by Clare Murray
Mari halted that train of thought. Should they, without Gareth? It seemed wrong, somehow, to leave him out.
Anchoring herself on Finn’s strong shoulders, she pulled away with a Herculean effort. “Gareth,” she panted. “He’s not here.”
“He’s currently pacing the walls, pissed off that the Complex hasn’t bothered to scramble a cargo plane for us yet.”
Mari blinked. She’d thought Gareth seemed a bit subdued, but tension was running high. She hadn’t considered he might be seething.
“But we…should we wait for him?”
“I’d rather go back to what we were doing.” Finn’s hands were under her skirt, toying with the waistband of her underpants. “This will bring him running far faster than anything else. It’s hard to maintain a good grumpy mood while sporting a huge boner.”
Finn’s phrasing made her giggle. “Oh. So he won’t mind?”
“Nope. But,” he said, sobering a little, “you should realize that we’re really a package deal here, sweetheart. Twins rarely get sick, we’re robust as hell, and we have large appetites.”
No doubt someone who had grown up fully in pre-apocalyptic times could have responded to that statement with something light and flirty. Mari could only nod. “I don’t mind,” she said. “I—I like that.”
Apparently her response was enough to satisfy Finn, for he leaned forward again with a smile. With deft fingers, he tugged her underwear down her thighs, nostrils flaring in eager response. Mari traced the outline of his erection through his black jeans, unzipping his fly with some difficulty.
“Yeah, that’s the way,” Finn said, his voice throaty, harsh. “Should have brought that vibrator with me, kept you boiling hot, but you’re ready enough.” He slipped one unexpected finger inside her, made a come-hither motion with it that had her arcing her back and gasping with pleasure.
Eager to reciprocate, she eased his cock through the fly of his boxers and into the open, undoing the button at his waistband to allow greater access. Finn hissed as she stroked down his shaft, eyes slitting in pleasure. The windowless room was hot after baking all day, and evening hadn’t lasted long enough to cool it down, so they were both sheened with a light sweat now.
He didn’t enter her right away, but toyed with her until she was uncontrollably wriggly, desperate for him to—she stiffened suddenly, knowing she was on the edge. “Finn, please,” she managed.
The Twin made a series of strokes across her clit, and the world clenched and released. She didn’t have any time to come down from it before he was lifting her onto his cock, entering her brutally, thoroughly. She moaned, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Gonna fuck you hard, fast, dirty,” he said, speaking just past her right ear. “Time enough at the Complex to make you beg for us. Tonight’s for relief. To prove that you’re mine. Ours.”
Her lips formed the word yes, but she didn’t quite have the courage to speak the word. She closed her eyes as pleasure began to ramp up again, driven by the unrelenting pace of his cock, the way he held her waist and moved her to his pleasure.
He tensed as he came, his loud sigh filling the room. Caught up in what seemed like a spell, Mari did her best to tamp down her spiked arousal. But he noticed. Of course he would notice.
“Easy, sweetheart.” He kissed her, held her in a lingering embrace. “So hot.”
The rattle of keys in the door made her jump, but Finn remained unfazed. Gareth came in so fast he made her head whirl, his eyes blazing down at them both.
“Goddamn, Finn. I could feel every inch of that. Had to get away from the soldiers I was instructing.”
“You didn’t seem very hurried.” Finn’s grin was lazy, and he lifted her, sliding out of her and cupping her sex. She responded with a gasp and a moan and an involuntary movement of her hips.
“I am now. Fuck. Gonna come fast and hard.”
The transition from one Twin to the other was so smooth that Mari barely registered the difference. But she wrapped her arms around Gareth. “I’m glad you came,” she said.
“Haven’t come yet,” was his wry response. He backed her against the wall, the concrete soothingly cool against her back. “Wrap your legs around me. Ah God. Yeah. Now undo my fly.”
