"To Survive is Not Enough" (closed)

[ManInTheLoft]

"To Survive is Not Enough"

(Closed)​

Kenneth Parker walked his horse at an hurried pace toward the community ahead, uncertain of what he was getting himself into. He had a woman sitting across his lap, held to his torso with one arm as the other held the reins. The position of her was uncomfortable to him, causing him to shift occasionally to relieve his legs or threatening cramps and numbness. She would likely be just as uncomfortable if she was conscious.

He'd come across her and four others out on the highway about six miles from here. Three of the others were dead before he found them. The fourth, apparently this young woman's father, had died shortly after telling Kenneth the secret to reaching their community where, he promised, "You will find all the safe food and virus free water you can carry away ... if you get my daughter in time for them to save her life."

Normally, Kenneth would have robbed such a band of travelers and went on his way. But the Savages who'd attacked them -- beating them all, then raping the women (and maybe even the men) -- had already taken everything of value. And being on the verge of starvation himself, Kenneth reluctantly decided to take the chance of getting this girl back to the settlement.

Now that he looked at it, though, he wondered whether or not he should have just moved on. It was a square structure built of 53 foot Intermodal shipping containers. The entire structure was 3 units high and 6 wide, with smaller containers on the corners' tops like towers of a feudal era European castle or frontier era American cavalry fort.

In the middle of the wall toward which Kenneth was approaching was a sort of gate house, arranged by stacking 3 units perpendicular to the others right in the middle of the line of 6. Doing some quick calculations -- 53 feet times 6, plus another 8 for the gate -- Kenneth calculated the castle to be, what, 326 feet long roughly, or wide, and almost 30 feet tall, 40 at the tops of the corner towers.

And it wasn't just the wall that was intimidating. Behind the thick steel, extending from what would have been called archer slits in the Olden Days, Kenneth had seen a multitude of rifles pointing at him. The occupants weren't being subtle. They wanted him to see that they had him outnumbered and outgunned.

Before he'd even emerged from the woods, Kenneth had already attached an old, scraggly white tee shirt shirt to the end of his rifle. He'd been holding it before him casually until got within about 80 yards of the wall, and now he lifted it high into the air and waved it back and forth as he brought the horse to a stop.

"I found your people on the road!" he called out toward the gatehouse. "One of them, a girl ... I was told her name was Maria ... she need medical attention."

He waited fifteen or twenty seconds, then repeated himself. Nothing seemed to be happening. He hollered with more urgency, "She's hurt! She needs help right now! Her father told me to bring her here. He's the one who told me about the gap in the rock face and how to get past the traps there."

The wind shifted direction, and suddenly Kenneth became aware of the sound of boots running this way and that inside the container wall. Then, after more than a full minute and with a great amount of noise indicating the sliding and unlocking of metal parts, the doors on the lowest level of the gatehouse opened. Half a dozen people in full HazMat gear emerged and hurried forward at him, guns once again pointing at him.

Only one man was unarmed, a massive man who Kenneth was certain stood nearly 7 foot and had to weigh at least 300 pounds. His PPE looked more DIY than you could buy from your local medical supply store. He was unfolding a sheet of plastic as he approached, what Kenneth would quickly realize was intended to be wrapped around the woman to contain her and any dangers that might be present upon her.

"Hand the woman over," the obvious leader of the band barked at Kenneth while the others encircled him; none of them, save for Goliath, ever got closer to him than 15 yards. "Put her in the plastic in his arms. Touch any one of us, and I'll shoot you right here, right now."

Kenneth tried to explain how he'd ended up with the young woman as he let her slide out into the giant's plastic covered arms, but the man barking orders told him to shut up and stay still. The Goliath turned back for the castle just as two more people in full HazMat -- these looked and handled themselves more like women -- emerged from the castle. They directed her put on the ground, where they wrapped her better, appeared to check her for breathing and a heart beat, then had Goliath pick her up again, and inside they went.

This time when Kenneth began explaining himself, the barking man listened and even asked for more details. When he was finished, Kenneth hesitantly said, "The man who died, the one who said this girl, Maria, was his daughter. He told me, and I quote, you will find all the safe food and virus free water you can carry if you get Maria home so they can save her life."

"Well, we haven't saved her yet, so..." the leader said with a casual tone. He said, "My name is Robert. Get off your horse. One false move and you won't have any further need for food or water."

Kenneth moved very slowly, following Robert's instructions to the letter as he was directed to don a set of PPE that one of the men tossed to the ground in front of him. As he was doing that, two of the men were leading the horse a few yards away and stripping it of all its gear.

"I bring your girl to you," Kenneth asked, not entirely sure that that was in fact what they were doing, "and your robbing me?

"We're letting your horse go," Robert informed him. "We could leave the saddle and tack on, but I don't think she would like that very much."

"But I'm gonna need her when I leave!" Kenneth said with a bit of anger.

Behind his face shield, Robert laughed, "You're never leaving here."

As Robert encouraged Kenneth toward the open gate with the waggling end of pistol, Kenneth asked in a panic, "What do you mean I'm never leaving here?"

Robert didn't answer, instead just gesturing with the pistol, saying, "Let's go. Don't make me shoot you. That suit you're welcome is worth a lot to us."

 

[Ritapita]

Maria Cervantes
Latina, 20
5'2"; petite, fit; "B" cups.
Dark black hair, long and straight almost to her butt.


Helen Tramble
Caucasian, 36
5'6"; shapely, fit; "C" cups.
Auburn hair, cut short.



The Alert Bell set each and every member of the community of New Start into action. The babies, toddlers, elderly, and infirmed were rushed to the underground shelter by a team of able adults actually called the Shelter Team. That put half of New Start's population of 52 underground while the other half rushed for the wall where they would arm themselves with everything from assault style and scope-mounted sniper rifles to homemade Molotov Cocktails and fragmentation grenades.

Helen, being the community's Mayor and Doctor both, headed quickly for the Gatehouse. She used stairs that ascended through torch-cut holes in the floors and ceilings of the cargo containers to get to the outer end of the third level, calling, "Report!

"One Intruder on horseback, ma'am," the Lookout reported as he looked out upon the scene with a powerful pair of military grade binoculars up to his eyes, "carrying a woman who looks unconscious or dead."

"Wouldn't that be two Intruders then?" Helen asked for clarification.

"The woman, I think it's Maria," the man said. He handed Helen the binoculars, saying, "Those damn silly pink cowboy boots. Can't miss'em."

Helen looked out upon the scene and knew the man was right. Within minutes, a Retrieval Team in full personal protective equipment and well armed was surrounding the Intruder and collecting Maria. The man nicknamed Jolly -- short for Jolly Green Giant, and the man who the Intruder had thought of as being Goliath -- brought Maria to Helen, just outside the gate.

"Get her into the Isolation Infirmary," she said after she'd checked the young woman's vitals. "You stay there too, Jolly, 'til we--"

"I understand," the big man said, easily sweeping the unconscious Maria up into his arms.

As Jolly hurried off, Helen looked to the Intruder. He certainly appeared to be cooperating as he was being escorted forward, and he had apparently rescued one of New Start's residents, though, there were still three others unaccounted for, beloved people this man might have killed for all Helen knew.

