The Apocalypse Watch

by J Foster Ward

  Whatever it was, it was fast. The banging noise of it was catching up quickly. Their only hope was to break contact. Jake steered them into turn after turn, dodging through side chambers and smaller corridors in a zig-zag attempt to escape the thing. But it still stayed behind them, always out of sight but the rattling hammer sound like an alarm, crashing against his nerves, eroding his calm. He had a vague sense of the direction back to the elevator and changed his tactics, returning them to the main corridor and running flat-out towards escape.

  As he and Milan pounded up the main hallway, neither noticed the light ahead until they skidded to a halt in the room itself.

  The chamber was kindof an atrium at the crossroad of two major hallways. Based on the ancient, defaced artwork on the walls and the remains of fantastically curved chairs and tables, it had possibly been a lounge of some kind in the past. Now it was something out of a horror movie instead.

  Arranged in the archway of the two corridors opposite him, Jake saw monstrous figures standing guard, arms up, ready to pounce. Fanged, horrible mouths like a wolf, long bloody claws, bodies covered in shaggy hair. Each of them was eight feet tall, and at their feet was a glass lantern filled with a slowly churning red light, like some sort of lava-lamp. Jake drew aim on the nearest one, but something stayed his trigger finger.

  They weren’t moving.

  They were scarecrows. Intimidating figures made out of fur and wood, held upright with ropes.

  “Keep going!”

  “What?” Milan shouted incredulously.

  But when he pulled her along behind him, she didn’t resist. Running past the scarecrows they made it halfway up the next corridor before the thing pursuing them exploded into the lounge at the intersection they’d just left. Jake pushed Milan into a side chamber that still had a door and began trying to force the bent and rusted portal to close.

  “Little help here!” he said through gritted teeth as Milan stood and watched him.

  The girl gave a whimper and threw herself at it beside him. Between the two of them they made the door grind closed almost entirely. Before they forced it the last bit of the way, Jake took one last look towards the lounge. Something big moved out there, lit by the dim red glow. So big he couldn’t see all of it when it passed into view. Something that seemed to reflect like a mirror, and was covered in many, many legs. After a long moment it seemed to hesitate and then finally it slithered away, the staccato clacking following it getting more and more quiet until it faded to nothing.

  ***

  “I think it’s gone,” he whispered.

  “How can you be sure?” Milan hissed. “It might be another trap!”

  He turned to see she had retreated to the far corner of the room, back to the wall, eyes huge.

  “No moppeting way I’m going out there while it’s around!”

  “We have to leave eventually,” he said reasonably.

  “You can if you want!” she snapped. “Not me!”

  “Okay fine. I’ll send help when I finish the mission.”

  Jake turned back to pry the door open but had barely given it a yank when Milan practically tackled him.

  “You can’t leave!” she insisted. “You primitive dirtworm, who told you that you were allowed to leave!”

  Jake took her by the wrists and made her let go. “Get a hold of yourself, Milan. You’re not the boss of me.”

  “Don’t you dare open that door!” she demanded.

  “Watch me. Bye.”

  “Don’t!”

  “Always a pleasure, Milan,” he rolled his eyes, putting his shoulder to the door.

  “Please don’t!” she almost yelled.

  The pleading tone of panic stopped him. Facing her, Jake saw she was shaking and terrified. She had the same implants that he did; for a clone to get that scared had to be something special.

  “What’s wrong with you?” he asked softly.

  “Wrong? Nothing’s… oh okay alright! I have a disability! I lied about it on my application. They would have disqualified me from the Tomorrow Program if they’d known.”

  Well, this was new. In the perfect technological utopia of the 23rd century there were still people with disabilities. And the fact Milan wasn’t the perfect poor little rich girl princess she made herself out to be actually made him like her more.

  “I didn’t know, sorry Milan. Can I ask what kind of disability?”

  “I have… I have entomophobia,” she admitted solemnly, as if she’d just revealed a great secret.

