"The Castle" (An "I Am Legend" inspired RP)

[HumanBean]

"The Castle"

Inspired by the movie
"I Am Legend"

If you are interested in joining,
please PM me.
Please do not simply post a reply.
Thanks.
​

May 18, 2027:

Brad Ridge scanned the shipyard through a pair of binoculars for signs of activity. There was none. That didn't surprise him, of course. There hadn't been any, inside of or beyond the shipyard, for almost three months. Even then, it had been nothing more than a vehicle driving at a million miles an hour down the expressway before then disappearing from sight and sound.

It had been more than a year now since the beginning of the pandemic that the Press would come to call the Great Mistake. Brad had spent that time entirely alone. No other human beings. Not even a dog or goldfish. He did have a flock of seagulls who paid him visits most days, though.

The virus that had led to the near extinction of the human race hadn't begun its life as a deadly pathogen. It had been an engineered cure for cancer. Doctor Alice Krippin had developed the cure by stripping measles cells of their DNA and replacing them with the genetic code of the cure for cancer. Initial tests showed no side effects or other risks to the general public. The rapidly spreadable measles delivery system would mean that nearly every man, woman, and child across the world could be exposed in just weeks. All forms of cancer would be virtually eradicated within a year.

Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. The cure somehow got out of its containment area in a Level 4 Biohazard facility buried deep beneath Manhattan. It spread rapidly through the Big Apple, then beyond. Catching rides on flights out of LaGuardia, J. F. K., and Newark International, the virus spread to every corner of the globe within a month.

That was when the Dark Seekers began appearing. No one knew what had caused the cure to mutate into a killer virus. But the creatures who'd once been just normal folk were proof of the change. They were voracious cannibals who attacked anyone and everyone. When there were no Humans left to kill and devour, they turned to large animals. Then small animals. Even birds and reptiles stood no chance.

The change from Human to Dark Seeker happened fast. Regardless of the time of day a person was infected, the change always happened between sundown and sunup. People went to bed not knowing they were infected, then changed overnight.

Husbands and wives woke up and without hesitation ripped their spouse's throats out as they still slept. Parents ravaged and ate their innocent children. Entire dormitories full of college students were wiped out, sometimes by one Dark Seeker, sometimes by two or more who'd turned the same night. Even barracks full of Soldiers and Marines fell victim to their changed members. Overnight trains, planes, and interstate buses fell into mayhem as one turned passenger began ripping through the others.

The first Dark Seeker incident had been reported on April 12th, 2026. At that time, Earth's human population had been over 8.3 billion. By the beginning of that May, that population had been reduced to less than 1 million. Worldwide! It hadn't been since the dawn of agriculture in 10,000 BC that Earth's human population had been that small.

Brad didn't know the specific population numbers. Not for the world, not for his state, his county, or his city. He only knew that the population of the shipyard was 1. Him!

He hadn't laid eyes upon another human being for over a year. He hadn't heard anyone on the radio for half that amount of time. He hadn't seen evidence of another living person (the speeding car) in 92 days. He'd begun thinking he might be the last man on Earth.

And then, she arrived at the Castle.

The Castle was Brad's new home at the Port Newark Container Terminal. As the apocalypse exploded across Newark, Brad had been working the graveyard security shift for International Intermodal Incorporated. Being awake, aware, and locked within a very safe and secure guardhouse at 3am had saved his life.

His instructions in the case of an emergency had been to contact 9-1-1 and remain locked inside his security shack until he was told to do otherwise. He'd done just as he'd been told ... for 6 days!

Beyond his little hut, the world had gone abso-fuckin'-lutely crazy. But Brad had stayed right where he was. He initially survived on his own packed lunch and bottles of water. He moved on to the mini fridge's contents, even the crappy food his vegan counterpart had left behind. He broke open his fellow security guards' lockers to steal their stashes of snacks. He collected rainwater on stormy nights, filling any container that would hold it. He shit in curled up sheets of paper, then through the bundles out the window, without ever stepping outside.

He followed these security protocols 24 hours a day. That was even after he'd heard on the radio that the cannibals didn't hunt during the day. They were calling them Dark Seekers by the 3rd day. By the 4th day, Brad had confirmed with his own eyes that this theory was true. And yet, 6 days later, he still hadn't gone outside the hut. He'd had no reason to. Yet.

Eventually, though, Brad ran out of food and water. And the smell of both his balls of nearby shit and his own body were getting to him. He'd been contemplating a plan. And on the 7th day, he set about completing it.

Despite not being an actual cargo handler, he'd understood how to the use the container mover thing-a-ma-jig. So, each day for the next two weeks, after the sun was up and the Dark Seeker threat was gone, he'd gotten to work. He'd stacked containers 5 high in a rectangle nearly as large as a football field. He'd arranged them such that none of the exposed doors on the ground level outside also led into the Castle. If he wanted to get out and then back in again, he had a way of doing that.

Within his Castle, Brad had had all he needed. He'd thought ahead back before everything went to shit. He'd gotten into the computer before the power went out and printed hundreds of pages of manifests of the contents of the terminal's containers. He selected those that were more accessible and filled with valuable cargo. Then, he moved them to an empty location in the terminal's yard. After that, he built the wall surrounding them.

Selecting the containers with the good stuff in them had taken the majority of the time involved actually. The construction of the wall had actually been started and finished in just one day. By that time, he'd gotten very good with the mover.

Brad now had cargo containers full of imported food, water, canned fuel, batteries, equipment that ran off of the fuel and batteries, and much more. Once he'd finished building the wall, he began pillaging the containers. He'd move a full one to the ground, pillage it, and stack it over another pillaged one. Little bit by little bit, he went through them all.

And life had gone on.

Oh, it wasn't a perfect life. Brad was lonely, first. And the choices of meals day after the day were limited. And he had his garden. One of the containers he'd retrieved had contained thousands of bags of potting soil. Another had had thousands of packages of plant seeds. They weren't all edible, of course. Or at least, Brad had no interest in eating them. The wildflowers were, theoretically, edible. But most of them ... ick.

In the beginning of his time as the last man on Earth, Brad had gone to the parapet of the Castle wall every day to look out upon the world. Sometimes he'd gone up there multiple times. Sometimes he'd stayed there for hours, scanning the terminal, the city, and the ocean horizon. In recent months, he hadn't gone up there but maybe once or twice a week. It had been almost a month since his last visit up there. There hadn't been anything of interest to see in so long. Why make the effort?

He was happy he'd gone up there today, though. Brad had spent several minutes surveying the terminal through his field glasses, seeing nothing new. And then, suddenly, there she was. She was just standing there between two stacks of containers, staring back at him. Brad initially thought it was his imagination. A year alone in a dead world could do that to you, he imagined.

But he finally concluded that she was in fact real. And after studying her for a couple of long, heart-beating minutes, he waved. Then, he called out, "Hello!"

He waited a moment for some sort of response. When he got it, Brad asked with great hope in his voice, "Are you real? Please ... tell me I'm not imagining you!"

​

 

[AmyRoberts]

Maggie Johnson had been coming deep into the shipping terminal every day for a month, taking a couple of hours to fully encircle what she would learn was called the Castle, before finally retreating to the cargo container at the far end of the yard that she'd been living in during that time. Maggie had been scanning the waterfront of the Port of Newark looking for a boat with her own pair of binoculars when she'd seen a man standing atop a stack of cargo containers.

Unlike Brad Ridge, Maggie had seen more than her share of other human beings during this post-pandemic time. At times, she'd told herself that she'd be perfectly fine never seeing another human being for as long as she lived. And yet, for a month now, she'd continued scanning the terminal and this particular location for the man each day. She hadn't had anywhere else to be at the time, and she'd been lucky enough to find food, water, and safe shelter, so she'd said to herself, "Fuck it. Let's check it out."

Since the beginning of the humanity destroying pandemic, Maggie had relocated more than than two dozen times. Sometimes she moved on because she was out of food, other times because she didn't feel safe. More often than not, though, it was simply because she had a final destination to reach.

She'd been living in Kansas City when all this shit started. Initially, she and her folks had hidden in the family home's storm shelter, hold up with two neighbors and all the food, water, and other supplies they'd been able to buy before the stores were empty. When they ran out of resources and her father and the two neighbors went out to look for more; the trio never came back. Her mother had had health problems for years prior to all this, and one night she went to sleep, and the next morning she simply didn't wake up.

Maggie couldn't bear to stay in the hole any longer. She knew that the Dark Seekers didn't come out in the daytime, so she packed up a bag with what little was left to her and headed out for her destination: New York City. She had a sister who'd been going to university in Manhattan at the time of the rise of the Dark Seekers, and even though she knew both that Manhattan was ground zero and that there was likely little chance of the sister still being alive and still being in the city, Maggie headed that direction.

She had occasionally come across other survivors as she made her way east, but each encounter had been a bad one. She'd been beaten up and robbed twice. She'd been raped once, again beaten and robbed. More than a dozen times, she'd nearly been killed and presumably eaten by Dark Seekers. If she hadn't learned how to find safe nighttime shelter, Maggie wouldn't still be alive.

She'd made it from Kansas City to St. Louis, through Indianapolis and Columbus. She'd bypassed Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, instead traveling a bit farther north, through Allentown. She'd arrived in Newark, New Jersey, without any idea of how to get into New York City, let alone onto the island of Manhattan. She'd found a map of the region and used it to locate the different ways of continuing her trek, only to find out that every way forward was blocked.