"Take him to the Cube," Helen said, speaking of one of three Plexiglas cells in the Isolation Infirmary used for keeping potentially infected people isolated from other. After they were close enough that she and the Intruder could see each other's faces clearly through their respective face masks, she ordered casually, "If he tries anything, if he touches anything, if takes off his PPE ... if he so much as speaks again and breathes his foul air upon one of us before I have determined that he isn't infected ... shoot him in the head ... then feed him to the dogs."

Helen took a moment to study the man's reaction, wondering whether he believed she was serious about her orders, then told him, "I will not hesitate to kill you to protect my people. Understand?"

She watched for his reaction and, if he gave one, listened to his response. Then she turned to hurried back through the cargo container gatehouse to get to Maria.

As she was departing, Robert gave the Intruder more information. "That's Helen, she's the Mayor, and she's not kidding. My advice ... speak when spoken to and when I sit your ass down in a chair in a moment, stay in that chair. It's simple. Go along to get along ... don't ... and die."

Robert urged the Intruder ahead...

(OOC: I didn't describe the area much. I thought you should. )

 

[ManInTheLoft]

"Take him to the Cube."

The cube? Kenneth thought to himself. Sounded like some sort of fight to the death enclosed ring. He'd actually seen such things out here in the world in one form since the end of that world. Well, maybe not the end of the world. Just the end of civilization as he'd known it.

The woman warned him about being killed and fed to the dogs, telling him, "I will not hesitate to kill you to protect my people. Understand?"

"Not only do I understand," Kenneth said just as casually as the woman had warned him, "I would expect nothing less."

As the armed men took him through the container, the man who'd already identified himself as Robert told Kenneth who and what Helen was and gave him further warnings about what would happen if he did anything they didn't like.

"You'll have no trouble with me, Robert," Kenneth said. He had to turn his entire upper body to get the PPE hood and mask to turn enough to see the other man as they walked side by side, just out of arm's reach. He asked politely, "Can I call you Robert, or do I refer to you by some title?"

"They call me Major around here," Robert answered. "I was a Captain in the US Army before all this, but the Mayor thought maybe I deserved a promotion."

Kenneth had to smile at that. "From what I've seen thus far, I think maybe General might have been more appropriate."

"Well, if you survive this without getting yourself dead," Robert said, "I'd appreciate it if you'd recommend that to the Mayor."

The security -- both the structure and the personnel -- impressed Kenneth a great deal. As they entered the community, he realized just how many gun ports there were in the wall and how well they seemed to be protected. Once they were inside Kenneth would also find 20 foot containers that were partly buried, giving them a lower profile and better defense against an enemy that might get through the gatehouse or over the wall.

At 30 plus feet, that would be a feat, but Kenneth could see it happening with the use of paratroopers or hang gliders or other means that, while unusual, he knew had been used by some of the Savage groups, as they were called. Robert, Helen, and whoever else was responsible for the community's security deserved acknowledgment, and Kenneth was yet to see the majority of the security measures in place in New Start.

They emerged from the gatehouse's lower level, and Kenneth found himself slowing at the unexpected sight. He hadn't been entirely sure what to expect actually, but this had not been it.

The space inside of the steel castle wall was bigger than he'd expected, perhaps 4 to 6 acres, he couldn't be sure. Almost every square foot not occupied by some sort of structure or narrow vehicle path was under cultivation. There were vegetable gardens, berry patches, plots of mixed grains, fruit orchards, nut tree groves, and pasture, the latter filled with goats and a handful of horses.

Near the center of the community was a huge, 3 story home. Kenneth would later learn it had been built in 1922 by a man who'd made a fortune selling armaments to the US Government and its allies during the Great War. It had been converted into a museum in the 1990s. After everything went to shit in 2022 -- ironically exactly one century after the home's construction -- it was reoccupied by some of the survivors as a home. After the wall was put up, using containers from a shipping facility less than a mile away, the house and property became New Start.

Kenneth would learn later that about a third of the residents lived in the house. in addition to 8 bedrooms, there were school rooms, a library, two different and very different recreation rooms, and other facilities for use by all of New Start's residents.

Directly out in front of the house was the only space Kenneth saw and considered to be a non-production space, in contrast to the land that was producing food for the residents. It was a circular lawn about 100 feet across with a miniature baseball diamond and other recreational opportunities for the children he was yet to see but was sure existed.

"That way," Robert said, gesturing Kenneth toward a shipping container that sat all alone. The Major led the newcomer through a more normal type door welded into one of the big heavy steel doors. "We call this the Isolation Infirmary."

Kenneth once again found himself coming to a stop with a shocked expression on his face. If he didn't known he was inside a container that once likely shipped cheap plastic toys to America from China, Kenneth would have thought he'd just stepped into a small hospital's emergency department. The woman Maria -- now out of her plastic wrap -- was inside a sealed area on an operating table being checked and tended to by three people in PPE.

"This way," Robert was again ordering, leading Kenneth onward toward the dreaded cubes. They were simply 3 small Plexiglas isolation rooms, each with a cot, a small desk, a chair, and a toilet that was little more than a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet seat and plastic bag for easier cleaning. He pointed toward the ceiling, saying, "Ventilation system ... filters and pumps out any cooties you may have brought us."

"I'm very impressed," Kenneth said with obvious awe and he stepped into the little room. When Robert told him the room wasn't much in the way of comfort and niceties, Kenneth laughed. "You haven't seen where I've been sleeping the last week."

Robert shut the door behind Kenneth, secured its pin lock, and told him about his PPE, "Strip out of that. You won't need it any longer."

Kenneth removed the suit and put it into a bag as told. Then ... he just waited to see what came next...

 

[Ritapita]

(OOC: Thanks for letting me describe the men. I should have let you describe the women, but you said you happy, so we're okay, yes?)


Robert Kimball
Caucasian (well tanned), 28
6'2", 220; a bit heavy but strong as an ox.
Very handsome.
Clean shaven at all times.

Kenneth Parker
Black (lighter skinned), 33
6', 180#; fit.
Ruggedly handsome.
Beard prior to New Starts, but will he shave?


Helen looked up from taking a blood sample from Maria to find Robert escorting the Intruder through the Isolation Infirmary. She'd gotten a look at him through the binoculars before he'd donned the PPE, and she'd been happy with what she'd seen. He was tall, handsome, and fit, at least from a couple of hundred feet through 9x field glasses. She knew it would be nice to have another handsome male around with whom to have conversations ... if not more.

Of course, that was jumping the gun as there was no telling whether or not he'd be sticking around long. After she was done with Maria and while still in full PPE, Helen made her way to Kenneth's little glass cage, checked his vitals, drew blood, took a saliva sample, and probe his nose for mucous. The latter was where the most recent Corona Virus liked to hang out while it prepared to end your life.

"We'll bring you food and water," she told him as she was finishing up. After she'd exited and given Kenneth's samples to Gwendolyn, her Nurse and Lab Tech, Helen asked with a serious tone, "What happened out there? What happened to Maria? And what happened to the others?"

Maria who was also one of Helen's medical professionals, her father Jacob who was along because he simply wouldn't let his daughter go outside without him, and three other individuals who had been the young woman's armed escort had left New Start to go check out a research clinic where they thought they might be able to find some solution and other needs for the work Helen was doing.

