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  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 19

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 19
    Major Chaos

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    Once I was inside, I let out

    a deep breath and closed my eyes while she couldn't see me. I wanted to tell
    her I could get her a dose right now. I wanted to tell her I would love her
    just like I did when we were teenagers, and we could pick up where we left off.
    For all that Erica was judgmental of her, I knew they would get along after
    things got settled. They were similar in a lot of ways, but different in other
    important ones.

    I wanted to tell, but I knew

    what it would mean for me to offer it to her right now. It would mean, in her
    eyes, that I was giving up on the rest of the people in need. It would look
    like I was just trying to scoop her up like the hand of God and deus ex machina
    her survival.

    I needed to trust Miriam and

    hope that she could shake something loose. That was the only way I could do
    what Kara would want and what she needed.

    And even if I did offer, and

    even if she said yes, and even if she chose me and not to save
    a man from the community, that choice would haunt her. Maybe I should have let
    it be hers to make anyway, but I couldn't put that on her. I would carry it.

    I pulled away slowly and saw

    Kara give a little wave and head back into her house, the door shutting behind
    her.

    "Fuck!" I shouted

    in the closed cab of my car. I pounded the steering wheel with my fist.

    I followed the dirt path down

    around a dozen more properties before it let out onto a road, and I started
    tracking back towards the main street and the exit from the Rez. Already
    frustrated and feeling a tightness in my chest; the muscles, not my heart; I
    tried to block out the horrible little things that dotted the homes and shops.
    There wasn't anything I could do, and I hated feeling that way.

    Unfortunately, blocking

    things out wasn't helpful when it came to avoiding trouble. I made a turn that
    should have brought me one road over from the main drag and I slammed on the
    brakes as I came within ten yards of a crowd. It was maybe thirty people and
    they looked.... Crazy. They were hooting and cheering, and a lot of them looked
    like they were dressed in the ceremonial garb that was usually kept for
    festivals and cultural events. The few men in the crowd were bare-chested, and
    everyone had daubs of paint on their faces and bare skin. It took me a moment
    to realize it was supposed to be war paint. Plenty of them turned at my
    approach, but many of them were still focused as a few people were putting more
    paint on a man who was on his knees in the front yard of a house. He was a
    little gaunt, and his bare chest was heaving as painted hands were slapped on
    his chest and back. His face already held streaks of blue and red, and he was
    wearing a feathered war headdress.

    "What the fuck?" I

    muttered.

    I grabbed the microphone from

    my dash and brought it to my lips, my eyes narrowing as I looked at the
    assembled crowd. They were all dead people walking, congregating during an
    outbreak. I triggered the mic. "For your own and public safety, disperse immediately,"
    I said, my voice echoing out from the speakers built into the light bar of the
    truck.

    Then Feather turned from

    painting the man on his knees, snarling at my vehicle as she narrowed her eyes.
    "A false warrior of the white devil!" she cried, pointing at me
    accusingly with a hand dripping with red paint. "You have no authority
    here, pig! The earth rises up to send you back across the seas, and we shall
    inherit her protection once more."

    Well, now I knew where

    the crazy was coming from. She'd always been particularly
    nasty at any protest over the years, but this was something else.

    "You are all risking

    your lives by congregating like this," I said into the mic. "The
    virus is contagious for two weeks with almost no symptoms before two days of
    brutal death. Many of you are likely carriers and causing the deaths of your
    friends and neighbors."

    "He speaks with the

    false promises that destroyed our ancestors!" Feather shouted. "Drive
    him out!"

    A brick came flying out of

    the crowd and panged off the hood of my truck heavily. Then I noticed other
    people in the crowd raising things that they'd been carrying. Some had rocks
    and bricks and sticks. Others had bows and arrows, and hatchets, and I spotted
    at least one shotgun.

    "Fuck this," I

    grunted, dropping the mic and slamming the truck into reverse, turning in my
    seat to look out the back as best I could as I peeled away. More rocks and
    bricks came flying my way, and I jerked when someone shot a fucking arrow at my
    truck and it glanced off the windshield with a sharp crack, leaving
    a jagged scar across it. I rounded the corner before anyone took a shot with a
    firearm, burning it back to the next intersection and then putting it into
    drive and speeding down the street. I whipped by abandoned cars, circling
    around the insane mob, and found myself in an area that I remembered. It took
    me another minute of fast driving before I reached the barricade.

    I slowed to go around it

    then, muttering to myself, I threw the truck in reverse again and backed up
    into the car that had been moved. I pushed it back into place, then drove off.

    It wouldn't stop anyone

    determined, but it was something.

    I thumbed open my phone,

    keeping one eye on the road, and called Kara.

    "Harri?" she asked,

    surprised since I'd just left.

    "Yeah, I'm out," I

    said. "But I figured out the ringleader of your 'people going insane
    during a quarantine' problem. It's Feather."

    There was a moment of

    silence. "Shit," she sighed. "Did she see it was you?"

    "I don't think so,"

    I said. "But if she asks around, people might be able to pinpoint that I
    was in your area just by my truck. They shot fucking arrows at me. Are you
    safe, or should I try and find a way to get you ladies out?"

    "We should be

    fine," Kara said. "Feather is... she's always been a lot, and all of
    this must have pushed her over the edge. She might threaten us, but I don't
    think she'll actually try to attack us."

    "That's a pretty thin

    line, Kara," I said.

    "I know, but I can talk

    her down," she said.

    "Tell me if something

    changes."

    "I will," she said.

    "Be safe."

    "Be safer," I

    countered.

    The drive away from the Rez

    was way less full of anxiety and much more frustrating. People could be real
    tea-bags.

    Showering at the compound was

    an unpleasant affair as I stretched and saw the bruising on my side, along with
    the aggravation to my leg. My headache, thankfully, had faded and the other
    bruises weren't so bad that I couldn't play them off. I also hadn't gotten a
    broken nose, which I'd left two of the bikers with, so that was a good thing.

    Adding the trip to the Rez

    onto my timeline, not to mention the black market, had me a little worried
    about the frozen and dairy items in the truck, so I washed myself as fast as I
    could before wiping down the inside of my truck in case I'd pulled anything in
    on my clothes. Once that was done, I headed over to the Falls to make the
    delivery.

    "What happened?"

    Erica asked me as soon as she saw me in the parking lot. Several of the ladies
    were there to help carry in the groceries. "And don't tell me it was
    nothing, Harrison Black."

    Erica, apparently, was

    getting used to her Matriarchal role. I hadn't heard my last name said like
    that since my Mom had passed, but I'd definitely heard it throughout my
    childhood when she had a bone to pick with my father.

    "A couple of

    things," I said.

    "Well, you can start

    with the arrow sticking out of the side of your truck."

    "What?" I asked,

    rounding the truck with a frown. Right there, stuck in the passenger side door,
    was an arrow. "Fuck me."

    I told her about the drop off

    at the Rez, all of it, as we sat outside on the grass next to the parking lot
    and she held my hand and looked into my eyes. She was frowning and nodding as I
    told her how frustrated I was with the whole thing.

    "You did what you could

    reasonably do, babe," she said when I was through. "Other than going
    all caveman and throwing all three of those ladies over your shoulder and
    carrying them out by force."

    "You know,”

    "I know," she

    stopped me. "I know. Now tell me what else happened."

    Erica could read me as easily

    as Kara did. I had a moment where I could have chosen to play it off, but
    looking at my fiancée I knew that was the wrong choice. I could also tell that
    she had something she was holding back. So I told her about
    the black market but downplayed the fight and how I got out of it. She narrowed
    her eyes slightly and I could tell she was stopping herself from either
    criticizing my recklessness, or calling me on the downplaying. Probably both.

    "Well, at least people

    are getting food," she said. "The news said that shortages are going
    to get worse. We might end up needing that black market sooner
    than later."

    "Doubtful," I said.

    "We can eat with the construction workers if we need to, and between
    Vanessa and Miriam we can probably syphon off resources for here."

    "Still, it's good to

    know it's there for now," she said.

    "So what do you have to

    tell me?" I asked.

    She frowned, but blushed,

    which was a weird combination on Erica. "Well, I figured out why I've been
    freaking out so much lately when things have gone wrong."

    "Okay," I said

    dubiously. "Why is that?"

    "My hormones are way out

    of whack," she said. "I'm told that comes with being pregnant."

    "That; I,” my eyebrows

    raised as my brain took the extra second to click on what she was saying.
    "Really?"

    "Yes, really," she

    grinned. "I grabbed a bunch of tests a little while ago because Kyla and I
    are both trying, and I took one last night and one this morning and they were
    both positive."

    I tackled her, softly, to the

    grass and kissed her as she laughed and hugged me.

    I was going to be a father. I

    was going to have kids with the most wonderful woman.

    "You'll be an amazing

    mom," I said in between kisses all over her face.

    "And you'll be an

    amazing,”

    "Guys!" Josie

    called, jogging through the parking lot towards us.

    "Little busy, hon,"

    Erica called to her.

    "No, you need to come

    inside," Josie said as she got closer. I sat up from leaning over Erica at
    the tone of Josie's voice.

    "What is it?" I

    asked. "Something happened."

    "It's all over the

    news," Josie said. "It's; I don't know what's going to happen
    now."

    The President of the United

    States collapsed and fell into a coma shortly before 3:30 PM on July 7th. We
    watched the next hour on the big TV in the rec room of the Falls with all the
    ladies. As the reports went on we switched from channel to channel. Faces we'd
    never seen on major stations were covering the events. No one was contradicting
    the other stations, though plenty of different narratives were spinning out of
    it.

    I made eye contact with Leo

    when they announced that, with President Trump in a coma and unresponsive, Vice
    President Pence was going to be temporarily sworn in under the 25th Amendment.
    Leo was a lot more liberal than I was and had been staunchly disgusted by
    Trump, as had Erica. I had been a lot more... forgiving wasn't the word, but I
    respected the Office and I respected the democratic process. He was the
    President, and while he was something of a garbage fire when it came to his
    personal life, he was still duly elected. The fact that it was two equally shit
    choices between him and his opponent hadn't helped matters.

    Leo, and Erica, both thought

    Pence was even worse than Trump because of his religious dogma. I didn't have a
    care either way on that, having grown up without religion really affecting me
    at all. He seemed a lot less turbulent at least, so maybe he'd
    be a steady hand at the head of our country when it needed steady badly.

    The Vice President of the

    United States collapsed at 4:15 PM as he was stepping up to take his oath and
    assume the mantle of President.

    After that was some chaos.

    Many of the ladies were frightened, and some were vindictively pleased if they
    were in the anti-Trump camp. I comforted people as I could, trying to assure
    them things would be fine even if I didn't know what came next.

    In the middle of all that, as

    the commentators on the news were pointing out the line of succession put the
    Speaker of the House as next up, I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. I
    stepped away from the rec room and pulled it out, seeing it was a text.

    Grierson: Have a job opening if you're interested. Super

    stressful but great benefits. Comes with a big house and staff. Interested?

    I raised my eyebrows high at

    the gallows humor. I also had no fucking idea how I had his contact in my
    phone. Before I could even reply, I got another text.

    Grierson: Too soon?

    I snorted and shook my head,

    smirking. It was a historical tragedy in the making and Agent Grierson, big
    shot in the shadowy OGA world, was texting me quips. I was a military man, and
    I understood gallows humor well, so I sent him back a crying-laughing emoji as
    I shook my head again. Then I sent another message. You're probably a
    little busy, but I could use a favor.

    Nothing came back within a

    couple of minutes, so I headed back in. There was no telling what kind of shit
    he was dealing with at the moment.

    Speaker Pelosi was sworn in,

    and I couldn't help but scoff a little. She was the US's first Female
    President, even if it was starting out as temporary, but that didn't matter so
    much to me as the fact that she'd seemed so damned out of touch and made that
    stupid Late Night show bit where she showed off an entire freezer full of
    expensive ice cream while the country was in lockdown and people were already
    dealing with food scarcity.

    Politicians, as I'd pretty

    much always believed, were fucked no matter what side they were on.

    Things started to calm down,

    and I found my hand in Ivy's as she smiled and pulled me towards the door. She,
    along with Dani, had the least care for the happenings of American politics in
    the short term, and I'd already sat with Ivy through multiple sessions of her
    cursing in French at the computer screen as Trudeau up in Canada seemed to put
    his foot in his mouth as often as Trump had. Dani often had few good things to
    say about the leadership back in Australia, either.

    We had a new President.

    I had more pressing concerns.

    I celebrated again, more

    thoroughly, with Erica alone in her room. We were both a little giddy about the
    idea of being parents, but we decided to keep it just between us for the time
    being. Not long, we both wanted to tell the others and especially not make it
    seem like we were hiding it from them, but with us all being split on where we
    were living and the investigation and the stuff on the Rez it didn't feel like
    the right time. Erica also assured me she could do all the early research we
    needed to do in terms of finding a doctor and getting her set up properly for
    what came next.

    Keeping it from Kyla was

    especially hard for me when we had our time together, though she was distracted
    from reading me by my latest injuries and what had happened on the Rez. She,
    more than the others, had the least experience with Kara and the tribe in terms
    of the legal and protest issues since she'd joined us later than that.

    "Why didn't you just

    offer it to them, Harrison?" she asked me with a sigh, softly shaking her
    head. "She wouldn't have said no."

    "I don't think she would

    to save herself over others," I told her. "And if she did, she would
    regret it."

    "Sometimes I forget how

    long you were alone," she said, looking at me intently as she lay next to
    me in her bed. I wanted to ask her what she meant by that, but she kissed me
    and soon she was fucking me and I was entranced by her as she rode me with
    languid grace, staring her love down into my eyes.

    Vanessa, once I was back on

    the site and she came home after work, was just as upset with me for the biker
    incident as Erica and Kyla had been. The fact that the story of a fistfight
    with some bikers also seemed to turn her on, she swore, was not a reason to do
    it again. She also needed a good amount of quiet time between the two of us,
    cuddling as she decompressed. Her father and a lot of the male crew on site
    were Trump supporters or at least 'old school' Republicans, so the events of
    the day had brought on a lot of friction among the crews, the upper staff, and
    the Imprinted ladies who leaned more Democrat since most were from the city.

    Politics, it seemed, often

    wasn't that important to most people until it was thrust right up in their
    faces. Surprise, surprise.

    Agent Grierson didn't text me

    back again until later that night, and when I asked if he could help with the
    Rez issue he told me he wasn't in a position to shake loose anything,
    especially when similar situations were happening all across the country. It
    had been a long shot anyway, but I still felt a little more defeated at the
    possibility getting cut off.

    The next few days, thank God,

    calmed down and I didn't get shot at or find myself in any more fistfights.
    Most of my time was spent piecing together a timeline for the whereabouts of
    the recently deceased Poole brothers and their unidentified fellow raider. With
    all my other leads played out, and the serial number for the pistol not looking
    like it would lead me anywhere without showing up with warrants at every
    firearms dealer in the State (which could still end up being a dud), the
    receipts were my only real clue.

    Creating the timeline was

    fairly simple, though it wasn't exactly comprehensive. There were days between
    them pretty frequently, and they jumped up and down the state. I tried mapping
    them out with pins and running a thread to track the timing, but I wasn't able
    to get a clear picture of a home base area. They were definitely more active in
    the northwest of the state, but weren't limited to it. There were even a couple
    of trips up into Washington State, though not particularly far based solely on
    their fast food stops.

    In between that work, and

    starting to call up the fast food locations to ask for any security camera
    footage they had for the dates and times on the receipts, life seemed to settle
    into a little routine.

    Vanessa was working hard. The

    second bunkhouse was getting filled up since the renovations were finished to
    make it Partner-friendly, which brought even more unskilled (in the trades)
    hands and mouths to the site. She was doing her best to divvy out what jobs she
    could if they made sense; they had a full-time medical response team with the
    nurses, and she proved to me that their cafeteria was putting out some pretty
    impressive food now that several ladies who had been in a Culinary Arts college
    program before being offered a spot in the testing program were on site. The
    offices got filled out more as well; accounts needed to be managed, and
    shipping and receiving had records to streamline and organize. Brent had almost
    too much of an office staff and could pick and choose the most experienced
    potential staffers for any role.

    The rest of the ladies were

    getting crash courses in site safety, and then crash courses starting trades
    apprenticeships. With the third bunkhouse going up as planned, and in record
    time, I had a feeling Vanessa could put 'Trade School Headmistress' on her
    resume sooner than later, she'd be managing so many students at once.

    Unfortunately, or maybe

    fortunately for my feelings towards Miriam, none of the women coming onto site
    were newly imprinted; they'd been partnered up back in the aftermath of the
    outbreak on the site, and had been living with their partners in hotels and
    motels since then. That meant that Miriam wasn't ignoring my request for help,
    but it also meant she still didn't have the vaccine doses that would be needed.

    In between my murderboarding

    and the occasional trips around the site, ostensibly to check on security but
    mostly to stay up to date on how the roads were working out, I found myself on
    the phone a lot. I spoke with Erica a few times a day, usually a couple for only
    a few minutes, but for at least an hour each afternoon. The initial excitement
    about our future child was still there, but all of the other little worries and
    anxieties were starting to set in, and we had a lot to talk about.

    I also got daily calls from

    Kara as she updated me that she and the ladies were safe, and of what they
    could tell was going on, on the Rez without leaving the house. Things had
    gotten worse; people were still dying, but there were less of them wandering
    the streets. They'd had a couple of people come by begging for help, but it was
    obvious they were on their last legs. She'd risked a bit of time outside to
    splash some bloody handprints off of the front windows of her house with a
    bucket from a distance.

    We also talked. Not about big

    things, but just reminiscing about high school. Telling each other stories we
    remembered of the people we'd been back then. Of the silly adventures we'd had,
    and how important they'd seemed back then. I told her about running into Mary
    and her kids and helping her out. She told me how she'd been invited to Stacey
    Duncan's wedding almost a decade ago; the two had hated each other in high
    school, so the invite had been out of nowhere. She'd gone, more out of
    curiosity than anything, and Stacey had acted like they'd been the best of
    friends.

    She told me about college,

    and how she thought I would have loved it, and asked me about the military. I
    told her my funny stories, and promised to tell her some of the harder ones
    when we could hug each other.

    Gerty asked to talk to me on

    the third day as well just so she could interact with someone else for a bit.
    We traded stories about Kara that had her laughing and yelling in the
    background. Then Gerty walked away from the others and asked me about how
    things really looked outside the Rez. I didn't hold back, respecting that she'd
    been a Rez cop, and told her about the looters and the black market and the
    deaths. She admitted she was worried, and I did my best to console her as she
    broke down a little on the phone with me, not wanting to show anything but a
    smiling face to Tanaya and Kara. Once we were back onto happier, lighter things
    I told her that I'd be happy to talk to her again any time she wanted, and that
    one of these days I'd need her to give me some Policing tips. That got me a
    laugh, which was warm and rich.

    The afternoon of that third

    day, frustrated with the murder board and receipt trail, I got dressed up,
    borrowed the unmarked truck from the site motor pool again and drove down to
    the Golden Beaver. Nothing useful came out of it beyond having a reason to fuck
    my girls, at least for the short term, but I needed to maintain my 'cover' and
    put in time with the sovereign citizens if I was going to have a chance at
    using them to leapfrog up the unofficial cell structure their loose
    organization used. There were fewer people there this time, and I wondered if
    the virus was catching up with them.

    If it did before I made

    contact with whatever their militant arm was, they would be a literal dead end.

    I couldn't help myself and

    texted that one to Grierson with almost no context, but he seemed to appreciate
    the pun when he replied almost ten hours later.

    It was on the fourth day,

    still relatively early in the morning, that I picked up a call from Erica.

    "Hello, wifey," I

    said, already smiling as I stood up from where I'd been sitting and sorting
    through emails.

    "Hey, Harri," Erica

    said, the tone in her voice immediately making my smile slip.

    "What's wrong?" I

    asked. Immediately my mind was jumping to worst-case scenarios, and now there
    was only really one; something was wrong with the baby.

    "It's not an

    emergency," Erica said quickly, hearing my immediate tenseness. "You
    just need to come out here, sooner than later."

    "Okay, I'm on my

    way," I said, starting to cover up my murder board with the tarp I used to
    keep any rain off of it. With so little room in the RVs, I'd set it up by
    epoxying some corkboard to the side of one of the shipping containers that formed
    our compound walls. Vanessa had helped me hook up the tarp with some rope so I
    could cover it without much effort. It was janky but it worked, and I figured
    once the investigation was complete we could use it for more entertaining
    activities. "What's up?"

    "Josie just got word she

    lost a friend, and she's taking it really hard," Erica said.
    "Everyone is trying to comfort her, but it's not helping. I think she
    needs a calming male presence."

    "Erica," I said.

    "I don't think,”

    "I'm not asking you to

    fuck her, babe," Erica said. "Just be there for a friend."

    "Okay," I agreed.

    It didn't take me long to get

    there, and Kyla met me in the parking lot with a quick kiss. She gave me the
    fast rundown; Josie hadn't been able to get ahold of an old friend for a while
    now, and she got a call from another friend confirming he had passed from the
    virus a few weeks ago. Josie had broken down, and no one had been able to get
    through to her as she locked herself in her room. That had been early in the
    morning, and it was already the middle of the afternoon, and the ladies were
    getting worried.

    "I think Josie isn't

    used to being vulnerable," Kyla said quietly, and I could tell she was
    speaking more from her training as a spy as she analyzed the situation.
    "At least with women. Based on her background, and her mannerisms, she's
    friendly and joking with other women but doesn't let them in. I would bet there
    was bullying and mean-girl shit in her background, and falling into a
    male-dominated sport like wrestling was a comfort."

    "Have I mentioned lately

    how much you amaze me?" I asked Kyla, which brought out a smile. I hugged
    her and kissed the top of her head.

    Inside, several women said

    hello and asked me quick questions in passing, but everyone seemed to know why
    I was there. Ivy, when she saw me, leapt into my arms for a big public kiss
    before sending me in the direction of the stairs. Leo stopped me briefly,
    looking frustrated that he wasn't able to help. We hugged each other tightly,
    the silent message that we were glad that we were safe passing between us. I
    wasn't sure what I would do if I lost him, or if I'd be in any better a state
    than Josie sounded like she was in.

    At the top of the stairs, I

    almost collided with Spencer as she was rushing to head down in the opposite
    direction. She flushed immediately, but her smile was big as she gave me a hug
    and; since I was a couple of steps lower than her; she took the opportunity to
    give me a kiss on the cheek. After an assurance that I wouldn't leave without
    checking in on her before I left again, she shooed me up into the hall.

    Abi and Erica were talking

    quietly in the doorway to Erica and Ivy's room, clearly keeping an eye and an
    ear on Josie's room one door down the hall. Erica immediately stepped into my
    arms, hugging me tightly and kissing me. "Thanks for being quick,"
    she said.

    "Of course," I

    said.

    Then Abi surprised me by

    hugging me as well. We'd had little hugs before, but this one was a full-armed
    one. It felt a little strange, being hugged like that by a woman who was an
    inch taller than me. Her grip was strong, but I still felt all the physical
    markers of hugging a woman. "Thank you," she said as we hugged.

    "You alright?" I

    asked as I hugged her back, matching her firmness.

    She nodded. "We've all

    been receiving bad news here or there, and helping each other through it.
    Focusing on workouts was also helping, that's why all the ladies have been so
    dedicated even if the world is falling apart. Your family has helped since they
    arrived, and the classes have been good for mental health."

    "I'm glad," I said.

    "I wish I could do more."

    She smiled sadly, pulling

    back from me and shaking her head, then glancing at Erica with a little smirk.

    "What?" I asked.

    "She said you would feel

    that way," Abi sighed. Then she surprised me again by giving me a peck on
    the lips. It was friendly, not romantic. "You do more than enough,
    Harrison."

    I just sighed, and she hugged

    me again before pulling away. "So what's the latest?"

    "She's still locked in

    her room, and tells people to leave her alone," Erica said. "She's
    isolating herself, and that's not good right now."

    "Alright," I said,

    keeping in mind what Kyla had said. "I'll see what I can do."

    I went to Josie's door and

    waited one beat before I knocked firmly.

    "Go away," Josie

    called from inside.

    "Open the door,

    Joss," I said firmly. "It's me."

    There wasn't an answer.

    "I'm coming through this

    door whether you open it or not," I said.

    There was movement on the

    other side of the door, and then it opened. Josie looked a little pitiful. Her
    eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were streaked with tears. Her hair was
    wild, and she was just wearing a basic bra and panties.

    I stepped into the doorway

    and wrapped my arms around her, and she immediately started sobbing as she
    buried her face in my chest and clung to me. Shifting us a little, I let the
    door close behind me, and I just held her there in the dark as she cried. After
    a few minutes like that, when her tears softened, I hefted her up and held her
    with one hand on her ass and one on her back as she wrapped her limbs around
    me, clinging so tight it was almost painful. I walked us deeper into the room
    and found her bed, kicking off my boots before laying us both down on it and
    encouraging her to shift until I was spooned behind her and she was hugging my
    arms to her stomach and chest.

    She cried again, burying her

    face in the pillow as I held her.

    For a woman with such a ready

    smile, flirt or joke, I was shocked at how deep her sorrow could reach.

    "He was my person,"

    Josie finally said, panting a little as her body tried to come back from the
    exertion of her sobbing.

    "Boyfriend?" I

    asked.

    She shook her head. "Not

    since high school. Not really. He was my best friend. We tried dating a couple
    of times, but it was always awkward and we ended up friends who fooled around
    once in a while if we got extra tipsy and horny. But I loved him. We met at
    wrestling camp the summer before our junior years. After high school we went to
    the same wrestling school, and we worked the same promotions. He was the only
    person in my life from back home who got it, who understood why I did it."

    "He sounds like he was

    really special," I said softly.

    "He was," Josie

    sobbed softly. "Chris was... he was a light. No matter what was happening,
    or where we went, I knew he was on my side. We didn't work as a couple, but
    that didn't mean I didn't need him or love him."

    "I'm sorry," I

    said, hugging her tighter.

    "God, I'm such a

    mess," she said, wiping at her face. "I'm being such a little
    bitch."

    "Shush," I shushed

    her. "Say that again and I'll pile drive you into this mattress."

    She snorted and gave one

    little chuckle, and then we let the silence and the darkness in her bedroom
    settle as I held her.

    She told me more about Chris.

    About her earliest years of wrestling, and the two of them struggling to make
    ends meet after high school as they tried to find a way to break into the
    business. She told me about the little things he liked, his favorite foods and
    how he would make cinnamon buns on his cheat days. She showed me pictures of
    them on her phone, both casual and professional. Clips of him wrestling. Clips
    of him when he'd done a six-month stint being her ring-side 'manager.' Even
    clips of when they had an in-ring feud at one small promotion and he slammed
    her through a table with a frog splash from the top turnbuckle, followed by her
    smashing him with a barbed-wire-covered baseball bat.

    "You loved him," I

    assured her. "He knew it."

    "But I should have done

    more..." she gasped pitifully.

    I comforted her, trying not

    to consider how much those words haunted me. And how much I didn't want them to
    haunt me in the future.

    It must have been two hours

    since I'd gotten to the Falls that Josie sat up, taking a deep breath and
    rolling her shoulders and then her neck. She turned in the dark and laid back
    down, but this time she was cuddling against me. "Erica said blowjobs
    don't count," she whispered as her hands started to feel around my belt.

    "Joss," I said

    quietly, stopping her hands with mine and pulling them away. "I can't tell
    you how much it would thrill me to fool around with you, or even more, but we
    can be close without being sexual. The first time we do something... alone,
    like this, I don't want it to be because of something like this. I don't want
    you to have any regrets."

    She pressed her forehead to

    my chest, breathing deeply. And then her stomach grumbled loudly, making both
    of us chuckle.

    "Hungry?" I asked.

    "I didn't even eat

    breakfast," she said, then took another long breath and shifted up the bed
    a bit. "Can I at least kiss you?"

    "I think that would be

    Okay," I said.

    We kissed, tenderly, in the

    dark for a few minutes before her stomach grumbled again. That made me smile
    and I sat up, manhandling her a little as I got her on her back and I leaned
    over to kiss her bare stomach. Her abs were firm against my lips, and a part of
    me wanted to just do it. To give Josie what she wanted, and take what I wanted.
    But I didn't, and I blew a raspberry instead, making her chuckle some more.

    "Come on, babe," I

    said. "Let's get some food. I'm sure the ladies would be interested to
    hear about Chris and maybe watch some of his matches with you. They were
    worried as hell."

    Josie sniffed and wiped under

    her eyes, then kissed me again as she sat up. "Thanks, Harrison," she
    said quietly.

    "Whatever you

    need," I said, rubbing her arm comfortingly.

    She got herself cleaned up

    and dressed in some comfy sweats before we headed down to get dinner, and soon
    she was getting passed from hug to hug until she was sat down in the cafeteria
    and Ivy and Spencer planted Macho in her lap, who brought a little smile to
    Josie's face as he wiggled half his body he wagged his tail so hard.

    The smile wasn't much, but it

    was enough. Surrounded by friends, surrounded by support and love, we could
    make it through.

    Watching my family, and

    Leo's, mixed with the ladies of Valkyrie Falls as dinner was about to be served
    was heartwarming. After the tough day that Josie had gone through, finding out
    about the death of her best friend, and knowing that all of the women both in
    and out of my family were going through similar things, it was good to see them
    rallying together. That was really the only way we were all going to get
    through the shitstorm that was the pandemic.

    "Did it go Okay?"

    Erica asked me, sliding in to lean against me as I stood back at the edge of
    the cafeteria and watched as the ladies doted on both Josie and Macho. The fit
    blonde was holding him against her chest and smiling in a way I didn't think
    anyone but a puppy could make happen.

    "Yeah. She just needed

    to feel safe," I said.

    "You're good at doing

    that," Erica smiled. "I texted after an hour went by but you didn't
    respond. I just wanted to make sure she hadn't choked you out or something with
    one of her wrestling moves."

    I snorted and shook my head.

    "No, nothing like that. I didn't get the text though." I patted my
    pockets and realized I didn't have my phone. "I must have left it in the
    truck. Hold on, I should get it in case there's an emergency."

    "If there was, Vanessa

    or Miriam would reach out to me next," Erica said. "And I haven't
    heard anything."

    "Mary or Kara might try

    me though," I reminded her. "Or my sister. Or the Staties."

    "Go," Erica said

    with a little smile and a roll of her eyes. "My hero-husband."

    The sun wasn't setting yet,

    but the trees outside the retreat center cast deep, cool shadows across the
    parking lot that late in the day. The air outside had that crispness that told
    me we were probably going to get a good rain in the next day or so, and I
    figured I should probably move my murder board inside when I got back to the
    compound. The tarp contraption could handle the light drizzle that would appear
    at any moment in the Pacific Northwest, but I doubted it could take a full
    storm.

    I found my phone in the cup

    holder of the center dash right where I'd left it; seeing Kyla waiting for me
    when I pulled in had made me forgetful. With a sigh, I picked it up and felt it
    vibrate with the notification of a waiting message. I opened it as I started to
    walk back to the cafeteria, checking the first message.

    'Harri, we're hearing

    multiple gunshots.'

    "Fuck," I grunted,

    thumbing the call button. It rang as I stood stock still, every muscle in my
    body tensed as my chest felt like it was trying to squeeze my heart while my
    heart was trying to batter out of my rib cage.

    It rang, and rang.

    No answer.

    I broke into a run.

    "Kyla!" I shouted

    from the entryway into the cafeteria. The tone in my voice had my gorgeous
    girlfriend immediately looking up and around rapidly, scanning for danger, as
    she got up from her seat at one of the tables. The big room had gone quiet.
    "Erica, is your car open?" I asked.

    "It should be," she

    said. "What's,”

    I didn't have time to answer

    her as I sprinted back towards the parking lot. Erica's car was parked about
    halfway down, one row over from my truck, and I yanked open the driver door and
    thumbed the trunk open, then rounded the back and started pulling out the
    firearms that were stored there. When the girls had moved into the Falls, Sara
    and Abi had Okay'd a few handguns to be kept inside the building, secured in
    Kyla's room, but had asked that the rest of the gear be kept in Erica's car. It
    wasn't ideal, especially if something had happened at the Falls, but it was
    better than nothing.

    "Keys," Kyla called

    to me and I turned and tossed my truck keys to her. She didn't ask any
    questions yet; she didn't need to. She knew something bad was happening.

    "Harri, what's going

    on?" Erica asked as she jogged out to me. A bunch of the ladies were
    following but holding back near the building courtyard and watching.

    "Kara started hearing

    gunshots two hours ago," I said. "And they've been getting closer to
    her." I slung the two MP5s that Miriam had gifted to me over my shoulders,
    scooping up the loaded mags that went with them, and then picked up the wooden
    box that held the four flash grenades and two smoke grenades that Miriam had
    sworn she would kill me over if I used them without proper need.

    "Fuck," Erica said,

    her face going a little white. I knew she was feeling guilty that she'd
    downplayed me not having my phone. And calling me to help with Josie in the
    first place. If I hadn't been here, I could have been that much closer when Kara
    had first texted. "Harri,”

    I turned and kissed her. It

    shocked her, and she didn't have much time to respond. I didn't have a hand
    free to pull her to me tightly like I wanted. "I love you," I said.
    "I'll be careful." Then I turned and jogged towards my truck where
    Kyla already had the tailgate open and the safe compartment under the bed
    unlocked as she was pulling on her bulletproof vest. I'd swapped out the
    lighter ones for the heavy ones after the Raider incident.

    "Ivy!" I called,

    and she came running for me. I set down the crate of grenades and the mags I
    was carrying and turned in time for her to leap into my arms. She kissed me
    fiercely. "I love you, and we'll be careful," I promised her just
    like I had Erica. "I need you to do me a favor and keep everyone calm,
    Okay? It's trouble on the Rez, not near here. Can you do that for me, mon
    coeur?"

    "I will, mon amour,"

    she promised, holding my face in both hands for a moment and then kissing me
    again briefly. "Now go and rescue her."

    "It's,”

    "It's about her,"

    Kyla broke in. "You would do this for anyone, dear, but you wouldn't be
    running on pure adrenaline if it wasn't for her."

    I had to swallow hard as I

    started putting my own bulletproof vest on. When I was finished Erica had
    joined us and she pulled the side Velcro extra tight. "You kiss me like
    that and don't even let me say anything?" she demanded.

    "Sorry, babe," I

    said. "I'm in a bit of a rush."

    "Then get your ass

    moving, cowboy," she said, moving past me and opening the driver's door
    for me. Kyla and I slammed the tailgate shut and piled into the front along
    with our M4s and MP5s. It was a bit much and we had to do some shifting, but I
    wanted as much firepower as I might need.

    "Erica," I said

    through the open window after I turned over the truck engine. "Ivy is
    going to handle calming everyone down. I need you to be a lot quieter and get
    Dani and Leo to keep an armed watch. Nothing should happen anywhere near here,
    but I'll be able to focus more if I know you three are being vigilant."

    "It's done," Erica

    nodded. "Now go."

    I reversed the truck out of

    my parking spot and turned towards the driveway, already thumbing the remote to
    open the gate.

    "What do we know?"

    Kyla asked me. I handed her my phone and she quickly unlocked it, grimacing as
    she started scanning through the messages. "First heard shots two hours
    ago. Semi-regular timing. A few outbursts. An hour ago they realized the shots
    were getting closer. She tried calling a few times after that." Kyla
    stopped and swallowed. "Did you read all of these?"

    "Just the first

    couple," I grimaced. I yanked the steering wheel hard and the rear tires
    spat gravel as I veered onto the highway. I flipped the lights but not the
    sirens and pressed the gas to the floor.

    "Thirty minutes ago she

    said they left the house to investigate and found a convoy of trucks one street
    over. Men were going door to door, no uniforms and not from the Rez. The
    gunshots were coming from inside the homes. The men were; Fuck, Harri. The men
    were carrying out valuables and supplies, along with women and children."

    I had to force myself to suck

    in a breath.

    "Call them again,"

    I said.

    Kyla tried but there wasn't

    an answer. She went back to the texts. "They went back to the house but
    weren't sure if they should try to fortify it or if they should try to run and
    hide. That was the last message."

    I punched the center of the

    steering wheel hard enough to hurt my knuckles, and the bleat of a honk wasn't
    nearly as satisfying a sound as I wanted to make.

    "Call Miriam," I

    said.

    The truck speaker system rang

    twice before she picked up. "Hey, Harri. Can I call you back in,”

    "I need a heavy QRF

    immediately to the High Hills Chinook reserve. I am en route and have
    actionable intelligence that the domestic terror group who struck Valhalla
    Hills is on-site and actively engaged in acts of ethnic cleansing including
    executions and kidnapping of an unknown number of civilians focusing on females
    and minors."

    "I,” Miriam stuttered,

    clearly caught off guard. Not that I could blame her, but I'd worded it as best
    I could to give her as much impetus to act as possible. "Clear out,"
    she ordered someone in whatever room she was in using the sort of harsh tone
    that demanded immediate action. Then she was shouting, though it was muffled
    and I had to guess she'd pressed her phone to her chest for a moment before it
    cleared up again. "Repeat actionable intelligence," she said, her
    voice heavy.

    "Eyes-on report as of,”

    I glanced at Kyla.

    "Twenty-three minutes

    ago," Kyla filled in.

    "I am en route with one

    additional operator, but a witness reports a 'convoy' of civilian vehicles in
    use. Unknown number of hostiles, but positive presence of small arms in
    use."

    There was a long moment of

    silence over the phone, and then Captain Bloomberg was speaking instead of
    Miriam. "Who is your eyewitness?" she asked.

    "Kara Swiftwater, a

    former member of the Reserve Leadership Council. And Gertrude Swiftwater, a
    former member of the Reserve Police Department," I said.

    "Are you sure,”

    "Yes, I'm fucking

    sure!" I growled. "This isn't a stunt."

    "You're asking us to

    deploy the Air Force on US soil, Harri," Laura said tightly.

    "Women and children

    getting rounded up, and the sick being shot in their homes," I said,
    trying to keep from shouting. "They witnessed it."

    "Why is the report over

    twenty minutes old?"

    "Because I forgot my

    fucking phone in my fucking truck and missed their texts and calls while I was
    trying to comfort a woman who had lost her best friend today," I broke,
    shouting. "And now I'm another... fifteen minutes out at least from
    reaching them." I was driving like a fucking maniac. If the road had been
    slick, or there had been any traffic whatsoever, there likely would have been
    an accident.

    There was a long minute of

    silence and I had a feeling we'd been put on mute. Kyla reached over and put a
    hand on my arm, squeezing it as I gripped the steering wheel tightly. She
    didn't tell me to calm down, didn't ask me to slow down. She just let me know
    she was there.

    "Harri, I'm sending you

    the off-duty Airmen from the site security detail," Miriam cut back in.
    "I can't get anything else to you faster than that. The next best I can
    get you is scrambling a unit of the National Guard. I'll have an ETA on them
    ASAP, but they'll be coming in behind you and I need to know if I
    should call them off. If this intel is off we can't have the National Guard
    storming a reserve, Duo Halo outbreak or not. It'll be all our fucking heads if
    that happens."

    "Understood," I

    grunted. I knew what she was saying was true. Even if this was
    fake, and the National Guard rolled up and Feather's crazy cult was still alive
    and opened fire on them and everyone died, there would be no covering it up.
    Someone, somewhere, would find out purely from the mobilization.

    But it wasn't fake. Kara

    would go to almost any length to try and help her people, but this wasn't a
    false flag report. The fact that there was a big part of me that wanted to pull
    up in front of her house and see her smirking, knowing she'd pulled one over on
    the US military and forced their hand, didn't help.

    "Do I have permission to

    track your phone to give my soldiers your live location?" Miriam asked.

    "I figured you already

    were tracking me," I said, managing a slight smirk through my
    currently permanent grimace.

    "I don't know what

    you're talking about," Miriam said. "Oh, look, the tracking kicked in
    really fast."

    "What sort of ETA on the

    Airmen?"

    "They'll be... seven to

    eight minutes behind you," Miriam said, and I could tell she was
    communicating with Captain Bloomberg off the phone as well.

    "How many?" Kara

    asked.

    "Seven. One military

    jeep, one civilian panel van," Miriam said.

    "Alright. I need the

    phone back," I said. "See if I can get a hold of my asset."

    "Be careful,"

    Miriam said. "And Godspeed."

    Kyla hung up for me.

    "Everyone tells you to be careful," she said. "No one ever tells
    me to be careful."

    "It's because I'm a

    bigger target, hon," I said.

    She smirked and tried calling

    Kara again but it rang through to her voicemail.

    "Keep trying," I

    said, and she did.

    We whipped past landmarks at

    reckless speeds. "Five minutes out," I said.

    Kyla texted that to Miriam,

    who would forward it to her team. Then, without asking me, she fiddled with my
    phone a bit and then music started blaring from the speakers of the truck.

    The chaos of a fast guitar. A

    guttural shout. The kick in of fast rhythm guitar and smashing drums. Another
    scream, isolated, and then thick and almost operatic vocals over a speeding
    rhythm.

    She'd picked perfectly. Not

    trying to calm down my adrenaline, and nothing too on the nose. The song
    transitioned into almost a groove, then picked up again quickly. The organized
    chaos of the song was a match to how I was feeling. To the spiking of my
    emotions, but bringing me back to that central groove that let me think
    clearly. It was the same way a firefight was going to go. Moments of extreme
    violence interspersed with strange, almost uncomfortable calm.

    I drove through the song, and

    it descended into its final driving beat that had me bobbing my head lightly as
    I glared out the front window. The final beat cut off into silence.

    "God, I love you,"

    I said.

    "I've got another

    one," Kyla said.

    I shook my head. "We're

    here."

    The cars that had been

    blocking the entrance and exits of the barricade looked like they had been
    smashed aside and we drove right through. I flicked off the overhead lights,
    not wanting to warn anyone that we were coming.

    The smart thing to do would

    be to get out and hoof it on foot. It would give us more forewarning as we came
    up on anyone, and if there was a caravan worth of people we'd probably hear
    them. But in the last few weeks, I'd been making choices based on need, not
    what was smart. Speed and violence had been serving me a lot better than trying
    to be sneaky and smart. Every time I was cautious, someone got hurt. Oftentimes
    it was me.

    Every time I went with my

    gut, shock and awe worked wonders.

    I rolled down my window,

    trying to hear anything, as I jumped the truck over the low grass berm that
    separated the main road into the reserve from the residential area, saving us a
    minute of driving around to the main entrance and skipping the small 'downtown'
    near the burned-down community center. Kyla checked her MP5, racking the slide,
    and then rolled down her window to listen as well.

    My head was on a swivel as we

    sped past roads. I was looking for signs of the caravan. The number of bodies
    around had grown over the past four days, dotted here and there, and the
    abandoned vehicles made it hard to be sure sometimes of what I was looking at.
    Still, I wasn't seeing anything like the caravan, or worse.

    I bypassed Kara's street,

    riding the cross-street down to the end to try and find the fucking trucks, but
    I didn't hear anything. No gunshots, no engines, no shouting. No screams. I
    pulled us back around and peeled onto Kara's street before realizing that I
    didn't know what her house looked like from out front. I had to mentally count
    about how many lots in she was and pulled up in front of a house that looked
    right.

    Kyla and I burst out of the

    truck. She had her MP5 up and scanning while I defaulted to the M4 as I checked
    back behind us. I could hear my heart in my ears and feel the sweat on my brow.
    No movement. There were a couple of bodies two lots over, one next to the
    other, and I grit my teeth.

    I looked at Kara's house and

    saw that the front door was kicked in. "Going in," I said quietly to
    Kyla. I could hear her following me with quick, sure steps as I approached the
    gaping open front door. "Kara," I called. "It's Harri. Gerty,
    Tanaya, friendly-friendly-friendly. I'm coming in."

    The inside of the house was

    ransacked. I could see bits of Kara's life spread out in shattered fragments of
    physical memories. Colors she favored, keepsakes I could see her collecting. A
    picture of her and her parents on the wall, askew but unbroken.

    No blood, no bodies in the

    front room. "Clear," I said, pushing in further. "Hold the
    door."

    It was the wrong tactic for

    clearing a building, but we needed to keep eyes outside and on our truck. I
    checked the side room, then into the back hall. Two bedrooms and a bathroom.
    All empty. Ransacked and looted quickly. Muddy boots marking the flooring and
    carpet. Scrapes on the walls from gear carelessly bumping against the paint.

    "Nothing," I called

    to Kyla, coming back out to her.

    My girlfriend was grimacing

    but stoic, scanning the street around us. She tossed me my phone. "Call
    her again," she said.

    I did, and at first got

    confused as nothing came out of my phone, but then I heard the ringing in the
    truck; it was still connected to the system. I snarled and thumbed that off,
    and then I heard the ringtone coming from the front yard. It was the hard
    chorus from the middle of Say It Ain't So, with Rivers Cuomo
    singing his heart out.

    It was one of those songs

    that Kara and I had sung a hundred times in my old beater car, the windows down
    as we just drove.

    I stepped out of the house

    feeling like my soul had left my body, following the sound of the chorus as it
    restarted with those familiar chords. 'Say it ain't so, your drug is a
    heartbreaker.' I found the phone in the grass near the scruffy front
    garden, the screen cracked and one corner dug into the dirt like someone had
    tossed it hard. 'Say it ain't so, my love is a life-taker.'

    It wasn't a happy song, but

    damn was it a good one to sing our hearts out to at the top of our lungs. And I
    knew she'd set that as my ringtone on her phone for the same memories that it
    was pulling out of me now.

    My jaw hurt, I was gritting

    my teeth so hard. I bent over and picked up the phone, hanging up mine as it
    went silent.

    "She might have ditched

    it in a hurry," Kyla said. "If it was making noise and she was on the
    run."

    I shook my head. Not denying

    her, just knowing it was unlikely.

    "We're too late," I

    said, my voice thick.

    "Maybe not," Kyla

    said. "Let me run the lights and siren, see if anyone comes out."

    I nodded and took a deep

    breath. Kyla went to the truck and got into the driver's seat, hitting the
    lights and then the siren. She let it run for about thirty seconds as we both
    watched either end of the street as far as we could around the hilly curves and
    then she cut it off by turning on the loudspeaker mic. "This is the
    police," she said evenly. "We are here to help. If you can hear my
    voice, come out of your homes. This is the police, we are here to help."

    She let the siren ring again,

    then repeated herself.

    Movement, five doors down and

    across the street, had me snapping my attention in that direction but I managed
    not to raise my rifle.

    A kid, maybe five years old,

    came out of a house and started walking over. His hair was a mess and his face
    was streaked with grime and tracks from tears. Kyla cut off the siren when I
    waved to her and she stepped out, her eyes going wide as she saw the kid as
    well.

    "Hey, kiddo," I

    said, dropping to one knee as he got closer, shifting my firearms to hang from
    their shoulder straps behind me. "We're here to help."

    "Do you have any food I

    can have?" he asked. "I'm really hungry. My parents went away."

    My whole body ached, thinking

    of what had likely happened.

    "We'll get you

    something," I said, glancing at Kyla. She grimaced and went to try and
    find something in the truck. "Have you been hiding?"

    The little guy nodded.

    "It was scary."

    "Did you see what

    happened?"

    He shrugged.

    Kyla came out of the truck

    with a half-full water bottle and a Slim Jim that I'd stashed in the center
    console back when we'd been doing the welfare visits for the Staties. I'd
    forgotten it was in there. "Here you go, honey," she said, peeling
    the dried meat stick out of its wrapper and offering it to him. "Just
    little bites, don't try and gobble it all at once. And take sips of
    water."

    He tore off a chunk with his

    teeth and started chewing.

    "What's your name?"

    I asked.

    "Virgil," he said.

    "Alright, Virgil. My

    name is Harri, and this is Kyla. We heard there were bad men here. Did you see
    where they went?"

    The kid shook his head.

    "They drove away."

    I wanted to ask 'which way'

    but that would have been useless. "Did you see them with some women and
    other kids?"

    "Yeah, they were crying

    and screaming," Virgil said. "That's why I stayed hidden
    inside."

    "Did they drive away

    with the women and other kids?" I asked.

    He nodded.

    "Okay, just stay here,

    buddy," I said, standing up. "Chow down, it'll help you feel better."
    It would, in fact, likely make him feel worse with all that salt if we didn't
    get him something else to eat as well at some point, but that was a later
    issue. I pulled out my phone and called Miriam.

    "Status?"

    "Site seems clear. We

    missed them. I have a kid here who witnessed women and children being driven
    away, and there is plenty of evidence of forceful entry into the residences. I
    have little doubt that if I check a couple I'll find executions."

    "My Airmen will be with

    you in two minutes," Miriam said. "Handle recon. I'll call off the
    National Guard."

    "Don't," I said.

    "This whole place needs to be searched for survivors. There might be more
    kids and they've been spooked and isolated for weeks, getting traumatized; we
    need to search for anyone who might have hidden from the raid. Your men will
    need the manpower."

    "My men? What are you

    going to be doing?" Miriam asked.

    "Remember when you said

    you could find me some special backup?" I asked. "Well, I need the
    meanest motherfuckers you've got on speed dial, Miriam. Unknown numbers of
    civilian hostages taken by an unknown number of backwoods militia."

    "You don't know where

    they are, Harri," she said. "Unless you've come up with a new lead
    out there."

    "Yeah, about that,"

    I said. "This just went from a criminal investigation to a hostage rescue,
    so I'm less concerned about slow and steady detective work and am ready to
    start kicking doors. And faces. I promise they'll deserve it."

    "What the hell are you

    going to do?" Miriam asked.

    "Is Captain Bloomberg

    listening?"

    "Not anymore," she

    said after a moment. I wondered if the blonde Captain had stepped out, or just
    pretended to plug her ears.

    "I'm going to go see if

    I can make a deal with a biker gang," I said. "Enemy-of-my-Enemy
    situation. And if that doesn't come up with anything, I'm going to start
    shoving my rifle barrel up Sovereign Citizen asses until I hit prostates and
    they sing."

    There was a long moment of

    silence again.

    "Do what you need

    to," Miriam said. "Every living official in the state is focused on
    the cities. No one seems to care what's happening out in the rural areas."

    A jeep and a panel van turned

    onto the street and came towards us.

    "Your guys are

    here," I said. "What I do next doesn't land on you, Miriam. It's on
    me. Don't stick your neck out. Just let me know if you find anyone who can
    help."

    "Fuck you, Black,"

    she said. "I've got rank on you, I'll do what I want and take the
    heat."

    "I'm serious,

    Miriam," I said. "You need to be where you are. I'm not,” I stopped,
    looking at Kyla as she tended to Virgil while watching me out of the side of
    her eye. "I'm not responsible for an entire State's worth of people,"
    I corrected myself. "But I know I'm important to the people who really
    matter to me. And if something does happen, they'll need your support."

    "Harri," she

    sighed. "You know... you know they might all be dead in a week
    anyways."

    I swallowed the cloying

    feeling. "I know," I said. "But I can't just stop."

    "I'll find you

    shooters," she promised. "Good luck."

    "Thanks," I said.

    "And Miriam?"

    "Yeah?"

    "If you still have them,

    set aside some of those discretionary doses," I said. "If I'm going
    to save a bunch of women, I'd really rather them not die of the fucking plague
    right after."

    "I'll have them

    ready," Miriam promised.

    We hung up. Kyla was

    discussing with the Airmen, who fanned out in two teams and started checking
    the nearby houses. She said something quietly to Virgil, who nodded as he sat
    on the curb, and then came over to me. "You could have toned down the
    swearing in front of the kid," She said.

    I opened my mouth in

    surprise, then clicked it shut when I saw the look on her face. She was teasing
    me, trying to lighten my mood just a little.

    "What's next?" she

    asked.

    "We wait for the

    National Guard to get here, and then we're going to go bang some drums," I
    said. "If we're lucky we won't be shot at before I can ask some pointed
    questions."

    Kyla gave me a look.

    "What?" I asked.

    "We'll find her,"

    she said. "Alive."

    "You can't know

    that," I said.

    "We will," she said

    with a little smile. "This isn't that kind of day."

    "What do you mean?"

    I asked.

    "I'm pregnant,"

    Kyla said, wrapping her fingers around the shoulder straps of my bulletproof
    vest and tugging softly like she was trying to wake me up. "I tested
    twice, earlier today and while you were with Josie. You're going to be a
    father, and our firstborn will not be overshadowed by this."

    I went down to one knee, my

    eyes squeezed shut. "Fuck," I groaned, hugging Kyla to me as I
    pressed my face to her vest-covered stomach. "How could you let me bring
    you here?"

    "Because I couldn't let

    you come alone," she said, weaving her fingers in my hair.

    I stood up and kissed her,

    feeling our vests and the firearms dangling from shoulder straps clacking
    together lightly as I poured my everything into her lips. She did the same, and
    I didn't even care that the Airmen were coming out and looking at us as they
    moved from house to house.

    When we pulled away I was

    crying, and Kyla's eyes watered at seeing me crying.

    "Stop," she said,

    wiping at my cheeks. "Now isn't the time."

    "Happy tears," I

    assured her. "And stress relief." I fumbled for my phone, bringing it
    up and hitting the Speed Dial. "There's something Erica and I need to tell
    you though."

    It was almost 10 PM and I had

    no idea if they would still be at the Black Market, but I wasn't going to wait
    until a polite hour to contact the Guns of Thunder.

    The National Guard had taken

    almost thirty minutes to show up at the Rez, and in that time the Airmen and I
    had found another two women and a ten-year-old girl who had been hiding in the
    neighborhood. They'd heard Kyla's calls but had been too scared to come out
    until they actually saw our uniforms. The ten-year-old joined Virgil under
    Kyla's care, and I interviewed the women quickly along with the Airman Sergeant
    who was leading the security team. She couldn't tell us much more than we'd
    already found out, but a better corroborating witness than a terrified and
    half-starved child would help in the long run.

    One thing she was able to

    tell us was that the men who had come had all been wearing gas masks. Mostly
    old military surplus, though from her descriptions some must have been
    construction-grade masks with filters and homemade hoods.

    That was just great.

    Kidnapper militia assholes who were taking the pandemic seriously.

    Totally excellent news.

    Once the Guard actually

    arrived, Kyla and I handed off the kids to a female Lieutenant whose day job
    had been social work before quarantine demanded that she be isolated with her
    Troop and Battalion. The woman was in her mid-thirties and struck me as a Mom
    figure immediately, so I'd felt confident that she'd keep the kids safe and
    look after them. The Airmen had handed over command of the operation but
    volunteered to stick around and keep searching; finding the ladies and girl,
    and the corpses we'd been discovering in the houses and doublewides, had been
    upsetting at first but then had steeled them.

    "This is the

    place?" Kyla asked me.

    "This is the

    place," I said as I pulled up in front of the old lumber depot, the truck
    taking the potholes in the old dirt road easily. The sun was down but the
    lights from the nearby grocery store parking lot put a ghostly white glow on
    everything like the night couldn't properly settle. I'd almost forgotten that
    feeling; it was urban and unnatural, and I'd been living out in the sticks long
    enough that it felt weird even with the constantly running construction site a
    hundred yards from the RVs.

    "What's our

    approach?" Kyla asked.

    "Will you stay in the

    truck if I ask?"

    "The last time you came

    here you got into a brawl," Kyla said flatly.

    "Exactly," I said.

    "You're,”

    "Coming with you,"

    she said, opening her door. "I just need to know how many guns I'm
    carrying in."

    "Fuck it," I said,

    getting out as well and hauling my MP5 with me but leaving the M4 in the cab.
    Kyla did the same.

    Walking up to their 'front

    entrance,' with its empty parking lot, the place looked abandoned. Except the
    dull yellow security light illuminating the space wouldn't have been on if it
    was, or if they had moved after my encounter with them.

    I could have slipped down the

    side of the building to check if their bikes were parked in that little hidden
    lot they used near the office entrance.

    I could have knocked

    politely, too.

    My fist hammered against the

    metal door loudly and continuously, the boom of it echoing inside loud enough
    that we could hear it outside. With my other hand I held my badge up in the
    vague direction of the security camera I knew was up in the overhang of the
    roof. That left me with no hands on my weapon, but Kyla had sidestepped
    appropriately and had hers held loosely and ready to respond.

    "What the fuck do you

    want, pig?" called a voice from inside.

    "Open the fucking

    door," I shouted back.

    "Fuck off," the

    voice yelled. "Get a fucking warrant."

    "Open the fucking door

    or I start spraying bullets into this building right fucking now,"
    I yelled, my voice booming with every ounce of command I could channel. I could
    practically feel the ghosts of my boot camp Drill Sergeants inhabiting me with
    that one.

    "Give me one reason I

    shouldn't start shooting first!"

    "Because if that happens

    I'll feed you your own fucking testicles, Chuck," I growled,
    guessing at who it was. "I will shoot your dick off, cut those little niblets
    you call nuts off of you with your own knife, batter them in a nice panko
    breading, deep fry them, and then serve them to you on a bed of fucking rat
    poison. Open the fucking door and get me your boss!"

    There were more voices from

    deeper in the building, and then quiet for almost a full minute.

    "Why are you here,

    Sheriff?" came a new voice, much more calm, through the door. It was the
    boss.

    "I need information, and

    I think you have it, and it's about your enemies," I said firmly but no
    longer shouting.

    "We handle our own

    business," the boss said. "We don't trade information, we are not
    rats. Leave now, or we will open fire."

    I grit my teeth and could

    hear him backing one step away from the door. "You said you care about
    this country," I called. "Once a Marine, always a Marine. You care
    about people not getting hurt unless they put themselves in the crossfire.
    Well, I'm chasing a bunch of degenerate backwoods murderers and kidnappers who
    killed at least fifty people earlier today in their own homes and made off with
    an unknown number of women and children. Tell me that isn't
    worth a conversation."

    I glanced at Kyla, who was

    grimacing but nodded. It was the only card we had short of breaking out a
    shotgun and shooting the lock off the door.

    The sound of the lock turning

    was like a Christmas bell in that moment. The door opened about half a foot as
    the Biker boss looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed as his gaiter covered the
    bottom half of his face. "We would have heard about something like that,"
    he said.

    "It was on the

    Rez," I said. "I was the first up there, and the National Guard has
    taken over the scene now and are trying to help find survivors. I'm hunting the
    missing people."

    His eyes, hard and cold,

    flicked over me and I knew he was taking in the legitimate overkill among the
    equipment I was currently wearing for a Sheriff. I had mags strapped all over
    me, flashbang grenades readily accessible, and an SMG hanging from a shoulder
    strap. Not to mention my sidearm.

    He opened the door further

    and looked Kyla up and down appraisingly as well. "Come in," he said.

    I entered and Kyla followed.

    He stopped us just inside with a hand out and I found myself looking at a
    miniature gunline.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 9 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 18
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 18
    The big announcement

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    Here are many of our

    returning characters, let’s review..

    House Black

    Harrison

    'Harri' Black; Sheriff of Black County, 'Jason Momoa-looking motherfucker'
    mountain man (mixed heritage), former Army MP

    Vanessa

    Peters; Construction Forewoman, Daughter of Brent Peters the head of the
    construction project, Brunette

    Erica

    LaCosta; Fiancée of Harri, Leo's sister, Italian Tattoo Artist, Dark Brunette

    Ivy

    Gauthier; Quebecoise stripper, half-tattooed, Dirty Blonde anal queen

    Kyla

    Bautista; Trained dancer, Pilipino Spy, Harri's Deputy Sheriff, Raven hair

    Other

    Kara

    Swiftwater; Harrison's high school sweetheart that ended poorly, community
    leader of the local Native band, Raven hair

    Miriam

    Abarbanel; Military friend of Harri's, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel , Jewish
    heritage, Commanding Officer for Valhalla Hills construction and the Oregon
    Quaranteam research project

    Referenced Characters

    Barry

    O'Callahan; Went to high school behind Harri, is a Sovereign Citizen from the
    Golden Beaver group

    Brent

    Peters; Vanessa's father, the Project Manager for the Valhalla Hills
    construction project, very overweight

    Gertrude

    'Gerty' Swiftwater; Kara's second cousin, Tribal police on the Rez, Voluptuous
    Native, Raven haired

    Agent

    Grierson; Senior 'OGA' that negotiated Harri's land deal and dropped Kyla into
    Harri's life

    Mary

    Duncan; Attended high school with Harri, former cheerleader, Husband has
    disappeared while looking for work, left to join a 'commune' with her kids

    And now, back to our

    story..

    "Anything else?"

    Miriam asked.

    "Are you Okay?" I

    asked in response. "Safe?"

    "I'm in the middle of a

    military installation focused on the vaccine," Miriam said. "I
    probably couldn't be more safe right now."

    "I know, I meant,

    like... are you vaccinated? We've never talked about that."

    There was a long moment of

    quiet on the phone. "The brass are going to pull the trigger any time now
    on mandated vaccinations for everyone in the military," she said.
    "There's just political pushback happening somewhere up there, too. I've
    been putting it off."

    "Not sure who you'd want

    to match with?" I asked.

    "It's just complicated

    right now," she said. "I'll un-complicate it when I need to, and I'm
    too busy to do it properly until that need becomes immediate."

    "Okay," I said.

    "If you need to talk it out, just let me know."

    "I will," she

    sighed. "Keep me updated on everything."

    "Will do," I said.

    We hung up and I grit my

    teeth a little. Seven women? My life was completely full already with four. How
    could I adapt to three more?

    Hell, I couldn't even fit three

    more in the RV. Maybe once the house was built that would be more realistic,
    but how was thinking of seven partners realistic to begin
    with? Or realistic for every man in America? And how the hell would our
    relationship keep working with that many more people just... injected into it?

    I also had a... not a twinge,

    but maybe a wince, deep inside that Miriam was going to partner with someone.
    If she had to un-complicate it I assumed she had someone in mind that was
    actively deployed. Maybe it was a guy from the para-rescue crews that she'd had
    a thing for but couldn't get involved with being in the command structure. Or
    maybe it was even more complicated than that and she had been
    involved but it was a secret, or the guy was married or something and she
    needed to make contact to get things clear with the couple.

    If she had someone she

    trusted, I would be happy for her. But that didn't change the fact that I was
    still feeling that weird feeling. That 'It should be me' feeling.

    Shaking it off, I got myself

    together and kicked myself into gear. After a quick check-in with Vanessa on my
    way out, and introducing myself to the airmen who were on duty at the gate to
    the site, I headed into town. The grocery store used to open at 9 AM every
    morning except Sundays, but now it had reduced hours so I was showing up a
    little early.

    That didn't stop the parking

    lot from already being half-full and the entry line from winding down the side
    of the building.

    Part of me hesitated, not

    wanting to risk getting spotted with my Sheriff's truck if the sovereign
    citizens came by again, but I wasn't otherwise in uniform. I made sure I had my
    badge tucked under my T-shirt and got out, heading for the back of the line.

    It took almost an hour for me

    to get into the store. They were limiting how many people they had inside at
    once even more now, which was a good thing in general. I also realized I was
    one of the only people who wasn't buttoned up completely; I had a medical mask
    on, but I wasn't wearing long sleeves and goggles and shit like we used to.

    I looked like one of the

    people who didn't care or didn't believe the pandemic was real. I'd gotten
    comfortable.

    That explained why the people

    in front and behind me in line weren't even willing to spare me a glance and a
    chuckle when I made a little joke about bread lines.

    A woman was working the front

    door instead of the pimple-faced teenager that was usually there, and she had
    me wait almost ten minutes for a couple of people to leave with their shopping
    before she let me in. I grabbed a cart, its handlebar freshly sanitized by a
    worker, and started walking around, running through the list that Erica had
    sent me and adding extras that I would bring up to Kara on the Rez.

    The problem was, as I walked

    down the aisles, I realized there were big holes in what was on offer.
    Shortages of one thing or another had been happening since the start of the
    lockdown, but they'd always come back in. Toilet paper had been hard to find
    for a few weeks, and sanitizer had been almost non-existent. Now, though, it
    was whole sections in the food aisles and it almost felt like it was at random.

    With my cart only half-full,

    I wandered towards the front of the store and went to the customer service
    desk, hitting the little bell since no one was there. One of the cashiers,
    pretty much locked in behind a booth of Plexiglas at her till, called over
    asking what I wanted. It took a couple of tries to understand each other
    because she was even more bundled up than the customers.

    When I finally got the

    manager to appear he looked haggard. It was the same guy that I'd seen arguing
    with the Sovereign Citizens in the past, except his shirt was untucked, his tie
    was loose around his collar and I doubted he'd shaved in a week or so behind
    his heavy N95 mask. Part of me wondered if he was sleeping up in his office
    that overlooked the cashier area.

    "What?" he asked

    curtly. It looked like the 'customer is always right' attitude had been left
    behind.

    "Sorry to bother you,

    sir," I said. "I just noticed there's a lot of stock missing and was
    wondering if you've had shipping problems or something."

    "We have what we

    have," he said. "Everything is out there, we don't have anything in
    the back. Alright? No one is going to check the back area for you."

    "That's not what I was

    asking," I said, reaching under my shirt and pulling out my badge on its
    chain. "I was just worried that robberies are getting more common, or if
    your trucks are getting hijacked."

    The manager looked at my

    badge, blinked and raised his eyebrows, then looked at my mask-covered face
    again. "You're a cop?"

    "Sheriff," I said.

    "And from another county. But this is where I come to get my groceries,
    and sometimes my fiancée calls ahead for big orders because we deliver to other
    people. Erica?"

    "Oh!" The manager

    said. "That's you? Alright, um, sorry. I; Fuck, where do I start? The
    robberies are off and on. When we see them coming, whoever I have on the door
    tries to get it locked; that's worked a couple of times. It's always a group of
    guys, and they make off with a few carts worth of food. Other people are
    stealing stuff too, but I've given up on trying to stop them all. We did lose a
    shipment to a hijacking a couple of weeks ago, but only the one that I know of
    for our location."

    "So you're just not getting

    everything in the shipments?"

    He hesitated.

    "Partially," he said.

    "What's the other

    part?" I asked.

    He chewed on the inside of

    his cheek for a moment. "You really deliver food to other people in the
    area, and that sort of thing?"

    "You think I need the

    amount of produce my fiancée calls in just for us?" I countered.

    "Fair, Okay," he

    nodded. "We don't put everything out."

    I frowned. "Why

    not?"

    "There's a... it might

    be easier to just show you, actually," he said. "When you're done
    shopping, ring the bell again."

    "Okay," I said, my

    brow still furrowed. He assured me he'd be listening for the bell and headed up
    to his office. I went back out into the store and gathered everything I could,
    or found substitutes for what I couldn't. Once my cart was full to overflowing
    I went through the cash, fitting about half of the groceries in the reusable
    bags I'd brought and trying to sort out some of the other stuff into paper bags
    that I could drop off with Kara easily.

    The manager must have been

    watching for me because he came back down from his office before I was even
    done paying, and he asked me to meet him out back of the grocery store when I
    was done loading up my groceries. I agreed and did just that, slowly driving my
    truck around into the loading area of the store. He was waiting near a beat-up
    red Civic and waved me over.

    "Alright," I said

    as I got out of my truck. "What's the deal?"

    "This is off the record,

    right?" the manager asked me.

    "That's for

    journalists," I said. "But yeah, you've piqued my curiosity. What's
    going on?"

    "Well, with the way

    things are, not everyone who needs food can pay... conventionally," he
    said "So every shipment I get in, I've been skimming off goods and selling
    it at a huge discount to these guys. I write off some of it as shrinkage, and
    everyone in corporate knows that stealing and looting is happening so it's not
    even questioned."

    "Who are 'these guys'

    you're selling it to?" I asked.

    He looked nervous.

    "Local guys, I think. They've set up, like, a market where people can go
    when they don't have straight cash."

    I blinked, a whole lot of

    things going through my mind all at once. "Alright, well, how about you
    tell me where it is? Because I don't care what you do with your stock as long
    as people aren't going hungry, but this sounds shady as hell and I want to make
    sure these guys aren't... fucking evil, I guess."

    "I figured," he

    said. "And I've wondered a bit, too. They operate out of that warehouse
    over there." He pointed out beyond the back of the grocery store shipping
    area, across an undeveloped green space and past an old hardware store. Now I
    realized why he'd been standing by the car; the warehouse was only really
    visible from that point of the parking lot. It wasn't very far away, only a
    couple hundred yards, but with the way even 'downtown' Jewell was things were
    forested and spread out. "If you want to go check it out, you should just
    walk from here," he said. "And you probably don't want to bring your
    badge, they pat everyone down as they go in."

    "Alright," I said.

    "Am I good to leave my truck here?"

    The manager agreed and I

    waited as he headed back into the store before taking a breath. Erica's
    admonishments that I needed to be careful were running through my head. Was
    this one of those 'I don't need to do this' things? On the one hand, this
    wasn't my county and I didn't actually have any proof of a crime beyond the
    manager possibly defrauding his chain; and considering the state of the world,
    I could give a fuck about that. But this was still my fucking town, and this was
    a literal black market. It was entirely possible that it was just some little
    community effort put on by caring folks trying to make sure everyone had enough
    to eat, and if that was the case I'd give them some tips to keep everyone safe
    and try to help them out as best I could.

    The likelihood of it being

    entirely innocent felt really low.

    I made the quick walk through

    the green space to get to the back road and then trudged down the gravel
    shoulder. This was an unused area of Jewell, one of those forgotten nooks and
    crannies of the village that had been left to rot as a business became a
    gravestone to the prosperity that had once been attempted. The warehouse was
    the old Lumber depot that had closed over a decade ago, and as I approached I
    saw that there were half a dozen cars parked at one end. At one point the
    warehouse would have been visible from the main drag of the highway through
    town, but now it was hidden by the trees and the facade that the grocery store
    put up, separating it from the clean street and bustle of people's lives. The
    whole place was overgrown from lack of use, and rust was setting in thick on
    the upper reaches of the corrugated metal walls of the building. Most of the
    windows were filthy and too high for me to look in anyways, but there was no
    way that I was just walking in without taking some precautions.

    Instead of heading directly

    for the man door near the cars that looked like the most likely point of
    entrance, I walked past the warehouse on the opposite side of the pothole-filled
    road. Short glances helped me pinpoint that someone had installed a new
    security camera high up in the overhang of the roof overlooking the parking lot
    area, and while there wasn't one covering the long side of the building facing
    the street, there was another one at the far end of the building covering where
    the load/unload docking area used to be for the depot. I kept walking until I
    was sure that I had passed out of any meaningful view of the security camera,
    then crossed the road. The forested area beyond the warehouse that backed onto
    an overgrown hill was thick, and I used that to my advantage as I slipped into
    the foliage and circled around, following the curve of the hill back towards
    the loading area.

    As I neared the building, I

    found that someone had taken a heavy weed whacker to the overgrowth at that
    end, cutting a path and a clear area hidden away from the road. At one point it
    looked like there had been a gravel pad, probably for utility access or some
    sort of work area, back when the lumber depot had been operating. Now it was a
    parking lot of a different sort; six motorcycles, clean and gleaming with
    chrome, were backed in and resting on their kickstands.

    I blew out a breath. Unless

    this was some sort of Bikers for Tykes charity organization, things weren't
    looking up. Bikers were a subculture that permeated America, even if most
    people didn't ever really interact with it. They were everywhere. I'd even seen
    and interacted with some of them overseas, particularly while I was stationed
    in Germany. Most people who rode motorcycles were completely innocent, but
    biker gangs were real and the first thing I thought of looking at those bikes
    was a guy pulling up and opening on me with an Uzi less than a week ago.

    More likely than not, these

    bikes had nothing to do with those guys. Still, I had to forcefully remove my
    hand from the grip of my sidearm at my hip.

    I snuck down the side of the

    building, looking for ways that I could get a peek in, but found none. My
    options were quickly getting limited, and it was obvious that whoever's
    operation this was, they had done their homework. The location felt remote even
    though it had good access to the grocery store and the highway. The building
    was secure, and if they were smart enough to install the cameras then I had to
    assume they were smart enough to have someone watching them. I could either
    walk in through the front door and act like a customer, or I could use the
    small access door near the bikes to sneak in.

    Neither option seemed

    particularly careful. I could always back off and try to get some
    reinforcements, but I doubted I'd get back up from the Staties for something
    like this. The next best option was calling Miriam and trying to get her to
    lend me a couple of her Air Force goons, but this was completely out of their
    jurisdiction as well. That left me with the option of getting Kyla down here,
    and there was no shot I wanted her to be involved in this after everything else
    that-

    "Who the fuck are

    you?"

    I'd been slowly working my

    way back through the overgrowth towards the bikes as I'd been considering my
    options and hadn't realized that the access door there had opened. There hadn't
    been a bang of the door bursting open, or a squeal of rusty hinges, so I had completely
    missed the woman opening the door and stepping out into the shade.

    She was immediately

    eye-catching for two reasons; first, she was gorgeous. She had to be in her
    mid-twenties, had a broad face with a sharp jawline and pointed chin, and big
    eyes that she had done with thick black eyeliner and shadow. Her hair was a
    silky black, long and wavy, and based on her skin tone I would have immediately
    assumed she was at least part native considering the nearby Rez if it wasn't
    for something about the shape of her eyes, nose and lips that reminded me of
    women I'd seen overseas. She was either Arab or Persian, the cultural
    difference of which had been drilled into me by an interpreter while I was
    deployed.

