Chapter 7

Actually, at this point, it is probably best to do a little bit of time-skipping. The next few weeks were actually busy, but more in the sense of busy-work than interesting-work.

After three weeks, if Tommy were to write out a summary of what happened, it would probably look something like this:

1) No more unusually intelligent Infecteds were found. This was actually a bit depressing, but I suppose it meant we had covered most of the Infecteds in this part of town. By the end of the three weeks, we had put signs up all over Los Angeles, but the density of coverage wasn’t very good yet. It would still be very easy for a class three or better to miss them. (And that doesn’t even cover ones like Tammy who had stuck to one location before we found them.)

2) We had started collecting all the pregnant women in a warehouse within a mile of the fence. I visited the location regularly and had been present at about 60 or 70 successful births ... with at least 800 to go. We were being careful. Each mother was checked over (usually by Tammy), then I ordered her to give birth -- I still had not actually seen a birth, so still lucky in that regard -- everyone got cleaned up, and the mother was taught to care for the child. Ninety percent of our baby formula came from scavenging runs to grocery stores, but we had started to get some from the military. All of our monster-baby births were still alive, but it was depressing to think how many infants or small children had died because of the monsters.

I had also slowly collected a support staff to help out at the pregnant woman facility, consisting mostly of good level twos who just couldn’t read.

Also note that our tiny utilities group had helped select the location and was working to maintain water and power to that area.

3) Flores was working nearly full time with the military, with the rest of us helping out as needed. Mostly, she was retrieving records from different city government locations.

4) The utilities estimates were that they could probably maintain power and water to only 5% of the metro area in the long run, and that depended on the Hoover dam lines keeping power flowing. In the short term, meaning the next few months, we could have up to 30 or 40% working. Problem was that they had to do all maintenance themselves, and it was just too large an area. Fortunately, it was California, a region known for a general lack of harsh weather, so they hoped for a slow dropoff.

5) I started setting up regional groups to deal with a problem I hadn’t run across much: Fire. How to deal with Fires when access to a reliable water supply is iffy and the firemen weren’t mentally solid? I would find a bunch of Infected and give them instructions, letting level one’s wander off unmolested, since they would be useless. Mostly, I taught them what I could about fire breaks and how to keep fires from spreading. (Understand that I lacked such knowledge, instead using books provided by the Professor.) Basically, if the fire were small, they’d try to smother it or carry whatever was on fire into the street. If it was too big to handle that way, they’d try to keep it from spreading.

6) I rescued two other Uninfected in that time. A news photographer had snuck in and had to be rescued. Despite his pleas, I delivered him straight back to the Army MPs. I have no clue what he was told about me. (In fact, I still didn’t know if the public knew about me or not. Hadn’t seen myself referenced in the papers, so probably not.) The other was a man whose mind had snapped and was searching for his family. He had snuck in via a small boat, and he had survived over a day, trying to make his way home. I actually felt bad enough that I took him to his home, then had to fight him to get him to leave, even after he could see it was abandoned. That was the first time I had to use my monstrous strength on a normal human; I had to literally tie him up to get him out.

All of that fell under ‘official reports’ information. Here’s some ‘personal notes’ type of updates:

1) May and I took it slow. We found time for dates a couple times a week, mostly visiting famous L.A. locations. After the first two dates, we kissed. We’ve even necked twice now. She definitely seems like a ‘take it slow’ kind of girl. Since I’m not actually lacking sex, it’s comfortable. She’s a comfortable reminder and touch of normalcy, even if she knows about all the other women and stays over half the time.

2) Tammy though ... I’m not sure how to describe it. How about, I’m her stress relief. She’s only home maybe one night in every three or four, but she tries to join me in bed when she can.

2a) I had her give me an anatomy lesson. My confusion about female sexuality and identifying the appropriate parts was the trigger. I now know what a clitoris is and what part it plays in giving pleasure to the women I’m with. I even know what a G-spot is, though Tammy was not able to reliably show me exactly where it is. It’s inside the vagina, and if you reach inside and curl your finger just right, you might be able to find it. I think. It’s still a lot better information than I got from Pete.

