Lydia's Run

"What about the drones? Do they have weapons?"

I shook my head. The drones I was used to were nothing like the ones outside.

"No. I'd never seen a weapon before leaving the City. But the drones can switch your breathing off if you have a collar. They use it on the Disses."

"And Protector?"

"I've told you. I've no idea."

"Where is the one place you've never known anyone go? Or a place that seems secure?"

I shook my head again.

"Somewhere you felt was watched more than other places? Anything that was different from elsewhere? Central maybe?"

I thought about that. Then I realized I did know a place.

"The Tower. It's the highest point in the City. I used to go up there with Amelie because we could feel the wind and look out over the City. There's an elevator on the outside. No one much goes up there. But... I don't know what's inside. No one I know has ever been in there. And it's in the middle of the City."

"That could be it. It's going to be somewhere outstanding, like the tallest building."

I looked at the soldiers. Around twenty men. All of them prime examples of what I had viewed as primitives. They were covered head to toe in identical clothing, patterned to break up their image against the foliage of trees and bushes. Heavy-looking vests covered their backs and chests. Flak jackets they called them, to protect against projectiles. They also carried machine guns and grenades that could be used to kill.

So many new words I'd learned. All were mostly destructive things that frightened me as much as they gave me comfort that they would protect us from the drones.

The Colonel had explained their weapons to me. I understood the principles and I'd seen the guns in action. I think he'd been trying to comfort me by removing the mystic. But knowing how they could kill me and tear my flesh apart from a great distance was far from reassuring.

"We want you to come with us."

I looked in horror at him.

"What? I can't. I'm not a fighter. And I have Annalise. And Lyra."

"You have Adora and Amelie to look after them. And you know the layout of the City better than any map. You can move freely and find an entrance into the tower."

"How?"

"Wear the garments of the City dwellers and no one will notice you.

We go tomorrow."

The next morning I woke early and gave Annalise her first feed.

"You're going then?" Amelie asked already knowing the answer.

She was progressing quickly towards her own little miracle and helpfully her first milk had started. We were already sharing the feeding which made it easier when the time came to leave.

"I have to. These people have helped us. It's only right that I help them.

If the Protector isn't stopped it'll only come for us again. We've lost too many already. I can't lose anyone else."

I knew Amelie feared for me. The sadness was all over her face. But she didn't argue.

"Take care of her." I said passing Annalise into her arms.

"Just come back safe."

She held Annalise and put an arm around me in a hug.

"We only have each other now and I can't lose my Second."

"You won't."

I wasn't sure I felt the confidence I exuded.

"Lyra."

She was sitting on the floor playing with a pretend baby one of the soldier women had given her. She looked up.

"I'm going away for a while. Will you help Amelie and look after everyone for me?"

Lyra nodded. She was very young, but what had happened to us had made her grow beyond her years. I was frightened of the scars it would leave on her mind in the future. But perhaps her life would be safer for what I did next. I hoped so.

"Are you going to stop the machines?" She asked.

"Yes. The soldiers are. I'm just going to... show them where they're hiding."

"And then you'll come back?"

I smiled. She was becoming like my own child. An older sister to Annalise.

"Yes. Then I'll come back and we can all be a family together."

With a flash of that innocence she'd had the very first time I'd seen her she scrambled up and hugged me.

Outside, the sun was rising over the sprawling base and our little encampment that had been tacked on like a small flower in a young girl's hair. Already men were up and about. Most were preparing for what would come after the fall of Protector. My small group was waiting for me. They were the ones who would make it happen.

"Four days march." The Colonel greeted me with.

"Are you ready?"

I looked down at myself, at the heavy footwear they'd given me to make the journey back to the City easier than the one that had led here."

"Yes."

We made the first part across the lowlands in the comfort of horse and cart. The mountains would be another matter. Those we had to pass on foot. I was lucky. I carried only a small pack with basic provisions. The soldiers were laden with much more. Heavy guns and other devices with names that meant nothing to me.

The mountains were three days of heavy slog. We camped and recovered before approaching the City. I was introduced to the concept of stealth. Staying under cover, watching the skies and a quick run for the tunnel. It was as dirty and smelly as I remembered and I appreciated clothes even more.

