Friday Snippets: Love in the Time of Apocalypse

Please, leave your link to a Friday Snippet! I won't be able to read them until later today when I get done, but I definitely want to see where all the stories are going this week. Please let me know what you think - We're almost to the section of this story that I absolutely adore. I'd like a general opinion of what you guys think. Thanks!

THE SNIPPET

We're returning to Dell and her masked man this week. If this is your first time to read any of this Friday Snippet story, here's the basic run down. After Columbia, MO is nuked, our heroine, Dell O'Sullivan barely survived and rescued her cat Corleone and her neighbor's son, Caleb. After searching through the burned-out city for hours for an unknown person named Roy, Dell collapsed. Exhausted, she was overcome by memories of her dead brother, Matheson and her long-lost friend, Iris Garrick. All of this as a strange masked-man walks toward them out of the smoke...

Copyrighted, do not reproduce, material liable to change. Etc.

Dell dreamed of that long ago summer when she saw her brother's face on the morning before he died, before they laid down in the cold earth with no thought to the winter frost. She dreamed of the last time she saw him in the doorway, dark haired and smiling. She knew Iris was there, somewhere in the sunlight.

Dell flinched. She woke and dark was all around. She was cold, her hair clinging in slick curls against her brow. She felt herself leaning to the left and reached out her hand in the shadows. She felt the slow rise and fall of Caleb's chest, the warm purr of Corleone tucked in the curve of his arm. The man in the mask sat across from her. She couldn't see his face, but the outline of his profile was unmistakable. Roman nose and Asian jawline, the gleam of his eyes dark dusted green and tilted exquisitely, courtesy of his father the GI and his mother the lady he loved and brought across the sea after the war.

"Roy," Dell croaked. He smiled, standing over her. Dell brought her hands to her eyes, wanting suddenly to weep. She felt him sit on the edge of the bed and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling herself to sit. Every bone in her body ached, but feeling him laugh against her shoulder was worth it. Caleb stirred in his sleep. Dell pulled back, comforted by the rough hands framing her face. Roy leaned his brow against hers and she could see the faint sheen of his green almond-shaped eyes.

"Where are we?" she whispered.

"We're underground. My house is gone, but we're in my basement."

"When happened?"

"Nuke."

"Was it just Columbia?"

"From what I can tell from the chatter, whoever got us, got most of the east coast."

Dell's hand went to her heart, her chest clutching tight. Roy watched her, judging his next words carefully. "I've heard that we may launch back, and you know what that means."

"Then there is no safe place," Dell said. "I want to be here with you if that's how it will happen."

"Then there is no safe place," Dell said. "I want to be here with you if that's how it will happen."

"I know," he said. He lowered his head, laughing quietly. "And I want you to stay."

"But we both want to know what's going on outside," she said. Those were the most awful words she could imagine saying, but she knew she would not stay with him. She had not stayed with Math died or when Iris left and she would not stay now that the world was ending. "You still have his bike?"

"Of course."

"And...the gun?"

"Yes," Roy said. He leaned forward suddenly, kissing her for the first time since the day of Math's funeral.

"I could give you anything, Dell," he said. "And you ask for those two things."

She could feel a sob deep down in her chest, but as she pulled away from him, his hand tangled in hers and she opened dry eyes.

She could hear the anger thick in his voice, tinged with grief and frustration. "I knew you would ask for those two things, Dell," he said. She rested a hand on each of his shoulders for balance and stood. He looked up at her and she saw his face, streaked with grime.

"I'll give you both," he said. He bowed his head against her, and his words were muffled against her heart. "I could give you anything, Dell," he said. "And you ask for those two things."

So say we all.
Bri