Life In The Epoch - Pt. 02

Hi readers, thanks for coming back for another chapter!

This is Part 2 of Volume 2 of my Eros Plague Epoch series, so if you haven't read the previous chapter, or the previous volume, I'd recommend it even if only so that you know who's who.

While I've seen a few requests for a playbill-style cast of characters, I try to manage this more organically through exposition, so I won't be adding that to the start of chapters. I may just put together a quick rundown for each Volume at some point, but I hope you can enjoy things for now as we continue catching up with the extended Travers family and their world.

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Weeks slipped by, winter became the beginning of spring. As April began to take hold, my wives both become obsessed with fellating me. Allie often woke up feeling unwell, clawing her way to my erection, wrapping her tongue around me and working my shaft while she juggled my balls until she was greedily swallowing my cum.

Danni, for her part, wasn't having morning sickness anywhere near as bad, but she still craved my cum, dropping to her knees and inhaling my rod twice each day.

It all, of course, meant they were pregnant, both of them. At the same time. I'd said I would knock them up on the same night, but hadn't expected to succeed at it. I knew I could seed them both without their tea blocking my way... but I'd just never imagined I'd do it.

After two weeks of non-stop blowjobs, I lay in bed with them one night, Allie working another load from me as I fondled Danni's beautiful ass with one hand, pumping Allie's head on my swollen prick with the other as she made the most lascivious, wet, noises I'd ever heard. I'd lost any semblance of control at her stroking me with her spit-slick hand, lips latched over the ridge of my cockhead and her tongue swirling around my tip.

"Ahh, oh Allie, mmmm," I popped in her mouth, my cock shuddering as the first spurt disappeared down her throat "ahhh" I sighed like a man dying of thirst who'd just gotten a drink as Allie sucked down, taking the next rope at the back of her mouth, swallowing on my spurting head, and finally withdrawing as a third rope was coaxed by her talented tongue.

"Babe," Danni asked shortly, watching Allie gingerly wipe the cum from the corners of her mouth, sucking her finger with a prissy shoulder shake, "Allie says she's better at getting you hard with her mouth right after you've cum"

"It's true, I the better at tempering the steel of your sword with my mouth, moya lyubova," Allie stared at Danni with a smile.

They loved to play teasing games with me, often colluding with each other on little fantasies to play out in bed. I sometimes joked that I was just a stud cock in their marriage. I would walk into the bedroom at night to find them kissing, scissoring even in sixty-nine, turning to me with knowing smiles as I shed my clothes. Other times, they'd pose questions, propose experiments, or just behave like horny teenagers, ending with them frenching passionately in double cowgirl while one rode my cock, and the other my tongue, or one of the many positions they'd found in books they scavenged.

When they first proposed our relationship, largely due to Allie finally admitting she couldn't handle my libido all on her own, Danni believed that the tiny male population had to be shared between multiple mates. I'd been worried the old conflict between them would grow, but no, they'd grown close while sharing a bed and a man over their pregnancies.

I loved both of them, Allie a deep friendship from before the plague, our bond of trust and deep need for each other breaking through her fears. while with Danni it was an instant addictive attraction, a powerful need for each other when we'd met that had grown into real love, though she often feared it wasn't as strong as the one between Allie and I. Somehow, though, they found it between each other as well. Now, they both had a mischievous look in their eyes, but more than that, a hunger.

"That's tricky, isn't it, I teased, knowing where this was leading, "you know the rules after all..."

"We wake it, we take it," Danni sing-songed a rhyme they'd come up with to illustrate the terms of our relationship, that we three were exclusive.

"I like 'if it twitches, we're his bitches" Allie giggled, hiding her eyes in embarrassment at the wildly misogynistic joke. They had a thousand of them, and competed on who could make up the most filthy one.

"For science," Danni cheered me as she climbed astride my thighs and bent to my flaccid cock. "Time me, Als," she dove onto me and began to suck hard, flicking her tongue across my sensitive purple head.

"Ahh," I closed my eyes and settled in as I felt the tingle of my erection building.

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Morning came as it usually did, a crying baby upstairs, a general shuffle of bodies through the house as they used the bathroom, and a short hour back in bed, one of my wives starting my day right with the sticky sheathe between her legs.

"Mmm, noooo, let me suck you," Danni mumbled as I snuggled up to her and prodded her silky buttocks with my swollen morning wood. The glow of pregnancy had already begun to radiate from both Danni and Allie, and something about their hunger for sucking the cum right out of me was making me bored.

"I need your pussy, babe," I insisted, sliding her nightgown up her hips a she wriggled against me, putting up a token resistance as I slid my fingers around her hips and the gentle curve of her belly to find the warm stickiness I was craving. Danni sighed at the tips of my digits tickling along her damp lips. "There you are, I miss touching you here."

"Mmmm, but I'm hungry, Cal..." Danni sighed, stretching against me and hooking her leg back over mine, "you know I'm starving until I suck it hot and fresh out of you."

