Humanity 2.0, Year 009, Day 014

"Just come to bed." She didn't even turn to face me.

"What!" I wasn't loud with it, I didn't want to both Melody, but I was getting frustrated with her.

She turned her head briefly, giving me a focused glare. "Ben... Come. To. Bed." She flipped open the blanket, patting the spot next to her. I shucked my clothes, folding them into my pack – that thing was heavy – and rolled into bed next to her. She tugged the blanket over us both. I felt her warmth pressed against me, and her hand slid over my chest as she hugged herself tightly to me – but it strangely felt distant, like she wasn't really wrapped up in our closeness. At all.

"Nina." I turned to her, sliding my own hand over her back – more to keep her from rolling over and away from me than to caress her. "Just fucking tell me already."

"I don't trust her." She bit off the words quickly.

"Do you think?" I sighed.

"Who just stops and watches two strangers fuck like that, then just waltzes up to introduce themselves?" Nina hastened to follow up before I could respond. "Her story is all over the place. She lugs around a machete that I can tell she knows how to use, but she doesn't really need it on this trail. She's looking in all the wrong places for a tourist or a hiker taking in the sights – she's constantly watching me and you, and I don't mean she's hot for us. And most of all – she doesn't move right."

"What does that even mean?" I was perplexed.

"I don't think you would see it. She moves like a cat. I wish I had that kind of grace and precision. I didn't hear her coming at all, Ben."

"You were a little preoccupied." I smiled as I remembered penetrating her so utterly earlier in the day. "I wouldn't have noticed a roaring lion right then, so I think you get a pass."

"Okay, given. Still... I would have heard anyone else – even another one of us." Nina's hand stroked my chest, and her tone softened slightly as she seemed to relax slightly. "You're getting better, Ben, but you're trusting her way too easily. Just because she's a good-looking woman doesn't mean she isn't one of them." By them, she meant the people hunting us. We still didn't have a name for them.

"I have a good feeling about her." I shrugged, putting both hands beneath the back of my head as I laid back completely, looking up at the ceiling of the tent. The moon was nearly full, casting just barely enough illumination for us to see within the tent.

Nina sighed. "I was worried you would say something like that." She suddenly slid up to me, sliding one leg over mine so that her hot center was pressing against my thigh. I looked sideways down at her eyes – which now had a whole another kind of light in them. "I see Bethi and Em didn't keep you on a short enough leash. I'm going to have to rein you in again."

"A lot's changed in two years." I sneaked one arm underneath her back, and with a quick motion, pulled her up atop me. Her breasts laid flat on my chest, and her face was inches from mine. "I don't need a leash anymore, Nina. I can take care of myself."

"I know you're much stronger now..." She straightened herself up, running some fingers down my broad chest. "... and I know you trained a lot. Nina told me you took down whole gangs of thugs with guns in Capetown, Belgrade, Kyoto... but, Ben..." She sighed. "You haven't learned the most important part. You're still thinking like the old you. You still trust people too easily, and you don't watch your own back, not really."

She traced lazy, meaningless patterns along my chest with her fingers, probably without even thinking about it. I was becoming all too aware of the hot, wet place between her legs that was pressing on my skin above my groin. I could just barely make out her distant, pained, but happy expression in the dark. "... I worry so much about you."

I had no good answer for her. I simply couldn't be the man she was thinking I was best off being – a hard, tough bastard who would do anything to stay alive. I think she knew that then, too. Instead, I just reached out and pulled her back down toward me, holding her against me. We stayed like that for a time, just holding each other, neither of us sleeping but both just letting the tension between us seep out. Nina and I both knew there was something bigger lurking under there, a division between us that neither wanted to give up any ground on – though it would be years before it became a real argument.

What she'd said about Capetown, Belgrade, and the other places was true; I'd done endless hours of combat training in the past few years, never wanting to see one of the girls be hurt again. I might not have had the girls' sharpened senses, which made any of them a better shot than me, but if I could get my hands on my opponent, the fight was already over.

