There’s Somthing in the Water
By Rawly Rawls
Chapter 17
The scent of something basic and primeval filled Patrick’s room. It mingled with what Adeline guessed was the smell of sex. Up until that moment, she’d been a good girl. She’d gone to college to find a husband like most modern women. But she hadn’t let any of those handsy university boys get past first base. As she looked at Patrick’s massive gadget plumbing the depths of their mother, she thought maybe she shouldn’t have been so coy with boys. Did all men have such magnificent looking penises? Patrick’s dick was so long, hard, and strong. Adeline’s knees trembled as she watched her brother hump their mom. “Can I …? Can I …?” Adeline squeaked. She didn’t even know what she was asking for. As her nostrils flared, she realized she wanted all of it.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Sally watched her small, skinny brother pulverize their well-proportioned mom with his gift from God. She’d heard them go at it so many times, and imagined what it looked like. Her imagination hadn’t done the union justice.
“What?” Adeline slowly turned her eyes away from the savage show and looked at her prim and proper sister. For the first time in her life she felt something stir between her legs while gazing at another woman. Maybe it was just that she was carried away from watching the indecency taking place on Patrick’s bed. Or maybe, it was something else. Sally was very pretty. With her red hair and freckles, she looked almost exotic compared to the brown hair and olive skin of the rest of the Lannits. Without thinking, Adeline leaned over, her eyelids fluttering. The feeling was similar to her experiences in backseats at drive-ins with boys. But this was her sister. And Adeline didn’t have the foggiest notion why she so needed a kiss.
Did her younger sister want to kiss her? Sally sucked in her breath. She looked at the pretty woman leaning toward her, with what was unmistakably a kiss-me-face. Why not? How was it any different than all the kissing her and Patrick had been doing lately? Sally stepped in close and snaked her arms around Adeline’s shoulders. Their lips met and electric sparks shot between them. Sally felt her sister’s hands on the small of her back. It was pure magic. Their tongues entwined, and soon the muted sounds of their make-out session joined the slapping, grunting sounds of sex that filled the room.
“Mom, look.” Patrick watched his sisters as he stretched out his mother from behind. Susy had her face buried in Patrick’s pillow. He saw her curly brown hair wiggle as she shook her head. Even after all that happened, Patrick felt awkward taking complete control of Susy. But he really wanted her to see what was happening. “Look at them.” He reached for her hair and took a fistful from behind. He lifted her head, tightened his grip, and turned her face toward the young women who were now feeling up each other’s boobs from outside their dresses and rubbing up against each other.
“Oh … no … oh … no …” Susy chanted through clenched teeth. She had been a fool to think the genie could go back in the bottle after what had happened at church. She had given her body to her son to take him away from an older woman. Then, she’d thrown herself into lust to spare her daughter. But all she’d accomplished was her own depravity. She knew Patrick would take whatever he wanted now. He was a good boy. He usually made sound decisions. At least, he did for a boy only eighteen-years-old. But she couldn’t rely on him thinking with his upstairs head anymore. No, he was now guided by the head that kept banging at the entrance to her womb. “Stop … stop …” Susy croaked at her daughters. But either they didn’t hear her or they didn’t care. “Leave … leave … leeeeaaaaaaavvvveeeeeee.” Her body seized up as Patrick slammed up against her butt and another orgasm washed over her. She was lost. They were all lost in a sea of animal instincts. She heard Patrick grunt out his own climax and another orgasm hit her right on top of the first. By the time her mind was lucid enough for thought, she was lying by herself on the bed, sperm leaking from her pussy onto the sheets.
“Oh, wow, you two look so good doing that.” Patrick said.
“Pat?” Susy lifted her head and gazed at the middle of the room. Patrick stood naked, his long penis extending out in front of him. His sisters kneeled before him. Sally had his right testicle in her mouth, and she slurped on it loudly. Adeline giggled and tentatively stuck out her tongue to lick up the bodily fluids left there by mother and son. Susy was too awash in the after-buzz of sex to reprimand the lot of them. Instead, she rested her head on her arm and watched the Lannit family unravel.
