"The Blink": A post-alien invasion survival story (closed)

[HumanBean]

"The Blink"
A post-alien invasion survival story

(closed)

Chris - Alice - Billy - Jessi - Julio - Maria - Robert
Kenny - William​

11 March 2024 -- East of Portland, Oregon

Chris Emmonds never asked to be leader. It just sorta just fell upon him. He was the eldest of the group at 26. Alice was 24, but the rest were in their teens, from barely 18 and almost no longer 19. Kids, really.

Chris was the only one with military experience. He'd spent 6 years in the army, three of it in Iraq and Syria.

He was big brother to both Billy and Kenny. And as with his siblings, he'd been coach to most of the others. Middle school and high school baseball and softball had been this extracurricular.

Chris had returned from overseas just six days before "The Blink". He wasn't entirely sure who'd coined that phrase, but it was appropriate. In a literal blink of an eye, the world had changed. Anything electrical or electronic had ceased working in an instant. Planes fell from the sky. Trains slowed to a stop on the tracks. Cars died wherever they were. Even the pre-electronic ignition era ones simply stopped. The power grid was gone. That meant no lights, cell phones, computers. Even flashlights and other battery-operated objects became useless.

Communications were a joke, obviously. For days, no one knew what had caused the power outage. The Portland Metro area was absolute mayhem. Rioting, looting, arson. Killings. Chris had seen enough of that in the Army. He didn't need to see neighbors killing neighbors over shit like bottled water, canned food, and sleeping bags. And yet he was.

The family had a cabin in the foothills of Mount Hood, east of the Metro Area. Chris decided they needed to get there. They didn't leave alone, though. As they prepared to escape, other names were added to the list, for various reasons.

Chris had recently reacquainted himself with Alice. They'd dated in high school, though, it hadn't gotten serious. She'd been 16 to his 18 and not ready to open her thighs to him. He'd been hoping to make that happen when, of course, The Blink occurred.

His brother, Billy, had a girlfriend of his own. He and Jessi had been "bumping uglies" for most of their senior year. He wasn't leaving without her either.

His youngest brother, Kenny, had had the hots for Maria for years. He wanted her to come along, for obvious reasons. His infatuation was unfortunate, though. Maria had the on-again-off-again hots for a pair of half-brothers, Robert and William.

And last but not least, there was Maria's brother, Julio. If Maria was coming along, he was, too, obvious.

For various reasons, none of the nine had parents with whom they needed to "check in" regarding the trip. Chris, Billy, and Kenny's parents had been in Colorado when The Blink happened. The pair were outdoor adventure guides and had been checking out a new recreation opportunity.

The others had had their own stories regarding additional family. Alice had moved out of her parents' house years ago. Jessi was "perfectly fine" without her parents. (Her words; Chris didn't asked for details.) Julio and Maria, who were Dreamers, had seen their parents deported almost a year ago. And Robert and William had been living in a foster home. They'd been more than happy to get away from it.

Between them, the 9 pushed or pulled bicycles, wagons, or wheelbarrows filled with supplies. Chris had expected trouble on the road. He'd prepared for it, though. He and his brothers carried a number of firearms taken from the family's gun collection. Surprisingly, the 15-mile walk was relatively peaceful. They were stopped at a police roadblock in Gresham. Explaining their destination, they were allowed to pass.

A few miles later, someone took a pot shot at them from a house off the road. Chris reacted without thinking. He commanded the others to get down, then leveled and fired his AR-15 style rifle. A dozen shots hit the house's wall and windows. After that, they were able to pass without being molested.

They arrived at the cabin after dark. It was, as hoped, empty of squatters. They sparked up a fire, made a simple meal, laid out the beds, and got a much-needed good night's sleep.

At least, most of them did. Chris was still concerned about the group's security. As the others made themselves to home, he took a cat nap. Then, at midnight, Billy awoke him to stand watch over the others. He sat in a chair on the porch, his rifle across his lap, and contemplated this new world of theirs.

 

[PennySaver]

Alice Chambers had probably been the most hesitant of the females to join the hike to the mountains. She was 24 years old, with an apartment and a job and a car and and and and... She wasn't the type to just leap up and go on an adventure, even if the world was collapsing around her. The Blink, as they'd been calling it, had disrupted her life, sure; there was no doubt about that. But packing a bag and walking 20 miles into the forest to live in a hut?

If it hadn't been for Chris, Alice likely would have tried to make a go of it in the city. But that would have been a mistake, she realized now. She'd never seen a shooting firsthand before, and yet by the time the group had formed and left, she'd seen three of them and heard a couple of dozen more. The world was going mad around her, and without Chris putting his foot down and saying You're coming with me!, she likely would have become a gun crime victim at some point in time.

It was upsetting, then, when they were only halfway to Chris's cabin and someone shot at them. Her prospective boyfriend didn't hesitate in returning fire, putting bullet after bullet after bullet through the wall of the nearby house. It was absolutely terrifying for Alice; sure, she'd seen similar things recently, but this time one of the bullets fired had been at her and the guy shooting back was standing over her, saying Stay down! Stay low!

By the time they got to the Boys' cabin, Alice was spent. She helped heat up some of the canned food, then laid out her sleeping bag ... and was out.

.....................​

Jessi Carmichael hadn't hesitated to take Billy up on his offer to get her out of Portland. The two of them had been lovers since shortly after the beginning of Senior Year, and while they hadn't honestly known where life was taking them pre-Big Blink, she knew that that life had to include Billy. The two of them had actually been in the act of making love when the light went out that night. They hadn't been apart since.

She didn't have parents to report to regarding her plans -- she'd been couch-surfing for almost two years -- and packing to leave had simply been a matter of dumping her schoolbooks out of her backpack and refilling it instead with food, water, and more. She and Billy had also pulled a wagon filled with necessities, which had yet another, smaller one filled with food tied to the back of it. It got heavy at times, and sometimes it was easier for each of them to pull one on their own, but they made it all the way to the cabin with everything still in them.

Once they'd eaten, Jessi laid out the matching sleeping bags she and Billy had brought and began zipping them together as one. She got a questioning look from Alice, who looked around at the others, then back to her and silently mouthed Really? Jessi whispered, "What's wrong with it? We just want to stay warm. And it's not like we aren't already sleeping together."

Alice shook her head, saying softly, "Just ... maybe not this first night ... okay?"

Jessi relented and left the individual bags side by side. She slipped into hers after eating some food and -- not realizing how exhausted she was -- passed out in no time at all.

.....................​

Maria Cervantes didn't have the same choice to make regarding sleeping bags, though, she very much wished she did. She'd been invited on the hike out of the city to the promised safety of the mountains by Billy, of course; however, her romantic interests were actually aimed at the brothers, Robert and William, each of whom had had their bit of fun between her thighs in the past.

Currently, though, she wasn't having sex with either one of them. Oh, she still lusted for each of them from time to time, and if not for the Blink, she likely would have been spending this night or the next in the back seat of her father's old Cadillac with one of them. But right now, there were more important things with which to be concerned. Unrolling her own sleeping bag, she claimed a bit of space in between the two other girls and, like Jessi, was snoozing hard in a snap.

.....................​

Alice awoke sometime after Chris had gone out to stand watch, as evident by his absence amongst the others spread across the floor. She dressed again, then moved to the window to peek out and find him sitting in an old, handmade bench seat on the porch. She could smell coffee burning over the coals of the fireplace and filled two metal cups from the old aluminum percolator. She headed outside, careful not to wake anyone, and -- catching Chris's eye -- offered him one of the cups.

