by A. J. Winter
“What are you doing?” he shouted.
“I had a shower!”
“Lock the door next time!”
There was a moment of silence as his heart pounded in his chest, and then she started laughing. “The world has gone to hell in a hand basket, I don’t know the next time I’ll see a real bathroom, and you’re worried about me locking the door?”
Her laughter made him smile. “Can we just rewind?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to walk in that front door and say ‘good, there’s running water’ and we’ll just take it from there.”
She laughed again. “Sure, and while you’re there could you load the larger containers I left in the kitchen? I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Yeah.” He holstered his weapon and went back to work. He’d just loaded the last jug when she appeared in the doorway.
“You could shower too, if you wanted. I want to look around a little more.”
“What else could we need?”
“I don’t know yet, maybe there’re some clothes in the drawers, or some camping supplies. There has to be something useful left in this place.”
“Okay, okay, but make it quick. I won’t be long.”
As soon as he stepped under the hot spray he knew he could stand there until the water ran cold. Instead he scrubbed hard and soaped up. His mind wandered back to that quick glimpse of her body. She was tanned and toned but still feminine soft. His cock stiffened at the memory and he grabbed it with one soapy hand. It didn’t take long for him to bring himself to the edge of release, especially with sexual fantasies of Roxanne playing through his mind.
She had stood here only moments earlier, running her hands all over her body. Had she touched herself? ‘God, what an image. If only I had walked in on that.
He braced one hand against the wall of the shower as he blew his load and finished washing up. The hot shower and the sexual release left him feeling as relaxed as a man could feel when facing the end of the world.
Roxanne loaded up both wagons and two hiking packs she’d found with clothes, outerwear, food, soap, all the kitchen knives and scissors, a sleeping tent, a kitchen tent, two tarps, and every blanket and towel she could lay her hands on. The wagons were heaped and secured with kitchen twine. Damian looked at the load and huffed. “So much for travelling light.”
“It’s all necessary,” she said. “We can spread it around and it won’t seem like quite so much. We need to get back.” She shouldered her pack, grabbed a wagon, and set off without waiting for a reply. He sighed, loaded up, and followed after her.
They received a warm welcome and the supplies were quickly dispersed. They started west again with renewed energy and no more complaining.
VIII.
By midday on the third day the complaining had started again and Roxanne wasn’t surprised to find Matt at the center of it. “What the hell is it this time?” she said.
“We’re tired of walking. We should have driven. There were enough cars back in …”
“How far would they get? There is no fuel.”
“The gas stations …”
“Overrun by gangs and thugs. And how did you plan to get the cars out of the rubble? You remember climbing a lot of rubble to escape the city, right?”
He changed tracks suddenly. “And why the hell do we have to listen to you?”
“Because listening to me is what got you away from Bismark. You had the choice to stay but you listened to me, you chose to follow me. No one is forcing you to be here. You want to lead? Take whoever is willing to follow you and strike out on your own. Go back, or go find some cars, or do whatever you want. If you want to come with us, eat our food, drink our water, you listen to me.”
“I don’t want to listen to you. I don’t think you’re fit to lead.”
“That’s too bad,” said a deep masculine voice behind her. “Because I say she’s my second in command and that you have to listen to her because she’s right.” Everyone was looking at Damian now, and glancing at Ryan and Sean who stood behind him with their hands casually on their weapons. “Without her you’d have stayed at the city. I saw the cities in the south go to hell. Some were taken over by gangs. It was a city-wide war for territory and everyone who stayed was forced to fight, or whore, or slave away for the gangs. Some were taken over by the big corporations and if you think that’s better, you’re wrong. You hated your job before? Now you’ll do one even worse, for no money, barely any food, a crap bed in a crowded dorm, and if you don’t like it you’ll be shot. So we’re looking for somewhere safer and when Anne here talks, you listen, because she’s talking for me. And we’ve already discussed my credentials to lead. We’re leaving in half an hour.”
IX.
The village was surrounded by a make-shift wall made of metal siding, cars, and scrap lumber. Two armed men stood on low towers on either side of the gate. They levelled their guns at the approaching group and Damian called a halt. Roxanne jogged up to the front of the group.
“What is it? It’s not dark enough to stop.”
“I don’t think they want us getting any closer.”
She nodded. “Ryan and Sean will come with me. I should go talk to them.” She didn’t even think of including Matt who had been demoted from official guard to regular refugee.
Damian rolled his eyes. “Looks like I’m babysitting.”
She ignored him, gathered her guards, and put on a brave face. The men atop the wall allowed them to approach but didn’t lower their weapons.
“Who are you?” the one on the left shouted.
“My name is Roxanne,” she called back. “We’re from Bismark. We’ve been walking for days. The city is in ruins, we need a safe place.”
“We can’t let you in,” he said. “Go back up the road the way you came to the crossroads. You can camp there for the night.”
“Why can’t we camp here?”
“We don’t want to protect you, or have to protect ourselves from you.”
