Nero let his instinct guide him, and made some turns to move from the front of the ship back towards the centre, checking inside rooms and offshoots from the corridor they were in, looking for anything that was useful. Finding some crew quarters, Nero stepped inside and opened cupboards and drawers, looking for anything of use. Most things were mouldy, corroded, or rotten and simply unusable.
He found Nyx in another crew member’s room. She’d found some jewellery and was tying it into one of the braids that threaded through her mane of bright blonde hair. He’d seen her do this a few times. It was something she seemed to do whenever she found something small that she liked. She had a few feathers and other bits tied in there as well. She looked up and smiled at him as he walked in. Picking something off the desk she was standing at, she walked up to him and pinned something to the lapel of his jacket.
Finished, she patted it, kissed him, and stepped back.
He turned his lapel out to have a look. It was a corroded yellow badge of a smiley face. He looked up at Nyx and raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner.
‘To remind you of me,’ she smiled.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Find anything useful?’
‘Not yet, no.’
‘Let’s keep going,’ he said, and led her down the corridor, deeper into the ship. As they moved, they heard noises every so often, but this was quite normal as the wreak moved in the wind or shifted in place due to their movements. Nero could usually pick out which noises were the result of something natural, like the metal pinging as it heated up in the sun.
They checked room after room, but for the most part, everything was either already ruined or not of any use to them.
Moving into a larger room with upturned tables and chairs, Nero sneaked through it, approaching a side room and opened the door. It was some kind of storeroom filled with cleaning implements and solutions. He stepped inside and scanned the shelves, finding a sealed plastic tub that had a handful of batteries inside of various sizes and shapes.
‘Excellent,’ he said to himself as he fished the items from the tub and put them in one of his pockets. Most of them were probably drained of power, but he could test them later.
‘Nero,’ Nyx called from a nearby room he’d seen her start to investigate. With one last look to make sure there was nothing further of use, he left the storeroom behind.
‘Coming,’ he called and moved around to the door that Nyx had been approaching. She suddenly appeared in the doorway, holding the frame on either side of her with a big grin on her face. ‘Found something?’
‘We’ve hit the jackpot,’ she said, and stepped to one side, letting Nero into the room. There were racks of shelving in here, some of them fallen over, and the floor was covered with what had been on the shelves.
Not quite believing his eyes, he grabbed his torch and turned it on. He needed to be sure. The room was filled with food — canned goods and packets of military rations lying on the shelves or scattered over the floor. Nero couldn’t help the huge grin that grew over his face on seeing this treasure trove of life-giving supplies.
‘Holy shit, you’re right. This could feed us for weeks, months, maybe,’ he said.
‘Or longer,’ Nyx agreed. ‘What do you want to do with it? We can’t get all of this out of here,’ she said.
‘Well, right now, I want to eat something. I’m starving, how about you?’
Nyx nodded with vigour and started to scan one of the shelves. Nero did the same and picked out a ration pack. He checked the label and noted it said something about a meal of some kind and ripped it open. The smell hit him right away, and he simply could not help salivating at the thought of the food.
Squeezing the contents into his mouth, he groaned as the taste was wonderful. It was like he’d gone to some kind of food heaven
‘Oh, my God, that’s amazing,’ he said between mouthfuls of the wondrous ration pack. ‘Beats eating dog food any day. How’s yours?’
Nyx chewed as she looked over with some of the contents of her ration pack dribbling down over her chin. ‘Cant… Talk…. Must… Eat…’ she said with a mouth full of MRE.
Nero smiled and found a place to sit as he enjoyed the rest of the packet. Nyx sat on the floor and both of them remained silent as they enjoyed their meals. The taste of it was sensational. He only had vague memories of eating anything that might start to approach the pure ecstasy that he was experiencing right now. Maybe when he was a kid, when his mother was still alive? He felt pretty sure he’d had some tasty meals back then, even during the zombie apocalypse before the Cataclysm. But it had been years now since he’d tasted anything even remotely as nice as that had been.
