Chapter 3: The Road Home?

Several minutes passed as Rex stepped outside the home. Estrella was close behind as they looked around them. There was no sign of anybody in the area. Only four corpses lay on the ground by the truck.

“Thinking if we should take the truck or not... , “ he pondered out loud. “I hate abandoning the motorcycle, though.”

“I can drive the truck,” Estrella replied. “We might need it.”

“Yeah, but trying to hide the truck will be a problem. If the Hollow Angels search the area and find the truck near us, they will investigate.”

“You do have your garage. It might have enough room for this truck.”

“Hmmm ... you are right. We can just put the truck in there ... still; I hate the idea that if they somehow find out, it will only implicate us even further.”

Rex looked at the corpses and found the keys to the truck. Estrella was also looking at the items that men might have been carrying.

“If we are taking the truck, I recommend we take the M14,” he told her. “We can stuff the truck with anything else we find.

He began to loot the bodies. He found a couple of extra bullets for the rifle but nothing else of any particular value.

Estrella went and checked out the pistols that the men carried. She picked up one that was a Walther P5, small and easy to carry. She took the other, which was some old revolver, along with the pistol she used earlier and threw them in the truck. She also began to check the bodies for any additional items. One had a bottle of unlabeled pills and extra ammo, but nothing else.

“Was there anything else we needed here?” he asked. “You know what? Fuck it; let’s go. We can always come back later.”

He walked up and threw his heavy backpack in the truck. He watched as Estrella went to the driver’s side and opened the door. The makeshift metal plates weighed the truck down but supposedly helped it out in a firefight. Wither it could stand up to an actual fight, no one knew. At least it provided some protection for the riders inside, especially in the environment they were in. Driving down the highway at slow speeds was just asking to get shot.

Rex pulled out his keys as he went to his bike. He went and folded up the stock of the shotgun as he slipped into the holster. He hopped in as he heard the truck start up behind him. They were going to leave the corpses behind to rot in the sun. It was no different than the other bodies and skeletons that would appear on the roads.

He turned the ignition as he revved up his motorcycle. He took the lead as he started to move slowly. The truck followed suit with Estrella behind the wheel. They left behind the house as they traveled down the road.

He went and took a right with the truck turning in behind him. Rex was careful, noting everything around him. Homes abandoned or discarded with rubble that lined the area. Most of the houses, since it were far enough away from the blast radius, were only hit by a light concussive blast alone, leaving the windows cracked or damaged. Hence most of the survivors of the area were obviously not in the dead center of San Diego.

He often thought of what other places looked like. He was thankful he did not live in San Diego when the missiles fell but sometimes wished that he did. For the survivors, it was a slow death. They were both getting sicker and sicker as radioactive fallout was taking the lives of survivors everywhere. It would be a matter of time before they both succumbed, but for now, it was still basic survival in a destroyed infrastructure.

Rex looked at his rearview mirror to look at Estrella behind the wheel. His partner was doing her part. He saw the left-hand turn that he needed to take as the motorcycle swerved to the left. The truck was following behind him as they maintained a slow speed of ten miles an hour. He could see a pack of dogs that looked at him but ran away from the motorcycle’s engine.

He sighed as he looked ahead of him, keeping his eye on the road. Another couple of blocks and they would be home.

He saw a turn to the right that he needed to make as he slowed and swerved to the right. He began to make the right turn as the truck again followed close behind, making the right.

“Hmmm ... something doesn’t feel right,” he said as his voice was drowned out by the motorcycle itself. He looked around but saw nothing that represented a threat. It was the obvious problem of being in a bike that he could easily be snipped from someone if he wasn’t careful.

“That is why,” he said when he spotted it. There was a barricade that was not on the road itself but close to it. By the obstacle, there was a car also not where he saw before. It looked like it had been moved the last time he was there.

He saw it. It was a light reflection that popped from a window of a house. Someone was aiming a scoped rifle at him. He waved his hand up to signal Estrella to kick it into gear. He stepped up the speed of the motorcycle in hopes of making himself a harder target to hit. There was not much else he could do in evading a person that already had you in their sights.

