"PANDEMIC"

Donna M.

�I�m sure by now you�ve heard the rumor?� I asked my buddy Kevin, the only man I�d hang with nowadays.

�You mean about Shapiro? Yeah, I�ve read the rumblings in the blogs. Do you think it�s true?� I hoped it wasn�t, but I was quickly losing my faith in humanity.

I said, �Yes, I think they did it just like the rumors say they did. Jesus, it sounds like something the barbarians in power would do�put him in front of a firing squad.� I shook my head, sickened by the thought.

Kevin looked more ill than I felt. �If they did, then how can they possibly spin it?�

�They don�t need to spin it. The networks will report anything the administration wants them to report. That Latino news group is already saying Shapiro�s at Guantanamo �for his own protection�. Regardless of whether he�s alive or dead, can you believe the same people who decried using Gitmo to detain terrorist killers are using the place to cover up the most inhumane act of all?�

He and I were in our favorite bar. Our favorite because it was the one place we felt we could talk without fear of Big Brother�s ears. Kevin took a sip of his beer but I could tell he wasn't deriving any pleasure from it. I guess quenching your thirst was not the same as dousing the fire in your soul.

He said, �I guess I can�t bitch about it. Gwen, you�re the one that has the insidious death sentence hanging over you. You feeling okay?�

�Yeah, no virus so far. It�s too early to tell whether that makes me one of the lucky ones or not,� I said.

I remained quiet for a while, letting my anger simmer until I said, trying to keep my voice from betraying the anger, �Damn it, Kevin! Mel Shapiro didn�t make the virus. He didn�t spread it. He just told the world it was happening.� I slapped the bar-top, so even if my raised voice didn�t catch the attention of the mostly-drunk patrons, that sound did it. �I never thought the phrase �killing the messenger� would ever be a reality. Fucking firing squad!� I said much too loudly.

I knew I�d never shake the imagined scene; the tall, stately looking scientist I�d seen often on the web and the nightly news, soft spoken to the end, standing before a pockmarked wall as bullets ripped into his body. I bet the bastards didn�t even bother blindfolding him. That�s if they did it, anyway, but this rumor had way too much of a ring of truth to it in these life-devalued times to not have happened.

As a woman, of course I had something else to worry about. Since the deaths of women had reached epidemic proportions, any woman either had a death sentence or a price on her head. Kevin and others were forever telling me about kidnappings, rich men �buying� women as sex slaves or breeders, as well as unconfirmed stories of military convoys going into Mexico and bringing back cargos of teenage girls.

The whole thing began in the summer of 2020 just as the U.S. Presidential race heated up. A new virus was discovered to have killed quite a few women in California, Nevada, Washington state, and Illinois. Scientists were baffled until Dr. Melvin Shapiro of the Mayo Clinic proved that the virus was a mutated form of a benign one found in the umbilicus of a developing fetus. Dr. Shapiro showed through exhaustive research and testing that the mutation had occurred during abortion procedures first in L.A. and then Chicago. With little help from the CDC, Shapiro traced the spread of the now deadly virus to the aforementioned states and eventually across the country. Because of the recently passed Choice Act, the Justice Department began to view Dr. Shapiro�s study as anti-abortion, and therefore in violation of the new statute which forbade any and all �actions� that would be detrimental to the abortion industry.

Publishing his findings and raising the alarm, even as women died, were viewed by the government as being violations of the Choice Act. While he was under investigation, other doctors confirmed his findings, however they soon went silent or retracted as Dr. Shapiro was indicted and jailed. Pro-Life protesters risked their freedom to demonstrate in support of the Doctor. That�s when he was moved to Guantanamo. No protesters there.

And now the possibility he was executed simply because he warned the world about an epidemic. George Orwell was right; he just got the year wrong.

�Gwen, be careful,� were Kevin�s only words to me as we left our friendly haven. As I walked to my car, I wondered if being careful was still possible.

My next-door neighbor was being loaded into an ambulance when I got home. She died the following day. A month later I was the only woman left on the office payroll. Many of my male colleagues had lost wives, mothers and girlfriends to the viral plague. One shy yet beautiful young woman in Administration simply vanished without a trace. Speculation was that she was kidnapped as a sex slave.

The men all looked at me, not as a survivor but as an affront to their loss, as if my very existence was a spit in the face. Some looked at me in other ways too. Their glances mirrored the looks I got from many men in public. I worked out, took care of myself, and remained fairly fit and good looking, so the stares and leers were driven by lust. I feared in time someone would act on their lust. Like Kevin warned, I had to be ready.

At first the virus gave the Pro-Life folks something to talk about, since actual protesting was now illegal. They claimed the virus was God�s retribution for the immorality of killing babies; until their wives and daughters succumbed to its lethality along with the �sinners.� En masse they failed to see the irony in applauding death in support of life.

I found it interesting that no one wanted to name the new, deadly virus. Usually the scientist who discovers it gets his or her name attached to the discovery, but no one wished to call it the Shapiro virus lest they credit the discredited. It was simply referred to as �The Virus,�, and I thought it fitting that the thing which may eventually take out the human race be a singularity.

Regardless of the ambiguity surrounding interpretation of the Choice Act, scientists were rumored to be working on discovering a cure and a vaccine. One obvious clue but yet to be understood was that the virus didn�t kill older women. Menopause seemed to be part of the equation but not all of it. Another irony: our current President who was losing in the polls was probably old enough not to be threatened by the virus, though she�d always been an outspoken voice for women�s rights, including the right to abortion on demand, and one of the driving voices behind the Choice Act signed into law by her male predecessor. The President�s daughter, her only child, hadn�t been seen in weeks; speculation ranging from her dying to her being hidden away at a remote military installation in the Arctic. In the meantime, women died around me but so far I remained healthy and alive.

Like all businesses, we suffered economically from the viral plague, not only in the workforce but in the marketplace as well. Many believed another Great Depression would soon be upon us. By this time, most men didn�t worry about the economy or their jobs. Women didn�t either; we worried about staying free�and alive.

