Kiss My Apocalips Ch. 04

Another man was suddenly there; a slightly older, slightly fatter, slightly balder man cut from the same mold. "Well, HELLOoooo, there," he said, smiling. "Ladies, I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance."

"May I present my brother, John: Full professor of Applied and Theoretical Physics at UCLA."

I was struck into dumb, shocked immobility; except that I eventually realized I was standing up. Suddenly cognizant of that, I made a concerted effort to close my gaping mouth and take my seat again. "Um ... Please forgive me, Doctor G. It never dawned on me that somebody like you had ... um ... made it. Am I wrong in assuming that there are no institutions of higher learning left in the whole country?"

The man's goofy grin vanished, and he suddenly looked at me seriously. "You're right," the older man said quietly to the man standing beside him. "The boy has a head on his shoulders." He nodded at the vid lens. "If my suspicions are correct, there are no universities or colleges remaining still-populated on this earth."

"... One of the words in that sentence being much more important that any of the others," I said, nodding. I stared hard at the man. "Do you know? Do you know who it is?"

He shrugged. "I have a few ideas." He was really studying me. "How did you figure it out?"

I shook my head. "Come on, doc. It might take a rocket scientist to build a rocket, but anybody can understand all the principles behind it. All they have to do is want to learn. If a high school kid can put it together, then not only can anybody do it, but a whole bunch of people probably already have. The noose will form, and then it will start to tighten. I would give anything to be there when it does."

"You realize it was just a simple snapshot," he told me, smiling slightly, almost sadly.

Alright, I had been impressed up until now. I scowled at him. "What the hell has THAT got to do with anything?" I snarled. "There's absolutely nothing WE can do about it!" I paused, suddenly confused. Did he know something I hadn't considered? "Is there?" I asked him.

Again, he gave that sad smile. "Please forgive me. You are right. There is nothing that can be done now. By us. That paradigm has been rendered moot." He thought some more. "Assume we form a society of ... uh ... hunters. What do you think we should be looking for?"

I shrugged. "Biggest damn AI on earth, of course. The asshole could plan it. But no way any living person could implement that strategy. And, assuming it's a snapshot, like you're suggesting, there's got to be more data storage than most people could even imagine. Brontobytes, at least."

"I look forward to meeting you, Jacob," he said, nodding.

"And I you, doc. Take care of yourself. You're one important dude in this world."

"... One word in that sentence being more important that the others," he mumbled.

I disconnected the call and looked around. The girls were staring at me as if I were an elephant in the zoo.

"What?" I asked them defensively.

"One person did this?" Wanda shouted. "You think that a single man caused the world to end?"

I shrugged. "No, it could be a group. But I suspect it's only one individual. It certainly doesn't have to be a man, though."

She looked thoughtful. "What led you to that conclusion?"

"Just about everything. The more info we added, the more that was my conclusion. Like the animals."

"What animals?" Sofia asked, obviously startled.

"The animals all disappeared when the humans did," Doriana explained. "But only WHERE the people did. There were animals on this farm; cows, horses, chickens, cats. They all disappeared along with the people who lived here."

"What about Rocko? He's here."

"Rocko is mine. I picked him up at the vet's office near where I worked before I went home from an all-night shift. My husband and I had just gotten him, and I dropped him off for a checkup. But when we got home, my husband, along with everybody else in my home town, had vanished."

"Oh, Doriana ...."

"Okay," Wanda said. "So, the disappearing animals underscores your opinion that this was caused by a person."

"Empathy for animals is a uniquely human trait. I mentioned that to you before. Everything about this so-called 'Event,' screams of human intervention. That's underscored by what Professor Gonzales just confirmed about the colleges and universities being targeted. Whoever did this didn't want people figuring it out for a while. So, the people who could identify all the top scientists in that field had to vanish."

"Which field?" Doriana asked.

"The professor's field. Theoretical Physics. People like me, the amateurs; we might make some guesses about generalities. But the doc! I can guarantee you that he has a list of suspects! Probably a very short list! He, along with everyone like him, were targeted because of that. But he just happened to go home to a birthday party before The Event! And it just happened to be in one of the little towns that was spared! I mean, what were the chances? There's very little doubt in my mind that our bad guy ... or gal ... has no idea he is still here. And that gives us good guys ... and gals ... a distinct advantage."

