It's My Party

A party of five women stood anxiously in the open lower segment of boathouse, staring at the forest to the west with high quality binoculars. Less than an hour ago Jada had ordered the six kayaks to be returned to the secure and enclosed upper level of the boathouse, and recently she had even ordered everyone off the docks. She was worried about a super-sudden break to the storm, and a wall of wind blowing someone into the deadly cold water.

Oona didn't quite seem to get the idea. "It's so dark under this overhang. I think I would be much more visible on the docks."

Jada shook her head and said simply. "No way."

"Well, how about I go up and stand outside next to the boathouse? That would be okay, wouldn't it?"

"No, I'm sorry Oona, but it wouldn't. What if a sudden gust knocks you off the island? I don't want to risk anyone being outside right now."

"Not even to return to the central building?!"

"Well, I guess we could sprint that in less than ten seconds. Okay, if you want to go run back to the main building and the wind is not blowing yet, you have my permission. Just tell me first that you're going."

Abit was standing next to Oona and she sighed. "I think what my cousin really wants is to be visible from the mainland and to see some signal from Carla. Why haven't they fired a flare yet?"

Jada frowned. "We never did get around to a firm understanding about that. That was my bad, I admit it. I could have coordinated this better."

Madison thought Jada was taking too much of the blame. "I think the general idea was that Tom would fire one flare as they were about to descend from the highlands, and another if they reached the shore at some other location. But take a look at the sky Abit. Perhaps Tom just didn't want to fire a flare at all those spirals. Or maybe they were too busy preparing to get under cover, I don't know."

Mandy spoke up. "I'm hoping they turned around a long time ago and are safe back at their home caves now. Aborting the hike today would have made a lot of sense."

Jada nodded thoughtfully. "I hope so too."

Oona growled. "I really want to be more visible from the shore!"

Jada looked at her kindly. "Oona, your concern does you credit, but what's our understanding? Am I in charge here?"

Oona nodded reluctantly. "Yes. Carla was quite clear on that point. And I'm sorry if I'm being a whining guest."

Jada blinked. "You're not my guest! I don't own this place any more than you do. Oona, we're teammates. I want to be in charge because I think that will make us safer and more effective."

Abit replied, "Do you really think standing outside at the island's edge outside the boathouse could be that dangerous? How fast could the wind possibly rise?"

"I don't know. With all the other miracles I've seen, I'm not going to assume anything less than instantaneous." Jada shrugged. "And don't forget where we are. The wind will pack more of a punch down here."

Abit looked puzzled. "Huh?"

"Ah," said Maddy. "Let me tell you something my brother found out. We think this planet and Earth had just about the same atmospheric pressure at sea level even though this planet has slightly less gravity. But our takeoff point back on Earth was probably between 170 and 190 meters about sea-level, and from the data from the orbiting telescope, we think the surface complexes are about 400 meters above sea-level. Do you remember your ears popping in the elevator the day we came here?"

Abit's eyes lit up in recognition of Madison's point. "Yes, I remember."

Maddy continued. "But now we're about a kilometer below sea-level, and there weren't any airlock changes in pressure coming from the bottom elevator out into Wobanakik. The air is dense here, probably denser than it ever got on Earth. The wind is going to pack an extra punch."

Jada was hit by a sudden intuition. "Oh hell! We shouldn't be here! It's not safe!"

Madison turned to her. "Huh?!"

Jada started directing her charges up to the higher enclosed levels of the boathouse. "Come on! Everybody into the upper level. I'll explain later. Move!"

Chapter 62.

Time: Sunday, March 3, 2019 12:24 PM

Carla estimated they had come almost a kilometer into the deep forest, with perhaps two kilometers to go before reaching their intended rendezvous point at the river. Parni was leading her spear team at the point of the party, followed by Amy and Margaret who were on either side of Sandra and helping her with the breakneck pace of the travel. Behind these three was Thara, who in her former life played softball at the University and was their best team member for throwing rocks. Carla and Tom walked on the left and right sides of the main group. They were the group's armed escort and primary defense against an attack from the side or rear.

In normal times, Carla would never dream of fast-walking through the forest like this. But the area seemed preternaturally quiet. Even the trees seemed to be bracing for what has about to happen. Carla scanned the high branches ahead of them, her mind super alert from her adrenaline. They were traveling much too fast to give the canopy adequate inspection before passing under it. Carla prayed that Tom's and her intuitions were correct and that the cats were hunkering down somewhere else.

