Chapter 19: Like a Conversation Going Exactly How You Rehearsed It In Your Head

"Do you remember when I said--we love you and those with the inclination are in love with you?" Brian asked me. He was holding up a dime that had been reduced by four half-moon bullet cutouts.

I raised an eyebrow at him. The Bus Terminal was only a couple of blocks from the town's indoor shooting range. Considering the zombies habit of attacking anything they heard, practicing in the range made more sense than on the roof of the warehouse.

"I'm in love with you," he said.

John-John took the dime out of his hand. "This is the best shooting I've ever seen, Brian. It's better than Ashley!"

I shrugged. "Enhancing for short-range shooting is easier than long range. Environment handling or something."

John-John nodded.

"I don't get it," Brian said.

"Killing someone from a half-mile away is a science," John-John told him. "The way Ashley shoots, Miguel had to change her brain to process the variables without thinking about them. After I taught her the numbers for things like windage and bullet drop, she could eyeball it perfectly every time, except it's not really eyeballing for her. Ashley's brain is doing the work automatically! At short-range, there's almost no variables beyond the gun and whether you or the target OR you and the target are moving."

"I also made other changes to Ashley. It becomes a balancing act, so it's easier to make her a fantastic all-around shooter rather than to drill deep and make her the best short-range, mid-range, and long-range shooter that I could," I said. "It goes like that with all of Ashley's changes! She can't duke it out with Joey or even Kellie, but she can take one of the Towers. Joey and Kellie can't outshoot Ashley though; they are as accurate but not as fast. You're more accurate too, but I wouldn't get into a shootout with Ashley. She'll be faster and she can take a bullet."

"So then ... I'm good here!" Brian said. "No reason to change me past this point."

"Huh?" I stared at him.

"I think he's right," John-John told me.

I waited.

"The Mistresses have two loyalties, as they should for what they represent--your Authority given to another man," John-John said. "You shouldn't change them to be equal to the White Maidens or your women."

"Marina was assigned to the Professor," I pointed out.

"She doesn't have two loyalties. It's a privilege, not a marriage," John-John replied. "A privilege you can take away at any time! Marina wouldn't think anything of it, even if you reassigned her privilege to someone else."

"You need to limit the changes you make to our wives," Brian said. "And to us."

"We're right here, you know," Crystal said from behind us. She was lounging with Lorena on an air mattress.

"Ashley's shooting is very useful though," John-John said, turning slightly so he addressed the women too. "A battery of world class snipers! It's big time weight to bring to fight. I think you should make the Mistresses as good at shooting as Ashley, but keep their physical abilities at the human level."

"The attributes of the best athletes in the world," Brian said. "The same for the men, except I'd rather be better than the girls with a handgun."

John-John nodded. "The Professor isn't a soldier, and he's a bit old mentally. Set in his ways! As for me..."

"A lot of the men look up to you," I said. "There were a few pulling guard duty at the Wholesale Club. Looks like they're more involved at the Terminal too!"

"The men need to respect John-John, but we have to keep it clear who the Boss is," Brian told me.

"You're okay with it?" I asked. "Really?"

"I could see the ridges on the dime." Brian looked to the other end of the shooting range. "I'd like a gymnast's body. Make me fine as hell! I'm talking Michelangelo's David."

He walked back to the shooting line.

"I think he's good with it," John-John said with a laugh.

"What about you?" I asked.

"The ambush," he said. "It was my fault!"

"I could have known there were people in the parking lot earlier," I told him.

"You're a kid, Miguel," he told me. "Bianca's not a soldier and with each new person she has more problems to deal with. Somebody has to take things off her mind or we're going to be in big trouble. Like those jackasses wanting to go into Metro City to find family! There's got to be five million zombies in the City and God only knows what else! Fucking morons!"

He nodded as if affirming his own decision. "We're living in an armed camp in enemy territory. The whole fucking planet is enemy territory! Every trip outside the fence line needs to be thought of as a military operation. I should have asked you to check before we left; the Wholesale Club was in your range. If we're going to survive, I have to be an officer, and not a frontline one either. Changing me too much is going to make me want to be in the trenches taking zombie heads!"

I looked at Lorena and Crystal.