    The second thing that was

    eye-catching was her hourglass figure and absolutely astounding tits. She was
    wearing a tight, beige turtleneck that hugged her body and highlighted her bust
    in a way that actually cast a bit of a shadow under it on her stomach. She was
    also wearing a thin black leather jacket, black skintight jeans and black
    boots.

    And she was looking right at

    me.

    "Just passing

    through," I said, not stopping my walking.

    "Bullshit," she

    said with a bit of a snarl. She darted back into the darkness of the warehouse,
    clearly going to fetch someone.

    I had a moment where I could

    run; it wasn't that far from the grocery store back lot, and I could cut
    through the green space. They would chase, but the motorcycles wouldn't do them
    too much good so it would be a footrace. Once I was in the lot they would see my
    truck and that could dissuade them, and the store definitely had cameras so
    they probably wouldn't want to shoot me up.

    Probably.

    Or I could stay and figure

    this shit out.

    I quickly yanked my badge

    from around my neck and dropped it on the ground under a bush, kicking some
    dirt over it, then headed towards the open doorway as I muttered and thought of
    Erica. "Sorry, babe." I made it past three of the six motorcycles
    when a guy came rushing out, his mouth pulled into a grimace as he was already
    reaching to grab me with both hands. He was big, he was burly, and he smelled
    like cigarettes as he got his hands on my shirt and yanked me around a bit.

    "Hey, whoa," I

    said, holding up my hands.

    The first guy was followed by

    a second one, somehow even bigger than the first, and he was carrying a
    shotgun. They were each dressed roughly, standing out as rough-and-tumble sorts
    rather than street thugs or rednecks. 'Biker' was definitely the right word for
    them. They both also happened to be wearing leather vests, called cuts, with
    patches on the front. Only one of them stood out to me in that moment; black
    diamonds with 1% stitching.

    Definitely not a charity

    group.

    I got spun around, not

    fighting it, and slammed against the side of the building. "Gun," the
    one with the shotgun grunted, and my pistol was yanked from its holster at my
    hip.

    "Who the fuck are you,

    and what are you doing here?" growled the guy who had grabbed me. He had a
    neck tattoo of an American flag clutched by an eagle, and my mind quickly
    sifted through the notes I'd taken of the raiders but didn't find anything. The
    good news, if I could call it that in my current situation, was that they were
    both wearing gaiters pulled up over their noses, mouths and chins. The bikers
    were at least a little health conscious. How could bikers be
    more concerned about a pandemic than sovereign citizens?

    "I'm just a guy trying

    to figure out what the deal is here," I said, mostly honestly and keeping
    my hands raised. "I heard there was a sort of market going on."

    The two of them glanced at

    each other, the one with the shotgun grunted and nodded, and the one with the
    neck tattoo grabbed me and hauled me into the warehouse. The quick transition
    from outside to inside had me blinded for a moment as I got manhandled, but I
    quickly saw that I was in what must have been the office area of the depot
    before it closed. It was mostly empty except for a few old desks and chairs,
    and I got yanked into the center of the space and slammed down into a wooden
    chair that creaked from the strain.

    The only lighting in the area

    was a couple of white, battery-operated lanterns closer to the door that led
    deeper into the warehouse. They cast a sort of ghostly pale light over the two
    bikers and the woman, who was grimacing at me as she eyed me up and down.

    I decided, instead of trying

    to stammer an explanation and make a show of it, I'd just keep my mouth shut
    until I was asked a question. A couple of moments later I was glad I did, as
    Neck Tattoo turned away while Shotgun kept me covered, which gave me a look at
    the patch on the back of his vest. It was big, bold and I recognized it
    immediately, though I hadn't seen one in years.

    The Guns of Thunder were a

    small biker gang that had sprung up in the back regions of Oregon. In the 90s
    and 00s they'd been a growing criminal element and had started to gain traction
    running opioids and knockoffs. Then they'd gotten into a short and bloody war
    with the other major biker gangs in the state, namely the Gypsy Jokers and the
    Mongols, and had dropped off the face of Oregon after a summer of killings that
    had spiked the murder rate for the state dramatically.

    "He's clean,"

    grunted Neck Tattoo as he reached the far door.

    "What the fuck are you doing

    here?" asked the other guy with his shotgun still trained on my chest.

    "Like I said, I heard

    you guys had a sort of market going on here," I said. "I just wanted
    to check,” I cut off as another man entered, pushing past Neck Tattoo.

    This new guy was older and

    walked with the confident swagger of a man who had earned every ounce of his
    ego but didn't let it control him. He had a sort of long face, though the
    gaiter he was wearing obscured most of his features. He was wearing a red
    flannel shirt under a dark denim cut, and his sleeves were rolled up to reveal
    his arms were peppered with a variety of small tattoos and his fingers had a
    half dozen chunky rings spread across them.

    "He was out there

    skulking through the brush," the woman said. She'd put on a medical
    facemask much like my own at some point while I'd been getting grabbed.

    "Well, I guess I'll need

    to have a talk with him then, baby," he said, his voice gravelly as he
    rubbed her shoulder for a moment before turning to me. He grabbed another chair
    and dragged it over, setting it down with a thunk in front of me before sitting
    down and staring into my eyes. "Do you know who I am?"

    "No clue," I said.

    "Well, specifically. I recognize the patches."

    "Hmm," he grunted,

    then leaned back. "Swear allegiance to the flag."

    "What?"

    "If you aren't one of

    those fucking hicks spouting off that dumb shit in the woods about not being an
    American, swear allegiance to the flag," he demanded.

    Shaking my head, I sat

    straight and cleared my throat before putting my right hand over my heart.
    "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to
    the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with
    liberty and justice for all."

    "Well, that's one

    question answered," he said. He glanced at his brother with the shotgun.
    "What did he have on him?"

    "Handgun," Shotgun

    said, nodding towards Neck Tattoo, who showed off my sidearm.

    "So what the fuck are

    you doing walking around my building with a weapon like that?" the bossman
    asked, turning his attention to me again. As my eyes were adjusting to the
    light I could see that his hair, shorn short all over her head, was more silver
    than black, and he had crow's feet heavy at the corners of his eyes. I would
    have placed him in his late fifties if I had to guess.

    "I heard about your

    market and wanted to see what was going on," I said. "And my sidearm
    is for my protection."

    "'Sidearm' sounds a lot

    like you're a cop," he said.

    "It's also just the

    correct term for it," I said.

    He narrowed his eyes

    slightly, looking me over again. "Military."

    "Yeah," I said.

    "Navy?"

    "You think I'd fit on a

    ship?" I snorted. "Army."

    "Not everyone who served

    in the Navy was on a ship the whole time," the guy said and turned over
    his arm. His inner forearm had an eagle gripping a globe, a K-bar knife stabbed
    through.

    "Kuwait?" I asked.

    "And Afghanistan,"

    he grunted. "You?"

    "Afghanistan and

    Iraq," I said.

    "Hmm," he hummed,

    though it came out more like a growl. Then he asked me something in Farsi.

    "I only ever got a bit

    of Farsi, and I've lost most of it," I said. "I only caught a couple
    of words."

    "Well, at least you

    could tell it was Farsi and not Arabic," he said.
    "What are you really doing here, Dog Face?"

    "I told you, I heard

    there was a sort of market. I wanted to figure out what was going on, see if it
    was something I should be interested in or not."

    "Interested for

    what?"

    "Buying things," I

    said.

    "We aren't a cash

    business," he said. "We deal in trade. You got anything to trade
    beyond that firearm?"

    "Well, what are you

    looking for?" I asked.

    He grunted. "We've got

    food, fucker. Fresh, preserved, all sorts of shit. And chickens, if you've got
    half a brain to be able to keep them, and plenty of gardening supplies if
    you've got the space to start a garden and feed yourself or bring what you grow
    here. We take goods-for-goods or other valuables. We don't ask questions, but
    if we find out you killed someone for what you bring in then you'll get
    whatever you gave. We're also interested in useful skills. Auto work,
    carpentry, sewing, that kind of shit. So now you know."

    "Now I know," I

    said.

    "And now you need to

    give me a reason not to tell Georgie Boy here to fill your chest with led and
    toss you into the woods, cause no one is going to come looking for you."

    I clenched my jaw to stop

    from reacting outwardly. "Do I look like a piece of shit?" I asked.
    "Seriously. I clearly am not hurting for food right now, so I'm doing
    something right, and I'm not desperate enough to try to roll you guys for eggs
    and bacon. I grew up in this town, I heard a rumor, and I came to check it out.
    Now I know that this is your turf, and what the deal is. And I didn't walk the
    fuck on in your front door because I didn't know who you were. I've
    had more interactions with the fucking sovereign citizen idiots than I would
    ever care to, and if this was one of their things I didn't want to even start
    with them."

    He stared, or maybe glared,

    at me for a long and silent minute. "What do you do for work?" he
    asked.

    "I'm an artist," I

    said. "Movies, video games, that kind of shit. I wanted to create things
    after I got out, so that's what I did."

    "You don't look like an

    artist," he said. "Those aren't the arms of an artist."

    "Yeah, well, four years

    of high school football and eight years in the service got me used to working
    out. I'm not as big as I used to be."

    "You looking for work

    now?" he asked.

    "You want me to draw you

    something?"

    "No," he said.

    "I want to know if a man with eight years of service is looking for work. If
    it comes around."

    "Depends on the

    work," I said.

    He looked me up and down

    again, then narrowed his eyes. "Here's the deal. You aren't getting out of
    here without taking a beating. The principle of the thing, sneaking around like
    that. But instead of one of us just lying into you a bit, you can fight Georgie
    Boy there straight up. He'll clobber you, I'm not going to lie, but if you can
    put up a decent fight maybe we keep your number and give you a call in a couple
    of weeks if we need something done. This shitstorm out here, it's better to
    make some friends, right? We just make sure our friends are worth having."

    Fuck me, I groaned internally. Georgie Boy was the big

    guy with the shotgun.

    "If I'm going to take

    some shots, I might as well give some of my own," I said.

    "Just like a

    grunt," the biker said, grinning behind his gaiter. He stood up and
    grabbed his chair, pulling it out of the way as he looked at Neck Tattoo near
    the door. "Go find Garret and Chuck. They'll want to see this." He
    followed Neck Tattoo through the door into the warehouse.

    The woman, who had watched

    the whole conversation silently, strode up to me. She was short, maybe
    five-foot-three at best, but gave off the sort of presence that made her seem
    eight feet tall based on her ego. She stood in front of me, glaring at me
    through half-hooded eyes as I made certain not to glance down at her tits.
    "You might have found my father's soft spot, you fuck, but that doesn't
    mean you aren't leaving here broken and busted. Georgie doesn't stop punching
    until something goes snap."

    "I'm guessing you aren't

    single then," I said, not able to resist the chance to tease her.

    Her glare sparked angrily as

    she sneered behind her mask. "I'm not. And I guarantee my boyfriend has a
    bigger cock and gun."

    "Those are some weird

    things to compare," I said. "You sure he's Okay with you talking
    about how big his gun is?"

    She scoffed and looked over

    at Shotgun, who was still covering me. "Do me a favor and break his
    jaw," she said.

    "We'll see,"

    Georgie mumbled darkly. Based on the size and gnarled nature of his hands along
    with the cauliflower ears he sported, I had a feeling no matter how good a
    fight I put up, this was going to hurt.

    "I'll make you a

    bet," I said to the woman. "If I can make Georgie here give up during
    the fight, I get to take you on a nice, relaxing date and treat you like the
    lady you are, دخترزیبا."

    Her eyes widened and she

    sniffed as I called her 'beautiful girl' in Farsi. The Persian language wasn't
    as popular in Iraq or Afghanistan as it was in western Iran, but I'd picked up
    enough during my tours that I could give out a basic compliment to a woman;
    always a handy thing to have in my back pocket.

    She didn't answer, or maybe

    just didn't have time to, before her father, Neck Tattoo and another guy came
    in from the warehouse. That meant there were still two other bikers around
    somewhere, unless the woman rode her own bike, and I had a feeling she could
    but she was more of a ride-on-the-back gal if her boyfriend was in the gang.

    The new biker was older with

    long grey hair past his shoulders and I immediately got the vibe that he could
    have been a hippy trying to sell acid at a music festival, if it weren't for
    the pistol stuck into the front of his pants and the knife hanging from his
    belt that looked more like it was the size of a machete.

    "Where's Chuck?"

    the woman asked.

    "He'll come

    around," the boss said, somewhat cryptically. He turned his attention to
    me. "You ready to take your medicine?"

    "That depends on if

    Georgie is going to put down that shotgun and make this a fair fight," I
    said as I stood from my chair.

    The boss gave a nod to the

    big beefcake of a man, who lowered his shotgun and set it down on one of the
    old desks ringing the room. He turned back to me and cracked his knuckles with
    a loud pop.

    I looked at the boss again.

    "I fight, I have the chance of walking out of here with your
    respect?" I asked.

    "I doubt you'll be

    walking," he replied.

    I grabbed the chair I'd been

    sitting on and swung it like a fucking baseball bat at Georgie. The big guy was
    quicker than I hoped he would be, getting his arms up to block the swing. The
    chair, an old wooden thing, proved to be a little less sturdy than it had felt
    as I'd been sitting on it. The back snapped off of the seat as the legs cracked
    against Georgie's arms, splinters shooting out in every direction.

    The big guy grunted and

    stepped towards me, already reaching to try and grab me, but I managed to slide
    sideways away from his grasp and I tossed the rest of the chair back I was
    still holding at his head before snapping a kick at his knee. I connected,
    though not as hard as I wanted, and Georgie grunted again but didn't collapse
    as I'd hoped.

    He was a solid slab of muscle

    and bone. I was in trouble.

    I had two options, just the

    same as every fight really. Be defensive, try to wear out my enemy while taking
    as little hurt as possible; or be aggressive and try to do as much damage as I
    could as quickly as possible. With a guy as big and sturdy as Georgie, it was
    entirely possible that I could have played it back and let him tire himself
    out, except that I could already feel the stitches in my leg aching and for all
    that I'd been trained in hand-to-hand combat it was pretty unlikely I had the
    pure experience that the big biker did.

    If I was going to win, or at

    least survive this without being turned into a bloody pulp, I had to cheat and
    cheat fast.

    People were shouting behind

    me, encouragements for Georgie or curses at me, but it was all a wordless
    ringing in my ears as I followed up my kick to his knee with a hard,
    toe-forward kick to his nuts. He exhaled heavily, collapsing forward in shock
    and pain but still grabbing for me. He got a hold of my arm and wrenched me
    forward, but instead of trying to pull away from his strong grip I stepped into
    it, slamming my forehead into the big biker's face. There was a distinct crunch
    of his nose breaking and the big man roared.

    I was in his grasp now

    though, and he proved just as tough as I thought he would be as he wrapped his
    arms around me and squeezed, lifting me off my feet. He had my right arm
    trapped, but my left arm ended up sort of over his shoulder as I was kind of
    looking behind him. My ribs immediately felt like they were groaning and
    threatening to give and my vision tunneled.

    Without any leverage, the

    best I could do was heave myself against him, and with my own considerable
    size, he was bent backwards a bit. I stretched, reaching through the black
    tunnel of my vision as my lungs strained for another breath, and my fingers
    found the cool metal.

    One-handed, I raised the

    shotgun as I held it by the end of the barrel and I hammered the pistol grip
    down right on Georgie's tailbone. That made him grunt in a shock of pain as he
    stood straight up and arched his back in reaction. My next blow was able to
    reach lower and I slammed that grip into the side of his knee, which buckled
    this time and we both went over.

    His grip loosened and I was

    able to suck in a breath, my head and leg both pounding in pain, and I blindly
    threw a backwards elbow towards Georgie's head. It was a glancing blow, and he
    wasn't done yet either as he scrambled to grab me. His huge hand found my leg
    and I growled a scream as he gripped my thigh right on the stitches.

    "He's a fucking

    cop!" cut through the ringing in my ears.

    I kicked, hitting Georgie in

    the chest as we scrambled on the ground instead of his face like I'd been
    planning, and he snarled behind his gaiter and reached in and grabbed me by my
    throat, his steely fingers tightening quickly. I clawed at his hand for just a
    moment but realized as he leveraged himself up onto one knee that there was no
    way I was prying it free. Instead, I swung the shotgun I was still holding
    around and clocked him right in the side of the face with it, though it was
    just with the flat instead of the grip. He growled and I saw real violence in
    his eyes as he raised his fist and brought it down in a hammer blow. I managed
    to roll us both slightly, his fist glancing off the side of my skull instead of
    straight into my face. We naturally rocked back to flat and I used that bit of
    momentum to swing the shotgun again, this time landing the grip handle on the
    side of his head. He staggered and his eyes went glazed, his squeeze loosening
    enough for me to get in a gasp, and I pulled up my feet and kicked him off of
    me.

    Georgie rolled backwards and

    I jumped to my feet, my heartbeat pounding in my ears, but I only got one step
    towards him before movement out of the blurred side of my vision made me reel
    backwards.

    I felt the whoosh of air as

    someone in a Guns of Thunder cut swung a wild haymaker and missed me by inches.
    My instinctive reaction was to swing back, both hands on the shotgun in what
    would have been a home run hit on the baseball diamond. The crack of this guy's
    nose was sharper than Georgie's and he stumbled past me with a wail, falling
    right on top of the big man as he was trying to rise. Georgie, wracked with his
    own pain and deep in Fight brain, immediately wrapped his thick arms around his
    perceived attacker and got him in some sort of choke hold.

    The shouting was loud; the

    three bikers not in the fight all yelling at once, and the woman screaming
    bloody murder at the theatrics. It was her voice, sharper, that drew my
    attention to the fact that she was a few steps behind me.

    "Sorry about this,"

    I grunted as I took two fast strides and grabbed her across her upper chest,
    yanking her around in front of me like a shield as I flipped the shotgun around
    and pressed the mouth of the barrel to her side, jamming it into her leather
    jacket somewhere between her waist and her tit.

    The room didn't exactly go

    quiet, though two of the bikers stopped shouting, including her father the
    boss, as they took in this new situation. Garret, the older hippyish guy, was
    trying to stop Georgie from choking the life out of the one that had tried to
    sucker punch me as he shouted, "It's Chuck! It's Chucky!" at the big
    man. Chuck, for his part, was scrambling and writhing, caught in the rear naked
    choke, tapping like a madman and getting little response. Chuck was younger
    than the others, slim and not quite as imposing, though that may have been
    because of how much of a ragdoll he seemed to be in Georgie's arms.

    Garret ended up pulling out

    his handgun and pressed it to Georgie's temple. That seemed to get the big
    man's attention and he let go, Chuck falling to the side limply but still
    breathing.

    "So," I said,

    feeling like absolute shit as I kept a tight hold on the woman, who had frozen
    in my grasp. "I think I win."

    "Let go of her and we can

    talk this out," the boss growled with the ice-cold voice of someone who
    was very sure of his ability to commit murder.

    "That sounds like a bad

    idea right about now," I said. "But I don't want to
    hurt a hair on her head."

    "می توانم

    بیضه هایش را لگد
    بزنم" the woman said, her voice thick and melodic
    as she spoke in Persian.

    "Don't try it," I

    grunted, pulling her tighter against me. I didn't know what she'd said, but I
    could tell by her shifting her weight she was going to try and kick backwards
    and catch me in the nuts.

    "What now, then?"

    the boss growled.

    "Now, you," I

    looked at Neck Tattoo, who was currently pointing my sidearm at me. "Are
    going to eject the clip from that and hand it to him." I looked at the
    boss. "And you're going to pick up my badge there from the ground. Then
    we're going for a little walk."

    My badge, which was in fact

    on the ground of the office area, must have been found by Chuck outside and he
    was the one that had yelled I was a cop. I wasn't sure what they had all been
    shouting during the fighting, but I'd definitely heard that.

    At a nod from the boss, Neck

    Tattoo ejected the clip and handed over the pistol, and then fetched my badge
    from the ground. Part of me wanted to try and push the woman through into the
    warehouse so I could get a look at their operation but second-guessed that plan
    since there was still a sixth biker somewhere. Instead, I started to slowly
    pull her back towards the door that led out near the motorcycles.

    "Alright," I said.

    "We're going to take it nice and easy as we go for a walk."

    "You hurt her and I kill

    you," the boss said.

    "You come at me and I

    shoot her," I replied. "Neither of us wants that, but I'm not fucking
    around."

    She followed me and we

    stopped at the door.

    "Alright,

    sweetheart," I said. "You might as well tell me your name so I have
    something to call you."

    "Kashm," she said.

    "Beautiful," I

    said. "Okay, Kashm. We're going to step outside and head around the side
    of the building. We're going to go slow, and your father and one other guy are
    going to follow us. When we get to my truck I'll be happy to let you go."

    "You're an

    asshole," she grunted.

    "You get that,

    Pops?" I asked.

    "I got it," he

    grunted.

    I took the step back and

    down, and she followed.

    "Can I say

    something?" I asked as we took one slow step after another, followed at
    about ten yards by her father and Neck Tattoo.

    "Is it you begging for

    your life?" she asked. "Because if you grovel, I might just decide to
    only leave you paraplegic."

    "Jesus, you're a nasty

    one," I said. "But no. I was going to say I hope Chucky in there
    isn't the one you're dating, because there is no way that a sucker-punching
    runt like him could handle a woman like you."

    ".... fuck you,"

    Kashm growled.

    "Yeesh," I sighed.

    "You don't know

    us," she said. We had made it around the end of the building and were
    backing towards the old road.

    "I don't," I

    agreed. "But I'm betting that your pops is in charge, and you grew up a
    bit of a princess even during the hard times. I bet he isn't super happy about
    you dating anyone in his club, but you've got him wrapped around your finger as
    much as you still love him."

    "How about we don't talk

    about my personal life while you've got a shotgun jammed into my tit?" she
    asked.

    "Alright," I said,

    taking a quick glance behind me as we hit the road. "We're heading this
    way."

    It was a long, slow walk as I

    trudged backwards down the road. The potholes made things even more
    frustrating, and I wondered how the fuck these guys rode it on their
    motorcycles.

    "So whose idea was the

    market, anyways?" I muttered to her.

    "Mine," she

    grunted.

    "I had a feeling,"

    I said. "Tell me this. Is it all above board and you just take a skim off
    the top as profit, or are the boys making side deals and taking advantage of
    people?"

    She was silent.

    "Are they forcing

    women?" I asked.

    "No," she exhaled.

    "But if someone only has their looks to trade, why should I stand in their
    way from getting the food they need?"

    It was hard to argue with

    that logic in the current national circumstances. If I hadn't run into Mary in
    the parking lot she could very well have been doing the same thing within days,
    she'd been so desperate. Two kids to feed, let alone herself... would I have
    judged her for doing it? I could blame the bikers for not just giving away the
    food, but if they were paying discounted prices to the grocery store manager,
    along with wherever else they got their supplies, then it was capitalism and
    not charity.

    I felt gross, accepting that

    people were surviving on sexual favors, but I couldn't exactly offer a better
    alternative.

    "This way," I said,

    and she followed me as we walked backwards off the road and through the
    overgrown green space behind the grocery store.

    "Do you really think

    you're going to get away from this?" she asked, her spite softer now that
    the adrenaline was wearing off.

    "I think I understand

    your father," I said. "And I think the fact that I'm just doing what
    I have to and not being an asshole is helping."

    "I'd say you're a pretty

    big asshole," she growled.

    "Really? Because I could

    have been groping you this whole time and being a creep, but I'm not. You're a
    lady, and a daughter, and I respect that even if I have to use the leverage
    I've got to not have my head caved in."

    That shut her up.

    "Step down," I

    warned her as we reached the curb into the grocery store parking lot.

    "So you really are a

    cop," the boss said, about twenty yards back as he and Neck Tattoo
    continued to follow. Their handguns were lowered but still out and they could
    clearly see my truck behind me.

    "Sheriff,

    technically," I called back. "Look, you and I both know that last
    year at this time, someone with my job meets someone with yours, and we have
    problems. But the world is going to shit, and as far as I can see your
    operation back there isn't hurting anyone. And, considering you threatened that
    you'd kill me if I came with shit that was stolen by force from others, I think
    you still love this country and respect the fact that ordinary people should be
    out of bounds for criminal shit."

    He grunted, glancing at Neck

    Tattoo, then took a breath. "That about sums it up," he said.

    We were about five steps away

    from my truck now and I stopped walking backwards, Kashm backing into me for a
    moment. "Alright then. So how about this; I don't have a problem with your
    black market as long as you hold to those values. Looters are a problem though,
    and they're dangerous to the folks who are still living through this shit.
    They're also dangerous to you; the virus is airborne and if they are stealing
    from the homes of the dead they could very well be carrying it with them
    already. Start wearing gloves, and disinfect anything that's brought to
    you."

    "I'm not exactly

    concerned about health and safety tips right now, Sheriff," he growled.

    "Well, it's my job to

    keep the public informed," I said sarcastically. "Look, I'll let
    Kashm go, get in my truck and drive away. I just need you to put my sidearm and
    my badge on the ground in front of us, she can pick it up and hand it to me,
    then we're good. We call a truce, I walk away with some bruised ribs and a
    headache the size of a Range Rover while your boys back there get their noses
    back in place and deal with their own bruises. That sound like a deal?"

    "You Okay, baby?"

    he asked his daughter.

    "He hasn't harmed

    me," Kashm said evenly.

    "We're almost

    done," I said quietly. "And I am sorry that I had to do this."

    "Whatever," she

    grunted under her breath.

    Her father nodded to Neck

    Tattoo, and the biker walked forward and set my badge and gun down about five
    feet in front of us before backing away.

    "Alright," I said.

    "Now just ease forward, pick them up and hand them to me." I let go
    of her, and Kashm slowly stepped forward and bent down to pick them up. I
    wasn't exactly looking, but in her tight jeans and with that
    hourglass figure I had a pretty good sense that she had a nice ass.

    She stood, turning and

    stepping back towards me until she was right in front of me, the muzzle of the
    shotgun pressed into her chest almost right at her heart. "You know
    Georgie and Chuck are going to want to fuck you up," she said as she
    holstered my pistol for me, then reached up to loop my badge over my head.

    "I'm pretty sure that

    between you and your father, you can keep them in check," I said.

    "Why would I do

    that?"

    I smirked, and realized that

    I'd lost my mask at some point during the fight; I'd been a little busy to
    notice it before that moment. "Well, I won the bet," I said.
    "I'm pretty sure I owe you a nice date, don't I?"

    Her eyes widened as her brow

    furrowed, and then she actually laughed. "You are way too cowboy to be a
    cop."

    "That's why my badge is

    a star, honey," I said, nodding down to it hanging on my chest. "Now,
    seriously, reach into my front pocket there and pull out my wallet." When
    she did, with a raised eyebrow, I continued. "Take out the business card
    there. That's got a line to my cell. If something comes up that you or your
    father think I could help with, call me. If you're helping people survive, I'm
    on your side. And there's plenty of much larger assholes out here who are only
    hurting people."

    "Is this a 'Get out of

    Jail Free' card?" she asked, taking the business card and putting my
    wallet back in my pocket.

    "Believe me," I

    said. "You do not want anyone you know going to jail
    right now."

    She narrowed her eyes but

    nodded.

    "So, how about

    Saturday?" I asked.

    "What?"

    "For our date," I

    said with a grin.

    She rolled her eyes and I

    could tell she was grinning behind her mask too. I'd gotten to her.

    "Go to him," I

    nodded with my chin. "And have a great day."

    "You are one fucking crazy

    Sheriff," she said, then stepped backwards a couple of paces before
    turning. As she was going I reached back and opened my truck door, got about
    halfway in, then slowly set down the shotgun on the cement as I locked eyes
    with her father. He was glaring at me but nodded. I got the rest of the way
    into the truck, got my keys out and quickly started it, pulling away and around
    the side of the grocery store.

    My heart and my head were

    pounding as I panted, the drain of adrenaline from my system as relief washed
    over me doing nothing to help the fact that I was hurting all over. I glanced
    at the clock on my dash.

    Twenty minutes. The whole

    thing had taken twenty goddamn minutes since I'd left the store. The dairy and
    frozen food I had in the back were still fine and I had time to do my meat
    pickup before heading up to the Rez.

    I pulled my truck into a spot

    in the front parking lot, leaning forward and resting my head against the
    steering wheel.

    "Jesus fucking

    Christ," I groaned to myself. My leg ached, my ribs hurt, my head was
    throbbing. By all rights I should have gone home, curled up into a ball and
    slept for the rest of the day. Instead, I fell back against my seat, sitting
    up, and fished my phone out of my pocket. I hesitated, considering texting Erica,
    but I didn't want to stress her out. I texted Kara for her address or
    directions to her place on the Rez.

    'Why? Did you figure

    something out?' she texted back,
    making me sigh and then grunt.

    'Not yet. Bringing you

    supplies,' I responded.

    'Don't. It's dangerous

    here,' she texted back.

    'Do you have enough food

    for all three of you?'

    'We can figure something

    out.'

    I grunted again and hit the

    voice messaging button. "Kara, if you don't tell me where your place is,
    I'm going to drive around up there honking until I find you."

    She sent me her address, and

    I headed out. First stop, meat. Next stop, a reserve full of natives who hated
    my guts and were dealing with an outbreak of a deadly pandemic. It couldn't
    possibly be worse than getting into a fistfight with a biker gang, right?

    The drive up to the Rez was

    probably the worst one I had ever made. I'd done the drive a bunch of times in
    high school; being sixteen and having a little beater car so I could go to
    early morning football practices had given me the sort of freedom that made me
    the envy (and designated driver) for my friends at the time. I'd filled that
    car with football players more than a few times, but just as many times I'd
    driven up to the Rez to pick up Kara and her friends, driving them to bush
    parties, lakes to go swimming or even out to Portland a couple of times so we
    could go shopping without our parents.

    Then that had all stopped,

    and it had been years until I'd driven up to the Rez again for the fire and the
    funerals. That had only been a few weeks ago now. Checking in after the fire
    I'd been a little panicked, not knowing if Kara was alive. Making the drive
    with Kyla and Erica for the funerals had been less anxiety-filled but kind of
    weird, and I'd had a lot of different emotions going on. Looking back, those
    funerals had likely been where the first transfers of the virus had happened
    and started to spread. So many people in one place, it wouldn't have taken much
    for one carrier to spread it to a few people, and now three weeks later it was
    rampant. It was kind of amazing that it hadn't happened sooner, between the
    protest at my place and the recovery efforts after the community center fire.

    Still, even after the

    funerals, this was the worst. Kara was probably infected, as were her cousin
    and her neighbor. The chances that they weren't, when it was running hot
    through the whole community, were negligible.

    At best, according to Miriam,

    they had two weeks before they would show harsh symptoms, and then something
    like two days before they were dead. And that was the best case.

    I passed by all the landmarks

    I remembered and then pulled up towards the old ticket booth that marked the
    boundary of the Rez. Just a few weeks ago it had been converted into the hub of
    their little palisade of junk, manned by big Native men on the lookout for
    trouble. Now, as I pulled up, the 'In' side of the road was blocked and someone
    had spray painted 'Sick Inside' and 'Stay Out' on the old car they'd parked
    there. The 'Out' side had probably been blocked as well, but that car looked
    like someone had rammed it with another vehicle. It was at an angle and had a
    bunch of damage to the rear end.

    Someone had done the right

    thing and tried to keep the outbreak quarantined. Someone else had probably
    thought they were doing the right thing for themselves or their family and
    tried to escape the death that was already haunting them. Wherever they ended
    up, I could only hope that they weren't spreading it to loved ones.

    Not that they would be there

    to know. Two weeks was a long time compared to two days.

    I slowly eased my truck

    around the shifted barricade car and rolled to a stop.

    'I'm just coming in,' I sent Kara.

    'Don't come up front.

    People down the street. Use the back dirt drive from Leaning Oak.'

    I sent a 'kk' and

    started driving. The roads on the Rez weren't in GPS maps, so she'd needed to
    give me directions. I could remember some of the streets by sight; not a whole
    lot had changed on the Rez in 15 years or so; but I didn't know them all, or
    their names.

    Part of me wanted to just

    speed through as fast as possible, but that would have drawn more attention
    than taking a slow crawl. Once I got off the main road that ran around the
    outskirts of the primary residential area and eventually led to the old
    celebration grounds, I also found that things were more... apocalyptic. More
    than a few cars were abandoned, half out of driveways or in the middle of the
    street or parked up on people's lawns in a panic. I saw one that was smashed
    right into the corner of a doublewide, the trailer collapsing down onto the
    roof. Trash and other garbage was piled in places, and I saw more than a few
    residences, both trailer and small houses, that had clearly been broken into.
    Doors smashed open, windows busted.

    The worst were the bodies.

    They weren't everywhere, but

    every once in a while someone had collapsed in a front yard, or in the driver's
    seat of their car. Probably looking for help. The blood, trailing from the
    orifices of their faces, told the story. I'd seen warzones, and bodies, before.
    This was something else. Portland after the protests and riots had reminded me
    of a warzone. What I was witnessing now reminded me of scenes from a zombie
    movie.

    There were people as well,

    living. I spotted a few seemingly going about their lives. One guy was mowing
    his rocky front lawn with a little push mower that was sputtering. A woman was
    packing her car, keeping tight hold of two little kids as she did it.

    A man was digging in his side

    yard, a cloth-wrapped body lying next to the hole.

    They weren't the only people

    though. Down a couple of roads I saw larger gatherings. Groups, not big enough
    to be called a crowd, gathered. I avoided them where I needed to, finding
    detours.

    Once I got to Leaning Oak

    Lane, on which I didn't see a single leaning oak tree, I wound around a couple
    of bends before finding the dirt track Kara had told me about. The roads of the
    Rez weren't laid out in a discernable pattern; not that most of the roads and
    streets around Jewell were much better. Between the hills and rocky terrain,
    whether it was the highways or the little subdivision stretches like where Mary
    had lived, builders were forced to adapt to the terrain. Up here on the Rez,
    where the land was particularly rocky; because of course the Feds way back then
    chose shitty terrain for it; it made for a maze that only the locals really
    knew by heart.

    The dirt trail, because that

    was all it was, was rough but my truck was able to handle that easily. If the
    lots and roads were a little wild, the one thing going for them was that they
    were larger than what someone could find in the little subdivisions scattered
    around town. They weren't exactly developed lots, most of them
    occupied by scrub and overgrowth with just a doublewide and whatever sheds or
    old coverings the owners had erected through the years. The few houses were
    single-story, or maybe a story and an attic, and there was no way they had
    basements. I had to pull out my phone and text Kara again that I was on the
    trail because I had no way of knowing which one of the residences was hers.

    I spotted her waiting

    nervously on the back deck of one of the small houses. She was wearing a blue
    jean jacket and was looking around with obvious anxiety. Her dark hair was
    looking a little windblown, but I'd always liked that look on her. Usually, it
    came along with her beautiful smile, and I'd always loved driving her around
    with the windows down; she would glare at me, knowing exactly what I was doing,
    but then break out that smile.

    There weren't any smiles now.

    I pulled my truck up off of

    the path right into her backyard, turning it to face the back towards her deck.
    At any other time, ploughing through the rough overgrowth at the back of her
    lot might have been rude, but under the circumstances and considering it hadn't
    looked cultivated, I just did it.

    "Harri, what the

    fuck?" she asked as I got out. She wasn't wearing a mask. "Why are
    you doing this?"

    "Because you need

    it," I said, coming around to the back of my truck and opening the gate,
    pulling out the first couple of paper bags filled with food. "Step back a
    bit so I can set this down for you."

    She did, but hesitated when

    she saw me clearly. "What the hell happened to you?"

    I grunted as I set down the

    bags. "Well, the leg is a gunshot wound that I'm still recovering from.
    The rest is from a fistfight with a couple of bikers. But I'm Okay."

    "You don't look

    it," she said, obviously concerned. "You got shot?"

    "Through and

    through," I said, gingerly patting my leg. "No permanent damage.
    Don't worry, it just hurts like hell right now. I've got more bags if you want
    to call some help."

    Kara went to the back door

    and called inside. She was joined by two more women. The first one I recognized
    even though she wasn't in uniform. Officer Gertrude was wearing a pair of rough
    overalls and a black top underneath that was stretching around her considerable
    bust. She was curvier than Kara, but seeing them side-by-side I realized the
    familial resemblance even if it was small. They were the same height, and while
    her face was a little softer they had the same nose and lips. She wore a silver
    hoop nose ring in one nostril now, and her clothing revealed she had some sort
    of thin script writing tattooed on the inside of her arm, and a cross on her
    other forearm.

    "Hello, Officer," I

    said.

    She grimaced slightly as she

    nodded. "It's just Gerty now," she said. "With everything going
    on, I got fired."

    "How does that make any

    sense?" I asked as I went back to the truck for the next pair of bags.

    "There were a lot of...

    arguments on the tribal council," Kara said with a heavy sigh. "I
    resigned in protest when they decided to fire Gerty for 'causing problems.' It
    was probably too late already, though."

    "I'm sorry," I said

    with a grimace of my own, setting down the next bags.

    The third woman, who must

    have been Kara's neighbor, was a little shorter and her awkward stance and the
    set to her expression told me she was much less social than either of the
    others. Sensing the hesitation, Kara spoke up. "This is my neighbor
    Tanaya."

    She was dressed in a denim

    button-down that washed out whatever slim curves she had, along with black
    jeans held up by a chunky belt that sported the sort of buckle I would have
    expected to see on a rodeo champion. She pressed her lips together in a
    half-smile and nodded to me. Her hair was dark and as long as Kara and Gerty's,
    well past her shoulders, but wavy with soft curls instead of straight.

    "Good to meet you,"

    I said. "Hopefully Kara's said at least a couple of nice things about
    me."

    "Harri,” Kara said, and

    I could hear the apology in her voice.

    "Just kidding,

    Kara," I said, holding up a hand. "If I can't find a joke somewhere,
    I'll lose my mind."

    All three women nodded

    softly.

    I went and got the last bag

    of stuff that I'd set aside for them. "That should hold you ladies for at
    least five days or so," I said as I set it down and backed away.
    "Just; I could see it's bad, but how bad are we talking?"

    "You ever watch Shaun of

    the Dead?" Tanaya asked. Her voice was a little deeper with a cute husk to
    it. "Like that."

    "Fuck me," I

    sighed, wiping my hand across my mouth and beard as I took a deep breath.
    "Okay. I'm still trying to get an answer for you, something that will
    help. The people I'm talking to are coming up blank, but I trust them when they
    say they are trying."

    "Unless there's a cure,

    I don't know what could be done," Gerty said. "Last info that came
    in, the stuff that got me fired up at the station for talking about it, said
    it's killing almost all men that catch it, and most women. Teens worst of
    all."

    "I,” How did I say this?

    "That's true from what I've seen," I said. "The government's
    been testing a vaccine, though. The people I know are trying to see if they can
    find a stockpile to bring here, but it's not panning out yet."

    "Harri," Kara said.

    "You know what 'experimental vaccines' and the government do..."

    "I know," I said.

    "There's a long history. But it's real, and so far it seems to work."

    "How do you know

    that?" Tanaya asked. She had a bit of a drawl to her accent that I
    couldn't immediately place.

    I swallowed, glancing at

    Kara. "Because I was offered a chance to be part of the testing group a
    couple of months ago, back when the military bought my land," I said.
    "It's a complicated story that I'll tell you three eventually."

    Kara was frowning in concern,

    and Gerty was looking at me with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Tanaya was
    stoic and hard to read. "Can you guys bring that stuff in?" Kara
    asked the other two softly. They both nodded and came forward to pick up a
    couple of the paper bags. Gerty looked inside one and saw I'd included a couple
    bottles of wine, and she looked up at me with a smile and a wink. Tanaya
    murmured her thanks and they both slipped back inside the house.

    I stood leaning against the

    back of my truck while Kara hugged herself up on the deck.

    "I'm sorry I can't do

    more for you right now," I said.

    "Fuck off," she

    sighed. "This is more than you should be doing."

    "Are you safe?" I

    asked.

    She nodded, but the

    hesitation was clear. It only took a glance from me and she knew I knew.
    "People are acting out," she said. "Bunching up, trying to
    blame... everyone. Anyone. They're saying this is the land cleansing itself,
    and if we simply listen to the earth it will give us a way to survive. It's;
    fucked."

    "Is there anything else

    I can do?"

    "Explain the vaccine to

    me," she said. "You're hiding something. I can tell, Harri. Just
    because of..." she stopped, hanging her head a little for a moment before
    looking back up at me. "Just because I made some really misguided choices,
    doesn't mean I don't know you. Please just don't lie to me."

    I had to take a breath. I'd

    avoided this so far. "The vaccine works," I said. "Or, it works
    but in a weird way. It isn't 100% effective, especially for men. And I don't
    know the science, but it's deadly for men to take directly. The way it was
    explained to me, women can take it and then it's like an STD in their system,
    so they can partially pass it on to a man. Erica, my fiancée that you met, was
    staying with me and her brother at my parents' old place when the government
    made me the offer. Part of the deal was us getting admitted to the testing
    program. She came back, we... had sex, and I got partially covered. That's why
    I'm safer to be around town and go get supplies and stuff."

    "And that's why you're

    with that construction woman, and your partner from the funeral," she
    said. "Because 'partial' isn't safe, so a man needs multiple partners.
    That's why this whole polyamory thing came out of nowhere."

    "It is," I said.

    "I never would have considered it otherwise."

    "Is the government just

    assigning people to each other then? Forcing women to sleep with men?"

    I swallowed and shook my

    head. "It's more complicated than that. The vaccine doesn't just pass like
    an STD. There's a whole... bonding thing. Or imprinting. It's like once the
    exchange happens, the woman is a lock and the man becomes the only key for her.
    They said they are trying to find a way to change that, for obvious reasons. So
    Erica and I chose each other, and the others were different circumstances. Ivy,
    who you haven't met, is the most 'standard.' Anyone entering the program does a
    massive questionnaire and they have an algorithm or something that spits out a
    bunch of best options, and the woman gets to choose. She chose me."

    "There's another

    one?" she asked. "Four, then?"

    I nodded.

    "Fuck me," she

    sighed, covering her mouth with her hand. "So if whoever you are talking
    to can get vaccine doses, everyone here will need to have partners. The tribe
    could get scattered across the state."

    "Or further, I

    guess," I said. "But they would be alive."

    She leaned forward, putting

    her hands on her knees as she breathed, then looked back up at me. "I'd
    ask if this was all a big prank, trying to inject some humor into this, but I
    can tell it's not," she said.

    "It's not," I

    affirmed. "And I'll try my best to keep my friend searching, Okay? I'll;
    Kara, I'll do anything I can to keep you safe. You and the people you care
    about, and I know that encompasses everyone here on the Rez. But if things get
    worse, for you or Gerty or Tanaya, I need you to tell me. I need you to promise
    me, because I might be able to do something for one person that I can't for
    everyone."

    She nodded, and I gave her a

    look. "I promise, Harri," she said. "I promise."

    "You should get the rest

    of these in, there's some Chunky Monkey in one of those bags for you."

    She smiled sadly, mentioning

    her favorite ice cream not picking her mood up. "Harri... if you're safe,
    could I... Could I hug you?"

    I groaned because every ounce

    of me wanted to do that for her. Wanted to feel her wrapped up in my arms so I
    could tell her it would all be Okay. "God, I want to do that, baby,"
    I said. "But even with four partners I'm not fully covered."

    "Four isn't

    enough?" she asked me, eyes widening a little incredulously. "What
    is?"

    "Last I heard, something

    like seven," I said. "My friend told me I have around 85% efficacy
    right now, but all the science is complicated. And, Kara baby, I would risk it
    if I wasn't taking care of other people as well. You and the ladies were the
    most important people who needed this stuff, but I've got another delivery to
    make and they aren’t vaccinated."

    She raised her chin, pointing

    her face to the sky as she hugged herself around her stomach again. I wasn't
    sure what she was looking for up there. "God, you're too good,
    Harrison," she whispered, shaking her head. She looked back down at me.
    "Don't die, Okay? And don't get shot again. I haven't shown you it in a
    long time, but this world needs more men like you. I always knew you were a
    good guy, a good man, and I let other people get in my head and spoil that.
    I've been an absolute bitch to you, and I'm so sorry. You never deserved any of
    it."

    I had to fight the urge to go

    to her, and I almost lost. "Everything is forgiven," I said.
    "Okay? Everything. And we can't change what our families did or were. Now
    get your fine ass inside and lock that door. Barricade it even. And call me for
    anything, even just to talk."

    "Okay," she sighed

    and nodded. "Okay. I will. I promise. Thank you, Harrison. For all of
    this. For being you."

    "I'll always be

    me," I said, forcing a smile. "I'll see you soon, Okay?"

    She picked up the last bag of

    groceries and propped it on one hip as she watched me get back into my truck.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 10 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 17
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 17
    Fists Go Flying

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    Sliding out of my truck, I

    took a moment to try and just absorb the sounds and smells of the forest. Out
    here, without the cut crew for the utility road working, I was as far from any
    workers as I was likely to get on my old family land. I could almost pretend to
    feel normal. Shaking my head, I opened my eyes and went to the raider truck.

    It was an old piece of shit,

    but it was a Toyota so it was the kind of old piece of shit that could run for
    ages and go through a ton of abuse. I'd seen plenty of worse-off-looking Toyota
    trucks being put to use overseas by civilians, terrorist cells and everyone in
    between. Hell, I'd seen plenty of them with heavy machine guns mounted to the
    bed to make 'technical' that could somehow still drive over rocky desert
    terrain. The license plate hadn't gotten anything for Miriam, so I needed to
    look for anything else that might be of use.

    I started in the back bed of

    the truck; the raiders had grabbed a bunch of the cutting crew's tools, which I
    was able to quickly sort out and put over near the excavator for them to
    reclaim. The back of the truck was otherwise empty other than some old filth
    and dead leaves that tended to pile up in corners if someone wasn't diligent
    about being clean; one of the many little things about living in a heavily
    forested region, and entirely unremarkable.

    Leaves and filth weren't

    going to tell me anything, so I went to check the cab. The back seat had a
    layer of garbage on the floor, stomped down by boots, and I quickly pulled it
    out hoping to find something interesting. Generic coffee cups, fast food
    wrappers from the most popular chains and the packaging from a brick of plastic
    water bottles didn't give me any smoking guns. And not a single receipt that
    might have told me where these guys frequented. Even a McDonald's receipt could
    have told me where they had been on a specific day at a specific time.

    The front diver's side didn't

    give me much more of anything. The door had a couple of badly scratched-up CDs
    in the pocket. One was a bootleg mix of popular country rock songs, and another
    was the first Taylor Swift album. The center console revealed some more CDs in
    better condition, some pocket change, several empty packs of cigarettes and a
    couple of cheap BIC lighters. The passenger side had more trash on the floor,
    similar to the back, but this was where I found the receipts I'd been looking
    for. Not every receipt was the same, but I was able to quickly start putting
    together a mental image of their haunts; not that it actually told me much
    right away. A few of the oldest receipts were from before the previous owner
    was supposed to have died, but the more recent ones were scattered all over the
    region and crossing county lines. Mishawaka, Banks, Vemonia, even all the way up
    north to Clatskanie closer to the Washington state line. Whoever was using this
    truck had been travelling in the last couple of months and tracking those
    movements was going to take a whole fucking murder board of work and
    significant time. I bundled all the receipts that I could find and set them
    aside.

    I struck pay dirt with the

    glovebox, pulling out a revolver in a leather holster. It was a basic Ruger of
    some sort, worn and old but it had all the serial numbers still on it. A quick
    check showed me it was loaded. It really wasn't that strange a thing to find
    for a backwoods truck; it wasn't about to stop a bear in its tracks, but it
    could be used in most wildlife-related situations to at least hurt and scare
    something off, and was a decent little self-defense piece. Sure, folks in
    Portland and some of the other cities would have scoffed or been shocked at the
    need for such a casual carry in the truck, or they would have before the
    pandemic, but in the backwoods you never knew when you might need to even just
    make a loud bang to spook an angry deer, a bobcat or a wolf.

    With luck, and some work

    calling around, it might be possible to track who owned the firearm. It was old
    but not that old, and firearm sales still needed to be tracked
    at individual gun stores. I could start with the nearby vendors and circle out
    from there.

    Well, if the owners of the

    stores were still alive and willing to go to the effort.

    Under the revolver was the

    old, tattered owner's manual for the truck. No insurance documents that I could
    find, though I doubted the raiders were insurance kind of people on a regular
    day. A couple of empty and crumpled water bottles in the passenger side door
    rounded out my search.

    I took a picture of the

    revolver with the serial numbers clearly visible and sent it to Miriam, then
    got back in my truck, rolled down the windows and turned it off again. I pulled
    out the little notebook I'd brought with me and made notes about my search,
    then flipped to a new page, opened up the maps app on my phone and started
    searching for firearms shops and dealers, scribbling down their locations and
    phone numbers.

    I had some phone calls to

    make once the rest of the world was more likely to be awake, but I could get as
    much other work done as I could.

     

    I got a few bites on the

    call-out to the work crews and spent a couple of hours jumping from crew to
    crew gathering descriptions of tattoos, facial hair, scars and particularly
    identifying items of clothing. Nothing stood out as someone I could recognize
    from around town, but I bundled it all up into a report and shot it off to the
    State Troopers and Miriam just in case they could run the descriptions through
    the criminal databases.

    Not that I was going to hold

    my breath on that; the Staties were still stretched way thin, and Miriam
    couldn't detail too many people to help with this. She had an entire operation
    to run.

    Where I could get

    some help was right there on the site though. When I checked in with Vanessa;
    who had punched me in the arm for sending her the photo of me and Sexy Susan
    the sex doll while she was just about to start work; she'd immediately been
    able to grab a few of her new, untrained laborers women to start making calls
    for me. I left them with the serial number, make and model for the revolver and
    the list of shops I'd started putting together. The first dozen or so shops
    they managed to reach had been dead ends, but about half the calls weren't even
    being picked up. I left them to it with a script that should at least get the
    owners to check their records unofficially.

    Unless, of course, the owners

    were part of the same militia group the raiders were from. That possibility had
    darkened my mind, too.

    Not having any good updates

    for Kara, I had texted her that I was still working on things to try and keep
    her spirits up, and got a brief update that they were locked up tight.

    That drilled out the leads I

    had immediately from the raid. Other than running down the receipt locations
    and dates, at least, but that wasn't going to get me anywhere fast. There was
    one more outside thread that I could pull on first.

    "You're going to be

    careful," Erica ordered me.

    I was driving and had her on

    speaker, though it was only from my phone. "Of course I am," I said.
    "I've got my bulletproof vest on under my shirt, and I borrowed an
    unmarked truck from the pool on the site."

    "Oh, great," she

    said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "The redneck assholes won't immediately know
    that you're a cop."

    "That's Sheriff to you,

    missy," I said.

    "And that's Wifey to

    you, Sheriff," she retorted.

    "I'm going to be

    careful," I said.

    "Good," Erica

    agreed. "And when you're done there, you're coming here. You need to make
    sure your immunity is up."

    "I'll head home first to

    change and shower," I said. "If I do pick anything up there I don't
    want to bring it with me."

    "Okay, babe," Erica

    sighed. "Call me when you're done though, yeah? I need to know you're
    safe."

    "I will," I

    promised.

    She made a kiss sound into

    the phone and then hung up.

    I checked the map on my phone

    and sighed. Here was as good as anywhere. I pulled off the side of the highway
    and put the truck in park. If I was going to be careful, I needed to scout the
    location before I just drove up, and if I parked too close to the driveway
    someone might take notice.

    I was in for a hike.

    Soon the truck was locked and

    I was climbing up through the brush at the side of the road, my hunting rifle
    slung over my shoulder and a camo hunting jacket giving me a bit of cover as I
    started my trek. The early part of my hike was actually pretty peaceful as I
    didn't have much to worry about, but after a mile I started checking my GPS a
    bit more often and another mile in I slowed my pace as I started to really
    focus.

    The soft crunch of my boots

    on the forest floor, and the sounds of nearby birds, were my only company until
    I hit the first tripwire.

    It wasn't exactly a

    professional job, but the bent branch with the sharpened stakes would still
    have fucked me up.

    "Someone's been reading

    some really stupid websites," I grunted to myself. I grabbed a stick and,
    standing away from the danger zone, I triggered the tripwire. The branch swung
    around and actually broke under its own weight.

    From then on I slowed down

    even more. I spotted three more tripwires made with the same trick, plus some
    basic snares sized for small game and a couple of bigger ones that must have
    been intended for larger game like deer, or people. I bypassed the most obvious
    ones and tripped a few more of the basic ones while noting the surroundings so
    I could remember a safe way out before pressing on.

    I almost fucked up when I

    spotted the trail cam. It was a basic one, camo patterned and tied to a tree.
    In the dark, I would have probably walked right by it without noticing. As it
    was, the cam had definitely got me on video. The good news was that, after I
    took it down and pried it open, I found it was only recording and not
    broadcasting. I took out the memory card and batteries, erased the internal
    memory, and put it right back where it had been.

    The next camera wasn't so

    easy to deal with, but I spotted it early because I reached the tree line. It,
    and several more like it, was mounted to a pole and had wires running back
    towards the main building of the little compound ahead of me.

    The Golden Beaver bar looked

    like it had been a decent-sized hunting cabin at some point back in the 1980s.
    It had one main building, two stories, and was made of thick logs. The windows
    were shuttered and someone had reinforced them with sheet metal on the first
    floor. There were also a couple of outbuildings around the back, one of them an
    old doublewide trailer and another a small barn. Tarps had been erected and
    tied down between the buildings now, and someone had started farming chickens
    in the space as the birds pecked away at the ground, protected by a couple
    layers of a chicken wire fence. The front of the building was packed with
    almost a dozen cars and trucks, and someone had erected what looked like an
    attempt at a log palisade gate at the throat of the driveway but had given up
    halfway through.

    I quietly skulked around the

    edges of the property, staying back from the tree line to keep out of the view
    of the security cameras. I scoped out the buildings and parking lot with my rifle.
    The place wasn't exactly a hopping busy bar, but there were definitely people
    inside and at one point a guy with a beard reaching halfway down his gut
    stumbled out the front, strutted to the side of the porch and unzipped, taking
    a piss off the end.

    I circled back around the

    property, scanning the other side. They didn't have any guards posted,
    including in the upper windows of the building, but I did spot a cache of big
    red fuel containers and propane tanks set back from the main house, so they
    weren't complete idiots.

    Part of me regretted the time

    wasted even bothering with scouting; there wasn't any sign of the raw materials
    stolen from the site, and none of the trucks in the parking lot had been shot
    up so whoever Kyla and I had hit wasn't here. That being said, the truck could
    have been dumped and the perpetrators were here after all.

    Hell, the guys from the

    shootout at Mary's could be here, even if the raiders weren't.

    It wasn't a complete waste. I

    knew that even if they were halfhearted, the men who were congregating
    here were doing shady shit. The traps in the woods were an
    important clue as to which way they were leaning.

    I backtracked back out the

    way I had come. Whoever came out to eventually check their traps would be
    suspicious about several of them being triggered, but that wasn't likely to
    happen until at least tomorrow and gave me time to follow through with the
    second half of my plan. The hike out, once I was away from the Golden Beaver
    'danger zone,' was pleasant again and I popped out of the woods about a third
    of a mile from my truck and trudged my way back up to it. A year ago I would
    have been passed by cars and trucks on that little stretch of highway; now I
    didn't see a solitary car.

    After a quick text to Erica

    to let her know I was checking in and safe, I stowed my jacket and rifle and
    got back in the truck. The drive up to the Golden Beaver was a lot faster than
    the hike.

    At the mouth of the driveway

    up to the bar, I found that their little club had erected a second sign next to
    the one that was stenciled with the same symbol as from the matchbook Barry had
    given me before. The new sign was a laminated printout nailed onto a wooden
    backing, and I pulled over to read it before heading up.

    "Jesus Christ," I

    grunted under my breath. It was a declaration of independence from the 'sham
    governance of thieves, conmen and cheaters.' There was a bunch of mumbo jumbo
    bullshit under it that I didn't bother reading because it was all the same
    drivel that the Sovereign Citizens always spouted off.

    The driveway was a winding

    mess of gravel and dirt filled with potholes, and I could just guess at the
    reasoning the lazy assholes had for not fixing it. Up at the top, I got a fresh
    look at the unfinished palisade gate and drove right through and into the
    parking lot, pulling up at the end of the rough 'row' of vehicles and making
    sure to back in so that I could manage a quick getaway if needed. I parked, got
    out, and walked up to the main doors of the bar without a single person
    stopping me.

    That's where I stopped,

    taking in a breath and swallowing. I could smell the cheap beer and sour sweat
    smell from outside. Or maybe that was the piss from the guy earlier along with
    whatever else was staining the old wooden porch. It wasn't what stopped me
    though. What stopped me, for a moment, was the risk I was taking.

    I walked into the bar without

    a mask.

    The interior of the main

    floor was mostly one large room, or had been converted into that at some point.
    There was a bar splitting off a third of the room with a small kitchen area
    behind it. The rest of the space was mostly seating, though there was a small
    stage along the back wall with a stripper pole mounted in the middle; unless
    the good ol' boys had been hiring proper strippers to come out here back before
    the pandemic I had a feeling I didn't want to know the women who made use of
    it.

    The walls of the building

    were crowded with taxidermy trophies, old posters that would make a mechanic's
    break room blush, and various maps and printouts that seemed to be all about
    the sovereign citizen movement. A 'Don't Tread On Me' flag was slung over the
    bar right beside a Confederate flag. How either of those belonged in Oregon, I
    couldn't say. There were also boxes and palettes stacked with supplies jammed
    into the corners of the room, and under the rickety set of stairs that led up
    to the second floor. Most of it seemed to be food or beer, though I also noted
    a crate of what might have been looted valuables.

    The bar also happened to be

    populated by about thirty men, women and several children, all of whom turned
    and looked at me as I walked in and the door swung shut behind me.

    "Who are you?" one

    lady, a redhead who looked like she'd probably lost a fight with an oxy
    addiction, asked me.

    "Is Barry here?" I

    asked the room.

    A couple of guys stood up

    from a table near the middle of the room, the clatter of their chairs was only
    covered by the scratchy audio from the boom box behind the bar that was
    playing Born in the USA, which I found highly ironic.

    The pair stalked towards me,

    both glowering heavily with a hand on the pistols holstered at their hips. The
    taller one was bald and had a longer, coppery-colored beard while the shorter
    one had a slicked-back head of hair and an old scar that split his lips. The
    scar and the beard didn't stand out from my notes from earlier.

    "Barry ain't here,"

    the bigger one said, his voice rumbling a bit in his chest. "What do you
    want him for?"

    Fuck, I thought. "Oh," I said. "Well, he

    invited me to come out here. We went to high school together."

    The short guy sneered a

    little but I couldn't tell what the big one was thinking; he had the sort of
    face that barely moved and showed very little beyond gradations of
    disgruntlement.

    "Barry ain't been here

    for a week or so," the shorter guy said. It wasn't really fair to think of
    him as 'short' per se, considering he was about average height, but the big guy
    made him seem smaller than he really was. "You know anything about that?"

    "Not a clue," I

    said. "He gave me the invite a month ago or so; he'd invited me before
    too, but I've been busy."

    "He might be a

    Federal," the red-headed junkie spat.

    I snorted derisively, but

    that didn't seem to impress anyone.

    "We ain't used to folks

    just walking' on up here," the shorter man said. "And Barry knows he
    can't just hand out invites when the Government is making' people disappear and
    the social fabric of our community is falling' apart. You some kind of a pinko
    Commie? Or are you a fascist, tax-paying pig?"

    There was so much to

    unlock from that, but I couldn't correct him.

    "He's got a gun!"

    shouted a man down the room, pointing at me.

    Immediately both men had

    their pistols out and pointed at me, and I raised my hands. "I thought
    this was the kind of crowd who believed in the right to bear arms," I said
    slowly, trying my best not to show my nerves. I could feel a drip of sweat
    slowly crawling down my spine.

    "It is, for true

    sovereign citizens, fighting the oppressive, illegal DC dictatoriate," the
    shorter man grunted. "Now don't fuckin' move, ya' Commie Fascist."

    I didn't move, and the big

    guy closed the distance with me and pulled my pistol from the holster I had
    strapped to my belt in the center of my back. "Sit," he ordered,
    gesturing for me to take a seat at the nearest table. It looked like the chairs
    had been liberated from someone's kitchen table.

    Things were quickly sliding

    out of control; I'd been hoping Barry would be here to vouch for me like he had
    at the grocery store months ago, but now I needed to try and prove myself
    somehow to these assholes if I was going to get out of here.

    "Look, fellas," I

    said, letting my wording slip a bit into the slightly slurred, lazy way the
    rednecks spoke. "I'll admit, I ain't exactly an old hand at the Sovereign
    movement, but I'm here 'cause I want to learn my real, God-given rights. I used
    to own some land over on the other end of Jewell, did what I thought was right
    and supported the government with my taxes and shit. But now, after all those
    years of shellin' out my hard-earned cash, they go and fuckin' steal my land
    right out from under me. My family has been livin' there for generations, and
    now they've gone and hoovered it up with their legalese crap."

    There were some murmurs and

    mutters in the crowd as different people commiserated with my story. The
    shorter guy, who still had his pistol trained on my kneecap, eyed me carefully.
    "They hit you with that imminent domicile shit?"

    "Yeah, that," I

    agreed readily even as I cringed internally at the butchering of 'eminent
    domain.' "They didn't even give me a choice. Just up and took it from
    me."

    The taller man grunted and

    spit on the floor in disgust, and the shorter one sighed and then holstered his
    weapon. "Alright," he said. "That all might be true, and there's
    always space to learn the truth here at the Golden Beaver. But
    we ain't in the business of just inviting any old Joe up into our community.
    What's your name?"

    There was a big part of me

    that wanted to lie my ass off and tell them something like 'Gary Blake,' but if
    I was going to use these assholes as a source or for clues I couldn't burn
    myself with them. Barry would eventually need to vouch for me all over again
    once he came back around here; unless he was dead, of course.

    "Harrison Black," I

    admitted. There weren't any immediate flashes of recognition among the people I
    could see, but I did notice the shorter guy glance and nod over to someone
    else, who started typing on his phone.

    "Well, Harrison Black,

    if that's your real name," the shorter guy said. "You're going to
    need to prove to us you aren't a commie, a fascist or a cop."

    "Just tell me what to

    do," I said agreeably. "I need to figure this shit out."

    The two men put their heads

    together and muttered back and forth before both nodding. The big one stood
    straight and looked down at me as I sat in the chair. Then he pulled a combat
    knife from the sheathe on his belt and stabbed it into the table. "Put
    your hand flat." I followed his direction, but tensed, ready to pull away.
    "Now take the knife."

    I took the knife in my hand,

    and then he leaned in close and wrapped his bigger hand around mine, prying the
    knife from the table and lifting it up. He started moving it, digging the tip
    into the wood in between each of my fingers, one gap after the other, and then
    back again. It was the 'knife game' or whatever people called it. I could feel
    his breath on my face and had to stop myself from gagging; not because of the
    smell, which was bad because the guy clearly used dip, but just from knowing
    the asshole went around all day without a mask. He could have been breathing
    Duo Halo all over me.

    "Keep going," he

    grunted, and let go of my hand. After a small falter, I kept going with the
    knife game at the same speed he had set.

    The shorter guy pulled out

    the chair opposite from me and sat. "What's your name?" he asked.

    "Harrison Black," I

    said, and quickly realized what they were doing. I had to concentrate on the
    knife or risk stabbing or nicking myself, which would make it harder for me to
    lie. Any hesitation would be suspect.

    "How do you know

    Barry?"

    "We went to high school

    together," I said.

    Thunk-thunk-thunk, went the knife.

    "When was the last time

    you saw Barry?"

    "Last month, at the

    grocery store," I said.

    There was a grumble from

    someone behind me.

    Thunk-thunk-thunk.

    "How long ago did the

    Government take your land?"

    "They first showed up a

    few months ago, offering me money. I tried to say no," I said, watching
    the knife as I dug the tip into the tabletop over and over. "Now the house
    my grandfather and father built is gone."

    More grumbles behind

    me. Thunk-thunk-thunk-thunk.

    "What do you do for a

    living?"

    "I'm an artist," I

    said, and it was my immediate response. I wasn't technically being paid to be a
    Sheriff. "Before that, I was in the military."

    That got more reactions.

    "What branch?" the

    big guy asked from over my shoulder. I had a feeling he was holding his pistol
    pointed at my back.

    "Army," I said.

    "Two tours as an infantryman."

    "Where did you

    deploy?"

    "Iraq," I said.

    "Spent some time in Afghanistan, too. Plus some stops in Europe."

    "Did you kill anyone

    over there?"

    "I did."

    "Saw a lot of your

    friends get killed?"

    I nodded, trying not to lose

    focus on the knife by thinking of the friends I'd lost.

    "To stupid orders made

    by political assholes?"

    "Obviously," I

    grunted.

    "You ever take some

    revenge on one of them?"

    That made me smirk a little,

    thinking of the standoff with the Air Force Colonel after I caught him
    assaulting Miriam.

    "I'll take that as a

    yes," the shorter guy said. "You looking for some more revenge on the
    Pols?"

    I grit my teeth and looked

    away from the knife and up into his eyes, my hand keeping the knife moving in
    its path. Thunk-thunk-thunk. "What do you think I'm doing
    here?"

    "You can stop," the

    shorter redneck said.

    I dug the tip of the knife

    into the wood beside my hand and pulled back from it.

    "My name is Rodrik

    Nell," the shorter man said. "My friend with the beard is Big
    Paulson." Then he turned to the rest of the bar. "Someone get Harrison
    a drink!"

    The music got turned up, and

    the chatter started as people stopped watching the spectacle, though there were
    a lot of glances my way. Big Paulson sat down heavily in another chair at the
    table, while Rodrik got up to go get us all a beer. I noticed that the guy who
    had been checking on his phone went and whispered with him at the bar briefly;
    I had to assume he'd been Googling me and he probably had some info. I was
    trusting that Miriam's communication teams had been keeping the site quiet on the
    internet so there was nothing easily accessible to tie me to it at the moment.

    Rodrik came back over and

    handed me and Paulson our beers, and then sat down and started in on a diatribe
    that lasted a full half hour. He only stopped talking to take a swig of his
    beer or to suck in a breath. The man was all over the map; he hated liberals
    and what they'd done to the cities, but he also hated conservatives because the
    bad ones were fascist religious freaks and the 'better' ones were too
    weak-kneed to stand up for what they wanted. He hated immigrants for stealing
    jobs, natives for being lazy, and capitalism for turning people into wage
    laborers. He despised every level of government from federal down to local, and
    he respected the military but wanted to see it dismantled because it was
    unconstitutional and could be turned against the people.

    He was a man caught in a web

    of his own distrust, with a ready finger to accuse anyone other than himself
    for the problems around him.

    Paulson spoke little, and

    once Rodrik ran himself out of his monologue I endeavored to keep him speaking.
    I asked questions, leaning into the idea that my land had been taken by eminent
    domain. What could I do? What recourses did I have? Who should I blame?

    Rodrik was happy to give his

    thoughts on the matter; completely unfounded as they were. I stayed away from
    asking about their group and looking like I was digging into their 'operation,'
    if it could be called that. I focused on his thoughts on my situation;
    I empowered him and made him feel important.

    It wasn't my usual

    interrogation technique or one that I had used outside of theoretical classes
    from my MP days. I wasn't a spy, and I hadn't been an MP investigator long
    enough to have gone undercover. But I had the basics, and Rodrik and Big
    Paulson weren't sophisticated enough to really identify that I was easing them
    along the conversation.

    "But what can I do?"

    I asked again.

    "Well, short of tracking

    down and laying a beating on whichever politicians signed off on the land grab,
    you're stuck while the Federals have the whole country on lockdown,"
    Rodrik said. "Not that the false courts would listen to you anyway. But
    unless you're willing to really stand up for what you believe, it's better to
    go off-grid as much as you can."

    I leaned in, frowning.

    "What if I am willing to stand up?" I asked quietly.
    "I heard there was a thing that happened a couple of days ago over on that
    big construction site. That's why I came looking for Barry; I wanted to know if
    he knew anything about it 'cause that's the kind of thing on my mind."

    Rodrik and Big Paulson

    glanced at each other briefly and then turned back to me. "It was
    yesterday," Rodrik said. "And we heard about it, too. Someone...
    organized, I guess you could say, took a shot at raiding that big construction
    site. Sounds like it worked, too."

    "Do you think that's

    something... interesting?" I asked, trying to clearly hint that I wanted
    it to be while trying not to make it obvious. It was a weird verbal dance.

    Another glance between the

    two. "Not for this group," Rodrik said. "We've got plenty of
    folks who would defend this place, but they aren't hungry enough for something
    like that yet."

    "Not every Sovereign

    Citizen is the same though," Big Paulson said. "We've had visits. A
    couple of guys looking for help on certain things."

    "Really?" I asked,

    leaning back and trying to smile in a way that said I wanted to talk to those
    people.

    "We don't have any

    contact info for them," Rodrik said. "And they don't tell us when
    they're coming. But your background is definitely something they would be
    interested in. If you hang around more, come by every once in a while, I can
    hand off your information to them. You got a burner phone?"

    I shook my head.

    "We'll get you one and

    give them the number," Rodrik said. "Whether they call you, or take
    you in, is up to them though. If you're serious, wait to do anything. They hate
    it when someone does something that might disrupt their own plans."

    "Who are these

    guys?" I asked. "They aren't neo-Nazis, are they?"

    "No," Big Paulson

    shook his head firmly. "Just Americans. Real ones. A lot of them are
    ex-military, we guess, and pissed off. You'd fit in."

    I grunted and nodded, then

    stood. "More beers?" I offered. They nodded, and I headed to the bar.
    When I got back my pistol was on the table, and I re-holstered it without a
    word. I wasn't one of them, I didn't have their full trust, but I had enough.

     

    "I'll let the FBI

    know," Miriam said over the phone. I was driving back to the site, having
    left the Golden Beaver and the very talkative sovereign citizens in the late
    afternoon. After a quick text to Erica to assure her I was Okay, I had pulled
    over a couple of miles away from the bar and checked over the truck for GPS
    tags or recording devices. I'd been in the bar for a few hours, which would
    have given them plenty of time to plant something. Thankfully I hadn't found
    anything though, even crawling under the truck to check the undercarriage, so I
    felt safe heading home.

    "Hopefully they'll have

    some sort of a lead," I said. "The best I could figure it, this group
    is like a feeder cell for the more militant one. Recruitment and basic
    necessities. They don't know much of anything about the militant cell, which
    makes me think it's gotta be some militia group."

    "If I can get someone on

    the phone, they'll get me what they have," Miriam said. "The main
    problem is going to be getting them on the phone at all."

    "Please tell me I don't

    need to go ransack their offices or something," I sighed.

    She snorted. "No, it's

    not that bad. It just might be some phone tag before I can get someone who can
    actually release the information to me."

    "The real problem is

    they might not even have anything useful," I said. "From the receipts
    I found, they are moving all over the region. The raid might have even been
    more than one cell in a network. Narrowing these guys down to a specific
    location is going to be a problem."

    "Time for some

    out-of-the-box thinking," Miriam said. "Where are you headed
    now?"

    "I need to decontaminate.

    I was just in a room with over thirty people who opposed the most basic of
    government safety guidelines. They probably ignore 'Careful, Hot' warnings just
    to be contrarian. Then I'll head over to Erica and the girls."

    There was a beat of silence

    from the other end of the call. "Alright," Miriam said. "Just
    stay safe, and get healthy. I'm going to need you for more than your sneaking
    and stealthing, soldier."

    "Got it," I said.

    "Everything Okay on your end, Miriam?"

    "Just a lot of pressure

    coming down from the top," she said. "And not enough time or
    resources to handle everything at once. And, Harri, I haven't forgotten about
    your ask earlier. I haven't been able to shake loose any more vaccine yet, but
    I'm looking."

    "Thank you," I

    sighed. "Keep me updated if anything does come out of it. I'll take 'fell
    off the back of a truck' if I need to."

    "I will," she

    promised. "Stay safe."

    "You too," I said,

    and we hung up.

    Back on the construction site

    I stayed masked as I signed back in with the airmen at the gates, then drove
    the truck around the main office site and down to our RV compound. I sent
    Vanessa a message that I was done with the truck and it would need a thorough
    decontamination scrub down, then headed in and stripped off my clothes. I hesitated,
    considering throwing my clothes directly into the fire pit, but ended up
    bringing them into the RV and shoving them into the little washing machine that
    was built into the expensive vehicle. It was a good thing Grierson had sprung
    for some of the highest-end units on the market because if we'd needed to do
    our laundry at a laundromat one of us would have been down there every day.

    After a quick but thorough

    and rough scrubbing in the shower, I got dressed, hopped into my own truck and
    headed out.

    Pulling into the Valkyrie

    Falls driveway, I felt a sort of tension release from between my shoulders as
    the trees on either side of the driveway loomed over me. There really wasn't
    all that much of a difference between the driveway to the Golden Beaver and the
    one to the Falls, other than the lack of potholes here, but as I smelled the
    air through my open windows I found myself calming down and feeling more
    centered.