The first part of the world to see the appearance of Dark Seekers had, of course, been Manhattan, where the Krippin virus had originated. In a vain attempt to halt the spread of the killing, the Air Force had destroyed all the bridges and tunnels leading into and out of Manhattan. Maggie only discovered this after two weeks of checking out each blocked path.

She knew how to operate small boats, so she headed toward the water to find one. Somehow, she ended up at the Port of Newark, where she scanned for a boat and instead found a man standing atop cargo containers, peering out onto the world. When she didn't see him again that or the next day, Maggie began circling his Castle. She found it to be an amazing idea. She told herself that she should probably move on, having no idea who the man inside was or what he might do to her if they came together.

And yet, she'd stuck around in an attempt to spot him once more. And even though her brain screamed Beware! Beware! Maggie couldn't help but step out into view when she finally saw him a second time, standing upon the wall, looking around with his own binoculars.

After a couple of minutes of just staring at one another, Maggie stepped forward to make herself more visible, and he waved and called out, "Hello!"

She held her hand up, waving back, to which he continued, "Are you real? Please ... tell me I'm not imagining you!"

"You're not imagining me!" Maggie called back. She suddenly realized that her heart was pounding. Was it excitement, fear, or a combination of both. She lifted her binoculars again to see his face more clearly. He seemed to be happy at learning that she wasn't a figment of his imagination. She waved again, lowered the glasses, and called out again, "My name is Maggie. What's yours?"

She had no idea whether or not he would tell her his name, but whether he did or not, she would then call out, "I've been watching for you. I saw you a few days ago!"

That was wrong, of course; she'd seen him almost a month ago. But she hadn't wanted him to think she was a stalker, and -- wrongly -- she'd assumed that he came up onto the wall often, so saying she'd seen him just a few days ago seemed appropriate.

"I was just wondering..." she continued, stepping a few more steps forward, "...if maybe you might have some food you might want to share with me ... or trade. I have some canned fruits ... and some dried dates and apple slices. And beef jerky! They're safe. I've been eating them for a while ... and they haven't killed me yet!"

 

[HumanBean]

Brad hadn't believed his eyes. And now he couldn't believe his ears.

"You're not imagining me!" the woman called back. She waved again, calling back, "My name is Maggie. What's yours?"

He hesitated a moment, wondering. Can I tell her my name? Is there any reason not to? If she's a danger, will knowing my name make her any more dangerous?

"Brad!" he finally called out. He began to add his surname but paused. He repeated, "My name is Brad."

"I've been watching for you," she went on. "I saw you a few days ago!"

Brad was so caught up in the moment that he didn't even realize the flaw in her day counting ability.

She called out her offer to share her food with him. Food was the last thing on Brad's mind. He was talking to another human being. A female human being. And a pretty female human being at that!

"Sure! I have food!" he called to her. "I'd love to trade with you!"

What he actually meant was I'd love to sit and eat with you and get to know you and maybe we'll like each other and kiss and cuddle and fuck each other. At least, that was what was going through his mind without him even having to think hard. How the hell was this happening to him? Of all the people in the world (or of what remained people in the world), how did he get lucky enough to...

And then a thought came to him. He hollered, "Are you alone?"

He didn't want to ask Do you have a bunch of men with guns who are going to kill me and take everything I've built here while I'm staring hopefully at your bosom. But again, that's what was going through his mind.

 

[AmyRoberts]

Maggie smiled when the man returned with, "Brad. My name is Brad."

He didn't seem to react to her faux pas about admitting that she'd been watching him -- or, more correctly, looking for him -- for a lot longer than she'd indicated. He told her, "Sure! I have food! I'd love to trade with you!"

She waved acknowledgement and started walking closer to the structure. She looked left and right for an entrance but, just as with the previous days, she didn't see one. Then he asked, "Are you alone?"

His tone sounded more like concern to Maggie than simple curiosity. She stopped, looking up to answer, "Yes. I'm alone."

Brad looked as concerned as he'd sounded, which was ironic since Maggie herself should have been the concerned one. She was, as she'd said, alone, and now she was asking to come into a fortified structure that, for all she knew, was occupied by a thousand horny rapist murderers. But there was something either about him or her or both that had Maggie shedding her concern and willing herself to take a chance.

"If you're concerned about your safety," Maggie said with a wide playful smile, "I'll be honest and up front with you. I am armed. I have a pistol in my pack. If you want, I can show it to you, then lock it in my bag. I have a little lock for the main pouch."

All she could do was hope Brad believed and trusted her. If not, she'd wasted a month here trying to locate the man who she'd only seen the one time. It would be a shame, too, she thought as she looked up at him. Brad was one seriously cute guy. It had been a long time since Maggie had known a cute guy who wasn't a total dick.

Of course, Brad might still be a total dick. That was why Maggie hadn't also told him about the Taser in her pack's side pocket, the hunting knife between her sleeping pad and the pack, and the stiletto in her boot. After you've been robbed and raped as many times as Maggie had, you learn.

 

[HumanBean]

Maggie answered, "Yes. I'm alone."

The concerned expression she thought she saw on Brad's face was really there. In the year since the pandemic and subsequent Dark Seeker mayhem, he hadn't interacted with anyone, let alone let someone inside his home. But he was feeling something for Maggie just as she was for Brad. He couldn't explain it. Later, he would realize that it was simple loneliness.

She told him about the gun in her bag. "If you want, I can show it to you, then lock it in my bag. I have a little lock for the main pouch."

He thought about it for a moment. Then, nodding, he said, "Okay. Do that."

Maggie showed him the pistol. He'd never been a firearms kinda guy. He knew the difference between a semiautomatic and revolver, a handgun and a long gun, and a rifle and a shotgun. But after that, they were all just guns.

"There's no door to get inside," Brad called down. He laughed. "Yeah, I know. Sounds silly. But there is a way in. Gimme a second. Actually, this might take a couple of minutes. Don't worry, I'm coming back."

He disappeared from her view. The only way in and out of the Castle was via an elevator that Brad had created. It used the container mover, a pulley, a cable, and some rolling bars he'd attached to the top of the wall to lower a pallet platform to the ground. A remote that he'd jerry rigged with a mechanic switch and another long, thin cable allowed him to operate the mover's hydraulics from the top of the wall.

Brad pushed the pallet over the side of the wall. He adjusted it to be steady. Wheels attached to the wall-side of the pallet would guide it down the side without sticking. He began lowering it. Looking down, he called to Maggie, "I'm going to lower this to you. After you're on, I'll pull you up."

Brad thought he might have seen some worry in Maggie's face. He laughed, promising, "It's safe, trust me. I've used it a couple of times to go outside after I built this place. It's the only way inside, so if you want in, this is it."

The platform took almost a full minute to drop the 45 feet from the top level of the 5-container high wall to the ground. Brad called down, "You should sit on your haunches in the middle, to keep it level and steady. Balance with your pack, obviously. When you're ready, tell me and I'll lift you up. The only thing you have to do is make sure the wheels don't catch the wall. If they do..."

Brad didn't explain what would happen. Maggie could probably figure out that it would simply dump her out to the ground below. Or maybe break one of the heavy ropes attaching the cable to the pallet.

Now, Maggie just needed to be brave.

 

[AmyRoberts]

Maggie held up her firearm in a way that exhibited demonstration, not pointing, saying, "It's not much actually, just a .22 caliber revolver. I'll lock it away now."

She put it back inside the pack and slipped the bail of the padlock through the clasps, showing Brad that it was secure. In all honesty, Maggie knew that she could do more damage to the average target with the knife in her boot than with the small caliber pistol. She wasn't much of a shot with it, never having used a pistol much in her early years. Her father had been a hunter, and the two of them had been very close, so rifles and shotguns were what she knew.

"There's no door to get inside," Brad called down.

She considered saying something about how she hadn't yet discovered an entrance, but again she feared that the man might think she had been probing his Castle. Instead, she only said, "Yeah, I was wondering how I got inside."

He laughed. "Yeah, I know. Sounds silly. But there is a way in. Gimme a second."

Soon enough, Brad was lowering a platform on a cable from an arm swung out over the wall. Maggie thought the concept was genius and even called up to him that she thought so. When it arrived, she tossed her backpack onto the flat surface and crawled on. He told her, "Balance with your pack, obviously."

She got comfortable and pressed the button as Brad had instructed. The contraption shuttered a bit, but then immediately began rising slowly into the air. Maggie was glad that she wasn't being chased by Dark Seekers or human monsters. As the platform gained altitude, she looked out over the shipyard. She'd never really thought about how high the stacks of containers were until now. As she neared the 5-container high top of the wall, she realized that the tallest stacks out beyond the castle were also 5 high and wondered if that was a coincident or intentional on Brad's part.

When she reached the top, Maggie the platform automatically stopped even with the roof of the highest wall container. Still sitting on her haunches, she smiled to her host and said, "Wonderful to meet you, Brad. Thanks for the invitation."

She tossed her backpack onto the container's top, then reached out a hand, seeking assistance.

 

[HumanBean]

"Wonderful to meet you, Brad," Maggie said when she arrived at the top of the wall.

