"Well,
I won't keep you any longer. You always have so much to do, so many to
please. I, myself, only have my pew plan to go over today;"
"The church seating? Why are you looking at that?"
"From
what you've said, if Sir Leofric is truly Northman's brother, not to
mention the Ealdorman of Twywell, we can't have him sitting just
anywhere. He'll need to sit along with those of his rank; aside from
you, he's probably the most notable person in town."
"You're going to make me sit next to him every Sunday, aren't you."
"Well,
if he's still in town, I'll have no choice. One of those niggling
things that they never tell you about when you go to seminary; all the
politics of seating. It's a nightmare, really. You'll probably be
sitting next to Sir Leofric every Sunday for the rest of your life; next
to him and whomever he takes to wife; watching his children grow up. Of
course, if he's no longer in town, you'll have nothing to worry about,
will you?" he said, smiling fondly down at her.
She
lay there in the soft clover panting, her bare skin glowing in the
moonlight, feeling like she had discovered something life-changing.
Whether it was safe or not, Godiva loved being naked, and whatever
ecstasy had just taken over her, she loved that, too. So began Godiva's
life of sneaking out and briefly living a life away from the cares and
responsibilities of a virtuous widow. It had saved her life.
It
had also started her down a path that led to her floating naked next to
a man that seemed to have as many duties and desires as she did; a man
that she would risk anything to lay with in the clover again. Even now,
her mind was tortured with the memory of his strong body crushing her,
thrusting his hot length inside and pounding away while she screamed in
pleasure. Shuddering, she wiped her gloved hands along her dress, trying
to get rid of the sweaty feel on her hands. God's blood, she had to get
Leofric out of town.
Lady Godgifu’s life is a subject of many legends, but sourcing the most accurate narrative is still rather challenging. Some myths, while not strictly accurate, are mere simplifications of a more complexed chronology. Campfire stories often morph the facts, but maintain the nature of the legendary strong-willed woman.
In this tome, we will venture into the influence that certain Coventry monks contributed to the lore of Lady Godiva. Sir Leofric and Lady Godgifu are clearly historical figures with a vast legacy in the British Isles.
Sir Leofric marched into the throne room and, when he was bidden, knelt before the King of England, Denmark and Norway, Cnut the Great. It was impossible for Leofric to tell whether he was to be rewarded or beheaded, such was the inscrutability of the new king's face. The knight had performed well in the wars, but performance was no guarantee of reward.
Just
before sunrise, I woke, feeling rested. Slowly, I was conscious of
Ken's erect cock between my buns; I wiggled a little bit to be sure. I
wondered if he was awake. Having raised sons myself, I know men could
get erections in their sleep. I loved the feeling of it; his hot skin
against mine. At home, we had separate beds, so this tender moment was a
treat for me.
I
lay there on the ground, my face hurt, flushed, and red from
humiliation. Despite that, I felt newly needful, my cunt tingling with
heat. I was aware of a rising arousal from deep in my subconscious. A
raw, primal lust, an urgent need to please the alpha. I was now a
worthless sex toy, nameless, only good for satisfying any random man
that Leo gave me to. My cheek stung, and my mouth had the foul taste of
the ranger's seed. But my cunt burned. I needed to get fucked again. Deb
came over and helped me up, brushing the leaves and grass from my hair.
As
I sat there looking around at the semi-nude or fully naked young
people, carefree and relaxed, I had a vague feeling in the back of my
mind, as if I were caught in a river and being gently pushed downstream,
helpless, toward deeper, treacherous waters. Leo slid over, smiled, and
put his arm around me. I looked up, but Ken hadn't noticed.
"What do you think about when your husband fucks you?" Leo asked, whispering in my ear. I was shocked.
At
any other time, even a few days ago, a question like that would have
gotten Leo slapped hard, and then my husband would have beaten his ass
to save my honor. I would have stormed off in furious indignation. But,
here, partially naked with only my guitar between me and a lustful young
man, I felt oddly submissive.
Author's note: This story revolves around a typical American small-town family in the 1970s, the quest of a couple to find themselves and reinvent their relationship; through the eyes of the housewife protagonist, April.
Even protected by a small town, the songs we listened to on the radio painted a different, more risqué version of the world:
Beginning our journey
You don't realize how much of your persona is shaped by your environment and social pressures. The music of the time seemed to suggest a looser morality than most people lived in real life, especially in a small northern town. The AM radio was ever-present, a soundtrack to our daily lives. The television reported social change from the cities and college campuses; it was the sexual revolution, the era of free love. That undertone was ever-present.
Back in our small town, neighbors put different, more conventional expectations on you. You would just seem to go along without too much thought. For instance: Ken and I married early, had kids, a family, and a textbook 70s life. As we grew our family, we took part in parent-teacher conferences, church picnics, PTA meetings, high school sports, etc. for over 20 years. I taught math as a substitute teacher.
At the Institute, Suzanne took one look at the disheveled Kyoko, her
barely covered puffy tits verging on obscene, the belly threatening to
pop more buttons off of her strained blouse, and the stunned expression
on the poor young girl’s face, and instantly understood that this was
another victim of my wild cock.
“Come on, girl, we’ll check you in and get you all taken care of. You’ll stay here until you have your baby.”
After she had led Kyoko out, Suzanne turned to me.
“Any others like that, you can bring them here. This is good for us. We
want to study your entire sexual network, your harem.” She grinned
mischievously.
This is a fantastical science fiction tale of extremes that imagines an uncontrolled lust leading to outrageous, possibly offensive or sometimes comic results. Includes themes of cheating, rape, and bizarre acts. Just imagining, don’t take it too seriously.
Chapter 1. Blame it all on Cassidy’s Big tits.
I had been in a long-term relationship with Lisa for a couple of years. Once we moved in together, our relationship settled into a bit of rut. Lisa could pass for attractive if she put effort into it, but the truth was, she was fundamentally plain. An average face and an average body. And domesticity revealed an unpleasant nagging side of her character, occasionally crossing over into downright bitchiness.
Once Kara had come down,
panting as her cheek pressed against my abdomen, she turned and looked up at
me. "That's it, right? No going back now for either of us."
"That's true," I
said. "Not that I'd want to consider an alternative even if there as
one."
Kara sat up and leaned over,
kissing me. "That means nothing can get in between us again," she
said, looking at me with a fervent desire. "Nothing ever should have, but
now I have you and I'm not letting go."
I
got my pants off, and she grinned at me and flicked her fingers, so I
took off my shirt as well and let her see me in just my briefs. Her eyes
roamed my body, not quite hungrily but definitely appreciative. "Nice,"
she said. "A little hairier than I'm used to, but I guess that goes
with the name."
It
was my turn to snort and I shook my head with a grin. Then I lowered my
briefs and she sniffed in a breath. My cock wasn't hard yet, only sort
of just starting to get there so it was heavy with blood flow but
drooping forward.
Otherwise, Leo tried to help
ease the tension by talking, telling stories to the two women about when he and
Harri had lived in Portland, how much of a disaster the two of them had been as
'city boys' and how much things had fallen into place when they'd moved out to
the country. Dani helped out, talking about the differences between city living
in California and Australia, and living outside of a city when she was growing
up back home. Much of the time, even though they didn't want to admit it, their
eyes were roving the tree line at the end of the parking lot towards the
driveway and the unseen highway beyond the trees.
Leo made a point that I
couldn't really argue with; if the roles were reversed, there was no way that I
wouldn't feel guilty. And the fact was, we didn't know how many of the militia
there would be and more guns pointing down range would make a difference.
On the other hand, a lack of
experience could hurt us almost as much. I hadn't said it to Kyla or Vanessa,
but I'd been tempted to ask if anyone on the construction crews had military
experience, or were just willing to come along. But putting inexperienced
volunteers at risk was one thing; putting them at risk when they were also partnered
with someone else was another.
"You're thinking too
hard about it," Leo said.
"We've both been
hunting, and we can both help," Dani urged me, her deep sincerity dropping
some of the valley girl parts of her accent and driving deeper into her
Australian. "You keep taking everything on yourself, Harri, every time
something bad happens. But we're all a family and families
fight together."
"Ugh," I grunted,
looking up at the dark clouds. Then I glanced over at the others. "Erica,
can you come over here?"