    I pulled through the gate,

    hitting the remote to close it behind me, and as I reached the parking lot I
    had to grin. As soon as I could I hopped out of the truck and Ivy was leaping
    into my arms, kissing me as she wrapped her arms behind my neck and hugged
    herself to me.

    "Mon amour,"

    she laughed breathlessly, still planting little kisses across my cheeks.

    "Ma Chére,"

    I grinned back, holding her tightly.

    "Fuck me," she

    demanded, pulling back a little so she could look into my eyes. "I spent a
    whole night without you, and now most of a day. I miss you. I miss your taste,
    and your smell, and your laugh. I need you."

    "I need you too," I

    groaned. "Am I carrying you all the way to your room?"

    She laughed and brought one

    of her hands back to show what she was holding. A small bottle of lube.
    "Outside," she said. "Up at the waterfall. Then Erica will meet
    you in our room later."

    I kissed her again then

    pressed my lips to her neck, smelling her soft, clean skin. Soon she, and the
    others, would make me feel clean again, too.

    The feeling of Ivy's naked

    skin under my hands, especially after the day I'd had, was like stepping into a
    calm pool. Every soft squeeze and caress made me wonder again at how perfect
    she was.

    "Oh, mon amour,"

    Ivy moaned as she leaned her back against my chest, sitting a little further
    down onto my cock. Her ass, with just a little lube, always astounded me at how
    quickly it could take me.

    We were naked, up the trail

    from the Valkyrie Falls parking lot, and Ivy had practically scattered her
    outfit across the small clearing as she pulled her clothes off to get naked.

    "I love you, ma

    chérie," I groaned, sliding my hands from her hips. The first I
    brought up her smooth stomach to her tits, palming one firmly and feeling the
    rubbery little nub of her nipple against my palms. The other I slid down across
    her shaven mound, pressing my fingers against it as I slowly inched them
    towards her cunt lips.

    "I love you too,

    Harrison," she mumbled, throwing her head back with her eyes closed,
    resting it against my shoulder as she sat that last little way down to press
    her ass cheeks to my hips and lap. Her thick, dirty blonde hair smelled of the
    shampoo she shared with Erica, filling my senses with thoughts of them both.

    We fucked slowly like that,

    me holding her and teasing her as I sat on my knees and heels and she bounced
    forward and back. When she'd met me in the parking lot I'd thought Ivy would
    want to fuck, but this was making love. Anal, but still making love. I
    didn't mind one bit that she was still holding onto her fear of getting
    pregnant; it had been drilled into her psyche for years due to her family
    situation; not by any forceful or abusive means, but just by what she'd
    experienced. A father who loved her and her half-sister, but had to rely on
    their grandmother for childcare.

    I thought she would make an

    excellent mother herself, with how loving and emotionally attuned she was.
    Sure, she had a playful side that was a little immature at times, but she was
    still in her early twenties.

    For the time being, however,

    I was more than happy for her to be my little anal queen.

    As we sped up our fucking just

    a touch, her asshole slick from the lube and squeezing my cock tightly every
    time she pulled away, she grunted and paused, a small orgasm already rolling
    through her.

    "Can you fuck me harder,

    mon amour?" she asked me, looking over her shoulder hopefully.
    "Your leg will be Okay?"

    I slid my other hand up so I

    could grab both her tits, massaging them. "I can," I told her.
    "How do you want me to fuck this perfect little ass, baby?"

    "Doggy," she

    grinned. She pulled off of me, her asshole winking for a moment as she went
    forward onto her knees, but she spun around and sucked my cock into her mouth
    in a slurping ass-to-mouth spectacle. It didn't surprise me anymore after the
    dozens of times she'd done it, but it still struck me as such a nasty but
    intimate act. She kept herself clean down there religiously since we generally
    did anal almost every day, but it was still... It was like her telling me she
    would do anything for me. And I knew she would.

    "Fuck," I grunted,

    gathering her dark blonde curls up in both hands as I got up onto one knee and
    started thrusting into her mouth. She hummed a laugh around my cock, dropping
    her jaw a bit so I could start face-fucking her. "God damn, Ivy," I
    said. "You're so fucking pretty."

    Her eyes were trained on me,

    and I could tell she liked the dirty-talk compliment. She pushed herself
    forward a little and on my next thrust between her lips she easily swallowed my
    cock into her throat.

    "God, fuck;!" I

    moaned and pulled away, grabbing my slimy cock hard. "Baby, you almost got
    me there."

    "Hmm hmm hmm," she

    laughed through her broad-lipped smile as she came up on her knees as well and
    shuffled closer. She kissed me lightly. "I missed you last night,"
    she said.

    "I know," I said.

    "I missed you too. But getting time with Vanessa alone was good, too. We
    need to do that soon for you."

    "I would like

    that," she smiled, softly kissing her way around my cheeks. "I love
    Erica, and I like our bed, but once in a while being alone with you would be
    good too."

    "Soon," I promised

    her.

    "Bon," she

    said. "Now, fuck me like ta petite salope, mon amour."

    I wasn't exactly sure of the

    translation, but I figured I got the gist of it as she turned on her knees and
    went to her hands, pointing her booty back at me. It took me only a moment to
    get back into position and start wedging my cockhead into her ass as we both
    groaned happily. This, I knew, was her favorite position. She liked being on
    top, but getting bent over and slammed from behind was peak pleasure for her.

    "I fucking love you,

    I’ve," I groaned as I started to rock forward and back, getting her ass
    ready for a pounding. Looking down at her back I realized that within months of
    meeting her, I couldn't see myself without her. She was unique. She was my
    heart. Her pale skin, her body split in half by the thin navy line that
    separated her 'clean' half from her tattooed half. Her hair, sometimes
    shimmering blonde, sometimes golden brunette, and sometimes almost ginger,
    always with her thick, wavy curls.

    I even loved her moans, and

    out here in the woods we both let loose as I sped up my thrusts and she tilted
    her hips and bounced them back to meet me. Our skin was smacking together, the
    clap a dull rhythm in the trees. We were surrounded by nature; greens and
    browns on most sides, warm and close. To our right was the grey-brown of the
    ravine wall glistening with the broken thunderstones embedded in it who knew
    how long ago, and the cool reflection of the waterfall.

    Ivy moaned and growled

    loudly, letting herself go as she came again. I could feel my own coming soon,
    but I tried to hold it off by focusing on the tight pinch of pain in my leg
    from my gunshot wound. After the hike I'd made to scout the Golden Beaver bar
    and the sovereign citizens who called it home, I wasn't sure if I was going to
    be able to put on this sort of a performance for all three of my girls at the
    Falls.

    But I didn't have time to

    think of Erica or Kyla, because Ivy was moaning and mewling as she went from
    her hands to her elbows while I drilled her ass.

    "Fuck, Ivy," I

    gasped. "God, you feel so fucking good. You're so fucking; uh,
    amazing!"

    "I'm yours, Harrison.

    All yours. Take my ass. It's yours forever," she groaned. "Yes! Use
    my ass. I love you. Use my ass, mon amour."

    "I'm close," I

    gasped.

    "I want it," she

    begged. "I want it, I want it."

    "Where?" I asked.

    "On my face. In my

    mouth. I want to taste you."

    I pulled out of her roughly,

    giving her ass a hard smack on the tattooed cheek with enough force to leave a
    red handprint, and she turned and sat on her knees, putting her beautiful face
    right under my cock and opening her mouth as she stroked it with both hands.
    Her wordless sounds of pleading, and the eagerness in her eyes, pushed me over
    the edge as I exhaled with a heavy grunt and came, one ropey glob after another
    spurting onto her face. Her aim was a little rough, only two of the five
    strands of cum landing on her tongue and the rest dripping across her cheeks
    and nose.

    "Huh uh uh," she

    laughed as the taste of my cum made her body lurch and rock, rolling into a
    fresh, chemically-induced orgasm. As soon as it finished, she pulled my
    half-wilted cock to her mouth and sucked, getting trace spikes of pleasure with
    every new taste. Then, keeping one hand on me, she used the other to fish the
    cum on her face between her lips.

    It was a vulgar, disgusting

    display of love, and I was 90% sure it was Ivy being her filthy, perverted self
    rather than it all being the vaccine.

    When she was done, cleaned up

    as well as she could without a mirror, I scooped her up from the ground and
    carried her over towards the edge of the overlook. I swept some loose stones
    and pine needles out of the way with my booted foot; we were both still wearing
    our shoes; and then laid her down and spooned up behind her as we looked out at
    the little waterfall.

    "Now, mon amour,"

    Ivy said quietly. "Tell me what's wrong."

    "What do you mean?"

    I asked.

    She laid her head low and

    turned it so she could look back and up at me. "I could tell something was
    bothering you when you got out of your truck, Harrison. You were... how do you
    say it; Melancholic. Your smile when you saw me, I love, but before that
    something was wrong."

    I sighed and leaned in to

    kiss her cheek softly. "You know me so well, mon cœur."

    "That one is new,"

    she said with a smile and snuggled back at me a bit firmer. "I like that
    one on your lips. My heart."

    "Mon cœur,"

    I said again with a soft smile.

    "Now, tell me," she

    urged.

    I told her. About the idiots

    at the bar, and the kids I'd seen there. I didn't care so much if the adults suffered
    from their own delusions and stupidity, but when it finally hit them the kids
    would be in danger. And I told her about how my investigation was stalled; the
    easy leads had already run out. If I was going to find any of the people who
    attacked the construction site, my land, our home, it was going to
    take a hell of a lot of luck, risking myself by going back to the Golden Beaver
    and sitting 'undercover,' or piecing together the fast food receipts and hoping
    to track down security cam footage to put together faces and start tracking
    names.

    And then I told her about the

    Rez, and Kara, and the outbreak.

    "You need to help

    her," Ivy said.

    "I know," I said.

    "No, Harrison," Ivy

    said pointedly. "You know, but you are hesitating."

    "She won't let me save

    her if it means leaving her people behind," I said. "I can't make her
    take the vaccine and pick someone."

    "She doesn't need to

    pick someone," Ivy said. "She would have you."

    "She would pick a man

    from the tribe," I said. "Someone who needs to be saved."

    Ivy just sighed and shook her

    head. "Then what are you going to do?"

    "I don't know," I

    said. "I've been trying to think of something, but nothing... nothing I
    can do, no favor I can call in successfully, would stop their outbreak."

    "Mon amour,"

    she said softly, turning on our rocky bed so that she was facing me. She put
    her fingertips on my chin and jaw, wiggling them in my beard, making sure I was
    looking at her. "You are trying to save the day, when you can only save
    the hour. What can you do for her?"

    I took a breath, thinking of

    what Kara had told me. She was holed up in her place with her second cousin and
    her neighbor. Half the places on the Rez were double-wide trailers, and the
    other half were small homes; I wasn't sure where she was living now, but either
    way, she was in tight quarters with three women. That meant three people living
    off of whatever supplies she had, and knowing Kara she would have been donating
    anything extra she had to the Rez relief funds. Especially after the fire took
    out their community center.

    "Food," I said.

    "Water. Other supplies."

    "You can bring those to

    her at least," Ivy nodded. "Then come back to me. To us. Just to be
    sure."

    "Just to be sure, or

    because you want another round?" I asked with a little smile.

    "Maybe both," she

    grinned impishly. I kissed her and she moaned softly and then patted my chest.
    "Kyla next," she said.

    "What if I want you

    again?" I asked. "My little minx. My sexy Quebecoise queen. Mon
    cœur."

    "I could never say

    no," Ivy sighed, smiling sadly. "But it wouldn't be fair. Go to
    Kyla."

    "Okay," I whispered

    and kissed her again.

    We almost didn't get up.

    Almost.

     

    "It's dinner time,"

    Kyla said, groaning as she stretched. Her bed was a little small for the two of
    us, just a twin since Valkyrie Falls wasn't exactly built with the expectation
    that people would be sharing rooms. I had no idea how Leo, Dani, Aria and India
    were making it work. Still, after our time in the RV, two people in a twin bed
    was comfortable and cuddling with my naked girlfriend was always welcome.

    "Guess that means we

    should get dressed," I sighed.

    She smiled and shifted so she

    was on her hands and knees overtop of me, looking down to kiss my lips lightly.
    "Well, I think I need to get dressed. I'm not sure how many
    people would complain if you came down naked."

    I snorted and shook my head.

    "Well, Leo would for one."

    Kyla smiled and gave me

    another peck on the lips. "That's fair."

    We got dressed, me in the

    loose clothes that I'd arrived in and Kyla in a cute, comfortable outfit of
    loose sweatpants that hung low on her hips and a simple tank top with an
    unlined bralette that supported her tits but left them basically loose under
    the thin, stretchy fabric. Just hugging her from behind before we left the room
    made me smile as I squeezed her tits and could feel her nipples through the two
    layers.

    "Pervert," she

    snorted and laughed.

    I kissed her neck and she

    groaned, pushing her ass back at me. I felt like a horny teenager again, first
    with Ivy and now with Kyla, dreading the need to stop the intimacy.

    We made it downstairs without

    too much more groping and kissing and found that the open cafeteria area with
    the big exposed kitchen and the bench seating was almost full. With the
    addition of Leo's family and my own, Valkyrie Falls was almost at its regular
    capacity even if we weren't taking up all the rooms.

    Dinner was an interesting

    affair; many of the women were on specific diets and Sara, acting as the
    nutritionist, had weighed and plated their portions. Some meals were
    vegetarian, one was even vegan, and some had no qualms about what they ate. Our
    families were also spread out around the room, not congregating together, which
    was nice to see. Kyla grabbed a seat talking with Spencer and another woman,
    and when I passed by Ivy at a table with Aria and two of the athletes I felt
    myself flush and didn't look over because I could hear her discussing anal sex,
    which probably meant she'd either been teased or asked about our time up in the
    forest. Other than Ivy's conversation, however, I got the feeling that the
    general emotional climate was a little depressed compared to most of the times
    I had seen the ladies in a big group. Many of them were at least trying to put
    on a good face for the others, but reality was hitting everyone hard again; the
    last time that had happened it was after we'd had to tell them about how deadly
    things really were out there. Now, after the bad news from my trip down south
    for Melina, and the looter attack on the construction site, and probably me
    getting wounded again... I couldn't blame them for getting some
    emotional whiplash. They lived here at the Falls in relative safety, but their
    homes and families and communities (not to mention country and world) were in
    chaos. Anyone they couldn't get a hold of for a call or who didn't reply to a
    text was another person who was more likely dead than alive. We'd brought that
    reality to them again, and morale was suffering.

    I ended up sitting down at

    the end of a table with Erica, Leo and Abi. Erica welcomed me with a sweet
    little peck on the lips, which brought a faux-disgusted gag from Leo, which
    just encouraged Erica to kiss me more fully as Abi smirked at their sibling
    antics.

    "Ivy told me about the

    Rez," Erica said quietly once the kiss and teasing was over. "I'm
    sorry."

    I sighed and nodded.

    "I'm going to try and at least do a supply run for her. I don't know what
    else I can do for them."

    "That's more than you

    should do," Leo said but held up his hands when I looked at him
    with a furiously confused expression. "Not like that," he clarified.
    "I mean you shouldn't be driving into an outbreak area at all. Wasn't the
    outbreak on the site enough to see how dangerous that is? And just because you
    have the vaccine doesn't mean you're immune."

    That... was something I

    hadn't considered. In my head, I'd been thinking of being vaccinated as being
    safe, but that wasn't what that meant. Probably. I needed to call Miriam for
    more info on that.

    "Abi, that face right

    there is my man realizing he's going to do something heroic even if it's more
    dangerous than he thinks it is," Erica sighed, gesturing to my expression.

    Abi smiled a little and shook

    her head. "Harrison, if you were not a Sheriff, I would say you should
    leave such things to the police."

    I hadn't had a chance to talk

    with Abi really about what she thought about everything we'd revealed to the
    Valkyrie Falls women last night about the vaccine and our relationships. My
    girls liked to tease me that she was interested in me, based solely on the fact
    that she showered with us after our workouts, but I still thought it was just
    her being more European, or Nordic, in her temperament about nudity.

    "I would have been

    helping even if I wasn't a Sheriff," I said.

    "Hell, he was helping

    people before becoming a Sheriff," Erica pointed out, then turned to look
    at me full-on. "Just be careful. And, actually, if you're doing a supply
    run, we're going to need more frequent runs for here, too. We just added seven
    more mouths to feed that we didn't account for on the last run, plus you when
    you eat here."

    "Okay," I nodded.

    "I'll do that first thing tomorrow once the grocery store is open. Just
    get me a list together."

    "I'll go with,”

    "No," I interrupted

    my fiancée. "I'll do it alone. We don't know who might be around, or if I
    might run into the sovereign citizens. For now, I should be the one to do
    it."

    There was a bit of argument

    back and forth, with Erica pointing out that if I was taking time to do supply
    runs I wasn't working on the investigation and getting them home faster, but in
    the end Erica reluctantly agreed when Leo pointed out that her being with me if
    something did happen would put me in more danger. After that she let it drop
    and we were able to move on to small talk. Slowly, as dinner finished up and
    the ladies filtered into the kitchen to help with cleanup or out to other parts
    of the compound, our little group became the last one sitting down.

    "Ready?" Erica

    asked me, her hand having slipped under the table a while ago and rubbing my
    leg.

    "One more thing," I

    said, knowing what she wanted to get to. "I'm worried about morale here,
    honestly. Things feel different."

    Abi frowned and nodded.

    "It's been a lot, lately. Many of the ladies are worried and starting to
    become stressed about..." She paused for a moment to take a breath, then
    gestured generally. "Everything."

    "The last thing I wanted

    was to make this place feel unsafe," I sighed.

    "It's not that,"

    Erica said, taking my hand and squeezing it.

    "Erica is right,"

    Abi said. "We are happy to host you, after how you've been helping us. And
    your family is doing more to raise spirits than hurt them. Your little wiener
    dog could do that all by himself."

    I smirked a little and shook

    my head. Macho was living up to his name. From what little Ivy and Kyla had
    told me, practically every woman in the compound was stealing him away to play
    or snuggle for a bit. If we weren't careful he'd go from being a little hotdog
    to a bulging bratwurst, he'd get so fat from the snacks he was getting.

    "Well, I was thinking

    maybe we could do a little more," I said. "To make you all feel more
    safe, and to raise spirits in general. If you're open to it, Kyla has most of
    our firearms stashed safely in Erica's car and in her room. She could run some
    basic firearms safety courses for anyone interested, and some people find
    shooting a little therapeutic or stress-relieving. And I bet between Dani, Ivy
    and Kyla you could have a pretty good beginner dance class for some more active
    fun. And I could grab supplies for an art class if you're willing to do some
    teaching, babe."

    "That's a great

    idea," Erica said, turning to Abi. "What do you think?"

    Abi nodded. "We can use

    the cafeteria here for the art class, and we have all the space for a dance
    class. I will need to talk with Sara about firearms... We weren't sure about
    you bringing them here to begin with."

    "Whatever you're

    comfortable with," I said. Then I turned to Leo. "Sorry I can't bring
    out a full woodshop for you, buddy."

    He snorted and chuckled.

    "I wouldn't mind teaching, but I think we only need so many birdhouses."

    That made me laugh, as it had

    been a long-running joke that he'd started his custom woodworking career making
    intricate birdhouses but had moved on to furniture because the market for
    birdhouses wasn't actually very large. The market, he'd said, belonged to
    middle school shop classes and summer camps.

    More ideas got thrown around;

    India could do a passable Yoga class, Leo could organize a Euchre tournament
    (after teaching the game to anyone who didn't know it.) I could have done an
    art class as well, but I wasn't going to be around enough.

    "You could always teach

    sex ed," Erica said with a laugh. "I'm sure your signup list would be
    full almost immediately."

    "And on that note, I

    think we're done for now," I said, standing up from the table. "Abi,
    I'm sorry for her. Leo, she's your sister, so it's partially
    your fault for her having the mind of a 14-year-old boy. Come on, babe."

    Erica whooped as I hefted her

    up bodily from the bench we'd been sitting on and tossed her over my shoulder.
    Erica was a full-bodied woman and nowhere near as dainty as Ivy or even Kyla,
    but even with my leg twinging, once I had her up on my shoulder I could carry
    her pretty well. She was wearing a tight pair of jeans and had been walking
    around barefoot inside so, as she laughed and shouted to 'put me down, you
    barbarian!' she kicked her feet playfully even while hanging on to me. We
    passed several of the ladies, including Melina, on our way to the stairs and
    got some looks and smiles. I thought, for a moment, I saw a sadness in Melina's
    eyes as we passed even though she was laughing lightly.

    At the stairs I set Erica

    down, not wanting to risk my leg carrying her up just for both of us to fall
    all the way back down and break our necks or backs. Once I got her on her feet,
    though, I gave her a solid crack of my hand on her ass through her tight jeans.
    "Go on," I said. "Get."

    In any other context, Erica

    would have probably bit someone's head off for slapping her ass that way. But
    between her being horny, our playfulness, and the fact that we were so fucking
    down the rabbit hole of being in love, she just darted up the stairs giggling
    as I chased after her. Up on the second floor in the dormitory corridor she let
    me chase her all the way to the room she shared with Ivy before I caught her
    and pinned her to the wall, kissing her firmly as we kept laughing into each
    other's lips. Thankfully no one was in the hall or I would have felt too
    embarrassed to do that in front of them. Instead, it took us a couple of
    minutes to even twist the door handle and work our way halfway into the room.

    "Wait," Erica said,

    a teasing smile on her lips as she pulled away from me. I was holding her ass
    with both hands and she'd been pressing her chest against me; she was wearing
    one of my T-shirts and I'd realized quickly that she wasn't wearing a bra
    underneath.

    "What is it?" I

    asked.

    She smirked. "Let me go

    get Josie. I bet she'd,”

    "No," I said,

    pulling Erica into the room and kicking the door shut.

    "Why not?" Erica

    asked.

    "Because," I said,

    scooping her up in my arms again but this time in a princess carry that only
    travelled the few steps to the bed, which I tossed her onto heavily.
    "Josie is sexy as hell and fun, but I want time with my wife. Not
    a threesome."

    "I'm not your wife

    yet," Erica smirked even as she started to undo her jeans and wiggle out
    of them.

    "I'd have married you

    the day after you asked me if my sister could get up here," I growled,
    peeling off my shirt and shucking my shorts.

    "I know, babe," Erica

    said, and I grabbed the jeans and helped pull them off her lower legs and feet.
    She switched to taking off her shirt, revealing her glorious tits to me. I got
    the jeans off and growled as I fell on her, getting my mouth on those tits as I
    ran my hands from her bare waist and up to her tattooed arms, which I pushed
    above her head. "I would have, too."

    I loved on her tits for a

    bit, then kissed up to her lips as we made out like teenagers, rolling around
    on the bed. She ended up on top, both of us just wearing our underwear, and she
    took a turn and pinned my arms above my head as she looked down at me with a
    smile and her tits hung brushing against my chest.

    "Why shouldn't I get

    Josie to warm you up?" she asked. "She wants you, and she's been
    asking all three of us little questions about the vaccine and how it works. She
    could blow you for a bit, then watch us fuck."

    "Why are you wearing

    your full makeup?" I countered. "And walking around in one of my
    shirts?" Her brow furrowed as she opened her mouth, but wasn't sure what
    to say. "You're staking your claim, babe," I said. "You're
    letting them know that, even if they've been allowed to look, even if they're
    ripped and athletic, you're the queen of my castle. You wear my clothes, and
    you do yourself up for me in a way they don't, or can't. God, I love you,
    Erica. And for all that I love the others, you were first. You'll always be
    that. And sometimes, even if we have fifty women, or a hundred, in this thing
    that's going on I'm still going to want just you sometimes."

    She kissed me, soft and deep.

    Her lips, painted that deep red, were soft like rose petals and she smelled a
    little like vanilla as her hair fell around us. Her tongue teased against my
    lips, asking to be let in, and I let it. We weren't making out like teenagers
    now, we were kissing like lovers.

    "I love you," she

    said as our lips parted and she sighed, lying flat against me.

    "I love you too," I

    said, hugging her to me.

    "Alone time," she

    agreed softly. "Make love to me. Then fuck me. Fuck me like I'm your
    whore-queen. You know what I mean."

    "I do," I said with

    a grin, kissing her cheek as my hands travelled down from her bare back to her
    panties-clad ass, sliding underneath to grab her bum and then lower to tease
    her cunt. "Jesus, you're wet."

    "I get that way every

    time I see you, Harrison," she said. "Always have, for years. It's
    not the vaccine, it's you."

    We kissed again, and I

    started easing a couple of fingers inside of her as she wiggled and moaned. It
    was going to be a good one.

     

    The alarm going off reminded

    me, once again, that I loved Vanessa but I really hated her work hours. I got
    up with her, made her a quick breakfast, kissed her goodbye and collapsed back
    into bed. The evening before, after I returned back to the Compound with a
    ready-to-heat meal sent on from the women of Valkyrie Falls for her, I'd had
    barely an hour to myself before she came home at 9 PM on the dot just like
    she'd promised. I heated her food, massaged her feet as she ate, and she'd let
    me know that her Phone Bank ladies hadn't turned up any immediate leads from
    their calls to the gun shops hunting that revolver serial number. It was just
    as likely that the old piece had belonged to the dead man who owned the car
    rather than the dead men who had been driving it, so I wasn't hanging on the
    hope that something turned up there, but it was still another frustration.

    Then Vanessa asked me to tell

    her about my day, and I did. By the time I was finished, talking in graphic
    detail about my sex with Ivy out in the forest and Erica in her room at
    Vanessa's request (but not talking about Kyla, since she was more private),
    Vanessa got on her hands and knees and sucked my cock, then she fulfilled the
    other part of her promise of 'at least twice every night.'

    I woke up a second time, alone

    now, with sunlight blazing through the cracks in the shades of the RV back
    window, and got myself moving. It took me a minute, when I checked my phone, to
    realize that the girls were teasing me again. This time, instead of naked
    photos of them in bed, they were sending me thirst trap videos. But it wasn't
    videos of them, it was videos of the women at the Falls. Some of them were
    obviously planned and staged; Josie skipping rope as the video circled her,
    then suddenly doing the same thing topless as the camera rotated around her
    back; and Melina doing squats with perfect form, her amazing ass and tits both
    tightly encased in workout gear that would probably be illegal in several
    states for indecent exposure. Or causing heart attacks. Then there was one of
    Abi in the middle of what looked like a yoga class, smiling and a little goofy,
    but it was cut with clips of her lifting impressive amounts of weight and doing
    other super-active CrossFit exercises with grim determination on her face with
    a hard, pumping music beat overtop. I doubted she knew they'd done that, and I
    would also bet that they'd been a little scared to ask her permission.

    Those I could handle, along

    with a couple more of women I'd been friendly with at the gym. The one of
    Spencer, though, made me feel weird. On the one hand, she was extremely
    attractive in a wholesome, lovable way. On the other, she was barely in her
    twenties and had shared such an intimate story with me that it felt wrong to
    even think of her like the way their thirst trap video made me think. She, like
    Abi, didn't seem to realize she was being filmed during her workout and she did
    the move that made me think 'classic Spencer,' finishing a set and pulling off
    her bulky sweater to reveal her fit torso and big tits encased in an athletic
    bra. But then she seemed to notice whoever was filming her and she blushed and
    smiled, and then winked, at the camera.

    I called Miriam.

    "Later start this

    morning," she noted by way of a greeting.

    "Yeah, well, I'm running

    out of the fast leads quickly and soon I'll be into the weeds for real," I
    said. "Any luck on the FBI front?"

    "Nothing so far. And,

    Harri, I haven't been able to squeeze anything out yet on the vaccine front
    either. I'm sorry."

    I sighed and nodded, even if

    she couldn't see me. "Okay, thanks for keeping me updated. I'm going to
    take some time today to do a supply run; the ladies up at the Athletic compound
    need more stuff since I added seven more people to their numbers, and I'm going
    to grab stuff for my friends on the Rez at the same time before I dig into the
    receipts. But those plans brought up some questions that I think only you can
    answer."

    "I'll tell you what I

    can," she said. "But; and this is awkward to ask; did you re-up your
    vaccination with the ladies since yesterday like you planned? If you go out and
    you're infected from the dumbass sovereigns, you could be spreading it."

    "That's one of my

    questions," I said. "When we're talking about me being vaccinated, or
    safe, what does that actually mean? Like, how safe are we talking?
    If I have four partners, am I good to go?"

    Now it was Miriam's turn to

    sigh. "Technically you only have three and a half partners," she
    said. "Vanessa's numbers haven't changed. I've been keeping a tag on her
    studies; it looks like she's still only getting mid-thirties coverage. It's
    enough that they don't want to try re-vaccinating her unless there's an
    emergency, but she's not in a great spot and isn't providing you with the
    coverage the others are. And, to answer your question, the most recent math I'm
    seeing is that one partner still only nets a man 70% efficacy, the same as a
    month ago. Each additional partner only adds a fraction of that though. The
    current model says the best coverage will come from seven partners, so until
    you hit that point you're taking real risks. With three and a half you're still
    in the 85th percentile of efficacy, I think the number was, but..."

    "Seven?" I asked, a

    little dumbfounded. "I thought we were done adding..."

    "Getting tired of all

    that cunt, Black?" Miriam asked. I could hear the smirk on her lips.

    "It's just a lot,"

    I said. "What about all the construction workers?"

    "They'll get there

    eventually too," she said. "Our rollout still isn't starting though,
    or else I could do something about the Rez. Harri, the death tolls...fuck,
    never mind, I can't tell you that. Especially not over the phone, and probably
    not in general."

    "Okay, don't," I

    said, though I had a pit of dread in my stomach from that small hint. Grierson
    and his OGA team had hinted at apocalyptic being the level
    they were responding to, and I couldn't spend time brewing on that.

    "What was your other

    question?"

    "I've been having

    these... God, this sounds a little fucked up. Every once in a while, I've been
    having these weird possessive urges," I said.

    "Over Erica and the

    girls?"

    "No," I said.

    "More like... I feel like I'm a horny nineteen-year-old with the world as
    my oyster sexually, and I get these flashes of wanting to fuck people around
    me. Not like, violent urges or anything, but weird feelings. Like I'm jacked up
    on testosterone or something."

    Miriam was quiet for a long

    moment, and then I could hear the telltale sound of keyboard keys from her end
    of the call. "Alright," She said. "I'm not seeing any reports
    about that in the studies I have access to. I'll put in a call, see if I can
    get one of the head brainiacs on the phone and run it by them. Are you
    Okay?"

    "Yeah, I'm fine," I

    said. "And it's not an urge that I start to act on or anything. It's just
    a sort of animal feeling that I've been equating to my lizard brain."

    "Well, we've seen a

    general uptick in libido for men as well as women from the vaccine,"
    Miriam said. "You might just be having a bigger reaction to that than
    normal. Are you, um, getting enough? Sex?"

    "I would have thought

    so," I said. "I mean, to be frank, Miriam, it's more than I could
    have accomplished in a day when I was a horny
    nineteen-year-old fucker."

    She snorted softly.

    "Well, keep it in your pants unless it's one of your partners. We still
    don't know what set of circumstances specifically caused Vanessa's situation
    and whether something about you was the catalyst or not."

    I gulped a little, thinking

    of the blowjob from Josie. I hadn't come in her mouth, and my cum had hit her
    ass and back and washed off in the showers. I'd need to be extra careful with
    Erica's machinations.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 10 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 16
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 16
    Emergencies Never End.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    Let’s review the many

    characters we’ve already met.

    House Black

    Erica

    LaCosta; Fiancée of Harri, Leo's sister, Italian Tattoo Artist, Dark Brunette

    Harrison

    'Harri' Black; Sheriff of Black County, 'Jason Momoa-looking motherfucker'
    mountain man (mixed heritage), former Army MP

    Kyla

    Bautista; Trained dancer, Pilipino Spy, Harri's Deputy Sheriff, Raven hair

    Vanessa

    Peters; Construction Forewoman, Daughter of Brent Peters the head of the
    construction project, Brunette

    Ivy

    Gauthier; Quebecoise stripper, half-tattooed, Dirty Blonde anal queen, Member
    of House Black

    Macho;

    Rescued daschund puppy, named for his big balls, mascot and beloved pet of
    House Black

    House LaCosta

    Leo

    LaCosta; Harri's best friend and former roommate, Italian carpenter, Erica's
    brother

    Danielle

    'Dani'; Australian stripper, Brunette

    Aria;

    Girlfriend of India, Stripper/Sugar Baby, Ginger

    Valkyrie Falls

    Josie

    'Joss the Boss' Draper; Professional Wrestler, Athletically Trim Blonde

    Melina

    Sanzo; Harri went to Eugene for her, Professional Fitness Model, Muscular Curvy
    Blonde

    Abigail

    'Abi' Jónsson; Harri's Personal Trainer, Co-owner of Valkyrie Falls women's
    athletic retreat, Icelandic Personal Trainer and Crossfit Competitor, Tall
    Athletically Muscular Blonde

    Spencer;

    Professional Fitness Model, Apprentice Personal Trainer, Athletic Curvy Blonde

    Other

    Captain

    Laura Bloomberg; Air Force JAG serving as Miriam's second, Blonde

    Lieutenant

    Colonel Miriam Abarbanel; Military friend of Harri's, Air Force Lt Col, Jewish
    heritage, Commanding Officer for Valhalla Hills construction and the Oregon
    Quaranteam research project

    Brent

    Peters; Vanessa's father, the Project Manager for the Valhalla Hills
    construction project, very overweight

    Referenced Characters

    India;

    Girlfriend of Aria, Hippy Stripper/Sugar Baby, grew up in a commune, Brunette
    dreads and braids, Member of House LaCosta

    Patrick;

    Deceased construction worker, used to work the gate for the site. Died during
    the Duo Halo outbreak on site.

    Sara

    Sigurdsdottir; Co-owner of Valkyrie Falls women's athletic retreat, Icelandic
    Personal Trainer and Crossfit Competitor, Tall Athletically Muscular Blonde

    And now, back to our story..

    The good news was that,

    amongst the 75-odd women who had already been moved into the camp, seven of
    them had nursing training. Four of them had been working as nurses when they
    got the call about the vaccine, and one of them even had ER experience.

    Kyla, the wounded

    construction worker and one of his friends were picked up in one of the white
    construction pickups first, while the bodies and I got picked up in the second
    one. I left the rest of the crew with explicit orders not to touch the redneck
    truck; if I was going to figure out who the hell these guys were and where they
    were coming from, I would need every clue I could get.

    Back in the main camp I ended

    up sitting on a folding table that had been set up outside in the 'courtyard,'
    which was the open space in between the original portable office buildings and
    adjacent to the first big bunkhouse. I tried to tune out the chaos going on
    around me as I was seen to by one of the nurses and she wrapped my leg in new
    bandaging. There weren't exactly limited supplies on the site between the first
    aid kits in the offices and bunkhouses, but it was all standard supplies. No
    anesthetic, and the painkillers were limited to acetaminophen. That was
    probably a good thing most of the time based on Vanessa's worries about drugs
    among the construction workers, but with a dozen men triaged and in pain from
    injuries ranging from bruises to concussions to gunshot wounds I wondered if
    maybe a small supply of morphine might be something I'd be securing sooner than
    later.

    The nurse was quick about her

    work and my leg was bandaged tightly, then she moved on to checking my scalp
    but I could tell she was uncomfortable.

    "Move," ordered

    another of the women, and she practically pushed the first one out of the way
    and took my head in her hand and started quickly looking me over. "You'll
    need a couple of staples," she said briskly. "Three lacerations, but
    only one is deep enough to be a problem. Head wounds bleed more than most. You
    get hit with something?"

    "Birdshot," I said.

    "Ducked most of it, thankfully."

    "Should have just kept

    your head down, let the security guy deal with it," she grunted.

    "That would be me,"

    I said.

    She pulled back with a frown,

    then looked down at me more closely. To be fair to her, I looked like a mess;
    my vest was covered in drops of blood that I'd accidentally smeared around, and
    my shorts were yanked all the way up on one leg so that the last nurse could
    wrap my leg properly.

    "Oh, right," she

    said. "Sorry, Sheriff. I, uh..."

    "Harri," I said,

    offering her my hand. Thankfully I'd been able to wipe it off with some
    sanitizer earlier.

    "Georgette," the

    nurse said, peeling off her glove to shake my hand back.

    "Everyone triaged?"

    I asked.

    "As far as we

    know," she said. "Yours was the last group to come in. Um... Thank
    you. My Duke was out there with you and he says you saved their lives."

    I had to wonder how Duke was

    feeling now that the adrenaline was gone and he was remembering what he'd done.
    "Are we going to be losing anyone else?"

    She pressed her lips together

    and shook her head, but shrugged at the same time. "Hard to say," she
    said. "The guy who came in with you is pretty bad, but I've got him stable
    and getting him fluids. If the proper medics get here as fast as they say they
    can he should live."

    "That's good," I

    sighed. "And they will."

    Georgette nodded. "I

    should get back at it."

    "Go," I nodded.

    I wasn't alone for long as

    Vanessa and her father Brent came to find me. Brent looked like he wanted to
    punch me in the face again, hug me, and shake my hand all at once. I could
    understand the feeling. Vanessa limited herself to one quick, but deep, kiss
    with me; the second since I'd been driven into camp; and then I was getting
    updates that changed even while we were standing there and more supervisors and
    foremen reported in.

    The last truck, the one

    raiding the supply drop-off, had driven off sometime in between Kyla and I
    firing on the first one we found and the fight at the second. They'd made off
    with a bunch of raw materials meant for the third barracks that was being
    built, though the father and daughter duo had no idea what they would want with
    the stuff since it wasn't even good quality timber and just the prefab
    sheeting. It would delay the third barracks by maybe a few days at worst to get
    more shipped out. The variety of tools and other equipment stolen from the
    crews that were assaulted didn't make sense either.

    "Stop trying to make

    sense of it," I said after listening to them come up with theories.
    "They were just getting whatever they could put their hands on. Were we
    missing anything back when the spin-up started again?"

    Brent frowned. "Some of

    the crews reported equipment missing from the field. A couple of generators and
    spotlights, toolboxes from the back of trucks, that sort of thing. Not enough
    to make us think anyone had been through, just that things had gotten misplaced
    in the chaos of the outbreak."

    "Well, some of it might

    just be missing, but I'd bet a truck or two came exploring at some point,"
    I said. "We should have installed a gate or something to discourage people
    from taking a look where all the chaos had been going on. No one came up to the
    main camp, but I couldn't keep eyes on the woods and all the road-cutting areas.
    They probably figured more people here meant more stuff to steal."

    We were interrupted by the

    sound of helicopters as three of them flew overhead, and Brent waddled off to
    wait for them to land in the clear area across the camp. I still hadn't met the
    woman he'd paired with, but either the stress of the job or her influence on
    him had Brent looking just a little slimmer than I'd seen him last time.

    Vanessa hung back and she

    stepped between my legs as I continued to sit on the table, reaching up to grab
    me by my beard and pull me down into a kiss that left her face smudged with the
    dirt and blood that was still in the nooks and crannies on my own. "God,
    Harri," she said. "I almost lost you."

    "No you didn't

    Vee," I said, deciding that if she didn't care about the mess then I
    didn't either and pulling her into a hug. "I'm fine, baby."

    "If I don't walk away

    and get busy I'm going to start crying," she whispered to me.

    "Okay," I said and

    pulled back and kissed her cheek. "Go be the boss."

    She smiled softly and gave my

    beard another tug before sighing and stepping back. "I'm going to need you
    tonight," she said.

    "Looking forward to

    it."

    She left me, and about three

    minutes later the courtyard was full of medics and doctors streaming in from
    around the buildings. Georgette started calling out directions for her triage
    system, and soon the worst of the wounded were being loaded onto stretchers and
    carried back towards the helicopters. I also noticed the body bag for the foreman;
    I never did learn his name; was quietly found and moved as well.

    Soon I had a medic and a

    doctor looking me over, and I had a bottle of water poured over my head so they
    could clean my wounds and get a better look at them. The skin on my scalp got
    pinched and I had two sharp bursts of pain as they stapled it. Then the medic
    did something I'd never heard of before and braided the hair around each of the
    wounds tightly, pulling the scalp together. I couldn't wait to hear how the
    girls would bother me about letting some random Air Force medic braid my hair
    when I hadn't let them do it yet.

    The doctor checked my leg,

    re-stitching it, and I'd been rolled over onto my stomach and had my ass up in
    the air as he double-checked the exit wound which I'd assured him hadn't ripped
    open.

    "Harri, if I didn't know

    better I'd say you were taking advantage of my doctors," Miriam said from
    somewhere behind me. "Now isn't the time for your proctology exam."

    "Harr harr harr," I

    said, turning to see her approaching. I'd noticed that all the medics and
    doctors were wearing basic medical masks, but the full hazmat suits hadn't made
    a show like before. Miriam was in her fatigues and had a medical mask on as
    well, and she looked put together and in command. "You finally going to let
    me cook you that steak or what?"

    "Did you stage all this

    just to get me out here for dinner?" she asked with an audible smirk,
    coming over to stand beside me at the table.

    The doctor let me roll over

    and sit up, and when I did Miriam leaned in and kissed me on the cheek through
    her mask. Thankfully the bottle of water over my head had led to me being able
    to wipe my face so she didn't end up looking like Vanessa.

    When she pulled away Miriam

    immediately was all business and she recorded my fast report on her phone as we
    talked about emergency security logistics. It became apparent very quickly that
    this wasn't, or couldn't, be the sort of 'shut down' event that the outbreak
    had been. People weren't being moved out, and work had to continue. At the
    minimum, we needed to get a gate installed at the main entrance to the site,
    plus another gate for the utility access road. We'd also preferably see the
    main gate manned by armed guards. It turned out that wasn't much of an issue;
    Miriam had access to more airmen for security than just the ones in her
    building in Portland. They would stage them in the closest motel and get things
    rolling quickly. The gate wouldn't take much more effort, and she'd work it out
    with Brent.

    The real problem was that if

    these looters and raiders were willing to drive right onto the site in the
    middle of the day, what else were they willing to do?

    "We're talking about

    rednecks here," I said. "Motivated rednecks equipped with hunting
    gear. That means they aren't afraid of hiking in here from anywhere
    off-property. Hell, they could just drop someone off outside of view of the
    gates and hike it in."

    Miriam blew out a breath and

    I could tell she was clenching her jaw rapidly as the corner of her mask
    fluttered a little. "We were hoping to not need to wall or fence this
    place in," she said. "Part of the reason your land was chosen to
    begin with was because it's so out of the way."

    "Government didn't plan

    on rednecks, huh?" I asked. "Well, I've got one way to make sure they
    don't come looking."

    "What, mount their heads

    on pikes by the road?" Miriam asked.

    I shook my head, the vision

    of the construction workers beating the man to death still too close in my mind
    for that joke. "I track them down and deal with them," I said.
    "One way or another."

    "Harri..." Miriam

    said.

    "It can't be the

    military doing it," I said. "Well, unless you're willing to have that
    sort of thing spread like wildfire. It could be the FBI, but rednecks are
    already going to be suspicious of anyone who even smells like a Fed."

    "The FBI is busy as hell

    right now," Miriam said. "At least as far as I know."

    "So it's me," I

    said.

    "It can't just be you.

    You'll need support of some sort," Miriam said quietly.

    "I'll ask for it if I

    need it," I said. "So maybe come up with a list of people who might
    want to run an off-book mission in the backwoods."

    "You'd be surprised how

    many people I know who would do that if I asked," Miriam said. I'd
    forgotten that she'd been working with the Para-rescue specialists through
    Intelligence. She really did know some badasses.

    "Well, like I said, I'll

    let you know," I said. "It'll take a bit to figure out where these
    bastards are coming from."

    "And what are your

    girlfriends going to think of that?" Miriam asked. "Or your other
    girlfriends?"

    "I'm going to pretend I

    don't know what the fuck you're talking about with that 'other' comment,"
    I said. "And I'm pretty sure Erica and the girls won't be happy about it.
    I think I'm going to move them to that place I told Captain Bloomberg
    about."

    Miriam raised an eyebrow.

    "That's safer than here?"

    "It's a total secret to

    the local community," I said. "No one knows it's there. That's safer
    than here right now."

    She frowned behind her mask

    but nodded. "I need to get back to things. There'll be airmen here within
    the hour; I already have a truck driving out. And not those National Guardsmen,
    real Air Force goons. Is there anything else you need?"

    "A nap, a general

    raising of the national average IQ, and an end to world hunger," I said.

    "Sorry, soldier," Miriam

    said with a smirk. "No can do on any of those."

    "I'll make do with a

    visit from you that isn't preceded by gunfire."

    "That could actually

    happen if you stopped getting into these situations and gave me a chance to get
    all the shit in this state together."

    "Hey, I went like three

    weeks there without getting into a gunfight," I said.

    "I think it was closer

    to two, Harri," Miriam sighed. "And this time it was three days. I'll
    swing by to say hello before I leave, alright? Your girls will be needing you."

    I nodded, and she left me to

    find my own hobbling way back to the compound.

     

    "I should stay here with

    you and Vanessa," Erica said as I slammed the trunk of her car, sealing in
    the luggage.

    "Erica, I love you, but

    there's no fucking way," I said as I took her face in both of my hands and
    kissed her hard. She took a moment to breathe in through her nose before she
    kissed me back properly, at which point she melted into it a little bit.

    I'd already been fussed over

    enough by the girls and I'd made the call about them needing to go to the
    Falls. A quick conversation with Abi over the phone confirmed they were
    welcome, and had raised questions that I was going to need to answer when we
    got there. Now Leo, Dani, Aria, India, Erica, Ivy and Kyla were all going to
    move over there, leaving just Vanessa and myself to watch over the compound.
    Vanessa couldn't leave because her work was too integral on-site, and I was
    still technically the Sheriff even if there were now USAF Airmen posted at the
    entrance to the site running security.

    Erica and Leo's cars were

    both stuffed full of people and luggage, and I was borrowing Brent's pickup to
    carry the rest of the luggage. I had the police truck, but I wanted this to be
    as quiet a move as possible and my truck could draw attention. The last thing
    we wanted was to draw attention to the Falls that afternoon.

    "I'm sorry for

    earlier," Erica sighed as she held me close and pressed her forehead to my
    shoulder. "I don't know if it's just me feeling like I can't do anything
    to help you, or just feeling trapped in general a bit without any power over my
    life, but I know you didn't need me second-guessing you and getting in your
    head."

    "I know, babe," I

    said, rubbing her back. "I think getting out there with the ladies might
    be a good change of pace, even if it's just for a week or two."

    "It better not be that

    long," Erica muttered. "Our RV already smells like cunt constantly, I
    don't want to guess what all that sweaty cunt up in those dorm rooms is
    like." That made me snort and laugh a little, and she squeezed me tighter.
    "You need to be careful, Harri," she said. "As much as you can.
    I; You joked about it, but you almost died today. I can't handle losing you
    when I finally have you."

    "I know," I

    whispered, squeezing her back. "And I will. But I need you to promise me
    something too."

    "Anything," she

    said, pulling back a little so she could look up into my eyes. She'd done up
    her makeup like she used to and had that fierce, punky look going on like she'd
    raised her armor.

    "Don't go trying to

    recruit more of the ladies into your web of sex," I said with a little
    smirk. "I have more than enough with you four."

    "So just Josie,

    then," she said with a sneaky smile.

    "Erica," I sighed.

    "I hear you, babe,"

    she said, and kissed my chin and then my lips. "But I'm not promising
    that."

    We separated and I swatted

    her butt as she went to get into the driver's seat of her car. Kyla met me
    before I got to the borrowed truck.

    "You have everything

    packed?" I asked.

    "All of it," she

    nodded. "Except what you asked me to leave for you."

    "Good," I nodded.

    "Give some lessons to anyone who wants them. I'll make sure to figure out
    how to send more ammo for everything. The more of the ladies who are
    comfortable with firearms, the better they can protect themselves if this shit
    keeps getting worse."

    "I know," she said

    and moved her bangs out of her face as she looked up at me.

    "Fuck, Kyla," I

    groaned, and I swept her up in my arms as I kissed her hard. My one hand was on
    her ass to hold her up, and she wrapped her legs around my waist as I walked
    her to the back of the truck and sat her on the bed as we kissed.

    "What was that

    for?" she asked when it finally ended.

    "I just had a moment to

    remember how young you are," I said. "And how much you're being
    forced to change for this."

    She looked at me with her

    eyes brimming a little as she smiled sweetly and put her hands flat on my
    chest. "I'm not that young, and I'm not changing that much," she told
    me. "You were younger than me when you joined the army."

    "You're changing more

    than you should need to," I said. "Doing things you shouldn't have
    to. I'm sorry."

    She knew what I meant, but

    she responded by sitting a touch higher and summoning me to kiss her again. I
    did, and we got lost in each other until a honk from Leo's car knocked us out
    of it.

    "Come on, you two,"

    Aria called out the window. "You can fuck in public once we get there.
    Bigger audience, too."

    Kyla blushed, and I felt my

    own face get a little warm too as I stepped away and offered her a stabilizing
    hand down from where I'd sat her.

    We hit the road, and I led

    the way down the driveway and stopped at the quartet of Airmen at the bottom.
    Each of them was in fatigues and they looked out of place next to the little
    outhouse-sized covering where Patrick used to happily check us in and out.

    I rolled down my window and

    flashed my badge to the Private who came over. "I'll be coming back in. I
    assume you were told about me?"

    "We were, sir," he

    nodded. "Any chance you have an ETA?"

    "Not sure, but I won't

    be far," I said.

    "Alright," he

    nodded and waved me through.

    Ivy was alone with me in the

    borrowed truck by design, even Macho riding in Erica's car, and as we drove I
    held her hand tightly and tried to make small talk with her. Again, more than
    Erica, she'd been the one left the most out of the loop on what she could do
    when the shit hit the fan. It wasn't her fault, but she'd been shaken when I'd
    shown back up even more wounded than when I'd left.

    She cried a little as she

    held my hand with both of hers, and when we reached the driveway up to the
    Falls I pulled off to the side and waved the others ahead of me. Once they had
    disappeared into the forest I pulled Ivy out of her seat and she climbed over
    the middle console and curled up in my lap, crying harder as she held me. I
    just hugged her to me and let myself go.

    I didn't say anything. I

    couldn't lay the actual words out for her. About watching men die in horrible
    ways over stupidity. About knowing I was inches from dying. About how my death
    would have meant something horrible for her, and Kyla, and Erica, and Vanessa.

    I let myself go and we cried

    together, and her feeling my chest heave and hearing my own grunts of despair
    let her know that I needed her just as much as the others.

    Erica was my wife. Kyla was

    my partner. Vanessa was my girlfriend.

    Ivy was my heart.

    "Thank you," she

    whispered to me when the tears had stopped for both of us. Her fingers wiped
    them from my cheeks and she looked at me with those big blue eyes of hers as
    she studied my face. "Thank you, mon amour."

    "Thank you,

    Ivy," I whispered back, leaning my forehead against hers. "Je
    t'aime."

    "Je t'aime,"

    she replied with a soft smile and then kissed me delicately.

    I checked to make sure there

    wasn't anyone on the road ahead or behind us potentially watching where we
    would go before I pulled into the driveway and headed up to the Falls. The
    girls had already gone through the gate and I ended up needing to close it
    manually since I didn't have the automatic opener. Up in the parking lot, I
    found that the introductions were already going on, and almost every woman in
    the place must have been out there helping carry in luggage, greeting the new
    faces and fawning over Macho as he was passed from bosom to bosom receiving
    cuddles and kisses.

    When we parked and Ivy and I

    got out I was almost toppled sideways as Josie hit me with a hug that almost
    doubled as a rugby tackle. I barely managed to stay upright.

    "What the hell,

    Harri?" she said, squeezing me tightly and then letting go quickly as she
    remembered I was hurt, the opposite of her greeting earlier that day. "You
    were here what, two and a half hours ago? Three? What the fuck happened?"

    "I have some explaining

    to do," I said and pulled her back into another hug. With me initiating
    this one she obviously felt more comfortable doing it, and she held me tightly
    for a long time.

    "Well?" she said as

    we finally let go of each other.

    "It'll be better if I

    tell everyone all at once," I said.

    Several of the other women

    came to talk with me, some out of concern and others just trying to get a
    little nugget of more information than anyone else got first. Melina in
    particular, though she blushed heavily when she approached, fussed over me. It
    was almost weird to think that the whole thing in the showers had been less
    than a few hours ago.

    One thing that stood out was

    that Abi didn't come to me like the others, or like she had earlier. And I
    didn't know how to feel about that. She was busy getting introduced around to
    the others, almost tied at the hip with Erica who had easily slipped into the
    Manager Mom role for our extended family on the move.

    Once I extricated myself from

    Melina and another woman, I headed over to them. "Abi," I said.

    She turned and looked at me,

    her brow softly drawn down as she smiled a little. "Harri," she said.
    "I'm glad you're not... any worse off."

    "Thanks," I said.

    "I'd like to talk to everyone all at once; there are things we need to let
    you all know. I just; I noticed Spencer isn't out here. How did your talk with
    her go?"

    Abi nodded softly.

    "She's... It's her story to tell."

    "I'd like to talk to her

    before I address everyone," I said. "If she'd be alright with
    that."

    "She's embarrassed,

    mostly," Abi said. "I can bring you up and see."

    "Okay," I nodded.

    "Thanks."

    We got the rest of the

    luggage together and everyone helped us bring it in, many hands making light
    work as we mounted the stairs inside and I got my first look at the upper
    dormitory floor of Valkyrie Falls. It was a long hallway with a glass wall on
    one side looking out over the back of the building and into the woods, letting
    in lots of natural light. The other side was interspaced with door after door
    in a sleek, black hall. Each door had a whiteboard on it with a custom magnet
    of the occupant's name, and pictures, quotes and other bits and bobs decorating
    them giving a glimpse into each woman's style. With the occupancy of the
    building already running lower than normal, Abi and Sarah had set aside a room
    for Leo and his family, another for Erica and Ivy, and a third one for Kyla.

    I made sure everyone was set,

    and Kyla was particularly happy about getting her own bed for a bit, before I
    followed Abi down the hall. She led me to Spencer's door, where I found her whiteboard
    was plastered with pictures of Spencer grinning widely surrounded by friends
    from high school or different gyms she'd worked out at, and a couple pictures
    of horses including one of her riding, and down at the bottom she'd written a
    quote in cursive; "Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many
    times I fell down and got back up again." -; Nelson Mandela

    Abi knocked while I stayed a

    step back and averted my eyes a bit, trying to make myself obviously passive.
    Spencer answered the door.

    "Harri was wondering if

    you'd be Okay to talk with him," Abi said.

    "Um. Hi, Harri,"

    Spencer said.

    I looked up at her and gave

    her a soft smile. "Hey, Spencer."

    She looked a little worn out,

    like she'd been through an emotional wringer, which was a bit how I felt as
    well. She was wearing one of her big sweatshirts and her long mane of blonde
    hair was loose, hanging all the way down past her butt.

    "Do you want to talk

    with him?" Abi prompted the younger woman.

    "Um..." Spencer

    hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah. You can come in."

    "We can do it somewhere

    more public if you want, but still quiet," I offered.

    "No, it's fine,"

    Spencer shook her head. "I; My thing earlier wasn't about you. I know
    you're trustworthy."

    "Okay, if you're

    sure," I said.

    I followed her in, and Abi gave

    me a look that was both soft and understanding but also pointed and demanding
    that I not fuck this up. Inside I found the room was much like the others,
    though Spencer had been there long enough that she'd hung up more pictures and
    her stuff was scattered around the room, along with having a dozen different
    hand-written papers taped to the walls with different workout plans and other
    ideas. It was a bit messy, but considering what my rooms had looked like until
    a couple of years of military life I couldn't say much.

    "You can sit here,"

    she said, pulling out the chair from the desk for me before she climbed up on
    the bed and sat cross-legged, tugging the sheet over her legs and bundling it
    in her hands nervously.

    "Spencer, first off I

    just want to say how sorry I am for doing whatever caused that response in
    you," I said as I sat, leaning forward to try to show her I was being
    sincere and entirely engaged with her. "I had no idea it would make you
    remember something, and I don't need you to tell me what happened unless you
    want to. I'd... like to know what exactly it was that I did though, since I
    think you're a cool girl and you're a great friend to Kyla, and I'd really like
    to not put you through that again."

    Spencer chewed on her lip for

    a second, looking down at her hands clutching the bedsheet, then shook her
    head. "Harri, I; God, I'm sorry for making you think it was something you
    did. This; It wasn't one thing, Okay? It was like a sequence of things you sort
    of stumbled into. Coming up behind me while I was preoccupied, putting your
    hand on my shoulder, and calling me cutie and complimenting me. It just
    reminded me of,” She stopped and took a slow breath. "It reminded me of
    someone, way down in my subconscious."

    "I'm sorry," I

    said. "For whatever happened."

    She swallowed and looked up

    at me nervously. "Do you want to know?"

    "Only if you want and

    feel safe telling me," I said. "Spencer, I don't know for sure how
    much you all know about me from what the girls have told you. I was an MP
    before I left the army. That's a military policeman. And I did investigations
    in the last year before I left. A lot of the job I did was standing guard
    places, making sure drunk soldiers learned to smarten up, and occasionally
    helping track down someone who had gone AWOL. But at the end, when I was doing
    investigations full time, I; I saw and heard about and investigated a lot of
    shitty stuff people did to each other. Sometimes it was violent. Sometimes it
    was sexual. And I didn't just leave the army, I sort of got kicked out. I was
    following up on rumors of someone who was blackmailing young female officers,
    and I happened to come across a bigwig officer in the middle of trying to
    assault a woman. It was just me, him and her, and I punched him even though he
    put his hands up and surrendered. So I got kicked out, and I couldn't help stop
    any more people from getting hurt like that on my watch, but I never regretted
    it because that woman ended up becoming a good friend of mine and she deserved
    to feel safe. So... if it will make you feel safer, I'd like you to tell me,
    but if you don't think it will, you don't have to."

    Spencer was a beautiful girl,

    usually full of that soft energy and endurance, and it was heartbreaking seeing
    her so obviously torn as she tried to decide what she wanted.

    "It was my cousin,"

    she blurted out, then swallowed and closed her eyes. Her knuckles were white as
    she gripped the bedsheet. "It happened the first time when I was thirteen,
    and I tried telling my parents but they thought I was just tattling on him for
    roughhousing because everyone in my family is like that, and he was a couple
    years older than me so they thought I was just being a sore loser. I never even
    got to tell them what happened, and then I didn't think they'd believe me. So I
    avoided him every chance I could, and that was when I started working out. I
    thought if I could be strong enough I could make him stop if he tried it again.
    Then, when I was sixteen, we hosted the family reunion and I couldn't avoid
    him. I tried to just stay away as much as possible. I locked myself in the
    basement or went out of the house every chance I got. But I must have left the
    basement door unlocked later in the day, and I was working out when he came
    down and put his hand on my shoulder and called me cutie like he did when I was
    a kid, and told me I was looking hot. And I tried to fight him like I planned
    but I was sixteen and he was eighteen and he worked out too and,”

    She stopped, the words

    halting their terrible tumble out of her mouth, and she swallowed hard and
    looked up at me. I tried to push all of my agonies for her into my expression,
    all of my sincerity while reducing any pity. I nodded silently.

    "He left me down there,

    and when I got myself together I went upstairs and told my parents. At first,
    my Mom didn't believe me, but my Dad did. God, he beat the shit out of my
    cousin. It took my Grandpa and two of my uncles to pull him off, and then my
    uncles had to pull my Grandpa off him too once he figured out what had
    happened. That's when I told them what happened when I was thirteen, and my Mom
    finally put the pieces together of why I'd changed so much, and she broke down
    crying. The police showed up and my cousin got arrested. I had to go down to
    the station and to the hospital to do the rape kit, but I was lucky because it
    was sort of open and shut. Even his own parents had heard him saying 'I thought
    she liked it' to try and defend himself. He got sentenced to two years in county
    prison after time served and had to pay some cheap fine because he was only two
    years older than me. He got out last year and I saw a photo of him; he looks
    like shit, and I think he joined a gang to try and survive, but no one in the
    family will talk to him so I'm not sure. I'm not really close to my parents now
    though; I mean, they're still my parents, but I think they realized how much
    they fucked up and it's hard for us to connect anymore."

    I had to take in a deep

    breath as I looked across the space at Spencer. She'd let go of the sheets and
    was breathing in short, shallow breaths.

    "I'm so sorry that

    happened, Spencer," I said quietly. "And no one should have to go
    through what you did. I'm also so completely amazed at how impressive and
    strong a woman you are. I don't know how you have the sort of inner strength
    you do."

    She flushed a little and

    looked away from me again. "I just... I'm just living my life," she
    said.

    "I want to give you a

    hug," I said. "Is that Okay, or no?"

    She nodded and slipped from

    the bed to stand, and I stood as well and slowly wrapped my arms around her and
    hugged her firmly, and she hugged me back.

    "Nice shampoo

    scent," I joked as we just sort of stood there holding each other.

    "Thanks," she

    chuckled, then squeezed me a little tighter. "You give really nice
    hugs." That made me smile, remembering what Kyla said after the first time
    they'd met. "Now, are you going to tell me why you have braids in your
    hair?"

    "How much have you heard

    about the last couple of hours?" I asked as we let go.

    "Um... nothing?"

    she said. "I've been in here the whole time."

    That made me blow out a

    breath. "Well, long story very short, I got skimmed by some birdshot and
    it's helping with the wounds on my scalp," I said.

    "Someone shot at

    you?!" Spencer asked, her jaw dropping a little.

    "It's... a bit more

    complicated than that," I said.

    "What; how? Why?"

    Spencer asked, motioning for me to bend over so she could look at the roots of
    the braids, and that's how she found the staples too which she prodded at
    carefully with a finger.

    "I've got a lot to tell

    you ladies. And that's all of you ladies, so how about we head out there
    so I only have to say it once?"

    "Sure," she nodded.

    "Let me just clean myself up a little in the bathroom, I'll be right out."
    She went and opened a door in the room which I thought led to a closet but
    revealed a small en suite washroom.

    "Wait, these rooms have

    their own bathrooms?" I asked.

    "Well, yeah," she

    said as she went to the mirror and started to quickly apply makeup.

    "With showers," I

    said.

    "Yeah, obviously.

    Why?"

    I blinked and shook my head.

    "Nothing. It's nothing." I wasn't sure how much Spencer knew about
    the routine that had developed after workouts. How Abi and Josie, and now
    Melina, had been choosing to shower with me down in the main room when they
    could have easily just climbed the stairs and showered in their rooms.

    Spencer took all of five

    minutes to get herself feeling together enough to leave the room, and when we
    walked out one after the other it was like there was a little procession of
    people waiting to try and casually make sure everything was Okay. First was
    Abi, being the bluntest, but then were Kyla and Josie, followed up by a couple
    of the other ladies from the Falls along with Dani. Then there were Erica and
    Ivy.

    "Everything Okay?"

    Erica asked me as I stepped into a kiss with her in the doorway to the room she
    was sharing with Ivy.

    "With the world?

    No," I said. "Here and now, yes."

    "Good, babe," Erica

    said, and pecked my lips again. Ivy shot me a look that told me she wanted to
    say something dirty, and I silenced her with a kiss of her own.

    We all ended up outside

    again, much like we'd been gathered that first time Kyla and I had been to the
    Falls and talked to the ladies about the pandemic. This time my family, and
    Leo's, were with them even though they knew everything. They were mostly there
    to try and help answer questions, but the difference between most of them and
    the Valykrie Falls ladies was kind of funny. Spencer had also been introduced
    to Macho and based on the look on her face I might have lost him as the family
    pet, she was beaming such a big grin as she held the little guy.

    I stood up on a bench so I

    could see and talk to everyone. "So... Hi," I said. "I; Well, we
    need to fill you ladies in on some stuff that we decided not to tell you yet
    because it's more complicated to try and explain. But you all deserve to know
    the truth, and I think we've already been waiting too long to tell you."

    "Harri, babe," Josie

    said from almost front and center. "Stop talking about talking and just
    tell us."

    "Right," I nodded.

    "So, you all know that I've been living in a polyamorous relationship, and
    that Dani is in one as well with my best friend Leo here. What we haven't told
    you is that there's a vaccine for Duo Halo, and that's why we're in the
    relationships to begin with."

    That may not have been the

    best way to introduce things, as I got a lot of hesitant, confused expressions.
    It was just the start, though, and I had time to try and make it all not sound
    so utterly insane.

     

    "And then Josie went

    over and was whispering with Erica and Kyla for a while," I murmured.
    "And there were some more awkward questions. Some of the ladies were
    skeptical even after all the girls talked about the orgasms and the imprinting
    process, but I think they were mostly the lesbians in the group."

    Vanessa snorted softly and

    smiled in the darkness of the RV. "I never thought about that. Do you
    think lesbians would get the bio-upgraded orgasms from your sperm?"

    "I guess," I said.

    "Though I don't know how that would work with them wanting sex or
    not."

    "We should ask

    Miriam," Vanessa yawned, and then she rolled over and lay half on top of
    me. We were both naked and I could feel her rubbery nipple pressed into the
    soft skin on my side as I looped my arm around her and hugged her close.

    "We can," I agreed.

    "So did Josie ask how

    she could get her hands on some vaccine so she could join our crew?"
    Vanessa grinned.

    "No," I scoffed,

    though I wasn't so sure about that answer.

    "What about Abi or

    Spencer?"

    "Spencer was blushing

    like crazy, and Abi just sort of frowned through the whole thing but didn't
    seem to care after the fact."

    Vanessa's hand slithered down

    my stomach towards my already-spent cock. "No one asked if they could join
    the family?"

    "No, Vee," I

    sighed. Her fingers had wrapped around my shaft and were playing with its
    softness. "No one asked to just assign themselves to us for an
    undetermined amount of time until the government scientists figure out how to
    make it not permanent."

    Her hand stopped playing.

    "Harri," she whispered in the dark. "If they do..."

    "I love you,

    Vanessa," I whispered back, hugging her closer. "The only way you'll
    get rid of me is if you tell me for certain that you don't want me
    anymore."

    "Good," she

    breathed out. "Because I don't plan on falling in love again. It was
    annoying enough figuring out that's what was happening this time."

    I chuckled, and she kept

    playing with my cock.

    "Three times might be as

    much as you get after the day I've had," I told her.

    "One more, baby,"

    she crooned softly, wiggling her body against mine. "Please? I want you to
    fuck me from behind again." She slid up the bed a bit and pressed her lips
    to my ear. "Please, lover?" she whispered.

    I started to get hard and I

    could feel her lips pull into a smile against my ear.

    "Tomorrow you need to go

    on the hunt," she whispered, starting to stroke me. "And the better
    you hunt down those assholes, the faster our family comes back to us. But I'm
    going to make good use of our time alone, Harri. I'll be home at 9 every
    evening, and I want you at least twice every night."

    "At least twice,

    huh?" I chuckled.

    "At least," she

    giggled. "Now fuck me, Harri."

    I did, not realizing I could

    have used a bit more of that energy the way my morning would go.

    I loved Vanessa, but

    God damn I hated her 5:30 AM alarm. Most mornings we usually
    rotated who would get up with her to see her off for the day; that meant that
    even though the rest of our sleep got disrupted, we still got at least a little
    bit longer snuggled up in bed.

    Being the only person in the

    RV with her had been a novel experience; I'd never spent the night with just
    one of my partners in that bed. I'd missed Erica, Kyla and Ivy for sure, but it
    was nice to have a break from being so completely smothered in warm, sleeping
    women and just have Vanessa's naked body cuddled with mine. Now, however, as I
    blearily blinked to myself while she got dressed and I worked the little
    kitchenette to get her a decent breakfast... well, I kept my grumbling to
    myself. My military experience had drilled an expectation of comfort out of me,
    but years out of the service had gotten me used to it again.

    "How's your leg,

    baby?" Vanessa asked as she came out of the bedroom, dressed in her jeans
    and long-sleeved shirt. She already had her high-vis vest on and was just
    missing her boots and hard hat since they were both sitting by the door.

    "Aches," I said.

    "Not horrible, but I'm definitely feeling it."

    Vanessa frowned and came to

    me, wrapping her arms around my waist lightly and kissing my cheek. "Are
    you going up to the Falls this morning?"

    "I wasn't planning on

    it," I said. "Why? We just dropped everyone off yesterday
    afternoon."

    Vanessa smirked a little.

    "Because you're used to popping off at least twice in the morning after
    I'm out of here," she said. "And you know the girls and I would give
    you shit if you jerked off instead of giving one of us that cum of yours."

    I sighed and shook my head,

    snorting softly. "Vee, I think you drained every last ounce out of me last
    night," I said.

    "I doubt that," she

    chuckled, then closed her eyes and breathed in the smell of the bacon and eggs
    as I shifted and slid them off of the griddle pan I'd been using. She took the plate
    and sat at the Murphey table. "Thank you, baby."

    "Gotta keep my gal

    energized for the day," I said, dropping into the seat across from her.

    "Umm, seriously

    though," she said through her first mouthful. "Be careful today. And
    don't not go to the Falls. If you have any risk of getting
    exposed to the viruses, you better fucking find one of us to fuck, baby."

    "I fucking promise,"

    I said, smiling as I watched her shovel down her breakfast.

    "Good," she said.

    "Do you have a plan?"

    "A bit of one," I

    said. "That pickup truck out on the access road is my first big clue, or
    might be holding one. Miriam was running the plates for me."

    "Anything else?"

    "No one on-site would

    have recognized the raiders," I said. "I could try and interview
    everyone who saw one, but I think your father might have a fit if I pulled that
    many guys from work. Do you think I could just put an all-call on the radio,
    see if anyone remembers distinctive markings like tattoos, scars or that sort
    of thing? I could go meet them where they are at, to get the notes."

    "That I can definitely

    make happen," Vanessa nodded. "Do you think maybe you would recognize
    some descriptions of people from around town?"

    "It's possible," I

    sighed. "But honestly? I doubt it. They'll help me identify people while
    I'm on the hunt though."

    "What happens if you

    don't find anything with the truck?"

    "Then I really have to

    knuckle down and start working my old MP skills," I said. "It feels
    bigger because it happened to us, but everything that happened was a crime.
    Someone did it with motive, means and opportunity. If I can start narrowing
    those down, I have a path to follow."

    Vanessa polished off her food

    quickly and chugged down the half-glass of milk she always finished with, then
    went and rinsed her dishes in the sink. "If I make you promise to be
    careful, what are the chances you do that?" she asked.

    "I'm always

    careful," I said. "It's the world that does risky shit."

    She snorted and set her

    dishes on the drying rack before coming and sitting on my lap, looping her arms
    around my shoulders as she looked at me. For just a moment, I got a flash of
    what life might have been like if I had met Vanessa some other way. Living in
    the old Black house, her running some construction company as I kept working in
    concept art for games and film. She'd likely be the one bringing home the
    serious bacon, while I'd keep the home, but I wouldn't have minded so much. No
    kids of our own, but we could have adopted. A quiet life, loving each other.

    But we never would have met.

    That life could never have been, except for the pandemic. She'd been working
    states away and never would have had a reason to come to the back woods of
    Oregon, and I would never have had a reason to go to one of the industrial
    construction sites she worked on.

    Duo Halo brought her to me.

    "I love you, you

    know," I told her.

    "I know," she said

    with a sad little smile. "And I love you too. Promise me anyways?"

    "I promise I'll be

    careful," I said sincerely. "Now you."

    "Now I what?" she

    asked.

    "Promise you'll be

    careful," I said. "That you won't get squashed by a bulldozer, or
    have a building collapse on you, or get abducted by aliens."

    "I promise I won't get

    caught in any big machinery or have a building fall on me," Vanessa said,
    then gave me a peck on the lips. "No promises on the aliens though.
    Depends on how hot they are."

    "Wow!" I laughed,

    and she giggled and leaned in to kiss my neck.

    "I need to go," she

    said.

    "I know," I sighed.

    We separated and I watched

    her put on her boots and pick up her hard hat and hook it to the carabiner on
    her belt. Then I kissed her properly at the door and she was gone, trudging
    into the pre-dawn gloom.

    I had a lot to do. An entire

    investigation to get underway. My own breakfast to make. I needed to phone in
    and check with Miriam, and over to the Falls to check to make sure everything
    was Okay there.

    But no one was going to be

    awake at 5:45 AM.

    I stumbled back to bed,

    collapsing down onto it heavily and wincing at the pain in my leg and the sting
    on my scalp. I'd almost forgotten about the scalp injuries. As my eyes were
    starting to drift closed I noticed that my phone was blinking; I had a message
    waiting.

    Rolling onto my back, I

    picked up the phone and checked it.

    'Good morning, babe,' Erica had sent. Along with a picture of her and

    Ivy kissing. Neither of them were wearing makeup, and Ivy looked mostly asleep.
    The next picture was the two of them snuggling naked in bed.

    I groaned and sent them a

    heart emoji in return and dismissed the message, just to find I had another one
    waiting.

    'Good morning, dear,' Kyla had sent along with a picture of her naked

    butt as she lay in bed. Her warm, golden brown skin was illuminated by the
    flash of her phone camera and there was just a glimpse of her cunt between her
    legs.

