The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Humanity, 2.0

Year 9, Day 14

There was something wicked-fun about having sex in the great outdoors – at least then, people didn’t normally do that. I sat cross-legged, bare-chested and leaning back onto my spread palms, on the blanket Nina had set up on the secluded Venezuelan beach – staring at her as she slipped off first her tied-off shirt and then the athletic bra she had on underneath, then untying her long pants and letting them fall limply into the sand. She gave me a show of tugging off her panties, then kicked them atop her jeans – not far from her discarded pack. She knew how much I liked to just stare at her body, and how much more I liked to touch it. She and I had only been reunited two days ago, after years apart with me shacking up next with Emily, then with Bethany – and now back to Nina. We’d decided to celebrate the occasion with a trip through one of her favorite places on Earth, mostly backpacking. It helped ease her conscience that the places we planned to go also happened to be very inaccessible and distant from civilization.

She turned her head, looking out onto the open sea, bringing one hand up over her shoulder and seemingly zoning out for a few moments – probably distracted by the waves crashing. It was a gorgeous sight – there were just enough rocks to make the place well-hidden, but still plenty of sand enough to make it a beach – and the sea sparkled bright blue in the noontime sun at the equator; the water was smattered with whitecaps, and I might have seen a dolphin’s fin pop out once or twice. Really, though, most of my attention was on Nina. I’d longed for her just as much as I longed for either of the other two when I was separated from them. Nina’s wisdom and confidence was always comforting to me, not to mention her knockout blonde body.

I was tempted to beckon her over, but I sensed that wasn’t what she wanted. I stood up, dusting off the little bits of sand that had accumulated on me, and stepped toward her. I came up behind, slowly, knowing she had heard me but still pretending. Bending down somewhat, I let my arms sweep around her sides and clasp in front of her, just underneath those round tits, and pulled her toward me – rocking slightly from side to side as I felt her warm skin caress mine. She instantly melted, closing her eyes and running one hand up my chest, feeling blindly around until she reached my neck. She pulled downward, not enough to actually move me – but I complied, bending further down to let her lips meet mine. We kissed again and again, each time taking a little longer and getting more sensuous. At some point she turned around, and I felt her breasts pressing against my stomach.

I was taller now – since she and I had been separated, I’d gained another several inches of height – though I’d towered over her even before, and she was slightly taller than average for a Caucasian girl – and I now stood at six feet and ten inches. I’d filled out even more, thick muscles seeming to just naturally grow in, in far greater mass than could be accounted for by my workout routines and diet. I wasn’t quite mature yet, physically, but Bethany was guessing I was getting close. My cock had even gotten a bit larger, in proportion to my overall body at least – my wide pole now measuring just over nine inches long when hard, and its own weight kept it hanging fairly low even when stiff. Right now, still confined in my jeans, my rod was pressed against my thigh and leaking pre-come as I stared at Nina. We’d barely kept our hands off each other enough to get this whole trip planned out and rolling. As soon as we were away from civilization, right now, she’d let one hand roam around enough to find the bulging prick under my pants – not a difficult task – and asked me to take her down to the beach and fuck her as hard as I could. She wanted to feel my new strength and proud cock firsthand again, and measure just how much I’d grown. I felt roaming feminine hands, now on the button of my jeans, and opened my eyes. She looked up at me as she got it unfastened, and began to unzip my fly, loosening my pants. She licked her lips.

“I’m gonna do the thing to myself, okay? Don’t hold back one bit.” I looked away briefly; lately, if I didn’t get satisfaction often enough, the pheromones my body emitted became so strong they could overcome the girls’ minds and shut off all conscious thought, turning them into a willing fuck-receptacle for me. At first I’d worried about it, but the girls seemed to think, after a while, that it was actually great – they’d all told me they never felt better than after I’d fucked them utterly raw and blasted their minds with so much pleasure that, for a while, they couldn’t even remember their own names.

Hardness flooded my prick for a second time. I was certainly willing to indulge Nina’s request; we hadn’t fucked since early into the previous evening, but that had just been a quick fuck with Bethany while Nina focused on our doctor too, knowing she probably wouldn’t see her again for another few years. Nina and I hadn’t touched one another save for kisses and caresses. I was more than ready. I let her fingers grip my belt loops and pull, standing at ease as my pants and boxers fell down and revealed my nine-inch tool. Nina’s eyes instantly were fastened to it, no longer even having the presence of mind to help me out of my pants. I shuffled briefly, kicking them off and draping them over my own pack with one hand – and intaking air sharply as I felt her loving tongue touch me again, finally, after so long. Both hands went to my base as I looked down at her, utterly lost in my cock – she was already making the whole length of me as wet as she could with her tongue, and one hand slid down to heft a heavy brown testicle. The only question now was whether its contents would be emptied into her mouth or pussy.

She couldn’t quite deep-throat me anymore, which seemed to drive her increasingly animalistic mind toward frustration. I felt the sharp scrapes of her teeth as she tried to force my pole down her throat, and she gagged a little after three attempts. I smiled. She had barely been able to do it before – the first five inches of me, anyway – but now, that extra bit of thickness was just too much. Her jaw wouldn’t stretch. Her eyes met mine, and I could see the disappointment and apparent shame that came with it – and I shook my head. I didn’t want to blow this load in her mouth anyway; I wanted to put it right where it belonged.

Taking her by the arms and pulling her up, I positioned the eager Nina onto her hands and knees – finally having to turn her head away from my cock with one hand, from which she still couldn’t tear her gaze. I came down onto one knee, putting both hands on her waist as the cool ocean washed in a single wave – splashing over her calves and hands, giving her a start. It washed away as I fisted my cock and smeared a little pre-come around her ass, then positioned myself at her pussy. I let my grip go up to her shoulders, sliding along her deeply tanned back, as another wave came over her. I could feel her heavy breaths under my hands as I did it, and fastened my large hand on her shoulder – which seemed surprisingly smaller and more feminine now, with my growth.

