Chapter 27

Time: Thursday, January 17, 2019 12:55 AM

Uno and Bambino sat stunned at their lounge. They had no communications with their posse hunting Frida and possibly Toshi, but initially they had supreme confidence in the outcome. They had felt so relaxed about the mission that they both wandered into the kitchen for a beer. Bambino even offered to take one down one of the new hoof pussies as company for Alfredo who guarding the mall entrance below. Uno grinned and commented that he had noticed how Whitney was catching Alfredo’s eyes when they were together. Bambino nodded and wandered back into the lounge to get his jacket before going down.

And then Uno heard Bambino yelling his head off. Rushing to the lounge, he found Bambino pointing to the census display by the elevator. It was ticking down, and as they watched, it completed moving from 021:104 to 017:102. Their away party had been comprised of four men and two women. The conclusion seemed inescapable. Uno and his youngest compadre collapsed into nearby chairs.

After a moment, Uno decided he would have to leave the downstairs mall unguarded, at least for a short while, and he ordered Bambino to fetch Alfredo. When the pair returned, Bambino asked his boss, “What do you think, Uno? Did aliens get them, or people from the other parties?”

“Check the front door Bambino,” Uno said in reply. “Make sure you still can’t get in from the outside.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

“Alfredo, help him out.”

The two men went into the vestibule with guns drawn. Bambino reluctantly went outside into the walkway area and heard the door click shut behind him. He pounded for a while to no avail, looking side to side in fright at the three forbidding corridor. What if the monsters were invisible, his imagination screamed. He was just beginning to panic when Alfredo opened the door.

“Oh geez, man! Why’d you wait so long?! Didn’t you hear me pounding?”

Alfredo looked surprised. “I was waiting for you to knock. I didn’t hear shit.” He took a second to examine the smooth door. “Interesting.” Both men went back into the lounge. Near the eastern windows of the room, they saw the three women were still with them. Bambino took a close look. His own girlfriend Cassidy looked simply frightened, but Amber and Whitney...

Bambino gave a sad frown. He had seen that look of hopelessness before, when he was ordered to escort women up from the pussy barn for their “night shift” work. Damn...

Uno was looking at the women as well. They presented an unpleasant challenge for him. Did any or all of them know about Frida’s escape beforehand? Uno tried to approach the question without bias and realized he just didn’t know, one way or the other. And given that, what should he do now?

And Chico’s expedition below! Should he send someone to catch them? Uno looked at the time. Fuck. There was no way to catch them before they made their first twenty-four kilometer hike. That would put them right at the limit of their earlier expedition. Fucking A.

Should Uno have them return? Maybe a part of them return? Would he look like a weak ruler by pulling back so quickly? Uno still had three guns and six people, and a fortress that was superbly easy to defend. What would the others think if it looked as if he were afraid to hold the home base with just the force he had now? But hell, how could he keep an eye on Jacob’s Bar and Grill like this?

Maybe the women? They were looking at him shyly. Unless they were acting, they didn’t even know what was going on.

The women! Could he trust them? Uno sure as hell didn’t want to, but could he afford to enslave them now? Hell, no, not with just Alfredo and Bambino here. And Bambino was genuinely protective of Cassidy. Turning her into hoof pussy in the pussy barn would go down with Bambino like a ton of bricks. Uno decided it just wasn’t an option. So what’s the conclusion? Trust all three?

The women ... Would they trust him? Or at least, did they have enough fear to remain obedient? These three hadn’t been raped, but they were kept in the same barn as the pussy slaves. “Hoof-Pussy”, or Pussy-on-the-hoof”, that’s what the compadres would call slaves when they were moved around wearing bras and panties with wrist and ankle chains. And these women knew it. Uno was afraid they might have developed some sympathies for the slaves in the pussy barn. What to do? Was there some way to test their loyalty? Uno thought for a while and smiled. Sending for help from Chico was unavoidable, but Uno also had another idea.

Time: Thursday, January 17, 2019 1:17 AM

Chico called a halt when he reckoned they had covered another three kilometers. Before the journey started, he had been hoping that they could cover three kilometers in fifty minutes, leaving ten minutes for a break period between marches. But he realized with a sigh that his earlier estimate was a tad too optimistic. Damn it, these sleds were heavy, packing 200 liters of water each. And the floor’s smoothness was deceptive. There was a surprisingly large amount of friction between the sled and the floor.