Derek was one of my favorite coworkers. Devastated by the death of his wife and younger daughter, as well as the disappearance of his other daughter, he spent his days like a zombie, almost catatonic. I had been celibate for so long that, afraid to make any connection with a man lest I become a commodity in the new world order, horniness became my other torture. I masturbated all the time but received little satisfaction from the solitary acts. The only sex I�d had in months was once with Kevin in a moment of shared fear of the future.

On this particular day as those of us in the office pretended to work, waiting for the inevitable pink slip and the fall into anarchy, Derek came to my cubicle and asked me, �Gwen, can I make love to you, just once.�

Regardless of the lewd looks and numerous public catcalls since the viral menace struck, no man had ever asked me straight out for sex. At that moment, before I answered him, the revelation hit me that women who somehow survived the plague were not the victims but perhaps were now in a position of power�supply and demand, so to speak�if we so chose to grasp it.

I looked into his eyes, pleading, lovelorn eyes lost beyond his capacity to understand why he deserved such a fate, and I simply said �Yes.�

We left work early (what was the point in working a full day anyway?) and went to his house. He had no bravado to speak of, acting like a teenager who didn�t know the least bit about lovemaking. I took charge, undressing first before helping him out of his clothes. His cock didn�t need retraining. I led him to his own bed and performed oral sex on him, knowing that his first cum would be fast and therefore wasted on me. I figured that the majority of scientists were correct and that the virus didn�t use a male host and was not anyway transmitted via bodily fluids, so for him I gladly swallowed his copious load.

He thanked me, then quickly fell into a crying fit, lamenting the loss of his family more than the loss of the world as we knew it. I coaxed him easily back to rigidity, this time doing it for me. I felt the power as I sat astride Derek and rode him furiously, oblivious to when he came but relishing each of my multiple orgasms. It had been so long�that was my lament.

Of course he wanted more, but I was noncommittal. There were other men after all, and some had more to offer than Derek did. In many ways I decided that if I wasn�t going to die, I may as well use sex to get what I wanted.

Kevin and I met at our favorite bar one gray afternoon. Before we even got our drinks, he said, �Have you heard about the new wave of rustling going on?�

I nodded yet remained silent. �Rustlers� was the name given to bands of men who were combing the city, kidnapping and raping healthy young women and selling them like cattle.

He followed up with another �Be careful,� as we drank and pondered the sad state of the country and the world. The current administration proved to be as unprepared in dealing with the epidemic as it had been in dealing with the attack on Israel and the economy�s inability to ascend from another recession. The coordinated attack of Israel by a coalition of Arab states, led by Iran, was reported on some blogs as a new Holocaust, yet the U.S. Government remained mum on the subject and most major news outlets were amazingly silent. Our extremely liberal new Secretary of State condemned the attack with words, but adamantly stated the Administration�s belief that the U.S. people would not support another war and the �needless killing of our boys and girls on foreign soil� as with Iraq and Afghanistan.

�Orwell wasn�t the only one,� I said. �George Santayana was right too,� reminding Kevin of his famous quotation on the dangers of not learning from the past and thus being doomed to repeat it.

Kevin nodded. �Mentioning Orwell and Santayana somehow put a Thoreau quote into my head, �Although little boys kill frogs in play, the frogs die in earnest.� Have you ever heard that one?� he asked, and I shook my head. He added, �We don�t have leaders anymore, do we? All we have are little boys�and now girls�playing with the world and not understanding the consequences,� he said, answering his own question.

I said, �This laissez-faire attitude we have on the Middle East and the apparent slaughter in Israel reminds me of what I learned in school about the lead-up to the Second World War last century. That�s why I brought up Santayana. We�re fucked, aren�t we?�

Kevin chuckled, and then said, �Yeah, we don�t teach history anymore in school. Instead we teach �diversity� and �tolerance� and �social conscience� and all that stuff. Hand out condoms in grade school but deemphasize science and math. Yeah, we�re fucked.� Of course he was exaggerating, but right. I contemplated whether in our current state of American education we had the smarts anymore to combat the virus and develop a cure, never mind the political atmosphere hindering us from even going there.

Having literally cried in our beer once again, we left the bar only to find two rather large and burly men waiting for us. To be more precise, they were waiting for me. With one on either side of me, pushing a startled Kevin out of the way, they each took an arm as one of them said, �Please don�t resist. You�re coming with us.� When Kevin reacted and tried to get me away from them, the second man hit him and kept pounding on my much smaller friend.

I yelled �Stop! I�ll come with you peacefully just stop hurting my friend.� He stopped, so having seen the expensive car the men were hustling me towards, I called out to Kevin, �It�s okay�bound to happen sooner or later�at least it�s not rustlers.� I could only hope. As the big car sped away, I looked out at Kevin, maybe for the last time, seeing his shell-shocked expression and tears running down his cheeks.

�Is Gwen short for something? Like Gwendolyn perhaps?�

�No, It�s just plain Gwen on my birth certificate,� I said to Perkins Clark. Clark wasn�t the richest man in the country, but maybe he was the richest fish in this smaller pond. After his henchmen delivered me to his penthouse apartment, Perkins Clark proceeded to explain everything from his name, having a last name as his first (thus his question about mine) to how he�d �researched� me as his �selection.�

�I don�t see it. Why me, and not some younger, prettier woman who�d probably spread her legs more readily for your money?�

He chuckled and said, �Two reasons mostly�okay, maybe three. You�re an intelligent, discriminating woman who is much more than a fuck toy. Secondly, if the virus was going to take you, I think it would�ve by now, so maybe you�re immune or something. And one more reason�you�re more beautiful than your photos suggest.�

�What makes you think I�ll be your �fuck toy?� I won�t let you rape me.�

�I don�t rape any women I sleep with. I don�t force the issue. I figure that you�re a lusty woman who enjoys sex and sooner or later will decide it would be much better with me than with a band of rustlers�or losers like Derek.�

His �research� must have been thorough if he knew about my indiscretion with Derek. The man was as arrogant as I�d expect him to be, but he was also extremely handsome. If I was going to be anyone�s fuck toy then maybe Perkins Clark wouldn�t be so bad. He gave me a tour of his penthouse apartment, which was quite a bit larger than I imagined, taking up the top two floors of the high-rise building. One of the henchmen who picked me up was still there and introduced as Mario. If that didn�t build upon stereotypes then nothing would. I figured he�d have other women there, and I figured right. What surprised me though was their age. I was introduced to three older women, from their appearance spanning from forty-five to perhaps sixty. The oldest looking one was Claire, the youngest was Heather, and the middle one was Jackie. Each of them, though not exactly pretty, looked to have decent shapes and carried themselves in a sensual way that was difficult for me to explain further. If he was fucking these women, it put a whole new spin on Mr. Perkins Clark.