"I'm going to assign Elizabeth's privilege to you," I told him. Crystal and Lorena froze. Their faces expressed a lot of curiosity at my words.

"I don't need it," John-John replied. "Lorena is taking good care of me, and everyone is aware of her status with you."

"It's not about you mostly," I said. "The more men that get involved in things, the more solid the line between you and them needs to be. Some of them might come to think Lorena's sentence is the only reason she's involved with me. I'd like very clear distinctions between who can tell me to check whether there's an ambush and who I'm going to pull out body parts from if they try the same crap."

"And the real reason?" Lorena asked.

"Joey IS special," I said. "Elizabeth was the second one to put on the white, as they call it. She has arguably the better reason for doing it since I healed her daughter."

"You're not going to assign all their privileges, are you?" Crystal asked.

"Marina is already assigned," I replied. "Only Brian would fit Sophie, but she might have come along late enough not to need it. We'll have to see. I think people would understand that not assigning Abella's privilege is for the best."

I looked at Abella who stood in a corner of the room. She'd taken to following me around. Her changes were coming along fine, but as well as she handled sex with me, it didn't mean she was mentally better. Joey and the others also liked a White Maiden being at my side at all times.

"I don't have to assign all of the Maidens' privileges, especially if they join now that the group is more established, but Joey needs to stand out."

"It's a good idea," Crystal said, waving me to the mattress. "John-John, go practice shooting with Brian. Your wife and I have to pay for your ability to thread a needle with a bullet."

Crystal lowered my pants; Lorena freed my cock and leaned forward to suck the head.

"Lorena is going to do a service day tomorrow," Crystal told me. She stroked the shaft of my dick as Lorena licked the tip slowly. "She needs a little relaxation."

Lorena touched me with her teeth, only to kiss and lick the pretend 'boo-boo' away.

"She is going to fuck for twenty-four hours. To get ready for that, we're going to fuck?" I really didn't want to talk. Lorena held my dick up so she could tongue my testicles.

"Well, tomorrow is going to be all slam-bam, next patient, bam-slam," Crystal said. "She needs some play-nice time today, plus it's not going to be all day. Brandi and Jewel are coming over with their husbands later."

I had a choice: Lorena or Crystal. There was a lot to be said for both! Lorena's big round ass in the air as I fucked her from behind or Crystal's wonderfully tight pussy in the same position. I was going to get both eventually, but how to start?

The girls had their own plan.

"Are you going to keep me this tight?" Crystal asked. She lay on her back with her legs wrapped around my thighs. Lorena's hand held my cock in position. Crystal's pussy parted slowly under the pressure of my thrust. Crystal stroked my sides, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She wanted to push up to hurry the penetration, but she knew how much I enjoyed taking each exquisite inch.

"If you don't hurry, we're still going to be doing this when Brandi and Jewel get here," Crystal whispered.

More of them! Even better! I pulled out and started over.

"Bastard!" Crystal hissed.

It wasn't until we left the range that I thought about the husbands shooting target practice a few feet from where I was fucking the women. If the men became attached to their wives, it might not be a good idea in the future!

"You asked for us, Boss," Mr. Valence said. Caroline and Jewel sat down on a couch.

I nodded.

The Bus Terminal had two buildings, the terminal and the warehouse. I preferred the roof of the terminal for staying out of other people's way. (And to get away from them!) Brian set up an area for me; couches, lounge chairs, and a table for food. The roof was considered safe enough so only Abella and Elizabeth kept me company. The girls were sunbathing in the nude; I didn't agree that white nail polish was 'clothing', but I had no interest in arguing the point. The Towers and Kellie had gone with a majority of the group to further loot the Marlboro Mall. Stocking the warehouse was taking days longer than anyone expected! The Professor had some hoarding tendencies.

"I have something for you to do, Mr. Valence," I said.

"What's up, Boss?" he asked.

I gestured towards the Majestic Apartment Building. He looked up and around to what roads he could take to it. He could go up the South Bridge or take the back road behind the Projects.

"There's five women and a man holed up in the Majestic," I said. "Invite the ladies to join us."

"I thought you told Brian there were twelve people," Caroline said.

"Are you part of the Miguel-Gossip network now?" I asked.

