by Misty Vixen
Delilah moved forward slowly, apparently picking up my intention, and the pregnant woman did seem to relax a little. I turned around and saw Megan standing in plain view of the open door now, glancing periodically in while also keeping watch. I hopped down and joined her back on the road, taking a look around.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“There’s a pregnant woman in there,” I replied.
“Oh fuck,” Megan whispered.
“Yep. And people are chasing her apparently. Go check the cabin of the truck, I’m going to take a look around. We’re going to get her down to the house, okay?”
“On it,” she replied, and set off around the side of the semi.
I moved back over to the left side of the highway and looked carefully out over the structures, the river, the forested area beyond it. I tried to see evidence of people, someone moving around or standing in a window or near a building.
But there was nothing. No one.
We still seemed alone here.
I quickly moved across to the other side and checked it also. Nope, nothing there either. I doubted they’d come up here and somehow missed her, because it didn’t seem like she’d been in that truck for too long.
“Chris, need your help,” Delilah said.
I moved back to the rear of the semi to find the two of them standing there. “Here, I’ll help you down,” I said.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“What’s your name?” I asked as she slowly sat down on the edge of the container.
“Elizabeth Patterson,” she murmured. Whatever Delilah had said to her while I’d been looking seemed to have calmed her down.
“Chris Weston,” I said. “There’s another woman here, her name is Megan. It’s just the three of us.”
“Okay,” she said, and I helped her slowly, carefully down onto the ground. I honestly had not had much experience around pregnant women, and I don’t know if it was sexist or not that I felt like they were like porcelain. I think it was more just fear that I’d hurt them on accident more than anything, not that I thought they were weak. And probably some residual primal urge to protect a pregnant woman. You know, that whole ‘perpetuate the species’ thing ticking along regardless of whatever the fuck was happening in the real world.
But I figured too much caution was better than too little.
“Here,” I said, taking off my jacket without really thinking about it, because she looked not only freezing, but just awful, like she was nearly dead on her feet. She had a jacket, but it didn’t seem like it was enough, and I’d make do without it, given we didn’t have far to go.
“Oh, I...thank you,” she murmured, putting it on. “Where did you say we’re going?”
I led her over to the guardrail and pointed. “There.”
She nodded. “Okay...I hope I can make it. I’m so tired…”
“I’ll carry you if it comes to it,” I replied.
She looked at me, and I saw conflicting emotions playing across her face. I knew what she was thinking: that she didn’t know me at all, and she was being forced to put her life in my hands. I felt good that she could trust me, but bad that I couldn’t meaningfully convey that. Ultimately, though, she just seemed resigned to the situation, probably too tired for anything else. I wondered how long she’d been going.
“Come on, let’s move,” I said.
Megan hopped out of the cab, startling Elizabeth. “Sorry,” she said. “Cab’s clear,” she added, looking at me. “We good?”
“We’re good. We need to get to the house. Will you go on ahead of us and clear it? I’d do it myself, but I’m worried Elizabeth here is going to pass out or something, and I’m probably the only one here who can safely carry her.”
Megan pursed her lips, then nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll get on it.”
She hopped the guardrail and began making her way down the snowy slope beyond, which was at a decent enough grade that she didn’t have much trouble navigating it. We, on the other hand, had to go to the off-ramp. We trudged along, walking through the snow, and I was careful to watch Elizabeth. I wanted to ask her questions, but she seemed to be having enough trouble just staying upright. I also resisted the urge to take a quick detour over to the opposite side of the highway and get another look to see if anyone was coming now.
In the end, I did do that when we reached the off-ramp. I had Delilah stay with Elizabeth and I jogged over and took another look.
Still nothing.
Good, I guess.
I hated unknowns, though. But whatever, I had a clear goal and a ticking clock. Although I didn’t know the specifics, I knew that it was bad for a person to be in the cold for too long, and it was worse for a pregnant woman. Pretty much all things were. Worse for a pregnant woman to fall down, get sick, go too long without sleep or food.
Elizabeth ended up taking my hand on the way down the ramp and I kept her upright. After what felt like too long, too many minutes, we made it down to the bottom. Megan had already disappeared into the house by now. I hadn’t heard any gunshots and the wind wasn’t too bad right now, so I felt confident I would if there were any to hear. Although it was possible someone could take her out without shooting her, or her getting a shot off.
Whatever. Regardless, I needed to get there.
I split my attention as best I could between the house and Elizabeth.
We made it maybe halfway there before she stopped, breathing heavily. “I...fuck...I need a break,” she murmured tiredly.
“Can I carry you? We’re almost there and we need to get you warm,” I replied.
She looked at me and for the first time actually smiled. “Okay,” she said.
I carefully scooped her up in my arms. Even noticeably pregnant, she didn’t weigh that much, and I was glad to see I could manage her weight pretty easily. I heard her let out a sigh of relief as we started walking.
“Thank for helping me,” she said, then yawned.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, kicking my way through the snow, very careful not to lose my balance. Fuck, that was the last thing I needed right now.
We kept on going, me waddling through the snow, trying to keep an eye out and an ear out for Megan, hoping she’d reemerge before we got there and give the all clear. Delilah had her gun out, and I was really glad I hadn’t had to tell her.
