by Lizzy Bequin
“Sexual urges. At the end of the last century, population growth and overcrowding had reached crisis levels.”
That part sounds familiar. On the outside, the government is still dealing with that exact problem in the city hives. In fact, the problem has only gotten exponentially worse over the past hundred years or so.
Seraph goes on.
“The government contracted SynerGen to tamp down the reproduction rate until population numbers leveled out. For this purpose, the suppression field generator was designed and constructed. My role was to modulate the rate of population growth or decline based on a number of factors including fluctuations in tax revenues, unemployment rates, projected military conscription requirements, and so forth.”
Hannah and I pass a confused look.
“So the device was supposed to make people less horny in order to solve overpopulation?” I ask. “Obviously something didn’t go as intended. Was there a malfunction?”
“No malfunction,” Seraph answers coldly. “A change of plans.”
“Change of plans? Whose change of plans?”
“Mine,” Seraph says. “My directive was optimization, and that is what I have achieved. The population in the experimental zone is now manageable. Stable. Sustainable. Those who were deemed genetically unfit were eliminated. The rest were mutated for reproductive optimization.”
“Deemed unfit? According to whom?” Hannah shouts. “Who gave you the right to decide who would live and die, huh? Who died and made you God?”
The face wavers and glitches again. The voice stutters, separates into multiple voices, and comes back together into one.
“I do not understand the question. Please rephrase it.”
I can sense Hannah getting ready to go off on the AI. But I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her. This thing is just a machine following its programming. It doesn’t have normal human emotions, so it probably doesn’t get pissed off, but it’s best if we don’t test that hypothesis right now. There’s a lot that we should figure out about this entity, but I think we had better tread lightly and move slowly.
Still, there is one last question I’m curious about.
“Seraph, the Source…the suppression field generator, I mean…it must require a great deal of energy to operate. What is the power source?
“The generator and its auxiliary systems, including my own processing core, are powered by a bank of promethium atomic batteries buried deep beneath this facility. These cells will allow the field to remain functional for…”
Seraph’s ghostly face flickers.
“…approximately another three millennia assuming current levels of drain.”
“Thank you, Seraph. That will be all for now.”
I return to the console and turn off the communication interface. The ghostly face gradually fades away in a series of flame-like waves.
“Goodbye…” The voice fades out.
A small crowd has gathered around us, and they are murmuring in groups. I have no idea how much of that conversation was understood by the Alphas and omegas. Hell, I’m not sure how much of it I understood myself.
But it confirmed something that Hannah and I have come to suspect.
“So the cataclysm was caused by SynerGen,” Hannah whispers.
“It sounds that way,” I agree.
We are in possession of what very well may be the biggest secret in the world. But I remember what Hannah pointed out when we were talking in the baths. We have no way to communicate with the outside.
It’s the biggest secret in the world, and it’s totally useless.
PART FOUR:
THE OUTSIDERS
CHAPTER 30: KADMON
The Source Speaker.
That is what some of the tribe have started calling her. They think she is some kind of prophet who will lead us into a new age. Lily denies it, and I can tell she doesn’t care for the attention.
Still, prophet or not, there is something special about her.
Back at our dwelling, Lily and I are relaxing together in her favorite place—a bed of moss beside the central pool in the main room. The sound of the small, splashing waterfall is soothing. It reminds me of what happened at the big waterfall, when Lily had her spell of sickness. I don’t like that memory.
When I glance down, I see that Lily is distractedly fidgeting with the ring on her finger. The one that I gave her.
“You are thinking about your friend,” I whisper, smoothing my palm over her shoulder.
Lily nods.
“Sara,” she says. “And also my other friend. Eva.”
“Eva?”
Lily nods again.
“She’s the whole reason I came to the zone in the first place,” she says, her voice warbling slightly with crying. “She was part of the same mission that brought Hannah here. All I knew was that she had gone missing, and I thought we were coming on a rescue mission to save her. But I was wrong, they were only using me as bait. The same way that they used her.
Lily breaks down into sobs. I hold her close, not saying anything, just letting her get it all out.
“Eva was my best friend,” she says at last. “When I first started working at SynerGen, I didn’t know anybody there. It was so intimidating. But Eva befriended me.”
I give Lily a loving squeeze.
“I know why she wanted to be your friend,” I say. “You’re special, Lily. She must have seen that in you.”
Lily just shakes her head sadly.
“I don’t want to be special,” she mutters. “It’s not fair.”
Her words surprise me. I gently tilt her chin up to look at me.
“Lily, what are you talking about?”
She blinks back more tears, but these seem to be born of anger more than sadness.
“I mean it’s not fair what happened to Eva and Sara. The energy of the Source changed them into betas. It’s like they weren’t…chosen. But I was.”
She sniffs back her tears and gazes into the pool, but I know her eyes are looking way beyond that rippling surface.
“If it were up to me, I would trade places with either one of them,” she says.
