When the Lights Went Out

Megan reached between her boobs and undid her bra. She chose a front loader so she could hide an icepick inside the strap in the back. So much for her last ditch defenses. She had no secret weapons inside her panties; she was going to have to come up with something. As her breast support pulled away, she blushed as the man gazed at her pink areole and nipples. Not that she was all that modest, being in survival mode kind of makes modesty take a rear seat to staying alive. But, it was the way the man was looking at her boobs, made her embarrassed.

It wasn't like he was slathering lustfully over her, it looked like he was just assessing her, seeing if he deemed her scrawny 5'-6" frame worthy of his attention. It wasn't that he was looking at her like she was a sex object, she was afraid he would see her intimate parts and not find them desirable. Then she decided after a moment that she was just fucked up in the head.

She reached down to her hips and quickly tugged down her panties. Exposing that last of her secrets. After kicking them off her ankles, she stood up with her brown 'V' of pubic hair the only thing keeping him from seeing her twinkie. Megan felt a sense of relief when she finally saw a hint of lust in the man's eyes and in his demeanor. He must have seen SOMETHING he liked.

The man smiled, displaying his beautiful teeth. Brandon obviously had stored away tooth brushes and tooth paste in his hoard. Megan groaned, 'Oh what would it be like to be able to brush her teeth!'

She smiled up at the man and asked, "Do you like?" She actually turned her body slowly so the man could see her entire naked form. She felt both relieved that he wasn't rushing to rape her, and that he seemed to appreciate her body. She was still a girl and being such, her looks were important to her.

He answered her question, "Well, now I can see 18. You do have a nice set of hips. Meaning that you won't die in child birth the first time you get pregnant."

Megan jumped at the mention of child birth and pregnancy? She gasped, "You're not planning on keeping me around just so you can breed are you!"

The man waved his free hand, the one without the gun. He shook his head vehemently and assured her, "No! Not at all! How uncivilized do you think I am?"

Megan frowned, "Well, all I've run across over the last few years are very uncivilized men. They wouldn't hesitate to attempt to jump my bones, whether I was willing to cooperate or not." Brandon watched Megan shudder as she spoke of cooperation.

Brandon looked shocked for the first time, "Gosh! No way Megan. If anything happens between us, it will be with your full consent, cooperation and participation. All I was trying to say was so many of the slender model types we've been breeding over the last 50 or 60 years are going to die during childbirth, provided they survived the economic collapse from when the EMP hit. Their hips aren't designed to deliver babies and 'C' sections aren't an option anymore." Then he smiled diffidently, "You have hips that can handle a baby. I wasn't implying anything else, okay?"

So Megan, stood in front of the man, naked and vulnerable. She liked the naked now that she knew he liked her body, but she hated the vulnerable part. She was still marveling that she was still alive. By now, most men having her in this situation would have stuck their big ass cocks up inside her pussy, so they could fill her with their sperm; then they would have killed her when they were done. This Brandon was an odd bird, she was lucky to have stumbled upon his lair. She decided that unless he changed his initial stripes, she was going to let this one live.

Brandon backed up and reached in a drawer in a dresser behind him. He pulled out, of all things, a pair of handcuffs. Megan began to think along the lines of rape again as the taller, heavier, man pulled her over to a pipe running up the wall and as he handcuffed her to it.

Seeing that he alarmed the smaller young woman, he said, "Relax, I'm just keeping you contained while I search your clothing." Megan relaxed, it wasn't going to be rape again.

Brandon slowly, carefully, searched through everything she had been wearing. He found the Judge, he hunting knife, the boot shank, the stiletto and even the icepick in her bra. She had to admire the man was good. He took the weapons and unlocked a large free standing gun safe and she sucked in a breath as he opened it.

Inside the safe was a half dozen pistols, both semi-automatic and revolvers. He had two or three hunting rifles and another 6 or 7 assault style rifles. He saw her interest as she stood naked, handcuffed to the pipe. He smiled at her, "I have two M-16's, an AR-15 - M4, and two AR-10 - M4 7.62 NATO - a .308 caliber if you don't speak military. Finally, these last two are fully automatic AK-47s. I spent $200.00 a year for the permit to own automatic weapons before the Iranian's and North Korea decided to attack us with EMP. I'm a certified gunsmith and gun dealer, not that it matter's any more.

