Surviving the Apocalypse Box Set

Chapter 5-2

The first week was okay, except for the lack of coffee. Lync hadn’t realized how much he’d relied on his daily caffeine fix until he had to stop cold turkey, because as luck would have it, this lot of MREs were not only missing utensils but a hot beverage as well. Next time, he’d double check.

Wait. Next time? What was he—

“Lyncoln? Is something wrong?”

“No,” he lied, unwilling to worry his companion. But by the second day he had a low-level headache and felt generally lousy. It hadn’t taken Adam long to figure out what was wrong with him, and he’d handed Lync a bottle of ibuprofen and a bottle of water, which had helped a lot.

They passed the time in games of Clue and Monopoly—Lync decided it might be a good idea to stay away from cards at this point, since all he wanted to play was strip poker, and he was pretty sure Adam would have preferred bridge or cribbage. He’d never learned the former and they didn’t have the board for score-keeping for the latter.

And they talked a lot, sharing stories about their friends and families. Lync loved hearing about Adam’s adventures in college, and Adam seemed interested in the tales Lync told of the days he’d spent in the forest, hunting with his dad.

“Nick’s has some shotguns and ammunition, so if animals have survived, we should do okay.”

“When we leave here, your experience is going to be more useful than mine,” Adam murmured as he tipped up the can of soup he’d chosen—vegetable beef—and that made Lync feel top of the world.

The second week, though…

They prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast, using their fingers and then licking them clean. They ate a lot of cold soup and canned spaghetti and the occasional packet of tuna, washed down with bottles of water. Adam was such a good sport about it.

But still…no coffee.

“I really am sorry I forgot spoons and forks,” Lync said. “And bowls.” They had to drink the soup from the can and scoop the spaghetti out with their fingers.

“It’s okay.” Adam assured him again, and while it seemed like he meant it, Lync was still unhappy. Adam shifted over to sit closer to him and once again draped an arm around his shoulders. “You did much better than I did.”

Okay, this wasn’t a good idea. Sitting so close, being able to breathe in Adam’s scent—even without soap, something else Lync had forgotten, Adam still smelled nice, while Lync was sure he could be smelled clear across the shelter—just made Lync want to tumble Adam down to the mattresses they sat on and rub their d***s together until they exploded in a cascade of fireworks.

He let himself stay there for just a minute more, promising he wouldn’t overstep the boundaries he’d laid out.

The thing was, after two weeks of eating cold soup and canned spaghetti and tuna that tasted really fishy—and no coffee—Lync had had enough. Not that he hadn’t eaten out of a can before, and not that his companion in this disaster had complained, but a man like Adam shouldn’t have to eat like that.

“I’m going topside,” he said as he licked off his fingers and set aside the half-finished can of cold SpaghettiOs.

“You can’t. It’s not safe.” Adam looked pale. Lync didn’t want him alarmed, but he liked the fact that Adam cared.

“I’m not going outside. I just want to go up to Nick’s.” The sporting goods store stocked camping equipment, and Lync was pretty sure he’d be able to find a camp stove and maybe even a jar of freeze dried coffee—not his favorite, but at this point he was desperate, and he had the feeling Adam might be, too.

“Then I’m going with you.”

“You don’t need to—”

“I’m aware of that, but I’m not staying down here while you take a chance like that.”

“I won’t be taking any chances, I promise you. I’ll check the roof, and if it doesn’t look like it’s damaged, I’ll make a dash for it.”

“And how are you going to ascertain it isn’t damaged? There could be tiny holes that escaped detection. Radiation could get in that way.”

Lync scowled at Adam, although secretly he’d be pleased to have the company. And he did love the way the other man spoke. Ascertain. Escape detection.

“I’ll bring the Geiger counter with me.” It was bulky and old-fashioned, the sort that could be looped around his neck, and it must have been an original artifact. Lync had checked earlier in the week, relieved it worked in spite of its age.

Adam stood there, his arms folded across his chest, a stubborn twist to those luscious lips of his.

“Okay, fine.” Lync couldn’t resist a quick glance along the lines of Adam’s lean torso and long legs and swallowed before he started drooling. “Put on your pants and shoes.” He followed his own instructions, then handed Adam a flashlight. “Just stay close and don’t go wandering off.”

“I won’t, I promise. We can take one of the carts from the basement—”

“Do we really want to be lugging them up to the main level and then back down again?”

“But—”

“Nick’s has carts. They’re smaller, but we can use them.” Lync had some other things in mind to bring down. He would have the night everything had fallen apart, but there just hadn’t been time. Speaking of time…He glanced at his watch. “Let’s keep this to fifteen minutes, tops.”

“Yes, Lyncoln.”

He did like the way that sounded. Would Adam say “Yes, Lyncoln” if Lync asked him to strip down and get on his hands and knees? Like clockwork, his d**k got hard, and he would have groaned—not only didn’t he have the time for any of this, but he also didn’t want to make Adam uncomfortable by making s****l advances. Why would the sophisticated man agree to an affair with Lync? And if he said yes, just because Lync was the only man available—or worse, because he didn’t want to cause tension—that would make Lync feel even worse. He turned so Adam couldn’t see the bulge in his jeans. No, it was best if he kept everything businesslike.

He looped the Geiger counter over a shoulder, climbed up the ladder, and unfastened the hatch. When he shoved it open, he could see how pitch-black the rest of the basement was—the batteries that powered the emergency lights had long since lost all their juice—and he flipped on his flashlight. It might be small, but its beam covered a broad scope of terrain.

