Through all this death, we are life.

They ate their breakfast together, sitting next to one another like a king and queen holding court. Christine and Michelle were cavorting with the rest of the men, enjoying the attention that they received… Jennifer, however, was quiet and didn’t even touch her food. Occasionally, she would look up and glower at Henry: he ignored it, but Molly returned her friend’s look without backing down in the least.

“I don’t want to do this anymore” Jennifer suddenly blurted out. Everyone else at the table went silent.

Molly shifted her gaze to Henry, who was finishing chewing. She waited for him to comment…

But Michelle got there first. “For christ’s sake, Jen, will you just loosen up?!”

Jennifer shook her head. “Don’t you talk to me like that! I’m not buying into this little bargain!” She looked at her friends one at a time. “I can’t believe what you’ve become… especially you, Molly!”

“Belt up!” Henry ordered loudly, his eyes burning with his ire.

“No, I won’t!” Jennifer answered. “I won’t belt up! I expected more from all of you!”

With that, Jennifer jumped up from the table and ran from the room, leaving the rest of the diners confused.

“Molly…” Henry stated.

At first she wasn’t sure what he meant, but then she realized that he was ordering her to go after Jennifer and put the situation to rest. She got up from the table and went after her friend: it took a while to find Jennifer, she had managed to get pretty far away from the breakfast table.

“Jennifer” Molly stated, finally catching up to the other woman just outside of the house.

“Don’t, Molly, just don’t” Jennifer replied, sobbing. “Nothing you say has any meaning to me – you gave in to him. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you enjoy being his sex slave…”

“I’m not a slave” Molly responded. “Jennifer, I’m sorry that you’re not as happy with this as the rest of us are, but you have to calm down. Henry is only trying to do the most sensible thing”

“That’s easy for you to say… you aren’t rotating amongst the men like some sort of hand-me-down. You don’t understand!”

Molly nodded in agreement. “You’re right, I don’t… but like Henry said, what other choice is there? For any of us? Become an infected? That’s not an option”

“I would rather die than keep on with this, I mean it”

“Jen, please… don’t talk that way”

Jennifer was crying now. “I mean it, Molly! If you don’t help me…!”

“What?” Henry boomed, appearing in the doorway, his hands behind his back. “What will you do if she doesn’t ‘help’ you?”

Jennifer began to shake: she was as afraid of Henry as she was angry with him. “You had no right to do this to us” she whined, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I want to leave!”

Henry chuckled darkly and stepped forward so that he was standing a bit in front of Molly. “Where will you go? How will you eat? How will you protect yourself?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care, but I won’t keep fucking your men!”

“Such language” Henry responded, tsk-ing at Jennifer. “Let me lay out the options for you: you can straighten up and pull your weight like your friends, or I’ll have you chained in the cellar for the same purpose”

“Henry!” Molly cried, shocked.

Turning and glaring at her, Henry shot Molly a look of warning for having used his first name. He then returned to Jennifer, staring her down.

“You wouldn’t… you can’t…” Jennifer sputtered.

“Oh, yes, I can” Henry retorted. “There is no world anymore, dear. There are no laws other than what I make”

Jennifer shook her head in a combination of disbelief and fury… and then, before Henry or Molly could do anything about it, she leapt forward and began to slap and strike at Henry.

Molly tried to stop what was happening, but she was too slow: Henry pushed Jennifer away and then punched her so that the woman went down cold.

“No!” Molly screamed, rushing forward. She took hold of Henry’s right arm and pulled it back. “What have you done?!”

Henry shrugged Molly’s grasp off of him. “Mitchell, Bell!” he called back to the house, “Out here on the double!”

The men came running out of the structure, obeying their commander. “Yes, Major?!” they asked in unison.

“I’m afraid it’s Plan B for this one” he instructed.

The men hopped to it, one taking Jennifer’s shoulders while the other grabbed her feet, lifted her and carried her back into the house.

Molly was flabbergasted. “’Plan B’?” she inquired, staring at Henry.

“Not now” Henry responded through gritted teeth.

“Yes, now!” Molly yelled. “So, if we didn’t comply, if we don’t comply with your ideas, you’ll beat us and throw us in the cellar to be chained up?!”

“Molly, stop” Henry warned.

“I don’t believe you! You really are a pig!”

