highway, the weirder that seemed.

Why rob me blind but leave my clothes? It was fucking with me something fierce, even as pissed as I was. Not killing me was one thing, but both times I’d had every last thing stolen from me...except my clothes, even my boots. Taking a person’s boots nowadays was pretty brutal, given the likelihood of frostbite and hypothermia. But they hadn’t. Why? It was bugging me, but as I ascended the ramp, crossed the highway, and paused to take a long look over the area, I realized I was still too pissed and in pain to ferret it out.

Fine. I’d deal with it later.

I could see the bootprints continue down the other ramp and thought I could make them out moving along the road that led away from the highway, towards the frozen lake. Easy enough to follow. I started making my way down the other ramp, almost falling several times as I hurried up. What the fuck was I going to do? I was weaponless, had no supplies, and my head had only just stopped bleeding. Whoever it was had whacked me over the back of the head. I was dizzy and had a bad headache, with no idea if I had a concussion or not, or a brain bleed, or skull fracture, or fucking whatever else could go wrong when you took a bad hit to the head.

But I was upright and walking, and the pain was being numbed by the extreme cold.

Hazel, I knew. I had to get to Hazel. She had already offered to help. She’d have a gun and bullets for me, and she could help me track the fuckers down. I walked, following the footprints in the snow until they abruptly veered off to the left, into the woods, along a pathway just visible between the trees and beneath the snow.

Fucking perfect, I knew where to go.

I walked on, moving past it, and kept going until I hit Hazel’s place. I banged on the door until she opened it, holding a pistol.

“Oh shit, what happened?” she asked, pulling me in. I don’t know what tipped her off that something had happened, the fact that I was alone, my mood, maybe she noticed my shit was gone, or maybe I had blood on me and couldn’t tell.

“Got back to the cabin, girls were gone, place was tossed. I got knocked out, woke up and I’d been robbed blind. Again. I followed some footprints away from the cabin and to a path that leads into the forest a little ways back,” I said, my voice flat and angry.

“Shit. You’ve got blood in your hair and on your neck, come here, sit down,” she said, guiding me into the kitchen.

I wanted to leave right away, to grab a gun and just go, because God fucking knew what was happening to Megan and Delilah.

Shit, if they’d done fucking anything to them I wasn’t just going to kill them.

But I needed to get a looking-over by someone who had at least a decent idea of what they were doing before I marched off to war. I gritted my teeth and winced as she checked my scalp after pulling out a medical kit.

“You got whacked good,” she muttered as she started cleaning some blood off me with quick, efficient strokes. “Can’t tell for sure, you might have a concussion. You puke?”

“No,” I said.

“You seem pretty alert,” she muttered. “Dizzy?”

“Kind of.”

“Well, you made it here. Headache?”

“Big one.”

“No surprise there. Ringing in your ears?”

I paused, waited. “No,” I said. I think there had been when I’d woken up, but now in the quiet of her kitchen, I could tell for sure there was nothing ringing.

“Good. I don’t think you have one, then. The bleeding isn’t terrible. I think you might’ve gotten off lucky,” she muttered. “This is gonna hurt.”

The second she said it, I felt an explosion of stinging pain. I clenched my jaw, my whole body in fact, as if to absorb a blow, and let out a half shout.

“Sorry,” she said as she continued cleaning my wound.

“Fine,” I growled.

She worked for a bit longer and finally put a bandage over my scalp where I’d been hit, then she set a bottle of painkillers in front of me and a glass of water.

“Thank you,” I said, making myself say it. Not because I hated the notion of thanking her, I was genuinely grateful, but because I was fucking livid right now and it was hard to focus. I downed four of the painkillers, as my headache was fucking splitting, and finished off the water. I hadn’t eaten yet today, but now my stomach was too upset from pure rage to even consider it. I might actually throw up if I tried to down anything beyond water and pills.

I turned to look at her. “Will you help me get them back?”

“Of course,” she said. “Come on. I’ll get you some supplies.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

I got up and followed her out of the kitchen.

TWENTY SEVEN

Rage was a good fuel.

I’d learned this over the course of my quarter century of life.

Pain could also be a good fuel, like gasoline on a flame.

I was angry and in pain, though it was calming down to a more tolerable level, as Hazel and I moved along the pathway that led into the forest. I was in the process of trying to tone the rage down, because too much of it was bad. Needed to be clear-headed, focused, sharp. Lives were on the line, and not just my own.

I would never forgive myself if something happened to Delilah, Megan, or Hazel because I was too pissed to think straight.

“Something’s bugging me,” I muttered as we walked on, wary of traps.

“What?” she asked.

“I’m pretty sure it’s the same people who robbed me twice now. They robbed me blind, but let me live. They didn’t steal my boots, my clothes. It would’ve taken more than one person to raid the cabin and take the women, but one person stayed behind.”

“You sure it’s one person?”

“I think so,” I said, reasoning it out. “There was just one set of tracks, and I don’t think there was anyone else around. Just one person who waited behind for me after they’d taken Megan and Delilah. Why? And they seemed to have left a clear path to themselves.”

“Maybe they wanted you to come after them,” Hazel hazarded.

“But why? Why would someone want me to specifically come after them?”

She shrugged. “That I couldn’t tell you. Might be a game to them. Maybe they robbed you and figured you’d come after them the first time, then they got impatient when you weren’t doing it fast enough and decided to hit you again, harder, and leave a more obvious trail, so you’d for sure come after them. Maybe so they can hunt you? Maybe to test some defenses they had set up? Fuck, I don’t know. People can be weird.”

“They sure can be,” I muttered.

There didn’t seem to be anymore to say after that, so we walked on in silence. The more I thought about it the more sense it made. The thing that was really bugging me, I realized all at once, was how much had been stolen.

In basically every other case I’d seen people surviving the initial encounter, it was usually a smash and grab. Blindside and maybe knock a person out, and grab the most immediately obvious stuff before running away. But both times, they had taken every last fucking thing on me except for my clothes. Like, everything.

All my pockets had been emptied.

That felt oddly deliberate.

Was it meant to piss me off even more? But why the fuck would someone want me to come after them? It didn’t make sense.

Maybe it wouldn’t.

Maybe their reason was something I just wouldn’t get, or maybe they were nuts. Maybe I’d find out, or maybe I’d never find out.

Right now, didn’t matter.

We walked on, going along the path, moving deeper into the snowbound woods. It was quiet, the snow absorbing the noise. All we had for company was each other, some birds calling here or there, and the occasional gust of wind. The footprints were more recent, better hidden from the snow and wind, and therefore very well preserved. It was easy to follow them. They were clear and consistent, the gait of a man, (I was convinced it was a man), who knew where he was going and wasn’t exactly in a hurry to get there.

Hazel had given me another nine millimeter that held twenty-round magazines, and four mags total. I was locked, loaded, and ready to pull the trigger. Hazel had a pistol and her hunting rifle. We had already discussed the plan. When we found the place, I was going to get up to it, (I’m guessing it was a house), and she was going to find a good position and provide sniper support. I figured between the two of us, the tactic would work. Of course, I could get killed. Or she could, but that was less likely. But that was the risk.

This needed to get done.

I couldn’t do anything but this.

After another minute or so, I stopped and so did Hazel. There it was. The place we almost certainly were looking for. I could just make out a house with very faded pale blue siding. Two stories, decent size, and the woods practically butted up against the back, with no real backyard to speak of. Well, that struck me as a way in.

“What do you want to do?” Hazel whispered.

“Let’s keep scouting, find a good place for you to set up. Then I’m going to sneak in the back, if there is a back,” I replied. I turned fully to look at her. “Listen, if something happens to me, you have to get them out of there. Somehow. Both of them. And once you do, give them whatever supplies they need, they’re intending to take a trip up the highway. Okay?”

She looked back at me and there was something in her gaze I couldn’t quite read. Reluctance? Maybe, it would make sense, given I was dumping this in her lap.

“Okay,” she said simply.

I nodded, satisfied. Or as satisfied as I’d get.

It was time to act.

I still wasn’t even sure that was the place, even though the path and the bootprints led up to it, but I became sure as we did our recon. I heard someone shout in anger and then something break, and I immediately recognized the voice as Megan’s. Well, that fucking clenched it. At least she was in there, almost certainly Delilah was.

We did our best to stay out of sight. It was slow work, and I hated every second I wasn’t busting into that house, but I was no good to them dead. And it worked, anyway. We found a little spot that was raised, but concealed behind some trees, giving her a commanding view of the house from the front. While Hazel settled into position, I quickly made my way around back. I could hear Megan shouting more. Fuck.

I had to get in there.

Going as fast as I could without giving myself away (hopefully, they had to know someone was coming), I got around to the back and discovered that there was actually a way in. A door that I discovered was unlocked. Given the amount of sound going on in there, I thought I could get in without anyone noticing. Hopefully. I twisted the knob all the way and pushed the door open. The hinges creaked, though not horribly.

A dank, old stairwell descended down before me and I aimed my pistol, waiting.

No one came. I slipped down the stairwell, briefly trying to figure out whether or not I should close the door, then decided to leave it open. The less sound the better. The steps were concrete, thankfully. Easier to sneak down. I went step by step, carefully, slowly, listening to the racket overhead. Something shattered.

I froze as I neared the bottom and heard someone mutter to themselves, somewhere close by. Fuck. Someone was down here. I remained frozen, my heart punching in my chest, pistol raised. Megan’s shouts subsided for a moment and I could hear the person, make out some of what they were saying.

“Fucking bitch...I’ll fucking get my turn with her.” Whoever they were, they were drunk, or fucked up somehow. But I was almost sure drunk, and quite drunk. Good. That was going to make this easier.

With careful movements, I tucked my pistol down the back of my pants and pulled out the knife Hazel had given me. I had done this once before, and I’d sure seen it done in enough movies, not that that really meant all that much, but it had worked the first time. Finishing my descent, I hit the bottom of the stairwell, coming into a tiny area the size of a closet. If it had ever had a door separating it from the rest of the basement, it was long gone. Peering cautiously around the doorway, revealing as little of myself as possible, I scoped out the situation.

There was one guy down there, among a bunch of crap. Some couches, a table, a crapload of boxes, some shelves. I saw a water heater in one corner and a washer and dryer pushed up into another. The guy was sitting on one of the couches, which was faced away from me. Thank fucking God. I slipped as silently into the room as I could. Overhead, someone shouted, another male voice, and Megan shouted right back.

I’m pretty sure it was go fuck yourself.

The guy laughed and took a drink, and as I drew closer to him, as silent as death, knife raised, I smelled alcohol.

The moment of truth came to pass and I struck.

One hand slipped over his mouth as he was finishing a drink and pulling the bottle back, the other hand plunged the knife deep into his throat, all the way up to the hilt. It was probably coming out the back of his neck. He let out a muffled sound of shocked agony and began thrashing around. I was bigger and stronger so I held on tight. The bottle dropped onto the couch, and there wasn’t anything close enough for him to kick around.

He was gone in about half a minute.

Overhead, the sounds of struggling intensified. Something was knocked over. Jesus fucking shit I had to get up there. Quickly double-checking that no one else was down here, drunk and passed out maybe, and not finding anyone, I hurried over to some stairs on the other side of the room. Pistol in one hand, knife in the other, I ascended. The sounds got closer as I hustled up the stairs, not needing to be quiet or slow anymore.

The door at the top was open and I stepped out, looking around, coming into a hallway. The door closest to me was shut and was where all the sounds were coming from. I didn’t see anyone in the hallway with me, so I kicked in the door and raised the pistol. There was a bedroom that had been trashed. Megan was topless and struggling with someone that I recognized immediately. That scraggly-haired, scrawny motherfucker that we had let go when we’d raided the campgrounds. Goddamnit! That son of a bitch!

They both looked at me, startled by my sudden appearance, and suddenly, in a burst of energy, Megan threw him bodily off of her. He yelled, flailing, and fell onto the floor, onto his back. Somewhere else in the house, I heard running footsteps. I took aim at the guy on the floor, but Megan jumped up, snatched something off a dresser, then leaped onto the man and brought the object, what I realized was one of those fucking heavy-ass custom-made ashtrays, down onto his skull. He screamed and the sound the thing made connecting with his head was awful. But then Megan was screaming at the top of her lungs, a maddened, infuriated war cry as she brought it down again, and again. The footsteps were getting closer.

I twisted and took aim as someone came into the hallway, appearing at the opposite end of me where I’m guessing more stairs were.

I didn’t recognize the guy, but he was holding a shotgun. His shock at seeing me was enough to let me get the drop on him and I opened fire, putting three rounds in his chest, one his neck, and finally a last one in his head when he didn’t fucking go down. The wall behind him splattered with blood and he collapsed. Overhead, at about the same moment I heard the sharp report of a rifle going off, I also heard shattering glass.

Hazel must’ve gotten a shot and taken it when she’d heard my gunfire.

“Megan! Megan!” I screamed to get her attention when I realized she was still going, still hammering away at the bastard’s skull.

“I told you!” she was screaming. “I told you what would happen if I ever saw you again!”

“MEGAN!”

She jerked and twisted around, blood-splattered ashtray in her grasp, raised over her head, but she immediately dropped it when she saw me.

“Oh fuck, Chris,” she said, struggling to her feet. I stayed in the hallway, despite wanting to help her, in case anyone else showed up. I could hear voices and movement overhead, but so far it seemed to be staying up there. “I thought you were dead.”

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She seemed a little dazed, no doubt still overwhelmed by the pure, white-hot rage she had been living with for however long she’d been grabbed by these fucking assholes.

“Yeah,” she muttered.

“Megan,” I said. She blinked a few times, looked down at the dead body beside her. “Megan.”

“What?” she asked, looking back at me.

“How many are there?”

That seemed to cut through some of the haze she was lost in. She tossed the ashtray onto the bed and walked over to me. I could see the tattered remains of her shirt somewhere nearby on the floor. “At least five,” she said. “Maybe six or seven.”

“Well, three are dead for sure now,” I replied, looking at the scrawny bastard she’d killed. His head was practically pulp now. Well, we’d sure as shit warned the asshole that if we ever saw him again, he probably wouldn’t walk away. Apparently he’d just run straight to these fuckers. And now he’d paid the price.

“Give me a gun,” she said.

I considered it, then nodded. “Wait here.”

As I made my way down the hallway, stopping to check each room I passed and finding them all empty for the moment, I heard another gunshot ring out and someone shout. Abruptly, a hail of return fire sounded, two pistols by the sound of it. Directly overhead. I finished clearing the ground floor, then snatched up the shotgun and let out a short whistle and jerked my head when I saw I had Megan’s attention.

She hurried down the hallway and joined me, and I passed her the shotgun. She sneered down at the corpse of the guy I’d killed, then kicked his head.

“Fucker,” she growled.

“Where’s Delilah?” I asked, looking at her. She looked like something off of an eighties metal cover or something, completely topless, her face and neck and breasts sprayed liberally with blood, the shotgun in her grasp, her eyes wide and enraged, her hair a wild mess.

“Upstairs, I think. The guy in charge, I think he took her upstairs to his room with him...what happened?” she asked.

“I was gonna ask the same thing but we need to kill these fuckers first. Be careful, Hazel is outside with a rifle,” I said.

“Understood,” she replied.

I headed up the stairs, pistol pointed. Someone was firing off a few shots from a pistol every now and then. There were at least two of them for sure up there, I knew that, as I’d heard two different pistols firing at the same time initially. This was going to be probably the riskiest part yet. “Stay behind me, watch my back,” I said.

She nodded tightly. We moved up the stairs and I kept my pistol at the ready, in case anyone jumped out at me. The gunfire that was popping off every ten seconds or so was driving me crazy, making me want to just fucking run my ass off, but I pushed against the survival instinct as best I could. I had to end them before they ended us.

The top floor had a relatively simple layout. The stairs let out into a room that connected all the other rooms. The door directly ahead of me was shut firmly. Two doors two my right, both almost closed, and one to my left, partially open, where the gunfire was coming from. I motioned for Megan to hold her place on the stairs, then slipped up to the wall beside the door. I was going to have to time this right. No doubt the other guy was watching the door, or maybe he was dead and I was lucky. I wouldn’t exactly count on that though.

I was just going to have to gamble it.

They already knew I was coming. The door was maybe a quarter of the way open. I quickly slipped around to the other side, so I could peer into the part that was open, but the second I did, bullets began exploding out through the door. Some got lodged in the wood but several punched all the way through. There was a pause after half a dozen rounds had come through. I blind-fired right back, putting my own half-dozen rounds back through the door, hoping for one of two things: either getting lucky and landing a shot, or forcing the guy into emptying his magazine the rest of the way, giving me an opening.

Return fire came back and it felt much more panicked, especially when I heard the crack of a rifle sound off twice.

The second the pistol fire cut off, I kicked the door in and took aim.

I took it all in as fast as I could. The place was a bedroom in a chaotic mess, clothes and trash and broken glass littering the floor, including a corpse with half its head blown off. Hazel’s work. There were two survivors. One was over by the broken window to my left, crouched down, obviously trying to focus on taking out Hazel. The other was a man crouched behind a twin-bed, in the process of reloading, a look of panic and rage written across his features.

He went first. I aimed and fired, putting a bullet directly into his forehead. As I snapped my aim to the second guy, who was in the process of turning around and giving me his full attention, I fired again, sending several bullets into him. One in the gut, another two in the chest, and finally one in the eye that blew it out and splattered the wall behind him in an awful splash of gore. He dropped just like his buddy.

Riding high on adrenaline, I quickly checked the room for other people: more assholes or Delilah, but I could tell these three had been it. My mind took in a useless detail as I walked back out: they’d been playing cards. The things were scattered around as well, mixing with the fresh blood, and one stuck to my bloody boot as I left.

“Delilah!” I called.

“Chris!” I heard her yell back. Both mine and Megan’s eyes instantly snapped to the door opposite the stairs, the one firmly shut. I marched over and prepared to kick it open but a new voice made me hesitate.

“That’s close enough!” Someone was in there with her. The boss, probably. I remembered one of the guys back at the campgrounds had mentioned a name: Tanner. Was this him? If it was, he was a fucking dead man.

“Come out, now!” I snapped.

“Why don’t you come in?” he replied, sounding surprisingly calm. While I was considering how best to deal with that, he pressed on in that same calm voice. “Open the door and come in or I’m going to kill the redhead.”

“Fuck...all right!” I said, raising my hand and stilling Megan, who looked ready to pop a gasket. “I’m coming in.”

I thought he’d say something about dropping my gun or, but he didn’t. Just silence. What the fuck was with this guy? I grabbed the knob, twisted it, slowly pushed the door open. I saw a bedroom beyond, what must have been the master bedroom of the house. Raising my pistol, I stepped inside, my instincts telling me they were to the left. Sure enough, that’s where they were. Delilah stood, looking paler than ever and terrified, her eyes wide, trembling, and a man stood behind her, a pistol held against her head.

“Let her go, now,” I said. I didn’t have a clear shot on him.

“All right,” the man, Tanner, I assumed, said, and he let go of Delilah. “Go on,” he said, giving her a gentle push.

I blinked in surprise but kept the gun trained on him. What the fuck was he doing? Delilah took a few hesitant steps towards me, no doubt terrified that she’d feel a bullet blast into her back any second, but he wasn’t even aiming the gun at her any longer. He was pointing it down, towards the floor. I took a step to the side, keeping the gun pointed at him, and moved so that Delilah wasn’t in my direct line of fire.

“Come here,” I said.

Delilah finally crossed the rest of the distance in a hurry and hugged me tightly. I wrapped one arm around her, never taking my eyes or gun off Tanner, but he was just looking at us. He looked...sad. What in the hell was going on? Was this a trap? Was I missing something? I fucking had to be. He had gone to all this trouble to get me here, apparently, unless I was wrong there, too.

“Chris, Chris,” Delilah whispered, squeezing me, trembling, like she couldn’t believe I was actually there.

“Go with Megan,” I said.

“I…” she hesitated, looking up at me, then back over her shoulder at Tanner, then twisted back around to look out the door, where Megan was waiting with the shotgun. “Chris-”

“Go with Megan, right now. Megan, clear out the house, make sure there’s no others, then get Hazel inside,” I said, raising my voice a little.

“Got it,” Megan replied tightly. “Come on, Delilah. Chris needs to finish the job.”

Delilah lingered for just a few seconds longer, then turned and walked away. I put my other hand back on the pistol.

“You mind if I take a smoke break before you kill me?” the man asked, setting the pistol down on the nightstand and grabbing a hand-rolled cigarette and a lighter.

“All your other guys are dead,” I said.

“Can’t say I’m sorry,” he muttered, lighting up. “They weren’t good guys.”

Something was not right about this, and I kept thinking maybe he was trying to distract me, but what the fuck for? To kill me, obviously. Maybe someone else was in the room? I took quick, furtive looks around while he smoked. I could tell right away why Hazel hadn’t nailed him: the two windows in his room were boarded over.

With quick movements, I checked out behind the door and in the closet. Nothing. No one. And I looked down under the bed, covering him with the pistol the whole time, ready to react in a split second if he so much as moved. No one there either, and he just sat there and smoked.

“Name’s Tanner,” he said.

“What the fuck do you want?” I asked, increasingly bewildered. What in the actual fucking hell was this guy’s game?

“I’d like you to put a bullet in my head,” he replied coolly.

“What? Then why the fuck didn’t you keep threatening Delilah? I sure would’ve done it then if I’d had a shot.”

“This may surprise you, but I didn’t want to put her in any danger.”

“Just her? Why the fuck didn’t you stop your asshole new guy from trying to fucking rape Megan?” I snapped.

He sighed. “Can’t win ‘em all.”

I felt my hands tighten on the weapon and I almost pulled the trigger, but I was too weirded out by all this.

Despite everything, I wanted to know more.

“Why did you do this? You robbed me. Twice. And knocked me out. You wanted me to come after you. Why?”

“I just told you.”

“Yeah but why?” I pressed.

He sighed and flicked some ash into an ashtray. Then he paused and laughed. “Habits,” he muttered. “It’s the apocalypse and you’ve got a gun on me, ready to blow my brains out, and I’m still flicking into a fucking ashtray. Jesus.”

For a moment, he just sat there and stared at me. I stared back.

Tanner looked to be in his late thirties, and someone who had been hard-used by life, aged early. He had nests of wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, his skin weathered. There were a few scars on his face, what I could see anyway, as he had a raggedy beard and unkempt brown hair. He wore faded bluejeans and a leather jacket, not all that dissimilar from my own, actually. In fact, suddenly, he reached into the jacket.

I prepared to pull the trigger, but his hand came out with something familiar.

“I’m guessing what you really want is this.”

He set my journal down on the bed beside him.

“Tell me why,” I said firmly. I realized, right then and there, that some part of me needed to know. I don’t know why. It made no sense. Honestly, every second that passed that I didn’t put a bullet in him was another second I was risking my life. Even the others’ lives. He could have friends on the way to back him up, or some other means of killing us, but somehow, I didn’t think so. He looked tired, and older than his years, and more than anything else, he just looked despairing and defeated. He looked like he was done.

“It’ll take a minute,” he said, taking another drag on the cigarette.

“Tell me,” I repeated, still covering him with the pistol. I could hear the others moving around in the house, checking it out. I trusted Megan and Hazel to be able to handle themselves.

“All right. I’d like to tell someone, I guess,” he replied. “The short version then. My fucking back hurts and I’ve got a bad headache. Might not seem that way, but that redhead of yours has a powerful right hook.” I tensed at the implication of that and he waved a hand. “No, no. I didn’t do anything to her. I wouldn’t do that. Anyway. I grew up dirt poor and shit miserable. Tried putting a life together for myself for a long time. Finally got something going after awhile. Found a woman who was way too good for me, and she loved me for some reason, and I sure loved her. We got married. Had a kid. I got a job helping run a grocery store.”

He stopped, took another pull on the cigarette, let out a wave of smoke in a heavy, tired sigh. “Then the snow happened. It wasn’t too bad, at first. Our kid was just born. Given I worked at the grocery store and we had a healthy store of supplies, I was still in a good position, even for Armageddon. My wife would come down to visit me every day with our little girl all bundled up. She had this-” he stopped suddenly, his face twisting into one of the most honest, gut-punch expressions of pain I’d ever seen, and if there was any doubt as to whether or not he was telling the truth, they ended right then and there.

Tanner cleared his throat. “She had this dinosaur print blanket. It was the only thing I’d gotten from my parents and held onto. Anyway...people started to get nervous after awhile. I think we all finally began to clue in that shit was fucked. One day, people panicked. It was a bad time. My wife was down visiting me with our daughter. Not sure what happened, but someone flipped out, and people were already primed, so there was a stampede. My daughter was killed. I...lost it. A lot of us had started carrying pistols. I had one on me. I pulled it out, just started firing into the crowd. I shot five people. Three of them died.”

Jesus. I kept staring at him, not even sure what to say or fucking do but listen. I could hear the others downstairs. It sounded like Hazel had come in. How much longer before they decided to come check on me?

What the fuck was I going to do?

Tanner wasn’t looking at me anymore. Was just staring at the wall.

“We still had cops. I got arrested. Thrown in the local jail. I rotted for months in there while they tried to figure out what to do with me. It was getting worse, though, out in the city. My wife kept visiting me through the whole thing. Every day. I was good friends with one of the cops, although it wasn’t enough to get me out. I wanted to run away with my wife, but the opportunity didn’t present itself. Finally, she started getting sick, and eventually she stopped showing up. I tried to find out what the fuck was going on, but cops were checking on me less and less. I heard more shooting outside more often, and I know twice there was a big fire of some kind. Finally, after a few weeks, my friend came to see me, said he found out what had happened: my wife had caught pneumonia and she’d fucking died. He came and told me in the middle of the night, and he let me out. He gave me some supplies and some clothes and a gun and told me just to get out of town. I did, because I didn’t know what else to do. And I drifted for a long time.”

Now he looked back at me, seeming to come back to himself, to the room, to the reality he was currently living. He took another long drag on his cigarette, almost finishing it off. “I did some bad shit between here and there.” He laughed, bitterly. “You’d be surprised what you can do when you don’t fuckin’ want to be alive anymore, but you’re too much of a fuckin’ coward to kill yourself.”

“So that’s why you did it,” I muttered.

“Yeah,” he said, staring hard at me now. “We were on the highway when you were driving through. You almost hit me. Then you wrecked. Me and a few of the guys robbed you blind. They were gonna kill you, but I stopped them. Because I knew. Especially when I found this,” he tapped the journal, “I just fucking knew you were gonna come ice me and take it back. I knew you wouldn’t stop. Sure took you long enough.”

“Is that why you attacked Megan and Delilah?” I asked, my voice flat.

“Yeah. I thought you might need more incentive.”

“Fucking hell,” I muttered.

I stared at him, and felt a chill of pure dread as I did. There were things about him...I don’t know, it was kind of like looking into the future. Or a possible future. Looking at myself, a possible version of myself. Older, bitter, suicidal.

And it scared me badly.

I knew I was capable of some really bad shit. I was capable of truly awful acts. People like to think they could never commit evil, there were lines they were physically incapable of crossing, but that wasn’t true. You were far more likely to keep yourself in check if you didn’t think it was impossible to cross certain moral lines, but that you were intentionally not crossing them. That you were choosing not to cross them.

But if I was pushed far enough…

I didn’t know if I might stop caring about being a good person, or at the very least not hurting other people. Or at the very least, not hurting people who didn’t deserve it.

Remove or inhibit my soul, and I could absolutely turn into a monster.

So what was I gonna do? Do I kill this guy? He was basically committing suicide here. Could I do that?

“I can see you’re having trouble with this,” Tanner said. He sighed, tossed his cigarette into the ashtray, and picked up the pistol. “I’ll make it easy on you.”

He stood and pointed the gun at me. That got me to at least readjust my aim on him and tighten my finger on the trigger just a little.

I’d gotten really good at reacting to people pointing shit at me.

“You don’t have to die,” I said, which surprised me. How much awful shit had he done? I’d killed his friends, or, from the sound of it, the people he’d taken up with. Apparently he’d been their leader. What awful shit had they done?

“I want to, though,” he replied. “I can see it on your face, you don’t think I’ll shoot you. Doesn’t make sense, does it? Why shoot you when I’m relying on you to kill me? Don’t make that mistake. I will shoot you, because I know for a fact that one of those women will blow my head off. I can tell you all give a shit about each other. I know what that’s like. You may even love those girls. They may even love you. Do you really wanna take yourself away from them and force them to kill me? Because that’s where I’ll go if you don’t.”

I could tell he wasn’t lying. To me or even to himself.

His eyes were open and he was dead fucking serious. No bluffing here.

But fuck, this wasn’t like anything I’d had to deal with before. I’d never had someone suicide at me. Or shit, maybe I had. People had attacked me before. Maybe they were hoping I’d kill them. Shit. This was way too much. I’d come here expecting to do some dirty work that had to be done, but this was fucking…

I don’t even know what this was.

“Okay, then,” he said, adjusting his aim. “Fine.”

That hit me. That slammed me with the instant awareness that this man had just decided to kill me, and maybe it was an excuse, but it sure felt like reality: it forced my hand. It literally felt like it forced my hand, like I’d been hit with an electric jolt and my finger had tightened on the trigger automatically, without my consent.

Maybe that was a lie, maybe not.

But either way, I shot him right in the head. The pistol snapped in my grasp and the bullet punched an ugly hole in his forehead and he flopped back over onto the bed, the wall and some of the boards he’d used to cover the window splattered with blood and brain bits. The silence immediately following the gunshot was deafening.

Then I heard running footfalls. Megan appeared in the doorway, now wearing a t-shirt, still holding the shotgun.

“Chris,” she said, relaxing when she saw I was still standing and he was dead. Then she walked inside, came to stand next to me. “What took so long?” I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t stop looking at his corpse. She looked at me. “Chris, are you okay?”

It felt like a long time before I responded.

“I don’t know.”

EPILOGUE

We spent the next five days resting, recovering, and preparing.

I spent most of it feeling just…

Off.

We all did, except maybe Hazel. Delilah was clearly pretty shaken, and Megan was just furious. But they calmed down after the first two days, and by the end of the fifth, they were basically back to normal. I took it as a blessing and a curse. A blessing that they were able to get back to normal after something as bad as that, and a curse that they’d had to endure enough that they could get back to normal after just a few days.

The house was clear of other assholes. We had gotten them all. They were all dead now. I was glad that I hadn’t found the guy with the crewcut among them. And there was a decent stash of stuff there, too. Guns, obviously. Our stuff that they’d stolen. And whatever other stuff they had managed to get their hands on for however long they’d been there. Even in spite of our trauma, none of us were seriously injured, (though my headache persisted for days), and we spent all of that first day searching that house top-to-bottom and hauling everything useful over to Hazel’s place.

After that, we just relaxed. Hazel was okay with letting us stay. I think she felt for us, but she also might’ve been feeling pretty mellow considering the fact that A, we’d killed the last immediate threat to her in the region as far as she knew and B, there had been a lot of fucking cigarettes and booze stored up in that place. I don’t know where they’d gotten it from, but now it was ours. And I was cool to let Hazel have all the cigarettes in exchange for her help. She had been pretty good. Of us all, she seemed the calmest.

There was no sex the first or second day, all of us too shaken up. But then the third day there was a lot of it.

Delilah had been pretty badly shaken by the whole experience, and wouldn’t leave my side at first. I did what I could to make her feel better. At night, I held her until she fell asleep and often all night long.

It helped both of us.

I did the same with Megan. I’m not sure if she was naturally tougher or she was just pretending, maybe it was some of both, but she was ‘business as usual’ pretty quick. Though she didn’t have a problem with hugs and kisses and cuddling of the not-necessarily-sexual variety either. But on the third day, that changed.

Delilah wanted sex, suddenly and intensely, and we fucked, and it was damn good. Megan hopped on me as soon as Delilah was finished with me, and then I was lucky that I was as horny as I was because after that Hazel wanted a piece of me.

After all the fresh bullshit I’d gone through, it was a welcome event.

Megan told me what had happened, and it was about what I thought had gone down. Tanner and his assholes had come before sunrise and kicked the door in. Megan and Delilah were too tired, too deep asleep to properly respond, and there were five jerks with guns anyway. They’d gotten them up and dressed and force-marched them back to their place. Megan said Tanner had stopped his guys from raping them then and there, and also warned them not to do it when they got back. He’d stayed behind, waiting for me, apparently.

Even after I’d filled them in on what he had told me, Megan and Delilah, mostly Megan, were glad he was dead. I was glad his friends were dead, honestly, but I still didn’t know how to feel about the man himself.

When the fifth day had started coming to a close, Delilah was getting anxious to move on, and I kind of was too, to be honest.

I had briefly tried to get Hazel to come with us, but now that Tanner and the campground assholes were gone, she was happier than ever with her place in the world. Especially considering the big haul we’d ultimately decided to leave her. We’d taken our fair share of food, water, medical supplies, guns, ammo, and survival gear, but there was more than we could take with us, and I was happy to leave it all in Hazel’s hands.

That night, I fucked Hazel a few times, enjoying every second of it. I was seriously going to miss her, and her fantastic, mature pussy.

The next morning, there’d been another sex session, and then cleanup and breakfast, and then packing up our stuff, making sure we had everything.

Then we’d said goodbye to Hazel.

And that brought us to where we were right now.

“So, we sure we got everything? Because it’ll be a real pain in the ass to come back,” I said as I looked around the highway. We’d ascended it and now were in the middle of the road, facing the north, the way I had yet to go.

“I’m sure,” Megan said.

“Yeah, I triple checked,” Delilah replied.

I could feel the weight of my journal in my inner pocket. Megan had left the bedroom when I’d asked her to, right after she had come in after I’d killed Tanner. So she didn’t know about the journal. None of them did. Still to this very day, no one knew about that thing but me. I’d walked over and slipped it into my inner pocket.

I’d found time yesterday to write in it. Wrote about the shit that had happened for an hour before someone came looking for me.

I was glad to have it back, it felt like I was whole again.

I looked at both of them. They looked geared up. Each had on coats and boots and layers, their packs and pockets full and well-packed. Megan had a rifle and a pistol, Delilah a pistol, myself two of them, and ammo to spare.

Whatever we ran into, I thought we could handle.

Probably.

I almost asked Megan if she was completely sure she wanted to come with us, but caught myself. It would probably be insulting on some level. She was coming with us, she’d made that clear. Obviously I wanted her along, and Delilah had only taken to her that much more strongly after the whole incident with Tanner had happened.

“You okay?” Megan asked.

“Fine,” I replied, almost automatically, and started walking. The women lingered only briefly, maybe sharing an uncertain look, and then began walking with me.

I still didn’t know if I was fine or not.

What had happened with Tanner was still fucking with me, I knew that. The thing I didn’t know was exactly how or why. I knew something had happened to me in that trashy, boarded-over bedroom when I’d heard Tanner’s story and pulled that trigger.

The only problem was, I didn’t know if it was good or bad.

I didn’t even know what had happened.

I only knew that somehow, in some way, I had been changed by the experience.

A WARM PLACE 2

ONE

As far as the end of human civilization as we knew it was going, I had to admit, I was having a pretty good time.

We’d been on the highway for almost two days, and so far it had been a thankfully uneventful pair of days. After everything that had gone down over the past week, from my car crash, to the assault on not one but two different groups of armed and dangerous assholes, to the handful of encounters I’d had with dangerous wildlife (my arm still hurt from that fucking wolf), uneventful was not just good, it was welcome.

Although I had started the trip with some uncertainty and anxiety brewing in my head and my gut over that last conversation I’d had with Tanner, I was able to pull myself into a better mood before too long. Between having two very attractive and friendly women that I had already been intimate with and would continue to do so around, and engaging in one of my favorite activities, (hitting the open road after a stay in one place), it was easy to prop myself back up with all those feel-good chemicals. And I’d managed to maintain it for all of yesterday and most of today.

Though like the setting sun, with nightfall scheduled for the very near future, I could feel bad vibes darkening my own emotional horizons.

I tried to tell myself to get over it, but that had a low chance of being successful.

Presently, as we walked down the highway, which was mostly clean and clear, topped with a layer of snow that crunched under our boots, I studied my traveling companions.

Delilah was the kind of girl who looked good regardless of what she was doing. I mean, personally, I thought they were both like that, but Delilah was what you would call ‘photogenic’. Dressed up in her faded bluejeans (that she’d since repaired), a gray, ragged hoodie, and a white beanie that she’d found in one of the many abandoned cars we stopped to search, she looked great. She looked like a model on her way to one of those fucking ‘ironic’ photoshoots, the kind intended to sell ‘pre-faded’ or ‘pre-ripped’ brand new jeans for two hundred fucking dollars to dipshits. Her vividly red hair peeked out here and there from beneath her cap, her vibrant blue eyes seemed to spark in the fading sunlight, and her pale, pale face was still smoothly beautiful despite the exposure to frigid weather. Some people are just born traditionally beautiful, and Delilah was one of them. I was very lucky that she was riding my dick twice a day.

Megan was the opposite of Delilah in several ways. Where Delilah was trim and petite, Megan was taller and more filled out, more built. She probably had a good five inches and twenty five pounds on the redhead. Decked out in some brown cargo pants, heavy hiking boots, and a thick gray jacket over a hoodie, she looked a lot more...aggressive. Everything about Megan was aggressive. The way she walked, the way she talked, her stance and expressions. We had more in common, I had to admit. I wouldn’t call Delilah timid, exactly, but she was definitely a lot more submissive. Megan was a lot more assertive.

Her tan skin sported more scars than Delilah’s, and her black hair, cut shorter than Delilah’s own red hair, was often worn in a rough, short ponytail. She also had on a black beanie, just like me. Her angry brown eyes were distant often when I glanced at her, and I wondered what she was thinking about. Probably nothing good.

Tragedy had befallen pretty much everyone since the snow began, but some of us had been hit a lot harder than others.

And some of us had always dealt with it.

Megan had had a hard life, from the bits and pieces I’d gathered from her so far. She was a hard woman, consequently.

Something that drew me intensely to her.

I was also extremely lucky that she had agreed to let me stick my dick in her.

There had been some tension between the two of them when they’d first met, pretty much exclusively coming from Megan, given she was jealous of Delilah’s natural charisma and uncomfortable, if not outright hostile towards the idea that Delilah had agreed to have sex with me in exchange for my protection and getting her somewhere safe. If we didn’t get along so well, I would have thought Megan might have a point, but thankfully it was turning out that Delilah liked me so much, it almost seemed like the ‘deal’ was an excuse to fuck me immediately. Not that she really needed one.

Delilah was a fucking supermodel to me.

But another problem that I thought would manifest had yet to. Although I think most reasonable people know that despite the fact that we think we can predict a lot of outcomes, the nature of individuality and, well, being a human, means that things can often go in a different direction, I was also a little interested to see if Delilah might not take at least a little offense that I...well, preferred Megan.

It wasn’t intentional, and it wasn’t like I was trying to snub Delilah. It was more just the way it had fallen. Megan happened to hit more of my buttons than Delilah. And it wasn’t even like I thought there should be conflict there.

Honestly, I was happier when everyone got along, and I hated anyone hurting or feeling left out.

Despite that, there was a part of me that assumed Delilah would be maybe a little offended that I preferred Megan to her, given that, by most accounts, Delilah was more ‘conventionally’ attractive, whereas Megan didn’t seem to give much of a shit if she was attractive or not. (Or, at least, she tried to hide it. I think it bothered her how much she gave a shit about being attractive she still gave. Honestly, I could sympathize.)

But Delilah seemed as happy as ever.

Which made me curious. It could be that she just hadn’t picked up on it. Or it could be that she just didn’t care.

Sometimes, though, if someone didn’t care about something, it was because something else that was more important to them had overridden it.

Maybe she just didn’t care because she was happy about another thing.

And that’s what I’d been teasing out all day long, in my head at least: what was she happy about? Finally, I had come to a conclusion.

She was happy we were going to that town she’d asked me to take her to.

It was the basis of our relationship, personal and business, and she seemed fairly particular about getting to, specifically, this one town.

Which made me wonder…

“Delilah.”

“Yeah?” she asked, glancing at me.

“I was curious...is there a specific reason we’re going to this town?” I asked.

A look of anxiety passed over her face that she tried to control, which was interesting.

“Yeah, where are we going? I just realized I’ve never actually, like, asked,” Megan said.

“It’s called Pine Lake, small place,” she replied, not quite looking at either of us.

I waited. Then, “Delilah...is there something you’re not telling me?”

Megan glanced over, suddenly intrigued.

Delilah hesitated, then sighed, her breath puffing on the air. “Kinda.”

“What, you got a boyfriend waiting for you up there? I bet that’d be awkward given what we’ve been doing with you,” Megan said, grinning.

“No! Not a boyfriend. My friend. She’s a girl. We always said...we’d meet there, if things got really bad. You know how like you think about the end of the world or the collapse of civilization and sometimes with your best friends you say ‘if it all goes to hell, we’ll meet up and stick together’? Well, we really had a plan. Like we actually talked about it. And it got more serious the worse the weather was getting. She moved away a year before everything went to hell. Her boyfriend at the time got some job in a town that was kinda close to Pine Lake. So...I’m hoping she’s waiting there for me.”

“It’s been two years,” Megan murmured.

Delilah sighed. “I know, I know...I was scared to go out for a long time. I kept thinking ‘maybe this’ll get better’ or ‘she probably is somewhere else’ but finally I just said ‘fuck it’ and started heading that way. I’ve made a lot of progress…”

“Why were you worried about this?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“I’m not...sure. I guess it’s really close to my heart, and I like you a lot, like a lot, but...I’m...I don’t intend to, like, stay with you, or anything. Once I find Lindsay, you know, I’m sticking with her. And I guess I was worried you might change your mind if you knew that.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, Delilah,” I replied. “A deal’s a deal. And you’ve more than held up your end. As long as you don’t actively fuck me over, I’ll get you there. And if your friend isn’t there, I’d probably be willing to help you track her down.”

“Really?” she asked, looking at me with a renewed enthusiasm.

“Yeah. Believe it or not, I like you a lot, too.”

“And here I thought all you two had was hate sex,” Megan murmured.

“No, that’s just you and me,” I replied, and she laughed.

A few seconds of silence went by. “So you’ll take care of me?” Delilah asked quietly.

“Yes,” I replied. “That’s what I told you. You don’t have to worry about that.”

She gave me a small smile. “You did come for us.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” I replied. I’d probably said that a dozen times now. Although that last conversation I’d had with that fucking asshole was messing with me in a more abstract way, the other thing was messing with me in a bigger, more obvious way: I hadn’t been there. I’d been off getting my dick sucked and they’d gotten-

“Chris,” Megan said, interrupting my thoughts. I glanced over. “We’ve been over this: you told us exactly where you were going, gave us a chance to ask you to say. We knew the risk. It turned out for the best. The assholes are dead. It’s fine. We’ve forgiven you for what happened. Don’t keep beating yourself up over it.”

“Yeah,” I managed. It was going to fuck with me for awhile, but she was right.

I could sense she wanted to ask me about what had gone down after she’d left. They must have heard some of it, or even if they hadn’t, she must have been wondering what had taken so long after she and Delilah had left the room. I hadn’t said anything yet, and I think at least Megan could tell that something had happened and it was bothering me. I wasn’t sure whether or not I was going to talk with either of them about it.

Fuck, I hadn’t even written about it in my journal. I’d written about pretty much everything else that had happened…

Just not that.

My journal. Heh. What all this had been about.

That still seemed kind of unreal to me. Intellectually, I was aware of how one change could lead to a vast array of changes. But actually experiencing it was still weird. If I hadn’t crashed, I wouldn’t have met these two women. Fuck, Delilah almost certainly would have just frozen to death right there on that cabin floor, and Megan...might have escaped. Or might have provoked one of those shitheads into killing her.

I guess it was more about the crash than the journal, but then my obsessive nature about getting the damned thing back had put me on the path to Tanner.

I still don’t know precisely what it was about that fucking conversation, but I know it had done something to me. Was it bad? Good? Or neither? I think some of it was that he was the first person I’d ever come across who had tried to basically use me to commit suicide...again, as far as I knew. A few people had just come at me, no words, no warning, just whackjobs in the woods that I figured were looking to kill and rob me.

No, I needed to stop poking at this, stop thinking about it.

Just focus on something else.

Well, on the plus side, I’d met Hazel, and damn if she wasn’t one of the best lays I’d had. I knew older women could fuck but wow had she been something else. I missed her, though thankfully in just a sexual way. Maybe that sounded really shallow or callous, but I think it was for the best I didn’t miss her emotionally, because we were almost certainly never going to see each other again. We’d just bumped into each other, so to speak, and now we had long since drifted apart. I was northbound on a highway, she was living happily in an isolated lake house. Though I felt bad for her that she didn’t have someone around to fuck her.

Maybe she’d find someone.

Thinking about that was, admittedly, turning my mind to more carnal desires. I was finding myself really wanting a threesome with Delilah and Megan. I actually hadn’t had too many in my life before meeting them. The few I’d had were one-off situations. But now I was traveling with not one but two attractive and very willing women. Delilah was just straight-up super sexual, and Megan, after some hesitation, was comfortable enough with the two of us that she didn’t mind responding fully to that sexuality.

And, well, obviously I was just fucking horny most the time.

That thought spurred another: we should really find a place to bunk down for the night. If at all possible, I always tried to sleep indoors. I no longer had a tent with me and even if I did, and even as much as I’d enjoy it...it would be a tight fit with three of us. Especially with my big six foot two, bulky-build ass.

“It’s starting to get late,” I said, pausing. We were in the middle of the highway. There was pretty much nothing but plains, lots of frozen plains off to the left, and it had been that way for awhile. To the right, though, were some signs of civilization. “We should find a place for the night.”

“It would be nice,” Megan said, and yawned, then popped her back. “Fuck, I’m tired.”

I nodded and walked off to the right guardrail. Walking all day was really tiring. Walking all day in the snow, even on a relatively flat surface like a highway, was really tiring. I’d tried not to push too hard, but I did want to make meaningful progress with the good days that we had. A blizzard could blow in and last three days pretty unexpectedly. Even some shitty snowy weather could ruin a whole day of progress, and it wasn’t like we were making a lot of progress. We’d probably made it fifteen miles so far, what with the stops to search cars, breaks to keep frostbite and hypothermia at bay, and to eat meals.

Plus, we’d slept in this morning, and I intended to tomorrow too. It wasn’t like we were on some tight timeline. Delilah seemed happy enough that we were just moving towards the settlement and so long as we didn’t take a month to do it, I imagined she’d be okay with it. I figured we’d be there inside of two weeks, provided we didn’t run into any problems. Though that was a big ‘if’ given the shitty nature of the world now.

So far, we hadn’t seen any other people on the road yet, and any wildlife we’d seen had been from a comfortable distance.

That could change quickly.

Getting up to the guardrail I was glad to see immediately that there was a house off a little ways that looked small but intact. Thankfully, in this area the highway was basically level with the road. Although unfortunately that was good and bad. The house was a pretty obvious target. But that was always a risk, and anyway, few people traveled at night and we weren’t going to be there for more than a night anyway.

“We’ll try there,” I said.

“What if someone’s there already?” Delilah murmured.

“Well, either we’ll barter with them for a place to sleep, they’ll try to kill us and I’ll have to kill them, or we’ll move on. There’s some cars down the way there,” I said, pointing maybe a mile on down the highway, “we’ll camp in one of them if we have to.”

“Fun, fun,” Megan muttered, and hopped the guardrail. “Let’s go, I’m starving and horny.”

“Same,” I said, jumping the guardrail as well and then turning to help Delilah over if she wanted. She did and I took her hand. She didn’t let go after stepping over and so we held hands as we started walking through the snow towards the house.

After a moment, Megan took my other hand.

I couldn’t help but smile.

Definitely, it’s the little things that can be great sometimes.

TWO

I think something that people have difficulty with, nowadays, is the notion that it’s going to stay cold. Practically no matter what.

The most we seem to be able to hope for now is approaching freezing, so, low thirties. I kept a thermometer with me for awhile in the beginning, but eventually got to the point where I could tell how bad or ‘good’ the cold was.

Sometimes, I still got that creeping sense of ‘fuck me is this ever going to end!?’, usually in the early mornings when I was in a sour mood and stepped outside for the first time. Mostly, though, I’d gotten used to it. Although, it was still miserable. At best, I didn’t mind it too much. On average, I just tolerated it. Keeping busy helped. There were a lot of little tricks to staying warm and preserving your body heat, mostly it was just layers, really.

As I was thinking it, a cold, cold wind blew across the plain as we headed in between the highway and the house. That made me think of something else: why? Why had this happened? No one knew. Or, well, probably someone who was still alive knew. One of the politicians or military brass or scientists behind the scenes who had figured out what the fuck was going on, or even had caused it, but the average person? Fuck no. We all had our theories though. Personally speaking, I kind of thought it was a botched attempt to counteract global warming.

I remember reading these articles during the first half of 2036, before it actually happened, about how America, China, Brazil, and Russia were launching coordinated satellites. I think that, more than anything, was what caught my eye. On the surface, it was some kind of telecommunications project, but something seemed off about it to some of the journalists. I honestly can’t remember the details now, and it wasn’t like I really understood them then, but it was something about the pattern of the satellites and the types of satellites not being for communications. They were apparently labeled ‘experimental’, which was usually enough to fool people.

Oh, it don’t look like the regular ones? That’s because it’s experimental.

The theory I had settled on was that the powers that be finally realized just how mightily fucked we were, as a species, after we’d trashed the climate for decades and decades, and had gone looking for a magic bullet to fix it all.

Only the magic bullet had misfired.

Somehow, they’d fucked up the weather or atmosphere or whatever, with their network of satellites, and this was the result.

But I was willing to admit I could be totally fucking wrong.

Could be fucking aliens for all I knew.

I focused up as we got closer to the house. I hadn’t seen any telltales of local activity, but it was a lot harder to tell for sure in isolated places like this. No movement in the windows, at least. I hated just walking up in plain view. If someone was in there with a rifle or even a pistol, if they were a decent shot, they could pick us off easy as hell. That was life nowadays, though. You gambled. I’d gotten good about reading the odds ahead of time, but it was still easy to be wrong. The best you could do was hope you got out alive if you were wrong.

The house was a simple, single-story thing, its windows intact, front door shut, made of wood with very faded pale green siding. It had no front porch, just two steps leading up to the front door, though I got an impression of some little garden areas off to the left and the right of the steps, and there was no doubt a driveway and maybe even a little path from it to the door underneath all this snow. We got to the front door.

“Back, to the right,” I said quietly, motioning to them.

Megan and Delilah did as I instructed. I already had my pistol out. It was the nine millimeter I’d recovered from my last fun excursions, a nice, sleek, black thing that held fifteen shots and was in pretty good condition. My forty-five was in my backpack for safekeeping, and our hunting rifle was hung over my shoulder.

Each of the women had a pistol and ammo, as well, and we all had a knife.

I knocked on the door. “Is anyone in there?” I asked. “My name is Chris and my friends and I are looking for lodging for the night.”

I kept my voice calm and clear. No sense trying to hide how many of us there were: if there were people in there, they’d have seen us from a long ways off by now.

Listening and waiting, I heard nothing at all. Just the wind.

I always hated this part.

I tried again. “Look, if you want us to go away, all you have to do is say so. We’ll leave. But we’re willing to trade.”

Still nothing at all. Either no one was in there, or they were hiding. Either laying in wait, or too afraid to answer the door, hoping I’d just go away.

I tried one more time. “All right, I’m going to come inside in a moment, last chance to tell me to fuck off.”

Nothing.

I sighed, shifted back to the women, and looked at the windows. No tiny movements, no telltales of someone peeking at me through the closed curtains.

“Stay here,” I said, “I’m going to take a quick walk around. Get up against the house, not in sight of the windows or the door.”

They both told me they had it and got into position. I took a few moments to make a quick jaunt around the house. Couldn’t find any signs of anything having been there for awhile. No footprints, no handprints on the walls around the back door I found or the windows. No signs that anyone had been gathering firewood, although again, it could be hard to tell. Even on a regular day, the snow tended to erase a lot if there was even a bit of wind. But I made it back around to the front of the little house without any notion anyone was inside.

“All right, here we go,” I said.

I’d already tried the back door and found it locked. Now I tried the front and grunted unhappily when I found it was locked, too. We took a minute to hunt around for a spare key, but if it was here, it was buried in the snow, and it was definitely getting darker and colder. I wasn’t going to piss away anymore time looking for it.

Time was a very valuable asset nowadays, and it got away from you faster than you realized when the cold or the dark was on approach.

I kicked the door in.

It took three hits and my leg hurt after, but it got the job done and the door was still pretty much in its frame after I was done. I brought my pistol, half-expecting someone to be on the other side, but all that awaited me was a dim living room. I didn’t get a feeling anyone was there, but I did my due diligence, carefully making my way inside, checking the sides. A kitchen sat off to the right and a door ahead of me, across the living room, led into what looked like a little hallway area. I waved the women inside and motioned for them to stay put, then got to searching the house. For now, I just wanted to see if we were actually alone.

Ten minutes passed and I wound up back at the start, satisfied.

Nothing there but a pair of bedrooms, a bathroom, and a laundry room, as well as a few closets, all empty and mostly cleaned out, too. Which made me wonder why the place was locked up. Maybe whoever owned it, or at least whoever had a key, had been living here for awhile, and had only just recently decided to pick up and go, for whatever reason locking it behind them. But I didn’t sense any danger.

“All right,” I said, looking around the living room, my eyes zeroed in on the dark fireplace, “first thing is getting a fire going. Megan, you take care of that. Delilah, why don’t you start prepping for dinner? I’m going to take another walk outside while there’s still light, double-check that we’re really secure and see if I can’t find some firewood.”

They both said ‘okay’ and because the mood struck me, (it felt good to be inside after a long, hard day of walking), I grabbed Delilah and gave her a long kiss on the mouth. She responded with enthusiasm and tongue.

When I was done, she stepped back, grinning, and I began to head outside.

“Hey, what the fuck, where’s mine?” Megan asked, sounding genuinely annoyed.

I grabbed her and kissed her too, and she kissed me back hard.

I let her let go me, and when she did, she looked at me with a small but satisfied smirk, then went over to the fireplace, where she shrugged out of her pack and dropped into a crouch while swinging it smoothly around in front of her.

Heading outside, I thought of Megan.

I still wasn’t completely sure where I stood with her. I knew that she liked me, she was sexually attracted to me, and that she trusted me. You’d think that would mean I knew exactly where I stood with her, or at least had a decent idea, but Megan was…

A little difficult.

Not that I blamed her. She’d had a rough life, before and after Armageddon, and her paranoia was hard-earned. As well as her prickly demeanor. While I knew I could grab Delilah and kiss her without a problem, (at least unless she told me otherwise), I didn’t know if it might piss Megan off all of a sudden. I think some of our friction was coming from the fact that we were both used to being in charge of the relationship, so to speak.

I didn’t mind sharing control, but I think she did.

So I tried not to push any of her buttons...you know, for the most part. I had to admit, there was a certain satisfaction in fucking with her. Not like for real, but just some teasing, play fighting. The problem was it was a bit harder to tell where the line was, so even then I tried to tread carefully. I thought that with time, we’d get better at reading each other. I think it was still a foreign concept to her that I could be teasing her and not be actually trying to hurt her. She’d encountered too many shitheads and bullies in her life.

How long were we going to be together?

Shit, I had no idea. I didn’t want her gone, I actually loved her company, but with the way the world was going, I knew she might decide to pack up and leave tomorrow. Although I didn’t think that would happen.

I did my more careful survey of the exterior, still didn’t find any signs of people or wildlife, (though anything could be hiding in the collection of trees maybe a mile and a half distant that I could no longer see in the failing light), and snagged a few pieces of wood at the back out of a bin meant to hold firewood.

Back inside, Megan had gotten a fire going and they were both sorting through our food. I was carrying most of it, (actually, I was carrying probably three quarters of everything we owned between us, both because I had the biggest pack and I was the strongest thanks to my sheer size), and so I set my pack down by them and began to head deeper into the house.

“What do you want?” Megan asked.

“I think that rabbit meat’s on the way out. Fry it up with something, whatever you two want,” I replied. I wasn’t a picky eater and I thought it would make them happier to decide. Megan wasn’t a picky eater either, or at least professed not to be, but I knew Delilah had her tastes. So while they figured that out, I went around and checked all the windows, making damn sure they were not just closed but locked.

Then, after double-checking the back door, I shut the front as best I could and stuck a chair up under the knob.

Someone could get in, sure, but they’d have to make a lot of noise doing it.

Then I rejoined the ladies in my life and helped them make dinner.

It was a slow, pleasant experience. I helped cut up the meat and tossed it into the pot Megan was carrying in her pack while Delilah got two cans of beef stew opened up. It would make a good dinner. Once it was all in the pot and mixed up, (and I’d made sure the rabbit meat hadn’t gone over), we set it in front of the fireplace and then sat down and started going through our packs. This was a part of the routine now: inventory check.

It paid to get not only a mental reinforcement of our supplies, but a visual one as well.

When we’d left Hazel’s place, she’d given us a fair share of all the shit we’d recovered from Tanner’s house. I had been happy enough to leave the excess runoff with her. She was a good woman, and I didn’t just think so because she’d left me fuck her in any hole that I wanted. Consequently, I thought we had a decent spread in terms of supplies, but even a decent spread would only last so long for three people.

Especially considering I was the only one here with a large backpack. Megan’s was medium-sized and Delilah’s was small. This was to be our sixth meal on the road and I was sort of straddling the line between rationing and enjoying ourselves. You couldn’t just get by on the bare minimum all the time because eventually you started asking yourself: what the fuck am I even living for? It sounded dumb, but when you actually lived it for months on end, it became harder to answer that question sometimes.

I set two plastic bottles of water by the fire as well, not too close, but close enough that they’d warm, then I began sorting out the supplies. Right now, we had cans and we had plastic containers of wolf meat and that was it. Fourteen cans in total. Some tuna, some soup, some fruits, some vegetables. A decent blend of foods, but at present, if we found nothing else, I figured we had about four more days of food between us, if we rationed a little. If we rationed a lot, we could stretch this out to a week, maybe eight days.

But that was pushing it, and we had to keep our strength up.

While the food cooked, I checked over the rest of our supplies. It was a decent supply, but there was a certain reality to traveling in a winter wasteland. You could only bring so much with you, and you had to spend some of it every single day to stay alive. Ideally, you would find either more supplies out in the wastelands or you’d run into someone who was willing to trade, but that wasn’t always the case. You could have dry spells. Like what we’d been having the past two days. There was hardly anything in the vehicles we passed, and there were barely any buildings within walking distance of the highway.

“Delilah,” I said as I finished the check and stood, “help me search this place.”

“Yep,” she replied, getting up as well.

“I’ll make sure our stuff doesn’t burn,” Megan said.

“Thank you.”

We got to it, each of us starting at the same place but then heading in opposite directions. Both Delilah and myself had a good eye for hidden caches or out-of-the-way supplies, though she was better at it than I was. We’d settled on basically each of us doing a complete search simultaneously, but from opposite sides. Like starting at the bottom of a circle and working your way along one side while your friend worked their way along the other, eventually you’d pass over each other, keep going, and meet back where you started, and you’d get to cover half of the other person’s work. It wasn’t entirely perfect, but I think it was the most efficient use of time.

This search didn’t last long, as the house wasn’t very big. We used what light was remaining and, when we had to, our lighters to hunt around. I was still holding out hope for a flashlight at some point, or one of those electric lanterns.

As I suspected, the house was well-positioned to be visited by damn near anyone traveling along the highway. Although we hadn’t seen a single soul so far, it had been two years now, and the place was almost picked clean. Again, I wondered if someone had lived here through it all and finally up and left at some point, locking it behind them relatively recently, but it was just one of those things I was never going to actually know.

We managed to find some clothes that would be decent trading, a sewing kit to add to the one we already had, and a lonely can of shredded beef.

Delilah and I rejoined Megan by the fireplace and ate dinner.

“So, threesome tonight?” I asked. “The bed looked big and in good condition.”

“Yes,” Delilah replied immediately. She was always down for a threesome.

Megan laughed softly. “You two are always so fucking horny.”

“And you aren’t?” I replied.

“No, I am, I just am better about not giving into it all the fucking time.”

“You don’t really have to not give in now,” Delilah said. “I know what you mean, honestly. But we all trust each other, we’ve all fucked each other, it’s safe. Why not just fuck all the time?”

“No argument from me,” I said.

Megan rolled her eyes, but then shrugged. “Yeah, I mean, I don’t really have a good argument myself. I don’t even want to argue. It’s just...leftovers, I guess. Society’s bullshit about how bad you should feel if you sleep around or frequently.” She grinned suddenly and looked at me. “Would it be a problem if we got drunk?”

“No,” I replied, interested that she was bothering to ask. I think by now Megan had, to a certain degree, deferred to me as leader of the group. The question struck me more as one of practicality than of permission.

She wanted to know if I had a good reason for her not to get shitfaced.

I didn’t, honestly.

Plus, I’d learned she was a lot sluttier when she was drunk.

“Good,” she said, and began digging in her pack.

THREE

Dinner was good, and watching Megan and Delilah relax, actually relax, as they started drinking from the bottle of wine, was nice.

Not just because I’d noticed that women, especially these two women, tended to get wilder when drunk, but because it was good to see them happy.

There were way fewer reasons to be happy nowadays.

I didn’t drink myself. Didn’t like the taste and didn’t much care for the feeling of being drunk. But I did take to being stoned, and we had a pair hand-rolled blunts leftover from my last adventure. I was tempted to light one up and take a few puffs, but I didn’t. Right now, I didn’t have enough of a reason to, and I was certain that at some point in the future, I’d have more of a reason to, and it’d be better to have more then than less. Be it a bad mood, wicked nightmares, pain, or anxiety, I had learned to ration that shit.

I was lucky to even have the weed.

While we waited for our meal to digest, I washed the pot out and then packed it with snow gathered from outside the back door and set it to boil by the fireplace. Then I got behind Megan and began massaging her shoulders.

“Oh my fucking God,” she moaned as I worked my thumbs into her shoulders and back. “That’s just...ah...holy shit. Fuck, you have really strong hands.”

“I do,” I agreed.

“Why are you doing this?” she murmured, hanging her head, losing herself in it.

“I like you,” I replied.

She laughed softly. “That’s enough, huh?”

“It’s not like I’m trying to get into your pants. You already let me in.”

She laughed again. “Yeah.”

My relationship with Megan was...interesting. Delilah had been happy enough to offer up her body in exchange for protection. Not exactly an uncommon deal nowadays for me. And given that I had a sweet little implant in my cock that was basically perfect protection from pregnancy, and STDs for the most part, I all too happy to sleep with any woman who came my way. Honestly, so far, I don’t think I’d turned anyone down.

Even though, in one or two cases...I really should’ve.

But with Megan, it was different. She had been absolutely adamant that we were getting into bed as equals, not as part of a deal, and that she wasn’t submitting to me somehow. Which was fine, and I could even understand it. I wondered how many guys had tried to turn any relationship into a power play with her. Women with tough personalities tended to bring that out, often in the worst way, in a lot of dudes.

I was glad I wasn’t one of them.

But once we’d actually had sex, and our relationship dynamic, inasmuch as we had one, had been established, she was so much more comfortable around me. Although I think sometimes she was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I didn’t intend to fuck her over at all, but for people with trust issues, there was honestly no way to meaningfully convey that.

I massaged Megan’s back for another five minutes, then switched over to Delilah, who made a lot of happy sounds as I worked her back as well. She was already completely topless, freeing her wonderfully big, pale tits and baring them to the fireplace. Her skin was soft and smooth against my hands as I massaged her, and I took a great satisfaction in the sounds and shudders I elicited from her as I worked.

Megan took another deep drink from the bottle and then held it up and squinted at it. It was about halfway gone now. Besides this, all we had for booze was a similarly sized bottle of vodka. “All right, good enough,” she said, passing it to Delilah and then standing. She shifted and staggered, reaching out and putting a hand on the mantle of the fireplace to steady herself. Giggling softly, she began taking her clothes off.

“Yeah,” Delilah agreed after a drink of her own, “good enough.”

She gave the bottle to me and I corked it while she stood and finished undressing too. I replaced the bottle and stripped of my own clothes. We’d ended up dragging the mattress off the queen size bed in the master bedroom out here into the living room where the fireplace was. It was better for a number of reasons, but honestly I really liked being able to see these two women as I fucked them and they fucked each other.

I studied them in the flickering firelight as their clothes came off. They were beautiful, wonderfully beautiful, and I was glad they had gotten more comfortable around me and each other. Delilah was more towards the petite side, a slim, pale beauty of a woman with a somewhat disproportionately sized rack. She was less than five and a half feet tall and I’d be surprised if she was more than a hundred and ten or fifteen pounds, but she was sporting some beautiful double-ds. She’d lucked out there. Megan had naturally tan skin and was taller, with more muscle on her frame, which was not just bigger but broader. Not by a lot, but enough to notice.

She wasn’t just tough in personality. Although I was a lot taller and heavier than her, I bet if she put her mind to it, she could fucking knock me silly.

As soon as I got my clothes off, I snagged one of the washrags and bars of soap. We were each lucky enough to have a set. Then I grabbed one of the bottles I’d set to warm by the fire, unscrewed it, and got to work washing up. Cleanliness was one of my guilty pleasures that I had allowed to follow me out of my old life. It wasn’t always possible, but I went to lengths farther than the average person, I thought, to obtain some way of cleaning myself every day.

Especially if I was going have sex with someone.

I was glad that Megan and Delilah were cool with doing the same. I mean, if I was going to eat pussy, it would be nice if they’d at least try to wash up. Although I had noticed that Megan was almost exclusively going to Delilah for oral recently. Not that I blamed her. She was quite good and enthusiastic with her mouth.

The atmosphere went from comfortable and content to excited and erotic and aroused as we all washed, and I saw both of them doing the same thing I was: sneaking glances as the others’ naked bodies. There was a really exciting thrill to seeing someone you were turned on by completely naked, especially knowing that sex was soon to follow.

Both of them had let me do pretty much whatever I wanted to them and I was so fucking glad that I got to creampie them.

Orgasming into a hot woman with absolute no protection between the two of you might have been the best pleasure life had to offer.

Or to offer me at least.

As soon as we were finished washing and then drying, I picked Delilah up and tossed her onto the mattress. She let out a delighted shriek as she flew through the air and then landed, and then I turned, embraced Megan, and began making out with her while also leading her to join Delilah. She kissed me back, tongue already creeping into my mouth as we moved, and when we hit the mattress she tripped and did an awkward sprawl onto it, pulling me down with her. And then she was pushing me onto my back, still kissing me, running her hands over my body as I did the same to her. Touching her was a study in pure arousal.

Delilah didn’t let us have each other for long, pushing herself up against me and reaching down between us, gripping my cock and beginning to massage it while also kissing the side of Megan’s neck. Megan stopped kissing me, turned, and began kissing Delilah full on the mouth. She’d been a little shy at first when the redhead had come onto her, but that was long gone. She was as into and comfortable around Delilah as I was, and fuck if they didn’t just make one of the hottest pair of ladies I’d ever had the pleasure of seeing.

They both made out right in front of me, tongue kissing and groping as Delilah continued massaging my cock with her soft, hot hand. I ran my own hand over Delilah’s breasts, practically addled with lust at this point. Groping her sent pulses of total, uncut desire racing through my whole body. She was so soft and smooth and hot. Having sex with Delilah was honestly like what I imagined fucking a porn star would be like.

The women came apart and then Delilah spent a little while kissing me. Megan watched, sitting up on top of me, smiling a drunk little smile. While Delilah kissed me I resumed groping Megan, first her wonderful, firm breasts, then down her sides and around to her well-formed, tanned ass. We kept that up for a little bit until I wanted something more.

“Why don’t you two put your mouths to good use?” I asked.

“Yes, sir,” Delilah replied immediately. That girl was always eager to please.

Megan, on the other hand, crossed her arms, pursed her lips, and stared at me. I stared back at her. The only reason I pushed her like this was because I was pretty sure by now that she liked to be pushed...just a little. Not too much, but some.

“You’re lucky I like you as much as I do,” she said finally, and got off me, joining Delilah in laying down closer to my cock.

“Yes, I am,” I agreed with a grin.

She sighed as Delilah reached out and gripped my dick, encircling my rigid shaft with her slim, hot fingers. “Don’t get cocky.”

“Was that a joke?” I asked.

She paused. “Honestly no, but...whatever. Just shut up and enjoy yourself.”

And then both of them had their tongues out and were licking my cock like an ice cream cone. I groaned loudly and let my head fall back on the pillow, momentarily paralyzed by the overwhelming wave of hot bliss that hit me from having two women go to town on my most sensitive area with their wonderful mouths.

They licked and licked, dragging their tongues over my head, occasionally pulling them up the shaft or focusing on that spot just below the bottom of the head that was super fucking sensitive. And then Delilah put her lips right on that spot and started moving them around, using her tongue, and I let out another loud groan.

“Aw fuck, that’s it ladies…” I groaned, raising my head again and watching them work. That, honestly, was half the fun. The intense thrill of watching two women, completely naked, dragging their tongues all over my dick.

Then Delilah took it into her mouth and started sucking me off, moving her head smoothly up and down.

“I want my turn after this,” Megan murmured.

“Mmm-hmm,” Delilah replied. I honestly thought that woman got off on doing oral. Which, you know, was fucking awesome for us.

White hot, rapturous ecstasy really began to consume me as she sucked my dick, putting those lips to amazing use. She bobbed her head smoothly, encircling the base of my shaft now with a thumb and two fingers to hold it smoothly in place. She looked marvelously sexy and erotic as she worked, and when she gave my cock up to Megan, who started sucking me off too, Delilah leaned down and began licking my balls.

“Holy fucking shit, this is good,” I panted.

They kept going, passing it back and forth between them, until Megan grew too restless.

“Okay, my turn,” she said, gripping Delilah’s hair by the roots and pulling her head up. Damn, I wonder what they’ve been getting up to when I wasn’t around.

“Yes, mistress,” Delilah replied, almost gasping the words.

“Up,” Megan said to me.

I laughed softly and got up. Fair enough. She took my place and spread her wonderful legs, and Delilah got down in between them and dove right into eating her pussy. Megan let out a loud, long, wonderful moan of bliss as our little redheaded fucktoy got back to work. I looked at the two women and they really seemed like something out of a porn. My eyes fell onto Delilah’s ass. It had a nice bit of padding that I always appreciated, accentuated by her trim frame, and I quickly shifted into position over her.

She was lying flat, which was fine by me, because I slipped my cock in between those smooth thighs of her, right into her wet, pink pussy.

Delilah let out a muffled shriek of pleasure as I penetrated her, and I groaned loudly, joining Megan in unleashing the building pleasure verbally. I pushed deeper and deeper into Delilah, finding her fantastically tight and oh so fucking hot and wet. She was such a wet girl and I fell back in love with her pussy each and every time I got back inside of it. Probably the thing I really liked about her was she could take a fucking pounding, which I took a sort of primal satisfaction in doing. I started stroking into her and she yelled and moaned.

“That’s it you little bitch,” I growled at her, holding myself up and looking down in between us at her sweet ass while watching my cock disappear into her over and over again. “You fucking take it, you dumb fucking slut.”

She moaned loudly and I knew she was rushing headlong towards an orgasm. Another thing I loved about her: how fucking easy it was to make her come.

“That’s right you little redheaded whore,” Megan growled, grabbing her head and forcing her face deeper into her crotch, “eat me, you little bitch. Make me come. Make me come you stupid fucking whore!” she yelled and slapped the back of her head.

I started groaning as I felt Delilah’s pussy begin going crazy. She let out a wild shriek and her whole body bucked as she started to orgasm. The pleasure of pounding the fuck out of her squirting pussy was even better and it was hard not to bust.

Actually, it was too fucking hard and I fucked up and started coming.

“Ah fuck, Delilah!” I yelled as my own climax burst into existence and I started shooting my load into her.

Holy shit was I glad I had that birth control implant, because I would fucking suck at pulling out. Mainly because it felt so much better and more satisfying not to pull out at all and just fill a woman up with a huge load.

I became totally lost as I shoved myself deeper into her, my hips jerking forward with each pulse of ecstasy that exploded out of me and into me. I pumped that sweet vagina full of my seed as she squirted all over my dick and it was hedonistic heaven.

When I was done, I pulled out of her and let her finish up with Megan, who started her own orgasm almost as soon as we were done with ours. I watched her twist and squirm and scream as she came, both hands on Delilah’s head, her legs spread out wide. And I found that I wasn’t winding down from my orgasm as I watched her come, using Delilah to get off, I was winding back up. I was still fucking hard and ready to go.

Thank fucking God, because I wanted into Megan’s pussy so bad right then.

As soon as she let go and went slack, I smacked Delilah’s pale ass. “Move it.”

“Yes, sir,” she murmured tiredly, and shifted out of the way.

I immediately climbed on top of Megan and looped my arms under her legs, lifting them up. “Oh fuck,” she said, opening her eyes back up.

“Put it in,” I said, staring down at her.

She stared up at me and a renewed intensity came back into her eyes, onto her face, and she gripped my cock and put it into herself.

We both groaned as I brought her legs up and pushed my way into her.

“Oh yeah!” she cried as I began humping her, slipping into her again and again. “Oh fuck, Chris! Oh yes! FUCK THAT PUSSY!” she screamed wildly.

I held her legs up and fucked her brains out, absolutely losing myself in the rhythmic motions of our raw, furious fucking. She started screaming at me, demanding that I go harder, faster, and I did, pounding her into the fucking mattress. I yelled back at her, for a few moments actually lost in a delirious haze of sex and something a little like rage, like we were competing with each other, she was seeing how much she I could give and I was seeing how much she could take and I heard things getting knocked off the table nearby and the bookshelf knocking up against the wall and then, suddenly, we were coming again.

The orgasm seemed to last longer this time, and hit harder.

And when I was done, I pulled out of her and rolled off of her, laying next to her, both of us slicked with sweat and getting our breaths back. I floated in an ocean of post-orgasmic bliss for several moments.

“You’re so lucky,” Megan muttered after a moment.

“Yeah?” I replied.

“Yeah. You don’t got to clean a huge fucking load of cum out of you. And I let you do it.” She sat up and looked down at herself. “How the fuck did you have so much left!? You did come in Delilah, right?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“Fuck!”

