by Lilly Black
"You lay down under this blanket in the backseat," he said to Dave, then he tapped the trunk.
"I don't want to get in the trunk," Oz protested, but Monroe gave him a stern look that he dared not disobey. Oz, who was only fifteen, was terrified of him, and he wasn't even the worst guy back at camp.
Monroe closed the trunk on the boy and got in the driver's seat, turning the car around and driving it back where it came from. They'd been watching the compound for more than twenty-four hours, and though Monroe hadn't intended to invest so much time, this wasn't just some group camping in the woods with a makeshift fence protecting them. These people had a nearly-complete ten-foot, stone wall, but unfortunately for them, there was something inside the men really, really wanted.
He used the remote controls in Alek's car to get through the gates, and when they came to the last one, he was counting on the tinted windows to keep the guards from questioning him. It didn't work, and one of them walked up to the vehicle, tapping on the window.
"Well, fuck me running," Monroe muttered, then he turned to Dave in the back seat. "Gimme the handgun - the one with the silencer."
Dave slipped the gun out from under the blanket, and Monroe rolled down the window and grabbed the guard by her collar, shoving it in her face. To the other guard inside, it just looked like she was leaning into the car.
"Tell your friend to open the gate," he commanded, and when she shook her head to refuse, he punched her in the nose with the gun. "You know, it would be a real shame to waste a prime piece of pussy like you, but don't think I won't do it, bitch!"
She didn't move, but behind her back, she waved to the other guard for help. He stepped outside and approached the car, and as soon as Monroe noticed him out of the corner of his eye, he pulled down hard on the girl's shirt collar and shot the old man over her shoulder.
With barely a sound, he fell, but the bullet had struck him in the heart. Now they needed to get him in the head before he came back.
"Dave," Monroe shouted. "Get out and put this bitch in the trunk for me."
As Dave followed orders, letting Oz out and forcing the woman in, Monroe put a bullet in the old guard's brain before going inside the station and opening the gate. The three men got back in the car and drove up the hill toward the lodge where everyone who hadn't gone on today's mission was gathering for lunch.
Savannah and Bella were in Olivia's panic room watching the security cameras, and when the monitor toggled back to the front gate, they saw that it was open with one guard dead on the ground. They immediately went running down the hall to warn the others, calling Olivia on the comm system, but before they reached the lodge, they heard a hail of gunfire.
Monroe, Dave, and Oz had jumped out of the car, grabbed the first woman they saw, and fired into the air to draw everyone's attention. Olivia, Dani, and the other women and men who had stayed behind rushed outside to find June being held with a gun to her head.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Monroe shouted with a terrifyingly gleeful tone as the community continued to gather on the porch. "Don't do anything stupid, and you won't get hurt. My associates and I have just come to take a few things we need, then we'll leave in peace and nobody else has to die."
"What do you want?" Olivia demanded, moving to the front of the crowd as if to protect them all. She was armed, but she was afraid to use her gun. If she missed, June would die, and even if she hit the man holding her, the other two would probably open fire.
"We're just a few lonely bachelors looking for companionship, ma'am," Monroe said. "Send us on our way with a few ladies to keep us warm at night, and we'll go peacefully."
"That's not going to happen," Olivia said.
"Maybe I didn't make myself clear? This is not a negotiation, darlin'. We've come for women, and we're not leaving without them. We don't necessarily want this one," he said, indicating June, "so I got no problem putting her down to prove my point to you." Then he turned to his friends. "Which ones do you want, boys? As for me, I think I'll take the little chickie over there." He pointed to Penny, who was standing off to the side, trying to slip away.
"Mmmm-mmm-mmm. She sure is a pretty one," Dave said as he looked her over. "What about you, Ozzie boy?"
"I kinda like the black one," he said, looking at Dani with a bashful, country-boy grin that chilled her to the bone.
"You sure she ain't more woman than you can handle?" Monroe asked, glaring at Oz with eyes that said something entirely different, something no one else could read, but Oz understood. It made him nervous.
