This is How it Ended

by Verily Harden

  “Oh,” she exclaimed just as I realized who she was. “You’re from the office. Have you seen what’s happening? People are saying we’ve been bombed. Nuclear bombs!”

  She sucked in a breath and pressed a hand to her chest. I wasn’t sure what to do. I needed my stuff from the truck, and I needed to be inside the bunker, like, ASAP. But what should I tell her? Should I invite her inside? My mind was flipping back and forth, unable to rest on anything.

  “Yeah, I’d heard,” I finally managed. “I was listening to the radio in my cubicle when it happened. One went off just north of here, so you should try to get home as soon as you can.”

  It seemed my brain had made the decision for me, at least, but she didn’t look like she was ready to head out. The woman just kept staring at me, chest heaving. She might have been in shock, but I didn’t have time to worry about her. Any radiation heading our way would be falling through the open floors above us soon enough.

  “I can’t. I ride the bus, and everything outside is stopped. Nothing’s moving, except the people running in the streets.” She took a shuddering breath. “I thought I could wait it out inside the building, until things calmed down and the buses start up again.”

  I didn’t think there was much chance of that happening, if the reports I’d seen were any indication. It seemed the entire country had been hit, major cities and military bases gone up in mushroom clouds. Only the relative remoteness and lack of viable targets nearby had saved this city from a direct hit. Once the President had ordered retaliatory launches of our own missiles, the friends of our enemies would fire back, and the world was likely done for.

  At any rate, she wouldn’t be much safer inside the building. With all the glass, the radiation would easily get in, and she probably wouldn’t make it. This was just the sort of thing I’d worried about, being faced with the choice of letting someone else inside my bunker.

  I bit my lip, thinking. I had enough supplies to stretch for two people, if we didn’t have to stay inside for very long. I didn’t really know the woman, but she’d seemed nice enough the few times I’d seen her around the office. I could help her out, and when it was safe to leave I could drop her off at her home and be done with her. My conscience would be clear, and I could head out to my farm and never look back.

  “You wouldn’t be safe inside, especially if there’s a lot of radiation coming this way.”

  Her shoulders slumped at that. I was afraid I’d be kicking myself later, but I made her the offer.

  “Look, I’ve got a place set up that should be fine with two of us. You’re welcome to share it, if you want. Just until I get the all-clear.”

  The woman took a step closer, coming towards me until she stood under another dim light. The fixtures were all flickering, and I knew we were about to lose the electricity. I’d hoped to be all set up before that happened, but I’d just have to deal with it. I had a strong flashlight in the truck, and some camping lanterns in the bunker.

  “Are you sure? I don’t want to be a bother.” Her voice was trembling, and I could see she was trying hard to keep herself together. That was good. A panicky person could be dangerous.

  “You wouldn’t be a bother,” I said, keeping my own voice level and calm. “The company would be nice. I figure we’d have to be inside for a week, maybe more, depending on the winds and how many more bombs get dropped.”

  The idea that more nukes could fall didn’t help her nerves, and I cursed myself for being so blunt. But, really, what else could I say? Every thing’s going to be all right? Because they wouldn’t. Not any time soon, anyway. Maybe not ever. She was going to have to keep it together, if she was going to shelter with me.

  “I’ve got some stuff to get out of my truck.” I gestured to it, sitting just a few feet away. “If you want to come with me, that’s fine, but we need to get moving before any fallout gets here.”

  As I turned back towards the truck, I could hear her footsteps on the concrete as she began to follow me. She stayed far enough away to show she didn’t entirely trust me, but not so far that I could take off without her.

  “Where is this place you have? If you have to go outside, it probably will be bad. There are cars and buses and big trucks all over the roads, nothing moving at all. And the people were starting to get angry. Lots of fighting, and just general panic. That’s why I headed back here, instead of trying to walk home.”

  “No, I’ve got a place set up in the building,” I replied as I unlocked the truck. “It’s just a few feet away, in fact.”

