June 11, 2025; Clay lay there for what he would guess was roughly an hour and then decided he couldn't sleep anymore. Tonya's unexpected attention before she went to sleep still had him at a loss. The woman knew Jill was interested in him. They worked in the same office every day, so why would she do that to someone she thought of as her friend? Jill was a good woman, and he felt bad for letting Tonya proceed.

  But at the same time explaining that situation with his dick hanging out and already in her hand to Jill, after getting gored and nearly dying from blood loss didn't sound like something he was likely to survive at that moment.

  He really liked all his parts. He was rather attached to all of them.

  He slowly extracted himself from between the two gorgeous women, Tonya instantly scooted into the spot he was in and threw her arm around Jill. He sighed and quietly made his way out of the little hole in between the hay bails they had made.

  He crawled out and found Luke looking at the sword he had found after the dog attack on the highway. "So, can you use that thing?" Clay asked, genuinely curious as he sat down on a bail of hay not far from where Luke was sitting. There was a small access door for the loft that he had cracked open so he could keep watching up and down the road. But currently, he was staring at the sword.

  He shook his head. "Probably not. I took fencing in college but I didn't like it. I wasn't quick enough. Too much muscle and not enough coordination." He shrugged. "But my class is Warrior, and I feel like I should be using this." He looked up at Clay.

  "But, isn't the metal jack handle doing okay?" Clay asked. He had seen Luke doing pretty well with the improvised weapon.

  "Yeah, it does okay, but I can't use my only skill. Piercing Strike." Luke shrugged. "My weapon has to have a point." With that, he picked up the sword and thrust it into the air. Clay could see the tip of it glow blue as he repeated, "Piercing Strike."

  "So where are you two going?" Clay asked nodding at Dawn who was asleep not far away.

  Luke was quiet for a minute thinking. "Hell if I know. I'm just winging it myself. Dawn seems to think if we can find a decent settlement that won't discriminate against us then we'll be fine." He said looking at Dawn. Clay could hear the unsaid "but" at the end of that statement.

  "But?" Clay asked.

  "But I don't think we will find a place like that Mr. Clay." He waved in general to everything around them. "The world's went to shit. I'm a fucking squirrel mutant of all things, and to top it all off, as far as I can tell, our fucking government is actively purging anyone not in shelters." He ran his hand through his hair. Clay could feel this man's desperation. "Is there any place for us left?"

  Clay didn't immediately answer. He had thought there might be a chance until his brief encounter with the guards at the gate where they had met. Something about the "human only" order from the government hadn't sat well with Clay. Regardless of what happened to them, they had all been human at one time, right?

  It was wrong, and Clay knew it. He looked Luke in the eye and said, "Sure there is. You just have to decide to make it that way. Don't worry about ignorant assholes, Luke. If you want something for yourself or your family, then make it happen. Don't give anyone a chance to fuck it up for you guys." He gestured at Dawn's sleeping form. "You'll probably be better off without being in that shelter if you think about it."

  Luke nodded, seemingly deep in thought as he stared at the sleeping Dawn. Clay said, "Go ahead and get some rest. I'll take watch, Luke." The man nodded absently and lay down not far from Dawn covered up with a thick wool blanket.

  Twenty minutes later, just as the sun popped up over the horizon he realized the temperature was plummetting, it had to be right around freezing now, or flirting with it. Looking to the West he could see flashes of lightning arcing out of a giant black supercell coming their way.

  "Awesome," Clay commented in a deadpan tone. "Just fucking wonderful." He had a bad feeling about what was coming. He looked at the barn, knowing they wouldn't be able to stay there. They would have to find a house, and preferably one with a fireplace. He looked back at Luke who had just started snoring lightly.

  "In an hour or so." He said to himself as he took out his last jerky stick. "I'll need to search for some more food and water pretty soon." He thought about their dilemma. Thought about it for an hour or so before he decided it was time to wake everyone up and get going.

  It hadn't rained or snowed yet even with the thunder booming, deep rumbles shaking even the barn. Lightning flashed, in the sky and the wind started to howl as they made their way southwest as they made it to Highway 55, towards Pontiac.

  The storm seemed to stall over the top of them as they finally passed a few houses around midday.

  To Clay's dismay, none of them had a chimney. The conversation was light if any, and by 2 PM the sky started to open up slowly as large snowflakes started to fall now and then. "We need to find somewhere to shelter until this is over." Dawn called over the booming thunder. He just nodded.

  "Come on, I think I see a house with a chimney, let's hope it's not just for looks." Clay said as he started angling a little off the road toward an old, small farmhouse he barely noticed from the highway. It was tucked into a small thicket of trees and hard to see.

  They made it to the house just as the flakes started to fly, and Clay was hopping there wouldn't be anyone in the house once they got there. He had to dispatch a female zombie who charged at him as soon as the door opened. He stuck the spike of his axe in her head and jerked violently. The zombie didn't move after that.

