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In the process of moving my roster of stories from one pen name to another, (Larkin to Chance) I must change the title so as not to conflict with the old title. This gives me an opportunity to restructure, change names and generally tighten up the story. For those who missed it the first time, it's a good story. Originally published 2 years ago in the Sifi and fantasy forum, under the title of “Kids at the end of the World” and since I consider it more of a teenage romance I am re-posting it under (High School - stories involving High School-aged Students) forum. Let me know your thoughts.

Please send comments to larkin@tutanota.com...And I will respond

Max, Newt and Raif

by Chance

Part 2

The Family

Early in the morning Raif got up.  Newt lay next to a sleeping Max and was jerking off in full view of Raif.  Both boys were silent.  Raif wanted him but he knew that if he took advantage it might destroy the new friendship between the three.  For now they would just communicate telepathically in a shared jerk off.

Raif behaved as if it was just a morning jerk-off.  It would relieve the tension of the coming day. He came on his stomach when he saw Newt's body contract and release in an orgasmic rhythm.  Newt didn't produce any fluid because he wasn't old enough or his skinny body could not afford it. 

Something like this between the two boys wasn't love but it was a device of bonding and friendship. 

Not long after, Max got up and the three prepared for the day.

Raif said, "First thing we have to do is go down to PFD before they run out.”  

Newt asked, “What's PFD?”

It's public food distribution. They show up every few days and when they do, we gotta get there early or they will run out. There's have nothing but canned shit and things bein what they are, we can't do without it."

Max was interested. “I thought there was nothing left except lucky finds.”

Raif looked uneasy. “They had to do something. If you don't give people food they turn into cannibals and once a cannibal, there's no goin back. You still have to be on the look out because they're still around. When they catch'em, they hang'em. You sure don't want to be kidnapped by one of them.”

The older boy sorted through the clothes that lay around the room and came up with a pair of pants for Newt. He cut the legs down and found some electrical lamp cord to use for a belt.   He looked but none of the shoes lying around came close to fitting him. The weather was still warm and Newt said he'd rather be in bare feet. He traded his over-sized sweat shirt for something lighter. It was a red shirt that had AIG emblazoned on the front.

Max held up a black tee shirt with scratchy red writing on it, he said, "Can I have this?"

Raif agreeably said,  "Yeah sure."

The trio headed out onto a street lined with devastated and burnt out houses.

Raif said, “The vines are eating the houses.”

He paused to give instructions. "We have to go into PFD like we are separate because if they think we +are in a group, they'll give us less than if we go up one at a time."

The trucks had just arrived and they were being unloaded. It was noisy, dusty and chaotic.  It seemed like there were many hundreds of people pressing to get in until cops came out and forced the miserable crowd into several lines.  The lines were long and so was the wait and as the morning wore on it began to get hot.  Max and Newt took their shirts off and tied them around their waists. Some fights broke out but were brutally settled by the cops firing their guns into the air.  The crowd scrambled and then, re-organized back into lines. One of the men issuing the food kept calling out,

“Make it last! Make it last!”

It was noon when they joined up after the hand out. Max had gotten canned pumpkin and a small can of corned beef hash. 

Looking over Max's allotment, he said, "The beef hash is real good but the fuckin canned pumpkin is shit. It fuckin’ looks like diarrhea. They gave it to you because they figured that you didn't know any better."

Newt got a can of peas and a small can of fruit cocktail.

The small boy looked up at Raif. "Hey, how come you got more cans than us? That's not fair."

Raif smiled and said, "I got them believing that I got a sick girlfriend at home and they give me double. Ya do what ya gotta do."

The older boy proudly held up two cans of chili, a can of crushed pineapple and a can of stewed tomatoes.

He said, "They know me. How's that for a balanced diet?"

Just then two men with rifles slung on their backs summoned Raif.

According to Max, they looked like tanks, out of uniform cops or domestic military.

He said "Wait here, I'll just be a minute."

Newt and Max watched. They were tough guys but they seemed very friendly with Raif.  One man slipped his hand around Raif and patted his butt. 

When he returned, he said, "Look, I gotta go off with these guys.  Here's the key and..."

Raif pulled Max closer and pressed a small automatic pistol into his hand. 

Into Max's ear he whispered, "Put it away and only take it out if it is absolutely necessary. This is so you don't get robbed, stay cool and just point it at them and I promise, they will run.  Here, take my stuff with you and I'll be back later."

Raif turned and walked away with the two men. Max was unsettled by this turn of events but the fact that Raif trusted him with food, his key and even his pistol, made him feel important and even wanted.  In a chaotic world, this simple act was all that was needed to create the bond of friendship. Now for the first time in a long time he worried about someone besides Newt.

Fortunately the trip back to Raif's room was uneventful.  Once there they opened the can of hash.

Max said, "Ok, the way Raif said we should do this is one meal, one can of food. One third for you, one third for me and since Raif isn't here, we save one third for him."

Newt looked puzzled. "What's a third?"

Do What Ya Gotta Do

The room was black when Max and Newt both woke up to a scraping noise at the door. The room was black. Max searched around in the dark for the small pistol but couldn't find it.  Then they heard a voice from the other side of the door. "It's ok guys, it's me Raif."

