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  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 9

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 9
    Grieving Loved Ones.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    "Harri, things are

    getting weird up here," Kyla said.

    I was still down at the gate

    and had turned away several trucks looking to drop of supplies or equipment,
    directing them to the motel like Vanessa had asked. As soon as I told them we
    were on quarantine lockdown and motioned to the just-visible form of Patrick in
    the guard booth they stopped bitching and were happy to drive away.

    "What do you mean

    'weird?'" I asked.

    "I've just got a bad

    feeling," she said. "I went up on the roof of the RV and the workers
    are clearly agitated, and it looks like they're being kept out of the barracks
    buildings. Some of them are wandering around and are getting closer to the
    compound and looking more curious than usual. No one's come right for us or
    anything, but I'm just; You know that feeling?"

    "Yeah, I do," I

    said. I knew it. That tingle, that edge, when you knew something was brewing.
    "Look, the code to the gun safe is 4-83-16-7. Grab everything and bring it
    into the compound. Dani can help, she knows her way around firearms. Try not to
    spook the others, but don't let anyone leave the compound and definitely don't
    let anyone in unless it's me or Vanessa."

    Kyla was silent for a long

    moment. "Thank you. For trusting me."

    "Kyla, if I trust you

    enough to agree to have a mess of babies with you, I hope I can trust you with
    my guns," I said with a nervous smirk.

    "You know what I

    mean," she said.

    "I do," I said.

    "Be safe."

    "You too."

    "Harri, you need to come

    back," Erica said.

    "What's wrong?" I

    asked, already heading for the ATV. I'd been pacing for almost an hour. The
    trucks had stopped showing up so I assumed someone had re-routed them and no one
    had tried to come down and leave. Part of me wondered if that was because
    construction workers were drilled to be safety-focused and so a basic
    quarantine rule felt like an instinct to stay in place, or if they thought
    there was more than just me down here keeping them in.

    "Guys have been

    approaching the compound and asking weird questions," she said.
    "We've been telling them to go away and respect the quarantine, but
    there's about a dozen of them hanging around about halfway to the compound, and
    I can't get Vanessa to answer her phone."

    "What kind of weird

    questions?" I asked, feeling a growl from my chest that I didn't intend to
    put in it.

    "They're asking about

    the vaccine," she said. "I; I think there's been rumors about us
    going around. We always knew people would be talking, but I never thought it
    would be more than awkward. This is creepy, though."

    "Fuck, Okay," I

    said. "I'll be there ASAP."

    "Harri, if they are

    thinking about us, they'll be thinking about Vanessa."

    "I'll find her," I

    said.

    I almost just drove off, but

    I couldn't leave the entryway open. I looked around but I didn't have a single
    sign or barricade to work with. All the pylons and stuff that had been up
    during the widening of the highway and driveway entrance had been carted off
    somewhere else.

    "Fuck it," I said,

    a little disgusted at what I was about to do, but it would definitely deter
    people from entering at the very least. I took off my jacket and wrapped my
    hands in it, then went over to Patrick and grabbed him by the feet and dragged
    him out into the middle of the driveway. I dumped my jacket with him and looked
    into the hut again for his clipboard so I could write a note or something, but
    it was covered in splatters of blood so I didn't touch it.

    And I left him there. The

    only warning I could come up with.

    If I thought I'd ridden the

    ATV hard and fast going down the driveway I'd been kidding myself. I didn't let
    up on the throttle once going back up, the rip-roar of the engine crackling
    hard from the strain. Instead of crossing around the wide way to the compound,
    however, I headed right into the thick of the temporary buildings where
    something like a thousand men were currently milling about.

    "Move!" I roared

    over the thrum of the ATV engine. Some people moved because of the vehicle.
    Other people moved when they heard my voice, or looked over and saw the
    expression of my angry eyes over my mask. As I got deeper into the crowd I had
    to slow down as I stood as high as I could while still moving and tried to spot
    Vanessa.

    One group only moved out of

    my way when I put my hand on my pistol.

    I finally spotted Vanessa,

    along with her father and another white hat, in the side vestibule of one of
    the barracks buildings. They all looked over in confusion as I pulled right up
    next to the door and hopped off without even turning off the engine. I threw
    open the outer door and stepped in, heading right for Vanessa.

    "Harri, you're supposed

    to be down at the gate," she said through her mask, concern and surprise
    in her eyes.

    "We need to go," I

    said, taking her by the arm.

    Fortunately almost any other

    time except right in the middle of this specific emergency, Vanessa was
    strong-willed, dutiful and didn't take any shit.

    "Harri, what the

    fuck?" she said, tugging her arm away. "I'm working here. We need to
    try and keep people calm and you're acting like an asshole."

    "I'm sorry," I

    said. "But there's too many of them and not enough of you. There are guys
    poking around the compound and asking questions about the vaccine, and they're
    getting closer. We need to get back there and lockdown."

    "You sonofabitch,"

    Brent said, shouldering around the other foreman in the little room. "You
    let go of my daughter or I'll stick my foot so far up your ass that,”

    "Shut the fuck up,

    Brent," I growled, levelling my finger at him with a glare. "Just
    shut the fuck up and listen to me. You've got a thousand guys around
    here who are worried that they've got the sickness, and they've been talking.
    And talking. And you know what they're talking about? Not wanting to be sick.
    Do you know what one of the usual topics of conversation is? Me and my friends
    and family, including Vanessa. The rumors about how we're in the experimental
    vaccine group? That includes her. And practically everyone knows how; how
    sexually active we are, and how that might be connected. So what do you think a
    bunch of scared, angry guys who have been quarantined for months are going to
    start thinking of doing when the only answer they have on their minds is that
    there are women, right over there, who could fuck the sickness away no matter
    how fucking stupid that sounds?"

    Brent had gone ashen-faced.

    "Come on," I said,

    pulling Vanessa with me. She didn't hesitate or try and pull away. Brent didn't
    say anything.

    I got Vanessa on the ATV and

    sat behind her, protecting her with my body as best I could, and then I revved
    the engine and people backed away, and then I was driving. I revved the engine
    again to make people move. Someone didn't move fast enough and got bumped and I
    didn't care.

    We broke out of the crowd and

    I gunned it, heading for home. I could see the guys gathering, about twenty of
    them now, a stone's throw from the compound. I went straight at them and
    several had to jump out of the way because they thought I was playing chicken.

    I wasn't.

     

    "Miriam texted,"

    Erica called to me. "She said 'ERT on route.'"

    "That means they'll be

    at least an hour and a half," I said. I didn't look down at her, keeping
    my eyes on the assholes out in the field.

    There were about thirty of

    them now, but a couple smaller groups were further back and watching what would
    happen. A few of them had tried to follow me to the compound until I'd ordered
    them back and pulled my M9. I'd escorted Vanessa inside, then driven the ATV
    right into the entryway between the RV and the storage container and plugged
    it. Someone could climb over it, but they'd be slowed down. I got the other ATV
    and did the same thing at another one of the corners before going inside. I
    would have used the cars as well but that would mean people could use them to
    climb onto the roofs of the containers and RVs.

    Kyla had been watching me

    from the roof of a storage container as I did this, sitting low to try not to
    draw attention but clearly holding my DDM4. Erica, Ivy and Dani had all wanted
    to hug me when I got back, but I warned them off. "Vanessa, you were close
    to me so you need to quarantine. I had to move a dead body, so I might be
    contaminated. None of you should come near me."

    Erica looked like she was

    about to approach me anyways, so I held up a finger and glared at her. "I
    can't do what I need to do if I'm worrying about you," I told her.

    She looked like she wanted to

    bite back something, but swallowed and nodded. "Okay."

    I'd ended up trading places

    with Kyla, and she left the rifle up there for me to use.

    "Are you feeling Okay up

    there?" Erica asked.

    "I'm heated, and could

    use a granola bar or something," I said. "But I'm not feeling any
    sickness. How's Vanessa?"

    "She says she's

    fine," Erica said. "She's in our RV."

    "Okay," I said.

    A granola bar hit me in the

    head, making me look down at her as she smirked up at me. "Don't ignore me
    and you could catch your snacks," she said.

    My facade cracked as I

    snorted and bent to grab the granola bar. "Thanks, babe."

    "Love you," she

    said.

    "Love,” I cut off as a

    group of five guys split off from the group and started walking towards the
    compound. I dropped the granola bar I hadn't even had a chance to unwrap and
    held my rifle at the ready. "Stop," I yelled at them.

    "It's Okay," they

    yelled back. "We just want to talk." They kept walking.

    "I said stop!" I

    said, raising the rifle to point towards them. That made them stop.

    "Look, we just want to

    know if it's true," one of them yelled.

    "What?" I asked.

    "We want to know if it's

    true," one of the others shouted louder.

    "No, is what true?"

    They seemed to confer with

    each other for a second. "Is it true you guys are vaccinated?"

    "We're locked down, just

    like you," I yelled.

    "That didn't answer the

    question," said the first guy.

    Fuck, there had to be a

    semi-smart one.

    "Fuck off," I

    called back.

    "That's not a no,"

    he yelled. "Why are you so aggressive, man? Is it because you have
    something we might need?"

    "There's a thousand guys

    out there, and I've got women who you all have been staring at for weeks in
    here. I don't give a fuck what you think is going on, I'm not letting you
    creeps near them," I said.

    They backed off, but I could

    clearly see their agitation. I hadn't convinced them of shit.

     

    "Please," moaned

    the lone figure. "Please, I just need help."

    He was staggering across the

    field and I'd watched him come on from almost the start. I could because the
    crowd parted around him like a school of fish around a whale. As he got closer
    I could tell why.

    The guy must have snuck out

    of the barracks somehow. Based on what Vanessa could tell us, they'd tried to
    quarantine anyone who was sick inside the barracks. As he got closer I saw that
    his sleeve was covered in blood and he was stopping to cough and hack.

    By the time he was within

    speaking distance he was leaking blood from his nose and bloody spittle was
    covering his chin.

    "Stay the fuck back,

    buddy," I said, pointing my rifle at him.

    "You need to help

    me!" he cried.

    "I don't have any way to

    help you," I said. "There's an emergency response team on its way,
    you just need to rest and try and keep calm until they're here."

    "Fuck -cough cough; Fuck

    you! We all know that you freaks are juiced up with some vaccine, and everyone
    knows it's got to do with you having sex with them. Just; Just, please, someone
    come out and fuck me! I need it to live!"

    Any other situation and that

    might have been comical.

    "That's not how it

    works," I growled. "Now back the fuck off and go back into your
    quarantine, or at least go sit by yourself outside. You're putting everyone in
    danger."

    "Everyone but you and

    them!" he screamed. "You're killing me!"

    "Get the fuck out of

    here," I said, flicking off the safety on my rifle as he took another
    staggered step towards the compound.

    He hesitated, and went down

    to one knee and started hacking up blood on the ground. Then he looked up at me
    with a pitiful expression of hate, and he turned and crawled his way to his
    feet, staggering away.

    Sixty or so other men were

    watching from around the field now, their presence a looming menace.

     

    I watched as Brent Peters, in

    one of the official trucks, tried to disperse the crowd. He shouted, he
    threatened and he cajoled. I was pretty sure a couple of Vanessa's 'gorilla'
    crew who had been around the site since the beginning were with him.

    To be fair, he split off

    about fifty of the workers and drove them back towards the barracks and
    offices.

    That only left another fifty

    ignoring him and slowly circling like a pack of wolves.

    I fingered the safety of my

    rifle again and flipped it off and kept it that way.

     

    "Stay the fuck

    back," I shouted. "One more fucking step and I will end
    you."

    "You can't do

    that!" shouted one of them. "They have the vaccine. You can't just
    keep them to yourself!"

    I leaned forward slightly,

    pushing the muzzle of my rifle just that little bit closer to the construction
    worker. My finger was on the trigger.

    "One. Fucking.

    Step," I growled as loudly as I could. "And I will murder every last
    one of you."

    Someone in the back of the

    crowd of twenty burly, rough-looking men threw a wrench at me. He missed wide
    by a good two yards. I fired a shot into the ground a foot from the front line
    of men, the boom echoing across the open space of the construction site. It
    turned more heads down at the offices and barracks buildings, and I could only
    hope it would warn people away instead of bringing them over.

    "How about we

    clarify," I yelled. "Back the fuck off, and the next person
    who throws something gets a bullet between their fucking eyes."

    Leo was up on the other

    storage container with one of the hunting rifles, looking nervous but following
    my lead. Down in the compound Dani, Kyla and Erica were each in the center of
    the little barricade they had fashioned in the last hour, armed with the rest
    of the firearms from the safe. I was proud to see them there, keeping calm, but
    prayed to God they wouldn't need to shoot. Ivy, India and Aria had used one of
    the back entrances to the compound to slip inside the storage containers for
    shelter just in case the shooting did start since the metal walls were thicker
    than the RVs. Vanessa didn't want to leave quarantine and risk the others, so
    she stayed where she was.

    "You can't shoot all of

    us," one of the construction workers yelled.

    "I've got a full auto

    enabled rifle, three mags of ammo, and a sidearm, motherfucker," I shouted
    back. "I may not get all of you, but how much do each of you want to bet
    you're one of the few I miss?"

     

    I didn't see where it started,

    but I definitely saw it coming. Someone had decided to try me by getting smart,
    and now a big Caterpillar backhoe was rumbling across the field toward the
    compound.

    Honestly, I couldn't be sure

    what his plan was. Crash into the RVs or storage container? Swipe me off with
    the shovel held up really high? Just battering ram through?

    Whatever it was, whoever it

    was, the crowd of men in the field cheered when they saw it coming. Part of me
    wished it was Brent out in the machine and he was planning on squashing the
    sons of bitches, but no such luck. It didn't veer off course.

    I couldn't yell any warnings

    to the driver, the heavy machinery was too loud.

    Dropping to one knee, I

    sighted down my rifle, and at about 60 yards I put a bullet through the front
    glass of the cab.

    I don't know if the guy

    thought the cab was bulletproof or what, but I could see I'd put a hole in the
    glass. Couldn't tell where or if I hit the guy because of the tint and the
    glare from the afternoon sun, but I hesitated on pulling the trigger a second
    time and was rewarded by the big machine slamming to a halt and the cab door
    bursting open as a guy fell out.

    Someone else rushed for the

    cab, mounting the side of the backhoe, trying to be a hero to his people.

    I aimed a little low and took

    another shot, and his legs went out from under him. He bounced off the wheel
    and rolled to the ground. A couple of other guys rushed forward and grabbed
    him, pulling him around the backhoe for cover. The cab door hung open, the
    engine of the big machine thrumming loudly, but no one else went for it for now
    even though the cheering of the crowd of animals had turned to boos.

     

    They made a rush for the

    backhoe. A group of them started to move closer to the compound in anticipation.
    What they didn't know was that I could see something they couldn't.

    I could see the helicopter.

    It buzzed over, low to the

    ground, the wind whipping around dust and dirt as men hit the ground in fear at
    the sudden sound of propellers just above their heads. I lowered my rifle and
    covered my eyes with one hand from the blasting grit as a loudspeaker crackled
    to life.

    "By order of the United

    States Air Force, hit the dirt and stay there!"

    It wasn't exactly

    professional wording for dispersing a crowd, but then the tone of Miriam's
    voice did a lot of work.

    The Pave Hawk circled, its

    door gunners deployed and scanning the field, and it lowered down next to the
    compound and a fire team of airmen in gasmasks disembarked and moved out onto
    the field with rifles raised, shouting for the men to stay down. At the same
    time, military trucks began circling around the barracks buildings, their heavy
    frames and engines rumbling in counterpoint to the whining engine of the
    helicopter as it powered down.

    Miriam stepped out in full

    combat fatigues and shielded her eyes as she looked up at me.

    "I feel like I should

    make an Alamo joke right about now," she said.

    "I was thinking more

    'look to the west in three days at dawn,'" I countered.

    "Dude, that is such

    a misquote," Leo said from the other container. "'Look to my coming
    on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.'"

    "Erica, your brother is

    a fuckin' nerd," I called down into the compound, and then I turned back
    to Miriam. "So, got time for that beer now, or do you think you're a
    little busy?"

    Organized chaos reigned for

    about twenty minutes as army-green heavy trucks continued to rumble onto the
    construction site. There were even more National Guard than when Miriam had
    broken up the protest, all of them suited up in full hazmat suits, being
    directed by airmen in gasmasks. It was tough to even follow what was going on.

    "Harri," Vanessa

    said from the ladder, getting my attention. I hadn't gotten down from the top
    of the RV since I wasn't sure how much of a contamination threat I was, but
    Dani, Erica and Kyla had gone to let the others know that things were safe now.
    Miriam was clearly busy with everything else going on around us, so I hadn't
    exactly felt it was the right time to figure out what to do.

    "God, I want to hug

    you," I said as I did the opposite and backed away.

    She smiled weakly as she

    pulled herself the rest of the way up. "I know," she said. Vanessa
    sat down on the edge of the RV roof, her feet over the side, and I joined her
    about six feet away. She looked out at the hectic organization going on,
    listening to the shouting and the thrum of engines. "Shit."

    "Yep,' I agreed.

    "I feel like it's my

    fault," she said more quietly.

    "It's not," I said.

    We sat there for a while, not

    saying anything else.

    Eventually, Miriam came back

    around; hazmat tents had been set up, bright white with yellow caution signs on
    them; and it looked like the construction workers were being split up between
    the tents and the trucks. Miriam already looked haggard as she trudged through
    the field to us. After she'd said hello earlier she'd put on a gas mask of her
    own, and she was still wearing it as she approached, only slipping it off once
    she was about ten paces away from Vanessa and me.

    "How are you two

    doing?" she asked. "Everyone Okay over here?"

    I shrugged. "Tough to

    say," I said. "I'd like to be checking on everyone and making sure
    they feel safe, but Vanessa and I aren't sure what sort of risk we are to the
    others. Any chance there's a test or something we could take?"

    Miriam sighed. "There

    is, but this is another one of those situations where you should've already
    been told this. In all likelihood, based on Vanessa's extended amount of time
    among the workers, she's probably carrying the virus. The best thing you two
    can do right now is to make sure your inoculations are running at full
    potential."

    "What?" Vanessa

    asked.

    "What does that

    mean?" I asked.

    Miriam went to wipe her brow,

    then realized she shouldn't since her hands were gloved up and unsanitized. Instead
    she just sort of wiped them on her fatigues in frustration. "You need to
    go screw," she said. "The vaccine you all have will do its job, but
    you can bump up the inoculation effect by having sex with your partners. And
    Vanessa, with your out-of-the-norm condition with the vaccine, you should
    probably go more than once."

    "Miriam, you realize,” I

    started.

    "I know, I know,"

    Miriam said, raising a hand to cut me off. "It sounds ridiculous. But
    that's what the science people are saying."

    "So have sex, and we

    should be fine?" Vanessa asked.

    "Yes," Miriam said.

    A radio on her belt squawked and she grabbed it, speaking into it quickly.
    "Look," she said, turning back to us. "The rest of this out here
    isn't your job, it's mine. I've got it. So focus on taking care of yourselves,
    and I promise I'll give you another update when I can."

    "Is my Father alright,

    at least?" Vanessa asked.

    "Brent is probably the

    most important person on this site," Miriam said. "He'll be at the
    front of the line for anything he needs. Alright?"

    "Okay," Vanessa

    nodded.

    "Miriam," I said as

    the Lieutenant Colonel was about to turn away. "Thank you for showing
    up."

    She grimaced a little.

    "I should have been here sooner. All of this is coming too late."

    "But you weren't too

    late for us," I said. "Just remember that you're pretty fucking
    awesome."

    She smiled, shaking her head

    a little. It was the same mini speech I'd given her before she was scheduled to
    go in and face the music back when we'd both been in the military. She'd been
    nervous to go and face the tribunal with her superior officers after I'd
    discovered the blackmail and interrupted the assault. At the time she'd blushed
    a little and looked down at her boots. Now she took the compliment a lot
    better.

    As Miriam walked away back to

    the organized chaos of the emergency response, I shifted down the RV edge to
    Vanessa and wrapped my arm around her.

    "We're still not

    safe," she said but didn't pull away.

    "We will be," I

    said softly. "I just need you to know I'm here for you."

    She lifted up a hand and took

    a couple of my fingers in hers as it rested on her shoulder.

    We ended up heading down into

    the compound a few minutes later and let everyone know what Miriam had said.
    Dani had immediately begun ushering Leo, India and Aria towards their RV.
    Things in my own household were a little more difficult to handle now since
    Kyla wasn't interested in the idea of group sex at all; and almost more
    importantly, I felt like Vanessa needed something different than a group
    experience at the moment. She'd been the most exposed and knew the most people
    who were currently being affected.

    "Go," Erica said,

    pointing me towards the RV. "We'll go one at a time, baby. Vanessa goes
    first."

    I gave her a look to let her

    know how much I loved her, and she smiled and gave me one back. I gave her, Ivy
    and Kyla each a quick kiss before I ushered Vanessa into the RV.

    Once we were inside I just

    took Vanessa into my arms as we stood in the main sitting area. We'd cleaned up
    the space since Kyla had joined us; Vanessa's luggage was stowed now in one of
    the storage containers except for a small bag like Ivy used. Kyla's things
    still hadn't shown up and she'd been borrowing clothes from the others. So in
    the empty space, I stood and held Vanessa in a bear hug and she hugged me back
    and let herself go.

    I hadn't seen Vanessa cry

    before, not that I really saw it now. She buried her face in my chest and clung
    to my shirt as she sobbed, and then wailed as she muted herself by burying her
    face in my chest even more. When she was sobbed out I picked her up and carried
    her down to the bedroom, laying her on the bed and taking off her boots for
    her, then I laid down beside her and pulled her into a spooning position and
    held her some more.

    We whispered to each other,

    though she did most of the whispering. She was worried and felt powerless. She
    was worried for her father, and her crew of 'gorillas'. She was worried she
    should have paid more attention somewhere or made different assumptions last
    night or that morning. She was terrified she might have caused people to die.

    I held her through it all,

    acknowledging her fears and worries, but assuring her it wasn't her fault.

    "I just want to be able

    to do something," she said quietly into the dim lighting of the RV.

    "I know," I said,

    holding her tightly. "But there's nothing we can, or could, do out there
    right now."

    She turned in my arms so we

    were face to face. "But I can do something in here," she said.

    I kissed her softly and then

    pulled back to look at her whole face. "If you're not 100% ready, we can
    wait a little bit more. Probably."

    She shook her head and kissed

    me harder than I had her. "If there's one thing I can make sure of, I want
    it to be that I did everything I could to keep you alive," she said quietly.

    "I kinda want you to

    stay alive, too," I said with a little smile.

    We kissed again, and then we

    slowly worked our clothes off. Neither of us were feeling particularly randy or
    horny considering the circumstances and what we knew was going on outside the
    compound, but we also wanted to feel each other. Touch each other. Once we were
    naked I held her for a bit, and then she kissed her way down my body and took
    my cock in her mouth. At the first taste of precum she hummed a soft moan, and
    we both had a conflicted look for a moment as we knew that the vaccine was
    doing it and not either of us.

    The sex wasn't special. Once

    I was hard she climbed up and slid onto me, her cunt wet from the
    chemically-induced horniness in her body even if her emotions weren't feeling
    it.

    "I'm sorry," I said

    as she slowly rode me, looking down at me as her body almost fucked on
    autopilot.

    "I know," she said,

    leaning down to hug me while I was inside her. "It's not your fault."

    We held each other again,

    just staying still and feeling each other.

    "I don't even know if I

    want to orgasm," she whispered. "I can feel my body wanting to,
    but..."

    "I know," I said to

    her. "I know."

    Eventually, we rolled over

    and I took over, slowly pumping into her as I cradled her head in my hands and we
    softly kissed. She came when I did, the vaccine at work again. It might have
    been the smallest orgasm I'd had since the beginning of this, and hers wasn't
    particularly great either compared to what we were used to now.

    "I'm glad you're

    safe," I whispered to her as we just held each other.

    "I'm glad you're safe,

    too," she whispered back. "I'm happy I have you."

    I kissed her cheek and she

    squeezed her arms around my waist, hugging me down to her.

    We didn't want to face

    whatever else was going on out there. Despite the fact that In Here wasn't
    feeling very upbeat, once we left the RV we would need to start processing the
    disaster again. Vanessa and I were both action-oriented people, and there
    wasn't an action we could do to start making this better, or right. Hell, we
    couldn't even make it fair.

    She dressed in a loose

    sundress from her things. It was the girliest piece of clothing I'd ever seen
    her wear and it didn't suit her until she slipped her boots on. Then the
    anachronism of the ensemble felt more like her.

    "Vanessa," I said,

    stopping her from leaving the RV. I went to her near the door and kissed her
    again, this time more fervently. I put my worry for her, that desperate panic
    I'd felt when I was looking for her on the ATV, and I put my love for her even
    if she didn't want to say the words, into the kiss. And she kissed me back,
    feeling the emotions and pouring her own back at me. By the time we were done,
    she was crying silent tears, and I felt my own eyes welling a bit.

    She smiled sadly and reached

    up to touch my cheek, and then hugged me hard and I hugged her back.

    "The others need

    you," she mumbled.

    "You need me, too,"

    I said. "And I need you."

    God, 'love' was on my tongue.

    I'd been wanting to say it more and more. But our conversation was still
    settled deep in my mind and the last thing I wanted to do was fuck this up.

    She kissed my chest and

    stepped back. "Think you can do all four of us, and then me again
    later?" she asked.

    "For you,

    absolutely," I said, holding her hand.

    She smirked, just a little,

    at the corner of her lip and stepped to the door.

    I was just at the sink in the

    kitchenette, wetting down a cloth to wipe myself down a little when the door
    opened again and a bundle of blonde energy barreled inside and practically
    tackled me in a hug.

    "Harrison!" Ivy

    cried.

    Within moments Ivy was

    clinging to me, her legs around my waist and her arms around the back of my
    neck as she kissed me fervently.

    "Don't; Ever; Scare; Me;

    Like; That; Again," she mumbled in between kisses.

    I was holding her up with one

    hand on her butt and another on her lower back, which meant she had more
    leverage and choice in when we were kissing and when we weren't as she pulled
    me tight to her. What I could do was step us over to the bench and turn and
    sit. Now I didn't need to hold her up as her ass was in my lap and I brought my
    hands up and wove my fingers into the hair at the side of her head, pulling her
    away slightly from my face so I could look at her.

    "I'll try, ma dulcinée,"

    I said.

    She broke into a huge grin at

    my; likely terrible; use of French. Hopefully I had the pronunciation correct
    as I'd been looking up things I could call her on my phone a couple of days ago
    but hadn't broken one out yet.

    Ivy was the second youngest

    now out of the four women who were stuck with me, but she was very much the
    least mature in terms of the way she acted. That wasn't to say she was childish
    at all, she just wore her emotions on her sleeve and lived with abandon. She
    was a physical person, a toucher, which was why she so often preferred sitting
    in the lap of myself or Erica when we were lounging around, or at least holding
    hands. Her dirty blonde hair, with golden highlights from so much time spent
    outdoors lately, was a wavy, curly frame around her pretty face as we just
    stared at each other, smiling and trying to read each other's minds.

    Her eyes were like windows

    into her emotional depths, and all I saw there was need, and desire, and love.

    "I love you, Ivy,"

    I said.

    One single tear dripped from

    her eye as I thought her face might break, she grinned so widely. "I love
    you, too," she said and kissed me hungrily. "Je t'aime," she
    mumbled as she broke the kiss for a breath. "Je t'aime, je t'aime, je
    t'aime."

    It was the first time we'd

    said it to each other. My relationship with Ivy had burned hot but hadn't
    always felt like it had settled. She was a playmate. A sexy friend. A lover,
    but we weren't 'in love' so to speak. My relationship with Erica had been the
    problem; it eclipsed what I had with Ivy emotionally. Which wasn't fair, or
    right, but it was what it was. She came into our lives too soon after Erica and
    I had finally become entangled for her to get the full attention she deserved.

    And Ivy had been Okay with

    that. She'd made herself a little niche in our lives, and we'd done our best to
    carve it out larger and larger for her.

    I'd wanted to tell Vanessa I

    loved her in that hospital room in Portland, not 24 hours after we'd had sex
    for the first time. Something between me and her just clicked. And with Kyla, I
    could feel the falling in love like it was a physical thing growing
    between us. Neither of us had said it yet or even had a conversation about it,
    but it was there in those soft, quiet moments and touches. With her, I shared
    something I couldn't with the others, something only Dani had really gotten
    close to because of her background with her military father. Kyla and I had
    been through something in our lives that had changed and molded us to someone
    else's vision. We'd served, and been trained, and that understanding between us
    that we weren't who we'd been but still held onto the useful parts of those
    people... it was a connection. And we'd also chosen each other, almost more
    than Erica and I had, and that meant something.

    But Ivy and I had so little

    in common that it was only in the space between the others that I saw how much
    I was in love with her. She was carefree where I was stoic and felt the burden
    of a hundred things in the back of my mind. She was exuberant and I knew I was
    often reserved. But one thing was the same between us; we were both caregivers.
    We just did it in slightly different ways.

    Ivy and I kissed, and kissed,

    and then I pulled her away again. "I love you, Ivy," I said
    earnestly.

    Again that giant smile, and

    she reached up and brushed a hand along my chest. "Je t'aime, mon
    amour," she said. "Now, I need you. In my throat first, I think, and
    then my ass."

    Soon we were in the bedroom,

    Ivy on her back with her head hanging over the edge as I used her mouth and
    throat and she moaned happily. Her small tits made fantastic grips when I used
    her like this and she relished me tweaking her nipples and squeezing her. Once
    we'd had enough of that, I picked her up from the bed and threw her over my
    shoulder, carrying her back out to the front of the RV and settling her down on
    the table face down, her cute little ass sticking back at me.

    Ivy reached from her position

    and snagged a bottle of lube out from a cupboard, which made me chuckle since I
    hadn't even known it was there. With the amount Erica, Dani and I had picked up
    from the sex shop the day before, I wondered how many of those bottles were
    hidden around the RV now.

    After a quick lubrication, I

    was buried in Ivy's ass as she moaned happily. Even now, after weeks of doing
    this with her, I was still a little amazed at how easily she took me like this.
    My cock looked huge between her ass cheeks, and Ivy had one leg thrown up onto
    the table to really spread her out so that I could thrust deep. She arched her
    back up, craning her neck, and I met her in a kiss as I plundered her little
    asshole just the way she liked.

    Ivy managed to get an arm

    back and around my neck, twisting her torso a bit more so she could watch my
    face as I fucked her, which also brought her bouncing tit into view. It was her
    tattooed side, and I traced my fingers along the lines and shapes as she
    grinned and cooed happily. Then I grabbed her tit hard and pressed my forehead
    to hers, my other hand slipping down to her cunt and rubbing her softly.

    "I love you," I

    told her again.

    She came, the clenching of

    her ass and the drips from her cunt on my fingers pushing me over the edge as
    well as I unloaded into her butt. We kissed hard once we had enough of our
    senses back, and I was still mostly hard when Ivy used the cum inside her to
    force my cock as deep as she could get it. She rolled over into a second orgasm
    at the tight pressure, her mouth opening but no sound coming out.

    I pulled out after she

    collapsed on the table and softly wiped between her cheeks with the cloth I'd
    been using when she first came in before picking her up and cradling her on my
    lap as I sat back on the bench where we'd started. She blinked herself awake
    quickly, smiling dreamily.

    "Je t'aime," she

    whispered softly.

    "Ivy, when we can, I

    want to take you on a proper date," I said.

    "Dinner and a

    movie?" she asked with a smile.

    "If that's what you

    want," I laughed. "I thought I could be a little more creative than
    that, though."

    She shook her head and lifted

    her lips to mine to kiss me again. "I've never been on a good, proper date
    like that," she said. "Dinner and a movie."

    "Okay," I agreed.

    Now all I had to do was figure out how to make it happen.

    We kissed a bit more, Ivy

    still coming down from her double orgasm, and then I held her as she told me
    how worried she'd been. It was interesting, and a little heartbreaking, to hear
    her side of things. Unlike Vanessa, who had been powerless because she might be
    a threat to others, Ivy had been powerless from the start. All she'd wanted to
    do was hug me and reassure me that it would all be alright, but she'd known she
    couldn't because of the risk of the virus and distracting me, and as things got
    worse she had even less and less she could do. Hiding in the storage container
    with Aria and India had been the worst part of it all.

    She cried a little, though

    not as much as I might have thought. Kissing me seemed to ease her heartache,
    reminding herself it was over. Then, all of a sudden, she was smiling again.

    "I should go," she

    said. "Kyla and Erica need you, too."

    I squeezed her tightly,

    hugging her to me. "Je t'aime," I whispered in her ear.

    She dressed with a big smile

    on her lips and pushed me into the washroom to clean myself up before she left.

    I was in the shower when the

    door to the little cramped washroom opened.

    "Harrison?" Kyla

    asked, peeking in the door.

    "Come in," I said.

    I was already soapy.

    "Why are you taking a

    shower?" she asked, stepping inside. "We're supposed to have sex for
    the inoculation effect."

    "Because I didn't want

    to smell like anyone else when I was with you," I said. "And I had a
    feeling Erica would tell you that you should go first, and you would tell her
    that she could, and then she'd insist and you would go along with it to keep
    things smooth between the two of you."

    Kyla opened her mouth to

    respond, then clicked it shut and smiled softly a moment later. "That's
    pretty much exactly what happened," she said. "You've been paying
    attention."

    "Of course I have,"

    I smiled. "Now, give me a couple of minutes and,”

    Kyla started stripping,

    peeling her borrowed shirt over her head followed by the simple black bra she
    wore, then the leggings and panties, until she was gloriously naked, her
    golden-tanned body sleek and athletic. She opened the shower door and quickly
    slipped inside, pressing herself to me in the tight confines.

    "I didn't want to

    wait," she said, looking up at me with a soft expression.

    I wrapped my wet arms around

    her, hugging her to me and bending down to kiss her as the water pelted my
    back.

    She washed me, starting over

    from the top, taking her time. The thing was, she wasn't doing it in any
    particularly sexy way. She wasn't teasing me overly much beyond the act of
    being naked with me. Even washing my cock and balls she was careful and gentle,
    but didn't stroke me more than was really necessary to get me clean. I stayed
    rock-hard through the whole thing, however, because of what was going on
    between us.

    This wasn't a sex thing. It

    was a service thing. Kyla wasn't washing off the traces of Vanessa and Ivy, she
    was washing me. She was loving on me in a new way. Every look between
    us, and the way she focused on the part of me she was washing, was her learning
    more about me. Memorizing the lines of my muscles, the hairs on my arms, and
    the look of my feet. We'd spent enough time naked together in the last two
    weeks to know our private areas, but she was going further than that. She
    wanted more than that.

    When she finished, down on

    her knees after washing my feet, she looked up at me with a soft smile and
    reached for my cock as it hung in the air next to her face.

    "Not yet," I said,

    reaching down and helping her up in the tight space. "Now it's my
    turn."

    And because of how fucking

    special she'd made me feel in that moment, I couldn't do anything less than
    give her the same. I washed her hair, slowly scrubbing her scalp. I soaped up
    and rinsed her body with my hands, being careful not to get carried away with
    her tits, ass or cunt. I caught myself wanting to roll her brown nipples
    between my fingers in particular. Once I had delicately washed between her legs
    I got down to my knees, but in the tight space even that was awkward to wash
    her legs, so I ended up on my ass on the floor of the shower, my legs spread as
    she stood between them so that I could wash down her smooth thighs, and calves,
    and then her feet.

    When I finished, and she set

    her foot down, I looked up at her as she looked down at me. Her eyes were full
    to the brim, and I couldn't tell if they'd spilt over or not because of the
    water from the shower. Her lips were rolled in as she pressed them between her
    teeth. I reached up and took her hand in mine, bringing her palm to my lips and
    kissing it softly.

    "I trust you," I

    told her. "And I appreciate every part of you. Even the things I don't
    know, and the things you may not want to tell me about. I appreciate them
    because they helped make you who you are, and get you here." Then I let go
    of her hand and encouraged her to bring one of her legs around and over my
    shoulder, and I pressed my lips to her cunt as I began eating her out.

    I'd eaten her before, but

    Kyla always seemed to feel overwhelmed by it. I'd realized after the first
    couple of times that it wasn't that she didn't like it, she just wasn't used to
    having someone want to dote on her. To want to tease and taste her, and take
    their time with making her feel good. She was the one who was supposed to
    tease, raise the temperature, and provide release at the right moment. She was
    the one who was supposed to have that power.

    But on my ass at the bottom

    of the shower with her looming over and practically sitting on my face, I had
    the power.

    I teased, and tasted. I

    kissed thigh and mound and lips. I nuzzled and I tongued.

    She came the first time when

    I softly teased her hole with a finger while buzzing lightly on her clit. It
    was a quiet one, shuddering, and when it was over she thought we would move on.
    There was no chance I would allow that. The second time happened when I had two
    fingers deep in her, tapping at her g-spot while I kissed her mound firmly,
    trying to find the exact point outside that I was pressing inside. This time
    she came hard, her fingers in my hair as she gasped in the lead up, and then
    pulled my head against her abdomen as her cunt squeezed and then released a
    wash of dripping girl cum down my arm.

    "Harri!" she

    shouted my name. "Oh, fuck-uh! Harrison, oh my; Ugh!"

    I waited until she was

    panting, and her fingers loosened in my hair, before I added a third finger. I
    didn't want to be done, but she tightened her grip on my hair and pulled my
    face away from her. When I looked up I didn't see the soft expression anymore;
    Kyla was looking down at me with a hunger I hadn't seen since the night she'd
    been imprinted.

    "Take me to bed,

    may-ari," she whispered huskily.

    Getting out of the shower

    ended up being a bit of a thing that left us both laughing as I had to crawl
    out since I couldn't get a grip on the slick walls. Once I was standing, Kyla
    was in my arms and we were kissing, and I didn't even bother with us drying
    off. I picked her up and carried her out of the bathroom and down to the
    bedroom, dripping water the entire way.

    Despite the hunger between

    us, we made love. Most of the times Kyla and I had been together in the last
    two weeks we'd been having sex. We hadn't gotten wild, and we hadn't been soft.
    It had always been good. This time could have gone to either extreme, and I
    could see us in the not-so-distant future fucking each other silly because God
    did I want to go all caveman on her. But this time we made love.

    We ended with her spooned

    with me, her one leg up in the air as I slow-thrusted into her. Her natural
    grace and athleticism from her dance made it feel like she could hold that pose
    for hours. She'd already come a third time, and I was getting close to a
    release of my own despite having popped twice already in the last hour or so.

    "Don't come inside

    me," Kyla said suddenly, reaching back and running her hand down my side.

    "Huh?" I grunted in

    surprise. I hadn't ever finished with her anywhere except inside of her.
    She'd gone off her birth control almost immediately after she'd joined us, and
    Erica had done the same, and I'd put a load into Kyla's cunt almost every day
    since.

    "I don't want a

    conception tied to today," Kyla said. "Not with everything..."

    "I understand," I

    said, wrapping my arms around her and hugging her back to my chest as I stopped
    thrusting for a moment. She tilted her chin down and kissed my arm.

    "I; I want to taste you

    anyways," Kyla admitted. "Come in my mouth?"

    I kissed her shoulder, and

    then the crook of her neck. "I would love to," I said.

    We fucked a little bit more,

    and then I stood on the bed and Kyla got on her hands and knees and sucked my
    cock, uncaring of her juices on me. As she did it she looked up at me with eyes
    that pleaded for my release. She fondled my balls with one hand, softly
    massaging them, as she jerked me off near the root and suckled on the head.

    When I came, I came with a

    groan, but I managed to keep my eyes open as she grinned around my cock and
    swallowed every spurt. And she shuddered as her own chemically-induced orgasm
    rolled through her.

    I collapsed back down onto

    the bed, and Kyla laughed softly as she pressed herself to my side, her naked
    tits against my chest. I ran my fingers along her back as we just shared our
    warmth.

    "Thank you again,"

    she said after about ten minutes of holding each other.

    "That's the last

    one," I said quietly.

    "Okay," she

    whispered, and I could feel her smile. She knew what I meant.

    Not long after, Kyla

    stretched and then wiped her mouth to make sure there was nothing there before
    softly pecking my lips. "Erica has been waiting too long," she said.
    She quickly went and got her borrowed clothes from the washroom, but realized
    they were wet from our journey out of the shower and ended up grabbing one of
    Ivy's summer dresses that she had borrowed before and put it on without
    underwear.

    "You tease," I said

    as she smoothed the dress out.

    She smirked as she looked

    over at me. "You can take advantage later if you can still get it up after
    two more rounds."

    I groaned, thinking of my

    poor cock after five rounds in a row. Or 'poor' cock. Then I looked back to
    Kyla again. "I'm going to try, but I might just want to taste you
    again."

    She bit her lip and grinned,

    but instead of saying anything she reached out a hand to me and I wrapped my
    fingers in hers, squeezing softly for a moment before she pulled away and went
    to the door.

    I didn't even have a minute

    to get myself together before Erica was in the RV. I met her in the doorway of
    the bedroom and she practically tackled me backwards onto the bed, quickly
    straddling my waist as she took my face in her hands and kissed me hard and
    long. Everything in her showed me how much she'd been holding it together, and
    how much she wanted to come apart. So I rolled us over to get on top and,
    without breaking the kiss, I started undressing her. Her shirt and bra came up,
    and her jeans got undone and pushed down her thighs along with her panties. As
    naked as I could get her under the circumstances. And I pressed my body down to
    hers, letting her feel my weight as I wriggled my hands under her so I could
    hold her tight.

    Erica laughed out a cry, or

    maybe cried a laugh, when our kiss finally broke. Just one sob of relief. Then
    she pulled her shirt and bra off entirely and kissed me again, and this time
    the kiss wasn't in a need for closeness, it was a hunger.

    We scrambled to get her naked

    the rest of the way. I just knew what she needed. With the others, I'd had to
    feel it out and figure out what our mutual emotional states were. Vanessa
    needed care and comfort. Ivy needed to feel loved and to feel like things were
    going back to normal. Kyla needed another step in our relationship.

    Erica needed to feel alive

    with me.

    Once her jeans were off of

    her, I picked her up to her feet from the bed and pressed her back to the wall
    of the RV, scooping one of her legs up in my arm and moving my cock to her
    entrance as she thrust her hips forward to meet me. She was wonderfully wet for
    me, her arousal a constant turn-on in my mind. I honestly wasn't even sure how
    I was hard again but didn't question it as I burrowed my cock into her cunt and
    kissed her feverishly.

    We fucked. Erica's

    magnificent tits pressed between our chests as our tongues battled. She grabbed
    the back of my neck with one hand, holding on tight, as I grabbed her ass and
    used it as a handle to fuck her harder. In an unspoken agreement with little
    more than looks we tore apart and she spun around, pressing her chest to the
    wall and thrusting her ass back at me as she reached back and spread her
    cheeks. I speared into her again, her wetness squelching a little as she moaned
    in her throat.

    Fucking her from behind, I

    wrapped my arms around her front and pressed her into the wall with my whole
    body.

    "I fucking love

    you," I growled in her ear as I jackhammered her with short, hard thrusts
    while her plump ass squeezed between our hips.

    She craned her neck around to

    kiss me and took my lower lip in her teeth and bit me almost hard enough to
    draw blood.

    "Fuck!" I shouted

    and slapped the side of her ass cheek.

    She laughed wildly. "I

    fucking love you too, baby!"

    I spanked her again, then

    pulled out of her and tossed her onto the bed. She scrambled to her hands and
    knees and I mounted her roughly, grabbing her by her thick, dark hair with one
    hand and her hip with the other as we started slamming into each other. I
    managed to shift my footing a bit so that I was fucking down into her more and
    she groaned wordlessly in her throat as she came and lost the strength in her
    arms and legs. She collapsed onto the mattress and I went with her, not
    stopping my thrusting. Her cunt clenched over and over, and I turned her head
    and bit her ear to pay her back for my lip.

    "Fuck, keep using my

    fucking body," she moaned. "Use my holes. Take my ass if you want,
    baby."

    It was tempting, but I was

    happy where I was and couldn't go this hard with her asshole. Instead, I
    reached under us and fingered her clit and lips as I kept thrusting into her,
    and with a palmful of her juices I smeared my hand across her face as she let
    out a wordless, "Ugh!" as I debased her.

    "I told Ivy I loved

    her," I grunted as I fucked her. She was starting to bounce her hips back
    at me again.

    "I know," she

    gasped. "Fuck, the girl couldn't keep that silly grin down for a moment.
    You made her so fucking happy."

    "Are you Okay with

    it?" I asked.

    "Fuck yes!" she

    shouted, quivering under me as a roll of minor orgasm shuddered through her.
    "I; Yes, God yes. I'm Okay with it, Harri. Fuck! Did you tell Kyla,
    too?"

    "I'm not in love with

    her yet," I grunted. "But I'm falling for her."

    "Good," Erica

    grunted. She reached back and softly pushed me off of her, and I fell back onto
    my ass as she crawled on top of me and re-mounted my cock in cowgirl as she
    looked down at me. I grabbed her big tits and thumbed her nipples as she
    started riding me with hard, jerking hips. "The only way this works with
    her is if you love her and she loves you. Anything less and she shouldn't be
    getting your kids. What about Vanessa?"

    "What about

    Vanessa?" I asked, grabbing Erica's hips and roughly working her forwards
    and backwards, encouraging her. We were both sweating hard now, our bodies
    glistening from the fast-paced exertion.

    "Did you tell her? It's

    obvious you do," Erica said.

    "Fuck, is it?" I

    asked. "She doesn't want to be that way."

    "She doesn't know what

    she wants," Erica grunted. Then she pulled off my cock and reached over
    into one of the little storage nooks built into the wall of the bedroom and
    produced another bottle of lube. She took some and reached back, smearing it on
    her asshole. "It's obvious she's in love with you too, maybe she just
    doesn't realize that's what it is."

    "I can't force the

    issue," I said. "She specifically doesn't want that."

    Erica got my cock into

    position and then sat back on it, the head popping into her asshole after a
    moment of tension.

    "Fuck," I grunted.

    "Ye-hess," Erica

    moaned, her right eye twitching closed. She started to ride me almost
    immediately, though she only took about half my cock into her ass. Once she had
    a rhythm she leaned forward, fucking me with her hips, as she planted a massive
    kiss on me. "Just tell her while you're inside her," Erica said.
    "She'll come like she can't believe, and that'll prove it."

    "I don't think that's

    how it works," I said, panting as Erica worked me with her ass.

    Erica shrugged, a little

    smirk on her face that turned into a pleasured wince as she sat back farther,
    taking me deeper into her.

    She came a few minutes later,

    leaning back away from me with her legs spread so I had an amazing view of her
    cunt dripping her juices as her asshole clung to my cock and her tits wobbled
    and bounced. Then she dismounted and grabbed her shirt to wipe me off, and soon
    I was inside of her cunt again in missionary, fucking hard.

    "Are you close,

    babe?" she gasped.

    I grunted my affirmative. I

    had her tits bouncing beautifully from the angle with a pillow under her ass
    and her thighs up around my waist.

    "Fuck me full,

    then," she said. "Fill my unprotected cunt."

    "You sure?" I

    asked. "Kyla didn't want a chance that a conception happened on a day like
    this."

    "Have I ever struck you

    as superstitious?" Erica grunted. She grabbed me and pulled me down into
    another searing kiss. "If anything," she whispered into my ear,
    "I'd rather make something good out of a horrible day. And if this means I
    get another shot at getting preggers with your firstborn before her, then I'll
    take it. So breed me, motherfucker."

    I couldn't help but laugh a

    little. "I'm not a motherfucker until after you're a mother," I
    pointed out.

    She licked the sweat from my

    face as she panted heavily. "Make me one then," she challenged me.

    I roared as I came, my shout

    pressing into her lips as we kissed hard and I unloaded in her, and she in turn
    went into a shuddering orgasm of her own. My hips jerked over and over as I
    pumped what felt like my fucking soul into her, I was so empty afterwards. I
    could feel her nipples hard on my chest, and her wetness across my thighs and
    groin.

    "I; love you,” I panted

    as we both came down.

    "I; love; you too,"

    she panted back.

    We held each other as I

    slowly softened inside her, and then we shifted to a dry spot on the bed and I
    spooned up behind her, holding her tightly.

    "I don't care that this

    is all insane," Erica said quietly, reaching down to take my hand from her
    stomach and folding our fingers together. She turned back to look at me over
    her shoulder. "We weren't going to be able to wait long anyways to do
    this. I love you, and I can't wait to be a Mom with you."

    I kissed her cheek, then

    grinned a little teasing look. "We're both gonna be Moms, huh?"

    She rolled her eyes.

    "You know what I mean."

    "I do," I laughed,

    and kissed her cheek again. "And I can't wait to be a Mom with you,
    too."

    She snorted a laugh.

     

    Once Erica had peeled herself

    away from me and I'd gone for another quick shower, I came back out to find
    Vanessa waiting for me. She met me with a kiss and fondled my cock, and I was a
    little shocked to feel it starting to respond to her. Soon she was on her knees
    suckling and moaning until I was hard, and then she stood up and lifted the
    back of her dress and I was inside her. We fucked like we did when she needed a
    little something on one of her breaks during the day; quick and efficient. We'd
    figured out enough of our buttons that we could get each other off in a way
    where we both felt satisfied even if it wasn't some big event.

    Though quick, in this instance,

    was relative. I was four orgasms in after about a little over two hours, so
    'quick' was still about twenty minutes. We ended up with me sitting on the
    bench seat and her riding me as we made out. There was something about doing it
    while she was still dressed that did it for me, and feeling close to her was
    good. I came inside of her, and she closed her eyes and her body jerked a
    little as she orgasmed at the feeling.

    I thought about doing what

    Erica had said, but still thought it would break the boundary Vanessa had set
    up.

    And then, after dismounting

    me, Vanessa cleaned herself off of me with her mouth and went and got clothes
    for me.

    "I don't know if I can

    fucking move," I chuckled. I'd barely gotten my ass off the bench to get
    my shorts on.

    "Oh, man up,"

    Vanessa smirked, giving me a little slap on the side of my calf.

    I looked around at the

    disarray of the interior of the RV. There was a wet spot on the bench one space
    over from me. There was a wet smear of lube on the kitchenette table. There were
    puddles of water trailing from the bathroom to the bedroom. Discarded clothing
    was all over. The sheets of the bed probably needed to be replaced and not just
    washed. And the whole place stank of sex.

    "Yeah, Okay, I take that

    back," Vanessa said. She straddled my lap again like she had when she'd
    been riding me and kissed me. "You're an absolute stud," she
    whispered with a smile in between little kisses. "They should name a
    racehorse after you. They should erect a monument to your sexual stamina."

    I sighed deeply. "Vee, I

    think you're dripping cum onto my shorts."

    Vanessa raised her dress up

    to her hips, revealing her bare cunt as my cum leaked out of her directly onto
    my clothes. "Oops," she said, looking at me in embarrassment.

    Once I had another new pair

    of shorts on, and my flip-flops, Vanessa and I exited the RV and I blinked at
    the late afternoon sun as it gleamed down at an angle on the compound.
    "Fuck," I grunted. "Where did the day go?"

    It seemed wild, but two hours

    of emotional sex with four women in sequence made the entire rest of what had
    happened that day feel like it had been a week ago.

    Everyone else was already

    outside, and I found myself blushing as they all turned at my first step down
    from the RV and started applauding in a golf clap and catcalling. I just
    laughed and waved them off. Soon I was getting hugs as we all started to feel
    like we were safe and together. And not just from my girls; Leo and I embraced
    and squeezed the shit out of each other. India and Aria, for all that we were basically
    friendly acquaintances at best since they'd spent the last two weeks getting to
    know Dani and Leo better while I'd been focused on Vanessa and Kyla, hugged me
    as well. Dani went so far as to give me a peck on the lips, which surprised me,
    but that silly little smile of hers and the extremely warm hug let me know it
    was just her being comfortable with me in a way we'd been heading towards
    already.

    All in all, for the first

    time in weeks none of the girls were dressed down in a partial bikini or anything
    like that. Everyone was fully clothed; barring the fact that I knew Vanessa and
    Kyla were both lacking underwear beneath their dresses. The past two weeks had
    been hot even when it wasn't sunny and there had been lots of tanning going on
    as the girls all got comfortable with each other. Topless tanning, I'd been
    assured, wasn't going to actually happen despite the pictures I'd been sent in
    the hospital. Everything else in the compound was mostly put back in place; the
    barricade in the center of the 'yard' that Erica, Kyla and Dani had used had
    been disassembled, and the chairs and cornhole boards spread out again.

    Once we were all coming down

    from the endorphin rush of being alive together I climbed back up onto the top
    of the RV to take a look at the outside world, followed by Kyla and Vanessa.

    Outside the compound, the big

    white tents were still up but there were a lot fewer of the construction
    workers milling around. I couldn't tell if the number of hazmat-suited National
    Guard had changed, but there was a truck pulling away towards the driveway that
    looked like it was full of workers while another one rumbled past coming the
    other way. Almost as soon as it stopped, more workers were being loaded up into
    the covered bed.

    Vanessa took my hand as we

    stood watching, her rough hands squeezing tight, and I slipped my other arm
    around Kyla's waist and hugged her to me at the hip. She leaned into me a
    little, and the three of us watched the proceedings. It looked like areas of
    the site were already under quarantine, and National Guard soldiers were
    walking the grounds and the fields scanning the terrain. Several of them were
    planting little yellow flags which, in a criminal investigation, I would have
    assumed were evidence markers. In this circumstance, I couldn't really guess
    what they were for.

    I ended up texting Miriam to

    let her know the 'inoculation thing' was all up to date. I still felt weird
    being open about the sex I was having, especially outside of our weird double
    family thing going on. She sent back a thumbs up, and then let me know someone
    would be over to speak to us. About ten minutes later a Hazmated National
    Guardsman with a medic symbol on his shoulders and back started trudging over
    to us from the direction of the tents.

    "Hey folks," he

    said, giving us a little wave as he got close. "Sounds like y'all need to
    do some infection tests? I got orders that two people are at risk?"

    "That'll be us," I

    said. "How do we do the tests?"

    "Well, the best we got

    right now are blood tests, so I gotta come in to do the draws unless someone in
    there knows what they're doing to keep everything sterile," he said.

    "I can do it," Kyla

    said.

    "You sure?" he

    asked.

    Kyla sighed under her breath

    even though her expression didn't change. "I'm sure."

    The guy shrugged and took out

    a couple of packets and tossed them up. We did it right there on top of the RV,
    with Vanessa and I sitting on either side of Kyla as she tore open the packs
    and used the little alcohol swabs to clean off her hands and spots on the
    inside of our elbows.

    "How did you learn to do

    this?" Vanessa asked.

    Kyla glanced at me, and I

    knew the answer was something she wasn't ready to tell her. "I took a
    couple of nursing courses through a college affiliate program while I was at
    Uni," Kyla lied. "I figured I probably can't be a dancer forever, so
    I might as well try out something more practical."

    "I wish I could have

    tried something like dance when I was a kid," Vanessa said, wincing a
    little as Kyla stuck her with the needle after finding her vein. "With
    older brothers and a Dad like mine, it wasn't ever really an option."

    "I'd be happy to teach

    you some stuff," Kyla offered. "Nothing crazy, just some basics, and
    if you like it we could do more."

    "Really?" Vanessa

    asked. "I don't know, I feel like I'm not really the graceful type at this
    point."

    "Vee, just try it,"

    I said, reaching around Kyla to put my hand on Vanessa's. "You know you
    want to, and with the way the world is going, if it makes you happy then who
    cares if you're graceful? Plus, I bet you could tapdance around any of us in
    those steel-toes of yours."

    That made her laugh, and soon

    Kyla had the blood drawn and sealed into two vials. We didn't have any writing
    tools to mark them, so she had to toss one down at a time to the guy and he
    used his pen.

    "Alrighty, I'll get

    these over and tested ASAP," he said. "The Air Force lady said you
    were top priority."

    "That's the Colonel,

    soldier," I said, frowning at the lack of respect the guy seemed to have.

    "Yahep," he said,

    turning and waving over his shoulder. "The LTC. I'll let her know."

    It was Kyla's turn to

    reassure me as I grimaced after the guy, and she did it by grabbing my chin and
    pulling me into a soft kiss. "He's more civilian than soldier," she
    said.

    "Soldier enough to use a

    proper rank," I grumbled, but my grimace broke as she kissed me softly
    again. And then she glanced at Vanessa and I saw a distinct look between the
    two of them. "What was that?"

    "Nothing," they

    said in unison.

    All I could do was narrow my

    eyes, which just made them both chuckle.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 7 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 8

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 8
    Summer Plans

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     At dinner I checked in

    with Ivy first, then Vanessa when she had finished for the day and joined us. I
    also made a point of stopping to check in with Dani to see what she was
    thinking about her new co-team members, who she thought would work out fine,
    and Kyla.

    "I think she's a lot

    quieter than the rest of us," Dani told me as we sat side by side near
    Leo's RV. "Which isn't a bad thing, obviously. She isn't as used to being
    around girls like us though. Erica worked with strippers because of her job,
    along with all sorts of other crazy people, so it's whatever for her. Kyla
    obviously isn't used to how open we all are about sex things."

    I pressed my lips together

    and nodded, watching her as she sat in a group with Erica, Vanessa and Aria
    chatting. She was obviously engaged, but didn't offer much to the conversation
    and seemed happy to listen.

    "Anything else?" I

    asked. "Anything weird come up?"

    "No. Should I be

    watching for something?" Danielle asked.

    "No, no," I assured

    her. "I just; Erica, Ivy, Vanessa; it's working. It's crazy, but it's
    working. I'm worried about Kyla messing that up."

    "It should be

    fine," Dani said, patting me on the shoulder. "Erica will Mom them
    into shape if things get out of whack, and if she's the problem you can just
    spank her until she apologizes."

    That made me snort and shake

    my head with a grin. "You and her talk too much."

    "Or maybe we don't talk

    enough," Dani grinned.

    We folded ourselves back into

    the larger conversations, me joining the group with Kyla while Dani went to sit
    with Leo, India and Ivy. As the sun was setting we busted out the fire pit and
    Vanessa pointed me towards the nearest brush piles I could harvest some wood
    from; it seemed she'd handily directed some of her workers to pile it within
    easy walking distance.

    Then, once the fire was

    crackling and we all had our drinks of choice, we told the new women our story.
    We started with Leo and I, then how Erica had joined us for quarantine. We both
    teased her about hearing her masturbating, which until that moment she hadn't
    realized had been the case and made her blush. Then we talked about the land
    lease, the construction, and the introduction of Dani, Vanessa, and Ivy.
    Vanessa told us how fucking crazy she thought we were at first, but after that
    first night around the fire she'd realized something weird but special was
    going on so she stopped judging and started getting a little jealous. Then Ivy
    told her perspective, stepping into a life with Erica and me. Then we had to
    tell the story of Vanessa joining us, which got rushed over really quickly and
    then had to be retold because even Dani hadn't gotten all the details.

    I'd purposefully sat beside

    Kyla around the fire, Erica taking the spot on the other side of me. As India
    and Aria started ragging on Vanessa for not giving them the full story in the
    initial car ride when they met her, Kyla leaned over to me. "Can we talk?
    In private?"

    "Sure," I said,

    nodding towards our RV. I leaned back in the other direction to Erica and
    kissed her cheek, and she met my eye and nodded.

    Inside the RV Kyla had taken

    the Murphey seat this time so I sat on the bench opposite her. "You still
    feeling alright?" I asked her.

    "No," she laughed.

    Inside, in the more steady light of the RV, I could see she was flushed even
    with her slightly darker Filipina skin. "I feel like I've got a fever, but
    it's concentrated in all my erogenous zones. I don't even like women but that
    story about Vanessa has me..." She blew out a long breath. "I don't
    know how much more sex talk I can take before I snap."

    "I can ask them to stop

    if you want. Or we can have that conversation if you think you're ready."

    "I'm; Yeah, I'm ready to

    talk," she said. She took another deep breath and sat up straighter,
    putting her hands on her knees like she was trying to focus herself.

    "You can ask anything

    you want, and I'll try to answer," I promised her.

    "I don't have

    questions," she said. "Well, I actually have lots of
    questions, but they aren't important right this second. Seeing you with Erica
    and Ivy, and meeting Vanessa. Hearing the way Leo and Danielle talk about you.
    I think I know what I'd be getting into if I do this with you. And to be
    honest, it sounds pretty greater considering the other options that the world
    seems to be moving toward right now. But I never want to be someone who just
    takes the easy thing because it's in front of them. I know a lot about you now,
    but you don't know much about me. And I'll tell you, pretty much anything you
    want to know, but there's something I need to know if you're Okay with. More
    than my past, more than whatever your government is worried about."

    "The only way to know is

    to ask," I said, trying not to let my own nerves out. Kyla, who had been
    steady throughout the day, was showing signs of anxiety amidst her hard
    pressure to keep herself under control. "If I don't like it, we can try
    and find someone else as soon as possible."

    "I don't want,”

    She bit her tongue, cutting herself off, and took a breath. "Harrison. If
    I do this, if I imprint on you, this is my out. I've been doing everything my
    father wanted since I was a kid. The only escape I ever had was through dance,
    and even that he took control of to make sure I was getting the best lessons
    and tutors and going to the best camps and schools. And even then, he and NICA
    used it as well. My entire life I've been pushed and trained and taught and used
    because I didn't matter and my country and my service did. I want a new life,
    Harri. But I want that life the way I want it. I want a big family. I was
    an only child, and my parents tolerated each other at best in a political
    marriage. I want six kids at least, more if we can. Fuck, I'll pop out an even
    dozen and be happy. Or maybe not, maybe I'll be happy earlier than that, but I
    know I want a lot of kids to love on and raise in a big, supportive family.

    "If you can handle that,

    and if Erica can handle that because I know she's going to need to agree to it
    too, then I swear to God I'll be loyal to you and only to you. My father, NICA,
    my country; I can leave them all behind and in the dust if you can promise me
    we'll try to make my dream life happen. And I promise I'll be the best, hottest
    housewife I can be for as long as you can keep me barefoot and pregnant. I'll
    make sure I'm fit and tight and everything I can be for you in between
    pregnancies, but God I want this, Harri. I've never told anyone this before,
    but I want it so fucking bad."

    I didn't know what to say.

    She was practically sobbing in her earnest desire for what she was asking. I
    just slid down to my knees on the floor of the RV and wrapped my arms around
    her and Kyla clutched at me as she panted hard. Not crying, but desperately
    trying to control herself.

    "Kyla, I would be an

    extremely lucky man if I can give that all to you," I said. "And I
    want to tell you yes right away, but you're right. I do need to check with
    Erica first. Do you want me to call her in to ask her now?"

    She hesitated a moment, then

    nodded and sat back on the chair, sucking in a deep and unsteady breath.

    I stood up and opened the RV

    door, sticking my head out. All three of my women looked over to me and I made
    what I hoped was a reassuring smile, then locked eyes with Erica and motioned
    her over with a head jerk.

    She joined us, shutting the

    RV door behind her. "What's up?" she asked. "Everything
    Okay?"

    I looked at Kyla. "Do

    you want me to ask, or you?"

    "I; You," she said

    after hesitating.

    I turned to Erica and reached

    out, holding her hand. "So, I know we had our conversation earlier, but I
    didn't realize this was coming or maybe we would have talked about it more
    seriously. Kyla is ready to join us, but she has an ask. Because of her own
    family past, one thing she wants more than anything is to have kids. A whole
    bunch of them. So she wants to know if you and I are Okay with that and willing
    for that to happen, or if we should try to find her someone else who can help
    her get the life she wants."

    Erica's eyes had widened as I

    was speaking and her jaw worked a few times before she could find the right
    words. Then she turned to Kyla and looked at her for a long, long moment before
    putting a hand on her shoulder. "That's the most important thing for
    you?" she asked quietly.

    Kyla nodded, then looked up

    to meet Erica's gaze. "More than anything else. And I want to do that with
    Harrison; God, I haven't even known him a day but it's like I can see it right
    there in front of me. He'd make a great husband and an even better father. I
    just know he's yours more than either of the others, and I couldn't risk saying
    yes to him without you saying yes to this."

    "God, fuck," Erica

    sighed, and I realized she was tearing up as well. She looked to me. "Yes,
    obviously, if it's what she needs then yes. But I guess now I need to stop
    taking the pill because I'm not just gonna sit by and not be in the running for
    the first mother of your child."

    Now it was my turn to be

    surprised. "But we just,”

    She kissed me to shut me up.

    "It doesn't matter," she said. "I love you, you love me. If the
    world implodes and we're all shot off into space, I still won't regret making a
    kid with you." She turned to Kyla. "Are you going to love him?"

    "I'm going to try,"

    she said. "And I'll work harder at it than my parents ever did."

    "Then yes," Erica

    said. "But, and I'll only ever say this once and you need to listen to me
    closely, if this isn't the truth and you hurt Harrison or me or anyone else
    here then I swear to everything in heaven and hell that I will end you. Do we
    understand each other?"

    Kyla nodded, taking her

    seriously. "I do, and I won't."

    "Okay," Erica said,

    and leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "You clearly need a fuck,
    so unless you've suddenly turned Bi then I should leave you to it." She
    turned to me and kissed me hard, and I hugged her to keep her close.

    "You're sure?" I

    asked her in a whisper.

    She nodded. "Rock her

    world, babe. Show her why she's one of the four luckiest women on the
    planet."

    She kissed my cheek, squeezed

    my fingers in hers, and then stepped away and out of the RV.

    Kyla looked like she was

    going to jump out of her seat.

    "So,” I started.

    Kyla stood up abruptly and

    grabbed me by the face, smashing her plush lips to mine. I naturally grabbed
    her by the waist as we started making out right there in the middle of the RV.
    She'd been wearing that bulky coverall the entire day and now she started to
    scramble to try and get it unzipped and off at the same time as trying to get
    me to get my shirt off, which just turned into an awkward mess of her hands
    moving back and forth between us.

    "Stop, stop," I

    murmured, pulling my lips from hers.

    She actually whined a little

    in her throat and then blinked in surprise at her own reaction. I picked her up
    and she wrapped her legs around my waist as I carried her back towards the bed.
    Like this, she was taller than me and she bent down to kiss me some more,
    making it hard for me to navigate. Thankfully it was a straight shot, and there
    wasn't a lip at the door to the bedroom area that I needed to duck under or
    step over. I found the bed with my shin and stopped and lowered her down onto
    it so we lay somewhere in the middle, me on top of her as we kept making out.
    Once we were done I pulled away and tugged off my shirt.

    "Fuck," she

    groaned, looking at me hungrily.

    "Not what you're used

    to?" I asked.

    She shook her head. "No,

    so much better." She raised her hands to my stomach and up to my chest,
    letting her fingers play through my chest hair.

    I couldn't help myself and I

    reached down and unzipped the coverall down to her belly button. Underneath,
    all she had on was a set of black bra and panties. On the one hand, I was
    starting to get mesmerized by her body very quickly, but on the other, I
    remembered in the back of my mind that she hadn't arrived with any luggage.

    I lifted her from under her

    arms and she let me help her pull the coveralls off, then raised her ass so I
    could pull them from her legs as well. I crashed back down onto her, now
    feeling her smooth skin on mine. Her body was everything I would have expected
    from a dancer; smooth and sleek all over, with toned muscling and a sort of
    feline grace as she moved around.

    "Where; are; your

    clothes; and things?" I asked between kisses.

    "They said; they would

    bring; them up; from Cali,” she replied. Then she stopped the kissing and
    looked up at me. "Seriously, I've got this fucking craving for your cock
    right now like I can't believe, Harri. I need you to fuck me so fucking bad."

    "Okay," I said, and

    then kissed her again as I reached under her to unsnap her bra. When she
    realized what I wanted she didn't even bother with the snap, she just yanked
    the black cups off her tits and the whole thing over her head. Her tits were a
    perfect size for my big hands to palm, a bit bigger than Ivy's but much smaller
    than Erica's, and her dark brown areolas were smooth and a little puffy, with
    two perfect nubs for nipples. I sucked on one, feeling how hard they were, but
    she was stretching to try and get my shorts off of me.

    She needed the imprinting. We

    could always explore each other more in the future.

    I leaned away from her, one

    hand still on her tit and holding her down, as I shoved down my shorts and
    boxers. For her part, she pushed her panties down to her knees and I pulled
    them the rest of the way off. Her cunt was a gorgeous brown, flushed darker
    than the skin above and slick with her chemically-induced horniness. Even her
    clit hood was a little pulled back, the softer pink of her clit just visible
    from being swollen. She was entirely bare, and I wondered if that was a
    personal choice or a seduction tactic she'd been told to follow.

    Not that I cared at the

    moment.

    I wanted to eat her out and

    taste her. I wanted to make this last, to wow her like Erica had said. Fuck,
    let's be real, I wanted to impress the seductive honey trap spy with my sex
    skills.

    "Fuck my brains

    out," Kyla demanded. "Fuck me until I can only ever think of you.
    Take me and make me yours, you fucking massive wall of American god."

    I could impress her later.

    Her cunt accepted my cock

    like a perfectly tailored suit. I slid in, and even though she was tight and
    her muscles were firm as hell as they clenched at me she was also extremely
    willing. That changed when I was almost all the way in though, but not from
    want of trying.

    Kyla came, her entire body

    rolling and arching as her cunt clenched down enough to almost start forcing my
    cock out. She grabbed me around the shoulder and hugged herself up, clinging to
    me, and her hips roiled as she thrust hard up and down. Her eyes were squeezed
    shut, her lips curled in an ugly snarl for a long moment, until the orgasm
    passed and she let go of me, falling a couple of inches back to the bed with a
    'whumph.'

    "H-Holy fuck," she

    panted, looking up at me in confusion. "What was that? That,” She blinked
    rapidly.

    "Did no one tell you

    about the first orgasm?" I asked her.

    She shook her head, still

    blinking like she was trying to gain her focus. "Fuck me and tell
    me," she said.

    I started to slow-thrust,

    enjoying the delicious warmth of her as I leaned down a bit more, pressing my
    full body against hers as she spread her legs wider for me. "They told
    Erica in the information session that she should expect a massive orgasm the
    first time she ingested a man's precum, and the biggest one of her life when
    they ingest their actual cum."

    "She got an information

    session?" Kyla panted, looking slightly alarmed.

    "You didn't?" I

    asked, equally alarmed.

    We'd both stopped thrusting

    at each other, not sure what to do.

    "Fuck it, fucking fuck

    me," she said and rolled her body to get my cock deeper inside her again.

    I wasn't going to argue with

    that.

    We fucked like that,

    mutually, for a bit and then I took some more control and went up high on my
    hands for better leverage and started to fuck her harder. Kyla moaned and
    panted beneath me, then raised her lips up and sucked on one of my nipples,
    which was an oddly pleasurable surprise, and then she took some of my hairy pec
    muscle between her teeth and bit me lightly as she came again.

    "Ow," I said when

    she dropped back to the bed again.

    "Sorry," she

    panted. "I just; you're really fucking good."

    Huh, maybe I can impress

    the spy, I thought.

    "I'm getting

    closer," I told her. I'd had... well, not the most amount of sex I'd had
    in a day, but a bunch, so I wasn't entirely surprised I was lasting as long as
    I was. "Do you want to try something else?"

    "I want to try

    everything with you," she gasped and kissed me. "But... let
    me..." I disengaged with her, which made her moan like a whore, and she
    scrambled around on the bed until she was at the bottom corner on her back.
    Then she spread her legs wide into a full split, and then even wider until she
    had one leg practically parallel with her torso and the other was way out to
    the other side. If she was a clock, she would have been showing 10 o'clock.

    "Fuck me hard. Use my

    hole," she said, licking her lips. "Get your cock back inside; yes!
    Oh, fuck, Harrison. Make my cunt fucking squirm. Make your cunt squirm.
    It's yours now. I'm yours. My whole body. Fuck! I've never felt it like this
    before. I've never felt anything like this."

