AN: I have no more story. So I tried for a clean ending. Will never be Earth Abides, but that was my inspiration.

I have another post-apocalyptic story in mind. Probably not as long though.


El was curled up against Mike on the swinging porch bench. It was cool and a storm threatened, but they had a blanket covering them.

El's hair was long enough to be considered an unstyled lob. She loved it.

Mike told her that she'd gone beyond pretty. That there really weren't any words for how she looked or how he felt about her.

"Time to haul that old fridge away. How long have you been meaning to do that?"

"Couple of years anyway." Mike smiled at her.

"I think we might be having that ant problem again." El said.

"Geez, all they are missing is a leader. Do you think it might be the pie you made?"

"I might have dropped a piece of apple."

"Yeah, I'll help you look. Tomorrow though. I feel way too peaceful to even move right now."

"Me too." She gave a soft giggle.

XXXXX

Mike had picked this street in Berkeley California. Mainly for it's view of the Golden Gate bridge. El had approved. Watching the sunset was the highlight of their day

They had a garden that took up a lot of their time. They made trips to hardware stores.

XXXXX

"I'd recognize that hair anywhere." Mike said.

"It's down to her knees! She's beautiful!" El said.

"I'm sure Lucas thinks so too."

They watched as Max, Lucas, Dustin and Suzie walked towards them along San Lupo Drive.

Max pointed at them. All four ran towards them.

Mike gave Max a quick kiss on the lips and hugged her for a long time rocking bath and forth. Both El and Lucas gave them their time.

"El! Your hair!" Max gave her kiss on the cheek and a long hug.

XXXXX

"Sorry El. You know I don't swear, but guys? Where the fuck were you?"

"We were exploring the mall," Suzie said.

"We found a secret elevator at one of the loading rooms for supplies."

"Mike, long story short. We all went down the elevator."

"Ok… for ten years?" Mike looked back and forth to his friends.

"Door locked after we got down. There was a whole underground complex, I think it might be connected to the lab, anyway we needed the combination to get back up."

"Ouch. How many combinations?" The geek part of Mike asked the question.

"Six digits." Suzie said.

Mike thought for a few seconds. "Ok, the math isn't quite working here."

"Every three wrong guesses, you wait ten minutes." Dustin said.

"We split up our time, broke it in half, first half from zero up and from the middle down, second half from last down, and middle up. We had to eat sleep. Whole complex down there. We explored. So long story short, took us about nine and half years. Rest was travelling."

Mike nodded. He went over and hugged Max again. All of them. He went back to El, hugged her. He whispered into her ear. "That's what friends do El. Never forget that."

She cried and hugged him back.

"Your directions are shit Mike." Dustin said. "If we hadn't had a final address or street, we'd have been screwed. Took us about two months to walk here."

"We had to take detours, I thought of leaving signs for the detours, but I didn't want anyone else finding their way here. You know what I mean?"

They all nodded. "Especially if they had guns… right Lucas?"

"Seriously Mike? That was ten years ago." Lucas threw up his hands, but he was smiling.

Mike ran his forearm over his eyes, but he couldn't hide his crying. El came over and hugged him. "It's ok Mike. Our friends are here now."

XXXXX

"So... " Mike said. "El and I live here." He pointed to the house behind them, rent's cheap on this street, so you can pick any house. If you don't like the furnishings, well I guess it depends on how much work you want to put into switching them… um, you don't need to live on this street…"

"Why do you live on this street?"

"Lucas…" Max sounded exasperated, "...look."

They all turned towards the west, the sunset over the Golden Gate bridge was its own answer.

"We watch it every night… with coffee." El said smiling at her friends.

"You have coffee!" Max looked envious.

"And beef jerky. Closest thing you are going to get to meat these days. Tons of each." Mike said.

XXXXX

They all sat around a homemade fire pit later that night. Max was the first to notice. "El? Is that… a ring?"

She held up her hand, "Black Titanium, we found a jewelry job along the way, picked out our sizes, and then got married on the rock. Once we got here."

"Rock?" Suzie asked.

"Indian Rock Park. We climbed up the west side, professed our love to each other. We were married." Max noted El's speech and vocabulary. Mike had really helped her.

Mike nodded he was having a hard time holding in his emotions.

Max didn't bother. She was crying when she said, "That's beautiful. You'll have to show us."

Mike winked a Lucas, Dustin caught the wink also.

Both Lucas and Dustin both sighed.


For those of you still reading my stories.

If you could pick an El from one of my stories, and pair her with a different Mike from another story. What would be your suggestions?