"Hey, man, I don't judge you," Oz said, making a ghoulish joke of it because Penny was actually older than Monroe's preference, but as she stood there frightened out of her wits with no makeup on, Monroe mistook her for younger than her eighteen years. As he glared at Oz, Dave butted in to diffuse the situation.
"It don't matter if he likes the dark meat just so long as he keeps his hands off the pretty, little piece I came here for," he said, then he turned his attention to the porch. "Kylie Vincent, come on down!" He shouted the name of John's young daughter like a game show host, and when she gasped, he zeroed in on her. "There's my girl."
"She's a hottie," Monroe said with a wink, and Olivia could stand no more.
"She's a fifteen-year-old child!" she shouted sternly.
"In case you didn't notice, the old rules don't apply no more," Monroe said. "I make the rules now, and I say if she's got titties, she's ripe for the pickin'."
"Take me," Olivia offered suddenly.
"Take you? What are you? Thirty? The kid over there might be into washed up, old hags, but there's too much nubile, virgin pussy up in here for me to waste my time with you," Monroe said, and though the very thought of her next move made her sick, Olivia was committed to doing whatever it took to save the girls.
"I may be a little older," she said as she began to slowly saunter toward the three men, "but I can't get pregnant. I don't bleed, so I'm never out of commission, and I know things these little girls haven't had time to learn. Of course, if you're just looking for something tight and wet to stick your dick in, I guess I mistook you for men when you're really just little boys."
"Nice try, bitch, but experience is not necessary for the job we got in mind," Dave said, and he laughed a creepy laugh. Monroe joined in, and when Dave elbowed Oz, the boy laughed too until Monroe brought it to an abrupt end.
"Now I've had about enough of this shit!" he shouted, pressing the barrel of his gun against June's face so hard it seemed to disappear into her jaw as she trembled with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Oz, get those three little whores in the fucking car so we can get out of here. I wanna be back at the camp by nightfall seeing if that little redhead's carpet matches the drapes." He gave Penny a look that made her flesh crawl, and when Oz walked over to her and grabbed her arm, she fell to the ground and started begging.
It was killing Olivia to watch it, but she had no idea what to do next. She thought about just letting them go. If she did, she could immediately get in her vehicle and pursue them. If she made a stand now, they could lose a lot more than just three members of their community, not counting the guard she didn't know was in the trunk, and she felt so helpless as she watched Oz try to pull Penny to her feet.
"Don't!" Olivia cried out, desperate. "Please! Let me show you! Just you. Come inside with me, and I'll prove to you that you want to take me and leave these girls behind."
"You seem to want me awful bad, Momma," Monroe said. "Is one of these your little girl?"
"They're all my little girls," she said.
"Well, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do then. I'm still gonna take them, but I'll take you, too, so you can keep right on mothering them. How's that sound?"
Olivia nodded, thinking she could somehow get them out of this if she went along, but before another word was spoken, a bullet hit Monroe's head, tearing straight through and blowing a hole out the other side before it finally lodged itself in Dave's cheek. Monroe fell dead, releasing June, who was soaked in b
lood and brain matter but otherwise unharmed as Dave clutched the side of his face with his right hand and began to fire his gun with his left. A quick burst of bullets sprayed into the air as Alek rushed out from behind the car and took aim, but when the fatal bullet was planted between Dave's eyes, it was not Alek's gun that fired it. It was Oz, who immediately dropped his weapon just before Alek tackled him, shoving his face into the ground.
"Oh, my God! Alek!" Olivia cried excitedly as June ran to Dani and collapsed in her arms. Alek pulled zip ties out of one of the many pockets on his fatigue pants and bound Oz's hands behind his back, then he stood up, six feet and three inches of absolute perfection, and locked Olivia in his sights. Immediately, he dropped his gun and stalked toward her, his muscles outlined by his shirt, his blonde hair only slightly marred by patches of dried blood on the sides, and his eyes brilliant blue as they peered into hers.
