He walked up to the loft, pulled down the stairs, and entered the roof through the small door. He made his way toward the edge and looked all around.
There were a few garden pots lying all around, and he imagined they once belonged to a gardener or maybe a wife in the house, or someone who liked roof gardening.
The plants were all dying anyway.
Running a hand down his face, he took several deep breaths and stared up at the night sky. It had been nearly a year since the virus was unleashed.
He sat on the edge of the roof for the longest time, lost in thought, feeling alone even though the house was full. He watched the sun start to rise, sleep once again failing him. He’d not slept a lot in recent weeks. He didn’t like the uneasy feeling that kept him up at night.
Having been on the front lines, he knew that more trouble was coming.
What he wanted to know was how bad and when it was coming. He had to be prepared, to protect what he’d created here.
With the sun finally up, he got to his feet and left the safety of the rooftop, heading back down to the main kitchen.
“It could be worse,” Anna said. She was one of the few women who’d come for sanctuary.
“How could what be worse?” he asked, entering the kitchen.
He saw at least ten people were already down for breakfast. The coffee was on. The one good thing about this place, there seemed to be an endless supply of coffee and food. He wondered if the person who once lived here was a doomsdayer, the kind of person to prepare for a potential apocalypse.
“Our situation. I mean, yeah, it’s bad. Our population has dwindled, and a lot of people have died. There’s no active government or head of state, but I mean, at least the people who are dead are not coming back to eat our brains.”
“She thinks that because there are no zombies around, we’re all good,” Luke said.
“Hey, it’s not funny. I’m being serious,” Anna said.
“So am I. There’s nothing about our situation that’s good.”
“I don’t know, I’m glad we don’t have a couple billion people knocking at the gate wanting to suck our brains out,” Draven said. “That’s a plus.”
He took a sip of his coffee and tried to hide the disgust. Whoever had made it couldn’t make coffee.
“See, I told you.”
“Draven, we’ve got company,” Benjamin said, coming into the kitchen.
Everyone tensed.
“What kind?”
“Two women. They look tired.”
Draven reached for his gun. The men followed him out, and they all approached the gate. He held the gun up. It wouldn’t be the first time a gang had tried to take his land by using a woman as bait. He had no interest in finding out if that was the case now.
“Whoa, whoa,” one of the women said.
The other one remained quiet. Her wide blue eyes stared at the gun in his hand.
“We don’t take in just any strays. You’re alone?” Draven asked.
“I want to make sure this is Draven’s Kingdom.”
“What?” He didn’t have a name for his place, but hearing that, it was weird.
“Ashley and I, we’re looking for Draven.”
He assumed the sexy blonde was Ashley.
“You’re looking at him.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Now, what the fuck do you want?”
“I’m Luanna. This is Ashley. We need a place to stay. We can earn our keep. I promise you. We’ve been traveling all week, and look, she’s a fertile.”
Before Ashley could stop her, Luanna had grabbed her wrist and showed them the status marking.
The men took a step closer, but Draven saw the fear in Ashley’s eyes. She jerked away from her friend, her loose bun coming undone. Damn, she sparked something inside of him.
Luanna had no right exposing her friend, but he also couldn’t allow the two women to leave his premises now.
“Open the gate,” he said, giving the order.
Like always, the gate was only opened a short distance, just in case someone decided to try to sneak in or to ram it open.
He pushed his way through the men and went straight to Ashley, who kept backing up until the closed gate stopped her.
“Please don’t hurt me,” she said.
He reached down, grabbing her wrist and inspecting the band that declared her as fertile.
“Welcome,” he said.
Chapter Two
Draven never gave much thought to the fertile women the government claimed were running loose, a huge bounty on their heads. He considered them more a tall tale, a story people shared to give them a bit of hope.
He’d never seen one in the flesh. If the virus didn’t kill them, it rendered most women infertile. The moment he saw that tattoo on Ashley’s wrist, something came alive in him. The prospect of continuing life, of creating a new world excited him. It was more than that. The girl with the long blonde hair had an air of innocence that pulled him in.