Disclaimer:
This work is fiction. The work has no relationship with any person existing at any time anywhere whether real or imaginary or copy written. Everything in this work is mea culpa.
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I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it's “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper's on the tide.
Tommy – Rudyard Kipling
Chapter 2
“So what’s my name going to be?” She scooped another spoonful of eggs and eyed him curiously.
“What’s wrong with the one you have?” Winston sipped his water and reached for the toast. It reminded him that they were almost out of yeast. He’d have to see about getting more. It also reminded him that he had no idea how to culture it himself. He made a mental note to try to find out.
“People might wonder when they hear you calling me ‘two thirteen’. We don’t have names like you; nobody cared enough to give most of us names at all, just numbers. So I’m going to need a name, and it had better be a good one, because we’re going to be here until you come up with one I like.” She smirked. “Are you going to make me the new Mrs. Archer?”
Winston choked on his bread. “I wasn’t planning on it.” He chewed thoughtfully. “How about Alice Raikes?”
The SnuggleBunny frowned. “Is the name significant?”
“She was the niece of Reverend Dodson and was part of the inspiration for Through the Looking Glass. I thought it might be appropriate as you seem to have turned my life backwards. I never expected to spend any time with a pokegirl, much less have a conversation with one over breakfast.”
“Why do you think so little of pokegirls?” She shifted the splint on her arm slightly. His eyes caught the motion and sent his mind to earlier in the day.
This morning he’d had to cut the sweater off of her since she couldn’t raise her arm to remove it. He’d blushed when he’d realized that she didn’t wear a bra which, of course, had only amused her. He’d tried not to look, but he saw enough to notice she had very nice breasts.
He’d given her a button-down shirt of his to wear and she’d laughed at his expression when he’d realized that she couldn’t button it and that he’d have to do it for her. Then, he’d had to put her skirt back on her.
He’d never appreciated that dressing a woman could be erotic before, but he did now. He’d been hard as a rock before he’d gotten the skirt buttoned around her waist. Her shimmies as she tried to help, well, they didn’t. They didn’t help her get dressed and they definitely didn’t help him.
Once the shirt had been tucked in and smoothed to her satisfaction, he’d relaxed, knowing that the worst was over.
Or so he thought.
Then she’d looked at him with those big green eyes and quietly asked him to take her panties off.
For a second his mind seemed to misfire as all of the blood in his body headed for his groin. “What?” he’d finally managed to get out.
A tiny smile had flickered around her lips. “I almost killed myself trying to get out of them with one hand this morning. I can’t imagine doing that while wearing a skirt.” Her ears flicked and stood straight up, aimed straight at him. “So, unless you want to help me every time I need to go to the bathroom, it might be easier if you took them off now.”
“You know, you could have taken them off before we put the skirt on you.” Winston had been annoyed at her.
She’d given him a coquettish look. “Yes, but there are certain parts of me you are not going to see until I’m ready for you to. So, when you do this I don’t want there to be any peeking.”
“Fine,” he’d grumbled.
“Win, you are about to take the panties off of a beautiful woman. Couldn’t you be just a little more positive about it?” For the first time, she’d looked faintly irritated at him.
He’d blinked. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” She’d flashed him a smile. “It might be easiest if you got on your knees.”
He’d dropped to his knees and she’d moved to stand in front of him. He’d slowly slid his hands up the smooth skin of her legs to her waist. She’d shivered. “You’ve got nice hands and a gentle touch.”
“Thank you.” He’d carefully eased her panties down her body and she’d gracefully stepped out of them. Her free hand grasped his shoulder for balance. His groin tightened painfully as he’d felt the coolness of her skin as her hand touched the side of his neck.
“Win?”
He blinked as his mind returned to the present. “Um, what?”
She reached out and touched his hand. A smile appeared. “So you liked that, did you?” He flushed and she raised an eyebrow. “I asked you why you thought so little of pokegirls.”
He shrugged awkwardly. “The ones I’ve seen on the news and the… ferals, did you call them? They’ve all been vicious. Not at all the kind of girl I’d want to spend quality time with.”