While I conversed with Claire and Jackie, Perkins excused himself, and taking Heather by the arm, left us. �She thought he was in the mood, but guessed he�d go for the new woman. That would be you,� Claire said. �I�m glad for her. She�s too much a nymphomaniac to go without for long�or to live in these times.�

�Do you both have sex with him?� I asked.

Jackie smiled and answered, �Of course, my dear. He�s a great lover, and I�ve never climaxed so magnificently with anyone else�before.�

Claire followed with �Yes, I fuck him too. I never thought that at my age I still would.� She paused, and then said, �Don�t worry, you will too. You�ll be his favorite.�

Kept women: the new order, I thought. �Are there others, or is it us four?� I asked.

�We used to be four before you were brought in, but Marie died,� said Claire.

�Was it the virus?�

Both women nodded. I asked them about their lives before Perkins Clark came into them. All three of the women remaining in the �harem� (and that�s how I thought about them�us now) were widows and childless, so at least Clark wasn�t taking women who were otherwise attached to a family. I told them of my history.

�We�re not isolated here. We�re not captives,� said Jackie. �Perkins�s men protect us when we go out�those rustlers, you know.�

Claire was about to speak when a rapid series of screams echoed through the apartment�s hallways. Both women blushed before Jackie said, �Heather�s having a good one.� Those weren�t blushes, I realized. Those were flushes of arousal.

Perkins and Heather soon joined us wearing bathrobes and looking flushed and sated. I didn�t get all my questions answered but there was still plenty of time ahead of me. I wasn�t going anywhere. What was the point? Following Perkins�s invitation to join him in �the theater,� the five of us proceeded to a large room which indeed was a home theater. He offered to make us all drinks, then pushed a button on a small remote control which opened a compartment, exposing a full bar. We merrily gave him our drink orders, and he mixed them all with a surprising bartender�s flourish.

Once situated on a large sofa central to the room, with post-orgasmic Heather on one side of him and horny Jackie on the other, he pushed another button and the screen became a very large TV. �I want to catch up on the news and then we�ll watch whatever you�d like,� he said before sipping his drink. Sitting in one of the plush recliners around the sofa, being the newcomer I watched the interplay of the group more than the liberal media propaganda that passed for news. Clark seemed to be eating it up. For her part, Jackie wasn�t watching the news either. Instead her hand was inside Clark�s robe. Some decent tenting told me her ministrations were having an effect. Heather�s eyes were still glazed over from the sex. Claire watched the younger women with an expression suggesting humor, like they were amateurs and she the professional.

I had no doubt I could survive here with this group, but was it living, especially if Perkins Clark believed all the bullshit? He then showed me how wrong my initial impression of him was.

�See what I�ve been telling you all for months,� he said with passion. �These puppets still talk like what�s going on in the Middle East is a friendly game of chess.� He looked at me, as if being the new member of the group made me an impartial judge with a fresh ear. �The President can�t even publically admit her daughter is dead, for God�s sake. She still thinks this virus thing is �manageable� and a cure is right around the corner. Her predecessor has already lost both his daughters to the virus. She and her stupid cabinet can�t see that other countries�Muslim countries, mind you�are working on a vaccine they surely won�t share with the West. I�ve seen data that suggests the ratio here in the good ol� U S of A�right now�is one woman for every 20.2 men. And more women are dying every day.�

He pushed a button on his remote and then picked up a keyboard unit. He hit a few keys and an Internet page came on the big screen. Now that he was wound up he ignored what Jackie was doing; though his robe had opened and he remained hard. I had to admit, he had an impressive piece of manhood.

He scrolled through some data on a web page I never heard of, and then explained, �The real news is here. Our own government is beginning to herd women onto military depots and bases like so much cattle. A friend of Dr. Shapiro was chosen to lead a team of scientists who would artificially impregnate those women with eggs some egghead claimed were 90% sure to grow to be girl babies. He refused his �assignment� and is presumed to be as dead as his late friend.�

I spoke up, �I�m not sure which side to believe anymore, but the world is getting more and more ironic. Abortion �rights� got us into this mess, the Choice Act made sure we killed a smart man who could have figured out a cure, and now they�re impregnating young women and girls as captive livestock to perpetuate life.�

�I knew I made the right choice,� Clark said, looking at me with a combined expression of lust and smug satisfaction. I noticed his cock never wilted even though Jackie had lost interest. Viagra? �Just wait until men realize they won�t have any women in their lives, even if their women survive the virus. What do you think, Gwen? Will they storm the castle?�

�Are you talking government facilities where the women are, or this place?�

He laughed. �I�ve got a lot of protection on my payroll, but I suppose enough angry men could storm this place�if they knew.�

�None of us are spring chickens,� I said. �So maybe we won�t be on anyone�s wish list for a while. Is that why you chose us?�

He laughed again. �Heaven forbid! I want women, not silly girls. If age plays a part in that, so be it.�

Clark went on to show us different web views that showed �evidence� of an Iranian nuclear bomb test that the Western news media wouldn�t report on. We talked about the possibilities of a Third World War, especially in light of the attack on Israel, what happened in Syria and Turkey, and now in Jordan.

I could tell his cock was slowly taking over his thoughts, so it was no surprise when he said, �Claire, Heather and Gwen�will you excuse us for a while, then we�ll have dinner.� We weren�t going to watch any more television. Jackie was going to get hers after all.

