Chapter 5: Like Strippers Giving Back Your Money

I opened my eyes, seeing a white ceiling did not make me happy.

"Fuck me!"

"Miguel." Ashley and Jewel knelt down at my side. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not dead," I said.

"What?" Ashley asked. Her eyes were confused.

"I'm not dead."

"No," Ashley said. "Drink some water."

Jewel slipped a hand under my head and put a cup to my mouth. My tongue felt like someone scraped it clean with sandpaper. I drank some before pulling away from Jewel's hand.

I wasn't fucking dead. Great! Just fucking awesome!

I closed my eyes; maybe the fucking hag who blamed me for the Zombie-Apocalypse would set the bed on fire to make sure I didn't end the world again.

"I know you're awake," Ashley said.

"You could ignore it," I pointed out without opening my eyes.

I checked out the room when her back was turned. They did not put me in my original room; this one was larger. It didn't have bars, which boded well. On the other hand, they'd seen me destroy a portion of a building so it didn't tell me what they were thinking.

"I haven't told Bianca yet," Ashley said. "That's the best I can do."

I pressed myself up to a sitting position. Jewel opened the door and walked inside. She smiled brightly when she saw me slide backwards on the bed. I sat against the headrest.

"Is there someone outside ready to burst in and put a bullet in me?" I asked them. "I'm sure Stephen and Danny would love the job. I would not trust them alone with me. They might decide to do it whether or not I do anything more."

"They left," Jewel told me. She picked up a pitcher from the bedside table, poured water into a glass, and handed it to me. She poured another when I drank it down. I waved her away after taking the glass from her hand.

They didn't look afraid of me! Jewel's eyes didn't leave me, but there was no fear in them. Ashley's expression was curious, as if she were looking at me through a microscope and getting no closer to the answer she wanted.

"What do you mean they left?" I placed the empty glass beside the pitcher.

"We rushed down after..." Ashley looked at Jewel.

"After you blasted the zombies across town," Jewel said, smiling widely.

"The boys didn't want to bring you inside," Ashley told me.

I heard the hesitation in her voice. "They wanted to kill me."

"It got ugly, Miguel," Jewel said. "Really fucking ugly!"

"A lot of people were yelling and screaming. Bianca ignored everyone. She ordered that Valence guy and the Professor to carry you inside," Ashley said. "Danny and Stephen flipped out until Bianca shoved her shotgun in Stephen's face."

"She would have killed him," Jewel said. "I think she wanted to kill him!"

"Brandi told them we needed you more than we needed two cowards, who would kill a man while he was passed out," Ashley said. "Tara would have done something if Joey hadn't clocked her ass."

"We brought you in here," Ashley continued. "Brandi examined you, but she couldn't find anything wrong. You were sleeping. She made Jewel watch you and locked the door. Everyone was in the hallway yelling!"

"I could hear them," Jewel told me. "None of the new people said anything except that old bitch!"

"I bet she had a lot to say," I snorted. "Still thinks I'm Satan?"

"Pretty much!" Jewel's smiled changed somehow. She moved around the bed and sat down by my knee. Smiling more widely, she stroked a hand down my thigh.

"Nobody was saying anything meaningful," Ashley said shrugging. "Danny, Stephen, and Tara trying to convince everyone we should throw you back out on the street. Bianca, Professor, and Brandi kept saying no."

"What side were you on?" I asked Ashley.

"I'm always on my side, Miguel," she replied in a stark and sincere voice. Her eyes were direct.

"Okay," I said. "Which side was your side?"

Ashley pressed her lips together so hard they turned white. She fought against answering the question for some reason.

"You came for us," Jewel said, stroking my thigh again. "Even before you saved Joey's life, you came for us. I'm never going to forget it!"

Ashley willed her lips to relax. She took a deep breath and blinked her eyes rapidly.

"The jocks said either we threw you out a window or they were leaving," Ashley told me.

"I'm still here."

"Bianca wouldn't let them back down," Ashley said. "We gave them food. Let them keep their guns and some extra ammo. They tried to convince other people to go with them. Joey killed that bullshit!"

"Joey?" I looked from Ashley to Jewel.

"Something happened to you so I went out to get Brandi, but I got caught up in the argument. You should have seen Joey, Miguel!" Jewel exulted. "What did you do to that girl? I get a little of it; you saved me and suddenly you're a man and not a kid. You saved Joey twice, but that girl is seriously dick-whipped!"

"We were outside," Ashley said, ignoring Jewel. "They were on the street facing us. They talked shit about you being a freak and how you would do horrible things to us. That all of us should go with them because Bianca was crazy to save you. Joey laughed! She laughed so hard she had to wrap her arms around her stomach because it hurt. She laughed so much that we started laughing too. Brandi, Bianca, the Professor, and me! All the new people were looking at us like we were crazy. Joey looked at the two guys; it was with contempt but pity too."

