They continued on, moving through the streets, killing a few more zombies as they went, but mercifully not running across any more of the queen's guards. Nero guessed that they had seen them enter that building via the zip wire and had sent a team over specifically to that building to hunt them down. But things had not gone their way, Nero thought. Score one to the Road Knights.
Rounding another corner, Kat stopped. Nero walked up next to her and saw what had made her pause.
The subway entrance yawned wide before them, the steps that led into it disappeared into darkness all too quickly. Nero looked over at Kat. She did not seem quite as sure about this as she had been just moments before.
‘It’s down there,’ she said.
‘Alright,’ Nero said, and pulled out his torch. Flicking the switch, the light flared once and then died. ‘Shit,’ he exclaimed. Fumbling in his pockets, he hunted for the batteries he’d found in the destroyer but found nothing. They were in his car, he realised, which was only a few hundred meters the other way, and yet, currently completely inaccessible.
Grumbling to himself, he looked around for ideas. He felt confident he could create something to do the job. Moving over to a nearby ruined building, he stepped inside and soon found some wooden furniture. Within moments, he’d broken off some lengths of wood, wrapped the ends in fabric, and then from a hipflask he always kept on him, lightly dowsed them in gasoline. Nero used a flint and steel to light one of the torches and then used the first one to light the second before stepping up to the entrance to the subway and looking over to Kat.
‘Shall we?’ he asked her.
Kat nodded and took the lead, stepping down into the darkness below.
Chapter 16
Nyx
Having found an unoccupied seat, Nyx sat curled up on the chair, her feet up, her arms wrapped around her knees as she listened to the queen's gasps. It had been like this for the last couple of hours since she’d apparently had enough of Nyx. She’d then been picking one or more of the girls in here and demanding that they pleasure her. Sometimes the queen would leave the room for a bit, before returning, sometimes with items or toys she’d use on one of the girls, sometimes with new outfits. A couple of the girls in here were now on their hands and knees, a ball gag harness strapped around their faces attached to a lead around their necks with a horsetail butt plug stuffed up their rear. The queen would get them to walk around on their hands and knees or lead them around the room by the lead. Any time any of them showed any reluctance, she didn’t hesitate to lash out or get a guard to come over and dish out some punishment.
Nyx looked over towards the bed. The queen lay on her back with another girl between her legs, using her mouth and tongue to pleasure her. As she watched, the queen looked a bit bored and lifted her head up. She waited there for a moment before she lashed out with her hand, clipping the girl around the side of her head.
The girl yelped once, briefly, before sitting up, but keeping her eyes down, averted from the queen.
‘What do you call that? Hmm? You call that pleasuring me? That’s fucking pathetic, Tan. You hear me? Pathetic. I should bring your sister in here right now and have the guards put a bullet through her head? Would that motivate you? Or maybe I’ll have a guard start fucking her, right here in front of you? You know I don’t care. I’ve done it before to some of these other whores,’ she said, sweeping her hand over the naked girls in the room. ‘I’ll do it with you, too. You know I will. I don’t fucking care. Now, get your act together and give me a fucking orgasm, bitch, before I show you what pain really is. You think you have it hard in here? Hmm? You live in the lap of fucking luxury, all of you. You have warmth, safety, food, water, and all I ask is that you give me some fucking pleasures in return; that’s all I ask, and some of you can’t even do that, can you? You scrawny little fuck bags, fucking hell,’ she said, before looking back at the girl she’d called Tan. ‘Now work your fucking magic, girl, or I’ll fuck your day right up, got it?’
Tan nodded quickly, and as the queen lay back once more, she lowered herself down between the queen's legs and went to work on her once more.
Nyx didn’t consider that outburst from the queen a very motivational speech, but it seemed to do the job with Tan, and within a few minutes, the queen was starting to writhe about and apparently enjoying herself.