Nina, the one in control of herself, the most self-assured and secure of us – it was always so amazing to see that exterior so gloriously melt into what she became during intense lovemaking. She didn’t become lovingly submissive like my sister, or just incredibly horny and enthusiastic like Bethany – Nina became something else, like liquid sex or pure desire, instantly conforming to whatever made for the hottest moment – taking control or submitting to it, slowing the pace or speeding it up, pure or perverse, being greedy or utterly selfless; anything is possible when one makes love to Nina.

As the third wave washed over her, making her hands sink a little bit into the fine-grained white sand, I began to push myself into her – and felt the head sinking inside. I held her fast as more of me invaded her, knowing that she wouldn’t be used to taking me after so long apart – she quivered and wailed as the fullness of my width stretched her wider than ever. Soon even her wailing stopped – replaced by the exact same expression, only silent. I knew she was in a little pain right then, and slowed down – but I knew better than to stop. Once a girl had seen my hard dick, the pheromones made it virtually impossible to stop. She’d just immediately impale herself again on it, pain or not. I eased slowly further, moving another inch or so within her willing body over the next minute. There was no rush; it already felt amazing. She was incredibly tight – well, any girl was, with a rod like I’d been given by 15226. This time was special, though.

Nina made a low growl, her breaths coming hard and fast. She turned, looking up into my eyes, and I saw the lack of reason there, the pure emotional and sexual power which had flooded her mind. She looked desperate, and I gave her what she wanted. I pushed harder, making her wail again in loving pain as I pushed hard, bottoming myself out after a minute or so. It would be a while before we could truly fuck, but in the meantime, I could play with her. I reached down below and began to tug her nipples – as hard as little rocks, swinging freely from those perfect globes on her chest. I slid the same hand down toward our union, and just as I reached her mons, I felt the slick wetness that she was leaking so copiously. I grinned. She must have been aching for this as much as I had – if not more.

When Nina was finally used to me again, a wide smile came across her face as she jiggled herself around a bit. A particularly large wave rolled in and splashed her side, soaking her hair halfway down and leaving her wet and with bits of foam sliding off her shiny, nude body – and with that, I abruptly began what was next. I pulled out almost all the way, and pushed in again, and did it faster the next time, and the next… within moments I was already fucking her hard. Even I was starting to let go now, reveling in her hot and tight pussy around me as I let my cock run wild, pumping in and out with abandon and pent-up need. My loud groans joined her low and quiet ones, and our soft, slow lovemaking became hard mating.

My hand roamed again, seemingly of its own volition. This time I found her clit, which she’d neglected to play with on her own somehow – I strummed it quickly, knowing neither of us had the will to hold back this time. Maybe later, when we’d spent more time together, we could be patient and draw it out. I saw and felt her immediate reaction, the sudden quiver in her body below mine and the trembling around my cock as I felt her hips involuntarily shudder at my touch. I pushed her hard, my hand automatically falling into motions I’d practiced a thousand times on the girls – all of which fed directly from the memories 15226 had imbued me with.

I was rewarded. Nina lost what little semblance of control she had left, bucking and crying out loudly as she came. Her pulsating muscles and abandon to pleasure stimulated me, and as she gradually came down from her orgasm on all fours, I redoubled my pace briefly as I felt the eruption of pleasure from within. My balls churned, and I felt the pumping as gouts of pleasure shot out of my cock, and I groaned aloud as I felt the ropes of sticky love poured into her – one at a time, each accompanied with a loud moan. My thrusting stopped, and I let the last bits of my goo pump into her, then I slowly withdrew. She lazily turned her head back to face me, and as I fell backward onto the blanket to relax, I felt her crawling over to nuzzle up against me.

“Umm… wow.” A female voice came from up and behind us, some distance away.

I started upward, turning immediately around as I scanned behind us. There, up at the treeline, about fifteen feet back – she stood, also wearing trail gear, lugging a pack, and partly hiding behind a tree. I thought furiously. She hadn’t seen anything impossible. I didn’t recognize her – fairly good-looking for her age, which I’d have guessed at thirty-five to forty, with sun-browned skin and long brunette tresses that were tied up in a ponytail. She wore army-issue boots, laced up tight, loose jeans, and thick button-down shirt which couldn’t quite hide her nice handful-sized boobs. She looked very athletic. I also saw – hanging from a belt loop – a worn-looking, wood-handled machete in a leather holster.

“Hmmm…..?” Nina was only just now coming out of her fugue. She sat up, boobs juddering slightly, as she looked out with a dim smile over the ocean. An oddly perplexed look came onto her face, then her eyes shot open and she turned, spinning onto her feet lightning-fast and dashing two steps out in front of me. One arm came out in a defensive position in front of me – which had to look kind of silly, since she was visibly less than half my mass.

I put on a sheepish face. “Um – sorry you had to see that – umm, honey, you should get dressed…” I made a show of awkwardly fishing around for my clothes, hastily jumping into my pants and putting on my shirt. I called back up toward her, as Nina stayed in place – still bare-ass naked and holding the same pose. Something must be bothering her, I realized; she was glaring suspiciously at this new woman. I gave her a wave. “If you wanted to use this spot, we’ll just be going.”

“Ah – no, I just was hiking along here and happened to catch a show worth watching.” She shrugged, giving it a friendly air. Now that she had said more than a few words, I could place a definite British accent in her voice. She continued, smiling as she did. “Nothing new under the sun! I saw the fresh boot prints ahead of me and figured, oh, maybe someone else likes this little trail, and they would fancy a third.” She hopped down from the ridge the treeline sat upon, bouncing off a thick banyan root once before landing on both feet neatly on the gravel-like sand. “Unless – um, were you two not finished?” She raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Of course we were, uh, finished. We were about to pack it in and head on further toward the mountain.” I smiled widely, nodding in the direction of the big stony bulk some eight miles to our east. Nina glanced back at me, still seeming worried, but then visibly forced herself to relax. She grabbed her clothes and began to tug them back on as the woman came over towards casually, but her eyes hardly ever left the woman. She came close, but stopped a few feet short of shaking hands, and leaned against a heavy rock.

