Rapture (Apocalypse Gates Author's Cut Book 1)

by Daniel Schinhofen

  She closed to point blank range from behind and her shotgun barked in rapid succession as she emptied it into the beast. It staggered to the side, bleeding heavily from the wound she opened in its back.

  Clacking, it turned to run off, only to stop suddenly. It came face to face with Alvin, now back on his feet with the Tommy gun reloaded. He fired controlled bursts into its face, the bullets punching through its eyes this time. The monster dropped like a stone as the bullets ricocheted inside the exoskeleton, shredding it.

  Panting, he looked up to find James, Bill and Becky all staring at him. “I’m no bug’s fucking chew toy.”

  “No, you’re MY fucking chew toy,” Becky replied, stepping forward to kiss him hard.

  After a minute, they separated. Bill and James were both pointedly keeping watch, looking everywhere but at the couple. Bill coughed, “This isn’t good. Our guns had way too much trouble punching through that thing’s shell.”

  “Need to upgrade guns for jacketed ammo, or slugs in the case of the shotguns. Then it’ll ignore half the armor value of what you hit with it. That would have punched through.” Alvin stopped suddenly as his eyes fell on his own leg still lying on the ground. With a shuddering breath he looked away, “Another reason we should work on upgrading buildings. He looked down at his no longer damaged leg. Even his jeans had been repaired. “That is freaky as shit.”

  “You will be getting another of those kits?” Becky asked, but it sounded more like a command.

  “Of course. It just saved my life. Cheap at the price. Okay, do we call it or keep going?” Alvin asked Bill.

  “We haven’t seen a lot of the oddities, maybe we can keep going for another hour or two.”

  “Okay, let’s get back to it,” Alvin turned toward his car. He looked over his shoulder at Becky to find her looking at him. “Thank you.”

  Her lips quirked up, “Can’t have my Hero dying on me, now can I? If you died, who would be my fuck-toy?”

  He laughed once, “You didn’t panic. You are damn near the perfect companion.”

  “Oh but I am perfect, just you wait and see,” she replied as they followed the tow truck to the next group of vehicles.

  They didn’t encounter any other monsters, but they did hear the sound of gunfire from the direction of the looters. The quartet looked that way, but continued to work. When they finally called it a day, everyone but Bill drove the three nearest drivable cars to the compound. Bill followed in the tow truck, the corpse of the scorpion dragging along behind it. The Mustang was left parked off the road in town, since Alvin knew he could summon it to him at the Settlement.

  Alvin smiled at the twenty-three cars lined the sides of the road, as they followed the rig through the gates. Everyone pitched in to help unload the trailer into the Scrapper. Most of them winced at the zombie corpses, trying hard to handle them as little as possible.

  Everyone eyed the dead arachnid as it was dragged into the scrapper by Alvin, his severed leg on top of the corpse. He turned to face the gathered Settlers as Susan rolled the door closed. “That proves it’s not just dogs and cats mutating. The armor on that thing was almost too much for our current guns. Take your time and aim for the eyes, the bullets can punch through there. The tail can be damaged and removed with enough fire power, as well. I lost a leg to that one. It sheared right through the bone. The armor on my jacket saved my arm, but it still hurts like a bitch. The moral here is, stay vigilant and if need be run away. We can’t fix dead, or at least not yet.”

  He started towards the bunker, then realized that the Inn was finished. He changed direction, heading that way instead. He heard conversation from the people gathered around the Scrapper, but ignored them. Susan called out to him that dinner would be in two hours. He waved to signal he’d heard as he entered the Inn.

  He looked around the main room with a nod. Terry came in behind him, “Rooms for the day cost one hundred XP and go up from there. It’s a grand for the big room.”

  Alvin nodded as he went to the bar. A number of bottles were lined up along the wall behind the bar. He spotted several that he knew had been scavenged in the past few days. “What about the rest of it?”

  “Drinks run anywhere from a few dozen XP to a few hundred, depending on what you want,” Terry told him as she slipped behind the bar.

  “I’ll take the best room for the night. Becky will be sharing it with me.” A pop-up appeared in front of him, asking him to confirm renting the room for 1000 XP. He clicked yes and a key appeared in his hand. “Well, that was interesting.” He met Terry’s eyes, “Do you want a different job? This one isn’t going to be generating much XP.”

  “I’m fine, I don’t think I’ll be needing much,” she replied. “If there’s nothing else you want right now, I’m going to head over to the bunker and see how everyone is getting on.”

  “Works. Hey, maybe suggest to James he play in here tonight?”

  Grinning, she nodded, “Already did.”

  “See you in a bit then, Gran,” he said as he took the stairs to the second floor to find his room.

  The room looked a lot like a hotel suite. Big room with a king-sized bed, a sofa, a desk and chair. The room had an attached bathroom that surprised Alvin. The walk-in shower was big enough for three or four people, it even had multiple shower heads. The bathtub was equally large, with molded seating and what looked like Jacuzzi nozzles.

