Apocalypse Slaves Pt. 05

"I figure that it's time to see how things are going over in Corning now that two of their biggest supporters are dead." he said.

"Good," Lauren said, idly stroking his forearm. "I'll be here and I'll make sure that you have what you need no matter how I need to get it." she said. "I want to help you in any way I can."

Caine was nodding. "I think... that you also need to write once again." he said. "You went to Gatling Industries in hopes to get into their newspaper division. I read your file," he said when he caught her sharp look of surprise. "I think that a comprehensive biography needs to be done along with a personal interview." He grinned at her. "I happen to know a guy who can get you in with Caine... if you'd like. And I know a guy who knows the schmuck of a governor around here so I'm sure we can get a local paper started rather than having to rely on news from the only decent hab around here."

She laughed at the absurdity of it all. "That's ridiculous but that's also genius." Lauren nodded. "I think that a local news around here is a good thing to start up."

"I can help Mistress, if she'd like," Jessica supplied from the doorway. They looked her way as they sat up and she shrugged. "I mean, I'm going to be here anyway looking after the house while you're gone, right?"

"Okay. Thanks." Lauren said. "Uhm... sorry about earlier with the slave comment, and shoving the ball gag in your mouth, and everything."

Jessica smiled warmly at her as she walked in looking elegant and sexy in her perpetual nudity. "There is no need to apologize, Mistress." she said, framing Lauren's face in her hands and then kissing her gently on the lips. "You are the perfect Alpha Female for my Master as you showed your dominance over me. Therefore, it is my place to serve you." Jessica then lowered herself down to her knees in a submissive fashion before her.

"This is weird." Lauren admitted, looking down at Jessica.

"That's what I said when she latched on to me." Caine laughed. "But I was also told that I'll get used to it. Now let's go get something to eat before I have half a mind to jump the two of you again."

***

CHAPTER 49: The Attack on Corning.

It took another month of planning, infiltration, and setup before Caine decided that everything was ready for the attack on Corning. During each of his visits to Corning he blended in by either being a Raider from an outlining raider outpost or posing as a businessman from K.C. Hab under the cover of representing the new interests of Gatling Industries. The Lincoln Scouts provided an excellent blockade for the businessman story as they blocked anyone coming up north from reaching Corning. Each time, in order to sell the story more, he'd engage in sleeping with slaves tossed his way. He felt bad for them in the short term but knew that all would be better for them in the long term after he was done.

He'd found out from one of the Top 3 themselves that there'd be a public punishment day for some of the newer slaves who were not adjusting well to their new lives of servitude. It was going to be a debacle of sex and violence that, when described to him, made Caine sick to his stomach. In the most extreme cases, there was going to be an execution or two to serve as warnings to all slaves that continued disobedience would result in their deaths. Caine vowed that he was going to put a stop to it, or die trying.

That last thought struck him as odd. As he looked out across the plains towards Corning. He didn't fear death. Maybe it was because for all intents and purposes, he was supposed to be dead already from the supernova wave that hit Earth. Maybe it was because he should've been killed when the raiders invaded the bunker that he'd had the good fortune to recover and vacate first. And maybe, just maybe, even if he died, someone somewhere might take up his mantle and continue on in his name.

At any rate, the name Caine would live on. It was a form of immortality that most dreamed of and it'd been handed to him.

He glanced over at one of the Scouts who'd be standing by for his signal. The bruise that he'd left on the man's face a month ago had finally faded. "Hey Mike, you got a family?

"Yeah," he nodded. "I got a wife. Her name's Collette." Mike said, holding up his left hand and showing Caine the wedding band on his ring finger. "A lot of people gave her grief because she looks like she's overweight. I keep telling them it's bone structure. But anyway, she got shunned and since I was into that body type. Well, we hooked up and eventually married. No kids yet but we're hopeful. Docs think it might be her as they've verified that I got more than enough swimmers. Worst case we might welcome another woman into our home to play surrogate." He caught Caine smiling and shaking his head. "What?"

"Nothing, it's just that things have changed so much since my time," Caine mused. "Back in my day, Polygamy and Polyamory were considered illegal and taboo, respectively. Now, nobody seems to give a fuck."