“I’m Melody, by the way. Melody Breitbeil.” She stepped up, giving a little almost-curtsy. “You’re both Yanks?”

“We are.” Finally dressed, I tightened the lacing on my boots and then set to shaking the sand out of the blanket, calling back to her as I did. “We’re just grad students, here on a little adventure before heading home and burying ourselves in our theses again.” I rolled up the blanket. “What part of England are you from?”

I caught the barest hint of a raised eyebrow before she smiled and answered. “Birmingham, but I haven’t been there in ages. Never go there, either of you; it is singularly the most boring place on the whole planet. What do you two study? Oh, here, let me help you—“ She went over to Nina, who, in her haste to put her pack on, almost lost her balance. Nina stared at her flatly, but didn’t resist as the woman helped her strap the heavy bag to her. “And dear, you must wear more than that out here, when you pass through the lowlands you will be eaten alive by the mosquitoes. The little fucks carry malaria, and worse things.”

“Bugs never bite me. Been that way for all my life.” Nina managed a thin smile, and tightened the knot on her tied-off shirt that showed off her midriff and tits so pleasantly. Of course, mosquitoes did try to bite us, but we figured they couldn’t penetrate our skin – and if they could, then maybe 15226 had somehow made us immune to whatever made mosquito bites itch. Trust me, my children, that’s one life experience you can afford to miss. Nina shook out her hair and nodded toward me, and turned back toward the woman as she went toward the trail again. “We’re both history students. We really do have to get moving if we’re going to reach the peak before sunset.” She looked over at the mountain, and feigned a kind face. “Um – Ben and I are sort of health nuts, and we keep up a really hard pace – we don’t want to ruin your day on the trail, so…” Nina shrugged.

She was trying to get out of having company. I frowned. Why the strong distrust of this woman? She hadn’t singled out a civilian like this before. Nina’s judgment of people was usually more accurate than mine, but in the past three years living on the run, I’d sharpened my sense of these things rapidly. Something was off.

“Well, now I’m just curious, goldie. I was about to warn you of the same.” She took a deep breath, stood on her tiptoes for a moment – she was a few inches taller than my Nina. “Come along! I’m told the mountain is even more beautiful this year than last.”

Nina gritted her teeth once Melody’s back was turned, and then suddenly gave me an equally frustrated glare. I just shrugged at her. I didn’t think we were putting her at any risk, being out in the middle of nowhere like we were, and she seemed nice enough. It was so rare we got to relax with anyone but each other that I’d kind of forgotten what it was like to be in an atmosphere of friendly relaxation with new people. I took the lead, guiding us along the winding path, making light conversation with Melody as we went along. She was an interesting character; she told us that she’d once been a tour guide in this country for an American company, and before that she’d been involved in a smattering odd jobs and careers, more than I could count. She seemed to have lived a very interesting life.

Nina followed silently for a time, making little more than the minimal effort to look like she was part of the conversation. I began to wonder why Melody apparently wasn’t sensing Nina’s disapproval. I rolled my eyes after a while, giving up; maybe Nina really had wanted to fuck like crazy on the beach all day, and go to the mountain tomorrow. The trail wound all around this low mountain range, and covering its entire length – like Nina and I planned – took even the experienced hikers at least a week. Nina and I had hoped to do it in four or five days, with our enhanced bodies helping greatly – but with Melody tagging along, who, in fairness, was actually keeping up a good pace for a non-superhuman, we could expect upwards of eight. We were in no rush, but maybe that was why Nina was so bent out of shape.

We came out of the forest and into the rocky lowlands, and finally, just as sunset came, we reached the top of the ‘mountain’. It was really more of a big, smooth rock, but it did afford a great view of the surroundings. Miles and miles of warm-weather forest went on in all directions, broken only by the occasional large rock or power lines. We made camp up there the first night, Melody sleeping in her own little one off to the side while I set out Nina and I’s larger tent on a small dirt pocket. We’d needed an oversized model – meant for four – just to fit me inside, and I still had to crouch uncomfortably low. We rolled out the pads within, and as we put out the blankets, Nina zipped the tent shut. She idly began to strip, still quiet, and I stared at her, folding my arms in wait while her clothes fell away. Folded up neatly, her perfect tits hanging out for me to caress, she slid under the blanket and sighed.

I sighed. She was going to make me ask. “What?”

“Just come to bed.” She didn’t even turn to face me.

“What!” I wasn’t loud with it, I didn’t want to both Melody, but I was getting frustrated with her.

She turned her head briefly, giving me a focused glare. “Ben… Come. To. Bed.” She flipped open the blanket, patting the spot next to her. I shucked my clothes, folding them into my pack – that thing was heavy – and rolled into bed next to her. She tugged the blanket over us both. I felt her warmth pressed against me, and her hand slid over my chest as she hugged herself tightly to me – but it strangely felt distant, like she wasn’t really wrapped up in our closeness. At all.

“Nina.” I turned to her, sliding my own hand over her back – more to keep her from rolling over and away from me than to caress her. “Just fucking tell me already.”

“I don’t trust her.” She bit off the words quickly.

“Do you think?” I sighed.

“Who just stops and watches two strangers fuck like that, then just waltzes up to introduce themselves?” Nina hastened to follow up before I could respond. “Her story is all over the place. She lugs around a machete that I can tell she knows how to use, and doesn’t really need on this trail. She’s looking in all the wrong places for a tourist or a hiker in it for the sights – she’s constantly watching me and you, and I don’t mean she’s hot for us. And most of all – she doesn’t move right.”

