Huddled Together

Chapter 9 – For Who You Love.

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Note from the author.

The biggest thank you to my wonderful editor, CaptainsSiren. All one could ask for in an editor and more.

Reader Warning.

Please be aware that this chapter deals with sexual non-consent. Please check the story tags before reading if you are not sure if you are ok with the subject matter.

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The next thing John knew was a piercing pain in the back of his head, then darkness.

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John woke to water being dropped over him. He tried to open his eyes through the blinding pain that was now his mind. He guessed that someone had beaten something into the back of his head, forcing him to black out. He struggled with the effort of trying to open his eyes, but finally managed to force them open far enough to take in his surroundings.

He was inside a room he recognised; it was the kitchen in Tom's house. The kitchen was built of stone so it was much colder than the heat of the day outside. A slight shiver ran through him as the cool air combined with the water running down his body to chill his skin. John went to wipe the water from his face and realized that he was sitting tied to a chair. He struggled to move his arms and legs, but was met with complete resistance, and a cold laugh from the other side of the room.

John forced his neck muscles to bring his aching head up so he could see what was going on. A big man stepped forward carrying a rifle. John also saw another man sitting at the kitchen table digging into food from John's backpack.

"Well g'day mate, welcome back. What's your name?" The man with the rifle asked him.

John struggled to get an answer out through the pain. The man pulled the barrel of the rifle under his chin and forced his head upwards so that he was looking straight into his eyes.

"I asked you a question fella, and I expect quick answers." He threatened.

"Jo... John." He spluttered out as fast as he could.

"Now, that's better John. I'll forgive you that slight delay as you're coming to, but don't make me ask twice from here on, you get me?"

John nodded as best he could with the rifle jammed under his chin and replied, "Yes".

"Good!" The man said loudly, as he headed back over to his partner, grabbing a can off the table and shovelling up a spoonful of cold baked beans. "Now, what do we need to know?"

"My name's Steve, and that there is Tony." He continued when his mouth was full.

Tony looked over and waved 'hello' without stopping eating; the two men looked sunburnt and lean from lack of food. John's mind raced with what these men could possibly want from him. Food? Shelter? Would they make him take them back to his house? He would never give away the location of their home; the protection of Anny and Skye was the most important thing in the world to him now.

"So what's your story, friend?" Steve asked, pausing on the word 'friend' to make it sound sinister. He picked up the can he was eating from and sat down on a chair close to John.

John tried to quickly get his story straight in his mind, but the pain was making it too hard to concentrate. He tried to construct a lie as he went.

"My... my friend Tom and I escaped from Newcastle down south, and have been roaming around trying to find somewhere safe to stay. We found a woman, Merry, in John's River and let her come with us. Two days ago when we got here we were overrun by Walkers..." John said, his voice trailing off as his mind started wandering back to that day.

Steve stood up and punched him hard across the face, causing John's head to fly to the side; and for his mind to snap back into the present as his mouth filled with the bitter taste of blood. He spat it out with several coughs.

"Maybe you didn't understand me. You might have heard me ask you to make up a bullshit story and feed it to me." Steve yelled as he hovered above him.

"We've checked the dead people outside, and your friend 'Tom', looks a shit-load like the person in the pictures around this house. So I'm guessing that you guys weren't running north, and that this is his house." Steve continued.

John tried to focus again, and cursed himself for being so stupid. The lie he made up didn't make any sense in the surroundings they were in, and Steve was smart enough to pick up on it straight away. He continued to spit out blood as his mind raced for the best course to take.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Was all he could muster to try to buy himself more time.

"Well I'm sorry too friend, because that's strike two. One more and I will be ending your shit-hole of an existence right here and now." Steve continued yelling; eventually returning to his chair and his can of beans.

"Now, please, tell us what you three were up to here. You weren't running; you were scavenging building supplies together. You obviously weren't holed up in this place, so do you have a safe house around here somewhere close?" he continued calmly as he took another spoonful of food.