“I don’t know, it just happens,” I replied, then yawned. “I need to sleep.”

“We all do,” she murmured.

“Drink some water, both of you, before you go to sleep. And if you wake up, keep drinking it,” I said as both of them went back over to the fireplace and began to wash up again.

“Yeah, yeah,” Megan muttered.

“I’m just trying to watch out for you. It’ll help with potential hangovers.”

She paused, then glanced back at me with tired eyes, looking a little guilty. It was harder for her to hide her emotions when she was drunk. “I know...I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” I said.

She paused again. “Thanks...for watching out for me. For us. It’s nice...not enough people are willing to do it.”

“Thanks for watching out for me, too,” I replied, surprised by the display. Normally it was like pulling teeth to get something like this out of her. She must be more drunk than I thought. Or maybe just more tired.

She finally nodded and went back to cleaning up.

I made myself get up and pulled on my boxers, then took one more walk around the house, checking out all the windows just to try and see if I could see anything. But there was no moon or stars out tonight, and it was pretty much pitch black out there. It felt a little like how I imagine it must feel to be in a submarine, staring out into the deep ocean, or in space maybe, minus the stars. With that done, I went back and took the time to pour the water that had boiled and then cooled into the bottles we’d partially drained to wash ourselves, and the leftover now purified water into our thermoses. It wasn’t enough to totally refill them, but that was fine, I’d make more tomorrow. I then arranged the washrags to dry after cleaning them a bit, threw a few more logs onto the fire and spent a moment rearranging it, then crawled into bed.

I got in between the two ladies, and Megan tugged at me tiredly, so I spooned her tonight, putting an arm over her nude body beneath the blankets.

She settled into my grasp and I was asleep within minutes.

FOUR

I woke up freezing.

Something was wrong.

I tried to sit up but I couldn’t move. Fear pulsed through me and I looked around. Where the fuck was I? It was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I was on a bed, some shitty narrow bed in a room of boarded-over windows and peeling wallpaper.

I was tied down.

Suddenly, I heard heavy boots hitting a wooden floor. Coming closer. The fear grew. I could see my breath on the air and I was fucking freezing. It was so bad I was shivering violently. I looked down the length of my own body, finding myself in nothing but boxers, and saw an open door. Abruptly, I realized where I was.

The room I’d killed Tanner in.

How the fuck could I be here? What the fuck was going on?

Where was my shit? Where were Megan and Delilah?

Suddenly, the man himself walked in. He was smoking a cigarette, and as he turned to face me, I jerked in surprise and terror as I saw a bullet hole in his forehead. It was an ugly, hideous wound and blood had leaked all down his face. He looked like something out of a horror movie or one of those old-school wrestlers who’d gotten their foreheads busted open during a match. The blood, though, was dried and old.

“You did me a favor, man,” he said, his voice just as dry, hardly a whisper. “So I’m gonna do you the same favor.”

His other hand came up holding a pistol and he walked slowly over to me.

I tried to say something but my throat was locked up. I couldn’t fucking move, even though I could feel myself shaking violently from the cold.

“Don’t worry man, being dead isn’t so bad.” He put the frozen barrel against my forehead. I felt it. Felt the frigid circlet of metal. “Trust me.”

He pulled the trigger.

~

“Fuck!”

I jerked awake and heard two shouts of surprise.

“What?!” Megan demanded from somewhere nearby.

I was fucking freezing and I could still hear the echo of the gunshot, shit, I could still feel the pistol against my forehead, as I slowly forced myself up into a sitting position.

“Chris...what the fuck? Are you okay?” Megan asked.

“What the hell?” I groaned, looking around.

Somehow I’d ended up not only out from beneath the blankets, but I’d gotten myself off the fucking bed and onto the cold wooden floor. I felt stiff and frozen to the bone.

“Oh shit, what happened?” Delilah groaned.

“Are you okay?” Megan repeated.

I looked around slowly. My brain was having trouble catching up. I saw the chair in front of the door, still in place. Saw orange-tinted sunlight, dim, coming in through the windows. I saw the fire, down to embers but not yet totally out.

I saw Megan and Delilah sitting up in the bed to my left, looking at me with concern.

“Yeah,” I managed and shivered.

“Chris, get over here, now,” Megan said, getting up. “Delilah, help him.” She began moving over to the fireplace and restarting the fire.

“Come here, Chris,” Delilah said, getting closer to me.

I gritted my teeth, making myself crawl back onto the bed. Shit, how long had I been laying on the floor? Probably not that long, I thought, or hoped. I experimentally moved my toes, my fingers as I got under the blankets. They moved, so that was good.

“Oh my God, you’re freezing!” Delilah gasped as she touched me.

“Sorry,” I managed, shivering.

“It’s okay. Here, closer to the fire, come on,” she replied.

I ended up laying in front of the fire that Megan got restarted, with three blankets on top of me. I felt like shit.

“I was having a nightmare,” I said after a bit.

“What about?” Megan murmured.

I hesitated, probably long enough for them to realize it was a lie. “I can’t remember.”

Neither said anything, though Megan paused in her activities long enough that I knew she was considering pressing me for the truth. But she kept going. I watched her work, the heat slowly, painfully bringing my body back online. I sat there and felt like a dumbass. Falling out of bed, for fuck’s sake.

How had I even managed that?

I guess it happened every now and then, although I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had some kind of major shift during sleep. I let it go after a bit, realizing I was focusing on the wrong thing. That nightmare had been bad. I’d had some bad ones since this apocalypse started, but I think everyone did unless they were a sociopath or enormously well-adjusted. And those dreams had been bad, especially in the beginning, but they’d mostly settled down. But this one…

Fuck, I don’t know. It wasn’t even so much what had been happening as…

I don’t know.

Just something about it, the emotions I was feeling.

After what felt like too long, I finally got warmed back up, and when I had, Delilah had me lay down on my back.

“What for? We should get going,” I said.

“I’m going to administer a dose of painkillers,” she said with a smile that told me she was about to make me come.

Well, that would definitely help with the pain, physical and emotional.

I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to get it up with my mood, but Delilah got it up. She climbed on top of me and rode me nice and easy, and I laid there and enjoyed every second of it. When I came, it hit hard and rolled like a hot, rejuvenating wave through me, pushing away the cold and the pain and the unease.

Delilah smiled down at me as I grabbed her hips and shot my load into her, becoming totally enraptured in the bath of bliss that was washing over me.

When I was finished, she stayed on top of me for a few moments as I went slack, waiting for my breath and pulse to calm back down.

“Better?” she asked.

“Better,” I murmured.

She lost her smile. “I’m sorry you had a nightmare. It must’ve been bad.”

“Yeah,” I replied. I could sense she was trying to draw me out a little, but I still wasn’t willing to give. Not yet. I still didn’t know what to make of all this.

She waited a little longer, then gently patted my chest and got up off of me. I laid there for a bit longer, since I knew we had some time. Megan had set snow to melt and then boil, and that took a little while. Even with the orgasm and the warmth, everything still felt sore and stiff and for about fifteen minutes I laid there and really, honestly considered just staying here for the day. I could do it and I doubted either of them would argue with me. Hell, they might actually be wanting to do that themselves. Moving around in the world was a bitch and a half now, even under ideal conditions. But I guess that was what got me going.

If we had good weather, I didn’t want to waste it, and I did want to help Delilah find her friend. It must be good to have a friend, a real friend, waiting for you somewhere.

Megan headed out, saying she’d check the area.

I took a moment to pull back the bandage over my forearm. Although it had been over a week since the wolf attack, hell, almost two weeks now, it still hadn’t fully healed. They had been deep bites, but I was glad to see that they were almost healed, and the scarring probably wouldn’t be too bad. Shit, I had several scars by now. I didn’t really care most of the time, but it was getting a little ridiculous. I was fucking twenty five and I had like a dozen prominent scars. And I knew it was only going to get worse as life went on.

“Does it still hurt?” Delilah asked.

I looked up. She was washing now, but was staring at the wounds on my arm. “They’re fine,” I replied, taking the opportunity to put a new bandage on after washing the wounds. It had been a couple of days since the last bandage change and honestly it was more paranoia and caution than anything else. I could get by without one now, but that was one of the rules for this new world.

Be cautious.

An infection could fucking kill you, and brutally, too.

I took a moment to do some stretching to help with my sore, stiff body, then washed, and by the time I was dried off and began dressing, Megan came back inside. “I don’t see anyone or anything out there,” she reported.

“Good,” I replied as I finished lacing up my boots nice and tight. I stood and popped a few joints. All in all, I felt better, and I’d feel better than that once I got breakfast in me. “Let’s eat.”

Breakfast was our remaining supply of canned tuna. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get us going. I still wasn’t too comfortable with the amount of food we had left. We needed to find something, and soon. Maybe five days had been an overestimation on my part…

I realized, abruptly, that the only reason I was casting the shadow of doubt over my previous assessment was because I’d had that bad nightmare and woken up in pain and in a shit mood. I felt a small urge to write in my journal, but I couldn’t come up with a reasonable enough reason to go lock myself in the bathroom or somewhere else private for enough time. I think they’d respect my privacy, probably, but I didn’t want to give them more questions than they already had. For whatever reason, I didn’t want anyone, not even Megan and Delilah, to know about my journal. So I pushed the urge down and promised myself I’d do it later.

While the other two finished packing up and preparing themselves for another long day of walking, I took the opportunity to step outside. The cold hit me but I was used to it by now. I took a look around. It was pretty out, the sun rising now, the skies holding a slightly orange tint with the early dawn. Hard to believe it was September. I mean, I thought it was. I was guessing, but I tried to keep track of the days even now. Months had largely lost their meaning. I guess the only division between the seasons now was the length of daylight.

I sighed softly as I looked around, taking the whole environment in while the others finished. It was beautiful out, in its own way. For most of my life, I had actually been one of those people who ‘stopped and smelled the roses’, figuratively speaking. Usually once a month, maybe twice, I’d just drive down to a park and sit and look at nature and animals. Squirrels and birds and whatever else was scurrying around. There was something about nature that always struck me in some true and powerful way. I suspect it had something to do with the fact that we, humans, had spent far, far more time living among nature than among dwellings.

I mean, even the oldest city, as we really understood them, was maybe ten thousand years old, if that? Whereas humans had been around for hundreds of thousands of years. I glanced at the sky. Shit, maybe. I mean, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about history. I could be wrong. But I had the impression that we lived as wandering nomads for way longer than we’d lived in cities, even small ones. So it tracked that we were far more accustomed to nature. Or fuck, maybe it’s just me and a handful of other people who think nature looks awesome.

But even now, even with everyone frozen and dead, it still looked nice in its own way.

Sometimes, anyway.

Sometimes I just fucking hated it. But today everything was oddly beautiful. The way the sun reflected off the snow-capped trees and orange-tinted skies and the way the ice clung to everything, making it look almost ethereal.

The effect was even more powerful at night.

Sometimes I regretted how tired I was by nightfall, that I crashed into a long, hard sleep more often than not, simply because I missed out on seeing the same landscape in the strange starlight. But during mornings like this, it was…

Almost magical.

The door opened behind me and Megan and Delilah emerged.

“We good?” Megan asked.

“Yeah, we’re good,” I replied. I hadn’t seen or sensed anyone or anything lurking around.

“Okay,” she said. She stepped up beside me, hesitated for a second, then kissed me on the cheek. It was an oddly kind thing to do, not that Megan lacked for kindness, but generally she seemed either guarded or, at best, neutral. Maybe preoccupied by her own thoughts.

“What was that for?” I asked, grinning despite myself.

“I like you,” she replied. It sounded like a cover answer, and I thought it was more maybe because she thought things were bothering me, wanted to help, but didn’t quite know how to. Honestly, I appreciated the gesture.

I kissed her back. “I like you, too.” I kissed Delilah, because I didn’t want either of them feeling left out, even a little. “And you.”

She grinned. “I really like both of you.”

Feeling a bit better, I started walking back towards the highway. They followed a few paces behind me. I’d traveled in groups before, and while I’m not one to talk myself up, more often than not it did seem like I was looked to as a de facto leader. I’d like to think it was because I kept a level head and could make half-decent decisions under pressure, but it was more just because I was big and looked scary, and unfortunately for a lot of humans that subconsciously signaled ‘authority’. Which is fucking dumb, but I wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity.

Especially if it made women more likely to fuck me.

Of course it also made men more likely to fight me.

But for pussy, eh...it was worth it, to be honest. Plus, I was actually half-decent at being a leader, so I liked to think I’d led a lot of people to safety who otherwise might not have gotten there. Like what I was doing now.

We got back onto the highway and it looked clear as clear could be. Back in the day, it seemed like people were coming and going a lot through my town. Eventually, that tapered off, but even when I got onto the road after over a year, it seemed like I’d run into people a lot more often. Now, not so much. I wasn’t sure why that was. Fewer people in general? That made sense, I guess. It wasn’t like we’d had time to repopulate. Maybe most people were just settled. Or maybe I was just in a really unpopulated part of the country now.

I glanced sidelong at Megan, then at Delilah.

Traveling with someone you were having sex with, but you weren’t actually like...together, was a weird experience. Or it could be, anyway. I don’t know if anyone but true sociopaths could truly separate sex from emotion. I didn’t do it, not completely. I didn’t want to, honestly. I liked emotions. I liked the feeling of being connected, of intimacy. Sex felt great, but sex with someone you connected with on an emotional level was a lot better.

Some people did it casually. Like Delilah. I think she was just a lovey type person. She connected with people quickly, or allowed herself to, anyway. Actually, that might be putting a bit more agency to her than she quite had. I think she just felt good about someone and attached to them. She was twenty two, after all. Not that I minded, but I could see how it would be easy to take advantage of her. Or shit, maybe I’m wrong, and I’m the dumbass and she’s just playing me. If so, still worked out for me. It wasn’t like I was falling in love with her.

With her pussy? Yes. But if we parted ways today, it would suck, to be sure, but I’d get over it. No disrespect to her, she was great, but you had to teach yourself how to move on, and quickly, if possible, nowadays. With murderers, freezing temperatures, and dangerous wildlife all over the place, it was hard enough staying alive, let alone mourning yet another lost lover.

Then there was Megan. She was the more curious of the two. Hardheaded, stubborn, angry. And yet, for whatever reason, she trusted me. I honestly didn’t know if it was going to go anywhere, she was unpredictable at best. For now, I figured I was an ally of convenience to her. She felt like she could trust me, I could help keep her alive, and I was a safe bet for a good lay. No risk of STDs, no risk of pregnancy, no risk I’d hurt her or try to make her do things she didn’t want to. Or, at the very least, in her eyes, an acceptably low risk.

I realized my mind was wandering a bit much and I should just be happy that I was in the situation I was in, and focus on staying that way.

Looking ahead, I saw nothing but clear highway, and the occasional car to investigate.

Here was hoping things were looking up.

FIVE

The next two days passed with relative ease, but things didn’t quite look up.

For me, at least.

I had nightmares both the following nights, and it was getting harder to keep up appearances of being in a good mood, or even neutral. And that was saying something, considering I had two really big reasons to be not just neutral, but in fucking ecstasy, in Megan and Delilah. We had good times both nights, but the nightmares still found me.

I got close to breaking out the weed, but hadn’t yet.

We spent the first night in an abandoned camper. Not ideal, but someone had already created a makeshift wood-burning stove with proper ventilation, so we made it work. The second night we found a little log cabin and put up there. Nothing noteworthy happened beyond the sex and the nightmares. We hadn’t found anymore food anywhere. Not in the cabin, not the camper, nor any of the cars we searched, nor the two houses we stopped to check along the way. I was honestly beginning to get worried about the situation.

By now, we’d eaten the rest of our wolf meat, as well as all the food that both Megan and Delilah were carrying. At this point, as we headed out today and got underway, I was currently holding the last of our food: six cans. Three of black beans, three of mixed vegetables. I had to admit that I thought the wolf meat would last longer, and I had also been banking on us finding fucking something so far. But that had been stupid of me.

We walked mostly in silence for the first part of that day, but when we came to the first real sign of civilization, I stopped.

“What is it?” Megan asked.

“I want to look around,” I replied, walking over to the left, up to the guard rail. There was another little section of land, not all that dissimilar from the one I’d met Delilah and Megan at. The sort of little place just off the highway. We were a little ways up and I could see about a half dozen buildings, all along a rough stretch of road that terminated in a rise of forested hill and what looked to be a cabin not far from a radio tower.

“What are you thinking?” Megan asked, coming to stand beside me.

“We need more food,” I replied, trying to discern what the buildings were.

The nearest one was clearly a gas station. There were three more stretched out down a little road beside it. One of them was definitely some kind of fast food place, but the other two could be anything. Snow had covered or faded their signage. The only other building that lay farther on down the main road, maybe halfway between here and the radio tower, was a house. It wasn’t a great prospect, I’m sure this had once been a well-traveled area, and these buildings were all within extremely easy reach of anyone walking down the highway.

But a lesson I had learned time and again was: you won’t know until you actually do it.

Kind of the same principle of asking someone out. You look at them and think ‘they’re fucking way outta my league’, but for all you know, they could be wishing you’d ask them out, or at least receptive to a date.

It was a slim chance, usually, but better than no chance.

And in this case, it made more sense to do it. Plus, there were woods in the area, which meant two possible things: game or some super food. Some of those genetically enhanced seeds they’d dumped via drones all over the place when it became obvious the snow wasn’t going away. I’d come across a lot of weird plants out in the middle of nowhere and some had saved me from starvation, but this area seemed annoyingly bare.

But, again, you never knew.

“We should stop here, search those buildings,” I said.

“I agreed,” Megan said. Then she hesitated and reached out, put her hand on my forearm. “Chris...I wanted to talk to you about something.” It was weird to see her so hesitant, but I was pretty sure I knew what this was about.

I waited, looking at her.

She steeled herself, straightening up a bit, and it was interesting seeing her face fight between being kind and worried, but also hardening in anticipation of something going wrong.

“Something’s wrong,” she said, “I know something’s bothering you. Something that happened back there and it’s really fucking with you and...I want to help. We want to help.”

I looked at Delilah, who was staring at me as well, nothing but empathy on her face, and I felt bad.

“Is it...are you still upset about us getting captured?” Megan asked.

I sighed and shook my head, looking back at her. “No, it’s not...that. I mean, yeah, I’m upset. I feel stupid and guilty about it, but that’s just...a natural reaction, I think. No, that’s not what’s bothering me. It’s…” I hesitated, thinking about it.

How could I explain it?

“I don’t know,” I said finally, a little exasperated. “Tanner and I, we...talked, in that room. Before I...killed him.”

“You were totally in the right-” Megan began, but I cut her off.

“No, no. It’s not-it isn’t that simple. It isn’t that I killed him. I mean, yeah, that fucks with me too, but I’ve had to kill people before.”

“What did he say to you?” Delilah murmured.

I was silent for a long time, trying to find the right words, and then heaved a sigh because I realized I still hadn’t even been able to articulate it to myself, let alone someone else. I shook my head again. “I don’t know. I’m not ready to talk about it. I haven’t...I haven’t figured it out yet. It’s fucking with me and I need to think some more.”

Megan nodded and gave me a hug suddenly. I hugged her back tightly, and then enjoyed another from Delilah.

“You told me earlier that sometimes, when you need a pick-me-up, you choose a location in the distance and go there,” Megan said, surprising me. “Why don’t we, after our search, go to that cabin by that radio tower on the hill?” she suggested.

“You remembered that?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she replied, half-defensive. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but it seemed rare people full-on remembered inconsequential stuff I’d told them, even from a few days ago. I’d mentioned it to her while we were recovering at Hazel’s after dealing with Tanner.

“Okay,” I said, because honestly, I just wanted to feel better, and I thought she was onto something. Plus, we might as well go there anyway. Getting there might not be difficult, exactly, but it looked like it might be enough of a pain in the ass that it’d keep at least some appreciable percentage of people away from it.

Meaning there might actually be stuff there.

We set off down the off-ramp and started making for the nearest building: the gas station. I figured, between Delilah and myself, if there was anything to find in these buildings, we’d find it. And there had better be food there.

I admittedly did feel better as we walked down that off-ramp. I imagined a lot of that had to do with the fact that Megan and Delilah had pushed. Being alone and relying on nobody but yourself certain had its appeals, but traveling with people had massive upsides, too. Knowing that people cared about you, and actually experiencing that care, was…

It was powerful.

I guess that was the old human brain at work, given we’d evolved to work together. I think that’s why civilization is even a thing. I did okay in civilization, I guess, but I think I did better on my own, usually with a few people. Maybe just one. I’d spent a lot of time traveling alone, but I’d also spent a lot of time traveling with just one woman.

Although I had to admit, traveling with two was better.

Or maybe it was just traveling with these two.

“Hey Chris, I was curious…” Delilah said.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Has your dick every gotten you in trouble?”

“Yeah, I want to hear about that if it has,” Megan said with a smirk.

I sighed. “I mean yeah, it has.” They both waited and stared at me. I sighed. “Just a couple of times. First time, I was maybe a month into living on the road. I stop at this little town in Georgia, find work as a woodcutter, live in a motel room. Next door is this couple. They’re always fighting, I can hear them arguing through the walls. But every time I run into the woman, she’s maybe thirty five, thirty six, and hot, too, she’s always hitting on me.”

“So you fucked her?” Megan asked.

“What’d she look like?” Delilah asked.

“She was like five five, pale, although most people were at that point, dirty blonde, brown eyes, kinda curvy. Excellent hips. That’s what I really remember about her is those fucking hips of hers. But, I mean, she was married. I could see the ring on her fucking finger. But she always kept hitting on me over the course of like two weeks and finally she shows up suddenly right after I get home from my job, and she tells me her and her husband had split, and she wanted some celebration sex, and she was super into me.”

“She was bullshitting, wasn’t she?” Megan asked.

I sighed. “Yeah. And I knew it. I could just tell she was lying. But I was thinking about leaving town anyway soon so...I fucked her.”

“You bad, bad boy,” Delilah murmured.

I felt myself reddening and I sighed again. “I mean, what can I say? Dude was an asshole. Always treating her like shit. They’d been together for like fifteen years or something. So, I mean, I said yeah.”

“And you fucking nailed her so hard, didn’t you?” Megan asked.

“I fucked the shit out of her,” I replied, then chuckled awkwardly.

“Details,” Delilah almost demanded.

“She pretty much jumped on me as soon as we got into my room and locked the door. She was fucking desperate, or pressed for time. We stripped fast and just fucking screwed. Did it missionary first and I pounded her so fucking hard I put a crack in the wall.”

“Seriously!?” Megan asked.

“Yeah, the headboard was heavy and kept banging into the wall and it was a shit wall anyway. It wasn’t a huge crack or anything, but God was she fucking horny. She must’ve come like three times during that first session. She let me go raw and I came so fucking much inside of her. It was amazing. Then we washed up and we fucked again, doggystyle, and I was pulling her hair and smacking her fat ass and grabbing those huge hips of hers...we came again and then we laid there for awhile. We were gonna go again and then we heard her husband coming back home to the next door room. She freaked out. And had reason to, because apparently he knew what was up. He kicked my fucking door in and there we are naked.”

“Holy shit,” Megan said, grinning broadly.

“Yeah, I’m glad you think this is fucking hilarious.”

“You were being a bad boy,” Delilah replied with a shrug, “you knew what you were doing.”

“To be fair, I thought there was a chance they had split. Anyway, he was fucking drunk. That’s what he’d been doing: drinking. She thought he’d be gone for longer, but he probably had suspected something like this and the paranoia might’ve finally gotten to him. I tried to tell him she’d told me they had broken up, but he wasn’t having any of it. I was so fucking lucky he hadn’t thought to grab a gun or a knife. Came at me with his fists.”

“What’d you do?”

“Cold-cocked him. Guy had a glass jaw. Which was good, because he was a pretty big dude. Knocked him out fucking cold, pulled on my clothes, grabbed my shit, and just left.”

“What about the dirty blonde?” Megan asked.

“I actually offered to take her with me. She almost went. Almost. But she stayed. She said she still loved him, and this had been fucking stupid, and she was almost sure he’d take her back. That it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened...for either of them. So I just, you know, walked away from that mess.”

“You are a fucking whore, you know that?” Megan asked.

“You fucking asked!” I replied, exasperated. “It’s not like I’m proud of it.”

“I get it,” Delilah said. “I mean fuck, you fucking wreck us like every fucking night and then again in the morning. You’ve got a wild fucking sexdrive. I imagine it makes it...hard to keep in control. Am I right?”

I heaved another sigh. “Yeah,” I admitted. “I’m better about it now. But after spending years of thinking I wasn’t very good with women to suddenly having a lot of women be into me...yeah, I wanted all the pussy that was offered.”

“Don’t know why you were having problems,” Megan muttered. “You’re tall, you’re big, you’re strong, you’re hot.”

“I am not hot,” I replied.

“Yes, you are,” she said, dismissing me.

“What, was that your first thought when you saw me? ‘Wow, he’s so hot!’”

“No! My first thought was ‘if this guy tries to make me blow him, I’m biting his fucking cock off, I don’t care if he kills me’,” she snapped.

“Fair enough.”

“But yes, even during our initial encounter where things were a lot more...unstable, I was frustrated with how attracted I was to you.”

“You are pretty hot,” Delilah murmured.

“Only now apparently,” I replied. “Would’ve been nice in high school.”

“High school is bullshit anyway,” Megan said, waving one hand. She snickered as we approached the gas station. “You home-wrecker.”

“You’ve never wrecked any homes?” I fired back.

“No,” she replied with an air of easy confidence. “I have not.”

“You sure about that? Or have you just never been made aware of the fact? I’m sure you’ve hooked up quick and easy before,” I replied. “It’s easy to hide that in some situations.”

“He’s right,” Delilah murmured.

Now Megan got to be annoyed. “Okay, fine. As far as I know, I’m not a home-wrecker. Happy?” she growled.

“Happy enough,” I replied with a shrug.

She punched my shoulder playfully and then regarded the gas station. “Do you think anyone’s in there?” she asked.

“Probably not, but let’s be careful,” I replied, pulling out my pistol.

We set to work. The gas station had big, obvious windows, most of which had been broken out, that gave a view on a stark interior. Already, I could see barren shelves and empty stands. Nonetheless, I made sure to do it the right way, nice and slow. I checked the exterior first...and hesitated. Couldn’t be sure, but I thought someone might’ve been around. With the way the snow blows, footprints can disappear quick even on a relatively clear day, but I thought I caught very faint imprints of boots in the snow around the back.

“Be careful,” I said as I came back around to the front and walked in through the front door. I had my pistol out but lowered, partially obscured. The lobby wasn’t too big, but it had two big shelves parallel to each other, creating a little aisle between them, facing towards me. There were places to hide, namely behind the counter and whatever else was back there.

“If anyone’s in here, I’m not looking for trouble!” I called, and waited, listening.

Nothing. I was reminded of the time I’d run into a beautiful woman named Mary in a gas station much like this. That time I’d been a lot more sure someone was inside, now I couldn’t tell one way or the other. I took a few steps in and then whispered Megan’s name while motioning gently with my free hand behind my back.

She joined me.

Without taking my eyes off the front counter, I nodded to the left, where the bathrooms were. “Check them. Carefully. I’ll check out the rest.”

“Yep,” she whispered, and headed off, her own pistol out.

Delilah, thankfully, took her cue and remained where she was, standing just inside of the store now, her little twenty-two in hand. I headed back, peering into the freezer area to the right to see if I could catch any movement through the frosted glass doors. Nothing. No food, either, from what I could see. Carefully, I moved up to the counter and then back around behind it. The little flat surface that would fold down or up, admitting or denying access, was folded up. Not conclusive, exactly, but certainly indicative.

I heard a loud creak and tried not to jump, turning back and looking. Megan was wincing, her hand on one of the bathroom doors. She peered in, gun first, scoping it out. Couldn’t be helped. Some shit just made noise.

But I sensed no shift, no change elsewhere in the gas station.

However, as I got a good look behind the counter, I saw something in the sunlight from one of the broken windows.

A puddle of melted snow in the shape a boot.

SIX

“Someone was here,” I said.

Behind me, I sensed Megan freezing up. They waited as I looked around. There were three doors back behind the counter. One clearly led to the freezer area, not sure about the others, but all three of them were opened, and the place looked disturbed. Like someone had been through recently, doing exactly what we were doing right now.

“I don’t think they’re here now,” I added finally. “Just wait there.”

I moved carefully to the first door, the one immediately to the right, that led to the area behind the freezers. Cautiously poking my head inside, I looked around, but could quickly tell no one was here. Though I saw more melting snow on the floor. With that out of the way, I moved over to the next door and waited there for a moment, listening for any telltales of someone hiding away. But I heard nothing. No subtle shifts or movements, no breathing, nothing. I looked inside, gun ready. What I found was a little office where the owner or whoever happened to be manning the station would take breaks in. Just a desk, a swivel chair, some filing cabinets, some shelves, some boxes knocked over and obviously rifled through.

No place to hide.

I moved on to the final door and looked inside. Here was a storage area that had also obviously been cleared out, and I relaxed.

“We’re clear,” I said, putting my gun away.

“So what do we do?” Delilah asked uncertainly.

I moved over to the window behind the counter, on the west side of the store, and looked through it at the way yet gone. I saw the road continuing off to the west, away from the highway, and the hill with the radio tower. The next building was close, a bit farther up north along another road, one I hadn’t been able to determine what it was. I tried to put myself in the shoes of whoever had been here, but it was hard, given I knew so little about them.

They’d searched the place and then moved on. We hadn’t seen anyone on the highway, and we would’ve for sure. It was a clear day out and a straight patch of road. So they were probably still somewhere in the area. Where could they have gone? I guess it depended on where they’d initially come from. After a moment, I decided the only thing that made sense was to assume they were in one of the other buildings in the area, and to be careful.

I said as much to the others.

“You think they’re hostile?” Megan asked, her voice low.

I sighed and shrugged. “Impossible to tell. They’re alone, I’m pretty sure about that. Or, well, they were alone here. Best guess? It’s a traveler or salvager or trader who saw some buildings to investigate and has investigated them, or is still. Just keep an eye out and don’t do anything stupid. I don’t want to get into a shootout if I can avoid it.”

They both nodded. We were in agreement there.

“Megan, you got lookout. Delilah and I will search this place, although I don’t think we’re going to find much. The place has been tossed to hell and back.”

“I’m on it,” Megan replied, taking up position at the front door.

The back door had been in the manager’s office and it was shut, but I made a mental note of it. In fact, I went back and checked that it was locked. Once I was sure, I set to work with Delilah in searching the place.

I tried not to rush, but now that I knew someone was (potentially) in the area, I wanted to get to the part where we ran into them. Either it was going to be violent or it wasn’t.

Or, hey, maybe I’d get lucky and it was a hot chick down to fuck.

That was always nice.

I poked around, looking in all the likely places. Getting out my lighter, I crouched down and began probing the depths of the shelf space under the front counter. I found a lot of dust, some trash, some mouse droppings. Wonderful. After a long five minutes, I sighed softly and finished my search with a grand total of nothing. From there, I moved on to the back office, which showed the most promise. Delilah was in the bathrooms, hunting as I was. I pulled open the drawers and then took them out, looking for anything at all, but they were dead empty. This lent credence to the theory that this place was bone dry.

My mind wandered as I searched, thinking of stuff I would do with Megan and Delilah the next chance I got. The way they looked naked. The way they looked eating pussy. How they sounded when they were coming. But also how comfortable they were around me. Delilah didn’t surprise me. Almost from the beginning I could tell she was a sexual woman, though I had the notion that I was the first person in awhile she’d felt full-on comfortable being outright sexual with. But with Megan...well, I had learned that with some people it was a throw of the dice how exactly they would react after you’d fucked.

Sometimes they freaked out for one reason or another. I’d woken up to find women just gone. I always freaked when that happened, because I was worried they’d robbed me, but so far that had yet to actually be the case. No, they’d just panicked, maybe. Or maybe they thought I’d be weird or controlling or an asshole or something and they’d just wanted sex but nothing else, so they left. It often sucked, waking up alone. Sometimes, though, they stuck around and things got weird, and not in a good way. They’d start picking fights with me or suddenly acting like we were a super close couple after a one-night stand. Sometimes they’d tried to use me to beat up exes or to rob people or some other fucked up shit.

It was hard to trust people, it’s why I liked to keep things simple.

I was glad things had turned out the way they had with Megan. So far, anyway. I had to keep reminding myself that shit could turn sour quickly, even if I didn’t think it would. People were more likely to throw in their lot with yours pretty fast nowadays, but inversely, they were just as likely to abruptly decide you weren’t working out anymore. And it wasn’t even necessarily their fault. Maybe they had been feeling fine up until suddenly they didn’t.

Unfortunately, I was right again: the gas station was a bust.

Not a goddamn thing. Literally nothing but trash and dust left.

“You see anything?” I asked as Delilah and I rejoined Megan.

“Nothing,” Megan replied.

“Let’s move on then.”

We stepped back out into the brisk cold. I kept my eye out as we made the short walk across the snowbound parking lot to the next closest building that, the closer we got, the more convinced I was it had been abandoned. Sure enough, as we got around to the front and peered in through one of the plate glass windows, I saw a whole lot of nothing.

“Wonder what it was,” Delilah murmured, looking up at the blank spot where a sign had once hung over the main entrance.

“Probably a store of some kind that just couldn’t keep it up,” I replied, shading my eyes and leaning forward.

“Not at all like you,” Megan murmured in a surprisingly sexy voice.

I glanced at her. She was smiling at me and I felt a sharp tug of lust. She didn’t do it often, but when she wanted to, she was good at turning on the flirt.

“Stop distracting me,” I muttered as I walked over to the door and opened it up. I saw signs that our mystery guest had been here, too.

“It’s fun, though,” she replied demurely, following me closely.

I sighed. “I know. But we have to focus. Later.”

She stepped next to me and reached out, brushing a hand across my crotch. “If you say so,” she replied, then turned and moved back to the door, past Delilah as she walked in, to keep watch.

I looked at her for a moment, wondering if I had time to bend her over and fuck her slutty little brains out here in this abandoned shop, and shook my head. Delilah was smirking. No, we had to focus. Get the place searched, see if we were really alone or not, and then I could fuck the absolute shit out of both of them.

Especially Megan.

We pissed away about twenty minutes looking that place over, and at the end of it yet again had nothing to show for it, although I hadn’t really gotten my hopes up. I think it had been some kind of shop before it died, maybe a sex shop or adult video store. There were so many of those along highways. Honestly, I was surprised we hadn’t encountered one yet. I wanted some lube. Hazel hadn’t been willing to part with hers and I really wanted to fuck Megan and Delilah in the ass. Especially Megan, she had such a hot ass.

All that there really was in the store were the remains of a campsite. Someone had dragged in a big metal drum barrel from somewhere and used it to start a fire in one of the back rooms. There was a bit of wooden debris and ashes left scattered around the room, as well as some wrappers and other bits of trash strewn about.

That was it though.

We emerged back out into the sunlight and began marching across the street towards the place I’d pegged as a restaurant from the highway.

Judging from the sign, which I could see a bit more clearly now, it was a burger joint.

There were two vehicles in the lot in front of the restaurant, both with open doors and popped trunks. We kept the ball rolling, checking over the vehicles and finding they’d been picked as clean as dead bodies in a desert. The situation wasn’t much improved in the burger joint either. I found more evidence of our mysterious wanderer we were apparently following in the footsteps of. Almost all of the tables and chairs in the burger joint had been reduced to kindling since the end of the world, and I found an unpleasant surprise waiting for me in the back bathroom.

“Shit,” I muttered as I pushed open one of the two stall doors.

“Something wrong?” Megan asked.

“No. Just found a corpse. Old,” I replied.

“Oh.”

Well, probably old. Hard to tell with frozen bodies. I went about the ugly job of searching for supplies, though I could tell someone had done that already. He was middle-aged, maybe into his fifties when he’d died. He looked...tired. Not angry or scared or despairing. Just tired. I knew how he felt. Some days, I was nothing but tired, and it was willpower alone that forced me on. I wondered what his story had been.

Was he a local? The owner of the shop? Or just some guy who’d come wandering across the land? There were no obvious wounds on his body, so he’d probably just frozen to death. People didn’t realize how easy that was to do. I mean, a lot more of them did now probably. Nothing in any of his pockets, unfortunately.

I let him be and closed the door. I was eager to get a move on, but I kept hoping to find something among these buildings. Even if they’d been picked over for months and months at this point, there were often people coming and going. Sometimes people left stashes of stuff behind for one reason or another and, well, to be perfectly honest, I took them. Unless it was very obvious that whoever it was was still around and would come back for it soon. Because usually, it was next to impossible to tell if you were stealing or not.

I mean, I guess it was all stealing in some regard, but there was a world of difference between taking someone’s stash from next door or while they were out for the day, and taking the stash of someone who’d left it there and then died six months ago and hadn’t told anyone where it was. And I was a survivor.

I wasn’t into robbing people, but I wasn’t into just leaving stuff I could use.

“Maybe we should just head for the house,” Megan said uncertainly as we wrapped up our excursion to the burger joint and stepped back outside.

“No,” I replied almost immediately, “we need to be thorough.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I guess you’d know. Hope there’s something in this next one.”

I nodded in agreement and we walked down the rest of the way to the last building on this little side street: a general store. It made me think back to the one that hadn’t been too far from the little cabin I’d set up in when first meeting Delilah and Megan. Out of everything, I thought it had the most potential. Something in my gut said that if there was anything to find among these buildings, it would be in this one.

As we approached, I saw a few signs of the apocalypse that had come. There were usually signs wherever there were pockets of civilization that had obviously been abandoned for awhile. Someone had taped up a hand-printed sign in bold, black lettering that read NO MORE FOOD to the front window beside the main entrance. I’d seen a lot of places like this, gas stations with no gas, grocery stories with no groceries, gun shops with no ammo. And there’d been a lot of places looted, doors kicked in, windows smashed.

Shit, a lot of places had burned down because people were too crazy.

Like I’d say, those early days of the apocalypse were nuts.

We made our way inside, and again found some signs of melted snow and bootprints. Although now I had something of an idea of this person’s path: this was where they had started. The shape of the bootprint was almost totally lost in this building, the snow little more than a puddle. There was a good chance this was where they had started. Meaning they must have come out of the woods a little farther off to the north.

Again, we would’ve seen them on the highway, even from several miles off, given we’d had a clear, straight view up there.

Still wasn’t much to go off of, but given they were moving in a reverse course of the way we were, I still thought there was a decent chance they were waiting somewhere nearby. Which meant either that one house or the lone cabin up on the hill. Could be they’d moved on, but I figured there was a good chance they’d seen us by now. We were kind of hard to miss if you were looking. And no one had taken a potshot at us, so that was a good sign.

The general store was yet another sad sight: dusty, barren shelves and trash-strewn floors.

By now, we all knew the drill. Megan stood guard and Delilah began looking behind the counter while I walked deeper in and hunted around for anyone or anything that might be hiding. I checked a back bathroom, a manager’s office, and a storeroom, and found nothing worth mentioning. From there, I stayed in the back and began my search for supplies, intending to work my way forward. For a moment, I just stood there in the manager’s office and forced myself to do nothing at all. I just closed my eyes and relaxed.

I was going to rush this, I knew I was, because I was getting impatient and a little frustrated, and I was already kind of pissed and upset as it was.

But if I rushed it, I’d miss something. I could’ve missed something already. Less likely, now that Delilah was performing second sweeps, but still possible.

After taking several deep breaths and just waiting, just doing nothing, I opened my eyes again. I felt better. Calmer.

I was ready to work.

The office was a sad thing, like a lot of the places I’d come across in my travels. I don’t know what it was about places like this, but so many of them seemed rundown and miserable, even when they’d been functional. No wonder so many people had hated their fucking jobs back then. I started with the obvious places, putting those thoughts aside and narrowing my focus. I checked the desk drawers, pulling them open one by one, checking for false bottoms, then removing them and setting them aside after clearing each.

Nothing in the desk.

I looked up under the chair. Sometimes people taped shit to the bottoms of chairs. Checked up under the desk, too, at that. Still nothing. I’d once found a baggie of cocaine that way, and had made quite the good trade later on.

There was a filing cabinet, two of the drawers already open. I pulled them all open all the way, one after the other, checking, and then pulling them out as well. No joy there. There were wooden shelves, but they were barren. I moved them aside and crouched down. I laughed as I found something. A penny. A fucking penny.

With a soft sigh, I pocketed it. You never knew when something like a penny might come in useful. Impromptu screwdriver, tiebreaker implement, or hell, some people still just liked coins. There was a potted plant, long since dead, that I moved, hoping to find something hidden beneath the big pot. Nope, nothing there, either.

For a moment, I was stymied. I thought for sure there’d be something. Don’t know why. I looked around slowly, first down, then mid-level, then up.

Up.

I pursed my lips. One of the ceiling tiles was slightly misaligned. It was too high up to get to safely, even standing on the desk, but I’d seen something in the storeroom. Hurrying over to it, I snagged the small ladder and brought it back, set it in place, then climbed up it. I pushed up the tile and poked my head up, bringing the lighter with me. Not ideal, given I wasn’t sure how flammable whatever was up there in the roof might be, but I still didn’t have a flashlight. Taking a look around, I grinned.

“There you are, fucker,” I growled.

There was a little backpack up there, in the nearest corner, hidden among shadows. I reached out carefully, snagged it, and then made my way back down the ladder. Once I was safely down, I pocketed the lighter and unzipped the backpack. It was a simple model, something I might’ve worn to middle school, a faded green thing that had seen a lot of use. It was ripped in a few places, sewn up in others. I checked the outer pockets and found nothing, then began pulling out what was inside. It quickly became evident that it was someone’s emergency survival kit, and also that it had been stashed here for awhile.

There was a film of dust on the pack.

I pulled out a small box of matches, a box of purification tablets, a compass, a small first-aid kit with just the basics of bandages, a little roll of gauze, painkillers, antibiotics, burn cream, and a few other odds and ends, a twenty ounce bottle of water that was still sealed, a pocket knife, a change of thermal clothes and, last but not least, a hand-crank flashlight!

Shit, I’d been looking for one of these for forever now. I’d had one awhile ago, but I’d been forced to leave it behind when some assholes had driven me out of town. I packed it all back up and then stuffed the much smaller backpack into my own, since there was room at this point. No food, but it was a good find, at least.

I left the back office and continued along my search.

As I did, I heard the wind picking up, and by the time I’d finished up my search and reunited with Megan in the front, (passing Delilah on her way back to double-check my work), I realized that something was different.

Looking outside, it hit me.

It was darker.

A storm was coming.

SEVEN

“Found something,” I said as I came to stand next to Megan, who was frowning out through the plate glass at the front.

“Oh yeah?” she replied.

“Yeah. Some survival gear. No food, but a flashlight, some meds, a compass, good trading stuff if we run across anyone.”

“Good.” She was clearly distracted, and with good reason. A cloud cover had blown in, and it was gray and ominous. Even as we stood staring, light flakes of snow began falling from those skies, blowing in the harsh winds that gave me chills just hearing it. “Maybe we should think about getting to that house soon,” she said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Let’s finish our search here, then get a move on.”

“Okay.” She paused, frowning. “Hurry.”

I nodded and hopped to it, pulling out the flashlight and cranking it, then turning it on. The bright light that came out gave me a morale boost at least. But I understood her anxiety. No one wanted to be caught in a storm, and the house was probably our best bet as a place to bunk down for the duration if we had to.

We moved fast, and I didn’t manage to find anything in the ten minutes I gave myself to check over the front half of the general store, but by then, the winds and the snow were worse. I called for Delilah as I looked out the window and saw the snowfall was getting a lot heavier.

“Yeah, we should go!” Megan called.

Delilah emerged from the back rooms and joined me as we hurried up to the front door. Rejoining Megan, I looked unhappily outside. Visibility was cutting down. Shit. I should’ve headed out sooner. I quickly pulled my hat and gloves on, made sure everything was adjusted, and then threw the door open. “Come on, let’s move it!”

We set out.

Immediately, the roaring of the wind overcame everything else. I kept the layout of the immediate area firmly in my mind as we started moving down the side road, back towards the gas station. Theoretically, we should be there in ten minutes or less. I could still see the indentation of the street in the snow, so that was a good indicator. I glanced back to make sure Megan and Delilah were still following me.

This is why a rope would be handy, although this wasn’t yet a full-on blizzard. Visibility was still half-decent. I could just barely make out the gas station at the end of the street, so ideally, once we got there, we should be able to see the house itself. Even if we couldn’t, it was a simple procedure to get there. I thought back to all the miserable times I’d had to do this before. At least this time I had company.

There were a lot of times where I’d be outside and a blizzard would just kick up without much warning. The weather was all fucked to hell and back now, and that could happen with disturbing ease. And then you could die with disturbing ease.

I pushed on, putting one boot in front of the other, feeling my body heat rapidly diminishing. That was another problem with storms and blizzards. And yet another problem was that we were risking the hope that the house was actually a good place to stay. It might not be. There might be nothing to burn and a lot of broken windows. The look I’d gotten at it had given me an impression of it being intact, but I could be wrong, and I hadn’t seen the whole thing. But right now, it was our best option, so we were taking it.

The seconds seemed to drag on and the next however long it was passed like a fucking kidney stone as I marched on, glanced back every fifteen seconds to make sure no one had wandered off course, and just kept putting one fucking boot in front of the other. Certainly I’d been through worse than this, but something I’d noticed was that the shit happening to you right now tends to seem pretty bad in comparison to everything else.

Finally, we reached the end of the road.

Unfortunately, by then, the visibility had lessened, with snow coming down in sheets, blowing across the whole area.

“Fuck!” Megan shouted. “Where’s the fucking house?!”

“Just stay with me!” I shouted at both of them, making sure they were focused.

They each nodded and we pressed on. I’d gotten good with figuring distance in my head, making mental maps of the area and keeping myself oriented in them, and figuring out about how far I was traveling based on the lengths of my strides. So I aimed myself for the house, walking roughly diagonally across the street that broke west from the highway, and hoped for the best. The winds kicked harder as I walked, and it became more of a pain to keep on track. The snow covered everything and by now I was shivering violently.

We needed heat and shelter.

Now.

Again, pushing. Pushing harder. Keep going. Ignore the cold and the wind and the howling and the goddamn freezing. I found myself pissed that I’d waited for so long. If I’d just left right then, as soon as it started to snow, we could have been there by now. Goddamnit. And it wasn’t like I had anything to even show for that extra ten minutes.

Fuck, where was the other sidewalk?

Was there a sidewalk on this half of the street?

Where was the house?

I began to actually feel the icy tendrils of panic in my gut when, suddenly, the house seemed to appear to me out of the snow. I looked back again, suddenly terrified that I’d have lost Megan or Delilah, but they were still there, struggling along. I had to get them inside. I had to get myself inside, but I was responsible for their safety. Well, for Delilah’s, and I guess for Megan’s, even if she didn’t want to admit it.

The house wasn’t all that big, but it was a house, and the windows were intact I saw as I walked up to the front door. I pulled out my pistol as I approached it, knowing that my aim was going to be shit if I needed to shoot. With my other hand, I gripped the knob and twisted. It was locked. Fuck. I backed up and threw my shoulder against it. The door cracked inward, giving some, but not enough. I hit it again, harder, and that did it.

I stumbled inside, barely managing to catch myself, raising the pistol and-

“Don’t fucking move.”

My eyes and the pistol zeroed in on the voice instantly, despite the cold. I found myself standing in a sparse living room staring at a tall, pale woman wearing a white beanie, white coat, and dirty gray work pants.

She was holding a shotgun and it was leveled right at me.

“Wait,” I managed, though I didn’t lower my pistol.

“Why?” she replied.

“I don’t w-want trouble,” I said, forcing the words out. Fuck I was cold.

Her eyes cut briefly behind me, where she no doubt saw either Megan, Delilah, or both. Something seemed to soften in her hard green eyes and her stance relaxed.

“Fine,” she said, “lower your gun and I’ll do the same.”

I lowered my gun slowly and put it back in the holster. She must have figured she wouldn’t be able to kill all three of us fast enough with a shotgun, which meant she was almost certainly alone. Alone or with a non-combatant.

Or maybe she realized I was much less likely to be a threat since I had two women traveling with me and they didn’t look beaten or enslaved at a glance.

“Get in here and close the fucking door,” she said.

I stepped in and the others crowded in behind me. I closed the door as best I could, shoving it back in place and finally grabbing a nearby chair and pushing it up under the knob.

“Sorry about the door,” I said.

She sighed and shrugged. “I guess I’d’ve done the same in your position.”

“You alone?” I asked as I finished with the door. It wasn’t perfect, but it was roughly back in place and, like before, if someone wanted in they’d have to make a lot of noise doing it.

“Yes,” she replied after just a second-long pause. I could see how that was a potentially dangerous question.

“Mind if I confirm that?” I asked.

“Be my guest,” she replied, a little too quickly. “I only just got here myself.”

I realized she wanted some time alone with Megan and Delilah. It was possible she wanted to kill and rob us all, and figured two-on-one was easier, but I didn’t think so. I wasn’t getting ‘killer’ vibes from her, more ‘paranoid’ vibes. Which was totally understandable. And given I trusted Megan and Delilah to say good things about me out of earshot, I made sure to take my time checking out the rest of the house.

In truth, there wasn’t much to check out. Two bedrooms, one of them pretty small. A bathroom. A kitchen. That was it. I didn’t find anyone, and the place was decently secure. But like I said, I took my time, hearing only low muttering coming from the living room. I’ll admit to some apprehension, because I thought it might also be possible that this new woman was trying to turn Megan and Delilah against me.

I trusted them more than I’d trusted most of the people I had come across, but one of the problems with trust is that you can never truly know.

You can’t see inside a person’s head.

But I told myself I trusted my instincts, which meant I trusted Megan and Delilah, and so I eventually came back to the living room, thinking that it would seem off if I gave them too much time. “We’re clear,” I said.

The woman, who was blonde, I saw, as she had taken off her beanie, had visibly relaxed and had slung her shotgun over her shoulder.

“I’m Dana,” she said, walking up to me, stopping an arm’s length away, and offering her hand.

I shook it. “Chris.”

“Your girlfriends like you a lot,” she said with a small smirk.

I chuckled. “Well, I like them a lot, too. Though I’m not quite sure they’re my girlfriends.”

“Afraid of commitment?” she asked.

“Not really. I’m just not sure they’d be comfortable calling themselves that.”

Delilah shrugged. “Girlfriend. Fuck friend. Friend with benefits. Sex slave. Call me what you want,” she replied easily.

“I think that last one will get him shot,” Dana murmured. “It’s much too literal nowadays.”

“So I take it we’re cool?” I asked.

“Yes. On average, one man and one woman traveling together tend to be less dangerous. One man with two women even less dangerous. And one man who I can get away to ask the two women if they’re being held against their will or abused, and they give me convincingly honest answers in the negative mostly negates my suspicions. However, don’t let that give you the impression that my guard is down. I’ve killed before and I’ll do it again if I have to.”

“Understood,” I replied.

She stared at me for a moment, then smiled broadly and let out a little laugh. “Impressive. A lot of guys get all ‘I’m not going to be talked to like that, especially not by some blonde bitch’, when I say something like that. You must be the real deal.”

I shrugged. “That’s what I’ve been told.” I paused, studied her for a moment. Dana was a very striking woman. I’m not sure if the average guy would necessarily call her attractive, although she definitely was to me, but there was something pretty obvious about her. She was tall, actually just a bit taller than Megan, so I’d guess maybe five ten. Hard to tell from under her coat, but she looked a little filled out, and not from lots of food but from lots of exercise and a good frame to support it. I think it was her face that stood out the most.

It was a bit sharp and angular, with pronounced cheekbones. She was very pale, as was her blonde hair, which was cut short. She had a few scars on her face, one on her cheek, another on her forehead, another on her chin. And I realized her nose had been broken and reset at least once. Yeah, Dana struck me as an interesting, intense person.

“So, the question now is: where do we go from here?” I said finally.

“Well, obviously not out of this house,” Dana replied, glancing out the nearest window. “I doubt it’s going to let up for the next several hours. I’m a trader and I’ve got some good stuff, so if you three would be willing to play nice, I’m down to share this house and trade a few things until the storm passes.”

“Fine by me,” I replied, glancing at the others and raising my eyebrows in question.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Megan said.

“Yeah...any chance we could get some pleasure with our business?” Delilah asked. Megan shot a look of open surprise at her, and I felt about the same way.

“Wow, so you’re pretty bold,” Dana replied, sounding amused as she regarded Delilah. “Hmm.” She considered it. “So, the thing is, you two are gorgeous, actually, but I’m not into fucking girls. Looking at them naked or having sex? Yeah, definitely. Kissing and groping? Sometimes, when the mood strikes me. But nothing more. However…” She looked back at me, and I felt an erection immediately begin to stir as my lower belly boiled with dark excitement. She looked dead into my eyes as she continued speaking. “Your man, on the other hand, I am very into. He’s quite attractive, and, for obvious reasons, I’ve got a thing for kinda weird-looking guys.”

“He’s not weird-looking,” Megan said.

“I didn’t mean it as an insult. Common is overrated. I love it,” Dana replied.

“She’s right, I am kind of weird-looking. Mean-looking, not to put too fine a point on it,” I said, to which Megan just sighed a little.

“If you’re willing to share, I’d love to have sex with him, and I’d really love it if you watched. And I’d also very much love to watch the two of you taking turns fucking him,” Dana said. She never looked away from my eyes as she talked.

It was weird, and maybe rude that she was talking about me to other people while looking directly at me, but there was nothing but lust in me right now.

“I’m so down for that,” Delilah replied immediately.

Megan was silent for a few moments, then shrugged. “Yeah, okay. I gotta admit, I want to see you naked, and I can tell already Chris has fallen in lust with you.”

“Can you blame me?” I replied.

“No, not really,” Megan said.

I took a moment to clear my head. I always tried to. Sex made me stupid. I now had Megan, and (sorta) Delilah to help cover me if I was being stupid, but still, it was good to make the effort. “Okay, can we trade after we have sex? Because I’m not going to be able to focus, and I don’t want you taking advantage of the fact that I’d just want to get through the trading for sex.”

She laughed loudly. “You’re a bit smarter than I thought. Okay, fair enough. But…” She frowned, crossing her arms. “I’m out of condoms. I don’t suppose you have any?”

“I don’t,” I replied. “We don’t use them.”

“No surprise there, I guess.”

“Would it help put your mind at ease if I proved that I have a birth control implant in my cock?” I asked.

“Yes, actually,” she replied. “Honestly, I’d be willing to roll the dice just a little if that was the case. You look like you can really fuck.”

“Good God, can he ever,” Delilah said.

“Like I said, they really like you.” Dana walked forward and took my hand. Her skin was warm and soft. “Come along then, Chris. Let’s treat each other to some pleasure before our business.” She began leading me deeper into the house.

I looked at the others. Delilah was nothing but excited. Megan looked slightly apprehensive, but also aroused, so that was good.

Dana took me back to the master bedroom, which had a decent queen-size in it. We took a moment to get it ready while Megan and Delilah found some chairs and got settled. I set my pack off to one side of the room while Dana set hers off to the other, in clear view. I’d had encounters like this before and they were almost universally pleasant. Especially so if the woman was clearly competent and knew what she was doing, and not just in bed, either. Dana was obviously a survivor, well-versed in what it took to stay alive and navigate this awful new world. Maybe not even just navigate it, but thrive in it.

Not to be too cocky, but I saw a lot of myself in Dana.

I got out two bottles of water and my own bar of soap and washrag, and saw her doing the same. She thanked me for providing the water, then proceeded to strip down along with me. There was a quickness to our movements, and I was glad to see she was as excited about this whole thing as I was. I watched her clothes come off her body. Her boots were kicked off, her coat unzipped and tossed aside, then the tight sweater beneath that, and the t-shirt underneath that. Her pants came off, then the thermal underwear.

Stripped down to her bare essentials, I saw I was right about her body. She had a good build, and some nice muscle definition. She looked like she might have a real shot at taking me on in one-on-one combat, so I was interested to see how that translated to sex. I stripped down similarly, and then felt a fresh wave of longing and desire roll over me as her sports bra came off. Oh wow those were some awesome tits.

Really beautiful, firm, c-cups topped by wonderfully pink nipples.

“Oh my God, you are so hot naked,” Delilah murmured.

“Thank you, I’m sure you are, too,” Dana replied as her panties came off, revealing a pussy with a small, surprisingly well-maintained bush of blonde public hair.

Her socks stayed on, as did mine.

My boxers came off, and she smirked. “Okay, yeah. Nice,” she said.

I gripped my cock, which was rock-solid by now, and angled it up. “See the gold?”

“Yeah, I do. Okay, you got that gold mesh whatever. Yeah, I’ve heard of those. All right, we’re good,” she said.

“Awesome,” I replied, and quickly began to wash up.

“You’re eager, huh?” she asked. “Not getting enough from these two?”

“He’s getting plenty from us,” Megan replied with irritation that might have been real or mock, I honestly couldn’t tell.

“He’s just a whore,” Delilah added.

Dana laughed and I shrugged. “Guilty as charged.”

“Most of us are whores,” Dana said. “Sex feels good. Not too much feels good nowadays. If you can fuck, why not do it?”

“My point exactly,” I said as I washed up.

EIGHT

Within a few minutes we were on the bed, totally naked (save for our socks), and embracing.

There it was: that thrill of hooking up with a brand new woman. And I had to admit, it was, in a certain way, more powerful because we had just met. I had to remember to thank Delilah for so successfully managing to turn this sexual. I had intended to at least broach the topic, because Dana just had that vibe about her, but Delilah was something else.

I explored Dana’s very pale body with enthusiasm, first cupping one of her breasts for a moment as our lips met and our tongues began to dance together and I tasted her taste for the first time. She had a dark flavor that was just a little sweet. She moaned in obvious satisfaction and enjoyment as we touched, and I knew how she felt.

There was something they called ‘skin hunger’, which sounded like something out of a fucking horror movie, but it was basically just the need to be physically close to another human being. Not even sexual, just a hug, an embrace, being touched. It was practically a biological need. I’d gone without for long stretches of time, and the hit of pure satisfaction and pleasure that came from even just touching naked was almost an overdose at times.

I wondered how long it had been for Dana.

My hands slipped over her body, down her arm, appreciating the feel of her decently-developed bicep and tricep there, then lower, to the curve of her firm hip, back around to the smooth, nicely-padded perfection that was her ass.

This woman had a fit ass.

I thought she was about my age, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find her a decade or more older. Definitely not younger. She pushed herself against me as she started touching my dick, making out with me harder, more intensely. So, she wanted more.

Okay, I could take a hint.

I slipped my hand between her firm, fit thighs and found her clit. She let out a loud, almost startled moan as I began to rub it.

“Aw yeah! Right there! That is the fucking spot!” she moaned, laying on her back suddenly and opening her legs. “Oh wow, I’ve been...whew! Been a little bit!” she panted as I pleasured her. “I think I, um, I think...oh shit!” she screamed and jerked violently as an orgasm popped into existence. Okay, so it had been awhile.

Goddamn.

She came hard as I kissed her again and continued fingering her, rubbing her clit vigorously as she screamed into my mouth, grabbing me, holding me, kissing me. It was a heavenly experience, and as soon as she was done coming, I slipped my finger into her fantastically wet opening and started fucking her with it.

Something I’d learned: when a woman was coming, or on her way to coming, don’t change what you were doing unless she specifically told you to.

Wait until after.

“Oh fuck yeah!” she cried as I hit that oh so sensitive spot that I seemed pretty good at finding, and I kept on hitting it, kissing her furiously as she writhed and twisted. After another minute or so, she stopped me suddenly. “Do you eat pussy?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Oh fuck, please eat me. Eat me until I come and I’ll let you fucking bust inside of me as deep and as hard as you want,” she said.

“Deal,” I replied immediately.

I pulled my finger out of her and got down between her athletic thighs, then set right to work. I wanted to drain my nuts directly into this beautiful blonde.

I spread the taut lips of her pussy and dove right in, massaging her clit with the tip of it and getting her right back to moaning loudly and writhing around on the bed. Dana was certainly an enthusiastic lover. There were some women who were awkward and tried to be quiet or to keep from moving around too much and I always had to encourage them to let loose a little. I mean sometimes, yeah, it was polite to keep quiet, but not when we were in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to be able to just fucking cut loose.

Dana had no problem doing that, obviously.

I kept tonguing her clit, hoping that Megan and Delilah were enjoying the show. Well, I knew Delilah was.

Still wasn’t sure if this was making Megan jealous or angry.

I hoped not.

But my focus was too on Dana right now. I kept going, licking and licking, lavishing her in bliss, trying hard to get her off. I wanted inside of her bad, but I also wanted to give her another orgasm for its own sake.

Making women come was its own reward.

I got my wish maybe a minute later after stroking her clit with my tongue solidly, alternating between fast and slow.

She sucked in a deep breath and the scream that followed was crazy as she started coming hard. She orgasmed intensely, her thigh muscles tensing up, her whole body going rigid and then convulsing. She made a strange almost gagging sound as she came, somewhere deep in her throat, and a hot gush of clear sex juices came out of her as I sat back and watched the spectacle. Dana was the kind of girl that I knew I was really lucky to have met and convinced to fuck me. I mean, I felt that way about basically all of them, but I could tell she was something special.

Not to throw shade at Delilah or Megan.

Once she was done coming, panting, she looked up at me and said, “Get the fuck inside me right now, dammit.”

That was an order I could comply with immediately.

I got up in between those fit thighs and slipped my cock right into her. Holy shit, she was wet. And tight! Damn! I slid slowly into that pussy, settling my hands on her firm hips as I looked down and watched myself disappear into her.

The pleasure and the intensity of it was unreal.

“Oh yeah that’s so good…” she moaned as I penetrated her.

I looked up her smooth body, her stomach, her excellent rack, her seductive, almost dangerous-looking face, loving the way she opened her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut while grasping at the blankets to either side of her. Like she couldn’t contain the pleasure roaring through her. For the first minutes, she laid there and let me screw her, her legs opened wide, enjoying it as much as I was. Watching her tits bounce in sync with my thrusting was almost hypnotic. And then, after several minutes, she seemed to come more alive again.

“Come on,” she said, her eyes snapping open suddenly, “harder. More.”

“You asked for it,” I replied. I grabbed one of her legs and brought it up, folding her, and then started hammering away at her pussy harder and faster with the new angle this afforded me. She let out a loud yell of pleasure.

“Yeah! Right there! Fuck!” she shouted.

I pounded her brains out, feeling that hot, wet sheath of absolute pleasure enveloping my cock each time I thrust down into her. I could hear the bed squeaking and groaning as we fucked, feel us moving it with our actions. I was totally enraptured by her, by everything about her. She reached up and gripped my arms for a moment as we screwed furiously, and suddenly she squeezed. “Doggystyle!” she said at once.

Not wanting to pull out, I pushed her leg over and down until she was lying on her side. Immediately, she could tell what I was doing and worked with me. We got her rolled onto her stomach, my cock still inside of her, and then up we went so that she was on all fours and I was on my knees behind her, and as soon as I was in place I immediately started hitting it again. She let out a loud, shouting moan of pure ecstasy as I dicked her brains out, shoving my whole steel-hard cock into her tight, raw vagina.

“YES! YES! FUCK! YES! GODDAMNIT! RIGHT THERE! DON’T YOU FUCKING STOP!” she screamed at me at the top of her lungs.

I didn’t. I stepped it up, grabbing her firm hips and putting one foot up so that I had better leverage. Grabbing her tightly, I resumed hammering the absolute fuck out of her and she let out a loud shriek of bliss.

I’m not sure which one of us came first, but I think it was her.

Either way, it was a near thing.

She had another gusher of an orgasm, squirting all over my dick and balls and lower belly and inner thighs as I started shooting my load into her. I was transported to another realm, a place of total, clean, raw ecstasy. It was a place I didn’t get to visit too often, (though far more often over the past two years). It was the realm of absolute pleasure that was generated when I was shooting my load into the unprotected pussy of a woman I had never made love with before.

It was heaven, plain and simple.

I came hard into her, my whole body going rigid as I dug my fingertips into her hips, feeling her smooth, firm body. My seed pumped out of me and into her in hard contractions, my cock jerking and kicking and spasming, each twitch sending a shockwave of blinding pleasure rupturing through me. I groaned loudly, the whole world fading away as I hunched over her, losing myself utterly in the orgasm, in the way it felt to shoot my load directly into unprotected pussy. Certainly it was a trick, my body believing that its basic function of reproduction was being satisfied, but goddamn what a fucking trick it was.

Sometime later, I was finished, and came back to myself.

We were both panting and sweaty, and I looked down at my cock still inside of her, at the swell of her fit ass, the curve of her hips up to her narrowing waistline.

God but was she a beautiful fucking woman.

“Oh fuck,” she whispered, the first to break the silence. “Oh yeah, that was worth it.”

“Worth what?” I groaned as I pulled out of her.

She immediately got onto her back while grabbing a washcloth she’d set aside and began cleaning herself up. “Waiting. I’ve passed up the last three fucking morons who came my way. Two of them were actually hot, but they were so fucking stupid and full of themselves, so cocky with so much swagger, God it’s such a fucking turn-off.”

“Not to most women, apparently,” I replied.

“Fine, to women with a fucking brain,” she said, rolling her eyes. She looked down. “Are you fucking kidding me? How much did you fucking come?!” she asked.

Delilah laughed loudly. “A lot,” she said.

“Fuck me, that’s a lot,” Dana muttered as she kept cleaning up. “Well, whatever, still worth it.”

“My turn,” Delilah said as she got up and took off her shirt. As her bra came off, Dana looked over and let out a low whistle.

“Good God do you have nice tits,” she said.

“Thank you,” Delilah replied with a demure smile.

I started getting ready for another threesome, hoping I had the stamina.

~

Megan, Delilah, and I fucked.

Dana watched, and ended up masturbating to it, and that was fucking hot.

And then, after we were done with that, I got up and started a fire in the wood-burning stove in the kitchen, because apparently none of us had remembered to start a fire. Normally I’m not so careless, but, well…

Sex makes you stupid.

Once the fire was going and we were all cleaned up, the four of us sat around and spent some time negotiating.

“Consider yourselves lucky,” Dana said as she walked back into the bedroom and set down a suitcase. “I wasn’t going to show off my good stock, but that was some good sex and honestly, I’m getting nice vibes from you.”

“Thank you, we appreciate it,” I replied.

I noticed that she had a pistol on her hip now and I imagined she was a quick draw. But that was just the way things went and I didn’t begrudge it.

“What are you after?” she asked as she set down her suitcase, unzipped it, and opened it up.

“Food, mostly,” I replied. “We need food.”

“Well, lucky you. I found a stash of food at the gas station.”

“Fuck, I knew there was something there,” Delilah muttered.

“Bring me your packs,” I replied as I got my own and started digging.

I spent the next several minutes sorting through all of our gear. We didn’t exactly have a lot that I was willing to part with. Ultimately I decided there was nothing we should part with from the girls’ backpacks and just drew from my own.

I set down the water purification tablets I’d found, a random assortment of spare clothes that didn’t fit any of us quite well, the pocket knife I’d found earlier, a box of ten matches, a bottle containing five painkillers and five antibiotics, and, after some consideration, one of the hand-rolled blunts.

“Hmm…” Dana said after looking it over. She sighed, and it wasn’t a good one. “I’m not trying to be a bitch or anything, but this isn’t going to get a significant amount of food. Even with the sex. However...I did notice a few big bottles in your pack, Chris. What are they?”

I hesitated, glancing at Delilah, then Megan. Delilah shrugged, Megan stared at me for a moment, then sighed and nodded.

I pulled the bottles out. One was the little under halfway gone bottle of wine, the other was the unopened bottle of vodka.

“Okay, give me this stuff, with that vodka, and I can negotiate a fair amount,” she said, eyeing the bottle immediately.

“Ugh, fuck,” Megan muttered.

“We need the food,” I said apologetically.

“I know, I know. Probably better off without it, to be honest. And you’re giving up some of your weed and we’ll still have the wine, it’s fine, go ahead,” she replied.

“Delilah?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” she replied.

I set the unopened bottle of vodka down with the other stuff and then we spent another ten minutes figuring out exactly how much that was going to get us.

In the end, I thought it was a fair amount. The problem with trading was that different things had different values to different people. This could be awesome, or lame. Some people were smart, and recognized this, so they’d trade for something even if they themselves had no personal use for it, but not everyone was like this.

We managed to get five days’ of food, and this time I was actually more sure it was five days of food. Mostly it was in the form of surplus cans of meat, veggies, and soups, with a few other random things thrown in.

I distributed the weight among our three packs, and Dana seemed happy that now she could fit what was left from the suitcase and the stuff she’d gotten from us into her own backpack.

“You want a suitcase, ‘cause frankly I’m sick of hauling it around,” she said.

“I don’t think we want to haul it around either,” I replied. “That’s the irritating thing about traveling everywhere.”

We finished packing our stuff up.

The winds still shrieked outside.

I sighed and got comfortable. “Where you from?” I asked.

“Nevada,” she replied.

“What’d you do there?”

She looked at me for a moment, as if trying to judge something, then a look of ‘eh, fuck it’ seemed to come across her face.

“A few things,” she replied. “Waitress for awhile, mostly in Vegas. Then I was a prostitute. High class one, too.”

“I believe it,” I said. “You are so hot.” Maybe I’d been wrong that most men wouldn’t find her conventionally attractive. It was really hard to tell. Then again, I did think that there was a lot more to attitude and how you carried yourself than most people thought. Plus, it was absolutely amazing what people had been able to do with makeup and clothes back before the collapse. I wondered if she’d looked vastly different while on the job.

That’d be a shame.

“Thanks,” she replied easily. “After that I got into designing websites. Then I was a trophy wife for three years.”

“Holy shit, really?” Megan asked.

Dana laughed. “Yep. Some high roller comes in while I was gambling, sees me, falls bang in love. He’s some CEO, bigshot millionaire. Starts asking after me, I decided ‘hey, he’s kinda hot, not too old, actually doesn’t seem like a total douchebag for a rich guy’, and I figured, worst case scenario, I get some really expensive dinners out of it. Turns out, we got along. A month later, he proposes, tells me he’ll take care of me. I actually really liked him, and I was kind of tired of hustling. It was getting harder to pay the bills, so I said yes. We had a Vegas wedding.”

“So what happened?” Delilah asked.

“Two and a half years in, he wants a kid. I’m less than sure about having kids but I figure I’d at least entertain the notion. Being big money, we had access to doctors and tests and that was when I found out that I had wasted fucking years on birth control.”

“You...can’t conceive?” Megan asked.

“Nope. Infertile,” she replied.

“Shit...I’m sorry,” I said.

She shrugged. “Don’t be. I know it’s a really big deal for some women, and my heart absolutely goes out to them, but honestly, I don’t want a kid. I can say that for sure now. I mean, obviously right now yeah, but even then, when I got the news, I wasn’t upset. He was, though. It was kind of a deal-breaker. So we got divorced. I went back to Vegas and became a card shark.”

“How’d you get out here?” I asked.

She sighed. “Kinda just a lot of shit. I’m honestly not big on talking about my past. That’s more than most anyone has ever gotten out of me since this whole thing went down. For now, I like traveling, I like trading, and I’m good at staying alive.” She shrugged.

“Fair enough,” I replied.

“What about you three?” she asked.

The storm raged on, and Megan, Delilah, and I took turns telling her about ourselves while we waited for it to die off.

NINE

The storm lasted about another two hours in full effect, and then it took another half-hour to finally die off completely.

As far as being stormed in went, it was a pretty good experience.

And it wasn’t just because of the sex.

I mean yeah, that was fucking great. Absolutely stellar. But meeting someone new was often its own reward, and only became more rewarding the more I liked them. And I liked Dana a lot. She was sharp, smart, articulate, and honestly just really confident. Some people just were, like they were born with it. I could never fully tell if they were faking it or not, but I think it was more that they lacked some genetic factor for worry or anxiety.

Confidence ultimately derives from a question: how well can I handle this situation? Whatever the situation is. Even people who learned how to be confident, or grew more confident in their abilities, or faked it, still had that worry in the back of their head probably for a long time. Maybe forever. I know I did.

But I think in cases like Dana, and this could be wild speculation: she just didn’t get that emotional kick of worry.

Some people were lucky, in that they were free of more irritating aspects of the human condition. I’d met one or two people who weren’t afraid to die. Genuinely. They weren’t suicidal, they weren’t depressed, and they’d be glad to go on living for decades. It was just that the fear of dying actually did not bother them, even when it was bearing down on them. I think it was a quirk of either genetics or maybe the way they grew up, or a combination of the two. It wasn’t that they had decided to choose not to be afraid of death, it was more that the fear just didn’t arrive.

It must be nice.

“Any chance you’d consider traveling with us?” I asked as the storm finally died off and we were left with an almost eerie silence that always followed.

Dana smiled. “There’s a part of me that would really enjoy traveling with the three of you and getting fucked every day by you specifically...but I’m afraid I’m going to have to decline. I’m a loner.” She offered her hand as we stood by the front door of the house. I’d pulled the chair away. “This is where we part ways. It’s been an actually quite nice experience.”

“Same,” I said, shaking it.

“You look really good fucking,” Delilah said.

“So do you,” Dana replied, smirking a little.

“Good luck out there,” Megan said.

“To you as well.” Dana pulled on her hat, then stepped outside, looked around, and began walking away, towards the highway.

I watched her go out the window for several minutes, just in case anything was waiting out there, but she disappeared from sight without incident.

“She was nice,” Delilah said.

“Yeah,” Megan replied. “Now what?”

I glanced at her. “I just wanted to ask once...are you really okay with all that?”

Delilah looked at her, too. Megan looked at Delilah, then at me, and crossed her arms. She sighed. “Okay, I’ll admit to some jealously. Dana was...intimidating. And you obviously were super into her. And you asked her to join us without asking us if we wanted that first.”

Oh shit. I had done that.

“Fuck,” I said, “I’m sorry. I...wasn’t thinking.”

