Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 21
Andy's spirits are lifted by an old friend.
Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast
Chapter 36
Half an hour later, his phone rang and Andy glanced down to
see it was Phil calling, a picture of him with the words "Phil The
Elder" superimposed over part of it. The poker group actually had two
Phils in it, Phil Marcos and Phil Pak. The two men were dramatically
different from one another, but also remarkably similar in others. They shared
the same first name, so the group had given them nicknames when they were
talking about them if it could've been either of them.
Phil Marcos a.k.a. Phil The Elder a.k.a. Greater Phil was
34, Filipino and worked for Boeing with the Air Force at a base in the East
Bay, and was certainly the closer friend to Andy. They'd met at a local comic
book store just after Andy had moved out to the West Coast, and had hit it off
immediately. When Andy had started his poker group up a few years later, Phil was
one of the first people Andy had called.
Phil Pak, a.k.a. Phil The Younger a.k.a. Lesser Phil was 32,
Korean and worked for the NSA out of San Francisco, and not someone they'd seen
as often as they liked. For the last couple of years, Lesser Phil had been
trying to convince Andy to come work as a data analyst for the NSA in terms of
interpretation and extrapolation.
Lesser Phil had been a college friend of Eric's, and had
been introduced to Andy only a few months after he'd met Greater Phil. While
Andy still typically thought of them as Greater and Lesser Phil, he tried not
to call them that out loud, and had them as Phil The Elder and Phil The Younger
in his phone. Andy asked if it was a common name, and Eric remarked that he
knew at least a couple more Phils but none he knew that well. Andy told him
he'd had a similar problem with Jennys in high school.
"Talk to me, Phil," Andy said to his friend.
"You heard the recording. Should I be worried?"
"Concerned, yes. Worried, no," Phil sighed. He
sounded exhausted on the other end of the line, but as of late, Phil had always
sounded exhausted. Whatever he was doing over at the base, it was certainly
taking a toll on his friend. "So the good news is that in the long run, it
shouldn't make too much of a difference. But that reaction means that Lexi had
been infected with the Orange Variant of the DuoHalo virus before we introduced
"We started naming them after colors, working our way
through the spectrum. The Red Variant was first but it died off very quickly,
so this is the second one," he grumbled. "But she isn't our first
exposure to it, so we know how the serum's going to generally react to it, and
what it's going to do to her. There are only two real major differences you're
going to need to worry about."
"Is she going to be okay?"
"I told you, in the long run, it shouldn't make too
much of a difference. The two differences you need to pay attention to are
this, first, her margin of error for recursion is far less forgiving.
That means don't ever make her go more than a week without getting some Rook
juice, if you know what I mean, otherwise she see temporary cognitive decline
set in pretty fast, and she'll be ripping your clothes off no matter where you
are, so keep that in mind."
"Every seven days minimum," Andy repeated, writing
it down on a notepad in his writing office. "What's the other major
difference I need to worry about?"
"It shouldn't even be a concern, but you should
still know about it. You know how other men's semen will typically make an
"Those who've been exposed to the Orange Variant, if
they come in contact with the semen of a man other than those they're imprinted
with, they go into a violent fit of rage, attacking anyone other than their
imprinted man on sight. Those rage fits tend to be relatively short lived,
only a hour at most, but they're still incredibly dangerous and not
the kind of thing you want sprung on you as a surprise."
"And this is my bodyguard who has this," Andy
"Oh it's fine," Phil chuckled. "She won't
harm you, and you know how to protect your family better than anyone. I think
anyone who tried to use it as a weakness against Lexi would probably not live
to regret it. She'll also be imprinting for longer than normal, so if she's
sleeping for like a day and a half, don't worry about it. That's to be
"You doing okay, Phil?" Andy asked. "You look
like shit, and I'm more worried about you now than I am Lexi."
Phil sighed then laughed a little bit. "You know me.
I'll sleep when I'm dead. Lots of long days in the office turning into long
nights, and on top of that, Audrey and Linda are making sure that I have
several partners as well, so that my immunity to DuoHalo continues to be strong.
We're not entirely sure of the science of it yet, but it looks like the more
people inside a particular polypod, the stronger the internal herd immunity the
male at the center get is. Once we knew that for certain, my two queens made
sure I had a good litter of partners in our household. So I'm up to eleven
"I still can't believe I'm a level five and you're not,
Phil," Andy said, deliberately testing a theory by trying to bait it out
"Okay, Andy, you got me," Phil said with amusement.
"I'm also a level five. I was lying to you earlier, for security
reasons. In fact, I think technically I was one of the first level fives. I've
also technically had DuoHalo, but I can't really get into the details of
that all that much. Let's just say that when we're finally through this whole
pandemic, I'm going to have a bunch of stories to tell you that will blow your
mind. I probably have to get clearance for you so that I can tell you some of
them, but it'll be worth it."
"I've always known you were up to something over there,
Phil," Andy laughed. "I just couldn't figure out what it was."
"Greater Phil, International Man of Mystery. It's got a
"Speaking of Mystery. Poker, this week. Let's do
"Yeah, sure," Phil said. "I could use a
break, so you call everyone else, and I'll make a point of coming over with as
much of the family as I can convince to come out, although it has that weird
side effect of making every poker night feel like a giant party where we're all
hiding from our wives. Maybe we should see if there's enough interest to set up
a second table and we can mix and match, so you can spend a bit more time
meeting my partners and vice versa."
"Well, you see Niko all the time, what with her being
at your work, so you probably know her about as well as I do."
"That girl's got secrets upon secrets, Andy."
That caught him a little off guard. He wasn't bothered by
it, but he was amused at the idea of her trying to hide something from him.
"Niko? My Niko? I can't see it. She's open and transparent about
"Sure, okay. Didn't you feel that way about Erin?"
"Was it though?" Phil said in a tone that
immediately conjured the Smug Thor meme to his mind. "I mean, sure, Niko's
secrets are probably being kept from you for the right reasons, as opposed to
Erin's, but secrets are secrets."
