Humanity 2.0, Year 028, Day 284?

Every day, whenever I thought, tomorrow, I'll surely snap, there's no way I can go on – somehow, Rain would find just enough time to... relieve me. The soldiers began to think of her as the most cruel and vicious of all the girls, the one who took a special joy in drawing out my suffering all by herself. The cameras apparently only showed them scenes of just that, her getting herself off, showing off her sexy body and playing with her clit inches from my face - just far enough that he restraints kept me back. Somehow she was hiding our frenziedly hurried fucking.

Rain is the only reason I didn't break. I don't know if I'd have used my powers to just make one of the girls they hired fuck me, or if I would have tried to hold it off until my sanity up and departed entirely. Who knows what might have happened if I'd truly snapped. If they were right and the power really was only limited by my personality, then me going insane might have disastrous consequences. I might have made everyone else there insane too, or worse.

I instead tried to focus myself on knowing Rain's body more intimately than any of my other girls in the outside world; I still remember every inch of it. I saw it in my dreams, in excruciating detail. I woke with erections I couldn't get rid of, went to sleep with them too. The side effects of their drugs began to pile up. My appetite began to peter out, and I visibly lost weight. I hadn't seen my own ribs in decades. I felt dehydrated all the time. My headaches pulsed so badly at times that I couldn't even think. I heard phantom ringing noises at random times.

The girls, too, seemed to show signs of wear and tear. Most of them had bags under their eyes, and a few were visibly skinnier than when they'd first come in. They looked a little bit like junkies – hopped up on the aphrodisiacs all the time, chugging the stuff then attacking each other's pussies over and over.

The scenes became surreal after a time. I began to see famous people in their faces, imagining some cop drama actress eating out a news anchor. I started to hear them making love even when they weren't around. I started to make up, in my head, life stories for each one of the girls, how they'd all always been lovers in some big, thirty-girl lesbian love... I don't remember the word for a thirty-sided polygon.

The only constant was Rain. I could see the signs of stress on her too, but she dismissed my concerns every time I mentioned it. She was a constant, warming, loving presence, something I held onto in my mind – even if our trysts were usually less than a few minutes, every few days at best.

I might have been minutes from losing it when, finally, something changed. Three of the girls were there, eating one another out in a triangle, when suddenly there was a massive booming sound, and the station shook. Moments later, the lights went out. I heard shouting outside, then there was another explosion, causing the floor to judder. The girls seemed confused for a few moments, then panicked and fled. Two together managed to yank open the door – which seemed a little bent inside its frame now – and ran outside, still completely naked. I, on the other hand, was still securely fastened to the wall.

I wondered for a time how you can have earthquakes in a place like this. Was it one of the floating oil rigs, or secured to the ground? An important question. I began to think on it – insofar as I could think at all at the time. Some voice in my mind asked me to yank on the cables; it didn't work. Soon my wrists and ankles – already covered with scabs and very painful – began to bleed again. I fell into a heap.

I heard pops outside. Gunshots? Real, or was Bethany watching one of her crime dramas again? Four, two pairs in rapid succession. I stirred from my collapsed state and came up on my palms, trying to focus on the door. It was hard; nothing made sense. Where was I again? Didn't I have some lumber to pick up from the store? I heard two thump sounds from just outside the door. Maybe the soldiers were taking a nap too. Not a bad idea. The floor was rushing at my face again.

I woke up to a piercing, shrill voice absolutely screaming in my left ear. "BEEEENNNNN!!!"

"Whaaat... not yet, Mom..."

I'm told I honestly said this. I don't remember.

"Get UP!" Something was under my nose. Instantly, all of my senses and mind blasted to full alert. It was like a switch was flipped. I gasped, taking in a huge breath of air, and coughed a few times before I tried to rise, and stumbled. I hadn't stood in days. My ankles were shot to hell, and something was wrong with my legs. And my head – oh my God, my head, it felt like it had exploded and been stitched back together.

