Shattered Worlds

by Vampirepancakes

Thirty years into a post apocalyptic world, Damon and Bonnie meet as strangers, coming from completely different ways of life. But, learn that despite their differences, they have the common goal of surviving in such a brutal world. Soon they team up together on a cross country journey to find one of the last beacons of hope that humanity has left. All HUMAN

16. Chapter 16

Following the afterglow of their lovemaking the two of them fell asleep in each other's arms. The combination of staying up all night the night before and making intense love for their first time causing sleep to finally envelope the both of them.

The steady rain which was still falling down hard outside, having yet to show signs that it would stop, combined with the crackling of the fireplace smoothed the pair of them into a deep sleep. It was a good, well rested sleep for them both, as wonderful dreams filled their heads. They slept cuddled up against the warmth of each other's bodies for about three and a half hours.

Once the three and a half hours had passed by, Damon found himself waking up. Suddenly his blue eyes fluttered open, as his eyes scanned over the bedroom they had made love in, then fell to sleep in. The orange glow of the fireplace continued to bounce against the room.

Feeling the warm, soft body of the one Bonnie Bennett pressed against his, his eyes shifted down to her face. She looked beautiful, peaceful, and relaxed in her sleep. With just a hint of the afterglow of their lovemaking from a few hours ago still left in her face. He brushed her hair out of her face to admire the woman he was completely in love with, just grateful to have her with him in such a desolate world.

After studying her face for a minute more, his eyes shifted back over to the fireplace, where he noticed the flames going down slightly. This was a sign that the fire needed more wood to keep it going at a steady pace, otherwise if it wasn't attended to then it would go out by itself in a couple of hours or so. Knowing he needed to take care of the fire, he placed a kiss on Bonnie's forehead. She shifted slightly against him but did not wake.

Sliding out of the bed he walked over to the fireplace, noticed there was no wood next to it, as he had left all of the wood in the wood storage bin downstairs. Without even bothering to put in clothes, he went down naked, gathered up a few pieces of thick wood in his arms, after checking on the downstairs fireplaces to make sure they were still going well. He carried the arm full of wood back up the stairs.

Once he was back up them, he took the wood into the master bedroom. Looking over at the bed, he could see that she was still fast asleep. Taking the wood over to the bedroom's fireplace, he placed two pieces in the smaller storage bin, while putting the other pieces he had gotten into the fire place. Grabbing the fire poker he prodded at the wood, until it was lit on fire, and kept prodding until the flames of the fire was back to the level needed to keep it going for hours more.

And that was how Bonnie woke up, she opened her eyes to see Damon not in the bed next to her, she was about to call out to him, but quickly spotted him across the bedroom, he had his back to her and he was still naked. She could see his nude form in the silhouette the fireplace casted and what a nude form it was.

"Wow, I talk about waking up to a beautiful sight." She called out from the bed.

Hearing the sound of her voice he turned around facing her, seeing her delightfully eyeing him from the bed. "Hello, there!"

She smiled brightly. "Hello, there!"

He placed the fire poker over to the side approached the bed.

Bonnie eyed his naked body up and down as he did so.

"Speaking of beautiful sights to wake up to." Damon kneeled next to the edge of the bed. "I woke up to one when I saw you sleeping still."

The Bennett woman scotted over to the edge of the bed, without getting out of the bed so she could get closer to her man. She ran her fingers through his thick mane of hair.

"How are you feeling?" He pondered as he enjoyed her fingers through his hair.

"Fine, more than fine, I'm feeling good right now." Was her reply.

"Did you sleep well?" He noticed the fire light deflecting off of her green orbs.

"I'm slept wonderfully! Feel very refreshed, my body feels renewed because of the sleep." Bonnie directed. "What about you how did you sleep?"

Damon answered. "I feel well rested, even though we didn't sleep a full eight hours after not getting any sleep last night."

Bonnie's lips curved. "Perhaps the excellent sex we had before falling asleep had something to do with our bodies rejuvenating."

Damon smirked. "Perhaps!"

"I'm hungry." She moved her hand to his beard which she had grown to love on him. A part of her never wanted him to shave it off.

"Oh? Is there any way I could help you with that hunger?" A certain glint came into his blue eyes.

"Not that type of hungry."

"Oh then, so you mean hungry for food?"

She laughed. "Yes, I mean hungry for food."

He recalled. "Right, you haven't had anything to eat in a while."

She confirmed. "Not since yesterday morning because of the circumstances, however between it being a while since I last ate and getting a few hours of sleep in my appetite has came roaring back. Now, I'm rather famished."

"Since you've mentioned it, been a while since I last ate as well, I'm famished as well." Damon muttered.

"So, then I guess we should eat something" Bonnie moved to a sitting position. "What food did you find by the way."

"Ruffled through, found some ramen noodles, some rice, and chicken broth." He let her know.

"Sounds good, I could eat about anything right now." Said Bonnie.

Resting his hand on her calf he commented. "We'll fix some of the noodles and rice over the fireplaces downstairs. There's several pans down there we could use."

The green eyed woman stood to her feet and stretched. "Sounds like a plan."

Because he was still kneeling, her standing gave him an good eye level view of her ass and pussy.

Strolling over to where her clothes laid in a pile, she picked up her panties.

The raven haired man had yet to move from his position, just taking in the view of how the fire light danced off of her naked skin.

"Are you coming?" She questioned as she slipped on her panties.

"Yes, give me a minute I'll join you." Damon told her with a half smile.

"Alright." Bonnie pulled on the rest of her clothes. Then walked towards the bedroom door. Pausing she looked back towards him, blowing him a kiss before exiting out of the room.

Capturing the invisible kiss with his hand, as huge grin forming on his bearded face. Then he proceeded to stand to his full height, he got dressed and joined his woman downstairs.

BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK

Twenty minutes later the pair of them were sitting down at a table that was downstairs, they moved the table in front of the fireplace which was in the den area of the house not far from the kitchen. Since Damon thought it would be a nice idea if they had their meal in front of the fireplace. They had successfully used innovative ideas to fix the ramen noodles and the rice over the fire in some pots. They fixed three packs of ramen noodles and a cup of rice in half chicken broth and half water. Since it had been since yesterday morning since either of them last ate. They shared the noodles and rice in equal portions. With them both having one and a half pack of the noodles, plus a half of cup of rice each. Saving the remainder of the rice and noodles they didn't fix for the next day.

Bonnie had lite a candle and put it in the middle of the table for them to have a candle light meal together, figuring it was a nice romantic touch. Along with their noodles and rice they had some bottled water to drink which they had conserved some water in.

It was very apparent how hungry Bonnie was and that she hadn't eaten in awhile by how she was enthusiastically wolfing down her food. Damon paused the spoonful of rice in a soup of chicken broth to look at her with amusement.

She was slurping up her noodles with she noticed how he was looking at her.

"What?" She went after swallowing another forkful of noodles.

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said that you were hungry." Damon said to her.

"Yeah, like I said it's been a while since I last ate." Bonnie told him.

"Hmmm, I guess that plus the energy you and I took up having amazing sex earlier will work up an appetite in a person." Damon wiggled his eyebrows.

This time it was her turn to be amused. "You are certainly correct about that!"

Bringing the spoonful of rice to his mouth he ate it. "So, how's the food so far?"

Bonnie sampled some of the rice, broth mixture. "Delicious, maybe it has something to do with me starving, but delicious nonetheless."

The blue eyed man agreed. "Yeah, it is pretty tasty."

"You know this stuff used to a college staple back before for world went to shit."

"What stuff? The rice?"

"The ramen noodles." She corrected.

He eyed her from across the table with curiosity. "Interesting, wonder why ramen noodles were a staple for people who went to college back then."

She spoke. "Well from how my dad explained it to me, ramen noodles were a staple for those who attended college, in particular young adults from the ages of nineteen to their early twenties. See not many young college goers had a job or a job which paid really well between the classes they had to attend. So, ramen noodles were cheap and didn't cost a lot of money. Hence why it was a college staple."

Damon was always interested and amazed to know whenever she told him about the old world from her father's perspective. Because it gave them an idea of what the world was like before the apocalypse.

"Really?" He leaned forward over the table wanting to know more.

"Um hmmm." She went on after eating another forkful of noodles. "My dad said they would cost only a handful of cents per pack, so he could get enough ramen noodles to last him a couple of weeks just with five or ten bucks."

"Lucky college kids to get all of that food for cheap." Damon commented as he slurped a noodle into his mouth.

She knew what he meant. In a current world where food was so sparse, it was hard for those like her and Damon to imagine a world where food used to be so abundant to so many people. Yet, her dad use to live in a world where he could just drive to a supermarket or a restaurant if he wanted something to eat. People weren't so fortunate in today's world.

Bonnie added. "From what he told me, he would get different flavors or jazz it up so he wouldn't get bored with eating the same thing over and over again. But, when he got out of college he ditched the noodles and stopped eating them all together."

Damon pondered. "Why would he do that? These things taste great."

"He became health conscious."

He gave her a look of confusion at this explanation.

"Um, ramen noodles have a lot of sodium so it wasn't good for a person's blood pressure? Anyway he got a job in the field he graduated from, therefore he didn't need to just rely on cheap foods and was able to buy more expensive healthier foods."

"Can't imagine turning down edible food for health reasons or any reason. Some of the old world practices sure are strange." Damon stated.

"Perplexing for sure how they would do things in certain ways back then." Bonnie muttered. "I thought much the same a you did as far as turning down food goes, when my dad told me about it. Then again you have to remember how different the old world is from our world today. They practically had supermarkets and grocery stores filled wall to wall with an abundance of food to choose from. They didn't have to scrap to find every bit of food like we do."