‘Was that as good for you as it was for me?’ Nero asked.
‘That was pretty damn amazing,’ Nyx said where she sat on the floor, leaning up against one of the rows of shelving.
‘I’m wondering if that was better than sex,’ Nero said in a joking manner, knowing that the comment would get a reaction.
‘Oh, really?’ Nyx said, looking at him now.
‘Maybe…’
‘You’re only saying that to get a reaction out of me,’ she said.
‘Damn right,’ he said. ‘I can think of no better dessert than you.’
‘Oh, you charmer,’ she said.
‘You love me, really.’
‘I don’t know, my love for these ration packs is putting up a fight for my affections, that’s for sure,’ she said and hugged one to her breast.
‘Can a ration pack shoot a zombie with a shotgun?’
‘Well, yes, you do have that going for you, I suppose,’ she conceded. She looked up and smiled at him with a sigh. ‘You’re right, though, the dessert I want is in those pants of yours,’ she said and stood up.
Nero smiled and started to undo his belt and trousers while Nyx shrugged out of her coat and undid the zip on the back of her bodysuit as she walked towards him.
‘Are you ready for the best pudding you’ll ever have?’ she asked with a cheeky grin as she dropped her bodysuit to the floor. Nero just sat back and enjoyed the view of her fit, lithe body as she stepped over to him, still wearing her long gloves, high ripped stockings and boots. Nero was already aroused as he enjoyed the view, and simply watched as she stepped up to him and turned around, planting her feet on either side of his legs, spreading hers wide. She took hold of him and lowered herself down onto him. Placing his hands on her ass cheeks as he felt himself sliding inside of her, he pulled them apart to get a good view as she supported herself with her hands on his knees.
She started to move up and down on top of him, taking him inside of her all the way and then raising herself up. He sat back, captivated by the view of himself disappearing inside of her, spreading her wide as she moaned, clearly enjoying herself.
‘Oh, yes,’ she moaned, voicing his own thoughts at the fantastic feeling of her.
Licking his fingers, he reached around and started to touch her as well, finding her most sensitive spot and teasing it with rhythmic movements of his fingers. She moved faster, wriggling her hips about on top of him as she bounced up and down. He could watch her fleshy ass cheeks wobble about as she writhed around on top of him forever, he thought. It was a sight that would never lose its appeal.
Nyx slowed, pulled herself up off of him, and picked something up off the floor before turning to him and getting on top of him again, using her hand to guide him back inside of her. She gasped as he slid inside of her while he moaned with pleasure. She moved about slowly, grinding her hips down onto him as she fiddled with the ration packet she’d picked up.
‘What is that?’ he asked under his breath.
‘Something tasty,’ she said as she held it above her breasts and squeezed the packet.
Chocolate sauce poured out of the packet, onto her chest, and over her nipples.
Nero leant forward and licked it off her. Amazing food served off his favourite dish? He could almost forget they were living in a world gone mad.<
br />
As he licked her clean, he laid her back while their movements grew more frantic as his pleasure increased. Nyx came before he did, pulling his hips towards her with her hands as he felt her tighten around him. She moaned as her body spasmed with pure pleasure. Nero climaxed not long after, pressing himself as deep into her as he could when he released himself. It was the most wonderful feeling.
Afterwards, Nero lay back on the bench with his lover on top of him.
‘So, what’s better: me or the food?’ she asked.
‘Oh, you, of course. It’s no contest,’ he answered her.
‘Good,’ she said with a smile and kissed him.
‘The food’s a close second, though,’ he added with a grin.
Nyx put on a melodramatic look of shock. ‘Pig,’ she said accusingly as she got off of him.
