Chapter 17: Humanity United

Jean walked around the penthouse, afraid to touch anything. Everything here was so clean and expensive looking, it made her painfully aware of how filthy she was.

“Care for a drink?” Reina asked, moving past her to the bar, but Jean’s eyes were drawn to a wire bowl in the kitchen, and the red orbs within.

“You have apples?!” she exclaimed.

Reina laughed at her reaction. “Go on, help yourself.”

Jean rushed over and sank her teeth into rosy flesh like a mountain lion crunching on a rat. The crisp flavor of the apple, it was more powerful than all of the sugary junk she had been living on. No preservatives, chemicals, or additives, just pure nature and nutrition.

“How on Earth do you have apples? They all should have rotted by now.”

Behind the bar counter, Reina poured two glasses of bourbon. “Maybe down here, but in the upper levels, the thin air and low temperature keep food from going bad. However, those same factors are what make it so dangerous. Luckily, I have plenty of incentive for my scavengers to take the risk.”

Jean put down the apple. “What incentive?”

“You had to have seen it out there. I offer the masses happiness in exchange for food and other goods. It’s a very lucrative business.” Reina approached Jean and handed her one of the glasses. “Drink up. You never know when you’ll have another without having to kill someone for it.”

“You trade drugs for food? They’re starving out there!”

“Does it look like they mind? I force the choice on no one, they choose to indulge one need over the other. Drink, you need it. You can relax here.”

Jean took the glass and downed it just to get Reina off her back. She watched Reina walk over to the sitting area and claim a chair that looked more expensive than comfortable.

“On your way here, did it ever occur to you that maybe I don’t want to escape?”

Jean looked at her with her mouth hanging open, unable to believe what she had just heard. “Why wouldn’t you want to leave? You must realize you can’t live here forever, right?”

“No one lives forever, what matters is living well. Before all this, I was a high-class courtesan for the underworld, which is just a nice way of saying an overpriced whore. I bathed in the pleasures of the rich and powerful, I kept their secrets, I leeched off them, but at the end of the day, I was still a nobody. Then when this place was built, I used my knowhow to build this empire. Dominion thought he was imprisoning us in this place. He thought he was taking away our power and making us miserable, but I’m stronger now than I ever was before, and the people dancing outside are happier than ever in their lives.”

“So you’d rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven?” Jean asked, sitting across from her.

Reina laughed. “As if the outside world is Heaven. Say we get out of here; do you know what awaits us? Enslavement by Dominion, submission to the government, or survival in the boondocks.”

“But how long do you think you can live here? Food or drugs, one of them is going to run out sooner or later.”

“No one came to this place to live. They came here for satiation, the chance to burn the candle at both ends. Most of the people here didn’t become drug addicts until they arrived. They made the trade because they wanted relief, they wanted joy. Now they scavenge so that they can continue to feel that joy. They pursue happiness, choosing revelry in the darkness rather than living like rats in the filth. No one came to this place to live. They came here to die.”

“Listen, the church already turned me down, you’re the only group large enough to help me. I can get us out of here, all of us, but we need to combine our strength. I know where the exit is. Even if you want to die here, think about all those that want to live. Why not die for that?”

“You honestly think I care about the poor suckers lost in those tunnels?”

Jean bolted to their feet. “I’m offering you hope for a better life! There is happiness to be found outside of a pile of cocaine!”

Reina just laughed in her face. “You’re too emotional right now, not to mention filthy. Go take a shower. We can continue talking once you’ve calmed down.”

Jean stormed off with a huff, but in reality, the offer of a shower almost brought her to tears. She entered the bathroom by the bedroom, everything ornately decorated with the walls, floor, and sink tiled with onyx. She turned on the shower, surprised that it even worked. She had expected it to just be a cruel joke. Then, when she felt the water heat up, she almost dropped to her knees.

She stripped off her filthy clothes and entered the hot spray, crying in bliss. The water running off her looked like grease drained from a skillet and the warmth soaking into her flesh made her shudder. Numerous soaps and shampoos were stacked on shelves in the shower and decided to try them all. She scrubbed all over, every square centimeter of surface area, and lathered her hair multiple times.

