Here’s the first chapter of A Warm Place 9.
You can read Chapter Two if you are a 1$/month patron here.
You can read Chapter Three, and onward, if you are a 3$/month Patron, here. (Here’s a blog explaining this latest development.)
Awake again.
Panic again.
I sat up, as the panic was more mild this time, and already I was questioning it, and looked around. Everything was moving, gently. It was subtle, but it was obvious, like I was in a car driving along a highway. Only that didn’t happen anymore, for the most part. It was dark, though not completely so.
A single shaft of light spilled into the room and gave me a view of it, and I relaxed as it came back to me again and slowly laid back down.
After two and a half years of snowy apocalypse where almost nothing actually worked anymore, it was still incredibly jarring to wake up on a moving train. For me, at least. And Hannah and Susan. As far as I knew, the others didn’t have a problem adjusting to it. We got nightmares somehow related to being tied up or buried alive for some reason, but as I laid there in the dim light, I realized that I couldn’t remembering having one last night.
Maybe I was getting used to it.
For a moment, I just laid there and stared at the ceiling. The light in our cabin came from a single bullet hole in the exterior wall. We’d debated for a bit about what to do about it and ultimately I liked the idea of having even a tiny extra window to provide sunlight in the morning. The problem with our pair of windows was that there was no in between. The metal shutters were either sealed tight, hiding the light completely, or fully open. Considering we were all supposed to be sleeping in, me especially, we didn’t particularly want sunlight blazing into the cabin every morning. We didn’t quite want perfect darkness either.
The bullet hole seemed like a nice little compromise. Normally I’d light candles, to help me see during the night, or have a fire going in a fireplace. But candles in a moving train made me nervous that they might get knocked off while we were sleeping and catch something on fire, and the train was built well enough that having a fire going in the wood-burning stove that had been added to the cabin before we’d gotten there made it unbearably hot. So, we’d found some thick plastic, cut a piece to fit the hole, and shoved it in.
It worked well enough.
Like having the blinds or curtains open just a crack.
I wondered idly what time it was. The quality of the light put it definitely past dawn. It might be towards noon even.
I wasn’t prone to sleeping in, but Lisa and Melanie both had told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to spend as much time sleeping and resting as possible while the train was running as it was supposed to and we had the time.
For once, I didn’t argue.
The main reason was that the last several weeks had really kicked my ass in a way it had never been kicked before. Starting with the trek back to Pine Lake, the run-in with the asshole group, then the furious race to find Megan and Melanie and Fay, to the desperate rush that lasted for weeks trying to keep Pine Lake alive, and finally getting this train operational…
When we’d taken off, heading north towards, hopefully, our salvation, I was more tired than I ever remembered being in my entire life.
I’d probably slept half of the past five days away.
My body was beaten, bruised, and battered, and my exhaustion was bone-deep.
It felt worse than when I’d been recovering after getting shot.
Even now, I could feel that I wasn’t healed up completely. I knew I owed part of that to the fact that after two days, I hadn’t been able to really stay down when I probably should have. There was a lot to do on the train and I felt too much like shit just laying there while everyone else was getting it done. I’d argued with Lisa about it and she’d finally given me some light duty. Mostly I hung out in the kitchen with Elizabeth and Delilah and a few others preparing meals or sorting food, making sure we had enough.
One of the girls murmured in her sleep and shifted. I looked over. It was Hannah. She lay between Megan and I. Across from the foot of the bed was another, smaller bed, a twin size where Lara and Susan slept together. We’d agreed that five of us should share the room given that it was pretty large.
I had to admit, it was sure nice enough for me.
That was another reason I probably wasn’t healing up as fast as I could be: four horny and willing women who were usually naked in here with me.
How could I possibly turn them down when they offered?
Megan and Susan seemed to be the more responsible of the four, tending to hold off or not go for longer sessions, but Lara and Hannah?