Nyx looked away. Seeing Tan do this and the queen act like that, brought back too many bad memories from her time at the Watchtower as a slave. The fact that she’d been thrown right back into it, and from what she could see around her, into a much worse situation than she had been in before, made her feel sick to her stomach.
Looking into the faces of the girls around her, she saw only shells. These were broken women for the most part. Their spirits shattered, they looked like they lived each day in a state not much different to the undead corpses outside. Going through the motions and doing as the queen asked, putting on whatever mask they needed to. She suspected some might still harbour some hope, some spark of life, wishing for the day that they might be set free, released back into the world to live their lives.
She wondered what was out there for most of them, though. On some level, the queen was right. In here, the girls had safety, food, water, and warmth, that was true, whereas out there, death walked the streets. This room of soft furnishings and constant guards was on some insane level, better than living out there. But the cost of living here was high. The cost was your very soul.
She guessed that some of these girls would not survive out there. They wouldn’t last five minutes in the wastes before they were either killed by a zombie or taken as a slave once more by someone stronger, who would see them as the easy targets they were. It really was a sad state of affairs to which there really was no easy answer.
Nyx’s first thoughts were that they should be freed, but now, as she studied the girls around her and the vacant expressions on many of their faces, she wondered if that truly was the right answer for all of them.
She had to remind herself though that this world was not for everyone. The world had changed. It was harsher now, tougher, and only the strong really survived. She knew that freedom probably wouldn’t suit all of the girls in here, but they should be given a chance to be free. They should be given the choice of slavery or freedom and everything that went with that choice.
That was the only real option. She knew that freedom was what she herself craved and that one day she would achieve it, and if she could offer it to some of the girls that were in here with her, she would, one way or another.
Over on the bed, the queen finally climaxed, gasping with intense joy as Tan finally brought her to orgasm. Nyx looked over as the queen sat up, pushing the girl away. Tan stumbled and dropped to the floor as the queen scooted to the edge of the bed and stood up. The queen kicked her as she passed.
‘Not bad,’ the queen said as she walked away. ‘You sister is safe for today.’ Nyx watched as the queen left the room, the guard shutting the door behind her before Nyx looked back at Tan. She remained huddled on the floor as sobs racked her body. Nyx looked around her at the other girls. Almost all of them were ignoring Tan, and of the few who were looking, none of them moved to help her. Preferring to turn away and do their best to ignore her.
Nyx knew they were simply protecting themselves, trying not to stand out and attract the attention of the queen, but the indifference and self-serving nature of them all still disgusted her. Seeing that no one else who might know Tan better was going to help, Nyx stood up and walked over to the girl at the foot of the queen's bed. She moved slowly, looking up at the guards as she went. She saw them move, adjust the hold on their weapons and watch her, but they didn’t tell her to stop. Her confidence growing, she walked over to Tan and crouched down beside her.
‘Hey, are you okay?’ Nyx asked.
Tan sat up a bit, tears streaking down her face. She choked back her sobs and started to get her emotions under control. She smiled up at Nyx. ‘Thank you, ye
s, I’m fine. I just… This isn’t how I had planned things to go, you know?’
Nyx nodded. ‘Yeah, I know. Me neither. This is the second time I’ve been taken as a slave,’ she said.
‘The queen doesn’t like that word,’ Tan said. ‘We’re her wives, her harem.’
‘’Well, that’s bullshit right there. This is pretty far from a polyamorous relationship. Harems… Heh, what crap.’
Tan let out a chuckle as Nyx helped her to her feet and walked with her over to the nearby sofa where she sat with her.
‘You were a slave once before?’ Tan asked.
‘I was. I was freed only a few weeks ago, really, only to come here and get thrown into this place.’
‘How did you get free last time?’
Nyx smiled. ‘I had some help. A guy named Nero that I befriended helped me out,’ she said.
‘Did he come here with you? Would he be trying to free you again?’ she asked, her voice hopeful.
