by Misty Vixen
The notion of being forced to go back over it again made me shudder.
Finally, I reached the top of the incline and found myself a few yards shy of the beginning of the forest. There was a slim path through the trees, more of an animal trail than anything else, and...yes! There, I could see it, some kind of building maybe a football field’s length away, ahead and to the right a little bit.
“There’s a structure!” I called. “A cabin or something, come on!”
That got them moving. I kept watch while they came up after me. Still no sign of bad guys, but the snow was enough of a problem. I got my pistol out as the women reached me and then began to lead the way into the woods. The next several minutes passed in terse silence, (save for the blowing winds, which were already picking back up), as we navigated the trail between the icy dead trees. I kept shifting my focus between the structure we were closing in on and the area around us. If we could just make it there, we’d probably be fine.
The snow began to come down harder after we made it maybe twenty yards through the graveyard forest. The cabin, (I was sure it was a cabin now), was closer, but now less visible in another way as the snow obscured my sight.
Didn’t matter. I had it affixed firmly in my head and I knew we were going to get there. So long as nothing else went wrong-
I caught movement off to my right and snapped my head and the pistol in that direction.
My guts went cold all over again at what I saw.
“Wolves!” I snapped, taking aim.
“Fuck!” Megan yelled.
There were four of them, stalking towards us through the trees, heads down, teeth bared, growling deep in their throats.
I took a step towards them. “Go! Now!”
“Chris-” Megan began.
“FUCKING RUN!” I screamed and fired a shot.
It missed, kicking up snow next to the lead wolf. I might as well have been firing a starting pistol. Though the lead wolf hesitated, the other three took off towards me. The women ran past me, towards the cabin. I backed up several paces, making snap decisions to try and react to the situation as effectively as possible.
All my choices were reduced to one, however, when I saw the leftmost wolf break off and go towards Megan and the others. Cursing, I aimed and fired three shots in rapid succession. The first missed but the other two connected. One punched into its stomach, the other its chest. Blood sprayed on the snow and the thing fell to the ground, yelping.
No time to feel bad about that now, the other three were coming for me.
Two were close and the one formerly in the lead had rediscovered its courage. Shit. This was fucking bad. I aimed and fired again, and my hands were thankfully steady enough that I managed to put a bullet right into the head of the nearest wolf. It went ragdoll and skidded to a halt as it died instantly, kicking up snow as it went. This seemed to only spur the other two on further. Fuck, I didn’t need another goddamned wolf bite. The most recent one had only just finished healing. I fired twice more and missed both times.
The first wolf that came at me presented me with a perfect opportunity to boot it in the face, which was exactly what I did. I brought my foot up in a hard kick that connected with the bottom of its gray-furred head and send it stumbling and whining. The other came right at me, jumping up to rip my throat out.
I dropped the pistol, going on autopilot now, grabbed it by the neck and used my body and its momentum to swing it around. I could feel its jaw snapping closed repeatedly and it fought viciously to wriggle out of my grasp, and it would have successfully done so if I’d held onto it any longer. As it was, I swung it around and hurled the four-legged fucker as hard as I could into the nearest tree. It smacked into the dead frozen bark with a solid, painful sound and let out a yelp of its own. Turning back to the other survivor, I saw it was making another go at me, so I brought my foot up and slammed my bootheel into its face.
That did it.
With a series of high-pitched yelps, it turned tail and ran. Before the survivor could get back to its feet, I snatched my pistol from the snow and took off in a stumbling run towards the cabin. I could see Megan waiting for me by its side, holding the rifle. She shouldered it suddenly and cracked off a shot. I skidded to a halt and turned as something hit the ground behind me. The wolf I’d thrown into the tree had apparently started coming after me, but now half its head was missing. Hesitating for only a second, I doubled back, snatched it up, threw it over my shoulders, and then resumed my loping gait along the trail to the cabin.
Might as well carve one of these bastards up if I was going to be stuck inside for who the fuck knew how long.
“You okay?” Megan asked as I approached through the thickening snowfall.
“Fine,” I replied, wincing slightly. My body still ached from that fall on the ice. “Let’s get inside.”
“About that…” Megan said, and I felt my guts twist yet again.
Fuck, now what?
She led me a little further along the side of the cabin and the problem became immediately apparent: half the goddamned building was missing. It looked like a fire had raged at some point in the past, and it had taken a good half or even two thirds of the structure with it. What had once been a bedroom and living room was now covered in a drift of snow. Delilah and Elizabeth stood near the back of it, by the only remaining intact door.
“Fuck,” I muttered, tossing the wolf down into the snowdrift for the moment. I sighed. “Let’s see what we’ve got to work with.”
Delilah got the door open as I approached and then stepped back for me to check inside. I did, pistol out and ready. It was a bathroom. And not a particularly big one. But it was a room: four walls and a ceiling, intact.
It would do.
“Megan, Delilah, go gather up whatever wood you can and toss it in the tub, now,” I said as I put my pistol away, got out of my pack, and opened it up. “Elizabeth, come here.”