"Wonderful to meet you, Maggie," Brad returned with a wide smile. He put his weight into swinging the arm to put the platform and his guest over the container.

She tossed her backpack onto the container's top and reached out a hand for assistance, "Thanks for the invitation."

"My pleasure," he said, taking her hand. The platform shook and wobbled as Maggie tried to dismount. Brad told her with concern, "Careful."
Maggie rose to her feet. Brad offered his hand again, thinking the earlier hand holding wasn't really a handshaking. "It really is nice to have someone here. It's been..."

Brad went quiet, chuckled, and continued, "It's been since this all started since I talked to anyone."

He gestured her to follow. Brad had wanted to build a permanent, secure stairway from ground level to the top of the parapet for getting up and down. He knew where he could find a welding machine. But he didn't have welding skills. He'd tried to find a book on welding but had had no luck.

Luckily, he had ladders. Lots of ladders. From his manifest collection, Brad had identified, located, and retrieved a cargo container full of 8-, 12-, and 20-foot aluminum ladders. They'd been imported from Chine, of course. Wasn't everything?

To counter this shortcoming, Brad had stepped other containers inside the north and south walls like some ancient Central American pyramid. Inside the north and south sides, the 5-high container wall had a 4-high stack next to it. The 4-high had a 3-high and so on. Then, he'd simply leaned 12-foot extension ladders against them to create makeshift stairs.

Reaching the bottom, Brad turned to offer Maggie a hand down. He didn't know if she needed or wanted it. But he was a gentleman if nothing else. He pointed, saying, "I live over there."

In the center of the football field sized interior was a single container. Well, there was actually more than that. He had collections of things he'd gotten out of containers as well as miscellaneous stuff he'd brought in with him during the initial construction of the wall and such. But what he was specifically pointing at was his home, a single cargo container sitting dead center in the middle of the Castle.

"It's not much," Brad admitted, "but it's home."

He led Maggie toward his home. He'd used a tarp and some pipes to construct an awning over the end. He unlatched the doors and swung one open. Inside, a room about 6 feet square made of plywood acted as a mud room. There was a bench on one side, an overfilled coat rack, and an assortment of shoes and sandals piled in one corner.

He'd removed the door from his former security shed workplace and now opened and walked through it. Inside, Brad turned on a battery-operated lantern. Then another, another, another, and finally another. He'd painted the interior white to amplify the light.

He'd even painted fake windows with sunny day scenes. He thought he saw Maggie give one a look of curiosity. He explained, "It makes me feel less like I'm living in a tin can sometimes."

He gave her the nickel-tour. There was a kitchen with a dining room at the front on the other side from the mud room. In the center was what he called the living room. It included a couch, a coffee table, a couple of armchairs, bookshelves, a jigsaw puzzle table, and more.

"There was a gym for shipyard workers just outside the terminal," he said as he pointed to an elliptical, recumbent bike, free weights, and more along one wall. He playfully flexed the biceps of one arm, saying, "I have a lot of free time."

If Maggie were to ever see him in minimal clothes, she'd see a very fit man. It was a combination of free time for exercise, a limited diet over the last year, and good genes.

At the end of the container were his bedroom and his library. There were a dozen shelf units of various sizes and styles. They were mostly filled, including everything from hardbacks to softbacks, magazines to books-on-tape, and more. "I like to read, so I grabbed everything I could find before I walled myself in. I also found a container filled with books that had been printed in Mexico and been destined for New York. Course, it was mostly hundreds of copies of the same fifty or so books, so..." He shrugged. "I read them all already."

Looking in the direction of his bed, Brad laughed. "I, um ... I didn't ask you if you were only here to trade food ... or ... were you interested in staying here."

Again, he looked at his bed, blushing. He wasn't normally this shy around women. But, well, he hadn't seen one in over a year. And Maggie was, in a way, standing in his bedroom. "I'm not suggesting stay here, of course ... in my bed. I just mean, if you wanted, I could set you up with a container of your own. Maybe one of the stair-step ones by the wall?"

Brad hoped she would be interested in staying. But he would totally understand if she had to or wanted to leave, too.

 

[AmyRoberts]

Maggie was impressed with what Brad had created here. Using the containers and ladders in the way he had was ingenious. She would have preferred a regular staircase, obviously, but the ladders were safe and secure enough.

She hadn't really thought about how he might be living with regards to a home. Maggie had assumed that he'd been living in some sort of shipyard office building, so his single container home was a disappointment.

Inside, though, her feelings changed. Maggie was impressed with what she saw. He had most of the comforts of home. The space was a bit dark, even with the walls painted white to reflect the lantern light. But it was secure, warm, and dry.

At the bedroom area, Maggie got nervous and became more attentive to Brad and his movements. The last time she'd been in a man's bedroom Maggie had been beaten and raped over a four hour period.

It had only ended after she feigned unconsciousness, waited for the man to lower his guard, and knocked him out with the first heavy object she'd found. It didn't end there, but she didn't like to think about what she'd done to him. He wouldn't be raping anyone ever again is what she preferred to take away from it all.

"I didn't ask you if you were only here to trade food," Brad said, "...or ... were you interested in staying here."

Maggie looked to Brad suspiciously, unsure of exactly what he was asking? Was he offering her his bed and his company in it?

"I'm not suggesting stay here, of course ... in my bed," he said, clarifying that question. He offered her one of the wall containers.

"No, I'm not looking for a new home," Maggie said. Honestly, she liked the security of the Castle. But she didn't know Brad well enough to move into his home. Did she? "No, I'm just..."

Just what? she wondered. What exactly had she expected from spending day after day for a month watching this place? It had all begun as a simple episode of curiosity: who was this man, what was he doing here, were there others with him, did he have resources, and so on and such forth.

Maggie indicated her backpack, saying, "Maybe we'd should see if we have things to trade."

 

[HumanBean]

"No, I'm not looking for a new home," Maggie answered when Brad asked of her intensions. "No, I'm just..."

"No, I understand," he responded. "I didn't mean..."

Brad didn't finish. He didn't know what he'd even been about to say really.

She indicated her backpack, saying, "Maybe we'd should see if we have things to trade."

"Yes, yes, definitely," Brad said. He turned back toward the front of his home. "Listen, I don't know what you like or anything, but if you like canned food, I got that in spades."

He took her back to the kitchen area. Against the wall were stacks of boxes of canned goods at high as the ceiling. Next to that was a stack of canvas bags.

Brad explained, "When the shit first hit the fan, I printed out a list of manifests. Actually, I don't think they're called manifests. Manifests are people on a flight or ship, I think. Anyway, I found several containers with canned and bagged foods, both being importing into the US and out of it. I used those containers for the steps out at the north and south wall so that I have access to them. This is just a little bit of it, really."

He went to a shelving unit filled with smaller containers. He opened or pulled out one after another, saying, "Dried beans, wheat flour, corn meal, sugar, and so on."

Looking to Maggie, Brad asked, "What do you need? And I know that I said we would trade food items. But to be honest, I have lots of food. If you had something else..."

He smiled sheepishly. Brad was hesitant to ask what was on his mind but did. "I don't suppose you have an extra gun and some bullets. And ... could you show me how to use it?"

Brad knew that if he was ever attacked by raiders, he'd be shit out of luck. His Castle's wall was only going to keep people out if he could do something to them before they got over the wall. That do something to them meant, of course, shoot them.

 

[AmyRoberts]

"Yes, yes, definitely," Brad said when Maggie suggested they get on with their trading. She thought he looked a bit relieved to move onto a new topic. Of course, she didn't know him.

He showed her his pantry, leading Maggie to murmur softly, "Jeeee-sus ... you're set."

He explained how he'd come across so much food, adding, "This is just a little bit of it, really."

"Incredible," she said softly. "I haven't seen this much food all in one place since before the world ended." The world hadn't actually ended, of course, but that was the way it came out of her mind and mouth. "All of the stores were cleared out in those first days. Warehouses, even the grain mills and food distribution places. Some of them had been secured by the military or militias that came after them. But inevitably, because they weren't very secure, they got overran by the Dark Seekers ... or the people guarding them moved everything somewhere safer."

He talked about the food trading idea, but then said, "...I have lots of food. If you had something else ... I don't suppose you have an extra gun and some bullets. And ... could you show me how to use it?"

Maggie laughed, then apologized. "I'm sorry, but ... hearing a guy ask a girl to show him how to use a gun. I just ... I don't think I've ever heard that before."

She thought about the revolver in her bag, telling Brad, "No, I don't have another one. But ... I think I know where to find one. Maybe even more than one." She pointed a finger, reoriented herself, then pointed the other direction. "To the west of here I saw the ruins of an outdoor store. It burned, along with the rest of the block. Don't know or care how or why. But if it burned before the building was looted, there would be guns and ammunition in it ... maybe!"

Maggie looked at all the food again, and her brain was spinning. She shed her backpack, put it on the kitchen table, and headed for the exit, saying, "Come with me."

Outside, she walked about, looking in every direction, surveying the Castle's interior. Then, looking to her host, Maggie asked, "What's your plan, Brad? I mean, you built this place a lot bigger than you need for just yourself. You must of had a plan when you built this."

She had some ideas rattling around in her head, obviously, but Maggie was just a guest. She wasn't about to start suggesting things Brad should do with his home. Of course, he'd asked if she wanted to stick around, hadn't he? Had she understood that correctly?

