After the End of the World

He slashes at Caiden, but my husband is quick and jumps back. It looks to me like there was no contact. The two of them circle each other on the deck, the captain fainting at him twice, and Caiden leaping back and avoiding the slashing blade.

I'm sorely tempted to go and see if I can help, but I have no clue when it comes to fighting, and Caiden was very specific about my staying strapped in. I'm fervently wishing I hadn't shown Ramirez any mercy and had given him a few more whacks with that clock. If I had, Caiden would be safe in here with me and we'd be well away from the ship by now.

I watch as the captain makes a third slashing lunge, but this time Caiden dodges to the side, instead of back, and he grabs the captain's wrist, bending it back until the knife falls free. Then he winds up and hits the captain in the jaw hard enough to lift him off his feet. Ramirez lands flat on his back and doesn't move.

Caiden leaps back to the lifeboat and starts pulling and twisting at something in that same area. He's obviously seen what the captain did to stop us from launching.

What Caiden doesn't see is that the captain is back on his feet. I realize that he's played possum and now he's coming at my husband with murder in his eyes. "Look out!" I scream, but I know he'll never hear me. He gives one last tug, and suddenly the lifeboat is sliding. He looks like he's going to jump onto the stern, but we've already slid too far. He wouldn't make it.

"I love you," he yells, barely audible over the storm. "Take care of our kids." He stands tall and watches us go.

We're falling away quickly, but not so quickly as to miss what happens next. The captain doesn't even attempt to take my husband into custody; he just gives him a shove. Caiden tumbles from the deck, out into space above the water, then hits one of the rail's struts on the way down.

"No!" I scream helplessly. His body is tumbling limply toward the sea when our big impact arrives.

I knew we'd hit hard, but it's way harder than I'd expected, and I feel the wide nylon straps dig harshly into my bare skin. The designers probably hadn't envisioned a naked woman being the operator. Then everything goes calm and silent and I realize we're underwater. This lasts only a second or two as we come up like a cork, seemingly clear out of the water. We splash down again, then the boat stabilizes. Sort of. Now we're bobbing aimlessly in the big waves.

I've got to find Caiden. As I drop from the cockpit, I survey the baby carriers. All four are still securely fastened into their seats, so I rush toward the hatch.

"Where's Caiden?" Haley asks.

"He went into the ocean right behind us," I say. "He's hurt and I've got to find him."

Haley releases her buckle and grabs my arm. "Lana," she says, obviously doing her best to stay calm and talk some sense into me. "What exactly are you planning to do? It's pitch black out there. You wouldn't find him if he was five feet from the boat."

Even in my panic, I know she speaks the truth. I can't just jump into the South Atlantic at night in the middle of a storm and expect to find my husband. If we're ever going to get him back onboard, he's going to have to come to us. But even the blaze orange paint that covers this vessel from stem to stern won't be visible now. How will he find us?

Well, how do you find a lifeboat in the dark? Rescuers might need to do that if a ship sank at night. Oh, yeah. Lights. There must be lights on a diesel-powered lifeboat. I pull myself back into the cockpit and study the panel. One of the switches is labeled "Strobe." I flip it and the area around the boat is lit extremely bright for a small fraction of a second. Then again, maybe a second later. And then again. If Caiden is alive and conscious out there, he'll see it.

Inside, I know that his being able to swim to us is an almost forlorn hope. He looked like he'd been knocked unconscious on the way down. And down was at least sixty feet. And I don't even know if he can swim. It's not something that had ever come up in our conversations, but swimming isn't a thing in rural Montana.

Unlikely as his survival might be, though, I'm not giving up. I drop back to the aisle and go to the hatch. "You're not going out there, are you?" Haley's looking at me like I'm insane.

"Not into the ocean," I say, "but when Caiden gets here, I need to be there to pull him on board."

She nods. "How can I help?"

"Stay inside but be ready to come out and help me. I'll bang on the window when it's time. Oh, and see if there are any blankets. Caiden's gonna be freezing when he gets here."

"Yeah, and I'll see if I can find one for you too, Little Miss Streaker." We actually manage to smile grimly at each other, then I'm undoing the latches on the door.