    I was crushing down into her

    in big, hard strokes and I could feel her cunt squishing with her juices and my
    balls slapping against her ass cheeks. I was hovering over her and a bead of
    sweat had trailed down to the end of my nose. Kyla opened her mouth and stuck
    her tongue out, licking it off of me. I lowered the rest of the way to her and
    kissed her hard, then hugged her tightly as I started pumping short and quick,
    barely leaving her cunt.

    "I can't wait to fall in

    love with you," I whispered to her. "I can't wait to make babies with
    you, and start a family."

    "Do it," she

    gasped. "Put a baby in me. Make my womb yours forever. Breed me, make me
    your breeding wife-whore. Love me, may-ari. Oh, fucking; that's what you are,
    you beautiful big bastard. You're my may-ari. My owner. I choose you. I choose;
    I,”

    I couldn't have stopped from

    coming in her if my life depended on it. She was pushing towards her own orgasm
    already, and her years of dance and other physical activity had turned her core
    into a vice that sucked at my cock like a hoover.

    I came as she lost her grip

    on her words, chanting about choosing me. She came as well, a scream quenched
    in her throat as her entire body flexed and tensed. I filled her up, releasing
    over and over in her, but I finished before she did and just went right back to
    fucking her since my cock hadn't gone soft yet and she was still coming. I only
    stopped when she went slack, her legs falling back to a more natural position,
    and her face went from that clenched teeth-gritting tension to a soft,
    satisfied smile.

    "Imprinting. Imprinting.

    Imprinting."

    I pulled away from her

    slowly, making sure she wasn't going to fall from the bed, and found that the
    entire bottom corner and the edge of the mattress were wet and sticky with
    juices. Along with my legs, crotch and hips.

    "Great, another

    squirter," I sighed. Not that I actually minded, but it just meant we'd be
    doing even more laundry in the tiny machine the RV held. I stood and, once I
    felt like I could be coordinated enough, I picked Kyla up in a cradle and
    lifted her higher on the bed and tucked her in. She was in the fetal position,
    still mumbling the imprinting sequence with that smile.

    I had to grab a new pair of

    shorts since mine had ended up in the splash zone, and I didn't bother putting
    on a shirt but did wipe myself down with some wet paper towel.

    Stumbling out of the RV, I

    was greeted by catcalls and applause. Looking around, the fire was still going
    and someone had stocked it higher with wood. Erica, Dani and Vanessa were all
    sitting in the Adirondack chairs, and Ivy was sitting curled up in Erica's lap.

    "Where are Leo and the

    girls?" I asked, trying my best not to let them show the embarrassment I
    knew they were going for with their teasing.

    "Aria and India were

    going to fuck, and invited Leo to watch," Dani smirked. "So I assume
    he's in there either jerking off, or fucking."

    "I don't need to picture

    that," Erica rolled her eyes.

    I stepped over and kissed

    Vanessa as she leaned her head back and reached up to hug me around the neck.
    Then I slipped around the circle to Ivy and Erica and kissed both of them. Dani
    opened her arms to me as well, so I hugged her and she kissed my cheek.

    "Congrats," she

    said as I pulled away. "Pops."

    "Oh, God," I

    groaned and looked at Erica. "You told them?"

    "Was I supposed to keep

    it a secret?" she countered. "I needed to talk it out with
    someone."

    Vanessa had stood from her

    chair and gestured for me to take her seat and went inside the RV, coming back
    out with some more beers. She passed them around and then sat on my lap similar
    to the way Ivy was with Erica.

    We sat that way for a while

    talking as the night sky played out above us. I'd always loved looking up at
    the sky out on the property, away from any major sources of light pollution.
    Now spotlights were lighting up the construction area a hundred yards away,
    where men and women were working through the night. The view was dimmed, and I
    wondered if it would ever be as clear again as it had been a month ago.

    Dani slipped off to bed

    first, and Vanessa grumbled that she had to be up in the morning for work so
    the rest of us went quickly. We never had discussed the sleeping arrangements,
    so I ended up sleeping next to Kyla, with Erica pressing her back to my side
    and holding my arm under her and around her stomach, with Vanessa spooning up to
    her and Ivy on the end on her back, snuggled partially under Vanessa.

    I knocked on the door and set

    the two big brown paper bags down on the stoop and backed away. The house
    wasn't 'old' per se, located in a neighborhood that had been developed almost
    twenty-five years ago, and hadn't been updated since it was first built. To be
    fair, there hadn't ever exactly been a housing boom in the area, so other than
    the one-off builds it was probably one of the newest places around.

    The inner front door opened

    and Mary looked out cautiously, then in surprise as she saw me. She hadn't
    texted me like I'd asked her to, and it had almost been a week since I'd seen
    her in the parking lot at the grocery store. She looked a little better, though
    not by much, and I wondered how far she'd been able to stretch that $70 I'd
    been able to give her then.

    "Harri?" she asked

    in surprise.

    "Hey, Mary," I said

    with a little wave.

    "How did you; Is

    this;?"

    "It wasn't that hard,

    Mary," I said. "I just made a couple of calls. You never texted
    me."

    "I know, I,” she

    hesitated, and then hung her head. "I was so embarrassed."

    "You don't need to

    be," I told her. "You're in a tough spot, and I'm not. I want to help
    out."

    "Mom? Who's at the

    door?" came a little voice from inside. A boy poked his head around Mary's
    hip, looking cute and curious.

    "It's an old friend of

    Mommies," Mary said. "He's just here to say hello."

    "Hey there buddy,"

    I said, smiling as I pulled my mask down and waved, then let the mask snap back
    up and played like it had rocked me. The kid giggled. "My name is
    Harrison, but everyone calls me Harri on account of my big beard and
    hair."

    "That's a funny

    name," the kid said. "If you got rid of your beard, what would they
    call you?"

    "Hmm, that's a good

    question!" I said. "I don't know. Maybe you should ask your Mom, she
    knew me when I didn't have a beard."

    "We still called him

    Harri, baby," Mary said, smiling down at the boy and running her fingers
    through his hair.

    The kid had keen eyes and

    noticed the bags on the stoop and the food inside. "Is that for us?"

    "It is, kiddo," I

    said. "Could you help your Mom get it inside?"

    "Sure!" he said.

    Mary sighed and opened the screen door for him, and the kid came out in his
    socks and hefted up one of the bags and started carrying it in.

    "Harri, you don't need

    to,”

    "I made sure there are

    some snacks for the kids in there," I said, pretending like she hadn't
    been talking. "I know they aren't nutritious, but I figured you can bribe
    some good behavior for some Oreos and stuff every once in a while. There's also
    a bottle of merlot in that other one there, so you may not want the kiddo to
    lift it. He's a cute kid, by the way. I've got an order in down at the
    butcher's that I'm supposed to pick up tomorrow, so I'll be by sometime
    tomorrow afternoon with some meat for you guys too. Maybe I can meet your
    little girl then? Charlie, right?"

    Mary looked like she was

    about to cry, and I didn't want to push her over the edge so I tried to make it
    all like it wasn't a big deal. "Alright, Mary. See you tomorrow. Let me
    know if you need anything specific and I'll see what I can do, alright? Tell
    the kiddo not to eat all the gummy worms at once."

    I was halfway down the

    driveway to my truck when the screen door opened again. "Harri," Mary
    called. I looked back and she was standing on the porch, looking at me with
    tears brimming in her eyes and a happy frown on her face. From this distance,
    without a mask, I could still see her as the little button-nosed cheerleader
    I'd known. "Thank you."

    I just winked and waved,

    heading back to my truck.

    "That was really kind of

    you," Kyla said as I got in.

    "It's nothing," I

    said. "I knew her in high school and her husband's been missing for a
    while."

    Kyla took one of my hands

    from the steering wheel and wrapped her fingers in mine, looking at it. The
    casual intimacy was still new; the first couple days after her imprinting had
    been us feeling each other out, and her getting comfortable with the general
    openness to sex that was our new life. I'd made it a point to spend time with
    her, both sexually and non-sexually, each day and we were slowly starting to
    find a soft groove.

    "That's still kindness,

    Harri," she said. "You're sure she needs it? I don't want to see you
    getting taken advantage of."

    "I'm sure," I said.

    "Okay," Kyla

    nodded. "Then we'll help her. Now, let's continue this tour. I want to
    know everything I can about this little podunk, backwoods town I've been
    shipped off to."

    "Well, the first thing

    you should know is that I'm pretty sure it isn't big enough to be considered a
    town. Maybe a village?"

    "Oh, God," she

    laughed. "Not if you consider all the construction workers moving
    in."

    "True. I bet we're close

    to half-againing the local population at this point. Vanessa said we'll hit a
    thousand by the end of the week."

    "With that many,"

    Kyla said. "We should have our house in, what, a few months?"

    "No idea," I said.

    "No fucking idea."

    "Fuck, it's already

    June," I groaned. It was hot as balls and I was regretting putting on my
    'go out into the world' getup.

    "How did you miss the

    1st?" Erica asked, also done up in her gear.

    "How did we miss

    Memorial Day?" I countered.

    "Oh, shit," Leo

    said, standing up from where he'd been sitting over near his RV. "You're
    right, we did miss Memorial Day. Should we do something?"

    "Like what?" I

    asked.

    "We could throw a

    party," Ivy suggested. "We could all dress up fancy and have a
    dance?"

    The surveyors had been

    needing Leo and me less and less lately and I was starting to get a little twitchy
    with how little I had to do. Quarantine before all of this really kicked off
    had been one thing, but now we didn't even have our big wide backyard to
    ourselves. When Erica had mentioned that she wanted to take a drive into
    Portland to pick up some things from the tattoo parlor and check her apartment
    I'd jumped on the chance and we'd made the plan.

    The girls were already

    starting to excitedly talk about planning our late Memorial Day celebration as
    I stretched and sighed, checking my watch. We'd been planning to leave right
    after lunch and it was already 3pm. Vanessa had taken an extended break since
    she'd worked late the night before and we'd had some one-on-one fun in the RV,
    which had been sorely needed for her. Where the rest of us were struggling to
    find things to keep busy and motivated, the last week had seen more and more
    responsibility and work landing in Vanessa's lap as the construction crews
    started to show up and move into the barracks. It meant there was an entirely
    new crew of cleaners, maintenance workers and delivery people under her
    supervision along with her 'gorillas.' Not to mention her wrangling of the
    other foremen and administrators on-site as her father handled the top-end
    details of the job. Every day it seemed like new equipment and supplies were
    being delivered and a third barracks was quickly being erected as even more
    hands were around.

    But an hour with Vanessa had

    delayed us, and when I was finally ready to go Dani was busy with Leo over at
    their place, and since she was coming with us Erica and I had to wait. Then
    Erica and Kyla were ensconced in a private conversation in our RV when Dani
    emerged ready to go, so we lost another half hour before the three of us were
    all finally dressed and prepped to leave.

    "Okay," I said loudly,

    trying to cut through the multiple party-related conversations. "We're all
    agreed we'll do a Memorial Day thing, but we're burning daylight. Erica and
    Dani, let's go."

    We took my truck, only

    needing one vehicle since we weren't hauling a ton of stuff like the last time.
    As we pulled around the site offices I spotted Vanessa walking with one of the
    other foremen in conversation and gave her a little double honk. She smiled and
    waved. Driving down the old driveway path there were now a half dozen wide offshoots
    winding off into the trees and closer to the highway there were big swathes of
    ground that had been cleared and were starting to get flattened by scrapers and
    excavators. Vanessa had mentioned that we'd end up with a couple of strip malls
    worth of stores to help provide for the eventual community; a convenience
    store, a clinic, a dentist, that sort of thing.

    Right at the end of the

    driveway a guard hut had been erected, little more than a fancy roadside fruit
    stall that could barely fit two people inside. I pulled up next to it and Erica
    rolled down the window.

    "Hey Patrick," I

    said, waving to the construction worker manning the booth and tracking the ins
    and outs.

    "Hey folks," the

    older guy said with a grin. He was supposed to be on the road crews but had
    arrived earlier than needed. I'd asked him once if standing in the guard booth
    all day working a clipboard was boring and he assured me that after three
    decades manning a 'Slow/Stop' sign in the middle of roads through sun, rain and
    sleet, the booth and the clipboard were welcome.

    "We'll be out for a few

    hours," I said.

    "Sounds good," he

    replied and made a note on his clipboard. Then he wiped at his eyes and cleared
    his throat, blinking. "Y'all didn't say anything about how bad the pollen
    got up here. I think my allergies are kicking up and I didn't bring any of my
    meds, I thought the North West was supposed to be wet."

    "It usually is. We'll

    pick you something up," Erica offered. "We need to stop at a pharmacy
    anyways."

    "We do?" I asked.

    "We do," Erica

    said, patting me on the knee.

    "Hah," Patrick

    laughed. "And here I thought you was some sort of Big Dog, Harri. But
    you're as whipped by your women as the rest of us."

    "See you in a bit,

    Patrick," I said.

    He waved us off, then covered

    his mouth to cough a little.

    "Poor guy," Dani

    said. "I'd hate if I had allergies like that."

    "We'll get him fixed

    up," I said as I pulled onto the highway and started heading in the
    direction of Portland. "It's been weirdly dry and hot so I'm betting the
    dust from the brush cutting is doing it to him."

    And I didn't think anything

    more of it.

    Erica unlocked the metal

    grate that pulled down over the front of the tattoo parlor and lifted it up on
    the rollers enough to uncover the door.

    The good news was that the

    whole thing with the 'Autonomous Zone' seemed to have burned itself out and
    Portland was no longer hosting big protests at the moment. The bad news was
    that only happened after a week of riots and several news-worthy moments of
    violence and vandalism. Thankfully the parlor wasn't on one of the major routes
    the riots had travelled down and there didn't seem to be any damage other than
    sprayed graffiti on the grate and some of the glass windows behind it.

    I'd pulled my truck right up

    over the curb and parked us as close as possible. The streets were as empty of
    people moving around as the last time we'd come into the city, except there was
    more trash. I'd seen old newsreels of when there had been major strikes in New
    York City back in the early 80s and it wasn't exactly that bad, but another
    couple of weeks and it might get there. Someone must have been doing
    collections, they were just overburdened or understaffed or something.

    I had to nudge a pile out of

    the way with the front of my truck to wedge into the open space, but it almost
    immediately proved worth it as a trio of ambulances came burning down the
    street with their lights running. If I'd parked on the street one of them would
    have needed to swerve out of the way and who knew if those extra seconds would
    be the difference between life or death for someone; not to mention the
    potential of the ambulance not swerving fast enough and clipping my truck.

    Inside the tattoo parlor

    Erica went straight to her bay and started unhooking and gathering her
    equipment. Dani was looking around at the place, grinning as she examined the
    wild decor. She would call out questions to Erica, who would tell her who had
    done what mural, or the brief story behind the broken surfboard hanging from
    the ceiling and the skateboard deck covered in almost a hundred different
    signatures.

    I spotted a photo on the wall

    and realized it was of Erica and all of her staff at the most recent DragonCon
    where they had put up a booth and done live tattooing. Erica had said beforehand
    she thought it might be a waste of time, but the owner of the parlor was a huge
    nerd and wanted to do it so it was her job to organize. I never had found out
    how it went, but she looked happy in the photo. I grabbed the frame from the
    wall and brought it over to her.

    "Do you want to bring

    this, too?" I asked.

    She glanced at it and paused

    her work, then smiled and hugged me. "That's sweet, Harri. Yes,
    absolutely." She took the frame and put it in one of the boxes we'd
    brought for her to carry stuff, then turned to me. "Hey, could you just
    empty all those drawers there into the boxes? Don't just dump them, but there
    isn't anything particularly fragile. It's mostly inks and cleaner solutions and
    stuff."

    "Sure," I said.

    "Thanks, babe," she

    said and kissed my cheek. "Dani and I are just going to slip through to
    next door."

    "Oh, God," I

    groaned. I hadn't realized that was her plan.

    "Don't worry," she

    grinned. "It'll all be fun for you, I promise."

    The owner of the tattoo

    parlor also owned the sex shop next door and had installed a door between the
    two since the clientele crossed over fairly consistently. Erica led Dani
    through the door, opening it with her key, and I could hear them laughing and
    giggling.

    By the time I was done with

    the drawers Erica had pointed out, placing what seemed like hundreds of little
    vials and bottles of inks and other liquids into the boxes along with some
    other art supplies, they hadn't come back. I went to the door and opened it,
    looking in.

    Erica glanced over, grinning

    as she held another box and Dani was placing something inside. "You want
    any porn, babe?"

    "What do I need porn

    for?" I asked.

    "I dunno," she

    said. "Variety?"

    "Ooh, this one is called

    'Big Black Booties 15,'" Dani said, grabbing a DVD from a nearby shelf and
    waving it at me. "You don't have that kind of variety yet, Harri."

    I snorted and shook my head.

    "I'm perfectly happy with the booties at my disposal, thank you."

    Dani shrugged and put the DVD

    in the box. "I'll see if Leo wants it."

    "Gag!" Erica

    laughed, making them both start giggling. I had a feeling that was a running
    joke between them.

    "How are we paying for

    this stuff?" I asked. "Everything is turned off and we don't have any
    cash."

    "Artie told me I could

    Venmo him at a 75% discount," Erica said. "Plus anything with an
    expiry date I could have for free. So we've got a lot of lube now, along with a
    bunch of penis-shaped candy and some candy underwear."

    I sighed and shook my head.

    "Oh my God, we should

    take her with us," Dani said, pointing up on a high shelf where a creepily
    lifelike sex doll was sitting.

    "I think you mean rescue

    her," Erica said. "Harri, help me get her down."

    "Really?" I asked.

    "Yes," they both

    demanded.

    When we packed up the truck

    we had two boxes of Erica's tattoo gear and other possessions from the shop,
    another full box of Sex Shop stuff, and Dani was sitting in the back next to
    'Sexy Susan' who had also happened to get dressed in a sexy nurse costume. They
    thought it was fucking hilarious, I just thought 'Sexy Susan' was a little
    creepy.

    Dani stayed down in the

    truck, taking the front seat as I pointed out that the 1911 was in its case
    under the passenger seat if she needed it, while Erica and I headed up to her
    apartment. The elevator had an 'out of order' sign on it, and Erica had to use
    her key to the building to get into the stairwell which she said she'd never
    had to do before. That was an immediate red flag to me, but I kept my cool to
    try and not worry her.

    "You know," Erica

    said as we climbed the stairs. All our sex cardio seemed to be paying off
    because we weren't puffing from the exertion yet. "You haven't officially
    asked me to move in yet."

    "What?' I asked.

    "Leo and I,”

    "That wasn't asking me

    to move in permanently," Erica cut me off. "That was just for
    quarantine."

    I rolled my eyes, knowing

    where she was going with this. At the next floor I grabbed her by the waist and
    pulled her to me, pulling down my mask and hers and kissing her hard and deep.

    "Erica Lacosta, will you

    move in with me forever and ever?" I asked her.

    "Yes," she grinned.

    "Yes, I will." She kissed me lightly to seal it, then sighed and we
    raised our masks and started climbing more stairs. "With that out of the
    way, I should really try and find a way out of my lease. Just because you have
    money doesn't mean I should be wasting mine on a place I'm not ever planning on
    moving back into."

    "I'll help with some

    research," I said. "I know there's all the clamor about halting
    eviction notices, but maybe there's something that will help. I could text
    Miriam, see if Captain Bloomberg knows anything offhand."

    "Hmm, maybe,” Erica

    started, but stopped as we reached her floor and found that door locked as
    well. "What the fuck?" she sighed and unlocked it.

    "Let me go first,"

    I said.

    "Why? It's just..."

    As we entered the corridor Erica

    trailed off, seeing the tracks of dirty footprints in the hall and the spray
    paint on the walls. She immediately started to move forward, but I grabbed her
    arm and stopped her. "Wait," I said. "Look." I pointed at
    the big circles on the walls next to each door, but she clearly didn't
    understand what I was pointing out. "Those are FEMA search and rescue
    marks."

    Erica blinked once and was

    obviously unsure of what to say.

    "Let's just take it

    slow," I said.

    We walked down the hallway.

    Some of the doors were shut, but others looked like they'd been kicked in.

    "What do they

    mean?" Erica asked me, looking at the circles and the scribbles of letters
    and numbers on the walls. Each circle had an X dividing it into four parts, and
    each quadrant was marked.

    "The top part is the

    date the location was searched," I said. "5-24 means it happened May
    24th, so a little over a week and a half ago. The left side is who did the
    search, the numbers are probably a military code for a National Guard unit. If
    it said PPD that would be the Portland police, or CDC or DEA or whoever. The
    right side is if there are any hazards." I pointed to one of the doors
    that were kicked in. "NE means 'No Entry.'" Then I pointed to
    another. "F/W means there's contaminated food and water." I pointed
    at another door, this one wasn't kicked in. "A 0 means no hazards.

    "What are the bottom

    parts?" Erica asked.

    I frowned and swallowed.

    "The crossed 0 means no one found. DB or DOA means dead bodies. LB means
    live people are, or were, inside."

    Erica looked at the carnage

    of the corridor, her eyes scanning the doors of her neighbors as she weighed
    the number of DBs. There weren't many 0s, but about half of the apartments were
    labelled LB and hadn't been kicked open.

    Half.

    We got to Erica's place

    around the hall corner, passing the old lady Diane's door. It was kicked in and
    labelled NE, DB. Erica poked the door with her boot and it swung in. Inside,
    other than the dirty boot prints, it looked generally neat and tidy... other
    than the pool of dark something that had dried on the kitchen linoleum.

    I grabbed Erica and held her

    as she gasped and her knees went weak. I pulled her away from the door and she
    saw that her own apartment had also been kicked in, but was labelled 0 hazards
    and 0 bodies. We went in and she sat down on the couch, burying her head in her
    hands.

    Kneeling in front of her, I

    cradled her head on my shoulder and hugged her tightly as the reality of the
    world settled on her. She cried, though not as long as she probably needed, as
    I talked her through what had probably happened. Enough people had gotten sick
    and called emergency services that they came to do a sweep of the building.
    They knocked on every door, and anywhere someone didn't answer they kicked it
    in. Then I assumed they had extracted the bodies.

    "I need to get out of

    here," Erica breathed.

    "Okay," I said.

    "Do you need me to grab anything? Did we forget anything last time?"

    "No, nothing," she

    shook her head. "Just get me out of here."

    I picked her up and carried

    her out. Erica wasn't Ivy or Vanessa, or even Kyla. She was a full-figured
    woman. But I carried her every fucking step, down every stair. She stopped me
    right at the doors to the building and had me let her down.

    "I don't want Dani to

    see me like this," she said.

    "Why?" I asked.

    "She would understand."

    "I know," she said,

    blinking under her ski goggles. "But if she sees me like this, she'll
    start thinking about what might be happening back home for her, and she doesn't
    need that."

    I held Erica's hand at the

    door for another minute as she breathed deeply and got control of herself, and
    finally she smiled at me and it actually travelled up to her eyes.

    "Thanks, babe," she

    said.

    "Love you," I said.

    "You too," she said

    and touched her forehead to mine since we were both masked and goggled.

    "Hey, Charlie," I

    grinned, waving to the little four-year-old as she sprawled in Mary's arms and
    waved back with her little grin.

    "Hi," she chirped.

    "Okay," Mary said,

    setting her daughter down. "Scoot, you. Let Mommy talk with Harri for a
    second. Go see what your brother is doing."

    "Okay," Charlie

    said and pounded off in the way only a four-year-old could.

    "You're looking more

    like yourself, Mary," I said. I was standing off the porch and we kept the
    screen door closed, but I had my mask lowered so she could see my face.

    She smiled softly and

    shrugged. "I don't feel like it, but thanks."

    "How are the kids

    doing?" I asked.

    "Well, I regret letting

    them eat sugar again," she smirked a little. "But they're good.
    Better than me, anyways, though Thomas misses his friends from school and keeps
    asking when he can go back to class." She laughed and wiped under one eye.
    "He used to hate going to school every morning, now it's all he wants to
    do."

    "We'll get there

    eventually," I assured her. "What about you? How are you doing?"

    "Physically? Better, I

    guess. I can't stop worrying about Eddie though, I just wish I knew anything.
    And I haven't even seen my neighbors around recently. You've been the only
    adult I've talked to in person in; God, a week and a half? Maybe two? Even with
    the kids I'm feeling isolated."

    "How about next time I

    come by, I'll bring some lawn chairs and my girlfriend and I can sit and chat
    with you for a bit?" I offered.

    Mary smiled and shook her

    head, then nodded. "Harri, you're too good for your own good. That would
    be really nice. Is that her in the truck?"

    "Yeah," I said.

    "And her brother's girlfriend that's quarantined with us. We had to drive
    into Portland to pick up some of her stuff. The city is weird right now, Mary.
    I wouldn't be surprised if Eddie tried to head somewhere else to look for
    work."

    "Thanks," she said,

    and I knew she was thanking me for keeping her little false hope alive. We both
    knew her husband was probably just gone, one way or another.

    "Any special requests

    for the next grocery run?" I asked her.

    "Um, yeah..." she

    said and blushed. "Could you, uh, pick me up some pads or tampons?
    Whatever is available."

    "I'll have Erica text

    you for details," I assured her. "We'll take care of it."

    "Harri, I'd kiss you if

    it were safe," Mary said with a smile.

    "Don't go saying

    that," I said, backing away. "Mary Duncan, the Mary Duncan, offering
    me a kiss? I might go mad!"

    I left her laughing, which

    was how I preferred to go. I'd been by twice more since the first time, once to
    drop off meat from the butcher, and once just to say hello like today.

    Back in the truck Erica asked

    me how they were. "Good, the kids are good. I can tell she's eating more
    now that she doesn't have to worry about the kids. She's just really lonely and
    feeling isolated."

    Erica glanced back at Dani

    and they did that 'women talking to each other through a glance' thing and Dani
    rustled in one of the boxes and handed forward a plastic-contained device.

    "Bring her this,"

    Erica said. "You can say it's from us."

    I flushed, looking down at

    the vibrator in its packaging. "I don't know if that's appropriate,"
    I said.

    "Harri, either you go

    give it to her, or I'll dig out the dildo that's just about your size and bring
    her that, and let her know why I picked it for her."

    I was out the door and back

    knocking on the front door.

    "Harri?" Mary

    answered the door with a raised eyebrow. "Forget something?"

    "So, when I mentioned to

    my girlfriend that you were feeling lonely, her and our friend decided that you
    should have this," I said, and set the vibrator down and backed off.

    She looked down at the

    vibrator on the porch, then back to me. "Really?"

    "It's a long

    story," I said. "Erica works in a tattoo shop, which is adjacent to a
    sex shop, and when we; you know what? I'll let her tell you next time we come
    by, Okay?"

    "Okay," she said,

    suppressing a laugh. "Tell her thank you."

    "I will," I said.

    "Uh... enjoy."

    Mary had fetched the vibrator

    from the porch by the time I was back in the truck, and was standing on the
    stoop waving to us. Erica and Dani both waved back proudly, while I just tried
    to focus on backing out of the driveway and driving.

    Patrick was sluggish getting

    up from the booth as we pulled in. I rolled down the window and held out the
    bag from the pharmacy in town. "Wasn't sure which you preferred so we got
    you Benadryl and Claritin," I said. "Whichever one you don't use feel
    free to pass it off to someone else if they need it."

    Patrick coughed into his arm,

    blinking drearily above his mask as he got just close enough to take the bag
    and then back off. "Thanks, buddy. I'll mark you back in."

    "No problem," I

    said and rolled up the window.

    "We should tell Vanessa

    he needs a day off," Erica said.

    "If he gets one, maybe

    we should send Sexy Susan to go take care of him," Dani giggled in the
    back seat.

    "Oh my God, can you

    imagine!?" Erica cackled. "Patty opens his barracks door and she's
    just sitting there?"

    "Fucking hell,"

    Vanessa grumbled, typing away at her phone as I was massaging her feet. We were
    sitting around the campfire and it was late for her to be up at almost
    midnight, but she'd been dealing with a couple of minor messes that the night
    shift supervisors felt like she should handle instead of them.

    "What's wrong?" I

    asked.

    "There's almost a dozen

    guys calling in sick ahead of time for tomorrow. If they called in the morning
    that would be one thing, but this just means they're planning it."

    "Isn't a dozen workers

    barely 1% of your workforce?" Kyla asked. "Is it that big a
    deal?"

    "No," Vanessa

    sighed. "Unless people start getting ideas and it spreads. Get enough
    knuckleheads in one place and they can convince each other of anything. If I
    don't squash this tomorrow they'll all think if they take some sick days that
    the incentive bonuses will get pushed back. That's not how they work, but
    they'll still think it's true and get all butt hurt when they don't get
    paid."

    "Maybe they are sick and

    lonely and need some female attention," Dani chuckled. "Sexy Susan
    can be your nurse."

    Vanessa barked a laugh and

    then made a disgusted face. "They'd probably love that, but way too many
    of those guys would be down to share her. I'm sure we'd have a chlamydia
    outbreak or something within days."

    "Where is Sexy

    Susan?" Kyla asked, looking around. When we'd gotten back from our trip
    all the girls had been introduced to our new 'roommate' and thought it was
    hilarious. Aria had straight up started making out with 'her,' and India had
    lifted up the nurse's skirt and pretended to eat 'her' out.

    The RV door opened behind me.

    "Ahem," Ivy cleared her throat for my attention.

    I turned around and saw she

    was posing in the doorway of our RV, dressed in Sexy Susan's nurse outfit.

    "The doctor will see you

    now, mon amour," she said with a wicked smile.

    All the girls jeered me and

    wolf-whistled Ivy as I set down Vanessa's feet and stood up with a little grin
    on my face. Vanessa just grumbled, "Guess I'm waiting a little bit longer
    for the bed."

    I went to Ivy and she planted

    a kiss on me, showing off for the others.

    "That looks so much

    sexier on you than on the doll," I said to her.

    "Good," she

    giggled. "Now come play doctor with me."

    "Yes, Nurse," I

    said, and let her pull me into the RV.

    I winced and blinked, sitting

    up slowly. It was rare these days that I woke up in the middle of the night;
    partially because I was usually dead tired by the end of the day after one
    final round with someone, and partially because extricating myself from the
    pile of bodies was a bit of a hassle that my subconscious apparently didn't
    want to deal with.

    Kyla always slept on the edge

    of the bed, and the girls had decided on some sort of rotation so I ended up
    next to her every other day, and on the others she put a pillow between herself
    and the others as they dogpiled me. Tonight was a Kyla night, so I only needed
    to sit up and softly move Vanessa's arm from around me.

    Red and white lights were

    flashing off the RV, and a crack in the curtain coverage had let it in to play
    against my face. I squinted, trying to look through the window without moving
    anymore.

    "What is it?"

    Vanessa asked quietly, woken up despite my attempt not to disturb her.

    "Looks like ambulance

    lights," I said. If it had been cops there would be blue as well.

    "Umm," she grunted

    softly. "If it's an emergency someone would have called me. It's probably
    nothing."

    I hesitated, wanting to curl

    up with her again, but then decided if I was getting nominally paid to be
    'security' I should probably know why there was an ambulance on the property.
    Slipping out of bed, I pulled on my jeans and a shirt in the dark. When I
    glanced back Vanessa was dead asleep but Kyla was looking at me in the dark. I
    shuffled down the edge of the bed and leaned down and kissed her softly.
    "I'll be back in a few," I whispered.

    "Okay," she said

    and took my fingers in hers for a moment.

    I made my way out of the RV

    as quietly as possible, slipping my boots on without socks, and got hit with
    the cool night air. Leaving the compound I considered riding one of the ATVs
    over but decided that I didn't want to risk the noise waking everyone up, so I
    started hoofing it. Crossing the football field worth of dirt expanse between
    the compound and the barracks didn't take long, but it was enough time for me
    to consider the time I'd been asked by a German why Americans measured things
    in football fields to begin with. I hadn't had an answer for him at the time
    and guessed it was because it was a standard size and very common feature in
    every town and high school.

    I also happened to have time

    to consider Kyla, and that little touch of comfort in the dark between us.
    She'd only been with us a little under two weeks and so far she'd fallen into
    the family naturally. She was more 'adult' in maturity than any of the other
    girls except Erica despite the fact that she was actually the youngest, and I
    had to assume it was because of her upbringing and training. Kyla was a natural
    leader but a quiet one, and I'd noticed she was deferring to Erica whenever she
    was around and I wondered if that was a choice, or her training, or something
    else.

    It was the 'something else'

    that bugged me the most. I was sharing my bed with four women and sure, there'd
    been small issues here or there as they tried to find their spaces, but there
    hadn't been a fight. Not a single one. The most anyone ever even raised their
    voices was when they were laughing, or orgasming. I was the only one getting
    yelled at, and it was always, 'More!' and 'Harder!' and 'Please!'

    The whole peaceful

    coexistence was great, but it also felt downright unnatural. There should have
    been some real friction.

    I'd have to ask Miriam about

    it, or one of the nurses who came around to test our blood for the vaccine
    labs. It had happened twice in the last month and took barely more than twenty
    minutes for all of us. Maybe if I got lucky the next nurse would be chatty and
    I could get some info out of her.

    As I approached the barracks

    and offices I saw that the ambulance was pulled up alongside the main door to
    the first big dormitory and a handful of men in reflective construction vests were
    milling around. There was more activity going on in the offices and even at
    night I could hear the telltale sound of machinery working by the light of the
    portable spots out across the forest.

    Two EMT were wheeling out a

    man from the dormitory on a gurney, a medical mask and neck brace on him, as I
    arrived.

    "Hey, clear out; Oh,

    it's you," said one of the construction workers. He had a white hard hat
    on, marking him as a foreman or higher.

    "Yeah, just wanted to

    make sure everything is alright," I said. "Saw the lights."

    "Mm," he grunted,

    then turned and waved off the other workers around him. They left, some into
    the barracks and others to whatever other work they were supposed to be doing,
    and then he turned back to me as we watched the EMT get the gurney into the
    ambulance. "Nothing major. Well, not for the project. Someone found Old
    Phil on the ground in the barracks common area unconscious and with a gash in
    his head. One of the guys did first aid and realized he'd probably had a heart
    attack so we started CPR and called the ambulance; shitty luck for Phil, the
    AEDs are supposed to get installed in the buildings in a couple of days. We had
    to send a runner to the offices to get one."

    "That is shitty

    luck," I said, watching as the EMT worked on the guy a bit in the
    ambulance. "We're sure it was a heart attack?"

    "Couple of guys said

    he'd been short of breath after work, walking around scratching at his chest
    and 'feeling funny,'" the foreman said. "Guy's a fucking ox so he was
    probably ignoring the worst of it. Honestly, we're lucky he didn't just keel
    over on the job, that would have been a way bigger issue and could have shut us
    down for a day or two of investigation."

    "Alright, well, thanks

    for the update," I said.

    "No problem," he

    nodded.

    I approached the ambulance

    and knocked on the door when the EMT didn't look particularly in a rush.
    "Hey, sorry to bother you. I'm technically security on the site. You guys
    good?"

    The EMT raised an eyebrow at

    me and I could immediately tell the guy was haggardly tired. His eyes were
    sunken above his medical mask and he was wearing a clear face shield to go with
    it, and he was buttoned up and gloved including a hood.

    "Existentially I'm

    fucked," the guy said.

    "He meant right now,

    fuckhead," the other EMT grunted. That made me blink; sure, I figured EMT
    and other emergency services could be rough and tumble, but in front of someone
    who wasn't part of their system?

    "Right," the first

    EMT said. "Dude's dead. Apologies for my bluntness but I'm running on hour
    twenty-three of a twelve-hour shift and we'll probably hit thirty-six before we
    can clock out for a nap."

    "Shit," I said.

    "Yeah. All of it.

    Everywhere," the second EMT said. "You need us to sign anything or
    can we get out of here?"

    "Uh, not for me," I

    said. "Stay safe."

    For some reason that made

    them laugh, and there was a tinge of crazy in there that I really didn't like.
    I backed off and they shut the door and soon the ambulance rumbled down the
    well-driven driveway towards the highway.

    "Fuck me," I

    sighed, watching it go. First I got weird responses about police response time,
    and now the EMTs were going loopy around the edges. All we needed now was a
    firefighter arsonist and a mailman axe murderer.

    "Why?" I asked

    myself as I turned to start walking back to the RVs. "Why would I even
    think that?"

    Vanessa's alarm went off

    somewhere under her pillow. It was the best thing we could come up with for her
    to wake up for work and possibly not wake everyone else.

    She shut off the alarm and

    started to stretch and I rolled over and planted my face between her little
    tits and kissed her chest.

    "Morning," I

    grumbled.

    "Morning," she

    sighed. She kissed the top of my head then slipped out from the covers and down
    the length of the bed.

    Erica extracted herself from

    Ivy and got up without a word, walking naked through the RV to the kitchenette
    to start brewing coffee. Ivy, half-asleep, took the chance to squirm across the
    bed and plant herself against my side, mirroring Kyla on my other.

    I missed Vanessa leaving, but

    felt Erica crawl back into bed and spoon up behind Ivy. I vaguely wondered if
    we could get Vanessa's father to give her a better shift schedule.

    Bacon and a Blowjob were on

    the menu for breakfast when Miriam called. Erica had brought me breakfast in
    bed, Kyla making herself scarce to make her own breakfast, but Ivy stuck around
    to watch with a little smile on her face. When my phone started buzzing over
    where it was plugged in Erica groaned unhappily around the head of my cock, but
    there weren't many people who weren't in the compound who would be calling me.

    "Morning," I said,

    suppressing a bacon burp as I answered the phone.

    "Harri, what the hell is

    going on down there?" Miriam asked.

    "Wait, hold on.

    What?" I asked, sitting up and pulling my cock away from Erica.

    "I'm getting a bunch of

    conflicting reports from the site. Is there something going on?"

    "I don't know," I

    said. "We had an ambulance in last night because a worker had a heart
    attack, but I assume there'll be an incident report or something about that.
    Let me get dressed and go find Vanessa to find out. I'll call you back."

    "Okay," she said,

    and I could feel the pregnant hesitation on the line. "Be quick,
    please."

    "Will do," I said,

    and we hung up.

    Erica looked at me with a

    pout on her lips. "Really? Mid-blowjob?"

    I scooted around and leaned

    down to kiss her. "Babe, I promise I'll fuck your face later, Okay? And
    eat you out until you squirt."

    "Fine," she sighed,

    flopping over onto her back on the bed. "I guess that will do."

    "You know," Ivy

    grinned, slipping out from under the covers as I got up to get dressed. "I
    don't have anywhere to go."

    I left them in the bedroom,

    shutting the door as Ivy sat on Erica's face. Kyla would have heard everything
    and she just reached out a hand to me, again brushing her fingers with mine and
    giving me a soft smile as I passed her and slipped on my boots; without socks,
    again. Once they were on I turned to her and pulled her by the back of her tank
    top to me, kissing her hard.

    We didn't say anything, she

    just smiled wider as I left her there in the kitchen in her panties and top.

    This time, even though it was

    early and Leo and his crew might not have been awake yet, I didn't hesitate to
    go for the ATVs. I drove over to the offices first and went to the 'main' admin
    one and asked for Vanessa. There was a flurry of activity going on and the
    admin folks inside were almost all on the phone. One person I'd never met
    before cleared their throat heavily and radioed for Vanessa, and what I found
    to be an inaudible squawk back turned out to be directions over to another one
    of the portables. I jogged over there and knocked before entering, finding
    Vanessa and two of the other foremen just hanging up the phone from some sort
    of conference call.

    "Hey, sorry to

    interrupt," I said. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

    "I'd love to, but I'm in

    the fucking trenches right now, Harri," Vanessa said.

    "Miriam called," I

    said.

    She hesitated, then turned

    and gave some directions to the other two foremen and they brushed past me.
    "Come in," she said, waving me on.

    I went in and, once the door

    was shut, I took Vanessa's hand in mine and made her stop for a second. Instead
    of kissing her I just held her hand and looked into her eyes, and I could see
    her immediately match my exaggerated breathing until we were in sync.

    "Thanks," she said.

    "No problem," I

    told her. "Miriam called and wants to know what's going on. She says she's
    getting conflicting reports."

    "Well, that's probably

    because I'm dealing with conflicting reports. We've got almost thirty
    guys calling in sick, and there's a site-wide slowdown because men are fucking gossips,"
    she said. "My best guess is that someone snuck drugs into the barracks and
    started selling last night, so we've got a bunch of guys who are fucked up and
    now that there's a noticeable number of guys off sick other people are trying
    to take advantage. Or trying to find out who has the drugs. Or both."

    "Shit," I said.

    "Yeah," she nodded.

    "Honestly, I wasn't sure if this would eventually be a problem or not with
    the quick spin up of the camp. In industrial construction jobs, the spin up
    takes months and there's a lot more infrastructure and planning in place first.
    We'd have a subcontracted security company doing bag checks, and we'd have
    cameras in the public halls and spaces to monitor people doing shady shit.
    Hell, most camps have a bustling but controlled underground highway for drugs,
    booze and hookers. No one wants to fuck it up for everyone else, so no one lets
    anyone else go overboard. But this is the wild fucking west and one asshole can
    convince a bunch of other guys to be assholes too."

    "You want a hug, an ear

    to bounce off of, or just to be left alone?" I asked her.

    "Yes?" she

    answered, and then took a breath. "I just need to work. Thank you,
    though."

    "Okay," I said, and

    squeezed her hand one more time then stood up. At the door I turned to her and
    smirked. "You know, your ass looks great in those jeans."

    She threw her hard hat at me

    as I ducked out the door, hearing her bark a laugh.

    I called Miriam once I'd

    ridden the ATV back to the compound, letting her know that it was a slowdown
    and that the best guess was it was getting caused by contraband on the site,
    and that they were trying to track down the source. She thanked me and asked me
    to update her if I heard anything else.

    "Harri, I need

    you," Vanessa said over the phone.

    I sat up from my spot on the

    deck chair at the tone of her voice. "Where and how?" I asked her.

    "It's not drugs,"

    she said. Her voice was calm and even, but I could hear the barely contained
    thread of anxiety behind it. "People are sick. I don't know if it's the
    Covid one or the Duo Halo one, but people are sick. I need you to lock
    down the site. Go down to the front entrance and direct anyone trying to come
    in over to that motel where I was staying, and don't let anyone leave."

    "Okay," I said.

    "Are you alright?"

    "Yeah, I am," she

    said. "We just have a lot of shit to deal with and we're trying to figure
    out what the protocol is and I can't reach Patrick down at the gate."

    "Alright, I'm on

    it," I said.

    "Thank you," she

    said, the gratitude heavy in her voice.

    "Be safe," I told

    her.

    "I will."

    "What's wrong?"

    Dani asked. She and Ivy had been sitting with me in the chairs painting each
    other's toenails while Leo and Erica were facing off against India and Aria in
    a game of corn hole on the other side of the compound.

    "People are starting to

    get sick over at the barracks so we need to go into quarantine," I said,
    standing up. I raised my voice. "Hey, guys? No one leaves the compound for
    now, Okay? We're on quarantine."

    They had questions that I

    didn't have answers to, but I tried to tell them as much as I could as I went
    and got my jacket on and fetched my masks. A moment before I hopped onto the
    ATV I decided 'Don't let anyone leave' might require more than a stern frown so
    I went into the storage containers and fetched my M9 from the gun safe and
    holstered it to my hip.

    I burned it wide around the

    barracks and offices, running the ATV at speed. There were people milling
    around and I thought I could see Vanessa trying to direct some traffic in her
    white hard hat and mask. I raced down the driveway and pulled up, parking the
    ATV across the middle of the drive and wishing I'd driven my truck down instead
    since that would have blocked more space.

    Unfortunately, that wasn't

    what I had to worry about when I dismounted and turned to the little guard
    house to talk with Patrick.

    He was on the ground inside

    the hut, and while I rushed over to check on him my instincts clicked in and I
    stopped about half a dozen feet away and slowed down.

    Inside, he was on his side.

    His chest wasn't moving, but I could see a leak of blood out of his mouth and
    the corners of his eyes. I don't know why, but my eyes went to the open box of
    Claritin in his shirt pocket.

    "Fuck. Shit. Fucking

    hell," I swore, backing away and grabbing my phone out of my pocket. I
    dialed 911 first, following the First Aid protocol, and I was almost struck
    dumb when I got a busy tone. "Fuck!" I shouted and almost threw the
    phone, but knew that was a bad idea. I hung up and dialed Vanessa, but she
    didn't pick up. I left a message telling her about Patrick, and then I called
    Miriam.

    "Harri?" she

    answered. "Talk to me."

    "It's not drugs. I think

    it's an outbreak. I'm looking at our gate attendant collapsed and probably
    dead. He's got blood leaking from his mouth and eyes, maybe his nose."

    "Shit," Miriam

    grunted. "Okay, we're already on it. I think Brent Peters tried to
    downplay it, maybe he thinks he has it under control but he doesn't get
    it. We're already spinning up an emergency response but it'll take some time to
    be able to handle the number of people on site. You said you're at the
    gate?"

    "Yeah, Vanessa asked me

    to come down here," I said.

    "Good. Stay there,"

    Miriam said. "Don't go near the body. Even vaccinated you're not perfectly
    immune. Do not let anyone get on or off that site, Okay? Its vital people don't
    add to this problem."

    "I hear you," I

    said.

    "Good. Okay," she

    said. "Be safe."

    "Be quick."

    I hung up and glanced at poor

    Patrick, then went and sat on the ATV.

    "Shit," I said to

    the wind.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 11 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 7

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 7
    Hillbilly Tactics.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     

    The TV flashed, losing a

    digital telephone ring, and I grabbed the remote from the table and accepted
    the call.

    "Hey, Harrison,"

    said the man on the other end. He was another lab coat, and as best I could
    tell from the blurry background he was likely in the same facility or even the
    same room as Doctor Varma had been. This guy looked like he'd stepped right out
    of a corny television show though; he was blubbery in the way that a guy could
    be after a couple of decades of slow physical decline, with a burst of thinning
    silver hair that just needed the black streaks and some smudges on his face to
    look like he'd been catoonishly blown up. The bit of scraggly, messy scruff on
    his chin that looked unplanned made me a little self-conscious of my own
    currently messy beard. Erica had wanted me to grow mine out a bit so she could
    decide if she liked it longer or shorter, and Ivy didn't care, so I was looking
    even more like a mountain man than usual. "I'm Doctor McKenna, but you can
    call me Bill," he continued.

    "You're on Doc Varma's

    team?" I asked, putting two and two together.

    "Yep," he nodded.

    "I was supposed to do the follow-up interview with you but got caught up
    with some of the numbers in your case. Charlotte and I have both reviewed the
    content. Sounds like you had a bit of a wild time, huh? And don't worry, we're
    all getting pretty used to the graphic nature of our work these days so you
    didn't offend or embarrass anyone."

    "Well, that's something

    at least," I said. "I never thought I'd be having a conversation like
    that with a doctor. Or anyone."

    He got a wry grin at this and

    held up a hand to ease me. "Believe me, Harrison. I've been with the team
    from the start and we have had more than a few of these sorts of conversations
    based on the nature of the vaccine. Yours is definitely up there as a novel
    case of details, but it's only personal for you, not us."

    I just nodded, not knowing

    what to say. I hadn't considered how often sex must come up in their day-to-day
    work if they were specialists.

    "Now, I have; well, I

    can't say it's good nor bad news," Doctor Bill said. "Interesting for
    us, for sure. As I'm sure you're aware, as you have two partners already, the
    vaccine is supposed to only be transmissible from women to men for the purposes
    of diluting the effects on men. To be frank, no one here on the team had
    considered the possibility of transferring and initiating a bonding process
    from one woman to another through female ejaculate. It doesn't help that most
    of the science community, those that would even think of it, haven't exactly
    spent time studying female ejaculate to begin with. So your situation wasn't
    tested for, but as far as we can tell it still shouldn't have been able to
    happen."

    "So what does that mean,

    doc?" I asked.

    "It means that you, or

    one of your current partners, or some combination, integrated with the vaccine
    and imprinting process in an exceptional way. A variant response is how we're
    categorizing it at the moment, and to be frank it's not even one of the most
    surprising ones we've encountered as the testing continues to broaden. As best
    we can tell from your interview, it's likely that Miss Peters was vaccinated
    through the oral ingestion of the female ejaculate; all the markers of a normal
    imprinting process occur when you began actual sex together.

    "Now, the really

    interesting part of this on my end is obviously the fact that this happened at
    all, but following the results of the blood tests from the Testing facility up
    where you are, and the preliminary tests we've completed on the samples that
    got flown down to us here, we've found that it isn't likely to be a phenomenon
    that is worth pursuing. Unfortunately, while Miss Peters is certainly going to
    be imprinted on you to some degree, it also seems that the efficacy of the
    vaccine in her system will be well under our current rates. Right now our
    projection is that she will only have an efficacy rate of about thirty-five to
    forty per cent, while a woman who has undergone our current best practices has
    an efficacy of somewhere around the eightieth percentile."

    I had to rub my forehead and

    close my eyes for a long moment as I tried to parse everything he was saying.
    "So what does that mean, Doctor Bill?" I asked.

    "It means that Miss

    Peters is now part of your 'Team,' he said. "That's what I've been calling
    the groups of imprinted people colloquially around here, anyways. But where
    your other two partners have a high likelihood of staving off the Duo Halo
    virus, if Miss Peters is exposed she is about half as likely to resist initial
    infection or gain serious aid in fighting off an infection she catches."

    "So we've put her at

    risk by having casual sex with her," I said. "Fuck me, this is
    exactly the kind of shit that I was worried about when she asked to join in
    with us."

    "Yes and no," he

    said. "To be frank, it's entirely possible that her integration with the
    vaccine will grow and normalize over time with repeated exposure to you. The
    staff up there will book some follow-up blood draws to check in on that. One of
    the many things were are trying to understand about the vaccine is how sex
    bolsters imprinted partners. Generally, we haven't seen that happen for women,
    since they can't have more than one imprinted male partner, but the more
    partners men are in contact with the more efficacy we're seeing."

    "So you're saying she's

    stuck with me," I said. "She asked for no-strings-attached, and she
    got trapped into a sexual relationship."

    "You could look at it

    that way," he said. "But,”

    "But," Doc Varma

    said, coming into view on his end of the call and hovering over his shoulder.
    "I would remind you, Mr. Black, that she did choose to initiate a
    group sexual encounter with you and your partners. And once she is awake from
    the imprinting process, I would not be surprised if she feels content with the
    overall situation following any initial panic or shock."

    I leaned back in my chair and

    stared at the ceiling for a moment. "You know, when I first heard about
    this from Erica, I told her it sounded like some sort of brainwashing mind
    control shit? I couldn't believe she'd gotten the vaccine. But then everything
    was going so well that I stopped thinking about it. And Ivy was happy, and
    Erica's brother was partnered and they were both extremely happy. But this,” I
    sighed heavily and looked at the two scientists on the screen. "This is some
    fucked up, B-movie supervillain kind of shit. You guys realize that, right?
    Like, where is James Bond in all of this?"

    Bill frowned, but Doc Varma

    smirked just a little. "Yes," she said. "We are aware of how
    inappropriate many of the factors of the vaccine are, Mr. Black. It is a marvel
    of modern medicine, but we are still grappling with the necessities that come
    along with it."

    Together they ran me through

    what I needed to expect moving forward. Vanessa was going to be monitored until
    she woke up, so I would be spending the night where I was at. She'd get a
    complete physical, and they'd take more blood for testing before she'd be
    released into my care and we were brought back home. Then, depending on what
    she wanted, she would either be able to live with Erica, Ivy and I, or she
    could maintain some distance for the time being and only come to see me for the
    sexual encounters she would require. We would both receive follow-up check-ins
    from someone on the Vaccine testing team to draw more blood periodically to
    check if Vanessa's efficacy was changing, or if mine was.

    We hit the grocery store

    next, which ended up only allowing two people inside in a party at once. Dani
    wanted to look for some specific stuff, and Vanessa hadn't had her own kitchen
    to cook in for almost two years since she'd been eating cafeteria food on
    industrial construction sites, so I decided to hang out in the truck while they
    went in. I sent them with my credit card and reminded them of the staples we
    needed.

    They got in line outside the

    store, and I decided to enjoy the warmth of the afternoon and open the gate of
    my truck so I could sit outside. I watched Dani and Vanessa from across the
    parking lot, keeping one eye on them while I could. I could tell they were
    talking from the small hand motions. Neither of them talked with their hands
    like Erica or Leo did, but everything seemed friendly between them.

    "Excuse me?"

    I turned and realized I'd

    tunnel-visioned and completely lost track of my surroundings because a woman
    was standing about ten paces away from me. That wasn't like me at all. She was
    nervous, wringing her wrists as she stood awkwardly. She was a little scrawny,
    her clothes hanging off of her, and the eyes above her rough-looking mask
    were... not sunken, but sort of sad. "I'm sorry to bother you,
    Harri," she said. "I was just wondering if maybe you could spare a
    couple bucks? Things aren't really going well right now, and I've got my
    kids..."

    Living in Portland, I'd seen

    my fair share of homeless folks and beggars. Some of them were pushy and
    agitated, and others entirely shut down from their addictions. This woman
    didn't look homeless, but she definitely looked down on her luck. And down for
    enough time that it showed. She wasn't wearing even basic earrings but had the
    holes in her ears. There was a slightly less tan ring on her finger where I
    assumed a wedding band used to sit, but it was fading.

    Every major city in the

    United States had a homeless population. Some were worse than others, I knew
    that. The further south along the coast, the warmer it got, and the bigger the
    population. But out here in the sticks? In Jewell?

    Sure, we had the occasional

    drifter moving through. I'd never seen someone begging before.

    Things were really getting

    bad.

    "Uh, yeah, I can,"

    I said, reaching for my wallet in my pocket. "I'm sorry, you know me but
    I'm not immediately recognizing you. Maybe it's the mask."

    She took a couple steps

    forward as I said I could spare her some cash, but looked away as I asked who
    she was. I kicked myself, realizing that her situation was embarrassing enough
    as it was. "Maybe you don't remember me," the woman said. "I was
    a year ahead of you in high school. Mary Duncan?"

    "Of course I remember

    you, Mary," I said. "It's just been a long time. You were a
    cheerleader I think, right? You did all the flips. You were really
    graceful."

    "Thanks," she said,

    and I could tell she was blushing behind her mask.

    I didn't have too much cash

    on me compared to what I used to carry for emergencies. I used to be a
    cash-only guy, at least around town. Knowing what my bank account looked like,
    I just pulled what I had and slipped down from the gate of my truck and set the
    bills on it, stepping back. "No offence, I don't think you stink or
    anything," I tried to joke.

    Mary's eyes went wide when

    she saw the bills, and she mumbled something as she stepped forward and I
    backed off a bit more so she could take them. It was maybe seventy dollars, but
    as she quickly looked through the bills I saw her get teary, and then she
    clutched the cash to her chest and collapsed to her knees, crying.

    I wanted to go and comfort

    her. Give her a hug. She was clearly overwhelmed and in a bad way, and back
    when we were in school she'd always been a cute, button-nosed girl with a soft
    smile and a big laugh.

    But I couldn't go to her. I

    couldn't rub her back or pat her shoulder or give her a hug. The best I could
    do was squat down from several feet away to get closer to her level.

    "Mary?" I asked.

    She sniffed hard and rubbed

    at her eyes. "Oh my God, I'm so embarrassed," she said.

    "You don't need to

    be," I said. "You said you have kids, right? How many?"

    "Two," she said.

    "Thomas is six now, and looks like his dad. My little girl Charlie is
    four. She wanted to go to school like her big brother this fall but..."

    But the schools were closed,

    and who knew how long they would be closed for?

    "And their Dad?" I

    asked.

    She sniffed hard again.

    "He went up to Portland to look for work after we both got laid off at the
    start of quarantine," she said. "I haven't heard from him
    since."

    "Fuck," I breathed

    out, hopefully not loud enough for her to hear. The guy could have abandoned
    his family like a shit, or just been overwhelmed and trying to find a way to
    make it right. Or he could be dead. "Mary, I'm sorry you're going through
    this. And I'm sorry if this touches another sore spot, but is your phone still
    active?"

    She nodded, touching the

    ragged little purse. I asked her to take it out and I immediately recognized
    that she'd probably downgraded her phone at a pawn shop, it was a beat-up old
    model barely above a flip phone. I gave her my number. "Call me the next
    time you need groceries, Okay?" I said. "Or if there's an emergency.
    Seriously, Mary."

    "I applied for food

    stamps, and welfare, but I haven't heard anything back," she said
    pitifully, like she was trying to explain her shitty situation. There wasn't
    any explaining.

    "The system is probably

    overloaded," I said softly. "Mary. I'm not pulling your leg. Go get
    groceries for you and your kids. I'll figure something out for you for next
    week, Okay?"

    "Harri, I can't just; I

    don't want to,”

    It was fucking stupid, but

    this woman who I remembered as that sweet girl was broken. I stood up and went
    to her, and pulled her to her feet and hugged her. She was tiny, and bony, in
    my arms. She'd probably been feeding her kids everything she could and taking
    the bare minimum for herself.

    "Stop," I said

    quietly as I held her, and she cried a little again. "You're doing what
    you can in a terrible situation, Mary. I'm doing Okay. Let me help."

    "Thank you," she

    whispered into my shirt, then sniffed behind her mask again and stepped away.
    'Thank you, Harri."

    "Text me," I

    reminded her. "So that I have your number."

    "I will," she

    nodded. "I will."

    She left, headed towards the

    line outside the store, and I watched her go. Hopefully I wasn't going to pay
    for that moment of kindness with my life. But what was the point of being
    vaccinated and wealthy if I couldn't help a hurting woman?

    I sat back on the gate of my

    truck and saw the two big paper bags holding the meat I'd just bought. Hundreds
    of dollars’ worth. I could have given her some, along with the cash. One of the
    chickens and some of the sausages. Kids liked sausage, right?

    Then I could practically hear

    my Mom's voice in the back of my mind. She'd been the giver in the family
    before she died. The volunteer. And she'd always said that you couldn't do your
    best for others without taking care of your family first.

    Seventy dollars would carry

    Mary and her kids for a few days at least. I could set up an account with
    Mason, connect her with Mrs. Branston for eggs, and cover her bill. I doubted I
    could do the same at the grocery store, but meat was always the most expensive
    part of meals anyways. I could drop a couple hundred bucks with her to help
    cover her other staples every few weeks.

    I looked down at my sweater,

    hoping again that I wasn't going to pay for this with sickness and death.

    What did those docs say?

    Eighty per cent effective, with more for each partner? I had three partners now, so I had to be like ninety
    per cent covered, right?

    The rest of my wait in the

    parking lot, unfortunately, wasn't peaceful. A guy with some parking lot road
    rage pounded on his horn at a woman who was loading her car. A half dozen teens
    skated through on skateboards, whooping and hollering and skirting by too close
    to people. None of them were wearing masks, and I saw a few of them spitting
    near people or fake coughing just to get a reaction out of them.

    I was trying to decide if I

    should call the emergency line, but they were gone as quickly as they arrived.
    Teens, rebellious and angry at the world, and most importantly bored and left
    to their own devices. Thankfully since I'd parked at the back of the lot they
    didn't really come near me.

    I did end up calling 911 when

    the fight broke out though.

    Two women were yelling at

    each other as they exited the store, both of them with full carts. I had no
    idea what they were shouting, but they definitely got the attention of everyone
    in the parking lot and the line. Then one lady pivoted and smacked her buggy
    into the other lady, and that one grabbed something out of the other's cart and
    threw it.

    "911 Emergency Services.

    Where is the emergency located?"

    "Yeah, I'm at the Green

    Grocer in Jewell," I said. "My name is Harrison Black. I need police
    services, a fight has broken out between two women in the parking lot and it's
    gotten physical."

    I could hear typing on the

    other end of the line. "I've dispatched a cruiser, sir, but the arrival
    time is at least twenty minutes. Is anyone's life in danger?"

    "Other than the

    pandemic?" I sighed. The women were grappled at this point, both of them
    trying to throw punches. "Hard to say. Neither of them are backing down
    and they've got a hold of each other and are swinging."

    "If you can, try to keep

    anyone else from getting involved, sir," the operator said. "And
    remember to keep your distance."

    "Fuck," I said as

    one of the ladies connected cleanly with the nose of the other. Blood started
    streaming down that one's face but it didn't stop her from clawing at the other
    with a snarl. "It's getting worse. There's blood now. Look, I'm not saying
    you have the authority to let me do this, but I've got my handgun in the truck
    and could pop one into the ground to spook them and try and disperse the
    issue."

    There was a long moment of

    silence on the other end of the line. "..... I mean, I'm not going to tell
    you to do that.... But..."

    "Understood," I

    said.

    I gave the operator my

    number, since I was sure the police were going to want to follow up with me,
    and then slammed the gate of my truck closed and went to the passenger side.
    Dani had returned the 1911 to its case thankfully, so I quickly slammed the
    magazine home and did a quick check to see it had one chambered before walking
    across the parking lot with the pistol held low and to the side.

    The women were scrapping on

    the ground at this point. A crowd had formed, not so close to each other to be
    shoulder to shoulder, but closer than they should have been.

    "Hey!" I shouted

    over the noise in my best military voice, but only the closest few people
    glanced over at me. One saw my gun and his eyes went wide.

    I sighed and shook my head,

    then pointed the muzzle at one of the little end-row barriers that had a sprig
    of a garden inside the concrete curb and pulled the trigger. The loud popping
    boom of the discharge quieted everyone real quick, including the fighting
    ladies as they all looked over at me.

    "Get the fuck out

    of here," I shouted.

    People scattered, including

    the two fighting ladies as they scrambled to recover their carts. I was pretty
    sure several items had gone missing from their shopping bags in the ruckus,
    claimed by other people who felt they needed them more.

    I just shook my head as I

    flipped the safety on and tucked the 1911 into the pocket on the front of my
    sweater. There were still a few people in line at the front of the store, along
    with an employee monitoring it, so I went over. It turned out to be the same
    teen as that time I'd been here with Erica and almost gotten in a fight myself.

    I gave him my name and let

    him know the police were already on their way. He said it wasn't the first
    fistfight he'd seen break out this week, let alone in the last month.

    "Kid," I said.

    "This job ain't worth your life."

    He shrugged. "I'm saving

    for college, and the bonus pay I'm getting as a front-line worker is adding up
    quickly."

    "College ain't worth

    your life either. Just saying."

    Dani and Vanessa came out of

    the store a little while later. I'd already returned the 1911 to its case and
    was sitting on the tailgate of my truck again. I explained to them what
    happened, both with Mary and with the fight. And I admitted to hugging Mary
    despite the danger.

    "I can walk home from

    here," I said. "We probably shouldn't get into the truck together.
    I'll need to,”

    "Harri," Vanessa

    interrupted me. "Shut up and get in the car. You're not in any danger,
    right? You're vaccinated. We're both vaccinated."

    "Yeah, but you

    are way less covered than the rest of us," I said. "It's not a big
    deal. It'll take a couple of hours of walking."

    Vanessa took it into her own

    hands and practically tackled me. "Oops, too late."

    "Vanessa!" I said

    in a panic and looked at Dani for help.

    "Lady made her

    decision," Dani shrugged. "We can either live in fear of it, or just
    do our best."

    So I ended up driving again,

    praying that Mary wasn't sick, which would mean I wasn't carrying it. I felt
    like an idiot all over again for hugging her, for risking everything to comfort
    her. But then I'd also seen that look on her face and I knew she'd needed it.

    Our last stop of the trip was

    Mrs. Branston's, but when I pulled into the front of her long gravel driveway I
    noticed that she hadn't put the flat of eggs I'd asked for in the usual spot.
    Frowning, I pulled out my phone and called her, but it went to voicemail
    immediately.

    "That's weird," I

    said. "Mrs. Branston is always home."

    "You want to go check on

    her, don't you," Vanessa said, not really a question.

    "Well, she's seventy and

    lives alone," I said. "She's not exactly ancient, but she's no spring
    chicken either."

    "Alright, let's go see

    what's up," Dani said. Then turned to Vanessa. "You're staying here
    though."

    "What?" Vanessa

    said. "Why?"

    "Because you already

    took one risk today, and I'm starting to like you too much to let you do two in
    a day," Dani smirked, then pulled up her mask.

    "Ugh, fine,"

    Vanessa sighed. "Crack the windows for me at least."

    I did her one better and left

    the truck running with the AC on.

    Dani and I walked up the

    drive. It was long, but nowhere near as long as mine had been. The Branston's
    had built their house almost forty years ago; Victor Branston had worked at the
    local lumber mill, and his wife Hailey had started their side business of
    raising chickens and eggs after they built their single-story ranch house and
    barn. They'd had a son who had died in a drunk driving accident when I was
    still a kid, and a daughter who had moved away when I was still in middle
    school.

    At the top of the drive I

    tried calling again, and with no answer, Dani and I went to the front door and
    I knocked, then stepped back.

    "Mrs. Branston!" I

    called loudly. "You home?"

    Again, no answer. Shaking my

    head, I frowned beneath my mask and furrowed my brow. Her car was parked in
    front of the house, so she wasn't out.

    "Let's check in some

    windows," Dani suggested. "If she fell and broke her hip or something
    she might not be able to reach her phone."

    So that's what we did. It

    felt rude, peeking in her windows like that, but I let the MP side of me take
    over. I was looking into her kitchen when Dani gasped and motioned me to the
    other end of the side of the house. She was holding a gloved hand over her
    mask. I rushed over and looked in.

    It was Mrs. Branston's

    bedroom, and she was lying in the bed completely still. There was a dark stain
    around her mouth and nose and on the edge of some of the sheets. I recognized
    the dried blood. It looked like she'd been coughing it up.

    "Fuck," I sighed,

    stepping back from the window. Her sallow skin. Her sunken eyes. It was
    haunting.

    I called Emergency Services

    for the second time in less than an hour and reported it.

    "What do we do

    now?" Dani asked.

    "I'd say call her

    family, but I don't know her daughter's number. I think Mrs. Branston said she
    moved out east somewhere," I said. "We'll need to leave that to the
    police. Other than that?" I shrugged and looked around at the property.
    Hailey Branston had lived here going on forty years. Now there was no one.

    My eyes settled on the barn.

    "If nothing else, we should

    feed the chickens," I said. "No need for them to starve to
    death."

    "Good idea," Dani

    nodded and followed me towards the barn.

    Now, my worry had been that

    the chickens might be dead. I really wasn't sure how long it would take for
    chickens to starve to death, so I was preparing myself for the stink of not
    only a chicken coop but of dead bodies.

    What I wasn't prepared for

    was for the place to be empty.

    "What the fuck?"

    "This is weird,"

    Dani said, looking at the rows and rows of empty cages.

    It was obvious this was a

    chicken operation. Just the bird poo around was enough to point to that. But
    there weren't any chickens.

    "How do fifty chickens

    just up and vanish?" I asked, wandering deeper into the barn.

    "It's not just the

    chickens," Dani said behind me. She was standing at a big bin near the
    front door with a big 'feed' label on it. She'd lifted the lid. "All their
    food is gone too except for a bit of mess at the bottom."

    I just shook my head,

    frowning as I looked around. Maybe there was some sort of metaphor here about
    Haily Branston's life, but all I was seeing was a crime scene. "Who the
    fuck finds out an old woman is dead, and instead of reporting it they steal all
    her chickens?"

    "An asshole," Dani

    said.

    "Assholes," I

    corrected. "This would have taken forever if it was just one person. There
    had to be at least two, probably more." I sighed. "Alright, we need
    to get out of here. We'll report it to the police when they get here."

    Dani and I went back down to

    Vanessa, filling her in on what we'd seen, and then waited.

    Thirty minutes later I called

    Emergency Services again on the non-emergency line, asking for an update on
    when we could expect someone to come out.

    "I'm sorry sir, but all our

    services are currently dispatched at the moment with active issues," the
    operator said. "We've got your report on file, and an ambulance will be
    dispatched when police are available. We have your name and number on file, we
    don't need you to stay on location."

    That was definitely

    not the norm for someone calling in a dead body, and it made me worried.
    "Alright," I said. "I just need to add something to the report
    then. After my previous call we checked in on Mrs. Branston's agricultural
    livestock. Someone has stolen all her chickens."

    "I'm... sorry?" the

    operator said.

    "Someone stole fifty-odd

    chickens," I clarified.

    There was another long moment

    of quiet from the other end of the line.

    "Chickens?"

    "Yeah, chickens," I

    said.

    A long sigh. "Alright, I

    added it to the report. Have a good day, sir."

    "You,” the operator hung

    up. "-too."

    "That sounded like it

    went great," Vanessa said sarcastically.

    "Yeah," I said,

    wondering what the fuck was happening to my home town. "I can't say that
    it did."

    Vanessa came jogging down

    from the office portables when the black sedan came rolling around the
    bunkhouses.

    After we'd gotten back from

    our big run, and Erica had berated me for taking a risk with Mary even while
    telling me how sweet a man I was, things had settled down. Leo's new partners
    had slept through the day with their imprinting, but we'd grilled up some extra
    sausages in case they woke up in the night and were hungry. I'd spent some time
    late in the afternoon with Ivy, and that night I'd slept with Vanessa on one
    side of me, and Ivy on the other while Erica spooned up behind her and rested a
    hand on my chest. We'd all been naked, but nothing overtly sexual had happened

    Vanessa had gone back to work

    in the morning, the first to wake up, and as she got ready and dug through her
    luggage Erica got up and made her coffee. The smell woke me up, and I realized
    it was 5:30 in the morning. It looked like our schedule was going to be
    changing with Vanessa in our lives.

    Breakfast was a quiet affair

    later in the morning; at least, quiet for us. Leo's RV was visibly rocking, and
    I had to assume Aria and India were up and the four of them were getting better
    acquainted. By the time Vanessa came back around for her breakfast break I'd
    already come in Erica, but Ivy had held off; apparently, the three of them had
    talked, and Vanessa only had about fifteen minutes for her breakfast break
    which meant a quicker-than-usual blowjob was necessary if she wanted some fun
    with her food.

    By mid-morning things had

    quieted down over at Leo's RV, and I'd left a platter of food wrapped with
    tinfoil on a chair next to the door. Ivy was just starting to get handsy with
    me, sitting on my lap and giggling with that look in her eye, distracting me
    from my drawing, when the crunch of tires outside the compound perked us up.

    The sedan ground to a halt,

    and Vanessa quickly came down to stand with Erica and Ivy and me.

    Agent Sourpuss was the driver

    again, and she just narrowed her eyes at us for a moment before turning back
    and speaking into the back seat. The door opened, and a woman in that same
    hooded coverall getup stepped out.

    "Hi," I said,

    stepping forward and offering her my hand. "I'm Harrison."

    "Kyla," she said

    through her mask, taking my hand and shaking it lightly.

    "I'm not really sure

    what you were expecting," I said. "I know things are weird and
    changing a lot for everyone, so if anything sounds like a problem just let us
    know and we can figure it out. The first of which is that, ah, these are my
    partners Erica, Ivy and Vanessa."

    "Allo!" Ivy said,

    stepping forward and wrapping the woman up in a hug. Ivy was still the shortest
    and most petite of the women, with Kyla standing around the same height as
    Vanessa.

    "Hi," Erica said,

    smiling warmly but not stepping forward, which I knew was because she knew the
    secret. In any other circumstance she likely would have been trying as hard as
    Ivy to be welcoming in an effort to dispel the weirdness.

    Agent Sourpuss rolled down

    the window. "Hey, you need to stop being so touchy. Protocol says you need
    to imprint as soon as possible."

    I sighed, glaring at her a

    little. "I hear you. Let's just make sure this is all Okay with her,
    yeah?" I turned back to Kyla, whose eyes were a little wide as she
    cautiously accepted the hug from Ivy.

    "Um, hello," she said,

    looking around at the construction site, and our ridiculous-looking compound.

    "There's a lot for us to

    explain," I said.

    "I can see that,"

    she said. The more she talked, the more I heard a slight accent. It wasn't
    strong, not like Dani's, and I had to assume being the daughter of an
    Ambassador meant she'd grown up at least part of her life in the US or other
    places. Not to mention any training she'd received.

    "Are you Okay with

    this?" Erica asked her. "The idea of sharing space with a group of
    us?"

    "For what it's worth,

    I'm the newest and stumbled into it by accident, but it works for me,"
    Vanessa chipped in.

