The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The Grateful Virus

All events and characters are fictional. Copyright © 2007 by James Adling. All rights reserved. Comments appreciated at

Note: I am entirely fueled and directed by your comments. If there’s something in particular you like about this story, tell me!

Chapter 5

Almost the entire team was gathered in the lobby to wait for the bus, which seemed to be running late. Kelly had been there for a while, and had already set off a chain reaction of sneezing among several of the girls on the team. The sneezing fits had died down for a while, only reviving briefly when the two hotel maids walked through, pushing their carts. Shortly after this, Jen, Helen, and Trisha had arrived. Kelly motioned them over to see the new picture she had loaded as the background on her phone.

“Aw!”

“So cute!”

“Send it to me!”

“Me too!”

“What’s so cute?” one of the other girls asked, as she leaned over to take a look. “Oh my god is that Nicole? Haha! Wow, don’t show her boyfriend! Who’s the lucky guy?”

“His name is Jim,” Trisha said. “Isn’t he dreamy?”

“Haha Trish! Zing! We’ll make a bitch out of you yet. Now share that pic!”

Another girl had leaned in to look. “Wait, isn’t he Sneezy the dwarf, from the hot tub?” Her new viral programming instantly kicked in as she looked at the picture. She gasped. She needed this man! Where could she find him?

A girl who had heard the story of Sneezy second-hand leaned in and looked. “What a tool! What was she thinking? Hey! Nicole made out with Sneezy the dwarf!” She turned back to Kelly. “You have GOT to share this pic!”

The picture quickly found its way onto almost every cell phone on the team. The girls who had not gone swimming found it hilarious, and the others had quite a different reaction, but played along.

Meanwhile, the hotel maids had reached Jim’s room. They knocked, waited, and then entered the room and began cleaning. They propped the door open so they could easily get cleaning supplies from their carts in the hall. Maria started on the bathroom while Rosa went in to strip the bed. There was a man sound asleep on the bed, face up, bare naked, and uncovered. The hotel policies demanded that they instantly leave. But something stopped her. She took a closer look at his face, and then suddenly had to lean against the wall for support as a wave of lust overtook her. His naked body had done nothing for her, but looking at his face she had suddenly decided she had to have him. No, not just have him; have his baby! In a haze of lust she forgot about her coworker, she forgot to close the door, she forgot all hotel policies, and she forgot to ask Jim’s permission. She hiked up her skirt and pulled off her panties. Stepping over to him, she lightly stroked his cock and watched it grow. He made a slight whimper. It sounded like “No, Jen.” His eyes were still closed. He was fully erect. In one smooth motion she climbed on top of him and positioned his shaft at the entrance to her dripping pussy.

* * *

The virus was relieved. For hours, Jim had been in no condition to replicate again, or do much of anything for that matter. The virus had seen how difficult it was to make his second orgasm happen last night. He had almost run out of fluid by being very inefficient and releasing far too much at a time. That could be corrected. By watching Kelly, the virus had learned that if even a small amount of fluid was released deep inside a female while she was coming, the pumping action of her orgasm could propel the fluid just to the right spot. So this is the function of the female orgasm! The virus would also need to suppress unnecessary additional spurts, without reducing his pleasure. The pleasure was clearly there to motivate Jim to replicate, and the last thing Jim seemed to need was less of that motivation.

* * *

Jim groaned in his sleep. Jen and the other girls had haunted his dreams all night, hunting him down like an animal. The nightmare reoccurred in various locales: a forest, a ruined city, a swamp. He was always naked and shivering cold. There were always hundreds of them, or even thousands in one terrifying mob scene, and they always caught him in the end, usually because he sneezed at the wrong moment, giving away his hiding place. Then inexplicably he would be free before they could do anything to him, but they were always hot on his trail.

Finally they caught him in a hotel room. Jen was dressed as a tribal priestess. She looked about 18 months pregnant. She was passing judgment on him. Her sexy face was twisted into a truly sinister scowl. She sentenced him to be strapped in to a big machine, which came into the room on creaky wheels and seemed to be speaking Spanish as he was strapped to its underside, six feet off the floor facing downward. The machine rubbed a felt-covered appendage spasmodically against his cock to make him hard. A girl entered the room shackled to a conveyor belt on all fours, her wide-open pussy facing Jim. The machine started moving, matching the left-to-right motion of the conveyor belt. Then it suddenly pivoted Jim violently down and forward, plunging his cock into the girl’s pussy, at which point he spurted a tiny bit of his seed inside her. Then, just as quickly he was pivoted back out and the machine jerked to a stop while the girl on the belt kept going and passed through a curtain of black plastic strips in the opposite wall, just like in an airport baggage claim.