Megan stared at me for a moment, her expression hard, and I knew right away she was deciding whether or not I was telling the truth or just covering my own ass. She must have decided I was telling the truth, because she relaxed, and even a small smile came onto her face. “Yeah, fair enough. If I knew sex with her was on the table, I’d be a little stupid, too.”

I laughed, relieved. “That tends to happen to me.” I paused. “I’m sorry it made you jealous. I wasn’t trying to.”

She sighed and shook her head, staring at the ceiling in irritation for a moment. “I know. I didn’t think you were. That’s the problem with jealousy, it’s fucking dumb and doesn’t listen to logic. But whatever, it’s not a big deal. I’ll be fine. And it was fun.”

I relaxed, relieved. “It was. Now, let’s search this place and see if she missed anything, then we can finish this little journey.”

~

Either Dana had gotten to the house in time to search it top-to-bottom, or there just hadn’t been much left from a few years of wandering hands, because Delilah and I picked over the small place and found nothing worthwhile.

I wasn’t too dejected, though.

We had our food. Not exactly a long-term solution, but there was no such thing while living on the road. You just had to keep finding more food. One of the reasons people didn’t like doing it. Could be scary, but it could also be quite the thrill.

After the search, we headed outside, confirmed we were yet still alone, then got to it.

The walk took longer than I thought it might.

It was a pleasant walk, though I was cold by the time we had finally scaled the rise in the land and arrived at the cabin beside the radio tower. The tower itself was a large, imposing monolith of frozen, gleaming steel, rising blindly into the sky a good forty or fifty feet. Staring up at it, I wondered if it had any use any longer, or, barring that, when was the last time it had provided its basic function for someone.

The cabin was in decent enough condition, and it looked like no one had been up here for awhile. The three of us began our preparations for bedding down, because I could use a rest, and for some reason, it felt right to stay here for the night.

After securing the area, Delilah and I searched it top-to-bottom while Megan got first a fire, then dinner, going. There was no one around, including wildlife, and although the place had obviously been visited more than once, we found a few goodies tucked away in the forgotten spaces. There was a slim paperback that was mostly intact, a lighter that I gave to Delilah, since she didn’t have her own yet and it was still half full with juice that still burned, a few empty cans, and some clothes that could come in useful in a few ways.

After that, I spent an hour moving around in the nearest wooded area, gathering up firewood for the rest of the day and the night. When I’d secured a decent haul, I went back to the cabin, sat down with the ladies, and we all started going over our gear. I wanted to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be, and to perform maintenance on whatever we could. Mostly, that was guns and clothes.

We didn’t talk much throughout the whole ordeal, which suited me, because while I was doing all of this almost meditative stuff, my mind was working. I was turning over that conversation with Tanner in my head, but also considering other things. My own thoughts, notions, and perhaps even philosophies.

Inasmuch as I could be said to have those.

I was good at survival, but I didn’t think I was brainy enough to be philosophical. At least not meaningfully.

What I found myself coming back to was an almost startling realization that I’d had a few months back, before I had met Megan and Delilah.

While walking a highway, a different one, I had met a beautiful woman at a gas station. Her name was Mary, and she’d made a similar deal with me that Delilah had now: get her to civilization and she’ll fuck me real good.

And she had. And it had been just fantastic.

That was where I’d found my car, actually, at that gas station. It was during this little excursion, while I was scouring the land, looking for parts to repair the car, that something that had bugged me didn’t quite bug me anymore. Suddenly, for no obvious reason, and I’d ultimately just set it aside, I had kind of solved the question of: does my life have meaning? Or, I guess, sometimes I asked myself if life was ultimately meaningless, and up until that point, I always came with some variation of: I don’t know, I don’t want to think about this.

But I knew I set and achieved goals for myself and, more importantly, sometimes I helped people.

And the last time I asked myself if that was enough, the question was no longer uncertain.

It was just: yes, this is enough.

In some way that I spent hours teasing out, these two incidents were connected. I think I finally finished putting the pieces together when I locked myself in the cabin’s small bathroom for an hour and a half and first read my entire journal from start to finish, (surprisingly, sixteen months’ worth of writing from me didn’t take all that long to get through), and then I wrote and updated since last time. I scribbled in my blocky handwriting for half an hour straight and then just sat there for awhile, letting it all sink in.

Finally, I emerged from the bathroom after tucking my journal deep back into my coat pocket. I was glad that this time I’d had an excuse to hide away. Megan and Delilah seemed to understand that I needed some space.

They both looked at me inquiringly as I came out. There were two single-wide beds that we’d pulled the mattresses from, pushed together, and made into one large bed. They were sitting on it. Delilah was nude save for a pair of panties, laying on the side closest to the fireplace, reading the thin paperback novel we’d found. Megan was still in her clothes, sitting at the table, sorting through our supplies again.

“You okay?” Megan asked as I emerged.

“Yeah...I think so. I need to step outside for a minute,” I replied.

They both seemed to take the implied alone attached to that and just nodded, going back to what they were doing. I crossed the cabin and slipped out the door. Good, I’d made it out before the sun had gone down. In fact, it was sunset, and it was beautiful. It was perfect. I walked a little ways out from the cabin, not far, my boots crunching in the snow. There was no wind, there were no clouds in the skies, and nothing was moving for as far as I could see. Which was quite a ways. The cabin was built onto a little flat patch of land maybe fifty feet up, and so I had a clear view for miles and miles. I could see the highway, the fields, the little patch of civilization, the trees.

The world might have been an oil painting in that moment.

I stood there with my hands in my pockets, breathing slowly in and out, watching the sun gradually disappear beyond the horizon.

It just about disappeared before the cold really started to get to me, so I turned my back on the twilight and walked back inside.

“Okay,” I said as I came in, locking the door behind me, then hanging up my jacket and getting out of my boots, “I’m ready to talk. I think I’ve got it figured out.”

Delilah set her book aside and got up. She pulled on a sweater and a pair of thermal underwear and joined me as I sat at the table with Megan.

They both watched me attentively.

“So...I’ll put this as best I can. For awhile now, even before the apocalypse, I was asking the same question almost everyone asks: what’s the point of living? I’ve been wrestling with it for awhile. After the snow fell, I think I was in a mild state of shock for awhile, and honestly just surviving allowed me to put it off. Eventually though, it started coming back. I was living in this little town in Florida, doing okay for myself honestly, but I asked ‘is this it? Is this the rest of my life?’ And it just freaked me out. I think I developed my wanderlust as a direct response, or at least it was sent into overdrive. I’d been getting the urge to leave for a bit.

“Hitting the road helped alleviate it. The question didn’t bug me for months. I walked a lot. Survived a lot. Explored a lot. Met a lot of new people.” I paused, chuckled. “And fucked a lot of new people. But it didn’t last. It started bugging me again. Mostly I avoided it, but sometimes I ruminated on it, when I was completely alone. But about a month, month and a half ago, the question cropped up again and this time, it didn’t bug me. I kind of asked myself ‘is this it? Is this my life?’ And it was like, ‘Yeah, it is’. So naturally I thought, ‘is it enough?’ For some reason, I thought ‘yeah’. I just wasn’t afraid anymore. At least not of that particular line of reasoning. But I didn’t pursue it any further. Which I guess was a mistake.”

I waited, gauging their reaction. I didn’t think I was talking about any high-reaching stuff here, intellectually, but it was tough to tell what some people got or didn’t get. But Megan and Delilah were just watching me, listening, waiting.

I went on. “When I confronted Tanner, I saw…” I stopped, feeling that same shock of fear that I’d been feeling every day a nightmare had woken me. I swallowed and pushed on. “I saw something that just scared the fucking shit out of me. I saw myself in a decade if I didn’t, you know, stick to my morals, or find a greater purpose in life. I...he…” I hesitated, getting to the harder part, looking down at the table for a moment.

“He told me about himself. Used to have a wife, a baby. He worked at a grocery store after having a long, fucked up life. Things were still mostly okay, even after the snowfall. But then his baby was killed during a riot, and he went crazy and shot some people. They locked him up for months. His wife got sick and died while he was in lockup. Friend of his finally just let him go. He’d been wandering ever since. He couldn’t...kill himself.” I looked back up at them finally. “I don’t think I can. I mean, I’ll never know for sure until I’m actually standing there, gun in hand, with intent to do it, but I don’t think I can. I just think my survival instinct is too strong or fuck, maybe I’m just too afraid of dying to do it.”

I stopped again, then shook my head, plunged on. “He did fucked up shit, because he couldn’t kill himself. And he couldn’t assign any real meaning to his life. Couldn’t find any. Things have been going okay for me since the end of the world, but that existential question has been creeping up on me again and again, and I think facing Tanner, when he forced me to kill him even though I didn’t really want to...I don’t know. I guess it’s kind of forced me to confront that particular problem. Helping people is enough, but I guess what bugs me is I’m not sure if it will remain enough.” I waited, wondering if I’d gotten it all out.

“So…” Megan replied after a moment, “I think I get the gist of what you’re saying, but I’m not sure I entirely get it. What, specifically, is the problem?”

I thought about it, closing my eyes for a second. I was kind of all over the place there. After a moment, I had it. I opened my eyes back up. “I’m scared that I’ll turn into Tanner if I don’t find a larger meaning for my life. Not today, or tomorrow, or even three years from now, but eventually, if I don’t take steps now, and work to maintain some semblance of order and meaning to my life, I’ll end up there. And I don’t want to turn into a monster.”

“You don’t think this is enough?” Delilah asked. “I mean, you saved our lives. Twice. You’re helping me find my best friend. It sounds like you’ve helped lots of people.”

“It’s enough right now,” I replied. “Don’t get me wrong, I think this is important. Honestly, the two of you mean a lot to me. I’m just wondering if I might need to do more in order to continue feeling satisfied about my…” I sighed, searching for the words. “My place in the universe.”

“Lots of people don’t feel satisfied about their place in the universe,” Megan said.

“And I don’t want to be one of them.”

“You don’t think it’s possible that instead of turning into a monster you’ll just settle down somewhere with a girl or three? Or is that the same amount of awful to you?”

I laughed unexpectedly. “No. Honestly, if I somehow found a way past this feeling, this drive to do more...I’d be grateful. I don’t think it’s impossible that I’ll find a place I want to settle, but right now it feels unlikely.”

Megan frowned and seemed to gather her own thoughts. “You want my advice?” she asked after a moment. I nodded. “Just go with the flow. I know it sounds so trite, but I think part of growing up is realizing that...you keep growing. You change. And not necessarily because you want to. Maybe in five or ten or fifteen years you’ll decide ‘you know what? Fuck it. I’m putting down roots’. And you’ll be fine with that because you changed. I understand your existential crisis. Almost everyone has them. But I think you’ll find that if you stay the course, maybe start going out of your way to help people more than you already do, you’ll get along just fine.”

I was silent for a long moment, considering that.

Her words felt like they stripped away a lot, or quieted a lot of noise.

They rang of truth. I liked that. “Stay the course. Help people,” I muttered. Then I nodded. “I can do that...thank you. For that and for listening.”

They both smiled.

“I’ll always listen,” Delilah said. “I will also always open my legs for you.”

“Always?” I asked.

“Well...hmm. I guess not if I hurt down there. But otherwise, yeah.”

“And if you have a boyfriend or girlfriend that wants exclusivity?” Megan asked.

“Personally, I don’t think it could work between me and someone else if they aren’t into polyamory.”

“Well...cool,” I replied.

“I will stop opening my legs for you if you turn into an asshole, but I just don’t see that happening.”

“Well, you know how I feel about you,” Megan said.

I looked at her. “How do you feel about me?”

She sighed and crossed her arms. “I like you. I trust you. Sex with you is awesome. I respect you. Let’s leave it at that, okay?”

“Fair enough,” I replied. I stretched and popped my neck, then my back. It felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted from my shoulders. “What’s say I bring out that last blunt, and you girls polish off the rest of the wine, and we have a nice big threesome or three, and then have a nice, long, luxurious sleep before hitting the road again tomorrow?”

“That sounds excellent,” Delilah replied immediately.

“I’m down for it. Though I’d appreciate it if you’d find me more booze,” Megan replied.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

We got up and got to it.

TEN

The next three days were actually really pleasant.

Part of that was due to the fact that they were uneventful, but I thought a lot of it had to do with the fact that I’d not only gotten a lot off my chest, but also actually figured some shit out. I didn’t think I had it all figured out, there was still some stuff rattling around in my head, and I didn’t know if I’d ever get it all nailed down into place.

Shit, I didn’t even know if it was all supposed to be nailed down into place. As Megan had pointed out, people were supposed to change as they grew older and experienced more life, especially if they were on the younger side, like me.

But I felt good, and I didn’t know if they had their own things going on or a good mood was just infectious, because the girls were in pretty high spirits too.

We made good progress those three days, hitting ten miles each day. Eleven on the second, actually.

By the time we ran into our next genuine problem, I thought we had covered about half the distance to our intended destination. Not bad, but I knew it couldn’t keep up. We were tired, even with the nights of sleep and the clear weather we’d been enjoying, and we were going to need at least one day of rest soon.

“Well...fuck,” I said as we stood at the edge of our problem.

The highway terminated very abruptly a few feet ahead of us. A section of it that was meant to span a river some thirty feet straight down had collapsed. I peered carefully over the edge. Judging by the amount of cars down there, embedded in the band of ice that had once been a small river, I’m guessing that weight plus time equaled collapse. And I doubted it was too well-maintained even before the end of the world.

“Now what?” Delilah muttered, for the first time in days sounding unhappy.

“Don’t worry,” I replied. “Just a detour.”

I walked first to the right, peering over the guardrail, and saw a lone house maybe a hundred yards back the way we’d come. Should be easy enough to get to, and it looked fairly intact. Plus, there were woods behind it.

Perfect hunting ground, if it came to that.

I walked over to the other side. Much more to work with here, as I’d noted earlier when we were first approaching the bridge. There were five buildings down along a simple road that came off the highway, most of them looked like places of commerce, and another quartet of narrow structures strung out along the river.

Probably rental fishing cabins.

Then I turned around and looked back the way we’d come. The first thing I wanted to do, before anything else, was check the semi-truck that was sitting there. The huge boxy cargo container it was hauling might hold some goodies, as it was the kind of thing someone might have turned into a little basecamp at one point or another.

“Let’s check that out first,” I said. “Then we’ll head down to the house. We’ll turn in for the night.”

It was going to be dark soon, maybe even heading towards twilight by the time we actually got down to the house, depending on how long the truck took to search. The two back doors were slightly ajar. I pulled out my pistol, just in case, and motioned for the women to get to the side, out of view. Once they were safely out of sight, I grabbed the bottom of one of the doors and pulled it open while walking backwards with it.

Sometimes, if someone was trigger-happy enough, they’d just open fire the second the door opened up, even if no one was standing there, thus giving themselves away and me the advantage. No bullets came out, but that was no promise of safety. Carefully, I peered around the open door and looked in through the opening.

Someone had definitely converted it into a little outpost, but I thought that whoever it was had long since moved on. The stuff I could see had that ‘long dark and dead’ look that a lot of abandoned places did. Everything was oriented along the left side of the trailer, leaving an alcove of space to walk down along the right. Closest to me was a shelf that had been cleaned out, beyond that was a little table with a single chair, some boxes were stacked up beyond that, and at the back someone had rigged up a curtain that crossed the width of the trailer. I figured that this was probably where the sleeping area had been set up.

The curtain was closed.

I hauled myself up into the trailer and then froze as I spied something: snow with a bootprint in it. Several actually, walking back towards the curtain.

“Okay, I know someone’s in here,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “I’m not looking for trouble, I’m not looking for a fight. If you want me to leave, I’ll leave. If you’re looking to trade, I can trade. If you’re in trouble, I’ll help you.”

I waited. I thought I could hear heavy breathing over the winds outside, but it was hard to tell. Someone was almost certainly in here.

I took another step in. “Come on, seriously. Just say the word, I’m not looking to cause problems for anyone.”

Okay, definitely breathing. I took another two steps deeper in. Whoever it was, they were back there behind the curtain.

While considering what to do, the curtain suddenly pulled aside. I raised my pistol, faced with that sudden crucial moment of whether to act or not.

I didn’t pull the trigger, and thank fucking God.

“Pl-please don’t hurt me.”

A woman stood back there, her hands up now. She was pale, about average height and weight, shivering violently.

“It’s okay,” I said, putting my gun away, “I won’t hurt you.”

Slowly, she lowered her hands, looking at me in obvious fear. Fuck, I hadn’t checked the fucking cab of the truck. Could be someone laying in wait, she could be the bait. But Megan would definitely catch it if someone came out of the cabin, and something about this woman seemed really genuine. Then, as she put her arms down, she rested her hands protectively over her stomach, and in the thin light coming in behind me, I suddenly noticed it.

“Oh, fuck,” I whispered.

She was pregnant. Noticeably pregnant.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she repeated.

“I won’t, I promise,” I replied. “Delilah, get up here,” I said over my shoulder. “Are you hurt?” I asked as Delilah moved to join me.

“No,” she said.

“Are you alone?”

She hesitated. “Not-not exactly.”

“What’s going on?” Delilah asked.

“What does that mean?” I replied.

“Oh my God, she’s pregnant,” Delilah whispered.

“I-people are chasing me,” she said, trembling now.

Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Well, this was quite the situation I’d stepped into.

“We have to get you warm,” I said. “There’s a house nearby, off the highway. Will you come with us? We can get you warm.”

She hesitated for a long moment, looking between me and Delilah, then nodded. She looked terrified and tired and freezing.

“Why don’t you go help her get ready?” I asked. In my experience, most times, not all but most, women who were terrified, especially if another human had done the terrifying, responded better to other women than men. Especially big men who looked like me. And I was willing to bet a lot that it was a group of mostly if not exclusively guys after her. I believed that women were just as capable of evil as men, but…

Let’s just say that I’d encountered a lot more evil dudes than chicks so far.

Delilah moved forward slowly, apparently picking up my intention, and the pregnant woman did seem to relax a little. I turned around and saw Megan standing in plain view of the open door now, glancing periodically in while also keeping watch. I hopped down and joined her back on the road, taking a look around.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“There’s a pregnant woman in there,” I replied.

“Oh fuck,” Megan whispered.

“Yep. And people are chasing her apparently. Go check the cabin of the truck, I’m going to take a look around. We’re going to get her down to the house, okay?”

“On it,” she replied, and set off around the side of the semi.

I moved back over to the left side of the highway and looked carefully out over the structures, the river, the forested area beyond it. I tried to see evidence of people, someone moving around or standing in a window or near a building.

But there was nothing. No one.

We still seemed alone here.

I quickly moved across to the other side and checked it also. Nope, nothing there either. I doubted they’d come up here and somehow missed her, because it didn’t seem like she’d been in that truck for too long.

“Chris, need your help,” Delilah said.

I moved back to the rear of the semi to find the two of them standing there. “Here, I’ll help you down,” I said.

“Thank you,” she murmured.

“What’s your name?” I asked as she slowly sat down on the edge of the container.

“Elizabeth Patterson,” she murmured. Whatever Delilah had said to her while I’d been looking seemed to have calmed her down.

“Chris Weston,” I said. “There’s another woman here, her name is Megan. It’s just the three of us.”

“Okay,” she said, and I helped her slowly, carefully down onto the ground. I honestly had not had much experience around pregnant women, and I don’t know if it was sexist or not that I felt like they were like porcelain. I think it was more just fear that I’d hurt them on accident more than anything, not that I thought they were weak. And probably some residual primal urge to protect a pregnant woman. You know, that whole ‘perpetuate the species’ thing ticking along regardless of whatever the fuck was happening in the real world.

But I figured too much caution was better than too little.

“Here,” I said, taking off my jacket without really thinking about it, because she looked not only freezing, but just awful, like she was nearly dead on her feet. She had a jacket, but it didn’t seem like it was enough, and I’d make do without it, given we didn’t have far to go.

“Oh, I...thank you,” she murmured, putting it on. “Where did you say we’re going?”

I led her over to the guardrail and pointed. “There.”

She nodded. “Okay...I hope I can make it. I’m so tired…”

“I’ll carry you if it comes to it,” I replied.

She looked at me, and I saw conflicting emotions playing across her face. I knew what she was thinking: that she didn’t know me at all, and she was being forced to put her life in my hands. I felt good that she could trust me, but bad that I couldn’t meaningfully convey that. Ultimately, though, she just seemed resigned to the situation, probably too tired for anything else. I wondered how long she’d been going.

“Come on, let’s move,” I said.

Megan hopped out of the cab, startling Elizabeth. “Sorry,” she said. “Cab’s clear,” she added, looking at me. “We good?”

“We’re good. We need to get to the house. Will you go on ahead of us and clear it? I’d do it myself, but I’m worried Elizabeth here is going to pass out or something, and I’m probably the only one here who can safely carry her.”

Megan pursed her lips, then nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll get on it.”

She hopped the guardrail and began making her way down the snowy slope beyond, which was at a decent enough grade that she didn’t have much trouble navigating it. We, on the other hand, had to go to the off-ramp. We trudged along, walking through the snow, and I was careful to watch Elizabeth. I wanted to ask her questions, but she seemed to be having enough trouble just staying upright. I also resisted the urge to take a quick detour over to the opposite side of the highway and get another look to see if anyone was coming now.

In the end, I did do that when we reached the off-ramp. I had Delilah stay with Elizabeth and I jogged over and took another look.

Still nothing.

Good, I guess.

I hated unknowns, though. But whatever, I had a clear goal and a ticking clock. Although I didn’t know the specifics, I knew that it was bad for a person to be in the cold for too long, and it was worse for a pregnant woman. Pretty much all things were. Worse for a pregnant woman to fall down, get sick, go too long without sleep or food.

Elizabeth ended up taking my hand on the way down the ramp and I kept her upright. After what felt like too long, too many minutes, we made it down to the bottom. Megan had already disappeared into the house by now. I hadn’t heard any gunshots and the wind wasn’t too bad right now, so I felt confident I would if there were any to hear. Although it was possible someone could take her out without shooting her, or her getting a shot off.

Whatever. Regardless, I needed to get there.

I split my attention as best I could between the house and Elizabeth.

We made it maybe halfway there before she stopped, breathing heavily. “I...fuck...I need a break,” she murmured tiredly.

“Can I carry you? We’re almost there and we need to get you warm,” I replied.

She looked at me and for the first time actually smiled. “Okay,” she said.

I carefully scooped her up in my arms. Even noticeably pregnant, she didn’t weigh that much, and I was glad to see I could manage her weight pretty easily. I heard her let out a sigh of relief as we started walking.

“Thank for helping me,” she said, then yawned.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, kicking my way through the snow, very careful not to lose my balance. Fuck, that was the last thing I needed right now.

We kept on going, me waddling through the snow, trying to keep an eye out and an ear out for Megan, hoping she’d reemerge before we got there and give the all clear. Delilah had her gun out, and I was really glad I hadn’t had to tell her.

It was a near thing, but Megan beat me, coming back out of the house, looking calm. “It’s clear in there,” she reported.

“Thank God,” Elizabeth whispered.

“Did you come from this direction?” I asked.

“No, other side,” she replied, then yawned again.

“Tell me there’s a bed in there,” I said as we walked into the house. It was a two-story affair, though not too big otherwise.

“Up here,” Megan replied, and I resisted the urge to groan. Steps, great. My legs were aching after this and the three days of walking, but whatever, I could do it.

I did it, following her up, Delilah behind me. We came to a little hallway and moved to its end, where a door led to a master bedroom. There was, indeed, a bed, a king sized one, in the room. Megan pulled the blankets back for me and I carefully laid Elizabeth out. I began to ask her something, then realized she was passed out.

“Is she okay?” Delilah murmured.

“I think so, she must be exhausted,” I replied, carefully and gently getting my coat back, now that she was under blankets and I had to go back outside. “Okay, Delilah, stay here with her. Try and find some more blankets. Also, if you can, check her over. See if she’s cut or anything. I don’t think she is, but I don’t want her bleeding out. Megan, with me.”

Both women nodded and we set off. I led Megan back downstairs. There was a fireplace in a den at the back of the house, and it led right up through the bedroom upstairs. There was no firewood left in or around it, but when I went to the back door and stepped through into the backyard, I saw there was still a healthy supply in a bin nearby.

Megan and I stocked up. We brought a few armfuls in and piled some in the fireplace, then set the rest nearby.

“Can you get it started? I need to make sure we’re secure,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m on it,” Megan replied.

I got up and got to work.

ELEVEN

It was relatively easy to secure the house.

Locked down the windows, locked the front and back doors, then grabbed two of the remaining chairs from the dining room and shoved them up under the knobs. While the place had obviously been hit by wandering hands, it apparently hadn’t got to the point where people were breaking down furniture. After I finished locking everything down, I rejoined Megan back at the fireplace. She was just getting done with it.

Slowly, I sat down, groaning. “Fuck, I thought you were supposed to start getting old in your thirties,” I muttered.

She rolled her eyes. “You are. You’re not old, you’re just tired and sore.” Suddenly, she turned and stared at me with a new intensity.

“What?” I asked after a moment.

“I’m trying to decide if you’re really as good a guy as you appear, or if you actually just stepped up and saved that woman’s life so you could bang a hot pregnant chick.” I felt a flash of real anger at that and it must have registered on my face because before I could even respond she raised both hands immediately. “Okay. Whoa! Stop. Sorry. I-I didn’t-I was just joking,” she said quickly, which then made me feel bad because apparently I’d actually frightened her.

I hadn’t meant to do that.

I forced myself to relax. “It’s fine,” I said.

“No, it was a shitty thing to say. I’m really sorry.”

“I accept your apology. I just…” I sighed and looked at the fire for a moment. “I get so tired of having my motives questioned. Honestly, I get it for most people. It seems like everyone fucks you over or, at best, is just out for themselves. It’s worse than ever now, because there’s no real cops around. You have to watch out for yourself. But I’m not...an asshole. I just look like one, apparently, and everyone treats me like one.”

Megan leaned forward suddenly and hugged me to her. “Stop. Please,” she whispered. I hugged her back. “I’m honestly sorry. I just...it’s really hard to stop expecting the worst from people. Even people I like. I was mostly joking, anyway.”

I laughed, unable to help it, and I let myself laugh. I felt her body relax as I did. “Fair enough.” I gave her a kiss as she pulled back. “And, to be honest, I mean...if she came onto me…”

“Oh come on, you’re her fucking savior, I saw the way she was looking up at you when you carried her up to the house. I bet she’s having a wet dream about you right now.”

“I think I saw a ring on her finger…”

“Chris,” Megan said, like I had just missed something incredibly obvious, “fucking bet that one of the guys ‘after her’ is her husband.”

I blinked. Thought about that. Then nodded slowly, unhappily.

She was probably right.

Then something else occurred to me. Something unhappy. “If I were to have sex with her...would that be exploitative?”

Megan considered it. “Well, she is a desperate, pregnant woman on the run from people. If we take her at her word. Which I do, honestly. And you are in a position to help her, or withhold that help. I think that, even if you were fully going to help her even if she had no intention of having sex with you, and I believe that you do, if you were to ask, she might feel obligated to say yes, because she’d be afraid that you wouldn’t help her if she didn’t fuck you. So, this is what I think: don’t bring it up. Don’t mention it or even hint at it. If she wants to bring it up, on the other hand…”

“Then I’m in the clear?” I asked.

“Yes. I’d say make sure you have her explicit consent, make sure she’s comfortable with it, but, you know, you tend to do that anyway, from what I’ve seen. And just so you know, yeah, I’m cool with it if you fuck her. Since Delilah gets off on it, obviously she will be.”

“Yeah…” I shrugged after a moment. “I doubt it’ll come up, honestly.”

Megan laughed and rolled her eyes. “You don’t know people too well, huh? Most people tend to think about things they want to do, things they wished they’d done, after a harrowing experience. I’m willing to bet she wishes she’d banged more hot dudes in her life. I mean just about everyone wishes they’d had more sex, and there is something to the notion of arousal following a near-death experience. People all say that when it happens in the movies it’s bullshit, but honestly it’s not. I mean it’s all adrenaline, horniness and fear, why do you think so many guys take girls to horror movies on first dates? Gets the adrenaline pumping, and if you’re around someone you think is hot, it’s really easy for those wires to get crossed.”

“Huh,” I said. I laughed suddenly. “We have the weirdest conversations.”

“I like that,” Megan replied with a smile that was beautiful to see.

“Let’s make dinner.”

Megan nodded and we set to work. I frowned as I began getting the stuff out and preparing the meal. We had a fourth mouth to feed. Technically four and a half now. Because whatever happened, not only did I very much doubt that we were going to be able to safely part company for awhile, but I wasn’t going to leave her high and dry. Unless she outright betrayed us, which was still very possible, I knew nothing about this woman beyond the fact that she was terrified and pregnant and married, (probably, why else would she wear a wedding ring though?). Then I’d have to leave her. But why would she betray us?

I didn’t think she would. I thought she was genuine, and Megan and Delilah seemed to be in agreement with that assessment.

But that meant our food supply just got cut by probably a third.

We’d managed to shore up our meals a little bit with a few food items found on the three-day journey that got us here, but not by much. So we’d eaten into the supply of food we’d gotten from Dana during those days.

“I’m going to have to hunt tomorrow,” I muttered as we sorted through the stuff.

“If there’s time,” Megan replied.

“We’ll have to make time.”

“What if her hubby comes knocking?”

“We lie to him and see if we can throw him off the trail. If it comes to it, we blow him away,” I replied. Megan just grunted. I wasn’t quite comfortable with the fact that she didn’t even ask ‘what if Elizabeth did something to deserve this?’ Though honestly, and this was probably really biased, it was tough to justify the killing of a pregnant woman. Or maybe they weren’t looking to kill her, just control her. Yeah, much more likely.

Well, if she didn’t want to go back, I clearly was not in the habit of letting men try to control women.

“We’ll go for vegetable beef soup, yeah?” I asked.

“Fine,” she replied.

We took a moment, pouring in two cans of vegetable soup, one of the cans of surplus beef, and then fortified it with another can of mixed vegetables. I added enough water from one of my bottles, then stirred it up and set the pot in front of the fire.

“I’m going to go check on her,” I said.

“I’ll tend the soup,” Megan replied.

I nodded and got up. Heading upstairs, I glanced out one of the windows. It was pretty much full dark now. At least it wasn’t snowing, and the house was heating up nicely. When I walked back into the master bedroom, I saw Delilah had taken up a chair by the fireplace and was reading a book by the flickering light of a candle she’d set up and lit on the mantle.

“How are we doing?” she asked quietly as I came in.

“Good. We’re secure, we’ve got firewood, dinner’s going. I haven’t seen anyone or anything. But I’m going to have to hunt tomorrow, if possible. Unless some miracle solution presents itself, we’re going to take her with us. If that’s what she wants, and she seems like she’s outta options. Which means we need more food.”

Delilah nodded. “Yeah…”

“How is she?” I asked, walking slowly over to her, stopping an arm’s length away and looking down at her. I remembered meeting Delilah had gone a little something like this. Despite everything...yeah, I was honestly hoping she’d come onto me. I mean, why wouldn’t I? She was quite attractive. Some of her color had come back, though she was still very pale, and now that she was sleeping, she looked much more peaceful. She had chin-length dark black hair and I remembered her eyes being a wonderful shade of blue.

“She isn’t hurt, from what I could tell. Seems to be sleeping peacefully now.” Delilah stopped speaking abruptly and I glanced over. I was a little surprised to see her genuinely pissed. “What the fuck kind of pieces of shit send a pregnant woman into such a terrified frenzy that she ends up freezing half to death in a semi?” she growled.

“Pretty standard fare pieces of shit nowadays, unfortunately,” I replied.

“You saved her,” she murmured after a moment, seemingly getting herself back under control. “Just like you saved me. And Megan. Twice.”

“I guess so.” I looked at her again. She was out cold and I figured she’d probably be out for the rest of the night. We’d have to figure out sleeping arrangements. One of us, at minimum, would have to sleep in here with her. I didn’t want her to wake up alone in the dark, too much of a chance of her panicking, and rightly so, given how confusing the situation might be. She’d passed out under not great circumstances to begin with.

Delilah stood up suddenly. “Chris,” she said, coming over to me and looking up at me. “You’re a good person. Don’t doubt that. Okay?”

I opened my mouth, but ultimately nothing came out.

I didn’t know what to say.

“Thanks,” I said finally, because it was the only thing that seemed appropriate.

She hugged me. “I mean it.”

I hugged her back and something occurred to me. “If she wakes up when I’m out of the room, put in a good word for me. I’m not really looking to score any points with her-”

“You did that big time already,” Delilah murmured.

“-but,” I continued, “she needs to be able to trust us, and it’d be all too easy, from her perspective, if she’s smart, for me to lie and say I’m totally cool. No, she needs to hear it from you or Megan, and when I’m not in earshot.”

“Like with Dana,” Delilah replied, pulling back and looking up at me again.

I nodded. “Exactly.”

“Don’t worry, I already put in a good word for you back at the semi, and I will again.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.”

I gave her a kiss, then checked on Elizabeth once more and, determining she was okay, headed out of the room.

It was time to start winding down for the night.

Something I was definitely looking forward to.

~

The next thing I did was pull out my flashlight and set to work searching the house.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Megan to do a good job, it was more for my own peace of mind. I was one of those ‘need to do it myself’ kind of people a lot of the times. I was bad at delegating. Upstairs I found a bathroom and a spare bedroom, nothing else but a few closets. All were clear, and there was a bed in the other bedroom big enough for two people. Still wasn’t sure how we’d handle sleeping arrangements, but whatever, a problem for later.

Downstairs was a living room, dining room, kitchen, a small bathroom, and the little den that had the fireplace. Once I was sure we were secure, I rejoined Megan and we spent the time waiting for the food to heat up, stirring it occasionally, sorting through our gear. I’d gone up and brought down Delilah’s stuff so she could stay up there and keep watch. It occurred to me that Elizabeth hadn’t had a backpack on her.

She must be in a bad situation.

We sorted through the stuff and after that I ended up nodding off for a little while. The food wasn’t ready yet, so I put my back to a wall, leaned my head against it, and suddenly, the next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes and Megan wasn’t there. I came awake in a jolt, suddenly worried something had happened, but she came back into the room before I could stand up.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah, I...must’ve fallen asleep,” I muttered.

“Sorry, food got done, I brought up Delilah hers. I was going to wake you when I got back,” she replied.

“It’s fine. How long was I out?”

“Maybe half an hour at most.”

I just grunted and helped her divvy up the soup. She got a bowl for herself, and I split what remained between three thermoses. I took the time to quickly wash out the pot, then fill it with snow and set it to melt and boil, then I headed upstairs to join the three women. Elizabeth was still out, but I put a thermos near the opening in the chimney that was letting heat from the fire below into the room to keep it warm, in case she woke up. I also set a trio of water bottles there so that we’d be able to wash up at some point and have warm water to do it.

Then we ate. We didn’t say much. I noticed that the nap had given me an unexpected burst of energy, one that I hoped wore off soon. Now was not the time for insomnia. The soup was good though, and I was happy despite the unexpected development.

Sharing a meal in a warm, safe place with Megan and Delilah was a pretty surefire way of making me happy.

We were just finishing up our meal when Elizabeth came awake.

She opened her eyes and jerked at the sight of us, or maybe just me. We waited, not making any moves, as she sat up. She looked at us slowly, putting her feet on the floor, (we’d taken her boots off when putting her in the bed), and cradled her large belly gently.

“Chris. Megan. Delilah,” she said after a moment. “You saved my life. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. How are you feeling?” I asked, and got up slowly to retrieve the soup I’d set aside for her.

“Tired, but better. I guess I fell asleep? Last thing I remember is you carrying me into the house,” she said.

“Yeah. It’s been a few hours. We’re safe. It’s nighttime. Here. It’s beef and vegetable soup,” I said, offering her the thermos.

“Thank you so much,” she replied with enthusiasm. Unscrewing the top, she smelled it, then drank deeply. “Oh my God, this is fucking amazing. Thank you.” She drank more, then seemed to make herself stop. I didn’t blame her. Eating too fast sometimes meant throwing up, and you couldn’t really afford throwing up with food being scarce.

For the next five or so minutes, no one said anything. We had questions, obviously, and she knew that, I could tell, but I wanted her to be ready, and right now I think she was just trying to sort her thoughts out or get her head screwed back on straight. I knew what it was to wake up in a haze of pain and uncertainty, and even fear.

So we all finished off our meals, and sat, and waited.

Finally, she screwed the cap back onto the thermos and set it on the floor by her double-socked feet. “I imagine you have questions.”

“Yeah,” I said.

“And, given what you did for me, apparently out of the kindness of your heart-” she paused, grimaced, “...I mean that genuinely, not trying to disrespect you-”

“It’s okay. I get it,” I replied. “Kindness usually isn’t on the table nowadays, it seems.”

She nodded. “Yeah. Tell me about it. But you deserve to know what I’m mixed up in. It’s not too complicated, I guess. I’m sure you noticed this,” she raised her left hand, showing off her ring. It was a thin golden band topped by an impressive diamond. “I’m on the run from my husband and a few of his ‘pals’.”

“How many does ‘a few’ constitute?” I asked.

“Two. So three in total,” she replied. I nodded and she continued, though yawned first. “Short version is: I got real tired of my husband’s controlling nature and anger issues, which have only grown worse since he got me pregnant, and then he started scaring me.” She paused, hugged herself a little tighter. “Sorry,” she murmured, “this is hard to talk about.”

“I understand,” Megan said.

She sighed and shook her head. “He didn’t get physically violent...but I think the only thing that stayed his hand was the fact that I was pregnant. He’s gotten it into his head that the only way to make something of himself is to have a child. He talked me into it...I kinda feel like it was inevitable anyway. No birth control, no implant, no surgery. Protection is a lot harder to come by. It was gonna happen one way or another if we kept going the way we did. Honestly, I’m surprised it took as long as it had to happen.” She looked fully at us again, at me. “So that’s it. He and his two friends. They’re somewhere in the area, but I don’t know where. I’ve been on the run for a few days now. I’d pretty much run out of steam back there when you found me.”

“I’m really glad I did, that was a bad place to be,” I replied.

She nodded. “I’m glad, too. You saved my life, no question. My life and his,” she murmured, briefly looking down at her belly again.

“How far along are you?” Delilah asked.

“Seven months,” she replied.

That took a bit of the pressure off. No chance of her going into labor anytime soon. Well, not no chance, even I knew premature births were a risk, but we were probably good there. I considered the situation for a moment, but I was getting tired again. That little burst of energy I’d gotten was only temporary and I could tell I was flagging.

“So, um...I’m basically at your mercy,” Elizabeth said. She sounded surprisingly calm about this fact, but I thought it was just because she was so exhausted. And no wonder: she’d been running for days while pregnant and probably terrified. “What...are you going to do with me?”

“First of all,” I said, “don’t worry. We’ll help you. We’ll take care of you. I can promise you that right now. We’re heading for a town about forty miles north of here. The highway will take us straight to it, though we’re going to have to cross that river. Are you okay with going with us there? Because admittedly I can’t really change course,” I said.

“To be completely honest, that would be fantastic. I...have nowhere to go. Everyone else who was in my life is dead or missing. He was all that was left. I’m...basically adrift. So yes, I would be extremely grateful, but I’m going to have to be very honest: I will be a burden. I’m in decent shape, but I definitely need to eat more than before I was pregnant, I move slower, and I’ll definitely need breaks. I will slow you down and drain your resources faster. I’m willing to work and help out however I can, and I’m finding that I am actually kind of okay at this survival shit, but I haven’t had much chance to develop it at all, so…” She shrugged.

“I understand,” I said, “and it won’t be a problem. We’ll make it work.” I paused, suddenly realizing that I’d spoken for all three of us, not all that dissimilar from when I’d abruptly pitched Dana to join us a few days ago. I looked at the other two.

“Oh, Chris, I’m fine with this,” Megan said.

“Yeah, we have to help her,” Delilah said.

I felt a lot of relief at that. “Then it’s settled. For now, we need to sleep. I’d like us all to sleep in the same room, though as for sleeping arrangements...I feel like you’ll have to sleep in the bed you’re in now, and there’s a single-wide mattress that we can drag in. But it could only hold two of us, so I don’t know how you feel about that…”

She actually ducked her head and blushed. “About that…”

“Yeah?” I asked when she didn’t continue.

She chewed on one lip for a long moment, staring at the floor. I glanced at Megan, who was smirking with an I told you so look on her face.

Finally, Elizabeth muttered something, I thought fuck it, and looked up at me. “There’s, um, I have a question.”

“Shoot,” I replied.

She laughed nervously, then glanced back down, now playing with the ring on her finger, twisting it slowly. “I…” She fiddled for another moment or so, then finally let out a frustrated sound and looked up. “I have reasons for asking what I’m about to ask, and I can and will articulate them if I have to, but for now...are any of you in a relationship?” she asked.

“Um…” I hesitated, considering how to handle this. “All three of us are having sex with each other,” I said finally.

She laughed. It was a genuine laugh, one that seemed to catch the person laughing off guard. The kind of laugh someone enjoyed because they hadn’t had something to laugh about in a long time, and laughing felt good.

“Well that’s a good enough answer, I guess. Would anyone mind terribly if I had sex with Chris tonight? You and I can share the bed.”

“Can we watch?” Delilah asked. She was always the first to speak in situations like these, it seemed.

Elizabeth seemed to consider that. She seemed nervous. But then a look almost of determination came onto her face. “You know what? Yes. You can watch. If this is going to happen.”

“I’m very okay with this happening,” Delilah said.

“Yeah, I’m down to let this happen,” Megan said.

“I very much want to fuck you,” I said to her.

She seemed a little surprised, and I understood that. Talking openly about sex, I had found, and I think a lot of people either had also found or suspected, was kind of like diving into the deep end of the pool. You weren’t quite sure what you were going to get in return.

“Really?” she asked. “The whole…” She ran a hand over her belly. “You know, pregnant thing, doesn’t throw you off?”

“Oh fuck no,” I replied immediately. “That’s a bonus.”

“Oh…” She smiled, and it was the kind of smile I usually saw on Delilah when we were doing something sexual. It was a confident smile. It looked good on her and I was glad to see it. Feeling confident was a great feeling. “Well then, in that case, um...let’s do it.” She paused, frowning. “Although...I guess, I have to ask, do you have any STDs?”

“No, not as far as I know,” I replied. “And I’ve got that gold mesh birth control implant.”

“Oh! Yes, I’ve heard of those. Well...I guess that’s good enough for me,” she said.

“Very glad to hear it,” I said, getting to my feet. “Now, as much as I would love to jump you here and now, I have some winding down to do to prepare for bed that I know I’m not going to want or probably even be able to do after I’ve fucked you.”

“We can wash up while you work,” Megan suggested.

“Oh God, can we?” Elizabeth asked. “I haven’t washed up in days.”

“Wash up good, because I’m going to go down on you,” I said.

“Are you fucking serious?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“He’s good, too,” Megan said.

“Holy shit. I haven’t been gone down on in fucking months. Over a year. Jesus. Okay, yeah, get me soap, water, a rag, I’m going to fucking scrub.”

I laughed and headed downstairs to get to work.

I was quite eager to turn in for the night.

TWELVE

It was tough to do a thorough job, being as excited as I was about fucking Elizabeth, but I made sure to go slowly and do it right.

I had never been with a pregnant woman.

Okay, maybe I had. I knew that it was entirely possible to miss the fact that a woman was pregnant during the first few months. But I had never been with a noticeably pregnant woman. I’d heard stories that sex with noticeably pregnant women was really fucking good. It just felt better. Plus, given how much your own personal level of attraction to a person could affect the encounter, well...let’s just say that I was super into Elizabeth.

And in a way that I wasn’t quite into Megan or Delilah.

I hoped there wasn’t a jealousy issue in my near future.

I made sure we were secure, then grabbed the boiling water and carefully moved it upstairs so it could cool and I could replenish the water we’d used so far. As I came back upstairs, I saw that all three women were completely naked and in the process of washing up. I set the water carefully down on the floor, out of the way, and then simply stared.

Elizabeth had a very great body, and looked fantastic naked.

She was pale all over, her skin mostly smooth. I could see some stretch marks coming in, but that genuinely didn’t bother me. As I’d suspected, she had a fairly petite frame. Even seven months pregnant, her thighs were more pleasantly padded than thick. Same with her hips. Her breasts, on the other hand…

Damn. They were nice.

Big. Very big for her small frame.

She was maybe five four and somewhere north of a hundred and thirty pounds by now, and packing some double-ds.

She blushed and covered herself when she saw me looking. Delilah was helping her wash her back.

“You’ve got nothing to be concerned about,” I said as I walked over.

“It’s nice to hear someone like you say that,” she murmured, looking up at me. “Fuck, you’re tall.”

“Kinda,” I agreed, taking my coat off and hanging it from a hook probably meant for a robe. “It’s more that I’m broad in the shoulders and built. It makes me seem taller. But I am above average,” I continued.

“I like it,” she said quietly, still staring at me. Then she looked down at herself, slowly lowering her hands until they were settled on her belly. It seemed like something she did a lot, maybe without realizing it by now. “I’ve been married for ten years,” she said. “And we were together for two years before that. Met him when I was twenty and in college. I never cheated on him. Not once. And it wasn’t like I had an extensive history before we met, either. Just two boyfriends. So I’m not...experienced. And it’s been a very long time since I’ve been with someone besides my husband.” She paused. “God, over a decade,” she marveled.

“Elizabeth,” I said, my tone serious enough that it immediately got her attention. I came to stand before her, trying not to be intimidating, while also trying to convey my seriousness. “I want to be absolutely clear right now, before we go any further: if you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to. I don’t want you to feel like you have to sleep with me in exchange for helping you.” I paused. “Even though that is literally the arrangement I have with Delilah, but she’s the one who made the offer. And I don’t want you to feel like I’m going to leave you behind or treat you worse if you suddenly withdraw consent. Okay?”

She was smiling even before I had finished.

“Told you so,” Megan murmured from behind me as she cleaned up.

“I understand, Chris,” she said, then laughed a little. “God, I feel like I’m finally cashing in on all my bad luck. With all the bullshit that’s been happening for so long, it’s about fucking time something goes right. You’re a true gentleman, and I appreciate and understand what you’re saying. Despite how desperate I am, I don’t feel like you’re coercing me in any way. I’m comfortable with this.” She hesitated. “Okay, I’m not completely comfortable with this, but I want to explain that, just so there isn’t any misinterpretation on your part. If I hesitate, or seem uncertain, while we’re, uh, doing it, it’s not because I don’t want to.”

She paused, added emphasis. “I really want to fuck you, Chris. Let me be clear about that. I want to fuck you so bad. But if there’s any uncertainty on my part, it’s because I’ve got a voice in my head screaming at me ‘oh my fucking God, you are cheating you fucking whore what the fuck is wrong with you!?’. Does that make sense?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I get it.”

“Good. That, combined with the fact that I haven’t fucked another guy in over a decade is...it’ll take some getting used to. But I so want to do this, and I absolutely am not backing down from this opportunity. Now...can I please see you naked? I’ve been wanting that pretty badly.”

I laughed, blushing despite myself. “Uh, yeah.”

“There,” Delilah said as she finished washing her back and the backs of her legs. “You’re all clean.”

“Thank you so much. You are such a fucking sweetheart,” Megan said.

Delilah smiled as she came around the front, looking her up and down. “Well, I am, but I also have an ulterior motive.”

Elizabeth looked at her for a moment, then looked startled, then blushed. “Oh, wow. I, um, I guess that should have been obvious. You two seem so comfortable getting naked around me…”

“No pressure,” Delilah replied.

“It’s not that I’m not interested, exactly, just...inexperienced? I’ve never actually been with another woman before...but I’d like to, if I’m being honest.”

“Well, you sure met the right women. Especially with regards to Delilah.”

“Why especially her and not me?” Megan asked.

“You aren’t exactly the most welcoming of individuals, love,” Delilah replied, saving me the trouble. Her initial jealously of Delilah had faded a lot, I think it had to do with her sort of conquering her in bed, something I had no doubt Delilah had meant to happen, so she tended to fight with our redheaded lover a lot less than with me.

“Whatever,” Megan replied, rolling her eyes.

“Am I wrong?” Delilah asked, walking up to her and cupping her bare breasts.

“I guess not,” Megan admitted, then she kissed Delilah while grabbing her ass.

“Wow, you three are...I feel like I’ve only ever seen relationships like this in porn,” Elizabeth murmured as she watched, looking almost mesmerized.

I knew how she felt. To someone who probably hadn’t seen much in the way of live performances of sex, this had to be something else. There was something much more powerful, much more visceral, about actually seeing two (or more) real, live people doing it in the flesh. Well, this was going to be quite the experience for her.

Elizabeth’s attention turned to me as I stripped. She sat down on the bed and watched me with hunger in her gaze. I had to admit, it was nice to be looked at like that. Especially by someone who was so attractive. I sensed some hesitation there, like she wasn’t sure if I would go for her, when it should have been obvious. I wondered if it was the pregnancy. I’d known women to suddenly get very self conscious about their looks while pregnant and after, and I could at least partially comprehend. Pregnancy must take a toll on you, physically, and it seemed like the women underwent such rapid changes that it must be kind of freaky.

Shit, if my body suddenly started changing shape and flooding hormones over the course of a few months, it’d freak me out too.

But I wondered if there was more to it than that. I knew it was almost never simple. Sure, some women knew they were hot and owned it, for better or for worse. But I’d seen absolutely gorgeous women insist they were ugly or, at best, plain. I’d seen skinny women insist they were overweight. And that was just brutally miserable to watch, because I imagined it was so much worse to live. Society did a lot of damage.

Or sometimes just one person in our lives.

I shook off the unhappy thoughts and finished getting naked. I didn’t know much about her, but I had a good impression of Elizabeth. Maybe that was just my dick talking, but I thought she deserved to just have a night of fun. No worries, no anxieties, no concerns. Just fun. And what was more fun than having great, risk-free, (or as close as you were going to get to it), sex with an attractive stranger? I began washing up.

“Wow, you are something to look at,” she murmured.

I just shrugged and kept washing.

“You’re awfully shy for someone so big and take charge...how old are you?” she asked.

“Twenty five,” I replied.

“Really? Wow, I thought you were older. Shit, I thought you might even be older than me. And for the record, I’m thirty two. I guess it doesn’t really matter.” She paused and looked down at herself, then looked like she was going to say something else, seemed to think better of it, and instead opted to silently watch me finishing up.

Yeah, it definitely felt nice to be looked at like that by someone who looked like her.

I noticed her eyes stray several times to my left, where Megan and Delilah stood. They had pulled the other mattress into the room while I was downstairs finishing up, and now they were laying down on it, nude and clean and beautiful, embracing, kissing, caressing. Megan let out a moan as Delilah’s hand found its way in between her thighs.

“Wow,” Elizabeth whispered. “I’ve never, um, actually watched anyone have sex before.”

“It’s wild, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes. It really is. Wow.”

I finished up and sat down on the bed beside her. She looked at me for a long moment, then took my hand and guided me towards the middle of the bed. We took a moment to carefully arrange ourselves, lying side-by-side, facing each other. She stared at me intently for a moment, then reached out and ran a hand across my face. My beard was definitely coming in. I hadn’t shaved in about two weeks at this point, and it was starting to bug me. Her touch was warm and gentle. She smiled, and I could read the nervousness in her face, her body language. This was going to have to proceed at the pace she set.

After another moment, she leaned in, hesitated once, then put her lips to mine. There was a wonderful moment of elation that came from kissing a new woman, an attractive new woman, and I deepened the kiss slightly. She moaned, a small sound that seemed to startle her, like she hadn’t meant to, so that had to be a good sign.

I gently cupped one of her big breasts in my grasp and I made a similar sound. Fuck, did she have some great tits.

We moved slowly. I got the feeling part of it was because she was anxious about being with a new person for the first time in twelve years, part of it was out of a desire for enjoyment. I was making sure to be careful. For a number of reasons, but also because it was obvious that she was making herself very vulnerable here, and I didn’t want her to feel like that had been a bad decision. I wanted her to come away from this encounter feeling great.

She slowly deepened the kiss as we made out, and eventually her tongue worked its way into my mouth, and as I wrapped and twisted mine with her own, I got to enjoy her unique, natural taste. I continued groping her breasts, massaging them gently as we made out, and then slid my hand down. I meant to go to her hip, but damn if my hand didn’t slide to her belly instead. I felt her shift, almost jump, and I broke the kiss.

“Sorry,” I murmured, raising my hand.

“No,” she said, taking my hand and gently laying it back across her stomach. “No, it’s okay. Just unexpected. It’s sensitive...but okay. More than okay, it’s welcome,” she added, smiling at me, her face barely an inch from mine.

“All right,” I said, and resumed kissing her.

I ran my hand over her rounded belly for another moment, my movements careful and slow, until finally it wandered off and found her hip. Then down lower, to her thigh. She had some great thighs. After a moment, she gently pushed me away.

“Hold on,” she murmured. “Um...here, help me get a pillow under me, to support me.”

I did as she asked, and as I did, saw that Delilah and Megan had stopped in their lovemaking to watch the two of us now. Once she was settled, I began to pleasure her. My fingertip sought and found her clit, which I gently began to massage, and my lips found her nipple. She let out a gasp, then a loud, long moan of surprised pleasure.

“Oh my fucking-oh!” she cried, twitching. “It’s been...fuck! Months.”

“Seriously?” I murmured, pausing briefly as I sucked on one of her big breasts.

“Yes. My husband-ah! Ah! Yes!-really fell out of sex. I swear he was getting it somewhere else, but I think-oh my God!” she cried and abruptly began to orgasm. For a long moment she devolved into a shuddering, writhing mass of pleasure, letting out a series of inarticulate sounds of pleasure. I continued licking across her breasts, her nipples, and rubbing her clit, trying to get the most out of her orgasm for her.

When she was finished, she went slack and I slipped a finger into her. She let out a fresh yell of ecstasy.

“Oh fuck,” she moaned, panting. “Oh wow. I’m not sure what it is, but orgasms are more intense now. Or maybe it’s just you. Holy shit...anyway, I thought it was because I was pregnant. I kind of got the idea that it turned him off.”

“If that’s true, it’s so fucking weird,” I said. “And it doesn’t matter now. Don’t think about him. It’s just us tonight.”

“Yes,” she whispered, running her fingers through my hair. “Just us. You’re right. I’m going to...ahhhhh fuck...enjoy this.”

I kept fucking her with my finger and sucking on her tits until I made the switch to oral. I got down quickly in between her legs and set right in, massaging her clit now with the tip of my tongue. She let out a series of loud, long, blissful moans of pure pleasure as she grabbed my head. I had her coming inside of another sixty seconds.

“Oh fuck! Just fuck me! Now!” she demanded as soon as the second climax had run its course.

“You got it,” I replied, happier than hell to plunge my throbbing cock into that sweet, pregnant vagina. I very much wanted to know what it felt like. “Can I come inside you?” I asked as I got into position between her spread-open legs.

“Yes,” she replied, hesitating only briefly.

I’d gotten used to doing it with Megan and Delilah, but sometimes I forgot what an intensely intimate thing that could be.

And now I was going to get to enjoy it with this beautiful woman named Elizabeth.

I let out a low, long groan as I slid into her.

She was fucking tight.

And wet as hell.

And the heat of her pussy…

It did feel different. I don’t know if that was just the power of the mind, but damned if that pussy didn’t feel just fucking amazing.

“Holy shit! You are fucking big!” she gasped, staring down the length of her pale body at me, her eyes wide, face flushed.

“And you are really fucking wet and tight,” I groaned in response as I slid slowly into her.

“I mean fuck, this might be the biggest dick I’ve ever taken,” she panted.

“Is it going in okay?” I asked.

“Yeah. Fine. It’s...fuck, it’s big, but I like it. I really like it,” she groaned. “Fuck! I never thought I’d be one of those shallow girls on about dick size but damn if this isn’t nice.”

“I get the feeling it’s different for everyone,” I replied, breathing slowly, nice and smooth, as I got into that pussy. Fuck me she felt so good. It absolutely was not bullshit: pregnant vagina felt good on a whole other level. “I’ve met women smaller than you who can absolutely take a pounding from this dick, and I’ve met women taller and bigger than you who have a lot of trouble handling it. Oh yeah. Holy shit, that’s good pussy.”

I quickly got lost in her, going a bit harder and faster now that I had the green light. She was fucking enjoying herself quite a lot, I could tell, and her big, fantastic tits started bouncing as I thrust deep and hard into her. And I gotta admit, seeing that look on her face, how much she was enjoying this, was making me feel a little cocky.

Shifting forward, careful of her belly, I put my hands on either side of her head and looked down at her as I stroked my whole length smoothly into that slick, hot, pregnant vagina of hers. Goddamn did that feel good!

“You like that?” I asked.

“Ugh yes…” she moaned loudly.

“I’m bigger than your husband,” I said, and she nodded emphatically.

“Yes. Much bigger. Fuck. Oh fuck it’s really good…” she groaned.

I started going a bit harder and she cried out. I wanted to make her come. I needed to make her come because I was so damned close to coming myself. I was just about to reach down and start rubbing her clit when it happened. Her eyes suddenly popped open and she let out a shout of pure bliss and then…

“Aw fuck…!” I moaned as her vaginal muscles clenched and fluttered around me, a hot gush of her sex juices escaping from around my dick as I kept thrusting into her. There were so many things to enjoy about her, and I saw them all as I switched back to just resting on my knees, looking over her body as I fucked her orgasming pussy.

The curve of her hips.

The sight of my cock disappearing into her pregnant pussy.

Her huge breasts, swaying and bouncing.

Her beautiful face, twisting and writhing in bliss.

What really did it for me, and I felt bad about it, was when I saw the ring on her finger. The knowledge that I was fucking a married woman, and that her husband would almost certainly gladly put a bullet in my head if he found out I’d done it, hit me like a hammer. It was fucked up, and probably some old, caveman part of the brain, but there was no denying that there was in fact a primal and perverse satisfaction in fucking someone else’s significant other. And it only was heightened if you knew they really didn’t want you fucking their wife. Yeah, I felt like a piece of shit for getting off on that, but right then I did not give a fuck.

Sounded like this asshole deserved it.

So I shot my load into that pregnant, married vagina with a deep, intense, and probably somewhat dark satisfaction.

I heard myself first groaning, then crying out as I started coming inside of her. My cock twitched and spasmed and kicked, jerking violently, each contraction releasing a fresh spurt of my seed and sending a shockwave of total fucking rapture throughout my whole body. It was like how I imagined hard drugs must feel.

Just pure, uncut bliss.

I pumped her pussy full of my stuff and blew one hell of a load inside of her, draining my nuts into that sweet vagina.

I’m not sure how long the orgasms lasted, but it felt like awhile. Longer than usual. When I was done, I came back into focus staring down at her. She was looking up at me, flushed, hair a mess, body slicked with sweat. My cock still in her pussy, her legs spread wide open. I reached out and ran my hands slowly up and down her thighs.

“I think that’s the best sex I’ve ever had,” she whispered after several moments.

“That was pretty fucking good,” I agreed. “Whew. Shit.”

I glanced over. Delilah and Megan were staring.

“So, uh, good show?” I asked.

“Yes,” Delilah replied emphatically, and then kissed Megan, tackled Megan, before she could say anything. I imagine she was so horny that she needed sex right then and there. Megan seemed equally horny and soon the two women became lost in each other.

“Wow,” Elizabeth murmured sleepily, staring at the two women. “You two are so beautiful. And sexy. I wish I could be that sexy.”

“You are,” I replied as I pulled carefully out of her. Damn, my cock was sensitive now. That had been an intense orgasm.

I had fucking felt that one.

“You really think so?” she asked, then yawned, looking at me. Abruptly, she looked down at herself, where my stuff was leaking out of her. “Oh holy shit you came a lot.”

“I’ll get you a rag,” I replied, getting up.

“Fucking goddamn that’s a lot,” she marveled, sitting carefully up.

“Well, you were an excellent fuck,” I replied.

“I guess so. So were you.” She yawned again as I returned and started helping her clean up. Though we kept getting distracted by Megan and Delilah as they fucked like animals on the mattress on the floor not far away.

All in all, it was a great night.

THIRTEEN

I opened my eyes and for a moment, didn’t know who I was curled up around. She had dark hair and she felt different, that was all I knew.

I thought Megan first, but this was a different shade of dark and the skin was way too pale.

Gray, early morning sun crept in through the blinds of the room I was in. I ran my hand slowly down her body, and then felt the swell of her belly.

That immediately brought everything back to me.

Elizabeth.

That brought a mixture of emotions, most good, some bad. I was nervous, though admittedly relieved. As much as I liked to be prepared, and thought I had prepared for some things, I knew that ultimately it was all too easy to wake up to a gun to your head. Sleep was fickle. Sometimes I was a light sleeper, sometimes it seemed like I could sleep through a fucking marching band. I carefully sat up and looked around.

Megan and Delilah were curled up together on the mattress nearby. They seemed fine. Elizabeth shifted and let out an unhappy sound as the blanket was lifted and cold air got in. I carefully extracted myself from the bed, leaving her to sleep while I got up and quickly washed myself off. There was a lot to do today, and the sooner I got to it, the better. While I prepared, I thought about last night. I’d fucked both Megan and Delilah as soon as they were done with each other, though neither session had been particularly long, given how tired I was.

Elizabeth had been all too happy to watch the live performance.

Once we were done, I’d crawled into bed and promptly passed out, and I don’t remember waking up once during the night. The room was mild, and I could tell the fire must be embers by now. As I finished drying off and began pulling my clothes on, Megan shifted.

“We okay?” she murmured, staring at me through falls of her wild, dark hair.

“Fine, as far as I know. Just woke up,” I replied.

“Mmm,” she said, looking around. “Fuck, I’m still tired.”

“I need your help,” I replied.

“Yeah, I know. Fuck.”

She grumbled and groaned a bit longer, then got up and started washing herself off. I finished pulling all my clothes and gear on and left her to finish getting ready. I wanted to see if anyone had paid us a visit during the night.

I did my thing, checking out the windows, the doors. There was nothing. I got outside and took a walk around the house, keeping an eye out for signs of passage or anyone watching us. Still nothing, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was around. Almost certainly that was paranoia, given the fact that I knew someone was after Elizabeth.

Or, well, trusted that fact.

Still didn’t know for sure.

I tended to the fire, got it restarted and roaring again, then headed back upstairs, where I saw Delilah had come awake and was slowly washing herself off. Megan was dressed and alert, which was good. I broke out cans of food, grabbing the black beans while Megan took a can of veggie soup and Delilah grabbed the surplus beef.

“Try not to finish that,” I said. “It’s our last one.”

The veggie soup had also been our last.

Delilah just nodded. I grabbed the thermos of last night’s dinner that I’d set near the opening in the chimney to keep it warm, as well as a bottle of water kept cold, and gently woke Elizabeth up. She came awake pretty quickly.

“Yeah?” she asked, looking alarmed.

“It’s okay. Just morning,” I said, and pointed to the thermos and bottle of water. “Breakfast. I need you to eat up and listen carefully while I lay out the plan. Then you can go back to sleep if you want.”

She nodded, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. The blanket fell away from her, exposing her bare, pale, wonderful breasts.

I made myself focus.

“Everyone listen up,” I said as I peeled open the can of beans. “Our main goal is to get across that river. Sooner we can do that, the better. Now, from what I saw, it’s just too steep on this side of the highway. The only way across is on the other side, where those cabins were, along the riverbank. So that’s where we’re headed. The ice should definitely be thick enough to hold us at this point. But we’re running low on food, now more than ever, and so I have got to go hunt something. Anything. I’ll be going alone, and I’ll go as fast as I can. Regardless, I’ll be back in an hour. If we need to, we can hunt on the move, or maybe get lucky and find some food in some of those buildings over there. Though I’m not sure what kind of time we’ll have. Your husband and his pals could be in the area, or long gone by now, and-”

I froze and Elizabeth barely managed to stifle a small shriek as someone pounded on the door downstairs.

“Shit,” Megan growled.

I pulled out my pistol and stood up, setting the beans aside.

“Elizabeth, get some clothes on and get in the closet,” I said. “Delilah, stay in here. Megan, you stay up here, near the stairs but out of sight, in case I need you. Understand?”

They all told me they did. Megan joined me while Delilah helped Elizabeth get her clothes on. Well, great.

This could be anything, but I thought it was her husband.

Time to face the music.

I came down the stairs nice and easy, boots sounding heavy, keeping a close eye on the front door while glancing quickly to whatever windows were in sight of the stairs. Just one, and no one seemed to be peering in. The front door was solid, no window there. I kept my pistol out and in hand, a reasonable precaution, I thought, but I kept it aimed down. I thought I was a quick enough draw for it to count, but don’t we all think things like that?

I got up to the door. “Who’s there?”

“My name is Jack Patterson,” came an amicable enough voice, and I knew at once I was dealing with Elizabeth’s husband. “I’m looking for my wife. She’s gone missing. I was hoping you could offer some help, tell me if you might have seen her.”

I paused. “You alone?”

“No, I’ve got two associates with me. They’re helping me.”

“Fine, I’m opening the door, hands where I can see them,” I replied.

“Fair enough.”

He sounded pleasant enough, but his tone rang hollow, like a politician or salesman.

Honestly, those were the same thing.

I opened the door and found three guys looking at me. One of them was a big dude, bigger even than me, and he looked dangerous. He was muscle, no doubt about it, so he was the obvious threat. The second guy was smaller, thin. I half-expected him to look furtive and anxious, but he didn’t. He was oddly calm, just looked back at me with a flat expression. He had a rifle slung over his shoulder. Hunter or sharpshooter. Great.

The guy in the middle was, I had no doubt, Jack. Elizabeth’s husband. Ex-husband. He looked to be in his late thirties, pale, dark hair, still wearing a nice coat and good pants and boots even with Armageddon having come and gone.

‘Nice’ as in expensive, not functional.

The smile he offered me was one that I think would have fooled most people. It rang hollow, though.

Again, I found myself thinking of politicians, or maybe lawyers.

“Thank you for opening the door,” he said, and offered his hand.

I almost took it, more out of reflexive action than anything else, but I stayed my hand. “All the same, I think I won’t shake. You understand.”

He nodded as if he did, lowering his hand, and if it bugged him, he kept it off his face successfully. I wondered if I should dial back the paranoia and suspicion, which bordered on open hostility, but then I thought no, this was natural. Three dudes, two of them openly armed, (I saw a pistol on the hip of the big guy), showed up unannounced on my doorstep. Grin or no, I thought I was right to be paranoid even if I wasn’t expecting them.

“I’ll cut to the chase,” Jack said. “My wife, who is quite pregnant with our child, has gone missing. I’m not entirely sure if she might have been kidnapped or run off on her own. I think it’s possible she ran off, though.” He stared at me for a moment, as though sizing me up, and an ugly smile replaced the politician’s smile. This one had more truth in it, and it was ugly not just because I recognized it for what it was, but because it was oddly collaborative, like he’d become aware of the fact that the two of us were in on a dirty little secret together.

Sure enough, the next words out of his mouth were: “I can assume that a man of your...stature, in this new world, knows how those fucking bitches can be.”

Ugh. Fuck. Here we went again. But I kept it off my face, even put a small, knowing smile on. Because here was an opportunity. If he believed that I was the kind of person who would help him out, he’d probably leave. That could backfire. If he thought I was the kind of person who treated women like he did, then he’d also probably conclude that I’d just keep his wife if I had her and lie to his face. But it was worth a shot.

“I’ve got a few of my own, I know what you mean.”

That damned smile of his only grew. “Fucking whores,” he said, and he said it with casual contempt that not only did it twist my guts, but it stamped out any and all concern I might’ve had about the validity of Elizabeth’s claims. “Have you seen her?”

“No,” I replied. “Haven’t seen anyone out this way for awhile. But I’ll keep an eye out.”

“I’d appreciate it. I’m very willing to offer a reward for her return, should she turn up.”

“What’s she look like?”

“A little on the short side, very pale, black hair, thin but noticeably pregnant.” His face soured very slightly as he said this last thing, and I suddenly had the intuition that Elizabeth’s own intuition about why he hadn’t slept with her for awhile was true. Not necessarily the cheating part, (although given how he seemed to feel about his wife of a decade, I was almost positive he was or had been), but about the pregnant part.

Still weird.

“I’ll grab her and hold onto her if I see her,” I said.

“I’ll come back and visit tomorrow or the day after. We’re going to keep searching.” He paused. “I’d appreciate it if you were careful with her.”

“Of course,” I replied. “No damaging the goods.”

He smiled his ugly smile. “Knew you’d understand. Well, good day.”

“Good day,” I replied, and closed the door as they started walking away.

I frowned, waiting, listening, coming down from the anger. Shit, I would have been a good actor. With a soft sigh, I turned and moved back upstairs.

“Are they gone?” Megan murmured softly from where she waited, just out of sight.

“Yeah,” I replied. “You heard that?”

“Yes.” She paused. “Sorry they believed you.”

I let out a small, bitter laugh. “Well, it served its purpose,” I replied. How many abusive assholes were going to look at me and see one of their own? But I didn’t have time to dwell on that, not right now, and even so, did it matter?

What I did mattered, not what I looked like.

I had to keep reminding myself of that.

We rejoined Delilah and Elizabeth. Delilah was carefully peering out one of the shuttered windows.

“See anything?” I asked.

“Yeah. They’re heading back towards the highway.”

“All three of them?”

“Yes.”

“Keep watching them.”

“Okay.”

I moved to the closet and opened it up. Elizabeth stood inside, hugging herself, wearing a t-shirt and some leggings. She looked frightened. Not angry or resolute or anything else. Just scared. I felt bad for her, worse than before now.

“Are they gone?” she asked in a quiet, unsteady voice.

“Yes. They’re gone. They don’t think you’re here,” I replied. I opened my arms. “Come here, Elizabeth.”

She didn’t hesitate this time. She immediately hugged me, and I enfolded her in my arms, hugging her back. After maybe ten seconds, she started crying. That hurt my heart, and I held her a little closer to me. Then I started stroking the back of her head, feeling her soft hair.

“Don’t worry,” I said to her. “I’ll keep you safe.”

She said something into my chest as she cried but I couldn’t understand. I guess it didn’t matter too much because she didn’t try to articulate herself. Just kept crying. We stayed like that, standing in the doorway to the closet, for close to five minutes. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to go right now. Yeah, I had to hunt, but I wanted to wait at minimum a good half hour, maybe an hour, for those assholes to get farther away.

I did not trust them not to come back and try to assault, if not kidnap, Megan and Delilah. Even though I trusted Megan and even Delilah to put up a fight...I’d rather they not have to go through that again if at all possible.

Finally, Elizabeth stepped back and rubbed at her eyes. Megan appeared silently at my side with an old t-shirt she’d probably found somewhere in the room, and offered it to Elizabeth, who thanked her, took it, and blew her nose and tried to clean up with it.

“Fuck,” she muttered. Then she tossed away the dirty shirt when she was done. She looked up at me. “I’m sorry...and thank you.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about,” I said. “And you’re welcome.”

She let out a small laugh that was less bitter than I thought it might be. “I don’t know if you heard but...when you told me you’d keep me safe I said that I believe you. And I do. Maybe it’s stupid, but...I believe you, for better or for worse.”

I nodded knowingly. “I understand. You can never really know until that moment of truth comes. I don’t know what more to tell you than I already have.”

She smiled a slightly forlorn smile. “You’ve said all you can by now, Chris. I guess we’ll see how the next few days plays out. But I do trust you. The three of you. Whether that’s desperation speaking or intuition, I genuinely don’t know, but I just hope I’m right. But I don’t want to talk about trust anymore.”

I nodded and made way for her. She stepped out of the closet and walked back over to the bed, slowly, carefully. I guess you must feel even more vulnerable during times like these if you were carrying another life around inside of you. I know if I was pregnant I’d be fucking terrified of tripping even a little.

Something ugly occurred to me and I knew there was no denying it. I thought of putting it off, but knew that was a bad idea. Instead, I walked over to her and sat down on the bed beside her. “Elizabeth, there is something we need to talk about. Something I can’t put off. It’s ugly and miserable, but we need to discuss it.”

“What?” she asked, steeling herself.

“I may have to kill your husband.”

She didn’t quite relax, not exactly, but she didn’t react negatively to it. Instead, she just looked sad. Maybe a little defeated.

“I know,” she said quietly. She looked down at her ring, started twisting it on her finger. “He’s my ex-husband now. I knew that the moment I chose to walk away. To run away. I’d have gotten rid of this fucking thing, but it’s probably worth a lot to someone. Plus, that old rule still applies in this new world, though not as much, maybe. About how some women wear a ring in public, even if they’re single, just to keep guys from hitting on them. Doesn’t work all the time, but hey, I’ll take fewer guys bugging me, or, in this case, trying to fucking snatch me.”

“Yep,” Delilah and Megan said with a resigned bitterness that hurt to hear.

There were definitely things women had to deal with that I knew I never had to or would.

“I get it,” I replied. “So…”

She sighed softly. “I hate that it’s come to this, but yes. I won’t try to stop you and I won’t hate you if you have to do it. Honestly...I don’t think he’ll stop anyway. I think, unless I know he’s dead, I’ll always be looking over my shoulder. If it was just me, he probably would’ve let me go, but now that I’ve got our child in me...no. He won’t stop.”

“There’s another thing,” I said after a moment. She looked at me. I shifted uncomfortably. “There’s something about me that brings out the worst in some guys. I think it’s really easy for assholes to see me as ‘one of the guys’. The way he was talking about you...he definitely seemed like he was trying to get a piece of property back.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I guess I’m not surprised.”

“You want to talk about it?” I asked.

She considered, then shook her head. “Not right now.”

“What do we do?” Megan asked.

“Wait for another twenty minutes at least, see where they go. If they leave completely from sight, we stick to the plan.”

FOURTEEN

I ended up waiting about forty minutes in total, just to be safe.

They got up onto the highway and started walking back the way we’d initially come from, and walked out of sight of the house. I waited a little bit longer, then finally decided enough was enough. It was time to go to work.

Megan wanted to come with me, but I had her stay. I went alone, taking the rifle and the bare minimum of survival gear with me, wanting to move light. After double-checking that we were still secure, I made sure Megan and Delilah started getting everything ready. Make sure stuff was washed, water was replenished, basically that we could up and leave right away if we had to. And I think it was a testament to how much the past few days had drained her that five minutes after we wrapped up our conversation, Elizabeth crawled back into bed, and five minutes after that, she was fast asleep. Which was good, she needed her rest.