  He was grinning over his discovery when he heard a knock on the door. He opened it to find Becky with a suitcase in her hand. “Maid service. Can I turn down your bed, or maybe you’d prefer me to warm it instead?”

  He stepped aside, “I will be more than happy to avail myself of your offers tonight.”

  She nudged the door shut with her foot, dropping the case inside the door. “Susan said we have about two hours. I want to give you a complete checkup and make sure you have no other injuries.”

  “Round two?”

  Her eyes sparkled, “Round two, fight.”

  Alvin snagged her hand, pulling her hard to his chest. He grinned down at her as he lowered his head to claim a passionate kiss. The kiss was full of desire, but also tempered as they took the time to explore the other’s wants.

  When the kiss finally came to an end, Becky looked at him with mischievous eyes, “Think you can take the top spot this time, Hero?”

  “Probably not,” Alvin told her as he spun her around so her back was pressed to his chest. “I’m going to take my time and explore all of your delightful curves.” His hands roamed over her wide hips, up her rounded stomach, before finally cupping her massive breasts. “Got to find where all your buttons are, don’t I?”

  Becky pressed her ass against his groin, feeling his growing excitement. “Going to try to find them all?”

  Chuckling he stripped her shirt off, “That is my objective. Well, besides making your eyes roll into the back of your head.”

  “Challenge accepted,” Becky panted as one of his hands slipped into her jeans. She widened her legs, giving him better access as she began to undo her jeans.

  The talking came to a stop as his hands roamed over her lushly padded body. He delighted in her moans and gasps of pleasure as he explored her. He eventually got her onto the bed so he could again taste her.

  “Hmm, that’s it, Hero. You did so well the first time, don’t fail me now,” Becky breathed as he began to kiss her mound.

  He took his time, even though she begged and pleaded with him to go faster. His lips kissed every inch of her wet womanhood before he began to caress her flesh with his tongue. Her legs wrapped around his shoulders as she tried to pull him even closer to her.

  “Stop teasing me, Hero, please,” her voice was pleading and breathless.

  He grinned at her need, and giving in he let his tongue dig into her wet folds. Her deep moan sent a shiver of desire through him. He started with strong firm laps of her sex, covering every inch but the one she wanted most.

  When he felt her hands reach for his he
ad, he grabbed her wrists, holding her firmly. He pulled his face back enough to meet her lust crazed eyes. “I’m exploring, you needy slut. At my pace, in my time. You just lay there and beg some more. Maybe I’ll give you what you really want.”

  Becky tried to glare at him, but the euphoric high of being held near the crest of orgasm spoiled the effect. “I’ll get you back for this, Hero.”

  Grinning, he lowered his head, keeping her hands locked with his. His tongue fluttered across her clit, making her gasp and her hips rise up. “Maybe, but not right now,” Alvin chuckled as he went back to letting his tongue caress her.

  He continued his exquisite torture of her for minutes, her moans and gasps becoming more frantic as he kept her hovering at the edge. He eventually relented and began to pay her love button the attention she begged for.

  As soon as his tongue flicked across it, her back arched as she was but a small step from the orgasm he had denied her all this time. Knowing she was on edge, he gave her another firm lick, before clamping down hard on it with his lips.

  Her guttural moan as she finally got her release was music to his ears. He upped the ante by vibrating his lips as if he was playing a trumpet. Her sudden gasp as her hips began to buck, let him know he had her cresting immediately into a second orgasm. He let up, and watched her begin to calm before he nibbled at her engorged clit with his teeth. This time her moan came out sounding more like a starved beast as she broke his hold on her hands and pressed his face hard into her.

  Once she calmed enough to let his head go, he took a few ragged gasps, reclaiming the oxygen he had been denied while being held. Sliding up her limp body he smiled at her as he slid his cock into her.

  He moaned along with her as both of them became focused on what was to come next. “Ready to give me some pleasure back, Gothy?”

  “Take me, Hero, use me,” Becky pleaded softly as her hips shifted to grind into his. “I want you to fill me again.”

  Nothing more needed to be said, so he began to take her. He did his best to focus on what he wanted to do, and not the sensations of her snug tunnel gripping his manhood. He went slow, watching her for cues as he tried different angles of penetration.

  She rode the pleasure, cresting again and again. She was in heaven, no man she had been with had spent so long trying to bring her to such levels of pleasure like Alvin was right now.

  Once he found the angle she liked best he began to increase his pace. His breathing becoming ragged as he struggled to hold back his own pending release. “Not,” he panted, “not going to last much longer.”

  “Good,” Becky husked back at him. “Give it to me. Fill me again Hero, claim my body as yours, please.”

  That was all he needed to hear as he began to frantically hammer into her. His mind went fuzzy as his own orgasm finally washed through him. He grunted as he hammered her for another minute after the last drop filled her body. Panting, his arms trembled as he held himself aloft above her own quivering body.