Damon nodded. "True, if we're lucky sometimes we can find food like this by rummaging through buildings or house here and there. But, then there are often times where food is few and far between places. Where days, even weeks pass by without finding anything. Otherwise we have to get our food source from hunting, fishing or finding wild plants. Can't afford to be a picky eater in this world."

Bonnie agreed. "Beggars can't be choosers. Not saying people had it easy back in my Dad's younger days. But, far easier access to find than we did."

He ate yet more noodles. "Maybe our final destination will have an abundance of food like the old world used to."

"You mean Anex." Bonnie spoke of the settlement they were trying to reach in Mystic Falls, Virginia.

"Exactly, if this place is truly what it is hyped up to be then we'll never have to fight tooth and nail for our next source of food once we get there."

"That would be something else, Never have I gone for a prolonged period of time without worrying whether or not I was going to go hungry or starve once my current food source ran out."

"And do you figure this place in Virginia is the answer to all of our prayers?"

Reaching for her bottle of water she replied. "I go back and forth at times. A lot of the times I'm optimistic in believing Anex is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for us. If this place it real it will be the end of our struggling to survive from day to day once we reach it."

"...Then at times I have doubts due to how bleak this world is. Figuring in a world like this one Anex just makes for too much light in a world of darkness and that this settlement isn't real after all."

Drinking some of his own water Damon admitted. "I have felt the same way at times. Going back and forth between being optimistic that this settlement, this promising settlement really exists. Then I have moments of doubts during some of the darkness periods on this planet. However, when doubts did come to my mind there is something I have done to raise my hope backup since I discovered the potential of such an oasis of a community."

Bonnie was the curious one now. "And that would be?"

"I'll show you in just a minute." He got up from the table and walked out of the room.

She stayed seated at the table, eating her rice waiting on what he had to show her.

A half of minute later he came back into the room and sat down at the table. "Whenever there were doubts I would listen to this."

"The tape recording." Bonnie noticed the old hand held tape player he had been carrying around in his duffle bag. He had carried it with him even before he had met her. That tape recording was the reason, at least part of the reason why the two of them had made the long track across country from the West coast to the East coast. After six months of traveling the majority time on foot, they still had a ways to go.

"The tape recording." Damon repeated holding it in his hands. "I discovered this, along with the map which pointed to this Anex salvation settlement. When I first heard it, I didn't even believe my ears. Thought it was too good to be true."

She couldn't blame him for doubting the authenticity of the tape. Just because dim and harsh the world had been for thirty years. Which was so suffocating that the hope for air from the suffering seemed hopeless.

"I thought the guy was a few bricks short when I first listened to it. Yet, something made behold to this tape recording and the map anyway. Then I started to listen to it more and more when I was by myself and no one else around at the base camp. And I started to believe the man on the tape was actually telling the truth,"

"I had loathed my time with The New Dawn. I wanted out of that hell hole, but didn't know where I would go if I left there. Then this tape made me believe that this community in Virginia could be an virtual heaven. At least compared to the hell hole I was in. Took the last straw of seeing that horrific act of that family getting burned alive, for me to get out of there and decide to take the long journey to the east coast to see if this place existed." Damon finished.

Bonnie pointed out. "Which was very risky for you to do, leaving the New Dawn behind."

The two of them were now speaking of the brutal militia organization he used to belong to, which had its camp base in California. The New Dawn is what his poor excuse of a 'father figure' Alaric had named it when he founded it. Alaric was the leader, The New Dawn, therefore the group he ran had taken up his cold hearted and vicious acts of violence and murders against many of innocent people. Making them one of the most feared groups in this current brutal environment.

Damon had always loathed being in The New Dawn militia organization since childhood. He confessed to taking part in the killings of innocent people, because Alaric had abused him physically, emotionally, and mentally at a young age. And made him afraid that if he didn't follow orders, he would end up dead or back in that awful pit punishment which he feared.

So, Damon reluctantly did end up murdering innocent. Yet, the difference with him and many of the other members of the New Dawn who had been groomed to be vicious soldiers from child birth, therefore having no remorse and being proud of taking up the organizations ways, he was different. Different in how he had not been desensalitionized to the cold hearted violence like the others been. Each time he murdered an innocent people it ate him up with guilt inside and made it hard for him to sleep at night. When their practices got to be too heinous, too much, he ran away, escaping because he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Had to do what, I had to do, couldn't stand there another day. So, I ran and haven't look back since." Damon commented after a while.

"Well, I still consider you brave for being willing to leave. Sure, you did awful actions in your past which I don't condone, but the torment and torture Alaric put you through contributes to that, so I put the blame on him for what he made you do. As I said it was brave for you to get away from there, knowing the punishment for a member who deserts the militia is a brutal one." Bonnie commented.

"Death by execution, that's the punishment for any member caught attempting desertion of The New Dawn." Damon shook his head.

"Yeah, I mean how many men choose to stay with that group mainly on the basis of self preservation combined with having no remorse. So, they'll stay their whole lives not caring about who they hurt or kill, as long as they remain alive. You could have chosen to stay there for the remainder of your life, you did not and you get away knowing the punishment." Bonnie gestured.

He continued eating some more rice. "Guess in a way, even if I known I would have gotten caught escaping. Me getting executed would have been better than me having to stay in such a hell hole. Part of me figured at least I wouldn't have to live the rest of my life stuck practicing their heinous ways purely for the benefit of Alaric."

"Thankfully, they never managed to catch you escaping or after you escaped there."

"Nope, they did not. I left the camp base at night, when it was down to a skeleton crew patrolling. Knew that there was a better chance of me getting out of there and since much of the base sleeps until daybreak, I knew I had hours up on them as an advantage to get as far away from there as I could. Before they woke up for the next morning handing out assignments and missions to all of the soldiers for that day. Don't know how exactly long it was before they could have discovered I was gone. Knew they would eventually find out I was missing from the camp."

"Then put two and two together knowing I went AWOL out of there. Alaric must have been especially angry when he discovered what happened. Knew he would send men after me to catch me once they all learned what happened. So, I took extra measures to ensure I had better chances of getting away without being dragged back to the base in what would have been an guaranteed punishment for deserting." Damon finished.

"Like disabling the vehicles." Bonnie recalled from how he had explained to her before the details of how he got out of The New Dawn's campbase.

He ran his fingers over the tape recorder. "Yes, as I told you a while ago I learned how to drive because the place I came from had access to cars and trucks. Sometimes we would go months without having working vehicles due to there being so many of them which had rusted out tires or engines. Or which were broken down to the point of being unfixable. But, because of the sheer number of men in our militia and the size of the New Dawn, we were able to luck out and occasionally find a few working vehicles at a time we could use. And they were used until they broke down or ran out of gas. "

"There is an old mechanic who is skilled at working on broken down cars, but he only could fix them if he had the correct auto parts which was few and far between, not only because of there being so many cars with rusted out engines. But, because so many of the auto part stores had long ago been ransacked, leaving little to no new car parts around. So, this again meant prolonged periods of time where the camp had no working cars or trucks. Often having to go on missions on foot. Around the time I escaped the New Dawn camp base, they did have about three working ones. Two pickup trucks and a sedan. I remember you asking me one time why I wouldn't have just driven one of the trucks or car off to escape there." Damon stated.

She commented. "Right, I was wondering, since I figured escaping in a car would have gotten you out of there much faster than going on foot did. And the answer you gave made sense after you explained it to me."

Damon mentioned. "When I was going over the plans in my head on how to escape, getting into one of those vehicles and just flooring it out of there as fast as I could did come to mind. Then the more I thought about it the more riskier it sounded. If I started one of those trucks or that sedan, the engine would have made a lot of noise. For sure drawing more attention to my escape attempts, heighten the risk of me getting caught before I could even reach the gate."

Bonnie put in. "More silent for you to go foot, drawing less noise and taking less of an risk in getting caught. Turns out you made a smart decision there, this adding you to disabling that car and those trucks aided in your assist."

Said Damon. "Going with the stealthy method of escaping on foot definitely aided in helping me get out. As for the vehicles I disabled, I knew that they would have the advantage of tracking me down faster if they came after me in them. Another reason why I decided not to use the trucks or car to get away, was because the keys to the working vehicles were always kept in the command center. Which always had a guard or two manning it no matter what time of day it was."

"If someone wanted to drive, they had to go to the command center building to request a key and get the permission or go ahead to use of the vehicles. Since a working one was so rare to find, at times they were only used for top priority New Dawn missions which were some distance from the base. That time of night if I would have went to the command center to try and get a key, it definitely would have drawn suspicion in my direction, due to there not being any mission which require the use of them that time of night. They would have stopped me for questioning before I even got out of the command building."

"As I said, between you not wanting to make too much noise to bring attention to yourself and the keys being in an guarded building, it makes sense you decided to get away on foot." Bonnie told him.

He continued. "Before I left knowing they wouldn't be able to have the needed autoparts to fix broken down vehicles anytime soon, I snuck to them using the cover of darkness the night provided, waited until the skeleton crew took their patrol in another area. Then as quiet as I could, I popped the hood, proceeded to cut several important lines in the engine, disabled the batteries, poked some holes in some key parts needed to run the engines and finished it off by slashing the tires for good measure. I managed to do this to both of the trucks and the car within five minutes. The skeleton crew wouldn't be back in that area for another twenty five, by the time they came back around I was already out of there. And it was so dark they most likely didn't notice the damage until sometime during daybreak the next day. Again when I was already long gone from there."

She drunk down some more water. "Damon, I have to say you are a genius, not sure I would have thought about disabling the car and those trucks before I escape any sort of place like that."

"Why, thank you."

She gave him a nod of acknowledgement.

Damon pressed on. "For years I wanted to get out of the awful conditions of that damn militia group. Finding this tape recording was what gave be hope to do it, the hope of there being a place much better than the one I was currently at during the time. After listening to the tape multiple times, I became a believer, it and the man on the recording inspired me to head out to a long journey out east."