As we were leaving the room, he pecked at a few more keys on his keyboard and a porn video sprang to life in solid 3D detail on the large screen. The last thing I saw before walking out was an extremely large cockhead ready to penetrate the hairless vulva of a young girl of indeterminate age.

The sounds of Jackie�s orgasm came later.

After a splendid dinner with polite conversation, Claire pulled me aside and asked if I would sleep with Perkins that night.

�I wasn�t planning on it,� I said. �Why, did he put in a request? He�s already boffed Heather and Jackie today. I thought he�d rather sleep.�

Claire blushed, which still seemed an endearing fault of a woman her age. �No�no�he hasn�t said anything to me. I just wondered��

�Like an old-fashioned courtship, I think I�ll wait for him to make the first move.�

She blushed again. �I�m sorry for being so nosey. What you do is your choice.� She left me wondering if her initial question was meant to assess if there was a place for her in Perkins Clark�s bed tonight.

Clark made no advance to me that evening though he insisted on a goodnight kiss. I put on the pajamas that had been provided for me. Silky and comfortable, so they must have been as expensive as everything else around here. If I was going to be a kept woman then so far I had nothing to complain about.

I didn�t fall asleep right away; the state of the world as well as the state of �me� had my mind working too much for easy sleep. Whether several hours or just minutes passed after sleep found me, I awoke to someone climbing into bed next to me. �Please Perkins, don�t push it, okay?� I said.

The arm that went around me and the voice that responded wasn�t Perkins Clark. But the body was as naked as I suspected it would be. �Please don�t send me away, Gwen. I want you and I need you.� It was Claire, and her hand went to my breast.

All I could think about to say was, �I�m not bisexual.�

�You don�t have to be bi, just be open to my love,� she whispered, and as I turned to face her, Claire�s lips met mine.

As if I wasn�t already in foreign territory, I willed myself not to balk at her advance. I let go, and the kiss easily became passionate. Her hands were all over my body, eventually inside my pajama pants and caressing my pussy. I didn�t have to see it; I felt my clit respond to her touch by swelling and stiffening. She knew what she was doing better than most men. In turn, I explored her body as she began pulling off my pajamas. If I didn�t know better I�d swear that she was in her thirties, not her sixties. Her small breasts were nonetheless still firm enough, and her skin smooth. Surprise�she had a shaved pubis. I�d stopped shaving down there long ago.

And she was sopping wet.

I was afraid my cunnilingus skill level�which was zero�couldn�t come close to my skill at fellatio, one I can humbly say is top notch, so I lay back and let her take me first. She kissed me all over, whispering how much she lusted for me as soon as she saw me. Her mouth found its way to my pussy and her tongue soon located my horny little clit. She licked, nibbled and sucked on me until I threw my head back and groaned loudly, which for me was an ungodly screaming orgasm. I�m never loud.

Claire was, though. I knew what I liked, after all, so I mimicked what had been done to me over the years. Her taste was interesting. Being so extremely wet, I thought it would be distasteful yet cunnilingus with her certainly wasn�t. My tongue detected a slight increase in her juices which my mind grasped as an indication of looming climax.

Booming was a more appropriate adjective. She clutched my head and screamed, depositing a good dollop of cum juice on my mouth and chin. We kissed again and thus shared our wetness with each other. She spent the night in my bed.

In the morning, she acted shy, as if she was having second thoughts about the sex. I assured her of my enjoyment even as I marveled at her young-looking body now on display in the morning light. Her shyness, her timidity wasn�t an act. This was who she was.

�Why are you here, Claire? You obviously desire women before men. Is it the security Perkins offers?�

She looked pained as she answered me. �You�re an amazingly perceptive young woman. I guess that�s the way to put it�security.� Again she blushed deeply. �I�ve been more lesbian than bisexual my entire life but I figured sleeping with Perkins Clark was preferable to being out there��

She didn�t need to elaborate on what �out there� meant. I said, �Does Perkins even know? He selected you, after all.�

�He �selected� me, I think, on my younger-than-I-am body, clueless about my sexual preference. I know how to make him happy, and that�s all he cares about.� She moved closer to me and added, �Thank you for making me happy.�

I smiled. �You�re welcome. It may have been my first, but I enjoyed it.�

�Will there be a second�?� she said coyly.

I kissed her, or more accurately I let her kiss me. When our lips parted, I said, �What do you think?�

After we dressed, we made no attempt to hide the fact we slept together, though no one said a word about both of us exiting my bedroom. Perkins awoke in an exuberant mood and wanted to know what the four of us wanted to do. I wasn�t in the mood for planning a holiday sort of day, but it seemed that Heather and Jackie were veteran window shoppers and wanted to hit the stores. I thought their urge was mostly a nostalgic one since the selections, like everything else nowadays, were pretty poor. As long as we didn�t tempt fate with the rustlers I saw no reason not to go along.

We took the extra large SUV that Perkins merrily confessed was illegal (�Let the bastards arrest me�) and with one of his bodyguards driving and another riding shotgun, we went shopping.

In the first up-scale shop, Perkins pulled me aside and said, �You�re not into much of this, are you?�

�You mean am I like Jackie and Heather? No I�m not.�

�Will you sleep with me tonight?�

I kind of guessed he�d be direct but I was taken aback nonetheless for a few seconds before answering. �Yes I will, but nothing kinky,� I said, �and I might just take the top.� Yes, I�d thought about my response ahead of time.

I didn�t dare look, but his facial expression told me he was probably getting an erection thinking about what I said. He squeezed my ass and I let him; the price I had to pay.

On the way to Clark�s building after our shopping trip, we crossed paths with a band of rustlers who were pulling a kicking and screaming young woman into a beat up old van. The idea of marauding rustlers kidnapping women was only a vague concept to me until I saw the woman�s face. I cried because I couldn�t save her. I cried because there wasn�t anything I could do to save my world. The rustlers took interest in us as we passed but must have figured from the vehicle that we probably had more firepower than they did. We passed them by, and I cried.

