Chapter 1

I was admittedly somewhat shocked when I realized that I wasn’t alone in the showers, but then again, who could blame me? Just that morning, I was a regular college student, attending WVU summer classes on the GI Bill, dealing with the heat and humidity of early July in Morgantown, West Virginia. I was busy with studies, my job at the local bookstore, and the occasional recreation, which varied depending on the extent of my workload. Dorm life sucked at times, but it had its upsides as well. It being the summer, I had only one roommate, who mostly let me be, having a busy life of her own. Maybe they or someone else from the dorm was holed up, hiding like me for now until sure of what to expect.

Cautiously, I turned a corner in the dim light, not speaking a word, when I heard a very high-pitched, very distinctly female scream. Was it my roommate Xia Delan, a junior like myself, but from Shanghai, China? She tended to be rather aloof toward me, as I mentioned before. Was it Gabby Rosales, a Puerto Rican girl who grew up in Spanish Harlem and wanted to advance faster, thus the summer classes. She tended to be a bit of an activist at times, and who knew what she would do in this mess. At times, she frankly annoyed me, but people could change in weird conditions like this.

“Um, Xia? Gabby?” I asked tentatively.

“No, it’s me, Hannah,” the voice replied, rather scared and uncertain.

“Hannah? I don’t know a Hannah,” I observed, “You’re a student, right?”

“Not ... exactly. I was doing the College Visitation tour ... when it happened. Gabby was showing me around, but she went out for a smoke ... and I don’t know what happened after that. Who the hell are you?” the frightened voice spoke up.

“I’m ... Adam Clarke. Some call me AC, as if I’m air conditioning, which is just plain weird. How old are you, kid? Show yourself,” I instructed the girl.

She nervously turned on the light and thus revealed to me that the electric power worked, at least for now. I looked closer and saw that she was about five feet, eight inches tall, so a bit taller than girls her own age. She was also a honey blonde with a golden tan, neither dark nor pale. She was somewhat slender in build, had smallish breasts, but rather nice legs that in her naked state were even more attractive. Her pussy was clearly shaved, but the eyebrows and the twat stubble made it obvious that she was a natural blonde. Her ass was definitely worth noticing as well, along with the perfect shape of her hips and waist. In short, she was a babe and she knew it.

“Hello, Hannah. It’s me, Adam. Crazy times, right? I wondered if I was alone here or not. Seems that it’s the latter. Sorry about being naked, but well, it seems that we both are. I don’t know about you, though, I think that I’m going to head out soon. I can’t hide out here forever, can you?” I asked her directly.

“Why not?” she asked me, perhaps a bit young and naive.

“Because we would run out of food and starve to death. There’s a very finite food supply in a college dorm. We need to keep moving, anyway, in case people with the wrong ideas decide to come here,” I patiently explained to the girl.

“What wrong ideas?” Hannah probed, unsure of my meaning.

“That’s a euphemism here. The wrong ideas in question refer to things like killing me and raping you. It’s anarchy and lawlessness out there. They’d rape an ugly girl with no thought at all, but you aren’t ugly. You’re not even plain, nor are you just pretty. You’re drop dead gorgeous, you’re young, and, well, you’re naked. That’s a very bad combination for avoiding rape. They see us together, they’ll think that I’m either your brother, your boyfriend, or your husband. Any one of which would make them want me dead so that they can have you.

“It gets worse, of course. If there are many of them, you’d get passed around from man to man until you’re bleeding from at least one, if not two, of your fine holes. Plain and simple. Girls like Gabby liked to say that they lived in a ‘rape culture.’ They were wrong. That wasn’t a rape culture. This is. If she’s been caught, she’s probably already learning that truth the hard way. The very painful way,” I warned Hannah, being very concerned with Gabby’s fate despite her annoying ways ... and with Xia’s, truth be told.

“In just this little time? Why? I know that something bad has happened, but I’m not sure what or why it affects us all ... or why it would be the end of the world,” Hannah expressed her confusion.

“Okay, let’s start with what you do know and how do you know it,” I inquired, while Hannah stared at me with wide, innocent, truly terrified eyes.

“I ... just ... I know that I heard someone cry out and scream and rush out of the bathroom. They must have flipped the light switch by accident on their way out. I reached for my phone ... and saw this...,” Hannah looked very pale as she touched the CNN site on her browser and showed pictures of Washington, DC, and many other cities turned into massive fireballs out of nowhere.

“Yes, I saw that. I just decided to shower, anyway, because it would focus my mind. In fact, I think that I will still go ahead with it, if you will excuse me. Besides, you don’t know if and when we’ll have running water again. Might as well use it when we still can,” I took things as stoically as I could, though that was probably a brave face mixed with resolve and shock.