  They found the remains of the woman's family in the kitchen. She had attacked, and eaten them for breakfast on the day the zombie problem started. She'd been stuck in the house until they showed up.

  Thankfully there was a fireplace, and enough wood stacked outside for a little while. Within ten minutes Clay had a fire started and Luke helped him remove what was left of the bodies while the women searched the rest of the house.

  Clay took first watch and made sure both Jill and Tonya were already sleeping before he went to sleep himself. He woke up to Jill shaking him softly. As he woke up to her beautiful smile she said, "Breakfast is ready, come on." She patted his leg affectionately. "It's still snowing."

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  They had decided after some discussion that they would stay as long as it kept snowing. While they had decent cold weather gear, they didn't have enough if it stayed cold and snowing their group would be forced to stay hunkered down somewhere while they tried to ride it out.

  Not a great solution but better than freezing to death on the road in case something drastic happens. After all, everything else was going to shit, why not throw a blizzard in just to add a little extra bullshit to everything else humanity was dealing with in this part of the world.

  Clay's phone vibrated. It scared the living shit out of him too as he scrambled to get it out of his pocket and answer it.

  It was his sister, Glinna. "Hello. Sis?" He said. It had been three years since he'd spoken with any of his family. Since his older brother died in an accident with a drunk driver and their other sister Cindy had him already cremated and buried before he had finally been contacted by his brother's lawyer and informed of his untimely death. He had inherited everything. His brother had not only inherited Mom and Dad's property but bought a lot of land adjoining the old homestead that had been in the family since they had homesteaded it in 1836.

  Once Cindy had found out she hadn't gotten anything, she had stopped talking to Clay and because of everything else going on with his recent divorce at the time he had shut everyone out. His little sister Glinna hadn't done anything though.

  "Clay! Thank God you're okay. Listen, we're heading home...," There was a moment of static and she cut back in, "...already heading into Oklahoma." It went quiet for a minute and Clay thought he had lost her but then he heard, "What the hell is that Jim? Oh my God, did someone just nuke us?"

  He heard his brother-in-law's voice through the phone and gasps of several other people, "I'm pretty sure that's one of our bombers! Get down!" There was a crackling sound and screaming.

  "Glenna!" Clay cried out. That wasn't good.

  "...Clay, we're ok. I'll see you at Jake's. Did you hear me? Get to..." Glenna's voice cut off as her phone went dead. He was down to 38% battery on his, thankful now for being able to charge it and his power bank back at the house with the generator.

  "Damn." He said as he shut his phone off. "Good luck little sister. I'll see you there."

  "That was your little sister?" Asked Jill with a smile on her face. He really liked her smile, it made him feel warm and fuzzy for some reason.

  "Yeah. Well the one I can still get along with anyways, I guess." He patted her arm as he started to get up. "I haven't talked to her in three years or so." He stretched, taking care not to aggravate his ribs or newly mended shoulder. "Since our brother died." He started towards the kitchen.

  They had done a pretty good job of cleaning or covering up the stains and if Clay hadn't seen it before he wouldn't be able to tell three people had been killed and devoured very messily in the room.

  Fried spam and the eggs were still good in the refrigerator. "That smells so good!" His mouth was watering as he walked into the kitchen. He just didn't think about what he had to clean up.

  As they ate, he saw Dawn and Luke having a heated discussion and he caught Dawn shooting him hateful looks like he'd done something. From the snippets he managed to overhear, she wasn't happy with a decision Luke had made for them after he had spoken to him the morning prior. He couldn't think of anything he could have said to have her pissed off at him but if he learned anything in life it was to leave a pissed-off woman be or it was usually your ass that was paying for it.

  So he spent the day looking at an atlas and planning the rest of the trip. He wanted to memorize the roads they would have to take, and a couple of alternative routes just in case something went wrong. Like the army moving through Kankakee. The day passed without incident and Clay slyly took the first watch again.

  At least he thought he was being sly. He woke up the next morning sitting on the couch with Jill's head in his lap sleeping, the fireplace was roaring, and he could see she wasn't wearing a bra or underwear under her long nightshirt. He couldn't help but notice the light shadow of stubble on her small mound, her shirt just bunched right to allow him a fantastic fucking view from where he was laying down slightly behind her. And she smelled good too. The blanket had worked its way in front of her.

  He made sure to take in an eye full before he moved to get up. But as soon as he touched her hip she moved them just enough to let him see everything from his vantage point. He couldn't take his eyes off of it as she stretched. "Like what you see, Hun?" Came her husky voice. It was literally dripping with sexuality as she purposefully stuck it up in front of him to see clearly right before her shirt slid down over her bubble butt to cover it as she stretched.

  She looked around and with a mischievous grin then whispered, "I have an idea." She slid off the couch and unbuckled his pants.

  "Jill, I don't want you to do anything you're not ready for." He grabbed her hand as she reached his button. "I like you. A lot. I don't want to fuck it up." He looked at Tonya sleeping on the loveseat remembering her attention a few nights back in the barn.

