Assumed Dead, page 24
“Is this because you feel obliged to the group?” Matt asked, not yet ready to start jumping up and down and yelling with relief and delight. “Are you going to see them to safety and then leave?”
“No. I’ve…finally accepted several things. Harrison won’t be there. It’s stupid, a fantasy to think he will. I know you’ve wanted to tell me that, straight-out, that I’m being a fool.”
“You’re not a fool! I’d never call you that. You just held on to hope, maybe longer than anyone else would have.”
“Longer than anyone who’s not a fool.” Peter smiled grimly. “It’s foolish to hold on to false hope, and that’s what I did.” He waved a hand at the window. “Look at this town, all these empty houses. My town will be the same. There will have been mass evacuations, or people will have fled elsewhere, somewhere safer.”
“You said Harrison could have left a clue. We’ve seen things, names, and where they’re going, painted up on billboards. Like the one that led us here. ”
“Even if he did, there’s no chance it will lead to him now, after all this time. Three years. Do you think anyone could leave an unbroken trail for three years, while fleeing from one safe place to the next? No, going home would be a fool’s errand. I’ve accepted that at last. I also accept that…he’s probably dead.”
His voice shook, and Matt reached for his hand on instinct. Peter let him take it. Matt squeezed gently, reassuring.
“Most of the population is dead,” Peter said softly, pained. “Turned into those things.”
“Don’t think of him like that,” Matt said quickly. He’d seen the picture of Harrison, looking handsome and fit. Despite his earlier guilty wish to see the man dead, even Matt was sickened to imagine him turned into a walking corpse, slowly decaying.
“He had no special training for survival. We didn’t keep weapons in the house. He wasn’t anywhere safe and isolated like us.” Peter stopped for a second and dashed a hand across his eyes to sweep away any tears before they could fall. “He’d have been in the ER when people with the disease were first brought in. People who’d revived as zombies. He’d have been bitten. Many medics probably were, before anyone understood what was happening.”
“I’m sorry, Peter. You know how I feel about you, but I take no pleasure in thinking of that happening to him.”
“I know.” He lifted his free hand and stroked Matt’s face. “I know. So I have to ask you, because I don’t dare assume, not after I’ve treated you so badly…” He gulped hard, took a deep breath, then went on, a husky edge to his voice. “Do you still want us to be together? Because the other thing I’ve realized is that I love you. I love you as much as I ever loved Harrison, and loving you isn’t betraying him.”
Matt couldn’t speak for a moment, throat too tight and full. He’d been ready to say good-bye to Peter, even if they’d found no trace of Harrison at Peter’s home, because he couldn’t trust Peter to put him first. He’d been ready to make that break, however painful it was, and start working on getting over Peter and, one day, he hoped, finding someone else. He’d been ready to do that, but the mere thought of it had shattered his heart.
“I want us to be together,” Matt said. “There are times I’ve been angry with you. Part of me thinks I should say no, because you have so much power to hurt me, and you have hurt me, and I’m scared you’ll do it again. But the other part of me knows that if I don’t take this chance on you, I’ll always regret it.”
“You’re too patient and good to me, Matt. I’m sorry that I’ve hurt you. I’m sorry I made you wait so long. But that’s over. I promise, it’s you and me. From this minute, and forever, it’s you and me.”
Matt pulled Peter into his arms, held on tight as Peter let a few tears escape. Peter returned the hug, body warm and hard against Matt’s. Matt pulled back after a moment, closed his eyes, and leaned in for a kiss. A salty, tear-tasting kiss. This was it. After years of longing, Peter was his at last.
A flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, nearly overhead, made them both gasp and jump apart, then laugh at each other for their fright.
“I thought it smelled like a storm today,” Matt said. He stood. Peter rubbed a sleeve across his eyes and followed him, and they drew aside the drapes to look outside. Another flash of lightning painted the street in stark light. The thunder sounded like the roof falling in. Good-sized hailstones started to crash into the dust on the road, sending clouds of it rising. The noise of them filled the world, clattering on the roof, the car, the ground, the stoop and steps.
“Wow. Look at that,” Matt said, amazed. “In August! The camp can’t be enjoying this.”