  I grabbed the rest of my gear from the truck, and reached under the seat to flip a special switch I’d wired into the electrical system. If anyone tried to steal the truck, it wouldn’t start, just like almost every other car in the country now. I wanted my ride available when the time came to leave the city behind for good.

  The lights failed just as I was closing up the truck, pulling the key from the lock when it went totally dark. I clicked the flashlight on and turned to see the woman had come close enough to startle me. Her eyes were wider than before, shining like wet marbles in the glare. She put up a hand to shade her eyes, and I lowered the light a little.

  Up close, I could see how pretty she actually was. She didn’t use a lot of makeup, so I could see that her features were good, nice eyes and a small, straight nose. It was her lips that caught my attention, though. Full, shapely lips that just begged to be kissed.

  I stopped myself there, before I could take in the rest of her features. I already knew she had a nice body, from what I’d seen before, and I didn’t need to look any closer. It might make her uncomfortable, make her think I’d take advantage of the situation. It had been a while since my last relationship, but I wasn’t that sort of guy.

  I had to take my mind off that subject, and I realized I didn’t know her name, and she probably didn’t know mine.

  “I’m Hank, by the way. Hank Simon. I work in corporate accounts.”

  The normal thing of exchanging names seemed to put her at ease, and she smiled.

  “I’m Josie. Josette Adams. I work—worked—in the clerical pool.”

  “Nice to meet you, Josie. Not the best circumstances, I’ll admit, but nice just the same.”

  We smiled at each other and stood for a moment before I realized we were wasting time.

  “Let’s get inside. We shouldn’t be standing out here after all that’s happened, and we certainly don’t want to be standing around if someone wanders down here looking for shelter.”

  I brushed past her and headed for the old furnace room, letting the light shine down towards the floor so she wouldn’t stumble. Once inside, I locked the door, and slid the huge bolt I’d added for good measure.

  * * * *

  With the door secured, I led the way towards the back of the room, where I’d set up an area with my supplies and equipment. I lit both camping lanterns, and the room took on a rosy, almost cosy glow.

  I turned to my guest and saw her looking around at everything, noting how it was neatly set up. I had a kitchen area to one side, with my food and water laid out on old equipment crates that had been left in the room. On the other side, was a chemical toilet and the supplies needed to keep that going.

  In the middle was a cot I’d set up, with a couple of pillows and blankets stacked neatly at the foot. There was a sleeping bag rolled up on top of the other things. This seemed to be holding the woman’s attention, and I wondered if she was thinking about sleeping arrangements. We couldn’t both share the cot, that was for sure.

  I hustled over and took the sleeping bag and one pillow, setting them as far away as I could from the cot.

  “You can have the cot, I’ll bed down over here,” I explained. She looked relieved, but just nodded. I looked around for something else to distract her.

  “I have a chemical toilet, have you ever used one of those?”

  The woman shook her head, so I led her over to it and explained how it worked. Everything was out in the open,
since I hadn’t planned on having company, but I told Josie I could block off the area with some more crates, and she agreed that would be good.

  Then I went over the food I had, showed her the water, and the camping stove. With two of us now it would be slim rations, but I thought we could do okay as long as we could get out in a couple of weeks. If I had to, I could still try to scavenge stuff from the building, if the radiation stayed low enough.

  After going over all the amenities of my bunker, I ran out of things to talk about, and we settled down with a water bottle each, using two of the crates set up at the kitchen area as stools.

  We were just looking at each other between sips. This was going to be a long ordeal, if we didn’t start talking about something. So I reached for my ereader.

  “I’ve got lots of books here,” I turned the device so she could see it. “We can take turns reading, to pass the time. There are a few games, too, like Scrabble. That can be a two person game, or we can just play against the game.”

  “I like Scrabble. I used to play that all the time, when I was a kid.” She slipped her purse around and dug inside. “But I’ve got my own Kindle, so we can both read or play games as the same time, if we want.”