Perkins tried to cheer me up all day but he saw how morose I�d gotten so he left me alone. I used his computer connections to look for news the television wouldn�t share with us. There were many crackpot blogs who shamelessly exaggerated conditions the other way too. One blogger was claiming he saw statistics that eighty percent of the women in the U.S. were either killed by the virus or killed by men in some crazy raping frenzy, like women were to blame for their own demise. Eighty percent? I found that number unbelievable, but who was to say it wasn�t true?

I kept thinking that the virus should have been named the Irony Virus. Women�mostly feminists�clamored for �choice,� calling themselves pro-choice rather than pro-abortion. Most are dead now, and they had little �choice� in the matter. The equally sanctimonious men who called themselves pro-life were now in hiding, not willing to put up a fight against the politicians, rustlers and others who were taking the lives of people like Mel Shapiro and the freedom of their wives and daughters who somehow managed to still be alive. Whose daughter was the girl we saw on the street today? What about her �life�?

I refused to believe that no one would find a cure in time to save the world. Would there be a generation after the next one? Would all girl babies of this generation eventually die? I thought of Eve, the biblical rendition of the first woman. What name would the last woman on Earth have? If it was all going to happen, I�d fight for that name to be Gwen.

With my fury still burning like an unchecked wildfire, I went to bed and fucked Perkins Clark�s brains out.

Afterward I had no doubt little blue pills were in play. He was amazingly erect while I gave him a strip tease, my breasts better than what the other three women in his harem had to offer. He moaned when I climbed onto the bed between his legs and took his cock in my mouth. Last night may have been my first attempt at cunnilingus, but fellatio was an old friend. I took him deep into my throat, having long ago mastered controlling my gag reflex. He kept up a string of compliments on my skill until the timbre in his voice began to change and I knew he was about to cum.

�Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Sweeeeet Jeeeeeeeeezus!� he muttered as I pulled him from my lips in time to get a massive facial that would have choked me otherwise.

I used the bed sheet to clean his load from my face. I used some saliva as improvised lubrication. Then with the obvious help of Viagra, I got astride him and mounted his still hard cock. I fantasized being with a few memorable men in my life as I lost track of time and simply bounced up and down on the full length of his tumescent shaft. Whether he came or not was immaterial. It was my orgasm that mattered, and I had multiples.

I slept with him. During the night he woke me with his prodding cock and I let him fuck me from behind, spooning. I fell asleep halfway through the act. I hoped he had a good cum.

The fact I didn�t care about safe sex anymore indicated I�d become resigned to my fate, whether it was the virus getting me or something else. What I wasn�t resigned to, as I was discovering, was boredom. Even with my developing kinship with Claire, being cooped up here with this group made me feel as if brain cells were dying daily.

Perkins kept us informed on what was happening, often counter to what the old-school media was feeding us. Most bloggers were painting a picture of the U.S. falling into anarchy, like some bad sci-fi apocalyptic movie. Of course even our greatest science fiction authors, save for Frank Herbert, couldn�t foresee this scenario of the female gender of Homo sapiens being wiped from the planet.

One day I bribed one of Clark�s bodyguards, Bill (who everyone called Bull) to get me out of the building. For my sanity I needed to reconnect with my old life; hopefully see Kevin and find out how he was doing. I bribed Bill with the oldest weapon in the world. No, not a club or a stone, but with my pussy. It certainly wasn�t a revelation that sex was a woman�s only leverage now. I vowed to exercise that power as long as I was alive. Besides, Bull wasn�t just a nickname. All parts of him were bull-like, including what went between my thighs. I got more than temporary freedom from my bribe.

The streets were weirdly silent. Perhaps those men not rustlers or crooks settled into a bunker mentality. How did they live then? Was there still an economy, or was everything barter and beg? Bull took me to Kevin�s place.

�Gwen! Heaven�s alive!� Kevin shrieked when he answered his door. �I never thought I�d see you again!�

His hug was crushing. I teared up, thinking while we hugged that Kevin was my best friend in the world; a man, which was another irony considering the plague and its consequences.

I filled him in on my �kidnapping� by Perkins Clark. Afterwards he openly wondered how he, or anyone for that matter, could survive much longer without adding to the lawlessness. �It�s crazy,� he said. �Actually, you�re the first woman I�ve seen in two weeks.� He told me about one particular leader of a group of organized rustlers who was setting up a de facto East Coast government. He used to be a Republican congressman from New York who found himself on the outs when the party folded after the last election. �They say he�s a pretty charismatic guy who�s seeing the long term picture of where the ratio is leading us.� Ratio was the code word everyone was using to describe the new reality of very few women to hundreds of men.

After he told me more about this charismatic anarchist, Kevin and I made love. Slow and tenderly we took care of each other�s needs more completely than any mere sex act could do. It wasn�t until I was back in the car with Bull did I think about how profound the lovemaking had been. In a different universe we�d probably be married. In this one, we were doomed to be friends.

Perkins was pissed that I�d left the �safety� of his penthouse. I unceremoniously told him to go screw himself, or since that would be anatomically improbable, to screw one of the other women and leave me alone. I retreated to the theater and visited the Internet. As I was learning as much as I could about Richard Fund, the rogue leader Kevin told me about, Claire joined me.

�Perkins was talking about him the other day,� she said. �I think he�s worried about that guy because he knows his money won�t protect him.�

I said, �He�s probably right. Seeing that there�s no John Galt around to save the world, maybe this Fund dude is our only hope.�

�He�s a hope?� Claire asked, with incredulity in her voice.

�If what I�m learning is true, Richard Fund may be our�women�s� salvation. Do you know what polyandry is?�

I went on to explain a phenomenon found in the animal kingdom but unheard of in the history of mankind. �You know what polygamy is, right? Well, polyandry is like the opposite, where a female has more than one male mate. Because of the ratio, why should women like us be tied to one man? Why should we continue being slaves?�

�But, the rustlers��

�Rustlers are just simple-minded men who don�t see beyond tomorrow. What I�m talking about are real men, those who we would be attracted to, even you,� I said, referring to her confessed lesbian tendency. �I bet natural leaders like Richard Fund are frustrated in not finding intelligent and suitably attractive older women who have survived the virus. We can be those women, Claire. You and me.�

�You�re talking about reaching out to this man, aren�t you?�

�Why not? Otherwise what do we have to live for?�

�We can stay here and live for each other.�

�And how long will that last if Perkins decides we�re not worthy to be in his harem?�

She didn�t need to answer that question. She�d probably been thinking about that possibility ever since she got here.

