After several long moments to allow herself to calm down, Rebecca finally took several deep breaths and forced herself back to her feet. “I’ll just have to trust that asshole’s still around somewhere close,” she whispered to herself, under her breath. “If he’s actually ran off and abandoned me, I’ll neuter him later,” she promised. Shaking her head from side to side, Rebecca gripped the hilt of the sword she was holding firmly in her hand and started trying to calmly stroll back down the hallway towards the auditorium. Wrinkling her nose in a half snarl, Rebecca made herself another determined promise. “If he’s watching, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him see me acting like a scared little kid.”

Striding firmly down the center of the hallway, a voice called out, “Nice tits!”, to her as she was beginning to pass the entrance to the cafeteria, causing her to half hop. “What the hell!” Spinning quickly, Rebecca twirled around lifting her sword defensively as she turned to face the cafeteria, causing the thin, yellow skirt she was wearing to flash up and displaying all her bare womanly charms to the world.

“Wooooo! Wheee!” Whistling derisively at her, Matthew sat on the edge of a vine crusted table, grinning mischievously as he lazily scooped what appeared to be pudding out of a small plastic cup he was holding in his left hand. “Do that again,” he teased, “and I might give you a treat in return.” Holding out the plastic spoon in his right hand just long enough so she could see the yellow crème in it – Was that vanilla pudding? – Matthew then quickly lifted the spoon and shoved it in his mouth. “Ummm hmmm! Sooooo good,” he taunted, cheerfully.

Snorting audibly, Rebecca ignored his request and marched into the cafeteria, until she was standing in front of him. “I thought you were supposed to be watching over me, and not eating pudding,” she demanded. “What the hell have you been doing anyway! What if I would’ve ran into trouble out there!” Moodily tossing the sword she was holding, it bounced a few times onto the table beside Matthew, as Rebecca drew back her hand and soundly slapped him across the side of his face.

Stomping her foot in frustration, Rebecca glared hard into Matthew’s eyes, which only caused his to twinkle merrily as he half smirked and suddenly reached out and tugged her forward into his arms. Leaning forward, Matthew forcefully planted his lips against hers and stole a long, passionate kiss, while trapping Rebecca tight with his arms wrapped tightly around her back. “Paaaashhaaa!” Letting out a deep breath of air, he finally released his kiss and loosed his grip around her waist.

“I was watching over you,” Matthew promised, gently. “I watched over you the whole time you crept down the hallway, around the corner, and worked your way down to the end of the hall. I didn’t come in here and snoop around until after you’d sat down and I’d saw you were okay,” he insisted, staring her straight in the eyes. “And even then, I’ve never been more than a few dozen steps from you. I would’ve been there in an instant, if you needed me,” Matthew promised again, even more gently this time than before.

“Fine!” Trying to look unconvinced, Rebecca couldn’t help but have a feeling of relief wash over her. Thinking she was alone out here was nerve wrecking. Just knowing she hadn’t never been truly abandoned was honestly quite a huge relief to her. “Then I’ll take this as an apology,” she asserted, while suddenly reaching out and snatching the plastic container of pudding from Matthew’s left hand. Without concern over her lack of spoon, Rebecca ran one finger inside the cup and then licked it. “Where the hell did you get vanilla pudding at anyway,” she asked, puzzled?

“Back of the kitchen is full of stuff like that,” Matthew assured her, while half smirking to himself. “The boxes are all covered in vines and crap, but the stuff inside is still good. To be honest,” he admitted, “I don’t know what all’s back there. The pudding was in the first box I opened, and I didn’t want to go any further in yet, in case something did pop up which you might need me to help with.”

“Fine,” Rebecca repeated, much more gently this time, while licking her finger again. “I guess I’ll forgive you this time. Just don’t let it happen again!” Half laughing, she twirled suddenly several times, causing the thin fabric of her skirt to flap up and wave freely in the breeze. “For the pudding,” Rebecca explained lightly, once she’d stopped. Swiftly leaning past Matthew’s side, she grabbed the hilt of the sword where it had come to rest, and hopped backwards out of reach. Skipping merrily, completely uncaring about the way her tiny skirt lifted and fell with her movements, revealing her pale, bare bottom, Rebecca half hummed to herself as she made her way into the back where the kitchens and store rooms were. Calling out cheerfully behind her, she asked, “You coming?”

Shaking his head from side to side, Matthew half laughed as he hopped up to his feet and followed her into the back. “Pudding’s are on the middle shelf to your right,” Matthew informed Rebecca casually as he stayed close behind her.

“This one?” Glancing around, Rebecca was amazed at the mess the kitchen area was in. Moss covered everything in a thick layer of drying brown, while brittle and shriveled vines hung down from the ceiling and walls, carpeting everything around. Moving across the decaying carpet stirred up a choking brown dust all around, while brushing against the withered vines caused them to break off and rain particles all about. Wrinkling her nose and trying hard not to sneeze, Rebecca asked, “How the hell did you find anything at all in this mess?”