Then, when after she had rinsed herself clean, rather than stepping out, she remained in the spray and mulled over her situation. This was worse than she thought. When the angel told her to unite the people of the labyrinth, she knew it would be difficult, but this was impossible. Reina and the Cardinal, and the people that followed them, they both exemplified the ends of some tragic spectrum. The cultists of the church were so desperate, they believed so powerfully that God would make a miracle happen, that they dared not take a chance, they dared not risk their lives on any other hope. They cowered in the cathedral that Dominion had built, thinking they were safe and that they wouldn’t have to fight if they just prayed hard enough.

And Reina’s flock, they were without a shred of hope, living for pleasure rather than for life itself. They were using drugs to block out the pain of being trapped in this prison, letting their bodies waste away, choosing instead to starve or overdose with their minds twisted, rather than take the risk of fighting for a better life.

One group addicted to drugs, the other addicted to faith, both sides so afraid of death that they were actually killing themselves, drowning in their madness to escape the horrors. Was there no one left with courage? No one left with the will to fight?

Feeling the hot water run down her flesh, feeling her blood absorb the heat and circulate it through her body, it was draining her strength. She felt so tired, all of the fatigue that had accumulated these last few weeks was finally breaking through the dam she had tried to set up. She raised her head, guzzling the water from the spout to try and cleanse her insides, as well as quench her cottonmouth. She was so tired, it was hard to stand upright, or even to think.

Wait, this wasn’t right.

Just then, she felt arms wrap around her, soft flesh touching her own from a stranger behind her. “You were taking forever. I thought you had fainted,” Reina whispered in her ear.

“W ... what’s going on?” Jean mumbled.

“Shhh, you really need to let go. Why do you take life so seriously? It’s not like you’ll get out alive.”

Reina’s hands began to roam, sliding across Jean’s smooth belly, flattened from her subpar diet in the labyrinth. Her fingers counted each exposed rib before her gluttonous palms enveloped Jean’s breasts.

“Did you drug me?” Jean asked, thinking back to the glass of bourbon.

“It’s for your own good, baby. God isn’t here. We can do whatever we want. Just do whatever feels good.”

As Reina messaged her breasts, Jean could feel Reina’s rubbing against her back. She had removed her large piercings, and despite the hot spray of the shower, she could feel her nipples drawing circles. Reina moved in closer, letting Jean feel her belly slide across the small of her back like latex, while her thighs rubbed against her rear. The way Reina was playing with her breasts was masterful, the skill she used to energize every single nerve ending. Minus the guy from her GED classes that she had lost her virginity to in a drunken one-night stand, she had never been touched like this and didn’t know how to handle these sensations. To just feel someone else touch her in such private places, it was like having her soul played with.

Then one of Reina’s hands slid between her legs, making Jean whimper. She wanted to turn around and give Reina a black eye, but just leaning against the shower wall, remaining on her feet, was taking all of her effort. She couldn’t even draw up her light, her mind was too foggy. Reina ran kisses up Jean’s neck while her fingers acquainted themselves with her labia.

Reina then turned her around and pressed her against the wall, her arms pinned above her head. “You are just too cute.”

Her lips then joined Jean’s with her tongue sliding into her mouth. Jean didn’t kiss her back, but was too weak to resist. She could only close her eyes as Reina sucked the kiss out of her. She had forgotten what it was like to kiss someone, it was a memory so lost that she might as well have been a virgin to it, but she had to believe that the sensation of kissing a woman was far different from kissing a man. Reina’s lips felt softer, her mouth tasting sweeter, while her tongue didn’t penetrate her, so much as invite itself in. And apart from their lips, Jean could feel her nipples kissing Jean’s, the erect points sword fighting under the hot spray of the shower, while their bellies met and pulled away with each breath like a slow clap.

Then she blinked and it was over, Reina was gone. Had ... that been a hallucination from the drugs? She was still unsteady on her feet, her mind trapped in a fog. She turned off the shower and stumbled out, leaning against the counter for support. Her clothes were gone, as well as all of the towels.

“Reina?” she called. She moved out into the bedroom, finding the penthouse empty. “Reina?” she asked again.

