Chapter 12

“HEY! Professor Sparhawk! WAKE UP!” Zoey’s frantic voice called through Adam’s bedroom door. Her loud yelling and rapid knocking roused him from his sleep. “Sarah is MISSING!”

“Hmngh... ?” Sarah stirred in her sleep and drowsily cracked her eyes open upon hearing her name. She looked around for a moment in sleepy confusion, trying to remember where she was. Feeling Adam’s body heat next to her jogged her memory and she happily mumbled into her pillow.

Judging by the amount of sunlight filtering into the room, it had only been a couple of hours at most since the two of them had fallen asleep together. She yawned and stretched, fumbling for Adam’s chest to snuggle against it again in the hopes of returning to her slumber.

“Shh! Quiet down!” Sarah heard Steven hiss at his sister. “Even though we have these sound dampeners, we can’t just go around making loud noises - ESPECIALLY not after waking me up from a particularly pleasant dream.”

“Quiet down!?” Zoey retorted in a strained whisper. “Stevie, Sarah went missing in the night! We have no idea where she is or if she is okay! And you want me to be calm!?”

“Sarah Cassidy is currently in Adam’s sleeping quarters,” A’luhr’s approaching voice stated matter-of-factly. “Her scent is mixed strongly with his, along with many powerful pheromones. I imagine they were fornicating, likely for quite some time.”

Adam and Sarah both nearly fell out of bed with a jolt, scrambling to find their robes, tidy the sheets, and fix their hair. The pounding on the door had gone completely silent along with the voices on the other side.

“Shit!” Adam hissed and he yanked up his boxer shorts. “Busted!”

“It’s ... not a problem,” Sarah murmured back, tying her robe’s sash around her waist. “W-we’re all adults here, after all, right?”

“Yeah, exactly! There’s no reason we should hide it!” Adam assured the both of them as he finished putting on his robe. Sarah slipped over to the door and opened it a crack, holding the collar of her robe tight around her neck.

“H-heyyyyy... !” She casually greeted the three people in the hall. “Um, good morning! Did ... did ... um ... did you all sleep well?” She smiled awkwardly at them. Steven just stared ahead in mild shock, his mouth hanging open, analyzing the room behind her. His eyes widened when he noticed the pile of condom wrappers scattered on the floor. Zoey was backed up against the opposite wall, madly blushing and refusing to look into the room at all. To Sarah’s surprise, however, she did steal at glance towards her and give an approving little nod and shaky thumbs up. A’luhr seemed completely unfazed, simply working out the kinks in her muscles.

“They probably slept better than we did,” Adam chuckled, coming up behind Sarah, stretching, and slyly draping his arm around her shoulder. “Morning, sweetheart.” He playfully planted a kiss on the top of her messy hair.

“A-Adam!” Sarah exclaimed. She gave him a wide-eyed look, but didn’t shy away from his embrace.

“I knew it...” Zoey softly whispered to herself and did a little fist-pump.

“Uh ... umm ... we ... well...” Steven stammered, trying not to be distracted by the situation ... and also Sarah’s bountiful cleavage, which was slightly visible through a gap in her robe.

“We have come to discuss our plans moving forwards.” A’luhr stepped in, saving the floundering Steven. “The loud weather seems to be clearing, so the Krinis will be active again. We must hasten any preparations we need to perform.”

“I agree.” Adam nodded with a yawn. “But first ... I should really brush my teeth.”

Sarah’s entire face turned a rosy pink as Steven and Zoey both choked in surprise from Adam’s candor. A’luhr simply shrugged and glided away down the stairs without making a sound.

Sarah returned to her room while the others got ready for the day. She looked at her tired, but glowing face in her vanity’s mirror before suddenly bursting out into a giddy little dance. She pumped her arms into the air, causing her robe to loosen and slip off, which she stepped out of and kicked to the side.

“Oh. My. GOD.” She grinned and whispered to her reflection. “I can’t believe I just did that!” She playfully cupped and jiggled her naked breasts in her hands, trying to refresh the fading memory of Adam’s lips sucking at her nipples. She giggled wildly to herself, feeling empowered and free from the doubts that had plagued her over the past week. She happily hummed as she threw on her now dry clothes and practically skipped downstairs to join the rest of the group, who were waiting for her around the coffee table.

