Chapter 2

Dana

I looked on in horror at what I'd done. Sure I'd thrown that stupid bitch over the wall, but I wasn't really sorry about that. What I was shocked and sorry about was that my husband had decided with barely a thought to leap over the wall after her.

As several RABs headed for them, I screamed out. "Somebody open the fucking gate and let him in before it's too late."

Fifteen or so feet below me, Jerry countered my demand.

"Don't even think about it," he yelled. "All it would take is for one of those things to get inside the wall and we'd lose everything, now get a fucking rope down here quick. Jessie ... Handgun, I know you have one."

I watched as Jessie pulled out a pistol and dropped it to Jerry who quickly handed it to Sandy. Sandy looked around and started shooting, but Jerry was already in motion. I'd watched my husband many times over the years and he always amazed me.

"We're going to die," whined Sandy.

"We're going to be fine," said Jerry confidently as a thing that used to be a man gnashed its teeth at him. Jerry stuck out his tongue at the creature and then crushed its head with one blow of his favorite antique flanged mace. As several others came near them, Sandy raised the pistol again.

"Save the ammo," said Jerry. "They should get a rope down here in a minute or two. But just in case..."

Seeing two more edging near him, Jerry reached behind him and drew his sword. He smiled almost as if he was enjoying himself.

He didn't cower and wait for them he pressed forward and attacked. He leaped up and kicked the first one in the chest and brought the mace down on the skull of the second as soon as his feet touched the ground. Then he turned and slashed the throat of the first one. Fetid blood splashed out of the beast's neck as Jerry leaped back to avoid being splashed by the geyser of blood.

I heard two sharp reports as Sandy took out two men that were trying to sneak around to the side.

"You certainly know how to show a girl a good time," she snapped. "This is a great first date. I really like this little gun. Do you think Jessie will let me keep it?"

Jerry kicked a RAB in the nuts to distance himself from it and then thrust his Katana through its eye socket rupturing its brain. He pulled the sword free and sliced off the reaching arm from yet another RAB, this one an old woman.

"This isn't a first date," he laughed. "That was yesterday on the wall while I watched you shoot. This is our honeymoon."

"Weren't you supposed to propose to me and all of that first?" she asked. I noticed that she was keeping her eyes on every RAB in the area to determine which ones she might need to handle.

"Well if you need to get technical about it?" said Jerry. "I guess I should get my divorce first. And then ask you. And then we need to have some kind of ceremony..." He smacked a tall RAB in the face with the butt end of his Katana and then brought the sword down two handed and cleaved the man almost in two. The powerful cut started at the junction between the neck and shoulder and penetrated muscle, skin and bone all the way to the breast bone. Jerry kicked the body free to disengage his sword.

"We don't have to go through all of that," she said. "But you could ask me. How do you even know that I want to marry you?"

Roy ran up and pushed me out of the way then and lowered a thick rope over the side. "Jerry ... Rope," he yelled.

Jerry turned to Sandy. "Go on, they'll pull you up," he said.

Sandy looked at him and I could see her smile from the wall. "Aren't you supposed to be asking me something?" she asked.

Jerry turned and crushed the face of a RAB that was once a wiry teenager with his mace. "Maybe I need to think about it more," he said. My heart beat faster then. I probably still had a chance if I could just get him to forgive me.

Sandy stamped her foot and stuck out her lip. Jerry looked around the area and saw a couple of RABs heading in their direction. Neither of them seemed to be moving very quickly but there were at least ten more behind them.

He moved over to Sandy and dropped to one knee. He looked up at her and smiled. "Sandy, as soon I take care of some old business ... will you... ?"

"Yes!" she snapped before he could even get the question out.

"Good, now get your ass up that rope," he growled. "I'm going to need you to cover me while I'm climbing up."

Sandy turned and grabbed the rope. Jessie, Roy and another man quickly pulled her up and then dropped the rope for Jerry. She glared at me as she got to the top, but turned and yelled, "Gun," to Jessie.