Erica said something to
Julia, then to Ivy, and came over to us. "What is it, babe? I told them
you'd probably be against this idea."
I turned to Leo and Dani, not
answering Erica immediately. "You're right, Okay? There are a lot of
reasons to say yes, and there's probably a few less reasons to say no. But
there's one major reason I need you to stay back, Leo." I
looked at Erica, and she registered what I was doing and nodded, giving me
permission. I turned back to Leo again, looking him dead in the eyes. "Remember
how we were talking about the fact that we'd be brothers now, if Erica and I
ever manage to actually tie the knot? Well, you're also going to be an
uncle."
Leo blinked and then his eyes
went wide as he looked back and forth between me and Erica. "You're...?"
he asked his sister.
Erica nodded, breaking into a
grin, and they crashed together in a hug.
"Oh my God, Erica. Oh my
God," he said. "Mom and Dad would be so happy for you. Oh my
God!"
"I know," Erica
sobbed softly, holding him tight. "I know, Leo. I'm sorry I didn't tell
you yet, we just wanted to wait until we were all back home."
Leo pulled from Erica and
hugged me, while Dani went to Erica. "You bastard," Leo laughed
softly as we squeezed each other tight. "You fucking bastard."
"I promise not to let
your niece or nephew be a bastard, Leo," I chuckled. "But this is why
I need you to stay back. Nothing's going to happen to me, but just in case, I
need you safe. I need you to be the man in my son or daughter's life if I can't
be. Putting us both out there in danger would take us both away from Erica and
from the kid."
"Fuck you," Leo
sighed, thumping me on the shoulder softly with a fist. "God, you're such
an asshole. Yes, obviously, Okay. When you put it like that, how am I supposed
to argue?"
"That doesn't mean I
need to stay back," Dani said, wrapping one arm around Leo and one around
me. "It just gives me more reason to go. I need to make sure you come
home, Harri."
Erica joined the hug, and we
talked briefly; I felt worse now, knowing we were keeping the news from Ivy and
Vanessa still, but it still felt necessary. Especially with what I was about to
do. Dani and Leo accepted keeping the secret, though I had a feeling Leo would
be doting on Erica a bit more for a bit. I was also forced to accept that Dani
would come with us, though in the back of my mind I already had a plan that I'd
keep her with Kyla and have them work security, watching the outside of the
militia compound and not kicking in doors with us.
And if they argued about that,
I could always drop to Dani that Kyla was pregnant as well.
When we finished our little
pow-wow, Dani headed towards our RVs to go change while Leo, Erica and I
returned to the group. Jedidiah, Dylan and Jeanine were giving the obvious
civilians some space, but seeing them waiting had me feeling on edge again;
every minute of delay was some other potentially horrendous thing happening.
"I guess you've met
already," Erica explained as we rejoined the group. "But Julia is one
of my favorite customers ever."
"Erica did my neck and
back piece," Julia said with a grin. "And she still owes me a design
for my lower leg."
"I emailed that to you
weeks ago," Erica scoffed. "You haven't given me any feedback."
"Well, I haven't really
been checking my emails," Julia said with a shrug. "It's a
pandemic!"
There was another round of
goodbyes as Dani returned from the RVs dressed in a pair of dark jeans, hiking
boots and a dark jacket under which she was wearing Kyla's lighter-weight
Kevlar vest. We quickly got her kitted out with my hunting rifle, enough
ammunition for a long firefight, and a sidearm from what we had available. By
the time she was ready to go, I thought she looked like some urban fantasy elf
sniper with her looks and outfit.
Leo took a long moment to say
goodbye to her, and I got another private moment whispering encouragement with
Ivy and kissing her goodbye, another long hug from Josie, and then with Erica.
And, of course, my fiancée took a moment to give me one last pep talk. "I
know you're not thinking about it now," she whispered into my ear as we
held each other. "But Julia is one of my favorite clients.
And her ass is just as nice as it looks. When you come back there is definitely a
threesome in your future."
All I could do was snort a
little and shake my head.
"I love you. Come back
to me," Erica whispered, the teasing dropping from her voice.
"I will," I said
softly.
"And bring those ladies
home," she said, even more quietly. "We'll be ready for them,
Harri."
One last squeeze, one last
quick peck on the lips, and it was time to go. I loaded up in my truck, with
Kyla in the passenger seat and Dani and Julia in the back, while Jedidiah drove
the borrowed pickup from the site carrying Dylan, Jeanine and Maggie.
I waved them by us as we
rounded the construction site and I slowed, seeing the lone figure jogging out
to meet us. They passed, and I came to a stop and rolled down the window as
Vanessa stepped up on the mounting board and leaned in to kiss me. Then she
looked past me to Kyla. "Bring him home safe," she said. "And
try not to let too many of the women you rescue fall in love with him."
"I promise," Kyla
said with a smirk.
"And what about your
promise?" I asked Vanessa.
"I promise not to get
run over by a bulldozer, have a building collapse on me, or get abducted by
aliens," Vanessa said with a sad smile, looking me in the eyes. "I
love you."
"Love you too," I
said, pressing my forehead to hers for a moment.
"Good, now get
going," she said, and stepped down from the window and backed off.
"Sooner you leave, sooner you're back."
I started driving, and the
first couple of drops landed on the windshield. It honestly made me a little
mad; things were dramatic enough as it was, why the hell did the weather need
to remind me?
"So," Julia said
from the back seat. "Four girlfriends in, what, three months or something?
And you're saying the big L word with all of them?"
"Careful," Kyla
said, shooting me a smirk from the passenger seat as I rolled my eyes and kept
driving. "Ask too many questions and you might fall under his spell, too.
Harri has a way of making people fall for him."
"Is that the story
behind that fit blonde?"
"That's Josie,"
Dani said. "And yeah, but she's not the only one."
I groaned, making Julia snort
and Kyla and Dani start chuckling.
The banter had ended a few
minutes into the drive as, finally, the rain came down.
And it came down hard.
Our drive was slowed
considerably, and what should have been a couple of hours took almost three and
a half. No one made the suggestion of turning back though. We all knew that we
were coming up on that First 24 Hours mark, and every delay could mean the
hostages got moved.
My mind, for most of the
trip, was on Kara. Things that should have been said. Kyla's speech to me the
night before, about needing to be open with my ex about what I felt and what I
wanted, still ached a little in my psyche. The most consternating thing was
that Kyla, who was going to be the mother to my child, was encouraging me to
get Kara on board our poly relationship. She knew that it wouldn't be casual,
that if Kara and I did end up together it would be deep. It would take time
away from Kyla.
And yet she still pushed me
to do it.
The love she had for me
continued to astound me. And the possibility that I'd already lost Kara was
killing me, and I knew if she was gone then I was going to
tear the world apart to make sure I could do right by her and protect Gerty and
Tanaya, and the children.
God, the children. Orphans,
now, at least most of them.
I was trailing behind the
lead truck, so I pulled off to the side of the road following them as we got
near the coordinates. We'd passed by the Castle Rock village and campground,
winding through the heavily hilled terrain with forests on either side of us.
The rain had slowed from 'torrential downpour threatening to flood the state'
to just heavy, and I quickly handed out the walkie-talkie earbuds that Dylan
and Jeanine had brought with them from their 'Tactical Survival School' that
they ran. I still wasn't sure what that actually meant, but I assumed it had
something to do with the Weekend Warrior-types who liked to play Army.
The irony of our little
raiding party compared to that was not lost on me.
"Mic check," I
said, and soon everyone else on the team was confirming that they all had put
in their earpieces as well. "Alright, folks. The mouth of the driveway up
to the compound should be about a two-minute walk ahead. We don't know how far
from the road they are though. I've got ideas, but I'll take suggestions."
"We'll do a quick
drive-by on the driveway," Dylan said. "See what the situation is,
then pull up and park about the same distance on the other side."
"Do it," I said.
The lead truck pulled back
onto the road and we waited.
"Looks like the compound
is only a hundred yards or so into the bush, with one significant turn,"
Dylan said quietly as they drove past the turn in. "There's at least one
large metallic garage structure but we didn't get a good look. No posted guards
or signage at the front."
"Alright," I said.
"Let's stay split and make the approach on either side. Call it fifty
yards from the driveway, and see what we can see without making contact."