‘He did come here with me, but he was captured along with me, so, I think he’s in whatever cells this place has,’ she guessed.
The hopeful smile on Tan’s lips faded away as her interest faded. ‘Oh.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ll get us out of here. I’m not living the rest of my life in this room,’ she said.
‘And how do you plan on doing that? You wouldn’t be the first one to have tried, you know.’
‘They tried and failed?’
‘They tried and died.’
Nyx nodded, understanding what that meant with a glance up at the guards with their guns around the room and on the balconies. Failure would mean death; that much was perfectly clear. Nyx turned to Tan again. ‘The queen mentioned something about your sister?’
‘That’s right. Kat. She’s here somewhere, too. I see her sometimes. She works on the queen’s guards. She used to be in here with me, but when the queen saw her skill with a sword, she put her to work on the guards. Now we’re both held in bondage by threats to the other one. If Kat doesn’t kill people for the queen, I get punished, and vice versa.’
‘She’s good with a sword? Do you mean a katana blade?’
‘That’s the one,’ Tan said. ‘We look similar, she just has longer hair than me.’
‘I think I met her,’ Nyx said, thinking about the girl she had fought in Bridge Town and who had then come to talk to them in the side room earlier. The description fit, and there was a certain similarity there, too.
‘You did?’
‘She warned us after we met the queen that we were about to be captured. She might be working on a plan to get us out of here.’
Tan smiled as the hope that Nyx had been within her was rekindled. Nyx could see it in Tan’s eyes.
‘You think she might?’
‘Right now, it’s all I have. She’s our best chance of getting out of here, that’s for sure.’
‘If anyone can do this, it’s my sister. She’s always been the strong one, the fighter. She’s saved my life on more than one occasion, out there, before we were brought here,’ Tan said, her expression darkening.
‘Use that hope,’ Nyx said. ‘Bury it deep down, feed it and use it. The queen can’t take that from you,’ she said as the door the queen had left through opened up again, and she walked back into the room. She wore fitted leather long gloves that came to above her elbows, leather stockings and heels, and that was it. Otherwise, she was naked.
She stepped in and spotted Tan sitting with her right away and smiled to herself before walking over, a look of smug satisfaction spreading over her face. Nyx sat still and watched her approach, wondering what she was about to do. Tan was looking up also, and as the queen stepped up to them, she lashed out suddenly and slapped Tan across the face. She’d put some strength into it, too. The force of the hit snapped Tan’s head sideways. Nyx shot up out of the chair, ready to give this so-called queen the beating of a lifetime, only to hear the familiar metallic sound of the guns being moved and in some cases, cocked.
Nyx froze as the queen turned her head slightly and looked at her. ‘Still some fire in you, I see,’ she said. Nyx glanced up at the guards closest to her to see their guns trained on her, their stances ready for action. Nyx flicked her eyes back up at the queen. ‘Always,’ she whispered.
The queen smiled. ‘Good, I do hate it when one of my wives finally breaks, becoming a shell of who she once was. But that’s the nature of the protection I offer, I suppose,’ she mused. With a smile, the queen turned away and walked over to her bed. ‘Follow me,’ she said.
Nyx waited for a beat, but then did as the queen had asked and walked over to the bed. As she watched, the queen crawled onto the foot of the bed, getting her knees onto it before spreading them wide and letting her chest rest on the soft mattress. With her ass in the air, showing everything to Nyx, the queen smiled back at her.
‘How’s the view?’ she asked.
Nyx gulped, feeling sure she knew what was coming next. ‘Wonderful,’ she said, deadpan, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
‘Good,’ the queen answered. ‘Now, let’s see if you can make me cum. Can you do better than Tan did?’
Yep, it was as she had thought. Nyx looked over at the queen’s rear as it wiggled in the air and a shiver passed through her body. She looked up at the guards around the room. They still had their weapons trained on her. The choice was simple. Go down on this woman and suffer five, maybe ten minutes of indignity, or die what would likely be a painful death. Nyx sighed and walked up to the queen.