Estrella saw the hand wave as she pressed down on the gas pedal. She knew they were in danger. The motorcycle already began to speed up, leaving the truck behind. She grabbed the Walther P5 as she knew they were heading into a firefight any second.

Rex saw a pair of women come out of hiding behind the barricade as they stepped forward. They held their hands up in a stopping motion. He glanced and saw rifles aimed at him from various places. He had no choice; he was in a well-made ambush. They held their fire, and Rex concluded that if they wanted them dead, they would have already shot them by now. In the end, there were at least five that he saw that aimed rifles at him.

“Shit!” he yelled as he pulled the motorcycle to a stop. There was a smile on one the woman’s faces. It was a devious and wicked smile. Estrella followed suit as she looked behind her. There were more women behind her.

“Oh no... , “ she said as she looked at the women. Fear filled her heart. He recognized the emblem that they wore on their silk dresses. It displayed the sun with a prayer hand in the middle of it. All the women of this clan wore the same emblem in the various colored silk dresses.

The truck came to a complete stop as she looked around her. Rex pulled over, knowing the fight was already over before it started. If he ran, he only risked getting gunned down. In the act of defiance, he did unholster the shotgun but did not aim it at anyone as he kicked the kickstand down and dismounted his motorcycle.

Estrella was unsure what to do, but her answers came soon. Two women came up to the truck with rifles aimed at her. She had her pistol at the ready as she looked at them.

Rex knew the women well. Most of the women looked Japanese, but some were other nationalities and ethnicities. They all wore a silk dress like it was some code or something to that nature. They all had the emblems of the sun and prayer.

“The Ysa...” he said out loud as he had his shotgun at the ready.

“Hello, hello there, young man,” the lead woman said with her hand pointed to him. She had a thick Asian accent to her voice. The other women got closer and closer to them. They were completely surrounded.

“Getting further and further out of your territory, aren’t we Ysa?” he addressed her.

“What can we say?” she said with her arms in a big shrug. “We prosper well during these times. What with all the men running around. Such good stock.”

The Ysa was a mysterious clan of women that appeared after the bombs fell. The name was coined by survivors that supposedly heard what they called themselves. Apparently, they were known as the sun worshipers, which is why they had the symbol in the first place. These women were dangerous and powerful. Their motives were a mystery. All that was known was that the women would target men, and the men would vanish never to be seen again. The women in the attacked bands by the Ysa were shot dead. Only one eyewitness account of the Ysa revealed that he was raped by these women before he escaped.

“Praise the sun!” yelled the lead woman.

“Praise the sun!” yelled the rest of the women. They had smiles on their faces.

Rex looked back at Estrella in worry. If the stories were correct about the Ysa, then she would be killed by the Ysa. He didn’t even want to know what they might have planned with him.

“So what brings you here in this small town? Are you lost?” he asked her.

“We ... how you say ‘trying to expand our influence,’ we heard of the shootings around here and knew that there was prime stock around here, at least the ones that haven’t been shot dead, of course. I assume that you were a part of that racket not far from here?”

He remained quiet as he let her speak. Estrella stood watching the scene next to the truck as the two women held her at gunpoint. Her pistol was ready, but the odds were heavily stacked against her.

“What is that you want, Ysans?”

She cocked her head and looked at the others around her. “You hear the words they call us ladies? So incorrect with the names,” she looked back at him. “Perhaps we need to properly introduce ourselves before we continue. My name is Eshima Yuki. I lead this small group that is part of the main clan in the surrounding areas of California. What is your name?”

“Rex ... Rex Naismith,” he said, keeping his stance and distance with her. He noticed that the other women were no longer pointing their guns at him, but others kept aiming theirs at Estrella.

Eshima looked behind at Estrella. “Who is this ... young woman,” she said with a small amount of annoyance.

“My partner’s name is Estrella.”

There was relief in her eyes. “Good, I prefer that lesser creatures like her did not speak.”

Her words took him by surprise to see and hear words like that. He looked at the other women and noted that there was nothing of any particular difference between Estrella and a couple of women to warrant such anger and hatred.

