Vanishing Manhood: Part 13

The final hours of normalcy.

Based on ‘One In Ten’ by FinalStand, adapted into 17 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Explicit Novels.

In Peace, daughters bury their mothers. In War, mothers bury their daughters. The death of sons is too painful to recount.

"What does this mean?" I inquired gently. Brandi looked up at me and smiled.

"It means we are not all going to die," she breathed deeply for the first time since this experiment began.

"Israel is too nice and shell-shocked to ask you what the hell is going on, but why don't you enlighten me?" Capri stood on the sofa, on her knees, looking over the three Vanishers.

"The Plague has broken out in China and made its way to the West Coast. We have operatives and men we'd like to rescue in threatened areas. We were hoping to inoculate our people so that they don't get infected. Infected people have to be left behind," Jen explained.

"How many men are going to die?" Aniqua groaned.

"Wait, you said 'our people'," Capri's eyes narrowed. "Why would you need to inoculate woman against the Plague?"

"This is a new plague," Zara finally spoke. "It is killing everybody." How exactly does a person respond to that? I wanted to erase the last five seconds of my memory and trundle along like nothing was wrong.

Well, more wrong than was normally wrong for me.

"Israel, you have to vanish, now!" Capri insisted. "No more screwing around. Let them take you out of here to someplace safe." I did not want to deal with the logic or emotion behind that statement. Capri wanted me to go, knowing she was going to die in some unpleasant manner.

"Why did you call me Frank?" I turned to Brandi. She was setting up another machine that had tubing and a really sharp needle.

"Inside joke," Brandi's smile tried to be comforting. "See, I'm Brandi the Veterinarian, Jen works for Nasa and you're Frank the Duck."

"I don't get it," I mused.

"Are you really a vet, as opposed to an honest to God doctor, or paramedic?" Kuiko wondered. Aniqua groaned once more.

"Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, courtesy of the University of Minnesota and Uncle Sam," she confirmed.

"I thought I'd work with K-9 units, but after my initial evaluations, they informed me I had another valuable skill set that I'd been overlooking," she added.

"What would that be?" Capri muttered.

"I'm really good at blowing things up," Brandi chatted while setting me up for the blood withdrawal.

"Oh God," Venus gulped. "Were you girls behind the Arena bombing?"

"Yes," Jen replied.

"You killed all those people," Aniqua stood up angrily.

"Wake up," Jen growled. "What did you think was going to happen when society crumbled?"

"Billions are going to die. We can't save them. We, the movement, have to bring the government down before we can move to stage 2 of the plan. If you ladies can't deal with that, you are hanging around with the wrong man," Jen continued.

"Israel?" Samantha called out.

"I figured it out, Samantha. I didn't know at the start, but I figured it out. Everyone you know, who is not Angel, or Roni that is not in this room will be dead in two months," I sighed.

"Oh, you are trying to save as many as you can," Venus murmured. Had I a cohesive plan, or an iron will, maybe I would have understood that enough to save more.

"Do you know why Frank is so willingly giving up his blood right now?" Jen asked the group.

"He's got hot-sexy eyes for Zara?" Kuiko offered. Jen snorted. Zara's back was to me.

"Well, that and, look around the room," Jen told them. "Do you know how many women are on the list of those to be taken to safety?"

"None," Capri responded.

"Precisely, and he's trying to change that. Of the nearly twenty-six hundred men we have 'vanished', less than twenty asked for another woman to be saved, every one of those asked for their mothers," Jen stated.

"Israel asked you to save us?" Kuiko sounded surprised.

"Asks the woman who was fuck-stunned for thirty minutes," Jen joked. "He hasn't asked. He didn't have to. That first Sunday, he was on the list. The following Saturday morning, he was off it because he had a female attachment. We kept an eye on him, just in case."

"Saturday night he took a beating you cannot imagine because he wouldn't betray Angel Kristi," Jen explained. "Men don't do that. We never give them the chance, but Frank did. We didn't know what Carabolix, 37 was yet. All he had to do was tell another woman that he loved her and treat her the way he treated Angel. He wouldn't do it. He was back on the list."

"Since then, somewhat inadvertently, Frank has been working his ass off to help us with our plans," Jen mused. "We didn't think he knew about our background until today, but he put all of the pieces together, seconds after freaking out and walking into a wall. If he hadn't been screwed-up in college, and wasn't a man, he would be on the fast track to academic recognition, political office, or the head of some conglomerate."

"Instead, he's a mess, but he's a mess that gets to live as the world dies," Jen finished. My mind was still in the kitchen. Brandi's equipment wasn't powerful enough to see either the T1I1 or T2 viruses, but it was clear that my guys had cleaned house. It also meant,

"You brought a sample of the T2 to the city," I whispered to Brandi. She nodded.

"It was risky, but we had to know if we had to write off dozens of our people. Now," she sighed happily, "thanks to you, we don't. Some of those people I've known for years."

"Until Frank," Jen continued, "we weren't planning to save anyone but the chosen men, despite their disadvantages. Now, your small crew might make it."

"You'll save us because he loves Angel?" Kuiko inquired sadly.

"Love conquers all," Capri murmured.

"Basically yes," Jen nodded. "Because he loves all of you, you might just make it."

"That means I get to have sex with him again!" Kuiko exulted.

Yeah, the world was going down the crapper, billions dying, civilization as we'd come to know it was fading into darkness, but having sex with me again made it all okay with Kuiko. She was wonderful.

"Me first," muttered Venus.

Things calmed down after that. I was given a pillow for my head and two for my feet as I lay on the floor giving up two pints of my blood. Brandi was going to replenish me with two fresh pints of blood plasma to keep me going. Somewhere along the process, Brandi left for a spell and Zara came in.

She took my free hand and held it tight. Our eyes met. She had some comforting glow about her. I was woozy and very tired, barely awake.

"How did I get so lucky?" I whispered. Her eyes grew brighter and her glow warmer.

"Get some sleep," she advised and off I went.