    I groaned again and sent her

    a heart emoji as well and dropped the phone.

    Part of me felt like I should

    respond with something more. They must have set alarms specifically to take and
    send those pictures to me, which took effort that they didn't need to
    spend. I should really send something back. I wasn't exactly a
    'dick pic' person though.

    Then I grinned and laughed to

    myself, and rolled back up out of bed. I could spend a few minutes to tease
    them a little.

     

    My phone rang, and I wasn't

    sure if I'd even gotten fifteen minutes of sleep since I'd snapped the photo
    and sent it off to Erica, Ivy and Kyla. I was pretty sure I'd sent it to
    Vanessa as well, just to try and make her smile and roll her eyes. Then I'd
    pushed the sex doll off the side of the bed because I didn't actually want to
    cuddle with it as I snagged a couple more hours of sleep.

    There was a part of me, no

    matter how much I loved the girls, that wanted to just hang up the phone and
    wait until later to laugh about it with them. But, as I listened to the generic
    ringtone and realized I should probably put some custom ones in so I could
    discern who was calling me without looking, I realized that it could have been
    Miriam calling about something important. Or Vanessa calling because the
    raiders were back. Hell, it could have been Mary calling me. We hadn't heard
    from her in almost three weeks now other than a text to Erica that had said
    she'd gotten to 'the commune' safe and sound with the kids.

    When I rolled over and picked

    up my phone, blearily opening one eye to check who it was as I fumbled to
    answer it, one name I wasn't expecting was on the call
    display.

    "Kara?" I asked

    groggily as I answered.

    "Harrison?" she

    said.

    I was immediately thrown back

    into my own memories. Back before the pandemic, and the military. Back to high
    school. Talking on the house phone with Kara for hours on end, clogging up the
    one line we had until my sister or my mother came to claim the wireless phone
    from me. It had been the time just before cell phones; I could only imagine what
    trouble we would have gotten in back then if we'd had those. It had been years
    since I'd heard her voice over the phone and it just did something to me that I
    couldn't explain. Her voice put this warm but uneasy, nostalgic and sad tingle
    through me because nothing else that had happened between us was in the
    forefront of my sleepy mind.

    "Harrison, I'm sorry I'm

    calling so early," Kara said. "But you said to call if..."

    "What's wrong?" I

    asked, sitting up and swinging my legs over the side of the bed.

    "It's here, Harri,"

    she said. "The sickness. It's on the Rez. It's bad."

    "Are you Okay? Are you

    isolating and quarantining?"

    "Not at first, but we

    are now," she said. "I wore a mask the whole time though, and started
    wearing gloves. We spent some time trying to help people. The ambulances won't
    come up here, and the clinic is closed, and..." Her voice broke. "You
    have connections. Can you help? Please?"

    My mind immediately went to

    what might be possible. The Rez wasn't huge, in size of population or land, at
    least compared to some other reserves. It housed maybe fifteen hundred people
    at any given time, plus the Tribe's community members who didn't live on the
    Rez but used its services probably tripled that number. They were spread an
    hour's drive in every direction though. In an emergency would they have tried
    to congregate, or would they have stayed home?

    It was a bigger population

    than the Site had been when we had the outbreak, but it was way smaller than a
    place like Eugene. Captain Bloomberg had said they didn't have the vaccine
    supplies to do anything useful down there, but they might have enough to save
    lives on the Rez.

    "Harri? I know I've been

    an absolute bitch," Kara said quietly. Pleading. "In general, and
    personally. You never deserved... I shouldn't have let..." she sobbed.
    "I'm sorry." I realized that my moment of quiet, as I'd processed
    things, had sounded a lot like hesitation over the phone.

    "Kara, baby, I'll do

    everything I can," I promised her. "The rest doesn't matter. Are you
    alone?"

    "I'm quarantining with

    Gerty, my second cousin, and my neighbor Tanaya," she said. "We're
    all at my place."

    "Okay. None of you leave

    that building," I said. "Lock the doors and windows, pull the shades.
    Hell, barricade the doors if you can. It's going to hurt a lot, Kara, but if
    you keep trying to help people you're going to die for sure and we're not going
    to be able to actually hug it out and maybe figure out how to be friends or
    something."

    "I,” she started, but

    couldn't put into words what I knew she was feeling.

    "I know," I said.

    "I know, baby. You've always been the person who helps. But it will
    literally kill you. You have to follow the help-yourself-first
    rule. Block the doors. Make it look like no one is home as much as you can.
    People will be desperate, and that's when they're the most dangerous. Do you
    have any weapons, anything to protect yourselves with?"

    "Gerty has a handgun. I

    have my hunting bow." There were voices in the background for a moment.
    "Tanaya says she can run back across to her place. She has a couple of
    hunting shotguns her ex left behind last year."

    "She should do that as

    soon as possible," I said. "Just make sure no one is outside and
    nearby when she goes. This virus is insidious, Kara. I,” I felt my own breath
    hitch for a moment. "It's entirely possible all three of you are already
    infected. I just need to try and get you help as soon as possible to reverse
    it. Okay?"

    "I'm so sorry,

    Harri," she whispered again, and I could tell by the tone of her voice
    that she had her eyes closed and was hating on herself. Even after all this
    time, I could read the variations in her voice. "I should have listened to
    you more."

    "You couldn't change

    anything," I tried to assure her. "It was going to happen no matter
    what. It's... It's kind of amazing it hadn't happened already. Just stay safe,
    Kara, and when I can give you a concrete answer of some sort I'll call you,
    Okay?"

    She gulped softly on the

    other end of the line. "Thank you, Harri. I'm; Fuck, I'm so sorry."

    The guilt was eating her, and

    I knew it wasn't just the guilt around the virus. It was everything between us.
    Layers of guilt. She was facing her own mortality and all the other stuff was
    falling away.

    It was funny how a virus, or

    a gunshot wound, could really put someone in a clear frame of mind.

    "I forgive you," I

    said, meaning it for everything just like she was apologizing for everything.
    "You hear me, Kara? I do. Now I'm going to hang up so I can start making
    calls, and you're going to do what I said, Okay?"

    "Okay," she said.

    "Okay."

    I hung up and had to suck in

    a long, calming breath through my nose and let it out through my mouth. That
    didn't help, so I did it a few more times. Once I was sure I wasn't going to
    crack, I made a call.

    "Harrison," Miriam

    said as she picked up. "Getting started early, or is something
    wrong?"

    "Both," I said.

    "Miriam, I need a favor."

    Her sigh was heavy and long.

    "This isn't about the investigation, is it?"

    "It's not," I

    admitted. "It's vaccine-related. When I was down in Eugene, Captain
    Bloomberg mentioned that you guys were low on stock for the vaccine because of
    the California rollout. Is that still true?"

    "She probably shouldn't

    have said that," Miriam said, and I got the distinct impression she was
    glaring across their shared office at the blonde lawyer. "But it's the
    truth."

    "How bad is it?" I

    asked.

    "That's a complicated

    question," she said. "Look, if your sister needs it, I can squeeze
    out a dose or get one to her from California."

    "It's not; well,

    actually, yes that would be amazing, but that's not what I'm calling for,"
    I said. "A local community is having an outbreak here."

    There was an uncomfortable

    pause in the conversation.

    "It's on the

    reservation, isn't it?" Miriam asked. I could hear the frustration in her
    voice. Frustration at people not taking the government messaging seriously.
    Frustration that her messaging in the state was getting
    muddied by messaging at the Federal level, and messaging from different
    political factions in the state, and opposed by grassroots groups. But it was
    also frustration at me.

    "It is," I said.

    "They need help. They don't have any emergency services."

    Another frustrated sigh came

    across from Miriam, this one shorter and more sad than mad. "Harri, the
    rollout down south has already eaten up most of our stockpile," she said.
    "The rest is going to different missions. Operation Homestead, Operation
    Breadbasket, Operation Bug zapper; Fuck, you might as well just call the whole
    thing 'Operation Keep The Lights On.' Our rounds of backup testing are done
    here, we're onto deployment for operations until we get new shipments in a week
    or so. I've got a handful of doses earmarked for discretionary use, but it's
    nowhere near enough for what you're asking."

    A handful of doses would

    cover Kara and the two women with her. I almost, almost, asked for
    that but I knew Kara would hate me if I did. For all that she was finally
    thinking in survival mode, she would never agree to a plan that would
    effectively be her putting herself above everyone else in her tribe. She'd end
    up demanding it went to someone else worse off.

    "Is there any chance

    that you could make a case to get enough doses?" I asked. "Call it a
    cultural emergency or something. Make it a racial thing if you have to and show
    you can't doom a bunch of natives to death."

    "I can try," she

    said. "But... Harri, I'll try. I can't promise anything though. You need
    to expect nothing, not something. This virus is a genocide machine and I don't
    have the details, but this rez wouldn't be the first to go dark."

    That made me suck in another

    breath and let it out slowly.

    "Is this a 'no' without

    wanting to say no?" I asked.

    Another long, awkward

    silence.

    "I'm so sorry,

    Harri," Miriam said sadly.

    "It's Okay," I said

    quietly. "I don't blame you, or the Captain, or anyone. The world is just
    a real hellhole right now."

    "If there's anything

    else that isn't the vaccine that they need, I can try to get
    something organized," she said.

    "I don't know if it

    would be much good, or accepted," I said. "I'll find out though.
    Um... did you get anything back on that truck license plate?"

    Miriam was quiet for a short

    moment as she switched gears. "Yes and no," she said after I heard
    some paper rustling in the background. "We got the registration, but the
    truck is likely looted or stolen. The owner is logged as deceased as of two
    months ago."

    "Okay," I said.

    "Not unsurprising. I'll do a sweep through it for any useful clues. Any
    IDs on the three dead raiders?"

    "One was an Army washout,"

    Miriam said. "Charles 'Chuck' Poole. No known current residence, and
    dishonorable discharge during boot camp. The one with his head smashed in was
    Chuck's brother and had a criminal record, went by Larry Poole. Looks like he
    was off the grid for the last couple of years though. The third one we don't
    have anything on."

    "I don't recognize the

    name Poole, but that might not mean anything," I sighed. "They sound
    like prime candidates for an idiot's array of backwoods redneck militia. Any
    chance of a forensic team checking the truck for other fingerprints?"

    "Not for four months at

    least," Miriam said flatly.

    "Alright. I'll see what

    I can do," I sighed.

    "Harri... I've said it

    before, but I need to say it with some more emphasis. Be careful.
    And I mean that for you, but also not just for you. Yesterday
    was too close a call and the other day when you got hit... If you die, Harri,
    the best-case scenario is messy. With a short enough timespan, we can do a very
    invasive process to re-partner your girls, but that will only ever work once.
    And those girls that love you will remember you, but that love will get,” she
    paused and took a breath. "The lab coats aren't exactly testing for this,
    and I'm reading it between the lines in the reports and talking to the couple
    of people it's happened to here in the state already so it's just me guessing
    at things. They'll remember loving you, but the re-partnering will rip the
    active feeling out of them. The vaccine doesn't make a woman love a man deeply,
    but it manipulates positive feelings to be stronger and I think part of that
    will deaden their memories of you. They wouldn't forget you, but they wouldn't
    feel that same love in those memories. And that's the best-case
    scenario, because if you die and we can't get your body back here fast enough,
    we might not even be able to do the re-partnering and then the girls will be
    the first test subjects to find out what happens at the end of the line when
    there's no re-partnering available. We don't know what will
    happen yet, but it would be bad."

    As I listened to Miriam my

    head lowered and I stared at my feet on the floor, absorbing what she was
    saying. Dead was dead, and I obviously would prefer to stay alive. But that
    other part... the idea of any of the girls forgetting how they
    felt about me as I got replaced... If I were in a normal relationship with
    Erica and the world wasn't in the shitshow it was, and I died, I would want
    Erica to find someone else to make her happy but that didn't mean I would want
    her to forget me. To forget how we felt about each other. And if Miriam was
    reading between the lines, it could be even worse than that.

    "Okay," I said, a

    little hoarse. "I get it."

    "Just be careful, and be

    decisive," Miriam said. "Don't take risks you don't need to,
    Harri."

    I had to breathe in and out a

    couple of times to keep myself centered and let all of it brew inside my mind.
    "Thanks, Miriam," I finally said.

    There was a moment where I

    could tell she wanted to say something else, though I couldn't be sure what. It
    could have been serious or a joke to try and cut the tension, and about any
    number of the crazy things going on. But she swallowed whatever it was.
    "Be safe," she repeated.

    "You too," I said

    and we hung up.

    "Fuck," I growled

    to the empty RV bedroom and let myself fall back onto the mattress.

    Outbreak on the Rez. Hunting

    the raiders. Protecting myself and my girls. Security for the site.

    I had a lot of plates

    spinning, and I was running out of hands to keep them steady. And each of them
    was important, and could mean life or death. I had to prioritize, but how did
    I prioritize this?

    The outbreak was the most

    pressing issue, but what could I do about it? I didn't have the vaccine to hand
    out. I could try and recreate the thing with Vanessa, but we still weren't sure
    what exactly had done that; it could have been something to do with Vanessa and
    nothing to do with Erica, Ivy and me.

    And could I offer that to

    Kara? 'Hey, I can maybe save your life but you need to be bonded to me,
    and to try to accomplish it we'll need to have an orgy and you need to drink
    mouthfuls of my other girlfriend's squirt.' And that still wouldn't
    fix the issue of offering Kara an out, or even her and her cousin and her
    neighbor, without helping the rest of the community.

    I could offer it to her, if

    it was between that embarrassing offer or her dying. And I would if I had to.
    If she started to show symptoms, I would offer it; well, I would try to get a
    dose from Miriam first, but still.

    There wasn't anything else I

    could do for them though. And as I sat there on the bed I knew I wasn't going
    to get any more sleep.

    I had to take all of this one

    step at a time. Tackle the things I could deal with. The girls were safe for
    now. The site had some airmen deployed at the entrances, and a few more in the
    main camp when they weren't on duty. I couldn't do anything else for the Rez at
    the moment. That left my investigation and the raiders.

     

    The truck had been sitting

    exactly where we'd left it. Instead of hiking out to the spot, I'd driven my
    police truck around to the freshly cut utility road the crew had been working
    on, and as I pulled up at the scene I had to take a moment to myself in the
    quiet of the cab. There was blood splatter on the vehicles; a little bit here
    or there, and a larger spray across the raider's truck since it had been sort
    of close to the fight.

    With the bodies having been

    carted away, for the most part, the scavenger animals in the woods had done a
    little digging around where the blood had pooled on the ground, likely hoping
    to find some scraps, but not so much that I couldn't see where the action had
    happened.

    It wasn't actually my own

    close call, or my part in killing the raiders, that bothered me. Part of me
    still regretted that Kyla had been forced into killing again, but that wasn't
    even it. What made me pause was the vision of the five construction crew
    members pummeling the raider. It had been a hard death, and now I knew that one
    of the others had been his brother, and he'd died knowing they were both getting
    killed.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 6 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 15
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 15
    bringing the family to safety.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    Over the next couple of days

    I was on 'bed rest,' which meant I was popping Tylenol 3's on a schedule, was
    limited to one beer a day so I didn't fuck up my meds, and tried to move around
    as much as possible to stretch my legs while being harassed that bed rest meant
    I was supposed to stay in bed.

    The blowjobs were nice,

    though.

    Vanessa went back to work the

    day after we got back, and we got a couple of updates when she was back late
    that night. The renovations on the barracks buildings were finished and the
    first 100 workers were getting shuttled in; which actually meant 50 trained
    construction workers and 50 of their new vaccine partners who Vanessa had to
    work with the other laborers foremen to train and get into jobs. The canteen
    that would be feeding the entire camp was supposed to be kicking off as well,
    and within a couple of weeks there would be about 700 people living in the
    barracks buildings, and another 300 or so still living in the closest motels.
    The big plan was to erect another two major barracks buildings, and then work
    would really get started on everything. It was early July and they wanted the
    first of the McMansions to be finished by the end of September, and winter
    wouldn't be stopping construction.

    It seemed insane, but with so

    many people to throw at a problem I had to assume things would go quickly. I
    didn't really know anything about construction; was there a critical mass issue
    of having too many workers working on one house?

    I managed to get in a quick

    walk outside our little compound when my truck was delivered. Part of me
    wondered if the fact that the bullet holes in the sides had been repaired but
    painted a slightly different black color was Miriam giving me a reminder. All
    of the windows had been replaced though, and the front end had gotten repaired
    and there weren't any noticeable axle problems when Kyla took it for a quick
    spin. I also remembered to ask about Jackie Fallows, the prisoner we had been
    transporting; apparently, he'd caught a glancing blow from one of the bullets
    that had spattered the truck and he had a nice crease in his upper arm but was
    otherwise alright. He'd gotten loaded into the back of the SWAT truck once it
    had been freed from its precarious position after getting hit by the transport
    ambush. One of the men in there hadn't been so lucky and died from the wild
    impact.

    Along with the truck, Miriam

    or possibly Laura had also sent a new care package with more ammunition,
    heavier-duty Kevlar vests and other SWAT tactical gear that seemed like
    overkill, and two new M4s to replace the one that had eaten a shotgun blast.
    There was also, much to the giggling delight of my girls, one of those doughnut
    seats that people with tailbone and ass problems had to sit on. I tried calling
    Miriam, but she texted back that she was busy unless it was an emergency, and
    that it better not be an emergency. I sent her back a Prayer Hands emoji, a
    Truck emoji and a Water Pistol emoji to thank her, and she sent back two fists
    bumping each other and a heart that made me smile. If Grierson hadn't
    manipulated the back end of the Air Force into putting her on this project, I
    couldn't imagine what kind of extra shit I would have been in by now.

    It was on the third day of

    'bed rest' that, following my morning blowjob from Ivy, I was presented with
    fresh bandage wraps for my leg and my gym clothes.

    "We're going up to

    Valkyrie Falls," Erica told me. "Abi is going to check you out and see
    what kind of physical therapy you might need."

    "Abi's great at what she

    does, but she's not a physical therapist," I pointed out.

    "She's the best we've

    got, Harri," Erica said sternly. Then she kissed me on the forehead as I
    sat on the edge of the bed. "Just do what I say, Okay?"

    I wrapped my arms around her

    torso and pulled her to me, pressing my face into her soft stomach. "I
    will, babe," I promised her. "I will."

    That seemed to mollify her,

    though I did manage to make her hesitate in us leaving so early when I slid my
    hands down to give her bum a squeeze. No such luck, however, and soon I was
    dressed in my gym gear and getting helped into the passenger seat of my truck.
    Kyla ended up driving, while Erica and Dani piled into the back seat.

    The drive, more than even

    being at home again, felt like things were starting to go back to what we had
    come to think of as normal. Sure, my leg hurt like a bitch, but I could mostly
    ignore that to just focus on the banter between the girls. Kyla reached over
    and took my hand while she was driving and squeezed my fingers, then grinned
    and slid her hand onto my thigh like I often did with her. That made me laugh
    and I had to fend off her hand as she slid it higher and brushed against my
    crotch.

    We pulled into the Falls through

    the automatic gate; thankfully the remote we kept in the glovebox was still
    there when I thought to check for it; and as we were pulling into the parking
    lot we were met by the ladies. All of the ladies.

    "Apparently there are no

    secrets in this world anymore," I muttered and chuckled as the crowd of
    them came into view.

    "I told Abi and Sara

    when I did the mini-supplies run two days ago," Erica said.

    "I told Josie and

    Spencer over text," Kyla admitted.

    "I... might have

    mentioned it to Melina," Dani said. "We've been chatting and she
    asked after you."

    "It's fine," I

    laughed. "Just; I don't know. Don't let me get swamped here."

    "Yeah, because you

    wouldn't love to be dogpiled by a bunch of muscle mommies," Erica teased
    me. "Come on, just face the music, babe. You're a lovable guy."

    I made a dramatic grumbling

    noise that drew some laughs from the girls, and Kyla shut off the engine and I
    popped my door open.

    It was, thankfully, a quick

    swarming. The ladies wanted to know what happened, and some wanted to see the
    wound while others turned away very much not wanting to see it. I got
    hugs from a bunch of them and all the sorts of words of encouragement that I
    expected. Josie was biting the inside of her cheek when it was her turn and she
    gave me a once over like she was worried I wasn't real for a second, then she
    wrapped her arms around my waist and hugged me gently as I bundled her up in my
    arms. It was fast, but I could tell she was shaken by the news of my injury. It
    was also weird seeing her a little shy and nervous compared to her usual
    boisterous self, though she managed to mostly get back into it when the hug
    ended.

    Spencer had the opposite

    reaction; the quieter girl practically tackled me against the side of the truck
    as she hugged me hard and loudly proclaimed she was happy I was Okay. I rubbed
    her back for a moment and patted her, not sure how comfortable I was hugging
    her fully only because of the crush she'd had. I didn't want to lead her on
    even by mistake, and she was too young for me even if things were different.

    Melina gave me a hug as well,

    and a kiss on the cheek as she whispered her thanks to me again for my favor
    the week before. Her eyes looked a little sad, but she smiled, and I could tell
    that she was managing some complex emotions. Abi and Sara also hugged me, both
    of the tall women taking care not to squeeze me hard but giving me
    encouragement and slapping me on the back a bit.

    Everyone knew everyone

    already so there were no introductions to be made, but Erica had never been
    there for an actual workout. It didn't take long for Josie and Melina to take
    her on a quick tour while Spencer got Dani and Kyla started on their workouts
    and I was partnered off with Abi. I did notice that the three of them stuck
    close to us though, never more than a few yards away from where Abi started
    working with me.

    "So, how much pain are

    you really in?" Abi asked me as we took up a spot in the outdoor gym area
    and she dragged out a couple of padded mats from a little shed and set them
    down.

    "Call it six out of

    ten," I said. "Seven if I whack it or do something stupid."

    "Alright," she

    nodded. "Better or worse when you put weight on it?"

    "Worse, but

    manageable."

    "Any range of motion

    issues?"

    "The girls have been

    keeping me limited so far, so I'm not sure," I admitted.

    "Alright," she

    nodded. "Then let's start there."

    Abi worked me over in a way

    that we'd never worked before. Whether it was stretching, light cardio work or
    even just some basic curls to do some upper body work, she was checking on my
    thigh for tightness or stabilizing my back or hip. There had always been some
    casual touching during my workouts as she adjusted my posture or stance, or
    occasionally had me put a palm on her to feel a specific muscle group as she
    showed me a new exercise. This was different though, and I put it down to her
    worrying about not wanting me to overdo it or strain anything.

    The thing was, she wasn't the

    only one doing it. As soon as Melina and Josie had finished with Erica's tour
    the three of them joined us, and soon I had four women fluttering around me to
    make sure I was all good. I wasn't sure if Erica had talked with them about it
    or anything, but somehow I ended up being as ministered to by Josie and Melina
    as I was by Abi. Erica, meanwhile, was constantly nearby encouraging me, and
    occasionally rewarding me with a kiss when I exceeded Abi's goals.

    It was weird. And honestly a

    little annoying, having four of them all over me. Two I could have handled, but
    four became almost restrictive. I didn't have the heart to ask Josie or Melina
    to let me be after the way they had greeted me, though, even if Josie had
    slipped back into her joking and energy.

    "Alright, I think I'm

    done for today," I groaned as I slowly sat up from doing some sit-ups. I
    had Abi on one side and Melina on the other both taking my hands to help me sit
    up, and Josie behind me supporting my back.

    "You sure?" Josie

    asked. "I can tell you can keep going."

    "No, he's right,"

    Abi said. "It's the first day, we don't want to push him too hard."

    "We'll be back

    tomorrow," Erica said confidently. "Hell, we'll be back every day
    until he's at 100 per cent."

    "That might be a bit

    much, babe," I said as I allowed Melina and Abi to help me up. Well,
    allowed might have been a bit much considering the two of them could lift me
    off my feet.

    "Two days on, one day

    off," Abi said. "You're not lacking range of motion, so it's just
    making sure you don't let it get stiff. Rest days are important too."

    "Not that you get many

    rest days with four girlfriends, eh Harri?" Josie chuckled, nudging me.

    I just shook my head and

    rolled my eyes a little. "How about you guys take Erica up to show her the
    falls?" I suggested. "I don't think I can do the uphill walk, so I'll
    just walk it out here and see what the others are up to."

    "That's a good

    plan," Abi agreed. Soon she had wrangled both Josie and Melina into going,
    and I could tell she knew I was feeling a little smothered at the moment. I got
    a kiss, long and with a touch of tongue, from Erica when they left and I knew
    she was doing it to make sure they knew I was hers.

    "Fuck me," I

    groaned once they were gone, taking a moment to stretch out my back. That had
    been a bit of an experience. Instead of dwelling, and wanting to distract
    myself from the dull roar of pain in my leg, I limped my way across the outdoor
    gym to the water fountain and refilled my bottle before going to look for Kyla,
    Dani and Spencer. I ended up finding them in the indoor gym, with Dani up on
    the Stairmaster and Kyla looking like she had just finished on it herself,
    dripping sweat as she slowly walked in circles to cool down. Spencer,
    meanwhile, was doing a set of Bulgarian deadlifts with a look of concentration
    on her face. The plates of the weightlift bar were set to around where I would
    have been working them, and I could tell she was pushing herself at her max
    weight with only a couple of reps at a time.

    "Hey, hon," I said

    as I approached Kyla.

    "Hey," she said and

    leaned towards me and puckered her lips. I smiled and gave her a kiss, avoiding
    otherwise touching her since she was so sweaty from her workout.

    "How you feeling,

    Harri?" Dani asked me from up on the Stairmaster, already starting to drip
    sweat herself. Her ass looked fantastic in her tight athletic shorts.

    "Achy," I said

    honestly. "And not the good kind. But it's good for me so I can't
    complain."

    "That's what I keep

    telling myself about this fucking thing," Dani panted. "God, I hate
    this."

    "And yet your ass loves

    it," Kyla smirked at her.

    "You know it," Dani

    laughed breathlessly.

    "And your ass," I

    smirked a little, whispering to Kyla.

    "Your ass, as

    soon as you're better," Kyla grinned back.

    There was a clang as Spencer

    finished another rep set and let the weights hit the floor a little heavily.
    She stepped away from the block she'd been using to prop up her back foot for
    the Bulgarian lifts and was breathing deep and hard as she peeled off her
    trademark bulky sweater. Her skin was flushed from her heavy exertion and she
    was wearing another of her thick athletic bras.

    "Hey, cutie," I

    said with a smile, stepping over to her and putting an encouraging hand on her
    shoulder from behind as I stepped up beside her. "That was a fantastic
    set. You're really,”

    "No!" Spencer

    yelled, recoiling from me as if I'd slapped her or something, pulling away from
    my hand as she looked at me in a panic. Her eyes were wide and she looked like
    she'd seen a ghost or something.

    "Spencer,” I started.

    "Just stay away from

    me!" Spencer barked, and then she rushed out of the gym room leaving her
    weights still on the bar and her sweater and water bottle discarded on the
    floor.

    "What the;?" I

    wondered.

    "What the hell?"

    Kyla asked. She'd been close enough to hear everything. "What was
    that?"

    "I don't know," I

    said, shaking my head.

    The Stairmaster shut down and

    Dani climbed off, breathing hard. "What just happened?" she asked.

    "Spencer freaked

    out," Kyla said. "Harri didn't even do anything, he just patted her
    shoulder and encouraged her."

    "That's...

    weird..." Dani said. "One of us should probably go check on
    her."

    "I'll go," Kyla

    said. "You stay with Harri just in case."

    "In case of what?"

    I asked.

    "In case she tells

    someone else something different than what we saw," Kyla said.

    I closed my eyes for a moment

    and sighed. Hard. I had no idea what was going on with Spencer, but the
    last thing I needed was for this place to go from super welcoming to 'you are
    rape' because of it.

    Kyla rubbed my arm.

    "Seriously, Harri. You didn't do anything. Don't worry. I'll find her and
    talk to her."

    "Alright," I

    sighed.

    Kyla left and Dani didn't

    feel like continuing her workout after that, so I helped her clean up what the
    three of them had been using including Spencer's weight plates. By the time we
    were finished, Kyla hadn't come back so Dani and I went to the bench outside
    the gym courtyard. Kyla eventually came and found us, shaking her head as she
    sat down in between Dani and me.

    "I don't know," she

    said. "She was up in her room, but she refused to talk to me. A couple of
    the other women were around and giving me looks, so I told them what happened
    and they didn't know what it would be either."

    "Fuck," I sighed.

    "I; It doesn't make sense unless I did something to trigger her. Maybe it
    was touching her shoulder, or something I said."

    "Spencer never let on

    that she had something in her past," Kyla said.

    "Doesn't mean that she

    doesn't," Dani said, leaning forward and frowning. "People can hide
    shit like that."

    "Fuck," I said

    again.

    "It's not your fault,

    hon," Kyla said, taking my hand.

    We sat in silence for a few

    more minutes before the quartet of ladies came back down from their walk up to
    the falls. The four of them were laughing and chatting until they saw the look
    on my face as they got closer.

    "What's wrong?"

    Erica asked.

    "Spencer needs... I

    don't know," I said.

    "She needs to talk to

    someone," Dani said, turning to Abi. "Probably you."

    "What happened?"

    Abi asked with a frown.

    Kyla told them since she'd

    been the witness, and Abi, Josie and Melina all frowned but said they weren't
    sure what it was.

    "I'll go see her,"

    Abi said.

    "I'll come too,"

    Josie said quickly.

    "No, just me," Abi

    said, patting Josie's arm. "The fewer people the better, if it's something
    from her past she needs to work through. She knows you're her friend, Josie.
    It's probably for the best if the rest of you get cleaned up and head out for
    the day to give Spencer space no matter what is going on."

    "Alright," I said

    with a sigh. "That makes sense. Thank you for the workout, Abi."

    "You're welcome," she

    said with a soft smile on her broad lips, then held up a finger.
    "Tomorrow, same time. No excuses."

    "He'll be here,"

    Erica said definitively.

    "I'll be here," I

    agreed.

    Abi went off, and I kind of

    wanted to head back home, but Dani and Kyla were both still sweaty and sticky
    from their more intense workouts so we gravitated towards the showers.

    "You don't mind if I

    join you guys, do you?" Melina asked the girls, surprising me. Josie
    always ended up showering with us, but Melina hadn't before.

    "Not at all," Erica

    smiled, taking Melina's hand and giving it a friendly squeeze for a moment.

    Inside the changing room

    Kyla, Dani and I all had our own lockers now and I quickly helped Erica find an
    empty one as we started to get undressed.

    It was kind of weird, having

    Erica there, and it made me feel a little self-conscious about the whole thing.
    I was used to getting naked with Kyla and Dani now, and with the banter and
    flirting from Josie though she was more subdued than normal even if she did
    shoot me a couple of appreciative looks in between a couple of concerned ones
    as I hitched my breath while taking off my shorts and briefs, the pain in my
    leg spiking for a moment with an odd movement. Erica being there was just
    different, and I felt like I should be more... loyal to her. But then, there
    she was, stripping down right next to Melina and talking casually with the
    blonde athlete.

    The difference between the

    two was stark, even if they were both beautiful.

    Erica was soft curves and

    heavy hips and tits. She was dark hair and casual toughness and tattoos and her
    eyes were like deep waters I could get lost in when she glanced over at me with
    a little smile. Melina was sharp angles and hard curves that were at the same
    time attractive and almost disproportionate. Where Josie had a tall, naturally
    athletic frame and Abi had her tree trunk abdomen and powerful limbs, Melina
    was almost too sculpted to be real. She'd had a boob job sometime in the past,
    and naked it was more obvious than when she was dressed even if they didn't
    look bad. Her waist just looked too thin for her shoulders and hips even if it
    was toned and defined. Her ass was almost too much. Too big, too tight, too
    firm. Melina was all kinds of attractive, from her gorgeous face to her toes,
    but she was like looking at a drawing that an artist would post up on social
    media of a muscle woman. All she needed was a chainmail bikini and she could
    have been some horny fantasy of a barbarian.

    I led the way into the

    showers, trying not to stare. Or at least get caught staring.

    Kyla followed me quickly,

    catching my hand just inside the door and pulling me down the center of the
    shower room and around the benches. "What's wrong?" she asked.

    "Nothing," I said.

    "It's obviously

    something," she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest.

    "This just feels weird

    today, is all," I said. "The thing with Spencer. Erica being here is
    a different vibe, and Melina..."

    "Melina likes you,"

    Kyla said. "She thinks you're attractive, and feels like you went above
    and beyond for her, but she's also still in mourning so she isn't sure what
    she's doing. Just be kind to her, maybe give her a compliment. Nonsexual. She
    could use it."

    "I'll see what I can

    do," I sighed.

    "And don't worry about

    Erica, hon," Kyla said quietly. "Or, well, maybe do worry about her,
    but not like you are."

    "What does that

    mean?" I asked.

    Kyla just gave me a little

    lopsided smile and shook her head, then went to her usual shower. I got in
    under the one next to her, and soon the others were joining us and the room
    filled up with steam, splashing water and the appreciative groans and laughs of
    the girls.

    "God, why didn't I come

    here sooner?" Erica groaned from the shower on the other side of me from
    Kyla. "This water pressure is amazing."

    "You guys are really all

    living in an RV together?" Josie asked. She was directly across the room
    from me today since Erica took her usual spot.

    "It's temporary," I

    said.

    "Well, yeah," Josie

    said. "I know the facts. I'm more interested in the weirdness of it. How
    do five adults all live together like that?"

    "We get close really

    fast," Kyla said, grinning over at me as she ran her fingers through her
    black hair, in the middle of washing it. The suds from her shampoo slowly slid
    down her shoulders and over her tits, and I had to look away before I got stuck
    staring.

    "Do you all sleep in the

    same bed?" Melina asked.

    "Just pointing out, I'm

    in a different RV," Dani said from her usual shower on the other side of
    the room. "Not that I don't mind a good snuggle, but yeah."

    "We do," Erica

    said. "It's a little cramped for all five of us, and waking up with
    Vanessa's alarm every morning is a bit of a bitch, but it's all part of the
    fun."

    "Do you all, um, like;

    Is it a group thing, or...?" Josie asked.

    "Sometimes," Erica

    smirked. "Though we like one-on-one time with Harri too."

    "I'm totally straight,

    so I'm just about the one-on-one time," Kyla said. "And they respect
    that... mostly..."

    "Blowjobs don't

    count," Erica waved over at her and laughed. That made Josie snort.

    "What does that

    mean?" Melina asked.

    "It means that they

    generally keep the hardcore sex separate from me, but sucking Harri's cock is
    fair game anywhere in the RV whether I'm there or not," Kyla said.

    "Or out in the

    forest," Erica chirped happily.

    "You guys are

    crazy," Josie laughed.

    "Crazy in love,"

    Erica said, and bit her lip as she walked the few steps from her shower spray
    to mine. "And lust. And everything in between. Right, babe?"

    "Abi has one hard rule

    in here, Erica," I said, putting my hands out to catch her by her upper
    arms.

    "No hanky panky!"

    Kyla, Dani and Josie all said at the same time, putting on equally terrible
    accents and trying to mimic the tall Icelandic blonde.

    "Well, I don't see Abi

    here, do you?" Erica asked with a lascivious smile. "And like we
    said, blowjobs don't count."

    Erica dropped to her knees,

    her hands finding my soap-slick cock, and I groaned as I immediately started to
    get hard.

    "Holy shit," Josie

    said, watching from her own shower.

    "Erica," Kyla

    scoffed.

    "What?" Erica

    asked, looking over at my other partner. "You can't tell me you haven't
    wanted to do this."

    "That doesn't mean you

    should," Kyla said.

    Erica shrugged and leaned

    forward, taking the head of my cock into her mouth and softly sucking. I
    grunted in my chest and closed my eyes, putting a hand on the wall to keep
    myself upright. I lost myself in the feeling of Erica's blowjob and the heat
    and pressure of the water beating on my shoulders, and the dull thudding pain
    in my leg. I'd had to peel the bandage off to take my shower and the water
    running over the two sutured holes on my thigh was both soothing and painful
    depending on how I stood.

    When I finally opened my eyes

    and looked down at Erica she was smiling, taking about half my cock in her
    mouth and gently fingering herself as she looked up at me. Then I glanced
    around the room.

    Dani was sitting on one of

    the center benches in the room out of the spraying water, watching Erica
    working on my cock, with her tongue stuck against the inside of her cheek as
    she slowly plucked at her nipples. Across the room, still under her shower,
    Josie was standing stock still except for her hands running rhythmically up and
    down her torso, not really washing anything. Her mouth was a little open and
    her eyes were riveted to Erica and my cock as well. Melina, meanwhile, was
    leaning back against the wall completely out from under her shower and was
    slowly teasing her cunt lips with one finger and looking a little conflicted.
    She was the first to notice me looking their way and she flushed, biting her
    lower lip, and put both of her hands behind her back like I'd caught her doing
    something naughty.

    Which, I guess I did.

    Erica pushed herself further

    down my cock until her lips were stretching to kiss the root but not taking me
    into her throat, then came off of it completely and stroked me with both hands
    as she looked over at the others.

    "Josie," she said,

    breaking the other woman out of her euphoric stare. "Blowjobs don't
    count."

    "Hmm?" Josie asked,

    blinking like she'd been asleep and dreaming.

    "Blowjobs," Erica

    said. "Don't. Count."

    "Really?" Josie

    asked. Then she looked at Kyla behind me. "Really?"

    "If you want," Kyla

    said. "But if Abi comes in, I'm washing my hands of it."

    Josie took two steps and

    stopped. "Do you;?" she asked me.

    "I'd love it, if you

    want to," I said. "And the boss says yes."

    "The boss definitely

    says yes," Erica said, motioning Josie closer with two fingers.

    Josie crossed the middle of

    the shower room, and it was like doing that removed her inhibitions about the
    whole thing as she quickly stepped over to me and pressed her naked, wet body
    to mine and kissed me tenderly with those downturned lips of hers. She was hard
    and soft at the same time, the feel of her reminding me a little of Kyla except
    firmer, but her kiss was tentative and sweet. The kiss also got cut off by
    Erica grabbing her hand and pulling her down to her knees.

    "Here," Erica said,

    tilting my cock towards Josie. "He's big, right?"

    "Just right," Josie

    said and looked up at me with her clear green eyes as she took the head of my
    cock in her mouth.

    "Okay, Goldilocks,"

    Erica smirked a little, reaching back and gathering Josie's wet hair behind her
    head. "Have fun."

    I growled, low and deep in my

    throat, as Josie started to blow me. She was different from my girls, using
    less tongue but using her lips more to create different pressure and suction
    than I was used to. I ran my fingers over her wet forehead and down her cheek
    as she teased and played with me and she smiled around my cock. She could take
    a little over half of it before she would choke a bit, and once she found her
    limit she slowly pulled off of me, grazing her teeth down the length of my
    shaft before wrapping her lips around the head and coming off of it with a pop.

    "God, you have a nice

    cock, Harri," she said huskily.

    "Yes, he does,"

    Erica smirked. Then she leaned in and pulled Josie in as well by the back of
    her neck, and they met kissing around the head of my cock.

    "Fuh,” I breathed out,

    watching them as they made out with my cock between them. I glanced up and Dani
    was now slowly fingering herself as she watched me getting a double blowjob.
    She was as gorgeous with her hair wet and slicked back as that morning she'd
    come down naked into my old living room, and she was biting the inside of her
    cheek as she got herself off. Across the room, Melina was now openly fingering
    herself as well, her enhanced chest rising and falling as she breathed deeply.

    Kyla stepped up behind me,

    hugging me as she pressed her tits to my back briefly. "Have fun,
    hon," she said to me quietly.

    I reached back to her,

    getting my arm around her to stop her from leaving. "Are you Okay with
    this? Really?" I asked.

    She smiled and went on her

    toes to kiss me. "I'm fine with it, mahal ko. I just don't need to
    watch, I'll have you to myself later." Then she slipped from my arm and
    kissed my palm before heading out of the shower room.

    My eyes were drawn back down

    to Josie as Erica was pushing her down onto my cock. Josie looked up at me as
    she took me deeper and deeper, and I groaned and leaned down a little so that I
    could palm her chest. At some point in the past few days, she'd swapped out her
    usual barbell nipple piercings for little silver rings and I could feel them
    scraping against my palm as I felt her up and she pushed her chest against my
    hand.

    She came off of my cock with

    a gasp and Erica leaned in, kissing on her exposed neck, then pushed her back
    onto my cock again. This happened a few more times and each time Josie would
    stick out her tongue from her wide-open mouth, grinning as she waited for my
    cock to return to her.

    "You like teasing my

    fiancé, don't you?" Erica said to her in a low voice. "You've been
    flirting with him, showering with him, showing off this fantastic body for him
    for a few weeks now."

    "He's so fucking

    hot," Josie moaned before starting to kiss her way down one side of my
    shaft.

    "What's your favorite

    part of him?" Erica asked.

    "I used to think his

    smile," Josie said. "I love a good smile. And he has a great ass,
    too. But now?"

    "His cock," Erica

    smirked.

    "Umm hmm," Josie

    hummed, taking the side of my cock between her teeth and slowly grazing them
    off.

    "What part of you do you

    think he likes best?"

    That pulled Josie up short

    for a moment as she had to think about it. "I don't know," she
    finally said. "He always has that cute blush and smiles when he sees me
    naked, but I don't know what he likes best."

    "Stand up," Erica

    said. "Show off for him."

    Josie chewed on the corner of

    her lip for a second and then rose to her feet, looking at me as she took one
    step back so I could see all of her naked. "What do you think,
    Harri?" she asked. "Do you really like what you see?"

    "I love what I see,

    Joss," I said. "God, you are fucking hot as hell."

    "Yeah?" she asked,

    breaking into a smile.

    "You are an absolute

    work of art," I told her. "From head to toe. If you want to know my
    favorite physical part of you though, I have to say it's your naked back and
    ass."

    "Really?" Josie grinned.

    "I really like the way my back looks too." She turned around and
    flexed a little, pointing her butt back at me as she tilted her hips to
    accentuate it a bit.

    "God, that is a nice

    ass," Erica said, giving it a wet little smack. Her other hand had been
    busy jerking me off rapidly. "You wanna get Harri off, Joss? You want him
    to come for you?"

    "Fuck, that would be

    hot," Josie said, panting a little as she looked back at me over her
    shoulder.

    "Harri only likes to pop

    once he's sure the woman he's with is ready too, Joss," Erica said.
    "So you better start fingering yourself thinking of this big cock."

    "Hmm," Josie

    hummed, leaning forward a little more for balance as she slid a hand between
    her legs and started frigging herself.

    "Get that cheek pulled

    open, babe," Erica told her, giving her ass another little spank.
    "Make sure he can see how fucking horny you are for him."

    Joss did as she was told and

    reached back with her other hand, getting a slippery grip on her butt cheek and
    prying it wide, revealing her perfect little butthole and her cunt lips as her
    fingers were diving between them.

    "That's it," Erica

    crooned. "Good girl."

    "God. Fuck, Erica,"

    I groaned. She was stroking me hard and fast, pushing me towards my orgasm
    quickly. Dani fingering herself openly off to my right, still in my field of
    view while I watched Joss, wasn't helping.

    "What do you think,

    Josie?" Erica asked. "Getting close? Cause he won't pop until you
    do."

    "Getting there,"

    Josie grunted, adding a third finger and sawing them in and out of her cunt.
    The muscles in her shoulders and back flexed rhythmically as she did it.

    "Where do you want him

    to come when he pops? Should I suck it down, or do you want it somewhere?"

    "My ass, Harri. Come all

    over my ass and back," Josie begged me.

    "Fuck," I groaned,

    barely holding on. My eyes were trained on her ass. Her firm butt cheek. Her
    fingers. I wanted to fuck her. I wanted to mount her right there in the shower
    room and I wouldn't care who was watching and I would fuck her hard and fast,
    and if I popped out of her I would push my cock back in every time until I'd
    claimed her.

    That last thought brought me

    up short a little, thinking how close that was to the way the vaccine got the
    girls going but in reverse, but I was falling over the edge. I didn't have the
    wherewithal to worry what having four girlfriends was doing to my lizard brain.

    "Here it comes,

    babe," Erica said.

    "Fiff-Gawd!" I

    groaned and released my mental stranglehold on my orgasm, letting it flow out
    of me and I popped one strand of cum after another as Erica pumped me with
    long, firm strokes. Each rope of cum hit Josie's muscled, perfect back except
    for the last one which lost a bit of its power and hit the small of her back
    close to her tailbone and immediately started sliding into her butt crack.

    "That's it, babe,"

    Erica crooned. "Get it all out. Fucking shoot your cum all over her."

    I was emptied, and I had to

    stagger back and away to keep Erica from continuing to jerk me off. Instead she
    stood up and leaned in, kissing Josie briefly. "Blowjobs don't count,
    Okay?" she said.

    Josie nodded and I realized

    her neck and shoulders and back were all tense as she was having an orgasm of
    her own, two of her fingers buried deep inside of herself as the third twitched
    against her outer lip.

    "You know, if you'd been

    thinking clearly, you could have asked for him to come inside you and then I
    might have let you get fucked," Erica whispered to her.

    Josie jolted a little as

    another spasm of her orgasm shot through her at the thought, and I stepped
    forward and put my hands on her hips to keep her up. She leaned back into me,
    her ass pressing to my hip and her naked back to my chest as she rode out her
    orgasm. When she was done I quickly washed my cum from her back and ass, but
    didn't linger and instead gave her a little swat on her behind. She turned and
    kissed me again, her playful smirk back in place but her eyes seeking an answer
    in my face. I don't know what she found, but she seemed to be happy with it as
    she winked at me, gave my ass a slap in return, and then skipped back over to
    her side of the showers.

    Dani was laying on her back

    on the bench, breathing slowly with her legs closed, and Melina was sitting
    down against the wall, likely having slid there when she got herself off.

    "Erica, you are some

    fucking trouble when I let you out of the house," I said.

    "Guess you'll need to

    keep me locked up," she said with a smirk and then kissed me.

    We washed off quickly, and

    the banter in the changing room as we got dressed again was light compared to
    usual. Kyla was waiting for us in there and stayed behind when the rest of us
    left, whispering with Josie. I wanted to go look for Abi, but I knew that
    probably wasn't a good idea at the moment and instead we headed out to the
    truck. Kyla caught up to us in the parking lot.

    "Everything good?"

    I asked.

    "Fine," Kyla said.

    "She just needed reassurance that I was Okay with what you guys did in
    there."

    "And you are still,

    right?" Erica asked.

    "Still? You guys talked

    about that ahead of time?"

    "Not, like, exactly that

    scenario," Erica said. "But something along those lines."

    "I really am fine with

    it, Harri," Kyla said. "Josie hasn't had a boyfriend for a long while
    because of the nature of her work keeping her moving around, and she has a big
    lust-crush on you. She's happy as a pig in shit after that, and you got blown
    by a beautiful woman. It's fine."

    I wanted to tell them that it

    was a little crazy, if not insane, but I shut my mouth and just shook my head.

    "Good, you're

    learning," Erica said with a smile as she ran her fingers through my
    still-damp hair.

    "Oh, yeah?" I

    asked.

    "Yeah," she said.

    "You aren't arguing, and you don't feel guilty. That's progress."
    When I glanced over at Kyla she was smirking and fishing for the keys in the
    little workout bag she brought with her. Then, just as she was unlocking the
    truck, my phone started ringing and she handed it over to me.

    "It's Vanessa," I

    said, frowning and swiping it open. "Hey, Vee. We're,”

    "Harri, we need you back

    here right now," Vanessa said, the tone in her voice strained.

    "What's wrong?" I

    growled, my heart dropping into my chest. I forgot everything that had just
    been happening. I forgot the pain in my leg as I went around to the passenger
    seat. The girls were looking at me in alarm at the sound of my voice.

    "We're being fucking

    attacked or something," Vanessa said. "I'm getting reports from all
    over. We need you now, Harri."

    "Drive," I ordered

    Kyla.

    "Harri, there's nothing

    you can reasonably do!" Erica said loudly. "You're fucking shot, and
    you don't have any of that equipment that Miriam sent you. It's the risk-reward
    thing all over again."

    "What am I supposed to

    do then, Erica?" I asked. "I get it, but this is what I’m supposed
    to be doing. Everything else was meant to just be extra."

    "Fuck, I know!"

    Erica grunted. "I just don't want you to fucking die."

    "I don't think you guys

    should rush into this either," Dani said.

    We were still on the drive

    back home from the Falls; a drive that usually took 16 minutes but that we were
    probably going to make in 10 the way that Kyla was driving. As soon as Vanessa
    had hung up with us to keep trying to hold things together back on the site, I
    had called Ivy while Erica had been calling Leo. Everyone other than
    Vanessa was currently safe and keeping an eye out for people trying to get into
    our Compound, though my first worry was that could change at any moment.

    Men with guns were attacking

    the construction site. That's all that Vanessa had really been able to tell me.
    Multiple vehicles were reported over the worker radios across several
    locations. And people had heard gunshots.

    "I'm not saying you're

    not capable, Harri," Dani continued. "But we just finished a
    workout, and you are recovering from a gunshot. Kyla, tell him this is a
    bad idea."

    "Did you put both of the

    M4s in the back?" Kyla asked me.

    "Only place we had for

    them," I said.

    "Kyla!" Erica said.

    "He's not going to

    not help, Erica," Kyla said sternly as she gripped the steering wheel
    hard and continued to drive. "And arguing with him is going to mess with
    his head."

    There was a long moment of

    silence in the truck. "Fuck," Erica said. "Fuck. Fine. Yes,
    you're right. Harri, you be fucking careful, Okay?"

    "As I can be," I

    said, turning in my seat to look through the Plexiglas into the back. "And
    you know, I bet if Ivy was here you would be the one telling her to stay calm
    and let me do this."

    Erica blew out a breath and

    narrowed her eyes at me. "Maybe," she said.

    "Dani, can you do me a

    favor and freak out more so that Erica can calm you down?" I asked.

    "Asshole," Erica

    sighed, smirking at me a little.

    I winked at them both.

    My phone rang as we were

    about two minutes out, based on Kyla's speed, from the driveway to the site.

    "Captain," I

    answered.

    "Sheriff," Captain

    Bloomberg said, her voice tense. "The Colonel is spinning up an emergency
    response. What's your status?"

    "I was off-site when I

    got word. We're about a minute out," I said.

    "The boundaries of your

    land are a military installation even if there isn't much there yet, Sheriff.
    You have Shoot-to-Kill authorization for anyone threatening the project. This
    is a matter of national security."

    "Fuck," Dani said

    in the back seat.

    "Am I on speaker?"

    the Captain asked.

    "Sorry, I'm in the truck

    with Kyla, Erica and Dani," I said.

    There was a beat of silence

    and I could tell I was going to need to get her a gift basket or something.
    "Hello, ladies," she finally said. "And yes, 'Fuck' is an
    appropriate response. Sheriff, we can't lose any more workers, especially
    the men who are currently vaccinated and partnered."

    "Fuck," I said,

    taking my turn to curse. I hadn't even thought about the fact that we had a lot
    more people vaccinated around us now than just our little families.

    "Your first priority is

    to save lives. Your second is to find out who the hell these people are and put
    them in the dirt," the Captain said. "And that's me using
    legal-friendly terms, Harri."

    "Understood,

    Captain," I said.

    She hung up.

    "I don't know what the

    fuck is going on in the military," I said mostly to myself. "But the
    Captain is performing way outside a regular JAG role."

    "Did I miss something,

    or did Harri just get a James Bond license to kill?" Erica asked.

    "Not the time,

    babe," I said, bracing as Kyla took the vehicle to the shoulder off the
    highway and skidded the truck to a halt, right next to the turn into the
    driveway. I quickly dialed Vanessa.

    "Where are you?"

    she asked.

    "End of the

    driveway," I said. "What's the situation?"

    "Best we can tell, there

    are something like six vehicles around the site looting tools and supplies, two
    or three guys in each one. They're all armed, and they're holding up the crews
    at gunpoint and shooting at anyone who tries to stop them. I've got reports of
    multiple gunshot wounds, and people are reporting more shots that we don't know
    the source of yet. Harri, I can't get anything from the local services. I don't
    think we can even get one ambulance, let alone what we'll need."

    "Miriam is coming down

    as fast as she can," I said. "Just stay calm and triage like your
    safety courses taught you. You've got this, you just need to stay calm and stay
    safe."

    "Harri, one of the

    trucks buzzed by the compound," Vanessa said. "I sent guys in a
    bulldozer to chase them so they didn't stop, but they got close."

    I looked across the cab at

    Kyla, and I could see the same thing I was feeling. Abject fear boiled and
    baked into a hard point of anger.

    "Where are they now,

    Vee?" I asked.

    "At least a few have

    already left," Vanessa said. "I've got three different reports without
    follow-up right now. Two in the eastern area near the brush clearing crews, and
    one in the western area near our supply drop-off point."

    "We'll go east," I

    said. "I'll call you when I know something."

    "Be safe, you

    guys," Vanessa said. "And give them hell. Love you."

    "To be fair, she's got

    stuff to manage," Erica grumbled in the back seat. "It's easier to be
    a badass when you aren't sitting on your hands in the back of a cop car."

    That got a snort out of Dani,

    and I was happy at least one of us could appreciate Erica at that moment. My
    mind was elsewhere.

    Kyla and I got out of the

    truck and went to the back, opening the gate and keying into the compartment
    under the bed. "We should really start keeping the heavy vests here,"
    I mumbled as we pulled out the lightweight bulletproof vests we'd been using
    since I'd first been named sheriff.

    "We didn't think we'd

    have a situation like this, dear," Kyla said as she strapped on hers.

    I pulled out the M4s and all

    the magazines of ammunition we kept in the back of the truck. Before the ambush
    in Portland, I'd kept three with our one rifle, but now we each had four.

    Kitted out with as little as

    we had, I felt like a joke. I was wearing a t-shirt, workout shorts and gym
    shoes with a bulletproof vest. Kyla was almost worse, wearing lavender tights
    and a small tank top under her vest.

    "At least you look

    cute," I said with a little smirk.

    She rolled her eyes and

    smiled back, and we closed the back of the truck. We got Erica and Dani out of
    the back, something I probably should have thought of doing first, and they
    piled into the front and Erica lowered her window so I could talk to her.

    "Run the lights and

    sirens," I said. "And go right into the camp. You'll be safer
    surrounded by lots of people."

    "Harri," Erica

    said, a serious frown on her face. "Just... I'm sorry."

    "I know, babe," I

    said and kissed her through the open window. "I don't blame you."

    "I don't know what to

    say," she said.

    "Tell him to come home

    to those titties of yours," Dani said from the passenger seat.
    "That'll make sure he comes back in one piece."

    "Go, babe," I said.

    "Kyla and I will be fine."

    Erica put on a fake smile for

    me, trying to show me she wasn't as worried as she was, and then they peeled
    away up the driveway leaving Kyla and me behind.

    "Erica wasn't

    wrong," Kyla said. "She just feels powerless in these situations or
    else she would handle things better. She's a doer, not a waiter."

    "I feel like if we find

    a way to fix that, we're planning on this shit happening more and not
    less," I said.

    "It wasn't a suggestion

    to give her tactical training, Harri," Kyla said. "I think Erica with
    proper training would be more trouble than we could get into ourselves."

    I could only imagine how a

    pissed-off Erica with jiu-jitsu or krav maga training would deal with assholes
    out in the normal world. Then again, it was entirely possible there wouldn't be
    a normal world left pretty soon.

    Kyla and I started jogging,

    and I could tell Kyla was keeping an eye on me and my leg. It ached every time
    I put weight on it, but it was a dull pain instead of a sharp one so I was able
    to mostly ignore it. We headed east, prioritizing the crews and where there
    were potentially more of the looters over the threat to the supply drop-off. I
    tried to pick up the pace as we veered off of the main gravel driveway and into
    one of the cut swathes that the crews were making, but as soon as I went from a
    light jog to a run the pain got sharper and I backed off.

    "There's a vehicle

    coming," Kyla said, and I looked up and heard the rumble of a diesel
    engine coming from ahead of us.

    We moved off of the cut line,

    stepping into the foliage of the forest, and we both tensed as we raised our
    rifles. The truck that came around the turn about thirty yards from us looked
    for all the world like a construction rig loaded down with tools and supplies,
    and I would have assumed it was someone trying to get to safety if the truck
    wasn't also flying a full-sized confederate flag from the roof of its cab.

    "You gotta be shitting

    me," I mumbled.

    "Let them go?" Kyla

    asked.

    "You heard the

    Captain," I said, my finger tightening on the trigger. "But you don't
    need to do it if you don't want."

    Kyla's answer was opening

    fire, and I quickly joined her. We peppered the truck as it sped by us, but it
    didn't lose control or slow down in the slightest. We pivoted as it burned by
    and kept firing, and I heard a shout and saw a flash of red in the open bed of
    the truck.

    It disappeared around another

    bend.

    "Shit," I said. I

    wasn't exactly used to shooting at a fast-moving target like that.

    "We hit someone,"

    Kyla said.

    "Yeah, I saw," I

    said. "Won't be useful to us unless they bring him to a hospital, or they
    dump him out the back and we can ID him."

    "What now?" Kyla

    asked. "Follow them?"

    I shook my head, looking back

    up the way they had come from. "There's still another one out here
    somewhere."

    We pushed on after reloading

    since we had both used most of a magazine on the speeding truck. A couple of
    minutes later we rounded a bend and saw that we'd reached the end of the cut
    we'd been following. There was a big log-hauling truck a dozen paces from where
    the crew had been clearing trees, and an excavator with a claw on the end of
    its big arm that would load the logs onto the truck. There were also several
    men in high-viz vests and helmets buzzing around in a clump. As we got closer I
    realized they were working to try and help two crewmen who were on the ground
    and wounded.

    "What's the

    situation?" I asked loudly as we approached.

    Several of the men jumped,

    but when they saw it was Kyla and me in our Sheriff vests they calmed down.
    "We got attacked by those fucking assholes," one of the men said, an
    older guy with a scruffy goatee. "We heard the shit on the radios, then
    they came tearing down here. There were four of 'em and they were armed with
    shotguns and rifles. Gaz tried to tell them off and got hit with birdshot
    that's torn up his arm and side pretty bad, then Lukas tried to jump one of 'em
    and he might lose his fucking leg. They made us load all of our tools and
    equipment into their truck and took off a couple minutes ago."

    "We saw them. Hit one,

    too," Kyla said, and that brought some nods from the men.

    I did a quick survey of the

    damage; the thing about working on a site full of construction workers was that
    everyone was trained in safety and emergency situations. Working with heavy
    machinery required it. And while gunshot wounds might not have been covered in
    the heavy workplace safety and first aid training plenty of the guys on the
    crew had, they were doing their best to keep the wounded stable.

    "I already called for

    medics on my radio in the truck," said a younger guy. He had the vest but
    wasn't wearing a helmet so I assumed he was the driver.

    "Gaz should live, but

    I'm worried about Lukas," said the older guy. "He went into shock and
    he needs treatment fast."

    "Can you get the truck

    around to bring him to camp?" I asked.

    "Not with any kind of

    speed," the driver said. "It's a whole process to back my way out of
    these lanes until they get connected."

    "Fuck, alright," I

    grunted. "Radio in again and tell whoever answers that this cut lane is
    clear and that the Sheriff cleared it himself."

    "Thanks," the older

    guy grunted and nodded, shooing the driver back to the truck to do so.

    "What's the last thing

    you guys heard on the radio about,” Gunshots cut me off.

    "North-east," Kyla

    said, pointing in the direction. We were already in the easternmost third of
    the land, and I took a moment to try and remember the latest planned roadmap.

    "It's got to be the

    access road on the border," I said. I hadn't thought they'd started
    cutting it yet, but I wasn't exactly up to date on everything all of the crews
    were accomplishing. The planned access road was supposed to be for utility work
    only since the compound would have backup power and water generation from the
    river that fed into the Nehalem. That river was partially fed by the spring I
    loved so much.

    Kyla and I took off, heading

    into the bush due North first since there was an old hiking trail we could use
    to skip around a couple of the rockier areas. That brought us above where the
    shots had come from and we had to come back down South as we pushed east
    through a copse of evergreens until we stopped when we heard voices.

    It was tough to hear what

    they were saying at first, but it was clear they were angry. I went to my belly
    near the edge of the evergreens and crawled under the last branches to peek out
    at the clearing ahead, trying to keep my hiss of pain from my leg quiet enough
    that Kyla didn't hear.

    The work crew had been

    cutting the utility access road just like I'd thought, though at the moment it
    seemed more like a single lane than what would probably be needed later. They
    had an excavator like the last crew, but no logging truck; instead the clearing
    crew had been pushing everything to the side of their path, and it would get
    cleaned up by another crew sometime in the future. That left logs and debris
    mounded on either side of the path, making it difficult for me to see what was
    going on.

    "Stay here," I

    whispered to Kyla and motioned that I was going to crawl closer to listen. She
    frowned but nodded. I put my time doing army PE drills to use and crawled my
    way through the brush to the mound. It sucked for my forearms as they scraped
    rock and dirt and rough vegetation, but it sucked even more for my leg as it
    ached like hell with every bump it took.

    At the mound, I was able to

    peek over a log.

    There was another pickup

    truck, and while this one wasn't flying a confederate flag it definitely had
    the same dinged-up look to it. It also happened to have three men dressed in
    rough camo and holding rifles standing next to it while they overlooked a crew
    of six workers. The workers all had their hands up and were on their knees.

    "Tell us what this place

    is for!" shouted one of the scruffy men at a worker who was pulled out
    from the rest of the group. The white helmet on the ground nearby told me he
    was likely in charge of the crew.

    "Dude, what the

    fuck?" he grunted, keeping his eyes down like he thought that might stop
    the trio from doing anything. "I told you, it's a housing project."

    "That's total

    bullshit," the tallest of the raiders said. "There's no way this is
    just some housing thing. In the middle of this fake-ass pandemic? What are they
    building here during the cover-up?"

    "Naw, man," the

    third one said. "Maybe itis housing, but it's for like... aliens.
    Or for the aristocrats of some invading army once they take over the
    country."

    "Is that it?" the

    first one demanded. "Are you assholes building shit to hide aliens or
    enemies of the state?"

    "Dude, if that were even

    true, do you think I would know?" the foreman said. "We're just
    clearing trees for a road."

    "He knows more than he's

    saying," the second guy said.

    "Maybe we should shoot

    one of these guys, make them take us serious like," the third one
    suggested.

    Well, that sent my plan to

    try and find a natural opening out the window. I slipped back down the mound a
    bit and started crawling to my left, hoping to put the excavator between me and
    the firearms. My leg was killing me now, but I shunted that feeling into my
    gritting teeth and held it there. I didn't have time to think about it.

    The guys argued back and

    forth a bit more. Two of them sounded reluctant to just shoot someone in cold
    blood, which was good. It meant I had a chance to possibly diffuse the
    situation. Once I was a good way along I peeked over the edge of the mound
    again and saw that I'd gone far enough, and I slipped over and got up into a
    crouch as I adjusted my grip on the M4 and rolled my neck to get myself
    focused. Creeping around the side of the excavator, I took a quick peek.

    One of the men had his

    shotgun pointed at the foreman about an inch away from the guy's head, and the
    foreman was silently crying as the three rednecks continued to argue. One of
    the crew guys saw me and his eyes went wide. I raised my finger to my lips to
    try and keep him quiet, and he nodded more with a feeling of nodding than
    actually doing it.

    "Fuck, this is taking

    too long!" the second raider said. "The others are probably gone by
    now. We need to go."

    "Why? Ain't like the

    cops are coming out here," the third one said.

    "You don't know that,

    idiot," the first one grunted.

    "Fine. So we grab this

    guy and another one, and we get them to talk back at HQ," the second one
    said.

    I grimaced and slid around

    the excavator fully, starting my as-quiet-as-possible run while they were busy
    arguing. If I could get up behind one and take them at gunpoint, I could
    probably talk the others down. Then it would be a simple matter of the crew
    helping me keep them pinned until I could get handcuffs or zip ties out here.
    Well, that and making sure the crew didn't kick the shit out of the rednecks.

    Things were going great until

    the foreman looked up for the first time since I'd been watching and saw me
    rushing the group. He whimpered in a distinctly relieved way.

    The rednecks turned to see

    what he was looking at.

    And my leg gave out with a

    sharp needle of pain.

    It's possible, if I hadn't

    been falling sideways as my leg stopped wanting to work, that I could have
    out-shot the first guy. As it was I couldn't get my rifle up properly and it
    was pure luck that the blast of birdshot went over my head as I collapsed.

    After that first blast, it

    was chaos.

    The one with the shotgun who

    shot at me died first, his body jerking sideways oddly as gunfire opened up and
    a bullet tore somewhere through the back of his jaw.

    The second one, who had a

    hunting rifle, had pivoted as he saw me dropping but heard the crew of men
    scrambling to their feet and rushing the rednecks. He fired almost point blank
    at them and one of the construction workers stumbled, but the others tackled
    him and started going to work on him.

    The third one, the one with

    delusions of an invading force coming to take over the US, pulled the trigger
    on his shotgun and blew the face off of the foreman. He swung around, raising
    his double-barrel towards me but then flinching and redirecting towards the
    rushing crew. I managed to get my rifle up and winged him in the shoulder, which
    spun him and gave Kyla a clean target to put two through his back, the exit
    wounds popping from his chest like weird bloody pimples.

    The whole thing took less

    than four seconds, and in my mind I flashed back to the shootout scene in
    Django Unchained. I'd been in my fair share of gunfights, let alone the two in
    the past few weeks. I'd never seen one pop off so fast, and bloody, and
    methodical. The sprays of blood had been almost artful in that weirdly
    cinematic way.

    But it wasn't really

    over.

    The construction workers we

    beating the absolute fuck out of that second guy. Steel toe boots were doing
    most of the real damage, though one guy had the foreman's hard hat in his hand
    and was smashing it down repeatedly using the hard plastic bill, and another
    had gotten the rednecks rifle and was slamming the butt of it down on him.

    "Stop!" I

    screamed. I'd wanted it to be a shout, but it was too hoarse and slightly
    horrified to be a proper booming command.

    I scrambled to my knees and

    used my M4 to help me get to my feet. My leg was wobbly but I could stand, and
    I staggered towards them, shoving the crew away from the bloodied body. I
    pointed to their fellow crewman, the one who had gotten shot by the rifle.
    "It's done! First aid, do what you can," I ordered them, my voice
    thick with adrenaline but now growling powerfully.

    The five construction workers

    were bloodied, their eyes a little wild as they realized what they'd done, but
    one of them got the others moving quickly.

    The bodies around me were

    broken. The foreman died instantly, that was for sure. The redneck that Kyla
    hit in the throat was letting out his last gurgling breaths, and the other
    she'd shot in the back was going pale as his life seeped out of him. The last
    one wasn't breathing either, and I couldn't really look at it.

    "Harri," Kyla said,

    hurrying over to me from out of the brush. She rushed and stopped just short of
    colliding into me, her face a mask of concern as her eyes scanned me. Her frown
    deepened when she saw that there was blood seeping on my leg; I'd pulled my
    stitches for sure, and hopefully not anything worse. But she reached up and
    touched my head, and her hand came away bloody.

    "I'm fine for now,"

    I said. "I don't feel it."

    "Harri, we,”

    "Wait," I grunted,

    and I went down on one knee painfully next to the redneck who was shot in the
    chest. I leaned over him and slapped his face lightly to get his attention, and
    he winced and his eyes focused on me.

    "Dying," he gasped.

    "Yeah you are, you dumb

    motherfucker," I said, not even bothering to put pressure on his wounds
    since he was so close to going out. "Who the fuck are you people?"

    "Dying," he gasped

    again, reaching up with the last of his strength like he was asking me to hold
    his hand.

    I took it, even though I

    didn't want to. "Who needs to know?" I asked him.

    The look in his eye told me

    he thought of someone, but I would have needed to be a mind reader to know who
    because his lips worked but no sound came out, and then there was the
    bone-chilling last breath as he died.

    "Fuck," I grunted.

    "Harri, you've got two

    gouges in your scalp," Kyla said, and I realized she'd been standing over
    me and looking through my hair.

    "Birdshot," I

    groaned, blinking a little as the pain started to hit me. "I'll get it checked
    out. Boys, how's he doing?"

    "Gut shot," one of

    the men said. He was the one who'd grabbed the rifle, his hands and boots less
    bloody than the others. They'd gotten their buddy turned over.

    "Kyla, call

    Vanessa," I said. "Get someone out here for him. Gut shot is bad, but
    one bullet doesn't mean he dies if we can get him treatment quickly."

    She nodded and took out her

    phone. I pulled out my own and found my hand was bloody as I started touching
    the screen. It was the redneck's blood from holding his hand. I dialed Miriam.

    "Status?" she asked

    abruptly as she answered.

    "One more possible

    vehicle on site, though I doubt it. I've got three dead hostiles here, look
    like... fuck, they look like rednecks. Maybe a militia group or something,
    though they only had really light arms. Shotguns and hunting rifles. Nothing
    automatic or military-grade. I've also got one dead and one seriously wounded
    civilian, plus more wounded confirmed."

    "Do you know if the dead

    civilian was vaccinated?" Miriam asked.

    I coughed and looked over at

    the men. "Hey, anyone know if your foreman was vaccinated?"

    "Yeah, we all are,"

    said one of the men. "Fuck, what does that mean, now?"

    I ignored him and turned my

    attention back to my phone. "He was," I said.

    "Fuck.

    Okay," Miriam said. "I need; Shit. This is classified and fucking
    rude as hell to ask, but does he still have his testicles?"

    I didn't have the brainpower

    at the moment to even be shocked by that question. "Yeah, he should,"
    I said.

    "Alright. I'm flying

    down with a crew of medics. I need that body ready for travel ASAP,"
    Miriam said.

    "Not the wounded?"

    I asked.

    "They'll be taken care

    of, but I'm going to need to know who that dead man is."

    "Do I; no, I don't want

    to know. I've also got a vehicle here. Oregon plates." I rattled off the
    plate number to her.

    "I'll have someone start

    looking into it," she said. "Harri, are you;?"

    "Hurt but Okay," I

    said.

    "You need to stop

    calling me like this," she said, and I could hear the frustrated little
    smile on her lips.

    "You need to make some

    time to come see us when it isn't an emergency," I pointed out.

    "We'll be there in under

    half an hour. Have the wounded brought to camp if you can move them, and make
    sure that body is ready for travel."

    "Got it," I grunted.

    She hung up and I looked up

    at Kyla. She was frowning as she gazed down at me. I tried to get up to hug
    her, but she put a hand on my shoulder and pushed me back down, shaking her
    head. "Sit," she ordered me. "Vanessa is sending a couple of
    trucks."

    I sucked in a breath through

    my nose and felt it come out wobbly. My head was starting to hurt, and my leg
    was still hitting with that sharp pain, though it had mellowed out some.

    "Uh, sir?" one of

    the crewmen said. Most of them were busy trying to fuss with their gut shot
    buddy.

    "Yeah?" I asked.

    "Is; um. Are we going

    to...?" he glanced at the bloody and beaten corpse.

    "In this case? Probably

    not," I groaned painfully, leaning back until I was lying flat. "They
    were looters and threatened to kidnap at least one of you at gunpoint. I'm not
    looking' to press charges here."

    "Just don't start

    thinking doing this is a good idea," Kyla said.

    "Yes, ma'am," the

    guy nodded, turning back to his friends. He had to be in his early forties. His
    calling Kyla 'ma'am' made me smile for some reason.

    "What?" she asked

    as she looked down at me.

    "Nothing," I said,

    shaking my head. "Nothing."

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 6 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 14

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 14
    Vaccine Enforcement.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    "I'm sorry for

    earlier," Kyla said. It was late, well after dinner, and the return of the
    overcast sky had the evening hour darkening quickly. She'd asked me to come on
    a walk with her so we'd laced up our hiking boots and headed out with jackets
    and flashlights. Even before the construction I knew most of the trails by
    heart but would have brought a light anyways, now half of the trails were gone
    and we couldn't walk fifty yards without spotting one of the road cuts through
    the trees, but it was still worth being safe.

    We were walking hand in hand

    and hadn't gone too far before she'd said what she'd been holding onto.

    "I know you are,

    Kyla," I said. "I'm not mad."

    "And I know you

    aren't," she said. "But that's part of why I want to always
    keep falling in love with you. I; While I was growing up, and then when I went
    into training, backtalk or teasing like that wasn't the norm. My family wasn't
    playful. They loved me, sure, but I never felt loved like I do now. I had to learn
    how to be playful and tease when it was decided I would be stationed in the
    United States at the University because that was what was expected of a
    popular, attractive Western girl. And I got used to that, and with the way
    everything has been happening and growing between all of us, and how close I
    feel to the others... When Ivy played that little joke on you, it felt like
    back in college and I pushed the teasing. But that's not who I am."

