Chapter Twenty-Nine
––––––––
“STUPID RULE,” MONICA muttered beneath her breath when she got up the next morning. Her dreams had been full of scenes like rolling around on the bed with Nazab. They’d only shared a few kisses and she already wanted him more than any other man she’d ever met before.
Speaking of her knight, she sensed him downstairs and headed down to join him. “Morning,” he said in greeting, looking as handsome as ever.
“Hey,” she said, then nodded at the map. “How many places are we going to search today?”
Nazab was sitting on the couch, perusing the map. “Not many if we intend to return here before nightfall,” he said. “We’ll be able to search several locations if we shift our base. We should keep moving as we work our way through them so we don’t have to keep wasting time heading back here.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Monica agreed. Their senses would keep them safe as they looked for a new place to stay each night. “Let’s try to find somewhere with its own water supply this time,” she suggested. “Washing in a creek every now and then is fine, but I desperately want a shower.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he vowed.
She ate a makeshift breakfast, then they piled their belongings and supplies into the truck. Monica drove and her knight navigated. She drove for two hours before he directed her to head for an area that was central to the places he wanted to search.
“What about that house?” Nazab asked, pointing at a distant two-story home set far back from the road.
“This is a semi-rural area, so it might have its own water supply,” Monica figured.
“I’ll wait here while you scope it out.” She switched off the ignition and he exited from the truck.
She locked the doors just to be safe as he sprinted towards the house.
Her warrior headed to the back door and emerged from the front door a short while later.
He lifted his hand to wave her to join him.
“I guess it must be safe,” she said, then got the truck moving again.
From Nazab’s grin, it seemed he’d chosen a winner. “It has running water, female,” he reported when Monica came to a stop.
“Good choice,” she said, climbing out to hug him. Their embrace lasted a bit too long and his body reacted to it. “Maybe you should take a cold shower,” she said with a smirk.
“It’ll have to wait until later,” he said ruefully. “We have a lot of places to search. Let’s get our gear inside, then I’ll drive to the first site.”
Monica knew he was keen to find his brothers and didn’t argue.
She helped him carry their belongings and supplies inside.
“We should top up the gas tank before we leave,” she suggested.
Nazab did the honors, then they heard enraged squealing noises.
“What the hell is that?” Monica asked, turning to face the noise.
“Feral pigs,” Nazab said when he spotted some boars racing towards them. “It seems we’ve encroached on their territory,” he added.
“What should we do?” Monica asked nervously.
“I’ll have to scare them away, or they’ll attack us again when we return,” he said.
He opened the back door of the truck to grab the gun, then aimed at the lead boar.
They were only a hundred yards away now.
He fired and hit the animal in the head, killing it instantly.
The other pigs scattered, then ran for their lives, squealing even more loudly.
“Nice shot,” Monica said enviously.
“I assume you don’t want to eat it?” Nazab asked.
“Ew, no thanks,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “It’s too risky if we don’t cook the meat properly. I know I’m not a full human, but the thought of eating it grosses me out.”
“I’ll carry the carcass out into the field,” he decided. “It should keep the other pigs happy for a while.”
“They’re not going to eat one of their own kind, are they?” she asked skeptically.
“Pigs will eat anything,” he said, then handed her the gun. Hefting the boar as if it weighed nothing, he loped over to the far end of the field to dump the corpse, then returned. “I need the gun again,” he said. “I’ll be back shortly.”
“What’s he up to?” Monica asked in puzzlement.
She watched Nazab until he disappeared into the woods at the far end of the field.
A shot rang out and she flinched, but didn’t feel any phantom pain.
“He shot a deer,” she realized when her warrior stepped out of the woods again with a doe draped over his shoulders.
She could see his proud grin even from a distance.
“I guess we’ll have to put our scouting mission off for a while,” she said in resignation, then plastered a smile on her face.
“I brought you some venison, female,” Nazab said when he reached her.
“That’s awesome,” Monica lied. “We should build a fire and cut the meat into strips. I might be able to turn it into jerky if I cook it for long enough.”
“It’s a pity this house doesn’t have power or a generator,” he said, realizing they were about to waste a ton of meat.
“At least I’ll have fresh food rather than canned stuff for a few days,” she said to cheer him up. In truth, she wasn’t sure if the venison would last long without any means to freeze or preserve it.
Nazab carried the deer over to the field while Monica built a fire in the back yard.
She’d had plenty of practice through the harsh winter she’d endured and got a fire blazing without much effort.
Her knight returned with a huge chunk of venison.
She’d grabbed some items from the kitchen and he helped her cut the meat up.
Cooking the venison over the fire on a skillet, it smelled far more appetizing than she’d expected.
“How is it?” Nazab asked when the first batch was done. They’d cooked a few steaks and would try to turn the rest of it into jerky.
Monica had to wait for the meat to cool a bit before she took a bite. “It’s a bit chewy, but it tastes a lot better than I thought it would,” she said with a grin. “I wish you could taste it for yourself,” she added.
Nazab leaned over and brushed his mouth against hers, then licked his lips. “You’re right,” he agreed, eyes locked onto her mouth. “It tastes divine.”
“Damn, you’re smooth,” she said almost accusingly, feeling all sorts of things going on internally. She’d never anticipated having sex with a man this much before. The delay was getting harder to bear.
Giving her a seductive grin, her knight helped her cook the venison until the strips were hard and resembled beef jerky. She added salt to them to preserve the jerky for as long as possible, then sealed it inside airtight containers.
“It’s still early enough for us to visit all of the sites on my list,” Nazab said, checking the height of the sun. He didn’t have a watch, but he always seemed to know what time it was.
“I’m good to go,” Monica said. She ducked inside long enough to put the venison with the rest of her supplies, then they headed to the truck.
This time, they climbed inside without being attacked by wild animals.
Monica used the map to direct Nazab to the first location.
They didn’t see a single living soul along the way, but spotted skeletons inside vehicles that had crashed.
“I wonder how many lives were lost when people were raptured from their vehicles,” Nazab said as he drove around the wreckage of the second accident along their route.
“Probably lots,” Monica figured. “I bet the freeways and highways are riddled with them. Someone was always driving around even at midnight back before the Rapture.”
Now, the roads were empty and were beginning to deteriorate. In a few more years, they would become impassable. Everything would eventually break down without constant maintenance, signaling the end of civilization as she’d known it.