“How does it taste?” Patrick admired the way his sisters worked him. They couldn’t be more different. Sally was confident and showed her experience. Adeline looked dreamy and unsure of herself.
Adeline sucked a large dollop of cum into her mouth and her eyes rolled in her head. She leaned back. “So … ggggoooooooooooodddddddddd.” Her whole body quaked for a moment. “Like … salt … and heaven.” Her eyes blinked several times and she looked up at Patrick. “What happened?”
“You haven’t ever had an orgasm before?” The surprise showed on Patrick’s face.
Adeline shook her head and focused back on the large, spongy head of her brother’s cock with avarice.
“Well, get used to it, I guess.” Patrick guided his dick into her mouth and let the sisters work him for a while.
Forty-five minutes later, Sally lay hip to hip with her mother on Patrick’s bed, an enraptured expression on her face. She lazily watched her younger sister and brother hump. Her mother lay on her stomach, and Sally lay partially on her back, her boobs hanging toward the edge of the bed.
“Is this … uh … uh … uh … what sex is … always like?” Adeline had an expression of deep reverence on her face as she locked eyes with Patrick. They faced each other, standing up. She leaned her shoulders back against the wall and thrust her hips out at him. Her naked tits jigged on her chest with each impact.
“Until … ugh … a little while ago. I didn’t know about it either.” Patrick had his arms around her hips, gripping her round butt tightly, hunching himself into her repeatedly.
“Should we tell them this isn’t what sex is always like?” Sally reached over and ran her finger tips over the beguiling curve of her mom’s ass. A brief image of her loving husband flashed in her mind, but then she sent it away.
“I never …” Susy’s gaze fixed on the mating pair. It was true, this was a new kind of sex that Patrick had invented. Nothing like the other men in Susy’s life. The power of the moment had broken Susy down to the point that she didn’t even protest when Adeline pleaded with Patrick to put it all inside her.
Shortly after, Patrick obliged.
Listening to David work his way through their houseguests upstairs, Linda stood in the kitchen wringing a dishtowel in her hand. Something was wrong with her son. Her normally eloquent and thoughtful young man couldn’t string two sentences together. And all of the gentleness he normally brought to their lovemaking had evaporated.
The last few days he’d been acting so odd. When he’d come home earlier, he’d smelled heavily of sex. But that hadn’t prevented him from pushing her down and nailing her with his giant cock to the front hallway floor. And he’d never even bothered to close the front door. It was a wonder the neighbors hadn’t spotted them rutting like that. Without arriving at his own orgasm, he suddenly discarded her and raced upstairs. It was all so strange. Even stranger than what Linda had become accustomed to.
One of the women upstairs started to scream. Linda thought it sounded like pleasure. Maybe she should check on them. But she didn’t want to confront this strange new version of her son.
A knock on the door brought Linda out of her trance. She put down the dish towel and went to answer the door. It wasn’t until her hand was on the knob that she realized she couldn’t open the door while the frenzy carried on upstairs.
“Mrs. Riles? You in there? It’s Roy.” Roy shouted through the door and pounded at it again.
Linda stood nervously behind the door. The smell of sex wafted down from upstairs and her vagina gushed despite the situation. She couldn’t help it. She put a hand on her bulging belly and tried to think what to do. She hated that fat teenager, Roy. He’d taken advantage of her. She wasn’t about to let him into her house.
“Notice anything different about your son?” Roy’s muffled voice reverberated in the front hall. “I know how to get old Davey back to normal.”
“Really?” Linda brushed a wayward strand of blond hair out of her face. Her hand turned the knob and the front door swung open. There stood the short, fat, and ugly Roy Ackerman. A sheen of sweat on his forehead shone in the afternoon light. His smile curved upward with what seemed to Linda to be ungodly malice. She didn’t bother with pleasantries she might have extended to any other guest. “What about David?”