Nero chuckled quietly to himself as sounds of movement clanged from not too far away in the ship. Nero froze, and so did Nyx as they listened intently. Quieter sounds of movement followed. It wasn’t far away, though, and Nero was about as sure as he could be that these weren’t just natural noises from the ship itself. These sounded like they were being made by something moving about inside the ship itself.
‘You hear that?’ Nyx whispered.
‘You’re damn right I do,’ Nero said quietly, standing up and zipping up his trousers. Nyx stepped into her bodysuit and pulled it back on as quietly as she could. Within moments, they were dressed and as quickly and quietly as they could before picking their weapons up.
They had learnt a week or so into their freedom from the Watchtower that they just couldn’t wait for the perfect moment for them to have some time together. Their world was one of fire and death, of violence and horror, and they needed to snatch whatever small amount of pleasure from it that they could, whenever they could, because those perfect moments never really came. There was always another danger, another zombie or mutant around the corner waiting for them. It was just the way it was, and there wasn’t much they could do about it.
Life in the wasteland was often short, brutal, and violent. Few ever really found love or happiness, so you took it where ever you found it.
Right now, Nero had found it with Nyx. He’d found something that he hadn’t even been aware that he’d needed. His life before finding Nyx had been one of survival, until he’d chosen to take a chance on someone, to take a chance on something greater, something more than just mere existence.
Right now, the way this had worked out, it was the greatest thing he’d ever done. Somehow, Nyx brought light and life into his world of darkness and death, and she did it with an optimism that he’d not seen in a long time.
She revelled in her freedom, wringing every last moment of fun and excitement out of her day, and to see it and be a part of it was intoxicating.
Nyx looked up at him and caught him looking at her.
‘What?’ she asked. ‘Why are you looking at me? Is something on backwards?’ she said, looking down at herself.
‘No, no, no, nothing like that. Sorry, I just got lost in thought,’ he said, shaking his head as he heard some further movement. He looked at the door and then at the hundreds of ration packs on the floor.
‘Quickly, gather as much of these rations as you can; we might not be able to get back here as easily as we’d like,’ he said and started to fill his pockets. He pulled the bag off his back and set it down on the floor so they could both fill it. In under a minute the bag was filled with food, but it had barely dented the number of rations that were in here.
Even if it wasn’t today, Nero knew for sure he’d want to return here sometime. This was a treasure trove bigger than any he’d found before.
Picking up the bag and shouldering it, he moved to the door and peeked outside, seeing nothing but the empty mess hall.
Stepping out to get a better look, he listened again, waiting, and sure enough, the sound of movement came again, along with a better idea of where it was coming from. Nero moved across the room towards a doorway, and with his shotgun up and ready, eased around the corner. The corridor was deserted and very dark. Movement echoed down the hallway again.
‘This way,’ Nero whispered to Nyx, who was close behind him. She nodded.
Nero stepped into the hallway and crept slowly along it, taking furtive glances into the side rooms he passed but always moving towards the sounds they could hear.
Moments later, he was about as sure as he could be that he was standing outside the room the noise was coming from when the sound of shuffling and possibly of a footstep or two sounded from inside.
Nero took a quiet breath and glanced at Nyx. She nodded, and fixed her eyes on the door, holding her sword ready.
Nero stepped forward and kicked the door open. It slammed into the wall beside it as he moved into the room with Nyx on his heels and pointed his gun at the figure inside.
A short man staggered backwards and raised his hands with a look of pure terror on his face as he stared up at Nero.
Nero frowned. The man was not what he’d expected. He was short with a hunched back that was covered with boils and pustules. He face seemed deformed on one side with a lazy eye while rotten teeth stood like yellow gravestones jutting from his gums.
His thin, spindly looking arms were raised, his miss-shaped hands held palms out in surrender as he waited.
He wore shorts that looked like they hadn’t been removed since the cataclysm, a bag over his shoulder, and not much else. Nero glanced around the room and noticed the open storage units. He guessed he’d been scavenging, much like he and Nyx had been. He was clearly some kind of mutant, but there were degrees of mutation. It varied from people who looked deformed, but were otherwise just regular people, through those who’d had their minds warped and were a danger to others, to those who had been thoroughly changed, to the point that you weren’t even sure if they were human anymore.