(Wednesday)

"Wake up," Capri was calling out quietly while shaking me by my shins. With no feminine face over me as I awoke, I didn't have to worry about freaking out. "Eloise called Kuiko and asked her to come back in and be re-interviewed." That was pretty sad code for me and Capri to come to the Sentinel offices. The cloak and dagger ratcheted up my worry.

I sat up. The other girls were all awake now too. I came to a sad realization. I was a whore by necessity. I was trading my body for services. There was also no misunderstanding in the relationship either, except, maybe for Capri, and Kuiko, and Angel. Maybe I was simply a morose bastard filled with self-loathing and self-pity. I was being a jerk.

"I'm going to take a shower now," I stood up and announced. "Venus, can I convince you to join me?" I wasn't going to have my sex life become a matter of 'turns', or a rotation. Monogamy wasn't going to happen. It was a selfish fantasy on my part and totally unfair to my friends, my female friends. Thank you, Kuiko.

For a second, Venus froze. She was up and removing her shirt so fast it tore; she was trying to steal back that second.

"Sure!" she declared. Venus rushed past me on the way to the bathroom. I could hear the shower coming on as I finished undressing, placing my clothes in my bedroom hamper.

Damn, laundry day was overdue. That was a problem I'd have to save for later. At the moment, I had to make my way to the bathroom where a terribly frightening, and terrifically sexy, naked Venus was waiting for me with a burning hunger. I had faced the black depths of Flame's gun, a wall of angry cops and the threat of that unknown cop in the arena, so I could do this.

"There are going to be some ground rules," Venus held up her hand. Uh-oh. "Whenever I do something that is starting to weird you out, you let me know, right away."

"Uh, yea, wait, why do you get to set the ground rules?" It came out more as a plea than the strong voice I wanted to project.

"I want to have sex with you again. I want you to want to have sex with me again. You don't have to treat me the same way you treat Kuiko, unless you want to," Venus grinned wickedly. "Now let's get in the shower before all the hot water runs out."

"Trust me, that doesn't happen," I reminded her. Angel and I had a real, time in the shower.

I followed Venus into the shower then began shifting around. I couldn't get her rhythm. It was like,

"Are you a virgin?" I whispered. Venus gasped and her eyes widened.

"What makes you think that?" she countered with bravado.

"Let me rephrase, you are a virgin," I said softly. Another denial formed on her lips, but then she nodded. I quickly cupped her jaw and kissed her. I kissed her again then French kissed her. Her tongue was ready and willing. Venus had no idea what to do with it. I inched back.

"Let your tongue follow mine. I won't bite," I soothed her.

Her smile went from uncertain to aggressive. She wasn't Kuiko, Venus was unskilled but confident. She initiated the next kiss and took my advice. I had to break the embrace because I was not prepared for a tongue wrestling match.

"Next: French kissing is not a contest finished with a three count," I joked.

"You do know if you tell any of the girls about this I'll, I'll, I'll nipple twist Kuiko until she cries," Venus threatened. I was willing to bet the first idea in her mind was 'punch me.’ She was not Kuiko, not Kuiko, not Kuiko, I spanked Venus' ass.

"No you don't," I challenged her. I was gaining solace in my mentorship and that let me wash myself clean of the corrosive toxicity that threatened my joy of life and take delight in Venus' body.

"You hit me," she smiled.

"I spanked you," I corrected, "and nipple punishment is my teaching technique. Find your own."

Venus snickered, tried to stare me down then relented with a kiss.

"Deal," she panted when the kiss broke once more. "I think I like being spanked." Oh, God.

I dodged our next connection, going for her jawline instead. Her hands fumbled to redirect me, but I slipped past her efforts to her neck. I lightly kissed my way down to her left nipple, tickled it with my tongue then nipped it with my teeth. Venus' hiccupped, her teat flared and her body spasmed. Her hands insistently held my head in place.

My hand drummed against her hip, giving her a gentle reminder of where the 'freaky' began for me. It took a few seconds, but Venus did relent, though she groaned as she did so. I switched to the right nipple, sucked the whole, half-dollar sized areola into my mouth then worried it briskly with my teeth while suckling like a starving infant.

I could feel her muscles ripple around me. She pushed her breast forward, doing with her chest what she couldn't do with her hands. Her arms were flexing, her fists clenching and unclenching, her calves and feet pushing up so she could tilt farther forward. Venus was hissing her extreme arousal through her grinding teeth.

My hand went straight to her nethers, my thumb hunted for a button while two fingers found a cave.

"Ai, ai, ai, ai," Venus chirped. She was nice, juicy, warm and ready to go. I kept this up for over a minute.

Her button came out to play and I began to tap on it like a telegraph signal.

"Oh, fuck me Israel," she pleaded. "If I've been good, stick it in me, if I've been bad, forgive me, but please, please fuck me. I don't want my first orgasm with you to be from your damn fingers."

"If that's what you want," I murmured to her with true affection. Venus was aggressive, but she didn't know what to do. Her hormones had to be racing. She couldn't order her thoughts through the storm clouds of her emotions. I was telling her that she was on the right course while she took control. I knew that would make Venus more comfortable and happy.

I leaned against the back of the shower. Venus put one foot on the quarter meter lip between the tile floor or lip and the glass door and wall. She pushed up, balanced her hand on the far wall and poised crotch on my stomach. I wedged my left hand between our bodies. I straightened up and rubbed back and forth before Venus trapped it and slid down.

It was easy for me to see women as leering, lustful villains wanting to take from me. That was not a far-fetched picture based on my experiences. I had let that caricature stop me from reaching out. It had stopped me from really seeing women for what they were, past their prejudice of my gender and their perceived place for me in their world view.

They were confident yet fearful, emotional and confused, practical dreamers and romantic pragmatists. The fascist proletariat, good one Capri. We were blessed by our differences, not divided by them, we complemented one another. Nature never intended for us to be at each other's throats until one or the other was dead or subjugated.