I slipped my hand down her thigh, "I'll always feed you, baby," I told her, lifting at her knee and let my heavy rod find his way home, both of us groaning as her folds split over me, wrapping me in Danni's wetness as she opened to my driving cock. "I'm hungry for you."

Danni writhed, pushing her hips back against me to let me deeper into her heat, and I wound my free arm under and around her, holding her right tit with my arm across her to keep her tight to my chest. "Ohh my god, Cal, yess take it... take it... take what's yours, mmmMMMM!"

I'd begun to nip at her neck, burying my mouth against her skin and slowly biting as we pressed into each other. "You're mine, I know you're mine," I whispered to her. I'd always seemed to be unable to stop myself leaving little love bites on my wives, but during their first pregnancies, it was an irresistible urge to mark them as mine and now... I pulled her leg up toward her chest until I could press my finger to her clit, savouring the slick, gripping heat of Danni's pussy devouring my cock... "this is mine."

"Yes yes yesyesyes yeeeesssssss," Danni agreed, her pussy locking down on my shaft. I loved making her cum, it always made my cock swell as Danni's contours worked me inside of her. She reached back and grabbed my head, forcing our mouths together as she dragged my hands from her body and to her still-unswollen belly, "this is yours."

I loosed inside of her with an explosive spurt, and Danni growled satisfaction at my cum splashing across her seeded womb.

*

It wasn't long until Allie came back into the bedroom as the gauzy pre-sunrise light filtered through the curtains to find Danni laying on her back, hands holding each of my buttocks as I slowly fucked her mouth, enjoying the sight of her while I kneaded her big double-ds happily. She sucked the strength back into my prick, accepting the thick head into her throat with quiet gagging sounds.

Behind me, I heard the door click.

"Why is it that I always walk in on you two starting without me," Allie asked. I reached out for her, pulling her light frame to me with a tug at her nightgown and a demure look of gratification as Danni popped her mouth off my hardened manhood and gulped air. Allie pulled her nightgown over her head, tossing it aside to display her athletic body and let me greet her full C's with an appreciative hum, beginning to stroke my proud cock with a smile, "I suppose I will forgive you after I've eaten."

Allie began to bend to take me into her mouth, but I stopped her, my hand cupping her chin. "We're changing the presentation today," and spun her, slapping her ass to a surprised giggle, "Danni's keeping it warm for you," and bent her forward at the waist as she climbed astride Danni's head.

"Ooo I do like it served this way-aaaa," Allie was shocked by the attack Danni launched between her legs, wetly licking Allie up and down from under her. I took my time, letting Danni sloppily eat Allie out while Allie slipped her tongue into Danni's glazed snatch and began to lick and slurp.

I let my cock slip between Allie's pretty asscheeks, back and forth, pulling the spit along it and pressed them together over my cock, slowly working my way down, slipping my bulbous head back and forth along the slippery space to Allie's pussy. "Calvin, ohh Dee, ohh you two... Calvin what are you doing?"

"Taking what's mine, baby," and I slid into her, relishing her long, loud, low moan as I felt my wife's pussy open for me, two weeks unused, embracing its hard master as he drove home into her soft warmth, "Danni needs to eat too."

*

I got up first, leaving Allie and Danni to enjoy their meal, and headed upstairs to get my little girls. I knocked on Bailey's door on the way, opening it a crack. "Hands up and eyes open, Bay!"

A preteen growl of annoyance echoed from my eleven-year old nephew's room. At least he had his room to himself with Luis back in the cabin with Wendy and their daughter.

Moving along the hall, I went to knock at Katy and Quinn's door, only to have Katy open it, Alanna shooting her a grumpy look from under her pillow.

"Hey, you're up," I tried to be cheery. She'd been a bit sullen with me ever since the big blowup with Allie.

"Yeah, I was gonna go get Sofi," Katy eyed me oddly, glancing over her shoulder toward Alanna, and back to me, and she whispered, "I don't like her, dad."

Noticing her calling me 'dad' for the first time in months, I realized that whatever it was must be bothering Katy a lot, and I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into the hall. "Why don't we get Junebug and Sofi, and you can tell me about it?"

Katy nodded, glancing back over her shoulder toward Alanna, now buried in her blankets. I shut the door, and saw Bailey slipping out of his room, "go check the lines right away, please, Bay."

He'd forgotten to check the traps a few times recently, leaving a caught rabbit longer than necessary. "Okay, okay," he grumbled, though not angrily. "I'm goin'."

"Thanks Bay," I called to him over the banister. "Let me know if you need any help."

I'd been trying to step into a more active dad role with my nephew lately, realizing that I wasn't able to just keep being his badass uncle. The image of me like that wasn't helping anything, and I'd realized he needed to know me as a man alongside needing a father figure. It was improving things already.

"What's going on there, Katy-Kat? Is Alanna being a pain?" I stopped Katy as we got to the baby's room.

"She's..." Katy trailed off. "After they thought I went to sleep, Alanna was telling Quinn about what you did to her at Doctor Klossinger's lab.