"It's pretty here," she said, looking out at the forest as it was bathed with the light of the full moon. She laughed softly, clarifying, "Yeah, I know, it's dark, so how can I see it. I mean, it was beautiful when we arrived, and ... with the moon like it is, it's still beautiful."

She looked up to see a squadron of alien crafts flying in formation off to the west over Portland. A few seconds later, there was a series of low rumbles, explosions from bombings, she presumed. She gestured Chris to make space and sat next to him; she'd brought a blanket out with her and enlisted him in wrapping it around them. Sitting close to him, more intimately than they'd been since those years back in high school, she asked him in whisper, "Are we safe here? Are they going to find us? What do we do if they do?"

 

[HumanBean]

(OOC: I like the bolded names. Think I'll do that, too.)

Chris had heard someone moving about in the cabin. He was delighted to learn it was Alice. He was nearly as delighted to see and smell the coffee she had, too. He took the offering. "Thanks. I need this."

When she asked about the aliens, he said without hesitation, "No."

Thinking that might not have been enough for her, he added, "I think they'll keep doing whatever they're doing in the cities."

Honestly, the aliens weren't Chris's biggest concern right now. He feared the human survivors more. The people looting and killing in Portland. The cops in Gresham who'd eyed their resources and especially their firearms. The guy who took a pot shot at them for no reason.

"We're gonna be fine," Chris reassured Alice. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He pulled her tight against his torso. He whispered, "You're warm. Feels nice."

An owl had been hooting from high in a tree out before the cabin. Still whispering, he said, "She's lived here for at least ten years. Been listening to her weekends and Spring Breaks and Christmas and Summers for as long as we've owned this place."

He pulled Alice a bit closer. "As long as we can hear her, we're safe here. Promise."

They would chat a bit more. Chris hadn't realized just how tired he was. Despite the coffee, he would fall asleep there in the chair holding Alice close to him.

 

[PennySaver]

Alice

"Thanks. I need this," Chris said about the coffee she offered.

"Are you sure?" she asked playfully. "We made a whole pot, and most of it is already gone. This stuff's like mud. I put some of the milk Maria packed in it. I know you like it black, but this stuff ... hell, it's a black hole."

When Chris said he thought the aliens would keep doing whatever they're doing down there in the metro area, Alice thought she detected a bit of deceit in his tone. Well, no, not deceit; just a reluctance to tell her the entire truth. She didn't realize that his primary concern was other humans, though to be honest, it was Alice's as well.

"I didn't like getting shot at," she said, sipping at the mostly milk-and-sugar drink she'd mixed for herself.

"We're gonna be fine," Chris reassured her.

He pulled an arm from under the blanket and wrapped it around Alice's shoulder, pulling her tight against him. She liked this and snuggled tight against him. When he whispered that she was warm and felt nice, she wanted to say Oh, you have no idea how warm and nice I can be; instead, she only snuggled tighter yet and said, "You, too."

Alice had always regretted not becoming Chris's lover back when they dated in high school. She hadn't been ready for that kind of intimacy quite yet; she'd been a sophomore wall flower and barely 16-years-old while he'd been a senior BMOC and nearly 19. The Summer Break had been the end of them; Alice had spent 2 months in Europe with her family without asking Chris to wait for her. She'd known not to bother, of course; he was a handsome hunk two-and-a-half years her senior, so requesting such a commitment hadn't been realistic in her mind. When she got back, Alice didn't ask Chris about how he'd spent his summer -- romantically that is -- but she would hear more stories about his conquests than she cared to hear -- whether they were legitimate or not, she would never know because, again, she didn't ask.

A couple of times over her junior and senior years, she contemplated asking him if he was interested in a relationship again. But there had always been roadblocks: either he was dating someone, she was dating someone, or some other activity was getting in the way. The day he left town for the Army, having graduated two years earlier, Alice cured her devastating and unrequited lust for him by finally surrendering her virginity to some random guy she met that night at a party. She'd cried through the entire event; really romantic. The guy thought he was hurting her, which he was, but instead of telling the truth, she simply begged him to finish, then dressed and went home to cry some more.

Chris spoke about an owl that had been hooting almost from the time they'd arrived. "As long as we can hear her, we're safe here. Promise."

"I believe you, Chris," she whispered, snuggling tighter again. Then, speaking from deep in her heart about more than just the loud bird, she said, "I trust you."

......................​

The next thing Alice knew, the sun was slipping through the forest and trying its damndest to break through her closed eyelids. Her head was in Chris's lap, her body tightly wrapped with the blanket; between that and his body heat, she was surprisingly comfortable, despite the cold daybreak temperature.

"What the hell is this?" she heard Jessi saying from nearby. Alice sat up slowly, a bit stiff through her back, and looked to the younger woman. Jessi -- smiling broadly -- had a metal mug of steaming liquid and a folded piece of bread with jam dripping out the edges. "You tell me I can't sleep in the same bag with my boyfriend, and yet you're out here with your head in his lap doing God knows what kind of kinky shit![/i]"

Alice laughed, then felt her face explode in a fiery blush. She looked to Chris, then lifted the blanket to hide her embarrassment. To Jessi she declared, "I was doing no such thing."

"But you would," Jessi said, still laughing. The girl turned back to the cabin door, informing them, "We cooked breakfast." Looking to Chris specifically, she said, "Put your cock back where it belongs and come in to eat."

"Jessi!" Alice cried out. She looked to Chris again, giggled nervously, and apologized, "I'm sorry. She shouldn't have said that. She can be a bitch."

Maria appeared on the porch just seconds later in what looked like jogging clothes. Alice asked a bit surprised, "What are you doing?"

As expected, the girl said, "My morning run."

"No, you aren't, Jesus!" Alice reacted. She stood, wrapped the blanket around herself better, and finished up, "Get inside. We gotta make some rules about ... about stuff."

Maria looked disappointed and murmured something unintelligible before heading back inside. Alice told everyone once she was inside again, "Listen up, everyone. We've got to have some rules about how we're going to survive up here. This is a different world. Hell! I shouldn't have to tell you that."

She made eye contact with each of the others one after another, contemplated what she wanted to say, then turned to Chris: "Okay ... you're on." She could see that she'd caught him off guard and clarified, "This is your cabin ... your next of the woods, literally! Tell us what we need to know to stay safe."

 

[HumanBean]

Chris had fallen asleep not much after Alice had. The sun had hit his face just moments before hers, waking him. He'd looked down to find her head immediately over his crotch. And his cock was hard! He shifted a bit to move her from his groin to his thigh. It was this movement that had likely woken her, not the sun in her eyes.

Alice said nothing when she woke. Had he avoided his own embarrassment? Either way, he couldn't help but laugh at the interaction between the two women. He just shrugged at Alice when she looked at him after Jessi's lewd suggestion. What was he supposed to say? "Yes, I wish you'd been sucking my cock?" Or "No, I DON'T want you to suck my cock?"

It was better just to stay quiet, which he did. At least, until Alice cut off the younger woman's desire to go run one of the trails through the woods. "Yeah, Jessi, maybe not. Not right now."

Inside the cabin, he suddenly found himself in charge. He fumbled, "Um, so ... rules ... yeah, maybe ... maybe we need to talk about that." He looked to the others' faces much as Alice had. Then he looked to the table covered in food. There was coffee, milk, sliced fruit, bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast that was noticeably more burnt on one side than the other. "Wow, that's impressive."