She nodded. “I can see why you’d have that impression, even if a Chickenlittle couldn’t outfight toilet tissue. We’re new and strange, so we’re frightening.”
He frowned. “Pokegirls have been portrayed as ravening beasts, albeit with tits. The only one that’s supposed to be friendly around here is the one with Mark. Only the ones serving with the troops aren’t monsters.” A thoughtful look crossed his face. “They wear special collars to indicate they are on our side. Are you? Friendly, I mean. Why did you come here?”
“Suspicious all of a sudden, aren’t you?” She gave him a cool look. “Sukebe is dead and his dreams died with him. His creations, us, have been left to their own devices. Some have kept fighting, but it’s mostly out of habit. I’ve been traveling and finding people to help me avoid going feral. I came here by accident. I was on my way to Germany when I mis-jumped and came out in your corral. Your horse attacked me and knocked me silly.” Her eyes warmed. “By the way, thanks for saving me. Us SnuggleBunnys aren’t much as combatants, that’s why we’re spies.”
“Will that make sense to me later?”
She smirked. “Once I explain more, yes.”
“That’s good. So do you want to be Alice Raikes?”
“I guess if I can’t be Alice Archer, it’ll have to do.”
***
It was overcast and chilly, so Alice wore a jacket with a hood. She could fold her ears down the back of her head and when she pulled the hood up, she looked damned near human, except for the eyes. Human eyes didn’t come in that particular shade of green. She watched as he took care of the livestock. “Why is your horse named Disaster?”
Winston chuckled. “His name is Disaster because that’s exactly what he is. He’s been here for a couple of years and when we got him the first thing he did was kick down the stall he was in. We moved him to another stall and he kicked that one down too. He also dented my dad’s truck and bit off some of my sister’s hair. We hobbled him and he kicked down the next stall we put him in. Dad said that horse was a walking disaster zone and the name just kind of stuck.” He eyed the stallion sourly. “He’s the only stallion we had that survived the plague, but he’s got temperament issues I don’t want in my foals. As soon as I find another stallion, I’m going to reevaluate his relative worth. I wanted to call him Asshole, but mother didn’t like it.”
“What about the smaller stallion?”
Winston gave her an amused look. “That’s Randy and he’s a donkey jack. If I cross him with my mares, I get mules. Mules are fine on their own; often a mule is much smarter than a horse and much stronger than a donkey. The problem is that they’re sterile and that makes them a luxury I can’t afford right now. I’m hoping to find a jenny or two dozen so I can start breeding the numbers of donkeys up.”
“What you need are some taurs; either Ponytaurs or Unicorns would work well.” Alice grimaced as her arm brushed a post. “You could breed them yourself.”
Winston chewed his lip. “Are they like you?”
“They strive for my level of perfection, but on their own they are perfectly adequate.” She grinned at him.
He sighed. “I really hope to find more horses, but the Breath killed most of them, too. It’s not like they were really popular here beforehand, so there weren’t many to begin with. I’m not even sure there’s enough genetic variation to save anything.”
“The Chinese and their plague really fucked humans over, didn’t they?” She blinked as his face went wooden. “I’m sorry, I forgot about your family.”
“I never told you about them, so I guess it might be easy to forget about what happened.” He turned away as she winced. “Let’s get you to the doctor and see if he can fit you with a cast.”
***
“She doesn’t need a cast?” Winston eyed the doctor warily.
“No, I used the ultrasound on her arm and you lined everything up as well as I could without using pins and surgery. She’ll be fine in about six weeks, but she shouldn’t use that arm until then.”
“Thanks, doc. I’ve already given the eggs to Connie.”
The doctor grinned. “Outstanding. So when are you going to sell me some chickens?”
“I got some chicks in yesterday. When they’re grown enough, I’ll let you know.” He nodded. “You are the first on my list.”
Alice stayed silent until they were back in the truck. “I’m not going to last six weeks without sex,” she commented almost idly as she watched the buildings slide by the truck.
Rain spattered the vehicle and Winston turned the wipers to intermittent. “You’ll go feral, right?”
She nodded, still watching the town.
“What do I have to do?” Her head swung around to stare at him. “You’re my guest and a good host takes care of the needs of his guests.”
