KENDRICK

I unpack another box of clothes as I settle into my new room. The room was smaller than the one I had left behind, but it would be my new home for a while. I pray yet again I didn’t make a mistake. I knew this was a great opportunity and it would lead to the work I had always dreamed of doing. But leaving my entire apartment in Colorado that was still cheaper than just renting a room from this apartment, was a big leap of faith.

I had to use all the money I made selling everything I couldn’t bring and wouldn’t need, like all my furnishings, to put down the deposit on this room. I looked around my little nine by twelve space with a sigh. Once I worked my way up and got a better job offers things would get better. I would be able to get my own place, even my own house maybe. Probably not but it was still a long-term goal.

As I unpacked my room, I listened to the sounds of the other two women who I now shared this apartment with. They were lounging in the small living room eating some lunch one of them had made. They seemed close and I wondered if I would bond with them. I felt a pang at the thought.

I already missed my friends back in Colorado. My three best friends who had attended school with me and whom I spent the last six years of my life with. At one point we had all even lived together in our early undergrad years of college. I sit on the full size wooden framed bed. It looked like one of those hand carved ones. Everything around here seemed to be made of wood, definitely all the furniture in the apartment.

The furnishings that came with the room were sparse, a full-size bed, a four-drawer dresser, a bedside table, and a lamp next to the bed. I found it weird how this place had minimal built in electricity. None of the rooms in this apartment had lighting built in. It was probably one of the older buildings in this town and was put up before things had been more streamlined.

This place had at one time probably been considered deep in the bush when the town was founded. Now several years later a main road ran into it and an airstrip sat only an hour away between here and the next town over. I took out a box cutter from my bedside table and cut down the boxes I had unpacked, loading them into my arms I left the loneliness of my room.

I passed the girls on the couch and made my way to the door. Leaving the apartment, I walked down the hall and then down the two flights of stairs out the back of the building. Finding the dumpster, I deposited the boxes and turned reentering the warmth of the building through the halls that were considerably cooler than our actual apartment.

In our apartment I was acutely aware of the silence as I stepped through the door. It was awkward, the silence. I knew it was recent and the only reason for it was because I had come back. It led me to believe they had been talking about me for the conversation to halt amongst my sudden presence.

"You unpacked now Makenzie?" Stella asked me and I nodded. She was very pretty with blond hair and ice blue eyes, she looked very ‘girl next door’ pretty. Candace or 'Candy' as everyone called her sat next to Stella on the couch. They looked polar opposites with Candy having long flowing black hair and brown eyes. She looked like a Native Alaskan. "So, tomorrows the big day, you excited?" Stella continued trying to converse with me.

I give in and sit in the hard solid wood rocking chair in the corner of the room. "Excited and nervous." I breathe and remind myself not to panic. I got this. I was a strong independent educated and well-trained woman.

"I think it's so cool, you will get to see so much! I have barely left this town," Candy says as her eyes glow with adventures she wants to go on but hasn’t yet. She was born here, and I hoped at some point she got to leave it. The world was too big to never get out and see it.

I knew through our brief introduction Candy was born and raised here. Her dad was the town accountant who handled most of the towns business’ payrolls and tax stuff. They also did the working people of towns taxes during tax season. Candy had done online schooling for accounting while helping at her dad's office as a receptionist. She was to take over his business when he retired. In a small town like this it was a very common thing if your family owned a business to follow in their footsteps.

"That is your own fault, I would have run had my dad told me I had be become an accountant to take over the family business," Stella teased. Stella was Candy's opposite. Stella was a stripper in the city an hour south of here.

"Well, we don’t all have an ass great enough to be able to make a living off of it," Candy teased her. Stella stood and shook said ass in Candy's face who smacked it and Stella sat down with a laugh.

"I can't fucking believe I live with an Accountant and a Veterinarian," Stella whined. "What is my life coming to?" She cries dramatically and Candy and I make eye contact rolling our eyes.

"So, what's for dinner?" Candy asks no one in particular.

"We just ate," Stella cried.

"Well, I'm still hungry and not all of us have to watch our figure," Candy teased.

Stella took her job seriously. I didn’t know if all strippers did it or if she was different, but she had wanted to be a professional dancer. She took great care of her body, eating healthily and exercising regularly outside of her dancing.

She might never be a professional back up dancer in a music video like she joked about doing. But I had seen her move and while she kept her dances sexy for the tips, she had a graceful litheness to her movements that showed she had serious talent. More talent than I would assume most strippers would. She never talked about what brought her here, why she is here, nor why she doesn't leave. I felt she could do more than her current occupation, but I kept those thoughts to myself.

I listened to them bicker back and forth about food and what to eat for dinner and for the first time since I had arrived here yesterday afternoon, I enjoyed hearing them. They filled the silence and eased the loneliness. After over an hour of their debates they settled on ordering a pizza for dinner. We agreed to split the cost of the pizza three ways.

None of us were rich, the most comfortable here was Candy and right now for me this was a splurge I shouldn’t be partaking in given my very limited funds. But I didn’t want to be a party pooper and I also didn’t want to let my roommates in on how broke I truly was in fear they'd be looking for a backup roommate to take my room if I ever fell even slightly short on rent.

