Quaranteam
Chapter 6
The next few days around the house were mostly spent with everyone getting to know one another. Lauren, in addition to being a personal trainer, turned out to be an excellent cook. A few days after she arrived, it was decided that a grocery run was needed, but Andy felt strongly that he wanted to go as well. It wasn’t advised, but it wasn’t strictly forbidden any more either. The news had been quite clear about what he needed to do if he wanted to go out—not only was he required to wear a P95 mask, he also had to wear goggles protecting his eyes and latex gloves covering his hands. It felt burdensome, but he direly needed to get out of the house for a least a short period of time, so he, Aisling and Lauren resolved to make the grocery store run.
“I feel like Mad Max in this get up,” Andy grumbled as he got out of the car in the Safeway parking lot. “Except for the fact that I’m unarmed.”
“They won’t let us in the shop if you’re sporting an axe, love,” Aisling said, comforting him. The girls were dressed up in their gear as well, although both of the girls were wearing his t-shirts. They’d taken to just going through his shirts each morning and tossing one on, not that he minded. Andy owned a lot of t-shirts. It was practically a uniform. “And we’re going through supplies much faster these days with more mouths to feed.”
“An’ you need to let me get a bunch more healthy things in addition to your junk food,” Lauren said. “And with five people instead of two, we’re going through food a lot quicker these days. So you’d better get used to one of us going out for supplies every few days.”
“Also, you’re the one who wanted to come along, Andy,” Aisling said. “You could’ve just stayed home and let us do all the work.”
“I had to get out of the house before I went stir crazy. You know I haven’t been more a hundred feet out of the condo since April. We were told we were in a very high risk area, so we completely quarantined and just had food delivered, but it was starting to rack up quite the bill that way.”
The trio headed into Safeway, keeping a good distance from everyone else. At the beginning of the year, if Andy had come into this particular Safeway on a Saturday, it would’ve been a madhouse. Instead, it felt like a ghost town. Some of the aisles were still desperately barren, with supplies like toilet paper down to only a few options, if that. Thankfully, Eric had been smart enough to set up a recurring order from their local CostCo to get toilet paper delivered when they had it in stock. Andy had been tempted to do a CostCo run as well, but as his first real outting in months, he wanted to stick to something where he felt like he at least had a little control. Their local Safeway was located up in the hills a little bit, so it didn’t always get as much traffic as grocery stores closer to the freeways.
Andy started to move over to grab a shopping cart, only to get the mom armbar move from Lauren, who pushed him back a good step. “Oh no, Andy,” she laughed. “We’ll push the cart. You just pick things up and put them into the cart with your gloves.”
“I don’t understand what the difference is,” Andy sighed. “But okay, okay, I do remember them saying that men weren’t supposed to touch shared objects in public spaces, so I’ll keep my hands off.”
“It’s like you haven’t been trained properly,” Aisling giggled.
“You watch it, Ash, or I’ll bend you over my knee,” he teased back.
“She’d only enjoy it, Andy,” Lauren said, rolling her bright blue eyes as they headed into the vegetable section. Andy mostly let the girls pick up things and put them into the cart, but every so often he would insist on something and would pick it up himself, like garlic. Both Lauren and Aisling questioned the amount of garlic he bagged up and dropped into the cart, but he was insistent that they would use it all before they were back to the grocery store again.
They’d gotten close to a full cart’s worth of groceries and were standing in the frozen food section, mostly looking for ice cream truth be told, when a familiar voice called to him from a little bit away. “Andy, that you under all that mess?”
Sure enough, it was his friend Phil, standing next to a curvy Hispanic woman. Andy might not have been able to recognize Phil at first glance with the mask and the goggles, but the jacket was a one-of-a-kind letterman jacket from a fighting game tournament Phil had won almost a decade ago. “How did you recognize me, Phil?”
“I was taking a wild guess, but I don’t know anyone else here in the States who would be wearing a Nautilus Pompilus t-shirt. Russian alternative rock band t-shirts aren’t exactly a dime a dozen.”
Andy paused for a second, and then realized, he wasn’t wearing his Nautilus Pompilus t-shirt, but Aisling was. He nodded with a slight smile. “Fair enough. We can’t exactly talk here, but let’s meet up at the base of Mount Diablo, in the park. We can stand far apart enough to talk and still be safe. We’ve got to drop groceries off, so let’s say we meet up in a couple of hours?”
Phil looked down at his watch. “Three o’clock? Sure, we’ll see you there.”
They didn’t say anything else to each other, just finished up shopping, paying and taking their groceries home. On the way home, Andy explained to Aisling and Lauren that Phil was one of his oldest friends, and that he was one of the people Andy had talked to over voice chat during the days since the quarantine had started, although Phil had been radio silent for a few weeks now.