I walked into the bathroom and set my pack down on the limited counterspace available. She came in wordlessly behind me. I pulled out all the spare clothes I could and made a makeshift pillow on the closed toilet lid. Then I pulled out the thermal blanket I had on me and passed it to her. “Wrap yourself up and sit,” I said.
“Okay,” she murmured, wrapping herself in the blanket and then sitting carefully on the toilet. “Thanks,” she added.
“Welcome,” I replied brusquely as I zipped my pack closed and hauled it back on. “Wait here,” I said, and left, mostly closing the door behind me.
It was very cold and it was going to get colder quickly.
The snow was coming down harder now, the wind blowing more powerfully. I joined Megan and Delilah in gathering up whatever wood I could find. The next ten minutes passed miserably, but we managed to gather up enough wood to get a fire going and, hopefully, keep it going for a few hours. The only good thing about this storm was that it was going to be way harder to track us...if that was even a thing that was happening.
I still had no fucking clue if they were long gone or even had been killed in some accident, or maybe by wolves, or another group of assholes with guns.
But I didn’t think so.
We tossed most of the wood into the tub and I assembled it, first opening the smoked-glass window that was built into the wall beside the shower (why was this such a common thing?) a crack to let the smoke out, and then I lit the fire. It was fairly easy, given how dry the wood was, and as I did, a calming, comforting warmth immediately began to fill the room. I let out a sigh of relief and looked at the others.
Delilah was sitting on the counter and Megan stood by the door, which was firmly shut. Elizabeth looked tired and a little dismal sitting on the toilet, wrapped in the shiny thermal blanket.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Fine,” she replied. “I just...feel guilty.”
“Why?” Megan asked.
“For having to rely so heavily on...well, basically the kindness of total strangers.”
“We aren’t exactly strangers after last night,” I said, which made her laugh.
“I guess that’s true,” she murmured, smiling. But it didn’t last for long. She sighed. “I’m sorry for this mess.”
“It isn’t your fault,” Delilah said.
“It’s your ex’s fault,” I added.
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
We all got settled after that. I ended up taking Megan’s place by the door, sitting down with my back to the wall beside it. There was just enough room on the floor for Megan to stretch out and lay on her back, using her pack as a pillow. Elizabeth and Delilah held their positions after squirming around and getting as comfortable as they could under the circumstances. The cracked window did its job, letting in some cold, yeah, but it let out the smoke and the fire kept us warm. As far as temporary setups went, it wasn’t so bad.
It was cramped, to be sure, but for once I didn’t mind.
“Chris,” Elizabeth said after a bit.
“Yeah?”
“I wanted to thank you for last night. It was, uh, really good. I don’t just mean physically,” she murmured, hugging herself, not quite looking at me, “but emotionally. You’re very kind, and I’ve been realizing how much I’ve needed that recently, and how much I honestly needed it during my first real sexual encounter outside of my marriage.” She laughed softly. “Honestly, last night was the kind of night I often fantasized about. Just fucking some hot stranger and it feels amazing and there’s no risk and no consequences…”
“That’s basically what happened,” Delilah said.
“Yeah. I guess I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop…” She looked hesitantly at Megan, then Delilah. “Thanks to you too, for, um, sharing him.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t do jealousy,” Delilah said easily.
“I’m working on it, but don’t worry about me, Elizabeth. You deserved it. Honestly, you both do. You’ve been through a lot and Chris is actually a really great guy.”
I laughed. “I like how you had to add actually on there.”
“Sorry,” she said.
I looked at Elizabeth. “Do you want to talk about...what happened to you?”
“Kind of,” she replied after a bit of consideration. “There isn’t too much, to be honest, now that I’m thinking about it. I guess that’s life: a lot of boring stuff punctuated by occasional moments of great upheaval. Or what seems to be, anyway. I grew up in Wisconsin. Went to college in Missouri. I went for a degree to be a teacher. I wanted to teach elementary school kids. Two years in, I met Jack. He was...I guess kind of typical of what you’d expect of a college guy. He was rowdy and kind of a jackass, but clearly he had charisma and some smarts. He was going into finance. He was going to be one of those rich executives. We met at a party and hooked up and he asked me on a formal date and I figured ‘why not?’.
“We started dating. It got serious by the third year. That was when we got an apartment together. He already had some money from his family. They were paying for college. I wouldn’t say they were wealthy, exactly, but definitely well off. It was nice. He bought me things, paid most of the bills. We graduated and got married. He landed a job in Iowa through his connections right out of college. We moved, rented a house, and I found a job teaching. We had our nice little life for the next three or so years and I…” She sighed.
“Admittedly, I got tired of teaching before too long. I thought it would be my lifelong passion, and in a way, it still might be. I could see myself doing it now...but my way. I hated how broken the education system was, how we were teaching kids what to think, not how to think. I wanted out. Around the time I hit twenty six, Jack got a promotion and a big raise, and some stock options. It was enough to buy a house and for me to quit my job and...basically I became a housewife after that. I thought he’d ask me to get pregnant, and I would have considered it, but it didn’t come up. And for the next few years I just...lived that life.”
“When did you notice the...less appealing aspects of the relationship?” I asked.
