Here is the first chapter of Haven 7. Sorry this has taken as long as it has. It’s looking like I’ll just miss my July release date, but it should be up in early August.
If you want to read the first two chapters, you can do so on my Patreon.
“Have you thought of a name yet?” Ashley asked.
David looked over at her as they stopped momentarily among the lush foliage, coming to stand on a small hill that offered them a better look into the forest that surrounded them. She looked radiant in the golden sunshine streaming down from above, filtering through the leaf-heavy branches that swayed gently in the breeze. She wore a simple, form-fitting tanktop and a pair of cargo pants ripped off at the knees.
With a combat knife on one hip and a pistol on the other, she looked like Ellie.
Which made sense, given how close they were nowadays.
“We’re still batting that around,” David replied.
“How far along now is she?”
David thought about it. It had been about three and a half months since they had dealt with the viper threat, helping the squids, and bringing Lara over to their group. Which meant that it was just about now becoming summer, and that Cait was…
“About six, six and a half months,” he replied.
“Getting closer,” Ashley murmured.
“Yeah.”
“You scared?”
“I mean, yeah.”
She sighed. “I understand. I don’t have kids, I don’t want any, but...you know, there’s my little brother to worry about.”
Distantly, from somewhere up ahead, they heard a gunshot. It echoed over the landscape. “We should keep moving,” David said.
“Yeah.”
They resumed their journey, heading northeast. They were heading towards the quarry. The last time David had been up this far, and so far really the only time as far as he could remember, was during the incident with the stalkers. Ashley had been out exploring the night before, going solo since Ellie had pulled guard duty, and had heard a few gunshots coming from the area. She had meant to investigate, but a pack of stalkers had driven her off and it was already getting to be towards nightfall, so she’d headed home with intent to investigate the next day. And so David had agreed to go with her and check it out.
There was another reason he had agreed to go.
“Ashley...”
“Yeah?”
“Have you been avoiding me?”
She didn’t respond for a few seconds. The only sound was their boots, moving through the underbrush, and the trees swaying in the wind.
“Kinda,” she admitted finally.
“Why?”
She sighed softly. “I...don’t know.”
“I think you do.”
Another few seconds went by.
“I guess, I’m a little jealous,” she said finally.
“What? Why?”
“You and Ellie are...really close. Like really close. I mean, it didn’t bother me as much before, but we’re...kinda serious now, you know?”
“Yeah,” he murmured, he did know. In the months that had followed the viper incident, there had been some fairly successful attempts to add on to Haven. There had been some room in the front corners of the campgrounds, just enough open space for a few more structures. During the spring, they’d managed to gather enough lumber and construction material from across the region to build three buildings. One took up one of the entire areas and served as a kind of boarding house, a two-story structure that sported a dozen small bedrooms. Evie had overseen the project, working with a few people who knew about construction, and she had envisioned it as a place for people to stay overnight if they were passing through, or even for a few days.
The other area housed a pair of structures closer to traditional cabins, though smaller. Ellie and Ashley now lived in one of these buildings, having grown close enough that they felt comfortable doing so. Besides having a romantic (and highly sexual) relationship, they also had taken on a sort of apprentice-mentor relationship, as Ellie was teaching her how not just to survive but thrive. In fact, she had taken to giving lessons to anyone who wanted them in the village.
But he and Ellie had only grown closer since her return to Haven. Although she wasn’t exactly a part of the four-way relationship he shared with Cait, April, and Evie, she might as well have been. He and her and Cait were extremely close, to the point where they regularly told each other they loved each other.
He could see how that might be difficult for Ashley.
“I mean, I’m willing to listen, to work with you...” he said.
She sighed heavily. “That’s the thing! What can I do? What can I ask for? You two love each other! What do I ask? ‘Stop loving each other’? That’s completely unreasonable.”
“I’m...sorry,” he managed. In that moment, he wished he was somewhere else, because damn was this uncomfortable. But this was exactly why he had come along, because it had become obvious that something was going on with Ashley, and he had been determined to find out what. He’d figured it was something like this, but how to fix it?
“I know. Fuck, I’m sorry for feeling this way,” she muttered. “It’s stupid. I know Ellie loves me. She moved in with me. I didn’t think she’d do that for anyone. She spends time with me, helps me, goes on adventures with me, and I know what a big deal that is for her. She’s used to being a loner. I can tell this is...stressful for her, sometimes. It isn’t what she’s used to.”
“I think you might be worried about something else, Ashley,” David said.
She looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t think you’re jealous of me or Cait. I mean, okay, I do, but I don’t think that’s what’s causing you so much grief. I think you’re scared that you’re going to wake up one day and find Ellie has disappeared,” he replied quietly.
She stared at him for a moment longer, then she looked away. They walked in silence again for a few moments.
