Commission: Light in the Darkness
#20 of Commissions and Rewards
5751 Words
A commission for Fluffyrat on Inkbunny involving a rat living in the Zombie Apocalypse and his trip through darkness and into the light. Something a little different, but... I wrote a lot of zombie stories before I was on sexy stuff, so... I rather liked it~
Contains: Zombies, cynicism, mild gore, fear, rats, cows, logic, and casual enjoyment of incredible sex.
Hey, if you like what you're reading, please support me! Details here: https://www.sofurry.com/view/1570179 Or, if that's too hard, just head there directly: https://ko-fi.com/bindingsin or https://www.patreon.com/bindingsin
Travis sat on the balcony of his apartment, looking out over the world with a gloomy glare. It had been weeks since the virus had struck, hundreds of thousands falling in the first weeks, with news reports going wild and politicians seemingly too busy with everything else until it was too late. He'd watched it all from the safety of his apartment, going out on high alert only when he had to and stocking up on supplies. Most had called him crazy, or a pack rat... well, who was crazy now?
The slender, but toned, grey rat kicked his sneakered feet between the bars, feeling the blood rushing to them as they dangled oh so many stories over the world. The sky was dark grey from the smoke and ash of fires active and long burned out, and down in the streets below he could occasionally see people shambling between the overturned cars and the burnt-out husks of the final days of the city's panic.
Well, people was a generous term, really. It's not like zombies could really think or feel or anything anymore... just look the part. Though, considering how stupidly and stubbornly people thought this whole thing was a hoax right up until the end, perhaps they were putting their minds to better use now. He smirked to himself, a small puff of air from his pierced nose all that passed for joy these days.
He'd been stuck up here for two weeks watching it unfold, keeping himself in his own little quarantine, and supplies were finally out. He was going to have to go searching, brave the world around him... He stood up, stretching before he tied his band t-shirt tight around his body, making sure there was nothing to be grabbed. His thin tail whipped behind him, long and stead, poking free of his jeans like a snake. He had a backpack with a jacket over it, a hat to keep his large, round ears in... just a few layers in case of emergency, nothing more.
He looked at himself in the dark mirror of his bathroom, the lights of the building long out when the power station went down. Storm blue eyes stared into their reflection, the mop top of brown under his hat, the slightly ragged and matted grey fur of a rat that had to choose between proper showers and drinking water a few days ago. He sighed, then hit the edge of the sink with his hands. "Not much I can do from here. If anything's going to change, it starts with me."
He walked out into his living room, collecting what supplies he had: a canteen, what snacks remained, a machete and a pistol he'd managed to get his hands on before the panic of the virus reached the area... Three clips wasn't going to get him far, particularly since he'd only fired a gun years ago when his dad had taught him how, but it was going to have to do. After all, that was what the machete was for: blades don't need reloading.
He'd expected more people to be prepared, maybe a circle of protection to form where others kept themselves safe too... but that hadn't happened. Logic hadn't prevailed, panic had, and now... Well, he wasn't going to sit here and starve alone. He went to the door, unlocking the bolts and removing the items he'd piled against it the first time he'd heard pounding outside. One twist of the handle and he was out, stepping into what remained of the world.
It was a dismal sight. He'd never been a fan of the carpeting that lined the halls of his building in the best of times, but the scratch marks in the wallpaper and the bloodstains on the carpet... it was worse than he'd imagined. Though the worst part, by far, was the smell. The lingering, sweetly rotting tinge of metal from the blood washed over him like a wave, causing the rat to gag. He'd heard the pounding and the screaming in other rooms when the monsters had broken in... the aftermath was worse than he'd imagined.
He dared to venture only in one of his neighbor's apartments, wanting to check on the little old chihuahua that had lived alone there. He figured with the way the door was broken off its hinges that whatever he found inside wouldn't be good, but he still hadn't quite expected it. Dim light drifted through the grimy window, reflecting and bouncing off of the dust that floated through the room. Inside, on her bed, was simply a blood stain, much too large to be survivable, and enough offal and organs left behind to make the smell even worse. He gagged again, backing up and trying to stop his eyes from watering, when he heard the moan.
Old Ms. Lopez stared at him with glassy eyes, her endless shivering and kind, wrinkled smiles replaced with the glassy eyed stare and gentle swaying of the moving dead. It was the first he'd seen in person, not over the TV or from his balcony, and everything about it made his whole body quake with fear. From the milky white eyes and the cracked open skull to the slack jaw and the skin barely hanging on her chest, everything within having been ripped out or left on the bed, it was a horrorshow in the flesh.