When we reached the old room where I'd first felt the freedom from my Chastity garment and collar I stripped. It was strange that for so much of my life, I'd been virtually naked without a thought and yet now I felt embarrassed to remove my clothing in front of these men.

They looked at me differently than City dwellers looked upon one another. To us, nudity had been normal. Even in the village, it wasn't something to be ashamed of. But with these soldiers it was different. No one in the base went around unclothed. I could feel their eyes on my tits. I knew they were looking at my pussy with the lust of the primitives in the old pictures.

I craved sex. I loved the act of pleasuring, fucking, with my Second. With Quillan, it had a been magical thing. But to feel the lust of these men was unnerving. I felt vulnerable. Tits heavy with milk didn't help my discomfort. I wished I could express them before going on but couldn't bring myself to do that with my audience.

I picked up the discarded Chastity garment from where it'd been dropped so long ago and put it around myself. Under watchful eyes, I had to suffer the indignity of fitting it inside my sex. An awkward act of stretching my pussy open and pressing it home. It didn't help that it elicited an unwanted response from me that left me struggling not to gasp a moment of pleasure.

"Will it... connect to Protector again?" I asked nervously before clipping it in place.

"No. We're confident once the link is broken it won't reactivate on its own."

"How do you know?"

"We've studied these things in the past. You're not the first City dweller we've come across."

I remembered that Jareth and his friends did just this. They refitted disconnected garments and moved freely around the City.

I clipped the catch shut and prayed he was right. That I might be trapped in this thing forever after escaping it was unsettling. What would I do if I never felt the full pleasure of my body ever again?

Next, I found the collar and gingerly put it around my neck. In a few short moments, I'd transformed myself back to my old life. In appearance at least.

"I'm ready." I declared.

Everyone's eyes were on me. On my now near-naked body and I discovered how to feel self-conscious. The Colonel was more disciplined than some. His eyes remained at face level.

"Good. You know what to do?"

"I think so."

I took a breath and headed for the ladder that would take me back to the illusion I'd lived in most of my life.

The first thing I noticed emerging into the City was the air. It was clean, but it lacked any scent. No smell of grass, plant oils, or that distinctive sense of recent rain. Just air. Plain and lifeless.

Passing along the walkways of the City was almost a surreal experience. Familiar, and yet now I was conscious of how open and pristine it was. Clean and shiny. And sterile just like the air. I was also acutely aware of how naked I was. I wasn't alone in that here but I still couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed by it, by the knowledge that hundreds of eyes were in my flesh.

And that brought me to the people. They looked weak. Lean and small. Pale imitations of their cousins outside. I couldn't help but see them as pets like the rabbit's village children had kept to teach them about life. Helpless, domesticated shadows of their wild brethren, dependent on Protector for everything.

The drones darting about above me were small and fragile compared to the ones that had attacked us but they unnerved me. They were the eyes of Protector. Ever watchful. Was it my imagination or were there more? Jareth had said Protector had become less accepting of decent.

Sooner or later one would focus on me. An algorithm would search for the connection to my collar and garment only to find it was missing. Or worse, that it wasn't and I would be denied my breathing. I felt my throat tighten with the fear and subconsciously I fingered the collar before hurrying on.

My first task was to find the least populated route and time it to the Tower. For that, I had a mechanical timepiece. A small device strapped to my wrist and disguised with a thin veil wrapped over it. The sort of thing I would wave around in one of my dance routines to emphasize movement. The tiny circular machine itself was simple, with pointers that measured divisions of time. I understood the concept but the divisions were meaningless to me. To the Colonel and his men, it was valuable information.

"Lydia."

I froze at the sound of my name. It was the Enforcer from the Church of the Protector. I recognized him instantly.

"I've searched for you several times. I haven't seen you about since the Church."

My heart skipped a beat.

"W... why?"

He stepped closer and stroked the side of his hand over my cheek.

"I hoped you might have reconsidered my invite."

I looked on confused. I couldn't think straight knowing his eyepiece could sense every change in my body. The tightening of capillaries, my rising pulse, and the dilation of my pupils. It was like a lie detector wired straight to his brain. I hoped he'd misinterpret those signals as he had the last time. Then I saw what he meant.

