by P. S. Power
Well, everyone had lost someone. More to the point, almost no one had anyone left at all. Just the new people that the collapse of the entire world had forced on them. Like him. Sandy too.
Chris... He was great though, wasn't he? He didn't love Nate, of course. Rita either, if it came to that. Honestly, if he were being honest with himself, who the man loved most was probably Samuel. The laid back and gentle soul that was working on the firewood for the winter. It was a thing that Nathaniel could see, when he looked at it. It was more about being one of the last good people left, rather than anything else. The rest of them were all broken and hard now. Even the ones that were too afraid to go outside most days.
Still, he needed to have contact with someone, and no one else was really willing to sleep with him that he was interested in. A few of the women had offered. Some more than once. That was kind of them, but they just didn't do anything for him at all. So Chris had stood up, and come to him, making sure he wasn't alone.
A sudden pain struck him then. First for Miguel. That had been so hard. Seeing him turn, and then be destroyed like he was. A part of him wanted to die, even thinking about it. Some of the others were good at hiding from their own minds, but that was never a skill that he'd picked up. Not yet. He tried though, thinking about the other source of pain, which wasn't nearly so raw for him.
He had someone after all.
It may not be love, but he was allowed a connection. A point of contact with being human.
Jake had been denied that, over and over.
There was so much pain there. Not that he was alone in it, but almost everyone there, in the house, that wanted to be touched, or held, got it. Without much question at all. Even the straight men would have given him a hug if he needed it. Most of them at least.
No wonder Jake was thinking about leaving all the time. It was like no one else really saw it either. Would he have, if he hadn't gotten that straight from the other man's mind? The sad part there being that it was impossible for him to know that.
Then more pain came, thinking about Sandy.
She'd been a failure as a human being, in the end. Others had hurt her and let her down first though. Then Nate came along, and failed her for the final time. It was also creepy that Dave had gotten her to have oral sex with him, then shot her in the head like he had. It was a kindness, of course. In both directions, probably.
Except... Why hadn't he just told her how to get to the little cabin? It had food and water. Yes, it belonged to someone else, but Jake wouldn't have run her off or anything, would he? Not even if he wanted to move back there himself. Possibly not even if it meant his own death.
It... Why hadn't he thought to mention that to her? It would have been a chance for life, after all. His throat started to close down, as he choked up. No tears came. That didn't happen a lot anymore. Not when people could see him do it.
Standing in the upstairs hall, with his eyes closed, Nate took a hundred slow, deep breaths. Then he went to help with the firewood. After all, they weren't going to survive if they didn't all work now. That was the rule, wasn't it? They all had to do their part. That, and pray that it was enough.
Sometimes, he really had to wonder if it ever could be.
Casualties of War- Victoria Yallasdaughter
Her first reflex, hearing the morons go after their war leader like they were, was to execute them. Just shoot them in the head, right on the spot. That one of the dim-brained slack jaws was her own older sister didn't actually make the whole thing better for her either. Vickie, she realized, was pissed. Especially at Skolu the numb-mind. Tipper, as they called her in the states.
Her sister truly was better than that. She knew not to alienate the people on their side, and if anything, she was better with Western cultural traditions and needs than Victoria was herself. It was clear the outland man in front of them had the right of things, and that the others were wrong. The witches in the house should be sleeping with him.
He was, after all, a fantastic fighter. The best of his kind that she'd ever encountered.
It was a bit galling, but she knew that he was better at it than her. This Human, thin to the point of being nearly skeletal, weak and fragile. He was the greatest fighter she'd ever seen. Not just for one of his kind either.
She might be able to help him with his current troubles, though. If her sister could pull her head out of her own hindquarters long enough to realize she was about to die. Alone though? It would be close. Perhaps impossible.
"It isn't a big deal that people don't like you. Some people just don't feel that way about others." This came from her own sister. Half-sister, thankfully. They wouldn't have to cull the whole bloodline of the family, just her individual branch. Not that Vickie was really planning to do that. Not if she didn't need to. Having another real warrior there had made a vast difference so far. If she wasn't careful though, Tiberia Skolu was about to find herself demoted. Possibly back to trainee. Thrall Skolu. It was something to seriously consider, if she didn't shape up.
It was all she could do not to stab the other woman right then and there, however. Just a little, to remind her not to be such a giant bitch.
Grimacing, she shook her head.
"Shut up. All of you. I can't believe you'd be that... Stupid. Jake isn't telling anyone that they have to sleep with him. I think this is more about, you know, not being a giant bitch, and maybe, I don't know, saying hello when you walk past? It seems pretty reasonable to me."
It was Carley, the blonde woman from Dallas that went next, laying into the situation with her normal aplomb. It was a bit strange though, since Vickie was nearly certain that Jake was making her wet, even as she stood there, mocking him. For real. Vickie could smell it happening. That meant Tipper could, too. That didn't stop her from tearing into the poor guy though. Basically telling him that he didn't matter. She very nearly just called the woman on it. Right there in public. There was no way that she didn't have some ulterior motive, was there?