Mike shrugged. "Earth isn't going to repopulate itself. So why shouldn't people have multiple life partners be it many women and a single man or the other way around?"

"Just taking one for the team, huh?" Caine asked jokingly, remembering a line from an old cartoon from when he was a kid. "Ready to take the ultimate sacrifice? Just doin' your duty to save yo' species?"

Mike laughed. "You sound like Governor Bailey and his old sayings."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Caine grinned. "Well, let's get this done and God willing we'll do it so that you and Collette can get busy making some little Lincoln Scouts for us all."

*

Caine snuck into Corning, blending easily into the crowds as he had before. It was much easier this time as a lot of people, Raider and Slave alike, were heading for the public square. It was the stage where the public auctions often took place at as it was in the middle of town and offered the greatest visibility. When he got to the tallest building that overlooked the square, he took a side alley, hooked an old fire escape, and rushed up to the top.

As expected, there was a guard up there who was looking for any sign of trouble. Caine crept quietly towards the patrolling man until he suddenly turned. Caine was momentarily caught off guard and the man capitalized on it. The raider charged him. Without thinking, Caine ducked the man's wild right cross as he came in. The punch that was obviously intended to lay Caine out in one shot sailed over his head, forcing the raider to stop and plant his foot to kill his momentum. Caine popped back up and lashed with his right foot to catch his right knee, bending it back slightly. That stopped the man right where Caine wanted him and Caine reeled back his right foot and planted it down again, this time onto the side of the raider's knee.

Howling in pain, the raider started to crumple onto his now bad leg. Caine caught the back of his head as he fell, snaked his hands around the man's head and jaw, and twisted hard. The man's neck broke and he was dead before he hit the ground.

"Shit..." Caine breathed as he looked at the body. "I'm getting better at this." He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He peered back over the side of the building to see if anyone had heard the ruckus. Down below, the crowds were still piling into the square to watch today's events, blissfully unaware of the life and death scuffle that just took place above them. Caine positioned the guard in his nearby chair, propping him up so that he looked like he was just taking a nap. From what he'd seen of some of the guards already, it wouldn't be far from the truth. No one in Corning expected such a brazen attack like the one Caine was about to do.

Caine took out his assault rifle, put the setting to semi-automatic, and fixed a sniper scope to it, briefly putting his ACOG scope into his pocket. Then he found his place that he'd prepared the previous week; a hole in the low wall that bordered the roof that he'd bored out. This kept him down, out of sight, with the ability to sight in on the whole stage. Then he waited.

An hour later, a cheer rose from the men in the crowd as a row of slaves were hauled out from a side room. Caine recognized a one of them as the redhead from the bar that he'd been given by the bartender one night during his undercover work as 'Mister Douglas'. She'd been misbehaving and so she was given out to a random stranger, that random stranger being Caine who'd been picked out. After Caine fucked her in front of everybody she was then flogged repeatedly. "Don't worry, girl, you're not going to have to worry about your asshole of an owner after today." Caine muttered.

Caine watched as the girls were placed in nooses. That was apparently the gimmick whenever someone was on display so that if they'd tried to run, they'd hang themselves. In some cases today, if Caine did nothing, they'd be hung regardless. The man known as The Judge came out and motioned for people to settle down. "CRUSADERS!" Judge said in a loud voice for all to hear as he raised his hands up high. "Today, we dispense justice! Today, we show you what the price for insolence and insubordination is!"

Quickly losing interest in Judge's little speech, Caine looked down the line of girls and then at the men who accompanied them. From their pictures and from his own incursions into Corning, Caine recognized each of the Top 3 along with some members of 'The Council' which included the bartender. Caine mentally calculated what the reactions would be, then thought out his order. Then he sighted in on Judge.

"Rest assured," Judge was saying, "your old, pre-Flare standard of living is over! The United States is over! WE," he proclaimed, "are the ones here in charge!"