His brothers took most of the credit. One of the girls gave them a dirty look before speaking the truth. Chris suggested, "Why don't we all make a plate and sit around the fire, and we'll talk about the rules."

There was some idle conversation while everyone dished up plates. Everyone found a place to sit, whether on a chair or the floor or one of the otherwise empty lamp tables. Chris realized that the silence that had fallen was meant to give him the floor. He started, "Okay, so ... rules. First, we need to talk about the dangers we might face up here."

He recapped the situation with the alien attackers. "They are obviously flying around blowing the crap out of everything. But, they seem to only be interested in the urban areas. So, I think we're relatively safe from them for now. Still, we don't want to attract any attention from them, so ... we don't do anything that will draw those bombers this way. Easy enough?"

There were some questions about what that might mean. Did they need to put out the fire? Did they need to stay indoors most of the day? If yes, how did they get firewood and drinking water or hunt, since the food wouldn't last forever?

"No, I think the fire is okay," he answered. "And we can go outside to do that stuff. Only, I think we should stay to the forest as much as possible."

The cabin was ringed by tall, old growth forest. There was a small meadow about 50 yards out front. But it lay beyond a small orchard of fruit trees. It was possible, Chris thought, to leave the house in every direction without being detected by an overflying aircraft.

"I think our biggest threat is other people," he said reluctantly. "You all remember what happened just after Gresham, right?" They all reacted in their own way. Someone asked if Chris thought he'd killed the guy who'd shot at them. "No, I don't think so. I wasn't trying to kill him. I just wanted him to realize that he was making a mistake."

"Are you going to teach us to use the guns?" Julio asked. He seemed to have an eager tone. "I think all of us should know how to do what you did, just in case."

Chris hoped that they would never have to shoot at another human, of course. But Julio was correct. They all needed to learn how to use and care for the pistols, shotguns, and rifles. He and his brothers had grown up using them. The three of them had hunted all their lives. Deer, elk, ducks, geese. Chris had hunted humans in the Army, of course. He didn't talk about that, though, not even to his brothers.

"Those of you who want to learn how to use the firearms, my brothers and I will teach you," Chris told them. There seemed to be some excitement amongst the others. There was also some anxiety. Not all of them were eager to learn how to kill another human being. He spoke a moment about gun safety, about situational awareness, about group safety, and more. He finished with, "If you don't want to learn to shoot, that is perfectly fine. Understand?"

He went on about the rules. "We are a TEAM, now. One for all, all for one--"

Robert cut in, "Like the three musketeers."

"Yeah," Billy laughed. "The NINE musketeers now, though."

Chris spoke about how everyone needed to share the resources they had. "Everything we have, food, water, what-not, is all limited. We run out, we have to go get more. We go to get more, we take the chance of being found. Understand?"

He paused for questions and comments, then continued, "And we share the work. Gathering firewood, cooking, cleaning, hunting ... for those of you who want to do that, anyway ... and security. We need to have someone on watch 24/7--"

"Someone who doesn't fall asleep with a girl's head in his lap," Kenny laughed. He'd obviously seen Chris and Alice or someone had told him.

Chris ignored him and the laughter. "Someone has to inventory the perishables, food and water and such, and budget us if necessary. There hasn't been any snow in a while, but it's still early March, and we could get several inches or several feet over night--"

Billy cut in, "Mother Nature can be a bitch. We've seen it, haven't we?" His question was directed to his brothers.

Kenny answered, "That one October we came up here for elk hunting and got four feet of snow and got stuck here for two weeks."

"We have to be ready," Chris said, taking back the conversation. "We will need dried firewood, meaning the dead stuff on the ground. We'll need to cut new wood and stack it right outside the door. We will need to hunt. There's lots of stuff up here we can eat." He held up his last piece of bacon, saying, "Not this. But there're deer, squirrels, all sorts of birds, possums."

They spent more than an hour talking about their immediate future. Then someone asked about the long term.

Chris contemplated his answer. "I can't tell you how long we're gonna be up here. I can't tell you how long it will be safe to be here. I think we're fine for a while, I really do. But, I can't guarantee anything." He could see concern on the faces of the young people. Even the older Alice looked anxious. He said with confidence, "I survived Iraq and Syria. It was a war zone, of course, and this isn't. It COULD be. But I think that if we all agree on what we're going to do and what we're NOT, I think we'll be okay. Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

 

[PennySaver]

Chris fumbled, "Um, so ... rules ... yeah, maybe ... maybe we need to talk about that."

Alice smirked at his nervousness. Chris was a natural leader, always had been and always would be. But despite having been an older brother to Billy and Kenny and a sports coach to those currently before him other than Alice and Julio -- neither of whom had been on one of his teams -- he was now in the awkward position of spontaneously taking charge of a situation who could never have imagined.

But he took charge like a champion, and soon the group seemed to be of one mind regarding most of the topics brought up. When weapons training came up, Alice volunteered, "I want to learn how to shoot." That surprised some but not all of the others. She said, "Women make great soldiers, just like men. That's what we are now ... sort of: soldiers."

Chris went on about chores. Jessi spoke up quickly, "I like to cook." She glared at Chris's brothers, who'd taken credit for the breakfast spread and growled, "As you can see by what's before you now."

"I can't cook," Maria said, "but I'll hunt. I'm not afraid of killing shit. And I can do other chores outside. I'm not afraid of getting my hands dirty."

"I do it all," Alice said with a serious tone. Jessi snickered and whispered something about what she'd seen outside earlier to Maria. Alice growled a bit of her, saying, "Shut it."

"I'll help inventory, too," Jessi said. "I had HomeEc this year."

"You flunked HomeEc this year," Maria reminded her.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn anything," Jessi defended herself. "Mister Madsen just didn't like me."

Maria laughed again. "Old Man Madsen wanted to bend you over one of the gas ranges and teach you how hot things can get in the kitchen ... just like all the male teachers did."

There was laughter from the others and a vulgar response from Jessi, and yet should couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, well, most of my classes that helped my grades."

"I'll help you, Jessi," Alice volunteered. "We'll put something together that you can manage without having to bend over the cast iron stove." She looked to Chris. "I think I speak for all of us here when I say that we do trust you ... and we do think you know what you're doing. My only concern is how we're going to deal with what we can't expect ... what we can't even imagine." She looked around to the others as she reminded them, "We don't know what these aliens want from us. I mean, obviously their attacking us. But ... are they here to conquer and enslave us? Or are they here to exterminate us? Are they going to take us to their home planet as slaves?"

"Or food?" Jessi asked with a serious tone. "I mean, I saw this episode of Twilight Zone where the aliens had a book called To Serve Man, and everyone thought that meant how to be beneficial to humans--"

"I saw that, too!" Maria piped up. "But it was a cookbook ... how to serve man as a meal!"

"C'm'on, c'm'on, knock that off," Alice cut in. There was a mix of laughter and grimaces. "They're not here to eat us, and if they are, they're gonna be disappointed 'cause we're all -- every one of us -- lean, mean, fighting machines. There ain't enough fat on us to fry us up."

There was more laughter and playful grimaces. Alice looked to Chris again. "So ... breakfast is done. We should get to work. There's no time to waste, right?" She looked about herself, then to Chris again. "Give us our assignments, boss."

 

[HumanBean]

Chris listened to the three females talk about what they had to offer. He was tickled at how quickly they stepped up. The guys were next...