Gareth wasted no time thrusting into her, and she welcomed the invasion with a moan. She had no idea how Finn had done it, but she was balancing on the edge again, wanting, needing. But the concrete was unyielding, becoming rapidly uncomfortable against her shoulder blades. She made a sound of protest.
“Let me.” Finn moved to her side and the Twins settled her so that Finn was leaning against the wall, sandwiching her between them. One strong hand supported her opened thighs; the other pulled up her blouse, exposing her breasts to the warm air. Gareth’s free hand immediately toyed with her nipple, making her clench against his hard cock.
“Y-you said you’d fuck me fast and hard,” Mari stammered.
“And dirty,” Finn clarified. “This isn’t dirty enough for you?”
“Vibrator up her ass next time,” Gareth said. “I love feeling her so tight.”
Mari couldn’t think of a response, lost as she was in utter desire. It felt decadent to be held by one Twin while being fucked by the other, and both of them caressed her body, working in tandem to heighten her pleasure.
“Scream when you come,” Finn invited, pressing a kiss to her neck. “Too much going on outside for anyone to overhear you.”
“Yeah, let yourself go,” Gareth’s statement was almost a command, and the rawness in his tone was the thing that drove her over. She sank her teeth into his shoulder in response, knowing that her cries were muffled in the leather of his jacket and taking perverse enjoyment in deliberately disobeying him.
“Defiant—little—minx,” Gareth punctuated each word with a hard thrust, and threw his head back with a roar, pumping his seed deep within her.
The aftermath was fuzzy, and she kept her eyes closed, not wanting to lose this sense of peace. She was aware of both men taking care of her, smoothing her skirts down and settling her on their laps atop a battered sofa in the corner. Mari wanted very much to drift, reveling in a post-orgasmic glow and the unexpected tenderness of the men.
But she couldn’t ignore the growing howls outside. The sounds penetrated the thick concrete walls until she sat up in a paroxysm of pent-up energy and fear and demanded, “How many are out there?”
“Easy,” Finn said. Both men had their hands upon her, half restraining her as if they were afraid of her running away. “It’s too early to estimate numbers. It’s only just after dark, so there may be more Barks headed here from their dens who haven’t yet arrived.”
“Well, that’s reassuring,” Mari muttered.
“In any case, we can’t do anything right now.” Gareth pulled his bag toward him. “So we’re going to eat.”
Mari ignored the sandwich he held out. “You can’t do anything right now? Surely you can go burn them with UV light or something.”
“We could, but the bastards are spry as hell. We’re best in hand-to-hand close combat.” Gareth held the sandwich to her lips until she took a reluctant bite. “Right now there isn’t anything we can do that the human soldiers can’t do just as well. I made that clear when I was out there.”
“Which invention did they like better? That’s the important question.” Finn plucked his own sandwich out of the bag.
“Mine.” Gareth’s smug, laconic response provoked a good-natured argument between them, settling Mari’s nerves somewhat. Before she knew it, she’d eaten the entire sandwich and was sitting back to sip water out of a flask.
Underneath the spare parts that covered almost every inch of the room, she recognized the layout as a bedroom, with a sink plumbed into the corner. There was a mattress-less bunk bed against the far wall, and yet another cot leaning against it. The waste of space
irritated her. Despite the lack of windows, it was a perfectly usable room—more spacious than the shipping container she’d called home in Flagstaff.
“How many people live in this City?” she asked.
“Twelve thousand or thereabouts,” Finn said after a moment’s consideration. “Hardly enough to qualify as a town.”
“Twelve thou is the official number,” Gareth said. “It’s not like the government has run a proper census since the Invasion, though, so I’d say the number’s higher, probably got some junkies living underground who hardly see the light these days.”
“Hopefully, we’ll have enough time to do a thorough evacuation.” Finn tucked the reusable sandwich bag away and stood up. “Right now, we’d better keep tracking that device. I’ve had two missed calls from Command—no doubt that’s Dr. Felton wanting results.”
