The Eros Plague Epoch

A note to my readers:

Well, here we are, winding down the Epoch at the conclusion of this chapter. It seems like a good place to put an end for now, maybe call it a volume 1.

This is going to be the last chapter of the Eros Plague Epoch... for a little while. The ideas in it have been rattling around in my head for a long time, and I'm so happy to have been able to get them out of my head and share them. I intend to come back to Cal, Danni, Allie, et al sometime. It may be a while, both in my time and theirs, but we'll get there.

Thank you for reading.

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The rain pounded at the building in hard sheets of brutal, splattering raindrops. They exploded on the windows as the thunder crashed, and a summer storm wracked the gated field behind the municipal building. I prayed that Klossinger had been good to his word and that Allie was with Katy, maybe even Joseph's kids, I didn't want them to be alone and scared as things began to happen.

The truth was, despite my bravado to Gallicea, I had no patience or interest in staying any longer. My thoughts were slipping back home to Danni more and more, to Bailey, my poor little nephew for whom I was the only remaining family. To getting Allie and Katy back there. It was time to get the fuck out of here.

Without Shanae, this would be harder. She knew about the layout, she lowered risk. I wasn't sure Lilly could handle herself, let alone help me. She didn't have much stamina. Thinking of her, I looked down to her head, bobbing slowly on my cock. Her blowjob was listless, tongue dead in her mouth, as she dragged her lips up and down the top few inches of my cock, no suction or technique to encourage me.

It was nearly night, and almost as dark with the storm, no lights with the power out. She'd lain on the carpet, moaning quietly for a while after I'd cum. Having gotten used to Allie and Danni's excited oral attentions, even Shanae's, I was annoyed that that Lilly didn't follow suit. I'd grabbed her. "Whaaat," she complained as her cheek rubbed against my half-mast cock. "Doesn't this thing ever sleep?"

"You wanted to fuck like Allie, didn't you?" She huffed and stared at my cock as the head drew a line of pussy juice and spent cum across her cheek. "This is how Allie does it." My head slipped between Lilly's lips, "My women never waste a drop." Lilly slipped deeper onto my cock, slowly sucking me.

Ten minutes later I was no closer to cumming, and Lilly was bored. I wanted to catch the guards off their game, and that meant they needed to drop outr meal off. It was late. My ruse that one had escaped with new captives seemed to have worked. Maybe too well.

"This ain't doing it for me." I stood, pushing Lilly away and headed to the window to look at the storm, I pulled the radio, keys, and collar control from their hiding place and turned the radio on. I was going to scan the channels, only to find that the idiots were still on the same channel.

Behind me, Lilly pouted, "I'm sor-ry! Fuck, I'm just so fuckin' hungry!"

"Allie stashed a bag of chips in the cupboard by the bed," I told her absently, the radio was more interesting. They were all checking in. Two were in the Redeye area to keep an eye. Gallicea was in 'command' with one other. Five of them were out looking for Watkins. One was with Klossinger. No mention of Java worried me... his animal power would be a major issue. The other Redeye Alpha wasn't as large or strong, and he'd almost killed me, had killed two others.

They were panicking. Only nine guards meant they didn't have enough people to cover things from the sounds of it. Now was the time. I looked at the collar control, a trigger, a fader to increase charge, but nothing more to it. Shit. I stuffed the keys and trigger into my pockets. "Lilly?"

She popped her head out of the bedroom, a bag of chips in one hand, munching. She was still bare-ass naked. "Fwuh's uh?"

"Get dressed," I told her, "it's time to get the fuck outta here."

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First step was getting Joseph and the sisters. With so few of the guards in the building, they'd locked down and weren't moving around. That gave me some space to work. I knew Lilly wasn't going to be a lot of help, and I doubted the younger sister, Alanna, would be either, but the elder, Aria, she had some fight in her. Better odds than we'd had. I sent Alanna and Lilly back to my room to make sure that any checkins by Gallicea saw her, and Alanna would pretend to be me in the shower.

I dressed in the dead guard's shirt and vest, keeping his headgear handy, and the five of us tore the legs off a desk for makeshift weapons.

I hadn't seen much in the way of real guns, but anything that might help take Java down quickly, from a distance, would be needed. "Maybe we distract them?"

Aria was already proving herself helpful.