"He can't take you; you're mine," he growled as he cupped her face in his hands, and when their lips finally met, it took her breath away. They melded together as everything else in the world faded to nothingness, lost in the ecstasy of a connection they'd waited far too long to make, and in that moment, Alek felt weaker and more powerful than he'd ever felt in his life.
"You're mine, Olivia," he repeated with hooded eyes as he ended the kiss, and she nodded, softly breathing the word yes as a shy smile spread across her face.
She was his.
There would be no more denying it.
Olivia stood captivated after Alek released her, watching his every move with worshipful eyes as he turned back to Oz. He bent over, grabbing the boy by his arm and pulling him to his feet, and when Oz looked up and recognized Alek, he jumped backward, pure terror in his eyes.
"You're dead, man!" he cried. "I saw you! That arrow went clean through your head!"
"It just grazed me," Alek said dismissively.
"No, sir, it did not," Oz argued. He had the same local accent as his dead companions, but there was something different about the way he carried himself, particularly now that he was alone. "I was right there watching when Dave shot you, mister. I saw it go through your head!"
"Look, kid, I don't know what you think you saw, but clearly, I'm alive with no hole in my head," Alek said. "However...if you don't drop this shit and start answering some questions, I'm going to put a hole in yours."
"I killed Dave, man! I'm on your side," he insisted, falling to his knees before Alek. "Please, Mister. I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to try to hurt your wife or your daughter or anyone."
"My wife," Alek said, winking at Olivia, "is actually the leader of this community, and I have no doubt that if I hadn't come along, she would have found a way to kill you and your friends. But thanks to the bad aim of an incompetent murderer, I'm here. So this is what's going to happen, kid. I'm going to lock you up and discuss your fate with our leader, and you just better hope she's in a forgiving mood."
He recruited a pair of armed women to escort Oz to the holding cell and guard him, and as they led him away, Savannah and Bella were standing on the side of the porch, staring at him.
"Austin?" Savannah called out suddenly, and the boy hung his head in shame. "What the fuck, Austin? How could you do this?" Sally joined them, and the three girls continued shouting at him as he was forced around the outside of the lodge and past the greenhouse.
Austin was in the 9th grade with them. He had actually been a popular boy that Savannah had a crush on in middle school, but they hadn't recognized him when he came up with the other guys. His blonde hair was so dirty, it looked brown, and he had grown a patchy beard and mustache. Even his voice was different, though it could have dropped earlier in the school year, and the girls wouldn't have realized since they barely saw him unless it was on the football field. They were in the honors classes, and Austin wasn't. Still, they would never have guessed he'd become the kind of guy who would kidnap them just six weeks into the apocalypse, and they were not having it. They had a serious talk about it then went looking for Olivia, finding her in her office with Alek.
"Kill his ass, Mom!" Savannah demanded as she stormed in flanked by Sally and Bella.
"Excuse me?" Olivia asked.
"That boy? It's Austin Strayer. We went to school with him, and we may not have recognized him, but he sure as hell knew who Kylie was when that other guy picked her to be taken!"
"No shit!" Bella added. "Kylie was on the JV cheer team with us. He knew who we all were!"
"He wouldn't even make eye contact with me!" Savvy complained.
"Okay..." Olivia began, but Savannah cut her off.
"Okay, you'll kill him?"
"No. Okay, I'll take that under advisement, and don't you girls go doing anything crazy in the meantime, you hear me?"
"Whatever," Savvy said, rolling her eyes, annoyed that her mother seemed to know that it had crossed her mind to do the same thing Jimbo had done to Jobe, though she didn't think she would bother with a crucifixion. Getting past the guards and shooting him in the head would be sufficient.
"Listen, girls, I know you're pissed off," Alek said. "I'm pissed off too. Those men thought they could just come in here and take you, but you're not a commodity, and as long as I live, I will never let this world turn you into one. That being said, I want to know more about where those men came from, and if we kill Austin, we may not find out until the next group of them try to break in here, so we can't kill him yet no matter what we decide. Okay?"