  Jacob lost his temper. “You have a fear of bugs? That’s it? Oh, for fucksakes! That’s not a disability, that’s a childhood fear of spiders.”

  “I can’t go out there,” she pleaded. “Please. Please-please-please. I can’t die like that again. That mantis-thing from before almost drove me mad. The bitch of an AI put me in two weeks virtual psychosurgery!”

  Jake bristled a bit at the way she referred to Circe. “If she did it, you needed it. Anyway, you’re not going to die. Just sit tight.”

  “If you leave, I’ll scream! I will!” she threatened.

  Jake paused halfway to the door. Briefly considered ending her clone’s life there on the spot. No… as much as it would be the easy way out, it made his stomach turn to think of shooting an unarmed woman. Maybe he could just get her to stop panicking if he calmed her down.

  He shone his light around the room. A few torn-apart chairs, an overturned plastec table, and some bundles of cables of optic wire in a giant ratnest tangle.

  “Okay, we take a rest break here. Thirty minutes, tops.” he said.

  Milan slumped in relief, panic fading slightly. “Good.”

  Fitting the revolver awkwardly in the thigh cargo-pocket of his coveralls, Jake used some of the wire to tie the door shut as best he could. Then used the table on its side to create a hiding spot in the corner. Stripping the remaining foam padding from the chairs he made a carpet inside the hiding spot so they wouldn’t be sitting on the cold floor.

  Milan immediately sat in the corner of the nest; knees drawn up to her chin. Jake sat as far away from her as possible, so he could peer out around the table to keep an eye on the door, gun in his lap. In an effort to make her standard-issue coveralls more fashionable Milan had cut the sleeves off and tailored the legs into shorts. He did his best to ignore her shivering.

  “This is the worst. Why didn’t you do a better job?” she complained.

  “You’re welcome,” he grumbled. “You know you could’ve helped.”

  “What would be the point?”

  “The point would be if you think you can do a better job, feel free to do it. But don’t complain when someone else does something nice for you. Or next time they won’t bother. Geezus you are fucking arrogant and privileged.”

  “Me? I’m the one who is arrogant?” she exclaimed. “You primitive throwback! You grunt and bark orders and treat the rest of us like children even though you’re the knuckle-dragging, obsolete, disgustingly crude cave man!”

  Jake couldn’t help but laugh.

  “What?” she barked. “Is funny about that?”

  “Obsolete? Take a look around. You’re shivering cold inside a dark cave. You probably couldn’t change a light bulb if your life depended on it. I’m sure you were the queen of the 23rd century, but we’re not in the 23rd century anymore. Around here you’re the one who is obsolete.”

  Her stricken look meant she had not been willing to admit that truth but had somehow known it deep down. She stayed quiet a long time, not meeting his eyes.

  Finally, she spoke. “So, share your infinite cave-man wisdom, how should I get warm? Can you bang rocks together to start a fire?”

  “The only thing to burn in here is synthetic. You’d just breathe in a bunch of toxic smoke.”

  “What then?”

  “Well, we could conserve body heat. Press ourselves together.”

  “You’re making that up!” she snapped. “It’s some trick to rub your body on mine.”
>
  “Suit yourself,” he shrugged.

  They sat in stony silence until finally Jake’s curiosity got the better of him.

  “Milan, why are you even up here? What were you doing in Bravo module?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Oh right, you just happened to wander three whole modules out of your way.”

  “Alright fine. Owem said you were acting strange and went up the elevator. So, I followed you.”

  “Awwww, you were worried about me,” he teased her.

  “Worried you were going to wreck everything you mean,” she said dismissively and refused to look at him.

  But a minute later she shuffled closer and sat so they were beside each other, backs to the wall. Jake relented and put an arm over her shoulders, drawing her against him gently. Milan quickly burrowed against his body, whimpering as she shivered. He made no other move to touch her – last thing he needed was her shouting again – and after a few minutes her shivering stopped and they both began to feel warmer.

  “Better?”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  “Okay, I’ll stop touching you then.”