The nude girl looked impressed. She asked, "So, that's what you did before? You were a gun dealer?"

Brandon shook his head no, "No, not at all, I was in the Air Force. I worked in intelligence. That's how I knew all this crap was coming. We had run away government spending, an impending oil crisis, food shortages, unsustainable world population, and rogue nations with nukes. I considered it a recipe for disaster.

I used the knowledge to my advantage so I could get prepared for the worst, and the worst happened. So far, other than my wife was killed, I've faired pretty well." At the mention of his wife, Megan could see the pain in the man's eyes. He added, "She was pregnant at the time."

Megan lifted her hands to indicate the cuffs on her wrists, she asked, "Okay, you've found my weapon's stash, what now?" Brandon smiled as he put her weapons in the safe and closed it back up again.

Brandon smiled tenderly at the girl for the first time, he said, "Well, we need to delouse you, and then get you a bath so I can stand to be around you. Then we are going to take your clothing, all your clothing, and we are going to boil them to kill the last of the critters crawling all over your body.

"So, why don't we get you out of those cuffs and you can show me where you're backpack is. When we retrieve it, you indicate where it is and I'll get it." Seeing her suspicion he added, "You don't have anything I need, okay? So don't worry about me stealing from you. I just have to make sure you aren't going to stick me with something or shoot me with another firearm you might have tucked away."

Megan gave the man the first genuine smile she had smiled since she left the boy she wintered with. She was beginning to like this Brandon, she offered, "I promise you that I won't try to kill you, okay? Not as long as you don't trying to take things that aren't yours." Her body was implied in the act of theft.

Brandon smiled, "Okay, I'm glad to hear that, and when I think I can trust you not to slit my throat in the middle of the night, I'll start letting you sleep without being in the handcuffs. I'm sorry, I'm not very trusting, not since Elizabeth got shot. I fed that son-of-a-bitch to the coyotes, by the way." He continued the conversation in his head 'I still regret trusting the bastard, I regret it down deep in my soul. My Lizzie would still be here if I would have just shot the man.'

The wooly man came over and unlocked the cuffs. He smiled and said, "Please stay in front of me, and go over and grab your clothes. Since I don't want a case of body lice, you get to handle all your clothing until we get them and you treated."

So still naked, Megan and the man exited the shelter. After retrieving her 30/30 and her backpack, they returned to the shelter so Brandon could lock up her rifle. Then Brandon and the girl walked a good quarter mile until they came upon a hidden glen. Inside the small clearing the man had built a small camp site. It had crude wooden benches and a large fire pit. It had a large metal bar supported over the fire area with a huge black caldron suspended over the dead fire.

Brandon explained that he spent most of the spring, summer and fall, outside at the campsite. He figured it was further protection of his bunker.

It was still a bit cool out, but Megan was used to it being much colder. The only indication that she was a bit cold was that she was a mass of goose bumps. As long as she kept moving she was fine. She was actually enjoying the feel of her body being aired out. She had to admit to herself, being all bundled up for the winter made her really stink. Brandon had not been wrong.

Brandon reached in his pack and brought out a red box with the word 'Seven' on it.

Megan, seeing it, asked, "What is that?"

Brandon smiled at the young woman and said, "it's insecticide. I use it on the garden. But, I'm going to spare some to treat you. It's supposed to be relatively harmless to humans, but kills bugs. Hopefully, if I do this right, I'm going to kill off the lice infestation and I think both of us are going to be happier for it."

The man disappeared into the brush and came back into the clearing with two buckets. He handed one to Megan and said, "Let's head for the creek."

To Megan's amazement, Brandon reached into his pack and came out with a large bar of soap. The implication was that after he poisoned the bugs on her body, he was going to let her take a bath. Just the thought of being to wash herself with soap again brought tears to her eyes. She squeaked out, "Really, you're going to let me use it?"

Brandon chuckled, "You are really assuming a lot!" Then he grinned affectionately at the slender girl and said, "Yes, I'm going to let you use it." Then he teased, "That way I can stand you when we are in a confined space together." Megan giggled.

