"Treasure Island: 2029"

[BellaMiles]

"Treasure Island: 2029"

(This story is open to a couple of more writers,
preferably 1 each male and female)

Don't post without invitiation​

22 February 2029

Bella Miles looked out upon the conflagration that had once been the amazing beautiful city of San Francisco and just shook her head. In recent days, she'd often remembered that scene from the Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan, where Spock described how it had always been easier to destroy than create or something like that it. (She'd only seen the movie once and she'd been 6 years old at the time.)

The people of the United States of America had been proving Spock's assessment right of late. All across the country -- as well in other countries across the planet -- violence from partisan politics, racial and ethnic differences, economic divides, and the diminishing of resources necessary for living, let alone thriving, had led to conflict between people, neighborhoods, countries, and entire regions, the like of which hadn't been seen since the last World War.

The blame her in San Francisco was easy to spread across groups: the rich and the poor, the left and the right, the whites and the not whites, they all had their hand in the violence that was destroying the city in or near which Bella had lived the full of her 19 years. The mayhem and madness spanned the administrations of Democratic and Republican Administrations, so the fault couldn't be put on which party had been sitting in the White House or controlling the Congress, either.

Everyone was at fault for this.

Everyone except for Bella Miles anyway.

Bella had always been a good girl. Her parents had always told her so. And she'd been a good citizen as well: she went to school and got good grades; she volunteered with a dozen social service agencies, feeding and clothing the homeless or offering care, compassion, and companionship to the children of stressed out, typically single working parents; and at least four days a month she'd been out in the City's parks or down on the waterfront picking up litter or helping with one of the many other beautification efforts that had been making the Bay Area more livable with each passing day.

What did she do now, though, after the world had begun falling apart? How did she spend her days after the Inauguration Day Bombings had destroyed or seriously damaged portions of the I-580, I-80, San Mateo, and Dumbarton bridges, leaving each of them closed to any sort of vehicular traffic and in some cases even foot traffic? What was she to do with her time, energy, and enthusiasm now that most of the Bay Area was consumed by various levels of conflict, making it dangerous to be out of doors, whether it be day or night?

She scrounged: for food and drink, for weapons and ammo, for clean clothes and blankets, for soap and shampoo even. Bella Miles shifted her rifle to one hand and ran the fingers of the others through the long, blonde hair that had escaped from the French Braid that was long enough to reach the exposed button of her flat and fit belly.

The hair was dirty blonde and dirty at the same time. It had been nearly two weeks since she'd washed it, not for a lack of shampoo but for a lack of clean, fresh water in which to wash and rinse it. It hadn't rained in the Bay Area since the first week of January, and the pressure in the water main back on Treasure Island -- in the middle of the Bay between The City and Oakland -- had ceased within days of the I-Day Bombing. Boiling sea water to produce fresh took too much time and energy to be using it for such unimportant things as washing her hair. It'd wait for now. Bella had more important things to worry about right now.

Turning away from watching the fires that had been engulfing ever increasingly larger portions of downtown San Francisco, Bella backtracked down the freight tracks at a hastened walk, using the overhead roadways, abandoned rail cars, and other items for cover. She'd crossed the bay under the cover of darkness yesterday morning and spent half of yesterday sneaking about and the other half of it hiding from others who'd been doing the same. So far, she hadn't found much to be proud of; the resources for which she was desperate were becoming exponentially more difficult to find with each passing day.

Bella had left a note for her parents telling her what she was doing and where she was going. Her mother, Jessie, understood Bella's need to contribute to the family's survival and remained silent about the dangers she was taking; her father understood, too, but he'd forbade her from leaving Treasure Island, which was the reason she'd snuck out just past 3am.

She'd piloted a dinghy she'd borrowed days earlier from the Treasure Isle Marina using its small gas powered engine and electric motor in combination to get herself clockwise around Yerba Buena Island to the Treasure Island end of the bridge connecting YBI to The City. Connecting, of course, might no longer have been the appropriate word as both levels of the two level bridge had been damaged so heavily by one of the I-Day truck bombs that only an acrobat with a harness and ropes could safely navigate the twisted steel and rebar remains.

There was still some disagreement amongst those who cared as to why the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge -- more commonly called just the Bay Bridge -- had been bombed in two places while the other targeted bridges suffered only one bomb each. Most people, including Bella's father, believed that the bombers had been transporting a bomb from the East Bay area over the Bay Bridge to the Golden Gate, but that for some reasons, the bomb either detonated prematurely or was set off by the truck's driver because, possibly, he was stopped in traffic or by the police.

Bella didn't care why the Bay Bridge had been severed on both sides of Yerba Buena, only that it had. YBI and Treasure Island, on which she lived were now both cut off from the rest of the Bay Area. In one way that was a good thing; the violence erupting across the other communities could get to either YBI or TI. But it also meant that the only way to get food, fresh water (beyond the absent rain or desalination), and other things was to use a boat. And using a boat meant exposing oneself to all sorts of dangers, on the water or at either end of the transit.

Bella had reached the shoreline of The City by motoring southwest under the cover of the bridge, then heading south for the South Beach Harbor Marina. There was no place out here to hide a boat other than amongst other boats, so that was just what Bella had done. She'd slipped her dinghy in between a couple of older boats that looked like they hadn't seen use in years, maybe decades, then -- still hidden in the dark -- hurried inland.

She was hoping to break into the Oracle Park baseball stadium, where she hoped to raid the pantries of the concession stands. Unfortunately, someone had had the same idea; she found virtually nothing edible left behind, and twice she was seen by other armed people and chased off, even shot at once.

With the sun now up, Bella found herself slipping in and out of alleys, checking doors of mostly businesses but also a few apartment complexes on the upper floors of the former. Most of yesterday had been spent hiding, though; she was all alone out here, but most of the people she saw out here were running about -- looting, pillaging, assaulting, and even raping -- were doing so in groups of 5, 10, even 20 at one point.

She'd found an abandoned building to sleep in last night and returned to her scrounging just before dawn. One might have though it was easier and safer to do this kind of work at night, but the one time Bella had tried, she'd happened upon a woman with a big assed knife who nearly cut the blonde open while believing it was necessary to protect her children.

It was late in the day when Bella slipped into a back window of a Brannan Street restaurant. It was her last chance to fill the third and fourth of her backpacks before heading for the boat and home. But no sooner had she entered than she found herself staring into the eyes of a man who'd stepped into view after hearing Bella.

"Don't move or I'll kill ya dead!" she practically screamed at him as she pointed her rifle at his chest. Her grandfather -- a Veteran of Papa Bush's demolition of the country of Iraq -- had often spoken of the power of the shock and awe, so Bella used it now by jamming the barrel of the gun in the direction of the man and repeating with new words, "Don't move! I'll put a bullet through your brain, then your balls! Drop the shit!"

The man's arms were full of just what Bella had come here to borrow: cans and boxes of food. As he complied and backed up -- her next bellowed order -- the man passed by boxes full of treasure, which lead to Bella's eyes widening in joyous shock.

"Who are you? What's your name? Why are you here?"

The first two questions were just sort of spat out without thought about whether or not Bella should care. She was likely going to tie him up, gag him, and rob him of all he had. The last question was sort of a duh-h-h inquiry, as he was obviously here to do the same as Bella had intended.

 

[DeadManTyping]

Cooper Hanes checked his watch for the time and date: 22 Feb 29, Th, 5:05 pm. The sun was almost down, it was his 22nd birthday, and he hadn't blown out the candles on his cake yet. There was no cake this year, obviously. He shook his head, thinking about the irony. He was feeling sorry for himself for being denied his annual party, while the world around him was burning down.

In truth, it wasn't the lack of a party that was the issue. If was the lack of his parents, who would have been the ones throwing it for him. Charles and Elizabeth Hanes were been killed in the San Mateo Bridge bombing. Wrong place, wrong time.

