Aberrant: Dead Rising - Stress relief [complete]

[Dan Hawkins]

May 16th

His aiding of the Paradise colony had severely eaten into his private stocks of virtually everything. The only major thing he had left was ammunition and harder to get foodstuffs.

He made his way to the motor pool to make a run, having found out about a trio of Walmarts in Wichita Falls, two of them supercenters.

He saw Kristen along the way and smiled. The young super had seemed very unhappy after the Raid on The RV parks had come up as a bust. He nodded.

He made his way over to her and smiled. he was sure there were zombies still there, and perhaps he could give her an outlet for her more agressive side. "Kristen, are you busy today?"

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin stalked through the camp, a growing irritability knotting her shoulders, almost pouting. To her disappointment, Gabby and Han hadn't been able to teach to fly, only fall. The fields around the Refuge were weird, not growing things right, so she didn't think it was a good idea to plant any of her seeds yet, and the Captain of the place didn't seem to have time to go on another run for RVs and trailers. She didn't like feeling like a beggar.

Still wanting to do her part, she'd been helping on the walls for the last few days, her strength a great help, though her unnatural attractiveness earned her the stares of the men and it had been getting to her. One had gotten too close, startling her, and she had lashed out with a snap kick, barely pulling it in time, crushing a cinder block instead of his spine. After that, and the gleaming axe she kept near, the men kept their distance, but she could still feel their eyes on her and she hadn't felt like helping today.

To top it all off, the last few days, she was just feeling... off. Her skin felt too tight for her muscles, her muscles seemed to slowly cramp for no reason at all, and she was hungrier than ever. She was afraid the baby inside her was already having a big effect on her and she couldn't bring herself to make a decision about it, not yet. She feared not ever.

So, even though Dan was a man, and therefore suspect, Kristin was pleased with the idea of a distraction. "No, I don't have anything I really need to do today, Mr. Hawkins. Why?"

[Dan Hawkins]

"Well I was looking to head West to Wichita Falls to make a little supply run. With all that's been going on, I've burned through alot of my stocks."

He nods. "We can't leave alone, or at least we aren't supposed to and I heard about that little incident at the Wall. I figured you might be up for a little time away from all the gawking eyes. I'm going to be looking for basics, ammunition, auto parts, clothing, batteries, maybe food."

"If there's anything you'd like to have I'm sure we could make the effort to acquire it."

"There's gonna be zombies to take care of, if you want a good orkout.... and the more of them we take down the better."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Not all the gawking eyes, Kristin thought. True, she hadn't caught Dan staring at her tits or ass yet, but that was just because he was sneakier at it. And it was really unfair too, he was with Violet and she had tits and ass enough for a hundred girls. Still, she nodded enthusiastically, going on a supply run was exactly what she wanted to do, and having a chance to kill some zombies was even better. She flushed with pleasure at the thought, hand tightening on the shaft of her axe.

"That sounds great, Mr. Hawkins. My and Ash's stocks are getting really low too, except for the seeds, and I don't want to use or trade those yet." The eerily beautiful, mature-bodied, young-faced teen swung the axe over a strong shoulder, almost bouncing on her toes with eagerness. "I can drive too, so if we can get me a pick-up or something, we can bring more stuff back. Oh, and I want a trailer, one of those big fancy ones, so me and Ash have our own place to stay. Shit! Ash!"

Kristin slapped a hand on her forehead. "I gotta go see what she wants. I'll be right back, I swear Mr. Hawkins, don't go with out me, 'kay? 'Kay?" The overly fit teen looked up at him with huge puppy-dog eyes of soft jade, then raced off like cheetah to find her cousin. True to her word, Kristin was back not even ten minutes later, her axe in a makeshift sheath and a pump-action shotgun across her back.

"Ready to kick ass and chew gum, Mr. Hawkins. And I've been outta gum for months now."

[Dan Hawkins]

He nods once. "Me too.... And there's a whole lot of Zombie ass that needs kicking. As far as geting a vehicle, we'll see what we can do. If I can manage you an RV, good, if not I'll at least try to get you something nice."