“What does that even mean?” I was perplexed.

“I don’t think you would see it. She moves like a cat. I wish I had that kind of grace and precision. I didn’t hear her coming at all, Ben.”

“You were a little preoccupied.” I smiled as I remembered penetrating her so utterly earlier in the day. “I wouldn’t have noticed a roaring lion right then, so I think you get a pass.”

“Okay, given. Still… I would have heard anyone else – even another one of us.” Nina’s hand stroked my chest, and her tone softened slightly as she seemed to relax slightly. “You’re getting better, Ben, but you’re trusting her way too easily. Just because she’s a good-looking woman doesn’t mean she isn’t one of them.” By them, she meant the people hunting us. We still didn’t have a name for them.

“I have a good feeling about her.” I shrugged, putting both hands beneath the back of my head as I laid back completely, looking up at the ceiling of the tent. The moon was nearly full, casting just barely enough illumination for us to see within the tent.

Nina sighed. “I was worried you would say something like that.” She suddenly slid up to me, sliding one leg over mine so that her hot center was pressing against my thigh. I looked sideways down at her eyes – which now had a whole another kind of light in them. “I see B and Em didn’t keep you on a short enough leash. I’m going to have to rein you in again.”

“A lot’s changed in two years.” I sneaked one arm underneath her back, and with a quick motion, pulled her up atop me. Her breasts laid flat on my chest, and her face was inches from mine. “I don’t need a leash anymore, Nina. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you’re much stronger now…” She straightened herself up, running some fingers down my broad chest. “… and I know you trained a lot. Nina told me you took down whole gangs of thugs with guns in Capetown, Belgrade, Kyoto… but, Ben…” She sighed. “You haven’t learned the most important part. You’re still thinking like the old you. You still trust people too easily, and you don’t watch your own back, not really.” She traced lazy, meaningless patterns along my chest with her fingers, probably without even thinking about it. I was becoming all too aware of the hot, wet place between her legs that was pressing on my skin above my groin. I could just barely make out her distant, pained, but happy expression in the dark. “… I worry so much about you.”

I had no good answer for her. I simply couldn’t be the man she was thinking I was best off being – a hard, tough bastard who would do anything to stay alive. I think she knew that then, too. Instead, I just reached out and pulled her back down toward me, holding her against me. We stayed like that for a time, just holding each other, neither of us sleeping but both just letting the tension between us seep out. Nina and I both knew there was something bigger lurking under there, a division between us that neither wanted to give up any ground on – though it would be years before it became a real argument.

What she’d said about Capetown, Belgrade, and the other places was true; I’d done endless hours of combat training in the past few years, never wanting to see one of the girls be hurt again. I might not have had the girls’ sharpened senses, which made any of them a better shot than me, but if I could get my hands on my opponent, the fight was already over. My physique, which was nearly mature at that point – or so we thought – lent me superhuman physical strength, which, combined with some mixed martial arts training, essentially meant I could throw lesser men around like ragdolls. The only other skill I’d really say I’d become an expert in aside from that in the past two years, though, was cooking.

Nina’s body pressed onto mine was getting the better of me as I came back to the real world. Her hair was splayed out on my chest as she laid her head on me – listening to my heartbeat, I imagined. I heard her make quiet, happy little moans like a cat being petted. My cock was resting against one of her thighs. I flexed it, and ran my hands up and down her back.

She sensed my intent, and crawled up toward my face, kissing me. My stroking hands found her ass, squeezing it, then I probed her folds. She was ready enough. I pulled off the blanket, getting ready to impale her on my pole.

Nina mumbled something, and grabbed the blanket, pulling it back over us. She looked down at me, whispering again. “Let’s do it under the covers. You know how I get if I lay eyes on that thing… I’d wake up the neighbors.” She nodded in the direction of Melody’s tent. “Besides… it’s kind of cold.”

I nodded, and pulled the blanket up and around her, wrapping her body with it. The thing covered my midsection, down to my knees and up to my ribs, and hid all but Nina’s head from me as she pulled it tight around her. My exploring hands underneath the bottom of it found her thighs, and I was surprised to find goosebumps. I supposed it really was a bit cold, though I hadn’t noticed. I felt her shift somewhat, and then a hot and moist part of her came to rest atop my cock. She slid her hips back and forth a little, biting her lip as our eyes met again. One of her hands clasped the blanket tightly to her as the other stole down lower, and I felt her take hold of my rod. She came up higher, and we both gasped as the head of my cock probed her entrance. With a fluid, easy motion, she let herself down slightly, inch by inch, and my cock entered her. Her mouth opened wide and her eyes closed slowly as she let out a long sigh.

When I was completely inside her, she began to bounce slightly, not wasting any time. She was flexible and strong, which made altogether very little work for me; I just laid back and let my hands do a little exploring under the blanket, stroking and caressing her hidden body. I savored her pussy, tighter than ever now that my cock had grown even more since I’d last seen her; it wrapped silky wetness around my pole, threatening to engulf all other sensation. Nina bounced in almost absolute silence, biting her lip again as she did it. I let one of the hands I had exploring her find her pussy, and I let a thumb come to rest on her clit. Her motions became a little more frantic, and she emitted the tiniest sounds of pleasure as I toyed with her button.

My own stiff rod had attempted twice to explode already, but I’d held back, wanting her to come. My manipulation of her clit soon paid off – I felt the quivering of her body as she slowed down suddenly, tensing up and drawing in a series of sharp breaths as the muscles in her pussy convulsed around my length. She was visibly trying to hold back making any sound, something none of us were used to doing. I felt the perspiration on her skin as she came, forming a tiny sheen – though she still kept the blanket clutched tight against her. My eyes met hers again, and it was her vulnerable, loving expression as she slowly came down from her orgasm that set me off. I felt my balls churning, and the pulses of orgasm erupting from inside and thundering up the length of my rod.