“I guess you’re right,” she whispered. “I guess...I kinda latched onto the jealousy, because I am scared of that. I have nightmares about it, sometimes. And sometimes Ellie gets up before I do, and she’s so quiet, I’ll just wake up and she’s gone, and I panic...”
He stopped and she stopped with him. David stepped closer to her and opened his arms in offering. She hesitated for just a second, then hugged him tightly. “I’m sorry,” she groaned.
“It’s okay,” he replied, hugging her against him. “I know exactly how you feel, actually. I mean, I was there when she did leave last time. It was awful. I was sick to my stomach for days. And, I mean, I’m not trying to interfere-”
“I know!” she groaned, stepping away. “I know, I’m being a bitch.”
“I didn’t say that. I wasn’t trying to imply-”
“Ugh, you’re so fucking reasonable,” she growled.
“Is that...a problem?”
She laughed and shook her head. “No, David, just...” She looked at him and let out a long sigh. “I guess my mom was right about me. Sometimes I just want to fight. Which is stupid.” She stepped closer to him again and put her hands on his hips. “You’re a really good friend. I want to make sure you know that. And just, you know, a good guy. I know why Ellie likes you so much. And I want you to know that I actually really like you, too.”
He chuckled. “I had a suspicion.”
“Oh really? Could it be those times I fucked you?” she asked, smirking.
“That might have tipped me off,” he replied.
They stared at each other for a moment, an electric spark of lust passing between them. She looked a lot different now. She’d grown her blonde hair out over the winter and spring, and last month she had shaved half her head, and now kept it shaved. It gave her kind of a wild and crazy appearance. She was sporting a heavy tan now and she’d bulked up a little bit. When he had first met her, she’d been pretty skinny, but now she had some muscles. Now she had a lean, cut look to her. One point, a few weeks ago, staring at her as she chopped wood outside of Haven, he had suddenly understood what people meant about him looking older.
When they met, she looked like a teenager or someone in their early twenties. Now she looked a decade older, more mature, maybe harder, rougher around the edges. The way she moved now, it reminded him a bit of Ellie and Cait.
“We should have sex,” Ashley said suddenly.
“Here?” he asked.
She opened her mouth, then another gunshot sounded, a bit closer this time. She sighed. “Okay, later,” she said, turning and resuming her walk. He hurried after her. “After we figure out what’s going on over there. Then we’ll go back to my place and fuck. We haven’t fucked in forever.”
“Not my fault,” he murmured.
She heaved a sigh. “I know!” She shook her head. “Let’s just...focus on this. They’ve gotta be in the quarry, whoever they are.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah, that’s the only thing that’s in this direction, really.”
“God, I hope it’s not a bunch of assholes looking to wreck our shit.”
“Yeah...” She frowned, and he knew she was likely thinking of the same thing he was: Lima Company. Although there had been no hostility between the two groups, Stern had made it apparent that he wasn’t interested in working directly with them any longer. Especially now that his second in command had left him and joined Haven. David was very glad to have Lara around, for a number of reasons, but he wished it hadn’t been done out of frustration and anger. Not that he could blame her. Stern had gone back on his promise to help the squids, instead trying to push the responsibility solely onto David and his own group.
And it wasn’t like he minded doing it so much as he was extremely disappointed in Stern’s own dereliction of duty.
He was at least glad that his relationship with the other three groups in the territory was still going strong. He still traded regularly with the fishermen and the farmers, and the doctors were strong allies by this point. He was sure that if they had room, they could convince them to move into Haven. But that was another problem for another day.
Abruptly, the trees and the dense foliage fell back, and he and Ashley came out onto a strip of land that ended abruptly ten feet ahead of them. They carefully approached the edge and as they did, found themselves looking out over the quarry.
Immediately, David’s question was answered. Off near the other end of the quarry, where a gentle slope in the land led down into it, he spied a collection of a dozen or so tents and a large group of people moving around them.
“Well, holy shit,” Ashley muttered.
David pulled out his binoculars and took a look. “They don’t look like assholes.”
“Oh yeah? How can you tell?”
“They’ve got kids with them. They look more ragtag than anything else. Like they picked up random people from here or there. It looks...kinda peaceful. Or as peaceful as it gets.”
“The thieves were pretty ragtag.”
“Yeah, but you could tell they were all from the same group.”
“Yeah...so now what? You’re the boss.”
He lowered the binoculars and glanced at her. “Oh, so you’d actually listen to me?”
“Provided you don’t give dumbass orders,” she replied. “I think you’re doing a good job helping run Haven with Evie and Cait and the others.”
“Well thank you. Now, we carefully introduce ourselves. Try and figure out their intent. Kinda wish we had more people...actually, maybe we should run back and get more,” he said. “It’d be nice to have a sharpshooter covering us just in case.”
“Yeah, can’t argue with that logic,” Ashley murmured. As he began to turn away, Ashley grabbed his arm. “David, look.”