Crap, the Vanishers kept getting smarter and smarter in my estimations. If you reduced the equation down to raw survival all the extraneous shit went out the window, pure democracy. You couldn't emotional, or physically, wreck another member because the group needed everyone working at their best so that the group could survive.

The gender ratio would still favor the women, but even that was purely practical. It would take time to train the men to be equal contributors to the group. Men would have to earn the right to be considered an equal. This wasn't a carrot at the end of a stick. It was a goal with set mileposts and a graduation date. We would seize equality by our own efforts, free of doubt and the fear it could be taken away.

And some of us would end up being devoured by tigers, or chipmunks, or whatever other ravenous monsters roamed the Federation wilderness. Things weren't going to be easy.

"Oh God," Venus moaned loud enough to be heard across the hall, "this is so much better." I imagine she meant 'better' than artificial aids.

She placed her palms against the wall on either side of my head, grinning triumphantly, while trying to leverage her hip gyrations with her limited mobility. I rested my hands on her ample, muscular ass cheeks, Kuiko's were smaller, but firmer. Venus' and Angel's were very much alike.

I took over Venus' revolutions, lifting her free of her footholds.

I could tell she was mildly surprised at my strength. Since I buckled under so often, it was normal to see my social weakness mirrored in physical under-development. It was too easy for women to ignore the enforced workout regimen of men meant we were indeed tougher than we looked.

"Oh, shit-damn, that feels great," Venus purred as she added her thigh compressions to my lifting to keep control of her sensual stimulations. Debra had been nice, but it had been 'work.’ I didn't want to think about Magdalena at that moment. Angel was love, Kuiko was fun and Venus was, easy.

She was easy in that she knew what she wanted, and once I opened the portal and showed her the correct pathway, she gladly took the lead. True to her word, she was experimenting in the things she could do to bring me pleasure, but it was all her.

I could have sat back and made all the proper noises and she'd have been happy. I didn't cheat Venus. Once she had established her mistress-ness of the situation, I tuned up my own game. I began chewing on her breasts and teats, spanked her ass and played with her anus, kissed her with enough tongue to excite her sense of domination and bit her lips.

My fount of cream first caught me by surprise. Normally I was more in control. I attributed it to the blood transfusion earlier as well as a lack of sleep.

"Oh my God," Venus growled victoriously, "you came inside of me, you came." She struggled on with that sense of accomplishment for thirty more seconds.

"Ah, Shit!" she screamed. Her wet cave clamped down on my slowly deflated cock. Then the waterworks began, both top and bottom. Venus began sobbing tears of joy. She coated me with thick, creamy fluids. Her body shook through an intense orgasm for nearly half a minute before her forehead fell on my collarbone.

Slowly her head turned so that her mouth was puffing her breaths on my neck.

"When are we going to do this again?" she panted. There was a pause as I was putting my own mind back in order. "If you say next month, I'm going out there and paddling Aniqua's bottom. I've caught you sneaking peeks at it when you think no one is looking."

I was starting to think that I didn't need an Alpha female, I needed a God-damned referee. There was also another way to approach this, I discovered.

"When do you want to make love again, Venus?" I murmured playfully. I saw the pleasure in her eyes. That was more than she hoped for.

We hadn't graduated from mentor and student. It was wonderful seeing the dawning realization in her eyes. I wasn't going to be the problem, her female cohorts were. She'd 'won' me. She now had to face the wrath of her peers over that deed. Sure, she could say 'let's do it at lunch', but then she'd have to face down the other six women.

With that came the understanding that Angel and Kuiko had convinced me to be available too. Monogamy wasn't going to happen so she would have to work it out with the other women. This was a totally different outcome than she'd expected. Having the upper hand in our relationship was a bitch.

She couldn't even be angry with me because this was what she wanted. Welcome to equality. I could refuse to choose. There was no longer a power structure that required me to do anything sexual so I could freely concede the initiative to the ladies without giving up a thing.

"Are you smarter than Capri?" Venus studied me, face to face and eye to eye.

"Please God, tell me you are the smartest person I know," she teased me. "Please tell me you are smarter than that red-haired witch, because if she can trick me as easily as you just did, I'm never going to live it down."

"Venus, I am happy to be with you here, right now," I replied. "That's all that matters to me."

Venus kissed me deeply, pulled back and gave me several slow pecks on the nose and lips.

"That was very sweet of you to say," she purred. She gave me another passionate French kiss.

"You aren't going to answer my question, are you?" she glared.

"Not in this lifetime," I grinned.

We cleaned up and exited the shower. Venus gathered up her torn shirt, shorts, bra and underwear. I reached out and took her hand.

"We can dress in the bedroom if you prefer," I offered. She looked like she was about to fall over. Venus had considered Kuiko's review to be so much hysterical tripe, until now.

It wasn't the sex. I really thought she liked it. It was a simple, adolescent romantic gesture, the holding of hands. It wasn't sex, it was affection, and effortless gesture that said 'I like you' and there was not enough of that going around these days. Venus blushed slightly.

"Sure," she tried to sound nonchalant.

She was going to a boy's bedroom and she was not going to have sex. The possibilities expanded in her mind. 'He cared, he really cared.’ Sure, I also cared for some other girls, but now, for the first time, she was on the inside looking out. She had a guy who wanted her, and that was a magical thought all on its own.

For a poor working girl like Venus, this had been a cruel dream dangled just out of reach. She was attractive, played baseball and had steady work, but she knew in her heart she wasn't marriage material. Men married up. Whatever man she might get was destined to leave her, not matter how hard she tried.

When she first came at me, it was as a She-Wolf, trying to get one good bite, one taste, before I departed for greener pastures. Against pre-ordained fate, she was here, at my side, her partner and mate. She could nuzzle up against me (cautiously) and expect gentle contact in return. Sex isn't slamming a cock into a vagina, that's rutting and all mammals do it.