  “No!” she snapped, a little too quickly. “I mean, uh, it’s fine to stay like this.”

  Jake smiled to himself. Poor little Milan. Of all the clones she was the one who seemed closest to being a normal human. And he strongly suspected she was a closeted heterosexual.

  “Listen, dirtworm…” she began.

  “I have a name. I don’t answer to dirtworm.”

  “Sorry… Jacob. I’m trying to say… you have been doing things worth thanks.”

  “Are you trying to say ‘thank you’?”

  “Didn’t I just?”

  “Mmm, not really. You suggested someone might consider thanking me. Not the same thing.”

  “This is stupid.”

  “Good manners are stupid?”

  “Manners? I don’t have time for your outdated notion of manners! Who are you to say your antique cultural norms have any bearing in a modern…”

  “Modern? I think you mean post-apocalyptic. Maybe if we’re going to rebuild civilization some old-fashioned ideas might help.”

  There was a pause.

  “I’m not saying it,” she insisted.

  “Fine.”

  “I’m not.”

  “I said its fine.”

  Another pause.

  “How would someone even say thanks?”

  Jake grinned. “You just say, ‘thank you’.”

  “Alright. The… thank you Jacob.”

  He held her closer and stroked her arm once. “You’re welcome.”

  Milan shivered, but this time for a very different reason. There was another long pause. And during it Jake drew small circles on her arm with his fingers. Gently stroked her inner arm and tried not to smile in satisfaction as she moaned quietly in pleasure. She didn’t try to stop him, didn’t even acknowledge it. Just stayed frozen like she thought some spell would be broken if she even breathed.

  “Am I bothering you?” he asked, knowing the answer.

  “W-what is this? Is… is this kissing?” she asked breathily.

  “What?” Jake almost laughed. “No this isn’t kissing. Don’t you know what kissing is?”

  She glared at him. “Of course not! What kind of a pervert do you think I am?” she demanded.

  Then Jake moved his hand slightly to caress her nipple through the fabric of her coveralls.

  “Ohhhhhh, hhhunnngh!” Milan shuddered in ecstasy, mouth opening in a moan.

  “Why don’t you know what kissing its?” he asked softly in her ear, still slowly circling her tits.

  Milan was boneless in his arms, barely able to talk. “B-because. The histories say the w-word, but n-nobody ever described it. It’s j-just an ancient p-p-perversion.”

  “Oh, is it?” he shifted slightly and leaned closer.

  Milan’s eyes were closed, head thrown back and her lips parted. She was a gorgeous creature. Model-perfect. Dark, silky hair loose around her shoulders. It was not a hardship to lean closer and gently place a kiss on her mouth.

  She practically went into tremors. “W-what w-was that?” she gasped in delighted shock.

  “That, Milan, was a kiss. A very brief, gentle one.”

  “There’s more kinds?”

  “Way more,” he assured her.

  Jake was done talking. He kissed her some more, making her shake in his arms each time. Kissed the tip of her tongue with his until she let out a moan so loud, he pressed his mouth hard on hers to silence it. But it was when he placed a trail of kisses down her neck to her collarbone that she came alive. Gasping and gripping him so hard he almost thought she was attacking. But she just squeaked pleasure at every touch. When he unzipped the top of her coveralls, and bared her tits, she dug her fingers into his body in anticipation and almost screamed when he ran his tongue and lips over her nipples.

  When he lifted his head, she met his eyes, hers fierce with passion.

  “Don’t you dare stop!” she growled.

  He didn’t need to be told twice. He yanked the coveralls zipper downwards, exposing her from neck to pubic bone, and pulled the clothing down off her shoulders so she was topless. He stroked and kissed her from lips to navel, making the 23rd century socialite collapse on her back, begging and panting for more. It was only then, when she was unconsciously arching her hips up towards him, that Jake yanked the coveralls down around her knees exposing her cunt. Apparently going completely hairless wasn’t a fashionable thing in the 23rd century because she had an artfully crafted patch in a shifting red-orange hue. He worked his way around her pale loins and her thighs. Hungry to taste her and picking up hints of how wet she already was. When he finally parted her cunt lips with his tongue, he released a minor flood of her warm, salty-sweet juices.

