by Kyle Kenze
If the sense of sight can reinforce an illusion, why couldn't every sense do the same thing? Delusions weren't strictly visual. Millions of people heard voices. Some people claimed to feel the icy fingers of a ghost, which must be a tactile hallucination.
I'd had a brain injury. Maybe it was no surprise I kept remembering the oddest things whether they happened or not. A plane went down. No. Two different planes went down on two different continents.
The plane crash was real. Wasn't it?
No. Of course, it wasn't. I got that bird safely on the ground. And the Cirrus SR22 had a parachute anyway.
I'd fallen out of a tree.
Nah. That couldn't be right. What the hell would I be doing in a tree?
The sense of unreality grew. I touched my right hand to my left bicep. What had I expected to feel there?
A bandage?
Most dreams fade within minutes after you wake, but I must be suffering some sort of dream hangover.
We hiked on and on. I had to appear calm and in control. The girls couldn't know how confused I really was. Madison was taking point, giving me an excellent view of her swaying hips.
Hips never lie, as the saying goes.
I wasn't stuck in a virtual reality. This was the real reality, and I'd promised my girls not to deny reality anymore. Not even to myself.
Madison stopped short, so I did too, seconds before I would have collided with her lovely rump. Red and Casey were right behind me. We all fanned out to study the waist-high rusty barbed-wire fence that blocked our progress.
How far did it go? I strolled a short distance around but didn't see an access gate anywhere. A problem my bolt cutters could solve in under ten minutes.
Small US Department of Interior signs were chained at intervals to the upper tier of the fence line. Each metal sign was stamped with a friendly message:
DANGER KEEP OUT
RESTRICTED AREA
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
LIVE SHOOTING RANGE
The signs too were rusty, and some of the chains holding them in place had already rotted through, causing every fourth or fifth sign to hang from one corner.
“Has to be a bluff, doesn't it?” Madison said. “If it was still being used as a shooting range, we would have heard the sound of gunfire from miles away.”
I looked at Red. “You have any ideas?”
“Why would I have any ideas?”
Toeing at one of the rusted signs that had fallen to the ground, I remembered my premonition. In dreams, we'd hiked up to a fence that looked much like this one, where I'd happily whipped out my bolt cutters to chop myself a path to my doom. “If it ever was a shooting range, it isn't now. Anyway, I don't even think those are real US government signs. I imagine it's something Saunderson put up to shoo casual drop-ins away from his property.”
“Does it say anything on the maps?” Red asked.
“You already know it doesn't,” Madison said.
“He should have left you a way in just in case he didn't make it.”
“He didn't want to make it too easy in case somebody was tracking us.” Madison frowned. “And he trusted me to figure things out.”
“So... figure things out.” Red folded her arms over her chest.
I unfolded the map. The breeze caught a corner of the heavy paper and made it snap almost as loud as a gunshot. All four of us jumped before we caught ourselves.
Casey pulled her white-gold chain out of her blouse to finger her good luck charm. Water-clear diamonds flashed against black leather. “Hey. I'm confused.”
“I think we're all confused right now,” I said.
“Why do you think Shaunie didn't leave us a way in? I thought this was the way in.” She clutched the fancy key in her long fingers.
“Just any key won't do,” Madison pointed out. “A key to Shaun's Mercedes isn't the key to his private bunker... Oh.” She realized and stopped talking, and then we all realized.
Of course. That fancy device was more than a key to an overpriced car. It was a handy-dandy USB drive too.
“The passcode is stored inside,” Casey said. “I guess I thought you guys already knew that.”
My jaw dropped. A mental key of my own snapped into place. Saunderson had thought of everything else. Of course, he'd think of this. Somewhere inside this fence, or perhaps beyond a series of fences, we'd come to an electronic gate undoubtedly powered by solar energy. Casey would slide the USB drive into the port, and boom.
The door to the magic kingdom would swing wide open.
