by David Burke
Once their report was done, Jasmine gave Jay and Huong a quick rundown on what they had learned about the stats of everyone present. It confirmed some ideas that Jay had already been thinking on. Apparently everyone got a total of 10 stat points and they were divided in different ways between the five main stats. Different numbers of skills were possessed by never more levels in skills than what there was in the controlling stat. Jay seemed to be the exception to the 10 points rule although his build followed the other part of the rule even if his biggest skill was currently listed as locked. They also confirmed that each girl only got 10 credits and each of the guys got 1000 credits.
Based upon the sounds coming from the area around the ziggurat and the fact that the sun was already starting to meld with the horizon, it was decided that they would set up camp, such as it was without any gear, on the beach but closer to the hills than the water. Too many people had seen fins or even massive creatures leaping up out of the water with gaping jaws for anyone to feel comfortable too close to the water. During the day the council had even gone so far as to ban access to the ocean until it could be determined if it was safe.
Fortunately, Liam had not been idle while the council was meeting and between him, Oliver, and a handful of the girls who helped them, had got three fires going. Any more than that and the wood wouldn’t last long enough to cook. Even with three they were only going to get a couple hours of good fire out of the wood that he had carried through the hills.
A pair of the girls turned out to know how to smash the crabs and kill them pretty simply so that after a while the night air was filled with the sounds of cracking shells, sizzling meat and the smell of cooked crab. Even those who were too skittish to kill and crack one of the crustaceans themselves were still given bits of crab meat. Everyone was just happy to be sharing the few gallons of water they had left and partaking of a meal together. So that despite their circumstances, everyone was strangely calm and they managed to break up into circles of ten to sleep. Liam and Jay were both in high demand as something about their weapons seemed to bring a sense of security to many of the girls. Jasmine eventually had to step in and assign everyone a place to sleep.
A few hours later Jay was deep asleep on the beach. At times he had girls whose names he barely remembered cuddling up against him for warmth. It had gotten surprisingly cold the longer the sun had been down. All of a sudden he was woken up by a rhythmic motion on top of him. He struggled to open sleepy eyes and his heart nearly stopped when he saw Jasmine straddling him, her breasts bared for the world to see. They were every bit as enticing as he had imagined, full and round. He could see her chest rising and falling with her exertions as her hair draped down over her shoulders framing her perfectly. He yearned to reach up and touch her. His desire was a raging fire within him yet he couldn’t bring himself to move, not wanting to risk breaking the spell she was weaving.
Somehow she must have gotten his pants down without waking him because she was gliding front to back rubbing her perfection against his surging desire. Never taking him in, just allowing her wetness to become a baptism of tantalizing torture. Her breathing was growing faster as her motion became more urgent. The moment slowed and expanded before him as he watched in slow motion how a drop of sweat ran a twisting path now from the curve of her neck across her nutmeg skin. He could see her intensity building, could feel the way she hovered on the edge of paradise. Somehow this angelic creature was taking him as hers, his firm need meeting her soft urgency. Without ever entering heaven he could already feel his control slipping, his need swelling within him. He couldn’t help himself as he rose to meet her, longing to be part of her passion, to merge form with purpose. In perfect sync desire begot motion and motion found balance. He felt her need rolling off of her as her back arched, opening her up for his eyes to drink her in.
Feeling her shudder, Jay yearned to take control as he slid his hands possessively Then under her delightfully firm ass to guide her onto him, the world seemed to ripple. He felt a distortion and heard a sound like screeching nails down a chalkboard. Jasmine was still sitting astride him and her mouth was moving, but it wasn’t her voice sounding out at him. “Wake up. Danger. 999 cycles. All depends on descending. Take charge. Don’t be distracted. Forge a new path.”