Things had already been bad before that day. Cooper had started sleeping over in the diner. The hope was that the presence of lights and movement inside would prevent intrusion and looting. And Cooper was armed as well. On at least a half dozen occasions, he'd had to flash his pistol or shotgun at rioters or individual breaking and entering thieves.

The guns hadn't prevented most of the windows from being broken. A Molotov cocktail had almost been the end of the store. But Cooper's presence seemed to have protected the inventory. Until now. Until a young woman with a rifle somehow got inside.

"Don't move or I'll kill ya dead!" she screamed at him.

Cooper didn't move. He just stood there, waiting to be killed. Missing his birthday.

"Don't move! I'll put a bullet through your brain, then your balls! Drop the shit!"

Cooper wasn't about to drop anything. He had a glass bottle each of mayo and green olives, as well as half a dozen cans of other foods. He leaned forward slowly and spilled the items out on the table nearest him. He then stood slowly, saying, "I'm not armed." He lifted and arm up slowly and pointed a finger. "My gun is over there." He was pointing at the shotgun leaning against the wall. His pistol was in his belt at the small of his back.

"Who are you? What's your name? Why are you here?"

Cooper didn't answer immediately. He had been scared off and on repeatedly during the madness outside. He was scared now, too. By the looks of the woman's expression and body language, she was scared a bit, too. That bothered Cooper because it tended to make his imminent death more likely.

"My name is Cooper Hanes," he answered. "This is my parents' restaurant. I was moving food. There was a fire."

They stared at each other for how long Cooper was unsure. Then he asked, "Are you hungry. I can make you dinner. I'm a good cook."

And then he smiled.

 

[BellaMiles]

"I'm not armed. My gun is over there."

Bella watched the man slowly gesture to a shotgun leaned against the wall. She found herself immediately confused as to why he would volunteer that information. She doubted she would have noticed it if he handed drawn her attention to it.

In answer to her questions, he introduced himself and informed Bella that this establishment belonged to his family. She didn't know whether or not to believe that; he could have been just another looter, like herself. But his pointing out that there had been a fire felt a bit personal, leaving Bella wondering if maybe he was being genuine with her.

Then he seriously shocked her with, "Are you hungry. I can make you dinner. I'm a good cook."

And he followed up his offer with a smile.

With her rifle still pointed at his head, Bella studied the man a bit. He was young though older than she was herself; he was handsome, very much like the men she'd never dated who had yet played a central role in her moments of sexual self gratification; and he seemed less threatening that most of the people -- males and females alike -- with whom she'd had encounters over the past several weeks or even months.

"I'm hungry," she answered simply. After a moment, Bella lowered her rifle just a bit -- enough to appear less threatening but not enough to be unsafe -- and asked, "Whatcha got? And how you cooking it?"

 

[DeadManTyping]

As the woman was looking him over, Cooper was doing the same in regards to her. She was downright fucking sexy. In an end of the world apocalyptic CosPlay sort of fashion. She had an incredible figure. Her wardrobe was skin tight jeans and a cropped, belly exposing, breasts emphasizing tank top. If he hadn't had a gun aimed at his face, Cooper probably would have wondered about her appearance. Was she being ironically provocative? Or was she simply dressed for the incredible high temperatures the Bay Area had been experiencing of late.

"I'm hungry," she answered simply. "Whatcha got? And how you cooking it?"

Cooper shrugged. "Whatcha want? The fresh meat's all gone bad. Still got some fresh vegies and fruit, though, the vegies are on their last leg. But I could make you a halfway decent green salad or vegie plate. Sausages. That's the only meat still good, but I can fry up some of--" He smiled a bit, remembering her second question. "We've still got gas to the stove, if you can believe that. Electricity's been out for days, but we're still getting gas. I suspect most of the fires are 'cause of gas. Unless it's the rioters. Don't know. I haven't been out of the restaurant in more than a month, to be honest."

He waited for her to respond. Then, Cooper held his arms out wide and said, "Listen, I lied. I'm armed. I'm gonna turn around to show you." He turned slowly until she could see the gun in his belt. "I'm going to set it on the table. Then, if you want, when I go to the kitchen, you can get it." He reached very slowly to do exactly as he'd promised. Then, still moving slowly, he said, "Let me get your dinner ready."

As he did, he asked, "What's your name? I usually like to know the name of the woman I'm on a date with." He chuckled, murmuring, "A date with."

 

[BellaMiles]

"Whatcha want?"

Bella just stared at the man, taken aback by how he was acting towards her. Was it an act? She'd broken into his family's business intent to loot it and was aiming a rifle at him, and now he was offering not only to cook her dinner but to cook Bella her choice of dinners.

He described what was and wasn't left to eat and explained that they still had natural gas for the kitchen's stoves. Bella told him without explaining the who and where of it, "We lost gas after the I-Day Bombings. Don't know why. Just did."

"I haven't been out of the restaurant in more than a month, to be honest."

"Wow, seriously?" she asked with surprise. She'd been out and about on YBI/TI every day for many hours a day. She couldn't even imagine being trapped inside here for that length of time. Did he say 'trapped'? she tried to recall, or just, didn't leave?

Bella raised her rifle again when Cooper said he was in fact armed but would disarm himself. She kept him covered with her finger on the trigger until he was walking away from the revolver now sitting on the table.

"Let me get your dinner ready. What's your name? I usually like to know the name of the woman I'm on a date with."

Bella let out a bit of a snort in contradiction to how Cooper was describing what was taking place here. Before she could correct him, though, he chuckled and murmured, "A date with."

And then, for reasons she couldn't explain, Bella decided not to correct him. She did retrieve the pistol, putting into the small of her back as Cooper had done earlier. She also retrieved the shotgun, and after checking to see if it was loaded -- it was -- she slung her rifle over her shoulder and assumed Cooper's weapon as her own, for now, anyway.

"Bella," she responded to his earlier question. "Bella Miles."

She followed him into the kitchen, but looking about and seeing all of the available knives and other potentially improvised weapons at his disposal, she maintained her distance from Cooper. He set to work, just as if he was cooking an order for an ordinary customer on an ordinary day. Bella sat atop a stack of canned goods against a wall and just watched, with a smile on her face.

 

[DeadManTyping]

Cooper inconspicuously peeked toward his visitor occasionally as he set to his task. He was curious about how she'd handle the weapons. But he also simply wanted to look at her. Cooper had never been a lady's man. People, especially his family members, had always assumed he would have a line of girls waiting at his bedroom door for their turn. Not so. Although he wasn't about to admit this to anyone, he was still very much a virgin. At 22. 22! He didn't know another guy his age who hadn't gotten his dick wet in a girl, women, whore, whoever. Just him.

"Wow, seriously?" Bella asked with surprise when he said he hadn't been outside in forever. Cooper didn't find it that surprising. What was waiting out there for him? Certainly not a line of girls. She introduced herself, "Bella, Bella Miles."

"Nice to meet you, Bella Miles," Cooper responded with a friendly smile. He let his gaze track down her body and up again, before telling her something she absolutely had to already know, "Bella means beautiful in, like, I dunno, all of the languages of the world maybe."

Cooper had already fired up the gas grill and the oil was heating up. He moved to his left, closer to Bella. He noticed her reaction when he snatched up what to her probably looked like a scary fucking knife. "Just cutting the sausages."

He decided to slow his movements from line chef rapid to home cooking casual. It was difficult as this business required speed. But he managed it, getting the meat, some eggs, and some vegies cooking. He explained that he'd filled a couple of picnic coolers with ice after the power went out.

"I'm down to a few eggs, a gallon or two of milk," Cooper told Bella. He chuckled. "Pretty much the rest is cans and cartons."