Bonnie stated. "Well, I'm certainly glad you found this recording, it lead you to me and now we have been on this journey towards the eastern United States for six months now."

"And it had been the best six month period in my entire life." Damon acknowledged with a smile.

She gave him a crooked smile in return.

He gulped down some water.

"Since you brought out the tape recorder why don't we listen to it right now, for inspiration." Bonnie suggested. "I haven't ever listened to the whole thing, just bits and pieces."

"Yeah, it is rather lengthy. At the base it took me some days to get through the whole thing. Just because I only get be alone there for specific times of the day or night." Damon pushed the tape recorder to the middle. He put the volume as high as it could go.

Pressing the play button he added. "Let's listen, for an inspiration boost."

Soon the sound coming from the speaker of the tape recording filled the room. At first there was nothing but soft static noise coming from it. The static noise lasted for about twenty seconds before clearing. Followed by some heavy raspy breathing. Then a voice, a man's voice rose from the speaker as he spoke.

"Hello, to the finder of this tape recording….if any person manages to find this tape, then congratulations, you have just reached the jackpot. A jackpot in a world of shit."

Started the man on the recording.

The two of them eyed each other in silence, not saying a word and letting the recording continue.

"First of all, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Rodgers Ellias, I've come from a very farway. Currently I am in Nevada, next to the California border, but I'm from the state of Virginia. Since I'm sure you're wondering how I made my way from the East coast to here, using a car. Know what you're thinking, how can one have access to a car in this day and age, but trust me where I come from there's cars a plenty."

"Why did I travel so far you might ask? Well it's because I had the strongest ambitions to see parts of the West coast of the United States for my entire lifetime, wanted to just for one time to see what it was about. So, that's what I decided to do, get in a car and drive to the west coast. When I informed my close friends back at home what I was going to do, they didn't think it was a good idea. Marcel and Rebekah, they advised me against taking this trip. Saying it was far too dangerous for me to venture so far from the security in which home provided. Saying how I could risk running into some hunter bandits or cannibals that wanted to do me in or harm me."

Rodgers stammered on through the tape recorder speakers. "Me being the adventurous, overconfident guy I am insisted to them how I would be fine and how I could handle myself going out so far from home alone. Told him because I had my car and few gas cans to fill it with gas when I needed to, that I would be out on the west coast and back home within a couple of months."

"Turns out they were right afterall. I should have listened to them. But, you know what they say, hindsight is 20/20. My overconfidence did me in, It was a major mistake for me to leave there. And because of that mistake I'm on the way to dying. Except for it wasn't from hunter bandits neither is it from cannibals wanting to eat me. No, my life is a verge on ending because of a snake. A poisonous snake is the reason for why I won't be alive a very short time from now. In less than an hour I'll be dead for sure. Was so very stupid, stupid for me to go. Can't do anything about that now, so if I'm going to die then I might as well make good out of my death."

The pair from them still said nothing as they continued to listen to the raspy voice along with the heavy breathing of the now deceased Rodgers Ellias.

"The way the venom is spreading in my system now, I'll most likely croak in less than thirty minutes, so I'd better get to the point before that happens. Because I can't make it back to home in Virginia, I want you, whoever finds this recording to take my place. And this is why I say if you found this, then it's your lucky day. I'm assuming you're like the majority of the people who are left alive in this world. I'm sure like most of the people are this planet you're struggling to live or to survive day after day due to the conditions the earth has been in for the past thirty years."

Rodgers went on. "This means I'm sure you are having difficult times in finding something to eat when food is so hard to come by. Or having a hard time at getting consistent sources of clean water. Or fighting for your life or looking over your shoulder because you worry about someone coming along wanting to murder you for whatever few survival sources you might actually have on you. Or those sick ones who might even want to eat you…"

The two of them exchanged a wordless gaze of communication. Knowing all too well about what it was like to run into the sick ones who 'want to eat you'. They had just went through the dreadful, terrifying experience of going up against the Parker Clan. A family of cannibals who had wanted to eat Damon for the latest meal and hold Bonnie false prisoner in their village, to have her be their version of Kai Parker's 'mate' in their sick and twisted way to ensure their family line lived on instead of dying out.

They had to fight tooth and nail for their lives, which left most of the family dead at their hands, including Kai. However, it dawned on them how not everyone was so fortunate to escape the cruel fate of becoming food for another human being. And that being hunted down by this who preferred the taste of human flesh was a heightened threat on this planet.

"I'm here telling you now, if you listen to me, believe me and follow my instructions then you don't have to worry about any of this evermore. Because my home, where I came from have solved all of these problems in which many struggle today to survive. All problems you could come up with, my home has a solution to. Out here you have to look over your shoulder or always be on guard worried about a person or persons coming to end your life."

"It's different there. Different from everywhere else because this place is secure, as secure as Fort Knox was, has all of the pieces needed to properly defend itself from even the most dangerous and threatening forces out there. It has high walls of steel to keep out any and all unwanted dangers. Has a strong numbered police and guard force to fight and defend itself against any other threatening force which might have numbers on their side. And have enough guns and weaponry to arm itself against an army. So, in my home the people there don't have to ever worry about looking over their shoulders for danger and if you were there neither do you."

Having just finished up their rice in chicken broth and ramen noodles, Damon and Bonnie kept focusing on the voice on the tape.

Rodgers rambled on. "As for food….wow it might be hard for you to believe me, but there is enough food to feed thousands of people at a time. I'm talking about fields, upon fields, upon fields of farmland where acres, hundreds of acres of food is planted and grown. Fields that stretch out as far as the eye can see. Farmers who grow just about every vegetable you can think of. Whatever one that is currently in season, they grow it. Leaving enough produce as I said to feed thousands."

"Plus, there are also lands there dedicated to fruit trees which grow out enough fruit for many people to eat. But, that's not all when it comes to the food source. If you're a fan of meat we have that as well. Chickens, cows, and pigs make for fresh meat on the daily. There's also a building in which we can process or harvest our own food to fed many, many people in the winter months. My home has the water problem solved too."

"There's a large river, a body of water which runs through the place I lived. We use a plant to take water from that river and we bottle our own water. Clear,clean, fresh, safe water, producing enough water for each person who also lives there to have clean drinking water for years. And there is clean water for other uses to, I'm talking about clean running water where you can bathe or shower in. And this part I'm about to tell you might be the hardest for you to believe."

Rodgers breathing grew more labored, both of the people listening to the tape imagined it was due to him getting bitten by a poisonous snake and therefore it had taken a toll on his respiratory system.

Still Rodgers kept pressing as if he was determined to get out his message before he died. "There's something to top it all off, which most areas and parts in this world hasn't had in decades. And that's electricity, yes electricity. A group of engineers came together managing to create a source of electricity for all who live in my home. Because of this I have been able to live in a way that 99% of the world is unable to do and that's live under power. If you don't believe me, you could go check it out yourself to see I'm telling the truth, but I promise you that living in a place where you get current makes life much easier than living in places where there aren't."

"So. there you it, all of the biggest problems and struggles of surviving are checked off and fixed where I live. Are you convinced, hopeful that this safe haven I'm describing exists. Do you wish to go there? Well, if you are then here are the details you need to know. My home is a settlement in Southeastern Virginia, in Mystic Falls. This settlement is about the size of a large town. And it's surrounded by walls which go on for miles and miles, this wall surrounds all sides of the settlement town."

Rodgers described in detail. "You know how the Ancient Romans used to build walls around their cities? Well, it's like that expect for these are stronger walls, built ten stories high, made of solid steel along with reinforced concrete inches thick. No one, no threat can get through those walls uninvited. Because there's only one entrance into the settlement, which is guarded at all times of the day and night."

"Now if you're one of those assholes who wishes to harm, hurt, or threaten any of my people who live in this settlement. Don't even bother unless you are stupid and want to kill yourself. Because that is what attempting to break into the place pretty much would be for you, a suicide mission. They'll kill any threats before you could even get close to breaking in there."

"But, if you're a good person, of good will and an honest heart who just wants to survive. Then I encourage you to go there in my place. My settlement, my town is called Anex and it offers everything you can possibly dream of. If you have what it takes to make it there, then you'll live a happy life for the rest of your life, just like I have lived a happy life while I was there."

"This place has an population close to ten thousands and growing a little more each day with new arrivals, you could be an new arrival. And if you go there, my people will accept you with open arms. So, to lead you to the way, attached to this tape recorder I have provided you a map of Virginia. And on it I have circled where Anex is located. Get there like your life depends on it."

Rodgers breathing grew more heavy and labored. They could tell that the poison was really spreading through his system at this point of the recording.

"When you get there, show my people this map, show them this recording and tell them that Rodgers Ellias sent you. Please, don't let my death be in vain, please take it upon yourself to seize this opportunity I have given to you. Get to Virginia, get to Anex for me and yourself. Most of all good luck I hope you make it. This is Rodger Ellias signing off for the last time."

And with that the recording ended. Damon pressed the button to stop the recording.

Bonnie was the first to speak as she rubbed her arms. "Whoa, that's chilling and daunting along with a number of things."

"I thought the exact same when I heard this recording in its entirety." Damon stared down at the tape player.

"I feel sorry for the guy. Rodgers, seems like he just wanted to get away from home sort of like a vacation. Then of all threats in this world he dies from a snake bite. His last moments of death must have been awful." Bonnie commented soberly.

"Yeah, I feel bad for him. His dying the way he did is very sad." Damon stated with sincerity. "But, knowing he died wanting someone else to take his place in the community he described, that helped seal my decision to leave the hell I was in. Decided I couldn't just ignore the message Rodgers Ellias gave to me and let him die in vain."

Bonnie understood. "You wanted to give Ellias purpose in his death, like he wanted for the person who discovered his recording and map to. Since I have heard this recording and what his wishes are, I want to make a purpose out of his death as well."

