Switched Ch. 04

I found the card I was looking for. Mouth dry, I lifted it so he could see, but only him.

The soldier was drawing a breath to say that was insufficient. Or maybe to arrest us.

Me and Bryan. I'm a sexy super-being.

"Ma'am," said the soldier, clearly torn between amusement and duty. "I'm afraid that this identification..." He paused for effect.

I wished that I was in charge of him.

I reeled, but steadied myself on the... The car door. Okay, I knew where I was. There in the car was this cute woman who looked kind of out of it.

I glanced around. Everyone was looking at me.

I leaned down and plucked the card from her fingers and held it in front of the scanner.

Abruptly I blurted out, "It's good! I'm just playin'. Be safe." I slapped the top of the Datsun and made a dramatic, military-style, full-armed point at the gate.

The gate guy looked at me, then the others. When he looked back at me, I glared at him impatiently. This was all covered in Bryan's and my Ninja handbook. Boredom and irritation are the ultimate disguises I tried to project them both.

The soldier raised the gate. The 240's engine revved, and it accelerated through.

Eyes turned toward me. Someone asked, "Lawson? You all right?"

It wasn't hard to wish myself back into my body.

Bryan whooped with relief, but I just sat there and tried not to be sick to my stomach.

*

There was a neighborhood in the Zone that had been overrun with killer vines. They'd consumed a number of people and their pets before they were burned, but they came back a week later, and no matter what kind of destruction was visited upon them, they always regrew. They were a big part of the government's decision to abandon this area.

Bryan drove to the edge of a gas station whose roof had collapsed, with vines twining under and over it.

"I gotta check my tip," he explained, and put on a pair of bright blue disposable gloves. First, he threw a discarded beer can at the vines, and it was snapped up as soon as it got close.

He got a piece of metal that had originally been a signpost and surveyed the vines.

They were as thick as my wrist and a bright green, veined with faint purple. White and yellow flowers the size of gift baskets grew along the vines at intervals.

As Bryan approached, they swiveled slowly toward him. I called a warning, but he'd seen.

"The yellow flowers are male," he said.

He held the signpost like a spear and slowly pushed it toward one of the yellow flowers, then with a snap, the flower closed like a spring on the metal post.

I yelped in spite of myself. Bryan strained for a moment before he could withdraw the post. He walked to the car and held it so I could see.

Little yellow chunks like crumbled styrofoam, or maybe broken candy corn, were stuck to the post with a clear, sticky fluid.

"Pollen," he said.

He looked around to a vine flourishing on a nearby electric pylon, and approaching it, he stuck his signpost into a white bud.

It snapped shut as before, but the vines trembled and the flowers seemed to droop.

He picked up some debris, a car's side mirror, and chucked it at the plant. Nothing happened.

We found a house in a nice neighborhood, meaning we could drive up to it and the roof was intact. The vines surrounded the place.

We pollinated our new home and crept in, expecting sudden vine-y violence any second.

Bryan tried to reassure me by saying, "When they get pollinated, they become lethargic."

"I know the feeling," I quipped.

This house was not full of mildew like the others we'd tried. The upstairs was full of old brown vine roots and unlivable, but the sinks worked.

Bryan stood in the living room and spread his arms, looking to the vaulted ceiling. "Home, sweet home," he said.

I dropped the bags on the floor. "Let's play motherfuckin' house."

First we got to know the flora. Our plant covered this house and the two next door, this being one of those tacky neighborhoods where the McMansions were too close. She liked sunlight, field mice, and world domination. I named her Jezebel.

Jezebel was part male and part female, so I knew we'd be friends. She ate sunlight to live and protein to grow, and she wasn't picky about her sources. She'd extended a number of runners into the house to quest for food, but didn't mind when we cut the tough, fibrous shoots and sealed up their entrances with tape.

When she got pollinated, she went into a kind of torpor for about nine minutes. During that time her vines could be shifted without repercussions, so we were able to get the car into the garage where it wouldn't be seen.

After that, she didn't like to be bothered, so the whole pollination thing didn't work again for up to an hour afterwards.

When she wasn't torpid, she was lethal. In addition to her flowers, she had thorns. Bryan surmised the thorns were to help the vines wrap around prey, so the flowers could feed. Maybe one dissolved the insides and the other sucked out the juice, I just knew I didn't want to find out. The really big vines got our attention but they were just structure for the smaller, more active shoots.

