It's My Party

"You think so? Yeah, I guess it is. I've gotten used to it. Oh, by the way, it's Bambino, not Barry."

"Barry!"

"Bambino!" And then a sheepish grin. "Seriously honey, I'm supposed to whip your butt raw after the first warning." His hand wandered over to her left butt cheek and he gave her ass a firm but not painful squeeze. "You don't want to get spanked, do you? I will if I have to."

Cassidy stopped dead in her tracks and turned to her companion. "Let's figure this out right now! Am I your slave?! I'm not blind Barry. I've seen it all this past month. Am I pussy-on-the-hoof to you?"

"Oh Cassidy, don't be like this. I was just being playful."

"Like hell! That's no answer!"

Her lover thought for a moment. "This all used to be a game, but it's not a game now. If you get used to calling be Barry, you might slip up and do it while others are around."

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that. I'll be careful."

"Cassie, it's not worth the risk. You and I could be alone in a room, and someone could walk in just as you're speaking my wrong name. Uno's gotten kind of crazy lately about this, about a lot of things. You might suffer more than a spanking, and it would not be from me."

"Oh hell… Okay Bambino, you've made your point." They continued their walk. "So how far until all the stores are locked?"

"Not far, another two kilometers, less."

Cassidy nodded and yawned. "I'm so sleepy." She glanced wishfully at a furniture store they were passing. The displays of bedroom sets looked very inviting. "Look Bambino! All the beds are super-sized, even down here."

"Don't even think about it. We have another twenty-five kilometers of walking until we catch up with Chico.' Bambino gave a mirthless laugh. "Chico is going to LOVE seeing me show up. I'm supposed to tell some people to return to home base immediately, and these guys are going to be wasted."

They walked another few hundred meters in silence. "I'm wasted already," Cassidy whispered. "I'm so tired Barry." She leaned her head lightly against his shoulder as she walked.

Bambino kissed the soft hair pressing against him, not bothering to correct her. "I know. But we have no choice. We have to keep walking."

"Barry, we're not robots. We do have a choice."

"Hmm?"

"We can opt out." She almost added, "Frida did," but decided she could not betray the confidence, not yet. "Please, Barry, please," she begged silently in her mind. "Make the right choice."

But Bambino replied with a growl. "Uno wasn't joking the day Britney died. It's the new order Cassie. Wise up and get with the program. No one leaves his group alive."

"Barry…"

"No! And I told you, it's Bambino! And we have to keep walking! And quit complaining! Uno was going to send you out with Whitney and Amber. Would you have preferred that?"

Bambino saw Cassidy tremble. "No…" she answered meekly.

He felt so embarrassed for threatening her. He loved her. Bambino struggled for a moment, trying to find some way to apologize, but nothing came out. They continued their journey in silence.

Time: Thursday, January 17, 2019 3:00 AM

"How are you holding up Whitney?" Amber asked as she made another entry into the log Uno had given her.

Amber gave a deep yawn. "I feel absolutely dead on my feet, too tired even to be scared anymore. If some monster jumps out and wants to eat me, I'm just going to say, go ahead."

"Uh huh. Sure you will." Whitney also yawned. "Come on. According to Alfredo, we have just one more leg to go." The two women shuffled to the next vertex. They had spent the last two hours collecting data, making notes as Uno had ordered. Their mission was to scout out the looping passage that Uno and Alfredo had described.

Whitney was sure they had been given a few bits of misinformation. They would have to contradict some of their preparatory briefing when they got back, otherwise she and Amber would probably be raped. And Uno and Alfredo had made it clear they would not open the door and let them return home before 4 AM, giving the two women ample time to make their search, and perhaps share the fate of the previous party.

As they approached the southern vertex of the northernmost hexagon, they began to see its many unique qualities. All the corridors they had traveled so far had had simple views of the outside fields to the west and dull gray opaque walls towards the interior of the great diamond complex. Recessed lighting near the floor provided very adequate illumination, but the scenery at eye level was one of silver and gray monotony.

Not so for the southern vertex of the last northernmost hexagon. Its entrance showed that a few meters north were two sets of clear staircases leading down, and hectares of lush green meadow beyond filling the chamber. Whitney and Amber stopped just shy of the entrance to the vertex. The black cobblestone walkway across the vegetation in the next chamber was clearly visible, and they were within five meters of walking and seeing Toshi, Frida, and Mark sleeping below.