Jessie gave her his rifle and she started picking off every RAB in the vicinity as Jerry climbed back up. As soon as his hands grabbed the top of the wall, I reached for him. The look he gave me was murderous.

"Jerry, I'm sorry," I whined. "I was just angry and you called her your..."

"Save it for your trial," he said.

"What trial?" I asked.

"Dana, there are RABs out there," he yelled. "You could have gotten her bitten. If just one of them had bitten her, that would have made it murder. It's even worse than that, Dana. What if she had broken her neck when you pushed her over the wall? What if she'd broken her back?"

"I was just so angry," I said.

"So was I," he snapped. "You got pissed because I called someone my girl. Imagine how pissed I was when I walked in and found my wife f..." I quickly put my hand over his mouth. I didn't need anyone who didn't already know what I'd done hearing about it.

He moved away from my hand as if I'd poisoned him. "By your logic, I should have simply killed you and that asshole Diego on the spot, right?"

"Jerry it was a mistake," I said. "It was only a mistake. It's not worth losing everything we have over."

"Maybe that's how you see it," he said. "Dana, every time you and I leave here, I put my life in your hands. To do that, I have to trust you to look out for me when I'm in danger. If I can't even trust you when we're safe inside of the compound, it's impossible for me to ever do that again. Maybe you see what you did as a mistake and you see it as something you won't do again. But how do I know that? Maybe you don't even regret it. Maybe what you regret is that you got caught. How are you supposed to be able to assure me that it won't ever happen again?"

"Because it won't," I said. "I swear it."

"That only works if I can believe you, Dana," he said. "And right now I really can't. You claim it won't ever happen again. I never expected it to happen this time. But it did. So in the back of my mind, I'll always be wondering whether it will happen again or even if it's still going on from this time. Every time we're away from each other, I'll have doubts about whether or not you're doing what you claim you are or even where you are. If you'd do it with some guy you barely know, how the hell, do I know you wouldn't do it with someone that you know well? I'm just not sure I'll ever be able to trust you again. And if I can't trust you, there's no way I'm going to ever put my life in your hands."

"But Jerry, I love you," I whined. "You have to believe me."

"I do believe you Dana," he said sadly.

"You do?" I sniffled. He nodded his head.

"You love me the same way I love a lot of things," he said. "I love this mace. I have fifteen or sixteen maces, but this one is my favorite. I love it. And I love several of my swords. God knows I love my Mustang. You loved me too. You just didn't love me enough to put us first when you made the decision about what you did."

Then he took Sandy's hand and turned and walked away. Even as they got to the ladder and climbed down, Sandy looked at me. She didn't smirk at me or do anything like that. She had that same deadly calmness on her face that Jerry got when he was about to fight.

"We're not done," she said calmly. I felt a chill go up my spine when she said it.

As I looked at the faces of the people on the wall, most of whom had been among my best friends only moments ago, I saw nothing but a mixture of condemnation and unspoken accusations.

"Jessie, can I have my baby back now?" asked Sandy. "I have to clean it and check it out before I can fire it again."

Jessie handed Sandy the sniper rifle back. And she handed him back the handgun he'd loaned her. As he reached to take it, she seemed reluctant to give it up.

"Good Lord woman," quipped Jessie. "I'll get you one of your own from the armory. Have you ever met a gun you didn't like?"

"Not yet," smirked Sandy as she trotted off to catch up with my husband.

I started to grab the ladder myself but Sven pulled me back.

"Dana, you know that Jerry was right, don't you?" he asked. "Sandy is a member of this community and you did endanger her life. It's true that she escaped with nothing but a scare and probably a bruise or two, but that was due to Jerry going over the wall after her, not anything you did."

I gulped loudly. "But I said I was sorry," I told him.

