Apex

Chapter 6: A Better Life

Chapter 6: A Better Life

The next three weeks were really something. Through scouting nearby hardware stores and garages, they gathered the materials they needed to fortify the town square. The six streets leading out of the square were blocked off by buses and a makeshift wooden fence. The inside of the bus and fence were fortified with stacked and cemented cinderblocks. That way, it would take a lot more to break through. Only one wall had a door that lead into the bus and therefore the square. At the end of the month, there were fifteen survivors living here. Lex’s group were as distrustful of them as they were of her at the beginning. However, as people got to know one another, everyone calmed down. Now, everyone got along as well as possible. There was a guard on each wall, armed with a sniper rifle. The entrance had two sentries just to be safe. There was an office above the bus depot that Lex reluctantly accepted as her own seeing as she was the leader of this community. Even the newcomers looked up to her, assuming she was in charge based on their initial encounters with her. Food was something they still had a problem with. Nineteen people consumed a lot of food and water, much of which Lex did not have to provide. She had plans to start a greenhouse on the roof of one of the buildings. That would certainly keep them fed better than they were at the moment. As for weapons and ammo, they had taken in a generous supply of guns from the police stations scattered around the town. Life was better than usual. It was promising to see her community thrive in the world they lived in. There was one bus left in the depot that Lex hoped to use as the town’s all-purpose vehicle. If they were ultimately forced to leave, the bus would be used to transport them all away. If Lex came into conflict with another group, the bus was to serve as a military transport of sorts. She made her way down to see what she could do with it. They certainly had enough material from the hardware stores to armour the bus.

“I would say I told you so,” Linus began as he entered the garage of the depot to find Lex laying out sheets of steel on the ground, “but you were on board with this idea from the beginning.” She couldn’t help but smile at that.

“I was hopeful, that’s all,” she corrected him. “I always doubted we’d actually get here…but to see these people living safely, getting on with their lives…”

“It’s something,” Linus finished her sentence. “And it’s all thanks to you.” Lex felt herself blushing then.

“Well, not entirely,” she claimed.

“Hah! Oh, come on. None of this would be here if you hadn’t kept us at work.” It was now that Lex was very aware of how close she and Linus were. She could almost feel his breath on her face. Linus, too, seemed to notice he was almost on top of her. His eyes glanced around quickly before he moved in towards her and kissed her.

“Was that too much?” he asked as he pulled away.

“Not even nearly,” Lex told him as she pulled him closer and returned his kiss. “What happened to your rule about never getting close to people?” she asked as he moved down to kiss her neck.

“I said not to trust people,” he corrected her in between heavy breaths. “I’ve never wanted to be closer to anyone in my life.” His hands inevitably went to her pants as he unbuckled her belt.

“Here?” she asked, immediately aware that the door of the garage was wide open. Still, there was nobody wandering around the square. Anyone who wasn’t inside was guarding the walls and none of the sentries had any kind of clear view of the inside of the depot.

“As good a place as any,” Linus joked as he removed her jeans. She slipped his trousers off then to reveal his manhood. With one last glance to the outside to make sure they would not be disturbed, Linus entered her gently. As he did, Lex felt several unfamiliar emotions rush her mind. She had grown quite fond of Linus over the past few weeks. He was a valuable advisor, highly intelligent and more than cautious. However, it was only now that she realised quite how fond of him she was. This feeling was new to her. She would need time to process this later. As she got caught up in both her thoughts and the manner at hand, she did not realise quite how loudly she was moaning. “Quite the mating call you’ve got there, girlie,” Linus taunted her. She couldn’t have stopped herself from laughing at that if she wanted to. As the sun came closer to setting, Linus unzipped Lex’s jacket and tore open her tank top to reveal her breasts. As his right hand went to caress her, she bit his bottom lip passionately, an action that seemed to startle him for a nanosecond before he went with it. Lex could feel herself nearing climax now, much quicker than when she had been with Jake. Linus was thrusting harder and faster, making the most of the awkwardly positioned Lex, her buttocks pressed against the cold steel of the bus’s front bumper. She felt him finish inside her then. He did not stop. Rather, he used his left hand to help her along, rotating his thumb against her c**t. She climaxed moments later with a tremulous groan that might well have rang out across the square to reach the ears of the sentries. The insides of Lex’s thighs were soaking as she pulled her jeans back up. Linus took one final glance outside as he donned his own trousers.