"Roger," Dylan
acknowledged.
"Let's load out," I
said.
We piled out of the truck,
unloading the last of our gear from the back gate and closing it up. I was
kitted out again, carrying both the M4 and MP5 that Miriam had sent me back
when she'd sent the first supply drop setting me up as the 'Sheriff.' I'd
dressed in dark jeans and a dark green sweater underneath my heavy bulletproof
vest, and I'd forgone the 'Sheriff' patch since I wasn't exactly doing this
legally.
There were no warrants in the
apocalypse.
Kyla was dressed similarly to
me and had brought the other M4 and MP5, but I'd had her equip and sight in one
of the 3x scopes from the hunting gear we owned instead of the base sight on
the M4; the zoom would help with her holding security outside from a distance
even if it wouldn't exactly help her pin a deer from 300 yards. Julia had
brought her own personal gear, including a pimped-out Super 90 shotgun that had
made me, Jedidiah and Dylan all whistle in appreciation when she pulled it out
of the carrier back at the site. That left Dani with my father's reliable Model
700, set up with a new 6x scope, and a sidearm.
We locked up the truck,
shouldered our weapons and nodded to each other before I led the way into the
bush.
"Careful," I said
quietly into the comms. "The shithead lower-grade cell that was feeding up
to these guys had booby-trapped the forest around their bar. These guys might
have done the same."
"Noted," Jedidiah
grunted back.
We took our time. The tree
cover cut the rain a bit but we were all soaked through already; Dani was the
only one actually wearing a jacket, and I winced a little hearing the
rain spat against it a little louder than the rest of us.
Still, she kept up and was otherwise as quiet as the rest of us. I didn't spot
any traps as we wound our way through the woods, though at one point we all hit
the ground when a loud bang echoed from ahead of us.
The panic shooting up from my
gut to my throat had me clenching my jaw as we all remained still. That had
sounded an awful lot like a gunshot, but I couldn't tell if it had been at us
or at someone inside the compound. Flashes of imagined executions rippled
through my mind even while the stress of potentially being shot at ate my
nerves.
"Anyone hit?" I
asked quietly over the radio.
I got back a chorus of soft negatives,
which let me release one point of stress. Now all I needed to worry about was
who got shot while we were sneaking around. Again, I thought about my success
patterns; we were doing it the right way, but my gut said shock and awe...
"I think it might have
been a backfiring engine," Dylan said over the comm. "Some sort of
old machinery. It didn't have the right pop to it."
I swallowed, double clicked
an acknowledgement, and slowly got to my feet as the others followed me. As we
started forward again, Dylan was proved right as we soon heard that tractor
moving around ahead of us.
We reached the tree line
about half a minute after the other group and started to confirm what we were
seeing. The compound was set up in something of a U-shape, the big warehouse-like
building was one arm of the U, was made of corrugated metal and was a prefab
building. The other arm of the U was older and had been a barn of some sort in
a previous life, though it had satellite dishes hooked up to its roof now. The
third building was a wide, two-story cement and brick block that looked like it
might have been a church house of some sort in the early 1900s when Oregon was
still a bit wilder than it was today. The front of it had a heavy log cross
mounted to it right over the main doors. Part of the long metal building was
open and served as a covered parking lot, though the back half closer to the
main building was closed in. The courtyard area was open and currently muddy
with gravel and dirt under the rain, though there was an old well right in the
middle of it.
No one was outside for the
moment, so we split the groups further and circled the compound. We had the
back side of the metal building, which was blank except for a pair of doors
with deadbolt locks; by the positioning one led into the parking area and the
other into the closed area. The other team reported that the barn was
definitely occupied; they could see light from within through the dirty
ground-floor windows and around the cracks in the upper-floor ones even though
they were covered over with newsprint. Further around the circle, the other
team reported there was a line of outhouses that looked old but likely still in
use based on the worn path from the barn.
For our side, we had to back
away from the tree line because someone was working with a little excavator,
digging something out of the wet earth; that was the tractor sound we'd been
hearing. The scoop shovel was grinding against rocks and roots as it went, but
whoever was in the cab just kept at it.
We met up with the other team
a couple dozen yards into the forest behind the church. Again, it looked like
all of the windows had been covered over with newsprint. There was a back door
to the building that was boarded over for some reason, but our side had revealed
a stone stairway cut into the dirt leading to a basement of some sort. That
seemed to be the only ingress point other than the big double doors at the
front under the crucifix.
"Alright, only one
outside at the moment," I said, nodding back towards the excavator.
"No sighting on the hostages?"
"Nothing," Dylan
confirmed. "But that doesn't mean they aren't here. They'll be locked up
somewhere."
"I'm thinking we make
two teams, hit each of the secondary buildings simultaneously. It means they'll
have a better chance at fortifying the main building if they get warned, but
then we aren't trying to watch our backs," Jedidiah said.
"Three teams," I
said. "Dani is good with a rifle but untrained in CQB. I think Dani and
Kyla form security and watch the compound."
"Agreed," Dylan
nodded. "Jeanine and I can take the barn by ourselves if you four want the
big storage shed."
"That's a lot of
angles," Maggie said. "Storage shed probably doesn't have a second
floor. I'll go with you to the barn."
"Honey, we can handle it,"
Jeanine said sweetly, "But you can come along." Somehow, Jeanine
still managed to seem like a soccer Mom even with that syrupy
smile. Maybe it was the crazy eyes.
"That means it's
us," Jedidiah said, looking at Julia and me.
"Makes the most
sense," I nodded. "We try to keep the outbuildings quiet if we can
but don't take unnecessary risks. Hostages are priority one, if we find some we
secure them first."
"Negative," Dylan
shook his head. "Not that they aren't a priority, but likely any hostages
are going to be caged up somehow. Even if we keep things quiet, we're not going
to be able to secure them and keep the assault rolling with
the numbers we have. Call out their locations on comms so everyone knows, but
keep moving."
I grimaced but nodded in
agreement when Jedidiah agreed with Dylan. They had the experience so I wasn't
going to contradict them, and I hoped I could stick to that in the moment.
We quickly discussed the best
angles for Dani and Kyla to work security overwatch together, and soon we were
cycling back around to the front of the compound with Jedidiah staying back.
Once we were in position, I
took out my phone and made the call to Miriam. Kyla had texted her when we were
30 minutes out, and when we'd first arrived on site.
"What do you have?"
she asked by way of hello.
"Three buildings, no
hostage sightings yet but definite activity. Going kinetic."
"Dispatching Medical
QRF," Miriam responded. "ETA 20 minutes. Give 'em hell."
I hung up, knowing that I
wanted to say more and betting she did as well. But this was, realistically, a
vigilante action on US soil. The less we said, the better. Instead, I glanced
apologetically at Julia before I stepped aside with Kyla.
"You know I don't think
you're any less capable than the others, right?" I asked quietly.
"I know," she said,
looking up into my eyes and taking a breath. "I'm protecting Dani, and
she's protecting me."
"And you're both
protecting all of us," I said. "I'm sorry that getting partnered with
me has done this to you."
She smiled sadly and shook
her head. "Never apologize for being mine, Harri," she said.
"Now go kick some ass." We kissed briefly, and she gave me a smack on
my wet ass.
"What, I don't get
one?" Dani asked teasingly.
I rolled my eyes and kissed
her cheek, but she grabbed me by my beard and kissed me full on the lips for a
moment. I backed away a little surprised, and she smirked. "We're going
into battle, you big lug," she said. "If you're going to kiss me good
luck, kiss me like you mean it."
Julia snorted and Kyla scoffed
a little as she chuckled and they took their positions behind a couple of
fallen logs on a slight rise.
"Security set,"
Kyla said through the comms.
"Team One set," I
said.
"Team Two, Honkey
Dorey," Jeanine replied.
"Team Two set," Dylan
said, a little exasperation in his voice.
"Eagle One,
engaging," Jedidiah said, and Julia and I started through the trees and
broke the tree line headed for the parking area, using the angle to block the
view of our approach from the main church house.
"Why does he get to be
Eagle One?" Julia whispered. "I'm the fucking pilot."
"He just made it
up," I said as I reached the corner of the building. The corrugated metal
was pitted with little bits of rust; the place had been here much longer than
the pandemic. I wondered if the militia had put it up, or if they'd taken it
from someone else at some point.
