Parasite ; Sleeper Cells ; Kingdoms of the Dead

by Ian Woodhead

  He noticed that the girl’s inner-self began to react to his proximity, some dormant area of Sandra’s mind had already woken, knowing that the girl was now in mortal danger. It now struggled to alert the rest of her body, to warn that a predator was in her midst.

  Damien watched her limbs jerked spasmodically. She would be waking at any moment, he couldn’t allow that, her alert mind would spoil his plans. He dived back into her mind and drew back from the torrent of concocted nightmarish creations currently flooding into her dreaming psyche.

  “Sandra!” he hissed, shaking her arms. “It’s me, it’s Nathan.” Damien put his hand across her eyes. “Please, I don’t want you to make a sound, the others are fast on. I want you, Sandra. I want you more than I’ve wanted anyone in my life.” He sighed. “We’d both be seriously fucked if the others catch us together.”

  “You sound so different,” she slurred.

  Damien ran his fingers along her inner thigh, grinning wildly as she reacted to his exploratory hand by closing her legs and pushing his hand as far as it would go.

  “The harsh smoke must have fucked with my voice.” He said. “Don’t let it concern you. I’m going to make you very happy, Sandra. Is that what you want?” He traced the outline of her groove through the material not that surprised to discover the girl wore no panties.

  “I want you to keep your eyes shut tight, Sandra. We’re going to play a game. No peeking though,” he growled. “I mean it, one peek and that’ll be the end of our playtime.” He found the shape of her clitoris through the leather and pressed down hard then leaned towards her ear. “There’s a good reason why Georgia doesn’t like to let me out of her sight.”

  Damien moved his other hand off her face. “Promise not to look?”

  Sandra nodded. “Oh yeah, I’m good at keeping promises.”

  “We’ll see about that,” he said, hooking his fingers into the top of the trousers. He ginned as she moaned out loud and lifter her bottom in the air. Damien pulled the leather down her very shapely legs. The flesh looked so much more delicious uncovered. Damien lifted her legs into the air and ran his tongue down, only stopping when he reached the top of her warm thighs.

  “Please,” she begged. “I need to feel you inside me.”

  He couldn’t ignore his own lust for any longer. Damien climbed off the girl and pulled down his trousers and boxers. The cold night air felt good on his solid penis. He knew that it wouldn’t stay cold for much longer. He fell to his knees and pulled her body hard against his.

  She gasped as Damien entered her. He wrapped his fingers around her sides and settled into a slow rhythm. Grinning as she moaned loudly as he took his time to enjoy the girl.

  The urge to bend down, puncture her skin and drink was almost impossible to ignore. As he thrust into her body and the girl eagerly responded by pushing forward when Damien slammed into her, his essence demanded that he dive down and open her neck.

  Damien bit back a howl when he felt her so close to climax. His essence instinctively knew what she wanted from him. It took an incredible amount of stamina to ignore his own urge to drain the girl, so much so, he had not realised that he had given Sandra her first climax.

  He saw the confusion in her face when her eyes shot open. Damien skimmed along the surface of her mind and only found her pleasure receptors turned on to full. Despite the fact that throes of ecstasy gripped her tight, he could not allow her to cry out a word to alert the others. Damien placed his hand over her mouth, not sure whether he should have done with it and just kill her.

  Sandra smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I don’t care who you are,” she purred. “Oh my Lord, that was just incredible. Please, don’t leave me?”

  He’d never expected this occurrence. Damien gently pulled the woman off him and gazed down at her beautiful and flawless body. “Take off the rest of your clothes, “he whispered, watching her happily comply. Just like that female vampire had enthralled him, he had done the same to Sandra. What an astonishing gift! He pulled her supple body into his embrace, relishing the feel of her soft flesh against his.

  Damien had an obligation to fulfil though, and his conversation with his mother could not wait either. Damien needed to know what was happening and he just knew that she’d be able to fill in any missing details.

  “Listen to me,” he hissed, pulling her away and standing up. “You need to leave this place. You need to do that right now. Forget the festival, forget your friends and just go.” He wiped away her tears. “Stop that, I know where you live, Sandra. I’ll come for you. I promise.”

  He pushed the weeping girl away, scooped up her clothes and ran back up the hill, discovering that they were both still sleeping. His sister needed more food but he couldn’t take both. Damien chose Nathan and threw the drunken youth over his shoulder before running back into the alley.

  He saw his sister before she saw him. Damien was so happy to see her awake. She spun her head at the sound of his footsteps and glared at him. She sat, huddled against the corner of the building, shivering with the cardboard wrapped around her body.

  Blood, gristle and pieces of wet flesh wrapped around her visible body and soaked into her covering. Nothing remained of the boy save for a stripped and bloodied carcass.

  Damien threw the clothes towards her. “I see somebody was very hungry. You know that all that red meat is bad for you. It won’t do your figure any good.” He smiled at his sister, trying to be relived to see her finally awake but he just could not get past what she had done to the boy’s body. He dumped the other one on the floor.

  “I brought you another present, Elsie. I didn’t think that the first one would fill you up. It seems that I might have been wrong?”

