Resistance 3 - Chapter 7

Meghan woke up blearily, coming to in degrees, roused by an annoying musical chime playing over and over again, and it felt like it had been going non-stop for all eternity.  Eventually, she realized it was her ringtone and she groped around fuzzily for her phone, finding it close to her head on the pillow.  

“Hello..?” she croaked, but there was no one there; she had answered too late and the call had gone to voicemail.  Meghan dropped the phone back onto the covers without bothering to see who it was and drifted off again.

It might have been minutes or hours later when she woke up again, sitting up, letting out a groan as a massive headache pounded inside of her skull.   She remained motionless for some time, waiting for the blinding agony to subside.  What a horrible mistake.  Why the hell did she drink so much?

She gingerly got out of the bed and used the toilet, then headed downstairs.  On the kitchen table was a plate of cold eggs and sausage, two tablets of ibuprofen and a glass of water, a pool of condensation running off it onto the table.

“Thanks, Derek,” she muttered aloud to the empty house, first taking the two pills and drinking the glass down in a few large swallows.  She picked at the food, eventually chucking most of it in the trash, before dragging herself into the living room and flopping down on the couch, her forearm going across her eyes to block out the morning light.

Meghan replayed the fuzzy recollections of last night in her head as she lay there in a half stupor.  Her mother and Derek…  Her mom having an affair.  A series of affairs.  Derek, laboring through life in a drunken haze, but underneath it, still the same big brother she had always known and admired.

Meghan felt the guilt gnawing at her, shame rising up inside at the thought of her treatment of her family since she’d come back, all of the resentment she’d been harboring without considering for a moment they were all going through the same thing, each of them alone in the same struggle.

Sitting up with a sigh, she pulled her phone out and dialed her mother, whom Meghan saw now had been the repeat caller from earlier, but she didn’t answer.

Meghan sat a few moments staring blankly at her phone, at a loss for who to call next.  She was slightly startled that it took her so long to even think of calling Nate.  But rather than do that, she got up with another self-pitying groan and headed upstairs to shower and get ready.

***

Even after so many years, it was still astounding to her, seeing all of the food, just laying out on display, free for her or anyone else to take as much as they wanted so long as they could pay for it.

In the old days, Meghan had only seen an abundance of food like this through razor topped fencing, and there hadn’t been much of a variety then -- mostly coarse bread, root vegetables, canned goods.  Still, to have the supply unsecured so freely would have openly invited a full-scale riot.

She remembered visiting with her mother when the supermarket had first (re)opened, gaping at the vibrantly colored fresh fruits and vegetables, baked goods, butchered meats, her stomach gurgling loudly.  But her mother’s expression had only been one of fond nostalgia, like greeting an old friend.

Now, as she picked through the produce, placing items in the basket slung over her arm, Meghan thought again of her brother’s words from the previous night, how uniquely lost they were in the post-Virus world.

She had skipped the gym today, feeling in no mood with her lingering hangover, and trying to study seemed equally unappealing.  At a loss for what to do with the day, combined with her rekindled appreciation for Derek, she thought she might return his considerate gesture from this morning and make some dinner.  But she’d found the refrigerator quite empty and so had headed off to the grocery store, glad for something productive to do.

She was examining some chicken cutlets, when someone from behind called out:

“Meghan?”

She turned to see a couple behind her, a young, untidy child sitting in their shopping cart.  She only stood in confused mild surprise for a few moments before she realized with a start that she knew them.

Crystal and Zack were barely recognizable.  They had both put on considerable weight, Crystal more so in that she was pregnant, nearly full-term by the look of it.  Her usual expression of scornful disdain now simply looked sullen and dour instead on her heavy face.  Zack’s features looked like they were slightly melting, sagging with exhaustion, and his hairline was receding rather badly.  He was appraising her in turn with open admiration.  “I thought that was you,” he said.  “You look great..!”

He was totally oblivious of Crystal casting over a dark look beside him.

“Uh…  thanks.  You guys too,” Meghan added lamely. 

She glanced down at the toddler in the shopping cart, who had gotten into some chocolate pudding and was industriously spreading it through his hair.  “I didn’t know that the two of you had gotten married.” 

“Oh, we’re n--”

“Yea.”  Crystal cut in swiftly.  She didn’t say more, simply staring Meghan up and down with a mixture of defiance and anger.

