Quaranteam - North West Ch. 11

"Harri, either you go give it to her, or I'll dig out the dildo that's just about your size and bring her that, and let her know why I picked it for her."

I was out the door and back knocking on the front door.

"Harri?" Mary answered the door with a raised eyebrow. "Forget something?"

"So, when I mentioned to my girlfriend that you were feeling lonely, her and our friend decided that you should have this," I said, and set the vibrator down and backed off.

She looked down at the vibrator on the porch, then back to me. "Really?"

"It's a long story," I said. "Erica works in a tattoo shop, which is adjacent to a sex shop, and when we- you know what? I'll let her tell you next time we come by, OK?"

"OK," she said, suppressing a laugh. "Tell her thank you."

"I will," I said. "Uh... enjoy."

Mary had fetched the vibrator from the porch by the time I was back in the truck, and was standing on the stoop waving to us. Erica and Dani both waved back proudly, while I just tried to focus on backing out of the driveway and driving.

* * * * *

Patrick was sluggish getting up from the booth as we pulled in. I rolled down the window and held out the bag from the pharmacy in town. "Wasn't sure which you preferred so we got you Benadryl and Claritin," I said. "Whichever one you don't use feel free to pass it off to someone else if they need it."

Patrick coughed into his arm, blinking drearily above his mask as he got just close enough to take the bag and then back off. "Thanks, buddy. I'll mark you back in."

"No problem," I said and rolled up the window.

"We should tell Vanessa he needs a day off," Erica said.

"If he gets one, maybe we should send Sexy Susan to go take care of him," Dani giggled in the back seat.

"Oh my God, can you imagine!?" Erica cackled. "Patty opens his barracks door and she's just sitting there?"

* * * * *

"Fucking hell," Vanessa grumbled, typing away at her phone as I was massaging her feet. We were sitting around the campfire and it was late for her to be up at almost midnight, but she'd been dealing with a couple of minor messes that the night shift supervisors felt like she should handle instead of them.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"There's almost a dozen guys calling in sick ahead of time for tomorrow. If they called in the morning that would be one thing, but this just means they're planning it."

"Isn't a dozen workers barely 1% of your workforce?" Kyla asked. "Is it that big a deal?"

"No," Vanessa sighed. "Unless people start getting ideas and it spreads. Get enough knuckleheads in one place and they can convince each other of anything. If I don't squash this tomorrow they'll all think if they take some sick days that the incentive bonuses will get pushed back. That's not how they work, but they'll still think it's true and get all butt hurt when they don't get paid."

"Maybe they are sick and lonely and need some female attention," Dani chuckled. "Sexy Susan can be your nurse."

Vanessa barked a laugh and then made a disgusted face. "They'd probably love that, but way too many of those guys would be down to share her. I'm sure we'd have a chlamydia outbreak or something within days."

"Where is Sexy Susan?" Kyla asked, looking around. When we'd gotten back from our trip all the girls had been introduced to our new 'roommate' and thought it was hilarious. Aria had straight up started making out with 'her,' and India had lifted up the nurse's skirt and pretended to eat 'her' out.

The RV door opened behind me. "Ahem," Ivy cleared her throat for my attention.

I turned around and saw she was posing in the doorway of our RV, dressed in Sexy Susan's nurse outfit.

"The doctor will see you now, mon amour," she said with a wicked smile.

All the girls jeered me and wolf-whistled Ivy as I set down Vanessa's feet and stood up with a little grin on my face. Vanessa just grumbled, "Guess I'm waiting a little bit longer for the bed."

I went to Ivy and she planted a kiss on me, showing off for the others.

"That looks so much sexier on you than on the doll," I said to her.

"Good," she giggled. "Now come play doctor with me."

"Yes, Nurse," I said, and let her pull me into the RV.

* * * * *

I winced and blinked, sitting up slowly. It was rare these days that I woke up in the middle of the night - partially because I was usually dead tired by the end of the day after one final round with someone, and partially because extricating myself from the pile of bodies was a bit of a hassle that my subconscious apparently didn't want to deal with.

Kyla always slept on the edge of the bed, and the girls had decided on some sort of rotation so I ended up next to her every other day, and on the others she put a pillow between herself and the others as they dogpiled me. Tonight was a Kyla night, so I only needed to sit up and softly move Vanessa's arm from around me.

