by Piper Leigh
I awoke some time later in the darkness. As the dream faded, I realized I’d seen my last party. Unless a cure came quickly, the night I’d been bitten had been my last evening out with friends.
All day I’d been stoic. Finally I succumbed to tears and let them soak my pillow.
Chapter Two
Over the next few weeks, Benson became my lifeline, stopping by my room during rounds for progressively longer chats. He was my only link to normalcy and his visits brought me a bit of hope and joy in what would otherwise have been a pretty dismal existence. I began to look forward to his nightly visits and his friendly, easy conversation.
The drugs also seemed to be doing their job. I still felt like myself. I didn’t notice any outward signs of decay. I hadn’t been beset by the sudden urge to bite anyone.
It wasn’t long before I’d started listening for Benson’s footsteps in the hallway each evening. And started hoping for more than just conversation…
I was lying in bed one night when the sound of boots along the walkway made me bolt upright. My heartbeat sped up as they moved closer. Was it Benson? It was far later than usual. I tried to listen for the cadence of those footfalls, the rhythm I’d memorized. The reverberation made it hard to discern.
For a moment I feared the owner of those boots would turn and move in another direction, but they kept coming, as if on a mission. Then they stopped outside my room and my heart beat even faster. It was him.
“Janeece!”
Benson’s whisper brought me to the doorway.
“I should have let you sleep,” he said as I blinked in the dim light from the walkway. “I should have left you to your dreams.”
“I wasn’t asleep,” I said with what I hoped was a suggestive smile. “Besides, you’re much more interesting than my dreams.” I never would have said that back home, but I figured, hey, I have no idea how much time I have left before…well, that biting-mad stage. I thought I should make good use of my time.
“Interesting? Don’t think I’ve been called that before.”
I stepped up to the force field, as close as I could before getting zapped. “Well, see, a new experience for you.”
He laughed quietly at that, showing me those dimples again. I wanted to see a lot more of him. The unfairness of it all brought a sharp ache to my chest. Why did it have to happen this way? Why was I meeting a guy I might actually want to be with now? Was this my fate, staring at what I wanted from the other side of a force field?
And then Benson did the unthinkable. He pressed a button on a device clipped to his belt and dropped the field.
I gasped as he stepped up to me and we stood toe-to-toe.
“Don’t bite me now,” he whispered—then his lips covered mine.
Biting was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to devour him body and soul.
Lips as soft as down feathers caressed my mouth. Little shocks ran down my spine straight to my core. Usually I was a little more reserved, but the thought that this might be the last time I’d ever be kissed lent me courage. I traced the outline of those full lips with the tip of my tongue. His lips parted and my tongue slipped inside.
He moaned against my mouth. His strong hands gripped my shoulders, pulling me closer. It did occur to me that he was taking a terrible risk. The virus spread only through biting, but one overzealous kiss, a gentle nibble at one of those full lips and he’d be occupying a room here just like me. So I kissed gently, my tongue exploring the inside of his mouth, learning the unfamiliar yet exotic taste of him.
Benson’s hands slid from my shoulders so he could wrap me even tighter in his embrace. Every inch of his body pressed against me. His body temperature felt slightly higher than mine, comforting warmth in the permeating dampness of the facility. I felt the answering heat at my center. I wished for the privacy to explore each other more completely. I wished for the power to wipe out having ever been bitten…until I realized that without that night, I wouldn’t be here with Benson. Fate was a tricky thing.
I decided it wasn’t so bad to be in this facility if it had brought me to this moment.
I’d kissed my share of men, but none had ever kissed me back so fully. I sighed, the sound absorbed by his mouth. Benson walked me backward toward the bed. It dimly occurred to me that even though the inside of my room had been darkened for the night, anyone passing on the walkway could see inside. I tried to care and found I couldn’t.
Benson’s fingers found the hem of my t-shirt and pulled it from the waistband of my loose trousers. His warm hands moved upward over my skin until they cupped my breasts. I bit back a moan. No sense alerting anyone. I had no idea if Benson’s comm was open. Remaining quiet got harder, however, as his thumbs circled my nipples. I arched against him as those slightly rough pads created delightful tingles.
He pulled away then and stared into my eyes. “Janeece…”
I don’t know what else he would have said. Perhaps he’d have come to his senses and insisted that what we were doing was inappropriate for a guard and his charge. Maybe he would have suggested an even more erotic adventure in some hidden part of the facility.
But I’d never know, because just then his comm blared to life.
“Benson.” A loud crackle. “Report to level one.”
With what sounded like a curse in a language I didn’t recognize, he stepped away from me slowly. “Janeece.” It sounded like a plea.
I yanked my shirt back into place. “Go. They’ll be looking for you. You don’t want them to find you here.”
That seemed to snap him back to reality. “No, I don’t.” He glanced around as if realizing where he was for the first time. “Let’s keep this our secret.”
“Our secret,” I agreed as he ran a hand through his hair and straightened his uniform. He headed for the entrance to my room then stopped. He looked back. Regret crossed his face. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something but his comm buzzed again.
“Benson! Level one.”