2b) As part of her sex education class, she also told me that you can have sex with women in their butthole. Yes, in their actual ass. That just sounds disgusting. I mean, what if there’s poop in there already. Wouldn’t it get into my peehole? I guess maybe it’s less of a problem since we don’t poop anymore, or eat solid food, but still. Apparently that’s also what gay guys do to each other too? For now, I plan to stick with women’s front holes, thank you very much.

3) Having two women -- two of MY women, that is -- who are smart makes things a lot easier. Actually, that sounds a little bit wrong. May isn’t my woman, at least not yet, but we are dating. Plus, Tammy’s not around all the time. Regardless of what I call them, it means that there are two other people in the household who can communicate.

3a) It also kind of worries me. Do they talk about me behind my back? Does Flores join in sometimes? Does Flores even care? I’m NOT interested in her, but she still showed me her tits and jacked me off for the Professor that one time. Then she didn’t care about it anymore? Women are confusing, and being involved with them makes things worse.

3b) I’m still hoping that Mrs Dooley will learn or remember how to read sooner or later. I’m pretty sure she’s the smartest of the level 2s. But then I’d just get paranoid about her talking (or writing) with the others.

4) I’m pretty sure Holly has stopped collecting women for me now. She hasn’t tried to add anyone in over a week. At the same time, if we run across someone exotic, like a belly dancer from Arabia or a lady from India or ... or someone from South America ... or an Eskimo ... or an island hulu girl ... or ... actually, I can’t think of any other new types of exotic ladies right now ... she might try to grab one of them, but otherwise, I think we’re pretty steady.

3c) Okay, I think I am starting to get paranoid. I ... This wouldn’t be a problem if I had just stuck with one woman, especially if she was someone who was a level 2, like Holly. Should I try to order them not to have written or spoken conversations about me? That’s ... even if that would work, wouldn’t it be pretty mean? I’m not particularly happy to find out I’m their ... their ... what? Lord and master? I’m also not happy to have to take on the responsibility either. Even with the help I’m getting, it’s just not possible for me to take care of a couple million people, or however many people there still are. Speaking of...

5) Their best guess seems to be somewhere between two and five million Infected people still alive in the city and surrounding areas, out of an original population of about eight million. Now, there are a lot of corpses around, but it doesn’t seem like three to six million. Maybe they’re concentrated in other areas of the city or maybe they are in piles out in the dessert? Or maybe they got drawn out of city weeks ago and are just wandering out there somewhere? I have heard that all of this part of the west coast is still considered ‘active’, in that there are threats out here. I know that trucks still show up every day at different points around the city and unload a bunch of Infected, but I don’t know what the offload numbers are and I don’t know how many are out there, still alive.

5a) So, would level threes be more or less likely to show up in a truck-load of Infected? I mean, are they more of a threat, and so more likely to be killed beforehand? I’ve seen that, without my influence, they’re just as susceptible to the Infected rage as the others. Can they properly perceive humans through their protective get-ups? I should ask the Professor.

6) Mrs Dooley finally brought Charlene, her daughter, to my bed, but she did it really weird. When I went to bed a week ago Tuesday, Charlene is naked, tied down like one of her maids. Now, understand that I already put a stop to how she was treating her maids, so the only person that’s been tied down for the past few weeks was this one time we treated Mrs Dooley like that, when I invited her maids to treat her like she’s been treating them. (Weird thing was, I was pretty sure she enjoyed it. Like REALLY enjoyed it, if how wet someone gets down there is linked up with how turned on they are.) But like I was saying, her daughter was tied down and naked. So, I take her aside -- Mrs Dooley, I mean -- and explain it to her that this isn’t how she should treat her daughter, then go back and untie Charlene. And then Charlene is all hot and bothered, so I give in without really fighting -- because, really, how much would you fight if a pretty, young college girl is climbing all over you, plus you’re being encouraged by your main girl -- and next thing I know Mrs Dooley is right there with us, in bed with her daughter and me. Having sex with me AND HER DAUGHTER! Anyway, my point is that there’s something wrong in the head with Mrs Dooley, and I’m even a little worried it might have been like that before Target Bravo too.