His eyes caught something that took him by surprise. He noted that two of the women in the group were pregnant. One looked to be about six months pregnant and the other at about three months.

“Eyeing our women already, Rex?” Eshima commented, watching his face and where he was looking.

“What is going on?” he asked, looked at Eshima. “Why are you a group of women that has no men? Why are some of you pregnant in a world that’s basically lost? Most of you look like Japanese women. You have hatred towards my partner, yet you hold no hatred towards me.”

Eshima chuckled. “For simple reason, Rex. We would prefer to find a group of men but you ... it is just you. You are not enough, unfortunately, to help our group. Yet you are still a man in the end. Hmmm... , “ she looked at his features. “White male, perfect to help our numbers grow and blend with the population of the region. Yes, you will do.”

Rex was getting worried, seeing the women sizing him up. “Whatever it is that you are planning on, this must stop.”

Eshima began to tap her chin as she was deep in thought. “I tell you what Rex. I think ... that we will spare you and your friend here, with the exception of one thing. Poor Aiko here,” gesturing to a woman to his right. “She is going into heat and needs to be taken care of. Mind impregnating her?”

“What the fuck?” he looked at Eshima in surprise. He looked at this Aiko. She was Japanese like the others but was sweating. She was struggling to repress her desires. Her blue dress and silken black hair grabbed his attention as he quickly shook it off.

“Going into heat?” Estrella asked behind him.

“Silence!” yelled a woman beside her trying to shut her up. Estrella turned her head to give her an angry look in which they responded in kind.

“It is a simple process Rex,” Eshima told him. “She will not be the only one. “Kiyoko here will be nearing her heat cycle soon, and she could use some of your ... good quality spunk to get her started. Might as well try, right?”

She said it as if she was trying to advertise a sex object for him to enjoy it. He would have none of it. As long as Estrella was fine, then he would not carry out with it.

“No, Eshima, I will not be knocking up your troupe. You will have to find another man to help fulfill.”

“Tsk, tsk... , “ she replied. “Here, I thought it was going to be the easy way. Sometimes you humans are just so stubborn. It is making a baby. It is not a difficult thing to do... , “ she sighed. “Well then ... kill the woman!”

Rex turned to look at Estrella as he watched one of the women raised her rifle to aim at her head.

“Stop! Stop!” he yelled in desperation. Estrella was shaking as she lifted her pistol in response. The other women stopped and looked at him with a wicked smile.

“Oh, and why is that Rex?” Eshima asked him. “Ready to cooperate in the end? Knock up my members and your partner lives. Continue to resist, and we will not only kill her but take you back to our den. You will be one of our breeding stallions for us.”

Rex lifted his shotgun to Eshima. He was going to have none of this. Eshima simply chuckled as two of the other women joined up in the laughter.

“Fuck you!” he yelled at her. “I am not some breeding machine to be taken and discarded!”

“Fuck me?” she gave her devious grin to him. “No ... no you will be fucking Aiko and Kiyoko. Aiko will have a baby growing in her and adding one more amongst the rank, maybe even two or even three if she is extra lucky.”

His shotgun was still aimed at Eshima as he watched the other women simply chuckle, hackle, or laugh at him.

“Still insistent on that gun of yours,” she commented to him. “Go ahead and shoot, what are you waiting for? Either way, you will give them what they want.”

“Why me?” he asked. “Can’t you find some other sap that will be your breeding stock?”

“That is why we are only going for two inseminations. If we truly wanted you, then we would take you in for ourselves. You would be tied down as each of our members here; all of us eventually mount you and make you become a father of many.”

“No ... no,” he protested as his shotgun was aimed at Eshima. None of the other women seemed alarmed with the gun pointed at her.

His adrenaline was kicking in. On the one hand, if he was alone, his mind did flutter with the idea of having a night of fun with these women since they were so insistent, but he was worried about Estrella. The stories of these women and their harshness towards other women that were not a part of their gang were obvious.

“Let me ask you this, Eshima,” he asked her. “If the name of the Ysa is not what you call yourselves, then what are you truly called?”