  “How did I do this time?” Alvin asked as he dropped onto the bed next to her.

  “You claimed the top spot…” Becky replied, her voice dropped to a whisper, “like you have me.”

  “Gothy?” He waited until she looked up through her lashes at him. “Will you be the crazy sociopath who sticks with me, like Harley did with the Joker?”

  Her eyes opened wide, her mouth dropping open in surprise, “I thought I was the only one thinking that.” She climbed on top of him and kissed him repeatedly. When she finally stopped she met his eyes, as if searching for something in his. “You mean it?”

  “You don’t panic, you fuck like a mynx, you promised to always have my back. And you have proven that you will. You patched me up without batting an eye when my leg was torn off, and that wasn’t just a flesh wound. So yes, I mean it.” He caressed her face gently, “Will you?”

  “I’m broken, you know that. You killed my dad in front of me, to protect me, just the other day and here I am fucking you three times in the same day. I’ve been scarred in ways I can’t talk about. I’m not stable, don’t think I am, but if you will accept me then, fuck yes. I’ll be your Harley if you’ll be my Joker, but I’m going to call you Hero instead.”

  He tangled a hand in her hair and pulled her down sharply, kissing her roughly. After a moment, he broke the kiss and met her eyes, “We are both flawed, broken people, but we know it. Others won’t understand us, not really, but we can understand each other. Now get off, we need to get dinner.”

  She ground her hips against his, “It’ll take me a minute to get off, but if you want to help…” Her laughter as he rolled his eyes was bright and pure. She froze at the sound of her own laughter, a shiver running through her, “I didn’t think I would feel that emotion again.”

  “Joy?” he asked as he rolled her over. She nodded, her face shifting expression as she tried to come to terms with something. He leaned over, making her focus on him, “I felt it earlier. It’s been years, and I was uncertain of what it was, but I know now. With you it feels right.” He rolled off the bed and stretched, “Quick shower, then food.”

  Becky lay there watching him, feeling the same warmth in her chest that he had earlier. “Because of you?”

  He met her eyes, “Because of you.”

  She got up languidly, “Am I just the love interest in your game? Or is this real?”

  “I can ask Jarvis if you want me to. Frankly, I’m going to go with real. The people running this were absolutely fine with the zombies eating me within the first five minutes after I woke up. If you are ‘just being my love interest’, expect me to jam the ‘have sex’ button every damn time.”

  Lips pursed, she nodded, “Good. You scrub my back, I’ll scrub all of you.”

  “Deal, Gothy,” he took her hand and tugged her after him into the bathroom.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  When they finally left the Inn, they discovered most of the Settlement residents gathered near the gates. Three buses were pulling through the gates. Alvin walked over to Susan and Bill, “Any ideas?”

  “They showed up down the road and sent one person forward to ask if they could stop for the night. It seems I-70 is kind of fucked and they’re looking for a detour,” Bill informed him.

  “We plan to see how many we can convince to stay, which means I’ll need to get more rooms built tomorrow.” Susan added, stepping forward as the bus doors opened, “Welcome to Wild Bill’s Holdout. We are a functioning Settlement, and if you don’t know what that means, we can help explain what’s happening in the world. Dinner will be in an hour or so once I know how many of you there are.”

  Alvin recognized the man who stepped out of the first bus. Randy nodded at Susan, “We’re looking for shelter for the night, but we’ll gladly accept dinner along with it. We have about sixty people, about a third of them are teens.”

  “Randy, what happened to the drug dealer, the addict and their friend?” Alvin called out to him.

  Head snapping around to Alvin, Randy’s mouth fell open, “You’re with them?”

  “I’m the one who got this Settlement started. It’s turning out that the world is even more gamey than I had thought. What happened to the trio of trouble?”

  “Cody Carter, Kyle Smith and Ava Silca all died in a night attack. They opted to sleep in the jeep, and the zombies killed them. We killed the zombies, including them as they stood back up. It was bad,” Randy shook his head.

  “No big loss,” Alvin snorted. “Well, go ahead and offload. We don’t have room for you all in the buildings, but we can by tomorrow night for those that want to stay. Susan and Bill will fill you in on how things work around here.”

  Randy nodded as he turned to the other buses and made a come along motion. The other bus doors opened and people began to pour out of them. One of the buses was full of teenagers, twenty in total along with a single teacher. The second bus carried Japanese tourists. The Val-mart crowd occupied the first bus, which Alvin remembered from the
mission.

  The people from Val-mart stared at Alvin in surprise as they recognized him. “Welcome to safety, folks. It’s been awhile.” He looked at the ragged man who had the damaged arm, “How’s the arm?”

  “Bad,” the man winced. “I think it’s getting infected.”

  “Take the shirt off,” Alvin said as he stepped forward, pulling out one of his medkits. “Everyone, pay attention. This is one of the ways your world has changed.” He waited until he had an audience as the guy with the child at his side took off his shirt, showing the bandage. “Unwrap it, we have nurses who can look at it.”