Huddled Together Ch. 03

Chapter 3 – Hard Road Home.

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Note from the author:

This is my first attempt at an erotic story. I've had wonderful feedback from my Literotica editor, KatySweetCandy, and a big thank you goes to her for her support.

I would love any feedback that the readers would take the time to write, and greatly enjoy hearing what parts people enjoyed and why.

This is a slow story, and as detailed as I could make it. There is some gore, but far less than would be expected in a current zombie movie. Please be aware of this before starting the read, there isn't much however. I assure you it is worth the time to read. More chapters to come if the feedback points to everyone wanting more.

Enjoy the read.

Writers Unblock

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John didn't dream, which he considered to be a good thing given the things that he and Tom had seen yesterday. When Tom woke him at 7am, John turned to see his warm smile looking at the two of them there together. He patted John's arm once, the sign they had made up to tell each other silently that all was OK, and headed back to the lounge room.

John lay there enjoying the smell and warmth of being there with Anny. His arm was a little wet from where she must have drooled a bit on him in her sleep. It had been a long time since holding a woman for this long; he missed the closeness that a woman can bring to your life. He started gently rubbing her arm to wake her; she stirred and greeted him with another long kiss good morning.

Reluctantly they got out of bed. Anny went to wake Merry, and John gathered his weapons. They all headed into the lounge room together. Skye had divided up the food between them all, as Tom lit a candle on the dining table for them to eat by. John could see some light coming in under the door from the morning Sun.

Everyone sat down at the dinner table. A can of beans and half a can of beetroot divided five ways... John and Tom both offered their portion to the women, which they decided that Merry should have the majority of to try and build her strength for the day's long walk. All the women looked like they needed a good feed when they got home.

Once breakfast was done and the bowls licked clean, the men passed their backpacks to the women, who headed into the bedroom to put as many clothes in as they could. They join the men at the front door in single file and waited. John and Tom put the back packs on and shouldered their rifles.

With machetes at the ready, John volunteered to check that the coast was clear. He walked up and put his ear against the door. He strained his ears to try and hear for anything at all outside. Nothing. Nothing at all, it was almost as scary as hearing a Walker strolling by.

John gave a nod and Tom moved forward to help him take down the wooden barricades as quietly as they could. With them out of the way, John unlocked the handle and turned the knob. The door inched open, and John strained to see out against the gap it was making between it and the wall. More nothing.

With the door now fully open, he stuck his head out slowly to view the veranda, while at the same time scanning the street and houses across the road. There were some slight dusty marks on the veranda, and some drops of blood. They must have been left there from the Walker last night, but no sign of him now. It looked OK out there. He looked up as he heard a couple of Kookaburra's in the distance heading across the sky, taking turns between them to laugh at the plight of the humans below.

With machete at the ready, John stepped out onto the veranda. The floorboards made the same noise that they had with their late night visitor. He reached the top step and stuck his head out to view the rest of the street that was blocked from the outer wall of the bedroom to his left. He took his time, but could see nothing.

Without turning around he pushed his arm back behind him and gave Tom the thumbs up. He then heard Tom come forward and head down the end of the veranda to look around the side of the house. After he was satisfied, Tom headed back to John and gave him one pat on the shoulder, all was clear. He then headed back inside, and the women came out single file.

With John taking lead, followed by Anny, Merry, Skye, then Tom, they started down the stairs and into the yard. They kept low with Merry being helped along by the other women. Stopping at every cover they could reach, and scanning the houses and street constantly to avoid nasty surprises.

It took them a good half hour to get clear of the house, and back to the ditch where the two men reached yesterday 100 metres outside of town, where the bush started getting thick again. The men hide the women behind the rise and John climbed back up to scan the town to make sure they weren't followed.

He raised his rifle and went left to right, nothing moved still. One more pass and they would go. He raised his rifle again from left to right. As he panned across the road that ran through the houses, he saw the Walker. It was limping in the middle of the road slowly in their direction, shit, how had he missed it? To the side he could see some large bushes in front yard of a house that was two down from where they had just left. The group had timed it perfectly, any later in the day and they would have strolled straight into the Walkers gaze.