After pizza and girl talk for a few hours, I retired to my bed with a better understanding of them and their current life here. Stella didn’t date and hadn’t in a long while. They never touched on why though and it led me to believe it was a very sensitive matter, so I never asked.

Candy, however, had already slept her way through the town since it wasn’t very big. She whined about the lack of fresh meat here for her as not many people moved to town let alone men. I had found it interesting, so I asked about why men didn’t move to town.

That seemed to light Candy up like a firecracker to Stella and I's amusement. Apparently according to her most new men who came through did so as a stop heading up north. Men she claimed were deluded and full of pride and misguided sense of adventure.

Men who would head north to build their own homestead in the bush far from other people and civilization. She also claimed most ended up dying of their own stupidity. The bush wasn’t an easy place to live in for the people who had grown up in it so the people who moved here from the lower forty-eight didn’t have much of a prayer of making it.

I mulled over our conversations trying to distract my anxiety over tomorrow. It would be my first day at an animal sanctuary. I would be a vet trainee and work with their two full time vets getting in two years of clinical training to be able to become a full-time vet. I turn off the bedside lamp and crawl under the covers in the dark of my room. I lay still listening to the noises around me and try to acclimate to my new surroundings.

I awoke extra early to take a shower and make myself look my best. You only get one first impression and I didn’t want them to think I was unkempt and sloppy. Just because we worked with animals didn’t mean we had to look, or smell like them. I spent an hour getting ready then another fifteen eating a quick bite before heading out the door to my car. I hadn’t been able to bring my car with me from Colorado so when I arrived, I had one I had bought online waiting for me in the city south of here I flew into.

They had lied about the car online and over the phone. It didn’t look or run nearly as nice as they claimed but it did the job and would get me from point a to point b. It was much more rusted and worn looking than I had been led to believe. Stella had last night off but I knew after discussing schedules she would probably be passing me in the morning coming home from her long nights as I was leaving for my long days. The car ride to the sanctuary took over an hour. I arrived just barely on time and had to rush in.

The day went by fast thankfully everyone seemed so nice and welcoming. I’m sure they were happy for a new face. I worked assisting Dr. Marrow as she tended to patients and when she wasn’t I was with the keepers learning about the habitats and lay of the land. I had even gotten to feed two orphaned bear cubs their bottles.

All in all, I thought my first day was a success! The ride home was dark like my ride in. The sun wasn’t out very long. I knew it was fall here but their fall was almost like winter where I’m from. I wasn’t looking forward to their version of winter.

I knew the snow would be moving in before I knew it and I didn’t feel prepared. I needed to add to my winter clothes and have something done to my car to better prepare for the treacherous weather ahead. I walked into the apartment like a zombie passing Stella who was wearing make-up and leaving for her night of work. I had to take another shower, though I felt too tired too. I didn’t have a choice though, I had feces in my hair. After cleaning myself I crashed in my bed and decided showering in the mornings wouldn’t be smart anymore.

My first week had passed in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. It was Friday and I had just gotten off work and the girls wanted to celebrate my survival. They had decided we would go out to Little Italy, an little Italian restaurant here in town. Candy insisted on paying for me, which I tried to decline but gave in seeing as I didn’t know if I really had the funds to be eating out and didn’t want to ruin their fun night out.

The restaurant was small and crowded. People out trying to enjoy being out and about before the harsh winter appeared, driving them back into their homes and keeping them there until spring when it was easier to get around and socialize.

"So," Stella begins grabbing a roll from the basket the waiter sat down at our table, "best thing that happened to you this week?"

"Oh," I say excited, "I got to feed two bear cubs their bottles on my first day!"

Stella awes over my experience and Candy pipes in, "Ok and worst thing that happened this week?"

"I got chased by a grumpy old moose and pooped on by a bald eagle all in less than an hour," I grumble frowning. Wednesday had been a rough one. Both girls burst out laughing at my expense and I joined them. At the moment it sucked but looking back it was quite funny.

Stella talks about her week at the club and how many tips she got. They had been flooded with customers since soon the regular patrons wouldn’t be frequenting as often when the weather rolled in. Candy made a face when talking about her week. She wasn’t happy with her father who had taken on a new account of some crazy bush people who rarely came back to civilization.

They didn’t need real accounting help but to have their records looked over. Candy had been given the task and wasn’t happy about it. She said the records were ancient and hard to understand. She didn’t know why they were so old and hadn’t been updated or reviewed before now.

The man who brought them in she said was another matter. She gushed over his hotness and said he had a wild ruggedness to him. I could only roll my eyes any man who spent time in the bush was bound to have a wild ruggedness probably from lack of hygiene and company.

We ate, chatting about life and just being silly and having a fun time. It was great to be able to unwind after my first week, and I felt like the girls and I would quickly become friends. I just really missed my friends from home. After dinner the girls headed to the car when I received a phone call. I waved them to the warmth of the car and stood off to the side by an ally taking the call.

