Vanishing Manhood: Part 21
Humanity Reset.
Based on ‘One In Ten’ by FinalStand. Listen to the
► Podcast at Explicit Novels.
A List of Characters;
Israeli's Team.
Israel Jensen: (our protagonist/POV character)
Flame (Brigit; with her twelve millimeter hand cannon;
Israel is her
one and only friend)
Silent (Davia; fires twin ten millimeter 'reasonable'
handguns; still wounded as of the Missouri crossing)
Angel Kristi: (Metropolitan Police Office; Seneca Poole;
Roni: (paramedic; Angel's friend)
Capri O'Hara: (once met Shiro Sano, the hotshot lawyer, sat
Kuiko Sano: ('Epic Sex'; welder, 43 sisters and cousins
Aniqua: (office manager, "Nothing but Raman for six
Samantha: (equipment installation/repair)
Jethro MacFarlane: (67 year old former MRA terrorist,
former sailor, rides a motorcycle and smokes. He likes Kuiko as if she were his
Lavender: (History Student; Rides 'Bitch' with Jethro
Paisley: (Biology Student)
Aria Ripley: (smuggler and career criminal; not a killer;
joins after the crossing)
Vanishers.
Wendy; (the 'Good Witch', Intelligence Expert)
Kat Harvey; (not seen much of yet)
Scar; Senior Security Operative aka Assassin
Wes Prince, Hispanic Vanisher on the Metro
Nat; Security Operative (Spy, infiltration, diplomacy)
Truman: (Zara) (sniper and infiltration expert)
Brandi: (explosive expert and Veterinarian)
Jen: (spotter and NASA computer specialist)
Dusk; (not seen much of yet)
Luna; (not seen much of yet)
Thorn; (not seen much of yet)
The Other Men.
Barabbas Chebaya; (22 year old plumber journeyman)
Pierre Thomas; (18 year old college freshman who played 6
Dimples' Crew.
Enola Treyvon: (Team Leader, called Dimples by Israel;
former Special Agent in Charge of the Man-hunting Task Force)
SA Vabishi; (linguistics specialist)
SA Fraklos; (medical specialist; field medic)
SA Cho; (East Asian heritage Agent who restrained Israel)
SA Berkshire; (African-American Agent who was nearly Tasered
SA Norris; (not seen much of yet)
SA Tambora; (law degree from the University of Quebec)
SA Sosa; (Computer specialist)
Former Metropolitan Officer Freya Passey; (has the Israel
cure; carries her body armor, pistol and shotgun plus baby Narfi in a
Narfi Passey; (Freya's second child and second son; now has
the Israel Cure; nine months old and hasn't experienced the Gender Plague yet,
Verona Hedwig 'Hedy' Salenko; (the Aurora Slasher, had
served 5 years of a 352 years sentence for murdering eight men before this
Special Agent Winthrop; (assigned by the Acting Minister of
Justice/Attorney General to locate Israel Jensen no matter what)
Special Agent Carver; (FBI HRT specialist; turns out to be a
Mary Wollstonecraft: Ada Lovelace (Vanisher code for
Shelia Montanyard; (Chief Civil Affairs Attorney for the
Federal District Attorney's Office; Upper Mississippi District; remained behind
The Aurora Slasher Continues.
Verona put her binoculars down. She had spent twenty-nine
hellish days hunting Israel's captors down, heading ever westward, and skirting
the quarantine zones, cities and towns. She used the cover of an elite FBI
special investigator to get this far, relying on citizens' good nature when she
could, stealing when that didn't work. A good serial killer task force could
have run her to ground by now; had there been such a thing as the world died.
It was dying all right, and not soon enough to satisfy
Verona Hedwig 'Hedy' Sauvage. No, she wouldn't shed a tear for the billions
dead, or dying. They had created the germ of their destruction decades ago, and
here they were reaping what they had sown. All that mattered were herself and
her Israel; and the precious antibodies he had gifted her six-and-a-half years
That was the only reason she could give herself, as to why
she was still alive after so many close-calls and face-to-face conversations
she had had since escaping custody. If ever there was a sign their love was
eternal, this was it. All she had to do was rescue Israel and, once he was
safe, come back and eliminate all those who had stolen that immunity for
Stage Four; the first three stages had carried her this far;
was then before her. She had to penetrate the compound, where he was being
held, and rescue him. At first, she had hoped the 'training' assignments he
went on were a clear opportunity to eliminate his sole guardian and escape into
the Yellowstone National Forest, but that guardian; always the same woman;
appeared to have some sort of supernatural sense when it came to being
That, and her gear was clearly that of a sniper; not someone
she wanted to try hunting in the great wide-open expanses around the ranch
complex. No, the better plan had her sneaking into the complex at night; perhaps
two hours before dawn when the sentries were at their least effectiveness. That
required her to know which room in the dwelling he was being kept in.