He shifted his blue eyes towards her. "For years I wanted a way out of the New Dawn because of how much I hated it there, I was just at a lost of how to get out or where to go after I did. Then I discover this and it was like a sign pointing me in the direction I needed to go, so I took that direction. I don't want this man's death to be for no reason, I want to make his dying important because it seems like it's what he would have wanted."

She reached across the table to put her hands over his. "And you are making his death important. We're honoring his death by following through with his request to get to Virginia."

Brushing his thumb over lovingly over her knuckles he vocalized. "This tape is the reason I started this journey east and the reason I found you. And we're going to finish this journey together."

She spoke softly. "That we are. We're going to keep going east until our journey takes us to our final destination. Rodger Ellia's settlement in Virginia."

"When I first found this, I was not alone. I had the others with me. We were on a mission to Nevada."

"You mean the Militia group you used to belong to."

"Correct. I don't even remember what the exact mission was about. I just know it was some of the top men, leaders and generals. Which besides myself included Alaric and Enzo. We were in Nevada just where it met the border of California. We were searching through the area and I happened to wander a little from the group. Came up upon this small white structure and in it was a dead person."

"A person who had been dead for a while due to have it was nothing but a skelton by the time I discovered it, I thought nothing much of it because I had seen my fair share of skeletons from people long deceased. But, there was something next to the bony corpse which caught my eye."

Bonnie guessed. "The tape recorder?"

Damon confirmed. "Along with the map attached to it. My interest and curiosity being peaked I picked it up, studied it for a moment then I looked around. The rest of the group was in the distance some, far away enough where they wouldn't be able to hear what was on the tape. My instinct told me it was something only my ears should be allowed to listen to."

"I pressed play and listened to Rodger's first few paragraphs. Wasn't enough time for me to get through the whole thing, so I stopped the recording and slipped the tape recorder with the map in a knapsack I had on me to hide from the others. I knew it was dangerous if they got their hands on it or heard it. So, I hide it on my person before any of them knew what I had. And did it just in time to since Enzo had come running along…"

He recalled back to that time.

"Damon?" Came Enzo's voice from just outside of the shack.

Making sure the items were well hidden away in his knapsack Damon peeped his head out of the entrance of the shack. "What?"

Enzo who had his hair spiked up in a sonic the hedgehog style fashion questioned Damon. "You've been separated from the group and over here for a bloody twenty minutes. The hell are you doing over here?"

The blue eyed man searched his mind for a cover up answer. Knowing it was a bad idea to let Enzo or any of the other know he had discovered the recording and the map, due to the life changing things relating to them.

"I got the case of the shits and had to relieve myself in the bushes behind the shack for a while." Damon lied with ease.

"Seriously, you had diarrhea or something?" Enzo made a face.

"Must have been something I ate earlier." Damon shrugged.

"Well, are you done now." Enzo asked.

Damon returned. "Yeah, it just took me a while to get it all out, but I feel much better."

Enzo stepped up. "Did you search the shack for anything of use?"

Damon replied. "Yes."

"Find something?" Enzo pondered.

"Just a dead corpse that decayed long ago." Damon kept a straight face as he told this militia man a half truth.

"Let me see." Stepping into the shack himself, Enzo sure enough saw the same skelton Damon had seen, but he saw nothing else. "Must have been dead for a time, nothing we haven't seen before, however."

"Nope." Damon went in a simple tone.

Stepping back outside of the shack Enzo put in. "Come on, we need to go. Alaric's ready to make our venture back to camp base."

Damon realizing what treasure he had hidden in his knapsack currently just went along. "Yeah, we've been away there for a way, guess it will be good to get back."

Enzo said nothing as the two of them headed back to The New Dawn members.

As he recalled what went down in his flashback, he told Bonnie what had happened back then at the same time.

Suddenly Bonnie bursted out laughing.

"Huh? Is something hilarious about my flashback to you?" Damon asked with raised brows.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it! Your cover up story to this Enzo was you had gotten the shits." Bonnie laughed.

"Well, I had to sort of come up with a cover up on the spot." He mentioned her laughter making his lips curve.

"Yeah and some cover up story it was." She put in with mirth.

Damon couldn't help but to laugh too. "Right, it is kind of a funny thing to come up with out of all of the other cover ups I could have come up with I guess."

Bonnie was quite tickled at this for some reason. "And Enzo he actually fell for it."

Damon chuckled. "He did without question. Fell for my lie and sinker. Never showing even a hint he had doubted my story."

She moved the now empty bowls which she had eaten from to the side. "As long as he fell for it then that's what matters."

"Enzo never suspected how I was hiding something. He had no clue what I had hidden in my knapsack and I never intended for him or the others to know. He only saw what I didn't mind him seeing."

"The skeleton corpse."

"Yep, so when he asked me if I found anything I did tell him the truth, even if it was just half of the truth."

"There's that."

He pressed his other hand on the surface of the table. "When I got back to the camp base. I hide the tape recording and the map in a place where I knew only I could find it or know where it was. And kept it a secret for months. No one else was wise on what I discovered. I kept it to myself. Not even telling Krystal with a K what I had found."

Bonnie tilted her head to the side. "Yet, you let me know about the settlement in Virginia on the same day you and I met. I mean you did so mainly because I had a gun pointed at you, still though you told me something over all of you knew back at The New Dawn's base."

He moved his hands in the air. "Well, even though I was told you about my secret about the location of this place in Virginia and what it was provided because I was trying to save my ass from one pissed off woman. And although you were just a stranger, I find something more trustworthy about you."

"Really."

"Really, I may have known a lot of members at the base for years, but even though I had barely even met you when I told you about Anex, you were more trustworthy than them by a mile. Like there was this aura I judged about you."

"Oh, okay."

"There was no way I could let the members of The New Dawn know about Anex, especially not Alaric." Damon muttered.

Bonnie mumbled. "Because you knew what Alaric and the others in associate with that organization was capable of if they found out such a place existed."

Damon commented. "Those people who live in the community we're trying to reach, they seem like honest, good hearted people."

She agreed. "While I haven't met them before, I do believe the people who live in Anex are different than most of the people you and I have the bad luck of running across. Most being cruel, vicious and cold hearted people with the intent to kill."

"Judging from the tape from Ellias we listened to, the people of his home seem at the opposite end of the spectrum. As you said they seem like they are good hearted people. Who harbor kindness, faith and good will in their community."

Damon nodded in agreement with her. "A town of innocent people who I refused risk exposing to Alaric's cruel ways."

A crinkle formed in Bonnie's brow. "Alaric would have no doubt conflicted harm or them or worse if he discovered that place. You were more than smart to hide it from him and anyone else who would have ran to him and told him."

He shook his head. "As soon as he learned about the resources they had, he would have sent himself, along with a bunch of militiamen of The New Dawn out east cross the country to reach to Mystic Falls, Virginia. And as soon as he got there would have taken all he could for himself and his crew no matter what he had to do to get it."

She connected. "They would have went there slaughtering and murdering a bunch of innocent people and stolen all of Anex's food, water, and other survival resources for themselves. Any person who wasn't a member of The New Dawn would be vulnerable to their brutal, heinous militia tactics."

Damon could already envision the bloody, horrible scene if Alaric or one of his other men had found out about the tape. "Alaric would have ordered the mass murder of the thousands of people currently living in that community and would have done so without remorse. He eliminates any single soul which in his view gets in the way of The New Dawn thriving."

"More people would have meant less resources for his army. So, he would had violently gotten rid of the people of Anex, no matter how innocent they are. He would kill them all taking in the thrill of it and enjoying how powerful it would have made him feel. Then he and the rest of The New Dawn would have taken over the community making it their campbase.."

"Which with its advantages would have ensured The New Dawn growing stronger to spread more of their terror and control around." Bonnie added.

"Yes, The New Dawn's base is primal and primitive compared to what that place in Mystic Falls, Virginia is. Alaric, Enzo and the rest of them definitely would have taken the trip across this country for the upgrade in living conditions. Especially in a post apocalyptic world. There was no way I was going to let any of them know about what I had found out about."

"You made the correct choice, you don't even personally know those people in Virginia, nor have you met them. Yet, you thought enough about them to protect them from those as cold hearted as The New Dawn. That's empathy, Damon."

He shifted in his chair. "As we both have judged, they seemed to be good people there, not deserving of the brutal reign know as Alaric."

She voiced. "No, they don't deserve to be under such a thing, neither do most of the people left alive in this world. On the up side though, at least they're aren't defenseless like many are seems like they have many ways to keep themselves safe."

The bearded, dark haired man vocalized. ""True, from the amount of men they potentially have to guard that town, plus between all of the weapons and the ten story steel walls that surround the entire community, I suspect they have the abilities to easily defend themselves from the majority of human related threats and dangers. Whether that be cannibals, bandits or hunters."

"Still though in me being better safe than sorry there was no way I could ever let Alaric in on the fact that this people exist in the place that they do." He finalized.

"Seems like Anex along with its people living there are more than capable of defending themselves. And that their forces are equal to or maybe even stronger than The New Dawn's forces. But, you're still correct in making the decision of using extreme caution in protecting them from such evil forces. And I'm glad you kept this recording and the map which came with it a secret from them.."

"They're vicious, cruel people who don't deserve the second chance at an renewed life this community offers, especially not my deviled former father figure."

She knew he was speaking of Alaric and The New Dawn militia as a whole. She knew they would spread bloodshed, violence and death anywhere they went. Where as her and Damon wanted to get there just for the chance at heighted survival and a better life than what the majority of the dark world offered. While the two of them wished no harm to any person in that community.