"The last thing I need is you making me more
"Forget I said anything. Oh, one last bit of news for
you. Maya won't be there until tomorrow midday. Turns out she's also got the
Orange Variant, so we're making sure the serum is getting a good foothold
before we send her over to you. It's all just safety precautions, but it'll be
"Great. We can do poker night on the 20th,
so we can all watch the President's speech and the 60 Minutes story
"Sounds like fun," Phil agreed. "Hopefully
Katie Couric's team caught my good side. See you on Friday."
As Andy hung up the phone, he noticed that Whitney was
lingering in the doorway. She was dressed impeccably in a white button up shirt
and a black pencil skirt with black pantyhose on beneath, and the shirt was
just barely thin enough that he could see hints of her red bra on underneath.
"Have you got a moment, sir?"
"Sure thing, Whitney, what's up?"
"Just wanted to go over the set up work I've done for
the house so you know what's going on, and to ask you a few questions so I can
start the process of replacing your laptop for you," she said, her hands
folded together in front of her, her eyes mostly lowered.
"Sounds great, but Whitney, you don't have to look down
all the time. I know you're more used to a stern hand than I am, and I'll do my
best to be what you like when we're intimate, but when you're acting in your
duties as the house IT manager, you need to relax a little more and try to fit
Whitney smirked a little bit, those dark red lips perked up
as she lifted her head, nodding at him with a little smile. "Oh, I know,
sir. I think I mostly just wanted to see if you would notice. Shall we?"
For the next half an hour, Whitney explained to him in good
detail all the changes she'd gone about to the house in the last day, getting
all the rooms configured to work within the house's larger intranet.
As it turned out, there were multiple LAN ports in the walls
of every room in the house, it seemed like, and once again, Andy found himself
wondering who this house had been built for originally. In addition to making
sure all the ports were working, Whitney had also set up wireless hubs and
repeaters all throughout the house, enough so that no matter where a person was
in the house, they should always have a good signal to the internet.
The house's security systems ran on an entirely separate
network, one with minimal external connectivity, and Whitney said that she
would work with Lexi to make sure the system was up to whatever standards his
new head of security had in mind.
They walked while they talked, and outside in the back, Andy
could see Katie astride her riding lawn mower, zipping in lines across the
monstrous amount of green grass in his back yard, making sure to get all of it
cut even and levelly. He could also see Tala hauling things into the back house
with the help of Nicolette, who had ditched the maid outfit for the time being
for a more practical set of blue jeans and a baggy t shirt covered in paint
All of the changes, Whitney assured him, had been done with
minimal disruption to anyone's work in the house, and she'd been trying to get
as much of it today, as it was a Sunday.
The last thing they talked about was his replacement laptop,
something that Andy was remarkably picky about. Oh, he didn't care about the
things most people cared about, when it came to processors and memory,
Andy insisted none of that mattered to him, but the thing he was adamant
about was that the keyboard feel as close to the one on the laptop he was
currently using, an eight year old IBM ThinkPad. Too many keyboards were
difficult to use for long periods at a time, and considering how many words
Andy found himself putting into his laptop on a daily basis, if the keyboard
was unwieldy, the laptop might as well be non existent.
Whitney made a special note that "keyboard feel"
was of the utmost import, and she insisted to him, she would do her best to get
him a good replacement within a week or so. She had already begun backing up
all the files from his existing laptop to the house's master network, as well
as to a backup kept in a fire safe, so that even if disaster struck, he would
still have his work in a safe location.
Andy did tell her that she didn't have to work full time on
the weekends, and that she should make a point of getting settled into her own
room, and spending some time catching up with her friend Nicolette who had
brought her here. Whitney had smiled at that, and agreed to go get changed so
she could help Tala move in, and then they could all help Whitney get moved in
He was starting to walk back towards his office when he ran
into Lauren, clearly just back from a jog around the neighborhood, sweaty and
out of breath, a big smile on her face. "Hey there, fella, just the bloke
I was lookin' to have a moment with. Got a snip?"
He grinned, leaning against the wall, crossing his arms over
his chest. "Sure, what's up?"
"I've been thinking, and I think maybe we should let
Taylor off the hook now," she said, looking down at her feet for a second.
"I know, I know, I was the one who set the whole month punishment in place
but, strewth, seeing her walking around naked all the time is starting to make
me feel bad. I'm thinking she's learned her lesson, and she knows she's got
lots of trust to earn back from me, so I'm only keeping her from getting to
spend time learning more about all the other amazing sheilas you have in this
house, and that's not fair of me."
"I agree," Andy chuckled, "but I didn't want
to be the one to tell you, seeing how fire and brimstone you were about the
whole thing when you set the rules in place."
"Strewth," she muttered. "Was it really that
"I was a little worried the heavens were going to part
and you were going to call down lightning bolts from the skies," he said,
the smile wide on his face. "Real wrath of god type shit."
"Bugger. Anyway, you should tell'er that you've talked
me down, and that you laid down the law, and you decided, and eventually I
relented, that she is done with that punishment and should just join the family
like all the other birds. Make it clear you decided, not me, so I still
get to keep a bit of that big scary reputation."
Andy rolled his eyes but nodded. "Sure sure, you'll
look mean. You'll look really scary. Anyway, I'll go find her and tell her
while you're hopping into the shower."
"Your sweatstains have got sweatstains, Lauren,"
he said with a laugh as he was backing away from her, while she mimed punching
motions in his direction.
He wasn't certain where he'd find Taylor in the house, so he
decided just to go wandering the halls and see where he stumbled into her. He
found her in Hannah's room, where she, Asha and Hannah were sitting on the bed,
gossiping. Asha and Hannah hadn't bothered to change out of their pajamas,
enjoying a lazy Sunday, while Taylor sat nude with her back against the wall.
One of his two cats, Muninn, the Russian blue, was sitting on the bed near
Asha, who was petting him idly.
All three girls tensed a little bit when he entered the
room, Taylor wasn't supposed to be sitting up on furniture unless Lauren
or himself had told her to do so, but Andy hadn't really followed the rules at
all, and had made it clear multiple times that Taylor's 'punishment,' such as
it was, was mostly for Lauren's mollification, and that if Taylor slipped on
the rules from time to time while she wasn't around, he didn't particularly
"No no, don't get up, Taylor, it's fine," he said,
coming into the room. "In fact, it's what I came to talk to you
"You need to get Nicolette to turn up the house
furnace, babe," Asha said to him. "If I'd ta walk around all day in
me skivvies, I know I'd be freezin'."