"Billy and I hunt, of course," Kenny said. "We do anything and everything camping related as far as that goes."

"I'll learn to hunt," Julio said excitedly. "And I'll stand watch. Is that what you call it?"

"Watch standing, yeah," Chris confirmed. He looked to Robert and William. Neither of them had spoken up about learning to handle the firearms. Chris wondered if maybe they lacked enthusiasm for guns. He said with a sympathetic tone, "I'd like everyone to at least learn how to handle the guns. That doesn't mean that--"

"I'll learn," William said. He looked to his older brother with a concerned expression. Chris thought he saw something between them. He wondered if maybe they'd had a firearm-related tragedy in their life of which he was unaware. William said softly, "It's just training."

Robert looked to Chris, hesitated, and nodded. "Hunting. I'll learn to hunt. But ... I can gather firewood and chop and stuff like that, too. I like the exercise."

"Sounds right," Chris said, smiling. Robert was a body builder, Chris recalled. Under all those warmth layers was a rockhard bod'. The girls at school used to drool over him. Maria did, though, Chris wasn't personally aware of that. "Okay, so ... first things first: let's all of us go out and collect firewood as a team. Then, when we get back, we'll eat lunch and make a plan."

Everyone seemed to agree with that. They dressed warm again and headed out. They used the wheelbarrow and one of the wagons with wheels that handled the rougher terrain. Chris spent most of the time a bit farther out in the woods than the others. He was refreshing his memory of the place. It had been years since he'd been here, of course.

They took a break for lunch, then got right back to it. They gathered nearly every piece of dried wood within 150 feet of the cabin by day's end. Some of the group thought it was overkill. Chris reminded them that they could receive several feet of snow at any time if Mother Nature wished it. "You want to be out here gathering firewood in three feet of snow?"

At sundown, they all headed back inside. The temperature had dropped almost 20 degrees in less than an hour. Everyone was so exhausted that they decided to worry about chore assignments the next morning. After dinner, Chris told them all, "Everyone get a good night's sleep, especially you guys." The other five males looked to him questioningly. "You're sharing the watch with me tonight. Two watch standers on ... four-hour shifts each ... overlapping."

"Why just the guys?" Billy complained.

Before he could continue, Chris said, "The girls will get their chance tomorrow night. Now, get to sleep." He told them when they would each be on. He said to the next watch standers, "I'll wake you when it's time. You'll wake the next watch and so on."

He curled a finger at Alice. "Wanna stay up with me a couple of hours? It'll allow me to set up the leap frogging schedule."

They put on some more coffee. The guys would likely need it. Outside, Chris offered an elbow to Alice. "Let's take a walk." They headed out away from the cabin. At the edge of the woods, they stopped. The owl was hooting once again. It would stop once in while when it heard Chris and Alice moving about.

They moved in silence 180 degrees around the cabin until they were at the back. Only there did Chris finally begin the conversation for which he'd been waiting. "Do you have any concerns about the girls? How are they doing? Are they going to handle this okay? I know you barely know them, but ... well, you know them better than me. I'm going to need your help. This isn't something I can do alone ... and the rest of them ... well, they're just kids."

 

[PennySaver]

Billy complained about the guys being the only ones standing watches, to which Chris responded that the girls would get their chance.

Alice spoke up quickly, saying, "We'll pull our share of the night watches. I would, however, like us to have training with the guns first ... the firearms." She knew it sounded amateurish to say guns, but then, regarding them, she was an amateur. Oh, she'd shot guns before, and she was comfortable with them, too. But Chris had been in the Army; he'd been in a warzone and -- though he'd never specifically said so -- Alice had a sense that he'd shot at other humans and, possibly, killed some of them, too.

"I'm ready, too," Jessi spoke up, "meaning training with the guns."

Maria jumped in, "Me, too."

That seemed to take care of the weapons and watches situation. As the others began cleaning up the dinner plates and laying out their sleeping bags again, Chris curled a finger at Alice, asking her to stand a couple of hours watch with him. "Sure." She put more coffee on the wood stove, added more water to the big kettle being warmed in the fireplace, and laid out her bedroll so that it would be ready when she came back in.

She and Chris filled a thermos with coffee and headed out. They reached the woods and circled to the back of the house. Chris asked, "Do you have any concerns about the girls? How are they doing?"

"How's anyone?" she asked. "We're all a bit frazzled about all this."

"Are they going to handle this okay?" he continued. "I know you barely know them, but ... well, you know them better than me."

That was very true on both counts: she'd only met Jessi a few days ago when she and Billy bumped into she and Chris at a coffee shop around the corner for the brothers' home; and she'd only met Maria yesterday as the group was preparing to get the hell out of the Metro area.

"I'm going to need your help," Chris continued. "This isn't something I can do alone ... and the rest of them ... well, they're just kids."

Alice couldn't help but chuckle at that. She was only 24 years old, and yet somehow, she was the mature female in the group. "They're gonna be fine. Trust me. They'll adapt. And it's not like you're dealing with shy little things who've been sheltered all their lives. The girls, I mean. I'm still getting to know them, obviously ... but ... Jessi's been living on her own for quite a while, and Maria and Julio have been taking care of themselves since their parents were deported. Poor things. I can't even imagine."

Alice took hold of Chris by the elbow, stopped him, and urged him to face her. With a sincere tone, she told him, "We're gonna be fine. And yes, I'll help you." She pulled him a bit closer, looking into his eyes as her lips spread in a flirty smile. "On one condition, though. Kiss me." She gave him a moment to consider the request, then reminded him, "You haven't kissed me since that first night you got back to town." Playfully, she teased, "I thought maybe you were going to ask me to go steady again ... like we did oh so long ago."

 

[HumanBean]

"You don't have to ask me twice," Chris said, smiling. He leaned in and pressed his mouth to Alice's. It was a soft but erotic kiss. He pulled her closer to him with one hand. The other held his AR-15, which he'd wished had been slung. Kissing her excited Chris, hardening his too-long-ignored cock. When their mouths separated, he smiled and teased, "Go steady? You sound like our parents, back in the day."

The familiar and dreaded sound of alien bombers arose again. They were in the far distance, over Portland. But it broke the moment between Chris and Alice. He looked west but only saw forest. The moonlight was just bright enough to light up Alice's face. He smiled again. "Alice Chambers," he asked softly, "Will you go steady with me?"

 

[PennySaver]

Alice:

It was wonderful feeling Chris's lips upon her own again. It had only been a few days since last they'd kissed, and there was, of course, a great deal with which they needed to deal that was more important than refreshing their intimacy. Still, pressing her mouth back against his, letting her tongue touch his, feeling his hand pulling their bodies together ... oh ... it had been badly needed.

"Alice Chambers, will you go steady with me?" Chris asked playfully.

"Do I get some sort of promise ring?" she teased, "or do I get to wear you Varsity Letterman's pin?" She pressed her mouth to his again, wrapping her free arm around his neck to hold him captive until she'd had enough of his lips and tongue. When at last they separated again, she whispered, "Yes, I'll go steady with you, Christopher Emmonds."

The owl had begun hooting again as she took his hand and continued their walk around the property. They returned to the cabin's front porch and dropped into the wooden bench again. She sipped from the mug of coffee she'd left next to his, finding it still sufficiently warm. They once again wrapped themselves in a big, thick blanket and snuggled close to each other.