He let her get into the humvee and began the drive to Wichita Falls. A couple times he had to get out and carry the Humvee, past an obstacle. "Watch the roads, last time we came out this far there were traps."

Theren weren't any, but the roads were poor and in bad need of repaving. He drove through town to the Southern walmart, one of the supercenters. There were a couple zombies milling about in the lot, and Dan smiled to Kristin. "You take care of them, I'm gonna go refill the gas tank."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin was mostly silent during the drive, her earlier delight at doing something muted by being alone with a man in a vehicle. She kept herself pressed close to the door, keeping as much distance from Dan as she could. She took his warning to heart though, and kept her eyes on the road, just in case. The short, muscular young girl also proved quite helpful in helping clear the roads, having little trouble, and much enthusiasm, in shoving cars and road barriers aside.

Finally reaching the Wal-Mart, Kristin's eyes gleamed as they fell upon the shambling once-people, hand caressing the haft of her axe. At Jason's suggestion, Kristin gave him a beatific grin and jumped-rolled out of the car, not even waiting for it to come to a stop. With the bounding, graceful strides of a gazelle, Kristin charged straight for the milling throng.

WIth intuitive skill, the fitness goddess swung her axe in precise arcs with inhuman strength, severing heads and limbs at a stroke, backswings sending zombies tumbling for yards. Over the distance, Dan could hear Kristin's voice, high vicious laughter. Glancing over, he grew a little concerned that she didn't seem to be defending herself at all, the zombies surrounding her and landing blows. But she seemed to resist them without harm so he gave some leeway before thinking about intervening.

A few minutes later, Kristin came jogging back, a rapturous smile on her eerily stunning face, cheeks flushed and eyes hot, two nubs indenting her shirt with obvious arousal. Her axe dripped with gore, yet the dichotomous beauty was as spotless and clean as when they had left, save for three precise, parallel rips in her shirt, revealing the upper slopes of her full breasts.

"I needed that!"

[Dan Hawkins]

"Evidently. You're also going to need some new, clean clothes while we're here." He was impressed in a way, she fought well, even though she left far too many openings. She had far too much anger built up. Perhaps afterwards, they could find another mob.

He drives up to the store and smiles at the intact doors. He lays a hand on them and smiles. Electricity flows from his fingertips into the mechanisms and the doors swoosh open. He hands Kristen a radio. "If there's an issue call me. Check in every fifteen minutes regardless. We're gonna do this by the numbers." After going inside the doors shut behind them.

He handed her 3 large duffle bags and nodded. "Fill them with whatever you want, if you can. This town loooks pretty well looted. Most things will still be good except dairy, bread and produce, and it's gonna smell rank bad over there. I'm heading for automotive and sporting goods and then back to grocery"

With that he unslings his battlerifle and hauls his own four bags and pack up and heads off into the store, thankful for all the skylights.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"New clothes?" Kristin asked uncertainly. Seeing the brief flicker in Dan's eyes, she looked down, flushing with embarrassment and some anger as she noticed the gaping tears in her shirt, revealing the upper portions of her breasts. "Oh." She hunched her shoulders as she climbed back in the Humvee, giving Dan a brief glare, reminding herself in her head that he was only trying to help. That better be all he's doing.

In the sprawling store, Kristin watched the electricity crackle around Dan's fingers, stubbornly refusing to step away despite how uneasy it made her. She slung the duffel bags of her shoulder, clipped the radio to her belt in the small of her back, then listened intently to the Marine's instructions, nodding in agreement. "Okay."

In the dim store, lit by dingy skylights, Kristin hustled right away to the clothing section. Other then being a mess, stuff scattered all about, the department didn't look too ransacked, and she quickly found a shirt she liked, mottled camouflage. Seemed to make sense, being here with a soldier. The brawny and busty teen looked around, making sure there was no one around - of course there isn't! Dan went the other way - then swiftly switched shirts. It was a little tighter than she'd like, but it'd do.

Kristin was about to go check the grocery section, when her eyes fell on the clothes again. Gabrielle and Violet had both given her some, she should gather some to share too, and Ashley would want some aw well. Before she knew it, she had two of the duffel bags already full with jeans, shorts, shirts, and sweaters of different sizes, even some underwear when she remembered the difficulty Maggie had finding a bra that fit her. She looked in dismay at how much was being left behind, but she had to go check the food too, it was more important.