As he was finishing up and filling two plates, he asked, "Are you alone? Or do you have people out there someplace?"

As she answered, Cooper walked unthreateningly toward and past Bella for a nearby table. He'd poured both milk and cranberry juice in glasses and asked politely, "You wanna grab those. Silverware, too."

Out at the table, Cooper stood behind a chair and pulled it out. He saw Bella's reaction and again smiled. "Mamma taught me to be a gentleman."

He didn't know whether she would allow him to seat her. If she did, he'd move around to his side and sit to eat. If she didn't, he'd shrug and still do that same. He would understand if Bella didn't trust him to be in such close proximity to her.

 

[BellaMiles]

"Bella means beautiful in, like, I dunno, all of the languages of the world maybe."

The girl with the guns tried not to smile, but when a blush filled her face, not smiling was moot as a reaction to the compliment. She mumbled, "Yeah, so I've been told."

She watched Cooper cook, marveling at his technique. It was obvious that he'd had a place in his parents' business for a long time. She did flinch a bit when he went for the knife -- several times, actually, each time less noticeable than the last -- but by the time he was finished, Bella had concluded that the man wasn't going to suddenly reach out and slice her neck open.

He asked, "Are you alone? Or do you have people out there someplace?"

Bella had anticipated the question and yet still hadn't decided on an answer. But she was feeling more comfortable with Cooper and answered, "No, I'm not alone. Mom, Dad, sister. There are others, other family members, but we're not sure where they are."

She'd been about to tell him that she'd boated here from Treasure Island but didn't. She wasn't ready to reveal that much to him yet. She retrieved the glasses of milk and silverware, and when she reached the table she was surprised to see Cooper standing behind a chair, saying, "Mamma taught me to be a gentleman."

As Cooper had figured out, Bella wasn't ready for that either. Instead, she set the glasses and utensils down and pulled out the chair opposite him, saying, "Mine taught me not to trust boys."

She couldn't help but smile again as she and pulled one of the plates to her. As Cooper sat in the chair he'd offered, Bella asked the same question he'd asked about her. But before he could answer, she said, "You're here alone, which I take not to be a good thing, so, if you don't want to talk about it..."

 

[DeadManTyping]

"Mine taught me not to trust boys," Bella said about her mother.

Cooper smiled, responding without hesitation, "Smart woman." They sat and started eating. Bella talked about her family. Cooper noticed that she was short of specifics. He didn't dig deeper, though. She asked about his situation. He dropped his eyes to his plate. Bella either picked up on his change or simply added one plus one to get two.

"You're here alone, which I take not to be a good thing, so, if you don't want to talk about it..."

"No, that's..." Cooper began. He hesitated. Then, "My parents were on the San Mateo Bridge when it blew. I was, um ... I was on the phone with my dad while my mom was driving. Dad hated city driving. Mom was an animal behind the wheel, which could be good or bad at times."

He went silent to eat a bite of sausage. He went on to describe had his parents had never found them. "Cost Guard tried, but everything was falling too shit, and the search was quit. Suspended, I mean."

Cooper ate some more. Then, unable to hold it back, he dipped his head forward. He hide his face and started sobbing. Other than the looters he'd hollered at, Bella was the first person he'd spoken with since the bombings. So, as a result, this was the first time he'd spoken of his parents' death.

 

[BellaMiles]

Bella didn't know how to respond to Cooper's sudden show of emotion. She felt for him, obviously; she'd lost family, friends, and neighbors to the I-Day bombings and to the mayhem that had both preceded and followed it.

But she didn't know Cooper. And she'd come to The City to pillage food and -- still -- planned on claiming as much of Cooper's as she could carry. But suddenly, she was feeling kinda shitty about her plan.

Diverting her eyes to her own plate and eating some of the incredible meal, Bella contemplated each of their situations, searching for a plan that would gain her what she needed while also not doing Cooper too much harm.

There was, of course, only one option. When Cooper had calmed down a bit and returned to his meal, Bella said, "Come with me to Treasure Island. That's where I live. Where my family is. Come with me. I have a boat. We fill it with all of your food and stuff and cross the Bay under darkness. It's perfect."

She gave him a moment to contemplate what she was offering, then stood up from her chair, removed the revolver from the small off her back, set it on the table nearer to Cooper than to herself, and sat down again, smiling.

 

[DeadManTyping]

The entire time he was sobbing, Cooper was fighting to regain his composure. He'd always been a sensitive kind of guy. That might have been the reason he was still a virgin. His mother had always told him women wanted that in a man. His father had always told him women wanted their man to be a man, not a girl. Cooper didn't honestly know whether either of them had been entirely right. What he did know was that he'd made it through high school and two years of college with his cock finding joy no where other than in his own curled fingers. He recovered himself, cleared his throat, and returned to eating without every looking into his guest's eyes.

Then Bella surprised him with, "Come with me to Treasure Island."

Cooper did look up then. He realized he had tears on his cheeks and wiped them away.

"That's where I live. Where my family is," she continued. "Come with me. I have a boat. We fill it with all of your food and stuff and cross the Bay under darkness. It's perfect."

Cooper found himself just as baffled about Bella's offer to join her as she had been about him serving her up a homemade meal. Then, she gave him back his pistol. Cooper stared at it a moment. Then he looked back to her, not picking the revolver up. He smiled broadly. Turns out, it was the only confirmation she'd needed.

Two hours later, they had nearly every bit of food loaded for transport. The family had rented a garage across the alley, keeping a pickup inside. Trip after trip after trip Cooper and Bella hauled cans, boxes, and bags of food. They took toilet paper, of course. The first aid kit from the bathroom, the some chemicals from under the sink, and other non-food things came as well.

The last thing Cooper retrieved was the pistol. It had still been sitting where Bella had left it until now. He waited until he knew she was watching before returning it to the small of his back. It was ironic, his wanting Bella to trust him. After all, he had just helped her load up all of his food. If anyone was going to shoot the other in the back now, it wasn't going to be Cooper shooting her.

"I have a surprise for you," he told Bella in the garage. They had passed through the people door and just slid up the car door to leave. "The boat you described, you said you weren't sure it would hold all this in one trip." He held out a set of keys that dangled from a floatable fob. "These are to my uncle's boat. It's in the South Beach Harbor. It'll handle all this and more, if only our pickup would."

Cooper smiled wide, happy to see that he could surprise her again. He asked, "Shall we?"

 

[BellaMiles]

Bella couldn't believe how her day of scrounging had gone. Being a San Francisco Bay resident, she'd grown up on stories of '49ers who'd come out west to strike it rich, only to bust out after working themselves to death and, ultimately, selling their claims to the real winners of the gold rush, the merchants selling food, tools, and dreams.

Today, she felt like one of the very lucky few who'd put their pick into the ground or their pan into the river and found a nugget as big as their fist. She'd come across the water in the hopes of filling two or three or four back packs and other bags with food and supplies; instead, she was heading back to Treasure Island with a boat filled to overflowing.

"Shall we?"

They'd made their last trip up and down the gangway between the shore where they'd parked and Cooper's uncle's boat, which was halfway down the dock. Bella was about to tell him We shall when she caught movement in the darkness. She froze for a moment, uncertain of exactly what she was seeing.

Then, when she realized it was someone coming at them at a high rate of speed with a weapon-lookin object in his/her/its hand, she acted on instinct: she had been carrying Cooper's shotgun slung over her back during the load/unload and had only just taken it off her back by coincidence, and without thinking, she lifted it, pointed it, and pulled its trigger.

The explosion filled the air before her with a flash, the sound surged out through the marina and echoed back off the buildings, and the smell of gun powder came back at Bella in the air, filling her lungs with its very distinctive smell. But the most obvious effect of the blast had been that the quickly approaching figure's body seemed to simply stop in place, its legs and feet continuing forward, until the whole of the attacker slammed to the pavement just feet from Bella.