She felt a tap on her shoulder, and upon turning around, was embraced by Reina with her tongue once again swirling around her mouth. Reina pushed her down onto the bed, and just that movement was enough to rob her completely of her sense of balance. She lay on the bed, her brain feeling like it was bouncing around in her skull, unable to control the rest of her body. Reina got on top of her, resuming their kiss. Jean tried to turn her head, to keep any more of the ebony nympho’s saliva from running down her throat, but Reina held her still.

“We can’t do this, we’re both women,” she panted.

“Don’t think of it as sex, think of it as ... assisted masturbation. I’m going to give you the gift of pleasure. Why do you think I gave you such a light dosage? It’s because I want you to be awake to enjoy all of it. Don’t worry, honey, you don’t have to do anything. Just leave it all to me.”

Her lips left Jean’s, moving down and nibbling on the soft flesh of her throat. She ran her tongue along her jugular arteries, chasing Jean’s hot blood, and kissed her windpipe, her lips feeling the vibrations of Jean’s frantic breaths. Farther south, she nuzzled her collarbones like a cat, all while continuing to taste her flesh. She pulled away when she reached her breasts, but that was to savor the moment. The two women were soaked from the shower, so Reina blew a stream of cold air on Jean’s breasts, causing the water to evaporate and chilling her skin. Her nipples hardened from the sensation, while the smooth skin around her areolas shimmered with the rising of goosebumps.

“Please, don’t,” Jean whimpered, not afraid of Reina hurting her, but afraid of how good she would make her feel.

Reina’s lips were gentle on her breasts, using her tongue to tickle and tease her nipples. She licked off the water from the shower, sucking it out of her skin like she was pulling it from a sponge. Once she had had her fill, she spat on Jean’s nipples and used it as lubricant to rub her own breasts against them.

“Doesn’t it feel good to take a walk on the wild side?” Reina purred over the sound of their paired breasts smooshing together. Jean just looked away, not wanting Reina to see what these sensations were doing to her.

Reina soon retreated, or rather, advanced, down south. Like her breasts, she licked Jean’s smooth belly, tasting every inch and slurping up every drop of water from the shower, even drinking it out of her bellybutton. Then, she reached the main event, but rather than simply going down on her, Reina changed position. She sat up and lifted Jean’s legs into the air, curling her body and putting her pussy and anus on display.

Reina dove right in, her tongue penetrating Jean’s ring and making her shudder. Suffice to say, this was a new experience for her. To feel a tongue swirling around in her back door, it was like the feeling of having her hair played with, times a million. Reina sucked greedily on her supple flesh, familiarizing herself with Jean’s forbidden flavor. Then she switched to Jean’s pussy, and this time, she couldn’t contain her voice. She didn’t moan, but the powerful sensations rippling through her made her whimper like a puppy. Just like in the shower, Reina’s skill was masterful, nibbling on the edges of each flower petal with her lips while her tongue probed deeper to drink up her nectar.

“My, my, you’re so wet, and I don’t think it’s from the shower. You’re really enjoying this, aren’t you?”

Jean just shook her head from side to side, trying to block out the sensations washing over her. It felt so good, scarily good, it made her feel dirty, guilty, yet part of her didn’t want to stop. Back and forth, Reina turned both orifices into playgrounds for her enjoyment, hollowing Jean out with her tongue. With the passing minutes, Jean could begin to feel her strength coming back. She still couldn’t move her arms or resist in any way, but it was like she could feel the timer counting down. Maybe she’d be able to use her powers soon, maybe it was her powers that were letting her recover so fast.

That wasn’t all that was counting down. She felt something coming to a boil between her legs, a moist heat that made her muscles feel like they were turning to jelly. She had only ever had sex once, and she didn’t feel what was coming, but she knew what it was. Reina’s skills with her tongue and lips, they were too much for her to resist. Every flick, every slurp, every kiss, every dive, they were wearing away at her defenses.

Then it happened, Jean moaning like the Whore of Babylon as sinful pleasure squirted from between her legs like a fountain. Lights, a billion lights were going on in her body, as if every nerve ending had a small bulb now powered by the electricity surging through her. Reina laughed as Jean’s fluid sprayed them both, their naked bodies sticky and gleaming with her feminine essence.