The grocery section had been hit hard. And it stank. There were a lot of bugs too, and rats, but they didn't bother her much. She had to pick through stuff a lot more to find things though, and many of the shelves had collapsed. Still, she managed to find a variety of staples, if not large quantities of them. The unopened, twenty-five pound bags of rice and flour she managed to dig out wouldn't fit in the duffel bag though, it already mostly full. She was also surprised to find several large cans of coffee.

Looking around, she grinned as her eyes fell on a hand-jack. Finding an empty pallet was easy, there had been a display of two-fours of bottled water that had been massacred, only three loose bottles left. Smiling with her cleverness, Kristin began carefully loading up her improvised wagon. It wasn't perfect, she had to clear paths for it or stay in the main aisles, but it was much better than nothing and let her move a lot more stuff. She was almost gleeful at finding the unopened cases of pudding, skittles, and chocolate bars.

Kristin made a detour back to the clothing section, adding some more clothes to her growing pile of stuff, mostly coats and jackets this time, then began making her careful way back to the other side of the store where Dan was. Along the way, she stopped at the jewelry counter, grabbing a sportswatch - she hadn't had one since Hornsbeck took hers. After a moment of thought, she grabbed a few more to give out when she got back to the Refuge.

The rack of batteries was empty, but by a stroke of luck, she saw a small case of them under the shelf. She was on her knees, reaching for it when she felt a hand on her shoulder, followed by a gasping moan. Stifling a scream, Kristin lashed out with a hard kick, shattering a kneecap with the cracking of bone, then twisting back to her feet in a fluid movement.

The zombie was male, more than a foot taller than her, and instantly reminded her of several of the men from Paradise. Seeing red, the buff young woman, more of a girl in truth, snapped out with both hands, one on its belt, the other grabbing its neck, and threw it to the ground as if it was an infant. She pounced on top of it, hands wrapped around its neck, crushing cartilage with wet pops, lips peeled back in a rictus of hate. Still, the thing writhed, so she bashed its head against the ground until it was a puddle of bone and brains.

Flowing back to her feet, Kristin collected her carton of batteries, then kicked the corpse between the legs, smiling as she sent the headless body skidding for yards down the aisle. Well satisfied, she continued along to the sporting goods section as if nothing had happened, humming merrily.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan was annoyed to see the guncase already empty, with all the standard rounds of ammunition already taken. He stocked up on a list of air filters for the Refuges motor fleet and sparkplugs and other car parts needed for the vehicles. He grabbed a number of cases of motor Oil and laid them on a rolling cart he found in the auto department, also he grabed the winches on the rack. He picked up bug spray, and grabbed the 3 large tents left on the rack.

Most of his primary choices were a complete wash. He passed the Fishing aisle and wondered if there were still fish in the River. Not really wanting to waste time he continued on, passing through hardware, picking up wrenches, and other incidental tools. There was alot of construction going on, and the right tools would go a long way there.

He finished in Hardware and moved to Electronics. Every case was smashed, and the whole department was literally almost completely looted, even the large TV's. "Idiotic looters."

"Kristin, I heard a noise, Everything alright? I'm heading to drop a load off in the Humvee."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"Noise? Oooooh, thaaaat. It was nothing, just a zombie. I took care of it," Kristin boasted, pointing with her thumb over a shoulder, a shapely bicep bulging against the short sleeve of her new shirt. "Going back to the Humvee sounds like a good idea, Mr. Hawkins. My pallet is pretty full." She pointed, showing off her piled pallet, watching his expression to see what he thought.