Her lips firmed. “So I’m just a guest?”
“You haven’t expressed an interest in anything else.” He glanced at her and returned his attention to the road. “Would you like to?”
“Would I like to what?”
“Would you like to express an interest in something else?” Winston slowed at an intersection to check for oncoming traffic. “Or are you waiting for some kind of offer?”
Alice turned back to the window. “I don’t know.”
“Then why in the hell are you pushing me?” Winston growled softly. “Women.”
“I’m a pokegirl,” she snapped.
“No, that kind of behavior is pure woman.” He glanced at her. “You do realize that, thanks to you, I’ll never think of pokegirls as beasts again. It’s probably going to get me killed.”
Alice frowned. “How do you see that happening?”
“I just figure that I’ll be checking to see if one of them is feral when she eats my face.”
The rain picked up and the shadows from the drops hitting the windshield made her skin look as if it were covered with leprous spots as she turned to stare at him. Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll show you what to look for from a distance; but, when in doubt, shoot to kill.”
***
“I fixed you up in one of the extra bedrooms. It belonged to one of my sisters.” Winston handed her a plate of scrambled eggs along with some fried potatoes.
“Thank you.” She nodded as she looked at the plate. “Your diet’s not that varied, is it?”
“I don’t have the power to run a freezer all of the time, so no. The chickens produce a lot of eggs and I eat pretty well, especially compared to the people in town.” He smiled. “They’re eating out of the supermarket. The canned food will start to go bad before they run out.”
“I’ve got a lot of canned food myself, down in the cellar. In the winter, I’ll open the windows and turn it into a freezer to keep them longer, but eventually I’ll have to start paying close attention to them to avoid poisoning myself.”
“I’ve got some land planted with vegetables, but no large scale crops. I found a horse drawn plow at an empty Amish house, but I’m still figuring that thing out.”
“You need an Elf or something else.”
He twisted his neck and sighed. “Do I? What exactly would one of those do for me?”
“They have knowledge of crops and farming without machinery. A couple of them would be very useful.”
He shrugged. “I doubt there’s some in the closet, but I’ll be sure and look after dinner.”
She snorted. “I guess I am being a bit presumptuous. I’m still used to being in the military and there you requisitioned the pokegirls you needed.” She got a thoughtful look. “I wonder if that would still work,” she murmured musingly. “I still know where some of the still active units are and if they’re still following protocols, I’ll still have my rank.” She caught his bewildered look. “I may have a way to get you a free pokegirl or two.”
“Does all of this planning happen to mean you’re staying around? I think I’d like that.”
Alice froze for an instant and then suddenly looked startled. “I guess I’ve been proceeding like I was going to stay.” She cocked her head and regarded him for a long moment. “You’ve been the nicest human I’ve had to deal with so far and I can teach you to be good in bed.”
Winston bristled. “And just how do you know I am not good now?”
She grinned and took his wrist. “You’re not that experienced and the women you’ve been with either didn’t know more than you did or weren’t interested in teaching you what they did know.”
He abruptly jerked his arm from her grasp. “Sometimes a little privacy would be nice.”
Alice slid to her feet and padded around the table. “Scoot your chair backwards.” When he did, she settled carefully into his lap and draped her good arm around his neck. She wriggled her toes happily for a moment. “Winston, if I stay here, we are going to have to get to know each other very intimately. I have to have a lover and you are a good choice.” Her arm tightened slightly. “I have to touch the people that are important to me. It’s part of my psychological makeup. For all I know, it’s a genetic imperative.” She smiled. “On the plus side, you’ll always know I’m ready for a snuggle and I’ll always be able to tell if you like something that I’m doing or if you’re feeling experimental in any way.”
“On the downside, however, you’ll never be able to surprise me with presents or a party, should you ever want to throw me one. I’ll know why you’re upset or if you’re trying to hide something from me.”
“I have this ability so I can interrogate people; if you want, I can be useful if you go into any investigative fields.”
She pulled his head gently down to rest against her chest. “But if this is something you can’t handle, I should probably leave now.”
“Don’t you know if I can or not?” His voice was neutral.