    Kyla looked around again,

    then back at Sourpuss, and finally back to me. "It's the way things
    are," she said. "I can make it work."

    "Well, if you change

    your mind, you have until we start the imprinting process," I said.
    "Just say something and we can try to find you someone, or somewhere,
    else."

    She shook her head, then

    turned to Sourpuss again. "You can go."

    "Fine by me," the

    Agent muttered, raising her window and pulling the car away. I was almost sure
    I heard her mutter something about never wanting to come back again.

    "Come in," Erica

    said, gesturing to the fabric-draped entryway. "We'll show you around and
    can tell you what's up."

    Kyla followed Erica and Ivy

    in, but Vanessa hung back. "I need to get back to work," she said.
    "I'll come meet her later if you haven't dicked her down yet."

    I snorted and shook my head

    at her crassness. The only people who could get close to matching military folks
    in that way turned out to be construction workers. "Everything going
    Okay?" I asked.

    "Yeah, it's fine. Just

    getting the animals back in order after being away. They're going to be moving
    workers into the bunkhouses in the next few days so there's a lot to get
    ready," she said. She reached over and squeezed my hand for a second, but
    didn't step in for a kiss even though I could see her glance at my lips.
    "See you later?"

    "Absolutely," I

    said, and she started marching back towards the office portables.

    When I ducked back into our

    compound, Erica and Ivy had arranged the deck chairs into a semi-circle and Ivy
    was coming out of our place with a quartet of beers from the fridge. Erica was
    just gesturing for Kyla to take a seat.

    "We're all

    vaccinated," she was saying. "So if you want to get out of that getup
    you can."

    Kyla sat and sighed, lowering

    her hood and then taking off her medical mask. She was gorgeous. Her hair was a
    natural silky black with that smooth quality that Native Americans and East
    Asian folks shared, and she had cute little apple cheeks when she smiled softly
    in thanks as she accepted a beer from Ivy. Her skin was naturally tan, and
    she'd done her makeup to accent her ethnicity a bit rather than downplaying it,
    and knowing what I knew about her I wondered if that was a move to try and
    distract or seduce me.

    She had espionage training.

    She knew how to use her assets.

    "So Harrison," she

    nodded to me, then pointed at Ivy. "Ivy, and..." she looked at Erica.
    "Sorry, something with an E, right?"

    "Erica," my

    girlfriend clarified for her with a smile.

    "Right, Erica,"

    Kyla said. "And the other was Vanessa?"

    "Right," I nodded.

    "Vanessa is actually a forewoman with the construction crews, so she had
    to get back to work."

    "Okay," she nodded.

    "And you all live in these trailers?"

    "RVs," I said.

    "And it's just temporary. My family owned this land for generations, and
    recently the government leased it from me and is building a residential
    compound. We'll be getting a house, and for now we've got these luxury RVs.
    But, uh, we're actually only living in that one. The other one is occupied by
    my friend and Erica's brother Leo and his partners."

    "So there's going to be

    five of us in there?" Kyla asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked over
    the RV.

    "Yes," Ivy said

    with a smile. "It's very nice on the inside. And the bed is very
    cozy."

    "The bed?"

    Kyla said, emphasizing the singular.

    "That's, uh, another

    thing," I said. "This is a little rude but, well Erica, Ivy and
    Vanessa are all bisexual. Are you;?"

    "I'm straight," she

    said.

    Erica just nodded, though I

    could tell out of the corner of my eye that Ivy was a little disappointed but
    tried to hide it.

    "That's perfectly

    fine," I said. "We'll figure out a sleeping arrangement so that you're
    comfortable."

    "I,” Kyla started, then

    glanced at Erica and Ivy for a moment and seemed to change her mind.
    "Look, I'm stepping into your thing here already, so I don't want to be a
    bitch. But could I just... Could I talk for a moment with the guy who I'm going
    to be bonding DNA with or whatever?"

    "Yes, absolutely,"

    Erica said. "Do you want to go inside, or should we?"

    Kyla glanced over at Leo's

    RV. "Maybe we should," she said and stood up.

    I stood as well, patted Ivy's

    shoulder and met a glance from Erica as she tried to warn me to be careful
    without saying anything. Kyla and I went to the RV, and I opened the door for
    her and followed her in.

    "Sorry about the

    mess," I said. "Vanessa just moved in yesterday and we're trying to
    figure out what to keep here, and what to move into the storage
    containers."

    "It's... fine,"

    Kyla said. She was looking down the length of the RV, through the open door to
    the bed. I could only imagine what she was thinking.

    "Let's just sit

    here," I said, offering her the bench as I took the chair by the Murphey
    table. I wasn't going to mention that we used the bench for fucking almost as
    much as the bed. "Ask me anything," I said as we sat. "I know
    this is all weird, and you must have a thousand questions and concerns."

    "I do," she said,

    and leaned back on the leather bench and took a deep breath. I just met her
    eyes as she looked me over again. Then she took a swig of her beer. "What
    do you do for money? How does all of this work?" she asked.

    "Well, up until a few

    weeks ago, my family house was about fifty yards that way," I pointed.
    "Right where that first big bunkhouse building is. I worked remotely as a
    concept artist, and Erica's brother Leo was my roommate. Erica joined us out
    here for quarantine. The federal government came and wanted to buy my land, but
    I negotiated a lease with them instead and they paid me a lot of money for it,
    along with building me, Leo and my sister houses. So if you're worried about
    finances living out here, you don't need to. I'm not stingy, though I'd prefer
    if we don't get super extravagant. I'd rather us be wealthy for a long time
    than super-rich for a short one, and with five people on the team... Well,
    yeah."

    "The team?" she

    asked.

    "It feels a little weird

    to call it a family right now," I said. "What with all the changes
    happening so fast. I think that's how most of us will end up, but I don't want
    to presume anything."

    She frowned, looking me up

    and down again. When she got that look on her face she was fierce and
    calculating. Focused. Then it broke and she cocked her head to the side just a
    touch. "Did they tell you I was coming?"

    "Um, yeah," I

    nodded. "I got a warning yesterday that you'd be here sometime in the next
    couple of days."

    She nodded slowly.

    "Okay. I mean, obviously we'll need to figure some things out, but I think
    I can live with... this. I'd like to wait a day and get to know you all a bit
    more before we do the imprinting though. I'm not really a 'sleep with a guy on
    the first day' kind of girl."

    "I'd be happy to wait as

    long as you like," I said. "But, ah, you may want to talk with the
    others about that feeling you've got. Apparently, it'll just keep getting
    stronger."

    "Right," Kyla

    nodded slowly. "Okay. I'll keep that in mind."

    Voices rose outside. Not

    angry, just a little animated. "Sounds like Leo and his girls are finally
    coming outside," I said. "I think you'll like Danielle, she's a
    pretty open book. I can't make any promises about the two new women though,
    they arrived yesterday and I haven't had a chance to meet them properly."

    "That sounds good,"

    she said.

    "Any other questions, or

    do you want to go meet them?" I asked.

    "Um, yeah,

    actually," she said. She was still giving me a slightly weird, considering
    look. "Do you know?"

    "Know what?" I

    asked, trying to poker face without poker facing.

    She kept eyeing me. "Who

    I am."

    I sighed a little. "I

    was told that you're the daughter of an Ambassador," I said, covering the
    big lie with a little truth.

    "Does that bother

    you?" she asked.

    "Why would it?" I

    replied. "I'm part Native, part Japanese, I travelled a decent chunk of
    the world when I was in the military. In the US, you growing up in another
    country is about as different as if you grew up in an east coast city."

    "That's not what I

    meant," Kyla said, sitting forward and leaning her elbows on her knees,
    staring right at me. "I meant does it bother you that I'm a spy?"

    The problem with going toe to

    toe with a spy was that all of my usual methods of evaluating someone were
    already going off.

    As a teen I'd been a bit of a

    hillbilly, I'd been an athlete, and I'd been a kid from a family with
    generational grudge issues. Then I'd joined the military and I learned about
    professional backstabbing and politics, and then I'd become an MP and really
    saw some of the dumb and vile crap that Man could do to each other. I'd been
    trained to be aware, alert, and suspicious.

    Seven years out of the

    military had softened me, I was sure. But not that much.

    Maybe Grierson shouldn't have

    told me about Kyla's background. I was trying my best to not be suspicious,
    which I bet if I saw myself back on a recording I would have seen as a red
    flag. If I hadn't known about her, I could have just accepted her and hopefully
    my natural and trained instincts would have picked up on anything fishy.

    I sighed a little huff of a

    chuckle and leaned back in the Murphey chair, looking at Kyla across the RV.
    I'd been doing my best not to just really stare at her, to make a judgement
    scan of her to really assess her. Maybe that gave me away. Maybe not.

    She was beautiful, but I'd

    already judged that. Her Filipino heritage was strong, but wasn't so different
    from the natives that I'd grown up around that it seemed out of place or exotic
    to me. Not to mention the plenty of varied Asians I'd lived around in Portland.
    She was still wearing the bulky coverall so it was hard to judge her
    athleticism, but just the way she sat told me she was a physical person. She
    was sitting on the bench, which wasn't particularly tall, but her feet were
    pressed to the ground by the balls of her feet and toes, her heels raised. Even
    though she was leaning forward with her elbows on her knees she also wasn't
    slouching at all. She was a coiled spring, but with a loose tension. She wasn't
    on edge, but was a calmly controlled nervous.

    "It does," I said,

    answering the question she'd stunned me with for a moment. 'Does it bother you
    that I'm a spy?' Who asked that? Was it a game, or a test? Was she trying to be
    truthful because of the situation, or was she running a long con to gain my
    trust to inevitably betray me? How calculated was this move, and what were the
    variables?

    Was it a move at all?

    "But not the way you

    might think," I continued. "It's funny, I don't even know how much
    they told you about me. I think I mentioned outside that I was in the military
    at one point. I was an MP before I was discharged. You are exactly the kind of
    person I would have been worried about for an important part of my life. But
    now? Honestly, Kyla, I just don't want you to fuck up the family dynamic we're
    trying to build here. I don't want you to put any of the people out there in
    danger, on purpose or by accident, if you plan on trying to do something for
    your father or NICA."

    She gave me a long look back,

    evaluating what I said. If we were sitting across from each other with a
    chessboard between us, or cards, I would have said she was trying to read if I
    was bluffing or not. But this wasn't a game, and there weren't stakes on the
    line, and I thankfully got the impression she wasn't trying to read me. At
    least, not like that. She was reading me, but she was trying to form her
    opinion of me, just like I was trying to with her.

    "Have you ever killed

    anyone?" she asked me.

    I pressed my lips together

    and nodded. "I didn't see as much combat as others, but I got in a few firefights,"
    I said. "I had a few confirmed kills, and likely several more unconfirmed.
    And one of my investigations as an MP turned into a shootout with some human
    traffickers that ended... badly. Fuck, I haven't talked about that with anyone
    since I got out. I'd prefer you not bring it up with the girls, or Leo.
    Please."

    "I won't," she said

    quietly.

    "Have you?" I

    asked.

    "No," she shook

    her. "I mean, I have enough training that I could, but that wasn't ever
    supposed to be my job. I; I'd rather maybe talk about my story if I get more
    comfortable with you, but I've never carried more than a knife and a can of
    mace in my purse for self-protection and haven't ever needed to use either of
    them."

    "Does it bother you that

    I know?" I asked her.

    "I feel like it should,

    but I don't think it does," Kyla said, pursing her lips a little in
    thought after she said it. "I just spent the last four years living a
    secret life, but I've always lived a double life. You know, which
    means... I don't know what it means. Which is a first."

    "I told Erica," I

    said. "I wasn't supposed to, I don't think, but she can read me like a
    book and I didn't want to keep it from her anyways."

    Kyla smiled a little. "I

    could tell," she said. "I only picked up on little things from you
    because of the way she was acting."

    That made me chuckle a

    little. "Well, at least that's something. I'm not a complete waste."

    "So what now?" she

    asked. "You know that I know that you know. Do we need to set some ground
    rules or anything?"

    "Let's play it by ear,

    at least today," I said. "As long as you don't do anything to
    endanger anyone, we should talk again before you make the decision of whether
    you want to stay with us or not. I'm not sure how long you have before that
    becomes a problem; Erica and Ivy both got their imprinting within a few hours
    at our best guess, but Dani had to wait for maybe five or six to imprint with
    Leo and when she showed up she was a little fuzzy and thought I was him."

    "I'll keep that in

    mind," she nodded. "Any rules about going outside the... this
    place?"

    "We're just calling it

    the compound," I said. "There aren't, but there's a few hundred
    construction workers around. We haven't had any issues beyond some catcalling
    and staring, but generally other than Vanessa the girls have stuck to the compound
    unless they are with me or Leo. We've got a couple of ATVs and Erica, Leo or I
    could give you a tour of the property; it's going to change a lot soon, so if
    you like the forest it's more than worth doing sooner than later. I can also
    lend you my truck if you ever want to go out into town, but we've tried to
    minimize that and you probably should wait until you're imprinted and the
    vaccine is fully working."

    Kyla nodded along, and when I

    wound down she smiled a little again. "You know, you talk a lot," she
    said.

    That made me laugh. "I

    think you might be the first person to ever say that to me," I said.
    "Usually I'm the quiet guy in a group."

    "Tall, dark and

    brooding?" Kyla asked, and then fanned herself with one hand as she
    smirked playfully. "Just my type."

    "We good, at least for

    now?" I asked her, standing up.

    "We are," she

    nodded, standing and then offering her hand for me to shake. "It's good to
    meet you, Harrison. For what it's worth, you seem like a decent person."

    "You too, Kyla," I

    said, shaking her hand, and then I smiled and winked. "So far."

    We left the RV and soon we

    were in the midst of a swarm of introductions. Kyla was taken under the wing of
    Erica, who gave me a look like she wanted all the details of our conversation
    immediately but knew it had to wait. Meanwhile, Dani brought Aria over to meet
    me.

    Leo's new partner was as pale

    as Dani was, but a little taller and curvier in a similar way to Erica. She had
    softly ginger hair that looked like it had probably been neatly trimmed at her
    shoulders before quarantine but had already grown out a bit. She was pretty
    without being a classic beauty or Instagram face, but she exuded light
    sexuality simply because of the way her big tits pressed out against what would
    have been an otherwise demure t-shirt. She wasn't showing any cleavage, and her
    high-waisted jean shorts were downright modest compared to what I'd gotten used
    to Erica, Ivy and Dani wearing around in the early summer heat. She also had a
    flash of navy tattoos peeking out from one sleeve, and multiple pretty-looking
    piercings in each ear.

    "Harri is like my sexy

    big brother," Dani said, stepping into a side hug with me after
    introducing us.

    "I don't think those

    words should be going together," I said as I rolled my eyes at her.
    "And I have a sister and she isn't nearly as free with the nudity
    around me as you are, and I like it that way."

    Dani scrunched up her nose

    and stuck out her tongue playfully. "Deal with it."

    Aria laughed at the banter

    between us. "Well, I don't know about all that," she said.
    "But from what I understand, India and I have you to thank for our luxury
    digs, and a brand new house sometime in the future?"

    "Yes, sort of. But it's

    a long story. Let's do a campfire tonight and we'll tell you and your partner
    and Kyla all at once," I said.

    "She's gorgeous,"

    Aria said, looking over at the Filipina. "How are you not jumping her
    bones already?"

    "We felt it was better

    she try to get acclimated a bit first," I said.

    "A good fucking will get

    her acclimated quickly," Dani smirked.

    "Careful, that first

    orgasm is a big one," Aria snickered.

    "What's a big one?"

    India asked, sliding into the conversation by sneaking up behind Aria and
    wrapping her arms around her in a hug. "I heard the dirty tone in your
    voice, but not the joke. So I'm going to assume you're either talking about
    cocks or tits."

    "Orgasms,

    actually," Aria laughed and turned to kiss India on the cheek.

    India was the tanner of the

    two, and where Aria was that natural pretty she was the Instagram Influencer
    kind of attractive. Her face was that ridiculously symmetrical, perfectly
    formed genetic lottery that made me wonder what parts of her were 'customized'
    in some way. Her skin tone was from tanning more than any natural darkness, and
    she wore her light brunette hair in a messy array of braids, loose strands and
    dreadlocks that gave her an immediate 'dirty hippy girl' vibe. She was shorter
    than Aria, but just as curvy as revealed by the red bikini top showing off a
    swathe of cleavage along with an Illuminati tattoo right between her tits and
    several more designs along her collarbone. The fact that she seemed to be
    wearing the same style of modest shorts as Aria was cute and made me wonder if
    they'd coordinated the look.

    "Well, that happens to

    be one of my favorite topics," India giggled.

    Dani introduced me again, and

    then Ivy came to join our conversation as Dani slipped away to meet Kyla and
    talk with Erica and Leo.

    Second-breakfasts were

    prepared, or rather I fired up the grill and put a pan on it, then made a big
    breakfast mash reheating the food I'd set out for Leo and his girls and adding
    in some more eggs, breakfast sausage and a mess of cheese. It was sloppy, it
    was greasy, and it was delicious.

    As I was cooking and eating I

    couldn't help but smile to myself, watching our weird family interacting with
    each other. Ivy was trading stories with India and Aria about funny experiences
    as sex workers; Ivy hadn't ever had sex for money, but she'd dealt with plenty
    of the same kinds of guys as the two former sugar babies. Dani was talking with
    Kyla about growing up moving back and forth out of the States, with Leo
    listening in and asking questions occasionally. Erica slipped in beside me at
    the grill, sliding her hand up the back of my shirt to rub my bare skin with
    her hand.

    "Hey babe," she

    said, softly scratching my back.

    "Hello, gorgeous,"

    I said and leaned over to kiss her.

    She accepted with a smile,

    but then slid her lips from mine and pulled me down a little more to whisper.
    "How did it go?"

    "Fine," I whispered

    back. "But she knows we know. It's fine for now though. I'll explain more
    later?"

    "Okay," she nodded,

    then kissed me again. Her fingernails dug a little more into the small of my
    back as she bit her lower lip. "We should take a drive out to the spring
    pond this afternoon."

    I agreed, and she slipped

    away to text Vanessa to come for an early lunch if she could. Vanessa snuck
    away from work for a few minutes, popping in to say hello and introduce herself
    around. She grabbed a couple of breakfast sausages and a kiss from me.

    "You Okay, big

    guy?" she asked as she munched quickly.

    "I am," I said, and

    then slid my hand into the back pocket of her work jeans and grabbed her butt.
    "You know, I'm still sorry about you tripping into this, but I'm really
    happy you're here?"

    Vanessa chewed on the corner

    of her lip for a moment as she looked at me and smiled, then rolled her eyes
    and went up on her booted tip-toes to kiss me again. "I'm happy with it
    too, you sappy suck. I'm gonna need you to man up here again soon though or
    I'll think I've made a mistake. You're supposed to be the rugged mountain man
    dreamboat."

    "Oh yeah?" I

    laughed. "Should I go chop down a tree or something? Go hunt down an elk
    and kill it with my bare hands to bring back to the campfire?"

    "Something like that,"

    she smirked.

    I got a little closer and

    spoke quieter. "What if I just throw you over my shoulder and carry you
    into the RV so that I can have my way with you?"

    "Ugh," she groaned,

    flushing just a little as she breathed deeply. "See, that's fucking hot. But
    I don't have the time and now I'm about to go back to work with wet panties and
    it's your fault."

    I squeezed her ass a little

    firmer through her jeans, making her giggle and then pull away. Then she
    grabbed one last breakfast sausage off my plate and waved goodbye to everyone
    as she went back out of the compound to work.

    The girls took over cleaning

    up, and shortly after we had one of the surveyors ringing on the doorbell
    asking for a walkaround down in the southeast area since the tree-clearing
    crews were about ready to go to work there. I pawned it off on Leo, who didn't
    need any more convincing than a glance from his sister, and he went off. Erica
    excused herself from the girls and I noticed a wink exchanged between her and
    Dani, and Ivy reached behind her back to touch fingers with Erica as she moved
    by.

    "Why do I think you have

    something planned?" I asked her as she was heading into the RV.

    "Because I do," she

    grinned. She was already up on the step to get in, and she leaned down to peck
    my lips. "I'll be ten minutes. Meet you at the ATV."

    When she did join me, she was

    followed out of the compound by a bunch of 'oh!'s and catcalls from the girls,
    and I could immediately see why. She'd gone all out with her makeup. To be
    fair, it hadn't been all that long since that last time she'd done herself up;
    it had been just over two weeks since she'd come back into the house after
    being vaccinated and had wanted to do it for our first time together when she
    imprinted. But in those two weeks she hadn't had the time, or inclination, to
    go all out which meant that even Ivy and Dani hadn't seen her like this. She'd
    gone further though, dressing in one of my old band t-shirts she'd claimed for
    herself. She'd ripped off the sleeves and cut down the sides to make larger arm
    holes. At the time she said it would let her see my muscles when I wore it, but
    now I could see it also showed off her curves and the sides of the black and
    red bra she was wearing. She'd matched the shirt with a mix of necklaces,
    bracelets and rings, along with ripped jean shorts and a pair of beaten-up
    black cowboy boots, and she had a leather purse over one shoulder. She looked
    for all the world like the queen of a punk rock concert venue.

    "You wow me," I

    said, already sitting on the ATV.

    "I know I do," she

    grinned as she swaggered over to me. She planted a steaming kiss on me, then
    grinned again and wiped some of her lipstick off my lower lip with a thumb.

    Erica settled in behind me,

    hugging me close, and we took a leisurely route up to the spring pond at the
    back of the property. It was a nice drive, though as we took a couple of trails
    I hadn't been using for my 'security tours' I realized more progress than I
    thought had been going on. There were more tree-clearing teams than I'd thought
    there were, and a maze of wide trails that would become roads was forming
    quickly. Piles of logs and brush were getting processed, and I wondered how
    many of the old trees that were getting cut down would show back up in the
    framing for the houses that were going to be built. I hoped most of them; it
    would be a fitting circle that would make me feel a lot better about the whole
    thing, and would feel like a recall back to when my ancestors built their first
    home when they bought the claim for the land.

    When we arrived at the spring

    I shut off the ATV and Erica slipped down first, pulling me over to a sunny
    area near the pond. She let go of my hand and stepped away, turning to give me
    a look.

    "What?" I asked

    with a chuckle.

    "I love you,

    Harri," she said.

    "I know," I

    replied, smiling but trying to figure out what was going on. "I love you
    too. It hasn't been long, but it feels like it's been forever with us."

    She smiled and nodded, then

    took a deep breath. "I wanted to do this before things get even crazier.
    When Ivy joined us, it was kind of sudden but it was good. But she also started
    us on this crazy rollercoaster, and now you've got three and soon four women
    who you're going to be with. I’m sharing you with three women, and we
    haven't really talked about that."

    I sighed and nodded,

    scratching at my beard in frustration at myself. "You're right. It's
    definitely something we need to talk about. Things have just been,”

    "No, babe," she

    interrupted me. "This isn't a hard conversation. I'm not; I'm Okay with
    all of this, at least in terms of how things are shaping up so far. I just want
    to make sure that you and I don't... disconnect. I know the sex is one thing,
    but I didn't like you all these years because of sex."

    I stepped towards her and

    pulled her into a hug, which she held with me for a long time. She ended it by
    finding my lips and kissing me softly, then stepping away.

    "So," she said.

    "This is what I'm thinking. The crews are going to get up here sooner than
    later, which means we won't be able to use it privately for much longer."
    Then Erica pulled her shirt over her head and started unbuckling her shorts.
    "So I would like you, my lover, to go into my purse, please."

    I raised an eyebrow but

    followed her direction, going back to the ATV where she left her purse and
    opening it, finding my sketchbook and my little metal case of charcoal sticks.
    When I turned back around, a question on my lips, Erica was completely naked
    and laying on a patch of grass right next to the spring pond, smiling demurely
    at me.

    "If I'm going to be your

    muse, I figured I should do it right," she said.

    We talked as I sketched her.

    I told her about the conversation with Kyla first. Then we talked about India
    and Ivy, and about Vanessa and her feelings about having feelings. And then we
    talked about us. I burned through a half dozen sheets of my sketchbook, and
    Erica moved through a few different poses. None of them were lewd; no one would
    see the sketches and think they hadn't come from a human body nude art class.

    My favorite sketch was Erica

    in the pond, her arms up on the edge of the rocky rim and her eyes softly
    closed as her tits just peeked out from the edge of the water. We talked about
    the future while I was sketching her like that. About what our relationship
    could look like. Could we get married in the future? We both wanted to. What
    about kids? What did that look like in the current state of the world, and with
    this flurry of women around us?

    When they finally figured out

    the vaccine, and we didn't need to be attached to the others, what about
    then?

    We didn't have many answers

    to a lot of the questions, but it felt good to talk about them. Even our mutual
    questions made me feel closer to her.

    "Okay, babe," Erica

    finally said, standing up from the pool and water dripping down from her tits,
    rivulets running across her stomach and down between her legs. She stepped out
    and came to me, but didn't try to look at the sketches; she knew I would want
    to tidy them up and work on them before I showed her. Instead, she motioned for
    me to set my tools aside and she crawled into my lap, getting my clothes wet
    and not caring at all, as she wrapped her legs around my waist and pulled me
    into a searing kiss. Then, as we were kissing, she took my hands and slid them down
    from her waist to her ass, which I squeezed, but then she went further and
    guided my fingers into her ass crack and I encountered a hard little piece of
    metal.

    I broke the kiss, giving her

    a surprised look, and she laughed.

    "Harri, I've had this

    butt plug in for more than long enough. You've got three other gorgeous women I
    need to share your bed with, and one of them is already your dedicated ass
    slut. I need you to take my ass and make sure I'm your first to take you in
    every way." She kissed me hard, tits pressing to my chest and hands
    running up to mess with my hair. "I need you to take it, babe," she
    whispered huskily. "You own my tits, and God do you own my cunt, but you
    need to carve up my ass, too."

    She'd brought lube with her,

    and went and fetched it from the bottom of her purse as I watched her naked
    butt bounce and sway while she skipped. She came back and pushed me onto my
    back, pulling down my shorts and immediately taking the head of my cock in her
    mouth, humming happily as she wrapped her fingers around the base of the shaft
    and started blowing me.

    "That's what I want,

    Harri," she said. "I want you as hard as you can get. I want to feel
    every vein of this beautiful goddamn cock as it takes my ass."

    She made love to me with her

    mouth, kneeling on the grass in the middle of the forest. At the same time she
    was sucking and slurping on my cock, she also fucked me with her eyes. We
    didn't say much other than happy groans, but her eyes never left mine. The
    Smokey, punk makeup made her look fierce, but her eyes were all love and lust
    for me. Then she rolled onto her back and put some lube on her tits, and
    encouraged me to fuck them.

    We both laughed as I

    straddled her chest and she pressed her big tits up and around my shaft. We
    took turns, me sometimes thrusting and her sometimes jerking me off with her
    tits. I teased her nipples, and she playfully took the head of my cock in her
    mouth and scraped lightly down it with her teeth. I reached back as she jerked
    me and found her cunt, sliding my fingers into her until she moaned, and then
    thumbed her clit a bit for good measure until she was squirming in pleasure.

    "Enough," she

    gasped finally, dropping her tits and scooting out of underneath me. "God,
    I need you in me."

    She got on her hands and

    knees and I had to brush off some grass and a twig that had stuck to her meaty
    cheeks, then she reached back and spread her ass with both hands, her face
    pressed to the ground. "Get this plug out of me, Harrison. Fill my ass
    with your cock."

    This wasn't Erica's first

    time with anal, nor was it mine, and while neither of us would be considered
    experts we'd already been with Ivy more than enough to know what we were doing.
    The plug was all steel, simple and utilitarian; or as utilitarian as you could
    be with a butt plug. Her ass clung to it for a long moment then released, and
    she breathed in as her hole stretched over the widest part. I dropped a dollop
    of lube into her ass crack, then shrugged to myself and put a drop on both of
    her cheeks as well. She laughed and rolled her eyes as she let me spread the
    shiny substance all over her ass; it might have been a minor mistake since it
    made it harder for her to spread for me again, but I didn't care. She had a
    great ass, and seeing it greased up was worth it.

    Next, I used one finger, then

    two, to push the lube into her asshole. We'd already played around a bit with
    that in the middle of sex, me reminding her of how she'd said that British
    baking show hostess probably liked a 'cheeky finger up the bum,' but sliding a
    digit in there and teasing around the tension of her asshole was different when
    I was going to be inside of it soon.

    I leaned down and kissed her

    as the second finger squeezed in next to the first and she bit my lip lightly
    and growled a little in her chest.

    "How's it feeling?"

    I asked.

    She rolled her neck, flipping

    her dark hair to one side so she could level a steaming, frustrated gaze at me.
    "I swear to Christ, Harri. I told you to fill my ass and you're sitting
    here teasing me. Fuck me already!"

    I barked a laugh and slid

    right up behind her, pulling my fingers from her hole and rubbing the head of
    my cock up and down the cleft of her ass, then down to her cunt and dipping
    just the head into her. I could feel it squeeze, wanting more of me, but I just
    teased her and then moved back to her ass crack. I spurted a bit more lube out
    and hot-dogged her cheeks for a moment to spread it around, and then finally I
    put it into position.

    "You know how Ivy,”

    "Yes, I know how Ivy

    takes you so fast, Harri," Erica grunted and then pushed herself back onto
    my cock, the head and a good half of the shaft sliding into her all at once.
    "Holy fuck, yes!" Her shout actually echoed a little bit, and I hoped
    there wasn't some surveyor doing a hike through the woods.

    She breathed heavily for a

    long moment, her ass clenching on my cock. The warmth was intense, and I
    wrapped my hands down from her waist to her lower abdomen, holding her as her
    diaphragm and chest heaved while she caught her breath.

    "More?" I asked

    her.

    "What the fuck are you

    waiting for? Ream me, Harri. Fuck my fucking ass with that glorious fucking
    cock."

    She'd demanded it more than

    enough, and to be frank I was feeling a little emasculated that I kept offering
    her soothing words and feelings and she just wanted to be ravaged.

    So I ravaged her.

    We were rutting animals, and

    I plundered her ass. The sound of our slapping bodies and grunting probably
    could have been mistaken as two wild hogs, at least when we weren't panting
    each other's names.

    Erica shuddered through a

    long orgasm, leaking juices from her cunt as she rolled her eyes up and let out
    a long, wordless bellow. With my legs getting tired I pulled out of her and
    laid back on my ass, giving her a hard smack on her shiny butt cheek. "Get
    over here."

    She turned and saw me, and

    scrambled to comply, straddling my waist and reaching back to get my cock into
    position and then sitting back down on it. Once she was settled I grabbed her
    by the jaw and pulled her face to mine, kissing hungrily. She started rocking
    her hips back and forth grinding and stirring me in her ass as she whimpered
    against my lips.

    I let go of her jaw but she

    didn't stop kissing, and I mauled her tits. She just fucked herself on me
    harder.

    We were dripping with sweat

    now, and I wiped her hair from her face and pulled her down more fully on top
    of me, getting her body pressed against mine as we panted together. Then I
    rolled us over so I was on top of her, and she pulled her legs back so that I
    could keep fucking her ass.

    "Whose ass is

    this?" I asked her.

    "Yours. God, babe, it's

    all fucking yours. My fucking asshole is fucking vibrating with you in it. I
    don't know if I've stopped coming. It's like I'm on a rollercoaster that just
    keeps going. Fuck me, babe. Fuck me so fucking; God, I want to feel your cum. I
    want to get completely filled up. Come in my ass, Harri. Fill my fucking;
    fucking; Ugh!"

    She came at the feeling of me

    unleashing inside her ass, jamming deep to fill her. She squeezed her eyes shut
    and shuddered, our pelvises flooding as she squirted hard and splattered us
    both in her girl cum. I didn't even notice, just watching her expression as
    waves of pleasure rolled through her in time with my clenching releases
    rocketing out.

    I collapsed next to her, my

    cock pulling from her ass, but I didn't even make it to my back. I was on my
    side, one arm draped over her torso, as we both breathed heavily and tried to
    swim back to a more conscious state.

    "God, I love when you

    get like that," she finally said, chuckling into the quiet forest sounds
    around us.

    "You want me to do that

    more often?" I asked. "We aren't exactly soft most of the time
    already."

    "Maybe a bit more often,

    but not always," she said, rolling onto her side to face me. She kissed
    the tip of my nose softly. "If you fucked me like that every day we'd
    probably both pull something eventually. But at least once a week? Just fucking
    take me, Harri. Bend me over, slap my ass and take my holes."

    "What happened to 'just

    ask before you try and put something in my ass?'" I asked.

    She chuckled softly until it

    slipped into a hum. "That was when I was still figuring us out. Now? Now I
    want you all the time. If it was just us, I'd say we should try and get one of
    your creamy loads out of you in each of my holes every day and see what kind of
    a streak we could go for, but that would be a little selfish to the others I
    think."

    It was my turn to chuckle and

    leaned in to kiss her. "I can't believe we wasted so much time," I
    said.

    "I know," she said

    with a sad smile. "But we aren't anymore."

    We bathed in the spring pond

    as best we could without soap, then dried out in the sun for about ten minutes
    before getting dressed and heading back down. When we got back, Erica was met
    by Dani and Ivy, who both shot me looks and winked, giggling. The three of them
    strode away, leaving me feeling just a touch sheepish, a touch proud and more
    than a little exasperated.

    It was still the middle of

    the afternoon and I thought I might get away with grabbing a nap, but my hopes
    were dashed when Vanessa came jogging over and let me know that we needed to
    move the compound ASAP. The space had been made for us a couple of days prior
    based on her organization and the site was about to get an influx of workers
    living in the dormitory buildings.

    Thus began the tiring process

    of moving the RVs and other vehicles out of the way and making sure everything
    was secure in the storage containers. Then teamsters moved the storage
    containers about a hundred yards back to the designated spot, and Leo and I
    drove the RVs into position, and then shifted all of our other vehicles. It
    took about two hours to move everything, and another hour to get the compound
    set back up with the sheet-doors and all the chairs and the grill back out and
    in a general position. This time we also ended up needing to flatten out some
    big tire ruts from one piece of machinery or another that had been driving over
    the area, which took Leo and me into the evening.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 11 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 6
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 6
    Lab Results and Quarantines

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     

    The Docs signed off, leaving

    me alone in the little meeting room again. Not knowing when I would be able to
    leave, I decided to try and fall back on one of my old military instincts;
    sleep when you can. So I got comfortable in the chair, closed my eyes, and let
    myself drift into a fitful, not-quite-soothing sleep.

    "Harri," someone

    said, and I woke with a start as my shoulder was touched.

    "Urm," I grunted,

    and sniffed in a breath as I blinked rapidly and looked around. I was still in
    the room, and Miriam was smiling at me. She was dressed in fatigues here in the
    military office complex instead of her service dress blues and her hair was up
    in a standard military bun hidden beneath the standard issue cap.

    "Just like a grunt to

    take any reason for a nap," she grinned at me. "Come on. We can talk
    in my office."

    I stood, yawned and

    stretched, feeling something pop in my back and my shoulder from the
    uncomfortable position I'd been in. "Lead the way, Lieutenant
    Colonel," I said.

    She rolled her eyes at me a

    little but didn't say anything, just opening the door and walking through. I
    followed her back into that hallway where Brent had clocked me. He wasn't in
    the waiting room at the end of the hall. "Is Brent,” I started to ask.

    "He's waiting on another

    floor," Miriam said. "Refuses to leave until he sees his daughter is
    alright. It's making operations slow down over at the construction site, but I
    can't blame him."

    "Neither can I," I

    said, touching the tenderness of my black eye.

    Miriam led me through several

    very plain corridors lined with doors. None of them had windows to see in, and
    most had nameplate mounts but lacked names, and instead were labelled with
    numbers. It struck me as secretive, and that meant I was probably in the Air
    Force part of the building and not the Vaccine Test Center part. If they were
    trying to make people feel at ease joining an experimental program, these plain
    walls and doors forming a maze were not the way to do it. Confounding an enemy
    trying to sneak through this part of the building, though? It was perfect.

    I followed Miriam until she

    stopped at a seemingly random door and opened it, leading me into a large
    office. It had a large bank of windows, but extra-heavy curtains had been hung
    over them and were drawn shut to the point I wondered if they were nailed in
    place. One wall was entirely covered in a whiteboard with all sorts of coded
    writing on it. There were two desks in the room; the main desk was scattered
    with papers and a computer terminal, with a plush office chair tucked in behind
    it. The second desk had more stuff on it, but in neater piles, and Captain
    Bloomberg was sitting behind it at work. She glanced up at us as we entered and
    gave me a slightly judgmental look, before going back to the printout she was
    reading. The rest of the office space was dominated by file shelving units, a
    gun safe, and a leather couch that looked uncomfortable but was probably soft
    as hell.

    "Captain, could you give

    us five?" Miriam asked.

    "Of course, Ma'am,"

    she nodded, set down the papers face-down and stepped around her desk to the
    door. She shot Miriam a quick look, and Miriam gave her one back, and the
    Captain left. If I had to guess it was to do with the fact that the office was
    probably full of classified material and information and the Captain was
    silently reminding her superior officer not to let me poke around or leave me
    alone in there.

    "Sit, please,"

    Miriam sighed once the door was closed and we were alone, gesturing at the
    couch. I did, instantly sinking into it, and she sat on the other end and
    turned to me. "So, now that we know it's not life-threatening, you feel
    ready to get teased yet?"

    I snorted a little and

    scratched at my beard. "It's still a little raw," I admitted.

    "Just like how you

    fucked her?" Miriam asked with a grin. "Sorry, that's the only
    one."

    I shook my head and chuckled.

    There were few kinds of people who could be as morbidly crude and insulting,
    and mean it in the best way, as a military friend.

    "Seriously, Harri,"

    she said. "I got a briefing on it. She's fine, you're fine. No one is in
    trouble."

    "Tell that to her

    father," I said. "And I can't blame him for probably wanting to kill
    me."

    "Yeah, well, tough shit

    for him," Miriam said. "We've expanded his Need to Know status and
    gave him some more info on the vaccine to calm him down. He's not happy, but
    he's not worried anymore. Seriously though, did you have to go and fuck my lead
    civilian contractor's daughter?"

    "We were friendly with

    her," I said, and let out a long breath. "Erica said she thought
    Vanessa might be a little interested. I don't think either of us expected her
    to show up on our proverbial doorstep and ask for a foursome."

    "I always did think

    Erica was a smart woman after we met," Miriam said. "Though I figured
    you'd lost a few brain cells since you weren't dating her at the time."

    "There's a whole story

    behind that," I said, waving her off.

    "I'm sure there

    is," Miriam smiled. "Doesn't mean it's a good excuse though."

    "Well, Vanessa seems to

    think you have a crush on me after she met you for all of two
    minutes," I shot back at her.

    Miriam flushed for a moment

    but didn't look away from me, still in command in her own office. "Vanessa
    might have been doing a bit of projecting," she said. "I'm not into
    hillbillies with bushy beards and big guts."

    "Ouch," I laughed,

    holding my stomach. Sure, I wasn't in the peak physical form I'd been in coming
    out of the military, but I hadn't gone that soft.

    Miriam and I continued to

    chat and laugh for a few more minutes until the Captain came back and then
    Miriam let me borrow some sound-cancelling headphones and hang out on their
    couch while they were working. They had food ordered in and Miriam and I ate
    dinner together while Captain Bloomberg ate as she kept working at her desk. It
    wasn't until I noticed that the faint bit of light leaking around the edges of
    the curtains was dimming that it had been a long day and I hadn't been able to
    contact Erica and Ivy.

    I asked Miriam if I could

    have my phone back just to update them, and she and the Captain had to discuss
    it for a long moment before they decided they could probably do the texting for
    me, but for security protocols I couldn't be given control of the phone. When
    my phone powered on it took a long moment for it to connect to service, and
    then it started buzzing like crazy and a bunch of messages came in. Miriam was
    holding it, and her eyes went a little wide as the message notification
    scrolled by. "Um," she said. "Well, it looks like you and your
    partners are... happy together."

    "Oh no," I groaned.

    "What did they send?"

    "Well, you have a whole

    bunch of messages from Brent Peters chewing you out, so there's that,"
    Miriam said. "But, uh, well, there are photos from your partners."

    "Sorry," I shrugged,

    once again finding my face heating up at the exposure of my sex life.

    "It's fine," Miriam

    said. "It was my idea to do the texting anyways." She tapped around
    on the phone for a moment. "Alright, I'll just say 'Harri isn't allowed to
    use his phone right now. This is Miriam Abarbanel. He is fine, no trouble.
    Vanessa is also fine and healthy. They will return tomorrow.'"

    "That's fine," I

    said with a nod. I would have liked to tell them more, and that I loved them.
    And that they shouldn't have been trying to send me whatever scandalous photos
    they had considering I was in military custody at the moment.

    Miriam hit send and a minute

    later another text came through and she opened it, immediately rolling her eyes
    and setting my phone down.

    "What?" I asked.

    "Erica sent another

    photo, and I think it was for me," she said.

    "What? Really?" I

    asked.

    Miriam opened the photo again

    and turned my phone around to show me. Erica and Ivy were both sunbathing in
    the chairs, topless. The third Adirondack had a name tag written on a piece of
    paper and taped to the back of the chair that red 'Vanessa.' Beside it, they
    had put out another lawn chair and had quickly put another nametag on it that
    said 'Miriam.'

    I couldn't help the little

    snort of laughter that came out of me, and I covered my mouth to try and stop
    from giggling a bit. "I'm sorry," I said.

    Miriam laughed once and set

    my phone down. "You know, Erica is the right kind of trouble for you I
    think," she said.

    "You haven't spent

    enough time with Ivy," I countered. "That girl is mischievous. I bet
    the Vanessa one was Erica's idea to try and cheer her up, and the other one was
    Ivy."

    "If you've got any

    pictures from that Danielle woman, I wouldn't mind checking those out,"
    Captain Bloomberg said from over at her desk.

    "Laura," Miriam

    said, a little shocked.

    "What? I told you when

    we first saw her, that woman could turn a bigoted granny gay," Laura said.

    "That's fair,"

    Miriam said thoughtfully.

    "Hey, no arguments from

    me," I said.

    Miriam and the Captain ended

    up finishing their work days, though Miriam told me that she was on call 24/7
    anyways and they stayed in apartments lower in the building. She offered to try
    and find me a free one to rest overnight, but I asked her if I could see
    Vanessa and stay in whatever medical room she was in. I didn't want her to wake
    up from the process and be alone. This started a silent conversation of sharp
    looks between Miriam and Laura, until Laura sighed.

    "She's not alone. Her

    father hasn't left her side since we let him see her. This is... let's call it
    a legal grey area at the moment. Technically you're not even extended family,
    so he would get precedent on deciding who can be there," she said.
    "But under the circumstances of the Vaccine imprinting, there's been some
    debate going around the legal circles of what constitutes a civil union. The
    matter's still up in the air, but there's a case to be made that you and she
    are now more intimately connected than she and her father. So I guess the
    question is do you want to push the issue?"

    "Oh, fuck," I

    groaned, and had to massage the bridge of my nose. "On the one hand, yes I
    want to see her. On the other, Brent deserves to be pissed at me and worried
    about her. Can I just talk to him?"

    "Honestly, Harri,"

    Miriam said. "I think you should probably leave that whole conversation to
    Vanessa and how she wants to have it. Doesn't matter how much you defend
    yourself, you're still the guy that fucked that man's daughter in a pretty...
    degenerate seems too strong, but pervy is too weak. Anyways, you fucking her
    like that brought her here, and he's now aware that she's going to be
    intimately connected to you for a while."

    I puffed out my cheeks and

    let the air blow out slowly, unsure of what to do.

    "I can try talking to

    him," Laura offered. "But honestly, I don't know if it would do any
    good."

    "It's fine," I

    finally conceded. "He can be there, just find me another room where I can
    crash, and let me know when she's awake?"

    "I'll leave a standing

    order with the nurses," Miriam nodded.

    So, as Miriam and Laura

    finished up for the day, they sent for the night sentry who patrolled the floor
    and let him know I would be in the staff break room and was allowed to eat out
    of the cupboards and use the washrooms. Once the airman was gone Laura excused
    herself and left me with Miriam.

    "It was nice having you

    around, Harri," she grinned, dropping her command facade again. She put
    her hand on my upper arm and grinned, giving me a wink. "And I was joking
    when I called you fat."

    "Yeah, well, you really

    hurt my feelings," I fake-cried, making her laugh.

    "I'll see you tomorrow

    before you leave, alright? And I still expect that beer next time I'm up at the
    site," she said and gave me a peck on the cheek.

    "You got it," I

    said, and pecked her back. "And thank you for all of this today, by the
    way."

    "Happy to help,"

    she said, and then escorted me to the room where I would spend the next seven
    hours.

    The sentry woke me up around

    four in the morning. I had Cheeto dust on my shirt and fingers, the bag I'd
    found in the staff room cupboard almost empty and crumpled up on my chest.

    "Sir, I've been asked to

    bring you down to the medical wing," he said.

    "Fuck," I said,

    blinking awake and standing up. "Uh, give me a second." I went into
    the men's washroom and quickly washed my hands and my face, and tried to get
    myself straightened out. Looking in the mirror, I could tell that I'd been
    running on empty for a bit, but I didn't look as bad as I might have if I
    hadn't been getting in some light napping at least.

    The airman brought me to the

    elevator and punched a button for about a dozen floors down, and when we
    stepped off of it, it was clear that we were in a more public-facing area,
    though the number of armed airmen on guard was actually higher. The floor was
    still quiet, this early in the morning, and generally featured a lot more stuff.
    There were glass panes and windows everywhere and the place looked like what I
    would picture a medical bay would in a not-too-distant future medical show.
    There were a few nurses around, but most of the rooms and beds were empty. We
    passed by one room that was sealed up with a little yellow light near the
    handle flashing 'Quarantine Active.'

    That got me gulping and

    moving. We turned a corner and I saw her.

    Vanessa was sitting up in a

    hospital bed, an IV drip hooked in to one arm. She was in a hospital gown and
    didn't have any of her usual makeup on, so she looked... sick wasn't the right
    word. She looked different enough that I noticed it, but it was like seeing
    Erica without her makeup that first time. It was different but I liked seeing
    the natural her.

    "Vanessa, I'm,” I

    started, but then she threw a magazine at my head.

    "Harri, I swear to God

    if you try and apologize to me, I'll throw another one," Vanessa said. She
    had a stack of a few of them on a little rolling bedside stand, where she also
    had a tray from a shitty cafeteria meal.

    "You look good,

    Vee," I said, changing my mind.

    She blushed and smiled.

    "No, I don't. Liar."

    "Okay, you look as good

    as someone in a hospital bed can," I said.

    "Come sit, Harri,"

    she said, shifting herself in the bed and patting beside her. I did, and she
    took my hand in one of hers and lifted the other to brush a finger against my
    bruised eye. "The night nurse told me what happened when I woke up."

    I opened my mouth to

    apologize again but remembered what she'd said and clicked it shut.

    She smirked and squeezed my

    fingers. "Good, you're learning."

    "So you're not pissed

    off?" I asked.

    Vanessa leaned her head back

    on the pillows propping her up, taking a deep breath. "Maybe at the world,
    a little. But at you? Or Erica and Ivy? No. I went in there knowing what I was
    asking for, and you told me the risk. I decided getting off with you three was
    worth it." She broke into a small smile. "And from what I remember, it
    was pretty fantastic."

    "It was," I

    chuckled. "I mean, wild and filthy, but fantastic."

    She was looking at me,

    searching my face for something. I couldn't tell if she found it or not.
    "I spoke to my Dad. He told me he decked you pretty good but I wasn't
    expecting a full-on shiner."

    "He definitely got

    me," I said, touching my eye. "Wasn't as bad as I felt I
    deserved."

    "Yeah, well I told him

    if he does it again I'll deck him," she said. "And that
    if he tries to take any revenge on you, he's just punishing me."

    "Does that mean what I

    think it means?" I asked.

    She brought my hand up to her

    chest and put it over her heart. "Harri, I'm stuck with you no matter what
    at this point, but if you guys will have me I'd like to move into your crammed
    RV life. I thought you and Erica were cool since we met, and we know we're
    sexually compatible. The way I see it, I can either fight this thing just for
    the sake of fighting, or I can get on board the Harrison train and enjoy the
    ride."

    "Vanessa, I; God, I wish

    I had my phone right now," I said. "There's a picture the girls sent
    that you'll want to see."

    Vanessa rolled her eyes and

    her smile grew. "Oh, I got several pictures," Vanessa said.
    "I've already seen them. Why don't you have your phone?"

    "I was up on a secure

    floor," I said. "Lieutenant Colonel Abarbanel was actually the one to
    see them when she helped me message back that we were Okay."

    "Then you have some

    surprises waiting for you I think," Vanessa grinned. "But for now,
    you're all mine." She pulled me towards her and guided me into a kiss.
    Then she whispered into my lips as our noses rubbed against each other.
    "Pull the privacy screen around us."

    "Here? Really?" I

    asked.

    "My nurse actually

    encouraged it," Vanessa said. "She said we just need to try and keep
    it down."

    I stood up and went to the

    curtain built into the rolling track around Vanessa's bed and pulled it around
    us, blocking out the rest of the room, and the hallway beyond the glass
    observation doors. When I turned back to her, Vanessa was shrugging out of her
    hospital gown, her cute little tits jiggling. I kicked off my shoes and got up
    on the hospital bed with her, picking her up a bit and sliding her down into a
    laying position and tucking my head down to suck on one of her nipples.

    "Oh, Harri," she

    crooned, her hand running through my hair. Her nipples got hard quickly as I
    played my tongue over them, feeling the little boob around it tug and pull as I
    moved around. I popped off and raised my lips to hers again, giving her a kiss.

    "I didn't get to spend

    that much time telling you how beautiful and sexy I think you are," I said
    between kisses.

    "Harri, you don't need

    to lie," she said. "My boobs are tiny. I'm used to; Ah, fuck!"

    I cut her off by grabbing the

    tit I hadn't sucked on, squeezing it hard enough to make her hiss a little bit.
    I'd seen she liked a little rough pawing and play during the foursome, so I
    used it now to make a point. "If you ever tell me these aren't perfect,
    I'll spank you so hard you'll have my handprint on your ass for a week."

    "Fuck, Harri; Fuck,"

    she groaned as I let my grip on her tit loosen, and then bent down and took
    that nipple into my mouth as well. "Fine. You like my tits. I believe
    you."

    "Don't just believe

    me," I said. "Vanessa, you said you thought Erica and I were cool
    when we first met. Well, I thought you were fascinating. This gorgeous, tough
    woman who knew how to take charge and make things happen. Beautiful from head
    to toe even when you were trying to downplay it for work. Now, you're going to
    lay back so that I can explore every inch of your gorgeous, perfect body."

    She looked like she was

    somewhere between beaming happily and crying, but she nodded.

    I started back up at her lips

    and kissed around her jaw and down her neck to her collar bone. Then down to
    her chest, where I teased her nipples some more, rolling one between my fingers
    while I tongued and lightly nibbled on the other. Once they were both standing
    proud and weren't about to go down, I helped her pull the hospital gown off until
    it was hanging from the arm with the IV in it, revealing the rest of her body
    to me. I kissed down her stomach to her bellybutton and pressed my forehead
    against her, kissing her fit stomach softly, then moving lower. I got to the
    point between her belly button and her mound where her scar was, and the
    Strength tattoo.

    I took my time there, kissing

    it, and tracing my finger along the letters of the tattoo. I turned back to
    look up at her face and she was pensive, staring at me with this worried look
    like I was going to change my mind about her. "Perfect," I told her
    again, "And strong as hell."

    My lips went further, down

    onto her mound where a smattering of hairs were poking out. She'd obviously
    shaved herself in the past, but not as recently as I bet she would have liked.
    But I didn't care, and I kissed along the stubble of her pubic hair, letting it
    play against my lips as my beard played against her skin. She spread her legs
    for me, and I slipped around on the bed so I was laying between them on my stomach,
    looking up at her.

    "Do you want me to do

    this here?" I asked her.

    "Harri, I want your cock

    inside me like nothing else," she said.

    "We'll get there,"

    I grinned, and began to explore her cunt with my lips and tongue. I took my
    time, softly kissing and licking, searching every nook and cranny of her outer
    and inner labia. Then I did it again, sucking a little harder, nibbling just a
    touch, finding the sweet spots that made her legs quiver or her breath catch in
    a hiccup or gasp. Then I went deeper, peeling her open with my fingers to see
    the soft pink of her hole, and tasted and teased her.

    She mewled for me, clawing at

    the bed. I kept needing to move her leg back as it came up and wanted to curl
    in towards me until I just planted my hand on her thigh and pushed her open,
    holding her leg wide. Then I did the same to the other leg, pushing them back
    further, and I slowly licked from her hole up her lips to her clit hood,
    teasing the tip of my tongue under it before pushing it back with my upper lip
    and prodding her clit softly.

    "Making me... ugh!"

    Vanessa grunted with a girlish tone, gasping for air.

    I did it again and watched as

    another little orgasm rolled through her, her cunt flexing as her abdominal
    muscles clenched.

    Moving lower I kissed the

    inner curve of her ass cheek and looked up from between her legs to meet her
    gaze. She watched me, a little surprised, as I practically buried my nose in
    her cunt so that I could drive my tongue against her asshole. Her brow furrowed
    as I did it, and one eye twtiched as I teased the outer ring, then centered on
    it and nudged the tip of my tongue a little deeper.

    "Not here," she

    gasped suddenly, and I stopped. "I; not here," she said again.

    "Okay," I said,

    moving up from her ass and kissing the crook of her thigh.

    "Just like that?"

    she asked.

    "What kind of guys have

    you been seeing that don't stop when you say no?" I asked back.

    She blinked. "The kind

    who don't eat ass, and rarely eat cunt," she said. "So the wrong
    kind."

    "Then let me ask you;

    what do you want me to do now?"

    She closed her eyes and blew

    out a long breath through pursed lips, before opening them. "Get your
    pants off and fuck me while we make out. I want to feel you on top of me."

    I grinned and slipped off the

    bed, undoing my belt and kicking my pants off. I was already hard, and she was
    wet from my exploratory oral, so I got back up on the bed and got over her in a
    standard missionary position. "Like this?" I asked her.

    She reached down and got my

    cock in position, and wrapped a leg around my waist and ass to pull me into
    her. "Like this," she said with a grin as I slowly penetrated deeper
    into her. Vanessa was hot and clenched my cock in a rippling sensation as I
    drove in, slowly fucking into her until I was buried to my root. She grabbed my
    beard in her hand and pulled me into a kiss as we stayed still and connected.

    "Ow," I muttered

    into the kiss.

    "Sorry," she

    laughed, releasing my beard.

    "It's fine," I said

    and kissed her deeply.

    We made out, our tongues

    doing more work than my cock for a long moment, until we started grinding
    against each other. The rhythm built up slowly, less a pounding than a sensuous
    back and forth that felt more like dancing. Well, the best kind of dancing
    where my cock was inside of a beautiful woman.

    Our kiss broke as we panted

    against each other. "More," she gasped.

    "More what?"

    "More weight," she

    said. "I want to feel you."

    I lowered myself from my

    elbows, letting my body press down against hers like a too-heavy weighted
    blanket.

    "Umm," she groaned

    somewhere at the back of her throat. Her body felt tense under mine, but slowly
    loosened. I kissed the side of her neck, and she ran the heel of her foot down
    my leg and then back up to my butt.

    The soft whoosh of the glass

    door opening outside of the privacy curtain made us both stop moving.

    "Vanessa, you good in

    there?" asked a woman.

    "Yep," she said.

    "So good. Perfect."

    There was a long moment of

    silence, and then, "Oh. Sorry for interrupting. If you and Mr. Black can
    finish up, your Father was hoping to see you. I can stall him for ten
    minutes?"

    "Thanks," Vanessa

    called back, biting her lips. Two soft footsteps and the door whooshed again,
    settling closed. "Oh my God," Vanessa groaned.

    "I can do a lot in ten

    minutes," I said with a grin.

    "No, we have less than

    that," she sighed. "I need to get cleaned up and dressed first, and
    you need to be out of here before he gets here. But first I need you to fuck me
    hard and fast and give me your cum."

    So that's what I did. I

    raised up higher again to gain the leverage I needed and I started pounding
    into her with hard, steady strokes. Vanessa gasped, and soon we were back in
    that rolling rhythm of our hips except it was way more fucking than dancing.
    Our eyes never left each other, and when I went in for another kiss she bit my
    lip as she started to come. That pushed me towards my own edge, and I got
    myself there by reaching down and strumming my thumb against her clit just as
    she was coming down, pushing her right back into a second wave of orgasm as her
    body clenched and I released.

    "Fuck," I growled,

    thrusting my hips forward and emptying my balls into her. "Fuck,
    Vanessa!"

    She arched her back, silently

    screaming before she exhaled hard and released the tension.

    We both lay there panting for

    a long moment.

    "I really want to fuck

    you again," I said. "Right now. I'm still hard as a rock for
    you."

    "I can feel that, you

    fucking caveman," Vanessa laughed, cock drunk for the moment. "But I
    need to clean up and you need to go."

    "One more thing," I

    said, and kissed her again.

    I got my clothes on first and

    then helped her find and put on her pants. She hadn't worn underwear when she
    had come to visit us the morning before when this whole thing kicked off, so
    now she was going to be leaking my cum into her jeans. Her shirt was there as well,
    but she was still hooked up to the IV, which meant I had to leave the room and
    send a nurse to help her.

    I stopped at the edge of the

    privacy curtain, looking back at her.

    "Go," she motioned

    to me. "I'm not leaving. You can see my tits any time you want."

    Maybe I was cunt drunk, but I

    wanted to tell her I loved her. I just grinned and blew her a kiss and a wink
    before slipping out. Once she couldn't see me, I shook my head. I thought
    orgasms were supposed to give you post-nut clarity, I thought. I almost
    blurted that out, and no matter how compatible we were sexually I knew that
    wasn't the right thing to say at the moment.

    I found the nurse, who went

    to help Vanessa, while another one brought me back to the elevator where I was
    met by the night sentry again. He brought me back up to the waiting room I'd
    been in before, and I flopped onto the couch.

    "Harri. Harri, we need

    to stop meeting like this," Miriam said, and I blinked awake again as she
    was standing over me and smirking.

    "Fuck," I grunted.

    "What time is it?"

    "Just past 0600,"

    she said. "We've got a couple of cars ready to drive you back home."

    "A couple?" I

    frowned.

    "Brent left earlier in

    his own vehicle," Miriam said. "But we're sending you back with two
    more partners for your friend Leo. I already spoke with Vanessa and she said
    she wanted to ride with them to try and help them stay calm through their
    vaccination."

    I closed my eyes again as I

    parsed what she was saying. "Okay, hold on. Leo is getting two new
    partners?"

    "From what I red they

    are a bisexual couple who wanted to stay together," Miriam said.

    I wiped the sleep from my

    eyes and sucked in a big breath through my nose. "Well, at least mine
    isn't the only RV that's going to be packed to the gills."

    Miriam brought me down to the

    underground garage for the building and handed my phone back to me. Two black
    SUV were idling, the windows all tinted to the point that I couldn't see a
    single thing inside including the drivers. I turned back to Miriam. "Just
    another day?" I asked her.

    "Hell no," she

    smirked. "You, Harrison Black, as the biggest pain in my ass since I took
    this posting." Then she pulled me into a hug. "But I wouldn't change
    a God damn thing about it. I'll see you once our on-site office is up and
    running."

    "I'm looking forward to

    it," I said, giving her a squeeze back. "Lieutenant Colonel."

    "That's Miriam to you,

    soldier," she said, pulling back with a smirk and kissing me on the cheek.

    The elevator bingled and I

    was shocked, or really mildly surprised, to see Agent Sourpuss leading two
    women bundled up in hooded jumpsuits with masks on. Sourpuss took one look at
    me and sneered, directing the two women to the front SUV and climbing in with
    them.

    "What was that

    about?" I asked.

    "Oh, she's pissed off

    because she keeps getting seconded to us for transportation detail,"
    Miriam said. "I have no idea why, but she isn't happy about it."

    "No; Technically I'm

    pretty sure that was my fault, actually. But I meant the whole bundled up get
    up."

    "First, why am I not

    surprised you're a pain in the ass for other people as well? And second, it's
    new protocols coming up from California and the first testing area. I guess
    there have been some questions around whether vaccinated but unbonded women
    could contract or become carriers for the virus. It's the latest back and forth
    between the scientists."

    "Speaking of

    which," I said. "I know why I don't need to be all bundled up, but
    why don't you? Are you imprinted on someone?"

    "Me? No," Miriam

    said. "Not yet, anyway. I'll do it when they push the order out, for now
    we're still technically in the testing phase for a bit longer. Everyone who
    leaves the building and re-enters without being vaccinated is getting blood
    tested and quarantined; it sucks, but it leaves us able to work functionally
    instead of talking to each other through hazmat suits."

    The elevator bingled again,

    and this time it was Vanessa who stepped out as a sentry gestured her towards
    the front SUV. She saw me immediately and veered off course, coming to me. I
    wrapped her up in a hug and noticed Miriam giving me a hard-to-read look.

    "Hey," I said to

    Vanessa. "I hear you're playing therapy animal for Leo's new
    partners."

    "They asked me to,"

    Vanessa said. "From what I understand, the nurses don't think the woman
    who is supposed to be doing it does a very good job at calming nerves."

    Miriam snorted a little but

    covered it with a cough, looking at me.

    "Well, I feel like I'm

    missing out on some more alone time with you, but I understand why," I
    said. "Do me a favor and try and feel them out a bit, see what they're
    like."

    "I will," she

    smirked and went on her tiptoes to give me a peck on the lips. "They're
    going to be our neighbors, after all."

    "Yes they are," I

    grinned and patted her butt. "See you at home?"

    "Fuck. Home,"

    Vanessa said, backing away from me. "I haven't had one of those in a
    while. It's gonna be weird."

    She turned and strode to the

    SUV and got in the back.

    "That one might be

    trouble," Miriam said.

    "They're all

    trouble," I laughed. "See you sooner than later?"

    "Sooner than

    later," she grinned and winked.

    I went to the back SUV, which

    was apparently my personal chauffeur for the sole reason that Agent Sourpuss
    couldn't find an ounce of empathy in her. Hopefully there's a partition
    between the front and the back, I thought. I can check those pictures
    Erica and Ivy were sending me.

    When I opened the back door

    of the SUV to get in I had to stop. "Ah," I said. "That explains
    a lot." I slid in and shut the door. "Agent Grierson."

    The craggy-faced Agent

    smirked and nodded. "Harrison. When I heard there was an anomalous
    vaccination issue, I decided to check it out and lo and behold, it's my
    favorite redneck."

    "Did you just come to

    check-in, or are you looking to offload some more government cash on me?"
    I asked.

    The SUVs started moving,

    pulling out of the garage and into downtown Portland.

    "Kid, you know I don't

    need to come to see you to check in," he said. "And I don't have the
    time to just come shoot the shit, no matter how much I'd enjoy a good fuckin'
    day off once in a while. I'm here to ask a favor."

    "Well now you're just

    being coy," I said. "You know that I know you didn't have to let that
    lease thing through instead of a flat purchase, so you've got me
    cornered."

    "Well, the good news is

    that I'm not asking you to do anything underhanded," Grierson said.
    "I noticed you've recently taken on a security consulting contract and
    your clearance has been restored. I'm going to open it up a little bit more
    here, if that's alright with you."

    "Playful, then coy, then

    asking my permission? Jesus fuck, what are you about to ask me to do?"

    "Alright, kid. Here's

    the deal," Grierson sighed. "Sometime in the next few days you're
    going to get a new partner delivered to you. What I need you to do is keep an
    eye on her. She's the daughter of the Ambassador from the Philippines, and
    officially we've run her through the Oracle matching system as a diplomatic
    courtesy. What no one else knows, including people in that building we just
    left, is that her Oracle results didn't matter. I'm placing her with you, and
    scattering a few other Filipino nationals in safe little corners of the
    country, as a deal with the NICA."

    "Wait, that's

    the..." I had to wrack my brain going back to my Military Police training.
    "Isn't that the CIA of the Philippines?"

    "A much lesser version,

    yes," Grierson said. "On the official unofficial paperwork, it's a
    spy deal. We're going to take care of some of their valuable people who are
    here, and they're going to take care of some of our valuable people who are
    over there. The unofficial unofficial deal is that we don't have anyone
    over there, and the government of the Philippines is going to let us stage our
    latest espionage attempts into China from their shores. There's a fucking
    information blackout coming out of China right now, and other than satellite
    images we've got nothing on what's going on in there."

    "Okay, hold on," I

    said. "So am I taking in this Ambassador's daughter as payment for the US
    Government?"

    "No, you're taking her

    in because Kyla Bautista is also secretly a spy who just graduated from the
    University of Southern California with a degree in dance, and while she was
    there we suspect she turned at least four different Professors and research
    assistants into assets for NICA for Intellectual Property espionage. I'm
    scooping her up and putting her with you because you're so far off the radar
    that no one would think you're keeping an eye on her, and so that the Chinese
    can't find her if they figure out what's going on and want some revenge. But
    most of all, I'm putting her with you because, despite your record and stupid
    career choices after you left the military, you have the mindset to keep an eye
    on her without her or anyone else knowing that's what's going on."

    "This is all well and

    good, Grierson," I said. "But I've got three women imprinted on me
    already, one of them by mistake. How the hell am I supposed to add a fourth
    woman into the mix?"

    Grierson snorted. "Kid,

    I got news for you. By this time next year, I'd bet all that money I just put
    into your bank account that you'll look back and think what a naive question
    that was."

    I sighed and shook my head

    slowly. "What does her father think of her getting matched off like that?
    Does he even know?"

    "Oh, he was pissed until

    he got cut in on an early vaccination as well for his wife, along with his
    long-time second in command who he's been having an affair with, and his
    additional American mistress who is very black and very formidable, neither of
    whom the wife knows about. He seems to think it'll be fine."

    "Jesus," I sighed,

    shaking my head. "So what, is the OGA offering to pay me for spy
    sitting?"

    "No," Grierson

    said. "But there is an upside."

    "What's that?"

    "Like I said, Kyla

    Bautista graduated with a degree in dance. If I wasn't too fucking busy being
    ethical, I'd have just put her in my house. The woman is something else."

    "That's gross," I

    said, my face twisting in mild disgust.

    "It's reality, kid. Game

    it out; people need to fuck to save their lives. Even before this shit show
    people put a value on beauty over pretty much anything else. What do you think
    it's going to be like when the entire country is getting matched up?"

    "I don't know," I

    sighed. "That's; I don't even want to think about it."

    "And that's why they pay

    me and my people the big bucks," Grierson said. He tapped on the glass
    partition that separated us from the front seat, and the SUV began to pull
    over. "I'm not asking you to do anything you wouldn't have anyways. Just
    keep an eye on her for me, alright?"

    "Fine," I said.

    "But if she takes one look at me and asks for someone else, I can't do
    anything about that. I'm not forcing some woman into this."

    "Won't be a

    problem," Grierson said. The SUV came to a stop, and he stepped out.

    "Grierson," I said,

    and he turned back. "Miriam said someone pulled some strings to get her
    assigned where she is. Was that you?"

    "What?" Grierson

    raised an eyebrow. "You think I like you that much, kid?"

    "That wasn't an answer,"

    I said.

    "Well, if it was me, I

    think maybe you owe me another one still," he said, then shut the door.
    Another car had pulled up behind us, which he got into, and it pulled a big
    U-turn in the middle of the empty street and drove back the way we'd come.

    The driver of my ride pulled

    back onto the street and sped up to catch the other SUV in our mini convoy, and
    I was left to my thoughts.

    I sighed and opened my phone.

    I didn't want to think about this Grierson thing. If it happened, then it
    happened and we'd deal with it. I went to my messages and opened the ones from
    Erica and Ivy.

    "Fucking hell," I

    sighed, looking at the lewd pictures and knowing that Miriam had seen them.
    "What am I going to do with three women?"

    Or four? Or more?

    I was going to need a bigger

    bed, and quickly.

    I stretched, feeling several

    somethings in my back and shoulders pop, as I got out of the back of the
    nondescript black SUV and felt the gravel of the construction site crunch under
    my boots. The place was bustling since we'd arrived mid-morning, and I saw more
    than a few of the workers taking looks over at me and starting to talk to each
    other. The rumor mill must have been burning hard since Vanessa had gotten
    carted off in a military helicopter and flown away.

    First things first, however,

    was to not unload two vaccinated-but-unbonded women into the middle of a
    construction site. I flashed a quick thumbs up through the passenger side
    window at whoever my driver had been; I'd never seen a face or heard a voice;
    and jogged up to the other vehicle and knocked on the passenger window.

    Agent Sourpuss rolled it down

    a moment later, scowling at me from the driver's seat. "What?"

    "I know you haven't been

    here for a bit," I said. "But if you drive around to the right over
    there you'll see our RVs and our little compound. Dropping the ladies off there
    would probably cause less of a, uh, scene."

    I could tell she wanted to

    argue with me but knew I was right. Instead of answering she just stabbed her
    finger down on the window button beside her and closed it in my face, then
    pulled the SUV around and headed in the direction I'd pointed. I walked along
    behind, and we rounded the second big bunkhouse building that was looking just
    about finished now and headed towards our compound.

    By the time Agent Sourpuss

    put the vehicle in park Erica and Ivy were already ducking out from behind the
    sheets hung between the corner of the RV and the storage container that we'd
    deemed the 'front door.' Leo and Danielle were right behind them.

    I wanted to go to my women,

    but I held myself back and instead opened the rear door of the SUV. Inside I
    saw that Vanessa was sitting in the middle row bucket seat, and I leaned in and
    kissed her quickly before offering her a hand down.

    "Don't go getting all

    chivalrous on me now, Harri," Vanessa grinned as she accepted my hand and
    swung out onto her feet. She looked back into the vehicle. "Come on,
    ladies. Leo's out here waiting for you."

    The two women, practically

    swimming in their baggy, hooded coveralls and masked up to boot, unbuckled and
    started climbing between the seats. I, however, was suddenly a little busy as I
    was hugged from behind by a small form that could only be Ivy. Beside me, Erica
    was pulling Vanessa into a hug as well.

    "I'm so sorry,

    hon," Erica said, squeezing the shorter woman tightly. "If I'd had
    any reasonable idea that this would happen,”

    "It's fine, Erica,"

    Vanessa said, squeezing her back and giving her a kiss on the cheek.
    "Seriously. We'll talk about it, but I'm Okay with it if you are."

    "Hey you," I said

    in the meanwhile, turning at the waist to wrap my arm around Ivy's shoulder and
    hug her to me.

    "Hello, mon amour,"

    Ivy sighed. "I missed you."

    "I missed you too,

    I’ve," I said, and leaned down and gave the short blonde a quick kiss. The
    first of the women had reached the door of the car, and Ivy let me go so that I
    could offer her a hand down. All I could see of her were her eyes and the skin
    around them; she was white but tanned heavily, and had soft grey eyes that were
    flicking around.

    "Let me help,

    miss," I said. She accepted, her gloved hand taking mine for a moment to
    step down, and I ushered her directly towards Leo and Dani. "This is Leo,
    and his better half Danielle."

    "Hey," Leo scolded

    me playfully, giving me a little punch on the arm as he grinned.

    "Hey, hon," Dani

    said, pulling the woman into a hug that seemed to surprise her.

    I turned back and Erica was

    helping the next woman down; she was white and paler than the first, and had
    dark green eyes. Soon she was getting the same hugging welcome as the first
    from Dani, as Leo looked both a little bashful and a little excited.

    "How about we head in

    and talk?" Erica suggested to everyone. "Ladies, Leo is my brother so
    I might be biased, but you're in good hands. And if he ends up sucking, then
    Dani's got you."

    "Hell yeah I do,"

    Dani chuckled, nudging Leo with an elbow.

    "I wouldn't mind getting

    handled by either of you," the tan woman said through her mask. "God
    damn, girl. Your tits don't quit."

