by Angela Foxxe
They walked for a few more hours as the sun was beginning to set. Winston looked up in the sky and saw birds circling around a dying animal.
“Hmm. I wonder if there’s water that way,” he said as he pointed to the circling scavengers.
“What makes you think that?” Shawna said as she bent over and panted.
“Well, that animal died on the way there from the looks of things. Let’s go check it out,” Winston said as he picked up the pace. “That and I think there’s a trailer over there.”
“Let’s go then,” Shawna said as she picked up the pace.
She looked at Winston, dressed in his now-dirty white robe and started to feel less irritated with him. Using her to take the cowards way out of an arranged mating, that was cold, but he picked her. He could have kidnapped any other woman from her settlement but he wanted her. She didn’t understand what was so special about her in the first place. Granted, she didn’t look like any of the settlers in scavs, being darker, and she towered above many of the men there. Maybe that’s why, maybe she resembled his own race in a way, and that’s what attracted him to her.
It was obvious that the animas were taller than regular humans. Taller, stronger, faster, and all around better than even the rad-adapted human stock she belonged to. On the outside, other than the height, musculature, and the darker skin, they didn’t look any different than the average waste-dweller. Yes, there were a few very dark-skinned dwellers living around the wastes, but like the ones with pale, they were dwindling as the drive to survive outweighed cosmetic prejudice, to the point where the wasters were mostly a light tan across the board. Nobody knew if it was from sun and radiation exposure or from genetics—at that point nobody cared.
Shawna kept watching Winston as he walked. His muscular frame shifted with ease under his graying robe as they made their way toward the dead animal. He was definitely impressive, much more handsome than any of the scavs she’d ever come across. She tried not to sigh out loud as she realized that all she’ll be good for now is breeding, thanks to him.
The thing is, she could have said no, but wanted him just as badly. She was so conflicted. She wanted to be mad at him, but she also knew she should own her part in this as well. She knew that sleeping with a man carried the risk of pregnancy, just didn’t think it would happen that fast.
The couple got closer to the dead animal.
“Looks like a dead radbear,” Winston said as he nudged it with his foot. He then sniffed the air. “Yes, there’s clean water near by. Let’s go.”
“It might be a trap,” Shawna said as she inspected the bear further. “I don’t think this guy died from dehydration,” she said as she squatted down to look at the bears head.
The smell of decay didn’t faze her as she moved the dead bruin’s patchy bald head around, looking for any telltale gunshot wounds.
“Did you find anything?” Winston asked as he paced impatiently. He was thirsty, so deliriously thirsty.
“No. Can’t find a single wound except for what the vultures did,” Shawna said as she stood back up. “All right, let’s head on to the water.” Shawna looked around and saw a flash of sun reflecting off of metal. “Get down!” she bellowed as she tackled Winston into the dust as a loud gunshot rang out.
They lay in a crumpled heap hoping their assailant would go away, but that wasn’t the case. She heard loud whooping and cackling coming from the near by ruins.
“Great, a feral colony,” she said as she looked at Winston in his bright amber eyes.
He was angry. “Ferals, huh?” he said as he rolled her off of him. He pulled his robe off and started his shifting process. “Cover me,” he growled before he went into his full tiger shape.
Shawna shuddered as she shouldered the pipe rifle and aimed at the scabrous face of one of the feral humans that was running at her.
She pumped the handle and shot one of the ambushers in the face, then another, and another before she had to reload. She heard terrifying growls and screams from inside the ruined houses and decided against going to check it out while she held off another wave of ferals rushing at her from behind the broken walls.
Shawna prided herself on her marksmanship. She practiced since her foster father dragged her out to the makeshift range when she was young. Shooting as well as scavenging were key to survival in the wastes, and she was the best as far as she was concerned.
She picked off two more of the ferals as Winston came crawling out of the shed with the bright crimson blood of his victims staining his fur.
“Are you hurt?” she said as she rushed up to him.
He shook his shaggy head as he changed back into his human shape. “No. It’s all theirs. They’re using the radbear to draw travelers in to capture them for food. There are skeletons down there. There is water at least. Hand me the canteens—you don’t need to see the carnage,” he said as he cast his eyes to the ground, ashamed of what he had to do.
Shawna nodded as she handed the vessels to Winston. She wondered how bad it really was if he didn’t want her seeing it. She shrugged and put her rifle back across her shoulder. She took a knife from the pack and walked up to the radbear, knowing it hadn’t been dead for very long.
“Well, might as well set up camp here,” she said as she started carving into the animal. “We need food anyway, so let’s roast some of this baby up. ‘Waste not want not.’”
Winston emerged from the building holding two dripping canteens. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“We need meat, so let’s roast up some bear,” she replied.
“Good idea. You set up the fire, I’ll take care of the… trash,” he said as he looked at the bodies of the dead ferals.
“Thanks,” Shawna said as she brought the cuts of meat closer to the houses. She found a metal grate, placed the slabs of meat on it, and went searching for wood. “Hmm, might as well get some more off that bear—we can always bring it with us,” she said out loud as she picked up sticks and scrub to start the fire. She had no worries about insects coming to feast on the meat, since they had mutated to giant monstrosities as well.