Sarah sat next to Adam on the couch. She wanted to lean against his shoulder and bury her sleepy face into his inviting neck, but she restrained herself. She was still an educator in the presence of her student, after all.

“Ok, now that we’re all here,” Adam began, smiling at Sarah next to him and attempting to ease the awkwardness in the room, “we should discuss food rations.” Everyone groaned in disappointment. “I know, I know.” He raised his hands to calm them. “We should have enough to get a decent amount of calories and nutrition for two days, maybe three.”

“That’s all... ?” Zoey asked.

“Sadly, as I mentioned before, a lot of it went bad after the power got cut. It seems that the folk living here didn’t much care for processed dry goods.”

“So what you’re saying is we are going to have to go searching for food soon.” Sarah said, thoughtfully running her fingers over her mouth and worrying about the implications of such a trek.

“We should be able to easily clear the other nearby domiciles without attracting too much unwanted attention,” A’luhr replied. “However, we need to be exceedingly careful of Krinis drones due to our dwindling methods with which to combat them.” She gestured to the two remaining sparkler sticks on the table.

“What about your kick-ass sound grenades?” Steven asked, scratching his hair.

“You mean this one?” A’luhr emphasized the “one” part of her response while tapping on the single remaining silver sphere attached to her hip. “This is our only true form of escape if we need it. Because the effects are temporary and single-use, we must only use this when there are absolutely no other options, and at a point where we can be guaranteed to escape within the small window of time it allows. There will be no second chances.” The group all collectively gulped at the gravity of her words.

“Speaking of second chances...” Sarah said, “What are we going to do about the Krinis? What even happened yesterday!?”

“I have to assume that the new queen was already on the cusp of being born when we managed to strike at the original queen,” A’luhr sighed. “While we momentarily destroyed the Krinis’s hive mind, the young queen must have been able to escape the ashes of her mother and taken control of the nest.” Her eyebrows drooped as she massaged her temples.

“Not only that...” Zoey slowly groaned, “but Diana and Arlo ... betrayed us?” She slouched into her chair with a depressed look in her face.

“Something definitely seemed off about them,” Steven replied. “Were they being mind controlled or something? Alien mind control? That sounds plausible, right?”

“It is not quite accurate to categorize the mental effects of the nectar as ‘mind control’,” A’luhr explained, idly examining the small pile of food on the table in an effort to find anything that seemed palatable. “Once consumed in sufficient quantities, the nectar completely releases the drinker’s inhibitions. Actions and desires that were once thought taboo, shameful, or inappropriate will come bubbling to the surface of their consciousness and force them to focus on nothing else.”

A’luhr grabbed a small box of Corn Pops off of the table and cleanly cut it open with one of her daggers. “That’s why the nectar is so dangerous: because the victims start to willingly welcome their fates and will try to drag others there with them. The effects will fade over time, though. I’m sure Sarah Cassidy understands the feeling even from consuming only a small amount of the fluid.” She started to hesitantly place some of the cereal pieces on her blue tongue, and tested the flavor with a few suspicious licks. She seemed to quickly come to enjoy the sweetness and started tossing more of the sugary yellow bits into her mouth to merrily crunch on them.

“Yeah, that’s true...” Sarah pondered. “The general feeling of wanting to return to that ... ecstasy ... even followed me for a while after you rescued me. I guess I should have realized that we needed to keep an eye on Diana and Arlo, seeing as they had it much worse...” Her shoulders slumped and she rested her forehead on her hands. She let out a heavy breath but then felt a strong pressure massaging against her back.

She peeked up to see Adam rubbing her shoulders in a consoling manner.

“You couldn’t have known,” Adam said quietly. “It’s not your fault. None of this is any of our faults. This world has gone upside down. We can’t keep blaming ourselves for every single mishap that we happen to witness. It will eat us from the inside and tear the group apart.” Everyone lowered their eyes, thinking about their own senses of guilt. “A’luhr,” Adam continued, “what are our options here? How do we fight back?”

A’luhr looked over at him; her cheeks were puffed out like a hamster’s as she munched on the entire box’s worth of cereal in her mouth. Sarah liked this side of the alien woman - seeing her experience Earth for the first time in child-like wonder was such a stark contrast from her usually stoic, combative attitude that it made her seem extra adorable at such moments. For the first time, Sarah wondered how old she was, but figured that wasn’t important to ask about right now. A woman has her secrets to keep.

A’luhr took a labored gulp to swallow the Pops and then washed down her breakfast with some bottled water before speaking.