"MAKENZIE," Sarah shouted my name and I smiled.

"Sarah," I greeted back.

"How was your first week? Is it as exciting as you expected?" She asks and I can hear the excitement in her tone. Out of all my friends she had been the happiest for me. She knew I craved excitement and adventure and supported me in chasing it.

"My week was amazing, how are Drake and the kids?" I ask back.

"Drake is good got promoted to chief and Paisley and Theo are good, growing like weeds. I can't believe Paisley will be two next month!" Sarah gushes like the proud wife and mother she is.

"That’s great Sar-bear. But I gotta go. I am out with my roommates, and they are waiting for me. I love you." I tell her.

"I love you too Kenzie," she says. "Please be careful." She whispers and I hang up. While excited for me she also was worried about me. She was a worrier. It wasn’t too bad until she had her first kid then she went from being the responsible one of our group to the mother hen of our group.

I had met Sarah first, freshman year of college she had been my roommate and we connected instantly. Then over the years we collected the rest of the girls of our group. Now we were all more like family than friends.

I turn to head towards the car when two people at the end of the alley catch my eye. I pause and watch as a giant man built like a wall grabs a considerably smaller man by the neck lifting him against the brick wall behind him. I feel like they’re talking but from here I can't make out their words. The man who seems more like a giant shakes the other man and I feel the need to intervene.

"Hey," I call and take a step in their direction. The giant doesn’t turn around, so I take a few more steps bringing me closer to them. Giant is an understatement the man was at least seven feet tall and quadruple the width of me. The man he had choking against the wall looked like a child compared to him however he was of normal size. Slightly taller and bigger than me.

"Let him go," I yell right behind the giant swallowing down my fear. I refuse to show my fear and give him that power. He drops the man who sags to the ground and a rumble comes from the giant. He turns to face me and when his eyes meet mine, I take a step back. This guy is more than intimidating.

He takes a step towards me and quickly invades my personal space. His hands reach out lightning fast and capture mine, he leans down towards my face and before I can react or even think his nose is buried in my neck and I hear him draw in a long inhale. He loosens his hold on my hands and pulls away his eyes now a glowing yellow from the brown they were before.

I take a step back and his glowing yellow eyes narrow. Closer now I can see a dark mop of brown hair on his head and a matching beard. His body slightly shifts forward and seems more predator than man. His body is hunched so his face is closer to me than if he stood straight. He reaches forward and I react. My palm drives into his nose and a crack is heard.

I glance behind him, and the other man is gone, so much for chivalry. I turn and run away as well trying to get away from the giant. Another rumble shakes the ground and even the buildings around us. I don’t look back continuing to run.

At the end of the alley, I see Candy's car parked in the same spot. I run to it and hear footsteps behind me. I sprint to the car and throw myself into the back seat startling the girls, "GO," I yell, and Candy takes off like a bat out of hell. I look behind us to see him stopped just outside the alley watching us take off. I let out a breath of relief.

"What the fuck was that" Stella asks turning to me from the passenger seat.

"I was heading to the car, and I heard a commotion. A man was attacking another, and I stepped in to stop it. The attacker turned and came after me, so I ran. Sorry for scaring you," I give them a sheepish smile.

"Girl didn’t your momma ever teach you to mind your business, you don’t get between two bush men having a pissing contest." Candy chastises looking at me in the rear-view mirror.

No, my mother was dead. "I stopped the attack and I think I broke the attacker's nose so I think I can handle myself," I tell her sarcastically.

"Damn, I might have to hire you at the club for security," Stella jokes lightening the mood in the car. The ride home is silent and for that I am thankful. I had heard people joke about what they feed the men up north to give them bigger more manly builds but the man I faced tonight was a breed all his own. I had never seen a man that big.

Sure, there were freakishly built or freakishly tall people, but it was a genetic fluke, or they work to enhance their body in such a way. I had never seen anyone who managed to be enhanced in that many ways at once though. He was too tall to be natural and the build was bigger than anything I had ever seen, and I had seen some men who practically lived in a gym trying to build themselves up to look like body builders.

We get home and the rest of the weekend passes without incident. The week that follows is much the same as my first. I work, come home, sleep, and get up doing it all over again. Every weekend we have one night, and we all go out together.

One weekend three weeks after I had gotten here Stella had to work all weekend, so we brought our girls night to her at the club she stripped at. We brought her take out and she took her break when we got there. We also ordered her a few drinks during her break, and we all had a drink and enjoyed letting lose.

When she went back to work, she dragged us to the edge of the stage and sat us down. Men watched curiously as her and another of her coworkers came over and pulled us up and danced all over and around us. The men enjoyed the impromptu show and hooted and hollered in pleasure over the view.

Stella shook her ass on me and rubbed my face in her barely covered tits. She teasingly even undid a few buttons on my plaid button up shirt I wore. She ran her hands along my body and dragged my hands along hers teasingly getting many of her customers very worked up. When she got home that night, she gave Candy and I fifty bucks each as a thank you since she had made triple that night thanks to us being willing participants.