If not, she wasn’t going to regret what she’d done. Especially not when wasting energy on regret like that might get someone killed. She always had time for that later, when they were in a safe location and the universe stopped spinning just long enough she could get her mental feet under her again.
Who am I kidding? Until they completed their mission and there was a vaccine for Kite, they’d be on the run until or unless something else killed them.
So might as well keep enjoying the hunks while I can.
After they retired for the night, the men took a slightly slower and more mellow approach to lovemaking this time. Roscoe and Niner undressed her, lowering her down onto the bedrolls before they started stripping.
Daayyaammnn. Yes, the sight of their rippling muscles and tight asses could make her mouth water and her pussy wet in a second flat.
Maybe less.
Yeah, I’m good with just sex for now.
Hell, they were cute. And she was starting to see a slightly softer side to Roscoe’s bristly Brooklyn outer shell.
Maybe I can suck the bristly off him.
Now there was a plan she could get behind, and one she knew she’d have to try tonight. Tomorrow night, they’d need sleep, considering it would be their last night in a secure rack.
She crooked both her index fingers at them. “I don’t know about you boys, but I want some slow and sexy tonight. We did angry makeup sex last night. Sort of. And kind of in the wrong order, considering it was our first night together.”
Niner looked at Roscoe. “Damn, she talks as much as you do.”
He grinned. “See? She’s perfect for us.”
The men knelt on either side of her, each one taking a nipple into their mouth, their hands sliding down to her pussy. Niner gently parted the folds of her labia with one finger, while Roscoe centered on her clit.
Eyes falling closed, Dolce grabbed the men by their heads and held on tight. Yes, there was nothing wrong about this at all in her book.
She wanted slow and sexy, and that was exactly what they gave her, taking their time to work her up toward her first release. Niner slipped one finger inside her pussy, then a second. By the time the third slid into her now-drenched cunt, she’d bit down on her lower lip to keep from crying out as Roscoe’s finger on her clit drove her closer to orgasm.
Finally, she couldn’t hold it back any longer. Niner’s hand started slamming into her pussy as he finger-fucked her, Roscoe keeping her climax rolling along at a pretty strong clip. Her body greedily clamped down on Niner’s fingers, every sensation intense and delicious and she didn’t care about the world outside. They sucked and nipped at her nipples, the liquid-hot jolts of pleasure flowing straight to her clit and adding to the intensity of her orgasms.
They were, for the moment, her world.
It took every other thought out of her brain. If they could do that, she would definitely stay with them for the long haul.
Hell, it was more than worth it to her to not have to think about anything else for a few blissful minutes.
Nothing else but the pleasure these men were determined to wring out of her body.
Finally, as she lay gasping between them, catching her breath, their hands slowed. Now both of them were taking turns dipping their fingers into her cunt, then up to circle her swollen, sensitive clit, and back again to her pussy.
They lifted their heads, pleased smiles on their faces.
“How was that?” Niner asked.
She nodded. “A good start.”
Roscoe let out a snort. “Baby, you’re about to get rode hard and put up wet.” Niner turned around and pulled her on top of him in a sixty-nine as Roscoe knelt behind her and started swiping the head of his cock up and down her wet pussy.
She let out a soft moan of pleasure around Niner’s thick cock in her mouth, loving this feeling, the ability to just. Let. Go.
Oh, yes, definitely, if this was what she had to look forward to, she’d keep it going as long as she could.
Roscoe teased her with his cock, not quite sliding it into her as Niner sucked her clit between his lips. “We get through all of this,” Roscoe said, “we’re going to go somewhere quiet, with a nice, big bed, and we’re going to spend about a month in that bed with you.”
That sounded good to her.
And made him sound nothing like an asshole.
Glad I took a chance on him.
Boy, howdy.
He finally thrust into her, slowly, taking his time until his cock was completely fisted by her pussy and his thighs pressed against the backs of hers. Then he grabbed her hips and slowly fucked her, taking his time, letting Niner pull two more orgasms out of her before picking up the pace.
Niner’s cock had grown increasingly hard, warming against her tongue as his balls tightened and prepared to shoot a load of his cum down her throat. When she came one last time, both men sped up, Niner now fucking his hips up to meet her lips while Roscoe’s every thrust pushed her mouth deeper onto Niner’s cock.
“Get ready,” Roscoe warned, his voice strained.
Best she could tell, the two men pretty much came at the same time, each one shooting a load into her at either end, until they all collapsed on the bed, spent and tired.
As they got turned around and situated with her snuggled between the men, she found their hands and laced fingers with them. “I think I’m ready to fall asleep.”
The men offered no complaints or resistance.
As she drifted, she realized how ironic it was that she was beginning to find herself in the happiest time of her life romantically, while all around them a city was literally disintegrating.
Chapter Nineteen
Dolce’s eyes popped open. She stared up into the darkness, wondering what had awakened her.
To either side, Niner and Roscoe lay soundly sleeping. She didn’t hear any of the other people bunked on the second floor stirring.
No midnight moanings. It was quiet.
Too quiet.
