Covid Apocalypse

"Think that'll fool them?" Belinda asked. Ron nodded his head.

"Yeah," he said. "What's the worst that can happen?"

"Good point," she said. "I've got to get this thing off me."

"Let's go," he said. They raced each other up the stairs, unlocked the devices and removed them from their bodies. They carefully placed them on the dresser, putting their phones two feet away.

"God, it feels so good getting that damn thing off," he said.

"Same here," she said. "Think you can get it up for me tonight?"

"I think I can manage that," he said.

"Good," she said with a smile. "Then do me right now, my husband."

"Your wish is my command," he said.

"batlh Daqawlu'taH," she said, citing the Klingon phrase that translates to, "You will be remembered with honor!"

...

The next morning, they laid in bed eating breakfast while watching the news. Steve was being interviewed as part of a panel discussion on the mandates and the possibility of a vaccine.

"So, Dr. Foltz," the attractive blonde anchor said. "What do you think will happen once a vaccine has been created? Will we be able to end the mandates?"

"Well, I think it's a bit premature to speculate on that right now," he said. "I think to be safe we should consider keeping the mandates in place until we know for certain that the virus has been beaten."

"And what about the president's moratorium on consensual sex?" the anchor asked.

"For now, we should probably consider that to be the new normal, at least until the virus has been eradicated," Steve said.

"God, I wished he'd just shut the hell up for once," Ron grumbled.

"I take it you're not too impressed with him," Belinda said as she nibbled on her toast.

"Kinda hard to be impressed with someone who barely got his degree," Ron said. By then the interview was over and the anchor moved on to another story.

"Authorities responded last night to a number of incidents as protesters calling themselves the 'Free The Pussy' movement took to the streets across America," the anchor said. Video showed a number of protesters in the street attempting to cut through their chastity devices using hand-held Dremel saws. Of course, they all had keys and the devices could easily have been removed, but simply unlocking them was apparently not quite dramatic enough.

One woman with her legs spread wide managed to cut hers off, holding it aloft as though she had just slain a dragon. The video blurred out her groin, but it was clear she was naked from the waist down. She threw the chastity device to the ground and began furiously rubbing herself.

"Someone come here and FUCK ME!!!" she screamed as she masturbated for the crowd. A man who managed to cut his cock cage off came up to her and began fucking her as the crowd went nuts. Even with the blur in the video, it was obvious what was going on. Ron and Belinda shook their heads.

"Is this what we're turning into," Belinda asked. "God, they're like animals."

"That's what the virus does," Ron told her. "All reason goes out the window. All they can think about is the next orgasm." She looked at him, scared.

"Please, Ron, you have to find a cure for this," she said.

"We're working as hard as we can," he said, reassuring her. Having finished her breakfast, she got up and went into the shower.

"By the way, would you mind giving me a lift into work?" she asked. "My check engine light came on last night."

"No problem," he said. "I'll call the dealership and have them take a look."

"Thanks," she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "You really are the best husband."

"Well, that's only because you're the best wife," he said with a smile. They dressed and left in Ron's car. When they were a couple blocks from her office, the noticed traffic had come to a near halt. Ron looked ahead, wondering what had slowed them down. Was it an accident? He couldn't tell. Belinda called her office and told them they were stuck in traffic and she was running late.

He noticed as traffic slowly inched forward that they were being forced into a single lane. Then he saw the two M1A1 Abrams tanks -- one on each of the two outer lanes, their big guns pointing at the traffic in the center lane. What the hell is this, he asked himself. Two heavily armed soldiers wearing gas masks and full protective clothing came up to their car. One of them tapped on his window. He rolled his window down and found himself staring down the barrel of a military rifle.

"What can I do for you, corporal?" he asked.

"Chastity check point, sir," the masked corporal said. "Unzip your trousers, please."

"What?" Ron asked, shocked.

"Unzip your trousers, sir," the corporal said. "I won't ask again." Ron noticed the rifle and put the car in "park," then unzipped his trousers so the corporal could see his cock cage. He looked up at the corporal, angry and disgusted.

