A Fallen Priest
He flailed on the ground, fighting the hazmat suit and resisting the foreign feel of adrenaline firing his blood. He knew this feeling. It was how he’d felt before the chip ruled his chemical makeup. He felt pumped and passionate . . . normal. And that was very dangerous.
Charles Gallagher liked feeling alive. Who wouldn’t? Like a manic depressive who just can't stand the numbness of meds, he reveled in the danger of being alive. The priest in him still lived, though, and found the new vibrancy evil. The very definition of being a priest was to deny.
He could feel sin seeping into his body, changing and scarring him despicably. He became incapable of resisting the temptation to the fall. The beautiful female Bearer, Eva, was born with the serpent by her side. It was so easy for her to tempt him with the basest of desires, holding the bittersweet fruit of lust in her graceful hand.
I should have been stronger.
He was duty bound to keep the siren Bearers from having children. All of them were in heat and all of them highly impregnable. Before the Chamber formed the group, society had been in chaos. Some were sick, others cared for them, and still others fought to provide for both ill and caregiver.
Some of the ill had slowly mutated from the Hantera16 vaccine. The first wave was sterile. Others could tolerate neither virus nor vaccine and perished. Then, there were those that mutated from consumption of vegetation grown from earth tainted by the ash of victims.
The remaining humans that had not been affected were left to bring control around once again. They grasped for some sort of order and this basic desire led to the formation of the Chamber. They’d been in charge ever since. To Charles, this new earth was at least the seventh level of hell.
To his horror, none of the children lived. One of the first babies to perish had been his own and the screams still haunted him-his, hers, the babe's or all three at once.
Charles had tried to resist the Bearers at a time before they were even called Bearers. At first, no one knew anything about them. One thing defined them above all else; they seduced men relentlessly. No male was immune to their call to rut.
The Bearers’ fertility proved very strong and they themselves were mighty in birth barely acknowledging what human women suffered. They dropped seemingly healthy offspring at the infant care centers and immediately sought new mates. Many babies were birthed during this time but none survived.
Meetings were held and decisions made to utilize hygiachips, which were not proving to be useful in combating Hantera16. The hygiachips were remarkable in their data gathering; disappointing in how useful that data actually was. But since everyone had been imbedded, it made sense to put the damn things to some useful purpose, or so thought the Chamber. They hadn't had a lot of choice in the matter. The mutations made creatures stronger and the chips made it possible to manipulate them. That may have saved everyone. But at what a price?
Charles had agreed to his current position as reparation for his tainted soul. He prayed nightly and hoped that God watched over him. At times he felt God was angry with him. In spite of the teachings he knew, Charles considered that perhaps his sin was too great to forgive; his service too lowly to attain absolution.
This, indeed, was Charles’ Hell. The glitch he feared was unleashing the worst in human and Bearer alike. It was the stuff of nightmares. The restraint so deeply held was gone instantly, in the space of an angry bird moment.
Until today, everything had run smoothly with the Bearers. He was a fair boss to Mika. She would attest to that. Other than his indiscretions upon the start of the program, Charles considered himself one of the better Chamber delegates. In the eyes of the Chamber, his coupling with the female was insignificant. In the eyes of God, Charles wasn't so sure.
His attention was suddenly jerked back to the sky. It had darkened with thousands of inky wings. He instantly stopped all movement.
Lethal bats whirled above his head eclipsing the sun.
Like the other rodents, bats had mutated into swollen versions of their former selves. They swarmed voraciously, day and night, searching for food. No plastic suit, however sturdy, was going to withstand an assault from countless fangs and claws as long as his hand. The bats would reduce his flesh to bones in an instant.
Flying fucking piranhas is what they are.
Charles tried to be as still as possible, not even breathing. The damn things had hypersonic hearing but were as blind as their harmless ancestors. As long as he wasn’t in their way, as long as he didn't do anything to attract their attention, he didn’t think they’d bother him.