I felt the first rope of sticky come fire up inside her pussy, then a second as her bouncing finally stopped. Her hand went to her belly as I pumped more come inside her. I loosened the death-grip I hadn’t realized I had on her waist, and she waited there for a time – allowing her body to accept all of my come before my cock became too sensitive, and before I could do it myself, she lifted herself up and let my pole slide out of her. Nina bent down forward, her thigh coming to rest on my spent cock, and she laid herself out again. She tossed the sides of the blanket around, and in a few moments I was covered with the big thing again, along with her. She slid off to one side, and my arm automatically came out, holding her as she nestled herself to my side. We were both tired, from the long day on the trail more than from the sex. I felt her breathing change quickly – she always did fall asleep very fast – and soon I, too, dozed off in the night.

When I awoke, Nina wasn’t in the tent anymore; I was alone, and glancing over at my pack, I could see she had already laid out a change of clothes from my pack for me. She didn’t want to waste any time getting started today, then. I cracked my neck, did what few morning stretches I could do in the cramped tent, and got dressed. Outside, Nina was resting on her haunches, looking out over the horizon from the mountaintop; it was an incredible sight, too. Sunset had only just past, and the lowlands were still misty with fog. There were the sounds of a million birdsongs in all directions, barely audible from this high up. There were hardly any signs of civilization as far as we were from anywhere right then. Nina was nibbling on an energy bar, and I saw she had laid out two more for me next to the entrance of the tent, along with fresh water. I got out, stretching, and hungrily devoured one of the bars. Nina’s eyes kept darting toward the other, smaller tent about ten feet away from ours.

Melody got out a few minutes later, yawning and stretching. She wore only a blue nightshirt and black panties, and glanced over at us both as we stared at her indecency. She shrugged. “Morning.”

“Um, hi.” I smiled. Underneath her hiking clothes, it had been hard to gauge just how good a figure she had, but I saw that this woman obviously went out of her way to stay in good shape. Her athletic legs were as sun-brown as the rest of her, and her tits firmly poked out of her nightshirt in a pleasant way. The black panties she had on hugged her ass tight, and she hadn’t tied up her hair yet – it hung loose, framing her head and giving her a striking and much more feminine appearance. I cleared my throat. “Sleep well?”

“Certainly did! But I bet you two slept better.” She winked. So much for our ‘silent’ lovemaking. She stretched. “Don’t mind me, I figure I’ve seen you two naked so there’s no harm done if I take my time getting dressed. I’ll be off taking a morning loo, then once we get back we can start heading down the eastern face. I’ll eat as we go.” She wandered off toward a copse of trees a few hundred feet away.

I came alongside Nina, who had been silent during the whole interaction. I fell down into an Indian-style position, munching down the last of my second energy bar as I ran one hand along her back, now covered with a thick khaki canvas shirt. She let herself tip toward me a little, leaning into my weight, and I held her for a time as she finished eating. Who knew what she was thinking about. Strategy, probably. She worried herself sick in those years. The wind picked up for a while, gusting past us both. I felt it change direction.

After a minute or so, I felt an almost imperceptible shift in Nina. She glanced over toward the copse of trees. I felt her deliberately drawing in a deep breath through her nose. It seemed strange, but Nina did stranger things often; I still didn’t quite understand these creatures I’d changed my girls into, hominus females; hell, they didn’t much understand themselves. We’d all been pretty much playing it by ear for almost a decade. She finished her bar, stowing the wrapper along with mine, and got up. Glancing over toward the tent, she motioned me to assist her. I nodded, and we got up, breaking the thing down again.

We were just about finished breaking it down, and I was packing the tent up as Melody returned, looking refreshed. She grabbed her clothes, pulling them on – the same as yesterday – and in less than a minute, had collapsed her easy-fold tent into a flat mass which she stowed in a bag. We donned our packs and set out again, in further silence – given the scenery, it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, though perhaps knowing Nina’s thoughts on Melody made it somewhat so. We kept up a good pace, Melody keeping up the whole time. As we reached the treeline and entered the high forest, we crossed a few streams. It was around then that I began to notice what Nina had said – Melody wasted no movement. She was maybe some kind of practiced acrobat or ballerina or something, I figured. She danced along the stones of one brook we crossed, lightly tapping each one and crossing the whole thing without getting a drop on her – while Nina splashed her feet in the stream twice. I knew I was more than capable of jumping it, but that would have been a bit too superhuman to go advertising to a stranger, so stumbled across the rocks myself.

It was warming up rapidly as we reached the lower altitude, and we crossed into the thicker, almost jungle-like forest of the lowlands. We saw various creatures – snakes, parrots, rodents, all kinds of birds – mostly hiding from us, but occasionally brave enough to approach. It was close to noon when we reached a wide clearing, in the middle of which was a haphazard rock formation sticking about twenty feet up into the air.

“This looks like a good spot for a lunch break.” Nina said it with a kind of jovial energy, which was a bit jarring with what I knew her mood had to be. Maybe she’d finally gotten over it, I figured. Melody agreed, and the three of us sat town on a pair of opposite old logs, Melody across from us two. Nina fished through my pack and got out a few boxes of food – some mix, jerky, some flavor packets for water, and some other things. I felt her going through it a bit longer than that, and wondered what she was looking for – then I felt her pulling out my Bowie knife and its sheath with the associated survival gear. Melody glanced at it, but didn’t otherwise react; she got out some granola bars, and began to munch on one of them. Nina sat down next to me again, and handed one of the bars to me, then put the knife down next to her as she looked up at Melody.

“Aren’t you going to set out some for your friends?”