Alice rested her cheek against his forehead. “I don’t know anything you don’t know and you haven’t decided if you can deal with this or not. You’re inclined to give it a try, but you’re still not sure.”
“Do you know everything about me?”
“Yes, I do. It’s what I am. I know you’re upset and worried and annoyed and horny all in one large package.” She pushed his head back to look into his eyes. “It’s a wonder teenagers don’t explode from all the feelings they have at the same time. You’re as screwed up as a Dark Lady.”
“Don’t ever call me a boy. I’m not.”
She sighed and pulled his head back to her. “I know. You’ve been forced to grow up early and, when your family died, you had to finish the job right then.”
Winston tried a different tack. “Why me?”
“You don’t blame me for what happened,” she said simply. “Most humans see a pokegirl and they remember how nice things were before Sukebe came along. Now they’ll blame the Red Plague on us too. Somehow it’ll be our fault that some shoddy genetic engineers in China didn’t think about what might take place if they not only tried to modify a virus that they only dimly understood, but what would inevitably happen if they released their creation into the environment.”
“I guess the only consolation I can offer is that the Chinese destroyed themselves just as thoroughly as they did everyone else.”
“They couldn’t protect themselves?” Winston sounded surprised.
“How could they? They didn’t understand what they were dealing with.” She stroked his hair. “What would you say if I told you that magic was real?”
Winston gave her a long, speculative look. “You sound positive, so I guess it does, right?”
She smiled gently. “Yes. And the Bloody Flu had a magical component to it. That’s how it was universally contagious, even when people took precautions. Someone in an isolation bubble still had no protection against a magical virus and Sukebe wanted everyone to catch the Bloody Flu. Since the Red Plague was essentially a modified version of the Bloody Flu, everyone caught it as well. It was also magically propagated, so it traveled everywhere. ”
“You learned things from him, I mean Sukebe, too?”
“Not him specifically, but from the ones who helped him that gave me orders. Sometimes they accidentally let me touch them. Sometimes they wanted to have sex with me and they had to touch me.” She chuckled. “My power knows no limits, other than some specific magical shields. Once they contacted my skin, what they knew was mine as well.”
She pursed her lips speculatively. “I don’t think they realized just how much we could learn, but then perhaps they did and didn’t care since they didn’t think we could be turned against them. Between that, and the fact that there aren’t many of my people around, they must have felt secure.” She shivered. “I know what happens to pokegirls that they don’t feel secure about.”
“Oh?”
“They’re called Hunters and you really want to pray that you never meet one. They are to pokegirls as the Red Plague is to humans: very, very lethal.”
“Maybe you should requisition me one of them for protection.”
Alice looked shocked. “That’s insane!” She frowned. “Or ingenious. They don’t work for the creator either, since he’s gone. I’ll have to consider this.” A sigh slipped from her. “Later. I’ve got too much on my mind right now.”
Winston kissed her. She blinked at him. “What did you do that for?”
“You keep saying that if you’re going to stay, we’ll need to be lovers. You’ve also been worried about going feral and I don’t want that to happen.” He gave a quick smile. “You didn’t know I was going to do that, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.” She sounded slightly nervous.
“So, if I act on impulse, I can still surprise you.” His smile reappeared. “That will keep our relationship interesting.”
“Relationship? I’m a pokegirl. I’m one of the enemy.” She pulled away and slowly stood up.
“Did you volunteer to fight?”
“No, I didn’t.” She was watching him warily and her good hand twitched.
“Did you enjoy killing people?”
“Not really. I did what I had to.”
He nodded. “Of course you did. That’s what conscripts do. I don’t blame you for what happened and you’ve been nothing but civil to me. Not only are you a person, but you are a lady.” He gave her a serious look. “I would be honored for such a woman to choose to stay with me.”
A frown crossed her face. “I’ve killed humans.”
He shrugged. “I’ve killed pokegirls. Besides, you didn’t kill anyone important to me.”
She cocked her head and her ears flicked nervously. “Can I touch you?” When he nodded she cupped his cheek in her hand and smiled when he leaned into her touch. “You mean it.” Her voice held a hint of wonder. “You really think that I’m a good person.”