Wanda was desperate for more. "But if a person made everybody disappear ...."

"I know!" Sofia exclaimed. "It's like on that old video series. It's, like, eighty or ninety years old now. He ..." she tried to find the word in her memory. "... TRANSPORTED them! Beam me up, Scotty! He took all their atoms apart and transported them to, like, his secret laboratory someplace or something!"

"By golly, I think you've finally stumbled upon the proper subfield, at the very least," I said, giving her a nod of approval.

"Wait a minute!" Wanda asked, dumbfounded. "They were all 'beamed' somewhere?"

"No, of course not," I said. "That's ridiculous!"

"But you just said ...."

"Enough!" I barked. "We can reconvene our family meeting tomorrow night. All of this conjecture doesn't get us any closer to finding Sofia's abductors or to rescuing her friend. We need to make some plans!"

"Can I ask one more question?" Sofia asked meekly.

Doriana responded before I could. "Of course, Sweety."

The slight redhead looked from one of us to the other. "Can I join the family?" We all stared at her, dumbfounded. "I mean," she continued meekly, "how else am I going to find out how all this happened?"

"I TOLD you we should have printed more application forms!" I complained. Wanda slugged me on the arm.

We each in turn told the girl that we'd love to have her join our group; but Doriana, being the "adult in the room," told her not to make her decision for another day or so. "You've just been through a horribly traumatic experience," she said seriously. "You shouldn't jump at joining the first group that looks a little normal to you. You have lots of options and lots of time. We'll always be your friends, and we'll always be here for you."

Wanda nodded animatedly. "Yep. Normal. That's us, alright."

We started talking about how we'd be walking into a "town council meeting" in Acton, what we should expect, and what contingencies we might make in preparation. Other than her "cell mate," Sofia had seen five faces during her captivity, three of whom had been the men who "hunted" her out in the mountains. Wanda asked her if she would be able to identify any of them again if she saw them. She thought so, but there had been drugs involved in most cases, either through the use of nitrous-soaked cloths or the darts. There had been lots of sexual assaults, and lots of tears.

The more dramatic question was: what if THEY saw HER? Right now, they most likely thought that the best probability for what happened earlier that day was that Sofia had somehow gotten her hands on the dart gun, killed her antagonist, and then by some means, she'd gotten the collar off and escaped. Realistically, the chances of a naked girl getting out of those mountains alive was next to nil. However, if she suddenly showed up in a town meeting, there's no telling what would happen. We would need to keep her hidden, or at least disguised.

We would be joining a meeting of a lot of people; and, in my opinion, the possibility of at least one of them being guilty was very good. The head bad guy had to have a pretty large house to have extra rooms available where no one would suspect what was going on. And, of course, he was rich enough to hire a couple thugs to run the operation. Money and power went hand in hand, as far as I was concerned.

"Who are the major players?" Wanda asked me.

I thought about it. "I've never met the mayor. My Mom liked him; she campaigned for him during the last election cycle. He won pretty decisively, as I recall. The sheriff is sort of an asshole. He's pretty conservative, and his department has been accused by the online media of both sexual harassment and racial discrimination, though they denied all allegations." I thought harder. "You know, I don't remember how those cases were resolved. Or if they were. He keeps getting reelected, though. He's been in office almost as long as I can remember. That's probably because of his name. Hardcase. I'm not kidding. Sheriff Hardcase."

"So," Doriana said, nodding. "One mayor that everybody likes, and one sheriff that's a horse's ass. In a mystery novel, the kidnapper would be the mayor, just to keep the reader guessing."

We talked for another half hour, about the meeting in Acton, about the kidnappers, about how we might best help the girl still being held there. But finally, I called a halt to the proceedings, and excused myself in order to make one last security check and shut down the generator. The gals went around and turned off all the lights, I got a weapon and a flashlight and went outside to make my final rounds. Little Rocko made part of the trip with me, but abandoned me after doing his business under a shrub and started whining at the side door to be let in, instead. Some guard dog he was turning out to be!

