The Species Imperative: A Post-Apocalyptic Pandemic Fantasy, page 1
The Species Imperative
Nick Storming
Fractured Press
Copyright © 2020 Fractured Press
All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without prior written permission of the publisher.
Any reference to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and locations are products of the author's imagination.
First printing edition 2020.
Fractured Press
www.nickstorming.org
Contents
I. The Man-Slayer Flu
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
II. Cult of the Old Book
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
III. Queendom of Gaia
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
IV. Grove of the Goddess
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
V. The Femme Forces
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
VI. A New Dawn
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Epilogue
Authors Note
ALSO BY NICK STORMING
Part I
The Man-Slayer Flu
Chapter 1
It's believed the virus appeared from the destruction of the Brazilian rain forests. It was in those communities that the first wave of deaths hit. Then it spread from there like wildfire. A pandemic that shut down the entire world.
The CDC named it H1-C435 Endocim Virus, but the news and the world called it the Man-Slayer Flu. 99.999% of all men were affected, and nearly 70% of women. With the virus's rapid presentation of symptoms that deteriorated quickly, there was little time for the world's scientists to find a cure or vaccine, and with the mounting deaths, regular services and functions of the world's governments began to fail and collapse. Chaos would have reigned, but for the fact, the whole world was mourning the death of loved ones and friends, and the burials were ceaseless for weeks.
It began as an innocent cough, mild and dry, that persisted for two to three days. This is how the virus spread so rapidly, hiding behind simple cold-like symptoms. Then the fever would start, and within 24-hours, the patient would shake with convulsions and bleeding so bad internally that they would often die from blood loss. The first wave of deaths was a few dozen villagers, then a few thousand people who had traveled near the villages and spread throughout South America. Those few thousand infected millions, and then it spread to billions. Nations cut off all travel to their land, but even in New Zealand, which locked down their Island as the first sign of the threat, the virus found a foothold, and more than 80% of their population was dead within two months.
Many tried to escape into the mountains and wilderness, but air currents are a funny thing, and the virus proved to be adaptable to moisture in the air. Within weeks many who had escaped were staggering back into town, hoping they found a cure.
Those incredibly rare men, like me who got the cough but only a mild fever that was gone within 24-hours and proved themselves immune to the virus, were rounded up and locked in labs. A constantly changing slate of doctors and scientists poked and prodded me to within an inch of my life. Inevitably they would fall ill and after a day or two would be replaced. The men never returned, but some women recovered after a mild fever. The world was breaking down outside, however, and fewer and fewer women came into work.
I had been a grad student working on my thesis when the virus first struck and had been oblivious too much of it. When my parents fell ill, and I got the call from my brother, the reality hit home. I couldn't travel back to the mid-west, the government grounded all flights. I had to mourn the deaths of everyone in my family from afar. My brother’s death last being the hardest, that sends me into a dark spiral of depression.
Then I watched most of those around me fall ill and die in rapid succession. When I fell sick, I thought that was the end, and I began to make my amends, but I woke the next day feeling fantastic and grateful beyond belief. The government doctors snatched me up the next day. Taking me out of the lecture at gunpoint as the half dozen or so students watched in amazement.
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Thus, it was that I woke one morning to an empty hospital wing. Opening my eyes in the bright morning light, momentarily discomfited by the total lack of sounds. Climbing out a bed that had been my home for the past month or more, I looked out onto the ward. There had been a few women working the day before, but today I saw no one, and what's worse, the power was off in the building. The place had been running on generators for a few days.
I'd been waiting for this moment, knowing it would come eventually, and I went to the closet and pulled out my backpack, already packed with handfuls of string cheese, beef jerky and energy bars that I had stolen from the cafeteria. I tied on my tennis shoes and began to find my way out of the hospital. My brain was foggy and muddled from weeks of sedation, but my mind was begging for clarity.
I moved to the west coast for grad school, and so I know the area, but not like it's the back of my hand. I found the lobby and, looking out on the town, saw not a single car driving around. Feeling an edge of fear scramble its wicked hands at my guts, I walked over to the door, shouldering them open.
“Hello?!” I heard a female voice call from deep within the hospital, “Is anyone here?!”
“Yes!” I called back, “In the lobby!”
“Thank God!”
