Page 8 of His to Take

What the hell was I going to feed him?

There were several bottles of unopened wine on the counter, all various gifts that had been given to me by numerous colleagues over the past several months. I didn’t drink very often, but the sudden urge to enjoy a very full glass surged through me. The thought of being alone with Ryker Gates, in my home, had me rattled. What had I done?

I opened the fridge and started rifling around. Eventually, I collected enough to start chopping up what would become the fanciest charcuterie board I’d ever seen in my life. One of my favorite cheeses was a local sharp cheddar. Supposedly, it was a recipe that dated back before the cyberwar and the Fall.

I didn’t have enough on hand to make a full dinner, so I ordered a few groceries to be delivered to my door within thehour. Several hours later, I had a bottle of red wine opened and decanted, two nearly overflowing acai bowls and a beautifully presented charcuterie board all set up on the largest cutting board I owned, along with crusty bread, still warm from the bakery, in a basket alongside. It was an artful, and hopefully delicious, presentation.

I glanced at the clock in my foyer. It was only five-thirty.

With a sigh, I got a glass out of my cupboard and poured a small bit of wine into it. Sitting down at the kitchen table, I tried to figure out what I was doing to myself. Tomorrow, my whole life was going to change.

I’d always thrown myself into my work. In less than five years, I’d risen from unpaid intern to museum curator. I’d excelled at my job and had been rewarded time again, both monetarily and with the comforts of life, my home being one of them.

I’d always dreamed of seeing the world beyond the borders of New Englandia even though I knew much of it was a wasteland now since the Fall.

In the middle of the twenty-first century, the world had grown extremely contentious. Country threatened country and animosity simmered just below the surface for years until it finally exploded into an all-out world war, the likes of which the world had never seen. It began as cyber-attacks, so everything that had been stored during the digital age was lost, forever wiped out. Power grids were shut down for good. Communications crashed. Some people were lucky, having access to long distance radio, but those were few and soon lost, as humanity spiraled into a state of panic. A war that had started digitally soon turned into something real and terrifying on the ground.

Later, nuclear bombs were deployed, so many that there were no accurate records as to their number. The great powers peppered the world with their weapons of mass destruction, and the result was, indeed, the complete destruction of most of the cultures and societies of Earth. Entire cities and whole countries were obliterated. The only proof they ever existed was in the form of hardcopy encyclopedias or textbooks that survived the catastrophic damages.

The world collapsed into ruin. Food sources dried up. Most primary sources of water were deemed radioactive and unsafe for consumption. Other sources were purposely poisoned. Finding shelter and safety was nearly impossible. That any humanity remained at all was a miracle.

For at least a century, what was left of humans struggled to survive.

Homo sapiens is a resilient species, however, and we eventually started to recover. At first, it was merely a collection of small towns in shoddily fortified safe zones free of radiation, but those grew as the years passed.

Now, a patchwork of city states comprised the civilized world, a confederation of the descendants of survivors that were spread out and separated by vast wastelands in between. In my home state, some of the conveniences that had existed before The Fall were reestablished, with a few limitations. Electricity, for one, turned off after eleven o’clock at night. Each person had a daily ration of water and a weekly allotment of food, which was somewhat limited in variety.

It was all meant to keep our city state healthy and sustainable.

World travel was a thing of the distant past, a rare privilege employed only as permitted by the council and only when necessary. There was no need for it, really. We had everything we needed right here, but that didn’t stop me from being curious about what lay beyond our borders.

Even here in my home, there were still scars of the past written deep into the earth. If I climbed up to the roof of my building, I could see in the far distance the massive perimeter fence that protected our borders. Beyond it, the ground was a dusty bowl gouged out by an explosion from back then, still radioactive enough that nothing grew anew. I didn’t know what else was out there.

Honestly, I’d never even considered the possibility that I’d ever get to find out.

A knock sounded at my door.

I leapt to my feet, startled. I nearly spilled my glass of wine before I set it down and placed my palm over my racing heart.

It was him. He was here.

I groaned inwardly before walking out of my kitchen and over to the front door. When I opened it with a trembling hand, he was there waiting. In his hands was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Pristine white roses, hydrangeas, lilacs, blue carnations, and others I didn’t recognize. It was impossibly beautiful, and I was momentarily stunned.

“Naomi.” He spoke just my name in a deep, resonant tone and dipped his head respectfully.

“Ryker,” I answered, feeling embarrassed even though he had only said my name in a simple greeting.

“These are for you,” he grinned, passing me the bouquet with a look of expectancy I found confusing. I took it tentatively, probably looking like he had just handed me a live snake.

“I don’t understand,” I answered, staring down at the blooms. A wayward breeze sent the soft, flowery scent whirling around me. It was calming, sweet and lovely.

“I know it is not your custom, but I wanted to bring you something nice in exchange for dinner and opening up your home to me.”

I nodded, not knowing what else to do and feeling distinctly discomfited by this unfamiliar interaction.

“Come in,” I invited him with a welcoming gesture, finally remembering my manners. He ducked his head and walked past me, brushing against my forearm in the process. An electric current passed through my body, and I shivered, warm sensation spiraling deep down into my core. I turned my face away, afraid he might sense my reaction to his nearness if he could see my face.

“You have a beautiful home. Very modern.”

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