6a) Kinda related, I found out Charlene Dooley was a virgin, which makes her my second. Not sure how I feel about it, but at least it means Charlene isn’t like her mother. Also emphasizes that Veronica is less of a good mother than I thought. At least, she’s a pretty bad mother now. Guess she was okay as a mother before? Should she get credit for not having sex with her daughter before the world ended?

6b) I might have a weird way to keep Mrs Dooley under control. A couple days ago, I saw her meet up with Biyu once -- I don’t think either of them saw me to begin with -- and Biyu seemed like she was giving Mrs Dooley orders, and Mrs Dooley was quick to obey. (I think she was cleaning something up?) A bit later, I asked Biyu about it, expecting babble and confusion in response. And yes, I did get some babble, but Biyu also snapped her fingers at Mrs Dooley, who came over and knelt down next to her. It was more than a bit weird, but I think I might be able to use Biyu to keep Mrs Dooley under control. Maybe.

7) No changes for Red; still very slow learning and remembering. No real changes for Dorothy; still very, very oversexed. I’m pretty sure she’s sleeping with Patience most nights, though the two of them have showed up in my bed together twice in the past couple weeks. Connie has been mostly ... well, she hasn’t been avoiding me. Connie doesn’t seem to care much about sex, which, honestly, is kind of a relief at this point. But she is a good group helper, in that she works well with others and always seems ready to help out.

8) Holly is still my girl, and I’m her guy. She’s with me most every day and night, and we have one-on-one time at least once every other day. If I had the option, I’m pretty sure I’d marry her. I almost wish she was white so I could take her home to meet the family, but I’d be happy living anywhere with her. (Don’t think that was me bein’ a dumb hick racist, neither. I show up with her at home and announce we’re engaged or married and the best possible thing that can happen I can think of involves us being run out of town. I don’t want to think about the worst. How about if I just say that I’d pick her over my family. I’d miss my family, but I’d still pick her.) (Plus, I gotta stop saying stupid things like that. She doesn’t seem like she cares, but I don’t want to upset her or insult her or nothing like that.) She’s definitely gotten smarter, and she helps out without needing to be asked ... like how she watched my back and kept people out of the hospital’s baby room without me needing to ask her.

9) Jacob has developed into Mr Frincetti’s best pupil. And he also started having sex with his girlfriend and her mom. I don’t know if I should feel responsible or not. (Talking about the mother here. His involvement with his girlfriend started before I met him.) I honestly don’t know if the mother wanted to sleep him beforehand or not, but she’s not objecting now, but that could be because I told his “extended” family to do what Jacob wanted. Or maybe becoming Infected made all of us ... or all of us who are Infected and intelligent? ... perverts?

9a) Same basic problem might also be developing with Mr Frincetti, his wife and her sister. I don’t know of any similar issues with the others, but Flores and May (so far) are the only other level three or fours that I know for sure are clear of ... ummm ... how to phrase it ... possible problems with sexual partners. I have at least some suspicions about all of the others, even Delores and Jebediah, though not with each other.

A couple months later...

Tommy woke naturally, with a warm body pressed up against either side. He opened his eyes to see a mass of red curls, indicating Red was still with him. Holly had brought her to bed the previous night, but she occasionally wandered off during the night. Once he had even found her sleeping on the floor at the foot of the bed. (He had been upset that someone might have put her down there, but no one had admitted to having her do so, and it hadn’t happened again.)

Upon seeing he was awake, Red started quietly babbling and touching his chest, running her fingers through his sparse chest hair. This alerted Holly, who pressed up against him from behind even closer, squashing her breasts against his back. Holly started kissing his neck and shoulders while she reached around to see if perchance his cock was hard, which caused it to surge to life. Although he only now turned his head to catch her with a morning kiss, he already knew it was her from her touch. He was certain he’d always know her touch, blind-folded, decades from now.

While they kissed, her hands reached further, seeking out Red’s head, urging her down. Red allowed herself to be guided down under the sheets, until he felt one of Holly’s hands waggling his hard dick back and forth. Red began kissing, licking, then mouthing his cock. She couldn’t swallow it, like a few of the other women could, but it was still exciting to experience. Well, until her teeth got in the way once too often.