Anger welled in my immediately, but I swallowed it, I couldn't show Katy my rage and embarrassment at what had happened on the merry-go-round after I'd been intentionally starved of sex for days. I'd taken both Alanna and her big sister, Adrianna, treating them like nothing more than holes for my cock to fill. I hadn't been in my right mind, I'd been put into an impossible situation, but I still hated myself for it. I'd fucked them both hard and shown them and Klossinger that I'd be a dominant stud.

"She shouldn't be telling you about that, kiddo, she knows that." Katy nodded. "I'm gonna talk to her about this."

"She showed Quinn how you... she showed her positions, and Quinn got really excited."

"I'm gonna talk to her with your mom and Danni," I thought out loud. We opened the door and went into the baby's room to find them both changed and playing on the floor, Quinn bent over to show her panty-clad bottom to me, her sweatpants around her ankles. "Oh goddammit."

Honestly, if it hadn't been for my daughters being there and the sweet treatment I'd just had with my wives, there's a world where I'd have taken the invitation. But Katy's gasp and shout of 'Quinn,' in all caps saved me from any internal debate.

Quinn turned and reddened immediately at the sight of Katy.

"Pants on. Now," I barked at Quinn's I scooped up my babies.

I grabbed Katy's hand, heading for the door only to see Bailey staring from the hallway, blinking as he realized I'd caught him, and dashing away.

I was going to leave this one to Allie and Danni, I decided.

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Once I got downstairs with the babies, things started off better, but the addition of Alanna and her strange creeping influence in my home ate at me. Quinn had gotten a talking to from Allie a while back, and things had gone quiet again. I didn't like that they were having explicit conversations in front of Katy, and I sure as hell didn't want Alanna firing Quinn's sex drive up. Sighing, I got the girls going on some oatmeal, and sat chatting with Wendy as she did the same with baby Kassidy.

She and Luis were slowly finding normalcy again, be she still seemed pretty pissed at him after what turned out to be several trysts with Alanna. I couldn't blame her. "Not to give him an excuse, but the longer she's in this house, the more convinced I am that Alanna was the active instigator." I'd told her what Katy had said to me, and she'd gotten a dark look.

Wendy nodded, "I'd be fine if we set her adrift."

I chuckled and scooped some oatmeal off Sofi's chin. "Me too, if she had anywhere to go."

Wendy shrugged, mugging at me as if to say 'not my problem', and I chuckled. Allie and Danni emerged from the hall to our bedroom, about to wish Wendy a good morning by the happy looks on their faces when a shot, distant, but clear and audible rang out.

Allie ran to Sofi and swept her up, Danni doing the same with June, an arm out to Wendy to pull her along with them with Kassidy.

Outside, Luis had been walking to the house with a bundle of wood, Caleb trailing along behind him with an armload, and they both ducked, Luis pulling the boy to the ground and dragging him back toward the cover of a large pine tree.

Another shot, still far off, from the same place. Joe peeked out of his cabin, hunting rifle in hand, Aria behind him clutching the terrified Isis.

Bailey scooted up to me, he'd gone straight for the closet and grabbed my old Browning, its hunting scope in his hand. "Unc! It's coming from Slead's!"

He was right too, the kid had great ears. More shots rang out, getting steadier, another shooter, then a third. "It's down the bay in Slead's, I called out, just staying inside and out of sight."

Keeping low, just in case, I raced out the kitchen door that faced east instead of the south-facing front door, and headed for the thick tree line that tapered off across the huge stone end of the island. Glancing back as another rattle of gunfire went off to the south, I saw Bailey trailing behind me with a pair of binoculars in hand. "Get back inside with Danni," I spat as I slipped into a covered position in the trees.

"No way, Unc," Bailey refused. "You're the only one who knows this stuff, I gotta learn in case something happens."

Gunshots were still rattling down in the bay, and I shook my head at the boy, I hated that he was right. "That's two to three people shooting eastward from inside Slead's Landing." I raised my rifle to sight down the scope. Even with its magnification to max, I could barely make out what was happening. "Tell me what that means, Bailey."

He looked through the binoculars, watching for a moment, carefully staying in the shade of the trees. "If they were trying to raid the town like we did, they'd be shooting into it, not out... and they're probably shooting at Redeyes that got into the big houses in the winter..."

He was right, all reasonable guesses. "What else, what do you see," I asked him as I zeroed in on a small new structure that seemed to go around the town docks, lines of SUVs and vans that circled around a house that sat looking over them, about halfway along town from the marina.

"Oh wow, they made a wall of cars and they're shooting at Redeyes for sure!"

I grabbed the binocs and looked through. His eyes were better than mine, age was starting to catch up to me. "What else," I demanded and handed him the binocs.

Bailey looked through them a minute. "It's all ladies, they're all on the balconies and shooting at Redeyes that got over the cars. I think a bunch of them got someone." He was right. A dogpile of Redeyes was all over some poor soul that had gotten caught inside their makeshift gate. "Two of them got really big rifles. Like, the kind with the big magazines... and they're wearing uniforms like you used to, Unc."

