An Apocalypse Rising Ch. 08

"They look happy at least," Dalen whispered.

"Keep that kind of happiness," Anna said harshly, slightly annoyed at the growing heat prickling at her skin as they descended as much as Dalen's words. "It's fake. No happiness from seeing a friend you've missed or finding a new favorite book or song. They're just happy because they're told to be. They get their brains wiped and just...happy."

"It's a powerful temptation," Maylin told them. "Every one of them found that better than your version, Anna. Resist with all you are or not at all, but they all surrendered to her. They'd all now rather be dead than not have it. They're simply our opposite now."

Anna hissed them to silence at the sound and feel of many beasts at the intersection ahead of them. She spun her index finger in a circle to have Maylin shake her head at the notion of trying to go around. 'Too long,' she mouthed.

So they waited, creeping up as far as they dared, not willing to chance that the beasts were as willing to ignore them as the people. Anna looked them in wonder. Some of them were clearly men once. They had the same proportion and gait even if they were covered in fur or scales, or whatever seemed to tickle the witch's fancy. Others were thick, muscled beasts that Anna guessed would barely be able to fit through the more narrow passages with Dalen taking point.

Time ticked and Anna was keenly aware that every moment of it was being borrowed from everyone else. The creatures filed through, perhaps to another exit to join the rest of their brethren. Anna contemplated going around after all when the procession finally ended with a pair of once-men moving out of sight. They waited a while longer before moving forward to a passage on the far right.

Whether it was a straggler from the group or something laying inwait for them they would never know, but Anna gasped when, two steps into the intersection when the attack came. Dalen hadn't even had a chance to lift her sword. She attempted to evade the strike before she screamed in pain as a set of gleaming gray claws raked her back. Her sword clanged against the rock as it flew from her hand. She hissed and groaned through the pain, growling in an effort to maintain consciousness and turn with her dagger in hand.

The thing, a mix in size and muscle between a once-man and a beast, hands like gnarled talons with fine hair. The red eyes seemed capable of little more than rage and hatred, it's mouth not unlike the snout of a wolf with incisors that curved inward to hook onto flesh before tearing it.

"Get to Dalen," Anna called out, full of her own rage. "Protect Dalen." An arm swung outward at Anna and she rolled out from beneath, reaching her right arm as she did so, letting the blade of her dagger slide under the hide of his leg and to the flesh. She came up from the roll, body low, both daggers in hand, ready to move again.

The thing didn't even seem to notice the cut even though it bled well. It smiled at her in its own way and put its weight on its hind legs as though to lunge. Anna twitched, watching his muscles to guess his direction at the moment he left the ground.

His head shook violently from side to side before focusing on her again. His legs moved, but, instead of lunging, forward at the cause of his annoyance, He rose partially upright and looked around again before collapsing in front of her, his snout almost at her feet.

That close to its face, she could see how human it had once been as well, though its eyes were still a study in animal rage. She could see that it wanted her dead as she stood and looked down upon it, but it couldn't make itself move.

She allowed herself a moment of celebration. "Fuck you. And die happy."

Anna went quickly to Dalen's side relieved to hear speech, labored though it was. "We can't be in the open, especially not if someone finds him. We have to get somewhere out of the way."

"I can walk," Dalen said with more confidence than was realistic. Down the path and several turns later they found a small storage area and placed Dalen on her belly on top of the crates soliciting a fresh sound of pain from her.

Anna got her first good look and it wasn't pretty. Her leather had offered almost no protection and her body even less as the claws dug their trails diagonally left to right. The bleeding had clearly slowed to her eye and she bent down to hold her hand. "I have always told you you are too slow."

"I'm fine. You are simply insanely fast."

Anna dreaded looking at Maylin whose hands were already busy working their literal magic. "Is she going to be all right?"

"If we had time. I suspect he was as startled as she was. Had that been a planned strike..."

"What do you mean, 'if we had time?'

"Just what I said, Anna." Maylin's voice was tinged with sadness. "If we had time. We don't have any to spare. With every moment they are buying time for us with their bodies and perhaps even their souls. I could fix this and get her able to fight, but doing so endangers us all."

