The day after: An apocalyptic morning (65 page)

              "I'm pregnant," she said at last.

              He felt no particular surprise at her words. Though it was somewhat of a jolt to have his suspicions concerned, he had long since realized that it would have been a miracle for her to not be pregnant after all of the unprotected sex they'd had. "I see," he said slowly. "And how does that make you feel?"

              "It makes me feel attached to you," she told him. "I love you, Skip. I've loved you since maybe our second or third day together. This just makes me love you even more, makes me want you even more. I've been in denial about it for the longest time. I've been telling myself that I was just under stress and that's why my period hasn't come. I've been telling myself that getting sick in the morning is just because I have to get up so early. I've been telling myself that my boobs are sore all the time because of the damp air. But then Paula talked to me last night and just laid it out for me."

              "Did she?" he asked, wondering in the back of his mind how Paula had known. Certainly Christine had not told her anything.

              Christine nodded, her head bobbing up and down against his shoulder. "She's pretty smart," she said. "She checked the sign-out logs in the supply room and saw that I haven't been using tampons or pads."

              Skip ginned. "She is very perceptive, isn't she?"

              "I can't compete with that," she said. "I just can't."

              "There's nothing to compete about, Chris," he told her. "I love you too and you're carrying my baby inside of you. Like I told you the other night, I don't want to lose you."

              "But you don't want to lose Paula either, do you?"

              He sighed. "I like Paula a lot, Christine," he said. "I don't know if I love her but I probably could. Would I love her more than you? I don't know, I'm not a psychic. If I had to absolutely choose between you and her, I would choose you. But Chris, I can't promise to be faithful to you under these... circumstances that we have here. That is really too much to ask of someone."

              "I know," she said. "I've been thinking a lot about what Paula told me last night, about this... sharing thing."

              "And?"

              "And it makes a lot of sense I guess. I didn't want it to at first. I just wanted things to be the way they were between us. Remember? When we were out in the woods, just you, Jack, and I?"

              "I remember."

              "But we can't be like that anymore. Things are different now. And we can't be like a normal couple in the old world either. Like Paula said, women are the glut here and men are the demand. If I want to keep my man, I'm going to have to share him. I didn't want to accept that at first, no Micker how much sense it made, but after what happened today... well, things look a little different now. Almost getting your head blown off does a lot for giving you a reality check, you know?"

              "That it does," he agreed. "So what are you saying?"

              "We'll give it a try," she said quietly. "I don't know if its going to work or not, but I'll try to make it work if she will."

              "Wow," Skip said after a moment. "I'm not sure what to say, Chris. What's the proper response when your woman agrees to share you with someone else?"

              She laughed a little. "You say you'll do it," she told him.

              "I'll do it," he said. "And as of this moment, our relationship is no longer going to be a secret. I've had a few revelations of my own today and one of them is that I shouldn't give a flying fuck what other people think. If they don't like the fact that I'm with you, they can just kiss my ass and find someone else to help save their town when someone attacks it."

              "Do you mean that?" she asked.

              He took her face in his and kissed her on the mouth. It was a long, drawn-out kiss. "I mean it," he said. "No more hiding. Everything's in the open now."

              "Let's go home," she said a little breathlessly. "I think we should officially make up with each other before dinner tonight."

              "I think you've got a workable plan there," he said.

              They walked through the community center hand in hand, looking like lovers. They passed no less than ten people, most of them women, before donning their rain slickers and exiting the building. No one said anything to them as they passed, but their affection was duly noted and the expected barrage of shocked looks and whispered comments followed in their wake.

              "Did you see the way they were walking?"

              "You don't suppose that they're... that he's actually..."

              "I just bet he is. I bet he's been doing it this whole time."

              "What about Paula? I thought she was the one?"

              "Apparently he liked little girls instead."

              "Mmmm hmmm."

              Though everyone knew that it had been Christine and Jack who had reported the movement of the enemy that morning and allowed Skip to set a trap for them, though they also knew that Jack and Christine had been the ones to gun down the final two invaders, these points never once came up in the conversations. It was almost as if they did not equate the young girl on Skip's arm (and yes, it looks like they're going back to their house together!) with the woman who had performed those feats of heroism.

              Within minutes of their passage, the Skip and Christine story was actually able to surpass the invasion story as the main topic of conversation. After all, talking about death and nerve gas and lost friends was depressing. Talking about a sexual scandal, on the other hand, was what they lived for.

              One person who took particular note of the pairing was Jessica. She had been making the rounds through the community center, talking to all of the women she could find to explain her version of the events that had taken place earlier. She downplayed the story about her breaking and running when the gunfire started, not denying it since there were multiple witnesses who had seen her do it, but rationalizing it as a run to go get help for Dale. As for the invasion itself, it was her view that a criminal lapse in security had been what had allowed it in the first place. And just who is in charge of security? Since most of the women had no idea how many of Skip's strategic suggestions had been voted down over the weeks, they had little problem assigning blame to him. Sure, he had acted heroically and quickly when it became apparent that an invasion had taken place - even Jessica gave him that - but had he paid more attention to his job in the first place, there would have been no invasion and there would not be five people dead.