Sex is contact and connection. Sex is sensual as in utilizing all your senses to comprehend the pace your partner is setting. It flows both ways as you give and take, act and respond. They told women this stuff in romance novels. They also teach it to broken men in therapy so we won't be afraid to give again. Venus had this now, a romance with a broken man.

"No peeking," I admonished her as I began getting dressed. For a moment she almost laughed at me. We'd made love only a minute ago. Then she felt my frontiers closing in, rolled over and buried her face in my pillow (Angel's actually). I hadn't asked her to leave and she honored my request. We were both making steps forward.

"Finished," I informed her when I was done. Venus rolled over and stared at my ceiling.

"Oh God, I'm getting to be as bad as Kuiko," she moaned. She noticed my confused expression. "We caught her back in your bedroom, humping your pillow last night, making these cute little whimpering sounds," she enlightened me.

I would have been really weirded out if it had been one of the other girls. I was still a little weirded out though because, well, I had put my head on that pillow last night. Couldn't someone have warned me? Maybe this was their revenge for me not coming straight home.

"I'll go change clothes in Capri's room," Venus said as she hopped out of bed. "You can watch if you like," she added with a sexy hip-bump.

I opened the door for her. As she stepped out, I responded.

"If I do that, we might end up having sex again," I warned Venus.

"No!" screamed Capri from the living room. "And have less impressive sex, Jerk!" Venus looked decidedly miffed in Capri's direction. I thought miffed because the alternative was murderous.

I made my way to the kitchen and breakfast, someone had bought me or us food, a 'filled all my cabinet space' amount of food.

"Thanks, Capri," I called out.

"I swear it looked like all you ate was gruel and those loathsome power-shakes," she answered.

"I didn't get my curvaceous body by eating healthy, damn it," she added.

"Actually, you look a bit out of shape," Kuiko noted. Capri pulled out her stun gun.

"Don't make me spark up your little ass," Capri grumbled. Did every freaking sound carry to every corner of my abode? Seriously? I stepped out with my bowl of milky granola.

Kuiko looked my way and grinned.

"This little ass?" she giggled. She turned facing away from me and slowly bent a quarter over. Capri's stun gun crackled again. "This little ass?" Kuiko repeated but this time she bunny hopped, in reverse, toward me. A smile over her shoulder and another bunny hop.

"That's it!" Capri shouted and lunged, stun gun in hand, toward Kuiko. Fortunately, Aniqua intercepted Capri and wrapped an arm around her waist to pull her back.

"Slow down, Red," Aniqua pleaded. "I need her so I can make rent." Kuiko wiggled her cute, tight little posterior at me. Capri almost broke free.

I had a sneaking suspicion I was contagious. I was making people around me crazy. It could also have been the close confines and high stress from knowing the world was about to end. Maybe I was getting better and realizing that not everything was my fault, or within my ability to fix. I also realized that Angel and Roni were still not back.

Thankfully, Kuiko backed down, the other way. Capri took a shower and dressed. She had eaten breakfast while Venus and I were otherwise occupied. Venus came out to the expectant stares of the other three women.

"How was it?" Samantha inquired. "Did you enjoy yourself? Did he enjoy you?"

"It wasn't bad," Venus shrugged.

"I'm about to beat you back into the Stone Age, Bitch," Aniqua growled playfully. "Spank my ass, will you? Besides, it isn't like I mind him checking me out, but did you have to tell him we all knew he was doing it?"

As noted on my first day in my condo, this place was built like crap. The only damn thing that seemed to work was the water heater. That worked like gangbusters. Otherwise, the walls were way too thin, yet somehow offered great acoustics. Wait, the windows appeared to work well. I guessed I'd have a better chance of running through a wall into the next condo than jumping out my window.

Of course, that meant people could get at me by punching through the walls. That would make my walls marginally less effective than my door's security system. In my short history here, it did a better job at keeping out those I wanted in than hindering those I wanted to keep out. This retrospection was costing me more sanity than I could afford to lose at the moment, so I stopped it and went back to eating.

Kuiko and Aniqua were leaving with us today. Kuiko wanted to talk to 'her guy' who turned out, according to Aniqua, to be a 67 year old ex-Navy veteran co-worker. Despite our disbelief in Kuiko's enthusiasm, Aniqua believed there was something to this relic. She suspected he got cigarettes from somewhere and drank more than a 'skittish whore', Aniqua's words.

How in the hell that old geezer was passing his physical was a mystery solved by Kuiko, he was banging his doctor on a regular basis. It seems he was in perfect working order despite his plethora of bad habits. Why hadn't he had sex with Aniqua or Kuiko? His words, 'I go to work to get away from those sex-starved bitches.’ He only banged college girls (and his doctor, whom he knew from her college days).

My life became dependent on non-communication, miscommunications and lies, and I was totally ignorant of the facts so crucial to my survival. Outside was a strong, steady downpour and we were expecting rain, on and off, until mid-afternoon. Capri relied on a rain hat instead of an umbrella so I stooped down to give her some shelter under my device.

Kuiko and Aniqua waved goodbye under their umbrellas as we parted company, they were taking the bus. Had I seen or heard the helicopters, I would have worried. The visibility was low and the sound of the storm dominated the air, so I didn't and was momentarily okay. Something else I didn't know, someone was tracking heat signatures.

Kuiko and Aniqua were one group, Capri and I another, and lastly, and more important to the viewers, there were two head signatures in my condo, Venus and Samantha. They didn't have to be at work until nine. Capri and I were across the street and nearly a block away when we heard the small convoy screech to a halt in front of my complex.

There was some sort of 'armored' vehicle with a turret and gun. Two others were those light transports called jeeps and hummers in various incarnations. The final two vehicles were like the first one, but with a smaller gun and a lower profile. Those two were also disgorging troops who were now running into my building.

There was another fissure in our old reality.

I must have had a look of anguish on my face. Venus and Samantha were in danger and I was powerless. Capri kept a painfully tight hold on my arm. There were three women right behind us. They were also looking over their shoulders as the drama unfolded. They turned and looked at me, recognizing my face. They rushed forward, I was gripped with fear.