“Well, hello, Mrs. Riles.” Roy stepped in through the doorway, pushing Linda aside. “Very nice to see you, too.” He gazed down at the round belly stretching the material of her dress. “Looks like you’re preggers, just like my mom.” He rubbed his chin as he stared at her bulge. “Come to think of it, your babies might have the same father.” He glanced at her questioning blue eyes. “Me. Dummy.” Roy sniggered. “Anyway …” Roy spun her around and had her face a family portrait on the wall. He could tell she was already under his perspiration’s thrall. The sound of hot and heavy sex filtered down from the floor above. “… it was probably either me or Davey, right? The old man not giving it to you like he used to?” He ran his hands down over her slowly, lingering on the tantalizing curve at the small of her back. He could feel her trembling.
“My husband is a good man.” Air blowing in from the open door tickled her exposed butt as Roy lifted her dress. She hadn’t put panties back on since David had taken her earlier. She tried to focus, to get what she needed from this horrible boy. “What’s wrong with David?”
Roy laughed. “How should I know? I lied about all that stuff. I just wanted to have another go with you.” Roy’s mean dick flopped out when he lowered his pants. It was ready. He was going to make every woman in Portsmith bow before his cock. Even his stupid friend’s mom. He rubbed his dark, knobby head at her opening from behind. Of course, she was wet and ready.
“No, you can’t … aaaaahhhhhhhhh.” Despite herself, Linda pushed her hips back against him, urging the invading member inside her. Where was her willpower? She hated the man entering her, but welcomed him all the same. “That should only be for … Bill … and David … oooohhhhhh.” In front of her, the family portrait began to bounce on the wall as she took his thrusts. She stared at the posing family before her. The picture was only from a few years ago, but she barely recognized herself. The happy, naïve smile on her photographed face while she pressed up next to Bill stood in stark contrast to the twisted expression that tortured her face now.
“Damn … you’re hot for me … aren’t you?” Roy slapped her ass hard. He looked out the open front door as a car drove by. He didn’t know if anyone had seen them. He didn’t care. He pumped his hips faster. It was clear that no one could resist him. The men would go limp before him, and the women would spread their legs. All hail Roy, King of Portsmith. “You like that?” He smacked her again and enjoyed her shriek in response.
“No … only for … David.” Linda’s fingertips dug into the paint on her wall.
“You know … you’re telling me … that you’re saving your pussy … for your son … right?” Roy laughed again. “You’re a sick … bitch … Mrs. Riles.”
“Oh … God.” Linda shook uncontrollably. People weren’t supposed to talk to her like that.
“You and … Mrs. Susy Lannit … are friends … right?” Roy watched another car pass down the street. Eventually they’d be discovered. He relished the thought. Everyone should know his power and tremble before him.
“Ohhhhhhhhhh … nnnooooooooooo …” At the mention of her self-possessed friend, Linda orgasmed on that unforgiving cock. Would this fat teenager destroy Susy’s vagina, too? She thought it likely. The whole world had turned upside down, and it seemed only the basest instincts controlled their lives.
“Tell me … the baby … is mine.” Roy didn’t slow down as the housewife suffered through her obvious climax. He was intent now on only two things; her complete fall, and his own pleasure.
“It’s not.” Linda hissed through clenched teeth. No matter how much she hated the teenager behind her, she couldn’t stop pushing back at him. He had her gripped by the hips. But really, he had her soul in a vice, squeezing her frenzied pleasure centers. “It’s … ugh … David’s.”
“Doubtful.” Roy humped her for a while, listening to the screaming going on upstairs. That dimwit was really giving it to somebody.
“Linda?” A woman’s voice came in through the open door. “Oh … good … gracious … no.”
It wasn’t easy to feel anything but ecstasy at the moment, but a dull sense of horror did make some headway in Linda’s brain. She had forgotten about the open door, but now that she turned her head and looked out, she could see her neighbor, Mrs. Gilbert standing on the sidewalk, looking right at her humiliation with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. “Don’t … look … ugh … Liz,” Linda pleaded. But even now, she couldn’t pull away from the hideous deed she performed in the hallway. Even as reality pushed its ugly nose into what should have been a private disgrace.
Lizzie Gilbert turned and ran down the street, her heels clicking off into the distance.
“What … have you done?” Linda, totally defeated, turned and looked at her poor family, immortalized in innocence by the picture on the wall. “The whole town … will know.”