“We could attempt to find another one of those scouting machines of yours, along with more starfire, and try the same tactic again...” A’luhr suggested in an uneasy voice. “But besides the low odds of us being able to safely locate such objects, the Krinis will have now learned of the threat the machines possess and likely attack them on sight.”

“Learned?” Steven asked in surprise. “I thought these worms were all just mindless, horny monsters acting instinctively to fuck people, or whatever.”

“They probably share information through the hive mind,” Zoey suggested. “Most likely with the queen’s consciousness shaping what they know. If she witnessed the drone, then they’d definitely be suspicious of it in the future.”

“What your kin says is correct,” A’luhr said to Steven. A small ray of sunlight struck the dagger in her hand and cast dancing reflections around the room. “The Krinis are not ‘mindless’ as you say. In fact, they are the very opposite. They have the shared intelligence of countless minds. We cannot afford to underestimate them.”

“So what are our other options, then?” Sarah asked.

“If all else fails, we can return to the original plan: let one of us be captured and then strike the queen when they get the chance, but we should try and evaluate other strategies before it comes to that.” A’luhr leaned forward and sighed. “If anything, we at least have some time on our side now, as it seems the new queen is not leaving the planet yet for some reason and is instead staying here for now. Though it is anyone’s guess as to how long that will last.”

“Well, let’s hope we, or somebody else, can figure out a solid plan before it comes to that.” Adam shrugged. “For now, we need to focus on stabilizing our own safety and living conditions before we rush off into the next big mission.”

“Mm.” Sarah agreed. “Hopefully we can make some progress on a plan before we need to venture further away from the house to find food.” She glanced out the window, half expecting to see a drone staring back in at her, but the streets appeared empty. “Let’s keep our heads up and take it one day at a time for now.”

She leaned forward and grabbed a small box of Lucky Charms, hoping that if the luck didn’t rub off on her, that maybe at least the sugar would jump-start her sleep deprived brain.

One week passed without any major incidents. They stayed as quiet as they could, leaving conversation and meals for the rooms with the most acoustic padding. They found some board games to pass the time and delighted in teaching them to A’luhr who, as it turned out, was somewhat of a prodigy at Chess. She did not, however, like Candyland. The luck element seemed to rub her the wrong way.

“How could a planet of pure sweetness mask such guile!?” She had exclaimed in anger after being sent almost all the way back to the start of the board. “This betrayal will not be forgiven lightly.”

They also asked questions about A’luhr’s home planet, apparently named something like “Vir’tael”, which was home to many extraordinary creatures and sights - but with significantly less water than Earth, especially due to recent climate changes. Her people instead collected moisture from the atmosphere using complex machines. Adam was severely disappointed when he found out that A’luhr had absolutely no clue how they worked. Apparently she was a soldier, who was tasked with watching over the “lesser races” whom they kept in ghetto-like cities.

Sarah thought this sounded suspiciously like a dictatorship, but stayed her tongue. It would be impossible to fully understand such an alien culture and be the height of folly to assume that human ethics and politics would apply to extraterrestrials.

Apparently the Krinis had first attacked these “lesser races”, so A’luhr’s own race, the Prinquem, didn’t really care too much and let things take their course against the weaker demographics. This proved to be their undoing, as despite the Prinquem having advanced technologies, the Krinis had plenty of time to absorb the energies of countless captives and easily managed to subdue them when the time came for the tentacles to finalize their dominion over the planet.

The group listened in horror as A’luhr explained all the terrifying battles and lewd scenes that followed them. Eventually she began to seem pretty depressed from recounting the tales, so they shared things about Earth to cheer her up.

She was amazed to hear about fish, elephants, and squirrels, remarking at how hard it was to imagine them based solely on their descriptions. They managed to find some books around the house that had pictures to help illustrate some of what they were saying.

It interested Sarah quite a bit to learn how exotic and mysterious A’luhr found Earth’s flora and fauna to be, as Sarah naturally considered it all to be rather mundane and boring in comparison to the incredible creatures that A’luhr was describing from her own home planet. Sarah had never really put much thought into it before, but it was obvious the more she did so that natives of a planet would find their own ecosystems to be “normal” while recoiling in shock at even the simplest of things on another world.

