C Summer Star Point

[SimonBrownMpreg]

"Can we trust the rest of the fellowship enough to tell them?" Dustin asked. He hugged an old tin bucket to his chest like a life preserver. Plumbing hadn't yet been restored to the cul-de-sac and he didn't feel safe going to vomit in the outhouse where someone might catch him and start asking questions. Sweat speckled his forehead, making his bangs stick to his flushed skin. He could lie and say it was the flu if not for the bump pushing against his shirt.

That's right. Dustin was one of... them.

Men didn't know until it was too late, and everyone reacted differently. Most terminated however they could the minute they found out. Feeling like a freak was the strongest motivation, but also not wanting to get swept up in the chaos of becoming a priceless commodity was a close second. Anyone who could breed, male or female, always became the center of small wars between gangs who wanted to hoard the baby-makers for themselves. Being a breeder was more valuable than gold.

Dustin and Sin had a pretty comfortable life, all things considered. They fell in with a suburban fellowship whose main goal was to get back to quiet farm life. It was almost like being in a hippie cult, except their lives depended on succeeding in their endeavors. The greenhouse was their pride and joy. Dustin had a knack for raising houseplants in his past life, so that meant he got to play farmer these days. The house he shared with Sid was nice. A collapsed staircase meant the upstairs was inaccessible, but the roof was intact. The doors and windows were gone, but old sheets kept the rain and wind out just fine. And so maybe a couple walls were crumbling and the furniture was mildewy, but it sure beat living in a tent or a cave like other folks in other places.

Dustin lurched and bowed his head into the bucket as he puked again. Tears stung his eyes. His nose dripped. This was so bad.

[Sam260]

Sin looked over his shoulder at Dustin, feeling bad for his best friend; they were in this together, through thick-and-thin, and it was also his fault that Dustin was as sick as he was. Sin yelped as an electrical spark from the old transistor radio he had been trying relentlessly to fix over the past few days zapped his finger "Stupid thing!" he muttered, pushing the old contraption away from him.

Sin stood up from his chair, carefully - as it was an old rusted out metal chair that had been in the rain for far too long - "I wouldn't trust them with this news... What if they try to turn you into a factory, Dustin?" he questioned, squatting down in front of his friend and wiping away the sweat and bangs from his forehead. He also set his hand close to Dustin's stomach, but he didn't dare touch it - not because he was afraid of Dustin being the way he was, but anyone could walk in on them at any moment, and exposing what Dustin was could definitely turn out bad for them, especially if it were the wrong person to walk in.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

"Believe me, that's not something that excites me," Dustin said after catching his breath. The acidic smell wafting up out of the bucket made him gag. Ohhh, he missed the days of flushing toilets. "Either we stay and I get turned into a baby machine, or we take our chances out in the wildscape where Rotters might eat us and bandits might capture us. And if bandits catch us, I'll be made into a breeding factory anyway. Nothing feels like a winning scenario, Sin." Even without his friend's hand directly over his stomach, the gesture was comforting. The fact Sin didn't go running or outing Dustin to the fellowship when he found out was a testament to his loyalty.

Most people in the fellowship mistook Sin for a dimwitted brute, but behind closed doors--well, behind draped sheets--he was a gentle genius with a heart of gold. They were friends in college before the fallout. A love of cars sparked their initial friendship. Dustin wanted to race them while Sinclair wanted to fix them up. Dustin promised to make Sin the chief mechanic on his team when he finally made it into the world of Formula One racing. Monte Carlo was the dream. These days, the dream was finding shoes with intact soles or dog meat that didn't already have worms.

Whose bright idea was nuclear war?

[Sam260]

Sin sighed and dropped to his behind on the floor, right in front of Dustin - he had a look of longing on his face, something that was almost always there when he watched Dustin from a distance either on the College Campus or when they were at the mechanic garage. "And how long do you think you can hide this from the fellowship? You're already starting to show, dramatically, and just because my shirts are two times the size of yours..." He paused and shook his head "Maybe... maybe we can find some place else to live. I've heard rumors about a safe haven for breeders and their s-... for breeders... I can get you there, Dustin." Sin said quietly, convinced that he had the right idea and the gumption to do it.