She sat up and stared at the windows, where a little light from distant streetlights tried to creep through the vertical blinds.
Something had awakened her.
She stood and grabbed her clothes, every nerve in her body on edge, on high alert.
If she didn’t know any better, she’d think…
“Get up, guys,” she quietly said. The feeling grew, exponentially, the sick, primordial fear coalescing somewhere deep in her gut.
Niner mumbled something.
“Get up!” she said, just as she felt the first tremors begin to shake the building.
That got the men moving. They jumped up and off the bedrolls and started grabbing clothes while she headed for the door.
The shaking didn’t slow and stop, like most quakes. If anything, it grew worse, stronger, sounds like the bowels of the Earth ripping themselves apart filling the room.
“Fuck!” Niner stumbled as he tried to get his pants pulled on.
Dolce grabbed her boots and made it to the door, opening it and standing there in the opening as she jammed her feet into her boots while she leaned against the door frame.
“What the hell?” Roscoe said.
“Earthquake.” Down the hall, in the darkness and over the screams of the building around them, she heard the others also bunked upstairs awake and moving and yelling to each other.
And still the shaking continued.
“Get to the stairwell,” she yelled at everyone. “It’s reinforced. Go!” She knew all schools in the state had to have earthquake-resistant reinforced stairwell structures.
She ran and didn’t stop to see if they were following her. In the dark, she angled toward the stairwell door and kept going. Fortunately, when she reached it, it opened for her and she headed into it, holding onto the railing to keep her balance.
And still the shaking continued.
She knew time felt weirdly distorted based on her fear, but it seemed like it stretched into hours that the shaking continu
ed, even though she knew realistically it was likely less than two minutes. Others had joined her in the stairwell as the shaking and noise finally stopped, dust filtering down on them like a light, dry rain as silence filled the space. Fortunately, the sprinkler system in the school hadn’t gone off.
“Wait,” she said, still holding on to the railing.
“What?” Roscoe said in the darkness.
“Just…wait. Aftershocks, and we need to make sure the building isn’t going to collapse. We don’t want to be down there if it does. We’d be better off in here or on the roof.”
They heard Papa yelling up to them from the downstairs doorway.
“Stay there!” she yelled. “Just give it a minute. Get everyone out down there. And get the vehicles moved outside!”
“Check the lab!” Clara yelled from a couple of steps above her. “And get the gas turned off!” she added.
“Shit,” Papa muttered.
As the minutes ticked past, a small aftershock sent a tremor through the building, but nothing like the big quake.
“How big you think that was?” Niner asked.
“Big,” Ak said. “Never felt one that big before, and I’ve lived here all my life. Or one that lasted that long. That had to be at least a 7 or an 8. Maybe stronger.”
“I’ve never felt one that big in Colima, either,” Clara said, “and I felt a lot of them.”
“I’m going back up,” Omega said. “To the roof. Gonna check things out.”
Dolce wanted to tell him no, to wait, but he wasn’t her problem.
She heard him go up the stairs, even though in the dark she couldn’t see. After a moment, she listened as he struggled with and finally wrenched the roof door open.
“Wedged in the frame,” he called down. “Tight.”
“Building probably shifted a little,” she said. “We need to be careful.”
“God, I hope none of the samples fell over and broke open in the lab,” Clara said, dread filling her voice.
“I personally wouldn’t go in there without protective clothing, if I were you,” Dolce said. “Chances are anything that was on a table ended up on the floor unless it was nailed down.”
“Shit.”
“Holy crap,” Omega called out from the roof. “Get up here. You all gotta see this.”
Dolce didn’t want to, but Roscoe and Niner coaxed her to go with them up to the roof. Then again, being on the roof would likely be safer than being inside the building, reinforced stairwell or not.
Outside, it was still dark, the perpetual smog layer obscuring the sky and any light from the stars and moon. But it was darker still, except for the orange glow to the north and west…and spotty patches of orange now all over the city.
Three buildings that had been just to their south were…well, gone. It looked like they’d totally pancaked down to the first level despite only being about thirty years old and likely built to current earthquake safety codes. Other structures around them, houses and businesses alike, were severely damaged or completely collapsed.
Nowhere were lights visible, either in the city or the surrounding hills. The only light came from the fires from the riots, and fires elsewhere. Even the high-rise structures of downtown, usually visible from the roof, were dark…if they were still even standing. It was hard to tell with the smoke and smog which option would win out.
“Son of a bitch,” Omega said. “Power’s out all over.”
“It won’t be coming back on,” Dolce said. “That’s it. The city’s toast. We need to get packed up and bugged out ASAP. Preferably in the next few minutes. Anyone still close to the coast will be moving inland in case there’s a tsunami. We can’t wait.”
“Ain’t no one gonna argue with your logic,” Niner said.
Dolce heard men downstairs cursing and struggling to get the garage doors manually opened. One of them did, because then she heard the sound of the RV cranking up as someone moved it.
At least that was okay. They’d need it, too.
From the stairwell, Papa yelled at them. “Clara! We need you downstairs. Now.”