  We began talking about books we’d read, what we had on our To Be Read piles, movies we liked, and after a while we got more comfortable with each other. We each selected a foil pouch for dinner, and Josie got some real-life experience on how to heat the food up.

  Then it was time for bed, and we each managed to settle in before I turned one lantern off and set the other to its lowest setting, leaving the room barely lit. With everything that had gone on, I was exhausted and it was no surprise that I zonked out the minute I was stretched out in the sleeping bag.

  * * * *

  By the third day, the boredom had begun to set in. Josie and I had read books and played Scrabble until the words were tumbling inside our heads. We’d long run out of conversation about the company we both worked for, and all the other gossip she’d heard around the building.

  I spent time going around and checking the area for radiation, but so far the counter had shown the air was clean. I was thinking about a way to check the outside, without possibly bringing fallout back into the room. I wasn’t sure I could stand many more days cooped up inside, not knowing what was going on with the world, or how my bug-out location was doing.

  It didn’t help that I was becoming more and more interested in Josie as a woman, rather than a fellow survivor. It turns out she was quite handy with the camp stove, and had even taken a turn at keeping the toilet running properly. She helped me keep the area tidy, and wasn’t a messy person to begin with.

  But I kept finding myself looking at her ass when she was cleaning, or as she took her walks around the room, or did stretches. Her body was smooth and toned, and there was just a bit of a bounce in her tits when she was circling the room.

  When Josie finished her latest walk around, I had to pull the backpack I was going through over my lap to hide the stiffy I got every time I though about her. My cock let me know in no uncertain terms that it wanted to get closer to the woman, but I ignored it as best I could. I didn’t need that kind of complication.

  Josie didn’t seem to notice, and she’d shown no sign that she had any interest in me other than as a somewhat dull companion. She helped with meals, and with keeping the shelter clean, but lately she’d retreated into her Kindle until it was time to sleep. I was a little disappointed, if I could be honest with myself, but I wasn’t going to push it, no matter what my dick wanted.

  We said our good nights shortly before eight on the seventh night, according to my watch. Josie turned away towards the wall of machinery, and I lay on my sleeping bag and tried to think of anything but her warm body so close, yet so far away.

  * * * *

  I nearly screamed and came out of the sleeping bag swinging when I felt the touch on my shoulder. As I came around, I could see Josie sitting back on her heels, eyes wide, the hand she’d used to shake me frozen in front of her.

  “Sorry,” I muttered, heart pounding. “Is something wrong? Did you hear something outside?”

  Josie swallowed. “No, I just wanted to—. Well, I thought you were awake. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “No problem. Guess all this being cooped up is starting to get to me. What did you want?”

  “I thought you might be—. Um.” She shook herself. “Let me start over. I was feeling a little lonely, and I thought you might be too, so I wanted to ask you if you’d like to have sex.”

  The last few words came out in a rush, leaving her looking surprised at her own boldness. I just sat and stared. Did I want to have sex? I must be going crazy, or dreaming. I’d spent most of the past week thinking about nothing else. I could feel my dick making a tent out of my boxers. It’s a wonder it hadn’t pushed the sleeping back off, it was so stiff.

  “You don’t have to offer yourself to me,” I managed to stutter. “I didn’t take you in expecting anything like that.”

  “I know,” Jose said. She fiddled with the hem of her shirt, which was actually one of my spare tees. “That’s not why I’m asking. I just thought, well, we’re both single, and you’re very attractive. I want to sleep with you.”

  Oh my god. This was like my best wet dream ever. I reached out and touched the back of her hand. She turned it over and grasped my fingers. She looked like she meant what she’d said.

  Our eyes were locked on each other as I pulled her gently towards me. I threw back the sleeping bag, letting her see how much I wanted her. She looked at my stiff cock pushing up in my shorts for a moment before her gaze met mine. Josie smiled and reached for my cock.