He almost fainted in relief when the sky lightened once again. Charles didn’t relax for too long, though. The wildlife was always frisky on the outside. It seemed that everything alive on the earth was ravenous. There wasn't enough of anything for any of the inhabitants-not the bipeds, not the birds of the air or the beasts on the ground. He knew a chicken, with claws three times the normal length, could come upon him at any minute.
Rocking his body from side to side, Charles managed to roll sideways and then onto his stomach. His fall from the roof after fixing a connector panel knocked the wind out of him but a quick body inventory showed nothing was broken. He had to get back up there and repair it again. He felt dazed with the fucking hormonal fog he was in.
He stumbled to the ladder and slowly pulled himself up. He tried to ignore his screaming muscles and push forward. Panting and fogging up the inside of his face mask, Charles thought he just might pass out and land on his back again. Maybe God wanted the chickens to feast on Mr. Charles Gallagher, retired priest, today.
At that thought, adrenaline kicked in. For a moment, Charles was stunned at the burst of energy. Grinning with relief, he labeled it a gift from his Almighty. And about time, too. That gave him strength to pull himself up.
He stumbled to the SG78 panel and leaned against it for a moment. After his brief rest, he found a long slender pole and pulled the robin’s egg out from the side of the panel. The wiring was all mangled underneath. Maybe the mother chewed it up when trying to get her egg.
Charles didn’t know and didn’t have time to contemplate the matter. His top priority was getting the panels wired and back in service so that his computer worked. Then, he could reactivate everyone’s chips and regain some semblance of control.
He growled in frustration over the bulky gloves. The thick rubber was no good for the task of twisting wiring. He did as best he could and then taped them up. The green light didn’t come on.
He unwrapped the wiring and checked it before re-taping it. Afterward, he lifted the taped wire and peered down into the unit. There was another set of wiring dangling down. It wasn’t connected.
He took the pole and stuck it down to hook the wiring and drag it back to the surface. Once he had the two sides, he twisted the wire until he could connect the two sides. Then, he taped this wire together. Unwilling to get his hopes crashed again, he used the pole to search but came back with no other mangled wiring to repair.
Reassured that these were the only two wires, he checked the box again. The green light was blinking. He sent a thank you prayer up and then groaned "Amen" into his hazmat suit for good measure.
He tasted something strange. Knowing he was risking his life staying outside for any length of time, Charles turned and carefully made his way down the ladder. Within a few minutes, he was back inside the tunnels.
In a hurry, he shed the hazmat suit and crammed it into a space for someone to check it. Shuddering at the thought of being contaminated, he wanted to shower-no he wanted to scour-himself in the reassuring chemical bath that awaited him.
Being completely honest with himself, Charles admitted that scrubbing didn’t rid the body of the type of contamination he dreaded. Nothing would. Nevertheless, he rubbed his skin until it stung in protest.
Charles knew the SG78's would take several minutes to come on line. The panels needed time to boot up and run through the opening protocols. The chembath took a few precious minutes. It was that much less time he'd have to impatiently stare at the binomials running across the control panel.
Fear ran through him in cold, tense waves. The Bearers could access his tunnel now because the chip strategy that coded the safe doors was compromised along with all the other aspects of life the chips controlled.
The last thought blasted all others away. The safe doors. There was no way of knowing what kind of chaotic code recognition was in place, or if any at all was. He ran toward his computer with nothing on but a sheet snatched from a gurney outside the decon room. The mythical Cerberus was chasing him, three drooling mouths waiting to snatch him straight to hell. In his hyper imagination he could feel the hot breath of the hound and smell the stench of death on his breath.
He stood in front of the control screen, pacing. Decon liquid still dribbled in rivulets between the hair on his arms and legs. His feet were suddenly cold on the sterile floor and his balls tightened in solidarity.
He waited, nearly insane with impatience and terror. His eyes darted from the screen to the dimly lit doorway, convinced that any second slavering Bearers would come bursting through the door.
