Mandemic Pt. 02

5: A Visitor

Two days later, Alice was at work and Mark was sitting in the living room of their home.

He'd had a quiet day. There had even been some time for him to catch up with friends using his wife's laptop. Since the introduction of the male shielding regulations about the only way he could keep in contact with others was through social media like MensNet. Alice didn't approve but Mark felt he was entitled to some social life, even if the MensNet chat rooms were unfashionably bloke-ish and too many of the threads were involved in discussing various conspiracy theories that suggested everything from the fact that the whole epidemic had been faked through to the idea that there was a vaccine for men but women had managed to keep it secret. Mark shook his head at one of the more absurd proposals and shut the lap top down.

Mark usually had the run of the house while his wife was at work but he had to keep one eye on the clock for when she was expected back. Then he had two choices. Either he could climb into his isolation suit to provide protection against any airborne infection that Alice might carry in or he could retreat to his own room with it's carefully sealed door and regularly disinfected surfaces.

Often he headed off to his room, although sometimes he put on his suit to spend time with his wife. Mostly they stayed home in the evenings. There wasn't often much opportunity to go out - the restrictions meant that if they went to a bar or restaurant there was always a delay while the place checked his suit over. He supposed he should be grateful but he knew that it was because they were more concerned about getting a visit from a quarantine officer or being sued than they ever were about his well-being. Some places seemed positively hostile to men, even though it was the men that were the ones at risk. Alice said it was because the women felt threatened by the containment suits. Mark didn't think that was very fair. Nowadays, Alice mainly went out with her friends. Mark was getting used to spending time alone.

On this evening he was taken by surprise, hearing Alice's key in the lock before he had the chance to change.

He scuttled off quickly to his room, leaving behind the book he had been reading.

"Mark, come and join us," he heard his wife shouting. "We've got a guest."

Alice really should have phoned, Mark thought. Now he would have to rush to put on his suit. "I'll be there in a moment," he called, "I'm just changing."

Getting into the rubber suit was a struggle at the best of times. When he was in a hurry it was even worse. Eventually though he was able to close the neck- to crotch zip and fasten the covering flap over it, pull the hood over his head, fit the goggles and air filter and pull on the two pairs of gloves. Cursing he realised that he hadn't switched on his throat microphone and had to fumble awkwardly with the switch while looking in a mirror in order to get it turned on. He ran through the mental check list that he used every time he left the room when there was anyone else around: suit - hood - goggles - mask - gloves. Everything seemed in order. He felt able to venture out of his room.

"There you are!" Alice exclaimed as he entered the living room. Sitting beside her on the couch was another woman that he didn't recognise. "See, Laura, I said he would be all suited up."

The other women nodded. Seeing that Mark was appropriately covered up, she felt able to remove her own surgical mask. Mark could see she was an attractive looking woman, smartly dressed in a 'I'm going to make an impression in the office' way, probably in her mid thirties - a little older than his wife - but he still didn't know who she was.

"Now, Mark, I know how concerned you are about how the current situation has been affecting our marital relations. I mean it's not been your fault. I was never very keen on condoms, so the idea of that whole body suit in bed really doesn't appeal. Anyway, Laura has offered to stop by every so often and help me out with - well - those urges that a woman gets. I know you won't mind. After all, you know how irritable I can get and it has been a couple of months now. So if you see her around the place you'll know why."

Mark could hardly believe it. He had no idea that his wife was sexually attracted to other women and now she was introducing him to her new lover in as matter-of-fact a way as if she was telling him about her new cleaner. And she was doing it as though it was some big benefit to him. He started to object but then realised he had failed to turn on his throat mike, so that all the came out was a growled muttering.

"No, don't make a fuss, Mark. You know it's for the best," his wife admonished. "Why don't you get us a cup of coffee. I'm sure Laura would like one."

Inside his rubber hood, Mark bit back his objections and nodded. He would find a way to discuss this with his wife later, he thought.

