Chapter 37

Early the next morning, Mike and Marcus organized a hackathon. Every programmer and budding engineer in the school was brought down to Mike’s lab for an intensive day of problem solving and building. Their goal: to deploy Marcus and Izzy’s neural network model onto a dozen Raspberry Pi’s from Mike’s extensive collection, and integrate them into the military and police handheld radios taken from the 105th MP Battalion HHQ and the Morgan Creek police station.

Using quantization and other optimization techniques, Marcus and Izzy had been able to reduce the model’s size and complexity to fit within the Raspberry Pi’s limited RAM and compute capacity. To the Pi’s peripheral connectors, they attached software-defined radio dongles, which Mike had in abundance from both his days in Hollywood, and his robot fighting and drone flying hobbies.

While Michelle and Chloe teamed up to hack the SDR drivers to make them compatible for signal capturing and processing, others worked on integrating the battery packs and charge controllers.

The handheld radios were interfaced through their audio out ports, linking them to the Raspberry Pi’s audio input, facilitating the transfer of audio signals from the radio to the Pi. Armed with the pre-trained neural network model, the Pi received the incoming audio, processed it in real-time, and applied the necessary filters to clean up the static and other unwanted noises. The cleaned audio was then sent back to the radio through the Pi’s audio output, which they connected to the radio’s auxiliary input port, allowing the filtered audio to be played back through the radio’s speaker.

Yet another team of students, led by Sophia, worked on modeling the enclosure to house the Raspberry Pi and securely attach it to the radio, using CAD software on Mike’s laptop. They then exported the STL files to thumb drives and plugged them into to his 3D printers, which had been relocated from the lab to the kitchen in Overton House.

By mid-afternoon, they had the first pair of working prototypes, and Mike asked Charmagne to test them out. She gave one to Cpl. Ibarra and told him to run it up the mountainside to the lookout, then transmit when he got there. Everyone gathered outside, in the thin shade of Leavitt Hall, to watch anxiously as Ibarra made the arduous climb. Thirty-five minutes later, he waved to them from the deck, and then Charmagne’s radio crackled to life.

“ ... Shtone Casssle ... thish is ... Raptorsh Roosht ... are y ... readng me ... over?”

A cheer went up from the engineering team as Charmagne pressed the push-to-talk button with a huge grin on her face.

“Raptor’s Roost, this is Stone Castle. We’re reading you loud and fucking clear! Over.”

After a short delay, Ibarra’s excited voice came back.

“ ... Hooly shhhit! ... It wrrrks! ... Rapture’s Rroosht out!”

The discharge of the students from the general ward freed up a bunk room on the third floor, which Endora, Grace, Abby, and Amelia Scott, a closeted bisexual, immediately claimed for themselves. Endora explained the club’s purpose to Olivia and asked her if she would like to move in with them, but her sharp rebuke disappointed Endora.

“Why would you think I’d want to move in with you?” she asked, her tone not just defensive, but aggressive.

Endora decided not push the issue. “You’re my friend, Olivia, and I want you to be happy. There will always be a place for you there.”

Olivia scoffed. “Don’t hold your breath.”

While the other Robotics Club members said their heartfelt goodbyes and told her not to go, Endora sensed their unspoken relief at her departure. Both her frequent nudity, and the memory of her assault on Mike, created an awkward and uncomfortable environment for them. Although she would always be a member of the Robotics Club, it was better for everyone if she slept somewhere else from now on.

Grace’s departure from the Elite’s first floor bunk room created far more of a stir. In particular, her troubling conversation with Alexis.

“She basically told me, good riddance,” Grace told Endora as they hung their clothes together in their shared closet. She shook her head. “She’s my best friend and she didn’t even ask me why I was moving.”

“I’m sure she hates me after I broke her face,” Endora said. Reliving the delicious memory of shoving that stuck up bully face first into the toilet brought a tiny smile of satisfaction to her lips.

“I guess. But she’s been acting cold toward me ever since yesterday.”

Endora pulled Grace into her arms and kissed her deeply, drawing her closer until their bodies were pressed tightly together.

“Don’t worry about her. She’ll either get over it, or she won’t. I don’t care either way. All I care about is being here with you.”