    "That's not entirely

    true," I said, tugging on her hand to get her to stop. We were deep into
    the woods now on one of the old paths, but the sound of a cutting crew wasn't
    too far away. As she stopped I used my hand not holding hers to sweep some of
    her silky black hair away from her face. "Teasing and being playful is
    part of you. And it's a fun part. It's just not all you are; I've known people
    who are all banter, all the time. Usually, they grow out of it in high school,
    but some of them can't lose it. I knew a few of them in the military. Those
    guys never felt settled, and rarely had a good group of core friends, because
    they never let anyone get closer than the good-natured teasing. But you are so
    much more than that."

    "I don't,” Kyla started,

    but stopped herself and seemed to rethink something quickly. "I don't want
    to become cold," she said. "I don't want to be the way my mother was
    with my father, or with me. But I also don't ever want you to feel like I'm
    disrespecting you."

    "Kyla, Kyla, Kyla,"

    I sighed, pulling her into a hug and wrapping her body up in my arms as she
    pressed her cheek to my chest. "I'm not going to lie to you, we all turn
    out a little like our parents even if we don't want to. But you are more than
    the sum of your parts, and together we can make sure we're both the best people
    we can be for each other. And our kids. And, even though it's fucking crazy, we'll
    also have Erica and the girls to call us out on our shit, too."

    "I know," Kyla

    said. "I; I'm actually looking forward to that. But still, Harri. I don't
    ever want you to think I'm trying to put you down or make you less than the
    amazing giant of a man that I see you as."

    "I love you, Kyla,"

    I said.

    "I love you too,"

    she said.

    We walked some more, taking a

    couple of turns away from the noise of the cutting crews, walking hand in hand
    until we skirted around one of the lowland areas that were usually a little
    boggy but had dried out that spring, and into a clearing. Looking up into the
    sky, there was a bit more light pollution than I was used to from the nearby
    spotlights lighting up the work areas, but it was still way better than in a
    town or city. As I was looking up at those stars and smiling to myself, Kyla
    tugged me towards the other end of the clearing and flicked on her flashlight
    to reveal there was a blanket spread out, and a little travel cooler and
    backpack.

    "What's this?" I

    asked.

    "Something I got some

    help with," Kyla said.

    "You girls constantly

    amaze me with how you do this."

    "I've been thinking

    about this for a while," Kyla said with a smile, pulling me towards the
    blanket and settling down with me. "I thought out here, surrounded by a
    place you love and under the stars, was a good way to start."

    "Are you;?" I

    started, my eyes widening.

    "No," Kyla said

    with a smile and both her hands on my arm, assuring me. "No, not yet,
    Harri."

    "Oh," I said. And

    that little word, or the way I said it, caused something to change in Kyla. Her
    expression shifted, her eyes getting a little bigger, and she leaned in and
    kissed me deeply.

    "Soon," she said

    after our lips drifted apart. "It'll happen soon."

    I just smiled and nodded.

    "This is about something

    else," Kyla said and reached for the cooler and opened it to reveal it had
    a lining of ice and two beers. She took one out, cracked it open and handed it
    to me, and then took the other out and cracked it open for herself before
    taking a long swig of it.

    "Liquid courage?" I

    asked.

    "Something like

    that," she said, then set the beer down. "Harri, I want what Erica
    has. I want to be all yours." Now I raised an eyebrow, trying to think of
    how I could be engaged and marry two different women. Being in the weird polyamorous
    arrangement of the vaccine was one thing, but I was pretty sure marrying two
    people was still illegal. Kyla quickly shook her head, "No, not like
    that," she grunted a little sigh. "God, I'm messing this up by
    beating around the bush."

    I had to laugh at that,

    leaning in to press my forehead against hers. "Just tell me," I said.

    "I want to do anal with

    you," she said. "I've never done it with someone before, and I want
    to bring it... into rotation. Like Erica. Not all the time like Ivy, but I want
    to share that with you."

    That made my eyebrows rise up

    as I blinked. "Oh," I said. "Okay. I'm; Yes, please?"

    That made her chuckle, which

    got me chuckling as well. "Do you want to? With me?"

    "Kyla, please," I

    said. "I would love to. But out here?"

    "Hmm," Kyla nodded.

    Then she reached for the backpack and unzipped it, pulling out a bottle of
    lube. "Erica helped me with a butt plug earlier, and Ivy's been giving me
    tips."

    Now that was a scene I

    might have paid for tickets to see, Erica helping Kyla with her first butt plug
    experience. I could only imagine how awkward yet caring yet silly it would have
    been.

    I leaned in and kissed her,

    her plush lips smashing against mine as she slowly leaned back and I followed
    her down until she was on her back and I was over her. Making out with each of
    my partners was different, and with Kyla, I was always struck by a soft
    tenderness behind her firmer, athletic energy. We continued to kiss as we
    started to strip; my shirt was off first, followed by hers. I left her lips
    behind to kiss down her neck to her chest. Her skin there was so amazingly
    smooth as I kissed down further between her tits and I planted kisses across
    her bosom and bra while she ran her fingers through my hair and scratched
    softly at my scalp.

    Kissing lower, I was just

    reaching the button for her jean shorts when the loud ring of my cell phone
    started bingling in my pocket.

    "Umm," I grunted,

    my lips pressed just below her belly button. "Hold on." I rolled to
    the side and off of her, pulling my phone out and frowning at the number.
    "Hello?"

    "Sheriff Black, this is

    Captain Toranno," said the gruff voice on the other end. I didn't
    recognize the name, but I did recognize the voice; it was the big State Trooper
    Captain from the morning after the shootout at Mary's. "Are you available
    tomorrow morning? We've got an issue we need to deal with and an extra vehicle
    would be a big help."

    "Um, yes, Captain,"

    I said, looking over my shoulder at Kyla. She was currently on her back and
    pushing her shorts and panties down her legs, her bra already discarded.
    "Tomorrow morning should be fine. What are we doing?"

    "We need to transfer a

    handful of prisoners," the Captain said. "It shouldn't take more than
    a few hours. We'll need you down in Sheridan for 8 AM, is that doable?"

    "Absolutely, happy to

    help," I said "Just text me the address and whoever I should be
    asking to meet with."

    "Great," the

    Captain said, and then without even a 'thank you' he hung up.

    "God damn," I

    grunted, dropping my phone and turning fully to my very naked girlfriend.

    "What are we doing

    tomorrow?" Kyla asked as she pushed me onto my back and started working at
    undoing my belt.

    "Prisoner transfer of

    some sort I guess," I said. "I thought the US Marshals were supposed
    to be in charge of that, but what do I know?"

    "So we need to be

    sitting in the truck for several hours tomorrow?" Kyla asked. She'd gotten
    my belt and fly open and was tugging my jeans down.

    "You don't have to

    come," I offered.

    She gave me a look as she

    peeled my pants from my legs. "You think I'm going to let you go out on another
    trip without me, or at least another of the girls?"

    "I guess not," I

    said.

    She had my cock in her hand

    and leaned in, this time riding me down to my back as we kissed. "If I'm
    spending that much time sitting down tomorrow, I think we need to hold off on
    anal tonight," she mumbled between kisses.

    "Makes sense," I

    muttered back, a little disappointed but for a good reason.

    "Another time.

    Soon," Kyla promised.

    "Okay," I said. My

    hands had found her ass and were kneading her butt cheeks as she slowly stroked
    my cock and we kissed.

    "Just fuck me,

    Harri," she gasped. "Fuck me and I'll keep the butt plug in."

    My fingers delved between her

    cheeks and found the little round stopper for the butt plug, teasing it by
    pushing on it a little and wiggling it.

    "Fuck," Kyla

    moaned. She got up with one foot on the ground, opening herself up more, and
    tilted my cock into position so that she could start sitting down on it.
    "I love you, Harrison."

    "I love you too,

    Kyla," I gasped as she took the head of my cock inside of her, squeezing
    me tight.

    She gasped as she bottomed

    out on me, her warm golden-brown skin pressing down onto mine as we both
    reveled in the feeling of each other. The butt plug in her ass made an odd
    pressure against me inside of her, but it wasn't particularly large so she
    didn't feel overly stuffed to me. Then she began to use her hips to slowly
    start grinding on my cock, her black hair hanging around our faces as she looked
    down at me in the dark.

    The sex was smooth and

    liquid. Kyla had perfect control of her body and encouraged me to let my hands
    roam over her. And like a couple dancing, we traded positions and power with
    ease, rolling over so that I was on top and could thrust into her with the same
    languid grace as she was showing me. With me on top, the light from the moon
    peeking around the clouds showed me her gorgeous face as her hair spread out on
    the blanket around her. I dropped my lips to hers and kissed her desperately,
    breathing in her scent through my nose.

    We made love like that for a

    good fifteen minutes before she rolled out from under me onto her side and I
    spooned up behind her. Kyla's balance and poise made it so that this position
    still allowed me to get deep into her as she raised her leg into the air, and I
    reached around and softly played my fingers along her clit and labia as I
    fucked into her.

    "Yes, Harrison,"

    she gasped into the night. The chirps and croaks of the wildlife were all
    around us, and the cutting crews were just a distant hum nearly drowned out by
    nature. "You feel so fucking good, dear."

    "You are amazing,"

    I grunted, hugging around her chest with my other arm as I started focusing my
    fingers on her clit.

    "Do that. Do that

    more... God, I want your cum inside me, Harrison. Fill me. Breed me, Harrison.
    I'm ready. You're ready. I want you."

    I planted my lips onto the

    top of her shoulder, muffling myself by kissing her skin as I grunted hard and
    began to release inside of her. Kyla didn't have the same muffle and she
    groaned loudly and wordless, her cry of ecstasy at her orgasm rolling through
    her releasing into the trees. I hoped, dreamily in the midst of my own orgasm,
    that hers wasn't just the vaccine and that we'd hit that peak together naturally
    despite it, not because of it.

    We lay like that for a good

    amount of time as I slowly softened inside of her and then finally slipped out,
    but she hugged my arms around her and didn't want to get up for another few
    minutes.

    "Next time," she

    promised me quietly.

    "When it makes

    sense," I told her. "We don't need to rush it. And I'm going to want
    you more before the 'right time' pops up."

    She smiled and turned,

    kissing me over her shoulder. "I want you always," she told me.

    I did end up getting anal that

    night, but it was with Ivy before everyone was getting ready for bed and it was
    a quickie. The girl was honestly astounding at how easily she could take my
    cock in her little behind. Then I waited up for Vanessa at the fire pit in the
    compound, chatting with Dani and Leo who wanted to let Aria and India have a
    little alone time in their RV.

    When Vanessa finally showed

    up for the night, dead tired and covered in the dirt of the day, I brought her
    into the RV and got into the shower with her. She almost fell asleep on her
    feet as I washed her, but perked up when I planted my lips to her cunt and we
    ended up having a fast and passionate fuck in the little bathroom as she
    muffled herself with a towel between her teeth to keep from waking the others.

    I almost told her I loved her

    again afterwards but managed to stop myself. Instead, I carried her back to the
    bed and found Kyla looking back at us from her side of the already crowded
    mattress. Somehow I wasn't surprised that she was the one who was still awake even
    though we had an early morning coming up, and she made space for me to lay
    Vanessa down and soon I was being snuggled by the two of them.

    The next morning Vanessa was

    up early as always, needing to get out the door well before her day-shift
    workers showed up on-site, and Kyla and I weren't far behind her. We tried to
    be as quiet as possible but it was no good, and Erica ended up cooking us
    breakfast in the buff as Ivy helped Kyla by braiding her hair as the Filipino
    woman did her makeup for that 'natural look' that she preferred when we were
    working.

    We were out the door before

    six; the drive down to Sheridan would take a couple of hours. It was southwest
    of Portland, and even the lack of dealing with traffic wouldn't make the back
    highways any faster. We were both wearing our button-down, collared shirts to
    look as 'official' as we could, and I had my badge out on the neck chain again
    while she wore hers on her belt. We took the scenic route, though that was
    mostly because it was also faster according to Google Maps, and passed through
    a few of the smaller towns that were around the fringe of Portland before we
    got down to Sheridan itself. I had told Kyla about the experience going all the
    way down to Eugene, but thankfully we didn't run into any locked-down towns or
    ghost towns as far as we could tell. There was a checkpoint as we got off the
    18 and followed the directions Captain Torreno had sent me, but seeing our
    vehicle and a flash of our badges was enough for the National Guard to wave us
    through without questions.

    At the end of the directions

    we pulled into FCI Sheridan, the medium-security federal prison. I almost had
    deja-vu of when I had pulled up at the Eugene PD; the parking lot was full
    of cars and trucks; civilian, police and National Guard.

    "Why the hell do they

    need us here for this?" I muttered to myself as I put the truck in park.

    Kyla grimaced, looking around

    out the windows. There were a few people walking into and out of the gates, all
    uniformed in one way or another, and they all were wearing medical masks and
    gloves, and many of them had full hazmat hoods. "I think most of the
    people here are busy with what's staying behind, not whoever we're taking with
    us."

    That made me grimace as well.

    "Let's get suited up," I said.

    Kyla and I got out of the

    truck and went around and opened the bed, strapping on our bulletproof vests
    with their emblazoned 'sheriff' patches; Miriam had sent those patches down to
    replace the 'police' ones that had been on them before. Then I took the M4 out
    of the secured compartment and did a quick check on it before we stowed it in
    the front seat, and we each took a couple of extra mags for our side arms out
    of the compartment as well.

    Maybe it was a bit much, but

    we were both getting bad feelings about things.

    Lastly, after locking up the

    truck bed again, I took a moment to drop my mask and kiss Kyla. "I'm sorry
    last night didn't work out the way you planned," I said.

    "I'm sorry I made an

    offer I had to go back on," she said with a little smirk. "I'm
    definitely glad we waited, though. My ass felt weird for half the night after I
    got that plug out of me. I can't imagine what sitting in the truck for that
    long would have been like."

    That made me laugh, and she

    gave me another peck before we raised our masks again and headed for the front
    gate to the prison. We were met there by a pair of National Guardsmen who
    checked our IDs and radioed inside before directing us back to the truck and to
    follow a road around the walls to a back gate that would bring us to a loading
    area. We quickly went and were checked again at the back gate with the National
    Guardsmen there not even blinking at the M4 blatantly displayed next to Kyla in
    the passenger seat.

    We were waved through and

    pointed towards a collection of various police vehicles and a small, spread-out
    crowd of uniformed officers. We pulled into line with the others and got out,
    receiving some nods. Everyone was standing around the front of their own
    vehicles and were waiting for something, so we did the same. Parked next to us was
    a State Trooper from somewhere else in the state, and beyond him was a guy with
    an SUV marked as a Federal Marshall. Beyond them was a local PD from Sheridan,
    and a couple of cars from Portland.

    No one was talking, so again

    Kyla and I kept to ourselves, unsure of what the protocol here was.

    A few minutes later another

    vehicle came rumbling in, this one looking for all the world like a military
    vehicle, blacked out and making me shake my head. I'd always heard complaints
    about the 'militarization of the police' from folks while I lived in Portland
    and hadn't really cared; if the bad guys could upgrade, why couldn't the
    police, in my book. But this just felt like a bit much. It was labelled as
    belonging to the Salem PD, and two SWAT-equipped officers got out wearing full
    gas masks.

    "Jesus Christ," I

    muttered to myself.

    "Remember, dear,"

    Kyla murmured to me. "None of them have the vaccine."

    That made me second-guess my

    eye-rolling. What I'd seen and dealt with, and what had been happening down in
    Eugene, I'd been engaging knowing I had the vaccine. These men and women didn't
    have that luxury. They were facing every day, likely all day, with just a thin
    pair of gloves or medical mask between them and a whole lot of awful.

    How could I blame them for

    using gas masks if they had them?

    A couple of minutes later a

    few men in military fatigues stepped out of the loading area of the prison, and
    once they came into the light I could see the markings. They were National
    Guard, with one wearing the oak leaves of a Major and the other two the stripes
    of Sergeant Majors. The Major nodded and one of the Sergeant Majors went back
    inside, then the other two came to the edge of our little row of law
    enforcement officers but stopped about twenty feet away. The Major gestured to
    the Sergeant Major who had stayed with him, and the younger man took about ten
    steps back and to the side, and then the Major took off his mask and breathed
    deeply of the fresh morning air.

    "God damn," he

    grunted, smacking his lips for a moment and taking another breath before
    turning his focus on us. "Alright, folks. I'm Major Button, and I'm going
    to assume you all are fairly in the dark about what's going on. I'll keep it
    brief; FCI Sheridan is shutting down. There was an outbreak and we're seeing
    99% plus casualties among the prisoners, corrections staff and administrators.
    The staff who are still around are in quarantine, and the fortunate few
    convicts who are still alive need transporting. We're just waiting on the blood
    tests down from a lab in Portland to give us the Okay to move them. You'll all
    be heading to the same place in a caravan. The good news is the convicts are
    all scared shitless so we haven't had any problems with them. The bad news is
    that a lot of the survivors didn't get infected because they were absolute
    shits and were in isolation when the outbreak happened, so if they do manage to
    shake their abject fear we're talking about men who aren't afraid of violence.
    We're expecting that might happen as you close in on Columbia River and they
    start looking at entering another facility."

    "Wait, we're bringing

    them to CRCI?" one of the Marshalls spoke up, interrupting the Major.
    "That's a minimum security facility."

    "It's what we've

    got," the Major grimaced. "There hasn't been an outbreak there, and
    the Corrections folks there have been reinforced with a unit from the
    Army."

    There was some muttering from

    the other officers in line with us, and I could understand their issue. The division
    of criminals into degrees of risk was important; lots of people thought it was
    about the risk of convicts breaking out of prison, but that wasn't true at all.
    It was about the risk of the convicts to each other, along with to the
    staff.

    "Alright. Stick around

    out here, we're expecting the results from the tests any time now. Sergeant
    Major Oscars here will organize the loading. Godspeed, gentlemen." The
    Major looked like he was about to turn and pace back to the building, but
    stopped himself and visibly sighed as he slipped the mask back on over his face
    and then turned and left.

    "Well, guess we're going

    to Portland after all," I said to Kyla, stretching a little.

    "We should be bringing

    them down to Salem," said one of the Salem PD guys through his gas mask
    next to us. "State still has medium security beds open after their
    outbreak."

    "There was an outbreak

    down there, too?" I asked.

    "Yeah," said the

    other Salem officer. "Pretty much every prison and jail in the state.
    These transfers usually go pretty smoothly; most of the time the convicts are
    just happy to get out of whatever hellhole they were in. Wouldn't be surprised
    if most of them have PTSD for the rest of their lives."

    "How many transfers have

    you done?" Kyla asked.

    " Umm, six?" the

    officer replied. "Three in Salem, helped out with one in Portland, and
    then a couple of county jails but that was just one guy each time."

    "Just make sure you keep

    a lid on any shit they try and spew," the other one said. "Literally
    and figuratively."

    I nodded. "Noted."

    It was about fifteen minutes

    before the Sergeant Major came out and gave us a quick rundown of the loading
    operation. Each of the individual cars would have one prisoner, and the
    remaining four would be loaded into the big Salem PD transport. The first officers
    in line were waved into the loading area to sign for their prisoner, and it
    wasn't until the Marshalls were headed in that I clued into the numbers. There
    were six vehicles total, meaning nine prisoners were being transported. A place
    the size of Sherian FCI had to hold well over a thousand inmates at least,
    probably closer to two.

    If it was hard to match up my

    experiences with what the other officers dealt with on a daily basis, I
    couldn't imagine what being in that prison had been like. And this was just one
    prison.

    When it was our turn, Kyla

    and I marched into the loading area and I was handed papers pertaining to the
    transfer, and I signed for the prisoner. His name was Jackie Fallows. Jackie
    was marched out to us in an orange jumpsuit with wrist and ankle shackles, and
    I quickly checked they were secure. He was a shaggy guy, his facial hair cut
    into a rough goatee, and his eyes were a little sunken and darted around
    nervously. I was easily a head taller than him, and Kyla was nearly as tall as he
    was, but he was wiry under the bulky jumpsuit as I took him by the arm and led
    him towards our truck.

    "Hey, so, any chance of

    like... a burger and fries on the way?" Jackie asked once we were out of
    the loading area. "I swear to Christ I'll be a fucking fly on the wall if
    you guys could get me some decent chow. I went three days in the hole without
    food before they found me, and they've been feeding me like shit since then.
    Not that the food in there was good anyways, it was always shit, just like...
    more shit."

    "Sorry, inmate," I

    said. "No can do on detours, we're convoying it and I doubt the boys in
    the big rig can fit through a drive-through."

    "Damn," Jackie

    sighed. And then he just kept talking. Yammering away as we got him up into the
    back seat of the truck, I didn't think he even stopped talking after we got the
    door shut and before we got into the front. I quickly got the sense that Jackie
    Fallows was a nervous talker, and he was nervous as hell.

    The Salem PD guys brought out

    four prisoners chained together and shuffling in line, and it took them five
    minutes to get them secured in the back of their rig. One of the officers
    stayed with them back there while the other got in the front seat and nodded
    down at me. Soon all of the vehicles were humming as their engines turned over,
    and we were pulling out of the parking lot and rumbling towards the gates. I
    waved the Salem rig ahead of me, and the officer waved and gave me a little nod
    in thanks before pulling ahead.

    "Why send him

    first?" Kyla asked me.

    "Just instinct," I

    explained. "Really he should probably be in the middle of the convoy as
    the biggest vehicle with the most number of prisoners. It doesn't make sense
    for him to be the tail of the group."

    "Hey, you were in the

    military!" Jackie crowed from his seat in the back. "Where did you
    serve?"

    "All over," I said,

    trying to keep my voice pleasant but detached.

    "Any time in the

    sandbox? I was in the sandbox, just like my Daddy before me. Different wars,
    obviously, but man that shit was wild. You ever kill anyone? Me, I never got
    the chance, which sounds weird considering all the fighting, right? But nope,
    never did. Nearly got blown up a couple of times, but didn't fire my rifle
    once. You'd think a guy like me, they'd put me in the action, but,” He just
    kept talking.

    The drive out of Sheridan was

    short and we were on our way to Portland. I hadn't known what to expect for a
    prisoner transport, and I still felt a little bit of an edge of vigilance in
    the back of my mind as we made the drive and Jackie rambled away to himself in
    the back. I was almost surprised that Kyla didn't snap at the guy, but then
    she'd probably had training on keeping her cool and patience. I just sort of
    entered a zen state of letting his voice turn into a meaningless drone as I
    checked behind us in the mirrors.

    "What's wrong?"

    Kyla asked me, her voice cutting through Jackie's and pulling me back.

    "Nothing," I said.

    "Just thought a car back there was possibly following us, but it turned
    off."

    "How long?" she

    asked, ducking her head to look into the side mirror, but the road was empty
    behind us was empty now.

    "They showed up just

    outside of Sheridan, so maybe twenty minutes. Likely just local traffic, it
    only stood out because the roads are so empty."

    I could tell Kyla frowned

    behind her mask and started checking the mirrors occasionally as well.

    The drive was going to take

    about an hour and a half since Columbia River was located in the northeast of
    Portland and we were southwest of the city. Usually, we would have needed to
    run the emergency lights or something for a convoy like the one we were in once
    we hit the city limits, but we didn't even need that. We passed cars, but they
    were sparse and avoided our trail of law enforcement vehicles. The fastest
    route had us passing right through downtown, and again I was struck by how
    ravaged certain streets looked; we even passed through the area that had been
    the 'no police zone' or whatever where folks had tried to stage their
    anti-authority protest in the early months of the year. It was even worse than
    the rest of the city, but there weren't any roadblocks anymore and the tent
    city that had started building was nothing but trash.

    We did pass by the skyscraper

    that housed Miriam's operation, and I whimsically wondered if we should call
    her to see about stopping by when we finished the transport. She'd probably
    think it was funny that I was doing boring as hell police scut work, and tell
    me it was my own fault for being too helpful.

    "Harri!" Kyla

    called.

    I slammed my brakes at the

    tone of her voice.

    The transport truck hit the

    back end of the State Trooper car and clipped the front end of the Salem PD
    rig, sending it careening sideways. The transport had come from our right,
    blasting through an intersection. I hadn't seen it earlier because of the
    buildings, and Kyla had only seen it at the last moment.

    My whole body was jerking

    forward from slamming on the breaks, and I heard a dull thud behind me as
    Jackie rolled forward from the force and smacked his face into the Plexiglas
    between the two rows of seats. I braced my hands on the steering wheel, and
    Kyla was braced against the dash. The truck skidded and I peeled it to the
    right, avoiding the end of the Salem PD rig.

    It took a hot second for my

    brain to catch up with my hands. Instincts stick in the muscles longer than the
    mind, and the advanced driving course I'd taken while I was an MP had taken
    over. In the split second my mind needed to catch up, things were changing
    rapidly.

    The transport truck had hit

    and then jackknifed, folding in on itself and blocking my vision of the rest of
    the convoy and the State Trooper who had gotten hit. The Salam rig wasn't
    damaged heavily but had careened into a street lamp and had one wheel off the
    ground as it was propped up on the street lamp base. The most immediate
    problem, at least in my book, was the black panel van that was screeching to a
    halt in the wake of the transport truck and the three motorcycles that were
    rounding the corner a block back from us, heading in our direction.

    I'd been in two ambushes

    while I was deployed as an infantryman. Both of them had been what's called
    'far ambush,' where we were getting shot at from a decent distance away. As
    long as there is no debilitating damage to the vehicles, the best course of
    action in that situation isn't to engage the enemy but rather to get out of the
    kill zone that the enemy had picked out.

    This wasn't that. This was a

    'near ambush,' and it meant things were fucked. There was only one proven way
    to deal with a near ambush effectively, and it generally required everyone in
    the convoy to be on the same page; but we hadn't even taken the time to set up
    a radio connection, let alone trade phone numbers or something.

    I had two options, and they

    boiled down to instinct and adrenaline. Flight, or Fight.

    I slammed my foot down on the

    gas and the truck leapt into motion, gunning it straight towards the black
    panel van. It had stopped and the side door was sliding open at the same time
    as the driver was starting to hop out. Men, dressed in rough clothes and
    wearing black balaclavas, were starting to exit. I saw two rifles.

    They saw me, or heard, too

    late. Or maybe they heard the scream of terror from Jackie in the back seat.

    The crash bar of my

    beautiful, brand-new truck smashed into the side of the panel van a millisecond
    after it hit the much softer obstacle of their bodies.

    The impact took less time

    than it took to suck in a breath. The guy that had been coming out of the side
    door had gotten blown back inside by the impact, colliding with whoever was
    following him out. The driver didn't just take the impact of my truck, but also
    of his own door slamming into him and pinning him to his vehicle. Then the van
    itself took the brunt of my powerful V8 engine, crumpling around my crash bar
    and hood as my beast of a vehicle slammed and pushed it across the street and
    into the curb, tipping it up onto two side wheels but catching the bottom of my
    crash bar and wedging us in place.

    Two seconds, maybe less.

    I tried not to look at the

    man who was currently leaking blood out of... well, probably a lot of places
    onto my hood, and instead glanced over to Kyla. She was wild-eyed but moving,
    unclipping her seatbelt.

    "Go right and circle

    around them," I ordered her. "And I love you."

    "I love you too,"

    she grunted as she opened her door.

    I opened mine as well,

    stepping out and drawing my sidearm. I wasn't too worried about the men in the
    panel van at the moment and immediately dropped to one knee pointing the muzzle
    back down the street in the direction we'd come. My vision was a little fuzzy
    and I had to angrily blink it straight as the three motorcycles were coming to
    a stop. Two of them had headed closer to the Salem rig, while another one had
    stopped a little further back and was already off his bike and bracing some
    sort of an SMG in both hands. I couldn't tell what it was from the distance,
    but it looked something like an Uzi. He opened fire at the same time I did.

    I emptied my mag, and he

    probably did too. Again, it took maybe four seconds in total.

    The spray of bullets panged

    as they hit my truck and the street. I saw sparks pop off of his bike. The
    second half of his shots sprayed wildly into the air as he fell back. I'd hit
    him at least four times; practice counted for something when you weren't within
    five yards.

    I darted left, heading for

    the back end of my truck, and felt a stab of pain in my right leg but it didn't
    give out so I kept moving. That was a good thing because more shots started
    ringing off the side of my truck from the direction of the other motorcycles. I
    got around the end and behind the wheel, dropping my empty magazine and
    slamming home a new one from my belt. Kyla was firing the M4 from somewhere on
    the other side of the black panel van. I rolled onto my belly on the street and
    stuck my arms forward in a prone firing stance, looking under my truck at the
    motorcycles and opening fire again. This time I was slightly more methodical
    and between myself and Kyla we put down both shooters.

    Then there was a metallic

    bang that sounded different from the other shots and was right next to me. It
    sounded like a muffled shotgun.

    My eyes went wide and I

    scrambled up from the ground and around to the back of the panel van, but I
    only made it two steps before a rapid series of shots rang out, this time
    sounding like my own. As I rounded the van I found Kyla down on her back, her
    M9 sidearm pointed up at the side of the panel van where she was finishing
    emptying her mag. There was also a hole in the side of the van about the size
    of a fist, and the M4 was a mangled mess on the ground.

    I emptied the rest of my

    magazine into the side of the van as well, only maybe four bullets before I was
    done, and rushed to Kyla and grabbed her by the shoulders of her vest and
    hauled her backwards. No more shots came from the van, however, and she rolled
    to stop me from pulling her further than the back.

    "Are you Okay?" I

    asked her. "Are you hit?"

    "He shot the end off of

    the rifle," Kyla grunted and held up her hand, showing me it was fine.
    "I almost lost my hand. Are you Okay?"

    "I'm fine," I said.

    Like a liar.

    We both reloaded and I peeked

    around the side of the van before I started side-stepping around it keeping my
    muzzle trained on the shotgun hole. I made it to the front where one of them
    was on the ground, his blood pooling under him; I couldn't be sure if the
    impact from the truck had hit him, or if Kyla had shot him. His door was
    hanging open though and I checked inside the van; there were four men in the
    back and none of them were moving. It was possible some were only knocked out
    from me ramming them and they hit their heads.

    I had more pressing concerns

    though as there were more gunshots from nearby. Kyla had followed me around the
    van and had gone all the way to the corner of the building and was peeking
    around. Across the intersection, the driver of the Salem PD rig was out and
    sitting against the side of his vehicle with the look of a man who'd been shot,
    but it also looked like he'd gunned down the driver of the transport truck.

    Moving to Kyla, I tapped her

    shoulder and we both circled around the corner of the building and up the
    sidewalk to the back of the transport. She ducked low and looked under it, then
    stood and we both moved around.

    A shot rang out and punched

    the metal of the transport trailer right in between Kyla and me, and we both
    pivoted and my finger twitched, just a half-pound of pressure from pulling the
    trigger as I stared down my sights at a police officer looking at me with wide
    eyes as he realized we were friendly.

    I still almost shot him in

    that split second. Between the adrenaline and my rage, I was this close
    to shooting him down knowing he'd almost hit Kyla.

    He dropped his gun, cringing

    away from it. It was the officer from the Sheridan PD.

    I put a hand on Kyla's

    shoulder and we kept moving, but it was over. The Marshalls were taking charge
    of things on the other side of the transport where another group of the
    motorcycles had closed in. A couple of the officers were down, and several of
    the bikers had gotten away. Kyla and I started to rush back around to the other
    side of the transport to check on the downed Salem PD driver, but my leg
    wobbled and I staggered, and Kyla saw it. She turned and I saw her eyebrows
    furrow, but didn't hear what she said.

    Then I was on the ground and

    she was over me, her hands on me. Searching me.

    "Leg," I grunted.

    Then I lost consciousness.

    "God fucking

    damnit," I groaned, and someone grabbed my hand and said something.

    My head was pounding and I

    felt dizzy for a long moment even with my eyes closed. That passed, and the
    whom-whom-whom in my ears started to clear around the same time as I peeled
    an eyelid open.

    I was kind of surprised to

    find Miriam was the one holding my hand. I was looking up at her and a hospital
    room ceiling; well, the ceiling was just a ceiling, but the hospital bed I was
    lying in was a big clue.

    "You back with me,

    Harri?" she asked me quietly, almost whispering.

    "Umm," I grunted,

    trying to sit up, but she put her other hand on my chest to keep me down.

    "Don't," she said.

    "How long?" I

    managed to croak.

    "Six months,"

    Miriam said, her face a graven tombstone of emotion.

    "; What?" I

    exhaled, leaning back into the pillows. Six...? "How?"

    She snorted and her

    expression broke into a smirk. "How the fuck are you so gullible, Black?
    It's been three hours."

    "God fucking

    damnit," I groaned again, rolling my eyes.

    Miriam moved aside, showing

    me that Kyla was sitting in a plush-looking chair in the corner of the hospital
    room, her eyes closed as she slept but her hands knotted into fists.

    "She's Okay?" I

    asked.

    "Better than you,"

    Miriam said. "A little shaken, once you were in surgery. Before that she
    was ice. She called me instead of 911 when you collapsed."

    "We're in your place,

    aren't we?" I asked, looking around the hospital room. On second glance it
    was newer than I would have expected of any random hospital, and the door was
    able to be hermetically sealed. We were in one of the quarantine rooms that I'd
    seen when I'd been able to visit Vanessa while she was here.

    "We are," Miriam

    nodded. "I wasn't about to feed you into the hospitals even with you being
    vaccinated. It's..." She stopped and took a breath. "Let's just say
    you would be just as likely to die there as get better, and you aren't that bad
    off."

    "What is wrong with

    me?" I asked.

    "Well, two inches higher

    and I could have been razzing you for getting yourself shot in the ass,"
    Miriam said. "You got hit in the meat of your thigh, Harri. Straight
    through-and-through, doctors aren't even sure if you got hit straight on or if
    it was a ricochet. The main reason you collapsed was blood loss because you
    didn't patch it, you idiot."

    "Lucky that's all it

    was," I grunted. "Asshole opened up on me with an Uzi or some
    shit."

    "I was told," Miriam

    said. "Wasn't the idea for you to be staying out of trouble?"

    "This wasn't supposed to

    be trouble," I sighed. "The Staties asked for the help, it should
    have just been some driving around."

    "Yeah, well, I got red

    in on the situation with the prison systems," Miriam grimaced.
    "Whatever you think you know, it's worse than that. Let's just say that
    you would have been turned away at the gates even if you did reach Columbia
    River."

    "Fuck," I sighed.

    "Who even was it that hit us?"

    Miriam sighed and shook her

    head. "You've got a hole in your leg and your truck looks a little like
    Swiss cheese, let alone any damage to the front end and the axel after you
    tried to fuck a van with it."

    "Sorry," I said.

    "Guess I'm not playing nice with the toys you sent me."

    "Yeah, well, when I get

    you something new don't worry about adding on to our meal tab," she said.
    "I'm going to ask you for something sooner than later and it's going to be
    more than a meal to pay it back."

    "You're dodging my

    question, Miriam," I sighed. "What happened?"

    "You need to rest,

    Harri," Miriam said.

    "I'm not trying to get

    up and go here," I said. "I just want,” I trailed off, looking over
    at Kyla again. "Hon, you can stop pretending to be asleep."

    Kyla's eyes blinked open and

    she rose from her chair in one graceful movement, stepping around Miriam and
    leaning down to kiss me as she cupped my face with both her hands. "I'm so
    glad you're Okay, mahal ko," she whispered against my lips, though
    it was a new couple of words she hadn't used before. She kissed me again and
    stared into my eyes for a long moment.

    I knew why she'd been faking

    her sleep, and I was a little proud of myself for noticing it. Miriam had been
    dodging questions, sure, but she'd also be fairly open and Kyla had wanted to
    listen in. I probably would have let her if I hadn't wanted her in the
    conversation properly.

    "Now," I said.

    "One of you better tell me something here."

    "It was a prison

    break," Miriam said with a little shake of her head. "I haven't been
    tapped into whatever the investigation is, I just deployed a security force to
    scoop you and a couple of the other wounded officers up and brought you here
    for medical aid. The most I know is that it was likely a biker gang, or them
    and some other allies, trying to spring someone or everyone being
    transferred."

    "In the middle of

    downtown Portland?" I asked, feeling a little incredulous.

    "This isn't the city you

    remember, Harri," Kyla said. "It's gone wild. More brutal. I heard
    one of the officers saying that there wasn't a single 911 call from the area
    during the shooting. People are afraid of everything, including the
    police."

    "Fuck," I groaned.

    It was like the city had turned into an old Western town when a gunfight was
    about to happen. People cleared the streets and only the bravest even watched
    from their windows.

    "It's not your

    concern," Miriam said. "The Marshalls are all over it, and they've
    got backing from the Feds. I've got a feeling organized crime is pulling this
    kind of shit all over the country right now if things are the same in other
    states."

    I grunted and nodded, and

    felt down at my leg with the hand that Miriam wasn't still holding and got a
    nice spike of pain from it as I touched the bandage. "Do the girls
    know?" I asked Kyla.

    "They know," Kyla

    nodded.

    "Vanessa is on her way

    here," Miriam said. "Erica gave me a chewing out like I haven't had
    since boot camp, but I can only bend so many rules and I can't let her or Ivy
    in the building. Vanessa can give some blood to check up on her vaccination
    status, so I can get her in here with you."

    "Okay," I sighed,

    nodding. "Okay."

    "He needs to rest,"

    Kyla said, feeling at my forehead.

    "I'll go check on

    things," Miriam agreed. "And you two also need to... boost your
    vaccinations. At some point. I'll be back once Vanessa gets here."

    I meant to say goodbye, and

    thank you, and probably some other things, but my mind was feeling a little
    foggy. I blinked and when I opened my eyes Miriam was gone but Kyla was
    standing where she had been, holding my hand. "How drugged up am I?"
    I mumbled.

    Kyla smirked and leaned down

    to kiss my forehead. "You're on the good stuff, Harri. Just get some
    sleep."

    I closed my eyes again but

    didn't drift off immediately. Or maybe just not entirely. I could hear Kyla
    talking and I realized she was on the phone, but whatever she was saying was
    getting muddied in my mind. It was just good to know she was there.

    "It'll be fine, the

    nurses know the deal," someone said.

    "I just don't want to,”

    "Kyla, you both need it.

    Just suck his cock to start."

    "Uh," I grunted.

    "Harri, baby,"

    Vanessa said. "I'm here."

    "Vee?" I asked,

    confused for a moment as I blinked myself awake. She had crawled up on the
    hospital bed and was lying next to me on her side, resting her chin on my
    shoulder as she held my hand in both of hers.

    "How are you

    feeling?" she asked me.

    "Am I on morphine?"

    "Pretty sure that's what

    they give people who get shot, Harri," she said.

    "Get me off of it,"

    I said. "It's fucking with my head."

    "Kyla?" Vanessa

    asked.

    "Harri, you need pain

    meds," Kyla said.

    "So switch me to

    powerful Tylenol or something," I groaned. "I can handle the pain,
    but I want my head clear."

    "Okay," Kyla said.

    "I'll get the nurse."

    Kyla went to the door to the

    room and pressed a button on the wall. When she walked away I noticed she was
    out of her police clothes and was now dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a
    pretty cotton t-shirt that clung to her fit form. I rolled my head to look at
    Vanessa and she met me with a little kiss. She was dressed in similar
    sweatpants but had on what looked like one of my undershirt tank tops with an
    athletic bra underneath.

    "It's good to see you

    out of uniform, Vanessa," I chuckled.

    "That's what you think

    of at a time like this?" she laughed. "Let me guess, you decided to
    get shot so that I would take an afternoon off, too."

    "It worked, didn't

    it?" I smiled, but blinked and when I opened my eyes there was a nurse
    standing over us.

    "He really should be on

    the morphine for another six to eight hours at least," she was saying.
    "If I switch him over now he's going to hurt like a motherfucker."

    "Is it going to be that

    bad tomorrow?" Kyla asked.

    "Mostly," she said.

    "He wants it,"

    Vanessa said.

    "Okay," the nurse

    said. "I'll let the Doc know."

    "Thanks," I

    grunted.

    They fussed over me a bit,

    and I drifted again since the morphine hadn't actually been cut off yet, and I
    woke up to an odd sensation.

    "Umm," I groaned

    and twitched.

    "It's Okay, baby,"

    Vanessa whispered in my ear. "Just lay back and enjoy it."

    I blinked my eyes open and

    looked down my body. Vanessa was still lying next to me cuddled up as she
    kissed my cheek, but my hospital gown was lifted up to my stomach and Kyla was
    kneeling on the bed as well, straddling one of my legs as she slowly sucked my
    cock and looked up to meet my gaze.

    "Don't have to,” I

    started, but Vanessa interrupted me by turning me by my chin to meet her lips.

    "Shush," she

    shushed me. "She wants to, and she needs to. You were both exposed
    to multiple potential vectors, Harri. The tests came back clean, but we want to
    be safe just in case. You need to make sure the vaccine is working at high
    capacity. So Kyla is going to suck you off until you fill her mouth. Then we'll
    let you rest a little, and then we're going to reenact what you and I did when
    you woke up in a hospital gown in this building. Then, after a little more
    rest, you're going to fuck Kyla as well."

    "Yes, nurse," I

    groaned, letting my head fall back. Kyla was using her tongue to slither around
    my cock head and even though the sensations were weird and dulled from the meds
    it was still pleasurable. My cock was obviously enjoying it too as I was
    already close to full mast.

    "God, look at her,"

    Vanessa whispered to me. "She's so fucking pretty already, but somehow
    she's even hotter with your cock in her mouth."

    I reached to Kyla with the

    hand that Vanessa wasn't holding and Kyla caught it with hers and intertwined
    her fingers with mine, smiling with the whole head of my cock between her lips.
    This wasn't usual for us, being sexual with one of the others present; the only
    time it had really happened before was after that shootout at Mary's and us
    being detained overnight when she'd participated in the 'Whose Mouth Is This?' game
    with the others. Kyla was still uninterested in women and our time was just for
    us.

    But here she was blowing me

    with soft, slow motions that spoke of her desire for me, and to make this last,
    while Vanessa was with us in bed and watching.

    "I'm mad at you, you

    know," Vanessa whispered to me.

    "For getting shot?"

    I guessed.

    She nodded. "And not

    making me take more breaks. I miss spending time with you and the girls. But
    especially you."

    "You wanted to

    work," I said. "You love doing your job, and it was emergency
    pacing."

    "I know," she said.

    "But... you should have made me."

    "I don't think I could

    make you do anything, Vanessa. I don't know if anyone could make you do
    something you don't want to do."

    "You could," she

    whispered. "Youkan. Don't let me be away from you, Harri. I,” She
    stopped and swallowed.

    I turned to her and kissed

    her hard, or at least as hard as I could considering the situation and the
    positioning. She kissed me back just as firmly, our lips mashed together as our
    foreheads touched. The kiss ended but we kept our faces touching.

    "I love you, Harri. You

    big fucking bastard," Vanessa whispered.

    "I love you too,

    Vanessa," I said quietly.

    "Finally," Kyla

    said, taking her lips from my cock and nuzzling the shaft with her face as she
    looked up at us. "Jesus, Vee. Took you long enough."

    "Shut up," Vanessa

    said, obviously a little embarrassed by her own emotions. "It's; this is
    all happening too fast. It's not normal."

    "None of it is, but

    you've clearly loved him since before I joined the family," Kyla
    countered. "And you've been making him wait to say it because he didn't
    want to push you away."

    "I have?" Vanessa

    asked in surprise. "I thought... we were just supposed to be..."

    "Vanessa," I

    chuckled softly. "I wanted to tell you I loved you that first time we were
    alone together. It's almost ironic that you're saying it to me here, when I
    wanted to say it to you like thirty yards from this spot."

    "God," Vanessa

    laughed gently. "I'm so messed up."

    "No you're not," I

    said, squeezing her hands with mine. "You're you, and I love you."

    She kissed me again, and Kyla

    went back to blowing me as she held my other hand. It was a long, slow process
    that they took to build me up; and they were working together even if
    they weren't communicating or even looking at each other. Every once in a while
    Vanessa would stop kissing me and turn my face to look down at Kyla with my
    cock in her mouth, and she would kiss her way down my jaw to my neck and then
    up to my ear to whisper naughty things to me. Then Kyla would squeeze my
    fingers and flick her eyes to Vanessa, signaling to kiss the other woman again.

    "God, I love you

    both," I groaned softly in between kisses. "I'm close."

    "Do it, baby,"

    Vanessa said. "Fill her mouth. Give her your cum. She wants it so bad. I
    know because I want it too. I crave it from you. Give her your load and remind
    her why she wants to have your babies."

    "I want his babies for

    more than being his little whore," Kyla said, taking her lips from me for
    a moment and jerking me off with her hand.

    "Well, yeah,

    but..." Vanessa said, smiling and looking down at the other woman for the
    first time in a while.

    "Fair," Kyla

    smirked. "She's right, hon. Usually I would want your load in my cunt. I
    love that obey gooey feeling when you go off in me, but I want it in my mouth
    now. I want to taste you. Can I have that, Harri? Can I have your delicious
    seed all over my tongue? I'll even share it with Vanessa if you want. I'll give
    her half."

    "Yes, please,"

    Vanessa whispered to me. "Can I have some too, Harri?"

    "Fuck," I grunted,

    closing my eyes and letting my orgasm roll through me. Kyla dropped her mouth
    to my cock and I released right onto her tongue, four big spurts before she
    started sucking hard, pulling the rest out of me as she hummed a gleeful,
    almost manic laugh and her own body shuddered through an orgasm brought on by
    the chemical bonding from the vaccine.

    I let out a long, loud

    exhalation as my orgasm finished, but opened my eyes when I felt Kyla leave my
    cock and climb up the bed carefully. Then, to my astonishment, she leaned down
    to Vanessa and kissed her, their tongues swapping back and forth as they traded
    my cum. Vanessa's body twitched and flexed as she was fed it and got her own
    orgasmic spike, and she gripped my fingers tight.

    "Fuck," I groaned

    again. I never thought I'd see Kyla kissing one of the others beyond a friendly
    peck.

    "Hmm," Vanessa

    hummed as Kyla finally pulled away. "Thanks, Kyla."

    "No problem," Kyla

    smirked. She sat back, carefully avoiding my injured leg, took my cock in her
    hand and started to slowly jerk it again. "Harri obviously enjoyed
    watching that."

    "Kyla, I mean; It's was

    hot, and surprising, but I don't expect you to,”

    "I know, hon," she

    said, gently squeezing my cock to silence me. "I know. I'm not changing my
    stance on things. I'm straight. I just... it felt right in the moment. And it's
    not like I regret it."

    "Neither do I,"

    Vanessa smirked.

    "Good," Kyla said.

    "Because now it's your turn. Get your pants off, I want to snuggle him
    while you fuck him."

    I, apparently, didn't have a

    say in this, and soon Kyla was in the same spot as Vanessa had been and laying
    her cheek on my shoulder. Vanessa had hopped down from the bed and shucked her
    sweatpants and panties, then climbed back up. It took some doing for her to
    find a way to mount me that was comfortable enough for her to slowly grind on
    my cock while also not putting pressure on my left leg.

    "God, fuck," I

    groaned once she was settled, my cock stuffed deep into her. She was leaning
    forward slightly to keep her weight high and was grinning down at me. Kyla,
    meanwhile, had shifted higher on the bed as well to give some more room and was
    sort of curled over me a little and looking down at me from above, running her
    fingers through my hair.

    "Just close your eyes

    and enjoy it, Harri," Kyla whispered to me. "You'll be back to
    ravaging us soon enough. Let us take care of you."

    "Fuck, even shot and

    dopey from the drugs this is still the best cock I've ever had," Vanessa
    groaned. "I love you so Goddamn much, Harri."

    "I love you too,

    Vanessa," I groaned. "I love you both."

    Kyla kissed my forehead, and

    Vanessa kissed my lips, and then they both made soft, sweet love to me one
    after the other.

    I was released from the

    medical wing of the Air Force building the next day. Vanessa and Kyla had both
    been allowed to keep their phones this time and that night I'd video called
    with Erica and Ivy, then with Leo, Dani and Aria for a couple of minutes. They
    were all glad to see I was Okay and sent their love.

    The tone of things changed

    once I was back home.

    "Fucking asshole,"

    Erica said and punched me in the arm. Hard. "Don't fucking do that to us
    again!"

    "Ow, fuck," I said.

    Erica wasn't super strong or anything but she could throw a punch. "Jesus,
    Erica. I didn't get shot on purpose."

    They had at least given me

    time to get back inside our compound, using a crutch to help keep weight off my
    wounded leg. Vanessa had driven Erica's car into the city and Kyla and I had
    hitched our ride back with her since my truck was; Actually, I wasn't sure where
    my beautiful truck was. But based on what I vaguely remembered Miriam telling
    me, it wasn't exactly in driving condition at the moment and must have been
    towed somewhere.

    I was sitting down; tenderly;

    in one of the deck chairs and Macho had jumped up on my lap and squirmed around
    in glee that I was home until I was giving him a rough belly scratching and he
    was lolling his head to the side with his tongue hanging out. That's when Erica
    hit me.

    "She is right, mon

    amour," Ivy said, perching herself on the armrest of the chair and
    glaring at me even while she took my chin in her fingers and pulled me into a
    kiss. "There was no reason to put yourself in so much danger."

    "It wasn't supposed to

    be dangerous," I sighed. "No one expected someone to attempt a big
    jailbreak."

    "Still," Erica

    said, continuing her frown at me as she sat in the chair next to mine.
    "You scared the shit out of us."

    "I'm sorry," I

    said, resting my hand on Macho's belly and just scratching him with my fingers.
    I'd never thought I'd be the kind of guy with a lapdog, but the little guy had
    grown on everyone quickly. "Kyla and I were doing something that we
    thought would be helpful, and then when we were in danger we did what
    was necessary."

    "That's some bullshit,

    Harri," Dani said, coming from inside our trailer with three bottles of
    beer in each hand fetched from the fridge and starting to hand them out.
    "You were being the hero again. And I, for one, am pissed at you as well
    but I'm not going to give you shit for it. You two shouldn't either. You knew
    what you were getting into when you picked him, Erica. And Ivy, I know you love
    the fact that he's a protector and super capable at that, so stop trying to
    give him shit for doing just that."

    "Stop being reasonable,

    you bitch," Erica sighed with a little self-deprecating smirk for Dani as
    she accepted a beer from her.

    "I'm sorry,

    Harrison," Ivy said, wiping under her eyes to try and keep herself from
    crying.

    "No, ladies," I

    said and then sighed out an exasperated breath. "Don't start apologizing.
    You two... I get it. And you have a right to feel the way you are. Especially
    since you couldn't come to check on me like Vanessa could. You've been bottling
    all that in. You can take it out on me, that's Okay; you need to get it
    out."

    "That's not what; ugh,

    Okay, maybe that's part of it," Erica said, curling her feet up under her
    in her chair as she looked over with an expression that was more frustrated
    with herself than with me. "I'm not asking you to change, babe. I'm not
    even asking you to not ever get in a risky position again or anything. Just...
    make sure it's worth it. To us. To people who... God, maybe this sounds
    awful, but to people who matter to us. Moving random prisoners from Point A to
    Point B doesn't change anything for us, doesn't protect us or make our lives
    any easier. Fuck, you weren't even getting paid to do it, Harri. The
    only reason you were out there was because you thought it was the right thing
    to do but it wasn't right or wrong, it was just a thing. We could have
    lost you and Kyla for nothing, and then what happens to us?"

    I had to close my eyes and

    let her words run through me because they were something I'd been stewing on
    myself internally and I hadn't put to voice for myself yet. She was right. I
    could make an argument for the community policing stuff because it was
    in my community. The more people were safe in Jewell and around the area, the
    more they acted civil and protected themselves and each other, then the better
    this place would be long term. Helping Mary and the kids had been good.
    Helping the women at Valkyrie Falls was good. Even driving down to Eugene on
    what had really been a fool's errand from the start had been a good thing to do
    because it helped Melina with her peace of mind and stopped her from risking
    herself.

    Maybe, potentially, the

    prisoner transport thing could have earned me a favor with the Staties. But
    what were the chances of that favor ever being paid back? Or them feeling like
    it was actually owed?

    Getting those men out of that

    prison had been a good thing, certainly, but I hadn't needed to be there for
    it. One more prisoner in the big SWAT truck instead of our vehicle wouldn't
    have made a difference. It was possible that Kyla and I had saved a couple of
    lives with our actions, but could I judge risking my life and the lives of four
    women I loved for something like that?

    The soldier in me said I'd

    just been doing my duty, and the man in me said it was a thing worth doing. But
    the husband in me... the boyfriend. The lover. The father, sooner or later.
    Those parts of me that had found and bonded to these women that I loved...

    "Stop pushing him,"

    Vanessa said. She'd been hanging back a bit, likely since she'd had time with
    me already and felt like she owed it to the others. "Look at him. I can
    see his mind going a mile a minute. He knows all of this, Erica. You don't
    think he's already considering this?"

    "I know he is,"

    Erica said. "But sometimes..."

    "Sometimes a man needs

    it put to him straight, or he'll run around it in circles until his legs fall
    off," I said and snorted a little laugh. "That's something my mother
    used to say about my father."

    "Smart woman," Dani

    smirked from where she was standing behind Erica.

    "Okay," I said.

    "Erica, babe, I hear you. Ivy, I'm sorry. I love you."

    "I love you too, mon

    amour," Ivy said softly, shifting to lean against me from her perch on
    the armrest.

    "Kyla," I said,

    looking around. She stepped up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.
    "I'm sorry I put you in a position like that again. I'm; God, I'm so
    sorry, and so glad that you didn't get hurt."

    "I asked for it,

    Harri," she said. "It was; Fuck, I don't know. I love you."

    Macho was not amused that I

    took my hand from his belly to take Kyla's on my shoulder and he rolled over
    and stood on his hind legs in my lap and started licking at my face.

    "Okay, Okay," I

    said, fending him away. "Fuck, dude. Not on the lips." I pinned him
    down to my lap again and he wagged his tail and looked up at me with that
    little wide-eyed innocent look of his as he got his belly scratched again.

    "Vanessa," I said,

    looking over at her. She met my eyes and smiled and nodded. "I love
    you."

    "I love you too, you big

    bastard," Vanessa said.

    That seemed to be news to

    Erica, Ivy and Dani, who all reacted like they were high schoolers and
    immediately were talking a mile a minute as they surrounded Vanessa and were
    hugging her. Kyla took that opportunity to lean down from behind me and give me
    a kiss on the cheek and let me know she needed to go take a nap; she hadn't
    slept since we'd left the morning before for Sheridan.

    That left me with Macho for

    the moment, but I noticed that Leo had come out of his RV; he, Aria and India
    had disappeared after first welcoming me home to give us some privacy for the
    conversation. He was frowning a little and gave me the universal guy nod for 'follow
    me over here,' so with a grunt and a grimace I got up from the chair and
    hobbled after him with Macho tucked under one arm like a little furry football
    as he played with my fingers, gnawing on them lightly.

    Leo led me around the side of

    the RV, out of sight of the girls, and turned and waited for me before leading
    me beyond the hanging sheets outside of the compound and next to one of the
    storage containers.

    "It was just your leg,

    right?" he asked me, obviously concerned. "No concussion or
    anything?"

    "Just the leg," I

    said with a sigh. "Thank,”

    Leo punched me in the face.

    Now, Leo wasn't a big guy. He

    didn't work out, and I doubted he ever really had with any seriousness. But he
    worked with his hands, and he wasn't necessarily out of shape, so when
    he punched me it staggered me back a step and blossomed a nice shot of pain in
    my nose and a black circle in my vision for a moment.

    "Fuck," Leo hissed,

    grabbing his hand.

    "Fuck," I grunted,

    feeling at my face with the hand that wasn't holding Macho. "You could
    have at least let me put the dog down."

    "Yeah, but then he might

    have run off," Leo grimaced, feeling his knuckles with his thumb.
    "God damn, you have a hard face. Fuck, Harrison. God fucking damn you. You
    need to stop fucking around. You scared the shit out of me and Erica. Do you
    know the last time I saw my sister cry? Like really cry? Cause I can't. But she
    did when she heard you'd been shot, and she came to me because she couldn't put
    it on Ivy or Vanessa. She needs you, Harri, and I'm not just talking
    about the vaccine. She needs you, Okay? Fuck, we all need you. How long
    do you think I could take care of three live-in girlfriends, let alone my
    sister and any of the others, without you? You're changing all of our lives and
    I'm so fucking grateful for that, but fuck you for it, too."

    I grabbed Leo and pulled him

    into a hug. Just the two; well, three; dudes in this mess together. Macho
    seemed to sense the moment and didn't squirm, instead nuzzling his way between
    the two of us a bit.

    "I'm sorry," I told

    Leo.

    "It's not just you,

    Harri," Leo said. "She needs you. I need you. I love you, dude."

    "I know," I said.

    "I know. I'm sorry."

    We hugged it out for a bit,

    and then both of us backed away feeling a little chagrined. I felt my nose,
    making sure it wasn't broken or bleeding, and he checked his knuckles again.
    Then I slapped him on the shoulder and nodded, and he nodded back, and we went
    back inside the compound.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 8 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 13
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 13
    Hospital Conjugal

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    Let’s review the list

    of character you’ve already met, in this series;

    House Black

    Harrison 'Harri' Black;

    Sheriff of Black County, 'Jason Momoa-looking motherfucker' mountain man (mixed
    heritage), former Army MP

    Vanessa Peters; Construction

    Forewoman, Daughter of Brent Peters the head of the construction project,
    Brunette

    Erica LaCosta; Fiancée of

    Harri, Leo's sister, Italian Tattoo Artist, Dark Brunette

    Macho; Rescued daschund

    puppy, named for his big balls, mascot and beloved pet of House Black

    Ivy Gauthier; Quebecoise

    stripper, half-tattooed, Dirty Blonde anal queen

    Kyla Bautista; Trained

    dancer, Filipino Spy, Harri's Deputy Sheriff, Raven hair

    House LaCosta

    Leo LaCosta; Harri's best

    friend and former roommate, Italian carpenter, Erica's brother

    India; Girlfriend of Aria,

    Hippy Stripper/Sugar Baby, grew up in a commune, Brunette dreads and braids,
    Member of House LaCosta

    Danielle 'Dani'; Australian

    stripper, Brunette, Member of House LaCosta

    Aria; Girlfriend of India,

    Stripper/Sugar Baby, Ginger, Member of House LaCosta

    Other

    Abigail 'Abi' Jónsson;

    Co-owner of Valkyrie Falls women's athletic retreat, Icelandic Personal Trainer
    and CrossFit Competitor, Athletically Thick Blonde

    Josie 'Joss the Boss' Draper;

    Professional Wrestler, Athletically Trim Blonde

    Captain Toranno; Oregon State

    Trooper

    Referenced Characters

    Lieutenant Colonel Miriam

    Abarbanel; Military friend of Harri's, Air Force Lt Col, Jewish heritage,
    Commanding Officer for Valhalla Hills construction and the Oregon Quaranteam
    research project

    Mary Duncan; Attended high

    school with Harri, former cheerleader, Husband has disappeared while looking
    for work

    And now, let’s get back to

    the story..

    My tough little construction

    working lover, still wearing her high-vis vest, opened her eyes and looked at
    me. "Harri, can I come? Can you fill up my cunt with a giant fucking load
    of sperm, and send my brain to the fucking moon? I need to go back to work, so
    I'm just going to pull up my panties and feel it leaking out of me for the rest
    of the day, and I'll be thinking about you constantly, and that's the best day
    I can think of."

    "You can come when I

    come, beautiful," I said, leaning down and planting a hard kiss on her.
    She pulled an Erica and kissed me back ferociously to the point of biting my
    lip. I grunted and she didn't let go, and I took that as a challenge and
    started really pumping into her hard until her teeth loosened on me as she
    moaned loudly from her throat. I pulled away and pushed her down onto the bed
    hard by the chest and I thrust into her in three brutal strokes, her ass smacking
    on my thighs as I carved in and out of her with my cock, before I unloaded.

    "Ah, gaw," Vanessa

    moaned at the top of her lungs, throwing her head back as she matched my orgasm
    with her own. Her orgasm released in a wash of girlcum sloshing out of her and
    soaking the bottom of the bed. Her moan lowered into her mumbling gibberish for
    a long moment before she shook her head hard and blinked. "Holy fuck I
    needed that," she gasped as she tried to catch her breath.

    "Ugh," I groaned as

    I slowly pulled out her, my cock a mess of our mixed juices. Erica jumped on
    the opportunity first, leaning in and getting her lips tenderly on the head and
    starting to clean me off with a soft blowjob.

    "So, no work today,

    or...?" Kyla asked me with a smirk from the head of the bed as Vanessa
    wiggled her hips so that she could pull her panties up and catch my cum as it
    started to leak out of her.

    I barked a laugh at almost

    the same time I winced at the tenderness of my shlong. "That
    depends," I said. "Are you going to want some alone time soon, or
    wait until tonight?"

    Kyla looked down at Erica

    sucking my cock and bit her lip.

    It had been a week and a

    half, based on the timing Miriam had given me, since the Vaccine had started
    going public down in California but we still weren't seeing any word of it on
    the news. Leo was the most invested in trying to spot the Government maneuvers
    in that regard; he was fascinated at having gotten a peek behind the curtain,
    and I would have worried he might become a crackpot if not for the fact that
    Dani and Aria would keep him grounded. India maybe not so much, she was the
    child of hippy communists (real ones who walked the walk on an actual commune)
    so she had a tendency to offhandedly distrust just about anything that espoused
    authority.

    Thankfully that distrust

    hadn't transferred to me in my new job.

    The only thing that seemed to

    have slipped through the new embargos nationally was a social media thing that
    went viral about trucks full of bodies in New York City. I likely would have
    been skeptical if I hadn't known what I knew; they were picking up bodies in
    trucks out here in the sticks of Oregon, too. Not big transport trucks, but
    smaller refrigerated box trucks driven and manned by the National Guard. I
    could only guess at the death toll in a place like NYC where so many people
    were stacked on top of each other. I'd been there once for a trip in high
    school and the fact that it dwarfed Portland in almost every way had boggled my
    young mind at the time. Now I'd seen Paris, Berlin, and Istanbul, not to
    mention a bunch of the cities across the Middle East, through my time in the
    military and while New York was still the biggest I'd seen, I had
    realized Portland wasn't as big a city as my teen mind had thought.

    Even still, transport trucks

    full of bodies disappearing in the night? It was chilling.

    It had also led to some hard

    questions over at Valkyrie Falls. Erica had come along and met everyone up
    there on the first supply run I did for them; mainly because she needed to sit
    down and talk with Sara and Abigail about facilitating things for them and what
    other supplies they would need. But also because she wanted to get eyes on both
    Josie and Spencer, who Vanessa, Kyla and Dani had spread the word about back
    home. Both Josie and Spencer had been a little quieter than I'd known them to
    be when meeting my fiancée, and it had been kind of funny to see two such
    physically powerful women intimidated by Erica.

    Ivy had come up on the second

    supply run with me, and things had been a lot more playful. In between supply
    runs, Kyla, Dani and I had gone up twice more for workouts; Vanessa had needed
    to back out due to the construction work starting up again; and things had
    stabilized a bit as Abi trained me and Spencer trained both Dani and Kyla. Both
    of the girls pointed out that Josie was never far away when I was around and
    ribbed me about it, and both Josie and Abi had continued to shower with us
    after our workouts.

    It was on the third supply

    run, which was the second one with a big load of groceries that took eight
    people to unload from the truck in one trip, that I had to field the questions
    about the viral video and explain that it was likely true, and what I knew of
    how we were handling things here in the region. That had been a sobering
    conversation for a lot of us, myself included. Every time I'd gone to Valkyrie
    Falls before then, even that first time doing the Welfare Check, it had been an
    upbeat place full of women who took charge of their lives and were constantly seeking
    to better themselves.

    Knowing something is real,

    and seeing it play out, are two different things.

    Dani had done the trip with

    me this time and we were heading back out to the truck when Melina came jogging
    out to the parking lot. "Sheriff! Hold on a second." I hadn't exactly
    spent much time with Melina, only meeting her in passing just like most of the
    clients at the Falls. She was the blonde bodybuilder who was stunningly
    gorgeous and was obviously highly focused on her appearance. Her face was almost
    too perfect and symmetrical and I guessed she'd either had a bit of work done
    or was a former beauty queen, and she sported a full, round bosom that was just
    on the edge of looking like they were bolted on without crossing that line, at
    least with her workout gear on..

    "Hey, Melina," I

    said as she jogged over and stopped. She had a worried look on her face, not
    that I hadn't left several of those after the conversation we'd had in the
    kitchen, and she sucked her lips in between her teeth for a moment as she put
    her hands on her hips. "What can I do for you?"

    "I; Well, I don't know

    if you can help with this," she said.

    "If he can, Harri will

    try," Dani said, coming back around the truck and giving the woman a
    caring smile. "Just ask."

    Melina took a breath and then

    nodded. "After the first time you came here, I tried calling home and to
    the local police and I haven't been able to get ahold of anyone. I haven't been
    able to get ahold of my boyfriend for almost three weeks now. I know that we're
    not supposed to travel or anything, and if I leave here I can't come back, but
    I'm starting to get really worried. I was wondering if you've got any way to
    maybe help me track him down?"

    "Well, that might depend

    on a few things," I said. "You haven't been able to get ahold of
    anyone back home?"

    "My parents died years

    ago, and I don't have any siblings," Melina said. "I have some aunts
    and uncles and stuff, but they all live out on the East Coast. I haven't been
    able to track down a few of my friends either, but I'm trying to prioritize my
    worrying here."

    "Hmm," I nodded,

    thinking to myself that this wasn't panning out to sound very good. "Where
    are you and your boyfriend from? I can try giving a call to the local PD with
    my rank to see if that gets any answer."

    "Just down in

    Eugene," Melina said.

    "Oh," I said, a

    little surprised. I would have pegged her for a Californian for sure with her
    look. "That's only like three hours away."

    "Four with

    traffic," Melina nodded. "Not that there is much, from what I
    understand. I'd go myself, but Abi says she really can't let me come back and
    if I go down there and find out he's just ghosting me or something... well,
    being without the ability to hit a gym would really hamper my ability to cope
    with shit."

    "I totally

    understand," I said. "Look, I don't know if calling will do anything,
    but I could maybe take a drive down and see what's up."

    "Really?" Melina

    asked, her eyes getting big as she put a fist to her mouth like she was trying
    to hold back the hope she was feeling. "You can do that?"

    “I can stop by your place,

    and check in with the local cops if I can't find him," I said.
    "Shouldn't be too hard." It also wouldn't put me at any large amount
    of risk compared to Melina going down herself. All I'd need to do afterwards is
    have a bunch of sex with my partners. Oh no, poor me.

    Melina thanked me, pulling me

    into a powerful hug that actually cracked my lower back a little, and Dani shot
    me a look asking me to wait as she walked the other woman back to the building
    with an arm around her shoulders. When Dani came back she stepped up into the
    truck passenger seat and shut the door.

    "You sure you want to

    help with this, Harri?" she asked. "It's very sweet of you, but,”

    "I might as well,

    Dani," I said. "There aren't as many welfare checks for Kyla and me
    to handle anymore, and if I can help her find a little peace of mind just so
    she knows if something is wrong or not... Well, I think it's worth it."

    Dani smiled softly.

    "You're a good man, Harri," she said. "Just don't burn yourself
    out trying to help everyone, all the time."

    "I won't," I said

    as I started the truck.

    "Not bad, by the

    way," Dani said with a smirk.

    "Not bad, what?" I

    asked.

    "Oh, adding another

    Muscle Mommy to the list of hotties that want to bang you," Dani chuckled.

    "There isn't a list, and

    she's got a boyfriend," I said.

    "Says you, there's no

    list," Dani shot back. "And I'm not ashamed to say I'd be at the top
    of that list if it weren't for Leo. Remember how I almost imprinted on you
    instead of him?"

    "'Almost' is a little

    strong," I said. "But thanks."

    "No problem,

    buddy," she grinned and patted my arm. "But there's definitely a
    list."

    "Oh my God," I

    sighed as I pulled the truck off of the forest path and onto the highway,
    heading for home. "There is no list!"

    I left early the next day.

    I'd thought about leaving the truck for Kyla to use if she needed it and
    borrowing either Erica or Leo's car for the road trip down but was easily
    talked out of it by the girls. Erica walked me out to the truck that morning.

    "Love you," she

    said with a little kiss. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

    "Wait, how many things

    are on that list?" I asked. "Like, five?"

    "Seven, now," she

    smirked. "No more sex with guys who aren't named Harrison Black. And no
    more daydreaming about hooking up with a guy named Harrison Black. That last
    one became redundant."

    I snorted and kissed her.

    "Hold down the fort," I said. "I'll be back by dinner."

    "And I'll be waiting

    with bells on," she said. "But do me a favor?"

    "What's up?" I

    asked.

    "Don't bring home any

    strays," Erica said.

    "What, like a dog?"

    I asked.

    "No, babe. Like some

    lady who needs shelter or something," Erica said. "Because it would
    be just like you to find some beautiful young thing, down on her luck and in a
    desperate situation. And probably injected with the Vaccine but not imprinted
    yet. That's the kind of luck you have."

    "Okay, so say I really

    do find that beautiful woman, down on her luck and destitute, and in dire need
    of imprinting. What am I supposed to do with her?"

    Eric rolled her eyes.

    "Fine, you can bring her home. But we don't have any room in the bed. And
    the point of this was to say it out loud so that it wouldn't happen."

    "Noted," I laughed.

    The drive down was downright

    pleasant. It was another overcast summer day, which meant I got the occasional
    peek at the sky but otherwise it was just pleasantly warm and I didn't even
    need to wear sunglasses. Coasting down the highway and skirting through the
    southeast of Portland, I hit the I5 in record time and was headed due south.
    Traffic was almost non-existent until I hit Portland, and even then it was only
    a few cars on either side of the highway. I'd never liked driving so much as I
    did during the pandemic.

    Passing through the small

    towns south of Portland was the same as on my way from Jewell. Salem was a
    slightly different story, but not by much. It wasn't nearly the size of
    Portland but was the State Capital so I'd been there plenty of times as a kid
    and teen on school trips to different government and historical sites. The city
    itself looked about the same as I remembered, just sort of cleaner; with no
    tourism and no cars around it looked like the city had decided it was a great
    time to refurbish their outdoor spaces. It was downright pretty, even for a
    city, in my eyes.

    The first two hours and fifty

    minutes of my trip down were a breeze. Then, right at the end, I hit the
    roadblock about ten minutes outside of Eugene.

    "What the fuck?" I

    muttered to myself. There were four big, green army trucks parked across both
    lanes of the highway and a big tent off to one side that was some sort of a
    waystation or command center. I slowed down my truck as I approached; there was
    one car stopped at the roadblock, and another one was being directed to turn around
    onto the opposite lane and was getting sent off. A national guard soldier with
    a big handheld stop sign waved frantically at me as I came in behind the car
    ahead of me and I slowed to a crawl and then a stop. The driver of the car was
    being interrogated by a National Guardsman while another two were doing a
    security check on the vehicle, checking under it for what I could only assume
    would be explosives, and peering inside the windows.

    Another Guardsman came around

    that group to me but hesitated when he took in the bold white stripe and
    'Sheriff' printed along the side. I rolled down my window as he approached and
    put on my best 'I'm not someone to argue with' glare from my MP days.

    "Uh, the highway is

    closed," the Guardsman said as he approached. He was dressed in his
    regular fatigues but had a hazmat hood over top, along with gloves. I found the
    medical mask inside the hazmat hood to be a little silly and just served
    to muffle the guy. "What's your purpose of travel, Sheriff?"

    "Is the highway closed,

    or are you interrogating travelers, soldier?" I asked. "Because the
    first one is understandable, but the second one breaks at least two
    constitutional rights that I can think of off the top of my head."

    "Both?" the soldier

    hedged, and then firmed up. "I mean, both. The highway is closed, and
    we've got orders to ask for the reason for travel."

    "On whose command?"

    I asked. "Where are your orders coming from?"

    "Oh, uh, my regimental

    command," he said.

    I sighed and rubbed under one

    of my eyes, levelling my glare at him. "Why is the highway closed,
    private?"

    "That's

    classified," he said.

    "A major interstate

    highway is closed and it's classified?" I questioned him. "What, did
    aliens crash land in the middle of Eugene or something?"

    "That's all I can say,

    sir," the soldier said. "You're going to need to turn around."

    I snorted and shook my head.

    "Hold on," I said. I pulled out my phone and dialed Miriam, keeping
    it off of the truck speakers.

    "Please don't tell me

    you're in another shootout," Miriam answered her phone.

    "Nope," I said with

    a little smirk. "And hello to you too, Colonel. I'm currently on the I5
    outside of Eugene, travelling on official business, and I've got a National
    Guardsman telling me it's closed for classified reasons."

    There was a long silence on

    the other end and then a short sigh. "What are you doing heading that far
    south, Harri?"

    "Investigating a

    disappearance," I said.

    "There's a lot of those

    going on down there right now," Miriam said.

    "So this is a real

    thing, then," I said.

    I could practically hear

    Miriam quickly thinking through what options she had for how much she could, or
    wanted, to tell me. "Eugene is under martial law," she finally said.
    "Do you really need to go in there?"

    "Well, if I'm going to

    try and find the person I'm looking for, yeah," I said.

    "Alright. I'm going to

    make a couple of quick calls and you'll be let through. Just; and I know I
    don't need to tell you this, but no photos or video, Harri. No leaks."