“Wow, to think such a good little girl had such a dirty little secret. I think I want to see it again.”

Reina lowered one of Jean’s legs and slid between them. Her lower lips met Jean’s, their labia joined in a passionate kiss. Reina began to pant and grind against Jean, still paralyzed from the shame of what she had just experienced. The weakness was already fading, the sinful touch of Reina’s pussy against her own was reviving her. She was panting and whimpering in bliss, no longer able to contain it after her orgasm. She could feel it, Reina herself was so hot and wet, the squelching sounds of their fluids mixing between their joined lips was impossible to ignore.

Unlike before, Reina was also reacting, her confidence fading away and replaced with sexual madness, an almost painful expression as she indulged her need for pleasure. She was making the same noises as Jean, breathing just like her, desperately trying to achieve her own orgasm. Enough of Jean’s strength had returned for her to sit up, but that was it. She could either stare at Reina’s flushed cheeks, parted lips, and dilated pupils, at her heaving breasts, bouncing with each gyration of her hips, glistening with sweat from her exertion, or their lower gates, slick with each other’s nectar, with the soft lips stretching, compressing, and flexing as they kissed.

Finally, both women cried out, dousing each other in a mixture of their sexual scents. Jean fell back, somehow both drained of strength and feeling it returning. She could feel her mind clearing and her body shaking off the effects of the drugs, but to think, her first climax would be with a woman, a stranger, and in this place.

“That was amazing,” Reina said with a hum. Jean didn’t respond, too ashamed.

Gunshots, she heard them outside. Both women looked up and the doors burst open with Anna running inside. “The monsters are attacking! There is a fucking army of them!” She then stopped dead in her tracks, looking at the two naked women. “Um ... what’s going on?”

“Anna, look out!” Jean shouted.

Before Anna could respond, she was struck by the tail of one of the beasts and knocked through the air like a kickball, hitting the wall with enough force to leave a bloodstain. The monster then lunged for Jean and Reina. Reina was at the foot of the bed, so it went for the closer target, but Jean leap over her and gave her strongest light-enhanced punch. Unfortunately, her weakened state left her only able to knock it back, not actually hurt it.

“Reina, stay behind me,” said Jean, still unsteady on her feet. Reina just stared at her with wide eyes.

The monster lunged again, and this time, Jean tried to fire a blast, but couldn’t gather the strength. The monster tackled her, slamming her against the wall behind the bed. It wasn’t as hard as Anna had been hit, and Jean had avoided banging her head, but the monster’s mouth was wide open, ready to taste her flesh.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

A small pistol was drawn from the bedside table, with Reina emptying the magazine into the beast. Whether shot in the head or the chest, the monster seemed more annoyed than actually injured. Perhaps a larger caliber might have done the job, but all this did was piss it off. It let go on Jean and threw itself onto Reina, riding her to the floor and sinking its teeth into her shoulder. Maybe it was the sound of Reina’s agonizing screams, or maybe it was the jarring impact of hitting the wall, but Jean felt more of her power return. Now fully wrapped in light, she grabbed the monster’s tail.

“Leave her alone!”

With inhuman strength, she pulled it away from Reina and threw it across the penthouse, sending it crashing into the liquor cabinet behind the bar. Reina was bleeding heavily, but not enough that her life was in immediate danger. Anna was the priority. Jean grabbed a pillowcase and threw it to Reina. “Use this to stop the bleeding! I’ll get to you as soon as I can!”

She then ran towards the sitting area to tend to Anna, but the beast wasn’t done with her. Reina saw it climbing out from behind the bar counter, soaked it booze from the broken bottles. She reached under her bed and pulled out a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun. She got to her feet, one hand holding the pillowcase to her shoulder, the other holding the shotgun.

“You’re not invited!” she said, firing the first round at the beast and managing to blast off its arm.