"You didn't tell HER that you were sorry," he said. "You told Jerry. And I'm sure you were talking about whatever you did that has him ready to divorce you. I've always liked you Dana. I've always thought of you as a daughter, but this time I can't be the one to decide your fate. I think we're going to have to put this to a vote of the entire community. I'll withhold doing that until we clear up the situation with all of the RABs surrounding us, but in my eyes ... I never thought I'd say this about most of the members of our community, but Dana, I think this is bad enough that we might have to consider banishment."

"You're kidding," I cried. "This is my home."

"It's home to all of us," he said. "We live in peace and we all work together and support each other. But if a person goes around trying to hurt us, allowing them to live among us might not be the best thing for any of us. Perhaps when Diego goes to the next settlement, it might be in your best interest to go with him." I was shocked. Sven was clearly serious about this.

"But if Jerry and I go... ?" I asked.

"Dana, are you sure that he'd want to leave with you?" he asked. "Because even before what you just did, Jerry wanted me to uncouple the two of you and..."

"Sven, I've never asked you for anything in my life," I said. "What I would like is to have you and me and Jerry sit down and discuss the whole thing. After that you can make a decision about whether or not I need to leave."

He looked at me and nodded his head. "I will do as you ask, Dana," he said. "But there will be five of us instead of three. From listening to your argument with Jerry, I have an idea that Diego had something to do with this. So he should be there as well to eliminate any hearsay. And since Sandy is the person whose forgiveness you need, she's involved as well."

I nodded. "The five of us will get together then, one week from today unless the RABs are still surrounding us," he said.

"A week!" I yelled. "Why do we have to wait a week?"

"Because a decision this important requires cooler heads and temperaments," he said. "Do you really want Jerry and Sandy to make a decision on this while they're still angry at you?"

"I guess that makes sense," I said. I climbed down the ladder and walked away with tears in my eyes.

As I walked back towards our house, I saw Diego back peddling and trying to duck behind a house. "Who are you hiding from now?" I asked. "Some other woman you tried to rape."

He looked at me with fear in his eyes that quickly turned to anger. "This is all your fault, you stupid bitch," he hissed.

"How the hell is it my fault?" I yelled back. "If you had just left my house when I told you to, instead of forcing me to have sex with you, none of this would have happened and we'd both still be okay."

"Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk," he said sharply. "What are we going to do now?"

"Define "WE," I said.

"At this point in time, I'm the only person who's anywhere near your side," he said. "I was just ducking between houses to avoid Superman and Wonder Woman. They're heading for your house to nurse their bruises together. I'm sure that they'll end up fucking."

"Don't even say that," I spat. "Jerry is mine. He's the sweetest, kindest, most loving man I know."

Diego shook his head and laughed. "Tell that to someone who believes that shit," he said. "Your buddy Jerry is just as human as everyone else. He is no one's idea of a saint. He was serious about me. He wants me dead. And he wants me dead even more now. And you know what? He's probably going to get it. One way or another, I'm probably going to die. He was 100% serious about the medical staff not treating me. I'm still bleeding from my asshole and even when the bleeding stops, if I take a shit, I may get an infection that will kill me. On the other hand, if I run into him, he'll probably kill me and none of the men who make weapons will give or even sell me anything."

"That's what you ge..." I began.

"Oh, I'm not done," he said. "As if that wasn't bad enough, I already warned you about that Sandy bitch. She's Wonder Woman to his Superman. Have you ever seen that woman shoot a rifle?" I nodded.

"That bitch hates me, and your husband keeps giving her guns. As far as I can see, she has at least three now. People are still talking about her blowing a RABs head off from a quarter of a mile away. I have no intention of getting in her sights. All I want now is some antibiotic ointment and that truck they promised me. If they give me the ointment, I'll smear it on my own ass. Shit, they could just give me the pills. That would be great. Give me the meds I need to survive and the truck and I'm gone."

"You could even..." he paused. "On second thought, fuck that."