 

[HumanBean]

(OOC: Small change. In the first post, I wrote that Brad left the container lifter outside and disabled it to prevent anyone from using it. That was silly. He would want it inside so that someone didn't repair it. Inside, he could also use it for himself. The appropriate corrections have been made below. Also, I rethought how Brad got Maggie to the top. The new method is that he used the container mover, attached to a cable, to lift her to the top. I have gone back and changed both of these "errors", so if you are reading this note and thinking "but that's how I read it in the first place", well, then you got here after I made these changes. If my cowriter changes her posts' responses to these, that's her choice. No pressure, Amy. )

Brad was disappointed but not surprised that Maggie didn't have a gun to trade to him. Even if she did, she wouldn't give it to him. She didn't know him for Adam. He didn't know whether or not to be offended by what she said about guys, girls, and guns. He only laughed meekly. "I didn't grow up with them, so..."

"But ... I think I know where to find one," she told him, adding, "Maybe even more than one."

She talked about a burned-out gun store. that might still have weapons. He told her, "Yeah, there were a bunch of fires 'round here, not just when this first started but later even. I don't know if they were intentionally set or the result of natural causes or maybe electrical shorts or gas build up or lightning. Who really knows?"

Maggie shed her pack and led him outside. Brad watched her surveying what he'd built. She asked, "What's your plan, Brad?"

"Whaddaya mean?" he asked. He wasn't sure if she meant his plan for the next hour, the next month, or the next decade.

"I mean, you built this place a lot bigger than you need for just yourself," Maggie continued. "You must of had a plan when you built this."

Brad looked around, too. In every direction, there were stacks of containers (more only 3 or 4 high) that he'd pillaged for things he wanted from them. Some of the containers were part of the steps to the top of the wall. Others were simply sitting side by side with just enough room between their ends to allow the doors to be opened without conflict.

There was still a lot of empty space, even with the containers he'd pillaged and the piles of stuff he'd simply tossed aside. For the first time, he used the word Castle talking to Maggie. "Well, the Castle wall was built high enough to keep the Dark Seekers out and, hopefully, anyone else out there who might take an interest. As far as the interior ... in a castle, they call that the bailey ... I wasn't really planning on much. Sometimes, I move stuff from one container to another. I arrange stuff for ease of access."

He looked to Maggie. She had an expression of pure thoughtful joy on her face. He smiled, asking, "Why? What've you got in mind. I can hear the gear's a-grindin' in your head."

 

[AmyRoberts]

(OOC: I read your changes, and I agree with them totally. I'll change my posts as applicable.)

Brad explained his thinking when he built his castle, using the word bailey to describe the space that Maggie was surveying. Then he confessed, "...I wasn't really planning on much. Sometimes, I move stuff from one container to another. I arrange stuff for ease of access."

He looked to her, asking with a knowing smile, "Why? What've you got in mind. I can hear the gear's a-grindin' in your head."

Maggie laughed aloud, saying, "Oh, you have no idea." She backed away from him, curling an inviting finger at him. When she got to where she wanted to be, she swept her hands about her, saying, "A garden right here. Some of the bagged food you have in there ... some of the beans, the rice ... maybe some of the other stuff. Most people just see food, but if you process them right, they're seed ... for growing more food. Not all of those seeds are fertile, but some of them are.

"And you're not just limited to what you have," Maggie went on. "There're vegetables and root crops ... potatoes and such ... growing out there, just beyond the wall. I'm not exactly sure where, of course ... but I know we can find them. All of the potatoes, for example, that were growing in people's gardens last year when this all started, they're still there, growing. All we have to do is dig them up and bring them here."

She looked around her at what was pavement. "We can use something to create raised beds and bring in good dirt. I know for a fact that there's a nursery out there about four blocks away. I spent some time there while I was waiting to see if I'd see you again. There's soil in bags and bins of it for pickup takeaway. If we can get a vehicle out there, we can get it in here."

Maggie turned and looked at the cargo container machine and grimaced. Looking back to Brad again, she asked with a concerned look and tone, "But ... how would we get it in here ... if there's no entrance? I mean, the elevator I got here on isn't going to work."

 

[HumanBean]

Brad listened to Maggie's ideas, smiling with growing interest. He hadn't considered growing any sort of garden. There were three reasons. First, he had a ton of food that he couldn't eat on his own in ten years. Second, he had never been a gardener. And third, he'd expected to be dead by now. He'd expected either the Dark Seekers or the Raiders to find a way in to kill him and steal his shit.

He didn't know that some of the seeds and grains he had could actually be put in the ground and grown into food. He wasn't ignorant about where food came from, of course. Vegies came from the grocery store. Meat came from the fast food joints. Chocolate milk came from brown cows. (Just thinking this now made him smile.)

But he knew nothing about how to grow food. You put the seeds in the ground, watered them, pulled the weeds, picked the harvest, and took it to the store for people to cook so that Brad could buy it hot and ready to eat. (Again, he smiled at that thought.)

"And you're not just limited to what you have," Maggie went on.

She talked about going out beyond the wall to get even more variety. Brad didn't like the idea of going outside any more than was necessary. Since he'd completed the wall, he'd only gone outside twice. Over a year!

"All we have to do is dig them up and bring them here," she said.

Brad liked the fact that Maggie was using the words us and we. That meant that she was planning on staying, right?

She talked about building raised beds and trucking in dirt. "But ... how would we get it in here ... if there's no entrance? I mean, the elevator I got here on isn't going to work."

"There's a way," Brad answered. "Couple of them, actually. I just haven't done it because I had no reason to."

He gestured her to follow him toward the east wall. At the base of it lay a 12-foot folded ladder. He set it up near the middle of the bottom container. Pointing toward the top, he said, ""Climb up there and take a peek. Tell me what you see?"

If she did as he suggested, Maggie would find that the second unit wasn't actually sitting atop the first one. He explained, "I knew that one day I might need a quick way out of here. So, those two units are latched to the end of that one."

Brad gestured to the second unit at each end of the second one she'd just looked under. He went on talking about the bottom one near the ladder, "This one here can be pulled out with the container mover. It gives us access to the outside."

He began walking backwards away from the wall as he gestured and talked. "After that, we have two choices. We can either put it back in place to block the opening again. We can take it in and out whenever we want. Or..."

He gestured his hands indicating a direction perpendicular to the wall. "...we can put two containers side by side through the hole which would give us a permanent entrance in and out. Of course, that makes us vulnerable to attack. Not from Dark Seekers so much. I think we can secure the doors well enough to keep them out.

"No, I'm thinking more about Raiders," Brad said. A chill ran up his spine. The thought of other humans attacking his place and bringing an end to all he had was simply horrific. "If someone were to get hold of a big fucking truck ... or a bulldozer or something like that, they could pull the doors off.

"I'd rather not do that unless I thought we could defend the Castle," he said, again thinking about Maggie's opinion that the gun shop might be a payday for them. "That requires guns and explosives ... maybe Molotov cocktails, which are easy enough, of course, and other things.

"I like to think of this place as a castle," he said, smiling with pride. "But castles had more defenses than just a wall. The gates had things called murder holes. You could shoot arrows, or in our case bullets, down through holes at anyone invading through a gate. They had crenelations that defenders could hide behind. Of course, we don't have any defenders."

Brad remembered what Maggie had said about having to leave and asked for clarification, "Do you have anyone waiting for you out there?"

He was conflicted about the answer he wanted to hear. Saying no meant that Brad didn't have to worry about Maggie's buddies coming in, killing him, and taking over. Saying yes meant he did have to worry but also that if they were good guys, they could be the Castle's defenders.

 

[AmyRoberts]

"There's a way," Brad said when Maggie asked how they would get all the things in which she was interested in bringing into the Castle actually into the Castle.

He showed her the gap between the containers, then explained their options. Maggie was thoroughly impressed. "You were really thinking ahead, Brad. They're both great ideas. I like the one about the gates ... but, like you said, we can't secure it. Not yet!"

Brad asked, "Do you have anyone waiting for you out there?"

"No, no I don't, Brad," she answered with a sincere tone. "Really, truly, honestly. You can trust me on that. The only people out there with whom I've had interaction were ... well ... let's just say things didn't go well between us." She wasn't about to tell Brad that she'd been raped, of course, and not just once but twice. Instead, she simply said, "I got robbed and beat up a couple of times. After that, I tried to stay away from people as best I could."

She smiled to him, continuing, "I don't know why I felt so certain about you, Brad. I saw you..." She stopped, thought about what she was going to say, and decided to tell him the truth. "Brad, the one and only time I ever saw you up there on the wall was a month ago. I don't know why I didn't tell you that earlier. I guess ... I guess I was afraid you would think that I was casing your place ... looking for a way to take it for myself."

She held the fingers of one hand up in an oath gesture, saying, "Girl scouts honor. I meant you no harm then, and I mean you no harm now." She looked around, then back at Brad. "I think what you have here is amazing. And ... if you thought you were okay with it ... if you felt safe with me ... trusted me ... I could see the two of us working together to turn it into ... well, a real Castle setting."

Maggie performed a comical curtsey, saying, "King Brad of Newark ... and ... I'd be ... I dunno, Lady Maggie the Royal Gardener or something." She laughed, asking, "Whatcha think? Do you want to give it a shot?" She looked toward one of the stacks of containers; the bottom one's door was open, and Maggie could see that it was mostly empty. "I could turn that into my home ... you know ... if you were okay with me living here."