Lara was hypersexual, it seemed, and Hannah was still in the midst of discovering just how fucking awesome sex could be.
And then of course there was Jessica, and Elizabeth. Two horny MILFs who lived right next door who had both gotten out of shitty, sexless marriages not all that long ago and had figured out that sex with me was really, really nice.
And there was also Lisa, Fay, and Melanie, who I was having casual side sex with, although Fay and Lisa had been too busy since we’d begun living on the train and Melanie had only fucked me once. I got the impression she was holding back for just the reason that she was a doctor and knew I needed to rest and recover.
With a sigh, I sat up and got to my feet, then moved into the tiny bathroom and took a piss. I wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep at this point, I could just tell. Probably a good idea to get up anyway.
I flushed the toilet and was again struck by how much I missed that sound. Goddamn was it good to have a working toilet. I glanced at the shower stall. And shower. We had to ration, because there was only so much hot and clean water, but still, a five minute hot shower every two days and a functional toilet was just amazing.
I brushed my teeth and was considering who to wake up to take my shower with, because it made sense to double-up while showering and I hadn’t taken one yesterday, which meant I got to take one today, when I heard someone moving in the bedroom behind me. A moment later there was a light knock at the door.
“Come in,” I said.
The door slid open and Susan appeared, rubbing sleep from her eyes. “Hey...I gotta pee,” she murmured.
“Want to shower with me?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied immediately.
“Brush your teeth and pee, then we can shower,” I said.
“Okay,” she replied.
I finished up and then stepped out. She went in and shut the door and got to her business. Lara was still out, I could see, and so was Megan, but I thought Hannah would be up soon. I was surprised Susan was the one who’d gotten up first, normally she was a heavy sleeper. Although honestly, I was more surprised that Hannah wasn’t already awake. But I guess the past few weeks had taken a heavy toll on her as well.
I heard the toilet flush and the shower start up and slipped back into the bathroom.
~
Twenty minutes later I emerged from our quarters with Hannah and Susan, dressed and feeling refreshed.
The bad thing about doubling up on showers was that it tended to take longer...for obvious reasons.
The good thing about doubling up was that technically speaking, we each had five minutes, which meant that what was supposed to be a five minute shower had turned into fifteen minutes of sex in the shower with Susan and then Hannah.
So that was pretty cool.
We walked down the hallway to the dining area of our cart, which was almost empty. Only a few people were sitting at the tables, and I could see why: judging by the position of the sun out the windows, it was maybe an hour before noon. These few people were either taking late breakfasts like us, or an early lunch. We got our food from the serving area, finding vegetable stew and venison on offer, and orange juice. That one was nice, there had been a huge stash of long frozen OJ on the train and we were making good use of it since there was a decent chance we wouldn’t realistically be able to bring most of it with us when the train broke down.
So far, this vehicle we’d found had held up pretty well.
I’d hardly seen Fay because she’d been so busy running maintenance all over it, but she seemed happy. Busy, but happy.
The few times I’d spoken with her she seemed confident that it’d keep going for at least several more days before something went wrong. That was something she had stressed: it was going to break down, and it almost certainly was not going to make it to where we wanted it to. And I thought she was right.
So far, the going was slow.
Besides the fact that we were literally going slowly, both to keep the train from being too stressed and also to make it possible to stop in case there was something blocking the way or like a bridge or something was out, we also tended to stop at least once a day, sometimes twice. For a number of reasons: to gather energy from the solar cells more effectively (they didn’t work as well while in motion), to gather snow to melt for the water supply, to go on a hunting expedition.
So far I had yet to leave the train during one of these stops, except twice to stretch my legs and walk around outside for a bit.
By now, I was feeling the effects.
“What are you thinking about, babe?” Hannah asked, and I felt her foot brush mine under the table. I had been staring out the window at the frozen landscape of fields and trees and abandoned vehicles and buildings. I glanced over at her. She was smiling at me, a calm, warm smile, and I couldn’t help but return it.