Farther down the walkway, I heard another guard’s radio crackle to life, followed by another on what had to be a floor below.
He spoke into his wrist comm. “On my way.” He stepped out onto the walkway before reactivating the force field, stepping away with one last glance. I watched him as far as I could until he disappeared down a set of stairs to another floor.
I sat on the bed. Benson likely wouldn’t be back tonight. Whatever emergency had taken him away would probably keep him busy for a while. I could only imagine what horrors went on in the bowels of the facility. Level one was the lowest floor before the sublevels. Benson said he didn’t go there, but from the sounds of it, apparently guards were being called in from all over. A flurry of radio calls echoed up the rock face. Muffled voices answered. More boots hit stairs.
I saw the ghostly forms of other residents getting out of their beds and coming to the entrances of their rooms to see what was going on. Only the force fields stopped them from going out onto the walkways, made it safe enough to leave entire floors of NewZees largely unattended.
Blood-curdling shrieks issued from down in the pit. More radios snarled to life. More guards were pulled from their posts. The horrible sounds went on and on. Finally, unable to take it any longer, I crawled beneath the blankets and stuck my fingers in my ears.
Is that what awaited me down below? I couldn’t bear the thought of that being my future. And yet, what choice did I have? I’d been bitten. Unless the scientists discovered a cure in the very near future, one night Benson might be pulled away from making love with a new woman to subdue me down in the depths of the facility.
I shoved the thought out of my mind. Tonight, at least, I was still me. I’d gotten even friendlier with my new friends. I’d been kissed by a good-looking guy. A few weeks ago I’d given up on that sort of thing altogether.
After what seemed like an eternity, but could only have been several minutes, the sounds died to whimpers. I took my fingers out of my ears and slid lower on the bed. T
he thick blanket kept out the chill that the heating system couldn’t seem to keep at bay. It was a facility built into rock, after all. Dampness permeated everything despite the hi-tech ventilation. I wiggled into a position more conducive to sleep on the surprisingly comfortable mattress.
Still, sleep eluded me. I couldn’t shake the memory of Benson’s lips against mine, the sensation of his tongue exploring the depths of my mouth, the solid strength of his warm hands against my bare skin.
Since I’d been bitten, I’d devoted a great deal of thought to self-pity. A regular old pity party pretty much any time Benson wasn’t around. Not that I didn’t deserve one. Being infected by a zombie and shipped off to a quarantine facility certainly qualified as pity party-worthy. But thinking of Benson, of how I’d felt when he’d kissed me, suddenly I felt alive again, with all that feeling entailed.
I squirmed against the mattress, vividly imagining what would have happened if he hadn’t been called away. Those kisses would have grown more fevered, our breaths short. His fingers would have found my hot, wet center. And then…
I couldn’t bear it any longer. My hand slid over the soft skin of my belly to my clit. I imagined Benson’s rough fingers there.
Slowly I circled the sensitive nub. My hips bucked against the blanket. I visualized Benson’s hard body against mine, his weight pressing me against the mattress. I imagined his hot lips against my throat then searing a path down to my breasts. I heard his panting breaths in my ear as he whispered heartfelt endearments in his own language.
The vision seemed more real now. I fantasized about the delicious sensations his hard cock would set off inside me. That thought brought a flood of wetness to my core. I moved harder against the mattress as my fingers circled faster and I bit my lip to keep from crying out and alerting this entire floor of the facility to what I was up to.
Orgasm hit with blinding intensity. I went rigid then sagged against the mattress as waves of pleasure washed over me. I pulled the blanket over my face to muffle my harsh breathing. I thought of Benson down in the bowels of the facility doing gods knew what, and sighed. I wished he’d stayed here with me.
Then a wide smile spread across my face. If the fantasy of us together was this good, the reality could be mind-blowing.
I stretched languidly. Maybe tomorrow I’d get a chance to find out.
Chapter Three
I must have drifted off because I woke some time later to find a shadow standing at the entrance to my room.
“Janeece, it’s me.”
I jerked upright, smothering a scream. “Benson?”
The lights on the walkway were too dim to see his expression, but I heard horror in his voice. I got out of bed and approached the doorway. Benson stood just beyond the force field, his blond hair sticking out at all angles. I thought I saw a bare spot where a hunk of it might have been pulled out. His eyes were wide with terror.
“Benson, what happened? Are you—” I couldn’t bring myself to ask if he’d been bitten.
He shook his head. “I’m okay. It’s just…it’s just awful down there. Those people, they’re not…people anymore.”
It occurred to me that in working on a quarantine planet, where everything was controlled, even the broadcasts viewed by inhabitants, Benson might not have seen the horrors on the news firsthand. On the feeds, mobs of rabid zombies raged down streets while whole cities, countries and planets fell to the hordes. With the drugs and the monitored environments, he wouldn’t know how quickly things could go from normal to too scary to contemplate. He didn’t realize how swiftly a person could lose their humanity.
He had no idea what I would become.
“Is it really that bad out there?” His eyes searched my face.