One positive thing the apocalypse had accomplished was the extermination of light pollution. The stars were simply spectacular. There was no moon that night, and it looked like someone had painted the milky way across the sky using a brush filled with glitter. I thought about going to get the girls to show them, but I realized we had the rest of our lives to see that particular sight.

I locked up, checked the windows, and went in to bed. Doriana was on the center of the mattress on her knees, waiting patiently. "Please, Jacob. I'm SO horny! I need you to take me SO bad! Please!" I was dog tired, and stretched out on the bed on my back, content to have her do all the work. She was more than happy to do so, stroking me to hardness, sucking me until my interest in copulating was uppermost in my mind, and then mounting me and riding me hard.

I was beginning to understand her needs, her reactions to various touches and other stimuli; and her undying, almost desperate desire to sexually satisfy me. As I began stroking her sides and breasts, I jerked a little in surprise as I realized that we weren't the only ones in the room. In point of fact, Wanda and Sofia were standing right next to us, only a foot or so away, looking down at us. I tried to focus in the darkness. Wanda seemed to be holding our visitor, pressed into her back, her arms underneath Sofia's and wrapped around her waist, just under her breasts, while looking over the smaller girl's shoulder at what was going on in bed. The redhead was wearing what appeared to be one of the tee-shirts I'd picked up recently but hadn't worn. It fit her like a small tent, but the presence of Wanda's arms caused it to form to the slight body beneath. There was a store logo on the chest.

"She really seems like it," Sofia whispered.

"Oh, yes. She does," Wanda said softly. "She's pregnant, and that's made her crazy-horny."

"She's going to have Jacob's baby?"

"No. Her husband's. But he's not here anymore, and Jacob is such a gentle, wonderful lover, that he's agreed to satisfy her and take care of her needs."

"Oh." Sofia appeared to be breathing raggedly, deeply. "I didn't know ...."

"Look!" Wanda whispered suddenly. "She's about to cum! I can tell! Watch!"

Doriana threw back her head and issued a moaning shriek. I had my hands on her breasts, and she covered them with her own and pressed hard, grinding her nipples into my palms, while her pussy gripped my fleshy rod rhythmically. Her pace faltered for several seconds, but it soon resumed. "Now you! Oh, please, Jacob! Please cum inside me! Please!"

"This is isn't right," Sofia declared softly. "We shouldn't be watching. This is private and intimate and wonderful. We should leave them alone."

"I'm not going anywhere," her companion told her. "This is my bed, too. I belong here."

"But ... But you promised that you wouldn't leave me alone tonight; that you'd sleep with me."

"No, I promised that we'd sleep together. Come on."

Wanda led her small, docile companion around to the other side of the king bed, where she crawled under the covers and then drew Sofia in after her.

Sofia didn't struggle, but she still protested. "This is so weird! We're in bed with them, and they're still doing it!"

Wanda stole a peek. "Not for long. He's about to pop inside her. Looks like it's going to be a big one, too. Now, roll over and let me hold you." I heard some rustling and felt the bed move slightly.

I groaned loudly. "Oh, God, Doriana. I'm going to ...."

My lover bent forward and whispered loudly in my ear ... loud enough for others to hear. "That's it, Jacob! Let go for me! Ooooo! Yes! I can feel you! You're flooding me!"

"I can't believe this!" Sofia said softly. "I can't believe I'm here."

"Shhh," Wanda told her. "You're here, and you're safe in my arms. We're all going to protect you. Now, go to sleep."

And nobody said another word for the rest of the night.

In the morning, I felt rushed, but I didn't know what else I could do. Doriana spent some time in the barn with our stash of guns and a couple paperback manuals that described them in detail. Up until now, I had avoided most of these devices, and I was still reluctant to acquire the degree of interest certain groups of people had always shown toward them. Doriana didn't really like them, either; but she was the type of individual that simply did what had to be done; and that, of course, entailed learning what had to be learned.

She was back in the kitchen in time for a nine o'clock breakfast, which was an abbreviated affair, with cereal and milk that we made with a combination of powdered and concentrated canned stuff. It wasn't bad, considering. I texted the pictures Doriana had taken with her comm device to Mr. G, along with our concerns about anyone recognizing Sofia. "Way ahead of you," he texted in return. "Just come to my house at 1:00. Town meeting will be at 3:00."