"Totally, Daddy," Hannah said. He'd repeatedly
told her that she didn't have to call him that (in fact, going so far as to
hint that it made him a little uncomfortable when she did) but she had
repeatedly answered that she liked calling him that, so she wasn't going to
stop any time soon. At least she knew enough not to do it when other people
were around the house. "We're just talkin' anyway, so I told her to hop up
here, so if you gotta punish someone, it should be me."
"You look far too eager when you suggest that,
Hannah," he told the Asian teenager. "Anyway, I had a talk with
Lauren just a little bit ago. I told her this is my house, and I'm in charge,
and that I've decided you've served this part of your punishment long enough.
You're free to get dressed, wear clothes around the house, sleep wherever you
want, sit wherever you want. You can get your phone back, and you can start
working with Lauren at the 49ers camp whenever you feel like you're ready.
You're a full member of the household now, and there's no reason for this silly
punishment to go on any further. And you can certainly take off that ridiculous
Taylor's bright blue eyes had been focused on him the entire
time he'd been talking, and she slipped off the bed quickly to throw her arms
around him, pressing those impressive tits of hers against his chest as she
hugged him very tightly, clinging to him, even as he could hear her sniffling
back some tears. "Thank you, Andy," she said quietly. "I know
Lauren's still mad at me, but this has been really hard, being made to feel
like less than a person."
He wrapped his arms around her, patting her bare back.
"I know, and I get that, but you also have to realize that cheating on her
hurt her in a way she'd never been hurt before, and that won't go away fully
for a long long time. Just because you're done with all of this doesn't mean
you're done with all of that. I know you know that, but it doesn't hurt to be
reminded that you're going to be repairing that damage between you two for
years to come. You screwed up, but there's a way back from that, as long as
you're willing to put in the work and learn from your mistakes."
Taylor pulled back, looking at him as something just dawned
on her. "So, wait, all the rules have been lifted? Like all all of
He tilted his head a little. "Yyyyes? Why, is there one
in particular you're asking about?"
"So, like, next time, y'know, when me and you, then we
He bit back a smile and nodded. "Yes, yes we can. And
if you want to masturbate again, you're welcome to start doing that too."
She shook her head over dramatically once then leaned in to
kiss him. "After we've had our first time together, our first real
time together, then I will, but I want the first thing inside of my cunt after
all this time to be your cock. If that's okay," she said, biting
"Of course it's okay. I think your next day in the
rotation was going to be the 20th, but if you want, we can try and
find some time before then instead. It can even be just the two of us, without
Lauren around, if that's what you want."
She pouted again for a moment. "Anything I want?"
"Well, within my usual limits, but sure."
She slipped her arms away from him, and turned back to look
at Asha and Hannah, extending a hand to each of them. "I want the four of
us together, for my first time normally with you, Andy," she said, as Asha
took one hand and Hannah took the other.
"Oh rrrrreally?" Asha said, dragging the sound
out, her London accent dripping through the word. "All four of us
together? Sounds like a spot of fun. I'm game if you are, Whiskers," she
said, looking over at Hannah with a smile.
"Anything you can throw at me, I can
totally handle, Goldfish," Hannah shot back at her friend. Clearly the
girls had developed nicknames for each other when he wasn't around. "I was
supposed to have tomorrow night, Daddy, so instead of it just being me, it'll
be all three of us, if that's totally cool and shit."
"Yeah, that's, ahem, totally cool. And shit." He
leaned in to give Taylor a quick kiss, but she kissed him back harder than
expected, and it lasted longer than he'd planned, not that he minded. "And
you, young lady, should get some clothes on, and maybe unpack your stuff,
whether that's in your own room or in Lauren's room, that's up to you."
"Oh it totally all goes in with Lauren," Taylor
said. "I don't even want my own room. Either I'm in her bed or yours. You
want to come help me move in, girls?"
"You couldn't stop us, love," Asha said.
"Last one there has a smelly cunt!" Hannah said as
she bolted towards the door, Asha and Taylor just a step or two behind her.
"Y'know," Andy said to himself and the cat,
"I feel like I should've yelled that there's no running in the house after
them, but I just know it wouldn't have done any good."
"Meow," Muninn said to him in response.
"Oh hush," Andy said. "What the hell do you
After leaving Hannah's room, he was halfway down the hall
when he ran into Sarah, who was wearing one of his t shirts, one for a band
called Stereophonics, and sweatpants beneath it, her hair done up in the least
stylish ponytail he'd ever seen from her, as if she'd just put her red mane up
to get it out of the way for a while. "Hey you," she said, her pearly
white smile beaming at him. "Maya should be here any minute, and I know
you're just gonna love her."
"I actually spoke to Phil a little bit ago, and she's
not going to be here until tomorrow, but she's still coming, don't you
worry." He explained the Orange Variant to her, and while she was a little
disappointed that her friend's arrival would be delayed, she understood that
Maya's health was the most important thing, and the base didn't want to let her
out of their sight until she was ready. "What've you been up to
She rolled her oceanic blue eyes at him with a big harumph.
"Reading screenplays that my agent sent over, trying to pick my next
project. It's looking like everyone's going to want to do serialized television
right now, because they can get more content out of smaller budgets, but so
many of these stories are just so boring," she groaned. "It's like my
agent's only sending me the same stuff."
"Well," he said, taking her hand in his as they
walked down the hallway, "tell your agent what you want then, whether
that's more drama, more action, more comedy, more whatever it is you want more
of. They only know what you want when you tell them. I had to learn the same
lesson with my literary agent early on."
She squeezed his hand thankfully. "My agent really
should know better, but you're right. I can get her on the hunt for the kinds
of things I want to be doing. You know there aren't really any good spy stories
on television right now? I should see if she can get me something like that.
I'll give her a call tomorrow, see if maybe she can reach out to the production
companies, see who's already got projects winding up I can try and piggyback
They walked past the door of Emily and Sarah's workspace,
and Andy noticed it was closed. He pointed with his other hand at the closed
door as they kept on walking. "Em in some kind of meeting?"