She just stood there for what seemed an eternity but what was actually less than four seconds, staring at the person who -- she would later assume without actually having checked -- had been killed instantly by the large pellets that had struck him from chest to face. Bella only came out of her shock when she realized that someone else was shooting as well.

 

[DeadManTyping]

Cooper hadn't heard the approaching attackers. His first indication that something was amiss what when he saw Bella swing his shotgun up and fire it. In all honesty, if he was asked later, his first thought was that she'd finally betrayed him. He flinched and tightened up tighter, making himself a smaller target. He'd done it instinctively, without thinking. But her quickly realized he hadn't been shot. Someone else had.

No sooner did he turn to see the stranger on the ground then firecracker sounds began popping from behind him. Cooper spun to see another attacker, his small caliber pistol spitting sparks with each round. He pulled the .38 Special revolver from his belt and rapidly emptied all 5 rounds. The other attacker turned and ran, quickly disappearing into the dark.

"Let's go!" Cooper told Bella in panic. He grabbed at her but missed, then ran for the gangway and, ultimately, the boat. He had no interest in being up here on the docks for another minute. "As he descended the ramp to the dock, he hollered again, "Bella! Let's go!"

 

[BellaMiles]

Bella finally regained her senses at the shooting behind her and Cooper's call of "Let's go!"

She spun and aimed the shotgun at the other attacker, but seeing the person fleeing didn't fire. Bella hesitated for just a moment, studying the running form, and without a doubt she knew that it was a woman.

"Bella! Let's go!"

She looked back at the dead man for just an instant, then turned and ran after Cooper. She caught up with him as he was untying the lines, and a few seconds later the boat's motor was roaring and the craft was backing out of the dock. Free of the berth, Cooper pushed the boat forward, the power almost spilling Bella back into the stern.

"That way," she said as she moved up close to the man at the wheel. She pointed to the lights that were the now closed Coast Guard Station on Yerba Buena Island. "That's YBI. We're gonna go around it. Don't turn the lights on. We don't want anyone shooting at us."

There would be no sneaking across the bay like Bella had two days ago. They would slow and become less obvious when they got closer to YBI, but for now Bella just wanted to be as far away as possible from people who were shooting at them.

"Just keep on course to pass between the island on the left and the container terminal on the right," she told him. "Left and right, port and starboard. You probably already know that. When you get between them, slow down so maybe no one hears us coming. I gotta sit down."

Bella moved to one of the rear facing seats of the six seater boat. The deck of the 20 foot craft was packed with their stuff, making her lift her feet to rest them out of the way. After a minute of staring back the way they'd come -- back to where a man now lay dead at her hands -- Bella began to cry. She'd killed a man; she'd shot him in the chest and face with a shotgun and blown the life out of him. Oh, it had been justified, probably. Who knew what he would have done if he'd reached Cooper.

Cooper, she thought to herself, looking back over her shoulder. That guy had been after Cooper. Bella had possibly saved her companion's life. But, did she tell him that? She was carrying the guilt of having killed the attacker. Should she share that with Cooper? No. No, Bella was going to keep that to herself, now and for always.

She felt and heard the boat slow and rose to go stand beside the man again. In the unsteady water, Bella reached one hand out to the sill beneath the window while the other slipped around Cooper's back. She saw the expression on his face when he felt her hugging him, and she smile and laughed. She dismissed it with, "Just trying to get my balance. You need some sailing lessons."

Bella pointed again, turning them to port and more north. They passed under the Bay Bridge; in contrast to pre-I-Day events, it was dark as hell with no movement on it at all. There were sometimes people up on it, Bella knew, but it wasn't as if they were going any farther east than about where the boat would pass.

"See?" she asked, pointing upwards as they passed below the bridge. "Can you see it?"

With a total lack of lighting on Yerba Buena to their west, only the half full moon's illumination showed the incredible damage that had been caused by the truck bomb. The entire width of the span was missing for more than 120 feet, with some of the dislodged concrete dangling at each end of the gap, held in place by bent rebar.

"The other side's almost as bad," Bella told Cooper, not knowing whether or not he'd seen the effects of the second bomb that had inadvertently been detonated on the west side of Yerba Buena. "Both sides are cut off. We tried to use ropes to get across the other side, but it was too dangerous. And really, if you have a boat..."

After they passed the bridge, Bella turned him northwest, into Clipper Cove and toward Treasure Island Marina. She pulled the little but powerful pen light out of her back pocket, raised, and flashed it toward the Marina. There was a response from within the collection of boats -- four flashes followed by two more -- to which she said cryptically, "Four times two plus two is ... ten."

Bella flashed her light ten times, and a moment later got a single flash, then another, then two. She looked to Cooper with a smile and said, "Ok, lets go."

She urged him to speed back up, and two minutes later they were being helped to pull the boat full of goodies into a slip. The man there gave Bella a hard glare, to which she only said, "Sorry, Daddy."

 

[DeadManTyping]

"That way," Bella said, pointing off into the night.

"Aye, aye, Captain," Cooper joked, turning the wheel to port. It was dark as hell out here. There was virtually no artificial lighting in any direction. The only illumination was from the moon and the fires tearing through communities on both sides of the bay.

Cooper looked back at Bella off and on through the voyage. He didn't see her crying. If he had, he wouldn't have known what to do about it anymore than she had known how to deal with his fit of sorrow. Many minutes passed, feeling like even many more than that. Soon, Bella was at Cooper's side. She reached an arm around him, and he looked to her with surprise.

"Just trying to get my balance," she said. "You need some sailing lessons."

"I said my uncle had a boat," he explained, "not that I knew how to drive it."

As they passed under the bridge, she asked, "See? Can you see it?

Cooper's eyes widened and his mouth fell open a bit. He'd seen pictures of the explosion's result on the news. But seeing it in person was simply something else.

They altered course twice, turning more westerly each time. Soon, Bella was trading signals with another person in the distance. They pulled into the marina, where a man tossed a rope out to them. After being pulled into the berth and tied up, Bella surprised Cooper by saying to the man, "Sorry, Daddy."

"You've been gone two days," Darren Miles chastised. "You're mother has already said a prayer for your soul and begun carving a headstone for the grave in which there'll be no body."

Cooper couldn't help but let out a snort of humor. The man on the dock, who'd obviously seen the young man, asked harshly, "Who the hell's this? And where'd the boat come from?"

"My name is Cooper--"

But he didn't get far. Darren had seen the boat filled with supplies and asked in shock, "Where the hell did you get all that?"

Cooper looked to Bella for guidance. When she didn't say anything, Cooper explained, "It's mine. My folks own a restaurant. We didn't steal it or anything." He felt kind of silly for that last part. All over the Bay Area, people were stealing to survive. But Cooper wasn't that kind of guy. Or, at least now he wasn't. He continued, "Bella said that maybe if I brought all this here, you might let me stay?"

He asked more than stated the last. Bella telling him he could live here on Treasure Island was one thing. The man with the AR-15 style rifle over his shoulder and the 9mm on his hip, while his daughter was in a boat with a stranger, was a totally different thing.

(OOC: BellaMiles, you can write the father as we discussed.)

 

[BellaMiles]

"You've been gone two days," Darren Miles chastised, joking about Joe her mother had already written her off as dead.

Beside her, Cooper snickered. Bella growled softly, "Not funny. You don't know my mom."

After being asked his name, Cooper tried to respond, but Bella's father cut him off at the sight of a literal boat load of supplies.

"Bella said that maybe if I brought all this here," Cooper began, "you might let me stay?"

Darren stared at the younger man for a moment, then did the same for his daughter. Bella could read the man like a book, even in just the moonlight.

