Note from Piper: There is a death scene in this chapter which is detailed but brief. There is also a lot of violence, directed at Feral.
The sun had finally crept above the horizon, providing a lot more light to see and casting everything in a pinkish tinge that would have been beautiful if it weren’t for the massive pounding headache drilling through my skull right behind my eyes. The pinging from the dashboard was barely audible above the quiet metallic grinding from the right-front wheel, and I took my gaze off the road for a half a second to note that the fuel tank had not magically refilled itself in the five minutes since I last glanced at it – the stylized gas pump icon was still metaphorically screaming at me to add fuel NOW. “We’ve got to do it,” I muttered softly as I turned the wheel and threaded my way down the exit ramp, moving slowly around the abandoned and wrecked cars dotting the cracked and patched asphalt. “We’ve got no choice.”
“I know,” Meg replied grimly. I glanced at the redhead and noted her owned strained look of held-far-too-long tension, and resisted the urge to brush the few greasy red hairs off her forehead and out of her eyes. The Marine scanned our surroundings, her grip on her pistol turning her knuckles white as she tried to identify any possible threat. “I don’t see any of the fuckers around,” she commented as she twisted in her seat to look out the back.
“That don’t mean anything,” I shot back gently. “This place might be lousy with ‘em, and they’re just waiting to jump us.” I paused at the bottom of the ramp, looked left and right around the loose scattering of wrecks in an attempt to spot any potential threats, and grunted sourly as I slid across the road to the gas station-slash-convenience store. “God, I fucking hate New Jersey.”
As soon as we had hit the road outside Princeton and saw the army of horror charging us, we had fled. For the first few minutes it looked as though we were going to outrun the things – but very quickly I was forced to slam to a stop, our forward path blocked by a downed tree across the asphalt ribbon before us. Throwing it into reverse, I managed to work the Hummer into a five-point turn and made my way back south… but the headlights catching the Feral raging after us forced me down a side road to the left. The landscape was a black nightmare of moving shapes and sullen houses and scattered vehicles, and I felt my spirits lift for half a second when I saw a sign for a highway… but the burned-out hulk of an obliterated fuel tanker melted into the entry ramp put the kibosh on that idea, and I kept moving onward. Another few turns, another couple of blocked side-streets, and a few more Feral encounters, and we were well and thoroughly lost in the darkened countryside.
While I drove and developed a combined eye strain/tension headache and Meg almost vibrated in the passenger seat as she tried to spot any potential threat, the girls settled themselves in the back. Lam had Rachel lift the mostly-unconscious, heavily-drugged Lillian into the back cargo area where she worked on the Latina’s injuries, and as soon as she had done so my little blonde lover demanded a gun from Meg (who was only too happy to pass one back) and sat with her back against the side of the vehicle, her eyes locked on Sexy and Skinny. Between being tightly bound, gagged, and totally naked, I did not regard our two prisoners pressed against the rear passenger door as much of a threat, but a quick glance in the rearview mirror at the firm, almost grim look on Rachel’s face told me it would be useless to argue. That just left Paisley, who I’m fairly sure was curled up in a shell-shocked ball of whimpering terror in the foot well behind my seat. “You doing okay back there, kiddo?” I asked as I turned down a dark, deserted street, taking half a second to drape my arm across the back of my seat. She didn’t answer but I felt her tiny hand clasp mine and squeeze – but my reassurance time was quickly ended as another couple of Feral leapt out of the darkness and into our headlights, and I was forced to step on the gas and swerve to avoid them.
For the next six hours conditions in our purloined Hummer went from bad to steadily worse. Whatever pharmaceutical cocktail Abby had fed Lillian started to work its way through her system, so naturally the injured Latina began vomiting as Lam quickly rolled her onto her side to prevent choking… and with the continued Feral threat we couldn’t exactly roll down the windows, so the thick, acrid stench of puke burned both my nose and eyes as I tried to maintain my focus. An hour or two into our surreal, nightmarish flight we ended up trapped between a six-car pileup at a random, dark intersection and a band of about twenty Feral, and it was only through some incredibly skillful driving involving our bumper impacting thighbones and the screech of metal-tearing-against-metal that I forced the vehicle through the twisted wreckage, and though we managed to give the monsters the slip somebody – if I had to bet, probably Paisley – got so scared that they wet themselves, thus adding to the miasma in the cab.
But if I had to vote on the biggest distraction of the night, it would have to be seven incredibly horny little girls cruising around with me, tiny little delectable morsels that I could not avail myself of during that hellish trek. Oh, they tried to be discrete about it… but it quickly became apparent to my hyper-attuned senses that, what felt like every thirty seconds or so, one or another of them would try to quietly masturbate to take care of their urges. The quiet sounds of their moans – barely audible over the growl of the engine and the hiss of the road beneath our tires – caused me to snap to attention, and I gritted my teeth so hard that I swear I almost cracked a molar from frustration. Even Meg succumbed to her arousal – and though she hid it I clearly remember catching her holding the grip of her pistol very low in her lap, her lips parted slightly as she stared out of the window at the dark, rolling countryside. She gave a tiny little shudder as I turned left down yet another random, unidentifiable road walled by darkness and abandoned homes and stalled vehicles, and then shifted in her seat. “Everything okay?” I asked quietly out of the corner of my mouth.
“What?” she blurted, her eyes wide and a faint blush creeping up her neck as she snapped to face me, her voice a bit throatier than usual.
“I asked if you saw anything,” I said, throwing the embarrassed Marine a bone.
The redhead took a quick look through the windows and then tried to stare straight ahead again, almost pretending that I wasn’t next to her – or that I sported a truly monstrous erection. “Nope, still just darkness,” she replied.
“Good. Crap!” Two more Feral popped up like gophers in our headlights, and any further thoughts about my frustrations had to take a back seat yet again as I clipped one, raced past the other, and tried to avoid sideswiping three sedans while threading our way down the road.
It felt like an eternity of driving and darkness and car-choked roads and Feral, and by the time the sky in the east started to glow with the faint light of dawn I almost felt as though my head was going to literally explode. To add to our general misery was the fact that we were almost out of fuel – the gauge on the Hummer had switched from the estimated range remaining to sullenly glowering ‘Low Mileage’ – and sometime in the night a low, ominous grinding started coming from the front-right wheel. I glanced at Meg, who looked back at me, but neither one of us said a word… we were both fully aware of how monumentally screwed we all were. “We have to stop,” I said quietly.
“Yeah.” We both turned our attention to the slim slice of illumination cast by the headlights before the Hummer and waited… and after a few minutes a green sign let us know that someplace called Franklin Park was only one mile ahead of us. “It’s not like we have a choice,” she noted.
“Yeah,” I echoed. “Hey, wake up back there,” I added as I raised my voice to grab their attention. “We’re making a pit stop.”
Amid general snorting and sleepy murmurs as the girls roused themselves I turned off the highway and made my way down the ramp. I’m sure that there was a small town somewhere down past the curve of the road that was screened by a thick mass of trees, but it wasn’t as if we were going to spending much time there. Whatever that place had been before the world collapsed was secondary in the moment – my attention was focused on nursing the damaged and thirsty SUV straight towards the fuel tanker truck that seemed to fill my entire vision, so much so that my conscious attention barely registered the four-story hotel atop a small hill across the street, the fast food restaurants squatting here and there, and the small strip mall behind the gas station. “Is it safe?” I distantly heard Rachel ask as I bumped up on the corner to squeeze past a twelve-plus-car mass of wrecked, abandoned vehicles that clustered under the dark and silent traffic lights.
“Probably not,” Meg grumbled.
“Don’t know, yet,” I managed to force out. Avoid the junker, move past the overturned truck… “We don’t have much of a choice, we need gas.” Stop with the tunnel vision! I angrily told myself as I gave myself a little shake and forced my attention from the road before me to spare a quick glance at the surrounding buildings.
“And food, Master, and water,” Lam interjected. “I think we could all use something to eat.”
“There might be something in the store,” Meg suggested.
As I slowly maneuvered into the parking lot of the station my stomach rumbled as a reminder that I too hadn’t had anything to eat since our expedition to rescue Rachel and Lillian, so I gave a quick little nod. “Okay everyone, here’s the plan,” I said as I cast a covetous eye towards the powerless pumps and instead slid in next to a fuel tanker parked off to the side, the driver’s door open and the large-gauge flexible pipe laying like a flattened worm on the concrete slab bearing the foot-wide metal caps to the underground tanks. “I’m going to siphon some gas to put in this thing, while Meg raids the store. Meg, you grab some grub, we tank up, and we’re back on the road. Easy as pie.”
“Are… you sure that’s a good idea, Master?” Lam asked quietly as I turned off the engine.
“Why?” God damn it, why do they ALWAYS have to question me…
“’Cause you look like shit, Mike,” Meg commented.
“You sound really angry, Mister Mike,” Paisley’s tiny, quavering voice floated from behind me. “Did I do something wrong?”
I looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror, took in my scruffy, greasy appearance, and noted that I had tiny specks of blood from Princeton still on my forehead. My eyes were sunken into my skull and bloodshot, while my face seemed to naturally fall into a grim scowl. Fuck, they’re right… “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, sweetie,” I said with a sigh as I slouched in my seat. “I’m just really tired, and…”
“And he hasn’t gotten laid in a while,” a tiny, weak croak sounded from the cargo area.
“Lil!” I tried to climb into the back over the seats, got restrained by the fucking seatbelt, and swore a blue streak as I fumbled with the latch. While I was delayed Lam turned her attention back to the Latina and Rachel took half an eye off our prisoners, and even Paisley ignored her damp jeans as she clambered over the back of the bench seat to be with the President. “God damn mother fucking piece of shit,” I growled as I finally got unbuckled and turned – only to find the cargo area already full of tiny, caring little girls. Lam helped Lillian to sit up a bit and, despite her pain-rimmed eyes, sallow skin, and generally sick appearance, she looked amazing. “Glad to have you back with us,” I remarked, trying to keep my tone light. Oh thank GOD thank GOD thank you GOD… “How are you feeling?”
“Sick, hurt, ‘n horny,” she replied. Her voice was weak and quavering, but she managed to smile a small, unsteady smile as she allowed Lam to fuss over her. “I’m just glad that I’m back with the people I love.”
“Love? Is that it?” I said with a smile.
The Latina gave a weak little laugh. “Maybe the people force me to cum over and over again,” she admitted as she dug deep and somehow managed to give me a wanton, wicked look that was only slightly ruined by her battered and bruised face.
“Oh God,” Meg interjected in a disgusted tone as she mimed a fake gag. “This is sickening, I’m so gonna puke...”