Charles studied the room, looking around just to distract himself from the endless whir of digits and symbols flickering across the screen. It occurred to him that Mika should be there. He tried to sort out the events of the past chaotic hours and came up wanting.
She should be here.
He went back to the computer again and turned to sit down. Far down the tunnel, he noticed the wall had a buckle where there was only smooth wall before. Curious, he went to investigate.
A rock jutted out from the wall. Charles stuck his head into another tunnel.
Aha! I knew there were other tunnels built. I shouldn’t have listened to the Bearers.
When they’d built the tunnels, the Bearers had assured Charles that the tunnel in which the exclusive group lived-delegates and associate delegates who controlled the food supply and exercised control over the mutated creatures-was the only tunnel that had been built. At the time, overwhelmed with the depressing responsibility that had fallen on him, he had simply accepted the implausible claim. He had not yet experienced the treachery and will of the mutants.
Charles was now looking down another tunnel that branched off to yet another tunnel.
I should have listened to my doubts. I was a fool. Again.
Charles returned to his computer and growled in frustration. He had no idea what to expect as he had never changed out the SG78 controls before. It seemed to be taking an eternity to regain function.
His normal patience had been badly eroded by the failure of his own hygiachip. Impulsivity that he had all but forgotten existed inside him returned with a vengeance. Waiting allowed his mind to wander and his burning questions about the tunnel overcame him. Curiosity had him in its grips and it wasn’t letting go until it squeezed every answer from the situation. He grabbed a light, girded the sheet around him and headed into the newly uncovered tunnel.
He hurried forward, quickly discovering two tunnels. He chose the one on the right and headed down it. Charles quickly emerged on the other side. Partway down, he’d heard voices but couldn’t figure out from which way they were coming. It obviously wasn’t the way he’d chosen. He turned back.
After retracing his steps for a short way, he turned down the other tunnel and crept forward. The echo of a man talking bounced back to him. Charles dropped to his belly and crawled closer until he could see a man talking over a woman. He was pretty sure that it was Mika.
She was naked and tied to a bed. The man told her, “You will bear my child. I will spew fire inside you. We will weld what is left of both our kinds into a stronger one. Our genesis will rule. This is something I've known for a while."
Charles knew the man. He was Eric, a Bearer. He hesitated on a thought; What if a female human like Mika bore a Bearer's child? Maybe we've been going about it ass-backwards.
The thought crept into his mind and took a devilish hold. Charles looked at Mika. Her childlike body trembled with something that wasn't fear. To his surprise, it dawned on him that the bland girl he had worked alongside was heaving with desire and awe. What if you alter her chemicals in the computer so she’s his slave? If she successfully bears his children, she’ll love everything he does to her. . . . and I can watch.
Rationally, Charles knew his psyche was screwed. It didn't stop him from seeing mind porn of the brute's mammoth cock reaming his sweet little assistant's pussy. His cock stiffened as he turned away from the sight of them.
He quickly crawled backward and tried to forget that last thought. I am insane. I have lost myself.
Yet, the thought remained.
He crawled back a safe distance and then stood and hurried back the rest of the way. When he neared the crack in his wall, he slowed and peeked through the opening. Nobody appeared to be in his caverns.
Charles slipped through and pushed the rock back. Now that he knew where it was located, he could come and go as he pleased.
The screen prompt finally indicated that the SG78 controls were functioning. He quickly brought the data files forward and saw, to his dismay that nearly every indicator was screwed up in one way or another. SNAFU! The ancient acronym that sprang into his head. He didn't want to remember what the letters stood for.
Charles searched for Mika and then Eric’s chip but the system gave him nothing back. At first, he simply couldn't accept that he couldn't find them. Then it dawned on him. They had removed their chips. It was the only explanation for the complete lack of data.
Disturbing as that was, there was enough rationality left in him to continue on with the desperately needed corrections.
