Maxine of the Wasteland

by Callista Hawkes

  “So much for your fucking friends.” Maxine spat bitterly. Ethan opened his mouth to reply, but his words were drowned out by a sudden noise above them. Maxine looked up and gasped in amazement as a large military helicopter descended from the sky. The side door was open and a gunner swung a fixed gatling gun from one side to the other, spitting fire down upon the bandits on the beach. Hot spent bullet casings rained down all around them, splashing into the surf and collecting in the sand at their feet, while the beach turned into a maelstrom of debris and death as the bullets tore the bandits to shreds. The gatling gun finally spun down and the clouds of sand settled on the beach. The vehicles had been ripped apart and the few bandits that had survived the onslaught were rapidly retreating over the remains of the boardwalk to the cover of the dilapidated buildings beyond. The pilot, obviously satisfied that the landing zone was safe, brought the helicopter in to land in front of them. The noise from the rotors was deafening and Maxine braced herself against the turbulence that threatened to knock her backwards.

  “Get in!” Ethan shouted over the cacophony. Ethan and Maxine ducked forward and strode through the turbulence from the rotors towards the helicopter.

  “More contacts incoming!” The gunner shouted to the pilot as they clambered inside. “Get airborne!”

  As they took to the air, Maxine spotted the remaining pursuers. Some of the bandits must have travelled along the coast in the other direction, searching for a gap through the boardwalk onto the beach. They had obviously found one further away than the first set and a similar rag tag collection of vehicles, kicking up sand in their wake, thundered along the beach towards them. The gunner took aim and opened fire. The barrel spun up for a split second before raining fire down upon the bandits. Maxine clamped her hands over her ears as 7.62mm bullets tore through the vehicles, shredding both steel and flesh asunder. The gunner was accurate and several vehicles exploded as he found the fuel tanks. Three surviving vehicles quickly abandoned their foolhardy pursuit and turned tail, driving away as quickly as they could. The gunner eased off and Maxine surveyed the destruction below them, thick black smoke rising up off the shattered debris of the vehicles, corpses littering the ground.

  “Wow.” She said before turning to Ethan and repeating: “Who are you?” He simply smiled as the helicopter rose higher into the air, tilted forward and headed out to sea.

  They had only been in the air a few minutes and the coastline was already receding behind them when Ethan pointed out a shape on the horizon in front of them. Maxine squinted against the sunlight, trying to make out what it was. More and more shapes appeared on the horizon. They were ships and boats of all shapes and sizes. A whole flotilla of fishing boats, a cruise liner, container ships, navy frigates, an oil tanker and everything in between. All the vessels were gathered around one vast grey ship, the first shape they had seen, its flat top stretching out for more than 300 yards. The flight deck of a huge aircraft carrier. The helicopter approached the carrier, hovering above it for a moment before slowly descending to land on the grey deck with a slight bump. Maxine grasped her crossbow and moved to climb down onto the deck. The gunner reached out and grasped her arm.

  “Leave your weapon here.” He shouted over the din of the whirring rotor blades. She nodded and reluctantly dropped the crossbow inside the helicopter and dropped to the deck, ducking her head as she stepped through the dusty maelstrom around the helicopter. She turned around to find the gunner helping Ethan down, Ethan wincing with the pain from his wound. He gunner passed him the aluminium attaché case and he hurried after Maxine. As Ethan joined her, he pointed in the direction of the carrier’s tower. A beige uniformed figure, flanked by two guards each armed with assault rifles, strode across the deck towards them. Maxine suddenly felt quite vulnerable without the comfort of the crossbow in her hand. As the figures drew closer, she could see that the beige uniformed man was perhaps in his early sixties, his face lined and his hair grey. He carried himself with an air of authority which marked him out as the commanding officer.

  “You have it!” He smiled as he reached them, his eyes on Ethan’s attaché case.

  “I do sir.” Ethan nodded, holding out the case to him. The uniformed man took it from him and pressed his thumb against a reader by the handle. There was a click and the case opened.

  “Excellent work Doctor.” he breathed, gazing into the case. “This will make a real difference.” Maxine craned her head, trying to peer around the open lid to see the contents.