I used every cyber tool at Perkins Clark�s disposal to gather information on Mr. Fund. If earlier campaign photos were an indication, the ex-congressman was an extremely handsome man in a rugged, outdoorsy sort of way. Everything I found suggested that he was a moderate and a careful thinker who didn�t care which side of the aisle a good idea came from. Besides left-wing propaganda bullshit, how could this guy lose an election?

Locating a couple of communication links, I sent out a message, hoping my intuition that no women would purposely seek him out was correct. It didn�t take long for Fund to respond. He was obviously intrigued by my offer and wanted to know more. He gave me a number to voice-call.

A blow-job, a cum filled mouth and a sore jaw later, I convinced Bull to let me borrow his encrypted ultra-phone.

Fund was cautious during our conversation, letting me do the talking. His caution more than likely came about because he suspected a trap. My job was to assure him it wasn�t.

�How many lieutenants do you have, Mr. Fund?� I asked.

�Please call me Rick. For one thing, we�re not an army, so I have no lieutenants. What I have is a leadership team of eight good men. Why do you ask?�

�Do these eight men have women?�

�You know the answer to that. There aren�t enough women to go around, and besides, contrary to what you hear on the bullshit news, we�re not rustlers.�

�Do you have a woman?�

�That�s quite a personal question. What do you think?�

This was the critical moment. I said, �I think you do, and I bet you worry about how your staff thinks about her. I bet she�s older but good looking, and I bet your men do a lot of raping in their frustration, and that bothers a man like you to no end.�

�You think you know about me and my men?� he said, and I picked up his tone change.

�Of course I don�t know you, but I�m intelligent enough to know how these things work. I like what I see you doing. What this country has become is a broken society, and you might be our best hope, cure or no cure. As I said before, my friend and I will marry your entire eight man staff, as long as we�re not merely fuck toys but part of that staff. I�ll send whatever pictures you want. Show your men. Let them decide, but only you can decide on us joining the leadership.�

�You�ve got balls, lady, looking to service eight sex-starved men.�

�Not service�marry�be wives�share�two for eight.�

He took me up on the offer of pictures and explained how best to send them. Now it was up to Claire and me to make a good impression.

It took two days, but Fund sent a carefully worded message and a new number to call. Another blow job and I had Bull�s ultra-phone again. Claire and I retreated to a corner of the penthouse suite and made the call. Rick said his men liked the nude candid shots of us, knowing that with the newest digital technology they weren�t fakes. He said he was going out on a limb and agreeing to our arrangement before meeting us, warning me that once we went to him, there was no turning back. �Once you�re here, you�re in,� was how he put it.

I received a promise that if Bull delivered us to his location that he�d be safe and allowed to leave. Rick agreed.

After closing the call, I asked Claire if she was ready to make the most important move of her life. �You heard him�no going back.�

�It�s the eight men I�m having a hard time getting my mind around. But I think I can do it, as long as I�m with you.�

�Just remember, we set the rules, not those guys. Polyandry, remember? We�re the �wives� and we�re in charge. Needless to say, it was easier to say than to believe.

Claire and I let Bull fuck us in payment for the transportation and security he�d provide. Whenever Perkins, Heather and Jackie were occupied we�d sneak clothing and essentials down to the SUV in preparation for leaving. Since Perkins was getting used to me bribing Bull for rides, he thought nothing of Claire and I leaving with him on that last day.

Claire�s only comment as we were leaving was to whisper, �I hope none of our future husbands are as big as Bull. I�m going to be sore for days.� I stifled a laugh.

Bull was silent as he drove, but I continually assured him he was safe and that we would be too. By the time we reached the rendezvous point, we were all as nervous as hell. Bull was all set with his cover story about how we �escaped� from his protection. I knew Perkins wouldn�t punish him even if he sensed the story was false.

I imagined every scenario from a paramilitary group, like a militia, to a bunch of religious zealots. What I met was a group of men, most in business suits, who looked more like Feds than people trying to supplant them. Richard Fund welcomed us warmly then thanked Bull for his service and sent him on his way. We were in an industrial park outside Albany, in a clean and orderly warehouse that looked like it just recently was abandoned. We retired to a large conference room that, with its mahogany walls and computer equipment, could easily have belonged to a Fortune 500 company.

Fund began the meeting by introducing his staff. Claire and I looked at each other�the eight men were all hunks, probably ex-college football players. Each of them had variations of the same expression on his face; part curiosity and part hunger. Hunger for sex, that is. I wondered how long they had gone without it, since first impressions dictated that this group wasn�t the rape-and-pillage type. Claire and I gave the men an encapsulation of our lives up until the virus struck and how each of us hooked up with Perkins Clark.

�May I call you Richard?� I asked.

�Please call me Rick.�

�Okay, Rick, like I said when I first contacted you. We like what you�re doing and see your organization as maybe our only hope for the future�any future. Since the epidemic hasn�t claimed us, we recognize the cold hard fact that there aren�t enough women to go around. We�re not prostitutes. We want to be wives�share your lives, be part of this. An equal part if you�ll let us, and we know that kind of trust must be earned. We want to earn your trust, and maybe someday your love.� As I said the last sentence I gestured to include all the men, not just Rick Fund.

He said, �The epidemic is now a pandemic. I trust you know the difference.� I nodded just as a woman walked into the room and went to Rick�s side. She had long blond hair and a lithe figure shown off by the clingy knit dress she wore. The hair and clothes suggested a younger woman until you looked closely at her face, which was heavily wrinkled and spotted. Richard Fund�s woman.