Nate, their political leader, glanced from face to face, going hard. He had a nice beard, but wasn't much of a fighter at all. Then, this wasn't a battle of might, but rather one of will and fortitude. Or at least common sense, even if that didn't resonate with the way a tale like this one should go. Some insults were best handled with blood.
Under her breath, Vickie whispered, looking at her older sister.
"Ghallo, sett da." Each syllable was given clearly, so that no mistake could be made. It clearly got Skolu to pay attention. It should, since she'd basically just told her that she'd kill her if she said anything more to destroy morale. It was in the old form. The old words of their people, which they only used when they really meant something.
She looked slightly scared then.
It was a trick, after a fashion. After all, if Vickie couldn't take Jake in battle, then Tipper the slutty slacker wasn't going to do any better. He had a disturbing habit of hitting what he aimed for, in some pretty intense situations, after all. Even their kind lost a bit of fine motor control in combat. As far as she could tell, Jake's got better the more intense things got. Whatever he was, it gave him a real edge in that area. He also didn't quit. Not when he was tired, or hurt, or for any reason that she'd ever seen. For a moment, she wondered if he were secretly a Denari.
The combat abilities were there, and the stamina, but he also managed to get along with almost everyone. Plus, he smelled... Good. Denari actually had a slightly musty odor all the time, due to their different chemical structure. Jake was clean, almost all the time, but also very human. A regular man, for all that it was clear that couldn't be the case.
Standing there, Victoria waited, seeing the man shut down in front of them. His hands moved smoothly toward his weapons, which he kept with him all the time. His discipline was nearly total that way. Better than most of her own people. He claimed that there was no prior service in his background, military, or civilian policing, but she didn't really believe it. Everything he did was almost perf
ect that way. Which was why she had to move in again. Before she did, Samantha, the little kitchen girl, walked into the middle of the scene. Clearly on purpose. Facing Jake.
It was brave on a level that nearly made Vickie smile. No one else even seemed to get it however.
"Stop." It was high pitched, but compelling at the same time. They all did it, freezing nearly, except Jake, who shook his head.
"You stop. This needs to end, right now."
It was a tense situation, and her gut told her that people were about to start dying. It was very close, but the little girl, probably not understanding that at all, stood her ground. Even as Heather, the precognitive that had been sabotaging their war leader since the day after her arrival, started nearly screaming. Mainly about how she didn't need the thin man in front of her.
That she'd be fine on her own. That wasn't true though. Without him, she'd have been dead by then. Clearly. More, if she kept up her current stance, Nathaniel would have to remove her from the dwelling. Possibly Carley and Skolu, too. Just the day before their political leader had sentenced a woman to exile for breaking his new rule, which insisted that they not fight there. With each other. That was fiercer of the man that she would have expected. Commanding.
Also correct. Random violence would undermine the social structure of the place. So would this current... crap.
Dave, from her sister's squad of cleaners had taken the woman out and shot her in the head. Vickie had witnessed it herself. It was a kindness, done in a way that saved her pain and suffering. Even some fear.
At least her sister had managed to shut up, letting the tiny female kitchen helper have the floor. That part was done... Well. Better than she would have expected. Then, it was pretty clear that she wasn't normal either, wasn't it? What she was, exactly, Vickie missed. Her eyes looked wrong though. In the dark they would glint occasionally. That could mark her as a member of any of six different groups. Possibly even something different than that. Like Heather, who clearly held power, but was also a human. There had been several people in Victoria's section, The House as a whole, that had shown some rather interesting things over time. Most of them hid it.
Possibly all of them.
It wouldn't shock her to find Nathaniel asking them all to leave. He was a kind being though. A person of true compassion. Even her people had room for that, at times. Not so much on the field of combat, but in most situations, the ones that didn't require survival as the prime motivation. This one did however.
Jake drew down on the rather ripe smelling human girl, which was stopped by a touch on the arm. By Sammi. Her voice was low and she practically sang the word stop again. After a moment, Jake shook his head, as if bespelled, trying to remove his mind from the clutches of the child.
That was interesting. Then, if the girl had powers that way, it wasn't shocking that this warrior would be able to shake her off. He was one of the strongest people she'd ever met. Not too hard on the eyes either. A bit skinnier than she really liked her men, but that was the look now. Everyone worth their salt was thin. Except Carl, who had managed to keep an amount of muscle that probably meant the man had a secret food store somewhere. Not that she blamed him, if that was the case. Sharing made sense, but there were also a lot of people that would have tried to get a bit more for themselves. Most of the others did it. They held back a bit of food, or weapons that no one knew about. Fearing the day that something would break again, and it would all come crashing down.
Possibly starting in this moment.
Sam looked almost amused by the scene, instead of properly fearful.
"No. Heather, you're a dear, but I think that your hormones are causing you to be... Rather difficult at the moment. Perhaps you could stand back right now, and let me deal with this one? Otherwise I fear that you may well find yourself not surviving the hour." Her tone was very polite, but didn't sound like she was joking.