  She snarled at him, showing Damien her new teeth. They were a lot larger than his. She jumped up. Damien felt his own essence filling his body with adrenalin, urging him to flee, to turn away and race out of the alley before it was too late. Elsie leaped forward, moving at an impossible speed. She knocked him to the floor following Damien down, wrapping her fingers around his neck holding him in a vice-like grip. No matter how hard he struggled, Damien could not move her, his sister was far stronger then him.

  “You have turned me into a fucking monster!” she screamed into his face.

  Damien turned his head, feeling her hot spittle blasting from her mouth. He tried one more time to shift her hand off his neck.

  “Those evil bastards killed my Ben, thanks to you!” she sobbed. “They ate him didn’t they?” She looked across at the bloodied skeleton and moaned aloud. “Just like I did with him. I ought to kill you for your stupidity.” She then looked over at the other body and ran her long tongue over her lips. “I ought to kill you but I won’t, I mean, you have brought me another gift.”

  He felt her blood lust rising, he felt as he was lying under a pylon, charged with a million volts of electricity. Damien actually feared for his own life, he really had created a monster. He felt like a zebra under the paws of a lioness.

  “If you hadn’t brought me him, Damien, I would have killed you and feasted on your dirty blood. Let me tell you right now though. If we do ever cross paths, I will kill and consume every part of your hateful body.”

  She stood up and glided over to the groaning boy. “I suppose I should thank you for the clothes as well. Before you enquire, yes, I do know where you got them from. Maybe I’m being too hard on you? After all, you are only a man, just an eager pawn in the service of that woman.” She laughed. “You really don’t know how deep she has her claws into your flesh, Damien. Even now, I can feel the hag’s claws hooked into your mind. You’re just another one of her pet doggies.” She dropped to her knees beside the body.

  “Now, get out of here before I change my mind.”

  He staggered back at the horrific sight of her jaw unhinging like a huge snake. Her dagger-like teeth burst through her gums, filling her mouth with an array of razor sharp curved canines.

  Damien ran out of the
alley, reaching the embankment in seconds. Both the humans were not there. All he saw was a patch of flattened grass. He made his way down the slope and threw himself down, feeling like a building sized rack had just fallen upon his body.

  Chapter Seven

  The tribune that their collectors had caught in the far lands, beyond the great mountain ranges had brought their Gods and Demons to Freya’s settlement. Their transient bodies came and went like the seasons but their faith had stayed. It had taken just decades for the alien faith to take roots amongst the dwellers.

  No local had dared to construct a temple to worship these strange beings but Freya had thought that the event would arrive. At least, she had used to believe in this until their very real demons had declared war.

  Fear never left the hearts of her fellow dwellers, living under the black wing of their master, ensured that cold grip never vanished. Until the onset of this Clan massacre, most of them took solace in the fast that only the prisoners occupying the tribune cages could see the end of their life-thread with certainty. Now, most of the tribune cages had lain empty for weeks. The few pitiful specimens currently inside the few cages, strangers found raiding the crops or criminals caught disobeying the Enforcer’s laws wasn’t half the amount the settlement offered to their masters. Even dullest of dweller understood the consequences of handing over less than what was acceptable. Their master would just fill up the quota with the dweller’s elderly, sick or their children.

  There was no other option though. Their collectors dare not stray far from the settlement’s perimeter. Their status no longer held immunity. Both clans picked off anyone stupid enough to travel the empty roads.

  Freya sat up in bed, she pulled back the rough woollen cover and climbed out of her warm pit. The next few hours demanded a sharp mind, clear of and disturbing fripperies. Thinking like an old fishwife could only bring about uncertainty followed by disaster. Fretting about their situation would not bring about a magical change.

  “Count your days well, Freya,” she murmured. “Just be thankful that it’s unlikely that you would end up in the tribune cage.” Freya stood up, removed her nightdress and played it at the end of the bed. Her dressing could wait for a few moments. The cool draft blowing in from her windows and playing across her naked body felt so divine. Freya stretched her leg muscles, bending down and running her hands along her flesh.

  She glared at the fat pile of worthless skin sill in the bed and sighed quietly. Sometimes, she really did wish that she had chosen another path for her life. Freya cupped her left breast, allowing her fingers to caress the contours. What would it be like to actually have a man who would treat her like a real woman as opposed to some object whose only purpose was to make him eject his seed?

  Could she find comfort in the absolute fact that no matter what happened this morning, at least she would be saved from occupying their woeful amount of flesh away to their master’s castle. She snatched her gown from the wooden hook behind her and quickly threw the material around her body.

  They wouldn’t dare to take her, she was the Enforcer’s wife, the fat slug might be the one who made the law but Freya was the one who ensured that the collectors carried their duties with diligence.

  She quickly tied the belt, watching in disgust as drool slivered down the fat man’s wet lips and landed upon the woven straw mat under his head. Perhaps, she had better revise her sense of value. Nobody was so indispensable in their master’s eyes. She, as well as the other dwellers, was painfully aware that their masters only saw them as livestock. The only reason why their settlement had flourished was because one Enforcer deep in their past had taken the decision to supply the vampires with tribune.