The Redeye pens were noisy, the storm riling them up. I turned the radio volume low as we slipped down the stairs and into the hall, locking the connecting doors behind us as we went. I knew one of the guards would be in the upper bleachers, the other on the ground, so I headed up, Joseph ready to go in the doors at my signal.

She stood alone in the stands, wearing the full gear, a junk Walmart rifle in hand. One of the few I'd seen here. I wanted that rifle. I slipped along the bleachers, looking as nonchalant as I could. She turned to me, eyes behind the visor growing. "What's up with your pants," she asked.

"Nothing," I wrenched the gun from her hand and clicked the radio. Horror crossed the guard's face as I grabbed her throat to stop her shouting and tore off her radio and helmet, "nothing at all." She went over the side and smashed into the top of the pen for the remaining male Redeyes. Just two of them, but they went insane immediately trying to get to her.

The other guard looked up and shouted at me, hand going to his belt, too late realizing that Joseph had crept in behind him as he was tackled to the ground. Joe slammed his head into the floor a few times. The female guard was shrieking as Redeyes clawed at her, but she'd be okay for now, and I dropped down to the gym floor. Joseph and I nodded, and opens the female pens, four in each.

The Redeye women snarled, falling upon the unconscious guard. The one I'd tossed off the bleachers finally jumped down from the males pen, but the Redeyes quickly leapt upon her as well. At a run, we hit the gym doors and slammed them shut behind us.

I put the radio to my mouth and tried to sound scared and young. "Uh, we got a problem in the Redeye pens, the females are out. Send Java!"

Silence as we hustled back to the upstairs hallway. The radio crackled. "Just get out of there, lock the doors," Gallicea ordered.

"No," Klossinger broke in, "we need those Redeyes. Send Java. It's his time to enjoy himself anyway."

I smiled. A little luck, a little bit of luck.

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The three of us waited at the top of the spiral staircase, me peeking out at the top to listen for activity. Heavy footsteps filled the halls, a pair of lighter boots trailing along after. Java thundered by with Gallicea and her remaining guard at his heels.

We raced back along the second floor hall and waited, knowing that we could lock the gymnasium doors from the school, Aria and I had the keys at the ready, if we were lucky, we could contain the beast along with Gallicea. Slipping down the stairs, we waited for them to enter the gym.

"Shit," I hissed. Gallicea was standing in front of the doors to the gym. There was a set of doors in the hallway between the entrance I was at and the hall into the office, part of the basic modular setup for security. I turned to Joseph and Aria, "we have to take her out.

I didn't want to expose us. I'd hoped she'd go into the gym, inadvertently letting us lock her in with the others and the Redeyes, but we'd have to risk blitzing her unless we could tempt her into coming into the stairwell... I looked Joseph and I over, and then Aria. "Take your top off, I have an idea." 

Aria rolled her eyes at me, "seriously? 'Take your top off'?"

I shrugged.

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Aria danced down the stairs, putting childhood ballet lessons on display. I turned to Jospeh, both of us enjoying the view, and nodded. "Nice."

He grinned, watching Aria's tits jiggled as she did a pirouette on the landing, catching Gallicea's eye. "Fuck yeah."

Gallicea cursed visibly, and I put the helmet I'd stolen on. "Fingers crossed." Gallicea pointed the remote for the shock collar and pressed the button firmly, intending to drop Aria with a burst of electricity. Nothing, of course, Aria's collar had the batteries switched the wrong way like all of ours. Gallicea cursed, unlocking the doors and stormed into the entryway, pursuing Aria toward the double doors, just as we'd planned.

Hitting the buzzer again, Aria spotted it this time and flailed, dropping to the floor. "How in the fuck did you get out of your cage, you little b-" she looked up as I leapt over the bannister.

"Shit," Gallicea hiccuped as I landed on her, smashing her to the ground, helmet cracking as all two-hundred plus of me slammed into her. Gasping, I dragged her back into the gym entryway as Joe locked the doors behind us and Aria pulled her clothes back on. I smashed the radio on Gallicea's belt and snapped up her keys.

She snarled at me. We didn't have time to mess around, Joesph and Aria were already waiting on the other side of the doors motioning to me to join them. I grabbed the last of her gear. "If you get outta this," I looked down at her coughing on the floor, "you should run."

I ran to the doors, Joe and Aria shouting. The doors of the gym rattled loud, roars of the Redeyes filling my ears. I bolted for the hall, Joe locking the doors behind me.