"Two minutes," Tom called out from the other side of the party. "Carla, Sandra, how about over there?" He pointed to a small alcove that was fortuitously sheltered by thick brush and several very large trees. Carla nodded and began steering the group without even bothering to check with Sandra. This shelter looked far better than anything they had seen so far. Carla felt a strong sense of relief for the find, that is until she and Tom led the way into the alcove. To their left perhaps ten meters away a boar and sow were lying huddled close together.

Both animals grunted warning sounds but amazingly they neither fled nor charged. Carla stared at the beasts with Tom by her side as the rest of their party filed into the alcove and moved to the right opposite side.

"I don't believe it," whispered Sachi. She had held her spear out as a warning to the animals, and was amazed to see them ignoring her.

Tom nodded and whispered back, "Peaceful co-existence. I've heard of things like this happening before on Earth, animals putting aside their differences when disasters strike."

The group was soon sitting at the opposite end of the alcove. Suvarna, Tom, Tajana, Sachi, Carla, and Parni sat in a semicircle facing the pigs, and the remaining four women were behind them.

"How long do we have?" whispered Suvarna.

Tom looked at his watch. "Less than a minute I think. Why don't we follow the critters' advice and get down low to the ground?"

The group got very low to the ground. The moment was so quiet they could hear themselves breathing. Their companions in the alcove would occasionally give deep grunts, but they continued not to move.

"Tom?" whispered Tajana as she nudged his ribs with her left elbow.

"Hmmm?"

"Back on Earth, how long did the treaty last?"

"Huh?"

"I heard you mention to Sachi, about predators and prey calling a treaty when there's a forest fire or something. But how long does the treaty last once the fire is out?"

Tom was staring into the boar's eyes as Tajana spoke, and the boar was glaring right back at him. "Uh, yeah…" he mumbled. Before he could speak further, the time turned to a few seconds after 12:27 PM, and the storm broke with shattering explosions of thunder.

At the central island.

As expected, all was quiet inside the upper level of the boathouse. Jada had noticed the effect the afternoon of her arrival. Once all the doors were closed, absolutely all outside noise was blocked. But light could still pass freely though the transparent partition wall that separated the upper and lower levels of the boathouse, and what Jada saw now make her gasp.

The sky had gone crazy! There were dozens, no, hundreds of tornados dropping from above, fast spinning vortexes of dark gray smoke that thinned and elongated as they descending from the sky. And a mountain of water was rising from the river, incredibly fast! Within seconds the lower level of the boathouse was inundated with a deep swirling mass of what Jada assumed to be near freezing water. The water quickly filled the lower chamber and then began to rise against their partition wall.

"So fast!" thought Madison in amazement. The water was soon reaching the top of their wall. The river surface was now at least four meters above their heads. Madison had an insane flashback of a trip to Asia her family had taken when Madison was eight years old. They had visited the Churaumi aquarium on the western edge of Okinawa, and Madison remembered staring in disbelief at giant whale sharks swimming on the other side of a vast underground viewing wall.

And now it was happening again! Several very large fish had entered the lower level area of the boathouse, including one beast that looked like… Madison gasped in astonishment. The creature whipped its elongated neck and pressed its head against the partition, staring eye-to-eye with a frozen Madison for a moment. It tried to bite her with a jaw filled with wickedly sharp looking teeth, and then in frustration it left the boathouse with one great twist of its body and swish of its tail and flippers. Madison semi-shouted in a hoarse whisper, "A Loch Ness monster?! Did I really see that?!"

"The island!" Abit exclaimed, momentarily forgetting the sea monster. "It must be under water!" She ran to the back windows of the boathouse and looked out. "No, my gosh, no it's not! How is this possible?!"

The five women ran to the side windows. For a long moment they stared in silence, trying to make sense out of what their eyes were telling them. Jada finally decided the scene reminded her of the parting of the Red Sea in the old "Ten Commandments" movie. The water was up four to five meters above the surface of the island, but it was frothy and not coming over the land area, as if it were held back or repelled by some invisible wall.