There were a lot of long days ahead of her.

The skies overhead were low and gray, and a thin mist clung to everything as I walked away from the house and into the forest behind it. This was probably what led me to comparing the stands of dead trees to collections of headstones. Nothing but dead wood and snow everywhere, all of it presided over by miserable slate skies overhead.

Rifle in hand, I stalked carefully through the woods, making sure to maintain my notion of where the house and highway were so I could find my way back. I was good with navigation, but it wasn’t impossible that I’d get lost out here, and now was really not the time for it. While I hunted for the deer with a little more desperation than normal, I thought about my situation. I’d traveled in groups before, but I’d never so clearly been in charge. In spite of her personality, I could tell by now that Megan saw herself as second-in-command.

Even if she might not admit that.

And that wasn’t me just chest-puffing and feeling important. At least, it didn’t feel like it. It was more just me recognizing reality for what it was. I didn’t necessarily want to get into a fight over who was in charge and I was willing to listen to and act on ideas if I thought they made sense, but I thought the true importance of someone being in charge and making decisions was that you ultimately got shit done. Right now was a lot closer to a ‘we don’t have time to argue, just do what I say’ situation than I’d been in for a little while.

Although, thinking back to the past few weeks since meeting Megan and Delilah, maybe that wasn’t quite as true as I thought.

Regardless, however Megan might feel, I could tell Delilah and Elizabeth had fallen in line. They’d do whatever I told them. There was a power trip in there, I’ll admit, but there was also fear, because I knew that a good leader didn’t just tell people what to do, they also took responsibility for the consequences of their orders.

Their lives were now in my hands.

And that was a frightening thing.

Though not as frightening as I expected it to be. The world was a dangerous and shitty place, and I knew that, but I felt surprisingly confident in my abilities to see us through this. Was that just arrogance, or was that actual confidence?

I guess I’d never know for sure, but I also thought someone like Megan was a great barometer. She’d tell me if I was sticking my head up my ass.

I froze as I caught movement ahead and to the right. Staring between the trees, raising the rifle, I spotted a deer. Holy shit, maybe luck was with us after all.

I took aim.

~

It wasn’t all good, but it was as good as it was going to get, I thought.

The deer was small and a little undernourished, but I’d killed it clean, one shot, and that was fine by me. I hurried forward, scooped up my kill, and then started hurrying back to the house. It wasn’t going to provide a lot of meat, but it would probably be enough, I thought. It was going to have to be, anyway.

As soon as I got back to the house, I checked in with the others, who were surprised and happy to see me back so soon. Nothing had happened. While I started gutting and chopping and cleaning the dead deer, Megan and Delilah went about making final preparations to move out. I tried not to work too quickly, but I was starting to feet the pressure. I wanted out of this house, across that river, and out of this region. The sooner we could start putting distance between us and them, the better. If possible, I wanted to avoid a confrontation.

Because it was still all too easy for any of us to end up dead.

In the end, I managed to get perhaps two days’ worth of meals out of the deer for all four of us. Well, maybe two days, if we stretched and fortified it with extra stuff, or rationed it a bit hardcore. It was going to have to do for the moment. Once I got it all squared away, packed into the plastic containers we had with us, I headed upstairs and found the others just about ready to go.

“You should really finish this,” Megan said, handing me my can of beans.

My stomach growled as I took it. “Fuck. Yeah. Forgot about that.” I hastily began eating it and looked at Elizabeth. “How are you feeling?” I asked between bites.

“Better,” she said. “Going back to sleep really helped. I thought I wouldn’t be able to but…” She looked anxiously at the window. “He hasn’t come back, has he?”

“I haven’t seen any sign of him or anyone else,” I replied, and glanced at Megan.

“Nothing. I’ve been watching the highway.”

“Do you think he’s still around?” she asked.

“I honestly don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s possible he left, it’s possible he’s hanging around. And one of his friends had a rifle and looked like he knew how to use it.”

“So what’s the plan, exactly?” Megan asked.

“Delilah and Elizabeth are going to bundle up and hide their faces.” While I had been out, Delilah had gone through and searched the house, coming up with a few more articles of clothing, two of which were quite useful. “Elizabeth, you’re going to wear that ski-mask, Delilah, you’re going to wrap that scarf around your head and pull your cap down low. You’re both almost the same height, and if we bundle you up in the right way, it’ll be too hard to tell from a distance if one of you is Elizabeth. Megan, you’re taking the rifle, since you’re the best shot. Be ready to use it. We’re going to head up over the highway, down through the buildings, and across the river. We’ll go for as far as we can before finding a place to stop. Keep a very sharp eye out for anyone following us. If we’re lucky, we can get out of here without a problem.”

“And if we’re not lucky?” Elizabeth asked unhappily.

“Megan and I are very good shots and…” I hesitated, frowning. “We have experience killing people that need killing.”

“I see,” Elizabeth murmured. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too. Come on, sooner we move, the better.”

~

As I stepped outside, I felt a wave of frustration and even fear hit me.

“Fuck me,” I groaned, looking up as a burst of frigid air smacked into me.

“What?” Elizabeth asked, fearful.

“It’s probably going to storm soon,” I replied.

“Do we want to just stay here, wait it out?” Megan asked.

I stared into the gray skies, considering it for a long moment. This is what it meant to be a leader: the one to make the choices and then deal with the consequences afterwards. And often you had no fucking way to tell if you were making the right call or not. All I truly had to go on was intuition. Just my gut and experience.

“We need to get across that river,” I replied, and started walking.

“But what if we get caught in a storm?” Megan asked. “Or if there’s nothing over there?”

“We’ll get to the riverbank and reassess,” I replied, relenting a little. “But something tells me we don’t want to linger here. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. Worst case scenario, we hole up in one of the other buildings over there.”

Megan knew for a fact that wasn’t the worst case scenario, but she glanced back at Elizabeth and Delilah. Our redheaded friend had been tasked with helping keep Elizabeth upright and mobile. The sleep and food, (and probably sex), had done her good, but it was too easy to fall in snow even under great conditions. I didn’t think she’d shatter if she fell down once, but...let’s just say I wanted to risk as few falls as possible.

Staring at the other two a bit longer, Megan apparently decided to keep her peace. There was enough to worry about and I guess she trusted me to figure it out. That was a good feeling and a bad one. I might be wrong. I might fuck this up and we all freeze to death. As we kicked our way through the snow, towards the highway, I considered how I’d approach this. Really considered it. Because Elizabeth added in a new level of caution. She had been speaking the truth last night, although...I glanced back at her briefly.

I didn’t think she was as much of a burden as she thought she might be.

Well, that’s a classic sign of abuse. How much had her ex-husband worn her down? How much had he belittled and insulted her? How much had he insisted she rely on him for shit? She was obviously pretty tough, even now she was keeping up with us. I went over the plan while I scanned the highway and my half of the area. Megan and I were the lookouts, with Delilah pitching in whenever she could. We’d get up to the highway and spare a moment to take a look around, see if there was anything to see on the other side, or if there was anyone about. From there, we’d get down to the riverbank, which would be a journey on its own.

Once at the riverbank, I’d make the call whether we stop and hole up in one of the buildings down there, or press on.

Shit. I hated this.

But this is what it meant to help people. This is what it meant to lead people and make decisions. And I had absolutely no intention of backing down or choking. Of course, no one ever intends to fuck up, they just do.

We managed to make it back up the ramp and onto the highway without a problem. I sent the women over to the other ramp to scout it and wait for me while I hurried over to the ruined bridge. I took a moment to double-check the semi, (it was a great place to hide, at least temporarily), but there was no one in it. I went on to where I’d stood yesterday and scoped the situation out. The winds were worse now, colder and stronger and more consistent. I looked as best I could at the area beyond the riverbank on the opposite side.

It was hard to tell if there was anything worthwhile. There was just a frozen, rocky shore and a trail leading up into some woods, and the rest was blocked by the rise in the land the bridge was built into. I thought I could just barely make out some kind of structure at the edge of where I could see into the woods, but that might have been my imagination. I glanced skywards, then began hurrying back. I guess we’d find out.

The problem with a storm like this is it might take five or forty five minutes really get going. Sometimes up to an hour.

So basically you were gambling each time.

It was rare, but it might also collapse back into nothing. I wasn’t counting on that. I never counted on that happening, for obvious reasons.

“Anything?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the winds.

“Nothing,” Megan replied.

“I think I see a building on the other side, in the woods. Can’t be sure. Let’s go.”

They nodded and we started making our way down the other ramp. I looked over at the little section of civilization that we were heading for. Not much there. A gas station. A restaurant. Those string of log cabins I’d noticed earlier along the riverbank. A few other places. I’d seen a hundred little pit stops like this, maybe two or even three hundred by now. Sometimes they held people, converted into small settlements, but I think that was becoming a little less popular now. The highway gave people easy access to your settlement if it was just off the ramp, and that kind of thing cut both ways. And I think for a lot of people it had cut the wrong way once too often as a group of assholes with guns came screaming down from the highway.

I didn’t see any movement but I was paranoid that anyone could be in any of those buildings. And we didn’t have time to stop and search them. Damn I hated rushing. If anything was antithetical to this new world, it was rushing. The cold, dead world had taught me, often through brutal means, to take my time with things.

Patience was crucial to survival now.

But sometimes you ended up with situations like this where you just had to hurry up. I looked back over my shoulder at Elizabeth for several seconds as we hit the road and began making our way down it. If I had it right, we could just follow it to the end and make a right turn, and it would take us to the riverbank. I tried to assess Elizabeth, see how she was doing, but it was tough given that she was covered head-to-toe and all I could really see was her eyes and her mouth. Seeing her lips gave me a flash image of her sucking my dick, something that had yet to happen and something I really wanted to happen, and I shook my head and forced myself to focus, feeling guilty. All our lives were on the line right now.

I thought she was winded by now but still going fairly strong.

There still wasn’t anything to see. No movement among the buildings, but it was hard to see into most of the windows. We trudged on, and on, and then further, making our way down the lengthy road. It wasn’t terribly long, but it was still quite a walk, especially in the snow. Or at least it felt that way. As we got to the turn at the end of the road that would lead us down to the riverbank, which sat a mere football field’s length away, I looked at the sky again. I thought that the fact that snowflakes hadn’t started falling by now was a decent sign, even though the winds hadn’t really let up. It was pretty fucking cold by now.

“Chris, we need to take a short break,” Megan said. I looked back and saw that Delilah and Elizabeth were lagging behind.

I considered it, then nodded. It’d buy me some time to think. There was an abandoned car nearby and I worked to get the front door open, then the back door. I performed a quick search and found nothing, but it would make for a decent resting place.

“Here, sit,” I said. “Both of you.”

“Thanks,” Elizabeth replied, panting. I felt bad but we had to keep moving. God fucking knew where her ex-husband and his two asshole cronies were. They both had the feel of hired muscle. Lots of that going around nowadays. Part of me didn’t want to stop at all because I couldn’t help but imagine that rifle trained on me from a quarter mile away.

They sat in the car and I leaned against the trunk with Megan.

“What do you think?” she murmured, first glancing up, then looking around.

“I think we should push on,” I said after a few seconds. “Weather feels stable. Could be wrong, but I really want to get across that river.”

“What if they’re ahead of us?” she asked.

I was silent for a few seconds more. “I don’t know,” I admitted finally. “But if they are, we’ll take them. Guess I’d rather be in the woods than out in the open like this.”

She sighed. “Yeah.”

I expected her to say more, and glancing at her, I thought she wanted to. But she just looked at me very briefly, then looked back the way we’d come, scanning the highway. Again, I thought she didn’t want to upset Delilah or Elizabeth. I looked at the sky one more time, took one more long look around us all the way and, upon seeing nothing obvious, stood back up. It’d been about five minutes now and we had to keep moving.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, coming up to Elizabeth.

She smiled up at me, a little grimly, I thought. “I’m okay. I can keep going.”

I decided to take her at her word. “All right. Let’s move it out.”

They got up and we moved on. The walk down the snowy road was quick and smooth enough, but I was growing more and more anxious as we drew closer and closer to the riverbank. It looked steady, the ice looking thick, but it could be hard to tell. Not everywhere had so thoroughly frozen over. I considered how best to handle the situation as we made our approach, and I didn’t exactly like what I was coming up with. I wanted to go first, but I wasn’t sure that was the best idea, given I was the heaviest.

The river itself was, right here, perhaps thirty feet across.

The other side seemed irritatingly close and yet hauntingly distant.

“Who goes first?” Delilah murmured unhappily.

“I’ll do it,” Megan said. “I’m lighter than you, Chris. And quicker. If the ice is bad, I’ll have a better chance of getting away.”

I nodded reluctantly. It was the same conclusion I had come to.

“Pay attention to where she’s walking,” I said. “After her, Delilah, you go, and then Elizabeth. Stay a few feet apart, move carefully, but as quickly as you can. I’ll be behind you, Elizabeth.”

They all nodded and Megan got right to it, diving in, so to speak.

That woman did not lack bravery.

I watched her, tensing as she set out, preparing to hurry forward and somehow pull her out of the frigid waters without going down myself if necessary. I listened for that telltale cracking, but it was hard to hear over the heavy winds. And I also forced myself to keep a lookout. Now would be a perfect time to attack, while we’re all distracted.

Megan kept going, one foot in front of the other, making a good enough balance between keeping up a good pace but also being cautious, that I wondered how many times she’d done this before. Finally, she made it over to the other side.

“Seems fine!” she called.

“Okay, Delilah, go now,” I said.

“Yeah,” she murmured anxiously, and headed out. She was hesitant at first, and just as I was about to tell her she needed to pick up the pace, much as I didn’t want to, she started going a bit faster. I turned to Elizabeth.

“Go now,” I said.

She looked at me and for one awful second I was convinced she was going to say ‘I can’t do this’, and something would have to give. Instead, she just nodded, paler than before, and stepped out onto the ice.

While she got going, I took a look around. It was getting windier, and the skies had definitely grown a bit darker than when we’d first set out. I still didn’t see anyone or anything behind us, and Megan looked like she was doing a good job covering her side of the river. I turned my attention back to the others.

Once Elizabeth had moved past the halfway mark, Delilah about three quarters of the way there, I set off. The ice had a decent bit of snow layered atop it, so it wasn’t terribly slippery, but I felt my muscles tense and my guts shift as my body truly registered that I was stepping out onto ice. It was a miserable feeling.

Taking my own medicine, I made myself walk forward.

I put one foot in front of the other, measuring the ice. I was heavier than all of them and now I was a fourth person who had gone over this particular path. I could break left or right, and would if I had to, but so far this path had held true. It just had to hold true for one more person. The seconds went by very slowly over the wind-tortured, icebound river. I kept my eyes ahead, watching the others as I went foot by foot.

Delilah reached the other side and joined Megan, turning to face Elizabeth, who had lagged a little behind. It was getting windier. A particularly strong gust hit me and almost caused me to lose my balance. I saw Elizabeth stumble and felt my whole body freeze in fear. She waved her arms briefly, then found her footing.

Fuck. I hated this.

Even for me a fall on the ice could be very bad. Potentially fatal, if I broke something and caught an infection. We had antibiotics, but they were old, and they weren’t always a certainty anyway. I kept going, forcing myself on, and finally hit the halfway mark. Elizabeth was now maybe three quarters of the way over. I kept expecting a bullet to shriek out and hit me in the back of the head, or maybe just my back.

I’d been in tenser situations before, but this was probably up there.

Finally, Elizabeth made it to the other side. I let out a sigh of relief and kept on walking. As I reached the three quarters mark myself, I felt the ice shift noticeably under me and an ominous cracking sound reached my ears.

“Oh fuck,” I whispered, freezing for just a second.

“Chris, move it!” Megan snapped.

I took another step forward and the ice cracked again. Preparing myself for the worst, I kept going. But the ice held. I took another step. No cracking. Another step and suddenly another particularly strong gust of wind hit me. This time it sent me sprawling. I cried out as I went left, twisting, trying to break my fall. I expected my hands to break straight through the ice, and though I heard an ominous, sharp crack as I hit the ice, nothing happened but pain. It was closer to landing on the ground.

The women shouted my name and Megan actually took a step out onto the ice.

“Stay!” I snapped as I carefully got back up to my feet. It was a laborious process, but I managed it. Pain ebbed and flowed from my hands, my wrists, my shoulders, and one hip and knee, and my neck was hurting a bit too, but otherwise I thought I was okay.

I started walking again, all three of my companions staring anxiously at me.

After way too long, my feet finally hit solid ground, and I let out a long sigh of relief.

“Fuck,” I muttered, standing there for a minute with them all, my legs shaking, body pumping with adrenaline, head pounding.

“Maybe we should take a break,” Elizabeth murmured.

“I think-” I began, then fell silent as, all around us, snow started to come down.

FIFTEEN

“No breaks, keep going,” I said immediately, and started up the snowy embankment.

Right now, the snow was coming down in little flakes. Lots of them, but they were small. And there was a lull in the winds, but that wouldn’t last. I knew what was coming: a storm. A bad one. The kind you didn’t want to be caught out in.

“Let’s go!” I called.

“Where are we going?!” Megan yelled back.

I glanced over my shoulder. She was at the back, behind Elizabeth and Delilah, who were following after me as quickly as they could.

“I thought I saw a building ahead,” I replied, and then kept going. I wanted to confirm or deny that possibility. I wasn’t sure what the fuck we were going to do if I couldn’t find a building. I guess huddle up around a fire at fucking anywhere we could build one where the wind wouldn’t blow it out. There were a lot of trees around, so that was a plus, at least. But I had to act fast. I was at least relieved that we were over the fucking river.

The notion of being forced to go back over it again made me shudder.

Finally, I reached the top of the incline and found myself a few yards shy of the beginning of the forest. There was a slim path through the trees, more of an animal trail than anything else, and...yes! There, I could see it, some kind of building maybe a football field’s length away, ahead and to the right a little bit.

“There’s a structure!” I called. “A cabin or something, come on!”

That got them moving. I kept watch while they came up after me. Still no sign of bad guys, but the snow was enough of a problem. I got my pistol out as the women reached me and then began to lead the way into the woods. The next several minutes passed in terse silence, (save for the blowing winds, which were already picking back up), as we navigated the trail between the icy dead trees. I kept shifting my focus between the structure we were closing in on and the area around us. If we could just make it there, we’d probably be fine.

The snow began to come down harder after we made it maybe twenty yards through the graveyard forest. The cabin, (I was sure it was a cabin now), was closer, but now less visible in another way as the snow obscured my sight.

Didn’t matter. I had it affixed firmly in my head and I knew we were going to get there. So long as nothing else went wrong-

I caught movement off to my right and snapped my head and the pistol in that direction.

My guts went cold all over again at what I saw.

“Wolves!” I snapped, taking aim.

“Fuck!” Megan yelled.

There were four of them, stalking towards us through the trees, heads down, teeth bared, growling deep in their throats.

I took a step towards them. “Go! Now!”

“Chris-” Megan began.

“FUCKING RUN!” I screamed and fired a shot.

It missed, kicking up snow next to the lead wolf. I might as well have been firing a starting pistol. Though the lead wolf hesitated, the other three took off towards me. The women ran past me, towards the cabin. I backed up several paces, making snap decisions to try and react to the situation as effectively as possible.

All my choices were reduced to one, however, when I saw the leftmost wolf break off and go towards Megan and the others. Cursing, I aimed and fired three shots in rapid succession. The first missed but the other two connected. One punched into its stomach, the other its chest. Blood sprayed on the snow and the thing fell to the ground, yelping.

No time to feel bad about that now, the other three were coming for me.

Two were close and the one formerly in the lead had rediscovered its courage. Shit. This was fucking bad. I aimed and fired again, and my hands were thankfully steady enough that I managed to put a bullet right into the head of the nearest wolf. It went ragdoll and skidded to a halt as it died instantly, kicking up snow as it went. This seemed to only spur the other two on further. Fuck, I didn’t need another goddamned wolf bite. The most recent one had only just finished healing. I fired twice more and missed both times.

The first wolf that came at me presented me with a perfect opportunity to boot it in the face, which was exactly what I did. I brought my foot up in a hard kick that connected with the bottom of its gray-furred head and send it stumbling and whining. The other came right at me, jumping up to rip my throat out.

I dropped the pistol, going on autopilot now, grabbed it by the neck and used my body and its momentum to swing it around. I could feel its jaw snapping closed repeatedly and it fought viciously to wriggle out of my grasp, and it would have successfully done so if I’d held onto it any longer. As it was, I swung it around and hurled the four-legged fucker as hard as I could into the nearest tree. It smacked into the dead frozen bark with a solid, painful sound and let out a yelp of its own. Turning back to the other survivor, I saw it was making another go at me, so I brought my foot up and slammed my bootheel into its face.

That did it.

With a series of high-pitched yelps, it turned tail and ran. Before the survivor could get back to its feet, I snatched my pistol from the snow and took off in a stumbling run towards the cabin. I could see Megan waiting for me by its side, holding the rifle. She shouldered it suddenly and cracked off a shot. I skidded to a halt and turned as something hit the ground behind me. The wolf I’d thrown into the tree had apparently started coming after me, but now half its head was missing. Hesitating for only a second, I doubled back, snatched it up, threw it over my shoulders, and then resumed my loping gait along the trail to the cabin.

Might as well carve one of these bastards up if I was going to be stuck inside for who the fuck knew how long.

“You okay?” Megan asked as I approached through the thickening snowfall.

“Fine,” I replied, wincing slightly. My body still ached from that fall on the ice. “Let’s get inside.”

“About that…” Megan said, and I felt my guts twist yet again.

Fuck, now what?

She led me a little further along the side of the cabin and the problem became immediately apparent: half the goddamned building was missing. It looked like a fire had raged at some point in the past, and it had taken a good half or even two thirds of the structure with it. What had once been a bedroom and living room was now covered in a drift of snow. Delilah and Elizabeth stood near the back of it, by the only remaining intact door.

“Fuck,” I muttered, tossing the wolf down into the snowdrift for the moment. I sighed. “Let’s see what we’ve got to work with.”

Delilah got the door open as I approached and then stepped back for me to check inside. I did, pistol out and ready. It was a bathroom. And not a particularly big one. But it was a room: four walls and a ceiling, intact.

It would do.

“Megan, Delilah, go gather up whatever wood you can and toss it in the tub, now,” I said as I put my pistol away, got out of my pack, and opened it up. “Elizabeth, come here.”

I walked into the bathroom and set my pack down on the limited counterspace available. She came in wordlessly behind me. I pulled out all the spare clothes I could and made a makeshift pillow on the closed toilet lid. Then I pulled out the thermal blanket I had on me and passed it to her. “Wrap yourself up and sit,” I said.

“Okay,” she murmured, wrapping herself in the blanket and then sitting carefully on the toilet. “Thanks,” she added.

“Welcome,” I replied brusquely as I zipped my pack closed and hauled it back on. “Wait here,” I said, and left, mostly closing the door behind me.

It was very cold and it was going to get colder quickly.

The snow was coming down harder now, the wind blowing more powerfully. I joined Megan and Delilah in gathering up whatever wood I could find. The next ten minutes passed miserably, but we managed to gather up enough wood to get a fire going and, hopefully, keep it going for a few hours. The only good thing about this storm was that it was going to be way harder to track us...if that was even a thing that was happening.

I still had no fucking clue if they were long gone or even had been killed in some accident, or maybe by wolves, or another group of assholes with guns.

But I didn’t think so.

We tossed most of the wood into the tub and I assembled it, first opening the smoked-glass window that was built into the wall beside the shower (why was this such a common thing?) a crack to let the smoke out, and then I lit the fire. It was fairly easy, given how dry the wood was, and as I did, a calming, comforting warmth immediately began to fill the room. I let out a sigh of relief and looked at the others.

Delilah was sitting on the counter and Megan stood by the door, which was firmly shut. Elizabeth looked tired and a little dismal sitting on the toilet, wrapped in the shiny thermal blanket.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Fine,” she replied. “I just...feel guilty.”

“Why?” Megan asked.

“For having to rely so heavily on...well, basically the kindness of total strangers.”

“We aren’t exactly strangers after last night,” I said, which made her laugh.

“I guess that’s true,” she murmured, smiling. But it didn’t last for long. She sighed. “I’m sorry for this mess.”

“It isn’t your fault,” Delilah said.

“It’s your ex’s fault,” I added.

“Yeah, I suppose so.”

We all got settled after that. I ended up taking Megan’s place by the door, sitting down with my back to the wall beside it. There was just enough room on the floor for Megan to stretch out and lay on her back, using her pack as a pillow. Elizabeth and Delilah held their positions after squirming around and getting as comfortable as they could under the circumstances. The cracked window did its job, letting in some cold, yeah, but it let out the smoke and the fire kept us warm. As far as temporary setups went, it wasn’t so bad.

It was cramped, to be sure, but for once I didn’t mind.

“Chris,” Elizabeth said after a bit.

“Yeah?”

“I wanted to thank you for last night. It was, uh, really good. I don’t just mean physically,” she murmured, hugging herself, not quite looking at me, “but emotionally. You’re very kind, and I’ve been realizing how much I’ve needed that recently, and how much I honestly needed it during my first real sexual encounter outside of my marriage.” She laughed softly. “Honestly, last night was the kind of night I often fantasized about. Just fucking some hot stranger and it feels amazing and there’s no risk and no consequences…”

“That’s basically what happened,” Delilah said.

“Yeah. I guess I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop…” She looked hesitantly at Megan, then Delilah. “Thanks to you too, for, um, sharing him.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t do jealousy,” Delilah said easily.

“I’m working on it, but don’t worry about me, Elizabeth. You deserved it. Honestly, you both do. You’ve been through a lot and Chris is actually a really great guy.”

I laughed. “I like how you had to add actually on there.”

“Sorry,” she said.

I looked at Elizabeth. “Do you want to talk about...what happened to you?”

“Kind of,” she replied after a bit of consideration. “There isn’t too much, to be honest, now that I’m thinking about it. I guess that’s life: a lot of boring stuff punctuated by occasional moments of great upheaval. Or what seems to be, anyway. I grew up in Wisconsin. Went to college in Missouri. I went for a degree to be a teacher. I wanted to teach elementary school kids. Two years in, I met Jack. He was...I guess kind of typical of what you’d expect of a college guy. He was rowdy and kind of a jackass, but clearly he had charisma and some smarts. He was going into finance. He was going to be one of those rich executives. We met at a party and hooked up and he asked me on a formal date and I figured ‘why not?’.

“We started dating. It got serious by the third year. That was when we got an apartment together. He already had some money from his family. They were paying for college. I wouldn’t say they were wealthy, exactly, but definitely well off. It was nice. He bought me things, paid most of the bills. We graduated and got married. He landed a job in Iowa through his connections right out of college. We moved, rented a house, and I found a job teaching. We had our nice little life for the next three or so years and I…” She sighed.

“Admittedly, I got tired of teaching before too long. I thought it would be my lifelong passion, and in a way, it still might be. I could see myself doing it now...but my way. I hated how broken the education system was, how we were teaching kids what to think, not how to think. I wanted out. Around the time I hit twenty six, Jack got a promotion and a big raise, and some stock options. It was enough to buy a house and for me to quit my job and...basically I became a housewife after that. I thought he’d ask me to get pregnant, and I would have considered it, but it didn’t come up. And for the next few years I just...lived that life.”

“When did you notice the...less appealing aspects of the relationship?” I asked.

She sighed heavily. It was a tired, sad sigh. “I suppose I noticed them from the beginning, in little ways. He had a short temper, but he never got physically violent. He liked to drink a little too much. He was very dismissive of my concerns, but for the longest time he successfully masqueraded that under the guise of ‘being the man who takes care of business’. Once I became a housewife, he pretty much took total control of the finances, which made enough sense at the time. It was his specialty and job. But he started tightening control. I think it would have gotten worse in a certain way if the apocalypse hadn’t hit. But then it became bad in a different way, only I was too scared to really notice or do anything about it. I just…” She paused.

“I just wanted someone else to take care of me,” she admitted, looking down at the floor. “It sounds pathetic to say it out loud.”

“I think most people feel that at one point or another,” Megan said. Elizabeth looked up at her. “You just want to give up, you don’t want to think or make decisions. You just want to be. You want someone else to make things happen. Some people are just wired that way, some people eventually break down that way. Shit, I’ve been there.”

“Really?” Elizabeth asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “Because I’ve gotta admit, Megan, when I look at you, all I see is this hardcore badass. You’re really intimidating, honestly.”

“I don’t feel like that, most of the time,” Megan said, looking vaguely uncomfortable. “I’m just...angry and stubborn. And a good shot. I bet you’d be good at at least some of this survival shit if you put your mind to it. I mean, fuck, look how far you’ve made it, and while being pregnant.”

“Honestly, I have tried to get into survival stuff over the past few months. I think that was part of what led to me leaving. It took awhile, but the shock finally wore off and I wanted a more active role in our decision-making. Jack...didn’t like that. We started arguing more. In the beginning, that worked more often than not. He just told me he’d handle it, whatever it was, and I’d kind of just shut down. Because that’s what I’d done for years. But after I got pregnant...I don’t know. Something changed in me. I wanted, I needed to do more. I started learning from anyone who’d teach me. How to build a fire, what kind of berries to avoid, how to make a rabbit snare, how to ice-fish. That led to more arguments between us…” She sighed again.

“Sounds like you made the best choice you could,” I said after a few moments.

“Yeah. I mean, given the way things have turned out so far, I have.” She yawned. “Fucking hell, I’m tired again already.”

“Why don’t you lay down and try to get some sleep? Megan, Delilah, try to get her a bed thrown together. I’m going to go out and carve up that wolf since we’re stuck here.”

“I appreciate it,” Elizabeth said as she slowly stood up and Megan and Delilah got to their feet.

I headed out and got to it.

SIXTEEN

It took me longer than usual to get that wolf skinned and carved up, because I had to take a few breaks to warm up, but I did it and we ended up with maybe another day, day and half worth of meals. So that was good at least.

We used the opportunity to get our strength back. There was just barely enough room for all four of us on the floor. Barely. It was a tight fight. Delilah and Elizabeth ended up curled up together on a rat’s nest of clothes and thermal blankets. Megan sat beside me, shoulder to shoulder, and we watched over them. Elizabeth slept, and I think Delilah might’ve dozed, but me and Megan really just sat there and conserved our energy.

The winds blew for probably close to two and a half hours.

Finally, they started to let up. When it became obvious that the storm was dying down, I woke Elizabeth and Delilah. We spent ten minutes packing everything back into our respective packs and once my own pack was finished, I pulled out my pistol and headed outside. I scoped out the immediate area surrounding the half-collapsed cabin. The snow had stopped falling and now it was just the wind we had to contend with, which was finally calming the fuck down. I didn’t see anyone or anything out there, but that could change on a dime.

I briefly toyed with the idea of going back and grabbing the other dead wolves, but the snow would have buried them and besides, I still felt the urge to get a move on. I wanted to put some real distance between us and here with whatever daylight we had left. After another few moments, the door opened and the women emerged, looking ready for whatever lay ahead. I hoped we were ready, but it was impossible to tell for sure.

“We good?” I asked after I had gone back into the bathroom to double-check and make sure we weren’t leaving anything behind.

They all reported that they were good and ready to go. Once more, I considered waiting and grabbing lunch, it was probably lunchtime by now, but decided against it. So far, we’d been lucky, I wanted to take advantage of that. So we set off, making our way through the woods, back towards the highway. I didn’t exactly want to get back onto it, but it’d be good to stick close by it and use it as a guide as we pressed on.

Five minutes passed in silence, save for our breathing and the crunching of the snow. That was another thing that still bugged me from time to time: the absolute totality of silence in this new, snowbound world. Snow absorbed all the sound, it seemed, and if you weren’t moving, and there was no wind, it was easy to believe you might’ve gone deaf. Thoughts drifted through my head as I walked on, leading us to the highway.

Now that the most obvious of the danger had passed, I couldn’t as successfully push away the thoughts of Elizabeth.

I wanted to see her naked, pale, pregnant body as she knelt before me and sucked me off. She’d said she wanted to repay me for that oral, so it was most certainly coming in my future. God, how fucking good it would be to blow my load directly into her mouth, between those sweet lips of hers. And then stuff my cock back into that shockingly tight, hot, pregnant vagina and fuck it raw until I exploded once more inside of her and just filled her up. The particular satisfaction of our only sexual encounter (so far) had been out of this world.

Honestly, I got a hard-on just thinking about it.

And this was what I was thinking about as we finally cleared the woods some fifteen minutes later and came to stand on a strip of land maybe twenty yards across. There was the highway again, though it was little more than a road in these parts, and part of the way down it, I could just make out a house sitting in an open space among the trees.

“Think we should check that out?” Delilah asked as we started walking towards it.

“It’s tempting,” I replied, “but I’m not sure if we have the time.”

She nodded in agreement and we kept on going. The next several minutes passed as we tromped our way through the snow, going foot by foot, yard by yard, the scenery passing with a painful slowness around us.

My mind started wandering off again as we walked through the snow. This journey was going to be more difficult with Elizabeth, not that I was going to leave her or make her feel guilty for that. It wasn’t her fault she was in this situation and there was never a question of whether or not I was going to help her. I think...even if Delilah or Megan had objected, I would have done it, even if it meant one or both of them walking away, as painful as that would have been. But not only had that not come to pass, it seemed almost impossible, given what I knew about them. Thank fucking God it hadn’t come to that.

What I wouldn’t give for my car!

Although, to be totally honest, it would’ve been fucked anyway thanks to that bridge. Not like you can fucking drive over a frozen river. Or, well, maybe some you can, but no way would I risk it. But that didn’t matter now. Whatever happened, I’d accepted responsibility for getting Elizabeth somewhere safe and sound, along with Delilah and, in some capacity, Megan. I was comfortable with that, but it meant I needed to take the situation as a whole more seriously than I had been already. Although what, precisely, that would look like I wasn’t sure-

A gunshot rang out and a puff of snow shot up right at my feet.

We all shouted in surprise, me mostly in anger.

“Go! Get in the house!” I snarled as I pulled out my pistol and looked to the right while taking off at a loping run.

No one on the highway.

No one in the immediate area beyond.

I thought I saw a flash of light, what had to be the dim sun reflecting off a scope, somewhere in the treeline maybe a hundred and fifty to two hundred yards away from us, and then there was a real flash of light as the rifle cracked again and I felt something tear at the back of my pants, over my right thigh and that got me moving. I didn’t bother firing as I ducked my head and ran for all I was worth. We were close to the house, thank fucking God, and Megan was already there, kicking the door in and shouting for Delilah and Elizabeth to get in.

I thought I was toast. That last shot had been way too close, I was sure this next one would be the one that knocked the life out of me.

Then I heard another shot, but this one was much closer, and I realized it was Megan who had fired.

“Move it!” she screamed.

I moved it and we stumbled into the house. She slammed the door shut right as a round came shrieking through it, right next to my head.

“Now what?!” Delilah cried.

“Just give me a second!” Megan snapped as she stormed through the house, moving to the right of the main entrance we’d just come in through. I followed her, not quite thinking clearly, and came into a kitchen. She walked up to a window, bashed it out with the butt of the rifle, then tucked the butt tightly into her shoulder and took aim.

“Megan,” I said.

She ignored me completely. I was about to yell for her to get down, because surely this motherfucker had her in his sights, when she fired. The shot was incredibly loud in the dusty, abandoned kitchen, but her laugh after was louder.

“Holy shit!” she cried, sounding genuinely shocked. “I got him!”

“You did?! Seriously?!” I replied.

“Yes! I saw that fucker’s face disappear! God-fucking-damn! Can’t believe-”

Something smashed loudly behind us and we both whirled around even as I heard thundering footsteps. Almost before I could even fully realize what the fuck was going on, a huge, burly figure came barreling through the open doorway at the back of the kitchen. Both Megan and I tried to get our weapons up at the same time to take him out, and it dawned on me abruptly that we had been funneled into this house, that this had to be some kind of a trap, because I recognized this motherfucker. He was one of Jack’s bodyguards.

And then the man smashed into me, fucking tackled me to the floor, and the wind was knocked right out of me. The world went sideways as I went sprawling and my gun went from my hand. I felt strong, really fucking strong, hands go around my neck and start strangling the life out of me. There was shouting, confusion, the rifle discharged and I heard someone else, a man’s voice, yelling. But right now my whole world consisted of this bearded giant who was presently trying to murder me with his bare hands.

My body was panicking thanks to the lack of oxygen and the no doubt primordial response to hands on the neck, given how long we’d all tried to kill each other this way, and my own hands went to work. I made a fist and smashed it into the side of the guy’s head. He seemed ready for it and only loosened his grip a little.

I did it again, harder.

And then I got my other fist into play and brought the two of them together as hard as I possibly fucking could with the guy’s big stupid fucking head in between.

That seemed to get my goddamned message through.

“Get the fuck off me!” I half-screamed, half-gasped as I bucked furiously. He wasn’t moving, though. He probably had a good eighty pounds on me, maybe more. A look of frustratingly mild annoyance came onto his face as he socked me in the eye so hard I immediately saw stars. So I was probably dealing with a fucking sociopath who committed violence as easily as he changed his socks, with the body weight to back it up.

Great.

I returned the favor with a solid punch to his throat as he tried to get his hands back around my own neck and that got his eyes bulging as he gagged and his hands reflexively left my neck and went to his own. I twisted and bucked again and this time he came off of me. There was more struggling and shouting elsewhere in the kitchen and I saw Megan was wrestling around on the floor with someone wearing a familiar fancy coat.

Motherfucker!

They had fucking followed us!

With a scream of rage I leaped onto the burly bastard and started pummeling his face with my fists. My anger that I worked so hard to keep in check was out and this time I wasn’t checking it. I let it be fuel on the motherfucking fire. Something cracked as one of my fists landed and the guy screamed. Good. As I prepared to finish the job, something I knew I had to do fucking real soon or I might lose my nerve, (killing people with your bare hands is not easy work, mentally or physically, I don’t give a shit what the movies or video games might have to say about it), I heard another scream, one that froze my blood.

Megan.

I looked up and saw her going down. She hit the floor and didn’t move. Jack was on his knees, staggering to his feet, his hand going for a pistol on his belt.

“Jack! Stop!” Elizabeth screamed at the top of her lungs from somewhere behind me.

He did stop, turning to look at her, and that’s when the big fucker’s hands found my throat again. I gagged and it suddenly occurred to me that I had a fucking knife in a sheath on my own belt. I reached down, fumbling with it, struggling, and got the clasp undone. Out came the knife as my fingers wrapped around the hilt. I raised it up and brought it down directly into the burly guy’s wide eye, plunging it straight through into his brain.

His hands fell away and he began to do an awful jerking dance beneath me.

I fell off of him and heard Elizabeth scream again, this time sounding incoherent with rage and terror. I looked up as I got onto my hands and knees.

Looked up directly into the barrel of a gun.

Jack was on the other end of it, his face a mask of anger, teeth gritted, eyes wide.

Well, I found myself thinking, I guess this is how I die. That sucks.

Then a bloody hole opened up on his forehead as a loud pop sounded and his head snapped back and the gun jerked away.

He collapsed into a heap.

For a few seconds, I was aware only of my own heavy breathing and my heart thundering uproariously in my ears.

Then I became aware of other things.

The winds shrieking.

Someone panting.

Someone crying.

Megan still hadn’t moved. I crawled hurriedly across the dusty kitchen floor towards her and began to check her over.

“Is she okay?” I heard Delilah ask in a distant voice that sounded nothing at all like her.

“Yes,” I said after checking her pulse. “I think. She’s still alive and breathing, at least.” I thought Jack had decked her in the temple and knocked her cold during their struggle. Slowly, I got to my knees, grimacing at the pain that flowed through my body. I scooped her carefully up in my arms and then got to my feet.

Turning, I looked at the other two women.

They both looked the same: stricken, ashen, staring at Jack’s corpse. Both for a different reason, I suddenly realized when I saw Delilah’s little twenty-two six shooter. Fuck. Was this the first time she’d had to kill someone?

And now Elizabeth was looking at her dead husband. Ex or no, that was going to seriously fuck with her, I had no doubt.

Shit.

Talk about aftermath.

“Come with me,” I said, and walked between them, deeper into the house. We hadn’t even secured it yet.

I walked into the living room, across it, and to a door at the back that led into a hallway that ran the length of the house left to right, dividing it. The first door led to a bathroom, the second led to a bedroom that thankfully had a queen size bed in it.

“Delilah, help me,” I said.

“What do you need?” she asked numbly.

“Pull the blanket back.”

She did so wordlessly and I laid Megan out, rearranged her a little, then covered her up and turned back to Delilah.

“Delilah.” She was staring down at Megan with a slight frown and glazed eyes. I put my hands on her shoulders. “Delilah.”

She shook a little and looked up at me. “What?”

“I know you’re messed up right now, but Megan’s hurt. I need you to watch over her, okay?” I asked. “This is important,” I added slowly.

That seemed to break through a little bit, and the glassy look seemed to fade a little from her eyes. “Okay,” she said, nodding slightly, and she sat down on the bed beside Megan.

I looked around. Elizabeth had drifted after us, but come to a halt in the doorway. She was staring in at us, but not really seeing us. She looked in shock, too, paler than before, her eyes a little vacant. Shit. I walked over to her.

“Elizabeth,” I said, gently taking one hand, “why don’t you sit down?”

“Yeah,” she murmured, then she paused and looked up into my face. “Oh wow, your eye…”

“I’ll be fine, come here,” I said. I knew I was bleeding at least a little, but I continued ignoring it and led her across the room. I sat her down at the foot of the bed, not far from Megan’s feet, and looked at her for a long moment. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” she murmured, but I thought it was an automatic reply.

I got a bandage out of my pocket (I kept a few there for quick cuts) and put it on the cut over my eye. Not perfect, but it’d do the job for now.

She and Delilah were largely running on autopilot. I’d seen it before. Shit, I’d been there before. Violence had a way of doing that to some, even most, people. For a moment, I just stood there and looked over the three of them. This wasn’t exactly an emergency, but it wasn’t a great situation to find ourselves in. I had things that needed doing, the sooner the better, because it was obvious that we weren’t leaving this house for the rest of the day. They all needed a break, and so did I. And with the assholes dead and not chasing us any longer, then there wasn’t really a reason to keep pressing on. Plus, I doubted a long walk was in the cards for any of us.

Megan and I needed physical rest, and we probably all needed emotional rest.

“I have to go take care of some things. Will you be okay?” I asked finally.

They both gave somewhat vague but affirmative answers. I still didn’t like leaving them, but I thought there wasn’t anything I could actually do for them right now, and something I’d been taught by this new world was: you only get so much time, spend it wisely.

So I got to work.

SEVENTEEN

The first order of business was securing the house.

Wasn’t it always?

I took the time to check out the room, looking under the bed and in the closet, just in case someone might be hiding there, because it wasn’t impossible. But the room was clear. And so was the rest of the house, I was glad to learn. No one in the closets, the bathroom, the living room or kitchen or the laundry room I found near the back where Jack and his asshole minion had stormed the place. They’d kicked the door in apparently. I closed it as best I could, same with the front door, and then moved back to the kitchen.

Looking at the two corpses, I suddenly wondered why they hadn’t used their guns to begin with. Then, abruptly, it hit me.

They didn’t want to hit Elizabeth.

And, I reluctantly decided, they wanted to save Megan and Delilah if at all possible. I could easily see them either wanting to ‘make use’ of the two women for themselves personally, or for sale later, or very likely both.

Fucking Christ.

Resisting the urge to kick the corpses, I started patting them down. First, I yanked my knife from the big guy’s head and went about wiping it off on his pants. That guy had really given me ‘get off on killing people’ vibes and I was glad he was dead. How many people had he killed? Well, no one else now, at least.

Once I was done with my knife, I pulled everything I could off of him. First I went through his pockets, and he had some goodies on him. The pistol, first of all. It was a big, giant three-fifty-seven revolver and it was fully loaded. I found a box of bullets that was half full in his pants, which were heavy work pants with lots of pockets, and set it and the gun aside on the kitchen table. I found a big combat knife with a sheath, a box of matches, a switchblade, a battered, old cigarette pack with a dozen hand-rolled cigarettes in it, and some dried out meat wrapped in wax paper. I put the meat back, (didn’t trust it), but tossed everything else onto the table.

I was surprised that the guy didn’t have more on him. The pants were pretty filthy and I didn’t feel like fucking with them, but I got his coat and his boots though. They were in good shape, if a little dirty. Most of the blood had missed his coat, thankfully. With an effort, I hauled his heavy ass out of the house, through the back, and into the yard. I didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do with him, beyond wanting him out of the house, so I just left him there for now and went back inside, then repeated my search with Jack.

It felt weird, searching him.

Really only just because I had banged his wife, well ex-wife, and she was pregnant with his kid, and I knew this was likely going to be a whole thing. Emotions and relationships were rarely cut and dry. He was a piece of shit, sure, and probably he’d been a dick to some degree the whole time he’d known her, but she had obviously loved him, and still kind of did, I thought. It wasn’t easy to just walk away from someone, even if it made perfect sense, even if it was crucial, for most people. And the man she’d spent over a decade with, depended on, married and shared a bed with for years, was now laying dead on this dirty floor.

I just hated him more, because it was completely his fault that she felt so shitty.

Her and Delilah.

If I remembered right, (had it come up? I couldn’t remember for sure right now), Delilah had never had to kill someone before.

That fucked you up.

I knew.

There wasn’t much on Jack, either, which bugged me. A nine millimeter with just a single magazine of ammo loaded into it and none to spare, the gun he’d intended to kill me with. A little flask of something strong that was half-full. A little book of matches. And a handful of jewelry, mostly rings, a necklace, a pair of nice earrings.

Were they Elizabeth’s?

I thought he’d brought them along for quick trading items.

Nothing else. Shit. What was wrong with this picture? Where was all their shit? I knew they hadn’t come tramping for days through the wilderness with just this. Where was their food? Their backpacks?

As I was getting Jack’s coat and boots and pants off (his weren’t filthy and they were nice), it occurred to me that this was an assault. A planned one. So they wouldn’t want to be weighed down. So they would have left them somewhere.

Where?

I began to feel a little disheartened as I finished my search and began pulling Jack out after the other guy. He was easier to manage, at least. But as I finished the job and tossed him down next to his buddy and looked out over the forest behind the house, feeling that disheartened despair getting worse because they could’ve put it anywhere, it abruptly occurred to me where it was: their asshole sniper friend.

And I knew where he was.

Or, at the very least, I was pretty sure I could find him.

I walked back inside, securing the door behind me, and headed back into the bedroom. As I walked into the room, I saw Megan’s eyes were open.

“Chris...you’re okay, thank God,” Megan muttered. She sat up, then groaned and laid back down. “Fuck, I’ve got a ringing goddamned headache...is everyone okay? I mean really?”

“Physically,” I replied.

“Phy-oh,” she murmured, glancing at Elizabeth, who was in the exact same place I’d left her. She’d seemed not to have heard any of this, she was just staring at the floor between her feet, both hands on her belly.

Delilah still had a distant look, too.

“Can you, uh, handle things here? Just for maybe an hour, probably less. I have to go track down the third guy who was sniping us. I want that rifle and all his shit,” I said.

“Yeah...I can manage that,” Megan said, grimacing slightly. Probably even that was asking a lot of her right now, (fuck I hoped she didn’t have a concussion), but she could probably read it in my face that I really needed her right now.

We all needed each other right now, but Delilah and Elizabeth especially needed us to be the ones in charge, getting shit done, because they were down for the count.

“I’ll take care of the bigger stuff once I get back, just...stay with them,” I said.

She nodded, then winced again. “Yeah. Hurry up.”

“I’ll try.”

~

It had warmed up a little outside, which made the walk easier, at least.

I left the house and crossed the highway and got to the trees on the other side without any real problems. I almost slipped once on the road, but that was it. My memory was good, and my ability to visually map out an area quickly was apparently also good. Or maybe it was just boosted in times when someone was trying to murder my ass. Either way, I had a clear impression of where that sniper dick had been hiding and, sure enough, I managed to get to him inside of fifteen minutes. As I approached, I really began to appreciate Megan’s handiwork.

She had, in fact, shot the guy right in the face.

Right in the nose, I think, dead center, but it was hard to tell. His face was fucking ruined, the back of his head blown out in a hideous display of chunky brain matter and skull fragments. And a lot of blood.

Fucking shit, man.

Death could definitely be gross.

But my guess was on the money. I found three backpacks of supplies leaned around a tree just a few feet from the already freezing over corpse. The guy’s hat had come off and I saw the remains of long, dark hair pulled into a ponytail. Ugh. Don’t know what it was, but I never fully liked guys with long hair like that. I know it was a stupid way to judge and I did my best to never actually treat someone bad just because they had long hair, but it always seemed like the guys I ran into with the ponytails were greasy, weaselly assholes trying to rip me off or sell me something fucked up. Like used car salesmen.

I found his rifle and saw it was basically a copy of the one Megan had: bolt action, scope, thirty-ought-six rounds. Looked to be in decent condition, too. Well, that was fine by me. By my count, we were down to maybe a dozen bullets for the rifle. I picked it up out of the snow, dusted it off, and checked it over. It was almost empty, only a single bullet left. Was he a lousy shot or had he just been herding us into that house?

I guess we’d never know, one way or another.

After that, I worked quickly. One of the packs was almost empty, so I consolidated it and its contents into the others. I’d left my own pack behind so that I could carry anything I might’ve found out here. At a glance, I found food, medicine, some more bullets, and some clothes stuffed into the two backpacks. I also found a nice hunting knife, some more matches, some chewing tobacco, and a few other random odds and ends in the guy’s pockets. I stripped him down to his underwear and stuffed everything into the packs, then pulled the heaviest one on over my shoulders, slung the rifle, picked up the remaining pack, and then took off.

It was time to head in for the day.

~

When I got back to the house that was now ours for the time being, nothing had actually changed. Megan was still laying in bed, still awake, at least, and Delilah and Elizabeth were still in their same positions. I didn’t know whether or not to try and convince them to help me with the busywork or let them be, so I settled on checking Megan for a concussion. She answered the questions and I surmised that she probably didn’t have one.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Better now,” she murmured. “I hate laying here, being useless, but that really knocked the fucking wind out of me, especially after the storm and the river. My legs feel like jelly.”

“I know how you feel,” I replied.

She crossed her arms, looking irritable. “Yeah right, you fought that huge guy off and then walked around in the snow for an hour and still are going to do things. I’m fucking pathetic-” she began, her voice lowering in anger.

“Megan,” I said, firmly, putting a hand on her thigh. She looked at me, glared at me really. “You aren’t. You need a break, and we’re lucky enough to be in a position to where you can take on. Just…” I sighed softly. “You aren’t weak, all right? Don’t feed that. You’ll head down a dark path and be in a shit mood all night.”

She stared hard at me for a long moment, and I wondered if she’d dig in her heels and fight me on this, but then her shoulders slumped and she sighed softly. “Yeah, fine, you’re right,” she muttered, then she sat up suddenly. “But you need that cleaned,” she said, looking at my eyebrow.

“Yeah, I do,” I agreed. And because it did need doing, and she needed something to do, and I didn’t quite trust Elizabeth or Delilah to do the job in their current state, I got some medical supplies and let her at it.

“Damn, you’ve got a bad black eye,” she muttered, wincing slightly in sympathetic reaction as she pulled the bandage away. “Ugly cut.”

“No surprise there,” I replied.

I sat through the miserable experience of having a fresh wound cleaned up and finally she placed a fresh bandage over it.

“Probably won’t need stitches,” she said.

“Good.” I stood, looked around. I didn’t like how quiet and staring Delilah and Elizabeth were. Megan looked around as well, then back at me.

“Go on, I’ll take care of everything in here,” she said quietly.

I nodded and headed out of the room.

~

For me, at least, it was mostly calm and normal after that.

I did my stuff for the next few hours. I secured the house, then I got a fire going in the wood-burning stove that we were lucky enough to have and got some snow boiling, then I performed a thorough search of it. I only found a handful of items, nothing really special or important, stuff that might make for good padding to a trade.

Once that was all done, I got to work making our lunch slash dinner. I decided, in light of both our recent surplus and the events of the day, a good, hearty meal of comfort food would probably do all of us some good. I fried up half the deer meat and half the wolf meat, then tossed the wolf meat into a pot of the rest of our mixed vegetables and black beans. I doubted we’d eat all of it, but it’d get us through today and maybe even tomorrow with leftovers.

At some point while I was cooking, Delilah emerged and began searching the kitchen. I realized she was doing her own duty of checking the place over, and I thought to make conversation with her, but the look on her face and her body language said she really didn’t want to talk about it. Twice I checked on Megan and Elizabeth. The first time they looked the same as when I’d left them, the second time Elizabeth had finally laid down. I thought she was napping but it was hard to tell, as she was facing the wall.

Eventually, lunch was done and I served it out after washing some plates and silverware that I found leftover in the kitchen.

Nice little score there, at least.

I managed to get everyone out into the living room, where we all sat around a coffee table. Megan and I ate as normal, but Delilah and Elizabeth only picked at their meals. After about five minutes, I was going to try and strike up a conversation, but abruptly Delilah seemed to gather her courage and spoke up.

“Elizabeth,” she said, and Elizabeth almost dropped her fork as she looked over.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry,” Delilah said, and at once her eyes were filled with tears. “I’m sorry. I had to do it. I-I had to do it. I had to kill him!”

That was as far as she got before dropping her face into her hands and breaking down completely into tears that were extraordinarily painful to watch. I thought Elizabeth might follow suit, but something seemed to resolve in her and abruptly she got up out of her chair and sat down next to Delilah, wrapping her in a hug. Delilah immediately hugged her back, crying loudly, and Megan and I glanced at each other.

I could see the same pain I was feeling written on her features. Neither of us really knew what to do, but Elizabeth seemed to know how to handle it.

Probably this was where she was strong.

For the first few minutes, she just held Delilah and let her cry, murmuring to her, and I did see tears in her eyes as well, but she didn’t cry. I thought she would, before the end, but not yet. After awhile, Delilah seemed to wear herself out, but still hugged herself to Elizabeth.

“Delilah,” she said, and Delilah let out a muffled response. “I know this has been so hard, and I’m not mad at you. You did what needed to be done. I forgive you, if it makes you feel better. And I was going to apologize to you.”

That made her pull back, she looked incredulous.

“Why!?” she asked, bewildered.

“Because my shit of an ex-husband forced you to kill him, and that was horrible for you, and I’m so sorry you had to pull the trigger. He was a monster, I can see that now more clearly than ever before, and this had to go down this way. I hate it, I hate that it did, I wished he would have just gone away, but I knew he wouldn’t. I saw the look in his eyes...he would have captured and forced you and Megan and me into sex and God knows what else. You did the right thing, Delilah, don’t ever question that. You saved Chris’s life, our lives, but I’m sorry you had to do it.”

“I’m sorry too, Delilah,” I said quietly. She looked at me. “I should have been the one to do it. I tried, God knows I did, but it just didn’t work out that way...and she’s right. You absolutely saved my life. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she murmured, looking miserable and tired and bewildered. “God, I hate this so much. This is all awful...I can’t believe I killed him,” she whispered.

“I know,” Elizabeth said, hugging her again.

“How long will it take to get over, Chris? Megan?” she moaned as she hugged Elizabeth back.

We shared an uncomfortable look.

“I honestly can’t say,” Megan murmured.

“I think it’s different for everyone. For now...you just need time to process. You’re in shock. We’re going to stay here for today, maybe tomorrow if you want, hell, even three days or longer if that’s what it takes, but I’ll help you however I can,” I looked at Elizabeth, “both of you. I know he was a piece of shit, but this has to be hard for you.”

She sighed. “It is. I feel awful. I hate it so much. But...I think I’ve been preparing myself for this possibility for days now. Maybe even weeks. I think, at some point, I knew this would come to pass. I loved him, and there’s a part of me that still does, even now, as stupid as it is...or maybe I loved what we once had, but in my heart, I know this had to happen...it’ll take a bit, but I’ll be okay.” She laughed softly, bitterly. “I think we’ve all had practice getting over terror and tragedy and despair over the past two years.”

To that, we all murmured in agreement.

“I do want to stay here today,” Delilah said. “As for tomorrow? Fuck, I don’t know. I guess I’ll see how I feel.” She gave Elizabeth a gentle squeeze. “Thank you...for being kind. And for understanding.”

“You’re welcome, Delilah. You’re a great person, I hate seeing you suffer.” She looked around. “You all are, you don’t deserve this.”

“Neither do you,” I replied. “Whatever happens, I’ll take care of you while I’m around. I can’t promise that’ll be forever, but at the very least I will make sure the two of you are somewhere safe and secure where you want to be, and that you feel comfortable.”

“Oh but not me?” Megan asked.

“I know what happens when I offer to take care of you,” I replied, unable to keep from rolling my eyes, and that actually got a laugh out of the other two.

“You do seem really ‘I can fucking take care of myself’,” Elizabeth murmured.

“I can, that doesn’t mean I always want to,” Megan replied.

“Yes, Megan,” I said, laying a hand on the back of hers. “Obviously, I will take care of you inasmuch as you want me to.”

“Good,” she said.

Delilah’s stomach growled then. “I am actually really hungry…”

“Then let’s eat,” Elizabeth said, and they got back to their meals.

I considered the two women as I resumed eating as well. I didn’t think they were okay, not really, not yet, but they would be. And I thought Elizabeth was right, about our practice and abundant experience with despair and tragedy.

Whether they wanted to or not, they’d probably be back on their feet soon.

~

As unhappy as it was, there was no sex that night.

I didn’t push it, didn’t even hint, because clearly Delilah and Elizabeth weren’t in the mood, and I didn’t blame them. I thought Megan might have been, but she didn’t say anything either. We ended up relaxing for the rest of the day and well into the night. There was a lot of cuddling. All three of them came to me at one point or another to be held. That seemed to be something they all wanted, and I was sure happy enough to give.

We ate leftovers for dinner, and I ended up gathering some more firewood before sundown. After that, I really just laid around after taking some painkillers. I had a few bumps and bruises and scrapes, but all in all, I’d come out the other side okay. And I was overall feeling good about our new surplus of supplies. I wouldn’t call it a treasure, exactly, (they hadn’t been that well-stocked), but it definitely was going to be a boost.

When we got tired enough, the four of us just barely managed to squeeze into the queen-size together, beneath the blankets.

It was a tight fit, but that was fine by us.

Despite the bad shit that had gone down so far, I thought that this trip was going well, all things considered.

I hoped that kept up.

EIGHTEEN

“Chris, are you all right?”

It took me a few seconds to actually register the question, and then I realized I’d been just staring into the trunk of this car for almost five minutes without actually seeing a damn thing. I glanced to my right, where Megan was standing now.

“Yeah,” I murmured.

“Bullshit, something’s wrong. What is it?” she asked softly.

I held her eyes for a moment, then frowned and looked back the way we’d come, at a second car where Delilah and Elizabeth were searching.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

But she was right, something was wrong.

It had been about five days since we’d had the showdown with Jack. Although I thought they’d want to stick around another day, Elizabeth and Delilah had agreed to leave before noon the following day. I’d considered it, found the skies to be clear, and decided we could get some decent travel time in given the circumstances.

So we’d set out.

I thought that Elizabeth was working through a lot of stuff in silence, and that apparently translated to an almost ferocious pace on her part. Despite my concerns, she didn’t need too many breaks during the day, and during that day and the following two days, we made it a good twenty five miles along the highway. I knew some of it had to do with luck. There were no real obstacles and despite a handful of derelict cars and just a couple of small structures, there wasn’t much to hold our attention during that stretch.

When I’d made that initial two week estimate of travel time, that had been with a few days of rest thrown in there, and I thought that even with all that had happened, we might still actually make that window. Even if we didn’t, it wasn’t like it mattered, we’d get there when we got there. But up ahead, I could see a sign.

PINE LAKE – 29 mi.

We were definitely three or four days out now.

But on top of her ferocious work ethic, Elizabeth also had a ferocious appetite. She seemed embarrassed by it, but we had all warned her, more than once, not to try to hide it. She couldn’t afford to be malnourished right now. And, she’d revealed at one point, she was one of those petite chicks that could put away huge meals. She had a high calorie burn naturally, and now she was doing something that burned even more calories.

Consequently, our food was going faster than I’d have liked.

The wolf and deer meat was gone, including the deer I’d killed and skinned day before yesterday. I was considering trying to hunt again, but there was nothing but plains around now. Apparently the forest-planters hadn’t quite made it this far, or maybe they’d just run out of time. Either way, I didn’t see a damn place to find food beyond the occasional car or truck still on the highway. And they weren’t yielding much fruit.

“I mean, did you see something?” Megan pressed.

I sighed and looked back into the trunk, rooting around in it. “I honestly don’t know,” I admitted. “Just...something.”

“Is it Tanner?” she murmured.

I’d had another bad nightmare the night after the assault, and had had to go through the whole spiel with Elizabeth, but it had been a one-time recurrence, thankfully.

“No, I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t even remember having any dreams last night.”

I’d woken in a bad mood this morning. We’d stayed in a little dingy gas station some five or so miles back, lucking into a pair of dirty mattresses in a back storage room that had served us well enough for sleep.

I thought, maybe, it was the lack of sex.

I’d fucked Megan twice over the past several days, and that was it. I’d been right that Elizabeth and Delilah were having a lot of trouble handling what had happened. I didn’t blame them at all, and I helped as much as I’d could. We’d had several long conversations about it while walking, during meals, laying awake at night. There had been more crying, and I’d done the best I could to help. I wasn’t exactly great with this kind of stuff. But while neither Delilah nor Elizabeth had been in the mood, Megan and, especially myself, had been.

We didn’t want to make them feel bad though, so opportunities to actually do something about it were few and far between.

But it wasn’t that.

I’d awoken...not irritable, but anxious. Like something bad was going to happen. I’d been looking for clues all day but hadn’t really seen anything in particular. The winds were particularly cold and had been picking up slowly ever since we’d set out, but that wasn’t exactly a new problem. The light from the sky had been a little...odd. But that wasn’t new either. Thanks to the screwy weather, strangely colored sunlight happened every now and then. Nothing crazy, more just stuff that we mostly weren’t quite used to seeing.

It wasn’t the food, either, at least not now.

Not long after waking, we’d come across a sign promising a rest stop, like a real one, a truck stop, and although there was no promise of food there, I thought there was a decent chance we’d find something there.

Plus, I thought tonight was the night where we were all going to have sex again. Delilah seemed pretty much back to her usual self by now. She’d been flirting with me and Megan, and even hitting on Elizabeth, who blushed a lot and seemed to be taking well to it. Elizabeth seemed to be relying more on Delilah than before, which I found a little interesting, given their roughly ten year age gap and differences in background and personality. But that was how it went sometimes. I’d seen them holding hands more than once today.

If anything, that should put me in a great mood, because I’d never had a chance to fuck three women at the same time.

Let alone three women this downright hot.

So what was it?

As I continued rooting around in the trunk (there was mostly just trash there that obviously lots of other people had pawed through and found useless, like myself currently) I couldn’t help but think about some stories I’d heard of how people could feel dangerous weather on approach. Like tornadoes. They could actually sense the changes in the air pressure and their body would start panicking. Or those stories of how some dogs could sense earthquakes incoming. Birds flying away when a tsunami was on the horizon.

Was it weather?

I mean, if it was weather then surely there’d be signs, like in the sky-

“Oh my God.”

“What?” Megan asked as I looked up. “Chris, what!?” she demanded.

For several seconds, I couldn’t reply. I could only stare.

Stare up at that strange alien sky that had formed above me.

I knew only mindless terror for a few seconds as I stared. It was like hearing a little noise in the middle of the night, getting up and going to your door, and opening it to see a bear or something waiting for you in your hallway.

Megan gripped my arm. “Chris!”

I shook my head. “We have to get inside,” I replied.

“Why!?”

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” I heard Elizabeth say from somewhere behind me.

“Holy shit, what’s going on with the sky?” Delilah asked.

Overhead, the sky had begun shading towards an awkward teal color, but it wasn’t the color that had me flipping my shit. It was the horizontal lines. They cut through the clouds that covered the sky horizon to horizon, east to west.

They looked unnatural.

That strange teal light bled through each of the lines.

“Let’s go!” I snapped, and immediately started walking towards the truck stop maybe a quarter mile ahead of us.

Would it be enough to keep us safe?

I wasn’t sure, but I caught sight of a house to the right and a few more buildings off to the left. One of them was going to have to do.

“Chris, tell us what the fuck is going on, now,” Megan demanded as she strode up beside me.

“I’ve only ever seen clouds like this once before. It was about a month after I started walking around. Pure fucking luck I happened to be in a small town, staying at a pretty secure place. I saw those exactly clouds and that day, a blizzard hit. A bad one. I mean really bad. It was a freeze, a deep fucking freeze. It was like negative eighty or ninety or something. All I know is that a lot of people froze to death. It was cold.”

“Holy shit, I’ve heard about this happening,” Elizabeth said.

“I haven’t. Jesus,” Megan whispered.

“What do we do?” Delilah asked.

“How long do we have?” Megan asked.

“I think we’ve got a few hours at least. If I remember right, the last time this happened, there was about a six or seven hour gap between when I first noticed the sky and the actual blizzard hitting. It got steadily worse, getting colder and windier, and then it hit like a fucking hammer. It lasted all night and partway into the next day, and then just broke. If I had to guess, I’d say it lasted twelve hours once it actually hit.”

“Great,” Megan muttered.

“We’re going to need to find a secure place to bunker down for the night, seal it off as best we can, get a lot of stuff to burn, prepare for the worst.”

No one responded, which was fine by me. I thought I’d gotten through to them just how severe this was going to be. Instead of talking, we buckled down and hurried up. It often felt like time was short in this new world, but now it was shorter than it had been in a long while. I wasn’t completely sure if we were going to survive this one.

But I fully intended to try my hardest.

I’d heard all sorts of weird stories and rumors and almost fables now about weird weather or strange things happening. I remember hearing a story about how one place had endured a rain of ice needles. There was another story of a strange, glowing blue fog that had rolled into one town and killed everyone before blowing on. I’d heard that one a few times now. Some say it happened over in California, someone else told me it was up in Maine, another guy said he’d heard it over the radio of it happening in Sweden.

Did that mean it was bullshit or a phenomenon that happened all over the place?

If it killed everyone, how did anyone know it was a glowing blue fog?

People talked about mutant wolves and giant bears. Bigfoot had come back with a vengeance, it seemed. And there were more stories than ever of UFOs nowadays. Shit, I’d had one guy tell me with a dead straight face that his brother had encountered a giant spider in a cave. Fuck, maybe he had, I didn’t know, I wasn’t there.

I always liked myself a good horror story and the notion that there were monsters or mysterious phenomena or aliens out there was very entertaining to me in its own way, but I’d never truly believed most of it, much as I might want to in some cases. All too often, the truth seemed to be something boring. Like it was a strange and unique, but grounded in reality, set of circumstances. Or someone was confused. Or lying, either the person telling the story or someone pulling a prank trying to convince others.

Some of the stories had to be true though, I thought.

It was just impossible to tell more often than not which ones.

This wasn’t a fable though. All it took was one skyward look to bring my panic back and remind me of all those frozen dead people I’d found that next morning. Maybe two thirds of the town had died that night. It was just luck that I hadn’t. I had hoped to never see something like that again, and yet here we were.

Goddamnit.

I scoped out what we had to work with as we approached the truck stop. It wasn’t one of those big giant ones I’d seen in some places, more just a few shops stitched together on the right side of the road. Beyond it, maybe a half mile away from the highway, was a house. That might be our place to go, if the truck stop didn’t work out. Off to the left, down past the ramp, I saw three buildings, none of which I could tell precisely what they were.

There might be enough time to check all the places out for any and all supplies that might help us stay alive and not freeze to death.

If we were lucky.

As I approached the truck stop, in the lead now, I didn’t like what I saw: a lot of broken windows. That was a bad start.

“All right, guns out,” I said as we made it to the parking lot. From what I could see, the structure, or technically collection of connected structures I guess, was shaped roughly like a barbell. The building on the right, closest to us, was clearly a garage. The one on the left was a gas station. The long, low building with all the broken windows connecting the two in the middle was probably a restaurant of some kind. I had also made out some kind of fourth building attached to the back of the middle one.

No idea what that one was, but given what I normally saw at truck stops, either an adult store or a strip joint or something like that.

My horniness briefly broke through the haze of anxiety that gripped me: maybe we’d find some lube. I’d fucking love some of that.

I pulled out my pistol and checked that the others did the same. Elizabeth was now toting a small backpack with some extra supplies and (I didn’t tell her this, and if she realized it she hadn’t said anything) her ex-husband’s nine millimeter he’d tried to blow my head off with. Delilah had her twenty-two out and although she looked a little anxious, she was doing better than I’d hoped. I was really hoping not to put her in a situation to fight for her life again. It was very hard to tell, but I was afraid she might choke if she had to pull the trigger again. If she hadn’t pulled the trigger that first time, I’d be dead right now.

Taking the lead, I brought us up to a door that was ajar in the side of the garage. The two big rolling doors at the front were closed, though several of their windows were broken out, too. Carefully nudging the door open the rest of the way with my foot, my pistol in both hands, I peered inside. The light was good enough to show me a big, mostly empty space. I quickly checked left and right, and didn’t see signs of people around, or any animals that might’ve taken up in the building. So far, those were all good signs.

“Stay here and check this area out. I’m going on ahead,” I said after I felt decently sure that there was no one in the garage.

“Be careful,” Megan said.

“You too,” I replied as I headed off.

I crossed the grease-and-oil-stained floor, passing some trash and the occasional discarded nut or bolt no doubt stuck to the floor. I moved through the door opposite the one we’d just come in through and found myself in a tiny waiting area where there was just enough room for a desk that personnel would no doubt wait behind and three uncomfortable plastic chairs on the other side. Through a glass panel behind the chairs, I could see into what was indeed a long restaurant. It looked also to be quite vacant.

Fine, that’d make it easier, but it also mean there’d be less things to burn.

I quickly moved down the length of the building, seeing a lot of splinters and kindling remains from broken down tables and chairs, though only a few examples of complete furniture. I paused to check behind the counter and duck into the kitchen area. It was pretty cleaned out, most cabinets missing the doors, drawers torn out of their sockets. Nothing in the pantry or the walk-in freezer, or the bathroom that I found.

There were two exits. I hesitated only briefly before deciding to head on to the far end of the stop, what would be the interior of the gas station, because the door leading to the final mystery area at the back was shut tight for now.

The sounds of the wind whistling and picking up came to me as I stepped into the derelict gas station. More broken windows, more barren shelves. Empty freezers and cold cases. Made enough sense, given how many people would’ve come through and plundered over the past few years, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. Feeling the press of time yet still, I quickly checked behind the counter, in the freezer-stocking area, and in the pair of tiny bathrooms, and found a whole lot of nobody. At this point I was basically just doing a quick bombing run, a security check to make sure we were alone and nothing else.

As I jogged back into the restaurant and made for the final section, I was already making plans in my head. The next course of action was going to be to leave the girls here, as much as they might not like that, and get my ass down to that house to scope it out. I needed to know exactly what we were working with before making a serious plan of action. The first order of business was that, and the second was to find and secure a base of operations. Once we got that out of the way, I’d have a better sense of our survival chances.

I opened the last door and laughed softly as I saw what was inside.

It was a strip club. Of course it was.

I shook my head and then hurried in to complete my search.

NINETEEN

I didn’t find anyone in the strip club.

It was a pain to force myself to do a thorough search, and even then I might’ve missed something, as there were damn near no windows in that part, for obvious reasons, and I had to break out my flashlight, but I thought we were clear.

I hurried back to the garage, where I found the women hunting the place over.

“Okay,” I said, getting their attention, “it looks like we’re alone here. I want you to comb this whole place over as fast as you can. Grab whatever supplies you find, but I want you to gather up anything that burns and put it in the central room behind me, the restaurant, in a pile. Wood scraps, wooden furniture, paper, whatever you find that we can safely burn. And obviously keep an eye out for food, but also keep an eye out for tape, specifically duct tape, and anything we can use to cover up windows. Plastic sheets, clingwrap, blankets. Anything.”

“What are you going to be doing?” Megan asked, already picking up on where this was going.

“I’m going to head down to that house back there and see if it might be a good place to hole up. This place might do, maybe, but I’d prefer a place with an actual chimney and fireplace or wood-burning stove at the very least.”

“One of us should come with you,” Megan said.

I shook my head sharply. “No,” I said, with more force than I meant to. I sighed. “Look, this is bad, okay? This is really bad. Just please...do what I say, okay?”

She must have sensed how close I was to panic, and this was probably as worried as they had ever seen me, because Megan didn’t argue.

She just nodded. “Okay. We’ll get to work here. Just...be careful, and hurry.”

“I will, you too,” I replied, and then I was off and running.

There had been an exit at the back of the strip club, in what had probably been a manager’s office, and that’s where I went. I’d already poked my head out back and got a better look at the house. I didn’t need to bother with the off-ramp because the slope down to the plain the house rested in was gentle enough. Better yet, it was huddled up next to a cluster of trees. A small forest. Once this freeze was over...provided the animals survived it, anyway, I could do some hunting, maybe. The impression I’d gotten from that first freeze I’d endured was that it had been very localized. I didn’t know for sure, but it seemed to have been maybe ten miles across at most. So a really damned small storm. What the fuck caused it?

Shit, I don’t know. What caused any of this stupid shit?

I jogged down the snowy incline towards the lone house, finding myself wondering vaguely who kept building these houses just off the highway. It was lucky enough for us, I guess, but did people really want to live this close to a highway? Maybe the house had come first, the highway later. Some of these houses did seem pretty old.

I looked at the sky again and then decided maybe I shouldn’t.

It was really freaking me out.

Thoughts came and went with a shaky speed through my mind, zipping by with a bit less substance than normal. I won’t say I’m particularly smart, but I could focus when I really had to. It was harder to now, though. So shit, maybe I couldn’t quite focus when I had to, because I fucking had to. When I was about halfway between the truck stop and the house, a hard, particularly frigid gust of wind smacked into me and nearly knocked me to my feet. I stumbled, recovered, and kept going at a somewhat less brisk pace.