Julia lined up behind me and
tapped my shoulder, and I rounded the corner and took the five strides to the
next corner at the big wide entrance to the building. I had the MP5 secured by
the shoulder strap so it wasn't in my way and was wielding the M4. Across the
compound, I caught a glance at Dylan, Jeanine and Maggie closing on the barn.
Julia tapped my shoulder again and I wheeled into the parking garage area,
scanning it quickly. There were sixteen cars and trucks packed tightly into the
space, and the concrete pad the building was built on was filthy with
accumulated dust, oils and dirt.
"Parking clear," I
murmured into the comms, and Julia and I walked in the smooth-but-quick way
we'd both been trained in for combat situations. We pressed to the back of the
garage area, out of sight of anyone who might be looking out from either of the
other buildings, and pushed on towards the interior door that led into the
storage part of the building.
"Excavator clear,"
Jedidiah reported. "Moving to position two."
The excavator didn't turn
off, and the rumble of the engine didn't change, but the scraping of the digger
stopped. The tall operator had killed the man driving the thing without a
gunshot, and I wondered if he'd just walked up and tapped on the glass, and
when the guy inside opened it thinking it was a friendly he knifed him. However
he did it, the rumble of the machinery gave an extra layer of audio muting
beyond the sound of the heavy rain that was still beating outside.
Julia and I reached the
interior door just after Dylan said, "Breaching" over the comms.
I quickly swung the M4 behind
me and brought up the MP5 as I pivoted around the door. "Breaching," I
responded, grabbing the door handle in front of me and pushing in.
Julia tossed the flashbang in
and I closed the door. The moment of silence felt like it lasted forever before
the loud bang of it rattled the thin metal walls. I flung open
the door and Julia pushed in first, shotgun raised, and I followed just as I
heard the dull whump of a flashbang and the popping booms of
gunfire from over in the barn; not nearly as loud as it could have been, but
still audible.
The interior of the storage
area was lit by a grainy, yellowed light dangling from up in the rafters by a
chain. There were screams as we entered and I quickly picked out specific
visuals as my adrenaline spiked. The door, to our left, was opening as Jedidiah
came through it from the back side of the building. A cage made from basic
chain-link fencing, people clutching each other behind it. An American flag
hung upside down and backwards on the wall. A table with poker chips and cards.
Bang-bang-boom-bang-bang-bang.
The smoke from the flash
grenade was joined by smoke from our firearms as three bodies fell, but we kept
moving. Jedidiah had fired first, taking the man who had been standing near the
cage and grabbing at his ears from the shock of the flash blast. Julia had hit
one of the men at the table in the chest, blowing him backwards over his chair,
the pistol he'd been waving dropping with a clatter to the cement. I'd tagged
the third one, also at the table, as he'd been trying to scramble away from the
flash and sound.
We pressed through, kicking
the bodies as we went to make sure they were good and down, ignoring the
screaming from the women behind the fencing. I couldn't let myself look yet.
The front side of the building was partially partitioned off, and Jedidiah
strafed up one side of the room as I followed Julia up the other, scanning the
darker side. We rounded the wide open doorway together, scanning the darkness,
and Julia flicked on a combat light mounted to her shotgun as we scanned the
corners. There was a rolling garage door on the front, secured down, and it
looked like it was a mechanical bay. No one else was there.
"Storage clear," I
reported. My ears were ringing slightly; nothing like I was sure the women in
the cage were feeling after the flashbang; which made it difficult to know if I
couldn't hear shots from the barn because of the rumble of the engine and the
rain outside or that they were muted enough by the walls.
Jedidiah circled back,
nodding Julia and I towards the women as he went and took a position outside.
I held up my hands, letting
my rifle and submachine gun hang by their straps, as I approached. I waved to
get their attention since it was entirely possible they couldn't hear me. There
were maybe fifteen or more of them in the cage, and as I scanned their faces I quickly
realized that they were all older; in their forties at least, though none over
sixty. That made my gut churn, knowing that the women had been separated by age
and what that could mean.
Julia, seeing my hesitation,
stepped forward and took over communications, mouthing slowly and gesturing
that we were there to help, but we needed to kill more of the militia. Several
of the women started begging for help, coming forward to the fencing, and Julia
hushed them to be quiet as I grimaced. Several of them were coughing now and
didn't look great, and I glanced back at the dead militiamen and wondered why
they'd taken the gas mask protective measures on the raid but not here.
Still, none of the ladies
were bleeding from their eyes or anything yet, so that, at least, was a good
sign.
"Barn clear," Dylan
reported. "Found the kids. There are over thirty of them. Also found a
communication room."
"Found around fifteen
female hostages, all over 40. Some show signs of infection," I reported.
"Security?"
"No activity from the
main building," Kyla reported. "We only heard the flashbangs, it's
possible they thought it was thunder."
"Noted," I said.
"Jeanine will stay with
the kids," Dylan said. "We'll push on to the main building."
"We can leave these
ladies here for now," Julia said.
"Pushing out," I
said.
Julia and I left by the same
door Jedidiah had, with Julia motioning for the women to get low. They were as
safe in the cage as anywhere else at the moment if the shooting started, and
they would be less safe if they just scattered into the woods
in a panic.
I lined up behind Jedidiah,
and Julia behind me, at the corner of the building and tapped him on the
shoulder. He immediately started forward, watching the church house like a
hawk. The excavator was still running, and we were just reaching it when one of
the front doors of the church house opened. Jedidiah, Julia and I all dropped,
squirming back into the cover of the holes it had been digging, as two men came
out.
"Movement, hold!"
Kyla hissed into the comms.
I saw a glimpse of Dylan and
Maggie just rounding the backside of the barn and coming into view and they
dodged back around the corner.
The two men closed the front
door behind them against the rain and started walking around the building
towards the outhouses.
"Wait for them to get
in," Dylan said quietly into the comms. "Those things are old and the
doors look thin."
I immediately knew what he
wanted. Kyla and Dani could easily kill the men once they were sitting down,
and Dylan and Maggie would be able to double-check after the fact. It didn't
feel like combat though, it felt like murder. And I didn't want to put that on
either of the women.
"I've got it," Kyla
said, interrupting my worrying, and I knew she was talking to me.
A few moments later I heard a
soft double boom of muted gunfire, and then another double boom.
"Done," Kyla
reported.
I couldn't help myself.
"Are you alright, Dani?"
"Kid snatchers,"
was all Dani said grimly.
It was enough.
Julia, Jedidiah and I picked
ourselves up out of the holes and set ourselves, and Dylan and Maggie came
around the barn again and headed for the outhouses to make sure the men were
dead.
That gave me a chance to look
at the holes we'd been in and realize they were longer than they were wide.
We'd been hiding in graves
being freshly dug.
And judging by the muddy
patches in a line behind them, others had been dug and filled not too long ago.
"Fuck," I said.
House La Costa; aka Leo and the Girls
"Morning, babes,"
Leo said as he backed his way into the bedroom balancing four mugs of coffee on
a tray.
"Morning, Leo,"
Aria said, opening the door a little wider for him as she smiled. She looked
tired, but it was early and they'd had a late night. The room was still dark,
the blinds pulled down tight on the window over the bed, but Leo could see that
India was still asleep, and since the shower was running he assumed Dani was in
the adjoining washroom.
"Morning," Leo
repeated himself, giving Aria a kiss on the cheek as she took her coffee from
the tray. Hers was the easiest to differentiate since she took a heap of milk
in it, and even in the super dim light the color difference was clear.
"You want a
blowjob?" Aria offered after taking her first sip and sighing comfortably.
"After last night?"
Leo asked. She and India had both gotten their 'doses' the night before; the
fact that the two were a couple meant that India usually preferred doing it
together in a threesome. The sex was fantastic when it was happening, but the
dynamic in their little family was that Sex Time was Sex Time, and not-sex time
it was India and Aria together, and Leo and Dani together.
"Leo," Aria said.
"You're a fantastic lover, with a nice cock, and tasty cum that makes
me come like crazy. I'll suck you off, wrap my tits around your cock
or ride you whenever you want."