Sarah nodded. "London based production company wanted
to reach out to her, so she's taking the call today, but she should be out in
an hour or so." The doorbell rang, and Sarah arched an eyebrow in
surprise. "I thought you said Maya wouldn't be here until tomorrow."
"That's what Phil told me," he said, as the two of
them started to head downstairs, although Andy could hear someone answering the
door, followed by a loud squeal of recognition.
When they came down the stairs, Andy could see it was Piper
who'd answered the door, and she had her arms wrapped around a short blonde
girl, hugging her tightly. "Andy! Sarah! Brooke's here!" Piper said
to them, swinging the shorter girl around a bit.
"That's great, but I thought she was "
"Surprise, man!" Xander said as he stepped in
through the doorway. Andy let go of Sarah's hand and rushed down the rest of
the stairs, suddenly stopping about six feet away from the door.
"Paired with three people this morning, so I'm 100%
safe as houses," his tattooed friend said.
Once he'd gotten the word 'paired' out, Andy had continued
rushing his best friend, wrapping his arms around the burly guy, giving him a
hell of a hug. "Oh Jesus, it's good to know you're safe, man," Andy
sighed. "And it's so fucking good to see you. I know we hung out last
December, but fuck, these eleven months have felt like five fucking years,”
"Glad to see my mouth's rubbing off on you," Sarah
laughed, closing the distance to meet them.
"Xander, these are my partners Piper Brown and Sarah
Washington, both of whom you've talked to a bit through FaceTime. Piper, Sarah,
this is my best and oldest friend, Xander Baker, whom I've known since we were
Xander laughed, nodding. "6, 7, something like that.
However old we were in kindergarten."
"Not enough!" Xander replied. "Anyway, Andy,
Sarah, this is my soon to be partner Brooke Maloney, whom I have your partner
"Well," Piper laughed, "I'd originally
pitched her to come here and be Andy's partner, but he realized she'd be a much
better fit for you, considering how much you both love classic cars, although
really, I think it was just so he didn't have to hear her singing Vince Gill
songs around the house all the time, 'cause she does that a lot, and I
hope they warned you about that, Xander."
"She can be singing Vince Gill while I'm singing Wu
Tang Clan, and somewhere in the middle, over the engine of a Dodge Charger, I
think we can make it work," Xander said.
"Honestly, Pipes," Brooke said to her, "the
only reason he said soon to be is because I wanted to come over and say thank
you to y'all, and let Xander have a bit of time with his friend before we got
to bumpin' uglies. But all the other gals in his house have just been so sweet,
y'all, I can't wait for you to meet'em."
"Why don't Piper and I give you a tour of the place,
Brooke," Sarah said, "and the boys can do a little bit of catching up.
You want me to have Jenny bring drinks to you out on the patio, hun?"
"Yeah," Andy said, "I'll take a pina colada.
Sarah nodded. "Drinks coming up! This way ladies!"
she said, marching them down towards the kitchen first.
"Jesus Andy," Xander said quietly. "You
really bagged Sarah Washington. I mean, I know I've talked to her vidchat, but
seeing her in person like this,”
"Seriously, I don't deserve this much luck," Andy
said with a chuckle as he started to lead his best friend towards the back
"Oh fuck you," Xander teased. "You deserve exactly
this much luck. Our entire lives, I've been watching you do good things for
people left and right and never asking for so much as a thank you in return,
and this is what karma has brought you, dude, so live a little. Enjoy it."
As they moved out onto the patio, Xander shook his head. "I will
say, however, that my house isn't quite as big as yours is. Don't get me wrong,
it's still a fucking palace compared to that one bedroom shithole I lived in
back in Ohio, but I'm just saying,”
Andy rolled his eyes with a smirk. "You know I didn't
pick the places myself, right jackass?"
"I guess so," Xander said, as the two men moved to
sit down on deck chairs near the pool. It was cool for November but not so cold
that either man felt like they needed to add layers, both having grown up in
the Midwest, where California winters would be considered nice spring days.
"God, I'm really here. It's wild, man."
"It's great having you out here, Xander. Jesus, the
stories I have to tell you. You're here early, though. I didn't expect you out
here for at least a few more days."
"Turns out these DuoHalo Variants are pretty
intense," Xander sighed, "and since they were pairing me up with
someone in the military, they wanted to make sure I got hooked into the system
as quickly as they could, so everything got very rush rush rush. When you told
me to be ready to go at a moment's notice, you weren't kidding. As soon as we
finished up that conversation, I started packing, and just barely got done
before they showed up to cart me away. They're even taking care of selling my
house for me, although I suspect it's just going to become government housing
"Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me," Andy agreed.
"God, it's good to have you here, man."
"Well if it isn't my favorite hoodrat," Fiona
said, carrying out a tray with three drinks on it, setting it down on a table
as Xander immediately got up and hugged him hard. "How you been,
"Better now that I know you made it here okay,
muckraker," he teased back. "How the hell you been Fi?"
"Better now that I know you ditched that crazy
ex of yours," she laughed. "Can I say it?"
"Oh I think you've earned it."
"I told you that girl was no good."
"You did indeed tell me that," Xander agreed,
taking his bottle of Corona from the drinks tray, as Andy grabbed his pina
colada and Fi grabbed a tall glass of wine.
"Hey hey hey, the gang's all back," Fi said with a
smile. "To old friends and new flames."
"To life, liberty and us getting through this fucking
plague together," Xander toasted.
"To family," Andy corrected.
"To family!" they all toasted together, clinking
Piper has a confession to make..
Chapter 37
The conversation had gone far into the evening, with members
of the household coming in and out several times, joining for a while before
leaving the trio to their own devices once more, mostly anyway, a couple of
Andy's partners choosing to remain longer. Sarah and Aisling in particular were
intent on getting as many stories about Andy's youth as they could, and he felt
a little like they hoped either Xander or Fiona would tell them embarrassing
tales from their college years.
While Fi had been mostly coy about the years they'd spent at
university, Xander, by contrast, had been eager to tell at least a handful of
hilarious and ridiculous stories about the troubles they'd found themselves in
during their misspent youth.
Despite how flustered he got a couple of times, it was a
wonderful night of reminiscing, and a chance for the girls to see Andy in a
different light. A piece of advice Andy had never let go of was that as you got
older, it was almost important to keep people around you who knew you when you
At least a few times, he'd managed to deflect the
conversation off himself and onto other people, a detour letting both Sarah and
Emily talk about their experiences making movies, and Xander talking about the
process of being relocated from Ohio out to California.