  It felt great to have her holding me, but I wanted to feel her skin on mine. She leaned in for a kiss, deep and hot. I ran my hands down to the hem of her shirt and began lifting it up. She let go of me long enough to get the shirt over her head, and I finally got to see her firm breasts. She had small, light brown aureoles and little nipples, hard pebbles that I began thumbing.

  Josie reached into my shorts and gripped my cock again in her hot fist. She began pumping slowly, up and down, squeezing the head on the up-stroke. Her thumb was stroking the dip of the head, spreading the creamy liquid there.

  We stopped kissing as I raised my hips so I could get my boxers off. Josie helped get the fabric down, her eyes locked on my erection. Then Josie took off her panties and we were both fully naked. I lay back on the sleeping bag, and Josie started to ease herself down, but instead of stretching out on top of me she went for my groin, taking me into her mouth.

  I couldn’t help but groan. Her mouth was wet and warm, and her tongue was doing wonderful things to my hard-on. I lay back and let her play, enjoying the feel of her tongue and lips as she sucked. It was the best thing I’d felt in a long time, and I wasn’t about to stop her.

  Soon I was on the verge of coming, though, and I tried to lift her head so we could do others things before I spurted my load down her throat. She wasn’t having it, slapping my hands away and swallowing me deeper. I was breathing hard, and the pressure was building. I wasn’t going to last much longer, I knew, and within a few moments I went rigid and let myself go.

  Josie surprised me by swallowing all of my cum before lifting her face towards where I lay, collapsed and nerveless on the sleeping bag. She licked her mouth, capturing the last drops and crawled up my body.

  “How was that?” She was purring, like a highly satisfied cat.

  “Are you kidding? It was awesome.” I put my arms around her and kissed her. I could taste the salty goodness of myself on her lips. It had been awesome, the best blow job I’d ever had.

  We kissed and caressed each other for a while as we both caught our breath. I slipped a hand down between us so I could touch her between her legs, sliding a finger into her moist folds until I found her clitoris. It was a hard little nubbin, and Josie squirmed as I played with it. She was lying atop me, her legs going wide
as she became more aroused.

  Josie was gasping, shuddering as she climaxed, clamping her thighs together when I tried to pull my hand away.

  “Don’t—don’t stop,” she muttered. Her eyes were closed, and I watched her face as the climax built higher and higher. Josie licked her lips and rode it out while I kept pressing her clit and rubbing faster.

  I could tell she was cresting up again when Josie pulled a way and loosening her grip on my hand. She gave me a little quirk of an eyebrow and rose to her knees. I had already started to get hard just from her wriggling, and when she grabbed my cock I was harder even still. Josie guided me to the entrance to her pussy, pausing with a wicked grin.

  “Think you can go another round, cowboy? Your stallion seems willing.”

  I’d never heard a dick called that before, but I liked it. Made me feel like a stud, and I think my expression told Josie that I was more than ready and willing. I had to bite my lip when she suddenly plunged herself onto my throbbing cock, taking the length in one hard push.

  God, she was so tight and wet!

  Josie began to ride me, starting with a gentle canter until we got our bodies working together. Her hands pressed on my chest, her palms rotating over my hard nipples. I gripped her around her waist, feeling her muscles as she rose and fell on my “stallion”. She began thrusting faster, grunting from the effort, but when I tried to help by lifting my hips she just shook her head and moved faster.

  I could feel her tremble as she rose on the crest of her second climax, and I knew I wouldn’t be far behind. This was amazing. The world outside our little bunker had gone to hell, and I was getting the best sex ever. Nothing mattered except the fucking, nothing was more important than our pleasure.

  We both yelled when the crest hit, arcing our backs as we climaxed together. Later we lay side by side, panting and sighing. For the first time since the bombs dropped, I wasn’t looking forward to getting on with my journey to the bug-out location. I thought it would be nice to stay hidden away here for a while longer, so I could have some more hot sex with this woman. But I knew it couldn’t last. She needed to check on what was left of her life, and I had to get to the farm to start my new life.