He couldn't help himself and
glanced over to the bed where India was still on her side, her bare back facing
the two of them. She hadn't moved, but there was no telling if she was awake or
not. The thing was, he liked India. She was fun, and a little wild,
and had that grin and those eyes and those tits. But at night he was
always snuggled up between Dani and Aria, usually with Aria's back to him as
she spooned her girlfriend. India just wasn't connecting with him the same.
"It's fine," Aria
assured him, placing a hand on his arm. "She understands."
"Alright," Leo
said. "Though, to be fair, I should check with Dani first in case she's
feeling a need."
"Fair," Aria
agreed, taking another mug from the tray and bringing it over to the bedside
table for India. She was wearing a pair of panties and a thin tank top that did
little to hide her curves, and images of their fun last night drifted through
Leo's imagination and made him grin. Both Aria and India had a smattering of
small tattoos, each with a new one from the past few weeks since Erica was
available to do the work, and he'd enjoyed kissing each one whether it was a
shoulder, a hip, or small of the back.
Leo took a swig of his own
coffee then set it on the desk along with the tray, taking Dani's mug into the
washroom with him. The window in that room didn't have a shade on it so it was
letting in the early summer morning light, but it was set high in the wall so
there wasn't a chance of accidentally flashing out through the window. What it
did do, however, was highlight Dani in the shower. He stopped, leaning just
inside the doorway, looking at his first partner.
She was stunning. That first
time he'd seen her when she came into Harrison's old place without a top on
he'd been gob smacked. They'd barely said two words to each other; she'd looked
at him, quirked a finger, and summoned him to the stairs. After everything with
Erica and Harri he'd known what was coming, but it was still stunning. Her
body, her elf-like features, those eyes of hers... she was almost inhumanly
attractive, and he still thought of her like she was an Elf stepped out of
Tolkien's works. And there she was, her arms up as she washed her long brunette
hair, her tits projecting forward as water ran down her body, lit up by the bar
of sunlight from the window.
Dani opened her eyes,
blinking and smiling in surprise at seeing Leo watching her, and Leo raised the
mug to show her it was waiting for her and set it on the sink counter.
"Want to come join
me?" Dani asked with a grin. Her accent, that strange mash of Australian
and Valley Girl, was still a bit of a tingle in his ears.
"Yes," Leo chuckled.
"But Aria asked if she could blow me. Do you need me this morning?"
Dani looked over his
shoulder, still smiling, and gestured. Leo felt arms circle his chest and tits
press against his back as Aria hugged him from behind. "I mean, I don’t
need you, Leo," Dani said. "But I'll definitely watch."
Leo was soon groaning as he
leaned against the sink counter, his shorts around his ankles. Aria was
kneeling in front of him, bobbing her head quickly and moaning lightly as she
worked him over with her lips and tongue, not to mention the smooth tongue stud
she knew how to use so well. Then she released him from her mouth, trailing her
tongue along the underside of his shaft, before sitting up and wrapping her
tits around his cock and starting to jerk him off. Aria had the biggest tits of
his three partners, though India wasn't far behind, and she knew Leo loved
getting a good titfuck in. She was grinning as she did it, her blue eyes
twinkling playfully and her hands overflowing with her tits as she pressed them
together. Her nipples, perfect little peachy beads surrounded by cute slightly
oval areola, looked so damn suckable. Leo groaned, running his fingers through
her strawberry blonde hair; when she and India had first arrived it had been a
little more ginger, but the summer had bleached it a little more blonde.
Another moan, from the
shower, had Leo look away from one partner and focus for a moment on the other.
Dani was leaning back in the shower stall, the water still beating against her
fit torso and her tits, and she had two fingers buried in her cunt as she
masturbated and watched the blowjob and titjob.
Aria dragged her tits up and
off of Leo's cock and replaced them again with her mouth, driving deep onto him
and taking him entirely in her mouth and humming purposefully. For a woman with
a girlfriend, she was really good at blowjobs.
Leo popped first, groaning as
he unloaded into Aria's mouth. She went second, her chemically-induced orgasm
from the taste of his sperm making her shudder all over as her eyes rolled up;
Leo had trained himself not to close his eyes when that happened because Aria's
curvy body looked so fucking good when it was quaking through an orgasm. Dani
didn't go off, or if she did it was only small, but when Leo had finished and
looked back up at her she was grinning and pressing her tits to the glass of
the shower door, teasing him.
Aria stood up, holding onto
Leo as her legs got steady again, but didn't offer him a kiss. Instead she
opened her mouth, showing him she'd held a good amount of his cum on her
tongue, and then she winked before leaving the washroom.
"Come let me wash you
off, Leo," Dani beckoned him, opening the shower door.
Leo was just getting wet when
a loud moan echoed from the bedroom.
"Aria is such a
tease," Dani laughed, already running her hands through Leo's hair to get
it soaked and ready for shampoo.
Leo smirked and shook his
head. "At least she's good at sharing. What are we doing today?"
"Same thing we do every
day, babe," Dani said. She'd picked up his sister's tendency to use 'babe'
for the people she was close with. "Try to stay relaxed and keep up
everyone's spirits."
Leo nodded and sighed. That
sounded amazing, but it was starting to be a problem. Sex whenever he
wanted, surrounded by three beautiful partners, not to mention the bevy of
women they were staying with at the Falls. Every meal made for them, or only
needing to help a little.
But nothing to do. No...
purpose.
He was tired of that. Having
nothing to do. He'd been feeling that way for weeks, ever since the tours with
the surveyors had ended. He just wanted to feel useful again for
more than his cum.
"Josie isn't doing
great," Erica said with a sigh.
Leo glanced over at his
sister with a look of concern. She'd come to sit with him on the bench out in
the parking lot where he'd been reading his dog-eared copy of The Two Towers.
Dani was doing a workout with Spencer and Kyla, and Aria and India were trying
to figure out how they could run a cooking class with Sara; the problem with
that idea was that everyone at Valkyrie Falls except the Black/La Costa
families were on strict diets, so their options were limited. Everyone would
want cake, but most of them couldn't have it.
"What's wrong?" Leo
asked.
"She heard that a friend
died," Erica said. "Sometime before breakfast. Didn't come down, and
some of the girls heard her crying in her room. I tried to check on her but she
wouldn't let me in."
"That sucks," Leo
sighed, setting down his book and leaning back a bit more, looking up at the
sky. It was only partially cloudy, the bright blue peeking through the slowly
moving clouds. Other than the clanking of the athletic equipment behind them in
the outdoor gym area, it was almost like they could have been on the porch of the
old house as the sound of the trees in the breeze and the fragrant essence of
being surrounded by woods was a comfortable warmth around them.
"Yep," Erica
sighed, leaning in and resting her head on her brother's shoulder. "You
Okay?"
Leo had heard back from a
friend in Portland; it hadn't been anyone really close this time, but the tally
of old acquaintances going missing was growing again. Something must have
happened to start another outbreak wave in the city.
"Yeah, I'm Okay,"
Leo said. "I'm mostly worried about Harri. And you."
"Why me?" Erica
asked.
"Because the outbreak on
the Rez brings up all the old stuff with Kara. Again. I don't want you getting
hurt; and I know Harri wouldn't do it on purpose, obviously. But you and I both
know that with the way things are..."
"Leo, I’m telling him
to bring her in," Erica said.
"Really?" Leo
asked.
"I mean, it's obviously
not ideal," Erica said. "I'm already sharing him with three other
women, and I love each of them now, but there's a sort of... order to things.
We aren't stepping on each other's toes. But Kara has more history with him
than I do, so her and I are going to need to hash shit out. I mean, could you
imagine if the roles were reversed and Harri had to contend with Billy Tucci
coming back into my life?"
Leo snorted and shook his
head. "No competition," he said. "Billy was always a dirt bag
and I told you so from the first day you admitted to having a crush on
him."
"Yeah, well, telling
that to a fifteen year old girl that the cool guy who is interested in her
isn't going to get you big props," Erica smirked. "But you get what
I'm saying. There would be history there. I'm not worried about Harri getting
stolen from me or whatever. We're bonded in more than one way. The growing
pains will suck, but we'll get through it."
Leo nodded. "Okay, as
long as you're sure," he said.
"I am," Erica said.
They sat for a few minutes in
silence, just looking out at the forest beyond the parking lot as Leo looped
his arm around his sister's shoulders and held her.
"Hey, are you guys
busy?"