Sin glanced over his shoulder, looking out the window where the curtain was halfway drawn back to let in the breeze - or, what passed for a breeze in Arid temperatures. There was a beat-up car out in front of the house they lived in, rusted and pretty badly mangled from likely getting into a wreck when the nuclear explosion wiped out the entire country, but Sin - a genius with anything that had an engine or car parts in general - had been trying to fix it up and was only a few weeks away from getting the darn thing started and running, somewhat passably.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

Dustin looked down between his knees at the puffy shape under his shirt. The size of his belly indicated he was fairly far along, but his stage of morning sickness argued he was still early in the pregnancy. That could only mean multiples. So, y'know, awesome. Not only had Dustin mutated into a breeder, but a highly fertile one at that. The Hammerguard Terminal chieftain and the overlord of Dunesummit Garrison would slaughter the entire fellowship to get their hands on someone like him. Which meant if the fellowship didn't keep Dustin for their own uses, they might just hand him over to save their own skin. They could trade him for anything their hearts desired. It sure did feel good knowing how easily he could be reduced to a commodity instead of a person.

"You're talking about Summer Star Point." While just a rumor, it was a wildly prevalent one. Almost every heard of Summer Star Point. Whether everyone believed it actually existed was another thing. Breeders obviously wanted it to be real since it meant a safe haven for them. Those who desired breeders would also love it to be real so they could go raid the place. "Also, I know what you were going to say. I'm sure you'll be accepted there too, Sin. If it actually exists."

[Sam260]

Sin pressed his forehead against Dustin's knee lightly, taking a steadying breath before he spoke "If it exists?" he questioned, tilting his head to the side and glancing up at Dustin "It has to exist, Dustin... Breeders need a place to be safe.  Especially if they do not wish to be turned into factories..." Sin whispered and then stood up, hands on his hips as he turned around the room.

"But where is this place?  I mean, I've heard about it and there are speculations as to where it is - Some people say west, other's say east... But no one really knows where it is, do they?" Sin turned again and looked down at Dustin "I can get us there, Dustin... If only we knew which way to go... And I won't leave your side until we're both safe." Sin promised quietly, setting his hand lightly on Dustin's cheek, his thumb brushing a fleck of dirt off the soft skin of the other man's face.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

Dustin smiled tiredly. "That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?" He leaned into Sin's hand until a wet gurgle sounded in his throat and he suddenly had his face in the bucket again. He heaved so hard that his nose started dripping. Dustin was never this sick before. Not even that one Thanksgiving when his uncle failed to cook the turkey all the way through and gave the family food poisoning.

"Maybe it has something actually to do with astronomy," he suggested after he finished puking. "Now if only either one of us knew the first thing about constellations. I know which one is the North Star, but is there such a thing as a Summer Star? But how would that even work? Constellations move in the sky depending on the time of year, so it's not like people can track a single star to the same location all year round, right? I feel like I might be talking gibberish."

[Sam260]

"You've always talked gibberish, Dustin... That's no surprise there." Sin said with a smile, lowering himself onto the couch beside Dustin and grabbing the only clean cloth they had in the house; he gently wiped the snot and sweat from Dustin's face and sighed quietly.

As he thought about it, the name of the Breeder Haven - Summer Star - it was like a light bulb went off in his head "Summer Star Point..." he said quietly "Dustin, do you remember that kids camp that was always on the television... back when we were like... I dunno, seven or maybe eight years old? It always boasted about the beautiful mountain views, the large lake and all the water activities there?"

[SimonBrownMpreg]

"Oh haha, you're so clever." Dustin closed his eyes as Sin cleaned his face for him. When Sin brought up the summer camp, he had to think back. That was almost twenty years ago. He was mostly into Matchbox Cars and Hot Wheels back then. Dustin's dad would sooner take his son camping himself than let a summer camp deprive him of all that father-son bonding time. Summer camp... Summer camp... "No way," he whispered when realization dawned on him as well. "You don't think it could be the same place? What are the odds?"

