He scanned around the parking lot, thinking that any kind of security or police android would do (and that he'd had lots of those show up in the past two weeks), when he spotted a group that all looked like they could be Sarge's brothers, standing beside dusty motorcycles. He had claimed them thoughtlessly on his way to the car, giving his usual 'go about your normal lives unless I need you' instruction, but now, he figured, he could probably find someone to be their bodyguard among them. He strolled over to them, unintimidated by their intimidating designs, though thinking he was glad they were on his side, not somebody like Janice's.
"You guys, now, I don't mind which one of you, but I need someone who can handle themselves and has some weapons skills to serve as a bodyguard while my companion and I go to the city. You look like the right sort of androids for that kind of mission."
One of them, built as big as Sarge but with bleached white hair and tattoos on his neck, stepped forward from the group.
"We worked as bodyguards for hire for people who needed to go to places they wouldn't normally, sir. We have advanced armed and unarmed martial arts skills and are equipped with guns and tasers. We will happily accompany you on your journey."
His voice was clipped and efficient, and he had a professional air about him, despite the brutish appearance.
"Oh, I just need one of you, really..."
"You told us to go about our normal lives, sir. We live in the city, and so we'll be riding back there anyway. We can escort your vehicle. On arrival, you can decide how many of us you want to stay in your party, but we will always be close by if you need extra protection."
Curtis nodded approvingly, unsure why he hadn't thought of just asking them to do that in the first place. He'd been envisaging trying to fit all these big guys into Ian with Mercy and Sky.
"Good plan. Wait here then, until we're ready to go. Just to fill you in, my companion will be the blue girl who I have ordered everybody not to harm, so as you can imagine, she may need to be defended against androids who are confused by her appearance. Please only subdue anybody like that, so I can claim them and give them the same order not to hurt her. I'm also kinda concerned that there may be wild animals and stuff that I can't cope with - I'm not exactly worldly, as I'm sure you've heard, and I wouldn't really know what to do about a pack of dogs trying to chew on my ass or whatever."
"Dogs, snakes, scorpions, bears, cougars... all kinds of things like that around. They don't bother us androids so the city does have some foraging beasts that might pose a physical threat to you. Some of us even feed them and keep them as pets - it reminds us of when the humans were around and had us take care of their domesticated animals, you see. Some of the medic androids even look after the sick and injured ones just for something to do with their programming. It's nice to have living things around," the white haired buff guy said, looking oddly misty eyed about these creatures that, to Curtis, who'd never been close to an animal bigger than a moth in the flesh, sounded extremely dangerous. He knew from the archives that people had kept some tame animals just for fun, but he didn't remember cougars and bears ever being mentioned among their number.
Maybe I'll get myself a cat, once we're there, though, if I can find one. There were lots of cats in the archives, and it would be cool to have my own animal...
"Good, well, just use your discretion when it comes to what to do to any animals that attack us then. If you don't like killing them or whatever, you don't have to, just keep any teeth and claws out of our delicate human bodies."
"Of course, sir. We will ensure your safety. And all of us fought against the blue monsters back then, too, so you don't have to worry about them, either, not that there are any of them where we're going."
"Not where we're going now, no, but, well, that experience may be helpful in the future, so I may ask you to tell me more about it later. What are your names, by the way?"
"Everyone calls me Duke, but it's short for my official name, Ducati. The rest of the group are Honda, Harley, Triumph and Suzuki. Our official designations are named after motorcycle manufacturers from the old days, we think the humans thought it was cool or something to name motorcycle riding bodyguards that way. It never really made sense because all of our bikes were always the same, and now all the bikes there are are made by the same android run factory anyway... But, you've gotta be named for something, I guess."
Those names do sound pretty cool though. I'm definitely going to order them to teach me to ride a motorcycle when we've got some free time, I bet it's way more fun than sitting inside Ian.
He left the biker androids waiting in the parking lot, with nothing left to do now but let Sky know the plan. But before he even reached the bedroom door, he could tell by the shrieking and giggling coming from inside that she was already awake.
Chapter 8
The sight that greeted him in the bedroom was a very odd one. Maddy, now wearing a vastly oversized t-shirt she'd got from somewhere and nothing else, was sitting cross legged on the bed, laughing heartily as Dora, today sporting a tiny gold bikini and her most usual platinum blonde hairstyle, slathered some glittery gold goo over a naked Sky's bare breasts.
"Am I... interrupting?" he asked, with a bemused smile.
"Oh! No, Maddy said I have to go to the city with you, and so, we were talking about disguises, so I'd look less blue, and Dora here said that she had some stuff you could paint on your skin, so we were just trying that... But, she doesn't seem to understand that it's my face I need to change the color of, because I can just wear clothes over my body..."
"I understand you unlucky people who can't just change your looks to suit the tastes of the people you fuck just fine, babe," said Dora, fixing Curtis in the eye as she rubbed more of the sparkly stuff over Sky's hard nipples, causing her to gasp slightly.
"But that's not what I need it for, and... wait, is this what you like, Curtis? If you like this I will wear it always."