"What were you going to say?" I asked.

"I was going to say that you could come with me, but I don't think so," he said, looking at me. "You're the cause of all of this."

"How the fuck am I the cause?" I snapped.

"From the first second I saw you, you've been fucking up my life," he said and his voice was seething with anger.

"When I fought your hubby by the wall, I just wanted to do well. I wanted to show them that I was a great fighter and that I'd keep fighting no matter what. I was kind of trying to show off. Especially after you started wiggling your ass at me," he said.

"I did not wiggle my ass at you," I screamed.

"You really did," he said. "And you smiled at me, too. When you did that, I guess your man took it as if you disrespected him. And you did it in public. If I was your man and you did that, I'd have beaten your ass right then and there. But your man isn't that kind of guy. He took his anger out by getting pissed at me. He went from mildly pissed at me to hating my fucking guts because YOU needed to act like a whore."

"Fuck you," I said. "Like being a rapist is so much better than being a..."

"Slut," he supplied. "Or were you just being a tease?"

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe I just wanted to let him know what it felt like to be jealous. That little bitch Sandy showed up in town and just threw herself at him. She'd even come to our house the night before."

"Yeah, that bitch has cast iron balls," he said. "But you were just stupid. He was never going to do anything with her and if you knew him, you should have known that. He's just not the type. He's one of those always do the right thing guys who have a stick up their ass. The problem was you picked the wrong guy to fuck with."

"Jerry LOVES me," I said.

"Not him, dumbass, ME," he said. "I'm not the kind of guy you can tease. If you shake your little ass ... in your case your giant ass around me, you're going to get fucked."

"Yeah but you lied to me," I said. "You made me think that you could give me a baby and..."

"MAN," he said, pointing to himself. "Men will do anything they have to do to get some pussy. You provided an opening, I plugged it. You have no one to blame but yourself. We may as well team up to try to save this situation for both of us."

"Maybe," I said.

"What do you want out of this?" he asked.

"I want my husband back and for this to all be forgotten," I said. "I want things to be the way they were before you showed up. And I hate to admit this since we're trying to be all friendly, but I want you gone. I don't need you serving as a reminder of my stupidity every time he sees you. My perfect world scenario would be for you and Sandy to leave here and go somewhere else. But I'd gladly settle for the both of you dead."

"Bitch, you're crazy," he said. "None of that shit is ever going to happen. You may as well lower your expectations a notch, because you're high."

"Well, what do you want?" I asked.

"I just want to live," he said. "I'd be satisfied, if they'd give me the truck with some supplies and let me move to another area after the RABs surrounding the camp are gone. At first, I wanted to live here because you guys have a great thing going, but your husband is homicidal. He's one of those Samurai type guys. He might even, under the right circumstances, forgive me on the surface, but down inside, he'd simply be biding his time until he had a reason to kill me. He loved you and I ruined that. He's not like me."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I snapped.

"Look, don't get upset, but to me you're just another bitch. If I fuck you today and some other guy fucks you tomorrow, I'll just get to you sooner the next day. Maybe I'll even join in with him and we'll run a train on your ass. If the RABs attack, I'll tell you to run, but it's no skin off my ass if you get bitten. That's life nowadays." I frowned at him and thought that he was a piece of shit.

"Your hubby, on the other hand, thought of you as something really God damned special. He's not the kind of man to share his woman. So the simple fact that I fucked you, means you're damaged goods to him. I just don't see him taking you back. Plus, you have to look at this realistically. You're an okay looking woman, but Sandy, as much as I hate her, is prettier. She also has a better body. Your ass is off the chain, but her body is just better. Her tits make you look like a boy. And she has skills, she fits right in. He's replaced you. He's still hurting over you, but I have a feeling that once the two of them get naked, the pain will go away."

"I think that what you have to concentrate on is surviving, either here or somewhere else. Maybe you'll find another guy, but that one is gone."