“Thirsty.” Lillian smacked her lips, winced as she shifted position, and tried to smile. “I’ll be okay, really,” she said to Lam as she squirmed a bit. “Jus’ get me some water, I really don’t need…”
“Lillian, you are still injured,” the Asian girl interrupted forcefully, her brow furrowed into an adorable frown and her tone totally serious. “You have broken bones in your hands and feet, fractures in both your upper and lower limbs, and numerous contusions, lacerations, and abrasions. The only reason that you are not in agony right now is because of the low-dose analgesics I administered to you in anticipation of you regaining consciousness. You are in absolutely no shape to fend for yourself at the moment.”
“Yeah, just take it easy,” I insisted. “Give me a few minutes, I’ll take care of you.”
“Master, you are in no shape to take care of anyone,” Lam pointed out. “You are obviously tired and far too aroused…”
“We’re all tired, ‘n horny,” I shot back grumpily.
“Y… yeah, Mike,” Meg pointed out. “But if we get tired, we just get stupid until we can just jack off ‘n go to sleep. If you get tired, then you get all…” She trailed off, a faint blush rising up her neck and dusting her cheeks.
“You get… a bit rapey,” Lillian finished for the embarrassed Marine, her voice filled with weak humor. “I think Meg wants her turn this time.”
“I SO do not!” the redhead objected vociferously, her voice filled with offended outrage.
“Look, I don’t…” I began.
“Master, I’m afraid that I must insist on a short break,” Lam jumped in. “I really need an opportunity to examine Lillian more fully, in something other than in a moving vehicle. I do not believe she is in any danger, but for my own peace of mind I would like to perform a bit more of a thorough examination.”
“Is her…” I swallowed hard as a sudden flash of alarm shot through me. “Is our…”
“Yours and Lillian’s fetus seems to be fine,” the doctor remarked. “If I am correct in what I believe the drugs they injected her actually were, then your child should be in no danger. However, I would need to conduct a more thorough examination…”
It was the sheerest of chances that it happened – when our conversation shifted from Lillian’s general welfare to the condition of her baby, I was actually glancing at our prisoners. Skinny showed no reaction whatsoever… in fact, if I had to peg her mood, it was mind-numbingly horny, if her squirming backside and the frustrated, rather uncomfortable look on her face were any indication. However, Sexy had a far different reaction – she too looked just as horny, but as soon as we began talking about the President’s maternal condition her eyes widened just a bit and she forced herself to pay attention. Her eyes glanced at back at the Latina and then met mine – and as I met her gaze I realized two things. First, she hadn’t known about the baby growing in Lillian’s belly when the group had snatched her. And second, she might understand a bit more English than she pretended that she did. Well, well, well, I thought. Interesting… “Well, what do you suggest?” I asked, flicking my eyes back to Lam.
The Asian girl thought hard for a second, and then glanced out the window for a moment before responding. “I believe that a few hours of rest might do us all good, Master,” she said. “We could gather supplies and fuel here, and then stay in a couple of rooms in that hotel for a few hours to rest and recharge. I could use the opportunity to conduct a more thorough examination of Lillian, while you could sleep for a few hours and take care of your sexual needs.”
“Not necessarily in that order,” Lillian flirted, her tone hinting that, despite her condition, she intended to be the one spreading her legs for me.
“What about them?” Rachel asked sharply, waving the small pistol in her hand towards our two prisoners.
We all stared at Sexy and Skinny, our gazes considering. Sometime during our flight one of my girls had tossed a couple of old, bedraggled dress shirts over the pair, giving them giving them a tiny bit of modesty while still ensuring that they were still bound and gagged. Skinny looked skittish and distracted as she squirmed in her seat, almost as if she were suffering in discomfort with a full bladder. Sexy, on the other hand, glared back at me with a look of undisguised loathing in her eyes – even as she trembled and tiny beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. I wondered for a second if they were sick or something… then with a start I realized that, bound as they were, they couldn’t take care of their sexual needs, and I began to feel bad at the torments they had been forced to endure while my girls had opportunities to masturbate. “I don’t think we can keep them tied up,” I said slowly as I caught Sexy’s strained glare, “especially since we’ve got far greater threats around us. I think that if we untie them, they won’t actually try anything.”
“But Mikey!!!” Rachel’s voice was a petulant whine that just grated on my ears, her high-pitched squeal of outrage causing me to wince. “They…”
“I know,” I interrupted in a weary voice. God damn little immature brat… “But if they try anything they’ll be cutting their own throats. They won’t run off, ‘cause they won’t last a minute on their own, and they won’t betray us when doing so would get us – and them – killed.”
“But that cunt Abby…”
“I know,” I repeated as a pang tore through my heart, a sadness of what the psychotic little blonde had forced me to do. “But they aren’t Abby.”
“They t…” Lillian had a sick look on her face as she swallowed heavily and tried to force herself to be strong. “They did stuff to me, because they wanted specific information. They weren’t suicidal, just…” She swallowed again as she remembered what the Princeton group had done to her. “They were crazy sadists,” she finally said weakly. “Abby was a crazy sadist.”
“But…”
“Rach, I know.” I tried to sound sympathetic as I reached back and patted the tiny blonde’s forearm sympathetically, but it was hard to keep my voice steady. Jesus fucking Christ, just fucking LET IT GO ALREADY!!! “But it’s not like we have a choice. We can’t have someone keep watch over them constantly, we can’t just dump them out by the side of the road – that would be murder,” I quickly elaborated as she opened her mouth to object. “I’m not asking you to like them,” I said quietly. “But if they want to survive, they have to behave. And if we want to be… better, than they were, then we have be better. We have to work together.”
She didn’t like it – sweet lord above, from the look on her face it was clear that she hated the idea! But the logic of my words finally managed to work through her vengeful fog, and Rachel accepted my argument. “Fine,” she glowered, her voice a kittenish growl of hatred. “But if they try anything, anything, I’m gonna shoot them!”
“Do you even know how to use that thing?” Meg muttered under her breath in a snarky tone.
“Meg, that’s enough.” I leaned over at stared at the pair, meeting first Sexy’s gaze and then Skinny’s. “We’re gonna trust you, ‘cause we don’t really have much of a choice about it,” I said in a calming, even tone. “I don’t want to leave you behind, and I don’t think you want to be left behind, so…” It was pretty apparent that Skinny didn’t understand a single word coming out of my mouth – she just fixed me with a look of intense suffering and whimpered a bit as she squirmed in her seat. Sexy, on the other hand, half-glowered at me through her jet-black bangs, her blue eyes looking almost like sharp, glittering sapphires as she glared – but even through her attitude I could sense her level of suffering as she pressed her thighs together and tried not to squirm in her seat. I could almost see the waves of tormented lust wafting off the pair, and decided to show a little mercy. “Meg, keep watch,” I ordered, and after a quick glance around I slipped out of the Hummer.
Even though it was barely dawn the air was hot and muggy, and I felt beads of sweat forming on my forehead and the back of my neck as I peered around. The air was still and silent, with the only sound being the high-pitched buzz of insects in the far-too-long-and-shaggy grass next to the ribbons of asphalt. The windows of the abandoned vehicles dotting both the intersection, the roads, and the parking lot of the convenience store were grimy and filthy, showing signs of being abandoned probably since the world went crazy two months ago. I sniffed but could smell nothing but superheated parking lot, rotting vegetation, and a funky sort-of stench from the store itself. Nothing moved, nothing leapt out and tried to eat my face… so I slowly moved around the front of the Hummer to the rear passenger door. Meg had already popped out of the sunroof and had taken up position scanning the surroundings, so I slipped the strap of my shotgun over my shoulder and opened the door.
Sexy and Skinny looked panicked for a second when I pulled a small knife from my back pocket, but seemed to relax a touch when I did nothing more aggressive than cut the twisted bonds looped around the wrists. Skinny immediately wormed her arms around her hips to the front of her body, slipping her fingers into the cleft between her thighs and figging herself like a madwoman as she whispered to herself. With a slight blush from embarrassment as much as from arousal, I turned my attention to Sexy, leaning in close behind her as I worked at the twisted zip-tie around her wrists. “I think you understand what I’m saying,” I murmured softly in her ear, so softly that nobody else could hear my words over the tiny kitten-like squeaks issuing from Skinny’s parted, gasping lips. “If you fuck with anyone, you won’t have to worry about Rachel.” The ties parted and I leaned close, trying to ignore the scent of her hair as I brought my mouth right next to her ear. “I’ll kill you myself!” I hissed. Sexy twisted her head to look at me, took in my dead-serious face, and some of the defiance left her gaze as she gave a tiny, barely-noticeable nod. Okay then, I thought as I stepped back, gave a nod to a dispassionate Meg (who I suspect had noticed my hissed threat), and took another look around. As Sexy went to town on her own pre-teen clit, I fixed the Marine with a focused look as I tried to ignore the twinned masturbating lovelies mere inches away from me. “You think you can handle resupply while I siphon gas?” I asked over the musical accompaniment of two tiny, mewling little-girl orgasms.
“Yeah, probably.” The redhead took another look around and then ducked back down into the cab of the Hummer. The door next to me opened and the Marine hopped out, landing nimbly on the balls of her feet. “I won’t be long,” she tossed over her shoulder as she made her way across the warm asphalt between us and the covered entrance to the store. “You want anything specific?”
“Yeah,” I replied with a snarky grin. “Ammo, nacho cheese chips, and beer. And ball gags for all you girls. And anal lube. Oh,” I added as my grin grew wider, “and a Catholic schoolgirl outfit in your size.”
“Ha. So funny, I just might shit myself.” Her flat, emotionless tone let me know exactly what she thought of my little joke, and she turned her attention fully towards her objective, her pink tennis shoes making almost no noise whatsoever as she padded away.
I stared after her for a few heartbeats, more than a bit confused as to why I was simply standing there instead of getting to work – and then with a shake of my head I managed to tear my gaze away from the redhead’s tiny, flat ass wriggling beneath her denim jeans. I so gotta get laid… I decided as I moved around the Hummer to the tanker. Through the sunroof I could hear the girls talking quietly – the accented voice of Lam murmuring, the throaty, ungodly sexy responses of Lillian, Paisley and Rachel whispering, all barely audible over the buzz of the insects filling the air, the pings of the tanker as the sun began to warm the metal, and the ticking of our engine as it cooled. I looked up at the towering fuel tank above me, over at our vehicle, and back again as I tried to decide on the best way to gas up. Get the hose from the back, open that cap right there… I opened the back door of the Hummer and pulled out the siphon hose, and then got to work.