Maybe I didn't notice how cold I was getting before, but I can certainly feel it now as I grab the vertical metal bar that serves as a grip rail next to the hatch. The little platform on the back has non-skid paint, but it's less than a foot wide. I hold on tight as the boat pitches wildly. My arms and hands are aching with the cold, and I'm shivering hard. Sheets of rain batter me and run down my body. This is horrible, but nowhere near what my man must be dealing with right now.

"Caiden!" I scream over and over. I don't know if that's helpful, because he'd be able to see the strobe from a lot further away than he'd be able to hear my voice, but it can't hurt. "Caiden!"

I can still see the ship in the distance, but something looks wrong about it. I stare for a long moment, then realize it's because it's broadside to us. It's turning. I don't know what their intention is, but I don't like this at all. I bang on the door.

Ten seconds later it opens a few inches. I tell Haley what I've seen. "Should I turn off the strobe?" she asks.

"Not yet. It has to bring Caiden to us first. What I need you to do is get up in the cockpit and be ready to drive this thing. The engine's already running. Do you know how to handle a boat?"

She gives me a look. "Seriously?"

Oops. I'd momentarily forgotten what Ty and Haley do for a living. "Sorry, but be ready. Captain Ramirez likely wants vengeance for what Caiden and I did to him."

"He'd run us down with the ship?"

I nod. "That's why I need you in the cockpit. When they get close, you've got to kill the strobe and get us out of their path. And, uh, if something happens to me, steer a course of ninety degrees for about fifty miles. There should be plenty of fuel for that." I quickly explain where she'd be going.

"Got it. Good luck." She closes the hatch. I'm alone again. I resume screaming Caiden's name as the Héctor Cámpora points its bow at us and closes the distance.

At first, I can only see the approaching ship about a third of the time. The waves are way higher than our little boat. But as it gets closer, I can see if for longer and longer as it begins to loom over us.

"Dammit, Caiden, where are you?" I scream.

The last thing I'm actually expecting is an answer, but I hear what sounds like a voice. I think it's off to the left. I stare in that direction, and in the flash of the strobe, I see him. He's more bobbing than swimming, about forty feet away, and at the rate he's going he won't arrive before the ship does.

I don't even hesitate, diving into the sea and stroking toward him. I find that I'm so stiff that swimming is difficult, and I've never swum in waves this big or water this cold. I don't care, though. I've got to get him back to the boat.

I'm good in the water, having grown up in places where people do swim, and I cover the distance quickly. "Caiden, are you alright?" I yell as I near him. The look in his eyes says he's only barely conscious, and he doesn't speak, just looking at me with a dull and exhausted expression.

They say you should never swim out to save a drowning person because they'll just pull you down with them, but I feel I can trust Caiden, even in his current condition. I grab the collar of his shirt and start to swim back toward the strobe using a side stroke. I'm hoping that pulling him backwards will reduce the amount of water going into his mouth and make it more difficult for him to grab me if he suddenly panics.

The ship is getting closer a lot faster than I like. I look toward the lifeboat. We're about twenty feet away now. I redouble my efforts, going just as fast as I can.

When my hand touches the stern, I suddenly realize I've got a problem. There are no handholds I can reach from where we are. The ship is close now, and I start banging my fist on the hull, praying they can hear me.

I'm starting to despair when the hatch finally opens, but it's not Haley, it's Ty. He looks confused, but Haley is yelling instructions to him. "I'll explain later, hon," she says, "but you've got to pull her in, okay?" Considering the blow to the head he took, I'm amazed he's conscious at all, so I can forgive him for being a bit confused about what's going on here.

Confusion or not, when he sees us in the water, Ty knows just what to do. He reaches down and takes my hand in his and, bracing his other hand on the edge of the stern, he lifts me right out of the water. The man's incredibly strong. Then he's reaching for Caiden, who's too far gone to even reach up to him.

Then the lifeboat's engine surges, and I can feel that Haley has put it into gear. I look up and see that the bow of the Héctor Cámpora is bearing down on us, now incredibly close. Its intention is quite clear now. It's not slowing and it's steering a course which will split us in two or crush us under its keel. Haley has left it to the last second, or perhaps beyond.