Xander's trip had been surprisingly surreal, and he told the
group about it in explicit detail.
He'd been loaded into an isolation chamber on a cargo plane
along with twenty other men, each in their own little plastic bubble tent,
although each of the tent also had curtains that could be dropped for privacy.
Xander told them he'd found that odd but understood why eventually.
The plane had been mostly full of men when it picked Xander
up in Ohio. The little isolation chamber was like a emergency field hospital's
clean room, with a mattress on the floor as well as a few days of rations, both
food and water, and a little sealable chemical toilet. Nearly everything was
ziptied to weights to keep it steady. There was also a little headset that
connected to a series of voice chat channels all the men could use to talk to
The main channel had been too hectic for Xander to stay in
for more than a handful of minutes, but he'd eventually peeled off a couple of
the men in the plane into a separate channel, and was able to both give them
some information and get some on his own.
All of the men on the plane had been gathered from cities in
the central and eastern United States, and were being ferried out to partners,
generally military but some in other branches of the government, and they
weren't being let out of their isolation chambers until they'd been paired up
with at least one woman, thus, the beds and the privacy curtains.
At least a couple of the pods had not only men in them, but
also a woman in the middle of the imprinting process . The government didn't
want to risk the life of any man, so this was an emergency plan decided to keep
as many people as they could safe.
The two men Xander spent the afternoon talking with were
Klaus, a 26 year old Master Sergeant from Georgia that Xander felt like was
probably in special ops of some kind, and Bill, a 34 year old schoolteacher
from Tennessee who was being paired up with a prominent Silicon Valley
businesswoman he'd dated back in high school.
Klaus clearly knew far more than he wanted to share with
Xander and Bill, but he'd done his best to give the two men some information to
make their journey a little less panic stricken. There were two women in the
isolation chamber with Klaus, a twenty year old blonde named Olivia and a
twenty two year old Korean American named Naya, or so Klaus told them, as both
women were still in the middle of the imprinting process.
The man was part of the security forces for the flying
hospital that was transporting men and women around the country. He knew what
he could and couldn't tell Xander and Bill, and just having a conversation with
Klaus had made Xander feel more safe in their travels.
He had a calm and casual demeanor to him while discussing
how everything had been carefully planned, even if it all felt pretty slapdash.
He couldn't answer all of their questions, for security reasons, but he told
the two men that the airplane had basically been in motion nonstop for the last
three weeks, doing its best to ferry people around the nation.
Xander had asked him if it was truly necessary, only to be
told how high the casualty rate was for men around the nation. Klaus had seen
the stacks of bodies, and the man sounded rattled when he described the
hundreds of empty apartments he'd seen in his native Queens, as the corpses had
filled up dump trucks, and they'd had to conceal the bodies as they were taking
them out in the dead of night.
Klaus told them he'd been in a biohazard suit for most of
the last week, but now that he had two partners, he would be able to go out and
provide an escort for everyone going to and from the plane, although he planned
to return to his isolation room with his two partners in between each stop they
From Ohio they flew down to Nebraska, stopping at Offut Air
Force Base, where they picked up a handful of soldiers and dropped off a
handful of women. Bill had asked Klaus how long they'd been running these
routes. Klaus said they'd been running for a few weeks now, and they were only
one of five planes that were crisscrossing the nation. Olivia and Naya had both
been brought into the inoculation center in Denver earlier and then swapped
planes to meet up with him in New York, where they'd met up after he'd returned
bringing in another stable of surviving men.
All privacy had basically gone out the window. Klaus told
him that most of the men had the option to wait until they were in a house or
an apartment or something, but Klaus had been told by his commanding
officer that they couldn't spare him that much time, so he needed to just get
on with his business on the plane so he could get back to work as soon as he
By the time they'd touched down at McCarran Airport in Las
Vegas, Bill had been just about ready to break out into full fledged panic,
between the constant shift in air pressure, the take offs and landings done
without proper seatbelts and his inability to go anywhere that wasn't his
little sealed off compartment, but a quick talking to from Xander had gotten
the man to cool down at least a little bit.
They were barely on the ground in Nevada an hour, taking
people off and bringing new people on, as well as refueling the plan, before
taking off again, landing at Oakland airport a few hours later under the cover
Their cellphones had been taken from them when they'd
arrived at the plane, so Xander had been forced to guess at the time, but he
would've placed their arrival in Oakland at something around 2 a.m. or so,
although the lock in had made it impossible to use traffic as a gauge.
In Oakland, everyone had been taken from their individual
compartments and loaded onto a large troop transport truck, with no caution
given to cross contamination or infection, as they were all told they would be
getting paired up within a few hours, so even if they caught DuoHalo now, it
wouldn't matter. Xander had been concerned by that but he had decided to go
along with it, because Klaus seemed to consider the whole thing fine, and he
was the one loading people onto the trucks.
The trucks had ferried them from Oakland up to a staging
area next to the lab near Mount Diablo, just adjacent to New Eden, and once
there, they'd been introduced to their new partners and from there, sorted into
where they were going to go.
The building they were using as a staging area felt like a
converted aircraft hangar, with a high curved metal ceiling and big fluorescent
lights hanging high above them. Although there were some tented parts of the
space, similar to what had been inside the cargo hold of the airplane that had
brought him here, most of the space was open, with long painted striped lines
on the ground, leading people through the processing.
Men weren't being given any injections, something
Xander had thought was odd, until all the men were given a five minute lecture
on "Your New Reality," something that the men were told to take
The lecture included basic things like how they would be
receiving their vaccinations (sexually transmitted from their new partners),
how their partners would need sexual satisfaction about once a week or so, how
their semen would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, and how if
they ever felt like they were coming down with the symptoms of DuoHalo they
should have sex with one of their partners immediately, which would resolve
At the point when the men had been told that their semen
would be toxic to any woman they weren't paired with, a handful of the men had
quietly jeered and rolled their eyes, but the next slide in the presentation
showed a wound on a woman's arm that had silenced all that nonsense quickly.