My physique, which was nearly mature at that point – or so we thought – lent me superhuman physical strength, which, combined with some mixed martial arts training, essentially meant I could throw lesser men around like ragdolls. The only other skill I'd really say I'd become an expert in aside from that in the past two years, though, was cooking. Traveling the world, visiting strange and distant places, learning the local dishes and on many occasions being forced to make do only with what we could find - I'd had tons of practice.

Nina's body pressed onto mine was getting the better of me as I came back to the real world. Her hair was splayed out on my chest as she laid her head on me – listening to my heartbeat, I imagined. I heard her make quiet, happy little moans like a cat being petted. My cock was resting against one of her thighs. I flexed it, and ran my hands up and down her back.

She sensed my intent, and crawled up toward my face, kissing me. My stroking hands found her ass, squeezing it, then I probed her folds. She was ready enough. I pulled off the blanket, getting ready to impale her on my pole.

Nina mumbled something, and grabbed the blanket, pulling it back over us. She looked down at me, whispering again. "Let's do it under the covers. You know how I get if I lay eyes on that thing... I'd wake up the neighbors." She nodded in the direction of Melody's tent. "Besides... it's kind of cold."

I nodded, and pulled the blanket up and around her, wrapping her body with it. The thing covered my midsection, down to my knees and up to my ribs, and hid all but Nina's head from me as she pulled it tight around her. My exploring hands underneath the bottom of it found her thighs, and I was surprised to find goosebumps. I supposed it really was a bit cold, though I hadn't noticed. I felt her shift somewhat, and then a hot and moist part of her came to rest atop my cock.

She slid her hips back and forth a little, biting her lip as our eyes met again. One of her hands clasped the blanket tightly to her as the other stole down lower, and I felt her take hold of my rod. She came up higher, and we both gasped as the head of my cock probed her entrance. With a fluid, easy motion, she let herself down slightly, inch by inch, and my cock entered her. Her mouth opened wide and her eyes closed slowly as she let out a long sigh.

When I was completely inside her, she began to bounce slightly, not wasting any time. She was flexible and strong, which made altogether very little work for me; I just laid back and let my hands do a little exploring under the blanket, stroking and caressing her hidden body. I savored her pussy, tighter than ever now that my cock had grown even more since I'd last seen her; it wrapped silky wetness around my pole, threatening to engulf all other sensation.

Nina bounced in almost absolute silence, biting her lip again as she did it. I let one of the hands I had exploring her find her pussy, and I let a thumb come to rest on her clit. Her motions became a little more frantic, and she emitted the tiniest sounds of pleasure as I toyed with her button.

My own stiff rod had attempted twice to explode already, but I'd held back, wanting her to come. My manipulation of her clit soon paid off – I felt the quivering of her body as she slowed down suddenly, tensing up and drawing in a series of sharp breaths as the muscles in her pussy convulsed around my length. She was visibly trying to hold back making any sound, something none of us were used to doing.

I felt the perspiration on her skin as she came, forming a tiny sheen – though she still kept the blanket clutched tight against her. My eyes met hers again, and it was her vulnerable, loving expression as she slowly came down from her orgasm that set me off. I felt my balls churning, and the pulses of orgasm erupting from inside and thundering up the length of my rod.

I felt the first rope of sticky come fire up inside her pussy, then a second as her bouncing finally stopped. Her hand went to her belly as I pumped more come inside her. I loosened the death-grip I hadn't realized I had on her waist, and she waited there for a time – allowing her body to accept all of my come before my cock became too sensitive, and before I could do it myself, she lifted herself up and let my pole slide out of her. Nina bent down forward, her thigh coming to rest on my spent cock, and she laid herself out again.

She tossed the sides of the blanket around, and in a few moments I was covered with the big thing again, along with her. She slid off to one side, and my arm automatically came out, holding her as she nestled herself to my side. We were both tired, from the long day on the trail more than from the sex. I felt her breathing change quickly – she always did fall asleep very fast – and soon I, too, dozed off in the night.

When I awoke, Nina wasn't in the tent anymore; I was alone, and glancing over at my pack, I could see she had already laid out a change of clothes from my pack for me. She didn't want to waste any time getting started today, then. I cracked my neck, did what few morning stretches I could do in the cramped tent, and got dressed. Outside, Nina was resting on her haunches, looking out over the horizon from the mountaintop; it was an incredible sight, too.