 

[HumanBean]

"No, no I don't, Brad," Maggie told Brad when he asked if she had people waiting for her outside.

She talked about being attacked. He felt sorry for her. Brad didn't know what that was like. He was 30 years old and had never been in a fight or been attacked. He'd led a lucky existence.

She admitted to having seen only once and that that had been a month ago. Brad hadn't been up on the wall in a month. He should have already figured that out. But he'd had other thoughts on his mind after discovering her. Or was it being discovered by Maggie?

"I meant you no harm then," she promised, "and I mean you no harm now."

Brad believed her. He didn't know why. They'd only just met. The world had gone to hell in a handbasket. No one could trust anyone. And yet, he felt as though he could trust her.

She laughingly called him King Brad of Newark. He returned the laugh and bowed to her, repeating, "Lady Maggie, the Royal Gardener."

"Whatcha think?" she asked. "Do you want to give it a shot?"

He took a moment, then said with confidence, "Yeah, I do. I think we could do good things here together."

"I could turn that into my home..." Maggie said, pointing to a container. "...you know ... if you were okay with me living here."

"I am," he said. He looked to the container. "Yeah. That's a good one. Some of them are old and leak, but that one's good."

He stepped closer to her and extended a hand. "Partners?"

After they shook, Brad asked, "Okay, so, where do we start? Do you have possessions out there that you need to bring inside?"

If she said yes, he would use the elevator to get her outside again. If no, he was ready for the next question: "Are you hungry? I was about to make a meal."

 

[AmyRoberts]

Brad reached out a hand, asking, "Partners?"

Maggie took it, repeating with delight, "Partners."

"Okay, so, where do we start?" he asked. "Do you have possessions out there that you need to bring inside?"

She laughed. Gesturing toward his own container, Maggie said, "You saw them already ... in my backpack."

"Are you hungry?" he asked. "I was about to make a meal."

"I could eat," she answered as they turned for his home. "But let me cook. It's the least I could do for what you're offering me."

..............................
​

Brad spent a few minutes familiarizing Maggie with what his kitchen and pantry had to offer, revealing to her that he was better equipped than she'd noticed the first time around. Still, there were things he needed in her opinion; Maggie's mother had been a first class cook and had also preserved a significant amount of the family's dietary needs throughout the year, from canning vegetables to drying spices to jerking meats and more.

During her free time, when Maggie wasn't out hunting or fishing with her father or helping her brothers with the chores on the farm, she was inside learning how to put up apple sauce or green beans or tomato paste or, on the other side, learning to use them to make delicious meals.

An hour later, a lavish dinner filled the table before Brad. She'd prepared some of his packaged things, using some of the spices that he'd scavenged from a kitchen near the terminal but then just left accumulated in a box in the kitchen's corner. From her own bag, she still had most of a dried rabbit that she'd snared just two days ago out beyond the Castle, as well as some fiddlehead fern fronds, as well as some morel and puffball mushrooms. She'd also gone out to the shore to dig clams, which she'd slow dried to preserve them.

"Whaddaya think?" she asked once she had it all laid out and invited him to the table. She waited for his response, then said, "Okay, well, let's dig in." Despite there being enough for four, they very nearly cleaned off every plate and bowl. It was just too delicious and each of them hadn't had such a meal in a long time. Maggie told Brad, "If I had a couple of more ingredients, I could make a pie, too. Maybe we can search for what I'm missing when we go outside."

After dinner, they checked out the container that Maggie was going to turn into her new home. It was, as Brad had said, dry and secure from the elements. She told him, "I'll have to build an entrance like you did, to keep the weather out. But I can make this work."

By the time the sun had dropped beyond the west wall, Maggie realized that she was exhausted and needed sleep. She asked, "Would you mind if we called it a day, Brad?"

 

[HumanBean]

Brad was simply amazed with what Maggie did in the kitchen. His kitchen. It was where he'd spent a year making mostly one or two course meals for more than a year. Instant potatoes and canned corn. Chili with beans and the leftover corn. Pancakes with, yes, corn in the batter. Rice and green beans.

This was how he'd eaten for the last year. Occasionally, he snared a sea gull in one of the traps and got meat. Pepper and salt. The rest of the cans and jars of spices had been collecting dust in a corner.

He sat down, saying, "This is absolutely unbelievable."

Brad had done what he could to help. Mostly just telling her if he did or didn't have something, then finding it for her. Other than that, he mostly just sat back and watched. It was nice to have an excuse to just look at her, though. Maggie was a beautiful woman. Most guys might say attractive. Cute.

To Brad, she was beautiful. Beautiful went more than skin deep in his mind. He'd never been attracted to women who were little more than their looks. He'd always liked a woman with personality, intelligence, life experiences, dreams.

Maggie certainly had that: dreams. As she cooked, they continued talked about the possibilities for the Castle. They went far beyond just a garden. They talked about bringing other people in to live within the Castle's walls. They'd have to be careful, obviously. How do you go about recruiting residents for your up-and-coming settlement following the apocalypse?

Another option was to build a sort-of Bartertown. Brad had been a big fan of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. In particular, he'd been a fan of Auntie Entity, Tina Turner's character. Or at least what her character had accomplished. She'd built a trading post out of nothing out in the middle of nothing. Brad had hated seeing it destroyed by that villain, Mad Max. Oh, sure, he wasn't a villain. But still, Bartertown had been laid to waste in his dust.

"You know, what we have here inside the Castle already is worth a small fortune," Brad told Maggie. "I was picky in the beginning in what containers I brought inside. Mostly food, fuel. I have dozens of barrels I use to store rainwater. Other things I'd need in the short term."

He chomped a mouthful of the delicious meal before continuing. "There's a lot out there, though. I mean, it's an international shipping terminal. There are thousands of containers out there with products. Of course, most of them probably have no value anymore."

Brad laughed. "I opened a container that I thought was supposed to have those little green propane containers in it that I could use for cooking and light. Turned out to be full of stuffed toys destined for Walmart."

They talked about what was and wasn't worth anything in this new world of theirs. Brad retrieved the two binders filled with contents lists from the containers. In total, there were more than 8 inches of pages listing the contents of more than 8,000 containers.

As they continued eating, Brad flipped to some of the pages that he'd marked with dog-eared pages. He informed Maggie of what had drawn his interest. Together, they made decisions on what to do about them.

"We would have to take down one section to bring entire containers inside," Brad said, clarifying, "Taking down an entire stack of 5 containers. Even then, there's only inches on each side to slip a container through from the outside without getting wedged. It can be done. It'll be hard and slow, but it can be done.

"Another option is to only bring in the smaller containers," Brad said. He flipped one of the binders to the front page. It showed identifying designations for all the types of containers in the yard. What was important at this very moment was the lengths of containers. "I built the Castle out of 53-foot containers, but there are smaller ones, of course. All the way down to 20-foot. If we removed just 1 container on the bottom ... the one I showed you earlier ... I could very easily bring in 20s, 40s, 45s, and 48s without having to remove two containers over and under. Again, its tight, but when I originally set up that section, the container on the second row is supported by some spacers that make it 4 inches higher."

They talked about it more. Brad decided to let Maggie make the decision about how they proceeded. She had some very good ideas.

After dinner, he walked her to her new home. She had her own mat and blanket. Still, Brad provided her with a twin bed mattress he had stored, as well as a whole stack of blankets and sheets and a couple of different types of pillows.

"Here, you'll want this," he said after he'd run off and returned. It was a metal arm that he'd bent and manipulated with a sledge hammer. "I used this in the beginning, when I was too scared to even go to sleep at night."

He gestured her into the container and pulled the door almost all the way closed. He instructed, "You put it like this, then pull the door the rest of the way shut."

There was a loud, booming metallic clunk as the door slammed the end of the arm against the inside of the door. Brad smiled to Maggie as he stepped back, then surged forward at the door. He slammed against it, giving out a playful Oww! The door didn't budge.

"It wedges between the two doors like a huge bull clip," he explained. "You pull here to loosen it and free the door. But there's no way to open it from the outside."

Brad pointed toward the other end of the container. The doors were hidden by freight. "That ends secure, obviously, unless someone wants to empty it to get to you."

He showed Maggie how to get the arm unlocked, locked again, and unlocked a second time. Stepping outside, he looked up at the sky. "It's gonna rain. You'll stay dry."

Brad didn't want to leave, but once they'd traded their farewells, he did just that. Back at his own place, he finished the already-mostly-done, post-meal cleanup. He killed one lamp after another until only the one over his bed was still on.

He pulled out a book to read. He got maybe three paragraphs in before he gave up. He couldn't get his mind off Maggie. He put the book aside, turned out the light, pulled the blankets up and his underwear down, and masturbated to new fantasies.

 

[AmyRoberts]

Maggie was tickled with Brad's compliment for the meal that she'd prepared. "I could have done more if I'd had more, obviously. If it's alright with you, I'll dig through your supplies to see what you have, and I'll make you meals and desserts like you couldn't imagine. I wish I had eggs and milk ... maybe some vanilla and pure maple. Oh, and yeast! I love making bread. I mean, I can make it without yeast, but with yeast is better."

