He sat down in one of the chairs. Siki couldn't help but glance at his crotch to see if there was any indication that he was aroused. There was no bulge or evidence. He must have been zapped by the radiation, she thought.
The doctor consulted his tablet again. “You're here about the shooting victim,” he inquired. “It was very fortunate Regulator Maharg came across you two. The victim would have died within minutes if not treated.”
Siki gritted her teeth. Of course Maharg would make himself benevolent. “Is he alive?” she asked.
“Oh, yes. Of course. It was some of my best work, if I do say so myself. The bullet penetrated a ventricle and I was able to remove it. He could have bled out very easily – had maybe twenty minutes left if Regulator Maharg wouldn't have come by. A body is actually pretty damned resilient, and just as well engineered as any weapon out there. You're built to keep going despite taking a lot of damage. Shots to roughly 80 percent of targets on the body would not be fatal blows."
Siki nodded her head as the doctor took one last longing look at her tits as he stood up to leave. “Oh!” he said, snapping his fingers. “We had to amputate his right index finger due to necrosis. As well as half of his right thumb and a little more of the left.”
Of course, Siki thought. So he can't fire a gun again. Maharg made sure he got his due punishment.
“Can I see him?”
“Maybe in the morning. Meanwhile, you can sleep here on the couch.”
CHAPTER 9
My sleep was haunted with vivid dreams. Vin and I were fucking hard. He was so deep inside I was screaming. Then Maharg was there, kissing my ear. Seeing him, Vin withdrew and edged forward, running his hands up my body. He took Maharg's hand and placed it on my breast, then squeezed both his hand and my tit. His tongue came onto my nipple, hardening it more. He looked at Maharg and read the heat there. Vin guided Maharg's hands and body down to my pussy. I was already so wet and aroused. Vin licked me a few times, to show technique then stepped back, allowing Maharg to take control. Maharg licked and sucked me thoroughly, making me moan and squirm. Vin's pupil's were tiny pinpoints as he watched. He then took Maharg's cock in his hand, stroked it a few times, and then guided him inside me. For a moment, Vin watched but then could not resist plunging his own cock inside me also. Side-by-side they penetrated, rubbing against each other, stretching me out, all three of us in a passionate dance.
But suddenly I felt empty. I glanced back. Maharg's cock was still inside me, but Vin's had disappeared. Dripping out of my pussy, even as Maharg emptied into me, was a steady stream of fine ash. It kept pouring, slowly at first, then faster and stream widened. I knew in my dream it was Vin's remains. I opened my mouth and screamed.
Siki spent a restless night on the couch. Despite it being the most comfortable things she had slept on in months, her brain was spinning with worry about Vin, hatred for Maharg, and concern about herself and the child she carried. Finally, around dawn, she allowed herself to cry, knowing she was alone. With wet eyes, she finally slept
She awoke with a start. For a moment she lay, wide-eyed, trying to remember where she was. As soon as she recalled Vin's injuries, she bolted upright and ran for the door.
The door opened into a wide corridor. There didn't seem to be any other doorways and as soon as she shut the one to the conference room, it too disappeared. Weird. If the doors were cloaked, how would she find Vin? She had no idea where she was, much less what room in which he was housed, if he even was in this building at all.
Walking down the corridor slowly, she tried to attune her mind to Vin. She drifted her hand along the wall, noting how her fingers disappeared every few feet. Those must be doorways, she realized. Cloaked, but not shielded.
She paused for a moment, standing still and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, and tried to clear her mind.
Vin... she concentrated. After a few seconds, she repeated his name again. And again.
She felt a blip, a something. She tried not to concentrate harder, but rather focus in on the sensation. Vin...
A smile appeared unbidden on her lips and she knew it was he.
She breathed deeply again. She could feel him. She could feel his presence, his mind. Not really a telepathy but a connection. A spot in her brain seems alight. She opened her eyes and took a step, he was near, she knew. Vin...
She turned a blank corner, her hand disappeared into a doorway. Not him. She kept walking. More doorways. Suddenly she stopped. He was here. She reached out her hand and watched it disappear. She followed it.
And where there was nothing, a man in a medical isolation tube encompassing his hips to his neck, appeared. She rushed over to him. His eyes were closed, but he looked relaxed. “Siki,” he croaked quietly, not opening his eyes. “I knew you were here. I felt you.”
She couldn't hold his hand since it was encased in the tube, so instead she gently brushed the hair off his forehead with her fingers, silently crying with relief. She wouldn't let him see the tears, though.
“So what happens now?” asked, eyes still closed.
“You heal,” she said. “Other than that all we can do is wait and see.”
* * *
Siki was dozing in the chair, the only object in the room that was not medical equipment, when Dr. Titty-lover walked in. He glanced at Siki once, but maintained his professional demeanor with the patient. He took readings from the monitors on the isolation tube and turned to leave, Siki called out after him, “How's he doing?”