“Satisfied, I take it?” Lex asked the all-too happy looking Linus. The expression on his face was full of giddiness.

“Ah, it was alright,” he joked with a shrug. Lex smirked, zipping up her jacket to cover her now exposed breasts.

“Well, you know where my office is if you want to lodge a complaint,” she told him as she walked away slowly.

“If I do make a trip to your office, I’ll do more than lodge a complaint.” Lex chuckled.

“You owe me a tank top, too,” she told him as she ascended the flight of stairs that led to her office. Though she would have much preferred if Linus had accompanied her to bed, she knew that he was fond of where he usually slept. He had taken a mattress into one of the buses two weeks ago. Now, he slept there every night, crossbow by his side. Lex wasn’t sure why exactly he wanted to sleep somewhere as cold and out of the way as the wall. Perhaps he did not want to take up space that could be used by the other residents of the town. The next morning, Lex awoke and glanced out her window to see Jake teaching a teenage boy how to shoot. They used a pellet gun, of course, to avoid unnecessary noise and possible damage. It was silly and unwarranted but Lex felt as though she owed Jake some sort of explanation. He did not know about her and Linus, nor had he shown any interest in Lex beyond that one night. Still, it would help clear the air for Lex. She had a lot on her mind at the moment. She left her office and exited the depot, coming up behind Jake and his pupil.

“Don’t bend your elbow so much,” he was telling the boy. There was a wooden plank with a target spray-painted on it propped up against one of the houses. “The recoil of a real gun will knock you on your ass if your arms aren’t stiff enough.” He noticed Lex then. “Hey, Lex. Come to watch the master at work?”

“You or him?”

“Hah! He’s far from a master yet,” he joked, provoking a disappointed look from the boy. “Sorry, kid. Anyway, what’s up?”

“I wanted to talk is all. Privately, if possible.”

“You give us a minute, Kev?” Jake asked the kid.

“Sure,” Kevin answered as he strolled away awkwardly.

“You, um…you remember that night? Back at the house?” In the space of a second, Jake’s face assumed an expression of pure panic. He rubbed the back of his head erratically as his skin went pale.

“Oh god, you’re not-!”

“No! God, no,” Lex assured him. Good thing she did, too, or he might have passed out. “It’s just…it was nice, you know? To forget all the s**t and just relax.” Jake smiled, his eyes studying her confusedly.

“Yeah…yeah, it was.”

“But you didn’t…well, get attached, right?” she asked bluntly. “I mean, you weren’t expecting more to come of it?”

“Oh, no, ‘course not,” he answered, much to Lex’s relief. “No, it was…heh, it was good. But it was a momentary thing, you know?” Lex sighed then. She felt exactly the same way. She just hoped Jake would be alright with her and Linus.

“Good, good. I was hoping you’d feel that way because…well, I-“

“Linus?” Jake asked, much to Lex’s surprise. It almost made her feel sick to think he might have seen them.

“How did you-?”

“Well, damn, Lex. I’d be surprised if there was anyone in my building that didn’t hear you two.” They were rather loud, that much was undeniable. “But, yeah. I’m happy for you two.”

“You are?” That pleased Lex greatly.

“Yeah. Poor bastard was following you around like a dog for the last three weeks. If he didn’t get s*x at some point he would’ve blown his brains out.” They laughed then, glad everything had been cleared up.

“Thanks, Jake,” Lex said before turning and climbing the stairs to her office once more. As she entered, she spotted Linus by the window. He now wore a white t-shirt and held his tank top in his hands.

“You said I owed you one,” he told her then. She went to him and they shared a sloppy kiss.

“You busy?” she asked. As much as he would’ve liked to stay with her, he had other things on his mind.

“Don’t tease me,” he scolded her. “I actually came to run something by you. One of the sentries says he thinks he spotted someone at the end of the street last night. It was dark and he was tired so he didn’t want to panic anyone at the time.”

“But you think it’s worth checking out?” He nodded. Truthfully, it would be wise to investigate. However unreliable the sentry’s vision in the dark, they could not afford to ignore this.