Remembering his shooting training from his father, Caine sighted in, took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and gently squeezed the trigger. His first shot went right though the center of The Judge's face. "You always did talk too much," he muttered as he then sighted in on The President. The crowd below him all reeled in shock as they tried to comprehend Judge's falling body. Caine's second shot went through the side of The President's head as he turned and gaped at Judge's death. That got slaves screaming in horror and raiders looking around in dumbfounded confusion. Caine found The Lawman and dropped him with a single shot to the chest. Now women were vacating the plaza while raiders were scrambling for cover.

Then Caine dropped the Bartender and six members of "The Council" in quick order. Raiders were now pointing his way and shooting panic fire at the windows below him thinking that he was there. Caine reached into his pocket and hit the trigger that was in there. Explosions erupted all along the perimeter walls from the explosives that he'd put there over the past month. Each of the guard towers went up like roman candles and Caine knew that the Scouts were now on their way in. In the confusion, Caine found the rest of The Council and systematically gunned them down and then used the rest of his magazine to take out a random raider here and there for good measure.

Now was the time for the 'Shock and Awe' portion of the whole attack.

Triggering a second switch, two jets of flame appeared at each of the corners of the building, giving the roof a 'gates of hell' look to it. Caine stood up and looked down upon the masses as the gunfire tapered out. He looked down at the startled and frightened raiders who were all gaping and pointing up at him. He brought the rifle up behind him to strike a somewhat heroic pose as he'd seen on one of Lauren's posters, cleared his throat, and spoke in a clear, loud voice. I hope to hell that this little monologue that Henry wrote for me works. Otherwise, I'm a dead man. He imagined that he looked quite the hero with his cloak billowing behind him softly in the breeze.

"My sire is a comet, my dam a cosmic wind. God wept when he first saw me, but Satan merely grinned," he boomed out as if he were the president giving an impassioned speech as the flame jets died out. Like Henry instructed, he made sure to project out using his gut instead of his throat to make sure that the sound carried. "I live on a mountain, a mountain made of gold, with a temper that is hot and a heart that is cold. I issue my orders. I make known my demands. I then sit back and watch my reach expand!"

The more he spoke, the more he got into the speech that had everyone, raider and slave alike, absorbed in his words. He was now belting out the monologue. "I rob and I plunder. I kill and I loot. I stealthily sneak up, and then suddenly I will shoot. I never forget and I never forgive. I will never relent as long as my enemies live! A riddle and an enigma wrapped up in a puzzle or two. What man fits this specification? The King of Outlaws, that's who!"

People closest to the building he was on the roof of were now backing up as if Caine would start spitting fire or shooting beams out of his eyes or something. Guards were discreetly putting weapons away and looking innocent out of fear that Caine would shoot them next. Caine went on, now pointing an accusing finger out at his audience. "I burn brighter than a nova, I stand taller than trees, I shout louder than the thunder, and flow deeper than the seas. Some say that I'm a hundred, some say that I'm more. Some say that I'll live forever, this outlaw commodore!"

His finger swept over the crowd, the closest of which were now backing away from the base of the building. "Who am I who brings you pain?" he asked them. "No one else. For I... AM CAINE!"

God, this poem is cheesy... Caine thought as he then looked down at everyone, waiting on their response. He brought the assault rifle down into a ready position, stripped off the sniper scope and put the ACOG back on. Then, just for effect, he chambered another round for the hell of it to see if he'd get a response.

"LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS AND SURRENDER!" he commanded them.

It worked. The raiders closest to the building dropped his hunting rifle and slowly put his hands up above his head and dropped to his knees in surrender. Then another one close by followed suit. Then it was a ripple effect outward as each and every raider laid down arms, put their hands folded on top of their heads, and knelt down to signal that they gave up.

As he savored the moment, the Lincoln Scouts rushed in from their hiding spots and from where they had gathered around the town. They began shouting orders at the raiders to stay down while some of the civilians that they'd brought with them started gathering dropped weapons just in case a raider got any ideas. Caine saw one twitch the wrong way and he brought his rifle up, fired, and put the man down. "Do not even think about growing a brain cell right now!" he yelled at them. "I have no problem mowing the lot of you down for the atrocities that you have committed!"

