Considering the circumstances, she had received a certified plethora of worthy benefits from this guy’s desires. She had been pampered, appreciated, given skin treatments, hair styling, manicures, pedicures…Why in the hell did this guy seem to be an expert in everything she thought she needed, anyhow? Never mind that, the benefits were well welcomed. As Delilah’s mother had taught her, this was one of the easier points of manipulation as far as men were concerned. Most times, that desire, that visual lust, that deep, hot craving to conquer, that infected most men’s eyes and genitals, was such that a women need not ever actually give in, to plunder the spoils of courtship. In the right hands, or rather, within view of the right cleavage, most men could be milked completely dry with just a suggestion of sex. Again, a warm smile, fluttering eyelashes, a flare of the hips upon exiting—hell, just a relatively short skirt would do it for many men—and a well-trained woman could have the world hand delivered to her door and never have to part her legs to receive it.
“Men are dogs, Sweetheart,” Delilah’s mother had often said to her daughter, “we’re here to take the leashes and make sure they get led and fed properly.”
This was why Delilah was confused. She had rung the metaphorical dinner bell loud and long. There should’ve been an instant and ardent, if not violent, response by now. Was this guy saying that she wasn’t good enough? Geoffrey had been looking on as these thoughts ran through Delilah’s mind. He was still trying not to listen to her inner musings so he was more than a bit distracted, but as the confusion evident on Delilah’s face begin to morph into real apprehension, he understood that, whatever she was thinking, if he didn’t act now, his chance with her may be lost forever.
“Oh, I’m so sorry…I mean, I didn’t…I wanted to…” Geoffrey stuttered and stammered badly, but, much to his relief, it produced a smile on Delilah’s lips where a hard line had been forming. Also, like many attractive women, Delilah couldn’t help but enjoy being able to reduce a grown man to a quivering faltering mass at a whim. It was intoxicating to be reminded that, even now, she still had it. Seeing the opportunity, Geoffrey decided not to foil things up with inane babble, and commanded his body to move forward, toward the still-smiling Delilah.
His body moved with much of the same stammer with which his tongue had moved earlier, but it did move. When he was again close enough to feel the heat from Delilah’s body, he commanded his lips to approach hers. They too spluttered, but obeyed. When his lips at last made contact with Delilah’s, it was not the sensation of a grown man kissing a grown woman, but more akin to the ecstasy of a high schooler’s very first kiss, and his very first crush. It felt to Geoffrey like he had discovered feminine lips for the very first time, and it was an explosive experience. Her lips were as soft and warm as a familiar pillow, and it was only after a long while and the boom of Lieutenant Dan’s voice, that Geoffrey realized that he had again lost track of space and time. He threw his head back and saw that Delilah, eyes closed in rapture, had been enjoying the exchange immensely as well.
“Please excuse the interruption, Mr. Summons.” Lieutenant Dan’s voice filled the room a second time.
“Yes?” Geoffrey answered, still gazing at Delilah.
“We are about to reach our destination, and your requested meal will be available shortly.”
“Thank you very much.” Geoffrey answered without much enthusiasm. A few moments earlier, he would have been grateful for the lieutenant general’s interruption, since it would’ve interrupted a very awkward situation, but now…
Delilah must’ve sensed this, because she answered almost immediately, “It’s okay, I’m really hungry anyway.” The smile that had resurfaced on her lips was unmistakable. She had enjoyed the kiss as much as Geoffrey had. After a few moments, though, a question in her mind summoned her attention elsewhere. She looked around the cargo area of the truck where she and Geoffrey were. Of course, there was nothing to see besides the outside world, and that was something that Delilah would’ve liked to put away from her mind for as long as possible. She looked up toward the steel barrier that separated her and Geoffrey from Lieutenant Dan and his driving minion. There was no door, no means of direct physical interaction that she could see, only the small window, and it looked thick and unmovable. She looked at the barrier more carefully before grimacing. “Major Whatever up there says that our food will be ready soon, but how in the world is he going to get it to us?”
