The Island Ch. 17

"A freshwater run wouldn't hurt either," Hayley nodded. "That should give you and Ray plenty of time to explore before you have to start on your duties with Robyn."

"When was this arranged?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Lousia pointed out that we were getting a little short yesterday when we were having our checkups," the redhead shrugged. I felt my jaw clench a little, knowing full well that it probably wasn't Louisa at all. I nodded and reached my hands for my lovers, ready to start heading back down the hill. I would have to tell Tom to be careful before he headed off with them.

"I will keep an eye on him, my love." Freja's reassuring voice echoed through my mind as the three of us started making our way back to the bunker. "But after the way you banished Mother yesterday, I think you may have a little time before you see her again. I don't think you need to worry too much."

A little while later, the three of us were reunited with the rest of the group outside the bunker. Tom and the rest of the women were gathering the slings they would need to carry the fruit and water bottles back from the crater. With a kiss from Hayley and then Hannah, my hands were released, and the two sirens rejoined the rest of the group, making way for Robyn with a giggle.

The copper-haired vixen strode boldly and confidently up to me, tucked her hand into the waistband of my shorts, palmed my cock, and then cupped my balls. "Hmmm. Just checking that those greedy bitches haven't drained your boys," she grinned comically. "Or I just wanted to have a feel of the cock that is going to be spending the rest of the day knocking me up when I get back. Either is equally plausible," she winked, shrugged, kissed me, and - after extracting her hand from my waistband - skipped back to finish preparations.

"Good morning to you, hot stuff," I chuckled. She looked over her shoulder and blew me a kiss. Ray chose that moment to step out of the tunnel. He looked nervously over at me. Seemed to take a deep breath and then started walking toward me.

"Hey Dan, how's it going?" His greeting sounded forced.

"I'm pretty good. How about you?" I squinted at him.

"I can't complain," he smiled weakly. "You catch the game last night?"

"Ahh. That explains it"

"I did!" I explained, playing along. "Fucking Patriots!"

Ray let out a breath he seemed to have been holding all morning. The weight lifted off him.

"Hey!" Liz called over mockingly. "They may not have the best of reputations, but don't insult my beloved Pats!" she finished with a teasing grin.

I rolled my eyes with a grin of my own. "Ah well, nobody's perfect," I joked.

"Oh, We'll see how perfect you think I am the day after tomorrow, lover boy," she winked. A new ripple of angelic, melodic laughter rolled through the group before Liz started to corral everyone into moving.

I stepped a little closer and grabbed Tom's arm as he came up the rear. "Be careful," I whispered to him. "And don't forget what I said, okay?"

He smiled appreciatively, nodded, and patted my hand. "Mmmm, I will. Thank you, Dan. I think she is still with us for now, though."

Lousia was a little ways ahead and seemed to understand what was happening. She turned and offered an uncertain smile. I sent back the most friendly one I could manage under the circumstances, but between that look, Tom's observation, and Freja's assurances, I was already feeling a little better about letting him head off without me. Horrifying images of what happened to Doug on the recording still reverberated through my memories, but he was a strong lad, and he knew what to do if the worst happened.

********

Even under the dim light of the flickering torches, I could see that Ray's face had paled. He had given up asking questions at least an hour ago, and we had carefully wandered along the left-hand corridor from the central room. My momentary distractions while checking for structural defects in the tunnel or the few rooms we found gave him even more time to think about the events that he had been completely oblivious about.

"So yeah, that was yesterday," I went on. "I pinned Lou... Well, I pinned Mother to the wall, and the power that Freja gave me just sort of banished her. She still seemed like she was with us this morning. I must admit, I am kind of glad you are lucid, I'm not sure how long these powers take to recharge, and obviously, I wanted to bring you up to speed after the other day." Ray didn't answer. He just nodded, his face drawn in shock. "Are you okay, man?"

"I feel like a fucking rapist," he finally said. "I remember that conversation on the beach with you about not wanting to take advantage of them... Well, I do now. But that is exactly what we have done."