So the naked girl, the man, two buckets, a bar of soap, and a box of insecticide headed for the creek, which was about 200 yards away. Brandon explained on the way to the small river that he built the camp site well away from his shelter and back up and away from the creek. Stragglers routinely followed along the waterway, and rarely ventured off into the menacing woods surrounding it.

At the creek, Brandon commanded Megan to close her eyes and stop breathing. He dusted her greasy long hair with the powder, and then made sure she was dusted from top to bottom. He made sure she had large amounts of the dust in the hair under her armpits and her wide thick triangle of pubic hair, the most likely place to have lice. Megan blushed when he instructed her to spread her legs so he could dust her on her underside. She actually felt herself becoming aroused, knowing the man was studying her pussy.

She looked like she was turned loose naked in a bakery by the time he was done dusting her down. He had her leave the powdered poison on her body for about 15 minutes before he handed her the bar of soap and pointed out a deep pocket of water in the creek. He smiled at the girl and instructed, "Have fun! By now the bugs should be dead, and now you can wash off your winter's grime." Then he added concerned, "I hope the poison doesn't kill the fish."

Megan was overjoyed to be having her first bath of the New Year, and to actually have a bar of ivory soap to do it with. She didn't even mind Brandon sitting on the shore watching her wash. She scrubbed her body from top to bottom, luxuriating in the soapy bubbles coating her body. She stayed out of the water, only dipping to get wet or to rinse. Being March, the water was pretty cold yet. She especially loved being able to scrub her armpits and her pussy. The two smelliest parts causing her odor problems. When she went to scrub between her legs, she felt herself blush and told Brandon to turn around until she was done.

To her delight, the man actually did avert his eyes as she scrubbed her genitalia. This was the first time he seemed to trust her. She could easily have picked up a rock and thrown it at his head, but at this point, she had no plans of harming the charming guy. He was a one in a thousand, and she wasn't going to do anything that would spoil his growing trust in her. She was beginning to like the idea of becoming the survivalist's partner, being able to sleep through the night without being startled away by every little sound.

She giggled as she finished scrubbing her anus. Having her ass clean for the first time all winter was a delight in itself. She called to Brandon, "Thanks for looking away. I'm all done underneath." Then she giggled and said, "Um, why don't you come join me?"

The man smiled and responded, "Ah, you temptress, you siren of old. Nah, I think I'll wait, I would hate to have gone through all these precautions, just for you to bean me on the head with a rock and drown me."

Megan huffed, "Brandon, I'm not going to hurt you!"

He smiled at her, "Well, let me be the judge of that for a while. Once burned, you avoid the fire."

Megan's smile turned serious, and then her face gave him a tender look, she asked, "That's how it happened, wasn't it? You trusted someone and they killed your wife."

Brandon felt himself tearing up, he just nodded his head, confirming to the girl that she had guessed right. Finally, finding his voice he said, "Yes, I thought I had found a trustworthy partner, the man was friendly as could be and seemed to want to chip in doing everything.

"What actually happened was he waited to the first opportunity to ambush us, and that's when he shot Lizzie. The moron should have shot me first, I was able to dodge behind a rock where I was able to empty a clip of 40 caliber bullets into his ass. Like I said, I left him to be eaten by the coyotes. I buried Lizzie just to the south of the bunker. The asshole didn't kill her outright, she died of sepsis over the course of a week. She suffered! My poor Elizabeth suffered right to the end."

The man broke down sobbing. Megan waded out of the creek and up to Brandon and pulled him into an embrace. The man sobbed into her naked shoulder for a good 10 minutes and Megan just stood there, naked, holding the man in her arms trying to give him all the comfort she was capable of.

After a bit, Brandon got control of his emotions. Megan released him and he continued, "So, Megan, if you find me to be a bit distrustful, please understand why. I want to trust you Megan, I really do. I think under all that tough veneer, there is really a sweet girl beneath."