With the sound and motion of an enormous typewriter’s carriage return, the machine then slammed him back over to the other side of the room just in time as another naked girl came into view, strapped into the belt in the exact same position. Again the same dizzying plunge all the way to the hilt inside her, the tiny spurt of come, the jerky withdrawal and the violent return to the other side of the room. Again and again the same precisely timed, mechanical motions, completely out of his control. No choice, no variation, no chance to see their faces, no time to savor or appreciate anything. The line of girls on the conveyor belt stretched out the door to the horizon. His wife watched, crying, from a seat in the bleachers next to his parents and his high school English teacher. It was horrific.

Maria heard some odd noises and came out of the bathroom to see what Rosa was up to. She was on her knees on the bed, with her skirt hiked up around her waist, no panties, and the hard cock of a hotel guest in her pussy. Maria couldn’t believe her eyes. Then she saw the man’s face and she understood.

Nicole and her three roommates were hurrying down the hall toward the lobby. They had to squeeze around the cleaning carts left in the hallway outside of Jim’s room. Erin happened to glance in and stopped in her tracks.

“Oh my god what’s she doing?” They all stood transfixed. The maid had her skirt bunched up and her hands in her panties rubbing furiously. Her eyes were fixed on the bed, which they couldn’t see from the hallway. The bed was creaking.

Nicole spoke up. “Looks like Sneezy’s got company,” she said, smiling to the other girls as she walked off toward the lobby.

“Sneezy? This is his room?”

“Oh my god!” They were all suddenly overwhelmed with lust, but too stunned to move.

Nicole’s amused voice drifted back to them. “Better be quick girls, the bus is leaving any minute.”

She heard them rush in. Smiling and not looking back, she strode into the lobby. The coach was outside watching for the bus, and the girls were huddled in small groups looking at cell phones. All conversation instantly ceased as she entered. Girls around the room hurriedly put away their phones. One wasn’t fast enough, and Nicole grabbed her wrist and twisted it, looking at the phone with its background picture of her and Jim. Everyone held their breath, watching her, some waiting with glee for her explosion. It didn’t come. Instead she smiled serenely and looked around at them all with her eyebrows raised very slightly. There wasn’t a hint of shame or embarrassment in her face. Just an odd look of contentment. Real, calm happiness. The girls stared at her. If it was an act, she was an stunningly good actress.

In the silence, Jen asked “Hey Nikki where are your roomies? The coach is gonna be pissed.”

In a cool, distinct voice she responded, “If I had to guess, I’d say they’re probably gang-raping Sneezy in room 109.” This produced a roar of laughter. About half of the girls marveled at how brilliantly Nicole had deflected any possible scorn by being the first to make a joke about Sneezy. Jen and her roommates smiled knowingly. The rest of the girls, those who had gone swimming last night, laughed to play along, but looked sharply at Nicole, trying to tell if there was any truth to this joke. Why mention the room number? Some of them knew it wasn’t Nicole’s room. A few started drifting back toward the hallway, but at that moment the bus pulled up and the coach came in to herd them outside.

In Jim’s dream, the machine seemed to be stuck. Like a broken record, it kept starting to pull him back a few inches out of the girl in front of him, but then with a squeak it reversed its motion and pushed him all the way back in. This was actually producing a rather nice, smooth, even sensuous fucking motion, totally unlike its previous efficient violence. The wall they were approaching on the conveyor belt was somehow far away, but getting closer steadily. He hoped the orgasm he could feel building up would hit him before he hit the wall. Anyway, it was nice to be able to finally take his time and savor this one girl. All of a sudden the dream didn’t seem half bad. But somehow he still couldn’t see her face, even when she turned her head. That was odd. He really wanted to see her face. Oh, his eyes were closed! He opened them and suddenly he was awake. Or was he? As in the dream, he was fucking a complete stranger. No, not exactly, he realized as his eyes met hers. It was one of the cute maids he met yesterday. The other one was standing at the foot of the bed watching them with both hands buried in her panties. The maid on top of him was letting out a high-pitched squeak with every thrust down onto him. What the hell did she think she was doing? But there was no time to ask. He was about to come, and from the increasing tone of her squeaks she was too. Then it hit them. They both gasped at exactly the same moment as they peaked and began coming. His first spurt was normal, but the ones after it didn’t release any semen, although he still spasmed several more times and experienced all the pleasure of a normal orgasm.