“You’re nothing … but a common harlot now.” Roy was ready to mark her insides with his stuff again. He couldn’t knock her up anymore, but he wanted her to know she was his territory. “Everyone will know … you’re mine.”
“Nooooooo.” But even as she said it, her body told her it was true. Whatever Roy had done to David, had left Linda vulnerable. And Roy had used the opportunity to take a vile foray into her most private places. “Just do it. Just … put it all inside … me.” Linda cried out for the whole neighborhood to hear. That molten elixir bathed her insides in pure pleasure. When she came to a few minutes later, she was on the floor. She watched Roy’s white butt ascend her stairs to wreak more havoc upstairs. With a trembling hand, she finally closed the front door. She then stood and slowly followed Roy to the second floor.
Everything was in order for a visit to her boyfriend. Donna checked her reflection in the sidelight by Patrick’s front door. Her lipstick was perfect, and her hair neatly tucked back in a ponytail. She adjusted her glasses and smoothed out her swing dress, tugging it into place a little where it resisted her new, bulging body. She looked smart. A woman ready to collect her partner and take the fight to whatever hid in the lake. Her knock went unanswered. Donna knocked again, but nothing.
It had been a rocky start to her relationship with Susy Lannit, but things seemed well in hand now. When you share sex and secrets, that can change even the bitterest rivals into bosom buddies. She didn’t think Susy would mind if she let herself in. Donna tried the door. It was unlocked. She quietly let herself in and closed the door behind her. Inside, all she heard was the faint ticking of a mantle clock.
Exploring the first floor, Donna found nothing stirring. She supposed Patrick’s father would disapprove of the mess around the house when he returned home from work. She hadn’t known the Lannit house to be in such a state of disorder in the past. “Hello?” No one responded. Something tingled down her spine. Had something happened here? Donna stopped, bent down, and carefully removed her heels. Best to tread lightly into the unknown.
With apprehension growing, Donna made her way to the second floor. She found the master bedroom well-made. She checked in on Sally’s bedroom, and it was neat as well. Adeline’s bedroom had a suitcase on the bed. Finally, with bated breath, Donna opened the door to Patrick’s bedroom. She let out a sigh of shock and relief. There on the bed, piled together in their nakedness, were Patrick, Susy, Adeline, and Sally. They napped heavily, clearly exhausted from their afternoon’s activities. Donna tilted her head and nibbled on her bottom lip. Of course, Susy and Sally were not news to Donna. But Adeline was. And having all the Lannits together at once was certainly a surprise. She doubted very much that Patrick had planned this. It wasn’t his style. And besides, he would have told her in advance. She didn’t think he kept any secrets from his girlfriend.
“Ahem,” Donna cleared her throat, standing in the center of the room. The scent of something ancient and implacable filled her nostrils. She knew it was the leftover aroma of sweat and cum on their bodies. A tingling sensation spread between her legs. That wouldn’t do. “Ahem, ahem.” Donna tried to gently rouse the sleeping trio with her soft coughs as she moved across the room and opened Patrick’s window. Fresh air rushed into the room and out the open door. Donna breathed deeply. Her mind cleared. That was better.
“Donna?” Patrick lifted his head off Adeline’s boob and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “It just happened. I didn’t mean to.”
“Oh, heavens.” Susy’s eyes opened and she shot out of bed, her naked body bouncing every which way. “What have we done?” Susy threw a blanket over herself. “Girls. Wake up.” Her daughters were grown women, but she dragged them out of bed like oversleeping teenagers. “You need to get showered and dressed. It’s late. Oh my.” She hustled them to the door, trying not to look at all their jiggling lady-parts. “Your father will be home soon.”
“Hello, Mrs. Farmer.” Sally caught Donna’s eye, and then smiled over at Patrick like a cat that had caught the canary. “Goodbye, Mrs. Farmer,” she said as her mother pushed her out the door.
Adeline kept her eyes to the floor and didn’t say a word as she disappeared into the hall.
Donna and Patrick were now alone. She looked down at his long, soft cock as it rested on his thigh. It was clear that the thing retained great power, even in repose.