As I looked at him, some of his words had the ring of truth to them. And I realized then that I'd claimed for all of this time that Diego was responsible for what happened to me. But a great deal of it was my fault. And in actuality what I'd done today in my anger had made the situation far worse. Not only had I ruined my marriage, I'd made it possible that I'd have to leave the community I loved.

Jerry

Numbness; that was all I felt as Sandy and I walked away from the wall after our adventure. I didn't know how to feel about anything. Truthfully, I hadn't been thinking or feeling anything. I'd just been reacting. I felt like a bottle cap thrown around by waves on a beach. The water coming in was far too powerful for me to do anything but go with the flow. I was tossed and turned in any direction the waves chose.

I couldn't believe that all of these events had transpired over so short a period of time. To begin with, I'd gotten jealous of my wife's reaction to a newcomer. Less than twenty four hours later, that jealousy had been proven to be valid when I walked in and caught him fucking her in our home. That had shattered our relationship to the point that I wanted out of it.

Surprisingly, Dana claimed that she didn't. The problem was that I no longer trusted Dana. I guess at that point I'd decided that Dana and I should simply go our separate ways. I'm not a saint but I simply couldn't imagine hurting her even after what she'd done to me. I guess down deep inside I still had some degree of feeling about her.

The newcomer Diego on the other hand, was different. Almost from our first sparring session where he'd demonstrated a total lack of honor, I'd wanted to kill him. That in itself was unusual for me because I'm normally not that blood thirsty. There are so few human beings left on the planet and there are very few if any children being born anymore. So ordinarily, no matter how bad a person is, I try to imagine some way that they can help our community. I guess I try to see the good in people. But in Diego, that didn't happen.

As big and strong as he is, there are several ways that he could help out around here, but I look past those and think only of my personal need to see his blood spilled. If that makes me a bad person, so be it.

The next big thing that happened was the discovery that a large pack of the Zombie-like creatures we call RABs had completely surrounded our compound. On the surface, this is relatively scary, but there is almost no chance that the creatures could get inside of our walls. There's only one gate in and out and it is manned twenty four hours a day by a crew of people we trust immensely. There are also stations along the wall at various intervals to make sure that no breaches of the wall occur in spots other than the gate.

There is no short term danger from the RABs outside of the gate. The long term danger though is that while we're trapped inside of the walls, we risk running through all of our provisions and supplies, while no more come in. We are a trading community. Our life's blood comes from our scouts who go out and bring in new provisions and also what we can trade with communities like ours in other places.

While completely surrounded, not only can we not get out, but supplies can't come in. As long as the occupation doesn't last more than a few days or a week, we'll be fine. If it lasts any longer than that, it could create a problem.

I was summoned to the wall to find out about the RABs. Sven our leader and I were discussing whether or not they were being directed, which would be a new and possibly deadly situation for all of us. I was showing Sven the shooting prowess of one of our newest citizens.

Sandy amazed Sven with her ability to shoot long distances. I was proud of her, partly because I'd rescued her and brought her here, and partly because I'd been the one to give her the chance to serve as a shooter. I called her my girl. In retrospect, it may not have been the most apt choice of words, because my wife Dana had expressed jealousy over Sandy's crush on me. At the time, I'd enjoyed seeing the look on Dana's face when I called Sandy, "my girl."

A few moments later, Dana had snapped and pushed Sandy over the wall. Now, both Dana and Diego were being considered for expulsion from our community. As Sandy and I headed for our separate homes, my mind was heavy.

Sandy stopped in front of me. I'd noticed that she was walking with a slight limp. I was sure that she'd suffered some type of injury in the fall from the wall.

"So when are we getting married?" she asked. "And how exactly does that work. I've studied how they did that in the old world, you know before everything went to hell..."

I smiled at her. From the very first moment that I'd seen her without the covering of dust and road grime, I'd felt strange about this woman. Now with her standing in front of me and very close to me, the feelings were even stronger.