Eshima looked at Aiko. “Aiko, what is your last name?”

“Yuki,” the woman responded in a Japanese accent.

“Kiyoko...” Eshima looked at her. “What is your last name?”

“Yuki,” the woman responded with a light accent.

“Everyone that is here with the exception of our guests here! What is your last name!?”

“Yuki!” the women all responded.

Eshima chuckled a little bit as she lifted her hands in the air. “We are all the Yuki family, wither they are here, or in Japan, or in China, or in India, or here in the United States or what’s left now. With the dying human race, it is up to the Yuki to step forward and take its place. With the few humans left, we can make sure our numbers never vanish. We will be the new dominant race. Praise the sun!”

“Praise the sun!” the women all cheered.

“You are human!” Rex called out to Eshima. “We are all human beings here! Why are you saying the human race is dying out when you yourselves are human?!”

Eshima simply smiled as she stepped forward to him. She took another step forward as many of the women chuckled.

Rex had no choice. These women were nuts, and the idea of them ravaging him and possibly killing Estrella left him with his finger close to the trigger. He did not trust them in that they would spare Estrella if he let them have their way with him.

He pulled the trigger of his shotgun as an explosion, and a series of slugs flew at Eshima. What happened left him in shock. The slugs slammed into her and bounced off her harmlessly, doing no damage to her.

“What?” he said in shock. At first, even though he was aiming from the hip, he thought he missed. He pulled the forestock back, loading a new round as the spent casing flew out, making the plastic thud on the pavement.

She calmly walked forward as he pulled the trigger. The shotgun rang out as the slugs once again struck her and bounced off, doing no damage.

“It’s true ... Estrella was telling the truth. She fired on one of you in the past, and it did nothing.” Estrella watched in the distance to know that these women were invincible to weapons.

“Everyone!” Eshima called to the women. “These humans are not members of the Coalition! We no longer need to keep our disguises!”

Rex watched in surprise to see a pile of smoke emit from Eshima’s form. It completely covered her body as he watched the other women around him also emit smoke from their bodies. After the smoke cleared, his eyes beheld something he never thought was possible.

Eshima’s true form was that of a human-like rat. She stood at four feet tall with white-spotted brown fur and red eyes. She stood upward on digitigrade legs that lined down to her three-toed feet. She was skinny and wearing the same silk dress as before. Eshima towered over Rex only slightly. She was complete with a large rat-like nose and small forward rat-like teeth. Her ears stuck out just like a rat and she had a large pink like tail that came out from her tail bone. She had long black hair on the top of her forehead that fell down from her head.

Rex stood speechless as Estrella herself watched in shock as well. He was in no position to be able to fight back as Eshima simply walked up to him and calmly took the shotgun from his hands. Her four-fingered hands gripped the gun and pulled it away from him.

He looked over to see the rest of the women had turned into rat women like she was. This Yuki family consisted of rat people with different varieties of color in their fur. His eyes went back to the two pregnant women as before. He could see the women were now large bipedal rats just like Eshima, both with protruding bellies.

“How?... , “ he asked. “Not only do other creatures like you exist but ... dragons, flying creatures, now you. Where did you come from?”

“We always existed Rex, right in front of you. We hid in plain sight as you saw what you saw, a human woman talking to you. No mortal weapons can hurt us, wither it is a gun, a knife, or an atomic bomb blast, you humans, cannot hurt us by normal means. We are the new race that is going to take over.”

“I don’t get it, you exist, but you need humans to procreate. Where are the males of your species?”

Eshima laughed out loud. “Males? Oh, we have them, not many, I would say. Such worthless creatures those males are. No, do you understand the problem with your question Rex? Who are we?”

“The Yuki family!” the others called out in unison.

“Precisely ... all of us are the same bloodline from one parent. We never age yet. It would be obvious that if we tried to mate with the males of our family to produce offspring that it would be incest. I don’t like incest, do you, Rex?”

Rex remained quiet as Eshima stood right next to him. She took his hand and lifted it to her nose. She took a deep breath smelling him.

