Chapter 2

A woman bashed two guys' brains out while they tried to rape another woman. Admiring her handiwork for a moment, she turned and smashed the pipe she held onto the head of the woman who was lying across a car hood, almost naked, undoubtedly killing her. The basher grabbed something from the woman's hand and then seemed lost for a moment but then ran into the parking area and unlocked a car and drove off.

Winkle got scared then. She recognized the two women. They were graduate students, sisters actually, who lived 3 doors down from her. They were good neighbors and she'd been to their apartment for drinks and conversation just last week.

'What's gotten into people? She killed her own damned sister after trying to save her! I can't wait. I have got to hook up with a strong group if I'm going to survive.'

Penny shoved open the door and it hit Sheldon on the upper arm and knocked him over. He sprawled out over the concrete, face down. He gave up. Pretty much everyone he cared about was dead or gone. Leonard dead, Howard and Bernadette driving east to Wisconsin and Raj flying into the unknown in India to rescue his family. Or bury them. And now Penny was dead.

He didn't care much what happened to him now. He had no purpose in life any longer and no reason to continue on.

"Oh my God, Sheldon!" She pretty much figured out what had happened. Sheldon came looking for her, thought she was dead and then sat and just waited for something, anything, to happen. Worse, he'd given up.

Penny pulled his head into her lap and watched him come around. There were tears in his eyes and Sheldon Cooper didn't cry. Hell, Sheldon had no emotions whatsoever except anger and scorn and she didn't know if 'scorn' was an emotion.

"P-Penny? I thought you were dead. I came looking for you and saw the car and your body sprawled across the seat and I thought you were dead." He sat up and pulled her into a rib-crushing hug and started to cry again, making soft mewing sounds in her ear.

"Hey, honey, it's okay. I'm okay. I just had a crying jag again and it just sucked the life outta me and I guess I fell asleep. Get up and help me cart all this crap up to the apartment. I got a lot of 'barter goods, Shel, but not much in the way of real food."

"As long as you returned safely, it doesn't matter."

Penny knows that somehow they've reached a point in their relationship where friendship isn't enough for either of them but she's afraid to jeopardize what she has if she pushes and Sheldon's not on the same page. She understands so much more about Sheldon in these few short weeks than she ever dreamed of learning. Sure, he can be a real ass but he's never deliberately hurtful, just blunt. And he cares for her in his own way just as she does for him in hers.

"Yeah, well, there wasn't a soul on the road or in the area. No people looting, no cars or trucks or buses, nothing. I think we need to crank up your radio and see what the Emergency Broadcast System has to say."

"Good idea, Penny. The University is non-viable what with almost everyone either dead or in flight to loved ones pursuing safety from the Choker. I think that in view of how things appear to be headed, we might want to discuss our plans for the future."

They made two trips each and then Sheldon made a third trip. He had long ago discovered that the underground garage was equipped with a pull-down metal grill that locked on both sides at the bottom. The landlord had never used it and it was only because Sheldon had spotted the steel rings welded into the steel collar surrounding the entrance that he even knew it was there.

Sheldon found the release gadget and dropped the grill down and then secured each side with the large steel pin that was in a bracket for that purpose.

'I'll have to do something to secure the front entrance or at least the stairwell. Maybe both. The basement door has been secured since before the Troubles and only requires a cursory security check each night.'

Apartment 4A

Penny had stocked their pantry with what she thought they'd need out of her looted stuff and stacked the rest in the closet in Sheldon's old bedroom that was a sort of supply room now. They'd begun sleeping together in Leonard's room shortly after she moved in permanently.

That's all they did in there – sleep.

Neither wanted to cross the line although most mornings she awoke either spooned against his back or wrapped in his arms, her face flush against his chest and their legs intertwined. They never started out that way but almost always ended up that way.

She thought about using her old apartment as a 'storage locker' but figured that it would be best to keep their stuff where they had access and could keep it safe.

Sheldon rapped a trio of triplets and then unlocked the door, happy for once that she'd locked it even if she knew he was going to be along shortly. Things were different now and safety was no longer a given. Not now.

Sheldon started to say something but stopped when he saw Leonard's phone with it's little red icon that signified a voicemail. They'd left the cells on the chargers thinking if the power went out and the landline was dead, they could still possibly use their cells when they found an area with power to the towers.