The doctor stopped, but did not turn around. “The patient is progressing normally,” was all he said, delivered over his shoulder. Siki wondered if Maharg had somehow found out about the incident in the conference room and threatened the doctor. “If all goes well, he should be out of the tube tomorrow or the next day.”
“Thank you!” Siki called after him as he left the room hurriedly.
“Sounds promising,” Vin said. He had become more and more lucid even as Siki napped. His incredible inner strength and resolve had kicked in, she noted. “But then what?”
Siki shrugged her shoulders. “I am guessing we'll be getting a visit from Maharg pretty soon.”
Her prediction came true. Not even an hour later, Maharg strolled through the cloaked door. He also looked at Siki, but did not look away as the doctor had. “So you found him,” Maharg said. “We need to do something about the security in this place.”
Siki said nothing, but glared back at him menacingly.
He turned toward Vin. “It seems you are doing better. But remember, the fight was to the death. It seems we have unfinished business.”
“You should have just left me to die,”Vin spit out.
“Oh believe me, I would have. It was your groupie there that saved you.”
Vin glanced at Siki with hardness in his eyes, but then turned his attention back to Maharg. “What do you have planned now, Maharg?”
“Negotiations,” he said bluntly. “I get the child, you get your lives. We drop you back out in the Wastes and you two weeks head start before we hunt you down again. Next time, it will be to the death. Maybe for her, too. But until the baby is born, you get to stay right here in this facility and heal. No prison cells.”
“No,” Siki said coldly. “There's nothing in that for us.”
“How about, you keep me, and Siki and the child go free.” Vin countered.
“NO!” Siki shrieked even as Maharg calmly said the same.
“I am getting that baby,” Maharg said. “That is non-negotiable.”
“Like hell,” Vin said through gritted teeth.
Suddenly monitors on Vin's tube started blinking as silent alarms were triggered at the nurse's station. Two nurses in tight form-fitting uniforms hurried in.
“Get out!” Maharg yelled, pointing to the doorway. “I can handle this!” He walked over to the tube as the nurses scrambled to rush out. He checked the monitors. “You're stressing your heart,” he said, almost gleefully. “Maybe it will burst and then
I won't have to bargain with you.”
Siki stared at Vin, pleadingly. He was trembling in rage, eyes locked with Maharg's in a battle of wills. Another standoff. He had to calm down!
She implored him with her mind. Vin, you aren't doing yourself – or me – any good!
An idea came started to form.
“Okay, This is it. Our final offer. We stay here til the baby is born and we are both healed. We get the baby for 18 years, to give him or her a good, solid background. After that, you take control. But also you have to give us a place to raise the baby. And you leave us alone. For good.”
Maharg considered this. “Ten,” he countered. And I personally get to visit every month.”
“Fifteen,” Vin shot back. “You can visit every six months. Only you. None of your lackeys. For one day each time. Supervised by one or both of us.”
“Thirteen,” Maharg spat.
All three glanced at each other. Vin's monitors stopped flashing and he seemed calmer. However, Siki felt more stressed, knowing that somehow this baby would still end up in Maharg's clutches eventually. Maharg himself was impassive. For him, it was all just another means to an end. He had known they would not agree to his terms. He had foreseen this outcome.
“Okay,” he said. “Deal.” He stuck out his hand for Vin to shake, oblivious to he fact that Vin's hands were ensconced inside the tube.
Vin looked at it warily. “I want to see this all in writing, he said. “A signed contract between all of us. Hand written. If something happens to me, the contract still stands. Same with her. I will raise the kid if she becomes incapacitated.”
Maharg's hand dropped. “As you wish,” he stated, and left the room. Two hours later, a paper signed by Maharg himself was delivered to the room. Vin and Siki both read it several times, looking for hidden clauses or warped wording. Amazingly, it was clean. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Vin allowed her to signed it for him.
CHAPTER 10
We signed that paper like we were in the Old Days. There is no Court to uphold a signed contract now. A handshake does not mean anything. All we can do is trust and hope that the bargain will be held. We had no reason to trust Maharg, or the Regs, or anyone else in that Complex. Why Vin insisted on a signed contract remains a mystery, even to me.
Two days later, Vin was released from the isolation tube. He lay instead in a regular, somewhat archaic hospital bed where he could raise and lower the head by pressing a button. But being out of the pod with its constant level of comfort meant his pain levels went up. Often he could be found lounging in the chair next to the bed, gripping the armrest in an effort to ride out the pain, while Siki slept in his bed.
As he healed, however, Siki became more and more uncomfortable as the child within her grew. True to his word, Maharg provided every amenity to the both of them. Once Vin was ready to be discharged, Maharg sent one of his lackeys to escort the two of them to a small, furnished apartment a few buildings away from the infirmary. They were reluctant to speak of the future while in this space, however, since they did not know if apartment was bugged in any way.
Vin went through cardiac and manual rehabilitation, something that no longer existed outside the Complex. Although Maharg had spared almost half of both thumbs, there was a number of things he had to learn to re-do, especially without an index finger. Siki went through her regular pre-natal check-ups – something performed irregularly since the Meltdowns – and was pronounced ready to give birth.