Sunset had only just past, and the lowlands were still misty with fog. There were the sounds of a million birdsongs in all directions, barely audible from this high up. There were hardly any signs of civilization as far as we were from anywhere right then. Nina was nibbling on an energy bar, and I saw she had laid out two more for me next to the entrance of the tent, along with fresh water. I got out, stretching, and hungrily devoured one of the bars. Nina's eyes kept darting toward the other, smaller tent about ten feet away from ours.

Melody got out a few minutes later, yawning and stretching. She wore only a blue nightshirt and black panties, and glanced over at us both as we stared at her indecency. She shrugged. "Morning."

"Um, hi." I smiled. Underneath her hiking clothes, it had been hard to gauge just how good a figure she had, but I saw that this woman obviously went out of her way to stay in good shape. Her athletic legs were as sun-brown as the rest of her, and her tits firmly poked out of her nightshirt in a pleasant way. The black panties she had on hugged her ass tight, and she hadn't tied up her hair yet – it hung loose, framing her head and giving her a striking and much more feminine appearance. I cleared my throat. "Sleep well?"

"Certainly did! But I bet you two slept better." She winked. So much for our 'silent' lovemaking. She stretched. "Don't mind me, I figure I've seen you two naked so there's no harm done if I take my time getting dressed. I'll be off taking a morning loo, then once we get back we can start heading down the eastern face. I'll eat as we go." She wandered off toward a copse of trees a few hundred feet away.

I came alongside Nina, who had been silent during the whole interaction. I fell down into an Indian-style position, munching down the last of my second energy bar as I ran one hand along her back, now covered with a thick khaki canvas shirt. She let herself tip toward me a little, leaning into my weight, and I held her for a time as she finished eating. Who knew what she was thinking about. Strategy, probably. She worried herself sick in those years. The wind picked up for a while, gusting past us both. I felt it change direction.

After a minute or so, I felt an almost imperceptible shift in Nina. She glanced over toward the copse of trees. I felt her deliberately drawing in a deep breath through her nose. It seemed strange, but Nina did stranger things often; I still didn't quite understand these creatures I'd changed my girls into, hominus females; hell, they didn't much understand themselves. We'd all been pretty much playing it by ear for almost a decade. She finished her bar, stowing the wrapper along with mine, and got up. Glancing over toward the tent, she motioned me to assist her. I nodded, and we got up, breaking the thing down again.

We were just about finished breaking it down, and I was packing the tent up as Melody returned, looking refreshed. She grabbed her clothes, pulling them on – the same as yesterday – and in less than a minute, had collapsed her easy-fold tent into a flat mass which she stowed in a bag. We donned our packs and set out again, in further silence – given the scenery, it wasn't exactly uncomfortable, though perhaps knowing Nina's thoughts on Melody made it somewhat so. We kept up a good pace, Melody keeping up the whole time. As we reached the treeline and entered the high forest, we crossed a few streams.

It was around then that I began to notice what Nina had said – Melody wasted no movement. She was maybe some kind of practiced acrobat or ballerina or something, I figured. She danced along the stones of a small river we crossed, lightly tapping each one and crossing the whole thing without getting a drop on her – while Nina splashed her feet in the water twice. I knew I was more than capable of jumping it if I had a running start, but that would have been a bit too superhuman to go advertising to a stranger, so I stumbled across the rocks myself.

It was warming up rapidly as we reached the lower altitude, and we crossed into the thicker, almost jungle-like forest of the lowlands. We saw various creatures – snakes, parrots, rodents, all kinds of birds – mostly hiding from us, but occasionally brave enough to approach. It was close to noon when we reached a wide clearing, in the middle of which was a haphazard rock formation sticking about twenty feet up into the air.

"This looks like a good spot for a lunch break." Nina said it with a kind of jovial energy, which was a bit jarring with what I knew her mood had to be. Maybe she'd finally gotten over it, I figured. Melody agreed, and the three of us sat town on a pair of opposite old logs, Melody across from us two. Nina fished through my pack and got out a few boxes of food – some mix, jerky, some flavor packets for water, and some other things.