I had spotted that too, the tan and green camo was a sure giveaway, and it was clear they were women too. I couldn't see any men, though. At least two of the women wore fatigues and seems to be armed with proper rifles, probably C7s with the switch on semi to conserve ammo. There were others, but armed with typical box store hunting gear.

My eyes kept being drawn to the massive propane tank that had been set near the docks of the house. We'd talk about trying to bring it over. To power the oven with it, settling for some smaller ones and the barbecue for a long time until Luis sorted the solar. I was thinking about what would happen if a couple of rounds ended up going that way.

Goddammit, how had I missed this? How the hell had I missed a whole other group moving into my back yard? They'd clearly been there for a few weeks at the least. The shooting was dying down, faint shouts on the wind, one last pop. "Wow, Unc, they got them all."

Nodding, worried, I looked over at my nephew, fear and pride welling up in my chest. "I have to go check this out. If I let you come with me, can you stay calm and keep your rifle slung no matter what unless I say otherwise?"

Nodding vigorously, Bailey stood, "I'll go get it."

"Get my Colt too."

I headed to the boathouse to get the little runabout Wendy and I had come across in ready.

*

"The hell he's going with you." Danni was beyond pissed, maybe the first time she's ever truly raised her voice to me. I sat in the boat with Bailey, trying to cast off, but she'd grabbed the line and wouldn't let go. Allie stood with her, a protective arm around Katy as Danni and I argued. "He is not. Going. With. You," Danni slammed her foot down.

"Auntie Dee, I gotta learn th-"

She cut him off with a hard swipe of her hand through the air, "don't you Auntie Dee me, Bailey. You're eleven. You can shoot a deer, but people is a whole other story. Get out of the boat."

"Danni, please, he needs to know how to handle-"

"I don't care!" It amazed me how much she'd taken Bailey on as her own over the last couple of years. She'd sit with him and work through the math problems Allie would give him, she'd sat with him all night when he'd gotten a flu. She made him brush his teeth, and learn to care for the babies, and now, she was terrified I was putting him in danger. "You're Captain Action, but he's not your sidekick!"

"I need his help, Dee, there are two women in military gear over there. They'll assume I'm a threat by myself, but with Bailey not so much. He's a kid. Rifles will be down. We need to find out who these people are and show them we're not a threat if they're not."

She stared angrily at me, and I have to admit she almost got me to break. Over two years, I'd never seen this fire. "Fine," Danni spat. "I'm coming too."

Bailey balked, "Auntie Dee, no! You're pregnant!" I knew better than to argue, though, Danni's eyes were hot with anger, and her squared jaw was set the way it got when I had her on her back and was going hard in her and she'd wrap her arms and legs around me to fuck me back, driving us both to massive orgasms. There was no deterring that set jaw.

"If they're all women, they'll see me and be a whole lot less worried. Moreso when they get near us and can smell that I'm pregnant." She climbed into the boat and held out her hand to me. "Give me that goddamn Colt. I'm almost as good with it as you."

Silently, I relented. She was right, but I didn't like it.

*

We headed out to the east, circling back west along the southern shore of the lake to take advantage of the breeze, hide our home location, and give us a little more time to assess the newcomers from afar.

I found myself ruminating on how this had gotten by me. I'd gotten comfortable being a dad, enjoying my time with my kids and my women. We'd learned to stay away from towns because Redeyes tended to congregate in them, but I knew I should have been keeping an eye out. It had all just been so... it had been peaceful since I'd brought Allie and Katy home from Calabogie, and I'd embraced it. Maybe too much.

As we crossed over into the bay, we all knew we'd be seen immediately. The sail alone would give us away, and it wasn't long until someone spotted us and shouting wafted across the water. I looked at Bailey and Danni in turned and spoke quietly, "rifles on the floor. Danni, you keep that Colt low and under your sweater. Don't make a move unless I do, or if they attack first."

We coasted to the municipal docks and were greeted by an pretty Asian woman who I guessed to be in her late twenties, black hair tied back in a severe bun, tightly muscled and athletic, maybe five-five. The markings had her as a Corporal, and I nodded curtly as she trained her assault rifle right at me, shouting loud and clear in a voice that had been ringing across training fields for a decade, I'd guess, "identify yourselves!"

Danni and Bailey both had wide eyes, leaning back from the gun, and I leaned in. "We're your neighbours, we were worried about the shooting."

I took a moment to look at the badge on her beaten uniform, the starburst in the golden filigree and the 'scientia en vis ' motto. "What's someone in intelligence doing on guard duty?"

She moved forward again, now hanging over the dock to push the gun at me. Danni had pulled Bailey to her to my right, hiding them behind the mast and its small boom. Corporal Wu was shouting again.

"Wu!"