"My God!" she exclaimed. "No! I didn't fuck him for it!"

"Bella!" a female voice called out from the dark. Softer, the approaching woman chastised, "Language!"

Bella turned her face away from her father and murmured to Cooper, "That'd be my mother."

(OOC: I have more to post, but my battery is dying. Gimme an hour. )

 

[BellaMiles]

From out of the darkness, Jessie Miles slowly appeared, dressed pretty much as she was anytime she was in bed or in a bath: tight fitting jeans and a midriff revealing top of some sort, readily showing off her slim, athletic, 5'7" and 123 pound, 34B-24-35 figure.

Bella had grown up so jealous of her mother's physical beauty because she herself hadn't even begun to fill out until she was past her 15th birthday. Then, as if someone had injected her with some sort of nanobot female development hormone, Bella had exploded in delicious curves that had men and boys alike taking double takes, particularly when she began flashing a bit more flesh.

"Dad, mom, this is Cooper Hanes," Bella said once Jessie was near Darren's side. "He's going to come live with us for a while, maybe at our house, maybe at the Tipton's."

She turned to Cooper and explained, "Marcus and Helen Tipton were away when all the bombing shit happened. They haven't come back yet and probably never will. We've been holding off on raiding their house, 'cept for the perishables, which they told us we could have."

Bella looked back to her father, asking with a harsh tone, "Have we decided yet that we're gonna take their stuff before someone else does?"

Darren ignored the question, instead looking to the boat's contents, then to Cooper. "If you have anything in there that needs refrigeration, we're out of luck here pretty much. We've got solar, but except for one fridge that's holding medications for some of our neighbors, we're not using it for much other than lights and things like oxygen concentrators and the like."

Bella explained, "Treasure Island used to be almost exclusively military. You probably knew that. It had a lot of Vet housing, lot of formerly homeless soldiers, some low income civilian housing. Lots of people with medical conditions. When they started the redevelopment back before COVID hit, they moved all those folks to temp' housing all around the Bay, then the first houses and apartments that were completed went to them."

Her father filled in the rest, "Of our current island population -- TI and YBI combined -- almost a third have some sort of serious medical condition that requires ... well, honestly, stuff we are now or soon will be having a hard time providing."

As the two of them were explaining all of this to Cooper, Jessie had stepped down into the boat to look about, but now she was standing close to the young man. She offered out her hand as she said, "Thank you for bringing our daughter home to us."

Still holding his hand, she looked to her daughter and warned, "Next time she does this, if you're with her, just leave her behind."

Bella stuck out her tongue, then laughed. Jessie looked to Cooper again -- still holding his hand and only 18 inches or so in front of him -- and smiling almost flirtatiously said, "It's nice to have another good looking male on the island. They didn't tell you, but we're a bit girl heavy on TI for some odd reason. I'm sure you're going to find it very comfortable here--"

"Mother!" Bella snapped, laughing again. "He just got here, and you're already trying to fix him up with one of your lonely MILFs?"

"Bella!" her father growled, finishing with a softer, "Don't be rude."

Jessie had finally let go of Cooper's hand, only to ask for his help to ascend to the boat's railing to get out. Once on the dock again, the three Miles's talked about what needed to be done regarding the boat load of stuff. Darren got on his radio and called for a Night Patrol to wake the Standbys, who would come down to empty the boat.

"We understand that this all belongs to you and your family, Cooper," Darren told him after he, too, had come over to shake the younger man's hand. "Did Bella explain to you that following the Inauguration Day Bombings, the majority of those of us who have remained on the islands -- about a fifth of the registered population, about half of those still on YBI or TI -- we have formed a Shack ... a Share All Community?"

Bella playfully grimaced, responding, "Sorry, dad. I just sort of figured you would tell him when he got here."

Darren didn't look happy about this revelation, but he ignored his daughter's lack of transparency and explained, "Everything we have is shared equally amongst us. Food, water, drink, energy, etcetera. We all perform labor to the best of our abilities and in accordance to our skills. Everyone contributes, and no one is deemed more worthy -- and therefore more deserving of resources -- than any other person, simply because he or she is a doctor or other professional or once was a politician or uber-wealthy.

"I need you to know," Darren continued, with a very serious tone as he glanced to the boat's contents and then back, "that if you wish to remain here with us, all of this will go into the Community Larder, to be distributed evenly amongst the members of the Shack. If that does not work for you, if you find that unfair, you are more than welcome to leave and take all of your things with you. We won't stop you, and we won't hold anything against you. We're not vengeful, and we're not pirates."

Beside Cooper, Bella gave her best Caribbean pirate growl, "Arrgh. Leave your treasure here on Treasure Island, 'less ya be force ta walk the plank, matey."

 

[DeadManTyping]

Cooper couldn't believe Bella's mother. The women of this family had seriously cornered the market on good looks. Jessie Miles didn't look half old enough to have a daughter Bella's age. And her body was just as appealing as the younger Miles. The woman came down into the boat and took hold of his hand. Cooper found himself just staring into her eyes and, yes, down at her boobs. In the chill of the night, her nipples were conspicuously swollen and screaming for the young man's attention. He didn't even notice that he hadn't let go of her hand after the appropriate amount of time.

Bella concluded the introductions, and her father gave Cooper a very detailed explanation of what it would take for him to remain on the island. Hell, at this point in time, Cooper would have given up a kidney, a liver, and a ball to remain close to so much female beauty. After Bella gave her pirate arrgh, he laughed. He then turned to her father and asked, "So, where do we take all of this? I'm sure your Shack has a shack?"

 

[BellaMiles]

Bella was delighted at Cooper's agreeing to the terms and immediately declared, "It's settled then. Can we get started, 'cause I need to pee."

She got dirty looks from both of her parents, apologized -- not to them but to the younger man -- and described to Cooper where they'd be taking the treasure floating in the slip of the TI Marina. Four men, not two, arrived a couple of minutes later with golf carts, and it didn't take but 45 minutes or so to empty the boat that it had taken Bella and Cooper three hours to load up.

"Come with me, Cooper," Bella's mother said to him about the time the sun had cleared the Diablo Mountain Range and began bathing the Bay Area. Looking to her daughter, Jessie said with a firm tone, "You, too, Bella. You both need sleep."

They hopped into one of the golf carts and headed away from the marina, first west for only a few seconds on the still paved Clipper Cove Way, then north on the packed dirt of what had once been named Treasure Island Road but would soon have the flowery name of Avenue of the Palms.

"They started ripping all of this out years ago," Bella explained to Cooper, not knowing how much he knew about the planned-but-since-abandoned and nearly total clearing of all the buildings on the island to make way for an incredible redevelopment. She pointed in various directions as she explained about the multilevel, mixed use buildings, foot-traffic-only shopping areas, parks, and more that were to have been built. "Then COVID ... then all this shit."

She pointed toward the fires burning in The City. She lamented, "It was going to be beautiful."

After a short and bumpy ride, Sarah stopped the cart in front of the Miles home. Inside, she and Bella showed Cooper the essentials: kitchen, where he was free to eat or drink anything he wanted except Darren's homemade juice concoction which was for a digestive issue; the bathroom, in which he could find a toothbrush and his own bar of soap if he wanted to shower; and finally a bedroom on the second floor where he could take a well deserved nap if he wanted.

"This is my room," Bella said with a bit of a smirk. She let Cooper -- and her mother, too -- contemplate on the idea of the young man sleeping in her bed for a couple of seconds before saying, "I'm going downstairs to catch some zees on the couch. See ya when you get up."

Then, before either of the two realized what she was doing, Bella leaned in close to Cooper and kissed him on the cheek. She smiled to him as she backed away, saying, "I'm so glad we met. I think you're going to like it here, Coop'."