Ty has a big hand wrapped around Caiden's upper arm as the lifeboat starts to pick up speed, but Caiden's too heavy for him to lift aboard alone. I grab Ty's belt again with one hand and the grab bar with the other, desperately trying to keep him from slipping off the narrow ledge. I look up. The ship has arrived.

The knife edge of the bow misses us by maybe fifteen feet, but the side of the ship is rapidly overtaking us as the bow widens toward its full width. It's coming fast, and we don't have nearly enough speed to get clear. If the two vessels collide, Caiden will be crushed between them.

I'm about to scream for Ty to just let him go. There's at least a chance he'll survive scraping down the side of the hull, and we might even be able to find him before he drowns. Might. But before I can say anything, something almost miraculous happens.

The lifeboat lifts and begins to pick up speed as it surfs the bigger vessel's bow wave. The wall of black painted steel is now so close that Caiden's shoes are dragging against it, but slowly it begins to move away.

As soon as the last of the big metal wall is past, Haley cuts the throttle to an idle. We drift to a stop and then she's with us. Between the three of us, we pull Caiden up and through the hatch.

Haley climbs back into the cockpit and kills the strobe, just leaving the dim interior lights on. Then she puts the engine back into gear and gives it about half throttle. We motor away in the dark.

The next morning, Caiden and I are up on deck, or at least what passes for it on this vessel. It curves away from the middle, but there are four-inch-high metal rails at the point where it starts to get steep. Our blanket is our only garment. Caiden's clothes are still soaking wet, the lifeboat's heater not doing nearly as good a job at getting them to dry as it did warming our frigid bodies last night. And of course, I don't have any clothes.

After we had escaped the ship, the storm had gotten even worse, and it was a good thing that Ty had recovered so quickly. Our lifeboat wouldn't actually have sunk, but we were being tossed around horribly before he took over the controls and artfully did whatever it is that real sea people do to handle their vessels in a gale.

By morning, when the storm suddenly passed (as predicted), he was exhausted and passed the helm over to his nearly-as-capable spouse. It was less than an hour later that we spotted land, and another twenty minutes before we were intercepted by a fishing boat. Its Scottish accented captain informed us that yes, the Falkland Islands were still a possession of the British empire. Not that there was an empire (or even a Britain) anymore. When we assured him that we were in good shape and had plenty of provisions and fuel, he told us the best way to get to Stanley, the capital of the archipelago.

According to Haley, we've got a few more hours to go in our plodding little craft. It's a warm, sunny day for this time of the year and the seas are near dead calm, so as long as we stay curled up together in our blanket, Caiden and I are staying reasonably warm.

We're watching the coastline going by to port. If there are any trees on the Falkland Islands, we haven't seen them yet. The terrain is rolling hills covered in hardy grasses and low scrub. We've seen quite a few penguins, albatross, and elephant seals, but what we see most of are sheep. Suddenly, Caiden's being a shepherd sounds like a very useful thing.

I've heard that most people think of the landscape here as boring or desolate, but it speaks to me. I think it's downright beautiful. If Patagonia looks like Montana, then the Falklands look like the Scottish Highlands.

"So what do you think of it?" I ask.

"You know, it has kind of a lonely charm to it. I think it's quite beautiful in its way."

"Not many people would say that, Caiden, but I agree with you."

"Then you'd want to stay here if we're allowed?"

"Yeah. I could even see us spending our lives here."

"Me too, but there's an issue with that."

"Really?"

"Yeah Lana. We're not married."

"Uh, I thought we were."

"Well, I think of you as my wife, treat you as my wife, and desire to always do so. We've shared a bed, made love every night, except last night of course, and we've pretty much adopted each other's children. But we're not actually married, Lana."

I slip out from under our blanket, sitting up cross-legged and looking at him. "So what do you propose?"

Caiden gets to his knees in front of me. Even with the seriousness of the situation, I can't help but admire the way his cock swings in front of him. He slides something off the tip of his left pinky, then holds it out in front of us.

"Alana Erickson-Edwards, I love you like I've never loved a woman before. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

For as much as I've already considered us married, this proposal thrills me even more than the one I got just a year ago. I love Caiden more than I ever believed I could love a man, and that includes Greg, bless his wonderful and giving heart. And Caiden will never know just how much it means to me that he's respected my short past with Greg by calling me by that last name.