"Not exactly the future I'd fantasized about the last time we were together," she said. Realizing she'd never really talked to Chris about their break up so many years ago, Alice told him, "I'm sorry things went the way they did back then, but ... I think it worked out for the best. I mean, you joined the Army and learned all you did ... which is why I feel much safer here than I would have felt staying in the city. And I got a couple of years in at PCC ... learned a little more than I already did. Ran up some big student loans, but hey, guess what...? The aliens invaded, so now I don't have to pay them off." She laughed softly. "So, I got that going for me."

Alice reached a hand out of the blanket to pull his face to her own, kissing him softly again. She whispered, "I'm glad you're here, Chris ... more than you can imagine."

They heard movement inside the cabin, and the door opened quietly. Maria stepped out on the porch; she wore a grimace that worried Alice. The younger woman asked the older one, "Can I talk to you a sec'?" When Alice extricated herself from the blanket and joined her at the other end of the porch, Maria whispered, "I started my fuckin' period. I ... I forgot to bring ... you know."

Alice couldn't help but laugh, silencing herself with a hand over her mouth. "Sorry." She peaked back at Chris, who was watching them with curiosity. Whispering to Maria, Alice explained, "It was the first thing I packed. C'm'on, let's find my pack." As Maria headed back into the cabin, Alice told Chris, "You're gonna have to hold down the fort without me, boyfriend." She lowered her volume so the other woman wouldn't hear her and -- barely audible -- said, "Female problems."

She blew Chris a kiss and headed inside. She and Maria got what they needed and exited out the cabin's backdoor to head for the outhouse. They would finish up and head back, finding one of the boys missing, having replaced Alice as the second watch stander. Alice whispered to Maria, "Get some sleep. Tomorrow's another big day."

Jessi had woken to the other two women sneaking around. About Maria and to Alice she asked, "She okay?" Alice nodded confirmation. It was only then that the older of them noticed that Jessi and Billy had zipped their two matching sleeping bags together as one. Jessi smiled broadly and whispered regarding her sacked-out boyfriend, "He's keeping his hands to himself."

"Are you?" Alice asked.

Again, Jessi smiled. "It's hard, but I'm managing."

They each settled for the night. As Alice snuggled into her bag, she thought about the earlier kisses and felt a bit of urgency between her thighs. She couldn't help but wonder how they were going to handle the lack of privacy when the mood to be intimate came upon them. Alice and Chris were just restarting their relationship; Billy and Jessi, of course, had been hot and heavy for quite some time. Alice had seen how the other three males -- all of the other three -- often seemed to be ogling Maria or offering to help her with things of which she was perfectly capable of doing herself; Alice hadn't spoken with the girl about this as it didn't seem a priority at this time, but she had a feeling that there might be a situation rising once Maria begin to show affection toward one of the three, which Alice was certain would ultimately happen.

 

[HumanBean]

Robert had been staring at the cabin's ceiling since laying down. Falling asleep simply didn't seem to be in the cards. He saw Maria slip out of her bag and head for the back door. He assumed she was visiting the outhouse.

Actually, it shouldn't have been called an outhouse at all. It was the fanciest shitter he'd ever seen. The first time he'd used it, he asked Chris about it. His parents had built it to better suit people who wanted to get away to the outdoors without having to shit in the woods.

It had a regular toilet base but without the tank. Running water from the spring that serviced the cabin washed it clean. The waste went to the deep hole that had once serviced the abandoned outhouse. Occasionally, the family dug a new pit and rerouted the waste water.

The building was insulated against the cold. It had cloth towels and washrags. It had a concrete, non-skid floor. It had a sink with, obviously, running water. It even had electric lights and a space heater. They got their juice from a solar panel powered battery pack. When there wasn't enough electricity, there were candles and a small propane heater.

Maria returned far too quickly, left out the front, returned with Alice, and left out the back again. Robert thought he was going to get whiplash watching the goings-on. He got up, donned his jeans and boots, and headed out the front.

"What the hell was all that?" he asked Chris. The eldest of the men only shrugged. Robert looked about the dark foreground of the cabin. "Want me to stand watch with you? I know I'm not next up, but Billy could use the sleep."

"Sure," Chris said. He held up the corner of the blanket. "Wanna cuddle with me, too." The pair laughed quietly. Robert sat on the bench. Chris caught the younger man glancing at the assault rifle laid across his lap. He removed the clip, ejected the chambered shell, and handed it out. Chris said rather unnecessarily, "It's unloaded. Here. Take a feel."

Robert hesitated but then took the rifle. Almost immediately, Chris asked with a firm tone, "Is that gun loaded?"

The younger man looked confused. "You just told me it was unloaded."

"But did you check it yourself?" Chris asked. "Do you have any idea how many people get shot each year because they were handling a gun someone ELSE told them was unloaded?" He gave Robert a moment to consider the question, then showed him how to check the weapon himself. "Anytime you're handed a firearm, you always check it yourself. You NEVER trust someone else to make that determination for you."

They talked about the rifle a while. Chris showed Robert how to load the clip, how to chamber a round, how to operate the safety, and how to fully unload it again. He said, "Tomorrow, I'll show you all how to handle the firearms. Shoot, clean, safely carry." Robert had shown the most reluctance thus far. "Learn how to use it. Then ... don't." He saw the man's questioning expression. "I would never force using a firearm on anyone. If you're not comfortable with it--"

"I'll be fine," Robert said. He was lying to himself. He didn't think he could ever be comfortable with a gun. He drew a deep breath, exhaled, and explained. "You know we live with foster parents, right?"

Chris nodded, even though he hadn't known for certain. "My father ... William and my father ... he, um ... he was a thug. I loved him ... or at least I thought I did, when I was younger. But he was a thug. Drug dealer ... petty thief. He hurt people. He hurt my mom."

He hesitated. When he spoke, there was more emotion in his voice. "Hurt me and William." He turned the rifle over in his hands, examining it. "He came home one night drunk ... high on meth ... whatever. He started beating on my mom with his hands. When he picked up a skillet and hit her with that ... well ... I wasn't going--"

His voice cracked. He continued, "I lunged at him ... knocked him off balance. A, um a gun ... a handgun fell out of his pocket. He tried to get it back, slipped on something I guess ... fell. He got it, but he wasn't ... it wasn't in his hand right. It went off--"

There was a sob now. It took a long moment for him to speak again. "He shot my mom. I don't think he meant it ... now anyway. But ... at the time..." He drew and exhaled another deep breath. "I grabbed the gun from him ... and I shot him ... again and again and again until there were no bullets left."

He was sobbing now, and after a good couple of minutes. "I'm not sad or sorry about my fucking dad. But mom..."

The two of them sat there in silence for quite a while. Eventually, Robert handed the rifle back to Chris. They stood the rest of the two-hour watch without another word. Every two hours after that, one of the guys would go in to wake the sleeping male. The sun came up, and another day in this new world of theirs began.

 

[PennySaver]

Alice:

"So, here's where we are regarding food stocks ... perishables," she told the others. They'd just sat down to another fine breakfast, even if it was a tad bit less extravagant as the previous two had been. She held a sheet of paper before her, announcing, "We have made some rough menus for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks based upon what we all packed before we headed up here. We were in a bit of a hurry, obviously, and we were limited as to how much we had to carry, what with the guns and ammo and sleeping bags and everything else, but we did pretty good ... sort of."

"Whaddaya mean sort of?" one of the boys asked. "How long 'til we starved up here."