Her smile widened, then she turned away and disappeared down the hall. Sarah looked to the young man, studying him for a moment, also with a slight smile that may have left the man wondering what was going on in her mind. She turned for the door as well, saying, "Well, I'll give you some privacy, Cooper. If there's anything you need, just ask. I'll be downstairs, making breakfast for the guys you met this morning."

 

[DeadManTyping]

(I love the Google Map links!)


"Come with me, Cooper," Bella's mother said.

Cooper would have gone anywhere with the woman. Over the span of his self gratification years, he'd often fantasized about losing his virginity to a very well skilled MILF. (He hated the actual term MILF, but that was another issue.) Having Bella along for the ride was only better. He'd sat in the front near Jessie but turned to be able to see and listen to Bella. The result was he got to stare at two beautiful women and their equally beautiful bosoms.

Cooper had known a little bit about the redevelopment of Treasure Island and the northern side of Yerba Buena Island. One of his uncles had been in the Navy and had gone to Fire School here back in the 1980s. He knew a bit about the location's past. And he had lived in the Bay Area all his life, so he knew about the island's present and future, too.

"It was going to be beautiful," Bella said at one point.

"It will be," Cooper reassured her. Smiling to her, he said, "You and your family will make it so.

At the Miles's home, Cooper got the tour. He also got a kiss. Bella said, "I'm so glad we met. I think you're going to like it here, Coop'."

After Bella left and he was alone with the girl's beautiful mother, Cooper thought to himself, Yes, I am. Jessie said she would give him some privacy and said to holler if there was anything he needed.

"I change of clothes would be good," he said as she was heading away. He tugged at his shirt. "I've been hand washing and drying this for over a month. It was all I had, 'cept for some work smocks and a set of gym clothes that were too big, from the lost and found."

Jessie responded, "You're about the same size as my husband. I'll bring in some of his things."

"I think I'm gonna shower," he informed her, already stepping out of his shoes. "That's okay, right?"

"We should have enough hot water for one shower, sure," Jessie said. She essentially repeated what her daughter had told Cooper about the lack of electricity on TI, but told him, "I'd sooner have you get a hot bath and not stink up the place than use the power to get in a little reading tonight."

She laughed, then before departing told Cooper, "When you get out of the shower, I'll have some clothes waiting for you on the bed."

After Jessie left, Cooper took a few minutes to look around the bedroom. It was your typical teenage girl's room, nothing special. He checked the hall and closed the door before peeking into Bella's dresser drawers. Again, he found what he'd expected.

He stripped, stepped into the shower, wetted himself all over, then turned the water off. Navy ship shower, he remembered his uncle telling him. The ships were almost always short of water, he'd been told. As he was lathering himself up, Cooper took his cock into his hand. It was already lifting a bit in semi-erection. With just a few strokes, it was hard as a rock. And with just a few more, he grunted out in ecstasy as he shot long streams of cum upon Bella's shower wall. He cleaned himself up and the wall, got out, and wrapped a towel around his waist. When he left the bathroom, he didn't look first to ensure that no one was in the room.

 

[BellaMiles]

(I love the Google Map links!)
(Me, too. They give life to the story I think.)

<<< >>>​

After leaving Cooper with her mother, Bella hurried downstairs and out to the back porch where she opened the backpack she'd been carrying for days. She dug around inside, smiling at the treasures she'd found. She pulled one out, a tiny thong bikini with the price tags still attached. She'd found it in the back seat of a car after she'd broken the window, along with some other clothing that hadn't been her style and had been left behind. She tried to imagine what she would look like in it and -- as important as that -- how her new friend would react when he saw her in it the first time.

She stuffed it back inside and returned to the home's interior. She heard her mother in her parents' bedroom and went to her, asking excitedly, "So, what do you think of him?"

Jessie emerged from the walk-in closet with a serious expression. "Honey, you need to slow down a bit. You only just met this boy."

"Boy?" Bella asked with a challenging tone. "He's not a boy, mother."

Jessie drew and exhaled a deep breath, trying to delay her response until she was certain she had contemplated her words. "I only mean, you don't know him. He's a young man in a world that is falling apart. You don't know that he's going to remain with us. Even if he does..."

She hesitated, and when she did, Bella finished Jessie's thought. "Even if he does stay, he might not stay with me."

After a moment of silence, Bella's mother confirmed, "Yes, honey. Just give it a couple of days before you commit yourself to--"

"Before I get naked with him," Bella interrupted, adding with obvious accusation, "like you do with Roger."

There was a long moment of tense quiet before Jessie tried to excuse the affair she was having by saying, "Your father knows all about my relationship with Roger. You know that. It has nothing to do with what I have with your father. I love your father with all my heart and soul. Roger is just..."

Jessie had no idea of how to explain her need for the sexual relationship she'd been having with the Coast Guard Officer since just before the Inauguration Day Bombings. Roger had been one of a dozen USCG members who'd remained behind on Yerba Buena after the Bay Bridge access to both San Francisco and Oakland had been cut off. The Coast Guard had transferred most of its personnel and vessels to another station on the mainland, which Jessie had found rather disturbing. How was it that a military service build around boats had found it impossible to continue its operations on an island?

Roger hadn't been Jessie's first affair, and he wouldn't be her last. Her husband understood her sexual needs, just as he understood that he couldn't satisfy them since they centered around the necessity for men other than him. Jessie liked to believe that Darren accepted her dalliances. The two never talked about her affairs, just as she never asked her husband if he was having affairs of his own. They loved each other still, and they made love to each other still. Jessie simply needed more than Darren had to offer.

She stacked some clothes in a single pile, lifted them, and offered them out to Bella. "Take these up to your room for Cooper. They should fit, and those rags he's wearing, take them out back and burn them."

Jessie smiled, then chuckled. "Don't. I was just joking. But do bring them down to the laundry and toss them into the soak bucket. They're gonna need some deep cleaning."

The teen took the clothes and left without saying a word, particularly about the topic of Roger. To be honest, Bella had had some fantasies about the Lieutenant herself. She'd once caught her mother in flagrante with the Coastie in the Tiptons' home, the second unit south of their own in the fourplex here on the water's edge. Bella knew she shouldn't have, but she'd hid in the bushes outside the sliding glass door watching every moment of the multi-orgasmic encounter.

If she had to, Bella would have confessed that her mother and Roger belonged together, at least as lovers. They'd moved perfectly with one another, touched each other perfectly, came together perfectly ... twice. The encounter had begun over top of the kitchen island, had spread to the living room couch, and finally ended on the carpet, just a few feet from Bella's widened eyes. It had been the most erotic thing the teen had ever seen, and it had changed her view of love and lust even more dramatically than when she herself had lost her virginity or fell in love for the first time.

Bella was surprised when she reached her bedroom to find the shower running. Hot water was a luxury and would continue to be until the Shack could find a more consistent and more plentiful source of electricity. There was a storage container full of solar panels right here on Treasure Island, but the control systems needed to make them work were still in a warehouse in Oakland, where they'd been waiting to be shipped until after the first new high rise was near to completion.

She set the clothing down on the bed, then looked to the bathroom door. It had been swung closed and appeared to be shut, but years earlier the latching mechanism had been damaged by child's play during a slumber party. Again, Bella knew this was wrong -- just as with that day at the Tiptons' -- but she crept to the door, took hold of the handle, hesitated, then gently opened it just enough to be able to see inside.

It wasn't what she saw, though, that caused Bella's eyes to swell; it was what she heard: a very consistent sound that was one part suction, one part sloshing, one part light friction ... parts that only added up to one conclusion, that the Miles's guest was beating his pud with a well lathered hand. If there had been any doubt as to what she thought she was hearing, they vanished like a popped soap bubble when Cooper groaned out in ecstasy at the arrival of his climactic moment.