On the way to the park, Aisling and Lauren were peppering him with questions about Phil. They’d talked to a few of Andy’s friends on video chat, but they’d only heard stories about Phil. Of course, they’d heard quite a lot of those stories.
They pulled into the parking lot at the park and Andy could see Phil’s car on the other side. Sitting on the hood was Phil with the woman he’d seen him with in the Safeway. Andy hopped out of his car, along with Aisling and Lauren. They were out in the open and so far from each other that they felt safe not wearing masks and goggles. Andy walked forward, not towards Phil, but towards the wooden fencing. “So Phil, where the hell ya been?” Andy laughed.
Phil was a slender enough Filipino but he looked thinner than Andy remembered. He was clean shaven, and while Andy expected him to have a shaggy head of hair, it looked trimmed and coiffed. Phil had an easy going way about him, a casual grace that Andy had always envied. He smiled up at Andy, shrugging a little bit. “So, Andy, this is Audrey, she’s my partner.”
To the right of Phil stood the woman he’d seen her with earlier in the day, but now he could get a better look at her. She was curvy, almost plump, but had a rosy demeanor to her. She was wearing a Street Fighter t-shirt that clearly couldn’t be Phil’s. She was a bit younger than Phil was, but not unbearably so. “Hi Andy!” she said, giving him a big wave. “Sorry I’ve kept him off the group Discord, but I didn’t want to share him until I felt like we were established.”
“Oh, love,” Aisling giggled. “We’re all doing that.”
“Phil, this is Aisling, Ash for short, and this is Lauren,” Andy said, rubbing the back of his own neck sheepishly. “Frankly, I’m a little embarrassed they’re stuck with me, but they both seem happy enough, so maybe I’m doing okay by them.”
Lauren nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “Andy’s the most humble feller I’ve met. I think me an’ Ash are just a couple’a lucky gals.”
After a minute or so of silence, Andy spoke again. “So Phil... what do you know?”
It was a question designed to cut right through the bullshit. Andy and Phil had been good friends long enough that they’d developed a sort of shorthand, particular words and phrases that they could use whenever and wherever and people wouldn’t know exactly what was being said. There was a good reason for it.
Phil clicked his tongue. “Okay, here’s what I know.” Phil had worked for a number of tech companies over the years he’d known him, but for the last four years, he’d worked for Boeing up in Pleasanton. Everything he worked on was classified, but he was known to share non specific things from time to time, especially if it affected their gang of friends. “What I can tell you without either of us getting our kiesters thrown in the hooscow, anyway...”
“That sounds best.”
“It’s bad, Andy,” Phil sighed. “It’s very bad. They’re downplaying the body count for the media, but truth be told we’re looking at over a million so far, probably a lot more. And it’s only going to get worse. The internal projections are that we’re looking at five million dead Americans before all of this is done.”
“Jesus,” Andy muttered. “One million people dead? Seriously? How are they keeping all this quiet?”
“Lots and lots of work,” Phil replied. “It’s not as bad outside of the US, but that’s because other countries started taking it serious long before we did.”
“Are the rules true?”
“I wouldn’t be talking to you like this if I didn’t think it was safe, Andy. But it’s going to get worse. A whole lot worse. People here still aren’t taking it seriously. You see the news the other day?”
“People crowded into churches, shoulder to shoulder, demanding their faith will keep them safe. Idiots in city hall meetings, claiming the right to not wear a mask if they don’t want to.”
Phil nodded. “It’s madness. Half of those people will be dead before year’s end, and I don’t think we’re going to have a lid on this until next year. We’re living through Spanish Flu Part 2: Electric Bugaloo.”
“Five million dead? That’s like one percent of the country. How the hell are they going to keep it all quiet?”
“As much smoke as possible,” Phil grumbled. “Keep the cover going until it’s untenable. People are going to notice eventually, but the lockdowns are going to keep things contained for a while. But guys like you and me, we need to stay as safe as possible. Because we’re high risk.”
Aisling scowled at him. “How so? I thought the elderly and immuno compromised were the most at risk.”
“They are,” Phil said, nodding again, “but beyond that, it’s men between the ages of thirty and forty-five. That’s where the majority of casualties have been so far. Thankfully, you and me, we’re buffered pretty well.”
“What do you mean, buffered?”
Phil smirked, giving a tiny shrug. “Let’s just say we’ve been doing some vaccine testing in rather unusual and unorthodox ways. Did your libido used to be this high all the time, Ash?”