It shrieked in agony but leapt across the penthouse towards Jean, who was healing Anna. Sensing its approach, Jean grabbed a floor lamp and swung it like a baseball bat, striking the beast and leaving it disoriented. It staggered back and Reina put the second round in the side of its chest. Flesh, bone, muscle, and lung tissue were ripped out of the side of its ribcage from the blast, as well as a fearsome amount of blood, but the monster’s fury was greater than its pain. It lunged towards Reina, now out of ammo.

“I said leave her alone!” Jean shouted, firing the strongest soul blast she could. The beam punched a hole through its chest, ripping out its core. Its corpse still knocked Reina to the ground, but she’d just have to live with that.

With the thunderous sounds of battle and death replacing the music outside, Jean hurriedly healed Anna’s wounds, just enough to wake her up. Once she was awake, she’d be able to heal the rest herself.

“Are you all right?” Jean asked when Anna finally opened her eyes.

“Why the hell are you naked?” Anna mumbled.

“That’s hardly the most pressing issue right now. We need to deal with these monsters. Go back out there, I’ll be right behind you.”

Anna nodded and activated her own light, and while healing the last of her injuries, she ran out to rejoin the battle. Jean then walked over to Reina, pinned under the beast, and pulled it away like it was a tarp on the ground. Reina stared at her, the glowing woman, with wide eyes.

“Let me see your shoulder.” Jean pulled the bloody pillowcase away and placed her hand on the bite wound. Seconds later, it was fully mended, with Reina having no idea how to respond.

Jean then went to the nearby closet and began picking out clothes to wear. Most of Reina’s wardrobe just consisted of sexy outfits, but she managed to scrounge together something she could fight in.

“You stay here,” Jean said, walking past Reina.

“Wait,” Reina said, still frazzled. “Why did you save me? Even after what I did to you?”

Jean turned to her, a look of determination on her face. “Because even if you don’t see value in your life, I do. God told me to unite the people of this labyrinth and lead them to freedom, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

She then ran out of the penthouse and leaped off the balcony onto the dancefloor. All around her, the ravers were either too stoned to fight back or putting bullet after bullet into the beasts, swarming around the chamber like enraged hornets. Anna was already doing everything she could, firing blasts of spiritual energy that stunned the beasts and knocked them off their prey. Jean joined in, using punches and kicks to finish them off. With each monster they killed, its vaporized blood would fill the air, drawing more to avenge their death. The beasts flooded in, giving the people a chance to get out, at least long enough to gather weapons or reload.

Minutes, that all it took for Jean and Anna to become surrounded, the dance floor now swarming with monsters. This was bad, not even they had the strength to fight their way out of this. In the surrounding tunnels, the sounds of gunfire and fighting were as loud as ever. Even if anyone was willing to come to their aid, they had their own enemies to fight.

“Do you have any ideas?” Anna asked as the ring of monsters slowly closed in.

Jean looked down at the corpses around their feet. The last two she killed, she had crushed their skulls, nearly beheading them, yet she could see their flesh regenerating. As long as they had their cores, it seemed they could recover from any injury. “I have a really bad idea, but I suppose it’s better than no ideas. Don’t be stupid enough to do what I’m about to try.”

She then reached down and thrust her hands into the monsters’ chests, then pulled out their cores. Holding the fist-sized orbs in her hands, she could feel them shaking with a slow pulse, almost like a heartbeat. These things were reservoirs of spiritual energy, so hopefully, that power was accessible to her. She channeled her own energy into the cores, trying to unlock them, and in that instant, it was like the cores had grown quills like sea urchins, and injected their power straight into her veins. Her veins themselves felt like they were going to burst like a leaky fire hose. She cried out, feeling like her body was going to explode. She wasn’t ready to handle this kind of strength, her body was too immature, not yet used to channeling the power of her own soul. Her cells were so saturated with light that her own aura was blinding her, like trying to see through a wall of fire.

The power in these cores was massive but limited. Which would give out first, her body or the cores? Could she win before either happened? She had to try. Anna stared at her in shock and worry, seeing her friend caught in a bonfire of white flames. Her hair was whipping upwards as if she in a wind tunnel.