“They’ll be snug enough in the buses. If it gets too bad, they can drive into town, use the houses.” The hail turned to rain. Great torrents of it. Soon the dust was a river of mud, pouring down the street.
“I guess we’re staying here for the night after all, then?” He slipped his hand into Peter’s.
“Better than going out in that,” Peter said. “Maybe it will even make zombies lie low.”
“I doubt it. Why would rain bother them? Though I do wonder what happens if a zombie is hit by lightning. Would it kill it, do you think? That is, finish it off? Its body probably doesn’t conduct electricity in the same way as a living one. Maybe it would explode like a tree does.”
“The perils of dating someone with a curious scientific mind,” Peter muttered. Matt grinned. Dating. That would have been nice, to develop this relationship by doing something as normal as going on dates. Maybe when they got to Vaccine City.
“Okay,” Peter said, turning from the window. Matt closed the drapes again. “I’ll radio R.J. to let him know we’re holed up here for the night. You go and see if you can find any blankets.”
“Right.” Matt took a flashlight from his jacket pocket. He found a couple of protein bars he was carrying around in there too. “I have breakfast sorted out,” he said, tossing them on the table. “So, how are we going to work up an appetite?”
Chapter Thirty
“Hey, Peter! Come out here!” Matt called from the backyard of the house. He didn’t sound worried or scared, so Peter wandered unconcernedly out to the kitchen, where the back door stood open. The sun turned the wet world outside into a diamond-studded fantasyland. And in the middle of the backyard, an even more beautiful fantasy. Matt, stripping off what few clothes he’d put back on after they got up. He ran back into the kitchen in his boxers, then stripped those off too.
“There’s a water barrel,” he said. “It’s full, and the water looks clean. Come on, time for a bath.”
“I am not getting into a water barrel,” Peter protested. Matt laughed.
“I know that! But find a jug or something, and some soap. It’s cold, but it will do.” He dumped his clothes on the kitchen table and rummaged in cupboards. Peter shrugged. They could do with a wash, and there was nobody around to spy on them. He found a bottle of liquid soap by the sink. Matt came up from a cupboard with a big plastic jug of the type you’d take on picnics. “Get naked, and get out here,” Matt said, hurrying outside.
Peter stripped and followed him, highly self-conscious when stepping out of the door stark naked. He expected a cop to show up and arrest him for indecent exposure.
“Over here,” Matt called from beside the rain barrel. He bent over it—which was going to make Peter even more…self-conscious in a moment—scooped up water in the jug, and poured it over his head. “Holy hell, that’s cold!” His voice rose to near a squeal. The barrel sat in a sheltered spot that got little sun. Even in high summer, the water must be chilly.
It was, as Peter found out when he approached, careful of his bare feet on the yard’s flagstones. Matt filled the jug again and tossed its contents at him. Peter gasped, breath taken by the icy splash of water on his skin. It was like being out in that hail last night. It certainly dampened his ardor temporarily.
“You bastard,” he said to the grinning Matt. “I’ll get you for that.”
“Water fight?” Matt suggested.
“No time,” Peter said. They’d have to get back to camp soon, see if the group was planning to head out today. “I’ll bide my time. One day, when you least expect it, you’ll get yours.”
“Promises, promises.” Matt took the bottle of soap from Peter’s hands, squirted a generous amount into his hand, and pulled Peter close to start soaping him up.
“Like that, eh?” Peter said. “Better than fighting.”
“Much better.”
It was infinitely better. They washed each other’s hair, each other’s bodies. Both were quickly hard, and Peter didn’t care who might see when he pulled Matt in for a kiss. He felt like a frontiersman, sharing a lonely cabin far from civilization, with his man. Like they might be the only two people left in the world.
“Better…oh, oh God, Peter.” Matt thrust against Peter, who was fondling his balls with a slick and soapy hand. “We’d better go inside.
“How about I do you on the kitchen table?” Peter whispered in his ear.
“Yes, oh yes, please.”
They abandoned jug and soap on the ground and hurried back inside, chilled by the breeze. Peter closed the blinds over windows and door, while Matt rummaged in cupboards again.