The corporal glanced away from me, the moment more than enough, and I whipped the gun from her, feeling the familiar weight as she spun to find herself flat on the dock, my knee pressing to the back of her neck as I stood in the small boat to leverage myself against her. "You get the fuck off of her mister," the other voice called out.

I flicked the safety, popped the mag, and tossed the C7 down, "just defending myself. We're really here to find out what the shooting was about." I raised my hand and looked up to a group of women, mostly in their late teens and twenties, watching me from behind another woman in uniform.

She was taller than Wu, had a couple years on her, and had warrant officer bars on her shoulder. Pretty, hair a deep curly red and blue eyed, she looked like she might have some curves under the uniform, and her pale skin shone pink under furious freckles that splayed across the ridge of her nose. She eyed me carefully with her sights trained on me in a weaver stance. I stepped away from Wu. "Sorry corporal. Warrant officer. My wife and my nephew and I were out checking out lines. Heard the gunshots. Thought you might need help."

Behind Bell, I could see a litter still held up at one end by a pretty blonde woman that looked to be all of twenty-five. The body of the woman killed T the gate, half covered by a sheet that had fallen away from her torso lay on it. She was bloody and beaten, but I could see the captains bars on the shoulder of her fatigues. "Shit, is that your commander? We saw someone get pulled down from a distance."

"The fuck does it matter to you," Wu stood, grabbing her rifle and staring at me hard as she backed away. "Jesus Christ, Bell, this guy look familiar?"

"How do you know she was our Captain," Bell got closer, staying a good twenty feet back from me. Smart lady, she knew to keep out of the fifteen foot box. She had the same intelligence badge. She eyed me hard, studying my face.

"The bars on her sleeve," I answered. "Can I trust you not to shoot my family," I asked. "We really are here to see if you need help." I looked at the two women hard, taking them in, feeling a faint tingle of something from the redhead, some recognition? They both smelled good. Sweet red apples and pineapple.

Bell nodded, keeping her gun on me. "Sure, sure. I'm not here trying to kill normal people. It's just..."

Danni helped Bailey out of the boat, and climbed up next to me, holding him tightly between us. "Cal, what the hell is going on? Do you know them?"

I glanced over to her and shook my head. "No, babe, but I think they might know of me." She looked less scared, but somehow more worried. I turned back to Bell and Wu. "That true? You know me?"

Bell nodded, "you look familiar." She turned to the group of women behind her, "Jessie, you're from around here, you recognize him?"

A slender, pretty woman with long brown hair tied in a loose ponytail emerged from the group, walking forward with an angry stride. I recognized her immediately; Jess Fleming.

I remembered her, the bartender at the little bar and grill lakeside restaurant in town as her bright green eyes flashed angrily at me. "How could I forget? That's Cal Travers. Left me high and dry when the MPs came for him."

Danni stepped forward, forcing her way ahead of me, "hey, we really don't want any trouble, I just made Cal come this way because of the shooting. I'm Daniella, Danni, and this is our nephew, Bailey." She tried to redirect things as best as she could, "those houses along the western shore? Redeyes nest in them all winter, and the places along the shoreline on the east of town too. They're going to start coming out more and more soon..."

Bell waved her off and got a tiny bit closer, "you said Cal Travers, Jess? Like, Calvin?" Bell was giving me a strange look. She pulled open the neck of her jacket, "you see this?"

I nodded. Some kind of flash scar that looked like it ran up her biceps and to her neck, just barely enough to peek over a collar. An image of a village in the desert flashed into my mind, a woman named Muna that had caught my heart dead in the street, a soldier being burned to torture her for info. Hell. Bell showed off the ropy skin from the burn. "This would have been my face if you hadn't taken a shot. You're the Pale Horse."

Well, goddammit.

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"... so our transport is flipped, we've all been dragged into the street by special forces. Up ahead, they've already executed the civilian contractor my squad was supposed to be bringing in, and this guy, he's holding this phosphorus flare in my face. There's like, six of them and another half dozen in the APC they rammed us with, backup is a good ten minutes out. We are fucked."

We all sat at a long dining room table in the house, Bell holding court as the other women listened raptly. There were seven more, not counting herself, Wu, and Jess. They'd come with four horses and a wagon, they were better set up than I'd expected, a fair number of supplies.

Most of them were in their mid-to-late twenties. Bell the oldest but for a woman named Lupe, who looked to be in her sixties, eyeing me suspiciously. Danni sat next to me, holding onto Bailey tightly as Bell spoke. He hung on every word. I glanced over at Danni, and she looked back, worry in her eyes.

"He starts burning me. Next thing I know, pop!" She slammed her hands to the table top. "Fucker's head pops like a zit, then two more of them before the sound even makes it to us. Pop pop, another two, next thing you know, the APC is revving up and the wheels go out, he just starts picking them off as they jump out."

I glanced over at Wu. She was looking back and forth to me as Bell told the group about the desperate last stand. I was off orders, dragging Jason, my spotter along.