“There is one thing though that is also obvious, Rex,” she explained. “We all exist because O Yuki San, our mother of all mothers, brought our lives to existence. She was able to mate and produce offspring from a human. His seed gave all of us life. Your seed will help continue to grow our numbers.”

He tried to pull away from her grasp, but she held onto him like a vice. Even though she was shorter than he was, her frame and abilities allowed her to be more powerful than him. She still displayed a devious smile from her face and lips.

“Aiko! Kiyoko! Come and take Rex here to the nearby house here. Aiko, you have first rights to him since you are in heat. Kiyoko take this human woman and make her watch the whole event. In the end, Human women are worthless to us. They only prevent us and get in the way from having human men with us. If Rex here gives any resistance with the process, then kill the woman.”

Rex knew there was nothing he could do. He was disarmed and could not fight back against such powerful creatures. He had to comply.

“Fine ... fine fucking bitch.”

Eshima went and lightly smacked him on the face. “Relax, my dear human stud. You are about to become a father. Your children will be honored amongst us.”

Aiko, a rat woman, approached Rex. She had white and black spotted fur, black hair, and green eyes. She grabbed him hard by the arm and yanked him to the nearest abandoned home. Kiyoko looked like the rest of the rat women but had gray fur, black hair, and blue eyes. Their long pink tails swung as they walked. Kiyoko came up to Estrella and grabbed her arm to pull her to the home Aiko was going. She displayed agitation and anger towards the Kiyoko, but there was nothing she can do.

“Relax, Rex!” Eshima called out to him. Her smile on her rodent-like face displayed power and audacity to him as she held her hands up in cheer.

Rex turned to look at Aiko. He was being pulled and walked to the door of the house. He looked at her face and could see trouble in the rat’s face. She was breathing hard as if she was in distress of her own. Could this be what Eshima meant that she was in heat?

The door of the house was already in use by the Yuki women. The sniper that had Rex in her sights was inside. She looked like the rest of the rat women but had a varied color of fur and hair. She sported a modified M14 rifle with a scope attached to it. She hissed and laughed to Rex as he was dragged into the house.

Inside the home was shuffled and ransacked furniture and belongings to the original owners. It was like the rest of the houses in the neighborhood, a shell of its former glory.

“Let go of me!” he snapped at them as he felt his boots hit the carpet inside the home. He saw an open living room as he was thrown to the soft floor. He landed by a couch that was flipped to its side.

“Finally going to have a child Aiko?” the sniper rat addressed to Aiko.

“Not now, Christina!” Aiko snapped at her. Her raw emotions were taking over. “I can’t stop it! I can’t ... too much!”

“You are doing her a great favor human,” Christina, the sniper, addressed him. “When we go into heat, our instincts take over. Our bodies go into overload, and the only way to satiate it is to have sex. If we don’t have sex, our bodies can end up taking permanent damage from it, and it can possibly kill us. Enjoy this time while you can in this dying world.”

Kiyoko came in next carrying Estrella as Christina nodded to her. Kiyoko went to the flipped over couch and, with one hand, righted the heavy soft furniture and tossed her onto it.

“Rex! Do what you need to do! Don’t let them break...” Estrella’s words were cut short when Kiyoko slapped her in the face with her pawed hand. Kiyoko then grabbed Estrella’s head as she sat down on the couch and held it so that she would watch the whole event take place.

“You filth that call yourselves human women have no rights,” Kiyoko snapped at Estrella. “All you do is stand in the way of our potential mates. We should just toss our weak infertile brothers and sons to you and let you have them instead!”

Estrella closed her eyes as Aiko got on top of Rex and opened her mouth, exposing her rodent teeth to him. Her eyes displayed hunger as she put her muzzle to his face, smelling him. Rex knew there was nothing he could really do in this situation. They had his partner hostage. He had to wrestle with emotions that Christina might have been right in this situation. Some rats would go into extreme heat and were known even to die trying to mate with their partners. These rat women had to look out for their own, and they had nothing but the remaining surviving humans to go to. It did not entirely excuse their actions, but the fact was that he did understand their plight in the situation.