�This is my wife, Sophia,� he said, before introducing us to her.

She looked at us with a keen eye. �So, you�re the brides,� she said. �Are you sure you can handle these guys?� Her gesture toward the men was much like mine, and clearly meant not to include Rick.

�We can handle a lot of things,� Claire said, surprising me with the strength of her voice.

�Good,� Rick said quickly. �Why don�t you two get to know your future husbands? They can give you a tour of our new headquarters and afterwards show you the staff quarters.�

The men were eager to show us around, though their eagerness was really to be around us. As Claire and I memorized their names and learned a little bit about each man�s personality, we challenged them to think about what our marriage proposal was all about. I knew they�d have a hard time adjusting to our two-to-eight polyandry and I wanted them to think about the relationships beyond sex.

I was taken aback by what we saw. The warehouse was both an office building and an armory, although I still didn�t get any militia vibes. �This place is like a government building,� I said in wonder.

Bryan, who appeared to be the senior man of the eight, said �Basically, it is. Except for the City, we run New York now, that�s why we�re in Albany. Old habits die hard, I guess.�

�You run the whole state?�

He smiled, �Like I said, we�re the government now. No blood, no election.�

I was suitably awed. �And Washington let you do it?�

�What�s in Washington anymore? The President�s probably getting gang-banged by her Secret Service detail, though why anyone would want to screw that frigid witch is beyond me. Except for the suitcase, there�s no more central power in DC.� The �suitcase� he referred to was probably what some popularly call �the football,� the nuke command codes that are always with the President.

Claire chastised him. �Don�t be derogatory toward any woman. Not ever again. Even if they played a part in all this, no women can ever be demeaned from now on. You understand?�

Bryan surprised me by humbly saying, �Yes, Ma�am.�

That was the moment I knew this would work.

Claire sidled up closer to him, took him by the arm, and smiling said, �Don�t start calling your wife Ma�am, you hear me?� All the men laughed.

We went to a cafeteria-like dining hall where we had coffee and talked about our vision for marriage. The guys were inhibited in talking about sex but eventually we got them to open up and discuss the logistics of who would sleep with whom. Then we planned the wedding and called Rick to tell him our plans.

�Tonight?� he said, with much more humor in his voice than concern.

Since we were on the speaker phone, I said, �You don�t want these men to live in sin, do you?� which got everyone laughing at the absurdity of the concept in today�s paradigm and in light of our unusual marriage arrangement.

I won�t go into all the details of the wedding, but the ceremony was more than perfunctory. We didn�t wear white dresses and the grooms didn�t wear tuxedos; however some nice finery was procured and both Claire and I were splendidly dressed, if I may be so allowed to say. Rick said a few words, echoing our desire to be partners, not subservient spouses, and all Claire and I could do was hope he meant it.

However the men decided (drawing straws?) on a schedule, one was put together for the wedding night. Claire and I spent a couple of hours primping for what was sure to be a sleepless night. I don�t know where they got the stuff so quickly, but Claire asked for a waxing kit and got one. She shaved and waxed me smooth, commenting that our new husbands would appreciate my �clean� feel. After showering we got into the mood by giving each other a clit-sucking, mind-blowing orgasm.

�Are you ready for this?� I asked Claire as we dressed in the Victoria�s Secret lingerie that Sofia had delivered to us.

�Of course I am. I trust your instincts, Gwen. As long as we�re together I�d fuck any man.�

It was a weird declaration of love, but I�d take it.

We were set up in one room which was a guest bedroom in the warehouse. It was explained to us that the entire industrial park was now a residential commune, with most of the new government�s minions, not just the top staff, living in the converted buildings. Bryan came to us first. Neither I nor Claire asked how he got to go first. For a big man and a natural looking leader, he was extremely nervous so we first had to put him at ease by seducing him the old fashioned way. We double teamed him out of his clothes before we encouraged him to not be afraid and touch us.

�Don�t worry, we won�t break,� I whispered in his ear. He was so hyper that once Claire was out of her lingerie and naked, one touch of her breasts had him moaning as he came in several torrential sprays of hot semen. I got most of it, soaking my lingerie which gave me the excuse (as if I needed one) to get naked myself.

He was embarrassed. We cleaned up a little then went back to work on him, though it didn�t take much to get the sex-starved man erect again. As he caressed my larger breasts and began to moan, I thought he�d ejaculate prematurely again. I winked at Claire, pushed Bryan onto his back and hastily mounted him. He came quickly again but I didn�t mind; I knew that�s pretty much how the night would go.

We curled up on either side of him. He awkwardly admitted, �It�s been so long��

Claire caressed his chest and said, �We understand. The plague hasn�t been easy for good men like you, who want a woman to be a companion and more than a sex object. That�s what Gwen and I want for all of you, to be your companions, to share your lives.�

Bryan gave us both a kiss before joking, �I guess I should get out of here so Louis can get to know you two better.�

Louis turned out to not be as shy as Bryan. Since my lingerie was soiled by Bryan�s inadvertent cumshot, I found a robe in the closet and put it on while Claire donned her nighty once more, before we ushered Louis into the bedroom. Louis was determined to prove his prowess so he insisted on doing us both doggie-style. We got naked and on our hands and knees next to each other and let him take us. His grip on my hips was firm as he pounded into me first. He must have sensed he was going to cum, so he switched to Claire and finished deep in her vagina. She had quite the creampie.

The night went on like that until each man was fully satisfied. After the eighth man left, a knock on the door surprised us. Before we said to come in, Claire wondered if the visitor was one of the guys looking for seconds. Instead, it was Sofia.

�I must admit, you two surprised me,� she said after she entered the room.

I said, �You mean that we kept the sex going all night?�

�No. That the men have been so vocal about how attentive and considerate you were to them. They�re telling Rick about how much you seemed to care about them personally. I think Geno is already in love with you, Claire.�

�Gwen and I wouldn�t have it any other way. We want to be part of something right, something just, and we think your Rick is the leader we want to follow, to get us there.�

Sofia said, �That�s good to hear. Rick has done some great things in these trying times, and I�m proud to be a part of it.� With my robe loosely open, I saw here sneak peeks at my exposed body. Finally, after once more telling us how welcome we were, she commented that maybe she would like to get to know us better too.

