It was a chilly starry-skied evening with a few breezes nearby the beach shore. The same evening that happened to be just the night before Mandy's eighteenth birthday. David, Faiz and I were all bunched together around an outside fire, providing us enough heat to withstand the outside cold. Faiz adjusted the firewood every once in a while. We had a pretty great bonding time, roasting marshmallows, telling each other more stories and laughing together.
"You know, you've heard how David and I met, but we haven't heard how you and Faiz met," Mandy said to me.
"Yeah, how did you two meet each other?" David added. I didn't even know where to begin, so Faiz did for me.
"This was actually a while back, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday," he began. We were all focused on Faiz now as we listened to the tale he was about to tell.
"One fearful day, everything changed. Our lifestyle, our way of thinking and our perspective on life itself. Everyone we've ever known just ceased to exist, without cause or reason. I couldn't understand it. Why leave me all alone in this world without a single soul to accompany me? I was truly confused and devastated. It was like the beginning of Adam and Eve all over again. For three days, I searched and searched for anyone else who may have survived the same predicament I was in, but alas, there wasn't. I was beginning to lose hope, and on the fourth day I decided to see to my usual needs of food and water.
There was this local store I usually went to for supplies, still stocked with all the necessities, except for the water. Only one bottle remained in that store. As I was about to grab it from the fridge, a faint knock was heard from behind me. That's when I knew for the first time, I wasn't alone. I called out 'Hello?' and waited for a response, but never got it. I had the feeling that the person hiding from me was very cautious and did not trust immediately, so after a minute of waiting for that response, I just sighed and said 'I'm just here for food and water, I have no other intention. And I don't know how to earn your trust, whoever you are, but I'm gonna leave the last bottle of water there, just for you' and I headed out of the store, still not being able to see who made that noise behind me. I wasn't gonna go looking for the person either. I wasn't expecting any stranger to just trust me, I mean that's how society used to be in the past, when the world was buzzing full of people." That was when I decided to continue Faiz's story.
"He's right. There were people who did not trust easily, and I am one of those people. And I know exactly how cruel and unkind society was back then. But that day, when I found Faiz in that store, I had a little change of heart. How could it be, that the only other human I ever came across saw to his needs but still cared for others, even in the state this world was in? That's when I knew Faiz was different.
As he headed out of the store, being as thirsty as I was, I went straight for that fridge and emptied that bottle down my throat and into my system. That feeling of finally quenching your thirst after three days! Immediately I felt a thousand times better, and happier. That's when I realised, I was alone again. Well, almost. I scrambled to the store's exit and called out to the kind stranger
'Wait!' He stopped and turned around, finally getting his first look at me.
'T-Thank you,' I managed to say to him just after I stopped right in front of him. Noticing the now-empty water bottle in my hand, he smiled.
'You definitely needed that,' he said with a chuckle. I nervously smiled back.
Not only was it the first time I actually confronted a stranger to thank him, but also the first time I trusted one. I didn't even know him, yet he only showed kind manners and good intentions towards me. Of course, I didn't trust him fully then and there. I just met him for fuck's sake. But from that day onward, he had no choice but to stick together. For the first few days, we didn't talk much, as we still tried to get along. Faiz mostly cared about me being safe and seeing to our needs, but was never one for much talking. It made me a little mad, since I kept wanting to know more about the human who I was gonna be stuck with for a long time.
So, it went on like this for nearly another two days, until he couldn't take it anymore. I finally broke him. He stopped us from travelling for a bit and sat down with me. 'Since you're never gonna shut up, let's just get any and every question out of your system right here, shall we? Before I start losing my mind,' Faiz said to me. I won, and now we were finally able to do some serious talking."
Mandy and David's eyes were wide with interest as Faiz continued the next part of the story. "I actually remember some of those questions! Kyra would ask me things like 'What was my life like before the extinction?' or 'Were you always this thin?' or even "Do you masturbate?" he said, which caused an eruption of laughter from the four of us.
"Well of course he did dummy-dumb, he's already made so many sex jokes in the past few days we've been travelling together," David laughed.
"I would be surprised if you didn't, aren't you like twenty-three already?" Mandy asked Faiz.
"That's right," he replied. "I'm basically gonna repeat what I've already told Kyra..."
"...The first time I ever masturbated was when I was sixteen. Yes, I know that's kind of late for a young teenager, but before that I just never thought of doing it -- I just wasn't interested. Yes, I would get aroused when watching porn, but that was it. I watched, my PP grew hard, I stopped watching, my PP stopped being hard. That was how it was for me, until I turned sixteen," Faiz explained. Knowing how silly it sounded, I couldn't contain my laugh. Noticing how much I was laughing, Faiz turned his attention to me.
"Well maybe you should tell them your experience in The Art of Masturbation, Kyra" he said and winked at me, getting a few 'Ooooh's from David and Mandy. I guess all our secrets were being exposed tonight.
"Arrrgh, where do I even begin with this?" I started. "I guess it was because of my friends. They were talking about it one day, and before then I had no interest or experience in any kind of sexual pleasure. We were still thirteen years old back then for crying out loud! Anyways, my friend was explaining how good it felt to touch her pussy, and I was confused. Like, why would you want to touch the area where you pee? I was too shy to ask them, so I wanted to figure it out for myself. Let me tell you, that day probably changed my life. I had absolutely no clue on how good it made you feel, to touch yourself. It heightened my senses, especially my sexual senses, and every time I experimented, I wanted more. I used to do it literally every single day, knowing how wrong it was but discovering how good it made me feel, every single time," I described.
"And did you get 'more' Kyra?" Mandy jokingly asked with a playful grin. Faiz and I just went silent, both of us turning a shade redder.
"Holy shit guys, you two already fucked?" David asked in complete shock.
"Well, yeah" I responded, looking at Faiz. "Yes we did, but understand the reasoning behind it. Back when we did it, we were certain that we were the only humans left on Earth. Back then it was a major decision, and I know it was wrong, but at the same time it was the right thing to do. We don't have any idea if we are truly the last four ever to walk the face of the Earth," Faiz explained to David. He was quiet for a few moments, then he spoke again.
"That's true. If it were under normal circumstances, it would've been so fucked up. But this is a life-or-death crisis of mankind as we know it. We have to survive by any means necessary, even if that means... if that means..." David hesitated.
"Yes David, that means we fuck," Mandy finished for him. Faiz and I laughed. "Yes I know that," David said shyly.
"Oh my God, you two still attempted it in that store a few days ago!" I blurted out.
"Yeah but you see, someone is a bit too shy about a little something," Mandy confessed.