“What?” Melody looked perplexed. For that matter, so did I.

“I mean the short one who’s been trailing us since we started. Little thing she is, you can’t hear her except when she’s moving over the leaves.” Nina grasped the knife, eyeing Melody as our new companion’s expression darkened. I felt my stomach sink. Nina was right; Melody was hiding something. Nina took a bite of jerky. “I wasn’t sure until the wind changed direction. Even then, you two use the same shampoo. But now I know.”

“I don’t think I know what you’re talking about…” Melody sounded uncertain even as she said it. Her hand was also going to the machete on her waist. I readied myself to hold them both back.

“If it was just the two of you, maybe we could have talked it out.” Nina sounded increasingly angry, though still completely in control of herself. “But now you had to go and bring a couple platoons of your buddies to the party.”

Melody went still, her face paling. “What?”

“They’re meeting up with her east-southeast, and there’s another little crew from the north. I figured—“

“Hannah!” Melody looked frantic. She stood up and looked off to the southeast – and I suddenly heard a distant, high-pitched scream. Nina, looking up perplexed at Melody, seemed taken aback by her reaction, and didn’t move as Melody suddenly took off running to the southeast. The brunette went down into a crouching run, staying behind trees but moving rapidly toward some point in the distance.

“Nina, you better explain.” I folded my arms.

“Ben—“ Nina wasn’t even quite turned to me yet when I heard a booming sound in the distance, and a sort of whooshing. Nina, startled, tossed the knife away and leapt toward me, grabbing my waist. She’d launched herself with enough force to knock me over. I thudded to the ground with her, and was about to ask her what was going on when I saw a glint in the sky.

Nina’s quick thinking saved my life. Two massive explosions went off ten to fifteen yards away from us, one to the south and one to the west. The shells detonated on impact, sending waves of shrapnel, dirt, and exploded wood flying in all directions. The tree I had been standing next to was bisected by a nasty piece of metal, no bigger than a dinner knife – but, as I saw later, burying itself several inches into the trunk, right about at head level. Even a hominus can’t survive getting their skull blown open. Of course, at the time, the only thing I felt was blistering heat, my skin being coated with dirt and debris, and the incredibly loud ringing that now filled the world. I was probably screaming or something at the time, but I could hardly tell. Nina was on my chest, and I felt her breathing. All I could think to do was try to shake her awake. There was no response. I attempted to get up, but was assaulted by pain.

I forced myself, lifting my body up, trying to perceive something, anything to give me my bearings. Fire and smoke were everywhere, parts of the trees were still collapsing, and I had to wipe my eyes clean of the debris before I could see any more. I wrapped one arm around Nina, feeling her limp and unconscious body. I still hadn’t quite understood what was going on; Nina seemed to be alive, and I couldn’t see any injuries. Why had the world blown up?

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts enough to realize the gravity of the situation. I choked out a mouthful of ash and looked around frantically. A few feet away, I saw the knife; I grabbed it, and stood, ignoring the pain in my body as I lifted Nina over my shoulder. She wouldn’t be able to help me this time; now, it was my turn to save her. She’d already bailed my dumb ass out once today, and I owed her even before that. I dragged myself out of the fiery area, looking everywhere as I went – trying to see where these people Nina had said were coming were. About fifty feet away, I found a particularly thick knot of trees, and set her down next to one. I grasped the knife, and looked around the side of the trunk – to see a group of five men in uniforms carrying assault rifles, slowly approaching the spot where the shells had hit. They were advancing in a wide formation, and covering each other.

They didn’t look to be the kind of First-World hitmen that we’d gotten used to in Europe and the States. These were locals, FARC or whatever others hung around the area, I was guessing – but something in their sharp formation, quick movements, and the way they held their guns told me they were every bit as dangerous. They weren’t talking, instead using hand signals. The five of them surrounded the blast site, gave it a once-over, and there were more hand signals. One of them was looking at the ground, in the area where I had been. His gun began to follow a line, moving in my direction. He brought up his sights onto my location just as I ducked behind the tree again. The fucker had noticed my footprints. I thought frantically. I heard their crunching footsteps on the dead leaves on the forest floor, approaching in a wide formation intended to surround me. I wasn’t going to be able to take them all out in one shot; if I went for one, the others would just shoot me. If I didn’t go down in one shot, they’d just unload the whole clip.

To make things worse, I heard the rhythmic, fast thumping noise in the air right about then. A helicopter. It was around to the west now, but rapidly circling around. I couldn’t see it yet. I tightened my grip on the knife. Maybe this was it. I let one hand stroke Nina’s cheek once, brushing her hair back from her soot-blackened face. She looked quite peaceful now, snoozing away our impending demise. I readied to throw the knife at the first enemy face I saw. Maybe a few would die before I would, if I was lucky.

The first one to jump out was too far to the left; I’d been looking at the right, for some reason. I knew even before I’d turned to him that I wouldn’t make it in time; he had opportunity enough now to put several shots in me. My thoughts turned to Emily and Bethany. Would they ever know?

Suddenly, the trooper in front of me slumped over, and I noticed the hole in his forehead, spurting blood. An instant later, I heard a loud, but distant, gunshot from the southeast. Shouts and calls erupted around me, and I heard the other four firing away, all in the direction I’d heard the shot come from. I shook my head, looking down at the body of the man who’d been about to end the future of all of us. His head was an unrecognizable mess of blood now, and his rifle was a few feet away from his body. All the voices in my head trying to drag me off in multiple directions and courses of action suddenly united. I felt motion before I even thought to do it. The rifle was in my hands, the knife in my teeth, as I bounded out from behind the log, placing each shooter around me based on where I heard their gunfire coming from.

