How to Beat Tomorrow

by J Foster Ward

  Keep reading for an exciting excerpt from the next book in the series!

  The Last 21st Century Man

  Jake made his way to the grav shaft and stepped into the empty air, craning his neck to look up. But instead of gliding upwards on invisible force a panel Jake had always assumed was the solid floor of the shaft slid aside and he dropped gently into darkness. Darkness as the panel slid shut again. Little red lights sped past as he dropped and came to a halt so quickly his stomach wobbled inside his body. A door opened in the side of the shaft and the giant invisible hand that held him propelled Jake out into the dimly lit chamber beyond. A long unbroken trim of blue light where the wall met the ceiling lit up, directing his way through the unfamiliar corridors. He had been sure he knew every inch of Bravo module after all this time.

  But what if this wasn’t a part of Bravo?

  He walked to the destination and found himself in a room that was a single hemisphere of a dome. A section of the wall folded back and a plastec bed slab extended.

  “I still have no idea how I got selected for this horrible job!” Milan complained, trying to step over the crisped foot-long bugs that carpeted the floor of the hallway.

  Even walking on her toes it would have been impossible, but she tried anyway. It was all the more laughable to watch her try to do it in the oversized hazmat suit, balancing the flame-unit tank on her back.

  “It’s randomly assigned by Cool Breeze,’ Jake replied. He’d passed annoyed by her complaining a good hour ago and was well into ‘being driven insane’ territory by now.

  “Is it?” she snapped. “I’m sure you came up with some sick way to get me alone with you.”

  “Milan, we’d be done by now if you just put as much effort into flaming the nests as you did bitching about it,” he sighed back.

  “What did you say to me, caveman? Oh yes, how could I forget in your day it was perfectly acceptable to dismiss the opinions of an entire gender by simply calling them bitches.”

  Jake strode ahead up the darkened hall, the hovering floodlamp following on an invisible tether. He angrily kicked the drifts of blackened insect corpses like piles of autumn leaves. Tucked into a corner behind a protruding instrument panel was another patch of egg-sacks, the golf-ball sized eggs untouched by fire. He gave it a spritz from the flame unit and crisped them. Standing back from the smoke he lowered his breather mask to talk.

  “I did not call you a bitch! There’s a difference between ‘bitching’ and ‘being a bitch’.”

  Oh yes, please, give me another history lesson in dirtworm society,” she rolled her eyes. “I’ll have you know I had three separate feed channels devoted just to my life. I was in the highest circles of society. I knew ambassadors, I knew billionaires, I knew musicians!”

  “And yet you gave it all up just to annoy me in the post-apocalypse. Well, news for you Milan, they’re all dead! And we will be too if we don’t finish exterminating the zigzag infestation in Bravo module.”

  Something his said hit a nerve because she went quiet and turned her back on him.

  “And for the record, the last thing on my mind is getting some alone time with you!”

  “Fine! You do this section and I’ll work up ahead, all by myself!” she stomped up the corridor in a huff, movements exaggerated by the bulky boots and gloves.

  “Dammit, Milan, its not safe on your own. This is a two-member job for a reason.”

  She didn’t listen ad walked into the next side chamber. Jake sighed, slipped his mask back on and followed her. She hadn’t gone far. Inside the next room every surface was covered in glowing lights. Strange, swirling patterns of phosphorescent eggs in a rainbow of pastel colors on the walls, the ceilings, the desks and control panels. Even an inert robot on the floor.

  “Oh it’s so pretty,” Milan said in wonder.

  The eggs were much larger than the ones in the hall. Coconut sized at least. Jak=cob has a horrible feeling it meant they were closer to maturing and hatching adult zig-zags.

  “Milan!” he hissed. “Back out slowly!”

  But the clone girl seemed entranced by the slowly pulsinf colors from inside the eggs. She held a gloved hand near one and tapped it.

  “Don’t!” he hissed.

  But it was too late. The small tap seem to excite the inhabitant of the egg and it tore a hole in the rubbery surface. As he’d feared, a full-sized zig-zag slithered out of the shell and extended its wings. There were the same monstrously sized dragonfly-like bugs that had chased Jacob into the service tunnels while he was leading the Obeyers to Alpha module. The clones had taken to calling them zig-zags by the way they could flay in almost any direction.

  Milan eeped, stumbled back from the bug. Before he could stop her she’d raised her flame unit, and sent a billowing stream of fire all across the hatchling, and the surrounding three meters of eggs.

  “Oh no,” Jake moaned.