“So … um … I was with my mom.” Patrick searched Donna’s emerald eyes to see if there was any anger there. He wasn’t sure if he should have had sex with his whole family or not. “You know, I was doing it with my mom. And Sally came in with Adeline. And—”
“Shh.” Donna sat at the edge of the bed and tried to straighten Patrick’s wild hair. “It’s not you, it’s the thing in the lake. Remember? And even so, I …” A slow smile spread on her pretty, freckled face. “I think you deserve to be happy. And so do the women in your life. Right?”
“Right.” Patrick nodded.
“Anyway, it’s time to rid ourselves of the horror in the lake. You still up for our plan?” Donna kissed his cheek. “My brave boyfriend.”
“Yeah.” Patrick nodded with more vigor. “Let’s go see if David will help us. Then … send that thing back where it came from.”
“Well, I don’t know about sending it to space. I’ll settle for killing it.” Donna stood and dragged Patrick from his bed. “Come on and get dressed. We’ve got work to do.”
Whistling as he walked away from the Riles’ house, Roy adjusted his dick from one trouser leg to the other. He hadn’t decided if it was better or worse to go without briefs. On the one hand, his package wasn’t crushed in confinement. On the other, it tended to bounce about and move to uncomfortable positions. It was probably worse without, but he was still experimenting.
A car approached. Roy spotted Patrick in the passenger seat with that stupid investigator woman driving. Roy jumped into some bushes before they spotted him and watched them pull up to David’s house. He chuckled. This should be interesting. The new Cro-Magnon David wasn’t going to be so helpful or friendly to Patrick and his stupid games.
Roy watched them exit the car and walk up to the house. He focused mostly on the broad. She seemed to be busting out of a dress that barely contained her. Had Patrick, the sly dog, knocked her up? Roy could see the faint swell of her belly. Well, if so, too bad Roy wouldn’t get the chance. But as Roy watched her, he thought maybe he ought to move her up on the list of conquests. She was pretty, and regal, and he wanted nothing more than to turn her into an animal and take her away from the bespectacled dummy next to her.
The door opened, but Roy couldn’t see into the house from his angle. So, he continued to focus on the investigator’s ass. After a while, the pair of them talked animatedly with someone inside. Then, hanging their heads, they walked back to the car and drove away.
When they were long gone, Roy marched back to David’s house. He opened the door and let himself right in.
“What are you doing here?” Linda trembled with nervous energy at the sight of that horrible boy. She stood in the kitchen, preparing dinner. David sat at the kitchen table, with a big glass of milk before him.
“What did they want, Davey?” Roy pulled up a chair and sat down, ignoring Linda.
“David Riles!” David said with enthusiasm.
“Patrick. What did Patrick want to talk to you about?” Roy said very slowly.
“Lake!” David picked up his glass and drank his milk, spilling much of it down his chin and onto his shirt.
“Ugh. You’re impossible.” Roy turned and looked at Linda. “What did they want, Mrs. Riles?”
“They were talking crazy.” Linda turned her spatula in a mixing bowl. Some flour spilled out and covered her apron in fine dust. She didn’t look over at Roy.
“Spit it out.” Roy’s voice rose, and his patience faded.
Linda told him what they’d said in a hushed voice.
“They think they can turn everything back to normal? But electrifying the lake?” Roy thought things over. Linda started to say something, but he shushed her. “We’re going to borrow your car, Mrs. Riles. Come on Davey-boy, let’s go.”
“You’re going to help them? Will this make David better again?” Linda rushed to get her car keys. It was all so ludicrous, but everything was insane now.
“We’ll see, Mrs. Riles.” Roy took the keys from her and pushed his imbecile of a friend toward the door. “We’ll see.”
The numbers looked good. Axcix glanced over the latest data. Offspring were gestating rapidly, showing the expected range of dimorphic variances. She gurgled to herself in her underwater home. The Creators would be very pleased with her when they received her reports some several centuries from now.
She didn’t pay the slightest attention to the activity spikes springing up all around Portsmith. Why should she bother? She had her sentinels in the water, and others out roaming the land. They would take care of any behavior from the dominant species antithetical to her goals.