She wasn't about to explain all of this to the Intruder, of course, but Helen had been part of a medical team researching the latest pandemic's lethal cause when circumstances had caused her to chuck it all in. She'd run into a roadblock, and she had research needs she couldn't produce here on her own. She'd planned on going to the research clinic herself but Robert had told her simply that if she tried, he'd cuff her to the headboard of her bed and she could just live out her days there.

She felt guilty now, of course, even though none of this was her fault. Truth be told, she felt even worse for Robert, who had picked the men who would escort Maria and her father. Helen had thought more men might be appropriate, but Robert had been concerned about a larger team being more easily spotted by Savages. She couldn't even imagine what was going through his head now as he stood next to her listening to the Intruder.

 

[ManInTheLoft]

"We'll bring you food and water,"

Kenneth couldn't hide his smile at Helen's offer. He explained, "I haven't had a decent meal in eight or nine days. Got me a scrawny squirrel a few days ago. So, thank you."

"What happened out there? she asked. "What happened to Maria? And what happened to the others?"

Kenneth began explaining about how he'd been in the trees, paralleling the highway, to keep out of sight of patrols by the Savages. "That's what I call'em, the militia that controls the area south of here."

"We do, too," Robert said. "We ran across one of their victims a while back while out foraging. Heard the name from him, just before he died of his injuries."

Kenneth went on, telling them that he'd heard gunfire on the far side of the highway, getting closer. Then he herd ATVs in the woods. "They were herding your people toward the road. I saw them -- your people -- break from cover, heading for the road. My direction. I would have helped, but that rifle you took off me--"

"Empty," the Major told the Mayor.

"And it doesn't even work 'cause--"

Again, the experienced military man cut in, "Ejector's bent. We can fix it. We've got the parts."

Kenneth smiled knowingly, asking, "Yeah, um, how is it you guys are so well armed. Out there on the wall I saw--"

"Go on," he was cut off.

"Yeah, well, your guys, the ones with rifles, they were doing a pretty good job of keeping the Savages back so that your girl Maria and the other guy -- her father, right? -- for them to get across the highway and up the bank, right into the hands of a Savage on horseback I hadn't heard sneaking up on us.

"Maria saw him about the same time I did, but not in time to warn her father. He took a bullet through the chest, and while Maria was hovering over him crying, the Savage got her and, well, he was going to rape her. But, he didn't see me. I got around him and put a knife in his back."

"And Maria, was she, you know?"

"No, I got to him in time," Kenneth said. "Your guys on the road were still plinking away at the Savages down on the road and in the woods, long enough for me to tell Maria's father she was okay but unconscious. She got beat pretty good."

"She'll be okay," he was told. "Concussion, bruises, scrapes. She'll hurt when she regains consciousness."

"When the firing down below ceased, 'cause your guys were all dead," Kenneth said with a solemn tone, "Maria's father told me how to find you guys. He was bleeding to death and knew it. He told me to leave him, to bring Maria here. He knew I couldn't save them both."

"You did the right thing," he was told.

"So," Kenneth began tentatively, "when do I get out of here? I do get out of here, don't I? Breathing? On my feet, not a stretcher?"

 

[Ritapita]

Helen wasn't surprised that the Intruder -- who she was beginning to think of less as that and more as just a Newcomer -- hadn't eaten well recently. After years of minimal commercial food production and distribution through the region, the survivors of the most recent and deadliest plague in history had taken to eating off the land.

Despite an estimated die off of more than 80% of the Human Species, Mother Nature was having a difficult time feeding those people who had lived. Wildlife was being slaughtered at extinction-imminent levels. No one at New Start had even seen a deer or bear in the vicinity of their community in over a year.

Bird populations had persisted seemingly well for quite a while only to suddenly drop off dramatically about two years ago. Helen didn't know whether the animals were being hunted to death in their breeding zones to the north or their feeding zones to the south, but the decrease in the number of overflying geese, ducks, and other fowl had been all to obvious.

As she listened to Robert's explanation of how they'd learned the name Savages, Helen did a skilled job of hiding her reaction. He was lying. She wasn't going to correct him to this Newcomer, though, a man about whom they knew nothing. In truth, a foraging party had come across a small group of men at a building that had somehow escaped looting for years. The potential take was simply too valuable not to forgo.

"No survivors," she'd whispered to the man who had held the job Robert currently filled. She had clarified, "No one goes back to their main camp and speaks of this."

The battle had been quick as the Savages hadn't been expecting an ambush. In seconds, the five men loading the goods into a couple of 4x4s were dead. Unfortunately, so was Robert's predecessor, who hadn't seen a sixth man inside the building. One bullet to the Commander's back ended his life and, in course, led to Captain Robert becoming Major Robert.

The men they'd ambushed, killed, and then buried in shallows graves in the woods had been wearing clothing in a gang colors style, and most of them also had tattoos on their right upper arms: Savages.

Hearing that the Newcomer's weapon didn't even work was reassuring to Helen.
As the conversation continued, she became more and more convinced that Kenneth hadn't likely played part of the death of her people and had, as he was claiming, done his best to help them instead.

Robert asked about the possibility that the young female resident had been raped, "And Maria, was she, you know?"

"No, I got to him in time," the Newcomer said.

Helen had already confirmed this, of course, with a quick physical inspection of the young woman. She couldn't even imagine the implications of having a possibly infected child of rape coming to term in New Start. No one knew whether, as with AIDS or drug dependency, whether the most recent Corona virus was passed from mother to child, let alone whether it could do so if it had come from a rape that had been the source of conception. This wasn't an issue with which Helen had any desire to face.

"You did the right thing," Helen said, adding her first contribution to the conversation between the two men since she'd asked what had happened out there.

Kenneth asked when and if he would be emerging from the isolation room on his own two feet, to which Helen only said, "Yet to be determined."

But she gave him a smile before she turned away, reminding Robert to have someone get the Newcomer some food and water. She went back to tending to the still unconscious woman while Gwendolyn worked on the biological samples of the Maria and Kenneth both. Nutrition arrived; it wasn't a large meal, as Helen had warned that their new potential-resident needed to accustom his stomach to food once again.

"I want three men in here," she told Robert when she needed to leave for a bit, adding, "And I want you to be one of them."

"Yes, ma'am," Robert said. He sent the other armed man out to retrieve a third, and they all settled in for a couple of hours of quiet time after Robert told Kenneth, "You should get some rest and save your questions for the Mayor."



It was early in the morning, some 14 hours after he'd first arrived at New Start, that Kenneth awoke and rolled over to find himself looking at a conscious Maria for the first time. She smiled and even gave him a meek little wave. Robert, who was sitting nearby quietly told her she should go back to her exam table to rest, but she politely waved him off.

"They tell me you saved my life," she said in a still weak tone. "Thank you."

She paused to listen to any reply he might want to make, then asked with emotional deep breathed interrupting her, "My father ... was he ... was he in pain ... when he died?"

Again, Maria listened. Her eyes glistened over, and a tear ran down one cheek, followed a bit later by another. "Helen says they swabbed my skin and found no sign that you had infected me. They're still waiting for the last of your results, but so far nothing to concern us."

Again, a moment to let him respond, then, "Do you have people out there ... people you have to return to?"

Maria didn't do a very good job of hiding that she was hoping his answer would be no.