She knew Alaric's motives would be completely different. Even if she hadn't personally met the man, she learned enough from what Damon told him about his abusive, cold hearted ways. She knew Alaric would only look out for himself not caring about the thousands of innocent, harmless people living in Mystic Falls, Virginia. He would order his men to slaughter all of those people if he had ever knew about the tape recording or the map.

This is why she said. "No they don't."

He studied her from his position across the table. "You know I always think about how it's something else that I was the one to find Rodger Ellia's tape."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Like out of all those who were in the area of the shack on that mission in Nevada I went on, out of the dozens of the others who would have no doubt turned the recording and the map over to Alaric if they had found it. Me, the only one who wouldn't have found it."

"That is something else."

"Found it just as I was searching for answers on how to get away from The New Dawn and go on a separate life for myself. Almost like it was meant to be,"

The green eyed woman gestured. "Because it was meant to be, just like you coming across my place in Arizona was meant to be."

He smiled over at her. "Yes, us coming together in each other's lives certainly was meant to be."

Bonnie added. "Not only were you the only one out of all of the others who possibly could have discovered what you did, you were just the one to discover what you did period. Meaning that mission you went on to Nevada could have lead you somewhere else besides that particular area where that shack was. If it had who knows how differently it all could have turned out for you and in return for me."

"Never thought about it quite like that."

"Imagine if you haven't come upon the shack or if no one else ever did. Then the tape recording and the map would still been there unfound, without anyone ever discovering it, therefore learning that Anex existed. But, you did and you know what that is, Damon?"

"What?"

"Fate! This was all meant to be because it was your fate, our fate and our destiny together!"

Damon beamed "Well, Bon-Bon, I've certainly become a bigger believer of fate and destiny since knowing you that is for sure."

Bonnie exclaimed. "Just wonderful!"

Running his hands through his black hair he spoke these words next. "You know besides all of the perks we're going to have once we make it to our destination. The ones which will be as close to heaven as we can get under these conditions. Like endless amounts of food,clean drinking water…"

She brushed her hair out of her face. "...Electricity, actual running water, a highly secured community. Definitely as close to heaven as we're going to get." She ended as she had the same thoughts as him.

"Correct, looking forward to it all the most, but there's another thing I'm looking highly forward to."

Wondering what it was, she waited for his answer.

"When we eventually get there, I look forward to meeting the new people there, therefore making new friends. Always great to make new friends."

"You know, I actually feel the same way."

"Do you now."

"I do. Since I've gotten close with you I have been a lot more willing to the potential of forming friendly relationships with other people, as I believe I may have told you before. I think it would be cool for the two of us to make new friends. Hopefully the people there will accept us with a warmed, open armed welcome." Bonnie comment light hearted.

Damon rubbed his chin. "Making friends will be nice for the both of us. From what Rodgers said on the tape, I figure that they will give us a warm welcome there, especially when we tell them he basically sent us to them. And besides that won't be the only nice thing to look forward to once we make it there."

She leaned forward to hear him out.

His eyes sparkled merrily. "Once we get there will have a home together."

She understood. "You mean as in living in the same space together?"

"Exactly, what I mean."

"Then getting a home together would be nice, it definitely would be nice."

"Glad you agree because I believe a couple like us happily, in love together should live in the same space. Only right for a pair meant to be like us." His tone was happy.

Feeling him very much on this matter, Bonnie got up from her chair and walked around the table.

He followed her with his blue eyes, a grin spread across his face.

She stood next to him, eying him as he remained seated. "So, we'll live together, you and I being super in love and all. What space do you figure we should pick out to live in?"

"Meaning?" He arched a brow.

"Meaning." Bonnie sat on his knee. "House or apartment?"

"Oh, house for sure a house, we'll live in a house!" He answered excitingly.

"Again, I'm with you one hundred percent! We're a house type of couple, so a house is what we should live in!" Bonnie stated enthusiastically.

Securing her in his lap by wrapping an arm around her waist, Damon stated. "Alright, now let's come to terms since we have decided on a house, we now have to decide on what type of house we can what to live in."

Stabilizing herself she wrapped on arm around his broad shoulders. "If we could choose the exact type of house we can live in it would be lovely, like icing on top of the cake. So, what type do you have in mind exactly?"

The scent of her bath she had taken just yesterday still lingered on her delighting his senses. "How about you tell me what type of house you would like, if the option for us to pick one is available. Then we'll take it from there."

She tapped her chin. "Well, we should get something the both of us agree on, something which equally fits both of our styles and likes."

"Fully concur." Said Damon with a nod.

"I would prefer to have a house that is homey, cozy, and a bit down to earth."

"Me, I would prefer a home which is not too over the top fancy or complicated. But, simple, rustic, with just enough style to keep our time living there interesting and fun."

Bonnie really get into it as she thought about it more. "A patio where we could sit out on warm spring and summer days just enjoying the weather and each other's company. A nice sized living room area. But, I think I would especially like a house with a big kitchen if we could get it. So, we could prepare meals together there."

Damon's heart warmed with anticipation as she mentioned this and as he thought more about the type of home they could have the potential to live in as well. ""Right, we could even have meals on the patio deck or sit on it to watch the sun sets. Me I would like a house with a big lawn. And in the bedroom, the colors of it would be dark, deep colors. Including the sheets we sleep in."

"Black sheets huh?" Her expression quizzitive.

"Maybe dark blue, do you have a problem if our bedroom was decorated in dark colors." He wondered.

"Not at all. As long as I'm sharing a bed with you that's all that matters as far as the bedroom goes." Bonnie let him know.

Leaning in he brushed his nose across her cheek in an affectionate manner. "Don't worry you'll be sharing the bed with me plenty of times."

Tunneling her fingers through his raven locks, she added. "Although I would like to decorate the living room and kitchen areas if I could, with bright, warm, rich colors."

Enjoying the sensation of her fingers in his hair, he peered at her through half closed eyelids. "We have ourselves a deal. See, we're already on our way to being a perfect couple living the life, because we're compromising."

She laughed. "We are!"

"We'll be domestic, just like those couples you read about in one of those romance novels you got from the bookstore that time!" He exclaimed lovingly.

"So, we'll make friends when we get to Anex, living in harmony with all of the people there. And we'll get our dream house together, where we will start to built a fresh life anew. We'll get to have a fantastic, brand new life together!" Bonnie was overjoyed at this very thought.

"And a wonderful life it's going to be for the two of us. No more suffering or struggling to survive. Just a chance for us to spend the rest of our lives together happy and in love. The road ahead is a future of promise and postivey. All we have to do is get there." He stated.

"We will get there, no matter how long it takes us to! Our future is filled with brightness and opportunity. And I'm so optimistic about it because I know no matter what happens that my future includes you in my life!" She put in with warmness.

And with those words, the pair of them shared as tender kiss, as they looked ahead to their journey to their safe haven which resided in Southeastern Virginia. They were that more determined to complete their journey to such safe haven.

BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK

An hour after they filled up their bellies with the food, Damon attended to the two downstairs fireplaces as he put more wood in them to keep the fires roaring and the entire house warm. Shortly thereafter evening time had fallen upon the day, and since it was fall, dusk had began to fall on the evening. And it was still raining heavily outside. It had been raining like this since the day before and despite it now had rained heavily non stop all day long on the current day as well. Again it was one of the reasons why Damon had decided for them to take shelter in this house after they had fled from the Parker village.

So, because it was still raining so hard, Damon decided to collect more water for them to use. And in his search of the house, he had found an extra couple of buckets to use that he hadn't found before. Putting on his shoes and coat, he took the buckets and a couple of large pots outside to collect the water from the heavy rains.

Within about thirty minutes all of them were filled to the top or nearly filled to the top with water. Taking several trips back and forth in the house, he gathered up the buckets and pots, placing them all in a foyer in a neat line. Just as he pulled in the last of them, shutting and securing the door behind him, Bonnie came into the foyer.

She watched as he kicked off his shoes, sitting them besides the door. "You know I've could have helped you collect the water."

He took off his soaked coat and hung it up on a hook for the heat that was inside of the house to dry it. "That's alright, they were kind of heavy anyway."

Bonnie stated. "Still raining like cats and dogs out there huh."

"Yes, but at at I made use of it, got more water for us to use before it completely turns dark outside."

"That's good."

"Since we may be here a few days longer yet, we can use all of this." He gestured to the rainwater filled buckets and pots. "To take at least another bath or two between the two of us before we leave. Also we can use it to 'flush' the toilets."

"I'm aware of that, there's a trick people used back in the day when there was still widespread electricity. But, when the occasion came when they would lose it, they would have a way at times to still flush the toilet if needed." Said Bonnie as she eyed the buckets.

"Exactly, so even if there isn't electricity here, we still can 'flush' the toilets. But, still since we are here for a few days, we should only use it if we have to go number two." Was a suggestion of Damon's.

Bonnie said. "Right, to conserve the water we do have."

He rubbed his hands together as if attempting to warm them.

She observed this. "Cold?"

"Yeah, it's your typical chilly fall day outside. Plus, the rain is pretty cold and I was out for a while collecting all of that water."

"Ought not to take you long to warm up though."

"Ought not to."

Damon headed towards the stairs, walking up them he went into the bedroom they had slept in, she followed him there.

Then he took a moment to look at the clothes he was currently wearing. "Just realized how dingy these were."

"You have been wearing those same clothes for a while." Bonnie pointed out.

"I have, wish there was a way to clean them." Damon processed.

"Why don't you do what I did." Suggested Bonnie.

"What did you do?" Damon pondered.

She hinted. "My clothes were dingy from wearing them for a while, so I looked in the drawers and found some clean ones to put on."

He turned his attention towards the dresser she spoke up. "You think there are some clothes for men in there as well?"

She gestured. "Only one way to found out."

Moving over to the dresser, he opened the drawers, finding a whole drawer full of male clothes. "Jack pot!"

"You found clothing for men?" Bonnie guessed by his reaction.