“There's only one catch,” I said. “Somebody's been watching and waiting, and I guarantee they're somewhere inside that fence waiting to take us out so they can use that code to break into the bunker. I can feel it in the air. I can fucking smell it.”
Madison turned to stare at me. “Are you serious?”
“As a heart attack. That's what all those premonitions were all about. My subconscious was trying to warn me. There are other humans here. We know that. They aren't many of them, and apparently they didn't have enough ammunition to feel comfortable taking us on while we were on high ground. But here they've got the advantage. Somewhere between this fence and the electronic gate that opens with that key... they're waiting for us.”
“You sound so sure, but it's all speculation.”
“It's also speculation to say he's wrong and that it's clear sailing beyond that fence-line.” Red's smooth brow had developed a tiny crinkle. “We simply don't know. We have zero data.”
“Shit,” Madison said. “So what do we do now?”
“I don't know, but we don't need to take any stupid chances this close to the finish line.”
“I wasn't suggesting we ever take any stupid chances.”
Casey was good at ignoring their petty squabbles. “Hey. Don't laugh, but I've got an idea.” Her dark eyes sparkled. “If somebody's already home, we don't have to break down any walls and fences. All we have to do is persuade them to come out to play.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You know exactly what she means,” Madison said.
Chapter Eleven
I rubbed my chin, a pantomime of a man thinking. At last, I shrugged and turned away. The three women looked at each other's faces and then tagged along behind me.
We walked away, the very picture of a ragtag band of people bluffed by a cheap fence and some official-looking signs. Was anybody watching our pantomime? Would they believe an Air Force Major would be so easily deterred?
“How long do they think they'll try to wait us out?” Madison asked.
It might depend on how long the meat on Saunderson's chunky corpse held out. Not that I intended to mention we could be up against cannibals.
“You don't have to protect her.” Red jerked her chin toward Casey, who was walking ahead of us with a mischievous spring in her step.
“Of course, I have to protect her.”
Red's white fingers flew as she used a long stalk of grass to tie back yet another whippy little branch. “I meant you don't have to protect her from what you think. She already knows.”
Thanks to the branches she secured, the trail behind us was more open than the trail ahead. Was it too obvious that we wanted our unknown friends to follow us? She didn't need to pave the way for them. I decided not to comment. We were all full of nervous energy, and Red needed to feel like she was doing something useful.
We walked on, Madison on my right elbow and Red on my left.
“Billionaires aren't the only guys who hide out in wilderness bunkers,” Maddy said. “There's another large category of mountain men who do the exact same thing.”
“Drug cookers. Terrorists. Serial killers. Escaped prisoners.” Red sounded surprisingly calm about it. “Casey knows that as well as the rest of us.”
I should have fired back when I met those guys over the grouse. I'd given them a second chance they didn't deserve. If I'd accepted the fact I was in a war zone, I would have acted differen
tly, but I was still deep in denial at that moment.
Wait. What grouse? Wasn't that just another one of your dreams?
“They were already hiding out here before the end,” Madison said. “Not because they knew war was coming but because they'd done something to put themselves on the run. When Shaun Saunderson fell into their lap, they saw a chance for a payday. Conceal the body. Contact the wife or the studio to demand payment for his return. A classic kidnapping scenario.”
“We can't know for certain, but yeah.” I kept my eyes on Casey to make sure she didn't wander out of sight. “Based on the little I saw...” When had I seen anything? “Based on the little we've heard, we're up against two guys, three at the most, who have some experience lurking under the radar. Guys like that will always be on the lookout for easy money. When Saunderson fell on their heads out of a clear blue sky, they thought they'd hit the jackpot.”
“Until they tried to deliver the ransom demand.” Red walked faster, which spurred Maddy and me to walk faster too. “And they found out the message wasn't getting through. Nobody's message was getting through. Because the world was over.”
“Sure,” I said. “When they couldn't message out, they stashed his body and tried to hike back to civilization― only to find out there was no civilization to hike back to.”