“Mister Mikey, can we get out?” Paisley’s musical soprano voice asked from behind me.
“Sure, just don’t go far,” I replied. “In fact, stay right next to me.” The rich, thick smell of precious gas filled my nostrils as I got the cap off, stuck in one end of the hose, and started to suck. It only took a couple of seconds before the fuel filled my mouth, and I spat as I jammed the other end into the Hummer. I sensed some movement behind me and turned to find the adorable little brunette standing by the open door, her tiny form looking mind-blowingly sexy as she stretched. The end of Mister Pibb’s leash was clutched in one tiny little hand, and the puppy followed her out of the vehicle as it sniffed and snuffed and explored the area around our feet. “How you doing there, kiddo?” I asked as I spat again and leaned against the warm metal of the vehicle.
“’M okay,” she said. She finished stretching with a flourish, and it was all I could do not to instantly leap on top of her and tear her clothes off – the combination of her skinny frame, her flat chest, and the tiny little flash of belly-flesh that peeked out when her tee rode up made my cock even harder, if that was possible. “I… I’m really sorry,” she added as she stared up at me and started to blush.
“What are you sorry for?” I asked. Okay, now SHE’S starting to act weird… “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I was bad,” she replied. The little girl leaned against the Hummer, almost accidentally matching my semi-relaxed, sort-of alert pose as she looked away from me and tugged on her pigtails nervously. “When it was dark, ‘n we were driving around, ‘n the angry boys kept chasing us ‘n everyone was yelling ‘n crying…” She turned her face away, but I could still see the brilliant blush raging on her neck.
I thought I knew what she was driving at, and somehow managed to push down my raging lust to don the costume of daddy/best friend. “You got scared, and you wet your pants,” I said in a quiet, caring tone of voice.
“Uh-huh.” The half-nod, the humiliated tone of voice, her tiny, squirming form all combined to make her even more adorable, if that were possible. “It’s all dirty ‘n stuff, I know, ‘n I know I’m a big girl ‘n shouldn’t do that,” she continued, her words coming in a jumbled rush, “but I was so scared ‘n I didn’t know what was happening and I couldn’t stop it…”
“Hey, it’s okay, sweetie,” I interrupted. I leaned over and gathered the little girl in a hug, and she buried her face in my chest. “It happens.”
I felt her arms tighten around me as I felt her body trembling. “But it’s so dirty!” she sobbed.
“It’s okay,” I repeated. Mister Pibb wrapped his leash around our legs as I held her and let her cry, digging deep in an attempt to keep my arousal from exploding. It wasn’t easy… my hard-on was pressed up against her ribcage, and the sheer scent of her – as foul as it was – was still enticing. “Things like that happen, sweetheart,” I explained patiently. “You got scared and it happened, it doesn’t mean you’re dirty or anything like that.”
“Really?” She sounded doubtful, and as she raised her tear-stained face she gazed into my face with a look filled with hopeful adoration. “You don’t think I’m all gross ‘n stuff?”
“Of course not!” I ducked my head down and our lips met in a deep, passionate kiss in which she breathed hot, breathy little half-moans of pleasure into my mouth. She felt warm and wonderful, she tasted good, she smelled female – and I forced myself not to do what the animal part of my brain was howling to do. “It happens, I know you didn’t do it on purpose,” I concluded when we finally came up for air.
“Oh!” She wriggled happily in my embrace, and I felt my resolve starting to slip as she ground her body against my throbbing erection. “You are just so awesome, Mister Mikey! I…” She hiccupped and stared into my eyes, and I could almost see the emotional gleam in her blue orbs. “I love you so much!”
“And I love you too, sweetheart. Now, I need to keep a watch out,” I continued, disentangling myself from her arms and Mister Pibbs leash before pushing her back just a bit to give myself a little room. “So we can’t keep hugging. But you can stand here and keep me company, okay?”
“Okay!” She continued to stare as I checked on the still-flowing gasoline, took a scan around for any threats, and tried to not spontaneously cum in my pants. A little tickle at the base of my skull told me that Paisley wasn’t the only pair of pre-teen eyes staring at me, and I glanced out of the corner of my eye – and found both Skinny and Sexy staring at me through the window of the Hummer. Sexy had a calculating, almost mercenary look in her eyes, but Skinny’s gaze was wide… almost as if she was astonished by my sheer presence outside the vehicle. I gave a tiny little smile and an equally tiny wave to the pair, and Skinny gave a tiny, tentative wave back – and then Sexy grabbed her by the collar of her dress-shirt cover and pulled her away. Okay, that was weird… but then again, I noted with an ironic snort, it’s not any weirder than the way any of them are acting.
A flash of movement caught my attention, and I peered around the back of the Hummer and watched as Meg padded back across the parking lot. “Mike, we’ve got a problem,” she said softly, an almost worried look in her eye.
“What?”
The Marine glanced at Paisley and then at the girls in the Hummer, and she leaned in close. “The door is all smashed in,” she said in a soft, almost silent voice. “‘N it smells like there’s bodies.” The redhead glanced over her shoulder and leaned in closer, and I was forced to bring my face close to hers to hear what she said. “I think some bad shit went down in there,” she added.
“Any Feral?” I asked hurriedly.
She glanced over her shoulder once more, and then gave a tiny shake of her head. “Didn’t see any, but I’m thinking that we still might want to be careful around here.”
“You didn’t go in?”
All I wanted to do was to get more information – but evidently I struck a nerve. Meg blushed – blushed! – a brilliant crimson color that was almost the same shade as her hair and shook her head again. “I… no, I didn’t,” she admitted in a voice that held a touch of embarrassment. “I just… couldn’t.”
Now that grabbed my attention. I stared at the Marine, gathered my thoughts and tried to focus, and I realized just how small and helpless she seemed at that very moment – and how I wanted to do nothing more than to find a nice, quiet place somewhere and start pulling off her clothes. What the fuck… “Is everything okay?” I asked in a somewhat shaky voice as I tried to ignore my lust.
“E… Everything’s fine,” Meg replied. She glanced over her shoulder at the storefront, took a deep, shuddering breath, and literally shook herself. “I’m fine, I just don’t think it’s a good idea for me to go in alone,” she continued with more confidence.
I just stared at the redhead. Something was wrong, really wrong, with all the girls… or was it me? Lillian’s flirting even though half the bones in her body were shattered and Paisley’s adoring clinginess were strange enough – but now the hard-bitten Marine acting all weak and scared and uncertain? And Rachel’s aggressive, obsessive guarding of our prisoners? Is it them? I wondered as my headache pulsed in time to my heartbeat and my cock felt painfully hard. Or is it my perceptions? I knew that I was so horny that I could barely think straight, fighting the urge to just pick one of my cargo of delectable lovelies and drag them off somewhere and just simply slice into them with my cock. Are they the same and I’m just going crazy ‘cause I need to get laid? I mused. Or am I sane, and THEY’RE the ones going crazy? “So…” I finally managed to say, “how do you want to do this? Do you want to switch, you handle the rest of the gas and I’ll take a quick look inside?”
“I… Okay. Just… don’t do anything stupid.”
I purposefully didn’t look at the redhead as Meg took up position next to the softly gurgling hose, but instead I unlimbered my shotgun and moved quietly across the parking lot towards the store. Just a few steps closer told me that something bad indeed had gone down there… the shadowy interior looked murky and menacing, almost as if it held some dark evil just waiting to pounce. The double doors were thoroughly smashed in, the large panes of tempered glass reduced to jagged shards in the frame and scattered nuggets on the floor, and as I drew closer I could see bloodstains coating the tile of the entryway. Crap, I scowled as I slowed and paused by the opening, extending my senses in an attempt to see if anything lurked inside. Nothing… “This is so gonna suck,” I muttered darkly as I stepped through, turning my body to avoid getting slashed and trying to make as little noise as possible while my shoes crunched on the glass beneath me.
In the dim dawn light filtering in through the dusty windows I could see that the place was torn apart. The first thing my gaze fell upon was a tiny set of skeletal remains laying across a blood-soaked counter before me, the remains of a little-girl corpse with only half a face and nothing but gnawed ribs making up her back, a pair of blood-soaked khakis twisted around her lower legs. I stared into the corpse’s milky, dead eye for a few heartbeats and felt an overwhelming sadness float through my soul, before I forced my eyes away and back to my surroundings. I felt my spirits lift just a hair when my gaze raked across the bloated, rotting corpse of Feral on floor just past her gnawed-upon legs, proof that whoever had been in here had not gone down without a fight. I averted my gaze from those two as I moved deeper into the store, my shotgun leading the way past overturned racks and scattered, blood-soaked bags of chips and flattened snack cakes, and spotted two more Feral corpses among the detritus, one mooning me face-down and the other staring at me with a perpetual snarl of psychotic rage on its blood-soaked lips, a neat hole drilled right in the center of its forehead. And finally I found the last valiant defender of the place, slumped up against a deli counter. She was – had been – a New Jersey state trooper, dressed in a tiny pair of tight jeans and a blousy, billowy uniform shirt, a tiny little brunette with short, curly hair who didn’t look a day over eight years old. A fourth Feral corpse lay across her legs, a fist-sized hole blasted into the back of its skull, its claws still plunged into the trooper’s throat, its nails shoved at least two inches into the little girl’s neck. Fuck, I mourned as I stared at the tableau, my mind seeming to register every single detail of the trooper’s last stand. She almost made it. So sad… I took one more look around, and then squatted, holding my shotgun with one hand as I pulled the trooper’s pistol from her lifeless grip with the other. Another glance around told me that I didn’t want to touch any of the candy or chips glued to the floor by thick pools of dried blood, and so I slowly backed out and returned to the Hummer, tucking my one prize into my belt as I shuffled across the asphalt..
Meg fixed me with a disturbed look as I approached. “Find anything?” she asked, her eyes searching my face for a clue of what I had seen.
I shook my head sadly, trying to ignore the headache that came roaring back into the forefront of my brain. “Nothing but this,” I replied, gesturing to the pistol in my belt. “And death,” I added.
“Nothing to eat?”
At her mention of food my stomach rumbled, reminding me of just how long it had been since I had ingested anything more than water. “I… Most everything in there is smashed, or covered with…” I trailed off as my eyes flicked past the Marine to the girls in the Hummer – specifically Paisley and Skinny, both of whom were peering out at us with matching worried, almost harrowed looks in their eyes. “I just don’t think we want anything from in there,” I finished lamely. “Maybe we can find something in the hotel.”
“Maybe.” The look on the redhead’s face told me that she shared my doubts, but she didn’t say anything more and merely turned back to the hose, jiggling it a bit as if to encourage the gasoline dribbling from the tanker.