  “I couldn’t have done it without Maxine, sir.” Ethan replied. The uniformed man glanced at Maxine, snapping the lid shut and passing the case to one of his subordinates, who hurried away with it.

  “Then we are indebted to you ma’am.” He smiled, shaking her by the hand. “Forgive me, my name is Captain Andrews and I command this vessel and the flotilla it protects. You have done us and perhaps humanity a great service in helping to bring the package to us. Perhaps we can reward you by offering you a home here with us. You have no doubt lived a hard life in the Wasteland, but while life here is no picnic, you will be safe, you will have a bed to sleep in, you will have food and water and most of all, you can have a future.”

  “That’s very generous.” Maxine replied, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “What’s the catch?”

  “No catch.” Ethan replied. “We need you and people like you.”

  “You’ve already met our ship’s surgeon.” The captain nodded in Ethan’s direction. Ethan nodded and smiled, his hand clamped over his wound. “You’re injured.” Andrews remarked, noticing the bloodstain on his sleeve.

  “Just a flesh wound sir.” Ethan replied.

  “Physician, heal thyself.” Andrews smiled. “Get down to the medical bay and get patched up doctor. I can take it from here.” Ethan glanced at Maxine before reluctantly nodding and heading away across the deck. Andrews moved across the deck and Maxine fell in beside him, the two guards following a few paces behind.

  “In addition to retrieving the package, Ethan has been on a reconnaissance mission for me.” Andrews continued, gazing out over the grey ocean and the ships of the flotilla. “We airlifted him, a car and some provisions into the Wasteland a month ago. I wanted him to scout out that particular region, map it and return here with all the intelligence he had. He reported in at regular intervals and I understand he wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for you.” Maxine blushed, but if the captain knew the details of Maxine’s unorthodox revival methods, he didn’t let on. “His secondary objective was to bring back with him any people from the Wasteland that may be of use to us. Diamonds in the rough as it were.”

  “And that’s where I come in?” Maxine eyed him suspiciously. “And what would you want from me?”

  “Initially, we could do with your knowledge of the region.” The captain replied. “You’ll know it better than anyone. We’ve been living out here in the ocean since the end of the war. We started out as just a small carrier group, but soon other vessels flocked to us for protection. We quickly realised that we needed them as much as they needed us. Fishing boats for food, the oil tanker for fuel, the cruise liner for living space, and so on. We’ve been surviving like this for years, but we need to look at a long term solution. We need to set up a proper settlement with a government, not these feudal shantytowns that make up the Wasteland now. We need to try and recruit as many of the existing settlement leaders as possible and expand outwards, stamping out the bandits and brigands and bringing law and order back to the masses. It will be a long and tough road, but we have to build for a better tomorrow.”

  Maxine sensed that his manifesto had been trotted out a few times before, but she couldn’t help but be swept up in the idea. For the first time since the Apocalypse, she felt there may be a genuine chance for a better world.

  “What happens when I’ve told you everything I know?”

  “You’ll have a job to do here of course.” He continued. “Everyone here has to earn their keep. There are a variety of
tasks in the fleet to which you could be assigned. Ethan tells me you are something of a mechanic. Perhaps a job in maintenance?” Maxine frowned, not finding that as enticing a prospect. Her eyes flicked from the ships of the flotilla to the hazy smudge on the horizon. The wasteland.

  “I have a counter proposal.” Maxine replied slowly, an idea forming in her mind.

  “I’m listening.” Andrews replied, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. As Maxine elaborated, the suspicion left his eyes and his lips curled into a smile.

  “We have an agreement.” He grinned, reaching out a hand. Maxine shook it, returning his smile.

  “How’s the wound?” Maxine asked Ethan, glancing at his bandaged left arm. She was sitting opposite Ethan in the carrier’s cavernous mess hall. All around them, the rest of the crew were also eating, the air full of conversation and the clinking of cutlery on plates. Everyone, including Maxine, was wearing standard issue beige fatigues. The crewman who had issued her with the fatigues had wrinkled his nose up at her old wasteland clothes when she returned from a hot shower and had promptly taken them from her and thrown them into a sack marked for incineration. Still, the fatigues were clean, fresh and comfortable enough and she had even been issued underwear. The bra in particular felt unfamiliar after several years without such a luxury.