He threw off the covers and gently disengaged Red from his crotch, quietly reminding her not to use her teeth at all.

Over the past month or so, he had slowly come to realize that (1) he had handled Red all wrong, and (2) the responsibility he had assumed for her meant that he shouldn’t have ever had sex with her at all. Yes, she was definitely an adult and had experienced sex before he met her, but the damage done to her brain had reduced her mental capacity to where he didn’t know if she could ... uhhh ... Tommy didn’t know the right words. Was she able to say ‘no’? Well, that wasn’t right either. His influence over the Infected meant that none of them were able to refuse him.

How about, it felt wrong to have sex with her?

The problem ... one of the various problems ... was that Red WAS an adult. Her memories might be Swiss cheese now, but she knew what a dick was and generally wanted to spend time with his as much as possible. When it was out of sight, she might forget about it, but not always. And he wasn’t strong enough, morally speaking, to refuse. So, well ... at least he did his best to keep her away from Dorothy -- because he was reasonably certain that Red wasn’t a lesbian -- and, wrong as it might be, tried to include her in the ‘fun’ on occasion, because he was pretty certain that’s what she wanted.

Holly also tried to treat Red carefully, as she did now, speaking to her directly. “Za tin yongorec decsen. Ko in eosex, copped.” With that, she pulled Red to the center of the bed, then pulled her legs back against her torso.

Red looked around with moderate interest, seemingly ignoring the fact that Holly was folding her body in two. She perked up a little when Tommy started stroking her nether lips, probably realizing that sex was happening.

Tammy had shown him how important it was to get a woman wet. Red would get wet just fine, but sometimes you had to keep her focused for a couple minutes until things started in earnest. When she started shifting her focus to Holly a minute later, he leaned down and kissed her, switching from fingers to using the head of his cock to stroke her lips.

Both sets of lips were wonderfully soft to his touch. Some days, he just wanted to stay in bed and explore the soft places on a woman’s body.

When he was pretty sure she was ready enough, he pushed inside of her. Pulling back from her face for a minute, he could tell she was definitely focused, even looking like she was trying to babble at him. He was pretty sure she was mute, though he had no idea if it was natural or from an injury or something. Either way, she was really pretty. And she was really getting into it.

Holly released her hold on Red’s legs, and one of them wrapped around him. The other fell to the bed, occasionally lifting up as his hips pistoned in and out.

Fucking Red was a little odd, given her silence, but Holly purred and made what were probably intended as encouraging comments. It took over ten minutes before Red came the first time, but after that, she started coming regularly every few minutes.

From his past experience, Tommy knew that Infected constitutions can keep going past when humans need a respite, plus he often got lost in the motion and sensations, fucking for what felt like hours. One of the ways he had found that could delay his own climax was counting the number of girl comes he had created. (Not a great way, but it helped him delay things a bit.)

When Red had hit 5 girl comes, he lost it and let loose inside her. The two of them were frozen for a moment, a picture of shared sexual bliss, before Tommy relaxed, pulled free of her, then lay down next to her.

Holly kissed Red tenderly on a cheek, whispered some babble talk in her ear, then moved over to kiss Tommy, this time on the lips. One of her hands started pumping his cock, working it back to a properly hardened state.

Two minutes later, Holly slipped his member into his favorite sleeve of female flesh (i.e. hers) and was preparing to ride him to their own moment of glorious ecstasy, when disaster struck. Well, it felt disastrous to Tommy.

His Army radio, the one he kept on for emergencies, came to life.

“Shepherd One, Shepherd One. This is Watchdog Five, over. Sheperd One, Shepherd One. This is Watchdog Five, over.”

“No, not now,” Tommy moaned. Holly froze in place, not sure how to react.

A glance out the western window at the sky indicated the sun was either just now rising or about to start. He wasn’t due at the fence until 08:00, meaning he probably had two hours. Which also meant this might be important.

“Sweetie, I gotta take this.”

Holly slowly, uneagerly, lifted herself off of him, letting him roll off the bed.

The radio repeated its call once more before Tommy reached it, his hardon bouncing uncomfortably as he walked. He didn’t know the term ‘blue balls’, but he absolutely would have claimed the condition if he had.