It was a near thing, but Megan beat me, coming back out of the house, looking calm. “It’s clear in there,” she reported.
“Thank God,” Elizabeth whispered.
“Did you come from this direction?” I asked.
“No, other side,” she replied, then yawned again.
“Tell me there’s a bed in there,” I said as we walked into the house. It was a two-story affair, though not too big otherwise.
“Up here,” Megan replied, and I resisted the urge to groan. Steps, great. My legs were aching after this and the three days of walking, but whatever, I could do it.
I did it, following her up, Delilah behind me. We came to a little hallway and moved to its end, where a door led to a master bedroom. There was, indeed, a bed, a king sized one, in the room. Megan pulled the blankets back for me and I carefully laid Elizabeth out. I began to ask her something, then realized she was passed out.
“Is she okay?” Delilah murmured.
“I think so, she must be exhausted,” I replied, carefully and gently getting my coat back, now that she was under blankets and I had to go back outside. “Okay, Delilah, stay here with her. Try and find some more blankets. Also, if you can, check her over. See if she’s cut or anything. I don’t think she is, but I don’t want her bleeding out. Megan, with me.”
Both women nodded and we set off. I led Megan back downstairs. There was a fireplace in a den at the back of the house, and it led right up through the bedroom upstairs. There was no firewood left in or around it, but when I went to the back door and stepped through into the backyard, I saw there was still a healthy supply in a bin nearby.
Megan and I stocked up. We brought a few armfuls in and piled some in the fireplace, then set the rest nearby.
“Can you get it started? I need to make sure we’re secure,” I said.
“Yeah, I’m on it,” Megan replied.
I got up and got to work.
ELEVEN
It was relatively easy to secure the house.
Locked down the windows, locked the front and back doors, then grabbed two of the remaining chairs from the dining room and shoved them up under the knobs. While the place had obviously been hit by wandering hands, it apparently hadn’t got to the point where people were breaking down furniture. After I finished locking everything down, I rejoined Megan back at the fireplace. She was just getting done with it.
Slowly, I sat down, groaning. “Fuck, I thought you were supposed to start getting old in your thirties,” I muttered.
She rolled her eyes. “You are. You’re not old, you’re just tired and sore.” Suddenly, she turned and stared at me with a new intensity.
“What?” I asked after a moment.
“I’m trying to decide if you’re really as good a guy as you appear, or if you actually just stepped up and saved that woman’s life so you could bang a hot pregnant chick.” I felt a flash of real anger at that and it must have registered on my face because before I could even respond she raised both hands immediately. “Okay. Whoa! Stop. Sorry. I-I didn’t-I was just joking,” she said quickly, which then made me feel bad because apparently I’d actually frightened her.
I hadn’t meant to do that.
I forced myself to relax. “It’s fine,” I said.
“No, it was a shitty thing to say. I’m really sorry.”
“I accept your apology. I just…” I sighed and looked at the fire for a moment. “I get so tired of having my motives questioned. Honestly, I get it for most people. It seems like everyone fucks you over or, at best, is just out for themselves. It’s worse than ever now, because there’s no real cops around. You have to watch out for yourself. But I’m not...an asshole. I just look like one, apparently, and everyone treats me like one.”
Megan leaned forward suddenly and hugged me to her. “Stop. Please,” she whispered. I hugged her back. “I’m honestly sorry. I just...it’s really hard to stop expecting the worst from people. Even people I like. I was mostly joking, anyway.”
I laughed, unable to help it, and I let myself laugh. I felt her body relax as I did. “Fair enough.” I gave her a kiss as she pulled back. “And, to be honest, I mean...if she came onto me…”
“Oh come on, you’re her fucking savior, I saw the way she was looking up at you when you carried her up to the house. I bet she’s having a wet dream about you right now.”
“I think I saw a ring on her finger…”
“Chris,” Megan said, like I had just missed something incredibly obvious, “fucking bet that one of the guys ‘after her’ is her husband.”
I blinked. Thought about that. Then nodded slowly, unhappily.
She was probably right.
Then something else occurred to me. Something unhappy. “If I were to have sex with her...would that be exploitative?”
Megan considered it. “Well, she is a desperate, pregnant woman on the run from people. If we take her at her word. Which I do, honestly. And you are in a position to help her, or withhold that help. I think that, even if you were fully going to help her even if she had no intention of having sex with you, and I believe that you do, if you were to ask, she might feel obligated to say yes, because she’d be afraid that you wouldn’t help her if she didn’t fuck you. So, this is what I think: don’t bring it up. Don’t mention it or even hint at it. If she wants to bring it up, on the other hand…”
“Then I’m in the clear?” I asked.
“Yes. I’d say make sure you have her explicit consent, make sure she’s comfortable with it, but, you know, you tend to do that anyway, from what I’ve seen. And just so you know, yeah, I’m cool with it if you fuck her. Since Delilah gets off on it, obviously she will be.”
“Yeah…” I shrugged after a moment. “I doubt it’ll come up, honestly.”