Whitney started to tremble. "It's just the way Pancho described it."

"Huh?"

"Neto never told you about this place?"

Amber raised her eyebrows. "Are you joking? Neto never told me shit. Uno would have castrated him for breaking a rule like that. Pancho told you about this place?"

"Uh huh, in great detail. The place scared him shitless."

Amber turned and stared at the field of vegetation. "It looks very strange. Such a dense and uniform ground cover. I never saw… all the dark green… It looks really weird in the orange light." Amber stared for a while at the numerous orange floodlights in the vaulted ceiling of the great chamber. "What did Pancho say?"

Whitney pointed and replied, "He mentioned those overhead lights in the dome. Pancho guessed they were grow-lights for the plants. He said it was some nasty kind of ivy, full of thorns when he looked closely. He didn't see anything that looked edible. Why anyone would grow such a big field of thorny ivy like this…" Whitney paused for a long while, never completing the thought.

Amber finally shrugged her shoulders. "Well, whatever. Let's check out the plant and get the hell out of here." She began to lean forward. "Maybe we could cut a few samples for Uno. It'll prove we were here. Shouldn't be too difficult. What do you think? Can we break a few pieces off?"

"Pancho mentioned the thorns looked wicked sharp."

"So what? We'll get a few leaves. The leaves don't have thorns, do they?" She took a step forward.

Whitney reached out and held Amber by her upper arm. "Wait."

"Oh Whitney, let's just get this over with."

"I'm serious Amber. Pancho hated this place, feared it. And he probably died in there. I think they all did."

Amber stared in silence for a moment at the plant. Were her eyes playing tricks on her, or did the field just roll with a slow undulation? The motion caused her to shiver. "So how much do you remember what Pancho said?"

"Quite a bit. I could go over it with you on our way back. We could get our story straight."

It took nothing more than another slow undulation to convince Amber. "Okay." She opened her notebook. "One second. I want to copy that symbol on the entrance." It was a strange sort of mark. Amber thought it looked like a broken Y lying on its side.

Time: Thursday, January 17, 2019 5:55 AM

"Jada, wake up."

Jada felt two gentle hands on her body, one on her shoulder lightly shaking her, one on her lower arm. She reluctantly left her dream world and blinked her eyes. Her roommate Emily was outlined in the very dim light. "Yeah? What time is it?"

"The census counter, it's dropped to 017:102."

Jada thought Emily sounded a bit worried, and then her words hit her. "Uh… What?! Oh shit!" Jada jumped of bed and grabbed her robe.

"Jada, where are you going?"

"Black Mall monitoring. Can you tell the others?"

"Aggie and Madison are already up, Ann too I think. I'll come with you."

Emily and Jada met Ann and Madison in the lounge, and the four of them entered the elevator and a moment later walked out of an adjacent side through the one-meter stub of sky-bridge and into the second floor of the Modern Coin Superstore. Jada glanced and noted with approval that Madison was packing a pistol.

Jada sat down and typed a few strokes on the security keyboard, and then let out a slow breath. "Well, I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Chico's party, they're right on top of us. I'm reading the edge of their camp at spiral-mark 38.6 kilometers, 1,060 meters from here. The recordings say they arrived here very recently, only forty minutes ago."

The door to their sky-bridge location was at spiral-mark 37,540 meters, and Chico's party was about halfway between their next two sensor pairs at 38,257 meters and 38,988 meters. The zoomed images gave a fair amount of detail, enough to recognize faces. But from such a distance there was no audio at all. But it didn't look as if there was any talking going on anyway. Chico's party looked exhausted and everyone except two very tired looking guards were asleep.

Jada commented, "They don't look too dangerous, do they?"

"Quick Jada," pleaded Madison, "Can you tell how many there are?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, one second," Jada mumbled as she worked the controls. "Damn! I'm still counting eighteen!" She gave a crying whisper, "Oh Mark…"

Emily put her hand on her roommate's shoulder. "Jada, don't lose hope. We just don't know. Mark is only one guy. The counter is down four men and two women."

Madison put her hand on Jada's other shoulder and said, "She's right Jada. I'm guessing the census drop had nothing to do with Mark."

