It might have been New York. The place we landed, where Luke had found me, might have been New York. Of course, most of the city was in ruin, with nature having grown to replace most of the old world. Buildings were present enough to know there was once a booming city, but only near the foundation. The ground was made up of rubble and fallen skyscrapers, while overgrowth and plant life stretched to the sky.  How ironic that a place like that was once known as the concrete jungle. It wasn't a metaphor anymore.

"I love you," I said breathlessly.

"I love you too," Luke's lust-drunken voice echoed. 

It wasn't every day that I could convince him to put down his spear. I remembered watching him make it from street signs we came across on our first week on Earth. He was so proud to have built a weapon as "badass" as his. He took it everywhere, only putting it down when we were home. Even then, I'm sure he'd have slept with the thing had I let him. 

But I found a way. I found a way to make him put down his weapon. All I had to do was drop my pants. 

Luke was still behind me, holding my body against a moss-covered wall. His orgasm had him clutching my body as if he'd been afraid I'd try to run. But when the moment passed, and we pulled our pants back up, he retrieved his spear from the ground at our feet. 

With a chuckle, I told him, " We should get back to the bunker. There's sure to be a gas storm soon."

He pulled me in close and planted a kiss. Somehow Luke had lustful energy after all that we had done with and to one another. 

"We haven't seen one of those in months, have we?" He asked after letting me go.

"The vegetation always grows good after a gas storm," I said. 

We had only ventured outside that day to find something to eat. Gas storms might have been annoying, but they were needed. A few berries were all we managed to gather, but it would at least hold us over for a day or two. 

On our way through the jungle city, I carried the food while Luke took the lead with his spear drawn and ready for battle. We had never gotten caught in a fight before, but my boyfriend thought it best to stay prepared for anything. 

Most animals were easy enough to kill, but there was a constant threat of mutations making something we hadn't seen before. Glow in the dark rats. Multiplying butterflies. The worst we'd seen might have been acid spiders, but they only hung around the denser parts of the jungle. 

"So I've been thinking," I said as we grew closer to the door of our hidden bunker. 

"That's never a good thing," Luke joked, still carefully watching our surroundings. 

"We've been together since the fall. And I thank whatever God there is that you found me. But... There must be other survivors."

"You know it's dangerous to explore for no reason," he reminded me like always. 

"Finding survivors is a reason," I argued.

"What's this about, Preston? Did I do something wrong?"

"No. You know I love you."

"You keep bringing this up like I'm suddenly not enough for you," he said. 

"You are enough for me. But," I stumbled in my thought until I fixed it enough to say, "You're my boyfriend. Would it be so wrong for me to have just friends?"

We reached the bunker entrance. 

Thanks to recycled parts from our space pods, we lived slightly better than cavemen. The door was hidden behind a holographic image of rubble. But even had someone found the door, it wouldn't open without a voice code. 

"P, L, R, U, E, K, 19," Luke said. 

It was a mash-up of our names and how old we were when we first met. 

As we stepped inside, Luke finally lowered his guard. Still, he refused to put down his weapon until I locked the steel door behind us. Dim lights automatically flicked on the further we walked in. 

"You want friends?" Luke asked, kicking off his shoes and leaving them with the rest we kept in a corner.

The cramped concrete box we called a bunker was well-lived in. However, we had little more than a place to eat and sleep. One side of the space acted as our kitchen with odds and ins collected from around the city. The other side was a mess of pillows, cushions, and bed parts we slept on together. There was also our computer we kept against the back wall, but we never had enough pieces to use it for anything useful. 

Being underground, the bunker was always warm. Luke didn't stop at taking off his shoes, and I was happy to watch as his pants came off. While he flopped into our bed, I went to put away our food. 

"Wouldn't you like to have friends? Or anyone else to talk to?" I asked from across the room. 

He didn't answer for a while. Had he fallen to sleep? Turning around, I found Luke lying on his side in a suggestive pose. He was waiting for me to join him. With a grin, I did as he wished and crossed the room to lie down. Immediately he hugged my body. The motion was so quick it stunned me. But I laughed rather than screamed.

We both smelled of nature and sweat. Bathing was a rare thing since the river was a far distance out from the bunker. Regardless, Luke rested his face in the crook of my neck and inhaled. 

He was devoted to me in every way I could think of. And it might have been unhealthy, but I made him that way. When Luke found me, I was a wreck, a nervous, trembling wreck. He had to stay by my side at all hours of every day. But that wasn't enough. I clung to him for dear life. Had my boyfriend not been there, I might have ended my journey. I couldn't blame him for being protective or stubborn. Those were things I needed from him to survive. The only issue was I had gotten better. 

"Sure, yeah. I'd like to have friends," he said, but before I could speak, he added, "But not at the risk of losing you."

"You won't lose me."

"Don't you remember? Being different is what got us here. Being different, acting different only fucks things up," he argued and let me slip from his grasp enough to see his face. 

"Then what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, but we're not leaving the zone," he said.

The low humming of lights. Our heart beats. The slow compression and expansion of cushions under our bodies. There wasn't enough sound to hide how blatantly he set a boundary. And I wouldn't argue against it. 

Luke was my protector. If he thought leaving the zone would put me in danger, I had to listen. More than that, I trusted him. Undoubtedly, his selfishness and greedy need to hold parts of me played a role in his decision. But I knew he was honest enough not to impose a boundary behind a facade.

"What if...what if we found a way to get people to come to us?" I suggested.

"How?" He asked and gradually tugged me back into his embrace. 

God, we needed a bath, and we needed one soon.

"I don't know yet," I answered honestly.