Mandy moved to a control and turned the ceiling to 100% transparency, and then her jaw dropped. The sky above them was a crazy mix of spinning yellow spirals and dark gray funnels. The women gasped and stared at each other. The scene outside was beyond comprehension.

Time: Sunday, March 3, 2019 1 PM

A gentle but persistent hand was shaking Mark's shoulder near his neck. Mark opened his eyes and saw his wife Toshi standing in front of him requesting eye contact. He linked immediately. Toshi's mind was in an unusual state, genuine fears and concerns mingled with a surface veneer of amusement.

With their advanced linking abilities, Toshi shared her visual cortex with her husband. Mark saw himself through Toshi's eyes. Toshi was grinning because Mark's hand had come up and cupped the underside of Hannah's breast after they had both fallen asleep on the recliner.

Toshi smiled as Mark hastily withdrew his hand. "I was only teasing! And besides, you are not my child, and Hannah is not a cookie jar!"

"Uh, yeah…"

Toshi finished the playful thought. "Seriously Mark, Hannah is a beautiful person, inside and out, and I can see how pretty you think she is. I have no objections if you want to pet her."

Mark grinned and thought back. "She is lovely, but I was just trying to console her."

"I know. It looks as if you did a good job too. I'm glad." Toshi gave a mental sigh and switched gears. "Can you untangle yourself? Fatima asked me to find you. The census counter just dropped again. It's now 009:081."

"Oh hell… Yes, of course."

Mark tried to rise without disturbing Hannah but was unsuccessful. Toshi delinked and then explained verbally to her what was going on. "And the storm Charles and Lynn were expecting broke about forty minutes ago. It's massive. The underworld is filled with tornados right now, hundreds of them."

Hannah nodded and needed no further explanation. She stood up and smoothed out her skirt that was bunched near her waist, and then noticed both she and Mark were barefoot. Hannah looked at Toshi sheepishly and linked.

"Mark was a perfect gentleman with me!"

"I know. Hannah, relax!"

"This is the first time I've fallen asleep with a man!"

Toshi grinned. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Yes! But…" Hannah grinned back as she saw the playfulness in Toshi's mind. There was no jealousy at all. "Thank you," she thought quietly right before she delinked. The three of them then headed to the library.

Mark sat the console and began typing as Hannah entered a conference call already in progress. Everyone except Jada's team was on the bridge, including Charles and Lynn and Aggie's and Emily's teams out searching Red Mall. After a moment Mark announced, "It's the same as early this morning, another two IDs from Party #1, IDs 138 and 139. They're not longer in the job file."

There were several sad sighs of relief over the bridge. Fatima summed up their feelings. "So it appears Jada's team and the remaining members of Party #2 are successfully surviving the storm."

"Perhaps Party #2 is not even in the underground world," replied Frida who was with Emily in The Wilderness. "We never had any clear evidence they ever went down there."

"Oh, I don't know about that," replied Lynn. "Madison thought some of the kitchenware and some other supplies might have been missing from the entrance rooms here. The problem was the place is so loaded with supplies, it was difficult to be certain. Wow!"

Mark's voice, "Wow what?"

"I think a tornado just ran across the window right in front of me and Charles. It was impressive!"

Fatima asked, "Can anything survive out there? Is the world being destroyed?"

Charles locked eyes with Lynn for a moment and then he answered, "We're both hoping the world is okay, but it's tough to tell now with all the debris in the air. The highlands are getting blasted, at least here they are. But the forest, we don't know. Jada might be okay if she's hunkered down somewhere near the river."

"For all we know," replied Frida, "perhaps Jada is not in the underworld now either."

Aggie switched topics and commented on Mark's original report. "Another pair of deaths! What could these Red Mall people be doing that's so dangerous?"

Mark knew it was a rhetorical question. "Any progress Aggie?"

"Some. It's already in the mission log. There are several paths that need investigating, but the portal types are suggestive of one-way passages. We're mapping them for Emily's team to check out tomorrow."

Emily replied from her position in The Wilderness. "The rate that these people are dying, tomorrow might be too late. The previous pair died what, ten hours ago? And now there are only six people left. Fatima, can I pull a double shift and keep searching after sundown? I'd like to ask for volunteers."