The closest one I simply dumped five or six rounds in. He shuddered and went still. I didn’t stop moving, firing as I went; he had been only ten feet away or so, not really necessitating any kind of aim. I immediately turned to the next, who was just noticing me – too late for him too. I put another two bursts of fire into him. I heard shouting from the two remaining men, and dashed behind another large tree trunk. I heard, and felt, gunshots hitting it behind me, chipping off pieces of bark on either side. I held the gun out to one side, firing wildly until I felt a click. Out of ammo. I heard the leaf-crunching sound of both men going to ground to get cover, and dashed out. I summoned my full strength, tossing the rifle away and grabbing the knife out of my mouth. I charged at the closer of the two, who was coming up from behind a log and leveling a rifle at me.

Emily and I, on an abandoned school track in the Ukraine, had once set out to clock my real speed when I cut loose. We’d found that I could do about forty miles an hour sustained, and almost seventy in short bursts. The girls had been stronger and faster than me in the early years, but that was certainly no longer the case. That test had been two years ago, and I knew I was faster now but I hadn’t measured it since then. I didn’t quite have enough of a start to reach my full speed, but it was close enough. I turned just before I got to the log he was behind, letting my feet slide wide of it, while my speeding fist caught him just under the nose. I felt his skull and jaw shatter and judder inside his helmet, and his body was flung back a few feet. With a roar, I turned to his companion, who was still facing the wrong direction. I hadn’t been much more than a blur of speed, probably not what he was expecting. People back then tended to assume that bigger meant slower.

The knife streaked out and landed in his neck. It made a grimly impressive fountain of bright red blood as he gurgled a few times, going limp. I looked around, surveying the bodies. I suddenly registered the sound again. The helicopter was over the clearing now. I turned and saw it. It was a big, heavy, boxy and lumpy-looking thing, with a sense of age to it – but it had a kind of utilitarian deadliness too. Some voice in my head repeated from memory one of the many things that Nina had had me memorize – it was a Mil Mi-24, better known as the Hind. The thing was an old Soviet gunship and troop transport, a relic of the Cold War – but despite its age, I knew the thing was more than enough to kill me. Its two stubby wings were loaded with canister-like missile pods, and to the left of its two-seater cockpit was mounted a massive machinegun. The thing rotated around, coming down low and surveying the blast site, and I dove behind a log.

I heard an odd sound, a popping, crackling noise. I placed it – the inside of one of the helmets. With a quick motion, I grasped the closest one and held it near my head. They were speaking rapidly in Spanish – too rapidly for me. I was still learning it and couldn’t make enough sense of it. Judging by the increasing urgency of whatever the person talking was demanding, probably he was asking his buddies on the ground what was going on.

I knew I wasn’t going to get another chance. He was barely thirty feet off the ground. If he stayed high up, he could either pelt me with rockets and gunfire, or just turn and leave, then radio in for his buddies to surround all the exit points of the forest. I grabbed the nearest body, fishing through it quickly. I found them on his shoulder sling – three grenades, older US pineapple-style makes, but looking serviceable. They were meant for anti-personnel use. I knew the Hind was one of the most heavily armored things that could fly, and the grenades weren’t going to puncture its steel plating. Neither would the soldiers’ rifles. None of them happened to be carrying an anti-aircraft rocket.

Time to set a new personal record again. I rapidly finalized the plan in my head. I came up into a crouching runner’s starting position, and took off, weaving through the trees and building up to as fast as I could go. The chopper spotted me, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see it rotating around to face me. I had to do this before he could bring his guns to bear, or I was dead. I squeezed even more energy out of myself, forcing my body to comply as I whooshed through the forest at blinding speed. Right where I’d planned, I turned hard to the left, entering the clearing and heading straight for him. With one finger I pulled loose the pins on all three grenades. Between me and him was the big rock formation; it didn’t block his line of fire, though, he was too high up. He had barely twenty or thirty degrees of turning to go.

With a roar, I leapt upward toward the lowest of the rocks. It was still about ten feet up. I felt one boot land solidly on it, and I let my inertia bend my knee low before launching myself up to the second, then the third, trying to keep as much forward speed as I could. The rocks blocked my view for a few brief moments, until I reached the top. Without hesitation, I launched myself toward the gunship, figuring I’d fine-tune the plan in midair. My eyes focused, and the enormous helicopter was directly in front of me, getting close with a terrifying speed as I flew toward it. It suddenly hit me what an incredibly bad idea this was. Had I been a half-second later, one tap to the firing pin and I’d have been Swiss cheese.

I almost missed. My hand flattened against the side of the cockpit, and it was only with a last-second tightening of my grip that I found purchase on one of the seams. With a roar I’m sure neither of the poor fools inside heard – they both wore heavy helmets with the visors pulled down, and were turned to face me, their mouths open wide – I smashed my fist through the glass, released the grenades, and let go. I fell the thirty feet to the ground, rolled, and immediately took off running.

The explosion went off seconds later, at first a small popping sound, then a whining as the chopper went out of control into a wild spin. I reached the treeline and dove behind a particularly thick trunk as it hit the ground. There was an awful grinding, screeching noise as its rotors smashed into the stone formation, wrenching high-speed engine components apart. I waited a few more seconds. Nothing seemed to happen; its weight shifted and settled as the rotors slowed to a stop.

It blew up right then, of course. I guess it took a while for the fire to reach its fuel, or maybe one of the rockets misfired or something. I shielded my eyes and face as it went up, blackening a significant chunk of the clearing. Pieces of it rained down for several seconds afterward, and a few smaller ones clanked to the earth near me. The wave of heat hit me then too, like standing in front of an oven. Black, churning smoke billowed out of the wreck as secondary explosions went off inside. I turned and ran toward where I’d left Nina.

She was there, and safe; I let out a sigh of relief. She was starting to come around. I considered just shouldering her again, but I decided to take the few minutes to wake her up; it would mean getting out of here faster in the end, probably.

“Ben….” She croaked. Her voice sounded harsh and raspy. “You… okay?”