It would be safest for his captors to keep him in the
basement, but between the trauma inflicted upon him during the police raid,
which had removed him from her custody, and the desire to make Israel believe
he was 'free', that was unlikely. The second-floor rooms were then the best bet
to detain him. Since there appeared to be seven bedrooms upstairs; she couldn't
eliminate the possibility they would keep him in the master bedroom because
that would increase his accessibility for the whores keeping him.
Poor Israel wouldn't even be checking to see if his door was
locked; from the outside, either. The risk was huge, but she needed to find
various blinds to scout out the house from. Over the intervening nights, she
would have to watch to see which rooms went dark at what times. Consistent
'lights out' could be eliminated as possibilities until she had the most likely
Then it would be all knife and baton work. She didn't have
an effective sound suppressor for her firearms; the two pistols, a shotgun and
a hunting rifle she had acquired on her long journey here. The thing was, the
Federation government still thought Israel was in the area as well; just on the
wrong side of their crumbling quarantine lines.
At any moment the JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff), or even a
local regional commander could decide to stop trying to save everything and the
necessity of saving what they could by sending an airmobile unit, or Special
Forces detachment, out here to settle the matter. The clock was ticking and she
knew she was running out of time. All that in mind, her genius intellect was
feverishly going over all her dwindling options, and the time to act was fast
Living Rent-free in Singh’s head.
"I swear by the fucking Goddess," FBI Special
Agent in Charge (SAC) Singh griped, "Jensen is somewhere in the Cody area
and everyone, except us, knows precisely where that is."
"Well, we are tracking zero cases of the plague here in
the past 72 hours," DIA Special Agent Greene nodded. She was the team's
"I've interviewed over twenty of these plague
'survivors' and to a one, they claim to have no idea why they are still alive when
elsewhere across the Federation, people are continuing to drop like
flies," DIA Special Agent Connors shook her head. "I think this all
traces back to the head of the hospital/clinic here. She knows precisely what
they are being injected with and that has to be the 'Israel Cure'."
"Other options?" DIA SAC Fitzhugh sipped her
coffee, while looking over their combined team.
"They might have had a few previously inoculated
patients passing the cure on, but not this many. Worse, we nabbed two Shoshoni
women leaving the veterinarian's office with the same song and dance, 'not
here because of the plague' yet couldn't provide identical symptoms when
interviewed separately," Greene pointed out.
"The thing was, they rode the whole way to Cody from
the Wind River Reservation; on horseback; a good two days' travel. They had to
know something," Green pointed out.
"So we have women as far away as the reservation
knowing the damn secret," Singh growled. "Talk about a total lack of
"What can we bribe them with?" FBI SA Brisbane
"The locals have the gift of life itself, and they know
we will be taking Jensen away once we locate him. That decreases the chances of
the overall community surviving this pandemic," Connors shook her head.
"Let's go over the basic data again; a combined total
population of three thousand, three hundred and eighty-four adult women, two
hundred and ninety-seven adult males with five hundred and ninety-four
sub-adult girls and twenty-five sub-adult boys. This burgh is slowly dying out
anyway, right?" Singh pointed out.
Everyone reluctantly nodded.
"Then explain to me why all the pregnancy tests just
flew off the shelves. The pharmacist explained they had a problem reordering
their stocks so are 'temporarily out," Singh grinned.
"What?" scoffed Greene. "They are expecting
an Amazon order in at any moment? My question is, who is expecting to have a
ton of kids soon? To the point they would preemptively get pregnancy test
"Well, pharmacies have cameras," Singh grinned.
"Let's go see who is buying all those tests then. Let's go see who we need
Deep Search.