She blanched for a moment. “I thought it was just the cabin fever, but now you mention it, I’ve had a slight buzzing of sexual need since they gave me those shots. What the hell did they do to me?”
He raised a hand to calm her down. “Relax, it’ll even out eventually. But it’s designed so that you’re protecting your partner, swapping fluids, giving him regular dosages of the natural antibodies you’re building up inside.”
“Why not just give men the shots directly?” Lauren asked.
“Because when we’ve tried it, it’s been fatal.” Phil took out a vape pen and inhaled a drag off of it before blowing the vapor back out. He’d been a smoker when they’d first met, but Andy had convinced him to quit. The legalization of pot in California had helped some, naturally. “But if a woman with the vaccine is having regular sexual activity with a man, he’s getting a non-toxic dose, and both parties have about 70% resistance to the virus. I wouldn’t have put Andy down as polyamorous, but it’s going to strengthen your armor even more, my man.”
Andy smirked, looking at his feet. “I actually put no preference, so it looks like I’m going to get a full slate.”
“Nah, you’ll probably stay where you are. Unless you got rated something ridiculous.”
“Me and Eric got rated level 5s.”
Phil nearly dropped his vape pen, his eyebrows raising. “Are you shitting me?”
Andy laughed and shrugged a little.
“How the fuck did that happen?”
“The guy coming to test us was a fan of the books, so I gave him an ARC of the new one that’s been delayed a few months. As a way of saying thank you, he rated me and Eric as level 5s.”
Phil chuckled quietly, shaking his head. “You son of a bitch. I’m not even rated a level 5 and I work for the goddamn military on goddamn black ops shit.”
“Allegedly,” Andy added, grinning back.
Phil nodded. “Allegedly.” He dragged the word out before he looked up then shook his head. “You’re gonna get two more, huh? Good lord, I’m both jealous and terrified for you all at once. How are you going to keep all those personalities from conflicting?”
“I’m going to do my best to stay the hell out of their way, mostly.”
“That’s not going to work forever, luv,” Aisling said to him. “It’s not like we’re going anywhere, even when this virus recedes.”
“You say that now, but...”
“No, they’re always going to say that. Isn’t that part of the public facing info about the pairing system?” Phil said.
It was Andy’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “No, whatever you’re implying, it isn’t public knowledge. But you’re already in for a penny..”
“Might as well be in for a pound, I guess,” Phil answered, nodding in agreement. “Alright, but keep this just between us, okay?”
“Well, I’ll tell Eric, Eric’s partner, and my other two partners when they show up, but other than that...”
“Yeah, well, that’s what I meant by us, alright? Okay, so here’s the deal. Do you remember the first time they got a bit of you in them?”
“You mean...” Lauren started.
“I think you know what I mean.”
Both Aisling and Lauren blushed and grinned widely. “Most intense thing that’s ever happened to us,” they both said.
“What do you remember right after though, Andy? Just you. They’ll both have been passed out.”
Andy stroked his goatee for a second then snapped his fingers. “They kept mumbling a word over and over, so quiet I could barely make it out... something like... imaging?”
Phil shook his head, taking another drag off his vape pen. “Not imaging, imprinting. You’re bonded now. Mated for life, like walruses.”
“You mean penguins,” Andy corrected. “It’s penguins that mate for life. And what does that mean here, mated for life?”
“You’re intertwined on a chemical, biological and physiological level in a way we can’t even begin to comprehend,” Phil said, exhaling another cloud of mist. “If you go away from one another for more than a couple of days, you’ll start to feel nervous, anxious, fidgety. After that, it’ll be panic attacks, cold sweats. Past that, nervous breakdown. Unless, of course, the other person is dead, in which case that doesn’t seem to happen.” He shrugged a little bit. “We’re kids playing with the building blocks of life here, man. We don’t even know what we don’t know. But you, Lauren and Ash, you’re a unit now. And anyone else you add into that will be as well. I mean, why do you think that questionnaire is so damn long? We don’t want to screw up anybody’s lives trying to help them. Besides, another of the side effects is that being in each others’ company will produce natural dopamine to keep things relatively smoothed out, helps you get past the small stuff, and let’s face it, it’s all small stuff at this point.”
“And this is happening all over the country?”
“Shit, no,” Phil sighed. “We’ve barely gotten this off the ground in the Bay Area, and all the tech for this shit is here. There are governors all across the country absolutely in arms against this plan, saying they’ll fight it tooth and nail, keep people from getting the vaccine until it doesn’t have any of these crazy side effects.”
“I assume you’re still working on that.”
