Chapter 11: Like A Politician Shutting The Hell Up

Pretty food is easy to get used to. Towers of rice. Chicken cut in mechanically even strips. Little bowls of beans. Breakfast can be especially cute! It's something about the colors: white, yellow, brown, red, and orange.

"You need to make a show of power," the Professor said as he sat down. John-John took the seat on my other side.

"Really?" I asked. "Can't I have breakfast in peace? I had a good night, guys. Jewel has this leather bikini thing, except there's nothing covering the cool bits. I'm talking like fucking WOW! Oh My God! I think Bianca would fit in it. It'd be a little loose, but it could work."

I popped the egg yolk with a piece of toast. "Do you know how Lorena knows exactly how I like my bread toasted? A little crisp but with the center still bready."

"There's over fifty new people, Miguel," the Proffessor said. "They outnumber us."

"Cool!" I said after taking a sip of orange juice. "How the fuck did she acquire fresh watermelon? Is there a farm near here and you guys have been sneaking out?"

"Throwing the gang members off the roof made these people brave," John-John said. "They're grumbling about guns."

"Bacon is awesome!" I said. "I wonder if I could have ice cream with bacon. BACON! The fat pigs never let me have bacon; it makes sense 'cause they were pigs. BACON!"

"They want guns," John-John said. "And they're not buying that we need to be sure they can handle them safely."

"He's the loudest." The Professor gestured with his chin towards a man who looked familiar. "Catwal is also trying to recruit a few followers."

"Who?"

"The hag," John-John said. "She hates you! It would be best if you cut that shit down before she gets going."

"The dude looks familiar," I said.

"An assemblyman from before Zombie-Day, he was ramping up for a run at the Mayor," the Professor told me. "He said all the right things but couldn't quite slough off the layer of smarmy!"

"How'd he get caught by the gang?" I asked. "I wonder if Lorena has more bacon. BACON! I should talk to her. I have a great morning sandwich idea: toast, layers of bacon, and a drizzle of egg yolk."

"The Projects were the last vestiges of Hohokus before the redevelopment," the Professor said. "If you look at a map, every building around the Projects was high-end."

John-John nodded. "The gang worked their way out to get supplies. They didn't go too far because the buildings had plenty of stuff and there was a good supermarket two blocks over."

"Mr. Assemblyman has been hammering at the point that there's more of them than us. Fucking ungrateful asshole!" Obviously, the Professor didn't like the guy.

I understood the smarmy thing. The assemblyman's expression was arrogant when he looked at us.

"How come they didn't take this attitude with the gang?" I asked.

"The gang brutalized them," John-John replied. "It's what happened to Danny and Tara. The leader wanted Tara; Danny didn't want to give her up. They killed him and passed her around."

"That's why you have to show your hand, Miguel," the Professor said. "If they force you to it later, you'll have to be brutal too!"

"Or I could leave," I said. "Sounds like it's the best time to me!"

"We'd still have a problem," John-John said. "They'll want us to leave the guns."

"We? Us?" I sighed loudly and frowned at them.

"Brandi wants to fuck you," the Professor said.

"She doesn't WANT to fuck me. You told her to fuck me," I replied.

"I don't tell Doctor Brandi Larson to do shit! I would appreciate if you don't say anything in that vein near her either. She might take it the wrong way." He said with a snort. "Plus I was old when we got married, I always thought she'd have fun on the side eventually."

"But you're young now!"

"I'm not the possessive type, Miguel," he said with a smile.

"You're really taking this way to easy!" I told him.

"I agree with my wife."

"About what?"

"The delegation of authority," he replied.

"Huh?"

"Blah-blah. More Bullshit-ology," John-John said before the Professor could explain. "We have a problem, Miguel! Bianca hated the gang before the end of the world so she accepted what we had to do. This is very different; she's not going to go for anything I'd do to get these people in line."

"Cause you'd kill them," I said.

"Only a few!" John-John looked at Mr. Assemblyman. "One might be enough."

"It's why we need a show of power," the Professor said. "They're gathering steam."

"At least a couple of them had to be smart enough to hide weapons they took from the gang, Miguel." John-John eyed several of the new people. "We don't have enough people to keep an eye on all of them. They have to saddle up with us or..."

"Saddle up? Really?" I shook my head. "My vote is I leave! Tell you what, I'll take Bianca so you can have your way with one or however many you want to throw off the roof."