"We're not going to starve up here," Alice countered without hesitation, "because -- like Chris said -- we are going to hunt and fish and forage for edible foods--"

"I was the one who said that," Maria cut in. She and her family had earned money over the years collecting matsutake mushrooms, fir cones, and other things that they then sold for cash; the edibles they also took home in smaller quantities to eat themselves. "This time of the year there's stinging nettles, dandelions, wild garlic, chick weed, fiddlehead ferns, miner's lettuce--"

Maria went quiet when Alice gave her a mild gesture to do so. The eldest of the women continued, "So, if we eat the breakfast foods mostly for breakfast, the lunch foods for lunch, etcetera, etcetera, and then divide what we have an excess of to fill in the blank spaces as time goes on..."

When he hesitated, studying the list a bit more, one of the guys asked anxiously, "How long?"

"We run out of food in six days," she said. She looked up to find most of the guys looking at her with wide eyes; the girls, of course, had already seen the list that they'd been party to making. "We can ration and stretch it out another, I dunno ... four, five days. But we're going to start feeling it in our bellies and our energy levels."

An animated conversation erupted, during most of which Alice just remained quiet. Finally, though, she waved for silence and the attention of the others. "There's no reason to panic yet. Like I said, we can hunt and fish and forage." She looked to Chris, asking, "Opinion on how that would help?" She listened to his answer, which was both good and bad. "So ... there's still another option, of course." She looked to Chris before she made her suggestion; the eldest of them had by necessity of experience and familiarity with the situation and their location been looked at by the others as their leader. "We could go out and look for unoccupied cabins and other places for food and other stuff we need?"

It was more of a question than a statement. She shrugged at him, adding, "I don't want to speak for the others, but ... I think that's up to you. I mean, this is, after all, your backyard, in a sense."

 

[HumanBean]

"We run out of food in six days."

Chris wasn't surprised as the other males were. Alice had given him a heads up regarding her upcoming report. Most of the other guys, though, were quickly arguing about the eldest female's calculations. She told them, "We can ration and stretch it out another, I dunno ... four, five days. But we're going to start feeling it in our bellies and our energy levels."

She talked about hunting, fishing, and foraging. Then she looked to Chris. "Opinion on how that would help?"

"Sure," he said after a moment. It wasn't that he didn't have a ready answer. It was just that every option they had came with inherent risks. "We can hunt deer, elk ... geese. We have shotguns and some bird shot. We have a couple of old steel traps for squirrels and such."

Someone interrupted, "You're gonna kill squirrels? I'm not eating squirrels. That's just wrong."

His youngest brother made a disapproving grunt. "When your stomach's empty and you're starving, you'll be out there chasing after one, swinging a shovel at its head."

"Anyway...!" Chris interrupted. A mean argument was threatening. The steelhead are running, too."

"What's a steelhead?" someone asked. Another immediately followed with, "What are they running from?"

Chris briefly explained about salmon and steelhead. He talked about how they begin their lives in freshwater rivers, migrate to the sea, then return to freshwater to lay their eggs. "Running just means they're coming up the river. And we could fish for them, except..."

This time it was Chris's middle brother speaking up. His tone was harsh, and his eyes were set on Kenny. "Someone was supposed to unpack the poles and tackle boxes from dad's pickup last time we went fishing and didn't. And during the night, they disappeared. Stolen."

Under his breath, the youngest Emmonds mumbled, "Fuck you."

The two of them erupted in accusations about who'd truly been at fault. Kenny had his own thoughts on that. However, they involved his now absent father. He couldn't bring himself to blame Dad. So he put it on Billy.

Chris broke the argument up. He looked around to the others. "We can still fish. We can make weirs. They're fish traps for the water. They're very effective. Native Americans have been using them for thousands of years up on Alaskan rivers and other places. It's a lot of work, and you have to be in the river to build them."

"In the water?" someone asked with obvious disapproval. "It's freezing!"

"No," Chris corrected. "But it's cold. Mid to upper thirties."

Chris talked more about hunting. He asked Maria more about foraging. He and his family had partaken of that at times over the years. But it was obvious that the teen female knew more about it than he did.

"So ... there's still another option, of course," Alice continued. "We could go out and look for unoccupied cabins and other places for food and other stuff we need?"

Chris didn't like that option. However, they had to. There wasn't going to be any other choice soon. Alice spoke of this area being his 'backyard'. He informed them, "There's something we have to keep in mind. There are a lot of cabins in this area. Sure. And Billy and Kenny and I know where almost all of them are. But so do other people. The owners, obviously. Some of them were rental homes. Airbnb, that kind of shit."

Chris's family had never approved of the whole weekend cabin rental industry. People from the city staying in the forest for a weekend was never a good idea. Lost children. Loud stereos. Ignorance of privacy for those who actually belonged here. The Emmonds had never had the patience for those kinds of people.

"You have to remember," Chris continued. "When this shit came down in the city, a lot of people, like us, fled out here to the woods. And, like us, a lot of those people are desperate for supplies. And again, like us, a lot of those people have firearms and will defend what they have."

"Are we going to take stuff from people?" Kenny asked. There was obvious concern in his tone. "Take their stuff?"

Chris quickly told him no. He added, "We're not robbing people. I'm only saying ... we have to be careful when we're out there." He scanned the group. "And we have to be careful about people who might want to take OUR stuff."

He rose to height and looked around again. "First things first. If we want to keep those OTHER people from taking our stuff, we have to learn to defend ourselves. We're in a bit of a chicken and the egg situation regarding security. Everyone who wants to learn to use the rifles, shotguns, and pistols needs to do that now. Target practice is going to attract attention from people who might not be that far away. It would be better to scout the area before practicing. BUT ... scouting before you all know how to use the guns..."

He didn't finish. They understood. He instructed, "Billy and Kenny, arm up. The three of us know the area. We'll spend the day checking it out." He looked to the others. "Then, tomorrow, gun handling and target practice for everyone else. Okay?"

With that settled, the three brothers armed themselves. Chris slung one of the assault rifles over his shoulder. In his hands, he carried one of the two deer rifles sporting a scope. Billy did the opposite. He slung a scoped deer rifle over his shoulder and packed the second assault style rifle in his hands. Kenny's favorite firearm had always been shotguns. He'd loved duck, goose, and dove hunting since he was able to lift a gun barrel skyward.

Their father had never liked handguns. "They're for killing people. We don't kill people."

Chris's time in the Army had, however, had changed that. He'd known his father wouldn't approve. So, they never discussed it. He'd gathered a private little collection of them over the years. He'd kept them, for the most part, in a safe at his parents' home.

When the Blink occurred, he got them all out, of course. The brands and calibers varied quite a bit Right now, in case there was a situation, they needed consistency. He and his brothers armed themselves with the same Beretta 94FS model. This was in case they needed to share clips.

Chris pulled Alice aside and handed her a Taurus 85. It was a small 5 shot revolver that could easily be concealed in most pants or jacket pockets. "Keep one of the rifles handy. And a shotgun. But this should be on you at all times, too."

He showed her the particulars. There weren't many. It was, after all, a revolver. He also gave her a pair of speed loaders. Showing her how to use them, he said, "Keep these on you, too." When she pocketed the weapon, he took one of her hands. He said with obvious concern, "Stay safe. We're just gonna make a couple of big circles around the neighborhood. We'll be back before dark."

The brother's put together packs of food, water, ammunition, and other supplies. Each carried a small backpack. They were nothing like what Chris had carried in the Army, of course. But they were all they would need in rough, tough forests of North Central Oregon.