Ashley shook her head slowly, "She said 'how fucking stupid are you? He cured my cancer and never asked me for anything. And believe me, everything he could want was on the table! Ask Brandi what the odds are that I could survive for an hour being shot three times in the chest and then for once in your life THINK. He fucking healed the bullet wounds, idiots! I don't even have a scar! Nothing!' Then she walked inside like she had been taking out the trash."

"I'm not stupid." Ashley's amusement brightened her face. "Neither is anybody from the old group. We followed right behind Joey's grand exit."

"Nobody left with them," Jewel told me. "Even the old lady isn't that stupid!"

"So the four of them are gone," I said, putting my hands behind my head.

"Three of them," Ashley said with a cat who ate the canary smile.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, nobody noticed at first," Ashley said. "But it was just Stephen, Danny, and Tara outside."

"Kellie didn't leave?" Fuck me! I still had to deal with high school crap.

"She came in here some time after I left to get Brandi," Jewel said. "I think she might know how to pick locks! I really have to talk to that girl about her daddy."

"Bianca, Brandi, Jewel, and me walked in to see Kellie sitting on the bed, leaning on that bedpost." Ashley pointed to the bedpost at the bottom of the bed on Jewel's side. "Calm as shit, she looks at us and says 'I think he's sleeping better.'"

"Bianca asked to talk to her outside," Jewel said. "Brandi took a quick look at you and agreed with Kellie, before jetting out of the room. I could hear them!"

"Kellie did a better number on Bianca and Brandi than Joey did to the boys," Ashley said. "Before the other two spoke, Kellie was like 'For two hours today, I wasn't scared! I was scared of Miguel, but it isn't real fear. You know what I mean?'"

"That was it!" Jewel told me. "She won't talk about them! I don't think Kellie liked Stephen."

"Danny and Tara were together," I said. "I mean as together as two selfish assholes can be. I figured Stephen and Kellie were a couple too."

"Everybody else thought the same thing," Ashley said. "Joey asked Kellie about it the next day."

"The next day?" I asked.

"It's been two days since you dived off the building," Jewel said. Her hand on my thigh was doing a number on my attention span.

"Anyway, Joey asked Kellie about Stephen and her," Ashley said. "You should have seen the look on Kellie's face. I don't remember her exact words, but Kellie said BEFORE Zombie-Day she would have done a threesome with you and Joey on stage during a school assembly instead of letting Stephen touch her. After Zombie-Day, Stephen straight up told her to give it up so he'd protect her."

"Fucking asshole!" Jewel hissed.

"Bianca thinks something happened in their apartment," Ashley said.

"He raped her?" I asked, sitting up straighter.

"No," Ashley said. "More like she shoved the barrel of a cocked gun down his pants."

"Does Kellie have a crush on you?" Jewel asked seriously.

"Kellie Connolly does not like me!" I replied.

"I don't know, Miguel."

"Jewel," I put my hand on her forearm. "I've been her lab partner every year since we started high school. For freshman biology, she went the entire year without saying a word to me. Get it--a year as lab partners without ever talking to me! It was only after we got into classes her friends didn't take that she decided I might be a part of the human race."

They stared at me.

"What else happened since I've been out?" I asked.

"Not much," Jewel said. "Bianca can't stand Jack Valence! There are two new girls from your high school. Kellie said they're juniors like you."

"Cheerleaders?" My stomach flipped.

"No," Ashley replied. "Marina and Stephanie were on the soccer team. They know who you are."

"Maria Catwal, the old bitch, is making noise, but nobody pays attention since the three idiots got the boot." Jewel's hand settled higher on my thigh. If my dick dressed to the right, her hand would have been resting on top of it.

"I'm hungry," I said suddenly.

"One of the ladies from the new group is a good cook," Ashley said. "She made some sandwiches for when you woke up. I'll go get them."

I thought about taking a shower first so I sniffed under my armpit.

"Sponge baths." Jewel smiled wickedly at me. "And by the way--WOW! It was the straw that broke my back. From now on, anything Joey tells me is true until the Professor proves it isn't."

"Straw?" Ashley raised an eyebrow at Jewel.

"Lead pipe that broke my back?"

I blushed. The look Jewel gave me made my dick harder. I blushed a darker shade of red!

"I think I'd like to eat on the roof," I told them. There was nothing in the room that would let me take care of my business. Hunger held the Need at bay, but after I ate, I would have to take care of it.

"Yeah, sure!" Jewel said.

Ashley went to get the sandwiches while Jewel walked with me to the roof. My legs were unsteady, solidifying under me only after I walked around the roof for a few minutes.

"Oh fuck!" I watched Bianca, Brandi, Professor, Joey, and Kellie follow Ashley out the roof access door.

"I only want to make sure you're okay," Brandi told me. She must have talked to everyone else before coming upstairs because they nodded.

"I'm fine," I said.

"What does that mean?" Brandi asked.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and stared at her.

"I examined you every few hours since you passed out," Brandi said. "The werewolf clawed you pretty bad, Miguel. You also had a twelve-inch bullet track across your back from the fight with the gang. Everything is gone! I have never seen healing like it."

Tilting my head, I pointedly looked at Joey and back at Brandi.