In the end, they induced birth. On her due date, with no sign of labor beginning, Siki answered the door to find several lower-ranked Regs with a gurney. Screaming, she was picked up and strapped to the stretcher while Vin was restrained by two other Regs. She was wheeled down to the infirmary amid PTSD flashbacks. Panicking to find herself again strapped helplessly to a medical exam table, she lashed out, jerking at the restraints and threatening to bite anyone who came near her. Vin was nearby for support, but he could not do anything to calm her. Finally, the the same tit-loving doctor who had worked on Vin administered a sedative. Vin's eyes were the last thing she saw before she passed out. She awoke several hours later, thinner, but with no baby in sight.
At the hesitant knock on the door, Maharg sighed and bade the person to enter. Would he ever find an underling not threatened by him? But then again, if one did not fear him, that minion may try to overthrow him. Better to rule in fear, and rise through the ranks, than be the one living in fear.
“Sir,” Maharg did not bother to turn around. He knew what the news would be. “The child has been delivered. A girl. Doctors report all are well, although the mother had to be sedated and the child cut from her.”
Maharg paused a second and then turned. “A girl, you say?”
“Yes, Sir. Seven pounds, 12 ounces. Healthy and strong. Mother may take a while to recover due to the nature of the surgery.”
“Thank you,” Maharg said, dismissively waving a hand. “You may go.”
He turned back to his work, but his mind was spinning A girl...
Vin brought the child to Siki once she was sitting up and more aware of what was going on about her. The sedative had made her woozy for a good day-and-a-half, flitting her in and out of sleep. Finally she was able to sit and eat and become more stable.
She took the baby eagerly in her arms. Despite the conception, despite the fears, she had carried this child and had given it a home for nine months. Now the child was alive and well, and she – no, they, she thought watching Vin watch her interact with the child – would provide the best life for her they could. She pushed the thought of a time limit out of her head. For now, she just wanted to enjoy this little bit of quiet family time.
The day exactly six weeks later was almost a carbon copy of the day Ria was born. A subtle knock on the door, and suddenly the apartment was filled with Regs. At first Vin thought the perhaps Maharg had decided to visit. He had not appeared at the hospital nor at the apartment once Siki had been released. He was sure that the Reg had heard the news. Once a day a nurse had visited the family at their home, checking on the mother and child and doing odd chores the little family could not seem to keep up with during the period of Ria's infanthood.
This time, however, the Regs told them it was time to go. Siki and Vin had had bags packed for days, ready to go at a moment's notice. This is what they had been waiting for.
They took the bags and the baby, bundled up, and were escorted, gently, to the helicopter pad that they had once destroyed. A new, shining, modified HIND-36 was waiting.
They all climbed in. No guns at their backs this time. No prodding, no anger. The HIND took off. The Regs respectfully requested Siki and Vin be blindfolded, which they accepted out of deference to their courtesy.
Hours later, they could hear and feel a change in the steady rhythm of the blades. They were coming in for a landing.
They were eased off the copter and led to a spot where the blindfolds were removed. Then the Regs went back to the chopper and disappeared back into the sky.
For a moment, they stood just looking at each other. It was hard to believe that after the treatment they had received at the hands of the Regs in the past could end so peacefully. Vin started to look around. A few feet away was a ladder. He looked up to see a spacious house on a platform. It looked brand new. Their home.
Vin climbed up and then lowered a basket down on a rope. Nervously, Siki put the baby inside and Vin carefully hauled her up to the home. Siki, with a little difficulty due to the scars from giving birth, made her way up the ladder behind her
The house was obviously new. Raw wood walls, sawdust strewn across the floors, and miscellaneous edges exposed. But it was large, with three bedrooms and already a fully-stocked kitchen and nursery. Siki was exploring the different rooms when Vin called her outside to the porch. He pointed to something in the distance. With few trees blocking the view, Siki could see battered remains of what looked like two oddly funnel-shaped towers.
“W
elcome to Apoc,” Vin said, draping an arm across her shoulders. “We're free.”
After a moment, Siki moved out from under his touch. Smiling, she walked back into the kitchen area to explore. Her eyes were drawn to a paper tacked to the pantry door. She frowned, thinking that paper had not been there during her first inspection of the house. She walked over and took the paper, her hands tightening as she read the words.
Vin turned and noticed the expression on her face. Curious, he came up behind her to read over her shoulder, then his face went white.
Your thirteen years start now.
The End
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This series has been a long time coming! I would like to thank my Vin-spiration for being my inspiration and encouraging me.
Thank you to Bradley McDevitt for his art and also for all his advice and friendship!
Also major props to Jessica McDevitt for her critical eye and helpful suggestions on the cover art.
Major props to my son, Mark, for all his help and counseling and encouragement.
And more thanks to my "Brit Boy" Paul for test reading!
Heding to APOC Page 6