“What the hell, Nina, worry about yourself for once.” I sighed, and slid one arm underneath her back and one below her knees. I gently lifted her. I felt one of her hands weakly stroke my chest, and she smiled up at me through disheveled, sooty blonde hair. Suddenly she shifted, looking away, off to my left, as she saw something. I turned.

A small woman was about ten yards away, leveling a long rifle at me. Next to her, Melody was resting against a tree trunk, nursing a dislocated shoulder. The other woman, who was I guess the person Nina had spotted earlier, was Melody’s age – mid thirties, I would have guessed – and, had she not been leveling a gun at me with the cold eyes of someone ready to kill, she would have been fairly cute. Her hair was nearly white, and came down around her head in a short-bob. She was very small, as Nina had said – she was shorter than any of my other girls, even Bethany who had gotten shorter during her transformation. She was scrawny too; without seeing her face, or the way she moved, one might think she was a kid. She had the same grace Melody did, the practiced, effortless motion of someone who had trained endlessly. The combination of her obvious deadliness and the vulnerability of one so small gave her an odd mystique that interested me.

“I need you to answer me right now.” The woman’s voice was high, breathy, and monotone, and had a similar British accent to Melody’s. I recalled Melody saying a name as she rushed off – Hannah. “What are you?”

Nina struggled and tried to get up. I put a hand on her, stopping her and shaking my head. I turned back toward Hannah. “That was you, when I was surrounded, wasn’t it? You took that first shot and gave me an opening.”

“We still have questions for you. I couldn’t afford for you to die yet.” Hannah tightened her grip on the rifle. “You don’t get a third chance to answer. What are you?”

I guessed she must have been staring right at me as I ran at seventy miles an hour and punched through the cockpit of a helicopter in flight. Not much use trying to pretend it was because I ate my Wheaties. Nina looked up at me, then at her. I took a breath, and looked Hannah in the eyes. “Short version… the next kind of human.”

She kept the gun leveled at me for a while, then finally lowered it. She looked over at Melody, who nodded toward her. She looked back at us. “I guess that’ll do for now, but I want the whole answer later. In the meantime… we have something of yours.” Hannah reached into a small pack on her waist, and extracted a metallic vial. Inside, I could see a blackish-red substance. “Recognize this?”

I wracked my brain, then shook my head. “Not really, sorry.”

She tossed it toward me, and it landed at my feet, rolling another foot or so before it bumped against my shoe. “That’s apparently the only existing sample of your blood from you first became… you. Or something. To be honest, we were hoping you would fill us in on the details.”

I froze. I was guessing she meant back when I first had 15226’s male version of the retrovirus inside me, in the hospital. I bent down, shifting Nina’s weight onto one thigh as I lifted the small container. The blood inside was goopy and black, probably infused with some kind of preserving agent by now – almost ten years later. Bethany had mentioned, all those years ago, that they’d taken my blood as I was there in the hospital – they were desperately trying to diagnose my illness. I guessed that one sample that she’d told me she forwarded to the CDC for analysis before she knew the truth had ended up going much further than she thought.

“Why do you have this?” I asked. I noticed Nina was surprisingly silent – she wasn’t unconscious, just docile for once.

“We up and stole it.” Hannah gave a predatory smile, which softened quickly. “We do that sometimes. Few months back, a European pharma consortium hired us to grab it and hand it over to them.” She sat back slightly, letting the oversized rifle lean against her shoulder – it was nearly as long as she was tall. “But as we were casing the site where they kept it, we learned more and more of what they were trying to do…”

“We couldn’t let it continue.” Melody said it flatly, cutting Hannah off. “Hannah and Melody, by the way, the best acquisitions team money can buy… we usually work under the name of the Shining Stones Jewelry Company. Most pleased, and we do apologize about the ruse of the past two days. We aren’t normally this violent, but these are extenuating circumstances.”

“Umm…” I glanced down at Nina. She looked up at me and blinked. I could see she was still out of it – but even then, she seemed to be at a loss for once. It was time for a judgment call. I went with my gut. “No harm done, I guess. To us, I mean. But I think we’d like the truth from now on. What were they trying to do?”

“We don’t know the specifics. All we found was where they kept the failed results of their experiments.” Melody looked grim. “We didn’t have time to count how many women’s bodies were in there, but…”

There was an uncomfortable silence. I felt my stomach twist. It wasn’t much to go on, but 15226 had specifically warned me that going public with my true nature would result in a horrible catastrophe. If some big company or agency had had hold of my DNA, or worse, the retrovirus that turned me into what I am… I had no idea what that would make possible. Hannah nodded toward my foot. “We’re giving that back to you. It’s a token of our good faith. We seem to have made a mutual enemy, and we were hoping you wouldn’t mind joining sides for a time, at least until we both think we’re clear of them.”

“This explains a lot, Ben…” Nina croaked it out lowly as she looked at the vial in my hand. I let her take it, cradling the thing against her chest. “We need to get out of here, though. Let’s… tell them as we go.” Nina looked up at me. “Everything.”

I knew the glimmer in her eye. We’d both thought of it already. They were smart, good-looking women, who clearly had a lot of useful skills to people in our situation – and most of all, they wouldn’t have been there, asking this of us if they didn’t have some kind of fundamental moral character. I nodded toward her as I let Hannah lead the way, to where she thought the troops had stashed a vehicle a mile or two away. We both stole glances at her camouflage-clad ass as it swayed, her crouching little walk between the trees now looking both graceful and sexy. Melody wasn’t far behind her, staying closer to us.

The two had a practiced synergy that spoke to an unbreakable bond of friendship and trust. I idly wondered what kind of mischief it would be to introduce bisexuality in both of them in the near future. I grinned down at Nina; she smiled back, probably thinking the same thing. It was time to start recruiting again.