Grace smiled and embraced her. “I know. It just makes me sad. But you’re right. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, but here.”

They looked into each other’s eyes and kissed again, this time more passionately. Endora slid her hands to Grace’s ass, and Grace moaned into her mouth.

“Are you two going to do it now?” Abby asked from her bunk.

When the two lovers turned their heads, Amelia averted her eyes to pretend she hadn’t been watching.

“I think we should talk about this,” Endora said, pulling Grace along with her to their adjoined bunkbeds.

“Endora,” Grace said quietly, “maybe we can talk about it later.”

“Later means putting it off for no good reason. Let’s just get through this, okay?”

Grace hesitated a moment and then nodded. “Okay.”

“Abby. Amelia. Grace and I are lovers, which means we often express our feelings for each other sexually. I don’t mind if you’re here when we do, and Grace doesn’t mind either. Do you?”

Grace looked at the two girls and sighed, then shook her head. “No, I don’t.”

“If you want to watch us, we don’t mind. And if you feel like masturbating while we have sex, that’s okay too.”

The heat of the blush that appeared on Amelia’s face could have ignited paper, and Abby looked down into her lap and fidgeted with her hands.

“Endora!” Grace said in a harsh whisper. “We didn’t talk about that.”

“If we’re going to be free to express ourselves sexually, Grace, then they should be too. I’m not telling them they have to masturbate. I’m just telling them that it’s okay if they do. You wouldn’t want them to feel ashamed about it, would you.”

“No! Of course not. That’s not ... why do you always do that?”

“Do what?”

“Try to paint me as some kind of repressed prude.”

“That’s not my intention,” Endora said, taking her hand. “I’m sorry if that’s how I came across.”

Grace pursed her lips, but nodded her acceptance of Endora’s apology. Endora turned back to the two embarrassed girls.

“There’s something else you should know,” she said, and Grace squeezed her hand, bracing herself for whatever was about to come out of her mouth next. “I don’t wear clothes when I’m in here most of the time, and I masturbate. A lot.”

Amelia gawked at her, and Grace lifted her eyes to the ceiling and exhaled a long, loud breath through her nostrils.

“Like, naked?” Abby asked, brushing back her bangs.

Endora nodded. “Completely naked.”

The young freshman couldn’t conceal the smile that percolated on her lips, and Amelia’s eyes grew wider still as a small gasp escaped her reddening lips. Endora bent over to reach beneath the bed for a cloth bag, and Grace exhaled another exasperated sigh.

“This is the dildo and vibrator I use when I masturbate,” she said, then stood to hand them to Abby and Amelia. Their jaws dropped and they shared astonished looks. “You can use them anytime you want. You don’t even need to ask. They belong to the club now. I’ll leave them out for you both. I also have some lube, which you’ll definitely want to use.”

Grace stood, as if prepared to say something, then promptly sat back down. Endora returned to her side, leaving the sex toys with Abby and Amelia.

“I think that about covers it. Did you have anything to add, Grace.”

Grace glared at her with pursed lips, and Endora couldn’t tell if she was furious at her, or fighting to keep a smirk off her face. “No.”

“Any questions?” Endora asked the two girls.

They were enthralled by the dildo and vibrator, and exchanged them to study them more closely. Amelia finally lifted her head, as if Endora’s question had only just registered. She moved her eyes to the closed door, and spoke in a soft voice and a hushed tone.

“Um, what if someone walks in when you’re, you know, naked or doing it?”

“What if they do?” Endora asked. “It’s none of their business.”

“But won’t you get in trouble?”

Endora smiled. “What can they do to me, Amelia? Give me detention? Ground me?” She lifted her eyebrow. “Spank me?”

Amelia and Abby looked at each other, amazed by Endora’s brazen and defiant attitude. Endora turned and smiled at Grace. She seemed to have relaxed a tiny bit. At least as far as her death grip on Endora’s hand was concerned.

Abby looked at Endora with shy eyes and asked, “Do you think ... I mean, would it be okay if I ... sketched you sometime?”

Endora’s smile widened. “Of course it’s okay. Would you like me to pose for you now?”