"Sandy, do you really want to marry me?" I asked. I asked her because I hadn't taken it seriously. The whole thing from my side had simply been another way to twist the knife in Dana for her cheating on me. But the more I thought about it, the better an idea it seemed.

"Of course I do," she beamed. And there it was again. That smile, it just lit up the world around her. It made me feel that no matter how shitty things got, the two of us would find a way. "I just want to understand how marriage works in this community. In some of the places I've been, being married just means that you share living space, but you both still do whatever the hell you please otherwise. I don't want that kind of marriage. I want the old fashioned kind, where you and I are faithful to each other and don't have others involved."

"But, isn't that the way it's supposed to be in a marriage?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Humanity is getting desperate," she said. "In a lot of places, they're so desperate for children that anyone can have sex with anyone else just hoping for the right combination of genes to produce healthy children."

"Okay, I like it the way that you do," I said. "From this moment on, I belong totally with you..."

"And I belong totally to you," she smiled. Then she tilted her head and looked at me slyly. "So where are we going now?"

"What do you mean?" I asked. She smiled at me again and tilted her head. "Am I going back to the house that all of the single women who cook share, or are we going somewhere ... together?"

"Oh, we're going somewhere together," I smirked. "We're going to the medical center to get your leg checked out..."

"It'll be fine," she said. "Can I ask you something?"

I nodded and smiled at her. She stopped walking and turned to face me. "Why the hell did you do that?"

"Why did I do what?" I asked her.

"You jumped over the wall to help me," she said seriously. "At the time, I didn't think about it. But why did you... ? I mean who does that? You could have been bitten along with me. What if... ?" There were tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

I couldn't resist it. I hugged her. I pulled her close to me and wrapped my arms around her there in the streets. She hugged me back and sobbed. "Why do you keep doing that?" she asked through her tears.

I had no answer, I just let her cry. I knew that a big part of it was how close we'd just come to, if not dying but becoming something that was no longer really alive.

"And your wife is so fucking stupid," she gushed. "She has no idea what she gave up. That man she was with is the worst. I told you what he..." I rubbed her back.

"Yes Sandy, you told us," I said.

"I'm going to kill both of them if I get the chance," she said.

"Diego is mine," I said as I rubbed her back. As we stood there in the streets holding onto each other, a few people, then a few more, gathered around us. After a moment or two, her mother pushed her way through the crowd.

"She's fine," I told her. "We're on our way to the med center to let them have a look at her leg."

"Oh, I'm not worried about her," she smiled. "I knew that if she was with you that she'd be fine. What I wasn't expecting was to hear about you jumping off the wall to go after HER. I came to see if the two of you wanted something special to eat. We should celebrate the fact that you two came out of that terrible ordeal safely. We should also celebrate the fact that we're all here, safe and sound."

"Anything you make is fine," I said. "But I really do like that cake you made the other day..." The crowd started laughing after that. I took Sandy to the medical tent and they got her up onto a table and checked her over.

Aside from being shaken up, she had a couple of minor sprains and a big bruise on her hip. I took her back to my house. I sat her down at the kitchen table while I heated some water in a huge pot in the fireplace. I went into the bathroom and started the tap in the bathtub. The water in the tub took a little while to fill up. The water in the fire place heated up rapidly over the flames. I poured the almost boiling water into the tub and got the cauldron back over the fire. I dropped a few herbs into the water in the tub and led her into the bathroom.

I looked in the bathroom closet and pulled out a plastic wrapped package and handed it to her.

"What's this?" she asked.

"It's a robe for you," I said. "I scavenged a place last fall with lots of them. I think we have about ten or twelve of them left."

"But there are two robes already here," she said.

I snatched one of them off of the hook on the door and threw it into a pile of clothes in the corner of the room. "That one is Dana's," I said. "I'm going to take all of her stuff to her. I want you to have your own things." She smiled and took the package.