Hannah had become extremely affectionate since we’d settled onto the train. It wasn’t that she wasn’t this way before, it was just that it was very obvious now. I wasn’t sure what was causing it but I liked it.
“I was thinking that whenever we next stop, I’m getting off this train and going on a hunting trip or something. Maybe explore a building,” I replied.
“You sure Melanie or Lisa will let you?” Susan murmured with a small smirk.
“I think they won’t be able to stop me. I’m still healing, but I’m no longer down for the count. I’m starting to get some cabin fever...what are you smirking at?”
“I just think it’s a little, uh...amusing, the way Lisa and Melanie...make you do things, I guess,” she replied.
“They’re very convincing,” I replied.
“Who’s the most convincing?” Hannah asked, brushing my foot with hers again.
“Oh no, I’m not heading into that territory. That’s just a variation on ‘who’s the prettiest?’ or ‘who fucks best?’. I don’t answer those questions.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Hannah murmured.
“That’s a smart man,” a new voice said. We glanced over as Lisa walked up to our table. “Mind if I join you?”
“You’re always welcome to join,” I replied.
She smiled and took a seat. “You seem to be doing better.”
“I am,” I replied, wondering how much she’d heard of what I’d said earlier about leaving the train. I knew she wouldn’t like it. She’d been worrying over me a lot. “How are things going on the train lately?”
“Well enough, I suppose, given what we’re dealing with,” Lisa replied, growing a little more irritable. She sighed. “I know I should be more grateful, and I am, it’s just that...I’m so fucking sick of bad things happening and shit going wrong.”
“You’re handling it really well,” Hannah said.
“Yeah. I mean, as our leader, you have to see the whole pictures, and make all the big decisions. All the rest of us get to focus on one or two little parts of the picture. Most of us couldn’t do that,” Susan added.
“Well, at this point, I can’t claim to run this whole miserable operation on my own,” Lisa replied. “Chris pretty obviously is helping shoulder a lot of this responsibility.”
“Oh no,” I said, “I just get shit done. I’m not a leader.”
“Come on, Chris, you can’t even pretend to claim that anymore,” Lisa said, folding her arms as she sat back in her chair and fixed me with a stern look. “You’ve played a significant role in making several big decisions.”
I stared back at her, a feeling of discomfort settling over me. I wasn’t sure what to say, how to respond to that.
“To be clear, you’re doing well,” she added, her features softening.
“I don’t like that idea,” I said finally.
“Which is a good sign,” Lisa replied.
“I don’t see how. A reluctant person in a leadership position doesn’t exactly instill confidence.”
“Surely you’re aware by now that the best people to make decisions are the ones who don’t want power. People who want power get corrupted pretty easily, or already are. You know who I mean: the jerk-offs who get off on power plays and telling people what to do. The pieces of shit who are content to hide in a bunker while sending thousands to fight and die, instead of being out there and laying their own lives on the line. Reluctant leaders who still understand responsibility and are brave enough to make the hard choices are the best, because they won’t abuse their power. Mostly. I fucking hate my job but I’m decent at it and we’d probably all be dead if I hadn’t stepped up,” Lisa said.
I sighed heavily. “Yeah, I guess you have a point. I still prefer to just be a useful tool. Aim me at a problem and let me fix it.”
“That’s a dangerous mindset,” Hannah said. “If some piece of shit who jacks off to power gets ahold of a ‘tool’ like that…”
“I mean I have to trust who’s aiming me at shit,” I replied.
“That’s a fair point,” she said.
Lisa began to say something but fell silent and began looking around as the train abruptly started to slow.
“What’s happening?” Susan asked.
“I don’t know,” Lisa replied, getting to her feet. “We shouldn’t be stopping.”
“Great,” I muttered, standing as well, abandoning what was left of my breakfast, “let’s go see what happened this time.”