“Of course we’re still working on that,” Phil said, rolling his eyes. “I’m just baffled by how many goddamn Republicans insist a semi-viable solution isn’t a solution at all. Even if we were just hitting high risk areas, we could manufacture enough of this current formula to inoculate sixty or seventy million people in this country, all of whom would be 70% resistant to it.”
“They claiming it’s a sin against god or something?”
“Worse. But, I guess, more honest.” Phil had a slightly bitter laugh filling the air. “They’re angry they can’t make a buck off of it. Now, of course, there are factions that are just going ahead and doing it anyway. Front line medical workers, emergency services, and a few branches of the armed forces, and their associated contractors. Of course, the whole Bay Area is taking part in it as well, so I guess I would’ve gotten treated either way.”
“So we’re resistant but not immune?”
“Fuck, man,” Phil groaned, “I’m not promising you won’t get the virus at all, but even if you do, it won’t be life threatening. That said, you still shouldn’t go out of your way to expose yourself to this shit. It’s a mean as fuck virus under the best of conditions, and this ain’t those.”
“You think they’re going to start testing this vaccine in wider areas, Phil?” Aisling asked him.
He shook his head. “I wish to god they would, but the Moron In Chief is still calling it Kung Flu and the Chinese Virus, like he can spin blame onto other countries instead of admitted what a fucked up job he and his have done with this.”
Andy felt his phone in his pocket vibrate at the same time as his Apple Watch buzzed at him. Phil was fishing out his phone as well, clearly having felt the buzz.
There on his wrist, Andy read a news blast from the Associated Press. “President contracts Covid-19, collapses in Oval Office. 25th Amendment being invoked.”
“Well, shit, looks like you report to somebody new now, Phil.”
Half an hour later, the trio had returned to the condo, where Eric and Lily had the television tuned to CNN. “Can you believe this shit?” Eric said. “The President dropped into a coma this morning, apparently, and already they’re moving Milquetoast into his job.”
“Anything’s better than the orange goomba, don’t you think?” Andy said as he moved to sit down on the couch on the other side of Eric and Lily. “I mean, this guy’s—”
On the television screen, the former Vice President was being sworn in, but as soon as he placed his hand on the bible being held by the Chief Justice, he collapsed onto the floor as the news anchors covering the story intently.
“Out before he even got in, it looks like,” Eric laughed.
“That puts a woman in charge, thank god,” Lily said.
“Assuming they hold to the rules of law at this point,” Aisling said. “And at this point, that’s anyone’s game.”
The next few hours, the news was a flurry of chaos, as people argued what was legal and what wasn’t. When they went to bed, no decision had been reached. In the wee hours of morning, Andy’s phone beeped with an AP news blast—the Speaker of the House was, in fact, now the first woman to be acting as President of the United States.
The world turned upside down.
It was that same day there came another knock on the door. Andy remembered the warning Lily had given him, so he glanced from his desk and nodded to Aisling. “I think you and Lily had better go answer that, don’t you?”
“Are you scared of Lily, luv?”
“Scared, no,” Andy chuckled. “But I respect her opinion. And frankly, I don’t know how to tell those government folks no, so if someone’s got to do it, it ought to be you and her.”
The knock at the door came a second time, and Aisling moved to her feet, putting her hand on Lily’s shoulder, as she closed her laptop and set it on the couch. “Alright then, let’s see if I need to get my punting boots on,” Lily said, taking a break from her coding.
When Aisling opened the door, on the other side stood Dave, the man who’d set up Andy and Eric at the start. Standing next to him was a woman in a camouflage jumpsuit, a scarf over her mouth, goggles over her eyes, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. She had a military cap atop of her head.
“Hey Eric,” Dave said, giving him a wave. “Brought another girl for Andy.”
“We’ll see about that,” Lily said, taking the tablet from him. She looked down at the form, a strange smile crossing her lips, before she looked up at the woman in uniform. “That really your name?”
The woman squirmed a little, but nodded. “Yes ma’am,” she said. “Is that okay?”
Lily handed the tablet over to Aisling. “I’m not one of Andy’s partners, but Ash here is, so she can sign.”
As Aisling started to sign, the woman in camo moved into the condo. She set her duffel bag down just inside of the door as she started to walk over towards Eric. Lily stepped back, and shook her head. “That’s Eric. He’s mine. Andy’s over there,” she said, pointing into the other room at Andy who was looking on from his desk, “but if you want to go upstairs—”
“Thanks again for the book, Andy!” Dave called out, just before Aisling closed the door on him.
The woman was already walking over towards Andy. Lauren was in the kitchen, working on dinner. She pulled her hat off and tossed it onto the dining room table next to Aisling’s computer, revealing a tight black ponytail. When she pulled the goggles off, Andy could see her brown eyes, and got a sign of her skin, deep golden, looking somewhat Asian but also somewhat distinctly not.