My shoulders slouched. Not long ago I’d been thinking about how good the two of us would feel together. Now I’d been dragged back to the worst day of my life. Of course I’d seen the news feeds as well, but I really hadn’t believed it could happen to me. Until, of course, it had. “Yeah, it’s bad out there,” I admitted. “Probably worse than it is downstairs.”
His eyes had lost that shadowed look. We all did that. Once we got past the initial horror of it, all we thought about was how to survive.
“I had no idea. I thought things were rough downstairs. We hear stuff, you know. But I hadn’t seen…”
“I know.” I’d watched the virus creep across the planet. Via the news feed, I’d seen it breach my country’s borders. I’d heard rumors of the first cases hitting the city. But until that night at the club, I really hadn’t seen, either.
The screams from downstairs had stopped for the most part, with the occasional loud moan or shriek echoing up the rock face. But management had clearly released the guards back into the rest of the facility. I reached out a hand to Benson, missing the force field but feeling its power vibrating the air around me. “Do you want to come in?”
He nodded and lowered the field. “I shouldn’t be here. I need to do my rounds.”
I peered out into the walkway. The curious faces from earlier had gone back to their beds, realizing there wasn’t anything to see. “It seems quiet enough out there.”
He glanced down the hallway. When he turned back, some of the shadows had vanished from his eyes. “It is quiet.” A slow smile crept across his face.
I smiled back. “So, you coming in then?”
“Shh,” he said, stepping into my room. He offered me his arm and together we walked to the bed, sitting down.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” he whispered as his lips brushed mine.
“I shouldn’t either.” That wasn’t entirely true. I wanted nothing else than to be here with him to explore the growing lust between us. The fact that time was running out for me was very much on my mind. Still, I didn’t want to do anything that might ruin Benson’s career. Or even worse, turn him into something like myself.
It was common practice in the galaxy to inoculate against sexual diseases during puberty. I’d also recently had my yearly shot to protect me from pregnancy, so at least we didn’t have that to worry about.
I stopped thinking about shouldn’ts and other worries when Benson’s mouth pressed to mine. I tasted the tang of alien and exotic spices. They mixed with the heady scent of his soap, which conjured visions of lush forests and made me long to visit the planet that spawned such an alluring aroma.
Benson kissed me softly at first, then with growing heat. His tongue parted my lips and slid inside. That gentle intrusion brought to mind a stark image of what he could do to other parts of my body. I arched against him, demanding more. He responded by running his hand up over my rib cage until it closed on my breast. I suppressed a moan as his fingers teased my nipple through my shirt. The friction from the material brought it to a hard peak and tingles rippled all the way to my sex. I couldn’t stop a soft sigh from escaping.
This time I intended to give as good as I got. My fingers strayed to the clasp of his loose pants. The button popped open and my hand slid inside. Benson groaned softly and I felt the vibrations against my mouth.
My fingers closed around his thick erection, bringing another stifled sound to his lips. He pulled away from me and glanced out into the walkway. Nothing moved. The lights had long ago dimmed for sleeping. Whatever had been going on downstairs had ended. Silence reigned in the facility, broken only by the sound of another guard’s footsteps on some floor down below.
Benson reactivated the force field with the palm-sized device clipped to the waistband of his trousers, effectively locking us in. He kicked off his boots and we reclined, pulling up the blanket to hide us from view.
I shimmied beneath the tent formed by the material. Benson’s hands seized the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head. I returned the favor by yanking his shirt from his waistband and undoing the buttons. His fingers seized my trousers and tugged. The fabric stretched, allowing him to pull them off, my panties going with them.
For a moment he stared at me in the d
imness, his gaze moving over my body, drinking me in. No one had ever gazed at me with such hunger. I bit my lip as I imagined what that desire would feel like unleashed and smothered a gasp as his hands began to follow the path his eyes had taken.
His calloused palms slid over my breasts, bringing the tips to attention once again. I arched my back as those teasing hands continued down, mapping the contours of my hips. He lingered there for a moment, making me wonder what he’d do next before sliding a finger between my folds to tease my clit. Slowly he circled the sensitive nub while I writhed on the bed, trying to stifle moans of pleasure. I felt that delightful tension wind tighter inside.
But I didn’t want to come that way. I wanted to feel all of him against me, within me. It didn’t seem fair that I was completely unclothed while he still had his pants on. It took every ounce of control I had to pull away long enough to bunch my hands in the material of his trousers and yank them from his body.
Once freed, Benson rolled to claim the top. His weight pressed me against the mattress just as it had in my fantasy. I thought of how that fantasy had concluded and I moved eagerly against him, positioning his hard erection at the juncture of my thighs.
“Janeece,” he murmured. He gave me another of those demanding kisses. Then he moved slightly and I felt the broad head of his cock nudge my entrance. I angled my hips, taking him inside.
Gods, he felt good. He was larger and warmer than anyone else I’d been with. And with everything that had been happening, what with the zombies and lockdown and all, it’d been a long time since I’d gotten any.
He rolled his hips and the movement touched every sensitive place inside me. Demanding more, I circled his broad back with my arms, hauling him closer as we rocked together, trying to move as quietly as possible and not make any noise that might bring another curious guard to our door.