She hadn't been the most mobile on her feet, requiring a walker, and now her hunch was working in his favor as she stumbled towards him. He took out the gun, wiping the tears from his eyes from the smell in the other room. "Sorry, Ms. Lopez... I always liked when you'd bake the floor cookies." He brought up the pistol, taking in a deep breath, before the stench hit him, catching in his throat. He coughed, throwing off his aim, and the gun went off, breaking one of the plates.
As the old zombie walked closer, he aimed again, choking back tears and trying to ignore the smell as he fired once more, only to graze her cheek. Saggy skin flew off, revealing blood and bone beneath, while she continued to advance, unfazed. He tried to line up, his hands shaky, as she lunged forward, one skeletal thin hand grabbing his arm. He aimed down it and fired, severing whatever seemed to be in control and causing her to slump to the ground, a spray of ichor coating the back of her tattered clothes.
He backed away from the body, gagged once more, then turned, emptying his stomach onto the ground. He'd had everything prepared in his head, come in, save her from an attacker, pop, pop, be a hero. This sort of thing was so easy to plan and run logically. Snot dripped from his nose as he lurched again, his stomach flipping and spewing out all it had. The smell, the look... That wasn't something they warned you about. It was just... So much more than he'd planned for.
Eventually Travis managed to stabilize himself enough to stumble from the apartment and back into the relatively 'fresh' air of the hallway. He went just over next to the old chihuahua's apartment and hit the button on the elevator, cleaning off his face with the sleeve of his jacket. He was there for a few seconds, maybe even reaching thirty, before he realized how stupid it was to hit the button on an elevator with no power. He looked down the hall, seeing the stairwell... And the big sign saying 8F next to it. "Oh, this is going to be _that_kind of day," he said sarcastically, picking himself up and starting down the stairs.
One would expect the staircase to go all the way down to the ground floor. That would be the logical thing. But in this case, logic had gone out the window with everything else. Two floors down there was a collection of wreckage, furniture, and debris thrown into the stairwell, ensuring that nothing was going any further without either a cleaning crew or the ability to squeeze into very tight spaces. He leaned over the edge of the railing, looking aaaaaaaaaall the way down to the ground floor. This wasn't the sort of thing he could just jump down. Maybe rapel, but he didn't have the materials. Besides, the pounding and the moaning a little further down suggested that the barricade had been put to good use keeping the upper levels safe... or, safe-ish.
He sighed, turning to look at the floor of his building with all the scrape marks from the furniture tearing through the red stained rug. Clearly it hadn't worked THAT well considering the sheer amount of mess here, but that probably wasn't the fault of the floor. They had a plan and executed, but maybe someone had hidden a bite and broken loose, or another way down had been used. The fire escape was an interior stairwell, but if someone had used it to go down... well, a barricade is only as strong as its weakest part.
Taking his lesson from Ms. Lopez he didn't bother checking on any of the rooms on this floor, not prying into the lives of those here. It was surreal how quiet things were... he'd been thinking that for days now, at least when gunshots hadn't gone off in the distance, but the only sounds were the distant banging and moans and his feet scuffing the carpet. It was as he moved that his mind began to wander... What if this was the new normal? What if this menace was never solved, and those monsters roamed the streets for the rest of his life? Would a life of solitude and isolation even be worth living?
With his mind on autopilot he reached the fire escape, opening the door despite the bloody handprints around the sides of it. Immediately he realized his mistake, the packed in, moaning horde clambering and clawing at the door. He tried to pull it shut, but there were simply too many arms poking through, grabbing at him, trying to pull him in. One had his sleeve in a death grip, and so he spun himself out of his jacket, glad he'd decided on layers for just this reason.
The fabric tore, then disappeared into the mass of grasping claws and bony fingers, while Travis started to run back down the hall, taking in his escape plans quickly. It was going to take them a little while to stop jamming at the door all at once and burst through, like an old Three Stooges sketch, but that wasn't going to be enough time for a proper barricade. He could go delving through the rooms again, but he was still leery of that idea after his run in above. Running his way back up to his apartment would buy him time, but... waiting out a horde could take who KNOWS how long, and his supplies weren't going to last past the day.