He got out, pleased Adam was on his heels and hadn’t wasted time closing the hatch. A quick glance showed the carts they’d moved to the side were still in place and hadn’t moved, so things must have been quiet up here. They crossed the space to the stairs, jogged up them, and hurried to the doors. Lync turned on the Geiger counter, shoved the doors open, thrust out the wand, and held his breath, but the amount of radiation the machine ticked off wasn’t much more than it had recorded in the shelter.

Lync stepped out into the mall and waited for Adam to join him. The security gates were still locked down, and the amount of light they let in was minimal, even though it was early morning. The glass section of ceiling wasn’t letting in as much light as usual either, but Lync didn’t know if that was because of debris, a result of fallout, or if it was just cloudy because it was a rainy day.

“Okay.” He touched Adam’s arm. “Come on.”

They dashed around the fountain and Adam’s car and headed to Nick’s. Lync pulled his keyring off his belt and unlocked the door to the sporting goods store. As he’d known, two rows of carts were inside, neatly tucked one into the other. Adam went to the second row and freed a cart, but it took Lync a little longer, since whoever had lined them up had done it with enthusiasm.

“The clothes are in the center of the store,” he told Adam. Their clothes were getting a bit whiff, and it would be nice to change out of them into something clean. “Go for the large and extra-large—we might need layers.”

“I’ll get underwear and socks also,” Adam called over his shoulder, not waiting for further instructions.

Lync headed for the side of the store where camping equipment was stocked. He put a propane-powered camping stove into the cart, along with the lamented utensils and all the bottles of fuel on the shelf. There were probably more in the storeroom, but just then they had enough for another few weeks, so he’d leave those for when it was time to evacuate. And instead of including a percolator, he chose a stovetop coffeepot and a kettle that would heat water over the stove.

Food specifically suited for camping was right next to the cooking gear, and better than instant coffee, there were boxes of ready-to-brew drip coffee, similar to teabags. He added all of them, as well as the bags of raisins and jerky, which would make a nice addition to what they already had.

“Lyncoln!” Adam sounded nervous, and a glance at his watch showed Lync why. They had to leave.

“I’m over here.” He gathered the last few items and hurried to find Adam.

“We have to go.”

“I know.”

Adam pushed his cart out of the store, and Lync followed right behind him. He locked the door, and together, they raced across the mall.

They worked the carts down the stairs in a repeat of their actions two weeks before, but this time, before Lync opened the hatch, he ran the wand over them, almost crying with relief when it didn’t reveal a high radiation count.

“God, I was worried about that.” Adam threw his arms around Lync and hugged him tight, and Lync could have sworn, because his d**k was so hard Adam couldn’t have missed it.

“We’re okay.” He stepped back and cleared his throat. “We’d…uh…we’d better get all this stuff into the shelter before we start growing another head.”

Adam laughed and threw the contents of his cart—armfuls of clothes—down into the shelter. They were careful about the gear in Lync’s cart, but it didn’t take them long, and finally Adam waited at the bottom of the ladder while Lync pulled the hatch closed and secured it.

“Lyncoln? What would we have done if there had been people trying to get into the mall?”

“I don’t know.” That was one of the things he had worried about. “I suppose it would depend on their attitude. If they were polite about it, I suppose I’d have let them in. On the other hand, if they were trying to tear down the security gates and break down the doors, then I think I’d be less inclined.”

“I’m glad. I have to admit I…I like it being just the two of us here.”

“Me, too.”

“I got that impression.”

Shit. It looked like the elephant in the room—or rather the shelter—wasn’t going to sit there unnoticed. “Yeah, about that. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.”

“You’re not?”

Adam shook his head. “In fact, I was hoping you might be as interested in me as I’ve been in you.”

“You’ve been interested in me? Since when?”

“I’d say since the day you mentioned how high the glass portion of the ceiling was.”

“Yeah?” That hadn’t been very long after Adam had taken over renovating the mall.

“Yeah.” He went to one of the upper bunks, and took down his overcoat, which he’d folded neatly and placed there. He reached into a pocket and withdrew a strip of condoms.

“Where did you get that?”

“When we were raiding Uncle Frankie’s. I thought…that is to say, I’d hoped…Have I overstepped?”

“That’s very resourceful of you. But…”

“But?”

Lync smiled. He’d never seen Adam look so flustered. “We’d need lube.”

Adam grinned broadly. “You think?” He reached into another pocket and withdrew a small tube of lubricant.

“What did I say?” Lync could hardly catch his breath. “Very resourceful.”

“Uh…”

“What is it, Adam?” Was he changing his mind?”

“There’s something you should know. I…uh…I prefer to bottom.”

“Do you? Do you really, Adam? Then I’d say this will work out perfectly, since I prefer bottoms.” He raised a hand and ran the backs of his fingertips over the stubble on Adam’s cheek, then began to chuckle. “It looks like there’s one thing we forgot—again.”

“And what might that be?”

“Razors.”

Adam’s brown eyes twinkled, and he pulled one last thing out of his seemingly bottomless overcoat pocket—a razor.

Lync stared at him. “Have you had that since we raided Uncle Frankie’s?” Adam didn’t seem the sort to carry a razor around in his overcoat on a normal, everyday sort of day.

“Um…yes?” He rested his head on Lync’s shoulder and gazed up at him through his eyelashes.

“Why didn’t you tell me before? We could have shaved.”

“I wasn’t sure if we should waste water on something so trivial. And besides…I like the way you look with a bit of scruff. So sexy.”

“Let’s see if you say the same thing when you wake up with stubble burn all over your body.”

“All over my body?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, I am looking forward to it.”

“All righty, then.” Lync tipped up Adam’s chin and for the first time kissed him.

And oh God, he was willing to swear it was the best kiss he’d ever had.