TAGGED: THE APOCALYPSE (13 page)

Zeb came and stood next to his son, Tiny, who was manning the other spotlight. “Seems to be working,” Zeb said, absently fingering his weapon, while manipulating a toothpick with his tongue.

“Whenever you see a group of them, hit them with the spot.
There. Right there,” Jackie pointed to another group that had formed in the shadows. Sven and Tiny both eagerly hit the group with their spots. The beasts banged into each other and the wall and the door, so great was their haste to escape the bright light.

“W
hoop!!” Zeb let out a whoop. Tiny laughed. Jackie slapped Sven on the back.

“Ok
ay, Tiny, you take that side. Sven, you handle this side of the tower. Light up anything that gets close.”

At the locked outer gate
, a small group of late survivors drawn by the lights, rattled the chain link fence and called toward them, “Let us in!”

Sven and Tiny lit them up with the spots
, just as four to six beasts were fast approaching, with a writhing wall of darkness on their heels. The beasts veered away from the bright spots. Jackie waved his arms and yelled, “Hide! It’s not safe! Get in the cars!”

“Hide!” Sven screamed.

It was a man, woman and two young children. They jumped back as the beasts came toward them. “Help us!” they screamed. The man began firing into the near darkness dropping a few beasts and enraging others further. Sven could see dark figures running toward them from every direction, drawn by the noise; hundreds, maybe thousands, deterred momentarily only by the pinpoint lights of the spots on them.

“We have to do something!”
Mack jumped up with his rifle, ready to rush out the door. Two more men jumped up to join him.

“No
, son!” Zeb held his hand out to stop him.

“It’s suicide!” Jackie said.

The door on the bottom floor of the tower opened, and four men came out, guns bristling like SWAT, firing as they moved toward the family at the fence. Jackie ran to the steel door and flung it open to get to the floor below. Mack and the other two followed on his heels.“Shut that door!” He screamed to the ten men standing guard at it with their rifles, backing up the four who just exited.

Sven watched in horror as the
two daughters and then the woman were snatched from the beams of light. He could hear their screams. The man was firing wildly into the darkness all around him, calling out their names. Everywhere Sven moved his light, the thick masses of beasts scattered, but he didn’t see the woman or the girls. He could only hear their screams. When Sven moved his light back to where the man had been an instant before, he was gone. In his place were hundreds of beasts, writhing like maggots from this distance.

The four men
, who had an instant before so bravely ventured out, began retreating, firing as they went. One by one, the beasts snatched them out of the lights. Only one man remained to run back to the steel tower door the well lit distance. He pounded on the door, looking nervously to his left and firing. He was swept away from the light by at least thirty beasts before he could look in the other direction. His terrified screams echoed in the darkness.

“I think Brit is gay!” Candy was holding Eve and rocking her as she cried. Eve really needed someone she could trust.

Candy laughed almost unkindly, “Of course! You didn’t know that? I could tell just by looking at him. He’s in such great shape. His hair and body are perfect
, and haven’t you noticed the way he stares at Sven? I think he has a thing for him.”

“Why didn’t you warn me?” Eve lifted her head from Candy’s breast to stare her in the eye.

Candy just laughed, pulled Eve’s head back to her breast and kissed her forehead tenderly. “You’re just young, baby. You’ll learn. You’ll learn.”

“I thought he was interested in me. He seemed so nice.” Eve was still sorting out the morning
’s events clouding her mind. “I practically threw myself at him. I laughed at all his jokes...”

“But he
is
interested in you, honey. You’re close to Sven.”

“Not as close as Alexis…”

“Ohhhh, so that’s what this is about…a little revenge fucking. Maybe make Sven a little jealous so he will return to you.”

Eve was a little taken aback at the dirty language,
“No…I don’t know. What does Sven see in her anyway?”

“She’s not you, honey.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sven and I have been friends
for a long time - long before any of this happened. He’s feeling a little crowded right now, but he likes you. He’ll come back. He doesn’t have any feelings for Alexis.”

“Really?” Eve searched Candy’s eyes.

Candy covered the two inches between them and gave Eve a kiss on the lips. Eve pulled away. The kiss was gentle but firm and Candy tasted sweeter than a man. Eve felt that she should end this, run away, but the moment was so intimate, so tender, and Eve just really needed a friend right now. Candy kissed her again on the lips, this time longer. She swept her hair out of her face with her hand and then let it rest on her breast as she kissed her again, more deeply, adding a little tongue. Candy played gently with her nipple as she kissed her again and again. Eve could feel her body responding, even as her mind was confused. Candy was so gentle and she seemed to respond to Eve, even before Eve became aware of her own feelings. Eve marveled at how different this felt from her limited experience with men.

Then
, Candy was unbuttoning her shirt and removing her bra. Every time Eve thought to protest or try to move away, Candy gave her a new delight, a new bodily pleasure. The madam was in her element and demonstrating her prowess. Eve felt that she was being sucked into a great abyss of pleasure, tied with silken ropes from which there was no escape. Any thought of escape was overwhelmed instantly with new and different surges of previously unimagined pleasures.