[Sam260]

Sin shrugged his shoulders and shook his head simultaneously "I don't know what the odds of it are... But it's the only place that I can think of with that particular name..."

Sin stretched his arm out over the top of the couch, idly playing with the hair at the back of Dustin's head as he thought about it more "You know... That camp was only about a four hour drive from where we used to live... Now that we've moved... It'll be more like a ten and a half hour drive. Might take us more than a week to get there though, if we factor in the not-so-good vehicle and possible dangers out there."

[SimonBrownMpreg]

"I think you mean definite dangers. And not that I doubt your skills, but everything mechanical went to shit after the fallout. We don't know for sure the car will even get us down the street before crapping out on us. If we have to go the whole way on foot and make camp at the first sign of sundown, since only idiots travel at night, we're looking at half a month or more. Hope for the best and prepare for the worst." Dustin sighed. He finally set the bucket on the floor and leaned back on the couch, letting his head rest on Sin's arm. "But what the hell, let's go. The summer camp idea is the best one we've got. If it turns out we're wrong, we'll deal with it from there."

[Sam260]

Sin flexed the muscles in his bicep where Dustin's head was resting, chuckling quietly as the younger man's head bobbed with the movement - he stopped shortly after though, knowing a lot of movement could set Dustin back off into a vomiting spiel. He bent his head slightly and kissed Dustin's temple with a barely there kiss - this is the most intimacy that Sin had really allowed for, after their night of 'What the fuck are we going to do now' sexual passion that landed them in the situation they were in now.

"If it turns out we're wrong... Maybe the place will be abandoned and we can live there ourselves... start our own tribe or whatever with..." he set his hand on Dustin's stomach this time, he was still afraid something may happen if someone walked in, but he needed Dustin to know that no matter what they were in this together, through it all "With our lives expanding..." he settled on saying, instead of calling them children; it was a daunting prospect to be the future father of kids, but he would do it with Dustin because that was just how much he had loved the younger man, ever since they had met.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

Dustin snorted. "Our own tribe? Man, you make us sound like we should be on the cover of National Geographic. We're starting a family, as batshit insane as that sounds. Once we made it to France, I saw us living on a boat with a Great Dane or a Dalmatian or something. Fast cars, money, dogs, and a yacht. Nothing too fancy," he said with a smirk. "You'd open your own garage for luxury cars. We would be -the- power couple of Formula One." He fell quiet, gazing at the wall like he could see past it to the life they envisioned for themselves back in college.

And then his sights drifted lower to Sin's hand on his stomach. Now, instead of dogs, it was kids. Instead of a yacht, it was this shamble of a house. Instead of a Formula One speedster, it was a fossil of a Trans Am from a former life. "Somebody... really fucked things up for everyone, didn't they?"

[Sam260]

Sin nodded his head sadly - the dream, the one they had started and shared together had gone down in smoke, just like the rest of the world had "Yeah... yeah Dustin, they really did." Sin sighed and felt a tear well up in his eye.

He tried blinking it away, but... It all really had been fucked up - he one day imagined finally dating Dustin, falling in love the traditional way, getting down on one knee and asking him to be his husband - Now, all of that had been blown up and... "I wish I could change it, Dust... I wish I could turn back the hands of time, stop the person who wrecked our dreams - everyone's dreams - and make it the way it used to be." his voice was quiet, more so than usual, he just didn't want Dustin to know he was on the verge of his own emotional breakdown; they never led to good places between them... Well, they did sort of and it wasn't like Dustin could get anymore pregnant-er than what he already was.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

"I know, Sin." Dustin placed a hand on his friend's leg and squeezed it in a comforting gesture. They weren't officially boyfriends, but that didn't stop Dustin from reading Sin's emotions like an open book. After years upon years of close friendship, it was almost impossible to not be tuned into each other's feelings. "We don't have to have brave faces on all the time, especially when we're in the privacy of our own home. I'm sure everyone--and more than once--has broken down. Everyone lost dreams, friends, family... You're a big strong guy, Sin, put you don't have to put up a front around me. I know you better than anyone."