Bella felt a chill crawl up her spine, followed by goose bumps filling her arms and legs. She listened in to the final moments of Cooper's audible response to the euphoria ripping through him, then pulled the door shut again and backed away. After a moment, she turned and creeped out. She just stood there in the hall for the longest time, trying to imagine what it would have looked like to have seen her new friend stroking his cock long, hard, and fast.

Finally, she couldn't take it any longer. She descended to the first floor bathroom, locked the door -- this one actually worked -- and sat on the toilet seat after pushing her jeans clear down to her ankles. Driving herself to orgasm, with rapidly circling finger tips lubed up with just a dollop of petroleum jelly -- all she had available at the moment -- wasn't nearly as quick as Cooper's own masturbatory event was. But it was no less satisfying; Bella's body tightened up as the waves of ecstasy surged through her, leading her to gasp out several times after long held breaths meant to intensify the joy.

She came down from her cloud just in time as her father knocked on the door, looking for a place to pee. Bella flushed the toilet to back her story of peeing herself, then jokingly said, "Go outside! Isn't that what guys do?"

She cleaned herself up, then -- again dressed properly -- made her way to her parent's room, dropping on the bed and pulling the top cover over and around her as if creating a cocoon. Within a couple of minutes, Bella was out.

 

[DeadManTyping]

After he splashed the shower wall with his cum, Cooper just stood there for the longest time. He spent a couple of minutes just regaining his composure. His heart pounded, his head swam, and his cock continued to twitch in his grip. He hadn't cum this hard in forever. It was the two women out beyond the bathroom, obviously. He'd wanted to lose his virginity to Bella from the moment he'd first found her pointing a rifle at him in his parents' cafe. He'd wanted to lose his virginity to Jessie from the very second he'd spied her swollen nipples out on the dock.

Can I lose my virginity twice? he thought to himself with a chuckle. A moment later, he flinched at an unexpected sound. Someone was there, in the bathroom. He pushed the shower door open, only to find no one. He listened and thought he heard movement out in the bedroom. Was he imagining things? He dried, wrapped the towel around his waist, and emerged into Bella's bedroom. There were clothes waiting for him. Someone had been here.

The only question was whether they'd entered the bathroom for some reason. No, that wasn't the only question, nor was it the most important question. Had someone heard him masturbating? Fuck, please, no. That would be so embarrassing. What a way to begin new relationships. Cooper couldn't imagine that finding him beating his meat would endear him to either of the women. How ironic he would have found it to learn that Bella had not only heard him but had then gone downstairs to do the same herself.

Cooper poked through the clothes. He found a pair of jeans that were perfect in the waist and only an inch or so too long in the inseam. They'd do. He donned a wife beater tank top and then a button up short sleeve with the tails hanging out. He kept his own belt and shoes, although the latter could use replacing, too. They were his kitchen shoes and smelled of grease. The shoes from Darren were too small for him by a size.

Downstairs again, Cooper found Jessie in the kitchen. She was putting away some grocery items which she told him were the Miles family share from the Shack. He didn't see any of the things he and Bella had brought with them and presumed they hadn't been added to the inventory yet.

"I don't know whether or not Bella told you," he said as he helped unload the cloth shopping-style bags, "but I'm a cook. My mother called me a chef, but, well, she's my mother and she had a rather grandiose vision of what I did in the kitchen." He looked around, then asked, "Where's Bella?" Learning that the younger Miles female was taking a nap, Cooper had to hide a smile. That meant he could pay more attention to the auburn haired woman. He moved over behind the kitchen island when he realized he was swelling within her husband's used jeans. Wondering about the man whose clothes he was wearing, Cooper also inquired, "Where's your husband? Darren, right?"

 

[BellaMiles]

Jessie Miles heard the home's guest coming down the stairs and, before Cooper came into view, smoothed down her the fresh set of clothes -- yet another tight fitting blouse and jeans combination -- that she'd donned following the hours of work down on the dock. When the young man entered the kitchen, Jessie looked him over with a pleased smile.

"You look just like a younger version of my hubby in those, Cooper," she said in a friendly tone. She was tempted to gesture for him to spin around to complete her assessment, but doing so might think she simply wanted to see his ass. Instead she turned away, informing him, "If you need more, my husband's got loads of clothes he no longer wears. The other option, of course, is to raid some of the abandoned--"

She hesitated, correcting, "Not abandoned. Empty. Empty homes in the neighborhood. A lot of folk weren't on the island when the bridges were destroyed, and most of them didn't come back. And some of our neighbors left after I-Day, too. The Shack adopted some rules regarding pillaging those houses, so, I know which ones we could visit to find you some clothes that not only fit but might be something you would find to be your style."

She glanced back at Cooper again, letting her gaze fall on his nicely sculpted body. She thought she might have caught him ogling her backside as well, and when he moved to behind the island for seemingly no reason, she turned away and smiled as she wondered, Is the boy inside the man from me?

"I don't know whether or not Bella told you, but I'm a cook."

They talked about cooking, food, available ingredients, unavailable ingredients, and more for several minutes as she continued to work about the stove and cutting board.

When he asked for Bella's whereabouts, Jessie told him she was taking a nap. Again she glanced back at Cooper and -- possibly just her wishful thinking -- thought she caught him lighting up at the knowledge that the two of them were alone for now.

"Where's your husband? Darren, right?"

"Darren, yes," she answered. "He's inventorying that treasure you brought us at the Shack."

She talked about the many steps involved in recording resources, determining perishability, disbursing that which needed to be used immediately, and scheduling the use of the rest of it. "One of the community buildings has a commercial kitchen. We keep it powered, including a fridge and a freezer, and its still got natural gas pressure, though, that could vanish at any time. We prepare a breakfast, lunch, and dinner there 7 days a week, and we have sack lunches for the guys and gals on Midwatch, so no one up at night goes hungry. It's more efficient than everyone cooking at home, though, everyone does that as well when there's enough food and fuel, be it electric or gas or wood."

Jessie stepped over close to Cooper and held out a spoon filled with a sauce, her second hand underneath to catch any wayward drops. "Taste. It's a sauce I'm playing with for tonight's spaghetti dinner, thanks to all those noodles you brought in today."

She watched Cooper carefully taste the thick, steaming sauce, then took some for herself from the other side of the spoon; her eyes were set on the young man's own in an intimate way, and after she giggled a bit -- sounding very much like her daughter -- she reached out to wipe a drop of red from Cooper's chin. Putting her finger in her mouth to clear the sauce from her finger, she said softy, "Missed some."

They remained close like this for a long moment, after which Jessie asked bluntly, "What are your intentions with my daughter, Cooper?"

She watched his reaction, then continued, "I know she wants to be your lover, and -- if you are the red blooded American male I believe you to be -- you will want to be hers, too. I just want you to consider more than just the next few days before you ... well, you know. Before you claim her heart ... be sure you plan on staying around. Don't hurt my little girl."

 

[BellaMiles]

Kimberly "Kimmy" Carlton stood in the back yard of a relative's house seeming to watch and enjoy a pair of kittens playing on the lawn. In truth, her eyes didn't see the playful clawing and biting; her ears didn't hear the soft, ferocious growls and hisses; her heart didn't fill with joy at the sight that had made millions of even the roughest, toughest men smile and laugh while watching endless hourse of YouTube videos, claiming to their buddies later that they'd actually spent the evening watching the latest porn videos.

Kimmy's eyes and ears -- her mind's eyes and ears actually -- were filled on what she'd seen in the moonlight during the wee hours of the previous evening: her lover being blown away down on the docks by some chick with a 12 gauge shotgun.

Bella, Kimmy reminded herself. The guy had called her Bella.