She shrugged.

"I haven't been paying attention so I don't know what happened to the others," I said. "There were seven people in the building two minutes ago--five women and two men. At this moment, the last man is doing one of the women doggystyle on top of a new corpse."

Caroline smiled triumphantly.

"Oh, please!" I said. "They've been watching us since we took over the Terminal. It's not my loving heart which is driving me to take care of it."

Mr. Valence nodded. "It's not safe to leave him in there if he's got no problem pulling the trigger."

"Take Caroline," I said. "The women might need convincing."

Caroline stood up. The sunlight glinted off her jewelry; silver rope chains around her wrists, ankles, neck, waist, and one crossing her brow. While the bracelets were loose enough to move, the necklace was a choker, tight to her skin. Marie and the third woman from the first Tea Party had also started wearing the jewelry. A couple of women who'd made an appearance at Ashley's Break-In The Terminal Tea Party wore similar jewelry, though not as elaborate as Caroline, Marie, and the third woman from the original Tea Party.

Caroline noticed my interest in her jewelry. She played with them silver bracelets. "Ashley thought our service should be made clear. We wouldn't want people confusing my right to speak with everyone having the freedom to say whatever they wanted around you. Or about you!"

There had been a number of Tea Parties since we moved to the Terminal. Caroline attended every one.

"I wanted more," she said. "To show each time, but ... too much jewelry."

"Ribbons," I told her. "White ribbons."

She tilted her head.

"The Chains of Ascension," I whispered. Caroline frowned at me. I smiled and shook my head to ease her worry. "It's from a book I read."

"Abella, go with them," I said loudly.

Jewel turned to look at the girl. I couldn't see Abella, but I figured she had a worried look on her face.

"I'll keep him on the roof," Jewel told her. "You can look down from the road or the Majestic and see us. If my husband is with you and I'm riding a cock, who else could it be?"

Jewel stripped out of her pants and shirts. She kissed her husband before kneeling between my feet. She pulled my dick out of my pants. Her tongue bathed my length.

"Is that what you're going to wear?" Caroline asked Abella. I turned my head. Abella had put on a fairly modest white bikini and a pair of white boots.

"On the bike, I'll put on a helmet," Abella told Caroline. Crystal and Kellie had been giving motorcycle lessons to all the White Maidens. I was pretty sure they were thinking 'motorcycle gang'. I pinned some serious hopes on an all-leather day for the Maidens!

As they were leaving the roof, Caroline tried to persuade Abella to put on something more decent. Caroline didn't have a problem with Abella's clothing choice per se; she felt it might scare the women they were going to rescue. Well--that Caroline was going to rescue.

The two women didn't notice Mr. Valence stayed behind.

"Boss, Abella isn't solid yet," he told me. "You sure you want to put her in that situation. It's only been a couple of weeks; no woman would be okay so soon after what was done to her."

"She fought the whole time, and she has the strength to win that fight if it happens again," I said.

"You want to see if she can control it?"

"Let her play..."

"What's too far, Boss?" he asked without meeting my eyes.

"It's not your place to decide too far, Mr. Valence." I told him seriously.

"Josephine?"

Jewel released my dick with a pop. She gave her husband an annoyed look. "Honey, I like you. A lot! Please don't make Joey rip your arms and legs off because you got involved in White Maiden business. Go show those ladies in the Majestic that a big strong man can be gentle. I'll work on the Boss to convince him to give us a concubine if you like one of them."

Mr. Valence tilted his head and smiled at me. "Don't do it, Boss! She's envious of Brandi and Lorena. Those two make Stephanie, Elizabeth, and Marina give them massages, do their nails, and brush their hair while all the women sit around and gossip about you."

"That guy isn't going to shoot himself!" Jewel told her husband in a very dangerous tone of voice.

Jewel crawled up the lounge. She took my cock in her hand. Holding my dick steady, she lowered herself onto me.

"Don't listen to him," she whispered in my ear. Sitting all her weight on my lap, she sighed her pleasure. Jewel grabbed my hands and put them on her ass.

"Jack used to be his boss's enforcer," she told me as her pussy glided wetly up and down my dick. "You want that guy gone and never to be a problem. My hubby is very good at it!"