John had no way out. He wouldn't give away the location of their home; he had to keep Anny and Skye safe no matter what.

"Well mate," John stated, "I believe that you can go fuck yourself."

Steve and Tony burst out laughing, spitting the contents of their mouths out onto the floor. They laughed and laughed at John's boldness, even John couldn't keep himself from having a little chuckle. The situation was so serious, and his bold statement to his attackers could have just gotten him killed. When Steve had finished wiping the tears out of his eyes with the back of his hand, he stood up and approached John.

Steve leant forward and whispered, loud enough that Tony could still hear, "Well John, since you made us both laugh for the first time in fuck knows how long I won't be killing you at this second for that remark."

John swallowed the lump that formed in his throat.

Steve grabbed John by the shirt and pulled him up onto his feet, showing just how much larger and stronger he was than John. He threw John down onto his stomach on the kitchen table with a 'thud', knocking the wind out of him.

The chair was still attached to him, so he was bent over oddly at 90 degrees with his feet on the floor and the chair sticking out into the air. Steve grabbed the rope holding his left hand to the chair, untied it, and then tied it to the leg of the table above John's left shoulder.

Tony cleared the food out of the way then quickly returned to his meal. It was obvious that Tony knew what was about to happen. Steve repeated the same action with John's right hand; then untied his legs, throwing the chair away. He then tied his ankles to the remaining legs of the table, so that John was bent over and unable to move.

"What the fuck are you doing?" John called out when his breath finally returned to him.

"Whatever... the fuck... I want," was Steve's slow and cold answer.

Steve stood up near John's face, and pulled out the biggest knife John had even seen.

"If you make this difficult, I will kill you. Do you understand?" Steve said quietly to John's face, twisting the knife into the table between their faces.

John could only nod in agreement, his eyes wide open, staring at the threatening weapon before him. Steve moved behind John and slipped the knife under the back bottom of his wet shirt, then ran the blade up his spine, just barely touching the skin. John could feel how sharp the blade was, and held as perfectly still as he could.

Steve pulled the knife up and back toward himself, cutting John's shirt in half easily. He cut away at the sleeves and pulled the entire shirt away. The cool table met John's damp, naked chest and began to steal warmth from his body. Steve had to work harder to cut away John's shorts and boxers, but in no time at all John was naked, lying spread-eagled and helpless against the table.

"Quite a nice specimen we have here." Tony called out from the chair that he had seated himself in behind John.

John couldn't see the man anymore, but could feel the men's eyes leering over his body; his cock and balls hanging freely down below his exposed ass.

"You've got to be kidding me!" John called out, shocked by what he could then imagine the men were going to do to him.

Steve replied by pushing the tip of the knife into John's ass cheek just hard enough to just puncture the skin. "I said keep your mouth shut and don't make a fuss."

John could feel blood starting to seep out of the knife wound and focused his entire mind on keeping his mouth shut tight.

"You want first go with this one Tony?" Steve called out.

"Nar mate, I'll finish my beans. You go at it."

John could feel Steve pausing in thought. Eventually he said out loud; "You know what John, this is going to be your lucky day. Since you're such a funny bloke and you have so much food here with you, I'm going to make this good fun for all of us."

John didn't know what he meant by that exactly, and waited in a tense state for his fate. He heard Steve pull up a chair behind him and sit down.

"That's a pretty nice package you've got there, Johnny boy."

John could feel Steve's gaze on his genitals. Steve took the broad side of his knife and started lightly slapping it against the sides of John's cock. John was terrified and helpless, but couldn't stop his cock from hardening at the sensation from the cool, steel blade.

"Seems he likes it dangerous," Steve called out to Tony, who responded with a dry laugh.

"Now John," Steve continued, "I'm going to give you a nice hand-job here, and I expect you to show a little appreciation. If you don't cum in the next four minutes, then - well then you don't want to know what I'm going to do back here. Tony, start the clock."