Fatima felt stricken with a conflict of interest. She was still hopeful her dear friend Husna was among the six remaining survivors, and yet her first duty was to balance the value of the search and rescue with the safety of the away teams. She would not have them searching while exhausted and more likely to make a fatal mistake. "Emily," Fatima answered, "let me consider that for a while. For now plan on returning home as scheduled."

Emily acknowledged over the phone. "Well, okay. But that'll only give us about another two hours of search time before we have to start heading back."

"I know."

Aggie spoke up. "Fatima? A compromise might be to let us all camp out at Water Hole #1 for the night. I'm asking for a show of hands… Everybody here is willing."

"For my group too," Emily added hopefully.

The proposal seemed reasonable and Fatima accepted the idea. "All right, agreed. Emily, Aggie, use your judgment. You can search into the evening, but make sure everyone gets a good night's sleep before starting out tomorrow. And be sure not to deviate from the mission standards. We've spent a lot of time assessing the risks. I believe our current rules are correct."

"Yeah, agreed," replied Emily. "I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt either. Thanks for letting us camp out tonight."

The call ended a moment later. Hannah decided to return to work at the Hilton, and Mark got into a long chat with Charles and Lynn. Lynn made a comment that the outside reminded her a bit of the Wizard of Oz movie. In a brief moment of partial clearing, she could swear she could see large trees being uprooted from the land and sucked up into the sky.

Time: Sunday, March 3, 2019 2 PM

Ricardo handed a naked Jessica her second large glass of water and she gulped it down without question. "Does that help?" Ricardo asked. He had not given her explicit permission to speak, so Jessica just nodded her head.

Ricardo thought the training session was coming along admirably. The terrified rabbit was finally realizing that she had found a safe harbor, and the depth of her relief was so profound that she was offering Ricardo absolute obedience. She was even becoming relaxed about her nakedness, facing Ricardo with her arms hanging loosely by her sides, totally unashamed that her breasts and pubis were on display. Her only concern was to understand his next command.

A simple hand gesture and she lay face down on his bed. Ricardo gave a light tap on her skinny butt. Jessica's hands jumped to her ass cheeks and she looked at him to confirm that this was what he wanted. He confirmed by tapping her thighs, and she arched her hips and separated herself, stretching her legs to the sides and pulling her ass cheeks apart. Then she took a deep breath and waited.

Ricardo sat of the bed and pulled a tube from a nearby night table. His finger was soon circling her bruised anus, applying the hemorrhoid cream to the tender welt-like tears of her sensitive skin. He recoated his finger with the cream and then penetrated deeper, spreading the smoothing anesthetic along her rectal wall. The rectal interior was bright red from its recent pounding, and Jessica shuddered at how good the cream felt.

"How's that?" he asked.

Jessica decided that the direct question implied a permission to speak. "It feels much better. Thank you Ricardo."

Ricardo hummed a response and took a moment to examine Jessica's butt, very pleased with the submissiveness Jessica was offering him. Ricardo inspected the damage to her rectal opening and smiled. Her anal muscles had been stretched but not torn, and the welts from the friction of her butt fucking were not severe. Ricardo's morning's plan had been executed perfectly.

Her new master moved to straddle Jessica above her shoulders, and with his left hand he reached under her neck and took a firm grip on her throat, locking his strong fingers around her trachea but still allowing her to breathe. Ricardo felt a brief tension as Jessica wondered what he wanted her to do, and then she took a deep breath and sighed, waiting in obedience for her next command. The pulse of her heart was slow and relaxed, a perfect confirmation of the absolute trust she was offering Ricardo in exchange for her survival. Since Jessica could not see him, Ricardo allowed a large smile to spread across his face.

"Excellent," he thought, "and I knew it would be like this. I foresaw everything. When an ego as huge as Baby Jessica's collapses, it collapses completely. She's like soft clay in my hands now. I am her savior, and I can mold her into anything I want her to become."

Ricardo released her throat and made one last inspection of the anus. Her double rape might have appeared spur of the moment, but the sequence had been carefully planned. Hernando had one of the smallest penises Ricardo had ever seen. He was also someone Ricardo had noticed who would orgasm very quickly after mounting a girl. In their earlier times, Hernando would almost always mount one of his hoof-pussies at the end of a procurement mission, and Ricardo had never known him to take more than a few minutes to blow his load into any female unfortunate enough to be under him.