"What's wrong, honey? You were saying something about the parking garage grille and – "

She saw the icon, too, and thought exactly the same thing he'd thought. 'What if it's his mother? How do I tell her that the son she never bothered with doesn't care anymore that you didn't love him like his other siblings 'cause he's dead.'

"I have to hear the message, Penny. I'll handle the call-back if it's his – if it's New Jersey calling." He steps toward the charger and she yells, "NO! Don't answer it. Please, just let them have their hope. Don't ruin it for them. Hell, Sheldon, they're probably all dead by now anyway. Just – just…"

Softly, "Penny, they deserve to know. I would want to know if a beloved child of mine were alive or dead. I would have to know, Penny."

Penny just shook her head and thought, 'Beloved child? Oh, Sheldon, he was their friggin' science experiment and Beverley wrote papers about his hang-ups. But you would want to know. You have to know everything.'

He touched some keys on the phone and put it on speaker.

'Leonard, this is Leslie. Look, we need to join forces if we're going to survive this and I want you and I to survive. I know you're probably holding Dr. Dumbass' hand and telling him that you'll take care of him but, but Leonard, really, he can't handle normal life how the fuck is he going to handle Armageddon? You'll need to leave him behind. He'll just jeopardize our survival and I don't want to leave him along the side of the road somewhere because he drives us nuts and have you hating me for it. Call me back at this number. My cell is off and on the charger.'

At the sound of Winkle's voice Penny looked at Sheldon. He was frowning as he listened and then his face grew cold and his lips white with anger. Penny had never seen him mad before. Yeah, she'd seen him pissed off and aggravated but never had she seen this look on his face. It frightened her but made her feel more protective of him at the same time.

"Fuck Winkle, Sheldon. She doesn't deserve to kiss your ass. Leonard would never have – "

"Penny, he would have and we both know it. Leonard was weak and indecisive whereas Winkle is much like his mother who uses ridicule and pussy to keep the men in her life where she likes them. Since I have never displayed any interest in engaging her in coitus, she used her only other weapon – ridicule – but I wouldn't toe her line so…"

"Sheldon Cooper, did you just say 'pussy'?" She was shocked. Oh-so-proper Sheldon Cooper used a word she knew he knew but never dreamed would pass his lips except in reference to cats not a woman's private parts.

"I apologize but it doesn't change the situation one iota. Do you think the three of us could interact together as a unit or do you feel that we should just let her try to survive on her own. I don't like her, that's no secret, but she does have skills that would increase our survival quotient, Penny. It's up to you, though, whether to 'invite' her into our group or not."

"Sheldon, why is it up to me?" Was he worried that she might be jealous of Winkle, for God's sake?

'Wait, why would I be jealous in the first place? It's not like we're in a relation – oh, my God, we are in a relationship, just not a sexual one.'

"Because you're a natural leader whereas I am a natural follower – the proverbial clueless sidekick. Consider our weapons: cutlery from the kitchen and a softball bat. I made up emergency packs for all of us covering as many possible contingencies as possible and yet…I assumed nothing would change, that social order, human behavior, would remain the same."

He stepped toward her, the cell in his hand and he puts his other palm on her shoulder and fixes her with what she's come to recognize as 'Sheldon's Lecture Look'.

"I was wrong and now we're at a distinct disadvantage, Penny, because I live in ivory towers of academia whereas you, Slugger, reside in the real world. You would have looted a gun shop as the first thing on your 'to do' list when the world ends."

She's speechless but by God he's right and she wonders if she's held off doing so in light of his 'sensitivities'?

"Here, Penny, return the call. I'm going to check out the 'barter goods' and then do some research on gun shops and other sources of weaponry. I trust your judgment above all else, Penny. We'll go out together in the morning on a 'looting spree'."

He handed her a dry marker as if it were a valuable heirloom or something. The look in his eye made her shiver with a sudden desire to drag him to their bed and have coitus until he learned to say 'fuck' but she shook it off and concentrated on this newer version of Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD.

"Perhaps you should jot down some ideas of various weaponry to procure? I cede to you this white board and maker. Use them wisely, Penny."