Chapter 2

Two strangers to the city made their way towards the skyscrapers in the far off distance, following a path they believed would lead them to their sister. They had set out at first light and now with the late afternoon sun beating down on them walked slowly along what use to be one of the most famous streets in the world, Hollywood Boulevard.

It remained largely intact and both felt uneasy, surrounded by the old ways of man. The head of some fantastic beast, what Talia had told Luke was once called a Dinosaur protruded from the roof of one building, and almost across the street stood two giant golden statues, posed there on each side of a doorway almost as if daring you to enter. Luke and Talia both wondered what such extravagances could have been used for.

Los Angeles had seen no military action during the final great war but it had been left in ruins none the less, destroyed from within as systems and infrastructure went off line one by one leading to the complete collapse of society. With no working government chaos ruled, and as food rations were depleted mass starvation followed.

Those able left the city by any means possible and with no oil or gas, for the oilfields of the Middle East had been destroyed in a nuclear fireball, many had simply walked out. But most stayed, and now forever lay entombed in their houses and high rises. Subsequent earthquakes had also taken a toll, the damage only compiling over the years and helping to scar what was once a beautiful city.

However the street they now walked was devoid of debris as compared to others they had traveled and Talia now wondered if there were people nearby who were living here still, a thought which was proven true as they walked past some ancient building and heard the sound of music coming from within.

"Do you hear that Talia?"

"Yes, it's coming from in there."

"What is that place?"

"The sign says Roosevelt Hotel."

"Hotel, you mean as in soft warm beds?"

"Yes Luke, soft warm beds, now come on, we're going in."

At the entry Talia pulled each of the two Berettas which hung low on her hips and clicked off the safeties. Luke likewise did the same with the one which he carried before following his sister into the lobby of the hotel.

Inside they found a collection of characters, most of them old and all of them drunk, sitting in chairs or gathered in front of a long bar. Behind the bar was a rather long mirror with a wide assortment of liquor bottles lined in front of it. There could also be found a rather bulbous man who was presently using a dirty rag to clean a dirty glass, and only he glanced up at the sight of Luke and Talia as they entered with weapons drawn.

The bartender saw the guns but that's not what his attention was immediately drawn to. Instead his eyes wandered to the swell of Talia's breasts, and as she and Luke now drew closer he smiled and licked his lips, then before speaking reached under the bar and thumbed off the safety on the Winchester he had hidden there.

"Hello strangers, welcome to Rick's Place."

"Are you Rick?"

"Ah, no, that's a character from a movie, Casablanca, ever seen it?"

Neither brother nor sister answered and Talia remained to watch the man while Luke wandered around the bar, taking a good look at many of those inside. Talia put away her guns and let her eyes travel over the man's body, taking in his wide girth, fully aware that his eyes were unmoving and seemingly locked onto her chest. She was use to men staring, any she had ever come across, and cleared her throat to get his full attention.

"We're looking for a young girl."

"I can get Molly to send over whatever you're looking for, I believe the youngest she has working for her is seven or eight, she charges..."

"No no, that's not what I meant, we're looking for someone specific and believe she may have traveled this way a few days ago, I was wondering if you may have seen her?"

"Oh, well a lot of people come through here, I certainly can't remember every single one, bad memory you know."

"I'm sorry to hear that, is it bad or just selective?"

"Depends really."

"And what exactly does it depend on?"

"Well, if I'm nice and relaxed I remember things easier."

"I see, and so what relaxes you exactly?"

"I'll tell you what my love, why don't you and I go in the back and we'll, uh, discuss what relaxes me."

Talia didn't answer, and Luke had by now come close enough again to hear the last of the conversation between his sister and the bartender, but remained quiet anyway. He smiled as Talia slowly walked around to the other side of the bar. Luke then stepped back, he knew enough to keep out of his sister's way.

"The girl we're looking for is about my shoulder in height, short blonde hair, rather small looking and..."

"Sorry haven't seen her."