The entire Lannit family, minus Fred who was still at work, followed Donna out to her car.
“Is this dangerous, Pat?” Susy squeezed her son’s hand. She had just agreed to help him remove some sort of animal from Lake Ipuza Ikpi. His friends, apparently, did not want to help.
“I told you, Mom, it’s super dangerous. But it isn’t a two-person job.” He looked over and caught the look of anxiety in his mother’s eyes. “But don’t worry, Donna’s been through way worse. She’ll know what to do.”
The group clambered into the car. Donna, still barefoot, got behind the wheel. This was no occasion for heels. Patrick sat in the passenger seat. The three Lannit women piled onto the back seat.
“Is it true you’ve seen strange things … before?” Susy put her hand on Donna’s shoulder as the automobile purred to life.
“I have.” Donna reached up and patted Susy’s hand. They had really left their rivalry behind. “There was a vampire once that preyed on young housewives. Mark and I had a close shave there. We didn’t kill the wretch, but we did send him on his way much worse for wear. And then there was the shapeshifter who—” Donna stopped abruptly as a car skidded to a halt perpendicular to them just inches from her front bumper.
Patrick leaned his head out the window. “Roy, what the hell?” Somehow, Roy and David had stolen Linda’s car for a joyride. “Get out of the way, you idiot.”
Roy slowly rolled down the window. Everyone waited.
“I’m the idiot?” Roy narrowed his eyes at his erstwhile friend. He looked over the contents of the other car. Stupid Patrick was taking his whole family with him on his mission. His eyebrow twitched as he thought over whether Patrick might actually succeed. “You want to end this? The best thing that happened to any man ever, and you want to throw it all away? Let’s go into your house and talk.” Roy began bouncing in his seat and moving his arms around inside the car, trying to break a sweat.
“David told you?” Bemused, Patrick looked over at his tall friend who had the most moronic smile on his face. “About the Lake?” He looked over at Donna and whispered to her, “Go around them. They’re both crazy.”
“Maybe I should talk to him. Roy always liked me.” Sally leaned her head into the front seat with a hopeful look.
Patrick shuddered. It was true, Roy had had a crush on Sally for a long time. Patrick was revolted thinking about what present day Roy would do to her if he ever got her cornered. “No thanks, Sally. We’ll need your help at the lake.”
“Okay.” Sally reclined back and leaned against her sister. She was still buzzed from what they’d done earlier in the day. All the apocalyptic revelations and angry, fat teenagers couldn’t kill her buzz.
“Hold on everyone.” Donna put the car in reverse and the wheels screeched on the pavement as their car lurched backward. The gears groaned a protest as she quickly switched to first and darted her car around Roy’s auto. She could clearly hear shrieking rubber as Roy gave chase. She checked the mirror. Sure enough, the boys weren’t far behind. “I mean it now, everyone hold on to something.” Donna accelerated, and took a sharp turn.
Patrick grabbed the door. The women in back held each other. Sally somehow wound up with a handful of boob on either side, but since her mother and sister didn’t complain, she kept her hands where they were.
Several blocks down the street, a patrol of three army jeeps slowly cruised down main street. Lieutenant Abby Kerns was behind the wheel of the last vehicle. There had been a number of disappearances from their rank lately, so they were to travel only in large groups going forward. Two to each jeep in this case. The imposter Kerns moved liquidly under its pressed khaki uniform as it wondered how to bring about more disappearances. Two cars zipped by in the opposite direction, clearly one giving chase to the other.
“Lieutenant … erns.” Captain Millbank’s voice came over the static that plagued their radios in that little town. The fake Abby could see the captain’s lead vehicle swing around to give chase. “… ollow … and bring … for questioning.”
“Perfect.” Abby purred. It swung its jeep around to follow the other two and floored the accelerator.
“What?” Lieutenant Ellen Mosley’s face went white and she clutched at a handhold above her head.
“I said, we could use a distraction.” Abby’s right hand slipped off the steering wheel, its fingers lengthening.