"Oh? Why's that?"

Madison shrugged. "Well, six people dead, that sounds like a battle, doesn't it? And Mark didn't have a gun. He hates the thought of using guns against people. I used to tease him about it sometimes, but he's actually not a bad shot, somewhere between me and our father I think." Madison paused for a second and added, "Mark could probably be a better shot than I am if he'd just practice more."

Jada breathed in a full breath of air, and then slowly let it out her nose and nodded. "Yeah, okay." She thought for a moment. "Chico's party, they don't see us, see the sky-bridge I mean. I'm betting they don't even know it's here yet." She worked a control for a moment. "They'll have to advance about another five hundred meters before they begin to see the bridge."

Ann spoke up. "Jada, the sensor at 38,988, please zoom in on the other direction."

Jada did and saw two figures approaching Chico's camp. "It's a man and a woman." Her heart raced for a second, but then slowed down is disappointment. "It doesn't look like Mark and Toshi though."

Ann spoke again. "It's Bambino and his girlfriend Cassidy." Ann looked more closely at their slumped postures. "Wow, they look ready to collapse."

Bambino and Cassidy called out to their expedition as they approached, not wanting to startle the guards. From the sky-bridge, it seemed that Chico and Bambino were having an argument with the leaders of the expedition, and then they all lay down for some sleep.

There wasn't much else to observe. Ann and Madison had already eaten an early breakfast and urged Jada and Emily to return home and finish their rest periods. After brief hugs and goodbyes they did.

A few minutes before 8 AM, Jada's phone rang. Her heart jumped when she saw the incoming number. "Mark?!"

"Hi Jada."

"Mark! Thank God you're alive! We were so worried about you!"

"Huh? You know about the battle?"

"We saw the census counter go down to 17:102."

"Oh hell! I forgot about that. I should have called sooner. Jada, I only have a few minutes of power on my phone. Let me tell you our situation." Mark went on to describe their flight and the death of the six members of Party #5. "And that's where we are right now, at the bottom of the second stairwell."

Emily spoke up, remembering something from her janitor training. "Mark, try using the mushroom lock on the door and then unlock it. That might release the access button." There was no response. "Hello Mark?" Emily stared at the phone. It showed the caller had dropped the connection. "Oh hell. I wonder if he heard me?"

Chapter 28.

Time: Thursday, January 17, 2019 10:20 AM

At the end of their shift, Bambino and Cassidy waved tired goodbyes to the group returning home and then crawled back into their sleeping bag. After arriving at Chico's site, they had slept for two hours and then did a two-hour shift of guard duty. Now they would have another four hours of sleep before Chico broke camp. Their bodies and the minds were desperate for it, but as usual, Cassidy had an easier time falling asleep.

Bambino unbuttoned the shirt of sleeping Cassidy and began gently fondling her breasts, not quite enough to wake her up. Cassidy sighed in her sleep and curled her legs slightly, offering her rump to Bambino. Her boyfriend smiled. In another time and place, he would quickly get erect with the thought of fucking sweet Cassie, and sometimes when she was really tired and sleeping nude, he could even copulate with her before she would wake up.

Not tonight though. "Or is it morning?" Bambino thought dimly. "Sun's not up yet, that's for sure. Such a fucked-up world. Where's the fucking sun? And why the fucking orange color? Ah, who cares? At least Cassie has forgiven me… at least in her dreams…"

Bambino thought about the new split that Uno had ordered. Returning to their home complex were Alfonso with his girlfriend Jessica, three compadres, Jenaro, Hernando, and Diego, and muchacho Ricardo, a real hardcase known as Twin Dicky before he pledged the frat.

Chico had Bambino and Toro as his two armed compadres, plus his girlfriend Brandi and the three muchachos Geraldo, Segundo, and Ernesto. Chico also had all six women slaves. That surprised Bambino at first. But then he realized that it would be more economical if one group did all the guard work. Uno didn't want too much on his plate right now, and he certainly didn't want the danger of a pussy revolt. With the current setup, it was all Chico's headache now.

Chico had a sizable force, fourteen people compared to Uno's group of ten. But Uno had six of their remaining nine guns. As Bambino thought of the situation, he idly began to play with Cassidy's nipples, rubbing one until it started to harden, and then moving to the other breast. Cassidy stirred slightly in his arms.