"What even is it?" he asked skeptically, looking at the smears of glitter on Sky's body, which weren't making it look any less blue, and which also looked like they'd just rub off on him if he touched her.
"Body glitter!" Dora said, smearing some across her own chest for emphasis, moving as lasciviously as always, "I can change my skin color, but I can't make it sparkle, and some guys like the way this looks in the light when I dance..."
"Right... well, it's not really helping, is it? It doesn't cover up the blue at all."
It was a kind of clear gel, with shiny specks.
"With enough of it, maybe..." Dora said, but even she didn't look convinced.
Behind him in the doorway, he heard footsteps, and he turned around to see Pinky walking towards him with a bag, looking very pleased with herself.
"I found it!" Pinky announced, as Curtis stood aside to let her join the strange group in the bedroom.
Out of the bag, she produced something big, round, and shiny, black, with what looked like a mirrored glass bit in the front. Curtis had seen something like it in the archives but couldn't place what it was.
"So, you just have to put this on your head, and nobody will be able to see your face. It doesn't matter about your hair - plenty of us have blue hair, because when we were designed nobody was scared of blue people, but you can kind of pile it on top of your head inside this thing too if you want," Pinky said, giving the object to Sky with both hands, while Dora slunk back and sat in the armchair.
"Will I be able to see and breathe OK?" Sky asked, looking doubtfully at the thing.
"Humans used to wear them when they rode motorcycles, so I guess so. I knew I had some of them in the storeroom, from when we cleaned up the parking lot that day..." she said, trailing off like she wasn't going to elaborate on that.
That's what it is, a motorcycle helmet! I guess those biker androids don't use them, but I've seen them on people in old videos. This could actually work. If she wears gloves, long sleeves, pants and the helmet, then nobody will notice she's blue. Especially since we'll
have actual motorcycles with us, it won't even look like an odd thing to be wearing - I bet some androids wear human stuff they don't need just because they were designed to want to fit in. Like Sarge with his Kevlar. I mean, do they really even need to wear clothes at all?
He nodded at Sky, who seemed to be looking to him for confirmation that this wasn't another mad idea like Dora's.
Now Sky was wearing the helmet, the reflective visor down, meaning her neon yellow eyes and blue face were completely hidden. It would definitely serve its purpose, but the sight of it on an otherwise naked, blue woman covered in glitter just looked ridiculous, and he couldn't help laughing. Maddy, who'd been watching from the bed, snorted too, his laughter setting her off, and soon Sky was taking off the helmet and wondering why everyone in the room was giggling like a bunch of idiots.
"I can't hear very well in there, but it's actually quite nice. In the silence I think my other senses work better, like, I could tell you were both laughing and moving and almost see your exact movements if I closed my eyes," she said, thoughtfully, once everyone had stopped laughing and assured her it wasn't meant cruelly, "like I can sense humans even better when my ears and eyes are restricted."
"Well, as long as you're comfortable in it, we'll use that as your disguise - and it's probably best if you wear it when we go out to Ian, in case any new androids show up in the parking lot. I claimed everyone who was out there earlier, and found us a bodyguard to escort us to the city, but there are androids arriving here all the time these days. Once we're out on the road you can take it off. Pinky, can you find Sky some jeans, a thin long sleeved shirt she won't be too hot in, and some gloves, too?"
Pinky nodded and went back to go and raid the Lucky Buy for the rest of Sky's modest outfit.
"When we go to the city, will we be going past the mountain?" Sky asked.
"No, it's in completely the opposite direction, why?"
"Oh," she said, sadly.
"Why?" he repeated.
"I just... I wanted to stop off there on the way. I had some things I left behind in the place I used as a house by the mountain, and I was hoping to get them. But it's probably not important. I can get them some other time."
"If it's important to you, it doesn't really matter if we go back there first - it only takes 20 minutes each way, and we already know that the journey from here to there is pretty safe," he said.
It wasn't just out of kindness to Sky that he made the offer. He'd just realized that Sky had been staying somewhere near the mountain for a time, and that, seeing as how she needed human things like shelter and water, she must have been staying in an old human settlement nearby. And it was almost certainly the place he'd seen on the map, the place he'd wondered about ever since he'd left Sanctuary. The place his ancestors must have lived or worked at. He knew he didn't have time today to investigate the place fully, but if they were there to grab Sky's belongings, then maybe he could find some books or papers or something he could take with him there, too, that could tell him about his own history.
"Can we really?" Sky asked, looking touched.
"Yes, but we should leave in even more of a hurry if we're making the extra trip, so go and wash off Dora's weird stuff and get dressed, OK? And Dora, do you mind leaving me alone with Maddy? It's nothing secret it's just... you're very distracting, you know that?"
"Of course I do!" Dora said, her huge breasts threatening to bounce straight out of her tiny bikini as she stood up, blew him a kiss, and sashayed out of the door.