Chapter 17
Nero
Staying right on the heels of Kat, Nero walked down the steps into the subway station. Their torches crackled as they burnt, shedding a soft orange glow that flickered and moved as the flames danced. A new, more profound silence descended upon them as they walked down here, a cold, dead silence that was quite unsettling.
Nero held his dagger in his hand, ready in case any more undead should come rushing at them through the darkness. As they reached the bottom of the steps, the walls on either side of them opened up, and he could no longer see the edges of the dark room, only a patch of ground around them. Broken stone and tiles littered the floor, next to a rusted bent bicycle and the dry bones of some poor unfortunate soul who’d died down here.
There was probably more of these remains further in. When the cataclysm hit, the subways had been jammed with people trying to escape the firestorm and hide from the horrors outside.
As they stepped forward, something hissed in the darkness. Moments later, the rotten, distended face of a walking corpse rushed out of the dark, its mouth wide as it lunged forward. Nero stepped into it and, holding the blade backwards, slammed it into the head of the undead horror, cutting its throaty and wet sounding noises short. Another lurched towards them from their right, and Kat moved like a ballerina with a twirl that ended with the zombie’s head falling from its shoulders with a sweep of her sword.
With these two zombies dealt with, they paused and held still, wondering if there might be more in here.
Seconds passed, and only the crackle of the flames could be heard in the darkness.
‘So. which way?’ Nero asked.
‘This way,’ Kat said, and moved forward, passing several bits of debris until the broken and disused turnstiles loomed out from the darkness. Some of them were ripped apart while others still stood, their gates sometimes closed, sometimes open. Kat walked carefully through them and Nero followed. A short distance further on and the tops of several dead escalators revealed themselves. Nero walked up to them beside Kat and looked down into the impenetrable darkness below. He couldn’t see anything down there at all, only blackness.
‘We’re going down there?’ Nero asked.
Kat nodded. ‘I’m afraid so, then we head through the tunnels, under the compound, and climb up through some access pipes into the kennels,’ she answered him.
‘Well, let’s not keep Nyx and Tan waiting,’ he said. They moved forward and took the centre escal
ator down, stepping carefully over more dried up remains of the dead and other detritus of the world that once was.
As they approached the bottom of the long metal stairs, Nero felt sure he could pick up the occasional sound down here. Movement, somewhere off ahead of them, although he couldn’t be sure of which way it had come from. At the bottom of the stairs, several tunnels led off into the darkness around them. Standing still, without the noise of the footsteps on the metal steps of the escalators, Nero could hear movement and the chattering of something alive down here.
‘We’re not alone,’ Nero whispered to Kat.
‘I’ve been through here a few times. Sometimes it’s deserted, other times it’s not,’ she said. ‘Also, that doesn’t sound like a zombie to me.’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ Nero agreed. It sounded much more alive, which suggested mutants or raiders, maybe. ‘Is this the only way?’ Nero asked.
‘As far as I know, yes,’ Kat answered him. ‘Not having second thoughts are we?’
‘No,’ Nero said honestly. ‘I just want to get to Nyx in one piece.’
‘We could leave our torches here,’ Kat said. ‘Try to sneak through.’
‘I’d prefer to keep them. They might mark our position, but the darkness without them is absolute. We wouldn’t be able to see anything at all.’
‘Then let’s keep going,’ she said and moved to the passageway on her right. Nero was already feeling very turned around and was no longer sure which way was the right way to go to head back to the compound, but Kat seemed to know where she was going. Following her, they walked along the tunnel, past the tiled walls with their faded posters for theatre shows or films, some of them splattered with long-dried blood.
Kat led them through a couple of bends before they reached another set of stairs going down, and the sound of the chattering grew louder. Nero sheathed his knife and pulled out his shotgun. Mutants were a little harder to deal with than zombies, so firepower might be needed.
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