Red and white lights were flashing off the RV, and a crack in the curtain coverage had let it in to play against my face. I squinted, trying to look through the window without moving any more.

"What is it?" Vanessa asked quietly, woken up despite my attempt not to disturb her.

"Looks like ambulance lights," I said. If it had been cops there would be blue as well.

"Mmf," she grunted softly. "If it's an emergency someone would have called me. It's probably nothing."

I hesitated, wanting to curl up with her again, but then decided if I was getting nominally paid to be 'security' I should probably know why there was an ambulance on the property. Slipping out of bed, I pulled on my jeans and a shirt in the dark. When I glanced back Vanessa was dead asleep but Kyla was looking at me in the dark. I shuffled down the edge of the bed and leaned down and kissed her softly. "I'll be back in a few," I whispered.

"OK," she said and took my fingers in hers for a moment.

I made my way out of the RV as quietly as possible, slipping my boots on without socks, and got hit with the cool night air. Leaving the compound I considered riding one of the ATVs over but decided that I didn't want to risk the noise waking everyone up, so I started hoofing it. Crossing the football field worth of dirt expanse between the compound and the barracks didn't take long, but it was enough time for me to consider the time I'd been asked by a German why Americans measured things in football fields to begin with. I hadn't had an answer for him at the time and guessed it was because it was a standard size and very common feature in every town and high school.

I also happened to have time to consider Kyla, and that little touch of comfort in the dark between us. She'd only been with us a little under two weeks and so far she'd fallen into the family naturally. She was more 'adult' in maturity than any of the other girls except Erica despite the fact that she was actually the youngest, and I had to assume it was because of her upbringing and training. Kyla was a natural leader but a quiet one, and I'd noticed she was deferring to Erica whenever she was around and I wondered if that was a choice, or her training, or something else.

It was the 'something else' that bugged me the most. I was sharing my bed with four women and sure, there'd been small issues here or there as they tried to find their spaces, but there hadn't been a fight. Not a single one. The most anyone ever even raised their voices was when they were laughing, or orgasming. I was the only one getting yelled at, and it was always, 'More!' and 'Harder!' and 'Please!'

The whole peaceful coexistence was great, but it also felt downright unnatural. There should have beensome real friction.

I'd have to ask Miriam about it, or one of the nurses who came around to test our blood for the vaccine labs. It had happened twice in the last month and took barely more than twenty minutes for all of us. Maybe if I got lucky the next nurse would be chatty and I could get some info out of her.

As I approached the barracks and offices I saw that the ambulance was pulled up alongside the main door to the first big dormitory and a handful of men in reflective construction vests were milling around. There was more activity going on in the offices and even at night I could hear the telltale sound of machinery working by the light of the portable spots out across the forest.

Two EMTs were wheeling out a man from the dormitory on a gurney, a medical mask and neck brace on him, as I arrived.

"Hey, clear out- Oh, it's you," said one of the construction workers. He had a white hard hat on, marking him as a foreman or higher.

"Yeah, just wanted to make sure everything is alright," I said. "Saw the lights."

"Mm," he grunted, then turned and waved off the other workers around him. They left, some into the barracks and others to whatever other work they were supposed to be doing, and then he turned back to me as we watched the EMTs get the gurney into the ambulance. "Nothing major. Well, not for the project. Someone found Old Phil on the ground in the barracks common area unconscious and with a gash in his head. One of the guys did first aid and realized he'd probably had a heart attack so we started CPR and called the ambulance - shitty luck for Phil, the AEDs are supposed to get installed in the buildings in a couple of days. We had to send a runner to the offices to get one."

"That is shitty luck," I said, watching as the EMTs worked on the guy a bit in the ambulance. "We're sure it was a heart attack?"

"Couple of guys said he'd been short of breath after work, walking around scratching at his chest and 'feeling funny,'" the foreman said. "Guy's a fucking ox so he was probably ignoring the worst of it. Honestly, we're lucky he didn't just keel over on the job, that would have been a way bigger issue and could have shut us down for a day or two of investigation."

"Alright, well, thanks for the update," I said.