    "Thanks for

    noticing," Dani grinned and winked. She took both women by the hand and
    started leading them into the compound. "Come on, let's get you two fucked
    and settled."

    "Now that's one hell of

    a welcome offer," the other woman laughed.

    I laughed a little too,

    hearing the two as Leo quickly jogged ahead to hold the fabric door open for
    them.

    "Seriously, those two

    are gonna be something else," Vanessa said, shaking her head.

    "You got to talk with

    them?" Erica asked.

    "The whole ride

    here," Vanessa said. "Their names are Aria and India. Aria seems a
    little sweeter and the more rational one, while India is a hippy kid from hippy
    parents. They said they've been girlfriends for three years, and up until last
    year they 'worked' as sugar babies while Aria was finishing up her master's of
    communications."

    "Jesus," Erica

    sighed with a rueful smirk. "They're going to eat Leo alive."

    "Can one of you shut the

    goddamn door, please?" Agent Sourpuss called from inside the vehicle.

    "Nice seeing you again

    too, Agent," I said, and slammed the door. As she pulled away I turned to
    my girls. My three girls. "Vanessa, I'm not sure what you need to
    do now?"

    She sighed. "Well, I'm

    going to need to get my stuff from the motel, and catch up with my Dad. Last I
    talked to him he was still pissed but is happy I'm alright. Getting back to
    work will probably make him accept it all faster."

    "You're going to live

    with us for sure?" Ivy asked, reaching over and taking Vanessa's hand in
    hers as she flashed one of her patented naughty grins.

    "I am," Vanessa

    laughed and pulled the blonde into a quick hug, Ivy nuzzling her cheek against
    Vanessa's chest with a happy smile. "But, maybe let's take this
    conversation inside? There are about a hundred eyes staring at us right
    now."

    I glanced over my shoulder

    and saw easily two dozen construction workers all lurch into motion at once,
    trying not to get caught staring. Another two dozen didn't even bother and kept
    watching. "Good idea," I said. "Ladies?" I gestured towards
    the RVs.

    Inside our compound I quickly

    rearranged the chairs so that the three good ones, and one of the lesser lawn
    chairs, were arranged in a square for us to sit while Erica and Ivy went into
    the RV to grab the breakfast they'd prepared for us. Vanessa and I had both
    texted ahead to let them know we were on our way, and soon the four of us were
    sitting under the midmorning sun while my latest partner and I shoveled our
    faces with eggs, bacon and toast.

    Vanessa and I had just

    started filling Erica and Ivy in on how things had gone at the Testing facility
    when we were interrupted by a very loud, very long moan from inside Leo's RV.

    "Think that was a primer

    or an imprinting?" Erica smirked.

    A second moan, higher pitch

    and shorter but just as loud, followed the first.

    "Definitely la

    première," Ivy giggled.

    So Vanessa and I told our

    parts of the story, trying our best not to get interrupted by the occasional
    shriek, laugh or moan coming from the nearby RV.

    "You know, I think

    Miriam has a crush on you," Erica interrupted me as I mentioned our quick
    goodbye.

    "I said the same

    thing!" Vanessa said.

    "Me too," Ivy said.

    "You three don't get

    it," I said, shaking my head. "Miriam and I are friends. Distant
    ones, since we've barely seen each other in years."

    "Distance makes the

    heart grow fonder," Erica said.

    "And the fantasies stronger,"

    Vanessa nodded. "I know late at night on a long stretch of shifts on site,
    I liked my high school boyfriend a hell of a lot better than I ever did when we
    were together."

    That got Erica and Ivy

    laughing, and I just shook my head until the sound of the RV door opening had
    us all turning. Dani stepped out dressed in just a bikini top and daisy duke
    jean shorts and was wiping her mouth in a way that said there was definitely
    something that had just been on her lips.

    "Those two are hot as

    hell," she said, coming over and leaning her hip against Erica's chair.
    "I mean seriously, the tits on both of them." She held her hands out
    larger than her own impressive cleavage. "Leo passed out right in between
    them."

    "I think we're going to

    need to get Leo to make us some more good deck chairs," Erica said.
    "Soon we're going to have a whole pool worth of hot babes tanning out
    here."

    "Speaking of

    which," Vanessa said, leaning forward and taking my hand in hers.
    "Mind if we talk for a minute?"

    "Sure," I said.

    "Dani, I'm sure Erica and Ivy can fill you in."

    "Sounds good," she

    grinned and winked, slipping into the chair Vanessa had vacated and leaning
    back.

    Vanessa and I headed into my

    RV, or rather our RV, and she hesitated looking at the bench where just
    yesterday we'd had our fateful foursome that had tied her to us. Instead of
    sitting, she grabbed my hand and pulled me deeper into the RV, back into the
    bedroom.

    She turned, practically in my

    arms, and pulled both of her shirts over her head so that she was topless and
    then grabbed my collar and pulled me into a kiss. I responded happily, wrapping
    my arms around her and inhaling through my nose, smelling everything about her,
    as our tongues dueled.

    "Fuck me?" she

    asked as our kiss broke apart.

    "How do you want

    it?" I asked her.

    "Quick," she said,

    then hesitated and smirked a little. "And hard. Please."

    I picked her up and tossed

    her on the bed much like I did Ivy, then pulled her jeans off of her just rough
    enough for her to know I was insistent. Once she was naked, I tore off my own
    clothes and pulled her to the edge of the bed by her legs and felt between them
    with my fingers.

    "You're already

    wet," I noted casually.

    "I did say quick and

    hard," she pointed out.

    I spread her legs and entered

    her. We both gasped, and soon I was pounding her as I leaned down over her, my
    arms wrapped around her body as she clung to my shoulders. We panted together,
    her rolling her hips to meet my thrusts, driving each other towards our mutual
    orgasm.

    It was fast and efficient.

    Neither of us got particularly dirty with our words. I didn't get creative. She
    wanted a quick fuck and a hard pounding, and that's what we did. I'd perfected
    that practice with Erica and Ivy over the last few weeks when we were stealing
    a quickie out in the woods.

    Once I was spent, my cum

    plastering the insides of her cunt, I collapsed on the bed next to her and
    rolled her onto her side so that I could spoon her from behind.

    "Fuck," she sighed,

    a little more agitated than I'd expected.

    "What's up?" I

    asked.

    "This feels as good as I

    was worried it would," she said.

    "Okay, that needs an

    explanation," I said. My one arm was curled under both our heads since we
    hadn't even made it up the bed far enough to reach pillows, our feet dangling
    off the end, while I placed my other hand spread wide on her stomach and felt
    her breathing through the movement of her diaphragm.

    We were quiet for a long

    moment as I let her think about how she wanted to say whatever she was
    thinking. Finally she sighed again and placed her hand over mine on her
    stomach. "I need you to know something, Harri. And I don't want you to
    think it's a commentary about you. Don't... take it personally, Okay?"

    "I hear you," I

    said. "But I can't exactly promise that without knowing what it is."

    "My view of relationships

    and; well, and marriage, is kind of skewed," Vanessa said. "I don't
    really believe in them, per se. I think they can be nice for a while,
    sure. But they can be bad, too. They can be really fucking hurtful, especially
    if you think they're good first. It happened to my Dad and Mom. It happened to
    my older brother Derrick and his first wife. So, the thing is... Harri, Alike
    you, right? Like, obviously that's true. But I don't know if I'm ever going to
    love you like Erica and Ivy do."

    "Ivy and I aren't in

    love," I said, and then realized I'd focused on entirely the wrong part of
    what she'd just said.

    "Are you kidding

    me?" Vanessa chuckled. "That girl is smitten with you. You're
    everything she could ever want, you don't judge her for her past but also
    aren't an obsessed and pervy strip club customer. You provide, you care. You're
    tough."

    "That's not love,

    Vanessa," I said. "That's infatuation and lust. Love takes
    time."

    "She literally calls you

    'mon amour.' That means 'my love,'" Vanessa pointed out.

    "It's also just an

    affectation for someone you're with," I pointed out. "I could call
    you 'my love' casually and it would be the same thing."

    "Yeah, it would be the

    same thing, but that's because you'd say it in the same earnest way she does
    and not because you think it would be casual," Vanessa said. "And I
    need you to know, I don't think we'll ever be like that. I'll never be the
    Girlfriend. I'll never be the Wife. Okay?"

    "Okay," I said

    lightly.

    "Really?" she

    asked, half-turning to look over her shoulder so she could see my expression.
    "Just like that?"

    "Vee, did I ask you to

    be those things?" I asked. "I mean, seriously. You are who you are.
    And now you're tied to us by sex, but that doesn't mean you need to invest your
    heart in us if you don't want to. You're your own person."

    She softened a little in my

    arms as she let the tension leak out of her. "Okay," she nodded.
    "Then let's do this. I'll be the horny, sex-hungry bi-curious roommate to
    your threesome."

    "Um, first, bi-curious?

    Really? After all that?" I gestured to the front of the RV, and she
    flushed a little and smiled. "Second, we never got to the end of the story
    out there. Turns out it's not just going to be the four of us..."

    Vanessa ended up taking a nap

    in bed after we snuggled a bit longer. Well, also after she scoffed at the
    ridiculousness that I was getting a fourth woman assigned to me.

    I didn't tell her about the

    deal with Agent Grierson, and I had to tell myself it wasn't because I was a
    little hurt by her. Sure, I'd fronted that I was fine with her not knowing if
    she could, or would, love me, but it still fucking hurt. Especially knowing
    that not even twelve hours earlier I'd almost blurted it out to her myself.
    God, that would have ended badly, I thought.

    Leaving her in the RV, I went

    back outside and joined the women at the chairs. They all gave me little
    teasing smiles, knowing just what had been going on. Leo eventually joined us,
    and I took the opportunity to let them all know that we were going to have
    another vaccine partner joining us. Ivy, being her bubbly and horny self, of
    course was excited by the potential of another person to play with. Leo just
    laughed, shaking his head at the idea that I had to stay one partner ahead of
    him. Dani asked if I knew who it was, and I told her I didn't.

    Erica knew I was lying. I

    don't know how she knew, but I saw the look on her face for a brief moment. I
    had two options; fess up right there with everyone, or tell her later. Keeping
    the full secret from her didn't even cross my mind. Not when she saw it was
    sitting there.

    Technically I barely had the

    clearance to know what I knew. Erica definitely didn't. But still, I
    couldn't keep it from her.

    Eventually, as the morning

    wore on and Leo decided to fire up the grill to make some lunch, Erica mentioned
    that I hadn't done a tour of the property in the last few days and that she'd
    go on an ATV ride with me.

    "You just want some

    Harrison alone time," Ivy laughed, poking Erica in the side. "And
    Vanessa is hogging the bed."

    "Can you blame

    her?" Dani asked. "Cause I'm sure I'll be hearing you moaning
    like the butt-slut you are sooner than later today."

    "I am not a

    butt-slut," Ivy said. "I am Harrison's pute anale."

    "And what exactly does

    that mean?"

    "Anal whore," Ivy

    giggled. "But the important part is Harrison."

    Sometimes I ended up blushing

    just hanging around the compound and not even participating in the
    conversation.

    I agreed with Erica that I

    should do a quick tour, and soon we were both appropriately dressed and I was
    kick starting the ATV. Sometimes on rides like these Erica would ride the other
    one, but this time she hopped up behind me and hugged herself close.

    The tour, if we didn't stop,

    would have taken about forty-five minutes last month to drive around all the
    major accessible trails. With the tree-clearing crews working overtime that was
    already cutting the time way down to reach the far corners of the property and
    we ended up deep into the west side after about fifteen minutes. Erica squeezed
    my side slightly as we were passing by one of the smaller trails, and I nodded
    and turned down it heading towards a grove of trees that we'd used for some
    privacy in the last couple of weeks.

    "Alright, hon," she

    said as I parked the ATV and keyed it off. "What's the deal?"

    I carefully dismounted from

    the ATV without kicking her, then stood beside it and put one foot up so I
    could look her in the eye. "I'm not supposed to tell you this," I
    said.

    "Not supposed to, or not

    allowed to?" Erica asked.

    "Both," I shrugged.

    "But I'm not keeping secrets from you."

    She leaned forward and kissed

    me. We were surrounded by trees, and out here where the crews hadn't reached
    yet it felt like we were back a month ago surrounded by the calm of the forest.
    Except we were also together now.

    I really hoped I could get

    that feeling back in the future.

    "The new woman coming in

    tomorrow wasn't just lined up with us through the system," I told Erica.
    "Agent Grierson set it up and asked me to keep an eye on her. She's...
    well, she's technically a spy."

    "Like 'James Bond,

    license to kill' sort of stuff?" Erica asked.

    "I don't... think

    so?" I hedged. "She's Filipina, and the daughter of their Ambassador
    here in the States. Apparently she was working for their version of the CIA
    setting up professors while she was in University. Stealing academic research
    stuff, I assume. So probably not 'license to kill.'"

    Erica pursed her lips,

    frowning. "And you agreed to this?"

    "I couldn't really say

    no," I sighed. "Grierson's done us a couple of favors already. The
    land lease is just the first."

    "What was the

    second?"

    "Miriam getting assigned

    to the project," I said. "She was supposed to be doing something
    else, but mentioned she got reassigned and I put it together that it was him.
    He didn't admit it, but he definitely inferred he had that kind of pull."

    "So what are we going to

    do?" Erica asked. "We don't know anything about her. What if she
    doesn't mesh with the rest of us?"

    "I don't know," I

    shrugged. "I don't get how we've been so lucky so far, honestly. You and
    me and Leo, sure. Makes sense. Adding Dani to the mix? Okay, she fit in well.
    But Ivy working out like she has, and now Vanessa? What are the chances?"

    "And now we've got Leo's

    new partners to figure out, plus this chick," Erica sighed. "Do you
    know anything else about her?"

    "Um, her name is Kyla

    B-something," I said. "And she recently graduated from a dance
    program at one of the colleges down south. I missed some of the smaller details
    considering the topic of conversation and how tired I was."

    "She graduated from a

    University dance program?" Erica raised an eyebrow. "And was doing
    CIA spy shit to steal from professors? You realize she's probably going to be
    ridiculously hot, right?"

    "I don't think that

    matters," I chuckled. "Though Grierson did mention I'd be thanking
    him."

    "Pervy old man,"

    Erica smirked. "Think she's bi?"

    "Oh, so now you want to

    sleep with the potentially dangerous, sexy spy lady?"

    Erica scoffed. "Of

    course I do."

    I kissed her again, and soon

    she was stepping off the ATV. We fucked standing, with her back to a tree, and
    she had me finish inside of her. The first one of the day with Erica always
    went there, then it was any guess where she'd ask for the next one to go.

    "So we just be a little

    careful," Erica said as she pulled up her panties.

    "Hmm?" I asked,

    buckling my belt.

    "With the spy," she

    clarified. "We treat her like we would anyone else. Like we did Ivy. We
    sit her down and talk to her to make sure she knows what the vaccine is all
    about, and what she should expect and what she likes. She's not some political
    prisoner or something, right? So she's choosing this to some degree just like
    anyone else."

    "Anyone but

    Vanessa," I sighed.

    Erica came over to rub my

    back. "Did you two get to talk, or did you just fuck?"

    "Talk," I said,

    then smirked. "After fucking. She's fine with everything. Happy about it,
    kind of. She just doesn't want to consider us in a 'relationship' or anything.
    More like a fuck buddy roommate."

    Erica snorted softly.

    "Yeah, Okay. Whatever label she wants to put on it. She'll still be
    sleeping in our bed."

    We finished the tour and

    returned to the compound. Vanessa was up and around, and as we all ate lunch
    together we came up with a plan for the afternoon. She needed to head to the
    motel to get her things, as well as check in with her father to let him know
    she could start work again tomorrow. We were also running low on food,
    especially with three more mouths to feed and another scheduled to arrive
    (though technically, I pointed out, we'd been feeding Vanessa half her meals
    anyways between breakfasts and some lunches so it was more like three and a
    half more mouths). I shot a text over to Mrs. Branston that we'd be coming by
    for our egg pickup, then down to Mason Fuller who ran the local butcher shop to
    ask what he had in stock. He'd set up a system that he'd text us what he had
    available and as long as we gave him twenty minutes he could have our order
    wrapped in paper and ready to set outside on a picnic table when we pulled up,
    and we'd Venmo him our payment.

    Fruits and veggies and other

    staples were harder to manage. There weren't any bakeries in the area, at least
    not that I'd ever made a relationship with, and I didn't know any actual
    farmers. That meant we'd be doing the Bundle Up routine to brave the supermarket.

    After lunch we went about

    getting ourselves ready. We were going to take my truck so that we could haul
    Vanessa's luggage and the meat and groceries in the bed. Dani decided she
    wanted to get off the property as she hadn't had the chance to since arriving,
    so Erica gave up her usual spot, which meant Vanessa was going to be riding
    bitch in the small back seat of my truck cab since she was shorter than the
    Australian.

    We bundled up. I was back in

    a thick hooded sweater with work gloves and snow goggles. I used the medical
    mask that the Air Force guys had given me and put a bandana over it for good
    measure. Dani and Vanessa had to borrow from Erica since neither of them had
    much to work with; Vanessa since we were going to get her stuff, and Dani because
    she had one piece of luggage worth of belongings since she'd been planning to
    just travel down the west coast stripping before the pandemic. She still had a
    condo full of her belongings back home, but there was no way of knowing when
    she could ever get access to it. Or go back, if she even wanted to.

    So Erica's heavy winter

    clothing got divided between Dani and Vanessa, and we loaded into my truck.
    First stop, the motel.

    Vanessa gave me directions

    based solely on her memory of the daily drive. The place was about thirty
    minutes down the highway, and as we pulled in we were waved down by a couple of
    soldiers in national guard uniforms. They were masked, and they stood about six
    feet back from the truck as I lowered the window.

    "This location is

    restricted access," one shouted. "You need to go somewhere
    else."

    "We're here to see Brent

    Peters," I said, muffled by my own mask.

    "We don't have anyone on

    the schedule," the guardsman said. "You'll need to make an
    appointment."

    "Can you get him on that

    radio?" Vanessa asked, leaning over from the back seat to look out the
    window and pointing at a two-way on the guard's belt. "Just tell him his
    daughter is here."

    The two guards glanced at

    each other, and then one visibly sighed and walked a few steps away to use the
    radio. He very quickly turned back and waved us into the parking lot. Vanessa
    directed us to park near the front end; she had a room on the second floor
    directly above the one being used by her father as an office. The door to that
    one burst open as I put the truck in park, and the big form of Brent Peters
    loomed in the doorway.

    "You should probably

    wait here and let me talk to him again," Vanessa said.

    I sighed. "Alright. I do

    need to talk to him eventually though."

    "Sure," Vanessa

    said as Dani slipped out of the truck and moved her seat to let Vanessa out.
    "I'm sure he'll calm down sometime in the next decade."

    I watched Vanessa approach

    her father, and I guessed she explained she hadn't been anywhere other than the
    site yet so she wasn't compromised because Brent pulled her into a hug and then
    ushered her inside his office.

    Dani climbed back into the

    truck and shut the door, leaning back on it as she lowered the gaiter she was
    using as a mask and looked at me. "So, " she said. "You've had a
    long couple days. How are you doing, Harri?"

    "Honestly?" I asked

    her rhetorically. "I'm feeling stretched a little thin."

    "I can't blame

    you," Dani said. "I mean, Erica is a rock and Ivy is more concerned
    with your cock than anything else at the moment, but two girlfriends are still
    a lot to worry about. Now you're adding Vanessa, plus this new girl? You need
    to start guarding your heart a bit, big fella. I don't want to see you burning
    out."

    "Heh, maybe," I

    sighed. "What about you, though? You had Leo all to yourself, now there
    are two more women in his bed."

    "A couple," Dani

    pointed out. "They'll be with each other more than him. And Leo is my guy,
    obviously. And I know he's good for me. He's just not my usual type. I love him
    to death but I don't know if I'm in love with him yet, or if I ever will
    be."

    I blinked in surprise.

    "That's kind of close to something Vanessa said to me," I admitted.
    "Not the type thing, but about love."

    "Really?" Dani

    asked. "Well, I guess you two were more friendly than flirty before now,
    so that kind of makes sense."

    "I can live with

    friends," I said.

    "With benefits,"

    Dani smirked.

    "That too," I

    laughed.

    Vanessa spent about fifteen

    minutes in the room, and Dani and I swapped to listening to the radio and
    talking about music as we waited. At one point there was some shouting from the
    motel room, and I had my seatbelt off and was half out the door before Dani
    caught my arm and reminded me Brent was her father, not just her boss.

    When Vanessa eventually

    emerged, she waved us to follow her as she moved towards the stairs. We
    followed her up to the second story and she was a fast whirlwind of stuffing
    her things into her bags. Soon I was carrying her two big pieces of luggage
    with all her clothes and toiletries, while Dani was carrying her backpack with
    electronics and a dog-eared copy of the Fellowship of the Ring that I had
    noticed on the bedside table. Vanessa handled her big toolbox, which rattled as
    she deftly hauled it down the stairs and into the back of my truck. I slammed
    the gate of the truck closed, hopped into the cab with them, and we were out of
    there less than twenty minutes after we'd arrived at the motel.

    "How'd the talk

    go?" I asked as I pulled back out onto the highway, giving the guards a
    nod on our way by.

    "He thought for sure I

    would still be living at the motel," Vanessa said. "He's also pissed
    because I reminded him I'll be living with you for the foreseeable future,
    which means if he fucks with your house he's fucking me over as much as you. He
    got himself worked up again in the middle of talking about work, and I had to
    remind him that I'd gone to you for sex, not the other way around. That shut
    him up."

    " Hmm hmm," Dani

    hummed her laugh. "Pops doesn't like thinking of his little girl as a
    sexual being."

    "Something like

    that," Vanessa said, and I could hear the eye roll in her tone of voice.

    Based on the direction we

    were coming from, it was going to be easiest for us to stop at Fuller's for our
    meat order, then the grocery store, and we'd end our little tour of the area by
    visiting Mrs. Branston for our egg hook up. I passed my phone back to Vanessa,
    unlocking it with my thumb. "Tell me what Mason Fuller sent me," I
    said.

    "You're trusting me with

    your phone?" Vanessa asked.

    "Why wouldn't I?"

    "I don't know. Usually

    guys are protective of this kind of stuff," Vanessa said.

    "You're forgetting that

    Harri is Harri," Dani said.

    "Oh," Vanessa said.

    "Right."

    I waited for one of them to

    explain, but apparently they both knew what that meant. "Someone want to
    clarify that for me?" I asked.

    "I just mean that you're

    you," Dani said. "You're... well, you're not straight-laced, but you
    might as well be. Most guys would be worried about someone he was with seeing
    his dating apps or private messages. Leo doesn't like me using his phone
    because he's embarrassed by the porn he follows on his Reddit account. But you
    don't exactly strike me as a porn kind of guy, or a dating app or Instagram
    guy."

    "And even if you were,

    you'd probably be smart enough to delete your history," Vanessa filled in.
    "And you would have deleted all your apps when you finally hooked up with
    Erica anyways. Fuller says he's got his usual pork offerings, as much ground
    beef as we want, a half dozen full chickens, and a handful of something he's
    calling a London Broil."

    "Text him back that

    we'll take four pounds of the ground beef; actually, make it five. Four of the
    chickens and all the London broils, plus two dozen sausages, ten pork chops and
    a couple of big tenderloins." I decided to ignore all the talk about why
    my phone was accessible. Especially the part about Leo's interests hidden on
    his own phone.

    "Jesus," Vanessa

    muttered. "That's going to be a big grocery bill."

    "Well, if the new girl

    shows up tomorrow there's going to be nine of us to feed," I said.
    "It's a good fuckin' thing my bank account sprouted a few extra zeros on
    the end recently or else you'd all be eating me out of house and home."

    Mason Fuller had the order

    ready when we pulled up and he stood in the door to his little shop as I hopped
    out of the truck and went to gather the two big paper bags that held the
    paper-wrapped meat. "Don't tell me you're hosting a cookout in times like
    these, Harri," he called to me.

    "Nope," I said.

    "Honestly, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

    "Try me," he said.

    I thumbed back towards the

    truck. "I'm picking up strays."

    Mason chuckled when he saw

    Dani and Vanessa waving from inside my truck. "Where'd you find
    them?"

    "Would you believe the

    government sent me them?" I asked.

    "You're right, I don't

    believe you," Mason said. "Wanna try again?"

    I shrugged. "Maybe next

    week, buddy. Let me know if you get anything interesting in. I've got mouths to
    feed and variety is the spice of life."

    Mason waved me off, and when

    I got back in the truck I Venmo'd him the hefty price on the receipt he'd
    stapled to one bag. I don't think I'd ever paid that much on a grocery bill in
    my life, and that was just the meat for the next week.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 13 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 5

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 5
    Lab work.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     

    Time went quickly, but also

    seemed to go nowhere at all; only three days after the final demise of the
    house we'd moved the RVs four times and I decided we needed to figure out
    something at least semi-permanent. Even a week in the same spot would be
    preferable to constant movement. The space where my house had stood was now
    full of stacks and pallets of supplies, and Vanessa had a crew of almost two
    dozen of her 'gorillas' working to erect what would become the first of a dozen
    temporary bunkhouses for the incoming construction workers. She still seemed to
    be the only foreman on site, so I went looking for Vanessa.

    I found her at the water

    truck, splashing some water onto the back of her neck as she took a quick
    break. It had turned even hotter over the week, spring slipping fully into
    summer, and we were all starting to boil when we were outside. I'd quickly
    abandoned the feeling of needing to 'dress up' for everyone and I was down to
    athletic shorts and one of my sleeveless workout shirts; one of the few that
    were still 'mine' considering both Erica and Ivy had taken to wearing them as
    well. Vanessa was the boss however and had to set the example for the rest of
    the crew, so she was still wearing the jeans, long-sleeved t-shirt and her
    reflective vest of a dutiful construction foreman.

    "Hey, got a

    second?" I asked.

    "Oh, hey Harrison,"

    she said, looking up as she continued splashing water onto the back of her
    neck. "Sorry I haven't come to check with you and the girls today, we had
    three more loads this morning of barracks pilings I had to get sorted, and the
    fucking surveyors are still bitching about not knowing where the sewage lines
    are going to come onto the property, as if I can fucking answer that question
    for them or something."

    "When's your Dad

    supposed to finally get on site?" I asked. Her father was supposed to be
    the General Manager of the entire construction project, but so far I had yet to
    have seen him.

    "Fuck, a few days still

    at least," Vanessa sighed. "I'm getting tired as shit of the phone
    tag."

    "Well, sorry if this is

    a big ask and causes you more headaches; any chance we could project ahead a
    bit and figure out where we can stash the RVs and everything where we're not
    going to need to move them for a while? Moving everything around is annoying by
    itself, but I've also noticed some of your guys are spending a lot of time
    wandering by the RVs whenever the girls are outside."

    "Fucking gorillas,"

    Vanessa grunted and grimaced. "I mean, on the one hand, I get it; they are
    either cooped up in the motel or here working. I'm not exactly thrilled with
    the situation either. But they could keep it in their fucking pants too, ya
    know?"

    "Look, if we can find a

    spot, the way I see it we can use the RVs and Containers to set up a yard for
    us that's blocked from view. Then we can have some privacy and not feel cooped
    up in the RVs, and your guys aren't tempted to let their eyes wander," I
    said. "I figure it's a win-win."

    Vanessa smiled and patted my

    arm. "Harri, as long as you keep the fucking indoors, I'll see what I can
    do about getting you guys some more privacy."

    "What do you mean?"

    I asked, suddenly a little worried that Erica and I might have gotten caught at
    the Willow tree after all, or that maybe a surveyor had wandered up near the
    Spring without us hearing.

    "Nothing, nothing,"

    Vanessa said. "I just; you know we can see the RVs rocking a bit, right?
    And I don't know who it is, but someone over in your camp is a screamer. We can
    hear her when she really gets going. Once the guys even gave you a standing
    ovation."

    "Fuck," I coughed,

    shaking my head. "I'm sorry. I think it's something to do with the
    vaccine. I've had more sex in the last four days than I have in the last four
    years. Honestly, I don't even know how I'm doing it; I ain't old, but I'm not a
    teenager either."

    "Well, god bless the

    vaccine I guess," Vanessa smirked. "And good for you. Just do me a
    favor and keep it inside the RVs 'till we can get you that privacy. We don't
    need the entire site shutting down to listen to you fucking your girlfriends."

    I shook my head again with a

    self-deprecating smirk. "Um, deal. I hope."

    That made Vanessa chuckle,

    and we parted ways for the afternoon.

    The next day, she came back

    in the morning and explained the plan she had worked out with the Surveyors and
    one of the tree-clearing crews. By mid-afternoon, a new swathe of the back end
    of the hill was bare of trees, and a bulldozer scooped dirt into the holes left
    by ripped-up stumps. By the time Vanessa left that evening, two of the storage
    containers had been shifted around by the 'gorillas' and positioned in an
    L-shape for us in the new location, and Leo and I moved the RVs to form the
    other two sides of a square.

    When Vanessa came by the next

    morning we'd hung up some old, heavy blankets at the corners to maximize our
    privacy, busted out the lawn chairs and barbecue, and were on our way to
    turning the space into an outdoor living room. Leo and I even went so far as to
    rig up an old bell we'd salvaged from the barn on a wooden post with a metal
    knocker on a string to serve as a doorbell.

    Erica was the one to answer

    Vanessa's ring of the bell, and she swept aside the blanket curtain.
    "Welcome to Casa de Black," she declared.

    "Jesus," Vanessa

    said, walking into our new home base. "You guys didn't want to wait, did
    you?"

    "Why would we?" Leo

    asked. "We don't know how long we're going to be living like this, so
    might as well make the most of it." Leo had decided to make one last
    addition to our current set-up, and had pulled a loose slab of wood from the
    container holding all his tools and was carving 'Speak Friend and Enter' into
    it the makeshift sign with his handheld angle grinder. He'd already been
    talking about using his torch to burn the wood before giving it a clear lacquer
    coat.

    "What can we do for you,

    Vanessa?" I asked. "Need some breakfast?"

    "Actually?" Vanessa

    chewed on the inside of her cheek for a second and peeked back outside the
    yard. "Breakfast would be fucking great. They're feeding us at the motel,
    but it's been the same instant oatmeal every fucking morning."

    "Well, we've yet to have

    our egg hookup dry out on us," I said. Old Mrs. Branston lived about
    fifteen minutes down the highway and had been selling eggs to three generations
    of my family; through the pandemic and quarantine we'd set up a system where I
    called ahead and she dropped off two dozen eggs at the end of her driveway, and
    I left a ten dollar bill in her mailbox. "How do you like them? I think
    I'm getting pretty good at using the grill with a frying pan."

    We hosted Vanessa for about

    fifteen minutes as I fried her up some over-easy eggs and some toast to go with
    it, and she started devouring the first two so quickly that I put another two
    in the pan for her immediately. While I cooked, she shared the most recent
    gossip running through the construction crews.

    "So the latest group to

    come in said they got tested four times before even leaving the
    airport," she said around a mouthful. "They were basically flown into
    Portland, put in little hygienic pods inside the terminals until they'd tested
    negative all four times, then escorted to military transports. I guess the army
    is our taxi service or something, and there are members of the national guard
    currently standing watch at all of the motels. It's kind of fucked up and feels
    like a prison, honestly. We're not even supposed to mingle outside with each
    other, despite the fact that we all work together here all day."

    "Who's feeding you

    all?" Danielle asked. "Just the people already working out there
    seems like a lot."

    "Some catering service

    is making these prepackaged meals," Vanessa said. "The breakfasts are
    shit, and the lunches are whatever. The dinners are Okay though; microwavable,
    and waiting for us when we get off shift."

    "Have you heard anything

    else out there about the vaccine?" I asked.

    "Hmm-Hmm," Vanessa

    shook her head. "But I mean, I spend my time working."

    "I'm still not seeing

    much online," Leo said. "Little whispers on social media, but then it
    disappears before it gets going."

    "That's kinda fucked

    up," Erica said. "We know it's real. The government must be censoring
    the information or something.

    "Well, whenever it

    happens, I don't know what I'll do," Vanessa sighed. "I like working
    too much, being my own woman. I bring in more cash in a year than almost every
    other person I graduated high school with, I've been doing it for years, and I
    don't have any debts. I can't just get tied down to some guy."

    "You would be surprised,

    Vanessa," Ivy spoke up. "I am this way too, no? I left home to make
    my way, and I am happy doing it. But now I am happy here, and am also safe from
    the sickness. It is not how I saw my life going, but c'est la vie, non?"

    Vanessa shrugged, and we

    moved on to some other topics until her radio squawked and she had to run off
    back to her work.

    By lunchtime I'd already done

    another two quick guides into the hills for the surveyors and Leo had gotten
    his nerd-sign carved out and torched, and he was spray lacquering it outside
    the yard with a facemask and safety goggles on to cut the strong fumes. He
    stopped the sprayer when he saw me approaching and stepped away from the sign.
    "Hey, you able to help me out with hanging this tonight?" he asked
    me.

    "Of course," I

    said. "I gotta help you fly your nerd flag somehow."

    "Yeah, says the guy with

    the Lord of the Rings concept art cycling as his desktop screen," Leo
    rolled his eyes.

    "It's for my work,"

    I said. "Top-notch inspiration." And then I realized I hadn't opened
    my laptop in days; not since I'd finished the questionnaire that had led to
    Erica choosing me. And Ivy for that matter. I hadn't checked emails, I hadn't
    reached out to contacts. Fuck, I hadn't even sent in my last work-for-hire
    backgrounds.

    "Whatever," Leo

    laughed and punched me in the arm. "Look, when you go in there, just know
    it wasn't my idea, Okay? I only helped them move the stuff."

    "What does that

    mean?" I asked.

    "You'll see," Leo

    said cryptically.

    I ducked through the blanket

    door and immediately saw what Leo was talking about. Space had been cleared in
    the center of our sheltered yard for three of the heavy Adirondack deck chairs,
    and laying in those chairs were Danielle, Erica and Ivy. Each of them was
    wearing a bikini and were glistening with sunscreen and sweat from the sun as
    they tanned. They had a Bluetooth speaker playing songs from their phones; I suspected
    Erica was trying to convince the younger two women of the virtues of mid-2000s
    pop punk.

    "Oh, good," Erica

    said, grinning as she saw me coming into the yard. She lifted her glass.
    "Um, excuse me, waiter? We could use a top-up, please."

    I snorted and shook my head,

    walking over. All three of the women were in two-piece swimsuits, though I
    suspected Danielle and Ivy's were possibly part of their stripping gear rather
    than actual bikinis. Both of their suits were more string than fabric and left
    little to the imagination. Erica's was a bit more conservative, though really
    not by that much because of her swathe of cleavage. "What are we drinking
    today, ladies?" I asked.

    "I made up a pitcher of

    sangria," Erica said. "It's in the fridge in our place. You would be
    the absolute love of my life if you were to go get it for us, please?"

    "I thought I already was

    the love of your life?" I asked with a smile.

    "You are," Erica

    smiled back. "But this will get you to the front of the line for my next
    life, too. How about that?"

    "Does that go for all of

    you?" I asked.

    "Absolutely," Ivy

    grinned.

    "I think I could

    definitely do worse," Danielle grinned. "But I think Leo might have
    something to say about that."

    "Harri can take my

    brother," Erica chuckled. "Don't worry, Danni. Just sell your future
    soul to Harri, what's the worst that could happen?"

    "Fine. My future love

    life for a refill of sangria," Danielle giggled.

    I fetched the pitcher and

    poured for the three women, unable to wipe the grin from my lips as I watched
    and listened to them bantering back and forth happily. By mid-afternoon, the
    tanning was over and after a quick fuck in the RV Erica and I were lounging in
    the Adirondacks, each of us with a sketchbook in hand.

    "What are you working

    on?" I asked. "I know you've been as frustrated as I have over the
    last month."

    "A tattoo design for

    Ivy," Erica said, her brow creased as she tapped her pencil against her
    lips thoughtfully. "Now that I have a future canvas, I feel like I can
    concentrate again. Plus the sex helps a lot."

    You laughed and nodded.

    "Got your creative juices flowing, huh?"

    "Got all my juices

    flowing, baby," she grinned at me. "What about you? I've got Ivy, and
    Danielle wants me to design something for her now, too. What's got you drawing
    again?"

    I smiled a little and

    shrugged. "Just figured out my muse," I said.

    "And what's that?"

    she asked. "Come on, don't be shy."

    I turned my sketchbook around

    so that Erica could see the portrait I had been sketching of her. She looked at
    it and blushed, biting her lower lip.

    "Just the most beautiful

    thing in the world," I told her.

    "You know," Erica

    said. "It kinda looks like you're drawing me naked."

    "That's cause I'm

    drawing you from the shoulders up," I said.

    "Yeah, but would

    you?" she asked.

    "Would I what? Draw you naked?"

    "Or Ivy?"

    "Are you asking me to

    draw you like one of my French girls?" I asked.

    Erica barked out a laugh at

    the reference and threw her pencil at me. "Yes, maybe I am," she
    said. "Now give me back my pencil."

    "You threw it at

    me," I said, fetching it off the ground. "Come and get it."

    We ended up in each other's

    arms and making out, me halfway to taking her back into the RV for round two,
    when someone rang the doorbell.

    "Who is it?" I

    shouted over the wall.

    "It's me," Vanessa

    called and ducked through the blanket door without waiting for a response.
    "Sorry, but we've got a problem," she said. "I think I'm going
    to need you down at the road again."

    "Fuck," I said.

    "Is it Kara?"

    "It's a lot more than

    that bitch," Vanessa said.

    I changed and this time

    Vanessa drove us both down in her company-branded pickup truck. Erica, having
    already staked her claim on me in front of Kara in her eyes, decided to hang
    back and let Ivy finish what I'd started. I was sure sending me away with that
    picture in my mind was done on purpose.

    As we were nearing the bottom

    of the driveway, I could hear the noise of the protest through the closed
    windows and over the engine of the truck. "Fuck me," I said.

    "Yeah," Vanessa

    nodded.

    The end of the driveway was

    packed with people, shoulder to shoulder, blocking traffic. They were three
    rows deep and singing a protest chant. Every single one of them was dressed in
    bright colors, showing their allegiance to the Band and proudly shouting for
    all they were worth.

    Opposing them, about ten feet

    up the drive, was a slim, single row of burly construction workers just
    watching the protest happen.

    "Those guys really can't

    let themselves get baited," I said. "If something happens, it doesn't
    matter who said what or what can hold up in court. There'll be big, scary
    motherfuckers showing up wanting to do some damage and I don't think your boys
    are ready for that."

    "I know, I already told

    them," Vanessa said. "But I'll tell them again. You'd be surprised
    how much threatening someone's big, fat bonus checks can keep them calm and
    focused."

    We got out of the truck and I

    walked down to the line of workers, rubbing at the stubble on my chin as I
    considered the protestors. There were easily fifty of them blocking the
    driveway, and there was already a backup of two flatbed trucks on the highway,
    plus a half dozen cars that looked more like they just wanted to get by rather
    than come in. Another thirty or so protestors were strung out on either side of
    the highway in both directions, holding up signs and doing the organizational
    things to keep the protestors going.

    "Pretty good

    turnout," I said offhandedly. "A lot bigger than last time."

    "When was the last

    time?" Vanessa asked.

    "Five years ago," I

    said. "Kara tried to sue for an injunction on my father's Will, and about
    a dozen protestors showed up to the courthouse the day she got shot down."

    "Any chance they'll get

    tired and go home?" Vanessa asked.

    I scanned the crowd and the

    vehicles parked up and down the highway. I already knew there were about thirty
    military-age males in the protest, and I could see people opening the backs of
    vans where I spotted supply caches of water and food. I could also see the
    determination on the faces of the crowd, and hear the declarations of a couple
    of different women holding loudspeakers. The rhetoric, and emotions, were
    ramped up more than usual. The anti-government hate was high, and now that they
    knew they weren't fighting Me but rather the Government it seemed to steel
    their resolve.

    "Not a shot," I

    said. I stepped forward and the shouting got louder. Likely every single person
    in that crowd knew who I was, while I had no idea who most of them were. But
    with every step I took, they shouted louder. Finally, halfway between the
    lines, they seemed to be at a fever pitch and I just stopped and waited. They
    kept going for a good five minutes before Kara pushed her way through and
    walked up to me, masked behind those bandanas again.

    "I told you this would

    happen," Kara said over the shouting and chanting. "You didn't think
    I could do it, but look at us. Look at us, Harrison! We will not let this
    happen to our land."

    "Kara," I said

    loudly. "How do you think this ends?"

    "Only one way,"

    Kara shouted. "The Feds surrender to our rightful claim, and stop their
    colonization efforts, and we take back what's ours."

    "This is dangerous,

    Kara," I said, gesturing at the crowd.

    "What?" she shouted

    back.

    "I said this is

    dangerous, Kara," I shouted. "Every person here is in danger."

    "Are you threatening

    us?" Kara shouted, playing it up for the crowd behind her. "Going to
    kill us, like your family has done for generations?"

    "Jesus fuck," I

    said, shaking my head. "Kara, this doesn't end the way you think it does.
    I'm going to pray for you, honest to God."

    Kara just held up her middle

    finger at me, pointed her other at Vanessa behind me, and turned and walked
    away to the cheers of her people. I shrugged and went back to Vanessa.

    "Yeah, they aren't

    leaving," I said.

    "I already called my

    Dad," Vanessa said. "He's coming down and will want to meet with
    you."

    "Sure," I nodded.

    "If they let him through."

    About thirty minutes later

    the protesters were still going strong, and another three flatbeds with either
    supplies or heavy machinery were backed up on the highway, along with dozens of
    cars. Vanessa was doing as much as she could to keep her workers at least a
    dozen yards away from the crowd of protestors; the last thing she wanted was
    for them to need to get quarantined waiting on a half dozen new tests. Or
    worse, actually catch something.

    I did my best to help her

    juggle phones, calling various General Foremen to get incoming trucks rerouted
    to staging areas and to keep those that were stuck in the traffic in their cabs
    or else they couldn't enter the site. Eventually she got a call, spoke quickly
    and then hung up.

    "Harri, this might be a

    big ask, but could you do me a favor?" she asked.

    "The government paid me

    a lot of money for my land and doing favors," I said. "But you've
    gone out of your way plenty for me and Leo and the girls. Favors come free to
    you, Vee."

    She rolled her eyes.

    "Who told you my brothers call me that?"

    "No one, just felt

    natural," I chuckled. "I call Erica 'E' sometimes, and I'm sure I'll
    end up calling Ivy 'I’ve' at some point."

    "Alright, well,

    'H,'" she said. "My dad is parked down at the edge of the property on
    the highway and doesn't want to get too close to the traffic. Could you hike
    out to him and bring him back?"

    "Sure," I said. I

    looked up at the sun and then out at the woods. "Um, from here... it's
    probably faster if I grab an ATV. Would he be squeamish about riding double
    with me?"

    Vanessa snorted. "He

    probably wouldn't be, but he's also got a gut the size of your ATVs so it would
    be a tight fit."

    "Alright, guess we're

    hiking. I can rough it and reach him in about twenty minutes," I said.
    "I'll take a smoother way back for him, so we'll get here in under an
    hour."

    "Got it, I'll let him

    know you're on your way. Thanks," she said, patting my arm. "Try to
    take it easy on him, he growls like a bear but he's still my Dad."

    "Hey, he's the big man

    in charge. Gotta keep him happy or else I'll find myself with the worst workers
    for my house, right?"

    "Very true," she

    laughed.

    I started hiking back up the

    driveway a little ways, and then diverted into the woods, hoping that the
    protestors would miss that I was skirting away from them. I was very glad I had
    changed from my lounging around clothes; rough jeans and my hiking boots were a
    lot sturdier in the rocky bush than athletic shorts and sandals. The raucousness
    of the protestors was quickly muffled by the forest to a dull roar, and it felt
    good to get away from them.

    It was weird. After spending

    months in isolation with Leo and Erica, we'd been getting used to so many
    people around again with the workers and adding Ivy and Danielle to our weird
    little family dynamic. But a crowd like that, all packed together?

    That was exactly what the

    quarantine orders were warning against.

    "Harrison!"

    My name cut through the

    muffle of the trees and shrubs, and I turned and saw Kara quickly jogging
    through the woods to catch up with me.

    "Kara, what the fuck are

    you doing? You're trespassing," I said.

    "So throw me off your

    land," Kara said, coming to a stop about ten feet from me and putting her
    hands on her hips. "Oh wait, that's right, it's not your land
    anymore."

    I rolled my eyes. "You

    can take off the bandanas if you want. We're fine this far apart."

    She did so, pulling them down

    to hang around her neck. Kara was still as beautiful as the day we'd broken up,
    though she'd grown up a lot. Where I was such a mix that it was hard to tell I
    had any Native American in my bloodstream, she had that classic warm skin tone
    and thick black hair. She'd been taking care of herself well, fit and a little
    thinner than Erica was, but with a similar strong jawline to my girlfriend. Her
    lips were as full as I remembered though, and I could almost feel her kissing
    me again like all those years ago behind the corner of the biology classroom in
    high school, or laying out in the back of my old beater pickup under the stars.

    "What's going on,

    Harri?" she asked me. "I thought we'd at least hit a status quo or
    something."

    "Oh, the one where you

    file a lawsuit against me every couple of years, and the judge shuts you down,
    but I keep having to rack up legal fees?"

    "No," she said.

    "Well, sort of. I thought we were keeping things above board. No games, no
    gimmicks. Not getting historical."

    I grimaced. "Well, we

    did," I said.

    "So what the fuck?"

    she said, throwing her arms wide. "What the fuck is all of this?"

    "Kara, think about it

    for one fucking second without your prejudice. Imagine I'm not just doing this
    as a 'Fuck You' from my family tree to the Band," I said. "A week ago
    I wouldn't have thought any of this would be happening. A week ago I was
    happily living my life and would have stayed that way straight through the end
    of the world if I had to. Do you seriously think I've done this on some
    whim?"

    "Why, then? What are

    they doing? What are they offering you?" she demanded.

    "You wouldn't believe me

    if I told you," I said. "And even if you did, I think you're too far
    into this already to walk it back with your people."

    "Try me," she said.

    "If you ever cared about me,”

    "Stop," I

    interrupted her. "You've used that line twice on me before, Kara. You used
    it when you broke up with me, and you used it again right after my father died.
    That line didn't work when I was at some of the lowest points in my life; do
    you seriously think I'll respond well to that here?"

    She grimaced, and I saw the

    realization in her eyes that I was right. That she had used that line
    before, and it had been pretty fucked up for her to do that. "I'm
    sorry," she said, and only partially through gritted teeth. "I
    shouldn't have done that."

    "Thank you," I

    said. My heart was pounding in my chest and I felt like I was in combat, just
    having this verbal sparring contest with her. I fucking hated her, but I also
    still knew she was the first girl I'd ever loved. The one that had broken my
    heart. The one that 'got away.'

    "Just explain it to

    me," Kara said, trying to be more even about it. "Please."

    I took a moment to breathe

    deeply. I wasn't barred from telling her anything. I'd tried to warn her when
    she'd shown up at the driveway before, but the thought of all those protestors
    at risk for the virus pushed me over the edge of trying to warn her again.
    "Kara, the government gave me the choice of accepting a huge payout for
    the land, or them kicking me out and taking it by eminent domain. Either way,
    they were going to take it and take it fast. I could either ride it, or die
    fighting it."

    "So what are they doing

    with it?" she asked.

    "Building homes," I

    said. "A whole gated community, it sounds like. Part of my payout was
    housing for myself, Leo and Valerie."

    "What the fuck? Why do

    they want a gated community way out here?" she asked.

    "Worst-case scenario

    shit," I said.

    "You mean the

    pandemic?" she asked. "Are you for fucking serious?"

    "Serious enough that my

    house got bulldozed a couple days ago," I said. "Gone. Like it was
    never even there."

    "This can't be

    real," Kara said. "This is absurd."

    "I told you that you

    wouldn't believe me," I said.

    "Well, if you were too

    much of a cunt to stop them, we will," Kara said, steeling herself again.
    "We'll have the local news down here by tomorrow, and if the Feds show up
    we'll have national news coverage by the end of the week."

    I had to try one more time.

    "Kara, this doesn't end the way you want it to. You're a dreamer, and I
    loved that about you when we were teens, but you know the real world doesn't
    just work like that."

    Kara narrowed her eyes.

    "Where are you going right now?"

    "What does that

    matter?" I asked.

    "Because I just followed

    you out into the woods after your little construction girlfriend was talking to
    you," she said.

    "She's not my

    girlfriend," I rolled my eyes.

    "Tell her that. She's

    flirting with you hard enough," Kara said. "I can see her doing
    it."

    "Even if she was, what

    does that have to do with you?" I asked.

    I knew I'd landed a blow

    because she got angry again. "Nothing," she said. "But I still
    want to know what you're doing."

    "I don't have to tell

    you that, Kara," I said. "I don't answer to you, I don't owe you
    anything, and I don't worship the ground you walk on. All I've got to say now
    is that you should go send all those people home, and hope that you haven't
    organized some super-spreader event here. For all the shit you've given me and
    my family, I don't want to see them all dead. I don't want to see you
    dead."

    Kara raised her bandanas

    again. "We're fighting the good fight. We're on the right side of this,
    Harrison. You're not." She turned and started walking back towards the
    road.

    "Fuck me," I

    sighed, shaking my head. That woman could still push my buttons almost fifteen
    years later.

    I pressed through the forest,

    making for the edge of the property and then diverting towards the road. When I
    reached it, I found a white and brown heavy pickup identical to Vanessa's
    idling on the gravel shoulder. The big guy in the driver's seat rolled down his
    window a crack. "What's up?"

    "I'm Harrison

    Black," I said.

    Another guy got out of the

    passenger seat and came around, slapping the hood. "Head on back to the
    motel," he said to the man in the truck. "I'll catch a ride back with
    my daughter."

    The guy in the truck nodded

    and waited for us both to back away before pulling a U-Turn and taking off down
    the highway.

    "So, you're the land

    guy, eh?" the man said, turning and offering me his hand. He was exactly
    as Vanessa had described; portly to the point of obese, with a gruff exterior
    that spoke of years handling his business in a rough industry and getting shit
    done.

    "I am," I said,

    taking his hand and shaking it firmly. "Your daughter has been fantastic
    to work with. Helpful and on task, and she keeps her guys in line."

    "I have no doubt,"

    he said. "She grew up bossing her older brothers around and got the best
    of her mother and me. I'm Brent Peters, by the way. I'm sure we'll be speaking
    every once in a while through this project."

    "Good to meet you,

    sir," I said. "And I'm sure we will."

    I led Brent into the brush

    and got us through the roughest part until I could get us to one of the more
    used trails. It got a lot easier for him there, and once he had a chance to
    catch his breath he seemed to actually enjoy the chance to stretch his legs. He
    didn't know, or at least wasn't forthcoming, with any more information than
    Vanessa had been able to give about what was going on, but he did enjoy hearing
    about the sordid history of the land, my family and the Band.

    It took a little longer than

    I'd thought it would to get back to the driveway, Brent needing a couple of
    breaks, but we made it eventually. Vanessa grinned when she saw her father in a
    way that made me think she was going to run to him and hug him, but she never
    made the move. I had to assume that was a hard-trained response from her years
    working with the man; hugging your pops on a job site would probably lead to
    taking a lot of shit from your coworkers.

    Brent quickly got updated on

    the last hour of developments from Vanessa, and I saw his managerial side take
    over. Soon the line of construction workers were twenty yards back from the
    protestors, and he was stride-waddling forward with a medical mask stretched
    over his face. Kara met him halfway, and whatever they said seemed to go about
    as well as the talks I'd had with her myself. Again, she ended it by showing
    off for the protestors by giving him the double-birds.

    "Well, that went well,"

    Brent sighed as he came back. "You were right, Harrison. They're stuck in.
    Wouldn't even help us get those trucks room to move or get out of the way of
    traffic."

    "She feels like she's

    got leverage," I guessed. "And they haven't had that on us for years
    now."

    "Well, I've officially

    done what I can," Brent said. "Time to do what every good GM does
    when shit like this happens." He took out his phone and started walking up
    the driveway away from Vanessa and me.

    "What's that?" I

    asked.

    "Call the client and

    tell them to un-fuck the situation," Vanessa smirked.

    The rest of the afternoon and

    evening was a long fucking day. There was no good way to get the workers on
    site off of it, and no good way to get new ones on, so Leo and I ended up
    walking several groups through the trails to get to the road in places out of
    sight of the protestors. And since the big crew vans were parked on site, Brent
    ended up getting access to school buses to come and pick up his guys. The
    second to last bus dropped off a dozen men who would take over watching the
    driveway and the protestors overnight; we'd already seen them breaking out
    tents and lanterns to hold their vigil; and the last bus out had Brent and
    Vanessa on board.

    "Client will be by in

    the morning," Brent said, and winked at me. "Don't you worry, bucko.
    You hold down the home front tonight, and the cavalry will be here in no
    time."

    "You got it," I

    said. "But whoever is coming, I suggest you make sure they know to take
    this seriously. The Band is riled up, and now they smell blood in the water.
    This isn't going away easily."

    "I'll pass that on to

    the Lieutenant Colonel," Brent nodded. He shook my hand again and stepped
    onto the bus.

    "See you tomorrow,

    H," Vanessa grinned at me.

    "Not if I see you first,

    Vee," I chuckled. She stepped up into the bus and I heard her voice raise
    immediately. "Alright, you Gorillas. Grab your fuckin' seats and stay
    there. I swear to Christ if one of you pisses me off, I'll confiscate your
    fuckin' dinner, got it?"

    I laughed, and could see the

    construction workers grinning in their seats as the bus did a three-point turn
    and pulled away.

    The sun was getting low when

    I finally hiked out of the bush and back into view of our little compound.
    Erica was waiting for me with a smile and a plate of stir fry. "What's the
    word, Harri?"

    "They're still down

    there," I said. "There are some workers keeping an eye on the
    driveway. Could you throw on a big pot of coffee for me and dig one of the
    thermoses out of storage?"

    "Harri, if they've got

    some of their workers down there, it's not your job to supervise. I'm sure
    Vanessa and her Dad left someone in charge."

    "They did," I said.

    "And I'm not going down there. I'm staying up here."

    I shoveled the stir fry down,

    relishing in the spicy kick Erica liked to cook with. Inside our little
    compound I gave Ivy a kiss, apologizing that I wouldn't be seeing her in bed
    for the night. Then I went to the storage container closest to my RV. The one
    with my gun safe.

    "What's the word?"

    Leo asked me when he found me. I had a lantern flashlight on and was loading
    rounds into my father's Model 700. "Jesus, Harri. What the fuck?"

    I doubted he was commenting

    on me loading the Remington hunting rifle. We'd used it plenty when we were
    hunting during deer season; it was a solid, reliable tool. No, I knew he was
    reacting to the other firearms I had out. My M9 was already holstered on my
    hip, a copy of my service sidearm that had served me so well through my tour
    and as an MP, and my DDM4V1 was laid out, waiting for me to do a quick check it
    was still in good order.

    "Just taking

    precautions," I said. I was already trying to get into the right mindset.

    "What does that even

    mean? What are you doing?"

    "There's about a hundred

    protesters down there, last I counted. More keep arriving," I told Leo,
    loading the last round into the 700 and checking the safety before setting it
    down. I fished a handful more.308's out of the ammo box in the safe and fed
    them into the bandolier shoulder strap for the hunting rifle. "Problem is,
    they're pissed off. Not just about the construction, but at all the other shit
    going on right now. And pissed-off people do dumb shit."

    "So what, you're going

    to go all Alamo on us?" Leo asked. "For real, Harri. Nothing's going
    to happen. They're down there, we're up here."

    "Leo," I said.

    "I'm not asking you to do anything you don't want to. The Bear shotgun is
    in my RV. Do me a favor and keep it handy tonight. If I miss something, I'd
    rather you have it than not."

    "Harri,”

    "Dude, just stop,"

    I said. I'd finished with the.308s and started taking apart the DDM4V1 and
    giving it a quick clean. It was a budget purchase that I'd made prioritizing
    reliability over flashy shit, and the 'scary one' in my collection when it came
    to civilians. Erica hadn't even liked the idea of me owning it when we gave her
    the tour of my firearms and taught her the safety protocols for them. Leo had
    only ever fired it once. Both of the siblings had said the same thing; 'If you
    have the rifles and shotguns and the handgun, why do you need a machine gun?'

    This sort of thing was why I

    needed it. And it wasn't a 'machine gun.'

    "I'm not planning, or

    hoping, to kill someone tonight. If I have to use the DDM4 or my sidearm,
    something has gotten really fucked," I said. "But I'm also not taking
    any chances. Sometime tonight, there's going to be people sneaking up into the
    construction yard to cause mischief, and they aren't going to know the
    difference between the construction yard and where we're living. Maybe they
    hear us and they stay clear, or maybe they don't. I'm not taking that
    chance."

    Leo watched me cleaning my

    rifle, and glanced out at the darkening sky, and then back to me. "What
    should I do?" he asked.

    A wave of relief washed over

    me; it had been years since I'd served, and every instinct I had was telling me
    to do what I was doing, but that civilian part of my brain was second-guessing
    everything. Leo agreeing told me I was being logical, even if he didn't like it
    or I turned out to be wrong.

    "Just be with the girls

    tonight," I said. "I can handle the yard, you stay with them. Think
    of it like a shitty tower defense game. If I do my job, you'll never have to do
    anything."

    He nodded and left me to my

    work.

    Surprisingly, it was Danielle

    who came to see me next. "What can I do to help?" she asked. Her
    Australian accent was sounding stronger, the California valley girl part of it
    dropping with her serious demeanor.

    "Nothing, I've got

    it," I said. She'd caught me as I was strapping on my ghillie suit;
    another item that Leo and Erica had found silly to own considering we didn't
    need it for hunting deer. It had honestly been more of a gag item in my
    collection than anything until tonight.

    "Harrison, I'll remind

    you that my Dad was military, yeah?" she said. "I grew up outside the
    city. I know how to work a firearm."

    I took a breath and looked at

    her. Even at night, by the light of a lantern, she looked like an elven beauty
    despite the cutoff denim shorts and zippered knit sweater. "Can you handle
    a handgun?" I asked.

    "I've shot the head of

    an Eastern Brown from ten paces away when it was threatening to bite my
    dog," she said.

    "I assume that's a

    snake?"

    "A fucking poisonous

    one," Danielle said.

    "Alright," I

    nodded. "Under the passenger seat of my truck is a gun case with my pop's
    old 1911 and a couple of magazines. Hang on to it for tonight. Try not to freak
    out Erica or Ivy, and if you hear shots tonight don't let Leo come looking for
    me, let alone Erica and Ivy. If they leave the RVs it'll just make things
    worse."

    "Okay," she said

    with a serious nod, then stepped towards me, hugged me and gave me a kiss on
    the cheek. "Thanks."

    "For what?" I asked

    as she stepped back.

    "For being the man I

    figured you were," she said. "Leo's all mine and I'm happy with that,
    but like I told you; you remind me of all the good parts of my Dad. I'm glad I
    have Leo and you around."

    She left to fetch the pistol,

    and I finished strapping on the ghillie suit and slung my two rifles over my
    shoulders and closed the gun safe. When I was finished slamming the storage
    container closed, I turned around to find Ivy and Erica both looking at me with
    their arms crossed.

    "Both of you, huh?"

    I asked.

    "Yes, both of us,"

    Erica said.

    "United front," Ivy

    said.

    "Look,”

    "Shut up,

    Harrison," Erica said, and then they were both hugging me while being
    careful around the firearms. "Just be careful."

    "Extra careful,"

    Ivy said, burying her face into the strings of the ghillie suit in my chest and
    then immediately pulling back with a wince. "Ugh, this smells
    terrible."

    "Yeah, well it's not

    exactly the sort of thing you clean very often," I shrugged.

    "Whatever," Erica

    said and kissed me. Ivy kissed me as well, looking at me with those big eyes of
    hers with concern.

    "So you're not going to

    try and convince me this isn't necessary?" I asked.

    "Wouldn't do anything

    except lead to a fight we couldn't win," Erica said. "You're too
    stubborn not to do it."

    "And too brave,"

    Ivy added.

    "That too," Erica

    smiled sadly. Then she handed me the big thermos of coffee. "Come back to
    us in one piece."

    "I will," I said.

    "Don't worry. But if you two hear anything tonight, if there's any
    gunfire, don't come looking for me. Just stay in the RVs and hunker down from
    the windows. If you come looking for me, you'll add more danger and not take it
    away, alright?"

    They both agreed, though I

    could tell Erica didn't like it. I could only imagine her sprinting across the
    construction yard, bullets flying everywhere, screaming my name as she worried
    I'd been shot. Hell, she'd probably pick me up and carry me to safety if it
    were true, but she'd also likely never get to me in the first place if things
    were that bad.

    I kissed them both again,

    then stalked off into the night.

    I ended up settling into a

    nook on the side of the hill to the south of the construction yard, with a
    clear view of about two-thirds of the yard and most importantly the RV
    compound. I unslung my rifles and carefully positioned myself in a comfortable
    prone position I was going to be able to manage for a long time. I'd never gone
    through Sniper training, but I'd picked up enough from my Bootcamp, talking
    with other soldiers and from movies to know a thing or two; not to mention
    years of hunting. So I cracked the thermos and took a sip of the hot, strong
    coffee, and started my watch.

    I saw them moving through the

    trees at around 02:30 in the morning down on the east side of the yard near the
    driveway. They must have skirted around the construction worker picket line and
    followed the driveway up, but they were still in the shadows so I couldn't tell
    how many there were, or what they were carrying. The only reason I spotted them
    early at all was because someone was flicking a flashlight up occasionally.

    I had the 700 cradled in my

    arms, and I slowly rolled into position but didn't sight down the scope yet. I
    didn't have any night vision gear, and while the simple Leopold scope easily
    gave me the range to tag anything moving down there, I wouldn't know what I was
    hitting.

    They stopped at the edge of

    the tree line, and I could only imagine the nerves they were feeling looking
    out over the open area. There were seven portables set up holding various
    offices now, and half a dozen big crew vans that had been left behind for the night
    along with some of the company pickup trucks. The pilings and supplies to erect
    the bigger barracks were also looming in the big, open space.

    "Just take a look and

    leave," I muttered quietly to myself, willing whoever was down there to
    not make this worse than it could be.

    Five minutes went by before a

    figure began to creep out of the tree line, crossing the rise of the hill and
    slipping towards the yard. From the distance I was at, I couldn't see them
    clearly enough other than to tell they were probably wearing a backpack; not a
    big deal in and of itself, but my training was screaming at me. 'Anything'
    meant anything. That backpack could hold weapons, or communications equipment,
    or even an I E D.

    I sighted in on the figure.

    It was a man, military age but young. I couldn't see much of his face between
    the black bandana over his nose and mouth and a ball cap backwards on his head.

    My finger tightened just a

    fraction on the trigger when I saw the flash of metal in his hand, but my
    hesitation saved his life; he was carrying a can of spray paint.

    He reached what he thought

    was the shelter of the first building; and it was shelter if he thought
    a guard was patrolling inside the yard. But I wasn't inside the yard, and
    instead I was looking at him dead on along the length of the building as he
    took off his backpack and then turned, motioning back towards the tree line. A
    half dozen more figures began quickly creeping across the hillside.

    I had a choice; if that

    backpack was full of spray-paint and that was all they were there to do, it
    would be annoying vandalism at worst as long as they didn't approach the
    compound. If any of them were carrying other tools of vandalism or had darker
    thoughts about them, it was going to be a lot harder to deal with them a minute
    from now.

    And then there was the

    history of the thing.

    My family had defended this

    land for six generations, including from small raiding parties of the Band
    during the worst and darkest parts of our history. Men had died on both sides,
    but so had women. Badly.

    History is a powerful

    motivator, especially with so many If's rolling around in my head.

    I sighted in and pulled the

    trigger. The boom of the rifle was especially loud in the still of the night
    air, and I heard it echo back to me three times off of the surrounding hills.

    The bullet hit the canister

    the man had set down on the ground, and the spray can immediately erupted in a
    spray of bright blue paint as it spun from the impact and the release of
    aerosol, coating the ground, the man and some of the wall of the building. The
    man recoiled with a scream, and later on I would see that there was a
    beautiful, cartoon-like outline of him with his arms up in a panic on the wall.
    The others split their decision-making; three immediately turned and began
    sprinting back to the tree line, while the other three dove into the dirt
    trying to take cover.

    I could have killed them.

    Just pop, pop, pop. It would have been easy.

    But as the blue-painted man

    stumbled around trying to clear his eyes, calling for help, I watched as his
    friends tried to beckon him back over to them without standing up. Finally, one
    of them; the one I probably respected the most, though I would never know who
    he or she was, got up and ran to him, grabbing him and hauling him back towards
    the trees. The other two followed, and then they were gone. I waited five
    minutes, watching the tree lines for lights or movement, before I thumbed open
    my phone with the brightness turned all the way down and texted the group chat.
    'All good. Warning shot only.'

    I immediately got two hearts

    from Erica and Ivy, and Danielle started typing, but my phone started buzzing
    in my hand with a phone call from Vanessa.

    "Hey," I answered

    with a whisper.

    "Harrison, why the fuck

    is my Dad waking me up asking me to call you about a gunshot?"

    "Because I shot at some

    people sneaking onto the site," I said.

    "You shot someone on the

    site!?!"

    "No, I; listen to me. I

    fired a warning shot and they ran off. No one is injured... I think."

    "What does 'I think'

    mean?"

    "Well, one guy might

    have damaged vision from getting spray paint in his eyes," I said.

    "..... Harrison, what

    the fuck?"

    "Just tell your Dad I've

    got it handled. I'll see you in the morning."

    "Alright. You better not

    fuck me here," she grumbled.

    I smirked. "Not unless

    you ask very nicely," I said.

    "Oh my god, this is why

    I don't wake up at three in the fucking morning 'cause I say dumb phrasing like
    that. Good night. Again."

    She hung up as I chuckled

    softly.

    I abandoned my post at 06:30

    when the sun was peeking well over the horizon. Usually, the first groups of
    workers would already be arriving on site, but obviously today was going to be
    different. When I trudged into the compound I found Erica awake, sitting in one
    of the Adirondack chairs and she gave me a tired smile. Ivy was sitting beside
    her in another chair, curled up with a blanket over her.

    "Welcome home,"

    Erica said, sitting up and yawning.

    "Good morning," I

    said. "How late did she stay up?"

    "About five am," Erica

    said. "Kids these days don't know how to party all night."

    I snorted. "Let me get

    this shit put away, and I'll move her to the bed."

    And I would have done just

    that, but as I was unloading my firearms I heard the telltale staccato thwump
    thwump thwump of an incoming helicopter. As I stepped back outside, rings
    of cold and clammy sweat on the shirt I'd worn under the ghillie suit, Erica,
    Leo, Ivy and Danielle all came out of the compound to join me as we watched an
    HH60 Pave Hawk coming in for a landing. As the helicopter engine began to whine
    loudly while it powered down, I led the others as we approached.

    Several soldiers immediately

    hopped out of the Air Force-branded helicopter, each one in proper fatigues
    with all the correct identification patches; it almost made me proud to see an
    actual military uniform after the shady fatigues the OGA had been wearing. Then
    the officers climbed out of the helicopter.

    They were both in service

    dress uniform rather than fatigues, and both women looked around shrewdly with
    narrowed eyes as they took in the rough construction site, our compound tucked
    away in the back corner, and our ragtag group of strippers, artists and one
    carpenter.

    I sucked in a breath,

    assuming my most military stance despite my likely disheveled appearance, and
    marched up to the two officers as they approached us. One was carrying a
    briefcase in one hand and a leather-bound clipboard in the other; she had
    Captain bars on her shoulder, and if I had to guess at a glance she was an established
    attaché for the other woman. My march brought me right up to within five feet
    of the two, and I snapped to attention in front of the Lieutenant Colonel. She
    was a woman with broad shoulders and a powerful, confident stance that almost
    hid her hourglass figure. She had thick brunette hair pulled back into a tight
    bun, and she had a somewhat dusky complexion as if she'd gotten too much sun.
    But I knew that was just her natural coloring.

    Lieutenant Colonel

     Miriam Abarbanel slowly, cleanly, returned my salute and we lowered our
    arms. Then she took off the medical mask that was hiding her face and broke
    into a smile that reached up into her hazel eyes. She stepped forward and
    wrapped me up in a hug, kissing me on the cheek. "It's good to see you,
    Harri," she said as I squeezed her back.

    "You too, Miriam,"

    I said. "Congratulations on your promotion."

    She leaned back from the hug,

    still smiling. "More rank, more problems. You know how it is."

    "I don't,

    thankfully," I grinned. "What are you doing here?"

    She took in a long breath and

    looked around us again. "I'm here to threaten a bunch of US civilians to
    back the fuck off, or they'll all be arrested and held on charges of
    treason," she said, her smile slipping. "How's your morning going?"

    "I shot at someone last

    night," I said. "So I think you're up on me, but not by much."

    "I'm going to need you

    to explain that in more detail," the other woman said, stepping forward.

    "Harrison Black,"

    Miriam said, stepping back and releasing my arms. "This is Captain Laura Bloomberg,
    a Judges' advocate with the Air Force. Captain, I've already debriefed you on
    Mr. Black's record, but I should let you know; Harrison saved my life and
    dignity once upon a time. So go easy on him, if you don't mind."

    "I don't go easy on

    anyone, ma'am," Captain Bloomberg said. "That's why I'm here."

    "Too true," Miriam

    nodded. "Alright, let's say hello to everyone, then you can get me a
    briefing on the ground here. And please, dear God, tell me you have some coffee
    brewing. It's about to be one hell of a long morning."

    "There is no official

    precedent for this yet, Mr. Black, so we're just going to go ahead and keep you
    in the loop," Doctor Charlotte Varma said. "In short, you and Miss
    Peters show all the signs of having gone through the vaccination bonding
    process."

    I nodded slowly, letting out

    a long breath as I tried not to think about the ache of my black eye.

    The office I'd been left in

    was little more than a whitewashed box of walls with a few chairs and a little
    round table. The plain walls were only broken up by the single door, which I
    hadn't bothered to check was locked or not, and the big flat screen over which
    the doctor was talking with me.

    "I don't understand how

    though, Doc," I said. "Vanessa didn't get the vaccine shot, and
    everything my current partners were told about the vaccine was that our...
    activities should have been safe."

    "And that's the concern

    we have," Doctor Varma said. "Another member of my team is currently
    running further numbers on the blood samples that were sent down to us. But
    even the early tests done up there are showing the markers for the imprinting
    process occurring in Miss Peters body. It shouldn't have happened.
    That's why I requested this chat with you. The report on the matter that we
    received was somewhat... vague in certain areas."

    I flushed but nodded. I'd

    hoped this wasn't where we were going, but had figured we'd end up here
    eventually no matter what.

    When I made the call, Miriam

    jumped into action. She'd remained calm on the phone, but the speed with which
    she organized the helicopter to come and pick up Vanessa had told me this
    wasn't just her concern for me or concern for a woman she had met in passing
    for a couple of minutes. While Erica and I had waited for the helicopter to
    arrive we'd done our best to get Vanessa cleaned up. She'd been soaked in the
    squirt that Ivy and Erica had sprayed her with, so we used a wet cloth to wipe
    her down carefully and then got her dressed again in everything except those
    steel toe boots she always wore. Then we'd had to just wait.

    I'd been expecting a doctor

    or two on the helicopter wanting to come to check her over, but we got a couple
    of air corpsmen instead who immediately began to strap her to a gurney for
    transport. Getting Vanessa from the compound to the helicopter was a bit of
    chaos; there were construction workers gawking, and the other foreman who had
    taken over the site for Vanessa's day off had demanded some answers. I'd just
    told him she'd come to hang out for the day, and I needed Brent Peter's number
    to let him know what was going on. He'd given it to me and said he needed to
    call the site General Manager himself.

    Erica and Ivy had both wanted

    to come with us on the helicopter, but the airmen had only allowed me to
    travel. I kissed Erica and Ivy, trying to reassure them in a rush, and hopped
    onto the helicopter.