He went to the section files and checked key fertility hormone outputs. Once he’d engaged them again, he tweaked everyone’s hormonal level to ensure there would be no unwanted pregnancies. As much as it was possible, given the limitations of the Chamber's technology and the strength of the Bearers nature, he also ratcheted down their libidos as much as he dared. A couple of past incidents had nearly provoked a revolution when the Bearers felt that too much of their primal identities were being compromised.
Of all the qualities manipulated by the hygiachips, aggression was the least easily managed. Regulation had to be both effective and subtle.
He went to attend to his own readings. With one click, he would be under the system’s control once again. He already felt a nostalgic ache in his groin when he thought about how easily his cock had responded to the sight of Mika splayed out naked under Eric's control. And his cock still vividly remembered the slippery welcome of Eva's cunt.
But Charles Gallagher was a practical man long accustomed to outwitting his dick, either by necessity or a commitment to a relic few believed in any more. He, among those remaining, could still order his thoughts and his actions through rational choice. That, after all, was part of the eternal definition of man. He parted the damp sheet and sighed at his flaccid penis.
Unlike most, Charles did not avail himself of his generous allotment of orgasms. Nor did he trade them. Because he was one of the privileged few, he could do what he liked with his allotment, by right of his position. He found it easier to simply allow them to expire, month by month. He still considered carnal pleasure sinful and held stubbornly to that belief even if he was the last man in society to do so.
He was stuck in his situation. The more he could engineer his thoughts and discipline himself, the better off he'd be in the end. He pushed the buttons. He dosed himself with just the right cocktail to suppress his desire and calm his lust. This time, however, he left himself just enough testosterone to leave his amygdala almost untouched. He might need a little more aggression than usual. He didn't know what to expect from this upheaval and he thought the normal passive temperament he maintained could be more dangerous than the alternative.
When a man gives up the right to the most pleasant drive in human experience, he often replaces it with a lesser drive. So it was with Charles. Like so many of his kind before him, power became his pheromone. He had a flash, a chance insight into what could take him to the top. To the Chamber itself.
Survival of some sort of race had become more important than the purity of any one race. Human males had failed to produce viable babies with female Bearers. Male and Female Bearers could fuck like rabbits but produced nothing but doomed offspring. Their numbers, strength and massive sex drives were all a recipe (in the eyes of the Chamber) for disruption and disaster. Yet the Chamber had no choice but try to increase their numbers.
Human beings were abnormally infertile and undersexed due to hygiamanipulations. There was also a pretty large body of evidence that the few live births of human babies were overwhelmingly deformed. The parents were all told the birth was a still one and these infants were destroyed. They only represented yet another drain on the precious and limited resources left.
If male Bearers were able to accomplish the task of viable infants with female humans, a new race was possible. What they were looking for was the stamina and adaptability of the Bearers and the self-control of the humans. He had a ready experiment at his fingertips. Why not use it to seize an opportunity?
Mika and Eric could be the control couple. He could observe them, take notes, and wait for the results. He would protect their secrecy. He would have patience and learn.
So it began. He had plenty of opportunities to push the rock aside and wander through the dark tunnel toward their lair.
Charles hadn't anticipated just how much of an impact watching Eric take and use Mika would have on him. He would become mesmerized at how much a body could endure, how far the female human could be pushed, and just how deeply passion could run.
Often, he would feel too strong a stir in his cock and have to adjust his levels after his observations.
Eric became so protective of Mika that Charles thought he’d been detected a few times. The male bearer became hyper-alert when it was time to mate. And, it seemed that it was nearly always time to mate.
The first time he’d witness the act, Charles had been shocked by multiple factors.
Eric displayed symptoms close to caring. Upon further observations, these emotions were involved in his territorial ego. He’d marked her as his; no one was taking what was his.
She was his vessel for childbirth. He valued her so highly that he was willing to kill to protect her. Charles wasn't completely fooled, though. He knew Eric would not hesitate to punish her if she placed herself in danger. Or, if she disobeyed him and did anything to disrupt his plan to get her pregnant.