  “Nothing lasts forever,” she whispered, attempting to tune out his loud snoring. As Freya bent down to pick up her sandals, the stale stench of bad beer escaped from the man’s mouth, the fumes almost knocked her sideways. Her own breath stayed locked inside her mouth as she retreated towards the door that led into the compound. Her heartbeat raced like a galloping horse. The foolish man had committed the unforgivable act of drinking the night before the arrival of their masters. They were all dead, the vampires would not take this insult lightly. Freya turned and ran for the door, not knowing what to do.

  “Nothing lasts forever,” she cried. “We’ll all be lucky to last past this day.”

  Freya pulled open the door and stared up at the early morning sun, warming her face. She glared at the group of five collectors sat beside their barn. It appeared that they were too engrossed in losing money in some dice game to have heard her open the door. Looking at the state of the forecourt, Freya wondered if she was the only person in the settlement who actually valued her life. Those lazy fools had not started on any of their assigned tasks.

  She silently closed the door and tentatively made her way across the wet cobbles, avoiding the animal dung and puddle of mud. They had two carts full of fine sand, left over from the last visit from their masters, inside that barn. This courtyard was supposed to be clean this morning, ready for the sand to go down. It would take them more than half a day to ensure the stones were clean now. Half a day that they could have spent washing the tribune, making sure that not of the filthy creatures had rolled around in their own shit.

  “There isn’t enough money in that cup to buy just one of you from tribune.” She snarled, gaining little satisfaction at the collective gasps coming from all of the collectors. How these idiots were able to catch anybody out beyond the settlement was a complete mystery to her. Were they that engrossed in their silly game not to have noticed her walking towards her?

  “My husband had yet to wake.” She stepped back, her foot narrowly missing a pile of manure. “Perhaps, he will wake before this yard is clean. Perhaps, he won’t. You all know that you’ll be joining the tribune if this task is not complete.” Freya turned and hurried towards the compound, listening to them untangle their flailing limbs to try and make a start on their jobs. She knew that by now, her name would have less value than the foul residue spread across the courtyard. They would spend the next few backbreaking hours either imagining methods to kill her either that or ejecting their worthless seed into her holes, perhaps even both. It did not matter what they thought of her as long as they completed the task before the appointed time.

  She did not need to look behind to know that five pairs of eyes were watching her as she opened to the door that led into the compound. It must destroy their very large self-esteem to have such a beautiful woman order them about like they were no more important than unruly children. As for worthless seed? Perhaps the opposite would be more appropriate. It was not a huge secret amongst the dwellers that the Enforcer’s wife could not give the man a child.

  Even from the bottom of the compound, the faint moans echoing from the tribune, assaulted her ears. She examined her nails whilst walking between the dozens of cages, relieved that the collector had at least, cleaned up this area. Even the sand beneath her feet was fresh. Freya reached the first occupied cage and peered through the iron bars at the young girl that had made the mistake of trying to steal from their orchards three moons ago. They had no idea where she came from and questioning her had proven worthless, nobody understood a word she said. Normally, they did not give away females, no matter where they came from or whether they had transgressed their laws. A good healthy female of child bearing age could provide the settlement with more children, a commodity that they so desperately needed.

  Like Freya, their healer had proven that this poor girl’s inside were not designed to grow new life. She watched the girl sleep, wondering if she even knew of her fate. If they were living in such frantic times, Freya would have allowed her to leave the settlement. The similarity to her first experience within this very same cage after the healer had declared Freya a burden to the settlement was too great to ignore.

  “I do wish you had chosen another settlement to raid, child.” She whispered, holding the bars. The girl stirred. Freya saw the
other five men further down the compound rise and approach their bars.

  Your time with us will soon be other. I do not know what the master will do with you. Perhaps you may survive unchanged. I know that they do keep some humans as servants. If you prove your worth, that may still be your fate.”

  There would be little chance of that happening. This girl, like the rest of them in here would end up divided up into rough cuts of meat, either to feed their soldiers or to use as spare parts for the Clan’s dwindling stock of beast fighters.

  “If I could have born with your dull looks, child, my life might have gone down another path.” Her beauty had singled her out from the rest of the settlement’s children long before she had reached the age to wed. Only her overprotective father and wise words from her mother had allowed Freya to have any kind of innocent childhood. “I wish my body had not filled out.” she looked down at her large breasts, remembering how almost every man in the settlement had attempted to bed her. Many had succeeded. It hadn’t taken long before the Enforcer had noticed her promiscuity. His concern stemmed only from the fact that even after so many men had used her, Freya was not with child.

  She sighed. “Perhaps not.” Freya turned away from the cage, knowing full well that if it had not been for the enforcer taking a liking to her, at least a lusting after her young, firm body, she would not be where she stood now.

  Freya jumped at the sudden sound of a quiet sob, coming from the girl.

  “Please, don’t leave,” she whispered.

  Freya spun around and grabbed the bars. “You, you can talk?” she stammered.

  The girl nodded. “Please help me, Freya. I don’t want them to eat me. I’ll do anything. I really am sorry for stealing your food.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “It had been days since I last ate. My settlement threw me out with the rubbish.”