Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

'This is way harder than I expected it to be,' Mathew thought as he gripped the rails of the ladder.

His hands were all sweaty, making it hard for the young man to keep his grip on the old, rusted metal.

The inside of the shaft was completely dark. The only source of light came from the holes above and below the two of them, leaving the middle part completely devoid of any light.

'To think that Daniel climbed up here without actually knowing whether or not he could create an exit...' Mathew thought only to then fight off his desire to shake his head.

In the claustrophobic insides of the shaft, there was barely enough space for a man to fit in. Any unnecessary motions would only make Mathew's descend harder.

"Just a little bit more," Nadia muttered just loud enough for the shaft's acoustics to carry her words to Mathew's ears. "Don't stop now," she spoke out again.

'Her voice...' Mathew thought as he sharply raised his head.

It was too dark for him to see anything. He couldn't even sneak a glance up Nadia's skirt... that's is, if the girl actually wore one.

The reason why Mathew attempted to look up to Nadia was simple. The tense tone of her voice made him worried about her state.

"Are you tired?" the young man asked as he continued to move his hands and legs, climbing down a single step of a ladder at a time.

At first, Nadia didn't reply.

"Only a little," she finally admitted a few moments later. "But you don't need to mind me. I went through worse," the girl quickly added before turning silent again.

"I guess we all are exhausted," Mathew kept the topic going, only to release a deep breath.

It resonated within the confines of the shaft, turning into a weird, lengthy sound that didn't resemble the noise Mathew made in the first place at all.

"It would be nice to get some rest," Nadia whispered. "Ah, I didn't mean to..." she then started to utter words in quick succession.

"Shush," Mathew silenced the girl with a quick order. "It's okay," he said. "I don't want you to keep up a brave front for me. If something is not right, if you are worried about something, please, do tell," Mathew finished.

And right as he did, the insides of the shaft suddenly became visible, only to turn pretty bright after just two more steps down the ladder.

"I'm at the bottom!" Mathew shouted into the shaft, both for Nadia but also for the people at the top to hear.

"Thank God," Nadia muttered when Mathew squeezed himself out of the hole in the wall. He then waited for the girl before offering her a helping hand.

There was no terrace aligned with the floor of the level. The shaft was built way before the regulations enforcing those came to place, leaving it as crude and inconvenient to get out from as it was designed in the distant past to be.

'I guess the people of old didn't want to make it attractive for kids to claim it for their fun spot,' Mathew thought, putting some sort of rationale to what he just observed.

"I was beginning to really hate that place," Nadia admitted when she finally crawled out of the hole and stood on the solid floor for the first time in a few moments.

She clasped her hands against her clothes to dust them off before raising her eyes at Mathew.

"What are we going to do now?" she then asked, looking at her partner with curiosity.

"If we want to set this fortress up, we will need to get all the cores that we can," Mathew explained. "I will go to the merchant in the office area. Could you go and fetch the cores for me in the meantime?"

'Bringing the stones shouldn't be all that challenging, especially with how we cleared most of the zombies already,' Mathew thought as he kept looking at the girl, painfully aware of how tired she was.

'From her rampage when we fought at the ground floor, through our intimate activities, all the way to rushing up that shaft in just a few moments...' Mathew thought, counting all the deeds that Nadia committed in the span of just a few hours.

'Even if I add the system and levels to the equation, she has to be approaching her limit,' he thought, only to close his eyes and take a deep breath.

"What's wrong?" Nadia asked right as Mathew released all the air from his lungs in a long sigh.

"I was just thinking how tired everyone has to be at this point," Mathew said as he turned his eyes away, wary of alerting Nadia about his worries. "While I'm not sure if that's the right choice, setting the fortress up seems like exactly the thing we should do right now."

Mathew's confidence in all his choices so far was nothing more but a mere front he showed to everyone. A pretense he kept up just for the sake of the morale of his wives and allies.

In reality, though, Mathew was just the same kid that he was before he first went through the apocalypse. And while those two weeks of experience allowed him to carry the group so far, the same couldn't be said about the future beyond establishing the fortress.

"Am I safe to assume this fortress would stop all the zombies from entering its bounds?" Nadia asked.

Even though Mathew had already given her his order, she didn't rush to fulfill it right away.

Somehow, Nadia could sense that beyond the mask of self-confidence that Mathew wore, he actually needed her to stay by his site right now.

Even if only for a little longer.

"That's what I hope so," Mathew replied before he bit down on his lips and averted his eyes. "Listen, back then, we never got that far," he admitted to the fact even though it wasn't the first time he mentioned it. "What this fortress will do for us, I myself have yet to learn."

"What else could a fortress mean?" Nadia asked only to put her hand on her hips as she stared down at Mathew's lowered head.

"I have long abandoned any attempts at forcing our logic on whatever comes out of this apocalypse," Mathew countered and shook his head sideways. "According to what we know, zombies shouldn't exist. Evolved monsters all the more," he added before lowering his eyes even further, all the way to the tips of his shoes.

"Matty," Nadia called her partner out with the shortened name only she dared to use. "Look at me," the girl requested while remaining in the same position as before.

"What?" Mathew asked with a tired voice when he finally acknowledged just how exhausted he was.

"I don't expect you to know everything," Nadia said as she raised her hands and placed them on both sides of Mathew's head.

Unable to move his face now that it was locked between Nadia's palms, the young man had no other choice but to keep looking in her eyes.

"You believe that erecting a fortress will do us good, right?" Nadia asked while clearly knowing the answer already.

Mathew did speak of his plans to her a few times already, after all.

"That's right," Mathew said and nodded his head. "But it's not erecting the fortress that scares me," he added, lowering his eyes.

He still couldn't move his face... but nothing forced the young man to look straight ahead.

"It's what will come after erecting the fortress, am I right?" Nadia asked. She then put a caring smile on her lips before pulling with her hands and pushing her face forward.

Their lips united.

'Her mouth is so soft,' Mathew thought while immersing himself in the experience. 'So warm,' another thought passed through his head when Nadia moved even closer while actively moving her lips around.

"No one knows what the future holds," Nadia whispered when she rested her forehead against Mathew's and pulled the bottom of her face away, stopping the kiss. "And I don't expect you to know it either," she added, only for her lips to twist in a meek smile.

"I'm glad to hear it," Mathew said in a low voice.

'It feels strange to be open about it,' the young man thought, only to then swallow a gulp of his saliva.

"Here," Nadia muttered as she leaned her head again and pressed her lips against Mathew's mouth for one more time. "Are you all better now?" she then asked with sparks of cheekiness flashing in her eyes.

"Yeah, thanks," Mathew replied, only to bring his arms forward and pull the girl into a light hug. "I'm all better now," he added while enjoying the softness of the girl within his grasp.

Yet, before he could relax too much, Mathew pushed the girls away before shaking his head.

"Let's not waste any more of the time that we have," he said, only to raise his hand and rustle Nadia's hair.

"I will go grab the cores, then," the girl smiled when receiving the head pats. She then took a step back and turned around. "See you back at the office!"

'And so she left,' Mathew thought, watching how the girl took off and ran towards the outer staircase at the end of the corridor.

Since the exit of the shaft was located only two floors below the top floor, she still had to run down two sets of stairs to reach the ground level.

'I guess I should go too,' Mathew thought, only to raise his hands and slap them both against his cheeks.

"Let's see what erecting that fortress really means!"