"It's a whole town meeting now," I said thoughtfully. "Things are starting to get big."

"He told us yesterday, the bigger the better," Wanda commented. "Safety in numbers. I have to believe there are more good guys than bad guys."

"Let's hope so."

Doriana's picks in the firearm department were an M-24 sniper rifle with a scope and fold-out stand, and two AR-15s. Giving those to the town's law enforcement would still leave us with two of the former and more than two dozen of the latter. The rifle was a huge weapon, almost four feet long and weighing more than 12 pounds. The documentation we had said it would shoot a thousand meters, which was hard for me to even imagine.

We were also going to give them one of our 6-rotor drones with an extra battery pack, controller (of course) and a paired tablet for a live camera monitor. I had everything charged and ready for action. I assumed our primary objective was to elicit public sympathy in order to achieve the other hostage's release; but barring that, I wanted to have tactical options immediately ready.

We packed up the truck, much like it had been the day before, and we started the process of returning to my old hometown. That, of course, meant placing tamper-strips (thin strands of thread or wire) across doors and windows to make sure no one had entered the place while we were gone. We were always figuring out more boobytrap devices along the driveway and the perimeter of the property, but we hadn't had time to implement those plans yet. Our welded puncture-strips were well hidden again after we passed. But all of these precautions meant a long "getting-started" routine.

It was only about a thirty-five-minute drive, but I started an hour earlier than I had to, and drove through two or three smaller communities in hopes of finding a more suitable vehicle. I spotted several likely candidates, SUVs and minivans that had come to somewhat gentle stops in shallow ditches and against trees and lampposts. All of them had either run themselves out of gas, or they were EVs that were out of charge; and I didn't really want to waste the time getting them on the road again. I faulted myself for wanting instant gratification, but I soldiered on.

I found my perfect mode of transportation in front of a two-story suburban home in a community just ten miles from Acton. I stopped and then took my trusty steel bar up to the door, but it was unlocked, and I went in, looking around. There was a rack of little hooks right next to the front door, various keys sorted and ready for use hanging in neat order. I pushed buttons on various key fobs, and on my third attempt, the minivan's lights blinked invitingly. The little thing would seat six people easily, and it had obviously just been cleaned, inside and out. It was an almost new EV, and it had a full charge, with 450 miles indicated before depletion. It was absolutely perfect. I handed Wanda the fob and told her to follow me. Sofia insisted on riding with her.

We pulled up to Mr. G's house right on schedule, and we spent the next half hour getting to know each other. Mrs. G produced plates of little sandwiches and pastries, which I thought were great. The girls wanted the recipes, and chatted happily about things people used to chat about when they went a-calling. It was an amazingly pleasant experience.

But then it was down to business. The ladies all went back to the bedrooms to look for something to disguise Sofia with. The prof wanted to see the weapons and the drone, but they were all packed up, and I didn't really want to bring them out and then re-pack them again. I pulled out the manual we'd brought along, but I was forced to admit that I'd never fired the big gun, and I really didn't know anything about it. I'd only test fired the AR once, which had been enough for me. I told them that I'd really like to take the.45 I'd inherited from good old Frank to the meeting with us. I sort of abbreviated my experience with it, which obviously had them intrigued; but they suggested I not go into a town hall meeting while armed. Reluctantly, I agreed to leave it in the truck.

The gals came back in, and I had to admit, Sofia was unrecognizable. Her thick red hair was tucked inside a blonde wig, and they'd stuffed a small pillow into a pair of too-big pants and baggy sweatshirt to make her look thirty pounds heavier. We all approved, then made further plans. Mr. G said that he'd handle the intros and explanations. The girls would sit in the audience and keep watch, texting immediately if Sofia recognized anyone. We talked about various members of the town council, several of which I knew. There was a doctor that my mom had worked with, a shop owner that I'd always been friendly toward, a teacher that I'd never had, but knew well enough that we'd always say hi. Mr. G liked the sheriff, but Mrs. G thought he was too rigid and set in his ways. They both thought the mayor was too ambitious and sort of narcissistic, but they also thought he was tolerable in small doses.