Chapter 7
seven
Travis
"We've got movement."
Eric's voice crackles through the radio, tight with tension. I bring my ATV to a stop, signaling the others to do the same.
"Details."
"Six hostiles, maybe more. Setting up on the main road ahead. Same signature as the convoy attack—they're laying an ambush."
Hazel's arms tighten around my waist. She heard.
I pull out my map, studying options. The main road is fastest, but if Eric's right about the signatures, we're dealing with the same group that killed Hazel's crew. The same professional, coordinated raiders who've been hunting medical supplies across the territory.
The alternative route adds three days. Three days of fuel we may not have. Three days Hazel spends waiting to put this behind her.
"We can go around," Ken suggests over the radio. "Play it safe."
"Three extra days," Patricia counters. "And they'll just hit the next convoy instead."
She's right. If we don't deal with this group now, more people die. That's the math of this world—every threat you dodge becomes someone else's problem.
I look back at Hazel. Her face is pale but determined.
"What do you think?"
"I think we finish this." Her voice doesn't waver. "I didn't survive to run from these bastards now."
Pride surges through me, tangled with fear. She's brave enough to face them. The question is whether I'm smart enough to get us through alive.
"All right. We're going in. But we're going in prepared."
That night, I spread maps across the ground and start planning.
This is what I'm good at—coordinating complex operations, using terrain and tactics instead of brute force.
Ruby and Mayson taught me defensive strategies.
Cole and Sierra taught me communication protocols.
Rebecca and Joseph taught me supply chain logistics.
I'm basically a composite of everyone's best skills, filtered through my own instincts.
Hazel watches me work, something new in her eyes.
"You're good at this," she says.
"I've had good teachers."
"It's more than that." She moves closer, studying the maps over my shoulder. "You see patterns other people miss. Ways to turn disadvantages into advantages."
"Survival requires adaptation."
"This isn't just adaptation. This is strategy." She touches my arm. "You could be running a settlement by now. Building something permanent instead of moving from place to place."
"Maybe someday." I catch her hand, lace my fingers through hers. "For now, the moving matters more. Settlements need connections to survive. Someone has to build those bridges."
The crew drifts away to their tents, leaving us alone by the dying fire. Hazel doesn't move, her hand still in mine.
"I'm scared," she admits quietly.
"Me too."
"Not helping."
"Would you rather I lie?" I pull her closer. "Tomorrow's dangerous. We both know it. But we're going in smart, and we're going in together. That's all we can do."
"And if something goes wrong?"
"Then we adapt. Same as always." I cup her face. "But Hazel? I'm planning on us both making it through. Because I have plans for you that require being alive."
"What kind of plans?"
"The kind that involve a lot more nights like the last few." I kiss her softly. "The kind that involve building something worth protecting."
She kisses me back, harder, more urgent. "Show me."
We barely make it to my tent.
She's pulling at my clothes before I can close the flap, her fingers clumsy with need. I help her, stripping us both with rough efficiency, needing to feel her skin against mine.
"Slow down," I tell her, even though every instinct is screaming to take her fast and hard.
"No." She pushes me onto the bedroll, straddling me with fire in her eyes. "Tomorrow we might die. Tonight I want to feel alive."
"Then let me make you feel alive." I flip us, pinning her beneath me. "My way."
I take my time undressing her completely, peeling away each layer like I'm unwrapping something precious. She watches me with dark eyes, her breath coming faster as more skin is revealed.
"You're staring," she says.
"I'm appreciating." I trace the curve of her hip, the dip of her waist. "Every fucking inch of you."
She reaches for me, but I capture her wrists, pin them gently above her head. "Not yet. Tonight I want to learn every sound you make. Every place that makes you gasp."
"Travis—"
"Every way to make you come apart."
I kiss down her body slowly—her throat, her collarbone, the valley between her breasts. When I take her nipple in my mouth, she arches into me with a moan that makes my cock throb.