"I'm a doctor, Miguel. A scientist. The only way I can describe what you did for Joey is a 'miracle'," Brandi told me. "She should be dead four times over; the cancer or any of those three bullets would have killed anybody else. With your wounds, I could actually see them getting better over the last couple of days. The healing is faster and more complete than I have ever heard of but at least it seems like a natural process. Miracles are miracles; this is stranger!"

"It would have taken less time if I'd been left alone when I asked," I said to all of them.

"Less time," Brandi seemed to find it hard to believe. "Oh! You can heal yourself like Joey?"

"No," I said. "I used too much power. There are things I have to do when I use my power. If I don't, it affects me."

"What?" the Professor asked.

I sat down and picked up a sandwich from the plate Ashley had set down on a crate.

"You can't close us out!" Bianca insisted.

"It doesn't matter what he has to do," Ashley said, sitting down beside me. "The important thing is what he can do."

The Professor and Bianca glanced at each other.

"You can heal people," Kellie said before the fearsome twosome picked another angle to come at me. I bit into the sandwich and chewed while I looked at her. Kellie had always been a part of the enemy. I wondered if it was harder for her to see me as an ally than it was for me to stop seeing her as one of my tormentors.

I shrugged.

"Why did you tell us to leave when you worked on Joey's bullet wounds?" Kellie asked

"I couldn't concentrate," I replied.

"Bullshit!" Bianca said. "You jumped off the building and did ... whatever the fuck it is you do to land safely from a drop that any mistake in timing would kill you."

"You know I can heal you if you get shot or get cancer," I said. "If it doesn't kill me pretty much immediately, I'll probably recover from it. The Push is what I call the handcuff, floor, wall, and not being killed by a ten story drop. Keep asking questions I'm not going to answer and I'll be more careful the next time I try to leave."

"You were really trying to leave?" Joey sounded hurt.

"I still want to leave!" I looked down at the heaping plate of food. I had finished a sandwich and felt the Need growing stronger. "I should leave as soon as I can."

Too many women around me again!

They kept trying to argue information out of me until Ashley gave up. She guided everyone except Jewel towards the door. I could hear Ashley talking fast, especially to Bianca, but I couldn't make out the words. Jewel had her hand on my thigh again. Her close proximity was worse than having the rest of the women on roof.

"I'd like to be alone," I told Jewel.

"We didn't tell you everything, Miguel," Ashley said, sitting down on the other side of the crate. "Finish your food."

Eating let me think so I did it as slowly as I could. I needed to get them off the roof or to have them leave me alone in the bedroom after we visited the apartment storing most of our supplies.

"I didn't tell them you were awake," Ashley said. "The food for you was in Brandi and the Professor's apartment. I should have figured the trap out!"

"Bianca checks on us on even hours," Jewel told Ashley. "She has Kellie doing the check every odd hour."

"What the fuck!" Ashley punched one hand into the other. She gave the 'Fuck you!' hand gesture to the roof access door. "You think they know, Jewel?"

"Know what?" I asked.

"I said finish your food!" Ashley wrapped her arms under her breasts. She shook her head when Jewel tried to say something. "Brandi was right, getting better like you means you have to put down a lot of food. Doesn't it?"

Ashley and Jewel looked at each other for a long time. I kind of got the feeling they were having a conversation, not telepathically, but women-speak of the eyes and facial expressions.

"What's the rest?" I asked finally. Considering my family life, I always thought a sandwich was a sandwich, but they aren't all the same. The woman who prepared these would get big props from me.

The girls picked up the crate and carried it a few feet away. When they came back, Jewel knelt down at my feet. Ashley sat next to me. Too close! Way too fucking close! I put my hands up. I tried to slide away from them; they shadowed my movement.

"We know why you have to be alone after you do that stuff," Ashley said.

"What?" I stopped trying to get away and faced her.

"We know!" She couldn't hold my stare so she looked at Jewel for support. "We think we know."

"I told you I had to go out of your room the first day because something happened to you." Jewel put her hands on my knees. She squeezed them so I would look at her. "I went to get Brandi because I thought you might be really hurt, so for you do that thing seemed weird."

"What did I do?"

Ashley put a hand on my chin. She turned my face towards her so she could look into my eyes as she spoke, "You need to cum after you use your power!"

"What..." I said dismissively.

"You're not good enough to lie to me," Ashley said. She took her hand from my chin and smiled; something about her was suddenly more relaxed.

"You had a wet dream," Jewel told me. "More like a tsunami dream from the way you were moving and how much you came."

"We learned you always shoot a lot. With the size of your dick and as much jizz as you spew, you would have had a legendary career as a porn star," Ashley said, patting my shoulder. She tilted her head for a second. "I could have been your manager. A couple of years under non-exclusive contract to one of the larger porn studios. Side jobs with some of the big websites! Get a little money together. Work a private site. Finally the goal--our own porn company built on your cock!"

I stared at her--Ashley worried me!

"You would have gotten all the pussy you needed, even considering how much you obviously need," Ashley told me. "Were you really going to jack it twenty times?"