"Too late," the Professor said. "They're all here!"

We had knocked down the walls I'd run through. It opened the floor up enough for everyone in the old and new group to watch the proceedings.

"Why are they all looking at me?" I asked.

The Professor and John-John avoided my eyes.

"Why are they all looking at me?"

Bianca and Ashley sat down at the table with us. Bianca didn't meet my eyes either. The table was close enough to the wall for Ashley to lean back against it.

Ashley smiled at me. "They told the new idiots that no decisions could be made until you were done with your business."

My heart stopped for a few seconds. I looked at the original three idiots. "You told them I was the leader!"

They shrugged

They fucking shrugged at me!!!

"I'm not the leader here! I got drafted!" I yelled. "I'm not fucking responsible for any of you."

Ashley poked me in the temple.

"Cock pets don't count!" I shouted at her. She gave me an 'In that case!' shrug.

The assemblyman sat down and put on his patented smug politician face. "Are we ready to talk?"

"What the hell?" I asked, seeing a woman push a little girl in a wheelchair to the front of the crowd.

The assemblyman opened his mouth. Bianca wasn't above intimidation--she placed her shotgun on the table, with the business end pointed in his general direction.

"She found us," Ashley said after giving the politician the patented stripper smug look.

"What?"

"She managed to hide from the gang," John-John said. "Because of the daughter, her apartment was well-stocked. She had a view of the building Ashley and Joey were on during the assault."

"Elizabeth, the mother, saw the firefight," Bianca said. "She figured on the enemy of her enemy might be a possible friend."

"She approached us," Ashley said.

"And Joey is a nurse!" I finished for them.

"I think it's more than that," the Professor said. "My wife was involved."

Matt, John-John's nephew, must not have been aware of the latest addition. A girl near his age! It was like watching two puppies meet for the first time, down to the awkward bump of noses.

"What's wrong with her?"

"It's faster to tell you what's right with her," Brandi said as she walked up to the table. She kissed her husband on the lips and, for the benefit of our audience, made a show of kissing my cheek.

"Oh, fucking hell!" I whispered.

"James is right. My husband usually is," Brandi whispered back. "We need a show of power or this is going to get nasty."

I ignored her. Matt edged the woman out from behind the wheelchair. She was very confused as Matt rolled the chair to my table. I watched him step up on a chair and face me. He put his hands on his hips.

"Help her!" he ordered. "Mommy said I was going to have a baby sister."

Lorena sobbed once. She covered her mouth to keep the rest in. Matt's words stunned John-John. Matt's mother must have been pregnant!

"Her name is Annabelle," Brandi told me. "The mom is Elizabeth."

The little girl's eyes were clear.

"Her mind is okay?" I asked the girl's mother. The woman nodded, as did Brandi. I made my way around the table. Placing my hand under the girl's chin, I let my power touch Annabelle.

"Holy shit!" I said. "God gave you the short end of stick!"

There was fire in her! Annabelle glowered at me.

"This is going to cost," I said to no one in particular. Normalizing her genes plus fixing all the damage done by her body trying to follow the original DNA building instructions. At least one operation had been completely fucking botched!

"I'll pay it," Marina said. "We didn't have sex last night."

She stripped down to her bra and panties. White bra and white, high on the hip, panties! "You fix her--you can have me."

"It's not going to be like last night, Marina," I warned.

"All ... of ... me."

The mom was looking from Marina to me. She didn't know whether to be hopeful or scared so she settled on both. I took off my shirt before turning to smile at the Professor. "You want a show? Let me show you my power!"

Bianca and John-John jumped to their feet. Kellie and Mr. Valence stepped between the crowd and me. They'd seen it when I healed Bianca during the firefight with the gang! Bianca pumped the shotgun. John-John drew pistols with both hands. Kellie showed everyone five feet of steel. Mr. Valence gave his baseball bat a couple of practice swings.

I lifted the little girl out of her chair. A small, all-around Push ripped her clothing off. Her mom screamed! Annabelle's eyes showed no fear as she stared at me. I could control some of the side effects of using my power, but it had always been easier when I didn't, such as the light, which came over my body when I healed someone. A few more people screamed as I luminesced. Annabelle glowed pink, her skin reflecting my light. I reached deep into the girl. It took time, during which no one tested my line of defenders.