She'd need to be fed, and regularly, so she didn't start thinking of us as her next meal. We collected pollen from the neighboring plants and placed it strategically in empty soup cans so we could come and go.

I stopped while sweeping debris out of the kitchen and looked to Bryan, who was going through cabinets. "How do you know all this shit, man?"

"Bodyguards."

"Bodyguards?"

"Yeah. They've seen all sorts of things and know all sorts of people. I made friends with them and got to hear their stories, unlike some people."

"Hey! I was friends with mine! ...sorta."

"You mocked them. Didn't you call that one guy 'Walker'? Like that TV show?"

"Pfft." I scratched under a tit, "That's just male bonding."

*

Cistern

Jessica

The Zones are watched. Satellites and drones. It's said that the more unusual-looking Variants live in them, the ones called Freaks. Places like these were said to be the only place they were safe from phobic muggles. Sure, there were Freaks living among us, but a disturbingly low number were on the census, and a lot of time had been invested in figuring out where the rest of them got to. The population didn't match up to the frequency of occurrence.

There were likely to be a lot of shut-ins, and still more unreported deaths among their number. Many would have fled to the wilderness or smuggled themselves across the ocean to friendlier shores. For the rest, it was assumed they stayed in Exclusion Zones, where their fur and weird eyes and acidic sweat glands and such weren't a problem.

We'd found a house that fit our needs. We finished cleaning the ground floor and I helped him seal up the second floor with a patch made of bed linens and broken furniture.

We opened the blinds and let in sunlight filtered creepily through plant life, then chose our bedrooms. I got the study by the front door and he was across the hall in the dining room. I was back to sleeping on the floor.

I found Bryan in the garage. He said, "We can set up a cistern with these garbage cans. There's charcoal, too."

"What the hell are you doing here, man?" I asked.

"I'm looking for stuff we can use."

"I mean here. Among carnivorous plants and fugitive Freaknics. Drinking rainwater?"

He looked hurt. I hurriedly said, "I appreciate it, I do. I couldn't have done this without you, you're amazing." I was saying that to reassure him, but I felt it so strongly, saying it out loud.

He grinned, "There's your reason."

"Aww, buddy," I said as I shuffled toward him.

"What are you doing?"

I raised my arms.

"Dude!" he exclaimed in a near panic, and then I was hugging him. After a moment he relented and patted my back.

"You smell," he said. I guess I should be all indignant, girl-style, but he was right.

Just to mess with him, I squeezed him tighter and smeared my face all over his chest. "Bluh," I growled.

"No! She's got me!" He pretended he was trying to get away and failing, and I could squeeze him tightly because it was just us, goofing around.

The go bags had shower wipes, which are every bit as ineffective as one would think, though they are scented. We took turns in the bathroom stripping and wiping ourselves down and I got into some sleeping clothes.

"The fuck is that?" he asked when I came out.

"It's my PJs, duh."

He looked at my bare legs. "Are you even wearing pants?"

"Look, this shirt comes down to my knees, okay? It covers more than a dress."

"You're not wearing a bra."

"Do you have any idea how uncomfortable those things are?"

Frustrated, he bargained, "How about a tank top underneath, at least?"

"How about you stop staring at my tits?"

"Why do you care? They're not even yours."

"They're mine for now," I glowered. "Look, this is not easy, okay? I'm doing my best here."

"I didn't thank you for the checkpoint," he said.

"I was worried the guard would wake up in my... this body and freak out. What'd he do?"

"You did nothing, you just sat there unconscious."

"Weird."

"It felt different," I said after a moment. "When I Switched with Tawney, it wasn't the same."

His eyebrows rose. "You Switched with her?"

"For a second, so she'd believe me."

"Oh. So this one was different?"

"I wasn't trying to Switch with him, I was trying to take him over."

"Oh! So maybe you can either Switch or... Possess. The difference being they're still in there, in the latter case."

"Are you sure he didn't do anything in my... this body?"

"Out like a light."

"Hmm."

He went through the drawers in the kitchen and got a spoon and was soon mixing up meal replacement shakes for us out of our emergency supplies. The homeowners had left a filter pitcher conveniently in the fridge, and even more conveniently had taken most of their food so it wasn't a putrid mess in there. I had it cleaned out in no time. Jezebel was probably already dining on the remains.

