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Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 8

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Quaranteam-Northwest: Part 8
Summer Plans

Based

on a post by Break The Bar. Listen to the
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 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

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