They at last made it back to the shade tree where their laundry rig waited for them and Elias went straight to the handcart, pulling out his olive drab knapsack and digging around inside. He came up with two plastic water bottles, handing one to Rainee. The feel of the ice cold bottle touching her palm actually felt like a shock to her system.

"Sit down and drink a little. I'll set everything up," Elias told her as he moved to get to work on the laundry set up, opening his water bottle and chugging it as he went.

Obeying, Rainee walked over to the trunk of the big oak tree and took a seat in the grass, leaning back against it and opening her own bottle. As it turned out, their fridge and freezer actually worked. So, miracle of miracles, they had ice cold water and, yes, even actual ice, which made them among the luckiest people in the compound. Elias had come up with the idea of filling a few plastic water bottles half full and then freezing them, so when they left the house all they had to do was fill the bottles the rest of the way, give the bottle a little shake to cool the fresh water down, and voila! Ice water to go.

Taking a long swallow from her bottle and feeling the cold sliding down her throat and splashing into her belly, she was swept with a surge of elation. She might never get used to having cold water. She'd been drinking warm beverages for so long that having something so icy and refreshing was like being given a new lease on life. And the fact that it had come from her own home and she hadn't had to barter for it made it even better. She didn't even mind that it was treated water she was drinking because chilling it seemed to take away some of the unpleasant taste.

As she sipped her ice cold water, she watched Elias set up the buckets for the laundry and begin to haul up water from the river, feeling slightly guilty for sitting back and watching him do the work.  However, she felt she needed a moment to get rid of the shakiness inside her. Her little up close encounter with the Nefer at the melon patch had left her...unnerved. She thought she might never get that sound out of her head. That wet, juddering, inhuman sound that forced her imagination to toss up memories of all the zombie movies she'd ever seen.

Her father had made sure she was well-versed on every fact and aspect of the walking corpses lurking outside the city.  She knew all there was to know...academically.  But she had never seen a Nefer with her own eyes nor heard one with her own ears. And she was suddenly astonished by that fact. The compound was only a few miles wide and a few miles long and considering that she'd been all over the place, it was probably only by some random chance that she hadn't at least heard one of them in all these years, despite her father's efforts to obviously prevent that occurrence.  

"Rainee? You okay?" Elias' deep voice caught her attention and she brought herself too, finding him standing in front of her, looming over her like an incredibly handsome shade tree.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay," she answered unevenly, trying to shake off her thoughts.

"Really? You look kind of...pale. Is the heat getting to you?" he wondered worriedly, holding out a hand to her.

She accepted and was easily pulled to her feet. "Maybe a little, but I'm okay. Summer and I have never been on friendly terms."

"Well, as soon as we're finished here I'll get you back to the house and you can rest," said Elias, leading her across the grass and over to where the plastic buckets were waiting.

A thread of disappointment snaked through her. He had promised her something besides rest. And maybe she'd work up the nerve to remind him. Maybe.

They both got down to the chore of cleaning their laundry, which was not as easy as simply throwing things into a machine and hitting a button. The dirty clothes had to be washed a piece at a time by placing the item into a bucket filled with water, scraping a few curls from a bar of soap into the bucket, putting on the lid that had a hole drilled in the center, and inserting the collapsible laundry wand. The wand was a device that looked like a plastic toilet plunger, but with two plungers in place of one, and were used in much the same way, plunging up and down in the closed bucket, which agitated the clothing and forced the water and soap bubbles through the fabric, thus cleaning the item. The clothes were then put into a second bucket of clear water and again agitated and then dropped into a third bucket of clear water for the final rinse. At that point, someone had to wring the clothes out by hand and then toss them into the handcart to be taken back to the house and hung up on the laundry line to sun dry. And the water in the buckets had to be changed for each item that was being washed. It was actually labor intensive, back breaking work and Rainee found herself glad that Elias was there to help her by taking turns with the wand when her arms began to ache.

As they were taking a break to crack open a couple more bottles of ice water, Rainee suddenly noticed two people walking in their direction, their arms full of laundry supplies. As she noticed them, so did Elias, and without so much as a word spoken, he quickly snatched her water bottle from her hand, spun on his heel, and walked back over to the handcart, stuffing both bottles back into his knapsack and zipping it shut.