    I didn't get any answers from

    the crew other than that we were heading to Portland, and I couldn't make a
    call with the noise of the helicopter engine and blades, so it was pointless to
    answer when Brent Peters called me. I texted him instead, telling him where we
    were headed and that Vanessa seemed Okay, but was unconscious and needed
    medical attention.

    We'd landed on the roof of a

    building in downtown Portland that looked like it had been retrofitted for the
    helicopter pad. We were met by a quartet of lab coats in full hazmat gear,
    which seemed to put the airmen who had only been wearing medical masks on edge
    a bit, and Vanessa was wheeled in one direction after we stepped off the
    elevator while I was escorted in the other.

    Looking back over my shoulder

    at her getting taken away on that gurney was heartbreaking in a way I wouldn't
    have expected.

    The lab coats interviewed me

    and took blood samples a few times. The only reassurance I got was when Miriam stepped
    into the observation room I'd been placed in, her Command facade dropping for a
    moment as she pulled me into a quick, tight hug and she told me Vanessa was
    fine, and we weren't in trouble. She couldn't stay though, and had to leave
    back to work.

    They'd taken my phone when we

    entered the building for security reasons, and I spent what I had to guess were
    several hours in that observation room, mostly alone and with nothing to do but
    think.

    When I was finally escorted

    out of the room and down the hall to a nicer waiting room, I assumed because
    they decided I wasn't infected or contagious or something, I saw Brent Peters
    through the waiting room door. I steeled myself for the conversation I was
    about to have, but when Brent saw me he jumped to his feet and rushed me. It
    was chaos for a long moment. Brent landed a solid punch to my face, leading to
    the black eye that was now throbbing, and I didn't fight back. Several airmen
    kept us separated, and I was brought back to the observation pod without even being
    able to apologize to the man.

    "How detailed do you

    want me to be?" I asked Doctor Varma. She was an attractive woman, even
    looking haggard from work and lack of sleep. I could only assume if she was a
    specialist with the vaccine that she was working some pretty heavy overtime
    hours. Her French accent, different enough from Ivy's that I could tell she was
    French and not Quebecois, didn't help with downplaying her attractiveness.

    "As detailed as you

    can," Doctor Varma said. "Let's start at the beginning. You woke up
    this morning and initiated a sexual encounter with your partner Miss Lacosta,
    correct?"

    "That's correct," I

    said.

    "What was the nature of

    the encounter? Oral? Vaginal?"

    "Vaginal," I said.

    "And did she

    orgasm?"

    I blew out a breath, trying

    to control my embarrassment. "When I finished, she did."

    Doctor Varma nodded and took

    some notes, seemingly unfazed by the nature of the conversation. "And
    where did you finish?" she asked.

    "Uh, vaginally," I

    said. "Inside her."

    She just nodded along and

    kept prompting me. I explained about Ivy initiating a second round, beginning
    oral sex on my penis. She asked if I had been cleaned between encounters, which
    I hadn't. It hadn't seemed important at the time, since Ivy and Erica liked to
    play with each other almost as much as they did me.

    Then it got worse, as I was

    prompted to explain in detail the nature of the sexual encounter between the
    four of us. How Ivy and I only did anal by her request. How Erica was
    particularly wet when aroused. How Vanessa had eaten her out and been squirted
    on. Then I was answering questions like 'Approximately how much of the female
    ejaculation did Miss Peters ingest compared to being exposed dermatologically?'

    And that, of course, led to

    explaining the 'female bukkake' scenario. And fucking Ivy's ass while the
    squirting was going on. And finally, finally, we got to me engaging
    directly with Vanessa.

    "To the best of your

    ability, Mr. Black, please consider the events as carefully as you can. When
    you entered Miss Peters vagina with your penis, did you clean yourself off at
    all?"

    "I... did," I said.

    "I had just been having anal sex with Ivy, so I wiped my penis with a wet
    washcloth."

    "Hmm," Doctor Varma

    nodded, still scribbling her notes. "And when you penetrated her, did you
    notice any particular emotions or events occur with Miss Peters?"

    "I think; yeah," I

    said. "Before penetration, I had encouraged an orgasm with my fingers and
    some, um, light choking and dirty talk,”

    "You digitally

    manipulated her vagina, or something else?"

    "Her vagina," I

    clarified. "So she had only just orgasmed when I penetrated her, and I
    believe she had another one almost immediately."

    "Hmm," Doctor Varma

    nodded and held up a finger to ask me to wait as she scribbled an extra-long
    note to herself. "Alright, continue. Once the initial orgasm from
    penetration had occurred, does anything she did or said stand out?"

    "All of us had been

    pretty vocal with dirty talk," I said. "She, um, you know. The usual?
    Directing me to have sex with her in a specific way. Complimenting me on how it
    felt."

    "Anything else?

    Particulars may be important," Doctor Varma prompted me again.

    "Um, she offered me anal

    sex as well, but I told her I wanted to take my time if we were going to do
    that and I was close to finishing. That excited her, and she encouraged me to
    ejaculate inside of her and got kinky in that demand."

    "Kinky in what

    way?" she asked.

    "Well, she'd told us

    before about having a hysterectomy as a young teen, and she was talking about
    how she wished she had a womb I could, ah, fill. It got a little primal at the
    end, encouraging me to take her and make her mine. Caveman kind of stuff."

    "I see," Doctor

    Varma nodded again, taking more notes. "And I assume you did? Ejaculate
    inside her, that is."

    "Yes," I nodded.

    "She orgasmed again at that point, pretty hard, and when she didn't
    respond to a compliment I paid her I realized she wasn't awake and was
    mumbling."

    "She was repeating

    'imprinting,' correct?" Doctor Varma asked.

    "Well, yes and no,"

    I said. "I'd heard the 'imprinting' thing when I bonded with Erica and
    Ivy. Vanessa wasn't as clear, it was like she was saying it over a choppy
    connection if you know what I mean."

    "Hmm, interesting,"

    Doctor Varma frowned. "You didn't happen to record this, did you?"

    "No," I shook my

    head. "That wasn't really the important thing on my mind at that
    point."

    "Understandable, Mr.

    Black," the doctor said. "Alright, hold tight. I need to consult with
    some of my staff here." And she cut the video call.

    I was alone for a bit, left

    to my own thoughts. I should have known, or seen it, as it was happening.
    Vanessa had been horny, but was she 'I'd let you get me pregnant if I could'
    horny? Erica hadn't dropped that, our first time together, but she'd said other
    things that were similar. 'Take me' and 'make me yours' and that kind of stuff.
    And so had Ivy, though she'd been babbling in French half the time so it was
    hard to say for sure.

    Erica had gotten a mental

    flag on the play, though. She'd heard it more than I had. Heard the tone of
    Vanessa's voice, or the words. Maybe one or the other had echoed in her, and
    she'd remembered how she'd felt. She hadn't tried to stop me, stop us, but
    maybe it had been too late at that point.

    The TV flashed, losing a

    digital telephone ring, and I grabbed the remote from the table and accepted
    the call.

    "Hey, Harrison,"

    said the man on the other end. He was another lab coat, and as best I could
    tell from the blurry background he was likely in the same facility or even the
    same room as Doctor Varma had been. This guy looked like he'd stepped right out
    of a corny television show though; he was blubbery in the way that a guy could
    be after a couple of decades of slow physical decline, with a burst of thinning
    silver hair that just needed the black streaks and some smudges on his face to
    look like he'd been catoonishly blown up. The bit of scraggly, messy scruff on
    his chin that looked unplanned made me a little self-conscious of my own
    currently messy beard. Erica had wanted me to grow mine out a bit so she could
    decide if she liked it longer or shorter, and Ivy didn't care, so I was looking
    even more like a mountain man than usual. "I'm Doctor McKenna, but you can
    call me Bill," he continued.

    "You're on Doc Varma's

    team?" I asked, putting two and two together.

    "Yep," he nodded.

    "I was supposed to do the follow-up interview with you but got caught up
    with some of the numbers in your case. Charlotte and I have both reviewed the
    content. Sounds like you had a bit of a wild time, huh? And don't worry, we're
    all getting pretty used to the graphic nature of our work these days so you
    didn't offend or embarrass anyone."

    "Well, that's something

    at least," I said. "I never thought I'd be having a conversation like
    that with a doctor. Or anyone."

    He got a wry grin at this and

    held up a hand to ease me. "Believe me, Harrison. I've been with the team
    from the start and we have had more than a few of these sorts of conversations
    based on the nature of the vaccine. Yours is definitely up there as a novel
    case of details, but it's only personal for you, not us."

    I just nodded, not knowing

    what to say. I hadn't considered how often sex must come up in their day-to-day
    work if they were specialists.

    "Now, I have; well, I

    can't say it's good nor bad news," Doctor Bill said. "Interesting for
    us, for sure. As I'm sure you're aware, as you have two partners already, the
    vaccine is supposed to only be transmissible from women to men for the purposes
    of diluting the effects on men. To be frank, no one here on the team had
    considered the possibility of transferring and initiating a bonding process
    from one woman to another through female ejaculate. It doesn't help that most
    of the science community, those that would even think of it, haven't exactly
    spent time studying female ejaculate to begin with. So your situation wasn't
    tested for, but as far as we can tell it still shouldn't have been able to
    happen."

    "So what does that mean,

    doc?" I asked.

    "It means that you, or

    one of your current partners, or some combination, integrated with the vaccine
    and imprinting process in an exceptional way. A variant response is how we're
    categorizing it at the moment, and to be frank it's not even one of the most
    surprising ones we've encountered as the testing continues to broaden. As best
    we can tell from your interview, it's likely that Miss Peters was vaccinated
    through the oral ingestion of the female ejaculate; all the markers of a normal
    imprinting process occur when you began actual sex together.

    "Now, the really

    interesting part of this on my end is obviously the fact that this happened at
    all, but following the results of the blood tests from the Testing facility up
    where you are, and the preliminary tests we've completed on the samples that got
    flown down to us here, we've found that it isn't likely to be a phenomenon that
    is worth pursuing. Unfortunately, while Miss Peters is certainly going to be
    imprinted on you to some degree, it also seems that the efficacy of the vaccine
    in her system will be well under our current rates. Right now our projection is
    that she will only have an efficacy rate of about thirty-five to forty per
    cent, while a woman who has undergone our current best practices has an
    efficacy of somewhere around the eightieth percentile."

    I had to rub my forehead and

    close my eyes for a long moment as I tried to parse everything he was saying.
    "So what does that mean, Doctor Bill?" I asked.

    "It means that Miss

    Peters is now part of your 'Team,' he said. "That's what I've been calling
    the groups of imprinted people colloquially around here, anyways. But where
    your other two partners have a high likelihood of staving off the Duo Halo
    virus, if Miss Peters is exposed she is about half as likely to resist initial
    infection or gain serious aid in fighting off an infection she catches."

    "So we've put her at

    risk by having casual sex with her," I said. "Fuck me, this is
    exactly the kind of shit that I was worried about when she asked to join in
    with us."

    "Yes and no," he

    said. "To be frank, it's entirely possible that her integration with the
    vaccine will grow and normalize over time with repeated exposure to you. The
    staff up there will book some follow-up blood draws to check in on that. One of
    the many things were are trying to understand about the vaccine is how sex
    bolsters imprinted partners. Generally, we haven't seen that happen for women,
    since they can't have more than one imprinted male partner, but the more
    partners men are in contact with the more efficacy we're seeing."

    "So you're saying she's

    stuck with me," I said. "She asked for no-strings-attached, and she
    got trapped into a sexual relationship."

    "You could look at it

    that way," he said. "But,”

    "But," Doc Varma

    said, coming into view on his end of the call and hovering over his shoulder.
    "I would remind you, Mr. Black, that she did choose to initiate a
    group sexual encounter with you and your partners. And once she is awake from
    the imprinting process, I would not be surprised if she feels content with the
    overall situation following any initial panic or shock."

    I leaned back in my chair and

    stared at the ceiling for a moment. "You know, when I first heard about
    this from Erica, I told her it sounded like some sort of brainwashing mind
    control shit? I couldn't believe she'd gotten the vaccine. But then everything
    was going so well that I stopped thinking about it. And Ivy was happy, and
    Erica's brother was partnered and they were both extremely happy. But this,” I
    sighed heavily and looked at the two scientists on the screen. "This is
    some fucked up, B-movie supervillain kind of shit. You guys realize that,
    right? Like, where is James Bond in all of this?"

    Bill frowned, but Doc Varma

    smirked just a little. "Yes," she said. "We are aware of how
    inappropriate many of the factors of the vaccine are, Mr. Black. It is a marvel
    of modern medicine, but we are still grappling with the necessities that come
    along with it."

    Together they ran me through

    what I needed to expect moving forward. Vanessa was going to be monitored until
    she woke up, so I would be spending the night where I was at. She'd get a
    complete physical, and they'd take more blood for testing before she'd be
    released into my care and we were brought back home. Then, depending on what
    she wanted, she would either be able to live with Erica, Ivy and I, or she
    could maintain some distance for the time being and only come to see me for the
    sexual encounters she would require. We would both receive follow-up check-ins
    from someone on the Vaccine testing team to draw more blood periodically to
    check if Vanessa's efficacy was changing, or if mine was.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 10 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 4
    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 4
    The House.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    The pounding on the front

    door echoed through the house again, and I literally fell out of the bed trying
    to disentangle my foot from the mess of the sheets. Erica and I had stumbled
    inside late as fuck, trying to be quiet and not wake up Leo and Dani, and now I
    could see we'd tracked in dirt and grass with us. The sheets were filthy.

    I got shorts on and stood,

    shaking Erica by the shoulder.

    "What?" she

    groaned.

    "Someone is at the door,

    and it's sun up. The worker might need to start working. I'll close the door
    and give you as much time as I can, but could you at least put on a top in case
    anyone pops in here by accident?"

    "Let 'em look,"

    Erica grunted.

    "What happened to those

    being my tits, and mine alone?" I grinned.

    "..... Fine," she

    said and held up a hand in the air. I found her a shirt and put it in her hand,
    and she started trying to get it on without lifting her head from the pillow or
    opening her eyes.

    I shut the bedroom door

    behind me and met up with Leo in the hallway; he was only slightly more dressed
    than I was, with a single sock and an undershirt over his shorts.
    "Mornin'" he grunted.

    "Yep," I said, and

    we headed for the door.

    When I opened it I was

    expecting Vanessa and her big 'gorilla' work crew, but instead it was Agent
    Sourpuss. It was even earlier in the day than I had expected.

    "What took you two so

    long?" she said, sneering at the two of us. "Never mind, come with
    me."

    She started walking around

    the house, so Leo and I followed barefoot. Just as we were stepping out and
    shutting the front door, the crew vans started pulling in, ferrying the
    surveyors and workers. A few of them called and waved, taunting us for looking
    like we were getting called to the Principal's office.

    "We have solved the

    temporary housing issue for you two," Agent Sourpuss said as we rounded
    the corner, and she presented us with the new additions to the backyard.
    Hunkered up next to the two sea cans that all of our stuff was being loaded
    into for storage were two brand new, state-of-the-art, still gleaming chrome
    and white from the lot, RVs. The two fuckers were huge. I had no idea how
    anyone other than an 18-wheeler truck driver could pilot one of them. They had
    to be worth at least a couple hundred thousand dollars each.

    "God damn," I said,

    coming awake.

    "One for each of

    us?" Leo asked.

    "You and your

    partners," the Agent said. "Follow me."

    We did, crossing the backyard

    as the Agent told us that we would need to be ready to move them at a moment's
    notice; our presence couldn't be allowed to slow down the construction process.
    We were also in charge of maintaining them, and organizing with the
    construction general manager when they arrived on site to make sure they were
    getting properly emptied (the septic) and filled (the fuel).

    "Mr. Lacoste, you have

    the one on the left," the Agent said, handing a set of keys to Leo. He
    actually giggled with glee, taking the keys and darting to his new home.

    "Mr. Black, yours is

    clearly the right. As is your new partner waiting for you inside," she
    said.

    I blinked. "I'm sorry,

    what?"

    "Your second partner

    drove with us this morning. She's waiting inside for you and is ready for
    imprinting. I suggest not making her wait too long." Agent Sourpuss then
    began to walk away, back to her car at the front of the house.

    "Wait, wait, wait,"

    I said, following her. "I already have a partner. Erica and I are bonded
    or whatever."

    "Not how it works, Mr.

    Black," the Agent said, still walking. "You're rated at Tier Four,
    and you must have been somewhat open to a non-monogamous relationship, as is
    Miss Lacoste. Your new partner is suited to the two of you. You shouldn't keep
    her waiting."

    There wasn't any stopping

    her, so I diverted and headed back into the house. "Erica!" I called,
    heading for the stairs.

    "What?" she asked,

    rubbing the sleep from her eyes but coming out of my room dressed in my shirt
    from last night, and a pair of her shorts.

    "The Agent just dropped

    off the big ass RVs we're living in," I said. "And a woman who I'm
    supposed to bond with."

    "Oh, shit. That was

    fast," she said.

    "What do you mean, that

    was fast?" I asked. "You knew about this?"

    "I mean, they said at

    the information seminar that it was possible people would begin getting
    partnered into existing relationships based on the matchmaking and available
    matches," Erica said. We were heading down the stairs again. "I
    assumed since I'm Bi, and you're a guy, it wouldn't be unlikely we'd get
    someone else eventually. I didn't think it would be day three, obviously. Why
    would this person pick us over a single guy?"

    We got outside and to the RV,

    and I knocked.

    "It's open," called

    a voice. It was light and feminine, but with a distinct accent.

    I opened the door and mounted

    the steps, stopping when I saw the woman within, only for Erica to push me the
    rest of the way up so she could see as well.

    She was dark blonde, almost

    brunette, and her hair hung in waves down just past her shoulders. The woman
    was slight, and obviously so because all she was wearing was lingerie made up
    of thin mesh through which I could see her rosy pink nipples on her smallish
    tits, and lots of buckles for straps. The right side of her body was fresh and clean,
    though down the center of her abdomen, from under her chin all the way to her
    pubic mound, was a thin black line of a tattoo splitting her in half. On the
    left side of that tattoo her body was designed with black ink in floral tribal
    patterns, fleur-de-lis motifs and other designs.

    She was smiling demurely

    despite her dress and the fact that she was lounging in the sitting area of the
    RV, her legs splayed as she absently rubbed her twat through her mesh thong.

    "Bonjour," she

    said, grinning even brighter as Erica followed me in. Her accent was distinctly
    French Canadian and she couldn't be older than twenty-three. "My name is
    Ivy Gauthier, and I was expecting just a cock, but I am more than happy to make
    Mommy happy too if she wants to sit on my face."

    "Fuck," Erica said,

    and looked at me. "Can we keep her?"

    Ivy

    Erica, as usual, took to the

    rapidly changing social situation a little faster than I did.

    "So you're sure about

    all of this?" she asked the girl, Ivy. We were sitting in the lounge area
    of the RV that the government had delivered to us that morning.

    "Well, it is too late

    for me to back out now," Ivy said. She was French Canadian, with that very
    specific Quebecois accent that extended vowels and clipped some consonants. I
    only really knew the difference between hers and a traditional
    French-from-France accent because I'd once drank with a unit of French soldiers
    while I was deployed in Germany. "I have already been poked with the
    needles. I chose Harrison because he reminded me of a sexy version of the boys
    I grew up with in the north of Quebec. Very sexy lumberjack, yes?"

    Erica smirked, glancing at me

    and patting my knee. "Yes, very sexy woodsman."

    "As I said, I was not

    expecting a sexy woman as well, but I am the bisexual," Ivy continued.
    "In fact, Erica, you are very much my type."

    "And what type is

    that?" Erica asked.

    Ivy grinned but blushed,

    biting her lip for a moment as if she were embarrassed, but I could see the
    hunger in her big, expressive eyes. "Most girls in my job, they have what
    you call the 'Daddy Issues', yes? Well, my father made many mistakes, but was
    always very good to my sister et moil. An ex I have, she said I have 'Mommy
    Issues' instead. I like strong women, older than me, with tits and ass like
    yours." The little minx actually reached out and caressed the side of
    Erica's tit when she said it.

    "What job is it you've

    been working?" I asked, though I had a feeling I knew the general field.

    "I am a dancer,"

    Ivy said, turning back to me and looking all the world like a worried teenager,
    rather than the seductive woman clad in mesh lingerie that was sitting between Erica
    and me. "I hope that is not so bad to you, Harrison. I know some men, they
    think it means I am dirty or spoiled. But I am not." Then she got another
    little lascivious smirk as she tilted her chin down looking up at you through
    her lashes. "Well, I could also be a very dirty girl for the right
    man. Or woman." She touched Erica's leg without looking.

    "Okay, seriously

    Ivy," I said. "Unless this is really who you are, and who you want to
    be, you can tone down the seduction. Erica and I aren't going to turn you away,
    but you have got to be real with us."

    Ivy frowned, and it was like

    she went through a little transformation as she absorbed what I said and
    metabolized it. She bit the inside of her cheek for a moment, then nodded and
    stood up, crossed to the murphy table that was in the kitchenette and pulled a
    robe I hadn't even noticed from where it was hanging. She wrapped it around
    herself quickly and then sat back down. "I am sorry," she said.
    "I am; this vaccine is making me very horny. I did not know what to
    expect, yes? I thought it best to treat you like private clients."

    "Oh, sweetie,"

    Erica sighed. "I know. The nervousness, that little itch all over?"

    Ivy nodded.

    "Maybe let's start from

    the beginning," I suggested. "Just be honest with us."

    "I was being

    honest," Ivy said. "My name is Ivy Gauthier, I was born in a little
    town in northern Quebec and raised by my father and grandmother, along with my
    sister. I am an exotic dancer. I started in Montreal, and decided to try and do
    a tour of the USA. My visa was running out when the Quarantine happened. They
    said it would not be a problem if I took the experimental vaccine."

    "Wait, hold on," I

    said. "Fuck. Would you have taken the vaccine if you weren't worried about
    your visa?"

    Ivy thought about it and then

    shrugged. "I don't know? Maybe? I never had to think about it without the
    visa on the table."

    "This is fucked

    up," I said.

    "And it's too late to

    change anything," Erica said. "Harri, you know it's too late."

    "I know," I

    grunted. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

    "And you know if it's

    not you, it'll be someone else."

    I took in a long breath and

    nodded. "Ivy, I assume you went through the whole set of meetings and
    videos that Erica did, but I just have to ask; are you absolutely sure you want
    this?"

    Ivy pursed her lips, looking

    between Erica and me. Her hands were in her lap, most of her tattoos covered by
    the worn, velvet red robe she was wearing. She looked younger and older at the
    same time. She ended up looking to Erica. "Is he a good man?"

    "The best," Erica

    said immediately.

    "And is she a good

    woman?" Ivy asked me.

    I took Erica's hand in mine.

    "Better than anyone could ever deserve."

    "Then I am fine with

    this," Ivy said. "It is the end of the world, oui? Why should I not
    be with two sexy people who love each other, and will share their bed with
    me?"

    Erica laughed. "Well,

    she's direct."

    "Alright. You know what

    the next steps are?" I asked Ivy.

    "You fuck me, and I will

    become your; how did they say.? Umm, bonded something?"

    "We haven't figured out

    the right word yet either," Erica said. "For now, it might be easiest
    if you're just our fuckbuddy."

    "I like this," Ivy

    said. "You two are a couple, and I will be your fuckbuddy." The way
    she said it made it sound a little sillier, a little naughtier. This girl would
    have been dangerous if Erica and I weren't in the current situation.

    "You have some

    time," I said. "Would you rather wait a bit, or do it now?"

    "Now," Ivy said.

    "I would very much like to taste you, Erica. While Harrison fucks my
    ass."

    "Wow, that's very hot

    and specific," Erica said.

    Ivy smiled. "I am what

    you would say is an 'Anal Queen.' My father, he had children with three
    different women. It made me afraid of pregnancy, so I learned as a girl to
    prefer it in my butt."

    "Well, I guess you're

    getting to crush some ass, babe," Erica said, smirking and then kissing me
    on the cheek.

    "Hey, you know

    what?" I asked. "However you want it, Ivy, I'm happy to provide. Is
    there anything else you'd like us to know before we go to the bed?"

    Ivy stood up, slipping the

    robe back off of her and hanging it back up. "I can be very loud,"
    she said. "Just a warning. And I like many things, but this time, I think
    we keep it to a simple threesome, yes? I will suck cock and eat cunt, and I
    would very much like to be fingered, and fucked in the ass."

    "So simple," Erica

    chuckled. "Ivy, I think Harrison is still a little hesitant; he is a
    natural protector, so don't think he's timid. He's just worried and doesn't
    want to take advantage."

    "Oh," Ivy said,

    looking at me for a moment with a cocked head, taking my measure. "Now I;
    Okay, yes, I understand." She came forward and pushed me back by the
    shoulders until I was sitting fully upright on the cushioned bench seat instead
    of leaning forward. Then she crawled into my lap, on her knees with them
    outside my legs, and sat her perky bum on my legs. "Harrison, I have told
    you I think you are sexy, yes? Well here, I will prove it." She took my
    hand and brought my fingers to her lips, taking my pointer and middle fingers
    and sucking on them lewdly, then bringing them down between us to her crotch.
    She pulled the mesh panties aside and put my fingers against her hole and
    pivoted, taking my two thick fingers into her clenching cunt. "I want to
    fuck you. And I will tell you another thing about me; I like a man who takes me
    how he wants. Throw me on the bed, put my legs behind my head. Make me your
    little pretzel girl as you fuck my ass. I am sure I will love this 'big
    brother' you in time, too. But I need you first to be my man."

    Then she kissed me, grinding

    on my fingers. I breathed in through my nose, and she pressed her chest against
    mine, and I reached around her with the hand that wasn't busy at her cunt and
    grabbed her ass firmly. "Umm, yes," she mumbled into my mouth.
    "Like that."

    "God, I hope I didn't

    look that fucking horny when I kissed you that first time," Erica said.
    She was still sitting on the other end of the L-shaped bench from us, watching
    me get frenched by the little French minx who had just fallen into our lives.

    I pulled back from the kiss,

    and Ivy looked at me with concern, searching my face. "Go kiss
    Erica," I said.

    She grinned and slipped from

    my lap, my fingers leaving her cunt, and slid right onto Erica's lap and pulled
    my girlfriend into a hard kiss as their disproportionate tits pressed together.
    Erica was much bustier than Ivy, though the younger woman's figure was just as
    sexy. As they started to make out I stood up, walking to the back of the RV and
    surveying the space. The back of the vehicle was dominated by the bedroom,
    which had what looked like a bed that was too big for the space. I pulled the
    blanket and top sheet off of it, knowing how Erica had a tendency to leave wet
    spots after fucking, and then kicked off my boots and returned to the women.

    "Alright, come

    here," I said, and lifted Ivy off of Erica and tossed her over my shoulder
    so I was carrying her ass forward. She howled a laugh, kicking her legs, and I
    offered Erica my other hand up.

    "She is going to be a

    lot of fun," Erica said.

    "I know," I said.

    "But I need to ask you, too. Is this what you want?"

    Erica smiled, almost sadly,

    and shrugged. "I told you I'd introduce you to a lot of strippers. I just
    didn't know it would happen so fast. Like she said, it's the end of the world,
    at least as we know it. Why not?"

    I nodded, and then bounced

    Ivy on my shoulder and gave her a soft spank on the butt. "What are you
    giggling so hard for?"

    "Nothing," she

    said. "Everything."

    "Crazy French

    girl," I said, and carried her to the end of the RV and tossed her on the
    bed like she wanted. She landed and immediately twisted and turned, biting her
    lip as she positioned herself on her stomach, looking at me eagerly as she
    slowly kicked her legs and her little bum bounced, humping the air a little.

    "Oh, I think she wants

    to suck your cock," Erica said, coming up behind me and resting her cheek
    on my shoulder. She reached around my waist and started lowering my shorts.
    "Is that what you want, Ivy?"

    Ivy nodded, grinning.

    "Well, I've got a

    surprise for a naughty girl. You are very lucky, because you picked a man who
    happens to have a very nice, fat cock." Erica said, and dropped my shorts,
    letting my mostly-hard cock out.

    "Oh, fuck," Ivy

    said, her eyes going happily large. "It is a very good cock." She
    looked up at Erica. "May I please suck the very good cock?"

    "Good manners,"

    Erica said. "Yes, Ivy, you may suck Harrison. But from now on you should
    call it his fat cock."

    "Yes, mo" the rest

    of what she was saying became garbled as she leaned forward and spoke with the
    head of my cock between her lips, and came.

    She hadn't been expecting it,

    and her legs started to kick as she tensed up and pulled away from my cock,
    lowering her face to the bed. Then her body released all its tension and she
    sucked in a deep, ragged breath. "Woah!" she exhaled, loud and
    wordless, as a second wave of the orgasm passed through her.

    Erica reached around and ran

    her fingers through Ivy's hair as the smaller, younger woman rode a third and
    final wave of the vaccine-induced orgasm. She was left panting, and rolled over
    onto her back and looked back up at us in confusion and what looked like
    drunken delight.

    "What was that? I have

    never come so fast," she said in wonder

    "Didn't they tell you to

    expect that?" Erica asked.

    Ivy shook her head.

    "Huh, that's weird. They

    told my group," Erica said. "That was the imprinting process
    starting. Can you feel that ache, down in your clit? That's the vaccine too.
    Soon you'll feel it on your tongue, aching to get Harri's come anywhere you can
    inside you."

    "I already wanted

    this," Ivy said, her grin not slipping. She rolled back over onto her
    stomach and opened her mouth, but then hesitated. "Does this,”

    "No," I said,

    "Not every time."

    "Too bad, but also

    good," Ivy said. "It would be very hard to suck your cock if this
    happened every time." Then she took me back into her mouth and began
    bobbing her head quickly. I had a feeling she was actually a brunette and dyed
    her hair up to the dirty blonde she wore it. The dark undertones were more real
    than the light ones.

    Erica came around me now and slipped

    out of her shorts, going down to her panties and my shirt she'd been wearing,
    and got on her knees on the bed next to Ivy. She sat tall, and I kissed her as
    Ivy suckled on my cock. "Enjoy yourself, babe," Erica assured me.
    "We both want this."

    I raised an eyebrow and

    reached around her, grabbing her meatier ass. "You don't need to keep
    reassuring me, E. Or does 'mommy' need a good seeing to as well?"

    "Oh, I always

    need a good seeing to," Erica grinned. She started to lower down slowly,
    maintaining eye contact with me. "But first I think I need to make sure
    our naughty girl here knows how to treat you properly. Let me see you suck his
    cock, Ivy."

    Ivy beamed up at me, eyes

    flicking between my face and Erica's as the older woman leaned close.

    "Good, really slobber on

    that cock," Erica said softly, stroking Ivy's hair. "It's going to be
    cracking that cute little ass of yours open soon, so it needs to be very hard
    and very slippery."

    Ivy mumbled something

    unintelligible.

    "But don't forget his

    balls," Erica said.

    Ivy immediately took my cock

    from her mouth and lifted it with a hand, trying to take my sack between her
    lips but only fitting one nut as she tongued and worked her mouth. Erica took
    Ivy's place at my cock, putting her lips around the head and starting to blow
    me.

    "Oh, fuck, that's

    new," I groaned, looking down at both women staring up at me with smiles
    in their eyes. I put a hand on each of their heads.

    Ivy didn't let up, switching

    from one ball to the other as my cock rubbed across her face, but Erica popped
    off of the end and grinned at me before sliding back on the bed and taking up a
    position behind Ivy.

    "Now, what do we have

    here?" Erica asked, wrapping her fingers into the elastic band of Ivy's
    mesh panties. "Someone is a very naughty girl, dressing so slutty.
    Look, I can see everything! So what could possibly be the point of this?"
    She started pulling the panties down over Ivy's ass, and the younger woman
    shifted her hips eagerly, letting her do it.

    "Back to my cock

    now," I grunted, and Ivy followed my orders. Once I was back in her mouth,
    I ran my fingers down the side of her face, just watching as she looked up at
    me with adoringly needy eyes.

    Erica had gotten Ivy's

    panties off, and she tossed them aside as she knelt next to the pale girl and
    started to massage her upturned butt. "Ivy, you have a very cute
    ass," she said, stroking the girl's smooth skin. Just like her front, Ivy
    had a thin black line running down the middle of her spine, bisecting her from
    her hairline all the way down to her ass crack. On one side of the line her
    pale, smooth skin was flawless. On the other, she sported a collection of black
    tattoos; most of them flowery and nicely designed, a few of them more 'witchy'
    like flying crows and a jagged, leafless tree.

    "M'ank 'oo," Ivy

    mumbled around my cock, and wiggled her butt.

    Erica quickly sucked two

    fingers into her mouth and, biting the inside of her lip as she grinned,
    slipped them down between Ivy's legs and began slowly, teasingly fingering the
    younger woman's cunt.

    Ivy immediately responded by

    shuddering and starting to blow me faster, bobbing her head as she moaned with
    my cock in her mouth, pressing against the inside of her cheeks.

    "For a girl who prefers

    it in the ass, our naughty little girl gets very wet," Erica said to me.

    "Is that right?" I

    asked, and looked down at Ivy and her big eyes. "Do you get wet and ready
    for a cock even if you don't want one in that hole?"

    "Umm hmm," she

    hummed and nodded, then pulled her lips from my cock. "When I am ready,
    the right man will have a very good time with my naughty cunt."

    Erica leaned forward,

    bringing her lips to Ivy's ear from behind. "And what about Harrison? Is
    he the right man?"

    I could see the conflict

    warring in Ivy. She didn't know; her instincts were to shy away. But the
    vaccine, that need and horniness it had put in Erica, was in Ivy as well. She
    wanted me, wanted my cum. Wanted it inside her, to match with the vaccine.

    Chemically, she wanted to say

    yes.

    "You don't need to

    answer that," I told her reassuringly, stroking the side of her face
    again. Then I glanced at Erica, who raised an eyebrow at me, but I just shook
    my head.

    Ivy, a thankful look in her

    eyes, quickly went back to blowing me while Erica played with her cunt.
    Eventually I pulled away, and in one move picked up and flipped Ivy over onto
    her back. She giggled, and I was glad that she'd been honest with me about
    wanting to be thrown around in bed; I would have likely asked, or maybe told,
    her to move. Instead she seemed to really enjoy the manhandling.

    "Get the rest of the

    lingerie off," I said.

    The mesh bra did nothing to

    hide her perky, small boobs from me, but I wanted her naked. There was a
    practical element; once the bonding process was completed, she was going to
    zonk out and having that strappy lingerie on for hours and hours wouldn't be
    good for her or it. But there was also a primal thing in me that just wanted
    this strangely innocent, strangely filthy girl naked for me.

    She stripped quickly, and

    Erica took that time to peel off my shirt that she was wearing as well,
    revealing her bigger, heavy tits.

    "Oh, my," Ivy said,

    and sat up, reaching for Erica's chest. "You are so beautiful,
    Erica."

    Erica grinned and leaned

    forward a bit, allowing Ivy to press her face into Erica's cleavage. "She's
    like a horny teenage boy," Erica laughed. Ivy was kissing and licking her
    cleavage all over.

    "So am I, when it comes

    to you," I said, and slipped off the bed to stand behind her, kissing her
    on the cheek and then down to her neck while I reached around and cupped her
    tits from below, lifting them for Ivy to feast on.

    "Oh, god, this is

    heaven," Erica moaned, leaning her head back on my shoulder.

    "Have you ever done a

    threesome before?" I asked her quietly.

    "Once. Three

    women," she mumbled. "Not that great, really."

    "Too much fake

    cock?" I asked.

    "That, and tribbing is

    stupid. Doesn't do anything for me, and they both loved it."

    "Hear that, Ivy? No

    tribbing," I said.

    "But can I eat her

    cunt?" Ivy asked, coming up for air from the bounty of tits she was enjoying.

    "I think my answer is

    'whenever you want,'" Erica laughed.

    "First I want more of

    your mouth," I said to Ivy. "Lay back down. And Erica, I'd love to
    see you eat her out."

    Erica grinned. "Ever

    seen a lesbian act in person before?"

    "Nothing more explicit

    than two drunk girls kissing to rile up some guys at a party," I said.

    Ivy had lain back, spreading

    her legs, and Erica knelt between them and slowly brought her face down to
    Ivy's bare cunt. It was pretty, almost like the clean and clinical specimen you
    would see in a biology textbook. "Do you want me to lick your cunt,
    Ivy?" Erica asked teasingly.

    "Yes, please," Ivy

    said and grabbed the bedspread in her fingers in anticipation.

    Erica went to work, and Ivy

    moaned loudly and wordlessly as her body tensed and then relaxed into the
    sensations.

    "Is it good," I

    asked.

    "Uh-huh," Ivy

    nodded and moaned.

    I knelt down next to her head

    and turned her face sideways, tapping my cock against her lips. She immediately
    opened them, and I slid between her lips and she began suckling. Then, after
    looking down and seeing the smile in Erica's eyes as she watched me getting
    blown while she ate cunt, I began to thrust lightly into Ivy's mouth. The dirty
    blonde dropped her jaw, and worked her tongue, and soon I was pumping steadily,
    treating her lips just roughly enough to feel divine. I reached down and palmed
    her tit, which so far had been almost entirely ignored. I happened to grab the
    tattooed side of her, where the boob itself was still a blank canvas but was
    surrounded by them dark patterns.

    Her nipple was a firm little

    nub in my palm, and her moaning on my cock changed to a higher pitch when I
    grabbed her more firmly, and then began playing with her nipple between my
    fingers. Erica, seeing the change in Ivy, mimicked me and reached up for her
    other tit and grabbed it as well.

    "Muh," Ivy moaned,

    but didn't try to pull away from my thrusting. She whined on my cock, thrusting
    her hips up and down, grinding against Erica's face. Then, seeing her coming to
    a peak, I thrust in and held my cock deep in her mouth, but not to the point of
    gagging her. I pinched the nipple I was holding, and Erica focused on her clit,
    and Ivy went off with a long shudder and another muffled howl.

    I pulled my cock from her

    mouth when she was coming down. "Keep going," I told Erica. "Get
    her there again." Then I stepped off of the bed and behind Erica, whose
    panty-clad ass was up in the air at the edge of the bed. I pulled her panties
    down to her thighs, set my cock against her puffy cunt, and thrust inside
    firmly, claiming her as mine again.

    "Yes, babe," Erica

    gasped into Ivy's cunt. "Fuck, yes, my fucking stud."

    "Oh, fuck," Ivy

    groaned, eyes half-closed as she grabbed at her own tits harshly and watched me
    fucking Erica from behind. Within five thrusts I was burying deep into my
    girlfriend at a good, steady pace. "You two are so fucking hot," Ivy
    said breathily, her accent turning every croon into a delightful sentence
    instead of something that might have come across as crude.

    I fucked Erica steadily, one

    hand on her hip and the other keeping hold of her wonderful ass, and she thrust
    back at me while trying to keep her lips and tongue working. I wanted Erica to
    feel how desirable I found her, even in this threesome with a brand new woman
    between us. I wanted her to know she wasn't just forced on me; she was a
    choice. She chose me, and I chose her back.

    Leaning forward, I let go of

    her waist and ass and grabbed her tits hanging below her, palming them and
    lifting their weight as she remained ass up and face down in Ivy's cunt.
    "I fucking love you, E," I said. "I love your body, I love your
    personality, and I love your mind. And right now, I really love how fucking
    sexual you are."

    "Fuck," Ivy

    groaned. "Fuck, that is so hot."

    Erica was starting to falter

    in her fucking back at me, which I knew meant she was getting close but I
    wanted to push her farther. "Ivy," I said. "It's almost time.
    How much prep does your ass need?"

    Ivy licked her lips, that

    carnal need growing inside of her with every passing minute. "For most
    guys, two fingers would be enough. But for you, I think three, if Mommy will do
    it for me?"

    "What do you think,

    'mommy,'" I grinned. "Are you up for prepping her?"

    Erica slurped off of Ivy's

    cunt and flipped the girl onto her stomach, then spread her ass cheeks and spit
    onto her asshole. "For her, and to watch you fuck this cute little ass,
    absolutely," Erica said.

    I really couldn't see all

    that much of the oral portion of the prep, since I continued to fuck Erica. I
    slowed, and thrust deep and firm instead of faster and harder, and gave her the
    chance to work. Soon enough, Erica had two fingers in Ivy's ass and was adding
    a third.

    "Oh, mommy, yes,"

    Ivy moaned. "Finger my ass. Spread my asshole for our man. God, I want
    that fat cock up my ass so badly. Harrison, please don't make me wait. Please
    don't back out, I need it so badly."

    "Who does this ass

    belong to now, Ivy?" Erica asked her.

    "Fuck, fuck," Ivy

    gasped.

    Erica slapped the side of her

    ass cheek. "Who does this ass belong to now, dirty little girl?"

    "Harrison," Ivy

    moaned. "Oh, fuck, Harrison. Fuck my ass. Take my ass. Take it. Take
    it."

    I pulled out of Erica,

    watching for just a moment as her cunt was split by me and didn't want to let
    go, then hopped back up on the bed. Erica pulled her fingers out of Ivy's hole,
    and I spun the younger woman around on the bed and pulled her up onto her hands
    and knees. Ivy dropped her face to the mattress as she reached back and held
    her ass cheeks open, her butthole winking at me.

    "Fuck my ass. Please,

    Butt fuck me. Own my butt," she panted.

    I placed my cock to her

    asshole and pressed forward.

    "Oh, fuck yes," Ivy

    almost howled. "Oh, it is so good. Merci, merci, oh fuck yes."

    I was halfway in when she

    finally clenched and I stopped. Erica, meanwhile, had shifted her seating on
    the bed so she was on her ass, and she spread her legs in front of Ivy's face.
    "Hey, now it's time for you to lick my cunt, dirty girl," she said.

    Ivy lifted her head and

    groaned as she tasted Erica for the first time, and as she did Ivy's ass
    relaxed, and I pushed in the rest of the way.

    "Yes," she mumbled.

    "Yes, fuck, so good. So full."

    I slowly pulled back out,

    then pushed back in. I'd tried anal before, once with a German girl I met off
    base, but it had been tough going. With Ivy, it was like she was just built
    different. She squeezed back at me, pushed to get me deeper.

    "She really is an Anal

    Queen," I gasped to Erica, who opened her eyes and grinned savagely at me.

    "I can't believe you're

    fucking her in the ass right now," she said.

    "Neither can I," I

    said, and started to properly thrust into that tight but forgiving asshole.

    "She's fucking good with

    her tongue, too," Erica groaned. "I can feel myself getting
    soaked."

    "Careful," I

    snickered. "There are the only sheets we have right now."

    "Oh, fuck off,"

    Erica laughed.

    I had just started fucking

    into Ivy harder still, and she was sucking in deep breaths and moaning like a
    pornstar, when there was a loud banging on the main door of the RV.

    There was absolutely no way

    they couldn't hear what was happening in here, let alone that I had to assume
    the RV was rocking a bit.

    "Don't stop," Ivy

    gasped, lifting her face from Erica's cunt and begging me over her shoulder.
    "Please, keep fucking my ass. You can't stop. I need you to keep
    going."

    "Fuck, I was so

    close," Erica groaned, and the knocking happened again, banging on the
    door. Erica rolled off the bed. "You can't stop now, you might break her
    mind. I'll deal with this."

    "Yes, Harri, fuck me. So

    good, fuck my ass. Fuck my ass!" Ivy moaned, even fucking louder now that
    she didn't have Erica's cunt to muffle her.

    Erica stalked naked out into

    the main area of the RV, and she slipped on the robe that Ivy had been using
    earlier. She pulled it closed in the front and opened the door.

    "Hey, so this is

    awkward,” I could hear Vanessa say, but then I was shocked when instead of
    going outside to talk to her, Erica reached out and pulled her inside the RV.

    "Fuck, E! You didn't

    shut the door," I said.

    "Oh, shit. Sorry!"

    Erica called, and I only half believed her.

    There was one long moment of

    chaos where Vanessa was inside, looking down the length of the RV right at me
    as I was thrusting away, my nuts slapping against Ivy's cunt as I fucked her
    ass at speed.

    "Fuck," I grunted,

    and I made to pull out.

    "No, please, merde.

    Don't stop fucking my ass. Don't stop. Fuck my little ass. Come inside, I need
    you to come inside. Rempli-moi, mon homme. Mon cher. Fuck, mon amour!"

    I couldn't stop. I was so fucking

    close to coming, but I also had to move. So I did the only thing I could do; I
    wrapped my arms around Ivy's torso, fucked my cock as deep into her ass as I
    could, and picked her up and lifted her off of the bed.

    "Fuck, mon amour. I love

    you fucking my ass. Own my ass, mon amour. Fill me, fuck me," she babbled.

    I got us out of direct line

    of sight, pressing Ivy against the wall of the RV just next to the door to the
    bedroom, and I fumbled with one hand and slammed it shut as I kept thrusting
    into her.

    "Fuck. Fuck! I want you,

    I want it inside. Je veux croquer la pomme. Je suis très mouillée pour toi, mon
    amour. Fuck me. I love you?" she gasped the last words, like she was
    unsure, but enlightened by the idea.

    And then I came, pressing her

    up against the wood paneling and carpet of the RV walls. I came deep inside her
    ass, and she leaned back into me as her entire body shook. Her jaw was clenched
    tight, a small whine coming through almost like one of those dog whistles.

    "Sorry about that,

    Vanessa," I heard Erica talking through the walls. "We got a new
    vaccine partner who moved in with the RV. We were just, um, going through the
    bonding process."

    "That is; I mean, I'm

    sorry?" Vanessa mumbled. "It was obvious what was... happening, but
    we kind of need to get to work again. I wasn't expecting you to..."

    "That's totally my

    fault," Erica said. "I was a little fuck drunk; Harrison is very
    capable, and our new partner Ivy has a very skilled tongue."

    ".....Okay,"

    Vanessa exhaled.

    That was when it felt more

    like I was holding Ivy up, rather than her standing on her own, and I carefully
    pulled my cock from her still-clenching butt and scooped her up in my arms.

    "Imprinting.

    Imprinting," she was mumbling.

    "Still fucking

    creepy," I grumbled, shaking my head as I looked at her in my arms. She
    was all woman, but like this I couldn't help but feel protective of the young
    woman who'd been forced into making choices that led her to my bed.

    The whole experience was

    amazing, but it was still... ugh.

    I set Ivy down on the bed and

    lay the sheet over her, and she curled up around a pillow and continued to
    mumble. This let me find and pull my shorts back on and exit the room.

    Erica was sitting on the

    murphy table, which she'd folded down, and Vanessa was sitting on the L-bench.

    "Vanessa, I am so sorry

    you got an eyeful of me like that," I said.

    "No, it's fine,"

    Vanessa said, raising a hand. "You guys explained some of it last night,
    and Erica was just telling me again about the whole vaccine process and stuff.
    I didn't realize that's what this was and you couldn't, ah, interrupt the
    process."

    I nodded, and during the

    following brief conversation I apologized a couple more times. We quickly went
    through the plan for the day; which included finishing up all the rest of the
    moving out of the house so that it could be demolished the next morning.

    "And that's it,"

    Vanessa nodded. "Uh, before I go; could I see her?"

    "You mean Ivy?"

    Erica asked.

    "Yeah," Vanessa

    said. "I mean, not if she's in a compromising position or whatever. But
    last night you and Leo talked about the 'imprinting' thing, and I'm probably
    going to have to do that eventually. I'd like to see it beforehand."

    I sucked my teeth for a

    moment, then nodded. "Sure, I think she should be decent." I led
    Vanessa to the back of the RV and opened the bedroom door. Ivy was still where
    I'd left her. Vanessa scooted around the outside of the bed, leaning forward
    and watching Ivy's face as she smiled and mumbled 'Imprinting' over and over.

    "That's freaky,"

    Vanessa whispered, standing back up and coming out of the room. "But she's
    also gorgeous."

    "Just wait until you see

    her tattoos," Erica said. "She has some really interesting work
    done."

    "Yeah?" Vanessa

    asked. "Cool. I'm looking forward to meeting her."

    Erica smiled. "So, uh,

    how long before you need us?"

    "Like, twenty minutes

    ago," Vanessa smirked.

    "No," Erica shook

    her head. "I mean, how long until you need us."

    "Oh!" Vanessa said

    again, her eyes going wide. "Um.. another... fifteen minutes?"

    Erica smiled and winked.

    "I'll make it work."

    Vanessa, blushing, left the

    RV and shut the door behind her, while Erica turned and dropped the robe,
    revealing her naked body to me again. "I need you to fuck my orgasm back
    to life, babe," she said, staring hotly. "Fuck me fast and hard."

    I pulled her into my arms,

    laughing along with her as I glanced around the RV, deciding which part of the
    big luxury vehicle we should christen first.

    With Ivy safely tucked away

    in the back of the RV, and Erica and I working the knots out of her system
    quickly, it really was time to get to work. While Erica and I had been busy,
    Leo had been equally busy, going to wake up Danielle and show her their new
    temporary home as well.

    "Come on, rabbits,"

    Erica called, knocking on the back window of their RV.

    "You would have been so

    pissed if he did that to you," I said.

    Erica laughed and shrugged.

    "Yeah, so?"

    "You two have a very

    different relationship than me and my sister," I said.

    The curtain on the window

    pulled aside a little, Leo glancing out and glaring at Erica. "Fuck
    off," he said, flashing her the finger.

    "We need to get to

    work!" Erica called again.

    Leo looked like he was about

    to say something snarky, but was pulled away and Danielle was now in the open
    corner of the window. "Sorry," she said, barely audible through the
    glass and over the sounds of construction work happening nearby. "I'll
    make sure we're quick."

    Her angelic face flashed us

    both a smile, and then she dropped the curtain.

    "Did you see what I

    saw?" Erica asked, turning to me.

    "You mean her whole

    naked tit?" I asked.

    "God damn, it's like

    that girl was manufactured to be 'Sexiest Woman Alive," Erica chuckled.

    "I don't know about

    that," I said, taking her hand and leading her away. "You'd give her
    a run for her money."

    "Compliments will serve

    you well, boyfriend," Erica smiled, squeezing my hand and winking.

    It turned out that the

    surveyors didn't need major tours again yet, so I was more free to help with
    the packing and the moving. Once Leo and Danielle joined us; letting us know
    the water pressure in the RV showers was pitiful at best; the work went
    quickly. We moved our clothing and things we knew we'd need sooner than later
    into the RVs, everything else got moved into the storage containers. A third
    container was dropped off to help with housing Leo's woodworking equipment,
    which gave us more space to start organizing things as well.

    How long did a house take to

    build? How long until they even started on our houses? These were the sorts of
    questions we just didn't have answers to, so we had to guess we would probably
    be in the RVs at least through the fall and winter and into next year.

    It was around the middle of

    the afternoon, and I was busy securing my father's old gun safe in the storage
    container with the woodworking tools, when I heard the telltale sound of
    another vehicle pulling up the driveway. Not three days ago, that sort of
    commotion would have had me wondering who it could be, and why they were out
    here in the middle of nowhere. And that wasn't just because of the pandemic
    quarantine; it had been that way my whole childhood. There were three kinds of
    visitors to the Black family ranch; expected, in need, and unwanted. Now I
    heard vans and trucks moving almost constantly, and there must have been thirty
    or more people working just within fifty yards and I'd only met half of them.
    It was strange.

    "Excuse me, Mr.

    Black?" A man asked. I turned from the gun safe and found a
    scraggly-looking kid, maybe all of twenty and looking like he was all bones and
    unkempt facial hair. He was wearing a reflective construction vest and had a
    hard hat tucked under one arm.

    "Just Harrison is

    fine," I said, shutting the safe and spinning the dial to lock it.
    "What can I do for you? Is Vanessa looking for me?"

    "Who? No, I don't think

    so," the kid said. "I'm with the grading crew working on the highway?
    There's, uh, some people who showed up demanding to talk to you."

    I took a breath and nodded.

    It could have been a couple of different people. "What did they look
    like?"

    "Well," he

    hesitated. "There were two women and three men, and they pulled up in a
    green pickup truck and a white panel van."

    "Kid, are they all

    Natives?" I asked.

    "Um, yeah," he

    said, clearly uncomfortable. He'd likely grown up somewhere far from a
    reservation, and probably in a major city, so his experience was limited to a
    little bubble.

    "Alright, I know what

    this is," I sighed. Part of me considered opening the gun safe back up,
    but I ended up figuring it would just make things worse. Guns usually did.

    It was tempting, though.

    I followed the kid out to the

    front and waved down Erica and Vanessa as they were talking on the front stoop
    of the house. "Hey, I need to head down to the highway," I said.
    "The Band is here to chew my ear off."

    "Oh, shit," Erica

    sighed. She hadn't met any of them, but she'd heard some stories from Leo and
    me.

    "Wait, you mean like

    people from the Reserve?" Vanessa asked. "Are they going to cause
    trouble?"

    "Not today," I

    said. "Probably. They aren't going to like any of this though."

    "Fuck," Vanessa

    sighed. "Well, I guess I need to come with you. I'm technically in charge
    of the site right now, other than the surveyors. All the other work crews are
    getting their orders in via radio from my Dad at the temp headquarters at the
    motel until his office gets set up here, so I'm the emergency contact."

    "I was going to ride one

    of the quads down," I said. "You're welcome to the other, unless you
    want to get your truck."

    "Same speed, but the

    Quad's more fun," Vanessa grinned.

    I fetched the keys and she

    and I were just turning over the engines when Erica came hustling over from our
    RV; she'd done her makeup quickly and changed into a fresh white tank top with
    one of my old button-down flannel work shirts hanging open with the sleeves
    rolled up, and her favorite black jeans that hung low on her hips and accented
    her ass.

    She stepped up and swung her

    leg over the back of my RV, settling in behind me and hugging her arms around
    my chest.

    "What's with the change

    of clothes?" Vanessa asked.

    "Battle armor,"

    Erica said.

    I just shook my head, not

    wanting to get into the details. We'd kept the 'visitors' long enough.

    Driving down the widened

    driveway was a strange experience; I likely could have navigated the old
    driveway trail by memory and the feel of every bump in the road. Now it was
    smooth and graveled, and a water truck had even driven through a few times with
    little sprayers, hosing down the dust. And some of my landmarks, fallen trees
    or weird-looking rocks, were just gone. Cleared away by the grading crew. It
    set my teeth on edge, thinking about how everything was changing. Nothing was
    going to be the same, whether the pandemic got better or got worse; I'd changed
    my family legacy indelibly.

    I think Erica might have felt

    me tensing up, and without a word she hugged me a little tighter around the
    waist and kissed the back of my neck softly.

    When we reached the bottom of

    the driveway; only a couple of minutes' drive on the quads, I saw that the work
    had been continuing. The turn-in was now almost five times as wide as it had
    been before, and a highway crew was working on not only making sure there was
    clear drainage and the turn was smoothly graded, but also installing an extra
    wide shoulder on the far side of the highway as well to give consideration for
    extra-long truck beds making wide turns.

    There were three work trucks

    and a big panel van, and most of the guys seemed to be working diligently; in
    fact, it might have been the hardest-working highway crew I'd ever seen. Deadline
    quotas tied to money seemed to be doing the trick. But down the highway about
    twenty yards, three of the construction workers were lounging against the
    tailgate of one of the trucks, their arms crossed as they kept watch on our
    five guests.

    I drove slowly around the

    workers, out onto the highway and then back around to park on the other side of
    the trucks, between the workers and our guests from the Band. Erica squeezed my
    arm as I dismounted, and she quickly followed as Vanessa fell in beside us in
    her chunky work boots, slim-fit work jeans and long sleeve t-shirt. She looked
    the part of a construction worker, and even a foreman with the extra notepads
    and carpenter pencils stuck in her reflective vest pocket.

    "Kara," I said by

    way of greeting.

    Kara was glaring at me from

    behind a bandana tied across her face. Her silky, long black hair was tied back
    in a thick braid and her warm, tanned skin was mostly covered up by the beige
    work shirt she was wearing. The other two women were similarly dressed, each
    one with the Community Center logo for the Rez emblazoned on the left tit of
    their shirts. The two hulking men stayed in the back, doing their job of
    glaring at me angrily to an admirable degree.

    "Harrison, what the fuck

    is this?" Kara demanded, gesturing at the work crew and the expanded
    driveway.

    "Well, even though it's

    none of your business," I said, keeping my voice as even as I could.
    "This construction is because the Feds are developing my land. All of
    it."

    Kara's eyes went wide, and I

    could only imagine her jaw going slack behind her bandana mask. She looked
    around quickly, then up the slope towards my home and back. "You
    wouldn't," she said.

    "I did," I sighed.

    "I didn't go looking for it, but it was the only reasonable choice."

    "You can't,"

    she said again, eyes starting to steel over.

    "I'm sorry,

    Harrison," Vanessa interrupted. "Hi, I'm Vanessa Colson, I'm the Site
    Super right now. Is there something I can do for you, or;?"

    "You can stop working

    immediately," said one of the other women. "This land doesn't belong
    to the government, or the Blacks. This is tribal land."

    Receiving backup, Kara nodded

    sternly.

    "Yeah," I sighed.

    "Same shit, different year. My Dad almost went bankrupt fighting your
    lawsuits, and my Grandfather before him. The Band has made my family miserable
    for generations, and you've lost every single time. The State court declared
    you have no standing whatsoever over my land."

    "Your family has murdered

    our people for generations!" Kara shouted. "You stole this land from
    us."

    "And you've murdered

    us," I said back. "But there hasn't been a death in eighty years,
    Kara. Eighty years! And the State recognized the original bill of sale, my
    great great great Grandfather purchased this land fair and square and you know
    it. But this isn't my fucking problem anymore! You want to sue? It's not
    going to be my Dad, it's not going to be me. You're going to be squaring off
    against the Feds, so go ahead and have fun with it."

    "Fuck you,

    Harrison," Kara said. "Standing by your murdering family line. You
    could have made something of yourself, could have made a difference. Righted
    the past."

    "Alright, this is just

    edging into harassment territory," Vanessa said. "Look, unless you
    show up here with a legal writ saying we need to halt work, there is no way in
    hell that I'm stopping work."

    "We'll make you

    stop," the other woman said. "We'll stage a protest, bring in the
    media. I'll tell everyone who will listen about my grandfather and great uncle
    and how they are buried in unmarked graves in those woods."

    I grimaced, realizing that

    behind the mask was Feather Callingwood, a long-time activist for all sorts of
    issues on the local rez and one of the featured 'witnesses' that had been
    paraded out during the last lawsuit, telling the oral history of her family.
    "Feather, you can try anything you want," I said. "But I'm
    telling you, there ain't no unmarked graves up in those hills. Not because
    there weren't any; I believe you. I believe your grandfather and his brother
    trespassed, and my great-Grandfather and Grandfather killed them and buried
    them. But my Grandfather was a spiteful sonofabitch, and he went to some pretty
    ridiculous lengths to clear out every single body that wasn't a Black. And he's
    fucking dead and in that ground now, so there's no one to blame except
    ghosts."

    She glared hate at me, and I

    just shrugged.

    Kara was fuming as well, but

    she held it in better, because as Feather looked about ready to rush at me Kara
    signaled and one of the big men put himself in front of Feather and after a
    brief, whispered conversation they went back to the van and inside. Kara then
    signaled to the others, who hesitated but turned back towards that truck they'd
    come in, leaving just Kara facing off with me, Vanessa and Erica.

    "So what?" Kara

    asked. "You go off and join the military, and now you just lick the heels
    of the government?"

    "Hardly," I said.

    "They made me a deal that was too good to refuse, with a stick too big to
    ignore."

    "So you're a sellout,

    then," she said.

    "Sure, Kara," I

    sighed in exasperation. "I'm a sellout. After six generations, I decided
    that rather than give in to you I would just blow the whole thing up out of
    spite. Does that really sound like me?"

    "Fuck you,

    Harrison," Kara said, but I could see the conflict in her eyes.
    "We'll be back. Feather isn't wrong, we'll protest this thing into the
    fucking ground. We'll march on Portland. Hell, we'll march on DC if we have
    to."

    Erica snorted, which raised

    Kara's ire again. "What? What does the white woman have to say about my
    people and our persecution?"

    "Jesus Christ,"

    Erica said. "This isn't a fucking race thing. I'm snorting at the fact
    that you think you can protest this away. After what I've seen, with the
    resources I know they are throwing behind this? All I've got to say is 'Good Luck.'"

    Kara set her jaw stubbornly,

    I could tell it even beneath her bandana mask, and turned on her heel and
    stalked towards the truck. And I wanted to see her go. I really did. But also
    there was history.

    "Kara," I called

    after her, and she turned back. "Kara, this pandemic is serious business.
    It's bad. Just... be careful, alright?"

    "You think I don't know

    that, Harrison? All of our community programs have had their funding shut off,
    and have to operate under the radar because they're technically illegal. We
    haven't been able to staff our medical clinic for two months; all of our
    volunteers are worked to the bone in the city even if they did have the time.
    But if it's as bad as you say, where the hell are your masks? Where's your 'be
    careful?'"

    "All of our workers are

    being tested frequently," Vanessa said. "Quarantine before they come
    on-site, and no close contact off of site once they are working."

    "Sure," Kara said.

    "And what about you, Harrison? And who's this, your white whore?"

    "Erica is my girlfriend,

    Kara," I said. "And is living with me. And part of our deal with the
    Feds was getting into an experimental vaccine program."

    Kara's eyes hardened.

    "Of course it was. Because why offer that chance to the people who
    actually need it the most?" She stormed off, and I knew it wouldn't be
    long before I saw her again. Likely with a picket sign.

    The Natives reversed and

    drove off, heading back up the highway towards the reserve.

    "Alright, what the fuck

    was that?" Vanessa asked once the vehicles had travelled around the bend.

    "As you could probably

    tell, there's a long and unsavory history between my family and the
    Reserve," I said.

    "Don't bury the lead,

    Harri," Erica said.

    "I'm not. There is also

    history between me and Kara. We... dated in high school. First loves, first;
    yeah. I didn't care it pissed off my Dad, she didn't care it pissed off her
    parents either. Then she took this internship for course credit in our senior
    year with the Elders on the Rez, and I guess they knew about us, and they told
    her all about the history between my family and the Band. She cried as she
    broke up with me, but said she couldn't 'betray her people.' It always sounded
    like brainwashing to me. She ended up becoming a paralegal after college, and I
    joined the military. Life went on, and I never heard from her until my Dad
    finally passed. Then she came back around, as a representative of the Band,
    trying to get me to give up the land despite the legal wins. And for the past
    five years, maybe every 18 months or so, she's filed lawsuits for one reason or
    another and they've always gotten tossed out because there's no new evidence or
    reasoning."

    "Fuck me, that explains

    the whole 'white woman' schtick," Vanessa groaned. "Now I know what
    you meant by battle armor, Erica."

    "I wasn't about to just

    let her try and walk all over Harrison without showing up," Erica smirked.

    Vanessa breathed in deep and

    then out slowly. "This isn't just going to go away, is it?" she
    asked.

    I shook my head. "Not

    likely. I don't know how fast they'll move, but they'll do something."

    "Fuck," Vanessa

    said. "Guess I need to make some calls."

    "Sorry it's landing on

    you," I said.

    "No, it's really

    not," Vanessa sighed. "I just know I'm going to get an earful of it
    anyways. I wish my brother was here, he's negotiated a bunch of contracts for
    industrial sites with Native groups before."

    "I don't think some

    guaranteed jobs are going to cut it here," I grimaced.

    "Yeah, didn't sound like

    it would," Vanessa nodded. "Alright," she turned to the work
    crew that had been listening and chatting, their work forgotten. "Shows
    over, y' bums. Remember those deadline bonuses? You want to hit those or what?
    You ugly mugs gossip more than a knitting circle after someone announces a
    divorce, Jesus Fuck!"

    Erica gave me a soft smile

    and took my hand. "You handled that well," she said quietly.

    "Thanks," I said.

    "I wasn't sure how I'd do. Telling her about the Feds could have been my
    breaking point."

    "Well, it wasn't,"

    Erica nodded and pulled me into a hug. "Can you imagine if you told her
    the details of the vaccine, though? Her head might have popped right off."

    "I know," I said,

    hugging her back. "But that's also what worries me."

    By the end of the day the

    barn was empty, the vehicles were moved into a makeshift parking lot next to
    the RVs, and the house was sitting with the windows and doors open, everything
    of any significance piled into the storage containers. More office portables
    had been moved in, and some of Vanessa's 'Gorilla Crew' had already gotten to
    work setting them up. Soon there would be a small complex of portable offices
    to manage the construction site. A tree-clearing crew had also shown up late in
    the afternoon, starting to walk around with the surveyors, marking out areas
    where they would start work in the morning.

    I sat in the empty living

    room of the house I'd grown up in, looking out the front windows at a skyline
    that hadn't changed in thirty years, and then changed all at once in three
    days.

    "Hey," Leo said

    behind me. He was standing in the kitchen doorway, leaning his hands on either
    side of the jam. "You Okay, buddy?"

    "Yeah, yeah," I

    said. "I'm fine. Just feels weird."

    "I can only

    imagine," Leo said. He walked over and sat down next to me, offering me a
    beer he must have brought from the RVs. "You know, Erica and I never lived
    in a house longer than five years growing up?"

    "I didn't," I said.

    "I know you mentioned moving, but I never put the timeline together."

    "It's true. Our Pops was

    always looking for the better thing. Better house, better job. Better wife,
    when he got tired of our Mom; not that I fully blame him, the piece of work she
    was. But this has been the best home I've ever had, living here with you. So
    thanks," Leo said sincerely, and lifted his beer.

    I clinked bottles with him

    and smiled. "It's been good having you, brother."

    "Not your brother

    yet," he said. "You haven't put a ring on my sister's finger."

    "It's been three days,

    fucker," I laughed.

    "Yeah, but you love

    her," he sighed. "Can't fucking hide that, even when I'm trying not
    to see it."

    "And what about

    you?" I asked. "You and Danielle are as all over each other as Erica
    and me. Maybe even more. Did I see your RV rocking in the middle of the
    afternoon?"

    "No," Leo scoffed,

    then let a smirk slip through. "Maybe."

    "You dog," I laughed.

    "It's not the same

    though, I think," Leo said after taking a drink. "Danielle is; Fuck,
    she's just way out of my league on every level. Physical, mental, ambition, you
    name it. We fit, and it's awesome, but we're still getting to know each
    other. You and Erica? You don't need to do that."

    "Are you trying to tell

    me to propose to your sister?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

    "Hey man, you did say

    the upside was getting you as a brother-in-law," he grinned. "I'm
    just trying to get there as quick as I can."

    We laughed and chatted as we

    finished our beers. I made no promises about a ring for Erica; we were in love,
    sure, but we were also in the wildest honeymoon phase I could think of. 'Hey,
    the world is ending, and here's a chemical that will save your life but it
    makes you entirely dependent on the sexual satisfaction of your partner' didn't
    make for a convincing argument for a long-lasting relationship to me.

    Plus there was Ivy to

    consider, still zonked out in the RV with the imprinting process.

    Leo eventually left me to my

    brooding, teasing me on the way out as only a real friend could, and I wasn't
    alone five minutes before new footsteps came in behind me and Erica slid to sit
    down, hugging me from behind.

    "Hey," she said,

    resting her chin on my shoulder and looking out at the sunset with me.

    "Hey," I replied.

    "I left a note for Ivy

    in case she wakes up," Erica said. "I knew you'd want to spend one
    more night here."

    "Thanks," I

    whispered.

    We spent the night camped out

    on the living room floor, nothing between us except a single blanket. We mostly
    talked, and Erica slipped out twice to grab us beers from the RV. She came back
    once giggling and scandalized because she'd almost stumbled into Danielle
    fucking Leo in nearly the same spot on the lawn as we'd been fucking the night
    before.

    And we made love, there on

    the floor. It was slow and pleasant, and we didn't try to compete with each
    other. And after I came inside of her, she hummed a tuneless lullaby to me and
    stroked my hair as I rested my head on her bosom. And then she whispered
    naughty things to me, and told me if I was going to be fucking our little
    fuckbuddy in the ass regularly, she was going to need to get her own ass ready
    for me too; she just needed a few days, if I could wait that long. And all of
    that led to another session on the floor, and then all too soon we were waking
    up with the first sliver of light stabbing through the back kitchen window and
    slicing a beam of light across the house.

    We had to dress quickly,

    since we could already hear the rumble of vehicles on the driveway.

    By six o'clock there were

    already two dozen workers in the area, and by six-thirty an excavator and a
    bulldozer were being unhitched from the flatbeds that had trucked them in, and
    three dump trucks were on standby.

    "Morning," Vanessa

    said, trudging toward Erica, Leo, Danielle and I as we stood in front of the
    RVs.

    "Morning," I said.

    "Coffee?"

    "Yes, please,"

    Vanessa nodded.

    "I'll get it,"

    Erica said, trailing her hand over my shoulder as she dipped back into our RV.

    "Not quite the exciting

    hello I got yesterday," Vanessa commented with a smirk.

    "What happened

    yesterday?" Danielle asked.

    Vanessa told her side of the

    story, putting a blush on Leo's cheeks and making Danielle giggle and bite her
    tongue cutely. Erica came out most of the way through the story, another
    steaming travel mug full of coffee. "Two and two, right?"

    "How'd you get my coffee

    order so quick?" Vanessa asked.

    "I asked around,"

    Erica smiled. "Feel free to come over whenever you want."

    "I appreciate it, and

    I'll try not to rub it in the Gorilla's faces too much."

    We stood, quietly sipping and

    softly chatting until one of Vanessa's crew came around the building and waved
    at us. Vanessa turned to me. "Ready? Any last things to do?"

    I shook my head. "No, go

    ahead."

    Vanessa waved back, and the

    guy disappeared.

    About five minutes later, a

    guy came out the back of the house, having done a final check to make sure no
    one was inside, and radioed to the excavator.

    The demolition didn't take as

    long as I thought it would. Chomp by chomp, the house started to dissolve,
    collapsing in on itself.

    "Erica?" Ivy asked.

    "Harrison?" She was dressed, thank God, and wasn't pulling a
    Danielle.

    "Hey, honey," Erica

    said, leaving me to go whisper with Ivy on the steps of the RV where she was
    poking her head out. I turned back to watch my childhood continue to disappear.

    Then I had Ivy hugging me

    from the side, and Erica slid in on the other and hugged my arm, resting her
    cheek on my shoulder. I put my arm around Ivy, thankful that even if everything
    was changing, at least some of the changes were turning out to be silver
    linings.

    The house was gone in under

    an hour. Not just demolished, but bulldozed and scooped up into the dump trucks
    and carted away. Where it had stood was a shallow hole on the hillside, the
    remains of the crawlspace that I'd hid in as a young kid, and been scared of as
    a slightly older one because of the spiders and chance of snakes or other animals.
    And been annoyed by as a teen, getting told to go clean it out as a punishment
    for something I couldn't remember.

    Most of the others had

    stepped away once the main show was over, Danielle scooping Ivy under her wing
    to get to know the new girl in our weird little circle as she and Leo said they
    would make breakfast. Vanessa gave me a pat on the arm as she went back to
    work.

    Erica stuck with me, wrapping

    her fingers in mine as she continued to lean her cheek on my shoulder.

    I took a deep breath and let

    it out, closing my eyes for a moment and picturing the house, then letting it
    go. "Alright, that's enough of that," I said.

    "If you need more time,

    it's Okay," Erica said.

    "No, no," I said,

    pivoting in place and wrapping her up in my arms, holding her close. "It's
    done. I had my moment, and we had moments last night. I just need to let it out
    and be done and move on."

    "You're such a

    guy," Erica snorted, then lowered her voice to mimic me. "Just gotta
    rub some dirt on it."

    "Do you know why people

    say that?" I laughed.

    "No, but I'm sure it's

    stupid," Erica said.

    "Well, most people don't

    think about it," I said. "But it's got something to do with natural
    clay being good for wounds and abscesses. Not replace-modern-medicine good, but
    it can act as a sort of bandage to help staunch bleeding if you have nothing
    else."

    "I knew you were a hot

    nerd sometimes," Erica said. "But I didn't realize you were a geek,
    too."