I felt her going through it a bit longer than that, and wondered what she was looking for – then I felt her pulling out my Bowie knife and its sheath with the associated survival gear. Melody glanced at it, but didn't otherwise react; she got out some granola bars, and began to munch on one of them. Nina sat down next to me again, and handed one of the bars to me, then put the knife down next to her as she looked up at Melody.

"Aren't you going to set out some for your friends?"

"What?" Melody looked perplexed. For that matter, so did I.

"I mean the short one who's been trailing us since we started. Little thing she is, you can't hear her except when she's moving over the leaves." Nina grasped the knife, eyeing Melody as our new companion's expression darkened. I felt my stomach sink. Nina was right; Melody was hiding something. Nina took a bite of jerky. "I wasn't sure until the wind changed direction. Even then, you two use the same shampoo. But now I know."

"I don't think I know what you're talking about..." Melody sounded uncertain even as she said it. Her hand was also going to the machete on her waist. I readied myself to hold them both back.

"If it was just the two of you, maybe we could have talked it out." Nina sounded increasingly angry, though still completely in control of herself. "But now you had to go and bring a couple platoons of your buddies to the party."

Melody went still, her face paling. "What?"

"They're meeting up with her east-southeast, and there's another little crew from the north. I figured-"

"Hannah!" Melody looked frantic. She stood up and looked off to the southeast – and I suddenly heard a distant, high-pitched scream. Nina, looking up perplexed at Melody, seemed taken aback by her reaction, and didn't move as Melody suddenly took off running to the southeast. The brunette went down into a crouching run, staying behind trees but moving rapidly toward some point in the distance.

"Nina, you better explain." I folded my arms.

"Ben-" Nina wasn't even quite turned to me yet when I heard a booming sound in the distance, and a sort of whooshing. Nina, startled, tossed the knife away and leapt toward me, grabbing my waist. She'd launched herself with enough force to knock me over. I thudded to the ground with her, and was about to ask her what was going on when I saw a glint in the sky.

Nina's quick thinking saved my life. Two massive explosions went off ten to fifteen yards away from us, one to the south and one to the west. The shells detonated on impact, sending waves of shrapnel, dirt, and exploded wood flying in all directions. The tree I had been standing next to was bisected by a nasty piece of metal, no bigger than a dinner knife – but, as I saw later, burying itself several inches into the trunk, right about at head level. Even a hominus can't survive getting their skull blown open.

Of course, at the time, the only thing I felt was blistering heat, my skin being coated with dirt and debris, and the incredibly loud ringing that now filled the world. I was probably screaming or something at the time, but I could hardly tell. Nina was on my chest, and I felt her breathing. All I could think to do was try to shake her awake. There was no response. I attempted to get up, but was assaulted by pain.

I forced myself, lifting my body up, trying to perceive something, anything to give me my bearings. Fire and smoke were everywhere, parts of the trees were still collapsing, and I had to wipe my eyes clean of the debris before I could see any more. I wrapped one arm around Nina, feeling her limp and unconscious body. I still hadn't quite understood what was going on; Nina seemed to be breathing, and I couldn't see any injuries. Why had the world blown up?

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts enough to realize the gravity of the situation. I choked out a mouthful of ash and looked around frantically. A few feet away, I saw the knife; I grabbed it, and stood, ignoring the pain in my body as I lifted Nina over my shoulder. She wouldn't be able to help me this time; now, it was my turn to save her. She'd already bailed my dumb ass out once today, and I owed her even before that.

I dragged myself out of the fiery area, looking everywhere as I went – trying to see where these people Nina had said were coming were. About fifty feet away, I found a particularly thick knot of trees, and set her down next to one. I grasped the knife, and looked around the side of the trunk – to see a group of five men in uniforms carrying assault rifles, slowly approaching the spot where the shells had hit. They were advancing in a wide formation, and covering each other.

They didn't look to be the kind of First-World hitmen that we'd gotten used to in Europe and the States. These were locals, FARC or whatever others hung around the area, I was guessing – but something in their sharp formation, quick movements, and the way they held their guns told me they were every bit as dangerous. They weren't talking, instead using hand signals. The five of them surrounded the blast site, gave it a once-over, and there were more hand signals.