"So we're finally like 'we might survive this,' and then the rpg blows the tower this guy is shooting from. 'Shit, we're dead,' we're thinking, there goes our guardian angel."

I'd seen it, but Jason had already been up, hurling me ahead of him out the window to the roof as the explosion consumed him, peppering me with shrapnel.

"They're chewing our cover to pieces with this heavy gun, and the bastard with the rpg is reloaded and taking aim, and BOOM!"

I'd raced across rooftops to get a visual, bleeding badly, I'd barely been able to lift my rifle. I'd been aiming for the head, but I hit the rpg.

"They're dead to a man, and this guy covered in blood crawls down off a roof and walks up to us. Captain Calvin 'Pale Horse' Travers himself, eleven confirmed kills that day, wasn't even supposed to be there."

The entire table turned to me, eyes wide. Bell and Wu were excited, the rest terrified and looking down the table at me nervously.

"I'm not a Captain any more, Warrant Officer Bell, and you will not call me by that name." I turned to Danni and Bailey, "we're leaving."

"Wait, Capta-" I glared at Bell and she stopped cold. "I'm just trying to keep these women safe. Maybe find some men? Maybe find safe homes? Any help you can give us?"

Danni stood, holding Bailey tightly by his hand, "Cal has enough wives and mouths to feed already." She glanced at me, deep concern in her eyes, "you should head up the east side of the lake. Stay away from the towns, but if you go to one of the islands along the south-east edge with causeways, you can protect yourself more easily, maybe farm." She pulled Bailey along to me and grabbed my hand. "If you need help, you can try to radio us. There's people scattered around. We all keep to ourselves, and don't give out details. It's safer."

I watched Jess. She was at the back of the group as Danni headed for the door. She knew where my family's island was. She knew who I was. Danni fixed all of them with a look I was thankful to have never gotten sent my way. "I'm sorry about the woman you lost today, I really am. Hopefully we can all earn some trust if you stay around here."

We headed out and got to our boat. It was early afternoon already, and I was lost in my thoughts, uninterested in talking, but Lupe, the older woman, hustled down the dock with us to cast us off.

"We were heading north from our settlement. Things went bad for us. I'll make sure we leave this town." She looked at me with a long, oddly understanding sad gaze, but turned to Daniella. "Most of them haven't been in a room with a man for months, I'm sorry that Bell upset your man. They're just excited to see a handsome man and a boy that's so sweet like yours. She didn't mean any harm."

Danni took her hand and squeezed it gently, "I know, we'll keep an eye out and try to check in. It'd be nice to have good neighbours."

*

An hour later, the adults all sat around the table, minus Alanna who didn't bother to come, and now including Quinn. I sat in the old wooden throne that had been my granddads, then my dads, and listened as Danni spoke, giving the group the rundown on things.

"All in all, though, I think we should be careful of the boys. Those women, especially the younger ones, they stared at Bailey like cats hunting mice, and Cal like he was a New York porterhouse.

Joe tossed a balled-up napkin at me and laughed, "Mr. USDA Prime." The women all rolled their eyes.

"What this Lupe woman said..," Aria piped up, "how could they not see a single man for that long? Would ten women usually have three or four men? And some be pregnant?"

"Probably us being lucky," Luis offered. "You think about it, Cal and Bailey and Joe and Caleb... they're close male relatives. Two for one. I just got lucky to be captured with Bailey, basically... we kinda break the bell curve here."

Wendy nodded, "he's right. We don't even know if a ratio of one man to three or four women is accurate. It could be worse by now, too."

Joe leaned forward, glancing down the table at me, like Allie, who stared at me, almost as if she wasn't listening at all. Seeing I wasn't saying anything, Joe tapped his flat palms on the table, "so we keep Caleb out of sight, and me and Luis too. Should we be hiding or worried? Are we safe?"

"Jess Fleming... she's from Slead's... right Cal," Wendy interjected, "I heard you guys had a thing like ten years back. She knew your family too? Where the island is?"

I shifted in my chair. "Yeah. Yeah she does."

Sitting, Danni shook her head. "She seemed to not be a big fan, but I'm not too worried. She doesn't know anyone but us and Bailey are here. The soldiers. Bell and Wu, they were in awe of Cal. They even had a nickname for him. I don't think they'd go up against him."

Quinn raised her hand, looking around nervously. Allie pointed to her, "you can just speak, Quinn."

The girl reddened. "Okay..." she lowered her face, "what if they came specifically for Cal? Not to fight him, but... y'know..." she poked a finger into her palm.

Everyone sat quietly for a moment.

"So we lay low and see what they do. Hope they're trustworthy if they stick around. That's the plan," Joe suggested. "Maybe we put some extra work into the shoreline snares and alarms? This winter was really light on Redeyes, we're in good shape already."

Everyone nodded, murmuring agreement, but I could feel them looking over at me nervously. I'd never been one to intend to take control these sitdowns, I'd rather let smarter more capable people talk, but on any threat my word was going to be law.

