Use your Imagination

I got on top of her and was about to slide my hand under her pajamas.

A yell came from the living room, waking me up.

"Spencer! We are ready to leave."

Crap…

My right hand was holding the hook of her bra.

I stopped kissing Rose and looked at her eyes. We both knew what we wanted to do, but we also knew that it wasn't possible to do it now.

"I will do everything I can so there will be a next time."

I could hear her comply softly, she also knew that this wasn't the best moment… if we knew all this last night might have been different tho…

I could almost imagine the survival mission updating.

Optional: Rose survives too.

Extra reward: use your imagination…

After thinking of it, I waited a couple of seconds, but nothing happened.

I hugged her tight on my chest and gave her a quick peck on the lips. Anything longer would make me lose control again, and I'm in dire need of a cold shower right now… why cold mind never works in these situations?

We let go each other Rose was going to change her clothes. I went to the bathroom right away, as much as I wanted to stay in the room I need to calm down a little and a naked Rose will not be good for my current situation.

Now that we both were awakened by the interruption I could analyze what just happened with a little more clarity. I think that I was affected directly by her feelings through the empathy passive from the Astral Link, her fears became my fears, and let's be honest, we both wanted to take the next step in our relationship.

I left the bath a little later, Rose was no longer in our bedroom. I took a deep breath and got ready too. Last night I didn't leave fully prepared.

Just as I knew the jacket was a perfect fit and both spears were crossed on my back. Not that I could use both at the same time but now that I have the new one I could use the old one as a throwing weapon.

I found Rose with her pets and Dana, she had her eyes clothes. It might be because she is scouting, but I knew that in part was to avoid my gaze.

Unlike with most people reading the superficial thoughts of Rose was almost impossible. The empathy passive was far more useful than the mind-reading if I want to know what's in her mind.

The mind reading just captured some quick thoughts in precise moments, I basically can hear when someone is talking himself… and Rose speaks to with herself… a lot, and in a moment like this with so many things on her mind it would be impossible to get something from it.

"Everyone's ready?"

"Yes, we were just waiting for you."

"Well let's go, then."

We all take a backpack, Alfred was by far the one with more stuff on his shoulders… literally.

I noticed Rose taking a quick look at the situation before leaving. We all left the house. I noticed that Rose was embarrassed and tried to avoid me, I couldn't let her be like that, so I took her hand and smiled at her.

She blushed, it was lucky that Hope wasn't here or the teasing would never end. She looked at the floor and seemed to reach a decision too.

She tip-toed and kissed my cheek.

"I will do my best too. There will be a next time."

She was so beautiful that I had to kiss her back.

In the streets, a lot of gazes landed on us…mainly due to the amount of stuff that poor Alfred was carrying. Some law enforcers tried to take us to another refuge that was closer, but I told them that we were going to the command center and left us alone.

When we arrived at the school, we headed toward the gym. This refuge was less populated than the others because it was for the families of the people that were at the school. Even the world after an apocalypse event has VIP areas.

By now everyone was already assigned to a refuge and had heard about the situation, so the arrival of an additional group was a little odd. They focused their gazes on us, and I scanned the crowd recognizing some faces. Luckily the bald guy wasn't here, probably he is scared of bumping into me and is in the farthest refuge possible.

People started to talk among them and look with curiosity, but I noticed that something wasn't right.

"Hey look, is that a snake?"

"Impossible why would be a snake being hugged by a little girl, it has to be a toy"

"But it's moving, there shouldn't be any robot pet toys that work right?"

"You are right it's too realistic, look at the tongue and how it looks around."

We found a place near the wall at the end of the gym and left everything on the floor. Those that were near us noticed Cai-Cai and were getting nervous. One of them seemed to finally gather his courage and approached us.

"Excuse is that snake real?"

There was no use in lying here sooner, or later people would know.

"Yes, but there is nothing to worry she is friendly right Cai-Cai?"

Cai-Cai cutely tilted her head and nodded when I asked her. Everyone around was surprised that she understood and calmed down until an idiot steps up.

"What will happen when the Alphas arrive?"

Regular people aren't supposed to know about them, they were discussed on a meeting, and a lot of the content of those meeting isn't supposed to be spread, in the case of the existence of the Alphas, their existence, especially in this situation, is something that will provoke panic.

Someone from between the crowd asked.

"What is an Alpha?"

The woman that speak up before started to explain like if she was an expert of the topic.

"They are incredibly strong creatures capable of trample this place in one step, they can order creatures and made them do whatever they want… as soon as an Alpha gets near us, that snake will attack us."

People were getting nervous, and Cai-Cai was getting scared because of the changes in the crowd. She shrank and hid on one of Rose's pockets.

"There are a lot of errors on what you just told them, and I will need to know who told you those lies."

"What would tell you? And I'm not lying my husband told me everything that happened on those meetings."

"Gaston Messier?"

The woman paled when she heard the name. I would like to take the credit and say that I heard it on her mind when she thought about her husband… but it was Dante the one that told me.

"Gaston Messier… why does that name ring a bell?"

I looked at the others to see if they had some idea, but it was worthless. The area around was also taken aback when I said that name.

"You are that bald idiot's wife?... the one that we have to kick out from the meeting this morning? no wonder you are so badly informed."

The woman didn't know how to respond to my attacks since she noticed that I was at least in the same footing than her husband. These words had the objective of undermining the credibility of the woman's source.

"There is no use in hiding the presence of the Alpha. First, Cai-Cai will never be affected by the call of the Alpha, she is under the effect of a strong ability that makes impossible for someone else to control her, there is no chance that she will attack someone here."

I wonder if the puppeteer perk would have been better for this situation.

"About the Alphas, it's true that they are strong, but there is no proof so far that they are able to trample this place in one step, they can command creatures, but the most basic instinct of every living being is to survive, so an Alpha can't do whatever he wants. Don't spread false information or we will have to take measures… are we clear."

I add a little of a fear inducement at the end. I didn't want her to wet herself and thanks to this morning I have a little idea about how to control it better.

The woman was pretty shaken by my words and nodded under the surprised gaze of the others. This was the confirmation that everything that I told was real and she wasn't as well informed as she tried to appear.

Some people were still nervous about Cai-Cai's presence, but there was nothing they could do about it. The crowd started to scatter most of them trying to keep their distance from our group, except for two familiar faces that came in our way after the crowd dispersed.