I stood there for several long moments wondering if I should head out and try to find the woman when I heard her running footsteps, and then a pretty brunette woman in a short checkered pink skirt and tight top came in. Her eyes widened when she saw me, and she glanced around side to side.
“Where’s the staff?” Her voice was calm and confident.
"There's no one here anymore," I said, shrugging, "or at least that I can tell. Did something happen?"
“Last night… you haven’t heard? No how could you have,” she said tapping her chin in a cute manner she thought, “Last night there was a radio broadcast on all stations, just before they shut down, the last MSF patient died in China, and the US Government has dissolved itself as have most of the other nations of the world. We now live in a post civilized society, and I guess,” she said, looking around, “that means no one is coming to work anymore.”
"Jesus," I said, then with a start, I held out my hand, "I'm Adam."
"I know who you are," she said, smiling as her dark eyes danced in merriment, "you're famous." Then she took mine in her small soft grip, "I'm Vanessa."
“More like infamous,” I said sadly, remembering all the hate and ridicule that had poured in from people angry I was alive while their loved ones had perished or while they did.
“You are the only man alive on the entire west coast,” she said, and I realized she still hadn’t released my hand, her soft fingers caressing the flesh.
"I hadn't thought of it like that,” I said as looked her up and down.
“I haven’t seen you before,” I asked, “do you work in the hospital?”
"No," she said, smiling mischievously as she finally released my hand slowly, letting her fingertips drag along my fingers. I glanced down at her hand, and when I looked up, Vanessa was suddenly very close to me. I stepped back, alarmed, and the back of my legs hit a chair in the lobby, and I almost fell back.
"You are a very handsome young man, Adam," she said, her eyes burning with some emotion I couldn't detect, “Very handsome, also smart and capable too from what I read in the news.”
"Umm, I'm sorry," I said, confused, "what's this about? I should get back to my apartment and pack."
"Oh, you don't want to go back there," she said, shaking her head, then cocking it slightly she smiled, "well you are a man, so maybe you do. But I promise you, right now, you wouldn't be safe if you went home."
"Why wouldn't I be safe?" I asked, started in to feel a little angry, and put out.
"Because two dozen women are waiting for you to show up, so they can lock you up and force you to impregnate them all.” She said as a matter of fact.
"What?!" I asked incredulously.
“And most of them are either mean, ugly, or both. Mostly both,” her smile got an edge to it as she cocked her hips to one side, the short skirt swaying across her toned thighs, "but don't worry, baby, I'm not going to kidnap you or anything, I just want one thing from you."
"What are you talking ab
“I am going to rock your world pretty boy,” she said as she stepped up close and pressed me back, her hands on my chest. Unable to step back, I sat down in the large overstuffed waiting room chair, and she stood before with a triumphant smile.
"Stop," I said, gripping the woman's wrists and halting her as she was about to reach for my pants, "listen, I just woke up and have no idea what's been going on. I'm sorry you seem like a nice woman, but I have to get out of here.”
"Where are you going to go?" Vanessa asked, "Where could the only man in a thousand-mile radius go and be safe from the million women who will be trying to capture him?"
"I don't get why women are going to capture me," I said in exasperation, "shouldn't they be trying to build new lives in all of this madness? What about food, water, and power? Is the internet still working? Fuck, there are so many questions."
"Would you release me?" She asked, looking at where I still gripped her wrists, and my hands sprang open, and I realized with some chagrin that I had left red marks on her skin. She rubbed her wrists and sat in the chair next to mine, facing me, "Enough food and water is sitting in freezers and warehouses, canned and dry to keep our current population alive for centuries. The last act of most governments was setting up the incinerators and secure infrastructure with solar panels. So as long as they get wiped down now and then of dust, there will still be pockets of functioning civilization. Parts of the internet still work, but most don’t know how to access it, and it’s all reference materials stored on servers, running on solar or wind power, so that is a blessing.
“I heard the east coast is in utter chaos, too much city sprawl and a dispersed population remaining. Patient Number One has set himself up in Baltimore, and the last it was reported, he had a small contingent of female military personnel 'guarding' him." She made air quotes at that.
“What do you mean ‘guarding’?” I asked.
“They did to him what the South Americans did to Pablo Duerte, Patient Number Three.”
"The last news I got was that the other patients were being moved to containment centers for study and to try and grow a vaccine culture," I said, trying to reach back through my dim and fuzzy memories of the time.