Inside one meter, they slowed and closed ranks. They were shielding me from the view of the convoy, standing between me and danger. As we passed through the intersection between us and the metro, we heard a low 'pop' followed a second later by another. What I didn't know at the moment was that they had blown my door then tossed a stun grenade in the room.

They'd blown the door for the same reason they hadn't accessed my internal security footage, they were doing something illegal. There was no State of Emergency, or Martial Law. No Federation agency had called the Army Rangers in to assist. Nope, the Minister of Defense had decided that I would be 'safest' in her custody.

You really couldn't blame the Rangers. She was the freaking Defense Minister. The average trooper assumed she was acting responsibly and within the law. At the core of this disaster was the big, honking unit the Armed Forced had that studied all kinds of chemical and biological threats. They had reached three conclusions.

The T2 was going to effectively wipe out mankind.

The T 1 I 1 was the best bet to keep a few thousand select individuals alive.

The sole known source of the T 1 I 1 antivirus was strolling around the city in danger of ending all sentient life on Earth by way of any number of fatal urban tragedies.

Upon reading that report, the Defense Minister's response should have been foreseen. 'Fuck the Ministry of Justice and their slavish devotion to the Constitution, I want to live.' She still wanted to remain Defense Minister so she had to do this carefully. A few Rangers, backed up with some helicopter support, were going to make a quick raid into the southern suburbs, grab Mr. Jensen then roll back out before anyone was the wiser.

For the Ranger lieutenant in charge of this part of the raid, this was a real problem. She had swept Mr. Jensen's apartment, but neither of the 'bodies' were Jensen, or even cooperative. The Minister of Defense, conferenced into this fiasco, was furious, these were some of her best, God-damned troops and they'd taken a corner kick to the tits and let the ball bounce into the goal.

'Wait, weren't there two other clusters of heat signatures?'

'Yes, one was boarding a bus and the other was entering the, subterranean, metro station.'

About this time the Ranger lieutenant and her Captain were becoming truly curious as to why no one was accessing the city's top notch security system and simply telling the unit where their target was.

New plan, the land column was going to stop and search the bus. The Captain, with the other two squads of the Ranger Platoon, were going to repel down to the metro entrance and search for him there. The Captain had a suggestion.

"Ma'am, there is a Metropolitan police cruiser pulling up right now. Why don't we ask them to help?"

"Go in there and get him!" the DM growled.

"Madam Minister," the Captain protested. "I think this is a really, really bad idea." The Captain knew the DM was former military. She'd been a fighter pilot. The Captain also knew the woman had zero experience with special operations and urban warfare.

"Do I need to relieve you of your command?" the DM seethed.

"No, Ma'am," the Captain ground out.

The Captain had to think about her women, if she was even acting legally anymore, and if there was any way to accomplish her mission that didn't involve a firefight in a crowded metro station.

"Shoulder arms," she commanded. This was going to be fun in the same way getting the inside of your eyelashes tattooed was fun. "We locate the target, put a perimeter around him then extract him from the situation." The Captain was a Buddhist and she was really starting to worry about karma.

Even as her helicopters raced for the metro, the operation was hitting a serious snag. As the land column began to pull out, a car sped up to them, crossed 'traffic' and swerved to block their progress. The Ranger on the 50 caliber swivel mount covered them. The driver and passenger of the car stepped out, holding up their badges.

"FBI, Gender Investigative Unit. Who is in charge here?" Special Agent Fraklos called out. The Lieutenant informed her command chain of the current events as she dismounted and headed to the now-soaked FBI agents. Fraklos was coming to meet her.

"Get out of there," the Defense Minister demanded. The Lieutenant stopped.

"What? You can't be serious," she sounded confused and exasperated. "I have two FBI agents right in front of me."

"You have the guns, get out of there and return to your forward base," the DM clarified. The Ranger Lieutenant had enough.

"Listen and listen good, Minister," she snapped. "I am not going to fire on authorized Federation agents without a God-damned (she was old school) good reason. Nor am I going to engage in a high speed flight from justice. Ma'am, I suggest you get your shit together before you issue anymore senseless orders. Kilo-6 out." That done, she stepped up to the agent, saluted and started trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

After the women I barely knew shielded me from scrutiny, we made our way down into the metro. Lots of women, and Kenny and Luanga, and three guys I didn't know. Unlike, me, Kenny and Luanga, these guys looked tough. They were all over six feet and 225 lbs. They also had dowels. Following this sign of the coming Apocalypse, a fourth man appeared.

He was pretty average looking. I could tell he was better off than most of the other commuters which left me a bit more curious than fearful of his approach.

"Hello, Mr. Jensen," he began. I offered and I shook his hand. "I'd like your help." That was new, a man asking me for help.

"What, oh, his is my friend and lawyer, Capri O'Hara. These two gluttons for punishment are Luanga and Kenny." I looked to the other three newcomers. "I haven't met these three yet."

They introduced themselves as Rashid, Quinn and Tone. Tone had decided that our (men's) problem yesterday was that we hadn't been in large enough groups to make a true difference.

The women vastly outnumbered us, but we outnumbered the cops, especially in localized skirmishes like this. They knew I'd be here and that trouble would follow. They promised not to start something but they also promised to not back down.

"Mr. Jensen, I'm Doyle Crane and I've created a blog covering our struggle, the one you started," he smiled. "It is called 'The Final Word.’"

"Call me Israel, and I didn't start this. The second women decided we're somehow less than them, this was inevitable," I countered.

"Glad to see you aren't a demagogue," Doyle chuckled. "Something tons of my readers want to know is why did you save that cop then copulate with her."

"When do you think the Feds will shut you down?" Capri interrupted. I was pleased to see that Doyle didn't seem to mind.

"Soon, I think," he shrugged. "I have a Computer Technology from Lakeview Community College. I'm going to try to keep it up as long as possible. I have to do something."

"Cops," Quinn grumbled. Sure enough, the same two officers from yesterday were coming our way.