Maria had spent that first cold night at the tail end of the
battlefield, hunkered down with three of her people; at first, carefully moving
toward Eagle Pass, but then retiring from it as they could all see the activity
in the area. A good number of people with trucks; lights on; scouring the area
for survivors. Some, they summarily executed, while others were rounded up and
Only later was she able to determine the 'winners' were the
90th Security Forces Group, heavily reinforced by a Ranger battalion, and the
Cody 'Militia'. Come dawn, the 90th had returned to its home base to rearm,
resupply and reorganize. They had taken severe losses in the firefight. Over
the next two days, they had removed from custody most of the prisoners, leaving
behind only those deemed too wounded to move (yet not so badly wounded they had
been 'put out of their misery' the night after the fight).
In reality, the 90th was back down at Warren Air Force Base
near Cheyenne, Middle Rocky Mountains Province, the opposite side of what had
once been the old state of Wyoming. That meant they were four hours away by air,
double that by road. Besides, by the time the 90th returned to base, Denver,
the provincial capital, had taken over the hunt for Jensen.
By that time, they had linked up with the She-Wolf, six
surviving mercenaries and that Bethany character. Everyone else was dead, or
had fled off into the wilderness as the battle raged. Even their one male had
bought the farm, ripped to shreds by the Gatling gunfire from one of the attack
aircraft. The race to catch Jensen was down to these twelve; eleven really, as
Maria knew Bethany wasn't worth a damn.
Until they were sitting around an abandoned home a week
later, eating the last of their salvaged rations, and trying to figure out what
"The best clue we have was the fact they went to the
Rapid City Casino, because they had the inside track," Maria was musing;
not really seeking anyone's input. "That Sano-girl."
"Their rides won't traverse the Rockies without a
recharge," the She-Wolf decided to speak up anyway. "The Yellowstone
has to have been shut down, so no one inside that, or the other National
"Well, I once heard Francesca say she had some family
near Yellowstone," Bethany contributed.
Suddenly everyone was staring at her.
"Where exactly?" Maria stood up menacingly.
"I don't know. She was a civil servant, so I rarely
paid attention to her," Bethany squeaked.
"I would work real hard on recalling every single bit
of that conversation," the She-Wolf spoke in a low, threatening tone.
"Um; they had horses and cattle; I think; and it was
near a river because she talked about fishing there; " Bethany stumbled
"A ranch; so not directly in town," the She-Wolf
began pacing. "Fuck it all. This is cow country; “
"But it has to be somewhere around Cody. They need to
recharge," Maria reasoned.
With that; the race was on. The first thing the She-Wolf did
was finish repairing their communications array, so she could contact her
employer. Contacting earlier, when they had no leads, was a surefire way to get
written off. Then though; they needed a satellite to be tasked to looking over
the Cody area and an airdrop of supplies. Considering what a mess the invasion
had left the intervening Federation territory, that wasn't a pipe dream.
Maria really thought about murdering her right then, except
her troopers were on the ball and looking rather hostile at their criminal
'allies'. Instead of worrying about her lack of utility, she began calling
every single remaining source she had west of the Yellowstone, no matter how
small time, or fragile the connection. If Jensen and company had appeared out
of the Yellowstone, then she would locate them.
And if they didn't, they had that small geographic area to
concentrate on. As for why the mercs weren't ending the criminals right then
and there; they would all need rides if they were going to go over all that
terrain. That meant, breaking into places, murdering civilians and stealing
their vehicles; most likely time and time again. For that, they would need
hardened criminals, or so the thinking went.
"I did a good thing, didn't I?" Bethany approached
the She-Wolf, once the call to Dr. Delilah Fremont had ended.
The She-Wolf had to think about that for a few seconds. She
really, really wanted to off the annoying snit of a package, but decided
against it. Dr. Fremont might not appreciate the necessity of the sanction;
being her daughter and all.
"Yeah. Keep thinking about things you might have
learned from this Francesca-person, and we'll keep thinking of reasons to keep
"Oh," Bethany said, in a small voice. In all
honesty, she was terrified. Her survival depended on the sufferance of a bona
fide sociopath and her mother's pet killer.
Suddenly, she wondered if this was what Israel felt like,
trapped in that awful basement, at the mercy of that creepy serial killer. That
he might have felt that way, at the mercy of her sorority sisters, never
occurred to her, though. After all, her sisters hadn't meant him any harm, had
they? Certainly, he understood that; right?
The Twilight's Last Hope Before The Dawn.