Rather than take the stairs, Caine hunched over and dropped to the ground. It was only about a story and a half and he'd made two story safe falls before. He rolled with the landing and came up onto his feet. The raiders closest to him that witnessed this prostrated themselves on the ground as if he were God. Guess parkour isn't a thing anymore... point in my favor... Caine mused to himself as he calmly walked through the parting crowd up to the stage where the assassinated leaders lay dead. With the Scouts now taking over Corning, Caine shouldered his assault rifle, took out his combat knife, and started cutting the slaves who were being publicly punished free.

"I remember you," a pretty white-haired slave said as he cut her loose. "I saw you alongside the road right after we were taken from the cryo vault."

"Yeah," Caine nodded. "I remember you too. Your hair is pretty unique." He glanced over at the redhead who looked like she had gone through hell. He jerked his head in her direction. "She with you, I take it?" he asked as he moved over to cut the redhead loose.

The white-haired girl nodded. "She's my wife." She looked choked up. "She's... been through a lot to protect me."

"Well," Caine said, cutting her loose and then bearing her weight to ease her down. "She can recover properly back in Lincoln." He handed the redhead off to the care of her wife.

"Caine!" Mike was coming up to the stage with three men in tow. "We've identified these guys as the remaining leaders after your... uh... work... has left them in charge. They wanted to talk to you face-to-face."

Caine eyed them. "Is this true?"

"Yes," the lead man said. "Caine... we were high up in the Crusader's commanders. We want you to know that we're behind you and we can personally guarantee that no one here will oppose your rule here."

"Yeah?" Caine asked as he noticed some rustlings in the crowd. Were they getting ready to revolt already? There was only one way to end this here and now. "I can guarantee that as well." He brought his assault rifle to bear and fired a single round through the man's forehead. It went through him and the two men behind him. They all fell like dominoes while Mike just gaped at their bodies and then at Caine.

"You really think that I'm going to let people like that live?" Caine asked rhetorically to Mike as he walked past him and to the edge of the stage. "Let me make myself PERFECTLY CLEAR!" Caine yelled at them. "You better pray to whatever GOD you believe in for mercy because I sure as fucking hell won't if I discover that you've mistreated these women! If you were a benevolent master to them, then I might consider letting you live! If not, then may I suggest that you take a knife and slit your bellies in ritual suicide because that's going to be quicker than what I'M going to do to you!"

Much to his surprise, many of the raiders did just that.

***

CHAPTER 50: Welcome to the Future.

Another thing that surprised Caine was just how many women wanted to remain slaves. Shockingly, a few of the men too. He watched as one cutesy, chubby brunette who was a bit pear shaped with some small, but nicely rounded tits, break down into hysterics at the mere mention of the word 'Freedom'. Henry explained that not everyone wanted it and some were right at home in a life of servitude much like his MILF-Slave, Jessica was.

It was still weird for Caine to watch it play out.

The chubby girl, who was fresh faced and looked like she'd just turned 18, was escorted to one side by Mike, who was looking her up and down intently. He recognized her as the girl that Judge had him fuck while he was undercover as 'Mister Bond' and figured that he'd keep that little detail from Mike. Caine figured that she'd wind up in his home as his and Collette's pet before too long. The girl calmed down and even had a happy expression on her face when Mike chained her collar to the rest of the girls who'd had similar reactions.

Turning from the debacle, Caine headed for home. Henry came out of the Town Hall as he passed to fall into step with him. "Another great victory in the annals of Caine," he said, smiling.

"Dude..." Caine shook his head. "I have no idea what you've been doing in my name all this time but you certainly made one fucking helluva impression on people. That's for damn sure."

"WE," Henry gently corrected. "We made the impression. After all, if it wasn't for all of your stuff, your name, and your inspiration that you gave me all those years ago before the Flare, I wouldn't have even thought about it." His gaze became distant. "Who knows, maybe I would've wound up like one of the men in Corning; either forced labor or a raider. Or I'd be dead, who knows." He smiled and clapped Caine on the shoulder. "But you; you now have the tools to carry on the work. We should be good until you're in your sixties or so to pass the name on to someone else."