Bambino didn't blame Uno for scaling back on the expedition's firepower. He thought he would have done the same. Waking up one day and finding Jacob's Bar and Grill with a lock on it would be a disaster. Uno planned to have at least three people with two guns at the store at all times. Except for Uno, there would be one eight-hour shift of guard work for everybody daily, with Ricardo packing Jenaro's gun while he was on duty. It made sense.

"Barry," Cassidy mumbled sleepily, shaking his hand off her breasts and nipples. "Get some fucking rest."

Bambino nodded and pulled his hand out of her shirt, taking a deep breath and relaxing with the familiar smell of Cassidy in his arms. That Barry stuff, he thought, that had to stop. Perhaps he would spank her when she messed up again. Pull her pants down in front of all the men and give her a proper spanking. The humiliation would be far more effective than the modest pain he would administer.

Bambino frowned for a moment. Could he really do that? He remembered Ann and Kiyoko, over a week ago, the day before the Santos disaster at Rabbies Dram. Bambino remembered the scene well, and his sleepy mind drifted back to it.

It was in the evening, a Monday, just the day before both women disappeared. Bambino was herding Ann and Kiyoko back to the pussy barn after an extra-long harness shift in the mall, and the two tired pussies had another one scheduled for early next morning. It was Bambino's job to escort them to the barn and unchain them before letting them go upstairs to sleep. The simple chore had become routine for him.

On Uno's orders, hoof pussies had to do their work with very little clothing. When he had made the announcement, Uno said it would keep the women off-balance and less likely to escape, though Bambino suspected it was just one more way to pile on the humiliation. Still, to disobey the order was unthinkable. Bambino had allowed Ann and Kiyoko to pick out new cotton white panties and halter sports bras earlier in the day, and they were wearing them now. It was as much clothing as he dared give them.

About ten stores from the barn, Bambino saw something curious. He had the two women marching in front of him, and he noticed a ting of a yellow line on both of the women's panties, exactly in the same spot on both women, low on the left butt cheek just before the curve to the back of the thigh.

Bambino stared and thought as he walked. Where the women carrying contraband in their panties? It wasn't just the yellow color. When he looked closely, Bambino could see a small bulge under the yellow line. What could these women be possibly carrying in their panties?

As he walked and stared, he suddenly realized he was getting erect. Well, the two women did have cute little asses, no surprise there he thought. But he had no desire other than to turn them loose for sleep. They had been a wonderful crew for him today, obedient, helpful, and very hard working. They had given him everything they had, and Bambino was going to reap all the rewards for their labor. Ann and Kiyoko deserved a good rest. Still, what the hell were they carrying in their panties?

They walked past the guard at the pussy barn and into the first floor of the store. Then Bambino unshackled the women, wrists and ankles, first Ann, then Kiyoko. But then he decided he couldn't let the contraband issue go. With his hand on his pistol butt, he ordered both women to face away from him and take off their panties. Perhaps Ann's lips quivered, just for a second, and then both women complied.

They did more than comply. In addition to stripping off their panties, both women took a wide stance and bent forward, presenting Bambino their open legs and rumps. Kiyoko was so sleepy, she almost fell over as she bent but she caught her balance on a nearby table.

The table! There were several boxes of latex gloves and water soluble lubrications on it, and Bambino in shock realized what the women thought he was going to do. He remembered something that Brandi had whispered to him a few days previously, that Jessica and Nadine were doing contraband searches with the hoof pussies with latex gloves, and that as junior taskmistress, Brandi was powerless to overrule them.

And the women's rumps! There was a cruel x-wing of welts on both women, low on their left butt cheeks. The raised welts looked ghastly and were weeping a yellowish discharge. That was what was staining their panties.

Ricardo! That nutcase freshman was always walking around swinging those thin bamboo canes of his. He was an expert at it. In late September when he first pledged, Ricardo had demonstrated his skill to Bambino by knocking flies out of midair with his swings. He was that good and quick.

The X-wing cross of welts, they were identical on both asses, identical in position on the rumps, identical in length and angles, identical in the severity of the cruelty. Bambino cringed as he stared. It must have burned like hell to be double whacked like that. And the identical placement revealed the purpose of the welts. This was no punishment. The muchachos had branded these two hoof pussies.