Apocalypse Slaves Pt. 11

"It hasn't been tested yet," Caine said. "I took the technology to DC before coming home. I don't know what it'll do to you or the babies, to be honest, and neither do they. They don't have any more women with Venus in them as we took them all and brought them all here," he explained. "This is, essentially, uncharted territory with them."

"You need a Guinea Pig," Lauren commented, nodding her understanding. She bent over as far as she could, reached back, and pulled her red hair aside. "Do it," she said without hesitation.

"Are you insane?" Caine balked. "Did you just hear what I just said?"

She sat up and glared at him. "Who else are you going to do it with? Everyone else with Venus is as pregnant as I am and out of everyone here, I'm not going anywhere. Nadine and Pearl will be going with you to Des Moines so that we can get this rat-trap hotel fixed up into something new and better. So; do it already!" Lauren saw the hurt, the pain, and the conflict on his face. She was the only person that he ever showed real emotion with and she found it touching. Lauren smiled at him, leaned in, and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

Then she snagged the injector and jammed it into the back of her neck before he could react.

"LAUREN!" he cried out in alarm, shocked that she'd gotten the better of him and that she so brazenly injected herself with the antidote.

"Haaaaa..." Lauren breathed, feeling her head swim. Her pupils seemed to dilatate and she fell down to her side. Caine was on his feet in an instant, rushing around to the side of the bed to see if she were okay. Finally, the room stopped spinning for her and she slowly sat upright. She blinked and looked at him. "That was... different..." she quipped.

"Are you okay?" he asked, voice etched with concern. "Did it... did it work."

Lauren shrugged. "I... don't know..." she admitted. "I don't FEEL any different." She looked at him. "Give me a command. One that you know I wouldn't want to follow."

"Well fuck..." Caine grumbled. There was only one way to really test it and it was one that he didn't want to do. He had prepared for this and yet, at the same time, he wasn't prepared to do it. He pulled out his pistol, quickly ejecting the magazine to check it before pulling the slide back to chamber it. Then he flipped it in his hand and held it over to Lauren, looking her dead in the eyes. "Shoot yourself."

"What?" Lauren blinked at him. "I said give me a command, not tell me to commit suicide!"

Caine's eyes narrowed as he leaned in a bit. "Shoot. Yourself," he repeated the command, slowly retiring every syllable.

"Caine! No! Come up with something else! Please!" Lauren protested with wide eyed fright now. "Caine, you're scaring me!"

Caine went back up to his feet now practically putting the butt end of his pistol in her face. "Woman, I said take this goddamn pistol and shoot yourself in the head already!"

"NO!" Lauren dashed to her feet on the opposite side of the bed. "Caine, give me another command! Please!" She was shaking with rage at him trying this tactic, wondering if he was really trying to get rid of her when she noticed his satisfied, triumphant look on his face. Then she followed his look down to her hands; they were balled up into tiny fists, firmly planted by her sides.

At no point did she ever reach for Caine's pistol.

"When I killed the asshole who gave you that damn thing back in D.C.," Caine explained in a calmer tone now, clearing his weapon and decocking the hammer on it before holstering it, "I injected Venus into him and ordered him to jump out the window. He did it without hesitation." He nodded her way. "I just ordered you three times and you resisted every time. I guess it's safe to say that this serum does indeed take care of Venus." He let out a sigh of relief and moved around to hug her.

"No, I'm still mad at you for scaring me like that. Go fuck one of the other girls." Lauren said, giving him a sour look.

"Very well," Caine sighed, picking up the box of injectors and heading out. "I need to give these to the other girls anyway. See you in the morning, love," he said, closing the door behind him.

THE END OF BIG JIM AND ELSA'S STORY