"Yes, sir," she said grudgingly because she hated that he was right. If there was a chance that more men like Monroe and Dave could come to their compound, perhaps she shouldn't kill Austin...yet.
"Thank you," Alek said.
"Why do you have to be so fucking smart?" she sighed, a pout on her lips.
"Language!" Olivia snapped.
"Yeah, right," Savvy said with a deep laugh, and Olivia laughed too. Every once in a while she called Savannah out for cursing, but the truth was that she never really thought it was a big deal. Without someone to be offended by them, they were just words, and there weren't a whole lot of people out there to offend these days.
"Alright, ladies," Olivia said. "Why don't you all go find something fun to do to take you mind off it? Alek and I need to talk."
"Yes, ma'am," Savannah said, and her friends echoed her as they left the room. Olivia sighed and shook her head.
"Well, it seems my daughter is a sociopath," she said with an uncomfortable laugh as she went into the bathroom to grab the alcohol and some cotton balls.
"She's just adapting, Liv," he assured her. "And maybe she's right. If that boy is like those men he was with, there's no point in keeping him alive."
"But he's just a kid," she argued.
"A kid we may decide we have to try as an adult," Alek said as she began to dab the bloody area on the side of his head. He didn't even flinch, and as the blood was wiped away, she couldn't find a wound, only a faint scar.
"What the hell?" she wondered aloud, and when she checked the other side, she found the same. There wasn't a fresh scratch on him. "How did the blood get there?"
"I don't know," he said impatiently, taking the cotton ball from her hand and laying it down on the nightstand. "I didn't bring you in here to talk about that or Austin or the men he broke in with."
"What did you want to talk about?" she asked, biting her lip, hoping he was about to inform her that the claim he made earlier would extend into the bedroom, but she should have known better with Alek.
"I shouldn't have just grabbed you and kissed you like that," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"I should've asked. I should've given you a choice."
"You didn't do anything wrong, Alek," she insisted, walking closer to him as he leaned against her desk. "In fact, I think you should do it again."
"I'll kiss you again. I'll kiss you any time you'll let me, but that's as far as it's going."
"Are you saying you don't want to fuck me anymore?" she asked w
ith a smirk as she realized what he was getting at.
"You know I want to fuck you, baby, but just because I kissed you doesn't mean that I expect you to start putting out."
"Alek," she sighed. "I've wanted you to kiss me since the moment we met. You know that, and you know why I'm holding back. What you did made it easy for me to let it happen, and that could possibly extend to other things..."
"What? You're June now? You expect me to just take you by force? That's not happening, Olivia."
"It's not the same."
"I deserve better," he said, standing up and looking down into her eyes as he towered over her. He gently grasped her shoulders. "If you want me to make love to you, you're going to ask me to do it. I will not take it from you, and if that means I have to wait for a fucking year, I'll wait for a fucking year." Then he smiled. "But let's be honest. I won't have to wait much longer."
He pulled her forward, leaning in as if he was about to kiss her, but he moved his head at the last second and went for her neck instead, her breath hitching as she felt his teeth nip at her, sending a shockwave down her body that set off a flood between her thighs. Her nipples tightened into hard dots that he could feel against his pecks through the layers of their clothing, her chest heaved, and she moaned involuntarily, quickly sucking the sound back into her mouth as Alek swirled his tongue in a tight circle that she yearned to feel elsewhere. When he pulled away, she could sense the satisfied grin on his lips before she saw it, and she was embarrassed, blushing as she stared at the floor, unable to make eye contact.
"It won't be long at all," he breathed, then he turned and walked out the door to check on their prisoner, leaving her overwhelmed and contemplating touching herself for the first time in as long as she could remember. It was something she seldom ever did, but now that Alek had turned up the heat, she needed something to help her continue to resist. At the moment, she was too busy wrestling with her conscience over her lust for him, and that level of guilt was manageable. But if they made love, the guilt could consume her.