  "Then shut up Clay Benton, and let me show you how much I appreciate what you did for me." She pulled his engorged penis out of his pants and stroked it up and down while she looked around nervously. Then she started slowly, almost shyly for a few strokes as she figured out a rhythm. Then she flicked her tongue out and rubbed it up and down the large nerve cluster sending a pleasurable shiver all the way up to the top of his scalp. He'd never even noticed she had a damn tongue ring! As she flicked the head of it gently he quickly lost track of everything else for a short while.

  He had a very bright smile on his face as he left the living room to fetch some more wood for the fire from outside. Jill was humming to herself as she went to fry something for breakfast and he heard Dawn who was on watch ask, "What's got you so perky?"

  Outside it was starting to turn from a snowstorm to flurries and the darker clouds had moved off to the East overnight. He started loading wood up on his arm thinking about being able to possibly move on to Pontiac and then Bloomington.

  "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" Came a plethora of explosions from the direction of Chicago. He spun to look and he could see the city still way off in the distance to the north. The flat Illinois land, allowed him a damn near unobstructed view of what was currently dropping on Chicago.

  Large explosions ripped through the city as B1 bombers rained destruction on the Windy City. At first, Clay thought they were just dropping the bombs on the city. But then he saw a large, clawed hand reach up past the buildings and slap one of the unfortunate B1s out of the sky. The plane was torn into three pieces as it dropped like a rock. He noticed two parachutes pop open before the wreckage exploded somewhere in the city.

  That's when he saw another large mutated beast climb over the top of a tall tower, it almost looked somewhat like a fucking porcupine. With a defiant roar, it suddenly released a wave of spines towards the other two bombers. One was struck through, and as it started to plummet out of the air two parachutes popped out.

  The problem was the spines had been launched skyward toward the planes that had been returning south after making their bombing run. Which meant the spines that Clay estimated in the hundreds and probably about twenty fucking feet long were all sailing in their direction.

  He dropped the wood and ran inside yelling, "Watch out! Incoming!" As he grabbed Jill and Tonya and ran for the back door. Maybe if they had enough of the house between them they would have a better chance.

  Just as they cleared the door Clay heard, "Fwunk! Fwunk! Fwunk! Fwunk! Fwunk!" The spines, falling at an angle, and being dispersed over a large area penetrated through the roof and walls of the house. They went completely through the house and stuck deep into the ground and floor inside.

  The splinters of the house that were shot out from the force of the spine's impacting it turned into dangerous projectiles and Clay could hear Tonya let out a yelp and Luke was screaming like his fucking nuts were in a vice and someone was cranking on the handle!

  "Tonya?" He called to her as she fainted. He just caught her. A shard of wood was sticking out of her side, blood soaking her shirt in an ever-increasing circle around the wound. He eased her down to the snowy ground as gently as he could. "Oh no. Dawn!" He called.

  Luke had stopped screaming and soon Dawn staggered out of the door, her pants leg had a large torn, blood-stained hole in her right leg. "Damn it! Clay when I tell you to, pull that out from the back. And hold her still. This is going to be worse than your wound." She readied herself and said, "Okay!"

  As soon as she said okay, Clay pulled the sliver out as quickly and gently as he could manage, discarding it and holding onto her as Dawn's hands hovered over the wound and she said, "Healing Touch!"

  At first, Clay couldn't see anything happening. Then he witnessed the blood around the wound seeming to flow back into the wound as it reformed flesh and organs and then pink puckered fresh skin. About halfway through it, Tonya woke up and screamed. All he could do was try to hold her still and reassure her everything was going to be okay in a little bit. Her eyes locked with his and then her hand grasped his.

  Tonya's next words caused Clay's brain to malfunction for a minute.

  She was breathless from screaming and if Clay's experience was anything to go by exhausted to the point of collapsing. "I think I love you Clay, could you be my prince?" She whispered as she clung to him.

  "What the fuck do you mean bitch?" Jill burst out at hearing her words. Clay just stared dumbfounded. "Oh hell no you didn't just fucking say what I think you did? You don't even fucking like men! Why the hell you gotta try to make a move on mine?" Jill yelled. She was pissed, and that was putting it mildly.

  Dawn was scowling at him even worse than usual. It might have been her exhaustion showing but he got the distinct feeling she was trying to find any reason to hate him more. Every time she looked at him he got a weird shiver down his neck like impending doom. He kept telling himself she just disliked him, she wasn't going to murder him in his sleep.

  At least not unless he gave her a reason too.

  "We need to gather what we can and get out of here," Clay said to them all. "What happened to Luke? Is he alright?" He still hadn't seen the man even though he had been screaming, hopefully, Dawn was able to save him. His screaming had cut out rather abruptly.

  Dawn shook her head and waved her hand dismissively. "He saw this," she pointed at the hole in her pants leg, "and started screaming like it was his leg. Fucking baby passed out when I pulled the sliver out to heal it." She shrugged as if it was normal. "He's never been able to stand seeing something like that. He passes out every time."