This was really just reminding me that complacency was something to be fought against, at least a little bit. But was it even possible? Even if I woke up every morning and ensured that I reminded myself not to take things for granted, to prepare for the unexpected to occur...wouldn’t that then just become a part of my routine and lose its meaning? It seemed like I’d have a few good weeks, maybe even a month at a stretch, where things largely went how I thought they should go, with a mishap or two thrown in there…

And then something like this would happen.

How the fuck did you prepare for something like this?

I guess by working stuff like exercise, survival training, and situational awareness into your everyday routine.

To a certain extent, I already did that, although admittedly I’d been slacking on the exercise recently. Although to that although I had to say I was still getting a lot of exercise in other ways, so it probably balanced out.

It was this relative devotion to situational awareness and my own heightened state of anxiety that probably let me survive what happened next.

I was maybe thirty yards from the house when the front door suddenly opened and I realized all at once I’d made a mistake. I should have approached it from the woods, but I didn’t want to take the extra time of wandering over to the woods first and then getting to the fucking house. But that impatience might cost me my life, I saw, as someone leaped out with a pistol and opened fire on me. I took off towards the woods. They were close, but they seemed impossibly far away as bullets came at me.

“Stop! Stop!” I screamed. “I don’t want trouble!”

Apparently they did want trouble because they wouldn’t stop shooting. Bullets cracked off, flying by me, punching into the snow at my feet and touching off like miniature explosions. I started to feel that rage come back, that anger that used to be more commonplace in my life, as I ran and staggered towards the woods. Would the girls hear this? I doubted it, the winds were pretty loud just now. Abruptly, it occurred to me that I wouldn’t make the woods unless I gave them something to fucking cry about.

I whipped out my pistol and turned around.

“Stop or I’m gonna put a bullet in you!” I screamed.

Someone else was on the porch now, also brandishing a pistol.

Not only did the first guy resume fire, but the second guy joined him!

Motherfuckers!

Apparently, they were shit shots. I wasn’t. I aimed and fired. The first guy screamed and dropped as a nine millimeter bullet punched into his leg. I fired again and the second guy let out a cry as I winged his right shoulder.

Good enough for now.

I turned and shoved my pistol back into its holster for safety’s sake, (just what I’d need, dropping it and then having to go hunt for it in the snow, losing all the seconds I’d just potentially bought myself), and then booked it as fast as I could through the snow and worsening winds. Maybe fifteen long, long seconds later, I hit the treeline and disappeared into the trees, making my way a few yards in and then breaking for the highway.

This was going to complicate things.

~

There were no more potshots at me as I hustled through the trees, going as fast as I could. I only fell over once, thankfully.

I guess they were too busy patching each other up. I heard voices shouting, and I thought I heard more than two, but it quickly became impossible to tell thanks to the way the winds were picking up even more. Goddamnit! This really threw a fucking wrench into an already shitty situation. I could feel my blood boiling and part of me, a part that scares me, to be honest, wanted to march back there and shoot every last one of those motherfuckers in the face.

By the time I came out of the forest, (which thankfully came right up to the highway), I was a bit more cooled off, telling myself they were probably just scared and that while I was indeed a murderer, I didn’t have to be a fucking psychopath. Despite these thoughts, I did keep my pistol out as I started hurrying back along the highway. I had to get back to the ladies and I fully intended to survive the trip back to the truck stop.

I hesitated briefly as I began to run out of forest to protect me. There was about a football field and a half of space between the edge of the forest and the truck stop, and that was just big, wide, open, exposed space.

If they had a rifle, I was probably fucked.

Then again, if they had a rifle, I thought they would probably have at least tried to use it on me by now. It was hard to hit someone in a forest, but not impossible. Finally, working up my nerve, (which took only one glance skywards), I set off at a jog. It was a pain in the ass to do it on the snowbound highway but I moved it, hustling through the snow and making for the truck stop. Glancing towards the house, I didn’t see any activity on the porch. The door was shut and the windows appeared to be closed.

Good for me, now it just had to stay that way.

I kept my eye out for any other movement, careful not to look at the sky, (seriously, it freaked me the fuck out just to look at it, like how I think certain images made people ill), and kept on trucking. I was trying to toss together a plan. The house was obviously out. I was basically convinced that the truck stop was out, but in a pinch, maybe, that strip joint might do. Regardless, next on the list was checking out the three buildings off in the other direction. Wouldn’t it just be great if some wolves or a bear got involved?

Best not to jinx us.

Took fucking forever, but I finally hit the parking lot of the gas station, stumbled over something in the snow and went sprawling, picked my ass up and rushed into the gas station interior. I heard distant voices and as I staggered into the restaurant it just barely occurred to me to announce myself, which I should’ve done immediately.

“It’s me! It’s me! Get out here!” I called. “Now!”

“What happened? What’s wrong?” I heard Megan ask as she emerged from the strip club. Elizabeth was behind her and Delilah appeared from the garage exit.

“People in the house,” I said, panting, then groaned and put my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. The air burned cold in my lungs. “They shot at me. At least two of them. Ah...goddamn, my chest hurts.”

“Were you shot!?” Delilah asked immediately.

“No, no,” I replied. “Just had to run my ass off, and it’s freezing out there...shit. I’m fine. Just tripped once or twice. Don’t worry.” I paused, shook my head. “I mean, worry, just not about me. I shot them both. Well, I shot one guy in the leg and grazed another. They would not stop shooting at me. Fucking assholes.”

“I’m surprised we didn’t hear it,” Elizabeth said.

“The wind,” I replied, then glanced at the pile of stuff they’d gathered in the restaurant. It wasn’t as big of a pile as I’d hoped. There were a few chairs and several fragments of wood. Not a whole lot to work with, unfortunately, but better than nothing.

I grabbed two of the chairs.

“Grab and pack whatever you can of that into your packs, fast. Megan, keep your hands free and that rifle out. We’re moving,” I said.

They all began to comply, thankfully, instead of first asking questions.

“Where are we going?” Megan asked as she shoved wooden fragments into her pack.

“The nearest building,” I replied. “It looked decently sturdy, two stories, might be a good place to hide out for now. Once we get down there, I’ll check out the other two buildings while you search that one. Hopefully one of them will be in decent condition.”

They looked uncertain, and I didn’t blame them, but at least they didn’t question me further. I think they already knew the answers: this plan was about as good as it was going to get, and yes, it relied too much on luck.

But that was what the world was throwing at us right now.

Sometimes, all you could do was throw the dice and hope.

Five minutes later, with two chairs awkwardly grasped in my hands, I led the way out of the truck stop, across the highway, and down the off-ramp towards the nearest structure. Megan reported the all clear and she watched our back as Delilah and Elizabeth followed after me with bundles of broken wood and kindling wrapped up in their arms. Apparently, they’d found next to nothing beyond the wooden scraps during their search of the truck stop, just random scattered items that might be of some use at some point.

We were going to have to find something great, some cache or store of food and supplies, or our chances of survival were going to drop.

The winds were picking up and I almost fell once, (seemed to be a lot of that happening to me just lately), but we made it to the bottom of the ramp and made a beeline for the building. As we drew closer to it, I began to make out the sign hung over the front door. All I could see that was still visible was the word GUN, so good chance it was a gun shop. Cool. Although I didn’t like the plate glass in the front, I did like that it was covered by iron bars and still apparently intact. The front door was shut, but I didn’t see anyone moving behind the plate glass windows, nor the pair of more regular-looking windows set into the front of the second story.

“Okay, lemme clear it out,” I said as we got up to the front.

I set the chairs down, pulled out my pistol, and headed inside. It was definitely a gun shop. Lots of glass cases that had once been solid but had fallen to the sands of time. Or snowflakes of time at this point, I guess.

Or, to be totally accurate, people spending enough time trying to bash them in.

I didn’t see any guns in the cases, around or behind the cash register. Didn’t see much of anything on the first floor. I quickly checked the front area, then got behind the register and peered under the counter, checking in the dark niche there in case someone was hiding in the shadows. I had come into places that someone was already occupying and they’d tried to hide when they heard me coming. Usually they were friendly, or at least not violent.

But sometimes they were laying a trap.

I checked in a little storage area that had been kicked in at some point, and then a tiny bathroom, and found no one.

“Come in!” I called. “Looks clear!”

I still had to check out the second floor, accessed via a simple stairway at the very back of the shop, behind a set of high shelves that went almost to the ceiling, but I didn’t want them waiting outside in the cold any longer than necessary. They walked in after me and Megan took up guard duty by the door, rifle still in hand.

“Where do you want this?” Delilah asked.

“Dump it anywhere, in a pile, and bring in the chairs, then get started searching the place over,” I replied.

Then I headed upstairs. I was really, really hoping that this turned out to be one of those places that had an apartment in the second story…

I got to the top and opened the door.

“Oh fuck yes, holy shit,” I whispered.

There was, indeed, an apartment up there. The bedroom, kitchen, living room, and ‘dining room’, such as it was, were all crammed into the same room, which took up nearly the entire second story. The only other space was a bathroom.

It had two things that made me very happy: a king-size bed that would comfortably fit all four of us, and a fireplace. A good, solid looking one at that. There were even a few logs left in there. Maybe one of the dickheads from the house had been using this as a base for themselves. Well, now we needed it. It was a do or die kind of situation.

I finished up my search, checking out the bathroom and looking under the bed, only to discover that the thing the mattress was resting on was a solid piece. No one was hiding in here, which meant it was ours for the taking right now.

We might just survive this.

I hurried back downstairs.

TWENTY

“We’re in business,” I said as I came back down to the ground floor.

“What’d you find?” Megan asked. From her tone I could tell she was a lot more worried than she was letting on.

“There’s an apartment up there with a big bed and a fireplace. Looks decently sealed. Now…” I considered my next action for a moment, staring at the three women. They looked back at me expectantly. “I’m going to go search the other two buildings.”

“Let me go with you,” Megan said.

“No,” I replied immediately. “I need you here in case one or two of those shitheads shows up and starts causing problems.”

“One of us should go with you,” Megan said, not backing down.

I sighed. She was probably right. It’d go faster with two people. Well, at least the choice was obvious. “All right, Delilah, let’s go. Megan, keep watch. Elizabeth, search this place as quick as you can. Find anything to burn, and any cloth. Blankets, clothes, anything. Preferably blankets. We’re going to want to seal up the apartment as much as we can to keep the heat in.” I shrugged out of my backpack and started emptying it onto the counter. “Here, Delilah, bring me your pack.” I paused. “Wait, scratch that. Megan, give me your pack, Delilah, leave yours here.”

Megan had the second biggest pack now.

I emptied my pack of all but the essentials and pulled it back on, then did the same with Megan’s pack and handed it to Delilah. “Get this shit upstairs, we’ll be back as soon as we can. And get a fire going,” I said as I headed for the door.

“On it,” Elizabeth replied, and I was glad to see she took no issue with me giving out orders.

I glanced out the plate glass at the sky briefly. We didn’t have time for issues. I thought there was enough left, probably, but that could change in an instant. Even what Delilah and I were doing right now was risking our lives.

“Chris,” Megan said, and I looked over at her. She looked pale and anxious. “Are we gonna make it?”

“Yes,” I replied. She looked at me for a moment longer, pursing her lips, then she just nodded tightly and readjusted her grip on her rifle.

I didn’t know if it was the truth, but I thought it was what she needed to hear.

“Come on,” I said, and headed out the front door with Delilah.

~

Outside, it was already colder and windier.

Still no snow, thank God, but these were bad signs. I’d guess it was probably twenty below right now, maybe even thirty.

Delilah kept up with me as we left the gun shop and worked our way around back. I wanted to get to that building behind it and off a little ways, whatever it was, first. It looked small and I doubted there would be much in it, but you never knew. Right now, we needed more good luck to compound what we’d had so far.

I kept an eye out on the highway and the off-ramp as we cleared the building and hustled off through the snow. Still no signs of the assholes who’d shot at me, no signs of wolves or bears either. That’d make things just even better, and hey, why not have one of us fall down and break a fucking leg for good measure? I sighed softly and tried not to fall into a pit of frustration and despair as the frozen air burned my lungs and my legs began to ache from all the hurried snow-walking. I reminded myself that the only way to deal with this was to just deal with it, and as quickly as possible too. And soon enough I’d be in a (hopefully) warm bed with three naked women.

That alone was worth the fight.

As we drew closer, I realized that the area in front of the building was oddly shaped, and abruptly it occurred to me why: snow was covering a lot of cars. Long rows of them. Fuck, we weren’t going to be able to search them all, there just wasn’t time. I got up to the one closest to the edge and took a moment to wipe off the windshield to look inside. As I did, I revealed a faded yellow sticker that read 600$!

“Oh,” I murmured, looking around, “it’s a used car lot.”

Well, that almost certainly meant most of these cars didn’t have anything useful in them. Unless someone had used them for storage or a campsite. But then, why would they use a car when there was a building right there?

I led Delilah between two rows of snow-covered vehicles and at last came up to the main entrance. The two front doors had been kicked in and broken long ago, and the light that bled into the lobby beyond didn’t reveal a whole hell of a lot.

“Careful in here,” I said as I got my pistol back out.

“I’m ready,” she replied.

We stepped in and got to work, but honestly, there wasn’t much work to be done. The main lobby was cleared out. I didn’t see even a single piece of furniture around, no leftovers, hardly even any trash scattered across the barren floor.

“Watch my back,” I said, resisting the urge to have her search as well. I had to remember that Delilah wasn’t Megan. I didn’t think she was a pushover exactly, but certainly Megan was more capable of handling a threat than Delilah.

“Okay,” she replied, lingering in the lobby.

I hurriedly checked through the other rooms there. Just a bathroom that would have been miserable even back when this place was running, a little break room, two tiny offices, and one last room that held nothing at all. I didn’t find any people lurking and no supplies or burnable stuff jumped out at me, so I rejoined Delilah.

“Like I thought, nothing here. Come on,” I said.

She nodded, looking paler than before, and followed me back out into the driving cold. I checked the highway again. Still nothing.

“You doing okay?” I asked, raising my voice and sticking closer to her to be heard.

“Not really,” she replied with a grim ‘I’m trying’ smile.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get this sorted out,” I said. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“I believe you, I just…” She looked up at the sky briefly. “What if it’s too much? What if we can’t manage it?”

I was silent for just a few seconds. I didn’t want to tell her: Freezing to death probably isn’t that bad. Because that would be an answer that would probably freak her right the fuck out, which was the last thing I wanted.

“We’ll manage it,” I replied, because sometimes, as hesitant as I was to do so, being in charge meant lying. Or, at the very least, bullshitting. If these were her last hours, I’d rather she spend them filled with hope instead of fear.

And, you know, I could probably manage this, with their help.

By the time we crossed the distance to the final remaining building, which was opposite the used car lot, a little to the left, and about a quarter mile away, the strange teal light had grown much stronger, and now it cast its curious, chilling glow across the landscape. I didn’t even have to look up to see it any longer.

As we came up on the building, I caught a look at the faded pink sign that hung over the door and had to laugh.

“Holy shit,” I said.

“What?” Delilah replied immediately.

“It’s an adult store,” I replied.

She looked up with me and let out a little laugh. How fortuitous. Hopefully. It was called Pink something, I couldn’t make out the rest, but the cleavage between the words was obvious enough. Guns in hand, we went inside and started clearing it out.

While we worked, Delilah lost her smile. “Chris…”

“Yeah?” I asked, glancing over at her. The inside of the place had been plundered, to be sure, but there was less taken than you’d think. No porno magazines left, but there were random things left here or there.

Honestly, I was looking for lube and maybe a present for all three of the women in my life.

“I’m sorry.” She looked guilty.

Now I was frowning. “...why?”

“I haven’t been holding up my end of the bargain. I can tell you’ve been horny recently. I should have done something about it.”

“Delilah, no,” I replied immediately. “There’s no way we’re having sex if you don’t feel up to it. I’m not mad at you about it. Something fucked up happened to you and honestly, it can be a really bad idea to have sex if you’re in that state of mind. You might end up connecting sex to the fucked up feelings.”

“Oh...shit, I hadn’t even thought of that,” she muttered. “I guess it’s good neither of us tried.” She regained at least a small smile. “Well...thanks. You’re really nice. Honestly I feel lucky to have found you, you’ve been really good to me. I promise I’m going to be good to you tonight,” she said, and then, before I could respond, raised one hand. “And I promise that I’m ready. I wasn’t horny at all until this morning. I woke up horny as fuck but you really wanted to get a move-on...I think Elizabeth’s ready, too. She was asking a lot of questions about you today...sexual questions. And talking about stuff she wanted to do with you…”

She smiled suddenly. “And me.”

“God, I would love to see that,” I replied.

“You will. Tonight.” She frowned suddenly and looked at the strange teal light coming in through the windows. “If we make it.”

“We will, don’t worry,” I replied. “Keep searching.”

She nodded and got back to work.

We worked our way through the ruins of the store, shifting what remained, hunting for anything that might help us.

Either in our survival or our sex life.

All in all, we managed to find a handful of very useful things. We tracked down an actual box of a dozen tubes of sealed, basic lube, the kind that keeps forever. We found a strap-on dildo that I immediately began to imagine Megan banging Delilah with. We found a little vibrator that would be useless until we found some batteries but hey, nice find. We also found a few blankets that I definitely intended to use, and someone had tucked away a little stash of emergency supplies in the back of a storage closet that held some food and medicine. Nothing great, but hey, it was always great to add to our own supplies.

“Tonight, provided we can make everything else work, is going to be absolutely fucking awesome,” I said as we headed back out.

“Oh yes it is,” Delilah agreed, and it was good to hear the same confidence as before in her voice. She was back on her own territory, and I had the idea that she probably looked at Elizabeth as someone to conquer, sexually speaking.

Outside, it was colder. The winds seemed to have calmed down very slightly, but it was definitely colder. Delilah and I immediately began making our way back towards the gun shop. I really was not sure if this was all going to be enough. I had been hoping to find more stuff, but it seemed like we might be shit out of luck.

Sometimes, that was just the way it happened.

While I was considering this, considering how exactly we were going to make this whole thing work with the supplies that we had managed to scrape together so far, wondering about what sort of window I had left to play with, a gunshot suddenly rang out.

A bullet landed somewhere to my left. We were maybe twenty yards out from the gun shop. There were three figures up on the highway, bearing down on us.

Shit!

I grabbed for my rifle as all three of them opened up with pistols. Thank God, they didn’t have a rifle. But fuck, what if there was another one trying to get into the gun shop? Or another one with a rifle hidden somewhere?

“Go! Get inside!” I shouted as I brought the rifle to bear.

They were raining down fire on me and Delilah, but they were apparently bad shots, combined with the way the wind was blowing and the distance, and that was keeping us alive for now. I aimed and fired off a round. I didn’t hit any of them, but it did cause them to stop firing and fall back briefly. I heard the door to the shop burst open and glanced very briefly that way just to confirm that it was a friend and not a foe.

Megan came out with her own rifle.

“Delilah get in here!” she snapped, then took aim and fired.

She did not miss.

They all had decided to immediately return fire and I saw one of them take the bullet straight through the skull. Fuck she was a great shot. I really wanted to press this opportunity, so I lined up my own shot and squeezed the trigger.

Fuck! The winds were picking up again and I just barely missed the second guy, who then ducked back out of sight. They had the high ground, the highway maybe twenty feet up an incline on this side, and that was going to make this difficult.

I hurried over to join Megan, who never took her eyes from their location or lowered her rifle. “I take it this is them?” she asked.

“I think so,” I replied. “Can’t be sure, but probably. Listen, I’m going up the ramp. Keep me covered. We have to take them out if they’re this violent.”

“Yep,” she agreed. “Go.”

I saw that Delilah had disappeared into the gun shop and caught just the barest sight of her embracing Elizabeth, and then I was off and running.

The next however long of time seemed torturous in how long it seemed to take to pass. It took forever to get to the base of the ramp, and then it seemed to take an eternity to get up it. Megan kept firing and at one point I heard someone scream, so apparently she’d seriously wounded one of them. I kept looking back over my shoulder, rifle at the ready, which is part of what made the journey take so fucking long. It would be all too easy for one of them to pop off a lucky shot and nail me. But only a few shots came my way, all missing, thankfully.

Although one bullet buried itself in the snow right beside my foot.

I was careful as I finally got towards the top. It took it slow then, realizing that there were no more gunshots from either side. I glanced briefly back over at the gun shop as I got my breath back and saw Megan was still there, still holding her shooting stance. Good. My head finally broke the surface of the highway and I got my first real look at it. The off-ramp was close to the truck stop, opposite it, and I wondered if any of them had hidden there.

This would be a perfect place for an ambush.

But something about these guys didn’t strike me as smart.

This all seemed pretty reactionary.

I saw something that was, well, if not inspiring then at least grimly satisfying: two corpses, and a blood trail that led across the snow directly to the truck stop. Well, they looked like corpses, anyway. I knew for sure one of them had taken a shot to the head.

The other might just be playing dead.

And the third guy might actually be setting up an ambush right now, even wounded. And from the blood trail that was rapidly disappearing beneath the snow being disturbed by the heavy winds, he was indeed quite wounded.

The trail led up to and inside of the gas station. I couldn’t see any movement in that direction and decided to chance checking on the other two assholes. One way or another, I was going to have to turn my back on someone, and it seemed to me that confirming these two were, in fact, all the way dead, would be the best solution.

I ducked down, tossing a glance towards the house in the distance. No one there, nothing stirring, and nothing in the area around it that I could see. I was almost positive that the guy I’d shot in the leg was still there, no way he’d come up here with a gunshot wound to the leg. Well, probably. Something about this group seemed off.

Coming up on the two who were downed, I quickly realized that yes, they were, in fact, dead. One guy’s right eye was nothing but a bloody crater, the other had half his fucking skull blown away in a disgusting spray of gore behind him.

I glanced briefly back at the gas station, still saw no movement, then looked down at Megan and waved for her to come up.

She looked back into the shop, I imagine said something to Delilah or Elizabeth or both of them, to update them on the situation, and then started coming towards me. I crouched down for a moment and checked the bodies over for anything immediately useful. Nothing but the guns, which I put on their bodies to keep them out of the snow, and then hesitated as I caught a strong whiff of something. Leaning down, I sniffed and confirmed it.

Yep, these guys were piss stinking drunk.

That explained a lot, actually.

In a way, I found it kind of inexplicable, but I had to remind myself that not everyone who was still alive was a hardcore survivor who always knew what they were doing and always made the better decision that was required to stay alive.

Like, you know, not wandering out into a fucking storm blind drunk to take potshots at a random stranger.

I thought that by now, two years in, people like that would be dead because of the fact that their stupid-ass decisions would have killed them.

But that wasn’t always true.

It had killed a lot of them, to be sure, but not all.

I got back up and began to head back towards the top of the ramp to meet Megan.

I thought this whole situation had just changed, and maybe for the better.

TWENTY ONE

“One of them is still alive,” was the first thing I said to her.

She was already looking at the blood trail. “Let’s get him them. I shot him in the chest, he can’t be in too good of shape.”

“I’ll take care of him,” I replied. “I need you to do two things.”

“What?”

“Go back to those bodies there, strip them of anything useful, and keep a watch on the house while you do it. I’m positive there’s at least one other guy, the one I shot in the leg. They were drunk,” I said. “Not as much of a threat, but still a threat. So just keep close watch. I’m going to go check on this guy, put him down if he’s still alive, then I’ll join you.”

“Fine,” she said. I thought she was getting annoyed with me that I kept splitting us up, but we were seriously running out of time.

Especially for what I was considering next.

We split up and I got my pistol out. The blood trail was quickly fading in the shifting snow being kicked up in the heavy winds. I kept my focus entirely on the structure ahead of me, not moving too fast, preparing myself to react. A gunshot to the chest, especially a rifle shot, would take most people out of the game, but I’d seen some people take a shot that should’ve done that and keep going, and obviously this guy had made it to the gas station. Being drunk could be as much a help as a hindrance too, maybe.

Either way, I had to be careful.

I got up to the door and carefully looked in through the window beside it, one of the few still left intact. The blood trail, already freezing over, continued for a ways into the room beyond. I didn’t quite see where it ended, and I didn’t see a body, either. Nice and easy, I went into the gas station lobby and began checking around, trying to hear over the winds. Following the trail led across the lobby, around a large shelf, and then up to the door that led into the restaurant. Shit. He was almost certainly waiting for me there, perfect place for an attack.

I stared at the open door, feeling like I was in a horror movie, the wind shrieking madly all around me, blood on the floor, gun in my hand.

Swallowing, I forced myself on.

In a way, it was a little like finding a spider in your bedroom right before you went to bed, trying to kill it, failing, and it scurried off and now you can’t fucking find it. No way you could sleep until you had found and killed that fucker.

There was no way I was going to feel comfortable if someone who had tried to murder me wasn’t fully accounted for.

Slowly, very slowly, I got up to the side of the door, then carefully edged my head around, exposing as little of myself as possible.

What I saw made me relax, though I was still paranoid.

The blood trail continued into the restaurant, ending maybe a few yards into it in a body sprawled out on the floor. Could be another person in there. I was dealing with drunks, but you never knew how situations could change.

I didn’t get this far by assuming everything was gonna be just fine.

It took me another minute to get into the restaurant and scope it out. But it was as it appeared: the man had collapsed. He’d dropped his pistol and I nudged it away with my foot, then, covering him carefully with my own pistol, I kicked him onto his back. He was dead, I saw, wincing at the ugly wound in his chest.

He also reeked of booze. Jesus, what the fuck were they doing? I honestly felt kind of bad about this whole thing, but shit, if this was how they reacted to me just walking up to their house then how many other people had they murdered, or worse? They reminded me of the shitheads I’d rescued Delilah and Megan from.

That made me think of Tanner, which was a can of worms I didn’t want to open up again, especially not now.

Taking one more quick look around, I headed back outside. Megan was making her way back towards me and I met her halfway.

“Well?” she asked.

“He’s dead,” I replied. “Very good shots. Now-” I began, but she cut me off.

“Chris, you’re not going off on your own again,” she growled.

“Megan, I have to, and I don’t have time to argue. I know it’s a risk, and I know I’m asking a lot. Please, just do this. Okay?” She looked at me for a long moment, I wasn’t sure if she was going to let me. Abruptly, I said, “I found a vibrator.”

A look of confusion and surprise came across her face. “You really think that’s going to change my mind?” she asked.

“...maybe? Also found a strap-on. Sooner we stop arguing, sooner we can put it all to use,” I said with a shrug.

She growled. “Okay, fine. Goddamnit. What do you want me to do?”

“Strip him of everything you can, then go back home. Have Elizabeth lock the place down and be as secure as she can, then take Delilah to the woods. Gather up as much firewood as you can. Only do one trip, all right? I’m going to the house. I’ll go with you down the ramp, because I want to approach the house from the woods, and I can only do that by entering the woods on this side. I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can with whatever I find, okay?”

“You’d fucking better not die out there, understand me?” she replied with a growl.

“I don’t intend to,” I replied. “Now come on.”

~

We stripped the third corpse down quickly, grabbed some more of the wood that had been gathered and left behind earlier, then headed back outside and down the ramp.

As soon as we hit the bottom, I gave her a hug and a kiss and started moving as quickly as I could, no longer taking my time. It was fucking freezing now and I was starting to go numb. I didn’t even want them to go get that firewood but we honestly needed it. I pushed myself, hurrying along the bottom of the hill the highway sat atop on this side. It slowly rose up the closer it got to the forest. My plan was relatively simple.

Hit the forest on my side, cross the highway after doing the bare minimum of scouting, move through the forest on the other side until I was near the house, the sneak in through the back if possible. Although it was possible there was more than that one injured guy in there, I thought it unlikely. I didn’t really look forward to the thought of breaking in and killing some guy I’d already shot but...and this definitely sounded like a shitty justification to me: he was probably gonna die soon anyway. Even if the hellish blizzard didn’t get him, almost certainly an infection was going to set in thanks to the gunshot wound, and I doubted he’d fight it off.

God did I just want this to be fucking over with.

We were close, really close, but our survival rates were going to depend heavily on what I found in that house. Maybe they had some good stuff, or maybe not. It was a total crapshoot. They might be thieves who’d gotten lucky in less drunk times, or maybe they were on the verge of starvation or something. Maybe desperation had driven them to attack. Maybe they were cannibals. That was becoming more of a thing nowadays.

Not that I’d quite be willing to eat human flesh.

There, finally! Fuck! I hit the forest and rushed up the remains of the incline until I reached its edge. Peering out onto the highway in either direction, I didn’t see a soul. Good enough for me. I glanced back very briefly to the gun shop and saw Megan and Delilah just setting out in my direction. Good. I trusted them to get their job done, and hopefully Elizabeth was in the process of getting the place set up inasmuch as she could.

I crossed the highway at a brisk pace and hit the woods on the other side maybe five or seven yards deep, hopefully enough to hide me from view as I approached the house. The next several minutes passed by in frozen misery as I navigated through the iced-over trees, stomping through the snow, constantly seeing that teal light, listening to winds shriek, feeling my whole body going numb, shivering violently.

By the time I actually reached the little house in the plain, standing at the edge of the forest maybe ten feet from its side, I was honestly wondering if I was going to be able to aim my pistol, let alone use it. My fingers were mostly numb and stiff. But I kept it out, finger on the trigger, and shifted a bit farther down, to the back of the house, and came out of the trees.

As I began approaching the front door, it began to snow.

Fuck, fuck!

I was really under the wire now. Shit!

I got up to the back door and tried it. Not locked, thank fuck for that, at least. I twisted the handle and opened it up, pistol raised and ready, or as ready as I could make it. As I slipped into the house, I again found myself thinking of Tanner and his people. I’d done the same thing just a few weeks ago. I’d never quite done shit like this before. My life had been, if not easy, then at least simple before now, before running into Delilah and Megan. At worst, I had to fight for my life every now and then. I don’t know if I was just lucky or if maybe, in some way, I was asking for trouble now. Here I was, breaking into another house.

But my hand felt forced.

I found myself looking into a teal-lit hallway. Several open doors there. Great. I slipped in and checked the first door on my right, straining to hear anything beyond the window. It led into a messy kitchen, the counters covered with blood and the remains of whatever animals these guys had been hunting. Nothing else in there that I could see, so I moved on. The door opposite it led to a little disused bathroom that held nobody either.

As I moved on down the hallway, I thought I heard someone move or shift. I waited. The wind blew. I waited a bit longer, then kept going. I was truly about to get fucked here by the weather. I wasn’t even sure there was time to get back home now but I had to hope. Next door led to a bedroom with a bunk bed that looked well-used. I carefully checked behind the door and in the closet. There was stuff in the room and the closet, useful stuff, but it could wait for now. I left the bedroom and kept walking.

Reaching the end of the hall, which led into what I imagined was the living room, I was glad to find that my fingers were a bit more functional now.

Good thing, too.

As I stepped through the next door, someone screamed and tackled me, pretty much blindsiding me. We went crashing to the floor and both of us shouted in pain.

“You!” I heard a voice cry out, and a fist connected with my face as my gun left my hand and I tried to get back up. “You fucker! You shot me! Where are my friends!?” the slurring voice demanded. Before I could answer, it declared, “I’m gonna fucking kill you!”

That was when I saw the gun, and looked into the eyes of the man I’d shot in the leg while making my initial getaway. I grabbed for it and managed to get my hand around his wrist, but, even drunk and shot, he was apparently a wily bastard. For a few seconds, I felt the full weight of the past several hours, the past several days bearing down on me, and I genuinely didn’t know if I was going to be able to get the gun away from him. He snarled, staring at me with dull, bloodshot eyes and a pasty, pale face behind a large beard, baring his teeth at me.

I could see it in his eyes he really did want to kill me, and he intended to.

Then the adrenaline kicked in, and kicked in hard. I headbutted him and managed to smash my forehead right into his nose. He screamed as it cracked viciously and I twisted and bucked, throwing him off of me while yanking on his wrist with one hand and wrapping my other around the barrel of the gun.

I managed to wrench it from his grasp and while he dealt with his broke nose, I brought the pistol around and put it to his temple. He screamed one, inarticulate sound, bellowed it in my face, before I pulled the trigger and put an end to him.

“Fuck,” I muttered, my ears ringing.

Nothing but me and the wind now.

I forced myself up and looked around. It was clear that someone had definitely set themselves up in the living room, and there was just one more door to check out. As I headed for it, I paused, seeing something sitting by the door. I smiled as I laid eyes on it, realizing it was going to make my life a whole lot easier: a sled. A sturdy one, too. I could pack a lot of shit onto it and drag it back. I frowned, glancing out the window.

If I moved fast enough.

I slipped into the final room, which turned out to be another bedroom, where probably the leader of the group, whoever he’d been, had been staying. I checked it and the closet out, making sure there was no one else hanging out, and confirmed that I was, in fact, alone. I realized, suddenly, that it was actually quite warm in the room.

Then I realized why.

“No fucking way,” I whispered, looking around.

I spied three small, sleek, powerful heating units set up around the room. They were fancy. I grabbed one and checked it out. I’d seen these before. I wasn’t quite sure how they worked, but they could fit in my pocket and were battery or solar powered. This one was halfway charged. Oh thank fucking God. I immediately turned it off, then did the same with the others, then put one into my inner coat pocket (the other inner pocket, not the one that held the journal, no fucking way I was risking burning that up), and put the other two in my backpack. We might actually have a real chance of making it through this thing.

Looking around, I set to work.

This was going to have to be fast.

~

In reality, I was probably in that house for, at most, twenty minutes.

But while I was fervently hunting through it, stuffing my backpack with supplies and then loading up the sled I’d found with everything else, it felt like I was taking hours. The mounting winds and increasing snowfall only made things worse. But it was worth it. Finally, I had come to a place that was worth it.

Those guys hadn’t been starving, I knew that much.

Although it wasn’t super well packed, I found an appreciable amount of deer meat. I also found a nice supply of cans of fruits and vegetables, and two bottles of red wine. I knew that was going to make the ladies very happy.

Well, two of them anyway, considering Elizabeth’s condition.

I grabbed some bullets that I found, some medicine, whatever firewood they had collected, and mainly I loaded the sled down with blankets, sheets, and clothes. I snatched every last fucking blanket I could find, which was over a dozen between the sleeping areas and closets. Generating heat was one thing, but keeping it in and the cold out was another.

After grabbing everything I thought was there, I turned on the heater in my pocket after making sure the blankets were secure with bungee cables, and then I opened up the front door, preparing myself for the final run.

I wasn’t ready.

I stopped dead as a blast of absolutely fucking freezing air hit me like a motherfucking hammer. The snow wasn’t bad, not yet, the flakes still small, coming down in flurries, but I knew the wallop part of the storm was close.

My chest immediately hurt as I breathed in the frozen air. How cold was it now? Negative sixty? More? Jesus fucking Chris, what a nightmare.

Well, I had to do this.

Even if I could set up here and wait it out, I didn’t think Megan and Delilah and Elizabeth would survive without these supplies and, well, I was willing to risk my life and suffer through this cold for them, apparently.

Without giving myself a chance to think about it, I set off.

It was hell.

It was colder than I’d ever remembered being as I stepped out onto the porch. For a few seconds I slowed, then stopped, then actually, briefly considered going back inside just to escape the torturous freezing cold. But then the moment passed and I walked down off the porch, into the snowfall, and set off towards the highway. I could just make it and the truck stop out through the shifting snow. I kept my sights firmly on that highway as I put one foot in front of the other. That was how I was going to get through this.

One foot in front of the other.

Bit by bit, yard by yard.

I walked on. And on. And on.

I genuinely don’t know how long it took to get to the highway, I only know that it felt like fucking forever. I was freezing all over, mostly numb save for my chest, where the heater was. It was painful but I kept it on because I was honestly worried I’d die without it. At this point, I was convinced I was going to die regardless of what I did but even beneath this awful teal sky I found that I couldn’t give up.

So I kept walking.

When I made it to the highway, I didn’t even realize I’d done so until it occurred to me that the quality of the ground I was walking over had changed. I looked around again, (the visibility was worse now), and just saw the truck stop to my left. It occurred to me abruptly that at some point I’d lost track of it without even realizing it.

Shit, I was starting to lose it.

I was exhausted, mentally and physically, and even emotionally at this point.

Turning, I struggled through the winds and the snow towards the off-ramp. I had made it this far, I just needed to make it a bit farther.

Only a bit farther felt like I might as well be walking to the moon.

As I crossed the highway, I realized I was talking, really muttering to myself, but I couldn’t even make out what the fuck I was saying because I was shivering so violently. My brain felt like it was offline, my body just staggering on by itself. More than once, I had to glance back to make sure I hadn’t lost the sled or that it was still secured and everything wasn’t falling off of it. I’d be god-motherfucking-damned if I came this far just to lose all the shit I’d killed for and dragged this far. Somehow, someway, I was getting to that gun shop.

Another fucking hour seemed to pass before I finally hit the top of the off-ramp. I couldn’t see my destination any longer.

Inspiration abruptly struck and, shivering violently, I turned around and grabbed the sled. Hauling it forward, I got behind it, bent down and started pushing it ahead of me. Once it got even a little bit of momentum, I laid down on my stomach and held on. It didn’t move too fast, the incline of the ramp wasn’t super steep, but the wind was to my back and the incline was just enough that I could make it work. As a result, I got down to the bottom a lot faster than I would’ve otherwise. I hit the bottom and cried out, or really gasped, as I hit a snowdrift and stopped abruptly. Falling off the sled, it took ages to get back to my feet.

Turning around, I started stomping off towards home.

Or where I thought home was.

Time disappeared as I marched into the blowing snowstorm. My reality seemed to change as well. I might as well have been stomping across Antarctica, or an alien world. I honestly don’t know how long I walked for and eventually I began to wonder if I was even walking in the right direction any longer.

The teal-white world began to turn to gray.

I lost all feeling in damn near my whole body.

Right before darkness began to consume me and I collapsed into the snow, I just barely caught sight of a single figure appearing out of the snowstorm, directly ahead of me.

And then I was out.

TWENTY TWO

I opened my eyes and came into a world of ache.

Not pain, exactly, not agony, but definitely suffering. Everything ached, like I’d been through the workout of my fucking life.

For several long moments, I had no fucking clue where I was.

Then I became aware of hammering. Also quiet conversation. And a fire crackling. And, beneath it all, an eternally shrieking wind.

I groaned when I tried to move.

“Oh shit, he’s awake.”

“Thank fucking God.”

I heard movement and I tried to ask a question but just another groan came out. Suddenly, I felt the thing I was laying on shift and then Delilah appeared over me. A second later, Elizabeth appeared on my other side.

“Chris,” Delilah said.

“What happened?” I managed.

“Here. Drink this,” Elizabeth said.

She put something to my lips and I drank. It was water. It was fucking liquid gold and I drank everything she gave me, then something went down the wrong tube and I started coughing up a storm. She winced and apologized, pulling it back. I took a moment for the coughs to die down, and damn did they hurt.

My whole body felt like it had been through a pulverizer.

“Not your fault,” I managed.

“I saved your ass,” Megan said from somewhere nearby. “You had almost made it back. I just barely saw you. I was waiting by the door.” Her voice grew louder and I heard her walking closer. A moment later, she also sat next to me, looking down at me. “I headed out when you collapsed and hauled your heavy ass up onto that sled, then dragged you inside. Took all three of us to get you up the fucking stairs.”

“Thank you,” I murmured. “Are we okay?”

“Seem to be,” Megan replied. “Still getting the blankets and stuff in place.”

I yawned suddenly and an intense desire for sleep began to roll over me, like being trapped in quicksand.

“You need to sleep,” Delilah murmured.

“How long was I out?”

“It’s only been about forty minutes,” Megan replied. “But you were out there for an hour, Chris. It’s a fucking miracle that you made it back alive.”

“Yeah,” I groaned. “Fuck. Got any painkillers?”

“Yes,” Elizabeth said, and she smiled suddenly, looking down at me. “And I have something else for you. I think you earned it.” She laughed softly and shook her head. “No, I know you earned it.” She stood up and began getting out of her clothes.

“Ah shit, really?” I asked, making all three of them laugh.

“Yes, Chris,” she replied.

“Here,” Delilah said, and gave me three painkillers. I took them and propped myself up slightly so that I could drink from a thermos. I looked down at myself and saw that I was down to my thermal underwear and undershirt.

“Aw shit,” I said as something occurred to me. “There’s a heater in my inner pocket-”

“I got it already. Your jacket is fine,” Megan replied. “Good fucking find, by the way.”

“Thanks,” I muttered, and then, while Elizabeth got undressed, I took the time to make sure that all my fingers and toes were still functional and feeling. It took a moment, but I confirmed that yeah, they were still there, still good.

No frostbite, thank fucking God.

“Oh my God you are so hot,” I whispered as I laid back down and saw Elizabeth naked again.

She giggled and blushed. “Thank you.”

“You all are. Fuck, you three are fucking angels,” I muttered.

“Let’s get you naked and settled,” Delilah said.

“Thanks for helping me.”

“Of course, Chris.”

Delilah and Elizabeth helped me get my clothes off while Megan kept hammering away, putting blankets up on the walls. It was cold in the room, but not unbearably so.

“I should wash,” I said.

“I can do that,” Elizabeth replied.

After I was naked and the blankets had been pulled back for me and I was resting about as comfortably as I could, she came back with a washcloth, a bottle of at least lukewarm water, and some soap. She got to work washing my cock, which was already on the way to becoming hard.

“I hope I can make this work,” she murmured as she started washing me off, running the cloth slowly over my dick, which immediately stiffened up the rest of the way.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to get it comfortably into my mouth,” she replied.

“I think you’ll manage,” Delilah said. “I can handle it and I think you’ve got a bigger mouth than I do.” She paused. “I meant that literally, not, like, an insult.”

Elizabeth giggled again. “I know. I’m just...like I said, I’m not used to, uh, bigger ones. I was glad to find that my pussy handled it fine without being sore, but it’s just...intimidating.”

“It’s not that big,” I replied.

“It is to me,” she said. “All right, you’re clean. Now, just relax and I’ll administer an extra dose of painkillers and then you can get some sleep, because you seriously fucking earned it. I looked out the window and it’s fucking terrifying out there.”

I was thinking of something to say to that as she settled down in between my legs, eventually laying on her side with a pillow for some support, and then my already frazzled and abused mind went blank as her tongue found the head of my cock.

A throb, a pure pulse of fantastic bliss careened through me as she began to lick me, and that was when I finally felt myself begin to relax.

I had done it. We had done it.

We were probably going to be okay.

I looked at her just amazingly beautiful, nude, pale body and those fucking awesome big, beautiful tits of hers as she worked my cock with her tongue. She licked across the head for a good, long minute while Delilah sat beside us and Megan worked in the background. Well, half-worked, she kept looking over. Then Elizabeth ran her tongue up and down my shaft, lingering on the more sensitive area at the base of the head.

And then she put my cock in her mouth.

She began a slow, sensual blowjob, her lips slipping down over the head and then back up. Down and up again. Nice and slow and oh my fucking God it was so fucking good…

“Holy shit, Elizabeth…” I groaned loudly, watching this seductive, dark-haired, pregnant beauty work my dick with her amazing mouth.

She let out a little laugh and seemed to relax slightly.

“Yes, you’re doing a great job,” I said as I realized she actually was worried about that. I had no idea how she could worry, she really was a fucking angel to me right now.

“Yeah, you look so good doing this,” Delilah murmured.

Elizabeth just closed her eyes and kept on working, quickly growing more confident as she took more and more of my dick into her mouth. She moaned softly as she worked it, getting her hand involved, moving her fingers in tandem with her seductive lips. I felt her tongue flicking across the head again and again.

Sleep was coming, I knew it, and I hovered at the edge of it, beginning to fade.

I could feel my orgasm coming on and knew I’d be gone the second I finished coming, or maybe even gone before then.

“Ugh...yes...Elizabeth...keep going…” I begged, twitching occasionally as the waves of hot pink pleasure rolled through my aching body.

When the orgasm came, it was intense, like a flare, a volcanic eruption.

I cried out and my cock jerked violently and I heard her let out a startled sound. But her mouth never stopped its wonderful work.

I could feel my seed not just leave but erupting from my cock in the first contraction. As it did, a shockwave of blinding ecstasy slammed through me. I cried out again as I started draining my nuts into her mouth.

And Elizabeth just fucking sucked my cock dry.

And then I was passing out once again.

~

When I came back awake, I was aware of only two things.

The first was that I was insanely fucking horny.

The second was that there were three naked women in bed with me.

“Oh thank God, you’re awake again,” I heard Delilah say as I shifted.

“How long?” I asked, sitting up and looking around me. Holy shit they looked amazing. Delilah and Megan were to my left, Elizabeth was to my right.

All naked.

“Several hours,” Megan growled. “I know you needed sleep, probably still do, but we were kind of hoping getting in bed with you like this would wake you up. We were close to just shaking you. We’re all fucking horny but Delilah made the very valid point that it’d be absolutely unfair of us to start without you.”

“Thank you, Delilah,” I said.

She smiled and kissed me. “You’re welcome. Now...can we begin? I haven’t had sex in like five fucking days and I am horny.”

“Same,” Elizabeth murmured. “And I’ve only had sex once in the past like three months,” she added, running a hand across my bare chest.

“Yes,” I replied, and kissed her while taking one of her big, wonderful breasts in my grasp. She let out a small gasp of surprise as our lips met and then moaned and deepened the kiss immediately. Her tongue slid into my mouth and I gladly touched mine to hers. She tasted wonderful. Behind me, I could feel as much as hear Delilah and Megan begin to go at it. My hands wandered hungrily over Elizabeth’s pleasantly padded, pregnant body, across her large breasts and down across the swell of her belly, to her hips and wonderful thighs.

“God, it is so good to feel wanted again,” she whispered, her lips so close to mine they brushed them when she spoke.

“You are extremely wanted by everyone in this room,” I replied. “I have no fucking clue how any straight dude could look at you and not immediately want you.”

She responded by kissing me again, wrapping her fingers around my cock and starting to massage it. Her touch was electrifying, and I decided to return the favor. My hand slipped between her pale thighs and I slipped a finger between the lips of her pussy. She moaned loudly into the kiss as I found her clit and began to rub it. Feeling her hot, smooth body begin to writhe and twist at my touch was an intensely rewarding experience.

“Yes…” she moaned loudly, opening her legs wider. “Oh fuck yes, that is really good…”

I started sucking on one of her big breasts as I fingered her, and kept it up until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah?” I asked, twisting slightly

I found Delilah’s grinning face. “Let’s switch partners,” she suggested, and pushed me onto my back, then rolled over me, kissing me in passing, and landed between me and Elizabeth.

“All right then,” I replied, scooting closer to Megan, who gave me a smirk that told me right away she’d found and gotten the wine. “Someone’s been drinking.”

She giggled, and it was rare to hear her giggle and not let out her sharp, slightly cynical laughter. “Yeah,” she said, grinning more broadly, her face flushed. “You found some good stuff. I’m very appreciative.”

“Show me,” I replied, and she showed me, kissing me while taking one of my hands and bringing it up to her bare breast.

While we made out, I kept one eye on Elizabeth and Delilah.

“I’m a little nervous,” Elizabeth admitted as Delilah ran a hand up and down her arm.

“Don’t be,” Delilah replied in a very calming but also interestingly authoritative voice. “No one here is going to get mad at you. No one here is going to laugh at you. No one is going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. We’re all just here to get along and have fun and enjoy. I know this is going to be your first time with a girl, but trust me, I’ve handled this before.”

“You’ve broken in a lot of girls, hmm?” Elizabeth asked, and she did seem to relax.

Delilah laughed. “Yep. Women questioning their sexuality find it very hard to resist me.”

“I think everyone finds it hard to resist you,” Megan said.

“Yep,” she repeated, grinning.

“I’m ready,” Elizabeth said.

Delilah responded by kissing her on the mouth. Elizabeth let out a low moan and closed her eyes as her hand found Delilah’s generous, hot breast and began to grope it. Delilah groped her right back, the redhead deepening the kiss with a practiced ease.

They made a remarkably erotic couple.

Megan and I became distracted for a few moments while they tongue-kissed and groped each other, and even more so when Delilah began to finger her and suck on one of her pale breasts. After a bit, Megan took my hand and brought it down to her crotch. I took the message immediately and resumed kissing her as I started to rub her clit. She groaned and shuddered, pressing herself more tightly against me as she shoved her tongue into my mouth. She was drunk and clearly very fucking horny right now.

Delilah and I kept pleasuring our respective partners until they each experienced a screaming orgasm. Megan grabbed me and kissed me hard as I kept fingering her, now fucking her with two fingers as she came, and I heard Elizabeth crying out in almost shocked ecstasy as she enjoyed her own climax.

When Megan was done coming, she went slack against the bed, panting. Then, after a moment, got up and walked across the room. She came back with a bottle of wine that was about two-thirds gone and drank deeply from it, then set it on the floor beside the bed and climbed back onto it, grinning at me as she crawled.

“Your turn,” she said, and got down between my legs.

Now it seemed it was Delilah’s and Elizabeth’s turn to watch us as Megan started sucking me off. She bobbed her head smoothly, her lips and tongue going to wonderful work as she closed her eyes. I definitely liked drunk Megan a lot. I liked her sober for sure but...she was more agreeable drunk, I was finding.

And not just because she was sucking my dick.

A moment later, I felt the bed shift and Delilah joined her, and they both began dragging their tongues up and down my cock.

“Wow that is...amazing to see,” Elizabeth murmured as she scooted closer to me, laying up against me as the two women pleasured me.

“It really is,” I agreed and began to make out with her again.

That was how I spent the next several moments: making out with and groping an amazingly hot pregnant woman while two other amazingly hot women took turns sucking my dick. This, by far, had made everything I’d gone through to get to this point more than worth it. I had to stop them before they made me pop because I had a goal tonight, and that was to shoot my load inside of all three of them, specifically in their pussies.

Well...I wanted to fuck Delilah in her amazing looking ass and finish up there.

But even now I could feel how exhausted I was, the past couple of weeks still taking its toll on me physically.

“Okay, now what?” Megan asked, blowing some hair away from her face.

“Sex,” I replied. “I want to fuck someone.”

“How about I grab that strap-on and I fuck Delilah while you fuck Elizabeth?” Megan suggested with a sultry grin.

“Yes, please!” Delilah shouted happily.

“Sounds good to me,” I replied, and we both got up.

While Megan began pulling on the strap-on Delilah and I had tracked down in that derelict adult shop, I grabbed Elizabeth’s ankles and began pulling her towards me, where I stood at the foot of the king size bed.

She let out a happy shriek and laughed as she slid across the bed.

“You cleaned that, right?” I asked as Megan finished getting it on.

“Yes, Chris. This isn’t my first orgy,” Delilah replied. “But thank you.”

“Come on, I’m super horny,” Elizabeth complained, poking me with her foot.

“All right, all right you slu-” I stopped and abruptly realized that this was only the second time we were having sex and we had met within the past week.

Elizabeth, thankfully, just favored me with a smile. “I don’t mind. Honestly, I don’t care what comes out of your mouth at this point.”

“I’m going to take you at your word then,” I replied, and I opened her legs as I stepped up to her. “Now I’m going fuck you like a whore.”

“Please do,” she replied. “I really need it.”

“Same,” I said and rubbed the head of my cock between the wet, smooth lips of her pussy. Glancing to my right, I saw Megan getting ready to deliver a good, hard fucking to Delilah as well. I hadn’t actually seen one chick fuck another with a strap-on in real life before, so this was going to be another happy first.

I slid my way into Elizabeth’s stunningly tight, pregnant vagina and for several long, blissful seconds completely lost myself in her. I groaned loudly as I gripped her hips and began fucking her, stroking smoothly into her again and again. She cried out each time I buried my cock into her and goddamn was she so fucking tight! And the heat of her pussy...it was fucking unreal! Making out, sucking on tits, getting head…

It was all great. No question.

But fucking raw vagina was on an entire other level and I was in fucking love with it.

“Oh my fucking God, Elizabeth,” I groaned as I reached up and grabbed her tits. “Your fucking pussy is phenomenal. Just...fuck!”

“I love your cock so much, Chris,” she moaned in response.

I heard Delilah start crying out in bliss and we both looked over. Megan was fucking her and it was glorious to see. She grinning fiercely, grabbing Delilah’s pale ankles and holding them as she started humping her with the strap-on. Both of their fantastic pairs of breasts were bouncing with the rhythm of their sex as they fucked. Delilah was crying out, her eyes closed, mouth open, hands gripping the blankets beside her.

Megan looked absolutely stellar, a beautiful, tan-skinned, dark-haired goddess, her body fit and firm, moving with an agile ease as she screwed Delilah, taking an obvious satisfaction from pounding the little redhead given the look on her face.

I returned my attention to Elizabeth and kept stuffing my cock into that blissfully tight vagina again and again, my cock encased in a place of absolute ecstasy. She was so fucking slick, so fucking hot inside, and her body! I was finding that I really, really had a thing for pregnant chicks, because although it was no stretch of the imagination to imagine Elizabeth as super fucking hot before, for me, she was especially attractive right now because of the fact that she was pregnant, because of the ways her pregnancy had changed her body.

“Chris,” Megan said after another moment.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“How about, before you fucking ruin her pussy with a goddamn gallon of cum, we switch partners? I wanna fuck her too,” she said.

“You good with that?” I asked.

“Yes,” Elizabeth replied. “I’ve never been fucked with a strap-on before.”

“You’ll enjoy it,” Delilah murmured.

“You just want his cock,” Elizabeth said.

Delilah laughed. “Guilty.”

I pulled out as Megan did the same and we switched.

“Let’s switch positions, too,” I said. “Get on your hands and knees.”

“Yes, sir,” Delilah replied.

“Yeah, I do wanna fuck you from the back,” Megan said. “You good with doggystyle?”

“I like it a lot,” Elizabeth replied. “Just need to give me a minute.”

Delilah was up and on her hands and knees quickly, and I slid right back into that sweet, pink, tight pussy of hers. Fucking hell did I love wild redheads like her who were just down to fuck like there was no tomorrow.

“I want to fuck you in the ass tonight,” I said to her as I stroked into her and ran my hands over her beautiful, pale ass.

“I want that, too,” she replied.

“Excellent.”

I fucked her good and hard, relishing the satisfaction of making her scream and shout. She was definitely one of those petite chicks who could handle my dick without a problem and there was a particular pleasure in that. Delilah was the kind of girl you could absolutely destroy and she’d ask for more. I listened to both of the women scream in ecstasy and kept switching between looking down at Delilah’s hot ass and over at Elizabeth getting rammed by Megan from the back. Megan seemed just enamored with Elizabeth’s curvy body, running her hands over her ass, her hips, up under her and groping her big tits.

“You are crazy hot,” Megan said as she stroked the fake cock into her.

“Thank you-ah! Fuck, that’s so good…” Elizabeth moaned.

“OH CHRIS!” Delilah shrieked, forcibly returning my attention to her as she began to orgasm all over my dick. I groaned, enduring the intense pleasure and holding onto my own orgasm, fucking her climaxing vagina as she squirted and screamed.

When she was done, I pulled out of her and looked at the other two.

“Would you ride me Megan?” I asked.

“Yeah, sure,” she replied, and pulled out of Elizabeth, then gave her ass a smack. “You want a turn with this? I’m sure Delilah would love to get rammed by you.”

“I think for now I just want to keep getting rammed. Actually, I want to get eaten.”

“I’ll do it,” Delilah said.

We all switched places. Elizabeth sat on the edge of the bed with her legs spread while Delilah dropped to her knees.

As I ended up on my back, I was glad to find that all of the preparations the girls had set up while I was out seemed to be holding. I wouldn’t call the room toasty, but it was definitely tolerable. It probably helped that we were all getting a lot of hot, sweaty exercise that was getting the blood pumping.

Megan climbed eagerly atop me a moment later, after pausing to have another drink, and immediately began bouncing on my cock.

“You’re not getting out from under me until I make you fucking come,” she said, looking down at me with wide eyes as she gripped my shoulders.

“Well fuck, all right,” I replied.

She laughed, her tits bouncing perfectly as she rode me, and oh how fucking good her pussy felt slipping down over my dick again and again.

“Come on,” she growled, going faster, “come on! Fucking come for me!”

“You really want me to make a mess of your pussy that bad?” I asked.

“Yes!” she yelled.

“All right.” I grabbed her ass, adjusted my hips, and started thrusting up into her. She let out a scream as I pounded the fuck out of her pussy and before long both of us were coming. I shot my load into her sweet, sweet pussy as she began to squirt and we both made a mess out of the other. I came so fucking hard inside of her, my whole body contracting in pure bliss as I drained my cock into her raw pussy.

I filled her up, boiling in bliss.

When I was finished, she got off of me and flopped onto her back, panting, staring at the ceiling, face flushed, hair a mess, looking very beautiful.

I leaned down and kissed her. “You are a fantastic fuck,” I said.

She laughed. “So are you.”

Right as I shifted closer to the other two, Elizabeth began orgasm again. Delilah was eating her with an obvious expertise, working her pussy with not just her mouth but her fingers as well. I watched the beautiful pregnant woman orgasm as Delilah made that pussy dance, and then Elizabeth fell back onto a few pillows, panting.

“Holy shit, that’s...oh wow...oh my…” she panted.

“You ready for more dick?” I asked as I stood before her and Delilah.

“Yes,” she replied emphatically.

“Good. Delilah, get ready for anal,” I said.

“Yes, sir,” she replied immediately, getting out of the way.

I got up to Elizabeth and resumed the position I’d enjoyed with her earlier. Slipping back inside of her pussy, I found her slicker than ever, and she let out a long, loud cry of pleasure as I started fucking her again.

I was not lasting much longer, even after just coming inside of Megan.

This pregnant vagina was just too fucking good. It was like fucking pure pleasure.

Sure enough, a few moments later…

“Ah...fuck!”

The rapturous ecstasy blasted through my body as I came inside of her, shooting what felt like another big load into her, filling her up. Each time my cock contracted it was like a shockwave of pleasure smashing into me. I had gripped her ankles at some point and was holding her legs out wide and up, thrusting deep into her each time another orgasmic contraction hit me. I went for what felt like awhile.

When I was done this time, I pulled carefully out of her and sat down next to her.

“So...how was that?” I asked, looking over at her.

She had the same look as Megan, laying on her back, pale face flushed, that look of sedate joy, staring up at the ceiling.

“Great,” was all she said. “Wow. You fuck like...no one I’ve ever been with. Holy shit.”

“Glad I could make you feel good,” I replied.

“You ready for me?” Delilah asked.

“Almost,” I said, looking at her. Damn did she look good. She walked over and sat down next to me, holding a tube of lube and setting it between us.

“You can go hard if you want, I like it hard in the ass,” she said.

“You are honestly a really perfect traveling companion,” I replied after almost opening up that potential can of worms that was ‘I love you’, because fuck, in that moment, I fucking loved her. Or really how sexual she was.

She just smirked. “I know.”

I took a break, and while I did, Megan and Elizabeth began to clean themselves up. Delilah kept toying with me, running her hands over my body, kissing me, teasing me, still horny obviously, so it didn’t take all that long for me to get hard again.

“I take it you want doggystyle?” she asked.

“Actually…” I replied, considering it while she rubbed my cock down with lube. “I think I want to do missionary anal.”

“Okay,” she replied.

“This’ll be nice to watch,” Elizabeth murmured.

“These two are always nice to watch,” Megan replied.

“Yeah, like that time-”

“Don’t you fucking dare!” Megan snapped, blushing immediately.

“What?” Delilah asked innocently.

“What...what am I missing?” Elizabeth asked.

Delilah and I laughed but kept silent, just looking at Megan. She heaved a loud sigh after a long moment. “I...spied on them having sex. When we first met.”

“Oh my God, you perved on them!?” Elizabeth asked, looking absolutely delighted.

Delilah laughed on her back and brought her legs up, spreading, folding, and holding them to herself.

“No!” Megan snapped.

“She did! She completely perved on us.”

“That’s such a dumb phrase,” Megan growled. “Ugh, I was out getting firewood, it was the first day we’d met. Chris had saved me from some assholes who had captured me, they started fucking while I was out, I happened to walk by a window that looked perfectly in at the bed they were slamming in and the curtain was open just a little and...I mean, yeah, I couldn’t help it!”

“I said we weren’t mad-ooh!” Delilah said with a little gasp as I started working my way into her ass.

“Fuck’s sake you have a tight ass,” I muttered as I got in.

“Yeah...nice and...ah...keep going,” she groaned.

I kept going, working my way into her fantastically tight ass.

“So you liked the fact that she was spying on you?” Elizabeth asked.

“Hell yes,” I replied. “I figured if she saw us naked and fucking, that was a big step closer to her taking off her clothes and spreading her legs for me.”

“Wow, Chris,” Megan said, rolling her eyes.

“Was I wrong?” I asked.

She growled and crossed her arms, staring at the ceiling for a moment as I kept getting deeper into Delilah’s fantastically tight ass.

“No,” she admitted. “You were not wrong.”

“You don’t think it’s a compliment?” Delilah asked.

“It’s...whatever. We’re fucking, and I was a pervert-”

“Was. Yes,” Delilah murmured, then groaned.

“Oh like you aren’t a completely perverted little fucking slut-whore,” Megan snapped.

“Never claimed otherwise-oh yes!” she cried.

I was all the way in and now began to stroke smoothly into her.

“Ahh...fuck, I’m not lasting,” I admitted right away. “Your ass is just too good...goddamn that is fucking tight.”

“Just use me however you want,” Delilah replied, her eyes closed now. She looked fantastic like this, on her back, her legs spread, tits bouncing, taking my dick up her amazing ass. I used her. I fucked her in the ass, stuffing my cock in there again and again, bathing in the raw bliss that was Delilah’s amazingly tight ass.

I lasted a few minutes, and then I started busting my third, and probably final, nut for the night. Laying my hands across her big, pale tits, I groaned loudly, my legs shaking, as I came up her ass. She moaned and cried out with me as she took my load. My cock jerked and kicked and twitched, my hips leaping forward in time with my orgasm with each spasm. What was left of my stuff spurted out of me and into Delilah.

And then I was done, sexually at least.

Once I pulled out of her, I laid down beside her and just rested for probably fifteen minutes, my head spinning. I still needed a full night’s rest, among other things, but I had regained enough strength to get a few things that needed doing out of the way.

Despite everything, there was still the tiny but insistent doubt about our security. It wasn’t that I doubted Megan and the others, more than I hadn’t personally seen to it. I was bad at delegation. Once I was done with the initial rest after our amazing fuck session, I took the time to wash myself up, as I really needed it after all that.

Once I’d gotten washed, I pulled on a fresh pair of boxers, two fresh pairs of socks, my thermal underwear, and my long-sleeved undershirt. Then I did a quick inspection of our exterior. It looked like we were inside of some kind of wild, makeshift tent or on the inside of a patchwork doll maybe. Between what we’d all managed to find scattered across the region, there had apparently been enough blankets to cover damn near every square inch of the place, and that included floor and ceiling. They’d hammered blankets, pillowcases, and sheets everywhere, covering both doors and leaving only the fireplace uncovered.

“We actually managed to find a little store of plastic covering and tape,” Megan said while I was inspecting. “There was enough to cover the windows.”

“Excellent job,” I replied.

The fire was roaring and there was a healthy store of wood, twigs, and kindling nearby to be added as needed. They had also set up two of the portable heaters, both of them on opposite ends of the headboard.

“Where’s the third one?” I asked.

“Here,” Megan said, guiding me over to one of the windows. She pulled back the blanket and showed me. I saw a slight opening in the plastic covering the window, and could immediately feeling the cold radiating off of it as the winds continued to shriek wildly outside. I saw the third heater resting inside. “It was the lowest one on power, and since it’s still daylight out, I figured I’d try and let the thing charge with what sun there was. Here, lemme see if it’s even working.”

She reached in and pulled two items out, passing me one. “Check this shit out.”

I looked at the freezing rectangle of metal in my hands and realized I was looking at a thermometer. It was hovering around negative sixty five, which probably meant it was negative seventy five or even eighty five outside right now.

God knew what the fucking windchill was.

“Hey, it is working! Not as much as you’d think, it was down to around ten percent charge when I put it in after you got in, and it’s maybe thirty five percent now, but that’s progress!” She put it back, then took the thermometer from me, checked it, grunted, and put it back, too. After putting the plastic and blanket back, she turned to look at me. “Chris, I wanted to say now, you did fucking amazing. I…” she hesitated, looking down briefly, then seemed to make herself look back up at me. “This is hard for me, but you handled this like a real badass. We’re alive now entirely because of you. And you risked your life, more than once, to make this happen, so...thank you.”

She hugged me.

As I hugged her back, I looked over, saw Elizabeth and Delilah had settled on the bed again. They were looking at us. “She’s right,” Delilah said. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, Chris. I...don’t even have words. I mean, you just fucking show up out of nowhere, save my life, more than once, fuck me better than I’ve ever been fucked, and your super fucking nice to me and take care of me? Thank you seems way too shallow,” Elizabeth said.

“You’ve more than thanked me enough so far, and it’s fine,” I replied. “And all of you helped me do this. I didn’t do it alone. But what I did do, I don’t regret or resent at all. You three are fantastic. Let’s just leave it at: we’re all here, we’re all safe, and we’re all grateful. Yeah?”

“Fine by me,” Delilah said.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Megan said, pulling back slightly and looking up at me.

“All right, although I feel like I’m going to be thanking you for awhile,” Elizabeth replied.

“Well...not gonna say no to that,” I replied.

Megan laughed and gave me a kiss. “I’m starving,” she said.

“Yeah, me too. Let’s put dinner together.”

And that was what we did next. Given it was easiest and probably best under the circumstances, we cooked two big pots of stew made from fried up deer meat and some vegetables, mostly corn and peas, all recovered from that house.

Once the meal was made and distributed, we sat together on the bed and ate, careful not to spill anything, given the fact that we probably weren’t leaving this bed for the next who knew how long. Hopefully the storm didn’t last too long.

But we were here, and we were safe, and we were happy.

All in all, given the circumstances, I thought that was more than enough.

EPILOGUE

The storm lasted the rest of the day, and through the night, and a little ways into the next day, although periodic investigations of the thermometer revealed that it began to calm the fuck down sometime around dawn.

We slept a lot, especially me and Elizabeth.

We had sex, and all three of them blew me at least once.

And that was fucking awesome.

Although the storm finally died off a little bit around noon, and the sky was back to normal a couple hours after that, we opted to just stay in for the rest of that day and night, too. We ate, fucked, talked, relaxed, and finally slept.

The next day, we packed up everything we could, having to leave most of the blankets and extra cloth behind, but I had to be honest, I was flying high. The guns alone were a huge fucking find and great bargaining, but we’d also managed to find a decent store of food, and some medicine and other random supplies to help boost our stock.

Plus, those mobile heaters, hot damn.

Big find.

It took us another four days of walking before we at long last completed our journey.

~

“I gotta admit, I’m nervous,” Delilah said. “What if she’s not there? What if...shit, what if something’s happened to her?”

We were walking through a forest. We’d left the highway, as the town wasn’t actually directly off the highway, but a few miles east of it. The rest of the trip out here had been wonderfully uneventful, and I’d even manage to bag a deer yesterday.

“It’s a possibility,” I said, trying to ride the line between being supportive but also being realistic for her. “But whatever happens, wherever she is, I’ll help you find her. Our first order of business is to get a place, and get settled. Are we all cool to live together for now?” I asked.

“Obviously I’d love to, you’re the closest people to me in the entire world now,” Elizabeth said.

“Yeah, I’m down to live together,” Megan replied.

“Yeah,” Delilah said, distractedly. She was looking at the sky.

“See something?” I asked.

“I...yeah. It looks like smoke,” she murmured.

I looked up. She was right. Through the thick forest of trees, I could see smoke wafting on the air high overhead. That could be a big bonfire but…

I sniffed a few times and smelled burning on the air.

Also could be a bonfire or something like that but…

It might not be.

Delilah apparently picked up on that possibility too and suddenly took off.

“Shit, Delilah!” I said, and headed off after her. “Stay with her!” I snapped to Megan, and then I was off. Delilah was fast when she wanted to be.

I didn’t have to go far to catch up with her, however, because I saw her standing still as a statue just beyond the edge of the forest up ahead.

Moving quickly, I came to stand next to her.

“Oh my God…” she whispered.

Now I stood still as a statue. “Holy shit,” I muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Megan asked as she and Elizabeth approached.

Neither of us said anything. We stood atop a natural rise in the land that gave us a clear, clean view of the town of Pine Lake. It was a low sprawl of buildings settled across a broad, open area cut through by roads, a few creeks, and a river. There were small clusters of structures and individual buildings spread out here and there, but the bulk of the town resided near the middle of the area, what had once probably been eighty or so buildings.

Now, most of them were nothing more than burned rubble.

“Oh fuck me,” Megan muttered as she and Elizabeth came to stand beside us.

“Shit,” Elizabeth whispered.

We stood there in a line for a long moment.

Eventually, I began to realize there were people moving among the smoking ruins, and that probably a dozen of the buildings in the central mass, near the edge closest to us and maybe a mile distant, were still standing.

“Come on,” I said, “we need to see if we can help.”

A WARM PLACE 3

ONE

I had seen destruction before.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Plus we had Elizabeth to think about.

So we settled into a slower but steadier pace.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hopefully not, anyway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She sighed and lowered the rifle. “Fine.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Because hey, we did.

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

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

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

“Yes,” she growled. “I’m not stupid.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Understood,” I replied simply.

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

Oh yeah, she was in charge.

She had that voice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes, I’m sorry,” the woman replied.

Elizabeth quickly bundled back up.

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

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

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

“We’ll take it,” I replied.

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

“All right,” I replied.

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

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

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

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

“Chris.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What do you want?” Lisa replied.

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

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

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

“Show me what you’ve got.”

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

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

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

“No, unfortunately,” I replied.

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

“Okay,” I replied.

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

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

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

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

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

With that, we headed back out into the cold.

TWO

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

“Yes,” Megan replied. “I am.”

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

“Fine,” Megan replied.

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

“Delilah,” she replied.

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

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

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

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

“I can handle it, Chris,” she said.

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

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

“Elizabeth,” she replied.

“How far along are you?”

“Seven months.”

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

“No,” I replied. “We’ll behave.”

“Good.”

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

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

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

She had a nice ass.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was home, for now at least.

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

Especially considering the company.

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

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

“On it,” she said.

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

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

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

“You the father?” she asked.

“No,” I replied.

“What happened?”

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

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

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

“Hmm.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“You’re a weird one,” she muttered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m sorry,” I said.

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

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

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

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

“I am,” I replied simply enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yes, then we’ll talk again.”

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

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

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

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

“Describe Lindsay to her.”

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

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

“Oh thank God,” Delilah whispered.

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

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

“Sure,” she said.

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

“So, what’s up?” she asked.

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

“Alone?” she asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Okay,” Megan said.

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

“Yeah?”

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

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

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

“Tonight. Definitely,” I promised.

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

“I will,” I replied.

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

She sighed. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

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

“She say anything new?” I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“We’ll be careful,” Delilah promised.

The door opened and Megan came in.

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

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

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

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

“Be careful out there,” Megan said.

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

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

Back out into the cold.

THREE

Now I was alone again.

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

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

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

I felt good.

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

It felt right to be here, doing this.

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

And I didn’t blame her one bit.

I wouldn’t want to either.

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

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

So that left Megan.

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

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

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

Not that that always worked.

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

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

After banging the fuck out of Elizabeth.

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

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

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

And then there was Lisa…

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

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

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

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

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

I folded the map up and put it back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A pause. “You don’t look familiar!”

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

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

“Understood!”

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

“Close enough.”

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

“Just hold still,” he said.

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

No one was wearing leather, so that was good.

“You from Pine Lake?” I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What are you doin’?” Nate replied.

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

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

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

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

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

And with that he turned and set off.

I followed after him.

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

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

“Shit,” I muttered.

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

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

“Shit,” he growled.

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

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

“Well...all right then.”

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

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

“Why?” he asked, after a moment.

I considered it. “I want to.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing. Just the wind.

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

“Got it,” I replied.

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

After a moment, Markus came back.

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

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

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

“Oh.”

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

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

We continued on our journey.

FOUR

Back in danger again.

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

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

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

“What is it?” Markus asked impatiently.

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

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

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

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

“I think they got her here,” I said.

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

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

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

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

“Willow!?” Markus called.

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

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

“Fuck! Hold on!”

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

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

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

“Chris. I’m here to help,” I replied.

“Markus?” she asked uncertainly.

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

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

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

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

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

A wolf.

A jackoff in a leather jacket.

Shit, even a bear.

But I made it back without a problem.

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

“All there?” he asked.

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

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

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

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

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

“I don’t trust you,” she said flatly.

“I’ll be right here,” Markus said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

~

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

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

“Who?”

“Lindsay.”

She paused. “Why?”

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

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

“Yeah. You know her?”

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

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

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

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

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

“Cats?”

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

“Something like that,” I replied.

“Hmm.”

“What?”

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

“I guess we’ll find out.”

“You don’t seem too worried.”

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

“Why’d you promise to help?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m going back,” I said.

“Why?” Markus asked.

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

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

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

~

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

Perhaps even a great start, considering the circumstances.

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

So that was nice.

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

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

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

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

“I can handle it,” I replied.

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

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

I took the lead.

~

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

Maybe I was getting more personable?

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

How much of that was something I could change?

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

Dana had made that point.

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

Someone screamed.

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

Elizabeth.

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

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

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

Lisa.

Shit. Fuck. This was bad.

I got to the corner and looked around.

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

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

FIVE

For a few seconds, I couldn’t breathe.

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

Would probably die.

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

Megan.

With her rifle, getting into a good shooting position.

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

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

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

“What do you want?” she asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I stepped forward out of the crowd.

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

“Back off!” he snapped.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Again and again and again.

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

“CHRIS, STOP!”

That broke through. I stopped.

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

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

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

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

“F-fine,” she managed.

“Get off me,” the man said weakly.

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

“Chris-” Lisa said.

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

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

He was fucking scared.

Good.

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

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

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

“How many?”

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

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

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

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

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

He was aiming for me.

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

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

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

Lisa was the one who broke the silence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A cold wind blew.

Neither of us spoke for several seconds.