Geoffrey didn’t need to ask what she meant. Both parties had been dully, adamantly, and, in Delilah’s case, repeatedly, informed of a few strict and nonnegotiable mandates from Dr. Crangler that would be unwaveringly enforced by Lieutenant Dan and his men while they were out in the mirror truck. Among these mandates were the instructions that the mirror truck was never to make any unscheduled stops for any reason, and that the back door to the mirror truck was not to be opened for any reason, unless it was back at the heavily-guarded military complex. The mirror truck itself was also well guarded. Besides Lieutenant Dan and the highly-trained security detail at his disposal, the entire mirror truck was fully armored. All surfaces, including the huge one way mirrors themselves, were bulletproof, the tires were self-sealing. The gas tank was sealed against an explosion, the undercarriage was triple reinforced, etc. Dr. Crangler fully intended that Delilah and Geoffrey remain totally behind these safeguards for every second that they were not behind the armed guards back at the facility. In addition, everything about the mirror truck’s armor was, just like the underground facility, completely state-of-the-art. Actually, many enhancements were years ahead of their time, since Dr. Crangler had had the opportunity to borrow from alien technology, just as he had with the Cleaning Lights.
Though one could easily understand the prudence in protecting the first permanent and observable telepath, as well as the very last woman on Earth left untouched by The Virus that alone was able to bear a child that may save every other child to come, there was at least one serious drawback to such airtight protection. There was no way to get food into the cargo area to the people who were eagerly awaiting it. Delilah probed the cargo area of the truck more carefully, but still found no indication of how anything might be transferred from the outside without opening the back double doors. The only piece of furniture in the back of the truck besides the bolted sofa that had been secured for its current occupants, was the equally bolted table, so it wasn’t as if there were many things to look under or behind, but that didn’t stop Delilah from scanning every nook and cranny, and finding, much to her chagrin, that there was no place by which anything could be handed into the truck from the outside.
She returned to her seat beside Geoffrey, exasperated. She didn’t have time to be annoyed long, because soon the truck came to a smooth halt. Nearly two hours had passed since the truck had left the base, and now Geoffrey and Delilah found themselves under a medium sized bridge on what looked like an abandoned beach resort. The place where they were parked was only sand and water, but on either side, a little more than a quarter mile away, loomed rows and rows of all manner of eateries, hotels, condominiums, that would strongly suggest this was indeed a tourist area. Or rather, had been. Just as before, the smaller buildings had been mostly leveled and the larger ones were no more than scalded, windowless shells. There was a relatively strong breeze coming in off whatever ocean this beach straddled, and as that breeze blew through what was left of the buildings Delilah saw a few pockets of badly-charred debris and only God knew what else, wafting in the light wind like so much thick, black snow flurries. The larger and heavier remains of the large ruin, the stuff that the breeze could not pick up, but only moved around in eddying swirls, were everywhere. Both Delilah and Geoffrey had enjoyed their brief distraction from the destruction surrounding them on every side, but now that they had stopped, there was no avoiding the dire situation that demanded attention from every horizon.
“Why have we stopped?” Delilah asked to no one in particular. At least that’s the way it would appear, b
ecause, though her question seemed directed at the only person it could be directed to—her fellow captive—her eyes were tracking something off in the distance. Geoffrey followed her gaze and soon found what she was staring at. The bridge under which the mirror truck was now sitting spanned a small gulf of water that separated the beach in halves. This inlet was about a hundred and fifty feet across, and the bridge that spanned it was about fifty feet further inland on either side. It was toward the other side of the inlet and under the bridge where Delilah, and now Geoffrey, were both staring. Five men, all covered from head to heel in completely camouflaged attire, were huddling near the edge of the inlet, so close that portions of their feet were partially in the water. The men were far enough away on the other side of the inlet that Delilah couldn’t discern every detail of their dress, but close enough that she could tell with reasonable clarity most everything else. As such, she could tell that they were heaving something out of the water, but thanks to two of the men who were standing suspiciously between whatever was being dragged out of the water and Delilah’s line of sight, she couldn’t quite tell what was being recovered.