“I don’t understand. I …” Ellen paused. It felt like there was a snake brushing against her leg. She couldn’t take her eyes away from the road as it sped past them, but when the thing nudged between her thighs, she looked down. “Eeeeeiiiiiiiiiii,” Ellen screamed in horror. Her partner’s arm had stretched like rubber along the floorboard, and it was now reaching up under her skirt. She could barely process what she was seeing. “What’s happening … what’s happening …” Despite her training as a specialist ready to confront the new Red menace in Portsmith, Ellen could tell she was hyperventilating. “Get it off mmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.” The thing had pushed through her nylons and found her pussy. Her fingers dug into the handhold. Seconds before her grip had been out of terror, but now it was purely out of pleasure. As the town raced past outside the window, Ellen had her first orgasm on the deformed arm of Lieutenant Kerns.
In the lead car, Patrick craned his neck to see behind them. “There are three jeeps behind Roy and Dave. Wait.” There was a sound of great wrenching metal behind them. “Only two jeeps. One of them just hit a tree.”
“We wanted to sneak up on the thing in the lake. This isn’t sneaking.” Donna let Patrick fill her in on the happenings behind them. She couldn’t spare a glance in the mirror. They had just turned onto the road out to the lake, and it was a narrow, winding piece of construction. It would be very easy for her to join that jeep in becoming one with a tree.
“No, you’re right.” Patrick tried to give his mother a reassuring smile as he looked over her head at another jeep running off the road. This one hit a stone wall and burst into flames. It was clear that the remaining jeep had just run the other two off the road. He hadn’t the foggiest idea why any of this was happening. “Should we … I don’t know, do this later?”
“Sorry, lovebird.” Donna felt quite at home in the thick of things. But it was odd not to have Mark by her side. “I don’t think we’ll get another bite at this apple. Not with your friends back there in on the plan. And the Army right behind. We’ll have to do this now.”
“Mom, you still with me?” Patrick wasn’t sure how to keep everyone focused.
Susy put on her most stern demeanor, like she’d just caught one of her children in the liquor cabinet. “Whatever caused all this will be sorry to have met the Lannits.”
“Sally? Adeline?” Patrick looked to his sisters.
Sally winked at him.
Adeline tried to smile, but wasn’t convincing. Only a few days ago she’d been looking for a husband in college. In the last few hours, she had lost her virginity to her brother, made out with her sister, and watched her mom have sex. And now she was careening down a road in a car driven by her brother’s much older, married girlfriend. Being chased by the Army and Patrick’s somehow evil friends. And the goal was to kill a meteor that landed in their lake. She felt she might throw up.
“That’s my girls.” Patrick turned back to Donna and adjusted his glasses. “So, Roy’s not that far back and the jeep is right behind him.” He gazed at her calm resolve and was reminded what a force this woman was. It was awe inspiring that she’d chosen him. “What’s the plan now?”
“Well, I was hoping your mother and sisters might be available to help us cut the line and get it in the water.” Donna turned things over in her mind. “But that’s not going to work. If I can get us enough distance from our pursuers, maybe we could use a bit of misdirection. You and me stay, and your family draws the others away. What do you think?” She chanced a quick look at Patrick, and was relieved to see that he seemed to be taking this all well. And he wasn’t breaking out in a cold sweat. The last thing she needed right now was for lust to melt her otherwise sharp mind.
“Sure. Whatever you say.” Patrick nodded and leaned into the door as they took a sharp curve. He could just see the blue-green of the lake through the trees to their left now. They were getting close.
“Hold on.” Dona turned next to the familiar parking lot and careened down the rough, dirt road that ran around the lake. She nearly banged her head on the ceiling when they hit their first big bump. She looked in the mirror to see both cars follow. She had to put some distance between them.
Axcix suddenly turned from her meditation on the data inflow. Her proximity sensors flashed at her. She hadn’t bothered with much in the way of defensive mechanisms. The local population was too crude to offer any kind of threat. Her sentinels were enough. But something was happening out there. And what little defenses she had would soon be put to the test.
Much to her surprise, Axcix realized that the creature Smith was among those moving rapidly around her body of water. What was it up to? What where those members of the dominant species up to? With curiosity, she launched a drone to get a better view. If nothing else, this moment should render some remarkable data.