 

[HumanBean]

They headed out. They headed back down the road that had brought them to the cabin. It was almost two miles before the nearest neighboring cabin. Chris didn't expect to see anyone until at least then. He was right.

When they neared it, Chris called out, "Yo! Anyone home? Mister Murphy. John Murphy. It's Chris Hammond, from up the hill. Are you there?"

They got no response from the house. But as they slowly neared it, one of the window draperies moved. Chris immediately and quietly commanded, "Stop! Down!" All three dropped to their knees. They moved to cover. Chris called out again, to no response. He announced, "We're not here to hurt anyone or take anything from you. We're just trying to find out who's in the neighborhood." Still no response. "Do you have everything you need? Food? Water?" Silence. "Is there anyone hurt? In need of medical attention?"

After a bit, Chris directed his brothers back away from the house. In the woods, he said, "I want the two of you to wander about out here in front. Stay under cover. Keep your heads down. But let them see you. Glimpses! Not long enough to get your fucking heads blown off."

Kenny asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going around back," he told them. When Billy asked why, Chris said, "We need to know who's in there and whether or not they are a threat to us."

It took several minutes to circle to the back of the cabin. Getting to it without being visible was a trick. But Chris managed. Meanwhile, his brothers were scurrying about on the opposite side of the manufactured log cabin. They came together at one point to discuss what was happening.

Suddenly, there was mayhem inside the cabin. It sounded like a fight. Things seemed to be falling to the ground or were being thrown about. The youngest Emmonds weren't sure what to do. Suddenly the front door flew open. Billy and Kenny both leveled the weapons toward the opening. They waited. The mayhem continued.

Then, a huge raccoon darted out the door. It was followed by four smaller versions of itself. The little guys scurried off after their mother. From inside the cabin, Chris called. "Don't shoot me, you idiots." He'd looked out a window to see the boys' guns pointed his way. He stepped into the doorway. Waving to them, he said, "C'mon. There's a lot of stuff here we need to take back."

The three of them did a quick survey of the weekend cabin. Kenny wondered whether they should be stealing from the Murphy's. Billy pointed out, "They're probably dead. Someone's gonna take it. Might as well be us."

They used anything they could to pack up food, water, blankets, first aid kits, and more. Chris wanted to continue the survey of the area, though. They hid the loot in the woods fifty yards or so back toward their own cabin. He told Kenny, "Go back and get the others. Have them bring the wheelbarrows and wagons and get all of this."

The youngest Emmonds rushed back up the road. The two eldest ones continued down the road. They reached the first junction and turned west. They came upon the Filmore's cabin. Repeating his calls to potential occupants, Chris got no response. The cabin's door was wide open, though. They approached carefully. The place had been pillaged.

"Someone's been up here," Chris said unnecessarily. "This is why we have to be careful. We have to know who's up here. And for what purpose."

They continued on. The next cabin was owned by a vacation rental company. There'd been a fire. There was little left but the outside shell. Had it been intentional or accidental? Chris couldn't know. Lightning? It was unlikely, but it did happen.

They continued on. The day passed slowly. Their route took them in the lopsided circle that was called Cabin Loop Road. The Emmonds cabin laid somewhat near the center. At various distances from one another were a total of 10 other homes. None other than Chris's family's home were occupied. He found it comforting. He also found it sad. Had no one considered the forest as a safe place to which they could flee? Or had no one else made it here alive?

It was almost dark before they reached the junction and turned toward the Murphy place again. Chris poked his head inside. The others had thoroughly cleaned it out. They'd taken all the bedding, including the mattresses. They'd cleared the closet of most of the clothing.

Drawers were open everywhere. It reminded Chris of his mother's habit of opening motel drawers upon departing, to ensure nothing had been left behind. Kenny had probably been behind this. He told Billy, "Let's go home."

"It is, isn't it?" Billy asked. Chris looked to him with a questioning expression. Billy clarified about their cabin, "It's home now."

"Yeah ... I guess it is," Chris acknowledged. "C'mon. It's gonna be dark soon."

The eldest Emmonds stepped out of the cabin. Suddenly, something exploded near his head. He was hit by something flying through the air. He wouldn't understand what was happening right away. Only after the report of a rifle would he realize that he'd been hit by a chunk of wood from the door frame.

"Down! Down!" he hollered at his brother. He pushed Billy back inside and followed right behind him. There was a dozen more shots from one direction. From another, there were about half that many. Chris scrambled to the window for a look. The cabin's thick, log walls provided ample protection. "I can't see them. Stay down. Stay down!"

Behind him, Billy huddled behind a flower cushioned couch. Chris told him to move to the wall. "That azalea print ain't gonna stop a bullet, idiot."

The shooting had stopped. After a minute of silence, a man called out. "Put your guns on the porch and your packs, and we'll let you leave. All we want is your stuff. We don't want to kill you."

One of the windows over Chris's head had been blown out. He rose to peek out the dirty glass that remained. He hollered, "If you weren't trying to kill us, you wouldn't have shot at my head."

They guy out in the woods continued his negotiations. Chris wasn't believing any of it, of course. People were desperate. And people were assholes. He didn't know which of these those two men were. Either way wasn't good for him and Billy.

"Can we go out the back?" his brother asked.

"We don't know who's out there?" Chris answered. "They might be out there waiting for us." He thought for a moment, then said, "We'll just have to wait until dark."

 

[PennySaver]

Alice, the other girls, and the three guys who hadn't left had gotten to work on chores just as soon as the three guys who had left disappeared down the dirt road. They organized the resources inside the cabin, chopped and collected wood outside of it, and more. They were surprised after less than an hour to see Kenny hurrying back up the road toward them, telling them they all had somewhere to be.

Each of them grabbed some sort of device with which to carry stuff: wheelbarrows, carts, backpacks, even heavy duty black garbage bags. They reached the Murphy cabin, finding Chris and Billy already gone. They packed up anything and everything of value and headed back to the Emmonds cabin again. They spent an hour or so storing everything away while simultaneously adding the things to their inventory list.

The Murphy's had had more than one couple's share of red meat in a freezer kept cold by a solar panel battery pack, but without taking the freezer itself, something had to be done with the meat or it would spoil by dawn the next day. Between Kenny, Maria, and Alice, they had enough knowledge to build an appropriately smoky fire; the six of them went to work cutting the steaks, roasts, and other cuts into thin slices to be put over the fire to be turned into jerky.

Once Maria had the operation well in hand herself, Alice gathered the guys and Jessi and said, "Let's go get the rest of what we left behind. One more trip, I think; that ought to do it."

The sun was already almost touching the tops of the tall conifers to the west. Alice figured they had enough time to get to the Murphy's, gather their loot, and get back before the sky and world around them was entirely dark. They were almost to the cabin when gunfire exploded somewhere in front of them. All five of them hit the ground in an instant. They stayed as they were for a minute or so as the firefight continued.

Actually, firefight wasn't a word that came to Alice easily. She was no warrior, plus it sounded as if there was only one person shooting. Then there was a second shooter, but was this person shooting with or at the second. Soon enough, though, the sound of Chris's voice responded to that of one of the presumed attackers was wafting through the trees toward Alice.

"Whadda we do?" a desperate Jessi asked.

Alice though for a moment, looking to each of the others. She probably should have turned them all back: Chris was the real warrior in the group, and he probably would have told them to head back home and leave the fighting to him. But she was worried for his safety, obviously ... and she was pretty sure they had the element of surprise on their side.