The maid on top of him was grinning ear to ear and babbling in Spanish as they came together. He didn’t understand a word, but the other maid immediately rushed over to them, also talking fast and with a very familiar look of need on her face. Oh shit. As the first maid began to lift off of him, he suddenly reached up and with all his might flung her off of him onto the other maid, then rolled off the other side of the bed, stood up, and made a break for the exit. Rounding the corner, he ran straight into Nicole’s three roommates as they rushed into the room. He was set spinning by a glancing collision with the first one and crashed into the other two. The three of them almost fell to the ground together, but instead managed to find support from a wall. Jim ended up with his back against the wall and a tall girl with long black hair pressed up against him, his erection nestled between her butt cheeks.

She turned her head, looked at his face, and gasped, saying “Oh god, it’s him!” She had her shorts down in no time and, reaching back between her legs, brought his still moist cock to her entrance. The other girl, a short brunette, cut off any possibility of protest by grabbing his head forcefully and kissing him. The black-haired girl rubbed his cock up and down in her slit a couple times and then shoved it an inch inside her with a grunt. Jim’s brain, still half asleep, was unable to comprehend the situation. Who were these girls? What were they doing here? He had passed out while being fucked by one girl, woken up with another riding him, and now just seconds after coming inside her a third was sliding him deliciously into her tight, wet channel while his mouth was assaulted by a fourth girl. The girl kissing him had also gotten her pants partway down her legs. She captured Jim’s right hand and pressed it against her sopping pussy as the black-haired girl finally finished her slow, steady impalement onto his cock and began thrusting his full length, picking up speed with each thrust. He broke the kiss and looked down at her body. God, this girl was hot! He wanted much more time to appreciate her. He wanted her from a different angle too, so that it was less like his nightmare. He wanted to see her face. He was getting addicted to that crazy expression of joy and fulfillment that his come seemed to bring to their faces, as if it was the best thing that ever happened to them. But incredibly, he could already feel another orgasm approaching not a minute after his last.

“Wait, slow down. I don’t want to come yet,” he pleaded.

She moaned and sped up, slamming him against the wall with each powerful thrust. “No time. Do it now! Oh god, put your baby in me!”

Jim’s body complied. Again it was that odd new kind of orgasm with only one actual spurt of come in the beginning, but then plenty of pleasurable but unproductive spasming afterwards. Again his partner began to come exactly when he did. They rode it out together for a few more thrusts before the other girls ripped them apart. The redhead on his left and the tiny brunette on his right were fighting over him, each trying to turn his body their way. The second maid, now naked except for her shoes and bra, slipped by them both and backed up onto his cock, pressing him back against the wall and producing whimpers of frustration from the other girls.

“No fair, we’re in a hurry! You can have him all day!” the brunette said as she tried to push the maid off of him. The redhead joined her. They got her most of the way off, but she stopped herself, bracing her hands on the opposite wall and pushing back hard. The maid slowly started to win the battle. Looking down, Jim was blown away by how sexy her straining, tensed up body was as she slowly pushed back onto him. Unbelievably, he felt the stirrings of another orgasm approaching as she reached the halfway point of her agonizingly slow, forceful stroke. Her ass cheeks were spread wide and tight with effort, allowing him to clearly see every detail of his rock-hard cock impaling her as his brain again tried and failed to explain this incomprehensible situation. The tiny brunette had stopped resisting and started stripping her shorts all the way off. Without her resistance, the maid was able to begin thrusting in earnest, bringing Jim quickly to yet another orgasm.

From down the hall, they heard a loud male voice call out “Bus is here! Let’s go girls, or we’re gonna be late!” The black-haired girl pulled up her shorts and hurried out of the room, grinning ear to ear.