They talked about the valuable cargo Brad had brought into the Castle when he first built it, as well as some of the products of which he had locations according to his books. The binders were an incredible resource; he'd already gone through them once or twice or a dozen times by the way he had them dog eared with come items circled or highlighted. Maggie paged through one binder as he spoke about the other; she asked if she could dogear some of the pages that held things of interest to her, too.

The majority of the containers were 53-footers since those were the ones that over-the-road truckers pulled all across the country. But Maggie began to notice a pattern to the containers that held the things that interested her the most. "They're mostly smaller ones. 45-footers and 40-footers. You said they'd be easier to get inside, right?"

They discussed the small space they'd have to get containers through. Maggie was surprised when Brad told her that he'd leave the decision up to her. With surprise, she asked, "Really? I mean, it's your castle."

But actually, it wasn't anymore; Brad was inviting Maggie to be a major part of his little Castle Kingdom. Lady Maggie, she thought, chuckling softly. She considered the options as she continued paging through the second binder. "Okay, how about this."

She rose, cleared the table, and retrieved the map of the terminal that Brad had shown her earlier and brought it back to the table. Laying it out, she traced a line across the two ends of the yard. "Why couldn't we put up a wall of containers here ... and here ... to keep people from accessing the terminal without having to go through the gates we set up, like what you said ... putting one container on the bottom perpendicular to the others."

Maggie was actually a bit surprised that Brad hadn't thought about that before. But then, if he had, it might have attracted attention. After all, he drew her attention with just the Castle and without a big barricade at the terminal yard's entrances. She continued, "Then, we could begin arranging containers in such a way that no one can get into them. Can't we put stacks of empty ones across the ends of the stacks of full ones?"

They discussed the possibilities, concluding that the only threat would be if Raiders or other undesirables decided to hit the terminal while they were working and vulnerable. Maggie confirmed that a lack of firearms and loyal defenders was a problem. "I'm sure we can get guns. Hell, this is still the United States of America. The problem's going to be finding other people who we can trust to carry those guns."

They concluded their evening, and at her new home, Brad showed Maggie how to keep her container's door jammed shut. After he left, she used the mattress, extra blankets, and pillows to arrange the most comfortable bed in which she'd slept in months. He'd allowed Maggie to bring a binder with her, and she paged through it as bedtime material. She marked up some more pages before her eyes simply wouldn't stay open.

Setting the binder aside and turning out the light, Maggie thought about Brad in much the same way he was thinking about her ... and slipped her fingers down into her panties to drive herself to her first orgasm in a month. With her heartbeat and breathing fast, she relaxed back into her bed, fingers still on her wet, sticky lips, and drifted off to sleep as her body slowly calmed back to normal.

 

[HumanBean]

The Next Day:

Brad was up before dawn as usual. He liked to take a look around the bailey before the sun came up. In those first days and weeks, he'd gone up to the top of the wall every morning, too. He liked to survey the terminal and city beyond it. That had ended when it simply held no interest for him anymore.

His first thought this morning was, of course, Maggie. His thoughts upon waking were dirty, just as they had been when he'd laid down the night before. He reached to his groin to beat off to thoughts of her a second time. A few minutes after he regained himself, he rose and went straight to his bathroom to shower.

In those first few days, Brad had cleaned up outside. But he'd missed real showers. Using a sledgehammer and a heavy spike, he'd rammed a hole into the top of the container in the far back corner. He'd placed barrels on the container's roof for rainwater. A black hose snaking back and forth allowed the sun to heat the water before it went down through the hold to a shower head. Lastly, he'd driven another hole through the floor to drain the water right onto the pavement.

It wasn't perfect, but it was all Brad had needed. He'd offer to make something like it for Maggie in her place. He'd learned some things about his own place that would direct creating her own place. He would have preferred to use 3 or 4 of the 20-foot containers placed end-to-end and side-to-side if he'd had a choice. But that choice required a welder and cutting torch, of course. Oh well.

Brad put on some coffee, another one of the kitchen resources he had a lot of. Then, heading outside, he waited for Maggie to get up and around. As he was waiting, he thought about her gun store. If they were going to do the things they'd discussed, they needed guns to protect themselves.

Back in those first days, Brad had studied the available maps for places of interest. He didn't recall ever seeing a gun store in the area. This was, like Maggie said, America. There had to be a gun store out there somewhere, right? Just because it wasn't on the maps he had didn't mean it wasn't there.

When Maggie appeared, Brad hopped up. He gestured her toward his place. "I have coffee on, and the burner's hot for pancakes. No eggs or bacon, but maybe someday?"

He posed that as a question for her. Having a ranch in addition to a farm had been another thing they'd talked about. That might be harder than they imagined, though. After they'd finished off most of the Humans, the Dark Seekers had started killing and eating animals, too. Mammals: large and slow, large and fast, small and slow, small and fast in that order pretty much. Then reptiles, amphibians, birds.

Brad had no idea what the situation for non-Human animals these days was out there. Most wild animals hid by day and foraged or hunted by night pre-apocalypse. But the Dark Seekers hunted by night, of course. So, the nocturnal animals had likely been wiped out. Even many of the diurnal animals were gone. They were the ones who were active at dawn and dusk but not midday or during the dark.

How did that affect farm animals, though? Many of them had probably been killed too, right? Had Humans saved some of them? Were they breeding them in secret, safe locations? If so, could Brad and Maggie get these people to share/trade their herds/flocks? Maybe they'd move to the Castle for a safer place to raise their animals.

There were so many unanswered questions.

Inside his home, Brad put out two place settings. He smiled. It was a delight to do that. For a long time, he hadn't even put out one place setting. Normally, he ate from the pan or pot or grill or whatever. Why dirty the dishes, right?

"I have powered milk if you don't mind," he said when Maggie arrived. "Powdered orange drink and little cans of Campbell's tomato juice, too."

He took her order and gestured her to a seat. "Breakfast is on me since you made dinner."

He brought up some upgrades to her house, including the shower idea. They talked about what they could do and what they'd need. She had some good ideas that Brad considered stealing for his own place.

"So, I was thinking about your gun store," he said when he joined Maggie at the table. "Like I said, I don't know guns. Is this something you can teach me? I'm a quick learner, so I think I could pick it up fast enough not to shoot myself in the foot."

Brad did have an obvious concern regarding the guns, though: could he shoot a Raider or other Villian if he had to? He'd never been known for his killer instinct. He hadn't boxed or played football or hockey. He didn't get into fights as a kid, teen, or younger man. As he'd told Maggie, he'd never even held a gun before.

He told her that he thought their first task today should be finding the gun store.

 

[AmyRoberts]

Maggie almost didn't want to get out of bed when she woke up; it was so comfortable and warm, without the fear of Raiders, rapists, feral dogs, wild rats, or diseased cockroaches. She growled aloud at the understanding that she had to eventually get up and -- as a side note -- needed to pee. Brad had given her a 5-gallon bottle of water for cleaning up until they arranged running -- or descending, anyway -- water; in addition, he'd provided her with an empty bucket and a roll of toilet paper, thankfully without going into why he was giving it to her. What a gentleman, she'd thought then and again now.

She took care of her morning hygiene needs, dressed in fresh underclothes, donned her relatively clean outer clothes, and unlatched the door the way Brad had shown her. She peeked out, suddenly fearful that there might be dangers out there now that weren't there last night. Do I have to worry about Brad? she wondered again, as she had when she'd first come into the Castle and again when he'd offered to let her stay here.

Outside, though, Maggie found Brad sitting in a chair in front of his container home. He waved friendly-like, telling her, "I have coffee on, and the burner's hot for pancakes. No eggs or bacon, but maybe someday?"

"No eggs or bacon??" she responded with feigned disappointment as she walked his way. "What kind of greasy spoon are you running here."

.....................................​

During breakfast, they tackled several topics, from renovating her home to making a trip to the burned-out gun store. Maggie was done with breakfast by that point, so she hopped up to start with the dishes as she said, "Let's do it. Might as well be sooner than later, right?"

(OOC: I'm not going to post for how they get out. You do that.)

.....................................​

They'd spent almost an hour surveying the terminal and the city beyond it from all four walls before they actually went out into the yard. Maggie had unpacked her pistol and stuck it in her belt, just in case they needed it; she had her Taser and boot knife as before, but this time she let Brad know about them. When she did, she'd chuckled, apologizing, "Sorry that I didn't tell you about them when we first met, but ... well, I didn't know you yet."

They headed west through the terminal on a meandering path that kept them in the shadows of the tall stacks most of the way to the access road. Maggie hated that there was no natural cover anywhere around the shipyards: no parks, no hedgerows, not even deep ditches into which they could descend. All they had available to them were the containers in the yard and the abandoned vehicles outside of it.

Ironically, when the Dark Seekers exploded upon the scene that first night, dozens if not hundreds of eighteen wheelers hauling freight this way and that had been abandoned on the access roads; the New Jersey Turnpike beyond that was crowded with trucks, cars, buses, and more as well. At least these gave them something to hide within as they headed west.

They arrived at the fence line of the Newark Liberty International Airport and followed it. Out at the southwest end of runway 4R sat a jet with its now-deflated blowup emergency escape slides flopping in a light breeze. Maggie could just imagine what happened inside, betting that someone turned while aboard and began rampaging through the passenger area, leading to everyone trying to get out.