This is not good… I thought as I raked my fingers through my hair and checked our surroundings once more for threats.
The hallway would have been pitch-black if it weren’t for the pair of somewhat dim flashlights held by both myself and Rachel. The fourth floor of the hotel seemed exactly the same as the second and third – dark, musty, hot, and totally abandoned. Beside me Meg cursed quietly as she worked the crowbar in between the door and the frame of a room next to the stairwell, trying to be as quiet as possible while prying open the locked portal. “God damn mother fucking piece of mother fucking shit…” the redhead swore as she leaned against the metal bar and the sound of cracking wood filled my ears.
After fueling up, we slowly nursed the Hummer across the street and up the small hill to the hotel. Part of a chain, the four-story structure was dark and silent and as I pulled the Hummer under the covered entrance to the front doors nothing seemed to acknowledge our arrival. The double glass doors were unlocked and opened easily, and we paused for a moment to see if anything was lurking in the dim, shadow-washed lobby. Nothing leapt out at us, nothing moved – so after a few minutes of nervous waiting we relaxed enough to actually explore a bit. Meg found a few bottles of water and about a dozen cookie twin-packs behind the counter, but without electricity nobody wanted to explore any further… and worse, without electricity there was no way to open the electronic locks sealing most of the doors we tried. I took a second to grab a couple of flashlights and a crowbar from the truck (be prepared!), and then after a short discussion we tracked down the stairwell and made our way up. The fourth floor was dark and silent, apparently sitting empty the long months since the Event, and while I kept watch the girls huddled at the end of the hall and the Marine went to work on the nearest door.
“Problems?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low and steady despite my raging headache and general impatience.
“Naw, it’s just fucking fighting me.” I heard a scraping sound, a low thunk, and the sound of a pre-teen girl grunting… and then, with a screech of tearing wood that sounded way too loud in my ears, the door gave way and a thin, almost tentative illumination filled the space around me. “Got it!” she hissed in triumph, her voice subdued.
“About time,” groused Rachel. My little blonde lover flicked off her flashlight and entered the room before I could tell her to wait, followed closely by Paisley and Lam, who helped a limping Lillian inside. I just sighed as turned off my flashlight as well, shouldering my shotgun as I herded the rest of my charges through the door.
“I didn’t see you doing any fucking work, Hot Pants,” Meg snapped back as she dropped the crowbar onto the dresser across from the bed with a heavy CLUNK! and moved over to the small seating area next to the heavy curtain.
“Both of you, quit it,” Lillian grumbled.
“Everybody stop,” I growled. “I’m… we’re far too tired ‘n stressed out to actually think straight. Meg, gimme a hand.” I pushed the door shut behind me, pressing against the panel to force it back into place, and then gave another shove just to make sure. Meg dragged one of the chairs across the room, and together we managed to wedge it against the panel. “Good enough,” I concluded with a grunt and a nod, and then I turned and took half a second to actually gather my thoughts. We were a mess… Besides the looks of abject exhaustion on the girls’ faces, most of their clothes were rumpled and stained with sweat, and their hair hung limply against their skulls. Meg had dark circles under her green eyes, Lam looked rather bedraggled, and both Skinny and Sexy shared a greasy, unwashed quality about them that was heightened by the worn, threadbare dress shirts hanging over their little-girl bodies. I suspected that I too looked just as bad, but in that second I really didn’t care all that much – especially when Rachel heedlessly yanked off her top and sank into the remaining chair, scratching her ribs with a sigh of happiness and heedless of her topless state… a maneuver that sent a pulse of raging arousal through my already hard cock.
“Master, you need…” Lam began.
I held up a hand to forestall her advice. “I know. We’ll take care of my needs, ‘n then we’ll catch some sleep.”
“I’m not sleepy!” Paisley insisted. The pigtailed brunette went to hop on the bed, remembered her rather soiled jeans, and instead hovered uncertainly as she tried to decide where to go.
“There’s too many fuckin’ people in here,” groused Meg as she poked her nose into the dark bathroom.
“I know,” I replied patiently. It was hard for me to keep my focus – really, all I wanted to do was howl and yell and smack the hell out of the whiny little cunts, fuck the hell out of one or two, and just be alone for a few minutes! But I had responsibilities… “I’ve thought of that. There’s an adjoining room,” I continued, waving my hand at the connecting door sitting ajar against the wall, “and I think that I should really catch some zees in there. Y’all can do what you need to do, I can get some rest, and after a few hours we can figure out what to do next.”
“And ejaculate, Master,” added Lam.
“Mee memecmumate, mahsmah,” Rachel mocked cattily in a sing-song voice.
“There is no need for you to làm già me, Rachel,” the Asian girl snapped stiffly.
“Everyone… just…shut up. Shut the fuck up.” I was done, patience was at an end. I wanted to just start raging, just to start slapping some sense into their defective, bickering, whining skulls – and that’s when I knew that I had to get laid right that second. I sighed and stood, moving to the foot of the bed as I looked at each once in turn. “I’m going next door. Someone come with me, now. The rest of you just… be quiet.”
“Mogu lid a ti jebem?” came a tiny little voice. I turned my head and looked down at Skinny, staring into her wide eyes as she stared up at me. Now that I had half a chance I took a look at her – really take a close look – and was struck at just how cute she actually was. She was tiny, barely coming up to the bottom of my ribcage, and if she had an ounce of fat on her body I would have been stunned. From where I stood she seemed almost like a lollipop, with her body rail-thin with a round skull perched atop. Her lips were thin but kissable, and her hair had a tiny little wave to it as it hung loose around her shoulders. As I looked down in a daze, the girl flicked her hair over one shoulder and let the collar of her shirt fall away from her neck, exposing even more creamy white skin. “Molim vas, gospodine?” she added with the faintest of smiles.
“Hey, get away from him!” Rachel growled, sitting bolt upright in her chair as her hand tightened on the grip of her pistol.
“Aw, give it a rest,” Meg grumbled. She moved past me to the sitting area, pulled the pistol from the angry blonde’s grip, and popped out the clip. “She’s no threat, ‘n Mike’s a big boy who can take care of himself. I’d worry more about her,” she added, nodding her head slightly in Sexy’s direction.
Skinny ignored the tension around her and instead continued to stare up at me with wide eyes the color of slate, a faint blush coloring her cheeks. “Hoćete lid a me jebeš?” she said softly in an almost breathy voice, all while she fiddled with the collar of the dress shirt around her shoulders. Somehow, somewhere, a couple more buttons had come undone, and as my cock stiffened even further to the point of pain she tugged it open another half inch, exposing the pale, creamy flesh on her chest. “Molim te?” she added as she gave her already shiny lips another little lick of her tongue as she stepped way to close to me.
“Ah…” I stammered dumbly. Holy Jesus fucking Christ she is so fucking HOT…
“I think you’ve got a new friend,” Meg snickered.
“But I want to be with Mike!” Lillian whined.
“Madame President,” Lam replied patiently, “you are in no condition…”
“Oh, that’s bullshit,” Rachel barked hotly. “There’s no fucking way…”
“Does she wanna do Daddy stuff with Mister Mikey?” Paisley asked to nobody in particular, her voice a perhaps a bit too loud as she clutched Mister Pibb to her chest and looked nervous from all the heavy emotions roiling around..
The reactions of my girls was pretty much what I had come to expect – but what surprised me was just how upset Sexy was with Skinny’s come-on. The little brunette’s eyes flashed, and she leaned forward as her face contorted into a scowl. “Prestani da budeš jebena kurva!” she hissed furiously, her voice filled with rage.
“Odjebi pička!” Skinny hissed back, a look of pure contempt on her face. She spun to face her companion and crossed her arms under her chest, her spine ramrod straight and her expression haughty. “On mi je mnogo bolje nego ikada Valeriu tretira, a ja samo poznajem ga nekoliko hourse! Osim toga…” she continued as she turned her attention back to me, letting her eyes fall to the bulge in my jeans before returning them up to the vague area around my face as a brilliant blush colored her cheeks, “Ja mu dugujem spasio život.”
“Okay, enough,” I said wearily, working hard to keep the full-on rage out of my voice. Fuck, I just wanna get laid and go to sleep… “Lil, when Lam says you’re good to go, I’ll make sure you get the full-on Mike treatment. Rachel, stop being jealous. Paisley… yes, she does. And Meg…” I sighed and raked my fingers through my hair, feeling every pound of the dull throbbing behind my eyes. “You’re not helping. As usual.”
“’M not here ta help, Mike,” the redhead shot back with a grin.
“And you’re not doing your job so well,” I replied sarcastically. “You…” I continued, turning my attention to Sexy. “I’m going to nail your friend, ‘cause I’m pretty sure she wants it. Around here, we don’t tell others what they can or cannot do. If you don’t like it, well… tough shit.” I spun around and grabbed Skinny’s hand, ignoring the little squeak of surprise she issued as I started to drag her through the connecting door. “I’m going to take care of business ‘n get some sleep,” I ordered over my shoulder. “Don’t wander off and don’t bug me unless the building catches on fire or something. Meg, if people go exploring, make sure they stay on this floor and stay together.” And with that last command I kicked the door shut with my heel, the slam making it clear that I didn’t want to be disturbed.
The second I turned back Skinny didn’t waste a second, immediately dropping to her knees before me – and scraping her knobbly knees on the rough carpet, I’m sure – as her hands lashed out and she fumbled with the snap of my jeans. “Dozvolite mi sisati kurac!” she murmured, her eyes almost glazed as she unbuttoned my jeans and forced them down over my hips and thighs. “Želim da vas ukus u ustima…”
“Don’t understand a word you’re saying,” I muttered in reply. I leaned against the door as she worked my pants down to my feet, and then stepped out of the denim as she yanked them aside and tossed them across the room. “What’s your name?” I asked as she yanked at my boxer-briefs.
“Ne undersand,” she replied as she glanced up at my face and flashed a tight, quick smile. “Hoćete lid a me siluje?” she murmured, her eyes wide and her cheeks flushed to the point that she looked incredibly sexy, enough to give her companion a run for her money. “Želim da budem tvoj kučka, molim silovati me!” With one final tug she pulled my briefs down and freed my rock-hard cock that jutted from my hips like an accusing arm, and as she gazed in wonder at my manhood she almost whimpered with lust. “Ja samo želim da me siluje!” she added as she gripped the base of my prick with one tiny hand and leaned forward, bringing her face close and allowing her hot breath to wash over my shaft.