He reached the intersection of the hall as he heard bodies thumping to the ground, then the strange thudding of the undead trampling undead, all of them clamoring towards him. The stairs were there, but in the other direction, if he dared take the time, he could see the elevator shaft was open. He glanced back at the shambling wall of bodies encroaching on him, then ran towards the elevator, taking a chance on progress.
The doors had been pried open, revealing an incredibly dark shaft that ran up and down the building. A quick search through his backpack brought out a flashlight, which he used to check things. The cables were taut, and it appeared that the elevator was below, based on what he could see, while maintenance ladders ran along the side of the shaft. However, they looked slick with blood, and not too far down he could see a body reacting to the light, blood coating its clothing as it reached towards him.
He thought about bringing out his pistol to try and take aim when the moaning behind him almost reached a fevered pitch. The zombies had rounded the corner, rotting skin and sloughing fur of dozens of people all coming nearer and nearer. He looked at them, then at the elevator... There was really only one option now. He stepped back, clipped his flashlight to his backpack strap, and then took a running leap into the shaft, reaching for the cables.
It wasn't a smart move, he knew, but he'd seen enough action movies to know it could be done. What he hadn't quite banked on was how much more in shape stuntmen and stuntwomen tended to be. He grabbed the cables fine, trying to wrap himself around them, but his fingers slid along it, barely able to hold his weight, and the friction burn from the metal on his hands was incredibly painful. He clung tight to it, only to hear a soft click as his flashlight popped off, tumbled down a few stories, and landed hard. It pointed at the top of the elevator, with an open hatch leading in, but he was now in the dark apart from the sliver of light peering in from the doorway he'd just left.
Bemoaning his sore fingers, Travis slowly tried to lower himself down, inching his way as best he could, until the light he'd been using disappeared. He looked up, watching the horde once more as it reached the elevator doors, all smashed together and pushing towards the life they could sense so near. Off to his right he heard the one on the maintenance ledge moan, taking a few unsteady steps, before the sound plummeted down. He looked down just in time to see it hit the top of the elevator, its head popping like a rotten watermelon.
He suddenly clutched the cords harder, heart pounding in his chest as he realized how stupid dangerous this was. This was probably how the survivors from floor six had died! And even if he got down, there was no way to know the elevator was open... He trembled in the dark, feeling like it was a hopeless endeavor, all of his planning for naught when rubber met the road. But even that terror paled in comparison to what happened next.
He heard the push, then the pop and crack of bones giving way, before the moaning from above rushed past him. He tried to peer through the darkness, seeing bodies piling in, then falling towards the top of the elevator, some bouncing off and continuing their fall, others splattering and painting it red. He watched, realizing that if one of them landed safely, this was all going to be over even faster. He started to climb down, sliding inch by inch as fast as his hands could take him with the burning pain in them and how hard they ached at the grip. He'd never been the most athletic, and a couple weeks of training in his own apartment hadn't helped nearly enough.
About six feet above the elevator one of those yelling, falling corpses got lucky. All of them had been reaching out, some getting closer than others, but this one grabbed onto his tail, yanking down on it. It hurt, making him wonder if it was broken or dislocated or something, and the loss of concentration brought him tumbling down to the elevator top, landing hard. However, as much as he wanted to gasp and get his air back, the smell of smashing corpses and the vice grip on his tail told him he didn't have time for that.
He grabbed his flashlight, giving him just enough vision to see the elk, mouth coated in ichor, rearing back to bite down into his tail. He gasped, then kicked as hard as he could, connecting with the head and sending its weight over the edge of the elevator. It scrabbled at the top of it, bloodied hands digging at the metal and leaving streaks, before it fell into the darkness. Travis could feel the adrenaline and the pain, wanting to just end it and curl up in a ball, but the thump of a corpse next to him told him all he needed to know. Particularly as it moaned and moved.
He crawled forward, flipping himself down into the elevator, then losing his grip and slamming hard into the ground. He groaned, then looked around, seeing the doors locked shut. His flashlight scanned over it, wondering if there was a way out, but it didn't seem so, and as he stood there, a hand swiped down, catching his hat and pulling it free. His large, round ears folded against his head and he screamed out for help, sure this would be the end. He pulled out his gun, firing a few shots in the room that echoed, deafening him, while the body went slack, falling in with him.