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

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

“...oh,” Lisa murmured.

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

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

“Fine,” I said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m sorry, Delilah.”

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

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

Was I lying?

I honestly didn’t know.

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

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

“Megan definitely helped,” I said.

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

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

“You should too,” Delilah murmured.

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

I might not like the answer.

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

“Elizabeth. Delilah. Here.”

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

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

“Thanks,” they both murmured.

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

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

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

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

I would be, to be honest.

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

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

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

SIX

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

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

Just the two of us.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We walked on for another few moments.

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

Finally, she did break the silence once more.

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

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

“Such as?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Sorry,” I murmured.

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

I followed after her.

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

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

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

“Tell me about your life.”

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

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

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

“Apparently,” she murmured.

I paused. “What’s that mean?”

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

I hesitated for a few seconds, then just shrugged.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What about you?” I asked.

“What about me what?” Lisa replied.

“What’s your story?”

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

I really didn’t like where this was going.

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

“I’m sorry,” I said.

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

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

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

“How do you feel about that?”

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

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

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

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

“Now what?” I asked.

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

With that, she set off.

I followed after her.

~

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

“Depends on what it is.”

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

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

“This is a break?”

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

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

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

“...which one?”

“You’ll have to guess,” she replied.

I laughed. “You’re crazy.”

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

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

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

“Eh...let’s not go there,” I replied.

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

“I hope they are,” I murmured.

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

There are worse retirement plans.

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

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

A long pause. “Lisa?”

“Yes! Fuck!”

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

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

“Okay, I’ll get the door unlocked.”

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

“Friend of yours?” I asked.

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

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

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

“What is it?” Lisa asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Both Leonard and the middle-aged woman nodded.

“Chris?” she asked, looking at me.

“You want me to kill them?” I asked.

“Yes. Can you do that?”

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

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

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

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

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

“No.”

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

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

I nodded and headed off.

SEVEN

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

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

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

Get pissed, kill people?

Probably not.

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

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

This needed to happen.

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

It would rise, eventually.

And I would have to deal with it.

That might be tomorrow or six months from now.

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

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

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

Then I caught a snippet of conversation.

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

“Yeah, too bad we had to kill her.”

Okay, that was more than enough for me.

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

I squeezed the trigger again.

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

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

Somewhere, a bird called, high and lonely.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~

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

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

“Decently.”

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

“They’re dead,” I replied flatly.

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

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

“Can he walk?” I asked.

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

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

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

Lisa nodded. “Come here.”

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

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

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

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

~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~

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

Well, almost all of it, anyway.

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

It was a nightmare environment.

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

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

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

I worked. I pondered.

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

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

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

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

Mostly murder, and the act of doing it.

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

You just had to live with it.

Some people could, some people couldn’t.

I guess I was lucky. I could.

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

Well, of the head, but same principle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Helping more people meant killing more people.

It was ugly and miserable and I hated it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

EIGHT

“Lisa.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five on the south side, four on the north.

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

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

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

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

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

“Jesus,” I whispered.

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

“Goddamn. Medicine?”

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

“What about people?”

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

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

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

“So we need more people,” I murmured.

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

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

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

I nodded. Fuck, a lot to do.

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

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

“Tell me about it.”

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

Finally, I spoke.

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

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

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

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

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

“I’m listening.”

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

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

“I will,” I promised. “Thanks.”

“Yeah.”

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

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

“You should probably get some sleep.”

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

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

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

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

“Yeah?” she asked, now sounding annoyed.

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

Was she into me?

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

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

Why was I thinking about this?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not ideal, but better than nothing.

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

“Chris, is everything okay?” she asked.

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

“They seem to be.”

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

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

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

“Yeah.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yeah.”

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

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

I was starving.

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

“What’s up?” she asked.

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

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

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

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

“What?” I asked.

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

“If you’re sure,” I said.

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

I laughed and the tension broke.

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

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

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

NINE

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

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

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

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

“Long day,” I replied as we came in.

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

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

Megan shut and locked the door behind us.

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

I laughed. “No. She offered.”

“What, to go down on you?”

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

It already felt like home.

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

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

“Good. Tired,” she replied.

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

Finally, I turned to Elizabeth.

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

“Yeah?” she asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A lot of people were pale nowadays.

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

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

“Uh...thanks,” I replied.

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

“What?” Delilah asked.

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

“Oh,” I said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She laughed. “I’m glad you think so.”

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

“What?” she asked cautiously.

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

She raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”

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

“That was fast,” Elizabeth murmured.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“How are you about what happened today?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was sure horny enough to skip any other foreplay.

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

Fuck me did she have a great ass.

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

Then I pushed inside of her.

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

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

“I can’t-ah!-help it!”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Good idea,” I replied.

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

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

TEN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yeah?”

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

“You sure?” I asked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Don’t fall back asleep,” Megan said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Forget something?” she asked.

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

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

“What?” Megan asked, glancing up.

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

“Oh God, that’s the worst,” I said.

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

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

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

“Thanks.”

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

“More ammo,” I replied.

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

“That’s what I said.”

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

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

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

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

“Great,” Megan muttered.

“Don’t suppose anyone has binoculars?”

“Unfortunately not,” Lisa replied.

“We’ll manage,” I said.

“Good luck.”

“You too.”

We headed out.

~

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

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

I wondered how long that would last.

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

“You like it?” I asked.

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

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

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

“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied.

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

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

I put the scope to my eye.

“See anything?” Megan murmured after a bit.

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

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

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

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

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

Megan and I both froze and grabbed for our rifles.

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

“Bad guy?” Megan murmured softly.

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

“What?”

“I think that might be Lindsay.”

“Delilah’s friend?”

“Yep.”

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

“Come on,” I said.

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

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

Did she seriously not hear us?

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

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

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

Megan and I froze and Megan grabbed for her rifle.

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

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

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

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

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

“Friends of Delilah’s.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She dashed in through the door.

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

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

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

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

“Fair point.”

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

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

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

“Here, let me go up,” I said.

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

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

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

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

The cat meowed morosely at me. I sighed.

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

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

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

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

Megan shouted my name in shock as I gripped the edge of the second floor. It was definitely a risk, but the space where I would land was pretty clear and flat, and I was usually pretty good about landing on my feet if I fell, or at least in a way that wouldn’t hurt anything. I grunted as I caught the edge and, thankfully, got a good grip.

“You fucking idiot!” Megan snapped as I started to pull myself up.

“That was stupid,” Lindsay said, sounding amused. “I guess I can see why Delilah’s into you. She always had a thing for kind of benignly stupid guys, with just a little bit of jackass in them.”

“I took a calculated risk,” I replied as I finished getting up onto the second floor. I crouched there for a moment, looking at the cat. It was hidden under a chair, staring at me unhappily. “I’m not stupid or a jackass.”

“You liar,” Megan said.

I sighed again and began heading towards the cat. “Be ready with that carrier.”

“Tossing it up now,” Lindsay replied.

“No, don’t-” I began, but then it landed behind me with a crash.

The cat jumped and dashed out. I dove after it and somehow managed to get a hold around its midsection. Careful not to hurt the giant animal, (how big was this cat?), I twisted and wriggled my way over to the carrier, which had thankfully not only landed upright but with the metal mesh door swung open.

“Just...relax!” I growled as the cat growled right back at me and writhed in my grasp trying to get out.

“Yeah, Socks is a fighter,” Lindsay said, still sounding amused.

“Socks!?” I snapped as I got the cat into the carrier and closed the door behind it, securing it. The cat let out a hiss and started settling in the carrier after realizing it couldn’t get out. I didn’t think I’d hurt it, but I peered in and watched him? Her? I couldn’t tell. However I might feel about pets, I would feel like shit if I’d accidentally hurt the cat.

“Yeah, you didn’t see his paws?” she asked.

“Oh...I thought that was snow,” I murmured. The cat eventually settled facing the opposite way of the door, seemingly very intentionally not looking at me, no doubt indignant and enraged. “So it’s like he’s wearing socks.” I got back to my feet and dusted myself off.

“Yes. Hence the name,” Lindsay replied. “Is he okay? If you’ve hurt him I’m going to be very mad at you.”

“I think he’s fine,” I replied, picking up the carrier. The cat growled and shifted around inside. Honestly, I was sympathetic, I’d hate to be in a cage, too.

“Well I’ll know for sure soon. Here, pass him down to me, okay?”

I got over to the edge, laid down on my stomach, and lowered the carrier down as far as I could. Lindsay, tall as she was, reached up and got hold of it, then lowered it and looked inside. “Oh Socks, much as I love you, you deserve this for putting me through so much bullshit.”

I got up, then sat down on the edge, my feet dangling over. “Make way,” I said, then twisted and turned, shifting until I was hanging off the edge by my hands, then I dropped and landed with a grunt on the floor below.

“Okay, now that you have your cat back, will you return to Pine Lake and see Delilah? She’s been dying to see you,” I said.

Lindsay shook her head. “Unfortunately not, there’s a problem.”

I stared at her. “Of course there is.”

ELEVEN

“I was actually on my way back to Pine Lake from the lakehouse a little ways north of here,” Lindsay explained as she set the carrier down on the counter, then shrugged out of her pack and set it down next to the carrier, unzipped it, and began to dig around in it. “There’s a group of survivors up there. I found them while I was looking for this little guy. They’re typically responsible for this patch of land where stuff grows.”

“Did something happen to the land?” I asked.

“Not exactly.” She pulled a can of tuna out of her pack and peeled the lid off. As she did, the cat immediately perked up and began turning back around. He meowed. “Oh yeah now you’re talking to me now that I’ve got something you want.” She sighed, carefully opened the door, slipped the tuna in, and closed it again. The cat began chowing down. She zipped her pack back up and shrugged into it, then turned to face us again. “There’s a bear.”

I felt my stomach go cold. “A bear?”

“Yep. I guess they’ve seen it over the past several months, but it’s always kept its distance. Something changed. Now it’s freely roaming over the grounds. It killed one of their number yesterday. They’ve decided they need to kill it. Which isn’t an unreasonable reaction. We need regular access to that land and, honestly, that bear would provide a lot of meat. Of course, killing a bear isn’t exactly all that easy. It’s...large, from what I hear.”

“And you were on your way to get backup?” I asked. She nodded. “Okay, backup’s arrived.”

Lindsay stared at me for a moment, then a small smile came onto her face. “Okay, yeah, I can see why Delilah likes you.”

“You haven’t even talked with her yet,” Megan said.

“If she came all this way with him and he calls himself ‘more or less’ her boyfriend, she likes him. I know how she works. And I’m coming with you,” she said.

“You don’t want to take your cat home?” Megan asked.

“Not yet,” Lindsay replied.

“She should come with us anyway,” I said, “do you know about the observation deck?”

“What about it?” Lindsay asked.

“The assholes that burned down your town are staying up there. We confirmed it yesterday. No idea if they have a rifle, but if they do…”

“Well fuck,” Lindsay muttered. “That’s a long walk…”

“Megan and I are good shots,” I said, shrugging briefly to indicate the rifle slung over my shoulder. “We can cover you and whoever else that heads back to town after we deal with the bear and make sure the food area is safe.”

“Good,” she said. “Let’s go.” She grabbed the cat carrier and gently lifted it up off the counter, then grunted. “Heavy goddamned cat,” she muttered.

“You want me to carry him?” I asked.

“No, I want you and your good eye to protect us,” Lindsay replied.

“Fair enough.”

We headed out.

~

“So how did you actually meet Delilah?” Lindsay asked as we walked through the snow. You could see the lakehouse from the docks, though it was about a mile farther up the shoreline, roughly at the northwest corner of the lake.

It was in pretty clear view of the observation deck.

Still didn’t see any activity up there.

“It isn’t a happy story,” I replied.

“Tell me anyway, I need to know.”

“All right. She had been ‘traded’ by the group she was traveling with to another group of assholes looking to sell her as a sex slave. She’d escaped when I found her, ran until she passed out in a cabin during a snowstorm. I got her warm, and when she came to she asked me to get her here.” I knew I was skipping over some stuff, but it was enough for now, I thought.

“What happened to those assholes? Anything?” she asked.

“Yeah, Megan and I killed them.”

“Huh. Good on you.” She fell silent for a bit. Occasionally, Socks would complain from his carrier, but mostly he seemed content to lick the tuna can. “I just can’t believe she actually made it out here. That’s so nuts. I can’t wait to see her.”

“She really misses you,” I replied.

“That’s good to hear. I missed her, too.” She looked at me again after a few moments as we walked for the lakehouse. “So what’s your deal? You literally just stumbled across Delilah, decided ‘hey yeah I’ll walk…’ how far did you walk?”

“About ninety miles.”

“Jesus fucking shit. So you just decided to walk ninety miles through the snow and fuck knows what else to get this random girl you found to some middle-of-nowhere town?”

“Yeah basically,” I said with a shrug.

She laughed. “I’m guessing she still looks like a fucking supermodel and...well, ‘more or less boyfriend’ has gotta mean you two are screwing.” She frowned. “So how about you? I don’t recognize you from around town.”

“I came with Chris and Delilah,” Megan replied. “We’re friends.”

“Friends, huh? Okay.”

“Yeah. What’s with you and the cat?” Megan asked.

“I found some strays after moving here,” Lindsay replied. “Before all this shit went down, I was training to be a vet. I got through a few years of school, and I’ve taught myself some shit here and there since then. And I really like cats. So I’ve been taking care of them. They all got out when the fire happened. They’re survivors, and I’m convinced they made it out alive. I was right about Socks at least.”

“How many are there?” I asked.

“Three.”

I looked again to the platform. Still nothing. Damn that was making me paranoid. My attention was returned to the fore again as I heard the distinct sound of a door opening and a gun cocking. The lakehouse’s front door was now open, and a man in jeans and a heavy coat was holding a pistol, aiming it at us.

“It’s just me!” Lindsay called, waving with her free hand.

The man lowered the gun. “Who’s that with you, Linz!?”

“Friends! They’re here to help with the bear!”

“You got back fast!”

“They came to us, met me halfway by chance!”

We finished crossing the distance and the man, middle-aged with a graying beard and a lined face, let us inside. There were more people hanging around in the living room, gathered around a fire, all of them dropping their conversations and looking to us.

“We have a problem,” I said. “Those assholes that burned down the town are in the observation platform right now.”

Several of the others exchanged worried glances.

“Who are you, exactly?” the older man who seemed to be in charge of the group asked.

“Chris. This is Megan. We just arrived yesterday and are offering help. Lisa sent us.”

The man looked uncertainly at Lindsay. “They seem legit,” she said with a shrug.

“All right then. If you’re really here to help, why don’t you help us kill a bear?”

“I can do that,” I said.

“Good. We were just gearing up to go grab my shotgun. One of us already headed out to grab it and he hasn’t come back, so it may also be something of a rescue mission. Willie, you’re coming with us, okay? Grab your shit.”

“Fine,” a slim man with a black beanie and a scar down one side of his face stood and began gathering some things.

“Megan, will you stay here? If they start trying to snipe us…”

“I’ll handle it,” she said. “Just, you know, handle your end. Don’t need you fucking dying out there.”

“I’ll be fine,” I replied.

She nodded, hesitated, then gave me a hug and a quick kiss. I saw Lindsay raise a single eyebrow at that, but otherwise she didn’t say anything, just walked deeper into the house with her cat. I checked over my gear.

“I’m Stephen,” the middle-aged man said as he stepped closer to me. “I take it you can handle yourself with a gun out there?”

“Yes,” I replied simply.

He scrutinized me for a few seconds. I’d gotten used to that at this point. Finally, he just nodded, seemingly satisfied, and looked at Willie, who wrapped up getting his gear together and joined us. He looked at the others. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. When we come back, I want Walt and Lena ready to join us in tackling that bear.”

“We’ll be ready,” another man with a large black beard probably ten or fifteen years older than me said. A stern-looking woman with glasses checking over a pistol looked up and nodded at the mention of her name.

With that, I followed Stephen and Willie back outside, and then we were heading into the cold one more time.

~

“I was just curious...is there a particular reason you hid a shotgun out here in the middle of nowhere?” I asked as we made our way away from the lakehouse and towards the treeline to the north of us.

I threw a glance back at the observation deck every now and then. It still had a pretty clear view of us, but I trusted Megan to watch my back and I still hadn’t seen anything. I was beginning to wonder if they’d scrammed.

Wouldn’t that be lovely?

“I guess in case of something like this,” Stephen replied. “Wanted to put it relatively nearby, to keep it from prying eyes and grasping hands. Someone found it once in the lakehouse, so I had to move it out further.”

“Surprised they didn’t take it.”

“They knew it was mine. They knew better.”

As we walked across the snow and then into the trees, Stephen started asking me the things that I imagine I would be asked every time I ran into someone new around here. Who was I, why was I here, where had I come from. Was I full of shit. It was all fair enough, I was a stranger and I’d come in right in the middle of a huge attack committed by strangers. I was trying not to let it get to me. I’d had to convince people I wasn’t a jerk, to varying degrees, for most of my life. It was probably one of those things I’d be living with forever.

Especially in a world where the average stranger was just as likely to walk up and put a bullet in your head as ask you for a trade or a place to sleep.

In a way it had forced me to be more personable.

I wondered if that had had anything to do with my luck with ladies since the apocalypse had begun, but I somehow doubted it. I think it was my intimidating demeanor that made me all the more appealing now that killers did actually roam the streets as much as we used to believe they did thanks to the fucking news cycle. The primal instinct to protect and to seek protection was suddenly much more relevant in day-to-day life, and I seemed to fit into the role of protector more than most other guys.

It was a double-edged sword, though.

More appealing to women: awesome.

More threatening to other guys: less awesome.

Honestly, I’d never gotten along super well with other guys. There were exceptions, obviously, but mostly I was either alone or hanging out with a woman. And that was true now more than ever. We started moving through the trees then and I looked around, seeing nothing but frosted trunks, dead bushes and branches, and snow. So much snow, surrounding us. There were footprints, too, leading due north, that we were following.

“How’s the town?” Stephen asked quietly after a few moments of silence passed following his calm interrogation.

“Bad,” I replied. “But there’s still a good fifty people alive hanging around. There’s injured and sick, and we need food and meds, but Lisa’s on top of it. She seems pretty qualified.”

“She is,” he said. “She’s sharp as a tack and she knows how to crack the whip. One of the few people I’ve seen who’s actually very brave and not just lacking fear because they’re too stupid to recognize the danger. Thank God she made it. And at least we’ll get the food situation under control once we put a dozen bullets in this fucking bear.”

“It’s that big?” I asked.

“It’s pretty big,” he replied.

“Great.”

As we kept going, following the path and the footprints in the snow, I became aware of a sound that immediately put me on edge: growling. My pistol was already out, but now I readjusted my grip on it and started looking around even more carefully. It could be pretty difficult to get a clear reading on where things were in a forest.

“Is that wolves?” Willie asked softly.

“Think so,” Stephen replied. “Be ready.”

They both had their pistols out too. Well, time to fight wolves again, apparently. I hated fighting wolves. They were vicious and brutal and downright mean, but maybe the worst part of it was that I could always see a glint of cunning in their eyes. It wasn’t just dumb animal survival instincts, there was some type of intelligence going on in there. It was both scary to fight, but also it made me feel bad in the same way I felt bad when I had to kill a person. At least it didn’t make me feel so bad that I hesitated when the time came.

And the time was rapidly approaching.

The growling grew louder as we drew closer. I heard jaws snapping and the awful sound of animals feeding. Stephen made motions to us: break left and right. I went right, aiming my pistol as I caught dark movement through the trees ahead. We moved slowly forward until we were almost to the treeline, and I got a good view of the horrific scene at last. In a clearing where a dilapidated wooden shed stood, a man lay surrounded by a half dozen or so wolves. They were feasting on him and there was blood everywhere.

One of them raised its head and issued a sharp bark.

“Fuck!” Willie snapped.

“Shoot ‘em! He’s gone!” Stephen yelled, and opened fire.

I did the same, but the wolves moved like fucking magic. One second they were there, the next they were dashing at us in a spread-out line. I caught one of them in the chest and heard it yelp. It took off. I saw another go down as a bullet connected with its skull, and I was tracking two more that were still coming my way.

Fuck they were so fast!

They were like sleek, dark gray blurs coming right at me, like sharks of the snow almost.

I kept firing, pumping out round after round trying to put them down as they rapidly closed the gap between the two of us. I had scant seconds before they got at me. My bullets just kept barely missing, kicking up miniature eruptions of snow each time they landed. Finally, I caught a shot, right in one’s open mouth. It died in a split second, going slack and skidding to a halt. The other abruptly lost its nerve as its friend died and another bullet came dangerously close to it, maybe even grazing it. With a yelp, it turned tail and ran, crossing the clearing in the other direction and putting the shed between me and it, and then no doubt disappearing into the forest. As I turned to see how the other two were doing, I heard a wild, piercing scream of fear and agony.

Willie was down, I saw, just at the edge of the clearing. A wolf was atop him, digging into him with its awful teeth. Stephen screamed and surged forward as he put down the wolf that was hassling him, neatly putting a shot into one of its eyes. I rushed along as well. He got there before me, hauling off and kicking the attacking wolf like a football player, his booted foot connecting solidly with the thing. I thought I heard something crack and it was dislodged from him. Willie screamed and jerked violently as it detached, and I felt my stomach flip as I saw a great gush of blood come out of his ruined throat. The wolf had a hunk of fresh meat in its jaw that it had torn loose when Stephen had physically removed it.

We both shot it at the same time, killing it quickly, and then Stephen was crouching by Willie, laying a gloved hand over his torn-out throat.

“Get your medical kit!” he snarled.

Willie was gurgling and reaching up, staring with wide, panic-blind eyes, pain no doubt wracking his body. I was pretty sure he was dead and gone, his brain just didn’t quite appreciate the fact yet, but I didn’t want to seem like a heartless piece of shit, so I dropped to my knees beside them while I shrugged out of my pack. Unzipping it, I looked around hastily as I started digging for the medical supplies, in case any more wolves were creeping up on us. Nothing. I think we’d either injured or scared them all off.

“Come on, dammit! He’s bleeding out!” Stephen snapped, but the tone of his voice had already changed. I think he knew.

He had to.

Nonetheless, I spent the next minute or so with him desperately trying to stop the bleeding. Willie’s thrashing soon became twitching, and twitching soon became sluggish movement as his eyes began to glaze over. Stephen was cursing occasionally as he tried to get the gauze in place around the huge wound in the man’s throat.

“Stephen,” I said, when it became obvious that the life had drained out of him.

“Yeah, I know,” Stephen whispered, panting. He shot to his feet suddenly. “Fucking goddamn wolves!” he screamed, and kicked the nearest one twice, hard as he could, I thought. While he stood there fuming, I salvaged what I could of the bloodied gauze, which wasn’t much. I looked down at Willie, and he looked…

At nothing. Not even the sky overhead.

Because he was dead.

His heart didn’t beat. His blood didn’t pump. His brain didn’t fire.

I felt a strange numbness begin to settle over me as I put the medical supplies back, zipped my pack up, stood, and pulled it back on.

I reloaded my pistol. “Why don’t you grab the shotgun and I’ll stand watch in case any of them come back?” I suggested.

Stephen didn’t speak for a few long seconds, and I wondered how long we’d have to wait for him to feel up to the task again. It wasn’t that I didn’t have any compassion, I did, plenty honestly, but the longer we stood out here, the more opportunities wolves, bears, or men had to wander by and put an end to us.

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” he said finally, and started marching off. He paused by the second man’s corpse, the wolves had really torn into him, and shook his head. “Goddamnit,” I barely heard him whisper, and then he kept going.

He disappeared into the shack and I kept watch for wolves. It was a lonely, but thankfully not particularly lengthy task. After several minutes, Stephen emerged, frowning and grim-faced, hauling a sled with a backpack stuffed near to bursting and a few lengths of bungee cabling.

“Will you help me get all the dead bodies loaded up on here?” he asked.

I nodded and we set to our unlovely task.

TWELVE

“What the fuck happened?!” Lena demanded as we approached the front door dragging our miserable load behind us.

“Wolves,” Stephen replied simply. He was the one hauling the sled, allowing me to keep watch over us. Either because he might concede I was better for the job, or because he felt it was his responsibility given I was the stranger here and he, presumably, knew the two men who had died pretty well.

“Jesus H Christ,” Walt muttered, coming to stand beside Lena in the front door. I could see Megan in the house behind them and she looked like she had something to say.

“Anything happen?” I asked.

“I went to check out the back when I heard the gunshots,” Megan replied, “leaving them in charge of looking at the observation deck. When I came back, they said they’d seen someone moving around up there. I looked through the scope but I didn’t see anyone.”

“Wonderful,” I muttered.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Fine,” I replied. “We got the shotgun.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to go and get this bear killed now. Willie and Fred here,” he said, indicting the first man we’d found dead, the one who had gone to get the shotgun in the first place, “will need to find their graves. Willie’s dad and Fred’s girlfriend, if they’re still alive, need to be told what happened and make some peace.”

“Then let’s kill this fucking bear,” Lena growled.

“Who’s getting the shotgun?” Walt asked uncertainly.

Stephen sighed, looking between us. “It’s got a hell of a fucking kick to it, and I don’t think you or Lena could handle it, God’s honest,” he said. “And I took that fall yesterday. I can still handle the pistol, but…” He looked at me. “Can you handle it?”

“Yes,” I replied, looking it over. It looked old but clean and well-kept.

“It’s an eight-gauge,” Stephen added.

I sighed. “I thought so. Goddamn, how old is it?”

“It was my gandaddy’s, and he might’ve gotten it from his own father. So, old. But it’s been well maintained. Kind of a family heirloom. Kept it under the table, so to speak, seeing as it was illegal to own a working one. This is Kansas, though.”

“And the shells?”

“Had ‘em custom-made too. Just in case.”

“In case of what?” Megan asked. He raised his hands to indicate the world around us. “Fair point,” she replied.

He chuckled grimly. “Yeah. Was hoping I’d be wrong, but I’m glad I saved it. Anyway, you’ll do it?”

“Yeah,” I said, accepting the double-barreled weapon and checking it out. He set a box of shells on the coffee table and I cracked it open and loaded two of them, then put another dozen shells in my pocket, just in case. Though I was really thinking I’d be able to straight up fucking decapitate this bear if I got it with both barrels. I listened to the others murmur among themselves over the recent deaths, and prepare for the next battle that was ahead, while I continued checking out the double-barrel. I was tempted to take it outside and test-fire it, but something told me that would be a bad idea. Drawing unwanted attention or wasting ammo or maybe something else. Unfortunately, I was going to have to undergo a trial by fire with the thing.

I was not at all looking forward to fighting a fucking bear.

I’d done so before. Mostly, I just avoided them. Some still seemed happy enough to avoid humans, but more and more I’d been finding and hearing stories that they were going the way of the wolves: finding a hunger for human flesh. So far, I’d tangled with three of them, and so far I’d managed to get away with a lot of luck and a few scrapes. There were a lot of things to be scared of relating to bears, but probably the most terrifying thing I’d learned was that those furry motherfuckers were goddamned fast!

I couldn’t believe how fast they moved.

Megan came to stand beside me. “You want me to go with you on this one?”

“Kinda,” I admitted. “But I’d still rather you stay here and keep watch. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything stupid. Bears...freak me out.”

“Yeah, me too,” she murmured. “Well, good luck out there, then.” She sighed. “Are we ever going to catch a break?”

“We’ve caught breaks,” I replied.

“Yeah, for a few days at a time, maybe. I don’t know, it just feels like shitty things keep happening. I get captured. Twice. We get hunted by wolves how many times. Elizabeth’s shitty ex. That fucking storm. Now all this.” I frowned as I saw that it was really beginning to get to her at least somewhat. “It’s bad luck.”

“Try not to think of it like that,” I replied. “It’s good luck. The world is what sucks, so the shitty things that are happening are, unfortunately, normal. This is our new reality. But we’re lucky to have come this far. We met each other. I got you out of several of those, you got yourself out of several of them. We’re still alive, and largely undamaged, and we have friends. And sex. You could’ve died or broken a bone or got a horrific infection at any one of those events, but you didn’t. So try to think of it as lucky.”

She sighed. “Yeah, yeah, Mister Fucking Optimism. Fine.” She glanced back behind me briefly, deeper into the house, where I could hear Lindsay complaining at her cat. “You and she and Delilah gonna...you know, later?”

“God I hope so,” I replied. Anything to take my mind off what I’d just seen back there.

“Same. I want a piece of her,” she murmured quietly.

“I want all of her all night,” I said.

“You like tall girls?”

“And half-Italian girls apparently,” I replied.

“All right. Go kill the bear, then we can go home and figure out what to do next. And see if maybe there’s fun in the future.”

“Oh there’s definitely fun in the future, just a matter of figuring out with who,” I said.

She laughed and kissed me, then resumed her watch at the window. I looked at Stephen and the others, who were somberly finishing up their preparations. I quickly finished my own, making sure my weapons were ready to go and the ammo was in easy reach in the (likely) event that I would need to reload rapidly.

“All right,” Stephen said, getting everyone’s attention, “are we ready to handle this?”

We all gave affirmative replies.

He looked around at us, then sighed softly. “Then let’s get it over with.”

~

I like to think that normally I’m either pretty chill, or at least keep a pretty level head in dangerous situations. Personally, I think my survival record speaks for itself. But there were definitely places where I had room to grow. Like my blowup earlier, and my rising anxiety right now. To be fair, I was going to fight a goddamned bear, and from the way they were describing it, it was a fairly sizable one, at that.

On the other hand, this needed doing. I couldn’t just avoid stressful situations my whole life, it was impossible, so the logical answer was to just adjust to the stress and take things in stride. I was a lot better at that than I used to be, so that was good.

But I was still fucking scared right now.

I tried as best I could to keep it off my face. They’d entrusted me with the shotgun, so it was only fair that I keep it together and do my damn job. The four of us crept through the snow after heading away from the cabin, now westbound, and made it into the forest once more. I had moved among so many trees in my life, even before the apocalypse. All those camping trips. Even here and now, stalking a bear through a dead snowbound woodland, I felt strangely at home. My friends used to make fun of me, saying that I was one of those guys who was going to disappear one day in my forties to a log cabin off in the mountains, living off the land and off the grid. Chopping my own firewood, killing or growing my own food, with solar panels and a gas generator for backup, and my own filtration system. All of it totally independent and self-contained.

I had to admit, there was a part of me that found that rather appealing, even now.

But I knew I needed people. I didn’t hate people. I mean, not completely. The right person could make my life light up, like Delilah or Elizabeth or Megan. Mary, from a few months ago now. So what was perfect?

Maybe living in an isolated house near a place rich in game and food that grew in snow, with a generator of some kind and a working fucking shower at least, with three (or more) very hot, sexually active and submissive women, with a settlement of a few hundred people within reasonable walking distance.

Even as I thought it, I wondered if it was bullshit, because if that was true, I could’ve had that by now, I think. If I’d really put my mind to it, I could’ve had it by now. I didn’t because I kept getting up and leaving every few weeks.

Would that happen here?

I honestly didn’t know.

“Hold,” Stephen said quietly, and we all froze, and waited. “Chris,” he murmured.

I joined him. He pointed. “Look.”

Fresh tracks. Big fresh tracks.

“Goddamn,” I muttered. “Looks big.”

“It is. It’s very big,” he replied. “Probably nine feet standing up on its hind legs. Just be ready with that shotgun.”

“I am,” I said, shifting my grip on it a little.

We started following the tracks, keeping a careful eye out for anywhere the bear might be hidden. We were heading into thicker woodlands and some of these trees were big. In a way, I suddenly felt like I was in a movie and we were hunting a goddamned raptor or something. Cool to watch, awful to live. I also knew that as much ammo as I might have on me, I was probably only going to get one shot, so it was going to have to be a good one.

The tracks continued along, weaving their way along a rough natural path through the trees. Now the fear was really setting in, because this was it. We were actually going intentionally towards hundreds and hundreds of pounds of killing fury. I tried to stay loose, stay ready, as we stalked through the trees. I listened and watched. Heard the sounds of birds somewhere overhead, a crow cawing occasionally. I heard the dead branches swaying in the light winds, occasionally smacking against each other or nearby trunks. I heard the others breathing, the snow crunching beneath our boots. Mostly, I saw snow and dead vegetation.

The trees began to thin out, and that was when I began to notice the plants. The live plants. We passed several stalks of corn, growing in rough rows right out of the snow. We passed some peas that looked a bit more organized. A not-there-yet orange tree. Blueberries. I had to admit, it was really surreal to see.

Then we came into a large clearing maybe fifty yards wide, and I saw more plants, not just in number but in variety.

Okay, yeah, they had a good setup here.

I could see why this was worth fighting for. It was rare to have access to such a renewable resource like this.

The huge paw prints continued across the way and disappeared into the treeline further north. It had crushed a lot of plants in its wake.

We slowly walked into the clearing, and then came to a halt.

“What?” I asked.

“Just trying to get a feel for the thing,” Stephen murmured. “Done a fair amount of hunting in my life, only hunted a few bears. They’re more clever than most people give them credit for. Wish I knew what had upset it enough to changes its patterns...maybe it had eaten everything in the vicinity, had to go looking for fresh meat.”

“Could be,” I agreed, scanning the treeline all around us.

Overhead, a crow cawed sharply. We both glanced up and saw a huge black crow take flight from somewhere off to the left, winging skywards.

It felt like an omen.

“Uh, Stephen, I think...oh fuck!” Walt screamed.

I heard gunshots as I spun around, raising the shotgun.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

I saw Walt and Lena. Each had their pistols raised and were firing frantically, though Lena seemed calmer than Walt.

And that was because the bear I saw bursting forth from the treeline near them was coming at him like a juggernaut. He must have felt like a man tied to tracks with a speeding train bearing down on him.

The bear roared, a huge, dark brown thing of fur and claws and teeth.

It was massive.

I saw bloody holes opening up on its vast dark-furred body as it tore ass through the snow, and the bullets only seemed to enrage it further.

I also saw that I wasn’t going to be able to act anywhere near fast enough to save both of them.

Even as I shot forward, already taking aim with the double-barrel, I could see that the bear was going to reach Walt before I could. Sure enough, it crashed into him, mauling him as he screamed for help at the top of his lungs. I saw a huge gush of blood fly out and coat the bear’s fur as it slashed at him with its massive claws across his chest. He spun around, arms flying, pistol tossed off in some random direction. Lena and Stephen were screaming and firing into the thing as it continued coming after him. Walt hit the snow and the bear hit him.

It tore into him, locking its massive jaws around his whole head.

I kept running forward, knowing this was dangerous, that it could very well do the exact same thing to me if I missed or fucked this up somehow. But this had to end fast, as in right now, I knew that much at least.

The more seconds this thing was alive, the more likely it became we’d all die.

I was just a few yards from the bear now. It looked up at me, staring with hate-filled eyes as it released what was left of Walt’s head from its bloody maw, and it roared at me. A cloud of bloody steam escaped its huge mouth.

I aimed and fired both barrels.

The thing kicked like a fucking mule. I cried out as I felt it slam into my shoulder and collarbone, driving the breath from my lungs and the feet from beneath me, but the relief I felt even as I fell right on my ass was immense as saw everything above the bear’s neck disappear in a vaporized cloud of gore. I’d blown its head completely off.

That shot had been fucking perfect.

I didn’t have time to celebrate my victory, though, as I groaned and slowly got onto my hands and knees. Gasping, trying to reinflate my lungs, I saw Stephen and Lena standing over Walt, who, even from my disadvantaged point of view I could tell was dead, the bear had damn near decapitated him. Neither spoke. Looking at them, I had the impression that both had dealt with gruesome, miserable loss before now. Perhaps they’d had a lot of experience with it even before someone had burned their town to the ground.

Or maybe even before the snow began to fall.

After getting back to my feet, retrieving the shotgun (and my rifle, which had somehow come loose), and brushing myself off, I realized Stephen was looking at me regretfully. I didn’t exactly like that look, but made myself relax.

“Something wrong?” I asked, then glanced briefly at Walt. “Besides the obvious...I’m sorry, I tried to save him but-”

“No, I know,” Stephen replied, coming over to me. “You did good, actually. Really good. I’m impressed. You probably saved the two of us. I’d forgotten how fast they are.” He sighed heavily. “I just have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“I’m almost positive this bear’s den is a cave maybe a quarter mile north of here.” He pointed and I followed his finger, spying a trail between the trees. “That trail leads to another clearing where you can access it. I’m almost certain that one or more of our dead ended up there, in that den, and I was wondering if you’d be willing…”

“To go check,” I said. He nodded. I considered it for a long moment, looking at the bear. Between this, the human corpses, and the wolf corpses, we had a long day ahead of us, but we also had a great haul of food. “Yeah, I’ll do it,” I said.

“Thank you,” he replied.

I winced, carefully moved my arm.

He chuckled grimly. “Kicks like a son of a bitch, don’t it?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Mind if I hang onto it a bit longer?”

“Not at all.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded and returned to Lena. I cracked open the shotgun and reloaded it, then snapped it shut and turned around.

The way ahead of me was clear enough, the path laid out. I tried not to wonder if there were wolves, or worse things, ahead of me, and instead just started walking. There was a job to do, and I intended to see it through to the end.

THIRTEEN

By the time I reached the clearing, it was quiet.

The voices of the others had faded behind me, even the birds seemed to have fallen silent. Something about it made me nervous, but also curious. I knew bears slept in caves usually, did they call them dens? No, that was wolves. Wolves had dens. Unless...they both did? Whatever the case, I’d never actually seen a bear’s home after it had died.

Did it have cubs? A mate?

Fuck, I hoped not.

Today had been difficult enough as it was.

The second clearing I found was about as lush as the first, though obviously the bear had trampled over a lot of the food. Looking around, I tried to find signs of wildlife. There were just some birds, hanging around. A single crow perched high on one of the trees, staring down at me. I looked back, and it regarded me with beady black eyes and stony silence. I resumed looking around. If I remembered right, crows were one of the birds that could actually remember human faces, and hold a grudge, and communicate it to other crows.

Or maybe that was ravens.

Or shit, maybe both.

Either way, some of the black birds could do that, and there was something really freaky about that. I didn’t see anything beyond the birds, so I started making for the cave that I could just barely see through the trees ahead of me. I left the clearing and headed back into the trees, shotgun in hand. If there was another bear, it was going to be quite the trick to get out of this one alive. I was basically banking on it being the only one.

Which was admittedly stupid.

I emerged in another, smaller clearing that butted up against a sharp rise in the land where the cave was burrowed into. Immediately, I caught scent of the smell of death and knew I’d come to the right place. I gripped the double-barrel more tightly and peered cautiously into the cave. It wasn’t a very deep cave, I could actually see one of the corpses already. Well, it would probably help Lisa with her checklist.

Unless we’d gotten lucky and one of the raiders had gotten mauled to death and dragged off. I kept walking, then came to stand near the entrance to the cave. I stood and waited and listened, ready to blast off with that shotgun in a second. I kept expecting a big giant bear head to poke out around the turn at the back of the cave, where I saw it went deeper, but nothing happened. I heard nothing. Despite my tension, I had the impression that the cave was empty. Well, the only way to do it was to just fucking get in there and do it.

And that’s what I did.

I walked inside, shotgun at the fore. My progress was slow at first, the tension rising and rising. If there was going to be a real-life jumpscare moment, it was going to be pretty soon. I kept listening for any hints of movement or breathing or anything, but it was just me in that cave as far as I could tell. Finally, I got up to the body, stepped over it, and peered cautiously around the turn at the back of the cave. I expected to see a giant furred face staring at me, ready to maul me to death in an instant, but there was just more cave.

And not a lot more, either.

In the light from the sun, which was bright today, I could see basically the whole cave. From what I could tell, there were another two corpses back there, neither one of them wearing leather, unfortunately. Although they were chewed up pretty bad.

They were going to have a hell of a time identifying them.

There were no other bears. I pulled out my lighter and wasted some fuel checking the place over, just in case there was something I was missing, but there wasn’t. So I gathered up the first of the corpses and started the process of getting it out of the cave.

When I was finished, I stood a few yards away from the cave’s entrance, catching my breath, trying not to puke.

It smelled fucking awful in there.

Finally, after reaching into my pack and finally just tying off a t-shirt around my mouth and nose, wishing for a ski-mask, I went back to get the next body.

Fuck, this was gonna take a long time.

~

I was right.

It took a long time.

I got the three corpses within sight of the entrance to the cave, then walked back to join the others and let them know the situation. I ended up carrying Walt’s dead body back through the snow and trees with Stephen, while Lena stayed behind to begin the process of harvesting the bear for everything it was worth.

Given all they’d sacrificed for it, they intended to squeeze every last useful bit out of that fucking bear and those wolves.

We didn’t share a word as we walked back to the lakehouse. Once we got back there, we emptied off the sled and Lindsay and Megan joined us to begin the long, arduous process of gathering up the bear meat so that we could take it back to the settlement. It and the dead wolves, as well as the dead men and women who had fallen to the wolves and the bear. There were, thankfully, another pair of sturdy, heavy sleds at the lakehouse that they normally used to transport the harvest that the land provided.

Sadly, Stephen and Lena were the only survivors from the original group that had fled up to the lakehouse.

They had a lot of containers and cans and wax paper and twine that we packed the meat from the bear and then the wolves into. It was grim, bloody, and cold work, and we started a small, very carefully controlled campfire near the bear that was watched at all times by someone, so it didn’t do any more damage to the plants than had already been done. We took turns carving up the meat and passing it off to be stored and dealt with later. I took four long turns at the knife. Despite the gruesome nature of the work, I found it oddly calming. I could lose myself in that bloody task for long stretches of time.

I think it helped knowing that I was helping feed a shitload of people who really needed it.

But in the end, between the kills, we ended up with over a hundred pounds probably of usable meat, plus several skins that would make for great clothes or blankets in the right hands. Once we’d hauled everything back out of the clearing to the lakehouse, we had a debate about who should stay and who should go.

Eventually, Lindsay managed to convince Lena and Stephen to at least visit Pine Lake and check in with Lisa, and then come back with at least a few others who could help occupy the lakehouse and start making use of the fertile land again.

After we mounted either an expedition to or an assault on the observation deck, and soon, to either determine if anyone was up there and kill them, or gain control of it for ourselves. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to that, knowing that I’d already volunteered myself, but I was kind of hoping there was no one up there and they’d just turned tail and run. Because by the time we were actually ready to make the expedition back home, Megan reported that she hadn’t seen any activity at all up there while we were working.

I made sure to take one more look before we started making the pilgrimage back.

It looked clear.

When all was said and done, Stephen, Lena, and I ended up hauling a sled apiece. Stephen and Lena took on the extra supplies, the skins, and their dead friends. I got all the meat. Lindsay carried her cat and some of the supplies that had been stored at the lakehouse, and Megan led the way with her rifle, keeping watch.

And so we set off, heading first for the docks.

For awhile, we just walked through the snow, making decent headway. No one spoke. The wind was picking up a little, but a few skywards glances reassured me that snow wasn’t in the cards today. Although I could be wrong, I didn’t think I was. I just put one foot in front of the other, trying not to think about much beyond entertaining myself with thoughts of what Lindsay would look like naked. What she’d look like having sex with Delilah, or Megan, or Elizabeth. If she had a bush or not. (Laser hair removal had gotten extremely popular somewhere in the late 2020s.) Personally I preferred bald vagina but it wasn’t like I’d complain about pubic hair. I also thought a lot about what she’d look like sucking or riding my cock.

Damn did I want that woman.

She was really hot, and not just physically. She had that same kind of confidence that Delilah had, although...definitely she was different. I’m not sure what it was, the more time I spent around Lindsay the more they reminded me of each other, but Lindsay seemed more reserved than Delilah. Something else, too, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I didn’t know if whatever I was picking up on would be a problem or not, but right now, I had more problems to worry about. For now, I just wanted to get home, reunite these two so that I could finally check that off my mental list, deliver the food, and then wargame with Lisa to figure out what the fuck we were going to do to deal with this group of assholes.

This is precisely what I was thinking when I heard a distant gunshot ring out.

I reacted on instinct, dropping to the snow while simultaneously grabbing for my rifle. I heard someone shout in pain and someone else shout in surprised anger. I managed to get my rifle up and get back onto my knees before I heard a gunshot much closer. Looking up and across the lake, I saw three figures standing on the edge of the platform and right as I looked, one of them lost their balance as their head snapped back in a spray of blood. The other two recoiled away in opposite directions, then were stumbling away, back inside, as the middle man, the shooter, pitched forward and went right over the edge.

We all watched as he, and his rifle, tumbled down the frozen cliff sheer, hitting several times, before smashing into the ice and crashing straight through, disappearing into the frigid waters of the lake below.

“Holy shit you are a good shot,” Stephen muttered.

Megan worked the bolt and took aim again at the platform.

“See anyone else?” I asked, looking around hastily for any threats on the ground. If they were smart, they’d hit us from two points at once. If it was me, I’d have sent at minimum of one person with a rifle to the dock, but I didn’t see jack shit over there. Honestly, I didn’t see jack shit moving anywhere all around us now.

“Nope,” she replied.

I joined her in looking after double-checking the area and didn’t see a damn thing either. Finally, I lowered my rifle and looked back. Lindsay and Stephen were crouching over Lena, who was in the snow, grimacing.

“Is it bad?” I asked as I joined them.

Megan went right on watching, still as a statue.

“No, winged her,” Stephen replied.

“Hurts like a bitch,” Lena snarled.

“Patch her up, we gotta move before they come back,” I said, then I turned to Megan. “Megan, I want you to keep on going. Get down to the docks and clear it out, make sure no one’s waiting for us down there. If it’s clear, shout ‘clear’ once you’re done. I’ll cover you while you go down there and do the job, then you cover us once the job is done, good?”

“Good,” she replied.

I took up her position and began watching the observation deck while she hurried off along the lake’s edge.

Her footsteps receded.

Stephen and Lindsay fussed over Lena.

I kept watch.

After a long, cold minute of nothing happening, I sighed softly.

A long fucking day just got longer.

~

Sometimes, there’s nothing better than an anticlimax.

That was what we got to enjoy that day, walking along the lake.

It was tense as fucking hell, waiting there, staring at the platform. But I got the job done. It was probably a solid twenty minutes before I finally heard Megan give the all clear, and in all that time, I didn’t see any movement at all up there. When I double-checked that she was in position and watching our asses, we got to moving. Me, Stephen, Lena, and Lindsay started hustling down along Megan’s path. We got to the dock and from there, it was a more strained version of what we’d been doing earlier, hauling cargo and keeping watch.

But we didn’t see any further movement up there, and definitely suffered no further attacks.

We got off lucky, as far as I was concerned.

I kept expecting an ambush of them to be waiting for us somewhere along the southern side of the lake, lying in wait behind that rise of land that would protect us from view of the platform. But there was nothing. I was beginning to suspect that this group of assholes was a lot like most of the other groups of assholes now roving the wilderness: stupid and wild and willing to be cruel. You didn’t have to be particularly cunning, or brave, or smart, or charismatic if you had a gun and the willingness to use it. That was an unfortunate reality of our world.

Sure, it almost certainly wouldn’t work in the long run, which was why so many of these asshole groups were so mobile.

But all bad things come to an end eventually, and we finally made it back to Pine Lake without so much as a single shot thrown our way.

Maybe it was their only rifle.

Well, if that was the case then it was fucking gone. I’d just caught sight of it plunging into the water along with the guy Megan had shot.

It took probably an hour and a half, but we finally ended up back in town. I pointed Megan and Stephen to the wounded infirmary after we dropped the food off in front of the food building and I made for sure the stern woman in charge knew it was there. When we brought all that fresh meat, a look came onto her face, one of actual happiness and, more significantly, joy. It was like the sun breaking through a thick miserable cloud cover for a just a few moments. Then she became cold and distant again and began snapping orders to her workers, Elizabeth among them. We embraced and kissed briefly, then she had to get back to work.

Megan, Lindsay, and I then walked the corpses over to the pet shop.

“You have got to be shitting me,” Lindsay groaned as we came to stand in front of it. “Seriously? My pet shop? They turned it into a fucking cemetery?”

“Temporarily,” one of the men who came out to deal with the dead said. “Sorry, Lindsay.”

“Fuck’s sake,” she muttered.

“Okay, now that we’ve finally offloaded all this goddamned stuff, come on,” I said, heading straight for the isolation ward. Delilah hadn’t been at the wounded infirmary, so she was almost surely at the other one. I doubted it was the best place for a reunion, but I didn’t think either Lindsay or Delilah would much care.

As we approached, I saw someone already standing beside the building, leaning against it, not far from a fire barrel.

It was Delilah.

She looked over as she saw us approaching and her eyes widened.

“Lindsay?” she gasped.

“Delilah!” Lindsay replied, and then they were running at each other.

Megan and I stood to the side as they rushed up to each other, Lindsay took the barest few seconds to set her cat carrier down, and then they were hugging intensely, squeezing each other and laughing. Happiness radiated off of the two of them.

“It’s been so long-” Delilah said, and Lindsay suddenly interrupted her with a kiss.

It lasted for two seconds, and then Lindsay suddenly pulled back, letting go of Delilah. They both stared at each other in shock.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” Lindsay said, beginning to blush fiercely. “I-that was too much. I just got so excited and-”

This time Delilah interrupted her by grabbing her and kissing her.

And this time the kiss lasted longer.

“Wow,” Megan murmured. “They make a hot couple.”

“Yep,” I agreed, staring with her at the two very attractive women sharing a long, wonderful kiss. And Delilah was putting some tongue into it, I could see. They actually started making out before they parted again.

“Oh wow. So, um...oh,” Lindsay said, and I could tell that her composure had collapsed completely. “Oh my.”

“I missed you,” Delilah said. She looked a little nervous, but definitely more composed.

“I missed you, too. Um...so I guess we have a lot to talk about? That was...uh…”

“Good?” Delilah hazarded.

“Yes! Good,” Lindsay replied, laughing. “It was many things, but one of them was most certainly good. Wow.” She suddenly seemed to notice that we were still standing there and when she looked over at us, so did Delilah.

“You found her! Thank you so much!” she said, and then she rushed over and leaped at me. I caught her and kissed her and crushed her happily against me.

This one felt good. This was definitely a win.

Things that felt good were more important than ever nowadays.

She thanked and kissed and hugged Megan as well, then we all moved to stand closer to Lindsay, who seemed caught between several different demanding lines of thought. She looked between me and Delilah several times for before finally settling on me.

“Chris. I need a favor. Two favors,” she said.

“Okay,” I replied.

“First favor: will you take my cat to...wherever you are staying, and get him set up there? Um, here.” She dropped down, getting out of her pack and opening it up. “I’ve got tuna, and some loose dirt that I’ve gathered in two jars. It works as a great substitute for catlitter, actually. If you could just put some in some kind of container, something flat and low…”

I thought about it. “I guess I could flip over the toilet tank lid.”

“That’d be perfect! I just need somewhere for him to be inside and safe and warm for a little while as I get everything unfucked and figured out. And, actually, I think I could do some good here with Delilah in the clinic…”

“I’ll do it,” I said, accepting the tuna and two jars of lose soil, putting them into my own pack. “What’s the other thing?”

“If you could keep an eye out for my other two cats, that would be just great. I get the impression you’re going back out there again, so if you see them, give them one of those cans of tuna, then grab them and...I don’t know, put them in your pack, I guess? I’d really appreciate it.”

“I would also really appreciate it, and you know how appreciative I can be,” Delilah said with that seductive smile of hers.

“Yeah, I’ll grab them if I see them. What do they look like?” I asked, putting the stuff away and pulling my pack back on.

“Tabby is...well, a giant tabby. Mostly gray and black. She’s about as big as Socks here. The other is Squeak. She’s little and white as snow, with a dark spot on her face, above her eye. She’ll be harder to spot.”

“I’ll keep an eye out,” I promised.

“Okay.” Lindsay grabbed the cat carrier and passed it to me. “Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome. Um, I need to go check in with Lisa. I’ll drop off Socks first and make sure he’s set up with food, water, and a toilet. Delilah can show you where we’re staying. I’ll be by before I head out again, whenever that’ll be. I imagine sometime today or tonight.”

“Okay.” Delilah gave me another long kiss. “Thank you! You really came through.”

“Glad I could help,” I replied.

Megan and I began heading for our home.

FOURTEEN

“So that was interesting,” Megan said as we walked back to the motel.

“Very,” I agreed.

“I was kind of wondering if something like that was going to happen. Just the way she looked when she talked about Delilah. I wonder how long they’ve been into each other. Or if anything ever happened before now.”

“Delilah said nothing had but...maybe she was just protecting Lindsay’s privacy,” I replied. “Maybe something happened and then Lindsay made Delilah promise to never talk about it, or just seemed awkward about it.”

“Maybe. Boy, this gets us one step closer to sex with both of them,” Megan murmured. “Although...tell me something. I know Delilah’s all like ‘my legs will always be open for you’, but if it really came down to it, would you make her choose?”

“Of course not,” I replied. “I like Delilah a lot, but we’re not a couple, and I don’t know if I’ll even stick around for a long time.”

“That’s good to hear. Plus...you’ve still got me and Elizabeth to fuck you.”

“That does help.”

We got back to the motel and stepped inside. While I went about the process of checking the fire, which was almost out, getting it restarted so that it would smolder and keep the pace warm while we were out, then started to get things ready for the cat, Megan asked me something that I wasn’t entirely prepared for.

“So what’s our actual relationship?”

“What do you think it is?” I replied.

She laughed. “That’s evasive.”

“More just...I’ve been through a lot today,” I replied. “And I don’t want a fight.”

“I’m not looking for a fight,” she said, kind of sharply. I glanced at her. She sighed. “Sorry. That’s...no, that’s fair. I know we had not the best start to our...friendship. But I guess...I mean, this is basically dating, right? We share meals together, travel together, share our feelings, sleep together, literally and figuratively. I mean, that’s dating. Right?”

“Seems so to me,” I replied as I wiped down the inside of the toilet tank lid.

“So we’re dating? You agree?”

“Yeah. I would say that by that logic I am also dating, to varying degrees, two other women, with perhaps a third on the way,” I replied.

“That’s true.” She fell silent.

“Got something specific on your mind?”

“How would you feel about it if I saw another dude?”

I glanced at her, then went back to my job, now pouring the loose soil into the makeshift catbox. “To put it bluntly: I don’t want you to see other men romantically or sexually. If you do, we’ll have to end our relationship. I realize that I am being completely unfair and hypocritical, and I do apologize for it, and if that leads to your breaking up with me, then I will accept that without any hard feelings...how does that work?” I asked.

“Well, it’s sure honest,” she replied. “I appreciate that. And…” She was silent for a few seconds, then she sighed. “Damn if I don’t care.”

“About what, exactly?”

“That you’re a hypocrite. You’re fucking other women on the side pretty regularly but we’d break up if I fucked another dude. It should make me angry but it doesn’t. I guess it’s a matter of practicality: right now, I don’t want to fuck any other dude. You’re filling that slot pretty nicely. And honestly it’s just fucking great fucking you and hot women at the same time. Delilah is the most attractive person I’ve ever hooked up with, and it happened thanks to you.”

“So what happens when some guy catches your eye at some point?” I asked.

“If we’re still together...I will evaluate the situation as it stands then,” she replied. “But to be totally honest, you’ll probably win out.”

“Okay.”

She was silent as I finished preparing everything. I set a can of tuna near a bowl of water I’d poured, made sure the catbox was ready to go, then released Socks. He came out in a dark blur and ran right under the bed, growling the whole way there.

Well, he’d get used to the place. He could explore while we were out.

When I finished up, I looked over and saw Megan staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re so fucking weird,” she said. “I’m just...having trouble processing, I guess. Almost every relationship I’ve been in has been ruled by jealousy in one form or another. Yeah some of that is my fault, but I’ve met some really fucking jealous and insecure guys who would straight-up fucking walk out on me if I’d had this conversation with them. Why are you so secure? What’s your fucking secret? Because I’d love to be like that.”

I sighed and sat down on the bed for a moment, resting. “I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “It’s not like I never have insecure thoughts. Maybe it’s something stupid, like it just comes from having just the right brain chemistry, or from being a big, built guy? I guess it’s because life has taught me that I’ll typically get things I go for. It happens often enough that when it doesn’t happen, I know I don’t need to panic over it. Just move on. Try something else. But I think there is something to be said for choosing to be secure in yourself. I know that sounds like bullshit, but if you keep telling yourself ‘I can handle this’, and that a certain amount of doubt and fear is natural, healthy even, then eventually you’ll finally catch on. The insecurity will stop coming, or at least it’ll stop attacking with the same power or venom as before...is this helping?”

“Maybe,” she murmured.

“Well, here’s something practical I can tell you: you don’t really have much to be insecure about. I mean, you obviously are very tough. You know how to shoot. Like, really well. You can take care of yourself. You clearly aren’t stupid. You’re smoking hot. And hot damn are you good at sex.”

She laughed and shook her head, looking away. “Yeah, yeah.”

“No, seriously. You are such a fucking pleasure to fuck. You’re really skilled and honestly enthusiastic. I love the enthusiasm, how engaged you are when we have sex.”

“Well...it feels great, and you’re pretty good at it yourself,” she replied.

“Thanks,” I said, then I stood and popped my neck and sighed. “Come on, we’ve lingered enough. We need to talk to Lisa about this problem.”

Megan lost her good cheer and agreed glumly.

We headed back outside.

~

We found Lisa in her underground office again.

“Chris!” she said as she looked up. “Please give me good news. We had two people die since you left this morning.”

“What happened?” I asked as I sat down with Megan in chairs in front of her cluttered desk.

She sighed, tossing the pencil she’d been using aside. “One of the injured had brain swelling and we did what we could, but they died. The other was a suicide, just an hour ago. Found them in their apartment. A man named Marvin...we confirmed today that his family died in the fire.”

“Jesus,” Megan whispered.

“Please, good news?” Lisa asked, looking strained and pale.

“Yes and no,” I replied. “Your source of food is secure, and we got a surplus from killing a huge bear and several wolves, over a hundred pounds of meat at least, delivered here to the settlement. Unfortunately, it cost us. Six more of your people are dead. Two were killed by wolves, the rest were killed by the bear. Three before the attack, one during. We recovered their bodies and brought them back as well. We also found Lindsay, so she’s back.”

“Who was up there that’s still alive?” Lisa asked.

“An older man named Stephen and a grim-looking woman named Lena. They’re both injured but it isn’t too bad. Stephen said he took a fall at some point before we met, and Lena got winged by a sniper on the way back. We killed him. They were indeed up on the platform. The good news is he went over the edge and so did his rifle, and the two guys who were standing there with him hid back inside the whole time, letting us get back home.”

“Shit,” she muttered, sitting back in her chair. Her eyes drifted down to the desk for a long moment. I remained silent, letting her process all that.

It was a lot to dump on someone who already had so much dumped on them.

Finally, she sat back up and refocused on us. “Okay then. That secures the food and lets us know the situation at the lakehouse and the docks. Lindsay was a good find. She isn’t exactly a doctor, but she’s got a lot more practical knowledge and experience than the average person.”

“She’s catching up with Delilah and working at the isolation ward.”

“Thank God. Okay, so the next logical step will be to remove the raiders. They’re obviously up there and obviously still dangerous. We can’t abide that.”

“How do you want to handle it?” I asked.

“I want the two of you to lead a strike team up there tonight, just after sunset. I’ve got a few people in mind who would be good for this, someone who knows the way and a few fighters. We’ll get you whatever gear you want that we can find.”

“All right,” I said, standing. “In that case I guess I should head back into the city with a team, help try to find resources and corpses-”

“No,” Lisa said, shaking her head. “You two need to be in top condition for tonight. You’ll be no good if you’re too tired. Go take a nap and rest up the remainder of the day. Make sure you eat, shave, fuck, I don’t care, whatever you need to do to block out distractions. It’s going to be dangerous up there, I have to assume.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Try not to worry too much. I have done this before.”

“I guess that doesn’t surprise me. Okay, go on,” she said. “And...thank you. Both of you. For all your help. Today was a huge win.”

“You’re welcome. Also, you should go talk with Stephen and Lena. Stephen was very adamant that he wanted to get some people together and go back to the lakehouse to secure it and restart the food gathering operation. We managed to talk him into coming back with us and, ideally, waiting until we’ve dealt with the raiders, but he seems to be a surly old son of a bitch, and I imagine if you don’t talk some sense into him he’s gonna walk back up there himself before tonight.”

She sighed and stood. “You’re right and he will. I know how to handle him.”

As she started pulling on her coat, Megan and I headed back out of the apartment building and into the cold.

“So, sex and sleep?” she asked, taking my hand.

“Sex and sleep,” I confirmed happily, and we began making for the motel.

~

“Chris...time to wake up.”

I came awake to a hand on my shoulder and felt awareness settle over me quickly. “Is it time for the attack?” I asked, rolling over as I recognized Delilah’s voice.

“No, not yet,” she said. I could see Lindsay and Elizabeth standing behind her. Elizabeth looked tired but happy, and Lindsay looked...uncomfortable.

“How long?”

“About an hour and a half,” Delilah replied. “I thought you’d appreciate time to, uh, wake up.”

“Yeah,” I said, rubbing my eyes as I sat up, considering it. According to what she told me, I figured I’d been asleep for around five hours. Definitely a good enough nap. And I was fucking horny, although it abruptly occurred to me that I, and Megan, were both naked in a room with basically a stranger to us, even if we were still largely under the blankets. Megan still seemed passed out, but she was stirring slightly.

“Not that I mind guests, but...you don’t think it’s a little weird to bring Lindsay here now? You had to know we’d be naked,” I said.

“Well, that’s part of the reason I brought her. We’ve been talking about, well, a lot of things, catching up, and certain topics have been broached that neither of us had the guts to broach before,” Delilah replied.

“Such as?” Megan murmured sleepily, rolling over.

“Oh, you’re awake. Hi. Well, such as...the fact that we would really enjoy having a threesome with a hot guy, and you absolutely fit that criteria,” Delilah replied.

I looked at Lindsay. “So, you’re into me?”

“Duh,” she replied with a little laugh. It was weird seeing her so awkward and nervous after her display the first time we’d met.

“Why duh?”

“I mean...look at you,” she replied. “Are you into me?” she asked.

“I guess I’m going to fire that duh right back at you, followed by ‘fucking of course I am, look at you’,” I replied, throwing the blankets back and getting to my feet.

“Oh wow,” she murmured as I stood. “You weren’t...exaggerating.”

“Told you,” Delilah said.

“You’ll be fine. I had the same...concern,” Elizabeth said.

“About what?” I asked as I stretched for a moment. I was horny and sore and although part of me was looking forward to getting on with this assault, most of me wasn’t. I wanted to stay here with these four beautiful women, fucking and relaxing the night away.

But there was work to be done.

Although there was play to be had before the work, thankfully.

“Your dick,” Lindsay said. “Delilah said you were...uh, well-endowed. I kind of thought she was playing it up a little, but she isn’t.”

“If you say so,” I replied, walking over to where I had the water and soap set up. After my frantic fuck session with Megan, I’d passed right out. I started cleaning myself up. As I did, I began looking around for Socks.

“So this is really happening?” Lindsay asked after a few seconds. I glanced over and saw her look at Delilah in surprise as the redhead began stripping quickly.

“Yeah, unless you change your mind,” Delilah replied.

“Wow. Okay…”

“Do you have a problem with people watching?” I asked. “Because Megan and Elizabeth are going to want to watch.”

“We can leave, if you want, though. It’s not, like, conditional,” Elizabeth said. “I was pretty nervous the first time, myself, when Megan and Delilah wanted to watch.”

“I’m not against it, exactly. But...it does make me nervous,” Lindsay said. She paused. “You really want to watch me fuck?”

“Hell yes,” Megan replied. She threw back the blankets and got up as well.

“Oh wow, you are just...amazingly hot,” Lindsay murmured.

“Thanks,” Megan replied. “You are too.”

“I’m surprised you’re even considering letting people see you during your first threesome,” Delilah said. “From what I remember, you were always so awkward and anxious.”

“I still am, sort of. The past two years have been extremely...forging, I guess you could say. I do feel tougher. But at some point I decided I was just going to bullshit people.”

“Did it work?” I asked.

“I mean apparently,” she replied. Her eyes widened as Delilah’s bra came off. “Oh wow. I’ve been waiting years to see your tits and just...holy shit, Delilah.”

“Everyone has that reaction,” Delilah replied. She shrugged and they bounced slightly in response to the movement. Megan joined me in cleaning up as Delilah finished stripping. She stood naked before Lindsay. “So you’re sure you want to do this? Because it’s happening. You’re about to get into a threesome with your best friend and, basically, her boyfriend.”

Lindsay seemed to think about it for a moment, looking between everyone, then finally turning her attention back to Delilah. “Yeah, I want to do this. And you two can watch. I trust Delilah, and I’ve gotten good feelings from the rest of you, so I guess I can’t see a downside.”

“It worked out pretty well for me,” Elizabeth said as she took a seat. “By the way...I have to ask: is there going to be any chance we can hook up? You’re very beautiful and I would absolutely love the opportunity to make love with you.”

“I...yeah, sure,” Lindsay said. She laughed suddenly. “Wow, I’m popular all of a sudden.”

“You’re really gonna tell me you weren’t popular before?” I asked.

“The tall thing kind of threw a lot of people off. Especially guys. But admittedly I’ve been in self-imposed isolation, sexually and romantically, for awhile now. For maybe the last six months. Let’s just say I haven’t met anyone here in town that I wanted to take to bed who also wanted to take me to bed. Either they weren’t interested, or I wasn’t. So this is like...starving for days and then being shown to a feast of your favorite meals.”

“You gonna strip?” Delilah asked. “Because I want to see you naked as much as you want to see me naked.”

“Oh...yeah. I guess I should. Where’s my cat?”

“Here,” I said, finally finding the cat hidden away under the bed. “You’re not gonna want to stay under there,” I muttered as we locked eyes.

Socks just let out a low meow.

“He’ll figure it out,” Lindsay said as she got out of her coat and kicked off her boots.

While she stripped, I tended to the fire. Which took longer because I kept looking at her as her clothes came off.

FIFTEEN

Lindsay was a very beautiful woman.

Her shirt and pants came off, revealing her smooth olive skin and her long limbs and, I was interested to see, some muscle definition. Not a lot, but enough to notice. She had a body like a swimmer or a dancer: lithe and limber. She took off her underclothes: thermal underwear and a t-shirt, and stood there before us in a black sports bra and black panties.

“Wow,” Delilah murmured. “You look...so different. What happened?!”

Lindsay laughed and rubbed one arm nervously. “I started working out,” she replied. “I was tried of being a stick all the time. Gained some weight and started lifting weights and doing a lot of cardio. I was hoping for a little more definition, but honestly, I like where I’m at. I think I look half-decent finally and I feel pretty good most of the time and can run a damned mile finally.”

“Man, you really changed,” Delilah said. “I feel like a slacker.”

“To be fair, and I mean this without malice, you did basically coast off the fact that you’re an absolute ten.”

“That’s fair,” Delilah replied after a moment. “Now finish getting naked.”

“All right, all right,” she said, and took off her bra, then pulled her panties down. “Another bonus: my boobs got bigger. I’m officially a c-cup now and I feel like they’re just the right size,” she said, looking down at her chest.

I had to agree with her. She had some fantastic tits. And she had also gone in on the laser hair removal, I saw as I looked down. Her pussy looked so smooth and inviting in between her trim, long, athletic thighs.

“So, Delilah said we don’t have to worry about pregnancy?” she asked. Then her eyes went wide and she looked abruptly at Elizabeth. “Not that I think there’s anything wrong with that-”

Elizabeth laughed. “It’s fine. I’m totally cool with the fact that some women don’t want to get pregnant. Don’t worry, you won’t offend me by wanting to enjoy risk-free sex.”

“Okay, awesome,” Lindsay replied. She looked back at me and raised her eyebrows in inquery.

“Yes,” I said, “I’m on basically perfect birth control. I can’t get you pregnant. If I could, Delilah and Megan would be so pregnant by now.”

“Yeah ‘cause you never fucking pull out...not that I’m complaining,” Delilah replied.

“Though it’s not like we’d be showing yet,” Megan said.

“You all would look so hot pregnant,” I murmured.

Elizabeth laughed. “You’ve got a fetish for that, huh?”

“Yeah. Makes me a little sad that I got that implant. A little. Mostly it’s great, but it’d be nice to impregnate someone.”

“Would you stick around after?” Megan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s the other problem with the fantasy,” I replied. “Now, I’m working on a timeline, so you can grill me about my fetishes later. Right now, I need to have a threesome so that I can make this assault with a clear head.”

“Oh, that’s how you’re justifying it? Having this threesome will help keep you alive?” Delilah asked with a smirk as we headed for the bed.

“Yep,” I replied, and shoved her. She let out a shriek of surprise as she flew off her feet and landed on the bed with a bounce. She flipped over onto her back, laughing.

“You know, I always had a suspicion you liked being tossed around,” Lindsay said as she climbed onto the bed.

“It’s fun,” Delilah replied.

A moment later, I ended up on my back with Lindsay straddling me. She smiled down at me and for the first time, I got a real impression of how anxious she was. That’s what had been throwing me off earlier, the difference between her and Delilah. Confidence, at least confidence of a sort, came naturally to Delilah, and I thought that Lindsay had a point: Delilah had been coasting off her natural beauty for most of her life.

Simple rule of reality: life, on the whole, is easier for physically attractive people.

They like to bitch and moan about it, claiming it’s not true, but it is.

Life basically hands them cookies on a silver platter, even now. Maybe even especially now. If you were hot, you could get people to do things for you much more easily than if you were ugly or even just average looking.

I thought Lindsay was very attractive, but she was right: tall girls scared off a lot of guys. It must be a point of contention with her, because how many six foot women had I run into in my whole life? Not many.

“Lindsay,” I said.

“Yeah?” she asked.

I reached out and settled my hands on her firm hips. “Try to relax. We’ve got enough time, and I’m super easy and easygoing. This is just a fun, chill experience. Okay?”

“Okay...yeah,” she said, then she took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. “Sorry, it’s been a very long few days.”

“I understand,” I replied.

She leaned down and kissed me. She was tentative at first, and I let her move at her own pace. I could feel those perky, firm breasts of hers against my bare skin, could feel her dark brown nipples, too. I slowly slid my hands up her hips and around to her ass, groping it. Fuck, that was a nice ass. She deepened the kiss then, moaning softly, and tilted her head. I kissed her back more firmly, and she slipped her tongue into my mouth. Before long we were really into it, making out with intensity, and I could feel heat coming off of her, not physically but sexually. She was fucking horny and I had the impression we’d just lit a massive sexual fire in her.

Abruptly, she pulled back, coming up for air. She brushed some hair out of her face as she sat up, then looked at Delilah. “This is so weird!” she said finally. “I’m making out with your boyfriend and we’re naked and...you really aren’t going to be mad about this?”

“Lindsay, he has been fucking those two regularly since we met. With me involved or me watching,” Delilah replied easily. “Trust me, I want this to happen. I know what a great, fantastic fuck he is, and I want you to enjoy that. You deserve it. Also, you know, I want to fuck you, too. So I’m a little selfish there.”

“It’s not selfish,” I said, reaching up and cupping her breasts, “everyone in this room wants a piece of her.”

“Okay, I’m just...getting the hang of this,” she said, letting me feel her up for another moment before leaning back down and resuming making out with me.

We kissed for several long, pleasant minutes before I slipped her off of me, got her onto her back, and started gently massaging her clit.

“Ohhhhh…” she moaned loudly, twitching as I stimulated her.

“You like that?” I murmured, kissing her neck.

“Yessss...fuck!” she cried as I went a little harder and faster.

“Can I get involved now?” Delilah asked.

“Yes,” Lindsay panted.

Delilah got up on her other side and joined me in pleasuring her best friend. They began making out and Delilah slipped a finger inside of her as I continued rubbing her clit. She let out a muffled shriek of bliss, and then another as I got lower and started sucking on one of her firm breasts. Seeing that was like a hit of raw, uncut lust. It was a perfect sight, a pure erotic visage. It didn’t take Lindsay long to get into the grove of making out, and it took Delilah no time at all. We both kept going, kept stimulating that sweet pussy of hers, until she had a full body orgasm. She had put a hand over her mouth because she couldn’t stop screaming from the raw pleasure burning its way through her body. She writhed and twisted and screamed.

When it was over, she fell back, panting, her hand falling away.

“Holy shit. Oh my fucking God. I haven’t come like in so long. Oh my. Whew.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a long, shuddering sigh as tremors of aftermath bliss ran through her. She closed her eyes and breathed deep for several seconds. “Oh wow, I’m just...seriously, it’s been like six months since I’ve gotten laid or had another person make me come. Now, it honestly feels like six years. Jesus. Um…” she looked at me. “I’m pretty good with my mouth, if you’re interested. I feel like I owe you for that.” Then she looked at Delilah. “Both of you.”

“I’m down,” I said.

“Same,” Delilah replied.

We switched places and I took her spot. They both got down there, laying on their stomachs, and I watched as they began to lick up my shaft, working towards the head. Whew, there was nothing quite like that thrill of having a new sexual partner for the first time. The wave of pleasure and lust that hit me like a tsunami was intense as hell as I watched Lindsay lock eyes with me while licking up my cock. Her tongue hit the head and began to drag slowly across it. She was, indeed, good with her mouth, and my reaction seemed to be pleasing to her.

I had to imagine it was kind of nerve-wracking, those first few seconds when you started doing something sexy to someone for the very first time. Kind of a make-or-break moment: would they be into it or not? Were you up to the task of pleasuring them? Because I had to admit, trying to pleasure someone sexually and failing was a really bad feeling. It made me feel glad that I was just fucking easy to please, apparently.

The longer they went on, the more comfortable she got, and soon she was sucking me off with an ease that was like we’d been dating for awhile.

Which, goddamn that felt good.

Watching my cock disappear into her beautiful mouth was an amazing aphrodisiac. And the way she closed her eyes after a little while, focusing, the way Delilah looked so utterly in bliss as she watched Lindsay suck my dick.

After awhile, Lindsay passed it to Delilah and my little redheaded slut got to work.

They kept going like this, back and forth, until I was ready to pop.

“Do it in her mouth,” Delilah said, panting, her voice husky.