Hannah was another matter ... she was inconsolable, at least for now..., “It ... it says here that one of the cities hit was ... Lisbon, Portugal. They were ... visiting Lisbon. My parents. They chose this time because they knew that I would be touring colleges, so it was perfect for a second honeymoon. They sent me picture texts from Lisbon, just this morning. Please ... please, let them have made it somehow!”

Hannah now frantically touched the keypad on her phone, getting only service interruption signals and worse. She kept trying, again and again, desperate to get a hold of them, but to no avail. She checked her social media app and found that there was a status, not minutes before the destruction of Lisbon, and it was of how horrified her parents were over the loss of so many cities around the world. They were clearly afraid, and they were just as clearly ... still in Lisbon. It was too much. Hannah bawled out her eyes as I rocked her, not wanting to accept that her folks were gone.

I then gently led her into the shower with me, washing both of us off, but also letting her soak and cry her eyes out over the devastating loss of her family. This was nothing sexual, not right then. Despite her beauty and our skin-to-skin contact, holding a teenage orphan of either sex as she wept from the horrific bereavement of her family would hardly be a turn-on for me. I just held her close and let her weep out her bitter anguish from losing her Mom and Dad.

After a while, however, we had to stop and find out what was going on, and I knew that it would take our minds off Hannah’s family, at least for now. We toweled off and began searching through the dorm for Gabby, Xia, or anyone else that we could find. We didn’t get dressed, perhaps because we both understood instinctively that the decency laws were out the window. We were on our way to my room to get my few possessions, after which we would take Hannah’s, when we heard footsteps behind us and looked the other way.

It was Gabby and she wasn’t alone. She had with her a very scared girl, who couldn’t have been more than fourteen at the most. The girl in question had short, red hair, freckles, and big, green eyes that were wide as saucers right then. She also had torn clothing, with only her cotton panties still in any kind of preserved condition. Her tank top was ripped almost in half and she already had a bare midriff. She was also barefoot and I had to resist the urge to just scoop her into my arms and carry her for a bit. She was very slim, but still had surprisingly good hips and ass for her part, not to mention her fine legs, though her breasts were nothing that large.

“Found this one about to get raped, from the looks of it!” Gabby insisted, looking very angry, “Too bad he ran away. I still got him good with a kick to the ass and then to the groin. He won’t forget that. I would love to see his butt land in jail, but they probably won’t convict him, sad to say. What kind of moron drags a young girl onto a college campus to rape her in public, even this late at night? This is about the most likely place to get caught!”

“There’s no probably about it and he’s no moron, not now, Gabby. The old world is gone. You need to get used to the new state of affairs. Haven’t you been watching the news? You normally keep a constant eye on them. Or were you too busy protesting current events to keep track of them today?” I confronted Gabby about her apparent ignorance or naivete.

“That’s what I tried to tell her, and that wasn’t rape. I hoped that someone would talk some sense into her. That was just my stepfather, Ryan. Now she’s upset him and who knows what will happen next! We were just ... you know, messing around. He does like to get a bit rough, but can you blame him? Mom is a royal cunt, trust me! I don’t know what he saw in her to be honest. She basically kidnapped me and I’m more than a little scared of her!” the girl bitched at Gabby, much to everyone’s shock, as I thought that it was attempted rape, too.

“Don’t make excuses for the guy. It doesn’t matter what you were wearing. It doesn’t justify rape. Even if you were flirting. Besides, you’re what, thirteen? It’s statutory rape, even if you do consent to it at that age. You’re a victim. I was just trying to rescue you, not kidnap you, girl! If he’s in a position of authority, that just makes it worse,” Gabby insisted.

“You’re a bit slow on the uptake today, aren’t you, Gabby?” I asked her, much to her annoyance.

“What he said,” Hannah giggled, in case anyone forgot her presence.

“What the hell do you mean?” Gabby was a bit shaken now at repeated comments that suggested that she was wrong ... doubt had started to emerge by this point.

“Well, if you looked around yourself now and then, and paid attention to what was going on, not just what your latest grievance is, you might notice the complete breakdown of law and order, the total and abrupt collapse of civilization itself, Eastern and Western alike. You know, what typically follows an apocalyptic event. Gabby, it’s Doomsday! I don’t think that most cops are on duty anymore, and the ones that pretend to be will probably just do so to rob or rape someone, or to settle old scores. Courts, laws, even money, are ultimately meaningless now. College?

“Fuck it, those days are done. We’ll probably never see them again, not in our lifetimes, at least if history follows true to form. The really smart academics are already trading their books for rifles, pistols, and God knows what else. It’s hard to say who will be more fucked right now, but anyone without a weapon had damn well better travel in a group if they know what’s good for them. An older man like this stepfather of hers was probably her best protection, and you distracted him with pain just long enough to run off with her.