John quietly whistled out the single descending tone that meant that a Walker had been seen, just loud enough for Tom to hear the 20 metres away down the bank where the group were hiding. He heard Tom scrambling back up the bank behind him and lay next to him on the bank, pulling his rifle up to his eye.

"Right there in the middle of the damn road, a single Walker. I've just scanned the rest a 3rd time and can't see any more of them." John whispered angrily.

By now the Walker had turned around and was heading back down the street away from them.

"Looks like he isn't on our trail, he's headed back the other way." Tom whispered.

They retreated back lower on the bank so that their heads couldn't be seen from town.

"He's not after us, so let's take that luck and move on." John said. "If we take him out from here it might give away our position to more of them, and we don't know how smart these things are yet."

Tom nodded in agreement, and they headed back down into the bushes to where the women were. They were huddled beside a large gum tree, all quietly whimpering. The men picked them up and reassured them as much as they could, and they continued their trek home. John took the lead with the three women beside each other helping Merry along while Tom covered the rear.

-----

It was a nice quiet trip, considering. Merry was by far the weakest of the group, and they all took it in turns helping her along. They passed through the fields, on the edge of where the bush was cut back to, well away from the road.

They had raided one of the empty homesteads along the way for enough food for lunch, and at midday they stopped to eat by the creek where there was some nice tree coverage. The water was clear as glass, very cold, and quick running.

John and Tom sat back up on the bank with their backs on either side of a tree to eat their lunch, watching all sides for any surprises. The women had theirs down near the creek, refreshing themselves with the water.

They rested there for some time, John occasionally stealing glances down towards the women, Anny in particular. She was beautiful. She was tying her hair into two pigtails, one on either side of her head, her eyes happy as she chatted with Merry and Skye. And that smile. That smile was melting his heart.

She had removed her shirt and was rinsing it in the cool waters, using it as a wash cloth to clean her body off. He was mesmerized by the way that the water streamed down her chest as she wiped the scrunched up shirt on her neck, little veins of water running between her breasts and onto her pants.

He was brought out of his stolen glances by Tom starting to talk. John changed his focus back to the bush where it should have been.

"Well we didn't exactly find anyone to help with the hard labour of building this wall."

It was true, the main aim was to find people to help build the defences, but finding these women might be even better in the long run.

"True," John added, "But they can look after the food and water at least while we are building. And, it can't hurt having women around in times like these... we might need to rebuild the human race..."

John almost stopped himself from saying it out loud; he had been thinking it the whole morning's hike, thinking about all the time that they would get to spend with these women in the future.

Tom let out a laugh, which grabbed the attention of the women down by the creek. They looked up, saw that we were chatting happily, and continued enjoying the waters with a smile. He leant around the tree and punched John's arm playfully.

"Now that's the spirit mate! Eye on the prize!" loud enough for only John to hear and turned back to his sentinel duty, John could hear the smile in his voice. "So, you and Anny 'ey?"

John looked back down at her briefly, she was laughing at something that Skye had said. Her eye flicked into his for a brief second, then away again. Her face started turning red in the cheeks, then more giggles towards Skye. It made John smile, and he turned back again to the bush.

"Well, there are worse things to think about that's for sure." John said.

"True that, guess that leaves me with Skye then hey. She looks like a little fire cracker, I love the short ones anyway."

The women started back up the bank at that point, they were done freshening themselves up by the look of it. The men stood up, Tom scanning the bush, and John scanning Anny. Her shirt was wet from its job of being used as a wash cloth, and its wetness made it grip her body tightly. John felt fire starting in his loins, "God damn" John thought to himself, it would be along walk back.

-----

The group stopped in at the nearest empty homestead to their home. It hadn't been raided by anyone, so they got the women to wear all their clothes that were in the backpacks, so they could fill them with tins of food.