For a long moment I'm too choked up to speak, but I cover that by taking the time to get to my own knees. I'm already fighting back tears.

"Of course I'll marry you, Caiden Michaels. I love you more than life itself, and I want to be with you for the rest of my life."

He grins and very carefully slips the ring onto my finger. Fumbling it here would be an almost certain disaster. I suddenly notice that his own ring is gone. He notices my notice.

"We're starting new here," he murmurs. "We'll pick out wedding bands together."

"Good," I murmur back, then kiss him. He crushes me to him, and we kiss deeply for a long time. Finally, and a bit reluctantly, we let each other go and spoon under our blanket again, shivering.

If we spend the rest of our lives here, we'll never experience a hot day again. The record temperature ever in the Falklands was only seventy-five degrees, and the average high in the warmest month (January) is twenty degrees cooler than that. This is not a nudist's paradise.

I notice a faint pounding noise coming from the hull and look toward the cockpit windows. Haley is grinning from ear to ear and holding up a thumb. I smile and wave. She's topless and I can see just a little bit of bright red hair at the bottom of the window. She's feeding her Andrew again.

We'd had to work together last night, after getting everyone dried out and blanketed, to get all four kids fed. Haley ran dry before both of hers were satiated, but I'd had some left over after feeding my own, and suckled the two of them as well. With the boys draining her completely at each meal, Haley's milk supply should quickly increase to handle the extra mouth.

"Where on earth did you get this ring?" I ask Caiden. "I didn't notice them selling jewelry in the ship's gift shop." I hold it out where we both can see it. It's beautifully crafted, and the stone is larger than I would have expected. It's different than a traditional engagement ring, though, because the stone is set very low in the ring, not up on the traditional pedestal. It's held by a low ridge that runs all the way around its perimeter, instead of prongs. It looks like it would be extremely durable, and nothing's going to snag on it. For an active woman like me, it's absolutely perfect, but I can't imagine that Kara would have liked it.

"A few weeks after you moved in with us," Caiden explains, "I found that there was still a custom jeweler doing business inside the borders of the refugee camp. I commissioned this ring for you. That really was the receipt that Ramirez pulled out of my wallet."

Wow, he'd known that early? It had taken me a few more weeks, myself. "It wasn't in the back of your sock drawer after all?"

"Nope. The last thing I needed was to let Kara see it, so it was in my tool locker in the hanger. I was able to snag it before going to the warehouse. I put it in my wallet not long after we went aboard the ship, just in case of pilferage."

"Then why did you wait to give it to me?"

"What, and risk having the captain see you with a ring that I'd told him was gone? The ring is quite unique, and there was a description of it on the receipt he read."

I nod. "Well, it's perfectly designed for me. I love it." And I'm glad I didn't end up with a ring originally intended for Kara.

"Okay," he says, "here's what I think we should tell the folks in our new home."

"Let's hear it." Again, it's important that we have our stories straight.

"We tell them the honest truth. We don't hide anything."

Wow, not hide anything? There are things I'd just as soon nobody knew. Things that embarrass me. But on the other hand, it gets old having to watch what you say all the time. And it would be nice to be able to tell my own April Fool's War story again.

"You know, Caiden, I think I like that."

"Yeah, I think we should be open with others and with each other."

"So I can always tell you exactly what I'm thinking?"

"Absolutely. And what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that since I didn't get laid last night, for like the first time in a month, we should make up for that. This beautiful ring is making me horny as hell."

Caiden chuckles softly in my ear. "Giving it to you did the same thing to me." I feel him shift, and the tip of his hard cock presses against me. I lift my leg just a little and he slides into my warm, wet cavern.

Haley has noticed, and is giving us another big thumbs up.

Epilog

"Hey babe," I whisper, "wanna go for a walk?"

Caiden grins. That's been our signal for better than a decade. "I do believe I would," he murmurs. "Let's slip out of here for a while." Hani and Bashiir from next door have agreed to watch little Steven for an hour, and our older kids will make sure their siblings stay out of trouble, so we're good to go.