Slowly his hearing came back, only to hear more moaning, more groans, the horde falling all around him... it was only a matter of time if he stayed here, a rat trapped in a tiny cage. He kept the flashlight trained on the hole, the gun in his hands feeling heavy as one more alternative popped into his head... but would it be better than being eaten alive?
As that morbid thought crossed his mind, hope beginning to drain for this situation to improve, he heard a voice straining, then the creaking of metal. He didn't dare tear his eyes from the opening in the ceiling, needing to be prepared in case something fell in, when he heard the voice, like an angel's, coming from the other side of the wall. "Just hold tight! I'll have this open in a minute! You're still alive in there, right?"
Travis could feel tears in his eyes, but his heart was pounding too fast for him to stop and cry. "Yes! Please! I don't know how long I can hold out." He fired a few more shots, then heard his gun click, knowing he'd need a new clip. However, he still couldn't tear his eyes away from the hole in the ceiling, and the idea of digging through his backpack with impending doom so close was just not enough. He froze, locked in fear, as he saw a long, thin neck starting to come down, a giraffe snarling and lunging closer to him, its body soon to be behind. He screamed out, trying to push himself away, only to feel a powerful hand grab his shoulder.
"DUCK!" The voice shouted, and he tucked his head in while the arm pulled on his shoulder, dragging him bodily towards the door of the elevator. The giraffe wasn't having it, landing on the ground, its head trying to orient to bite while its hands grabbed his pants, getting them in a death grip. He kicked at it, but it refused to let go... but luckily, neither did the hands on his shoulder. "Get those things off!" it yelled, and he did as it instructed, unzipping his pants and feeling himself getting pulled out of them and yanked free from danger.
He dropped unceremoniously the few feet from where the elevator was stopped to the floor, landing hard and knocking the wind out of his lungs. However, in the glimmering, dusty light of the corridor, he finally caught a glimpse of his savior. She was a tall, strongly built bovine, her tail flicking behind her and black and white spotted fur melting into black hair that rolled down her shoulders and off to one side, the other shaved short. She had two small horns poking out the top of her head, one with a small jeweled stud drilled into it. She was in a tight top and shorts, both of which were dirty from travel and wear. She turned to look at him, her huge, brown eyes shining brightly, then winking above her broad, round pink snout. Lower down, two large, though well contained, breasts practically pushed at the fabric of her top. The cow smiled, then reached down next to it, grabbing what looked to be a large sledgehammer that was leaning against the half-open door.
As he watched, enraptured by this sudden vision before him, she picked up the hammer, then swung it around in a surprisingly fast arc for such a heavy item. Behind her he could see the giraffe's head poking free, its long, rotting tongue lolling from its mouth as it hissed and gurgled at him. The hammer's arc swung true, a sickening crack echoing through the hall, before the head of the monster sailed through the air, landing on the carpet in a crumpled mess. She placed the hammer back down, then went to the door, her beautiful face looking back at him, her luscious lips moving, forming the first words she'd say face to face to him.. "Hey, a little help here?"
Travis shook his head, snapping back to the moment as he got up, running to the other elevator door and pushing. Between the two of them they were able to move the mechanism, shutting the doors tightly. Behind the metal doors there was banging and thumping as bodies piled in, but the doors were holding firm. He panted, then looked at the beautiful cow woman in front of him, at a slight loss for words. "You... saved me."
She giggled, tapping him gently on the nose. "I did! And you seem pretty excited about it, I might add." She pointed down at his crotch, where, with his pants missing, the throbbing tent in his underwear was pretty damn hard not to see.
His hands rushed to cover it while he tried to find an excuse. "You know, adrenaline is funny like that." He grinned a little. "I guess I just have a lust for life."
Her eyes went wide and she laughed, doubling over for a moment from the sheer strength of it, like it was one she really needed. She wiped a tear from her eyes, smiling. "Hey, I'll take it as a compliment, especially with everything else going on." She looked at the elevator, then at him up and down. "Okay, so a few questions: Did you get bit?" Travis shook his head. "Been out long?"
He shook it again. "I was quarantining on the 8th floor... I think I was the only one up there. At least... still alive."
The cow shrugged, smiling. "I thought for sure I was the only one in the building still, so you're a ray of sunshine already!" She held out a hand. "Name's Matilda, and you?"
"Travis. So... are we alone?" He looked a little down at the words, the weight of them very heavy... but Matilda just laughed.
