"Rise and shine lover boy!"

Takashi Komuro was awoken Shizuka's friend Rika. He had been sleeping under a small pile of blankets and sandwiched between Saeko and Rei, the former holding him affectionately, and the later determinedly sleeping with her back to him. They had been doing this for warmth. One of the many downsides of surviving a zombie apocalypse was that there was no heat during the winter.

"What is it?" he whispered trying not to disturb the girls.

"There's been a break in the weather, which means it's our turn to gather firewood and go hunting; unless you'd rather have canned food and homemade hardtack for dinner again."

Hardtack was easy to make and lasted long, but everybody was sick of it. Takashi felt like it was beginning to stick to his mouth.

"Alright… just give me a second."

Takashi carefully shifted his way out of the cocoon of blankets he was under, careful not to disturb the girls. He had to climb over Rei because he didn't want to risk falling on top of Saeko. Several months ago they had decided to celebrate his birthday with some spirituous beverages that had somehow survived the outbreak. Despite not being legally of age, they figured it was okay for Takashi since there was a very real possibility he might not live that long. Takashi remembered trying several different drinks since he couldn't find anything he liked. The next thing he knew he woke up naked with both Rei and Saeko on top of him. It was really awkward.

"Who cares?" Rika had said "For all we know, we could be the last human beings alive, and it could be up to us to repopulate the Earth."

"Don't even joke about that." said Saya.

"I wasn't joking."

"Good, because I sure as hell don't find it funny!"

Of course they had all forgotten about little Alice in all this, who was too young to understand what they were talking about. Despite their best efforts to forget about the incident, it was clear that a wall had risen between Rei and Saeko, and it got a lot thicker a few weeks later when the group had realized that Saeko was pregnant with Takashi's child.

"How did I screw up this bad?"

Takashi stared at the small mountain on Saeko's stomach under the blankets. The pregnancy had been hard enough on the group, particularly Saeko's cravings that couldn't be satisfied. Takashi had lost count of how many times Saeko had cried herself to sleep because they didn't have any chocolate. Everything else aside, this was no world to raise a child in. They hadn't seen any zombies in a while, but they spent plenty of time worrying that some less than noble individuals might raid the place.

"Are you going to wait for the baby to be born, or are you going to make sure she has something to eat tonight?" asked Rika.

Takashi kissed Saeko's stomach before he left the room.

"We'll make it work… somehow."

"Anything to report?" asked Rika.

"Just snow and more snow."

Saya looked terrible. Not only had it been her turn to keep watch the previous evening, but the fact that they didn't have any hot water made it hard for anyone to keep up on their personal hygiene. Takashi and Kohta in particular had started growing some facial hair.

"If there are any other survivors, they wouldn't dare be out in this weather. Don't be out there too long, I have no idea how long this break is going to last."

"We'll keep that in mind. Tell Kohta to relieve you and get some rest."

Takashi and Rika both bundled up, grabbed their gear, and set off.

To be continued