She followed Dan back towards the entrance, the small, unoiled wheels of the hand-jack making a piercing skree-skree-skree, though it otherwise rolled smoothly under the guidance of Kristin's strong, steady arm. "There's quite a bit of clothes left, but the food is pretty much wiped, so are the batteries. I found one closed carton. I did see some sale signs though, really good ones, for bottled water and rice. There might be extra in the back. Cab we go look?" she asked, then her large green eyes widened with another thought. "We should get rope and pungy cords, my brother said we can always use those. And duct tape."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded at her haul. "Yeah we can check the backroom. Might be something there. Most people wouldn't go there because it's to easy to get trapped." The loaded their carts into the humvee in respective piles. He led her back into the stoor and once they got to Recieving area floor entrance, he turned on the flashlight on his harness and held another in his hand for Kristen. "Let's do this fast. We're bound to have attracted attention by now."

He noted several cases of beans, Spam, and vienna sausage. Not the best food, but he loaded it anyway. It didn't go bad for a long time.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin flicked on the flashlight Dan handed her and started moving down the backroom. She found a grocery cart full of garbage and dumped it on the floor, to give her something else to carry supplies. Dan was checking the base level of merchandise, so with fluid ease, Kristin climbed the storage racks to check on the higher level of pallets. Light dancing around the stock quickly, it took sometime before Kristin finally started finding what she wanted.

The ground level, and upper levels near the Receiving Area Floor Entrance had already been hit to lesser and greater degrees, but moving further on the top, Kristin found a pallet of soup mixes, one of various syrups and honey, and another of cereal. Most of the cereal was bad though, and the rank smell was making her sneeze. She only took a few boxes before giving up searching through the pallet. After finding several more supplies and an incongruous pack of flashlights - with batteries! - Kristin was on her way back when her light flared across several pallets on the upper level, just under the roof, sugar, canned vegetables, and cases of bottled water.

I'm gonna need help to bring most of this down. The flashlight held in the crook of her neck and a hand supporting her precarious position, Kristin grabbed the radio off the back of her belt to contact Dan. "Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Hawkins! I found pallets full of water and sugar, canned veggies too. I'm over here." Kristin held the radio in her mouth for a moment and waved her flashlight, hoping Dan could see it, then spoke in the radio again. "But it's on the top and I need - Arrrgh!"

Sudden spasms wracked her body, the worst yet, muscles flexing and relaxing uncontrollably. The radio fell from her hands, the support she was holding onto was crushed and rent under her grip, and she lost her perch. She fell more than twenty feet, her flashlight following, spinning in the dim confines, and hit the ground with a surprisingly loud thump.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan moved with incredible alacrity. He had left the cart and rushed to where he'd heard Kristen Fall. various groceries were strewn all around her and yet she was unharmed, except her pride. He looked up to see the pallet in question, and turned back to offer her a hand up. "Come one, grab the carts, and I'll get the pallet. We can move on to seeing about finding you a good truck. After we load up and before we hit the next supercenter."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin shrank away from Dan's offered hand, a furious grimace on her face and for a moment the Marine was sure the girl was going to pounce. Then she shook her head and flowed to her feet, ignoring his hand. "Okay, I'll get the carts, but there are three pallets. Sugar, water, and canned stuff."

Kristin picked up her flashlight and the radio - still working she was glad to see - then raced off for the carts. Watching the young teen with the adult body leave, Dan wasn't sure in the dimness, but some thing about her seemed different. Was her shirt tighter across the shoulders? There was a new... solidity to her, it seemed. Her high voice called out from the dark, "I want a big truck, good for off-road. I saw what the highway was like."

[Dan Hawkins]

"Yeah, It can be bad even for A humvee." He brought hte pallets down, shrinkwrapped them, and then grapped a couple of ballet Jacks. It was a tight fit but doublestacking Sugar on the water he got all three at once and headed out to the Humvee. Glad it had been emptied before this trek, he removed the duffels and began loading the pallets in. None of them were totally full, and after an hour he had everything stuffed into the humvee, which was positively bursting with merchandise. He lashed the duffles to the roof alongside the heavy machine gun, getting used to not needing the big weapon. The tough vehicle protested mildly.