It was that damn dream again. Well different this time, but hearing his own voice come out of the mouth of a naked woman straddling him had to be about the biggest boner killer possible. Either way he sat up, fully dressed and sandwiched between those same two girls whose names he couldn’t remember. Jasmine was nowhere to be seen but all around there was movement on the beach. At first Jay thought that the tide had washed all the way up to where they were at, but then he realized it was something more sinister.
He jumped to his feet, startling the two girls awake in the process and barely avoiding stepping on another girl’s hair. “Wake up. Wake up. Run for the hills. We are being attacked.” He kept yelling the same things over and over again running all over the camp. People were slow to wake up, too slow. That was until the first wave of crabs reached them.
During daylight a few dozen crabs had seemed like a godsend of food. Now waves of hundreds, maybe thousands of crabs were rolling up and over them. Those who hadn’t woken to his warning cries now woke up as their flesh was being cut by wickedly sharp and surprisingly strong claws. There was no one enemy for him to focus on but instead countless little pinching fiends. So Jay grabbed his spear and started trying to use the blunt end to knock crabs away from those who were being attacked.
Thanks to his efforts, several girls were able to escape and joined most of the rest in running towards the hills. He kept swiping wide arcs and trying to push back the crabs but he was fighting a losing tide. Just as inexorably as the tide these waves of crabs kept coming and pushing the wave in front of them forward. Jay almost realized too late as he was trying to save a girl who was no longer moving that the real danger was in how the wave would move past him, closing him in.
He needed to move faster. His mind knew what he needed. His emotions of sorrow for those he couldn’t reach in time and fear for himself, caused his body to react to that need. His enhanced speed was already active and he hadn’t even realized that he was moving twice as fast as he ever had before. There were just so many of the little creatures that he couldn’t ever get ahead. Then his will kicked into action and he felt a drain of energy from the center of his being and his body suddenly moved four times faster again. He was a blur and he swept up the only person he still saw moving on the beach and then leapt over patches of crustacean fiends in his bid to reach the hills. The drain continued but he moved like a blur. To those watching he was moving so fast that in the dim light it seemed like all they could see was the afterimage of where he had just been.
Finally with a few minor cuts he made it to the edge of the grassy hills and as sure as the line between the two land types was there, the crabs all stopped as soon as they hit the grass. Slowly over the next few minutes the collected humans wept for their losses and watched as what literally must have been tens of thousands of crabs swelled forward only to be stopped by a line of grass and then just as slowly and surely as they had come, the crabs retreated, burrowing down into the sand all over the beach.
There was no more sleep to be had that night and Jay continued working to do whatever was needed of him, but he couldn’t shake the thought about what those words meant. “What exactly was that dream? And who on earth could not have been distracted by what dream Jasmine had been doing?”
Chapter 10 - Between a Rock and a Pinchy Place
Jasmine was running around trying to organize everyone by the time that Jay got onto the grass. Half the girls were crying and another few were wandering around aimlessly. Only a dozen or so were following Jasmine’s instructions to check on everyone.
“Can someone help me with her, she is hurt pretty bad,” Jay cried out as he set the girl he had just carried to safety on the ground. The strain of activat
ing his ability was setting in and he felt more tired than he had since arriving in this place.
Jasmine walked towards him calling for Huong and Kenzie. “Please see if you can get any of her wounds closed.”
Kenzie sighed and said, “I’m trying but this is harder than it looks.” Then she kneeled down next to the wounded girl. A faint glow appeared on her hands and she held them over.
Jay was staring in awe at what Kenzie was doing until he felt Jasmine’s hand on his arm. “Thank you so much. Many of us wouldn’t have made it off the beach if it wasn’t for you.”
“Whatever, I only did what anyone would have done,” Jay said dismissively then getting serious he asked, “How many did we lose?”
“I’m sorry to say that we lost 11. All the council made it but only because of you and Liam. He carried Kenzie and Mia to safety on his shoulders but got all cut up in the process of rescuing them. If it wasn’t for that leather armor of his he might be on the ground bleeding out now instead of cut up but stable.”