They spent many hours sharing tales and learning about one another. Most of their time, however, was spent scouting out the area and continuing to search the large house for more supplies. After a couple of days, they finally mustered up the courage to adventure into some of the nearby houses and managed to procure a few more days worth of food along with more candles, changes of clothes for everyone, and even a few more sparklers.

The nights were pretty uneventful, as light sources were limited, but Adam and Sarah still found ways to “pass the time” together. They even went so far as to burn an entire candle that Sarah had found at a neighbor’s house in order to spend the night in the “special” bedroom. The morning after, the rest of the group had eyed the two of them suspiciously, noticing Sarah nursing a sore jaw, as if her mouth had been forced open by a ball gag for an extended period, and Adam rubbing his backside, with faded red lash marks slightly visible under his shirt.

But that’s a story for another time.

The relationship between the two professors continued to strengthen over this short period. They watched each other’s backs when out scavenging (armed with sparklers), shared their own secret stashes of treats, and simply enjoyed general conversation in order to learn more about one another. Hobbies were rather limited at the moment, so any new interests they could be turned on to were welcomed.

Things continued in this way over the course of the week, with the group repeating the cycle of eating, scavenging, relaxing, and strategizing, until one day, Steven made an announcement after coming back from a scavenging mission.

“Guys, you won’t believe this, but A’luhr and I were just down near the campus, and the goo on that one door is gone!” He excitedly paced back and forth. “We could sneak in there and grab a bunch of starfi - I mean, magnesium!”

“Yes, it would seem that we have access to the building,” A’luhr confirmed. “However I am somewhat suspicious as my vibrator was nowhere to be seen.”

“Y-your what?” Zoey asked in surprise.

“My vibrator. The tool I had with me when I first met Steven. It was lodged in the door. A shame, too, as it can regularly deliver a powerful, disarming noise against the Krinis thanks to its vibrations.”

“O-oh! I thought it was ... something else.” Zoey blushed.

“Do your people also have something like vibrators?” A’luhr looked at Zoey with an eager expression. “We must procure as many as possible!”

“I believe there are some upstairs...” Adam grinned mischievously. Sarah elbowed him and he yelped in pain. “But they are probably too weak to use against the Takers.” He rubbed his sore side as A’luhr shrugged in disappointment.

“So what do you all think? Should we go check it out?” Steven continued. “This could be our big chance to nab some weapons to kill off that newbie queen!”

“I don’t know ... it seems kind of risky.” Sarah replied.

“I agree,” Adam said. Sarah felt reassured knowing he was backing her up. “That’s pretty far away, and with only one exit, options would be limited once inside if things go sideways.”

“But we would have A’luhr with us!” Steven retorted. “She’ll just kick the ass of any monsters we meet.”

“I appreciate that you think so highly of my skills,” A’luhr said, crossing her arms. “But I cannot guarantee anything now that I am low on armaments.”

“That’s exactly why we need to get in there! To get kitted out!” He desperately tried to convince her.

“It ... would be worth it if we managed to pull it off...” Zoey agreed. “We could start to find a real path towards a resolution to all this. We’ve just been sitting around, simply surviving, for almost a week now!”

“Yeah! We need to take revenge for our fallen comrade!”

“I agree, Diana and Arlo are still down there!”

“Err ... yeah ... they’re who I meant.” Steven nervously laughed.

“Fine,” Adam relented. “What do you think?” He turned to Sarah, as did the rest of the group. Put on the spot, she thought for a second and then sighed.

“Okay, let’s do it.” She nodded. “But each of us needs to be carrying at least one sparkler and if ANYTHING starts going wrong, we leave immediately. Cool?” Everyone agreed.

They got to work gathering equipment they might need, such as the sparklers, lighters, bags, a crowbar, some bottles of water, and the like. A’luhr cut the bottom off of her partially destroyed bodysuit and wore it like leggings as her weapons could more easily be carried this way. She simply threw a rather revealing and loose-fitting tank top over her chest, explaining that she appreciated the mobility and breathability of the material. The men didn’t seem to mind it too much. Sarah painfully kicked Adam in the shin when she saw him ogling the large blue mounds barely hidden under the garment.

A’luhr’s breasts weren’t entirely on display, however. Earlier, Sarah had found a sports bra in another house that she eyeballed to be a good fit for A’luhr, considering that both women seemed about the same size. She showed the alien woman how to put it on and smiled bashfully after A’luhr praised the garment, noting that it would allow her to be even more agile in combat.