She peeled off from their group and headed for the stairwell doorway when another brief aftershock hit, throwing some of them off their feet.
Dolce found her men in the faint glow provided by the distant fires. “I’ll finish getting dressed and get my stuff packed,” she said. “I’ll meet you downstairs and help Mark get his things out.”
That seemed to be a popular idea. In less than twenty minutes, everyone upstairs had packed and moved their stuff to a staging area outside in front of the building.
Except Clara. She and the three scientists were apparently in the lab. Dolce glanced that way on one of her trips downstairs, and through the window in the door she spotted flashlights moving around in the chemistry lab.
No way was Dolce going in there.
Doc, however, apparently needed to pitch in and help them, because Dolce saw him donning a protective suit and heading that way as she helped Mark get moved.
Dolce helped Tango get all of Clara’s stuff packed and moved once she knew Mark was squared away.
Downstairs, Mark was seated in a chair, his shotgun lying across his lap as he stood guard over their stuff. He nodded at her worried glance his way. “Don’t worry, I got this, kiddo,” he said. “You go help them get everything packed and loaded. We need to bug out right now.”
“My thinking exactly.”
“In the morning, as soon as it’s light, there will be a mass exodus by anyone not close to the coastline. We can’t wait that long. Roads will be jammed.”
Even though the compound’s wall was in the way, she stared off to the north, where their apartment building was.
“Look,” Mark said, accurately reading her thoughts, “either they will get back to the building and call, or they won’t. Nothing you can do about it right now. We don’t even know if the building’s still standing.”
“I could get be there in ten minutes.”
“On a good day with green lights. You might not even be able to get through the streets.”
She wanted to argue with him. Wanted to fight to go back there and check on things.
Unfortunately, she also knew what she might find. If the building was still standing, it might be heavily damaged.
And her friends probably wouldn’t even be there if they hadn’t contacted her yet.
Papa gathered most of them downstairs. “They’re packing up the lab now. They lost one cooler of samples, but they’ve sprayed down everything with disinfectant, so it’ll hopefully kill anything that might have gotten loose. Once they’re done packing, they’ll load everything into the RV, and Clara will drive it. The rest of us need to be ready to move when they are. Omega and Uni will be in charge of getting vehicles loaded. If it ain’t packed when we roll out of here, it ain’t coming. So make sure you’ve swept through your quarters and grabbed everything you need to take with you. We’ve got enough vehicles we can afford a few extras, but if space becomes a premium, dump any nonessential equipment. We’re back to a nomadic existence at this point.”
Mark spoke up. “Anyone know what time it is?”
“Two twelve,” someone said.
“Can we be ready to leave by three thirty?” Mark asked Papa.
“I don’t know. We’re waiting on the lab to be packed up and loaded. I’m going to put Tango in a suit once the lab’s buttoned up, so he can help them load equipment. But I want as few people involved with the lab as possible since there’s a risk of exposure.”
Dolce got a flashlight and headed inside and upstairs again. Another aftershock rumbled through, subsiding almost before she had a chance to be afraid. Several windows had broken out downstairs in the classrooms. When she made her way upstairs, she crossed paths with Pandora, who was coming down from the roof with a potted plant in her arms. “Can you help me grab as many of these as we can? The tomatoes will be ready in a couple of weeks. I really don’t want to leave them if we hav
e room. And the greens are growing well. We might need the food.”
“Okay.”
Niner and Roscoe joined Dolce in a final, quick search through their quarters. Nothing was left behind. Then they helped Pandora schlep as many of the container plants as they could move downstairs. The pots were wedged into trucks and cars and minivans as they could make space for them. Some of the larger planters, Pandora used smaller pots to remove and save as many plants as she could.
Pandora looked for any available space. “We need to rig a setup for on top of the RV or something in the future.”
“We can do that when we don’t have to worry about dying,” Dolce assured her. “Right now, our priority is getting out of the city.”
Even as Dolce said that, she once again thought about her friends. Considering how many days it’d been since they’d last been home, she doubted they were healthy, much less alive.
The uncertainty was what ate at her.
The guilt over feeling like she was abandoning them.
“Sorry,” Pandora said. “You’re right. Guess I’m in shock.”
“Bye-bye showers and privacy,” Ak said as they stared up at the building. A large crack in the front wall zigzagged through the stucco.
“Bye-bye, Los Angeles,” Dolce muttered.
“You didn’t like it here, did you?” Ak asked. “In the city, I mean.”
“No.”
“Then why did you live here? You could have gone anywhere after the military.”
“Because of my friend, Sarah. I didn’t have anywhere else in particular to go.”
“I’ve never lived anywhere else. Hell, I’ve never left the LA area. I’m looking forward to seeing what else there is.”
“You haven’t missed a lot,” Dolce told her. “At least you had family.”
Ak sounded sad. “Yeah. Fat lot of good that did me,” she softly said. “I couldn’t keep them safe.”
Regretting her words and tone, Dolce turned to the younger woman. “I’m sorry about your brother and your aunt,” she said. “I know that had to be rough.”