It had been another sweltering day, yet everyone was in good
spirits. Wilma's daughters, Rose and Constance, kept teasing us about their
upcoming birthday and their promised 'true' inoculations. They already had
taken a shot with my antibodies in it, because their Girl Scout troop was
tasked with traveling, on horseback, to outlying farms, and ranches, to make
sure the residents were okay.
Due to that activity, we had surreptitiously inoculated
every Girl Scout and their pugnacious leader, Miss Lisa Shaw, too. The
veterinarian had created some excuse about the shots being meant to ramp up
their immune systems, so they were less likely to get the plague. Since none of
them had gotten sick, the girls accepted the deception at face value. No one
knew what Miss Shaw thought about it all.
All she did know was her troop had volunteered for a
dangerous duty, had received the shots, and none of them had shown a single
symptom of the plague, even when other members of their household had gotten
sick (and thus gotten a shot, as well). Likewise, the plague had swept through
Greybull, a nearby community of roughly eight hundred down Highway 14 East, and
that burgh was quickly becoming another ghost town.
By the time Cody's leadership and medical specialists got a
convoy together to render aid, nearly four hundred had perished. The rest were
being encouraged to move to Cody, where they could better manage their combined
dwindling resources. Roughly half the population had stayed behind to take care
of their cattle and horse herds, but they knew better than to ask just how Cody
was doing so well. They, suddenly, had a new lease on life, after all.
There had become this normal morning ritual on the
Silverhorn Ranch. After breakfast, the two newest women I had slept with the
previous day and night, gave up a pint of their blood which then made the
journey in Wilma's pick-up truck to the hospital. There the pints were smuggled
into the hospital's lab where they separated the antibodies out and
refrigerated them for that day's distribution. Those two pints equaled about a
The ladies who had given up a pint, then went on to perform
a half day's light labor; so not a bad deal all around for them. By dawn, I had
geared up my mount and crossed over the river for my daily training period with
Zara. Only Casper's Vanishers remained eternally vigilant. Otherwise, you
pitched in, even Dimple's former FBI team.
Roni had taken to training Paisley in the profession of
being a paramedic so, along with Brandi the Vanisher, we had all our medical
needs covered. Jethro, once he had his still built, took to the rancher's life
with the same gusto he approached every other challenge his long life had
thrown his way. Normally, that included watching over Pierre in the mornings
when that young man was doing his farmhouse chores.
Mind you, Jethro still walked around as if he expected the
ranch house to be attacked with barely a moment's notice; guns a plenty, plus
body armor. He even carried this huge fucking Bowie knife with him at all
times. Angel, Kuiko and Aniqua were created as their own work team. Normally,
that meant moving wheat-grass to the herds in the morning, and gathering up
their dung; for the ranch's compost; during the afternoons. Compost would be
'sold' to the valley's farmers.
Lavender had taken a few electronics and communication's
classes during her high school years (and hated it, thus her desire to be a
high school teacher, instead), so seconded one of the ranch hands checking up
on all the ranch's Wi-Fi, and land-line, communications. We all figured she was
still a decade off from realizing her dreams of teaching the young.
Samantha and Venus had taken to re-vitalizing the ranch
hands' dormitory with all sorts of things including new beds, appliances and,
with Barabbas' help, new shower stalls and bathrooms. Capri, who had never done
all that well at math, was tasked by Wilma herself to take over all the ranch's
books, thus making her our semi-official accountant. On the plus side, she got
to go over the region's tax codes, which was a type of law she had always done
Dimples and her team were responsible for designing and
constructing the additions to the ranch house, as well as two new dormitories
for the mass of newcomers I had brought with me. They shanghaied Aria Ripley,
the daughter and sister of the smuggler duo, who had smuggled us across the
Missouri. She was at loose ends, and the majority of her skill sets were
Lastly, there were our wounded. Davia (aka Silent, though
she didn't much like me calling her that, or so Flame cautioned me) was
recovering quickly, and had made it clear she was going to be a guardian, like
Flame, watching out for not-looked-for guests. Casper, Wendy, and Wilma really
didn't like that, but I intervened to remind everyone those two had fought
their way through a police/military cordon to escape the city, so that was
enough of a reference to their combat efficiency.
Golden Clues.
To aid in the ranch's financial well-being, the Vanishers
had brought in some gold coins to buoy our accounts; not enough to crash