She sighed heavily. It was a tired, sad sigh. “I suppose I noticed them from the beginning, in little ways. He had a short temper, but he never got physically violent. He liked to drink a little too much. He was very dismissive of my concerns, but for the longest time he successfully masqueraded that under the guise of ‘being the man who takes care of business’. Once I became a housewife, he pretty much took total control of the finances, which made enough sense at the time. It was his specialty and job. But he started tightening control. I think it would have gotten worse in a certain way if the apocalypse hadn’t hit. But then it became bad in a different way, only I was too scared to really notice or do anything about it. I just…” She paused.
“I just wanted someone else to take care of me,” she admitted, looking down at the floor. “It sounds pathetic to say it out loud.”
“I think most people feel that at one point or another,” Megan said. Elizabeth looked up at her. “You just want to give up, you don’t want to think or make decisions. You just want to be. You want someone else to make things happen. Some people are just wired that way, some people eventually break down that way. Shit, I’ve been there.”
“Really?” Elizabeth asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “Because I’ve gotta admit, Megan, when I look at you, all I see is this hardcore badass. You’re really intimidating, honestly.”
“I don’t feel like that, most of the time,” Megan said, looking vaguely uncomfortable. “I’m just...angry and stubborn. And a good shot. I bet you’d be good at at least some of this survival shit if you put your mind to it. I mean, fuck, look how far you’ve made it, and while being pregnant.”
“Honestly, I have tried to get into survival stuff over the past few months. I think that was part of what led to me leaving. It took awhile, but the shock finally wore off and I wanted a more active role in our decision-making. Jack...didn’t like that. We started arguing more. In the beginning, that worked more often than not. He just told me he’d handle it, whatever it was, and I’d kind of just shut down. Because that’s what I’d done for years. But after I got pregnant...I don’t know. Something changed in me. I wanted, I needed to do more. I started learning from anyone who’d teach me. How to build a fire, what kind of berries to avoid, how to make a rabbit snare, how to ice-fish. That led to more arguments between us…” She sighed again.
“Sounds like you made the best choice you could,” I said after a few moments.
“Yeah. I mean, given the way things have turned out so far, I have.” She yawned. “Fucking hell, I’m tired again already.”
“Why don’t you lay down and try to get some sleep? Megan, Delilah, try to get her a bed thrown together. I’m going to go out and carve up that wolf since we’re stuck here.”
“I appreciate it,” Elizabeth said as she slowly stood up and Megan and Delilah got to their feet.
I headed out and got to it.
SIXTEEN
It took me longer than usual to get that wolf skinned and carved up, because I had to take a few breaks to warm up, but I did it and we ended up with maybe another day, day and half worth of meals. So that was good at least.
We used the opportunity to get our strength back. There was just barely enough room for all four of us on the floor. Barely. It was a tight fight. Delilah and Elizabeth ended up curled up together on a rat’s nest of clothes and thermal blankets. Megan sat beside me, shoulder to shoulder, and we watched over them. Elizabeth slept, and I think Delilah might’ve dozed, but me and Megan really just sat there and conserved our energy.
The winds blew for probably close to two and a half hours.
Finally, they started to let up. When it became obvious that the storm was dying down, I woke Elizabeth and Delilah. We spent ten minutes packing everything back into our respective packs and once my own pack was finished, I pulled out my pistol and headed outside. I scoped out the immediate area surrounding the half-collapsed cabin. The snow had stopped falling and
now it was just the wind we had to contend with, which was finally calming the fuck down. I didn’t see anyone or anything out there, but that could change on a dime.
I briefly toyed with the idea of going back and grabbing the other dead wolves, but the snow would have buried them and besides, I still felt the urge to get a move on. I wanted to put some real distance between us and here with whatever daylight we had left. After another few moments, the door opened and the women emerged, looking ready for whatever lay ahead. I hoped we were ready, but it was impossible to tell for sure.
“We good?” I asked after I had gone back into the bathroom to double-check and make sure we weren’t leaving anything behind.
They all reported that they were good and ready to go. Once more, I considered waiting and grabbing lunch, it was probably lunchtime by now, but decided against it. So far, we’d been lucky, I wanted to take advantage of that. So we set off, making our way through the woods, back towards the highway. I didn’t exactly want to get back onto it, but it’d be good to stick close by it and use it as a guide as we pressed on.
Five minutes passed in silence, save for our breathing and the crunching of the snow. That was another thing that still bugged me from time to time: the absolute totality of silence in this new, snowbound world. Snow absorbed all the sound, it seemed, and if you weren’t moving, and there was no wind, it was easy to believe you might’ve gone deaf. Thoughts drifted through my head as I walked on, leading us to the highway.
Now that the most obvious of the danger had passed, I couldn’t as successfully push away the thoughts of Elizabeth.
I wanted to see her naked, pale, pregnant body as she knelt before me and sucked me off. She’d said she wanted to repay me for that oral, so it was most certainly coming in my future. God, how fucking good it would be to blow my load directly into her mouth, between those sweet lips of hers. And then stuff my cock back into that shockingly tight, hot, pregnant vagina and fuck it raw until I exploded once more inside of her and just filled her up. The particular satisfaction of our only sexual encounter (so far) had been out of this world.