She dug a fire pit and placed some stones around it and set up the fire for the night. She moved the grate over it and started cooking the bear steaks over the open flame. As the steaks were sizzling away, Winston emerged from the dilapidated house.
“Smells good,” he said as he sat down next to her.
“Yeah, I’m gonna hack off some more and cook them up so we can eat on the way. We don’t have time to dry it, but the cooked stuff will keep long enough to keep us going for a few days at least,” she replied.
“Makes sense,” he said as he sat down next to her.
He put his arm around her protectively and waited for her to stiffen and pull away. He knew he was taking a risk but he wanted to be close to her that night.
“You know, I’m still kinda mad at you right?” she said as she nestled her head against his strong shoulder.
“I figured as much.” He sighed as he pulled away.
“No, it’s not that, it’s just that you put me in a position where I literally can’t do anything else now. Once we find a settlement that will take us, I’ll be delegated to the breeding brothels,” she said sadly.
“No you won’t,” Winston replied. “I won’t allow it, and will fight tooth and nail to keep you from that fate.”
“It doesn’t matter. You don’t know how the human settlements work. No man can lay claim to a woman; it doesn’t work that way. Once the woman gets pregnant, she’s stuffed into the breeding brothel and that’s that. She fucks and makes babies until she dies,” Shawna said dejectedly. “I don’t know how you can keep that from happening.”
“Well, I’ll do what I can. I just know that nobody takes another man’s mate in my clan. It’s just not done. The offspring are raised by two parents and taught the old ways. The more I learn about humans, the more barbaric they seem.”
“You don’t know the half of it. If the baby is bo
rn deformed, the midwife takes it and dumps it into the wasteland to die. Sometimes ferals pick these children up and raise them as their own. I-I honestly couldn’t do that,” she whispered.
Winston held her close. “You won’t have to. I don’t have a plan yet, but I’ll put my life on the line to keep you from harm, and those brothels sure fit the definition of harm to me.”
She said nothing as she rested her head and gazed into the flames of the fire as the meat grilled away. She had nobody in this harsh world except for Winston. I could have done much worse, actually, she thought. A man who can change into a tiger is a pretty good thing to have around in a pinch. Ammo runs out, claws and fangs don’t, and at least while she’s pregnant with his child, she knew deep down he would do anything to protect her, if just to give his offspring a fighting chance to be born.
“I think the meat is done,” he said as he leaned over and speared a steak with his knife. He sniffed it and took a bite from the tough, stringy meat, and savored the metallic gamey taste as he chewed. “Not bad, of course it’s not like we could use anything to make it taste better,” he said ruefully.
“Yeah. I think we’re lucky we just got some meat. Most people aren’t so lucky,” she said as she speared her own meal.
“Exactly,” he said as he took another bite.
CHAPTER FIVE
They woke up the next morning and packed up their meager belongings. Shawna hurried away from Winston as a wave of nausea overcame her. She vomited in a pack of high scrub away from the water as he filled their canteens up. She wiped her mouth with a piece of cloth she had in her pocket and tried to cover what she was doing.
Winston stood there with sympathy shining from his amber eyes. “Sorry…” he said as he put the water in the packs. “By the way, I took the canteens the previous residents had. They won’t be needing them anymore,” he said as he put a few more full canteens into the backpack as well. “We don’t know when we’ll find more potable water.”
Shawna nodded and started to put the pack on. Winston shook his head and took it from her.
“Not anymore. Your pregnancy is going to progress rapidly from here on out. I can’t let you lug all this weight,” he said softly.
“You have a point,” Shawna said, her hackles rising, but she did see the point of his offer. She wasn’t feeling too good and didn’t want to hold them up any longer so she swallowed her bile and started walking. “This pregnancy thing sucks, you know?”
He nodded, silently agreeing with her as he walked alongside of her.
“I can’t do anything I’m used to and it’s really annoying. I know I can carry that pack as well as you, I can do pretty much everything you can, well except change into a tiger, but still, I’m limited by this…” she said gesturing at her stomach.
“I’m sorry,” was all Winston could muster as he strode northward.
He couldn’t put into words all that he wanted to tell her. That her courage and tenacity were what drew him to her from the very beginning. That ever since his childhood friend and her mother went missing thirteen years ago, he’d felt a vacancy that couldn’t be filled.
He wanted to tell her that she reminded him of her, down to the set of her jaw, shape of her eyes, everything. He had hoped to be mated with Jareen when they came of age, but fate had other plans.
“You know why I felt so drawn to you?” he asked.
“Other than the fact I have nice tits?” Shawna quipped.
“No, not that, well not only that, you reminded me of my childhood friend. She and her mother went out one day to forage and never returned. You just looked a lot like her,” he said sadly.
“Well, I don’t think I’m her. For one, I can’t change shapes,” she said as she scanned around for anything that could get the jump on them.
“It’s not one of those instinctual things,” Winston explained. “You need to be taught, and it happens at puberty.”
Shawna stopped in her tracks and stared at Winston incredulously. “Are you saying…?”