“Just stop it!” he hollered, so loud that it echoed across the grounds.

Molly shook her head and whispered back to him. “You stay away from me, Major…”

“Molly” he tried, her comment striking him painfully. “Molly, you don’t understand…”

“I don’t want to fucking understand” she retorted. “You stay away from me”

Henry reached out in an attempt to grab her arm and keep her from leaving, but she had already turned and walked away, back into the house.

Molly ran all the way upstairs to an uninhabited room, closing the door behind her. It was the room where all of the clothing for the women was kept, so she quickly managed to disappear behind the volumes of dresses, finding a seat for herself on the floor. She pulled her legs close to her body and wrapped her arms around them, weeping.

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She stayed in that room until it was time to get started on dinner. At that moment, she dutifully went down to the kitchen and put on her apron, helping Jones with the task of cooking for the group… but when it came time to eat, she stayed back in the kitchen itself and nibbled at some food. She wasn’t horribly hungry: she was still upset with herself and with Henry.

At the end of the meal, Jones returned with the empty dishes and told her that the Major had passed along a message for her that he would be taking the night watch, so she would be alone in bed that evening. Molly sighed with relief: she didn’t think that she could even look at him, much less sleep with him that night.

She waited until the soldiers and her two friends had left the dining room and then she climbed the stairs to the bedroom. Molly found a nice, silk nightgown in one of the dressers there… she slipped into it and then climbed into the bed for sleep.

Under the covers, it wasn’t as warm without Henry, but she was still able to find her rest…

She awoke to the sound of a blaring siren: the infected had penetrated the perimeter! Jumping out of bed, she ran to the window and looked out upon the grounds. She couldn’t see very far, but when she peered directly down, she saw the other soldiers running from the house, to back-up the men on night watch.

Henry!

She threw on her jeans and sweater without a thought for underwear or shoes, and she ran from the room, going down the stairs so fast that she nearly tripped.

“What’s going on?” Christine called, coming from a lower bedroom with bed covers wrapped around her body to shield her nakedness.

“Infected!” Molly yelled back, running out the front door. What could she do? How could she help Henry? As angry as she was with him, she didn’t want to see him infected! She ran, barefoot as she was, across the freezing lawn and slid to a stop behind one of the hay bales, ending up next to Private Bell.

“What the fuck are you doing out here?” Bell yelled at her, aiming his rifle over the bale.

“Where’s Henry?” she asked, gasping for breath.

“Don’t know… don’t worry, the Major is tough as shit!”

“I want to help!” Molly yelped.

“Here” Bell responded, handing her his handgun. “Take the safety off… but don’t you dare shoot unless you see infected, you got it?!”

Molly nodded: she knew enough to remove the safety lock, nervously aiming over the bale with the soldier next to her.

There was the sound of gunfire followed by Sergeant Farrell’s voice shouting out, “Three infected entered, three down!!”

“What does that mean?” Molly asked.

Bell lowered his rifle and looked at her. “It means that we had three infected trigger the perimeter defenses and they were shot down. It also means that we can all go back to bed”

“Everyone’s okay?” she queried.

“Yep: we’re in the clear”

Molly hadn’t realized that she had been holding her breath: putting the safety back on the hand gun, she gasped for air.

“What are you doing?”

Molly recognized Henry’s voice, as well as the fact that his tone was an angry one. Looking up from where she sat on the ground, she saw him towering over her. “I… I heard the sirens and I…”

“When you hear the sirens, you stay in the house” Henry snapped back bluntly.

“I just… I was worried…”

Henry shook his head. “Go back to the house, Molly”

“I…” So many emotions had been coursing through her that she burst into tears, and dropping the hand gun, she got up and ran to the house without looking back.

“Major, she just wanted to help” Bell piped up. “She was worried about you”

Henry snorted at the very idea. “I doubt it, Private”

“Then why is she crying?”

Henry hadn’t thought about that. He stared after her, seeing her disappear back into the house through the front door. “Sergeant Farrell is taking the rest of my watch” he informed. “Tell the others that I’m going to bed for the night”

“Yes, sir” Bell answered, saluting as his superior officer walked away.

Bell would have to wait for the others to come in so that he could pass on the message, but since it was his duty, he didn’t complain when the Major walked away.

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TBC