“Enough,” said the man. “I’d guess about ten percent.”
Jim nodded.
Things were looking good, as far as Jim was concerned. This man seemed reasonable, and he didn’t seem prone to violence. It seemed like he had a good head on his shoulders. For now, he was a source of good information about the outside world. Maybe later, they could team up and work together to survive.
“I’m Jim, by the way,” said Jim.
“Liam.”
They shook hands.
“So,” said Liam, his tone of voice changing. “Are you here with anyone?”
Jim didn’t know what to make of the question. Had the man spotted Jessica?
Liam seemed to sense his confusion, starting to speak again, to explain further. “I just mean—are you married?”
“Uh,” said Jim. “Yeah.” It seemed like a strange question. “Why are you asking?”
“Well, what I didn’t mention before is that the reason we meet up every summer in Canada is that we’re all members of a special organization.”
“A special organization?”
“Yeah, I won’t bore you with the name. It’s just an acronym for a long-complicated term. But what it boils down to is that we’re all swingers. And we meet up in the summer to swap partners in the wilderness, away from prying eyes.”
“Uh, OK,” said Jim. “I mean, good to know, I guess.”
Swinging wasn’t something Jim was into. It seemed a little strange. But as far as he was concerned, it wasn’t really any of his business how these people managed their love lives.
Jim found himself looking around at all the people who were gathered around himself and Liam. He hadn’t noticed before, but they were an equal number of men and women. The men, for the most part, had their arms possessively draped over the women who were presumably their partners.
They were all attractive individuals, athletically built.
“You see,” said Liam. “I’m a professor. Or I was, I suppose that’s all over with now. And my partner and I don’t get to practice our… hobby… as much as we’d like to during the school year. So every summer we like to let loose and go a little crazy, if you know what I mean…”
“That’s great,” said Jim, cutting him short. “But what does this have to do with me?”
“Oh,” said Liam, attempting to sound like he was making an off-hand comment. “I just thought now that society has collapsed, or is collapsing, or whatever, someone like you might want to join in the fun. You and your wife, I mean.”
“No thanks,” said Jim.
Liam wasn’t paying attention, however. He was looking behind Jim at something else.
Jim turned around to see what it was.
It was Jessica, strolling towards them.
Jim wasn’t in the habit of looking at other women. His wife, in his eyes, was the most attractive woman he’d ever seen. And he didn’t buy into the axiom of “looking never hurt anyone.”
But from an objective standpoint, Jessica was an extremely attractive young woman. With the extreme food rationing, she’d slimmed down even more, but still managed to retain her curves.
Her hips were wide and her whole body seemed athletic and purposeful.
“Is this your wife?” said Liam, his voice low and strange sounding. The sound of it alone gave Jim the creeps.
Jim didn’t like the vibes he was getting from Liam.
“No.”
All the men and women surrounding Jim and Liam had turned their attention to Jessica.
“Everything OK?” said Jessica, her rifle in her hands. She came up and stood next to Jim.
“I think so,” said Jim.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” said Liam, reaching out his hand. “I was just inviting your friend here to participate in one of our parties.”
“Parties?” said Jessica, looking at Liam’s hand with a confused look on her face. Eventually, she extended her own hand.
Instead of shaking it, Liam took her hand in both of his, and bent down and kissed it gently.
“Watch it,” said Jessica, pulling her hand away.
“I was just telling your friend Jim here that with the world ending and everything, we’re just looking to have some fun. Worship the bacchanalians while Rome burns in the background.”
Jessica shot Jim a confused look.
“We’ve got to be going,” said Jim.
“Not just yet,” said Liam, taking a couple steps forward so that he stood close to Jessica.
He reached out and put his hand on her thigh, just resting it there awkwardly.
But his hand was only there for mere seconds before Jessica grabbed his wrist. She pushed it off of her leg roughly.
And she didn’t stop there.
Her hand formed into a tight fist, she swung her arm out hard and fast. Her fist collided with Liam’s face.
He stumbled back, but didn’t fall.
“Well, well, you’re a sassy one,” he said, as he fished into his pocket for a handkerchief that he held against his mouth.
Blood appeared on his lip.
Jessica was standing there, her hand inching towards her Glock’s holster. There was fire in her eyes and an intense expression on her face.
The door to the one of the RVs swung open.
A buxom woman stepped out. “Liam!” she said. “What’s happened?”
“Just a little misunderstanding,” said Liam, laughing. “I forgot to introduce you to my partner, Julia.”
“We’ll have to save the introductions for another time,” said Jim. “We’re leaving.”
“Have it your way,” said Liam, his lip starting to swell up, affecting his voice. “But I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other soon enough.”
Jim grabbed Jessica’s hand and pulled her away. He was worried she was going to start a fight.
They walked swiftly away, and Jim kept turning back to make sure that Liam and the others weren’t following them.
“What the hell was that all about?” said Jessica. “Who is that creep?”
“Some guy named Liam.”
“I got that much,” said Jessica.
“He was a professor somewhere. They’re swingers.”
“Swingers?”
“Yeah, you know… they swap partners.”
“Gross,” said Jessica.
“Whatever floats his boat,” said Jim. “But my worry is that he’s going to get us all involved. He seems intent on enjoying the apocalypse, rather than trying to survive it.”
“Well, I’m not interested.”
“I gathered that much. But now we’re going to have to keep an eye out for them. I don’t like having these creeps here on the lake with us.”
“Are they following us?”
Jim glanced back around again. “Doesn’t seem like it,” he said. “But they do outnumber us quite a bit. If they decide to attack…”
“I didn’t see any weapons.”
“Doesn’t mean they don’t have any. They managed to survive on the road down from Canada. That means they’ve got something up their sleeves that they didn’t want to show us.”
7
“Step away from the door,” called out Rob.
He put his eye to the peephole. The muscular man he’d seen in the driveway stepped back away from the door. He put his hands in the air.
But he obviously wasn’t going away.
Rob had to deal with this.
He was nervous. His hand was sweating, and he tightened his grip on his handgun. He didn’t want it to slip.
He wiped sweat away from his brow.
It was an unusually warm day by upstate New York standards.
Rob threw the door open and stepped back. “Stay where you are,” he said in a loud voice, practically shouting.
The man grinned at him. A weird reaction, considering the situation.
Rob noticed for the first time that the man had tattoos running up his neck. He wore a simple t-shirt and jeans.