Gallicea crawled to her knees, staring me down, pure unadulterated hate in her eyes. She held her throat, coughing as the gym doors buckled, and Java, naked and raging stepped into the entry out of the gym, multiple Redeyes with him. Joseph and Aria pulled me into the shadows of the hall as Gallicea raised her middle finger to me, flinching as Java roared.

We ran. She screamed.

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The cop shop was a mess. They'd been camped out in the five-officer station for weeks, no discipline, no respect, their shit lay on bunks dragged out of the cells. Gallicea had my things that she'd found in a footlocker at the end of her bed. She'd gotten the commanders office. The foot locker had clothes. Pictures. Children I had to assume were dead. I closed it. I didn't care to know any more about her than I already did.

The gun cage was empty, even the dart rifles they'd used. I sighed. That had been the risk of my plan. At least there was plenty of booze in the kitchen.

The five of us headed to the elevator.

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The old elevator creaked as Joseph cranked it. I said a little prayer to the god of desperate plans and bad ideas. I just needed to get these people out, get home. Make sure Allie and Katy were safe.

The rifle I'd grabbed hung heavy in my hand as Alanna and Lilly pulled the doors open. The hallway was as it always was, Klossinger's lab on one side, the locked door on the other. Joseph rand to the locked door, trying the keys. He looked back at me panicked at the voices of his children filled the air, scared. "None of them work," he looked halfway to tears.

"It's okay," I worked the rifle, checking the cocked sights, and loaded a round, "we all know where the key is, Joe." I kicked open the big double doors to see Klossinger with Oona, holding my Allie, her eye swollen from a punch, a long slice along the back of one arm that she held tightly with her free hand. He had Katy at gunpoint, with a Walther, just to make it a bad comedy bit. Nearby, Shanae was strapped to a gurney, a mask on her face, surgical equipment laid out nearby. Klossinger stared at me with wild eyes.

"Oh Calvin," he lamented, "you break an old man's hear-"

I rifle cracked against my wrist, a hip shot in one hand. Allie and Katy screamed as his right shoulder ripped to the side, the Walther flying into the shelves nearby, "I was a JTF2 sniper, mother fucker! You think you can put a gun to my little girl's head?"

I burst across the room, Allie snapping up Katy as I ran at the old piece of shit. He was on his back, Oona shrieking as she bounced on her heels over him. "It was just a countdown until I came for you." I turned to Joseph, "take the keys on his belt. They'll get the door open."

Allie and Katy were in my arms. Allie's scent filled my senses, and Katy, little Katy, nine and living through hell, she wrapped her tiny arms around me and climbed to my shoulder as her mother held me. "He was going to vivisect Shanae," she sobbed, "I had to try to keep him busy and hope you got here."

"It's okay," I held her tightly, smelling her hair, hugging Katy and Allie tightly to me. "It's okay, we stopped him. Nearby, Aria and Alanna were unhooking Shanae from Klossinger's table and turning off the gas she'd been breathing. She was groggy, but she looked like she'd be alright.

Lilly spoke up, standing alone in the middle of the room, watching the sisters help Shanae, obviously friends, Joseph reuniting with his kids, and me with Allie, "can we please get the fuck out of here?"

Truthfully, she was right to want to get gone.

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None of us had much to pack, just a few scant clothes and a couple of satchels of canned food. I was anxious to get moving. There were guards out there, and it'd only be so long until Java was able to free himself.

The rest of the group were focused on getting ready, Allie had grabbed Klossinger's notes along with what food she could, throwing them into a backpack with any medicine and materials she could grab that might be useful to Wendy. I carried the old man to the roof.

The skylights in the police station glowed as the fire I'd set slowly picked up pace, and it lit the roof as I dragged Klossinger, whimpering like a child, down the length of his shitty castle. "Just kill me, you savage," he shouted when I threw him down into the roof gravel, "just kill me and be done with it! The world is doomed!"

I shook my head. The rain soaked us both, whipping the steadily dripping blood away from his wound. He was convinced his little science experiments on sex and violence would be humanities salvation. "You were never going to change that, Klossinger." I shot the skylight with the beaten rifle, shattering it. The sounds of screaming as the Redeyes swarmed over each other, and the guards, filled the air.

Klossinger tried to fight as I lifted him above the shattered plexi-glass dome, but he was small to begin with. "Today we're not testing shit," I shouted to him above the din of rain and screaming and animal shrieks, "today's justice!"

