The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Heels off, everyone.” Donna spun the wheel, and her car fishtailed around a curve in the rough road.

Weightless for a split second as the car hit a bump and bounced sideways, the three Lannits in back jostled together. When they returned to solid ground, the spinning tires caught. The ride turned back into something less than a trip aboard Sputnik, and the women reached down and removed their shoes.

“Done.” Susy said.

“Anyone back there a strong runner?” Donna glanced in her rearview, Roy was having a hard time with the poor road and the distance between them grew. The jeep seemed to be right on his tail.

“I ran track in high school.” Sally looked down at her bust straining the fabric of her dress. Her boobs jiggled every time they hid a pothole. “Well, I was. My body has developed since.”

“Adeline?” Donna eyed the great big box of a building housing the pumping station behind the trees. It grew steadily as they drew nearer.

“No,” Adeline squeaked. She had never had a body for running.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen.” Donna wiped her forehead and quickly returned her hand to the wheel. Uh oh, her fingers were moist. She tried to think cool thoughts. She couldn’t have Patrick lose his focus now. “I’m going to pull up in front of that building. Patrick and I are going to get out, grab some tools from the trunk, and make a run for it. Hopefully, before the people behind us can see what’s happening, we’ll be out of sight.” She checked the mirror again. The other cars had disappeared behind a curve. That was a good thing. They needed distance. “Then, Susy, you’ll take the wheel and the three of you will turn around and drive right past our pursuers.”

“Right past them?” Susy didn’t sound sure.

“You’ll be fine. Just use whatever space is available in the parking lot to go wide. You’ll be by them before they know it.” Donna set her narrow chin in determination. Of course, she had no idea if any of the plan would work. But best to keep that to herself. “Then, you’ll drive back to town. Hopefully, Roy and the jeep will follow. When you’re in town, try to let Sally out so she can run to the hotel for help. My husband Mark will be there, and so will the military.” She gave them the room numbers.

“What about the police?” Adeline trembled listening to the plan.

“Forget the police.” Donna could just make out the open space of a parking lot as they neared the pump.

“And while Sally’s getting help?” Susy wondered at how odd it was that she was taking orders from this woman now. She had to admit, Patrick had found himself a smart girlfriend.

“You and Adeline drive away from town. Try and get the other cars to follow you.” Donna swerved the car into the small dirt parking lot. Her hand moved to the parking brake. “Okay, everyone, hold on. Here we go.”

“Yeehaw!” Roy bounced the car over another depression in the road. The whole thing shook around him. Months ago, he would have been sure his mother would kill him for the way he was treating her car. Now? What was she going to do about it? “You having fun, Davey?”

“David Riles!” David stared out the windshield with that goofy grin on this face.

“Yeah, buddy, I can’t see them either.” Roy squinted ahead. He’d been having so much fun backroad driving, he hadn’t really noticed how far behind they’d fallen. He floored the pedal, but it just caused some spinouts. Well, it’s not like his mom’s car had any muscle. He looked behind and saw the women trailing them in their jeep not five feet back. “What do you think the broads behind us want?”

David looked over his shoulder through the rear window. “Danger.” He stared with some intensity at the blonde driving the jeep.

“You scared, Davey?” Roy chuckled. “They’re women. We can handle them.” Roy could smell his body odor in the car. “I’ve got my trusty magic sweat going full throttle. I …” They rounded a bend in the road and Roy gripped the wheel tighter. They had entered a small parking lot next to that large, cube of a building. To his left, Patrick’s girlfriend’s car sped in the other direction, trying to sneak past them. “Son of a bitch.” Roy stared, but couldn’t see Patrick inside with the glare of the car’s windows.

The jeep behind them swerved to its left. Roy stuck his head out of the window and watched as Patrick’s car and the jeep raced toward one another. There was a sickening crunch of steel and glass.

“Patrick!” David suddenly found himself sitting in a strange car in the middle of the woods, watching a jeep and another car perform an awkward collision two-step. He had a feeling that something had gone terribly wrong, but couldn’t quite place what it was. And then a thick fog of confusion swept over his mind.