That was something that was hard to keep on top of here. The humor. These people were just so different than the Valkyries were, in so many ways. They were slow, and sloppy, certainly, but that wasn't all of it by half. They joked about almost everything, especially sex. Except that wasn't a game to them like it seemed. They took it very seriously. It was, no doubt, because the human women couldn't control when they had children properly. Every time they had sex, it was a risk. There was a chance that they could fall to child, even in a situation like this.
A true war.
If it had been her doing that, she would have killed herself, before adding an extra burden to her people. When it had been found that so many were having children, Jake had... Surprised her.
Instead of calling for death, or even that the fetuses be aborted, he'd made plans to protect and save them all. They dug a protected bunker, next to the house, so that the sounds wouldn't carry easily to the surface. Even the laziest of the people there helped with that. Digging, getting logs from the small forest nearby. It was hard to understand, to tell the truth.
Not that they'd all help, but that they didn't all the time. Once it had been mentioned that it was for the unborn, they all fell in, as if actually a unit. Too bad they couldn't manage that level of effort daily. If they would, then most of the troubles would fade away in days or weeks.
In front of her, the scene changed, and unfolded, the language a bit hard to track at times. They spoke low, in hushed tones, so that the enemy wouldn't be attracted to their positions. Even as they argued and bickered over things that were far too foolish to be borne, they didn't lose that control over themselves too badly. The fear of death had taught them all some lessons at the very least.
After there was a break in speaking, she reached out and touched the angry human man on the shoulder. They were about the same size, she noticed. He was only an inch taller than she was. Often, when she noticed him, he looked bigger. Not just a little either. As if he towered over the world. A giant amongst the people with them. It wasn't all the time though. That could have been a lot of things, from her simply feeling admiration for him, to some kind of mental disruption caused by a psychic ability.
Not that he wasn't being a bit of a pain at the moment. That, however, shouldn't have been happening at all. He was her sister's man. A member of her team. She should have acted already to make certain he wouldn't have any issues like he was. That she hadn't... That was something that was very wrong. Not the kind of thing that she would have normally expected from Skolu.
For all her problems in life, she knew how to handle people. It was one of the reasons she was a superior instructor. That she couldn't see what she was doing to Jake, right in front of her...
Then Skolu basically challenged the man to a battle that could only end in death.
"He, is wrong. Like I said. Oh, he looks fine enough. Good even, but there's more than that. Deep inside, I... I don't know. It's like something in his soul is broken. Warped into the wrong shape. I can see that he's valuable, but I cannot understand him. I'm too limited to really... be with him, like I should. I know that it isn't fair of me, or right, but I just can't see him... In that way."
Victoria shook her head, her eyes closing for a moment. There was probably no way to save her sister now. She'd been warned, but that hadn't been enough for her. It would have been better for her to hold her tongue, or even simply punch the warrior that stood before her. That would have left him some recourse, other than death.
To her shock, the man just snarked at his assailants, and there was no doubt in her mind that these women had picked him to deliver them to their demise. He also seemed a bit bitter.
"I'll go alone. I don't need this. No one does. I can't believe that none of you realize what you're saying. What harm is being done to me by how you're all acting." It seemed sensible, and calm, compared to the others berating him for feeling estranged from his fellows in the unit.
Finally, Samantha, the tiny girl, placed a hand on her hip, and looked ready to become aggressive.
"No. We aren't doing this. Carley
, come with me, now. We're going to have a talk. Outside."
Finally, someone with some sense had taken over. Vickie felt herself starting to smile again. It was both adorable and funny. She didn't think that the girl was going to harm the other woman however. Carley was armed, favoring the rifle as her weapon of choice. It took greater aiming skill than a shotgun, but also gave greater range. More power too, in a focused fashion. That meant she could take down the undead at a distance.
Trying not to grin like a maniac, she regarded her sister.
"You too, Tipper. Outside. Now. Do what she says." That should be enough. After all, this was North America. Victoria was the commander of the entire continent. Tipper had to follow instructions, older than her or not. For a moment she simply considered ordering her to sleep with Jake. Exclusively.
It made sense, after all. Shaking her head though, she decided against it. Skolu wasn't worth someone like him. Their combat leader should have been the mate of Yalla herself. Since she wasn't around, Vickie decided that she might just see about doing that part. Later though. Right now they had a mission, and if Tipper wasn't going to do her job, then someone else would have to.
"I'll go. I can drive stick. I had some training in it. I mean, I took a class, a long time ago. Carl, you're still in on that right? We should get Barry from your crew, too." That would leave the place stripped of their best defense, but would also ensure that they had a chance to actually get the mission accomplished.
It was a raiding party, going into hostile territory.
Smiling, she gave Jake a flirtatious look. Wondering if he'd consider her, instead of Skolu? Tipper was older, and had a nice body, but Victoria was at least as good that way, if he wasn't hung up on having the oldest woman around. It really didn't seem to be the case. He seemed to like most of the women really. That was clear in the way he kept refraining from executing them for all the ridiculous and stupid things they did.