After she left, telling us we could sleep all day if we liked since we were awake all night, Claire chuckled and said, �A woman after my own heart. I bet we could melt that ice�oh God, I can taste her now!�

Life around here was sure to be interesting.

We settled into a comfortable routine, spending time with our husbands so no one felt left out, which wasn�t easy. For their part, and Rick�s, we had full access to information as well as being listened to on decisions that needed a woman�s viewpoint, especially since there were so few of us left.

We all cried when we learned of the three neutron bombs that decimated Israel. For its part, the U.S. government shamefully did nothing. In the meantime, Rick Fund continued to build strong alliances with East Coast bankers and powerful businessmen, ignoring most of the politicians who thought they controlled something.

Following a conference we weren�t allowed to attend, Rick confided that some monumental changes were about to happen but we had to keep a low profile before they did �Lest the anarchists and petty gang leaders try to consolidate and make our job more difficult.�

Sofia made a pass but I gently suggested that Claire would be a better choice. After that conversation, I�d see the two of them slink off occasionally. Afterwards, Sofia would have a glow about her that indeed suggested that Claire was melting the ice, and I imagined the puddle.

I sensed that the �monumental� changes were beginning to happen when Rick took me aside and confided many things to me.

�Did you ever hear of a Dr. Joshua Melvin?� he asked me. When I said I hadn�t, he continued, �The man was slated to be executed under the Choice Act when, shall we say, I rescued him. He was a colleague of Dr. Shapiro and expressed some interesting ideas on a vaccine for the virus. He�s alive and well and working in a laboratory in Cambridge, Mass.�

�I appreciate being confided in, but why are you telling me about this doctor?�

�Because I�ve come to appreciate your advice, your loyalty and understanding about what needs to be done. But the real reason I�m telling you this is because of my daughter.�

�Your daughter?�

He called out and a slender girl of around ten or eleven tentatively entered the room. The resemblance was evident. She was a shy cutie. She said �Hi� but waited for her father to say more.

�Gwen, this is Lauren,� he said, then �Lauren, this is my friend Gwen.� We awkwardly shook hands. I guessed �friend� was easier to explain than wife to all his staff. �Lauren here is the reason I�m telling you about Dr. Melvin. You see, we had the foresight to realize what would happen, so I kidnapped Dr. Melvin and put him to work. Most government flunkies think he�s dead and that�s good enough for me. When women started dying, Susan�my wife and Lauren�s mom�was smart enough to quarantine Lauren to increase the odds of saving her from the virus. Unfortunately I couldn�t save Susan.�

A solitary tear rolled down his cheek, and his daughter hugged him. He continued, �Dr. Melvin has developed a vaccine, and I did the only thing I could do. I made my little girl a guinea pig, but so far she�s been healthy. I think the damn thing is licked.� More tears and more hugs followed.

This was amazing news. I asked, �What�s the strategy? Are more women being tested?�

�A lot more than you might realize. I met Sofia after Susan died, when me, Bryan and others began to quarantine women and girls who were still alive. The ones that we managed to keep alive have all been vaccinated. We�re coming back!�

�Are we going to share?�

He knew what I meant, and cryptically said that was part of the master plan to bring the country back to where it should be.

I gave Lauren a hug and told her that she had the greatest father in the world. But she already knew that.

So, life went on. The men grew so accustomed to the polyandry, and with each other, that we often tossed out schedules and had one, big, hours-long orgy. Since the day I met her Claire didn�t look her age, but all the activity and attention absolutely rejuvenated her. I lost her as a lover to both our husbands and to Sofia. Rick knew what was going on but said he didn�t mind, and I didn�t mind either.

One night that I begged off sex and Claire was sleeping with two of the men, Rick came to my bedroom. While he undressed, he explained what was happening in Washington and elsewhere. I sucked his cock while listening to the amazing news. At least he didn�t talk while he fucked me silly.

Afterward he went into more detail. The President was detained trying to get to Canada. It wasn�t on Air Force One. �I guess she finally decided what �choice� really meant,� he said. �and now she knows that raising children�really keeping them safe and alive�takes more than a �village.� She�s going to resign, but most of the men who are in line for succession are either dead or missing. What�s left of the Supreme Court is meeting today to decide what to do, basically deciding the fate of the United States of America.

He was excited enough that he stayed hard and we giddily humped for another hour until no more cum juice could emanate from either one of us.

The pandemic was over. Fewer and fewer girls were dying, and although atrocities still occurred, the fate of the world had turned a corner.

Rick looked stupendous in his tuxedo, ready to take on that world, which in fact was what he was doing. After Sofia kissed him and Lauren gave him a big hug, I took him aside and whispered, �You�re the handsomest ever to be sworn in. How does it sound when they call you the forty-sixth President of the United States?�

�Like it�s a dream�or a nightmare,� he answered, feeling overwhelmed with the challenges ahead.

�The nightmare has ended. You�ll do fine. Anyone who can put together a government like you did and make it work�almost a bloodless coup, is a genius as well as a first-rate leader.� Unashamed, I gave him a good luck kiss.

�I�m not done with you yet,� he said with a smile. �Gwen, there�s a place for you in my cabinet if you want it.�

�I�m not qualified for that.�

�Anyone who schemed her way into my life and organization like you did certainly is qualified.� Then he leaned closer and whispered, �But I know what else you�re qualified for.� We both laughed heartily before he proceeded to the podium.

Only the second person ever to become President without being elected to either VP or the higher office, Richard Fund would lead us back from the brink. Surrounded by Claire and our common-law husbands, I watched him swear to uphold the Constitution, and for once in my life I believed the person taking the oath meant it. Who would think that a man not constitutionally elected would actually believe in the Constitution?

I thought, why not one more irony.

Tomorrow, I�ll start hunting for Kevin.

Donna M.

You can e-mail me at boredbutstillhot@yahoo.com

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