The end of the lecture included a video message from
President Pelosi, urging the men to consider fatherhood like a new version of
the World War 2 draft, every man needed to do his service to help save
the country. Extensive tax breaks and financial aid would be provided to
families with multiple children, it was stressed. The country needed to be
As soon as the lecture was done, they'd been marched single
file to a series of processing windows, over a dozen clerks taking people's
names and social security numbers before assigning them a holding area to head
over to, where they would meet their partners. A sticker was placed on their
chest before they were sent on their way.
It had all felt very assembly line, as if there wasn't time
for kindness or courtesies, and people were simply being pushed through the
grinder as quickly as possible. Klaus had joked around with them on the ride
over that while it might seem rough, it was being done for optimal performance
in getting people in and through the system and into their new lives, wherever
Xander had heard several different locations mentioned,
the San Jose highrises, the Stanford campus, the Berkeley campus, the SF
towers, the Altamont sprawl, the Tracy ghosttown, but when it came time
for him to be told where to go, he was told he wouldn't need to go far, as he
was being assigned to Dos Eden, the first expansion zone to New Eden.
He'd been given four partners on site, with one more to be
waiting for him at the location. They'd been waiting for him in the holding
area assigned to him, each having arrived sometime over the previous day, so
they'd all had a chance to get to know one another. Letting the women have some
time to bond in advance of the man's arrival seemed smart to Xander, as they
could size each other up without having to worry about keeping their new mate's
The women had also been given their injections in the
holding area, and so Xander assumed the spaces had also doubled as observation
areas, making sure none of the women had suffered any adverse reactions to
their injections the day before.
Captain Betsy Ross had turned out to be a complete knockout,
a blonde pint size pocket rocket dynamo who was training men nearly twice her
size in hand to hand close quarters combat, and they had clicked immediately,
almost as if they were custom made for each other. She'd kissed him hard enough
to nearly knock him off his feet before he'd even been able to say hello.
The second woman had been Serena Ortiz, a Latina woman in
her late twenties who was a U.S. Marshall, and had built a career out of
tracking down fugitives. Tall and statuesque, she had a certain grace to how
she'd moved, he'd noticed immediately. She'd spent the past few hours talking
with Betsy before Xander's arrival, and the two already had a friendly
relationship, having bonded over the fact that they could both kick Xander's
The third was a slender blonde woman in her late 30s who had
looked hauntingly familiar before her introduction, but Xander had struggled to
place her, even after she identified herself as Alicia Geller. When she'd told
Xander that he would likely know the role she'd played in her youth, Rascal
Rachel, that had made it all come together immediately. Alicia was a child
actress who had been the star of a popular kids show until she'd grown out of
it and the show had been canceled. Instead of continuing acting, she had
retired from show business and gone into education, teaching history to high school
students. She seemed a little shy, but had assured him that once they'd had
time to get to know one another, she would come out of her shell.
The final one on site had been Brooke, and she'd detailed
the story to him how her friend Piper was paired up with Andy, and that they
had recommended Brooke pair up with Xander, so she had. She'd been wearing a
Shelby GT Cobra necklace when they met, and Xander had known it was going to
A second sticker was placed on his chest and the girls were
told to stay with him, as everyone was sorted into lines and sent towards
trucks. Most of the trucks were large troop transports, but Xander had been
surprised to see that the vehicle he and his partners were set to was much
smaller, and they were the only group loaded up onto it. He'd felt a little
bad, since really they could've just been loaded up into an Escalade, him, his
four new partners and the MP driving them over to their new home.
On the way over, the MP delivered the final set of
instructions to Xander, as to why his fifth partner hadn't been waiting for him
at the base and was, instead, at the new home. Her name was KC Kadrey, and she
was a 20 year old Vietnamese American student over at Stanford, studying
mechanical engineering. She'd needed to get her injections a couple of days
prior, and there had been some concerns that she might simply just grab the
first man she saw and go after him, so she'd been taken to their new home and
allowed to settle in. But, the MP warned him, it meant that she might be a bit
intense when they arrived. She'd also brought her golden retriever with her,
and keeping the large dog at the staging area had seemed problematic.
Xander, like all the men who'd been on the airplane, had
been forced to travel light, a single wheelie suitcase all he'd been allowed to
bring with him. All of his things that had been picked up in Ohio would show up
at some point within the next few weeks as the truck conveying them drove cross
country, but until they, he would have to make due with the things he had.
Xander had been forced to argue with the people picking him up that the one car
he'd been restoring, a black 1970 Barracuda, would be part of the things taken
to his new home, and while the discussion had gotten a little heated, eventually
the people picking him up had relented and loaded it into the truck with the
Each of the women had a similar amount of things with them,
and when they arrived at their new home, they all felt woefully unprepared.
Dos Eden was technically part of New Eden, but it was an
expansion to the original enclave, and the dwellings there were much more of
nice houses than they were the sorts of mansions and manors that made up New
Eden itself. The MP driving them over had said she lived in Dos Eden, and she
was incredibly thankful, as it meant having a family was a distinct
possibility, while the people in many of the other locations were going to be
doing lots of relocating and readjusting over the next few years. Those in the
tower condo buildings were generally being given an entire floor to themselves,
and as needed walls would be knocked down and units combined as families
expanded. The views were nice, the MP told them, but it just didn't feel like a
When they pulled up to the house just around dawn, Xander
was a little surprised by it. They had told him not to expect a grandiose
mansion, but the home was far nicer than any place he'd ever lived in before, a
two story building with five bedrooms and four bathrooms, so not enough that
each person had their own bedroom, but they would make it work, all of them
agreed. It was mostly glass walls, and Xander found himself thankful for the
ring of trees, and the high fences, that would provide him with at least a
little privacy from his neighbors, who were only a short walk away on either
side. It had a three car garage, and Xander was told there were new Teslas
charging inside for them. (Xander immediately planned to turn one of the three
garage spaces into his own little workshop where he'd continue restoring the
Barracuda.) The driveway was long enough that they would be able to comfortably
fit at least four more cars out front if needed. The place had its own pool
with hot tub, however, something Xander was astonished to find. He'd never lived
in a place with a pool before, and now his
home had one.