  The surrounding eggs all reacted to the attack. Like a row of dominoes, the entire room began to shiver as hundreds of insects started ripping their way from their shells. Milan stared up and around in horror at what she’d done. Frozen.

  “Run!” Jake called, grabbing her by the elbow. After a single hesitation she turned and followed him as he fled.

  Behind them the sound of wings began to buzz. A low, humming-bird droning sound, multiplied hundreds of times.

  “Emergency!” Milan was shouting into her commlink. “Help us! There’s hundreds of them, they’re everywhere!”

  “No, don’t do that!” Jake turned and smacked the com unit from her hand too late.

  “What did you do that for!” she screamed at him.

  In response, the heavy bulkhead doors at the far end of the corridor began to close.

  “Because of that!” he yelled. “They don’t want those things to escape!”

  He wanted to leave her there, almost did, but grabbed her hand and ran flat out for the closing doors. But it was too late, they slammed shut with a dull thud when the tow agents were still ten metres away. Milan, almost sobbing, raised her flame unit to face where the bugs were swarming towards them.

  “It won’t work! We’ve got to seal ourselves off.”

  Again he dragged her behind him. They’d passed a supply locker earlier that day with the door still intact. If he could make it there the bugs wouldn’t be able to get in. Seeing where he was going, Milan lengthened her stride and kept up. As the first zig-zag came pelting for them, mandibles clacking, Jake reached the door. As he was shucking out of his backpack Milan shoved him aside and tried to get in.

  “Its not big enough for the flamers,” he snapped, and yanked her back, pulling the heavy tank off her back.

  Just before the swarm could reach them the two crammed inside and hauled the door shut, throwing the latch to seal it. The hovering light bumbled its way in at the last moment and hung above them, lighting the tiny confines of the room. Immediately as hailstorms of bugs pelted the metal door and Milan pushed against him, as far from the door as she could.

  “I can’t go out like this!” she wailed. “I won’t be eaten by bugs!” she turned her wild-eyed look on him. “You need to kill me!” she demanded. Grabbed his hands and put them on her throat. “Choke me! Anything! Just not that!”

  “Hey, slow down. Stop. Stop!” he shouted.

  His words finally got through and she went still, gasping for breath. She had the same happy-drug artificial gland that he did, so if she was having a panic attack she must be terrified.

  “They can’t get in,” he said calmly. “Look, no bugs in here.”

  And it was true, the tiny room was sealed. After the initial assault of bugs throwing themselves at the door the noise tapered off. Now it was just a dull, beehive sound in the background. They were trapped, the hallway outside full of zig-zags.

  Realizing she was safe, Milan immediately returned to form, hostile. “Give me room!” she demanded.

  “I can’t.”

  “Ugh, you’re loving this.
I bet this was your plan. Lure me into here… with your… sex-sorcery!”

  “My what?”

  “You know what I mean!” she rolled her eyes. Taking off her mask she glared at him. “Just because one time I let you molest me. With your disgusting caveman biology, doesn’t mean I am into that sort of thing.”

  He considered telling her she was the one who suggested the entire thing but doubted it would do any good. Instead he shrugged and removed his own breather mask. “I didn’t hear you complaining at the time. And I think I heard you in your bunk the other night, rubbing the elf.”

  “I don’t know what that means but you are delusional.”

  “You tried it on your own I guess. How did it work out?”

  “I… I wouldn’t… shut up!”

  “That good, huh. Well, let me know if you need another lesson.”

  “Lesson! As if you could teach me-“

  “Did you come doing it on your own?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Well, I can help. First one was free, but I’m going to want something in return this time.”

  “There’s a word for that! I looked it up,” she said defiantly.

  “I’m sorry, Milan, I have a leg cramp, I have to shift over,” he said and managed to slide his thigh between her legs. In the confined space of the locker it was impossible for her cunt not to be pressed against him.

  “You’re disgusting,” she said, and the more she tried to get away, the more she ground against him. He noticed a fine bit of perspiration on her forehead, her cheeks flushed.

  “You okay?”

  “Mmm-hm,” she bit off shortly, lips pressed together.

  He let her stay that way. Minutes passed. The buzzing outside didn’t go away. Then, ever so minutely, he felt her begin to rise on her toes and lowly lower, letting her cunt rub on his thigh.

  “Milan, you’re humping my leg.”

  “No I’m not,” she said innocently.

  Jake raised his hands and ever so gently began to circle the tips of her breasts through the stiff fabric of the hazmat suit. She did her best to ignore him, biting her lip to show she wasn’t affected. But when he shifted his leg she let out a long moan.

  “Oh yes, touch me,” she groaned.

  Find the rest in The Last 21st Century Man

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