"I don't think I've had it this full in awhile." The big vehicle rumbled down the Wichita Falls streets, going along the highway and getting off to head to the next supercenter. It was through a residential area that they had to go. It was erily quiet, and it wasn't very long before Dan noticed some of the trucks. "How about those?" he pointed to several trucks in disrepair, but they were large and jacked up with offroad kits, most looked pretty beat though. Six months of being ignored had taken their toll.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"Those might work, let's check." Kristin jumped out of the humvee and jogged over to the first truck, a big, red Dodge Ram, checking it. After a moment, Dan joined her, pointing out things to look for while still keeping a sharp lookout on their surroundings, battlerifle at the ready.

Checking several trucks, Kristin was starting to grow dejected after Dan rejected each one, saying they'd take too much work to fix in the field. "We should probably go check somewhere else, okay Kristin?" Dan asked, cool eyes swiftly scanning the eerily desolate suburbs, empty even of any zombies.

"Awww! Fine!" Kristin scowled and banged a fist into the hood of a Honda Civic sitting in a driveway. The hood crumpled beneath her fierce blow, engine buckling, and the whole rear of the car jumped off the ground. Suddenly, Kristin's head twisted around as she heard a scratching at the closed garage door, hoping it was a zombie. Cutting that to pieces would feel better than pounding on a car.

Kristin ran at the garage door and swung a fist, punching a hole in it then tearing the whole thing off and flinging it away. To her disappointment, there was no zombie, only a cat. But her disappointment didn't last long as her eyes fell on what else was sitting in the garage.

A pristine, mostly white Ford F-350 Super Duty, already packed with survival supplies. Kristin chewed on her lower lip, stifling a giggle - this was too perfect. Hardly daring to believe, Kristin skipped into the interior of the garage and up to the driver's side door. Her axe came up threateningly as she saw a figure through the open window, but it didn't move.

Cautiously, she opened the door and hopped back, ready to swing, then she got a good look at what was sitting behind the wheel. It was a skeletal figure, dried skin and cartilage clinging to bone, slumped over the wheel, arms outstretched. Not a zombie, just dead, with no wounds she could see. She stalked smoothly, just in case it was a trick, but still the corpse didn't twitch.

With little respect for the dead, she grabbed the feather-like weight of the corpse and threw it out of the truck, to shatter with a clattering of bones against the wall of the garage. She climbed onto the seat, her smile growing wider and wider. The back of the cab was filled with supplies: camping gear, a couple of propane tanks, packs of dehydrated food and MREs, and more. Her fingers trailed across the shotgun sitting on the passenger seat, then her eyes fell on something resting on the dashboard.

A hand darted out and snatched the item to look at. It was a black leather wallet, cracked and faded, opened to a creased picture. Kristin felt her smile freeze, a lump forming in her throat. The picture showed a man and his wife with their arms around a young girl just entering her teens, all laughing, an amusement park in the background. She stared at the picture longingly for an extended moment, seeing a different set of faces. Then she snarled and crushed the wallet, throwing it at the broken remains of the corpse. I have to go on. This is my truck now.

She tried the keys in the ignition, but the truck didn't come to life. Please, please! "Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Hawkins! Come check this one! It's perfect - there's even stuff already packed," Kristin called out excitedly. "Please tell me it's easy to fix - I think it's just the battery. I want this one!"

While Dan checked the vehicle out, Kristin anxiously checked the storage container in the bed, almost bouncing with energy. She found the container full of ammo and more guns, and some more than just simple rifles and shotguns. "Wow! I think this guy was one of those crazy survival guys... except, well... he didn't."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded inspecting the supplies in the vehicle. "Yeah, shouldn't be too hard. I'll jump it right now, then we can swap it out at the next walmart." He touched the battery studs and willed a charge as she started the motor in the mighty truck. It roared to life with all the soulnd expected from such a large vehicle. "Follow me."

With that he returned to his humvee and led her to the walmart with minimal interference. Another group of Zombies was there, perhaps ten in all. He called over the radio. "You want these, or what?"

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin loved the powerful purr of her new truck. She moved the seat up as far as it would go, adjusting quickly to the quirks of the vehicle that was much bigger than she was used to, except for the tractor, which was a different breed altogether. She followed Dan in his Humvee at a moderate distance, keeping an eye on the environment as he had warned, wishing that the radio worked. Maybe, if I can find a laptop and some CDs, I can load up a new MP3 player. Maybe even a real iPod.