"Cal, honey," Wendy reached past Luis to touch my hand, "what's going on? I know some old girlfriend wouldn't throw you like this."

Next to me, Allie's fingers twisted into mine, warm and kind, caressing my palm. "S'nothing."

I tried to smile at Allie as I stood. "Just tired."

I walked to the stairs, feeling the need to hold June and Sofiya. As I hit the stairs I heard Luis whispering, "what the hell happened?"

Danni's voice, "called him the Pale Horse."

Aria after, "like then tat on his chest?"

Allie spoke up, psychology and degrees kicking in, "Calvin was a sniper. They get nicknames from comrades that most embrace to their detriment. 'Hand of God,' 'Reaper.' that sort of thing. They tend to be of a certain ego-centric mindset."

"Doesn't sound like Cal, Allie."

"No, Luis. It does not. He is very good at a thing that is frightening, and is driven to protect people, not some kind of morality or justice."

I closed my eyes as I stood in front of the door to my babies room. I listened to the noises they made as they heard me coming, bouncing in their cribs. I knew what was coming.

"I don't get the horse thing. Don't heroes ride the white horse?" Luis seemed genuinely confused.

Joe's voice rumbled. "No, shit, no, man, pale horse. Not white.

"Yes, exactly, Joseph," Allie's voice lilted gently as I opened the babies door to a pair of delighted giggles. "I looked and beheld a pale horse, and the name that sat on him was death... and hell followed with him."

===========================

I sat playing with my babies for quite a while, changing them, bouncing them, sitting on the floor and just watching them pile blocks and make faces at each other, their tiny squabbles as they lined them up or piled them into something. Eventually, they both just wanted to wrassle with each other and daddy, so I obliged, finding myself pinned for a three count by a pair of toddlers, and it was fantastic.

"Cal?" I turned to see Danni peeking in at me through the open door. She smiled, slipping into the room, dragging Allie along behind her. "We're worried about you."

"I'm okay," I answered flatly, sending June half-walking half-crawling after Sofiya as she giggled and rolled towards her momma. "I'm okay."

"No you're not," Danni rebutted, "I can tell when you're lying."

Allie knelt, scooping up the little girls and let June leap to Danni as she stood, "we're your wives, Calvin. You cannot shut us out like this. Is it the name, or that they knew you?"

I stared at the wall between them, willing the image of Muna out of my mind, "it's both," I admitted. "I never liked having a callsign like that. Too many snipers start to believe their hype when people start calling them by a name like that."

"But you aren't that kind of man, Calvin," Allie protested. They both sat down, Allie stroking my thigh, Danni holding my hand. "You're a hunter and a protector, everything you do it to care for your cause or your people. You aren't the type to become a monster like that."

Danni leaned forward, "there's more to that story, isn't there?" It was just like her to see past the details presented, look between the lines while Allie pulled all the visible threads to examine them.

I told them the real story. Everything Bell had said, but the part where my CO found out about Muna and me and held me back from covering the patrol. He'd said it wasn't high profile enough to put me on it. So I'd gone anyways, Jason tagging along with me, desperate to prove himself for selection.

Muna, the woman they'd been escorting though... we were in love. I was going to take her home with me. We'd been sneaking around a year after she came on with us, determined to take down the regime for killing her parents and brothers. She'd gotten a name for herself, though, and that put a target on her.

By the end of that day, I'd gone from having a senior command rank being dangled and a future to barely avoiding a court martial, and a move to a desk until my clock ran out in a year. I was never on active duty again, heading back home, going to classes in Toronto to start over. It would be too big a scandal to kill my pension or demote me, so my CO took pity and left it there.

"That's when we met, at the night class I was teaching." Allie looked stricken, "I had no idea, Calvin. You never said... you never said anything."

Hanging my head, drowning in everything I'd stuffed down from that day... I didn't care about being exited from the forces, I'd been planning that anyway, but it still ground in my chest like a corkscrew. "Not really a story I wanted to tell my sexy prof."

Danni pressed her face to my neck. "We're not going to make you tell all of these stories," looking at Allie, who clearly was ready with twelve questions, "not unless you're ready to," Allie seemed to back down a little, seeing the severity in Danni's glance, "but baby, you can't hide from us. This only works if we all let each other in."

The door opened, and Quinn walked in, eyes closed and speaking without thinking as she lifted her sweater to expose her tight belly to me, "hey Cal, I was wondering if-" she'd opened her eyes, stopping as Danni and Allie stared daggers at her. She looked down and started to back out, "I'll go."

Allie pressed her hand to her face, "I'm sorry, I intended to talk to her, but the shooting threw me off." She pushed Sofiya into my arms and stood, "let's find out what this is all about."

I caught her hand, "go easy on her. Katy told me something this morning."

Both Danni and Allie looked at me quizzically, and I told them what Katy had said. Danni stood up, handing June back to me and looked at Allie.

"I'm tired of that cancerous bitch being in our house. I'm gonna go slap her into next week." Allie smiled mischievously in response, only giving a faint opposition as they walked out of the room.