As Jim and the maid began to come together, the brunette vaulted on top of the maid’s bent body, landing facing Jim and then leaning back on the maid’s back. Her weight caused the maid to stagger, dropping her body lower and forward as she babbled joyfully in spanish about his seed in her womb. His cock sprang free in mid orgasm and came level with the brunette’s wide-open pussy. Her hand caught him and guided him in. Still coming, he pushed through her hymen and then all the way into her tiny, tanned body, feeling his cock spurt once again deep inside this lust-crazed and now deflowered stranger. He got in a couple more deep thrusts in her wonderful, virginal, instantly orgasm-wracked little body before the maid fell to her knees below them, causing the brunette to topple to the right onto the floor, but not before grabbing at Jim and throwing him off balance. He tripped and stumbled forward and to the right, finally regaining his balance at the entrance to the bathroom.

The redhead jumped over the maid and lunged at him, pushing him back into the bathroom and then pulling him toward her as she sat back on the counter with her legs spread. His tip touched her slit and she pushed it down to nestle in her entrance, then grabbed his ass and pulled him into her all at once. With a will of their own, his hips started to thrust slowly and she put her hands back on the sink and arched her body in pleasure. He was almost instantly close to coming again! This was just incredible. He looked down at her body stretched out and wide open to him as he slid deep inside her. Her eyes were closed and her adorable little mouth was open, gasping with each thrust. She was gorgeous! She had the same sweet, gentle kind of beauty as every girl he had ever had a crush on. And her skin was fantastically smooth and creamy, almost glowing. It was as good to run his hands along the skin of her thighs or stomach as it was to slide his cock in and out of her.

He forced himself to pause deep inside her to avoid coming. He wanted much more time with this girl. She too was near the brink. She whimpered and tried to grind against him, but in this position he was in control. He slid his hands up around her hips onto her waist, pushing her shirt up to get a better look at her. Her waist had seemed narrow before, but it was hard to tell with her loose shirt hanging down in the way. Now as he raised it above her flat stomach he marveled at how much narrower it was than he had thought. He began to slowly thrust again as he slid the shirt above her breasts and unhooked her bra, taking an upturned breast in each hand and savoring the sight and sensations. He had to pause again. Again, she whimpered. “Come! I need you to come! Make me pregnant!”

“No, not yet. I want you from behind too. And take that shirt off.”

“I have to go! There’s no time!” she whined, but he was already backing out. She quickly stripped off her shirt as she stood up and turned around, spreading her legs wide apart and putting her hands on the counter. He took his time, running his hands over her wonderfully shaped and deliciously smooth ass, thighs, and waist. He bent down and got a good look at her sweet pink pussy, spreading her outer lips and watching his finger penetrate her little pink opening, then moving his finger back out to play briefly with her engorged and throbbing clitoris. Then he stood up and ran his cock along her slit a few times. Positioning himself at her entrance, he took another long look at her amazing body shape and heavenly skin. Then he made eye contact with her in the mirror and slowly slid deep inside her again. She gasped and tried to start thrusting fast against him, but with his hands on her narrow waist he was in control.

He kept the rhythm slow and sensual, thrusting the full length each time and savoring every bit. He brought himself to the edge of orgasm again and watched her face. She seemed to somehow be exactly as close to coming as he was at all times. He paused only briefly this time, then did a couple thrusts, then paused very briefly again, concentrating on keeping himself right at the edge. He could tell that she was right there too. Every little gasp or moan she gave was a perfect expression of how he was feeling. Incredible! He decided to keep this up for as long as he could and just see what happened. Each time he had to move less and pause a little longer. Each time he paused he held her waist tightly to keep her from pushing them over the edge with the slightest movement.

On the bus, the coach was fuming. “Where the hell is Erin? We’re gonna be late! Come on, doesn’t anyone know? Who roomed with her?”

Nicole spoke up from the back of the bus. “I did Coach. She’ll be here soon. She’s having a... female problem.”

That answer silenced him for a moment. He heard scattered giggles. “Ok then. I take it it’s not a problem that she can deal with in the bus’s bathroom?”

“Probably not a good idea, coach.”

Ignoring the renewed chorus of suppressed giggling, the coach asked “Well, what room is she in?”

“109.”

“Ok. Sarah,” he pointed to a girl in the front seat, “go to 109 and make sure Erin is moving as fast as she can.” With an odd look of glee in her eye, Sarah got up and ran off the bus. Three other girls had the same thought at once. 109! The same number as in Nicole’s supposed joke about gang-raping Sneezy. And that was definitely not the room Erin and Nicole had stayed in. Their room had been on the even side. Maybe Nicole wasn’t joking!