“You want me to come in your mouth?” I asked, looking at Lindsay, who currently had my dick in between her lips.

“Mmm-hmm,” she replied, and kept bobbing her head.

Well fuck, all right then.

I came in her mouth.

It didn’t take much longer for me to bust, and I groaned loudly, my whole body convulsing as that wave of pure pleasure rolled through me, exploding out from my core as my cock jerked in her mouth and I released a thick spurt of my seed. She let out a surprised sound but didn’t stop sucking. Ah fucking God how it felt when you were coming in a woman’s mouth and she just kept sucking. And then I felt Delilah’s hot, smooth hand cup my balls and start to massage them and I started coming harder, now crying out instead of groaning, and just…

Fuck.

Lindsay sucked me dry and then sat up when I was finished.

“Shit that was a lot,” she gasped.

“Told you,” Delilah said.

“How much exactly did you talk about our sex life?” I asked as my head swam and the post-orgasmic ecstasy settled over me.

“A lot,” Delilah replied. “I think it was only fair considering I was trying to talk her into fucking you with me.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Can I get a drink of something?” Lindsay asked.

“Here,” Megan said, passing her a bottle of water.

She thanked her, accepted it, and drank deeply, then passed it back. “Can we fuck now?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“You need a minute?”

“No.”

“Oh.” She looked down. “I guess not. Um...okay. Can I be on my back?”

“Yeah,” I said, getting up, eager to get inside of her.

“Oh, and just so you know, because Delilah warned me you’d want to,” Lindsay said as we traded spots, “you can come in me.”

“Fucking thank you,” I replied earnestly as I got in between her slim thighs.

“You’re welcome, and please be gentle...I mean, at first.”

“I will,” I replied. “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you,” I said, running my hands slowly along her thighs and then settling them on her hips. She shivered at my touch. I rested the head of my cock in between the lips of her pussy and rubbed it there for a few seconds, feeling her shudder, listening to her gasp and then start to pant softly.

Then I started carefully working my way inside of her.

Hot fuck was she tight.

And wonderfully wet.

I was careful as I worked my way into her, going nice and slow. As I did, Delilah laid down beside her. “Let me help a little,” she murmured.

And then she reached down and started rubbing her clit.

Lindsay let out a shout of unbridled pleasure. It helped me get deeper into her, and I kept going until I’d buried my whole rigid length in there. And then I started stroking smoothly into her, and she let out a loud, long groan and enjoyed a second orgasm within ten seconds. I enjoyed her enjoying it, feeling her vaginal muscles clenching wildly, a hot spray of her sex juices escaping her. Fuck, it felt so fucking good.

I started fucking her harder and faster.

“Yes! Oh fuck! Yes! Harder!” she screamed.

I gripped her hips and really started giving it to her. She had to hold her hands over her mouth again as she screamed in incoherent bliss. I thrust deep and hard into her for another several minutes until finally she waved me off.

“Okay...okay...okay…” she gasped. “Shit...I need a break. Oh my God. Uh...Delilah, tag in,” she groaned.

“Happily,” Delilah replied.

I got off of Lindsay and Delilah got onto her hands and knees, presenting that wonderful pale ass of hers, and I immediately got into position behind her and started hitting it from the back. She let out a long, loud moan of bliss as I stroked smoothly into her and goddamn if this wasn’t the best feeling in the world. I grabbed her hips and started hammering away at her pussy, enjoying every last second of it, just going and going and going.

“Holy shit,” Lindsay said, and I glanced over. She was staring at us with wide eyes. “This is the first time I’ve ever actually watched someone have sex, like, in the flesh. I didn’t know it would be so...powerful, to watch.”

“You can see why we wanted to watch,” Megan said.

“Yeah. Oh my God. This is amazing.”

I went back to fucking Delilah until she had a wonderful orgasm, and then Lindsay wanted her turn again.

“Can I ride you?” she asked.

“Yep,” I replied.

“I like being on top, honestly,” she said as I pulled out of Delilah and laid back down. Lindsay mounted me and slipped my cock into herself. She gasped, then moaned as she worked it back into her pussy. “Seriously, fuck, that’s big.”

“Enjoying it?” I asked.

“Yes. Holy shit. It’s been fucking forever since I’ve done it raw and fuck is it so good without a condom,” she groaned as she began bouncing on my dick.

She looked glorious, her long, dark hair wreathing her beautiful face, her perky tits bouncing in rhythm with the rest of her. Her hips and thighs worked beautifully as she rode me, taking my rock-hard cock into her hot pink pussy again and again, sending waves of bliss rolling through me. I wanted so badly to come inside of her, but I wanted to get her off again first. Coming at the same time as the woman you were fucking was even better.

Plus, getting someone off was just a nice thing to do.

I reached down and began rubbing her clit with my thumb. She let out a shriek of surprised ecstasy and really started fucking me, grabbing my shoulders and rapidly slipping her pussy up and down my dick, moaning in pure bliss.

It wasn’t long before she started coming again, which meant it wasn’t long before I did, too.

I exploded inside of her and started pumping her pussy full of my seed. I felt it leaving me in hard spurts, and the bliss it brought was blinding. I could feel her vaginal muscles clenching and fluttering wildly, and that hot spray of sex juices just made the whole thing that much better as I shot my load into her.

We moaned and yelled and writhed together, locked in a union of utter bliss.

And then the orgasms were over, and we were left panting and shaky and sweating, staring at each other.

“Wow, you are a really good lay,” she panted.

“So are you,” I replied, grinning up at her, swimming in that sea of bliss that came after blowing my load inside of a woman.

“I can definitely see why Delilah likes you so much,” she said as she got off me. She sat down and looked down at herself. “Oh my lord, you weren’t kidding about that either. Holy shit, how did you have that much left inside you after the load you blew in my mouth!?”

“No idea,” I replied, sitting up.

“Uh-uh,” Megan said, walking over and pushing me back down. I realized she’d never gotten dressed after getting up. “My turn.”

“Fine, but this time I’ll need a minute,” I replied.

She smirked. “We’ll see about that.”

SIXTEEN

By the time I showed up at the apartment building, I felt almost actually ready to do this.

Either way, I felt refreshed. After fucking Megan’s brains out and getting her off, we’d washed up, dressed, and caught a quick meal. The sun was just about gone by now. We’d said our farewells to Elizabeth, Delilah, and Lindsay, but I could tell they were nervous. I didn’t blame them. This was going to be dangerous.

Lisa and four people in dark clothes were gathered in the lobby, checking over several weapons. I mostly saw pistols. Actually, upon closer inspection, I only saw pistols. Well, it made enough sense given we were probably going to have to do close quarters and Megan and I were going to be the ones providing rifles, just in case.

“How are we doing?” I asked.

“Good, I think,” Lisa replied. “Well, probably as good as can be, given the circumstances.”

I looked around. I recognized two of them as part of her original entourage that’d been protecting her when we had first approach the town. Two men and two women made up the team, I didn’t recognize either of the women.

“I don’t suppose we have any body armor lying around?” I asked.

“Unfortunately not. We had some bulletproof vests at one point but they’ve since been lost in the fire,” Lisa replied. “I guess introductions are in order.” She indicated one of the men, tall, with a wiry frame and weathered features. “This is Luke. He’s pretty much in charge of security now. Used to be a cop.” She nodded to the other man, who was shorter but more filled out, more bulky with musculature. “Drew, one of our hunters.” Next was a slim, frowning woman with tan skin and dark hair. “Amy. She’s a chef but she’s quite a good shot and she’s got nerves of steel, so I trust her with this.” Finally, she nodded to the other woman, who was average height and weight, with short cut red hair. She looked a little wild and maybe even a little unstable. “Brie. She also hunts for us.”

“Sometimes humans,” she murmured.

“Everyone, this is Chris and Megan. Chris is in charge of this operation,” Lisa said.

I managed to not show the surprise on my face, at least I think so. I’d been intending to lead this operation, but I thought I’d have to fight Lisa for it.

Well, no sense in letting them know I was surprised or anxious.

“Is anyone going to have a problem with that?” I asked as neutrally as I could. I wasn’t inviting a fight, it was a genuine question and I hoped they got that.

They all shook their heads.

“Boss ain’t exactly an enviable position,” Luke said. “Why I was always the deputy, never the sheriff, if I could manage it.”

“You’re doing fine so far,” Lisa said.

“We’ve been lucky so far.” He focused on me again. “But no, no problem. I just hope...you know what you’re doing. From what I’ve heard, your actions seemed to speak for themselves, and Lisa trusts you, so that’s enough for me.”

“All right then. Which one of you knows the way up there the best?” I asked.

“I do,” Brie said. “It’s pretty straightforward.”

“Describe the path we’ll take from the town to the observation deck,” I replied.

“We’ll need to cover about a half-mile of open land, then we’ll hit the bottom of the hill the thing is built onto. It’s got a path that leads up through it. There’s some steps built in, but mostly its a natural trail. It’s not too hard to navigate, even with the snow. Unless they have people actually on it, it’ll offer us decent protecting. It eventually lets out into an open lot with picnic tables and an equipment shed to the right, with the observation deck and the tourist center attached to it to the left and ahead. That’s where we’ll be hit, if we’re going to be hit.”

“Huh,” I muttered, considering it, trying to picture it in my head as best I could. “All right. You’ll guide us to the path, then I’ll take point. Once we start going up that path, I want Megan behind me and Luke behind her. Everyone else bring up the rear. Keep talking to an absolute minimum, same for sound. This is a stealth strike. Be ready to have a shootout. Try not to do anything stupid and don’t just rush in there. Once we’re actually up in that lot with the picnic tables, if they haven’t attacked us yet, we’ll reassess and go from there. Any questions?”

No one seemed to have any, so I had us go over our gear. As I suspected, everyone was armed with pistols. I saw a pair of automatics and a pair of revolvers. I figured I should trust the people involved to know which gun they felt most comfortable with. After we’d gone over our gear and the plan one more time, I had everyone assemble outside. While they did, I went over to Lisa, something bugging me.

“Yes?” she asked.

“There’s something I need from you,” I said.

“What is it?”

“Your word that, if something happens to me and I die up there, you will take care of Delilah and Elizabeth and Megan and Lindsay.”

“You have my word,” she replied.

I looked at her for a few silent seconds, then nodded. “Thanks...I’ll be back when I can.”

“Good luck,” she murmured as I walked out of the lobby.

~

I hated traveling at night.

It was fucking cold when the sun went away. Even now, with relatively light cloud cover (good for us, as it obscured the moonlight and helped keep us hidden, hopefully), it was fucking freezing outside.

We struck out in a loose line northbound from Pine Lake towards the hill. I could just make it out, rising in the distance, against the thin light of the moon and the stars. From this angle, the deck was mostly obscured, but they could’ve found any number of perches on the hill itself and if they had nightvision goggles and a good rifle, they could pick us off like fish in a fucking barrel. I kept my eye out for the glint of light reflecting off a scope or anything else. The others were dead silent as we made our way through the snow.

I kept watch, just behind Brie, as she led us unerringly onward.

To be honest, I liked looking at landscapes during the night. Especially if the moon was out in force. The ethereal white light that fell like magic from the skies during those rare nights, reflected by the eternal snowscape that entombed us all, was beautiful to behold. Some nights I’d just sit by a window with a fire crackling somewhere nearby, the curtain drawn back, and look out over the frozen landscape.

It was different being out in it, though. I’d traveled enough nights, forced to for one reason or another, to have grown to largely hate it. Besides the excess cold, it was so much easier to get hurt. Easier to trip over something, easier to fall down a hill you hadn’t noticed, easier to get attacked by animals that hunted in the dark, easier to miss if someone was lying in wait for you. So I was looking forward to getting this over with.

As far as I could tell, the raiders were now the worst threat to this entire situation. Sickness, starvation, unrest, the cold, all of that could be kept at bay with enough willpower and the right luck, and I thought we were well on our way to dealing with these problems, at least in the short term. Enough that they could be held at bay while the populace was allowed to rest and recover, and then pick the pieces of civilization back up and put them back together again. But not if these fucking dickheads with guns and fire and malice attacked again.

But we had a chance to end that, here and now.

I intended to take it.

Brie led us to the path we were looking for promptly and without a problem. It was at the base of the hill, marked by a wooden sign, and it led up a crevice carved into the hill. It looked relatively easy to navigate, but I didn’t like the way I could already see little side areas off the path, places where people might conceivably hide and spring traps.

I took the lead and gestured. Megan and Luke joined me, the others got behind us, and we began our slow march up the path.

The next half an hour passed in a slow kind of agony.

I hadn’t fully appreciated how many hiding places there were, and we had to not only move very slowly, but check everything to make doubly sure we weren’t passing people in the dark and letting them get in behind us. A pincer maneuver in this place would basically be the end of us. I listened hard and kept my eyes open, trying to open my senses up to the world around me. Hunting in the woods had taught me a lot about picking up on tiny things. I think it was like tapping into your primal instincts or something.

Right now, I wasn’t getting anything but tension.

Finally, after a long, freezing, miserable walk up the path, we made it to the summit. As we approached it, passing by a signpost that Brie had warned me about, letting me know that once I saw it, we were extremely close, I roused myself. I kept expecting to hear something, but there was nothing save for the sounds we were making.

Were they all asleep?

Certainly it was possible. If that was the case, maybe I could get in there, kill whoever they’d left on guard, and we could eliminate them in their sleep.

Honorable? Fuck no.

Would I feel good about it? Again, fuck no.

But it would solve the problem, and we were living in the real world. Honor was good and all, but here was something I’d come to realize: most bad guys were counting on their enemies to do the ‘honorable’ thing. They’d lie, cheat, and steal to get their way. They’d say or do anything to maintain power. They agreed to a knife fight? They wouldn’t hesitate to bring a gun and just shoot you dead, because they were fucking evil.

I didn’t doubt there were some dickheads out there who actually would stick by their word, but ninety nine percent of them wouldn’t.

So yeah, I wasn’t proud of killing monsters in their sleep, but I’d do it.

The trench the path was made in let out onto the area with the picnic tables like Brie had said. I didn’t see any flicker of firelight in the windows, no hint of movement, no sign of a sentry, no smoke coming from the chimney.

What the fuck did that mean?

Were they just that dedicated to laying a trap?

I didn’t think so, but I couldn’t be sure. Everyone finished coming up the path and gathered around me while I scoped the situation out.

When they’d finished, I addressed them.

“Okay,” I whispered, “Luke and Brie are going to come with me. Brie, I want you to go around the back and also check that shed, Luke and I will go around the front. We’ll check the exterior and surveil the interior. If we can, I want to take them out quietly, if they’re asleep. We’ll go inside once the exterior is clear and we’ve looked at the interior. However...there is the remote possibility that they have vacated the premises and then some of your people have moved in, so don’t go in guns blazing until we are sure that it’s them. Understand?”

They all nodded.

“Good. Megan, I want you to hang back and cover us with the rifle. You’ll have a good line of sight through a lot of those windows. If things get hairy, take down who you can. Drew, I want you focusing entirely on the way we came: make sure no one sneaks up behind us. Even if the gun battle starts, you stay focused on our six. Amy, stay here with Megan, but be ready to charge in if things go sideways. Everyone understand?”

Again, they all nodded.

“Okay, let’s do this.”

We got to it. Crouching low, Luke and I went left, towards the front, where the observation platform was, and Brie headed off to the right, to slip into the alcove of space between the hill, which continued to rise up in that direction, and the back of the building. I kept expecting a bullet to leap out from somewhere and strike me in the head or the back or the neck, and the tension was singing through my body as I navigated between the picnic tables in the dim moonlight. I kept looking for someone crouching, someone lurking in a shadow, hell, someone fucking laying down beneath a table with a gun or a knife, ready to kill.

But there was nothing.

I still didn’t hear jack shit, even as I got to the platform and confirmed there was no one hanging around on it. After we finished our recon of the deck, we moved over to the building. I had Luke look in the big panoramic windows on the front while I moved around to the far side of it, making sure no one was there. All I found was another, smaller deck and the remains of some trash and some furniture that had been broken up for firewood. Brie was already there, peering in through one of the few windows on this side.

I joined her and looked in on a small office that was dark and empty. We moved on, checking each window in passing as we moved to join Luke back at the front. I saw another room, totally cleared out, and there was a section with small rectangular windows high up, certainly the bathroom. We joined Luke and peered into the main structure.

It was empty.

No fire burned in the fireplace at the back. No people slept or moved. There was no one in there at all.

The place looked deserted.

“What the fuck?” I whispered softly. “Okay, we’re going in. Brie, was there a back entrance?” She nodded. “Go back and try to get in through it. Luke and I will hit the front. Nice and easy, they might be hiding...somewhere.”

But I didn’t think so, I thought the place was really abandoned.

Couldn’t be sure until we were sure though, and two things this world had drilled into me were patience and thoroughness.

So we split up again and Luke and I got inside. The door was unlocked, and the interior was cold. I saw no lights anywhere, though in the moonlight I could see signs of people having been here. There were dark splotches on the wooden floor. Blood. Someone wounded? Or maybe runoff from those two guys who’d gotten splattered when Megan had all but decapitated their shooter. There was trash, bones, kindling spread around.

The next several minutes were cold and dark and tense as we cleared the place, room-by-room. There was a main hall where I imagined people had once sat and ate or chatted. We cleared that office and the empty room, the bathroom as well, and a kitchen area, and what was probably once a gift shop. All of it empty.

The place was, in fact, vacated.

“Well shit,” I said as we gathered back in the central room.

“Now what?” Brie muttered.

I sighed, considering it. “Let’s go get the others.”

I went to the door and waved Megan and the other two over, telling them it was all clear. They joined us quickly.

“Luke, take Amy and go back to the settlement. Tell them what happened. The rest of us will stay here for the night in case they come back. Brie and Drew, go with them to the bottom of the path, make sure they head off without a problem, then get back up here. We’ll sleep in shifts. Megan and I will start getting this place ready. Luke, I want you to either come back with a few people, or send a few people. We should camp this place out at the very least to make sure that they don’t move back in here again. Can you make it back by sunrise?”

He nodded. “I’ll send a couple of people with supplies to stake it out for the next few days.”

“Perfect.”

They seemed to agree with that plan, and the four of them went off back to the path. The first thing I did was to march over to the fireplace and begin assembling a fire. There were still just the barest hints of some embers among the ashes, and there were several pieces of broken furniture piled up nearby, so I got to work.

“Where do you think they went?” Megan asked, grabbing a chair, hauling it over, and sitting down next to me.

“Only a few places they could go, I think,” I replied. “Probably not the lakehouse or the docks. I doubt to that gas station south of here, they’d have to pass the town, which they could do, theoretically, but it seems like a lot of extra work. There’s a house and a garage way off to the southwest. There’s also a hunting lodge and a few cabins up to the northeast. There could be other structures I don’t know about. Maybe we got lucky and they fucked off. Obviously your kill rattled them. Probably that combined with the fact that I’ve killed three of their people so far.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Megan muttered. “We really gonna spend the night up here?”

“Yep. We came here to do a job and I’m not half-assing it,” I replied.

“Fair enough.” She sighed. “Fuck, I want to be home in our bed. That thing’s actually pretty comfortable.”

“I hear you.”

I got the fire going and then we started checking the place over. I had to admit, as much as I was prepared to battle here, I’m kind of glad it turned out this way. I’d rather not murder, if I can manage it. If we were genuinely lucky, they might have finally decided this place wasn’t worth their time and moved on.

Although with these types, chances were they’d had their fucking pride wounded and were just going to double down.

Megan and I had just about finished searching the place over, finding not much more than some loose matches, a few cans of food tucked away in one of the cabinets, and, thankfully, a few bedrolls that would serve us as an uncomfortable but serviceable sleeping place, by the time the others came back.

“Anything?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Brie replied. “Now what?”

“I figure it’s about midnight. We’ll take shifts. We get two hours each...anyone got a watch?” I asked. Drew pulled a small wind-up watch out of his pocket and passed it to me. “Thanks. I’ll take first watch, then Megan, then Brie, then Drew. Drew, wake Megan and I when your shift is over.”

“All right then, I’m eating, then going to sleep,” Brie said as she walked over to the fire. Drew nodded and joined her.

“I’ll stay with you for a little while,” Megan said. “Honestly, I’m not that tired given our nap.”

I thanked her, but I didn’t think it would last. She looked tired, as I’m sure I did. Consistent tension had a way of draining you, and we’d been tense for probably a solid two hours now, even after we’d cleared the place.

I settled in for a long night.

SEVENTEEN

“Chris.”

I jerked awake as I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was quickly withdrawn as I rolled over, grabbed the gun I’d put under my pillow, and sat up, drawing it.

“What?” I snapped, looking around.

“What is it?” Megan asked, coming awake beside me.

Drew looked nervously at me. “It’s dawn.”

I blinked a few times, then sighed and lowered the gun. “Sorry. Thank you for waking me,” I made myself say. “Did anything happen?”

“No, nothing.”

It had been the same for the other shifts. No activity. “All right, get some sleep,” I said as I got up and made room. Megan did the same. “We’ll hang out here until the others show up.”

“Okay, thanks,” he said as he laid down where we had.

I desperately wanted to wash, but I didn’t think there’d be time and I wasn’t exactly eager to get naked around these people. I glanced over to the other side of the room. Brie was still passed right out, snoring softly. I looked at Megan. She stared back at me bleakly, her eyes bloodshot and baggy, her hair a wild mess. I was sure I looked much the same.

We stumbled out of the kitchen area where the bedrolls had been set up and into the main hall. I checked the fire and saw that Drew had tended it before coming to wake us.

“I’m going to check the perimeter,” I said.

“I’ll be here,” Megan murmured.

I walked outside and the cold hit me like a slap. It wasn’t as bad as last night, and it might’ve been better than yesterday, perhaps even approaching freezing, but still, it was tough when coming from a sleepy, warm state.

It helped me wake up, though, and I needed that.

There was more work to be done today, a lot more, possibly.

I took a walk around the perimeter, found no evidence of anyone having been here, and ended it at the head of the path. I got there just in time to meet a pair of people coming up. There was a moment of tension as we each were unsure of who we were looking at, but then we all relaxed. I vaguely recognized the two of them from around the town.

“Chris?” one asked.

“Yep. Luke send you?” I replied as we started walking back to the building.

“Yeah.”

“How is everything down there?”

“Peaceful, thankfully. The food that was found yesterday has helped a lot.”

“Anymore people found?”

He sighed. “Yeah...all dead, bodies pulled from the wreckage.”

I grunted. Great. We went back inside and I updated them with what I could on the situation, let them know that Brie and Drew were sleeping in there. After that, I sat back down with Megan and we had a quick breakfast. I drank some water and ate a can of beans. Not exactly a gourmet meal but it was fuel for the day.

“Can I borrow those for a minute?” I asked, indicating the binoculars hanging from a strap around one man’s neck.

“Yeah, just don’t go anywhere with them,” he replied, passing them to me.

“I’ll have them right back. Just want to do some recon.”

He nodded. Megan followed me after we’d finished packing our stuff up and I headed back outside.

“So now what?” she asked.

“Gotta look around first,” I replied. “Do some thinking.”

I checked around from the observation deck. Spotted a few people walking towards the lakehouse from the forest where the food area was. I tensed, but then relaxed as I recognized Lena and Stephen among them. So apparently they’d gone back. I looked around a bit longer, didn’t see anything of interest, and then headed in the other direction.

“What are you doing?” Megan asked as I began climbing up the hill behind the building.

“I want to see the other side,” I replied.

“Don’t fucking fall,” she muttered as she joined me.

“Obviously.”

It was a pain, but we both ended up standing atop a relatively flat piece of land maybe twenty feet higher above the observation platform. For a moment, I just looked without the binoculars. What a goddamned commanding view it was. After enjoying the scenery, I looked around. First at the town. I could see people moving, and they didn’t look panicked. Then along the treeline of the forest that held the watchtower I’d missed coming in, according to the map, and the hunting lodge and its cabins. I didn’t see any activity beyond a few deer roaming around, but that didn’t necessarily mean jack. They could be at either location, just hiding.

I looked to the gas station and didn’t see anything there either.

Finally, I checked on the watchtower one more time, because I wanted that to be my next destination in my search for people. Either friend or foe.

And I saw something. Dark gray movement near the treeline not far from the watchtower, which I could just barely make out maybe fifty or sixty yards back from the forest’s edge. For a second, I wasn’t sure what I was looking at.

Then, as the moving thing darted into the trees, I abruptly realized.

“Oh you motherfucker,” I whispered.

“What? You see them?” Megan asked, sounding excited.

I sighed heavily. “No. I just saw one of Lindsay’s cats. Which means I gotta go after it.”

“Jeez, you want Lindsay to keep fucking you that badly?” Megan asked with a grin.

“For the record: yes, I’d like to keep sleeping with Lindsay. And Delilah. But more significantly: I promised. And I want to help the cat.”

“Maybe it’s happy out there.”

“I doubt it. It’s fucking freezing. Probably ran away in a panic and it’s sad and scared and alone…”

“All right, all right, fuck, you’re ripping my heart out,” Megan muttered irritably.

“That’s why I want to go get it,” I said as we made our way back down the hill. We headed back inside and I passed them back the binoculars, then we headed back outside.

“You want me to come with you?” she asked.

“No. Go back to the town, check in with Delilah and the others, let them know we’re okay, then with Lisa, tell her everything, maybe plan with her for our next move. Let her know I’m going to check the watchtower for survivors or raiders and I’ll be back as soon as I’m done.”

“Will do,” Megan said.

We started walking down the path.

~

And so this is what it had come to: hunting for a cat.

Not that I felt embarrassed about that or anything, just a little weird. There were killers out there and people possibly on the verge of freezing to death or bleeding out somewhere in the wilderness, and I was hunting a cat.

I guess that was how I justified it: I was hunting this cat and looking for other people. Either to kill or help.

It all depended on who I found at the watchtower.

Despite the tension of worrying about a bullet leaping out of the treeline and punching my brains out through my skull, or the fact that there might be wolves or another bear among those trees, I felt good as I walked across the snow. I was still sore and tired and I wanted a wash, but I was getting something done, it was a clear morning and the temperature was about as close to the good old days as it ever got. As I walked, I suddenly was struck by a thought that I had every now and then: was it like this everywhere?

I know the news was saying mostly that before the news stopped coming. I remember seeing snow dumping onto the Pyramids in Egypt, huge mountains of snow in the Sahara Desert, shit like that. It was wild...in a terrifying kind of way. I mean, I didn’t think there really existed a place on Earth where it had never snowed, or at least not in recorded history, but certainly where it was very rare, and never in the quantities that we were seeing then. But that was then. It had been over two years. Were there places that had gone back to normal? I’d heard rumors of the mythological ‘green zones’, where the snow had receded back to normal times, where it even got back up to the seventies or eighties. But it just sounded like high hopes to me.

I’d like to believe that someday whatever had happened would reverse itself, or maybe there were geniuses toiling away in some secret bunker, deep under the Earth, working frantically to fix whatever mistake had occurred, or reverse whatever disaster had struck us. And to be honest, there probably were. It was at least likely.

What I thought was unlikely was that they’d actually succeed.

Something people had a hard time with accepting was that some problems were so massive, it would take decades of consistent work to fix, or even begin to fix. There were some problems so big, you might not even live to see the solution.

But your children would.

Didn’t that make it worth doing?

Then there was the whole God thing. Was this punishment? A modern ‘flood’? Covering the Earth in ice was, sorta, covering it in water. Just frozen water. Were there arks somewhere that people who’d been chosen by God had built and now hid His people? Would they emerge years from now, decades, or their children’s children centuries on, to rebuild the world? To be honest, I doubted it. I didn’t believe in any of that.

But I couldn’t really rule it out.

As I reached the treeline, clambering back up the hill me and the girls had first come down a few days ago, (shit, just a few days?, felt like a few weeks now), I was glad to find that this train of thought wasn’t upsetting me as much as it used to.

If anything, it was more of a mental exercise than a concerning sting of anxiety.

Maybe it was because I was actually doing something with my life now, instead of just drifting around, staying alive, fucking women.

Well, I was still doing that.

I didn’t think I’d ever stop doing that.

Why would I?

Once I crested the hill and reached the treeline, I spent a few minutes walking up and down it, hunting for the prints in the snow. It wasn’t snowing and the wind was pretty much nonexistent right now, so they would be well-preserved. Sure enough, I found them after a bit. They led into the woods, in the rough direction of the watchtower that I could see better now among the thick forest of trees. It stood a good forty feet high or so, and I did wonder exactly why it had been built there. It didn’t give a commanding view of very much.

Maybe they hadn’t spent all their budget by the end of the fiscal year, and, desperate to maintain the same level of budget, they’d hastily erected a watchtower without really putting much consideration into the location.

Stupider shit had happened.

As I followed the paw prints through the snow, I saw that there were other prints that the first set soon intersected with.

Probably a rabbit that the cat was hunting.

Well, hopefully she liked tuna more. It was the other big cat, Tabby. I had at least been able to tell that much from a distance.

After a few minutes of wandering through the trees, occasionally looking up and around, I finally saw the cat up ahead. Perfect. She was crouched in the snow, and as I came to the edge of the clearing the watchtower was built into, I saw that she had made her kill: she was chewing on a dead rabbit. Maybe I could grab her, but I thought it would be best to try the tuna approach first. As I got out of my pack and pulled the can of tuna out, Tabby turned to regard me. Her ears flattened and her tail twitched. Probably concerned I was out for her kill.

“Tabby,” I said, “come here.”

She regarded me with those slit-pupil eyes a moment longer, then went back to her kill. I sighed. “Tabby, come on, I’ve got some tuna you little fucking...cat. Or, well, big cat,” I muttered. Still she ignored me.

I cracked open the tuna can, pulling back the lid.

That got her attention at least. She perked up and turned around, raising her nose to the air. I crouched down, slowly extending the can.

“Yes, tuna,” I said. “That’s better than raw rabbit, right?”

She looked back at her kill, then finally turned and started padding over to me. Perfect. I could just grab her while she was eating and stuff her in my pack. Not ideal, I’ll admit, but I wasn’t lugging a fucking cat carrier all over the goddamned region with me every time I went out on the off chance I’d find a cat.

As she approached from halfway, she stopped suddenly and looked off to my left. I heard something right after that and cursed, dropping the tuna, going for my pistol, and standing up all at the same time.

Too late.

Someone in dark leathers stepped out from behind the tree, raised something in my direction, and the next thing I knew I had been sent careening into an explosion of pain. For some uncertain length of time the world went white and my whole body was jerking and erupting with pure pain. I heard sounds, but they were distorted, confused.

I thought I heard gunshots.

Someone shouting.

I heard a thud somewhere in there.

And then the white was receding from my vision, and the pain was receding from my body, and I was staring up at the sky.

I couldn’t move.

I heard footsteps coming closer to me, slow and measured, crunching in the snow. I tried to move, still couldn’t. I jerked my body and got some response. Everything hurt, all my muscles ached, my head sang with agony.

The footsteps grew closer.

Well, I thought with a strange sense of detachment, I guess this is how I die.

A mature, weathered, female face appeared over me as the footsteps came right up next to my head. She stared down at me, her mouth pursed, her eyes clinical and distant. Finally, she crouched and her fingers went to my throat.

I tensed, but I realized she was taking my pulse.

“You got hit by a tazer,” she said, her voice a little rough. “How you feeling?”

“Like shit,” I managed, then coughed.

She grinned sardonically. “I imagine so...who are you?”

“Chris...I’m with Lisa.”

“Well, I made the right call then. I was gonna blow your head off. Thought you were one of them. Why don’t you rest there a minute and I’ll check you over, then I can help you up to the watchtower and you can catch your breath.”

I just closed my eyes.

Fuck I hurt.

I’d never been hit by a tazer before. Holy shit it sucked.

I heard a sound close by, what I realized was eating. Opening my eyes, I slowly raised my head and looked around.

Tabby was crouched by my feet, eating tuna out of the snow from where I’d dropped the can. I sighed heavily and laid my head back down.

“You little…” I groaned.

“Hey, that cat saved your life,” the woman said.

“How’s that?”

“I was gonna shoot you, like I said, but then you started trying to coax the cat over. The way you were talking to it...and you knew it’s name. I figured you had to be someone from town I didn’t know, or someone who was working with someone from town.”

I considered that. “Well, it is a tabby.”

“Yeah but you weren’t just saying that, the way you said it, I could tell you knew it’s name. You familiar with Lindsay?”

“Yeah. That’s the main reason I’m over here. Saw the cat go into the woods from a distance. I agreed to try and bring her cats back to her.”

“Huh. Hold still,” she said, and began to check me over.

Suddenly, who she was clicked in my head. “You’re Melanie. The doctor.”

“That’s me.”

“Lisa sent me to look for you.”

“No surprise there.”

“Why haven’t you come back yet?”

She sighed. “Miserable story. I’ll tell you once we get up to the tower.”

“All right.” I paused. “So what actually happened? Who hit me with the tazer?”

“Two of those leatherbound assholes were trying to kill me.” She paused,  sneered. “Well, first do something else to me, then kill me. They were chasing me over the woods all morning. I finally got to the watchtower. I was laying a trap for them. It worked, but you stumbled in at the last second. While they were busy with you, I shot both of them in the head from my high perch...okay, you look like you’re good to go. Come on. Up.”

I groaned as she helped me up. I took a step closer to the watchtower, paused, then reached down and got hold of Tabby. She complained, but didn’t start thrashing about the way Socks had. I held her to my chest and she kind of just let me.

Maybe she was sick and tired of being out in the cold.

I know I was.

The three of us headed towards the stairs that wound around and up to the top of the watchtower. It was time to get in out of the cold again.

EIGHTEEN

I set Tabby up with another can of tuna and some water that I poured into a bowl I found among the contents of the watchtower’s top.

After making sure the windows were all properly shut, and the door was closed firmly, I took a seat and looked around. The place was decently well-stocked. Two desks, scattered with supplies. Some boxes taking up one corner. A single-wide mattress on a basic wooden frame in another corner. A mini-fridge with a microwave atop it, both very old and obviously out of commission. There was also a little sink installed near it and a single, tall cabinet for storage.

I was sitting in one of two chairs on either side of a tiny table and just relaxed.

“So who are you, Chris? How are you tied up in this mess?” Melanie asked, leaning against a wall, folding her arms, and fixing me with an intense green-eyed stare.

I spent the next several minutes telling her a rough version of my story as to how I’d ended up in Pine Lake. While I talked, she seemed to relax, then began moving around the room, checking over things.

I found it impossible not to check her out whenever she was bending over.

Melanie was tall, a little thick, and a redhead. She was also mature. She was certainly older than Lisa, maybe even older than Hazel had been.

And she had aged like fine wine, apparently.

She wore jeans that showcased her thick ass perfectly, and when she took off her coat, I saw that she was wearing a button-down over a t-shirt that, when she leaned forward for one reason or another, gave an absolutely perfect view of her stunning chest.

Melanie had some awesome tits.

“What about you?” I asked. “Where have you been all this time?”

“Out and about,” she replied. “Looking for people, mostly.” She sighed suddenly, putting her hands on the sink and lowering her head. “Last night was the worst. I finally found someone. I’d been tracking them for awhile out here in these woods when I finally found signs of them. A wolf had gotten them. I managed to scare the thing off, almost killed it but it got away, and then I got the guy to a little shack where we spent the night as I tried to keep him alive. He was too unstable to move any further and I knew that if I left him to go get help, he’d be dead for sure. As it was, it didn’t matter. Woke up this morning to find he’d died in his sleep anyway. Lost too much blood.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Yeah...how’s the town? What’s happening?”

I spent another ten minutes filling her in on the state of the town and all we’d been doing to try and put it back together. She seemed to perk up at that. At some point, she turned and fixed me with an intense stare that lasted about ten seconds as I explained things. I was just about to ask her if something was wrong when she suddenly seemed to come to a decision, turned around, and marched over to a little pot-bellied cast-iron stove squatting in the corner. She got a fire going while I finished up my updates on the happenings of Pine Lake.

“So, you coming with me and Tabby back home to help out?” I asked after I’d wrapped up and a moment of silence had passed.

“Yes,” she said. “I have something that needs doing, and from what I’m hearing, if you aren’t full of bullshit, you can help me out.”

“Well, Lisa will back me up and if it’s important, yeah, I’ll help.”

“Hmm.” A little smile came onto her face as she resumed her original position, leaning against the wall and staring at me with her arms crossed. Only it was different this time. For a second I thought I was going crazy, or horny-crazy, because she suddenly seemed sexier. Which was something, given how sexy she already was.

I realized I wasn’t crazy. The way she was folding her arms had changed so that she was pressing her breasts up, and she was leaning forward a little bit. And the way she was standing...her hips were cocked a little, showing them off more.

God did I want to fuck her.

“How old are you?” she asked suddenly.

“Twenty five,” I replied.

“Phew!” she said, her eyes widening a little in genuine surprise. “You look older,” she murmured.

“Is that a problem of some kind?” I asked.

“Nope, not at all. Just most twenty-five-year-olds I’ve known are kinda useless, or at least not exceptionally useful. I’m just impressed is all…” She continued to study me. Finally, she asked, “Before we head back into town, do you want to have sex with me?”

The word yes was out of my mouth before she’d finished the question.

She laughed. “Figured you were eager, not quite that eager...been awhile?”

“No,” I said as I stood up. My body protested but my mind didn’t care.

“Really? When was the last time you got laid?”

“Last night.”

“Really?...am I gonna have to fight a jealous girlfriend? Because I can, and I don’t want you to get all mad when I gotta knock someone out,” she said.

God, I was liking her more and more.

“You won’t have to worry about jealousy,” I replied. “They’re not jealous.”

She raised her eyebrows. “They?”

“Uh...yeah. I’m involved with three…” I hesitated. “I guess four women. Although I’m not sure about the fourth one.”

“Jesus fucking-and they all know about each other?” she asked with a grin, like she was just marveling at me.

“Oh yes,” I replied. “They are very aware of each other.”

“Shit, kid,” she muttered, “you are quite the catch, huh? You got any STDs?”

“No,” I said. “Not as far as I know. I’ve got the mesh implant in my cock and I’m pretty sure I’m clean.”

“Okay,” she replied after considering for a moment. “Take your clothes off and wash up. I’ll ride you ‘til we both come, then we gotta get back. Consider this a test drive. You don’t tell anyone about this, you hear?”

“Yeah, I can respect that,” I replied as I started getting out of my clothes. “What about my girlfriends? I won’t tell them if you really don’t want me to, but they are my girlfriends…”

“Fine, you can tell them if you think they can be discretionary.”

“They can be.” I paused as I got down to my boxers. “We gonna do foreplay or not? I’m all for it, but if so, I want to wash.”

“I’m plenty wet as it is,” Melanie replied. She was down to her bra and panties now and damn was she in good shape. “If this goes well enough for round two, we can take more time later at my place for foreplay. Sound good?”

“Sure,” I replied, and took my boxers off.

“You look pretty good naked,” she murmured as she pulled the sports bra she was wearing off and released her tits.

“Holy shit so do you,” I replied. She had some big tits. Probably about as big as Delilah’s, maybe a little bigger.

“They aren’t what they once were,” she said as she pulled her panties down. Her pussy looked pretty nice too, between those well-padded thighs of hers. “And at this point, they’re more annoying than anything else. Lay down.”

“Yes ma’am,” I replied, laying on the cot. She walked over to me and spent a moment staring down at me, which was fine, because I could stare up at her in all her naked, mature glory. It was obvious that she was older, definitely into middle age, but honestly, I didn’t have a problem with that. “How old are you?” I asked.

She pursed her lips and continued staring at me.

“Hey, you asked me.”

She sighed. “I suppose that’s true, I just don’t want to scare you off at the last minute.”

“I don’t care what number comes out of your mouth, you aren’t scaring me off by now.”

That brought a smile back to her face. “That into me, huh?”

“God yes, you are so fucking hot. And I am finding that I am genuinely in love with older women the more I run into them.”

“Okay then. Time to put your money where your mouth is,” she said as she settled onto me. There was just enough width to the bed for her to comfortably straddle me. “I turned fifty one years old a few months ago.”

“Oh wow,” I said.

“Good wow or bad one?”

“Very good one. You’re going to be the oldest woman I’ve ever hooked up with,” I replied, reaching up and cupping her large, bare breasts in my hands. Fuck, they felt good.

She laughed. “I gotta admit, it’s good to be so intensely enjoyed at my age. Last two lays I had were a bit older than you and they seemed to regret it halfway in.”

“I won’t,” I replied.

“Let’s find out.”

She reached down as she rose herself up, using her big, firm hips, and gripped my erection. Bringing it between us, she spent a moment rubbing it against her pussy.

“Can I come in you?” I asked, shuddering at the contact.

She considered it for a few seconds. “Oh what the hell, sure,” she said, and then she lowered herself, taking me into her sweet, older pussy.

I let out a loud groan as I slipped inside.

Fuck she was wet!

She moaned loudly as she penetrated herself with my cock, then let out a series of sharp huffs as she kept working her way down, going until she’d gotten the whole thing into herself. “Lordy, you’re a big boy,” she whispered, running her hands across my chest.

“And you are a really wet woman,” I replied, then groaned again as she began to ride me.

Holy fuck this was amazing.

I had to admit, I’d always had a sort of upper limit in my head of ‘how old is too old’? I didn’t have anything against old women, but I did think that there was a point at which they crossed the threshold from ‘older’ into ‘old’, and I wouldn’t be into them anymore. I mean, there existed women I wasn’t into that I’d come across, to be sure, because they were past that threshold. Again, I didn’t have a problem with them, I just wasn’t seeking to sleep with them. But I remember distinctly thinking at some point within the past year or so that the highest I’d go was probably mid-to-late forties. Only that had changed maybe ten months ago.

One town I’d come across had this woman who ran a lodge and goddamn if she wasn’t one sexy, mature lady. I’d wanted to fuck her really bad. I had never succeeded, but I’d been shocked to learn at one point that she was fifty eight years old.

That right then had told me that beauty, in its many forms, but even superficial beauty, had less of an age restriction than I thought.

I didn’t like to put too much emphasis on certain things, like age, but I also did enjoy reveling in the fact that I was banging a woman over twice my age.

Having Melanie satisfy her hot, wet, fifty-one-year-old pussy on my mid-twenties cock was a fucking amazing experience.

Her huge tits bounced wonderfully as I released them, my hands instead seeking first her broad, firm hips, then back around to her fat ass. And damn if she didn’t have a fat, thick, well-padded ass that felt amazing to grab.

If I was lucky enough to fuck her again, I was definitely hitting it from the back.

“Oh yeah...oh fuck...oh that’s so fucking good…” she moaned as she fucked me, her head back, mouth open, satisfaction obvious in her every movement. “Goddamn this is good dick...I haven’t gotten laid in fucking forever.”

“Why not?” I panted.

“One, I’m an old lady, two, it’s typically not a good idea to fuck your patients, and this whole town consists of my patients.”

“You aren’t old,” I groaned.

She laughed and looked back down at me. “Yeah, I don’t feel it right now.” Then she laid down against me and kissed me hard on the mouth.

We made out as we screwed, and there was an intensity to her that I loved. She was tough, and experienced, and I guess that didn’t surprise me. She kind of looked like I imagine Delilah might look thirty years from now, so I could just imagine what a fucking stunner she’d been at my age. Or maybe that was just the fact that I loved redheads with big tits. Either way, I was enjoying the ever-loving fuck out of this.

I could tell Melanie was too and how fucking satisfying it was to know that I was satisfying this smoking hot, mature redhead. She’d taken off her hat and now her chin-length red hair was down, framing her hot, ruggedly beautiful face, and I couldn’t get enough of her. She started panting and moaning in an ever-quickening cadence that I knew meant she was about to come. I let her keep going, feeling her hips starting to maneuver in a specific way, using whatever particular method she’d perfected over the decades to get herself off.

“Yes! Yes! Fuck yes! Right there! Oh fuck me!” she screamed, and then bam! There it was, she was orgasming all over my dick and what a fucking sight it was.

She gripped my shoulders, her muscles going rigid, her thighs clenching as she jerked back and forth, stirring my cock around inside of her pussy as it convulsed and got immediately hotter and wetter. I groaned as the pleasure washed over me, letting it come, letting my own climax rise to the surface, and then I was joining her.

I got lost in that bliss. All I could feel for a few seconds was the pounding pulse of my orgasm, my seed pumping out of me as rapidly as it could, shooting into her, filling up that sweet middle-aged pussy in blindingly powerful ecstasy.

We came together, lost in a timeless place of rapture, and then it was over, and we were coming back down like leaves drifting on the wind.

We stared at each other, panting, hair wild, covered in sweat.

Finally, Melanie regained some of her composure and she took in a deep breath, let it out slowly, then got up off of me. She found a rag somewhere and began to clean herself up.

“Goddamn,” she muttered.

“I know,” I said. “They all tell me the same thing: I come a lot.”

“Yeah. You fuck pretty good, too,” she replied.

“Feels like I didn’t do a whole lot,” I murmured as I laid there. The pain was slowly coming back, a dull ache that seemed to cover my whole body, though it was focused in my chest, but it was pushed back a lot by the pleasure released from the orgasm.

“That’s the point,” she replied. “I just needed you to lay there, look pretty, and be a dick to fuck, let me do my thing. And you did that without me having to tell you. You’re good at reading people. Next time, I’ll let you call the shots.”

“I very much appreciate it, and thanks for the opportunity. That was...really good.”

She laughed as she finished washing up, then she began pulling her clothes back on. “Glad we’re in agreement. You just lay there for a bit now. Admittedly, you really should rest after getting hit by a tazer. Though I figured you’re in good enough shape that I could take you for a ride.”

“It helped,” I said, then grinned. “So I don’t count as a patient?”

She sighed. “At this point, I’m willing to make an exception,” she said as she put her bra back on, then pulled on her jeans and boots. “A lot of guys think women get less horny the older they get. That may be true for some of us, but it is not a universal constant. I’ve always been pretty horny, and that hasn’t stopped since I’ve gone into my fifties. Just gets harder to get laid.”

“Sucks, you would’ve done super well back before the apocalypse. Go to any porn site and look at a video with an older woman, forties, fifties, even sixties, and you’d probably see at least a dozen dudes going ‘I’d fuck her’. And yeah, I know some guys are all talk, but there definitely existed a cougar culture.”

“Mmm...cougar. I have to admit, I’ve always liked the idea,” she said. She finished getting her clothes back on and then pulled her hair into a ponytail. “Maybe you can help with that.”

“I will help you live out that fantasy every fucking day you’ll let me,” I replied.

She laughed. “You sure you’re gonna have enough energy left after doing your other four girlfriends?”

“I will find the energy. You are just...wow you are hot,” I replied.

She stared at me a moment, then chuckled and began pulling on her pack. “You really mean it, you aren’t just bullshitting me. Huh.”

“I definitely mean it,” I replied.

“Well, we’ll see what we can do once this mess gets cleared up. I wouldn’t mind have a boytoy come pay me a visit every now and then.”

NINETEEN

I let myself lay there for another ten minutes before getting back up.

Melanie wanted me to lay for another five, but hedged when she saw I meant it. I did take a moment to at least wash my junk and midriff and thighs off. She’d fucking squirted good. After pulling my clothes back on, I carefully put Tabby into my pack, making sure that there was nothing in there that would hurt her, and she could lay down on my spare clothes folded up at the bottom. She complained some and tried to get out once, but when she saw that it was going to happen, I’m guessing she concluded that she might as well just trust me and let it happen, since she curled up in the small space provided to her.

“That is one compliant cat,” I muttered as I zipped my pack shut and carefully pulled it back on.

“Some of them are,” Melanie said.

Once we had our stuff, we left the watchtower, walked to the edge of the woods, moved down the incline, and started walking back home.

When we’d passed the two dead bodies of the guys who’d hit me with the tazer, I saw that Melanie had already stripped them.

I thought about that, and about how many might be left now.

I’d killed the asshole who had grabbed Elizabeth.

Then I’d shot those two bastards who were threatening the people at the house.

Megan had capped the would-be sniper.

And now Melanie had popped two more of them.

That was six altogether. What had the guy said when I’d interrogated him? Fifteen? Was that fifteen plus him? I’d assume yes. So at least sixteen, and six were dead, leaving ten. He could be lying, there might be more, but I thought he was telling the truth. More might’ve shown up in the meantime...but I guess it was just as likely that some might’ve run off or died to other means in the meantime as well.

So I’d assume, for safety’s sake, there were about a dozen men left.

Shit, that was a lot.

Although this time I’d have some actual backup for the eventual battle that I might have to face down, not just one or two people. Plus, if it was in a place basically anywhere but the lookout platform, I’d be able to have Megan or someone else hang back with a rifle and provide sniper support. But that was all in the future, and right now, I just wanted to get back home and maybe rest for a little bit before helping Melanie with whatever it was she needed help with. If she said it was important, then I was inclined to believe her.

As we made it back into town, people immediately responded to Melanie’s return. Several of them stopped what they were doing and walked up to her, asking if she was all right, if she was going to help whoever it was that was close to them who was currently injured, if she’d seen any of their missing people out there.

She promised to catch up with them when she could, and insisted I take her to the isolation ward so she could do her job.

I did, bringing her over to the building and poking my head in to see if Delilah was around, (she wasn’t), then told her I’d meet up with her later and told her where she could find me. She thanked me and went inside. From there, I made a beeline straight for the motel. First thing was first: I wanted to let this cat out of my backpack. I couldn’t imagine it was particularly comfortable in there, although Tabby hadn’t complained much at all while we’d walked back. I honestly felt bad for having to put her in the pack, so the sooner the better.

And maybe she’d be happy, rejoining her friend.

I unlocked the door and came back to an empty motel room. Well, almost empty. Socks was still there. He dashed under the bed as soon as I came in and regarded me with a grim expression from the shadows.

“Hello to you too,” I murmured as I closed the door and got out of my pack. Gently setting it on the bed, I unzipped it and tipped it slowly over.

Tabby came out onto the bed and spent a moment looking around, then she dropped down onto the floor. She noticed Socks under the bed, stared at him for a few seconds, then started wandering around with intent. A moment later, she found what she was looking for: the toilet. She climbed into it and began to relieve herself.

“Thanks for not doing it in my pack,” I said, and then, realizing she might’ve, I poked my nose in and took an experimental whiff. No, no bad smells. Well, besides the faint smell of blood. I zipped back up and then took a moment to refresh their food and water. Once that was done, I went back outside, locked the door, and headed straight for the apartment building.

I was eager to keep the ball rolling, although that was mostly mental eagerness. Physically I wanted some time off. Getting tazed had seriously taken it out of me. But it would have to wait. I got the impression that the heat was on now and we weren’t going to get a serious break until the situations that plagued us were truly dealt with. And right now, the two biggest problems left were the raiders and the medical supplies.

I was hoping that Melanie could help deal with that, but I’d forgotten to ask her.

The apartment lobby was empty of people, though I could hear conversations coming from a few of the apartments that had their doors open. I walked downstairs into the basement, navigated the storage areas down there until I found Lisa’s office. Sure enough, she was there. Megan was there too, the two of them talking.

“Chris! You’re back,” Lisa said. “Any luck out there?”

“I found Melanie,” I replied.

Her eyes went wide. “Oh thank fucking God. Is she okay? She’s alive, right?”

“She is alive, safe, and here. She’s helping at the isolation ward right now.”

“Oh fuck me…” Lisa whispered, sinking back into her seat. “That is such a weight off my shoulders, you have no fucking idea. Shit. Thank you,” she said with emphasis.

“You’re welcome,” I replied, sinking into the seat besides Megan and grimacing. “Two more of the assholes are dead, too. Melanie killed them after they tazed me.”

“Oh shit, are you all right?” Megan asked.

“I should be fine. Melanie checked me out and she seemed convinced I would be okay. How’s everything back here?” I replied.

“Fine...you know, all things considered. Stephen and Lena took a few people up to the lakehouse to begin gathering food again now that the bear is dead and we control the platform. Still no sightings of the raiders, but apparently they’re still around from what you say. For now, our more immediate concern is medicine. We need more antibiotics. A lot of what we had was useless, way out of date, and three more people have fallen sick since yesterday. We also found another survivor among the ruins early this morning, half-frozen. I think he has pneumonia.” She sighed and shook her head. “I need to ask Melanie if she knows where there are more meds or what kind of alternatives we can possibly look at for the situation.”

“She said she had something important to do after we got back, and she wanted my help, but she didn’t say what it was. Maybe it’s that.”

“Maybe, I’ll go have a talk with her. Why don’t you take a bit to lay down. You had a hard night last night and got fucking tazed this morning…”

I considered it, looked at Megan. “I’m free for the moment,” she said.

I nodded. “All right. Just a bit. I could use a nap and some food.”

All three of us got up and left Lisa’s office. We parted ways as we came back outside. It was still a nice day out, though off in the distance I could see gray clouds that probably would mean at least some level of snow perhaps tonight or tomorrow.

Wonderful. I just loved snow.

“You had lunch yet?” I asked.

“Not yet,” she replied.

“Let’s check on Elizabeth and grab it.”

We made for the restaurant and as we came inside, I thought the place had changed. The atmosphere, I realized, was less dour. There were more people around, as lunchtime was just rolling around, and damn near everyone seemed happy. There was a lot of chatter and good cheer. Megan and I got in line and I saw that Elizabeth was on the serving line. Judging by what she was dishing out, it looked like some kind of stew.

I would’ve thought I’d’ve had my fill of soup and stew by now, given how often I made it, but I honestly hadn’t.

It was just good stuff. And convenient.

As we got up to the line, Elizabeth’s face lit up with a beautiful smile.

“Hey you two!” she said merrily. “We’ve got bear meat and vegetable stew today.”

“I will happily take that,” I replied. “How are you doing?”

“Good. My feet and my back hurt, but I’m pretty happy. Everyone’s in a good mood and it’s infectious,” she replied as she ladled up two bowls.

“Can you eat with us?” Megan asked.

“Lemme check.” She passed us the bowls. “Aggie!” she called back into the kitchen. “Can I take my break now?”

“Hold on.” I heard someone get up, then footsteps getting closer. The stern-faced older woman who ran the place appeared alongside Elizabeth. She eyeballed the main room. “Yeah, it should be fine. Go on.”

“Thanks.”

“Uh-huh.”

Elizabeth got her own food and then had us come back into the kitchen with her, where she led us to a break room off to the side. We all sat around a table after getting some water and then dug into the meal.

I was fucking starving, I quickly realized.

I ended up finishing it off before even attempting to pick up a conversation. I glanced at the door, then got up and shut it, then came back and leaned forward. I wasn’t able to keep a grin off my face. “Guess who got laid by a smoking hot fifty-one-year-old badass doctor?”

“You fucked Melanie?” Megan asked.

“You found that doctor?” Elizabeth asked. “And fucked her?”

“Yep,” I replied. “She was...she came on strong.”

“I doubt you had a problem with that, given your choice in women,” Megan said.

“I take it she’s hot?” Elizabeth said with a smirk.

“I think so. She’s a tall, curvy redhead. Goddamn does she have some big tits. She wants to do me again later. I take it there won’t be any kind of problem?” I asked.

“I don’t care,” Elizabeth replied. “I’m happy as hell right now.”

“I’m okay with it, but see if you can convince her to let me watch. I gotta be honest, you and Delilah have really gotten me addicted to live porn.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I replied.

Megan began to say something else, then hesitated, glancing at Elizabeth, and seemed to reconsider. Instead, she shifted to asking me for more details about my encounter with Melanie. I told them about it, both listening intently, and we ended up sitting around talking for close to half an hour. When I yawned, Megan stood up.

“Come on, you should have your nap.”

“You doing something else today?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yeah, don’t know what, though. Melanie has something in store and she wants my help. After all that’s happened, I could use some rest,” I replied.

“Okay.” Elizabeth got up and gave both of us hugs and kisses. “I’ll be here and then probably home by the time you get back later on.”

“All right,” I replied.

Megan took my hand and led me out of the break room, then back into the cold and towards the motel we called home. I wondered what it was she wanted to tell me, because her body language seemed to suggest she did want to say something to me.

Finally, we got home and as soon as the door was closed, Megan turned and looked at me with something like excitement.

“I think Lisa wants to have sex with you,” she said.

“Oh yeah?” I replied, feeling a thrill of lust at the thought of that. I was lucky enough to have gotten with Melanie, but Lisa too?

That would be amazing.

“We were talking and she started asking questions about you. About our relationship. What you’re like. I admit, I played you up a little, not that I really had to, but I could tell, as one horny woman to another, that she wanted you. She was trying to hide it, but she’s got a crush on you,” Megan replied.

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure. You should go for it.”

“You think so? You don’t think she’s too busy with, like, everything else?” I asked as I took off my pack and started to undress.

“I think that’s why you should do it. You’re not only a good guy but a good lay. You’re exactly what she needs right now: a guy she’s turned on by who will fuck her really good and there won’t be any complications. No worry about pregnancy or STDs, no worry you’ll shame her or try and force her to do something she doesn’t want to do, no relationship, no drama. Just good, safe sex. An orgasm or two would go a long way towards letting the pressure off that woman’s brain, I can tell you that much from the last conversation we had. And she deserves it. She’s doing a great job and a shitload of really hard work.”

I considered it. There was no question that Lisa deserved to feel good and take a break, and I thought Megan had a lot of good points.

Plus, well, I did want to fuck her.

“Well, if you think she’d be into me…” I said finally.

“I’m sure she’s into you,” Megan replied as she stripped down. “Now, can we fuck? Because right now I’m into you. You can hit on Lisa later tonight.”

“Yeah, we can fuck,” I replied, and finished taking my clothes off.

~

Some time later I awoke to the sound of the door unlocking and opening up.

As I rolled over, somehow sure that I hadn’t been asleep for more than an hour, I was greeted by the familiar sight of three people coming into my motel room, one of them kind of a stranger, (though I guess she was on the same level as the other ‘stranger’, given what had transpired between us), with me and Megan naked in bed.

“You found Tabby!” Lindsay cried, the first to speak.

“Uh, yeah. Got her home safe and sound. She’s a nice cat,” I replied sleepily as I tried to come back online.

Delilah and Melanie were the other two people walking in. They shut the door behind them and Lindsay crossed the room, knelt by the bed, and gave me a hug and a long kiss on the mouth. “Thank you so much,” she said. “This means a lot to me.”

“Glad I could help,” I replied. She got up and moved over to where Tabby lay curled at the foot of the bed. She began to check her over and pet her.

“I missed you,” Delilah said as she came over now.

“Sorry I didn’t come see you, it was...a long morning,” I said.

“Megan filled me in on some of it, Melanie the rest of it, so I understand. I’m just glad you’re okay,” she replied.

As I hugged her, I looked over her shoulder at Melanie. “You catch up with Lisa?”

“Yes, and she’s green-lit my project. I’m also ready to actually do it, now that I’ve had a chance to check in on all the sick and the injured. So if you’re ready, I’m ready.”

“I’m ready,” I replied as Delilah let go of me and I pulled the blankets back. I got up and started washing myself off. A good wash always helped wake me up and focus me. Or even just a basic wash, to be honest. “What are we actually doing?”

“I hid a cache of medical supplies a little ways from here. They were more intended to be in a place for people farther out to go in case of emergency, but it seems that the other couple of caches I had stashed around have been tapped out one way or another at this point. There’s a lot of stuff there, but mainly there’s good antibiotics. We really need those right now. It’ll be probably about half an hour there, half an hour back, and it’s a bit of a hike so be prepared if you’re still game.”

“I’m game,” I said. “Let me get ready.”

“All right…” She looked around at the others. “So, you’re the girlfriends?”

“Delilah and I are, Lindsay...likes him. Not a girlfriend,” Delilah said.

“I’m strongly considering it after he found Tabby,” Lindsay murmured. “And how good he is in bed.”

“Know what you mean,” Melanie said.

Lindsay looked over at her, surprised. “You fucked him? Jesus when did you find the time?” She looked at me. “You do get around.”

“I’m not turning down an advance from someone like her,” I replied.

“I don’t blame you,” Delilah said, staring at her.

“Sorry girly, I only go for guys,” Melanie replied.

“How do you feel about an audience?” Delilah asked.

“I’d consider it, especially considering that you’ve shared him with me.”

“Awesome,” Megan murmured.

“So who’s the third girl?” Melanie asked.

“A pregnant woman over in the restaurant, Elizabeth.”

“Huh. Interesting. Well, I know for a fact I’ll be meeting with her, given I’m the only real doctor in town. How far along is she?”

“Somewhere between seven and eight months,” I replied, finishing lacing up my boots. I grabbed my pack and quickly sorted through it, making sure I had the minimum survival kit in there to leave room for the meds and anything else we’d find, then I zipped it up and pulled it on. “Okay, I’m ready to head out.”

“All right then,” Melanie replied, heading for the door.

“Bring him back in one piece,” Delilah said.

“I intend to.”

TWENTY

Melanie was already ready to go, so after I said my goodbyes, we headed out of town.

We went directly south first, so that we didn’t have to endure the misery of walking through the burned up part of Pine Lake. Once we were clear of it, we began heading west, taking the same rough path that Lisa and I had taken when heading for that garage and house. I’d ended up popping a pair of painkillers before long, as I still had a number of aches and pains, but given how crucial this was, there was no way I was letting it stop me.

“I have to admit, I’m impressed,” Melanie said as we marched through the snow, keeping an eye out for raiders or wolves.

“With?” I asked.

“You. You roll into town with three attractive girlfriends and immediately start saving lives and getting shit done. Were you in the military before?”

“No, a lot of people ask that, though. I’ll save you the trouble of guessing: I mostly stocked shelves and worked a cash register.”

“Shit, really?”

“Yeah. I don’t really have a good-sounding answer for why I’m as effective as I am. I just had a lot of good habits, I probably had a good upbringing for it, and I probably have good brain chemistry that makes me actually do stuff and stay motivated. Or at least allows me to more easily put up with mindless drudgery.”

“That all is very possible,” she replied. “I’d say it’s even likely. You’re very lucky. Your genetics and upbringing happened to align like the stars...do you ever feel, I don’t know, crushed under the weight of responsibility? I imagine people rely on you for a lot.”

I hesitated, considering how best to approach this. “I...make certain things clear in my relationships,” I replied after a moment.

“What does that mean, exactly?”

“When I start a relationship, I make it clear that I’m not going to stick around for very long. I’m more confident than ever that the time I do share with the women I’m with will be good, it just won’t last. Because I like to travel, and basically no one else does.”

“Hmm...that’s fair enough, I guess. If you’re honest about it from the beginning, I can respect that. What about nonsexual relationships?”

I sighed. “I mostly have looked at them as jobs. Which is what they were. But this? This is different. And I willingly entered into this. Again, though, I don’t know how long I’m going to actually stick around. At least a few weeks, I know that, and I’m fine with putting in the work, helping people, doing what needs to be done or, at the very least, earning my keep.”

“From the way I’ve heard some people talking about you, you are not just earning your keep,” Melanie said. “You’re going above and beyond the call of duty...and I’d say you have to be careful. If people come to rely on you too much, it can be a lot of responsibility. And I think it’s in most people’s nature to expect a thing they have to rely on to stick around for as long as they want. They won’t like it if you remove yourself from the picture.”

“I know,” I said. “But this is important.”

“I agree. You’re doing the right thing. I guess I’m just...warning you. What about your relationships? Those girls like you. A lot. I could tell that. They may even love you.”

I sighed. “I don’t think they do. Anytime someone has said that to me they just thought they loved me. I’m not the kind of guy you fall in love with.”

“Why would you say that?” Melanie asked, sounding surprised.

“I leave. That’s why. Lots of guys do, but I’m honest about it. And it’s not even like it’s because of them, it’s because of me. I just have this fucking bug in me that makes me want to wander. I’d be happy for the company, but ninety-nine out of every hundred women want to stay in civilization. They don’t want to live out in the miserable winter wastelands and I don’t blame them. I don’t like living out there, exactly...but I do love traveling, and exploring, and testing myself, I guess. All I know is that it just bugs the shit out of me eventually and I start going crazy and I just have to leave. It’s happened ever since I started wandering.”

“How long’s that been?”

“Sixteen months or so now.”

“Huh.”

We were silent for a long moment.

“Got any advice on how I can stick around?” I asked.

She sighed. “Not really. I think it’s a thing you have to figure out. But maybe you might have to just accept that you’re the kind of person who will forever wander. That’s the life you’re meant to live. On a certain level, I believe we get to choose some things, but not all things. You don’t get to choose your kinks or who you’re attracted to or your favorite foods. You discover those things. The only thing you get to choose is what actions you take. You could choose to put down roots, but...good chance it’ll just make you miserable.”

“Great,” I muttered.

“I also believe that if you keep working at it, keep studying it, keep experimenting, then...maybe you’ll find a solution that’s the best of both worlds? Or at least a compromise. Maybe you could put down roots somewhere, but strike off into the wilderness one week out of every six or eight? Maybe something like that?”

I thought about it. “Maybe…”

“I don’t know, but I do know those women like you a lot. And you should be good to them. Pain is...way too common nowadays,” Melanie murmured.

“I know. I’ll be good to them,” I replied. “I always am.”

We entered the forest and soon made our way past the house and the garage. We stopped to check them out briefly, to see if any of the raiders or survivors from Pine Lake had come since it had been most recently abandoned, but it was as empty as when I’d last left it. From there, we plunged deeper into the forest, still westbound.

“So, uh, what’s your story?” I asked as we navigated through the bare trees.

“Probably what you’d expect. I was born and raised in Georgia. Knew I wanted to be a doctor since I was young, before high school. My parents were both doctors. Dad a general practitioner, mom a surgeon. So I kinda had the way paved for me. Accelerated classes in high school, college credit hours, went through college and stripped on the side when I could find the time.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Yeah. I wanted to keep in shape and that’s a hell of a workout. Plus, you know, they always say ‘if you got it flaunt it’, so I did. It was a fun few years. Got through med school and then residency and then became a doctor. I got sick of Georgia sometime during my second year as a full-fledged doctor, moved around for awhile. A year in California. Two years in Colorado. Five in Oregon. I loved that place. Bounced around until I finally wound up in Missouri. That was about five years ago. Started living in small towns. I liked the idea of being a ‘country doctor’, you know? When the apocalypse happened, I took to wandering. Eventually wandered here and decided I liked it enough to stick around for awhile. That was about nine months ago.”

“Wow,” I murmured.

“Yeah. A paragraph to sum up half a century. I mean, there was a shitload of other stuff in there, but I was a very career-oriented person. No husband, no kids. Dated around a lot. I’d get serious with someone in all of the cities I lived in, but I seemed to attract the same kinda guy every time: just like me. Career-oriented, understood that at some point one of us was gonna leave. I stripped again in my late thirties.”

“I believe it,” I murmured. “You could still do it now.”

She laughed ruefully. “No, not anymore. I just do not have the body for it anymore. And by that I mean I don’t think I could physically handle it more than once a week, maybe. You gotta be athletic to do it right, and I’m in good shape, but I’ve certainly slowed down. I’m built more for endurance than anything else nowadays.”

“Prove it,” I replied.

She glanced at me and chuckled. “I intend to, but I doubt I’d outlast you. Your girlfriends are pretty sweet. That redhead reminds me of me when I was your all’s age. I bet she fucks like a demon, right?”

I laughed awkwardly. “Yeah. She does. She was the first one I met. Delilah’s...something else.”

“I bet. You’ve got a sweet setup going on…” She trailed off as we came out of the treeline once more and her expression changed.

I saw why.

The land past the forest’s edge on this side ended in a steep drop that led down into a valley maybe a hundred feet down.

“It’s down there,” she said.

“Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“Great.”

“Told you, it’s kind of a pain.”

“How do we get down?” I asked.

“I’ll show you.”

We walked forward a bit more, covering the distance between us and the edge. I didn’t fuck with valleys or gorges or quarries if at all possible. Too many stories of people falling and dying. Or worse, falling and then eventually dying after laying there for hours or maybe even days with broken limbs or neck or spine.

As we got to the edge, I saw the way Melanie intended for us to go: a narrow, treacherous path that began up here and ran along the length of the cliff wall on our side.

“Fuck,” I muttered.

“Yeah. We originally were going to try and find a better way down and explore it some more, for resources, left-behinds or natural, and I did the initial scouting and creating the medical cache since this is kind of my thing. Lisa came with me a few times. But ultimately the plan fell through for one reason or another, so now we’re stuck with some good medicine down at the bottom of this trail. It’s rough, and dangerous, especially with the snow, so stick close to the wall, go slow, be careful, and let me lead. Okay?”

“Okay,” I replied.

She nodded and then set off down the trail.

I followed after her, telling myself I’d done more dangerous things. Like that ultra-blizzard I’d gone out into. I’d made it through that. Having done insane shit and survived intact did help, but I still knew that it only took one fuck up to kill you. So I kept this in mind and followed her lead and advice as we slowly made our way down the narrow path. It was irritatingly cautious progress, especially since I kept looking up once every couple of minutes to make sure someone hadn’t come to either edge and was getting into position to snipe us.

I had my rifle with me, but this would be a really bad place to get into a sniper battle.

Time passed. The cold minutes ticked by.

Once, near the three-quarters mark, I slipped and fell on my ass. Melanie reacted quickly, making sure I didn’t go over the edge, (there was still roughly a twenty foot drop), but other than that, it was really just nothing more than the passage of strenuous time that harassed us as we descended. Finally, our feet hit the valley floor.

I looked around as we took a minute to relax. It was fairly beautiful down there. A bit barren, but the trees and big rocks and the narrow creek that ran through it all provided a nice atmosphere. The only signs I saw of something around were some rabbit tracks. Maybe they were safe down here, away from wolves and other predators.

The thought appealed to me, for some reason.

“It’s over there, you see it?” Melanie asked after a bit, pointing to the north.

I nodded. In the opposite valley wall, through some trees, maybe fifty yards off, I could just make out a cave.

We resumed our walk. It was peaceful down on the valley floor, just the two of us moving through the snow, past dead bushes and trees, along the winding, frozen creek. At one point, I saw several rabbits hopping around farther on down, past the cave we were heading to. Part of me was tempted to go hunting, but I didn’t for a few reasons. We had a specific job to do. I was beginning to get worn down, like really worn down. And last, in a strange way I really couldn’t explain, it was almost like doing so would be wrong.

Something like it would violate the sanctuary of this valley.

Didn’t I do that every time I went hunting? I doubted animals saw a forest or a glade or a grove as any less of a sanctuary than a valley.

I guess maybe because I felt like, in a way, the rabbits kind of reflected something in me.

Seeing them down here, free from predators (maybe, couldn’t know for sure), with some of those special vegetables growing in here and there, in this peacefully little existence, reminded me of the sort of life I someday wanted.

Or more accurately, I wanted to want.

Somewhere quiet and peaceful, relatively isolated but not completely, free from predators.

Such places had to exist, or maybe that was just a false hope.

We reached the cave not much later, weaving our way through the trees. Overhead, a few birds were hanging around on the branches, little brown-feathered ones. They regarded us with a detached, mild curiosity.

“All right, let’s be careful,” Melanie said as we approached. “No idea what might have moved in and set up shop since I was last here.”

I pulled out my pistol, agreeing with that assessment. She grabbed a flashlight, what I actually recognized as the hand-crank one I’d traded in when we’d first arrived, and flipped it on. She aimed it into the dim opening. Inside, raw rock and earth was revealed. There didn’t appear to be any signs of life in the recent past.

“Okay, let’s go,” she murmured, and walked inside.

I followed after her.

There was something creepy about caves, and yet something also somehow simultaneously welcoming. I’d had to spend the night in enough caves since the apocalypse came. I wondered if that welcoming feeling had anything at all to do with our generations upon generations of being cavemen, literally living our lives in the caves. Or at least around them. But caves were also dark and damp and held the potential of something dangerous.

Like a bear.

But this place didn’t smell of death and raw meat like the other cave I’d been in recently had. It didn’t really smell of anything. We walked through it, Melanie’s flashlight lighting the way, guiding us deeper. After a moment, we came to the cave’s end, which looked pretty unassuming.

“So, where’d you hide it?” I asked.

“Why don’t you tell me?” she replied.

“Hmm.” I held out my hand for the flashlight and she passed it over. I spent a few moments slowly panning over the end of the cave, looking for anything obvious. I saw nothing during my first pass, but upon my second, slower pass over the area, the light stopped on one rock on the ground out of several.

“There?” I asked.

“How’d you know?” she replied, walking forward and crouching. She picked up the rock and set it aside, revealing a hollow opening in the ground.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “It just kinda...stuck out for some reason.”

“Then you’ve got a good gift.”

“I seem to have a knack for finding hidden stuff,” I replied.

A satchel bag and a duffel bag resided within. She pulled each out and spent a moment opening them up and checking through them. Once she was satisfied they were as they should be, we spent another moment getting it all transferred over to our packs. When everything was secure, she put the rock back and we navigated our way back out of the cave. I kept feeling tension creeping into my body, like I was expecting the other shoe to drop, something to happen, someone or something to attack us, but I guess that was normal by now.

As we stepped back out into the sunlight, I took a long look around in both directions to see if I was missing anything.

I hesitated as I looked off to the left, the way deeper into the valley.

“Melanie.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I see smoke over there.”

TWENTY ONE

“Definitely smoke,” Melanie murmured as she lowered my rifle and passed it back.

I took it and looked through the scope. It was a little tough to make out, with the trees in the way, but someone had lit a fire maybe a hundred yards further down the valley. But all I could see was the smoke, not the actual fire or any people.

“We gotta check it out, huh?” I replied, lowering the rifle.

“Yeah,” she said. “Could be one of our people, laid up and hurt, or even just not realizing that part of the town is still there. Could be a raider that needs putting down. Could be a total stranger that might need help. Either way, I gotta deal with it.”

“I’ll join you then,” I said.

“I was hoping you’d say that. You’re pretty useful to have around,” she replied as she started marching off in that direction.

“Glad you think so,” I said, following after her.

We continued along through the trees, which began to thicken beyond the cave. I tried to listen for any signs of life, man or animal, but couldn’t hear anything. Well, whatever was waiting for us over there, we’d deal with it, one way or another.

I tried to be careful as we made our way through the woods, along the valley floor, listening and watching, moving with a diligent patience as I saw Melanie was. She was clearly no stranger to the outdoors, and I imagined she hunted in her spare time, or had at one point. The way she moved and reacted to things spoke of experience.