At first glance, this one appeared to be the former of those three options, but you couldn’t be too sure.
‘Wait, wait, Runt surrender,’ the little man said, cowering away from Nero’s gun. ‘Don’t shoot me.’
‘Who are you?’ Nero asked.
‘What are you doing here?’ Nyx said, stepping up beside Nero.
The mutant looked over at Nyx, his eyes widening with recognition. ‘Nyx?’ he asked. ‘Which mean, you Nero?’
Nero frowned and moved slightly forward in a threatening manner. ‘How do you know my name?’
‘Um, well—’ the mutant said, but his words were cut off by a monstrous roar that echoed through the bowels of the ship. Nero glanced between the mutant and Nyx, both of whom looked suitably scared by what they had just heard and felt no small degree of terror himself.
‘Aaah crap,’ Nero said.
Chapter 3
Nero
‘Oh, no,’ the mutant said. ‘Come, now. We must go; yes, can’t stay here. No, Can’t. We must go, now.’
‘Wait, hold it,’ Nero said, threatening the mutant with his gun. ‘Who are you? Is this a trap?’
‘No, no, no trap. Me Runt. We must go. Come, now. We go, yes. Before mutant come, yes?’
‘Runt, you say?’ Nero said as another roar boomed through the superstructure of the destroyer. Nero looked around, listening to the inhuman sound, and then looked at Nyx. She looked back and nodded. Nero turned to the little man and prodded the end of his shotgun into Runt’s chest. ‘You do anything to make me think you’re double-crossing me, and you won’t live to see tomorrow, got it?’
‘Yes yes, of course, Nero, sir. Runt not hurt you, Runt friend. Come, come, I must warn him.’
‘Him?’ Nero said, stopping Runt from moving further.
‘Master, yes, Runt must warn master. Master know you, too. Master friend, yes?’
Nero paused for a moment, staring at the mutant, weighing up his options as Runt’s eyes looked back, flicking to Nyx and back to him, waiting for Nero’s choice.
Something about this man, this mutant, see
med genuine. He was clearly scared, and he didn’t look like he’d be any kind of threat. He didn’t want to kill him, either, not if he was genuinely friendly. The bellowing roar came again, a little closer this time. Nero glanced at the door, and then back to the mutant.
‘Okay, sure. Let’s go. Lead us to your master,’ Nero said.
‘Yes, yes. Runt will. Come, follow,’ he said and moved towards the door. He peered out and along the corridor in both directions before looking back. ‘Come with Runt. Come, this way,’ he said and set off deeper into the ship.
Nero followed, keeping a few steps behind the little man, but being careful not to get too close as they started to move down the corridor. He wanted enough space to react should this Runt turn on them. Runt moved quite quickly despite his obvious disability, and hopped nimbly over the debris that had fallen into the corridors two decades ago, and which was now rusted to the floor.
Nero suspected he’d be able to run through these corridors at quite a clip, but he was being careful and paused at intersections, listening and peering around them before picking a direction and moving off.
He seemed to know where he was going, which if Nero’s sense of direction was right, was deeper into the ship, heading towards the stern. The roars and banging from the depths of the ship were clearly behind them now. Nero looked back, Nyx was right behind him, but he didn’t like the idea of her being the closest one to whatever it was that was chasing them. When they reached the next stretch of clear corridor, Nero stepped to one side and ushered Nyx past him and then followed close behind her, her long trench coat kicked up by her heels.
‘Come, come, not far now; master not far,’ Runt said.
‘I hope so,’ Nero answered him, glancing behind him once more as more monstrous sounds reached his ears.
Runt yelled from up front. A terrified, surprised sort of sound.
Wasteland Road Knights Trilogy Page 17