"No problem," he nodded.

I approached the ambulance and knocked on the door when the EMTs didn't look particularly in a rush. "Hey, sorry to bother you. I'm technically security on the site. You guys good?"

The EMT raised an eyebrow at me and I could immediately tell the guy was haggardly tired. His eyes were sunken above his medical mask and he was wearing a clear face shield to go with it, and he was buttoned up and gloved including a hood.

"Existentially I'm fucked," the guy said.

"He meant right now, fuckhead," the other EMT grunted. That made me blink - sure, I figured EMTs and other emergency services could be rough and tumble, but in front of someone who wasn't part of their system?

"Right," the first EMT said. "Dude's dead. Apologies for my bluntness but I'm running on hour twenty-three of a twelve-hour shift and we'll probably hit thirty-six before we can clock out for a nap."

"Shit," I said.

"Yeah. All of it. Everywhere," the second EMT said. "You need us to sign anything or can we get out of here?"

"Uh, not for me," I said. "Stay safe."

For some reason that made them laugh, and there was a tinge of crazy in there that I really didn't like. I backed off and they shut the door and soon the ambulance rumbled down the well-driven driveway towards the highway.

"Fuck me," I sighed, watching it go. First I got weird responses about police response time, and now the EMTs were going loopy around the edges. All we needed now was a firefighter arsonist and a mailman axe murderer.

"Why?" I asked myself as I turned to start walking back to the RVs. "Why would I even think that?"

* * * * *

Vanessa's alarm went off somewhere under her pillow. It was the best thing we could come up with for her to wake up for work and possibly not wake everyone else.

She shut off the alarm and started to stretch and I rolled over and planted my face between her little tits and kissed her chest.

"Morning," I grumbled.

"Morning," she sighed. She kissed the top of my head then slipped out from the covers and down the length of the bed.

Erica extracted herself from Ivy and got up without a word, walking naked through the RV to the kitchenette to start brewing coffee. Ivy, half-asleep, took the chance to squirm across the bed and plant herself against my side, mirroring Kyla on my other.

I missed Vanessa leaving, but felt Erica crawl back into bed and spoon up behind Ivy. I vaguely wondered if we could get Vanessa's father to give her a better shift schedule.

* * * * *

Bacon and a Blowjob were on the menu for breakfast when Miriam called. Erica had brought me breakfast in bed, Kyla making herself scarce to make her own breakfast, but Ivy stuck around to watch with a little smile on her face. When my phone started buzzing over where it was plugged in Erica groaned unhappily around the head of my cock, but there weren't many people who weren't in the compound who would be calling me.

"Morning," I said, suppressing a bacon burp as I answered the phone.

"Harri, what the hell is going on down there?" Miriam asked.

"Wait, hold on. What?" I asked, sitting up and pulling my cock away from Erica.

"I'm getting a bunch of conflicting reports from the site. Is there something going on?"

"I don't know," I said. "We had an ambulance in last night because a worker had a heart attack, but I assume there'll be an incident report or something about that. Let me get dressed and go find Vanessa to find out. I'll call you back."

"OK," she said, and I could feel the pregnant hesitation on the line. "Be quick, please."

"Will do," I said, and we hung up.

Erica looked at me with a pout on her lips. "Really? Mid-blowjob?"

I scooted around and leaned down to kiss her. "Babe, I promise I'll fuck your face later, OK? And eat you out until you squirt."

"Fine," she sighed, flopping over onto her back on the bed. "I guess that will do."

"You know," Ivy grinned, slipping out from under the covers as I got up to get dressed. "I don't have anywhere to go."

I left them in the bedroom, shutting the door as Ivy sat on Erica's face. Kyla would have heard everything and she just reached out a hand to me, again brushing her fingers with mine and giving me a soft smile as I passed her and slipped on my boots - without socks, again. Once they were on I turned to her and pulled her by the back of her tank top to me, kissing her hard.

We didn't say anything, she just smiled wider as I left her there in the kitchen in her panties and top.