"Her name is Freya Passey," I answered Doyle. "She has a three month old son who doesn't have the Gender Plague yet. The antiviral in my blood and semen provides immunity."

"You are trying to save lives, nice," Doyle nodded.

"Alright, the same crowd plus some," Cop One remarked. "You know the drill. Hand over the dowels and open your coats and containers."

"No," Tone glared. I echoed that 'no' a half-second later.

"I guess we arrest you then," Cop Two sighed.

"What for?" Capri snapped.

"No," Tone kept glaring.

"We aren't doing anything wrong," Kenny added.

"If you want them, come get them," Rashid growled. Tradition clashed with mathematics. Before last night, forty years of experience told those two policewomen that we would fold despite outnumbering them. Today, it was distance, how quickly they could draw and shoot their tasers and how we would handle the violence.

The six men plus Capri were going to counter aggression with aggression. Even if they dropped the two biggest men, they would still be swarmed. Two on one wasn't good. Three on one would be desperate. The women in the metro looked completely willing to sit this round out. This morning, to these women, cops shaking men down for sticks seemed trivial.

"Is there a problem here?" a voice called out from the side. It was Debra, she had her hand in her purse and she was giving the cops a baleful look. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Capri was a known gender-traitor, but Debra? The sudden prospect of more and more women rallying to the side of men caused the two cops to retreat.

They called for back-up. They explained the problem, men not surrendering their dowels. Explanation? There was a mob of us, and some women too. Could they possibly proceed without aid? The two cops looked us over. Five more women had joined our defiant stand. 'No.’ The cops were told to retire from the confrontation.

Every woman but Capri were smiling and viewing this as a great stride forward. They had recognized the plight of men and made a stand. They felt good about themselves. It took them a while to realize the men weren't jumping for joy. The cops had our faces and names. They'd come back for us later.

As our knot of resistance entered the metro a tremor moved through the crowd behind us. Two groups of troops in urban camouflage had entered the station and they were rushing to board the metro too.

Several people repeated the same refrain, 'Oh my God, is that the Army?'

"Hey," Tone bumped me, "is there something you haven't told us?"

"Tone, I am such a lousy member of this society, I couldn't begin to tell you why they might be coming for me," I shrugged. Tone smiled at me in the same way a cop smiles at a man before the 'tuning up' begins. This was 'not good.’ Ten soldiers piled into the rear or fifth car with me. Ten more made it into the first car.

Through the press of female bodies, I met Ambrosia's gaze. I could see the conflict. I'd rejected her. My women had threatened her. The odds of her coming out on top in this mess were small. She tapped Amelia and turned away. I almost missed the two taking out their stun guns. But I had so I noticed them gathering forces and moving to the fourth car to protect us from behind as well.

As Ambrosia's little group moved to the next car, the pressure behind me grew and I was swept forward. One soldier offered her knee for another to step on. That woman rose up, spotted me and the communication began over their little headsets under their helmets. The Rangers formed a wedge and worked forward.

Our only option was to retreat to the fourth car, but that ran the risk of the group becoming separated. A mental haze was whirling through my ability to process the world correctly. I tried to move to the 'rear' of the group. Capri lost contact with me. We became a mess of women and men interspersed.

Tone was facing the oncoming soldiers. I tried to get to his side. Somehow I could fix this. A hand grasped my right upper arm in a vise-like grip. I tried to shrug it off with no luck. Looking behind me I saw a woman unknown to me. She was silent and grim, of Mexican heritage, with a compact, five foot-nine body.

I failed to pull free on my second attempt.

"Fall back," the woman hissed. At the same time, we noticed Tone push his jacket aside as his right hand reached behind him and pull forth an automatic pistol. The leader of the soldiers pushed the last woman aside. Tone pointed the gun at her face, point-blank.

"No!" I shouted. There were gasps and cries of alarm. A man had a gun which equated to a man had lost his mind and gone homicidal in the feminine mind. The soldiers froze. It wasn't panic; they were professionals and opening fire in a crowded commuter car was abhorrent to them. Tone was furious. The woman, a Captain it appeared, was coolly taking in the situation.

"Tone, if you came all this way just so you could act like a woman, get off my damn train," I declared in a voice that was blessedly calm and steady. No one flinched. I reached out with my left hand and placed it gently on Tone's pistol. The Captain realized that I'd placed my pinkie finger between the hammer and chamber, now I had to thank Flame. Tone didn't seem to get it.

"You were soft on that cop," Tone grumbled.

"Wrong, I was true to myself, Tone," I replied. "Women shoot us when we are defenseless. They treat us like we were worthless, like our lives have no value beyond a cock and ball set. Is that what you want to be like?"

There was a false stillness. I couldn't concentrate on the task at hand and take in all the turmoil boiling around me at the same time.

"Huh?" Tone stole a look my way. The stars were aligned properly. The Captain didn't rush in.

"Do you even know this woman? If you want to shoot her solely because she's a woman, you are as bad as every cop who shook you down," I explained.

"She's not threatening you. She's doing her job, that's all. She's, an equal, a human being," I continued. "If you are going to kill her because she has tits then what are any of us fighting for? How can we expect dignity if we don't extend it? Put the gun away and prove to every woman here that they need to be more like us, like you, please."

Tone tilted the gun up until it was pointed at the ceiling. I withdrew my hand, he lowered it and put it behind his back once more and everyone drew a collective breath.

"Very well done, Mr. Jensen. Now come with us," the Captain said.

"No," I responded.

"After all that, you are going to make me detain you by force?" she grinned in a non-condescending way.

"That won't be necessary,” I got out.

"Because he has a lawyer," Capri finally managed to wiggle in front of me.

"Morning Jarhead; does the Posse Comitatus Act mean anything to you?" Capri snarled. "You are currently tap-dancing over the Supreme Court as we speak. Bitch, you aren't getting demoted, you are going to prison." The Captain regarded Capri.