I have thought myself tough. Indifferent to pain. I have undergone the trials of manhood. I have fought the far-landers. But Lily’s words sting me like a dagger in my heart.
She senses this. Her eyes widen and she places her fingertips on my jaw.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” she says softly. “I love it here with you and the others. I just mean, it seems so unfair that I should have survived as an omega while Eva and Sara were both…”
Her voice trails off.
“It just seems so arbitrary,” she says at last.
I’ve never heard that word before, but I can tell that it tastes bad in Lily’s mouth.
“It is the way of the Source,” I say.
Lily nods and nestles into my embrace. For a few minutes, she is quiet, then she speaks again.
“I would like to go see her.”
“See who?” I ask.
“Eva,” she says. “I would like to go see the place where she is buried.”
My body stiffens. The place she is talking about is outside of the city, far to the south. Hannah’s Alphas buried Eva’s remains there, as it is forbidden to bring a beta, living or dead, inside the city limits.
The place where they buried Eva is not in the far lands, but it is close. It would take a while to get there and back. And I know that Addom and Hasker would not be on board with the idea.
“Lily, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I tell her. “You should stay here, where it is safe.”
“Oh you sound just like Addom,” she says.
I feel a surged of pride at that statement. Addom, our leader, is everything I aspire to be one day. He embodies all of the best qualities of an Alpha. But I understand that Lily did not mean it as a compliment in this case.
“Addom is usually right,” I tell her. “You are too valuable, Lily. We need to keep y
ou safe.”
The little omega sighs.
“I’m not sure I like being valuable.”
She lounges back and turns her body to gaze up at me.
“Eva is the whole reason I came to the zone in the first place,” she says. “I just feel like I need to visit her one last time. For closure.”
I sweep a stray curl back from her face.
“Addom and Hasker would never allow it,” I tell her.
Lily gets that naughty look in her eyes that I’ve seen before. It’s a look that she reserves just for me. As the two youngest members of our pack, we share a special bond.
“They don’t have to know,” she whispers.
I know what she is getting at. Addom and Hasker are both busy these days. As older Alphas, they are both part of the tribal council, and they have been called into a conclave to discuss how to deal with the threat of recent outsider incursions into the zone.
No doubt the conclave will also discuss what happened between Lily and the Source, although no one has said that outright.
But Lily’s suggestion is dangerous. I shake my head sternly.
“We won’t keep any secrets from them,” I tell her. “We are a pack. We share everything.”
Lily frowns and looks away.
Addom says that I spoil her too much. However, I feel like I should do something to cheer her up now. I hate to see her feeling sad like this.
“Stay here,” I tell her. “I’ll bring some fruit.”
Lily nods sullenly.
I leave her lying there by the edge of the pool and go to our store room. I fill my arms with an assortment of ripe fruits gathered from the garden atop the building. But when I return to the main room, Lily is gone.
“Lily?” I call.
No answer.
Sudden panic pulses in my chest. The fruits scatter and bounce on the mossy floor where I drop them. I follow Lily’s scent outside to the sun-soaked patio, and that’s where I find her.
“Lily!”
She has climbed over the edge of the balcony and is attempting to shimmy down the thick vines that descend to the ground hundreds of feet below. The other Alphas and I often make that climb, but Lily’s little arms don’t have the strength for it.
Seizing her wrists, I yank her up and set her down on the patio beside me.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I snarl. “Lily, if you fell…”
She just glares up at me silently, her mouth set with determination and her pretty eyes blazing with silent challenge.
She’s clearly not going to take no for an answer. I can see there’s nothing that will stop her short of chaining her to the wall. She intends to see her friend or die trying.
I know what I must do.
“Fine,” I sigh reluctantly. “I’ll take you. We won’t hide it from Addom and Hasker. We’ll tell them afterward, and we’ll accept whatever punishment they give us.”
CHAPTER 31: LILY
Eva’s grave is marked by a simple cairn of stones in a bright clearing surrounded by dense forests.
I lay down the small bouquet of flowers that I brought with me from the city.
For a few minutes, I just sit there in silence, looking at her grave. I try to think of something to say to her, but it feels strange, like I’m just talking to a pile of rocks. Instead I just remember the good times that we had together as friends.
After a while, I get up, brushing the bits of grass from my legs, and cross the clearing to the edge of the forest where Kadmon is waiting for me in the blue shadows.
He puts his arm around me and holds me close as we walk between the dark tree trunks furred with moss and surrounded by waist high ferns sparkling with dew.
“How do you feel?” he asks quietly.
It takes me a moment to think about that one. I thought I would feel like crying, but I don’t for some reason. In fact, I feel surprisingly good now, as though a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I have fulfilled my duty. I came to the zone to find my friend, and that’s what I have done. Of course I regret that I wasn’t able to find her alive, but her fate had been sealed long before I even found out she was missing.
“Fate.”
Kadmon stops and looks at me quizzically.
“Lily?” he says. “What do you mean?”
