"So what's the name of this town, anyway?" Alice asked Jenni, as the trio sat around and drank beer and continued to eat their dinner.

  Jenni blushed, replying, "This here town is named Danville. I love my husband so much, but ... he's not very creative at naming things. Same reason that the bar is named Dan's Tavern. At this point, I'm not even going to bother to ask him to name anything else, I'll just name it Dan's Smithy or whatever and I know he'll just nod and agree I did a great job."

  Alice bobbed her head in agreement, "I can sympathize. I'm not great at naming things either. So how did you guys get started here? I assume you and your husband had a farm, then gradually got more folks?"

  "Yea, pretty much," Jenni confirmed. "We're about an hour north of Alliance, which wasn't a big town, but big enough. A little under ten thousand people, back in the day. When it all fell apart, people started wandering around. My husband grew up here, went to college, met me, and we moved back about two years ago. We hadn't started a family yet, but we spent all of our time hunting, hiking, and working the farm. As we saw people wandering into the area, we took them in and stood up pces for them to stay. They'd help out, we'd benefit, and everyone succeeded."

  "Sounds like a story I've heard few times," Bridgette commented. "Midwestern hospitality has to be a great help in these times. I am morbidly curious how other parts of the country have fared."

  Jenni shuddered, "Honestly, I feel so bad for those poor folks who lived near cities but just far enough away they didn't vanish. How are they going to eat? It's the least we can do to take in travelers and help feed them and give them a pce to sleep, as long as they help with chores."

  "Have you had any other adventurers passing through the area? We really haven't seen any, but were curious how common they were," Alice commented.

  "Some, but not a lot - and very few that seemed as strong as you guys," Jenni replied. "Y'all are the third 'tough' group we've seen, I think? Back in the early days, we had a few young folks from Alliance who decided they were going to go fight all the monsters. They'd had a decent amount of success around here, too. Five of them, I think? They were very confident. Never saw them again. I hope it worked out well for them, but somehow don't think it did. But maybe two months ago, I think? Could have been three. There was a group of four travelers, real tough looking types, that came through on their way north. Not friendly, either. One of them had been talking about Vegas, like they'd been there recently, but I think they were on their way to somewhere in Canada?"

  "That's quite a trip," Bridgette said. "Vegas to Canada?"

  "I know, right? Crazy. I had tried to ask them for more details, just being friendly, but the guy in charge? His name was Xavier, one of his friends said. He wasn't friendly at all, he looked downright sinister. Kept gring at his friends every time they talked. It was him, a young couple - guy and a girl - and then a guy who wore a robe like Colin here. They paid well, but just felt off. I was gd to see them gone, truthfully. It felt like he was always watching you, even when he wasn't looking at you, and your skin just crawled."

  Alice cleared her throat. "Well, in the interest of not being creepy, you already know our names and where we're from! I think we're going to try to head to the Rockies and go monster hunting in the mountains. Hopefully we can swing through here on our way back and let you know how it all went."

  Jenni ughed, "I appreciate that, but I knew the moment you walked in you were nothing like that guy. Still, I hope you have fun!"

  Colin yawned, gncing around. "Excuse me, ma'am. Do you mind if I call it a night early? Are the rooms upstairs?"

  "Oh, of course, hon. There's four guest rooms upstairs. It's a little extravagant, having so much space, with so few visitors, but we built it pnning for the future. Take any you like and there's a little 'occupied' sign you can put on the door so your friends know not to bug you. Breakfast will be a little after dawn, you'll hear the rooster, but then give us maybe thirty minutes to get cooking." Colin nodded his thanks, bid the girls good night, and went upstairs.

  Alice gnced around at the tavern, which was now filling up with evening traffic as people finished their chores and came to sit and socialize and eat with their neighbors. She and Bridgette were getting a lot of attention. Nobody was being a creep, but it was making her a little uncomfortable with just how many folks were staring at the two of them with how they were dressed. It was a lot of strangers in one pce. Bridgette gnced over at her, immediately understanding her concern, and spoke up.

  "Jenni, any chance you could help me out with something?"

  "Sure, what do you need?" Bridgette leaned forward and whispered in Jenni's ear for a minute, as the woman's eyes grew wide, and she gnced at Alice a few times. Alice looked suspiciously at Bridgette and ate the st few bites of her dinner. As Jenni turned and walked off, Alice looked to Bridgette with an accusing expression.

  "Just what did you say to her?"

  "Nothing?" Bridgette tried out. "Nothing important."

  "I don't believe you."

  "Hmm, that is unfortunate. I guess you'll need to wait and see." A minute ter, Jenni walked back carrying a bottle of bourbon and some gsses. She poured some for the two girls, and one for herself, and clinked gsses with the two girls as they drank. Alice wheezed a little. She was getting better at drinking bourbon, but the first sip was always rough.

  "So, tell me about you two," Jenni started. "I'll bet you have one hell of a story," she said, taking another sip of the liquor. Bridgette ughed, draining her gss and helping herself to another.

  "You have no idea. A? Want to start with the graduation party?" Alice sighed, gulping down more of her bourbon.

  "Not particurly, but if you're going to embarrass me, then I guess let's go all in. Here goes. I had been in denial about my feelings towards her for a while, and we went to a party the night before the world ended. At the party, I said some dumb shit, which upset her, because I wasn't thinking and had assumed she had no interest in me, since I was bad at expressing my feelings. Then I got drunk..."

  Alice continued her story, stepping through the first few days of their retionship, the mutual confession, the rush into passion, the danger of adventuring together and the panic they felt when they were in combat watching the other being hurt, etc. Alice very carefully didn't mention Fi, enormous girlcocks and mysterious futanari abilities, or any of the more sensitive aspects of their retionship, but got the broad strokes across. Bridgette occasionally chipped in, but mostly sat there with a smile like the cat who ate the canary, nodding and watching Alice detail their retionship and the st year of adventuring to the friendly barmaid.