"Elias, what are you doing!" Rainee demanded, stunned and confused.

"We don't need anyone seeing that we have something they don't," he told her seriously, coming back to stand next to her. "Trust me on this, Rainee. You don't let people know what you have. So, don't talk about anything that happens in our house. Don't say a word.  Okay? Is that understood?"

His slightly harsh tone surprised her, but she nodded anyway. Clearly, Elias really had been through something that had left him...like this, but now wasn't the time to open up a frank discussion about it.

"Let's finish up and get moving," he said as the two people approached and Rainee didn't argue.

She went back to rinsing the bed sheet she'd been working on, but as the couple drew closer, she couldn't help but give them a glance. The man was an older gentleman, perhaps in his forties, and the woman was...just a girl, who couldn't have been more than fifteen or sixteen. And she was highly pregnant, her swollen belly covered in a tight tee shirt that seemed to be about a size too small. She actually waddled slightly as she walked.

As the couple came up next to them on the sidewalk, the young girl looked at Rainee and smiled. Smiling back, she had to admit the girl wasn't the prettiest girl she'd ever seen. Her face was a bit too long and slender, her eyes were slightly too close together, her dark hair appeared a bit too limp. The girl was one of the sort that wouldn't garner a second look from most people. Yet, the man she was with...well, he was someone that people would absolutely glance at twice.  And then one more time. The man was incredibly handsome, with jet black hair hanging down to his shoulders and a face that could have graced an old movie screen. His features were chiseled and distinguished and he had blue eyes that were sharp and aware. He was wearing faded jeans and a black tee shirt that revealed his muscled arms and lean torso. The way he carried himself made him seem very...refined, in a way, dignified, despite the rifle thrown over his shoulder and the buckets he was carrying.

Seeing the man, who was very handsome and decades older than his partner, walking with the girl, who was still a child and only average looking, was off putting somehow. Before the world had fallen apart, someone who looked like that man wouldn't have so much as noticed someone who looked like that girl, forget pairing up with her and getting her pregnant.

But, the world was different now. And in this world, middle aged men got partnered with girls who were young enough to be their daughter and not attractive enough to catch their eye under any other circumstance.

The couple moved past and just a few feet further, stopping to set up their rig under the shade of the oak tree, too. "Hi," the young girl said, giving Rainee a shy smile.

Rainee shot Elias a quick glance, finding him standing beside her as stiff and tense as if he was facing a walking corpse. But, she wasn't Elias Stone and these were the first people she'd seen in weeks. She didn't want to be rude.

"Hey," she responded, smiling back and trying not to look at the girl's swollen belly. And trying not to think that she could look like that one day soon.

"Is it hot enough for you guys?" the man asked amicably as he placed the buckets he was carrying onto the sidewalk.

"It's hotter than the face of the sun. I think I'm actually frying," Rainee answered, bending to continue rinsing her sheets.

"This heat and humidity makes me miss my days up North. These summers are brutal," the man said in a reminiscent tone.

"Try being this big and having to be this hot," the girl put in, dropping the large duffle bag she was carrying and letting out a grateful sigh as it thunked to the ground.

Rainee looked over at her, feeling a pang of sympathy. The girl was awfully big. She looked like a balloon about to pop. Not to mention her cheeks were an uncomfortable shade of red and the hair around her face was damp from perspiration. If Elias hadn't warned her not to, she would have offered the poor girl some cold water.

"You look miserable," Rainee stated, those bottles of ice water in Elias' knapsack nagging at her conscience.

"I am," the girl said, sounding breathless and...miserable. "But, it'll be over soon. Thank god!"

Suddenly, Rainee was slammed with a wave of misgivings. She wasn't so sure she was ready to be that big and...sweaty.

"I'm Stefanie," the girl introduced herself as she began pulling things out of the bag. "I haven't seen you around. Are you just in?"

"I'm Rainee. I've only been here for a few weeks," she answered, noting that Stefanie's partner had his sharp blue eyes pinned on her instead of his mate.