Mika was clearly now Eric's property. Charles watched as time and again she placed a cheek to his feet and worshiped him whenever he stepped anywhere near her. Eric didn’t force this upon her. Mika did it with the utmost of passion. It was obvious that she wanted him to own her.
To Charles, viewing this for the first time became a eureka moment. How could he get all women to be this docile? The Bearer females remained headstrong no matter what he did to their hormones. Females of all species were troubling. The priesthood had isolated him from them in his former life and now, in the Aftertimes, he was unprepared for the frequent demands of a position that put him in close and disturbing contact with them.
Watching Mika submit to Eric soothed Charles’ resentment and bolstered his ego. Mika never moved unless Eric told her to do something. There was no need for Mika to be chained to the bed now.
Her wrists and ankles were clear of any shackles, which made Charles nervous. He watched her stand in front of Eric. Her chin only reached his chest.
Eric’s hand thrust in her hair and clenched around a handful. Mika’s knees buckled.
“You will obey me, Little One. You are now mine. My blood is in you and yours is in me.”
Charles’ eyes widened. He’d never considered that they traded blood or did any sort of evil rituals. He strained to hear Eric’s lowered tone.
“. . . generation stronger. Do not fear me. Worship me.”
To his astonishment, Mika squeaked a Yes and, judging by her moans, appeared more than a little eager to do his bidding. She looked like a rag doll in the male Bearer’s arms. He was easily 7’5” and she had to be shy of that by at least two feet.
Charles could see why any female would want to mate with him, though. Eric was a prime Bearer . . . wide shoulders, slender hips, ripped chest and abs, and ruggedly handsome in those old sexy rakish pirate kind of ways. In contrast, Mika was delicate and pretty with an angelic softness that most men would find hard to resist.
Eric picked her up, leaving her toes dangling inches above the rock ground, and kissed her. Mika’s hands snaked around his neck. Eric immediately dropped her and growled, “You will do as I say and when I say. Do not think to control me with your human hormones.”
She pouted. Charles had no clue about the depth of Eric and Mika’s bond. He had not witnessed their arrival at the cavern nor seen Eric cut out her chip. He could not know they had tasted each other's blood or what significance that had. Charles had no idea that Eric’s body could heal itself or that Mika would soon enter a mutation period like none that the Chamber (comprised exclusively of pure humanity) had ever seen.
Not that it mattered at that moment as he watched Eric strip Mika of her clothing.
To his surprise, the huge male Bearer carefully laid the clothing, which was really just long strips of cloth, aside and commanded her to bathe in a nearby stream. Charles had always thought that the Bearers cared nothing of personal hygiene. He watched Mika reluctantly kneel at the stream and methodically clean herself.
Since she had been easily persuaded into previous tasks, her resistance to obey Eric intrigued Charles. Was it something about the water that turned her off? The way she vigorously rubbed her skin to shed the water made Charles think his theory was plausible. It had to be the water.
He’d never been attracted to her before but found himself growing erect in the face of bouncing breasts, wiggling ass, and perked nipples. When she was finished, Mika turned and went back to her bedding. Kneeling there, she patiently waited for Eric to inspect the results of her task.
Eric suddenly slapped her pussy and pointed to the water. Mika shook her head NO. He moved so fast that Charles couldn’t track him, plucked Mika off the bedding, and turned toward the water.
Mika squeaked, “Okay!”
Eric set Mika onto her feet. She willingly crouched by the water and cleaned between her legs. Her face twisted the whole time as if the water hurt. Charles had no clue what it was doing to her.
After checking that she was clean enough, Eric commanded that she help him wash. Then, Eric almost had to drag Mika over to the water again. For a second, Charles thought the huge male Bearer was going to toss his former charge into the water. She was clinging to his neck as if he was threatening to boil her alive.