I dug my fingers into her ass.

"But people need to know Jack doesn't wake up and decide to break so-and-so's knees for fun or whatever. He is the Boss's hand." Jewel bit my neck. Her pussy squeezed me!

"A White Maiden is too much," Jewel said. "A couple of concubines though, that'd be nice!"

"He doesn't need them," I said, slapping her asscheek.

"Okay! Okay!" Jewel put her feet down on the ground and her hands on my shoulders. She rode me faster. "I want a couple of them; one to do my nails and other to suck my toes. Brandi is such a bitch about her husband's girls!"

"I'm sure she's not doing anything. It's in your mind, Jewel. She's a doctor!"

Jewel put her hand over my mouth and stared at me.

"She's a woman, Miguel," Jewel said seriously. "She's yelling nani-nani-boo-boo at the rest of us! And even if she's not, Lorena HAS stuck her tongue out at me while she's grinding her pussy on Elizabeth's face."

She pressed her hand down harder to keep my laughter from escaping.

"It's not funny!" Jewel told me.

Jewel put her hands on either side of my face. Her pussy squeezed, released, squeezed, released, and squeezed!

"I was your first, Miguel!"

I stared into her eyes; Jewel's voice was hypnotic.

"You get to have me whenever you want. You get to close your eyes and relive that first stroke into my body! Not as memory but as you fuck me again! Whenever you want! As long as we live!"

She kissed me and kept her lips on mine as she continued. "It's not power over you, Miguel. It's trust! I am the keeper of your vulnerability."

"It is power, Jewel!" I said. "You're trying to use it."

Jewel froze. She ran the thumb of her right hand over my lips before nodding. "You're right! I just want some girls of my own."

I liked her pout. "I do owe you."

She smiled hopefully.

"You saved me from Ashley's Plan A."

"I pretty much made Ashley give up the booty!" Jewel said with a nod.

"That's only good for one concubine," Elizabeth said from her lounge chair. "A second concubine is a favor. Then there's punishment for running that 'first woman' game on Miguel!"

I frowned at Jewel. "You knew you could've just asked me for a favor."

"What's the fun in that?" Jewel said. "I love it when you spank my ass!"

She rose up the length of my dick and froze. Her face was full of wonder.

"Oh shit! I can spank Jack's concubines! Oh my God! I can spank them in front of Brandi and Lorena!"

Ashley was knitting or maybe crocheting--something to do with needles. A stripper sitting in the midst of a gaggle of knitting women? Ridiculous! From the shape of the sock or sweater, Ashley had not correctly knitted a single stitch.

"Isn't this the part where you usually say 'Oh, hell no' or something?" Marie asked me.

The third attendee of the first Tea Party (the woman whose ass I made extra-tight) smiled. "Or my favorite--this is a bad idea!"

The women laughed and shook their heads.

I sat down across the mother and sisters of the Marine who had joined our group from the Wholesale Club gang. Kevin became John-John's second in command soon after the fight. Kevin's patience with novices during firearms training was becoming the stuff of legends. He also took over the hand-to-hand combat training for the White Maidens, Mistresses, and Ashley. Kevin had pointers for Kellie, but like John-John, the sword was not in his bailiwick.

"Her son, their brother, raped them," I said. "They have a right to be fucked in the head."

Ashley, specifically, asked me to attend the Tea Party, which clued me into what the women had in mind.

"Kevin didn't rape us," the youngest sister shouted at me. She stood up; her hands were balled into fists. I waited for her to take a couple of steps towards me before I Pushed her. Her body toppled the chair backwards. I looked at the other two sisters and their mother.

"My son didn't rape me," his mother said. "We didn't have a choice!"

"Lady, you weren't willing!" I told her. "Unless you want to tell me, it could've happened before Zombie-Day."

Another sister stood up and charged me. My Push threw her over the chair.

"No," the mother said, after checking to be sure her daughter wasn't harmed. "It doesn't mean he raped me."

"Joey..." I said. "She wanted me before because I healed her cancer. Kellie--let's say I'm going to allow the delusion something could have happened before we woke up in hell. Bianca, Ashley, Jewel, Elizabeth--if I had been older, I might have fit into their lives or at least what I can do could have fit. The others--they have ugly choices and they're choosing the one they believe is the least ugly. It's the new world version of willing!"