Eventually,
Eve gave herself over to the pleasures that Candy was offering. She felt safe in that moment. Candy brought her to new and exciting heights that she had never before dreamed of. Eve did not know these powerful feelings she experienced in her body were even possible. Eve was like a violin in the hands of a master. It seemed to go on for hours. Candy was teaching her, coaching her, telling her what to do and how. Correcting, encouraging almost like a class. In Candy’s sure hands, Eve learned not only the pleasures of responding to a lover, but the power of initiating and providing that pleasure. Eventually, Candy slowed and then finally stopped. She pulled her panties on and attached her bra, now looking down impatiently at Eve, who suddenly felt very naked, lying on Candy’s bed. Eve pulled the sheet over to cover herself.

“I think you are ready no
w,” Candy said, very matter of fact.

Eve looked at her.

“Old enough to enjoy it.” Candy pulled her blouse on over her bra. “I was
six-teen
when I started stripping to pay the rent,” Candy emphasized her age. “You’re going to have to start pulling your weight around here.”

Sven was holding onto Eve’s tiny hand. They were slightly out of breath from their strenuous hike up the mountain. Sven put his pack down while Eve spread out the blanket she carried. He had a bottle of wine, some cheese with crackers and sandwiches. The sun on his face was warm and below them, the world was green again. She was touching her belly and looking at him. “Are you?” he asked, looking into her eyes for the answer.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

It was a miracle. His heart felt like it would burst inside him. He was the luckiest man alive. “I love you so much,” he said, and then they kissed, and then again. Her kisses were wet and her body was warm beside him on the blanket. Her tongue darted into his mouth.

“What?” she said.

“I..” Sven opened his eyes and blinked as the dream faded and his mind refocused. Alexis lay on the bed with him. She was nude under the comforter. He was on the mattress in the back of the tower and he could feel the sharp chill of the morning just before the grow lights clicked on. Two weeks ago Jackie, Jeb and the boys had helped him knock down two walls to combine three of the largest rooms in the rear part of the upper tower to set up his grow operation. They lay on a mattress in the back, behind a jungle of pot plants. Dixon lay with his head on his paws four feet away, his eyes shifting uncomfortably between them. Sven estimated only one more week before his first post apocalypse harvest.

“You were talking in your sleep again last night,” Alexis smiled at him
, making fun.

“Oh.” Alexis was Candy’s top girl.
After the thing with Eve, Jackie saw them talking and he brought her to him. She had been coming to visit a few times a week. They would smoke some and then have sex. He gave her a bag of dope in trade. She was selling it, but it was hers to do with as she pleased. She was twenty two and a looker. Blond, slim and long legged - nothing at all like diminutive, dark-haired Eve. Before the infection, she had been a corporate secretary, and had just been admitted to law school. Like almost all of Candy’s girls, she had no idea where was her family, and was lucky to make it to the power plant with little more than the clothes on her back.

             
“You were saying something about…”

Sven planted a kiss on her to shut her up. He didn’t want to hear it. He continued kissing her
until she responded and they went through the motions of sexual passion. Afterward, she wrapped the sheet around herself for the walk to the shower. “Did you say…you loved me?” She turned, smiling a little uncertainly. He was her ticket out from under Candy. She could move upstairs. She could help Sven with the garden and sales. She would have more and better
everything
. Her place and her world would be secure but best of all, no more bartering for sex.

Sven just looked at her for a moment. He didn’t know how to answer. Finally he said, “You’re great, Alexis. You’re awesome.” Her smile
instantly faded and she turned on her heel toward the bath.

Sven put some fresh weed into his water bong and lit up. Dixon smiled, wag
ging his stub of a tail and went forehead to forehead, wet nose and stinky dog breath to dry nose with Sven, for his usual good morning greeting, and then laid back down a few feet away to watch.

Except for Eve, things
were going really well. The bright lights kept the infected at bay. Any that wandered close, they shot. The infected were not completely brainless. They learned quickly that this area was well defended and the hunting was better just about anywhere else. The swarm moved past them. Only infected stragglers remained to hide in the buildings and in the abandoned cars nearby. Two large trenches eight feet deep had been dug out in front of the entrance and sea water pumped in. Two additional twelve foot fences had been erected in front of each of the trenches. This created a large, open kill zone for the infected trying to get to the plant. Only the road remained, and that was blocked with more than a hundred mostly abandoned vehicles of all types. Eve was safe and staying with Candy in the bottom of the tower. Jackie, Jeb and the boys, Big Dennis and himself had set up in the top of the tower.

Candy had about
twelve girls now in the base of the tower, thirteen counting Eve. Yesterday, Candy had come to Sven and approached him about putting Eve to work with the other girls. She told him that the other girls were jealous that Eve was getting a free ride, getting all the benefits and doing none of the work herself. “…And she’s sleeping with Brit.” Sven could feel Candy watching him like a hawk, “I believe her exact words were that she had to ‘practically throw herself at him.’”