As I watched she opened her mouth and extended her tongue, bringing her lips even closer to my cock. The second that the tip met the base of my shaft she moaned a deep, guttural moan from deep in her chest, and her eyes fluttered and almost rolled into the back of her skull as she lapped from base to tip on my rod. She swirled her tongue around the head once, twice, three times, and then she lapped the tip as she slowly, firmly pumped her fist. The sight and sensation was incredible, and I could feel my lust growing even higher if possible. Without a word I laced my fingers through her greasy black hair, getting a good grip as I urged her head forward, intent on taking her oral worship of my manhood to the next level.
She was only too happy to acquiesce to my desires. The little girl opened her mouth like an anaconda, pushing her head forward to take as much of my cock between her stretched lips as possible. The tip of my rod bumped up against the back of her throat and she gagged, but to my distant surprise she kept pushing forward, forcing her throat to accept my cockhead. I was only too happy to help her out, and as I gently pressed against the back of her skull Skinny extended her neck and my shaft slid down her spasming windpipe as her nose bumped into my belly. As her eyes watered and she gagged again her fingers were furiously working between her thighs, frigging her little-girl clit furiously as she wormed and rolled her hips. Between the feeling of her throat twitching around my cock and the scent of her pre-teen pussy filling my nostrils I was teetering on the edge of sexual madness, and with a suddenness that surprised even me I decided to escalate things.
I tightened my grip on her hair and pulled her up off the floor, and Skinny scrabbled to gain her feet as I held her before me. My other hand grasped the front of the threadbare dress shirt and, with a single violent motion, I yanked down. She moaned as the thin fabric tore from throat to waist and squirmed in my grip, but I was too far gone and ignored her discomfort as I yanked the tattered remnants from her body. With a growl I pushed her backwards, and she stumbled and fell onto the mattress – and I finally got a good look at her. Her nickname was definitely appropriate… she was thin to the point of being gaunt, with arms and legs almost slim enough for me to wrap my fingers around with room to spare, while her waist actually contained a bit of an hourglass shape caused by the angles of her hips. Her flat chest actually displayed her ribs in sharp relief, and her neck was a tiny, thin post upon which her head was affixed. She looked incredibly fragile, almost like a china doll made of porcelain, but that just added to her allure. I didn’t say a word as I yanked my tee shirt up over my head, tossing it to the side as I stared at her with undisguised hunger.
The little cocktease was hot and ready, that much was apparent from the way she spread her legs wide, letting thighs no bigger around than my wrist fall wide open to expose a tiny little slit that looked no bigger than a dime on edge. One tiny hand flashed down between her legs and she pressed the tip of her middle finger against the top of the slit, moaning softly as she wriggled the digit just the tiniest bit. “Da, molim!” she half-sobbed, half-groaned as she rolled a clit that looked not bigger than the tip of a ballpoint pen, her eyes locked on my raging erection. “Make me iour kuju!!!”
The effect of my arousal, of the sight of the naked, lust-crazed little girl before me, of her delicate, delicious female scent filling my soul forced everything around me to recede until there was literally only me and her, and I let my lust rage forth as I leapt on top of her with a growl. Skinny whoofed! as I landed on top of her, pressing my forearm to her sternum to keep her in place while I gripped the base of my throbbing cock and pressed the bulbous head against her immature pussy. She was far too tight, and even though I was pressed up fully against her fuck-hole it felt as if I were trying to drive my prick through a brick wall – but after being denied for far too long I refused to quit, and with a snarl I rammed my hips forward and with a sudden release forced my way inside of her. She cried out and bucked, but I simply moved my hand to her shoulder as I pressed forward, sliding inch after painful inch inside her warm, wet cunt. As small as she was I bottomed out inside of her almost instantly, but it was good enough… and without hesitation I pulled out almost all the way and then rammed back home with full force.
On the mattress Skinny could do nothing but whimper and squirm, but I wasn’t having any of that! My hand flashed out and I gripped both of her straw-sized wrists in my grip as I forced her arms above her head to hold her steady while my other hand encircled her calf and held her leg out to the side in what was surely a painful stretch, all to give me full access to her tight little cunt. I pulled out and rammed home again, and again, and again, setting up a rough, hard, steady pounding as I sought to drive myself home into her with each thrust, each pump of my cock punching against her cervix and ripping a sobbing moan of pained pleasure from between her gaping, gasping lips. For her part Skinny was babbling in her strange language, her tone begging – although whether she was begging for me to stop or begging for more I wasn’t sure, nor did I truly care. “Nemoj!” she sob/screamed as my balls slapped against her bony ass and I bottomed out once more. “Molim vas, nemojte uspori! Prisiliti ga i silovanje mel!!!”
The wave of my lust roiled higher and higher, the idea of the tiny, fragile-looking girl helpless to prevent my pounding cock from spearing into her sending me higher as much as the sensation of her far-too-tight pussy stretched around my girth and the feeling of my balls slapping against her ass. Beneath me I was dimly aware of Skinny shivering, shuddering, and then stiffening with a strangled sob of release as her little-girl body surrendered to a truly titanic orgasm, and the knowledge that she was ready to receive my gift was what sent me over the edge and with a growl of pure, unrestrained animal lust I shoved my shaft as deep into her as possible as I jetted blast after white-hot blast of my seed directly into her pre-teen womb.
I don’t know how long I came inside the little girl – maybe just a few seconds, maybe an entire year. But after what felt like an eternity I finally started to come down off my sexual high. I collapsed in exhaustion on top of Skinny, pinning her to the mattress fully with my full weight as I gasped for air. My legs trembled and my shoulders ached, and I felt as though I had just run a marathon while carrying a set of weights, and it was all I could do to force the fog from my mind. Slowly I realized where I was and what I was doing – and more importantly what I was laying atop. Crap, I’m probably crushing her! I thought as I stirred and tried to roll to one side. Skinny was having none of that, though… with a strength that belied her tiny, immature form she wrapped her arms around my sweaty torso and clutched me tight. “Ne, ne izvuče!” she half-sobbed, her tone pleading as she shuddered against me. “Molim vas, master, imate mene potpuno, molim te ne izvuče iz mene!”
I half-smiled and gave her a tiny little kiss on top of her head, and then tightened my grip around her shoulders. With a single fluid motion I rolled over, bringing her along with me as I lay on my back with her on top of my prone body. Skinny shivered and gave a little moan as she rolled her hips, whimpering slightly as I stretched out her innards. “I can’t understand a single word coming out of your mouth,” I said with an easy chuckle as I slid my hand down her smooth, sweaty back and lightly patted her flat, firm bottom. I planted another kiss on the crown of her skull and pushed her upright a bit so I could see her face, and a sudden flash of caring arced through my soul – she looked so small, so adorable, and way too helpless, her little-girl face stained with tears but with a strangely joyous smile on her face, and far too young to be so happy at having my cock lodged in her straining pre-teen pussy. “We have got to teach you English,” I added as I smiled at her again as I felt my heart thud in my chest, this time from emotions rather than effort.
“Moje ime je Nađa,” she said in a quiet, almost ethereal voice. At my blank look she smiled gently and placed a hand on her flushed, sweaty chest. “Nađa” she repeated, giving her sternum an audible thump as she tapped herself with her fingers. Then she transferred the same hand to my sweaty, muscular chest and repeated the tap. “Majkl,” she said simply. She tapped herself again and said “Nađa” one more time.
Blame it on the exhaustion and my recent orgasm, but her words and movements sank through the fog of my brain and I finally understood. “Your name is Nadia,” I replied, anglicizing her name in the process. “Is that right?” The little girl beamed and nodded, looking pleased that I finally comprehended what she was trying to communicate. “Well, Nadia,” I added with a chuckle as I gave her a light tap on her adorable, upturned nose with a fingertip, “you are an incredibly tight little fuck.”
Even though I knew she had no idea what I was saying, the little girl smiled and grabbed my hand. Bringing it to her lips, she graced my palm with a kiss that was soft, gentle, sweet and filled with a level of sexiness that I had never actually experienced before. She kissed my palm a second time and then pressed it to her cheek, all the while staring at me with wide, adoration-filled eyes.
It was hot – and even though I had emptied the contents of my balls into her mere minutes earlier, even though I was still hard and lodge inside her tiny little pre-teen body, I could feel the animal lust in my hind brain stirring once more. A war raged inside of me – should I roll her back over and violate her tiny, helpless body once more, or should I do the responsible thing? Tragically, responsibility won out… “We should get some sleep,” I said quietly as I stroked her cheek.
Nadia preened and kissed my stroking palm, gently pressing it against her face as she gave a little wriggle of her narrow hips. My cock shifted inside of her, and she gasped as my shaft prodded yet another hyper-sensitive spot. “Ne želim li ikada prestati me jebe, moj ratnik,” she whispered. The little girl lay on my chest, nuzzling the side of my neck as she clung to me and basked in the afterglow of her orgasm.
“Not a clue what you’re saying,” I repeated softly as I slid my palm down her sweat-slicked back to cup her flat, bare ass. “But I hope it’s something sweet. Or dirty.”
I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised at just how fast I fell asleep.
Naturally, with the way that our luck was running, our respite did not last very long.
“Mike!” Meg’s voice, normally confident and assured, sounded more than a little panicked as she burst through the door. I guess her timing could have been worse… The few hours of sleep that I had managed to wedge in had helped (as had the feeling of emptying my balls into a tiny, skinny, very enthusiastic little Serbian girl who squirmed and moaned and helplessly came over and over again beneath me as I split her open with my huge, manly cock), so I actually felt as though I could actually face the world. I had just woke up and was debating on whether to avail myself of my Slavic princess once again or not when things started quickly going downhill. “Mike, we gotta problem,” the Marine continued as she motored into the room with Lam hot on her heels.
I pulled myself out of Nadia’s arms and sat up, scanning the floor for my clothes. “What?” I asked with a sinking feeling as my new playmate bit her lip and looked worried while she clutched the sheet over her nude and well-used body.
“Feral,” the redhead simply said. I cursed softly as Lam handed me my pants and I swung my leg over the side, slipping my feet into the rough denim. “Just a couple, but I think there’s more lurking around out there,” she added as she pulled back one edge of the heavy curtain and peered out into the sunlit parking lot below.
“How the fuck do they keep finding us?” I groused as I slid my tee over my head. I padded across the carpet on bare feet, my footfalls sending up tiny little clouds of dust with each step that almost glittered in the brilliant sunshine leaking around the curtain, and joined the Marine in peering out. There were three of them, two swaying in the middle of the road in front of the hotel and another shuffling its way down the exit ramp, their sun-scorched flesh looking raw and severely burned. “Have they spotted us?” I asked.