“Watchdog Five, this is Shepherd One, over,” he acknowledged.

“Shepherd One, observed a bottle rocket signal approximately one mile from Gate 24 at 06:04, over.”

He found his watch on the table, which read 06:08. “Roger that, rocket near Gate 24.” His sex-addled mind wasn’t really sure of the location ... or maybe he just didn’t have all the gates memorized. He wished they had linked the numbering of the gates with the watch towers, but they hadn’t. The gate locations had been known before they started building the fence, and so had been numbered from the first northern gate around the planned roughly semi-circular fence, while the watch towers had been numbered as they had been built. There was a plan to renumber the towers, but nothing had actually been done along those lines yet. (For now, Watch Tower Five had the best reception for his home.)

“Is Gate 24 the one next to the white church or the one by what used to be an orange grove? Over.”

“Gate 24 does have a white Baptist church nearby. Over.”

“Roger. I’ll head out there asap. Please be certain to inform the base. I’ll try not to be late to my meet at Gate 10 at 08:00, but a bottle rocket signal at an off hour means one of my Level 3s believes the situation to be time critical. Over.”

He had had a discussion at one of their regular meetings at the Brown Derby about time-sensitive emergencies. He really hoped it really was an emergency, like an uninfected person in immediate danger or something.

“Roger that. Over.”

“I may need to shoot off a rocket or flare in a bit to orient myself, so please keep an eye out. Over.”

“Roger. Give us a heads-up before firing, if you can. Over.”

“Roger. Over and out.”

Tommy sighed and stood up. “I’m sorry, honey. I gotta go.” He paused and glanced at himself. “I gotta take a really quick shower. A cold shower. Then I gotta go. And remember, this is an Army day, so you gotta stay home.”

Tommy sighed, took a longing, appreciative look at Holly, and stood up. The house still had power, thanks to Mr Frincetti’s efforts, so they still had hot water ... So when, after he had experienced a cold shower for less than a minute and decided a little hot water would be very nice, he didn’t have to suffer for the entire shower.

He was downstairs, dressed and clean, less than ten minutes after he signed off. May was standing by with a mug of hot coffee, an act that triggered profound gratitude. Unlike Holly, May was supposed to come with him today.

After a long, careful drink, he briefly updated her on the situation. Her only response was, “Let’s hope it doesn’t take us too long.” He nodded agreement.

“I think we can reach Gate 24 in forty minutes or so, as long as the roads are clear. You want to drive?” He asked as they walked out. May was at least as good a driver as he was, and this way, he could drink more coffee during the trip. Technically, he wasn’t certain caffeine did him any good any more, but it was still at least some kind of mental crutch.

The streets weren’t horribly crowded, but they also weren’t empty. It took May about fifty minutes to get within view of the church. They positioned themselves roughly a mile directly in from the gate, but didn’t see anything unusual.

He let the watchers know he was about to fire, then set off a bottle rocket of his own. The spotter closest to his position thought the previous one was a bit North from Tommy’s position, but warned that it might have been Northeast or Northwest. While that discussion was happening, another bottle rocket was set off, maybe half a mile or more North-Northeast. Tommy offered thanks for the help and took off. He let May drive again, even though he really wanted to be behind the wheel. As she pointed out, this way he could use a megaphone or something while they went.

Less than five minutes later, they both noticed a crowd. It wasn’t as big as the previous crowds targeting uninfected targets, but it was anomalously large and concentrated.

“Unless you know me and have something to report, I want everyone to keep quiet and go about your normal business,” he told the crowd with his megaphone, then quickly flipped it off and told May, “Stick with me.”

The majority of the crowd began to wander off in different directions, but he could see one figure determinedly making her way through the crowd toward him.

“Delores,” he called in greeting. “Glad to see you. What’s ... up...”

His voice trailed off as the clearing crowd revealed a hunched figure dressed in the same bright yellow suit as the army soldiers.

He jumped out of the Jeep and met Delores halfway. She was a lot more spritely than any other seventy-year-olds he knew from back home. He hugged her briefly, then let her go ahead and scribble notes down on her pad.

“Stand up and join us,” Tommy called out. “You’re safe now.”