We crunched through the snow, moving as lightly as we could, and finally emerged from the trees to arrive at a little mostly-frozen pond that ran almost the width of the valley. There were narrow strips of frozen land on either side between the edges of the pond and the valley walls. The source of the smoke was finally visible: a small campfire lit near the entrance to a cave maybe a dozen yards beyond the far edge of the pond.

There were more trees, tightly packed in a dense forest, just beyond the cave.

I didn’t see any activity, and something about it made me nervous.

I reached out and gently touched Melanie’s elbow as I looked up, checking the edges of the valley’s tops for snipers. “Could be a trap,” I murmured.

“I was thinking that, but I don’t see anything,” she replied. “We need to verify one way or another. Be ready for anything.”

“Yep,” I replied, refocusing on the ground level.

We got up to the frozen pond and began moving along the treacherous strip of land. It was a pain and a slow walk. I could tell right away that if either one of us slipped, we’d go right through that ice. This far from civilization…

It would be bad.

It didn’t even feel that far, but I knew that between the walk back through the valley, navigating that already difficult trail, and then walking back through the forest and across the plain to get back to the settlement, all of it through the cold, it would seem like a forced march through Hell itself. But we managed to reach the other side of the little pond without slipping or falling, so it was halfway dealt with at least.

There was a clearing in front of the cave, with the thick forest wrapping around the north and eastern sides of it, the pond edging up against the south.

Melanie pulled out her pistol and I did the same. She motioned for me to wait where I was and crept forward.

“Is anyone in there?” she asked.

“Who’s there?” came a reply after a moment. The voice sounded young and strained.

“Melanie.”

“Oh my God, Doc Mel? Seriously? I’m not losing it, am I?”

She sighed and put her gun away, apparently recognizing the voice. She walked in front of the cave and put her hands on her hips. “No, Zachary, you aren’t losing it. What in the name of God’s green Earth are you doing all the way out here?”

“I don’t know,” he groaned. “I ran during the night of the fire, I got lost, I was with some others, we were going for the garage...I almost fell down in here and died.”

“You woulda died if you’d fallen, it’s a hundred foot drop. What’s wrong with your leg?” she asked, walking into the cave.

I followed after her and stood in the entrance to the cave. Beyond the fire, I saw a teenager with an unhealthy pallor and a bloody pant leg.

“Wolf,” he groaned. “God, are they gone? They were out there…”

“Chris?” she asked.

I looked around. I didn’t see anything, but the woods were dense, and could hide anything. “I don’t see anything,” I replied.

“Keep watch while I deal with this.”

I listened to them talk while I kept watch. He told his story of how he’d ended up in this cave, while complaining or yelling whenever she hit something sensitive as she checked his wound. She wrapped it up with, “Ah hell, you got a fever.”

“I do?” he groaned.

“Yeah. Gonna give you some antibiotics and painkillers, and then Chris and I are going to get you out of here. People are gathering back at the town.”

“Isn’t it all burned down? That fire was so huge, it was almost like a bomb going off…”

“No, some of it survived, and some of the people are still alive. Lisa’s still alive. Stephen and Lena. There’s around fifty people there.”

“What about the guys who did it?” he asked, accepting some pills and drinking them down with water from a canteen she passed him.

“We’re working on it. Chris and I here have killed at least a third of them.”

“Oh wow…” He looked at me and I glanced back. Yeah, he looked like shit and we’d need to get him somewhere safe if he had a chance of fighting off the infection that had surely set in thanks to his wolf bite. “Who are you?”

“Just Chris, the wandering adventurer,” I replied.

“We’ll get you home, Zach, don’t worry.”

She finished patching him up and then slowly got him standing, or tried to. I heard him cry out, fall, and cry out again.

“Dammit, Zach!”

“Sorry! My leg!” he groaned.

“Chris, get in here and help me get him up,” she said.

I reluctantly took one last look around the area, I thought I’d seen some movement somewhere in the woods, but it might be nothing, then tucked my pistol back away and joined her. I got him standing and then she took his weight.

“You bring anything else with you? Anything we can use?” I asked.

“No, everything I have left is in my pack here,” he murmured. “Phew, that feels better already, actually.”

“Yeah well it’s not gonna, we’ve got a long walk ahead of us, son. All right, Chris, I’m gonna need you to-Chris?”

But I wasn’t looking into the cave anymore. I was looking out.

“Oh fuck,” she whispered.

There were six wolves out there.

Apparently, my idyllic vision of this untouched valley was way off base.

I glanced over at the frozen pond. Two more of them stood by its edge.

“Holy-how did they get in behind us?” I muttered.

“We might be in trouble,” Melanie said.

“Don’t move,” I replied, and edged over to the fire. Zach had gathered some wood in a little pile not far from it. I crouched slowly, taking quick glances to make sure my hands and feet were going where they were supposed to, but mostly focusing my attention on the wolves, which were still staring at us intently.

I picked up the biggest stick and stuck it in the fire.

“Here’s the plan,” I said in a low voice as I slowly stood. “We’re going to start making for the pond. I’ll try to force the two wolves in that direction back. You two just go, as fast as you can, back to the trail. Get out of the valley. I’ll hold them off and kill as many of them as I can.”

“Chris…” Melanie said, reluctance obvious in her voice.

“Got a better idea?”

The silence played out.

Finally, she sighed. “No.”

“Then get ready. Both of you.”

They let me know as soon as they were ready to make the move barely half a minute later. I kept watch on the wolves. All in all, there were eight of the furry bastards, and they were all staring at us with an eerie, animal calm.

I was going to have to be really, really good, and lucky, to get through this one.

I came slowly and carefully out of the cave, holding the pistol in one hand and the makeshift torch in the other. As I did, the wolves shifted in anticipation, but otherwise held their place. God, they were fucking creepy. I drifted out and to the right, towards the pond, allowing Melanie and Zach to get in between my back and the wall.

I wanted to make as much progress as physically possible with the wolves just standing there, watching us. Because once they started moving, everything would get a whole lot more complicated. Listening to Melanie’s and Zach’s progress, I tried to keep up with them, sidestepping slowly, trying to keep the relative position of everything firmly in my head. If I went into the pond, I’d be truly fucked. Damn, this sucked.

We made it most of the way there before the wolves moved.

The two near the pond began coming forward.

“Shit,” I whispered and prepared myself to attack.

It could go a few different ways with wolves. Some were brave. Some folded like origami. It was basically impossible to tell which ones were which. Although I had to admit, these ones looked pretty gutsy.

Glancing over, I saw that Melanie and Zach had made it to the narrow strip of land.

“Don’t. Stop.”

Melanie made an affirmative, quiet response.

The other wolves were closing in now, and some had begun to growl deep in their throats. This was getting bad. As the two closest to me got close enough, I took a swipe with the torch. They flinched back, but didn’t run. I took a few more swipes, and then I lunged forward and smashed the torch into one’s face.

It yelped and fell back, pawing at its snout, but it didn’t run.

The other leaped at me and I raised the pistol and fired. It was a good shot, taking the beast in the skull and killing it, but the others immediately began coming for me. I cursed and rapidly backed up towards the strip of land, firing at the others as they rushed over. Seven were coming for me now, the first one having largely shaken off the blow I’d landed on its face. These were tough fuckers. Several of my shots went wild, punching into the snow and sending up puffs of the stuff. A few connected. One hit a leg, another grazed fur and flesh, another was a lucky shot that buried itself in a wolf’s brain, through its eye.

Two dead, one wounded enough to fall back.

That still left five.

And the gap was almost gone now.

I threw my torch at them and ran. I had ten shots left and probably no time for a reload, or time to grab my rifle. A strange calm had settled over my mind as adrenaline was dumping into my veins. Melanie and Zach were most of the way to the other side of the pond now. It wouldn’t save us, but it would help.

I stepped onto the strip of land and started hustling over as fast as I could without falling in. Even then it was a real pain to keep from slipping.

“Chris!”

I’d just stumbled and barely managed to keep from falling or dropping my pistol when Melanie yelled out at me. Whipping around, I barely managed to get my arm up in time as I saw one of the wolves leaping right at me. It, apparently, did not give a shit about whether or not it fell into the pond. Or maybe it was just that much more confident that it wouldn’t and had decided now was a great time to rip my throat out.

Its jaws clamped down onto my left forearm and-

“MOTHERFUCKER!”

Goddamn did that fucking shit hurt!

Pain shooting into me, I wrenched violently, first left, smashing the wolf’s body against the valley wall, then right. It came free of me, ripping another scream from me as its teeth tore out of my skin instead of just peacefully extracting. But it was gone, flying out onto the pond a few feet, hitting the ice, and going right through.

Now there were four left.

Growling, I took aim and fired at the next in line. They were still after me, the tenacious fuckers. I missed twice and then shot it in the skull, dropping it. I fired into the one behind it, managed to shoot it in the chest after another three bullets, then I turned and started running. I had to get away. I could feel blood rushing out of me.

As I made it to the halfway point I suddenly heard gunfire open up. Melanie had finally gotten into a good position a little further down the pond on her side and could fire without fear of hitting me. She kept the wolves at bay as I hustled over, slipping twice but somehow managing not to go into the frozen water both times.

The second I hit the other side and stable ground, I turned around, raising my pistol. There were only two wolves left standing by this point: one I had shot in the leg, which hung back at the treeline, the other that had managed to drag itself out of the ice.

I raised my pistol.

“Save your bullets, they’re done,” Melanie said.

I hesitated, then sighed and lowered my pistol. She was right. The wet-furred wolf was already retreating to join its injured brother.

Decent chance they both wouldn’t last the night.

Holstering my pistol, I looked at the corpses. “We should grab a few. We could use the meat and the furs,” I murmured.

“No,” Melanie replied. “Between your injury, Zach’s, and that treacherous trail, we’re going to have a hard enough time as it is. Now lemme see your arm.”

I walked over to her, looking down at my forearm. There was blood on my leather jacket. I thought it would help protect me a bit more, and maybe it had, but still, damn. I was going to have to patch it up again.

I carefully pulled my arm out of the jacket and let Melanie roll up the torn, bloodied sleeve of my shirt. “I’ll have this patched quick,” she murmured. “It’s gonna hurt.”

“Already does,” I replied.

She had me sit down in the snow, then got out of her pack and crouched beside me. Unzipping it, she started pulling out medical supplies.

“Have a seat, Zach, this’ll take a minute,” she said.

“Uh...yeah,” he murmured. I looked up, he was already leaning against the valley wall. Now he carefully lowered himself to the ground, wincing. I did the same thing as Melanie started to clean up the bite marks.

“You got a lot of these,” she murmured.

“That’s what the forearm is for, I think,” I replied.

“Technically yeah. But you seem to get into a lot of fights with wolves. Other arm look this bad?” she asked.

“No, not this bad. I’m right-handed so I try to keep it more intact.”

“I was curious...why do you keep going out into dangerous places, doing dangerous things? Is it really just a compulsion?” she asked.

“I guess so,” I replied. “It’s different now.” I winced as she got more disinfectant over the bite marks. Fuck that stung like a motherfucker.

“Different how?”

“I’m trying to help people.”

“Sounded like that’s not new.”

“I mean...it’s not. Just the extent is different. I’m really trying to help people now. I can fight. I can survive. I’m pretty strong and I’ve got a lot of endurance. I don’t fuck people over. I figure that puts me in a pretty good position to help.”

“You aren’t wrong.” She began to bandage the wound. “Why the change?”

I sighed. “I guess you could say I got a wake up call. Short answer is that I saw my future self in a man I was forced to kill, a really shitty man, if I didn’t get my shit together and really start living for something beyond the next sunrise or the next chick that agrees to fuck me. I mean, I still like taking pleasure in the small things, but it’s not enough.”

“That’s pretty brave,” she said. “Not many people actually act on those thoughts. Most people want to change, few of them actually do.”

“I guess so,” I murmured, looking down at my wounded arm.

I wondered how long my change of heart would take to kill me, because that seemed the likeliest outcome. You keep putting yourself in danger, you up the risk that you’ll die. On the other hand, I could have cancer or a brain aneurysm ready to pop or a fire could go out at the wrong time while I was sleeping and I could just die anyway.

If you’re gonna die anyway, might as well help people.

“There,” Melanie said, standing back up.

I looked over the bandaged section of my arm. “Thanks,” I replied.

“It’s my job.”

She packed everything back up while I pulled my sleeve back down and put my arm into my leather jacket again.

“We good to go?” I asked.

“Are we?” Melanie asked, looking at Zach.

“I’ll need some help getting up, but yeah,” he said. “I’d love to get out of here.”

I went to help him back to his feet.

TWENTY TWO

It was a long, cold, unhappy walk.

First back through the valley, and then, worst of all, back up that trail. It took half again as long as it had the first time due to the injured. I popped some painkillers shortly after we set off, but even then, my arm was still bugging me. It was a long, harrowing journey back up, but we finally made it out of there.

Thankfully, nothing was waiting for us up top.

From there, it was just a matter of walking back to Pine Lake. We took a few breaks, but otherwise didn’t run into anymore wolves, or bears, or asshole raiders wearing leather. Now that I thought about it, I’d been pretty lucky that my leather jacket looked different than the ones they seemed to wear.

Once we got back into town, I went with them over to the injured ward and headed inside at Melanie’s urging.

Also because Delilah and Lindsay were there.

Delilah came over as soon as she saw me.

“Need any help?” she asked Melanie.

“I got him, why don’t you see to your boyfriend?” she replied.

“What happened?” she asked, now focusing on me as Melanie helped Zach over to one of the beds.

“Wolf,” I replied. “Bit my arm.”

“Shit, come here,” she said, guiding me over to a free spot near the back of the room. I got out of my pack, my jacket, and my shirt, leaving on just a t-shirt underneath. The wound had clearly bled while I’d been walking. Delilah started taking the bandage wrap off so that she could check it over. “How did it go otherwise?”

“Well, we found that guy there, saved his life. Killed half a dozen wolves, but didn’t bring any with us. The place we went was a valley and it was damn hard to get into and out of. Bottom line: we got lucky. Could’ve been a lot worse,” I replied. “How have things been here?”

“Better, actually. Not a lot has changed, but finding Melanie was a big deal. Most of the survivors know her and like her. The fact that she’s here and helping is a huge boost. And they know you went out to get more meds...tell me you found them, please,” she said.

“In our packs,” I replied. “Get them distributed as soon as you finish up.”

“Thank God,” she muttered. “We’re almost out of antibiotics and a few other things. Although admittedly I’m worried about the long run. What you found will hopefully get us through this mess and have us set if nothing goes really wrong, but...what about next month? Two months from now? The nearest real settlement is like fifty miles from here. This place is pretty isolated.”

I was silent for a few moments while she checked my wound, then began to wrap it again. “We’ll figure something out,” I replied.

She just nodded. It was the best I could do right now.

Once she was finished with that, she took me into the back room where another pair of nurses were taking a break. We spent the next several minutes emptying out my pack, getting everything organized and put away in the proper place. When that was done, we went back out and saw Melanie finishing up with Zach, who had fallen into a deep sleep. I kind of wanted to do the same thing, but there was always more work to do.

“I’m going to go check on everyone in the isolation ward and deposit my half of the meds over there. You got everything squared away here?” she asked, looking at us.

We both nodded.

“Got everything offloaded,” I replied.

“Good.” She paused, stared at me. “You were really good out there.”

“So were you,” I replied.

“See you around. Thanks for the help.”

I nodded and she left. I yawned, then said my farewell to Delilah for now, then said my proper hello and then goodbye to Lindsay, then headed back outside. For a moment, I wasn’t sure what to do. Then I thought that I should just ask Lisa, she’d know what there was to do. And then that thought sparked another and I began to head for the motel. Megan might be there, though it felt like a bit of a slim chance.

However, as I unlocked the door and stepped inside, I found her sitting on the bed, getting out of her boots.

“Hey,” she said as I came in. “Everything go okay?”

“Well, yes and no. We found the meds and we found another wayward survivor. He should be okay, got him back safe. I got bitten by a wolf. I should be okay. It hurt like shit though,” I told her as I came in.

“I’m sorry,” she replied. “You get it checked out?”

“Yeah, it’s wrapped up tight. What have you been up to?”

“I ended up making a pilgrimage to the observation deck. Well, technically I was running security for a pair of runners who were bringing them some more food and to get any news, since apparently no one has any fucking radios in this whole town. Still no sightings. I just got back. Nothing happened there or on the way back. Maybe they really ran?”

“I hope so,” I murmured.

“What are you doing?”

“Well...I was thinking I was going to take your advice and maybe try to sleep with Lisa. How would you feel if I spent the night with her tonight?” I replied.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ve got three hot women to keep me company tonight.”

I laughed. “That’s true. You gonna do anything with Lindsay?”

“Yeah. We talked briefly and she’s down to fuck around, so that’s really nice. Delilah’s thrilled. I think she’ll fuck Elizabeth while I’m fucking Lindsay...you know, I didn’t used to be so fucking sex-obsessed. I don’t know why I am now.”

“Everything’s more...extreme, now, I think. Everything sucks harder than ever before, but, on the flip side, the good things are even better. Even an average meal tastes amazing now. Getting to just sit the fuck down and not do anything in front of a fire is like a vacation. And so sex, which was already pretty awesome, is now mind-blowing.”

“That makes sense,” she said after a moment. She yawned. “Well, I’m off for the next couple of hours. I volunteered to go into the town later today and help them search for stuff. So go see if you can get lucky. I’m pretty sure you’ll do fine.”

“Hope so. Lisa is...intimidating,” I said.

“More intimidating than Melanie?”

“Yeah. I mean, Melanie just jumped me pretty easily. Lisa is...I don’t know really how to describe the situation. She’s more daunting.”

“I get it. But just consider: that will make the sex that much better.”

“Very true.”

I walked over and gave her a hug and a long, pleasant kiss on the mouth, then headed back out into the cold once more.

~

Lisa was, once again, in her office.

She looked up as I came in, and I thought she looked more tired than before.

“Do you have more good news for me? I could use it,” she said.

“I do, actually. We got the meds, there’s a fair store there that should see us through the worst of what’s happening now, and we found and rescued another person from the town. A teenager named Zachary.”

“Holy shit, that is good news,” she said, flipping open her leatherbound book and looking through it. She made a mark. “Thank you so much, Chris. Honestly, I fucking needed this. The work crews have found like thirty people today among the ruins and they’re all dead. And we’ve only identified half of them. There’s some I’m afraid we’ll never be able to identify.”

“How many are left missing?” I asked.

She sighed. “About thirty altogether by now.”

“Any sign of the raiders?”

“No, nothing.”

I stared at her for a moment while she looked over another piece of paper. How should I approach her about this? Part of me wanted to just come out with it, but I thought maybe that wouldn’t be the best way with Lisa.

Thing was, I was actually bad at stuff like this.

I think I’d only gotten worse at it over the past few years. Normally either women came onto me or we cut some kind of deal. I didn’t really have to woo or flirt, which was great...because I was bad at it. Or maybe that was just my perception?

I decided to go for something really simple.

“You want to get lunch?”

She glanced up, opened her mouth, then hesitated as her stomach growled. She sighed. “Yes, I suppose it’s high time I do that.” As she got up and pulled on her coat, she looked at me suddenly. “Is there...any specific reason you’re asking me?”

“You seemed like you could use some company and you also seem to like me,” I replied.

I mean, it technically wasn’t a lie.

“True enough,” she replied, finishing pulling her coat on. We started walking out of the basement, back up towards the lobby. “Your girlfriends?”

“Elizabeth and Delilah are working. Megan’s sleeping and then working. She was the one that suggested it,” I replied.

“Oh…” I glanced over. Was she blushing? “Did she...say anything else?”

“Like what?”

“I mean…” She hesitated, then mumbled something under her breath. “Nothing.”

I considered pushing at least a little to see what she’d say, but decided against it. We walked back outside and started making our way across the street. Several people waved and said hello, to which Lisa responded to and I largely just nodded, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure why, but maybe I was thinking about what Melanie had said, about these people coming to rely on me. I guess I hadn’t quite considered how true that was.

Another side effect of helping people: the assumed responsibility. Help someone once and there was a good chance they’d expect you to do it again.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

We came into the restaurant and when we grabbed lunch, Elizabeth was serving again and she looked at me, then at Lisa, then back at me and just smiled and didn’t say anything beyond a simple ‘hi’. When I glanced at Lisa, I saw she was blushing again. We took our meal, bear and veggie stew again, not that I minded, and took a seat off by ourselves near a window. For the first few moments, both of us just ate.

“What happened?” Lisa asked suddenly.

I glanced up from my meal. “To what?”

She nodded. “Your arm. I just saw the bandage.”

“Oh. Wolf bit the shit out of me while we were rescuing Zach. Like eight of the damned things showed up. We barely got out of there,” I replied.

“Fuck. That’s...intense.”

“Yep,” I agreed.

We went back to eating for a bit longer, and I decided to try and keep a conversation going. Maybe about something other than the pains of the apocalypse.

“What do you do for fun normally? Besides hiking,” I asked.

“Normally?” She considered it. “I draw, sometimes. I read. Mostly I’m too busy for fun nowadays. But yeah, mostly hiking and reading. You?”

I considered it. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess I find survival stuff fun enough that it’s just what I do. I suppose...if I’m being honest, I have sex.”

“I imagine you must be the kind of person who’s never single,” Lisa said.

“I...yeah, that’s true. Now, I mean. It wasn’t true before the snow.”

“Seriously? Why?”

“Big and scary works great if you’re looking for protection, and I imagine makes me more attractive. Doesn’t work so much in normal society. Women are more willing to overlook the fact that I’m unattractive if I can protect them.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? You’re not unattractive. How the fuck could you even think that when you’ve got Delilah, Megan, and Elizabeth all over you?”

“Like I said: protection. Delilah and Elizabeth met me when they really needed help being protected. Delilah from slavers, Elizabeth from her crazed ex. Megan...we’re still working that out. But my point stands.”

“You’re not unattractive,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Honestly I find that offensive.”

“Seriously? Offensive?” I replied, surprised.

She sighed. “Maybe that’s too strong a word. Frustrating. There. You’re clearly ruggedly handsome and you’ve got that dash of ‘bad boy’ that women go so fucking crazy for. It’s your eyes. They’re so intense. You do look kinda dangerous, but a lot of women find that attractive. Much as they might not like to admit it. I guess I’m just being unfair. I spent a long time feeling unattractive. I guess a lot of people do.”

“Apparently,” I replied. “I’m hoping that shit will at least calm down with other things to worry about. Feeling ugly is pretty fucking awful. Since Armageddon hit, I legitimately can’t complain, but...let’s just say that high school left some scars.”

“I think that’s true for everyone but the extremely attractive, popular assholes,” Lisa said.

“What were you like in high school?” I asked, honestly curious.

She laughed. “Extremely nerdy but also athletic. I guess an overachiever. I was in chess club, band, and swim team. On top of perfect As.”

“What instrument?” I asked.

“Drums. I didn’t like them too much. Saw them as a challenge, really. But I got good at it, then abandoned music totally in college...what about you?” she asked.

I sighed. “I wasn’t very academically inclined. No extracurricular stuff. Middling grades. Mostly I wanted to be somewhere that wasn’t school, not that I was sure what that looked like. For awhile I was just killing time. Working out. Then camping. Then fishing. Hunting. Learning about survival stuff on the internet. I used to read wilderness survival novels.”

“Boy did you luck out,” she murmured.

“Honestly, yeah, I did.”

We finished up our meals and returned the bowls, then walked back outside. For a moment, we stood together in the cold. I looked up. The clouds were much closer now.

“Gonna storm tonight, I think,” I said.

“Great,” she murmured.

“Probably won’t be too bad...what now?” I asked.

She considered it. “Well, I was considering knocking off a few hours early, if nothing serious was going wrong. I’m fucking exhausted and everyone keeps telling me to take a break, they’re worried about me. Now that you and Megan and Mel and some of the others are here and helping so much, I feel like I might actually be able to do that. So right now I’m going to make the rounds and check in on everyone. You want to join me? I think people like seeing you.”

“God I hope not,” I muttered.

She laughed. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know, just...I worry about people coming to rely on me too much. On the one hand, I like the idea. On the other...it scares me.”

“I understand. But right now, people need you. You’ve pulled off some serious shit so far, and people are talking. About you. To put it bluntly: people need people to look up to. It’s an unfortunate side of the human condition, but it’s how we’re wired. And if there has to be someone to look up to, I’d rather it be not an asshole.”

“You don’t think I’m an asshole?” I asked.

“No. Those girls you’re with? They would not put up with an asshole. Maybe Delilah or Elizabeth might have before, but not anymore. Not now.”

I sighed. “All right, I’ll walk with you.”

“Good. Come on.”

~

We spent about two hours walking through town.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about what she had told me, nor how I began to notice that people were looking at me or the way people reacted to me, now that I was actually focusing on it. Because she seemed to be right. People were happy to see me. I thought they were reacting to her at first but no, they specifically wanted to shake my hand and thank me for something or other. I accepted it as best I could, and Lisa clearly found it amusing.

I guess it was fair, considering I found her blushing amusing.

Mostly I just shook hands, said ‘you’re welcome’, and listened to them.

Was this what being a celebrity was like?

Shit. This just made me feel weird. Not to mention, it was draining. I couldn’t really tell if I was an introvert or an extrovert, but today I definitely felt like an introvert. It didn’t take all that long for me to want to just be alone, or at least alone with just a few people that I liked. But I stuck it out. Partially because, yeah, I was still figuring out how to approach Lisa about sex, but also because she had a point: people liked seeing me, and if anyone could use a boost in mood, it was these people. They’d been through a shitload.

We did a tour of the town, and she checked in everywhere.

Everything was running pretty smoothly, or at least there was nothing directly she could do. We were good for food and we were good for meds, and firewood, too. People would be fed, warm, and healthy, for awhile.

Now all we had to do was confirm that the raiders were gone or hunt them down.

Either way, I was finally having to admit to myself that I was in no shape to do much of anything else today.

All my exhaustion was catching up with me.

We ended up back near the apartment building at the end of our tour. Lisa hadn’t said anything to me since we’d left the last place and started walking over here. As we walked into the lobby, I saw that it was vacant.

She turned to look at me, and I thought she was going to say something, but she didn’t. She just kind of stared at me expectantly.

I thought by now it was pretty obvious to her that I was trying to sleep with her, and that she was into it. But maybe I was off base? I didn’t think so, I thought she was just too nervous. Why? What the fuck did she have to be nervous about?

Did she genuinely think I was going to turn her down?

I decided to just take the plunge for her.

“You want to invite me up to your apartment?” I asked.

She looked relieved. “Yes. I would.” She started walking towards the hall at the back. “It’s up on the top floor,” she said.

I followed after her.

TWENTY THREE

We made it up a flight of steps before she paused and looked back at me. “Will there be...any, uh, problems? If you...spend time with me at my apartment?”

I laughed a little bit. “No, there won’t be problems. They all know that I’m going to...‘spend time’ with you at your apartment.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay.”

She led me up to the top and unlocked one of the doors. We walked inside and I looked around. It was sparsely populated by furniture. A couch. A pair of chairs around a small table. A dresser pushed up into one corner. A double-wide mattress in the back. It was a tiny apartment, a studio size. “This is yours?” I asked.

“Yeah. I was originally sleeping down in the office on the couch but when the others found out they insisted I have an apartment. That couch is uncomfortable enough that I finally I gave in. Though I’m going to give it up soon and figure something else out. We’ve got too many people now and not enough living space.”

“We’ll figure something out,” I replied.

She walked over to a small wood-burning stove and fired it up. While she did, I took off my backpack, my coat, and my boots.

I sat down on the couch and waited. Lisa, I think, took longer than necessary to get the fire going. And then she moved around the apartment for a bit, doing...something. I tried not to act impatient. I mean, honestly, I wasn’t. I was going into this prepared for the possibility that she would change her mind and I’d go home for the night.

Finally, she came and sat down beside me.

When I looked at her, I hesitated. She looked more anxious than I’d ever seen her before, which was saying something.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“I’m just...nervous,” she replied, looking down briefly at her hands folded in her lap. “I just-I want to be absolutely clear. So there’s no miscommunication: we’re hooking up, right? You want to have sex with me?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I want to have sex with you.”

“And the others…?”

“Delilah, Elizabeth, and Megan are aware of this, and encourage it. And, if it helps put your mind at ease further: I have a birth control implant that makes it impossible for me to get you pregnant, and I’m pretty sure I don’t have any STDs. The implant also makes it harder to get those. And if you change your mind at any moment, I won’t argue or get mad.”

“I...yeah, that helps,” she said, “a lot, honestly. At this point, I do trust you. It’s less you I’m worried about and more…” She trailed off again, looking down for a few seconds before meeting my eyes again. “I haven’t had sex since I lost my husband.”

“Oh...wow,” I murmured, and suddenly felt another weight of responsibility come crashing down on me. I was going to be this woman’s first hookup since losing the love of her life? Jesus fucking Christ. “Lisa...shit. I’m not sure if I’m the best for this…”

“You’re perfect, actually. I’m not looking for a relationship, Chris. Maybe a casual one. At this point, I’ve grieved. I haven’t moved on, not entirely, but I don’t think I ever will. But I am ready to be intimate with someone again. And to be honest, I just want to sort of...dip my toe into the waters? Or I guess more accurately cannonball in and then get back out again after I’ve had my fun. And from what Megan hinted at during our previous conversation, you’d be really perfect for that. All I really want, right now, is great sex with someone I find very attractive.”

“And you find me very attractive?” I replied.

She laughed, some of the tension seeming to go out of her. “Obviously. I’m more surprised you find me attractive. I know I’ve been looking my age over the past few years…”

“I’ve got a serious thing for mature, badass women,” I replied.

“Which is kind of surprising, given your...harem. Delilah and Elizabeth are just gorgeous. Like models. I know Delilah’s younger than you, she has to be, I’m not too sure about Elizabeth. And Megan is beautiful in a different sort of way, she reminds me more of myself...grimmer. But she also has a very obvious beauty to her.”

“I didn’t choose any of them, exactly...they kind of chose me,” I replied.

“I can’t blame them,” she said. Then she reached out and put a hand on my thigh and damn if that wasn’t like getting hit by electricity. “So, will you spend the night here? I may be a little rusty, but I’m pretty sure I can get you off quite well.”

“I’m definitely spending the night here,” I replied.

She smiled. “Good. Now, um, we should wash up. As I said, this is my first time getting laid in over a year and I want it to be as good as possible.”

“I’ll do my best,” I replied, standing.

“Thank you.”

Despite what she’d said, I was kind of nervous. It felt like a lot of responsibility, and I also just felt bad for her. I honestly couldn’t even imagine what she must have gone through, and to not have been intimate with even a single person since then?

Fuck.

I wanted to do a really good job this time around. It seemed like she needed it, more than just wanted it.

More significantly, she deserved it.

We started taking our clothes off, looking at each other as we did. As her clothes came off, I saw that Lisa was in pretty good shape. She was a little taller than Delilah, and more filled out than her as well, having a sturdier build, closer to Melanie. She had several scars that were revealed as her clothes came off. By the time she’d stripped down to just a tanktop and panties, I saw several on her arms and legs, more as she took her tanktop off. Her breasts came out as she tossed the tanktop aside. She had some nice double-ds, and as her panties came off, I saw a short bush of pubic hair the same blonde as the hair on her head.

“Good thing I found an electric razor and buzzed recently,” she murmured, looking down at herself. “I kinda hoped this would happen, and it had been...well, awhile, since I’d ‘trimmed the hedges’.” She paused, then bit her lower lip anxiously as she stared at me. “Well, uh, this is me.” She sighed suddenly. “I honestly used to be decently confident about my body. At least since I got into my twenties and I filled out a bit. I knew I looked good naked and worked to maintain it. I just sucked at makeup and thought I didn’t have a great face…”

“You’ve got a great face without makeup,” I replied. “And you still look great naked. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Thanks,” she said, blushing again. She shifted impatiently. “Come on, let’s see it. Your naked body. I want to see it.”

“All right, all right,” I replied, and finished stripping.

“Wow. I’m...not disappointed. At all. You’re pretty fit and that is...a bit bigger than I’m used to,” she murmured.

“Everyone keeps saying that,” I replied.

“You’re above average. I mean, what do you think ‘average’ means?”

“Let’s just say, it doesn’t feel above average,” I replied. I shook my head and then walked over to her. She stared up at me and I looked down at her, having a full half foot on her. She had pretty brown eyes, and I told her so.

Lisa responded by kissing me. She slipped her arms around me, pulled me to her, and kissed me full on the mouth.

It was a wonderful kiss.

I loved feeling her naked body pressing against mine as she pushed her lips to my own, slowly beginning to make out with me as she closed her eyes and a moan escaped her. It was a satisfied moan, like the kind you’d let out slipping into a hot bath at the end of a long, hard day. The fact that I was the one making her make that sound was itself very satisfying. I put my hands on her, first on her lower back, then slipped them down to her ass.

She had a really nice ass.

There was a fair amount of padding to it and all those times I’d seen it filling out her pants so nicely, to finally get to touch it bare, to grope and grab it…

That was very satisfying, too.

Lisa moaned louder as I pushed my tongue into her mouth. She darted her own forward and met mine, twisting and twining with it. Her taste flooded my mouth and I enjoyed that, too. We kissed for another long moment, and then she pulled back.

“We were supposed to wash,” she whispered, breathing heavily.

“Yeah...let’s do that now,” I replied.

She was staring at me with wide eyes. She nodded and slowly let go of me. We found some water, some rags, some soap, and quickly began washing up.

“That was amazing,” she whispered. “I haven’t even kissed anyone since...I’d forgotten what it was like. Wow. I think you’re a good kisser but I can’t be sure.”

“I think it’s both,” I replied.

She laughed. “So you’ve got confidence in your kissing, then.”

“I’ve got confidence in my sexual abilities,” I replied. “Just not my looks. I am going to eat you out so fucking good.”

She visibly shuddered as I said that. “Oh fucking...oh just the thought of that...I loved oral so much. So much.”

“You’re going to come a lot,” I said.

“I hope so. I must admit, orgasming has been...elusive for me, at times. If I don’t come, please don’t take it personally.”

“I guess we’ll see what happens,” I replied after considering and rejecting a few responses. I didn’t want to be overconfident, that was a narrow line to walk.

I was glad to see that after that kiss she was quite eager.

Same for me.

We ended up naked and in bed as soon as we were done washing, kissing again, touching, our hands running eagerly over each other’s bodies. I began running my hands over her hips, then her thighs, then her inner thighs, caressing them slowly, working my way towards her pussy. She shivered and shuddered and moaned at my touch. Her return to sex, I thought, should be a slow, gradual, pleasantly long experience.

And unless something went wrong, we had the rest of the night.

As I went to work on her, time seemed to disappear. It all seemed to disappear. There was just me and her in her bed and a fire crackling somewhere nearby and, at some point, the wind beginning to pick up.

But otherwise, it was just us.

I spent awhile getting her off.

She was right that she had a tougher time than most of the other women I’d hooked up with, but it wasn’t impossible.

I spent a good ten minutes alternating between massaging her clit and fingering her, going with just one finger for awhile, then getting to two. She was already really fucking slick and hot inside. We kissed through most of it. She made out with me with an almost desperate passion, clearly trying, (and often failing), to keep from being too noisy as I pleasured her. After awhile I began sucking on her breasts, licking across them, across her nipples.

The first orgasm took the longest and was the most intense.

I had to hold my hand over her mouth as she lost control of herself right as I switched back to rubbing her clit for the dozenth time and she just popped. She jerked violently in the bed, bucking her hips hard, her whole body twitching like she’d been hit with an electric shock. I had to keep her from screaming so loud that surely someone would kick the door in, thinking I was murdering her, because goddamn was she losing it.

It was tough but I kept pleasuring her and muffling her throughout the whole full-bodied orgasm. It went on for almost a minute.

When I took my hand away as she finally calmed down, she gasped: “Don’t stop! Oh God don’t stop!”

So I didn’t.

I kept fingering her until she had a second orgasm, and then I got down between her legs and started licking her clit. She pretty much devolved into a babbling, incoherent mess after that, and I’m very happy to say that I got her to come three more times before she finally had me stop. When I sat up, I saw that she was crying.

“You okay?” I asked.

She tried to speak, but just coughed. Pointed. “Water,” she managed.

I got up and got her a canteen of water. She took it and drank deeply. While she did, I took the opportunity to wash up.

She’d made a mess.

I got back in bed with her after she finished drinking.

“You. Are. Amazing,” she said between deep breaths. “Just...oh my God. I know why you have three women on your dick regularly now. And we haven’t even fucked yet. Shit. I seriously, seriously needed that. Oh my God. You made me come like five times. Just...fuck. I am going to suck your dick so good.”

“I’d appreciated it,” I said.

She laughed, sniffed, wiped at her eyes, then had me lay down while she cleaned herself up. Once she was done, she came back and got between my legs.

“Just lay back and relax,” she said with a small smile.

I did just that, watching as she made a ring with her thumb and forefinger around my cock, put her lips down to it, and then began to slowly lower them over the head. I groaned immediately as a wave of pure, hot bliss hit me.

“Holy shit,” I muttered as she began to slowly, very slowly lower her lips and finger and thumb down my head, then back up, then down again. “That’s-oh wow. That’s something else.” I wasn’t exactly sure what it was she was doing, but wow did it feel so fucking good. I remembered Hazel doing something similar, but not this good.

She let out a little muffled laugh and kept going with her slow, sensual blowjob.

I sank even deeper into mindless ecstasy as she worked my cock with her apparently fucking magic mouth and hand and tongue. I didn’t know if it was a married woman thing (Elizabeth was pretty good at giving head), or just something Lisa had learned on her own, but fuck did it feel good. It was hard to sit still.

“Gonna blow,” I said after maybe another half minute or so.

She glanced up at me with her beautiful brown eyes and kept going.

“Last warning,” I said after a few more seconds. “Gonna fucking blow in your mouth if you keep going.”

She kept going.

And then I couldn’t hold back any longer. I let out a loud, probably way too loud, half-groan, half-shout of bliss as my orgasm burst into existence. She continued sucking as I came into her mouth and for a little while there, I was truly fucking blinded by pleasure. All I could feel was my orgasm as I shot my load into her mouth and she took it all, working my cock with skill that she apparently had not forgotten at all, sucking me totally fucking dry as shockwaves of rapture blasted through me and I drained my nuts down her throat.

She finished me off after a bit and slowly got up to her feet.

“So apparently I didn’t lose my touch,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and smirking at me as she stood at the foot of the bed.

“No,” I managed, “you didn’t. Holy shit.”

“Better than your girlfriends?” I asked.

“Don’t tell them, but yes. Better than all of them. Fuck’s sake you can suck dick,” I murmured, looking up at the ceiling. My head was spinning. I listened to her gargle and spit with something, then take several drinks. I glanced at her as I heard her unscrewing something metal and saw her opening up a bottle of some kind of alcohol.

“Want any?” she asked after taking a healthy swallow. “It’s vodka.”

“I’m good, thanks though,” I replied.

She took another drink, then stared at the bottle for a long moment, then sighed and screwed the cap back on and put it away. “I want to get drunk. I haven’t been drunk in months. But it would be so stupid right now.”

“I understand,” I replied. “Once this is over and things are more stable, I could help with that.”

“What?” she asked as she climbed back into bed. “You gonna protect me while I’m in my vulnerable state?”

“If you wanted me to,” I said.

She stared at me for a moment, then laid down against me. “I bet you’re good at that. I imagine women that get close to you feel safe with you.”

“I sure hope so. Delilah and Elizabeth have told me that,” I replied, putting an arm around her and holding her against me.

“I feel safe right now,” she murmured, then sighed. “As you can imagine, I was fiercely independent. Even after getting married. I believe in independence, even now, perhaps especially now, but...it took me awhile to figure out that you can still want someone to just...take care of you, without giving up your independence and self-reliance. I think what makes it more difficult is that a lot of people don’t see it that way. Too many men I’ve come across think that if you show any kind of ‘weakness’ or reliance on them, it means they own your ass, that you need them, and they’ll treat you differently. Not all of them, just...it can be hard to pick out the ones who won’t. Like you.” She reached out and ran a hand across my chest.

“Megan told me I should do this,” I said, “that a thing I offer is basically safe, attachment-free sex, and that not enough people do.”

She laughed softly. “It’s true. I’ve talked sex with so many women, and almost every last one of them has run into more than one guy who was a lazy lover. You’re actually an outlier. Most of the stories I’ve heard about guys with big dicks is that they’re lazy. They don’t bother with foreplay or good positions or anything because they think ‘I have a big dick that’s all that matters’. It’s...refreshing, to experience otherwise. And so far Megan is right. God, what I experienced even before right now alone makes the encounter worthwhile. You are killer with that tongue and those fingers. I mean just...shit, you’re good.”

“So are you,” I replied. “...can we fuck now?”

She laughed and sat up. “That horny?”

“For you? Yes. Fuck yes.”

“You really like me that much?”

“I do. You are so fucking hot. I seriously have a thing for older and I guess you could say ‘commanding’ women...how do you want to start?” I asked.

“Let’s keep it simple this time: just fuck me missionary,” she replied.

“This time, huh?” I asked as I got up and let her get onto her back.

“I’m having a hard time imaging not doing this again at least a few times. You’d be a great stress reliever, you know. Just come over and fuck me a few times a week,” she replied as she got onto her back and spread her legs.

“I can definitely do that,” I said, getting between them. “Lemme ask this real quick: can I come inside of you?”

She began to answer, then hesitated, blushing again.

“If the answer’s no, that’s fine,” I said, “just tell me.”

“It’s not that, it’s...I want you to finish somewhere else,” she replied.

“Where?” I waited. She didn’t answer, not quite meeting my eyes. “Come on, you can just tell me.”

“It’s...humiliating,” she murmured finally.

“Lisa, whatever it is, you can just tell me. At this point, you’ve said it yourself: you trust me. Trust me not to...I don’t know, laugh at you, make fun of you, think less of you, whatever it is you’re worried is gonna happen if you tell me.”

She sighed. “You’re right. I...like it on my face,” she said.

“Really? Yeah, I can definitely do that,” I said.

“Thanks,” she replied. “Also...be careful.”

“I will,” I said, and started working my way into her exceptionally wet vagina.

That feeling of us being the only two people for miles, maybe forever, closed back in around me and I wondered if she felt the same thing. I worked my way slowly into her, looking down at her wonderful, pale body, at her scars, her breasts, up to her face and her beautiful brown eyes. She stared back up at me with a strange mixture of arousal, confidence, and vulnerability. As I continued inching into her, loving her gasps and moans as I got deeper, I ran my hands up her arms, to her shoulders, down across her chest, settling them on her breasts and groping them for several moments, just enjoying her.

Before long, she’d accepted my whole length, and we really got to making love. I stroked smoothly into her, and she brought her legs up and spread them a bit wider. I moved my hands lower, and ended up hooking them beneath her legs and bringing them up further. Resting on my knees, I fucked that sweet, mature pussy, sliding in and out of her, and the look of deep satisfaction on her face was a reward all its own.

“Oh my fuck!” she cried. “Yes! Fuck! Harder!”

I slid my hands up until I had her ankles and I gripped them tightly, then really started fucking her, pounding her into the mattress. She let out an incoherent shout and after another half minute of this frantic fucking I had her coming again and holy fucking damn did that feel amazing. I groaned as I kept pounding her squirting pussy, making a mess and not caring. I loved feeling her vaginal muscles clenching tightly around my rock-hard cock, fluttering and pulsing as she climaxed. Loved hearing and watching her as she came, lost in the bliss of her orgasm. I screwed her through it all and then kept going afterwards.

“Oh my fucking-yes!” she cried, panting, gasping in rapture.

“Fuck...Lisa...oh God, I’m gonna…”

“Do it!” she moaned. “Do it all over my face! Come on!”

I slammed her pussy more rapidly for another several seconds and then right as the orgasm began to crest I pulled out of her, hurried forward until I was straddling her chest and then I was jacking off all over her. She moaned as I released the first spurt of my seed and it went onto her cheek and her forehead. Another came out, going across her nose and one eye. She opened her mouth and I aimed into there and shot a huge load, the pleasure pressure-blasting my whole body as I jacked off with one hand and put the other against the wall above her head, holding myself up. Watching my seed go into her mouth and all over lips and her face was just…

Heavenly. Divine.

Perfect.

When I was done, I was left shaking and shuddering. I put my cock in her mouth and she knew what to do, cleaning it off, closing her lips and sucking as I pulled it back out. I groaned loudly at the final burst of pleasure that came from that act, and then I was sitting down on the edge of the bed, getting my breath back.

“Chris…”

“I know. Gimme a second,” I managed, and made myself get up. I got her a rag to clean herself up with and then laid down beside her on my back, staring at the ceiling, my head buzzing from the sex high, my body tingling.

“Holy shit you are such a good fuck,” I muttered as she cleaned up.

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” she replied. She finished cleaning up, then got up and took a few more swallows of her vodka, then came and crawled into bed with me. I put my arm around her.

For a long time, maybe ten minutes, we just laid there, naked and sweaty and tired.

Finally, she spoke again. “It’s going to take a legitimate emergency to get me out of this apartment now. I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want to fucking move. I just want to lay here and, when I’ve got my strength back, have you just fucking destroy me from the back.”

“I am very okay with this plan,” I said, and she laughed.

After a moment, she looked over and kissed my cheek. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Everything. Making me come like six times. Not making this whole thing weird. Being kind. Helping me save my town. Treating people with respect. Just...all of it. You’re a really great guy, and I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I’m just glad I could help,” I replied.

She nodded sleepily and curled up closer to me.

I squeezed her a little more tightly against me.

And there we laid.

TWENTY FOUR

I came awake with a start in a deep darkness.

For several seconds, I lay frozen, confused. Where the fuck was I? What had woken me up? Whatever it was, I knew it might be bad, because I was feeling an intense anxiety. Someone shifted in the bed beside me.

Somewhere outside, I heard raised voices.

“Chris?”

“Something’s going on,” I replied, sitting up, looking around. It all came back in a snap: Lisa. I was sleeping in Lisa’s bed in her apartment.

Someone was talking loudly outside.

“What is it?” Lisa asked.

“I don’t know.”

I threw back the blankets and got to my feet, then moved to the window without taking the time to even pull on my boxers. As I pulled the curtain aside a little and looked down, someone shouted. It was hard to tell, but I thought I saw several people clustered in a group at the threshold of where what remained of Pine Lake met the burned out section.

It sounded like someone was arguing. Several someones.

“What the fuck is going on?” Lisa whispered as she joined me.

“I’m not sure, but I think-”

As I spoke, gunfire suddenly broke out. Not just down below, but I could see more immediately kick off at the opposite end of the street, at the front entrance to the settlement.

“Holy shit it’s gotta be them!” I snapped, backing away and trying to get to my clothes so fast I almost stumbled.

Damn! Fuck!

I’d left my goddamned rifle at home!

Both of us cursing, we frantically pulled our clothes back on. I got dressed in record time and then I was grabbing for my pistol and a few spare magazines.

“We’ll take them from the lobby windows!” I snapped, and then I bolted out of the room.

I was halfway down the stairs when Lisa caught up to me. Damn, she was fast. We both nearly fell down the stairs making it to the bottom, listening to people scream and gunfire roar. Goddamnit! This was not what I thought was most likely to happen. Either it was the raiders coming to finish the job or a new group looking to take advantage.

Either way, didn’t matter.

There was a fight and I needed to be there.

We crashed into the lobby, my brain screaming in panic as I looked around, trying to clamp down on the panic, or at least reign it in, so I could be effective. Someone staggered into the doorway, clutching their stomach, and I almost shot them. I held off at the last second, recognizing them as one of the locals.

Lisa rushed to his side and began helping him deeper into the lobby while I hustled over to the nearest window and peered out. It was dark chaos out there, but I got the gist of what was going on. Among the closest wrecked buildings, I saw several men wearing dark leather opening fire on a group of people hiding in and around our own buildings. I considered opening fire right now, I had a good vantage on two of them, but something stayed my hand. Abruptly, I stood up and stepped away from the window.

“Where are you going!?” Lisa snapped.

“Out the back, gonna circle behind them,” I replied.

“Shit, okay, be careful,” she said, doing her best to patch up the man that had been gutshot.

I just nodded and raced off, praying that Delilah and Megan and the others were okay. Megan was no doubt fighting by now. Hopefully she was somewhere high, safe, and with her rifle, doing good work. How many of them could there be? I rushed down the corridor and found the door at the back. Being careful not to be too loud, lest I give up my element of surprise, I opened it up and slipped outside.

The moon was out at least partially, and the storm I’d noticed coming in was almost here. No snow yet, but the winds were high and bitterly cold. I hurried to the edge of the back of the apartment building and peered around the corner, my pistol at the ready. No one there. Just twenty yards away was the next building over, where some of the men were hiding inside or around. It was mostly intact, what had once also been an apartment building, I think.

That was just open space between the two structures.

I took a few quick breaths as I looked around, seeing if I was in anyone’s line of sight. I couldn’t tell for sure, but that didn’t matter right now.

This was it.

Had to act fast.

I broke from cover and sprinted as fast as I could through the snow, expecting some gunfire to come my way any second.

The run seemed to take ages.

But then I was behind the other building, no one had shot me or seemingly even noticed me, and I had successfully gotten in behind enemy lines. Time to put it to good use. Every second that passed was another second someone on our side might get injured or die. I moved along the back wall, peering in any windows I could see through for signs of life, and saw nothing. Getting up to the corner, I looked down the alleyway created between the side of this structure and the next. No people visible, but it was partially blocked with debris.

I could hear the gunfire better as I moved down the alley, towards the debris. I could slip through, I thought. As I neared it, I paused and checked my pistol over one more time, just to be sure, then my eyes widened in terror and anger as I realized the safety was still on. Jesus fucking hell! I flipped it off and then moved forward.

Getting through the pile of rubble by passing between its rough edges and the side of the building was easy enough, but now came the hard part.

Surprise attack.

I crept right up to the corner of the partially burned-down building, crouching and getting a view into the road where most of the attackers were. I saw two ducked down behind the wrecked remains of a rusted-out vehicle in the middle of the road. There were two more across the street, firing from inside of a burned-out shop of some kind, the plate glass windows long since broken out. I could hear gunfire coming from very close to me, as well. Someone was inside the abandoned apartment building right next to me. I had an opportunity here.

Time to cash it in and see what it got me.

I got into a stable crouch, kneeling and aiming at the two guys in the storefront. They were the hardest targets, but I wasn’t the only one shooting at them. I waited for one of them to pop up and that’s when I fired. Popping off two shots, one went wide, the other cracked right into his skull and killed him in a flash. He fell forward and landed on the shattered shards ringing the frame that had once held the plate glass window.

Everyone reacted in a shock of panic.

I immediately focused fire on the second man in the storefront while the other two in the street began panicking. I peppered his position with gunfire, still mostly hidden by the building I crouched beside, and finally managed to nail him with a shot to the throat. He went down. He wasn’t getting back up from that. Focusing then on the two men who had been behind the car, I saw that exactly what I had hoped would happen was happening.

As they panicked and broke from cover, the townspeople gunned them down.

That just left whoever was in the apartment building next to me.

As I thought this, gunfire suddenly exploded through the wall just barely above me. I turned, twisted, and leaped out, diving into the snow in front of the apartment building. Landing on my back, I prayed that I would see the shooter before he saw me. Frantically searching the nearest windows, I caught movement in one of them and emptied the magazine into it. I saw his body dance the bloody, jerky dance of death as the bullets punched into his skin and blew out the back, shattering bone and splattering blood.

Then he was dead and I was empty on bullets.

Scrambling to my feet, I ejected the spent magazine, pulled another from my pocket, and shoved it in while I looked around in case anyone else was still alive. But there only seemed to be five them. I heard someone call my name.

“You okay?!” Lisa yelled.

“Fine!” I replied, jogging towards her and the others. “We gotta get to the others! We have to finish them off here and now!”

“Let’s go!” Lisa snapped, quickly ordering two of her people to stay behind at our present location and keep watch in case any more showed up.

And then I was sprinting as fast as I could, cold, cold air burning in my lungs, making for the opposite end of the road.

I tried to get a sense of what was happening, and as I approached, I had the impression that the rest of their group, (they had attacked simultaneously from both ends of the settlement), was now pinned down in the general store where we had been storing all of our spare wood and supplies, directly across from the cafe where the sick were being isolated. Jesus fucking shit, what a goddamned nightmare.

Lisa and I and the others got up to the motel, which was the next nearest building to the store, though it didn’t provide much in the way of cover.

My door, I realized, was open.

I slipped inside and nearly got my head blown off by Lindsay.

“Oh, Chris!” she gasped. “Holy shit!”

I looked around. Megan was at a window beside our bed with her rifle, crouched down and taking aim.

“Nice of you to show up,” she said.

“Where’s the others?” I asked as Lisa came in behind me and we both ducked down to avoid the incoming fire.

“Elizabeth’s hiding in the tub,” Megan replied. “Wait one.” She paused and fired. “Fuck! I can’t hit these bastards, they’re moving around too much in there and the wind is too intense. My shots keep going wide.”

“Where’s Delilah?” I asked.

“She’s over at the isolation ward,” Lindsay replied. “She accidentally brought a thermometer home with her and went to return it, so I imagine she’s hunkering down there now.”

“All right, here’s the plan-” I said, and then froze as I caught sight of something on fire go sailing through the air, towards the other side of the street.

Cursing, I ran to the door and watched in horror as the flaming item one of the raiders had thrown, (and it was a hell of a throw), smashed right into the front of the isolation ward. I watched in sheer panicked terror as flames began to lick up the front of the building, glass shattering from what I realized was a molotov cocktail.

Two things immediately hit me, like asteroids smashing into a planet.

The first was that I needed to get over there and get Delilah out now.

The second was that I would be gunned down if I tried that, and so I instead needed to end this gun battle right now.

“MEGAN COVER ME!” I screamed as I raced out into the cold once more.

I heard her and Lisa scream my name but there was no time.

Part of me knew this was a fucking lunatic move, this was outright suicidal.

But the rest of me just did not give a single shit.

Delilah and everyone I gave a shit about in the world were all in danger, and I had to act right now if I was going to have even one shot at saving them.

I heard myself screaming at the top of my lungs like a fucking berserking caveman as I ran as fast as I possibly could towards the store. It had to be confusing them because it took them until I was about three quarters of the way there to start firing on me. Bullets flew out of the already broken windows, sailing past me.

One of them grazed my shoulder, digging a bloody furrow through the leather and cloth I was wearing, and I grit my teeth and ignored it as I aimed and opened fire while running. I kept firing as I sprinted forward towards one of those windows, saw one of the men inside take a bullet in his forehead and flop back in a spray of blood.

As I dove through the windows, everything came to me like a stuttering series of flashes.

I landed hard among broken glass and blood.

I saw a man coming for me with a knife and shot him three times in the chest.

I rolled, twisted, and scrambled to my feet as another sneering man tried to shoot me, his pistol blasting off, putting holes in the floor and narrowly missing me.

Right as he drew a bead on me and I staggered to my feet a gunshot sounded and half his head was blown away in a disgusting spray of brains and skull.

Megan.

I hastily looked around and saw that there were two more people. One was going for cover, the other was trying to shoot me.

I snapped up my pistol and we both fired at the same time.

My round connected with his chest.

His missed my head by a motherfucking fraction of an inch.

I could feel that bullet as it whipped past my ear.

He went down and I shot him in the head before focusing my attention on the other guy. He had gotten to cover behind a table and was now drawing a bead on me. Shit. This had to end now. I was still in panic berserk mode and so consequently I began running at him and emptying my magazine. Stupid, but I was losing my shit.

I won, but at a cost.

He panicked when he saw me coming at him like a beast and started firing wildly. One of those shots nailed me right in the goddamn thigh. I screamed, staggered, and that consequently adjusted my aim so that the next shot went right between his eyes by pure luck.

Okay, that was done.

They were dead.

Lightning still shrieked through my veins as I looked around, making for damn sure they were dead. Once I was, I dropped my pistol and sprinted out of the building. I could feel the pain in my leg and my shoulder, could feel my leg wet with blood, but it seemed strangely distant. Maybe I hadn’t been hit as badly as I’d thought.

All that mattered right now was helping Delilah, and anyone else in that building.

The whole front of the structure was now engulfed in flames. I saw some people cautiously approaching it.

“Move!” I screamed as I barreled towards them.

They scattered and I didn’t stop, throwing my entire body through the front door. Its structural integrity had failed enough thanks to the flames that it basically fell apart. I cried out as I crashed to the floor inside.

The interior was filled with smoke.

“Delilah!” I screamed.

“Chris!?”

I staggered to my feet, wincing and gritting my teeth as my gunshot wound protested, but I ignored it and looked around. There was already smoke beginning to fill the area. I coughed as I saw Delilah trying to get someone out of a bed.

“Help me! He’s unconscious!”

I looked around as I lumbered over. The beds were all empty. Where was everyone? In a flash, I realized that this place had to have a back exit.

“Where’s everyone else?” I asked as I scooped the unconscious guy up and began following her towards the back.

“I think they’re all out,” she replied. “What the fuck’s happening?!”

“Raider attack. They’re all dead, I think.”

“Is Lindsay okay? Megan? Elizabeth? Lisa?”

“I think so,” I replied, then groaned sickly as we got into a back room and headed for the back door, which was open.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I replied, coughing.

We got outside and I saw a group of people milling about, catching their breaths maybe a few yards away. I went over to them and laid the guy down on the ground with them, unable to carry him any longer.

My leg was really starting to bug me.

“Is this everyone?” I asked.

“I-I don’t know,” Delilah replied. “I think so.”

“I have to go back and check, wait here,” I said.

“Chris!” she cried.

“Wait here!” I yelled as I hurried off.

My adrenaline was still buzzing through me, but I was beginning to come down from the delirium rush of battle and I knew I didn’t have a whole lot of time left before I passed out from blood loss. I should have patched myself up already, but there wasn’t time. Hurrying back inside, I knew I had even less time thanks to the fire. Flames licked along the roof and it was only a matter of time before it collapsed.

I rushed back into the main room, coughing more violently, and made myself carefully check each of the beds. The few that had their blankets still in place I threw back.

“Anyone in here?!” I called.

No one responded.

All of the beds were empty, the stalls, everything was cleared out. They’d reacted quickly, which made sense given they’d just gone through this barely a week ago. Coughing more violently as the smoke descended, I made myself check the three rooms I found at the back. I didn’t see anyone hiding in there.

I was out of time.

I heard part of the roof crack and collapse and I hustled over to the door. As I stepped back outside into the cold and stumbled away from the building, I yelled in pain as my leg finally gave out on me.

“Chris! Oh God, you’re bleeding! What happened?!” Delilah asked as I rolled slowly over onto my back, panting.

I felt weak.

I could feel my blood, my energy, my very life seeping out of my body.

I was freezing now.

“Shot,” I managed.

“Jesus, Chris! Why did you fucking-ugh! Someone help me!” she screamed as she began applying pressure to the wound.

It hurt, but the pain was distant.

Everything was distant.

The last thing I saw as the darkness closed in was her worried, beautiful face.

EPILOGUE

I came awake.

My leg hurt and my shoulder hurt and my head hurt really bad.

I was being carried and I could smell smoke.

I tried to say something but I was already passing out again, too tired to stay awake.

~

The next time I woke up, I wasn’t in motion any longer.

I was laying on something. My leg and shoulder and head hurt, but my leg didn’t hurt as bad now, and someone was moving nearby.

I groaned as something touched my shoulder.

“Sorry, Chris,” a familiar voice said.

Melanie?

And then the darkness came again.

~

Awake again.

Everything burned.

I blinked several times. I was so thirsty and everything hurt.

I was on fire, but shivering.

“Chris?”

I tried respond, but something was happening.

The shivering got worse.

“Chris? Oh my God, Mel get in here!”

And then I went away again.

~

The next time I opened my eyes, everything seemed a lot more coherent.

I was tired. I was exhausted, actually.

But the burning was gone, and though the pain was still there, it had receded a lot.

I could hear wind blowing somewhere nearby, a fire crackling somewhere closer. My throat was dry and I had to piss really fucking bad.

I started to try and get up, and doing so caused an unexpected burst of pain in my leg. I groaned and went slack.

“Chris?”

I tried to respond, but all I produced was a dry croak.

“Oh shit, just hold on.”

I heard movement, and then Delilah was there with a bottle of water. Before anything else happened, she helped me drink, and I ended up finishing the whole thing off.

“I gotta piss,” was the first thing I said.

“Here, hold on,” she said, and went somewhere else in the room. I looked around to see what I could see, and realized that we were in our motel room home. Although the bed that I was laying on was a recent addition, just a simple single-wide mattress on the floor. Delilah returned with another bottle. “Go in here,” she said, and grabbed my cock and guided it into the bottle. I’d pissed in enough of them that it was easy enough.

It felt like a long piss.

When I was done, she went to the window, opened it up, and emptied it. Then she washed it out and set it aside and came back over to me.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, sitting down on the floor next to me.

“Tired. In pain. Out of it. What exactly happened?” I asked.

“What do you remember?” she replied.

“I remember the attack. I remember getting shot. I remember rushing the building and helping you get that guy out of there. Going back in, finding no one, then passing out after I got back out...was I right? There was no one left in there, right?”

“You were right,” she said, reaching out and running her fingers through my hair. “We checked after the fire was done. Everyone got out. What about after?”

I sighed. “I’m getting some hazy memories between then and now. I remember being carried, you and Melanie at one point, I remember...God, thinking I was burning alive…”

“You had a fever. An infection. Okay, let me just tell you what happened. It’s been five days.”

“Holy shit, are you serious?”

“Well, closer to four right now. It’s dawn of the fifth day after the attack. Mel and I worked to stabilize you. We had to do a direct blood transfusion at one point. Thankfully I’m a universal donor. We got you stabilized, but then you developed an infection the next day. You got a fever. During the third day, it got really bad. Your temp was up to one hundred and six. You were roasting alive, hallucinating I think for some of it. We hit you with snow just to get it down so your brain didn’t cook. Mel was really, really worried you weren’t going to make it. But finally the fever went away, your infection is mostly gone now. After that, we moved you in here and got you set up. Me and Megan and Lindsay and Elizabeth have been taking care of you. Melanie and Lisa have been coming by and checking on you multiple times a day.”

“...shit,” I muttered after hearing all that.

“What you did was...really stupid and brave.”

“How many died in the attack?” I asked.

“Two,” she replied. “It could have been a lot worse, but from what I’ve been able to piece together, your surprise attack on the first group, combined with your fucking bum-rush psycho attack on the second group ended it a lot quicker. You saved a lot of people, Chris.”

“Was that all of them?” I asked.

“We’re almost sure it was. We counted thirteen corpses in total, all of them wearing leather, several of the townspeople recognized them from the first attack. If there are any left, there can’t be more than one or two of them, and surely they’ve run off since then. But regardless, Lisa’s been going hard on making sure there’s a guard posted all the time. Megan’s been helping with that a lot.”

“Has anything else happened?”

“No, not really. We’ve all just been recovering, rebuilding.”

I stared at her for a moment. My brain still felt cloudy, my body in pain, though this was definitely the most coherent I remember being since rushing those assholes in the general store. “So...we did it?” I asked. “We’re actually...stable?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling. “We did it. We’re stable. For now. I mean, the biggest threats to our stability are done with.” She frowned. “Whether or not we’ll make it in the long run…”

“We’ll figure it out,” I murmured, settling back down. I yawned. “Shit, I’m so tired.”

“You’re still healing,” she replied. “You need your rest now that you’re finally out of the woods and on the mend. Speaking of which...would you like me to help you get back to sleep and administer some natural painkillers?” she asked with a smirk.

“I would like that very much.”

~

I slept through most of that day and the night.

Once word came around that I was up, a lot of people came to see me. Though Melanie hung around for most of the day to check on me, and scold me for what I’d done, and to make sure no one bugged me for too long.

By the time night was falling, I think damn near everyone from the town had at least popped in. Mostly I said ‘you’re welcome’ because they kept thanking me for saving them. I wasn’t sure if I had, but if I had then fine, so be it.

Megan, Elizabeth, Lindsay, Lisa, and Melanie all ended up either riding or sucking my dick at least once during that twenty-four hour period.

So that was really awesome.

That night, Megan slept in the single-wide with me, and it was a very wonderful sleep.

The next morning, I awoke more clear-headed and with a bit more energy. After pissing, I washed myself thoroughly. Well, Delilah helped me. I figured I’d gotten off lucky: the gunshot wound was from a twenty-two. I’d probably be largely inactive for at least another week, probably two, and it would take awhile for it to fully heal. Not something I was looking forward to, same with my shoulder, but all things considered I was fucking lucky. After washing, I dressed and headed back outside for the first time in nearly a week.

It was cold but the sun was out and the skies were clear.

Delilah and I walked over to the restaurant and grabbed some breakfast. More bear meat and veggies, which hey, I was still cool with.

We found Lisa sitting at a table alone, looking over some papers.

She looked up as we approached.

“Chris! Oh my God, you’re out of your room...hi,” she said.

I laughed softly, unable to help myself. It was rare to see her flustered. “Hi, Lisa. Can we join you?” I asked.

“Of course,” she replied. “How are you?”

We slid into the booth with her. “In pain, but through the worst of it, I think. How about you? How’s everything?”

“I’m fine,” she said. “You really saved our asses. Also, we managed to score some extra stuff from those pieces of shit. Besides the stuff they actually had on them, we finally tracked down where they had retreated to: the hunting lodge. I had Megan lead a team out there and I think they’re all dead, Chris. I think they had committed all their people to that last attack. They didn’t have a ton, but they did have a half-decent store of food and medicine. Also some booze and weed, so that’s been nice, helping people relax.”

“That’s good to hear. How about the food area in the forest? Is it still safe?”

“Yep. Stephen and Lena are overseeing that operation. We’re already in the process of trying to begin plans for a hydroponic garden. We had two before but they were lost in the fires.”

“How about people? Where are you at with your ledger?”

She sighed. “So far, all but six are accounted for, though ten of those ‘accounted’ for are bodies that have yet to be identified. We’ve begun setting up the graveyard. It’s ugly work, but it needs to be done.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Wish I could help.” I considered it. “Maybe-”

“No, Chris,” Lisa said firmly. “You’re not doing anything for at least a week. You’re going back to your room after you’ve done whatever it is you want to out here, and you are resting. Besides the fact that you’ve been shot...twice, you’ve earned a rest. You’ve really earned a rest. You played a significant role in saving this town and these people.”

“All right, all right,” I said. “I’m sure I’ll be getting an earful from Melanie if she sees me out and about.”

“Yes, you will. But…” She looked down at the table briefly and lowered her voice. “I’m sure you’ll be getting visits from both of us later.”

I laughed. “I hope so.”

At this point, they each knew that the other had slept with me.

Lisa was a little embarrassed, Melanie found it funny.

She grew more serious after a moment. “So...what are your plans?”

I frowned, considering that. I hadn’t even thought about it yet. “I...don’t know,” I admitted. “Regardless of what I want, I’m probably here for at least a month. But after I’m all healed up?” I sighed and shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I like it here but...I really like traveling, too. So I guess it’s a ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it’ kinda thing.”

“I understand,” she said. “Whatever you choose, you’ll always be welcome back here.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate that.”

We ended up chatting about lighter stuff while we ate breakfast. After awhile, Lisa said she had more work to do and excused herself.

“What are your plans?” I asked, looking at Delilah.

She seemed suddenly shy. “Well, to put it bluntly: I’m staying here. Lindsay and I have been talking a lot since everything finally settled down. We’re officially a couple now. Now, my policy still stands: I will sleep with you whenever you want. And Lindsay will too, actually. You made a big impression on her. But we want to live in a town. We don’t want to travel if we can help it. We’re...happy here.”

“Good,” I said. “I’m really glad. And I appreciate the offer. I’m definitely going to want to sleep with both of you a hell of a lot more.”

She laughed. “I figured.”

I looked to the kitchen. “Where’s Elizabeth? Is she here?”

“Yeah. She left just before you woke up. I think she’s in the back. I guess you’ll want to talk with her and Megan, huh?”

“I should,” I replied.

“Good luck. I’m going to go find Lindsay and see if she needs any help.”

As we both stood up, I sighed suddenly.

“What?” Delilah asked.

“I never found her third cat,” I replied.

“Oh! She showed up a few days ago. All three of her cats are back! She ended up letting a few families hold onto the cats for now, given we’re so busy.”

“Thank God,” I muttered. “That’s done at least. All right, I’ll see you later.”

We embraced and kissed, and I tracked down Elizabeth. She was indeed in the back, cleaning up from making breakfast. When she saw me, we headed into the break room and sat down next to each other.

“Are you doing okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” I replied. “So I’ve pretty much been caught up on everything, and I was talking with Lisa and Delilah, and basically the question of ‘what next’ came up. So...what are your plans for the future?” I asked.

“I’m staying here,” she replied. “I mean, I don’t have anywhere else I really want to go, and I’m quite pregnant,” she added, smiling as she looked down at her belly. “And I know Delilah and Lindsay are staying, and they want me to stay with them. They’re both really excited to be aunts and to help take care of a newborn and to be honest, I don’t have other people in my life who are willing to do that, let alone be excited about it, and I’m scared enough as it is. So I’m going to move in with them and get settled and...well, probably end up in a three-way relationship with them. I’ve slept with both of them at this point and they’re both very open.”

“That’s good to hear. And it makes sense. I kinda figured you’d stick around.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll be here for at least a month,” I replied. “After that? I honestly don’t know. But I at least wanted to let you know. There’s a decent chance I might take off at some point in the near future, but I might also end up liking this place enough to stick around? Shit. I don’t know. There’s a part of me that loves the idea of just settling down here. Between you and Megan and Delilah and Lindsay...you’re all so great and such amazing women. But...I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll go crazy trying to stay here because I want to leave.”

“Do what makes sense to you, Chris,” Elizabeth replied, taking my hand. “That’s something I’ve learned the hard way. Obviously I’d love to have you. You’re the most amazing man I’ve ever met and if you’d let me, I’d marry you.”

I blinked, staring at her in something like surprise.

She smiled and blushed a little, but didn’t look away. “Sorry if that scares you, but it’s the truth.”

“Not scares so much as...surprises. I…”

“Don’t worry, I’m not proposing. I’m not even sure if I believe in marriage anymore. But I would spend years and decades with you, if you’d let me. You’re the catch of a lifetime, that much is obvious to me. But I don’t want to try and tie you down if you’ll just be miserable.”

I sighed again. “I’ll have to figure it out,” was all I ended up saying.

She nodded. “Whatever you choose, I’ll be here for you.”

“I appreciate it.”

I gave her a long hug and kiss, and then went to find Megan.

~

Megan, it turned out, was atop the apartment building.

I hate that I got winded climbing the stairs once I spotted her, and even had to take a break at one point, but man my leg was fucking killing me by then and it became clearer than every that those five days and the infection had taken a serious toll on me.

After this, I was going back to bed.

When I came out onto the roof, Megan looked back, surprised, and then a look of anger flashed across her face. “Chris! Why the fuck are you up here!? Shit man, you can’t be walking up three flights of stairs!”

“Well I know that now,” I replied, and groaned as I sat down in a chair that had been put up there. I looked around, but it seemed like we were alone. “I saw you up here and I wanted to come talk with you.”

She sighed, shook her head, and sat down beside me. “How are you?”

I told her the same thing I’d told the other women, and then asked her the question I’d asked Delilah and Elizabeth.

She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she frowned and looked out at the sky for several long moments.

“I want to apologize,” she said, finally looking back at me.

“For what?” I replied, genuinely confused.

“The first week or so we were together, I treated you like shit. And you’ve been nothing but good to me from the beginning.”

“It wasn’t like you had no reason,” I said. “You’d just been kidnapped and literally tied up in a fucking shed, only to be passed off to some guy who looks like me. Of course you were going to have trust issues.”

“I know. But I still feel bad. It was just-it was hard to tell whether you were putting up a front or not. I mean, obviously you weren’t, but I guess it took me too long to figure that out. And I still feel bad for treating you so bad. So I’m sorry.”

“I accept your apology,” I replied. Honestly, I didn’t really think she needed to apologize, but I also knew that apologies were as much for them as they were for you.

She looked relieved. “As for my plans? I’m torn. On the one hand, I really like it here. I’m useful here. People like me. People trust me. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about that, but I feel great. I love it. On the other hand...I really, really like you, Chris. And I know you have your thing about wanting to wander. And there’s a part of me that finds that at least a little appealing, but mostly I just want to be around you. If you left, and you asked me to go...I might say yes. It’s just...it’s really hard to tell right now what I like more: having a life here or having a life with you.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “I...damn that sucks. I don’t want to have to make you choose. But…”

“But you’ll have to choose, eventually,” she said.

I nodded. “Yeah.” I groaned. “I’ve got every reason to stay here. And honestly, right now? Right now I don’t want to go anywhere. But that’s probably just because I’m in pain and the idea of walking more than a dozen yards puts me in a cold sweat. But in a month? Two months? I don’t know. I can’t say if I’ll want to leave or not.” I was silent for a long time, thinking hard. “Maybe...I should actually try to fix that now. Maybe I should try to find some way of sticking around. I mean, you and Delilah and Elizabeth are such amazing women. I love being around you, spending time with you, talking with you, working with you...maybe there’s a way.”

“If there is, Chris, I’m positive you’ll find it,” she replied, regaining her smile.

I gave her a kiss, and then sat back in the chair, staring at the skyline.

The future was coming, and I viewed it with equal parts hope and fear.

A WARM PLACE 4 IS COMING APRIL 2021!

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THE MISTY VIXEN STARTER PACK

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ABOUT ME

I tend to write stories that blend adventure and sex, usually with a harem or polyamorous twist. I separate myself from most other authors in this genre by rejecting typical ‘alpha male’ type protagonists, and creating more realistic protagonists. I tend to emphasize things like trust, respect, vulnerability, and communication.

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A WARM PLACE – PRELUDE. HIT THE ROAD. A WARM PLACE. A WARM PLACE 2. A WARM PLACE 3. A WARM PLACE PRELUDE – 3 COLLECTED. Copyright © by Misty Vixen.

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