“Please, we have children with us.”
“We can trade if you need food but we can’t let you in.”
She looked at the guns for a long moment. “Fine, we’ll move back and we’ll send someone to trade for food.”
She stalked right past Damian and started rounding up the group. Once she had them settled she loaded up everything they could spare into the wagons and returned to the gates. They didn’t get much food and the villagers tried to take the wagons, but she refused to part with them.
“Will you at least let the children in?” she begged. “Most of them are orphans. They won’t survive on the road. Please.”
“We took in a lot of people already,” an older woman said. “They came from all around here. We can’t defend enough farm land to feed the people we already have. We can’t take anymore, especially not children too young to work. I’m sorry.”
“Is there anywhere else we can go?”
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
When Anne returned with the food she saw Damian talking to Ryan. She fully intended to ignore him, but he fell in step beside her and followed her to her tent. He said, “There’s still some light. I’ll be moving on.”
She turned on him. “And what are we supposed to do?”
He shrugged. “Stay here. Move on. I don’t know and don’t rightly care.”
“You were supposed to guide us to safety.”
“No, I was supposed to guide you to the next town.”
“You wanted to be in charge!”
“Now I don’t. You’ll only slow me down. I’ll just grab some supplies and …”
“No. Whatever you have left from Bismark you can keep but you will not touch what I traded for.”
“What you traded for? I helped you scavenge, remember?”
“I didn’t need you for that. And I’m sure you kept a little something from that expedition for yourself. If you need more supplies you can go to that village and trade. If you
try to steal from us I’ll have you shot.”
“Afraid of pulling the trigger yourself?”
She pulled a hand gun from the holster at her side with the ease of someone who had handled a gun before and levelled it at him. “We could test that theory. Get out of here.”
He stepped forward until his chest was pressed against the gun. Without flinching she pulled the slide back, chambering the round.
Memory snapped over reality and everything but the insurgent in front of him disappeared. His reflexes were sharp as ever and he grabbed the wrist, pushing down with a twist. In one smooth motion he spun the insurgent and locked him in a headlock. The gun pointed skyward and a single shot rang out.
The shouting, English and not Arabic, pulled him back to reality and he dropped Roxanne to the ground. She was still coughing when Ryan ran up, gun drawn.
“What happened? Did you see something?”
Roxanne waved a hand dismissively. “Swallowed a goddam bug,” she said. “No emergency, just target shooting, sorry, should have warned you.”
Ryan levelled his stare at Damian. “You’re military, you should know better.”
“This situation is new for all of us,” Damian said. “Just go tell everyone that the coast is clear.”
“Yes sir.”
“They respect you,” Anne said, climbing to her feet. “When were you discharged?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The PTSD. When did they kick you out for being unstable?”
He shook his head.
“They listen to you. I’m betting Ryan and Sean aren’t used to taking orders from a woman, and Matt doesn’t want to take orders from anyone but at least you’re scarier than I am. Stay. You can be in charge, you can give the orders, but every decision comes through me first.”
“So all of a sudden you want me to be your puppet? What do I get in exchange?”
“Food, shelter, no one asking questions about your mood swings or other PTSD symptoms, a few extra guns at your back …”
“At my back or pointed at my back?”
“I won’t hesitate to protect these people, even if it means shooting you. But I’m not a power-hungry trigger-happy lunatic either.”
“Good, because you have nerves of steel. Where did you learn to handle a gun?”
It was her turn to shrug and the way she smirked at him stirred something low in his gut. He shifted, trying to put the thought from his mind before it became obvious that he liked what he saw. She turned and reached to retrieve her gun; while it kept her from seeing the way his pants tightened, the view of her ass did nothing to calm him.
“I need to set up a watch for tonight,” he said. “I’ll come back and we can discuss where we’re taking this circus next.”
She turned to reply but he was already jogging away.
X.
He didn’t return until after dark. There were a few fires burning and some tents set up around them, but she had set her tent up on the outskirts. She sat chewing on an apple watching the silhouettes of the others moving around camp.
He dropped down beside her and held out a water bottle. Her smile was forced but she accepted it.
“Were we right to come out here? Wouldn’t we have been safer on the outskirts of Bismark?”
“Those kids would have ended up slave labour in one industry or another, or soldiers in a territory war.”
“And out here they’re bait for coyotes and bandits. There will be bandits soon too.”
“Road gangs, but yes, same difference. They’ll start popping up sooner or later. They’ll probably hole up at the gas stations and hoard the fuel but they’ll lose that edge pretty quickly.”
“On foot or in a vehicle, they’ll be just as dangerous, won’t they?”
He nodded and accepted the water bottle back. “Where do you want to go next?”
“It’s going to be the same story everywhere, isn’t it?”
“Most likely.”
“The town people wanted mechanical and electronic stuff. We should see if we can find abandoned cars or houses. We need to scavenge things to trade. And we should keep moving. We don’t need to set such a gruelling pace now, since there is nowhere for us to go.”