Erica sat up and Leo brought
his arm back, leaning forward a little as he smiled. "Just enjoying the
morning," he replied. "What's up, Yvonne?"
The brunette smiled a little
awkwardly and left the outdoor gym, coming out to them fully and standing to
the side. She'd grown up with a cleft palate that had been fixed when she was
ten and her smile had never really fully adjusted, but Leo thought it was cute.
Yvonne was a slender athlete of Estonian descent, her impressive strength
somewhat stealthy since she didn't have the same thick frame as many of the
other women like Abi or Spencer at the facility who did lots of weight
training. Even dressed in the tight sweater and leggings she was wearing, she
looked more... normal than a lot of the other women. Still very fit, but not
'muscle mommy.'
"I finished the
book," she said, that lopsided smile flashing again as she held out Leo's
copy of The Fellowship of the Ring. "You were right, it was definitely
worth it. The movies are great but there was so much more. Could I maybe
borrow the next one?"
"Sure," Leo said,
accepting his book back and then handing her The Two Towers.
"Oh, if you're already
reading it, I can wait," Yvonne said, frowning a little and not accepting
it yet. "It's your book to enjoy."
"Please, take it,"
Leo grinned. "I've red it, like, twenty times. Seriously, I'm not missing
out."
"Thanks," Yvonne
said, flashing that cute smile again as she took the book. "I'll leave you
guys to it."
Leo and Erica both watched
her walk away, and then Erica chuckled.
"What?" Leo asked.
He knew that chuckle. It was at his expense.
"She's cute," Erica
said. "Are you going to fuck her?"
Leo gave his sister a look.
"I lent her a book."
"You think a chick like
that borrows a book from a nerd like you without being interested? She's
stupidly pretty, Leo."
"She's a nerd!" Leo
argued. "We got into an argument about movie adaptations the first night
we got here."
Erica sighed, smirking at her
brother. "She wants to jump your bones."
"That doesn't make
sense, Erica," Leo said. "Yvonne is,”
"Single? Horny?
Available?" Erica filled in.
"I don't know, it hasn't
come up," Leo said. "I've already got three hot chicks in my bed as
it is, and that bed is cramped."
"Harri already has four,
and needs more," Erica said. "So do you."
Leo rolled his eyes. The
number of women interested in Harri was a little ridiculous. For a guy who
barely even dated while they lived in the city, and then was pretty much a
hermit monk while they lived at his parents' old place, he was certainly making
up for lost time. "So what?" Leo asked. "Hook up with her until
the ladies here finally get to take the Oracle test and find out their real
matches?"
"She might be a
match for you," Erica pointed out.
Leo shook his head. They
liked a few of the same things, that was all it was. Plus, compatibility didn't
mean liking the same things anyways. He didn't actually have all that much in
common with Dani, they just worked together really well. He was
pretty sure he and Aria were a better match, and India was added in since they
were together.
"Hey you guys."
Their conversation was interrupted by another woman coming out from the outdoor
gym and heading towards them. Where Yvonne was slender, lightly tanned and her
strength was stealthy, Rachel was the opposite. A 6'2 black woman, she was a
bodybuilder that had maintained a feminine form, looking sort of like a comic
book superhero. She was wearing running shorts and an athletic bra that was covering
her enhanced chest, her long, powerful legs and somewhat ridiculously muscled
torso both bare and glistening with sweat from her workout. The thing that
really topped her off, however, was her very pretty face underneath a short
crop of tightly braided hair. "Either of you fancy coming on a jog with
me?" she asked.
"Leo would love
to," Erica said, slapping her brother on the back gently and giving him a
look. Leo knew what she was insinuating; that another woman was interested in
him. He was a little worried about how much his sister's mind was on sex these
days.
"Great," Rachel
said with a broad smile. "Want to go get changed?"
"I'll do that," Leo
said, not wanting to disappoint that smile. "You'll have to take it easy
on me though, I'm used to working on my feet all day, not going for runs."
"Working with his
hands," Erica clarified. "From what I understand, he’s very good
with his hands."
Leo internally groaned, but
Rachel laughed. As he went to go get changed he passed through the outdoor gym
and into the main hall of the complex. Yvonne was standing with Spencer and a
stocky Mexican woman named Antonia who was a shot putter who should have been
heading to the Olympics if not for the pandemic. Yvonne smiled and waved, still
holding his book. He waved back.
Okay, he thought. Maybe Erica is right. Maybe.
"I hurt all over,"
Leo groaned.
"Oh, stop being a
baby," Dani chuckled as she firmly slid her hands up and down his back.
Leo was naked on their bed,
and he really did ache. Rachel's invitation to a jog had turned into several
more of the ladies cajoling him into agreeing to a workout. He'd avoided that
specific pastime so far at the Falls because he was a skinny motherfucker, mostly
by genetic luck. He had a great metabolism, could eat pretty much whatever he
wanted, and as long as he was getting some activity in the day he
didn't get a paunch. Sure, he wasn't muscular or built, but he got by.
"This might make it
worth it," he grumbled, smiling a little as Dani put a little more massage
oil on his back and continued to work it in.
"Oh yeah?" she
asked, and he could hear the smile on her lips. "Maybe we should add
'naked massage time' to the weekly rotation."
"I think I'd like that a
lot," Leo grinned. "Only if I get to massage you too."
"Of course," Dani
said. Then she sighed as she moved her hands more to his sides. "Did you
hear about Josie?"
"Erica mentioned
something," he said.
"She still hasn't come
out of her room. A bunch of the ladies have tried to talk to her and she just
cries and says to leave her alone. I'm kind of worried."
"Has she eaten
anything?" Leo asked.
He felt Dani shake her head
through her body straddling his rather than seeing her do it. "Maybe I'll
try to leave food outside her door for her."
Leo grunted softly in
acknowledgement. Was there something he could do? They were friendly, but in
the few times he'd seen Josie interact with Harri they'd seemed a lot closer.
If she was turning away her friends from the Falls, Leo couldn't see her
opening the door for him.
"You're thinking,"
Dani observed.
"Just... wishing I could
do something," Leo said.
"I know how you
feel," Dani sighed.
Leo wasn't sure she did, but
he didn't say that. Dani had taught a lap dance class the other day along with
Ivy, and she'd made a bunch of friends with the other ladies. She always seemed
to be on the move, or have plans; even if the plans were with him. Leo felt...
he wasn't sure. Not alone. Not isolated. Just... adrift, a little.
Erica jogged, catching up
with Leo as he was heading to the cafeteria. He was feeling refreshed after the
massage from Dani, and a shower, and had red for a couple more hours before
deciding he should offer to help with the dinner prep.
"Hey," Erica said
as she reached Leo. "Just FYI, I called Harri a minute ago to come
over."
"Erica, I do not need
to know when you're making a booty call to Harri," Leo said flatly.
"Not for that," she
rolled her eyes, giving him a light shove on the shoulder. "To come see
about Josie."
Leo nodded, pressing his lips
together firmly. "Makes sense, I guess," he said. "Honestly, E,
are you angling for...?" He lifted an eyebrow.
"Maybe I am," Erica
shrugged. "You know as much as the rest of us from Miriam's info. More
ladies, more protection."
"Doesn't hurt that
you're Bi," Leo said, taking his turn to roll his eyes.
"No, it doesn't,"
Erica smirked. "But Dani is too. I'm going to talk to her about you."
"Please don't," Leo
sighed.
"Then find some more
ladies yourself," Erica said. "You're my brother, I want you fit and
healthy."
"Whatever," Leo
shook his head. "The Oracle will do what the Oracle does."
"You're too hooked on
the Oracle thing," Erica argued. "And yet you're conspiracy brained
on the Government. What gives?"
Leo shrugged. "I mean, I
feel like with what we know, it's kind of fair to be conspiracy brained. Secret
vaccines, secret extra viruses in the pandemic. Secret construction? Not
telling the truth about the death tolls? How many other big secrets are out
there from the past five years, let alone the last fifty?"
"But?" she
prompted.
"But I think, after Dani
showed up, I can't help but trust that the Oracle test is working," Leo
said. "Evidence, Erica. That's what I trust."
Erica sighed and shook her
head. "Nerd," she said.
"Hippy," Leo shot
back with a smirk.