    That got me laughing, which

    felt good. I ended up taking the rest of the morning for myself, telling the
    Surveyors I needed a bit of time, and then we rode out onto the trails on the
    ATVs. Erica drove the second one, having had plenty of practice over the past
    couple of months, and Ivy sat behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

    We gave Ivy the tour, taking

    frequent stops to show off views that I knew were going to be disappearing
    sooner than later. I had no doubt the hills were going to change shape to make
    room for roads and flat plots for houses and yards. We ended the tour up near
    the spring and the graveyard, where I pointed out to the girls where we had
    decided our house would be, Leo's next to us, and my sister and her family on
    the other side.

    Then Erica got that look on

    her face, and she started taking off her clothes, and we ended up naked in the
    spring stream where it pooled into a little swimming hole; barely big enough to
    really even call it that, more like a cold, fresh tub than a pool.

    Ivy walked us through a lot

    of her tattoos; she was the kind of girl who got them on a whim but was very
    particular about her aesthetic when she did. The left side of her body was
    peppered with dark navy ink, the right clean and smooth, and she danced between
    Erica and me in the water, spinning with a playful smile on her lips.

    We ended up fucking, my bare

    ass on the rocky bank as Ivy straddled me and bounced like a wild child with my
    cock in her ass, while Erica stroked Ivy's back and side as she sat beside us.
    Then, once Ivy was satisfied, Erica washed me in the spring and took me in her
    mouth, getting me hard again so we could have a leisurely fuck in the grass.

    Afterwards, as I lay on my

    back and stared up at the blue spring sky above us, Ivy crawled between Erica
    and me and snuggled close.

    "This is not

    normal," she said, her French Canadian accent putting a roundness on her
    words. "And I am scared about how Okay I am with it. Just un petit peu.
    You both are so wonderful, and I am not so used to relationships. Especially
    ones that feel so big, so fast. Usually, I would run away from this sort of
    thing."

    Erica rolled onto her side,

    hugging Ivy from behind. "Don't be afraid to feel," she whispered
    into the shorter woman's ear as she snuggled her chin against Ivy's shoulder.
    "All you need to do is talk with us. Harrison is almost too respectful,
    and things are changing quickly for all three of us. Just talk."

    We talked about nothing for a

    while. Ivy told us about growing up in the bush of northern Quebec; which
    didn't sound so different from growing up here in the west coast foothills of
    the Rockies. Erica told stories about growing up with Leo, and let Ivy in on
    the story of us crushing on each other but her holding to her deal with her
    brother. Ivy told us about her younger half-sister Séraphine, and how despite
    the five-year age gap between them they had always had a close frenemy
    relationship. They would go at each other like cats and dogs, but if someone
    else tried to say or do anything to one of them, she knew her sister would be
    the first person to step in and defend her.

    Eventually we got hungry and

    had to put on clothes and head back down to the controlled chaos of the growing
    construction site. Ivy rode with Erica back down the trails, and I saw on more
    than one occasion that she was hanging onto the older woman's tits instead of
    her waist. We ate lunch with Danielle and Leo, and then both Leo and I were
    getting co-opted into work with the surveyors again.

    I lost track of time for the

    next couple of days; the surveyors were constantly wanting to double-check locations
    across the property and asking for guidance to and from different landmarks
    that we'd set up. And if that wasn't happening, we were meeting with Vanessa
    and moving the RVs and our vehicles while she organized moving the storage
    containers to make more room for supplies and equipment getting trucked in.

    And if none of that was

    happening, we were fucking. Often together, with Ivy enjoying the roleplay of
    being our little plaything. But just as often apart when we wanted some time
    alone with each other to figure out how we fit together. Sometimes it was
    quick; a fast shag after eating lunch with Erica bent over the table in the RV
    or Ivy shoving my cock down her throat hidden in the storage containers, and
    sometimes we went back to the spring, or another quiet corner of the woods, and
    we took our time. I fucked Erica up against the old willow tree where I'd lost
    my virginity to Kara a decade and a half earlier, and she joked about taking
    the experience back from her; we also almost got caught by Leo and two of the
    surveyors walking by. Ivy had a particularly adventurous spirit, and one night
    when the crews were all gone for the day she found one of the office portables
    that had been left open and took me in her ass while laying across someone's
    desk.

    And we did.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 14 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 3

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 3
    Change of Pace, Change of Place.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



     

    I'm pretty sure it was only

    for a moment, but it could have been a couple minutes. When I came to, I was
    still inside Erica, and still mostly hard. I pulled out and was quickly
    followed by our leaking mess spilling onto the sheets. Erica didn't move,
    except for heavy breathing. Then she rolled onto her side, legs coming up into
    a fetal position, ass pointed back at me. Her messy, cummy twat peeked at me
    between her legs and butt cheeks.

    Sitting back on my ass, I

    blinked a few times and tried to re-center myself until I gave up and fell
    backwards, breathing hard and looking up at the ceiling.

    "God damn, E," I

    said. "That was something fucking else."

    No response.

    I rolled over, dragging

    myself up to lay next to her. "Erica?"

    Her eyes were closed and she

    was looking comfortable, if a little cold laying over the sheets. Her lips were
    moving, and when I got close enough it sounded like she was whispering,
    "Imprinting," over and over.

    "That's kinda fucked

    up," I said quietly, looking at her otherwise still face. She sounded like
    a computer program reporting on a status. The only thing that kept me from
    freaking out was the big, contented smile on her lips.

    I kissed her forehead, trying

    not to think about quite how fucked up things were, and then I rolled off the
    bed and stood up. Underwear and pants went back on, and I crossed the hall to
    the bathroom where I got a wet, warm washcloth and a towel. I returned to the
    room and carefully wiped down Erica's twat and ass of our mixed fluids, then
    wrapped her in a towel and picked her up. I carried her down the hall to my
    room and managed to get her under the covers.

    I'll admit, I also gave her

    tits another soft grope, just to convince myself this was all real. God,
    they're awesome.

    Leo was out of the house,

    which on second thought made me realize what I'd just done.

    I'd fucked his sister, and we

    hadn't really held back at all. If he and I had been hearing the 'biz' and soft
    moans of Erica masturbating I can only imagine the sounds that had been coming
    down through the old wooden timbers of the house.

    "Fuck," I sighed.

    Hopefully he had gone out to the workshop before we'd gotten started.

    It was still the middle of

    the afternoon so I went back to packing. It was weird, sorting through
    everything in the house. Also fucking annoying because I didn't even have many
    boxes to pack with, and I couldn't exactly just run out to the liquor or
    hardware store to get some. It was strange; I'd lived in the house for much of
    my life, and I'd lived in it with Leo for the past five years, but I still
    found traces of my parents and grandparents I hadn't thought about in ages.

    It had to have been an hour

    or two later when Leo came back into the house. He had rings of sweat on his
    t-shirt and looked like he was ready to punch something.

    "Hey," I said. I

    was kneeling down in the living room, busy scooping old VHS tapes out from the
    back of one of the big cupboards. They hadn't seen the light of day in probably
    twenty years, but I also felt like it was a waste to throw them out.

    Leo just looked at me from

    the doorway, kicking off his boots.

    "That was fucked

    up," I said.

    "Yeah, it was," he

    said.

    "You know I wouldn't

    just pump and dump her," I said.

    Leo twisted up his face in

    revulsion. "Fucking of course not. Jesus, Harrison. You're not an
    animal."

    "So why the fuck would

    you make her hold on to a high school agreement when she and I might have been
    good for each other, Leo?"

    "She told you

    that?" Leo's face dropped.

    "Yeah. She did," I

    said.

    "She shouldn't have. Not

    talking about it was part of the deal, too," Leo grunted. He peeled off
    his sweaty shirt and threw it towards the stairs, then headed towards the back
    of the house. "Where is she now?"

    "Upstairs. That's

    another thing we need to talk about, but I'm not done with this."

    Leo was pouring himself a

    drink from the tap. My father had gotten a new well drilled a couple of years
    before I was born, and then when I hit high school we'd gotten a pump system; I
    still couldn't believe we'd lived on hand-pumped well water until I was
    fourteen. Now, with a whole filtration system set up in the back shed we -

    It doesn't matter. It's

    all going away.

    That realization almost shook

    me out of the conversation.

    "What's left to talk

    about?" Leo asked me, leaning on the doorsill from the kitchen.

    "Leo, I've always liked

    your sister. This whole thing just... forced the issue. You get that, right?
    She's not betraying you. I'm not betraying you."

    Leo didn't answer at first,

    buying time by taking a drink from his glass before sighing. "Yeah. I
    know."

    "So what are you pissed

    about?"

    "Dude, she's still my

    sister. And you're my best friend. That's not how this is supposed to go! She's
    supposed to meet some guy that I don't really like, but I learn to tolerate
    him, and we make fun of him together behind their backs and talk about how she
    could do so much better."

    "Why is that how it's

    supposed to go?" I asked.

    "I don't know, man.

    That's just; That's how it was with my parents and aunts and uncles. My dad was
    an only child, but all my mom's sisters settled for mediocre guys. My parents
    tolerated them, and I got to hear all the family gossip and that's just how it
    was."

    "Leo," I said.

    "That's kind of fucked up that you would want that for Erica."

    "I don't want it

    for her, it was just... Look, I hear how stupid and dickish it is, as it's
    coming out of my mouth, Okay? But now it's going to be you two. He-man and... I
    don't know. Who's the lady in He-man?"

    "Dude, I have never

    watched He-man," I laughed.

    "Well, whatever. You're

    you. She's her," Leo said. "By the end of this quarantine bullshit
    you'll be together and I'll be out."

    "Leo. You're thinking

    glass-half-empty here," I said. "Erica and I get together, what else
    does that mean?"

    "I dunno," Leo

    said. "What?"

    "What does that make

    us?"

    Leo blinked.

    "Brothers-in-law?"

    He rolled his eyes, but I

    could see the smirk growing.

    "Brothers, Leo. Even

    better than best friends. Better than best friend roommates!"

    "Fine, fine," Leo

    sighed. "Okay, there's an upside. Just don't expect me to just... be Okay
    with you two getting frisky everywhere or something. You can be happy or
    whatever, just not right in my face, alright?"

    The sound of a car pulling up

    outside on the newly-widened gravel driveway crackled through the house. I
    stood up and headed for the door.

    "What was the other

    thing?" Leo asked me. "Something about Erica being upstairs?"

    "Yeah, yeah," I

    said, slipping on my sneakers. "She's in my room right now, kinda sleeping
    but not? This whole Vaccine thing has more to it, dude. Let me figure out what
    this is first."

    He grunted, giving me a

    questioning eyebrow raise and turned back to the kitchen to refill his water.

    Outside I found the same

    blacked-out, now dust-covered, town car that had dropped off Erica. The door
    opened and I blinked hard as a woman I could only describe as a cross between
    an elf and an angel stepped out of the back seat. She had long, wavy brunette
    hair and a face that I could only guess had matched up with Helen of Troy, with
    soft, full lips and wide eyes with a playful spark. She was wearing a simple,
    baggy white t-shirt that looked like it belonged to a guy my size, and with her
    slight frame she was practically swimming in it but somehow she made it look
    like a diaphanous dress. I couldn't even tell if she had anything else
    underneath it since the t-shirt came down low on her bare thighs.

    "Hey there," she

    said, grabbing what looked like a solid camper's backpack from inside the car
    and walking over to me. When she got closer she only somehow got more
    beautiful, but I also saw... something. That look in her eye. The way her lips
    were slightly parted, and she was breathing a little more shallow. "You're
    Leo?" she asked. She had an accent, but I couldn't place it.

    "No. Harrison. Leo's

    inside," I said.

    She eye fucked me for a

    moment, took in a breath and breathed it out through pursed lips, then headed
    past me into the house without another word.

    "God damn," I said.

    "Yeah, she's running a

    little hot," Agent Sourpuss said. She'd gotten out of the driver's seat of
    the car and came around. "Got the shot at the same time as Miss Lacoste,
    but it turned out the guy she was originally going to be paired with got
    infected sometime in the past few days. We found him dead in his penthouse when
    we tried to drop her off."

    "Fuck," I said. And

    not because of the story. The woman had walked up the front steps of the porch,
    slung her bag onto it and had been stripping off her shirt as she walked into
    the house. I didn't see anything but bare back and a pair of tight booty shorts
    painted onto a slim, perky ass, but I was fucking jealous.

    "How is Miss

    Lacoste?" The agent asked. "Did the bonding process work?"

    "Um," I said,

    shaking my head and turning to the woman. "Uh, yeah. If you mean she
    didn't really tell us much but made it clear she needed sex, and now she's
    upstairs asleep in my bed muttering 'Imprinting' over and over."

    "Good, good," the

    Agent said. "Working as intended, then."

    "No," I said,

    shaking my head. "Not good. I said she's muttering 'imprinting'
    over and over. What the fuck is up with that?"

    "Look, Mr. Black, it's a

    long fucking story. And one you're not cleared for," the Agent said.
    "I'm sure one day you'll read a book about it or something. For now, just
    get out of my face. Alright?"

    "You can't seriously

    expect people to just go along with this. It sounds like... like,”

    "Brainwashing?" The

    Agent asked. Then snorted and started heading back to her car. "I don't
    have time to hold your hand through this. Like I said, just do what they say
    and enjoy your new fucking world. We'll be in touch." She slammed the door,
    the engine turned over, and she peeled out and drove back down the driveway.

    "What the fuck," I

    said. "What the fuck? What. The fuck?"

    I headed back into the house

    and stopped before kicking off my shoes.

    "Oh, fuck yes!" the

    woman shouted.

    "Oh my God, oh my God,

    oh my God," Leo yelled.

    They were upstairs. It hadn't

    been more than two minutes.

    I could hear them clearly.

    Fuck.

    Doesn't have a problem

    when it's not his sister, I thought,
    shaking my head.

    I went for a walk.

    I made dinner an hour later,

    and Leo managed to come downstairs to eat. He mumbled something about getting
    struck by lightning, but once he'd gotten some food in him he'd shrugged.

    "I dunno, man. She just

    walked up to me, holding her shirt, and said, 'Take me up to your room and fuck
    me.' I didn't even get her name. Now she's doing that 'imprinting' thing and
    it's freaking me out a bit."

    "Yeah," I nodded.

    "Yeah. Erica was doing that too. That lady agent dropped off your girl,
    didn't want to talk about it, and just said we should do what the ladies tell
    us."

    "Hey, that's all fine

    with me," Leo said. "She can tell me anything she wants. I mean...
    Harrison. God damn!"

    We called it an early night

    and I found myself climbing into bed next to Erica. She was still out of it,
    but at least she wasn't murmuring anymore. It felt weird, and kind of creepy,
    to try snuggling up next to her. She was still naked under my sheets, and
    totally out of it.

    I ended up putting on an

    undershirt and gym shorts and managed not to feel like a perv for long enough
    to fall asleep.

    The rumble of trucks woke me

    up, and I met Leo at the stairs as we headed down. He went to start making
    coffee while I checked outside. Two big trucks were hauling in a pair of
    trailers onto what had once been my front lawn and workers in bright
    fluorescent vests were directing them as others set up some concrete blocks.
    The trailers looked like they were the start of whatever construction HQ was
    going to get set up.

    "So it begins," I

    sighed.

    We brought out the coffee; it

    was an entirely different crew of guys, but they didn't have any new
    information for us. They appreciated the coffee, but when I went in to make
    more I realized we were running out quickly. Hopefully one of those trailers
    was going to be a break room for those guys because they were going to drink my
    wallet dry if it was on me to feed their caffeine addictions.

    The trailers were quickly set

    up, and the workers were gone, but a 14-seater van arrived so quickly that I
    figured they must have passed each other on the driveway. Inside were a solid
    dozen Surveyors, along with boxes of topographical maps and all sorts of
    equipment. I couldn't offer them coffee, but they'd come with their own travel
    mugs. They weren't much for conversation, though they weren't bad men and
    women; they just had a very large job to do.

    "We've done what we can

    ahead of time with the satellite imaging," the Head Surveyor said to me.
    "But we've got to plan out the development of this entire area in the most
    efficient building plan possible. They want houses built and livable
    ASAP."

    And that was where I came in.

    That promise I'd made to Agents Grierson and Walters had included my help with
    the surveying. Now it was time to give the grand tour.

    "I'll head out with them

    this morning," I told Leo. "I'll start with the front loop trails
    down to the highway and back. You want to show them the Arrowhead trail after
    lunch, and I'll take them up the ridge after that?"

    "Yeah, works for

    me," Leo said. "I'll go check on Erica."

    "Um... maybe I should do

    that," I said.

    "Why? Is something

    wrong?" Leo asked.

    "No, dude... she's just,

    uh..." I stammered.

    Leo's eyes went wide and he

    clapped his hand over his ears. "Nana nana" he sang, heading back out
    of the house towards the barn.

    I checked in on Erica; still

    asleep. I hesitated a moment, leaning over her in the bed, but went for it and
    pressed my lips to her forehead in a soft kiss. She mumbled something, pulling
    the sheets closer to her, and she smiled.

    It almost kicked my

    adrenaline, and I could hear my heart in my ears as I walked back down the
    hallway. When I passed Leo's room I realized that his door was cracked open,
    and I could see a shapely and naked leg and foot sticking out from his own
    sheets. I was tempted to peek further, but that feeling of creepiness from last
    night struck me again and I closed the door instead.

    I was kicking myself an hour

    later, deep into the trails with a half dozen surveyors following along and
    taking notes as I pointed things out and they asked me questions. It was the
    slowest I think I'd ever walked the trails, and the question kept flaring up in
    the back of my mind of what I'd missed out on seeing. Leo's girl was living in
    my head rent-free right alongside Erica, but now I knew what Erica was
    like; the mystery of what I hadn't seen was tantalizing fodder for a brain that
    didn't want to think about the overwhelming weirdness of the whole situation.

    We were back to the house

    around 1pm, and by the time we'd been gone a third trailer had been set up and
    there were two more of those big passenger vans, along with a couple of
    pickups, lined up in a makeshift parking lot. I didn't notice any of it, or the
    people working, and I didn't even answer the last question one of the surveyors
    was asking me because I was jogging for the house.

    Erica was standing there on

    the porch in low hip-hugging jeans and a tight band t-shirt under one of my
    unbuttoned flannel shirts. She had a beer in each hand, one opened and half
    empty, the other cold and sealed.

    I could see the emotions play

    across her face for a moment as I walked up quickly, and she opened her mouth
    to say something but I didn't want to hear a smart remark or a question. I
    wrapped my arms around her and I kissed her.

    She kissed me back, her arms

    crossing behind my neck as she pulled me deeper to her. Her tongue and mine met
    and teased for a long moment, and I reveled in the feeling of her in my arms.
    Her chest crushed against me, soft and firm, and her belt buckle pressed into
    my crotch as she melded herself to me.

    A whistle, sharp and

    catcalling, sounded from somewhere behind me and I could feel Erica shift both
    beer bottles to one hand. I had no doubt she was flashing them the finger with
    her free hand, and the laughter from the construction workers confirmed it.

    Eventually we had to stop,

    and I held her by the waist as our faces pulled away.

    "Well, I guess that

    answers most of my questions," Erica smirked at me.

    "I've got a few of my

    own, but you're not slapping me so that answers most of mine," I said.

    She pursed her lips and

    brought her beer hand down between us. "Leo said you've had a long
    morning. Up for a nooner?"

    "God yes," I said.

    "But I've always had a different definition of 'nooner.'"

    "What, you think I mean

    the beer?" Erica asked. "No, baby. I want you to,”

    "Ahem," a voice

    interrupted, and I turned to see who had approached us. "Sorry to
    interrupt." The girl, and I couldn't call her more than that because she
    looked like she couldn't have been more than twenty-three despite the tattoo across
    her neck, was wearing a rough sweater and one of those orange construction
    vests, along with a dinged-up blue hardhat with about dozen peeling stickers on
    it and her jeans tucked into her steel-toed work boots. She had some vaguely
    Latina features, mostly in the lips, but was pale where she wasn't tattooed.

    Erica's arm immediately went

    around my waist, and I lowered mine to hers as we held each other. "No
    problem," Erica said. "What can we do for you?"

    "I'm Vanessa," the

    girl said. "Are you Harrison Black?"

    "Yeah, you found

    me," I nodded.

    "Alright, cool,"

    she said, looking me up and down. Erica's hand at my waist scratched my side
    playfully, and I lowered my own from her hip down to her ass, slipping my
    fingers into the back pocket of her jeans and cupping it firmly. "Well,"
    Vanessa continued, "I'm the Foreman for the general laborers on site right
    now, and we've already gotten a laundry list of our daily jobs done so I need
    to start getting my guys into the house."

    "I'm sorry?" I

    asked.

    Vanessa sighed and then

    smiled in a knowing sort of way. "No one's talked to you about the day or
    week plans, have they?"

    "Not really," I

    said. "I've been out with the surveyors all morning."

    "Yeah, that sounds about

    right for this clusterfuck," Vanessa shook her head. "Well, orders
    are that everything that's currently in this house, and that barn, and anything
    else on the property that needs to, is hitting those sea cans in the backyard
    by sundown tomorrow. Demo on this place hits bright and early the next morning
    and everything not packed up is getting carted the fuck off."

    Vanessa, it turned out, was a

    straight shooter. It just took me a second to wrap my head around everything.
    Erica took charge while I followed along. I'd figured I had weeks, maybe
    months, before demolition. This wasn't the hurry-up and wait I'd been
    expecting. This was all hurry, all the time.

    Leo went out with the

    surveyors, and I started answering a million questions for Vanessa while she
    directed five big, burly guys as they began unloading my house into boxes, and
    hauling those boxes out to a pair of storage containers that had been brought
    in on trucks and plopped down near the back of the wide clearing that had been
    the 'backyard' for generations. Erica, I realized, was helping manage me more
    than anything else. Keeping me on task, keeping me focused. She helped me
    reminisce quickly a couple of times, helped me make decisions about what
    actually needed storing and what could get thrown out.

    I was getting a brand new

    house, fully furnished, courtesy of my contract. Did I really need the shitty
    TV stand or the ratty couch sitting on the back porch? No. Did I want to keep
    my grandmother's freestanding jam cupboard? I couldn't picture it anywhere else
    other than where it was in the house, I'd never even seen a piece of furniture
    like it in another house before. But it was an heirloom piece. Was I supposed
    to keep that? Yes, Erica helped me. Yes, keep the heirlooms, even if they seem
    odd or silly. Just know what's an actual heirloom and what's not.

    "You're doing

    well," she told me, stopping me at the foot of the stairs.

    "You're a good

    boss," I smiled, reaching my free hand around to hug her to me. I was
    carrying a pair of bedside lamps in the other.

    She frowned and shook her

    head. "I'm not your boss. And I don't want you to think I'm being bossy,
    and I definitely don't want you to start thinking of me as some nagging
    mother figure."

    I laughed and shook my head.

    "Never. E, you're just a natural manager. Of people, or situations. I
    needed a minute, not an hour, and you helped me get on track way faster than I
    would have without you. Plus," I grinned, and let my hand slide up from
    around her waist to softly take her tit in my hand and squeeze playfully,
    "Ain't nothing of a 'nagging mother' about you."

    She smirked and bit her lip as

    I squeezed her braless tit a little more firmly. "Well, good," she
    said, and rubbed the front of my pants. "And thanks for the very weird
    compliment from my b,” She stopped short, eyes going a little wide.

    I chuckled and leaned down to

    kiss her cheek, then her lips. "You can say it. I'd be happy to."

    "I've never said that

    so fast before. It hasn't even been a day," she said.

    "Not officially," I

    countered. "But we've also been living together for a couple of months.
    And before that we went on casual group dates. We just didn't know it at the
    time."

    She rolled her eyes but her

    grin was everything to me. "Well, if you put it that way..."

    I kissed her again.

    "God, I want to fuck you," I said.

    "Yes, please," she

    hummed back.

    We separated. I watched her

    walking away, the way her ass moved. The way my shirt hung on her.

    An hour or so later we'd

    gotten a lot of the preliminary stuff cleared up, and after a quick conference
    with Vanessa, we decided that the big guys on her team were probably going to
    be most useful getting all of Leo's woodworking equipment safely moved out to
    the storage containers from the barn. I'd helped Leo move all of those heavier
    tools into the barn over the past five years and each one was a son of a bitch,
    and we didn't have any forklifts to make it easier.

    The guys hadn't been out of

    the house for more than fifteen minutes when I was busy taking old pictures off
    the walls of the living room while Erica was getting to the ones in the front
    hall.

    "Hmm, morning," a

    warm, honeyed voice said from Erica's direction.

    "Uh.... hi," Erica

    said, her tone of voice a little shocked but with a weird cadence. I turned to
    see who was in the house and nearly dropped a glass picture frame holding a
    collage of photos my mother had put together of my sister and me.

    The elf/angel girl, Leo's

    imprint-person, was wandering into the living room and looking around
    curiously. She was as beautiful as the first time I'd seen her, and I figured
    she must have taken a minute to touch up her makeup. She had beautiful, pale
    porcelain skin, and her wavy chestnut brown hair still had a bit of a messy
    'just got fucked' look.

    She also happened to be

    completely naked except for a pair of sheer panties that left it very obvious
    she was shaved to the wood down below. Her tits were so perfect and perky, big
    enough on her thin frame to look almost fake but somehow still natural;
    either the best boob job ever or the perfect genetic lottery. Her areolas and
    stubby nipples, puffed and firm in the cool spring air even in the house, were
    the same soft shade of pink as her lips.

    "Hey there," she

    said, giving me a little smile and a wave. "I think I almost fucked you
    yesterday, yeah?"

    I coughed. "Um, no.

    Definitely not that close."

    "Hmm," she smiled,

    looking around the chaos of the house. "Well, maybe not, but I definitely
    remember wanting to jump your bones. Where can I get some water?"

    "Through there," I

    pointed her towards the kitchen. "Hey, we didn't actually meet. I'm
    Harrison, Leo's roommate."

    "Oh, right," the

    woman said, then stepped forward and pulled me into a hug. A naked-lady hug.
    While I was looking over her shoulder at Erica, who was staring from the
    hallway door with an expression between utter confusion and the kind of stare I
    could only imagine a 13-year-old boy would have when looking at this same
    sight.

    I made a 'what am I supposed

    to do?' face at Erica, and slowly hugged the naked woman back with one arm,
    trying not to think about those perfect tits pressing into my side and chest.

    "I'm Danielle," the

    woman said. I was struck again by that strange accent that I couldn't place,
    elongating some of the vowels and with just a touch of different intonation.
    "I got told all about you and Leo by that government lady on the way here.
    I guess I didn't realize you wouldn't have gotten the full story."

    "Yeah, no. She isn't

    really one of our biggest fans," I said. Danielle stepped back from the
    hug, with a warm smile. "This is Erica, Leo's twin sister and my, ah"

    "Girlfriend," Erica

    said, stepping forward. She opened her arms and Danielle happily stepped in for
    a hug with Erica as well. Erica looked at me over Danielle's shoulder and
    mouthed, 'Oh my God!' "And vaccine partner."

    "Oh, god," Danielle

    said, leaning away. "Fuck, I wasn't even thinking about that. Are
    we supposed to still be careful? We're all vaccinated, right?"

    "Very vaccinated,"

    Erica said, then looked at me again and smirked. "Very, very
    vaccinated."

    "You too, huh?"

    Danielle asked. "Those orgasms,”

    "Out of this fucking

    world," Erica nodded.

    "Let me get you that

    water," I said. I left the two in the living room and went to the kitchen,
    taking a moment to adjust my cock in my pants before fetching a cup. Erica was
    attractive as all hell, and while I might not have been in love with her
    yet, I knew I was going to get there and fast. The physical and the personality
    just synced with us like that. But this girl. Woof. She was that
    unattainable attractive tier that you saw in movies, or on Instagram.

    When I was coming back,

    Danielle was slipping on my flannel shirt. "I'm really fine with it,"
    she was saying. "I like being naked, and I'm a stripper so I'm used to it.
    Honestly, it kind of turns me on."

    "Yeah, well there's

    about twenty construction workers outside right now and I don't think anything
    is going to get done if they catch a look at you, Dani," Erica said.

    Danielle laughed and shrugged

    while she brought the sides of the flannel shirt up and tied them between her
    tits. I don't think my shirt had ever looked better, and somehow she just
    effortlessly made it a perfect, teasing shape that hugged her cleavage and slim
    torso.

    "You're a

    stripper?" I asked, offering her the water. "I thought most women in
    that business preferred 'dancer' or something like that

    "Hmm, only the ones who

    are embarrassed about it deep down," Danielle said. She took a sip from
    her glass. "But I made $300k American last year as a stripper, so
    why should I care what other people think of me? I'm a businesswoman and
    entrepreneur, and I work hard to make sure my product is amazing. And my
    product happens to be stripping off my clothes and making guys cream their
    pants."

    I almost choked on my own

    spit as Danielle casually dropped her tax bracket. "You made that
    much?"

    "Oh, you must not be a

    strip club boy, are you?" Danielle smiled at me.

    "He will be," Erica

    said, chuckling.

    "I will?"

    "Oh yeah, baby,"

    Erica said. "Half of my best clients are strippers. I'm a tattoo artist,
    by the way," she said to Danielle, then smirked at me again. "Once
    the world opens back up, I know some babes who are going to rock your world. I
    can't wait to see the look on your face!"

    "Well, it's always nice

    to find a discerning lady-fan of the art," Danielle said. "Honestly,
    women always make the best fans. Guys shell out more cash, but women just
    appreciate us more."

    The front door of the house

    opened and Vanessa walked in, stopping as she saw Danielle standing between Erica
    and me in nothing but my shirt and her panties.

    "Fuck, sorry," she

    said, and she looked like she was going to head right back out the door, then
    re-thought that and stayed where she was. "Um, Harrison, we could use your
    help out in the barn. Any shot we can get that old tractor running to move the
    planer?"

    "We can try," I

    said. "I didn't need it to plough the past couple of winters since the
    ATVs did the trick. I'll see if it'll turn over."

    I left Danielle in Erica's

    hands; something which both brought chub-inducing pictures to mind, but also
    just a touch of jealousy considering the open lust my now-girlfriend was
    showing for her twin's vaccine-fuck-friend.

    We really need to figure

    out some terms and definitions, I
    sighed.

    The tractor, in fact, did not

    turn over. It was deader than a doornail. With enough leverage and muscle
    power, we managed to get Leo's big planer; which he had thankfully already
    prepped for moving; onto a trailer we used with the ATVs and carefully towed
    the sucker with two guys on either side to keep it balanced and upright.
    Vanessa shooed me away after that, telling me to go keep packing up the
    valuables and let her paid gorillas do the heavy lifting. The big laborers all
    grumbled good-naturedly at her name-calling, and as I was leaving them I heard
    one trying, "Me Tarzan, you Jane."

    "Yeah, and I'll Jane you

    right in the mouth if you start trying to hit on me, Tarzan," she replied.
    "I don't shit where I eat, unlike you goddamned animals."

    Back in the house, Erica was

    helping Danielle start packing Leo's things up in his bedroom, so I went back
    to work cleaning out all the corners of the house. The one thing I realized was
    that I didn't actually need to be neat about anything. The last time I'd
    moved, when Leo and I had left our place back in Portland and come up to the
    homestead, half of the bother was cleaning everything up to make sure we got
    our security deposits back.

    This place was gonna get

    knocked over in two days, so what was the point of cleaning?

    I'd been trying to find time

    to sneak Erica to somewhere private, and maybe to fool around a bit now that that
    was part of our relationship, but Danielle was too full of questions. If she
    wasn't chatting with Erica, she was asking me all sorts of questions about the
    house, my family, and the deal with the land and the vaccine. I was happy to
    chat with her as we packed up the kitchen, or while she helped me as I handed
    her things out from the little root cellar under the house, but that smile and
    those eyes were hard not to get distracted by. Not to mention the braless
    cleavage in my shirt and her toned, bare midriff and legs since she only
    bothered to slip on a pair of booty shorts to complete her outfit.

    It turned out that Danielle

    had known about the vaccine longer than any of us by about a day and a half.
    The Government, whichever agency was running the whole thing, had gotten her
    contact information from a couple of the strip clubs in Portland where she'd
    been scheduled to work before the lockdown. Danielle was the kind of girl who
    took risks, so she immediately signed up to be a Phase 2 tester for the
    vaccine; Portland was one of three secondary trial locations across the country
    in 'Phase 2.' She'd asked around once she got tested and entered the Quarantine
    Hotel, and it turned out most of the women who'd been contacted had been sex
    workers of one sort or another; strippers, dancers, Only Fans models, high-end
    call girls, even a few honest to god porn stars. Danielle figured whoever was
    in charge had decided the sexual nature of the vaccine lent itself more easily
    to openly sexual people. It seemed... Well, it seemed weirdly logical to me,
    but also shady as hell. She'd received the same briefing Erica had, which she
    said had felt more like a meeting selling timeshares in Boca than anything
    else, had done the questionnaire and then picked a guy out of a list of twenty
    photos of her top 'matches'. She remembered seeing Leo on that first list but
    didn't remember why she picked the guy she did. They drove her to a big
    building in downtown Portland, but she never got out of the car. Her escorts
    came back about twenty minutes later and told her the guy wasn't a valid
    partner anymore, and she had to pick again. She got a new list, and Leo was on
    it.

    "I can't help but notice

    you aren't asking about him," I said to her as we were carrying the dining
    room table across the backyard towards the storage containers, each of us on an
    end. "You've gotten half my life story at this point. You're not curious
    about the guy you're, well, imprinted on?"

    Danielle smiled and shook her

    head. "Naw, I had my guy pegged the minute I saw him. I have all the time
    in the world to learn the details, I know what I need to know. He's sweet and
    boyish, and honest. You should have seen him blush when I walked up and kissed
    him. Hah! He didn't know what hit him."

    "Neither would I,"

    I said. "You're quite the woman, Danielle. Leo's a lucky guy."

    "Well thanks, hun. But I

    have a feeling you'd know just what to do with me. I could see it in the
    way you were standing when I got out of that car yesterday."

    "The way I stand?"

    I asked.

    "Oh, for sure. You're a

    big guy. Muscly, but not a bodybuilder. You have that mountain-man vibe with
    the longer hair and the beard, but even after a couple of months of quarantine
    you still keep it trimmed and neat. And your eyes were looking at everything
    all at once. My Dad had eyes like yours, and he was Australian military back
    home. A man like you, if he isn't a prick, well... let's just say I've known a
    couple of gals with guys like you, and they are quite happy."

    We'd set the table down

    outside the storage containers and were headed back for the chairs now.
    "Well, thanks I guess. Hopefully Erica feels the same."

    "Oh, she does,"

    Danielle smirked. "She may not realize it completely yet, but the way
    she's grinning to herself when she didn't think I was looking? She does."

    That little nugget of information

    made my heart sing.

    "Sorry if it's a button,

    but I noticed you said your Dad had eyes like mine. He's gone now?"
    I asked.

    "Hmm," Danielle

    nodded. "Years ago, so don't worry about it. Cancer. I was fifteen and it
    hit me hard. Mum got a boyfriend the next summer and within six months of that
    she moved us to California and I finished high school in the Valley. I hated
    the new guy, and then the guy after that, so I moved back to Sydney as soon as
    I could and was planning to go to school there. But then I took a job at a
    strip club to pay the bills, and the rest is history. I've been doing it for
    five years and did a tour up the east coast of the US last year, so I figured
    I'd do the west coast this year."

    "Oh, well, I'm still

    sorry to hear that. It all sounds tough," I said. "But I guess it's
    good you found your... calling?"

    "Hah," she laughed.

    "Something like that. I'm not like other girls who have specific
    ambitions. I've just been banking as much money as I can, while I can, and
    having fun doing it. I'm not looking to go to med school, or become a lawyer or
    something."

    We were carrying the last of

    the chairs, and Danielle was telling me a story about her senior year in high
    school when Leo came back. It turned out Danielle's accent, a bastard
    amalgamation of Aussie twang and Valley girl, was the one thing she disliked
    about herself but she was just plain terrible at trying to fix it and it was
    because of some traumatic bullying while she'd lived in the Valley. As soon as
    Leo came out of the mouth of one of the trails, the chair Danielle was carrying
    was forgotten as she dropped it in the middle of the yard and began sauntering
    over towards Leo and the surveyors.

    She looked like a lioness on

    the prowl, and Leo stopped when he saw her coming. The surveyors, about
    two-thirds of whom were men, all moved aside to let her past them, watching
    with big eyes as she stalked up, knocked Leo's baseball cap off his head and
    molded herself to him as she planted a kiss on him that I could feel searing
    from across the yard. And she didn't stop. They were kissing a solid thirty
    seconds, hands wrapped around each other, before the surveyors backed away and
    came towards me, shaking their heads and grinning.

    "We need fifteen

    minutes, then are you ready to head out again?" one of them asked as they
    got near me.

    "Sure, sure," I

    said. "How many are coming out?"

    "All of us," one of

    the ladies said. "About... fifteen?"

    "Jesus Christ," I

    said, shaking my head.

    "Hey, big project at

    speed. Most of the time you pick quality, quantity, or speed. The government
    wants all three, and they are throwing around the kind of money needed to make
    it happen right now," the first guy said. "We'll be working like
    crazy for the next two weeks getting all the info, then another two handing it
    all off to the developer team, then back on site again to make sure everything
    is being built in the right place."

    I headed back to the house to

    get my hiking gear back on. Danielle and Leo had stopped making out and were
    talking now, but I could see Leo was holding Danielle's hand while she had her
    other on his chest, and he was grinning and nodding along with whatever she was
    saying. I smiled, happy for my friend, and went inside.

    "Hey," I said when

    I found Erica upstairs, cleaning out my closets. "I need to head out in
    about ten minutes on another tour."

    "Oh yeah?" Erica

    asked, turning to face me. She was still wearing that tight t-shirt, her sweat
    from hard work making it stick to her a little more. It cupped under her tits,
    making them stand out just that touch more, and I could see the bumps of her
    nipples in the black fabric.

    "Yeah," I said

    lowly, and stepped beside her, offering her a hand to help her up. "And Danielle
    and Leo are out in the backyard talking right now."

    Erica's eyes lit up as she

    let me help her up. "Well why didn't you say so?" she asked, and I
    pulled her in to kiss her, feeling her tits press against my chest. She hummed
    happily into my lips and slid her tongue across mine. I picked her up without
    breaking the kiss and brought her over to the bed, and she lifted her legs up
    to circle my waist and cling to me as I laid her on her back. I was leaning
    over her and she wrapped her arms around my neck, keeping me close as we made
    out.

    "Hmm, I want you,"

    she whispered between kisses.

    "Yeah?" I asked.

    "Good. I want you, too."

    "How bad do you want

    me?" Erica asked me.

    "Utterly. Totally. Bad

    to the bone."

    She snickered and pulled up

    her top over her tits, freeing them, and I shifted to quickly mouth over them,
    kissing as much of them as I could all at once and as quickly as I could.

    "Ooh, baby, baby,"

    Erica crooned. "God, you make me feel so sexy."

    "You are sexy," I

    said, pulling away from her tits and mauling them with my hands as I lifted my
    lips back to her. "Deadly sexy. Femme fatale. Boss bitch."

    "You say the nicest

    things," she laughed. "I'm glad you aren't freaked out by all of
    this."

    "Oh, I'm freaked out

    more than enough," I said to her, pausing our kisses to press my forehead
    to hers and looking down, meeting her eyes. "The entire world stopped, and
    now it's going faster than it ever has before, but you Erica Lacoste are enough
    to make me not care about any of it."

    She cupped my cheeks with her

    hands, then ran her fingers through my beard and pulled me down to her, kissing
    me hard as she kept her eyes open, looking at me through the soulful, hungry
    kiss.

    There was a bang downstairs,

    the back door opening and closing, and we could just hear the muffled sounds of
    Leo talking with Danielle.

    "Fuck," I said, as

    Erica let go of my beard and our kiss ended.

    "Fuck," Erica

    groaned. "Fucking Leo."

    Erica straightened herself

    out, getting her shirt back on properly and standing back up, while I
    straightened my hair a moment and pulled it back and then changed into a new
    shirt. I caught Erica eyeing me up from across the room while I was shirtless,
    and she didn't even blush or look away. "Yummy," she said and winked.

    "You're trouble like

    this," I said with a smirk.

    "You don't know the half

    of it," Erica said. "I feel like I've been set free. The only thing
    keeping me from tearing your pants off is the thought of my brother being in
    the next room."

    That made me laugh, and as I

    got myself together and was ready to head out I kissed her one more time, one
    hand squeezing her ass and pulling her into me as I held the back of her head
    with the other.

    "Ugh, you bastard,"

    she said when we separated. "You keep getting better at kissing me."

    "Just taking your

    cues," I said. "Fuck you like I hate you, right?"

    "Did I say that?"

    Erica thought. "God, everything yesterday went so fast."

    "Actually, I think you

    said you wanted someone to love you, but who fucks you like they don't. I
    figured that went for steamy kisses, too."

    "Oh, it certainly

    does," Erica said, one finger tracing down her boob and nipple over her
    shirt. "But now I'm going to need to change panties, you bastard. God,
    you're leaving me here soaking wet."

    "I prefer to think of

    you as simmering for later," I smirked, and she scoffed and threw a sock
    at me as I left the room.

    The tour with the Surveyors

    was slow going, but it was late in spring and we had plenty of light left to
    us. Leo had taken them along a bunch of the lowlands areas, so I took them up
    the other side of the property, pointing out some of the ponds and a couple of
    old growth copses of trees. There was a solitary Redwood on the property which
    they all agreed would be a shame to lose, and I pointed out some other big,
    ancient trees that served as landmarks. Deep into the hike we reached the
    Spring Pond, high on one of the rolling hills near the back of the property,
    and I showed them where I wanted mine, my sisters and Leo's houses to be built.
    I didn't much care how they organized the lots, but the Spring Pond fed down as
    a stream into the Nehalem River that bordered the property, and it had sweet,
    pure water that had been a swimming hole for my family for generations. Other
    than the old House itself, this was where the Black family had made their mark.

    It helped convince the

    Surveyors when I pointed out that my family graveyard, dating back more than a
    hundred and fifty years, was an acre up the slope overlooking the pond. At the
    mention of a Native burial ground I could almost see all of them shudder, not
    in fear of spiritual consequences but of Red Tape. I had a feeling this
    particular project wouldn't actually care one shit if they came across
    potential burial grounds, but all of these folks had horror stories of major
    projects getting stalled for months, or even years, by old bones in the ground.

    The sun was setting over the

    hills when I led them back down, having reached the very far edge of the
    property and pointing out the markers my great-great-grandfather had erected
    prior to the first World War. It was twilight during the last few minutes of
    the hike, and despite being veterans of their work I could tell the long day of
    heavy walking, questions, and note-taking on the move had drained them all. As
    they left, trudging around the house back to their work trailers to file away
    their notes, I saw Vanessa just shutting off the light in the barn.

    "Hey, how'd it go

    today?" I asked.

    "Good. Better than I

    hoped, actually," she said, grinning widely. "How's it going in the
    house with your wife and... who was that?"

    "Erica's my girlfriend,

    and that's kinda new, and Danielle is; well, it's a long story. How's a beer
    sound?" I asked.

    "That sounds fucking

    great, actually," Vanessa said. She checked her watch and then nodded.
    "I've got some time. I'm technically off shift already, we just don't have
    any time clocks or anything set up yet. I sent the boys back in the van about
    fifteen minutes ago, I'll take my truck back to the motel when we're
    done."

    I fetched out a couple of six

    packs from the fridge inside, and Leo and I went and dragged the metal fire-pit
    back out of the storage containers where one of Vanessa's 'gorillas' had stored
    it away. Soon enough I had a fire crackling away on the back porch, and Vanessa
    was sitting in one of my lawn chairs while Erica and I lounged on that old
    beat-up couch that was going to be demolished along with the house. Leo had
    planted himself in the heavy wooden Adirondack chair he'd built for himself two
    years prior, and Danielle had happily slipped over the wide armrest to sit on
    his lap, her legs dangling over the side as she cuddled up to his chest.

    We filled in Vanessa as we

    went at our first beers, giving her the rundown on my background and the house,
    and Leo and I being roommates, and that naturally led to talking about the
    chaos of the last two days, and Erica and I getting together because of the
    vaccine. Danielle chipped in and filled in some of the details from her end
    when it came to the vaccine stuff, but mostly she spent her time in the
    conversation occasionally whispering to Leo, making him blush and grin.

    Eventually, she kissed him,

    then rotated on his lap and slowly stood up, her ass practically brushing
    against his face. "Well, it's late," she said, smirking naughtily and
    knowing full well that we knew what she was doing. "I guess I'll head to
    bed. It was nice to meet you all today, see you in the morning."

    She sauntered back into the

    house as we replied with our own good nights, Danielle's hips swaying, ass
    flexing in her booty shorts.

    Leo made a show of yawning

    and stretching. "Aww, yeah. I guess it is a little late,”

    "Oh, shut up, Leo,"

    Erica said. "Just go have sex, already."

    He at least had the decency

    to blush as he scampered out of his chair and followed Danielle into the house.

    Vanessa shook her head and

    laughed. "Honestly, I wouldn't have believed you all if you'd told me this
    stuff last week," she said. "The only reason I believe you guys
    haven't been together for years, all four of you, is because this entire job
    has been so fucking weird."

    "How's that?" Erica

    asked. "It can't have been wilder than us."

    "Well, before all the

    Quarantines kicked in, my Pops was one of the General Managers on an expansion
    project out in North Dakota for a potash mine. Big sucker, billion-dollar
    industrial construction project, right? It was so hard to get workers in that
    area for such a big project, they were paying people to fly out and work
    two-week shifts, then fly home again for a week. Projects like that bleed cash,
    it's why I went right into construction after high school. It's not what I want
    to do forever, but the money is fucking awesome."

    "How long have you been

    at it?" I asked. "It sounds like a tough life."

    "Work hard, play

    hard," Vanessa shrugged. "I've been doing mostly industrial
    construction work since I was seventeen, so I guess; damn, nine years
    now?"

    I did the quick math. That

    makes her twenty-six, which was a few years older than I thought she was.
    I'd assumed she was early-twenties at best when I first saw her.

    "Anyways, I was working

    the same job 'cause Pops brings me and my brothers in on any jobs he can, and
    not just 'cause of nepotism shit but to be honest that's part of it. He just
    knows we get our work done and can handle managing some of the idiots who cycle
    through those sorts of big projects. Anyways, quarantine gets announced and
    everyone's getting sent home, and Pops gets this mysterious call that says he
    should keep his schedule open, and to take the quarantine seriously. He tells
    me and my brothers this, so I shutter up in my little condo and he does in his,
    but my brothers just keep on with life for a while. Then, like a week ago, Pops
    gets the call; a massive job, best pay he's ever been offered, to manage the
    construction of this place. Not only that, he's got carte blanche to hire the
    best people he can find, they just need to agree to all these rules, and they
    need to test negative for the virus. Well, turns out my brothers both sucked at
    quarantine, and they both pop positive. One of them, Terry, is sick like with
    the cold, but Blake is pissed he's missing out on this job because he doesn't
    have any symptoms."

    We were all running low on

    beers, so I went and fetched more before Vanessa continued. When I went inside,
    I could hear muffled talking upstairs, but a giggle and a shriek followed me
    back out the door. As I settled back on the couch with Erica she sighed,
    because we heard a long moan muffled from upstairs.

    "Please," she said,

    "continue, and drown that out."

    Vanessa laughed and shook her

    head with a smirk of chagrin. "I'll try. So where was I? Right, so Pops
    immediately hires his go-to Managers, along with his best foremen, other
    than my brothers, and that includes me. Some government people are running HR,
    and we all get these flights out here and shuttled to these motels across the
    area. For the last week, we've been doing everything by email and phone calls
    from our own motel rooms, stuck in a mini-quarantine and getting fed meals on
    trays at our doors, while we did a couple more tests to make sure no one
    brought in the virus. Good thing they were that thorough I guess because a
    couple people popped and got sent packing. Then yesterday we got the word, and
    everything is moving at light speed. The land is ours, ready to go. Get it
    done, the money is ready."

    "They didn't say

    anything about the vaccines to you all?" I asked.

    Vanessa shook her head again,

    this time more definite. "Not a word. They haven't said anything about why
    they were in such a panic to build this place, either. From everything we can
    gather, it's mostly just a subdivision of really nice houses. I mean, we've had
    our guesses, but nothing real."

    Erica squeezed my leg just

    slightly, and I could tell she was warning me from saying anything. I hadn't
    signed any NDAs or anything, but the Agent's words echoed in my head a bit. Who
    would believe you, anyways? I didn't need Erica to remind me, but I also
    knew she was acting on instinct and didn't mean anything by it.

    "That's a big piece on your

    neck," Erica said, changing the subject. "The work looks clean, too.
    Can I see it?"

    Part of our whole side of the

    story had mentioned to Vanessa that Erica was a Tattoo Artist in Portland, so
    the subject change didn't take Vanessa by surprise. "Oh, thanks. And yeah,
    for sure," she said. She sat forward on the lawn chair and tilted her chin
    up while pulling down the front of her sweater. Her neck, across the front and
    up the sides, was dominated by a bird of prey tattoo in oranges and reds with heavy
    black outlines and an almost heraldry style look to it. I almost thought it was
    too much; the line of Vanessa's neck was attractive and lean to match the rest
    of her petite body. But it also matched the rest of her rougher, country-punk
    style.

    Erica, for her part, also

    leaned forward as she examined the tattoo by firelight. "The line work is
    great. Very clean traditional American style. Who did it?"

    "Eddie Van Zan. He's a

    guy out in Vegas, I got him to do it over two weeks," Vanessa said,
    turning slightly to make sure Erica could see all the details. "I really
    liked his take on traditional stuff. Most of my tattoos are traditional
    American."

    "I've heard of him

    before," Erica said. "I think I might follow him on Instagram,
    actually. What drew you to traditional American? I'm more of a New School
    artist, but I've dabbled."

    "Oh, I don't know,"

    Vanessa shrugged. "I liked the clean lines, mostly. Not that other tattoo
    styles don't have that, but it just has a certain feel for me."

    "Yeah, I know what you

    mean," Erica nodded. "It does have a certain taste to it. I've got
    one piece I let a guy do, maybe twelve years ago when I was an apprentice just
    starting out." Erica stood up and pulled up the leg of her sweatpants,
    which she'd changed into to come out to the fire. On her calf was a wolf tattoo
    in a similar style, the head snarling up at a moon. "He's an ugly
    motherfucker, but at least the line work wasn't jacked up and the color has
    stayed saturated."

    "That's not half

    bad," Vanessa grinned. "Does he have a name?"

    "Limbo," Erica

    said, sitting back down. "Cause he's living between my decision to keep
    him or get him lasered off to make room for something else."

    "Oof, that's something I

    never want to do," Vanessa said. "That laser shit scares
    me."

    "The technologies improved,"

    Erica said. "It still sucks, but it's gotten better. Do you have any other
    cool pieces?"

    "Little stuff on my

    legs, kind of collections like it looks like you have," she said.
    "Plus a big piece on both my hips, and obviously my finger tattoos."
    I'd noticed them but hadn't taken a close look; each of her fingers had symbol
    tattoos between each knuckle. Her left hand had card suits and A, K, Q, J,
    while her right hand had some symbols that didn't mean anything to me.

    "Ooh, can I see your hip

    pieces?" Erica said. "I haven't seen many really big traditional
    Americans done other than big chests or backs."

    Vanessa hesitated but nodded.

    "Sure, why not? We're all friends here, I guess." She unbuckled her
    belt, then unzipped her jeans and pulled them partially down. She was wearing a
    utilitarian thong, nothing too skimpy. On her left hip was a peacock in that
    same thick-lined, indelible style and coloration, while on her right was a
    woman's face in a realistic greyscale style that looked like she was carved
    from stone, with cracks and moss built up from age. I also noticed that, under
    her thong waistband, Vanessa had a thick length of scar below her hipline,
    across her midsection. 'Survive' was tattooed just above it.

    "God damn," Erica

    said, leaving the couch altogether and going down to one knee. She got close to
    Vanessa's body, leaning in and studying the line work on both tattoos.
    "You pick great artists," she said. "This statue profile is
    beautiful, and the placement is great." She moved Vanessa, hands on the other
    woman's hips, and turned her to get a better look at the peacock. This happened
    to turn Vanessa's ass to me, which was delightfully pert despite her skinny
    frame. The Peacock's feathered-out tail spread halfway onto one of her cheeks.

    "Thanks," Vanessa

    said, beaming. "I really try to take my time and pick who works on me.
    I've got the cash, so I figure I can be picky about it."

    "Absolutely, girl,"

    Erica nodded. "Never let anyone tell you differently."

    Erica kept rotating Vanessa

    until she was face on with her again, looking at both of her hips as well as
    the scar and 'Survive' tattoo. She reached out and touched the scar lightly,
    and looked up at Vanessa with a soft, sad smile. "I've seen plenty of
    these, too. Hysterectomy?"

    Vanessa sighed and nodded.

    "Yeah. Ovarian cancer when I was fourteen."

    "Survive, indeed,"

    Erica nodded.

    I hadn't said anything

    through the exchange and felt like I would be butting in on a moment between
    the two women. Erica got back up and sat down, grabbing my hand and holding it
    in both of hers while Vanessa tugged up her pants and got her belt back around
    her. We chatted for a while more, and the moaning from upstairs died out.
    Sooner than later the fire was growing dim and we'd all finished our second
    beers.

    "Well, I better get going,"

    Vanessa said. "Early day tomorrow again, I've probably already pushed it
    later than I should have."

    "Are you good to

    drive?" I asked. "You can stay here tonight if you need to."

    "Nah, I'm fine,"

    Vanessa said. "Better than fine. Two beers in two hours? I'm practically
    stone-cold sober. You two are lightweights; if we were drinking with my
    brothers, we'd be through a twelve pack of tallboys by now."

    Vanessa said her good nights

    and made her way around the house while Erica and I sat in silence, just
    watching the dying fire and holding each other until we heard Vanessa's truck
    start up and pull away down the driveway.

    Erica leaned into me on the

    couch as we silently watched the fire take its last few licks before reducing
    to embers. At some point, I'd put my arm around her shoulders so her head was
    pressed into my chest and I could feel her breathing. The crickets and other
    nightlife were humming way out beyond the yard, the only sound. I'm not sure
    how long we sat like that, my mind wallowing in the warmth of her and the
    lingering fire.

    "I would totally fuck

    her," Erica said, breaking the silence.

    "What? Who?" I

    asked.

    "Vanessa, who did you

    think I was talking about?"

    I shook my head. "I

    dunno, maybe Danielle? You kind of said it out of nowhere."

    "Oh, I would definitely

    fuck Danielle too," Erica said. Her head was still pressed to my chest,
    leaning into me, but now she brought her hands down onto my crotch, starting to
    massage me through my jeans. "That girl is fucking fire in a bottle. But I
    was talking about Vanessa."

    "What brought that

    on?" I asked.

    "Other than me getting

    her half-naked for you?" Erica asked, turning to smile up at me as she
    slowly unzipped my jeans. "Well, she's a cool chick. Has good taste in
    tattoos. Works hard, plays hard. Plus she's hot without, like, rubbing your
    face in it like Danielle does. Not that Dani can help it. She's exactly the
    kind of girl I would have wanted to take out to a bar, get tipsy together and
    stumble into bed. And god do I want to do some work on her, she's got great
    skin."

    As she was talking Erica had

    snaked her fingers into the front hole of my jeans, her fingers wrapping around
    my cock and squeezing softly, getting a response from me as I started to firm
    up.

    "I agree with all of

    it," I said, my hand around her shoulder lowering to rub her side.
    "And the idea of you and her together is like a dream. But why just blurt
    that out?"

    "Because I wanted you to

    know," Erica hummed. She carefully pulled me out of the zipper of my jeans
    and slowly started stroking me. "I want you to know that for all I want
    that, I want you more. And that I'm definitely open to it. The vaccine people
    said I can't get any other man's cum anywhere near me, but they didn't say
    anything about other women."

    I shifted her, making her

    release me as I swung her around so that she was sitting on my lap, straddling
    me on the couch. I did this so I could kiss her, crushing her to me with my
    arms around her. We did that for a while, her fingers worming between us to get
    back on my cock while my hands travelled, squeezing her ass. Eventually we both
    ended up shirtless, my hands full of her tits as she slowly jacked me off. She
    was the one that ended the kiss, moving down to press her lips to my chest, and
    sliding off my lap to go lower.

    "I don't need anyone

    else," I said as she made her journey. "You're more than enough for
    me, E."

    She unbuckled my belt and

    undid the button, giving her more room to work with, all the while grinning up
    at me. "It's not about need, Harri. If you needed it, if you were
    the fuckboy I thought you were that first time I saw you, I wouldn't think you
    were nearly as attractive as you are." She lowered her lips, taking the
    head of my cock into her mouth, and shuddered in pleasure as she kept her eyes
    up on mine. She slurped off but her lips stayed close, speaking into it like a
    microphone. "God, that first taste; not like last night, but fucking good.
    I don't know what it is, Harri, but fuck if I'm going to fight it."

    She went down again, lips and

    tongue on my shaft, eyes focused on mine.

    "Oh, god Erica," I

    groaned. I hadn't been celibate in the last five years living out on the
    homestead. Leo and I drove into Portland at least once every couple of months
    to see our friends there; more in the summer. They came out to see us once in a
    while as well. I'd met some women, friends of friends. Had some fun.

    Erica, last night, had been

    my first encounter in a while though. And it had been amazing.

    Erica without the weird

    super-orgasms and chemical need for bonding was more than amazing. She was
    luxurious.

    She worked me over like a

    champion boxer, breaking out every trick she knew. Teasing, sliding, slurping,
    drooling. Her eyes steamed, simmered, watered and begged. She worshipped my
    cock, licking and kissing when it wasn't fully in her mouth.

    "Stop," I finally

    gasped. I'd been panting hard, watching her work on me, my chest bellowing as I
    tried to keep control of myself.

    She stopped, leaning back as

    she sat on her knees between my legs. This brought her tits back into clear
    view for me, and she was smirking with a self-satisfied grin like she'd snuck
    in a win against me. It was that look she had when we played cards or board
    games, the competitive nature in both of us making her feel like any advantage
    was a score of a point.

    Time to get on the

    scoreboard, I thought.

    She whooped in surprise as I

    stood and lifted her, throwing her over my shoulder belly down. Erica laughed,
    kicking her legs in the air as I caveman carried her out into the darkness and
    onto the lawn. I could feel her bare tits pressed against my back, and her
    hands scrabbling to hold onto my sides and waist. I walked us right out into
    the middle of the yard and slowly lowered her back down, coming down on top of
    her as I laid her bare back on the grass.

    "Umm hmm," she

    hummed her laughter, and I kissed her from above as I started undoing her
    jeans. I peeled them off her quickly, Erica shifting her hips to speed me
    along, and soon I'd gotten one of her legs out and didn't even bother peeling
    the tight jeans from her other calf. Her panties had come down with them,
    leaving her naked with her pants hanging off of one leg.

    I came up and kissed her

    again, one hand wrapping my fingers into her thick dark hair as my other found
    her thigh and slid up until I was cupping her mound. I broke the kiss as I slid
    two fingers into her immediately; she was sodden, and I wondered if I really
    had left her simmering all afternoon and evening. Looking down at her, she was
    only lit by the pale yellow light on the back porch from one direction and the
    soft white of the moon from the other, highlighting the edges of her with deep
    shadows in between. I could see her eyes glimmering, the line of her cheek and
    jaw, and the swell of her tits.

    "Oh, fuck baby," she

    hissed as my fingers started to work inside her, massaging her while I held her
    head still with my fingers in her hair. She was groaning wordlessly in extended
    hums, her nipples hard in the cool night air and picked out by the lights. Very
    quickly the soft squelching of my fingers and her juices began to grow, and she
    grabbed my arm as she started to shake as if to say to stop, but she also
    slammed her hips upwards trying to get my fingers deeper, wanting more.

    We locked eyes in the dark as

    I dragged the tips of my fingers over her g-spot again and again, the heel of
    my hand pressed against her mound and clit.

    "I; I need to

    come," she said, her voice cracking as she strained. "I'm going to
    come. Fuck, I'm going to come."

    "Don't," I said.

    "Don't you come yet."

    "What?" she asked.

    "Don't you fucking come

    yet, Erica," I said. "Who said you could come?"

    "Baby, please. God,

    please, baby!" she said. "Make me come. Let me come. God, I want to
    come for you so bad. You're making me; ugh, I'm going to squirt, I can feel it.
    I can feel it building, Harri, I'm going to lose it. It's good that we're
    outside; fuck, it's hot we're doing this outside. Fuck, baby, please may I
    come? Please? Please may I?"

    I leaned down and kissed her

    in response, breaking after a moment and just saying, "Go." As I
    kissed her again she kept her head still, like her lips were locked with mine,
    while her body otherwise betrayed her. Legs trembling, arms flung out and hands
    grabbing at the grass, I could feel Erica's twat pulse and ripple on my fingers
    as she pumped her hips and released a wash of girl cum that splattered my
    forearm and hand, dripping down. She released three times as I refused to let
    up my finger assault before her hips went still, and her limbs went weak, and
    she settled to the ground.

    Pulling my fingers out of

    her, I laid down beside her for a moment and cupped her cheeks in both my
    hands, kissing her softly at the same time as accidentally smearing her face
    with her own juices. As the last shocks of her orgasm wore off she had a sloppy
    grin on her face, and she rolled over onto her side to kiss me hard.

    I pushed her back, rolling

    over her as I positioned myself, and she wrapped a leg around my waist as she
    pulled the other back, spreading herself open. I was nudged inside before I
    knew it; no fumbling, just a smooth and perfect entrance into her tightness.
    Pressing, I took her, sliding to the hilt in one push and feeling her wetness
    settle around me.

    "Erica," I groaned.

    "Yes, baby," Erica

    moaned back. "All yours. I'm all yours."

    I didn't fuck her. I made

    love to her. Slow and sensuous, touching her softly, kissing where I could
    reach easily. Erica did the same, trailing her fingers along my back, over my
    ass. Feeling my arms, my abs.

    She came first, softly with

    just a small gasp and shudder. Then, without words, she slid up and out from
    under me, turning to lay on her stomach so that I could enter her again from
    behind. I cradled her under me and she giggled, and sighed, and when I bent my
    head down to kiss her cheeks I found they were wet with tears.

    "E?" I asked

    softly.

    "It's Okay," she

    said. "I'm just really happy."

    I didn't ask any other

    questions, just held her for a bit, my cock inside of her.

    We talked like that, about

    little things. About where we thought we'd be at this point, back at the start
    of the year. About people we missed seeing, some of our friends back in
    Portland.

    Erica talked about worrying

    the Tattoo Shop would close permanently; she was just the manager, and the
    owners weren't likely to want to cover the rent forever without profits coming
    in. I confessed to her that I missed the responsibility I had in the Military
    Police, and that the assessment for the Tier system I was supposed to get had
    hurt me more than I let on.

    When the yellow light from

    the porch automatically shut off, I rolled us over so we could look up at the
    stars. We weren't far enough away to miss all of the light pollution from the
    city, but we had a great view anyways. Erica slowly rode me as we looked up at
    the night sky, at the moon looking big in the sky.

    When I was getting close, she

    got off and remounted facing me, taking her turn to lie on top of me as she
    worked her hips. Erica whispered in my ear, dirty things and naughty things.
    Things she wanted to do to me. Do for me. Do with me. In the morning I would
    remember a single one, they all blended together in a mental tease that
    compounded to let me know that Erica was all in on us; her entire sexual being
    was mine, and mine was hers.

    As I came inside of her she

    sighed in delight and kissed me.

    "Next time you need to

    come somewhere else," she told me as we lay together, both star fished on
    the grass on our backs with our heads side by side.

    "Any particular

    reason?" I asked her.

    "Because, boyfriend,"

    she said. "You already wrote your name on my cunt. You still have to mark
    the rest of me, because I belong to you."

    "You know how fucking

    much that turns me on, don't you?" I asked.

    "I do," she said,

    and I could hear the grin on her in the dark. "It turns me on, too."

    "Who would have thunk

    it," I laughed. "The government made the best dating app ever."

    We laughed together, and then

    she turned over and kissed me, and found my cock was hard again so she went to
    kiss that as well.

    "Fuck," I groaned,

    slowly peeling myself from the bed as I winced at the sun beaming in through a
    break in the curtains.

    Erica mumbled and turned

    over, pulling the sheet with her.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 11 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 2

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 2
    The Start of Something New

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    Grierson finally sat forward,

    meeting me energy-to-energy as he kept my gaze locked in. "And yet, here
    we are, Mr. Black. We can either come up with a deal, or I swear to Christ and
    all the Saints that the government will seize this land for eminent domain
    under the emergency provisions of the pandemic and you won't be able to do a
    fucking thing about it."

    "Sell, or die," I

    said. "So you can build a 'resettlement camp?' Jesus Christ, yourself. If
    you know so much about my family history, you know building a fucking 'camp' of
    any sort on this land would be the absolute last thing I would bend over
    for."

    "I didn't say

    'camp.'" Grierson said. "No matter what your Native, and Japanese,
    forebears had to go through, listen to me; this is the farthest thing from
    that."

    I was 1/32nd native from my

    father's side and 1/16th Japanese from my mother's side. Again, not the hardest
    thing to dig up, but while I had the black hair of both those ancestries, I
    mostly just looked like a tall white guy with a pretty generic last name. No
    one ever assumed I was anything else in passing.

    "What does that even

    mean?" Erica asked.

    "It means we aren't

    building concentration camps," Grierson said, glancing over at her.
    "We aren't building a reservation, or an internment camp, or any of the
    other shitty things our and other governments have done to people." He looked
    back at me again. "We're going to develop this land into a neighborhood.
    The God damned fanciest kind of gated community you can think of. Big houses,
    big properties, for people who do or did important work to settle in safety and
    stability as we try to survive this shit show virus."

    "None of this answers

    why," I said. "Why should I agree to this? Why shouldn't I make it so
    fucking annoying that you go find a different patch of land and leave me
    alone?"

    Grierson frowned, though I

    had the feeling he'd been planning this from the start. He wanted me to work to
    peel back the layers of information, to earn the answers because that would
    make me believe them more. It would tick off boxes in my psychology and
    experience. The fucking problem was even though I knew he was doing it, it was
    also working. "Because you'd be saving lives," Grierson answered.
    "Our pilot development down in California is called New Eden; the place is
    only two-thirds built to starting specs, and we're already out of room on the
    next five phases of development once it's opened. Now it's my job to set up the
    next locations and get them rolling because our current projections are that
    within the next six months, the death toll is only going to skyrocket. We can't
    even get a grasp on what the numbers might reasonably be because the range is
    so fucking staggering. Millions is the easy number, Mr. Black."

    It was my turn to say it.

    "Fuck."

    "Now, you're not going

    to hear that on the TV," Walters said. "You won't hear it from the
    CDC, or the other health agencies. The only reason we are cleared to tell you
    this is because folks in our circles have developed the preference to work with
    reasonable people when they are useful. And also, who would fucking believe
    you?"

    "Here's our offer,"

    Grierson said, pulling out a slip of folded paper from inside his suit jacket
    and putting it on the coffee table. "That's the hard cash number we've
    designated for this deal. No taxes. Straight transfer from us to you. There
    will also be other perks, including homes inside the settlement for you and Mr.
    Lacoste. Things are about to get really weird in the world. Have you heard
    anything about the Tier system?"

    "Nothing," I said,

    but Leo spoke up.

    "I saw some rumors. It's

    supposed to be some kind of a terrifying triage, right?" he asked.
    "Who's the most worthy kind of shit. People started protesting, but I
    thought it got debunked."

    Grierson nodded. "Oh, we

    stopped the protests, but it's all too real. I won't hide it; I find the entire
    thing absolutely un-American. It's the kind of shit the Chinese government
    operates, but it is what it is."

    Walters drained the last of

    his coffee and set the mug onto the coaster on the coffee table politely.
    "Suffice it to say, it's a sort of social karma system. The more important
    you are to society, the more protections and comforts you're afforded as we
    roll out our limited resources on quarantine defenses. There's 5 tiers, one
    being the lowest and five the highest. Most of society will land in the 1's and
    2's, including all three of you. This development we'll be building is mostly
    going to house 3's and 4's. As part of the deal, we'll place Leo at tier 3 for
    resettlement purposes, and you Harrison would be placed at tier 4 despite your
    lack of qualification in the matter."

    This entire conversation felt

    like I was running downhill trying to keep up with an avalanche. "That
    sounds an awful lot like a really great way to set up for corruption," I
    said. "A fucking caste society? Really?"

    "It's already

    done," Grierson said. "Believe me, there were a lot of in-the-know
    people against the idea. But it's the only idea that works in this situation.
    We've gamed it out to the Nth degree. Leo, your description is pretty much the
    best that we were able to make internally. We're triaging society to make sure
    it stays together and can weather this hurricane."

    "What would we tier at

    without this?" Leo asked.

    "Leo Lacoste,"

    Grierson said, talking as if he were reading directly off of a portfolio even
    though he rattled it off without referencing anything. "Positives: Early
    thirties age bracket, relatively fit and healthy. Low-to-Mid career path;
    carpentry skills of moderate qualification. No criminal record. Negatives: No
    community investment. Likely rating: Tier 1."

    "Harrison Black,"

    he continued. "Positives: Early thirties age bracket, relatively fit and
    healthy. Former military service including Military Police service, honorable
    discharge at the rank of MP Investigations Special Agent, no known
    psychological impacts. No criminal record. Negatives: No community investment,
    null-rank career; freelance artist. Likely rating: Tier 1."

    "To be fair, there is

    a big question mark on your file that we couldn't fill," Walters said.
    "Your honorable discharge happened mid-tour, without any reported
    incidents or injuries. It's surprising you haven't been called back into at
    least reserve service with the Emergencies Acts. A decent answer would probably
    bump you up to tier two."

    "I can't talk about

    it," I said.

    Erica snorted and rolled her

    eyes, and both men looked at her.

    "Erica," I warned

    her.

    "What?" she

    demanded. "They just called you 'low tier,' Harri. If you're not going to
    tell them then I will."

    "I can't talk

    about it," I said again.

    "Harrison knocked out an

    Air Force bigwig when he was an MP and stationed in Germany," Leo cut in.
    "The guy was abusing and trying to blackmail a female subordinate into
    sex. The only reason we know is because she tracked Harri down a few years ago
    and we met her in a bar in Portland."

    "The bigwig was politically

    protected and nothing happened in the end," Erica said. "At least,
    that's what she said. He got shuffled around, and Harrison got the boot."

    "I got an honorable

    discharge instead of a court martial for striking a very superior officer of a
    different branch," I said. "And part of that deal was that I not
    talk about it."

    "Well that explains some

    things," Grierson said. "It wouldn't change anything though. If you
    were doing something more useful with your life than painting little pictures,
    you might have made tier two or three without this offer."

    "Says you," Erica

    scoffed. "Art is useful. And important!"

    Grierson pursed his lips

    slightly. "Erica Lacoste. Not an official resident of the property, but I
    know enough. Positives: Early thirties age bracket, relatively fit and healthy.
    Negatives: Criminal record, including battery, two counts of public
    drunkenness, and public urination. No community investment. Null rank career;
    tattoo artist. Likely rating: Tier 1."

    "Hey, fuck you

    too," Erica said, and pointed her middle finger at Grierson, along with a
    scowl to go with it. Honestly, none of that was surprising news about Erica for
    me except for the Battery charge, I definitely needed to get that story
    out of her.

    "Okay, we get it,"

    I said, interrupting what I had a feeling was about to become a degenerating
    path of conversation. "You know about us. You do realize this is all a
    little much, right? It comes across as insane."

    "Of course it

    does," Grierson sighed. "But a year ago, only bored analysts tripping
    on LSD were asked to think about these kinds of situations. Now we're in it,
    right in the damned middle of the clusterfuck."

    "You should really look

    at the offer," Walters said, gesturing to the folded paper I hadn't looked
    into yet. It sat on the coffee table like an accusing finger pointed at me by
    my father, and his father before him. How dare I even consider this?