"Ok, well…” Meghan trailed after a few more awkward moments had passed.  “It was nice to see you guys again…”

She turned and fairly rushed away from the pair.  It was only as she was veering off into an aisle a few rows down that she heard a loud smack, and Zack exclaiming loudly, ”Ow!  What was that for?”

Meghan heard only angry whispers and hisses following that.  She left shortly after.

***

“Whoa, what’s all this?”

Meghan couldn’t help but grin lopsidedly at Derek’s dumbfounded, happy expression when he walked in the door, as he looked over the spread on the kitchen table. Scalloped potatoes, sauteed asparagus and succulent roasted rack of lamb were all neatly plated and awaiting.

Meghan had spent the whole afternoon preparing the meal, which she enjoyed doing.  She didn’t have much occasion to cook at school and really hardly knew how anyway.  It had been fun figuring things out, as it had kept her mind off of all her troubles, and the day had passed quickly.  She’d sipped on a glass of red wine while she cooked and that had helped to chase away any remnants of her hangover.

“Listen, I have no idea if it’s any good or not, but I gave it a shot, ” Meghan forewarned.

“‘Any good’?  If it’s half as good as it smells…”  Derek dropped his heavy toolbag to the ground with a thump and kicked his boots off.

“Well, hold your horses,” Meghan admonished as her brother promptly sat down at the table, grabbing up knife and fork to hack away at the lamb.  She set another stemmed glass in front of him and filled it from the half empty bottle of wine.

“Cheers,” she said, and they clinked glasses.

“All right..!”  With unconstrained enthusiasm, Derek immediately tucked in again, taking a generous bite.  He made a wordless groan of appreciation, chomping noisily.  “Oh, man, that’s beyond good,” he praised around the mouthful.

Even Meghan had to admit the roast came out wonderfully, tender and juicy, not overdone at all.  Having skipped lunch, she was more hungry than she realized and they ate mostly in comfortable silence.

Nearly an hour later, and the two of them were sitting in a half stupor, full and content.  The wine was gone and Meghan felt warm and sleepy; it was with great reluctance that she roused herself and began to clear the table.  

“No, it’s ok, “ she said as Derek got up too.  “You’ve been working all day.  I’m on vacation.”

“No way.  Not after a meal like that,” her brother insisted.  “I’ll wash and you dry.”

It was a lot like old times, doing the chores together, although back when they were younger, Derek didn’t grab a beer from the fridge before doing the dishes.  Still, Meghan didn’t say anything, not wanting to disturb the evening’s peace and they finished tidying up quickly, though he managed to finish the bottle despite their brisk efficiency.

He reached back into the refrigerator and then sat back at the table.  “Here.”  He’d gotten one for her too.

“I’m not getting trashed like last night, ” Meghan informed him as she took it anyway and joined him at the table again.  “I wasted like half the day trying to recover.  I don’t know how you do it every night.”

“Practice,” he answered with a toothy grin before downing a third of the bottle in one gulp, and she laughed a bit despite herself.

“I saw Zack and Crystal at the store today, ” she said after a while.  

“Did you?  I know they’re still around here, but I haven’t seen them since…  well.    I haven’t seen them in years.”

“Yea.”  Meghan thought a bit about what her brother had almost said.  After the Quarantine Zone had fallen, Zack and Crystal had gone their own way and she’d not seen them again until today.  But her family…  Despite the circumstances, they had all stayed together.  Even when any of them had gone off on their own, they had always come back, and stayed together...

“Have you talked to Mom?”  Derek interrupted her private reflection.

“No.   She called a bunch of times while I was asleep, and she didn’t answer when I called back.”

“Hmph.  Same here.  I missed her, and she didn’t answer me either.”  He tipped his head back, swallowed, and then did it again, draining the bottle.  He got up and fetched another one.

“Sheesh, Derek.”  Meghan had barely drank a quarter of hers.

“What?” he asked with a slight edge in his voice.

“So…  Mom’s really having an affair?“ she asked, shifting subjects.

“Yea.”

“‘Yea.’” Meghan repeated.  “That’s it?  You didn’t say anything to her?  You just let her do it?”

“What do you mean, ‘let her do it’?” Derek retorted.  “She’s our mom.  I don’t control what she does.

“And as a matter of fact, I did say something.”

“And..?”

“And nothing!”  He took a swig of his beer and slammed it down.  The suds rose up through the neck of the bottle before overflowing out the top, running down the sides and puddling on the table.  Derek stared off to the side, his brow furrowed.  He would not look at her.