Neither of the titles were
off-base, but neither of them were fully correct either.
"Kay," Erica said.
"I need to go get myself together. I just wanted you to know he'd be here
so you can say hi."
"Thanks," Leo
nodded, frowning a little. "What do you need to 'get yourself together'
for? He's already your fiancé."
"A lady needs to remind
her man, and the women around him, who's in charge sometimes," Erica
smirked. "He pointed out I was doing it subconsciously before, so now I'll
do it consciously. He's my man, I'm his woman, and they gotta go through me for
access."
"You're crazy," Leo
snorted. "But I still love you."
"Love you too,"
Erica said, then gave him a punch in the arm and headed towards the stairs up
to the bedrooms.
Leo did, in fact, hear when
Harri had arrived because it was like a fast whisper campaign through the
facility. It felt like half, or maybe even more, of the ladies had developed
little crushes on Harri during his appearances and workouts at the compound,
let alone the stories of his heroics. As soon as he was in the parking lot,
three different phones went off in the kitchen and several ladies excused
themselves to go post up in seemingly innocuous places so they could run into
Harri.
Sara, working at one cutting
board, sighed and shook her head.
"I agree," Leo
chuckled.
Sara flashed Leo a smirk and
kept working. Yvonne, who had been helping as well, hadn't abandoned her post
and she looked over at Leo and Sara. "Too hairy for
me," she said with a smirk. That made Sara laugh, and Leo snorted and had
to set down the knife he was using to cut peppers.
Still, he excused himself so
he could go see his best friend, and he found Harri in the main hall. The big
guy looked a little worn down, if Leo was being honest, but he'd looked that
way for a while. Getting shot would do that to a man, he guessed. Still, it was
good to actually see that Harri was Okay, and Leo slapped him
on the back firmly as he hugged him. They didn't really need to say anything;
Harri was there for a purpose, and slowing him down wouldn't make things any
better. Leo squeezed him just as hard as Harri hugged back, and they made
meaningful manly eye contact before they split.
Returning to the kitchen, Leo
chuckled softly as he went back to his cutting board. "Better make a
couple extra portions worth of food," he said. "Harri eats like a
damn ox."
"I am already working on
it," Sara smirked.
It didn't take too long for
the other ladies who had been helping to wander back into the kitchen; Leo was
fairly sure most of them hadn't even really made an appearance to Harri and
just wanted to get a surreptitious look at him. He felt like he was surrounded
by a bunch of giddy high schoolers. Still, they got back to work and soon all
of the prep Sara needed help with was done, reducing the number of hands needed
in the kitchen. Sara shooed off Leo and Yvonne first since they'd been the most
consistently helpful.
"It'll be another couple
of hours before dinner," Yvonne said as they walked down the main hall
past the utility workout rooms, the outdoor gym visible through the glass
windows on the opposite side. "Have any plans?"
Leo blew out a breath and
shook his head. "Not really. I was thinking I should find Dani, or Aria
and India, to see what's up with them."
"Can I... ask you a
question about that?" Yvonne asked, stopping near a low wooden bench in
the hall. She gestured to it, and they both sat as Leo nodded for her to go on.
"What's it like, being polyamorous?" she asked. "I've never
really understood it."
Leo chewed on the inside of
his cheek for a moment. "I'm not really sure how to explain it," he
finally said. "And I don't know if we even really are poly,
at least not the way Harri and my sister and their thing is. The vaccine is...
it's a necessity, and I can't argue with the perks, right? But the vaccine only
goes so far in binding the four of us together. I'm starting to think that the
Oracle test; the matchmaking program; is the important part of making things
work. Dani and I feel so natural, like we're in a really good, standard
relationship. Aria and I are like... I feel like if we'd met outside of the
vaccine and stuff, we could have been good friends if we had taken the time to
get to know each other, and probably would have gone to friends-with-benefits
but maybe not dating. I'm not in love with Aria,
but I love being with her and around her, if that makes sense."
"But you don't feel the
same way about India," Yvonne guessed.
He nodded and sighed a
little. "India and Aria were together before all of this. I don't know for
sure, but I think Aria probably matched really high with me, and India was
locked onto her. Maybe that's not the case and they both matched with me, but
our thing isn't all of us together, it's more like me and Dani, and then Aria
and India, and Aria and I bridge the gap."
Yvonne pursed her lips as she
absorbed this, slowly nodding. She was in her early twenties and had a sort of
stoic, almost chiseled prettiness that Leo could only see coming out of an
Eastern European woman. She was also hard to read because of that, her face
almost like a mask unless she was showing a lot of emotion. "So the
vaccine doesn't just... make you love someone," she said.
"That's not how it's
worked for us," Leo confirmed. "Are you worried about that?"
Yvonne shrugged a little.
"I haven't had a boyfriend since high school, and haven't felt like I
wanted someone. Relationships were a distraction from my training, and I got
tired of being hit on by gym rats long before I decided that. I don't have
anyone back home who I would want to try and partner up with, like Harri and
Erica or India and Aria. I'm just worried that, when it's finally available...
What if I match with someone who wants me to change, and the vaccine makes me want to
change even though I don't?"
"I don't really have a
good answer for that," Leo said, shaking his head. "I'm sorry. As far
as I can tell so far that's not how it's worked, but I'll admit that my sample
size is pretty small."
"It's fine," she
said, patting his knee. "You can't have all the answers. Thanks for at
least listening."
"Anytime you need,"
Leo said, then sighed and decided to change the subject. "Did you dig into
the book yet?"
She had, and they talked
about the first couple of chapters of The Two Towers for a bit, and the end of
Fellowship since they hadn't chatted about that. Yvonne was a fun person to
talk to for Leo because she made insights into the story that weren't based on
having studied the books, or done a lot of reading on them.
She was also nerdy but not steeped in nerd-dom like Leo and anyone else he
would have talked Tolkien with before so she wasn't just rehashing stuff she'd
heard somewhere else.
At one point during the
conversation Erica passed by, like other ladies going about their business, and
Leo saw her give him a look and a smirk that he tried to ignore. Eventually
dinner time proper came around and they needed to get up and stretch; their
conversation had lasted well over an hour.
"Thanks for
talking," Yvonne said with a smile, slipping under his arm and giving Leo
a side hug as she pressed her head to his chest for a moment. "It's nice
to not feel trapped here, talking with you and about fantasy stuff."
"Any time you want, I'll
take an imagination tour with you," Leo grinned as he hugged her back
around her shoulders. That got her to snort a little chuckle.
They headed back down the
hall to the cafeteria, which was already half-full and was continuing to fill
up as more of the ladies from the Falls filtered in. Josie and what she was
going through seemed to be a pervasive, but whispered, topic of conversation
anywhere that Erica wasn't; which Leo found to be pretty funny considering how
imposing a personality the physically strong women saw his sister.
Spencer and Kyla were a
couple of the last people to show up, carrying Macho along with them after
having taken him on a quick walk. The little pooch looked like he was grinning,
his tongue hanging out one side of his mouth as half his body wiggled with each
tail wag. If Harri was the secret crush of the Valkyrie Falls ladies, Macho
might as well have become the beloved mascot. Everyone wanted
to pet him.
Dani, seeing Leo smiling and
rolling his eyes at the commotion the dog was making with all the ladies, came
over to him and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Did you have a good
afternoon?" she asked.
"I did," Leo said,
his hands coming to rest on her waist. "Good workout?"
She nodded and then hugged
him. "It's supposed to be a movie night tonight," she said.
"Want to snuggle up with me?"
"Of course I do,"
Leo smiled, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the rich chestnut brown
hair on the top of her head.
Just as dinner was starting
with Sara dishing out the specially portioned plates to each of their proper
recipients, Harri and Josie made their appearance. The blonde wrestler still
had a sad, kind of dazed look to her but she at least looked like she'd washed
her face and taken the time to clean herself up a bit, while Harri had that
classic 'Concerned for you' look whenever his eyes drifted over her. Josie
ended up getting led over to a chair after being swamped with just about as
many hugs as Macho had been, and then the little dachshund had gotten put in
her lap and she cracked a grin.
"She'll be Okay,"
Dani said, standing next to Leo and leaning into him a little, her arm around
his waist and Leo's around her shoulders.