"Rainee?  That's a pretty name," Stefanie stated, her tone somewhat...wishful.

"I'm Tomas," the man said, unprompted, and Rainee, declining to respond, turned her focus back to the work at hand. "So, how are you two liking life in the suburbs?"

"It's pretty good so far," she replied, distinctly not looking at him.

"I think it's a lot better than life out there," Stefanie pointed out. "We get so many extra rations I've gained about twenty pounds."

"Let me tell you, this one here can put away the food," Tomas stated and Rainee glanced at him then, seeing an easy smile on his handsome face. Only that smile didn't quite reach his eyes.

Stefanie didn't seem too bothered by that comment and went about her business, finishing taking the laundry out of the duffle bag and then moving onto setting the buckets up.

"I've seen you working the gardens, but I don't think I've ever caught your name," Tomas said, turning his focus to Elias.

"I've never offered it," Elias replied, going back to helping finish up the laundry.

Rainee stiffened at Elias' brusque tone, but Tomas didn't appear to be offended, so she tried to relax. She also tried to ignore the fact that Tomas' sharp eyes kept sliding over to her a bit more often than they perhaps should have.

"Where are you two setting up house?" Tomas went on, standing by as Stefanie sat up the laundry rig on her own and then picked up a bucket and carried it down to the river bank. "We're over on Preston Street, right next to the infirmary."

There was a moment of silence before Elias chose to answer. "We're on Maple Street."

"How's it going? The house they gave us was a god-awful mess. It took months to get it cleaned out."

"It's going," was Elias' terse response.

As the two men...talked...Rainee kept her eye on Stefanie, who filled the five gallon bucket with water and then turned and began to carry it back toward them, but she was clearly having trouble with the weight of the bucket and the size of her enormous stomach, so she had to stop and put it down every few steps. And Tomas didn't seem to even notice that his incredibly pregnant mate was struggling to do a job that he should have been doing for her!

Suddenly angry, Rainee left what she was doing and hurried down the river bank to where Stefanie was pausing to take a breath. "Let me help with that," she said, picking up the heavy bucket and straining to take a few steps with it. Clearly, in the few weeks she'd been away from The Barracks, she'd started to lose some of her upper arm strength.

"I'll do that!" Elias called out, dropping what he was doing and striding down to them, easily taking the bucket from Rainee and hauling it back up the small hill.

Feeling heat throbbing in her cheeks, Rainee cast a glance at Tomas, who was still standing in the shade, watching them with a neutral expression. "Doesn't he help you? You're pregnant!" she spat with a bit more venom than she meant to.

Stefanie swiped her flat, damp hair back and let out a breath. "This is woman's work. Tomas doesn't get involved in it if he doesn't have to."

Something red hot flashed right through the center of Rainee's chest and she felt her body temperature rise a good five degrees. As they made their way back to the sidewalk, she didn't head toward her own laundry rig or toward Elias, but instead she walked over to where Tomas was standing, all easy and comfortable in the shade of the oak tree, doing nothing but watching the goings on and not lifting a finger to do a single helpful thing.

"Are you serious!" she snapped at him, coming to a stop nearly toe to toe with him, and finding herself annoyed that she had to tilt her head to look up at him. "She's pregnant and you're just standing here letting her haul water! What's wrong with you!"

"Rainee! Oh my god, it's okay!" Stefanie gasped, hurrying over to try and put herself in between them. "I-I don't mind—"

"Don't mind what?" Rainee cut the girl off, but kept her eyes on Tomas' face, which was so unaffected that she wanted to reach up and smack it. "Hauling buckets of water when you're so big you can hardly walk? You should mind it. And why aren't you helping her?"

Tomas lifted a dark brow at her, but before he could respond, a heavy hand landed on her shoulder and she was spun around to face Elias...who was very clearly not happy with her.

"Rainee, this isn't our business. Let's get our own work done and get back home," he said past his clenched jaw.

But, those words only elevated her temperature a few degrees more. She pulled away from him and turned back to Tomas, who now seemed more amused than anything. "Well? Why aren't you helping your partner? You're able bodied, so why are you standing around just watching her do the work?"