"Jarheads are Marines. We are Rangers," she corrected my legal counsel. "We are operating under an executive order directing us to seize and detain Israel Jensen."

"Rocket Rangers, Girl Scouts, or Brownies, I don't give a fuck," Capri sneered. "Until I hear something resembling a declaration of Martial Law if you lay a hand on Mr. Jensen, I will have all of you arrested."

"Really?" the Captain scoffed.

"I'm with the Public Defender's office, Sweet Cheeks," Capri gave a feral glare. Technically, this wasn't a lie. She had not been officially fired yet. "I am an officer of the Court. I will deputize everyone on this metro and have them use whatever means necessary to subdue and detain you and your fellow Green Pixie Faeries."

Two things were crucial to this scenario. One was that Capri was the greatest litigator of her generation, or the best poker player. The other factor was that the Captain was not a lawyer, or even a student of the law. Though the lawyer's argument sounded far-fetched, Capri was absolutely convincing. Stacked with that was the Captain getting a really hinky feeling about this whole mission.

"There is still the matter of the man with a handgun," the Captain pointed out.

"What gun?" Capri instantly replied. The Captain decided the best course of action was for her squads to fall back to the doors and exit at the next stop. As soon as the Rangers retired, Capri turned on Tone. Considering that we were pressed tightly together and he had over a foot on her, Capri had to stare straight up.

"You are an idiot," she snapped. "Did it occur to you that there were nine women behind her in body armor with assault rifles who would have shot the hell out of all of us had you killed their officer? Did you think at all, or do you suffer from testosterone poisoning of the brain?"

"Bitch," he grumbled, "I still have a gun."

"Please Tone, don't make me kill you," I sighed.

"I have a gun for you too," he tried to stare me down. I laughed.

"There is a professional killer within five meters of me that will not hesitate ending your life," I explained. "You will never see it coming." That Mexican woman had to be a Vanisher.

I could tell Tone was trying to figure out who it was. I wasn't giving any visual clues. I kept looking at him.

"You are with the women," he sneered.

"Duh," I replied. "Haven't you been listening? I don't make friends based on gender, or profession. Doing so would make me a cock, and not in a good way."

I looked around and realized that I had imparted a certain level of understanding to both the men and women with my words. They understood that I was a nut, except Capri and Doyle. Doyle had captured the entire encounter and speech on video. Capri already knew I was a nut but believed in me anyway.

"What about the Arena?" Quinn asked. "They slaughtered us. We have to do something."

"Okay, what?" I looked at him. "Are we going to kill one for every one of ours they killed? Why don't we make it two to one, better yet, five to one? How much is going to be enough?"

"We have to do something," Kenny complained.

"Not a damned thing we do, Kenny, will bring any of the dead back to life," I pleaded. "There is nothing we can do for them. If we take revenge it is because we want to hurt women and no better reason. We all know women who deserve to have their asses kicked. That's not important because nothing changed last night." Now they were sure I was bonkers.

"Yesterday morning they treated us exactly the way they have for forty years. Last night 936 men and 178 policewomen died in under thirty minutes. The fundamental situation did not change for us men. They are treating us the exact same way today," I continued.

"They didn't take our dowels today," Luanga countered.

"True, but irrelevant. They shouldn't have asked for them in the first place. To have changed, the cops shouldn't have even showed up," I explained. "To have really mattered, none of the women in the metro should have even called the police on seven peacefully assembled citizens. Women continue to treat us as second class citizens, except now many more men realize it."

"Wow," Doyle laughed after an extended period of silence. "You are not out to make many friends, that's for sure."

"Around the age of five we figure out we can lie to our mothers and get away with it. From that point on, dodging responsibility becomes an accepted approach to life," I answered.

"After that, it is easy to see nothing as your fault. You can ignore almost any injustice around you because it isn't you, you can't make a difference, or isn't that someone else's job? We were all so afraid of dying, men accepted subjugation and women accepted subjugating us to be the only option. Now we will reap what we've sown," I sighed.

"You could all do worse than treating the next few days as if they were your last," I begged. I didn't want to tell the whole truth yet. They wouldn't believe me yet, that was coming. At the next stop the Ranger departed. With that done, I had one other chore to attend. I went to the fourth car and wiggled through the crowd to Ambrosia.

"Thank you," I said. Her look was not that of a happy camper.

"Does any of this make a difference?" she asked.

"It does to me," I nodded.

"What are you doing tonight?" she hinted.

"Sorry, but this is it for me, my last ride," I confessed. "After this morning, I'm gone one way or another. I am glad my last image of you won't be one of fear." It was all I could offer.

"I wouldn't have hurt you," she grumbled. She didn't get it, even now.

"Would you have taken 'no' for an answer? Would you have let me go to the rally?" I countered.

She was kind enough not to lie to me and I was conscious enough of her warring emotions to retire after a moment's silence. When I made it back to my knot of men and Capri, I expected to get some shit for my sojourn. They looked at me with concern.

"What?" I inquired.

"Hold out your hand," Capri directed me. I did so. My hand was shaking like a leaf in a gale.

"You look like you are about to keel over," Capri informed me. "Please accept the fact that you are saving people. I don't know why you want to get beaten, battered and killed, but stop it. We need you, as sane as you can be and alive." Those words were accentuated by the tears welling up in Capri's eyes.

Paraphrasing an old saying: my desires were writing checks my body and soul could not cash.

"You would think after all the crap I've heard you went through, you would want payback more than any of us," Tone gruffly stated.

"I do and I did," I met his gaze. "Last night, I saved one of us and I saved his mother too."

"When I do that, Tone, I'm spitting in all their faces because they didn't break me," I declared. "I am a good person and I won't let any woman take that away. I don't need to beat some woman in the face because I know I'm better than that. I'll pop one in the head to remind them to give me some respect. We deserve respect. You cannot take that with the barrel of a gun."

"That's fear and that's what they've been doing to us for way too long, and it clearly hasn't worked," I grinned. "We are here, proving that point. We are not afraid anymore. We will not bow down ever again." Tone stared at me for a few seconds, then nodded.