"Oh.

You still wish to mutually pleasure?"

He smiled and took my hand, softly spreading my fingers until they interlocked with his. I was shocked that it'd been almost a cycle since he'd seen me and yet still felt the same way.

"Yes."

I glanced about at the few people passing by. Aside from the colors of his garment and neck collar, and that eyepiece, he was just like any one of them. A weak, soft imitation of a man. Feminine except for the crown of his penis, restricted and protruding from his Chastity garment. He certainly didn't have the attraction of... Quillan. I forced back that thought before it showed on my face.

"I..."

He wasn't unattractive. Certainly, if I had remained a City dweller in ignorance of what was true, I would have been comfortable with him. I knew I was assessing him. I knew the danger of refusing again. He would question my blush and embarrassment. That eyepiece was telling him every fearful response that right now I needed him to interpret as arousal.

"Okay.

Come with me." I said with a returned warmth.

He looked surprised but didn't object very strongly as I led him on through the city, still towards the Tower.

"I know somewhere special."

"Where? I thought we should go to my rooms."

The Enforcer protested.

"No. This will be better."

I glanced at him with my face lit up. A big beaming grin.

"I want it now. Spontaneous."

I leaned closer and whispered.

"Exciting."

I was still intent on completing my mission. This Enforcer could end it in a heartbeat if he felt something was amiss. And I had no intention of being in a place it might be awkward to leave quickly. If pleasuring with him was the price of success, I would do just that. It wasn't such a chore. Even if my preference was to enjoy it with my.... I thought of Quillan again before. Correcting myself... my Second.

"Don't you just love the view? And that cooling breeze."

I held my arms out and let my hair billow in the artificial wind at the top of the Tower. It was longer since leaving for the village but not so that it looked too out of place.

My Enforcer seemed more interested in the view I presented than looking out over the city. His eyes were transfixed on my legs as his fingers traced the curve of my butt cheeks around to my ass hole.

"Delightful." He said.

That wasn't something I was offering, not even to his finger if he'd discovered that particular route to pleasure. I turned quickly to face him.

"Now. About that mutual pleasure." I grinned.

I slid down his petite body and licked the tip of his cock where it protruded.

"Uhh." He shuddered.

The restricted, flaccid thing twitched as best it could. Blood flow enriched its color but it remained a disappointment. No surprise after the raw beauty of Quillan's hard, freely moving length with its beautiful ball bag hanging for my hands to play with. However, this was the City. Its inhabitants were as I was. Pale effeminate imitations of our ancestors. Our sexual enjoyment controlled, and access to one another's pleasure points restricted. And with it, this XY's ability to please me. Nothing this XY offered could be anything but disappointing.

"Do you like that?" I whispered seductively.

"Oh Lord Protector, yes."

Again I kissed and licked his point of pleasure. Running my tongue over it with quickening flicks that left him gasping and distracted from any information his eyepiece might be feeding him about my bodily reactions. His hands caressed my shoulders and stroked my neck under my hair, just below my ears.

"Mmm."

I couldn't deny that he was affecting me. Making my heart pulse and my pussy water with hunger. But I knew it would go nowhere, becoming only a frustration.

"You have such beautiful mammaries."

They're tits. I wanted to scream it at him. They're fucking tits.

"Thank you." I muttered as I rubbed my hands up the insides of his thighs. I sensed his tiny crown trying to rise, but remaining caged and unable to fulfill its purpose.

He shuddered and a tiny amount of his fluid seeped free onto my lips.

I was lifted up and he pressed me against the wall, forcing his leg between my thighs.

"Mmm."

That dull arousal I'd known so many times in my groin was back. Muted further by the experience of unfettered pleasuring and fucking. Something this poor soul would possibly never know if I didn't complete my task shortly. I ground my groin into him.

"That's so pleasant." He said as his hands caressed my tits. I kept his face to mine, kissing and probing his mouth with my tongue, desperate to avoid his sucking on my nipples. Any taste of my milk would betray me and my tits were so heavy after days without feeding.

In rhythm we rolled our sex over one another's thighs, heightening the sensations of delight encompassing us both. My hands were around his back, fingers clawing at his flesh as I vocalized my fake feelings.