  “Not too bad.” Ethan replied. “The bullet went straight through and didn’t do too much damage.”

  “Good.” She replied, chewing thoughtfully on the last mouthful of food before pushing her plate away, her stomach full. “That was delicious. I haven’t had fish in years.”

  “You’ll soon get pretty sick of it here.” Ethan smiled.

  “When you’ve eaten roasted rat or wild dog, I think it would take a long time to get that fussy.” Maxine replied.

  “I guess I’m pretty spoiled.” Ethan nodded.

  “Certainly fortunate.” Maxine replied. “But brave to risk it all in the Wasteland when you didn’t have to. It’s quite an impressive setup you have here. I didn’t think there was anything like this left in the world. Your Captain certainly seems to have some grand plans. I don’t know if he’ll succeed, but I’m looking forward to being a part of it.”

  “Glad to hear that.” Ethan smiled.

  “Still, I don’t know whether to thank you for bringing me her, or punch you in the mouth for causing me to lose my Mustang. I loved that goddamn car.”

  “Maybe we should concentrate on thanking me then?” Ethan grinned.

  “Thank you.” Maxine replied sarcastically, narrowing her eyes.

  “I think you can do better than that?” Ethan raised an eyebrow, a half smile on his face. Maxine couldn’t help but return his smile. In most men, such cocky self-confidence would annoy her, but in Ethan she found it attractive.

  “What did you have in mind?” She lowered her voice.

  “My quarters are just a couple of minutes away.” He whispered. “Perhaps we could find a way for you to show me your gratitude there?”

  Maxine pushed her chair back and got to her feet.

  “Lead the way doctor.”

  The heavy marine door creaked as Ethan opened the hatch into his quarters. The modest space brought to mind her room at college, furnished with just a single bed, a wardrobe, a bookcase and a small bathroom in the corner. She noticed that her crossbow, now her last remaining possession in the whole world, was leaning against the wall. Through the two portholes, she could see the sun setting on the horizon, a smudge of orange and red against the shimmering silvery surface of the ocean. As soon as Ethan closed the hatch behind them, Maxine reached for him, pressing her lips to his, her hands quickly unbuttoning his clothes. He hungrily kissed her back, his own hands stripping the fatigues from her leaving her standing in her underwear. She hooked her hands into the waistband of his underpants and pulled them down. Free of its fabric prison, his hardening cock sprung up. Maxine pushed Ethan back onto the edge of the bed and sank down onto her knees between his legs. She smiled as she watched Ethan’s cock continue to rapidly harden before her. She reached for it, her fingers tightening around his shaft and stroked it to full hardness, their first meeting beside the road springing to mind. Ethan groaned as she dropped her head between his legs and began to kiss and lick his taut ball sack. It expanded and contracted like a separate living organism in response to her touch. Having lavished her attentions to his sack for a few moments, she ran her tongue from behind his balls to the root of his cock and up his shaft before swirling her tongue around the purple head. She enjoyed the hot feel of the tip and the salty taste of his pre-come on her tongue. She engulfed the head in her mouth, her lips closing around his shaft and began to bob her head up and down in his lap. Ethan groaned with pleasure as she sucked on him, her fingers caressing his saliva soaked balls. His groans grew louder and Ethan reached for her, gently easing her head up away from his cock.

  “You’ll have to stop unless you want this to be over before it’s begun.” Ethan told her sheepishly. “Let’s concentrate on you for a while.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Maxine smiled as he helped her back to her feet. He pressed his lips to hers, taking her in his arms and pressing her body to his. She could feel his engorged cock pressed against her belly as they kissed. Ethan’s hands squeezed her buttocks through the thin cotton of her knickers before one hand slid up her back to release the clasp of her bra.

