by Eve Langlais
“Behind you!” Xavion yelled.
I whirled in time to block a recovered baby mama as she sprang at me. Didn’t she know all that jostling was probably bad for the fetuses?
We struggled, and I worried about the monster king, only to hear Xavion nearby saying, “Pick on someone your own size, ugly.”
Would it be offensive if I told the pregnant one to go away and find someone her size as well?
She screamed as she thrashed with me. Her mandibles clacked, and I flinched. The poor thing. She might have been normal and pretty once upon a time. She’d not asked to be like this.
I also couldn’t let her live to be a threat. Not her or the monsters she carried. But I wasn’t cruel about it.
A jugular slash with the piece of glass I’d snared was all it took. I did what I had to and didn’t watch.
I whirled to see Xavion facing off against the monster king, sword in hand. The blade swung and the monster king parried the blows off wrist shields comprised of thick layers of carapace. The monster had some naturally made armor covering his chest as well too. A species adapting.
How terrifying.
Especially recalling the king’s words. Surely a monstrous perversion of humanity wasn’t the future.
The sword got knocked out of Xavion’s grip, leaving him facing off, hands empty, against the king, who appeared more expansive than before.
The king raised an arm that instead of ending in a hand, was more like a scythe. He began to slice the air with it, about to gut my lover.
Xavion pulled a gun and shot it point-blank. In the head.
He then ducked to avoid the last movement of the dying king.
The body hit the ground, and a stillness suddenly filled the air. The mutants fighting those who’d accompanied Xavion paused. I saw the moment they registered the death. They scattered and ran, some inside, others for the town outskirts, where the theater was situated.
I half expected him to chase after. The mutants posed a danger, but he opened his arms and dragged me close.
The hug of all hugs. A grossly sweaty one. But I didn’t care. We both lived.
I kissed him. “I can’t believe you came for me.”
“Can’t be Adam without my Eve,” he said, cupping my ass.
“I love you.”
“Love you more. And I’ll show you how much once we get out of here.” We headed off with the group who’d joined him, the man with the wagon having brought the solar generator and the bank of lights. While a few of them got a ride in the wheeled cart, others set off on horseback to hunt down the stragglers.
I sat behind Xavion, holding on for dear life as he trotted away from the shooting flames in the movie theatre.
“You came prepared,” I said, as my ass discovered it wasn’t into horseback riding.
“I wasn’t losing you.” Said so seriously.
I could only lean my cheek on his back and be happy to know I was loved.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Home.”
We arrived just as dawn crested.
Two returning survivors. Lovers.
Walking into the sunset, having escaped death.
He just had to ruin the moment by saying, “Want to repopulate the world?”
Was he nuts? Did he know the havoc pregnancy would wreak on my body? My poor vajajay would never be the same, not to mention the possibilities of complications.
Selfish me filled my head first.
New me, the one who recognized each day as precious, smiled.
“They say practice makes perfect.”
We practiced the moment we got home. Right in our sunny front yard. His only regret? The sunburn on his bare ass, which I delighted in slapping.
Epilogue
That wasn’t the first nest we eradicated. Or the last time we were in danger. We could have chosen to barricade ourselves in our happy little home and pretended the ugly didn’t exist, but I couldn’t stop thinking of that little girl. Stolen from under her parents’ noses.
What if that happened to our child? The one growing inside me.
What if a mutant ate the one doctor we had? Sure, in his old life, Dr. Weiner dealt with farm animals, but a baby was a baby. Right?
It meant we couldn’t be complacent. Not if our child was to be safe. As we secured the area around us, we also put up signs, inviting others to join us, which caused controversy. It might invite the wrong sort. But then again, anyone who managed to survive deserved a chance. Not everyone turned to violence because they wanted to.
We would remind people what it meant to be civil. To support one another.
To not hide in shadows.
And find love like I had.
Hard to believe that humanity had found a new beginning in me. Hope I didn’t kill it like our garden.
Ps. I made edible pickles.
Pss. We don’t talk about the failed attempt at jam.
Psss. In case you wondered, we had a girl and named her Laura after his mom.
And we lived happily ever after in our rebooted world.
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