At the second Walmart, Kristin parked her truck some distance from the zombies. She knew her truck would get dinged soon enough, but she wanted to take good care of it as long as she could. She opened the door, picking up the squawking radio. "Yes! Mine!" cried with fierce enthusiasm.

Just like before, Kristin charged straight at the zombies, axe in hand. There was a dead car between her and the zombies and instead of jumping over it or going around it, she ran straight at, crashing into it with a shoulder. To her shocked surprise, she hit it a tremendous amount of unexpected force. Instead of knocking it aside as she intended, the mass of steel and plastic skipped and rolled across the parking lot, crushing four of the zombies into paste.

Kristin stopped in wonder at what she had just done, but as soon as the rest of the zombies began to shuffle her way, she raised her axe once more and continued her charge. Her blows were devastating, each one blasting her target into several pieces and launching them for yards. Eerily, despite the mist of blood around her, not a drop landed on her, leaving her oddly clean of her actions.

Trotting back to her truck, she passed Dan, a wide smile on her face.

[Dan Hawkins]

"Come on, Let's give this place a once over and be done." They headed around back to automotive and found the entrance. He looked at the bay doors and smiled. He dug his hands beneath them and hoisted them up high, throwing the door open.

He quickly found the right battery and swapped it out. Moving on with carts again he hit the sporting supplies, dejected that it was low on ammunition until he happened upon a set of keys for a room labled "Gun Locker."

"You've got enough room in your truck for about 2 carts. load up what you want, I'm gonna go see if I managed to strike paydirt here."

He took off into the store after handing her the flashlight again. "Same deal check in every fifteen minutes." He began making his way to the back of the store, searching for a locked room.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin nodded sharply, then darted off into the dim confines of the superstore. This one seemed to have been hit much harder than the last one and Kristin found herself having to be considerably more discerning in finding supplies. She found only minor quantities of a few staples and some treats, some blankets, and a couple pairs of shoes and boots for her and Ashley.

To her delight, she did manage to find a laptop and an iPod Nano - she had always wanted one, but Dad said they were too expensive. There was even a decent selection of CDs still on the racks. Apparently, after Z-day, a good set of tunes wasn't a high priority, which was to her benefit. Yay me!

She puttered through the clutter, adding odds and ends to her pair of carts, shoving a path where needed. After looking for what he wanted, Dan noticed that Kristin failed a check-in and he hastened to find her. Dan found the brawny teen in the pharmacy department, staring at a package of diapers and a bottle of baby powder.

When Kristin heard Dan get close, she jumped, startled, twisting around and trying to hide the diapers and baby powder behind her back. Her face was red with embarrassment and irritation.

"I - it - I was thinking... Violet, she's gonna need this stuff, right?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan came back smiling like a bandit. Six long boxes were on his cart, laid atop twelve cases of 12 guage shells. It was an impressive load. He found Kristen staring at Diapers and was intrigued, He nodded when she mentioned Violet.

"We will need them yes, but it will be about nine more months before that happens." There was something off about this. So far this was the only time he'd managed to actually suprise her, and she looked almosr embarrassed.

He nodded. "IT's kind of you to start thinking about it now. perhaps next time I come here in a few days I'll take the opportunity to stock up. You never know what tomorrow will bring."

He had a sneaking suspicion there was more, but he decided against pressing the matter with the young blonde bombshell. He'd already watched her mow through zombies with visceral glee, He knew he didn't want to fight her, because he knew he wouldn't hit her.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"Oh! Right, right!" Kristin said, too loudly, as she tossed the items away and began to move swiftly back through the pillaged superstore. "I just saw them and remembered Violet saying she was having triplets and thought she could use them. But if you're coming back - I'm just gonna do another quick check for stuff, 'kay? Then we can go. I'll be right back."

Kristin hastened off, glancing over her shoulder at the items she had tossed aside. Her eyes met Dan's for a brief moment, before skittering away, but not before his suspicion firmed. He could tell from the set of her broad shoulders she didn't want to say anything about it, so he kept his suspicions unvoiced, for her benefit and his.