"How long?"

"Twenty minutes, perhaps a bit more. Perhaps less."

"Then we wait."

Maylin didn't even look up. "You would leave your other friends to her mercy? Your General? I will not leave my son to that fate. I simply will not."

Dalen spoke this time. "And what about everyone in Adar? What about everyone in Erette and everywhere else? You must go."

Anna anguished over the truth. They were both right, but she had lost friends in this already. By the Goddess, she helped dispatch them, but they were gone to her already. They were taken from her, yes, but even that was very different than leaving one on the field. "I..."

"Perhaps..."

Anna seized on the single word in desperation, her eyes drilling into Maylin. "Perhaps what?"

"Perhaps there is a way for me to be in two places at once. It still...risks everything, but it still leaves us a good chance. I believe your fellows would take the risk. And Deres would be willing as well as he is occasionally deliberately contrarian to common sense."

"How?"

She finally looked up though she didn't stop working. "Give me your mind."

***

Kes, Delles and Abren opted for stealth over volume. They reasoned that, with the general and Deres making their own loud distractions elsewhere, they should focus on smaller scale diversions until they saw evidence of a response to Maylin or the general. A sudden increase in threat then might cause confusion as they determine a proper response.

And so far it had gone well. They had stayed away from the main passages and took targets of opportunity whether it be beasts or machinery, which seemed as susceptible to steel as anything else. The people still seemed to ignore them and they let them remain in their blissful stupor. They would strike and move again and again; gone before anyone focused on them. They didn't know how much they were helping the others or hurting Drexa, but it at least felt productive.

They were moving, still in earshot of the latest disturbance they'd created as Delles watched as two women, one shorter than the other by a head and both with large weeping breasts and very distended bellies simply went from holding one another's hand as they walked to the taller pressing the shorter into the stone, their bellies grinding as they kissed, tongues teasing each other in plain sight as the taller kissed her way down to her breast.

The dulled eyes of the shorter focused on hers and she grinned only half seeing her. When the taller's lips began to suckle the left breast in earnest the other shrieked in orgasm, body quaking. Her eyes never left Delles and that made her cold all over. Goddess, it's like she's...cumming for me..

"Delles," Kes snapped, hoarsely. "Let's go.

She forced her eyes from the sight of the taller woman's fingers headed southward.

They reached a three way intersection with the sounds of sex still behind them as a male approached from the left.

"Which way to you want to go?"

The man's index finger brushed Kes' hand with a feather touch as he continued on his path. Kes herself didn't even seem to notice as she debated the question. "Let's follow him and see where he goes. He might lead us to a good target."

Abren was uncertain "And if he leads us nowhere?"

"Or to her?"

She looked at them. "So we follow for a few minutes. If he leads us to nothing or it starts to feel like he's going somewhere we don't want to be, we go back to what we were doing."

Not coming up with a decent argument to counter it they followed him down a winding path as others came and went with the same emptiness. They stayed well behind in order to react if needed, but they followed all the same as the path opened into a large open cavern, roughly half the size of the massive ones that served as storage for the eggs. The room was nearly full with paths barely wide enough to step through and the sounds filled the rest of the space.

Kes looked about. "Fuck." It was an accurate descriptor of the scene as much as it was an exclamation of shock.

All around the room were dozens of bodies tangled all over, their own twisted beasts; a wicked fusion of arms, legs, fingers and tongues. One woman bounced madly on a cock while she had one in each hand stroking furiously while she literally slobbered wantonly on another, lines of drool dripping from her chin to the chest of the man beneath her.

Another pile had half a dozen women linked together in a circle, attached by fingers and lips, pausing their explorations for nothing. Even orgasm just caused a blonde link in the chain to shudder and force her tongue deeper into the wet pink of the dark-skinned woman she had all but melded herself to.

Still another had a woman squirming happily, enjoying the struggle enjoying the restraint of being held by her arms by two men and ankles of to women as the man pumping wildly on top of her suddenly froze and howled in satisfaction. Abren saw his balls tighten to his body as he placed both hands on her distended belly and poured himself into her.