John couldn't believe it. What would he do if he couldn't cum in time? His mind quickly raced through possibilities, all of them fearful from the large knife being used to torment him. The knife slapping stopped, and was replaced with Steve's fingers wrapping around his cock. Once he had wrapped his whole hand around John's shaft, he began stroking it as if he was milking an animal.

John was horrified. Here he was, tied spread-eagled for these men to do whatever they wanted with him; his cock was being milked for their own sick pleasure. Steve stopped for a moment and John felt the brush of denim against his naked ass as Steve reached to rummage around with some cans. At the reprieve, John forced his mind to quiet down so that he could focus on getting off.

"This should make it a bit easier for you John, my friend." Steve said as he applied something to his hand and resumed stroking John's shaft.

John could only guess what lubricant Steve had just found. Both men were eating cans of baked beans, so he deduced it had to be the juice that came in those cans. The extra lubrication added to the friction and sensations, as Steve's stokes increased in pace.

John tried to relax and let his primitive brain take over and give in to the unwelcome stimulation of his cock. He felt his dangling balls drape over Steve's hand with every upstroke; the extra motion fuelled an instinctive thickening of his cock. John couldn't prevent himself from starting to make quiet grunting noises as he was involuntarily brought towards his orgasm.

"Getting close there John?" Steve called out.

John didn't want to anger him again, so let out a soft; "Yes."

Steve picked up the pace and focused his stroking on the end half of John's cock. He brought his other hand up and started massaging his balls gently. John could feel his cum starting to rise in him; his orgasm started working its way into his mind. His mind let out a small internal rejoice, and he grunted out with pleasure as he started to cum. As he did, Steve put his thumb over John's urethra which stopped any cum from escaping his body. He removed his other hand from John's balls; and then removed his thumb from holding back the cum. John had never experienced anything like that before, it felt weird yet amazing with the torrents of cum building up the length of his penis, and then spurting free all at once. He could feel it all leaving him at once.

John was coming down from his orgasm, vaguely aware Steve had let go of his cock completely, and grateful that he had been able to perform quickly to avoid whatever terror awaited him if he hadn't. He felt Steve's hand brush up over his ass and then something warm and sticky being wiped onto the crack of his ass. Still gathering his thoughts, he realized it must be his cum, collected by Steve rather than spent on the kitchen floor.

Steve had proceeded to push the cum, bit by bit, into John's anus with one finger. John's mind slowly turned to the intrusive finger; 'What the fuck is he doing that for?' flashed through his mind.

"Good work John. Now, I suggest you try and relax, my friend." Steve said with a clear smirk in his voice.

John quickly came out of his remaining orgasmic haze when he heard Steve stand up and remove his belt and pants. Steve started snorting loudly into his throat for several seconds, as he built up a heap of saliva, then he was quiet again. John could feel him spitting warm saliva onto the small of his back; and sense it dribbling down over his anus and eventually down over his balls.

John was stunned that this was happening to him, but he was defenceless to stop it. He felt Steve's cock rub up and down between the cheeks of his ass as he lubricated it with his spit, then felt the tip press against his virgin hole.

John closed his eyes as he felt Steve start to push inside him. His focused all his energy on trying to relax his ass muscles so that Steve didn't do too much damage. At least he was pushing into him slowly, and stopped once the head of his cock was buried inside him. John could feel his ass stretching to accommodate its invader. As terrible as the entire situation was, he was more disgusted that the loudest part of his mind as well as his body betrayed him, enjoying the sensations.

Steve started pressing deeper into John's ass. John could feel his sphincter muscles gently fighting to stay where they were, then eventually relenting to accommodate the penis as it pushed past. To John it seemed to be the thickest thing in the world; the only saving grace was that his own cum stuffed in his ass seemed to help ease Steve's cock inside with less resistance.

John focused as best he could at relaxing throughout the entire down stroke driving Steve's cock into him. Eventually their balls pressed together, as Steve bottomed out.