 

[ManInTheLoft]

Kenneth knew about the massive die off of animal life beyond the human species, of course. He'd been living out there in the wild as society and civilization collapsed around him.

It was even worse than she and the people of New Start could imagine. Across the country and, he presumed, across the world, the steps humans had taken to protect their communities from the pollution produced by manufacturing, mining, and more had, of course, ceased. There were now vast portions of the landscape that were now uninhabitable to most animal species, including mankind. There were rivers now so polluted by the runoff of hazardous waste that nothing lived in them and any people drinking from them downstream were only hastening their deaths.

"Yet to be determined," Helen said when Kenneth asked about whether or not he'd be living through this.

He would have been seriously worried if it hadn't been for that little smile she'd given him before she turned away. But Kenneth was reminded of Helen's fear that he might be a danger when she said, "I want three men in here."

Kenneth tried to engage Robert in some idle chit chat that he hoped would lead to more substantial answers about that into which he'd gotten himself, but the man simply told him, "You should get some rest and save your questions for the Mayor."

The mayor, Kenneth thought to himself as he finally laid back to find sleep. There was no doubt that this little community had structure. And structure meant civilization he assumed. No running around the country side killing others for a can of beans or a moment of forced, sexual relief. (Of course, Kenneth didn't know about the ambush that had taken place in the settlement's early days.)


Kenneth had been more exhausted than he'd imagined, and with his belly full, he'd slept for more than half a day, though, he didn't honestly know what time it was.
When he rolled over, he found himself looking into the dark, sparkling eyes of the young woman he'd saved.

"They tell me you saved my life," she said in a still weak tone but with a smile and a wave. "Thank you."

"Of course," he said, unsure of what else he should say. He returned the smile, adding, "My pleasure."

"My father ... was he ... was he in pain ... when he died?"

Kenneth didn't hesitate to lie. "No, no he wasn't. Sometimes when a bullet--"

He stopped. A graphic explanation of how sometimes the body can ignore such horrific physical trauma for survival's sake wasn't going to comfort Maria. He said instead, "I don't think he could feel it."

The next part was actually true, though. "You were right there beside him, and I told him you were alive. And he smiled, happy. He was happy you would be okay, Maria."

She told him about the medical results thus far, which were encouraging. Then Maria asked, "Do you have people out there ... people you have to return to?"

Kenneth studied the young woman for a moment and saw in her face what he thought he'd heard in her tone: a wanting for him to stay in New Start. He couldn't know why, of course. Was she simply thankful that he'd saved her life and wanted to share what her community had to offer him? Or did she hope that he might be able to fill a portion of the hole left in her life by the loss of her father? Kenneth was, after all, 13 years older than her own age of 20, closer to being fatherly age than lover age.

He had another quick thought, though, for which he quietly chastised himself, considering the situation at hand: maybe she had intimate, even erotic thoughts about him, just as Kenneth had had about Maria as he'd held her in his arms and lap as they rode the dead Savage's horse to New Start. Despite having just seen several men die in the gunfight, Kenneth had been unable to prevent his cock from hardening several times during the ride as the young, pretty woman's body shifted atop his groin.

"No," he said after a moment of thinking. "No. I don't have anyone out there waiting for me to return. I'm on my own. Have been for, well, for longer than I wish to remember."

Kenneth thought he saw joy in young Maria's reaction, enough so that he added with a flirty smile, "Maybe if I'm not a walking, talking skin-bag of virus, maybe I won't be alone any longer."

"Maria," Robert said with a bit of a harshness from where he was sitting halfway down the length of the Isolation Infirmary. When she looked to him, her said with authority, "You need to go back to your bed, please."

Kenneth knew what the situation was, of course. He and the young woman were talking about his future, and the Major didn't find that appropriate at all. He told Maria, "It's okay, I'm going to go back to sleep anyway. I'm glad, happy, to see that you are going to be okay, Maria."

 

[Ritapita]

Maria didn't know whether or not to believe what the man she'd been told was named Kenneth was telling her about her father's death. She desperately wanted to believe he slipped away peacefully, but she'd seen people die with her own eyes before. It had been peaceful only rarely.

Hearing Kenneth say he had no one out there awaiting his return made her happy, though. She'd been sitting on the opposite side of the transparent plastic watching him for almost an hour before Kenneth had awoken, just running through her head what she'd been told about her rescue. She wished she'd been awake for it. She'd been raised with all the fantasy Disney Princess rescue tales and movies about them, and it disappointed her that when her Prince carried her away from certain death, she wasn't conscious to partake of the romantic drama.

Maria already knew she wanted to be with Kenneth. She'd made that decision before she'd even exchanged words with him. Of course, there was still the possibility that he was infected and would be removed from New Start against his will. Maria assumed that meant he would be blindfolded, taken far away, and left with a bit of food and water. She didn't know it actually meant he'd be taken far enough away for the gun shot not to be heard.

Kenneth told Maria he was happy she was going to be okay, and Maria smiled back and said simply, "Me, too ... about you, I mean."

She giggled a bit, then returned to the examination table that would be her bed for another day, just to be sure Helen hadn't missed anything. New Start's doctor had taken a second set of bio samples which would be ready by noon.

Maria curled up in the blankets on the rather uncomfortable bed and tried to sleep. She couldn't. She glanced toward Robert, who was now the only man on guard inside the Isolation Infirmary. And moving very gently, she slipped a hand down into her sweat bottoms and panties and in between her thighs to find her aching wetness. She knew she couldn't drive herself to orgasm because she was incapable of a silent climax, but just being able to touch herself in that very special way was enough to help her imagine being with Kenneth.

Eventually, she slipped gently back to sleep...


"Time to go, sweetie," Helen said softly to Maria as she'd awoken the young woman. When the 20 year old sat up, the doctor told her, "Your tests are all negative. You don't need to stay here any longer. However, I want you to stay in your room another day, away from the others, just in case. You know how it works."

Maria nodded and then exposed her thoughts with her first question being, "How's Kenneth? Are his negative, too?"

Helen smiled, intrigued by the other woman. "Yes. So far, anyway. He has to stay in isolation another couple of days, maybe more. C'm'on, get your shoes on. I'll walk you out. I want to talk to you."

Maria wanted to go down to say hi to Kenneth, but Helen told her he was sleeping again and shouldn't be bothered. Outside, the doctor told her patient, "I don't want you to get too close to him, sweetie ... to Kenneth. He might not be staying."

"But you said his tests were negative--"

"It's not about his tests, Maria," Helen cut in. "We don't know anything about him, honey. I know you don't want to hear this, and I hate even saying it ... but he could be a Savage only pretending to have rescued you--"

Maria began to object, but Helen gestured her silent and continued, "I don't want to believe that either, sweetie. But we have to be sure. Robert and a squad are going to take Kenneth back out to where you and your father were attacked, and we're going to look for our dead. If what Kenneth said appears to be true, they'll bring him back. If not ... they'll turn him loose with food and water and a working weapon."

Maria argued against it, but Helen was firm. "That's the way it has to be, Maria. Now ... Hut #4 is empty. I want you to go to it straight away--"

Maria gestured to the Guard who'd been standing by. To Maria she continued, "You are to stay there until all of Kenneth's tests come back negative and I know we didn't miss anything. Then, you can go back to things as usual, okay?"