“This is speculation,” Maddy said.
“Speculation is all we have right now. But it fits the facts we know. Why Saunderson disappeared. Why they were so quiet.”
“He's making a lot of sense, Madison.” Red, thoughtful, stopped walking quite so fast. “We didn't hear them around because most of the time they seriously weren't around. They were trying to hotfoot the hell out of this forest. But they must have come up against something which convinced them to turn back.”
None of us wanted to think too hard about what that “something” was. A smoking crater? Many of them?
Whatever it was, they'd had no choice but to come back empty-handed. Their hideout probably wouldn't stand up to winter in the mountains. Their supplies were undoubtedly running low. So they'd made a new plan. Get into Saunderson's bunker.
“If they had his body, they would have tried to use his fingerprint to get in,” I said.
“The fingerprint reader is probably the kind that doesn't work if the body is cold,” Madison said. “A well-designed reader would demand multiple biological markers, not just one. Temperature, heart rate, maybe an iris scan.”
So they needed the key― a key Casey currently wore around her neck for good luck. Ever since she'd pulled it out of her blouse, the diamond-studded pendant had danced openly on its long white-gold chain, the water-clear facets flashing multiple tiny rainbows.
Had they seen us? Had they seen her? Did they understand the significance of the key?
Even if they didn't, sooner or later they'd be desperate enough to come after us. And we'd be easy to find. Walking three abreast on this tiny path left a clearly defined trail of broken limbs and bent stalks.
If this theory was true, one good thing occurred to me― the creeps probably weren't actual cannibals. They'd been eating from a stash of non-perishables in their hideout. Criminals can live indefinitely on chips and candy bars. No need to chow down on Saunderson's stale corpse.
I really had let my imagination run away with me on that one.
Casey vanished around a soft curve, and the three of us hurried to catch up.
“Here,” she said. “This is it. The perfect place.”
Tiny blue butterflies patronized the tinier blue flowers that carpeted the wide meadow. A single stout tree, isolated from its fellows, stood alone in the center. Its long shadow cast a dark slash on the otherwise sunlit ground. Somebody human had cleared this spot. Not this year, and maybe not the year before, but not in a previous century either. That single tree wasn't natural.
“It could have been designed for us,” Madison said. “Yeah. I like it.”
“I don't see the strategic advantage.” When I walked slowly around to check things out, more blue butterflies flitted up from underfoot. “It's too open.”
“We can't appear to have an advantage if we want to invite them out to play.” Red had a hand on my shoulder and another on my Heckler & Koch.
“Hey. I need that.”
“We have to look like easy meat,” Madison had a hand on my other side.
“You can't be our protector. You have to be our prisoner. They have to think they have an overwhelming advantage.” Red pointed my erstwhile weapon at the tree. She was careful never to aim it in my direction, but somebody watching from afar would assume I was under duress. “Criminals don't like fair fights.”
Professional military men don't particularly enjoy fair fights either. Grumbling, I walked over to the tree and sat with my back braced against the trunk. “I really don't think this is necessary to draw them in.”
“I'm afraid it is.” Madison was already pulling my arms around the trunk to bind my wrists together. “They're not going to believe you let yourself get so distracted by pure sex that you didn't keep a guard on our camp. Not this close to that bunker.”
I flexed my wrists, the better to evaluate the strength of her knots. They were pretty lame. It might be more difficult to pretend they held me secure than to break free.
“It has to look like we argued. Doesn't matter about what. We girls might be pissed you gave up on the bunker so easily. Whatever. All that matters is that we need to look like we've lost all military discipline.”
“I haven't been handing out enough spankings, that's for damn sure.”
“It's acting, hon.” Casey kissed me on the top of the head. “It'll be fun. You'll see. They're not going to be able to resist.” Her shampoo-commercial hair bounced against her shapely shoulders when she shrugged off her pack in a puddle of sunlight.