I glanced up, and saw Rain. She was dressed in what appeared to be combat gear, different from the soldiers'. It was in an urban camo pattern, a bulletproof vest with a knife at the shoulder mounted over a skin-tight greyish bodysuit. It hugged her figure nicely. Kinky – was she into roleplaying? None of my girls were interested – but I was willing to give it a try if she was. Maybe I could play a pirate.

"Time to GO!" Her hands came up under my armpit, and I was hauled to my feet. She hefted one of my arms over her shoulders and began to manhandle me right out of the cell. Soon, my legs remembered how to walk, haltingly – though no less painfully.

Something occurred to me. Rain had a great, athletic figure – but who was I kidding? "Rain. I weigh two hundred and eighty-one pounds."

"Used to... but you're still awful damn heavy." She glared up at me. "Shut up and move. We've got maybe three minutes before they regroup and come for us. We need to go."

She was focused, and practically dragged me along; I had no further chance to question her. I was still naked when, after some interminable time of endless metal corridors, of being thrown behind cover by a beautiful auburn-haired girl and listening to the loud staccato pops of gunfights erupting between her and some soldier or another, we were approached by a group of five soldiers from behind. I tried to stand, stumbling; Rain wasn't looking at them, she didn't see them coming, they were going to kill her. I wouldn't watch what happened to Emily a second time.

I managed a pathetic, slumping tackle, more just dropping my weight on the front two. Oddly, they didn't attack me. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed their outfits were different from those of the soldiers who had manned the rig and guarded my door.

"Steady him." Rain's voice was flat and commanding. "Status?"

"Chopper deck is cleared. Squads Two, Five, and Six are securing your route. ETA on your ride, four minutes." The man, sounding equally gruff as Rain did at the moment, seemed to turn to face me – but addressed someone else. "Kane, Thompson, you're carrying him. The rest of the squad takes up the rear and covers our retreat." He clicked something. "All squads – we have both packages and are moving to phase four. Sound off then go radio silent."

All the men present affirmed, and I heard several voices over a tinny radio say the same. Two men – apparently the biggest pair in the squad – came up under each of my arms, and suddenly we were moving at a steady clip. My stumbling feet were hardly more than an annoyance to those two; for all intents and purposes they simply carried me outside.

I fixated my eyes on Rain's finely shaped ass, wrapped so tightly in that outfit leading the way... what was that promise she'd made, so long ago? That I would be able to make her come myself, once we were free. Free of what? Where were these clowns taking me, anyway? Was this a fraternity hazing thing?

Someone was waiting there with a blanket, and I felt it thrown over my back. Some reflex compelled me to draw it close around my body. Glaring sunlight bit into my eyes as we went through the final pair of double doors. I was assaulted by hot, salty ocean air, and the endless, gleaming equatorial sea at noon. I just hung in place, dumbfounded at how big the damn ocean was. Had I noticed that before? I remembered something about sailing once, and masturbating off the side of a boat a lot. Haha. Good times.

I was still chuckling to myself when I heard the thud-thud-thud of an approaching helicopter. I could hardly lift my eyes enough to look at it; the big, sleek chopper, black, with its side door open. A figure stood there, looking quite out of place; her sundress whipped wildly in the rotor wash. It was white, and curly red hair hung around her head. I tried to focus, and couldn't. She was pale-skinned, and seemed not at all perturbed about hanging out the side of a helicopter in flight. It came down slowly, touching the pad. She lightly hopped off, landing on both feet gracefully, and two of the soldiers fell in behind her as she approached me.

I looked over at Rain. I'd have to thank her at some point. I was still staring at her beautiful body when I heard a voice calling from ahead of me. I turned, and focused my vision.

And there she was. Recognition seeped through my thoughts – slowly, taking a few moments to register. I'd hadn't expected to find her anymore, not after thirty years. Instead, she found me.

Nadine.

"Hello, Ben." Her voice was the same as I remembered – scratchy, sexy, a little arrogant. My eyes were refusing to focus; I forced it, summoning the last of my strength for this. I needed to see her, to look her in the eyes and know for certain that it was her. She'd stopped showing up even in my dreams. I felt a slender hand cup the side of my face, brushing through my short hair. It was a gentle, loving gesture.