"Rainee, it's really okay. I-I'm used to it. I don't mind," Stefanie said, now positioned next to Tomas' elbow, obviously letting Tomas know which side she stood on and that none of the outrage was coming from her.

"You've got quite a spirit about you for such a little slip of a thing," Tomas stated, putting an arm around Stefanie's shoulder. "Do you always go around putting yourself into other people's affairs?"

"Maybe I do," she shot at him. "And maybe, if I see something ridiculous, I have to call it out. And you letting a pregnant woman haul water while you stand in the shade doing nothing is ridiculous."

"Well, Rainee, perhaps I run my household differently than your partner runs his," Tomas stated genially. "Perhaps I have my duties and Stefanie has hers and we're both happy with the way things are done."

Rainee felt his haughty tone crawl right over her skin. "That sounds like something a flaming jackass would say," she told him plainly.

Stefanie gasped, her hands flying up to cover her mouth and once again she felt Elias' hand land on her shoulder, but she ignored it.

"So, if you were my partner, you would go against the way I choose to have my household running?" Tomas questioned her.

"Damn straight," Rainee gritted out. "You wouldn't be running anything with me. And if you didn't want to help haul water for laundry, then your clothes just wouldn't get cleaned."

"You think it would really be that way, do you?" Tomas wondered, giving Stefanie a glance and the girl dropped her gaze to the ground.

Rainee didn't answer, but kept her gaze steady on his. Oh, she knew it would be that way. No man had the right, nor the bodily means, to subjugate her, no matter what the circumstances were.  In fact, no man had the right to subjugate the woman he was paired with, period!  And this was clearly a detail that someone, somewhere, had failed to address!

"Well, maybe some men would let a little girl have the running of them..." he paused to cast a look at Elias, who was behind Rainee, "but, that's not the way I do things."

Suddenly, Rainee didn't want to slap him, she wanted to show him just exactly what having his ass kicked by a little girl felt like. Although, judging by the tension she felt rolling off Elias, she worried she might not have a chance.

"Rainee, it's really okay," Stefanie cut in, her voice quaking slightly. "Everybody's different. And I don't mind doing the work in my home."

"Of course you do!" Rainee told the girl point blank, feeling herself seething. "You can barely walk, let alone haul water!  So, why don't you and I take a breather and leave Tomas to do some of the washing?"

Stefanie's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she completely balked at the suggestion. "I-I don't think I should—"

"Why shouldn't you?" Rainee wondered, pulling away from Elias and moving forward to take hold of the girl's hand, which was trembling. "Come on. Let's sit down for a few minutes. You look like you could use a rest."

She pulled the reluctant girl away from her partner and over toward the oak tree, where she unceremoniously dropped down onto the cool grass and leaned back against the trunk, waiting for Stefanie to join her. But, the girl stood there, looking at Tomas with a torn expression and wide eyes. Rainee, however, chose to disregard the look that her own partner was giving her.

After a few moments of silence, Tomas let out a deep chuckle that seemed to be free of anger or antipathy. "Go ahead and rest a while, girl," he spoke to Stefanie, waving a hand at her in a dismissive gesture. "I'll get on with the washing."

Stefanie hesitated, but Rainee patted the grass beside her, giving the girl a reassuring smile. "It's alright. I'll stay and sit with you for a while."

Looking pained, Stefanie slowly lowered herself onto the ground and gingerly leaned back against the tree trunk, as if she expected it to bite her.

"Is your partner always this...fiery?" Tomas asked Elias as both men turned and went back to their respective laundry rigs.

Elias let his gaze slide over to Rainee and she instantly felt her insides clench with tension. "I'd have to say yes. She's always this...fiery."

Somehow knowing that Elias wasn't talking about her loud mouth, Rainee turned her attention to Stefanie, who was looking as though she might be ill. "So, tell me where you live. Maybe I'll come by and see how you're doing in a day or two," she said, loud enough for Tomas to hear her.

She wanted him to understand that she would be seeing Stefanie again and that if anything was wrong with her... There would be consequences. She had no qualms about climbing Tomas like a tree and showing him exactly what a little girl who wasn't beaten down could do to him.