"I'm still angry," he grinned.

"Brother, you would have to be crazy not to be angry," I sighed, but in a positive way. "We've been beaten down, degraded, ignored and lied to. If all you have is anger, then all you have is what they've given you since you were born. The trick is dropping all their crap and being who you are supposed to be."

"How do we figure out what that is?" Quinn mused.

"Pole Dancer!" one girl close by blurted out. We all slowly turned and stared at her, even the women. "Hey, he's kinda good looking and I like meaty men."

The world cracked a tiny bit more.

"You first," Quinn challenged her. He crossed his arms and looked at her sternly.

"What?" she gulped.

"You pole dance for me first and then I'll see if I want to pole dance for you," Quinn announced.

"I, ah," she stammered. "I don't think I could do that." There were a multitude of things Quinn could have said, many of them harsh and confrontational. Instead,

"Pity," he smiled at her. "You are kinda cute. I like the short feisty ones." She was embarrassed yet smiling. That little exchange was the highlight of our ride. A man and a woman, strangers, had played. A few sentences, a few words, but they'd experienced a playful exchange. In my heart, I prayed they walked away enjoying that moment and exploring the possibilities of such a thing.

We exited at the Downtown Central Hub. The seven of us made our way upstairs to the edge of the downpour.

"Excuse me," the 'pole dancer' woman called out. She approached Quinn. "Can I scan you?" she murmured. She didn't need to ask; the law was on her side.

"So, maybe, you know, we can talk later," she mumbled. We were all blinking in surprise.

"Sure. I'd like that," Quinn smiled back at her. He held out his bracelet, she scanned his I D and off she went. "Shit, man," Quinn shook his head after she was gone. "I don't know what to make of that."

"That's what we are fighting for," I answered softly. "We want to be asked. We want to be able to say 'no', or 'yes' if we like."

"Eh, we are all still going to get arrested," Kenny groaned.

"Not likely," I shook my head. "All you guys need to get the hell out of town, like before noon if you can."

"Are we, or are we not, worried about getting arrested?" Tone inquired.

"Something much worse than arrest warrants is coming down the pipeline and you don't want to be in a populated area when it hits," I cautioned them. "The rest will come out soon enough."

"Hmm." Quinn mulled over the situation. He rolled up his jacket collar and took off into the rain, after that woman.

"Israel, you are annoying as crap, but take care, Brother," he hugged me. I was still freaked out. I was pretty sure a man had never hugged me before. I fended off the others with handshakes and then it was only Doyle, Capri and me.

"Off to the Sentinel?" Capri asked.

"I have to stop by City Hall," I replied. Capri was glaring at me venomously. "I need to say good-bye to Francesca," I explained. Capri gave a deep sigh then nodded. As we approached that imposing structure that had launched my fall from sanity, I used Capri's phone to call Francesca. It took a few seconds.

I could envision her looking at the number and the caller I D and wondering who the hell Capri O'Hara was.

"Ms. O'Hara, Israel?" she answered.

"It's me. I'm outside and I don't think coming in to the office today would be wise. Can you come out and talk to me?" I pleaded.

"Considering the wreckage you made of the administration Monday and yesterday, and the tragedy of last night, we are swamped with work," she sighed. "But, for you, who has made my life So interesting, I'll be right out." She hung up and the three of us waited in the rain. I didn't even dare stand in the outdoor entryway to get out of the rain, such was my popularity.

Doyle Crane cut through the silence.

"So what's going on at the Sentinel this morning?" There were a great many things I could have said, should have said, but somehow my tongue ended up talking and my brain sat on the sidelines.

"I make this shit up as I go along," I grinned. Doyle waited for the punch line.

"Mr. Crane, you do realize Israel isn't doing a 'crazy act'; he really is insane," Capri told him. Apparently that possibility had not occurred to Doyle.

"How has he avoided the G E D for so long?" he whispered.

"I run real fast," I confided.

"He has the very best lawyer, his girlfriend is a cop and he has the sexual prowess of Eros, Greek God of Female Transcendence," Capri explained things far better than me.

"How about I say he's insanely lucky?" Doyle offered.

"Works for me," I sighed.

"Israel?" Francesca called out softly. It was almost drowned out in the rain. I moved inside the covered area because she hadn't brought an umbrella. She reached out, cupped my jaw in both her hands and kissed me on the cheek.

"Time has not made you wiser," my former boss chided me. "Thanks for getting all of us our jobs back. Bethany seems to have disappeared though."

"Don't look at me," I chuckled. "I am done with her and moved on. I came because I need a favor."

I pulled Francesca tightly to me so that my lips were beside her left ear. Her arms spread around my waist and hugged me.

"Francesca, get out of town, right now. Something bad is coming and you need to be as far from any populated area as possible. Grab some food, clothes and stuff and make a run for it," I whispered.

"If you tell me where you might be, I'll try to catch up with you if I can," I promised.

"I have a cousin who owns a place outside Cody, Wyoming. I'll go there," she whispered back. Security cameras watched the area but our heads were obscured by my umbrella and the rain hopefully would mask our quiet words. "She's a Silverhorn as well."

"I have to go, Francesca. I hear there are some Inuit who aren't howling for my head yet and you know I can't stand that," I joked. I was off to battle and she knew it. She gave me one more good squeeze.

"Remember you don't have to do all the fighting by yourself," she smiled sadly.

"Despite my best efforts I've made a friend, or two," I grinned.

"Like that Ms. Sano," Francesca teased me.

"Ugh," I lowered my head in shame.

"Israel," she put a finger beneath my chin and tilted my head up, "never be ashamed of giving anything your best effort."

There was a pause. "I won't stand for it, you hear? Now go. I have to go walk on water for a few more minutes as civilization comes crashing down." I had already said good-bye in my own way, until we meet again, hopefully, so there was nothing more I could say that would have added any meaning.

To be continued

By FinalStand for Literotica