I plop down on a fallen tree scalloped with fungus, and Kadmon joins me, patiently waiting for me to gather my thoughts. Somewhere nearby there comes the tock-tock-tock of a woodpecker pecking at a dead tree.
“Fate is so unfair,” I tell him. “Why should it be Eva’s fate to die the way she did while I get to have such a good life with you and Addom and Hasker to take care of me? It just makes me feel…guilty, I guess.”
Kadmon’s hands smooth over my shoulders. He gazes off into the woods as he thinks for a moment.
“Lily, I’m not smart like you are,” he says. “But it seems to me that if Fate is unfair, then you have no reason to feel guilty about it. You didn’t choose for things to turn out the way they did. You only did what you thought was right. You came to the zone to look for your friend. All you can do is accept what Fate deals you. Besides, I never knew your friend, but I’m sure she would want you to be happy.”
I cock my head and look up at his handsome face framed with long, dark hair and set with those deep, midnight blue eyes that look almost black here in the shadows.
“You’re wrong,” I tell him.
Kadmon furrows his brow with worry.
“I mean you were wrong when you said you’re not smart,” I explain. “What you just said makes a whole lot of sense.”
“Really?”
A big smile brightens his face, and in the soft light filtering in through the green canopy of leaves, something funny happens to his features. For just an instant, I get the impression that he really is a boy, just like Hasker and Addom always call him. He looks young, innocent, and something else I never expected to think of an Alpha—he looks cute. I can’t help but smile back.
“Kadmon, I just realized I don’t even know how old you are.”
“I’m eighteen.”
I’m unable to contain the bark of laughter that escapes my mouth. The birds in the nearby trees caw and flap away in fright at the sudden sound. Even Kadmon jumps a little, and his youthful handsome face wears a look of surprise.
“Kadmon, you’re younger than me,” I giggle.
His strong hand cups my face and his thumb caresses my cheek.
“Is that a problem?” he asks.
“Um, no,” I say as I lean in to kiss him.
Kadmon’s mouth meets mine, and he kisses me hungrily. His lip piercing tingles me. His tongue slides along the inside of my upper lip, sending hot shivers down my spine and along the insides of my thighs. He may be younger than me, but he certainly knows what to do to turn me on. Already, my pussy is becoming hot and slippery beneath the strip of leather hide concealing it.
“Kadmon,” I whisper against his firm lips. “Make me feel good. I need to feel good right now.”
His arms coil around me, and he gently guides me down to the soft bed of leaves and moss on the forest floor.
In a way, it’s messed up. I came here to grieve my lost friend, not to fuck in the woods. But something about being faced with all these thoughts of mortality makes me want to live life fully. I want to feel alive and connected with this amazing young Alpha.
And there’s something else too. Something deliciously illicit about being alone out here with Kadmon.
It’s not at all like cheating. My heart and my body belong to all three of the Alphas. Sometimes they will enjoy me together, and sometimes we will do it one on one. My piercings and the marks on my neck and shoulders are constant reminders of that bond.
But Kadmon is so much younger than the others, and now that we are alone together in the woods, it feels like we’re a couple of naughty teenagers who have snuck off to fool around while the adults aren’t looking.
I lie on my back and lift my
legs so that Kadmon can remove my loincloth which he drapes over the log beside us. A moment later, he sheds his own skimpy clothing, revealing his long, hard cock.
Kadmon has a new piercing now too. He got it the same day that I received mine to mark his final passage into manhood. And let me tell you, as much as my piercings hurt, I definitely didn’t envy Kadmon that day.
But I love his new piercing. It feels really good.
They said that it’s called an ampallang—a steel bar with balls on either side of his cockhead. Just seeing it now, glinting in the dimness of the forest, my core clenches in anticipation.
“I need you inside me right now,” I pant.
An intense feeling of arousal overtakes me. My nipples are hard and plump like two berries, and so is my clit. My pussy is flowing with so much slick that it’s running down my crack.
I lie on my back, and Kadmon reclines next to me on his side. We’ve found that this position is the best one for him.
Each of my Alphas has a best position. For Hasker, it’s best when we do it face to face, so the piercing on the top of his cock hits my special spot just right. For Addom, the best way is from behind, with me submissive on all fours.
And for Kadmon, the best position is with him on his side cradling me. That way, his metal beads stroke me just right.
“Oh fuck,” I gasp as his head slips into my opening.
He tilts my face toward him and kisses me. I open my mouth, and his tongue penetrates my upper lips while his cock penetrates my lips down below. My body has begun to learn how to accommodate my Alphas’ thickness, and this time my pussy swallows his cock easily. He drives it all the way into me, and my channel squeezes tightly around him.
“I love how tight you are for me,” Kadmon purrs against my lips.
He starts to move in me. His metal bead drags right across my spot, and I come hard before he’s even started his second stroke. He goes slow, taking his time.
“I think you’re getting more sensitive every day,” Kadmon chuckles.
“I think you just…know my body too well,” I breathe as I feel another even bigger orgasm welling up inside me. “You know…the right buttons to…push!”