“A lot has changed since then,” she looked around quickly, peering out the large windows into the seemly empty parking lot and streets, then over her shoulder and around the hospital — a look of fear and concern etching her face.
“We should leave the hospital and find a quiet place, then I can tell you everything I know," her intense dark eyes found mine, and I saw a promise in them that caused my loins to stir.
The fog faded from my mind, and I squinted my eyes and focused my thoughts on this woman before me, taking her in. She was medium height and with a curvy body that would pull any man's gaze as she walked by. Her hair was deep dark brown with artful highlights that were now showing their dark roots. Her makeup was perfect, with more colored highlights around her eyes that showed off their hypnotic darkness. Her skin was tan, and heritage was mixed, a little Latina mixed in with the Anglo-Saxon. Her eyes shown with deep inner intelligence, and as I took in her clothes more fully, things didn't make sense.
She was older, or at least older than my 22 years. I'd guess her at about 34 or maybe 32. It was hard to tell with her flawless complexion. There was an aura of confidence about her that far outstripped any woman I'd ever really know before, except for maybe a tenured professor. She was wearing combat boots and not a new pair. They looked to have been through a lot, scarred and scuffed. But her top was a sexy small white blouse that showed off her firm C-Cup breasts to perfection and spread out near the bottom showing off her flat tanned stomach. All while wearing a pink and black plaid skirt that looked like something an Asian schoolgirl might wear to a rave. Its short length barely hiding her round behind, and now as she sat, if I looked closely, I could make out her white panties peeking from beneath the hem.
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me who you really are and what's going on. Why are women trying to kidnap me? And why have the other survivors been taken?”
"Look, I understand you're confused; I know they kept you sedated, but we need to move," she said, her eyes tense as she glanced from me to the windows again.
“How do you know that?” She pressed her lips together and looked like she was getting stubborn. Then I saw her eyes soften as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "I'm not going anywhere until you talk." I said, crossing my arms.
“Ok, look, this is all or was all classified. Vanessa is my real name, and I work for the NSA…" she frowned, glancing down at her hands as they sat in her lap, “at least I used to work for the NSA. The government recognized the threat to national security almost immediately, but we could do little to stop it. It spread too fast and took so much.” She shook her head in sadness, remembering those who had been lost as I did, feeling the grief but pushing it aside for now, "something happened over the past couple weeks. It's species imperative… Like dormant instinct given life… You see, Adam, we don't mean to do it," her eyes gained a glimmer of heat as she lifted her head to stare at me, "it's just become a hunger in us. Some are taking it too far, like on the east coast, or those barbarians waiting at your place… but we all feel it."
As she spoke, her knees parted slowly, and the short skirt drew up her smooth thighs, changing the glimpse of white panties to a good view of the thin material as it adhered to moist puffy lips.
"I'm not sure I get it," I said, feeling my breath coming heavier, and the air feels warmer as my eyes took in the sexy woman before me, "are you saying there is another virus?"
"No, not a virus," she slipped out of her chair, and on hands and knees crawled towards me slowly, "It's a need, we need to save the race, Adam… and you know how we do that, don't you?" Her eyes twinkled merrily as she slid her hands up my legs.
Chapter 2
"Oh shit," I breathed as she slipped her fingers into the waistband of my pants and ripped them down. My cock flopped out, already thickening with desire.
“That’s not it,” she said with a grin, "but this is," she slid her tongue up the underside of my cock, and I felt every bit of her tongue as its heat sent spikes of pleasure through my body.
“All the women are… mhmm… horny now?” I asked as she wrapped her fingers around my dick and pointed it at her mouth.
"Like junkies who need a fix," she swirled her tongue around the head and looked at me with those enchanting eyes, "we need to breed, and it's so powerful, Adam," she sucked my cock deep into her mouth. I groaned out at the unexpected pleasure, then she pulled herself up off my cock, and up my body dragging her panties aside with a quick hand, she was like a woman possessed as she gripped the base of my cock and positioned it at her entrance.
"Jesus," I breathed as she pressed her big firm tits into my face, "this is so wild and hot!"
"God damn boy, you have a big dick," she lowered herself down on it slowly, head back and mouth open wide as she took it in, "Mmmm…. I…. oh god… would… mhmm normally suck you off… my pussy too tight… what is… what is thissss… oh god!... Oh, GOD!"