  “Ohhh, yes! Yes more!” she begged.

  She had no more chances to talk, only purr like a cat, as he lavished her slippery cleft with attention. It was a surprise to both of them when she gave three, deep-throated cries and climaxed explosively, body shaking and voice raw and ragged.

  “Oh? You think that’s so funny?“ she demanded self-consciously as he grinned down at her.

  With that she sprang on him. Unzipping his coveralls until in moments they were both naked. She almost angrily attacked him with her mouth. Jake winced at the pleasurable pain as she used her teeth and lips together, growling like an animal, and working her kisses over his body until she paused, frozen in indecision, as the sight of his straining, rock-hard erection.

  She began by kissing the tip, then the shaft, making Jake mad with frustrated lust. She thankfully didn’t use her teeth but licked him everywhere in a way that was amazing and entirely frustrating.

  “Is it supposed to be like this?” she asked, shyly. “What do I… how do you… ?”

  In answer Jake placed a hand on her neck and pushed her mouth down around his cock until she’d taken him as deep as she could. Milan let out a shocked cry of indignation, then as Jake let her up for air and gently urged her back up and down, she let out another muffled sound of delight and took to sucking his cock with a passion.

  It wasn’t long. He was too pent up with frustrated desire to hold back. It was barely a few minutes before he felt his jizz surging, his body tensing, and he let out animal groans of need. Almost magically Milan read the signals and sped up her lusty action of lips and tongue on him. Somehow her instincts had taken over and she was amazing at swallowing cock.

  As Jake was about to come, he still had one tiny remaining part of his brain that wanted to be a gentleman and tried to pull her away. But Milan would have none of it. When he exploded a salty rush in her mouth she growled in satisfaction, moaning excitedly and doubled down, sucking him dry, not losing a single drop.

  Later, when they lay tangled together, spent and wet, Milan let out a sigh of satisfaction as she curled against him. Then just as suddenly she sat bolt upright, panic and indignation
on her face.

  “I can’t believe you let me do that! Now you’ve got me pregnant!” she yelled.

  Oh boy. How was it up to him to explain that’s not how it worked!

  ***

  Chapter 4

  : Sacrificial Altar

  Nothing he tried could convince Milan to go back to Delta module on her own. Jake certainly wasn’t about to risk getting killed taking her back – it was getting tiresome, and painful. So, with her following him like his shadow they left the safety of their love-nest and headed in the direction Jake thought he might find Alpha module.

  Unlike the other parts of Bravo module, the area past the scarecrows definitely showed more signs of being inhabited. For one thing the smell of smoke was stronger. At the corner of every hallway intersection was another of the globes filled with churning red light, making a hellish glow. He knelt to inspect the first one they came across and found it was some sort of repurposed clear plastec jar with a kind of burlap cloth tied over the mouth. And inside it were some sort of fat grubs as big as unshelled peanuts that all glowed with an internal bioluminescence, like fireflies.

  “Do you know where you’re going?” Milan asked him after the third turn.

  “I’m looking for something familiar,” he replied. “And keep it quiet. Someone put those scarecrows and lights there.”

  It was soon after he found a landmark that he remembered off the wrist-buddy map. The kennel. The door had been forced open long ago, but the sign was still attached to it.

  ORGANIK SEKURITEE STORAG

  Far from being wrecked, the room was somehow well maintained. Two rows of large animal cages stacked two high. All empty. There was a plastic barrel of water, and stacked clay bowls. The locks were missing from the cages, but they all had lengths of hairy rope that had been used to tie them shut.

  “What? Let’s get out of here, this place stinks!” Milan said after he paused to look inside some of the cages.

  “Yeah, exactly. You see the size of the scat in the cages? Too big for dogs. Only one thing I know leaves that kind of crap; humans.”