“What are you looking for?” Peter asked.
“Something to use for… Aha!” He drew out a bottle of olive oil from a deep dark corner.
“It’s probably rancid.”
Matt took the cap off and sniffed. “Smells fine to me.”
“Um, I don’t have any of the condoms with me.” Peter’s hard cock ached when he thought of not getting to fuck Matt right now, but he had to show some restraint.
“That’s okay. I trust you, Peter. We can bareback. I’ve…never done that, like I told you. I think I’d like you to be the first one I do it with.”
“On a table in someone else’s house?”
“Totally,” Matt said, grinning. “It will be like a porno.”
“Ah…I hope not. Bring that olive oil here.”
“I’ll check for some croutons. So you can make me into your sexy Caesar salad.”
“You goof. Get over here.”
Matt handed the oil to Peter before bending over the table. He held himself up on his elbows and snickered, wiggling his ass in a ludicrously provocative way.
Peter slapped one cheek. “Knock that off. This is not a porno.”
“So I can’t say, Do me, big boy, do me with your great big—”
“Matt! I swear to God, you drive me crazy. Here, see if this will shut you up.” He caressed Matt’s ass crack with oily fingers before slipping one inside him. It worked to stop Matt’s ridiculous jokes, but he groaned aloud. The urge to shush him rose but fell away again when Peter remembered he didn’t have to. They had the house to themselves. It kind of felt like they had the world to themselves. Not like at the base, with people a few feet away and only a thin wall between them. So he let Matt groan and cry out as he slipped a second and a third finger in to prep him.
“I’m ready,” Matt panted, shoving back against Peter’s hand. “Do it. I’m ready.”
“Easy,” Peter said, wiping his hand on a dishcloth, then tossing it in a corner. He stroked his cock, which had sagged to half-mast. It was flying the colors again pronto. “Okay, here I come. Don’t tense up,” he added warningly as the blunt and glistening head of his cock touched Matt’s asshole and he saw Matt’s muscles lock. He stroked Matt’s back, right at the base of his spine, making little circular motions until Matt sighed and relaxed. Peter took his moment and pushed in. His wet feet slipped a bit on the linoleum, and he grabbed the edge of the table and adjusted his stance.
Matt pushed back against him, gasping out for him to come on and do it. “Touch me,” he pleaded. Peter obliged. He got his balance and let go of the table edge. He used one hand to hold Matt’s hip, and the other he reached under Matt and fisted his dripping cock, gathering the precum from the end to make everything wet and slick.
Oh God, how he’d longed to be skin to skin with Matt, his naked cock gripped tight in a clench of muscle. Nothing between them. The oil was messy but slicked everything nicely, and Matt gave no sounds of pain once Peter was well inside him. Gotta find the angle. Give him maximum payoff. He let go of Matt’s cock, and Matt took over himself, one hand pulling himself off, the other arm supporting him, elbow on the table. So strong, this gorgeous man. Peter straightened, shifted his angle of entry, and held Matt’s hips with both hands, pulled them back against him again and again as he thrust.
“Yes! Yes! That’s it!” Matt cried out loud enough to be heard at least at the vaccine kings’ camp, or even their group’s. Loud enough to attract a horde of zombies, desperate for the life pouring from Peter and Matt in sweat and cum. Harder. Faster. Almost there. Almost—
Matt climaxed, clenching tight around Peter, tight as a fist, yanking Peter’s orgasm right out of him, ripping it right up from the soles of his bare feet to surge through his balls and up his cock, blasting into the hot, tight space inside Matt. Three more…two…one more thrust and he was done, spent, panting over Matt, bending close over his back, the heat radiating off them both like an electric fire turned to maximum.
When Matt regained his breath, he spoke quietly. “That was amazing, Peter. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Peter whispered. For the first time he was saying it only to Matt. He’d never once pictured anyone else as they fucked. Not once. He bent closer and dropped a soft kiss on Matt’s back. “I love you.” After a moment he eased his cock out carefully. Matt straightened up, wincing a bit.