He lifted his arm in one attempt to struggle against Aiko’s strength and power as he felt her hands grab his arm and force it down to the carpet almost instantly. She hissed and kept her mouth open as she looked at him. Her tail wove frantically in the air.

“Watch and learn your place, woman,” Kiyoko told Estrella. “In the end, we Yuki are better than you in every way possible. Our children are better than the babies you make. We make better protectors than you are. We are stronger and more powerful than you are. Even your bombs can’t kill us as we drag ourselves out of the dirt and destruction you did to yourselves.”

“Go to hell!” Estrella struggled to say as Kiyoko gripped her jaw hard. Her rat-like paws held her hard. She looked like she could cut up Estrella with ease with her short claws but was determined to prove a point with her.

“Hush ... hush ... we are not going to hurt him. We are just taking your mate for the day as we should do with all the men you women take! In the end, after we are all done, he will leave your side one night and come crawling to us. Then on that day, you will know how weak you human women are.”

Estrella chuckled “You know what? You won’t win on this. I generally prefer women in the end. He is my partner, and I want him to be alright? No matter what, he has the right to choose what he is happiest with. You rodent women I would never want to fuck. So high and mighty in trying to prove something.”

Aiko was practically stripping the clothing off of Rex. She started by pulling the boots off of him. Her hunger and lust were dominating her desire to mate with him. He gave up on trying to resist against her unless they decided to hurt Estrella physically. As long as he didn’t resist and Estrella remained calm, she would be alright.

“Looks like our human is giving into her. Don’t worry. Even in heat, we don’t go too far,” Christina stated.

Aiko was breathing hard as she pulled the jacket and tugged the shirt off Rex. She pressed her rate like snout to his face and neck, smelling him. His adrenaline and heart rate increased as he felt her straddle his hips. She pulled the shirt, almost ripping it off of him. She then began to pull on her silk dress as it slowly came off of her.

Using her weight and butt to press on him, he watched as she lifted the top portion of her silk dress off of her. She took it off of her to reveal a set of breasts covered in her white and black spotted fur. She had black nipples protrude from the fatty soft breast tissue with the coat going down to her stomach and down to her waist. Even though she was shorter, it didn’t stop her from having full control of him. She also had a belly button that poked from her stomach. She took Rex’s hand and put it to her stomach to feel her.

It felt soft to the touch like you wanted to rub your face into it. He felt a surge in his loins as he tried to push the thoughts away. Aiko was still in a mad rush as she then hopped up, swung her tail around, and lifted Rex’s legs up to unfasten his belt and pants. Her claws practically cut the button up as she quickly popped it loose and pulled his pants off of his legs. He was being stripped naked quicker than any woman ever could try on him.

After another minute, his chest was exposed to her, and he was stripped to his underwear. She took her paws and felt his chest. She pressed her long nose to his abdomen as she was trying to smell him and catch his scent.

“You smell good!” Aiko called to him. “I feel our heartbeat. You hunger for it deep down. I want it!” she took her hands and slammed them on the carpet. “I want you! I want to fuck! I want a baby! I want two! Let the sun give me three, so my status is secured with my family. Give me your seed.”

There was an intense gaze from Aiko as she starred furiously into Rex.

“You will get your wish Aiko,” Christina told her. “My first time in heat was rough for me as well. Remember your breathing techniques and to avoid hurting him. Remember ... you can’t get pregnant if you slash up your mate too much.”

“So strong...” She practically whimpered in her voice. “I feel like I am on fire.”

“Your body knows it is about to have sex,” Kiyoko told her. “Listen to Christina. Our first time is the most intense one. Even the humans have to have sex. It is a strong and powerful instinct in which they themselves would not exist without it. Look at his underwear. His erection tells it all that even though he represses it, deep down, he wants it. He wants to fuck you, Aiko. He wants to impregnate you.”

Aiko was almost in a different world. Her instincts, hormones, and drives were throwing her into chaos while she tried her hardest to keep herself stable.

“Christina, put that sniper rifle down and help your cousin out,” Kiyoko asked her. “We have the place well secured, and if he tries to escape, this human woman is forfeit.”