Chapter 9
He'd said goodbye to Madeleine, after explaining the logistics of what all the androids would be doing while he was away, and how she could get Sarge or Pinky to get messages to him via Mercy, or through Ian's messaging system. He'd told the bikers to wait a while longer, and to get onto the road when they saw Ian the red car returning from their quick trip to the mountain. There was no need for them to have an escort for this, and Curtis didn't like drawing the androids' attention to the mountain anyway (given it was still full of humans that, should they know about them, they might take it upon themselves to try and let out)... Now Sky, in her motorcycle helmet, was in the passenger seat beside him, Mercy was in the back with the box of liquor, and they were all waving goodbye to Maddy, Pinky and Sarge who stood in the doorway of the Lucky Buy sending them off. He wondered how long it would be until he saw them again, feeling like he was heading off somewhere distant and unreachable, even though, to any normal person, he would barely be a stone's throw away.
"Ian, take us to the place where you first picked me up again, please, then bring up the map and I'll show you where we need to go from there."
Ian bleeped and set off down what used to be the highway.
"So, are you excited about seeing the city? I haven't been for ages, it'll be great to be able to get some new clothes," Mercy said, conversationally.
Curtis wondered if she ever wore anything except skimpy, porno versions of nurse's uniforms, and if the factory that made android outfits had a machine devoted to them.
"Excited? Yeah, I mean, it's going to be really weird for me, I've never been to a place with more than one building before... But I guess we'll be able to find a nice place to stay and from there, well, I'll be wanting to see everything, and meet everyone. And I mean everyone."
"What kind of place will we stay in?" Sky asked him, having taken off her helmet gladly as soon as they were out of sight of the Lucky Buy, cradling it on her lap. Her hands were still wearing the fleecy pink gloves Pinky had claimed were the only ones she could find in the store room. Well, it had been summer when the invasion occurred, so the shops probably weren't well stocked with gloves, but he suspected that Pinky just thought they were nice.
Knowing that Curtis wouldn't have a clue what his options even were, Mercy answered Sky's question instead.
"We can stay anywhere, really, but a good choice might be one of the hotels. They have no guests, obviously, but the androids who worked in them before still keep some of them running, and we use them as nice meeting places sometimes. There will be maids like Pinky to take care of you, and other staff who can run errands and cook and so on, so you wouldn't need to recruit androids from somewhere else when we first arrive."
"Excellent plan, Mercy. Yeah, we'll do that. Ian, you know where all the best hotels are, right?"
Ian bleeped and brought up a map of a city, the city they were headed to, presumably, which nobody seemed to ever use the pre-invasion name for, with several locations marked on it.
"OK, great, well, we'll choose later, but that really seems like the best idea for --"
He stopped, because Sky had let out a sudden shriek, and was pointing at something ahead on the road. Curtis squinted, but couldn't see anything - was it one of Sky's abilities triggering? Could she sense someone, or an animal or something? But as Ian got closer, he could see the silhouette of something in the middle of the road in the distance. It was large, larger than any man Curtis had seen, but it had the vague shape of a person, with arms outstretched.
"Ian, pull over now!" Curtis said tensely - he didn't like this.
The mountain containing Sanctuary was right up ahead, they were maybe half a mile from the place where Curtis had originally found Ian, and the strange figure there, whatever it was, well, it seemed likely it had something to do with Sanctuary. But there was nobody in Sanctuary who was that big. Curtis himself had been the tallest and most muscular person in there, and he was certain - unless his eyes were deceiving him and it was a trick of light or distance, that that figure was a head taller than Sarge. It was moving towards them, and he didn't want Ian to continue eating up the distance between them before he had time to figure out what was going on. But it was hard to think, what with the pain in his head... had his head been hurting already? Was this a hangover, starting to kick in? He wasn't sure, but there was a nauseating, low key thudding inside his skull that was making it hard to keep track of his thoughts. Was it getting worse? It was hard to see no
w, like there was a kind of aura obfuscating his vision. He turned in his seat to ask Mercy, sitting behind him, if she had anything for the pain, almost forgetting that the figure was coming, but as he turned Sky grabbed his shoulder firmly in her gloved hand, looking into his face. He could just about make out her terrified expression.
He opened his mouth to tell her he was fine, it was just a headache, but no words came out.
"Curtis, Curtis is he hurting you? Oh, Curtis, it's an Aerquan. He must be after me, must have tracked me to here. I can sense him but he can't hurt me. We need to get you away from here before he gets too close and the psychic attack gets stronger...."
"Ian, reverse!" Mercy cried from the back seat, and the car screeched backwards in a straight line. Curtis' head was starting to clear, his vision was returning, as the red electric car moved, seemingly responding to Mercy's urgent tone by going as fast as it could.
"It's no good - he's still coming!" Sky shrieked, "they're fast - if we keep going back we'll just lead him to the Lucky Buy!"
"Then, I'll have to fight him," Mercy said, "do you know what kind of blue monster it is, Sky? Can you tell if he has a weapon? I didn't see many of them on invasion day - I was trying to revive humans... I have never fought directly before, but I have the protocols for it, it's just, well, any information would be good," she added, her hand already on the door handle as if she was ready to jump out of the reversing vehicle at any second.
But Curtis was already talking to Ian, asking him to send a message to the bikers, Sarge, and anybody else who would be able to engage the alien to get out here as fast as they could.
Android Alien Apocalypse Harem - Arc 1 Box Set Page 15