“You’re starting to think like a survivalist.”
She looked up and their eyes met in the darkness and she realized just how close he was sitting. He smelled male, which was arousing, and there was no denying that he was tall, strong, and handsome.
He’s arrogant, she reminded herself but her heart was already starting to pound.
“I didn’t expect that from you,” he added.
She bristled. “Why? Because I’m female?”
“Yes. And blonde. And from the city. In my experience …”
“You know nothing about me!”
“I know you can’t lead without me.”
“If I had told Ryan the truth he might have shot you for being a danger to the rest of us. You’re a fucking ticking time bomb.”
“Better than being a dumb blonde bombshell.”
He’d had women of weaker temperament than her slap him for lesser insults so he braced himself to be slapped. When her fist connected with his jaw he sprawled back in the dust.
“Of all the ex-military alpha males in the country I had to get stuck with the misogynistic bastard with …”
He sat up, grabbed her arm, and pulled her into a rough kiss. This time, when he released her, she did slap him.
“You know …” he started but she grabbed his shirt and cut him off with a kiss. He wrapped his arm around her waist and lay back, pulling her on top of him.
Passion flared as the heat in their kisses lost their anger and turned to desire. Her body was warm with soft curves in all the right places and it had been too long since he’d held a woman this close. She kissed him with an intensity that shocked him and when he tried to roll her over she threw her weight against him, keeping him on his back.
She grabbed the hem of his shirt and shoved it upwards. She had wanted to touch his muscled chest since she’d caught him with his shirt off. She didn’t break off the kisses as her hands wandered over chest and stomach and she made soft noises of appreciation against his mouth. Curious about the insistent bulge pressing against her she grabbed the front of his jeans.
He managed to push her back enough to speak. “Whoah, slow down a little.”
She shook her head, her light hair reflecting the last of the firelight. She scooted down his body, out of his grasp, even though it meant she wouldn’t have the leverage to stay on top.
‘Who needs physical leverage?’ she thought as she yanked at his jeans. His underwear came down at the same time and his thick, rigid cock sprang free. He nearly purred and she said, “Isn’t that more comfortable?”
“Hell yes.”
She licked her lips and took two full inches of his cock into her mouth. She sucked hard and then began working up and down with her mouth.
“Shit,” he muttered and reached down to grab a handful of hair. If it had been a long time since he’d held a woman it had been twice as long since one had willingly sucked his cock. Shortly after returning from duty he’d had a bad experience and hadn’t gone in search of female companionship, trusting his hand and a ready supply of porn to keep him satisfied. He’d resigned himself to his hand and imagination after things went nuclear and he’d forgotten just how good a hot little mouth could feel.
It helped that she was moaning like crazy sending intense vibration through his cock and into the rest of him. As his pleasure levels steadily rose he started lifting his hips in rhythm with her movements, trying to coax his cock deeper down her throat. As soon as he started thrusting she pulled away.
He groaned.
“You want more?”
“Are you some kind of sadistic bitch?”
“Don’t move. I’m going to enjoy your cock at my own pace or not at all. You want more? Lie still.”
And then she was slur
ping away at his cock again. He gritted his teeth and forced his body to be still as she sucked and licked. She started a slow slide down the length of his cock, taking him deeper and deeper. He grabbed her hair but didn’t push. Deeper and deeper until her lips hurt at the corners and she gagged. She held him there for a long moment and then pulled slowly back.
She sat up and gave him a smug grin that disappeared when he sat up and grabbed her wrist. With a quick yank he had her off balance and he flipped her underneath him.
“My turn,” he growled.
She was wearing a flannel button-down and the only reason he was careful with the buttons was because there was nowhere to buy her a new one. And he didn’t feel like getting punched. He pushed the first layer back, shoved her shirt up to her shoulders, and helped himself to two handfuls of her perfect real tits. Her back arched in response, exposing a long graceful neck.
The switch flipped.
He reached for the terrorist’s throat with one hand, pressing hard. His other hand reached for his gun and touched naked thigh instead.
He yanked his hand away as Roxanne came into focus. She was coughing and struggling to sit up. He scrambled back, his legs tangling in his jeans.
“I’m sorry. I … we shouldn’t be doing this. We can’t. I can’t.”
“Normally I don’t mind a little of the rough stuff but shit, you’re strong.” She rubbed her throat.
“This isn’t a joke,” he said. “This is the first time this has happened. I should have known better.”
She let her shirt drop off her arms and crawled over to him. “Grab the blanket before you get dirt up your ass.”
He felt his cheeks flush but did as he was told.
She cozied up beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. “Tell me about the last time this happened to you.”
“What is there to tell?” The words came out sounding bitter. “There was a girl. She waited for me. We celebrated my return with wine and steak and candlelight. And then I choked her just like I choked you. Psyche eval said PTSD and they discharged me. She said that we could figure it out. Second time she blacked out before I snapped back. I don’t blame her for leaving.”