This time, even though it was early and Leo and his crew might not have been awake yet, I didn't hesitate to go for the ATVs. I drove over to the offices first and went to the 'main' admin one and asked for Vanessa. There was a flurry of activity going on and the admin folks inside were almost all on the phone. One person I'd never met before cleared their throat heavily and radioed for Vanessa, and what I found to be an inaudible squawk back turned out to be directions over to another one of the portables. I jogged over there and knocked before entering, finding Vanessa and two of the other foremen just hanging up the phone from some sort of conference call.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt," I said. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"I'd love to, but I'm in the fucking trenches right now, Harri," Vanessa said.

"Miriam called," I said.

She hesitated, then turned and gave some directions to the other two foremen and they brushed past me. "Come in," she said, waving me on.

I went in and, once the door was shut, I took Vanessa's hand in mine and made her stop for a second. Instead of kissing her I just held her hand and looked into her eyes, and I could see her immediately match my exaggerated breathing until we were in sync.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," I told her. "Miriam called and wants to know what's going on. She says she's getting conflicting reports."

"Well, that's probably becauseI'm dealing with conflicting reports. We've got almost thirty guys calling in sick, and there's a site-wide slowdown because men are fuckinggossips," she said. "My best guess is that someone snuck drugs into the barracks and started selling last night, so we've got a bunch of guys who are fucked up and now that there's a noticeable number of guys off sick other people are trying to take advantage. Or trying to find out who has the drugs. Or both."

"Shit," I said.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure if this would eventually be a problem or not with the quick spinup of the camp. In industrial construction jobs, the spinup takes months and there's a lot more infrastructure and planning in place first. We'd have a subcontracted security company doing bag checks, and we'd have cameras in the public halls and spaces to monitor people doing shady shit. Hell, most camps have a bustling but controlled underground highway for drugs, booze and hookers. No one wants to fuck it up for everyone else, so no one lets anyone else go overboard. But this is the wild fucking west and one asshole can convince a bunch of other guys to be assholes too."

"You want a hug, an ear to bounce off of, or just to be left alone?" I asked her.

"Yes?" she answered, and then took a breath. "I just need to work. Thank you, though."

"OK," I said, and squeezed her hand one more time then stood up. At the door I turned to her and smirked. "You know, your ass looks great in those jeans."

She threw her hard hat at me as I ducked out the door, hearing her bark a laugh.

I called Miriam once I'd ridden the ATV back to the compound, letting her know that it was a slow down and that the best guess was it was getting caused by contraband on the site, and that they were trying to track down the source. She thanked me and asked me to update her if I heard anything else.

* * * * *

"Harri, I need you," Vanessa said over the phone.

I sat up from my spot on the deck chair at the tone of her voice. "Where and how?" I asked her.

"It's not drugs," she said. Her voice was calm and even, but I could hear the barely contained thread of anxiety behind it. "People are sick. I don't know if it's the Covid one or the Duo Halo one, but people aresick. I need you to lock down the site. Go down to the front entrance and direct anyone trying to come in over to that motel where I was staying, and don't let anyone leave."

"OK," I said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I am," she said. "We just have a lot of shit to deal with and we're trying to figure out what the protocol is and I can't reach Patrick down at the gate."

"Alright, I'm on it," I said.

"Thank you," she said, the gratitude heavy in her voice.

"Be safe," I told her.

"I will."

"What's wrong?" Dani asked. She and Ivy had been sitting with me in the chairs painting each other's toenails while Leo and Erica were facing off against India and Aria in a game of cornhole on the other side of the compound.

"People are starting to get sick over at the barracks so we need to go into quarantine," I said, standing up. I raised my voice. "Hey, guys? No one leaves the compound for now, OK? We're on quarantine."

They had questions that I didn't have answers to, but I tried to tell them as much as I could as I went and got my jacket on and fetched my masks. A moment before I hopped onto the ATV I decided 'Don't let anyone leave' might require more than a stern frown so I went into the storage containers and fetched my M9 from the gun safe and holstered it to my hip.

I burned it wide around the barracks and offices, running the ATV at speed. There were people milling around and I thought I could see Vanessa trying to direct some traffic in her white hard hat and mask. I raced down the driveway and pulled up, parking the ATV across the middle of the drive and wishing I'd driven my truck down instead since that would have blocked more space.

Unfortunately, that wasn't what I had to worry about when I dismounted and turned to the little guard house to talk with Patrick.