  “You’ve done that a few times before.” She remarked, pulling away from him and letting the bra straps slide down her arms, the bra falling away. Ethan smiled coyly and took her back in his arms, her breasts crushed against him, her sensitive nipples stimulated by Ethan’s hairy chest. He guided her to the bed and she took the position he had occupied moments earlier, sitting on the end of the bed. He eased her onto her back before hooking his hands into the waistband of her knickers and pulling them down her legs and off. She opened her legs in anticipation as Ethan dropped to his knees in front of her. He lowered his head between her legs and she trembled with excitement, feeling his warm breath on her pussy. As she felt him lick the length of her slit up to her clit, she let out a contented sigh, her hands reaching for him, her fingers running through his brown hair. He concentrated on her clit, his tongue flicking over it and expertly teasing her. She smiled, luxuriating in the delicious sensations radiating out from her groin. She felt Ethan shift slightly as his fingertips played at her entrance before delving inside. Aroused by his oral attentions, her pussy was already quite moist and his fingers slid easily inside her. She moaned with delight, biting down on her lower lip as he began to pump his fingers in and out of her while continuing to flick his tongue over the sensitive nub of her clit. As she writhed in pleasure, a thought formed in her mind. She quickly dismissed it as it had always seemed so dirty and degrading, but in the throes of passion the thought suddenly seemed so alluring and refused to leave her mind. The closer Ethan brought her to climax, the more she craved it. The very thought was driving her wild with lust. The words that sprang suddenly from her mouth surprised her as much as Ethan:

  “Stick a finger in my arse.”

  “Wh-what?!” Ethan stuttered, his face leaving her wet folds, his fingers momentarily static inside her.

  “I want you to slide your finger into my arsehole.” She told him, growing bolder.

  “Maxine…” He began, astonishment etched on his features.

  “Do it.” She told him, the desire in her voice apparently overcoming any reservations Ethan might have had. He hesitantly pulled his fingers from her and she felt a fingertip press gently against her tiny puckered hole, rubbing around it and lubricating it with her own juices. She felt him apply pressure, gasping as her sphincter gave way and the digit slipped past the tight ring of muscle. She groaned as he slowly slid his finger all the way inside her tight canal, finding as he penetrated her, that she enjoyed this new sensation. Encouraged by her groans, Ethan began to pump his finger in and out of her, her sphincter tightly gripping his digit. After a minute or so, he slid h
is other fingers back inside her juicy slit and dipped his head back down to resume teasing her clit with his tongue. The combined sensations made her cry out and she felt an orgasm building within her. Her hands went to Ethan’s head, her fingers tightening in his hair as he lashed his tongue against her sensitive clit while thrusting his fingers inside both her holes. The excitement of breaking the taboo of having her anus penetrated combined with the new sensations from Ethan’s probing finger sent her crashing into a glorious climax. Her whole body tensed, her back arched and with a scream of ecstasy that could probably be heard three decks below, she came. Waves of pleasure radiated out from her groin and she grunted and panted as her whole body trembled with the delicious sensations surging through her body, from her pussy to the tips of her fingers. As her climax subsided her body relaxed and she felt Ethan gently withdraw his fingers from her holes, her sphincter clamping shut as his finger left her arsehole.

  “Wow. That was intense.” Maxine grinned, basking in the afterglow as Ethan crawled up the bed to lie beside her.

  “Glad to hear it.” Ethan grinned back, his face illuminated by a shaft of golden light coming through the porthole. “Though I seem to remember I was the one in line for a reward…” He added, gazing pointedly at his engorged cock.

  “I hadn’t forgotten.” Maxine murmured, reaching out and grasping it. She wrapped her fingers tightly around it and gently began to pump it. Ethan moaned with pleasure as she stroked his no doubt aching shaft. She sat up and swung a leg over Ethan, sitting astride him. She continued to pump him, the root of his cock pressed against the red curls of her pubic hair. Ethan gazed up at her and reached for her breasts, his hands cupping them, his fingers playing over her nipples, teasing them, watching them grow erect. Maxine sat up and shifted forward, guiding the tip of his straining cock to her moist opening. She sank down slightly, pressing the head to her labia and dragging it back and forth, teasing him. He thrust his hips up, but Maxine rose up with him.