He turned back and his heart skipped a beat. Half a dozen large, dark figures were sailing overhead now. Hunters. He heard several people scream. At the same time, he caught a wave of movement by the treeline over on that side of the quarry. Pulling the binoculars back up, he saw what was causing it: stalkers. A few dozen of them.
“Shit, we have to help them,” he said, replacing the binoculars and hurrying off.
Ashley silently followed after him. They began sprinting along the path that ran alongside the quarry, careful to keep their distance from the edge. Fuck, what a shit way to go. After everything he’d survived, how damned awful would it be falling to his death? David kept running, keeping an eye on the situation as it developed. The people were fully aware of the monsters now, both above and on ground level, and he could see them scurrying to set up defenses. Judging from how quickly they were doing it, they seemed pretty well-prepared, although they didn’t have the most ideal of setups for something like this.
Gunfire rang out as they took shots at the hunters wheeling overhead and opened up on the stalkers sprinting down the slope into the quarry.
David and Ashley ran for all they were worth, and by the time they finally reached the other end of the quarry, his lungs and muscles were beginning to burn.
“Stay up here,” he gasped, skidding to a halt and surveying the situation again. A lot of stalkers had been put down already, but apparently all the ruckus had garnered the attention of a pack of wildcats and now they were coming down. Three of the hunters had been killed, but the other three were fast, and they were dive-bombing again and again, shrieking wildly, making grabs for the survivors trying desperately to hide and fight. “You’ve got the rifle, take down those fucking hunters, Ashley!” he snapped when she began to argue.
“Fuck, fine!” she growled, pulling out her scoped rifle and getting into position.
David brought his pistol out and started running down the slope, towards the encampment. As he got within shooting range, he screamed, “Friendly, coming in! Friendly, coming in hot!” He had no idea if they could hear him over the screaming and the gunfire, but he had to try. David got within a few dozen meters of the onrushing stalkers and wildcats, trusting Ashley to take out the hunters, or at least dissuade them from trying to murder him. He skidded to a halt and opened fire. The first two shots took a wildcat through the skull and splattered its rotting brains across the horde. It rag-dolled and rolled a few times down the incline as the life left its body in a hurry. He popped off more shots, missing two, scoring another headshot through a stalker, and pumping two rounds into another wildcat’s chest. That got their attention.
A pack of wildcats peeled off from the horde and began sprinting towards him with a terrifying speed. As he took aim, David found it easier than he would have a few months ago to steady himself. Apparently all the practice was paying off. He opened fire on the rampaging targets, the pistol jerking in his hand against the backdrop of gunfire roaring around him. The lead wildcat’s head snapped back in a spray of bone and blood and brains, and it flopped to the ground, tripping up another one of them. David snapped to the right and fired twice more, the first shot going through a neck covered in patchy, matted fur, the second turning a wide, empty black eye into a geyser of old blood. He emptied the pistol putting down the onrushing undead.
Without missing a beat, he ejected the spent magazine and slammed a fresh one in.
“DAVID!” Ashley screamed distantly behind him.
He looked around, knowing something had to be about to attack him, but saw nothing. Then he looked up. No, not attack him, land on him. One of the hunters Ashley had appeared killed was falling right towards him. He dove out of the way just as five hundred pounds of dead meat smashed into the ground with a resounding crash. Picking himself up off the ground, David looked around. He saw a few more stalkers coming his way, but the numbers were finally thinning out. Overhead, only one more hunter circled, and Ashley was on it.
He kept up a steady rate of fire, punching bloody holes into the malformed bodies of the undead as they came at him, and between himself, Ashley, and the people at the encampment, they managed to put down the last of the undead.
As David reloaded again, he took a look at the camp, trying to figure out whether he needed to run or–
A bullet shrieked past him, barely missing his leg, and he cried out and dove back behind the dead hunter. “Friendly!” he screamed. “Fucking friendly!”
“Val! Fuck! Stop!” a voice yelled, a woman’s voice.
Another woman’s voice, gruff, spoke up. “Who the fuck is out there?!”
“My name’s David! Will you please not shoot me!?” he called back.
“No promises! What do you want!?”
“Val! Fuck!” the first voice snapped.
David looked up, frustrated that he didn’t have anywhere to go. No doubt Ashley was covering him but there were a few dozen people over there and this was a pretty open space. He probably hadn’t seriously thought this out. Then again, that was the problem with wanting to help people in desperate situations.
He heard arguing between the two voices, though he couldn’t make out most of the words. Finally, the first voice, one that sounded more reasonable, called back to him. “David, was it? We won’t shoot you! Thank you for your help!”