"... and she's probably traveling with two or three men."

"Well then, she's having a good time isn't she, one could almost say... a really good bang of a time."

Talia smiled widely, mirroring that on the bartender's face before revealing what she had carried with her around the bar, hidden behind her back. The bartender took notice and his smile faded quickly. He reached for the shotgun just as Talia was raising the bar stool above her shoulders, swinging it toward his head.

The bartender was forced to duck and while never really the target remained cowering on the floor with his hands over his head as liquor bottles as well as the mirror exploded and shards of so much broken glass rained down on top of him. It would take time for him to realize that Talia had ended her destructive rage and when he stood he found Luke and Talia emptying the contents of a bottle that had survived into two glasses, and his shotgun now laying open on the bar and pointed in his general direction.

"We also need a room for a couple of days."

"Yes, uh, no charge, take whatever one you want, take two, Hell take the whole floor, whatever you need."

"And about our sister?"

"Oh she's your sister, well why didn't you say so, hell if I had known that I would have..."

"HAVE YOU SEEN HER?"

"Uh, honestly, no, but those men you mentioned, anyone traveling through here is heading for only one place, the Market."

"And exactly what and where is that?"

"That's where you go to trade and to buy all sorts of goods, in fact that's where I buy my liquor... which you just destroyed, but, no problem, don't worry about it."

"Go on."

"And they sell women there too, that's probably where they're taking her. It's down at the old playgrounds by the Santa Monica Pier."

"The ocean?"

"Yes boy, the ocean."

"I've never seen the ocean."

"Well you can't miss it, it's the big blue thing, makes you wet if you get too close."

"Can I shoot him now Talia?"

"No Luke, he was nice enough to give us a room after all."

Luke flipped the bartender his middle finger and again wandered off toward a group of men who sat together at the back of the hotel lobby. Talia removed the shells from the shotgun and passed it back to the bartender who accepted it with a smile, all the while imagining how he'd like to brain her with it, however with closer inspection he realized one of Talia's hands remained on the butt of one of her pistols and so thought better of himself and placed the gun back under the bar. Talia then edged closer and lowered her voice so her brother would not hear.

"Could they be headed toward the towers?"

The bartender who had started picking up loose glass and taking an inventory of what was left suddenly stopped and went still, even his breathing seemed to have ceased. Slowly his eyes came up to Talia only this time they bored deep into hers, and when he spoke it was but a whisper.

"You don't want to go there love, unless you're looking to die... not that I care."

"Them?"

"Yes, them."

"How is it you are so close, and why are there so many people here, aren't you worried?"

"I watch my back. As for why we are here, some come seeking trade or fortune, others because we've got the only working power plant still in operation on the West Coast, but mostly I think people come looking for a return to the old days, the way things use to be. This was a special place back then, a place of dreams and I guess in a way it still is. As for them, well, you just have to avoid the inner city and don't stay out in the open at night. So tell me love, have you ever seen one of them before?"

Talia didn't respond to his question and now stared at herself in what remained of the mirror while draining the last of her glass. The bartender understood the meaning in her silence and started to smile. Picking up a rag, he went back to cleaning the same dirty glass he had been working on when Luke and Talia first arrived.

"It must have been someone you loved."

Talia absently picked at a piece of glass on the bar before looking up to see where her brother had gone off to. She took great comfort upon finding him.

Luke meanwhile was staring up at a giant chandelier that hung from the ceiling and therefore almost bumped into an elderly gentleman who stood in his path.

"Gunslingers are you?"

"Well, I don't know if I am, but I guess my sister is."

"Your sister huh... are you banging her?"

"Look old man is there something I can do for you?"

"I heard you're looking for someone, are you forming a posse?"

"Sorry, but we travel alone."

"Suit yourselves, but I was a gunslinger in my day, I was with the L.A.P.D. for fifteen years, just a rookie when the war started. I was here, I saw it all, and I stayed behind along with some of my fellow officers to defend the city."

