Free Hope by Sam Crescent

into her cheeks. She really was in
a whole new world. The farm had been bad, but not half as coarse as the club.
    “I’ll follow you,” Damon said.
    She opened the changing room doors, and her cheeks heated.
Several women were in a state of undress. Many were not even bothering to get
dressed as men pawed at them.
    “Are you staying behind tonight?” Kelly asked. The other
woman walked up to Damon and ran her hands up his chest.
    Trying her best to ignore her, Penny left his side to grab
her clothing. She turned her back to them then began to change.
    “I’m not staying. I’ve got other things to do.” She heard
him say.
    “I’m sure the Princess can look after herself. I’ve got some
plans for you.”
    Kelly was practically purring at him. Penny rolled her eyes,
pulled her shirt over her head, and then turned.
    Yep, Kelly was trying to hump his leg as well.
    “I said no, Kelly. Come on, Penny, we’ve got to go.” He
grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room.
    “If you want to stay behind I don’t mind.”
    Damon paused. He turned towards her. “If I wanted to stay,
I’d stay. Come on.”
    He yanked her out of the door, barely waving a goodbye to
his friends.
    It was dark outside. The moon was shining down on the
crumbling city. Damon pulled his knife from his back pocket.
    “Why are you carrying that?” she asked.
    “You always need to have protection,” he said. He pulled her
close, wrapping an arm around her waist. She felt the heat of his touch through
her clothing. He really was a good looking man.
    “How was your first night?” he asked after they’d walked for
several minutes. The night was cold. She rubbed her arms trying to warm herself
up.
    “It was good. Scary and good. I
didn’t have a clue what those men were going to do. They grabbed me and started
fighting as if I was some kind of chew toy.”
    “To the men, you were.”
    “Don’t they have families to go to and women of their own?”
    Damon chuckled.
    “Most of the women are in places like the club because it’s
safer. Families and wives are saved for the farming on the outskirts of the
city. Don takes most of them in to protect them. Women are a commodity in this
new world we live in, Penny. Only the men with enough goods and power to
protect a woman without fear of her being taken have wives.”
    “I’ve seen several women walking the streets, Damon. They
are not harmed.”
    “They are also offering the men something. They’re willing
to give their bodies freely to whoever pays enough for it.” Damon stopped looking
around a corner before continuing on.
    “I don’t think I’ll ever make sense of this world.”
    “You and me both. There are
times I wish the M3 had never been invented. We were all better off without
that shit.”
    The tone of his voice went dark. She knew he was remembering
something awful.
    “What happened?”
    They passed a woman on a street corner.
    “You know the details of the M3. If the wars hadn’t started
then there would have been medical care. With medical care the flu wouldn’t
have killed as many as it did. I left my family to deal with what Don wanted me
to do, and when I got home they had died from the flu. In my mind, that tablet
caused every fucking problem in this world,” he said.
    Penny listened to his tale. He sounded so angry. “I wish I
knew what was going through the scientist’s mind when he created it.”
    Damon chuckled. “From what I’ve heard the inventor of M3
wanted to run more tests before unleashing it onto the world. The government
wouldn’t listen. I guess to a point I can understand. I mean, how can a tablet
taken as a replacement for food be harmful?”
    She shrugged. “We never really know the science of
everything. I’ve read some of the books from back then. There were several that
survived the wars. My mother loved them. The world sounded nice.”
    He laughed. “I wonder what the people of then would make of
this world?”
    She smiled. Damon