“I’m going to take a group with me and head out. Search the rest of the town.” As much as she didn’t want to let him go out there, she could not let her feelings get in the way here. This matter needed to be looked into. He left an hour later in the truck they had taken from Bruno’s Compound, leaving the town through an underground car park that emerged outside the walls. They would need to post guards down there too. The last thing they wanted was for enemies to come up from beneath them. Lex spent the rest of the day reinforcing the walls of the bus with sheet metal and wooden pallets. They wouldn’t stop most bullets but they would at least slow them down or change their course. The windows, too, were covered with wood and chicken wire on the inside. All in all, it was rather impressive. Nobody could see inside the vehicle from most angles while the driver could still see where they were going. This felt like progress. The whole week did, in fact. In less than a month they would likely have a functional, thriving, self-sufficient community. Natalie approached Lex later in the evening as she was finishing up with the bus.

“We going to war?” Nat asked as she came to a halt at the entrance to the depot’s garage. Lex scoffed incredulously.

“Not if I can help it,” she said. “But it never helps to be prepared. I’m not so sure we’re safe after what happened last month.”

“With the Hunters?” Nat asked. If she was being honest, her confidence had been shaken too. There had always been violent, hostile groups of humans surviving in the world but Bruno’s group were a special breed of nastiness. “I know what you mean. The world is a larger place than we thought, huh?”

“I’ve come across aggressive groups in the past but none as…organised, as intimidating.” Indeed, Bruno had the Hunters trained and disciplined like an army. To top it off, they captured, hunted and ate other humans. They were quite the force to be reckoned with. Lex theorised that they were the largest and most dangerous group for hundreds of miles.

“I was thinking about this food situation,” Natalie changed the subject then. “Was talking to Shane and Patricia. They were talking about this farm not far from here that they stayed in with their kid a while ago. According to them, there’re still remnants of crops and stuff there. Might be worth checking out.”

“Shane and Patricia have a kid?” Lex asked then. Though she had met them when they arrived, they were with three others, two of which Lex assumed were the parents of both children that had been with them.

“Yeah, Lily,” Nat answered. “But that’s not really important, huh?” Lex laughed then, realising she had completely ignored the most important thing her friend had just said.

“Sorry. Yeah, sounds like a plan. I’ll drive out with some of the others tomorrow. Linus should be back soon with the truck.”

“He’s been gone a while, hasn’t he?” Lex glanced outside then. She had been so busy with her work that she hadn’t noticed the sun set. It was completely dark outside. Linus had been gone for hours. Natalie must have noticed the worried expression on her friend’s face then. “Don’t worry, girl. He’ll be alright.” Lex gave an unconvincing smile then.

“I know.”

“You want me to go out and take a look around?” Nat asked. She did not need a vehicle. Lex knew she did better on her feet.

“No, no, it’s alright,” Lex decided. “If he’s not back in an hour, I’ll talk to Jake.” In the meantime, Jake did a patrol of the square. He was officially the Guard Captain of the town. Along with those guarding the walls, he was charged with protecting the citizens of the town more from each other than from anything else. Lex still did not know much about the fifteen residents of their community. They could well be dangerous. If there were no incidents after a thirty day probation period, residents were considered trustworthy. That was the rule Lex fully intended to enforce. Causing trouble would result in imprisonment or death, depending on the severity of the crime committed. Criminal behaviour would not be permitted here. A place to keep prisoners was something else they needed to look into. As the night moved on, Linus finally returned. The news was not good, judging from the state the truck was in. Bullet holes riddled the entire right side of the vehicle and blood stains covered the brownish-white paint. Linus spilled out of the truck onto the asphalt below him as Jake rushed to his aid. Only two guards, Jake and Nat were present. Everyone else had retired to bed. Was Lex not horrified by the sight down in the square, she would have made a mental note to have more guards on the walls at night. She rushed from her office and went to Linus’s aid, helping him to his feet with Jake.

“f*****g Christ, man,” Jake exclaimed. “What happened out there?!” Blood leaked from a bullet wound in Linus’s right leg and his shirt was torn.

“We were attacked,” he told them bluntly, trying his best to stay on his feet with one arm against the truck. “They killed Kieran. Just gunned him down. Argh! Goddamn it!” He was putting pressure on his wound now.

“Wake Patricia,” Lex told Natalie. “We need her to have a look at his leg.”