"We're going to spread out," she whispered to her cohort. "We're going to move slowly forward and look to see who's shooting at Chris and Billy."


"Then what?" Jessi growled. "We're gonna shoot them?"

"If we have to," Alice said. She donned a hard look, saying, "Whoever these fuckers are, they're shooting at Chris and Billy." She stared hard into Jessi's eyes, adding, "Your Billy." She could see that Jessi was still unsure about her orders and clarified, "You don't have to shoot anyone. Just shoot their direction ... to get them to back off of the guys."

It took another minute of arguing before the group was ready to move forward with Alice's plan. With about 20 feet between each of them, they crept forward through the forest on the west side of the road, as that seemed to be the source of the gunfire. Soon enough, Alice could see both of the men unloading their rifles on the cabin. A lull had arrived in the fighting and the talking both, and Alice warned the others to keep still and quiet.

Then, finally, Alice rose a bit higher from behind a stump, aimed her rifle, and pulled the trigger back slowly. The rifle cracked, sending a bullet out to strike the tree behind which one of the shooters was hiding. The man spun in shock, searched for the ambusher, then quickly fired a half dozen shots Alice's general direction. She dropped down behind cover again, unsure of what to do next.

Her cohort stepped up, though, and suddenly Jessi, Julio, Robert, and William were all shooting their rifles, shotguns, or pistols in the direction of the two gunmen. Each unloaded his weapon at his or her own pace, then quickly began reloading. Alice just watched in amazement at the group, and when -- for just a moment -- each was reloading and not shooting, she rose again, aimed and began firing as well.

By the time the others had reloaded and began firing again, the two men between her and the Murphy cabin were hightailing it away from the scene as face as humanly possible. The group's guns went silent, and for a long moment they all just looked either at the assailants' back sides or at each other. Then ... laughter erupted.

Alice looked to the distant cabin and hollered, "You two boys still alive...? Or was the cavalry too late to save you from the raiders.?"

 

[HumanBean]

Chris and Billy thought they'd verified that their group was alone in the woods. Then two guys started shooting at them. Then someone else started shooting at those two guys. And to think, they'd come to mountains for the safety and security.

As the battle out there was happening, Chris was thinking 'what the fuck?' But by the time it was over, he understood who was backing him and his brother up. Still, he couldn't believe it. He wouldn't have thought the others were up to this kind of action yet.

And yet, Alice called out, "You two boys still alive...?"

Chris looked to Billy. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Or was the cavalry too late to save you from the raiders?"

Billy chuckled. "She's YOUR girlfriend."

Chris stood and looked out the window's shattered pane. He hollered, "Yeah. We're good."

He looked to Billy. "Let's go."

They headed outside. Billy asked, "So, are you still the head honcho?"

"Shut it," Chris growled.

His brother continued, "Or, should we be answering to the hero of the--"

Chris laughed. "Okay, give it a rest." He looked up and down the road and toward the woods. "And keep an eye out for those guys."

The group met out on the road. Chris saw that only Maria was missing and asked about her. It seemed she was safe as could be back at the Emmond's cabin. Chris smiled to Alice, saying, "Thanks for the rescue." He looked to each of the others one after another. "Thanks, everyone."

There was discussion about the two ambushes and the gathering of supplies. Through it all, Chris continually glanced back to Alice. He was raging with lust for the woman. He wondered if she saw it in his face. It might have been easier to see it in his groin. He was hard as a rock. He tried to hold his rifle such that the butt obscured the view of his bulge.

"Let's get back to the cabin," Chris suggested. "Those two guys might have run off, but I'm sure they didn't get far. We're going to have to put out extra watches until we know we're all alone up here."

The group snatched up what resources from the Murphy cabin were ready to go and hurried back up the road toward their own home. As they proceeded, Chris reached a hand out to snag Alice and slowed her down. He got twenty yards between them and the nearest of the others. Leaning in, he whispered, "You have no idea how much I want you right now."

 

[PennySaver]

Alice would have loved to hear Billy tell Chris, She's YOUR girlfriend. She's loved hearing that back in high school, and she cherished the thought of it now, not only because she liked the man so much but because with the world like it was -- post-Blink -- it was nice to know she had a good, strong man by her side.

Alice wasn't the damsel in distress type, of course. She'd been just fine during her post-Chris period without a serious boyfriend. She hadn't told him this, but over the last half dozen years, she hadn't had a single really serious boyfriend. Oh, she'd dated and she'd even fucked. But she hadn't once felt herself ready to say those three words -- I love you -- a single one of those guys.

Despite it being the end of the world, Alice thought she was happier now than she had in more than five years.

"Keep an eye out for those guys," she told the others as they waited for Chris and Billy to emerge from the Murphy's cabin. When they arrived and Chris thanked them for the rescue, Alice shrugged her shoulders playfully, saying, "We were in the neighborhood."

They kept an eye out for the ambushers while they gathered the last of the Murphy's valuable resourced. Heading back to the Hammond's cabin -- home -- Chris leaned in and whispered, "You have no idea how much I want you right now."

Without turning her head toward him, Alice returned, "I already found a place in the woods where we can be alone." She peeked his way now to see his reaction. "There's a little patch of grass off to the north, hidden from the cabin's view. You know it?" She expected that he did. A smile widened her face. She asked, "You didn't think I was there yet, did you?"

 

[HumanBean]

"I already found a place in the woods where we can be alone."

Chris was shocked at Alice's words. He wanted her. He hoped she wanted him. He hadn't imagined she was a step ahead of him, though. He knew the spot she was talking about, of course.

She asked, "You didn't think I was there yet, did you?"

He didn't immediately respond. When he did, Chris said, "I didn't."

They walked on in silence almost all the way to the cabin. Only there did Chris ask, "We're not going to be able to keep this a secret, you know."

 

[PennySaver]

Alice chuckled at Chris's comment, murmuring, "Duh." They continued onward until they were almost to the cabin, out of which came those who hadn't taken part in the gun fight. She said, "Someone's going to have to step up and plan some watches, to look out for those two assholes who shot at us."

Maria spoke the obvious, "I thought that was Chris's job."

Without shame, Alice said, "Chris and I are going to sneak off into the woods to have sex. So, someone deal with it."

There was a mix of laughter, cheers (mostly form the guys), and shocked expressions (from both of the girls). Without delay, Alice snatched Chris by the hand, turned for the corner of the cabin, and said, "C'm'on, big boy."

 

[HumanBean]

Chris was shocked when Alice blurted out her plans for him. Still, when she took his hand, he didn't resist. She dragged him away from the others. He looked back, then shrugged his shoulders. "A man can't shirk his duties, can he?"

When they'd circled the end of the cabin, he tugged her back to him. Pulling her tightly, he kissed her passionately. "You're crazy. But I like that."

They continued onward to her chosen location for their tryst.

 

[PennySaver]

Alice had been thinking about her first time fucking Chris all day long. During the transfer of resources from one cabin to the other, she'd taken a few minutes to sneak out to the little patch of grass in the forest with some resources. Now, as she and Chris arrived, she ordered, "Help me with this."

They spread a plastic tarp out over the cold, wet ground; next came a thick blanket that wasn't normally for sleeping but was instead used for protecting furniture from damage when shipping; and finally came one of the extra blankets from the Emmond's cabin. Once their bed was arranged, Alice quickly moved up into Chris's arms, pulled him tight to her, kissed him passionately, and begged, "Make love to me."