As he left the room he overheard Laura saying to his wife,"It's a good idea to keep him busy. He'll only fret about the restrictions on his freedom if he has the chance to think about them." That. Mark felt, was an understatement, it was hard to think about anything else, even when he was doing something else. The suit was a significant encumbrance.

In the kitchen, while boiling water for the coffee, Mark fumbled with the switch on the neck band of his hood. At least with his throat mike working he would be able to respond to Alice.

He put the drinks for Alice and Laura on a tray. There was no point doing one for himself, he wouldn't be able to take his hood off while Laura and Alice were sitting there without masks on.

As he went back towards the living room there was a sound of giggling. Alice obviously was not wasting any time, Mark thought and as he entered the room the two women were sprawling on the couch with Laura nuzzling on Alice's neck and one hand on her breasts.

"Oh, thanks Mark," Alice said turning back towards Laura and starting to unbutton her blouse."That's all I'm going to want for a bit."

"From you at least," giggled Laura.

Mark put down the tray and was about to say something but Alice said, "Go on, shoo, you don't want to be a party-pooper, do you? And any way, I'm not turned on by the idea of having you watch."

Mark peered out at the two women through his goggles. He thought he saw a raised eyebrow from Laura that suggested she disagreed with Alice. He wondered if he should protest in some way but then decided there was probably no point and headed back to his room.

Sat on the edge of his bed, his door fastened shut and his hood pulled off, Mark felt depressed. He'd thought Alice was taking care of him but now with this Laura turning up, what did that signify?

There were the sounds of amusement coming from the living room. He could imagine what the two women were up to - the thought increased his depression and at the same time encouraged his cock to stiffen within its cage. He tried to put the sounds out of his mind. In the end he stripped off his latex suit, and turned on his and tried drowning out the sounds with his television.

6. Concerns

It had been after midnight when Laura left and Alice hadn't bothered to look in on her husband before going to bed. He woke up the following morning when he heard the front door shut as she was leaving for work. It was a strange development for Mark. Until now Alice had allways seemed to be concerned for his well-being.

Emerging from his room, it looked as though his wife and her friend had enjoyed quite a party. An empty bottle of wine stood on the table, another had been tossed into the bin in the corner of the room. Two wine glasses, their rims smeared with lipstick, stood on the table beside two shot glasses and an almost empty bottle of vodka. Mark couldn't remember how much had been in it before but he was pretty sure they had only opened it a day or so before.

More disturbing were the signs of the entertainment the girls had enjoyed. He found a pair of his wife's knickers discarded on the couch. Then, when he started to tidy up the room, he found a black satin bra that definitely wasn't one of hers tucked behind one of the cushions.

He grabbed a cup of coffee and took it back to his room before he put on his hood and air filters back on, returned to the living room and set to clearing up, feeling annoyed at the way Alice was taking him for granted. He turned on the radio. The music was cheerful. It should have helped his mood but somehow didn't.

The mid-morning news bulletin with its latest data on infection numbers, mortality rates and discouraging progress with a research programme that had been hoping to develop a vaccine, depressed him further.

Mark went looking for his wife's laptop. Eventually he found it in her bedroom. The MensNet boards were busy. They often were mid-morning when women were out working and men had the opportunity for some time to themselves. One thread had half a dozen posts from two men discussing where it was best to head for if you decided to go on the run and take your chance. Colorado, Wyoming and Montana seemed to have the lowest infection rates but quarantine enforcement was pretty aggressive. Tennessee was a better bet according to one post, if you could find a way to get there. Fat chance of that, Mark thought, assuming he got fed up enough with the situation at home to make want to leave his wife and take the risk, unaccompanied men couldn't use public transport easily and hitching or walking along country roads was likely to attract the attention of the police. Someone had said they had thought of stealing their wife's car but then realised that they would have to drive in their hood and goggles and run the risk of being stopped and asked why they were driving alone or they'd have to put on a wig and make up and try to pretend that they were a legitimate female driver and take the risk of becoming infected. Someone else suggested trying to get overseas but nobody could point to a country that hadn't embargoed all travel by American males to avoid importing the virus. He supposed Mexico or Canada was a possibility too but to the south what had been intended to keep immigrants out was now being used to prevent the infected or vulnerable leaving and to the north passage across the Lakes was hazardous and the 49th parallel was well guarded too.