“To put it more bluntly, Gabby, wake up and smell the Apocalypse! I feel bad for you, girl. You’re about to learn the hard way what a real ‘rape culture’ is, medieval style, if history can be relied upon, and since most knights were basically thugs, don’t count on chivalry to save you. Reality is a real, swift kick in the ass for people like you, I think. Idealistic, naive, noble intentions, but little grasp on anything outside your illusions. I get that you meant well. I get that you wanted a better world, but your identity politics were never going to make it one.

“That’s moot now, though. That old world is gone. Permanently, I fear. The rule of law. The courts. Police. All that jazz. Gone. Done for. It’s over. Kaput. How do I spell it out for you, missy? There is no fucking government now! At least nationally and probably not statewide, either, or even locally. People are panicking, looting, and rioting, the global economy is disintegrating, there will be no more money supply coming in through the Fed, there will be no more federal military, no federal funds for the states, no nothing.

“There won’t be a power grid in much of the world, let alone computers, internet, etc. Public officials’ days are numbered, unless they can be ruthless enough to hang on somehow. Expect more than a few warlords and factions to take over, ghost towns to emerge, and lots of caravans of refugees to form,” I articulated, making Gabby’s eyes grow to twice their size ... she wasn’t stupid, just a bit ignorant.

“So ... it’s really the end of the world? As in ... you know, Jesus coming back and that crap?” the unnamed girl asked me, clearly a bit confused.

“Um, I don’t think that Jesus has anything to do with this kind of apocalypse, sweetie. This is a very different kind of Doomsday. I hate to break it to you, but I think that Christianity has just been categorically debunked, just as postmodern, Third and Fourth Wave feminism has. What’s your name, dear?” I asked the girl now, having apparently become her protector by default, too.

“Autumn ... Autumn Murray. You are?” the girl inquired of me now.

“Adam Clarke. This is Hannah and I see that you’ve already met Gabby. I was going to summer classes here on the GI Bill. Got out of the Navy a couple of years back. I’m 24, will be 25 before too long. How old are you guys?” I switched to lighter topics for now, as I headed to my room for my stuff.

“I’m ... seventeen. Turning eighteen this fall. Just graduated high school,” Hannah admitted, not that it mattered.

“I’m ... fourteen myself. Just barely. Yeah, Ryan was robbing the cradle with me, as some say, but now he’ll probably just dump Mom and find himself some other ladies. I was really the only excuse that he had not to walk out on her, the stupid bitch. If Mom dies from whatever happens next, it’s on you, Gabby. You killed her just as if you took a knife to her throat. Congratulations. You’ve probably made me a fucking orphan,” Autumn turned on Gabby with unexpected venom.

“Sorry, okay? So, guess what, I’m human! I fucked up! I meant well, though. I just ... fucked up. Wait, does this mean that...” Gabby read the news report, realized that her parents were killed in Spanish Harlem, turned very pale, and ran to the bathroom to throw up.

“I guess that was inevitable. I feel awful for her, but I can’t go easy on her just because she lost family. I lost family, too. I dare say that Xia lost family as well. Lots of people have lost family. We’re going to have to grow thicker hides. Then again, it’s enough lecturing for now. I don’t wish to beat a dead horse or kick a girl when she’s down,” I observed as I took my stuff and noticed Autumn sliding off her panties for some odd reason.

Just then, I heard a crash and looked out into the hallway, to find Xia (yes, I know, that was actually her family name) and Gabby colliding into each other as the latter left the restroom. Where Xia had been, I had no idea right at the moment. I just knew that she had been told of Shanghai’s fate somehow, judging from the stricken look on her face. I wasn’t prepared for what came next, as Xia suddenly dropped to her feet in front of me, to my utter surprise and confusion.

“What ... what are you doing, Xia?” I asked my roommate, only to find her kissing my bare feet.

“You ... me ... I must serve you, sir. I must. You can ... protect me. I cannot be student anymore. College is no more. I need protector. I need ... man. Please, sir. Please protect me. Please ... keep me as yours. You are the man I know best in dorm. I will be your concubine if you accept,” Xia further stunned me, having always seemed independent, distant even.

“What happened to your self-reliance, your independence, your devotion to work and studies ... and to your family?” I noted that many would object to this.

“Adam ... sir, that’s the past! My old life is over. My family is gone. My country is in ruins, just like yours, and I will probably never get to see it again. I need a new life, a new purpose, and a protector. That’s you. In my country, in the old days before Communism and such, if a woman became a concubine, she was safe. People wouldn’t harm her. She lived according to the will of her companion. This is what I need. This is also a way to still be Han, even as I live in America for the rest of my days ... or what is left of America, Adam. Please, sir ... Adam,” Xia pleaded desperately with me now, before I pulled her to her feet.