    "Okay," I said.

    "Talk to you soon."

    "You too. Stay

    safe."

    I hung up and looked at the

    Guardsman. "You're going to get a call."

    Another car pulled up behind

    me, and the one in front of me was turned around and sent back the way we had
    come, by the time the Corporal in charge of the roadblock crew got called over
    to the command tent at the side of the road to pick up a sat phone. I watched
    as several men had a quick back and forth before the Sergeant in the tent and
    the Corporal waved over the Private who had stayed at my door the whole time.
    After another quick chat, the Guardsman jogged back over.

    "I'm, uh, sorry for

    delaying you, Sheriff," he stammered. "We didn't know you had
    clearance."

    "Well, my clearance

    levels seem to fluctuate by the day," I said. "No worries, soldier.
    Stay safe out here."

    "Our Sergeant says

    you're expected down at the HQ. We're set up in the main Eugene Police
    station," he said. "Do you need directions?"

    "I'll figure it

    out," I said and gave him a nod.

    They had to move one of the

    big green trucks for me, the engine in the thing making my bowels shake as it
    turned over heavily. All it did was remind me of days I thought had been long
    behind me. I could just barely hear the guy in the car waiting at my rear
    shouting at the Guardsmen when they didn't let him follow me.

    Parking at the Eugene PD

    was... limited. Not because there weren't many spots, but because the place was
    packed. More army trucks, along with some Humvees and jeeps, took up a good
    portion of the lots on either side of the station and into the commercial
    office space around it. Several staging tents had been deployed outside the
    front door in the little courtyard-like area and the grass of the front lawn
    was torn up from trucks and lots of travel over a short amount of time. The
    entire area looked like a mix between an army depot and the remains after a big
    music festival.

    Except that, other than a

    couple of National Guard posted up at the front door, there wasn't anyone
    around.

    I pulled into the visitor parking

    area right at the front, my pickup flanked on either side by military jeeps. As
    I approached the front door both of the National Guardsmen glanced at each
    other and looked ready to stop me, but I stopped short and pulled my new badge
    out of my back pocket. It was in a little leather frame that I had attached to
    a chain and I looped that over my head so it hung on my chest.

    "Boys," I said in

    my MP voice and gave them a respectful nod. Between the badge, my confidence
    and the voice they let me through without issue. Inside there was a lot more
    activity going on; there was a buzz of conversations as National Guard, and
    several members of other military branches, along with local PD and other
    emergency services and civilians that I assumed were running admin roles were
    all working in a quiet frenzy. Despite the energy through the room, there was
    also exhaustion; big maps of the city were posted on walls with neighborhoods
    and areas colored in quickly, or with stats written across them.

    When no one immediately

    approached me, or even really noticed me, I went up to the front desk where I
    assumed a secretary or officer would have usually been stationed. Still
    nothing, so I tapped the service bell firmly. The ring cut through the noise
    and almost thirty people looked over at me just in that front office area.

    "Who are you?"

    someone in the crowd asked. They were all covered in medical masks and gloves
    and it was hard to tell who had actually spoken.

    "Sheriff of Black

    County," I said. "I'm,”

    "Here to see me,"

    Captain Bloomberg said, coming out of a side corridor and pointing at me with
    two fingers and then giving me a 'follow' beckon. That seemed enough for the
    various officers, both military and emergency services, and they went back to
    work as I skirted around the front desk and caught up to the Captain as she was
    headed back down the corridor.

    "Captain," I said.

    "Nice to see you again."

    "What happened to

    staying out of trouble?" Laura asked.

    "I'm pretty sure that

    was a suggestion," I pointed out. "And this barely constitutes as
    trouble."

    The Captain scoffed and shook

    her head. "Harrison, you just drove into a city on the edge of
    collapse."

    "I... really? It didn't

    look that bad on my drive in," I said.

    Laura led me to an office she

    seemed to have temporarily appropriated and shut the door behind us, gesturing
    for me to sit. "You can take off the mask, I know you're safe," she
    said as she peeled off her own. "And I disinfected this whole fucking
    room."

    I took my mask off and along

    with the seat she offered as the Captain sat behind the desk, sorted a few
    papers and then turned to me. "Yes, Harrison," she said. "It
    really is that bad. Just over two weeks ago there was a run on a bank downtown
    when it couldn't fulfil cash withdrawals; they weren't out of money, their delivery
    was hijacked. Insurance and the Treasury would have covered it. But one bank
    'failing' cascaded into issues for all the banks, and that turned into a
    full-on riot. There was a full day of chaos across the city before the National
    Guard rolled in; looting, vigilante justice, protests, the works. The locals
    and the National Guard did what they could to mitigate the fallout, but best
    guess is there are two distinct waves of Duo Halo outbreaks that have swept
    through, not to mention the COVID outbreaks that are shitty enough to deal
    with. Now I'm down here seeing if there's anything that can be done to save
    folks with the vaccine, but after the debacle with your construction site we're
    low on vaccine supplies and California can't make it fast enough for their own
    rollout right now. You're literally catching me on my way out."

    "Well... fuck," I

    said. Eugene was a city of around 175,000 people, give or take. Based on how
    Duo Halo had hit the construction site, that meant... "Fuck."

    "Yeah," Captain

    Bloomberg said. "Official death toll is over 50,000 right now, and that's
    just confirmed deaths. We're expecting it to be much higher."

    The weight of it hit me like

    a brick in the gut. Five hundred construction workers had been the estimated
    death toll at the site, and that was with emergency vaccine deployment. It had
    seemed like a massive number. Now we were adding two zeros onto that number, and
    growing.

    "I; well, shit," I

    said. "And this is all being kept quiet?"

    "Think about it,

    Harrison," Laura said. "One bank has one delay, and the powder keg of
    this city got set off. The fact that we were able to keep it locked down is
    practically a miracle. The entire western seaboard could be on fire right now
    if people saw anything about what happened here. The whole city is cut off; no
    news, no cell service, no internet, no landlines. Every road out is blocked,
    and the algorithms are constantly searching for any mention of what's going on
    to strip it from social media."

    "And if it was handled

    so well here," I guessed. "Eugene probably isn't the only place this
    has happened."

    "Probably not," the

    Captain nodded. "But I'm not privy to that information. It's the only city
    in Oregon, at least. Well, other than a couple of smaller towns that are
    looking more like ghost towns now."

    I wiped my face and sat back,

    sucking in and breathing out a long stream of air. "Okay," I said.
    "So... shit."

    "The Colonel said you

    were vague on the phone about why you came down here," the Captain said.
    "How about we start there?"

    "I'm looking for

    someone," I said. "I've got a name and an address."

    "Why, though?"

    Laura asked. "And I mean this with exactly the tiny amount of respect your
    office holds considering I'm the one that made it legal to begin with; what the
    fuck are you doing down here?"

    "A glorified welfare

    check," I admitted. "There's a woman I,”

    "You're doing this for a

    woman?" Laura asked, levelling her gaze at me.

    "Not like that," I

    said, holding up a hand. "She's part of a quarantine group that I've been
    helping out, and it's her boyfriend. She hasn't been able to reach anyone down
    here, for obvious reasons now, and asked me to look into it. I figured it would
    be less hassle for you or Miriam if I just came down here to find him myself
    instead of bothering you with it."

    "And yet, here you

    are," Laura smirked. "Bothering me with it. But roll it back, Black.
    What's this 'quarantine group?'"

    I told the Captain about

    Valkyrie Falls, and that just made her more incredulous that I'd stumbled across
    an Amazonian heaven in the middle of the forest and had somehow not only met
    them but befriended them and was now their go-to person for interacting with
    the outside world. She asked for pictures as proof and I told her I didn't have
    any. Then she asked for names and took out her phone, but we quickly remembered
    that there wasn't any service so she couldn't look them up anyways.

    "You realize that you

    are the luckiest fucking person this side of the Rocky Mountains, right?"
    she said.

    "It's not a big deal,"

    I said. "Really. They're just friendly people who needed some help."

    "Miriam is not going to

    believe this one," Laura sighed and shook her head. "Alright, here's
    the deal. The records are kind of loose right now, so what I can do is hook you
    up with a local guide. I'm hitching a chopper ride out of here in about an hour
    back up to Portland, so if you get into any shit I'm not going to be around to
    pull you out of it again. Think you can handle that?"

    "I'd argue I don't get

    into that much trouble, but I think we both know you'd win that one," I
    said.

    "Good, you're

    learning," Laura smirked.

    She led me out of her

    temporary office, after we both masked up again, and down to the main area and
    flagged down an admin person and spoke to her quickly. That woman took her
    directions and then went looking for someone else.

    "She'll bring you your

    guide," Laura said. "And seriously, don't get into trouble."

    "I won't. Thanks,

    Captain," I said.

    She nodded and left me

    waiting in the front lobby area, and I had a moment to process what she'd told
    me. The city was fucked.

    Fifty thousand dead.

    I had to step over to a wall

    and put my hand on it to keep myself up as I tried to imagine that number in my
    head.

    "You Okay, sir?"

    someone asked me, and I realized my legs had buckled a bit as I'd had my eyes
    closed.

    "Um, yeah. Yeah," I

    said, getting myself up and standing straight, blinking rapidly to try and
    clear my thoughts. The woman was dressed in a firefighter's uniform, which was
    to say a button-down short sleeve navy shirt with the Eugene Fire Department
    crest on the sleeve. She was brunette, with a sort of severe angle to her face,
    and while she wasn't tall she still had a somewhat powerful and active build
    that made me think of the women back at Valkyrie Falls. "Sorry, I just got
    filled in on... what's been going on."

    "Mm," she hummed

    with a single nod. There was a sort of hollowness to her expression that told
    me she'd probably been going through waves of what I'd just been feeling.
    "My name is Kristine. I've been ordered to help you get around town?"

    "Yeah, yes," I

    nodded, offering her my hand. "Sheriff Black."

    "Sheriff of where?"

    she asked, shaking it and then immediately turning to a wall-mounted sanitizer
    bottle and squirting her gloved hand with it and scrubbing thoroughly. I did
    the same, following her lead.

    "Black County," I

    said. "It's small and up north."

    "You're Sheriff Black,

    of Black County?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. It was the first bit of
    real emotion I'd seen from her.

    "Long story," I

    said.

    "Alright, well, if

    you've got a vehicle then we might as well take yours," she said.
    "What exactly are we doing?"

    "I'm trying to locate

    someone," I told her as we headed for the door.

    "That might be

    tough," Kristine told me.

    "Well, I've got one day

    down here to try and get it done," I said. "Might as well make the
    best of it."

    I led her out to my truck,

    which got my second flash of emotion from her as she raised both eyebrows this
    time and whistled behind her mask. "Brand new?" she asked.

    "Yep," I nodded.

    "I got her a couple of weeks ago now."

    We piled into the front.

    "So who are we looking for, and where?"

    "His name's Victor

    Fenton, goes by Vic," I said and fished the slip of paper I'd written
    Melina's directions on. "Lives in a condo block at 3614 Goodpasture
    Loop."

    "Alright, I know

    Goodpasture," Kristine said. "Let's see if it's still standing."

    "What?" I asked.

    "There's been more than

    a few fires over the last couple weeks. Some residential, some commercial. The
    riots were the worst for it, but every day there's one or two. Our crews, those
    of us that are left, have dealt with more in the past two weeks than in the
    past five years."

    "Fuck," I said and

    shook my head as I pulled out of the visitor parking.

    "Yeah, that about sums

    it up," Kristine frowned. She gave me directions through town and pointed
    out where some of the fires had been, and we took a quick detour through a
    commercial neighborhood where one of the big riot sites had happened. The
    buildings looked like they'd been burned out and gutted.

    "You ever serve?" I

    asked her.

    She shook her head.

    "Took a straight shot to becoming an EMT out of high school, then
    transferred to firefighting after that."

    "Well, you've been

    serving in your own way," I said. "But this; this reminds me of over
    there more than it does back here."

    "I can imagine,"

    she sighed.

    We pulled onto Goodpasture

    and had to do a bit of driving to reach 3614, but as we got close it quickly
    became apparent that this wasn't going to be easy.

    "Well, I guess I jinxed

    it," Kristine said as we looked out the window at the blackened pile of
    rubble. The place hadn't just lit on fire, it had burned to the ground.
    "We've been prioritizing which fires we fight hard, and which we think we
    can let burn themselves out. We don't have the manpower to save
    everything."

    "So what now?" I

    asked. "Is there somewhere that the displaced people from the fires are
    going, or are they in the wind?"

    "There are a few

    sites," Kristine said, picking up her phone.

    "I thought there wasn't

    cell service?" I asked.

    "There isn't,"

    Kristine said. "But I loaded the 'Refugee Doc' onto my phone this morning
    when I got in. If there are survivors from these condos, I should be able to
    figure out where they are in the city."

    "Do you have

    names?" I asked.

    She shook her head. "Too

    many people moving. We're just keeping them in groups. Alright, looks like the
    survivors from this building got moved to the Rink Exchange. If your Victor guy
    wasn't dead from the virus or died in the fire, we should be able to find him there."

    "Shit, alright," I

    said. "Where to?"

    Again Kristine had to give me

    directions by memory, backtracking us to a main street before working us around
    through the city. We passed by a few different gathering points throughout the
    neighborhoods. Several were supply depots where the National Guard were handing
    out provisions to people since all the stores were closed. A few were
    checkpoints we had to pass through, but between my truck and badge and
    Kristine's outfit we got through with little more than a cursory glance. One of
    the active places we passed was the hospital, which looked like it had been
    through its own warzone. All of the lower-story windows were boarded over, and
    several of the entrances were blocked as well. The ER entrance was manned by armed
    National Guard soldiers.

    "The riots hit the

    hospital twice," Kristine explained when she saw I was slowing down and
    looking. "It was one of the first places the National Guard secured, and
    they are processing wounds but stopped all other treatments."

    I grimaced, thinking of all

    the people who were missing out on important healthcare they relied on. Duo
    Halo was killing tens of thousands, but how many would end up dead at the end
    because they just didn't get what they needed?

    The Rink Exchange was another

    National Guard-manned building, the complex parking lots stuffed to the gills
    with both civilian cars and army transports. I ended up needing to park a ways
    down the street and we walked our asses over. At the front, we got cursory
    inspections and then were allowed in. It looked like several of the ice rinks,
    all of which had been cleared and turned into barracks areas, were housing many
    of the National Guard but one of the rinks was housing displaced folks.
    Kristine led me over there, and we checked in with an admin person who huffed
    at us interrupting whatever she was doing. She struck me immediately as someone
    who had created her own little fiefdom of power and seeing someone outside her
    little world step in with some real authority got her back up.

    It took almost an hour for us

    to get the answer that Victor Fenton had been at the Rink Exchange, but
    he'd 'moved out.' It took another half hour for the lady to confirm that she
    was allowed to release the forwarding address to us, and it ended up being another
    condo block in the south end of the city.

    We sanitized heavily coming

    out of the complex and got back in the truck, again heading back to a main
    street so that Kristine could get us to the right place. By the time we pulled
    up in front of the condos, it was going on the middle of the afternoon and I
    hadn't had a lunch and could feel my stomach wanting to revolt against me. Ever
    since that first time with Erica, I'd found I was eating more, and the more sex
    I had the more I found myself wanting to eat for energy. Four partners had me
    eating three full, hearty meals a day usually. Add in the new workouts and I
    was usually snacking in between meals as well. All of that added up to me
    starting to get a little impatient, and trying to figure out where the hell I
    was going to get a meal. Everything in Eugene was shut down, so I'd need to
    drive north out of the city, past the roadblock and back to one of the other
    towns on the way to find an open fast food place with a drive-through.

    Katrina and I parked in the

    condo parking lot and headed into the building. The front glass doors had been
    broken and boarded over, but other than that the place seemed in general good
    maintenance. The lady at the rinks had told us he had moved into Apartment 122,
    so Katrina and I made our way through the lobby and followed the signs into the
    corridors of the building down to the right door.

    I knocked lightly at first,

    and we could hear the muted sound of some sort of small dog barking behind the
    door but there was no answer. I knocked louder. "Police. We're just
    looking to contact Mr. Fenton," I called with authority. A door down the
    corridor opened as someone poked their head out, but quickly pulled back inside
    their own place.

    The barking continued, but

    still no answer.

    "We're on the first

    floor," I said to Katrina. "I'm going to go check and see if I can
    get a look in through an outside window. You mind staying here?"

    "Sure," she nodded,

    and I left her.

    Outside it took a bit of work

    to figure out the right window to peek into. As best I could tell, Apartment
    122 had two windows. The first one was mostly covered and seemed to lead into a
    living room of some sort. The place was a mess, but a lived-in mess and not a
    ransacked one. There were also, oddly, several piles of what I thought was dog
    poop.

    I figured out why when I went

    to the second window.

    Back inside the building I

    met Katrina. "What did you see?" she asked.

    "They're in the

    bedroom," I said. "Dead. We need to get in."

    "That's not

    protocol," she said with wide eyes.

    "Exigent

    circumstances," I said. "I don't need a warrant if there's a dead
    body in plain view."

    "That's not what I

    mean," Katrina said. "It's dangerous. We're supposed to report it,
    and the National Guard come and handle it."

    "Not good enough,"

    I said. "I'm going in. You don't need to come in with me."

    "I'm going to be in the

    same car as you," she said. "If you catch something in there, I'll
    just get it from you then."

    "I'm not going to touch

    the bodies," I said. "And I'll sanitize. Fuck, I'll take a full bath
    with a hose outside if you need me to."

    "...fine," she said

    with a sigh. "But if I catch something from you and die, I'm haunting you
    every night."

    I suppressed the urge to

    snort; Katrina's ghost would find my nights were a little jam-packed with women
    already.

    It only took me two solid

    kicks to bust the lock on the apartment door, and a shoulder slam to push it in
    fully. Inside I caught the strong waft of Death, along with dog shit. Katrina
    started coughing and gagging in the hallway, and I tried not to let my eyes
    water and took shallow breaths behind my mask as I moved through the apartment.
    It was clearly a woman's place, but not one who took a lot of pride in keeping
    it clean. There were also several unopened boxes of electronics and a big stand
    kitchen mixer sitting in the living space; likely looted goods from a box
    store. At the door to the bedroom I knelt down before opening the door a crack,
    the thicker stench of the corpses inside making me gag now, but I opened it a
    bit more and the little bundle of fur came flying out at me and I caught it.

    He, and he was definitely a

    he with the oversized pair of fuzzy nuts hanging off him, wasn't exactly full
    of energy. He was more desperate than anything as I manhandled him around in my
    hands so that I was holding him under his gaunt belly and he yapped and
    snapped.

    "You're nothing more

    than a puppy," I said to the little guy. He had shit on him; likely from
    being cooped up in that room for days; and he stilled quickly as he ran out of
    what limited energy he had from going hungry for so long. I bundled him up
    under my arm despite the dog shit on his coat and I kicked open the door to the
    bedroom more fully. Inside, Victor Fenton was lying in bed next to a woman; the
    only reason I could tell was that he had that dumb mutton-chops moustache that
    was in the picture Melina had sent me of her boyfriend. The covers were thrown
    off and they were both naked, though not in a sexual way; it was clear that
    they'd both gone through an uncomfortable stretch at the end of their lives as
    the Duo Halo took them.

    "Okay, little guy,"

    I said, almost gagging on my words. "Let's get you water and food." I
    headed for the kitchen and scrounged in the cupboards until I found a couple of
    Tupperware containers, then filled one with water and set the little guy down
    with it so he could get some hydration while I looked around for his dog food.
    I found it and filled the second container with food and water to let the
    kibble soak and get soft to be easy on his stomach, then scooped him up away
    from the water bowl before he sucked back too much of it and got sick. I
    carried him, the container with the food, and the bag of food, out and met
    Katrina in the hall.

    She gave me a look as I came

    out with a shit-covered dog in my arms. "What the fuck?"

    "Well I wasn't going to

    leave him in there," I said, a little affronted. "He's just a puppy
    and he was starving."

    "The shelters are shut

    down," Katrina said bluntly. "It wasn't safe to run them, if the
    people running them are even still alive. They put down all the animals."

    That turned my stomach in an

    entirely new way to the 50,000 dead number, or the smell from the apartment.
    "Then I guess I'll need to find him a new home myself," I said.

    Katrina just shook her head

    and sighed. "Did you find your man?"

    "Pretty sure," I

    said. "Looks like he shacked up with his mistress or something. There was
    some looted goods in there, so one or the other of them probably caught it
    during the riots."

    "Fucking assholes,"

    Katrina grunted, shaking her head again, but then glanced at me sharply.
    "Sorry, if you knew him..."

    "Nah, he seems like he

    was a real prick," I said. "Come on, let's go find a hose so we can
    get this little guy cleaned up." It took some work not to feel a bit of
    revulsion at Katrina's lack of empathy, but I'd seen it before. She was living
    through a trauma that I could recognize; the trauma of seeing things that most
    people weren't equipped to handle, over and over. Of being exposed to horrible
    things at an increasingly speedy rate. I'd seen it in soldiers overseas, and
    had experienced it a bit during the worst of my MP investigations.

    I had to forgive her for her

    callousness because she was still living through it.

    Outside we found a hose on

    the back of the building, and after the little guy had a chance to scarf down a
    bit of food I gave him a quick wash and rub down, then cleaned myself off as
    well. I wasn't completely sure since he was still a puppy, but I was pretty
    certain he was a full-blooded dachshund.

    "Well, when he isn't

    covered in shit, I'll admit it," Katrina said. "He's cute."

    I was making sure his ears

    were cleaned as he gobbled down another few mouthfuls of the soaked kibble and
    he didn't mind being touched one bit as he was eating. "Well behaved
    too," I noted. "Not scared or aggressive."

    "Well, I can't take

    him," Katrina said.

    I sighed and smiled behind my

    mask, then couldn't help but laugh a little.

    "What?" Katrina

    asked.

    "Just something my

    fiancée said before I left this morning."

    We headed to the truck and I

    stripped off my wet shirt and wrung it out before stowing it in the bed and
    grabbing a t-shirt from my gym bag that I'd stashed there, along with a towel
    that I wrapped the little guy up in. Katrina held him in the passenger seat,
    her eyes slowly softening as she gave me directions back to the Police Station
    and she played with the puppy.

    I pulled up out front and

    looked over at her. "Last chance," I told her. "He likes
    you."

    She shook her head again.

    "Get him out of this hell," she told me, handing him over to me.

    "Katrina," I said

    as she started to get out of the truck, stopping her as she turned to look at
    me. "Don't blame yourself for this."

    She frowned at me with her

    eyes over the mask.

    "Survivor's guilt,"

    I explained. "None of this is your fault. You're doing what you can."

    "You don't know what I'm

    doing," she said.

    "I served,

    remember?" I said. "This place, the way you all are running on fumes
    and there's still more and more bad shit raining down on you... Don't let it
    break you." I pulled out a pen from the center console and scribbled my
    number on the paper I'd originally had Victor's address on and handed it to
    her. "If you need to talk, and somehow get access to a phone that works,
    you can call me. Just to talk or whatever, or if you need anything brought down
    here. I owe you one for today, Okay? So don't be afraid to collect."

    Katrina took a breath and

    nodded, accepting my number. "Get out of here while you can," she
    told me. Then she reached over and ruffled the head of the puppy and her eyes
    softened again as she did it. Then, before she could change her mind about
    anything, she hopped out of the truck and closed the door.

    "Fuck," I sighed as

    I watched her head back into the police station. I looked down at the puppy in
    my arms, laying belly up and cocking his head to the side as his big eyes fixed
    on me. I pulled off my mask and gave the little guy a scritch behind the ears.
    "You are going to cause me a lot of grief, aren't you?"

    I let him eat a bit more,

    sitting on the passenger seat of the truck, then took him out onto the torn-up
    grass on the front lawn and he pee'd a little, which was a good sign.

    "Melina, I'm sorry but

    it looks like your boyfriend passed when his condo unit burned down," I
    said.

    Melina deflated a little,

    tears springing to her eyes. "He... literally died in a fire?"

    I pressed my lips together

    and nodded, lying my ass off. "I couldn't get too much info, but Eugene
    isn't a very safe place right now and fires aren't uncommon. It's possible he
    was sick when it happened, which would explain not evacuating the building when
    the alarms went off."

    She broke down, and Abi and

    Sara both held her. The two of them had come out to meet me with Melina when I
    called from the gate that I was on my way in with news. I consoled her a bit
    and didn't have much more information I could give her. She hugged me tightly,
    squeezing hard enough to make my ribs ache a bit, and thanked me for trying.

    Sara led her back to the

    compound where a few of the other women were waiting and immediately surrounded
    her and started loving on her. Abi stayed back with me.

    "You're lying," she

    said bluntly but quietly.

    I swallowed and nodded.

    "Worse?" she asked.

    I glanced at her and then

    looked away.

    She hugged me, not quite as

    desperately as Melina had but still firmly. "If dying in a fire is the
    easy version, thank you for not hurting her more," she said.

    I hugged Abi back.

    "So, remember what you

    said about not bringing home strays?" I asked as I walked into our little
    RV compound with the puppy bundled up in my arms.

    Erica laughed when she saw

    what I meant, and all of the women were immediately taken with the little guy.
    I had to tell them not to spoil him with snacks since his stomach was still
    adjusting to food again. Ivy took charge of the little guy, parading him around
    our home and talking about what sort of toys and other stuff would be needed.

    "You really know how to

    turn my words back on me," Erica said as she hugged me from the side.
    "Where'd you get him?"

    I gave her a sad smile, and

    she frowned. Kyla, after a brief snuggle with the puppy, had come back over to
    me as well and hugged me from my other side. "Something's wrong," she
    said, looking up at me.

    They took me into the RV, and

    I told them about all of it. About the death, and destruction. About finding
    the dead boyfriend of a scared woman, in bed with someone else. About finding a
    starving puppy, and a woman who was balancing on a knife edge of holding it
    together, and leaving a plagued city.

    And they held me softly and

    listened to it all, and cried with me at how the world seemed to be on a
    downward spiral into hell.

    "You know, I totally get

    why, but I'm a little jealous that you're getting this and I'm not," Leo
    said. Then he let out an entirely relaxed groan that bordered on inappropriate.

    "Hey, I consider it a

    family heirloom," I grunted back, already with my head thrown back and my
    eyes closed as I enjoyed the soft breeze coming in through the trees.

    Over the past day or so I'd

    spent a lot of time up at the spring. Vanessa's warning had been taken to heart
    and after my minorly traumatic trip down to Eugene I'd been more than happy to
    take a day off and make sure my girls and I had good, solid memories of the
    space tucked away.

    That is to say, I fucked each

    of them on the banks of the Spring and enjoyed the cooling waters with each of
    them individually. Now we were running out of time and Leo and I had decided to
    take Man Time for ourselves. It only felt right since, before the world turned
    upside-down, it had been just us.

    I reached over and grabbed

    another beer from the little cooler we'd brought up with us and cracked it
    open, the sweet snap and sizzle music to my ears. "So, how are things over
    at your house?" I asked after taking a sip. Leo and I had been spending
    less time together than in the past few years, both because I'd taken the
    Sheriff's job seriously and also we were both trying hard to make sure
    everything in our multiple relationships was running smoothly.

    "Weird and wild,"

    Leo said, grabbing his own second beer and cracking it open. "Sometimes I
    don't know what to do with myself in the morning, and I miss having the barn to
    work in, but all of a sudden it's dinner time and between Dani, Aria and India
    I've been doing stuff all day, and then family dinner keeps us busy halfway
    into the night and my head hits the pillow and I'm out like a light."

    "Yeah," I chuckled.

    "I feel like that a lot too." It was odd, knowing that I'd thought I
    filled my days pretty well when it was just Leo and me up here. The amount of
    just 'stuff' to do with our girlfriends, let alone the sexual time, was almost
    mind-boggling.

    "Says the man with an

    extra girlfriend and who is playing cop," Leo teased me.

    "Well, not today,"

    I said.

    "Good," Leo nodded.

    "You need to take breaks, dude."

    "We need to take

    more breaks," I said. "Like this. It's not like I missed you or
    anything, but,”

    "Yeah, I get it,"

    Leo chuckled.

    We sat and drank in silence

    for a few minutes, just enjoying the sound of the water and the trees around
    us. We couldn't hear the tree-clearing crews yet, but by later in the afternoon
    they would be audible and by that night they'd be close enough that the Spring
    wouldn't be usable until after all the construction was finished.

    "You know I love you,

    right?" Leo asked me.

    "Better not have a boner

    over there, looking at my fresh new bod," I teased him. I'd only had five
    workouts with Abi over at the Falls so it was too early to show any signs of
    the effort going into them, but I still felt great... a day or so after.

    "You know what I mean,

    asshole."

    "I do," I grinned

    and stretched my arm out to offer him my fist for a bump. "I love you too,
    man."

    He bumped my fist and

    smirked, taking another sip of his beer.

    "Speaking of

    which," I said. "When this whole thing started, you remember that
    conversation we had about becoming brothers-in-law?"

    "Yeah. And then you go

    and make my sister be the one to pop the question, you dick," Leo laughed.

    "Pift, you know she's

    more decisive than I am about that sort of thing," I said. "Anyways,
    we haven't set a date or anything for the wedding, but I wanted to make this
    official too; would you be my best man?"

    Leo took in a deep breath,

    grinning widely, then let it out. "Sorry, I can't," he said.

    That made me blink in

    surprise. "What?" I asked. "Why not?"

    "Erica already asked me

    to be her Man-of-Honor," Leo said. "And walk her down whatever aisle
    you end up with, too. So I'm spoken for, buddy."

    "Are you fucking kidding

    me?" I asked. "She didn't tell me she was asking you."

    "First she pops the

    question, then she snakes your best man," Leo snickered. "Come on,
    Black. Get your shit together."

    "This is

    unbelievable," I groaned. "Who the fuck am I supposed to ask now? I couldn't
    choose between my girls, and I'm pretty sure they'll all be bridesmaids
    anyway."

    "I dunno, dude,"

    Leo said. "For a macho military guy, the fact that I'm your only close
    male friend is a little sad."

    "Hey, I've got plenty of

    male friends," I said. "We just live all across the country, and some
    are still in active service. And we rarely talk to each other." And, the
    silent thought hung in the air, I had no idea how many of them were still alive
    what with the pandemic.

    "Well, I'm sure you'll

    figure something out," Leo said. "Worst comes to worst, you can ask
    my sister if she'll share me."

    "Bastard," I

    laughed, splashing him across the spring pool. That just made him laugh more.

    "I hope you guys aren't

    naked in here," Vanessa called from somewhere outside of the trees that
    ringed the pool and the clearing around it. "Or, hell, maybe I do."

    "Just mostly," I

    called back, looking over my shoulder as my partner came trudging through the
    woods. She was dressed in her work gear, steel toe boots and reflective vest
    and all. The only thing she was missing was her hard hat on her head, which was
    instead hanging from a carabiner on her belt. "Hey, Vee."

    "Hey, big guy,"

    Vanessa said, coming over to the spring pool and starting to kick off her
    boots. "Hey, Leo."

    "What's up?" I

    asked. "How'd you get up here?"

    "I walked my ass up

    here," Vanessa said. "You two had both the ATVs."

    "I would have come back

    down to get you if you called," I said.

    "Nah, it's fine,"

    Vanessa said. Her boots were off and she peeled her socks off her feet, then
    rolled up her jean legs to the knee and slipped her feet into the cold water.
    "Oh, fuck that's good."

    "What's up, Vee?"

    Leo asked.

    "A girl can't take a

    hike in the woods?" Vanessa asked with a little teasing smirk. "No,
    but seriously, I just needed a hot minute to myself with everything going on
    and coming up here to check on the site of our house was a good enough excuse
    to slip out for half an hour."

    Just that was a change from

    the old days. A hike up here would have usually taken an hour even if you took
    the quickest path, now with all the new roads being cut the time was in half.
    By the time things were finished, it might only take twenty minutes from the
    highway to the spring. Hell, maybe fifteen.

    "Everything good?"

    I asked.

    "Good as in what?"

    she asked me. "Everything is on time for the new schedule. We've got
    almost two hundred workers bussing in for each day and night shift, which they
    mostly hate because some of them are coming from up to an hour away. The renos
    to the first barracks are almost done and we'll probably start moving people
    over in the next few days, but they're going to hold half the number of actual
    construction workers as before. My laborers crews are going to explode with
    completely untrained women who the foremen are going to need to watch like
    hawks to make sure we don't have any safety issues, and I've only got so many
    cleaner and cook jobs before they'll need to be doing physical labor. My ass is
    dead tired, my brain is fried, and I'm not going to get an actual day off for
    at least another two weeks."

    "God damn," Leo

    said.

    I'd already asked her almost

    every morning when she woke up at 5 AM to start her day if there was anything I
    could do to help her out and she always said no. I felt bad, but tried not to
    let it show since I knew even though she was cranky and tired and ached all
    over that this was the life she'd chosen and that she actually enjoyed it. So
    instead of asking her, or commenting, I just reached over and took her feet in
    my hands and started washing them off lightly with my thumbs to get the sweat
    and grit from her boots off of her.

    "Fuck," Vanessa

    groaned, closing her eyes and laying back on the ground.

    "How are the house

    plans?" I asked.

    Vanessa snorted. "I

    finally got back an email about some of my requests."

    "Which one did it?"

    I asked with a smirk.

    "The stripper pole

    stage," Vanessa chuckled.

    "Not the full-sized

    shooting range?" I asked.

    "Nope. They know you're

    the official law enforcement for the 'county' so it wasn't even
    questioned," Vanessa said. "And Leo, they approved the woodworking
    shop outbuilding for you. I'll get you the plans when they are done so you can
    check them over and ask for changes."

    "Awesome," Leo

    grinned. "And I can tell you one thing right now for sure; more electrical
    outlets."

    Vanessa smirked and nodded.

    "We'll get you covered."

    "Did you know Erica

    asked Leo to be her man-of-honor?" I asked Vanessa.

    "Hah! I knew she was

    going to, not that she did," Vanessa laughed. "She beat you to it,
    didn't she?"

    "Yes," I grumbled.

    "Just ask Dani,"

    Vanessa said. "Or Miriam."

    That made me purse my lips

    into a thoughtful frown. I had assumed Erica would have Dani as a bridesmaid
    along with Kyla, Vanessa and Ivy, but if I got to her first I could get one
    back over on my fiancée.

    "You two want me to give

    you some time alone up here?" Leo asked.

    "Nin-yeah-no,"

    Vanessa wavered back and forth. "I can't. I need to get back."

    "Don't move too

    fast," I teased her, considering she hadn't moved from her lying-back
    position. I tickled the bottom of her foot lightly and she just shifted a
    little.

    "Five more

    minutes," Vanessa groaned.

    Leo and I just laughed.

    The buzzing of Erica's tattoo

    machine had been a steady drone since we had gotten back from the spring pool.
    Vanessa had ended up riding on the back of my ATV instead of hiking back down
    herself, and I'd gotten a chance to give her a proper kiss in the shadow of the
    storage container where we parked. As we'd kissed she'd groaned and her hands
    had travelled a little, rubbing my torso, and I could tell she wanted more but
    was holding herself back. I decided I would stay up late that night so that I
    could get some alone time with her.

    As I entered the compound,

    sweeping through the door of sheets that gave us our privacy, I found Erica was
    set up in the shade next to our RV and was currently tattooing India's
    shoulder. The tanned woman was topless and face down on the folding table as my
    fiancée sat next to her on a stool.

    To be frank, the whole

    'outdoor tattooing' setup wasn't the most sterilized set-up, but Erica was
    doing what she could and as long as we weren't getting a breeze blowing dust or
    grit through it seemed to be doing fine. It didn't help that Macho, the
    dachshund I'd rescued, was tied up in the shade and barked happily from under
    the table to see that I'd come back, his little tail whipping wildly.

    While Erica was tending to

    India, I saw Dani already heading into the other RV with Leo while Ivy, Aria
    and Kyla were all laying out in the deck chairs taking in the sun that was
    peeking out from the soft cloud cover overhead. It wasn't nearly as hot out as
    the late spring had been but still pleasantly warm and it had been a few weeks
    since the girls had a reason to break out their bikinis.

    "Hey, Harri?" Aria

    asked me as I went over to the little covered wooden board that Leo had rigged
    for us to hang our keys on. "You got time for that design now?"

    "Oh, sure. Let me go get

    my stuff," I said. I passed by Erica on my way to our RV and she stopped
    her needlework on India just long enough to give me a little peck on the lips.
    She was still doing the linework on India's shoulder, some sort of a tropical
    flower piece. I went to one knee to give Macho a good head rubbing too, and
    that turned into a quick belly rub as well; the girls had given him the name
    due to the big fuzzy balls that wagged between his short little legs and seemed
    almost oversized for the little guy. Inside the RV I quickly changed into a
    fresh pair of shorts and shirt after wiping the dust off of me from the ATV
    ride back down the hills, then grabbed my sketchbook and some pencils.

    "Alright, what were you

    thinking, Aria?" I asked as I went to the sunbathing women. I leaned down
    and kissed Kyla, who smiled softly and reached up to run her hand under the
    bottom hem of my shirt and stroke her fingers across my stomach briefly.

    "So, I was thinking of

    doing a matching design," Aria said as I went around her to Ivy, leaning
    down to kiss my other girlfriend. Ivy, unlike Kyla, wasn't happy with a brief
    and firm peck and she wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a deeper kiss
    as she fed me her tongue.

    "Umm!" I grunted

    against Ivy's lips, holding a finger out to Aria asking her to wait a moment.

    "Ivy, he was in the

    middle of a conversation," Kyla chuckled.

    Ivy finished her kiss with

    me, letting go of me and falling back slightly into her chair with a big
    shit-eating grin. "Love you, mon amour," she said.

    "Je t'aime aussi

    chéri," I said, my French 'lessons' still pretty much limited to
    telling Ivy that I loved her, and different little things I could call her. It
    still worked as she beamed at me and pursed her lips again in an air kiss.
    "Okay. Sorry, Aria. A matching design?"

    "It's fine," Aria

    smiled. "Yeah, matching. I've had this idea for a while of doing a nature
    landscape on my left leg and a city landscape on my right leg. They would go
    around my lower legs, and if possible I thought it would be cool if they formed
    a loop since it'll be a mini leg sleeve."

    "Oh, that is cool,"

    I said, opening up my sketchbook to an empty page and tearing it out. "How
    big were you thinking? I'm not huge on tattoo design, but I could probably do
    it tight like a band, or all the way out to just under your knee down to just
    over your ankle."

    "I know, Erica said

    tattooing wasn't your thing," Aria said. "That's Okay. I was thinking
    a couple inches below my knee and above my ankle, so you have most of the lower
    leg to work with but it doesn't need to be solid or anything."

    "Neat. Okay, so if I've

    learned anything at all from Erica about tattoo design it's that fitting the
    curve and shape of the location on the body is really important. I'm thinking
    that we can wrap the paper around your shin and calf and I can mark the curves.
    Sound good?"

    "Nice thinking,

    babe," Erica called over from her work on India. "Glad to know I'm
    rubbing off on you."

    "Wait, did you sayon

    orto?" Kyla called over teasingly.

    "And with!"

    Erica laughed.

    I slipped off of my chair,

    shaking my head at the banter, and knelt in front of Aria. She sat forward on
    the chair to give me room to work, and soon I had the paper around her leg and
    was tracing the curves of her calf.

    "Harrison," Ivy

    said to me. "Do me une petite faveur and look up, mon amour?"

    I glanced over at her with a

    questioning look, then glanced up at Aria; right into her cleavage. Now, Aria
    had very nice, big tits; just about the same size as Erica's and full and
    natural, so it wasn't anything I hadn't seen before. She also took after her
    girlfriend and often went braless when she was wearing a T-shirt or tank top,
    so seeing them bouncing and jiggling as she moved around wasn't even that weird
    now.

    Being six inches from her

    pale, bikini-clad cleavage was new, though.

    "Oh my God, he went so

    red," Kyla started laughing behind her hand.

    "You Okay there,

    Harri?" Aria grinned at me. I immediately ducked my head down and went
    back to trying to outline the curves of her calf. The fact that my hands had
    been touching her bare skin when I glanced directly into her cleavage had just made
    the whole thing that much more weird and intimate.

    "Yep, totally

    fine," I said.

    "For a guy with four

    girlfriends, you definitely don't seem Okay," Kyla teased me.
    "They're just boobs."

    "Not the same thing,

    dear," I said.

    "What about showering at

    the Falls?" she asked. "You never go that red there seeing Josie or
    Abi completely naked."

    "Still not the same

    thing," I said.

    "Oh, leave him

    alone," Aria said. "He's being sweet. And doing me a
    favor."

    I stood up, generally happy

    with the marking of the curves of Aria's calf, and I set down my sheet and
    pencil on my chair before stepping over to Kyla. "Come here," I said,
    picking her up out of the chair bodily. She naturally looped her arms around
    the back of my neck and her legs around my waist as I held her by her butt.
    "Would you rather I stared into Aria's cleavage and got hypnotized by the
    boobs?"

    "No," she said with

    a little smirk and an eye roll.

    "Would you rather I have

    lost control and motor-boated her?" I asked, lifting Kyla up and pressing
    my face between her own bikini-clad tits and making the sound.

    She laughed, shaking her head

    and running her fingers through my hair before pushing my head back from her.
    "No, dear. I wouldn't want that."

    "Then stop teasing me

    about being tricked into doing something rude," I said and gave her butt a
    little swat.

    She sighed and nodded, then

    kissed me. "I'm sorry, dear. You're right."

    I set Kyla back down on her

    feet and turned to Ivy. "And you," I said, shaking my finger at her.
    "Don't think I magically forgot you're the one who tricked me to begin
    with."

    Ivy was just grinning, curled

    up on her deck chair and chewing on the inside of her lip. "I am not
    sorry," she said. "Aria has great tits."

    "Awe, thanks I’ve,"

    Aria laughed.

    I just shook my head and let

    out an exasperated sigh. "Troublemaker!"

    Ivy scrunched up her face in

    a pleased little teasing expression and stuck out her tongue.

    "Alright," I said,

    turning back to Aria. "Let's talk landscapes."

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 8 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 12
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 12
    Road trips and Cops.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     

    I spotted the Tribal Police

    cruiser ahead of me and it flashed its daytime lights to signal me over into
    the parking lot for the little general store it was parked in front of. Making
    the turn in, I pulled up so that we were window to window though I was looking
    down at the much older cruiser that looked like it might have been purchased
    third-hand about a decade and a half ago.

    "So you're the new

    Sheriff we heard about, huh?" said the woman inside. She was young; or
    younger than Erica and me, but likely had a year or two on Kyla, and was pretty
    in a soft sort of way. But she also looked a lot more official than Kyla or I
    in her brown uniform and full rig of equipment.

    "That's me," I

    said. "I'm Sheriff Black, this is my Deputy, Kyla, and my fiancée Erica in
    the back."

    "Hi," the woman

    said as she peeked back at Erica, then looked back at me. "Are you...that
    Harrison Black?"

    "Uh,” I said.

    "It's not a big deal to

    me if you are," she said, holding up her hands. "I think all the
    old-school grudgey victim stuff is BS."

    "Well, yeah, that's me.

    Or us," I said.

    She shrugged. "Kind of

    risky coming' here, isn't it?"

    "I'm just here to pay my

    respects," I said. "The State Troopers couldn't spare anyone, and
    I've been doing community efforts and welfare checks all over the area for
    them. But, however strained it is, I do still have a connection or two here,
    too."

    "Alright, well, do us

    all a favor and leave your side arms locked in the truck," the officer
    said. "You can follow me over to the cemetery. Try to keep to the back and
    not draw attention. Most of the folks who will be here are members of the
    Tribe, and you're already going to stick out as outsiders."

    I couldn't bite my tongue completely.

    "Are there any safety measures going on for the quarantine?"

    The officer grimaced.

    "Official policy on the Rez is we're leaving it up to folks to do what
    they think is best for them. No one will look at you funny if you wear a mask
    or anything, but if it bothers you to see folks unmasked then I suggest you
    just turn around now."

    "I'm sorry, Officer, but

    you do realize that it’s real, right?" Kyla asked from the
    passenger seat.

    "Oh, I do," the

    Officer said. "But like I said, I'm not exactly the standard around here.
    Probably why I can put up with being a cop. Anyways, the service is supposed to
    start soon so we should head over."

    "Sorry," Erica

    called from the back seat. "What was your name again?"

    "Right. I'm Constable

    Gertrude Swiftwater, but everyone just calls me Gerry."

    "It's nice to meet you,

    Gerry," I said, wondering if it was happenstance or if she was related to
    Kara somehow.

    "You too," she

    nodded. "Alright, let's head over."

    "More like Officer Hotty

    McHotpants," Erica murmured from the back seat as Gerry pulled away and I
    turned the truck to follow her.

    "You barely saw

    her," I said.

    "She's cute as fuck and

    has big tits," Erica said.

    "Could you stop

    objectifying my coworkers?"

    "I objectify Kyla all

    the time," Erica said.

    "Hey," Kyla said.

    "What, you want me to

    stop giving you feedback on what lingerie or outfits he might like?"

    "That's not

    objectifying," Kyla said. "That's advice."

    "Advice based on

    deciding how hot you look in different outfits."

    "Okay, you two," I

    said.

    "Fine, you can objectify

    me. On a case-by-case basis," Kyla said, a little chagrined smile on her
    lips.

    I followed Officer Gerry

    through a couple of back roads in the main Rez community and we passed by the
    remains of the burned-down Community Centre. It looked like they hadn't started
    carting off any of the refuse; the blackened steel and concrete reminded me
    more of my stints overseas in combat zones than anything else. There was also a
    large memorial set up with large pictures and cascading with wildflowers, and
    it looked like folks had likely been holding vigil once the search efforts had
    finished.

    We pulled up a short walk

    from the cemetery and I was helping Erica out of the back seat with one hand as
    Officer Gerry stepped out of her car.

    "See?" Erica

    whispered to me. "Tits, and a dump truck ass."

    "Erica," I

    whispered sternly.

    "Last one, babe.

    Promise," she grinned and winked at me.

    "You see her butt?"

    Kyla asked quietly, coming around the back of the truck.

    I just groaned, making them

    both snicker a little, and then we all got our black medical masks and gloves
    on.

    Gerry found a spot and left

    us near the back of the cemetery, moving forward to check in with one of her
    fellow Tribal Police, as the service got started. It was one large one for all
    eight of the folks who had died in the fire trying to rescue as much of the
    food in the foodbank as possible. Six men and two women, dead because of an act
    of arson used to distract folks for burglaries. I assumed that the families
    would likely be holding their own personal funeral rites; the service was
    somber, but still something of a community spectacle. There were speeches, and
    poetry, and a traditional dance presentation.

    And as I looked around at the

    gathered crowd, I felt a creeping chill up my spine. I stopped counting unmasked
    faces after the first couple dozen since there were so many more to go. I saw
    folks shifting, talking to each other and hugging each other in between
    presentations. Every little cough, or someone clearing their throat, had me
    looking in concern.

    I prayed, even though I

    hadn't really prayed since I'd been in the military, that everything would be
    Okay.

    Kara got up second during the

    memorial speeches for each of the dead, giving a heartfelt description of a man
    who had worked for the Community Centre for two decades, and organized the
    local sports rec tournaments that helped keep their community connected to
    other tribes through friendly competition. She was dressed in a slim and somber
    black dress with black leggings underneath and had a large necklace of lots of
    white and black beaded strands hanging around her neck. I could tell the moment
    she scanned the crowd and recognized me; she didn't falter, but her eyes did
    come back to us a few times quickly. When she ended her speech to soft claps,
    and more than a few mournful sobs from the crowd at the loss of a pillar of
    their community, I noted that Kara put a medical mask on before moving to shake
    some folks' hands and then hugging what I assumed was the grieving son of the
    man she'd given the eulogy for. Then she was free, and the next presenter was
    mounting the stage, and she quietly made her way towards us.

    "Harri?" she asked

    in a whisper as she approached.

    "Hey, Kara," I

    said. "You know my fiancée Erica. This is Kyla, my girlfriend."

    "I thought you said you

    were dating the,” She stopped and took a breath, then looked to Kyla.
    "It's nice to meet you." She looked at Erica. "Thank you for
    coming."

    "We're sorry for your

    loss," Erica said with sincerity.

    "Thank you. What's with

    the utility belts and outfits?" Kara asked, glancing at the way Kyla and I
    were dressed. "Don't tell me you're the Sheriff I heard about?"

    "It's a long

    story," I said. "But yes, I am."

    Kara closed her eyes and put

    two fingers to her forehead as if she were trying to steady her brain from
    spinning, then blinked them open again. "I can't even begin to process
    whatever that means right now," she said. "I need to get back up
    front."

    "Go," I nodded.

    "And I'm sorry."

    "Thank you," she

    said quietly, eyeing the three of us like she still couldn't quite place how we
    were who and where we were, before starting to turn back.

    "Kara?" I asked,

    stopping her. "I; Thank you for taking me seriously last time, and I know
    the people need this, but it's not safe. Be careful."

    She just nodded and turned.

    Erica, who had been standing beside me, grabbed my hand and gave it a quick
    squeeze before stepping forward and looping her arm in Kara's, walking with her
    for about a dozen paces and speaking to her quietly. The two of them stopped and
    Kara said something back, then Erica replied, and then separated from her and
    came back to us.

    "What was that

    about?" I asked, watching Kara weave her way back through the crowd
    towards the front.

    "I told her she needed

    to take better care of herself and actually take this seriously because if she
    dies from the pandemic it would break your heart."

    "Erica," I sighed.

    "She took it well, babe.

    Don't worry," Erica said, taking my hand.

    "That's not what I

    meant," I said.

    "Yes, it was," she

    said, squeezing my hand harder for a moment and giving me a look not to argue
    with her.

    I just shook my head and we

    listened to the next speakers.

     

    The buzzing of the tattoo gun

    was a soft drone in the compound as Erica slowly added her mark to Ivy's
    collection of tattoos. Kyla and I had finished up another round of Welfare
    Checks in the afternoon after the funeral, and again the next day, before I
    woke up to a beautiful morning that promised to straddle the line between the
    strangely hot spring and the wetter, cooler weeks that had settled in.

    I'd decided to take a day

    off.

    First I spent the early

    morning with Vanessa, making love to her by ourselves out in the forest like I
    had with Erica and Ivy when the site was full. We packed coffee in thermoses
    and set off for a hike, and within twenty minutes her bare ass was pinned to a
    tree as she clutched her arms around my neck and I thrust into her with animal
    desire. Once her legs weren't shaking anymore and she'd dripped most of my cum
    out of her, she pulled her panties and shorts back on, took my hand and we kept
    walking.

    We stopped again on our way

    back and took our time, with her riding me slowly as we softly touched each
    other and locked our gazes.

    Then I sat with Erica and

    drew. It hadn't really been that long since I'd done that, but it felt like
    longer. We did little creative exercises, drawing each other's hands, and then
    starting half of a sketch and swapping to finish for each other. Once we were
    into it, Erica flipped back and forth between a couple of different tattoo designs
    she was fiddling with while I sketched out a landscape from my memory of before
    the construction started.

    By lunch, I was getting

    pulled out of my chair by Ivy, who wanted a quickie before we ate. Then after
    lunch Kyla had asked to go on a ride with the ATVs. She'd spent the morning
    doing some calisthenics with Dani and Ivy and then had been reading the
    Fellowship of the Ring at the heavy encouragement of Leo and Vanessa. We rode
    up to the Spring Pond, and we got naked and held each other in the cool water
    but didn't have sex. Instead we talked; she was still having nightmares
    occasionally about the gunfight at Mary's, and I'd woken up in a sweat myself
    once from my own nightmare.

    We held each other and

    commiserated, and loved on each other. And when we were talked out we got
    dressed again and raced the long way back to the compound, buzzing on the ATVs
    at speed down the old paths and the new ones that the crews had been clearing.

    When we got back, we found

    Ivy was laying out on a makeshift table in a t-shirt with her panties pulled up
    and wedged into her butt crack as Erica leaned over her and was just starting a
    tattoo on her back, upper thigh. It was on the side of her that had all the
    other tattoos, and Erica was matching the dark navy of the others. When Ivy saw
    me she grinned and wiggled her bum, which made Erica scoff and give her a spank
    to stay still.

    So, before dinner needed to

    start getting prepared, I decided I would indulge myself in one more luxury.

    I took a fucking nap.

    I couldn't have been asleep

    in the RV for more than ten minutes when I felt movement, and I peeked my eye
    open and found Vanessa climbing into bed with me and flopping down to cuddle.

    Then I woke up again, but the

    smell of the hair my nose was pressed into wasn't right. It wasn't Vanessa, it
    was... "Kyla?"

    "Hi," she said,

    rolling over from how she'd been spooned with me and gave me a soft kiss.

    "I thought Vanessa was

    napping with me," I said.

    "She was," Kyla

    said, stretching a little. She was only wearing a soft, lacey bra that gave
    minimal support but that she also said was comfortable, and panties. "We
    swapped out."

    I kissed her back softly and

    went to escalate as I intended to make love to her, but she put a hand on my
    chest and stopped me with a little smirk. "Not right now."

    "Not right now?" I

    asked.

    She shook her head. "We

    have something to show you."

    "Okay," I said, a

    little confused. We got up and she put on one of my t-shirts over her underwear
    while I got on some shorts. Then Kyla took me by the hand and led me outside.
    It was late afternoon now, but the weather had held and the sun was peeking out
    from behind some clouds. The makeshift 'tattoo parlor' was put away, and Erica
    and Vanessa were lounging with India and Dani in the deck chairs while Ivy was
    laying out on a blanket, still only in a shirt and panties but now with saran
    wrap covering the fresh tattoo on her thigh.

    As soon as we exited the RV,

    my girls all looked to each other and grinned, standing up.

    "What's going on?"

    I asked.

    Kyla went on her toes to give

    me a kiss on the cheek, then went to the others and they all kicked off their
    shoes and pointed their right leg out, showing me their feet. It took me half a
    second to realize that each of them had a new, fresh tattoo on their ankles.

    Matching tattoos.

    "That's cute," I

    said. "Am I getting one?"

    "Look closer,

    babe," Erica smirked.

    I raised an eyebrow in

    question but got down on one knee. Erica lifted her foot to rest it on my other
    knee, giving me a closer look. It was a line art heart design, cleanly applied
    with little decorative bits. Then Erica took my head and tilted it sideways and
    I saw it.

    It was a sideways H and then

    a B, but the B was designed to be a heart that encompassed the H.

    It was my initials.

    "You girls didn't need

    to do that," I said. "It's lovely, and I love it, but you didn't need
    to."

    "We wanted to,"

    Kyla said.

    "All of us,"

    Vanessa grinned, coming forward and leaning down to kiss me.

    "I thought we should all

    get 'Harri' in big black ink on the sole of a foot like the toys in Toy
    Story," Erica said. "They wouldn't go for it though."

    "We wouldn't be able to walk

    for at least a week," Kyla said.

    "And he could have

    pampered us that whole time," Erica laughed.

    "I thought we should get

    it right here," Ivy said, pulling her panties partially aside and pointing
    to a spot just above and to the side of her cunt. "That would have been
    cute, and reminded you that we are yours every time you saw us naked."

    "I had to tell her you

    didn't want your name tattooed anywhere you would see frequently," Erica
    smiled.

    I sighed and shook my head.

    "You four are wild and I love it. I love all of you."

    "We love you too,

    babe," Erica said, and then I was pulled to my feet and being hugged by
    all four of them. Even Vanessa, who I hoped didn't take the 'love' comment
    wrong, because even though I did, I still didn't want to push her on it.

    By the time dinner was ready,

    Erica had the tattooing machine back out and my calf was shaved and wiped down,
    and she was giving me a new tattoo of my own.

    EL + IG + VP + KB

    If they were going to wear my

    initials, I was definitely going to wear theirs.

     

    "You're sure she said

    this was Okay?" I asked.

    "Yes, for sure,"

    Kyla said. "Now, we're running late. Why do you keep second-guessing this?
    Abigail said she wanted you to come get in a workout, too."

    I sighed and ran my fingers

    through my hair before tying it back with a hair elastic. "Because it's a
    gym full of women, all of whom are way more fit than I am right now," I
    said. "That's a little intimidating."

    "You're fine, hon,"

    Kyla said. "And you look hot in the shirt. They'll be drooling all over
    you."

    "That's not the point of

    this," I said.

    "Says you," Dani

    laughed as she hopped into the back seat of the truck dressed in an athletic
    bra and workout shorts. "I want to see all these mythical muscle mommies
    drool all over you."

    "I gotta admit, it'll be

    kinda fun to flirt with you in front of them," Vanessa said as she got in
    on the other side.

    The other women in our family

    had begged off of coming to Valkyrie Falls. Erica had taken up Ivy's routine
    and it was working for her, and India and Aria were more calorie-counters than
    workout people; well, other than frequent cardio, and not just in bed. They
    enjoyed a good long hike, too, and had taken to dragging Leo along with them.

    That left the four of us to

    take Abigail up on her offer, and Kyla had been getting texts from Spencer for
    a few days to come get started on her workout plan.

    We made the drive over, just

    over sixteen minutes from driveway to driveway, and when I pulled up to the
    gate Abigail buzzed it open from the main building and I shut it behind us.

    Abigail and Spencer came to

    meet us out in the parking lot. Spencer was dressed in a baggy sweater like she
    had been last time, her thick mane of long blonde hair pulled into a messy bun
    off the back of her head, and she excitedly greeted Kyla and started getting
    introduced to the others.

    "Welcome back,"

    Abigail said, smiling broadly. She was wearing a loose tank top with big
    armholes not unlike my own, but had an athletic bra on underneath along with a
    pair of high-waisted workout tights. Again I was struck by how impressively fit
    she was; her torso was like a thick trunk, her shoulders broad and her arms and
    thighs thick with obvious dedication put into every part of her body.

    "Thanks for having

    us," I said, offering her my hand to shake. "You'll remember Kyla.
    This is our partner Vanessa, and our very dear friend Dani."

    "Call me Abi,"

    Abigail said, offering both women a shake as well. "You are policewomen as
    well?"

    "No," Vanessa

    laughed. "God, no. I work in construction."

    "Stripper," Dani

    smiled and waved with her fingers.

    Abi looked a little confused.

    "You said partner?"

    "It's...

    complicated," I said.

    "Not that complicated,"

    Vanessa said. "Harri is engaged to Erica, who you haven't met, and is in
    committed relationships with Ivy, who you also haven't met, Kyla and me."

    "Four women?"

    Abigail asked at the same time I was raising my eyebrows at Vanessa's use of
    'committed relationship.'

    Vanessa gave me a look that

    said, 'It's easier to explain than the vaccine.'

    "We're technically

    polyamorous," I said.

    "More than

    technically," Dani laughed, then explained to Abi and Spencer. "I'm
    in a relationship with Leo, Harri's best friend and his fiancée’s brother. I
    also share him with two other women."

    Abigail and Spencer were

    clearly surprised at all of this revelatory news, but it was Abigail who
    snapped out of it first. "Well, any man who can keep four women satisfied
    must have better cardio and endurance than I thought."

    "Hah, you have no

    idea," Vanessa said.

    "Let's try not to make a

    big deal of it," I said.

    "Are you joking?"

    Abi asked. "This will just be even more fodder for the girls to compete
    over."

    Laughing, she started leading

    us to the courtyard in the middle of the building where the outdoor gym was.
    Behind me I could hear Spencer talking quietly with Kyla. "You didn't tell
    me you were dating him!"

    It seemed like the majority

    of Abigail's clients were out and about, and I had no doubt that news of our
    planned gym time had spread. Josie, the professional wrestler, was grinning and
    waved as she saw us coming, and soon we had almost a dozen women introducing
    themselves to everyone and chatting up what we would be doing.

    Spencer took Kyla and Dani

    over to some outdoor mats and started running them through stretches while
    Vanessa and I were handed off to Josie to do a quick warmup as she talked with
    Vanessa about what she would want to do.

    "Come on, mountain

    man," Josie grinned as she gestured for me to follow her over to another
    matted area and led me through a series of standard stretches to get my limbs
    and joints loosened up. I noticed quickly that she just happened to be doing
    them with her ass facing me more often than not. Especially when she bent at
    the waist and touched her toes, the stubby legs of her loose workout shorts
    pulling tight against her ass and mound, the edges of her panties showing.

    Around us there was grunting

    and sighs, and someone flipped music onto the outdoor speakers. It was a weird
    Amazonian heaven going on in that little courtyard. A dark-skinned Hispanic
    woman was doing deep lunges, and an absolutely stunning musclebound woman was
    doing an impressive bench press that seemed to bounce the bar off her clearly
    fake but still attractive tits. Two more ladies were doing burpees, their hops
    making their booties bounce enticingly in their skintight leggings.

    "Ready for a run?"

    Josie asked me.

    "If that's on the

    menu," I replied.

    "Try to keep up, big

    boy," she laughed and took off at a jog headed for the trail that led up
    to the falls.

    Josie ran sort of like a

    gazelle with long, loping strides. Every once in a while she would look over
    her shoulder to make sure I was keeping up and flash me a grin, then speed up
    just a little. By the time we reached the overlook at the falls I was feeling
    the warmth in my skin and had a light sweat going. We stopped and both of us
    breathed deeply but not heavily as she checked her watch. "Thirty seconds,
    then back down," she said.

    "Sounds good," I

    nodded. "You have great form, by the way."

    "I'd hope so, I ran

    track and field in high school," Josie said. "But thank you for
    noticing. Were you staring at my legs?"

    I decided that if the girls

    wanted me to get drooled over, it was Okay to flirt innocently just a little.
    "Can you blame me?" I asked. "They're pretty fantastic."

    "You haven't seen my

    arms," Josie said and lifted up her arms in a double bicep flex that was
    impressive even for how fit she seemed without flexing.

    "I have, but you've got

    me there," I said and gave her a little whistle.

    That got me a cheeky grin as

    she pivoted and posed again, this time looking back over her shoulder at me as
    she flexed her back and butt while sticking her tongue out. Then she pivoted again
    and took off, jogging back down the hill.

    We passed Spencer, Kyla and

    Dani on the way up as we were headed down, and I offered both Kyla and Dani
    high fives as we passed. Back at the courtyard, Abi gave Josie a high five of
    her own and then a slap on the ass to send her off. Josie laughed at that and
    gave her hips a wiggle before jogging over to a stand of equipment that looked
    a little like a metal cat tree before starting to do some lat dips.

    "She didn't flirt too

    hard, did she?" Abi asked as she led me over to another one of the stands.

    "No," I said.

    "Just enough."

    "Good, we wouldn't want

    you uncomfortable," Abi said. "Let's see what you can do."

    Abigail almost killed me.

    Not literally, obviously, but

    figuratively. I wasn't sure if she intended to try and find every physical
    limit I had, but I definitely felt like she was. I was doing all sorts of
    exercises, weighted and unweighted. I did more chin-ups than I had in the last
    seven years combined. I did push-ups with a weight plate on my back. And then a
    few more with Vanessa sitting on my back, laughing as she clung to me and tried
    to keep her balance as I moved.

    Abigail would show me how she

    wanted me to do each exercise meticulously, taking things slow to really
    explain the form she wanted me to focus on and doing them herself to show it
    properly. I felt like I'd gotten an intimate tour of her body by the time we
    were done, she'd had me considering and analyzing her form so much. I also felt
    like my own muscles were falling off of my bones.

    It didn't help that there

    were a dozen women also there all pushing themselves in between cheering me on.
    It was like having my own personal cheerleading squad, except they were grown
    women screaming at me to push harder, do one more rep, or breathe deep.

    When I peeled off my

    sweat-soaked shirt halfway through I was more than a little proud to be the
    center of attention but tried not to let it go to my head by reminding myself
    that they had all been cooped up there for months surrounded only by women.

    Not that I was the only

    person getting attention. Dani's striking beauty drew compliments, as did her
    flexibility. Kyla was a little more heads-down and working hard with Spencer,
    who was coaching her through some weight training enthusiastically, often
    congratulating her on outdoing expectations. Vanessa, meanwhile, seemed to have
    fallen in with Josie and the Hispanic woman and was getting a workout of her
    own that seemed suited to her strengths and needs, with weighted lunges and
    battling ropes. She would later tell me of her meeting in the inside gym with
    the torture device known as the Stairmaster.

    By the end of the workout,

    Abi had stripped off her loose tank top as well and was spotting me as I pushed
    through a heavy bench press; she'd already pinpointed my easy rep weight that I
    could do for a good fifteen reps, and now she wanted to find what weight I
    could do three reps at for heavy bulking work. She was grinning as she looked
    down at me from above, her broad features alight with energy from the physical
    activity. I'd noticed early on that for how tall and broad she was, Abi also
    had small tits that had mostly been swallowed by her pecs. Now, though, in just
    her athletic bra I had a view of her pointed nipples and that spurred me on to
    hit my third and final rep.

    "Nice," Abi said,

    helping me direct the bar back on the rest. "Excellent work. Now we need
    to cool you down or you'll get cramping. Let's go for another jog."

    "I don't know if my legs

    will make it," I said honestly. I'd been through military PT that hadn't been
    nearly this rough.

    "You'll be fine,"

    she encouraged me. "Look, Spencer and Kyla are almost done, we can run
    with them. If you can't follow those butts, I don't know what will get you
    going."

    "I dunno," I

    grinned as I peeked behind her. "There's another one right here that's
    definitely impressive."

    She scoffed and gave me a

    little shove on the shoulder, but it was accompanied by a smirking grin that
    told me the flirting wasn't misplaced.

    We went to the trailhead and

    they started to run, and Abi was right; with the vision of the two muscled
    women and my lithe Kyla in tight shorts, it turned out I was able to follow
    them all the way up and back in a slow jog.

    "H'okay," I said as

    we hit the parking lot again on our way back. "I think I need to lie
    down."

    "Let's try and make it

    to the bench at least," Abi laughed, and soon Kyla and I were leaning back
    on the cool metal of the bench they had posted just outside of the outdoor gym.
    Most of the women had slowed down on their training, if not stopped entirely,
    and while a few were still hanging around many had headed inside.

    "Abi, I am dead," I

    told the trainer. "You've killed me."

    "So you won't be coming

    tomorrow?" she asked with a chuckle.

    I held up my hand blindly

    with three fingers showing. "Three days. I need three days of rest to
    recover from this."

    "You did really, really

    good for shaking the rust off," Spencer said. She had stripped off her
    bulky sweater just before our cooldown jog and the big athletic bra she was
    wearing to support her huge tits was ringed with sweat, but she also had a big,
    tired grin. "Honestly, I thought Abi was going to make you puke about
    halfway through."

    "Almost did," I

    chuckled.

    "If I didn't know it, I

    would have assumed you were working out regularly," Abi said.

    "Oh, we get in lots of

    cardio," Vanessa said, coming over with Josie in tow.

    "Yeah you do,"

    Josie laughed and offered Vanessa a high five, then bit her lip and gave me a
    silly eye-fucking as she crossed her arms and leaned back and nodded. That got
    all the girls laughing, along with me, though I also felt myself blushing a
    little.

    "Alright; Josie,

    Spencer, can you show our guests the showers? Sara and I wanted to talk with
    the Sheriff about something," Abigail said.

    "Oh, the Sheriff's in

    trouble," Josie teased.

    "Shouldn't that be the

    other way around?" Dani asked, sauntering over to join us.

    I shooed the girls off, Kyla

    taking a moment to give me a quick kiss and a wink that I wasn't sure of the
    reasoning for. Once they were gone I turned to Abigail. "You can just call
    me Harri, you don't need to drop my title," I said.

    "It was more for them

    than for you," Abi chuckled. "Come on, Sara wanted to be part of this
    conversation."

    We found her business partner

    in the kitchen, working away on the evening meals for the women along with a
    couple of helpers, and Sara stepped away to head outside with us. The other
    blonde asked after how my workout went, and Abi answered in what I assumed was
    Icelandic and they had a quick back and forth that I couldn't follow a single word
    of as they led me around the side of the complex to a picturesque little picnic
    table underneath a trio of apple trees. I sat on one side and the two of them
    sat on the other.

    "So, what's all this

    about?" I asked.

    "We have been thinking a

    lot about what you said about the pandemic and quarantine," Sara said in
    her thicker accent. "Ever since our nutritionist left, I have had to take
    on much more of the meal preparation and maintenance, and Abigail is managing
    all of the clients."

    "We're just stretched a

    little thin right now, and the added pressure of the danger of heading into
    town is... it's a concern, and we're doing it more than we want," Abigail
    continued. "We were wondering, since you're in and around town anyways and
    taking things so seriously, if we could make a deal with you to do supply runs
    for us?"

    "We and the ladies will

    cover the costs," Sara said. "And in exchange, we would be happy to
    offer you the use of our facility."

    "You and any of your

    partners," Abigail said, which got a raised eyebrow from Sara and Abi
    quickly said something in Icelandic that made Sara raise both eyebrows at me,
    but then shrug and nod. "We could even offer personal training programs
    between myself and Spencer," Abi continued.

    "Ladies, I don't know if

    it's appropriate for me to make that sort of a deal in my role as a
    Sheriff," I said. "But, considering you're technically outside of my
    official jurisdiction, I think I could definitely help you out. I've already
    got a connection with the butcher up in Jewell and I'm sure he'll be happy to
    have an even bigger order from me every week as long as I let him know ahead of
    time. Offering your professional services feels like you might be giving me the
    better end of the bargain, though."

    Sara and Abigail looked to

    each other and smiled, feeling more assured about things now that I'd said yes.
    "Most of our clients are deep into their programs, so it's more
    maintenance than anything with them," Abi said. "Spencer will take
    the lead for any of the women in your group, and I'll check over her work. I'll
    handle your program myself since you'll have slightly different needs."

    "That's very generous of

    you," I said. "I'll admit, I already sort of do this for a family in
    town on an impromptu basis, and my fiancée Erica has been managing their needs.
    Can I have her reach out to you to coordinate your shopping lists?"

    They were happy to have a

    point person to communicate with, and I took Sara's number to pass on to Erica.
    Abigail and Sara then quickly spoke again in Icelandic, and Sara turned to me.
    "Thank you so much for your help," she said, offering me her hand as
    she stood. "I look forward to hearing from your fiancée."

    Sara left us, and I turned

    back to Abi. "Anything else you wanted to talk about?"

    "No, that was it,"

    she said. "We really do appreciate this. Every time Sara or I had to go
    into town we were afraid we would be bringing back something bad."

    "Well, I promise the

    girls and I will be careful when we're out, and if one of us does get exposed
    we'll play it safe for the rest of our family and you all," I said. I felt
    like it would have been more reassuring, but a lot harder to explain, that we
    were all covered by an experimental vaccine and as long as we fucked like
    rabbits we could get Duo Halo out of our system, so as long as we were
    sanitizing and keeping ourselves clean we would be Okay.

    "I appreciate

    that," she nodded. "You're all sweaty and I wouldn't want to send you
    into your nice truck like that. We only have our main shower room since we are
    a women-only facility. I'll check to see if the ladies are done with it."

    Abigail led me into the

    complex, passing through the open kitchen and cafeteria area and beyond,
    pointing out their big indoor gym area, along with a rock wall room that spanned
    two stories, a sauna area that had both hot and cold rooms, and several utility
    rooms. One had an odd platform set up in it that I realized must have been for
    Josie to train her wrestling moves, while another was set up with football
    equipment that I recognized from my high school days. When I asked Abi about it
    she smirked a little. "One of our clients, Marida, plays in the LFL,"
    she said.

    "There's a Ladies

    Football League?" I asked.

    "Lingerie Football

    League," Abi corrected me.

    That had me raising my

    eyebrows in surprise; I'd never heard of such a thing. How was that not
    instantly more popular than the NFL?

    A couple more of the utility

    rooms were empty, and Abi pointed out a big stairwell that led up to a second
    floor where all the living accommodations were. Right at the base of the
    stairwell was the entrance to the main floor washrooms, lockers and showers,
    and I waited outside as she went in to check if it was clear. I heard some
    voices inside, more than just Abi's, though not what was said, and then she
    came back out. "Just a couple of minutes. I assume you're not shy around
    your own partners?"

    "No, that's fine,"

    I said with a small smile and a little hope that Vanessa and Kyla wouldn't try
    to get handsy in a semi-public space even if we were going to be alone. Well, I
    didn't worry about Kyla so much, but when Vanessa got horny she could be almost
    as touchy as Ivy.

    Spencer came out of the

    change room, her pale skin flush from a hot shower, and obviously in a rush to
    clear out for me. She smiled and gave a finger wave; she was wearing a pair of
    baggy sweatpants and had a towel wrapped around her chest and cinched tightly.

    "Thanks for helping out

    Kyla today," I said with a smile as she passed by.

    "My pleasure. Maybe next

    time I'll challenge you to a chin-up competition!" she said.

    "You're on," I

    agreed with a laugh. She headed for the stairs and started up, and just as she
    reached the first landing and was about to go out of view I called after her,
    "Nice head ware, by the way!"

    "Oh my gawd,"

    I heard her mutter in embarrassment as she ripped the blue shower cap covered
    in yellow ducks off of her head, her heavy mass of blonde hair spilling out as
    she rushed up the rest of the stairs.