"We'll all be
Okay," Leo said. "Though maybe I should see if I can start working on
a degree for grief counselling online. That'll be the next gold rush."
"Little dark,
babe," Dani replied with a smirk. "Plus then you couldn't keep
working with your hands, and everything you make is so gorgeous."
"Thank you," Leo
smiled, squeezing her a little more. Dani had only seen a couple of the pieces
he'd made for Harri's old place in person but had made a point of getting him
to show her pictures of the other custom work he'd done in the past. She'd
already decided that, once their new house was built, they'd only furnish it
with Ikea stuff so that everything would be easy to replace with things he
made.
They headed towards the
kitchen to receive their dinners from Sara, which looked like it was some sort
of a stir fry with grilled chicken mixed in. Leo noticed Harri speaking to his
sister off to one side and then headed out of the cafeteria. Ivy and Kyla were
already there, so he wondered where his buddy was heading and decided he'd ask
Erica after he had his plate.
Rachel lined up behind him
and grabbed his shoulders in a friendly squeeze. "How are you
feeling?" she asked. "We didn't push you too hard, did we?"
Dani turned with a grin,
scrunching up her nose a bit at the taller woman. "Oh, he was hurting
earlier, but I fixed that."
"Shit," Rachel
said. "Sorry, Leo."
"No, it's fine," he
said. "I really should be putting in more effort. Sooner
than later my metabolism is going to shut off and I'll get a gut like my Dad
had."
"Want to work out with
me tomorrow?" Dani asked hopefully.
"Maybe the next
day," Leo said. "You definitely made me feel better, but I'm still
gonna hurt tomorrow still."
"Did you do some
stretches with him?" Rachel asked Dani.
"Massage," Dani
said, grinning all over again.
"Leo," Rachel
scoffed. "I'm literally a licensed massage therapist. I made you hurt, I
could have helped you out with that."
Leo felt the heat rising to
his cheeks. "Um, that would be great, but..."
"It was a naked
massage," Dani chuckled. "Much more fun."
Leo saw a glance pass between
Rachel and Dani; the kind of look that he recognized as 'psychic girl
communication.' Erica had done that with her friends back in high school, and
now it felt like all the ladies between his family and Harri's did it
regularly. Maybe it was a universal language.
"Kyla!"
The urgency, and alarm, in
Harri's voice wasn't something Leo had heard from him in years. The last time
had been three years prior when Leo had been working in his shop in the barn
and Harri had stormed in because he'd seen a mountain lion fairly close to the
house. There had been an attack a few weeks prior in the region and a teenager
had gotten mauled pretty bad. Things had turned out fine, but that tone of
voice struck Leo like an ice pick.
Kyla was already standing and
heading towards Harri as he turned to Leo's sister. "Erica, is your car
open?"
"It should be,"
Erica said. "What's,”
Harri left without responding
to her, Kyla following at a run.
"Something bad is
happening," Leo said and left the food line heading for the exit, Erica
only a few steps ahead of him as they were both jogging. That started an exodus
because everyone wanted to know what was going on.
Outside Leo could see that
Harri was already throwing open the trunk of Erica's car. Where the guns they
had brought just in case were being stored. Kyla was at Harri's police truck
and lowering the back gate. Seeing that, Leo made a snap decision and instead
of following his sister, he turned, holding out his arms to stop the ladies
from crowding into the parking lot. "Give them space," Leo said.
"Something is wrong, but they are on top of it. We'll find out what it is,
but we need to give them space."
Of course, some of the ladies
were able to take directions a little better than others but a firm word and
glare from Abi had them falling back from moving around Leo. Others were asking
questions that Leo didn't have answers to.
"Ivy!" Harri called
from behind Leo, and Leo quickly moved out of the way as Ivy darted into the
parking lot. He watched enough to see Ivy actually leap into
Harri's arms, but turned back to the ladies since they were sounding like they
wanted to press forward again.
A minute later the police
truck was peeling out of the parking lot, and Erica and Ivy were coming back
from the lot to the group. Dani had slipped through the crowd to stand next to
Leo, grabbing his hand tightly as she chewed on the inside of her lip
nervously. Aria and India had crowded closer as well, hovering just beside
Dani.
"Attention!"
Ivy said loudly, her Quebecois French accent somehow making the word sound
exotic. Leo would have expected Erica to be the one taking charge, but Ivy
stood tall despite her stature and addressed the crowd. "Harrison found
out something has gone wrong at the Reserve where his sick friends are. He and
Kyla are going to investigate, but it might be bad. Mon amour, he
is very worried, but he says there should be no trouble here and we are in no
danger. So, that means we should all head inside and eat the lovely meals Chef
Sara has prepared for us, no? And then we shall all have a cheat night and eat
buttery popcorn until our stomachs hurt and watch our movies. Oui?"
She didn't exactly get a
resounding answer, but at least half the crowd; bolstered considerably by
Erica, Leo, Dani, Aria and India; agreed and started to filter back into the
building. Leo didn't move, however, and Ivy didn't include him as she started
to usher the ladies back inside as she fielded questions. Leo made quick eye
contact with Aria, who pursed her lips slightly in a little air kiss and
nodded, knowing he'd fill her in when he could. She took India by the hand and
led her inside. In the end it was Leo, Dani, Erica and Abi still standing
outside.
"What happened?"
Leo asked.
"Ivy wasn't hiding
anything," Erica said. "It is something on the Rez, but it's worse
than the outbreak. Harri left his phone in his truck, so I don't know exactly
what's going on but whatever call or texts he got were bad if he reacted like
that." She turned to Abi. "He doesn't think anything is threatening
us here, but he asked if we could be more vigilant so he isn't worrying. I know
you and Sara didn't like the guns being in the building, but... could we maybe
get set up on the roof tonight with them? Just to keep watch."
Abi was grimacing but nodded
quickly. "This would be fine. I'll show you the roof access," she
said. "And we can bring some chairs up there too."
Erica turned to Dani and Leo.
"It's us three," she said. "Harri asked Ivy to make sure
everyone stayed calm."
"I was wondering why she
took charge," Leo said. "Usually you're the bossy
one."
"Ha ha," Erica said
sarcastically, smirking at her brother.
It was strange; despite his
worry for Harri and Kyla, and whatever they were running towards; Leo found
himself feeling a little more himself knowing he had something that needed
doing. He, Dani and Erica went to her car and retrieved the firearms that had
been left behind; a couple of hunting rifles and the bear shotgun weren't going
to repel an enemy army, but they would do a lot more than throwing rocks. They
snuck them into the building using the outdoor gym entrance so no one in the
cafeteria saw them, and followed Abi up to the second floor and into a storage
area that had a ladder to a trap door on the roof. It took a couple of trips to
get everything they needed up there, including several lawn chairs along with
the firearms. Erica also went and fetched the two handguns that Kyla had
stashed under her bed, plus all the ammunition she'd stored there as well.
Once they were set up, the
gravel of the softly sloped roof wasn't the most comfortable spot to balance
the lawn chairs, but they got everything set up and settled in as Abi headed
back down. Dani, the best shot of the three of them by far, and Leo since he'd
been hunting with Harri, held the rifles while Erica had the shotgun near to
hand even if it wouldn't do anything from up on the roof; the handguns would be
more effective at trying to hit someone down in the parking lot than the
buckshot unless they got closer.
Then Leo's stomach grumbled,
and both Dani and Erica burst into nervous laughter.
"He'll be alright,"
Leo said to his sister.
"Oh, I know he
will," Erica said, clearly trying to force a joke. "If he comes back
shot again I'll kill him myself. Kyla will make sure he's
fine."
Dani stood up from her
folding lawn chair and went to Erica, leaning down and hugging her tightly.
"They'll be Okay," she said firmly.
"Stop trying to make me
cry, bitch," Erica chuckled but hugged her back. Dani laughed as well and
stood back up after kissing Erica on the cheek, then she turned and gave Leo a
kiss on the lips. It was the sort of kiss that said 'I'm glad you're here
with me,' and Leo returned it earnestly.
Aria ended up bringing their
dinners up to them, shifted into Tupperware containers so they could be covered
for climbing up the ladder, but didn't stick around long except to whisper
something to Dani and then kiss Leo on the cheek.
And also enviable.
To be continued, Based on
a post by Break The Bar for Literotica