Meghan, dismayed that their pleasant evening that had gone south so quickly, waited several moments before she spoke in a quiet, measured voice.  “It doesn’t sound like nothing.”

Her brother mumbled something in response.

“What?”

“It wasn’t my fault,” Derek repeated in a low voice.

“...what..?  What wasn’t?”

Derek continued in his resolute refusal to make eye contact.  He picked up his bottle, blowing lightly on the foam still bubbling over slightly, before he took another pull.  Then finally he began speaking.

“Maybe about six months ago, I’d gotten sent home from work early.  For being drunk.  Yea, I know…”  He waved his hand dismissively at Meghan to preempt any judgmental remarks.  

“Normally, I’d have gone to the bar and kept drinking, but it was a few days before payday and I was completely broke.  So I just went home.

“I was coming up the block when I saw our front door open and some guy walk out, who I recognized from the next block over.  Mom was just behind him, wearing a bathrobe.  I saw her glance my way then she did a double take and shut the door quickly.  

“Man…  I was shocked, Meghan.  And then pissed.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  I thought I should go after the guy and pound him, but instead I rushed up and barged into the house.  At first, she just tried to deny it all, kept saying I was drunk and didn’t know what I was talking about, which just made me even more furious.

“I was yelling and screaming, I had my finger out, jabbing, accusing, coming towards her while she just kept backing away from me across the house until she was right up against the kitchen counter.  I don’t really remember what I was even saying, only that I asked her how could she do that, how could she do that to Dad…”

Listening intently all the while, Meghan got up automatically and got Derek another beer, opening it and putting it before him as he continued.

“And then her face changed, and she just started laughing.  A really cold, bitter laugh.  She asked me if I killed so many brain cells drinking that I couldn’t remember anything about what happened before.  As if it were the first time she fucked someone else after she’d married our father. 

"It was shocking, Meghan.  You know...  it's just like...  these days we never talk about the Lost Years.  No one does.  I mean, we do, but it's like there's just this unspoken collective agreement to never talk about all the sordid details, but here Mom was, blowing it all open.

“She asked if I didn’t remember watching her fuck other people right in front of me, in front of Dad.  In front of you.  And she wanted to know if I was going to pretend that I hadn’t fucked her.  Fucked her while we were fucking other people.  All of us together…”

Meghan simply sat there wordlessly, unable to take her eyes off of her brother.

“I didn’t know what to say,” Derek continued.  “I just told her, it’s not like that anymore, we’re not like that…

“And then suddenly she pushed away from the wall, got right up in my face…  ‘It’s not?’ she asked me.  And she keeps repeating, quietly, didn’t I remember?   Didn’t I remember before…  Didn’t I ever think about before…

“Asking if I didn’t remember all the times I had my hands all over her hot, tight, body…  And she was pressing her body up against me.  Asking me if I didn’t remember banging my sexy, slutty mother…”

“Jesus,” Meghan whispered.  Her heart was pounding in her chest.

“I…  I was just so shocked and confused and I was so drunk I could barely see straight…  I was looking right into her eyes, her blue eyes, blue like yours...

“She said, ’I know it’s wrong…  I know how messed up it is to think of things from before… to think about you like this…’

“And then she was suddenly kissing me, kissing me hard, and talking the whole time while she’s sticking her tongue in my mouth…  Telling me how sick and wrong it was…  how fucked up it all was… and how hot it was making her…

“She reached down my pants, and felt that I was ready, and she was tearing at my pants, pulling them off.  And we did it…  we did right there on the kitchen floor.  

“She climbed on top of me and when she grabbed me and put me inside of her, and I could feel that she was already wet and sticky, that she had let that neighbor cum inside of her…  And it got me even harder.  

"And it was just like being back in it, fucking her, not caring that her pussy was full of another man’s cum and all I wanted to do was stick my cock as deep inside as I could and shoot my load…

“And I did, Meghan. I did it.  And when I did, she came so hard, and it felt like we’d just been waiting…  waiting all that time to do it again…”

Meghan realized she was breathing rapidly.  On the borderline of panting.  When Derek finally looked at her, it felt like a jolt of electricity passed between them.  He stood abruptly, and Meghan couldn’t help but see the erection bulging in the front of his pants.

“It wasn’t my fault!” he burst out.  He turned and went straight out the door, slamming it behind.

Meghan sat there alone at the kitchen table for several moments, still in shock.  Then she immediately stuck her hand down the front of her jeans, inside of her sopping panties.