The younger woman didn't like it, but she accepted it. The Guard followed behind her, got her inside the hut they kept available for just such occasions, then made himself comfortable in a chair outside, as ordered.

Helen returned to the Isolation Infirmary to look at Kenneth's tests and continue with some research she was doing. When the Newcomer awoke later and after he'd gotten some more food and had his shit bucket removed, Helen sat opposite his barrier and explained about the research about which he'd inquired.

"I was an epidemiologist before the last pandemic," she began. "I worked in California for a private lab, then later with the CDC. When everything went to shit ... when the riots in Atlanta pretty much set the city on fire ... a handful of us from the West Coast who knew it was the end and just wanted to get home to our families managed to get out on an Air Force flight.

"Turned out to be a waste of time," she continued with a solemn tone. "For me, anyway. My husband had caught C22B and died. My daughter did, too. Caught it just before I got back and died just a couple of days later, in my arms. I'd been immunized with an experimental vaccine, something so knew that we hadn't even revealed it to the public yet. I had..."

Helen drew a deep breath, then released it. "I hadn't even known the vaccine would work when I held my dying daughter in my arms. I think ... I think I was actually hoping I would catch it and would die, too. I'm not sure. I'm not suicidal, wasn't then, I mean. I just ... I guess I just didn't care by that point. 50,000 people were dying each day by that point and it was only getting worse. And that was just in the US. Death rates in ... well, doesn't matter."

She was staring off into space for a long moment before Kenneth quietly brought her out of it. She smiled with a sense of relief, saying, "But I lived. The vaccine worked. I managed to contact some of my associates back in Atlanta and elsewhere. We were working on getting the vaccine into mass production and distribution when suddenly ... nothing. I lost contact with the group. Total communications black out.

"It took me months to find out that key members of the vaccine research team had disappeared. A few months later, I was finally able to make contact with one of the doctors and found out that the team was working in secret at some unknown location for ... well, for who knows. Government, military, billionaires who wanted to make sure that they got the vaccine first, who knows. All I know is the vaccine never made it into the open. Either it was abandoned or was horded, who knows."

Again, Kenneth asked what Helen was doing. "Replicating the work. I had all of the data with me, all of it. Everything I needed to create my own copy of the vaccine. I managed to get a lab up and running outside of LA, but the riots swept through, and it was burned to the ground. I got out with my research and a few months later was here. This entire area was pretty much dead. There was no one for miles. I'd gathered a dozen people I could trust ... Robert, his predecessor in the Commander role, Maria's mother and father, Gwendolyn ... she's the pretty nurse you saw earlier. There were others.

"We moved in here, but we were concerned about how open it was. That was when we came across a guy living down at the shipyards, about a mile downhill, on the bay. Nice guy. He'd been a mechanic there for almost 30 years before it shut down. He was anxious for someone to talk to, and after a couple of days of visits, he told us he had identified dozens of containers with food and other supplies that had been waiting to be shipped out by rail and truck. He told us he'd show us which ones were which if he'd let us move up here to the house with him."

Helen laughed, then explained, "And he wanted a girlfriend. He was quite a an old codger, 60-ish, funny, great story teller. He said he hadn't been with a woman in over 20 years, and he'd give up the location of all the food and other valuable containers for just one night with a beautiful woman."

She smiled and even blushed a bit before saying with a wide smile, "So, I asked him if I was beautiful enough ... he said yes ... and the next day, we were moving containers up the hill. It was a slow process, but he taught us to load, drive, and unload the trucks. They brought one of those container haulers up, you know, the big tractor looking thing that loads containers onto trucks. Brought it up here and started building a wall around the house.

"Pretty soon, we had a 30 foot wall around the house and the property," she went on, talking more about the work that had gone into it. "While that was going on, we'd located a medical supplies business on the edge of the city and found almost every thing I needed to work on the vaccine. We've been here for 6 years now."

Helen looked back to the counters full of equipment, the back to Kenneth. "I managed to recreate the vaccine enough to vaccinate everyone here. Problem is, the antibodies produced after vaccination don't last. Each person must be vaccinated every 5 to 6 months. I don't have the equipment necessary to mass produce enough to help anyone outside New Start, and until I can do that, I'm not going to let it be known that I have the vaccine. I'm missing a machine I need to mass produce and another I need to make the vaccine more effective ... make the body able to produce antibodies for life."

She described the pieces of equipment, saying, "Without them, the vaccine remains our own little secret."

Helen stood, asked Kenneth if he was hungry, then left.



The next two days were business as usual for Helen and very boring for Kenneth. The doc had had to reperform one of his tests after the sample and test proved unhelpful. And Helen had kept Maria away, telling the girl it wasn't good for her to build a connection with the Newcomer.

But finally, bright and early even before sunrise, Helen walked up to the isolation cell and pulled the pin from the clasp. Opening the door and backing up, she said, "Time to go."

 

[ManInTheLoft]

"Time to go."

A guard had come in just minutes earlier to wake Kenneth up, telling him to get dressed. He knew what was what, of course; they'd talked it all through the day before.

The sun hadn't yet cleared the trees as Robert, Kenneth, and five guards -- two of them riding double -- departed New Start on horseback. Kenneth had jokingly inquired of Robert about whether or not he was going to be giving a rifle. The man only smirked and shook looked away. Glancing back at Helen, Kenneth nodded to her as if to confirm to her that he was telling the truth.

They took their time, and once they were out of Robert's comfort zone, one of the guards riding double hopped down and moved out in front a hundred yards while the others walked their horses slowly. They arrived at the site of the attack without incident, not knowing what they would find.

What they discovered were the bodies of their dead, piled in the middle of the road and burned. Robert sent guards out in pairs to flank the site and check for an ambush, while he watched the site and the fifth guard watched over Kenneth.

When they finally moved in to check the bodies, they found all of them, including Maria's father. With pairs of guards half a mile down the road in each direction, the rest of them quickly bundled the remains into make shift body bags. And then they were gone, leading the horses with the body bags thrown over the horses' backs.

They rode in silence the entire way. There was nothing to be said.

Reaching and entering New Start, many of the residents came out to meet the train of horses and men, living and dead. There were tears and cries and comfort giving by those able to do so.

Kenneth stayed back out of the way. He wasn't a member of this community, and he thought it awkward to be too close to the sorrow and grief. Robert came over at one point to shake his hand and thank him.

"You're on a sort of probation for now, Kenneth," he said. "We'll find a place for you to sleep. The Mayor will explain where you are welcome to go and where you will get shot dead for doing so. We don't have a lot of secrets here, but there are places that won't be open to you, at least for a while. Understood?"

"Of course," Kenneth said, adding what the man wasn't going to say, "You don't trust me yet, and until you do I need to watch my step. I accept that."

Kenneth stuck his hand out again, to ensure that Robert understood he was in agreement. Robert took Kenneth's hand and, while he gripped it tightly, stressed one final detail. "You're not to handle a firearm or any sort of weapon unless I authorize it personally. Also understood?"

"Understood." Kenneth watched the Major walk away to deal with the bodies, then saw the Mayor heading his way. But an excited Maria was hurrying over and reached him first.

