Founders Ch. 89

"Zach," said Aanya. They locked eyes over the bar. Hers were filled with lust. She punched a button on her phone, and his phone beeped. She'd sent him a text. It read, "Please tie me up and rape me repeatedly in both holes as soon as you're able. Pull my hair. Whip and choke me thoroughly for being an unworthy cheating slut to you. I deserve your angriest rape. I want to feel it hard."

"Sure," he said to her. They smiled conspiratorially at each other like old times.

Zach saw that Khushi's tits were out. He stroked her nipples playfully as he bent down to kiss her. "Tomorrow?" she moaned. He nodded.

As he left them, a short blonde pressed a small piece of paper into his hand as he passed. They shared a fleeting glance. She was absolutely ravishing, with a saucy look. She was Siri, one of the new doctors. She was from Sweden, he recalled.

As he left, the party broke up. His hand on the pressure door, he saw Colleen in close conversation with Dallas and Sierra. Colleen held onto the collar of Dallas's flight suit. Sierra was smoothing Colleen's hair, which had been mussed by the sex.

Outside in the chill dark of the dome, he illuminated the slip of paper with the face of his phone. It was a phone number. He punched it in. "Hi, Siri," he texted. "It's me, Zach."

"Quite a show!" she texted.

Zach smirked and texted, "It's even better from the vantage point Colleen had."

"I can imagine!"

They left it there.

On his way to Trigonometry, he ran into one of the new crew, a man. He barely made the man out in the night darkness of the dome. The man said, "My condolences regarding Berte. I'm Lou." He was a few years older than Zach, short and wiry, with a weather-beaten face.

It seemed polite to stop. "I'm Zach."

They shook hands, a firm handshake. Lou smiled with amusement as if to say "Of course you're Zach fucking Carson." Out loud, he said. "I'm a reporter for the New York Times. I write travel pieces these days, puff pieces. I'm embarrassed Becky has to read 'em all. They're not exactly hard-hitting reporting. At any rate, earlier in my career, I was a war correspondent. Only a war correspondent would risk coming to the fuck-all of radiation hell for a story."

"An apt description," said Zach. The radiation was exactly why Zach was here, after all.

"I've lost comrades in the field," said Lou. "The pain never gets better, but after a while, it stops surrounding you. You have to look straight back at it to feel it then. You'd better have a bottle handy if you do.

"Don't worry about ever forgetting them. You won't. I used to drive myself crazy worrying about that. Setting reminders on my phone and stupid shit. You'll always remember them when you should. Well, a pleasure meeting you." He walked away.

Zach walked thoughtfully the rest of the way to Trigonometry. Lou seemed like a good guy to know.

At home, it was quiet and empty downstairs. Berte was nowhere to be seen. But life somehow kept moving on, desperately reaching for something. The living room smelled faintly and distinctly of Anming's excited cunt.

(To be continued)