"Fuck, you're sensitive here." I lavish attention on her breasts, alternating between gentle sucking and harder pulls with my teeth, until she's squirming beneath me.
"Please," she breathes. "More."
"More what? Tell me what you need."
"Your mouth. Lower. I need your mouth on my pussy."
I kiss down her stomach, biting gently at her hip bones until she gasps. When I settle between her thighs, she's already wet, glistening and ready.
"So fucking beautiful," I murmur, spreading her open with my thumbs. "I could look at you like this for hours."
"Don't look. Taste."
I drag my tongue up her slit, slow and deliberate, and she cries out. She tastes incredible—salt and musk and something uniquely her. I lick her again, this time focusing on her clit, circling it with the tip of my tongue.
"Oh god, Travis—"
I slide two fingers inside her, curling them to find that spot that makes her back arch off the bedroll. Her pussy clenches around my fingers, hot and tight, and I work her methodically—tongue on her clit, fingers stroking inside her, building her pleasure with deliberate precision.
"Don't stop, don't stop, fuck—" Her hands fist in my hair, holding me exactly where she needs me.
I don't stop. I suck her clit between my lips while thrusting my fingers deeper, faster, feeling her muscles start to flutter around me. She's close, so fucking close.
"Come for me, Hazel. I want to feel you come on my tongue."
She shatters with a cry, her thighs clamping around my head as she pulses around my fingers. I work her through it, gentling my touch as she comes down, pressing soft kisses to her inner thighs.
When I crawl up her body, she pulls me into a kiss that tastes like her.
"That was—" She's breathless, flushed. "Fuck, that was good."
"I'm not done with you yet."
I strip off my remaining clothes, and her eyes go wide when she sees how hard I am. My cock is thick and straining, already leaking.
"I need to be inside you," I tell her, positioning myself at her entrance. "But first, I need to tell you something."
"Now?" She's laughing and breathless. "You're going to talk now?"
"I'm falling for you." I push in just the tip, watching her face. "Watching you push through grief while still caring for others makes me believe in humanity again. That I want more than a few nights—I want a future."
Her breath catches. "That's a lot to say before you make a girl come again."
"Consider it motivation." I thrust home in one long stroke, burying myself completely.
We both groan at the sensation. She's so tight around me, hot and wet and perfect, her pussy gripping my cock like she was made for me.
"Fuck, Hazel—you feel incredible."
"Move," she demands, wrapping her legs around my waist. "Please, Travis, I need you to move."
I do. Long, deep strokes that make her gasp with each thrust. I watch her face—the way her eyes go unfocused, the way her mouth falls open, the flush spreading down her neck to her chest.
"Say it again," she whispers. "What you're not supposed to say."
"I'm falling for you." I thrust harder, hitting that spot deep inside that makes her cry out. "God help me, Hazel, I'm falling so hard."
"Good." She pulls me closer, nails raking down my back hard enough to leave marks. "Because I'm falling too."
I change the angle, hooking her leg over my shoulder so I can drive deeper. The new position makes her scream, and I have to cover her mouth with mine to muffle the sound.
"Harder," she gasps against my lips. "Fuck me harder."
I give her what she needs—pounding into her with enough force to rock our bodies across the bedroll. My hand finds her clit, circling it in time with my thrusts, and she starts to shake.
"I'm close, Travis, I'm so close—"
"Come on my cock. Let me feel that tight pussy squeeze me."
She comes with my name on her lips, her whole body clenching around me. The sensation of her pulsing around my cock sends me over the edge. I bury myself deep and come hard, filling her with everything I have.
We collapse together, breathing hard, sweat-slicked and trembling. I stay inside her for a long moment, neither of us wanting to move.
"That was—" She laughs breathlessly. "That was definitely motivation."
"Wait until tomorrow. I'll be even more motivated after we survive the ambush."
She smacks my shoulder. "Don't joke about dying right after sex. It's bad luck."
"Then I guess I better make sure we both survive." I kiss her softly. "Because I'm planning to do that many more times."
"That's the kind of motivation I can work with."