There was a beep from his pocket, and Gareth snorted. “Might as well pick it up, otherwise he’ll start calling me.”
“Finn 01223,” Finn snapped, pulling out his commtab. Mari blinked at the set of numbers he rattled out, then realized it must be what passed as his last name. She frowned, instinctively upset. Nobody should be defined by a number.
“Yes, we’re on it. City’s being attacked, so there are complications.”
“…urgent…evacuation…time of the essence…daylight drop?”
“I don’t think it would be wise for us to venture outside the City, Doctor.” Finn’s already-abrupt tone cooled noticeably, and Gareth scowled. “If we don’t find the other half tonight or tomorrow, we’ll evacuate with the general population. Over and out.”
“Asshole,” Gareth breathed. “He really wanted us to stay after the evac to keep looking?”
“He’s desperate to find the other half.” Finn stood up, raking a hand through his black hair. His body language reminded Mari of a stalking panther thwarted of its prey. With a few abrupt movements, he threw his bag onto the table, removed the device from it. “Let’s go. Let’s get this over with.”
“Come on.” Gareth looped his arm around Mari’s shoulders. “I want you with us so that we can keep an eye on you. That all right?”
She nodded, but Finn’s mood both saddened and unnerved her. “Is he going to be all right? Usually, he’s so…”
“Usually our moods are the other way around?” Gareth guessed, and smiled lopsidedly at her agreement. “Yeah, Dr. Felton is a dick. That’s why I refuse to deal with him.”
“Finn 01223,” Mari mused. “Do you have the same sur-numerals?”
Gareth snorted at her term. “Yeah. We asked for double-oh-seven, but for some strange reason, they refused.”
“If we live long enough, you can take my surname.” Mari kept her tone light, but the numerals really bothered her. The Twins were dehumanized enough without being referred to as numbers.
Gareth’s green eyes bored into hers. “You mean that? Because…yeah. I’d really like to. And of course we’re going to live.”
She inhaled his scent as he bent to kiss her, a tender, light touch that managed to both comfort and provoke. Then he whisked her forward, keeping her by his side as they went up a metal staircase. A pair of soldiers ran by them, going downward with set expressions on their faces. At the wall’s top, there weren’t nearly enough people to control the light-guns. Many stations were left unpopulated.
“The world is running out of humans,” Mari remembered her father saying. He’d warned her about the dangers of human trafficking, young women being bought and sold for the sole purpose of producing babies. She was glad for Gareth’s imposing presence at her side.
He led her toward an unmanned gun. “This one’s got juice. Hey, you okay?”
She couldn’t seem to bring herself to look over the wall. Studying her shoes, she swallowed. “Just…give me a second.”
“Deep breaths.” She heard the click of the trigger and an ensuing zap. “I’ll maim a few while you center yourself. They trained us for this, in a way, you know. That was one of the few fun things about our childhood—we played a lot of videogames, spent a decent whack of time in virtual reality. Of course, they had no idea what the Barks were really going to be like, so we’ve had to adapt our techniques somewhat.”
Sets of Twins had almost singlehandedly saved the entire human population—at least in some countries. The larger, richer countries had all invested in supersoldier development, as they’d put it, for decades. It had been a kind of arms race executed with humans, and her parents had been extremely disapproving.
Zap. Mari tried not to jump. She’d been lucky, in many ways. She had survived, kept a roof over her head, food in her belly—most of the time, at least—and hadn’t been among the many women trafficked to ruthless human warlords who used them simply for breeding. Some might even call her sheltered. Not being able to bring herself to look over the top of the wall was stupid, weak, and would prove any naysayers right.
Listening to her inner drill sergeant, Mari took a deep breath and dragged her gaze upward. That breath expelled in a harsh gasp as she took in the massive array of aliens that faced Scar City. They looked like a sea of sickly white. Here and there she could make out individual eyestalks, which made her shudder.