"I'm not sure that is how it works." I sighed, knowing that feeling all too well. He arched an eyebrow at me to continue. "As far as I can tell, you have to be compatible. That's why the girls picked who they picked. None of us males had any choice about which of the girls imprinted on us. But I'm also almost certain that it is what they wanted. I think all the influence did was remove the inhibitions."

"So you're saying that Zoe and Caroline, fucking wonderful, beautiful women, would have been attracted to me back home? A crusty old bastard with a dodgy knee?" He asked dubiously.

"That's the way it was explained to me, yes," I answered with a shrug. "They may not have been able to act on it, age differences, other relationships, simple geography, I don't know. But here, those roadblocks have been removed. Fuck, for all I know, they may have a thing for older guys. Although your knee hasn't seemed to be giving you any trouble recently."

He frowned and then looked down at it. "Hmmm, no, it hasn't, actually. And that's not the only thing that has healed."

"Your snip."

He nodded. "That was done years ago, man. Zero sperm count afterward. And now, I have a kid on the way. I suppose I have... this Freja to thank for that."

"Yup. Pretty much, and it won't be long before the other one wants a bun in the oven too."

"Other one? Oh, you mean..." he laughed. "You still can't tell them apart, can you?"

"Nope."

"Thank fuck for that. Me neither!"

"Amy said that Zoe has a birthmark high on the inside of her thigh," I offered with another loud laugh that echoed further into the tunnel.

"Yeah, and Caroline has a mole just under one of her nipples. But short of asking them to get their clothes off so I can check, they aren't helpful on a day-to-day basis," He huffed with a self-deprecating smile

"Ask them to wear different hairstyles?"

"Yeah, I thought of that," he nodded. "But then I made the mistake of saying that I like girls with long hair, and now both of them are trying to grow their hair out."

"Yeah, you're screwed," I grinned.

The laughter seemed to lighten the mood a little before Ray spoke again. "So, just so I have this clear in my head, we have to find the ammo dump from this bunker, assuming it wasn't cleared out by the last lot of people that were here, see if the explosives are any good, find Mother's flower thing, and then blow her the fuck up."

"That about sums it up, yes."

"How do you know the ammo wasn't cleared out already?"

"Lousia said that the last memory Mother had of the last group was a bunch of them leaving the island on a boat, whoever she was controlling was left behind to die. I can't see them taking the extra time to load up the munitions if they were in a rush to get off in secret."

Ray nodded, "What if they were cleared out before? Those engineer teams are understandably wary about leaving that shit around. I mean, there is no sign of the guns from those emplacements, and if the team was here to dismantle them, they at least got that part finished before all this happened to them." He waved his hand around in the darkness.

"True, but then what did Grace lock away? And when did they have a chance to load up the munitions before that?"

Ray rubbed his hand over his mouth and nodded. "So realistically, they are somewhere in the bunker."

"Yup, that would be my guess."

"What is probably several hundred tonnes worth of decades-old high explosives that could possibly be very close to where we sleep?"

"I had the same concern."

"And it is going to be impossible to explain to anyone under the influence why we would have to move because the reasoning would be the sort of thing they ignore."

"Exactly."

"Fuck!"

"Exactly again."

"So what do we do?"

"We find them, we keep the location secret, we keep the room sealed, and when you are lucid, we see if they can be used?"

"I did my share of demo training in the navy," he nodded. "But my knee-jerk reaction to even hearing that description would be to stay the fuck away from them. I will see what I can do, though."

"That's all I can ask, man. And if you tell me it's a no-go, then we will have to find another way."

"There has to be another way to kill a fucking plant. Maybe we can get my mom here. She can kill a plastic plant."

I laughed heartily.

"Alright," Ray said, stopping in place. "What about this room?"

"What room?" I asked with a frown.

Ray squinted a second and looked beside him. "Err, This one, right here. Can't you see it?" he asked, his eyes widening.

I stared at him for a second before snorting out a laugh. "I'm fucking with you, man. I couldn't help myself."

"Oh, you fucking asshole!" He laughed, clutching his chest. "You scared the shit out of me!"

I grinned at him, "Alright, out of the way, let me check." I held up the torch and stepped into the room.