The old man's eyes went wide as I shoved him into the air above the skylight, his good arm pinwheeeling as he fell. I glanced down to see him disappearing into a raging mass of arms and legs, massive Java at the centre of it. The old man smashed into the beast's outstretched hands, and squealed pitifully as the big mitts began to crack his bones.

Now it was done. Now we left. As we trudged into the rain, I looked back to see the fire filling the windows of the police station, Oona in her nurse outfit running into the rain in the opposite direction.

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We headed south to the town, wary of being spotted by Klossinger's remaining guards. I hoped that the fires we'd set in the way out the door would be a strong sign to not go back, but you never know.

Shanae directed us to town, only a few blocks away, past a Main Street drag of boarded-up shops to a stone lockhouse that sat perched over the rushing river. We pounded at the heavy metal door. Shanae called out, "Clara, it's me! Please! Open up!"

A woman with brown hair, long grey streaks shining through an old dye job, looking to be about my age, opened the door. Light shone behind her. "SHAE!"

It was beautiful to see them reunite. I clasped Allie's hand tightly, but found myself also thinking of Danni. Shanae held her girlfriend and waved us inside. Stories were exchanged. A lot of tears were shed, but she was happy.

Clara, understandably, was leery of me, but seemed excited that she and Shanae would be mothers. Allie and Katy slept on the living room couch, me on the floor by them. Joe's kids and he crammed into the second bedroom upstairs with Adria, while Alanna and Lilly chose to stay up, sitting out on the covered roof, watching the big water wheel turn.

Safe and warm, something that had been wound tight in my gut relaxed. I breathed, sitting against the couch, holding Allie's hand in mine, Katy's fingers wrapped in the hair at the back of my head. They breathed quietly behind me, and I listened to the rain fall steadily outside as I drifted, coals crackled in an old fireplace nearby.

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We woke to a full house minus Lilly. She'd gone in the night, nobody remembered seeing her go, and one of the bags of food was gone along with her small stash of belongings. Shanae looked at Allie, "you think we should be worried?"

Allie shrugged, looking up at me. She rested her face on my chest and inhaled me deeply. "No, not right now," she told Shanae, "she never wanted to be a part of our families."

Joseph came to me while we packed up, all taking turns cleaning up in the bathroom on its little septic system. Clara seemed worried about it, but Shanae assured her we'd earned it, convincing her to back off. "Can we talk, Calvin," he plunked down next to me on the couch where Allie and Katy had slept.

"Of course, man," I told him, pulling a clean-ish t-shirt over my head, "what's going on?"

Joseph sat next to me, he looked worried and rubbed his face. "I don't want to be back out on the road with these kids, and Aria wants to get the hell out of Calabogie. I'm a high school teacher, I don't know what skills I could have that would be helpful. I..." he trailed off. "I'm not very good at asking for help."

Clapping him on the back, I smiled. "Joseph, man, you're good in a scrap, and you're a smart guy. You want to bring the family to stay on my island? I think you'll like the other folks there."

He smiled, big white chiclet teeth shining against his dark skin, "yeah man, that'd be great."

"Hell yes it will."

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We left Shanae and Clara that morning, the grass still wet from the downpour overnight, the air fresh with the scent of rain. I told Shanae where we'd be if they ever needed help.

"You think that you'll ever want to come meet this little one," Shanae asked, and I could see Clara holding her breath. Allie held my hand tightly, squeezing hard.

"If you'd like me to, of course," I told her, resisting the urge to touch her belly, "I don't want to get in between the three of you, but yeah, I'd love to meet them," I held Clara's gaze as I said it, I wanted to assure her I wasn't going to get in the way, but she wasn't giving me the chance. I wanted to respect Clara and Shanae. "Maybe we'll try to set something up so we can check in with you," I pointed up to the small radio antennae in the roof. "We're going to be. A lot farther apart than it used to be with cars," I assured Clara.

"That might be nice, Calvin," Clara gave me that, just that, but it was enough. Shanae hugged me, then Allie and we set off.

At a good pace, we could get to the lake from Calabogie in about a day, but in practice, with three children and people unused to such a long trek, that was more like two days, maybe three. It was only a couple of hours before we came upon the house I'd been grabbed at, and I figured we needed a rest. The kids were all tired and hungry, and Allie was starting to look a little green around the gills. I reclaimed my stashed gear, and settled Allie with the kids. Aria and Alanna went to look in the kitchen and other first-floor rooms for supplies.