He pulled away, his seed running from her as one of the men took her place while her eyes tracked him. "Fuck me." She pulled her limbs to no avail which only made her moan, enjoying the physical reminder of how owned she really was. "Use me. Fill me up."

All around them there were acts that they had only seen in deliberately salacious sex manuals and some even those didn't cover. Any type of coupling one could conceive was happening before their eyes in a strangely macabre spectacle of lust. They watched the man they followed in be pulled to the ground by two other men before they began to back away.

"Let's double back."

As they turned there stood a woman at the door they came through, so inhumanly tall that she had to dip her head to pass through the entry. As long as her body and limbs were there was still a sense of elegance and proportion to her body. Her fingers long and delicate, tapered near the tip. Her skin entirely a glossy black reflected the light as did the slightly darker pools that were her wide, round eyes. She was also nude and her delicate lips carried with them a pleasant smile. Abren was disgusted at the sight, not because the nude form was so disgusting, rather that the witch seemed to revel in making these abominations for their own sake.

"Hello and welcome. I am Jessa."

Kes eyed her. "Very polite for a twisted up thing, "I'll give you that."

She paid no mind to the insult, inclining her head instead. "Thank you."

Abren's eyes narrowed. "I hope we haven't caused you too much trouble," sarcasm dripped from every word.

"You and your friends have been an annoyance, but a small and not unexpected one. You have done nothing that cannot be undone over time."

Kes looked up at her. "Well, if what we're doing doesn't matter, we'll just get on with it" She looked to the two with her. We'll leave you to your orgies and be on our way."

She stepped back carefully several steps, not taking her eyes from the woman before turning and heading to the opposite entryway.

Jessa raised her hand as the three walked away. You should stay and rest a while. You have had a long journey. Wasn't it tiring?

They continued to walk.

"So much loss and pain. So far from home."

"Miles and hardship...so tiring. So exhausting. Each step is its own hardship now. You have come so far and yet accomplished so little. Is it not tiring?"

Abren found herself taking a deep, breath that seemed to sweep fatigue into her body and weight her limbs. She turned to face Jessa but that left her panting which just led her to breathing in more fatigue. "Stop this."

Jessa's voice was so sweetly sympathetic. "It is tiring for all of you. "You've accomplished nothing and it was all so tiring. Just stand and catch your breath. I will not harm you. No one here will harm you. You are only our enemy because you wish to be. She only wishes to for you to join her and belong and be happy and obedient without care."

The weight on their legs seemed to add to itself with every lung full of air until the last movements of the three were but shuffles across the ground, until that one more step to the other side of the room was just too hard to take before becoming tiring to even contemplate.

'That's right," the creature said as she closed on the three, turning them to face one another as one might pose a mannequin. "Do you see one another? Do you see how tired you are? You could stay for a time and play. Listen to all the sounds around you. They have finished their current round of tasks and now is their time to play and enjoy the peace She provides them."

"Feel the muscles in your body ache. They yearn to relax, do they not? Look at one another. Be the mirror for one another. Do you not see your own yearnings in their bodies...in their eyes."

She moved carefully behind Kes so as not to break the lines of sight between the three, fingers moving Kes, if you look closely into their eyes; if you could be right before the mirrors to their souls, what would you see?"

Another breath. "My reflection."

"What does your reflection tell you?"

"I...want to relax. I want to relax so much."

"Good. Relax Kes. As you relax your friends want to relax too because you reflect them."

"If I want to relax it's because they want to relax."

Abren's fingers twitched as though do something, but with the next inhalation they went still.

"I want to relax," Kes said. "I want to relax."

She droned it...slamming it into their minds with each utterance, battering it into their resistance. Delles was the first to repeat it with her. Abren struggled, each word fighting its way from her lips. "I...want to...relax" Her muscles sagged as though he had carried a wagon uphill. Each time became easier to repeat and more true. Abren looked at them, seeing the dulling of the fire in their eyes knowing it reflected hers. With a last moment of true lucidity Abren saw Kess slink over to Delles, seemingly unaffected by the spell as Jessa found her, turning her to face Delles who was continuing to drone. Kestral began spilling filth into her ear. "I watched you, Delles. I watched you watch her cum. "You have never cum like that in your life. They cum like that with the merest touch. Sometimes they cum like that just thinking about what slaves they are. Listen..." She turned to the tangles of bodies. "All of you cocks and cunts here are just Her slave meat."