“Where’s Oliver?” Jay asked. Not that he was more concerned about the other guy, only that with only three guys it was easier to remember all their names.
“He didn’t make it. He was with the group closest to the water. They got hit first. Not even sure if he was able to get off the ground before they got him.” Jasmine sounded despondent as she spoke.
Jay shook his head. “I know this is awful but we are gonna find a way through this.”
From behind him he heard a familiar voice, Amelia said, “How is that, mister sunshine. We've been here less than 24 hours and already 11 of us are dead and another dozen are all cut up. Not one of us escaped without at least a couple of minor cuts.”
“First off, I’m glad that you survived, too, Amelia. Second, we are going to have to go explore the ziggurat but we need to do so in the morning, since the roaring didn’t start till late in the day.”
“Easy for you to say, you have all those credits to get whatever weapons you need. The rest of us barely have enough to get some food,” Amelia snapped.
“I understand that you are tired and hungry, Amelia, but Jay has done everything that he can to help out. So either go get some rest or find a way to be helpful,” Jasmine said before he could retort.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You have some explaining to do about how it is that apparently the three guys got so many more credits to begin with than everyone else. And don’t think that I’ve forgotten that you keep weaseling out of showing me your status sheet.”
“I can show you now if you want,” Jay said haltingly.
“No, go get some rest. We seem to be safe here on the grass. You look dead tired. By the way whatever that was that you did where you were moving as fast as a car, was cool as all get out.” With that Jasmine left him standing there alone so he went and bunked down on a spot in the grass away from everyone else but not too far away. Years of being on his toes for his father’s unpredictable moods had conditioned him to be able to sleep anywhere and so he was soon off to sleep. This time no dream Jasmine visited him though, much to his regret.
After what felt like no time at all, Jay was woken up to find the rest of the council members sitting around where he was sleeping. He felt a foot nudging his arm and woke up quickly, another gift from his childhood. Instantly awake he looked around and realized that it was still dark but a couple of hours must have passed because the moon had moved across the sky. All the other council members seemed tired, although even with bloodshot eyes each of them was still a beauty in her own right.
Shaking his head to drive that thought away, Jay asked, “So did any of the rest of you get any sleep?”
Kenzie seemed exceptionally tired, which if she had some healing skill might make sense. “No, the rest of us worked all night, while you were snoring over here.”
“He doesn’t snore, silly,” Mia chimed in.
“You know what I mean,” the healer snapped, wiping the grin off Mia’s face.
“Well if you needed me to do something, why didn’t you just tell me? Hell, Jasmine told me to get some rest.”
“Yes, because everyone knows that men are weaker than women, and you turn into blubbering little babies if you don’t get enough sleep,” Jasmine said with a deadpan stare but as soon as Jay started to defend himself, continued, “I’m just kidding. I told you to sleep because if there is any fighting to do today, you and Liam are going to have to do most of it. You are the only ones with any weapons.”
“Oh okay. Sorry for being sensitive.”
After that Jay could have sworn he heard Mia mumble, “Sensitive men can be good, sometimes.”
“So the first order of business is for you to show us your status,” Jasmine said and Jay so badly wanted to make a joke but now didn’t seem like the time.
“I guess the jig is up,” he thought as he set his hand on top of the other four hands put into the center of the circle and said, “Share Status.”
Seconds later, he was surrounded by gasps and they read the specifics on his status. No longer smiling, Mia asked, “So what did you do to get so many credits?”
“That’s your first question?” Huong asked incredulously.
“One question at a time anyway, so might as well start with the credits thing,” Jasmine said.
Holding up his hands in a display of innocence, he said, “Look, I didn’t pick any of this any more than you did. I didn’t choose to get taken to this place, and I didn’t assign any of the things on my status.” Being stared at by four beautiful women with a level of intensity like they either wanted to eat him up or dissect him was a new experience for Jay and he almost lost his train of thought before continuing, “Best guess I have is that all guys got 1000 credits to start and all the girls got 10. Whoa, before you say anything, yes that is sexist as hell and no, I didn’t have any control over it.”
