I’ve been hard at work on Haven 8 and it’s coming out fairly smoothly I feel. At present, it’s about halfway finished and I’m hoping for an early October release.
Here is the first chapter.
If you want to read the first two chapters, you can do so here on my Patreon if you are a 1$/month Patron.
He was having a nightmare of some kind, and his head was a throb of pain that renewed itself with an electric shock of agony every few seconds or so.
David had an impression of people screaming, fires burning, ashes and embers and smoke spraying into the hot night air.
He caught ghost images of muzzle flare and then someone’s head snapped back in a spray of blood as the life was blown out of them.
He heard someone screaming his name.
Gunfire, so much gunfire.
Then darkness.
…
There were more nightmares, and more confusion.
An incoherent miasma of pain, shot through with anxiety and fear.
In his head, he saw Cait, and Ellie, and Evie, and April. He saw many others. Sometimes hurt. Sometimes captured.
Sometimes dead.
He couldn’t tell what was real and what was nightmare.
He drifted for what might have been hours or weeks.
Darkness came, again and again.
…
“Cait!”
David sat bolt upright, grimacing in pain as he moved and immediately began to survey the area around him. He had no idea where he was and yet...it was familiar. Somehow. Inside. He was inside a building. His abused mind hunted fervently for details, but mostly just to see Cait. Cait’s beautiful, pale, smiling face.
He sought her reassuring presence, the way he did when he was having nightmares some nights and he would wake up from them and she would be there, or someone would be there to comfort him, to hold him, kiss him, tell him he was safe, make love with him until they both had come and then were pulled back down into sleep.
“David.”
Someone was here. Someone familiar.
He heard footfalls behind him and twisted around, staggering to his feet.
“David, no, don’t try to stand-” Evie said.
Too late. He cried out as he collapsed into a heap on whatever he’d been laying atop. It felt like a nest of blankets and pillows. His whole body ached, but mostly his head hurt. He winced, getting to his hands and knees.
“David, please,” Evie said as she crouched beside him. “You need to drink this.”
“Cait? Where’s Cait? Where’s April?” he asked, panting, gasping almost.
“Drink this, David,” Evie insisted, a bottle of lukewarm water being held up in front of him. He took it because he wanted to know the answers to his questions, but also because he suddenly felt like he was dying of thirst. Hunger, too. And he had to piss terribly. He rearranged himself in a sitting position, then downed the entire bottle of water.
“Where?” he demanded after he’d finished.
“I think they were taken, I can’t know for sure,” Evie replied, sounding as worried as he felt. He looked at her. She looked pale and messy and miserable.
“What happened?” he asked, his head spinning.
He remembered...finishing preliminary work on the new settlement. Celebrating. Then...someone shouting his name outside.
And then…
“We were attacked. By the Marauders. A lot of them. David, look at me...it’s been two days,” Evie said carefully.
He blinked several times. “What?” he managed.
“You’ve been unconscious for two days.”
He blinked several more times. Then he looked around. “Where are we?”
She sighed heavily. “Right back where we started,” she said. “You remember that cabin we first went to after the fire? Before there was anyone else, and it was just you and me? This is where we first made love. Right here in this spot, actually,” she added, looking down.
That was why it was familiar, he realized.
Yes, this was it. The cabin they’d run to in the night, the basement. As he stared at the nest of blankets and pillows he’d been laying on, he remembered. Last month, he and Evie had walked here, decided to use the place as an emergency outpost, just in case. They’d set up a new ‘nest’ as it were, and christened it by fucking.
“Who else is here?” he asked.
She shook her head. “It’s just you and me.”
He groaned, his head still aching. “I need some painkillers,” he muttered. “And to take a piss.” He slowly got up. Evie helped him.
“I’ll get you some painkillers,” she said.
He took a moment to get his bearings, his head still spinning in more than one way. The Marauders had attacked them? Yes, he remembered now. He’d stepped out and gotten smashed in the head right away. God, two days? So much must have happened.
“What about the others?” he muttered.
“I don’t know most of it,” Evie admitted as she came back with a trio of painkillers and another bottle of water in hand.
“Thanks...uh, give me a minute,” he said.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’m going to go upstairs and take a leak...is it safe?” he asked.
“Yeah, for now. I was just up there taking a look. You want me to come with you?” she asked.
“No, I need a minute.” He hesitated, then he swallowed the three pills and walked over to her. He gave her a hug and a kiss. “Thank you for saving my life. I love you so much, Evie.”
“I love you too,” she whispered, hugging him tight. “I’m so glad you’re awake. I was so fucking scared.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t wake up sooner,” he said.