The camouflaged gear the men were wearing were identical to Lieutenant Dan’s and the driver’s. She continued to look on, craning her neck to steal any possible glimpse she could. That eagerness paid off, when, every now and then, one of the men moved an arm or a leg and Delilah craned her neck at just the right angle to catch a brief glimpse of what was being dragged. Her first glimpse gave her the impression of a thick, writhing snake, but it was attached to something larger that she could not see. She then caught a glimpse of what it was attached to, a large, misshapen bulk of some kind, but it wasn’t good enough to make out what the bulk was either. The men dragged it further out to show thick tendrils that looked like a torn cloth streaming from it into the sand. One of these ripped pieces was longer than the rest and connected to something that was being dragged along separately by another of the men.
It was here that a vague image coalesced in Delilah’s mind. It was even more terrifying than the dire destruction she had already beheld. The thought screamed in her mind that she should look away before she caught full view of what she was increasingly certain was being dragged from the water. She wanted to look away, needed to look away, even tried to look away, but simply couldn’t. Something stronger than curiosity, stronger than dark fascination, held her gaze hostage. Whatever it was, it was as mysterious as what she was seeing, and just as powerful. Just then, as the men finally finished pulling the thing from the gently-swaying inlet currents, as if by some cosmic coincidence, one of the men who had been blocking Delilah’s view, stepped unsteadily to the side, as if he was about to fall, and in the process, shoved the guy next to him to the side as well. The immediate result was that Delilah was given a gruesomely unobstructed view of what all the secrecy had been about. Instantly, she wished she had listened to her better reasoning and looked away before she had been given such a view. Geoffrey, who was even more intent upon the scene, gasped behind her, but she didn’t hear it. She was too busy vomiting in the cargo area where they were.
By now, the men across the inlet who had broken formation scurried back into their circle, but of course, it was too late. The sight couldn’t be unseen and the damage had been irrevocably done. The ‘bulk’ that Delilah had seen was actually the torso of a woman. The ‘thick writhing snakes’ were actually the woman legs, pulverized to jelly by her extended stay in the water. The ‘tendrils’ were neither that nor cloth, as they appeared. They were thick, torn shreds of human flesh. The longest ‘tendril’ of all was a still-connected umbilical cord. The unfortunate deceased woman had been pregnant way beyond the normal nine months because the second thing that had been dragged out separately, was a child nearly half the mother’s size. It was clear that the mother had tried to cut the grossly overgrown unborn child out of her, and, in the process, had ripped her horribly gorged stomach into literal shreds before ending up in the drink. In fact, if the child’s body had not been in the water, it would’ve certainly been covered in its mother’s blood and womb fluid, even now. The worst part was that many millions had already succumbed to much the same horrific fate, and many more would follow.
Chapter 27
Delilah was still vomiting—or at least she would’ve been if she had had anything left in her stomach to vomit. She hadn’t eaten in quite a while and her marathon crying spell from earlier had completely depleted her of fluids, so all she could do was double over on the sofa and heave in dry, violent spasms. She was so appalled by what she had seen that, even when she had initially vomited, she had completely neglected to hold her hair back from the ruinous spew. Luckily, Geoffrey held her long, styled locks carefully behind her downcast head. He had been trying not to listen in on her thoughts but without complete success, and, as such, he knew in advance that she was going to let loose. He also knew that she would’ve wanted her hair out of the way when she did. Holding her hair back, he was oblivious to the fact that he and she were currently the only two occupants in the mirror truck. Lieutenant Dan and the driver had exited the cab of the truck, and were now situated between the mirror truck and another armored vehicle that Geoffrey hadn’t noticed before. Lieutenant Dan was nearest to the mirror truck, looking in every direction, presumably for any threat to the cargo that he had been assigned to protect. He held a very small, oddly shaped mechanism that Geoffrey couldn’t see well.