"Oh, no! There's all kinds of survivors out there. We've been building a network, though I was to hold off on my own for awhile. I don't want to leave here until I'm sure everyone's out..." She looked him over once more, then seemed to contemplate things, before she finally shrugged. "Hey, I know this is going to be an odd request, but figuring how your little fella was feeling earlier... You wanna bang?"
Travis blushed brightly, his eyes going wide. He wasn't a virgin, but he'd chalked that up to being a fluke, and it was the last thing on his mind after all that running. However, his crotch disagreed with his mind, throbbing even harder at the idea. "W-what?"
Matilda blushed as well, looking away from the rat for just a moment. "Well, I was thinking it's a good way to celebrate you being alright, and I didn't mean it like payment or a reward or anything if you say no... I've been really horny lately, and not just these two." She pointed a thumb at the top of her head. "And while my hammer has been doing a lot of work for me lately... I can only polish the handle so much."
Travis's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head as he looked from the cow to the hammer, an immaculate finish on the end of it, polished to a mirror sheen, and right about the size of... well... him. His round ears flushed red, but he slowly nodded, a smile spreading. "You know, that would be really nice. I was starting to think there wasn't anyone out there."
Matilda grinned, then grabbed Travis in a bridal carry, sweeping the rat off his feet and carrying him towards a nearby room that looked like quite the setup, with food and a bed and a lot of books. "Well, there's not nearly as many as there used to be, but that can't mean we can give up hope. But you're in luck: for some reason a lot of the ones around here are women. Lesbians, a lot of them ,so that might be a little worse for you, and they all thought a big girl with a hammer had to be pitching for their team." She set him down on the bed, then winked at him. "I'm more of a catcher, myself~."
The grey rat's heart was pounding in his chest, and for completely different reasons than it had been just a few moments ago as he watched her bend down in front of him, the full curve of her ass right in front of his face, before the fabric suddenly disappeared, her tail swaying back and forth, revealing the beautiful pink lips between her legs. So wonderful, so warm and inviting... so full of life. Just this sight pulled him from the memories of those claws and moans and all the evil above. His eyes locked on her shapely hips as she turned, then her tight, toned, muscular body, before his eyes trailed up, watching her breasts bounce free of their confines, the pink nipples peaking them making him moan softly.
For a moment he was sure he was dead, a corpse being eaten alive somewhere on the floors above in some sort of dreamland, but that idea left as she pinched his cheek, then snapped by his ears. "Hey there, you alive? Even if this floor is safe, we still gotta be ready. And it's a lot colder with no clothes on." Her nipples were perking, while between her legs there was a soft glistening wetness practically glittering in the light.
His eyes locked on it, and while he was still clothed... it was just too much to hold back. He slid off the bed to his knees, making her gasp a small surprised moo as he dove between her thighs, the slight gap there giving him just enough space to push his muzzle at her prize, tapping the tip of her clit with his nose.
Her legs slammed shut for a moment, powerful thighs on either side of his head, before she realized what he was doing, slowly opening them wide to give him better access, her hand moving down to his brown hair. His tongue shot forward, lapping at the glistening, entrancing, musky honey her flower was dripping, sliding along its petals before delving into its velvety folds. "Ooooh~ Eager, aren't you?"
He pulled back, looking up her body, though he couldn't see much past her breasts but the tips of her horns. He grinned, panting his warm breath on her warm snatch. "Well, I should give my savior some sort of reward, right? I'm sure most damsels in distress wouldn't be beyond polishing their knight's sword... It's only fair in reverse." His cock was throbbing hard between his legs, leaving little wet spots on his underwear like a constellation. He dove back in, his hands wrapping around her trembling thighs as he seemed to want to push his muzzle into her like he was diving into a bolthole. His tongue lapped and licked, feeling the warmth, tasting her lust, hearing her moans and her heartbeat... feeling truly alive.
As his tongue rolled and pulsed within her, teasing her clit and doing all he could with what little experience he had, she ran her fingers through his hair, grabbing it tightly when he hit a perfect spot. He was blushing and panting, his ears hot as he kept locking lips with her hips. Eventually, though, she pulled his head away, groaning lustily. "Okay, okay, that's more than enough, sir knight. You better get on that bed or your sword's not going to be polished."