With her physical senses overstimulated, she had to rely on her spiritual detection, feeling the presence of the beasts like sonar. Jean launched herself forward, rocketing through the air at bullet speeds when she had been trying to just take a single step. Either way, her reaction speed was now heightened enough for her to correct her posture in the air and deliver a straight kick to one of the beasts in front of her. Her leg blew clear through its chest and crushed its core.

She then turned to the one closest by and delivered a punch with the same strength, achieving the same results. Three pounced on her, ready to bury their claws in her flesh, but she eviscerated their bodies with just a swing of her arm. More and more came after her, each searching for an opening, but that just made it easier for her. With all of the power she was drawing from the cores, she could increase the volume of her aura by more than ten times. With the movement of her arms, massive blades of condensed spiritual energy whipped around and cut down every enemy within twenty feet, and every kick she delivered had the kinetic force of a tank round, blasting holes in up to a dozen monsters, as long as they were all lined up.

Bodies were splattered in all directions, severed limbs falling like hail. It didn’t take long for the beasts to realize that this was a fool’s errand. They retreated, disappearing back into the tunnels and leaving the gang territory. Once all was quiet, minus the moans of agony from the injured and dying, Jean finally dropped the two cores, still brimming with energy, despite she herself being utterly exhausted. She fell to her knees, spitting up blood. Anna rushed over and began tending to her injuries, but gently. Most of the damage Jean had suffered was caused by her flesh fraying from overexposure to too much energy. Just using her power to heal Jean’s wounds might exacerbate her injuries.

“Don’t ever do that again. You’ll die.”

“You don’t have to tell me that. I wouldn’t even be able to last long enough for some big heroic suicide charge,” Jean said with a laugh. “I was able to sense them. There was a second army attacking the church at the same time. They’ve retreated, though.”

“Were they from that nest near the exit?”

“No, the opposite direction. The beasts’ numbers have grown so large, I think they’re trying to wipe us out. There might even be more of them in this labyrinth than normal humans. For all we know, the rest of the labyrinth could be a ghost town.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Head back to the church, all of us. Right, Reina?” Jean looked back, seeing Reina standing on her balcony, wearing a bathrobe.

“This doesn’t change anything.”

“The party is over, time to act like an adult. You can either go into your penthouse and kill yourself—probably through an overdose, knowing you—or you can gather every single person in your crazy club and lead them to the church. The weak, the strong, the injured, the unhurt, get them all on their feet and march them down with all of the food and weapons they can carry.”

“How do you know I’ll do what you say?”

Jean smiled, and with Anna helping her onto her feet, began limping towards the exit. “It’s not a matter of knowing. It’s a matter of faith.”

The beasts were gone, but the tunnels were far from empty. The injured and dying ravers wept in pain, begging God for help or their friends for drugs to ease their suffering. The beasts had taken most of the slain to feed on elsewhere, but the dead who hadn’t been claimed were already being absorbed by the pyramid. Jean and Anna helped a bit wherever they could, using their powers to pull many away from death’s door. Projecting light from their hands, they drew the gazes of everyone around them.

They entered the killing field between the two territories, but no one shot at them. The tunnels of the church territory were just like the ravers’, everyone crying in anguish. Even those without injuries were in tears. Perhaps the frustration had gotten to them, the fear and desperation wearing down on their souls until this attack finally broke them. Unlike the ravers, the cultists had joined the church to try and protect their families, and now many of those families had been ripped apart; children, parents, and siblings being slaughtered or dragged into the darkness, screaming for help.

If anyone recognized the women, they didn’t show it. They were too distracted, something more than the attack causing their wails, and Jean had an idea what.

“Where is the Cardinal?” she asked, speaking to a group of guards trying to brace the broken leg of one of their friends.

They turned to her, recognizing her. “Your demon friends killed him! Are you proud of yourself? Proud of what you’ve done to us?!” one of them yelled with his face drenched in tears and blood.

“I didn’t do this to you. I wanted you all to rise up and fight! I wanted you to claim victory and freedom!”

“You’re not welcome, witch!” the man with the broken leg hissed.

“I’m not abandoning you people, no matter how much you want me to.” She then pushed the guards aside and put her hand on the man’s broken leg. A flash of light and the man cried out as the bones were mended. His eyes were wide as saucers as he felt his leg.