"That way," she said as she pointed further west. "North Avenue to Dowd Avenue, then a couple of blocks more to just past the Urgent Care. By the way, we should check it, too ... looking for medications, first aid kits, and the like. Probably pillaged to high heaven, but you never know."

It had taken them half an hour to get this far, and it took them another 50 minutes to make it the rest of the way. Twice, Maggie thought she saw movement and recommended that they take a different route. Another time she did in fact see movement, only to discover that it was a herd of a half dozen deer that had somehow survived the Dark Seekers.

"I got to Newark in late March," Maggie began explaining to Brad in a hushed voice after she'd figured out exactly where she was following yet another detour. The last time I'd seen another human being had been Allentown, Pennsylvania. It, um ... hadn't been an enjoyable time."

She gave Brad a look, hoping he understood by her expression that she didn't want to discuss it. She continued, "I hadn't eaten for maybe six days after leaving Pennsylvania. Then, miraculously, I came across a basement apartment that hadn't been pillaged. I found food, girly clothes, bottles of water. I spent two days there just recuperating.

"The food ran out quickly, though. It hadn't been pillaged, like I said, but the resident had packed up most of it ... probably for a desperate flight out of here to safer places ... if there is such a thing. So, I moved on, heading this way." She reminded Brad about how she'd been trying to get into New York City to look for her sister. She smiled to him, continuing, "That's when I saw you. It was totally a fluke. You were only up there for a few minutes. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Maggie gestured Brad to stop and hide, then pulled out her gun, crouched, and slipped forward under cover until she was almost a hundred feet out in front of him. After several minutes, during which she used her binoculars to scan around in nearly every direction, she gestured Brad to stay low and come forward.

"That's it there," she whispered pointing. "I don't see any signs whatsoever that anyone has been here in a while."

Without saying more, she stood and ran for the burned-out building, looking back to ensure that Brad was right behind her. When she arrived, she didn't hesitate to work her way through the rubble to get off the street. Once inside, though, she stopped and just listened for a while.

"The Dark Seekers like dark places, too," she said, knowing that she wasn't telling Brad anything that he didn't already know. "Try to keep in the shafts of light where the sun is breaking through the roof and walls." She smiled again, saying, "Okay, let's take a look. Good luck to us."

 

[HumanBean]

After breakfast but before they went outside:

Brad had been thinking about how to get in and out of the Castle the easiest way without compromising its safety. Every idea included the same simple fact: they either had to take down one entire stack of 5 containers and rearrange them perpendicularly to create the gate they'd discussed, or they had to drag the bottom one out to gain access, leaving it out while they were outside so that they could get back in again.

He had considered using the remote-control device he'd created for use with the pallet platform. They could push the container back in place just enough to block the way. But if the container jammed, they were fucked.

Brad's concerns might not have been warranted. After all, he'd been here for over a year already, and he'd never been attacked by Raiders. Sure, the Dark Seekers had rampaged through the terminal a couple of times. But that had been clear back in the first weeks of the apocalypse. (Brad assumed that humans had fled into the terminal, chased by the monsters. Even though he had no proof, he was actually correct.)

In the end, they decided to use the pallet platform. Once they reached the bottom, Brad disconnected the remote-control and took it with him. They hid it after a hundred yards or so. He explained to Maggie, "I want it here, close by, in case we lose our packs or get attacked or only one of us returns."

That comment had elicited a response from his new Castle-mate. Brad said with a sincere tone, "If something is to happen to me out here, I want you to be able to get back inside the Castle." She started to respond, but Brad held up his hand, saying, "Just ... leave it at that."

Brad had only known Maggie for a single day. But he already felt that he could trust her with his life and with his home. If he were to die out here today, he would want her to have the Castle. With or without him.

.....................................​

The walk:

"I got to Newark in late March," Maggie said. They'd been walking in near silence up to this point. "The last time I'd seen another human being had been Allentown, Pennsylvania. It, um ... hadn't been an enjoyable time."

Only now did Brad realize that Maggie hadn't explained where she'd come from originally. And Brad hadn't asked.

She talked about not having eaten for almost a week before miraculously finding food, water, clean clothes, and a dry bed. Listening to her reminded Brad about how good he'd had it over the past year-plus.

"The food ran out quickly, though," she continued whispering, "...So, I moved on, heading this way."

She reminded Brad about her sister in the Big Apple. Brad hadn't had anyone to whom he would have fled. His parents had died in a ferry accident in the Mediterranean years ago. His only siblings had already died, a brother from a drug overdose and a sister in an automobile crash. He hadn't been dating anyone seriously. And he wouldn't have risked his life to rejoin with any of his friends.

Brad often wondered if his lonely life before the Dark Seekers was the reason he'd so masterfully handled being alone after them. Sure, he missed people at times. He might not have been dating seriously, but he had dated. He definitely missed sex. Oh, God almighty, he missed sex. But he hadn't missed it so badly that he'd considered venturing out into the city to look for pussy or head either.

"That's when I saw you," she said, smiling. "It was totally a fluke. You were only up there for a few minutes. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

Maggie had earlier told Brad that she'd been out and about the terminal and surrounding city for a month. She'd been afraid that he'd think she was stalking him. He hadn't. He'd told her that he understood. He'd also told her it didn't concern him. "I know you weren't trying to take something from me," he'd told her.

"I'm glad you toughed it out," Brad had said in response. "It couldn't have been easy. Not knowing whether I'd let you inside. Not knowing whether I was a good guy or not."

Now, at the gun shop:

Maggie reminded Brad about how the Dark Seekers like dark places. He confirmed, "Yeah, got it. I'll keep an eye out for them."

He wished he had a gun, obviously. But then, that was why they were here. They began wandering about the shop, searching. The fire had been devastating. It seemed as though everything flammable had in fact burned up, either totally or partially. He could see enough of some things to understand what they had been once upon a time. He started seeing the metal parts of what had once been rifles and shotguns. Barrels and the workings. Is that what they're called? Workings?
He pulled some of the barrels out and set them aside. He didn't know whether they could be refurbished or not. Did fire damage the barrels, workings, or both? Brad just didn't know.

He continued wandering about. He found a destroyed display case of knives. He was surprised to find most of the ones in the drawers beneath okay. Did they need a bunch of knives? Why not. They were weapons. They were here looking for weapons. He found what looked like an old metal wire milk crate and filled it most of the way up.

The search continued. He looked Maggie's direction occasionally when her rummaging caused noise or she responded to finding something interesting. She was having more luck than he was. Maybe it was because she knew her guns.

He continued searching, moving debris this way and that. It didn't take a genius to realize that someone had been here before them. Things that Brad was turning over had been turned over already. Maybe that was why he wasn't finding anything where he was searching.

He found a section of the debris that hadn't been disturbed yet. The top layer was a jumble of cinderblocks and 2x4 lumber. Beneath that were wall insulation and crushed drywall. And after he pushed some of it around...

"Holy shit! Maggie!" he called out. Brad kept digging, tossing debris aside. By the time Maggie arrived, he'd uncovered more than a dozen long guns of different models. He looked to her with a smile, asking, "This is good, right?"

 

[AmyRoberts]

For the most part, Maggie was finding the same thing Brad was: lots of burned products and displays and evidence that someone had beat them to the shop. She wondered about the thieves, Did they burn it themselves, or was the fire unrelated?

She'd found very little of real value and was about to tell Brad that they should give it up, when he called out excitedly, "Holy shit! Maggie!"

She hurried his way, finding Brad digging through the debris. When she arrived, he had uncovered more than a dozen long guns: deer rifles, assault rifles, hunting shotguns, and home defense riot guns. They were covered in dust and crushed dry wall powder, but they'd obviously survived the fire.

"This is good, right?" Brad asked.

Maggie laughed loudly, answering, "Oh my God, Brad! This is great!"

They continued digging through what was obviously a collapsed wall. What they would realize only as they were leaving later out the back and got a look at the building from a different point of view was that a heavy truck had crashed into the building's backside, knocking the wall down and onto the long rifle display. Whether this crash had been intentional or not they would never know.

They laid the guns out and wrapped them with shoulder straps for transport. By the time they finished the search, they'd located 19 guns and -- in crushed cabinet drawers -- more than 80 boxes of ammunition. There was more of particular calibers of bullets and shells, but they'd found at least three boxes for each gun.

"We need to find a wagon or cart or something," Maggie said. "I think I saw something that'll work."

She headed out, returning twenty minutes later with an adult trike and an attached trailer. They loaded it as high as they could before heading back. The return would be more difficult because now they could just leap or crawl over things; they had to deal with the road debris, curbs, and traffic pile ups this time.

 

[HumanBean]

"Oh my God, Brad!" Maggie responded. "This is great!"

They dug through the collapsed wall debris. They retrieved all of the rifles, shotguns, and ammunition that they could find.

Brad didn't have to be a gun guy to understand that what they'd found was miraculous. Maggie left to find a cart of some sort.

While she was gone, Brad returned to searching. He found cans of cleaning oil that had somehow escaped the fire.

He found cleaning kits, too. They were all damaged to one degree or another. He laid them out for Maggie's review.

"Can we use any of this?" He asked when she returned. They picked through the kits and kept what they could use. As they left, Brad told Maggie, "You hit this nail on the head. You really did."