Geoffrey looked at the driver and saw him take a shiny, plastic box that he was being handed from the armored vehicle. They took it in one hand back to the cab of the mirror truck. In the other hand, he, too, gripped a mechanism like the lieutenant general’s. After he successfully deposited the plastic box, he returned for another and another. All the while, he maintained a steady grip on the strange weapon. Like Lieutenant Dan, he kept a wary eye upon the horizon. Looking around, Geoffrey was shocked to find many other equally-camouflaged men had flanked the rear of the truck and were watching things as diligently as Lieutenant Dan. Even with the full panoramic view of the mirror truck, Lieutenant Dan’s men had moved into position with the stealth of ghosts. They all had similar, if not identical weapons, tightly grasped and ready for action. The armored trucks that had shadowed the truck since it left the base were positioned in a larger and looser circle around them.
For the first time since this whole thing started, Geoffrey felt a little less like a prisoner and vaguely like a head of state. To be certain, he and Delilah were still captives, but obviously very, very important captives. Of course, Dr. Crangler had informed them of this fact many times before, but he never really believed it until now. Once all the mystery boxes were loaded into the cab of the mirror truck, the driver gave a signal, and he and Lieutenant Dan reentered the cab. As soon as they were in, Geoffrey yelled to get the lieutenant general’s attention through the small window separating them. “Yes, Mr. Summons?” Lieutenant Dan’s deep bass voice answered from the invisible speakers in the rear of the truck. With a small exception, the entire rear of the truck was tinted but otherwise transparent; there was nowhere for speakers of any considerable size to be hidden. Just another derivative of alien technology, Geoffrey thought idly to himself.
Geoffrey answered, “We need some kind of cleanser back here,” Delilah was not retching any longer, but she was still bent nearly double as if she could resume at any moment “and quick. Delilah has had an…an accident.”
“What kind of accident, exactly, Mr. Summons?” Lieutenant Dan asked. It may’ve been Geoffrey’s imagination, but he thought he heard the slightest hint of concern, possibly fear, in the lieutenant general’s voice.
“Well,” Geoffrey hesitated “she threw up…and by the looks of things, she may not have finished.” He whispered as if he was sharing some dirty secret about Delilah and didn’t want her to hear.
There was a brief silence, before Lieutenant Dan finally answered, “Try to stabilize Miss Hanson, Mr. Summons. I will secure some supplies.”
> “That’s great, Lieutenant Dan, but she really needs to get out into the fresh air, and away from…” Geoffrey was in the process of advising, but it didn’t matter because the lieutenant general was already out of the cab and headed for one of the armored vehicles surrounding the mirror truck. The lieutenant general spoke into his two-way radio, and apparently whichever subordinate he was speaking to informed him that what he was looking for was in a different armored vehicle than the one he was heading to, because the lieutenant general turned about face and marched toward one of the vehicles in front of the mirror truck.
“What’s going on? Is someone coming to clean up this mess?” Delilah asked.
“Lieutenant Dan is on it right now. He’s bringing some kind of special sawdust like stuff that’ll absorb it and a towel so it can be cleaned up. And he should be here with everything any second.”
Geoffrey had barely gotten the words past his lips, before, right on cue, the passenger door of the mirror truck’s cab opened and Lieutenant Dan entered with one arm full of everything Geoffrey had just described and the other hand tightly holding his weapon. Thanks to Lieutenant Dan’s train thoughts, Geoffrey had also learned the secret of just how anything could be transported to them without the rear doors being opened. Delilah looked on, simultaneously trying not to vomit again as she thought—quite reluctantly—about what she had seen, dealing with the fact that she was in the same room as a rather healthy splattering of vomit already, and trying to figure out what in the world Geoffrey could possibly be doing. He was down on his knees, hovering expectantly over a section of the mirror truck’s flooring that looked no different than any other section. Delilah gazed at the spot for a few moments, half expecting something to suddenly pop out of it like a jack in the box. Of course, there was no legitimate reason for her to expect such a thing, as there was nothing out of the ordinary about the spot, just another section of floor, but if that was the case, then Geoffrey was not privy to that information. He continued to look on with anticipation that could not be easily ignored. One would’ve thought that he knew something that Delilah didn’t.
The Virus Page 21