They'd barely gotten in the door before KC had rushed
Xander, practically mauling him with love in the entry way to the home. She'd
been coherent enough to talk with him, the two of them moving into the master
bedroom before he'd had sex with her and she'd fallen into her imprinting
The other girls had moved into the bedroom somewhere in the
middle of their tryst and Betsy had immediately insisted on going second,
having stripped down while watching Xander and KC. Alicia had gone third,
leaving him with only Serena and Brooke conscious.
The three of them had taken a shower together, and somewhere
in the middle of the shower, Serena had decided she couldn't wait any further,
and had gone through part of the process in the shower and the rest bent over
As much as he wanted to, he told Brooke that he was going to
need a while before he could imprint her, his entire body more than a little
exhausted, as the chemicals from the four women had been flowing through his
bloodstream, giving him immunity from DuoHalo and doing some rather significant
changes to his body. Brooke had laughed and just suggested they go over to
visit Andy and Piper, which brought them up to now.
"Fuckin' hell," Andy laughed. "No fucking
wonder you look exhausted, Xan. How much have you slept in the last two
"Oh, we took a nap after we settled into the house, and
I slept a bit on the plane while it was hauling our asses through the
skies," his best friend said with a chuckle. "So yeah not as much as
I should but more than I do some days. Was your experience similar, Fi?"
Fiona's journey had been very similar, with her and Moira
catching an earlier flight out of Washington a few days ago, although their
plane had made only one additional stop before landing in Oakland, their plane
having gone straight from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, where many of the men
in the chambers had been unloaded and several women had been loaded on board.
Because Fi and Moira had been traveling together, they'd had
each other to talk with and neither had felt especially lonely during the
voyage. Fi even admitted they had spent much of the time talking about Andy,
speculating how much he might or might not have changed over the years.
As the hour grew late, Brooke returned to the main room with
Piper, suggesting she and Xander head home, reminding the two old friends that
they now lived less than fifteen minutes apart, and could see each other as
often as they wanted to, but Andy and Xander still hugged for a long minute,
thankful to have reconnected on the other side of the disaster, before they
walked the two to the door and sent them home.
Several of the girls had peeled off and gone to bed over the
course of the evening, and at the end of the night, the only people still awake
were Andy, Piper and Sarah. Aisling had been the very last to go to bed before
reminding Sarah not to stay up too late, otherwise she would be too tired to
talk to Maya when she arrived tomorrow, but Sarah had laughed it off and
After closing the door behind Xander, he walked back down
stairs, intending to clean up the remaining empty beer bottles and glasses left
behind in the living room, only to find that Nicolette had beaten him to it,
having cleaned it all up and then disappearing into her room for the night, so
he couldn't even say thank you to her.
"I swear, we've got a ninja for a French maid around
this house," he muttered to himself with amusement. Huginn, his black cat,
stood up from his perch on the back of one of the couches, stretched by arching
his back, then moved to sit back down exactly where he was. "I feel ya,
bud," he agreed with the cat. "We should probably see about getting
to bed, don't you think, ladies?"
Piper shook her head, pushing Andy back to sit down on the
couch. "Not for a bit. You can sleep when you're dead," she said with
a grin. "Don't you agree, Sarah?"
"Oh totally," the tall redhead said, moving to
slide in to one side of Andy on the couch. "You lose one third of your
life sleeping, well, I mean I guess you don't really lose it since you have
to sleep otherwise you'll go insane, but it's, like, a lot a lot of time
to be spending doing just one thing."
"Besides, I have to say thank you for making sure you
brought my best friend to be nearby so I didn't feel so lonely all the
time," Piper said, peeling her shirt up and over her head, tossing it
aside, leaving her in a sports bra and tight fitted blue jeans, her toned
stomach bared to the cool night air. "We've been kinda dancing around each
other for the last few weeks, Andy, and I don't want you to think I'm not
grateful, because I'm very thankful for all the things you've done for
"Piper, you don't have " he started before
she lifted her hand up to cover his mouth,
"Andy, enough," she giggled. "You can just
say 'you're welcome' when you're being thanked for something, you know. You
don't have to try and play down the work that went into it."
He smirked a little bit, as she pulled her hand back.
"I just don't want you to feel like you owe me anything."
"Oh, but Andy, I do owe you," she said,
bending down to press a kiss to his lips, just a soft and quick one. "You
got me away from that asshole Covington. When I couldn't think straight, you
did everything you could to bring me back to being me again, and that's
not something anyone would do." She inhaled the scent of him, and he could
swear he saw her pupils dilate a little in response. "You remember how I
told you I could smell you from far away? I still can, but the raw musk of you
is even more intense up close, and I fucking love how you smell, you
sexy bastard. It makes me feel warm and safe and gooey and sticky and protected
all at once. And I know that at least some of that is just the chemicals
flowing through my brain bonding me to you, but you know what?" She leaned
in and nibbled on his earlobe a little bit. "I've decided that I don't
fucking care why I feel how I feel. I feel how I feel and that's all
that fucking matters. You've kept me safe. You've given me space when I wanted
it, and been happy to talk with me when I needed that. You helped me get my
friend here and kept her safe, and as soon as you thought it was time, you
pushed my ass to get back to work and reminded me not to give up on my dreams.
So don't you dare fucking tell me I don't have to repay you,
because even if you don't think that I do, I do, and I want
"You're the only one of the girls who says she can
smell me anywhere in the house, Piper," he told her. "I hope that's
not a sign that anything's wrong because Covington held off so long on letting
you get imprinted after the injections."
"Oh, there's nothing wrong with me, Andy,"
she purred, unbuttoning her jeans before pushing them down to her ankles, not
having bothered to put shoes on earlier, stepping out of them and her panties,
leaving her in just the sports bra. She had such an athletic body that it had a
tendency to make Andy feel a little ashamed of how out of shape he was.
"I'm just different, that's all. Being able to smell you when you're in
the house? I consider that a benefit, not a side effect. I get a little anxious
when you leave and I can't smell you, not so much that it bothers me, but just
enough that I notice the feeling of longing I have that you aren't on hand. And
I've reread that letter you left me over a dozen times, because each time, I
think I fall for you a little more." She grinned, grabbing her sports bra,
pulling it up over her head, tossing it aside. "So yeah, I was scared of
saying that, but I'm definitely falling for you, Andrew Rook. Falling in love
with you. That's why I was so deep in thought the other morning. You didn't do
anything to make me upset or angry. I just was worried about how to tell
"Piper, Why would you be worried?" Andy said with
"You've got so many beautiful women here,
Andy," she said, gesturing back to the house. "I mean, shit, you've
got Sarah Fucking Washington with her arm around you right now! I know I'm fit,
but I'm not beautiful like she and Em are."