Max opened the door and the dark figure entered the room with them. Newt and Max still couldn't see him but they felt him moving around. They were relieved that it was Raif.

"You should have told us before you came in, I might have shot you with your own gun but I couldn't find it!"

Then they saw light from a green crystalline biclighter. Raif lit a large white cylindrical candle. 

He laughed, "That the first lesson about havin' a gun, is knowin' where it is.  If you can find it, you might as well not have it, but if you had, you might have shot me, even worse, wasting a bullet" 

Once the newly lit candle was positioned,  Raif lay on his mattress next to Max and Newt.

"What happened?"

Newt was just as curious, "Yeah, what happened?"

The older boy said, "Nothing."

Max said, "Who were those guys you went with?"

He replied, "Take my word for it, you don't want to know.  They're from one of the warring clans and they run things around here.  At least from this town up to the interstate.  On the other side of the interstate, it's the River Clan.  They aren't at war right now but they use to be."

Raif produced an entire pack of cigarettes and a litre of Coke.  He lit a cigarette and passed it to Newt.

"They got everything over there, food, electricity, clothes, girls, just about anything you could ever want."

Max said, "Where's there?"

"The Vengeance Clan moved into the Mall and took it over and made it into a fortress.  They surrounded the Mall buildings with a circle of wrecked cars three deep.  There are snipers and guards so don't go anywhere near it or they'll pick you off for fun."

Newt asked, "Who were those guys?"

Raif acted like maybe he shouldn't say. "I've known them for awhile.  They wanted me so I went with 'em."

He started taking more stuff out of his bag.  "Take a look at this."

Raif proudly held up a small can of tuna.  "This is like gold. We'll save this for something special."

He pulled out half a dozen cigarettes and gave them to Newt who greedily took them.

Raif said, "I got two more packs."

Max said, "Are they like, the rulers of the Vengeance Clan?"

Raif laughed, "Fuck no, they are just fuckin snipers and when they are inside they do what they are told.  On the outside, they are asskickers.  If they had any real influence, they would have girls instead of me."

Max asked, "So what happened?"

Raif looked a little annoyed that Max hadn't put two and two together.

"Look, we gotta eat don't we?   So I sold myself to them!"

Both boys were silently looking at Raif.

He answered again, "They took turns fucking me, ya know what I'm sayin?  And if you must know, it wasn't pretty."

Raif continued organizing his loot until, suddenly,  he seemed to lose interest.  He stopped for a moment not moving or speaking and then quietly lay down on his mattress with his back to the two boys. He was isolating himself not from his two new friends, but from the world.

It was Max that acted first.  He crawled onto Raif's mattress and embraced him from behind sealing in the warmth of their two bodies.  He was followed by Newt, who on hands and knees, wormed his way between Raif's skinny arms and legs and lay in cuddled contentment. 

They had become one.

When the light crept in through the foggy window, all three boys slowly became awake.  Each of them knew the other was awake and they encircled each other in a soft tangle that was warm and erotic.  Raif facing the little Newt, held him by his back and then kissed him deeply. Newt was startled because neither Max or his previous owner, had ever kissed him.  Newt looked up at Raif and then continued with the luxurious kiss. It made them both stiffly erect.

Raif turned his head towards Max and said, "Max, if you want to fuck me, it's ok, you can do it."

Max included himself by looking over Raif's shoulder at Newt. The older boy turned towards Max and defying his resistance, kissed him deeply as he had just done with Newt.  Newt watched them and then intruded by kissing Max for the first time.

Max said to Raif, "You want me to?"

Raif said in a hollow voice, "Yeah, do it."

It was a beautiful circle between three boys.  Raif embracing Newt, Max embracing and preparing to penetrate Raif...and in a strange contradiction, the older boy was bringing Max and Newt closer together. It went on slowly and sweetly for hours with one the center of attention and then the other in turn. It reached completion with Newt cuming last having been also been the first.  It cemented the three into one. They had become a family.

Once it became light in the small room the three boys still naked, tended to each other.  Raif had a hidden and somewhat feminine nature that Max and Newt took to as a nurturing element that was absent from their world.  Even though they had been cast together by complete accident there seemed to be purpose in coming together and all silently agreed. 

Raif sat behind Newt and taking a rusty pair scissors, began to even up the small boy's chaotic hair.

He spoke while he did it.  "I worry about my sister Fran more than anyone else. I have no idea where she is."

He looked towards Max and said, "She'll be your age by now.  I even dream about her and then wake up scared about if she's okay."

He looked down at Newt and then back at Max. "You know you don't hardly see no girls or women out here because they all get owned, all except the old, the ugly and the sick or the dead.  Guys lock'em up behind closed doors like property. A lot of guys aren't satisfied with one so they collect them to trade or sell or to have if they get tired of the one they got.  They work them like slaves.  Whatever rights they used to have they don't got nomore."

It be nice to have a girl with us but we'd get to like her and make her part of us and then some gang or clan would steal her away and maybe kill us gettin at her.

Newt sat up, "Someone tried to steal me once, right Max?"

He went on."I saw a lot of girls at the Vengeance fort when I was there and I kept looking for my sister but I didn't see her."

The three shared Newt's small can of fruit cocktail. 

To be continued

Please send comments to larkin@tutanota.com...And I will respond