    "Don't tease her,"

    Abi laughed. "I think she has a little crush on you. She was excited for
    more than working with Kyla."

    "I'll control myself, I

    promise," I chuckled, shaking my head as I glanced back at the stairs
    where the stacked blonde had disappeared. "She made it too easy."

    "She really did,"

    Abi smiled, shaking her own head a little as she considered her intern.
    "Spencer was the only one in there other than your group. We can head in;
    ah, I should ask, I'm used to coed spas and such back home so it is not such a
    big deal to share the shower room, but I can wait if that would be
    uncomfortable for you?"

    "I think the military

    beat a need for change room privacy out of me, if not the football team in high
    school," I said, surprised but not nearly unhappy about this development.
    "If you're Okay with it, so am I."

    "Good," Abi nodded

    with a smile, leading me into the change room. "I'll feel better out of
    these sweaty clothes."

    The washrooms were around a

    short hall to the right, while the change room was the same on the left.
    Considering the elite-level athletes the retreat catered to it wasn't
    surprising that the change room benches were all padded, the floor was heated,
    and the lockers were big affairs that could probably hold a whole suitcase each
    with room to spare. The showers were through a fogged-up glass doorway at the
    end of the room, through which I could hear the spray of water and voices
    echoing.

    Abi pointed me to an empty

    locker where I could set my things while we were showering and then went to her
    own, dialing in a code on the digital lock. I pulled off my shirt, regretting
    not bringing another one with me, and then shucked my shoes, socks and shorts.
    As I was setting those items in the locker I couldn't help myself and glanced
    over my shoulder towards Abi; she was facing side-on to me and was peeling her
    workout tights off of her legs, having already taken off her athletic bra. Her
    tits acted as I'd guessed earlier, though weren't quite as small as I'd
    suspected; her athletic chest lifted what must have been b cups, the fatty
    tissue of the tit jiggling with her movements while her pectoral muscles
    underneath flexed and remained firm. As she stood up with the tights in her
    hand she stretched, rolling her shoulders, and I marveled dumbly for a moment
    at how physically powerful and raw she was.

    Not wanting to get caught

    staring, I pivoted back to what I was doing and quickly stripped off my briefs,
    glad that I wasn't some raging horny hormone monster; if this encounter had
    happened before Erica, let alone the others, I would probably have already been
    halfway to hard. Instead, I was able to keep a clear mind about this and not
    jump to any conclusions. I'd never been to any Nordic country, let alone
    Iceland, but nudity was definitely less of a deal in Germany so I had some sort
    of frame of reference for where Abigail was coming from.

    I set my sweat-stained briefs

    in the locker, again wishing I'd thought to bring a change of clothes, and
    turned. Abigail was walking towards the glass door already. "Towels are
    here when you're done," she said, gesturing casually to a wall-mounted set
    of rails where plush-looking fresh towels were set out, though I had to guess
    about half of them were currently in the big laundry hamper closer to the hall
    leading out. I was more focused on Abigail's ass than the towels anyways.

    Now, I had a variety of asses

    to hand at home. Erica's was nice and plump with a firm core, curvy and mature.
    Ivy's was small, tight and perky. Vanessa was more active than Erica on a
    day-to-day basis but had a stealthy plumpness to her bum that gave it a wonderful
    jiggle. Kyla's ass was perfectly proportioned to her, athletic and firm.

    Abigail, though? Abigail had

    an ass that was all power. There was no doubt in my mind that those thick,
    meaty cheeks and thighs held the endurance and strength of a workhorse. And yet
    she was still graceful as she walked naked to the glass door and opened it,
    casually glancing back at me to see if I was following and then holding it open
    for me as she gestured me in.

    "Thanks," I said.

    "You're welcome,"

    she replied with a smile, totally casual as I walked by her completely naked.

    The shower room was fully

    tiled in swirling patterns and pastel colors that made me think of a Roman bath
    more than a gym shower. There weren't any pools around or anything though; six
    shower heads lined either side of the room, each with adjustable heads to set
    different water pressures and patterns. There were two benches down the center
    of the room, just out of reach of the water sprays, and a few plastic stools
    tucked into the corners of the room.

    "Babe. Harri. We've got

    to get one of these in our house," Vanessa said, grinning as she saw me
    walking in naked and unflinching when Abigail followed. "The tiles are all
    textured to be non-stick, but not abrasive on the skin. And the shower stools!"

    "Stroke of genius,"

    Kyla nodded from the shower next to Vanessa. Just watching the water run over
    their bodies had me worried I might start chubbing up.

    "Whatever you want,

    Vee," I said. "You know that. But... I don't get the stools."

    "Look," Kyla said

    and walked around Vanessa to grab one and brought it back to her shower, set it
    down and put her foot up on it. "It's perfect for shaving your legs, or
    your pubes."

    "Whatever you say,

    hon," I laughed. "We'll get a shower stool."

    That was when a loud snap

    echoed through the chamber and I jumped a foot in the air as my ass stung like
    I'd gotten bit.

    "Fuck!" I shouted.

    "Gotcha!" Dani

    laughed as I turned, holding the wet towel twisted up in her hands that she'd
    used to whip me like she was a teenage boy at the public pool.

    "Oh, you," I

    growled playfully, wagging my finger at her as I rubbed my stinging ass cheek
    with the other. "If you weren't naked I'd pin you down and smack that ass
    of yours until you apologized."

    "Bring it on,

    Harri," Dani laughed, skipping away back to her own shower. I was blessed
    to witness Dani's naked almost gravity-defying tits on an infrequent basis due
    to her casual relationship with nudity, but I hadn't seen her completely naked
    since that first morning she'd come down the stairs of my old house after
    having just woken up from her imprinting. She was taller than both of my girls,
    though not nearly reaching Abi's impressive height, and her legs and ass looked
    fantastic with water running down them.

    I shook my head and sighed,

    trying to shake the vision of Leo's girl out of my head as I went to the shower
    next to Kyla.

    "Oh, fuck," I

    grunted as the hot water hit me. The water pressure was amazing. "I might
    just come up and visit for the showers."

    "Right?" Vanessa

    laughed from her shower, facing away from it and letting the hot water beat
    across her back.

    I started scrubbing at my

    skin with my hands; having not planned to shower at all, I hadn't brought any
    soap either, but just rinsing off the sweat was welcome. It was just as I was
    rinsing off my hair and running my fingers along my scalp that I heard the soft
    whoosh of the glass door opening.

    "Well, well," Josie

    said. "That's a first."

    I wiped my eyes and opened

    them, and Josie was strutting naked and proud down the center of the shower room.
    She even had her wavy blonde hair pulled back into a messy bun with a hair clip
    to keep it up off her shoulders. Where Abigail was a thick trunk of muscle with
    a soft hint of curves, Josie was a super-athletic bikini model. Her curves were
    more dramatic and angular, the ratio of her shoulders to waist to hips fairly
    steep with her half-body builder, half-lean frame. Her abdomen was tight and
    muscled, though I'd already known that from her workout clothes, and her tits
    were only a little larger than Abigail's but stood out more on her shorter
    frame, and each nipple had a little silver barbell through it. She also had a
    shock of blonde bush trimmed close but in a wide triangle, leaving her lower
    lips peeking out from between her muscled thighs. Naked, I could see all of her
    tattoos as well, her one sleeve already clear but the one on her opposite hip
    and down her leg now fully revealed to be excellent work, if somewhat
    'standard' in that it was all designs and patterns and didn't hint at her
    personality or likes.

    "Y'all good if I'm in

    here?" she asked, directing her question to Vanessa and Kyla.

    "You can look but not

    touch," Vanessa said.

    "Oh, yeah?" Josie

    laughed. "Harri, do me a favor; bend over and spread 'em."

    That got the women in the

    room chuckling, other than Abigail who just rolled her eyes and seemed to try
    to ignore the banter.

    "Careful, Josie," I

    said. "I already threatened Dani with a spanking for her shower room
    shenanigans."

    "Oh, that's on

    offer?" Josie asked, then she put on a ridiculous porno voice.
    "Daddy, please can I have another?" She turned, pointing her muscled
    ass back towards me, and gave herself a little spank.

    "Careful what you wish

    for, Josie," Dani said. "Harri's got big paddle hands. He could
    probably bruise that ass."

    "Hmm, now you're just

    teasing!" Josie laughed.

    The banter continued, though

    it cycled off of me thankfully as I tried hard to limit myself to short glances
    at the women around me. Kyla, Vanessa and Dani had all definitely finished
    their showering and were just enjoying the water pressure since the RVs weren't
    exactly rocking the strongest pressure tanks with the biggest water heaters.

    At one point I glanced over

    at Josie, who was currently soaping up her tits and down to her abdomen, when
    she looked over at me at the same time. We both blushed and she laughed a
    little at herself for feeling silly for checking out the naked guy showering
    practically next to her.

    "Hey Harri," she

    said loudly, getting the attention of the others. "Nice cock."

    "Yes. It. Is,"

    Vanessa laughed. "Too bad I'll be having fun with it tonight and you'll be
    all alone, bitch."

    "Aw, you cunt!"

    Josie laughed. "Now you're making me jealous."

    "You already were

    jealous, Joss," Kyla said and skipped from her showerhead to mine and
    hugged me, her skin warm and slick as she pressed herself to me.

    "Hey, none of the

    hanky-panky in the showers," Abigail said sternly.

    "Sorry, it was just a

    hug!" Kyla said but gave me a little kiss before literally slipping out of
    my arms.

    The rest of the shower time

    was mostly just some friendly ribbing and banter as the girls tried to find fun
    innuendos. It was... well, I would say heaven, but I was missing an Erica and
    an Ivy in the mix. That could have made it heaven. And thinking of that made me
    smirk a little at how jealous Erica would be that not only was I seeing Josie
    and Abigail naked, but Dani as well. It had become a bit of a secret game
    between us of who would see more of Dani next. She was winning until now,
    having seen the gorgeous Australian in just a thong bikini bottom the week
    prior. I thought I would never one-up that, but now...

    I ended up heading out of the

    showers first, for all the world wanting to stay but also not wanting to be
    holding any of the clients up if they were waiting for us to leave, along with
    risking my getting hard the longer I was able to glance at the familiar and
    unfamiliar naked women. That seemed to be the signal, however, and the rest of
    the girls soon followed and the change room was quickly full of naked ladies. I
    noticed that Josie seemed to take her time getting dressed, happy to sit and
    chat with Kyla about how Spencer had directed her workout; and I didn't miss
    the fact that she was sitting pointed pretty much right at me with her tits on
    display and only wearing a thong.

    Abigail seemed happy to take

    her time as well, starting to brush her hair at a mirror on the wall while
    still naked. I took that more as just her being comfortable naked than trying
    to tease me, though.

    I ended up just putting on my

    athletic shorts and bundling the sweat-cold shirt and briefs together to carry
    out with me.

    "Nice to see you,

    Josie," I said with a grin.

    "Nice to see you

    too, big guy," Josie laughed and winked. Then she stood up and pulled a
    clean tank top on without a bra and stepped over to meet me at the door, giving
    me a quick hug and then a spank on the ass.

    "What did I say about

    touching, you sneak?" Vanessa razzed her.

    I waited out in the hall and

    the girls took another five minutes to get themselves together, their laughter
    echoing out to me. Several of the other women in the compound wandered by, a
    few heading into the change room, saying hello to me and waving pleasantly. And
    all of them eyeing me in a hungry way that made me just a little worried for my
    safety. Josie and Abigail both walked Dani, Vanessa, Kyla and me out to the
    truck.

    "Thanks again for

    inviting us to use the facility," I said as we were loading in.

    "Yes, thank you so

    much," Kyla said. "Seriously, I'll be back to use one of those utility
    rooms if you don't mind."

    "Any time you

    want," Abigail said. "Here, I grabbed one of these. It will remotely
    open the gate for you. Just remember to shut it behind you when you're coming
    in or out." She handed over the little remote. "Thank you for agreeing
    to help out with our supply runs, Sheriff."

    "Abi, please. Just call

    me Harri," I said. "And it's no problem at all."

    "Sorry, it's the

    truck," Abigail smiled and shrugged.

    We all got into the truck and

    Josie and Abigail waved us off. Kyla tested the remote at the gate and it
    worked perfectly, and we were on the highway in just a couple of minutes.

    "Josie wants to fuck you

    so bad," Vanessa chuckled once we were out of the woods.

    "So bad,"

    Dani laughed. "God, that was funny."

    "Spencer wants him

    too," Kyla said with a smile. "But she's too innocent to just come
    out and actually flirt. I think Abi wants him the most, though."

    "Okay, I can see

    Josie," I said. "She's being pretty obvious about the blatant
    flirting. But Spencer just has a little crush after being in quarantine for so
    long, and Abigail was just being professional."

    "I dunno, babe,"

    Vanessa said. "She did come shower with us."

    "That's just a normal

    Icelandic thing," I said. "I think. Or that's what she said."

    "Well that's easy to

    figure out," Vanessa said. "Let's just break out some
    Google-fu."

    As she was searching for

    whether nudity wasn't a big deal for Icelanders, the answer to which I wasn't
    sure if I wanted or not, my phone rang. The number and my saved contact popped
    up on the dash display showing it was Miriam. I thumbed the Answer Call button
    on the steering wheel; a feature that had proven pretty useful. My old truck
    had been over a dozen years old and all the new Bluetooth pairing shit was
    pretty neat.

    "Hey, Miriam," I

    said. "You're on speaker in the truck. Vanessa, Kyla and Dani are with
    me."

    "Hey," all three

    girls called in chorus.

    "Oh, um, hey all,"

    Miriam said. "Well this makes things a little easier, you were my next
    call, Vanessa. I just wanted to give you folks a heads up; apparently
    California is moving ahead with vaccine rollout down there in some of the urban
    centers. They start tomorrow, and just thought to let us testing regions
    know."

    "What's that mean for

    us?" I asked.

    "It means that we've got

    a lot more pressure to finish up our own rounds of testing and prep for the
    rollout, and right now I've got about six hundred construction workers and
    their new partners bogging down my system since they're spread over a few
    hotels and motels. I need the site back up and running ASAP, which means the
    refab job is getting ramped up. Vanessa, shoot me a text when you are free to
    talk logistics; Brent said you're in the best position to take on the refab
    project for the dorms. Harri, this doesn't change too much for you in the short
    term, but you're about to have a lot of neighbors again and some of them are
    going to remember what was going down outside the compound. They should
    understand a lot better now that they are partnered up themselves, but it's
    still something to keep in mind."

    "Noted," I said.

    "When did you and Vanessa trade numbers, though?"

    "Oh, we all have her

    number," Kyla said. "In case of emergencies."

    "Oi vey," I sighed.

    "Another person to plot behind my back."

    "Don't worry about it,

    Harri," Miriam said.

    "Whatever you say,

    Colonel," I retorted with a smile.

    "You ever try to use my

    rank against me on a private phone call again and I'll add a chocolate sundae
    to your tab. At this rate, you're going to need to hire a chef."

    I snorted and smirked.

    "Anything else we should know?" I asked. "Anything we can do for
    you?"

    "Just stay out of

    trouble," she said.

    "You should see the

    trouble he's been getting into," Vanessa said. "She can bench-press
    more than him."

    "What?" Miriam

    asked.

    "She's joking," I

    said, shooting Vanessa a look over my shoulder as she grinned teasingly at me.

    "Alright," Miriam

    sighed. "I'm sending another care package down; more ammunition, and those
    badges you asked for. You'll need to lay up on the shooting practice once
    there's people on site though. We can't have the whole thing come to a stop
    because some idiot walked between you and your practice target."

    "Noted," I grinned.

    "When are you going to make it up here again, by the way?"

    "Whenever it makes

    sense," Miriam sighed. "Which might be in a week, or in a few months.
    I won't know until I know."

    "You sleeping?" I

    asked.

    "... yes," Miriam

    said.

    "Miriam," I said

    sternly.

    "I'll get eight hours

    tonight, I promise," she sighed. "Now stop badgering me, Laura is
    shooting me a look."

    "Talk to you soon,"

    I said.

    "Bye, Harri. Bye,

    ladies."

    They called their goodbyes

    and we hung up.

    "She,” Vanessa started,

    but I cut her off.

    "Don't say it. We're

    just friends."

    "Just friends,"

    Dani teased from the back seat, lowering her voice to mimic me. It came out
    terrible due to her accent, but the other two laughed anyways.

    It was June 16th. By the end

    of the month, I could only hope, the vaccine that had changed my life would
    start saving the world.

     

    "Hey, Mary," I

    said, picking up my phone. "Erica's with me. We were just thinking of
    doing a grocery run, you need anything?"

    "Hey, Harri," she

    said. "Am I on speaker?"

    I thumbed the button and held

    the phone up. "You are now," I said.

    "Hey, Mary," Erica

    said. We'd just climbed into the truck after finishing a run to the pharmacy
    picking up items for the Valkyrie Falls women. Erica had been delighted to have
    a project to work on and keep her busy, and it had only taken a day for her to
    make a list of stops we needed to make. We'd already phoned in a big order with
    Fuller at the butcher, and would grab the groceries tomorrow before heading up,
    with a pit stop at home to wash and change to reduce any risk we'd bring
    something to the athletic compound.

    "Hey, Erica. So, I'm

    glad I caught both of you, and I'd love it if you could pass this on to the
    others. I am so thankful to you guys for everything you've been doing
    for me and the kids, especially the other night with the looters, but I'm not
    going to need it anymore. I've been invited to join a safe, quarantined
    community that will be a better spot for me and the kids while all this is
    happening."

    I blinked, surprised at this

    coming out of the blue. "Oh," I said.

    "Are you sure,

    Mary?" Erica asked. "We're really very happy to keep helping
    out."

    "No, I know. And that's

    why I'm so thankful, but this place is sort of; It's like a commune, which
    sounds silly because I sound like I'm becoming a hippy. But that's what it is,
    and there are other kids there, and I'll actually have something I can do and
    feel needed other than just being Mom 24/7."

    "I; Mary, if you aren't

    feeling great about where you're at, we could try to figure something out if
    you want to come live with us," I said. "Ivy would love to help with
    the kids, and I'm sure Dani would as well."

    "Me too," Erica cut

    in.

    "No, no," Mary

    sighed. "I'd love to spend more time with you all, you've been wonderful
    friends, but a construction site doesn't sound right for the kids. And, based
    on the... activities you girls have hinted at I don't think it would be fair
    for us or you."

    I gave Erica a look, and she

    sighed and shook her head. Mary was probably right, even if we didn't like it.

    "Okay, Mary. Just

    promise me that if you need anything at all, even just to chat and catch up,
    you'll call," I said.

    "I'll remember that, I

    promise," Mary said. "Thank you again for everything. I'll find a way
    to pay you guys back eventually."

    "Don't you even dare

    try," Erica said. "We love you and the kids, girl."

    "Thanks," she said.

    "Now, I need to go. We're getting picked up soon and I need to pack some
    more and get the kids ready."

    "Okay," I said.

    "Bye, Mary. Talk soon."

    "Bye guys," she

    said and hung up.

    We were quiet for a long

    moment.

    "I don't like it,"

    Erica said.

    "Neither do I," I

    said. "But she isn't wrong."

    "I know she isn't,"

    Erica sighed. "But the whole thing gives me a weird feeling. She's joining
    a commune? How did she even get in contact with them?"

    "I don't know," I

    said.

    We sat for another long

    moment.

    "I feel like we should

    call her back," Erica said.

    I took in a deep breath and

    blew it out. "She's her own woman, Erica," I said. "We can't
    make decisions for her, and she sounded pretty set on this. I get her
    reasoning, even if I don't agree with it."

    "Fine," Erica

    grunted. "Fine."

    " Can you guys take a

    break for a minute?" Vanessa asked.

    "Just une seconde,"

    Ivy gasped from above me. My little Quebecoise lover was slowly grinding her
    hips as I drove my tongue into her cunt. I was on my back on the bed and she was
    holding onto the sill of the RV back window, her eyes closed as she twitched
    and stifled her groans of pleasure. Her clit hood kept nudging across my nose
    and she'd been leaking her juices for a while now as I teased her mercilessly.

    Erica sat down fully on my

    cock with a groan of her own and sighed out a wordless hum. "Vanessa,
    babe, this better be good. We've been edging Ivy for like forty-five
    minutes."

    "Damn, Ives,"

    Vanessa said. "Um, well, I; This can't really wait. It's about the
    house."

    "One minute," I

    mumbled from between Ivy's lips. I wrapped my arm around Ivy's thigh and got my
    thumb on her mound, pulling her clit hood back so that my juice-covered nose
    and the moustache of my upper lip brushed against her clit directly. My other
    hand ran up her body from her thigh to her tit, holding it firmly. "Come
    for me,ma dulcinée," I told her.

    "Oh, tabarnac! Mon

    amour," Ivy collapsed forward against the headboard and wall of the RV,
    her cheek pressed to it as her entire body hunched in and she came hard. Her
    girl-cum splattered into my mouth and I had to hold my breath and let it just
    run down my chin and neck. We were going to need to wash the bedsheets and
    pillow covers again.

    "That's it, you pretty

    bitch," Erica said, and I felt her give Ivy a spank on her cute little
    butt cheek. "Get it."

    Ivy was shaking when she

    finished her orgasm, and I manhandled her off of my face and down so that I
    could cradle her against me as she curled into a fetal position and tried to
    catch her breath.

    "Fuck, that was hot,"

    Vanessa said. Now that I could actually see her, I found that she was still
    dressed in her jeans, long-sleeved shirt and high-visibility vest. She'd gone
    back to work the day after our first workout at Valkyrie Falls, and I was
    almost surprised that she'd taken the time to kick off her steel-toe boots at
    the door or take off her white hard hat before coming back to the bedroom.
    She'd literally fallen asleep with her boots hanging off the end of the bed one
    night and we'd had to peel them and her socks off for her, she was working such
    long hours. The other thing that was currently 'off,' at least professionally,
    about her at the moment was that she'd undone her belt and had a hand down the
    front of her jeans as she watched us.

    "Babe, you want some

    cock?" Erica offered. My fiancée was wearing one of my t-shirts, her heavy
    tits braless underneath and her nipples making delightful bumps in the fabric
    as she straddled my hips.

    "I shouldn't,"

    Vanessa hesitated.

    "Go fuck her," Ivy

    whispered to me with a playful little smile as she nuzzled her face into my
    neck.

    "You think?" I

    asked her.

    She nodded and let go of me,

    so I sat up and surprised Erica by rolling us over so I was on top of her and I
    kissed her once and honked her boobs through her shirt before I pulled out of
    her. I stood and turned to Vanessa.

    "Harri, I don't have

    ti,” Vanessa started, but I had already scooped her up in my arms and I laid
    her down on the end of the bed and yanked her jeans and panties down to her
    thighs and moved her bundled legs to the side so she was laying on her hip.

    Erica grinned and rolled over

    onto her stomach, putting her face over Vanessa's and looking down at her.
    "Really?" she asked.

    "Fine," Vanessa

    gasped as I ran my cock along her cunt lips, teasing her. "Just...
    quickly."

    I pushed into her, feeling

    that delightful warmth and squeeze as I entered her and her body accepted me.
    Erica kissed her as Vanessa let out an exhalation of pleasure. I was quickly
    buried in her and started to slow-stroke. "I missed you," I told her.

    "It's only been like...

    four days," Vanessa said.

    "How many days did you

    go without his cock in at least one of your holes since you imprinted before
    now?" Erica asked.

    "I know the

    answer," Ivy said, rolling over and then down the bed so that she was
    lying next to Vanessa and kissed her cheek. "Zero."

    "Fine," Vanessa

    said. "I admit it, I missed your cock too, Harri."

    "And his hands,"

    Erica prompted her, reaching up and taking my hand and sliding it under
    Vanessa's shirt where I palmed her small titty through her work bra.

    "And his hands,"

    Vanessa admitted.

    "And his lips," Ivy

    said, summoning me down with a wiggle of two fingers. I leaned down and kissed
    Vanessa.

    "Umm," Vanessa

    grunted into our kiss as I went particularly deep. "I haven't not kissed
    him, so I haven't missed his lips."

    "When you said you

    wanted a quick family meeting, I didn't think I'd walk in on this," Kyla
    said from the doorway behind me.

    "Oh, sorry hon," I

    said, starting to pull out. "I didn't realize,”

    "No, no, it's

    fine," Kyla assured me, rubbing my bare shoulder as she stepped up and
    kissed my cheek, then squeezed around the side of the bed to sit on her usual
    side up at the headboard. I generally tried to keep the sexual acts with the
    others to a minimum when Kyla was in the same close-in space; at least keeping
    it across the RV from her to give a modicum of detachment. "Vanessa needs
    a good fuck."

    "Thanks," Vanessa

    gasped, reaching out to Kyla who just smiled softly and took Vanessa's hand for
    a moment and winked at her.

    "So what did you need to

    tell us about the house?" I asked as I started thrusting a little faster,
    but keeping the motion smooth.

    "Uh hmm," Vanessa

    groaned. "Right, the house. Uh; Fuck that's hitting the spot; Okay. The
    house. So the refab work on the dorms is going super-fast and we'll probably
    have crews start moving in within the next couple of days. The day workers are
    already taking new supplies and equipment deliveries, and the road crews
    started work again this morning with the new surveyor plans for the bigger lots.
    I think we're going to lose any privacy up at the spring within the next three
    days, so if any of you want to go have time up there before the construction
    crews are around, do it now."

    "I do," all three

    of Erica, Ivy and Kyla said at once, and then we all chuckled a little.

    "We'll find the

    time," I promised them. I was going to miss having the spring all to
    ourselves, but we'd get it back. Vanessa had already shown me the plans for our
    lot in the development and had made sure that the spring was well within our
    border, and that the brush and clearing immediately around it would remain
    intact until after the construction when we could decide if we wanted to
    cultivate it a bit more or leave it wild.

    "Okay, so I've been

    squeezing in calls with the architects on the plans for the house,"
    Vanessa said, blinking to try and keep her focus as I sped up just a little bit
    more. "Every time I ask for something I basically get approved, so I don't
    know what sort of limitations I actually have. I've already got the solarium
    and the studio and the home gym with the utility area. I need to know if
    there's anything else you guys want. Just... fuck, Harri, that's it, like that;
    I mean like 'dream house' kind of stuff, because I don't know if anyone will
    say no."

    "A big salon room,"

    Erica said. "Like a hair salon, not an old-timey salon for ladies to
    entertain visitors. For us to doll ourselves up all at once, but also I can set
    up my tattoo stuff there."

    "Okay," Vanessa

    nodded. "Um..." She fished with a hand down to her pants and pulled a
    small notepad out of her pocket and handed it to Ivy. "Could you?"

    Ivy took it with a smile and

    grabbed a pen from one of the wall cubbies where a lot of our random stuff had
    accumulated (along with several sex toys and bottles of lube). She flipped to a
    blank page and scribbled down the idea.

    "What about a stripper

    pole?" Kyla asked. "Then Ivy and Dani can teach me moves, and it's
    supposed to be great exercise."

    "Hmm, I like that

    idea," Erica grinned.

    Ivy was dutifully scribbling

    down the ideas.

    "A shooting range,"

    I suggested.

    "A big one, or just like

    for your pistols?" Vanessa gasped as she reached up and put a hand around
    the back of my neck, pulling me closer and herself up a little as she used her
    hips to fuck back at me. I still had one hand on her chest, now directly on her
    tit as I'd wormed it under her bra.

    "Well, I was thinking

    just pistols but if you can figure out a way to do a full-sized range then that
    would be cool too," I said.

    "Two playrooms,"

    Erica said. "They can be pretty much bare for now, just set aside the
    space. We'll use one as a daytime nursery and for little kids, and another one
    for older kids."

    All three of the others cooed

    their assent at that idea, which surprised me a little. Erica and I were of an
    age that even if she got pregnant quickly here and then we went right back at
    making another as soon as possible, we were still in questionable territory. We
    only had a few years before she was thirty-five and would be considered a
    'geriatric pregnancy.' Kyla, I knew, wanted a mess of kids. It was Ivy, who was
    kind of terrified of pregnancy, and Vanessa with her hysterectomy that were the
    surprises. But then, both of them had been great with Mary's kids when they'd
    visited and met them.

    "I was thinking a mini

    ballroom," Vanessa groaned. "For like hosting parties and stuff. Not
    massive or anything, but big enough that the kids could ride scooters in it on
    rainy days and stuff like that. Us not being able to have a basement made me
    think of my own childhood growing up with my brothers playing stick hockey in
    our unfinished basement."

    "You mean like a rec

    room slash ballroom then," Erica smiled. She swept a hand through
    Vanessa's hair, pulling it from the younger woman's face.

    "Yeah, like that,"

    she nodded. "I'll see if we can get some extra-durable windows, and maybe
    it can overlook the pool and outdoor hosting area."

    "Pizza oven!" Ivy

    blurted out, then blushed a little and clarified. "An outdoor pizza
    oven."

    We spent another few minutes

    coming up with random things and discarding a few that seemed almost too
    outrageous. Secret rooms? Just too silly.

    "Vee, how long have you

    been holding back your orgasm?" I asked finally. She'd gone quiet for a
    long minute and had her eyes closed.

    "Not too long," she

    groaned.

    "You thought Ivy getting

    edged was hot, didn't you?" Erica grinned.

    "Well, I had two small

    ones while we were talking," Vanessa admitted.

    "You think I didn't

    notice?" I laughed. "Babe, when you come your cunt clamps down on me
    like crazy and does this rippling thing like it's trying to suck me in and milk
    me."

    "Well, I can't help

    that, can I?" Vanessa laughed.

    "Ask Harri permission to

    come, babe," Erica said, again stroking Vanessa's hair.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 10 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 11

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 11
    The jurisdiction Issues.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     

    "Alright, Black,"

    the State Trooper Sergeant mumbled. "Come on. Meeting time."

    The clanking of the keys in

    the cell doors was a metallic knife in my ears. I hadn't been able to get any
    sleep sitting in the cell in the back of the State Trooper outpost, and judging
    by the light beaming in from the window high on the wall it had to be
    mid-morning by now.

    I'd sort of expected it, but

    the Stateys hadn't exactly come in soft on Kyla and me. They hadn't been overly
    rough either, but with multiple bodies on the property and a gun fight in a
    residential area, none of them were in the mood for leniency up front. The only
    thing that stopped me from being frustrated by the whole thing was that they
    hadn't gotten rough or handsy with Kyla in any way. We'd each gotten put into
    the back of a cruiser, and I'd sat there for about an hour as the Troopers
    started to process the scene and interview Mary. They were just starting to
    check the other houses on the block when Kyla and I were driven away.

    We didn't get booked when we

    were brought in, which I took as a good thing. Instead I was brought back to
    the cells and Kyla was brought to an interrogation room; she'd claimed
    Diplomatic Immunity and rattled off an ID number, and I had a feeling the
    Troopers weren't sure what to do about that.

    I groaned as I sat up on the

    rough wooden bench that I'd been laying on. Thankfully I'd been the only person
    in the cell so I'd felt safe enough to lower my mask as I tried to find the
    soldier zen to relax on cue. But it hadn't come, and now here I was with only a
    couple of hours of sleep in me and an adrenaline crash leaving me with a mild
    headache.

    The Sergeant waved me through

    the cell door and led me out to the front. The station was small, just an
    outpost that housed a service bay for the Trooper's cars, a couple of meeting
    rooms and offices, and a break room. Most of the crime in the area was petty
    theft and vandalism, public intoxication and DUI, and speeding. Or maybe it was
    more than that and I just didn't know about it. I was learning a lot about the
    shit people were willing to do to each other even out in what I considered the
    most beautiful place on earth.

    Inside the cramped little

    conference room, the table was almost full already. Kyla was sitting next to
    Captain Bloomberg, who gave me a quick and analytical once-over to make sure I
    was alright. She looked like she was running low on sleep as well, and I
    wondered how fast Miriam had woken up her second-in-command to help deal with
    this. But she also looked sharp as hell in her military dress blues.

    Also at the table was a State

    Trooper Captain who looked highly annoyed to be there, and the Sergeant
    followed me in. He had been in control of the scene; or as in control as one
    could be when there were only three troopers and four dead bodies.

    "Mr. Black," the

    Captain said. "Take a seat, let's get this over with." He was the
    kind of guy who probably played linebacker way back in his high school hay day
    but had slowly started heading to pasture. His gut hung over his belt and his
    moustache was silver and grey as his medical mask slipped down his chin.

    I sat, knowing better than to

    speak without being asked a question. I still wasn't sure what the state of
    things were, so offering up any information freely could fuck up whatever
    Bloomberg was working on.

    "Well, we're all here

    now," Captain Bloomberg said. Everyone was wearing a mask which made it
    harder to really get a read on her. "Sergeant, will you be suggesting to
    the ADA that charges should be filed?"

    The Sergeant cleared his

    throat and sat forward. "Ah, no Ma'am," he said. "Our
    preliminary investigation and witness reports say Mr. Black was acting in
    defense of another at their express request in a time when emergency services
    were unavailable, and his actions were against clear and present looters."
    He glanced at the Captain and then continued. "We are ruling our
    investigation closed at this time."

    "Good," Laura

    nodded tersely and then turned to the Captain. "With that cleared up, the
    jurisdictional matter?"

    "I still think if he

    wants,” the big man started, but Laura raised an eyebrow and he grumbled and
    seemed to change his mind. "We were already short-staffed in this area for
    the ground that needs covering, and I've lost half of my troopers already. Do
    whatever the fuck you want."

    "Wonderful,"

    Captain Bloomberg said dryly and then she picked up a book and held it towards
    me. "Put your hand on the bible."

    I raised an eyebrow of my own

    but did so.

    "Do you swear?"

    Laura asked me.

    "I... do?" I

    answered.

    "Great," she said.

    "By the power invested in me, I hereby appoint you the new, duly elected
    County Sheriff for Black County. Congratulations."

    "What is going on?"

    I asked.

    "I don't know how, but

    somehow there is a new, tiny county in the state located right outside of
    Jewell," the Trooper Captain said. "And apparently there was an
    election this morning for the position of County Sheriff and that's now
    you."

    I opened my mouth behind my

    mask and then clicked it shut and blinked. "What?"

    "Now that that's out of

    the way," Captain Bloomberg pushed on. "Jurisdiction, Captain?"

    The Captain took in a breath

    and blew it out slowly into his mask, clearly exasperated. "Sheriff Black,
    we will extend you jurisdictional courtesy in the town of Jewell and the
    surrounding area so that you may handle emergencies which our office may have a
    delayed response to. In return, we hope you could help with some of the
    community-related duties our officers are having a hard time keeping up
    with."

    I looked at Laura and Kyla,

    who both nodded. "Sure, Captain," I said. "I'd be happy to help
    with that."

    "Great. Wonderful,"

    the Trooper Captain grunted and turned to Laura. "We done here? I've got
    about a hundred other things that are more important than this piling up on my
    desk."

    "Thanks so much for your

    help, Captain," Laura said and I could hear the patronizing customer
    service smile hidden behind her mask.

    The Captain grumbled

    something to himself and stood up, squeezing his way out of the small room and
    slamming the front door of the station on his way out.

    "Am I needed for

    anything else, Ma'am?" the Sergeant asked. "He's not wrong, we have a
    lot going on and my guys could use me out there."

    "Just the return of

    Sheriff Black's firearms and other property," Laura said.

    "Ma'am, those are going

    to be in evidence,”

    "Just the return of

    Sheriff Black's firearms and other property," Laura said again, a little
    sterner.

    "Ah, uh, yes

    Ma'am," the Sergeant said and stood. On his way out I could hear him
    muttering about not knowing how to do the paperwork for all of this.

    "Alright," I said

    once he was gone and we were alone. "What the hell is going on?"

    "The Colonel thought it

    would be prudent to expedite some political paperwork for the community,"
    Captain Bloomberg said. "Black County became official at 8:01 AM this
    morning, and at 9:01 AM a verbal election was held of all current residents of
    the county. Your election was unanimous with the 78% turnout."

    "I can tell you're

    having fun with this," I said.

    "What, me? Having fun

    running roughshod over all sorts of legal and possibly constitutional issues?
    I'm an officer of the court and of the United States Airforce. I wouldn't ever
    dream of having fun," Captain Bloomberg said.

    "She's having way too

    much fun," Kyla said.

    "Okay, what does this

    actually mean though?" I asked.

    "As much as you want it

    to," Laura said, cutting to the chase. "The community that's going to
    be built on your land was always going to become its own county because that
    was going to help with jurisdictional governance issues. In reality, the entire
    county is going to remain under the federal jurisdiction of the Air Force so
    there isn't a need for any county political or infrastructure systems. But
    Miriam seems to think that if we don't make you some kind of official you're
    going to keep getting into shit that I need to dig you out of, so I came up
    with giving you a badge and letting you do whatever it is you're going to do.
    You're still the contracted security for the site, which encompasses the
    entirety of Black County, but with that agreement with the State Troopers you
    just made you can go looking for all the trouble your heart desires."

    "This is insane," I

    said.

    "And yet it's

    happening," Kyla said.

    "Just don't do something

    stupid enough that someone files a complaint against you," Laura said.
    "We'll get you a badge and some more equipment under the guise of your
    security work, and you can fly under the radar and help whoever you're going to
    help. Or, I'm just putting this out there, you could try keeping your head down
    and not making my life quite so fucking interesting so that I can handle the
    two and a half feet of legal paperwork that is currently forming a new leaning
    tower of Pisa on my desk."

    "Thank you,

    Captain," I said.

    "You're welcome,

    Sheriff," she said with an audible smirk.

    The Trooper Sergeant came

    back and met us at the front desk with all of my firearms, including the 1911
    in its hard case that had been pulled from my truck. Unfortunately, the truck
    itself had gotten towed since it had multiple bullet holes through the windows
    and front end.

    "Don't worry about

    it," Laura assured me. "Miriam is going to take care of you."

    "But I liked my

    truck," I said.

    "She'll take care of

    you," Laura said again.

    Outside the station we piled

    into the blacked-out sedan Laura had apparently driven down in, and she was
    going to give us a ride back home before heading back to Portland. I took a
    moment before getting in the car, and after setting the firearms in the trunk,
    to wrap up Kyla in my arms and kiss her tenderly.

    "Thank you again for

    last night," I said quietly to her.

    "You don't need to thank

    me," she said.

    "Yes, I do," I

    insisted. "You risked your life, and let me risk mine. You took life as
    well, which I know you're feeling right now. So I need you to hear me when I
    say thank you, and I meant what I said. I'm falling in love with you, more and
    more."

    She hugged me back, but with

    her fingers clutching the sides of my shirt tightly. "You're
    welcome," she said softly.

    On the ride, now that we'd

    gotten our phones back, Kyla began texting back home while I called Mary. She
    was happy to hear things were working out, though I didn't go into details
    about how exactly that had happened. Her little girl Charlie seemed to have
    forgotten the whole thing almost immediately, but Thomas was asking lots of
    questions and she was having a hard time answering them. She'd also found out
    that many of her neighbors were missing; the police told her that it was
    difficult to tell because of the looting, but some likely left the area to be
    somewhere else during quarantine. Others, though, were just gone. And she'd
    witnessed a delivery truck of some sort come by that morning, and it had picked
    up the bodies of the men we had killed along with a half dozen other body bags
    from more of the houses on the block.

    That made me flinch. The diseases

    weren't just in the city or confined to the outbreak on the site. It was in my
    town, for sure and for real.

    I told Mary that I would come

    by in a day or two to assure Thomas, and that I'd try and fix what I could of
    her front lawn where I'd probably torn up the grass. She, of course, said I
    didn't need to do that and I told her it was no trouble.

    "What did I say about

    keeping your head down?" Laura asked as I hung up the call.

    "What?" I asked.

    "I'm just offering to fix her front lawn."

    "And soon you'll be

    running a soup kitchen on the site and setting up a pet rescue," Laura
    grumbled. "You have a serious hero complex, Black."

    "You're not even the

    first person to tell me that in the last twenty-four hours," I said.
    "I'm just doing the right thing."

    Kyla leaned forward from the

    back seat, reaching for my hand. "Harri, sometimes that's the same
    thing."

    I sighed and rolled my eyes,

    but inside I felt my heart beat a little harder. It was nice to know a woman I
    was falling for, and another one I respected, saw me in that kind of light.
    Even if Captain Bloomberg was making it more of an accusation.

    When we got back to the site

    and the compound we saw that there was another one of the National Guard
    cleanup crews working away on the office buildings, sanitizing the place and
    recovering what they could of records and documents. As Laura pulled up in
    front of the compound she put the car in park and turned to me. "Now that
    it's official, I'm sure the Colonel is going to organize a delivery of
    equipment for you sometime this afternoon or tomorrow. Just do me a favor and
    try not to go overboard. Or get into situations where you need to call her in
    the middle of the night again. She was happy to help, but it doesn't look good
    if that sort of thing keeps happening and it's my job to keep her clean,
    alright?"

    "I know," I said.

    "And I'm sorry for the trouble..."

    "But it had to be

    done," Laura nodded. "Just do me a favor and text Miriam a picture of
    the kids you saved so I know what I did all this for. And throw in a nudey of
    that hot chick from last time for good measure if you can."

    Kyla snorted, and I shook my

    head. "The kids I can do, but a picture of Dani is a bit much."

    "She'll do a topless one

    for sure," Kyla said. "Don't worry, Captain. I got you."

    That made Laura bark a laugh

    and actually crack a smile.

    Everyone was coming out of

    the compound at this point to welcome us back, and Laura ended up needing to
    wait for all the hugs and kisses and backslaps to happen before I could get to
    the trunk and retrieve the firearms. As I shut the trunk I got a view of Dani
    lifting her shirt and pressing her boobs to the driver's side window as she
    giggled and Kyla smirked with an 'I'll do you one better' kind of expression on
    her face. When Dani pulled back she saw me looking with wide eyes and she took
    a moment to wiggle her boobs at me with her tongue sticking out at the corner
    of her lips in a silly expression before putting them away.

    They were really great tits.

    Kyla and I got a 'welcome

    back from jail' party, which the girls had planned once Erica had gotten an
    update call from Miriam about what was going on. I had no idea when the two of
    them had traded numbers, but it was the kind of thing that I was learning to
    just roll with at that point. My girls in particular rewarded my heroics after
    lunch with a game of 'Whose mouth is this?' back in the RV as they blindfolded
    me and proceeded to kiss, lick, and eventually blow me. Even Kyla participated
    despite her usual avoidance of our group sexual dynamics, laughing along with the
    others.

    It was later in the afternoon

    when I took a ride out on the ATV with Erica up to the spring pool that I
    allowed myself to finally feel the crushing pressure in my chest and shoulders.

    "Just let it out,

    babe," Erica crooned as she held my head in her lap and stroked her
    fingers through my hair. We were both fully clothed still, sitting next to the
    babbling spring.

    "I can't," I said.

    "I; I don't know why." I could feel the tears somewhere behind my
    eyes. The immense weight of what I'd done again. It had been seven years since
    I'd left the service, and almost seven and a half since the last time I had
    taken a life. It wasn't any easier now than it was back then.

    "Just try," Erica

    whispered. "Cry. Scream. Yell. Hit the ground. Do something. You can't
    hold it in."

    I rolled onto my hands and

    knees and crawled the few steps to the spring pond and shoved my head under the
    cold water, laying on my stomach over the little rocky rim that one of my ancestors
    had built up. And then I screamed into the water. 'Shouted' would have been
    more manly, but I screamed. And I screamed. I emptied my lungs into those
    cooling, peaceful waters and yanked my head out, sucking in a huge breath and
    dropping right back in. I did that a couple of times, then flopped back away
    from the water as my chest heaved trying to catch my breath and I clutched at
    the grass and dirt with my hands.

    "Shush," Erica

    soothed me, coming to me without a care for the water and cradling my head to
    her bosom. "Shush."

    When I was feeling 'better,'

    which was hard to judge, we rode back without having had sex. It might have
    been the first time that we'd gone out and not at least snuck in a quickie
    since we'd gotten together. But it wasn't the time, not with the mental state I
    was in.

    And when we got back, Erica

    sent me to cuddle with Ivy and she took Kyla out on the ATV, just the two of
    them.

    Ensconced in the back of the

    RV with Ivy, my little Quebecoise lover hummed some sort of a wordless lullaby
    to me as she brushed out my tangled hair slowly, and then gave my scalp a soft
    massage. And when she was done she had me lie down and she laid down on top of
    me, her slight form like a weighted blanket as she hugged me softly.

    "Mon amour, I wish I

    knew what I could say to make it better," she whispered to me in the
    darkness.

    "I know, I’ve," I

    whispered back, my hands resting on her back.

    "I; I want to do more

    for you," she said quietly. "Erica, she is so strong. And Vanessa has
    her work. And now Kyla, she is your partner in crime in these things. I don't
    know where I fit in, Harrison. And I,” she cut herself off, burrowing her face
    in my chest.

    "This is perfect, ma

    dulcinée," I said. "You're perfect."

    "No I'm not," she

    said.

    "Are we really going to

    argue about this?" I asked.

    "Yes, we are," she

    said, and then rolled off of me and sat on the bed next to me with her legs
    crossed under her, taking one of my hands in both of hers. "Harri, we have
    not talked about my past. Not a lot. I'm not this perfect girl you see me as. I
    am not..."

    "You are everything you

    need to be," I said.

    "But I'm not,

    Harrison," Ivy said. "I have never felt like this before. All my
    life, I have lived without regrets. But now that I have you, I regret; I regret
    so much."

    "I’ve, what are you

    talking about?" I asked, sitting up and encouraging her to straddle my
    lap, getting even closer so we could talk while holding each other.

    "I'm not a good

    person," Ivy whispered, resting her head against my shoulder so she wasn't
    looking me in the eye. "Even now, I am making this about me somehow when I
    want to be comforting you."

    "Ivy," I said

    sternly, making her look up at me because of the tone, but she found my eyes
    soft and caring. "Ivy," I said again, softer now that she was looking
    at me. "You could tell me you went through a cannibalism phase and I would
    still think the you with me now, the one who gives her heart so fully and pours
    her love on me unconditionally, the Ivy I am in love with, is a good
    person."

    "Then why do I feel so

    guilty?" she asked, tears in her eyes.

    "What do you feel guilty

    about?" I asked.

    "Stripping," she

    said. "Letting other men see me the way only you should have. Being
    promiscuous with boys in high school when I thought it didn't mean anything. I
    wish I could give you the gift of being my one and only like the priest used to
    talk about in bible school. I wish I could be pure for you, because I feel like
    I don't deserve you. I don't deserve how good you are, and how courageous, and
    beautiful."

    "Stop," I

    whispered, pressing my forehead to hers. "Ivy, stop. I don't want some
    pure little virgin. Erica, Vanessa and Kyla all have pasts too. I want you,
    Ivy. I want you. The you that is here with me, with all the ups and downs that
    you've gone through to get here. I love every little scar, and every tattoo,
    and everything about you, because they make you who you are. And fuck that
    priest and making you feel guilty. Tell me his name and I'll give him a piece
    of my mind."

    She smiled at that, and one

    tear dripped from clinging to her eyelashes. "I'm sorry," she said.

    "Don't be," I told

    her, hugging her tightly.

    "What can I do for

    you?" she asked.

    "This," I said.

    "Just this. Be with me like this."

    We held each other for a long

    time. Long enough that we drifted to sleep in each other's arms until Vanessa
    came to wake us up for dinner.

    I checked in with Kyla

    quietly at dinner, and she smiled softly and told me that she and Erica had a
    long talk and she was doing alright. Then she pulled me down into a kiss and
    told me she needed me after dinner, and we slipped off as soon as our food was
    gone and made love out on the edge of the forest close to where I'd planned my
    date with Erica.

    We were back and sitting

    around the fire pit when my cell phone rang. It was sitting closer to Erica
    than to me, so she picked it up with a grin and answered. "Sheriff Black's
    phone, who may I ask is calling?" she asked in a played-up secretary
    voice.

    Someone spoke on the other

    end. "I'll see if he's available. One moment please," she said, then
    lowered the phone. "It's a Colonel Abarbanel calling for you. Should I
    tell her you're busy and to call back during business hours?"

    I rolled my eyes and stood,

    holding my hand out to Erica.

    "Transferring you

    now," Erica said into the phone with a playful grin at me as several of
    the other girls around the fire gave little chuckles.

    I took the phone and sighed,

    shaking my head at Erica's little game before raising it to my ear.
    "Colonel?"

    "Just calling to check

    in, Harri," Miriam said from the other end. "And I'm off the
    clock."

    "You sound beat,

    Miriam," I said, stepping away from the fire.

    "Because I am," she

    said. "I haven't slept since you woke me up last night."

    "Shit," I said.

    "Well, thanks again for answering. And for everything else."

    "Yeah, well, it's the

    Everything Else that has been keeping me working," she chuckled.

    "Any shot of you getting

    a day off and coming up to visit?" I asked.

    "I would love to, but no

    chance," Miriam sighed. "Not for a good while yet, anyways."

    "Well, I think we're up

    to a steak dinner, Champaign and chocolate lava cake for dessert on my
    tab," I said. "One more favor and I'm going to have to learn how to
    properly grill a full-on tomahawk steak to properly repay you. That or find
    some wagyu."

    "Remember that time you

    saved me from my blackmailing senior officer and stopped him mid sexual
    assault?"

    "You already paid me

    back for that," I said.

    "How so?"

    "You got me out of the

    military, which led me to my best friend and my fiancée, and all of this."

    "Fiancée?" Miriam

    asked.

    "Oh, right," I

    said. "We haven't really made it a big thing, but Erica asked me to marry
    her. I said yes. We're not sure on any logistics yet, but that's our new
    label."

    "Congratulations,

    Harri," Miriam said, and while I could hear the smile in her voice there
    was also a touch of what I thought might be... annoyance? "That's really
    great, I'm happy for you two. How are the others taking it?"

    "Good," I said.

    "We're still figuring out our dynamics a little, but it's been weirdly
    smooth sailing to get there."

    "That's what some of our

    reports are showing," Miriam said. "Or at least what's being reported
    when people bother to ask about the well-being of households outside of 'Is the
    vaccine working?' Seems like everyone is doing the best they can to make this
    work."

    "Well, I hope no one

    else is going through the other shit we are," I said.

    "Umm hmm," she

    chuckled softly over the phone. "I doubt any other vaccine tester has gone
    through what you have, Harri."

    "So what's up with the

    late-night call?" I asked. "Did you just miss the sound of my voice,
    or is there something going on?"

    "Yes, and yes," she

    teased. "I'm sending up a care package to you tomorrow morning. Just
    wanted you to know to expect it. Have fun, but don't go wild, Okay?"

    "Is that a

    euphemism?" I asked. "You're not sending me another partner, are you?
    I don't have room in this RV bed for another body."

    "Hah! No, nothing like

    that," Miriam laughed. "I'm sending you some toys, buddy. And Laura
    told me she gave you some warnings, but I wanted you to hear this from me
    personally. Don't go getting yourself into trouble if you can help it; I don't
    know if I could handle losing you after giving you the tools to get yourself
    done in."

    "I'll try my best,"

    I promised her. "But I want something in return."

    "What's that?" she

    asked.

    "You to get a solid nine

    hours of sleep tonight," I said. "And that's a full nine. Not eight.
    You need to sleep to be effective."

    "I'll give you

    eight," she said.

    "Miriam," I said

    crossly.

    "Fine, fine," she

    said. "Nine, as long as you're seriously promising not to get yourself
    killed, you bastard."

    "Done," I said.

    "I'll hold you to

    it," she said. "You go and get yourself killed, and I'll hold it
    against you. I'll never sleep more than six hours for the rest of my life just
    to teach you a lesson."

    "Noted," I snorted

    a laugh.

    "How's the lady and the

    kids?" Miriam asked.

    "Safe," I said.

    "For now, I guess. She's a little traumatized, but she's been that way
    since her husband disappeared early in the quarantine when he went looking for
    work. Her little boy is feeling it the most, from what I understand, but I'll
    go over there to try and help him feel a little better."

    "You know you're too

    good a guy, right Harri?" Miriam asked.

    "Don't you have some

    sleeping to get to?" I shot back.

    "Fine. I do," she

    said. "Be safe."

    "You too, Miriam. Thanks

    for calling."

    "Thanks for picking

    up," she teased lightly.

    When I stepped back to the

    fire Erica was smiling at me. "What?" I asked.

    "Nothing," she

    said, and reached over and took my hand. Then she glanced to Vanessa, who gave
    her a little smirk back.

    "You know I don't like

    you girls keeping secrets from me," I said.

    "We know," Kyla

    smiled over the rim of her tea mug. "That's not going to stop us from
    doing it though."

    I rolled my eyes and reached

    for my beer.

     

    "Holy shit," I said

    as the flatbed truck lowered the brand new Ford F-150 from its bed. It was
    blacked out except for a white band across each side and a gold-lined 'sheriff'
    decal plastered in bold letters. And 'Black County' in smaller white letters
    underneath. It had a heavy duty push bar and brush guard on the front along
    with a winch, a light bar on the roof of the cab and another with some spots
    mounted to the back.

    "Captain Bloomberg

    wasn't joking," Kyla said. Everyone had come out to witness the delivery.
    "Where do you think Miriam got this from?"

    "Probably got it from

    some other sheriff's department, or police, or something," Erica said.
    "Think she could get us one of those supercharged mustangs or chargers,
    too?"

    "We are not

    asking for more cars," I said, looking at the beauty of a truck touch down
    and settle on its shocks. "Well, not yet."

    I had to sign for the

    delivery, along with a crate that had also been strapped down to the back of
    the flatbed, which turned out to be an awkward process of the guy filling out
    the paperwork on a tablet, then sanitizing it and handing it over to me to sign
    with my finger, then sanitizing it again when he took it back. Once the delivery
    guy was driving off and disappeared around the site offices Dani, Ivy, Aria and
    India all immediately wanted to check out the truck while I went into the
    storage containers to fetch a crowbar to open the crate.

    They had already figured out

    the lights when I came out, and we all got blasted by the siren for a moment
    which was super loud. Then we got blasted by a massive air horn sound that left
    our ears ringing.

    "Sorry!" Dani

    called from inside the cab with Ivy. Aria and India were in the back seat,
    which was separated from the front by a heavy Plexiglas of some sort. I wasn't
    sure I liked that, but it was what it was. Aria and India sure didn't seem to
    mind as they giggled and made out in the back seat of a cop car for what I had
    a feeling wasn't the first time.

    When I cracked the seal on

    the crate we found a little trove of police equipment. There were a couple of
    bullet proof vests with 'Black County Sheriff' patches, a bean bag shotgun, a
    couple of tasers, handcuffs and zip ties, new flashlights and other gear. At
    the bottom was a hard case that I pulled out and opened to reveal a note laying
    on top of several firearms packed in foam. At a glance I recognized that I'd
    been sent an M4 rifle with attachments, an MP5, and a pair of Beretta M9s along
    with ammunition for all three firearms.

    "Dear Harrison,"

    Erica red as she opened the note while I ogled the firearms. "Don't make
    me regret this. Miriam. PS; Better make it a tomahawk steak after all."

    I spent the rest of the morning

    learning more about the truck and checking over all of the equipment. We set up
    a little range backstopped by one of the hills and I practiced with all of the
    firearms to remind myself what shooting them was like; the M4 was standard
    issue military and easy to remind myself of once I dialed in the simple
    precision sight I mounted to the rails, and the Beretta's were standard issue
    side arms that came with underslung flashlights. I still preferred my own to
    the new ones only because I was used to the grip of it, and these new ones had
    a slightly different pattern in my palm. The MP5 was the big new thing for me;
    a submachine gun wasn't exactly standard issue for an infantryman or Military
    Police, so while I'd had a couple of chances to shoot one in the past I'd never
    really gotten comfortable with them.

    I ended up running a bit of a

    firearms clinic with the girls and Leo, everyone but India wanting to at least
    try shooting once now that the opportunity was available. I started Ivy, Aria
    and Vanessa off with a couple of my personal pistols and let Dani take over
    with them while I showed Erica the new toys. We prioritized safety first, and
    the girls didn't do anything stupid trying to be silly. Dani then got a shot at
    the new guns along with Kyla while I taught the newer girls about rifles and
    they each took a couple of shots with the hunting rifles.

    By the time lunch was coming

    around we'd burned through a decent amount of bullets and we all had sore, or
    ache, shoulders from the kick of the rifles. Dani also had a new appreciation
    for Kyla, who had proven herself more proficient than the Aussie with both the
    M4 and the MP5. The two of them were talking guns, wearing clear protective
    glasses with their hair tied back in pony tails.

    "God damn, you two look

    hot," I laughed as I was packing up the other firearms.

    "You think?" Dani

    laughed, hefting the M4 to prop it on her hip in a pose, being careful not to
    point it anywhere dangerous.

    "I should take a picture

    and send it to Guns and Ammunition magazine," I said.

    "How about we just be

    hot for you and Leo?" Kyla asked as she set down the MP5 and knelt to kiss
    me.

    "Deal," I said with

    a grin.

    "I dunno, I think I'd

    make a good firearms model," Dani said as she rolled up her shirt to under
    her tits and made another silly pose, this time with the M4 and the 1911 pistol
    in her other hand.

    "Alright, Lara

    Croft," I chuckled with her. "Let's put these things away."

    We got everything except the

    M4 packed into the gun safe. The bed of the new truck had a hidden, locked
    compartment built into it that could hold it, and I was running out of room in
    the safe. When we walked back into the compound lunch was being served and my
    girls were discussing who would get to christen which part of the new truck.

    I ended up spending the early

    hours of the afternoon fucking Ivy in the back seat and then Vanessa in the
    truck bed after doing some light off-roading. Erica was supposed to be next,
    bent over the hood, but I begged off for a rest as I needed to go check on
    Mary.

    It was weird, driving the new

    truck off the property and knowing that I was the vehicle on the road that made
    other drivers check their speedometers quickly and clench their butts if they
    worried they were going too fast. Not that we were passing many other drivers.
    Erica came with, holding my hand as we drove after quickly programming the
    radio to our preferred music stations.

    Mary was confused, and Thomas

    was elated, by the police truck. Erica plucked him up and sat him in the
    driver's seat, standing outside the open door and showing him the different
    buttons. Soon enough Charlie wanted in as well and was standing on the
    passenger seat and giggling away as she hit the siren button several times
    rapidly turning it on and off. Once we made her stop because it was so loud she
    lost interest and just played outside. Thomas took a little while longer for
    the novelty to wear off, but ended up heading back into the house to leave Mary
    to talk with us.

    I gave her the quick rundown;

    a more full version this time, about my family land and my old connections to
    the military and how I was a real Sheriff at this point. The county I was a
    sheriff of just happened to only consist of our family.

    "You do realize this is

    kind of insane, right?" Mary asked, looking at the truck again.

    "That's what I keep

    saying," I sighed.

    "But it's real, and he

    deserves it all," Erica said, hugging my arm.

    It was at that point that

    Charlie started wandering in the direction of the road, and the skid marks I'd
    left on Mary's front yard. There was little danger even if she did play on the
    road; there wasn't a car in sight and little likelihood of one based on the
    number of homes that were currently taped over with police crime scene tape.
    Still, there was broken glass hidden in the grass from my truck windows getting
    shot out, and Mary called Charlie back but the little girl just giggled and
    gave a 'come catch me' look.

    "I got it," Erica

    said, "Enjoy the break, Momma." She patted Mary's shoulder and then
    jogged after Charlie as the little girl giggled and tried to race away.

    "Harri," Mary said

    quietly as she watched my fiancée quickly catch her little girl and scoop her
    up into her arms as they both laughed. "I don't mean to pry, especially
    not after that night, but... who was that woman you were with?"

    "Oh," I said.

    "Oh! No, Mary, it's; Okay, it's not easy to explain. That was Kyla, Erica
    knows everything. If you want the longer story then you'll probably want a
    glass of wine and some chairs."

    Mary did, in fact, want the

    full story and soon we were sitting out in her back yard sharing the last
    bottle of wine I'd brought her. Erica did most of the storytelling, filling in
    some of the gaps we'd left out when they'd been introduced, and picking and
    choosing what juicy details to tell Mary about. She never got raunchy, but she
    didn't hide the fact that the vaccine was making us all hornier than normal,
    and I was doing a good job of keeping up with the demands of four women.

    By the end of it, Mary was

    blushing furiously and more than a little shocked by the scandalous nature of it
    all, but I could also see her nipples had become a little pokey under her
    shirt. She had some questions, mostly about how we were keeping everything
    straight between us, and how there weren't more catfights going on. She'd been
    a cheerleader and knew how a group of women could get, especially if they were
    looking for attention from the same guy.

    The two of them had finished

    the bottle by the time Mary's questions were answered, and the afternoon was
    wearing on. Charlie had gotten tired of playing in the backyard, but Thomas had
    come out and occupied her some until he was bored too. Mary had to make them
    dinner, so Erica and I said our goodbyes; I never did get to fixing her lawn,
    and as we walked around the side of the house I made a mental note that I should
    fix the side gate that I'd barreled through as well. I promised I'd come back
    the next day with some more groceries and would bring Vanessa to help me out
    and meet her.

    "Harri," Erica said

    once we were in the truck. "I think she has a thing for you."

    "She's married,

    babe," I said. "And I'm not risking what happened last time with
    Vanessa."

    "It could just be

    you," Erica said. "We'd all understand. She's cute, especially if she
    keeps getting back her regular weight. And she needs companionship."

    "That doesn't change the

    fact that she's married," I pointed out.

    "We both,”

    "We don't know

    anything," I said. "Not for sure. And until that happens, I'm not
    treading on anyone's wedding vows."

    "Okay, babe," Erica

    said, taking my hand from the wheel and holding it. "And just so you know,
    I'd never break our wedding vows either. Which means they are probably going to
    be pretty weird if we're going to caveat all the face-sitting and
    cunt-licking."

    I snorted and the truck

    bounced a little as I laughed.

     

    "Alright, good to know

    you folks are doing well," I said. "Remember, this thing is real.
    Mask up and glove up when you're going out, and try to stay to yourselves as
    much as possible."

    "Whatever," said

    the guy standing in the doorway of the home.

    "Thank you so much, Sheriff,"

    the wife said, beaming from beside him. "I really appreciate you taking
    the time to come out and answer our questions."

    "No problem,

    Ma'am," I said. "Just remember that our system is pretty strained
    right now, and we want to keep our emergency lines open for the big stuff. You
    can always leave a message on the State non-emergency line and someone will try
    to get back to you."

    "I totally understand,

    Sheriff," she nodded along.

    I said goodbye to the couple

    and went back to my truck, stepping up into it and closing the door.

    "Just one more,"

    Kyla said from the passenger seat. "Though I'm really not sure why you're
    doing so many of these. You said you'd help out, not do their jobs for
    them."

    "This is me helping out,

    Kyla," I said, throwing the truck into reverse and pulling out of the
    driveway. "The States are dealing with more looters, and all the other
    ramped up crime, and they have to be present when the dead are getting pulled
    out of places. These welfare checks are easy to manage and make people feel
    better."

    "Not us," Kyla

    pointed out. "I've seen more dead bodies in the last three days than I
    have in my life."

    I'd taken a few days to get

    acclimated to the truck, the firearms and my new title before I called up the
    local State Trooper Sergeant and let him know I was ready to fulfill my end of
    the deal. In that time I'd also fixed up Mary's place with Vanessa, who had
    become little Charlie's new favorite person, and had spent time out in the
    forest with Kyla as we talked through the mild nightmares she'd been having.

    She'd decided the best thing

    to do was to find a purpose; she couldn't dance, at least not in the
    professional way she was trained, and while fucking and brushing up on her
    housewife skills was a great way to spend her time she needed more than that.
    So we had decided that she should become my volunteer deputy and partner and
    come along with me.

    The Trooper Sergeant had

    needed to figure out what he could give us to do, since 'community policing
    initiatives' often involved things like presence at local fairs, presentations
    at schools and all sorts of things that were closed down at the moment. He'd
    landed on following up on the requests for welfare checks from the community as
    people had been calling in with questions and concerns about what was going on.

    Kyla and I had quickly found

    that there were two kinds of stops we would make; the first was like the one
    I'd just done. I knocked on the door, and someone answered and was glad to see
    someone in uniform there to talk to them. Half of the folks tried to invite me
    in, but I would always refuse and let them know how serious things really were,
    and we'd talk on the stoop or the porch. A few of them would be agitated and
    try and shout me down about civil rights and liberties, but I would make a
    couple of attempts to talk them around and if they refused to listen I'd wish
    them a good day, and to stay safe, and then I'd leave.

    The other kind of stop I

    would knock on the door and no one would answer, even if there was a car in the
    driveway. Then Kyla would join me, and we'd put on our vests and start walking
    around the house, peeking in windows. Sometimes I would need to give her a
    boost up to check higher ones. And about half the time one of us would see a
    body, or signs of blood. And we'd back off and call it in, and then we'd leave.
    We weren't equipped to handle the dead; EMT weren't doing it either. There was
    some group organized through the National Guard that were collecting the bodies
    and bringing them off... somewhere. A State Trooper had to ride with them, and
    I didn't envy them that job at all.

    "Where's the last stop,

    hon?" I asked, reaching over and rubbing the inside of her thigh to try
    and comfort her. She didn't need it necessarily, she wasn't worked up, but I
    could tell she was frustrated with how little we could really do about things.
    Not for the first time I wondered if maybe this wasn't the 'purpose' Kyla
    needed right now.

    "Head back home,"

    she said. "But keep going up the highway. It's about fifteen minutes
    passed us. Says it's a place called Valkyrie Falls."

    I frowned. "Never heard

    of it," I said. "Does it say anything else?"

    "No," she shook her

    head.

    "Well, I guess we'll

    find out."

    It was a peaceful drive and

    we made it with the windows down. The hot spring and early summer sun had
    finally given way to our usual weather, and the soft cloud cover and the light
    rains that swept through had cooled everything down to the point that we didn't
    need to blast the air conditioning anymore and could enjoy the natural fresh
    air. As we drove Kyla took my hand from her thigh and wrapped her fingers in
    mine, leaning down to kiss my arm softly and then turning to look out the
    window.

    Things with her since the

    shootout had changed slightly. Or maybe it was since we'd said that we were
    falling for each other already. Before then, it felt like we'd been making an
    effort. It had been easy to do, but we were still trying to make it happen.
    Now... now it felt natural. It felt like those little touches we'd been doing
    without words all the time. We could sit in silence, just the wind and the soft
    hum of the radio turned down low between us, and it felt good.

    "I love you, by the

    way," I said.

    She turned to me, raising her

    eyebrows.

    "Just thought I should

    let you know; I'm done falling, and it's real. I love you."

    "I'll never stop

    falling," she said. "I never want to stop falling. Every time I think
    I see who you are, Harrison Black, I quickly find you're deeper and wider than
    I could imagine. I love you too."

    "God, if I'd known you

    would get poetic I would have tried harder to come up with something like
    that," I teased her softly with a smile.

    She laughed warmly and

    squeezed my fingers. "I wasn't trying to be. And I liked the way you said
    it."

    We drove past the entrance to

    the site, the booth standing empty, and continued up the highway just over
    fifteen minutes before Kyla signaled I should make a left into a little side
    road that looked like any other that dotted the area and led up to someone's
    cabin. Instead, after half a minute of driving down the brush-lined single
    lane, we came to a gate. It was black steel, covering the entire roadway, and
    mounted into cement pillars that had been sunk into the ground. A little plaque
    on one of them red 'Valkyrie Falls', and there was a buzzer intercom just below
    it.

    "Weird," I said.

    I put the truck in park and

    we got out. Looking around, there wasn't anything but trees and brush except
    the path back to the road, and the path beyond the gate.

    At the buzzer, I pushed the

    button and the little speaker grill made a staticy buzz noise. We waited about
    thirty seconds and nothing happened, so I pushed it again a little longer.

    "Oh, shit. Hello?"

    A woman's voice came from the other end.

    "Yeah, hi. This is

    Sheriff Black, I'm here to do a welfare check?"

    "Oh fuck, um, one

    minute," she said. Then, presumably without taking her finger off the
    button, the woman yelled to someone. "Abi! The cops are at the gate!"

    "Really? Alright, tell

    them I'll be down there in two minutes," another voice called faintly.

    "Alright, I will,"

    said the first voice, then she must have turned back to the speaker. "The
    owner will be down in two minutes."

    "Thanks," I said as

    I grinned at Kyla. I released the button and went and leaned against the front
    bumper of the truck.

    "Well, it's probably not

    a cult," Kyla said.

    "Doesn't sound like

    it," I agreed. "It's got to be some sort of business, right?"

    "Maybe it's some Bed and

    Breakfast place," Kyla guessed. "It would make sense."

    "Guess we'll find

    out," I chuckled.

    It took a little longer than

    two minutes for someone to come walking down the dirt road beyond the path, and
    I was a little shocked by her when she showed up. This woman had to be my
    height, maybe even a little taller, and she was built. She was wearing a jacket
    but it was open, showing off an athletic bra and a set of abs that rivaled any
    pro athlete I'd ever seen. Her legs were clad in a skin-tight yoga pant, making
    her thickly muscled thighs and calves obvious as well. She had broad shoulders,
    though maybe not quite as broad as mine, and a wide jaw as she smiled before
    putting a mask on as she got closer. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back in a
    simple pony tail.

    "Hi, I'm the

    owner," she said as she got closer. "Can I help you?"

    "Abigail Jónsson?"

    Kyla asked.

    "That's me," the

    giant of a woman nodded. Her accent was odd, maybe nordic, though she didn't
    stumble through any words and was perfectly clear.

    "I'm Sheriff Black, this

    is my deputy Kyla," I said. "Did you call in a wellness check
    request?"

    "Um, sort of?"

    Abigail said. "I called in with some questions about what was all going on
    and what we should be doing about the pandemic. Different news stations and
    sites are saying different things."

    "Totally understandable,"

    I nodded. "The State Troopers are super busy right now, so I'm sorry if it
    took some time for us to get back to you. We'd be happy to give you a quick
    rundown of things if you'd like."

    "Sure," she nodded.

    "Do you want to come up to the property? I'm sure all the girls would like
    to hear something official."

    "As long as we stay

    outside," I nodded.

    "Great," she

    nodded, and then she unlocked the gate. "You can drive on up, there’s a
    parking lot where you can turn around when you leave instead of backing
    out."

    "I'll bring it up,"

    Kyla said. "You walk with her."

    "Sure," I said and

    handed Kyla the keys.

    I was already masked, so I

    fell in beside Abigail as we walked. At my best guess she was probably an inch
    taller than me, which meant she had to be something like six and a half feet
    tall.

    "So what kind of

    business is this exactly?" I asked.

    "It's a women-only

    athletic retreat," Abigail said as we walked. "My business partner
    and I bought the place a couple of years ago and built it up with money we got
    from our sponsors."

    "What do you compete

    in?" I asked.

    "CrossFit

    competitions," she said. "Though I was already backing away a bit
    from the big ones before the pandemic to focus more on the business. But we
    provide a retreat for any woman who wants to take their physical training super
    seriously."

    "I had no idea you gals

    were up here," I said. "I live about fifteen minutes down the
    highway."

    "Hmm," Abigail

    nodded. "We've kept things pretty quiet. We're not looking for regular gym
    goers locally, we're really focused on high end athletes. We've had a couple of
    Olympians come and train for a month or two, and several national soccer
    players during their off season, plus CrossFitters and weight lifters and that
    sort of thing. Hey, did you see all the commotion that happened a week ago up
    your way?"

    "Commotion?" I

    asked.

    "Lots of big army trucks

    and stuff," she said.

    "Ah, yeah," I said.

    "That; Well, that's a bit of a story I can tell you about."

    We made a turn through the

    trees, Kyla keeping the truck a dozen paces back behind us, and the space
    opened up into a shaded clearing. The building itself looked like it was almost
    pre-fab concrete in a modern style and not the cabin I was expecting. Knowing
    now that it was an athletic retreat, I thought it was pretty impressive and
    looked a lot nicer than a lot of the 'athletic retreats' I'd seen. Where it
    wasn't concrete it was tinted glass windows, and the building itself was built
    into a U-shape with a central courtyard that was fenced off from the dirt
    parking lot that had almost a dozen cars parked in it, but could hold almost
    double that number. Inside the courtyard was an outdoor gym with a half dozen
    women pumping iron, doing chin-ups and pushups, and generally sweating their
    asses off.

    "Wow," I said.

    "This is... wow."

    "Thanks," Abigail

    said, the grin behind her mask obvious. "We can max out at twenty athletes
    in residence at a time, plus me and my business partner and a nutritionist chef
    we had on staff, but we're down to ten right now since we went into quarantine
    and several of the ladies decided to drive back to wherever home was for them
    to ride this out. Think the courtyard would work for your talk?"

    "Sure," I said.

    "Just round everyone up and I'll meet you in there."

    "Great," Abi nodded

    and jogged off as I went to where Kyla was parking the truck. I didn't miss the
    fact that she had a great, muscled butt that bounced as she moved.

    "This place is

    impressive," Kyla said as she got out of the truck and handed me back the
    keys. We were both dressed in black button-down shirts and black pants and wore
    the utility belts to try and make us at least look a little official; I didn't
    even technically have a badge yet. We could have worn the bullet proof vests
    with the 'Sheriff' patches, but that felt a little militaristic for the duties
    we were doing and could put people more on edge.