“Well, shit.” Roy stopped the car and got out, some twenty feet from the crash site. Steam wove into the air from the crumpled hood of the jeep. The damage on Patrick’s car was mainly to the front driver’s side. A brown-haired woman jumped out of the passenger side of the jeep and ran headlong toward the lake. She moved oddly, like her legs would turn to Jell-O if she didn’t reach the water in time. She was completely silent. “Patrick? You okay?” Roy took a few cautious steps toward the wreck, leaving David in the idling car behind him.

“We’re all pretty far from okay.” The creature Smith, still posing as Abby, stepped out of the jeep. Its right arm seemed to wiggle and retract as it stood upright, army issue heels digging into the dirt of the parking lot. “Why are you here? You all looking to visit Mother?” Abby turned her cold eyes on Roy.

Suddenly, Roy wasn’t so sure his sweat would conquer this woman. She seemed … very strange. “My friend is in that car.” Roy took a step back.

“Your friend?” Abby’s voice carried a faint mocking sneer. “Well, let’s fetch him. I’ll send you all to mother, and let her sort this out.” Abby walked with great deliberation toward the crashed car in front of her.

“All?” Roy didn’t like the sound of that. He took another step back toward his mom’s car.

“Mom? Mom, wake up.” Adeline shook her mother, who groaned. The front windshield was cracked, and the driver’s side window lay in small pieces all over Susy’s lap. “Mom!” Adeline looked out the cracked windshield at a blond woman in a khaki uniform walking toward them. The woman should have been pretty, but something in the set of her face was wrong. And the way she walked, with her pelvis forward, seemed quite out of place. Adeline didn’t want to be in that spot when the woman arrived.

“Addy?” Susy hurt all over. She blinked her eyes, but couldn’t quite focus. She felt her daughter’s hands on her, tugging at her breasts and shoulders. “Not … you too.” Susy thought Adeline was trying to take advantage of her mother, but then realized she was being moved out of the driver’s seat. “Let me just rest, for a second.”

“No time, Mom.” Adeline struggled pulling her mother out of the way. She seemed to be even thicker than Adeline remembered. Once she’d dragged Susy far enough, Adeline climbed over her. Crossing Susy’s breasts was like traversing a mountain range. Her mother moaned beneath her, but Abigail focused on getting behind the wheel as quickly as possible. The blond woman was only fifteen feet away now. She turned the key and the engine rolled over, but didn’t roar to life. The woman drew closer. “Come on, come on.” Getting killed by a crazed military woman seemed a fitting end to this trip home. She wished she was still safely back in her dorm at school. She turned the key in the ignition and the car didn’t start again. “Please.” She turned the key one more time.

The engine turned over in the wrecked car, but didn’t start. “Maybe we better get going.” Roy sank his bulk back into the driver’s seat and watched the woman approach Patrick’s car. Whatever she had planned, it wasn’t good. His mouth dropped when the woman got within five feet of the car and her right arm inexplicably lengthened like melting taffy. The woman’s hand now dragged in the dirt. But, now that Roy looked, he couldn’t really call it a hand anymore. His stupid friend sat silently in the passenger seat as Roy watched in horror. The wrecked car’s engine finally ignited, its wheels kicked up dust and rocks, and it spun a little half circle away from the pursuing blond woman.

“Not Patrick.” David offered the most obvious truth. He could see into the car and there were three Lannits, but Patrick not among them. Adeline drove, with her eyes wide, and her lips compressed together. Susy leaned against the passenger window. And Sally slumped sideways as the car’s momentum threw her unconscious body across the backseat.

“No … I don’t see him either.” Roy craned his neck to look back at the building. He just caught a glimpse of a blue dress disappearing through the steel door. He looked back in front and saw the damaged car tear out of the parking lot. The blond woman gave chase, but slowed to a standstill in a cloud of dust as the car darted back the way it’d come. “It’s not like he’d come all the way out here to end the sweat thing …” Roy turned it over in his head, deciding whether to follow the car. “… and then just go back home.”

Abby turned toward the young men still in the parking lot. It pulled its khaki jacket partway off, but couldn’t get it past the elongated right arm that dragged in the dirt again. So, it tore the jacket off. The thick fabric ripped like it was nothing. It then shredded its shirt, bra, and skirt. It walked toward the boys in only its tights, hoping the body it had stolen would be enough to distract them.