"And then some." Damon proclaimed.

Since he had a selection of clothes to pick from. He choose his time rifling through them until he came up on the ones he liked the most. A long sleeved blue thick cotton shirt, some long johns which he knew would help keep him warm in the ever cooling weather and some thick manly winter pants.

"How about these?" He held the clothes up for her to see.

Bonnie studied the clothes he choose in the firelight of the room. "They really suit you."

"Then I shall wear them." To do this he folded up the clean clothes he gotten out of the drawer and placed them on the dresser on top. Then proceeded to remove his socks which were also dirty. He would look around the room and the house later on to see if there was also a clean pair of socks he could put on.

As for now, he pulled off his dingy shirt, tossing it to the ground.

She observed his now shirtless form with a slight smile on her face.

Then he removed his pants, sliding them down his legs and kicking them over to where the dingy shirt laid.

Because he hadn't bothered to put back on his underwear proceeding him getting dressed after they woke up for their three and a hour hour nap earlier, he now stood stark naked in the bedroom. And upon seeing his lean, muscular toned nude form, something stirred up inside of her and it was something like lust.

Damon reached for the clean clothes on top of the dresser, preparing to put them up.

""Wait up there's no need for you to rush to get dressed now." Bonnie spoke up.

"There's isn't?" Damon paused his actions to turn towards her.

"No, there isn't." Bonnie said coyly.

"Is there any reason why you don't want me to put on these new, clean clothes?" Damon arched a dark brow.

She licked her lips. ""Um, I'm sure you could put on your new, clean clothes later."

He repeated. "Later?"

She expressed with giving him a heated,yet light hearted look. "Later, after you join me in bed again."

Seeing the lust in her eyes, Damon caught on, this caused him to smirk. "Oh, I would guess you wanting me to join you in that bed over there has nothing to do with sleep."

"Far from sleep." She preferred to the bed they had made love in for their first time and she wanted to make love to him again in it.

"Then if you put it that way, I guess me getting dressed can wait until later."

"Since my nutritional hunger has been satisfied with food, I'm feeling the need to have my sexual hunger met again." She voiced sultry.

Her words and how she said it filled the Salvatore man with immediate lust. "Then I'm more than happy to satisfy that hunger until you're absolutely full of me."

His sexual innuendo wasn't lost on her, it made her green eyes darken with need for him.

"When don't you join me in getting naked, so we can feed each other in our hunger." He sexily said with another innuendo.

"I sure will!" She wasted no time she fastly removed the clothing from her body, in less than twenty seconds she was just as naked as he was.

As his eyes scanned over her naked body, he was instantly filled with an intense desire and want from her.

How he was now staring at her under his piercing blue eyed gaze, made her weak in the knees and wet between the legs. She closed the gap between them and was standing in front of him.

He placed a brief kiss on her lips before trailing a hand down her flat stomach, over her mound, where he ran his middle finger over her slit.

Bonnie shuddered in response.

Proceeding to slip the tip of his middle finger into her, his eyes crossed at how hot and wet she was. "Wow, Bennett you're already slick for me."

"Well, Salvatore." She reached down between them, wrapping a delicate hand around his stiffened length. "You're already hard for me!"

This time it was he was shuddered in response.

They worked the other's sex for a while with their hands. Before quickly moving over to the bed, in an embrace they fell down on the bed until they both were lying next to each other near the head of the bed.

Then Damon moved himself half way on top of her, with one hand still used to slowly finger her, the other cup one of her breasts.

While she had maneuvered the hand which was stroking his length to trace the flesh along his pelvis, while the other played with his hair at the nape of his neck.

Bending down he took her nipple into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the beaded pebble of it, before sucking on it gently.

Bonnie sighed softly in contentful peacefulness and happiness.

Moving his fingers out of her folds, he took them which were now wet from her juices, then ran the same middle finger over her clit which was showing from her arousal.

Letting out a small moan as her clit was smuliated, she pressed her hands to his shoulders, gently pushing him back.

Obilging with her he shifted back until his back was flat on the bed.

Crawling on top of him she pressed her chest to his, lowered her mouth near his neck.

At the feeling of her warm breath fluttering across his neck, combined with her beaded nipples, and her plump breasts pressed tightly against his chest, Damon groaned out at the wonderful feeling of it.

Bonnie put her lips against his jugular, trailing them across in tiny open mouthed, peppered kisses until she came to the area of his neck where his pulse point was, she licked the vein, before nipping at the sensitive skin there ever so lightly.

Tilting his head back on the bed to give her better access, he closed his eyes as vocal low sounds escaping his lips at the sensation.

Shifting the attention of her mouth, she grabbed his arm, trailed her kisses up it as well, until she pushed her lips on the inside of his wrist where she let her tender kiss linger there.

This along with having her pillowed, soft heart shaped lips against his wrist had him emotionally stirred, while being physically aroused from it as the same time.

Then she lifted her upper body from his just enough where she could clearly get a view of his face, she placed her hands on his chest moved them over his pecs, before pinching both nipples with her fingers.

"Damn woman are you trying to drive me mad." He hissed out.

"Just getting started!" Bonnie grinned.

Proving this she moved her hands down further, over his abs, over the bones of his defined pelvis, below his waist until….

He groaned out in sheer, immense pleasure as her hands wrapped around his hardened cock.

Encouraged by his reaction she began stroking him with both hands, up and down, from the base where his balls were to the head of his cock, repeating the process over and over again.

Soon he began to jerk his hips, pumping his stiffened length in her hand, creating extra friction which only made him groan louder.

Feeling like she was gaining control over him, she increased the pace of her hand movements over him, holding her bottom lip between her teeth, as she focused on pleasing him, from the unadulterated lust which was contorted on his facial features she would say she was doing a damn good job at pleasing him.

The sensation of his entire body felt like it was on glorious fire, especially in his groin area, he could feel a familiar feeling inside of his balls which told him if she kept stroking him like this, he would come in her hands. His pumped himself harder, faster, basically fucking her hands with his dick.

She had handjobbed him to the point where her hands were covered his his precum, which made her even wetter between the legs to the point she was dripping. The feeling of him in her hands but her desperately want him inside of her. So, she changed up tactics, removing her hands from his cock all together.

As she did so he was transfixed on her in a daze.

Rearing back until she was straddled above him, with her legs on either side of his waist she sunk herself down on him quickly, until his dick was emerged deeply in her pussy. She closed her eyes, letting out an immediate moan of pleasure.

"Fuck,Bonnie." Damon rasped out in a hoarse moan as the gratification of her hot, wet pussy walls around his hardness was so potent, he hardly could see straight.

Opening her eyes, she looked down at him with a bite of an cocky smirk, knowing full well she was in complete control of the man beneath her at the moment, this was like a turn on and a aphrodisiac to her hormones and it encouraged her to began moving on top of him.

His hands grasped her waist as she began riding on top of him.

Since she had just lost her virginity earlier in the day and since this was her first time being on top, she was a bit inexperienced in this area. So, as the pleasure build up in her body, she decided to experiment with a rotation of her hips.

"God." Damon breathed out.

"You like that?" Bonnie questioned with a husky tease to her tone.

"Yes."

"Want me to do it again?"

"Hell yes!"

She did indeed do it again, she rotates her hips once more, adding in a twist by squeezing her walls around him.

Damon let out a gruntal choked sound.

She kept going, moving her hips in a figure eight motion in a manner which had him going wild, his toes curled as the pleasure increased in his loins. After one more figure eight motion, the pleasure increased inside of her body as well, causing her to whimper out.

Then she switched tactics, started to bounce slowly up and down on top of his cock instead. And she kept bouncing on him slowly, with whimpers and mewls softly coming out of her mouth. For a while, he was mesmerized as he clutched at her waist, watching her move above him, on top of his hardened rod as if she were some sort of sensual goddess.

Growls and grunts coming out of his own mouth from how good it felt at her currently riding him, he reached up as she continued to move on him, he reached up cupping her face with one hand while the other remained on her waist. He scanned his finger over her face, tracing her lips with them.

Then she did something which caught him slightly off guard, she took his middle finger, the same he had fingered her with moments before, and sucked into it her mouth. Swirling her tonque around it eagerly.

That had him growing impossibly harder inside of her, he had rarely seen or felt something so sexy in his whole life.

Due to being able to taste herself on his finger, Bonnie was even more turned her, she moaned as she increased her bouncing up and down on him.

Removing his finger from her mouth he brushed in downward, while the one that was on her waist went upward, he then cupped both of her breasts in his hands before pinching both of her nipples, then for extra measure delivered one hard thrust upwards in perfect timing to meet her downward movement.

This combination sparked something ravenous inside of her body, with a heated electricity flowing through her, she set off and completely let loose. She rode him faster, harder, wilder. Bouncing up and down on his cock, while swiveling her hips and squeezing her walls around him at the same time.

As he was overwhelmed with ecstasy, his balls going ever tighter as he was getting closer to the pending release, he gripped her waist once more, his fingers digging into her skin as he tried his best to hold onto the ride she was giving him. He grunted louder as he bucked his hips upwards matching every bounce and swivel of her movements.

She felt like she was in control of him where at the same time feeling completely lost in ecstasy, along with the sensual sensation going through her body. And that delicious build up in her belly which told her she was very close to coming. Her lips were slightly parted, with vocalizing how good she felt in mewls.

At this point she had pretty much been in control, so to level the playing field some, Damon swayed his upper body up, until they were face to face. He was now in a sitting position with her still riding his lap.

For a while they kept up the pace of their sensual dance, with her bouncing and him jerking his hips forward to thrust into her, matching each other in perfect rhythm. Keeping eye contact as they did this, he panted and she moaned loudly until…..