 

[Ritapita]

"They're all accounted for?" Helen asked Robert outside the gate as the single file progression of men and horses neared the wall. She'd been informed by a scout of the group's return, and she'd ordered that no one but her go outside to meet them. The Major nodded to the Mayor, after which Helen asked, "What do I need to know?"

He explained how they'd found the bodies, then explained what she really wanted to know: was there any sign that Kenneth had been complicit. Robert told her no, that he believed the Newcomer was being honest in what he'd claimed he'd done at the firefight and for Maria afterward.

"Get'em inside," Helen told him in a solemn tone. "The others ... they know you're here by now I'm sure, and it won't be pretty."

And it wasn't. Helen spent several minutes comforting the men, women, and children who had lost family and friends, then turned to locate Kenneth. But she barely got five steps before Maria was already standing before the man.

"Was my father there?" the young woman asked with the expected sadness. Kenneth confirmed it, and Maria moved forward to wrap her arms around the man's torso as she burst into sobs. After a minute or more, she said, "Thank you ... for helping them find him."

After a bit, she heard Helen say softly from nearby, "Maria, honey. I need to speak to Kenneth. Robert is waiting to help you with your father."

Maria didn't immediately release her hug around the man's body, but when she pulled back she stood on her tippy toes to kiss his cheek, again saying before she left, "Thank you."

Once the younger woman was gone, Helen thanked Kenneth as well. She asked if Robert had explained about his probation, to which she got a yes. She pointed to the cabin he would be staying in. "It has running water but no toilet. Outhouse is over there. If you use it in the dark, take a lantern. Otherwise one of the Night Guards might think you're up to no good. We have a policy around here you will want to keep in mind: shoot first, ask questions later."

She looked back to the scene unfolding near the gate, then back to Kenneth again. "Come to the Big House tonight, 5pm. This time of the year, what with the heat, we break off harvest and some of the other work to have a community supper before we get back to it all until sundown. One of the women scrounged up some clothing you might fit into. It's in the cabin. Keep what you want. We have plenty, so, don't limit yourself to a pair of jeans and a tee shirt, seriously. One of the containers we went through way back when had been heading for the Penny's clothing department, so, we're not short of clothing."

She excused herself, intending to deal with the others.

 

[ManInTheLoft]

Robert:

He found it hard keeping the friends and family of the dead from wanting to see their loved ones. They didn't understand, or maybe simply didn't want to accept, that the bodies were so badly burned that they couldn't easily be identified. The only reason he knew everyone had been recovered was simply that the number of those who left matched the number of those they'd found, minus Maria, of course.

With the help of others, Robert led the movement of the bodies to the graveyard out back of the Big House, and over the next couple of hours, a single mass grave was dug. The bodies would be laid side by side and a single marker would be placed to remember them. It was really the best they could do.




Kenneth:

When Maria wrapped her arms around him, Kenneth felt conflicted: the 20 year old was beautiful and pleasant feeling against him, and owing to his status as a typical male, his cock began a slow expansion toward stiffness; at the same time, thought, he felt a bit awkward standing there as a stranger, embracing a young woman who'd just lost her father and others to an act of violence in which some in the community might still think he'd played a part.

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders in a less intimate embrace, glancing off toward the still growing crowd for suspicious looks. Some glanced his way, and two woman even leaned in close to whisper while looking at Kenneth and Maria. But the only one of them in whom he had any real concern was Helen, who was casually walking toward them.

"Maria, honey. I need to speak to Kenneth," the Mayor said softly. "Robert is waiting to help you with your father."

The young woman stood on her toes and kissed his cheek, saying, "Thank you."

"I'm sorry I couldn't have helped him, Maria," he told her before she turned and left.

Helen pointed Kenneth to one of the cabins, explaining about what it did and didn't offer. She told him, "Come to the Big House tonight, 5pm."

After she'd explained about the harvest and daily schedule, Kenneth quickly asked, "How can I help?"

He admitted that he wasn't a farmer and, truthfully, had never ever gardened. "But how hard can it be to pick stuff, right? Just put me with someone who knows what they're doing."

Helen accepted the offer, assigned one of the men working the garden to show him what to do, and made her way off to deal with the dead. Kenneth went to check out the cabin first to find some clothes more appropriate for working in the dirt. He laughed at the extensive wardrobe which was almost all brand new clothes, most still bearing labels or inside wrapping.

Kenneth hadn't had a change of new clothes since the collapse of society had begun. In fact, the jeans, shirt, undergarments, and coat he'd been wearing when he arrived had come off the bodies of three men he'd killed when they'd attacked him and his now deceased traveling partner several years ago.

"I feel a bit self conscious working in the dirt in these," he told Vincent, the man assigned to show him his tasks. The man laughed, telling him not to worry about it. "Okay, then. Show me what I'm doing."

Vincent put him to work picking vegetables and more: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and blueberries. The variety of what New Start was growing was mind boggling to him. Vincent explained that some of the perennials had been growing on the property before they got here; grapes, berries, and fruit trees had been on the property a hundred hears ago and the historical society that had last owned the house had maintained them for visitors to appreciate.

The rest, including most of the vegies, melons, squashes, and cukes had been collected from one of three farms in the area that had specialized in heirloom and open pollenating plants that could, year after year, be sustained whereas the hybrid plants sold to most home gardeners couldn't.

"It takes a lot more work to get the same amount of food," Vincent explained, "but it's the way Mother Nature had intended up to grow food."

Vincent turned out to be the very talkative type, which Robert hadn't been. Kenneth didn't push him to talk about New Start, fearing the man might get suspicious. But Vincent, it turned out, didn't need prodding.

"We took the bridge down," the man told Kenneth when he asked how it was that no one had come up from the coast to find New Start. "There's only one road up the hill from the highway. It took us a couple of weeks of sunup to sundown work to go through the full containers down there, choosing which to bring up here. Once we'd built the wall and scavenged all we wanted, one of our guys who'd been in the Army and knew about explosives built an IED, a big fucking bomb, and blew the legs off the bridge. It was kinda amazing, actually. We were expecting just a gap wide enough to keep anyone from trying to cross it, but almost the entire 200 foot crossing went down. Now, the only way up her is through the gorge you took to get here."

They finished picking what was to be used for dinner and what would be preserved for future use and took a break to get cleaned up for dinner. Kenneth showered in what they called the Men's Room, a small 20 foot container in which showers, sinks, and even one bathtub were available to the guys of New Start. He then donned yet another set of brand new clothes and made his way to the Big House.

 

[Ritapita]

Maria knocked softly on the open door to the Mayor's office in the Big House, asking, "Helen, do you have a minute?"

The older woman gestured her inside, and feeling as though a personal conversation was imminent, suggested, "Close the door if you'd like."

The young woman did, then crossed the room to sit opposite the woman who'd brought New Start into being. She spoke with a tentative tone and pace, "With my father gone ... I would assume that you would want to move me into one of the Girls Huts ... or maybe into the Big House."

"There's no hurry, Maria," Helen said, confirming that she'd already thought on the topic and made a decision. One of the young couples that had hooked up after meeting here in New Start had a baby on the way, of which Helen unnecessarily reminded Maria. Do you have a preference of where you want to move to?"

Maria shrugged. "Not really."

A moment of silence passed between them before Helen finally asked, "What did you really come here to talk to me about, Maria?"