“You are. That makes it easy.”
She grabbed his hand and pulled. “Come on. I want to work on that intimacy we were talking about.”
Winston let her tug him to his feet and then pulled her into his arms and kissed her. She melted against him and returned the kiss passionately. Finally, she broke the kiss. “I think I could learn to like you being impulsive,” she murmured.
“Good.” Winston led her down the hallway and turned into a room she hadn’t been in before.
“Isn’t your room good enough?” She looked around. It was another bedroom, but this one had a king sized bed as opposed to his twin. The walls were bare and there was no other furniture. “This is the master bedroom, right?”
“Yeah. I replaced the bed and cleaned out the room after my parents died, but I couldn’t bring myself to sleep in here.”
“Creepy, huh?”
He smiled slightly. “I know my parents had a good sex life, but there is nothing creepier than going through your dead mother’s lingerie.” He shuddered. “I found some stuff I would have liked to see a girl wear.”
“Not anymore, I’ll guess.” Alice slipped into his arms. “Since I know what you know, I’ll be sure to never wear any of it.” They kissed again, more slowly this time. “Why are we here?”
“There’s room on the bed for your arm to be out of the way. Mine’s too small.” Winston kissed his way across her cheek and down her neck, little fluttery kisses that made her shiver with anticipation. She gasped when he nipped her throat lightly and tilted her head back to give him better access.
His fingers trembled as he unbuttoned her shirt and slowly spread it wide. She rolled her shoulders and it slid off and to the floor.
His mouth trailed a burning line down the other side of her throat as he fumbled with the buttons on her skirt. She gave a low moan as he bit down slowly and tried to lift his shirt with her good hand, finally giving up and running her hand across his chest.
Winston slid the skirt over her hips and pushed it towards the ground. Alice carefully stepped out of it as his hands gripped her waist.
He led her to the bed and she paused. “Aren’t you still a bit overdressed?” She reached for his belt only to have her hand pushed away.
“You can help when that splint comes off.”
“All right.” She settled down on the bed and carefully laid back. “Hurry.”
Clothing flew as he quickly stripped and she laughed quietly at the sight. The laugh quickly died when he slithered up her body and kissed her hungrily, drawing the breath from her lungs.
Her eyes opened when he slid down her body and gently sucked a nipple into his mouth. She moaned and closed them slowly when he covered the other breast with his palm and slowly rolled the nipple in his fingers. “Harder,” she whispered. “Oh, yes,” she moaned as he bit down on her nipple gently. Her legs wrapped around his waist and she ground herself against him. “Please?”
Winston tried a couple of times and missed before reaching down and guiding himself into her. She moaned happily as he sank into her warmth. Her legs tightened around him and she pulled him deep, hissing her pleasure as she did so.
He tried to thrust slowly, but her legs kept urging him faster and faster until his body slapped against hers rhythmically. Suddenly her legs tightened painfully around him. Winston gasped in pain and she froze. “Are you ok? I forgot myself when I came.”
“I’m all right.” He moved experimentally and slowly slid almost all of the way out of her and then back in.
Alice smiled lazily and slipped her hand behind his neck. “You just keep doing that.” She pulled him in for a deep kiss as he went back to stroking into her body. Slowly, he sped up as he felt the tightness growing in his groin and buried himself to the hilt when he spilled his seed into her body.
Alice smiled lazily and slipped her hand behind his neck. “You just keep doing that.” She pulled him in for a deep kiss as he went back to stroking into her body. Slowly, he sped up as he felt the tightness growing in his groin and buried himself to the hilt when he spilled his seed into her body.
Alice held him close as her body trembled beneath his. Slowly, their breathing returned to normal. She sighed. “Alice want,” she broke off suddenly as her eyes widened. “Snuggle?”
Winston stared at her. “Alice? Are you ok?”
She nodded slowly. “Alice good. Win good. Tem, temp,” her face scrunched in frustration. “Temp!”
Winston’s mind ground into motion as he tried to ignore the wonderful feelings emanating from his groin. “You’re trying to say something.”
She nodded violently. “Alice temp!”