She laughed softly. “Me too. But you’re awake, that’s what matters.” As he pulled back from the hug, she gave him a stern look. “Don’t pick at your head wound. I managed to stitch it. Just a few and they’re holding, but don’t fuck with them, okay?”
“I won’t,” he promised. “I’ll be right back.”
He went up the stairs as quickly but as stealthily as possible, the urge to piss overwhelming now. He made his way through the darkness, the only light coming from a collection of candles she had lit downstairs. As he went around to the next set of stairs that would take him to the surface, he was bathed in almost total darkness. He saw no sunlight filtering in through beneath the crack. Which meant it must be night right now.
His head still going this way and that, David focused on the door ahead of him and the task of taking a leak. He had to get grounded. He could feel the immensity of what lay before him, something so vast he couldn’t comfortably comprehend it, like looking out at an ocean that you needed to sail across. It would be a long, difficult journey. But before he could even begin to take it, he needed to come back to reality.
David opened the door. It creaked and he winced, but in the faint moonlight filtering into the top portion of the cabin, he saw nothing stirring. He walked slowly around it, keeping his movements cautious and careful, and peered out each window in turn. He saw nothing out there but moonlit trees. No movement. Somewhere in the far distance, he thought he could hear gunfire of some sort, but it might be his imagination. Besides that, just the call of the occasional owl, and a wolf howling somewhere.
Jesus fucking hell, what a nightmare.
He opened the back door and, after looking around once more, his eyes already adjusting well to the near darkness, he pissed. It was a long, long piss and he hadn’t felt something so physically relieving in what seemed like a long time.
Two days.
Shit.
Last time he’d been out that long was when he’d been bit by a viper.
He had to have pissed himself at some point, or maybe Evie had gotten him to piss into a bucket or something. He had extremely vague, incoherent memories of laying in that bedding and her talking to him.
Fuck, two days.
He finished up and then drank most of the second bottle of water. What was left, he poured on his face, helping him focus and wake up. He rubbed his eyes, stared out into the dark woodlands that surrounded the cabin. It seemed impossible to think that it was less than a year since he’d first come to this place with Evie, back during the beginning of last winter. For a long moment, he thought, considering the dates, the time that had passed. He couldn’t be sure, but it would be roughly seven months ago that River View had burned down.
Seven months?
It felt like seven goddamned years now.
So much had happened to him, he’d changed so much.
David shook his head, then regretted it, mildly. It hurt, but it helped him focus. Focus, that was the key here.
Because he had things to do. So many things.
Turning around, feeling his brain and his body beginning to fully come back online as he started sorting out what lay of him, he headed back downstairs. He found Evie sitting in the only chair large enough for her.
“Okay honey, tell me exactly what’s been happening? Starting with when I got knocked out,” he said as he pulled a seat up next to her and sat down.
She nodded. “Honestly, it was really crazy. There was an attack on the new settlement. I did some fighting, we all did. But it became clear to me that they were outnumbering us, and I saw you. You were passed out. Everything was just chaos and I just...I grabbed you. And ran. I barely even remember doing it. I just ran and ran and ran. I know that they were attacking Haven, too. I remember that. I ran until I ended up here. I don’t know why I came here. I brought you to the basement. For a little while I was so fucking scared you had died. But you were still alive. I treated your wounds and kept waiting for you to wake up...”
She took a deep breath and calmed herself, looking up and blinking several times, trying not to cry. He reached out and took her hand. She gripped his hand and squeezed tightly. “I wanted to head out, to help. There was a lot of fighting. A lot. But I couldn’t just leave you here. I stayed with you through that first night and all of the first day. You woke up a few times but you were really out of it. During the second night, Ellie showed up. She almost shot me, I didn’t think she expected to find anyone here.”
“Where’d she go?” he asked. Obviously she wasn’t here any longer.
“She was...a little feral,” Evie replied uncomfortably. “Her eyes were...I don’t know. She was scary. She had blood on her and several guns. She told me to stay put and she’d kill them all. I tried to get some information out of her, but she just told me to stay here and she ran off. I haven’t seen her since. The next day, today, well, earlier today, Akila showed up. I was out checking for signs of life, and she showed up. She came and checked on you. She was...a lot more calm and cool than Ellie was, but I guess that’s no surprise. She said...” Evie hesitated.
“Yes?” he pressed.
“She said they had Haven and the new settlement completely on lockdown. They had most of our people prisoner. She said she saw Jennifer at Haven, but she hadn’t seen Cait or April or Lara. And I asked.”
“What about Lima Company? What about the farmers? The fishers?”
She shook her head. “Nothing on them. Akila left, told me to stay here. She was going to hunt them down, that she was perfect at this.”
David sighed softly and looked at the candles. At the way the flames flickered and danced. He was silent for several long moments, processing this information, his mind finally calming, settling, clearing.