Just minutes later when they both reached their peak at the exact same time. Throwing her head back, she cried out as she came in an explosive orgasm, following a second behind her he whispered her name hoarsely as he erupted into her. She stopped the movement of her hips to ride out her orgasm. But, he bucked himself into her three more times until he had filled her with the last drop of his white seed.

The two of the collapsed back on the bed, with him on his back, and her laying on top of him, with him still nestled in her, neither bothered to part ways. And they stayed in that position with him stroking her naked back until they both came down from their highs.

For the remainder of the late evening into the night they stayed in that bed, taking breaks in between their love making to just cuddle with his each other, or hold each other, or talk to each other. Before going into yet another round of love making.

The only time they got out of bed during the night was when one of them had to use the restroom or when Damon checked on the fireplaces to keep them going.

Otherwise, they stayed in the bed through the night, having sex two more times before drifting off into a good night's sleep.

BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK

On the following morning they woke up and got dressed, with Damon putting on the new clean clothes he had found the night before and Bonnie wearing the ones she had found in the house. The morning sunlight was shining through the windows, a sign that the heavy rains of the last couple of days had finally cleared out.

Downstairs they decided on saving the food that they had left for their mid day meal, so Bonnie just made them some mugs of tea from the tea she had came across. They sat in front of the fireplace, slowly sipping their breakfast tea while having quiet conversation with each other.

For that morning they just sat around enjoying each other's company, while reading books near the fireplace. Then when Damon put in more wood to still keep the fires going, he noticed how the woodpile in the bin was starting to run low and figured he had to do something about it.

So, he got up, approaching the front foyer where his coat and shoes were. His coat was now dry from the heat, so he put that on, zipped it, then he went on to put on his shoes.

Bonnie discovered him as he was tying up his boots. "Where are you going?"

"The woods starting to run low, the problem is that if we are going to stay here for a few more days, the logs won't last us that long."

"How long do you figure until we run out of wood?"

"Maybe have until tonight? Considering there's three fireplace I have to keep going."

"You don't think there could be more somewhere inside of this house?"

Damon stood to full height after he finished lacing up his boots. "Nah, I searched everywhere, so since the sun is out now, I'll have to go outside to see if I can find some."

Bonnie shifted on her bare feet. "Could there be a chance any logs outside would be soaked from all of the rain we got for the last two days."

He shrugged. "Don't know, perhaps I'll luck out, end up finding some dry wood."

She nodded. "Well, alright let me come outside with you, it will be good to get some fresh air after me inside of a couple of days."

"Of course you can come outside with me." Damon wiggled his eyebrows with a smirk. "You know I love it when you come with me all together."

Rolling her eyes at his double meaning she just had to chuckle.

She then put on her socks and shoes, followed by her jacket.

"Nothing much in the front yard, we should see what's in the back." Was a suggestion of his.

"Okay."

The two of them walked through the house until they came upon the back door. Damon opened it, the back door opened to a backyard which was somewhat overgrown with grass, brown from the ever cooling weather. The backyard was cordoned off by a fence.

Resting in front of the fence was a shed, next to the shed was a large hill of something which was covered by a blue tarp.

"Wonder what's underneath there." He looked over.

"I don't know." She followed his gaze to the blue tarp covered mound.

"Let's go see." Damon put in.

They headed through the just above ankle level brown grass, the ground still a little damp from all of the rains. Bonnie's eyes lifted up towards the sky, she noticed how blue the sky was, with a few white clouds scattered about it.

Outside currently was your average chilly cold fall day. But, it appeared to her at least how this day would be a beautiful, blue skied sunny one. Which was needed after two days in a row of rain.

Her and Damon stopped next to the shed.

"Let's see what we have." Damon pulled the tarp off the mound.

"More firewood." She stated as what was underneath was revealed.

Sure enough there was a heaping pile of firewood logs, stacked on top of each other.

"Excellent! This is more than enough wood to keep the fires going while we are here." Damon commented.

"Even better the cover tarp kept the wood all dry."

"Yep, we completely lucked out after all, I'll start carrying some wood inside."

"Need me to help you?"

He replied. "No, I've got it."

She returned. "Alright, while you are doing that, I'll just look in this shed, see if I can find something useful for us once we head back out again."

He said. "Great idea."

As Damon began to fill his arms with several logs, Bonnie moved over to the shed, opening its door she stepped inside and began looking around as the sun of daylight helped light the inside of the shed up.

Taking several trips outside to inside, Damon lugged armloads of wood from the outside wood pile to the inside of the house, where he placed them in the downstairs wood storage bin. He continued to transfer armloads to the storage bin, until it was stocked to the top with wood. He had gotten a small work out with all the lifting back and forth, but it was worth it.

When he realized how Bonnie was still in the backyard where the shed was he walked back out. "Bonnie, you still looking in there?" He called out as he headed towards the shed.

"Damon, come in here."

"Did you find something?"

She poked her head out from the doorway of the shed. "Did I ever!"

Curious he approached the shed as she stepped back inside of it. He stopped at the entrance of it. "What did you find, supplies?"

"Even better food!"

"Get out, there's food in here?"

"Yep!"

Damon crinkled his brow. "Who would put food in a shed like this?"

Bonnie arched hers. "Have no idea, but it's here."

He inched in further. "Then tell me what type of food you found."

"An whole of what they called an economy sized box of beef flavored ramen noodles." Bonnie held it up for him to see. "Twenty four packages of noodles unopened. Meaning all twenty four can be for us to eat. This is enough to last us weeks before we run out."

"Wow, that's spectacular. Great discovery." Said Damon knowing how key it was to find any food in this post apocalyptic world. Between the food he had already discovered inside of the house, along with the noodles she had just found, he was more than glad he had chosen this house for the two of them to rest in, otherwise they would have missed out on something as important as this.

"Yes, it is!" She agreed.

He rubbed his hands together. "Lucky for us, whoever was here appears to be a fan of ramen noodles, since we are too!"

She shifted the box of containing the twenty four packs of ramen under her arm. "It gets even better,"

He turned his head to the side. "Really, what can be better than ramen?"

She grinned. "Because there is also canned bacon."

"Hold on, you just said there is can bacon?"

"Yes, I certainly did."

"You're telling me something as glorious as canned bacon exists!?"

Bonnie exclaimed. "Canned bacon is real. Better yet canned bacon is already cooked and ready to eat, you just have to crack open the can, then you're free to dig in!"

Damon's eyes lit up like a child who was told that they received their most requested Christmas gift on Christmas morning. "This must be some sort of dream."

Bonnie waved a hand towards the selves. "Better than a dream, it's reality!"

His eyes drifted over to the shelves which were built against the shed wall. Sure enough there was a can of bacon there, and it wasn't just one can of bacon, but seven cans of bacon, each packed with strips of delicious cooked bacon.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Reaching out he grabbed one of the cans of bacon.

Bonnie stood there amused by his reaction.

"I've never had canned bacon before." Damon stated holding the canned porked meat in his hand as if it was the source to a fountain of youth.

"First time for everything." Bonnie returned.

"In fact I don't even remember if I had bacon at all, pigs weren't an animal we ran across commonly at The New Dawn's basecamp."

"Well, from the stories I used to hear about, they treated bacon like it was some sort of legendary meat back in the day,"

Damon lifted his eyes to her with a specific glint, one which people only got when they came across a certain food item they were really anticipating to eat. "These cans of bacon and those packages of ramen noodles you have there is enough to last us for the next month or so easy!"

Bonnie concurred. "Perhaps even a little more than a month with careful food preservation."

Damon beamed. "We're going to be eating good, Bon-Bon."

Bonnie cheesed. "We really are, Salvatore."

"Finders keepers right." He preferred to the food she had found for them just now.

"Of course, this place seems abandoned like you said, if no one else is around to eat it, we might as well put good use to it."

"Correct, otherwise it would just sit here, going to waste and being uneaten."

She put in with a nod. "And we wouldn't want that to happen, because it would be pretty pointless. Because makes no sense to go hungry or risk starving when there is edible food around."

He agreed. "Doesn't make sense at all."

She suggested. "There's still enough room in both of our bags perhaps, we should be able to fit some of the cans of bacon and packages of noodles in them between the both of us, once we head out."

He addionitionized. "And for whatever doesn't fit, I'm sure there's bag somewhere in the house which I could place the remainder of the food in to take with us."

"Good point."

"Since we have what we need and then some, why don't we go inside to fix up the chicken broth, rice, and noodles I found from before for our mid day meal!"

"Wonderful idea, I'm getting very hungry."

Damon gathered up the other cans of bacon in his hands until he held all seven of them. "Ladies first."

Bonnie smiled at him before walking out of the shed with the box of ramen under her arms.

Damon followed her touting the cans of bacon.

Once they were inside of the house, they took off their shoes, coats, and jackets and prepared their midday meal.

BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK

Upon spending several more days at this house which they had taken shelter in, they had mutually decided that it was time for them to continue on their travels. They had spent a total of five days at the house and were now rejuvenated and energized and ready to go. They had decided that they were going to leave on the morning of the sixth day.

So on their fifth night in the house, they were going to take a bath. Although it had been a few days since it stopped raining now, there was still rainwater left from when Damon had collected it. Doing the same routine he did before, he made a nice hot bath with usage of the rainwater that was left over. And because there was only enough left over for one bath, he had told her that she could take it. But, then she told him that they ought to take it with her so that the both of them could get clean.

Damon agreed with her without hesitation, they stripped off their clothes, went to the bathroom together and got into the tub. The tub was just big enough to fit two grown sized adult people like themselves into it. Damon had his back rested against the front of the tub with his legs stretched out in the length of the tub, Bonnie had her back resting against his chest, with her legs stretched out along his, the very warm water came up to their chest areas.

Lathering up plenty of soap, they scrubbed themselves real good, getting every surface of their body they could get, making sure to take a through bath because they knew it could potentially be a while until they were able to get a decent bath or wash up again.