"Satisfied?" he asked.

"Just doing my job, sir," he said. The soldier at Belinda's side tapped the window with the barrel of his rifle. Belinda rolled her window down.

"What?" she asked.

"Ma'am, this is a chastity check point," the soldier said. "Could you please lift your skirt?"

"You want to look up my skirt?" she asked. "What, are you some kind of pervert? You get off on looking up women's skirts?"

"Please, ma'am, I just need to verify that you're wearing your chastity device," the nervous soldier said. Angry, Belinda lifted her skirt so the soldier could see she was wearing her belt, then put her skirt back down.

"Did you get a good look?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," he said. "I'm sorry, just following orders."

"We've heard that before, haven't we?" she asked. Ron saw a line of people being led into a tent by armed and masked soldiers.

"What's going on over there?" he asked the corporal. The corporal looked before answering.

"Just some domestic extremists who think their freedom is more important than the public's health, sir," he told Ron.

"So, what happens to them?" Ron asked.

"They'll get fitted with chastity devices," the corporal said. "And they'll get a stern lecture. Hopefully, they won't get caught again."

"What happens if they do?" Ron asked.

"They'll go to federal prison," the corporal said. "Maybe get shipped off to Gitmo. Who knows? Move along, sir." Ron rolled his window up and continued through the checkpoint, looking at the armed soldiers behind neatly-arranged sandbags.

"What the hell is this country turning into?" Belinda asked.

"I don't know," Ron said. "But I sure as hell don't like it. Not one bit." He dropped her off at her office and made it to work, after going through yet another check point. Angry, he called Steve.

"Hey, Ronnie-boy," Steve said. "How's it hanging?"

"What the hell is the deal with these chastity check points?" Ron yelled.

"Settle down, Ronnie," Steve said. "The president is very concerned about this so-called 'Free the Pussy' protest movement, so she ordered the check points. It's for everyone's benefit. We can't have people out thinking they can go around without their chastity devices."

"You know, this is really beginning to piss me the fuck off," Ron said. "You know how humiliating it was for my wife to lift her skirt so some asshole in uniform can check her out?"

"I know it's not pleasant, Ronnie-boy," Steve said. "But the sooner you can come up with a vaccine, the sooner we can end the mandate. How is that coming, by the way?"

"We're working around the clock," Ron said. "And don't call me 'Ronnie-boy' ever again, you hear me, you sick prick."

"Now, now," Steve said. "No need to get your dander up. Just get us that vaccine as fast as you can." Angry, Ron ended the call and checked in with Barbara.

"Any word?" he asked.

"Not yet," she said. "I was about an hour late thanks to those damn check points. You know how humiliating it was to have some jerk leer at me while I unzip my pants?"

"I know," Ron said. "Give me what you've got and I'll see what I can do to help. By the way, how are we doing with the test batch for the STD blocker neutralization?"

"Sanders has the test group and the control group set up," she said. "We're just waiting for the product so we can dispense it."

"Good," Ron said. "Keep me informed." Ron took the pile of papers she indicated earlier and headed to his office. He almost forget to call the dealership, so he took care of that first, then sat down to go back over the data.

Ron worked harder the next several days than he had worked in a long time. The test for the drugs designed to neutralize the STD blockers went well, so he presented the data to Steve, who passed it on to the president. She, in turn, initiated the production orders to get the drugs manufactured and delivered to the public. Ron learned the drug would be available for delivery in two weeks if all went well.

Meanwhile, the protests continued to grow, both in number and in intensity, as many felt the mandates were both unnecessary and unconstitutional. Others thought the development of the neutralizing drugs meant the pandemic was over, but it wasn't -- not by a long shot. The president ordered PSAs -- public service announcements -- telling the public that the pandemic was still a major problem while reminding everyone to obey the mandates.

Although neutralizing the STD blockers helped lower the fatality rate, Ron was still stunned when he saw the latest figures from the CDC -- over three million in the US alone had died, while the numbers were even greater in other parts of the world. By now, over 20 million had died globally, and millions more were still infected.