None of the possibilities sounded attractive to Mark.

Another thread was debating whether or not there was any progress on a vaccine. There were plenty who felt that there was one already but that it was being kept secret so that the women still had the excuse to control things. Mark didn't really believe that. It was true, of course, that the longer things went on, the tighter grip women were taking on the economic and political world but that was just the result of the situation, Mark thought. He didn't imagine there was any real conspiracy. Although, curiously since the main political offices had been taken over by women a lot of the chopping and changing on measures to control the outbreak had stopped. Those in charge said that was because it was easier now to implement a consistent set of measures. Some of the posters on Mensnet seemed to think it was because the international conspiracy of women had got what they wanted and didn't need to do any more. It all sounded far-fetched to Mark. Plenty of those posting disagreed with him though. Of course, nobody had any idea of what to do about it.

Mark heard the sound of a horn. That would be the mobile shop, he thought. With men restricted pretty much to their houses and women out working, local delivery services had sprung up. He needed some food for the pantry and some cleaning materials after the mess he had needed to deal with in the living room. He checked his suit and gloves, fitted his hood, goggles and breathing mask in place, made sure his microphone was switched on and headed for the door.

There was already a queue by the truck. Three other men, all dressed like himself were standing waiting to be served by a fat women who looked jolly behind her own surgical mask. Mark joined the queue, keeping the required distance from the man in front. He turned around.

"Hi, Mark," a metallic voice sounded.

Mark wasn't sure for the moment who it was but then, recognising the slight tubby form of his neighbour, realised it was Jack from two properties down the block. "Uhh, Jack?" his own voice, distorted by his throat mike and speaker, sounded almost identical.

"Uh huh. How's it going?"

"Not great." Actually, thought Mark, 'not great' is an understatement. I'm confined to the house, forced to wear a rubber suit and all the rest of this stuff; at risk of a fatal infection; required to donate sperm on a regular basis; and my wife has just hooked up with a girlfriend as an alternative to having sex with me. "No," he said, "worse than not great."

The queue shuffled forward as the woman dealt with the first of them.

Jack didn't say anything else but shuffled forward again and reached the head of the queue. He made his purchases and as soon as he had finished, he nodded at Mark and headed home. Mark did his own shopping and returned too.

When he got indoors, a message was waiting for him on the home answerphone. "Mark, darling," it was his wife, "I'll be late tonight. Laura's heard about this party and we're going straight from work. So don't wait up and make sure you finish your chores."

A few minuted later there was a knock on the front door. A woman in the brown uniform of the local delivery service was waiting when Mark opened the door. She held out a small square parcel and Mark took it from her in rubber gloved hands.

He knew what it was. The government sent them out regularly to all males to collect sperm deposits. The packages were unmarked but always the same, in the same wrapping and the same size. He knew that she knew what it was. She didn't actually say, "Enjoy your wank," but there was something about her smirk that made Mark imagine she was thinking it.

Mark put the box on the hall table. It would have to wait until Alice came back with the key to his enclosure. She would want to supervise the process anyway. The shielding scheme required that she sign off the donation as his and she was always one to do things by the book. Plus, Mark thought, she'd be wanting to make sure he didn't enjoy himself too much.

7. Friends With Benefits

When Laura and Alice returned, Mark could tell they were more than a little drunk. He heard the two clearly from his room as they almost fell through the front door.

"Oh ho! It's that time of the month!" He heard Alice giggle. She had obviously seen the box on the hall table.

"He can have his treat in the morning," Laura responded.

"Yes," Alice replied, "we mustn't get him up at this time of night just to get him up."

The two women laughed.

"And besides, there's no point in getting him up because you've already promised me that you're going down."

There were more inebriated giggles.

Mark tried to pull the bed clothes over his head. The last thing he wanted to do right now was to think of his wife and another woman sexually amusing themselves.

