King wasn't sure how Bran was going to react to finding his not-yet 18-year-old daughter in the [i]home[/i] of a half-naked man almost three times her age who [i]also[/i] was supposed to be in medical quarantine. His response -- a shocked "[i]What the hell?[/i] -- was a bit milder than what King had anticipated."

When Annie suddenly dropped to her knees before him and kissed him full on the mouth, King's eyes widened, heart pounded, and brain whirled. If Bran hadn't already been about to kill King, he most certainly would now!

"If he's infected, I'm infected," Annie challenged, "so ... I might as well go with ya'll."

Bran was in obvious shock and anger. For his part, King was shocked as well ... and so very [i]very[/i] much inappropriately [i]excited[/i]; how the fuck could his cock be growing at a time like this?!? 

Annie stated without any doubt in her mind that she was going with the three men -- King, Bran, and Paul -- to rescue the former's [i]friend[/i]. King wasn't sure he would have used the word [i]friend[/i] to describe the young woman now in the [i]clutches[/i] of apparent slavers, but he didn't argue it either.

Annie argued that she was the perfect person to participate in the mission, and after she was sent out of the hut, her father confirmed all she had said ... and [i]more.[/i] King was shocked to hear that the teen had taken lives in the defense of her community. The post-apocalyptic world they lived in could be a dangerous and sometimes brutal place, and King himself had taken lives. But Annie was so young and -- while not wanting to think himself sexually discriminating -- a young woman ... no, a [i]girl.[/i]

"She's right," Bran said about his daughter's statements about being right for the mission. "She's as suited for this as anyone else. And now, [i]this...![/i]"

"[i]I didn't touch her![/i]" King said suddenly, believing that Bran was misinterpreting what had happened here. "That [i]kiss![/i] That was our first kiss. I mean, it was -- [i]will[/i] be -- our [i]only[/i] kiss. I mean ... nothing happened here. I woke up and she was here. I didn't sleep with her!"

Bran didn't respond to King's declaration of innocence with regards to his daughter, which King took as the man's belief in what he was saying. Bran only told him, "Get up, get dressed. We're going."

After Annie's father departed, closing the hut door behind him, King sat there another long moment, [i]willing[/i] his involuntary and inopportune hard-on to settle down. [i]Fuck, fuck, fuck! Stop that shit![/i] he cursed his cock. Finally, he hopped up, dressed, packed some supplies in an animal hide bag he'd been provided the day before, and -- now flaccid -- headed outside. 

King found only Bran still outside the hut, talking -- from an appropriate distance, now that he'd been inside the quarantine hut -- to some of the Council Elders and others interested in what was about to begin. Bran eventually turned, headed to and past King, and said simply, "Let's go."

They descended to the beach, where Annie and Paul had already finished loading the boats and pushed them close to the surf line. King was initially surprised to find that they were taking two of the small sail boats rather than just one, but Bran explained that the quantity of supplies and the expected -- or hoped for -- addition of a fifth occupant on the return trip necessitated two craft.

They pushed the boats out into the calm sea, boarded, and paddled until they were past the breaking waves. The sails went up, filled with the wind of a mild breeze, and off they went. King had never sailed a small boat like this, but he was a quick study, and after just an hour or so of gentle tacking to port and starboard to efficiently use the winds, he felt like a veteran.

Occasionally, King glanced toward the other boat and the mission's only female member. Annie looked so at ease out here, which only impressed King further. He tried to think back to when he was her age, but not only had it been so long ago, there had been so much living in those years as well.