“Holy shit. I have the strangest boner.” Roy stared out the windshield. The woman was incredibly pale and vulnerable looking, with small breasts that rested high on her chest. But her movements were off. It was like looking at an elaborate windup doll set loose upon them. And that arm seemed to have nearly liquified. Roy shivered.

“Go.” David hit the dashboard, and the thump resounded around the car. “Go, go, go.” He hit it harder, and the molding cracked.

“Yeah, let’s take door number two.” Roy put the car in first and jammed the pedal. He aimed right at the abomination. They closed the distance fast and the woman hit the hood, rolled up, cracked the windshield, and then tumbled over and off the backside of the car. Roy turned the car toward the building and drove as fast as he could. He had to tilt his head to look around a green smudge on the windshield. The woman lay motionless in the parking lot behind them. A smile crept over his face when he realized he’d finished her off. “Let’s stop Patrick.” Roy pulled up next to the large steel door. He could see its lock had been forced, and it stood ajar a few inches. He got out of the car.

“Patrick,” David agreed and got out of the car too.

The water’s edge ran right up to the side of the building, just beyond the parking lot. Roy looked out over the lake and saw what looked like large bubbles rise to the surface. The iridescent balls seemed to grow larger as they headed their way. Roy didn’t like the look of them. “Let’s get inside.” Whatever they were, he hoped they’d be gone when he returned to his car.

Together, the friends entered the pumping station.

Sweat trickled down Donna’s neck as they moved past a labyrinth of pipes. The whole place hummed with the raw power of a beating heart. She looked over at her boyfriend, who was carrying the duffle and saw the sweat on his forehead. But she didn’t need to see it. Not really. It was already having its effect on her. Their mission shrunk in her mind, pushed by visions of Patrick’s hard, lithe teenage body.

Quite curious that the members of the dominant species were piling into the pumping station. Axcix knew the building well. She had relied on it to reliably distribute her changes to the population. She had even augmented here and there where needed. Confident but cautious was her mood. She ordered her sentinels to take up positions in the water around the area.

Oh, and her faithful Smith was on its way to explore the inner workings of the place. That was … acceptable. It knew to be careful in that place. All of Axcix’s focus fell to the building. All her other concurrent projects forgotten for the moment. What would these wayward humans do? Everything about the day’s events was quite stimulating.

“Help me lock the door.” Roy didn’t want that creepy naked lady following them into the building. He huffed and puffed, his great belly heaving as he scanned the steel door. The lock was busted on the inside, too. “Shit.”

“Shit,” David echoed.

“Don’t just stand there like an idiot, look for something to bar the door with.” Roy rushed to the side, looking between two tall metal boxes. He looked back at his friend who stood there like an idiot still. Then, Roy had an idea. The boxes weren’t bolted to the floor.

The door rattled to Roy’s right as if someone was testing it. Roy’s pulse quickened. He reached up and pulled at the box. It was really heavy. “Help … me …” He couldn’t budge the thing. The door shook again.

“Yes.” David walked over, put his hands on the edge of the box, and with a great effort pulled it down on the floor right in front of the door. The boom of the falling thing joined the constant thrum inside the place. The door banged against the box, but couldn’t move more than an inch now.

“Good.” Roy sighed. They’d have to figure out a way to get out of the place later. After he’d stopped Patrick and stolen his girlfriend. Cautiously, they wove through the maze of pipes, looking around every turn to see what had become of Patrick. “They’re probably setting up traps or something. I saw this sort of thing on Buck Rodgers once. Keep a sharp eye out, Tonto.”

“Kemosabe.” David followed his friend into the hot, steaming room.

She couldn’t help herself. She knew it was crazy. Who knew what was after them? And they only had a little time to kill the thing in the lake. But still. Donna stuck her tongue into Patrick’s mouth while she tore at his trousers. She pulled him a little farther into a corner, hiding them down a dead-end alley behind a large, rotating piston. There it was, her hand grasped his raging member, and she shuddered with anticipation.

Patrick pushed at her heavy breasts, breaking their kiss. “Wait … it’s the sweat.” He watched her sink to her knees. “We have to … aaaaahhhhhhh … Donna … I can’t think … straight.” He wove his fingers through her red hair and leaned his head back against a cold masonry wall as she greedily sucked on his cock.