Annabelle wasn't much for a thank you: a kiss on the cheek, a quick hug of her mom's legs, and she was off to play with her new big brother.

Even the people from the old group were staring at me. Marina stepped forward.

"I have time," I told her. "It isn't as bad if I don't have to kill the light show. Get yourself a second breakfast; it's going to be hours before you see the outside of my bedroom. Fixing that little girl was harder than making the Professor young again!"

She nodded before taking Lorena's hand and leading her out. The assemblyman didn't have a word to say when I looked at him.

"This is his table," Brandi said to the man. "You're not fucking him so you don't have an invitation to sit here."

Bianca, Ashley, and Brandi sat down with me.

"You're not fucking me either," I told Brandi when the assemblyman found enough of his faculties to create distance between us.

"That's your thing, not mine," she said. "Joey can sit here, and she's not fucking you either."

"John-John was sitting here," I pointed out.

"We have plans for that," Brandi replied.

"I'm not doing a dude!"

"Doing his wife is good enough," Ashley chimed in with. "It's why the Professor can sit here."

"Huh?"

"John-John isn't going to be bachelor for long," Brandi said. "Matt needs a mom. Nuclear families are going to be key in getting children to maturity."

"Nuclear families kind of implies fidelity," I told her.

"It's not cheating if it's with you," Brandi replied. "You can perform miracles, but you need sex to do it. It isn't cheating if it's the cost of miracles."

"That sounds like a good commandment," Ashley said. "Thou Shalt Fuck Him For Miracles."

"Actually, I think this one went beyond a miracle," Brandi said across me to Ashley. "Josephine was a miracle! New tits are a miracle! This was like being in the room with God."

"Stop!" I said in a low voice. "No Miracle Talk. No Commandant Bullshit. And you will not refer to God and me in the same sentence. Ever!"

Lorena put a plate of bacon on the table.

"See," I said to the three ladies around me. "BACON! This is a good woman. You need take notes! If the rest of you don't start behaving a little more like her, I'm leaving."

"Don't you think it's time you stopped talking about leaving?" Brandi asked. "You really can't leave us."

"No!" I said. "Absolutely not! This just means I have to take more of you than I originally planned."

"Oh, okay then..."

"Sounds good to me."

"I'm the cock pet; I was going anyway."

Too many people were paying attention to our conversation. They backed away when I folded my arms over my chest and pretended to study them.

"If we're leaving, why bother with the lighting effect?" Bianca asked.

I stuck a piece of bacon in my mouth before replying. "If I'm leaving, nobody is going to tell me what I can or cannot take. We've had the conversation about what I owe people--not a damn thing. Our guns ... actually, you know what? MY guns unless someone else here can rip armory walls from their foundation. That is also one smarmy fucking bastard! Anybody here think he wouldn't have given up his ass to gang cock? Silence, like I thought! Anybody think he didn't suck some gang cock to save his ass? Silence, yet again! I also want to fuck Marina; she's going to give it all up now! The truth is though, I figured it's better for Joey to think I did the right thing for whatever she has floating in her head as the right reason rather than because she made me."

"She couldn't have made you do anything," Brandi said. "There's always a choice."

"Okay, Doctor Larson," I said with a tight smile. "I will take you up to my bed right now and fuck you ALL night long, IF you didn't have a non-clinical conversation with Joey that went something like 'Annabelle is in a bad way. This is wrong with her. This is wrong with her. This is wrong with her. Tell Miguel--this little girl is in serious trouble!'"

I waited.

"Not tonight then," Brandi said as she grabbed a piece of bacon from my plate.

"Sure, I'm the fucking glorious leader, but my bacon is fair game!"

Ashley and Bianca each took a piece for themselves.

"Well, you shut the politician up," Brandi said. "That's a good thing! We're going to have sex soon though. I understand and accept what my husband meant about what will be ... is, but these people need something more concrete."

I stared at her. "What?"

"It's a logic thing about time," Brandi told me. "My husband can explain it better. If A leads to B, then the future is the present when A happens."

Even the other two women had to shake their heads.

"Look, you and I are going to have sex, Miguel, so there's no reason I can't behave like we're having sex now," Brandi said. "Joey and I understand it! My husband does too. Your new politician friend isn't going to be keep his mouth shut forever; the future isn't something someone like him believes in until it's the past. And even then he'll deny it if it doesn't fit his reality."