“I… don’t think so.” The redhead sighed as she stepped under my arm and slid down the wall, a look of strain clearly on her face. “We can’t keep doing this,” she said weakly as she clutched the barrel of her gun so tightly that her knuckles started turning white. “We’ve got to find a way to get back down south, back into Maryland and back home.”
“They have caught our scent,” Lam said quietly. I looked up to see her ‘hustling’ Nadia out of bed, quickly pressing some borrowed clothing into the girl’s hands and encouraging her to get dressed. “I believe that these creatures are forming into larger and larger packs, moving as a singular group whenever one of the pack’s members catches a scent.”
I glanced at Meg, who simply stared back and shrugged. “That sounds… logical,” I replied, and noted the Asian girl almost preen under my praise. “So the pack from last night has been chasing us, herding us north?”
“Erm… No, I do not believe they are herding, Master.” Lam glanced at the open door and then darted past Rachel as she ‘escorted’ Sexy inside to help Paisley with the hobbling, slightly improved Lillian. “I recognize pack behavior,” she continued as she helped the wincing Latina onto my sex-stained sheets, “but they do not evidence any of the intelligence required to herd their prey. I think that they…” Lam gave a tiny little shudder and swallowed as she paled a little bit, and then her gaze grew steely as her professionalism kicked in. “I think they’ve caught our scent and are tracking us. Normally we could just outrun them, but…”
“But this pack’s so fuckin’ big that they can’t help but stumble over us,” Meg supplied. The Marine snorted a dark, almost ironic laugh. “And we’ve been makin’ it easy for them, backtracking and backing up and taking random turns ‘n getting lost...”
“It’s the roads in this state,” I complained, perhaps a bit more hotly than I intended. “Half of them are blocked with piles of wrecks stacked to the sky, while the other half have trees across them.”
“Michael, nobody is saying that you are not doing your best,” Lam quickly interjected.
“Yeah!” Rachel almost skipped on over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist, a maneuver that was matched by Paisley doing the same on my other side. “You’ve been saving us all, you saved us all tons of times!” she added, while my little pigtailed playmate merely tried to crush the life out of me.
“Honest, I wasn’t shittin’ on your drivin’, Mike,” Meg insisted.
I sighed and gave my two little octopi a quick squeeze, and then wormed my way out of their grip and turned my attention back to the cracked curtain and the world outside. “Yeah, I know,” I replied as I pulled back one edge to gain a slightly better view. “But now that we’ve got half a second we need to figure out what we’re going to do. Shit!”
“What?” The Marine asked, suddenly alert.
“There’s another one.” A sun-charred, bare-butt naked form shambled out from behind the convenience store, slowly ambling in the vague direction of the road and not appearing in any too great of a hurry. I glanced off to the right and saw Exit-Ramp Asshole shift his shuffle slightly as he moved towards Gas-Station Asshole, while the twin Intersection Assholes started in the same direction. “They do seem to want to pack up, why is that?” I wondered.
“Maybe they’re like dogs, and want to form into packs to hunt,” Lillian suggested.
I glanced at Meg and then over my shoulder at Lam, the look on both their faces telling me that we had come to the same conclusion. “You might be right,” I replied as I turned my attention back outside.
“Well, doesn’t this just fuckin’ suck,” the redhead groused.
“Why?” Rachel asked.
“Because if they’re packing up,” I said slowly and quietly, trying to keep my voice reasonable so as not to terrify the already nervous girls, “then in the future we’re probably going to run into larger and larger numbers, all clustered into one spot. Last night, we probably ran into the pack from Philadelphia.”
“That is correct, Master. Given the numbers we have seen so far, that is likely a safe conclusion.” Lam slipped onto my sex-stained sheets and took a quick look at Lillian’s hands and feet, nodding as she seemed to like the injured girl’s progress. “I believe that we should get back to the Towers as soon as possible. It is likely that if we can get far enough ahead of this group, we should be able to stop them from tracking us.”
“Easier said than done, Doc.” Meg gave my hip a tiny little nudge and a tiny nod of her head outside in an attempt to draw my attention to three more Feral wandering through the sea of cars on the overpass. “Why don’t you two get packed,” she suggested to Paisley and Rachel. “We’re probably gonna have to move fast when we jet outta here.”
“What… we… do?” For a second I wasn’t sure who was speaking, and then with a start I realized that it was Sexy! I honestly believe that my mouth was literally hanging open as I spun and stared at the gorgeous little girl – and I was relieved to see that I wasn’t the only one in the room showing shock. For her part the pre-teen almost shrank under our wide-eyed gazes, blushing faintly for a moment before stiffening and fixing us with a defiant glare. “We help!” she insisted forcefully as she planted her fists on the waist of her borrowed, slightly-too-large denim shorts.
“Šta to pričaš?” Nadia asked worriedly as she hurriedly tugged down a baggy, oversized tee with a rainbow pony on the chest over her bony frame. “Šta se dešava?”
“Mi smo bili pronađen od strane kanibala i moraju da beže,” Sexy replied. As Nadia swallowed heavily and a combined sick/terrified look washed over her paling feature, the brunette turned her attention back towards me. “Monsters,” she said, pointing at the curtained window. “We help!”
“Okay.” I stared at her for another few heartbeats, and then turned back to Meg. “We don’t have food or water, but the Hummer has pretty much a full tank,” I pointed out. “And it’s parked right outside the lobby. Do you think we could get to it without attracting attention?”
“Maybe. Dunno.” The little redhead peered outside for a moment, and I could see the wheels turning inside her head. “There’s seven… no, scratch that, there’s another.” She swore under her breath and turned back to me, her face grim. “Eight so far, and I think that we’re gonna get more every minute. If we’re gonna bolt, we need to do it now.”
That made up my mind for me. “We’re gone,” I said forcefully. “Lam, can you take Paisley and help Lil get down? Rachel, take Nadia and grab what you think we could use. Everyone meet by the stairs in, like, right now.”
“Who’s Nadia?” asked my suddenly ditzy blonde lover.
“Her,” I replied simply with a wave of my hand as I tried to keep my exasperation out of my voice.
“Oh… Okay, Mikey! C’mon…” Rachel grabbed a nervous and confused Nadia’s hand and dashed from the room, while Lam merely bobbed her head and started giving orders to the nervous and worried Paisley, instructing the innocent girl just what she should do to help.
“What I do?” asked Sexy, her throaty, little-girl voice forcing an involuntarily stir in my pants.
I glanced at Meg, who stared at the brunette critically before turning her face to mine. We stared at each other for a handful of seconds, silently sharing an almost psychic debate with each other until the Marine shrugged. “Not like we gotta choice,” she said wryly. The redhead turned back to Sexy, her gaze calculating. “What’s your name?”
“Milinka”
I fired off a half-grin as I nodded. “Okay, Millie, we’re gonna trust you,” I said. I glanced at Meg, nodded my head towards her bag-o-guns, and then gave a little half-wave in the general direction of our newest companion. Meg gave a little frown but simply nodded and pulled out a small pistol. “We’ve got Feral moving into the area…” I began as Milinka stepped forward and took the proffered weapon.
“Cannibals,” Milinka insisted with a frown.
“What?”
“They eat and rape,” the brunette explained in a matter-of-fact tone as she quickly (and far too expertly, I noted) popped the clip, checked the load, slapped it back into the grip of the pistol, and racked the slide to put one in the chamber. “They cannibals.”
“We call them Feral,” Meg replied with a frown of her own.
“Cannibals!” the foreign girl fired back with emphasis.
“What we call them is beside the point,” I interjected with a sigh of patience. “The point is that there are more coming every second. We need to get out of here, and we think you can fight. So we’re trusting you. Just… try not to shoot any of us.”
“I no promise,” Milinka replied in a deadpan tone, but the tiny twinkle in her eyes told me that she didn’t really mean it. Holding the small pistol just behind her backside with what looked like a well-practiced grip, she leaned between Meg and I and took a peek outside, holding the curtain open with one hand as she leaned forward. “Stand in front, I shoot. Out of way, I don’t shoot. You choose.”
Meg and I shared a look of surprise. “Was that a joke?” she asked incredulously.
“A joke,” I agreed. “Who’d have thunk it? Okay, let’s go.”
It only took us a couple of minutes to gather what little we could scrounge, and before I knew it we were clustered by the door to the stairwell. A quick glance down told me that nothing had filtered into the hotel during our too-brief respite, and I led the way down with the girls following close behind. It took far longer than I would have liked – between trying to be as quiet as possible, our weak hunger, and the slow-moving Lillian, by the time we descended the four flights of stairs I was practically buzzing with barely-constrained tension. We paused while I checked out the dark ground-floor hallway, but again there was nothing. We trooped our way to the lobby, the blandly homey room filled with shadows that seemed almost menacing – although I think it was actually my nervous anticipation of what was to come. Through the glass doors I could see the Hummer sitting silent and unmolested, exactly where we left it. It looked safe and secure, but I knew in my heart that that particular state of affairs wouldn’t last long. “Everyone ready?” I asked quietly as I checked my shotgun for the umpteen-billionth time. The girls nodded, looking both scared and determined at the same time. One last glance at Meg (who looked to be as tense as I felt) and Milinka (whose almost seemed to exude a ho-hum, blasé attitude), and I took a deep breath. “Let’s do it.”
Rachel yanked open the door and I stepped out, spinning first to the right and then to the left, my senses hyper-charged for any threat. Nothing immediately leapt out at me – but the second that Meg and Milinka stepped out with me, an almost unholy howl rose around us! To my left six Feral charged up the hill, and I took another step and braced myself as I brought my shotgun to bear on them. I sensed a presence next to me as Meg took up position, and the Marine snapped off a quick shot that actually hit one of the charging forms… but except for causing it to jerk back as the bullet punched into its shoulder, the Feral didn’t even slow its sprint. A brilliant, feminine scream of fear dueled with a howl behind me, and a quick glance over my shoulder allowed me to see Milinka coolly shoot a rushing Feral in the head and then give a little hop as its body plowed into the brickwork at her feet. I didn’t pause and instead turned my attention back to the hill, the racing forms, the distance between us that was vanishing far too quickly…
“Michael!” Lam yelled.
“Odjebi!” Milinka snapped as she fired again.
“Go!” I shouted. I pulled the trigger and dropped the nearest one, and while I racked in a new shell Meg fired and dropped a second. I fired again as the Marine rapidly pulled the trigger, emptying the clip and dropping another one. Three Feral were down, but another five charged up the hill hot on their heels and a sixth was uncomfortably close, their sprinting gaits eating up the distance between us far too quickly. “Into the truck!” I yelled as I grabbed the back of Meg’s tee and practically threw her backwards, and as the last creature lunged I smashed its face with the butt of my shotgun to the accompaniment of slamming doors.