“It was just the first box I came to,” Matthew shrugged. “I guess it could’ve been peaches, or peas, or something else, and I still would’ve grabbed it to check it out. I was really curious if the stuff back here was still good or not,” he explained.

Reaching into the opened box to her side, Rebecca pulled out a small plastic container of pudding – this one seemed to be chocolate -- and then dropped it back where she’d got it. “Looks like there’s a ton of this stuff back in here,” she laughed, lightly. “These rows of shelves run all the way back to the edge of the shop class, I think. There’s probably enough food in here to feed everyone in the caverns for a couple of months!”

“Probably,” Matthew agreed, frowning slightly to himself. “If we want to share it with them, that is.”

Blinking in surprise, Rebecca twirled to stare directly into Matthew’s eyes, puzzlement written plainly across her face. “You don’t want to share this stuff,” she asked, confused? “Why not? It’s not like we could ever actually eat it all.”

“Because it’s valuable,” Matthew stated plainly. “They’ve got berries and fresh fruit and such things growing inside the cavern; they won’t starve. This stuff is old world – old world processed food,” he emphasized. “Do you think anybody in that cavern knows how to make pudding? Potato chips? Hell,” Matthew laughed, half sarcastically, half in amusement, “do you think anybody even knows how to make the cooking oil or lard, or anything like that now? I sure as hell don’t,” he shrugged.

Wrinkling her nose uncertainly, Rebecca’s eyebrows twitched up and down several times as she asked, “Then isn’t that even more reason to share it?” Once again, she was starting her bad habit of chewing on her lower lip when she was uncertain in the choice she was making.

“Not at all,” Matthew insisted. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the prospect of keeping everything for themselves. “Someday soon,” Matthew explained calmly, “we’re going to want or need something that somebody else has. At that point, we’ll be faced with a choice – either we fight them and take what we want, we trade them something we have which they might want for whatever we want, or else we just have to give up on whatever we wanted and do without.

“I’m not against fighting and taking what I want,” Matthew assured her calmly, “but I don’t think you’d want to do something like that, unless we just had too. You seem more the type to want to trade, unless I’m reading you wrong,” Matthew asked, cocking an eyebrow up at Rebecca.

“I’d rather not fight and kill people,” Rebecca assured him. “With these gibber-things and who knows what else out in the world now trying to kill and eat us, we don’t need to fight each other. Still though…” Frowning, her words trailed off as she glanced left and right down the rows of shelves filled with boxes and large tin cans full of food.

“Still though, you’re a good girl and want to help people,” Matthew finished with a laugh. Uncrossing his arms, he reached forward and gently a hand around each of Rebecca’s bare breasts and squeezed them gently. “And, I can respect that,” he assured her; the corner of his lips turning up into a half smirk. “The only thing is,” Matthew laughed, “is life is all about choices. You chose to let me have my fun and do stuff like this to you, in return for teaching you, giving you that class book, and promising to take care of you.”

“I did,” Rebecca sighed, and then took a step closer so he wouldn’t have to stretch quite so hard to reach her. Still frowning slightly, she asked, “But what’s that got to do with sharing the food here?”

“It’s simple,” Matthew laughed, while gently tugging on her nipples. “I’m going to let you decide what you want to actually do with this stuff. It’s not just food anymore,” he reminded her gently. “This stuff is worth its weight in gold! The banks are gone. The government is gone. The old world is gone,” he whispered softly. “All the cash that people had in the old world is just as worthless as Confederate Dollars from the Civil War used to be, now.”

Leaning forward, Matthew gently kissed Rebecca across the lips, before reminding her, “If you’re going to want to trade with people in the future, rather than always having to fight with them over everything, you’re going to have to have something to trade that they’d be interested in.”

“On the other hand though,” Matthew laughed, “giving this stuff to the others in the cavern would probably make them see us in a much better light. They’re building a new community down there beside the core, and we need them to accept us and not see us as outsiders. Scavenging and bringing them treasure from the outside like this, would probably go a long ways to make certain they never turn against us.”

Leaning forward again, Matthew stole another kiss from Rebecca – this one much longer and much more passionate than before. “I’m going to leave the choice to you, dear,” he whispered softly into her ear. “You can use this as wealth to trade later, or you can use this to make the idiots living down with the core like us more. Either way, I don’t care,” Matthew shrugged. “Hell,” he laughed sarcastically, “as far as I’m concerned, you can just let it sit in here and go to rot. I’m fine with the idea of fighting both the people in the cavern below and anyone else we run across later, if we have to.”

“So,” Matthew smirked. “Whatcha wanna do?”

Biting her lip hard enough to make it bleed, Rebecca wondered to herself just why the hell it was up to her to decide!