“Not saying it is, not saying it isn’t, just that you remind me of her and that’s why I’m attracted to you,” he explained. “Nostalgia, or something else, I don’t know. I just know that I want to be with you and protect you.”
Shawna felt herself softening toward the strange man. He genuinely seemed to care about her even though he didn’t know her all that well. Maybe she could work those nostalgia glasses for her own benefit, who knows, maybe down the road she’d start to really feel for him?
They walked along in silence as the day dragged on. The sun rose high in the sky and beat down mercilessly upon the weary travelers. Winston looked around and found absolutely no signs of shelter in the desolate wastes.
“It’s going to be dark soon, we need to find some kind of shelter before the sun starts to set.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty barren out here isn’t it?” Shawna replied as she, too, scanned the horizon for any decaying structures they could make a shelter out of.
“Maybe there will be a cave somewhere,” Winston said as he pointed at a rocky outcropping in the distance. “I prefer caves to broken down houses anyway—easier to defend.”
“Yeah, that’s if there’s nothing living there first. I really don’t want to wake up surrounded by roaches or worse,” Shawna said shuddering.
“I’ll go in and clear it out first,” Winston comforted her. “I’m used to caves so I know how to make sure one’s safe.”
She nodded as they continued toward the rocks. There were quite a few cave systems in the area. After the bombs fell the underground aquifers dried up as the climate shifted from the seven-year long winter to harsh desert conditions. There was very little uncontaminated fresh water in the Western Wastes, it was to the point that one could trade all their meager possessions for just one cup of clear, pure water.
“Maybe it taps into an aquifer or something,” she said as she picked up the pace.
Their water supply was dwindling and she was starting to feel thirsty again. The last thing she wanted to do was drink pig mole blood to hydrate. She gagged at the thought of it, and almost lost her lunch onto the dry ground. Yeah, her stomach wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“All right,” Winston said as he put the pack on the ground and shed his robe. “Let’s take a look around and see if there’s any caves. You should go find some cover just in case there are ferals around.”
“All right. I’ll be over there,” Shawna said as she pointed to a copse of dense, woody brush and trees. She picked up the pack and dragged it toward the scrubby hide out while Winston changed into his tiger form.
He padded toward the outcropping and peered down. His nose was on high alert for anything that might seem out of the ordinary as he investigated the area. He walked one way and then the other, sniffing along the edge of the rocks. Not finding anything, he leaped down to the rocky clearing below and began investigating the outcropping. He was both searching for a cave and its potential inhabitants.
He caught a whiff of moist earth as he reached the area around the point of the outcropping. He followed his nose to the opening and poked his head inside, sniffing the entire time.
All he smelled was damp earth, and he heard trickling water from the back. It was dark inside so he proceeded with caution. He swiveled his ears to pick up any sounds of danger from inside the cave as his senses were on high alert.
He prowled toward the back of the cave and caught a whiff of moving air from an opening in the stone wall so he poked his head inside and sniffed some more.
Nothing but fresh water, he thought, but what is that fish smell? He sniffed more. Probably just an unfortunate animal that fell in the water from a river above and died, or there were actual fish living in the water down here, either way it didn’t smell threatening.
He decided the cave was safe and walked on out toward the scrub where Shawna was hiding. He shifted back into his human form and picked up his robe from the ground where he left it.
> “It’s all clear. We can set up a fire pit right at the entrance to heat up the bear meat we brought with us,” he said.
“That sounds great,” Shawna replied as she crawled out of the hideout. “Sure nothing’s in there?”
“A few fish in an underground pond—nothing horrible,” Winston replied.
“Wait… are you sure they aren’t stone crabs?” Shawna asked.
“Stone Crabs? Those are saltwater only,” Winston replied.
“You never know around here,” Shawna said as she walked toward the seemingly sheer cliff. Her abdomen was starting to get a bit bigger, and her leather pants were starting to dig uncomfortably into her waist. I’ll have to find a way to make a skirt soon, she thought. Just what she needed—something to tangle in her legs as she tried to run away.
Winston jumped down to the small ledge and helped Shawna climb down.
“Thanks. I’m not as agile as I usually am,” she said wryly.
“It’s all right. It’s my job to help you and protect you from here on out, and I plan to take it seriously,” he said as he held her by the waist to keep her from slipping down the sandy precipice. It wasn’t that high up, but even a small tumble could hurt her badly now.
He guided her to the narrow entrance of the cave and nudged her inside. “You can set up the bed rolls; I’ll get the fire going,” he said as he slid outside.
She shrugged and started clearing stones from near the narrow entrance. Best for them to sleep somewhat near the fire than near the back of the cave. She still felt uneasy at the possibility of stone crabs possibly living in the water beyond, so she wanted to give themselves a quick out if needed. No amount of shooting could destroy the giant, semi-bipedal aquatic monstrosities, their carapace is rock solid and bulletproof, and the only way to bring one down is if you’re lucky enough to shoot it in the face.
Shawna shuddered as she lay the sleeping bags down onto the hard dirt floor. Her eyes adjusted easily to the gloom of the cave thanks to the dim light provided by the crack leading to the outside. She heard Winston puttering around as he built up the fire so they could reheat the cold bear meat they had from the night before.