As the thing toppled backwards in a spray of blood and teeth I spun and leapt for the driver’s door. A Feral rushed at me from the back of the Hummer, but before I could react Milinka leaned out of the open window and drilled it in the throat. A second half-stumbled over the first and her second shot went wide, and then one taloned paw gripped the frame while it reached inside for the object of its obsession. Several of the girls screamed and I didn’t hesitate – pressing the barrel of my shotgun against the beast’s side, I pulled the trigger violently and practically cut the thing in half as I scrambled into the seat. “Everyone down!” I yelled as I dropped my weapon at Meg’s feet, pulled the door shut, and thumbed the ignition, everything seeming to happen at the same time. The engine roared to life as another Feral leapt onto the hood, but as the thing reared back to smash into the windshield I dropped the vehicle into gear and punched the gas. The Hummer surged forward and the thing toppled over, sliding across the hood and falling off to the side as I peeled out. A half-spin of the wheel and I was barreling down the hill, the thick, wet whams of a pair of Feral denting the front panels echoing as I gained speed and rammed my way through them.
At the bottom of the hill I barely tapped the brakes as I wheeled the Hummer right, fishtailing the truck as the tire screeched and smacking a pair of charging Feral with the rear bumper as I regained control. The pileup at the intersection loomed up far too quickly, and I made to turn the wheel back to the left – only to see yet more of the creatures charging towards us! “Mother fucker!” I yelled as I changed my movements and veered right, fishtailing once again as I took the entry ramp back onto the highway. Nimbly I slipped past a pickup truck that was for some reason sideways across the road, and then gunned the engine as I blasted away. “Can we turn around and go south?” I asked in a tight, tense voice.
“No, there’s too many of ‘em!” Meg reached up and slid back the sunroof, half-kneeling on her seat as she stuck her head out and looked behind us as I turned back onto the northbound lanes of the highway. After only a few heartbeats she dropped back down, a sick look on her face readily noticeable through the wild, windswept tangled mess that had been her hair. “There’s a ton of ‘em coming up fast, on both sides of the road,” she told me. “We’re gonna have to keep going until we can find a place to double back.”
I glanced in the rearview mirror and was mesmerized by the sight. Feral, literally dozens of them, were charging down the road after us, threading through the stalled and wrecked cars like sprinters as they pursued the succulent feast I was chauffeuring through the gently rolling countryside. A sudden screech of metal against metal tore my attention away from the things behind us and back into the here-and-now, and I yanked the wheel to my left to pull the Hummer away from the upside-down police cruiser that I had accidentally sideswiped. SO not good… I moaned silently to myself as the truck gave a little shudder and the grinding of the front wheel grew a little rougher, loud enough to be heard over the growling of the engine. This is so not good…
Three hours later I was fighting to keep calm… a difficult task as I was on the verge of panicking. We never really seemed to shake the Feral after our escape from Franklin Park – every time we changed roads or tried to go south or west we would invariably trip over a small band that immediately homed in on our struggling truck. Even more frustrating was the fact that the further north we were driven the more clogged the roads became with abandoned wrecks, and maneuvering through the sea of stalled vehicles dropped our speed down to a crawl and forced us to take the only roads that even seemed vaguely passable, those leading northeast. But foremost in my mind was the front right wheel, the grinding, crackling noises that were plainly audible over the low growl of the engine. Don’t stall, keep moving, I prayed silently – and my devotion was rewarded with the entire Hummer jerking as the wheel seized up for a millisecond before breaking loose with a truly teeth-aching crack of splitting metal.
Our journey came to an end at a small town in northeast New Jersey. “Mike,” Meg noted in a small voice, “we’re running outta road.”
I managed to keep the scowl off my face and stopped from snapping at the tiny redhead. “It’s not like we gotta choice,” I replied quietly. “And I don’t know how much longer we can keep going in this thing.” I sighed and listened to the grind-pop of the wheel, trying very hard not to scream in frustration. “Maybe steal a new truck, try going south along the coast?”
“Maybe.” The Marine winced as another bearing sheared, glanced behind us, and leaned in close. “This thing won’t last long,” she noted. “We gotta decide soon.”
“Mikey!” Rachel’s excited, squealing voice directly into my ear almost gave me a heart attack, and it was all I could do not to scream myself. “Look!”
“Don’t DO that!” As I worked to get my heart rate back down to somewhere approaching a thousand beats per minute I followed her pointing arm… and beheld something that took my mind a second or two to actually register. It had been a billboard, no different than the hundreds of other advertising perfume or tourist destinations or cigarettes or whatever in this part of the country – but this one was different. At one time it had hawked jewelry and featured an elegant blonde woman in an evening dress showing off the glittering baubles on her wrist and around her neck (and draped enticingly over her rather large breasts, I noted), but a graffiti artist had done a number. Scrawled across the surface in bright, electric-pink lettering was a message – SURVIVORS – THIS EXIT DOCKS FIRE FLARE WE’RE WAITING! “I… Is that for real?” I stammered as I slowed down to take a better look.
“I see it too, Master,” Lam replied from the back seat.
I glanced at Meg. “Do we risk it?” I asked.
Meg opened her mouth to reply… and at the same moment, the Hummer hit a truly monstrous pothole. The right-front tire slammed down and back up in a fraction of a second, the bounce accompanied by a harsh metallic crack from deep within the wheel assembly, and the nose of the truck almost seemed to shimmy and shake as we slowed to a crawl. “Fuck, we might not have a choice anymore,” she replied darkly. “Do it,” she advised as she unstrapped her seatbelt and reached down to the arsenal between her feet.
“Okay, we’ll do it.” I turned the wheel and gently nursed the Hummer around the curve of the exit, mumbling a silent prayer to the vehicle gods to keep the mortally wounded truck moving. “Lam, get Lillian ready to move,” I continued as I slowly slalomed around the scattered obstructions filling the road. “Rachel, you ride herd on Paisley – and on Nadia, too. Millie, Meg…”
“Yeah, yeah,” the Marine replied sourly. “Shoot anything with a dick ‘n an attitude.” She turned in her seat and passed a few more clips back to our resident Soviet secret agent, and then began to check the magazine of my shotgun.
A sedan had taken down the small sign, so I never discovered the name of the town – but whatever it had been, it was nothing but a cluster of large, expensive-looking mansions and cars sitting silent and empty amid overgrown lawns and trash-strewn streets. It looked peaceful and it looked abandoned, but even here there were signs of the Event… a few cars had run up onto sidewalks and bumped into stone retaining walls, one mansion was little more than a burned-out shell, and a scattered bits of clothing dotted the edges of the road. Through the open sunroof I could smell the briny scent of the ocean over the reek of the Hummer, and movement caught my eye as seagulls wheeled overhead. I spared a glance into the rearview mirror and felt my stomach sink as I spotted a distant form, well over a mile back, sprinting down the road, and I tried to squeak another mile or two of speed out of the Hummer.
I managed to limp the truck past the center of town (such as it was… the place was literally little more than a stoplight at an intersection, surrounded by kitchy boutique stores selling expensive bric-a-brac that nobody would ever need ever again) and returned to the landscape of expensive beachfront mini-mansions dotting either side of the road. A tiny little wooden sign up to the left heartened me for a moment, and I actually felt my spirits lift a hair as I realized that the docks were only one half mile up ahead. Of course, my happiness was instantly dashed when the Hummer jerked once, then twice, and then there was the screech of metal tearing and what sounded like a tiny grinding explosion, and the right-front axle finally gave up the ghost and locked up completely. “Shit,” I muttered as I pressed down on the brake and stopped, and when I tried to continue on the wheel shrieked as it slid along the asphalt. “Fuck, this thing’s gone,” I remarked as I thumbed off the engine and silence filled the cab – and felt a momentary flash of pride that I managed to keep the panic out of my voice. Not good, this is SO not good… “It looks like we’ll have to hoof it from here.”
“Mikey…” Rachel said in a tiny, almost terrified little-girl voice.
“I know,” I quickly said in a low, even, and what I hoped was a calming voice. “Meg, you take the lead,” I continued as I leaned over and retrieved my shotgun from between the redhead’s feet, “and I’ll take up the rear. Everyone try to stick together,” I added as I turned and looked at the girls over the back of the seat. “Don’t get too far ahead, and keep an eye out for trouble.” Nobody said anything, but the nervous looks on their faces told me that they didn’t have to – they knew just how dangerous things were likely to be.
The second that I slid out of the driver’s seat of the Hummer I felt the sun beat down on me, the tingling of my skin as much from the hot rays tanning my flesh as from the beads of sweat breaking out on my forehead and neck. As the girls piled out I checked the magazine of my shotgun and looped the strap over my shoulder, peering around for any signs that something local had noticed our arrival while the Marine started off at a brisk walk. The quiet sounds of solitude filled my ear – the noise of a distant surf rolling into the shore, the screaming of gulls floating overhead, and the pinging of hot metal almost seemed beautiful after the grinding screech of our no-longer-functioning vehicle, and I took a heartbeat to try and relax. Rachel and Paisley skittered past (the former taking the opportunity to run her fingertips across my abs as she flashed me a wicked grin), followed closely by Lam and the hobbling Lillian. Nadia was next, and then Milinka, and then I started out. I glanced back and spotted a pair of fast-moving figures racing in our general direction, and my bucolic state was wiped away in an instant as I noted that the threat to our wellbeing had doubled in a seeming instant. “Let’s pick up the pace a little bit,” I said quietly as I sped up, herding the two newcomers before me and drawing even to the doctor and the President. “Here, let me help,” I added as I swept up the Latina in my arms.
“I’m sorry, Mike,” Lillian apologized as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and tried not to squirm too much as my breathing became labored. “I’m slowing you down, just leave me behind…”
I flashed the Latina in my arms a tight grin and gave her flat ass a little pinch, to which she graced me with a little squeak. “I’m not even gonna respond to that,” I replied. I spared a millisecond to glance behind us – and any humor I might have felt vanished as I noted that the twinned Feral had been joined by one of their buddies, the trio about half a mile back and closing fast. “Millie, keep up,” I tossed off to the sexy girl on my right. “Lam…”
“I am okay, Michael.” Despite her words I could sense the nervous quaver in her voice, and glanced at the Asian girl out of the corner of her eye. Lam had tiny beads of sweat gleaming on her forehead that dripped down her face as she ran, and her normally inscrutable mien was replaced with a sick, worried look as she glanced behind her. “I am just feeling… sick.”