When he looked back at Evie, he felt different.
“Okay,” he said, then he let go of her hand and stood up.
“Okay what?” she asked as he marched across the room.
“I’m going to war,” he replied simply.
“How?” she asked, standing and walking a few steps towards him.
“I’ll show you.”
He moved to the far corner of the room, in a small section of space between the stairwell and the wall where some old furniture had ended up. He dragged out a few chairs, then a desk, then knelt and reached into the space that was revealed. His hand came up holding a black case. He walked with it back over to the table where they’d been sitting.
“What is this?” Evie murmured.
“Paranoia,” he replied. “Justified paranoia, apparently.” He set the case down and cracked it open. Inside was a set of black tactical armor, a pistol with a silencer, a full medical kit, a knife, and ten magazines of ammo. “I started setting up a few caches of supplies over the summer,” he said as he started taking it out and laying it all on the table. “I traded for the tactical armor with a passing trader last month. I figured in the event of some kind of emergency...of something like this, well, I needed to have a cache of stuff ready to go. I’d always intended to have more waiting, but never got around to it. I guess I should be lucky I did this,” he muttered.
“David...” Evie said, and he looked up at her. She looked worried, and anxious.
“If you’re going to try and tell me not to go out there...”
“No,” she said, and a somewhat pained smile came onto her large, beautiful face. “It would be pointless. You’re going out there. I know you. I can’t stop you. I wouldn’t want to. It’s going to be dangerous, extremely dangerous, but you’re right. We need to be out there. I hate that I’ve waited here as long as I have. Our friends, our family, our loved ones are out there right now...”
“And we’re going to help them,” David said.
“I know. But I was gonna say...” she hesitated.
“What?”
“It’s selfish.”
“Tell me anyway,” he said, wondering what she was wanting.
She sighed. “It’s so dangerous out there, way more than usual. Anything could happen. I guess...I wanted to have sex. Just in case...”
“One of us dies,” he said. She nodded. He looked back at the tactical gear, half in the case, half on the table, then at her. She was right. It was going to be dangerous. It might be the most dangerous thing he’d ever done. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s make love, then we can wage war.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
He laughed. “You’re doing me a favor as much as I’m doing you a favor. I love having sex with you, Evie.”
“I know, I just...you’re the most intimate person I’ve ever been with. It’s only been with you, and with Cait and April now, that I’ve actually felt like making love was, well, making love, and not just, you know, having sex.”
“I know how you feel,” he said. “Come here, babe.”
He stepped up to her and she dipped her head. Her height difference was something that he’d gotten used to, but it was still so obvious to him. Having a girlfriend a full foot and a half taller than you was an interesting experience. She kissed him firmly on the mouth, a long, lingering kiss with a lot of tongue. Then she pulled back and started taking her clothes off. He joined her, stripping out of what he was wearing.
He could make time for this.
Though not a whole lot of it.
He kept worrying about Cait. Was she okay? Was she safe? Was she hurt? And the others? God, so many women, so many people in his life that he cared about now, that he was worried about. He was going to kill for them.
But right now, before the storm came, he was going to enjoy this one, shining moment of peace and serenity with a woman he loved.
It wasn’t long before they were naked and embracing on the nest of blankets. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to have sex, but it didn’t need to be. Even as Evie settled onto her back and opened her legs for him, and he settled in between her tremendous thighs, he knew it wasn’t going to be anything but a quickie. They didn’t have time, and they needed their strength for what was to come. David could tell he was in shitty enough shape as it was. But he wanted this, they both did. Perhaps they needed it to help them come to terms with the war that lay ahead of them. He didn’t want to think about that.
And he didn’t, not for a little bit, as he slid into her.
“Oh, David...” she whispered as he penetrated her, sliding into that slippery goliath vagina, into her familiar depths. “Oh honey, yes...” she moaned as he began making love to her.
“Evie...” he moaned, laying against her, holding her, embracing her.
As he started to thrust into her, to bury his rock-hard length into her, everything else fell away. He listened to her moaning and panting, to the own sounds coming out of him, to the sound of their skin slapping together. His cock disappeared into her again and again, and the pleasure burned into him. Both of them were soon panting, and she held him close to her. Held his much smaller frame against her much larger body, enjoying every second of their coupling.
“I love you, David,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Evie,” he moaned, his own voice hoarse with it as well. “I love you so much. I love you, honey.”
They lost themselves in the sex. He thought of nothing for a glorious few minutes but her voluptuous, hot, smooth body and her perfect inhuman vagina and the way it felt to make love with her. The emotions he could feel radiating off of her as intensely as the heat of her body. The way she held him, the way she moved her body against his own, the passion in her voice. Everything felt far more intense than it usually did when they made love.