"Defend it from what?"

"Well that was the problem, no one came, we stayed at our posts until our supplies ran out and then we, well, we came here. So tell me... are you banging her?"

"Fuck off old man."

"Hey, relax, don't worry, there's no law around here anymore. Everyone looks after themselves, but we all watch out for them if you know what I mean, they're quite mad."

"Are there many around here?"

"Quite a few actually, though no one has bothered counting them, you'd have to be nuts to try and get close. Tell me boy, have you ever seen it happen, I mean to someone you know?"

"I've never actually seen it happen, no."

"Well there are only two ways you can be sure that it won't happen. Once someone contracts the plague they're dead anyway, well, that is they become one of them, so you can either burn their body or..."

"Shoot them in the head, I know."

"Shoot them dead, that's right, anywhere else don't seem to matter because, well, they're dead, even though they don't look it. You might think they're the same person you knew, but they most certainly are not. Pure evil is all that's left, just as soon kill you as look at you."

"You ever hear of what created the plague old man?"

"Nah, not that I've heard, though I imagine we did, some lab experiment gone wrong, a terrorist plot maybe, it's hard to believe that nature did this to us, the next step in our evolutionary development. The plague affects animals too, changes them, and why some people get it easier than others I don't know, though if you're sick or badly injured than you're a goner for sure, and by the looks of that scar on your face boy you should count your lucky stars that you aren't one of them now. But tell me, seriously... are you banging her?"

Luke and Talia had to go through three other rooms in the hotel before they found one without a body in it. Talia then cranked open the window to help remove the stale air while Luke laid out their gear on the bed. The center part of the city with its many skyscrapers stood menacingly in the distance, the danger they held as yet unseen, but very real in Talia's mind.

"Alright, weapons check right now."

Luke drew his pistol before sitting down on the bed and placed it on the mattress as Talia had done with both of hers. Leaning over, Talia then pulled out the rifle she kept hidden in the rolled up sleeping bag. He then watched his sister's well-practiced hands break each gun down into its different components.

"We should have done this yesterday before we even got close to the city, and besides a few rabbits that I've shot our new rifle and the ammunition we picked up really hasn't been tested."

"It should be all right."

"Should be, you want to stake your life on that, and speaking of which."

Talia hiked up her slacks and unbuckled the holster she had tied around her right ankle. From that she removed yet another gun, slightly smaller than the ones she wore openly, a silver plated Beretta.

"What about yours Luke?"

"What about it?"

"Put it up here with the others."

Luke had to stand up so he could reach his other pistol which he kept stored amongst his things, wrapped in a fold of black cloth. Talia openly sighed her disapproval as it took her brother several seconds to finally get at it. Luke looked at the weapon briefly and held it loosely in his hand before tossing it onto the bed next to hers.

"I want you to start carrying it Luke."

"Why?"

"Because I said so that's why. Look Luke, it's necessary, if you ever became one of those things, one of them, I would have no problem using mine on you, because I know it wouldn't really be you anymore. And I expect you to do me if need be... but not before hand okay?"

Talia smiled while taking hold of her brother's pistol. Within seconds of dropping the magazine she had it broken down like the others and was examining the slide.

"You've never even fired this have you? What's the matter, don't you like the present I got you, it took a lot of searching to find these two and the one I gave to Wendy?"

"Some present, oh here Luke, in case you have to shoot me some day, that's what you said to me."

"Well not exactly like that I'm sure."

"Almost, anyway I won't do it."

"Oh yes you will."

"No, I won't."

"God damn it Luke, you're pissing me off you know that, you will do it if it happens, and that's all there is to the matter."

Talia cleaned, reassembled, and then removed the guns from the bed, except for one which she placed under a pillow. Standing once more she went to the window and looked up into the bright sun, allowing its warmth to burn away the anger she felt. After a minute Talia turned to Luke and began to undo her belt and other bindings, slowly stripping out of her coverings.