    "So it's a butt load of

    cash," I said, still not opening the paper. "And we get treated like
    what, royalty? And in exchange, I lose my family legacy."

    "Royalty is a stretch;

    you're selling us land, not curing cancer. We'll take care of you like valued
    members of society. You'll also get early access to the vaccine," Grierson
    said.

    "There's a

    vaccine?" Leo immediately asked. "Social media has been wild with
    rumors but,”

    "It's still

    experimental," Walters said. "And undergoing trials. But it's
    functioning, with some unconventional side effects. They're still doing
    long-term tests down in California, but we're going to start rolling it out
    down there any day now once the doctors are happy with the plan. That's how bad
    we need it, FDA bullshit be damned."

    I took a deep breath and let

    it out slowly. "Flipside, stick. If I don't cut a deal, you'll use the
    might of the US government to bend me over and rip my family legacy right out
    of my ass."

    "You got it. But like I

    said, we prefer working with people. There's always a silver lining to making
    friends," Walters said.

    "Fuck," I said

    again. Then I flipped one half of the paper open and looked at the number
    written on the inside. There were a damn lot of zeros. "I need to call my
    sister," I said. "But pending her approval, I'll lease it to you. All
    560 acres, for a hundred years less a day; that's what people do, right? And
    Leo and I get to pick where our houses are built."

    "That's not how this

    works," Walters said.

    "It's my counter

    offer," I said.

    "Hold on," Grierson

    said, raising a hand to his partner. He narrowed his eyes as he looked me over
    again. He was a man who made judgment calls on the fly, despite his ability to
    reel off memorized facts like he'd been living with them for years. I could
    practically see the rusty old gears turning behind his grizzled facade.
    "Fuck it," he finally said. "We need to survive the next six
    months, year, five years and decade before anyone will be worrying about next
    century. Make your call."

    "You're really doing

    this?" Leo asked me as I stood up and fished in my pocket for my cell.

    "My family has had to

    defend this land from everything and everyone except the federal
    government," I said. "Up until now, they might be the only people who
    haven't thought they had some claim to it. Obviously, this will all need to be
    in writing before I make a final agreement, but look at the news; everything
    they're saying makes some sort of terrible sense. And I'd rather get the carrot
    than a stick so far up my ass it's tickling my brain stem."

    I went outside to the porch

    to make the call to Valerie, my older sister. It was quicker than I thought it
    would be; Val and her husband Brad were hearing horror stories from their
    nursing friends in the local hospitals, and she immediately understood the
    position we were in. We hadn't always gotten along the best growing up, but if
    Val had one thing it was a practical head on her shoulders. When I came back
    inside, I nodded to Grierson. "Add in another house for my sister and her
    family, and we've got a deal."

    "In exchange for the

    Lease, and the extra house," Walters said, "We're going to need your
    help in identifying the landscape. I assume you know it fairly well; we'll want
    you to walk our surveyors through to show any odd landscape elements, seasonal
    issues like flood areas, that sort of thing."

    "Done, as long as I can

    point out the shit they shouldn't fuck with and they actually listen," I
    said. "There are some pretty big old growth trees out there that would be
    a fucking shame to cut down."

    "I understand your

    concerns, son," Grierson said, as he stood and offered his hand. "But
    believe me when I say this; we aren't looking to build any high rises or pave
    over the place. These developments are for people important to society for one
    reason or another, and that means we're making sure to give them the best we
    can. Landscape included."

    One last deep breath and I

    reached out and hovered my own hand near his. "In writing before it's
    official."

    "The contract will be

    done by this afternoon and we'll email it over. Our lawyers work on our
    timeline, not their own," he said and grasped my hand in his. We both had
    larger hands than most, but I could immediately tell he had the grip of a man
    made from the iron bones of a hard life. I'd like to think he felt the same in
    my grip, but I had a feeling he'd shaken hands with much harder and scarier
    people than me.

    "When can we get

    vaccinated?" Leo asked. "If we're going to be working with surveyors
    and shit, shouldn't we all be as safe as we can?"

    "We have a testing site

    opening up in Portland as we speak, so it can get done as soon as possible,"
    Walters said. "Though, as I mentioned, things are a little bit unorthodox
    right now. Harrison and Leo, you'll need these codes. Get online this
    afternoon, go to the website and fill out the questionnaire. It's extremely
    important you are entirely truthful. Your answers will affect how your
    tier ranking will play out for you as we roll it out over the next few months
    across the west coast." He pulled out two business cards from a pocket,
    each with their names, an URL and a twenty-five-digit passcode, and handed them
    to Leo and me.

    "What about me?"

    Erica asked.

    "Vaccination side

    effects and implementation are different between men and women," Grierson
    said. "Just like the virus is overly affecting men, the vaccine has
    different effects. If you want your vaccine immediately, Miss Lacoste, you're
    going to need to fly with us back up to Portland and attend the information
    session this afternoon that some of our volunteer human guinea pigs are doing.
    Then, if you agree to the risks and side effects, we can have you immunized as
    soon as tomorrow morning."

    Things moved quickly after

    that. Erica went to pack an overnight bag and put on her 'going out into the
    world' gear that she usually wore for grocery trips into town; she'd be put up
    in a quarantine hotel while in Portland for the night before she returned the
    next day. Within ten minutes she was ready to go and Walters was escorting her
    out, and the helicopter was warming up its rotors with a whining hum in the
    front yard.

    "I'm glad you agreed to

    the deal," Grierson said, offering his hand to me again, which I shook.
    "You may not fully understand what you've agreed to yet, but when you do I
    expect a more enthusiastic thank you. I get that the cash wasn't the important
    factor with you, son. I grew up on a ranch in North Dakota, I know what family
    land means. This place is going to do a lot of good for people."

    "Are you managing the

    development?" I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the rising thrum
    of the helicopter.

    "Not a chance," he

    said. "It'll be managed by the Air Force, they've been spearheading with
    the CDC on all these efforts. I'm just the pre-show, but I'll be around to
    check in on the progress every once in a while, and do the problem solving
    other people can't handle."

    "What does that look

    like?" I asked.

    "Any way it needs

    to," he grinned, and I saw the look that all veteran soldiers had. An
    acceptance that violence could come easily into the life of a person, and that
    they knew how to handle it when it came. "And don't be alarmed, but we've
    already had a crew starting to widen your driveway down at the highway. They'll
    work through the night and probably make it up here by tomorrow morning."

    "What's the rush?"

    I asked.

    Grierson barked a laugh as he

    started backing away from me towards the open helicopter door. Sour-puss lady
    was leaning out, holding onto the door and looking like she was about to try
    and scold Grierson for keeping them waiting. "Kid, in two weeks' time
    there's going to be well over a thousand lumberjacks, construction workers,
    surveyors and architects up here. Government moves slow, but OGA were designed
    to do the opposite. Your life is about to get a little crazy, I'd strap
    in."

    I had too many questions to

    even start one as Grierson hopped into the dark interior of the helicopter. The
    door slammed, the motor whined at a higher pitch, and it leapt into the sky and
    started heading north.

    "Hey, does this

    questionnaire strike you as way too fucking personal?"

    "Hmm?" I asked. I

    was sitting on the front porch with my laptop open, but I hadn't even keyed in
    the website URL. Instead, I'd been sitting there for over an hour just looking
    out at the trees, wondering if I'd just betrayed six generations of my family
    in under thirty minutes.

    "These questions,"

    Leo said, holding up his own laptop. He'd stepped out the front door and had a
    look of confusion plastered on his face. "It's like... sex stuff. Shit I
    wouldn't talk to you about, let alone the government."

    "What?" I asked.

    "Are you sure you're on the right site? It's supposed to be about the tier
    thing."

    "Yeah, I'm sure. Dot-Gov

    link and everything."

    "Fucking OGA," I

    grimaced.

    "You and that Agent dude

    kept saying that. What does it mean?"

    I sighed. "Other

    Government Agency. It's kind of a military meme for when someone from the CIA
    doesn't want to say they are from the CIA. Or, if you're into conspiracies,
    it's completely separate from the CIA but they're so secretive they don't even
    have a name."

    Leo just shook his head and

    sighed before sitting down in the other deck chair. He joined me in looking out
    at the forested hills that had surrounded us for the last five years.

    "Did I fuck everything

    up?" I asked him.

    "What? No," he

    said. "Well, I mean, it's hard to know. But no, I don't think so."

    "This is all going to go

    away," I said, gesturing out to the wilds that had been my childhood, and
    our shared backyard. "My family has been on this land for over a hundred
    and fifty years, and I just agreed to let the government wipe it out."

    "It's not like you had

    much of a choice, Harrison. Carrot and stick, like you said. And whether those
    guys were CIA or something else, they definitely seemed to have a really big
    fucking stick. They flew in on a damn helicopter."

    "Still," I said.

    "I feel like I'm selling out my childhood."

    We talked for a while, reminiscing.

    Leo let me tell some old family stories he'd already heard a half dozen times
    before. We joked about the shit we'd gotten up to, living out in our backwoods
    paradise.

    "Maybe it's time for a

    change," I sighed. "This was never going to last forever."

    "Felt like it though,

    didn't it?" Leo asked.

    "Yeah, it did."

    Poing! Leo's laptop, sitting forgotten, made a horrible

    noise. He glanced at it, "Ah, shit. I timed out. Now I gotta start all
    over again."

    He started typing away, and I

    finally opened my own laptop. The first thing I did was open my emails, and
    sitting right at the top, already marked with an 'important' star, was the
    email with the contract.

    Everything is as

    discussed. Print and sign, someone will be by tomorrow to collect. Make sure
    you fill out the questionnaire!; Walters.

    "Jesus," I

    muttered. "They really are putting a lot of emphasis on this thing."

    I opened up the website,

    starting by filling out all the basic information. Then, just like Leo said, it
    started to get weird. It was like filling out the most invasive and specific
    dating app ever.

    "I feel like they're

    going to try and 3D Print me a girlfriend," Leo laughed at one point.

    "Maybe it's

    cloning," I snickered.

    "That's fair. I wonder

    if they can clone me an Angelina Jolie?"

    "Gone in 60 Seconds

    Jolie, or Wanted Jolie?" I asked.

    He snorted. "Mr. and

    Mrs. Smith Jolie will always be my peak. Or Tomb Raider."

    "Ugh," I scoffed.

    We went back and forth like

    that, laughing at the ridiculousness of the questions and suggestions. The list
    of kinks we were attracted to, or turned off by was immense. We had to help
    each other even figure out what some of them were. I found myself ticking off
    some that surprised me because I'd never considered them before but they
    sounded hot. Other stuff I down voted hard, and I couldn't believe someone
    would ever admit to the government that they were into them.

    Hell, one of the suggested

    kinks was the government. Who the fuck got hot under the collar about
    bureaucracy and paperwork?

    I mean, I guess someone

    would, somewhere, or it wouldn't have been on the list.

    "What did you put for

    that last one?" Leo asked me as I was closing my laptop.

    "The relationship style

    scale?" I asked.

    "Yeah. I put a full 10,

    polyamory all the way. How hot would it be to be some sheikh with a harem of
    ladies?"

    "I went for a 6," I

    said. "I'm not going to turn down a threesome or anything if that's what
    my girl wants, but I'm also not into the idea of sharing with another
    boner."

    Leo shrugged, closing his

    eyes and leaning back in his chair. "I don't know, my dude. The Agents did
    say the world is changing. Maybe the norm will be great big orgies next year,
    and we'll all be smashing like it's our jobs."

    I snorted and smirked.

    "Yeah, sure. Society threatens to collapse and we all devolve into Eyes
    Wide Shut perverts."

    "One can dream,"

    Leo laughed.

    We spent the evening starting

    to pack. It was tough, since we weren't really sure what the actual plan was.
    The contract fully outlined that we'd be getting new residences in the development,
    which was being called 'Valhalla,' but it wasn't exactly clear what the
    timeline was.

    I pushed for Leo to get

    packing sooner than later. My days in the military had me trained to expect
    'hurry up and wait' to never mean waiting on the little guy, and right now we
    were definitely the little guy.

    We were woken up in the

    middle of the night by the sound of machinery, and we got dressed and rode the
    ATVs down the driveway. The gravel trail stretched about a half mile from the
    highway up to the house, but we only made it around a couple of bends before we
    came to the lights and action.

    "Stop right there,"

    someone with a megaphone called to us, and we pulled our rides to a halt and
    cut the engines. "Who the fuck are you?" the voice asked.

    "Harrison Black. You're

    on my,” I had to stop myself. As of that evening, I'd signed the contract. It
    wasn't mine anymore. "We live here," I corrected.

    "Oh, it's you,"

    said the voice. One of the workers stepped forward. He had on a big, bright
    orange reflective vest, and had a clipboard in one hand and the megaphone in
    the other. "Keep working, boys!" he shouted, and the machinery ground
    into action again.

    He approached us and stopped

    about ten feet away, despite needing to shout to be heard over the machinery.
    "Sorry about the noise. We've got orders to get this road done up to your
    house by tomorrow."

    "We heard," Leo

    said.

    "How does this all

    work?" I asked. "Shouldn't you guys be in quarantine gear or
    something?"

    "We got tested twice

    over the last two days in preparation for the job," the guy said.
    "Everyone on the crew is clean, and we all damn well needed the work.
    Fastest turnaround and the highest pay I've ever seen. Still, we're supposed to
    keep our distance from anyone other than the team. You guys get tested?"

    "No," I shouted

    back. "But the Government guys who set this up didn't seem to care."

    "Yeah, they did that

    with us, too. Acted like they were immune. Hell, maybe they are," the
    worker said. "You hear about what that idiot in the White House said
    yesterday?"

    We traded some stories we'd

    heard. It was strange, usually Leo and I were pretty private with strangers,
    but after so long in isolation with just each other and Erica, and the fucking
    weird encounter with the Agents, it was nice to just shoot the shit with someone
    new and normal. Even if it was shouting over the sound of machinery.

    Williams was the foreman of

    the operation that was clearing the trees to either side of the road. Another
    crew was working behind them, and trucks were already dumping off heavy set
    gravel at the entrance to widen it into a three-lane road. By morning they
    expected to have all of the trees, stumps and all, ripped out and stacked up
    for processing, and the driveway would be graded and levelled by lunch.

    The speed at which the crew

    worked was almost frightening. They were all experienced hands and did
    everything safely, but it was clear that they were motivated. While we were
    talking, Leo and I had to back up our ATVs twice to clear space for the crew to
    move ahead.

    Eventually, we said good

    night to Williams and headed back up to the house. I went back to bed,
    wondering if I'd made a terrible mistake.

    True to their words, by the

    time Leo and I woke up in the early morning, the clanging and crashing was just
    fifty yards from the front door. We made a couple big pots of coffee and
    brought it out to the guys, and one at a time they all walked over to the stump
    we used as a table and poured it into their thermoses while we stayed back. I
    had to make two more trips with more fresh coffee to cover everyone; in the
    dark it had been hard to tell how many people were working stretched out along
    the driveway. The clearing crew itself had to be thirty people, and a tired but
    thankful Williams said the gravel grading and levelling crew was probably just
    as big.

    "I'm sure we'll see you

    around," Williams called as the workers started packing up their equipment
    and prepping their heavier machinery for transport. "Supposed to be lots
    more work to do up here, yeah?"

    "Guess so," I

    called back. "Where are you guys headed now?"

    "They set us up in a

    motel about 20 minutes south. We've got guys on the crew from all over; they
    recruited all of us to fly out for this work, all expenses paid. Gotta tell
    you, it felt like hitting the lottery after sitting around in quarantine with
    my savings siphoning away."

    They left behind stacks of

    logs and stumps along the side of the now widened driveway area, and soon Leo
    and I were prepping a whole new serving of coffee as the morning wore on and
    the grading crew made its way up my old driveway. The guys on that crew were a
    little more hesitant to chat since they felt like they were running behind
    schedule, but they were happy enough to take the hot coffee after a whole night
    of work.

    It was around noon when one

    of the grading crew came up and knocked on the front door of the house. I'd
    been busy cleaning out the attic; one of those jobs I'd always had on my list
    of things to do around the property but never got around to. If there was
    anything up there worth saving, I hadn't found it yet, but it was worth the
    look. I came down to the front door covered in dust.

    The guy took one look at me

    from where he'd backed to 'social distance' and started laughing. I took one
    look at him, covered in gravel dust with rings of sweat from where he'd taken
    off his hard hat, and laughed right back.

    "Sir," he finally

    said after a minute, "We just thought you should know that the crew down
    at the far end of the road said someone in a green pickup truck drove by real
    slow a few times. The third time they pulled over and asked what was going on,
    but the boys down there followed orders and didn't tell him anything, so he
    peeled out. Just figured we'd let you know."

    "I appreciate

    that," I said, and sighed in the way that only old family history could
    make me sigh. Deep, long and aggravated. "And I think I know who it
    probably was. Thanks for letting me know."

    He nodded and went back to work.

    I didn't even think to ask what all was going on down at the end of the new
    road they had installed until he was already at the other end of the yard.

    "What's up?" Leo

    asked when I went to join him in the barn.

    "One of the crew guys

    said they saw a green pickup doing drive-buys."

    "Hah! Well, I guess

    that's not going to be your problem anymore, is it?" Leo laughed.

    I smirked. "Not legally.

    I'm sure I'm still going to be on Kara's shit-list and get a fucking earful
    though."

    I ended up spending the early

    afternoon helping Leo pack up a bunch of his woodworking equipment. The smaller
    stuff was fairly easy, but he needed the extra body for some of the larger
    presses and table-mounted saws. It felt like we'd barely made a dent when the
    double-honk of a car broke our concentration.

    We both headed around the

    side of the barn to find Erica getting out of the passenger seat of a black
    town car that had eaten a whole lot of the fresh gravel dust and now looked
    like someone had dusted it with flour. Sour-puss Agent Maggie was getting out
    of the driver's seat.

    "Hey, sis, how was

    it?" Leo asked.

    "Umm-Hmm," Erica

    said, shaking her head and holding up a finger to keep him from hugging her.
    "I need to talk to both of you inside." She had nervous energy going
    on, bouncing her weight on one leg and chewing on the corner of her lower lip.
    "Give me twenty; no, give me thirty minutes."

    "Is everything

    alright?" I asked. Erica was already moving quickly into the house. She'd
    had a look on her face like she was sick, and flushed with a fever or
    something. I turned to Agent Maggie. "Did something happen? She didn't
    catch the virus, did she?"

    "No," sour-puss

    said, that permanent sneer never breaking. "She knows everything she needs
    to, and needs to talk. Just do what she says."

    "What are you talking

    about?" I asked. Leo had followed Erica inside to make sure she was Okay.

    "Look, prick. Your

    little 'send her to the car' thing yesterday made me look bad, and now I'm
    stuck as a glorified cab driver while my boss and my partner are off to another
    shitty corner of the country like this one to bribe someone else into handing
    over their property to the government. Just fuck off inside and enjoy your new
    fucking world, you Mamoa-wannabe jerk." She got back in her car and
    slammed the door closed, then started to peel away and spin the car around
    before slamming the breaks and rolling down the window. "I'll be back
    again in a few hours with Lacosta's partner. He needs to be here waiting."

    "What?" I asked.

    She just flashed me her

    middle finger as she drove away.

    God damn woman, I sighed, watching her kick up dust and loose stones

    as she drove way too fast down the brand new gravel road. I shook my head and
    went inside.

    Erica was already upstairs

    and I could hear the shower running. Leo just shook his head and shrugged,
    "She wouldn't say anything. Just muttered about needing to get ready for
    something."

    "This is weird," I

    said. "I'm really fucking hoping this whole thing isn't going to blow up
    in our faces."

    "If it is, we might as

    well take it head on. Too late to do anything else," Leo said.

    "That's too fucking

    true, my friend," I said.

    Thirty-five minutes later

    Erica, dressed in a pair of her tight jeans with all the holes 'stylishly' cut
    into them down the legs and a black Metallica hoodie, strutted down the stairs
    and immediately began pacing and fidgeting with the strings of her sweater
    hood. She had done her full makeup, and seeing her like that was almost as
    shocking as the first time she'd gone without it; it had been a month since she
    had bothered with makeup at all, since even when she went out on grocery runs
    she was entirely covered up.

    "Sit," she demanded

    when we joined her in the living room, pointing me to my usual chair and Leo to
    the couch. He furrowed his brow as he watched his sister's nervous energy, but
    I wasn't sure it was because he was worried or didn't like her ordering him
    around. Their whole twin thing had always been more bouncing off each other
    than working in parallel.

    "Alright, alright,"

    I said, hands up as I went to sit. "What's going on, E?"

    She stopped pacing and looked

    at both of us, transferring her energy into tapping her foot. I'd only ever
    seen her like this once before, right before we'd had our big group
    conversation about her staying indefinitely through the quarantine. Later,
    she'd elaborated to me a little bit more as to why she'd been so nervous;
    beyond the pandemic dangers, and feeling alone if she left, Erica had been
    chipping in for groceries with us, but that was it; the woman couldn't work
    during the pandemic, and tattooing hadn't exactly fueled her savings accounts.
    Everything all piling on at once had turned her into a nervous wreck, the
    opposite of her usual self. So what was doing this to her now?

    "Erica," Leo said,

    snapping her out of the train of thought she'd lost herself in staring at me.
    Her gaze was intense, only added to by her sexy post-punk look. It was like
    she'd erected a wall of armor around herself, or was taking on a persona that
    she'd let drop.

    "Right, sorry, I'm just

    really fucking distracted," she said. "Look, there's no way to say
    this easily without sounding sort of crazy at first, Okay? So I'm just going to
    say it, and you both need to listen cause I'm only explaining it once,
    alright?"

    Leo and I both nodded.

    "Alright, so the vaccine

    isn't just like, a shot. Well, it is for women. I got it this morning, and I'm
    something like 97% immune to the virus. But for men it isn't a shot. I
    did that information session and they showed us a bunch of research I only
    half-understood thanks to my AP bio classes back in high school, but I
    definitely got the video. The vaccine is pretty much lethal for men, and it has
    some weird side effects for women. They couldn't remove those aspects, so they
    modified it in other ways to try and adjust."

    "So how are we supposed

    to get vaccinated?" Leo asked.

    Erica licked her lips, and I

    realized she was sweating slightly. She glared at her brother, then looked at
    me and her eyes softened, then hardened, and I couldn't tell if she was angry
    at me or what. Then she glared back at her brother again. "They basically
    turned the vaccine into an STD, and it's the only way for men to get
    vaccinated. It's not permanent and needs frequent upkeep in both men and women,
    and it turns women fucking horny as hell if they go without for too long."

    "I'm sorry, what!?"

    Leo burst out. "And you took the shot?"

    "Just shut up,

    Leo!" Erica tried to shout him down. "I heard all the evidence, I
    weighed my options, and I decided this was the best thing to do. The whole tier
    system thing? I did the same questionnaire as you guys did, and they gave me a
    list of good matches. People I could go become a partner of. Like, sexually,
    and maybe romantically. We'd live together in quarantine, screw each other into
    immunity, and be that way for the foreseeable future until they fix this
    vaccine."

    "That's so fucked

    up," I said. "They wanted you to just shack up with someone you
    didn't know?"

    "Yeah, except someone I did

    know was on my list," she said.

    "Who?" Leo asked.

    "Are you moving back to Portland?"

    Erica turned from her brother

    and looked right at me.

    "Oh, no," Leo said.

    "No, no, no. You two are not becoming fuck buddies. We discussed
    this, Erica!"

    "Wait, what?" I

    said. "You discussed,”

    "Not important!"

    Leo shouted. "It's not important. It's not happening."

    "It's too late,

    Leo," Erica said. Then she turned to me. "At least, it is if you're
    into it. Look, Harrison, you can say no. I can't make you do this.
    What’s-her-name will come back and get me, and I'll pick someone else on that
    list they gave me, and I'll go stay with them wherever they are. No hard
    feelings, you've done so much for me already that I can't even start to say
    thank you properly. But fuck I really want to fuck you. I've been
    getting off thinking about you almost exclusively for weeks, and the only
    reason I never asked you out in all these years is because I promised Leo back
    in high school I wouldn't ever date his friends."

    "And this is

    better?!" Leo squawked.

    "Shut up,

    Leo!" Erica shouted back at him.

    "You're not seriously

    considering this, are you?" Leo asked me. "You can't; Why; Come on,
    dude. She's my twin sister, it would be like... ugh!" He threw his hands
    up in the air in frustration.

    I rubbed my face with both

    hands and took in a deep breath before looking back at the siblings.
    "Alright," I said slowly. "First off, Erica, is this the vaccine
    talking? Just try and focus, cause this sounds an awful lot like some crazy
    date-rape drug and not a vaccine."

    "God, fuck. Why do men

    have to make things so hard?" she said. "I've wanted to fuck you for
    ages, Harrison. You being on my compatibility list at the vaccine center just
    made the decision fucking convenient instead of a fantasy."

    I turned to Leo. "Would

    you rather it be me, or some freak you know nothing about?"

    "I'd rather it be no

    one!" Leo said.

    "That's not an option

    anymore," Erica growled. "I've already got the shot. I'm just going
    to get hornier and hornier until I fucking snap, Leo. Then I'll fuck anything
    that fucking moves, that's the way it works. I need to bond with someone or
    I'll lose my goddamn mind. There are still a few days before I apparently go
    full-on bitch-in-heat feral, but I'm already feeling an itch all over and the
    only thing that I know, I know, is going to relieve that itch is
    cock."

    "Jaysus," I

    muttered, sitting back.

    Erica turned back to me,

    hugging herself. "Please, Harrison? Just; just tell me yes or no. Standing
    here without an answer is killing me, cause I don't know if I need to fight the
    feeling or I can give in."

    "I; Erica, you are

    absolutely gorgeous. I always assumed you weren't interested in me, or just
    wanted a friend. Honestly, I sort of thought you were gay with the comments you
    make about the women you work on in your shop. You're always talking about
    perky tits and firm asses and stuff like that," I said.

    "I'm Bi," she

    clarified. "And I work with people's bodies all day. I know what's hot and
    what's not for me, and Harri, you've fucking revved my engine since that first
    weekend Leo introduced us. I just want to rub my body all over,”

    "Erica!" Leo

    interrupted her.

    "Sorry, sorry, too

    much," she said. "I told you, this fucking vaccine is damn
    distracting right now. I need some relief here."

    "I'll do it," I said.

    "I just; this feels like the drug or whatever talking, Erica. Are you
    absolutely sure?"

    She was on me, straddling my

    lap and pressing her mouth to mine. Erica grabbed my head in her hands as she
    started forcefully making out with me, muttering 'Thank you' over and over into
    my lips. Her tongue pushed against mine, and then she grabbed my hands with
    hers and pulled them around to grab her ass. It was wonderfully firm, with a
    good amount of muscle that kept it looking full even if it wasn't particularly plump.

    "At least go get a

    room," Leo growled loudly.

    I pushed Erica back far

    enough that we could look each other in the eyes. Hers were bright, lucid, and
    silently pleading with me in a way that made her seem smaller and more
    vulnerable than the tough chick I'd come to know.

    "Let's go

    upstairs," I said to her.

    "I didn't mean literally

    get a room, right now," Leo said. "We need to talk this over! You
    made me a promise, Erica."

    "Shut up, Leo,"

    Erica said. "I'll make it up to you, this isn't the end of the world.
    Probably. I think." She grabbed my hand, scrambled out of my lap and
    started pulling me up out of my chair.

    "What the fuck am I

    supposed to do?" Leo asked. "How am I getting vaccinated?"

    "Whenever they find

    someone who actually wants to fuck you, dorkus," Erica told her brother.

    "That lady agent said

    she'd be back in a few hours with your 'partner,'" I told him as I passed
    by, still getting pulled by Erica towards the stairs. "I didn't know what
    she meant at the time, but I guess;?"

    "Is she hot?" Leo asked

    me. I was already getting pulled up the stairs.

    "How am I supposed to

    know?" I yelled down to him.

    It's funny how energy can

    rise and fall at the drop of a hat. Erica pulled me into the guest bedroom
    she'd been using as her bedroom, slammed the door shut and turned to me; and
    stopped.

    She bit her lip, one leg

    bouncing at the knee as she shifted her weight.

    "Second thoughts?"

    I asked.

    "No, no," Erica

    said, shaking her head. "Definitely not. God, fuck, no. I didn't want to
    get into it in front of Leo like that, but you're also just being so you
    that I feel like I need to explain myself more."

    "So tell me," I

    said, sitting down on the bed.

    Erica started pacing again

    but stopped after one back-and-forth. "Okay, look. What I said down there
    is true. I would have asked you out years ago, after that first time we met at
    Burleson’s when Leo brought you around."

    "The pub around the

    corner from your shop? That wasn't the first time we met," I said.

    "I know," she

    replied. "That was when you were moving into Leo's apartment. We
    passed each other in the building lobby and I saw you glance at my tits. I
    thought you were just another fuckboy asshole."

    "Wait, I don't remember

    that," I said. "Why didn't you ever tell me that happened? I thought
    the first time was when you gave Leo the fish tattoo on his side."

    "That's the first time

    we actually spoke," Erica said. "And you had an uphill fucking battle
    to try and change my mind about my first impression of you. You only made it
    far enough that I didn't bitch about Leo bringing you to the pub a couple
    nights later. That was when I got to actually focus on talking to you
    instead of chatting while I was at work. I also remember being super fucking
    pissed at Leo that night, because I asked him if I could go back on our deal
    from high school and hook up with you, and he said no."

    "Okay, whoa; we could

    have been having sex for seven years and you held to an agreement you
    made in high school? What was this fucking thing, a treaty ratified by the
    Pope?"

    Erica snorted a laugh and ran

    her fingers through her hair in frustration. "No, it was stupid. And
    honestly, looking back, we probably would have had a lot better of a time if he
    and I had agreed on the opposite. But Leo was a jock, and I was a scene girl,
    and we made an agreement that we didn't want each other messing with our friend
    groups. So no dating, no crushing, no nothing if the other twin claimed them
    first. We wanted to guard what we had, instead of helping each other out."

    I huffed a soft laugh.

    "Sounds like teenage bullshit to me."

    "Yeah, well, I'll just

    claim twin loyalty, Okay?" Erica said. "But that's not the really
    fucked up thing about this. When you invited me down from the city to stay with
    you guys, Leo and I had a separate talk. Harrison, my brother fucking loves
    you. Not like in a sexual way, but you're the best friend he's ever had.
    Period. No doubt about it. And he may not have ever said it to you but he was
    really worried that I would screw up the dynamic you guys have; and now here I
    am doing it." Erica squeezed her eyes shut and tilted her face to the
    ceiling. "Shit, maybe this was a bad idea after all. Fuck, he's never
    going to forgive me, I,”

    "Hey, hey," I said,

    standing and pulling her into a hug. Erica was a tall woman, easily 5'9 or a
    bit more, but I still towered over her with my 6'6". She clung to the
    sides of my shirt instead of hugging back, but buried her face into my chest.
    "I didn't know any of this, E. But we're all adults, we can handle this
    better than making promises we don't want to keep."

    "I know," she

    mumbled into my shirt, and slowly let go of my sides and slid her arms around
    until she was hugging me back.

    "You should know that I

    would have asked you out in a second if I thought you were interested," I
    said. "I'm still not exactly comfortable with the big picture on all of
    this, but this right here? I will definitely take this silver
    lining."

    "God, you make me so

    hot, Harrison," Erica said, and she looked up into my eyes.

    I kissed her as we held each

    other. Her considerable chest was pressing against my sternum, and as she
    shifted her arms up to wrap them around my neck and pull me closer to her, I
    lowered mine until I hooked my fingers into the belt loops of her jeans.

    We held that for a while,

    eyes closed and enjoying the feeling like we were teenagers again. God,
    we're both over thirty, I laughed in my head. We should be a lot better
    at this by now.

    "I want you," Erica

    said once our lips finally separated. "Really."

    I stared down into her face

    from closer than I ever had before today. Life and stress showed just a touch
    of wear on her; even in the last seven years I'd known Erica, she'd developed
    the soft start of crow's feet at the corners of her eyes. She didn't have that
    bouncy sheen of youth that teens and twenty-somethings seemed to exude. Erica
    was all woman, full figured and usually so wonderfully sure of herself. I
    kissed her on the forehead and took her hands in mine, then sat back on the
    bed.

    "I want you, too,"

    I said. "If we're going to do this though, I want you to tell me what you
    want."

    "I just told you,” Erica

    said, a little confused.

    "No, I mean like...

    kinks or whatever. That questionnaire threw me for a bit of a loop, but if we
    'matched' or whatever they're calling it, I want to know what you want."

    Erica took a breath and then

    bit her lower lip as she furrowed her brow and looked at me. She started to
    speak once, then hesitated. She ended up stepping forward and straddling my
    waist, pressing her body against me as she sat with her legs outside of mine,
    knees on the bed. One firm, but short, kiss later and she was ready to talk.
    "I want someone who can love me," she said, "but fucks me like
    they don't. Don't treat me like I'm going to break, don't be shy about your own
    wants, and for fuck's sake just ask before you try to stick something in my
    ass."

    I snorted and chuckled.

    "Noted," I said. I kissed her back now, firm and short.
    "Anything else? Anything more specific?"

    "Right now?" she

    asked. "Right now my panties are fucking soaked from constantly thinking
    about crawling all over you ever since I got my shot. I want to be yours in a
    way I've never felt before, and I think that is the vaccine talking even if I
    agree with it. I'm so horny I want to do anything you want, Harri. I want you
    to fucking take me, make me yours. I know you've wanted me." She was
    panting lightly now, getting that hungry look in her eye. I could feel her
    breath on the tip of my nose, she was so close. "God, Harri. Do you know
    what I've been imagining? For two months, I've been daydreaming what it would
    be like to come out of the shower and stop at your door in just a towel, then
    pretend to accidentally let it drop. And you finally see my tits, and you're
    just overwhelmed and you take me. Will you do that, Harri? If I show you my
    tits will you lose control?"

    "I'm already about to

    lose my mind, E," I said.

    "Good," she said.

    She grabbed the bottom of her sweater and started pulling it over her head, and
    in one swift move and no delay, all at once, she was topless. She hadn't been
    wearing anything underneath, no undershirt or bra, and her big pale tits burst
    out from the bottom of the rising sweater. They were large, maybe even more
    than I had expected, weighty and wobbling delightfully with every move she
    made. Her areolas were pale pink, slightly oval from top to bottom, and her
    nipples were hard and stubby little nubs.

    "Oh, gawd," I

    groaned, releasing her waist and running my hands up her bare sides until I was
    cupping each heavy tit from underneath. "You're amazing. They're amazing."
    I leaned forward and kissed her, palming both tits from below and slowly
    massaging them.

    "Hmm, Harri," Erica

    groaned my name as I broke the kiss and lowered my lips, kissing down her neck
    to her chest, then lower into her cleavage. She arched her back and thrust out
    her chest to meet me, and I spent a long moment just tasting her before pushing
    lower. Her skin was warm and I wrapped my arms around her bare back, pressing
    my hands flat against her skin and pulling her in as my lips finally found the
    lower curve of her tit. Erica moaned again, this time into my ear, as I got my
    lips around one of her areolas and tongued her nipple. Her hair was falling
    around both of us, dancing against my ears.

    I swapped tits, and she ran

    her fingers through my hair with one hand while the other dug down between us
    and began pawing at my waist, trying to find the button and fly for my jeans. I
    slid one of my own hands down her smooth back and into the back of her jeans,
    palming her ass through the thin, lacey panties I could feel she was wearing.

    "Take me," Erica

    whispered. "God, Harri. I'm yours. Just take me."

    I released her tit from my

    lips and raised them, meeting her in a kiss that lasted for a while. She gave
    up on my zipper and began pulling at my shirt. Our kiss stopped just long
    enough for her to pull my shirt over my head, and then we were back together
    again, this time her bare chest pressed against mine, sharing warmth back and
    forth.

    Wanting to go further, and

    feeling the strain of pressure in my pants as my hard-on was trapped, I rolled
    us over on the bed so she was under me, her back to the sheets. I kissed the
    end of her nose, then her lips again, then down to her chin, then her upper
    chest. As I worked my way down her body, I got the button of her jeans undone,
    and as my lips reached the valley between her tits again and kissed the inner
    sides of those hills she watched me with dreamy eyes. I unzipped her pants.

    Sliding to kneel on the floor

    in front of her, between her legs as she lay half on the bed, I kissed down the
    soft swell of her stomach, flicked my tongue around her belly button, and then
    travelled lower. She raised her hips, letting me slowly pull her tight jeans
    from her waist and down over her ass. Her panties came partway down her hips as
    well to reveal a fuzzy patch of light brown hair trimmed neatly into a
    teardrop, and just a few dots where I could tell there was some light razor
    burn from her shaving recently.

    "I had to rush,” Erica

    started, but I cut her off by burying my face into her muff. "Oh! Fuck,
    Harri. Fuck, usually I'm waxed smooth. I'm usually so much more tidy down
    there."

    "It's fine," I

    said, pulling away. She'd been right before, she was absolutely sodden and some
    of it had gotten up into her pubic hair. I'd gotten a lungful of her scent,
    horny as hell. "It's perfect. I'm just lucky to,”

    Now it was her turn to cut me

    off. "No! Don't you fucking finish that sentence," Erica said. She
    sat up and took my head in her hands. "Harri, I'm lucky, not you. God, you
    still don't get it. You're a fucking catch, Harri. You're tall, dark and
    handsome, you've got a heart of god damned gold, a body like a champion boxer,
    and fuck, if what I felt in your pants is real then I'm going to hate
    myself for not doing this years ago." She hungrily kissed me before I
    could respond, and I knew she could taste herself on my lips. She practically
    growled in heat before separating. "Not to mention all your other great
    qualities. So don't you play fucking shy with me, don't try and be less than
    you are when you're in my bed. Humility isn't sexy in here, got it?"

    "Yes, ma'am," I

    said, raising my hands from her thighs in surrender.

    "Now get naked so I can

    see that Monster can in your pants," she said.

    We both scrambled to strip

    the rest of our clothes off. It took me less time than her despite her head
    start since she had to peel the tight jeans off of her lower legs. I helped in
    the end, kissing down her thighs and legs. I snorted as we finally got her
    pants off and she thrust her panties down her hips. They actually went splat
    against the hardwood of the floor. Before she could say anything I rose up and
    kissed her, slowly pushing her back to lay on the bed again. I palmed both of
    her big tits and she groped blindly until she wrapped a hand around my cock.
    She squeezed lightly, feeling around it, and I pulled in a breath through my
    nose as her fingers danced around my head.

    "Fuck, it's real,"

    she whispered as our kiss parted. "God, you're going to ruin me. I'm going
    to need some new dildos to keep up."

    I rose from her, looking down

    at her hand; now hands; feeling around my cock. "Okay, get real."

    "Big enough," Erica

    said. "More than big enough." She tried to wriggle herself lower on
    the bed, between my legs, clearly intending to start a blowjob.

    "No, no, no," I

    said, pulling her back up with a hand under each of her armpits. She actually
    whined like a dog as she furrowed her brow and pouted, making me laugh. "I
    started something I intend to finish."

    With that, I quickly shifted

    my weight and maneuvered us both until I was between her spread legs, staring
    down at her glistening twat. Her outer lips and puffy vulva were bare, swollen
    and slick with the arousal that had been plaguing her, and her clit was a hard
    little beacon asking for attention while her inner labia were slightly spread,
    begging for penetration.

    I kissed her left inner

    thigh, then got closer and kissed her right inner thigh.

    "Harri," she

    whined.

    I kissed her left inner thigh

    again, right in the crook of her leg.

    "Harri!"

    I looked up at her from over

    her mound and between her tits, which were large enough that when she lay on
    her back they fell heavily off to the side.

    "Yes?" I asked with

    a smirk.

    "Harri, please?"

    she asked.

    "As you wish," I

    said, quoting one of our shared favorite movies. Then I stuck out my tongue
    like a flat paddle and gave her a long, firm swipe up one lip, probed against
    her clit, and then down the other lip before diving in fully.

    "Fuck! Harri,

    fuck!" Erica shouted. She was wet, and the taste of her was quickly all
    over my face as Erica writhed under my lips and tongue.

    I wrapped my arms over her

    legs to keep them down and spread, my hands up on her hips holding her tightly.
    She was tangy and delicious. The feel of her soft labia between my lips,
    running my tongue along the puffy folds, was like heaven when joined with the
    delighted and overwhelmed squeals and gulps of air she was losing.

    "Fuck, fuck," Erica

    groaned. "That's good like that. Oh fucksticks, yeah, use your tongue like
    that. Just. Like. Thah" She came, faster than I think I had ever had a
    woman come before. One moment she was writhing, the next she went shock still,
    her entire body tensing, then releasing, then tensing again, as three distinct
    waves of pleasure ran through her. "Eeh," she exhaled, her chest
    heaving as she fought to catch her breath.

    I grinned at her from between

    her legs as she recovered. It took a moment, but not too long, for her eyes to
    focus on me again.

    "Cock," she said.

    "Now that's not a very

    nice thing to call me,” I started to joke, but she made grabby gestures with
    both hands.

    "No, bring your cock up

    here," Erica said. "God, I want to taste it so badly. Feed me your
    cock, Harri. I want to fucking choke on it."

    She urged me on, pulling me

    up to sit straddling her chest as she remained laying on the bed. My knees were
    tucked up under her armpits, and with just a tilt of her head, she could bring
    my cock within reach of her mouth when I sat up. Erica took a hold of it with
    one hand, sliding her fingers up and down the length. I was already leaking a
    spot of precum, so her thin feminine fingers danced slick and smooth as she
    applied just the right amount of pressure.

    Erica looked up, her grey

    eyes desperate and sincere as she jacked off my cock and licked her lips.
    "You deserve this," she said suddenly, and squeezed my cock.
    "You're a good man, Harrison."

    I frowned. "What does

    that mean?"

    "Just don't freak out,

    Okay?" she asked.

    "E; god, you're good at

    that -Erica, are you alright?" I stammered.

    "I will be," she

    said. "Just remember I wanted this, yeah?"

    My mind was entirely split

    between the pleasure of her touch and the thoughts and promises she'd been
    saying since we'd gotten up to her room. Both were clashing with my more
    rational brain trying desperately to make sense of the situation. Why was she
    talking this way? This wasn't usual pillow talk. This wasn't normal. Nothing
    about this situation was normal.

    Erica tugged my cock down

    slightly, craned her neck up just a bit, and slid the head of my cock between
    her wonderful lips and ran her tongue across the tip. I involuntarily breathed
    in a sharp breath through my nose and closed my eyes at the delightful and
    almost overstimulating feeling.

    She came. Hard.

    Harder than when I had been

    eating her out. Erica started her orgasm by trying to curl inward, her legs
    pulling up and her arms squeezing my thighs as they straddled her chest, and
    her chin tucking down. She involuntarily tried to curl into a ball, which
    happened to slide my cock deeper into her mouth until I was brushing the back
    of her throat. I felt her entire mouth jolt as she gagged, then her body
    curling reversed directions and she flung her head back onto the bed, releasing
    my cock entirely. Her limbs shot out and she grabbed the sheets tightly between
    her fingers, while her legs pointed straight all the way down to her toes, then
    started shaking.

    "Fuck!" she

    screamed. "Gawd, fuck, damn!" she cried, her neck muscles clenching
    tight. She arched her back and her tits, sat slightly under me from my position
    straddling her chest, pressed up and I could feel her nipples, as hard as I
    imagined they could get, rubbing against my ass.

    All at once she collapsed,

    her body entirely loose. Then she jolted like she was having a tiny seizure. It
    happened three more times before she was still long enough to think her massive
    orgasm had finished.

    "E?" I asked,

    taking her cheek in the palm of my hand. "Erica?"

    I slid down in my positioning

    over her and leaned down to make sure she was alright. Erica was looking at me
    through half-closed, dreamy eyes and her lips twisted into a big grin.
    "Hey, babe," she hummed pleasantly.

    "Hey yourself," I

    said. "What the hell was that?"

    "Hmm," she hummed

    again. "The vaccine people warned me that would probably happen. It's the
    first step of the bonding process, and it comes with the best damn orgasm I've
    ever had."

    A couple of things she said

    before clicked into place. Our conversations had been moving so quickly that I
    hadn't had a chance to get clarity on some of it yet. "The vaccine gave
    you an orgasm? And what does bonding mean?"

    Erica licked her lips and

    craned her neck up, so I leaned down more and kissed her. What was I going to
    do, deny the naked woman?

    She broke the kiss after a

    bit, and she used her hands to squish her heavy tits upwards and maneuvered my
    cock in between them while she kept her eyes on my face. "Well, you gave
    me the orgasm, Harri. The vaccine just facilitated it." She started slowly
    jacking me off with her tits, and my eyes had a hard time staying focused on
    her face rather than sliding lower to the soft, pillowy spectacle occurring
    around my crotch. "Part of the whole Vaccine-as-STD is that once we start
    the mutual immunization, we can't stop it. Can't swap partners. I don't know if
    it was a fluke or they designed it or what, but your cum; even your pre-cum; is
    an aphrodisiac for me now that I've tasted it, and my body is going to crave it
    more."

    "Fuck," she

    suddenly groaned, writhing underneath me as her tits wobbled along my shaft.
    "I thought I was fucking horny before, but this? God, now that I've had a
    taste, I want you inside me so damn bad."

    The consequences of what she

    was telling me about the vaccine seemed... radical wasn't the right word.
    Obscenely lewd? Out of this world? Pornographic?

    The thing was, I was having a

    really hard time thinking through anything clearly.

    "This feels

    amazing," I grunted, getting jacked off between two of the best tits I'd
    ever seen.

    "Oh yeah?" Erica

    hummed, smiling to herself. "Do my tits feel good? Do you like it when I
    do all the work, or would you prefer to do some of it?" She pushed her
    tits together firmly but stopped her own motions. "Come on. Fuck me. Fuck
    my tits, Harri."

    I thrust my hips, and my cock

    sliding through her cleavage was less about the feeling and more about the
    visual. It made me feel powerful, like an absolute king. Like Erica would do
    absolutely anything for me.

    "Magic," I muttered

    to myself as I thrust between those two amazing tits.

    "What?" Erica

    asked.

    "Nothing, I; You're

    amazing. This feels God damned magical."

    Erica grinned and shifted

    upwards, pressing her chest out a little more and squeezing her tits together
    more tightly. "Well, these magic tits are all yours. Only yours,
    from now on. If you want to stare at them, just tell me and I'll go topless. Or
    if you want to play with them, suck on them? Just grab me. You can have them
    whenever, Harrison. They're yours now. I'm yours. I'll tattoo your name on my
    chest if you want, so everyone else knows it."

    "Please don't," I

    laughed. "The last thing I want is for you to ruin this amazing view with
    my name on you."

    Erica was watching me

    hungrily as I fucked her tits. "So no tattoo? I want to do something to
    commemorate this when I can."

    I shook my head. "No,

    don't tattoo your chest. God, I'm so happy you don't have those dumb heart
    tattoo's on your nipples some of the alt girls in porn have. It looks
    terrible."

    "Kids do dumb shit

    sometimes," Erica groaned. "What about if I pierce my nipples? Studs,
    or rings?"

    I watched her tits jostle

    with my thrusts for a moment, trying to picture them. "Studs," I
    finally said, slowing my thrusting. "Silver barbells."

    "Done," she gasped.

    "As soon as I can. But babe, please. Whenever you're ready, I want to feel
    you inside me so fucking bad.."

    I pulled my cock from her

    tits and moved upwards, sliding it towards her mouth again. She took it in
    without hesitation, sucking hard before bobbing her head a little awkwardly and
    really working the shaft with her lips while her tongue darted around the head.
    No massive orgasm this time, though she seemed to really be enjoying herself. I
    pulled away again and she gasped for air with a sexy quaver.

    "That was a one-time

    thing," she said, reading the look on my face. "A kick start to the
    whole process. I'll have another one, bigger if the doctors are right, when you
    come inside me. Don't worry, my birth control is still effective."

    I kissed her, and she moaned

    wordlessly into my mouth. My hands mauled her beautiful tits while hers ran
    down my body and groped at my cock again.

    Erica changed our position.

    She moved around the bed, grabbing a pillow and sitting her ass on it, raising
    her hips slightly, before laying back and spreading her legs. She slowly ran
    the fingers of both her hands up and down her twat lips as she stared lasers at
    me. "Harrison," she said with a husky lilt. "If you won't let me
    get a tattoo with your name on me, you're going to need to come over
    here and fuck your name into me."

    I'd always liked Erica. I'd

    even lusted after her, and in the last couple of months I'd come to love her
    like family; maybe like a hot favorite cousin or something. Never had I
    imagined her saying something like that. Not to me, not to anyone. She was an
    independent, strong woman. She was fierce, and steadfast, and could handle her
    shit.

    "Own me," she said,

    teasing and taunting me as I knee-walked down the bed and between her legs.
    "Take my cunt. It's yours now, just like my tits. As soon as you slip
    inside, it belongs to you whenever you want. Just like my ass, whenever you
    want it, too. But right now I really need you to take me."

    She put one leg up over my

    shoulder, her smooth tattooed calf pressed against my cheek, while she pulled
    her other leg back towards her chest, bent at the knee, opening herself up to
    me completely.

    I rubbed the head of my cock

    against her, prodding her folds, then ground the underside against her clit as
    I humped against her for two thrusts. Leaning forward, bending her raised leg
    with me, I got my face closer to hers. "This is what you want, E? For me
    to do this?"

    "God, yes," she

    groaned.

    "I might want it a lot.

    I might want you all the time," I said.

    "Promises,

    promises," she sighed, then bit her lower lip.

    "Last time," I

    said. "Tell me what you want."

    "I want you,

    Harri," she said. "I'm yours."

    I slid inside her.

    Erica's body quaked at my

    entry. She was wet and slick, but she hadn't been stretched out at all so her
    tensed body immediately started squeezing against my invasion, milking my cock
    as she had a mini orgasm right then and there. She exhaled heavily after I
    half-thrust my way to balls deep in her, and palmed her tits as she rolled her
    neck and then opened her eyes to look up at me fresh.

    "You're mine, and I'm

    yours," I told her.

    "Then fuck me like you

    own me," she said.

    We started slow, but built up

    a rhythm quickly. We were still learning each other, and I managed to find a
    couple of tickle spots on her that I hadn't been expecting as I ran my hands
    across her body. The slap-slap of her thighs against mine was a little
    staggered, speeding up and slowing down. But throughout, she kept her eyes open
    in that half-dream state, panting through pursed lips as she writhed her hips
    and torso, fucking back at me.

    "Fuck me, fuck me,"

    she started to chant.

    I stuck my thumb into her

    mouth and she sucked on it like a cock for a minute, before I pulled it away
    and strummed over her clit with it. Her body shook with another mini orgasm,
    but we kept pounding away. I buzzed her clit again, and then started a deeper
    massage motion on either side of it.

    "Harri, baby,"

    Erica panted. She didn't stop her movements, and neither did I.

    "Yeah?" I asked. Slap-slap-slap-slap.

    I was picking up the pace bit by bit.

    "Baby, I need you to

    come," she said. "You feel so good, stretching me out. You're an
    animal. Fuck, you're a beast! Everything I wanted. God, you're so fucking hot.
    I need you to come, Harri. I need it in me."

    "Oh, fuck," I

    groaned.

    "Do it," she said,

    then she pulled her leg from my shoulder and spread it wide and pulled me down
    by my shoulders until my chest was squishing her tits, and I was humping down
    into her as my chin rested on her shoulder. "Do it," she whispered
    into my ear. "Come inside me. It'll make me yours forever. Come, baby.
    Ugh, I'm so close, but I can't get there myself. Just come inside me."

    "I love you," I

    said. I panicked for a moment; I didn't mean it. Not yet. Not in the way I
    thought she would take it. But it was so much more than 'I love this' or 'I
    love your body and what we're doing together.'

    She laughed at the look on my

    face. "I know, I get it," she said. Then she quaked again, another
    precursor to an orgasm. "Harri, I need you to know, once I go off I'll
    probably be out for a while."

    Slap slap slap-slap slap

    slap. I was fucking her in busts of
    three, my balls tapping against her ass cheeks.

    "Just know you don't

    need to freak out, and I'll be Okay," she panted.

    "I don't; oh,

    fuckballs," I started, then changed to a groan. "I'm close."

    Erica kissed my ear, then

    whispered softly, "I love you, too."

    I came. Seven heavy spurts,

    more than I may have ever come in my life to that point. I could feel it
    streaming through my cock and slamming into Erica. I could also feel her
    squeeze right back in a crushing grip. I thrust through both of our orgasms,
    pumping myself as deeply as I could into her. And I blacked out.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica.

    1 hr 12 min
  • Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 1

    Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 1
    Pandemic Survivors, Harems and the Pacific
    Northwest.

    Based

    on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
    ► Podcast
    at Explicit Novels.



    To combat the deadly Duo Halo virus, the government will change the

    lives of Harrison Black and his friends out in the hills of Oregon. In return,
    Harrison finds a new purpose to his life in the midst of losing his family
    history.

    The House Guest.

    I glanced away again,

    relatively certain that Erica hadn't noticed my involuntary glance down at her
    cleavage but not overly worried. The grocery store parking lot was only half
    full, but we were waiting out front and I felt like we were in a bread line in
    Soviet Russia. The only good news was that it was a warm spring for Oregon
    State, and a clear day, so Erica and I weren't bundled up in jackets or
    anything.

    Of course, we were still

    getting used to the masks.

    "This feels

    ridiculous," Erica said, adjusting the bandana covering her lower face.
    She'd done her makeup as usual, with soft but smoky eyeshadow, and her thick
    dark hair was pulled back in a messy bun. Erica was a well-put-together lady,
    with the hips and bust of a woman who had aged perfectly into her thirties. I'd
    known her through our late twenties, and I wasn't ashamed to say I thought
    she'd only gotten hotter with time. Her black jeans clung to her hips and ass,
    and the black sweater she was wearing unzipped over a ripped band t-shirt
    accented the v of her cleavage that I'd been trying not to glance at.

    "At least it's not the

    middle of winter," I said. "Imagine this going on in January, in a
    snowstorm?"

    "We'll never need to see

    that," said the old man in front of us in line. He was wearing a hunting
    gaiter, but it was riding low on his upper lip. "This ain't the first
    virus, it won't be the last. Couple of weeks and the panic will die down. We'll
    have practically forgotten it by the fall, I bet."

    "Hopefully," Erica

    nodded.

    They'd announced the

    quarantine two weeks ago, and it had gone into effect last week. My roommate
    Leo and I had invited Erica, his sister, up from Portland; she was going to be
    cooped up in her apartment alone for the two-week shutdown and we had plenty of
    space on my old family property. Erica had made the drive the day before the
    statewide quarantine kicked in, having locked up the Tattoo Parlor she managed,
    and it had been a week of sun, hiking and ATV tours through the property, along
    with teaching her how to throw an axe and shoot some archery. Next week we were
    planning to show her the ropes on gun safety, and let her try out some of my
    grandfather's old hunting rifles.

    Erica was game for it all,

    and it felt like a mini vacation for all three of us.

    What Leo and I hadn't planned

    for was making meals for three instead of two, and so now a week in Erica and I
    were braving a trip into town trying to figure out exactly what we were and
    weren't supposed, or allowed, to do.

    Erica turned to say something

    to me, but her sentence was cut off by the heavy thrum and backfiring of a pair
    of ugly pickups rumbling into the parking lot of the grocery store on jacked-up
    wheels, halfway to 'monster truck.' They parked near the back, near my own
    truck, both vehicles with the stupid 'truck nuts' swinging from the hitches on
    the back and one of them with a big confederate flag sticker in the back
    window.

    "Jesus, I thought

    rednecks were supposed to come from the South," Erica muttered.

    "There are rednecks in

    every part of every country," I sighed. "Ask me about German rednecks
    sometime. Those people are weird."

    Five men unloaded from the

    two pickups, and I could see someone still sitting inside one of the cabs. I
    immediately took in everything I needed to know about the men; my brain
    couldn't shut off the instinct. Five military-aged males, three who looked like
    they could handle a bit of a fight. None of them were carrying firearms, no
    obvious sign of concealed weapons, but several had utility knives sheathed on
    their belts. Not that uncommon out here in the foothills of western Oregon.
    Three of them were wearing army surplus combat boots, one was wearing what
    looked like steel-toe construction boots, and one was wearing hiking boots.
    Their clothes were blue-collar casual. Rough, in other words.

    None of them were wearing any

    form of a mask. The debate was still out in the news; first, we were supposed
    to wear masks, then they said it wasn't going to be helpful, and now they were
    saying wearing masks might be the most important thing. Everyone seemed
    confused about the issue, but everyone in line outside the grocery store was
    wearing one of some sort or other.

    "Are they seriously

    going to just?" Erica muttered.

    The rednecks were heading

    straight for the entrance to the store, looking to bypass the ten or so folks
    in line ahead of us and another six behind us. I could see the panic in the
    eyes of the pimple-faced teen manning the door. He had no fucking clue what to
    do about it.

    "Ah, shit," I

    muttered, already stepping out of line.

    "Harrison," Erica

    cautioned me. "It's not worth it. What's the point?"

    "If not me, then

    who?" I asked her, then raised my fingers to my lips and blasted a whistle
    that echoed across the parking lot.

    Everyone turned and looked at

    me. All the folks in line, the rednecks as they were about to bull their way
    past the boy, and the beleaguered kid who I'd already watched bumble through
    explaining the line to annoyed people, let these alone belligerent assholes.

    "Hey," I yelled,

    but tried to keep my voice more friendly than commanding. "How about you
    guys show some respect to the folks out here and just grab a spot in
    line?"

    "How about you suck my

    nuts? We aren't sheeple, we know our rights," one of them yelled.

    "Yeah, this place can't

    deny us service, we've got rights," another shouted.

    "There's a difference

    between rights and being polite," I said. "Old folks are waiting to
    get their groceries, you boys can wait fifteen minutes."

    "You got a problem with

    us?" Another one shouted. "You know who the fuck we are?"

    "Harrison," Erica

    sighed.

    "I ain't got a goddamn

    clue who you are," I said. "And I don't care beyond the fact that
    you're acting like assholes."

    Two of them immediately

    started coming towards me down the line, the other three hesitating a moment
    before following.

    Fuck. I'd been hoping they were just some bully idiots,

    but the two in the lead were way angrier than they should have been.

    "Take a few steps back

    and don't get involved, E," I said quietly. "I'll be fine, but you
    can't get involved, Okay?"

    "Harry, what the actual

    fuck? There are five of them. This is a fucking parking lot. We should just
    call the cops!" she whispered back.

    "I'd listen to your

    fella," the old guy in the gaiter said. "We got one State Trooper
    somewhere in thirty square miles of here; would likely take too long to do any
    good."

    "You wanna say that to

    my face, you fucking fuck?" one of the men said. I'd taken a few more
    steps out of line, and he got up within a foot of me with his teeth bared and a
    fist raised threateningly. "I'm a god damned sovereign citizen, and I got
    every right to protect my dignity, honor and good name against fucks like
    you."

    "Yeah," I said,

    looking down at him as I breathed in deep and let my full size loom over him.
    The guy was probably 6'1 or so, but I was 6'6 in my stockings and had an extra
    couple inches over that from my own hiking boots. "I said you guys are
    acting like assholes, and otherwise I could give one single shit about who you
    think you are."

    "You motherfucker, I'm

    gonna,"

    "Harrison?" One of

    the three guys in the back asked. He was one of the ones I'd identified as not
    being much of a fighter. "Harrison Black, right? You played Defensive End
    at Eisenhower."

    "Uh, yeah," I said.

    "That was a while ago though..."

    "Oh man, dude. It's me,

    Barry O'Callahan. I was a year behind you," the guy said. "Guys, this
    dude almost single-handedly ran our high school defense. Didn't you end up
    joining the military or something?"

    "Yeah, yeah," I

    said, squinting and looking at Barry. "Really? Barry O?"

    "Heh, yeah I filled out

    a bit since I was a junior," the man laughed, his gut jiggling with the
    effort. "And then I filled out a bit more. How are you doing, man? When
    did you get out of the service?"

    "Well, I'm doing fine,

    Barry. Been out going on seven years. But this is a bit awkward," I
    said.

    The interruption had been as

    confusing a moment for the two hotheads in their group as it had been for me.
    They were looking back and forth between us, trying to decide if they were
    still mad at me, or mad at Barry, or were just giving it up.

    "Oh, yeah. Uh, don't

    worry guys, Harrison is cool, Okay?" Barry said. "Dude, are you just
    in the area visiting or what?"

    "I've been up at the

    family place for the last few years since Pop died," I said.

    "Oh man, I'm

    sorry," Barry said. "But hey, can't believe we didn't run into each
    other until now. Who'd a thunk, huh? Here dude, you should come out to the
    clubhouse sometime. We'll grab some brews, catch a game or something."
    Barry pulled a crumpled matchbook out of his shirt pocket and handed it to me.
    The front had a WWII-style blonde pinup girl on a navy background with a white
    star behind her, invoking the flag. The Golden Beaver and an address was
    printed in tiny letters on the backside. It would have been a funnier innuendo
    if they weren't referencing the Oregon state flag.

    "Yeah, maybe," I

    said.

    "Come on, guys,"

    Barry said, slapping his two hot head friends on the shoulders. "Let's get
    in line. Nice seeing you, Harrison."

    "Yeah, you too

    Barry," I said. And then shook my head as the five men headed back towards
    the end of the line.

    "What the fuck

    was that?" Erica asked me as I joined her back in line, and we moved up a
    couple spaces as the teen at the door let more people into the store.

    "Honestly, I thought I

    was about to spend the night in county lockup," I said. "Fuckin'
    Barry O."

    "He seemed like a fan of

    yours," Erica smirked. "Big high school football star, huh?"

    "I was a little above

    average at best," I said. "And I wasn't an idiot. Easy to look good
    when the rest of the team sucks." I looked down at the matchbook again and
    shook my head, showing it to Erica.

    She snorted and took it.

    "Is this real? Please tell me you aren't going to go join their little
    redneck club."

    "Not likely," I

    said. "It's a wannabe militia group. Bunch of swinging cocks with no
    sway."

    "What?"

    "Cause they're so small.

    It's a tiny penis joke."

    Erica smirked again and

    rolled her eyes. "You child. Can you do me a favor?"

    "What's that?" I

    asked.

    "Maybe, for the

    foreseeable future, you keep the whole Walking Tall routine to a minimum?"

    "I'm sorry, did you just

    make a Dwayne Johnson, early 2000s movie reference?"

    "Yeah, I did,"

    Erica grinned. "What are you going to do about it?"

    "We need to get you to

    watch some better movies," I laughed.

    "Hey, son," the old

    man ahead of us said quietly. "Seriously, could you have taken those
    guys?"

    I glanced back at them at the

    end of the line, muttering to each other. "Probably, if I was right. If I
    got three of them, the other two wouldn't have done anything."

    "Heh. Would have liked

    to have seen that," the old man grinned.

    "Don't encourage

    him," Erica said. "He hasn't gotten into a fight on my watch yet, I
    don't want him to start now."

    "Yeah," I said.

    "But that's mostly because you're the one who usually starts throwing
    punches at the bar."

    "Hey, a guy gets handsy,

    I put him in his place," Erica shrugged.

    "No 'Walking Tall' shit,

    my ass," I snorted.

    "You two make a fine,

    rowdy couple," the old man said.

    "Oh, we're not a

    couple," Erica said.

    "Just friends," I

    said.

    "He's my brother's

    roommate," Erica clarified. "I'm just visiting."

    The old man raised an eyebrow

    and shook his head. "Alright. Well, maybe you two should consider toning
    down the flirting then. You're likely to attract bears with all the hormones
    you're putting out."

    "Erica, Erica! No, you

    cannot punch him," I said, holding her back.

    "Hey, Erica? Can we talk

    to you for a minute?"

    Erica looked up from her

    phone with a cocked eyebrow and a pensive smile. I immediately realized how
    weird and out of character our approach was. She was lounging on the couch in
    the living room, her sketchbook tossed to the side with a half-finished
    something scribbled out in frustration like she'd been trying to work but just
    couldn't get it right. I knew how she felt, having had the same frustrations
    ever since the quarantine had been announced.

    "Sure guys, what's

    up?" she asked.

    I let Leo sit down next to

    his sister on the couch as she sat up, and I took my usual chair. It had been
    my Father's up until he passed; I'd avoided it the first month after he died
    and I took over the family homestead. Then when my older sister Valerie and her
    family came to stay for that summer, she practically pushed me into it. 'It's
    just a chair,' became our catchphrase for the summer as we sorted through the
    belongings of our parents and grandparents.

    "I'm sorry," I said

    as I settled into the chair. "This is already coming off weird. Erica,
    it's nothing."

    "You're making it seem

    like it's something," Erica said. She turned to her twin. "What's
    going on?"

    Leo and Erica were both a

    couple of years older than me, but once you were into your early thirties that
    kind of stuff meant a lot less. Leo had the looks of a classic Italian paisan
    with thick dark hair, a hawk beak of a nose and bushy eyebrows. He was built
    thin and a little lanky, and was usually ready with an eager smile and word of
    encouragement for anyone he met. That's probably why we'd gotten along so well
    when we started rooming together; his positive attitude had been just what I
    needed coming out of the Army.

    Erica had a lot of the same

    features as her brother; the thick dark hair, the ready smile, the energetic
    sparkle in her eyes; but she also had a sensuality to her that I can't say I'd
    ever noticed in Leo. She was a little more patient, a little more sure of
    herself and willing to take charge of things. And that control went all the way
    to her fitness, as she hadn't let herself slide even through quarantine.

    Leo sighed. "No, it's

    nothing. Well, I mean I guess it's something, but it's not,"

    "How about we just say

    it, instead of talking about talking about it?" I said.

    "Yeah," Erica

    nodded. "How about that?"

    "Well, uh,

    Harrison?" Leo looked at me, which I guess was fair considering this was
    my house at the end of the day.

    "Erica, we're almost a

    month into the quarantine now," I said. "I know that when we invited
    you down out of the city to stay with us, it was supposed to only be for a
    couple of weeks. 'Two weeks to flatten the curve' and all that shit. But things
    don't seem to be getting any better."

    "No, it's fine,"

    Erica said, sitting up straighter in her seat and pulling away from her
    brother. "I know I've been imposing on you guys. It's fine, I can head
    back down to Portland and I'll just,"

    "Jesus Christ,

    Erica," Leo said. "We're not kicking you out."

    "You're not?" she

    asked. I realized that she was clenching her fists in her lap so hard she was
    trembling slightly.

    "Not a shot, E," I

    said. "We just wanted to make sure that you knew we want you to stay as
    long as you want or need. We love having you here."

    For the first time in my

    life, I saw Erica's lower lip tremble. "Really?" she asked. Back in
    the city she was the manager of one of the most successful tattoo and piercing
    parlors in the state, herding artsy workers that acted like cats with constant
    access to catnip. Erica was firm but fair with her artists, managed a clientele
    that ran the gamut from rich and entitled assholes to meth'd out deadbeats, and
    kept her own skills sharp with constant discipline and practice. Every time we
    had hung out in the years before the quarantine, I'd always been struck by how
    forceful a personality she was; she could smack talk with the best of them,
    manhandle a drunk in a bar like an experienced bouncer, and laughed loud and
    full-bellied.

    Seeing her on the verge of

    tears was a shock, and I realized we probably should have had this talk two
    weeks ago. "Yes, of course we do," I said. "God, you're
    practically family, Erica. I don't think I could let you go back and
    stay in the city right now. We love you."

    The damn burst and as thick tears

    began to pour over her cheeks and streak her dark eyeliner she reached out and
    pulled Leo into a hug with one arm. She beckoned for me with the other and I
    crossed the space to wrap her up in a hug as well.

    "Thank you," she

    whispered quietly between us. "I know you guys wouldn't; but still.
    Everything going on out there, and the way the city is right now... I just
    didn't"

    "It's going to be

    fine," Leo said to his sister, squeezing her harder. "You'll
    see."

    She kissed him on the cheek,

    then turned and kissed me on the cheek as well. "Thank you."

    I gave her a bit of a squeeze

    in return. "We'll need to go get some more of your stuff, I guess. You
    only came down here with a duffle bag."

    She laughed. "God,

    yes," she said and tried to wipe her tears. "I can go up there. I
    could use some more underwear, ha-ha."

    "Too much

    information!" Leo said, releasing his sister.

    She sniffed hard to clear her

    nose and wiped her cheeks some more to clear her spilt makeup and tears. Erica
    had a sort of post-punk or light goth style, with thick eyeliner and soft but
    smoky eyeshadow. For someone in the tattoo business, she had relatively few
    piercings, just two in each earlobe and a single small, silver nose ring on one
    nostril. She made up for it with a pair of full sleeve tattoos on her arms and
    a collection of assorted smaller tattoos on her legs. "What, you don't
    want to hear about me sweating through my bras?" She laughed at her
    brother. "Come on, Leo, we're all adults here."

    I laughed at her teasing and

    she squeezed me to her with the one arm she still had around my shoulder. She
    turned and kissed me on the cheek again. "I can go down to the city by
    myself, you guys don't need to risk yourselves for me. All the news reports are
    saying this thing is extra dangerous for men."

    "No, we'll help," I

    said. "We don't know how long this thing will last, so we'll bring the
    pickup and you can bring your car. And if you get exposed, you'd bring it back
    here with you anyways, so we might as well try and do it as fast as possible.
    Three sets of hands will make things go easier."

    "Okay," she nodded,

    then with a last squeeze of my shoulders she eased away and stood up.
    "Okay. Well, damn, guys. This feels like a fucking weight lifted off my
    shoulders. I've felt like I've been overstaying my welcome, not that you guys
    did anything to make me think that. I just,”

    "It's fine," I

    said. "We understand."

    "I don't," Leo

    said. "You've been all up in my personal space since the dam womb.
    You never had a problem with it before now."

    "Come here, you

    twerp," Erica laughed, slapping her brother on the arm.

    "Alright, alright,"

    I said. "Come on, children. Let's make a plan here. No time like the
    present, if we get everything ready we can head out tomorrow."

     

    Leo and I had first become

    roommates when he sublet me a room as I came out of the military seven years
    ago and wanted to move back to the Portland area. Then, when my father passed
    and I needed to move back to the family property, Leo had been more than happy
    to come on up with me instead of trying to find someone new to take over my
    half of the house lease. The old ranch-style house I'd grown up in had plenty
    of room, and my mother had died a few years before Dad, so it worked out for
    both of us. Even before the quarantine was announced we'd both been working
    from the homestead; my freelance illustration and concept art gigs kept the
    bills and property tax under control and food on the table, and Leo had swapped
    to making artisanal furniture in his little shed workshop instead of the house
    framing and cabinetry he'd been trained in. The old barn made a decent new
    workshop for him after a couple of upgrades, and once I'd gotten a satellite
    installed for point-to-point internet service we were... Well, we hadn't
    exactly been living the technological dream, but we had what we needed.

    The drive down to Portland

    from the homestead outside Jewell took a bit over an hour and a half on a good
    day with moderate traffic. It only took us an hour, in the middle of the day. I
    drove my truck, the cover on over the bed, and Leo rode with Erica in her car.
    The highways were practically empty, and for a while the drive almost felt like
    just a beautiful day out; other than the thick sweater I was wearing, and the
    work gloves I'd duct taped to the cuffs. I also had a pair of bandanas hung
    around my neck, ski goggles sitting on the passenger seat, and the hood of my
    sweater pulled up.

    It was the middle of a hot

    spring and I was sweating my ass off in my own truck just in case of death by
    viral infection. Even in the last couple of weeks, all the messaging online
    from the Government about what to do for safety felt like it had been
    conflicting with itself constantly, and when Leo and Erica tried to do more
    research they couldn't even figure out which politician or government body to
    listen to, let alone find something useful and convincing. So we went
    all out.

    Driving through the suburbs

    was a bit of an experience. One neighborhood would be completely desolate, not
    a single person outside and everything locked up tight. The next would be full
    of people outside on the street, walking dogs and kids running around playing.
    Most of them had those medical masks on, but it looked like people were out on
    summer vacation or something. The neighborhood after that was mostly shut down
    like the first, but one of the houses easily had thirty vehicles parked around
    it and was hosting some sort of party going on in the front and back yard.