They continued their journey, looking a bit odd. The women in half a dozen layers of clothes each, and the men crouching over struggling with full backpacks of goodies. All plugging away through the countryside in the Australian summer heat.

They were nearing the house, and the afternoon was wearing out, the sky was starting to fill with purples and reds. The house was visible from the top of the ridge where they were, above the creek that wound along through the property.

Both men brought up their rifles and scanned the property, with the women close. They were hoping to reach the safety of home well before sun down, but Merry's pace had deteriorated quite substantially as the afternoon wore on.

They scanned the house, the hill below, across the creek, and the entire bush around the hills that tucked the house away. Nothing. Looking good.

Tom stood up and turned to the women, "All looks good, let's head out."

The men put their backpacks back on and John started to take the lead.

The next events were quite blurry to John's memory. All he could remember was a fierce stinging pain around his ankle, then falling down the tall embankment with screams of his name ringing in his ears.

He must have become unconscious from the fall, what had happened? His head was pounding, his left leg throbbing in pain. The next thing that came to him was that he was lying uncomfortably in the creek facing up into the sky, his body cold from the water around him. His backpack was still on, and cans were pushing painfully into his spine and ribs, but the extra height of wearing the backpack had saved him from drowning.

As his mind checked through his body's pain points in descending order, he also realized that he huge weight on his chest. It was the body of a Walker lying on top of him. Its head was caved in, what was left of his face a contorted mess looking blankly into his eyes.

He passed out again.

-----

More screaming, whoever it was, was close to him. Eventually his mind turned the sounds into words, his name. Someone was calling him.

He tried to open his eyes but couldn't.

There was the feeling of the dead Walker being moved off his body, the grabbing of his arms, pulling him out of the water.

He passed out again.

-----

Pain was shooting up his leg caused him to wake the next time. His legs were being dragged unceremoniously along the grass, passing now over gravel.

Across floorboards.

He was dumped to the ground.

A bunch of yelling and footsteps.

A door slammed.

-----

He wasn't sure how much time had passed. Had everyone survived? What had happened? Where was he now?

His body started to talk to his mind about the state that it was in. His left ankle was giving off a biting pain that ran up his leg. His back was generally numb from a dull sensation, at least there weren't any more cans pushing into it. His head was throbbing, but a cool washer was now placed over his forehead.

He tried to open his eyes, but he struggled trying to see out of the pain that was flooding his vision.

A soft voice came to him, "Shh, rest now." It was Anny's voice for sure.

Soft lips kissed his cheek; they brought him comfort amongst the pain that seemed to be his entire world at the moment. He went back to sleep.

He woke a few times over the next couple of days. Each time he was fed some warm soup slowly by Anny, it seemed that she didn't leave his side the whole time. Then he would pass back to sleep.

-----

After three days he was able to open his eyes fully and wasn't feeling too bad. His leg still hurt like crazy. He looked down to investigate, but they were covered by a blanket. The room was dark except for a single candle, the windows were boarded up. He was in bed and the décor of the room told him that he was in the downstairs bedroom.

He looked around the room and came upon Anny's face. He looked into her eyes. She looked tired and scared, but a bit of relief came back to her face when their eyes locked. She got out of the armchair and knelt down beside the bed, and carefully wrapped her arms around his chest. It was a bit tender still, but her touch far outweighed the discomfort.

"I'd thought I'd lost you." She whispered to him, her head resting on his chest, she breathed him in for comfort. "We all thought you were gone, and then that Walker..." She trailed off.

The Walker, what had happened? He tried to recall any other details about that day, but struggled.

"What..." his voice came out raspy and weak, he pushed it harder, "What happened? I can't remember anything except the creek. Is everyone OK?" John collapsed back from the effort of speaking.

"Everyone's fine. We'll get to the rest in a moment," an old woman's voice spoke up from the other side of the room. It must have been Merry's. He turned his head to confirm it.