“I’ll go too,” said Heather, who was sitting in the second row, ahead of where the coach was standing. Before he could even turn around she was out the door, right behind Sarah.

“Me too!” said Lisa

“And me!” said Zoe.

These two were in the middle of the bus, and had to get past the coach. “Isn’t two enough?” he asked.

“Trust us coach,” said Zoe, “we’d better go too, just in case.”

The coach sighed and stepped aside to let Lisa and Zoe run after Heather and Sarah. What was going on? Those four had the strangest looks on their faces...

Sarah and Heather found the door to room 109 propped open. They could hear moaning coming from inside. They walked in, saw Jim and Erin, and stopped in their tracks, their mouths gaping and their pussies instantly getting wet. A few seconds later, Lisa and Zoe burst in.

“Holy crap!” said Lisa.

Jim turned his head and saw them. “Shit!” he said. More sex-maniac girls!

Erin raised her head up and looked at them. She was a wreck. Her face was flushed, her whole body was shaking, and her eyes were bugging out. “Oh thank god you’re here! He came right away in all the others, but with me he keeps pausing so he won’t! It’s torture!”

“Bastard!” The girls moved as one. They quickly freed his arms from Erin’s waist and began pushing him hard in and out of her. In seconds they were both past the point of no return, but their orgasm wouldn’t seem to release. Instead the pleasure built and built to an unbelievable peak before finally crashing down on them in a shattering shared orgasm that went on and on as the other girls continued to thrust him in and out of her. Again Jim only released one spurt, perfectly timed for her spasms to pump his seed into the right place in her womb, where the four eggs the virus had caused to be released were waiting. Erin’s shaking body collapsed to the floor, unconscious but smiling. Jim started to sag, but they got him seated on the toilet before he could pass out.

His world spun with aftershocks of pleasure and his vision narrowed. He could barely see. He didn’t notice Lisa pulling her shorts down, but he sure as hell noticed when the beautiful black girl impaled her shapely body all the way onto his cock in one delicious stroke. She raised herself up again slowly and sensually as his brain again tried and failed to make sense of the situation. He stared down at the gorgeously rounded and tightly toned brown ass of this complete stranger that his cock was again sliding deep inside of. His hands found her narrow waist, delighting in the rich, smooth feel of her skin as she moaned and began thrusting harder while repeatedly begging him to give her a baby. His overwhelmed brain gave up trying to understand as his body unbelievably approached yet another orgasm. She slowed down again as they got close, rocking sensually and arching her body to maximize the sensation of each delicious slow stroke. Then they both gasped together as they peaked. She pressed him as deep as she could inside her and he once again released just one little spurt which was efficiently pumped into yet another complete stranger’s fertile and willing womb by the spasms of her simultaneous orgasm.

As soon as she felt his spurt, Lisa jumped up with a cry of joy and let Zoe jump on. He was still coming, and as soon as the tall brunette got him all the way inside her she was too. He was too far gone with pleasure to notice her hymen pop. She drove her tight virginal pussy down onto him several more times while babbling with happiness about his baby in her womb and riding out the rest of their shared orgasm before letting Heather pull her off. Lisa and Zoe started trying to get Erin dressed.

Heather had had time to get her left leg all the way out, so she was able to mount facing him with her shorts and panties bunched around her right foot. She looked eagerly into his lust-clouded eyes as she impaled her tight pussy slowly down onto his cock. Then she started chanting “knock me up, knock me up” in an urgent whisper with each deep, slow thrust. His narrowed, swimming vision showed only this blond stranger’s adorable, sweet, freckled face begging for his baby as she shoved her little pussy onto his hard cock over and over again. Wow, that face was beautiful! Soon he felt his orgasm building and saw the same feeling simultaneously in her widening eyes. He watched in fascination as her expression of intense orgasmic pleasure turned ten times happier when she felt his seed spurt deep inside her. It was such a pure, beautiful moment. She was crying with joy and he found that he was too. His brain was too far gone to tinge the moment with guilt, fear, or worry. Those feelings would have required some shred of comprehension of the situation beyond the very basic primal level he was reduced to. All he knew—literally the only fact in his world at the moment—was that this moment was a miracle. A delicious, beautiful, perfect instant in which their shared joy in creating a new life bound Jim tightly together with this complete stranger. And her baby—his baby!—would be so adorable! That angelic face! Those sparkling, soulful, sweet eyes! That creamy, freckled skin! He held her tightly for the rest of their slow, drawn-out, perfectly synchronized orgasm, preventing the next girl from breaking the spell by lifting this precious thing off of him too soon while fighting with all his might to keep his re-narrowing vision from completely blacking out so that he could sustain the incredibly intimate eye contact with the sweet little angel he was impregnating.