“Why would anyone do that, it is almost like it is propagating a sense of dependency by the women onto the men?” Kenzie asked, sounding truly baffled.
“I’d really rather not say what I think because at this point it’s just speculation. We need more information. Also keep in mind that we don’t know how or if we can obtain more credits,” Jay replied.
Jasmine pursed her lips in thought for a moment. “This is the panel of people elected to be in charge for now, we have to be able to trust each other and bounce ideas off of each other. Soooo, I think I’m gonna have to insist that you share your theory. Consider it like part of the scientific process.”
“Okay, but just remember the expression, ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ applies here. I am theorizing that whoever or whatever brought us to this place, did so as a breeding experiment.”
A variety of sounds and angry expressions came from all around him but Jasmine shushed everyone and simply asked, “What makes you think that?”
Holding up his hand, Jay raised a finger each time he ticked off an item on his list. “Well first there is the distribution between male and female. Animal breeding farms whether they be cows, chicken, whatever, maintain a much larger female population base than male for obvious reasons. Second, the store contains birth control as a personal comfort item but it is fairly expensive compared to other things, has a limited duration, and restrictions upon who it is limited to which make me think that it is designed to encourage breeding with the most powerful of males.” That made Kenzie and Mia growl but a glare from Jasmine was enough to allow Jay to continue, “Third and finally, the store contains an item that will purify the aphrodisiac effect of the water, and so I have to assume that the readily available water in this place is laced with something. It didn’t seem over the top but maybe it builds up over time.”
“Wait, I was at the same terminal you were at and I didn’t see any such item in the store,” Huong said.
Shrugging his shoulders Jay replied, “That may only be further proof of my theory, but I assure you it was available as an item I could purchase for 20 c
redits but it only was good for a single gallon of water.”
What ensued was a rapid-fire conversation back and forth between the girls as if Jay wasn’t even there. It was something he had only rarely experienced and couldn’t begin to understand. They were having four separate conversations at the same time all about the information that he had just revealed and all of them were speaking simultaneously. It made Jay’s head hurt just listening.
“Look if it’s any consolation, I can say for myself that I’m willing to share my credits for everyone’s benefit, not just my own. We just need to have a plan.”
“Some of us are going to be worried that you and Liam will try to take advantage of them,” Jasmine said as she once again thoughtfully pursed her lips before continuing, “And some of the others are probably already hoping for a hookup considering…” She waved her hand at Jay as she said the last part.
“What’s that supposed to mean, and I can promise you that I’m not looking to take advantage of anyone. I am just as trapped here as you are. And while I don’t know Liam, he seems like a decent enough guy so far.”
Mia scoffed and rolled her eyes. “As if you don’t know.”
“No, I don’t know.”
“Duh, you and Liam are both hot and buff,” Kenzie said while her eyes expressed even more wandering all over him. Jay had never felt more like a piece of meat than in that moment, but it was hard to say if he liked it or not.
“Yeah, face wise you are both only a solid 7, but body wise, wozzers. How did you even get that buff? I mean you have so much muscular definition. Liam has more muscle over all but you have that totally cut look that is sooo, errr I mean that some women really like,” Kenzie added.
Confused because while he had always been fit, super cut was not something he would have ever described himself as, so he started looking at himself as best he could without a mirror. “How did I not notice this before?” he thought while looking at his arms. They were larger than before but Kenzie was right. He had freakishly good definition and muscle tone without flexing and when he lifted up his shirt, he saw washboard abs that would have made any body builder drool. “Maybe this is why it was so much easier to carry stuff. I mean I was wondering how I could carry 100 pounds of water for miles and never even really get tired. I only got tired when I was using whatever that special ability was.”