He washed her back lathering it with the soap before rinsing it off with the water. Even after they were both clean, the warm bath water was so relaxing and calming that they remained in the tub. He was massaging her shoulders, as he had his eyes closed in peaceful meditation with her.

"Hey,Damon." Spoke Bonnie.

"Yes, Bonnie?" Damon greeted.

"Ever thought about the owners of this house, you know the people who used to live here?" Bonnie pondered.

"In passing, getting around for awhile I learned how to pick up signs. To tell the difference between whether or not an house is being currently occupied by someone. I can tell if a home is being recently or currently lived it. Or if it's been abandoned for a while with no one recently or presently living in it. All of the signs of this house points to it having been abandoned for months, so I thought about the owners in a way that said no one has been staying in this one for many months. Which is why I picked it to shelter in." Was Damon's reply.

Said Bonnie to this. "Okay."

Questioned Damon to her. "Is there a particular reason you want to know."

She rested her hand on top of his, that was loosely holding the side of the tub. "I would say that two people use to live here from what I can tell, a man and a woman."

His other hand played loosely in her slightly damp hair, which she had just finished washing as they took their bath together, he had washed his as well. "Makes sense, since the both of us found clothing for both men and women."

"More so, I believe the man and woman who lived here, whoever they were was a couple." Bonnie put in.

"Really? How so." Damon opened his eyes.

""From what I found earlier today, it was a note in a drawer, and it wasn't just any note, but a love letter like from the man to the woman he was with." Bonnie mentioned.

"Oh, that's something." Damon paused. "...now that you mention it, I do believe I saw a picture of a man and woman together downstairs, from what I saw it appeared they were together romantically."

Bonnie voiced. "Thing is that the woman of this couple passed away."

Damon asked. "You mean she died? How are you aware of this."

The green eyed woman explained. "Because this note, wasn't just a normal love letter. The man won't it sort of as a dedication letter, to honor his woman who had died."

"And what did this letter say exactly."

"While I didn't catch the guy's name, I do know from the note I read that the woman he was with named was Susan. He mentions in his letter how she had died in 2045 of natural causes, even though he doesn't mention what those natural causes were. The letter was dated last year in December 2046, the man wrote about how it was the one year anniversary since Susan's death, how he still loved and missed her and was devoting the day to remembering her and how he was would always cherish the fifthteen years of happiness she gave him. From what he wrote about her 'sunrise', the year was was born, it appeared she was around forty five."

"Hmmm, so this Susan died around age forty five? That's still rather young to die, even in such a world as today's."

"Right, it is sad and I feel sorry for the man who appeared to have loved Susan very much when he lost her. At the same time I'm not attempting to downplay her death, but…"

Damon waited her out. "But?"

Bonnie went on. "But, Susan died of natural causes, if there is a way to go I guess that was the best option for her, considering the more heinous,violent,cruel ways people have died in this world."

He uttered. "Know what you mean, I guess out of all of the options, she might have went peacefully compared to other deaths."

She sighed. "Well, if there is anything at least, it appears that she and whoever this man was had fifthteen years of a loving relationship together."

"True, some people don't even get that long together before one of them dies or gets killed."

Bonnie ran her fingers along the hair which was on his forearm.

"From what I saw of Susan and her guy in that photo, they appeared to have been very happy together." Damon mentioned.

"Yes, they do have appeared to been very happy together and he seemed to love her very much. We know of Susan dying. But, I wonder what happened to the man who used to live here….like where did he disappear off to."

"He has been away for a while, I don't see him just leaving all of this food behind unless."

"Unless?"

Damon commented. "Unless he went off somewhere because he knew it was his time, so he went to join Susan and be with her."

Bonnie understood. "So, you're saying you believe that the man went off and died, to join Susan in heaven or something."

He rubbed his hands over her bare shoulders. "It's my wild guess, although I can't be sure. Like if he missed her so much, then he eventually died himself he reunited with her in some sort of afterlife."

She thought about the potential of this in her mind. "You know, that's actually sort of comforting and sweet that two people in love could be together even after death, in the afterlife. So, I can vision Susan and her guy happy in the afterlife if he died as well."

"Since we are thinking about this in a 'glass half full', positive way." Damon mumbled. "They're most likely in a better more peaceful place than what this earth has to offer."

"Yeah." Said she.

They laid there in the tub for a while.

Bonnie spoke once more. "Do you think we'll be together for as long as fifthteen years."

"We will be together for fifthteen years and then some. We'll be together for much longer than fifthteen years." Damon brushed his cheek against hers.

"I hope so, because I want to spend the rest of my life with you, until we both grow old." Bonnie softly stated.

"We will spend the rest of our lives together, we both will old, gray, and elderly and we'll still be together." Damon quietly stated with affection.

Bonnie tilted her head back so that she was looking him in his face. "I want to grow old with you and no one else in this world."

He casted his eyes down at her with a smile. "You will, trust me you will."

She looked at him with love in her eyes. "Doesn't matter if it's fifty, sixty or even seventy years from now, I know I'll be just as in love with you in the far future as I am today."

"Just as I know I'll be completely, irrevocably in love with you many decades from now, just as I am today." Damon returned moved.

"I love you, Damon Salvatore."

"I love you too, Bonnie Bennett." He told her with love in his eyes.

They shared a lingering kiss. The two of them stayed in the tub until the water turned cool, then they proceeded to get out, dry off and got ready to settle in bed to sleep for the night.

BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK

At first dawn break, just an hour before the sun was to rise, they awoken to make their preparations to depart from the house. They got dressed, then they repacked their bags, placing things back in them which they had taken out during their five day stay at the house. They went around the house to make sure they didn't miss anything and triple checked their bags to ensure they had all of their items and supplies and to make sure that they didn't accidently leave something valuable behind.

Damon doused out all of the fires in all three fireplaces. And Bonnie checked her handguns to make sure they were fully loaded before putting the two handguns in either side of the two holsters she had on her. Then she made sure her bow along with her arrows were securely attached to her backpack.

At the same time, Damon also checked his weapons, which was his hunting rifle and revolver. He put his revolver away on him, then he strapped his hunting rifle holster on him, which had the hunting rifle safely laying on his back, held down by the compartment the holster made for the rifle.

They were already warmly dressed now, he in his coat and she in her jacket. Bonnie put on her backpack, which had a rolled up blanket on top of it to keep them warm from the cooling weather. Damon slung his duffel bag over his shoulder, sewn into the outside of the duffle bag was a medium sized tout bag he had found in the house, his duffel bag and her backpack couldn't get fit all of the cans of bacon and packages of noodles she had discovered in the shed. The reason for that being because they both had other important items and supplies in their bags. Along with some bottles of water.

A couple of days ago when he had found the tout bag, Bonnie had also found a sewing kit and had come up with the genius idea of attaching the tout bag to the side of his duffel bag, so his hands would still be free as they walked and so he would have less to carry. She sewed the tout bag onto his bag and he had placed the rest of the food which couldn't fit into either of their bags into the tout bag, it added a little weight to the duffel bag but not so much that he couldn't handle it.

Walking so far with their bags had raised both of their endurance and strengths is carrying somewhat heavy bags, due to all that was in them, on their person for long distances. Where as others might not be able to handle the weight of the bags. The two managed to handle the weight just fine. Plus, the extra carrying source bag they had with them now, had the extra benefit of them being able to get more valuable items and supplies, if they ever found some in the building rummages down the road.

As both of them were now ready to go, they stepped out of the house just as the morning sunrise was peeking over the horizon. He shut the door to the house.

Then he turned to Bonnie. "Ready to go?"

"Yes, I'm ready." She pulled her beanie hat down onto her head.

"We have everything, correct?" He questioned.

"Yep, everything since we triple checked to make sure." Bonnie confirmed.

Damon stepped down off of the front porch. "Alright, let's get moving, we can walk for a few hours and take our break around noon."

That was when she just recalled something. "Wait?"

He looked over his shoulder towards her. "Yes, Bonnie?"

She stepped down from the porch next to him. "I believe you have something of mine."

"And what would that be?"

"My knife."

Damon did recall how he had taken her knife from her after she killed Kai with it and put it away in his coat since she was so shaken up. "Oh, yeah."

She observed him with her green eyes.

"Would you like your knife back?" Damon asked her.

"I would like it back." Bonnie replied.

So, Damon reached into his coat, retrieving the knife he had placed there days ago. He handed it over to her.

She took the knife in her hands, the blade had been wiped clean of Kai's blood, but she recalled how she had slit his throat with this blade, recalled how Kai's expression had turned to one of shock, fear, and panic as the blood gushed from his throat. And how she finished him off with a stab to the chest before he fall to the ground, taking his last breaths.

"Are you alright?" Damon studied her reaction knowing it was the knife she had used to defend her life against the sociopath Kai.

Although she still felt some of the traumatic fall out from Kai's violent, aggressive attack on her and the whole experience of that. And even though she had just killed him days ago, the act within itself of ending Kai Parker's live, Bonnie was completely okay and at peace with that decision. She did it to defend her life and well being, she would never have regrets about cutting Parker until he bled dry.

Bonnie strapped the knife to her leg, like she had done before. "Yeah, I'm alright."

He gave her a nod of acknowledgement.

Reaching out she took his hand in hers. "Let's get moving."

"Okay, we'll get moving." Damon brought up her hand to kiss it, before interlacing their fingers together.

The pair of them walked away from the house they had sheltered in for five days. And in the morning rising sun, they continued their journey out east through Louisiana.

BREAK BREAK BREAK BREAK

Hello to all who read this chapter and are reading this story. I just wanted to give one chapter for these to to enjoy some peaceful,calm,happy, and loving time together as a couple.

But. the drama and action will pick back up within the next few chapters. Thanks to all those who are still supporting,reading, and reviewing this story. Please keep the feedback coming!