“My back isn’t keen on that position. Or my elbow.” But he smiled and pulled Peter into his arms for a lingering kiss. “Better get back out and get cleaned up—again.”
“Best stick to only cleaning ourselves, not each other,” Peter said. “Or else this could go on all day.”
* * * *
The group stayed another couple of days, drying out everything that had gotten soaked in the storm and doing some laundry alongside it. The kids ran about playing tag around the maze of clothes and blankets hung on washing lines strung between the two buses.
The vaccine road show had a couple more visitors. Small groups, who afterward joined the large group and waited to move out. By the time they came to leave, the group exceeded sixty people. Forage parties in the town and surrounding areas had scrounged up more gasoline, more food, more weapons, and more ammo.
“We won’t stop for the night,” R.J. said as the group gathered on the morning of departure. “We’ll take short comfort breaks, but we’re safest in the vehicles and moving. Agreed?” Nods came from the leaders of the various groups who’d gathered around for a final meeting. “Spell the drivers after each break, to make sure everyone is fresh and alert. Anyone who’ll be driving tonight should get what sleep they can.”
“How about we make one of the buses for drivers only?” Henry suggested. “At least adults only, who can keep quiet and let the drivers sleep. Keep the kids and the baby on the other one.”
“Good idea,” Barrett said. Others muttered agreement.
“All the vehicles have walkies and CB radios,” R.J. said. “Anyone sees anything suspicious, call it right in. Anyone who thinks we’re going the wrong way, challenge it. We can’t afford to lose time.”
“We’ve got a route marked out,” Henry said, holding up a map. “The lead car, one of Mr. Barrett’s trucks, will use this to navigate. But we can’t be sure we’ll be able to follow it completely. Roads could be blocked. There could be landslips. We’ve got a couple of alternatives marked, and the two dirt bikes will scout a couple of miles ahead the whole way so we get good warning of problems and can find a way around them and get back onto one of our routes. No way to go off road with the buses, so we need to find clear roads. Anything else?”
Nothing else, and the group split up to make final preparations.
“Safety in numbers,” Matt said to Peter, looking at the expanded group breaking camp. “What a convoy this will be! Like the wagon trains heading out west in the nineteenth century.”
“But this time we’re reclaiming the land, not stealing it from the people who already lived there,” Peter pointed out.
“Yeah, there’s that.” Matt saw movement from the town and shaded his eyes. Another convoy was coming, only three vehicles. “Here come the vaccine guys and their bodyguards.” The station wagons driven by the guards, packed with gear, stopped on the road. Cal and Mitch, with Vinnie the demo zombie in his cage, drove into the compound and stopped. Cal and Mitch jumped out.
“You folks moving out too?” R.J. asked.
“Yes. Heading south. The details of our next stop are in here.” Mitch handed over a folded sheath of papers. “And please pass that on to a woman called Bren you’ll meet when you get there. It’s a progress report of our work out here.”
“How will we find her?”
“You’ll find her. She’ll be one of the first people you meet. Good luck. And see you back at the colony next time we come in.”
Handshakes all around, then those two got back in their truck and roared off. Vinnie fell down again.
People waved them out of sight, then turned back to their tasks. The camp was packed up. People were boarding the vehicles. The guards and lookouts readied their weapons.
Time to go.
Chapter Thirty-One
Vaccine City turned out to be a town in Northern California. Not far from a place called Auburn, which they skirted around. They approached the town up a steep hill. The touring bikes had already advised of a roadblock ahead, with armed guards. They turned out to be more young women, like the ones with Mitch and Cal, and seemed to be chatting in a friendly way with Shan and Barrett, who’d been scouting ahead. But they were carrying rifles.
For people, or for zombies, Matt wondered from his position with a rifle in the lead pickup truck. One of the women covered him, without being ostentatious about it. Not pointing her weapon directly at him, but watching him steadily, not distracted as one of her pals talked to the arriving group’s leaders. After a few minutes they moved aside the cars they had blocking the road, and the convoy drove on through. People on the bus cheered and waved at the guards. Matt wondered if Mitch Kennedy had radioed in to expect them. Even if so, there were plenty of guards around. Some men too, as well as the women he’d seen so far.