Sighing, deciding to take her at her word, he slowly stood up. He could see two figures standing by one of the tents nearest to his position now, maybe thirty meters away. One slim and one larger, though not tall enough to be a goliath. Just a tall human. The tall one carried a scoped machine gun and looked prepped for war. She reminded him of Katya or Vanessa. The other woman seemed almost the opposite: slim, average height, kind, maybe a little out of her depth, judging by her expression. But she seemed reasonable, at least.
“It’s David,” he said.
“Can we talk?” the first woman asked.
“Only if your friend comes down off that hill and stops covering us with that rifle,” the second woman said firmly.
David turned and waved to Ashley. After a moment, she stood up and started coming forward. He waited until she had joined him and then the two came towards the encampment. They stopped a respectable distance away.
“Who are you?” the second woman asked.
The first woman sighed. “Stop being such a fucking bitch, Val,” she growled. “My name is Lori,” she said, smiling winningly at them both. “I am the leader of this group. Valerie here is my second in command. She-”
“Makes sure you don’t fucking die,” Valerie grunted.
“Quite.”
“My name is David, this is my friend Ashley. We’re from a settlement that I help run called Haven, a little ways south of here. We heard gunshots and came to investigate. What’s, uh, your situation? Are you passing through or looking for a place to stay?”
“Well-” Lori began, but Valerie cut her off.
“What’s it you?” she asked.
“We’re in a position to offer assistance if you need or want it,” David replied.
“Why?” Valerie pressed.
“Because I’m fucking nice,” David replied.
“Bullshit.”
“Val! Go...check on the others,” Lori said, turning to her and staring up into her face. “You’re pissing me off and being extremely fucking rude.”
“Do I really have to remind you how the last ‘interaction’ went?” Valerie replied, but she turned and left, heading deeper into the camp.
Lori walked a few steps closer. “I’m sorry about her.”
David sighed and shook his head, making himself calm down. “No, it’s fine. I get it. There’s a lot of assholes in the world and talk is cheap.”
“Well you did help us, but...I must admit, we’ve had a run of very bad luck recently. We’ve been hassled and hunted by some group for the last forty miles.”
David frowned. “Really? What were they like?”
“They wore leather armor painted black and they were pretty...tenacious. And vicious. When we first ran into them they pretty much tried to demand our unconditional surrender. They wanted all of our resources and some of our people. They were in a position to take it, too. We got lucky. A pack of giants was wandering nearby and got drawn in by the shouting. We fled, but they kept finding us. It’s been a week since we’ve seen them, though...I hope they haven’t followed us.” She sighed and appeared to collect her thoughts. “But, um, thank you. Both of you. That was good shooting, and very helpful.”
“You’re welcome,” David replied. “So what are your plans?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted after a moment. “We’re running low on supplies. We’ve set up camp here with the intent to hunt and gather some resources, but, God, I think everyone’s just tired of moving...”
David stared at her. She looked tired, and frightened. Also, very pretty. Medium height, probably a little under average weight, chin-length blonde hair, soft brown eyes. She looked really good in her jeans and t-shirt.
“I want to help,” he said. “Last winter, me and some very close friends built a whole settlement on the foundation of helping people. So, if there’s anything I can do...”
Lori pursed her lips, staring at him. He had to admit, she didn’t have a great poker face. She looked desperate and wasn’t doing a good job of hiding it. He had the idea that they were worse off than she’d like to admit.
Finally, she stepped a little closer. “We could really use the help,” she said, her voice low. “We have several people sick and now hurt, we’re very low on food and water and are basically out of medicine. There’s close to forty of us...”
“Fuck,” David whispered. “That’s...okay. That’s a problem, yeah.”
“Anything you could do...”
David considered it for a moment. He glanced at the sky and made a quick calculation. It was still before noon. With how long the days were now, he could definitely go home, get some people and even just a basic care package, and come back. He looked back at her and nodded. “All right, listen, I’m going to go put together a care package of supplies. Food, water, medicine, ammo, and a few medical personnel to come and look at your people.”
“If you could...” Her breath caught and she cleared her throat. “If you could do that, it would be extremely helpful. It’s been a very trying and taxing few weeks. Months, at this point.”
“I’ll make it happen,” David said.
She stepped closer to him and clasped his hand suddenly. The look she gave him was pleading, almost desperate. “Please don’t screw us over. Please.”
“I won’t,” he said. “I know talk is cheap and it seems like everyone out here is either evil or uncaring, but we care. And we will help. I promise. We’ll be back once we have everything gathered. We’ll be back today. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said after a moment, letting go of his hand.
“I promise,” David repeated, then turned and began to leave.
Ashley hurried after him. “That’s some promise,” she murmured.
“I don’t care, we still have a fair amount of supplies. And I know Katya and April and a few others will be more than willing to help.”
“And if this is some kind of a trap?” Ashley asked.
“I really don’t think it is, but we’re not going unarmed, obviously. And I’m sure Vanessa will be glad to go along just to keep anyone from doing anything stupid.”
They hurried up out of the quarry.