When Kristin headed out of the Walmart and began packing up her latest acquisitions, Dan noted only when thing somewhat out of the ordinary. Other than an assortment of goods, Kristin had also picked up a pair of compound bows in leather cases, along with several bundles of arrows.

"We did some archery in gym class and I had a lot of fun," Kristin said in answer to his questioning look, though she avoided his eyes. "Mom got me a bow for my birthday, Ash got one too, and we were practicing. Then Z-day came and we lost them. The guns were gone in the sporting goods department, but I found these. They could be useful, right? If we're careful, we can even use the arrowheads again."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded. "They're also very silent weapons. Great for when you don't want to make a sound."

He looked at her. "Just remember that your strength now is far greater than before, you could very easily pop that string and tha wouldn't be a good thing."

He lead her back to the Vehicles and they loaded their supplies. "You ready to head back to the Refuge?"

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"I know I'm stronger now," Kristin said with a sullen pout. "I got extra strings too. If I knew how to make a bow, I'd make one just for me. It'd have to be made of metal or something, but springy too." Kristin hopped up easily into her new truck, bringing the engine rumbling back to life. She was glad it was standard, she was used to that.

"Ready to go," the hyper-fit teen called over the radio.

The four hour drive back to the refuge went by surprisingly quickly for Kristin. She had a truck of her own, had gathered lots of supplies and was planning on sharing some of them with the refuge. She was contributing, and it felt good. Still, as the ride went on, she began feeling prickly all over, like her skin fell asleep, though she felt fine otherwise. It was annoying.

Kristin let out a sigh of relief as they entered the Refuge compound, then stiffed, hand on her axe as she saw several men approaching the White Monster. "Mr. Hawkins, do you still have time to help me make the shed now?" Kristin asked anxiously, watching the men warily. "I'm not tired any, and I always helped fixing things around the farm. I can help."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan Nods. "Let's go unload the humvee, and then we can use it to haul supplies." The two supers made short work of the first task and in his shed Kristen could see her seeds and such. Within an hour had procured the appropriate supplies. Dan's on supply room was near the garage, and he nodded to Kristen. We'll build yours next to mine. It's stable all around here."

With that he broke out the tools and set about building an identical copy of his own shed. Everything was metal, save the sheets of insulation. Working with Kristen they had the shed finished about an hour before sunset. "Now we can unload your truck, and can take your supplies from mine and put them in yours." He hoped she wouldn't be mad at the disposition of her seeds and such but he hadn't had anywhere else to put them.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Working on the shed, Kristin felt an anxiety melting away, one that she had felt growing all day, but now a new tenseness was tightening her shoulders and back, something she couldn't quite identify. Her eyes blazed with a barely constrained fury when she saw her and Ashley's seed stock in Dan's shed before she was able to smother it. He said he'd keep them safe, where else was he supposed to keep them. He wasn't trying to steal them.

Once the shed was finished, Kristin accepted only the barest of help with moving her supplies inside, insisting she could do it. When she was done, Kristin stood in front of the door, looking at the promising beginning to her and Ashley;s supplies littering the shed, a small, proud smile on her lips, a hand on a cocked hip.

The very physically impressive teen turned to Dan, keeping her smile on her too beautiful face with an effort. She reached a small hand in a strong grip, almost too strong, and gave Dan a firm shake in gratitude, the Marine able to see how difficult it was for Kristin to do so.

"Thank you for this, Mr. Hawkins."

"My pleasure Kristin, and please, call me Dan. I was glad I could help you. Maybe we can go on another scavenging run or two, sometime." Dan's voice was gentle and he firmly kept his eyes on Kristin's large jade eyes.

"Dan, hmmm, maybe? I have to go now, gotta show Ashley what I got and then I have to go see- Later Mr. Haw- Dan. Bye!" Kristin closed and secured the door to her supply shed, then hustled off, the sliver of sun above the horizon limning her strong and shapely figure in rose and red and orange.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan watched her head off and smiled. "She'll do alright, so long as she doesn't squeeze anyone else's hand like that."

With that he returns the humvee to the garage, and works through the night getting everything back to pristine condition.