“Eric, no! Please!”
The huge male creature’s back was to Charles. He could just imagine the cold look in Eric’s eyes that accompanied his bark. “I tell you when to speak, Little Human. Do not talk again. Want to take it slow? Then, do as I command.”
Mika didn’t look like she wanted to obey him. Charles held his breath until Eric said, “That is a good thing. Now, clean me.”
Mika began cleaning him. Charles was too far away to see the frown on her face. The jerky movements of her hands made him wonder about the temperature of the water. He had no idea that it caused Mika’s fingers to go numb and her hands to tingle. The water was highly contaminated run-off. It would advance her mutation if she used it too much.
Charles watched Eric cup his hand into the stream and taste the water. Mika gaped at him but shut her mouth quickly when he offered her some. Eric grinned. Charles shuddered at the thought of what that crap could do to a human.
Mika timidly cowered from him. Eric washed his cock with the water, still smiling at Mika as if he knew something that she didn’t. When he was satisfied, he swept Mika into his arms and carried her back to the bed.
Eric wasted no time for tender foreplay or romantic words this time. He thrust into Mika right away. Her entire body seized off the bed. Charles was close enough to watch her eyelids flutter but he didn’t know that her eyes rolled back in her head.
Her hands fisted in the bedding before her hips began to move in rhythm under Eric’s. Charles had seen the huge Bearer’s size before the first thrust. He would have bet on pain instead of pleasure, but Mika appeared to be in the arms of bliss.
The water acted as an aphrodisiac on Mika, making her sexual nerves process everything as pleasure . . . even pain. Charles had no way of knowing that, like the human’s fountain of youth, this water was the fountain of mutation. His ignorance of the true nature of the tainted water made their coupling all the more perplexing.
How can she take such pleasure in what appears to me to be such violation?
Eric fucked her hard and turned her in every position conceivable. The sound of Mika’s pussy sucking at Eric’s cock echoed off the walls and down the tunnel. Charles found himself in the throes of Hell once again.
Rock hard and throbbing, he turned on his side and stroked his cock while Mika’s moans filled his ears. The liquid sound of their feral fucking made each touch to Charles’ cock almost unbearable. He abandoned all control himself and climaxed on his hand.
At the same time, Mika’s scream mingled with Eric’s loud grunt bounced off the walls and back to them. Charles looked at the slimy milk in his hand and it filled him with shame and exhaustion.
To his astonishment, Eric kept fucking Mika. She eagerly accepted every bone-jarring thrust. Charles wiped his hand against the rock of the tunnel until he drew blood from the palm. He looked at the scratches and felt a small degree of absolution. He crept backward on his hands and knees relishing the pain of the pebbles against his body. It was less than he thought he deserved as atonement, but it was something.
He felt nauseous and confused. He was sure that the program was misadjusting his hormone levels. He wasn’t supposed to feel aroused like this. Something was wrong. Again.
Charles headed back toward his room, his computer, his sanctuary. His cock still throbbed. It twitched between his thighs. Something was definitely wrong. He found the crack in the wall to his office and slipped through it. Mindlessly hurrying, he didn’t bother with his normal caution. His thoughts were focused on the SG78 controls and on his erratic hygiachip.
His heart almost exploded with fear when he saw Eva standing beside the computer.
“Charles Gallagher, father of my deceased children, you will try once again to get me pregnant,” she told him.
“No!” Was she crazy?
Before he could begin to guess what she was talking about, Eva grabbed him and bit his arm hard enough to break the skin. Charles didn't have a chance to even look at the damage as her hot mouth greedily closed over the wound.
He screamed and tried to pull away, but she was faster and had a purpose. She bit her own arm and forced his mouth onto the wound. When he refused to open, she pinched his nose shut. Gasping for air, Charles inadvertently gave her access.
The bitter taste of her blood made him gag at first. Within moments, though, he was eagerly swallowing. His world filled with Eva . . .