Megan laughed and rolled her eyes. “You don’t know people too well, huh? Most people tend to think about things they want to do, things they wished they’d done, after a harrowing experience. I’m willing to bet she wishes she’d banged more hot dudes in her life. I mean just about everyone wishes they’d had more sex, and there is something to the notion of arousal following a near-death experience. People all say that when it happens in the movies it’s bullshit, but honestly it’s not. I mean it’s all adrenaline, horniness and fear, why do you think so many guys take girls to horror movies on first dates? Gets the adrenaline pumping, and if you’re around someone you think is hot, it’s really easy for those wires to get crossed.”
“Huh,” I said. I laughed suddenly. “We have the weirdest conversations.”
“I like that,” Megan replied with a smile that was beautiful to see.
“Let’s make dinner.”
Megan nodded and we set to work. I frowned as I began getting the stuff out and preparing the meal. We had a fourth mouth to feed. Technically four and a half now. Because whatever happened, not only did I very much doubt that we were going to be able to safely part company for awhile, but I wasn’t going to leave her high and dry. Unless she outright betrayed us, which was still very possible, I knew nothing about this woman beyond the fact that she was terrified and pregnant and married, (probably, why else would she wear a wedding ring though?). Then I’d have to leave her. But why would she betray us?
I didn’t think she would. I thought she was genuine, and Megan and Delilah seemed to be in agreement with that assessment.
But that meant our food supply just got cut by probably a third.
We’d managed to shore up our meals a little bit with a few food items found on the three-day journey that got us here, but not by much. So we’d eaten into the supply of food we’d gotten from Dana during those days.
“I’m going to have to hunt tomorrow,” I muttered as we sorted through the stuff.
“If there’s time,” Megan replied.
“We’ll have to make time.”
“What if her hubby comes knocking?”
“We lie to him and see if we can throw him off the trail. If it comes to it, we blow him away,” I replied. Megan just grunted. I wasn’t quite comfortable with the fact that she didn’t even ask ‘what if Elizabeth did something to deserve this?’ Though honestly, and this was probably really biased, it was tough to justify the killing of a pregnant woman. Or maybe they weren’t looking to kill her, just control her. Yeah, much more likely.
Well, if she didn’t want to go back, I clearly was not in the habit of letting men try to control women.
“We’ll go for vegetable beef soup, yeah?” I asked.
“Fine,” she replied.
We took a moment, pouring in two cans of vegetable soup, one of the cans of surplus beef, and then fortified it with another can of mixed vegetables. I added enough water from one of my bottles, then stirred it up and set the pot in front of the fire.
“I’m going to go check on her,” I said.
“I’ll tend the soup,” Megan replied.
I nodded and got up. Heading upstairs, I glanced out one of the windows. It was pretty much full dark now. At least it wasn’t snowing, and the house was heating up nicely. When I walked back into the master bedroom, I saw Delilah had taken up a chair by the fireplace and was reading a book by the flickering light of a candle she’d set up and lit on the mantle.
“How are we doing?” she asked quietly as I came in.
“Good. We’re secure, we’ve got firewood, dinner’s going. I haven’t seen anyone or anything. But I’m going to have to hunt tomorrow, if possible. Unless some miracle solution presents itself, we’re going to take her with us. If that’s what she wants, and she seems like she’s outta options. Which means we need more food.”
Delilah nodded. “Yeah…”
“How is she?” I asked, walking slowly over to her, stopping an arm’s length away and looking down at her. I remembered meeting Delilah had gone a little something like this. Despite everything...yeah, I was honestly hoping she’d come onto me. I mean, why wouldn’t I? She was quite attractive. Some of her color had come back, though she was still very pale, and now that she was sleeping, she looked much more peaceful. She had chin-length dark black hair and I remembered her eyes being a wonderful shade of blue.
“She isn’t hurt, from what I could tell. Seems to be sleeping peacefully now.” Delilah stopped speaking abruptly and I glanced over. I was a little surprised to see her genuinely pissed. “What the fuck kind of pieces of shit send a pregnant woman into such a terrified frenzy that she ends up freezing half to death in a semi?” she growled.
“Pretty standard fare pieces of shit nowadays, unfortunately,” I replied.
“You saved her,” she murmured after a moment, seemingly getting herself back under control. “Just like you saved me. And Megan. Twice.”
“I guess so.” I looked at her again. She was out cold and I figured she’d probably be out for the rest of the night. We’d have to figure out sleeping arrangements. One of us, at minimum, would have to sleep in here with her. I didn’t want her to wake up alone in the dark, too much of a chance of her panicking, and rightly so, given how confusing the situation might be. She’d passed out under not great circumstances to begin with.
Delilah stood up suddenly. “Chris,” she said, coming over to me and looking up at me. “You’re a good person. Don’t doubt that. Okay?”
I opened my mouth, but ultimately nothing came out.
I didn’t know what to say.
“Thanks,” I said finally, because it was the only thing that seemed appropriate.
She hugged me. “I mean it.”
I hugged her back and something occurred to me. “If she wakes up when I’m out of the room, put in a good word for me. I’m not really looking to score any points with her-”
“You did that big time already,” Delilah murmured.