I saw Rain coming up at her side, next to her. Next to us both. She whispered something, and suddenly we were moving again. The two soldiers came up to the side of the chopper and hauled me inside, strapping me down to a bench then jumping back out. Nadine hopped up inside, taking a seat opposite me, and was joined by Rain.

I felt my apparent weight briefly increase as the pilot throttled up, and the helicopter lifted off. I was dimly aware of the sea moving below us, and Rain slid both the doors shut.

"Nnnn...." I coughed, again and again. She waited patiently. Finally, I recovered. "Nadine..."

"You remembered my name." I heard her laugh, that same high and brief sound as I recalled. "I always wondered if you would." She looked down at herself, holding two hands out over the sundress covering her body. "Do you like it? I had it made just for today. It's what I had on when we met."

"I... I... Nadine..." I didn't even know where to start. Literally – my mind was already falling apart again from the attempt to reconstitute it just previous. "Nadine!" I shouted it, with probably more emotion than I intended – which had been a lot. I might have had tears on my face; I don't remember, and neither of them ever wanted to talk much about this moment. Instead, Nadine came down to kneel beside my face, and her hand came atop mine.

Most of me was shutting down, preparing for a long rest. Just knowing Nadine was alive was some enormous success, though not really one I worked or did anything for – nonetheless, I felt like I needed a break.

"He endured it the whole time. He didn't give them anything. It was incredibly hard for him." It was Rain talking, from behind Nadine. "He's strong, Mom." Rain's hand came down on Nadine's shoulder, and she knelt next to me too. Suddenly Nadine looked over her shoulder, and their eyes met. Then, their lips came together and they-

Wait, what?

I was still puzzling to myself, trying to put the facts together in my delirious state. Seeing Rain from this angle, right next to Nadine, I saw the resemblance immediately – mother and daughter. They may have looked only five years apart to someone from the old world, who didn't know how to place ages for a hominus – hell, none of us were good at it then either, and there was a part of me that simply didn't believe it. Maybe they were sisters? That wouldn't necessarily make any more sense. After all, I knew I'd exposed Nadine to the retrovirus, changing her into a hominus... and I was the only hominus male. How could she have a daughter I didn't know about?

"You got me pregnant, Ben." Nadine must have seen the look on my face – she answered my unspoken question after breaking the kiss with Rain, her arm still wrapped around the back of her daughter's waist. "Whatever you did, you did to both of us. And you're going to tell me – tell us both – exactly what we are, when you're well enough to do it – and not a minute sooner." She said it firmly, but with a gentleness and patience of a devoted lover. One night of meaningless sex between two hormonal nineteen-year-olds, then twenty-eight years passed, yet somehow we had this bond.

And somehow I'd gotten Nadine pregnant at the same time I turned her into one of us. I hadn't expected that, I didn't even think it was possible – but looking at Rain, I couldn't say I regretted it. I grinned to myself. Apparently I'd been banging my own daughter for weeks without knowing it. She had to have known, though. I felt no remorse, only love; she was as much an adult as I was. Rain had come to save a father she'd never known and who had never given her a thing, who had never even seen her until now.

She'd gotten me through the greatest ordeal of my life, and at great risk to herself. My eyes met hers, and I saw in them the same adoration and happiness that were in Nadine's. I wanted so much to truly meet her, to know everything about my daughter. I also was curious how she'd done that thing with the cameras... my thoughts trailed off.

What impossibly good fortune, that these girls were with me. My girls. There were two more in the family now, for me to love and protect – or for them to protect me, apparently. I wondered about the others, then croaked out a question. "The others... safe?"

"I think so. Only you know how to reach them. We'll all be safe, Ben. We're going to my summer place in Alaska. I've got doctors for you there – people we can trust, who know about us. And I've got enough men and guns to conquer Spain." She let out a short sigh of relief. "Just rest, Ben. The three of us are together now. I want to meet these others, and my house is their house. But you just rest first. We'll all be here when you get back."

I'm told I nodded happily before dozing off and sleeping for two straight days.