When he relaxed and Heather finally stood up, she gushed to Sarah about what she had just experienced. “It’s like his orgasm is linked to yours! Whatever you feel, he feels! It’s so beautiful! Oh my god, he came in me! I’m so happy! I’ve got his baby, I just know it! Thank you! Thank you Sneezy!”

Sarah didn’t waste any time. She sat back and impaled her tanned, athletic body right to the hilt on his cock. After slam-fucking him for a minute to get him close, Sarah indeed felt his cock stiffen even more just as her own orgasm approached. She paused on the edge, and he moaned. “How do you like that, Sneezy? A taste of your own medicine!” She pulled off of him again and slowly pushed back down, again stopping before she could come. Jim let out a high pitched whine. She did it again, this time taking them even closer to the brink and holding very still, pushing hard down onto him to leave him no room to move. The other girls were still not done getting Erin’s unconscious body dressed. She had a little more time. She felt a bit of the edge come off of the exquisite pleasure, and renewed it by moving slightly up and then back down, bringing them both back to hover at an excruciatingly intense peak. Jim let out an odd gurgling sound as she pressed down and held him there. After another minute of this torture, the others were starting to carry Erin out of the room. Sarah put her hands on his hips to hold him down and ever so slowly raised herself until he was just barely inside her. This stimulation again restored them both to the brink. She gradually pushed them past the point of no return by slowly, teasingly rocking him that wonderful first half-inch in and out a few times. Then she paused just for a moment as their pleasure reached an even higher peak before slamming onto him as hard and fast as she could. They both went off like rockets. Jim’s vision now fully blacked out and his head swam as wave after enormous wave of pleasure roared through him. All other sensory input seemed to shut down—all that was left of the world was the incredible sensation of Sarah’s pussy clenched around his cock, moving up and down and spasming in time with him over and over as they came. Then she took that away from him too, and his world went dark. Once again, Jim had been fucked senseless.

Sarah was able to ride it out without losing consciousness, but only just barely. Gasping for breath, she stumbled to her feet and pulled up her shorts as Jim collapsed against the wall. Her legs were shaking as she brushed wordlessly past two half-naked hotel maids who were standing just outside the bathroom staring, and tried to catch up with the other girls as they carried Erin down the hall. The two maids picked Jim’s unconscious body up, tucked him into bed, and left the room.

As the four grinning girls carried Erin toward the bus, the coach came out the door and asked if she was ok.

“She’s fine. She just fainted. Couldn’t stand the sight of blood. It happens.” They carried her onto the bus, all of them absolutely reeking of sex, overflowing with happiness, and pregnant with quadruplets.

* * *

Back in Jim’s body, the virus was again busy. The changes to conserve Jim’s replication fluid had worked perfectly, but there seemed to be another problem. It obviously wasn’t lack of fluid or any other physical condition that made him pass out. It was too much pleasure. This was just simply bad wiring, and obviously needed to be corrected. It was bad design for Jim’s brain to shut down like it had been short-circuited when it received too much of the reward-chemicals. Maybe this was why he wasn’t properly motivated to replicate. The virus quickly fixed the problem, greatly strengthening and insulating the pleasure centers of his brain. Now Jim could handle any amount of pleasure. He could still pass out if his body was legitimately exhausted of energy or certain nutrients, but at least it wouldn’t happen without a good reason as it had just now and last night.

The virus also corrected some things about the process of Jim’s orgasms that had been making them physically tiring to his body. Many of his muscles had been tensing up for no reason, unnecessarily wasting energy and limiting the number of times he could do it. And it made the skin of his penis much more resistant to chafing or irritation, without decreasing its sensitivity. The virus was confident that next time, Jim would be ready for much, much more. Certainly hundreds, and perhaps as many as a thousand per day, given the right nutrients. Still not fast replication by viral standards, of course, but it was a big step forward.