The young woman didn't immediately answer, which led Helen to ask knowingly, "Did you want to talk about Kenneth?"

Maria blushed and smiled nervously. After a bit, she said with a bit of school girl crush tone, "He's very handsome."

"He's also very new," Helen reminded her. They chatted a bit about how they didn't know anything about him and about how they should all take time -- Helen, Maria, Robert, and all the others -- to get to know the Newcomer better before forming any deep relationships. Helen asked knowingly, "Is that what you're considering, Maria? A relationship? Perhaps an intimate one?"

Again, Maria blushed, looking down to the fingers clenched in her lap.

"Maria, you're 20 years old, an adult ... a grown woman," Helen began, again telling the girl nothing she didn't already know. With a motherly tone, she continued, "But, in some ways ... you're still just a girl."

Maria looked up, wondering whether or not Helen knew she was still a virgin. She asked in barely more than a whisper, "What do you mean?"

The Mayor contemplated how she wanted to phrase her suggestion, then continued with that same motherly tone, "You shouldn't rush into a romantic relationship with Kenneth ... or anyone for that matter."

Helen began speaking more as a professional -- the doctor and counselor coming out -- about men and women and relationships and what they ultimately produced which, of course, was children. "I'm just saying ... don't be in a hurry. Take your time. Make a good choice, a wise decision. Understand?"

"Yes," Maria responded immediately, even though her brain was still telling her even after this conversation that she wanted to be alone with the Newcomer, alone and naked and surrendering her innocence to him. "I understand."

They finished their conversation, and as she began to leave, Maria said, "I'll start moving into the Girls Hut tomorrow. I ... I don't wanna be alone, so ... this will be good for me."

Maria returned to the kitchen and helped prepare the community dinner. She'd been helping in the kitchen since the day she, her parents, and her little brother arrived at New Start. Bobby had died in a tragic accident a year later, making Maria an only child. She'd lost herself in work and in comforting her parents after that, which was probably the reason she was still a virgin. She'd never really had the time to pay attention to the few males available to her as a love or lust interest, despite the fact that a handful of them had made the attempt.

After her mother's death, Maria's father had volunteered for scavenging treks out into the surrounding countryside. Maria had fought to get on the team, and reluctantly her father and Helen had agreed after they'd seen the separation between her and her father causing her severe distress. This last trek had been their 6th time out. It would, she'd already decided, be her last.

Several times over the next hours, Maria found herself peeking out upon the garden to watch the Newcomer working. As the heat of afternoon heightened, the man removed his shirt to catch a cool breeze. The young woman -- whose body had been seriously suffering a yearning for sexual release for longer than she could remember -- found herself clenching her vaginal muscles, fearing that she would begin leaking the warm, thick lubricant that had made her nightly and sometimes twice daily masturbation so much more pleasurable more recently.

When dinner near, Maria arranged a place setting for Kenneth in her father's normal place. Helen took notice of it and gave the young woman a questioning glance. The young woman only whispered, "Please?"

There was no bell to signal dinner, for fear that the sound might travel in the coastal winds to people they didn't want to know about New Start. Instead, word was passed from person to person until everyone was on their way toward the Big House. Maria was standing behind her chair as Kenneth entered, enthusiastically gesturing him to his seat.

"I cooked the rabbits and yams," she told him with a smile as she picked up his plate and indicated the start of the line. She thought she caught Kenneth taking a deep sniff her direction and she giggled. "It's called Passion. Do you like it?"

She didn't explain that she'd gone searching one of the wall containers that contained as-of-yet unused items for the cologne. She'd never worn a scent before, but she knew from talking to the other girls -- the ones already in relationships -- that men liked girls who smelled good.

"Join hands, please," Helen said from the head of the table after everyone had filled their plates and found their seats. As Maria eagerly took hold of Kenneth's hand, as well as that of the girl to her other side, the Mayor began reciting a Grace that leaned more toward thanking Mother Nature than it did any organized religion's God. At the end, she added, "May the spirits of our lost friends and family find a peace they longed for here, may they always look over us and protect us ... and may our new friend, Kenneth, who returned to us our beloved Maria, find peace and comfort amongst in our community."

There was no Amen at the end, only further confirming that Helen wasn't the Christian religious type. Some of the others did mouth silently or speak the word, indicating their own beliefs. Others looked directly to Kenneth and either smiled or shared friendly words showing their support for what their Mayor had just said. Beside Kenneth, Maria whispered, "Goddess be good, Goddess be great."

She released Kenneth's hand, though, not too quickly, then looked to him with a smile. She said softly, "I'm glad you're here."

Dinner was a time of eating and discussion. The people of New Start started their days with a community breakfast that was less organized but no less large and filling. They worked hard all day at their assigned duties, so the nightly dinner was their first opportunity to speak together as a group.

Beside Kenneth, Maria was fairly quiet. She spoke up a couple of times regarding topics of food, cooking, and preservation, but other than that she was silent. Her attention was mostly on Kenneth, which she didn't even try to hide. She had a crush on him that was unmistakable, talking to him quietly often, about everything from the meal to garden to his living quarters to how handsome he looked in his new clothes.

"I sew, too," she told him at one point, "so, if there are any clothes that you like that are too big for you, I can hem them in."

Then leaning in a bit closer, she said in barely more than a whisper, "I could come to your hut if you like ... you know ... with my sewing basket."

Maria glanced past Kenneth to find Helen watching her. She turned her face back to her plate, feeling a blush fill her cheeks. Despite all the Mayor had had to say this afternoon, Maria had already made the decision that she would be giving her virginity to Kenneth at the earliest opportunity.

Dinner came to a close after dessert was brought out, and the left overs were put away for snacks and lunches the following day. Maria was part of the cleanup, but when she saw Kenneth finish a conversation with some of the residents and head for the exit, she caught up with him to ask if he'd liked the rabbit and yams.

Kenneth gave his answer, and then -- after looking to ensure that no one was eavesdropping -- she asked softly, "Can I come see you tonight after works end?"

 

[ManInTheLoft]

Kenneth felt conflicted about Maria as he entered the dining room and found himself being gestured to a specific seat. He was drawn to the young woman as much as she was to him, but he was also very aware that as the new guy in the community, he was being watched by one and all.

"It's called Passion," she said to him when he drew in a breath of the scent rising off her body. "Do you like it?"

"It's very nice," he said, trying not to verbally express what his body was feeling about her. If he'd thought it wouldn't bring the community down upon his head, Kenneth would have led Maria out the door to the first private place he could find and fuck her hard and fast.

All through dinner, Kenneth caught the young woman's glances and smiles. She blushed occasionally when she talked to him about this, that, and the other thing, pretty much anything that would keep him engaged. Kenneth often looked about the table, trying to make it look as though he was simply being aware of the others but actually looking for signs of how the others felt about the attention Maria was giving him.

He was an outsider; how dare he get the beautiful young cutie's attention like this is what he could imagine was going through their minds.

Kenneth was intrigued with the spiritual aspect of the community. He'd been raised by practicing Christian parents, but Kenneth hadn't believed what they had.
Oh, he believed in a higher power, someone or something that played a hand in the progress of life. He just didn't know what he believed about that higher power.

He was further intrigued when Maria whispered, "Goddess be good, Goddess be great."