"We need to check that you haven't broken anything now that you're awake." She continued. "This might hurt a bit..."

Merry walked up to the side of the bed. Anny moved off him while Merry checked his body from head to toe, poking and prodding him to check for any broken bones. It hurt quite a bit, but nothing that he couldn't bear. He was tender, but healing well, as Merry put it. She got down to his legs, to his left leg that was still clearly the most painful part he had.

"It was a rabbit trap." She said when she got to the wound. She took the covers off his legs and removed the bandages that were lying on top of his ankle. "You stood right on it; someone put it in the bush and obviously forgot about it. Who knows how long it'd been sitting there. That and the food in your backpack put you off balance and down the embankment you went."

Anny continued the story as Merry worked on tending to the wound. He had lost balance and fell down, as they screamed out his name as he fell, the sound had attracted a Walker that was in the bush close to where they were. They had just started heading down to come help John, when it attacked. Tom had struggled with it, eventually killing it, but in the struggle its body had fallen down embankment where John had just gone down himself.

It wasn't the only Walker they saw during the rescue. When they did finally reach the creek and pulled John's unconscious body up, they could hear the sounds of more in the darkening bush. Everyone helped dragging John up the hill into the house. When they had almost reached the veranda, Merry had spotted two crossing the creek 100 metres behind them and closing. That gave them the energy needed at that point to haul them into the house and barricade the door quick smart.

Merry finished up tending his ankle with a new dressing and gave the news that nothing was broken, just bruised from the fall. It was great news, and John was feeling much better than he could recall from the last couple of days. Merry gave him a warm smile and left the room; Anny went back to hugging him across his chest.

They lay there quite a while. John moved his hand and started gently rubbing her head, moving her hair around over his chest. He felt Anny melting into him, savouring him being awake and alive. She started making soft content noises as he continued the light head massage.

Eventually she brought her face up to his. Their eyes locked for a long time, he felt so amazed by her, enthralled. She smiled back into his eyes. He ran his hand around her cheek, to her chin, and pulled her up to his lips. They shared a long, slow kiss, the same as they had done back in town as they fell to sleep together. Her tongue gently prodded into his mouth, his tongue reciprocated, playing with hers. He exhaled contently.

His body was sore, but having her close to him and kissing him deeply helped push the feelings out of his mind, she was better than any drug. His hand moved down from her face to her arm, gripped it as firmly as he could muster, and started pulling her over his body. He was too weak still to have moved her himself, but she realized what he was trying to do, and stood up and swung her leg over his hips.

She was wearing a skirt that came down just above her knees; it flipped up slightly from the movement she made. John stole a glance of as much of her legs as he could when this happened. Their hips were together as she sat on top of him smiling down, her face framed by her beautiful blonde hair. The light from the candle jumped over her pale skin as he moved his hands slowly up her arms, bringing them to her shoulders.

He took hold of her shoulders and pulled her gently forward, down towards him. She put her hands on either side of his head, to hold her weight off his body but lowered herself down onto his chest, touching it enough to feel in contact.

They started another magic kiss together which lasted the longest time. John's body was beaten, but Anny's touch seemed to draw the pain away. He could feel that his crotch was operational at least, nothing but good feelings coming from there.

Anny started slowly grinding her loins against his in long slow movements, and it didn't take long at all for him to have a nice hard erection. He was only wearing his boxers, and the covers were still down from his examination earlier.

Anny broke the kiss with a deep smile into his eyes, and sat back up on top of him. Their fingers intertwined playfully, their eyes locked together. She eventually untangled her fingers and they moved to the bottom of her shirt. His hands moved to her thighs, massaging gently under her skirt. She paused, gaining courage, and then peeled it up over her body and clear of her head.

Her flat stomach and full round breasts greeted him. They looked even more tantalizing in the candlelight. He moved his hands up her legs, up to her stomach, and started tracing around the bottom of her bra not quite touching it. His hands started grabbing her torso underneath her breasts, teasing that they were so close.