With that traitorous lesbo gone, it was time for Pvt. Alexis Morgan Campbell to resume her rightful place upon the throne as the undisputed leader of the Elite. She was done hiding. It was one thing for Grace to talk about Endora as if she were some kind of hero, but when she saw them together on her run the other day, going at it in a secluded, shady grove like a couple of sluts in heat, she understood the true depth of Grace’s betrayal.

She’s fucking the hideous troll that bashed my face in!

It took all her restraint to keep from going over there and kicking Endora’s teeth in with her combat boot. That disgusting cunt! Fuck her! First she ruined her life, and now she stole away her best friend by turning her into a fucking dyke!

Alexis put her hands on her shapely hips and surveyed the remaining four members of the Elite with an imperious glare. “Listen up, you little twats! From this day forward, Grace is fucking dead to us. I don’t want you to talk to her. I don’t even want you to look her way. Understood?” When they didn’t respond right away, Alexis shouted. “Understood?”

“Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. Sure,” came their smattering replies.

“When y’all address me, I want to hear you say, ‘Yes, Mistress!’ Is that fucking clear?”

“Yes, Mistress!”

Alexis curled up her lips. “Good. Y’all have been a major fucking disappointment to me these past couple weeks. I didn’t spend three fucking years, busting my perfect ass to assemble the hottest, most desirable girls in this fucking school, just to have y’all forget what it means to be a member of the Elite! It fucking disgusts me to see how far y’all have fallen.”

She took a deep breath, and softened her tone. “Now, I realize y’all have been through one of the most traumatic experiences possible. It’s awful. I know. But we’ve got to move on from that. Those motherfuckers are dead y’all, and it’s not because of anything that nasty, dirty little cunt did. It’s because Staff Sergeant Pollard kicked in that motherfucking door and blew their goddamned fucking heads off! Are we agreed on that?”

“Yes, Mistress!”

“Let me tell you something else about the Staff Sergeant. She doesn’t take shit from anyone. Ever! When she wants something, she doesn’t ask for permission.” Alexis snapped her finger. “She just fucking takes it, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re going to follow her lead, starting with taking back what those self-righteous fucks out there stole from us.

“We’re taking back our fucking freedom!”

Finding both a time and a place to be together proved incredibly difficult in the close confines of the school. Anywhere inside the dormitory was absolutely out of the question. The same with the old fort, as people constantly went back and forth from there throughout the day. The lookout home on top of the mountain was manned twenty-four seven. Eventually, Ibarra took a page from the Staff Sergeant’s book, and requisitioned an abandoned house at the edge of the cove.

Not entirely abandoned, actually. He had to first clear out the two dead bodies inside, and then throw out the mattress upon which they died because it was soaked through with their putrefying body fluids. Then he bleached and sealed off the room, emptied an entire can of Febreze he found under the bathroom sink, lit every scented candle he could find, and opened every door and window in the house to air it out for a couple days. When he returned to check on it, he could detect no hint of decay.

His relationship with Izzy had gone way beyond what he ever intended, and so quickly that he couldn’t believe it. From that first time together, making out and dry humping, they immediately graduated to hand jobs and fingering. The next morning, they reciprocated oral sex. Going down on her in the basement had been both exhilarating and nerve-racking.

He’d never eaten such a young pussy before, not even as a teen. His first sexual experience happened when he was seventeen, as a senior in high school, but his girlfriend at the time had been the same age. His future girlfriends, and occasional hookups, only got older from there. Five months ago, Izzy was still in middle school.

Coming to terms with the cognitive dissonance tearing at his mind proved maddening, and he fretted over whether there was something fundamentally wrong with him. Three weeks ago, if he’d walked in on a twenty-seven year old man with his face buried between a fourteen year old girl’s legs, he would have beaten him half to death. But in that moment, as he licked and nibbled on her sweet, tender pussy, and heard the small mewls and cries that wafted from her mouth like honeysuckle on a warm summer’s day, his dick was harder than it had ever been in his life.

It was only fear that kept him from taking her virginity right then. Fear that Marcus or Mike, or someone else, would come walking down those stairs and catch him in the act of defiling that girl. When he first heard the allegations against Mike, his first reaction was the same as the Sergeant’s. Outrage and disgust. The only thing that prevented him from dishing out a little justice for those girls was Theresa’s convincing defense, and the lack of any hard evidence against him.