At that, he raised a single finger, pointing at her.
"How dare you," he said, his tone evening a little bit.
"You are fucking stunning, I mean beautiful like you cannot even imagine
and I do not want to hear you saying you're not beautiful ever again, okay?
Because whatever dumb ass boyfriend or athlete you met who said you weren't
pretty was the biggest fucking moron you ever met, and you shouldn't
give whatever that prick said another thought ever again. Tell her I'm right,
Sarah," he said with a soft laugh, shaking his head.
"Yep yep yep," Sarah said with a giggle.
"Stop being fucking stupid because you're not just pretty, you're fucking hot,
and every girl in this house who likes girls thinks so. Shit, I heard Katie
telling Jenny that if she wanted to give her a hall pass for her birthday,
she'd want to use it on
you over all the other girls in the house."
Piper giggled, shaking her head, her dark hair covering her
eyes for a minute. "You're fucking lying, Sarah."
"Cross my fucking heart, swear to fucking God, may she
strike me the fuck down if I'm lying. Katie thinks you're the hottest bitch in
the house, so you need to shut the fuck up about saying you aren't fucking
pretty because that's the stupidest fucking thing anyone's said today, and
people talk, like, the worst amount of shit in this house when they think
people aren't listening," Sarah said, rolling her eyes, as if she found
the whole thing hilariously sad.
"Well, that's something I wouldn't have believed if you
hadn't told me," Piper replied with a smile. "And I was talking about
us dancing around each other, Andy, and I want to apologize for that. I know
we've had a handful of encounters, but I've been, guarded, and I'm sorry for
how guarded I've been emotionally. I think maybe I was a little hurt that you
didn't want to bring Brooke into this house, even though I know you said you
thought she'd be a better match with Xander. I thought maybe that was a polite
way of you trying to duck out of meeting her,” She looked down at her feet.
"I feel a bit guilty about that right now, having spent a bunch of the
evening talking with her. I have known that girl almost half a decade, and not
once during any of that time have I ever seen her that goddamn happy. I
think she fell in love at first sight with Xander, and they spent most of the
day before they came over just talking, and she could not shut up about
him the entire time I was hanging out with her." Piper giggled a little,
shaking her head. "How the fuck did you know, Andy Rook, that they would
be so fucking
perfect for each other?"
He shrugged a little. "I'm a good judge of character, I
guess. I knew they'd mesh well, but you never can tell how well until they
actually get together. I certainly knew she wouldn't be happy with me, but I
also knew that her being close to you would make both you and her happy.
So I took a gamble and set up an introduction. Life's about knowing how to
gamble when the odds are even slightly in your favor."
She moved up to slide into his lap. "The last few
weeks, I kept waiting for the penny to drop, Andy. I know you did the right
thing in saving me from Covington, but I kept waiting to find what deep dark
secret you had squirreled away. Nobody's perfect, and I figured if I could get
out ahead of whatever was coming down the pipeline at me, I'd be able to
prepare for the disappointment. I talked to every girl in the house. I talked
to Phil Marcos. I kept digging and digging, trying to see what you didn't want
me to find. And, there isn't anything, is there? You really are just a
good, nice man without anything to hide."
"Oh, I'm sure there are things in there I wouldn't want
getting out, if you dig around far enough, but I've done as much as I can to
live my life with as few regrets as possible. If you want to know about those
things, Piper, all you ever had to do is ask me," he sighed. "You're
family and I'm always an open book for family."
"Then tell me. Tell me the one thing you're most
"Well, shit Piper, you already met her. Her name is
Erin Donegal. I was lonely, I was frustrated and I thought nobody was ever
going to love me, so I settled and I accepted somebody who treated me like shit.
I knew I should get out almost immediately after she and I started dating, but
it took me a long time, far longer than it should've, to actually get free from
her. I'm ashamed that I stayed with her for as long as I did, I'm ashamed of
how I let her treat me and how I let her treat my friends. But I decided never
to make that mistake again."
Piper leaned in and kissed him tenderly. "And you think
that's a flaw in
you and not in her. You're an idiot, Andy."
He shrugged a little bit. "What about you, Piper?
What're you most ashamed of?"
"Doubting you," she said, smoothing her hand
against the back of his head. "How about it, Sarah? You want to give him a
"I thought you weren't into girls, Piper," Sarah
"Oh I'm not, but that doesn't mean we can't do him
together," Piper said with a wry smile. "Every girl is like a tiny
bit bi, so I'm not gonna fuck you, Sarah, but I kinda like the idea of fucking
Andy
with you, Unless you're scared,”
Sarah narrowed her eyes, a sly grin on her face, as Piper
lifted Andy's shirt up and over his head, tossing it aside. "Are you
"Oh no no no no n yes," Piper replied.
"This shit is on, Andy," Sarah said with a
giggle. She grabbed Piper's head and pulled her down to kiss her fiercely right
in front of Andy's eyes, the athlete giving a slight yelp up surprise before
moaning into it, as their tongues tangled up, and Piper's hands were feverishly
struggling to get Andy's jeans undone.
Sarah hopped off the couch, slipping away from the two of
them, stripping her shirt, sweatpants and panties off, clearly not having
bothered with a bra today, as Piper also slid from his lap, grabbing onto his
jeans and boxers by the waist, yanking them down with such force he thought she
was going to pull him off the couch, until Sarah lifted one of her feet to push
against his chest, holding him in place against the back of the couch.
"Nuh uh, you stay right there, Mister," she said with a grin.
"You're not allowed to move from that spot."
Andy laughed a little bit. "Yes ma'am."
Piper tossed his clothes into a pile on the floor with
complete disregard before crawling back up onto Andy's lap, as Sarah moved onto
her knees alongside of him, her fingertips reaching up to brush Piper's dark
To be continued in part 22, by CorruptingPower for Literotica.