Eighteen people, 400 liters of water on the sleds, plus more water in backpacks and canteens. In the cool mall, Chico thought they had enough water to last two weeks. It took a while to convince Uno to plan for that long an expedition, but hell, this mall was so unbelievably strange...

Chico had made a major adjustment after the first hour of traveling. Everyone would have a turn at hauling the sleds, once very three hours, everyone, including himself. The two sleds were pulled by two three-person teams in harness. Chico had no idea how difficult the work was. He used to look on the bitch slaves with distain, thinking they were shirkers when they complained how hard the work was. But he had to give them their due now. Chico prided himself on being an honest man. He had to give them that. Pulling the harness was hard work even for him.

And that stupid taskmistress bitch Jessica. Who the hell does she think she is? So what if Alfonso thinks she’s pure heaven? Did she honestly think Chico gave a fuck? She was the only one who flat-out refused the harness, and Chico had let the matter slide for a while. But he was going to put a bullet in her gut if she refused again. Or maybe just a little lower, put a round right through her baby maker. Damned if he wasn’t! A small voice was laughing at him in the back of his mind. Would he really murder a human being for refusing to work for him? Chico pushed the annoying voice away.

Toro came and sat down next to him and said in an easy drawl, “So, how yah feelin’, Chico?”

Chico smiled. Uno would never put up with such informality from a junior-level compadre, but Chico was much more relaxed about the issue of command. And he and Toro were on the varsity wrestling team together, back in Burlington. There was no way Chico was going to pull rank on his friend now. He stretched instead and smiled in sympathy at how tired Toro looked. “Ah, shoulders are a little tender I guess. I never thought pulling these sleds would be so fuckin’ hard.”

“Yeah, fucking-A work, being a mule, that’s for sure. I never realized the bitches had to work so hard. Uh, think it would be easier if we pushed rather than pulled?”

Chico considered the suggestion for a moment. “I doubt it.”

“Yeah. Well, they’ll get lighter as we drink the water.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself.” Charles a.k.a. Chico laughed. “I bet everyone is thinking the same thing when they’re in harness.”

Toro nodded and sighed, looked around to make sure no one was within earshot, and then asked quietly, “You gonna drop the hammer on Baby Jessica if she doesn’t wise up?”

“Well ... I feel like it.”

“Sure you do. And I heard Uno giving you explicit orders about discipline with the women, all of them, including Jessica. But are yah really gonna do it?”

“Ah ... Probably not.”

Toro sighed. “Good. That shit with Britney, on Christmas Day...”

“Yeah...” Chico had almost stood up to Uno over that, had come within a hair of rebelling, but there was never a precise moment where what they were doing was that much different than the previous torture. And then in an instant Ricardo had made his strike...

And who would have backed Chico up? He took a moment to ponder the question. Toro would have stood with him, Chico was sure of that now, but who else? Bambino? Diego? Just maybe, but probably not, and certainly no one else. It would have been maybe three guns versus a dozen. And Uno would never let such a direct challenge to his authority stand. There was nothing he could have done, Chico told himself. And then he bowed his head in shame. Christmas day, he had taken the easy way out. And Britney had died before Chico realized what a monster he had become.

Chico turned to Toro and their eyes locked for a brief moment. “How did we come to be like this?” thought Toro. He would never have dared to verbalize such a question, but within the unrecognized mind-link, his trust of Chico was enhanced tremendously, and his question was a cry straight from his heart.

“Yeah, when did it change?” Chico thought back. “Maybe with the new pledges. Uno and Gilberto, Santos too, they pushed for the new muchachos. The new guys, they changed everything.”

“I’m having nightmares,” thought Toro.

Chico hiccupped and then turned back to his old friend, feeling bewildered about what exactly they had just said to each other. He cleared his throat and took a drink from his canteen. “Really? Why don’t you just ask Brandi to blow you before you sack out? That’ll help you sleep. She’s always up for that.” Chico was referring to his own girlfriend. Chico, Toro, and Brandi had known each other since they were toddlers, and sometimes Brandi was a little loose about exactly whose girlfriend she was. “Or if you want something a little more physical, try humping one of the slaves. I think they’re more or less used to it by now.”