Cuddling my baby girls, I began to stand, intending to head downstairs to draft Bailey into entertaining them when Danni's voice rang out angrily. "Hey slutmonster, we're gonna talk about being a guest in my house!"

Closing the door behind them, the inevitable angry shrieking by Alanna was muffled, right along with the sound of her being thrown out the front door.

=========================

The day finally began to wind down, and as Luis helped Wendy and Aria with dinner prep, I found Allie working on her maps, Shanae and she speaking in their short code to keep details hard to discern for anyone listening. She had a huge map of the region, red arrow stickers attached to different-sized post-its with details scribbled on them with rough details of the packs of Redeyes that had been spotted. A set of small yellow post-its were scattered across the region with notes in Cyrillic to protect details further in case someone we didn't want to see them got a peek.

"How's Shanae doing," I asked as I sidled up next to Allie and flattened my hand against her upper back to rub gently, something that she loved. "I tried to keep my distance from Shanae, even on the radio, though. Her baby, Alexia, was my daughter, but her wife, Clara, clearly didn't want me around.

Allie smiled and looked up at me, wrapping a hand around me to grab my ass firmly. "She's worried. Clara has been seeing a lot of activity north of the municipal building." She held the receiver out to me, "say hello. She asks about you. She wants you to meet Alexia."

I stared at the receiver, thinking of what Danni had said to me, Allie holding my hand, and I raised it to my mouth and sighed as I settled on a call sign that I'd hoped was history, "this is Pale Horse, 'Bogie. Let us know if things are getting hot. I'll evac you myself if you give the word, over."

Allie seemed happy with that as I handed her the receiver, letting her hand stroke down my thigh lightly. The radio hissed a moment. "Been too long since I heard your voice, Horse. I'll call if it's needed. I promise, over."

Hanging up the receiver, Allie stood to move some of the markers on the map. "We might need to be careful this summer, maybe prepare for a bad winter. The settlements to the west are reporting a large number of Redeye's moving east as the thaw hits, and Shanae says that the settlements north of us along the Ottawa River are going quiet."

Looking at the map, the question marks she was putting up only a day or two north of us, and the red arrows moving our way from the west... I had to agree. "Okay, you're right, we have to assume they've been attacked, I guess. We have the lake to keep us safe in the summer..."

"But we need game from the mainland, and as soon as the ice comes in, Calvin."

Sighing, I stared at the map. "I know. I know. I have to start thinking about it seriously. Fences and bells wont be enough if large numbers are coming our way."

Allie squeezed my ass hard, "we need to talk about Quinn as well."

I shrugged, "pretty sure the Alanna situation is resolved for now."


"Calvin." Allie scolded me with a smile, "as much as I enjoyed seeing Daniella throw her out of the house, it is not, and Quinn is still an issue. Alanna was encouraging her infatuation with you, but she is eighteen now, and very aware that she presents a great danger to us. Redeyes can scent her across the water if the wind blows right some days."

I sighed again, I'd hoped that would be all of it, but Allie was right, of course. We'd seen it from the day I brought Quinn back with Bailey and Luis. She'd been immune to Freddie, not a survivor, and that made her a target for Redeyes in the worst way, lacking the antibodies or changes that made us survivors of Freddie less noticable to them. "What are you telling me, Allie?"

"Calvin," Allie stood, wrapping her arms around my neck, "we have to talk with Daniella, but one of you men needs to help Quinn become... inoculated. Wendy will not let Luis, obviously, and Aria said that Joe told you himself that you need to be the one."

I rubbed my face with one hand, grinding the heel of my palm into my eye where a bloom of pain had begun to burn, "Allie, hon, can't we just find a someone her age or wait?"

"Until when, Calvin? Until Bailey or Caleb is old enough? They are eleven. It would be at least five years until any of us would be even slightly comfortable with that, and she'd be twenty-three. Even communities we speak to are afraid to reveal their numbers, let alone if they have a willing teenage boy."

"Willing and teenage boy are redundant concepts," I teased.

Allie slapped my chest. "She wants it to be you because you are her hero, barbarian. I would not let her drink you, I don't want another wife in our bed, and she is already drinking the tea. Just, maybe, once a week for a month, maybe two, Wendy thinks."

"You've got to be joking, I promised you two-"

"And you've kept that promise, you have not been with a woman other than Daniella and I since Klossinger's, I know." Allie pulled close to me, kissing me gently as her cool hand slid past the waistband of my pants.

"Think about this; I have told you that Marcel was my first, and think of this world now. You, with us, could give a girl we care deeply about a loving, gentle first experience, not the terrifying one I had, or that she might face otherwise." She squeezed me tightly, making my cock swell in her hand. "Now close the door."

She pulled my pants open, the bulbous purple head of my cock leaping out at the door swung closed with a gentle push. Allie's breath washed over me hotly, a bead of precum formed at my tip. She bent to it and licked it up languidly. "He is eager to feed me."

That part, at least, I couldn't argue with.