"See, not too bad now is it mate?" Steve laughed down to John. "I don't usually go for the guys, but these days pickings have been a bit sli..."

Boom.

The noise of a gunshot filled the air, immediately followed by the sound of glass raining onto the tiled kitchen floor. It was very loud, and John recognised it as the sound of a shotgun.

John felt Steve's cock quickly withdraw from him; shortly followed by a second shot filling the air. He heard a body fall and hit the ground hard. He strained his head around trying to see what was going on.

"You okay in there?" A female voice called out.

John tried to clear his mind, and replied; "I am, but I'm tied up."

The door that led from the kitchen to outside kicked open. John strained his head around again to look for his rescuer. He could see that the glass pane in the kitchen door was the source of the raining glass, as his saviour had shot through it. John could see a woman step through onto the broken shards with her large boots. He couldn't make out any of her features as the sun sitting low in the western sky was silhouetting her in the doorway. He could make out that she was reloading her double barrel shotgun with shells as she walked forward into the room.

"Hang on a sec there." was all she said as she walked behind him and shot both men again.

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John was released from his bonds by the mysterious woman, and the two went down to Tom's bedroom to find him some clothes. She sat down underneath the window and faced the door with her gun for cover. Once he had put on a shirt and shorts, John sat down against the adjacent wall and she introduced herself.

"Name's Mira. What's yours?"

"John," he replied. "I can't believe my luck that you came along when you did!"

"Wasn't luck, I've been tracking those two barstards for a week now. They've kept too good a watch until now for me to sneak up on them and finish their fucking lives." Mira snarled out the last few words.

John was startled by the amount of hatred coming out of her towards them. "You know those guys?"

Mira continued to watch the doorway but her eyes focused out into space, as if she was remembering some horrible memory. She snapped out of it after a minute and looked to him.

"Yeah, you could say I know them. They slaughtered the rest of the group I was in; I was out in the bush hunting at the time. By the time I came back all I could do was watch as they finished off my brother with a bullet to his head..." Mira trailed off.

They were quiet for a long time. John didn't know what else to say but "I'm sorry."

Mira continued her tale; "They had raped the women before killing them... All I had was a hunting bow at the time and I couldn't have taken them both on. So I waited, tracked them like the animals they were. Over the last week they caught two other men on their own, raped, and then killed them too."

Mira started stroking the barrel of her gun slowly, "I found my gun here hidden amongst the last dead man's stuff that they missed when they headed off again. When I peered into this place and saw them starting to do the same thing to you too, I had to take my chance."

Mira looked down at her gun, as if asking it if what she had made it do earlier could be forgiven.

"Well I am eternally grateful to you Mira." John said. "I have a safe place near here that you are welcome to come to. Two others, Anny and Skye, are there now."

John quickly told her about what had happened at the property here in the last couple of days, the horrible things that had happened to his friends, and then looked out the window.

"We won't make it back there before dark. We'd better hide up in the shed for the night." He concluded.

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The two headed into the shed. They carefully moved Merry's body out of the path of the ladder, and then headed up into the rafters to hide amongst the wood, as John had done the night before. John felt much more secure with the extra guns they now had. Steve and Tony had a handgun each and a couple of boxes of ammo for each gun. The short-range guns would be a welcome change from having to kill the Walkers with axes and machetes.

John took the first watch as Mira was exhausted from having tracked the men for over a week; sleeping up in trees to avoid being Walker food while she slept.

John's thoughts drifted back over the horror of the last couple of days, and eventually shifted to looking forward to seeing Anny and Skye again. They would be devastated to learn of Tom and Merry's deaths. He didn't know how he was going to break the news to them tomorrow.

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John woke to Mira shaking him awake. "Time to go, John."

As they descended the ladder, John looked down and noticed the sun's rays hitting the ground. The light was deep red, much redder than it should have been. They walked outside carefully, the coast was clear, and John looked to the sky. The sun was pouring blood red light down onto the Earth as it rose into the sky.

"Bushfire." John said.