As such, it didn’t last long.
Both of them began to orgasm at almost the same time. They each tried to be quiet, stifling themselves and their intense cries of passion, given that anyone could be nearby. Anyone or anything could overhear them.
David lost himself in that hot release of liquid, his seed spilling out of him into her orgasming vagina. They held each other and moaned in pure sexual gratification, pure loving ecstasy. He quietly moaned her name several times, feeling nothing but absolute love for her, feeling a depth and intensity of love he once had never known and even had questioned the possibility of. But he knew now. He felt this love for her, for Cait, for April. To varying degrees, the other women in his life who regularly shared his bed.
Women who were out there now, injured or captured or fighting for their lives or…
Possibly even dead.
No, David thought as he came back to himself, forcibly brought back to reality as the orgasm fell away, leaving him panting, no, I won’t think about that.
He couldn’t, and keep his focus.
He had to assume they were all still alive, and that he could help them.
“I love you sweetheart...but the time to work has come,” he murmured.
“I understand,” she said. She patted his back once. “I love you, too.”
Then she released him. David pulled out of her, and then he began to prepare for the greatest battle he had ever fought.
He found some water that they had stashed there after getting back to his feet and went about the process of cleaning up. It would help him focus, and like the sex he had just had, it might be the last time he got to enjoy it for quite awhile. When they had initially come here, they’d stashed some food, some water, some basic quality of life supplies, some medicine. He soaped and washed and dried, then examined his body. There were a few bruises, but it seemed like the only serious problem was the injury on his head.
“Will you take a look at it for me, love?” he asked, realizing he very well couldn’t look at the top of his own head.
“Yes,” she replied, coming over. She took a moment to examine the wound, pulling a bandage she’d put in place away. He winced but held his peace. “Let me just clean it really quick, then reapply the bandage. It’s looking good. You dizzy?” she asked.
“No,” he replied. “Just a headache. Otherwise I’m fine. I’m kind of pumped, honestly.”
“Well, you’ve never had your work so cut out for you,” she murmured.
“Maybe,” he said. Then he lost some of his enthusiasm. “God, I hope Cait’s okay.”
“They seemed intent on taking prisoners, that’s what Akila told me. I’m sure she’s okay,” Evie replied as she came over with the medical supplies.
He didn’t say anything, just endured his own unhappy thoughts and the pain of her tending to his wound in silence. She might not be okay. None of them might be. Right now, all he knew for a fact was that Evie was okay.
And even that might change soon.
No. Focus. Had to keep focus.
“Done,” she said.
“Thank you.”
He walked back over to the table and began pulling on his tactical gear. It was all black. Black boxers and socks, black body armor that was lightweight enough to allow mobility, but should be enough to stop at least a few bullets. He’d been saving it for a rainy day and now it was fucking pouring. He slid it all on, settling it into place, and finished by slipping a black beanie over his head, wincing slightly at the wound.
Next, he secured the spare ammunition in some of the varied pockets. Then he slid the combat knife he’d also secured in the sheath on his thigh. After securing the medical equipment and a canteen that he filled with water, he took a moment to make sure it was all held firmly in place so he didn’t make any more noise than necessarily while moving. Cait, Evie, Akila, and Lara had all taught him several things during their time together.
He intended to put it all to good use.
“Wow,” Evie said when he finished by lacing up his boots. “You look...different.”
“Do I?” he asked.
“Yeah, you look...like a soldier. You look scary, actually. A little like how Ellie looked when I saw her,” she said uncomfortably.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going feral,” he said. “But I fully intend to wipe every last one of these motherfuckers out. They declared war on us. They attacked us. I’m sure they’ve killed some of us. I swear I saw people dying while you were carrying me out...”
She frowned, nodded. “Yeah. I saw at least two of Val’s people shot in the head, and one of our people from Haven was machine-gunned through. Just pumped full of holes...” she whispered.
“This is the kind of thing I’ve been preparing for. All summer it felt like the other shoe was gonna drop, you remember me saying that?” She nodded. “It’s dropped. I’ve been preparing for this, getting ready for it, and now it’s here. I’ve pissed away two whole days comatose. Ellie and Akila and the others are all out there fighting, and we’re going to help them. Whatever it takes, however long it takes, we’re getting our people back. Our havens, our friends, our fucking way of life. We’re getting it all back.”
“I’m with you, David,” Evie said, her voice strengthening.
He looked her up and down. She was fully dressed now, her hair pulled into a tight ponytail, a pistol in her hand.
Her expression was grim and determined.
She looked every inch the warrior he knew she could be, when the time called for it.
It had called for it.
He nodded tightly. “Let’s get out there and make them regret the day they met us.”