Those outfits hid the wearer’s gender and normal clothes, and you could only see their face if they were looking your direction. And the face that turned toward him was familiar, as was the camera that turned towards him. He briefly turned his attention back to Delores, read through her brief note, and thanked her.

“Hold on, everyone,” he muttered, then picked up the radio he’s left in the jeep. “This is Shepherd One. Say again, this is Shepherd One, looking for the Watchdog closest to Gate 24. Over.”

The response was almost immediate.

“Shepherd One, this is Watchdog Twelve. Shepherd One, this is Watchdog Twelve. What’s your situation? Over.”

“Watchdog Twelve, found Uninfected male in Army gear ... ummm ... he’s wearing one of your yellow suits, don’t know what to call it. He’s a photojournalist I rescued a week or so ago. Over.”

“Shepherd One, could you repeat that? Over.”

“Uninfected male wearing one of your yellow ... protective suits. He’s a photojournalist and this is the second time I’ve found him inside the perimeter. Over.”

“Hold on a moment. Over.”

“Hey, uhh, sir ... What’s your name again?”

The journalist was taking pictures, mostly of Tommy, but some of Delores and May too. He turned back to Tommy and whispered, “Jerry Flats with Associated Press. What’s your name?”

Tommy ignored his questions as he had the first time, realizing it was unlikely that anything good would come of answering them. Instead he spent a moment chasing away returning Infecteds, probably level ones. He was glad to notice that May had followed his example and was likewise ignoring the questions.

It was going to take a few minutes for the expected bring-him-to-the-gate-for-handover orders to work their way back to Tommy, so he spent some time thanking Delores and briefly talking about how she was doing.

Photojournalist Jerry just stayed close by, obviously understanding that this exploratory gambit, while more successful than his last foray, was still a life-threatening failure. He was getting more and more frustrated ... but couldn’t raise his voice without risking his life. On the plus side for him, he went through two rolls of film while they all waited.

Tommy didn’t like getting his picture taken, but wasn’t going to rough the guy up over it. Moral questions aside, that would be a spectacularly stupid thing to do when anyone was watching, especially other Infected who would likely take their cues from him. So, he just herded him into the back seat of the Jeep.

The main thing Tommy and Jerry had in common was keeping a close eye on a roughly a 50-60 foot surrounding ring of Infected that had formed around Tommy. While most had left the area at Tommy’s order, a mix of level one Infecteds too stupid to remember to leave and a regular trickle of new arrivals, drawn by the activity, were milling about the group. Tommy occasionally used his megaphone to order them to leave, then it would gradually started reforming.

Jerry didn’t know how the young lieutenant was doing it -- and he was willing to sell one or more of his children to find out -- but even so, he still felt under direct threat of being torn to small, bloody pieces by the Infected if he said anything out loud. The suit was apparently not the full protection he had assumed it was.

After 5 to 10 minutes, Tommy’s radio came to life again -- again drawing more active attention from the nearby Infecteds -- and the Jeep was underway a minute later. Tommy cleared out Infecteds from the gate, transferred custody to a couple G.I.s, and left in a hurry for another gate over an hour’s travel away.

Of course, they arrived late, but at least they were less than thirty minutes tardy. Not a great start to the day.

There was a standard small ‘camp’ set up just inside the fence, with only two tents and the line of three vehicles to be used. Well, plus a makeshift cage where they locked up the handful of Infected who had needed to be removed from the campsite initially. With the soldiers’ experience gained over the past month, he guessed that it could be broken down and removed in 15 minutes or less.

He stood at attention just inside the main tent, waiting for General Charles to turn his attention from the group of suited men. Generals are generally not kept waiting for the arrival of lieutenants, but Tommy had been getting a good feel for his position over the past few weeks. This assignment for Charles -- fence creation and border patrol of the West Coast Infected Holding Encampment (a.k.a. Los Angeles and environs) had gained a new importance due solely to his involvement. He wasn’t sure how much importance he brought to the situation, but, at least to General Charles, Tommy’s presence made everything a bigger deal. He was trying not to get a swelled head, but he could probably get away with a few more things than most Corporals or Lieutenants.