Megan huffed and thought to herself, 'Sweet girl my ass, he doesn't have a clue. The things I've been through, the things I've had to eat, the cold winter nights I thought I was going to freeze to death. Sweet? No fucking way! I don't have the luxury of being sweet. I'm no longer the naïve 15 year old girl that got thrown into this hideous new world. She's gone for good, replaced by me. She was gone when mom and dad were shot dead on the road; they were just minding their own business.'

Then Megan recanted a bit on her sour thoughts, 'Now loving, that might be a different story. If this man proves out to be the sweetheart he appears to be, I could find myself falling in love with him. I'm just going to have to wait and see how it all plays out. I think we are both bent, but not broken. Life's challenges make us stronger.'

The man actually grabbed Megan's hand as the two of them filled a bucket each and headed back to the campsite. Megan air dried on the walk back. She was beginning to feel cold without her clothing.

Once back at the fire pit, Brandon notice that Megan was shivering. He took off his thick flannel shirt and draped it over her naked shoulders. Then he gathered tender, kindling, and firewood so he could start the fire. With a deft confidence he soon had his tinder burning using his flint and steel he had in his pocket. He made sure that he had really dry wood so there would be little smoke. He didn't want to attract any undesirables. Of course Megan had been the first person he had encountered all winter. Maybe the human population had died down to a sustainable level and people weren't wandering and roaming any longer looking for food and shelter.

Soon he had a raging fire going under the pot. Megan and he made another trip to the creek to get one more bucket each of creek water. Then they sat back, sitting next to each other on one of the crude homemade benches, wait for the water to boil so they could feed it Megan's lice infected clothing. By evening, the girl was dressed again in a clean bra and panties, and in some of her lighter outer clothing. Her heavier items had to dry yet. Megan nearly regretted having to put her clothes back on, she was enjoying the freedom of being naked, having Brandon around to both appreciate her body and to protect her from anyone or anything that may have taken advantage of her being vulnerable that way.

That evening, Brandon led her back to the shelter. Once down inside, he bolted the door shut, to keep all but the most persistent invaders. The evening was proving to be quite cold, and Brandon only had one sleeping bag on a queen sized bed. A bed he shared with Elizabeth when she was alive. He had buried his wife inside her own sleeping bag.

Megan and Brandon hadn't dealt with her wool blankets yet, they would need to be treated before the girl could start using them without re-infecting herself. Brandon offered, "Well, I can unzip my sleeping bag and we can share it as a top cover. If you're willing to trust me."

Megan willingly climbed into the man's bed. Brandon had stripped down to his briefs and tee-shirt to sleep, he seemed to have also lost his modesty living in this new era of survival. Megan stripped off her outer clothing and in just her bra and panties, she scooted in and up against the man she had just met that morning. As she began to drift off, Brandon whispered to her, "Mmm, you smell nice."

Megan giggled, "That's a vast improvement over, 'you stink'."

She already felt like she could trust him. While sleeping together, if he decided to make a move on her, she had already decided that she was going to give herself to him. Willingly.

Megan woke up in the middle of the night. Brandon had his arm wrapped around her, his hand down over her diaphragm. His body and arm felt so warm, so inviting, so titillating. He was snoring lightly and he was fast asleep. Megan felt so warm and safe, she started to cry silently. How long had it been since she felt this safe? She eventually drifted back off to sleep.

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In the morning she woke up to find herself alone in the bed. She could smell sausage or bacon, she wasn't sure which. It had been years since she had smelled something so wonderful. She opened her eyes and looked across the room to see Brandon cooking over a small brazier. An exhaust fan was running, pulling the smoke out of the room.

The day before, she learned that Brandon had an array of solar panels in a clearing west of the shelter he used to charge a bank of batteries back in the warehouse section of the bunker. He figured that he had about four more years of life in the set of 8 marine batteries, before he exchanged them for the backups he had stored away. After that, he wouldn't be able to store electricity, he would have to use it direct, and only when it was being generated.

Megan sat up, heedless of the fact she was only in her bra and panties. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and was finally awake enough to re-familiarize herself with her low light surroundings. She asked, "Is that bacon?"

Brandon turned around and gave her a beautiful smile, he said, "Yes, it's one of my last cans, but I thought you might enjoy a treat. I have some freeze dried eggs, and some dehydrated hash browns too. I wanted to celebrate our new friendship."