As we sat in the fading light in the living room and drank the shakes, I said, "Bryan, I need a favor."

He looked over at me, first my legs and then my face. That was pretty normal for guys, at least it had been at the party, so I didn't comment. I'd have done it. "Whatcha need, buddy?"

I moved closer to him and looked at him closely. If he'd been a girl I'd have taken his hand. What the hell, I did anyway. It wasn't nearly as bad as the favor I was about to ask for.

"I need to practice my powers."

It took him awhile to come round to the idea. I figured he knew in his head that it made sense and there was no danger. He just needed the rest of him to catch up.

At last, he agreed.

"Sit back," I suggested, doing the same.

I focused on him and blocked out everything else. There was just me and him here. No, there were two consciousnesses and two bodies.

I focused on taking him over.

There was an instant of resistance, and then I was looking at myself. At Jessica. Damn, she was hot! That sleep shirt did not hide a single curve, no wonder he was having a problem with it.

Something stirred in my pants, and I almost cried with relief. I'd missed having one of these so much!

But it was time to experiment with other things. The Jessica body was not moving, so I'd jumped over to him without the vice-versa. I'd Possessed him instead of Switching. I tried to tell if I could sense him in my mind somewhere.

It was no use, I was sensing all kinds of stuff. This was an entirely different body, and an alien one, and I had no idea what I was looking at.

I held up four fingers in front of my face. I said a word, "Green." Then I went back.

It felt good to be back. Not that I liked it in this body, but it was familiar. I watched him open his eyes and look at me.

We compared notes. He remembered neither the number of fingers I held up nor the word I'd said. I told him about my sensing problem.

He said, "I think I have a solution, but let me think about it for awhile."

We settled down to a restless sleep, the night full of animal sounds and the creaking rustle of vines.

I awoke with him pulling on my leg. I'd gotten tangled tightly in the covers. He pulled harder, and I slid across the floor a little.

I tried to sit up, but the covers were really tight. I couldn't see a thing. I couldn't reach for the flashlight I'd left by the bed because my arms were tangled up.

"Bryan?" What the hell was he doing?

There was another yank on my leg, a hard one, and this time I was dragged across the room to the doorway. These weren't covers, they were thin and strong and numerous.

"Bryan!" I screamed.

I was pulled halfway down the hall where moonlight had turned everything a silvery grey.

I heard him call my name in the other room.

"Bryan! Help me!"

There was another hard tug and I bounced off the sofa.

Jezebel was going to eat me.

A light came on behind me and I twisted to look. He ran out so fast he knocked the table aside, then stopped to play a light over me.

The unexpected brightness dazzled my eyes. I had running feet, but we're they going into the kitchen? "This is no time for a snack!" I screeched.

I screamed as I hit the living room wall. There was a hole here and it wasn't big enough for me. Thank goodness for that.

The vines didn't stop pulling. Their definition of big enough didn't require me to be in one piece.

Bryan ran up and crouched before me, swinging a chef's knife.

He cut the major ones, then went to work on the smaller vines, switching to a paring knife where he had to get between vines and me. When he got my arm free, I started cutting, too.

The feeling of relief when that final vine parted and I rolled free was overwhelming. I laid there and wheezed while Bryan trimmed the rest of the intruders and sealed them up.

When he came back to check on me, I justclung to him. He put his arms loosely around me but after a moment he released a long, slow breath as he tightened his arms snugly around me. It was okay to do this; I'd almost been killed.

We decided to sleep in the same room after that. Bryan hung a sheet down the middle for privacy, and we kept the knives handy. I had scratches all over and couldn't sleep the rest of the night, so I just lay there and listened to the wind and the snores of my best friend.

*

A Repetitive Sound

Jessica

That morning he set up the solar panels and then the cistern.

"Did you think about that solution?" I asked.

"Yeah. I hate to say it, but I think it'll work. I don't know what else to try. You're unfamiliar with my body, right? That's why you can't sense what's in my mind?"

"That's right. Probably?"

He shrugged, unsmiling. "So you become familiar with it."

"You mean..."

"You drive my body around until you get used to it."

"I don't like that," I said.

