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Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 16

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Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 16
Emergencies Never End.

Based

on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
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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

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