[Sam260]

Sin laughed brokenly, the tears weren't hiding anymore as they slipped down his cheeks one-by-one "Ain't that the truth..." he said quietly, taking a ragged breath and letting it out - it came out as a sob and, with that, they kept coming as he laid his head down against Dustin's shoulder; his entire body shaking with each sob that escaped him "Christ... I lost... my entire... family..." he took more breaths, trying to calm the emotional turmoil coursing through his body.

"You're... you're the only... only one... I have left in... in this world... as fucked up as it is..."

[SimonBrownMpreg]

"Sshhh... Sshhh... Babe, it's okay," Dustin hushed gently. He wrapped an arm around Sin, squeezing him. "I know. It's hard. It's so hard thinking about all the people we lost. I cry a lot for my parents... my sister... We're still here, though. They'd want us to live and be happy. We have each other, like you said. Humanity will pick up the pieces and we'll be on our way back to the way things used to be before we know it." He wasn't sure how much he actually believed that, but it was something he had to tell himself to be able to get out of bed in the mornings.

[Sam260]

Sin definitely didn't believe that things could be returned to the way they had been before their world came crumbling down around them, but he also knew he couldn't rebuke Dustin's words, if for no other reason than he knew Dustin believed that to keep himself from thinking negatively like a lot of people - himself included - did so very often. He admired Dustin's ability to keep on believing in the impossible.

Sin listened to the words and soft thumping of Dustin's heartbeat, listening to every breath that left the man. It was calming and it definitely helped bring him back down to earth. He exhaled slowly and lifted his head back up, giving a wry smile to Dustin "Thanks..." He whispered, pressing a very tender but barely there kiss against Dustin's mouth "You've got a long road ahead with me, but we'll do it together..." He squeezed Dustin's hand softly and then looked toward the junker in the front of their house again. "I'll get it up and running one day, Dustin... And we'll get to our safe haven...." It was the only promise he could make that, even if they never got to Summer Star - or if it was a hoax - that he would still accomplish getting that damn car running and him and Dustin far away from anyone who wished him and their offspring harm.

[SimonBrownMpreg]

After a few weeks, the morning sickness finally stopped. Trying to use best logic and working backwards in his head, Dustin guessed he was fourteen or fifteen weeks pregnant. He and Sin only had sex a small handful of times. Deciphering the timeline wasn't too challenging once he sat down and thought about it. His belly was big enough to cup two hands against it. Just as they expected, he had to resort to wearing Sin's shirts to prevent anyone from noticing. He limited how much he went outside. Really, he only went to the greenhouse to perform his daily fellowship chores, and then he would retreat home without visiting any of the neighbors. Living in the cul-de-sac once felt safe, but now he just felt at threat of being easily discovered with everyone so close by.

Dustin stood at the front door of the house, watching Sin tinker with the car still sitting up on blocks in the yard. The grass was starting to come in green. It was a pleasant sight for once. The wind picked up and Dustin saw fat, dark rain clouds rolling in from the east. "Better wrap it up, babe!" he called.

[Sam260]

Sin sighed as he looked up at the sky and shook his head. It felt like he had barely gotten any work done before the rain clouds were rolling in on them. He stood and wiped his hands off the best he could before making his way to the house. One hand settled on Dustin's stomach as he escorted him inside and closed the flimsy door that he had installed some days ago "How're you feeling?" Sin asked quietly, dipping to gently kiss Dustin's cheek. He was greasy, smelled like grease, and definitely looked like a grease stain, but he had always looked like that, even before their worlds got turned upside down "What're we doing for dinner tonight? Toxic Rat or Poisoned Pigeon?" He teased, grinning as he went to the bucket of water to hopefully get more of the grease and yuck off of his skin.