"You got a better idea?"

After lunch, we sat again and I practiced Switching with him. After an hour of it, I'd learned a few things: First, that it got easier the more I did it. Quicker, even, though I couldn't be sure it was my familiarity with the subject and not the ability itself. Second, if I thought about him differently when I Possessed him, more like he was next to me instead of beneath me, then he would be aware of what was going on in a sort of dream state, but not in control.

It was a joy to be in Bryan's body. He was fit and felt good, and I didn't know how much I missed my muscles until I had access to his. I ran around the house like an idiot, moving heavy things just because I could.

Before we figured out how to make him aware of what was going on, when I knew he wouldn't remember, I put my hands on his junk over the pants and just sighed with contentment. It wasn't just muscles I missed.

After an hour in his body, in which I thoughtfully did chores, I discovered my body had fallen over. Jessica's body.

I checked it frantically at first to make sure it was still breathing, but it was stable and seemingly asleep. I thought about trying to rouse it to see what would happen, but I'd seen too many horror movies. I'd just Switch back normally.

Better to be lying down for this.

Hey, I had guy muscles. Why not?

I pushed my hands between her body and the sofa and lifted her, being careful to support her head.

She was so soft in my arms and smelled so good. I settled her on her sleep pad and arranged her comfortably.

She was so cute! Even like this. She was the kind of pretty that would still be in full effect if she were, say, throwing up, or covered in mud.

An image of her, naked but for a coating of mud, swam into my brain, followed by memories of all the times I'd looked at her in the mirror. That time Tawney and I had tried scissoring. Tawney soaping her/my breasts in the shower.

Bryan's dick was throbbing hard in my pants.

I watched his hand traveling up her bare leg, my excitement building. I couldn't do this, it was super creepy!

Before I did something stupid I Switched back, and regretted it immediately. I could feel a warm, tingly spot on my leg from where his hand had been, and now I was laying in front of a guy who had a huge erection in his pants.

"Uhh..." he said.

"I haven't seen a girl in..." I tried to explain.

He looked down at his bulging pants, then his eyes traveled across my body to mine. "You saw Tawney," he argued.

"I didn't have, uh..." I pointed at his package.

"You didn't play with it?"

"God, no!"

He sighed. "Thank you. New rule."

"No playing with your junk, got it. Now do yourself a favor and go jerk off."

"Right." He went.

We'd been friends since before puberty. Masturbation wasn't such a taboo subject with us.

I found myself listening. Was he doing it now? I strained my ears. There was the sound of him moving around.

I felt a hand on my inner thigh... mine. I moved it up under my shirt.

There. A repetitive sound, then it stopped. There it is again. It's like he's trying to work out how to stroke with the least noise. I've been there.

My finger went around my panties and slipped into my crevice, and I gasped. I didn't care if he heard it.

I couldn't tell if we'd come together, but I tried.

I spent most of the next day in his body. There was a lot to get used to, like the weird click in his knee and the way the whole world seemed smaller and more fragile. I Switched back for lunch and dinner, or if I needed advice on the work I was doing.

By the end of the day, the windows and doors had been reinforced. Tomorrow, we'd forage.

"So I was thinking," he said that night, back in his body. "You need more practice being a Variant, and we need to get work done. I kinda hate the idea, but we can't forage with just one person. It's too dangerous."

"Then we don't Switch. Simple."

"We're working against time here, Buddy. We can't have you unable to do your thing if we get in trouble. That checkpoint could have gone wrong in a thousand different ways.

"I guess."

*

The next day we pollinated the guardian vines and ventured forth. We wanted to test my ability's range, so we went in opposite directions and I Switched us.

With line of sight, there didn't appear to be a range limit. Without, it was about two hundred feet. With it or without it, I had he trouble Switching with Bryan.

After much cussing, we looted a bookstore, the kind with a bakery, and came back with two shopping carts full.

Before we knew it, a week had passed. We had a good supply of water, both to work the toilet and to drink. We had ample reading material, stocks of food, and extra blankets for the winter.

We were getting along for the most part. We'd always gotten super prickly when we spent too much continuous time together, but that didn't seem to be an issue this time. We couldn't afford for it to be. The previous day we'd seen a convoy of armed trucks pass through town and we'd had to hide in a laundromat until dark.