He nodded eagerly, taking off his backpack and shirt, tossing them aside, before he peeled his underwear off, letting it drop down over his shoes. He started to undo them too, but before he could get that far, he found himself face to face with a beautiful pair of breasts, both of them pressing against his face. He nuzzled into the right one, leaving little licks and kisses, the feeling of warm flesh against his own so wonderful. This was a reason to be alive... to be able to enjoy this. The thoughts of the gun were so very far away now.
His hands stroked up her body, massaging and teasing at her neck, getting a soft gasp from her, before running down her powerful form. They caressed over her hips, then around under her ass, before teasing up to the base of her tail. She giggled again, leaning forward to bring him down onto the bed, while his hands moved around to her front, starting to tease and tweak her pert nipples. She moaned, then leaned back, popping his head free from the pillowy prison of her breasts.
Now he could see her full form in its most beautiful: kneeling over his throbbing cock, lining up. She truly was an angel, one he never would've guessed he could've seen. The world had looked so dark and hopeless, he'd felt so alone... Suddenly, he was very glad he'd taken a chance on things today. His stormy eyes met her brown ones as she spread her legs, giving him a glimpse of her own shoes she'd been too eager to take off. She then sank down, the incredibly hot, slick pussy lips spreading around his cock, enveloping him in the most intimate, warm hug imaginable. He groaned, throwing back his head in bliss as her body sank lower and lower, their hips meeting and wetness drooling out over his heavy balls, the greatest perk of being a rat.
She began to ride him, slowly lifting up, the cool air teasing at his cock, making him moan with need before she slammed back down, filling herself up again and making them both throw their heads back in pleasure. She rotated her hips, swirling the cock inside her and pressing every inch of her walls, while he continued to tease her teats with his fingers, thrusting up to keep their connection as long as possible before she crashed down. The bed squeaked, the floor rumbled, and somewhere in the distance the undead were pounding on a metal door, feeling that very essence of life behind it.
And neither of the two of them cared, building up this moment of connection they had found, sharing an intimate light in this dark and cold world they'd been thrust into. Matilda mooed happily, throwing her hair to the side and massaging her breasts with her hands, before she suddenly pulled herself free, rolling onto the bed next to Travis and giving him another wink. He didn't need any motivation to move, though, his throbbing cock pointing him in the right direction as he drooled his need down his shaft.
He took the position over her, spreading her legs a little with his knees, while his feet, still clad in the shoes he wasn't even bothering to remove, pressed against the footboard of the bed, giving him a little more leverage. His tail whipped behind him, then wrapped around her leg, helping her lift it up while her hand worked on the other one. He slid in fully, sinking to the hilt in her wondrous pussy savoring the moan that escaped her lips.
He brought himself against her, his hand grabbing handfuls of her hair as he rut into her body quickly, both of them rocking on the bed and groaning in pleasure. Hot breath washed over each other, the gift of life being celebrated to its fullest as they combined, bodies connecting, souls reaching out for a moment of bliss in the midst of the apocalypse. He suckled on her nipple, rolling the taught flesh on his tongue, before kissing up to her collarbone and leaving a little nibble. She returned the nibble on his neck, sucking hard as her lower lips pulled and spasmed, every thrust bringing out her squeaking moans of bliss.
He slammed down into her body, spread wide open as it was, as though trying to connect fully and return the gift of life she'd given him not long ago. His balls slapped against her ass and the base of her tail, and she shuddered and moaned, her horns messing up the sheets as she writhed on the bed. The entire world faded around them, nothing mattering but this moment, this chance connection, this spark of light. "Oh, fuck, Matilda, I'm... I'm gonna~!"
"Inside! I want to feel it in me!" She wrapped her legs around his hips, ensuring he had nowhere to go as he slammed forward, his heavy balls pulling tight, his cock throbbing and pulsing before his cum burst forth, splashing across her womb and filling up her most intimate, most sacred chamber for the idea of life. They shuddered, panting, his hips moving to drive out a few more deep moans and pull every drop of cum from his balls, before he collapsed on her, holding her close from his hands to the tip of his tail.
They breathed slowly together, heartbeats syncing, as they both listened to the first ones they'd heard in a long time. There were lots of questions to be answered. Would the world be fixed? Would they have enough supplies? Was she going to get pregnant? Would they even stick together past these few precious moments? But all of those worries were gone, drifting off somewhere beyond the room where they were enjoying the warmth of the light in the darkness.