Kenneth leaned a great deal about the community during dinner, and while again he tried not to sound like some Savage spy, he often asked questions that were follow ups to things of which the others had already been spoken. They talked about the solar panels and windmills that provided the majority of the electrical power. There was a battery backup in a container, but it wasn't enough to provide power through dark days and nights.

"I know a little something about solar power," Kenneth offered. "I can help, maybe."

He also learned about how one of the two wells they'd been drawing their irrigation water from had gone dry. They talked about drilling a deeper one, another bit of mechanical help Kenneth thought he could offer.

Then, during a bit of conversation in which he wasn't a part, Kenneth listened to Maria's offer, "I could come to your hut if you like ... you know ... with my sewing basket."

Kenneth greatly liked the idea of having the young beauty alone with him, but he also knew that both Helen and Robert preferred he maintain his distance. He told her with a polite tone, "That's nice, but, I don't think it'll be necessary."

After dessert and cleanup, though, as he was heading out, Maria caught Kenneth and whispered, "Can I come see you tonight after works end?"

He looked back toward the crowd working to clear the table and found Helen looking his way as she talked to a pair of the women. He looked to Maria again, and despite his cock once again beginning to harden, he said quietly, "I don't think that's a good idea, Maria. Not now. Maybe later?"

 

[Ritapita]

Maria was extremely disappointed in Kenneth's response to her asking to come visit him later than night, and the expression on her face showed it. But she said, "Sure ... I guess ... later ... another day."

She backed up a bit as someone neared to make their own departure from the dining room, then turned and walked away without another word. Maria feared she was about to cry, and she didn't want Kenneth to see it happen. It didn't, not really; her eyes glazed a bit as she put herself to work in the kitchen, but she blinked the moisture away before it manifested into tears.

After her work in the kitchen was done, she made her way to the Preservation Room. There, she helped with the canning and dehydrating of food, some of which Kenneth himself had picked that day. Three hours later, she was done with her part and headed back to her hut. It didn't take but just seconds for her to burst into tears. She'd stayed inside the Big House her two nights since being in Isolation, and this was her first night in the family's hut alone.

She started to pack up some of the things she would take with her to the Girls Hut, but the anguish of it all continually made accomplishing anything impossible. She changed into one of her father's tee shirts for bed, something she hadn't done in years. She could smell him in the fibers of the cotton, and it only made her feel like crying once again.

It was almost 11pm when she pulled on a dark colored hoody and mismatched but also dark sweat bottoms and headed out. Ten seconds later, without knocking, she opened and passed through the door of Kenneth's hut.

"I can't be alone tonight," she said as he made eye contact with her. She started toward Kenneth with the intention of again wrapping her arms around him, begging, "Please ... can I stay here tonight?"

 

[ManInTheLoft]

Kenneth had returned to the garden after dinner, using hard work in an attempt to forget the young beauty's request to come to his new home after dark. He had little doubt whatsoever that Maria had intended the night to climax in, well, climaxes.

He showered again, changing into his 5th set of clothes of the day. It made him chuckle to himself thinking that in 12 hours he'd had on more items of clothing than he'd had in more than 4 years. He spent an hour or so organizing his new home. The hut had already been furnished, but Helen had had some other things brought for his use as well, such as writing instruments and pens.

He sat to read for a while, but the lights suddenly went out. Looking out onto the circle of huts and the big house, too, Kenneth found the entire community to be in blackness. He went out onto the little porch made of pallet lumber, and all about him, he saw tiki-style torches being lit. It was just enough light for the residents to safely make their way about, Kenneth imagined, as well as let the men and women on the night guard see below, looking for people who shouldn't be out and about.

With no light to work or read by, he lit a small lantern that he'd been told was filled with a liquified tree pitch. He stripped down to his underwear and donned a pair of sweat bottoms against what he knew would be a cold night, when the door of his hut opened and closed.

"I can't be alone tonight," Maria told him, begging, "Please ... can I stay here tonight?"

"Maria, please," he said with a sympathetic tone as he looked for a shirt to don. "I just don't think this is a good idea."

 

[Ritapita]

"Yes, I do," Maria says as she moved forward. She saw the man locate a shirt to don, but she got to him first, laying one hand upon his muscular chest as the other found his waist. "I think this is a great idea."

She wants to again rise on her tippy toes and kiss Kenneth, this time on the lips. But will he let her?

 

[ManInTheLoft]

"I think this is a great idea," Maria said as she rose up to press her mouth to Kenneth's.

He knew he should have pulled his mouth back, his face back, his body back from the young woman. But he didn't, he couldn't. Kenneth instead wrapped one arm around her body, its hand finding the small of her back and pulling them more firmly against one another, while the other arm circled around her upper arm and shoulder, its hand finding the back of her head to bring their mouths firmly as well.

Kenneth could feel the innocence in Maria from the way her lips met his. He couldn't help but wonder immediately whether or not this was the first time she'd kissed a man. But within seconds, his lips and hers, his tongue and hers, were dancing together as if long time dance partners.

But then Kenneth pulled away, just out of arms reach, his face filled with uncertainty. He told her, "Maria, this is wrong. You're hurting. You lost your father recently. You almost died yourself. You need to take some time. It's not, it's not that I don't want to be with you. I do."

He couldn't believe that he was talking himself out of putting his now rock hard cock inside a beautiful, sexy, and eager young woman. But Kenneth knew that this was just wrong.

 

[Ritapita]

Maria felt a chill run up her spine as Kenneth pulled her into his body and kissed her passionately. As did he, she slipped a hand to the back of his skull, encouraging the kiss. Her other hand, on his chest, wrapped to his back, mimicking the merging of their forms. Without having to even think it, her belly and groin pushed forward, and as one knee slipped outside his own, Maria pushed her womanhood against his leg, yearning to feel something upon it other than the one thing with which it was familiar, her own hand.

But just as quickly as the heat had begun to rise, it ended, with Kenneth pulling away and telling her that what was happening right now was ill timed. He told her, "It's not, it's not that I don't want to be with you. I do."

Maria's heart was pounding hard and fast and her chest was swelling and contracting in a conspicuous way. She wanted to be with Kenneth, just as he'd said he wanted to be with her. She'd told him clearly what she wanted, she thought. Words weren't going to do it.

"I need to be with you," Maria told him as she reached to her neck and pulled down the zipper of the sweat top. When the shuttle tab cleared the opposite side's teeth and the garment opened, she pulled it off her shoulders and let it drop to the floor ... revealing her young, firm, and bared B-cup breasts. As she began pushing the elastic banded waist of her sweat bottoms and her panties as one from her hips, she begged, "Please, Kenneth. I can't go on like this another day. I need to know what it means to feel like a woman. And I want to learn that with you."

In a flash, after using her heels and toes to push the sweats and panties off her ankles and past her toes, the petite 20 year old was standing naked before the 13 years older man she'd only really just met days earlier. She didn't move toward him, although she desperately wanted to be back in his arms again. Instead, Maria just stood there with the flickering light of the lantern dancing upon her 32-22-34 body.

Her hands caressed up her flat belly and over her pert breasts, then back down until her finger tips passed through the thick, natural muff of dark curls. She was so desperate for pleasure that if he didn't agree to make love to her quickly, she was going to slip her fingers between her thighs and take care of things herself.