"Oh joy. Oh, joy.

Press harder."

He did and I felt myself easing towards that disappointment of not quite being fulfilled.

"Harder. Yes."

I forced my leg hard into his groin knowing the pressure would be squeezing his balls in their protective cocoon as my soft skin rubbed over his hot, swollen crown.

"Uhh."

He shuddered and another tiny leakage escaped from his cock onto my flesh. Not cum. Just the lubricant that eased the glide of his hot tip against my skin.

"Oh yes."

Whatever passed for an orgasm with his cock packaged and squeezed so that it could never become truly hard washed over him and he quivered in my arms.

I kept the rocking of my hips going, concentrating on finding my own pleasure until I peaked.

"Uhh.

Oh, thank the Lord Protector."

It was pleasant as always. Just not the climactic event cuming should be. It was City sex. Not shattering or intense. Just pleasant. But ultimately unfulfilling.

"That was so good." He said evidently impressed when not knowing how it could be.

"It was lovely."

I said in return. Now I needed to get rid of him Thankfully he solved that problem for me.

"I must go. Protector will know I'm not on my assigned patrol. And you shouldn't be in this area."

"Oh. Why?"

"I've no idea. Only that it's a place we're required to monitor for the Disses.

You don't want to be labeled as one of those. Not now. Not while we are purging the City of the vermin."

That confirmed it. The Central Tower was important. This distracting dalliance had provided information as well as a moment's enjoyment.

"Oh. Okay."

I feigned innocence.

"I wondered why so few come here. You should go first. I'll wait a moment then follow."

He kissed me, letting his tongue glide over my lips as he broke away.

"I want to pleasure with you again if I may."

I brushed my hands over his chest and smiled.

"I'll meet you tomorrow. At Performance Time in the Grand Meeting Place. We can watch the dancing, then you can come to my rooms. For the night."

Not a chance that was going to happen, but he believed it would. I pressed my body against him, purposefully rubbing my protruding nipples against his while hoping they didn't betray my breeding by leaking onto him.

"I'd like that. Yes.

Now I must go."

He slipped from my grasp and headed for the elevator. I checked the timepiece. The distraction had perhaps taken me thirty of the strange measurements. That left the other twenty that had passed for transit. I'd check again on the way back. But first I needed to find an entrance to the Tower and that wasn't up here. I took the elevator down and walked the circumference of the building. I'd been here so many times. I was used to the blandness but never had I realized that there was no evident entrance. It was a tower, the tallest of any in the City, and yet it was impossible to enter. Not a doorway or viewing port anywhere on its gleaming facade.

I checked the timepiece again and made my way back. Appearing as just another near-naked resident living the life of a kept, domestic animal for some hidden being or machine. That thought made me all the more determined to help end the fakery and free these people. They should feel the real wind on their faces and enjoy the warmth of the sun. And above all, they should be allowed to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and breed as they chose.

The Enforcer I'd just pleasured should know the real joy of cuming. Of emptying his balls of his seed. It wasn't for any intelligence, human or otherwise, to decide what level of pleasure he could enjoy or if he should have children.

"Twenty minutes from when I climbed out of the tunnel." I said triumphantly.

"And the Protector?

Do you think it's in the Tower?"

"I'm certain.

An Enforcer distracted me and he said it was an area they monitor closely for Disses. They'd only do that if they had a reason, something to protect."

"Well done."

He turned to the others.

"It's confirmed. The Tower is our target."

"There's a problem though." I said speaking up before he launched into attack mode.

"There's no way in. No door."

He considered this problem for a moment.

"Then we'll make one. We have some C4."

"Sir. It's ancient. Its shelf life is supposed to be indefinite but we've never tested it." One of his soldiers protested.

The Colonel was determined.

"It'll work."

I had no idea what C4 was, but guessed it was destructive, like machine guns.

"Weapons check."

Twelve

All of the Colonel's men exited the tunnel into the Service area without incident. My heart was pounding in my ears as I waited for them to gather behind the row of dormant cleaning machines. They crouched and almost as one they surveyed the area. Next, it would be a charge to the Tower. Me ensuring they stayed on route.