“Temp? Temperature?” She shook her head and looked around the room, finally pointing at the scattered remains of his clothes where they lay on the floor. “Temp!” She shoved at him with her good arm. “Temp! Alice temp!”
Winston slid off the bed and rooted around where she’d pointed, coming up with his watch. “This?”
“TEMP!” She glared at the ceiling for a moment before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.
Winston frowned. “Temporal? Temporary.”
She nodded slowly. “Alice temp,” she repeated.
“So this is temporary.” She nodded assent at his words. “All right.” He climbed back into bed and wrapped her up in his arms, mindful of the splint. She sighed happily and snuggled against him.
“Will this last three hours?” She shrugged and placed her hand over his mouth.
He shook his head and kissed her gently. She smiled and returned it as her eyes glowed with joy.
***
Some fun facts for the reader. The Red Plague swept the world in 2004 or 2 AS, even though the AS calendar wouldn’t be adopted until 2047. Because of that I will continue with standard time, to reflect the flavors of the period.
The Red Plague killed 98% of the Earth’s population. That sounds bad, doesn’t it? However, the numbers themselves are horrifying. The actual numbers for 2004 are hard to find, but 2005 is handy, so I’ll use those.
In 2005, the world’s population was roughly 6,453,628,000 in a non-pokegirl world. I’m going to use that number for 2004, just to make this easy.
Thanks to the Red Plague, 6,324,555,440 people died, leaving a grand total of 129,072,560 people. That happens to be a little more than the population of the world in 500 BC (100 million estimated). The Red Plague set the earth’s population back 2500 years. Don’t forget that, at this point, pokegirls aren’t that common and also don’t forget that humanity isn’t squeezed into the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley. They are scattered all over the globe.
In northern America, the population went from 330 million people to a little over 6.5 million. Europe started with 724 million and ended up with 14.5 million. Estimates on the European population go back to 1750 and then the population was 163 million. Less than a tenth of that number survived the Red Plague.
Just for a little perspective, in 1750 the world population was 791 million.
Asia was just as bad. They start out with 3.9 billion people and finish up with 78 million. Their technical base isn’t that great for the most part and a lot of these survivors are going to die from diphtheria, typhoid and the other fun third world diseases that the West has been helping them fight. Overall, their technical base will recover more quickly, but that’s because it didn’t have nearly as far to fall. Hong Kong and Japan will most likely be almost completely depopulated. Their rigid caste system will actually help, but only the acquisition of pokegirls will really turn things around.
To go a little more local, New York had a population of 8,213,000. Afterward, there would have been 164 thousand survivors. Now they had to struggle with diseases brought on by all of the dead as well as the smell of decomposition. There was no way to bury that many dead, even if the survivors had the inclination. And where would you put them? Eight million bodies. Where do they go? Later, Typhonna sinks the city, which only adds insult to injury.
Overnight, any industrial complexes that survived the Revenge War and the pokegirl sabotage came to a sudden halt. Factories wouldn’t have enough people to keep running and no raw materials even if they did. People would have to leave their villages and towns and congregate just to have a large enough local population to find a mate. Food wouldn’t be an issue for the first year, at least not until the canned food started to go bad. Hopefully, someone would remember how to check cans for botulism, because in those conditions, if you get it, you die. Medicine has a relatively short shelf life. A large chunk of the world is irrigated and when the power failed, it would go back to the desert it came from: The Napa Valley in California, most of the state of Arizona. Oh, and the water would stop flowing in the cities, giving the residents a definite time limit on when to get out. Just before they ran out of bottled water sounds good.
Gasoline has a shelf life and, once it goes bad, forget using it in your highly engineered vehicles. Diesel lasts longer, but it too won’t last forever. And making gasoline is complicated and isn’t something to learn as you go.
Suddenly, traveling more than a few miles becomes much more problematic, especially when you consider that the Red Plague hit livestock just as hard as it hit humans.
Don’t forget about the pokegirls. Sukebe is thought to be dead and there aren’t enough humans to keep them from going feral. Soon they will make travel very hazardous.
But don’t worry, in three hundred years it gets better.
Oh, and the numbers come from Wikipedia, but similar ones can be found elsewhere.