Ron continued working, hoping to find the magic "silver bullet" that would kill the virus. Several possible combinations appeared viable at first, but either exhibited unacceptable side effects or were found to be inadequate. Throughout all of this, Steve kept calling, demanding answers.

"Dammit, Steve, we're working as hard as we can. You know this isn't something that can be cooked up overnight," he said.

He had almost given up hope, but one day, he had a head-slapping "Eureka" moment. He went back over his data several times to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. Excited, he ran to see Barbara, hoping she could verify and duplicate his results. When he went into the area where she worked, though, he saw her staring at the large monitor at the front of the work area. There, he saw the president with Steve, addressing a room full of reporters.

"After consulting with the Joint Chiefs and our allies, I am here today to announce that I have given the order to launch a full nuclear strike to rid the planet of the virus that has already killed more than 20 million people worldwide," she said.

"All of the nuclear powers have been consulted and agree that in the absence of a viable vaccination, this is the only way to once and for all eliminate the virus. I estimate that as of now, we have approximately 30 to 60 minutes before the first bombs detonate," she added. "Good luck to you all. Goodbye."

"What the fuck was that?" Ron asked, shocked. He pulled out his phone and called Steve.

"Hey, Ron..."

"Don't hey me, you sorry sonofabitch," Ron yelled. "What the hell is going on?"

"You heard the president," he said. "You had your chance, and you failed."

"Steve, you know how this works," Ron said. "And for your information, I believe we finally have a workable solution. You have to get the president to stop this madness. It's not necessary."

"I'm sorry, Ron," Steve said. "She's already given the order. And you know how she hates to retract her orders. It's too late. It's been a pleasure working with you, Ron. Good luck."

"God damn you to Hell," Ron said. "God damn you all to fucking Hell."

"We'll have a lot of company, Ron," Steve said. Ron ended the call and looked at Barbara.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Those fuckers have decided to nuke us all out of existence," Ron said. "You need to go get your husband and get as far away from the city as you can."

"What's that?" she asked, pointing at the paper in his hand. He handed it to her and she looked over the formula written there. My God, she thought. Was it really this simple after all? She looked back at Ron in disbelief.

"Go," he said. "Get out of here. All of you. Get out. You don't have much time."

"What about you?" she asked.

"I'll call Belinda," he said. "There's a shelter in her building. We might be able to ride it out. Now go." Nervous, she nodded her head and left. Ron pulled out his phone and called his wife, but was unable to reach her. He left the office and headed for her building.

Barbara got to her car and headed out as well, hoping to catch her husband before he left. She was about halfway to his building when she saw a bright flash of light in front of her that blinded her.

...

Barbara sat up straight in her chair as the overhead light went on. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and looked around. For a moment, she wondered where she was, then it dawned on her as the last fragments of her dream escaped her memory. She was in her home office, working on something for Ron. She looked up to see her husband looking at her, concerned.

"Barb, are you okay?" he asked as he walked over to her.

"Y...Yeah, I guess I dozed off for a bit," she said.

"You've been working way too hard lately," he said. "I'm going to have to talk to your boss. He's working you way too hard. Have you forgot today's our anniversary? We're supposed to be going out to dinner tonight."

"Tonight?" she asked. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot."

"What's wrong?" he asked as he looked into her face.

"I guess I had a bad dream," she said. "I'll be okay. Just give me a minute to collect myself."

"Alright," he said. Just then, her cell phone buzzed. Barbara looked and saw it was Ron. She picked it up and looked at her husband.

"I have to take this," she said. He nodded his head as she answered. "Hello?" she asked.

"Barb, thank God I got you," Ron said. "Listen, I know it's your anniversary and all, but I need you to come into the office."

"Right now?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "Right now. It's very important. The virus has mutated."

"What?" she asked.

"The virus has mutated," Ron said. "I need you to come in right away."

...

The end... Or is it?

...