    "It's full of athletes

    caught out here in the middle of training," I said.

    "Very cool," Kyla

    nodded. "You really didn't know this was here?"

    "Not at all," I

    said. I started leading her towards the door in the fence that Abigail had
    used. "Apparently it's a well-kept secret, which makes sense I guess if
    any of them are trying to stay away from cameras or stalkers or something."

    "Fair," Kyla

    nodded. "What do you think, should I sign up for a membership? I haven't
    worked out properly in months and Ivy's routine works decently, but I could use
    some weights."

    "If you do, I

    might," I chuckled. "I could do to pump some iron."

    "Sorry, hon," she

    smiled at me through the mask. "Ladies only, remember?"

    We stepped through the gate

    and closed it behind us, looking around at the equipment and the women that
    were finishing off their sets and starting to gather. There was a variety of
    equipment, but it all looked like it had been chosen to be permanently outside.
    The free weights were heavy iron on stainless steel racks, the fixed equipment
    made of the same metal. There were open tracks with big heavy ropes and old
    tractor tires.

    And then there were the

    women.

    They seemed to be in all

    sizes, but one thing was clear; they were all fit. Whether squat and powerful,
    or lean and graceful, each one had clearly defined muscles.

    "Hey," one woman

    said, bouncing over seemingly full of energy after she racked a couple of free
    weights and shook out her arms. "So, is the world ending or what?"

    "Not quite," I

    said, trying to project warmth through my mask. None of the athletes were
    wearing one, but if they were all quarantined together and weren't going out,
    then it made sense that they could do that. "And we'll try to make sure
    this little paradise you're in doesn't suffer anything."

    "Cool," she said,

    then held out her hand. "Josie Draper, better known as Joss the
    Boss."

    "Nice to meet you,

    Josie," I said, peeling off my glove and shaking her hand, then taking out
    a bottle of sanitizer. Kyla did the same thing.

    "What, am I that

    gross?" Josie asked.

    "Not at all," I

    assured her. "But this thing is very real, and we can't be too cautious.
    Right now Kyla and I are more of a threat to you than you are to us, so
    sanitize."

    "Sure," she nodded

    and accepted the spritz of sanitizer. Josie was a pretty women with a sharp
    nose and a nice smile, though her natural expression seemed to be more of a
    frown with a dominant curve to her upper lip. Most of her hair, likely brunette
    based on the roots but mostly dyed a silvery blonde, was back in a ponytail for
    her workout except for two shocks of bangs that framed her face. She was
    wearing a peach colored athletic bra with a thin white, baggy over shirt
    overtop, and lime green stretchy shorts. She also had a full sleeve of tattoos
    in a variety of designs down her right, muscled arm. Her entire body was
    muscled, really, though she was striking a balance between the heavier build of
    Abigail and something more lean.

    "What sport do you

    compete in?" Kyla asked.

    "I'm actually a

    professional wrestler," Josie said with a flash of a grin. "I've
    worked the Indie circuits for a few years and before all this I had a call-up
    to try out for the big times, so I booked time out here to try and get myself
    in the best shape of my life. I'm fire on the mic, and I have the technical
    skills, but I lack certain assets the TV likes." She grabbed her chest,
    which was certainly on the small side compared to her body proportionately.
    "But then Quarantine happened, and everything went into lockdown and I
    wasn't going to have anywhere to work, so when Abi offered to let us stay if we
    could chip in for groceries there wasn't a shot I was passing up that
    opportunity."

    "That explains the

    nickname," I nodded along.

    "Umm hmm," Josie

    grinned. "Joss the Boss, corporate queen, ready to lay the smackdown on
    any bitch with the gall to challenge my authority." She raised an arm and
    flexed as she grinned, her bicep impressive.

    Abigail came out of the main

    building from what looked like a big eating area with a few tables, followed by
    a few more women, and Josie said it was nice to meet us and went back to the
    group. I couldn't help a glance down at her ass, which was of course perfect.

    "Sheriff Black, this is

    my business partner Sara Sigurdsdottir," Abigail said, introducing us to
    the other blonde giantess. She wasn't quite as tall as Abigail or myself, but
    was still taller than most of the other women who were gathering around. She was
    pretty in a different way than Abigail, with slightly sunken eyes and a sharper
    chin, but similar body proportions.

    "Nice to meet you,

    sir," Sara said, her accent thicker than Abigail's.

    "You too, Miss," I

    said. "This is my deputy Kyla."

    They said hello and soon the

    two women gave way so that I could speak to the whole group. I let them know
    that I was impressed with their commitment to safety and following the
    quarantine guidelines and that unfortunately things were about as bad as people
    were saying. The pandemic was as dangerous as the news reported, and staying
    quarantined was the best option for all of them to stay safe and healthy. I ran
    them through the steps to keep themselves as safe as possible, basic stuff that
    they were already following, and to try and limit any outings they made off the
    retreat campus. Several of the women had questions and concerns. Some couldn't
    reach family members or friends and asked if I could help with that; I had to
    tell them it would be best to call in a welfare check to whatever local police
    department their loved ones were located near, but to likely expect a slow
    response due to the overloaded system. One woman asked why Kyla and I were
    still doing this if it was so bad, and that brought a little smirk from me as I
    saw Kyla give me a look.

    That led to me giving a brief

    explanation that I was 'newly elected' to my position, and was helping out the
    State Troopers. I also told, in brief, the story of the outbreak on the
    construction site to really nail home the importance of following the rules.
    Kyla chipped in information here and there that she thought they would need,
    and fielded a couple of questions including one saucy one about if it was hard
    working with a big hunk all the time that got all the girls laughing. Kyla just
    winked and said she'd figured it out pretty quickly, which then got some 'ohs'
    from the little crowd of women.

    When they ran out of

    questions, Abigail took charge and soon several of the women were starting up
    their workout routines again, while others were sent inside with Sara to help
    prepare the evening meals for the different nutritional needs of the levels of
    athletes.

    "Do you want to see some

    of the property?" she asked, raising her eyebrows a bit hopefully. "I
    love showing off our namesake."

    "Sure," I said

    after checking with Kyla that she'd be fine taking a bit more time here.
    "We'd love to."

    "Good," Abigail

    nodded, and then turned to the women around us. "Spencer, we're heading up
    to the falls. Come on."

    Spencer turned out to be a

    shorter woman wearing a bulky, baggy sweater that hid most of her physique. She
    was very pretty in a middle-America sort of way with a roundish face and big
    blue eyes, and looked like she could have fit right into a period drama about
    pilgrims just as easily as modern life. She had a mass of thick, golden blonde
    hair piled up on her head messily in a loose bun. She smiled eagerly when she
    heard our destination and jogged off to get her boots.

    The younger woman joined us

    as we rounded the side of the building and found the head of a decently worn
    trail marked by a couple of posts in the ground. Kyla shot me a quick look and
    then joined Spencer as a walking partner, starting up the path and chatting
    with her, as Abigail and I walked behind them.

    "So if I could ask,

    Abigail, where are you from?" I asked her to make conversation. "Your
    accent is lovely, but I can't place it."

    "Iceland," Abigail

    said. "Sara and I both emigrated here a few years ago because the opportunities
    were greater here in the United States for us with CrossFit sponsorships and
    competitions. And no, not all Icelander women are as big as us. Do you know the
    man who played the Mountain on Game of Thrones?"

    "Of course I do," I

    said. "Great show,”

    "-Except for the

    ending," she nodded with a smile behind her mask. "Yes, everyone
    thinks so. Anyways, he is my third cousin and Sara's fourth. We aren't as big
    as him, obviously, but the genetics certainly help."

    "Well, I think you look

    amazing, and the hard work and dedication you clearly put in is really
    impressive," I said.

    "Thank you," she

    said, smiling with her eyes at the compliment. "But you do not look so
    shabby yourself. Do you work out?"

    "I did a lot, but

    haven't for a few years," I said. "I really need to get back to
    it."

    She asked how I fell out of

    it, and that led me to explain my background in football and the military, and
    life since the military. I'd kept myself in the gym while I'd lived in
    Portland, but ever since moving out to the family homestead, I'd stopped since
    there weren't any good gyms around (that I knew of) and I had more than enough
    activity outside to not put on too many extra pounds.

    "You should come get a

    workout in with me," Abigail offered. "See what you can do. You have
    the shoulders and arms to really bulk up if you want."

    "That would be nice, but

    I thought your place was women only?" I teased.

    "Ah," she scoffed

    playfully. "The perks of being the owner. Plus, I think it would be good
    inspiration for the girls to be able to drool over you from afar just a little
    bit."

    "Healthy competition,

    huh?" I asked.

    "Exactly," she

    nodded. We were catching up to Kyla and Spencer on the path, who had stopped
    ahead of us, and I soon found out why.

    "Wow," I said, my

    eyes going wide.

    "This is why we named

    the place Valkyrie Falls," Abigail said with a big grin.

    Funerals

    The funerals were held on the

    fifteenth up at the reservation. I only found out they were even happening
    because the State Troopers asked me to attend as a formal representative of
    local law enforcement; I guess they considered it a 'community initiative' to
    take the time for a funeral and wasn't worth the manpower when they were
    stretched so thin.

    I hadn't been sure how to feel

    about the request, but I took it. And when the time came, I found out that the
    girls had discussed amongst themselves who should go with me. All four of them
    wanted to, both to support me and to pay their respects to the tough situation,
    but they also didn't want to draw too much attention.

    In the end, Kyla attended as

    my deputy, while Erica attended as my fiancée.

    "It's not fair how hot

    you look in that dress," Kyla muttered as she looked in the rearview
    mirror of the truck back at Erica.

    "You could have worn a

    dress too," Erica countered. "I saw that little black one you've got.
    You probably look like a fucking snack in it."

    Kyla sighed and shook her

    head, but then reached back to undo the bun she kept her hair in when we were
    'in uniform' and started fixing her hair with her fingers. "It's more of a
    clubbing dress, or a cocktail dress, than for a funeral," she said.
    "Plus we're here in an official capacity."

    We were waiting in the line

    of trucks and cars that were being let onto the Rez one by one. There were four
    big, dour-looking Native men working their 'gate' and most of the vehicles were
    only stopped for a couple of moments; I had a feeling anyone in the tribe was
    welcome, and they were just looking for outsiders. I'd already clocked a few
    confused glances at us as we slowly edged closer up the line.

    "Baby, you're frowning

    hard enough to crack the windshield," Erica said. "Tell Kyla she
    looks pretty."

    "She does," I said

    off-hand, reaching a hand over from the steering wheel and taking hers in mine.

    "Wow, don't overstate

    it," Kyla said with a little smirk.

    "Sorry," I sighed.

    "This is all just; The community deserves a funeral, but this big thing is
    a bad idea."

    Kyla nodded and frowned.

    "I'm surprised they're allowed to do it at all."

    "It's on the Rez, so the

    State Troopers don't have jurisdiction, and if any Feds cared it would still be
    something of a nightmare to enforce," I said. "Part of me thinks I
    should say something."

    "And the other part of

    you knows that wouldn't accomplish anything except piss people off," Erica
    ended my thought for me. "We can only do what we can do. We'll wear our
    gloves and masks, and we'll stay a respectful distance away at the back of the
    ceremony, and maybe we can let people know how serious we're taking things and
    influence them that way. And then afterwards, when we get home, you can fuck me
    and Kyla a few times each to make sure we're all inoculated."

    I glanced up in the rearview

    mirror to make eye contact with my fiancée. "Hold on, is that why you
    wanted to be the one to come?"

    She smiled a little and

    adjusted the bust of her dress that showed a tasteful amount of her cleavage.
    "Maybe partially," she said. "I also want to make sure I'm here
    to support you."

    "And to show off in

    front of your ex," Kyla said. "Just a little."

    "Just a little,"

    Erica agreed. "I'm 'the white woman with the tits,' remember?"

    I rolled my eyes and thought

    about asking her to keep it decent, but I already knew she would. We were also
    pulling up to the gate and one of the big natives was holding up a hand for me
    to stop.

    "We don't need you

    here," the biggest guy said as I pulled up. We had the windows down and I
    could hear the muttering from the other three as they leaned back to look at
    the big 'Sheriff' emblazoned on the side of my truck. Or maybe it was that
    combined with 'Black County' under it.

    "We're just here to pay

    our respects," I said. "Officially and unofficially."

    He grunted and narrowed his

    eyes for a moment, looking at the three of us dressed all in black. "Hold
    on," he said and stepped away to the little information booth and grabbed
    a handheld radio and spoke into it quietly.

    "Where's Black

    County?" asked one of the other men, the youngest of them. He was wearing
    a rough-looking suit that looked like it doubled as his 'going out on the town'
    outfit on occasion.

    "Southeast of

    here," I said vaguely, not exactly wanting to draw attention to the fact
    that we were that Black family, from that Black land. "This
    is my deputy, and this is my fiancée. We just want to pay respects."

    The leader of the group came

    up, an obvious look of suspicion on his face. "Take the second right up
    this road. A member of the Tribal Police will meet you and direct you on what
    is or isn't appropriate."

    "Happy to meet

    them," I nodded.

    He nodded back, patted the

    hood of my truck, and backed off to let me through.

    "Well, that was

    easy," Erica said after we were rolling and they wouldn't hear her.

    "We should really get

    actual uniforms," Kyla said. "It would probably make us look a touch
    more official for formal events."

    "Yeah, maybe," I

    said, wondering how many more of these things I would actually need to go to in
    the future. How long was I supposed to be Sheriff for anyways? Did I have term
    limits or anything? "Or at least actual badges."

    "Harri, babe,"

    Erica said, knocking on the Plexiglas barrier between the front and back seat;
    I still hadn't figured out how to take it out. "Seriously, you need to get
    out of your head or you're going to scare people with that scowl."

    "Ugh, sorry," I

    said, wiping my face and then scratching at my beard for a moment. "You're
    right."

    "Of course she is,"

    Kyla said.

    "We should have given

    him a blowjob before we left," Erica sighed. "Or on the way."

    "You said we should stay

    appropriate," Kyla said, looking back at Erica.

    "You two discussed blowing

    me on the way to a funeral?" I asked, making the turn as I'd been
    directed.

    "We all did," Erica

    said. "Seriously, Harri. You think everything just happens
    spontaneously?"

    I blinked, raising an

    eyebrow. "At least half," I said.

    "Maybe a third," Erica

    shot back. "Maybe."

    "My life is a lie,"

    I said whimsically, making both of them snort and grin a little. I wasn't sure
    if they were starting to pick up on each other's mannerisms a bit, or if maybe
    they had always been this similar. Or maybe Kyla's training had her mirroring
    Erica to create a stronger bond.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 8 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 10

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 10
    Catching Up With Barry.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     

    We went back down into the

    yard and I think for the first time since the whole thing had started I
    actually felt cooped up. Our little compound wasn't that big when it
    came down to it. Now with nine people living between the two RVs and not
    knowing if we could step outside... well, I wasn't feeling claustrophobic. I was
    dreaming a bit about the old house and being able to step out the back door and
    lose myself in the forest within half a minute of walking.

    I think Erica and Kyla could

    both tell I was a little off and decided between the two of them that they
    should give me some space. I gathered up all the firearms and brought them into
    the storage container with the gun safe, leaving the doors open and hanging up
    an electric lantern that plugged into the RV. I was just starting on the second
    shotgun when Dani slipped in. She didn't say anything, just looked at what I
    was doing and then went and got another towel and organized her own little
    workstation across from mine.

    We cleaned each gun. The only

    talking was when she had to ask about a specific make or model and how it was
    supposed to come apart. It was soothing to focus on and restful for my mind and
    body to do something that took focus but was also mindless.

    Once the last firearm had been

    stowed away in the gun safe, Dani and I were left with the 1911 between us.

    "Russian roulette?"

    she asked with a smirk and a chuckle.

    "I think we'd need a

    revolver for that," I laughed.

    She grinned, then reached

    across the table we'd used for our workstations and took my hands in hers.
    "Harri, thank you," she said. "I know you don't feel like you
    need it, but you deserve to hear it."

    "Dani, I,”

    "Just say, 'you're

    welcome,' jarhead," she said with a soft smile.

    "You're welcome," I

    sighed. She was right, I didn't feel like I needed any thanks for today. If
    anything I felt like I should have been able to do more. Be more. The girls
    never should have felt as scared as they did.

    Dani stood up and came around

    the table, surprising me by sitting in my lap and wrapping her arms around my
    shoulders and neck, hugging me tightly. "Seriously, Harri. You're one of a
    kind. Thank you."

    I hugged her back lightly,

    but she squeezed me harder and I sighed and gave her a full bear hug. She felt
    good in my arms and I realized that over the last month I'd come to love Dani.
    Not like Erica, or Ivy. But not like my sister either. It was weird because I
    knew there wasn't ever any way anything could happen between us, most
    importantly because she was with Leo. But also because of the vaccine
    Imprinting. I loved her in a way I couldn't really put my finger on. She was
    part of my life, part of the family. I felt like she'd been with us since the
    beginning, and not just since the vaccine.

    And despite all the reasons

    that we would only ever be platonic, she felt good in my arms. I kissed her on
    the cheek and she did the same to me, and then we separated and she stood up.

    "Feeling better?"

    she asked.

    "I do," I said.

    "Thank you."

    She patted my shoulder with a

    smile. "You really are like my Dad," she said. "It would be
    weird if you weren't so cute."

    I snorted and she stuck out

    her tongue between her teeth as she teased me, and we went back out into the
    compound.

    In the end it was Miriam who

    came to tell us the results. Vanessa and I met her just outside of the compound
    after she texted she was on her way over. When we saw she had her gas mask on I
    was a little worried, but she quickly assured us.

    "It's just

    precautionary," she said. "The good news is that your blood tests
    both show that you were exposed to Duo Halo, but your vaccines are working.
    Vanessa, we'll probably want to test you again in a couple of days to make sure
    your situation is stable.

    "Okay," Vanessa

    nodded. "Any word on my Dad?"

    Miriam nodded. "Yes.

    Brent did test positive for Duo Halo as well, but it was early and he was on
    the first truck back to Portland. We had a few different lists of potential
    testers for the next phases and as soon as we knew we needed an emergency
    response we've been getting in contact with them. We'll do our best to pair up
    people properly, but it's become life and death now. If he isn't matched up
    already, your father will have a bonded partner within the next couple of
    hours."

    Vanessa took a deep breath

    and nodded, running her fingers through her hair. "That's... so fucking
    weird, thinking of my Dad having a new... whatever. Girlfriend, let's say. He
    hasn't been with anyone that I know of since the divorce from my Mom. I thought
    he'd be single for the rest of his life."

    In the back of my mind I was

    wondering how they were going to find someone who would be happy to be with
    him. Brent was a nice enough guy, and professional when he wasn't pissed at me
    for sleeping with his daughter and getting her entangled in our whole thing,
    but he was also one fat man. It was something I really hadn't considered at
    all; Leo and I were both relatively fit. So far we'd lucked out on the women
    we'd partnered up with being attractive. What if someone had shown up who I
    didn't think was sexually attractive? What happened then?

    "So what now?" I

    asked, pushing my other questions to the back of my mind. "Are you going
    to have enough people ready to go?"

    Miriam's smile slipped and

    she took a deep breath. "No. We're not," she said. "At best
    guess, my Docs are expecting fifty per cent losses."

    Vanessa almost collapsed, but

    I caught her.

    "Five hundred

    people?" she gasped.

    Miriam nodded. "About a

    hundred and fifty are too far gone to even make it off the site. We're doing
    what we can for them in Dormitory 1. We're triaging as best we can, but we
    expect another two hundred will hit that point before we can get them to
    Portland. And the last hundred and fifty or so we'll lose just because of the
    time it will take to process everything. We're flying a new batch of the
    vaccine up from down south, but the way Duo Halo works, the worst of the worst
    have already been infected for a couple of weeks and we're looking at the tail
    end of the process. The people on the borderline will have been infected for a
    week and a half or so."

    Vanessa let go of me and

    stumbled a few feet away and threw up.

    "There's nothing else

    that we can do?" I asked quietly.

    Miriam shook her head, her

    expression grave. "We'll do what we can to save as many lives as
    possible."

    "Okay," I said,

    stepping over to Vanessa and rubbing her back once her dry heaving was coming
    to an end. "What about us? What's happening with the site?"

    "The site and all the

    offices are on quarantine," Miriam said. "Once we're done out here
    we'll tape everything off. We'll send teams out soon to scrub the whole place
    down and sterilize it. Then we'll clear out the deceased's belongings, and
    we'll start by getting crews in to refab the dormitories. We'll want to get
    work back rolling as fast as we can, but things are going to look a little
    different. Prepare for a lot more women moving out here with their
    partners."

    "Oh my God, I can't even

    start to think what that will look like," Vanessa groaned. She'd wiped her
    mouth and was spitting out the taste of her puke already.

    "We'll figure it

    out," Miriam assured her. "As for you all, give it a day or two again
    before you start going out. Do more, ah, rounds together. Sex between partners
    seems to be the single best thing vaccinated folks can do to make sure they are
    healthy. After that, you can head off-site to do whatever errands you need to
    do, and we'll keep you updated on when we'll be on site. We're combing the
    forest for anyone who slipped off, so once we're done and we've accounted for
    everyone I'll also give you a green light to go do your thing to be a mountain
    man."

    I sighed and nodded along. It

    was good news that we weren't just going to be trapped here, and I already felt
    a bit of pressure lifted off of my chest. "Okay," I said and took a
    breath. "How are you?"

    Miriam pressed her lips

    together in a not-quite smile. "It's not the worst thing I've been
    through, but it's up there," she said.

    "Well, I'm thinking

    about hugging you," I said.

    "Thanks, Harri,"

    she said. "Maybe next time I can get that hug and that beer."

    "Two beers. Actually, a

    whole fucking case," Vanessa said. "And not the cheap stuff."

    "Deal," Miriam

    said.

    I bid my farewells, as

    Vanessa had some more technical questions to ask, and I left them to it.

    Back inside the compound, I

    paused just inside the sheet-door, leaning against the butt of the RV as I
    closed my eyes and took a long breath.

    Five hundred out of a

    thousand construction workers would be dead in hours, if not a couple of days.

    It took me several more long

    breaths to get myself thinking straight before I walked back around into the
    compound proper. Ivy was the first of my girls I saw, and I went right to her
    and picked her up in my arms and walked over to a chair and sat down. She
    laughed as I did it, and immediately straddled my hips as I sat and gave me a
    kiss as she hugged me.

    We made out a little, and I

    could tell that she knew I wasn't quite right and needed something to ground
    me.

    As we kissed a hand trailed

    across my shoulders and I glanced the way it went to see Erica smiling at me
    reassuredly. She'd seen it too.

    It was weird, living with

    women who could read my body language like that. Who could tell my moods.
    Weird, but amazing. Ivy kissed me again and then spun so she was sitting
    sideways, and then Kyla was there beside us handing me my latest sketchbook.

    "Draw us

    something," Ivy smiled. "S'il te plaît, mon amour?"

    I exhaled the tension in my

    shoulders and smiled. "What should I draw, ma dulcinée?"

    "Kyla," she said,

    smiling at my Filipino partner. "But as a badass warrior princess, like
    she's in Game of Thrones."

    Kyla snorted a little laugh.

    "Really?"

    Ivy grinned and nodded. God,

    she knew how to lift my spirits.

    "Fine," Kyla said

    with a little smirk. "Do I need to pose, or what?"

    "Just sit with us,"

    I said, gesturing to the chair beside Ivy and me. "I'll make it
    work."

    So I flipped to a new page

    and I started to draw, and I only thought about the deaths when I let my focus
    slip from the page or the women in my life.

    Kyla looked back at me with a

    smile over her shoulder as she walked ahead in the grocery store. We were both
    bundled up to the gills, though amidst all of the other chaos that had been
    going on for the past five days somehow her things had still been delivered;
    the storage containers were starting to get stuffed with all the luggage of the
    girls that had been added on top of the stuff from my old house. Now Kyla had
    her own clothing again, so she was able to bundle up with her own clothes
    instead of borrowing things from the others.

    That look she gave me turned

    saucy as she checked ahead of herself again, and then looked back and reached
    down and flashed me her ass. Her warm-hued cheeks wiggled as she walked, mostly
    bare except for the thin band of her thong.

    "You are such

    trouble," I laughed.

    She gave one extra little

    booty shake and then pulled her pants back up, turning and grinning at me,
    though I could only see it through her eyes since we both had on medical masks
    over bandanas. Sometimes I could forget that Kyla was barely 22 years old and
    just out of college, and that she wasn’t just the mysterious Filipino
    Intelligence background that loomed over our relationship.

    "But I'm your trouble

    now," she teased me.

    I reached out a gloved hand

    to her and she took it, squeezing our fingers for a moment as we walked, and
    then we went back to filling the cart.

    We had nine mouths to feed

    between the two RVs, plus I wanted to drop off some extra supplies to Mary and
    the kids. Based on what I'd figured out in context between what Mary said, I
    knew that she was trying to stretch things a bit. I couldn't blame her; I was
    basically their sole source of meals. The state-wide shutdown on evictions
    meant that they weren't going to get kicked out or foreclosed on any time soon
    so they had shelter, but I could understand a single mom being worried that the
    charity could end at any time.

    "Fruit Loops or

    Trix?" I asked, holding up the two cereal boxes to Kyla.

    "For Ivy or for the

    kids?" Kyla asked.

    I snorted and put them both

    in the cart. Ivy, despite currently holding the 'smallest woman in the family'
    certificate, could eat like a horse and she had a sweet tooth. She worked hard
    to let herself do it; she had a whole body weight only exercise routine that she
    followed almost every day to keep her soft but lean figure; but the number of
    empty carbs she could put away was still a little astounding.

    To be fair, most of the cart

    was packed with fruits and veggies. We would do a pickup at the butchers before
    heading to Mary's, so we were just going down the middle of the store looking
    for any other staples we might be missing. Peanut butter and jam went in the
    cart; doubles of both, with one set destined for Mary. A couple of large bags
    of coffee. Kyla's preferred tea was in stock, so we grabbed two boxes of that.
    Aria had asked us to pick up ingredients because she swore she could make pizza
    on the barbeque for us. I was skeptical, but a good pizza wouldn't go amiss so
    I was willing to try.

    "I really like

    this," Kyla said.

    "What's that?" I

    asked, trying to figure out what she was looking at on the shelves.

    She turned and stopped me

    pushing the cart, sliding herself into my arms and hugging me loosely around
    the waist. "This," she said. "Even with the masks and
    everything. Grocery shopping with you. Running errands. It's all so normal. I
    think you'd have fun doing it in Manila though, it's more of an
    adventure."

    I grinned behind my mask and

    leaned down to press my forehead to hers. "Maybe we'll get a chance one
    day," I said. "But I like this too, babe."

    Her eyes narrowed a bit and

    the bridge of her nose crinkled. "Not babe," she said. "That's
    what Erica calls you. Something else."

    "Sugarplum?" I

    suggested.

    She rolled her eyes.

    "Snookum’s?"

    "What does that mean?"

    she asked, slipping her arm through mine so we could start walking again.

    "No idea," I said.

    "I think it's made up."

    "Then no," she

    said.

    I sighed dramatically.

    "Maybe we'll just need to let it come natural,”

    Shouting from the front of

    the store cut me off. I frowned and glanced ahead down the aisle but couldn't
    see anything. I picked up the pace and Kyla followed, slipping her arm from
    mine and spreading out to the walk quickly on the other side of the aisle from
    me and the buggy. It was tough to hear what exactly was going on, but someone
    was obviously agitated and other people were reacting to it. When we reached
    the end of the aisle it was clear that the shouting was off to the right near
    the front doors.

    I left the cart there,

    crossing to Kyla's side, and we peeked around the corner.

    Just inside the front door,

    the man who had to be the manager was getting screamed at by a pair of
    rough-and-tumble-looking hicks. Neither man looked like they had shaved for a
    couple of weeks and they seemed more likely to be encountered out on a hunting
    trip than in town. They were both very much not wearing masks as they shouted
    and made a fuss, gesturing wildly as the dress-shirt-wearing, mask-protected
    store manager tried to convince them they couldn't walk around like they were.
    I heard big buzzwords like 'constitutional' and 'freedom of travel' and other
    drivel that I'd been hearing from hicks angry at the law since I was a kid. To
    be fair, almost any redneck or hick had a bit of a bent towards the 'sovereign
    citizen' idea; if I wasn't rational enough I may have ended up down that rabbit
    hole if I hadn't made the deal with Grierson and they'd forced me off my family
    land.

    Being told what to do by the

    government didn't go over well with folks like me and these guys. The big
    difference between us was that I had a few more brain cells to rub together and
    see the holes in their screamed arguments.

    "Fucking assholes,"

    I grunted softly.

    "Harrison, I can

    literally feel what you're thinking right now," Kyla said. "The store
    has security for this."

    "I'm pretty sure their

    security is a couple of pimple-faced teens and that manager," I said. As
    we watched, the manager threw his arms up in the air and started yelling back
    at the two guys, giving up on all semblance of de-escalation.

    "'Scuse me, folks,"

    said a voice forcefully behind us. I turned and found myself mask-to-face with
    Barry O'Callahan. I hadn't seen him in a couple of months and it looked like
    he'd dropped a bit of weight, though not enough to be considered 'fit' by any means.
    His cart was full of stuff that looked like he'd just scooped it right off the
    shelf and into the cart.

    "Barry?" I asked.

    His lack of a mask was concerning, though at that moment I had to guess he was
    affiliated with the two still yelling at the front of the store.

    "Oh, Harrison! What's

    up?" Barry greeted me with a grin. "You wanna walk and talk? I'm on a
    time crunch here."

    I glanced at Kyla, who just

    raised an eyebrow at me, so I gestured for her to stay with our cart while I
    followed Barry.

    "You never came out to

    the Beaver," Barry said as I followed him down the next aisle. He pulled
    up in front of the cans of soup and started yanking them quickly out of the
    little dispenser things, tossing them haphazardly into his cart.
    "Seriously, my man. With your time in the military, I bet you'd fit right
    in with the guys. You should really come hang out or something."

    "Yeah, maybe," I

    said. "Barry, what's with the no-mask thing?"

    "Hah! They really do

    have you fooled, huh?" Barry laughed. He was already moving up the aisle
    headed for the tinned pasta. "The whole disease thing is just a sham. A
    false flag thing to get us all compliant. It's the fault of the cities, really.
    Too many people packed in too tight, and everyone getting so liberal the real
    power brokers felt like they were losing their grip on us. So they come up with
    a 'pandemic' to make us all too afraid of our own shadows to organize."

    "Dude, I've seen the

    deaths," I said. "My girlfriend's apartment complex in Portland is
    half-empty. People I know are dead."

    "Dead, or just

    missing?" Barry asked flippantly. "Word is, the government is
    forcibly moving people around. Pulling them out of cities under the cover of
    night. We're still trying to figure out where the camps are, but we'll find
    them."

    He moved another aisle over,

    and we were in the frozen section. He pulled an entire stack of Hungry Man
    microwave meals out and reached for another.

    "You realize you sound

    insane right now, right?" I asked.

    "Hey, sometimes truth is

    stranger than fiction," Barry shrugged. "What's more likely, that the
    entire human race is at risk, or the government is lying to us again?"

    The problem with arguing with

    a conspiracy theorist was that there was always just enough kernel of truth to
    make the conspiracy plausible. Based on my interactions with Agent Grierson,
    the government was definitely lying, or at least causing a lack of
    information, with the goal of maintaining order. But after what I'd seen and
    experienced at the site, not to mention the very large amount of money the
    government paid me for my land, the pandemic was also very real.

    "What if it's

    both?" I asked.

    "Not likely," Barry

    shrugged. "Dude, you should totally come up to the Beaver. We've got a
    whole set of evidence tracked out, like cops do for investigations. What do
    they call it... a murder board? Yeah, something like that. Seriously, it's wild
    the shit that they are hiding from us."

    Barry was heading for the

    front of the store now and walked right past the cashier tills. The two guys
    were still arguing loudly with the manager, along with a couple of other
    workers who were trying to get them to leave.

    "Not going to pay

    either, huh?" I asked.

    "Hey, when society

    breaks down," Barry shrugged. Another guy dressed similar to the two
    shouters and Barry came from the other direction, his cart full of loaves of
    bread and boxes of soda and what had to be half the Twinkie display.

    I stopped about a dozen feet

    from the confrontation and Barry just kept right on going, walking his cart
    past the manager as the grocery store employees got even more upset. The two
    shouters were smirking now, taunting them, as they followed Barry and the other
    cart-pusher out of the store. The manager was almost entirely red-faced and
    looked like he might have an aneurysm as he stormed off to a back office.

    I was standing near a cashier

    and I turned to her. "No one called the cops?" I asked.

    She shrugged. "They

    don't show up, or if they do it's too late and they tell us to file an
    insurance claim."

    I sighed heavily and went

    looking for Kyla. Apparently, Barry and the assholes were escalating their
    assholery and adding wingnut conspiracies to the list.

     

    "Happy one month and

    four days anniversary, babe," I said, clinking mugs with Erica.

    We were alone, out on the

    edge of the forest. After returning from our grocery run I had gotten to work
    on my plan; step one had been moving the portable fire pit out here, followed
    by a couple of the lawn chairs. The others had kept Erica busy while I was
    doing it, and when I had led her out of the compound at dinner she hadn't
    expected anything. I'd already had the fire crackling, and a 'fancy dinner' set
    as best I could on a TV Tray between the chairs, draped in a much too large
    tablecloth, with the fancy china and silverware that had been passed down through
    my family. We'd eaten and watched the sunset, and then as the stars started to
    come out Erica had insisted on sitting on the ground, her leaning back between
    my legs, as we sipped our cold beers and looked up at the night sky.

    "I can't believe it's

    only been a month," Erica sighed.

    "And four days," I

    pointed out with a smile.

    "And four days,"

    she grinned. "You know, I'm not going to stand for one year and four
    days."

    "One year exactly,"

    I promised her, hugging around her waist and leaning down to kiss her temple.

    "Unless the world really

    falls apart, obviously," she teased. "Then I think I'll forgive
    you."

    "Thanks," I

    chuckled.

    She turned back, pulling me

    into a proper kiss. "Marry me?" she asked.

    I blinked. "Just like

    that?"

    "Just like that,"

    she nodded. "We wasted years. This month has had more ups and downs than
    an elevator, but there's nothing more that I want than you, and this."

    I pulled her into a kiss,

    hugging her tightly. I wasn't sure how I would have asked her; I wasn't a big
    fancy dinner, make a spectacle of it kind of guy. I likely would have
    overthought it, and tried too hard to make it special.

    "Yes," I said.

    We made love on the grass at

    the edge of the trees, the fire dimming to coals and the stars and moon our
    only real light. When we woke up the next morning with the dawn we were covered
    in a blanket, still naked.

    "Kyla," Erica

    explained as she stretched under the blanket.

    "How do you know?"

    I asked.

    "Because I told her I

    was going to ask you," she said. "She was happy for us."

    "But you didn't know

    about the date," I said. Erica just gave me a look and a smile, and I
    shook my head. She'd known the whole time.

    We made love again, and then

    held each other afterwards and talked logistics. I could afford whatever we
    wanted in terms of a wedding now but with the world the way it was it didn't
    make sense. Even if we'd gotten together a year ago we'd have wanted a small
    ceremony anyways, just our close friends and family. I had a couple of old
    military buddies I'd have liked to invite, she had some tattooist friends she
    knew across the country.

    We'd do a ceremony down the

    line if the world got better. My sister was the biggest part of the equation
    since we didn't want her to miss it. Neither of us had living parents anymore,
    and extended family connections were lacking.

    "I love you," she

    whispered against my lips as I agreed to let her tattoo my ring on my finger.
    "Fiancé."

    "I love you too, future

    Mrs. Erica Black," I whispered back.

    "Erica

    Lacosta-Black," she said, then shook her head. "Eh, doesn't flow.
    Mrs. Erica Black it is."

     

    "Happy one month and

    three days anniversary, ma dulcinee," I said, hugging Ivy to me as the
    credits rolled on the movie.

    She turned in my lap and

    kissed me softly. "Happy anniversary, mon amour," she hummed happily.

    My date with Ivy had taken a

    little more work than with Erica, but it was mostly digging around in the
    storage containers to find the right stuff. The flat screen needed our longest
    extension cord, and finding the old DVDs proved harder than I expected since I
    wasn't sure what box they'd ended up in.

    I couldn't bring Ivy out on a

    true Dinner and a Movie experience, but I manufactured a Drive-In experience of
    our own. It... worked. Sort of. We had the TV blasting, and were pretty much
    backed up right in front of the screen as we sat and cuddled on blankets in the
    bed of the truck. The popcorn was microwaved, but I'd melted real butter to
    drizzle on top, and I'd found a couple of old oversized plastic cups to hold
    our sodas.

    "Je t'aime," she

    whispered with a smile, stroking her fingers through my beard. Erica had
    finally decided earlier that day that she preferred it shorter and I'd been
    allowed to trim it back down and clean it up. Vanessa and Kyla had both been
    thankful for that, but Ivy had admitted she kind of wanted to see how long it
    could get so that she could braid it and make me look like a Viking.

    "Je t'aime," I

    whispered back, stroking her lower back with one hand under her shirt.

    "Harrison, I want you to

    know, I don't expect a proposal," she said.

    I cocked my head.

    "I just mean, don't feel

    like because we are in love, and you and Erica are in love, that we need to be
    the same," she said, putting her hands on my chest and looking at me in
    the dark. The light from the TV shimmered in her eyes. "I don't need to
    feel...even with her, I think is what you would say?"

    I hugged her harder, and with

    more purpose. "Thank you, ma dulcinée," I mumbled quietly. It had
    been on my mind a bit since Erica had asked me. I still hadn't had time to
    really come to grips with it and figure out how I felt. I was still having a
    hard time computing the four different relationships I was in, let alone things
    like what a marriage would look like. Marrying two women was illegal in Oregon
    as far as I was aware. I stroked the curls away from her face and just looked
    down at Ivy as she smiled at me. "You are an absolute wonder, you know
    that?"

    She pursed her lips,

    air-kissing to me. "And you are my big, lovable grizzly," she said.
    "Fierce and strong and proud, but fuzzy and huggable." She hugged me
    back, pressing her cheek to my chest.

    "Do you want to watch

    another movie?" I asked.

    She shook her head without

    pulling away from the hug, and then changed her mind and nodded. "One
    more," she said. "But something sexy."

    "Okay, let me see what I

    can find."

    Dirty Dancing had been one of

    my mother's favorites and was probably the sexiest DVD we'd kept.

    Ivy loved it.

    By the time the credits were

    rolling we were naked and she was licking her way up my cock, gazing up into my
    eyes with the same 'hungry eyes' from the famous montage scene. She shifted
    higher, straddling my waist and reaching back to wedge my cock between her
    tight little ass cheeks to tease me with some dry humping, and grinned.
    "One day, I am going to dance for you," she said. "My best lap
    dance ever. And the first song you can't touch, but the second one you can
    touch me wherever you want."

    We kissed, and she slipped my

    cock into her ass with that soft little pleased grunt of hers, and we had slow
    but hot sex late into the night. And for the second night in a row I fell
    asleep naked and outside under the stars with a woman I loved.

     

    "Did you hear about what

    happened on the Rez?" Fuller called to me as I was making my pickup. We
    were edging closer to the middle of June and the heat had just kept climbing
    and climbing, so he was waiting until we pulled into the parking lot before he
    brought out the three big paper sacks of our order.

    "No," I said,

    thinking he must have been talking about the protest from last month.
    "What happened?"

    "Aw, man. It's pretty

    awful. From what I hear, some racist fucks broke into their community center
    and lit the place on fire, then in the commotion they snuck into a bunch of the
    houses and RVs and stole shit. There's a bunch of injuries from trying to fight
    the fire, and I guess they were running a food bank out of the center and some
    guys were trying to get the food out when the whole place collapsed."

    "Fuck," I said, but

    it didn't do enough justice to what I was feeling.

    My heart had dropped into my

    stomach, and I kind of hated that the first thing that came to mind was a fear
    that Kara might be dead. She would absolutely be one of those people, inside a
    burning building, trying to salvage anything they could before they lost it
    all. Even after everything, after the way we broke up, after the lawsuits and
    the protests, after last month... she was my first in almost everything.

    "Yeah, pretty

    much," Fuller nodded, unable to see my expression behind my mask at this
    distance. "Shit's totally fucked. Word is the Rez Cops don't have any
    leads, and the Statey's don't have the manpower to help out. Whoever did it is
    getting away with it."

    I thanked Fuller for the news

    and loaded up the groceries. When I got back in the cab of the truck Vanessa
    turned down the radio, concern bringing her eyebrows down into a furrow as she
    picked up on my mood immediately. "What's wrong?" she asked.

    Aria was in the back seat and

    leaned forward. Neither woman was bundled up and were supposed to just be along
    for the ride and the chance to get off the property. It had been over a week
    now since the outbreak and every couple of days there were some National Guard
    who trucked in to accomplish one task or another, but based on Brent's talks
    with Vanessa the work wasn't going to start spinning back up for another week
    at least. That left us all feeling just a little cooped up, and so we'd been
    spreading out our reasons to go into town and who would make the trip.
    Yesterday Leo, Erica and India had hit up the pharmacy. Today Vanessa was dressed
    in jean daisy dukes and a black bikini top, her long dark hair pulled back in a
    French braid, while Aria was in a thin white tank top (and, to my dismay, no
    bra so her large tits were teasing me in the rearview mirror) and some spandex
    workout shorts.

    "It's,”

    "It's clearly not

    nothing," Vanessa cut me off. "So you can just spill it, or when we
    get back I'll get Erica to get it out of you."

    I snorted and chuckled a

    little. "There was a fire over on the Rez, and it sounds like it was on
    purpose and whoever did it used it as a distraction to rob a bunch of homes.
    But at least a few people died."

    "Shit," Vanessa

    sighed, sitting back in her seat. "When?"

    "Fuller didn't say, but

    I assume the last day or two," I said. "Sounded like it was fresh
    news."

    "That's awful,"

    Aria said from the back seat. "Do you know anyone from up there?"

    "Boy, does he,"

    Vanessa grumbled. She was grimacing and texting on her phone with what I could
    only describe as agitated thumbs.

    "What does that

    mean?" Aria asked.

    "It's a long

    story," I said. "Short version is my high school ex is an important
    member of the Rez community."

    "And she believes in a

    generational grudge against Harri's family and tried to protest the
    construction," Vanessa said. "And she got spanked by the military for
    it."

    ".... Yikes," Aria

    said.

    "Yeah, that about sums

    it up," I sighed. Then my phone rang and I fished it out of my pocket.
    "It's Erica," I said and thumbed the call onto speaker phone.

    "Hey," I said.

    "Harri, just go up

    there," Erica said.

    "What?" I asked.

    "Oh, don't play

    coy," Erica sighed. "You need to know, so go find out. Unless you
    think calling her is enough."

    "Erica,”

    "This is from all of

    us," Erica cut me off. "You've got Vanessa with you, and she's
    looking hot. Not to mention Aria. So just go up to the Rez and find out if Kara
    is alive, and ask if there's anything you can do to help because obviously
    that's what your gut is telling you to do. You have our blessings, Okay?"

    I looked over at Vanessa, who

    shrugged as if to say 'What did you expect?'

    "Alright, Mrs.

    Black," I said, teasing her just a little.

    "That's Mrs. Black,

    Ma'am to you, soldier," she teased me back and I could hear the smile on
    her lips.

    "Love you," I

    signed off.

    "Love you too," she

    said and hung up the call.

    "Really, that

    fast?" I asked Vanessa.

    "Better than you stewing

    over it for the next couple of days," Vanessa said, then got a thoughtful
    look. "Then again, when you're stewing over something you are just that
    bit more intense when you fuck. You're right, we should definitely ignore this
    and go back."

    Aria broke into a brief

    snicker in the back seat and I just rolled my eyes. "Alright. Next stop,
    the Rez," I said.

     

    I hadn't driven up the road

    to the Rez for going on fifteen years. Little things had changed, but mostly it
    was the same. There were some new signs. A couple of holes in the tree line I
    didn't remember. Some of the woods had been cut back on the right hand for a
    stretch where new power lines had gone in.

    "The last time I made

    this drive, I was trying to figure out Kara's message to me. We broke up right
    there," I said, pointing at an overhanging little rockface. "She
    didn't want me coming any further up at the time. Said it wasn't fair for me to
    step on their land after my family stole some of theirs."

    "Sounds like angry

    teenage bullshit to me," Aria said.

    "Sounds like just plain

    angry bullshit in my book," Vanessa countered. "You didn't see the
    protest."

    There wasn't an entrance to

    the main Rez community so much as a sign and a little information kiosk that
    could be set up to act as a ticket booth when the tribe held cultural events.
    Apparently, someone had decided to use it to build a barricade and now there
    was only one lane worth of traffic for someone to go in and out. A couple of
    big, angry native guys were manning it, and one held up a hand for us to stop
    as we approached.

    I pulled the truck to a halt

    and rolled down the window.

    "Rez is closed to

    outsiders," the guy said, leaning down to look in the window. He was
    wearing big, dark sunglasses so I couldn't tell if he was looking at me, or
    glancing over to Vanessa in the passenger seat in her less-than-appropriate
    clothing for being out and about.

    I wasn't sure of the legality

    behind closing the reservation off to outsiders, but I wasn't about to argue
    with the guy. "Understandable," I said. "I'm here to see Kara
    Swiftwater. Any shot that can happen quickly?"

    He considered us for another

    long moment and then nodded and my heart gave a thump in my chest because that
    meant she wasn't dead. "She'll be up at the community center. You know
    where that is?"

    "I think I

    remember," I said.

    "Alright. If you're not

    back through in fifteen minutes we'll come looking for you," the guy said.

    "Noted," I nodded.

    He backed off and waved me

    through.

    "I'm getting major bad

    vibes from this," Aria said.

    "I know," I said,

    driving up the road past the old parking areas used for the festivals. I made
    the turn but second-guessed myself when I couldn't see the structure of the
    community center I was supposed to go to.

    Then I realized it hadn't

    just been a fire. The whole place had come down.

    I had to park a ways back

    from the blackened structure. It wasn't smoking and there weren't any fires
    going or anything, but both of the Rez ambulances were on standby and there had
    to be a hundred people working together trying to pick through the wreckage.

    Turning to the girls, I

    grabbed Vanessa's hand. "Do me a favor and stay in the truck," I
    said.

    Aria nodded, and Vanessa

    looked like she wanted to argue for a second but took another glance outside
    and then nodded. She wasn't exactly dressed for a rescue operation, or a place
    where a tragedy had just happened.

    I got out of the truck and

    rolled my shoulders uncomfortably, looking around. Several people were staring
    at me, and the last thing I needed was someone recognizing me as the guy who
    they'd so recently been protesting. I took one heavy breath and started walking
    towards what looked like the tent where they were doing most of the organizing
    efforts.

    I didn't get far; Kara apparently

    heard that someone was coming to see her, and when she saw me in the parking
    lot she glanced around as well as if checking if anyone had seen me and then
    speed-walked over. She was dressed in jeans and boots, with a grey tank top and
    a collection of bead and feather necklaces. For a second I thought she had work
    gloves on, but as she got closer I realized her hands were bandaged, along with
    one of her arms past her elbow. She also wasn't wearing a mask, and from a
    distance it looked like only half of the people around were.

    "What are you doing

    here?" she asked as she came into angry-whispering distance. "I've
    got enough problems going on, Harri. I can't deal with you gloating over the
    protest."

    "Fuck me," I

    grunted in frustration. "Seriously, Kara? You really think that low of
    me?"

    Her anger immediately broke

    into embarrassment. "I; Sorry," she sighed in frustration. "No,
    you wouldn't. But there's a lot going on and that military bitch,”

    "Refused to prosecute

    anyone, and made sure all your vehicles got brought back here," I cut her
    off. "And she also happens to be someone I respect, so how about you take
    one fucking breath and we actually talk for a second before your big guys from
    the entrance come looking for me."

    Kara pursed her lips and

    closed her eyes, actually taking my advice and sucking in a deep breath and
    blowing it out. "Why are you here, Harri?" she asked once she opened
    her eyes.

    "I heard what

    happened," I said. "I'm sorry. I wanted to make sure you were Okay.
    What happened with your hands, were you inside?"

    "No," she said.

    "I was outside coordinating people when the roof gave out. We thought we
    had more time. I got burned trying to dig people out."

    "Shit," I sighed.

    Of course she did. "I'm sorry."

    "You keep saying that,

    I'll start asking where you were two nights ago," she grimaced.

    I rubbed my forehead for a

    second, looking over at the scorched wreckage. "How many?"

    "Eight," she said

    quietly, looking back over her shoulder. "We've only found four so
    far."

    "Anything I can do to

    help?"

    "Why?" she asked.

    "Because it's a shitty

    situation and you can call me a masochist for offering," I said tightly.

    She softened a bit more, her

    stance shifting a little uneasily as she realized she just kept antagonizing
    me. "Harri, I'm sorry," she admitted.

    "Is there anything I can

    do?" I asked her again.

    "Unless you've got a

    shitload of food to help feed a bunch of people, or know who did it, I don't
    think so," she said.

    "Send someone over to my

    truck, I was out doing a quick run to Fuller's butcher shop when I found out
    about everything," I said.

    "Harri, a few burgers or

    a couple of steaks aren't going to put a dent in things," she sighed.

    "I've got three big bags

    of meat," I said. "Do you want it or not? It'll feed maybe
    twenty-five people in one go, thirty if you stretch it."

    She hesitated but then

    nodded. "Thanks."

    "None necessary," I

    said. "Anything I can do for you? And I do mean you, Kara. I know you're
    not thinking of yourself at all right now."

    "No, I'm fine," she

    shook her head. "I've got a couple of gals cleaning up my place for me,
    and they'll stick around to help me while my hands heal up."

    "Yours was one of the

    houses that got robbed?" I asked.

    She nodded. "Didn't get

    much of value other than my wallet," she said. "I'm not even sure what
    they thought they were going to find. But they sure made a mess looking for
    it."

    I blew out a long breath from

    behind my mask. "Okay, well, let me know if there's anything."

    "There won't be, Harri.

    Just..." she paused, reaching up to shift a bit of her hair from her face
    awkwardly with her bandaged hands. I stepped forward and did it for her after
    she couldn't get it, tucking the hair behind her ear. That just made her sigh.
    "Thank you for coming to check. You didn't need to do that."

    "I did," I said.

    "If I didn't you would have been living in my head rent-free and my
    fiancée would have gotten annoyed."

    "Fiancée?" Kara

    asked in surprise.

    "Oh, yeah," I said.

    "Umm, you met her kind of that first time you came by last month. Her
    name's Erica."

    "The white lady with the

    tits?" she asked.

    "Yeah, Kara," I

    said. "The white lady with the tits. How would you like it if she started
    calling you 'your native ex' or something? Jesus Christ."

    "Sorry, sorry, I just,”

    Kara huffed. "There were just two white women there that time, the
    construction one and the; your fiancée. I thought the construction one had a
    thing for you."

    "Yeah, well, we're

    seeing each other now," I said.

    "What?"

    "It's a whole

    thing," I said.

    "You're Poly?" Kara

    asked incredulously. "You, Harrison Black, whose father was the staunchest
    conservative hick stick-in-the-mud ever, are Poly?"

    "It's more complicated

    than that," I said.

    "Sure," she said,

    shaking her head. "I bet it is."

    "You know what? Just

    forget it," I said, starting to turn and walk away.

    "Harri! Harri, I'm

    sorry. Look, it's a little shocking, you have to admit. Finding out the one who
    got away is seeing two good-looking women," she said.

    "The one who got

    away?" I asked.

    "Oh, fuck," she

    said, and this time it was her who turned to start walking away, but she
    pivoted back after taking a breath. "Yeah. Sort of. I've dated a couple of
    guys, but it never got as serious as I wanted. So over the years you've kind of
    overshadowed a lot of my first dates. Even back then you were a lot to compare
    a guy to."

    A radio crackled and Kara

    fumbled to pull it off of the back of her belt. She got it but winced a little
    at gripping it through her bandages. "Repeat that?" she asked.

    I couldn't tell what was

    said, but she grimaced and I could see the walls come back up. Walls that I
    hadn't seen weaken or slacken in well over a decade. "I need to go,"
    she said.

    "Just like that?"

    "They found another

    body," Kara said.

    "Shit. Or good, I

    guess," I sighed.

    "Both. Neither,"

    she said.

    "Maybe next time we can

    try to find a way not to need to keep apologizing to each other," I said.

    "Yeah, maybe," she

    said. The walls were firmly in place again, not a crack in sight. "You
    sure about the food?"

    "Yeah, send someone

    over. I can spare it," I said. "Just do me a favor?"

    "What's that?" she

    asked.

    "Wear a fucking

    mask," I said. "This shit is real. You all need to take it more
    seriously. I've seen it myself and it's bad." I fished an extra medical
    mask out of my jacket pocket and held it out to her.

    She hesitated for a long

    moment, and I knew every instinct in her wanted to argue. Wanted to tell me
    anything the government told her had to be a lie. But she looked me up and
    down, sweating my ass off in full-length clothing with a bandana and a medical
    mask over my mouth and nose during the hottest summer the North West had seen
    in decades. "Alright," she said and sighed heavily as she took the
    mask. "Thanks, Harri."

    Huh, I thought as she walked back towards the burned-down

    community center and the dozens of people working to clear the rubble. Maybe
    there is a crack.

    I texted Fuller as I walked

    back to the truck that I was going to need to make another pickup. At this
    rate, I had to be his favorite fucking customer.

     

    "You did what you could,

    babe," Erica said. She was sitting behind me on the bed, running her
    fingers through my hair and occasionally massaging my scalp. We were alone, the
    others giving us some space. Vanessa must have texted Erica what was going on
    as we drove back in a soft silence. I'd told her and Aria what little
    information I'd had, and I guess they could feel my mood because there wasn't
    any teasing or jokes afterwards.

    "I shouldn't need to do

    anything," I said.

    "I know," she said

    softly. "I know."

    Things were getting worse and

    no one was doing anything. Or they were, but the stuff they were doing was so
    high-level that all of the little things were getting missed. Which Senators or
    Congress people were paying attention to what happened out in the rural sticks?
    Miriam was able to mobilize the fucking National Guard in hours, which meant
    they were already active, but where were they?

    The answer was obvious; they

    were dealing with the cities, or waiting in staging areas for events like the
    outbreak or the protest. Probably quarantined away when they weren't in hazmat
    suits.

    "It's not your fight,

    Harri," Erica whispered.

    I leaned back against her,

    feeling her chest press against my back. We were fully clothed, but I could
    still feel her. It made me crack a little smile.

    "You know, she called

    you 'the white lady with the tits?'" I asked.

    "Well, I guess she isn't

    wrong," Erica chuckled.

    I turned and rested my head

    on those tits, and Erica hugged me to her. "I still feel like I should be
    doing something," I said.

    "Of course you do,"

    she said, stroking my shoulder. "Because you've got a hero complex. And
    it's attractive as hell when it isn't pissing me off or making me
    worried."

    The RV door opened down the

    length of the vehicle and Vanessa stepped in. "You guys Okay?" she
    asked.

    "We are," Erica

    said, waving her down to us.

    Vanessa kicked off her shoes

    at the door into the messy pile of shoes and sandals that we'd built up there,
    and on her way back to us she pulled off her bikini top. Now half-naked, she
    crawled onto the bed and up to rest her head on the pillows next to Erica. Her
    casual nudity was a heart-warming sexiness, knowing she was comfortable with us
    like that.

    "I just talked with my

    Dad," she said, reaching over and running her hand through my hair for a
    moment, pulling a long lock of it back out of my face. "He said there's
    probably another week still until work is going to start on refabbing the
    dorms, but I guess it's a good thing because changes are coming down."

    "What kind of

    changes?" Erica asked.

    "Pretty much

    everything," Vanessa shrugged. "Fewer lots and houses, but bigger. He
    can't figure out why and no one is telling him, but we're going from McMansions
    to McMansion Deluxes with Cheese."

    That made me snort a little.

    "Really?" I asked.

    Vanessa grinned and shrugged.

    "He thinks in terms of food. All the architects are in a dither I guess.
    They were off-site so their team wasn't impacted. The surveyors and planners
    are shitting bricks though, needing to rework all their maps while they are all
    quarantined away in hotels with their new partners. Dad says an order came down
    that our house is going to be big as fuck, though. I told him I was going to
    want to see any plans because there's no fucking way I'm letting a random
    architect design my house without some input."

    "Good idea," Erica

    smiled. She leaned over and softly kissed Vanessa, who accepted with a little
    smile. "Let us know if you want help."

    "Help, no. Input,

    yes," Vanessa said. "I'll make sure we get everything we need."

    We cuddled there for a bit,

    and then Erica's top came off, and soon I was under the both of them with
    Vanessa moaning on my cock and Erica's delicious, slippery cunt leaking onto my
    tongue. It was an excellent way to end a shitty afternoon.

     

    I woke with a start, grunting

    a little as I blinked awake at the sudden noise ringing through the bedroom. It
    took me a second to realize it was my phone, and all four of my girls were
    blinking themselves awake as well.

    "The fuck?" I

    groaned. Ivy shifted to let me move, having practically fallen asleep on top of
    me, and I reached over Erica for my phone. I had to blink a few times to see
    the call display was Mary, and it was two in the morning.

    I thumbed it open, wondering

    if maybe she was drunk dialing me. We'd dropped off a couple of bottles of wine
    the last time we'd been there and had only finished one with her as we sat on
    her front lawn. She'd been happy to hear about Erica and me, and we didn't go
    overboard explaining the whole situation. It had felt like back before the
    pandemic, introducing my girlfriend to people I knew, even if I hadn't seen
    Mary since high school. Erica had made it a point of being extra friendly and
    warm; and not with her customer service personality. Stronger, more personable.
    By the time we'd left Mary's eyes had been brimming she'd enjoyed 'adult time'
    so much and we promised to do it again.

    "Mary?" I asked

    drowsily.

    "Harrison," she

    said, and the panic in her voice immediately had me sitting up. "Harrison,
    I don't know what to do. 911 is busy, I don't know what to do!?"

    "Hold on, Mary," I

    said, sitting up and starting to scoot my way to the end of the bed. "One
    step at a time. One big breath, in and out, and tell me what's happening."

    She did, though the sound of

    the breath was wavery. "There's men," she said. "Breaking into
    houses down the street. I think they're going house by house."

    "How many houses

    away?" I asked, scrambling to yank up my jeans while keeping the phone to
    my ear. Hands appeared from behind me and deftly got them up and buttoned them.
    Erica was on her knees on the bed helping me out, and Ivy was already finding a
    shirt and tossing it to me. Vanessa slipped past me, flicking on the light for
    the bedroom and quickly walking naked into the main area of the RV, getting my
    boots out of the pile of shoes by the door.

    "About ten, I

    think?" Mary said. "They've only been through a couple, but I keep
    trying 911 and it keeps going to a busy signal. What should I do?"

    "How long have you been

    trying?" I asked.

    "Ten minutes,

    maybe?"

    I got my shirt on and

    realized Kyla was also getting dressed. She gave me a look not to argue with
    her.

    "I'm on my way. Get the

    kids up, go hide in the backyard. Try and get something heavy between you and
    the house, like a shed or something. And no matter what you hear, don't come
    out until I call you on your cell, Okay?"

    "Okay," she

    mumbled. "Okay. Please hurry."

    "I'm on my way," I

    said.

    Kyla was out the door first,

    and I paused at the door of the RV as I worked my boots on to look back at
    Erica and Ivy sitting on the bed.

    "Go," Erica said.

    "Do what you need to do."

    "Be careful, mon

    amour," Ivy said, holding Erica's hand.

    Vanessa had disappeared

    outside as well, and I found her and Kyla in the storage container at the gun
    safe. I must have missed her grabbing it, but Vanessa was only mostly-naked now
    with one of my button-down shirts thrown over her shoulders. "Should I go
    get Dani?" she asked.

    Kyla, turning with my DDM4 in

    one hand and the Remington 700 in the other, shook her head.

    "To hell with

    that," Dani said, stepping into the storage container behind me.
    "What's going on? Erica texted me." She was dressed in plain grey
    sweats that she still somehow looked sexy in.

    "There's looters or

    something down at Mary's," I said. "Kyla and I are going to go there,
    and you're going to stay here and keep a lookout."

    I could tell Dani wanted to

    argue, but when I tossed her one of the shotguns and slid a box of slugs
    towards her she knew I was serious. You didn't load slugs unless you were
    really planning on fucking up someone's life.

    Kyla and I were in my truck

    and burning it around the construction site within two minutes. She was in the
    passenger seat loading the DDM and the 700, my M9 already holstered and loaded
    at my hip and my granddad's old Model 29 revolver hanging in the open glovebox
    for Kyla.

    "You're using the

    700," I said through my gritted teeth as I peeled in a cloud of dust onto
    the expanded driveway.

    "Obviously," Kyla

    sighed. "I have training, Harri. Not practical experience."

    "If things go really

    bad, you get out of there," I said.

    "If things go really bad,

    I'll be dead anyways," she countered. "If you die, I die.
    Remember?"

    Fuck. I hadn't even thought

    of that.

    If I died, Erica, Ivy and

    Vanessa would all be bonded to a dead man.

    "Fuck," I said.

    Kyla finished loading the

    weapons. "Phone," she said, holding out her hand. When I fished it
    out of my pocket and handed it to her she thumbed in the password; because of
    course she knew the password; and started dialing a number. "I'm calling
    Miriam."

    "Shit," I said.

    "Yeah. Good thinking."

    She put it on speaker and the

    call got picked up in the middle of the second ring. "Harri?" Miriam
    asked.

    "I'm doing something

    stupid," I said.

    "Focus on driving,"

    Kyla told me.

    "What's going on?"

    Miriam asked over the phone.

    "Miriam, this is Kyla

    Bautista. A local woman is in danger from looters and called Harri for help
    because 911 isn't picking up. We're responding to the call."

    There was a moment of pause.

    "Armed?" she asked.

    "Yes," Kyla said.

    "Shit," Miriam

    muttered. "Fuck. Shit. If I could get one full night of sleep.
    Alright. I'll see what I can do from here, but I can't spin up some emergency
    response. Do me a favor and stay alive, yeah?"

    "I still owe you a beer.

    Can't die on you yet," I said.

    "Fuck you, you owe me a

    case of beers, a full pizza and a gallon of ice cream motherfucker,"
    Miriam said. "Kyla, you wouldn't happen to have diplomatic immunity as the
    daughter of an Ambassador, would you?"

    Kyla ran her tongue over her

    bottom teeth and glanced at me, and I shrugged. I didn't know how much Miriam
    knew about her. "I don't know what my current diplomatic status is,
    actually," Kyla replied.

    "Well... fuck. Okay. Do

    what you need to do," she said. "I'd ask you not to kill anyone, but
    that would just be jinxing it."

    "Two minutes out,"

    I said. I was driving like a maniac, but the roads were completely clear at
    this time of night.

    "Fuck," Miriam

    said. "Alright. I'll do what I can. Fast and hard, Harri. Don't give them
    time to figure out what's going on."

    "You got it," I

    said.

    Kyla hung up. "Should we

    go in quiet or loud?" she asked.

    Realistically, against an

    unknown enemy force with unknown skills and equipment, quiet would be the way
    to go. But my blood was up. I could feel it like lava in the veins of my neck
    as my heart hammered, adrenaline pumping through me. "Both," I said.
    "You cut out and take up a position at this end. I'll peel it into Mary's
    yard and make a show and use the truck for cover. Don't shoot until I do, and
    maybe we can pincer them."

    "Alright," she

    nodded.

    I turned onto Mary's street.

    It was an offshoot from the highway and the road itself banked around a copse
    of trees before forming the little neighborhood. I pulled off on the shoulder
    and Kyla was out of the cab before I was even at a full stop, shutting the door
    quietly. As soon as she was clear I gunned the engine, peeling back onto the
    road and around the bank. After clearing the trees I could see two sets of dull
    red brake lights ahead. There were a couple of big pickups idling on the
    street, and a couple of guys were jogging back and forth from one of the
    houses. They all turned at the noise of my engine roaring and then had to fling
    up their hands as I flickered my high beams on and off rapidly, strobing them.

    They were at Mary's

    neighbors.

    There was no curb or ditch so

    I veered off the road and went right at them. They shouted and dodged out of
    the way, scattering, and I didn't give a fuck about how I tore up the lawns. I
    ran the truck in a tight circle, pointing the headlights back at the trucks,
    and didn't even take out the keys. I put her in park and rolled out of the
    door, dragging the DDM with me.

    One in each truck, three on

    the front lawn. An unknown number in the houses.

    I came up on one knee and

    raised my rifle, aiming through the basic bitch precision sight and wishing I'd
    splurged for something a little more. The guys were shouting, picking
    themselves up from the lawn. They were angry. One of them had a crowbar,
    another a baseball bat.

    Oops. Looked like they forgot

    this was America.

    I fired a warning shot into

    the side of the bed of the closer truck. The boom of the weapon was loud and I
    wished I'd brought earplugs. Baseball Bat dropped the bat and turned around,
    running for the trucks. Crowbar froze in place, his fight-or-flight response
    putting him in a momentary shock, so I ignored him. It was Player 3 that I was
    watching because he was ducking behind a tree and shrub combo on the front lawn
    and reaching behind his back.

    Could be nothing. Could be a

    gun tucked in his waistband.

    I put three rounds into the

    shrub and side-stepped towards my truck, putting the wheel well between me and
    him.

    Baseball Bat was shouting for

    the trucks to drive as he hopped into the back. Crowbar decided to run, the
    crowbar flailing in his grasp as he screamed. The back truck roared to life and
    started peeling away immediately.

    Three guys came out of Mary's

    neighbor’s place, streaming out from the side further from me. Two of them had
    handguns out and immediately saw the truck and pointed their guns towards me,
    though I wasn't sure if they could actually see me.

    I put a bullet into the gut

    of one before either of them could get a shot off. The other fired in a panic
    and a window in my truck cracked. I put four shots down range, two hitting him
    in the chest while the other two were backstopped by the next house up.

    The third was running for the

    truck that hadn't driven away yet but was honking its horn to hurry up his
    friends. I peeked around the end of my truck and pulled back quickly as the
    shrub guy unloaded his pistol at me, the bullets panging off my front grill and
    shattering the windshield and probably the rear window as well.

    "Suck a dick,

    cocksucker," I yelled.

    "Fuck you!" he

    shouted back.

    Boom.

    "Ah!"

    I knew the sound of the 700.

    I peeked around the end of

    the truck again and saw the guy sprawled out on his side, but he still had the
    pistol in his hand and was struggling to raise it in my direction. I sent three
    more bullets down range at him and his arms collapsed.

    The other truck started to

    peel away and I seriously considered flipping my firing selector to burst and
    giving it a spray down as it took off with the squeal of tires, but I already
    had at least two, and probably three, bodies on me and they were running.

    My phone rang in the truck

    cup holder where I'd left it and I nabbed it quickly.

    "Yeah?" I asked.

    "One in the

    backyard," Miriam said. "Looks like he's getting ready to hop the
    fence into the yard you're in front of."

    "Fuck," I said and

    dropped the phone as I sprinted for Mary's side yard. It was pitch black back
    there and I dropped the DDM and pulled my M9 as I slammed into the little fence
    gate and barreled right through the old wood, the latch popping off. I came
    around the house at a speed walk and raised the pistol just as the fucker was
    hopping the fence. He had something in his hands. Might have been another
    baseball bat, or something he'd looted. But I was 80% sure it was a shotgun.

    Pop pop pop pop.

    He collapsed where he landed.

    I closed the distance and

    kicked the thing away from his hand before anything else, my pistol pointed
    right at his head. Then I rolled him over and he let out a long wheeze as he
    died, blood soaking through his rough camo jacket.

    I fought the urge to punch

    him in the face anyways.

    "Mary," I called.

    "I left my phone up front. They're gone. Get the kids inside, stay away
    from over here by my voice."

    Boom.

    "Never mind, stay

    there!" I called, pivoting and rushing back towards the front. I slowed at
    the broken gate, sticking to the shadows as best I could and trying to see what
    Kyla was shooting at. The guy at the shrub was still down, and the trucks were
    still gone. The guy I put two in the chest was still over on the neighbor’s
    driveway.

    A new body was out in the

    middle of the yard, about six paces from my DDM.

    Not a new body. It was the

    guy I'd gut-shot.

    Kyla came jogging up out of

    the dark, her face graven as she strictly avoided looking at the people she'd
    shot.

    "That's all of

    them," she said.

    I holstered my M9 and went to

    her, taking the hunting rifle from her and pulling her into a crushing hug. She
    hugged me back, clutching to my sides for a long moment.

    "Hold it," I

    whispered to her. "The danger is gone, but hold it, Okay? Keep that edge
    for just a little longer."

    She nodded, and we separated.

    I went back to my truck, seeing the bullet holes and the shattered glass, but
    her engine was still thrumming strong. My phone had stayed on, the call still
    open, so it was easy to find the glow of the screen.

    "Miriam?" I asked

    as I picked it up.

    "I'm here," she

    said. "You good?"

    "Yeah," I said.

    "Are you watching me on a satellite or something?"

    "High altitude drone

    that I got repurposed from watching the coastline. I still have friends who owe
    me a bunch of favors," she said.

    I just shook my head.

    "Thanks for the heads up."

    "That a lady and her

    kids back there?" she asked me.

    "Yeah. 6 and 4," I

    said.

    "Then no thanks

    needed," Miriam said. "State Troopers should be there in under
    twenty. The words 'gunfight in suburban neighborhood' put you at the top of
    their list. I'll let them know you're friendlies and not to fuck with
    you."

    "You have that

    pull?" I asked.

    "You'd be surprised what

    kind of bullshit I can plough through with just a couple of phone calls,"
    she said.

    "Thanks, Miriam," I

    said.

    "Don't make a habit of

    this, Harri, or you'll owe me a lot more than booze and a meal."

    "Got it," I said.

    We hung up and I dialed Mary.

    "Hello?" she asked,

    clearly a little shaky.

    "It's me," I said.

    "Now you can take the kids into the house. Try to get them in bed, but put
    headphones on them if you have to because there'll be cop cars here pretty
    soon. They'll want to talk to you."

    "Okay. You're sure it's

    safe?"

    "I'm not going

    anywhere," I said.

    Mary took care of her kids

    while Kyla and I analyzed what we needed to do. We ended up putting the 700 and
    my M9 on the hood of my truck, which I turned off but left the headlights on,
    and I left the DDM where it was on the ground. I was sure the Troopers would
    want the scene as preserved as possible. At one point Mary opened the front
    door to her place and called me in, and at this point I wasn't caring about the
    pandemic. I went and hugged her, and then went down on my knees because Thomas
    barreled down the hall and crashed into me for a hug of his own. Charlie, the little
    girl, had apparently gone right back to sleep.

    I assured Thomas everything

    was Okay, but told him I needed him to go try and sleep because his Mom was
    going to be busy for a bit and it was going to be a hard day for her. He nodded
    solemnly and went off to his room, and I hugged Mary again for a longer time as
    she gasped and sobbed silently after looking out at the carnage in her front
    yard. Then I sent her inside to get coffee going, giving her something to do,
    and I went to Kyla. She was sitting on the open tailgate of my truck, looking
    down at her hands.

    Softly, I took her hands in

    mine and held them.

    "How are you so

    calm?" she asked.

    "Faking it," I told

    her, and held her hand to my chest so she could feel the hammering of my heart.
    "I'll have an adrenaline crash in a little bit and start feeling it.
    Keeping a mission goal in mind is helping."

    Kyla nodded, clenching her

    jaw. She was without makeup and sitting in the back of the truck like that she
    looked all the world like a college coed who should have been hanging out after
    a long night on the town. She was beautiful, but I could see the disassociation
    starting in her eyes a little.

    "Hey, stay with

    me," I said, squeezing her hands. She looked up, her focus coming back as
    she met my eyes. "Kiss me."

    She sat up and wrapped a hand

    around the back of my neck to pull me to her, and she kissed me hard as she put
    her other hand to my chest again, feeling my heartbeat. We didn't finish the
    kiss, it just went on pause as we separated a fraction of an inch to gasp for
    breath, our foreheads pressed together, and then we were kissing again. I held
    her waist and her thigh, she held my neck and chest, and we kissed.

    We only stopped when the

    flashing lights and the siren of the cop cars started in the distance. Kyla
    didn't let go of my neck though and kept my face close to hers.

    "I think I love

    you," she whispered. "You're selfless, and determined, and reckless
    enough to do something stupid like this for the right reasons. You're
    everything I want. I just; I wanted you to know that."

    "I love you too,

    Kyla," I said, pulling her to me in a hug as the lights got brighter and
    the sirens got louder. "You're everything I want and more, too."

    We separated and I stepped

    around the truck, raising my hands and going down to my knees as the two state
    trooper cars came to a wailing halt and the Troopers came out with side arms
    drawn. Kyla was right there next to me, and I don't think anything could have
    wiped that grin off of our faces.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 9 min

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