Even worse than leaning over Chris's already dead body as his blood continued flowing over the pavement -- over her -- was having had to leave him behind, laying their in the open. As she'd wept over her lover's body, Kimmy had heard fast moving feet coming her way. The waterfront near the Marina had been under the watchful eye of a violent militia that had essentially run the cops and then the National Guard out of the neighborhood.

Kimmy had run off to hide, then watched as Chris was stripped of his valuables and then pushed off into the Bay. She very nearly opened up on the men, but her rifle had jammed and -- in her rush to get to and save Chris -- she hadn't yet cleared the ejection port. Instead, she waited until the militia members finished their search for the shooters -- wanting to rob them, too -- and departed from the area. By the time she got back to where Chris had gone into the water, he was gone from sight, floating off or sinking she couldn't know.

"Honey, what're you doing?"

Kimmy didn't immediately respond because she hadn't consciously heard the question. But after her Aunt asked the question again with more volume and concern, the 22 year old flinched, looked to the women who'd practically raised her alone, and smiled. "What?"

"What're you doing, honey?" her Aunt repeated a third time. "You looked lost."

Her only remaining elder relative knew nothing about Chris, not that he was Kimmy's lover nor that he was now floating and bloating in the San Francisco Bay. She lied, "Nothing. Just ... watching the cats."

She went inside to her bedroom and began packing a backpack, something of which her brother -- the remainder of her living family -- took notice. Peter plopped down on her bed and watched in silence for a couple of minutes before finally asking the question he knew she'd been awaiting. "Where you going? You're packing for more than just a day of scrounging for food. What's up."

"Chris was murdered last night," Kimmy informed him, using murder rather than killed with a serious tone. When Peter asked the hows and whys of it all, she told him; he knew all about the couple's daily forays to find what they all needed now that grocery stores were a thing of the past. "He didn't deserve to be murdered. He wasn't going to hurt that chick. He just wanted ... we just wanted their food and guns. He wouldn't have hurt her."

Peter hesitated before pointing out the obvious regarding the other woman. "She didn't know that, though, did she? You're lucky you didn't get killed, too."

"Yeah, well, she's gonna pay for it," Kimmy growled.

Peter couldn't help but chuckle. "And how are you going to manage that? You said she and that guy headed out into the bay and that you couldn't see where they went."

"I said I didn't see where they were going," Kimmy corrected. "I didn't say I didn't know where they were going."

She looked to her brother with a serious look. "I know who she is. Bella Miles."

Kimmy hesitated, giving her brother a moment to recall the name. She told him, "When I was hiding in the bushes, I used Chris's night scope and saw the bitch as she and her thug boyfriend were pulling the boat out. It was Bella Miles."

Peter asked with obvious disbelief, "From SEC? Really?"

SEC was the Summer Ecology Camp the two of them and, by a quirk of chance, Bella Miles had attended the summer between Kimmy's junior and senior years in high school. Peter had attended, too, but being 2 years younger than his sister, he had only seen his sister off and on during the 2 week program, and he'd only been face to face with Bella Miles three or four times in passing.

"How can you be certain it was her?" he asked. He was almost immediately sorry he'd asked such a stupid question. One did not forget the face and even the body of the first person with whom they'd been intimate. Kimmy had never been the type to keep things from her brother, and -- honestly -- she'd been very proud of her week long lust affair with another woman. Peter looked away from his sister's chastising look, murmuring only, "Yeah, okay, I guess."

He looked up again, at his sister and the bag she was packing. His face with sudden realization. "Wait. What. Are you going to find her?"

"I'm going to kill her," Kimmy said without hesitation. "I know where she lives. Treasure Island. That was the direction the--"

"You said--"

"It was going to Treasure Island, I know it," she cut Peter off. "She went home. And I'm going to kill her there."

 

[DeadManTyping]

"You look just like a younger version of my hubby in those, Cooper," Jessie said after surveying Cooper's appearance in Darren's clothes.

He asked hopefully, "That's a good thing, right?"

Jessie just looked to Cooper with a smile, not speaking a reply. She spoke about the availability of clothes from the homes not currently filled by residents. He would come to learn in the days to come that the Shack had been equally concerned with resources going to waste in unoccupied home and with the owners of those homes feeling as though they'd been robbed while away. The Shack members had come up with a method of recording what was taken and a way to compensate those home owners should they ever return. It all seemed very logical in a way to Cooper.

They talked some more, then Jessie had him taste test her sauce. Cooper let out a satisfying moan of appreciation. "That's very good. Better than mine, and my recipe comes from my Sicilian great-great grandmother." Jessie giggled and wiped sauce from his face. Then, she stuck that finger in her mouth. She sucked off the sauce, still staring into his eyes. Cooper felt a heat rising in him. He was certain that the older woman was flirting with him, teasing him. He didn't understand it. He was just a kid. Okay, so, he was 22. But he was a fucking virgin. He had no experience with women beyond a kiss and a single grope of a boob from years earlier.

Then she asked out of no where, "What are your intentions with my daughter, Cooper?"

He didn't understand. Jessie continued, "I know she wants to be your lover, and -- if you are the red blooded American male I believe you to be..."

By this point, Cooper could feel his face exploding with a fiery blush. The woman went on, "...you will want to be hers, too."

Jessie went on to warn Cooper not to hurt her daughter. He quickly said with emphasis, "I would never do that, Missus Miles, really! I would never hurt Bella or, you know, what you think I would do that would hurt Bella. I'm a virgin, Missus Miles. It's not like I'm some ... creep, who just wants to sleep with..."

Cooper went silent, realizing what he'd just done. He'd outed himself as a virgin. He didn't have the slightest idea what he was supposed to say now. What the hell did you follow that up with?

 

[BellaMiles]

Cooper was obviously panicked at Jessie's suggestion that he wanted to fuck her daughter. "I would never do that, Missus Miles, really! I would never hurt Bella or, you know, what you think I would do that would hurt Bella. I'm a virgin, Missus Miles. It's not like I'm some ... creep, who just wants to sleep with..."

Level two of his panic came when Cooper realized he'd just admitted his lack of experience with females. She tried to suppress the smile threatening to spread her lips at the young man's nervousness but couldn't. She did, however, attempt to ease him by telling him with a sincere tone, "Cooper, there's nothing wrong with that ... with being a virgin. There's nothing wrong with waiting for the right woman."

She was going to continue by warning him that Bella might not be that right woman when a short but frightened scream made her jump. She turned and hurried to her and Darren's bedroom where she found Bella sitting upright with a horrified expression on her face and tears beginning to stream down her cheeks.

"Honey, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Jessie asked as she rushed to the bed and sat. Bella's gaze shifted between the two as Cooper had followed the older woman from the kitchen. Jessie wiped away her daughter's tears, begging, "Tell me, honey, what's wrong?"

Bella couldn't explain about what had happened on the dock in the wee hours; her mother knew she carried a weapon with her on foraging treks, but Jessie had never imagined that Bella would use it, let alone blow several holes in the chest of a man as she had. Bella looked to Cooper and -- fearing he might say something -- very gently shook her head.

"I'm okay, mom, really," she lied. Hugging Jessie, she asked, "What time's it? How long 'til dinner?"

Jessie didn't believer her daughter's false reassurances, but she let it go. Bella would tell her what was troubling her if she wanted. She stood, told her daughter to get changed, and took Cooper's elbow, escorting him outside. Back in the kitchen, Jessie put Cooper to work helping her prepare more ingredients for a larger batch of sauce to be cooked at the Community Kitchen.

She glanced at the young man often as they worked. Jessie knew it was wrong, but no sooner had Cooper confessed to being a virgin then she'd decided she had to be his first. Jessie hadn't relieved a man of his innocence since she was a teen. She knew it was silly to want this so badly, but it had been a long time since Jessie had had anything more sexually exciting than starting a new extra-marital affair.