None too few of the voices of the men and women fought one another to be heard loudest as they surrendered their bodies to the truth.

Delles swallowed as a droplet of dew tickled her thigh, soon joined by others.

She licked that delicate ear, making Delles break her mantra with a squeak before she found it again."

"I want to be naked."

Delles' eyes were so wide and so unblinking they stung from the air.

"I want to be naked."

Delles stared into Abren's eyes. "I want to be naked."

"I want to be naked."

Abren joined her.

"I need to be naked," Kes whispered. "I need to be naked."

She reached to the small of her back to one of the cinches and her hands moved with mechanical precision just as her reflection did as Kes and Jessa kindly helped them from their leathers and linens leaving them where they fell.

Delles' body was ripe, her mind open. While the crow's feet and creases on Abren's face gave a hint to her years in service her body defied it. Freckled and toned it was no wonder she could still rush into battle with those half her age. Her dark nipples stood proud and aching from breasts that were pleasant handfuls that defied age.

She compared it to her own lean body with its more pale skin, and plump heart-shaped backside and found much to admire. Her tongue wanted. Her fingers wanted. Her pussy wanted. Her mind begged for it all. It tried to hang on to a thought of home or resistance, but her mantra dismissed it.

She watched those long, black fingers graze those nipples with the lightest touch as Jessa whispered to her as they danced along her body. She saw Abren's chest begin to heave and when she heard Abren's mantra change only the lack of permission to collapse to her knees kept her from doing so.

"I want to...belong. I want to play. I want to obey."

Delles repeated it. Each word felt lush and filthy on her tongue and she savored each like a lover. "You want the path to Her, don't you, Delles?"

"Yessssss...I want the path to Her. Show it to me. I want it. I want her." Jessa flicked a finger even as she continued to soften Abren. When Kes turned Delles her world became the man standing before her: a swarthy man with a long, thick, dripping cock.

Delles groaned, realizing that the feature of him that enticed her most was his dull eyes that suggested so little going on behind them anymore. I'll be like that soon. The thought made her cunt clench as the gentlest pressure of his calloused hands on her shoulders put her on her knees with his cock bobbing an inch from her lips.

I'll be empty like him. So empty. And other people will fill me. Goddess. She took it in her mouth as far as she could and forced it farther down, choking herself on it before pulling back and forcing it again, each time, her pussy clenching as though his cock was pushing inside it as well.

In short order she was rhythmically driving her mouth onto it, driving herself to orgasm, pushing on it faster and faster. And, when the rush finally took her she looked up into his empty eyes, seeing that, with each moment of bliss her eyes were a mirror of his.

And that drove Delles to even greater heights of ecstasy and depths of vacuity. He pulled himself from her, leading her to other men and she followed on all fours like an eager puppy trying to catch it with the tip of her tongue.

Jessa loved this one. Abren was pressed against her back, rocking gently against the long middle fingered nestled firmly between her folds. She still had a spark in her, this one. "Did it not feel so good to relax and obey? There is no point to fighting."

Kestral came to her, planting desperately feathery kisses on her neck to punctuate each statement. "She's right, Abren. There's no point." Kress was strong. They were all strong. I was strong. It didn't matter, Pel took me so fast. Let it go."

Her eyes closed tightly even as he hips pumped faster. "N...No. I..d...don't..."

Jessa moved her finger to compliment Abren's hips and she screamed, "Goddesssssssssss!" The rocking continued even as the sensations ebbed. "Wasn't that good?"

"Yesssss" Abren had no choice but to tell the truth. Giving in to the heat between her legs and in her mind was intense and effortless. Why was she fighting? There had to be a reason, but seeing it was increasingly like trying to find your way home in a thick fog in the middle of the night.