“Is it serious?” I managed to gasp out.
The little girl gave me a grim smile and a quick shake of her head. “No, Master. I am…” She swallowed heavily for a second as she almost stumbled, and then her smile turned a little sick. “Remember, I am carrying your child as well, Master,” she explained as she placed a tiny hand on her still-flat tummy. “That has some temporary, ongoing physiological effects.”
“She hasn’t had a chance to puke her guts up like me today,” Lillian added in a somewhat sick, worried tone of her own. She tightened her arms around my shoulders and gave a little shudder as she looked behind us, and in response I redoubled my efforts.
In just a handful of minutes we finally made it to the dock area. The road led down to a paved parking lot sporting only three dark and silent cars, and beyond a small chain-link fence were what looked like concrete piers surfaced by heavy wooden planks. A small guard shack that didn’t look like it could stand up to anything fiercer than a stiff breeze stood silent watch next to a gate, but far more tantalizing were the dozen or so boats bobbing in their slips. Meg darted forward, spared a fraction of a second to glance into the guard shack, and then pulled the gate open as the others hobbled their way forward. “Mike, head’s up!” the redhead shouted as waved past me with her pistol as Rachel and Paisley dashed past her.
I spared a look over my shoulder and saw that the number of Feral had increased to five as two more darted out of a side street and joined their friends. “Shit!” I swore softly but emphatically as I pushed Lillian back into Lam’s arms, spun, and brought up my shotgun. “Go, get moving!” Next to me a gunshot cracked as Meg snapped off a round, but the bullet whinged off the asphalt between two of the rushing things and the Marine swore. On the other side of me Milinka raised her tiny little .22 caliber pistol and pulled the trigger in a single motion, and though her round drilled home into a Feral’s legs the thing just shrugged off the damage and kept coming. “Get through the gate!” I shouted to the girls behind me. “Find that flare and fire it!”
“Jebi ga, idemo da umremo…” Milinka muttered as she took another shot.
“I hear that,” I replied, fairly sure of the sentiment from the tone of her voice. I pulled the trigger, backed up a few steps while working the slide, and then shot again. One Feral lost a good half of his thigh and went face-first into the asphalt while another stumbled as buckshot tore through his torso – but still another four were coming fast behind the vanguard. Milinka dropped a third with a pair of shots from her pistol, I racked and shot again and dropped a fourth, and then suddenly I felt metallic links against my back as we reached the gate. “Where’s that flare?” I yelled over my shoulder as I nudged Milinka through the gate behind me with my hip and fired again.
“We’re looking!” Rachel shouts.
I fired one more time, and then took a step backwards as I racked the slide as Meg slammed the gate shut. The closest Feral, sun-scorched monstrosity, slammed into the chain link as the redhead swore and leapt back, but far more alarming was the way that the cheap fence bowed inwards. I blasted a hole through the thing’s chest and then lay the scorching-hot barrel across my forearm as I fumbled with the last few shells in my pocket. Meg darted back in, threaded the lock-chain through links a few times to secure the gate and then squeaked in alarm as a Feral lunged, but she quickly brought up her pistol and shot the beast. “Mike, we’re running low on ammo!” the redhead announced as she ejected her empty clip. On my other side Milinka took a shooting stance and pulled the trigger once-twice-three times, each shot in quick succession at that charging enemy.
“There it is, over there!” I hear Lillian yell.
I didn’t answer, but instead concentrated on slotting in the last five of my shells into the feed of the shotgun. We’re boned, we’re so boned… Distantly I heard a throaty thump, and I glanced up to see a brilliant red flare shoot skyward – but I had a far more pressing matter with which to deal. I turned back and shot blindly through the fence, dropping another Feral, and then tried not to blanch as I spotted another dozen filtering through the vacation homes and bearing down on the docks. “Back up, everyone get back!” I ordered as I racked a new shell. Meg paused to pull the trigger three more times, running a line of gunshots up a Feral from navel to forehead, and then turned and quickly skittered past me. Milinka instead stood in a shooting stance, coolly pulling the trigger over and over, one shot per Feral as she dropped three more, and then merely popped out the empty clip and slotted in a new one. “Millie!” I shouted.
“Imam ovo!” she yelled over shoulder as she racked the slide of her pistol, turned back to the gate, took careful aim… and the army of Feral slammed full-force into fence! “Fuck!” she screeched as the fence groaned and started to bend, and as the things started to clamber up the rapidly drooping chain-link she backpedaled furiously.
I lunged forward as first Feral tumbles over the top, intent on doing something, anything, to save Milinka. “Go, get onto one of the docks!” I screamed over my shoulder to the girls. The sexy brunette raised her pistol and pulled the trigger, but she stumbled as she backpedaled and the bullet went wild – and to my horror the Feral skittered forward as another two scrambled over collapsing fence. I reached her just as she fell onto her ass but the Feral reached her at the exact same time, and the thing’s sharp claws dug into her bare calf. She screamed in pain and I didn’t hesitate – I pulled the trigger and my shotgun roared, and the creature’s head exploded, showering both of us with gore. I racked another shell, grabbed the scruff of her collar, and yanked the little girl backwards as I pulled the trigger once more. “Move!” I shouted as I dragged her upright and gave her a not-too-gentle shove towards the dock as I racked another shell.
The world seemed to break into fragmentary shards as the tsunami of Feral rose over us.. The girls running down dock in a panic, desperate to escape… Paisley with her hands over her ears as she screams, and Rachel grabbing one of her forearms as she scrambled past… Meg stumbling as a Feral grasped her ankle an instant before she shot it in the head, and her attempt to regain her footing as she fired over her shoulder… Feral corpses and wounded covering the land-end of the wooden dock, stacking like cordwood as we emptied our weapons at them… The feeling of the last round from my shotgun peppering two Feral at the same time… A Feral’s claws tearing at Milinka’s forearm as she tried to put three rounds into its chest…
A sudden whistle past my head snapped me back to the present, and before me a snarling Feral’s head came apart like an overripe cantaloupe, spraying both Milinka and I with bits of brain and skull and blood. I kicked at the thing gripping the girl’s arm, ignoring her scream of pain at the tearing flesh as a second Feral’s skull exploded while I dragged us backwards, scrabbling to gain traction on the slick wood beneath my feet. I less scrambled than stumbled, my attention focused on the monstrous things before us, and a third Feral went down with a hole drilled neatly right between its eyes, and a fourth took a bullet in the throat…
“Volver!!!” A feminine voice shouted as a tiny little form darted past. She was incredibly short, with skin a hue darker than Lillian’s and jet-black hair flowing in a wild mane about her head. My gaze was pulled past the short-shorts and babydoll tee to the liquor bottle in her hand, the make-shift cloth wick smoldering with a tiny flame as she drew her arm back. A truly titanic heave and the bottle was spinning, sailing towards the asphalt at the end of the dock, and it hit and the world exploded into flame. “Ai macho!!!” the little girl screamed defiantly at the suddenly ablaze Feral, standing ramrod straight as she threw both hands into the air and flipped off the howling mass.
“Mike, move!” Meg sang out. I wrapped one arm around Milinka and turned, running for a motorboat emblazoned with the New York Police Department initials at the end of the dock. Atop the cabin a small figure lay behind a massive rifle, and a brilliant flash sounded the exact same second another whistle of a close-passing bullet sailed past my head. Lam and Lillian were already onboard, Nadia was scrambling over the side and Rachel was encouraging Paisley to follow the skinny girl’s example. Meg was scampering down the dock, and as the tiny little Latina gangbanger scrabbled past I tightened my grip around Milinka and poured on the speed. Behind us I could hear shrieks, although if they were of fierce rage or of agony I wasn’t sure, and I sprinted. I must have covered the two hundred foot length of the dock in three seconds, and I could hear the roar of an engine as I threw the sexy little brunette over the side and leapt after her…
“Mikey!” Rachel wrapped her arms around me, clutching my sweaty form to her body with a grip that threatened to crack my ribs. “Mikey, are you okay, please be okay…” I felt tiny hands helping me up off the grimy, salt-stained metal deck of the motorboat, and I gasped for breath as I sat. The boat heaved as it pulled away from the burning dock, the acrid smell of burning wood filling my nostrils as I tried to regain my balance. I glanced at the little blonde girl and tried to smile, hoping that I didn’t look like the battered nightmare I felt like I was. Lam knelt just beyond Rachel, her inscrutable look giving nothing away, while Paisley and Nadia huddled together on my left, both of them gazing at me with nervous looks filled with hope. Milinka gasped and wheezed as she cradled her gouged arm against her belly, the slowly oozing blood soaking into and staining her borrowed tee. And Meg knelt at my feet, her face turned away from me as she faced down our rescuers, her empty pistol clutched tightly in her hands.
Slowly I managed to calm down a bit and catch my breath, looking past the Marine towards the others clustered around the motorboat’s cabin. A tiny little thing with mousey-brown, close-cropped hair and a pair of oversized mirrored sunglasses wrapped around her skull was clambering down from the roof, the grossly oversized polo shirt emblazoned with an NYPD logo hanging almost down to her knees and mostly concealing the rifle that was almost as tall as she was hanging behind one shoulder. At the bottom of the ladder was the gangbanger arsonist who glared at us with hard, glittering brown eyes that seemed sharp enough to cut diamonds. A pale, almost translucent blonde girl shivered as she knelt beneath the cabin window, her frilly, sleeveless dress immaculate but which also displayed the ribbons of scar tissue along her forearms and the two missing fingers on her left hand.
We stared at them with what I am sure was distrust, while they stared at us. The cop and the Latina glowered suspiciously, the look on their faces making it clear that they didn’t trust us in the least, while the dishwater blonde girl kept opening and closing her hands, splaying her fingers out fully and then curling them back into fists as she gazed off at a spot behind us while quietly whispering “Okay… Okay… Okay…” over and over again. A tiny little Asian girl with long, jet-black hair, pale skin and wide brown eyes poked her head around the other side of the cabin and sized us up with a calculating gaze as she peered around the left side of the cabin, while a small brunette who looked a bit familiar wrapped her arms around the girl’s shoulders and hugged her to her flat chest with an uncertain look on her face. And floating amidst everyone, visible through the smashed-out window of the police boat, was a guy about my own age with sandy-blonde hair he kept absentmindedly puffing up off his forehead as he turned the wheel, his blue eyes determined and his lips set into a thin, cruel line that almost seemed to smirk of their own accord...
With a start I realized that I knew him, knew exactly who he was, as memories of his face on the screen of my television oh-so-many weeks ago raced back into my conscious mind, and I couldn’t help myself as the shock of recognition slammed into my psyche.