Maddy hurried to catch up. Her jeans, the panties looped inside, were already at her knees. She shifted her weight from foot to foot and then gave a little kick. Now she too was naked.
“Wait,” Casey said. “Isn't it better if he's naked too? Then they can see he doesn't have another weapon hidden someplace.”
“It would be better if I actually had another weapon hidden someplace.”
“Don't make me gag you.” Casey giggled. She was actually getting into the role.
“I've already tied his hands, and it would be a pain to re-do it.” Red slinked out of her own clothes and dropped to her knees. “But we can take off his pants.”
“You girls are torturers.” I flexed my butt to lift as much of it from the ground as possible.
They tugged and yanked.
“You love it,” Casey said.
“Are you pretending to be distracted, or are you actually distracted?” I asked. “Who's watching the store while the three of you are stealing my jeans?”
“We can multi-task,” Red said. “Besides, we'll know when they're getting close.”
“We will?”
“Those branches I tied. At least some of them will break if anyone follows us down that path, and we'll hear the snap from a good distance.”
I should have known she had a plan all along.
My dick stretched in the sunlight. The little head approved of the situation. And why not? Here I was naked below with the waist with my wrists secured out of the way, completely at the mercy of three gorgeous women.
When Casey smacked playfully at my shaft, I jumped, an automatic reflex. “You look good like that,” she said. “You make a tasty prisoner.”
“Hmm. I wonder how much of this is an excuse to get some kink while we're waiting for our guests to arrive.” A blade of grass tickled me in the wrong spot until I walked my butt in place a time or two. Just by wild coincidence, the movement caused my hard dick to joggle up several times in the open air.
Red's mouth came open. She was close to drooling.
Perfect.
“Casey's absolutely right, though,” Maddy said. “We have to get into the spirit of th
ings.”
“It has to look real.” Red dropped to her knees next to me so she could lazily roll my shaft around between the palms of her smooth hands. “An orgy only looks real if it is real.”
“Method actors.” I had to laugh. My dick bucked higher to fuck into her hands, and we both felt another rope of pre-cum spurt from my slit.
“Not so fast.” Her right hand slipped down to tug my nuts. She was edging me. Fuck. “We don't know how long we've got to keep the show going.” Her voice was sultry sexual evil. “We've got to take our own sweet time. They'll want to watch for a while, they'll want to reassure themselves this is nothing more than what it looks like.”
“And what does it look like?” My own voice was thick with lust.
“Orgy time. Party central. They won't fire on us, they'll want to keep these hot bodies alive.”
“I'm the lure,” I said. “The target.”
“The risk is all yours.” She looked serious for a moment. “You know we wouldn't ask you to do this if there was another way.”
“Hell.” I leaned as far forward as I could to kiss her hard on the mouth. “I'm happy to be your lure. I wouldn't have it any other way.”
Red wrapped her legs around me to hump her creamy flesh all over me. Her pussy puckered against my dickhead, then twitched away flirtatiously each time I started to thrust in. More of the edging game. My blood pounded in the ropy veins that fed my shaft. I wanted to come so bad, but I also wanted to hang on the edge forever. This was intensity.
As we rocked together, her clever hands moved here and there as quick and restless as a magician's. Eventually, they scooted around to my back. Wait. What?
I felt something hard and cold between the small of my back and the tree trunk. The Heckler & Koch. She'd got it back within my reach, and I'd never even seen her pick it up.
Clever girl. Vegas lost a great close-in magician when she decided to become a billionaire's mistress.
“Stay ready,” she breathed into my ear.
“You don't have to tell me,” I whispered back.
If anybody was watching, they'd been provided with a second distraction― Maddy and Casey spreading out sleeping bags on the wide meadow floor in front of us. The dimples in their cute tails winked, and I remembered the first time I'd seen them naked together by the pool, their golden legs shifting, their pink tongues squirming.