It was ten o'clock the following morning before either of the women were up. Laura was first to appear as Mark, dressed in his latex suit and hood in anticipation of the arrival of the others, was clearing away his own breakfast things. He heard her on the stair and pulled his hood up over his head before she came into the room.

"Oh god," she said as she came into the kitchen. "How am I supposed to put up with sound of you sucking air through those filters with this headache?"

Mark felt this was pretty unfair. He would much rather not have to bother with the filters and it wasn't his fault that they made each breath sound like a creaking door.

Laura perched on a stool by the breakfast bar. Her short dressing robe fell away from her bare legs. Mark was pretty sure she wasn't wearing anything under the robe. The results of that thought on his enclosed cock didn't help. "I could use some coffee," Laura said.

Mark was about to reply with an acidic remark to the effect that she might like to get it herself when he realised that his throat mike wasn't switched on. It was less effort to make some coffee.

"Thanks," said Laura as he put it on the bar beside her.

At least she's grateful, Mark thought.

Laura crossed her legs as she stared into the cup. Mark wasn't sure if she was trying to cause him problems with his enclosure but the results were the same. She leant forward and pressed the switch on Mark's throat mike. "Do you mind me being here?"

"No, I guess not," wheezed Mark. "Alice deserves some fun. She's looked after me well."

"Good. I hope we can be friends." As she turned back to her coffee her robe managed to slide from one shoulder. The effect was provocative. Mark really couldn't work out how she had done it.

"I'm sure we can," said Mark, trying to ignore the flirtatious move. He was pretty sure that getting involved with his wife's lover wasn't likely to improve the mood around the house.

Laura took another sip of coffee and smiled over the cup at Mark.

"I could..." he started.

Laura shook her head. "No," she said, "I'll decide." She reached up and slid the switch on his microphone to 'off'. It cut out with a crackle. "This is such a good idea," she said with a laugh, "a man whose talk you can turn off."

Mark grunted.

"What's a good idea?" Alice was standing at the kitchen doorway.

"The throat mike," Laura said. "It's a neat one. I've not seen one like that before."

"Oh. Yes. I suppose so. I see Mark got you coffee."

"Yes, he's been looking after me very well. He's sweet."

'Sweet' was not what Mark felt. Laura's flirting had left him with his cock trying to escape from its enclosure. The result was uncomfortable.

"Now, Mark, this morning," Alice had her 'listen to me' tone of voice on. Mark had learned that it was a good idea to pay attention when she was talking like this. "Your donation kit turned up yesterday I see. You know how much I hate doing it and we're not going down to the clinic again. That's far too much trouble. Laura's offered to do it though. Isn't that kind?"

Mark wondered whether 'kind' was the word he would use but he nodded nevertheless.

"I've given her the key to your 'thing'." Mark looked across to Laura, she was holding the key to his enclosure on a chain around her neck. Her dressing gown still wasn't fastened properly. "She can sort you out while I pick up some shopping. Make sure you do just as she says. I don't want to hear that she's had any problems and I certainly don't want any letters back from the Donation Bank saying that there's anything wrong with your contribution."

Mark nodded again. He didn't understand why she had to be so critical. He was as public-spirited as anyone and he knew just how important it was to keep up the level of donations, in order to ensure sufficient genetic diversity in the Bank. True, he didn't much enjoy the rather clinical process and it was even worse when his wife or one of the nurses at the clinic was supervising but he accepted the need for it and would probably have agreed to it, even if the regulations didn't mandate it. All right there had been that one time when the Bank came back with an "insufficient donation quantity" message but that hadn't been his fault. He'd been distracted at the critical moment and spilled most of it. Alice had been furious, needless to say, and even more so when she got the letter from the Bank. "I suppose you've just done that so you can have another wank this month," she had said. Mark had thought that pretty unfair. Mostly his wife had been very supportive of all the measures they now had to take and up until now she been understanding most of the time. She did have a problem with the sperm donations, though, he knew.