I tapped a fingernail on the arm of my chair.

"Tell me," I said to the mother. "Would you have chosen to be passed around by the gang if your daughters didn't have to share the same fate?"

Her lips turned white.

"Old school or new school--you weren't willing. You were raped! Kevin raped you! You had a fucking gun to your heads so he didn't have a choice either, not even a less ugly one, just a fucked-in-the-ass choice for all of you," I told them. "You want a find a way past it so you can look at your son and your brother with love."

"I love my son!" the mother said.

I smiled at her before looking at her daughters. "The answer is no, ladies. Leave!"

"Why?" their mother asked when Marie closed the door behind the girls. They had not protested my decision.

"Abella was given an opportunity to exact a little revenge by proxy," Ashley said, without looking up from her knitting needles. "She threw the guy out a window. No torture. No talk. She kicked the door down and made him go splat!"

"Your daughters would have taken their time," I said.

"Can you blame them?" Tears streaked down the woman's cheeks.

"Absolutely not!" I replied. "But I'm not getting into bed with them! I don't think you can blame me for not being an idiot. Hate to wake up with my testicles on the other side of the room!"

"You accepted Abella!" The mother's eyes flashed angrily.

"No, he didn't," Marie said. "Josephine initiated her into the White Maidens. She would have killed Abella herself if the girl wavered the first time Miguel fucked her. I guarantee Josephine will not accept your daughters or you."

The woman deflated.

"But I'm still here," she said a couple of minutes later.

"Not for Miguel's cock," Ashley said before I could speak. "You want his permission."

The woman bit her lip so hard blood flowed. I stood up, put a finger on her forehead and healed the cut.

"He looks exactly like my husband," she said. "Kevin is everything I wished my husband had been in his soul. It hurt my boy so deeply to do what he did, but he saved us from them."

I leaned back on chair. I would have never let the daughters near me! But the mom ... it had gone left on me!

"I NEVER thought about it!" The woman looked at each woman in the room, insisting each one nod before moving on to the next one.

"I NEVER would have done anything like that before Zombie-Day," she said to me.

I stared at her. It's one thing to read a story about incest and think it was hot, but a whole different barrel of shit to watch a mom being dragged to it by a force stronger than her morality.

"It would be better for your daughters if they stayed with Crystal's friends," Ashley said, still not looking up from her needles. "They need distance from Kevin. He needs it too. They won't feel like they're abandoning him or telling him what he did was wrong if you remain at Kevin's side. They can deny to themselves that the relationship between you and your son continues to be sexual."

Tears flowed freely from the woman's eyes. "He's everything! On the outside! On the inside! My son is everything."

Holy Fucking Shit!!!

I lay in the middle of the terminal roof. I had pushed the furniture into a circle around me.

"That can't be comfortable." The Professor stood over me.

The White Maidens took seats on the furniture. Caroline looked at me as she took a position opposite to the Professor.

"I'm too young for this shit," I said.

"Kevin?" The Professor asked.

"If you tell me that you knew--I'm going to punch you!"

He smiled down at me. "I suggested a sit-down with Kevin's family to Ashley. The young man shows a lot of promise, a very good non-commissioned officer according to John-John."

"Non-what?"

"It's military thing," the Professor said. "John-John is the dad. Kevin is the mom."

"Kevin's a dude," I told him.

"It works for them so let it go," he advised. "Anyway, the women needed help or they would destabilize Kevin's life."

"Because he didn't stop banging his mom?" I asked

He nodded.

"You should have told me," I said. "I could have been an idiot and banged them. Between banging and not-banging, a sixteen year old boy will pretty much always choose banging!"

The Professor crouched down.

"You have a type, Miguel," he told me. "The daughters weren't even this world's version of willing. The mom would never have been loyal to you in any way. She's in love with her son!"

I stared at him.

"She has to reconcile what happened to her family," he said. "This is one way."

"I'm pretty sure I'm too young to learn I'm not the center of the universe," I told him. "It's got to be unhealthy for a teenager, like pre-mature adulthood! Is there an incubator for that?"