Sven nodded
noncommittally.” Sven had seen Eve and Brit together talking almost every day, recently.

The girls were
under Candy, and the lions share of the scavenged goods ended up locked in the tower in trade for sex. It was the age old trine of sex, drugs and alcohol. There was a constant stream of refugees coming through the gates, from morning until they closed them around 4:00 p.m.. There was a lot of debris in the air, and sometimes it was dark all day. But if the sun did break through, it was between 10 and 4:30 p.m.. That was the safest time, and the infected generally stayed hidden and out of the daylight. The busiest time for the girls was first thing in the morning, around 10 am. The busiest time for liquor and smoke was after noon until just before dusk.

The tower
, and those inside of it, had the best of everything the new world had to offer. The best lights, the best weapons, the most and best food and the girls, the liquor and smoke brought more in barter daily.

Sven went straight to Jackie and talked to him about Candy wanting to put Eve to work
, before dropping the bomb. “She said Eve is sleeping with Brit.” Sven felt confused, betrayed, and maybe a little disgusted even though he was sleeping with Alexis.

“
Not sure I’m seeing it, bro,” Jackie replied. There was a long moment of comfortable silence between the two men as Jackie gathered his thoughts. “Eve would be a huge money maker for Candy, for all of us. That’s where Candy’s head is at. You feel me?”

Sven nodded thoughtfully.

Sven had spent the rest of the day before avoiding Candy, who went out of her way to be standing wherever Sven walked. She watched him, waiting for his decision with pursed lips. Finally at dusk, Candy approached him. “Today alone I have two offers on the table, and I haven’t even had time to put the word out properly. Two chickens from one; a whole pig from another. She’s a gold mine - young and pretty and clean. Guns, store bought liquor, cigarettes…” Candy glared at him angrily for interfering in her business. He knew she would go to Jackie, but the decision was Sven’s. “Really?”

Big Dennis made daily rounds
to ensure the lights stayed
on
at the plant and it didn’t go into meltdown. He was accompanied by heavily armed Mack and Tiny, Jeb’s boys, who’s job it was to learn the procedures as backup. Sometimes Jackie would go too. Now that Brit was up and around, Brit had also been accompanying Dennis on his rounds. For the electricity provided by the plant, the crew had discussed during their daily meetings a tax on all the residents of the power plant. After discussion, it had been decided that now was not the right time and that they could utilize this currently untapped resource whenever the time seemed right. Brit was staying in the guardhouse with the former guards. Jeb had been welcomed into the crew due to his moon shining ability and the fact that his sons Mack and Tiny provided most of the security for the girls.

Over the past few weeks, their numbers at the power plant had grown to a solid
five hundred. Everyone was welcomed inside the fence. But the newcomers, after being checked over by the Doc and nurses, went to the largest Admin building with the least resources and also the least secure of the three. The remaining guards and Brit had taken up residence in the guard gatehouse, which was actually three stories tall. Additionally, the gatehouse had a basement and still had one remaining spotlight and a catwalk for snipers. The guards, not unexpectedly, had quickly re-armed themselves. Jackie and Jeb had plundered the armory in the guardhouse immediately realizing the value of the weapons, ammo and the spot lights. Before anyone could object, the better part of those things were residing securely inside the top of the control tower. The other half of the remaining weapons and lights were acquired by the tower through the working girls in trade. Folks were real stressed out these days. Every day could be your last. Men were willing to trade for a little stress release and Candy was right there to provide it. For the most part, she had her pick of the finest looking women among the refugees, and so far all her recruits seemed satisfied with the trade offs. No one was compelled to stay, and a few quit in the beginning. They were quickly replaced by new girls among the refugees. After seeing the inferior conditions, food and security outside of the tower, several had tried to return, but Candy had turned them away. One of the most persistent girls stood outside the door all day pleading to be allowed to work again with tears streaming down her face, but Candy stood strong and finally resorted to throwing rocks at her to drive her away. She had been bitten by the infected later that same evening on her way to the Admin building. Not a single girl had quit since then.

“Chicken run
, today. You ready?” Jackie came loudly through the door.

“Yea
h.” Sven said, turning his back and hastily pulling some jeans on. An abandoned poultry farm about fifteen miles east had been discovered and reported by several refugees the day before. In exchange for the information and their help, the now trusted Portland Frank and his people would run the chicken operation for the benefit of all from a secured spot in the Admin building.

Jackie and Sven exchanged
the usual manly hugs. “Brit’s moving over to the tower with us today. He’s too valuable an asset to leave waving in the wind.” Sven nodded. “Me, you, Mack and Tiny we’ll go in heavy so there’s no arguing. Bring him here. He’ll bunk with Zeb and the boys. Keep him on a short leash for a while.”

Sven nodded, “Ok
ay.” Jackie would discuss things one on one with his crew, but he made the decisions. Those decisions were usually final.

“I want you with us. I know there’s some
tension between you and Brit – that thing with Eve. I’m thinking you should run point on this; show him who’s boss, okay?”