“Andy,” Aisling said, “meet 2nd Lieutenant Niko RedWolf.”
Niko was pulling off the scarf and tossed it onto the table. Andy started to stand up, but Niko shoved him back down suddenly. “Sit,” Niko said to him.
Andy’s head cocked to one side. “Shouldn’t we go upstairs, Niko?”
“No time,” she growled. “Can’t think straight.” She dropped down to her knees in front of him, pushing his legs apart as she moved up and in between them, nuzzling her face against his crotch through the jeans. “Need this now.”
“I really think—”
Niko reached her hands up and pulled her top open quickly, a feverish yank down on the zipper to expose her tits beneath the camo jumpsuit. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and her skin was all that deep tan, with brown nipples that looked as hard as rocks. She looked up at Andy for approval as her hands moved to his waist, popping the button on his jeans before unzipping them quickly. Her tongue was wetting her lips, an almost feral look to her eyes which kept darting between his face and her hands.
“This is new,” Aisling said as she moved to sit down at her seat at the dining room table, a straight eyeline to Niko and Andy.
“We ought to get her to the bedroom,” Andy said to Aisling almost imploringly.
“I don’t think you have a choice, luv.”
Lily walked in just as Niko fished Andy’s cock out, although she barely had any chance to even register it as Niko pushed her mouth down on it suddenly, trying to stuff it all the way into her throat. There must have been a droplet of precum there on the tip, because Niko began to tremble, but refused to lift her head up.
“Niko’s a Japanese name,” Lily said, “but RedWolf is definitely Native American. She’s going to town on you, isn’t she?”
“I feel very awkward with you watching, Lily,” Andy said.
Lily laughed, shaking her head. “Fine fine, I won’t take advantage of this poor girl in the state she’s in. I’ll just go back to my coding.” Lily walked back into the living room as Aisling moved over to get a little closer, a wry grin on her lips.
“She’s fucking voracious, isn’t she?”
Niko pulled her head up, gasping for breath, her eyes looking up at Andy. “Good. Hard now.”
“Niko, shouldn’t we—”
She shook her head, standing up before spinning around, pushing the jump suit down even further, down to her thighs. “No, now. Need now.” The inside of her thighs was damp, glistening with wetness that had clearly seeped down her legs from her snatch, which was soaked.
Andy’s hand moved onto her bare hip, but Niko took his hand and pulled it away, as she backed up and reached between her legs to grab his cock, moving to sit back, settling into his lap as she guided his cock right into her pussy. There was something desperate and sudden about it, as he felt his dick slip inside of her, feeling exactly how soaked she was. Her cunt was hot and molten, the wettest he’d ever felt any woman.
“Good,” Niko moaned, tossing her head back, that short black ponytail flicking him in the face. “Dick good. Want cum. Give cum.”
“But I—”
Niko reached behind her head to curl one strong arm behind Andy’s head, pulling his face forward as she turned her head to kiss him hard, sloppy, her tongue forcing its way into his mouth as she pulled her hips forward and then pushed them back into him once more.
Andy had never fucked anyone this way before, but there was something intense about, as she bounced in his lap. Lauren had turned the heat down from the food and walked over towards them a bit, cocking her head to one side. “Gonna have ta try that one meself some point.”
“You and me both, sister.”
Lauren reached forward and smoothed her hand along Niko’s thigh before pulling her fingertips up, holding her hand out to Aisling. “She’s fucking sodden, Ash.”
“Andy, don’t hold out on the poor girl,” Aisling said.
“I’m not doing it intentionally, Ash,” Andy moaned, “but I don’t want to take advantage of her.”
Niko shook her head frantically. “Not advantage. Need cum. Give cum. Please.” Her voice was breathy, whimpering, as she tried again. “Please. Give bitch cum. Your bitch.” She swallowed a breath, as if trying to put together words into some logical order. “Belong to you now. Need. NEED. Give cum. Claim. Fucking do it, man. I’m fucking begging you already. I need to be your slut so fucking bad it hurts.” A wounded cry limped from her throat. “Please? GIVE.”
It wasn’t an intense orgasm on his part, but Andy felt his body give away as his balls drew up and his cock blasted a shotgun spatter of jism against the back of Niko’s snatch, as her body spasmed, her spine arching, her ass grinding against his stomach, the trembling lasting for longer than anyone he’d ever seen shake before, until it finally ended and she slumped back against him, drool dripping from the corner of her lips as she mumbled that oh so familiar word—“imprinting”—over and over again, her body covered in goosebumps.
“Lauren? Ash? Help me get her upstairs, will you?”