While she watched, one of the larger ones—a leader—ran forward, and she was transported back to that terrible night aboard the broken-down train. Her hands grasped the ragged concrete of the wall, but she hardly felt the discomfort. That was him. It. Whatever.
As if sensing her thoughts, the leader bounded forward and looked upward directly at her. Its jaws gaped around a bullet hole—the hole she’d created with her Glock. Eyes glowing, it let out a hideous howl that was echoed by its smaller comrades, baring sharklike teeth.
“Fucker.” Gareth snarled the word, shooting a short volley of lasers into the crowd. The leader undulated away, but some of its companions weren’t so lucky. They went down, writhing, black-and-yellow burns opening up in translucent skin. “That one was looking at you, Mari.”
“Yes. I…um, shot that particular alien. That night on the train.”
“Oh hell. Yeah, these creepers don’t forget. I’m going to take you back to Patrice’s house—” Gareth cut off, eyes going unfocused for a brief moment as he communicated with his Twin. “Damn. Okay, we’re going to meet Finn first, because the device is going nuts inside his jacket pocket.”
“I wish I could believe that’s a crazy euphemism you’ve just come up with,” Mari muttered, and was rewarded with a genuine laugh from Gareth.
“You’re too much. Come on.”
There weren’t enough soldiers to take over Gareth’s abandoned laser. That worry niggled at the back of Mari’s mind, although she was too busy navigating the wall to truly fret about the situation. She jogged just behind Gareth, leaping over pieces of rubble and doing her best to avoid all the people running to and fro. Most of them seemed to be desperately repairing the wall, piecing chunks into thinning bits.
Even as she watched, a score of aliens banded together, their six legs wrapping together into what seemed like a single entity. Like a battering ram, they slammed into the wall so hard that she could feel the vibrations deep in her tummy.
“Focus!” Ramsey stood on a turret, pointing at the entwined aliens as he shouted orders through a megaphone. “Bombs in three! Two! One!”
There was a series of flashes and a light rumbling, then half the battering ram collapsed into blackness. The other half disentangled itself, writhing off injured into the mass of other aliens. Mari gripped the wall where she’d paused, and Gareth gently enfolded her hand into his larger one.
“That’s going to happen a lot tonight,” he said. “The good thing is they’re so thick on the ground that accuracy is through the roof. We’re killing a lot of them. Come on—Finn’s just gotten off the line with Dr. Dick again, and he probably needs some distraction to get his blood pressure down.�
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“So soon?”
Gareth’s grip tightened as they navigated their way over a pile of shattered concrete and bent rebar. “Don’t worry, he’s not a fan of PDA-type stuff.”
“PDA?”
He speared her with a quick look. “Public Display of Affection. You never heard that term?”
“I was a sheltered only child. My parents talked science stuff at the dinner table. They bought me National Geographic instead of Tiger Beat.” She winced at the crackle-zap of a nearby laser, wondering if maybe she should just keep her mouth shut. The geeky, braces-clad girl she’d once been hadn’t had a snowball’s chance of getting a boyfriend. Now that she’d gotten started, though, her mouth was running away with her.
“Dad used to take me camping, and we’d always have a stack of books with us—bird-watching manuals and insect guides—instead of card games. I would hear kids talking about TV shows at school that I’d never even heard of. I was more familiar with the smell of formaldehyde than that of the perfume du jour. So…nope, some terms go over my head. I can hold my own if we’re discussing bugs or birds, though.”
“Strong perfume gives us hideous headaches.” Far from being put off, Gareth actually grinned at her. “And I always preferred discussing animals over popular culture.”
He shifted his grip from her hand to her arm as they began descending another set of stairs. These were rickety, and the much-mended metal clanked loudly as they walked, making conversation impossible. Mari was grateful for that; the feeling of acceptance was overwhelming, and she wasn’t sure she could trust her voice not to shake with emotion. So she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other until they reached ground level again. Down here, people were still rushing around, but the mood was less somber and focused than it had been atop the wall with all the lasers.