              Now, as she saw Skip and Christine heading towards their house, hand in hand, she smiled in a predatory manner. She now had even more ammunition to use against him. Here, at last, was her chance to get rid of that meddling interloper who was constantly trying to upstage her and usurp her position in the town. At dinner tonight she would be able to rally the women into a lynch mob and Skip would be lucky if banishment was all that he ended up with.

              It started out tender and slow, the way reconciled lovers usually approached the first lovemaking. They undressed each other piece by piece, kissing softly, their tongues barely touching. But by the time they were both nude, passion took over, pushing tenderness to the side. They clutched at each other desperately, their hands moving up and down each other's body, their tongues dueling in each other's mouths. After less than ten minutes of foreplay, they could take no more. He put her down on the bed and she spread her pretty legs for him. He slid into her familiar tightness and began to thrust. She came first, but only by a margin of seconds.

              After, as they lay entangled in each other's arms, the bedcover pulled over them to combat the chill, she asked, "Are you sure that letting everyone see us was the way to go about letting them know? Jessica has probably got a spy out there right now."

              "I'm sure she does," he said, his fingers playing with her hair. "I don't care though. My days of caring what these people think are over. As a Micker of fact, I intend to give her a lot more to think about before the end of the day."

              "What do you mean?"

              He told her, making her smile wickedly. "You're flanking her," she said, giggling.

              "Well, I wouldn't exactly say that," he replied. "I'm just giving her some rope so she can hang herself." He let his hand slide down to her ass, where it began to stroke. "However, I wouldn't mind flanking you one more time before we head back."

              She giggled again, kissing him. "We do have a lot to make up for, don't we?"

              They made their way back to the community center at 3:30, once again holding hands like lovers. They passed through the same sets of disapproving eyes, neither one acknowledging the glares that were being thrown at them. They went directly to the hospital room where Paul was still watching over the wounded.

              Paula and Sherri were both awake when they came in, Paula sitting up and trying to eat some chicken broth, Sherri moaning pathetically in pain. Dale was still quite unconscious, his skin pale, his forehead bathed in sweat.

              "How is he?" Skip asked as Paul met them at the door.

              "Fading," he answered. "His blood pressure is dropping and his pulse rate is up. I can hardly wake him up anymore. I don't think he'll make it through the night."

              Christine shook her head sadly as she looked at him. "I wish it could've happened differently," she said.

              Paul nodded in agreement. "Sherri is stable for the moment, though in a lot of pain. I'm using up a good portion of our Vicodin trying to keep her comfortable. Paula however, seems to be a lot better. As you can see, she's sitting up and eating now. I can only take that as a good sign."

              Paula, hearing her name spoken, looked over at them. She smiled as she saw her visitors. "We've been hearing about you two in here," she said, her voice just loud enough to carry to them.

              "Hearing?" Skip said.

              "Oh yes," Paul agreed. "Jessica was up here a few minutes ago. ObsSarately she came to check on Dale but she only gave him a quick glance before she started going on about how the two of you were seen walking hand and hand to your house. Of course she didn't hesitate to speculate on just what that meant."

              "I'm sure she didn't," Skip said.

              Paul looked at him seriously. "Is it true?" he asked. "I don't care myself, but you know how the attitudes in this town are."

              "It's true," Skip said. " Christine and I are lovers. We have been since before we even got here."

              "Jesus," he said. "Couldn't you have... you know... kept that under wraps for a little while longer? At least until the mood settles down?"

              "Nope," Skip said. "I'm done hiding things. If the town doesn't like it, they can kiss my ass."

              He walked over to Paula, leaving Paul to stare after him and wonder if he was mad. Christine, still holding his hand, followed.

              "You two certainly have this town in an uproar," Paula said lightly. She spooned another load of chicken broth into her mouth.

              "We thought that under the circumstances, it was time to come clean," Skip told her. He sat in a stool near the edge of her cot. "So how are you feeling?"

              "Better," she said. "I haven't puked in almost three hours now. I can tell you that I now have sympathy for all of the bugs I sprayed with that shit over the years."

              "You saved everyone, Paula," he said seriously. "If you wouldn't have spotted them and got the word out, they would've hit us while we were eating breakfast. That was their plan. They were going to steal our food and take enough women for each of them to have a playmate. Because we were ready for them, we were able to kick their asses. If we had a Medal of Honor, I'd see to it that you were awarded one."

              "I was doing what I was supposed to do," she said, shrugging off his praise. "I only wish it would've been enough to save Brenda and the others."

              "That wasn't your fault," Christine said. "That was nobody's fault but their own. You heard how we found Jeff, Lenny, and Missy, didn't you?"

              She nodded. "I heard they were naked."

              "They were," Skip confirmed. "They were screwing each other on guard duty. They chose not to take their duties seriously and they died for that. You chose to take yours seriously, and you're alive. You should feel proud of yourself and this town should thank you."

              "No, they should thank you," she returned. "You're the one that engineered the battle."

              He nodded. "Yes, I did. Unfortunately, all that people can seem to talk about now is Christine and I. That will change tonight at dinner. In the meantime, how about we give them something else to talk about?"

              She looked at the both of them. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she asked.