"It used to be called college," the Professor replied laughing.

"You need to assign Kevin a wife, Miguel." He said after righting himself up. "Someone who will accept she's really the concubine and not the spouse. They need a woman of utmost discretion so Kevin's sisters can believe whatever they need to stop themselves from going crazy. By the way, we need to find a therapist."

I laughed. "But who's going to therapize the therapist?"

"Get a female shrink and make her a White Maiden," Caroline said. "They're keeping it together very well!"

I laughed harder.

"I'll marry Kevin," Caroline offered.

"No!" I said too quickly. Caroline turned, walked over to a lounge chair, and sat down. She played with her silver bracelets.

"Abigail will do it," Joey said from her seat.

"Who?" I asked.

"At the tea party--Caroline and Marie. The third woman was Abigail," Joey told me. "You really need to pay attention to names!"

"It would work," Caroline said, still not looking at me. "I don't think Kevin is the sharing type, but if Abigail is their beard for the relationship he really wants to continue, he won't have an issue with Abby taking the title of Mistress."

"Professor go talk to Kevin. Caroline go talk to Abigail," Joey said.

It must have been a dismissal because they left.

"We need to talk," Joey told me.

I closed one eye and squinted at her with the other.

"With Kellie's first time, you came out a couple of times so Sophie could blow you," Joey said. "You're controlling yourself, aren't you?"

I shrugged.

"How bad is it?"

"It's not a problem, Joey," I said. "At the beginning with Jewel and Ashley, they thought it was me being a teenager."

"But Ashley is the only one who sleeps with you," Joey said. "You fucked Lorena for almost an entire day."

I looked around the roof. It was only the White Maidens around me.

"I can replace food, water, and sleep with sex if I have to," I said quietly. "I wouldn't bet on me needing to breathe if I've gotten enough sex."

She took a deep breath and held it.

"That was a joke!" I told her.

"Which part?" Elizabeth asked.

I turned to smile at her. "The breathing."

"It's why you told the Professor that you're always on empty," Joey said thoughtfully. "We're not taking advantage of all our opportunities."

"I can't fuck twenty-four/seven," I told her. "Well, I could ... I mean ... you know what I mean?"

"Quality is what you call it," she said.

"He was very excited that night," Sophie said. "Kellie added power, not as much as we probably think."

"How often, Miguel?" Joey asked.

"He's always horny in the morning," Marina said. "So that's one!"

"Two or three other times during the night would be nice," I said to stop them from talking about it in front of me. "Depending on when I went to sleep, it could be more. I seem to get more from sex if I'm over the Empty-Line. I guess it's easier to build on a reserve than it is to pay a debt."

"There's not enough of us!" Joey told the women.

I didn't get the point of the conversation since they left without saying another word to me.

Kellie and the Towers stepped out onto the roof

"We need to talk," Kellie said. She must have talked to the Towers first because they kept their distance.

I liked Joey.

A lot.

How else was I supposed to feel about a woman who so thoughtfully arranged my evenings?

I woke up at three am to find Ashley was gone. I distinctly remembered going to sleep with her after a particularly active sex session but beside me laid Elizabeth. She was playing with my dick. A tug and I was positioned between her legs. I fell asleep on top of her, waking up at five thirty am to find Sophie's mouth on my cock.

Later in the morning, Abella lay on her stomach. She smiled and shook her ass when I opened my eyes. Straddling Abella, I pushed my dick down and thrust into her. Abella's hands stroked my hips as I fucked her with long strokes.

Her orgasms were all the lubrication I needed to pull out after my orgasm and fuck into Abella's ass. She grabbed my arm, wrapped it around her neck, and bit my thumb. I pressed against her ass; Abella moved against me. After the night of sex, I could enjoy grinding on Abella with my dick in her behind.

"I'm not okay," she said.

"What?" I asked, pressing my hips down to make her stay still.

"I know you sent me into the Majestic to find out if I could handle it." She twisted her upper body around to look at me. "I wanted you to know that I'm not fine."

I nodded.

"The asshole had to rape me every time!" she told me. "He punched most of my teeth out so I couldn't bite him when he stuck his dick in my mouth. He held a cocked gun to my head. I never lay down for it!"