Toro looked pained, and then gave a fake chuckle while he blushed. “Aw, come on Chico. In front of all these people?!”

“Ah, just take a sleeping mat and move off a few meters. Play with the girl for a while first. Once you get her prepped and are up inside her, you won’t care about the others. Try what I’ve done with Mandy. She doesn’t put up a fight at all. She lets me hump so easy, I pretend she’s a second girlfriend.” Chico looked over the tired slaves resting against the walls. “Holly is very cute, Lynn too. And you can’t beat Paige for sexy looking hips...”

“Yeah, right.” Toro squirmed for a moment, trying to think of an excuse. “Brandi would love that.”

“Seriously, Brandi knows I’ve been sleeping with Mandy. She doesn’t mind, as long as she’s sure it’s just for straight sex. As a matter of fact, I was so relaxed with Mandy, I almost fell asleep with her a few nights ago...”

“Really?”

“Uh, well, I did finally remember to put her back in the barn.”

“Chico, you’re blushing.”

“I am?” Chico took a deep breath and thought a moment. He whispered to his friend, “Yeah, maybe I am. Okay, maybe you got me. Maybe Mandy means a little more to me now than ... Toro, you keep this quiet, okay?”

“Hell, of course. My lips are sealed with chapstick.” Toro idly checked his pistol and sighed. “A few nights ago ... Two nights ago Santos told me his reward for leading the whiskey expedition would be pick of the pussy, and he was thinking of Toshi. Hell, the last I heard, Toshi would just go limp when you fucked her, no fight at all, no tears, no pleas, just limp like a doll. Who would want to fuck that?”

Chico paused for a second and then whispered. “I took Toshi once, over a week ago. She did that to me too.”

“Wow.” Toro was silent for a moment. “Chico?” he whispered. “Did you still fuck her?”

Chico grimaced and shook his head no. “But Toshi sounds like Santos’ ideal fuck.”

“You think so? I thought the man was just pulling my chain...”

Chico was silent for a long moment before he finally pronounced judgment. “The man lived for his gonads, the pleasure of his cock inside pussy. What the rest of the woman’s mind and body were doing didn’t matter much to him. He was not pulling your chain.” Chico sighed. “It does seem like a different world, just two days ago I mean, doesn’t it?”

Toro didn’t reply. After a while he gave a heavy sigh. “So what are you going to do about Jessica? She’s the only one who never wears the harness.”

Chico made his decision. “I’m going to let her get away with it for a while, until we’re far away and totally dependent on each other, until the whole group is royally pissed at that bitch. And then I’m going to her a final choice, pull the harness or get kicked out of the group. And I do mean kicked. She’ll be Baby Jessica of the tender tush all the way home.”

Toro nodded in approval. “Uno won’t mind. But what about Alfonso?”

Chico stretched his arms. Boy, was he tired. But they were only half way done with their first leg. They had another twelve kilometers to go. He stood up and then gave Toro a hand up and dismissed the idea of Jessica’s boyfriend. “I’ll cross that bridge when it burns down,” Chico growled darkly, and then called out loudly, “Everybody, we’re moving out!” A minute later his expedition continued its journey.

Time: Thursday, January 17, 2019 1:45 AM

Mark woke from a short nap. He took a moment to think about where he was. Ah yes, the terminal chamber. The door that would not open was directly on his right. On his left curled up in his arm was Frida. She was asleep. Mark had his arm wrapped around her hip, and he could feel the slow, deep rhythm of her breathing. And Frida’s warmth against his side in the cool room felt delightful.

And his head ... Mark realized his head was in Toshi’s lap, and she was leaning against a wall and petting him. Seeing him awake, she bent down briefly and kissed him.

Mark let out a deep, slow breath and blushed. “Oh boy. I really lost it. I barely remember you helping me get off the walkway.”

Toshi lightly brushed his cheek. “Mark, you get embarrassed over the strangest things. You were magnificent. I only wish I could share the burden with you.”