    Somehow, despite the world

    feeling so alien, I still found driving through the city even weirder. Getting
    into the urban center where Erica had a small apartment near the Tattoo Parlor
    was like we'd hit the end of the world. Even more than in the suburbs, the near
    complete lack of people was shocking. We could go entire city blocks without
    seeing another car, and then suddenly we'd come across a food delivery driver
    peddling down the middle of the city street on a bike. The only other motorized
    vehicles I saw were one dude on an electric scooter having the time of his
    life, and ambulances speeding down the streets with their lights running. They
    didn't even bother with the sirens.

    Crackle, crackle. "Hey, Harrison? You read me? Over."

    I picked up my handheld radio

    and pressed the button. "Yeah, I read you, Leo. Over."

    "So we need to take a

    detour. There's a bunch of stuff online about this Autonomous Zone thing.
    Protestors in the middle of the city. We're going to avoid it. Over."

    "Yeah, sounds good. I'll

    follow. Over and out."

    I shook my head. The protests

    had started about a week ago. Halfway across the country, a man had been shot
    by police; investigations were ongoing, but no one looked good in the
    situation. Not the cops, not the man, not even the bystanders who had filmed
    the whole thing instead of intervening. It was a shit show all around, and it
    had sparked protests that I could only assume were fueled by people feeling so
    trapped in their own lives. Portland, ever a liberal center of activism, had
    been a hotbed every night. Vigils and marches every afternoon and evening. Then
    the riots started at night.

    We drove down a couple of

    streets that looked like we'd left the United States behind and entered a
    foreign warzone. I'd seen streets in Kabul during my deployment that had looked
    similar; the only thing missing from the burned-out cars, graffiti and general
    detritus were bullet scars on the walls. Windows that weren't boarded over were
    smashed. Storefronts were burnt out, looted, or both.

    It took us an extra twenty

    minutes to drive all the way around the 'autonomous zone.' By the time we
    pulled up into the alley behind Erica's apartment building, I was feeling sick
    to my stomach. A pandemic. Riots. What was next, a natural disaster? I'd seen
    some of the world; not a lot, but enough. Some of the best and worst places. We
    were supposed to be better than this.

    Taking the back stairwell was

    part of the plan. We didn't want to draw any attention from people; for all
    that Portland was that liberal bed of activism I'd just been thinking about, it
    was also still an urban center plagued by theft, crime and people trying to
    take advantage of each other. With no one on the streets, I'd suggested that
    pulling up out front made us more of a target to people looking to cause
    trouble, or attracting the attention of overzealous police.

    I pulled my truck in next to

    Erica's car and hopped out. "Alright, make sure you lock up," I said.

    "Harri, please,"

    Erica said, sliding down her own ski goggles over her eyes. We were all bundled
    up now, with multiple face coverings each. "I've lived in the city about
    eight times longer than you ever did. I know how to handle myself."

    "Yeah, I know," I

    said. "I'm just a little anxious."

    "It's fine, dude,"

    Leo said. "Let's just get this done."

    Erica let us into the

    building, keying in through a back door, and up through the stairwell. We
    didn't see anyone on the way up, and she led us through the halls to her
    apartment. As she let us in, one of her neighbors opened their door and stuck
    their head out.

    "Erica? Dear, is that

    you?" It was a woman, maybe in her fifties.

    "Hey, Dianne,"

    Erica said. "It's me. I'm just here to pick up some things, and I brought
    my brother and his roommate to help out."

    Dianne stepped fully out of

    her apartment. She was dressed comfortably and had her silvering blonde hair pulled
    back into a bun. Most notably, she wasn't wearing a mask or any other sort of
    personal protection. "It's so nice to see you, Erica!" she said.
    "It's been quiet up here the last few weeks. I have to say, I never
    thought I'd actually miss your early morning banging around, but I do."

    "Ah, Dianne," Erica

    said, holding up her hands. She was wearing rubber gloves, duct taped at the
    wrists to her sweater just like my work gloves were. "We really shouldn't
    get any closer than this."

    "Oh, dear, it's fine,"

    Dianna said. "I've been cooped up in the apartment for a week now, the
    only person who comes over is Mr. Jones from 5C for coffee every few days. I'm
    sure you've been just as safe, living out of the city."

    "No, really

    Dianne," Erica said. "I don't mean to be rude, but we're only here to
    get some of my things and go. And I know Mr. Jones is probably lonely up there,
    but it's not safe for you two to get together for coffee. You should really
    just skype each other or something."

    "Oh, I already have to

    do that Zoomy thing to see my grandkids," Dianna scoffed. "But fine,
    fine. It's good to see you, dear. Try not to take things too seriously, it
    won't be good for your health."

    From inside Erica's

    apartment, I couldn't help but shake my head.

    "Dianne, maybe you need

    to take things more seriously," Erica said. "I'd hate if
    anything happened to you, but more importantly I'd hate for your grandkids to
    never get to see you again if you got sick."

    "Well, I guess..."

    Dianne trailed off.

    "Goodbye, Dianne. It was

    nice seeing you," Erica said in that tone of voice that was just shy of
    'politely fuck off,' then followed Leo and me into her apartment and shut the
    door.

    "God, that woman,"

    Erica said. She peeled down the pair of gaiters she was wearing over her face.
    The top layer was a winter covering Leo and I usually used in the middle of
    winter when we were snowmobiling, and the second was a much thinner one we used
    in the summer when A T Veeing. "We should be good in here, no one's come
    in since I left."

    I peeled down my bandanas and

    sighed. "I'm sure she's nice, but that lady needs a reality check."

    "I just hope she isn't

    someone else's reality check," Erica said. "Alright. I'm going to
    start in the bedroom. Leo, can you go through the living room and grab anything
    you think we might want in terms of DVDs and stuff? And Harrison, do you mind
    doing a check-over of the kitchen? I'm pretty sure I got rid of all the
    immediate perishables before I came down, but I might have missed some things
    that could've gone for a couple weeks."

    We split up and went to work.

    I cleaned out a few old condiments that Erica had missed and collected some
    canned and boxed food that would travel easily, along with some of the more
    specialty cooking equipment Erica had made of point of mentioning. I wasn't
    sure what an 'air fryer' did, but she made it sound like it was a gift from
    God, so I was willing to pack it up.

    "All done in the

    kitchen," I said, standing in the doorway to Erica's bedroom.

    She was rummaging in her

    closet. Her bed was covered in clothes and a couple of pieces of luggage, and
    everything looked like a mess. "Okay, hold on," she said, then she
    reappeared and dumped what looked like an entire department store's worth of
    bras out onto the bed. "Can you start packing this stuff up? Don't worry
    about folding or sorting it, I'll fix it all once we're back at your place.
    Then I can grab everything I need from the washroom and we'll be done."

    "Sure," I said, and

    we squeezed past each other so she could duck into the washroom. Once she was
    gone, I just chuckled and shook my head at the mess she'd already made. "I
    don't think this is all going to fit in these bags."

    I got to work, and soon three

    of the four pieces of luggage were stuffed full. That's when I made it to the
    pile of bras. I glanced out the door, and quickly picked up a fancy looking one
    and checked the tag. "Damn, Erica," I chuckled. It was obvious she
    was a busty girl, but 36E? I wouldn't have guessed.

    Then again, I wasn't exactly

    a bra aficionado. I wouldn't even know if I'd seen D's or E's or what, the
    sizing just sort of confused me enough that I couldn't care to look into it any
    further.

    I carefully began packing her

    daintier things into a bag, and below the bras was a pile of panties; and only
    a few of them seemed like they were designed for comfort and not show. There
    were strings, there was lace. I held a particular red number and shook my head
    again, trying to do my best not to imagine Erica wearing it and failing. I
    shoved it into the bag with the rest.

    "Incoming," Erica

    said, bustling back into the room with her arms full of canisters and bottles
    and all sorts of things from the bathroom. She dumped it all on top of the
    panties in the bag. "Usually I'd be a lot more organized with this," she
    sighed. "But I just feel... being in the city feels kinda gross right
    now."

    "Hmm, I feel it

    too," I said. I picked up the last handful of her underwear and put them
    on top of the cosmetics stuff.

    "Oh my God," Erica

    said, grabbing the bag from me. "I can't believe; God, this is
    embarrassing." She was grinning and her cheeks had heated up as she
    quickly zipped up the luggage and turned to me. "I didn't realize you'd
    work that fast."

    "Hey, I've seen ladies'

    underwear before," I laughed. "It's not a big deal."

    "Yeah, but you haven't

    seen my underwear," she chuckled along with me. "At least you
    saw the nice stuff. I left most of it here when I came down; wasn't exactly
    thinking about showing off the goods, ya know?"

    "Hey, anytime you want

    to show off, you just let me know," I laughed. "I tried not to pry,
    but some of them looked pretty hot."

    "Oh, my God," she

    said, face palming her embarrassment. Then her smile turned teasing. "Then
    again, we could always play you show me yours, I'll show you mine. I'm sure the
    girls would be happy for some more freedom around the house." She squished
    her upper arms together to pop out her chest a bit under her sweater.

    Now it was my turn to smirk

    and blush a little. I was just starting to try and figure out what to say when
    Leo came in from the front area of the apartment. "Think I'm about done up
    here," he said. "Anything else, sis?"

    Erica snickered and punched

    me in the arm. "That's probably it. I was just teasing Harrison about
    feeling' up my panties though."

    "Dude!" Leo said.

    "Oh, come on," I

    said. "You know I wouldn't."

    "Still..." Leo

    trailed off. "Whatever. Just leave my sister's granny panties alone."

    "You think I wear granny

    panties?" Erica said, then turned back to the bag and started unzipping
    it. "Well, let me just show you some of these..."

    "Nope, no, nada,

    nyet!" Leo said, covering his eyes with both hands and turning out of the
    room. "I do not need to know. Too much information for me!"

    Erica snorted and shook her

    head, re-zipping the bag. She winked at me and gave me another friendly punch
    on the arm. "Thanks again for helping with all of this, Harrison."

    "No problem at all,

    E," I assured her.

    "No, no," she said.

    "Seriously. Thank you. You guys didn't need to come out here; it feels
    sort of silly to say, but you're technically risking your lives for me right
    now."

    "Well, chivalry ain't

    dead yet, I guess," I said.

    "I guess not," she

    laughed. She leaned in and kissed my cheek. "It's nice. Just don't go
    making a habit of it, I don't need some White Knight savior act out of you or
    my brother."

    "Deal," I said.

    We got everything out into

    the front hallway of the apartment, and it ended up being more than we could
    hope to carry down in one trip. The end result was that we made the first trip
    down, started loading everything into the bed of the pickup, and while Leo and
    Erica went back up for another load I stayed down with the vehicles.

    The thing about inner cities,

    we'd all learned quickly when we originally moved in, was that you took a risk
    when you left things in your car. Well, if you had a car to begin with,
    but if you did and people could see in then it was likely your shit was going
    to get stolen.

    So there I was, sitting on

    the open back gate of my pickup with double bandanas over the bottom half of my
    face and ski goggles over the top, when two men rounded a corner further down
    the wide back alley and stopped.

    They looked at me and the

    cars.

    I looked at them.

    One of them was wearing a

    medical mask, while the other had a knit wool balaclava on with nothing but his
    eyes showing. I'd never really considered it before, what with us living out in
    the woods away from most people, but at that moment I realized how simple it
    must be to do crime when everyone was expected to wear masks.

    I watched them.

    They eyed up the vehicles.

    I stood up. They watched me

    do it. I slammed the gate of my truck shut. They watched me do it. I walked
    around to the passenger door of the truck cab, pulled out the hard case I had
    stowed under the seat, grabbed my Dad's old Colt 1911 and slid a magazine home.

    The men kept their eyes on

    me, not batting an eye even though I was now holding a loaded firearm.

    I leaned against the back of

    my truck and watched them right back.

    Eventually, Leo and Erica

    came back down and I didn't mention the men or the pistol, which I tucked onto
    the passenger seat of my truck while we were moving things around. I left the
    door open so that I could keep easy access.

    Erica and Leo went up for one

    last load, and I entered another long staring match with the two men. They
    hadn't moved and were about fifty yards away so I couldn't tell if they were
    talking to each other. I swear I must have been sweating bullets under my
    sweater and gloves and various masks. I don't know if my adrenaline had spiked
    like this since seeing combat while deployed. Not even the grocery store
    parking lot showdown a few weeks ago had been like this.

    Finally, Erica and Leo came

    down with the last load, we got everything stowed away, and got back into our
    vehicles. I took a moment to unload and re-stow my firearm, and as Erica and
    Leo pulled away in her car I watched as the two men came up the alley and
    entered Erica's apartment building through the door we had been using.

    Maybe they had just been

    waiting to use the door, playing it safe with us. Or maybe it was something else.
    I wouldn't ever know.

    It took three days for us to

    start feeling... safe wasn't the right word. 'Less apprehensive' is where I
    ended up landing. Coming back from the city had been as smooth as driving out,
    but once we were home we all had this feeling of being dirty. It felt silly
    even at the time, but we ended up hosing each other off outside with the garden
    hose before heading in to take some long, hot showers. Was that ineffective?
    Probably. Did it make us feel better? Maybe, a little.

    When none of us were showing

    any symptoms of getting sick by the third night back, we all decided to crash
    and start a new show together on Netflix that night after dinner. I ended up in
    the living room first and was starting to scroll through the menus to find something
    we might like when Erica came down the stairs in her own comfy clothes. She was
    wearing baggy, low-riding sweatpants and a black tank top that I very quickly
    realized was bouncing way more than usual with each of her steps down the
    stairs.

    Erica walked over to the TV

    sitting area and flopped down onto the couch across from me, absentmindedly
    reaching up and tying her hair back into a loose and messy bun.
    "What?" she asked me when she realized I was staring at her.

    "Nothing," I said.

    "You just... you look good. Like that."

    She rolled her eyes.

    "It's just makeup, Harrison."

    What she meant was she wasn't

    wearing any. For the first time ever, even including the month that she'd
    already been staying with us, I was seeing Erica without makeup on. It was sort
    of shocking, honestly; whatever magic she did in the mirror, with her kit, it
    was like she could change the very structure of her face. Usually, she had an
    almost angular predatory look, with sultry and smoky eyes and sharp cheekbones
    leading down to a perfect set of clean and bright red lips. Now she looked
    brighter, more girl-next-door. Sure there were imperfections; soft lines under
    her eyes, little freckles and blemishes that got hidden by foundation, but her
    eyes were brighter, and her smile was wholesome.

    "Just don't feel like

    you need to be anything but comfortable, E," I assured her. "I like
    this look on you."

    She sighed and gave me a

    smirk. "Alright, charmer. What are we watching?"

    I tossed her the remote and

    let her start scanning through the list of new shows. Besides her lack of
    makeup and apparent lack of a bra, she was still her usual self. Both of her
    arm sleeves were bared by the tank top; her left arm was a colorful splash of a
    dozen of her favorite Pokémon from the original 150, all water-themed. Her
    right was Star Wars themed and focused on a pinup Femme Boba Fett on her outer
    upper arm, along with a couple sexy lady Stormtroopers, a Princess Leia in the
    requisite golden slave bikini, and Padme in the ripped-up white arena fight
    outfit. Not to mention the Yoda on her inner forearm and chili Chewbacca just
    below her armpit on her bicep. Her tank top also showed off the two heart
    tattoos on either side of her clavicle, and the half-mandala tattoo that sat on
    the back of her neck at the hairline. Erica's legs, while currently covered by
    her sweats, were a more eclectic collection of random and unplanned tattoos
    dating back from her start in the industry; some were done by her own hand,
    others by fellow apprentices, and a few even by the apprentices she'd
    eventually trained over the years.

    "Heads up!" Leo

    said, bounding down the stairs in his own sweats and a hoodie, vaulting over
    the back of the sofa and landing heavily next to his twin sister.

    "Jesus Christ,"

    Erica said, ducking away to narrowly avoid getting kicked in the back of the
    head. She turned and hit Leo in the shoulder. "Watch it, you monkey!"

    "Takes one to know

    one," Leo laughed, swiping away her hands as she tried to hit him again.

    Soon the two were involved in

    a swearing match as Erica was leaning over Leo, trying to tweak his ears and
    drop a wad of spit down on his face, while he tried to both ward off her hands
    and push her away at the same time. Their easy sibling rivalry and goofing off
    usually wasn't this physical, but it still had me laughing and wondering all
    the same. I'd never had that with my sister; she was about seven years older
    than me, so we hadn't ever had that sort of a relationship.

    To be honest, I was also a

    little interested in the sibling scrap because Erica's tits looked fucking
    great jostling and bouncing around in her tank top, and a part of me hoped a
    boob would pop out in the chaos. Unfortunately, I couldn't be so lucky and the
    duel ended with both of them panting, sitting next to each other, with no boob
    appearance.

    "What are we

    watching?" Leo asked.

    "I dunno, we hadn't

    picked yet," I said.

    "Let's watch this,"

    Erica said, seemingly at random, and selected some sort of a baking show.

    "Aw man," Leo said.

    "These competition shows are always so scripted."

    "They make me

    hungry," I said. "Maybe I should start baking more."

    "Yes," Erica said.

    "Now we're watching every season just so you can get more good ideas like
    that, Harri."

    The show was easy to follow

    and clearly designed like every other Food Porn-style "reality"
    competition. Other than the deliciously described food, the only thing actually
    keeping my attention was the host.

    "She's hot," Erica

    said during one of the transition scenes, right after the host had finished
    showing the TV audience the differences between a mousse and whipped cream. It
    had involved a lot of whisking very fast.

    "Not my type, but I can

    see it," Leo said. "She's got too much of a Fifties Housewife vibe
    going on."

    "That's just because

    she's so proper British," Erica said. "Look at her, she's gorgeous.
    And fucking stacked under those pretty dresses. What do you think,
    Harri?"

    "I'm with you, I think

    she's definitely hot," I agreed. "And I really dig the accent."

    "I bet she's a fucking

    freak in bed, too," Erica said.

    "No way!" Leo

    argued with his sister. "Look at her. She's all syrup and sweetness. I bet
    she's dry as a desert down there, and you couldn't fit anything in due to the
    stick up her ass."

    "Nuh-uh," Erica

    shook her head. "I'd put money on her having a filthy mouth off-screen.
    Just swears like a fucking sailor. And,  Hmm, I bet she probably says
    she's straight, but has plenty of experience with girls from her Prep School
    days."

    "Sure," I laughed

    along. "Makes perfect sense. Anything else?"

    "I bet she's got a cum

    fetish," Erica said. "Look at her eyes when she's talking about glazing.
    She's practically creaming her conservative little dress. And she definitely
    likes a cheeky finger up the bum to really set her off."

    All of us were laughing now,

    and the conversation faded as we struggled to get control of our giggles. By
    the time the first episode was over, we were hooked despite the silly concept,
    and let it play. We got four episodes in before Erica called it quits.

    "That's enough for me

    tonight, boys," she said, yawning and stretching her arms wide. Her right
    arm rubbed roughly against Leo's face on purpose, just to bug him as he pulled
    away. "I'm off to bed. Good night!"

    She bounced up off the couch

    and made for the stairs, her hips swiveling in her low-waisted sweats. They'd
    ridden lower, and she was showing a bit of a whale tail with her lace thong
    panties peeking over the waistline.

    "Dude," Leo said,

    snapping my vision from his sister as she walked up the stairs.

    "Uh," I hummed, and

    slowly raised both arms in an awkward shrug. "What do you want me to
    do?"

    "Just... don't make it a

    thing," he sighed, then flopped over onto his side. "She's my sister.
    You wanna watch Deadpool?"

    Visitors

    The rumble, sputter and hum

    of the approaching ATV broke my concentration as it cut through the quiet
    warbling of my shitty Bluetooth speaker long before Leo pulled around the trail
    bend. The thick foliage up here in the foothills, far at the back end of my
    family property, created a weird dampening effect so I hadn't heard him until
    he was almost on top of me. The rumble cut through the thick greenery now and
    was followed by the crunching of the tires biting into the dry dirt and gravel
    of the hill trail.

    Leo pulled his ATV to a halt

    a couple yards from where I had set myself up for my morning painting session,
    kicked it into park and shut off the engine. He was dressed in a t-shirt and
    jeans, only a little more than I was wearing myself since I'd gone for just an
    undershirt. It was hot even for late spring, and the mugginess of the Oregon
    coastal region had us both sweating before noon.

    "Hey," I nodded.

    "What's up?"

    Leo rolled his eyes and

    dismounted from his ride, stretching his arms high and full-bodied before
    making a jerk-off gesture and mimicking the sound of a small mechanical device,
    "Biz."

    I snorted and shook my head

    with a smirk. "Again?" I asked.

    Our solitude and variable

    work hours on my family land had meant that for the past five years Leo and I
    had enjoyed our little patch of the Oregon wilds almost at will. Dirt biking
    and ATV in the summers, snowmobiling and snowshoeing in the winter. Some
    archery and occasionally hunting out in the back woods when deer season came
    around; it really was a little forested wonderland and we made sure to put it
    to use. We weren't too isolated from amenities, but the closest neighbor was a
    seven-minute drive down the highway.

    We'd lived in idyllic,

    bachelor bliss. The only thing we'd been missing were girlfriends. Well, Leo had
    maintained an online relationship with a girl from Austria for a while, but
    that fizzled when she turned out to be trying to milk plane tickets out of him
    to come to the States. I'd told him exactly what sort of a red flag that
    sounded like, and things had ended poorly.

    So everything but our dating

    lives had seemed perfect, but then the virus cropped up. My sister and her
    family had moved down south into California to be closer to her husband's folks
    way back while I was still in the Service, and they hadn't wanted to come up
    north, so Erica had been the only person we'd considered offering shelter to
    even after things started to begin feeling more permanently stuck in Pandemic
    mode. Now we were going on month two of full lockdown quarantines in the state,
    and we had no idea if 'the worst of it' had happened yet, or was still to come.

    The first weeks before our

    trip into the city had almost been like a vacation. We got to tour Erica around
    the property properly, and she got to play with all our toys. We did end up
    teaching her gun safety, and how just after sunrise you could spot the local
    deer up in the hills from the back porch (mostly unrelated activities unless it
    was deer season). Then, after the trip to get her stuff a month ago, things
    slowed down. We still had fun, but as the world continued to grind more and
    more to a halt, work started taking up less time and we all fell into a casual
    state of constant 'will I accomplish anything today?'

    "Yeah, again," Leo

    answered my question. He came and stood at my shoulder to look over my
    watercolor sketchbook. I'd started doing scenery work a few years ago to
    practice for my freelance concept art contracts; video games and movie
    productions all usually had a tiny in-house team these days, but they were so
    overloaded they tended to frequently contract out anyways. A really good
    background often goes unnoticed in the grand scheme of things but can make all
    the difference to impressing an art coordinator. Basing my practice on the
    wilderness around us made the most sense.

    "Am I wrong," I

    asked Leo, "Or wasn't she at it last night, too?"

    "She was," he

    groaned. "And twice during the day. I don't know what's gotten into
    her." He walked over to where my own ATV was and pulled out my water
    bottle, lifting it to me with a raised eyebrow to ask if he could have some.

    "Go for it," I

    said, and picked up the lid to my palette and sealed it over the paint pucks.
    "And it's not that big a deal. It's just..."

    "Awkward, I know,"

    Leo said after finishing his swig of water. "She isn't exactly quiet about
    it."

    "Honestly," I said.

    "I think she thinks she is. She's just... not."

    The silence between us

    stretched, awkward in its own right. After all, we were talking about Erica
    getting herself off.

    I had met Leo's twin almost

    as soon as I'd moved into Leo's condo as a roommate, and we'd been friendly
    ever since. Her ability to handle the casual crassness I'd developed in the
    military, and calling her brother on his shit, had made her an instant friend
    that I could respect for her take-no-shit attitude when it came to her
    business. I also found her attractive as hell, but she was my
    roommate-turned-best-friend's sister. She'd been a little more slight when we
    met, but our late twenties and early thirties had only given her a fuller
    figure that she knew exactly how to show off without being skanky about it. The
    main thing, other than the whole sister-of-friend situation, that kept me from
    ever trying to pursue something was that I was pretty sure she was a lesbian.
    She'd never said it outright, but over drinks in the city in the 'before times'
    she was always describing the bodies of her hot tattoo clients to tease me and
    Leo, talking about big tits and perky asses and shaved pubic mounds. It was
    also surprising the number of buttholes she claimed to see on a weekly basis.

    After our trip back into the

    city, Erica finally started to feel more at home. Our friendliness since I
    moved to Portland had always been occasional and at a bit of a distance since
    we had different social circles, but now she was becoming an actual roommate
    and not a guest.

    Then Leo and I heard the biz

    for the first time.

    I'll be honest, we were

    idiots for about five minutes that first time. We ran into each other as we
    were wandering the first floor of the house, both wondering what the hell had
    broken and was making a noise I'd never heard in the house before. It was
    sometime around when I had been scouring the kitchen for a broken appliance
    that I realized the sound was coming from above me, and a few more seconds
    before I realized whose room I was under.

    Then the soft, muffled

    moaning started.

    That first time, Leo and my

    eyes met and it was like we'd locked in and couldn't break contact. It was a
    case of the ol' Dog-Taking-A-Shit stare, inevitably awkward and magnetically
    locked in. For a solid minute and a half, we both got redder and redder as we
    listened to Erica tease and please herself above our heads, up in her room.
    Eventually, we both silently stepped out of the house and onto the porch. We
    never said a word about it to each other, and definitely not to Erica.

    Apparently, our lack of

    questions or notice encouraged Erica that she was getting away with her alone
    time, because now two months on into quarantine, we fully understood what 'biz'
    meant when we warned each other that we might not want to go into the house.

    "We should say

    something," Leo finally said. We'd let the silence between us develop so
    long it had come back around to something more companionable and less awkward.
    He was leaning against a tree, looking out at the hills I'd been painting while
    I packed up my brushes and paint, and then fanned my sketchbook through the air
    to try and speed up the watercolors drying.

    "Hey, you go ahead with

    that," I said, holding up my hands. "I am definitely not the one who
    wants to tell a woman that we can hear her every time she wants to relieve some
    tension. And I am absolutely not telling Erica, of all people."

    "I can handle my sister

    just fine," Leo scoffed.

    "Sure," I said.

    "but we shouldn't be handling each other at all as roommates, my
    man."

    "Look, Harrison,"

    Leo said. "Are you trying to tell me that my sister jilling off above your
    head on the daily isn't a little... rude? Or something? At least I can get out
    of the house to the workshop. That's your home and your place of work at the
    same time."

    "Leo, I,” I started, but

    got interrupted by a squawk coming from the handheld radios strapped to both
    Leo's ATV and my own.

    "Hey, are you guys in

    range, over?" Erica asked. She sounded clipped. Almost startled.

    "Yeah, sis. What's up?

    Over." Leo responded.

    "Any chance you were

    expecting a delivery today? Over." Erica asked.

    "No," I said into

    my own walkie talkie. "Why, is someone driving up the lane? Over."

    "You guys should really

    get down here," Erica said. "There's a helicopter landing in the
    front yard, and I don't think it's some new Amazon delivery system."

    I looked at Leo with a

    furrowed brow. "Uh, say again? Did you say a helicopter?"

    "Yes, Harrison. I said a

    motherfucking helicopter is currently touching down on the front lawn. Can you
    get down here, please? Now?"

    "Five minutes," I

    said back, already hopping onto the seat of my ride. I dropped my sketchbook
    and palette into the bin attached to the back of the ATV and latched it closed.
    "If it's cops or something, just don't let them in the house. Give us five
    minutes. Out."

    There wasn't really a 'fast'

    way back. The trails that crisscrossed the rocky forest of the property were
    often little more than deer runs, but Leo and I had spent the last five years
    exploring and enjoying them. Not to mention my entire childhood when I had the
    run of the place in between school and chores.

    We burned it through a couple

    of larger clearings, avoided the more dense forest areas, and pushed the ATVs
    to their limits when we cut around the edge of one of the swampy ponds. In
    under five minutes, we'd travelled what could sometimes take an entire
    afternoon hike on the easier and more roundabout paths. We were coming up on
    the house from behind, and instead of pulling up into the garage lean-to next
    to the old barn, I rode straight around to the front of the house.

    A helicopter really was

    sitting in the front yard, about thirty yards from the house and centered on
    the old gravel driveway. Two men and a woman in suits were being flanked by
    four, armed men in black fatigues. The scene almost felt like a TV show, like
    some CIA officer had come to pick one of us up to go on a secret mission in the
    Andes to stop an international terror ring or something. Maybe I'm getting
    my plots mixed up. It had been a long lockdown, and we'd streamed a lot of
    shows.

    Instead of one of us coming

    out in a suit ready to go do Bond-like action shit, Erica was standing on the
    front porch of the ranch house in nothing but a fluffy pink housecoat and thick
    hiking boots, the old double barrel shotgun we usually kept near the back door
    for wolf or bear emergencies casually pointed at the helicopter people. The
    robe barely came down to her mid-thigh showing off her pale legs and the bright
    tattoos scattered across them, along with both of the full sleeve tattoos on
    her arms. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, revealing
    the stern look on her face. It was her 'don't fuck with me' face, which often
    also meant, 'Bitch, I am the manager and you can talk to me.'

    I kicked the ATV into park

    after skidding to a halt, and I was already dismounting as Leo pulled up behind
    me. "Jesus Christ, Erica," I said.

    "Mister Black,"

    called one of the suited men. He was perfectly calm about it, despite the
    shotgun levelled at him. To be fair, he probably didn't know we kept it loaded
    with slugs since birdshot could just make a bear angry. From the current
    distance, birdshot wouldn't be too dangerous. Slugs could still tear him
    apart.

    "Hold on," I said

    sternly. The man who had called out was the older of the two, grey-haired with
    the look of a veteran Suit and the voice of casual command that only came from
    years of experience giving orders. I didn't really give a shit.

    "What?" Erica asked

    as I stomped up the porch steps. "You said don't let them in the
    house."

    "For fuck's sake,"

    I said. Erica gave me a look, like a disapproving kindergarten teacher with a
    cocked eyebrow asking me to dare explain myself, and I managed not to flick my
    eyes down to the considerable cleavage that was bundled into her robe. I'd
    known that she had the robe with her, but I'd never actually seen her in it
    before except for brief flashes of her walking down the upstairs hallway to the
    washroom and back to her room. It was definitely as revealing as I had
    imagined.

    After a brief stare down

    between us, Erica broke and rolled her eyes, pursed her lips, and handed me the
    shotgun. "You should know better than to point a fucking firearm at people
    if you don't mean to use it," I said.

    "Harri," she

    scoffed. "They pointed their rifles at me first. I was showing them I
    meant business, too."

    I think she regretted telling

    me that. It's hard for me to know exactly what my face does, but in the past
    people had described my 'angry face' as a rolling storm cloud. I spun on my
    heels and stomped right back down the porch steps and towards the Suits. I had
    the shotgun gripped by the wooden stock, my hands away from the trigger and the
    barrels pointed down but I could still see a couple of the Uniforms were
    gripping their own firearms with the nervous energy of someone on alert. I also
    clearly noticed that while their fatigues had US Flag patches, they were
    lacking any other identification for a branch of service or personal ID, which
    was in a real grey area of legality if they were active service.

    "You're trespassing, and

    you're breaking our quarantine," I said as I stopped about six feet in
    front of the Suit who had spoken. He was older, probably in his late fifties,
    and had the craggy features of a man who had been there and done that. His hair
    was still thick on his head despite having gone white, and he wore a chunky
    moustache that Tom Selleck would have been proud of. "Don't dance around.
    Who are you, what do you want, and why the fuck do you think I should listen to
    you at all after your goons pointed their weapons at my guest?"

    The old Suit flicked his eyes

    up and down me for a moment, clearly taking a judgment, while the woman Suit
    scoffed under her breath. She was the kind of person who looked like they were
    constantly catching a whiff of dog shit, sour-faced and permanently disgusted.

    "And I want her, and

    whichever of you fuckers couldn't keep muzzle discipline, back on your fucking
    helicopter," I added.

    "Done," said the

    old Suit.

    "What? Grierson, you

    can't" the woman Suit started.

    "Get your shit together,

    Maggie," said the younger Suit next to them. If the older suit was a
    veteran, then this one was the slick up-and-comer. "And learn to read a
    fucking room." He snapped at two of the Uniforms and pointed towards the
    helicopter, and both of them went without a word. Maggie looked like she wanted
    to say something else but looked back to Grierson, the old Suit, and found that
    he hadn't even bothered to turn and look at her. She spun and gave her best
    storming-off exit, which wasn't very effective considering she was navigating a
    grass lawn in heels.

    "Any other demands

    before we get started?" Grierson asked. He had a voice like Tommy Lee
    Jones, that cracking southern drawl that immediately made you think of a tough
    and sarcastic grandfather.

    "Go ahead," I said.

    "Good, cause I don't

    like taking demands, kid. I'm Agent Grierson, this is Agent Walters. We
    represent an ongoing federal task force tackling some of the issues of the
    pandemic and quarantine." Both men flashed open silver and gold badges
    from leather wallets they pulled out of their inner jacket pockets.
    "That's who we are, and why you should listen to us. And we're here to
    make you filthy rich in exchange for your land."

    I gritted my teeth and could

    feel my initial hot anger turn cold to match the lifelong, generational grudge
    that had been ingrained in me since I was a kid. "Let me guess," I
    said. "OGA. Other Government Agency."

    Grierson smirked.

    "Something like that, kid."

    "And what, quarantine

    doesn't mean anything to you guys? You couldn't fucking call ahead and warn us
    you were coming?"

    "That's not how we work.

    Look, Black, why don't we step inside and discuss this? Ain't no reason for a
    showdown out here in the yard," Grierson said. "Show of good faith.
    Hit the chopper, boys." Immediately the other two Uniforms headed back to
    the helicopter.

    It was my turn to eye the old

    Suit up and down. I sighed and shook my head ruefully. "Fine. Come on
    up."

    I turned and handed the

    shotgun to Leo, who took it carefully with both hands. "Put that back
    where it belongs," I said, and as I walked back towards the house I looked
    at Erica. "You should probably go get dressed, E. Sounds like we've got
    company."

    Erica stopped me with a hand

    on my shoulder as I mounted the porch steps. She still looked concerned, and
    she squeezed my shoulder lightly. "Are you sure about this?" she
    asked in a whisper. "You've mentioned things, but never like this."

    "Never been quite this

    out there," I said. "but I'm not about to shoot some CIA spook in my
    front yard before I even hear what he has to say."

    "Fuck. Is he really a

    spook?" she asked.

    "Guess we'll find

    out."

    The five of us were sitting

    down in the living room. Walters, along with Erica who had thrown on a sundress
    underneath a long knit sweater, and Leo were all drinking freshly brewed coffee
    while Agent Grierson and I sat across the main coffee table from each other. I
    was letting my emotions get the best of me, sitting forward in my seat and
    occasionally fidgeting with a couple of paint stains on my pant leg. Grierson
    sat back like he was as comfortable as he'd ever been. I knew I was giving
    myself away, my investigation and interrogation training had given me better
    instincts than this, but it had been seven years since I put them to actual
    use. I was getting soft.

    "Well," I said.

    "How about we start at the top, Agent? What exactly does the government
    want with my land in the middle of a pandemic, and why show up completely
    unannounced?"

    Grierson gave a soft smile

    and nodded to himself as if he'd confirmed a thought. "Son, I know a lot
    about you, because for the past week there has been a team of backroom analysts
    digging up everything they could about you, your family and this property. The
    one thing we can't know for certain is how much you know about what's
    been going on in our country. So the first thing I want you to know, upfront
    before we talk about anything else, is that we are abso-fucking-lutely caught
    between a stampeding bull and the rodeo arena wall."

    "I'd have gone with

    clogged sewer drain and an industrial fan, myself," Walters put in.

    "Same impending shit

    show, but it misses the feeling of uncontrollable careening danger,"
    Grierson said.

    Walters shrugged.

    "That's fair."

    "Yeah, alright, we know

    the world is fucked right now," Leo said, annoyed with the banter.
    "We've been stuck in quarantine for months already."

    "No, kid. You don't

    know," Grierson said to Leo. "Not really. You check news sites and
    social media more than your two friends here, but even you don't fucking
    know." He turned back to me and met my eye. "It's bad, and it's
    getting worse. Projections are not pretty on this, and people like me are
    picking up the backup plans to the emergency backup plans. We're talking the kind
    of shit the conspiracy theory nuts couldn't have dreamed up ahead of time if
    they had a month-long conference to put their heads together."

    "Apocalyptic,"

    Walters said.

    "Not... quite,"

    Grierson disagreed. "But definitely world-changing"

    "This isn't real,"

    Erica whispered from her seat. "This is fucked."

    "Fucked is the right

    word for it," Grierson nodded. "But I'm being very real with you.
    Quarantine isn't going to work. Our society isn't built to handle it, people
    screw up constantly. Politicians think they can use it to their advantage, or
    ignore it. That's why organizations like those that Walters and I work for have
    measures in place to operate without oversight, and very quickly, in these
    sorts of emergencies."

    "So, if this is all

    true, what exactly do you want?" I asked.

    "We want your

    land," Grierson said. "All of it. A big part of the success strategy
    on some of our backup plans includes building brand new quarantine settlement
    facilities for the vaccinated, and your property was flagged as prime real
    estate for the purpose in this region. You're remote, but not too remote;
    twenty minutes from the nearest town and an hour and a half from the nearest
    city. It borders onto a significant enough water source with the river to the
    west, and basic services can be expanded on without too much difficulty."

    Walters leaned forward, his

    mug of coffee cupped in both hands. "Mr. Black, in effect, the government
    wants to purchase all 560 acres of your land from you and put a whole bunch of
    healthy people on it to make sure we don't all fucking die."

    "No," I said.

    Grierson didn't blink.

    "You haven't even heard

    our offer yet," Walters said.

    "He doesn't need

    to," Grierson told his partner, then turned back to me as he talked,
    staring me down. "This is generational property. Mr. Black's
    great-great-great-grandfather purchased this land with cash he raised as a
    bounty hunter back in the days of Cowboys and the California Gold Rush. And
    ever since, the Black family has had to fight all comers to keep it. He could
    be absolutely destitute, dying of hunger, with famine and a draught in full
    swing and a forest fire on his doorstep, and I bet Mr. Black here would tell
    you to fuck right off with an offer."

    "Something like

    that," I said. I was a little surprised by even the sparse details
    Grierson was saying about my family history, but not as spooked as Leo and
    Erica seemed to be. They'd heard the stories from me, sitting around the
    campfire pit out back with beers in our hands, but I wasn't the only source for
    the family history. Local court records were probably full of sordid details
    going back decades, if not over a century. He might have dug up details of
    events that didn't get passed down verbally through the family tree; based on
    the dark shit I did know about, I couldn't imagine what might have gotten left
    out.

    To be continued, Based on

    a post by Break The Bar for Literotica

    1 hr 7 min
  • Barkley College Remedial Human Sexuality Course: Part 8


    Barkley College Remedial Human Sexuality Course: Part 8Life in the spotlights.By zachattack163 and adapted for this platform. Listen to the Podcast At Explicit Novels.



    Grand Casino Hotel.
    At
    the casino, they decided to check in and visit the penthouse suite
    before the pageant in the grand auditorium; and concert, in the 2nd
    stage. They immediately ordered room service and enjoyed some fantastic
    steak and lobster.

    After

    that, they went down past the slot machines and craps tables, then over
    to the grand auditorium, The event team was relieved to see them and go
    over the schedule. Michelle wanted to sit in the VIP section for most
    of the event, then just wait to be signaled to go back stage to prep for
    the coronation.

    “Can we bring you to makeup, Mindy? We need to make sure the shine on your face is minimized.” The director explained.

    Jackson said, “I’ll wait here while you get prepped, Mish, uh, Mindy.”

    Michelle

    winked and smiled, then stepped up and kissed Jackson softly. “Dear
    Jackson, You’re so generous and so patient. I can’t wait for this event
    to finish, so our date can begin in earnest.”

    As

    the director guided Mindy into the production makeup area, several
    pageant contestants started a buzz. They were responsible for their own
    cosmetics, but the special guests got full services from professionals. A
    crowd of girls pressed into the doorway of the makeup room, just off
    the dressing room. A few girls were brave enough and said hi to Mindy.
    She politely said a few things but the cosmetologist needed her to stop
    talking.

    “Let me finish, then let’s visit out there for just a bit. Okay?”

    When

    she got all made up and stepped off the chair, she walked into the
    dressing room. An applause went up, in the room, and she began saying
    some gracious comments about how lovely they all looked and how
    dedicated they must all be. She told them to stay true to the values
    they believe, and find joy in lifting up others. It will allow others to
    be their best, and see you as a force for good whom they can emulate.

    “There

    are so many girls who want good role models. You and I need role
    models, too. Let’s be the role models we can be proud of. Win or lose,
    If you stay true to the best virtues, you win in ways no crown can
    reward you.”

    She looked over at the door and saw Candice standing next to the director. Candice gave her a ‘thumbs up’

    Mindy said; “Now, take a deep breath, girls. It’s show time.

    They cleared a path as she walked over to Candice. ”I need $400 cash, now. Or I’m walking.”

    Candice handed a sealed white envelope and said, “Thank you, Mindy. You’re doing more than the contract required.”

    “I’m doing it for these girls, Candice. Not you.”

    “It’s clearly the noble thing.” If you finish as strong as you’ve started, I’ll have made a wise choice, accepting your terms.”

    Michelle

    found her front row seat and handed Jackson the envelope. “Can you
    count it, Jackson? If it isn’t the full $400, we’ll leave now.”

    Jackson ripped the edge and pulled out one $500 bill. He handed it to her.

    “Can you hang onto it? We’ll figure out a good use for it later.”

    As

    the pageant moved along, Mindy got the signal to go back stage. As the
    girls finished their last Choreographed stage production, the M C
    announced; “And now, Leading global spokesmodel, Mindy Olson, to conduct
    the coronation we’ve been waiting for. Mindy was about to walk onto the
    stage, but the director stopped her. “Your speech will be 35 seconds,
    then you go on stage. That’s when the auditorium heard and saw the
    improv speech she gave the girls in the dressing room. The reverb sound
    recording was actually quite good, and when the M C said, Ladies and
    Gentlemen, Miss Mindy Olson, the crowd instantly cheered. Mindy was a
    sage, a mentor to girls. A best friend to fretting parents who fear
    their daughters aren’t listening.

    The

    M C did the rest of the work. Mindy simply stood in her lovely black
    velvet cocktail dress she wore from home. Her hands remained behind her
    back as the contestants dissolved from five, to four, to second
    runner-up, to the final two. When first runner up was named, The other
    girl’s face was stunned, shocked, then tearful and shaking. Michelle
    stepped up behind her and with a firm hand on her bicep, Mindy steadied
    her for the coronation.

    When

    her head steadied enough, Michelle used both hands to place the tiara,
    then smoothly set a few hairpins. The M C handed the new Teen Miss a
    huge bokay of roses. The pretty brunette just turned and hugged Mindy.
    “I won’t let you down, Mindy. I’ll do my best. “

    “Okay

    girl, Mindy said. You got this. Go walk down this catwalk and greet the
    audience. You got this.” Mindy slipped off stage and found Jackson near
    the stage steps.

    Mindy fell into his embrace, tears from nerves were flowing.

    “Your

    inner strength is amazing, Michelle. I think you even surprise
    yourself, if that is possible.” He hugged her a little longer, then
    added; “The warm up band just finished their set. Jonas Brothers going
    on stage in about 10 minutes. Are you still interested?” Jackson
    deferred to his very busy date.

    “Yes, Oh yes! I finally get my date with you!” Michelle said as she kissed him long and intense.

    They decided to hurry up to the penthouse suite to change into some grun jee casual clothes.

    At

    the vanity mirror, Michelle took a double take. “Oh my god. Who’s in my
    mirror?” She had never seen herself in stage makeup. Everything was
    immaculate, but over the top.

    “Yeah, I love it!” Jackson said. “Are you okay with keeping it on for a while more?”

    “If

    you like it, it stays.” Michelle flatly said. “Now drink some of that
    coffee they brought up! I need you to keep your energy up, you stud!
    I’ve got carnal urges to work through, and a great admiration for your
    tolerance with my past baggage interrupting our big date. I don’t know
    where guys like you come from, because you’re truly amazing.”

    Both

    were in blue jeans and light summer tops. They got to the concert just a
    minute before the Jonas Brothers got to the stage. It was general
    admission with mostly open floor. Some perimeter riser seats were still
    available. They rocked away the next hour at the concert. But after the
    8th request for a selfie, they decided to go meander the casino and
    other attractions.

    They

    stopped by the hotel lobby, and asked the concierge to break the five
    hundred dollar bill. “Ten twenties, and three hundreds.” Jackson
    requested. The concierge said he’d be back with it in 2 minutes.

    “Let’s

    use part of this to cover the food for tomorrow’s pool party for the
    gang.” Michelle suggested. The concierge returned with the bills,
    counted it, and slipped in in an envelope for them.

    By 11pm they were both more interested in their luxury suite than anything else.

    Aspen Park RV Resort

    Elizabeth

    and William rolled into the RV resort entrance around 7pm. They stopped
    at the front office to confer with the management.

    “Elizabeth!

    Glad to see you. The organization has set aside a rather secluded site
    for you. Here’s the info. Also, Please understand that for this weekend,
    this is not a public resort. As such, it deeds over all the privileges
    of a private property. Those residing here this weekend are free to go
    about the facilities in all the freedom of a person taking a bath. Do
    you understand where I’m going with this?”

    William

    was quick to translate the message; “The Nature Club happens to be a
    naturalist club. They’re nudists, in case you’re confused.”

    “Oh,

    now everything makes sense.” Elizabeth finally concluded. “Yeah, we’re
    okay with that. But we don’t know them. Are they; are they all decent
    folks?”

    “I

    know the local members, and I’m staking my business reputation on their
    integrity” the manager assured them. “They’re okay with you introducing
    yourselves to them and I know you’ll not have any problem with their
    respect for the two of you.”

    William

    and Elizabeth were giddy as they drove along the park trail that the
    map detailed for them. There was still 2 hours of daylight, so they did
    get a bit distracted by the foot traffic along the way.

    Parking

    the RV, they set the levelers and stabilizers. Then they connected the
    electric, and water. William cranked out the side awning and Elizabeth
    unfolded the lawn chairs by the fire pit.

    That’s when Elizabeth said she wanted to take a quick shower.

    “I can walk you there, If you want the company?” William offered.

    “Oh, that’s so sweet of you. My protector, my champion, my hero!”

    “It’s called chivalry, and my father would beat me silly if I failed at this manly duty.”

    As they were approaching the big shower building; Elizabeth squinted her eyes, looking at a nude man in the distance.

    “Liz! it’s not polite to stare.” William advised.

    “William? Elizabeth?” the man shouted in a happy tone.

    “It’s Professor Garza!” the two shouted in unison.

    Antonio

    ran over, cock flapping freely, and gathered them in a group hug.
    Awkwardly Elizabeth and William were wrapped in his arms, staring down
    at his flaccid cock.

    “Elizabeth,

    I saw your name on the contract, which the resort wanted us to accept;
    but no way did I figure it was the same student I knew. And William? Uh,
    are you two, you two? I mean are you guys a thing?”

    “Uh,

    it’s complicated and we’d really love to explain it, but we signed this
    thing; that our professors said was real serious, about discussing
    things outside the classroom.”

    “Oh,

    Oh wow! You guys don’t know. Remember the international group of
    scholars we collaborated with, on this alternative sex ed class? Well,
    the consortium is all here, in this resort.” Tonight Phoebe and I are
    giving them a report. I’d really love to get debriefed on the social
    outcomes of your student group, to the extent you two are comfortable
    with?”

    “William and Elizabeth looked at each other and shrugged. “Sure, let’s talk.”

    “Great. Come over to our RV, and let’s include Phoebe in the discussion. “

    As they walked, Antonio loudly addressed Phoebe in the distance. “Oh Phoebe, look who came by to visit?”

    Phoebe

    was sitting in a camp chair, reading a book, but when she looked up and
    recognized the kids, she screamed and came running, her pendulous tits
    swinging wildly. She did the same group hug.

    Antonio

    said they need to discuss the social outcomes. The four went into the
    RV and sat at the dining table. Antonio brought out beers. They were
    some Spanish label, but William and Elizabeth were in an indulgent mood.

    The

    two students tag-teamed telling about the first pizza party. William
    told them about the guys’ gaming event. Elizabeth gave the details of
    the ladies brunch. Then she talked about the raucous game night that
    followed their pool party.

    Finally

    they discussed what was currently happening, all over this part of the
    state, with the students getting paired up and seeking to create their
    own ideals for a great date.

    “So,

    literally; William and I are on a date right now. He was in charge of
    our social itinerary, I’m responsible for the final destination venue.”

    “You chose to hang out with us?” Phoebe asked.

    “Gawd

    no. My folks own the RV Dealership on the edge of town. I grew up
    selling and servicing them. I thought going on a date in an RV would be
    adventurous.” Elizabeth explained.

    So, How long have you two been dating?” Phoebe wanted to know.

    “About

    8 hours, ma’am.” William explained. “Today’s our first date. We went to
    the Blueberry festival in my home town of Brighton. We came here
    afterward, and tomorrow we head back. Tomorrow night is our class pool
    party, at the condo where Rebecca and Bethany live. We’ll all give
    reports on the dates. Then, who knows.” William detailed the plans.

    “Gawd!

    I love that game night you kids had. Antonio, why don’t we think of
    edgy stuff like them?” the buxom Professor Phoebe Garza protested.

    “So, three of you students were virgins at the beginning of the class?” Do you think the virgins handled the stress well?”

    Well”,

    Elizabeth began. I think they can speak better than I can, but
    generally, your continual stressing of a supportive environment, coupled
    with a balanced influence of drill sergeant barking, pushed them while
    encouraging them. That and the threat of not enrolling in fall semester,
    well it seems to have worked. One of them is still very concerned what
    her prudish mother may find out, but yeah, She even won the game night
    and is now the declared “Cock Queen”.

    Chuckles erupted all around.

    Kids,

    You have no idea just how big this news is. It’s bordering on
    unbelievable. Tell you what,” Antonio paused, then said; “It would mean
    so so much to us if the two of you could inconvenience your date time,
    in order to be at our presentation, in a half hour. It’s over in the
    activity center, next to the pool.

    You

    won’t need to talk to anyone, or anything. We just want to be able to
    refute the skeptics, if they say we’re not being accurate.” Phoebe
    explained.

    “Uh, it will be hard to remain anonymous in that room, with our clothes on, sir.” William reasoned.

    Good

    perceptivity, young man. Perhaps you’ll agree to blend in with a
    wardrobe adjustment. Or draw more attention to yourselves by standing
    out. I know the professors will likely insist on asking the two of you
    almost as many questions as they will have for Phoebe and me.”

    “I’ll strip”, Elizabeth volunteered. William countered with his similar pledge.
    “We’ll

    see you in a half hour,” William said as he stood to leave. The two
    were giddy as they skipped down the trail to their RV. Twenty minutes
    later they were seated off to the left side of the lectern. They were
    buck naked and eager to discover the global brain trust who devised
    their experimental class format.

    Phoebe

    and Antonio were among the more attractive segment of the scholars, but
    there were plenty of eye candy objects filing in and visiting.

    Then

    Antonio stood up at the podium and gave the opening session
    announcements. Phoebe passed out the syllabus for the weekend and
    returned to Antonio’s side. Together they served as social hosts for the
    gathering, and then turned everyone’s attention to the academic paper
    that the Garzas had composed and submitted to the sociology journals.

    They

    presented their class setup, format, rules, and policies. They reported
    on the student responses and compliance. No student’s names were
    stated, but William and Elizabeth had no problem identifying who was
    being described.

    “Before

    we entertain questions, Phoebe and I have an informal update of
    significant insight. We were not able to prepare a written update, but
    we’ll present it orally, to this exclusive group, tonight.

    They then detailed the impromptu pizza party, followed by the gals brunch and the Guys game night.

    But what broke past the limits of credibility was the details of the sex games, which officially started as a pool party.

    Un-phased

    by the gestures of skepticism, Antonio spoke briefly of the arranged
    dates. Phoebe added,” We still need further debriefing, as those dates
    are occurring this evening.”

    The

    team from Dublin University finally interrupted; “Tony, we’ve always
    respected your scholarship; but this is the stuff of an erotic novel.
    None of us can plausibly convince our regents to take this report at
    face value. “

    Several others grumbled agreement with the Irish Academics.

    “What further substantiation would you need, kind sirs?” Antonio stared him in the face.
    “Why, I don’t know. The format we agreed upon protects every student, and I’d doubt any of them will come forward.”

    Instantaneously, Elizabeth and William stepped up to the lectern. The room hushed.

    Phoebe Garza spoke up. “If there lacks sufficient incredulity, we’ll now add even more.
    We

    told you that our oral addition came too recent for us to provide a
    written report. The fact is, Everything we told you about what happened
    outside the classroom, was only revealed to Antonio and me, mere minutes
    ago.

    Seems

    one of those couples who were paired up for a date, just happened to
    include an RV camping component. Her parents own the RV dealership where
    most of you rented your campers for the conference. He took her up to
    the Brighton Blueberry festival that some of you chose to attend. He is
    from that town.

    “Now

    I charge you all to keep that data completely confidential upon the
    threat of public condemnation and expulsion from this society.”
    Antonio’s voice was sober and vigilant.

    “My

    friends, meet Johnny and Linda. “ Antonio introduced them to a silent
    reception. “Students, take your leave to make such comments as you deem
    appropriate and insightful.

    The

    kids gave their experiences from the beginning. How they got their
    initial phone calls, What they were feeling on the first class session.
    How the professors guided the class, and how their minds and attitudes
    transformed as the sessions progressed.

    “Honestly,

    I barely knew anything about maybe two of the others. We were
    essentially total strangers, and it was the first class we had with
    Phoebe. Hell, it was the first class Antonio ever taught at our
    college.“ Elizabeth laid out her perspective. She wanted to add;
    “Fellas, my eyes are up here”. Because Elizabeth’s D cup tits are high
    and firm. A trait all the rest of the females lost decades ago, if they
    ever had it.

    “I’m

    telling you,” William emphasized; “at our pizza party, the 12 of us
    were shocked at what we accomplished. This is my first date with
    Elizabeth. But I have a mutual trust and appreciation for her that words
    cannot explain. The Garzas facilitated that”

    “By

    the third session,” Elizabeth interjected; “we were all waiting at the
    lecture bowl door, 20 minutes before class began. We were all impeccably
    groomed and adorned in jewelry. Smelling scrumptious!

    Several scholars chuckled at that imagery.

    “After

    two sessions, we all, even the virgins, couldn’t wait to get naked and
    continue this beautiful discovery.” William added. “This meeting, right
    here, right now; is the very first time either of us have been nude in a
    public setting. But it was so easy, after all we learned from the Garza
    team.

    A French professor redirected; “Tell us how you came up with the sex games?”

    William

    admitted that it was all a scheme the girls came up with. “Us guys had
    no idea just how horny female coeds could be, especially when they
    collude on a scheme. I think they wanted to embarrass us guys, but it
    was game-on!”

    Roars of laughter ensued.

    Elizabeth

    held up her hand to call for silence. Rather than explain it. How about
    if William and I conduct the games, tonight. There are what; 8 guys and
    8 or nine ladies, by my quick survey. Are you folks up for a few rounds
    of blindfolded fun?”

    By

    the end of the 4th competition, the Blow Job phase, the scholars all
    totally bought into the narrative, and completely loved all 4
    competitions. They seemed to revert to their younger personalities.
    William and Elizabeth loved being the ones dominating their students.

    Walking back to the RV, Elizabeth wrapped her arm around William and leaned her head on his side.

    Then the mosquitos found them, and they raced back to the RV.

    The

    RV rocked that night, even with the stabilizers set. The next morning,
    the Garzas stopped by to visit. At first the young couple was
    embarrassed, until their waking brains realized that these two
    instructors taught them how to fuck and how to get over prudish shame.

    Elizabeth turned on the coffeemaker and pulled out a coffee cake for the foursome.

    Phoebe

    and Antonio were at a loss for a sufficient expression of appreciation
    for what the students did for them, academically and professionally.

    “To

    start with,” William pressed the eminent matter. “There’s no way you
    can expect Liz and me to not tell our classmate this incredible story, I
    mean what happened in the campground, last night.”

    Phoebe and Antonio looked puzzled.

    “Can we tell the other 10 how we ran into you, and how we helped your presentation?”

    “Of

    course” Phoebe assured them. “But only them. The basic wall of trust
    stays within the enrollment. About the group that met last night, just
    don’t identify any specific person. But yes, do tell them how our sex
    games transpired. I think they’ll get a kick out of the story! Those
    social gatherings are your academic achievement. The twelve of you
    deserve to know what you’ve accomplished. Welcome to the fellowship of
    academians. But we need to also ask the twelve of you another special
    favor..”

    Park Plaza.

    When

    Bruce and Bethany left the dance, they stopped over at Bruce’s family
    ranch to change clothes and return the borrowed boots and hat. Bethany
    gott in the truck wearing just a sexy ensemble of sandals, a satin
    camisole and Black satin shorts. Thirty minutes later they arrived at
    the Park Plaza tower, Bethany began asserting her desires for Bruce. “If
    Rebecca’s bra is hooked on her bedroom door, It means what you think it
    means.”

    Unlocking

    the front door on their 7th floor condo, Bethany and Bruce were quite
    informed. Clothing was scattered roughly in a trajectory toward
    Rebecca’s bedroom door. A red lacy bra erased any lingering uncertainty,
    dangling from the gold knob.

    Quietly, Bethany took Bruce’s hand and guided him to the other bedroom’s door.

    “Giggling

    was heard, faintly. Then not so faintly. Ah! Stop, Thomas! Oh God! Get
    back up here.” Rebecca’s passionate expressions were unmistakable.

    Once

    in the privacy of her bedroom, Bethany turned up the volume on the
    Bluetooth speaker. Her playlist was looping since this afternoon.
    Evidently, Line dancing wasn’t the only type of dance lessons Bethany
    studied on YouTube. Her sensual disrobing skills were sultry and
    captivating.

    Bruce obediently sat on the foot of the bed and admired.

    The

    final garment was the black thong. Her ass was fully in his face as she
    bent to guide the lacy black thing to her ankles. A few belly dancing
    skills from the Arab culture transitioned her presentation to a kneeling
    position, where she commenced in disrobing him.

    When

    his jacket and shirt were removed, Bethany placed her hands on each
    side of his head and kissed him with passion and exploration in her
    intentions. As the two tongue-wrestled, she overpowered him and laid him
    back on the bed. Her massive pendulous tits dangled across his chest.

    His belt and waistband undone, she slid both her open hands under his ass.

    She lifted his lower body, and slid all his lower layers clean past his toes.

    That’s when she came back up and laid her tits on his chest while resuming a hot French kiss.

    Bruce

    knew how to read a woman of passion and aggression. He wisely avoided
    interfering with her desire to express herself. And he loved it. All of
    it!

    While

    Bethany next focused on his lovely turgid cock, Bruce could faintly
    hear a distant female voice scream; “Oh God. Oh God! Ah! Yes.”

    That finally distracted Bethany from her passionate intensity as she sucked Bruce’s curved long cock.

    “Bethany chuckled after releasing his cock from her mouth;” So do you think Rebecca is getting along with Thomas?”

    Bruce laughed; “I gotta remember all these lines. They will be priceless to recite over coffee, in the morning.”

    Meanwhile,

    Bethany had just rotated and straddled him. Her mouth engulfed his
    curved cock from above. In one slow, uninterrupted motion, Bethany
    glided Bruce’s cock tip into the middle of her throat.

    The

    sensations were indescribable for Bruce. But he tried to delay the
    inevitable by focusing his mind on a thorough exploration of Bethany’s
    freshly waxed cunt. Her clit was so easy to find, bulging prominently
    out from between her swollen lips. He latched his lips to her hard bulb
    and sucked hard, while rolling his stiffened tongue around it, in
    continuous circles.

    Bethany

    began to tremble, first her knees, then her hips. Bruce wrapped his
    arms tightly around her ass and pressed his tongue firmly to her hard
    clit. This was primarily a preventative, as her twerking legs could
    easily leave his face black and blue from spasms which mimicked an
    epileptic seizure.

    What

    Beth was unaware of, was the three rapid blasts of cum that shot into
    her throat. In the midst of her spasmodic orgasm, she released his cock
    and took a big breath of air. Then the shakes interrupted her plans for
    the next 45 seconds.

    When she came back to her senses, She was disappointed to find Bruce gone semi limp.

    Aggressively resuming her oral attack, she was surprised when Bruce squirmed; “Stop! Too much! I’m too sensitive.”

    Bethany was confused. This isn’t something her professors prepared her to deal with.

    She flipped around to face him, straddling forwarding this time.

    “Can I help you with something.” Bethany gently asked.

    “You already did. That was the most amazing blowjob ever given.”

    Huh?

    “I came already. My cock needs a break for a little while.”

    “You came?”

    “Hell yeah, in your throat. Three blasts. It was amazing.”

    Happy with herself, Bethany laid down in his arms. “I have to tell you, I’m not done with you yet.”

    That’s the best words I could hope for, lovely lady.”
    Wilburn State Forest.

    The

    woods of Lake Wilburn State forest sounded like a new wolf moved into
    the neighborhood. Erika’s loud orgasmic howls bellowed uninhibited.

    In

    the morning, Devon took Erica skinny-dipping. They even solemnized the
    weekend with a slow fuck in waist-deep water. Erica’s legs wrapped Devon
    tightly, and he loved the feel of her buxom tits pressed into his
    chest. They kissed as they gyrated. After his arms started to tire, he
    walked them out of the water and gently set her down on the blanket near
    the shore of the secluded cove. There he drove all 10 inches deep into
    her hungry cunt.

    Devon

    came quickly last night. Buthis shoreline fuck was his 5th, and it took
    nearly 20 minutes before his tower of pleasure erupted against the far
    wall of Erica’s insatiable cunt.

    Devon

    rolled off, fully spent and drained. Erica laid there, holding his
    hand, staring up at the morning clouds floating by. In a few minutes,
    she rolled up over him and slid down.

    “Really, Erica? You need more?” Devon sounded terrified.
    “No,

    Devon. You made me quite content.” Sliding further down and fondling
    his flaccid cock up close, she started directing her words to his mighty
    cock.

    “Mr.

    Cock, I love how you make me feel so special. You were designed by a
    brilliant creator, just to make a woman happy. And for that, you have my
    deep respect and devotion, Mr. Cock.”

    Erica

    continued to caress and kiss the lovely yet limp cock. She licked and
    stoked the mighty phallus, but turgid was not to become a 6th visit for
    Devon.

    Have you ever had this much sex in a weekend, Devon?

    Devon silently stared at Erica.

    “Oh, My Gawd, I forgot you were a virgin until last month.” Are there any girls who have your interest?”

    “Oh,

    there are 6 girls I think the world of. You happen to be one of them.”
    Devon said, not realizing just how seductive his words could be.

    “”Devon,

    you are an amazing man.. I am so honored to have this weekend alone
    with you. I really don’t want it to end, actually. But I also know five
    other such fellas and in all honesty, They are all as precious to me as
    you are. Is that okay with you?”

    Yeah,

    I love what Michelle once said. She built an intimate trust with Bruce,
    but didn’t want to claim exclusive dibs on him, and thus alienate the
    other girls in the process.
    Casa Madera.

    Malcolm

    awoke to the sound of songbirds outside the bedroom window of their
    cabin. He rolled toward Alexis’ backside, and wrapped his arms around
    her. His stiffening cock slid into the crevasse of her crotch. His
    fingers fondled both her tits.

    “What

    a wake up service! This hotel is amazing” the sleepy girl smirked. Then
    she wiggled her ass against him. His tally-whacker somehow found a
    hidden cave and went spelunking. Alexis loved the warm embrace that
    surrounded her, the arousal of her stiffened nipples, and especially the
    fullness of this beautiful Irish cock deep inside her, causing a tingly
    feeling all over her relaxed body. They made slow love to each other.
    First arousing her 4th amazing climax in 12 hours, then the happy
    fullness of his warm semen swimming further into her whole being.

    How could her mother ever reject this love from her father? Alexis determined to never be shamed by such a destructive attitude.

    The two showered and spent a quiet morning on the porch with plenty of coffee and letting their sore tender spots recover.

    Grand Casino Hotel.

    As

    Michelle and Jackson checked out of the grand casino hotel, the
    concierge did everything. They had a seat in the lobby while the valet
    and bellhop brought up their car and loaded it. William finally looked
    at the Sunday paper which was handed to him. There on the cover was a
    photo of the newly crowned state Teen Miss . She was in a deep embrace
    with “Mindy Olson”. The article recapped the entire pageant, and
    especially the unscheduled appearance of Mindy Olson.

    As

    the concierge notified them that the car is loaded and waiting,
    Jackson  took a slip of paper and made a note directing the concierge to
    split a
    hundred dollar tip among himself, $40; room service, $30; and lobby
    staff, $30.

    Three

    pageant girls came over to say hi. The ginger-headed one said she just
    loved the inspirational message in the dressing room. “Where did you
    read that” Young Kelly asked?

    Well,

    it took me twenty years to learn that lesson, through my own mistakes.
    It was all my own spontaneous message, but I’m not proud of what it took
    me to learn my lessons.

    They posed for some selfies. The concierge handling all the cell phones and snapping the pics.

    Then  Jackson and Michelle were off to enjoy breakfast in the campus

    cafeteria. Jackson and Michelle sent a text to everyone, saying they
    were covering the pizza and fixings. Bethany and Rebecca were authorized
    to spend up to $100.

    While

    eating breakfast at the University cafeteria with Jackson, Michelle’s
    father called. Seems he learned of the front page story in the morning
    paper. She explained her opportunity and how she leveraged it to settle a
    lawsuit. She assured dad that the business arrangement is completely
    done, and she has no interest in ever working with Stellar Modeling. But
    she added; “Dad, I’m surprised at how all these teen girls want my
    advice. I might want to explore consulting opportunities, so young girls
    don’t get exploited like I allowed myself to be.” That made dad so
    happy. Not so much her business idea, but the heart-felt lessons she
    learned through her whirlwind modeling experience.

    “I was just nervous that you took on Candice by yourself.” Dad explained.

    “I

    was on a date with Jackson, dad. He’s a lab partner in one of my summer
    semester classes. He even pressed Candice for some cash appearance
    fees.” Candice buckled more than I imagined she would. “ Michelle
    beamed. “ Oh, by the way. I’m getting an A in my health class, so that’s
    more good news. I couldn’t have done it without great lab partners.”

    Dad was heard telling mom that Michelle got an A in a class she had to retake.

    “Dad,

    my lab partner and I need to finish our last research. It’s due before
    tomorrow.” Michelle added, to get Dad off the phone. He didn’t want to
    be holding her back from academics.

    Park Plaza.

    Coffee

    time in Rebecca’s kitchen was full of banter. Everything from the trail
    of discarded clothing, like breadcrumbs leading to Rebecca’s bedroom
    doorknob, Bethany’s yodeling cries of orgasmic bliss. “Oh Thomas, Oh,
    too much!”

    “I

    sincerely respect the authenticity of Rebecca’s religion. Her bedtime
    prayers are from the heart and full of worship. I heard her
    passionately. Oh God, Oh God! Yes!”

    Then

    Rebecca told how, “every old man at the country club felt like they
    were entitled to a dance with me.” Thomas felt like he had 25 grandpas
    giving him dating and seduction advice.

    “Don’t forget all those Milfs who wanted to press their big tits against you on the dance floor?”

    Bruce and Bethany had some similar stories from the Barn Dance. But the folksy ranchers just said it in cruder words.

    “And

    I lost count of how many times my ass got slapped during line dances.”
    Bethany added. “Oh, and who knew Bruce broke so many girls’ hearts all
    over that township. The jealous stares I got. It was so funny.”

    “It didn’t bother you?” Rebecca asked.

    “No, and Bruce’s mom was fantastic! She prepared me for everything. She has the best western boot collection!”

    “Yeah, my mom had her decked out in authentic country girl vogue.” Bruce grinned.

    Rebecca

    started to get up to refill her coffee. That’s when she remembered just
    how sore her cunt was. “I think my pussy wants a temporary vow of
    celibacy, about now.

    “Yeah, I need to pee something fierce, but I’m too sore to get out of this chair.” Bethany admitted.

    The guys were silent and feeling indicted of wrong-doing. “Sorry” both of them said; practically in unison.

    Thomas got up for Rebecca and told her to sit and rest.

    “Sorry Bethany, I’d go pee for you, if it helped.” Bruce offered.

    “No”

    Bethany replied “You gave me everything I wanted. I’ll own this sore
    pussy. And when it feels better, I’ll hunger for more of the same.”

    “The only thing worse that a sore pussy, is an unsatisfied pussy.” Rebecca waxed poetic.

    The invitation.

    At 11 am, a text message was sent by Elizabeth, to all the classmates:

    “Can we move the pool party out to Aspen Park RV Resort. It’s a special request from Professors Phoebe and Antonio Garza.”

    “Before

    you all ask William and me a million questions, let me say the past 24
    hours have been shocking and amazing.” That’s all William and I will
    say, until we can all meet in one room.”

    William

    and I are going to remain here at the resort, today. The pool is great
    and the Resort is fully reserved for a large conference. But we are
    having a blast with everyone!”

    “Get

    here as soon as you can. You don’t need to bring anything! Anything at
    all! You will deeply regret it, if you decline the invite. Believe me!”

    The foursome at Park Plaza began chattering about the mysterious texts from Elizabeth.

    “Did she and William elope?” Bruce threw out there for starters.

    “Maybe it’s a multi-level marketing scam? Thomas rebutted.

    “Elizabeth is a very reliable person, as best I can say. And so is William.”

    “And what’s the meaning of, and I quote; ‘anything at all’?”

    Devon called Bethany; “Are you playing twenty questions, yet?”

    “For real!” Bethany chuckled. Are you and Erica going?”

    “We’re just 15 minutes away. Here, Erica wants to say something.”

    “Hey Girl” Erica said in a high pitch, like excited girls do. “Are you and Rebecca walking funny?”

    “Ugg, I’m sore, but serenely happy. I’ll save the rest of my words til we get together. “

    “Okay, I called mom and told her I’ll be home tonight, but probably late. See you when you get to the Aspen Park Resort.”

    Rebecca’s phone rang and it was Alexis; “Hey, we were just packing up when the text came in. Is everyone going?”

    “Seems like it.” Rebecca confirmed. We’ve heard from everyone except William and Michelle.

    Just then Bruce’s phone rang. “It’s William” he said as he stepped away to talk. “Hey William!”

    “My Gawd, Bruce. I don’t know if this date can get any more bizarre.”

    “Yeah”

    Bruce agreed. “By the way, we’re holding off on ordering food. It
    sounds like Devon and Erica will be out there in 10 or 15 minutes.
    Rebecca is talking to Alexis right now. You and Michelle were the last
    to check in.”

    “We just had a bite to eat at the campus cafeteria. Michelle wants to know how to pack?”

    “Wish I could help you with that. We’re completely clueless.” Bruce admitted. “Are you guys able to go? And how soon?”

    Yeah,

    I just need to help Michelle adjust. We have a whopper of a story to
    tell. She’s on the front page of the morning newspaper.”

    What? Bruce was shocked. “No, save it for the gathering.”

    “Anyway,

    Bruce, your advice to me was so helpful. Flexible was the key word.
    Still is, I guess.” We’re in jeans and sneakers. I think we’ll just go
    as we are?”

    “That’s

    what I’m doing. I won’t speak for the two women in the room, though. I
    guess we’ll head out from here, and we might be the last to arrive, if
    Alexis and Malcolm are as close as I think they are.”
    Bruce hung up and said; “Bethany, you might want to pick up the Sunday paper on our way to meet the gang?”

    By zachattack163 for Literotica


    41 min

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