It seemed to take forever to get back to the Castle. Brad knew that it was just his anxiety. Before leaving the gun store, Maggie had loaded the most likely to work shotgun for him. He understood the whole point-and-shoot concept of a scatter gun. Even a gun virgin knew that. But it still made him nervous.

Luckily, they made it back to the Castle without incident. Brad retrieved the remote for the pallet elevator to finish their task. He went up first, followed by the weapons, then the ammo, and finally Maggie.

They divided the weapons between his place, her place, and other containers. Everything was hidden. They would come up with an armory idea later. But for now, this worked.

"I have a butt load of locks in a box somewhere," Brad told Maggie. "If we are contemplating letting others in here, we should lock these kind if things up, right?"

He also asked, "Can you teach me to shoot?"

 

[AmyRoberts]

At the gun store:

"Can we use any of this?" Brad asked about his collection of cleaning kits.

Maggie poked through some of the kits, answering, "I think so." She looked through the offerings for a couple of minutes, choosing the most complete, less damaged ones. "See if you can find some sort of bag that we can put all of this in."

While Brad did that, Maggie took inventory of what they'd found and shook her head at their luck. Of the 19 firearms, they had:

• 2 Remington Model 700 rifles, both chambered for the powerful .300 Winchester Magnum round and each equipped with scopes (although one was damaged). They would make fantastic sniper rifles.
• 3 additional high caliber rifles (one chambered for 7mm and two for .30-06), each with open sights.
• 3 light weight assault rifles using 5.56 mm rounds.
• 4 more slightly larger ones using the larger 7.62 mm rounds.
• 7 12-gauge shotguns: 1 semi-automatic, 3 pump, 2 over-under double barrels break actions, and one single barrel break action.

The assortment was perfect for what they needed to protect the Castle from both invaders and Dark Seekers. Actually, maybe not on the latter. Maggie knew that it was better for them to simple hide and keep quiet anytime the Dark Seekers were out and about. They always hunted in packs, and those packs were typically anywhere between 10 and 50 individuals. That was a lot of shooting and expenditure of ammunition, particularly since all that noise would only attract more Dark Seekers from farther away. If she'd learned anything over the last year it was that the monsters who'd destroyed humanity as it had once been known had the hearing of an owl and the hunger of a piranha.

"You hit this nail on the head," Brad told Maggie as they packed up to leave for home. "You really did."

"We got lucky," she confessed. "If that wall had not fallen like it did over just the right portion of the shop, all of this would be gone, too." They packed up to leave, but before they did, Maggie had them just wait and watch in silence for twenty minutes. Her immediate fear was that someone might have been watching them, waiting for them to finish the hard work so that they themselves could simply sweep in and swipe the new armory.

As they waited, Maggie quietly educated Brad in the workings of one of the 12-gauge shotguns. "It's the easiest, most reliable, most effective one of the bunch, really." She showed him how to load, fire (without actually doing so, obviously), kick out an unfired shell, reload, etc. She could see that he was nervous holding it, let alone considering using it.

"I have two pieces of advice that you must observe when using this," she whispered to him as she finished the lesson. "First, keep the safety on right up until you get ready to use it. You don't want to discharge this thing on accident because you get nervous or scared, particularly if you're pointing it my direction. And second, don't fucking forget to take the safety off when you finally get ready to blast someone." She handed the weapon back to him, adding, "Oh, and third: you're only gonna hit something and kill it if its right in front of you ... maybe 20 to 40 feet, so don't waste a round until whoever or whatever you're shooting at it about to kill you ... or eat you."

They did eventually get back on the road and back to the Castle without attracting any unwanted attention. There, they associated all of the ammunition with the correct weapons and divided them up into piles that would go to different locations. Maggie was torn between leaving all of the firearms in one central location that was well secured and dividing them between different locations that allowed for more flexibility of access should that be needed. They decided to go with the latter after they'd finished reviewing and cleaning them all.

"Can you teach me to shoot?" Brad asked as they were finishing their work.

"Of course," Maggie said, "right after we get lunch done. I'm starving!"

She made Brad lunch again, during which they talked about the cache of weapons they'd found. Maggie had grown up shooting guns, so her experience was coming out during the discussion. She couldn't stress safety more than she did, repeatedly talking about gun handling and -- using the rifle and shotgun that they'd kept out for now -- showing Brad the right way to handle it when alone or with others, inside a concealed space or outside.

Eventually, they headed outside for a little education in gun safety and gun control. Of the latter, Maggie comically explained, "Gun control is most properly defined as being able to hit what you're aiming at."

They emptied out some products from a container for which they had absolutely no use in this post-apocalyptic world and set them up for target practice; the combination offered both things at which to aim and backstop material for preventing the rifle-fired bullets and shotgun-fired slugs from ricocheting off their home's metal walls.

Maggie walked Brad through the basics of one of the .30-06 bolt rifles, then took a few shots of her own. The open sighted gun was dead on; from 100 feet, she put six rounds through the heads and bodies of a pair of two-foot-tall stuffed pandas before there was little left of them. With each shot, the explosion of gunpowder sent waves of echoes through the Castle's interior.

She wondered what it sounded like beyond the wall. They didn't want to attract attention to themselves, even if the only people who might hear them were other Human Beings. Actually, she didn't know for certain that that was true. No one had yet determined whether or not the Dark Seekers were conscious and aware during the daylight hours or not. Maggie had heard stories of people who'd come across the creatures inside dark buildings, but these stories had always been second or third hand. She didn't actually know anyone who'd ever seen a Dark Seeker up close and personal without a protective wall between them and lived to tell the tale.

"You're up," she said, handing the weapon to Brad. She watched as he fired the rifle, giving advice as needed. He surprised Maggie with how quickly he took it. She pushed him to practice with the firearm until he was hitting one of the larger stuffed toys with nearly every round. Then, she handed him the pump shotgun again, saying, "Okay, let's blow something up."

They set up some more fluffies and spent half a box of shells on them. By the time they were done, that portion of the yard was littered with white stuffing and ripped up cloth. Maggie smiled at the end of it all, saying with a dramatic voice, "And the word went out of the Panda Day Massacre ... and children the world over shuttered in fear."

They finished cleaning the weapons, then delivered them to their new homes. Brad had long ago uncovered a crate of heavy padlocks destined for some hardware store chain, and they used some of them now to lock up their finds. They each took one of the two keys for each lock and put them on a chain; Maggie, who would have one rifle and one shotgun in her quarters, wasn't going to carry her key to the other caches all the time and instead would hide it somewhere that she could get to if needed.

"Dinner?" she asked when they were all finally done. She insisted on cooking again, for the reason that she liked to do it and that she was uncertain about whether or not Brad could cook anything other than pancakes and canned beans. It was a beautiful night, surprisingly warm but without mosquitoes, so they sat outside in lawn chairs to watch the sun drop behind the Castle's western wall. In a quiet moment, Maggie asked, "Tell me more about yourself, Brad. What were you like as a kid? What did you do? What did you like? Did you have girlfriends...? Boyfriends...? Who'd you lose your virginity to and how old were you?"

She laughed at that last one, sucking on her warm glass of powdered ice tea; they had a lot of Lipton's tea!

 

[HumanBean]

Maggie had warned Brad to hold the butt of the shotgun tight into his shoulder. He forgot, though, putting all his attention on aiming as he pulled the trigger. The powerful gun bucked back into him painfully. Brad grimaced and grunted loudly, then cursed under his breath.

He eventually began to feel more comfortable with the rifle. He even began hitting what he was shooting at. Sometimes barely. But a few shots hit exactly where he'd aimed. That made him smile with pride.

The shotguns it turned out were fun. He knew he shouldn't have found so much joy in blowing up fat little teddy bears and tall thin giraffes. But there was something about it that just tickled him.

They broke to clean and organize the weapons. After that came dinner and Maggie's questions.

"Tell me more about yourself, Brad," she urged. "What were you like as a kid? What did you do? What did you like? Did you have girlfriends...? Boyfriends...? Who'd you lose your virginity to and how old were you?"

Brad laughed, too. "Huh. Where to start. What was I like as a kid? I was a book worm when I was little little. Then came computers. I still read books, of course. I love books. But I trained in both hardware and software. I miss them. Computers, I mean. The internet. All that."

He drank from his own rehydrated powdered drink before continuing. "I had a couple of girlfriends, I guess. I wasn't a ladies' man or anything like that. Rosie Cervantes and I dated from 5th grade to 10th. Not dating like ... dating. But I'd always thought that she and I would eventually ... you know."

Brad looked to Maggie, blushing. "But then she hooked up with the All-Star linebacker and got herself knocked up. Her mother sent her off someplace to have the baby. I never saw or heard from her again. My second year of college I started tutoring the elementary age child of the woman next door. She was a little older than me, obviously ... 29."

Again, he looked to Maggie and felt his face heat up. He laughed. "I've never told anyone this before. I don't know why I'm telling you."

He reminisced in silence for a moment. "She was a passionate woman ... experienced. She..."

Brad went silent. He began to look Maggie's way again but became very self-conscious talking about his sex life. Particular since he'd masturbated to fantasies of fucking Maggie just this morning. "Anyway, she was my first. I was 22."

That was all he had to say on that topic. Brad looked to Maggie, asking, "What about you? Same questions? Also, you didn't tell me where you came from and how you got here."