"I take it then Talia that we're not heading back out right away?"

Luke started to undress as well after Talia smiled over at him, her message and its meaning clear even though unspoken. Luke soon crawled into bed, enjoying the feel of a soft mattress beneath him and warm sheets over his skin as he lay there quietly watching his sister undress.

Talia would slide in beside her brother and kiss him several times over his naked shoulder and chest, breathing deep, her nose filled with his scent before climbing atop of him. Easily she took Luke into her body, his erection just forming as she sat straight up looking down at him, unmoving, loving the warm feelings her brother gave as he grew inside.

Luke simply laid there and allowed his sister to vent all of her frustration, something which they both took pleasures in as Talia began to move her body up and down on her brother's spear, squeezing with her strong thighs each time she came down, burying its full length inside her before grinding their lower bodies together.

Luke, now energized by his sister's actions, began to lift his body from the mattress, thrusting up into his sister's belly with youthful vitality. Her open body grew slick and the heat generated between them invigorated both of them even further.

Luke and Talia remained joined at the waist as she attempted to drive him deeper still, her back arched forward as she humped their two bodies together. Talia could feel herself starting to cum and sensed Luke was about to as well. Laying back down, crushing her breasts against her brother's face, she allowed much of her body to rub hard over his as she grabbed a hold of his shoulders and prepared for the climax she expected, in fact needed, and the gift Luke would give her with his own.

But Luke had already stopped moving and now lay there underneath his sister, his heart beating fast while his erection faded. Talia lifted her body slightly and looked down at her brother, unsure at first of whether he had cum or not, fully and painfully aware that she herself had not.

"Luke, what's wrong, are you alright?"

"Could you sit up Talia?"

Talia pulled away from her brother and sat up once more, their bodies still joined though Luke was no longer hard. Talia was about to ask again what was wrong when Luke reached out a hand and touched her naked belly just below her navel where a small but distinctive lump could be found.

"Your, your stomach, you're starting to grow."

"Yeah I'm pregnant, so that means I'm going to get bigger you know."

"I could feel you when you laid down on me."

"Yeah, I noticed about a week ago that my belt was getting tighter, and that my belly was starting to stick out through my clothes a little. Is that why you..."

"What if I hurt the baby?"

"Luke, the baby is about the size of a walnut right now, you couldn't possibly hurt the baby, so..."

"But still, maybe we shouldn't."

"Luke, ah, honey, what can I say, this isn't funny."

"I'm sorry Talia."

"You're sorry, oh well that makes it all better then... Jesus Christ now I am really pissed Luke."

Talia tore herself from her brother, letting his limp form fall from her pussy with a wet plop as she now moved to the edge of the bed, where she remained faced away. Luke sat up and went to his sister. Reaching out he let his hand trail down the curve of her spine, and when he was sure that she wouldn't pull away he kissed the back of her neck. Talia breathed in sharply and shuddered, and lowered her gaze to the floor.

"Wendy would often wake me like that, she knew I loved to be touched there."

Luke smiled with the shared memory of their younger sister, and something more. Inspiration grew as he reached for Talia, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Talia."

"What Luke?"

"I'm not Wendy, but, could you teach me?"

"What?"

"Teach me where to touch you, teach me how to love you, what you and Wendy would do to love one another, to make love to one another. I just don't want to hurt you or the baby."

Talia turned to Luke and looked into her brother's warm and what she knew to be loving eyes. She then allowed him to pull her back into the bed and under the covers.

Talia laid there as her brother slowly moved down over her body, following her instruction. As told his mouth now followed the curves of her ample breasts, his moist lips sucking and tasting his sister's body, gently drawing on her elongated nipples. Talia openly sighed her approval with each of her brother's caresses.

He would go down further still, between her legs and into her bush. The feel of her brother's gently flicking tongue as it moved wetly over her clitoris and in between her thick pussy lips gave her body the desired relief she sought. Talia came fast and hard.