“Mmppppphhhhhhh.” Why couldn’t she just wait until after they’d saved the world? Donna’s loss of control had never been more evident. And she’d never cared less. She worked her neck muscles hard as she bobbed on him, turned her face with every thrust. A cloud of pleasure surged through her as she thought about how vital this young man was. And how she was about to drain him. Empty that vitality right down her throat. No, that was wrong. She needed it in her womb.

“Donna?” Patrick watched her rise with hunger in her eyes. Her soft, freckled face looked anything but innocent at the moment. He let her seize his dick with her left hand and lead him farther into the shadows. “We … have to …”

“It’s okay … as long as you’re quick.” Donna turned to the wall, lifted her dress, and pulled her panties to the side. She stuck her ass back at him in the most undignified way. “Put it in … please.” Her lip trembled as she stared at the gray wall. Then lightning shot through her. He was inside and all was right with the world. His hands took up their familiar positions on her hips and she let him take charge. She so very much liked when the teenager did with her as he pleased.

The slaps of their bodies together joined the rhythmic sounds of the machinery all around them. Both were now completely lost. Lost in the labyrinth of the place, and in their own impulses.

“You feel … extra … tight.” Patrick wondered if their mission had somehow primed her pussy for him. Or could it be the excitement of the moment.

“Oooohhhhhh … gosh, Pat. I miss it … so much … when it’s not … in meeeeeeeeeeeee.” Her face went slack, and her fingers pressed harder into the wall. They were in such peril, but all that mattered was the purity of the orgasm that ran the course of her brain.

A faint sound played at the periphery of Roy’s perception. It danced around the rush of water through pipes and the thump of the giant pump. It had a slightly different rhythm than the louder machinery, and seemed to be accompanied by a high-pitched wail, like steam escaping from a valve. “Do you hear that?” Roy wondered if that disfigured woman had somehow gotten in the front door. Was she somehow making the discordant sounds? He didn’t think that possible, but he shuddered all the same.

“Danger,” David said as he ducked under a pipe. “Danger, Roy Ackerman.”

“Very funny, meathead.” Roy turned his ear toward those strange sounds. “Shh.” Roy stopped and held up his hand. “I think It’s coming from over there.” Roy turned to his right and crept down a narrow service alley.

“Shh,” David echoed.

The eighteen-year-old teenagers moved to a junction, turned left, and ground to a halt. They both stared at the unexpected sight that greeted them.

“Damn, Pat. I didn’t think you had it in you. You’re really giving it to that poindexter broad.” Roy admired the way her ample body shook as she adsorbed Patrick’s thrusts from behind, her hands and forehead pressed against the wall. Patrick seemed better at screwing than Roy would have thought. He just hoped Pat hadn’t let it out yet. Roy didn’t want her too sloppy on his turn.

“Stop … Pat … stop …” Donna couldn’t see well past her fogged glasses. She turned her head and there were two shapes standing about fifteen feet away. One was tall and slouching, the other fat and erect with purpose. It was excruciating willing her ass not to push back at her boyfriend’s massive pole. But this was too much, they were in danger. She told her body to stop. But, to her surprise, her brain ignored her. She kept meeting each thrust.

“Roy?” Patrick looked on in a daze. He had forgotten what they were doing at the pumping station. His purpose started to come back. Still slamming into Donna’s pussy with heavy strokes, he lifted his right hand off her hip and wiped the condensing steam from his glasses. “Dave?” It was seeing his gentle, tall friend with a leering grin that broke the spell. Everything was wrong. So wrong. And he needed to put it all back right again. Patrick pulled out of Donna, his balls pulsing in frustration. He pulled up his pants, tucking his dick under his belt to keep it secure and out of the way. He breathed hard, sucking in the muggy air. He had to think. He had to think. How were they going to complete their mission?

“So, you came here to ruin this for everyone, but wanted one last screw before you broke the new Portsmith?” Roy took a step toward them. He watched as Donna frantically pulled down her skirt and tried to pretend they hadn’t been caught like newlyweds on their honeymoon. “I’m going to fuck the fight right out of you, investigator lady. And then I’m going to give you to my ape of a friend to play with. I’ve seen him break women. And I’m going to make your loverboy watch. How does that sound?”

“I … I …” Donna’s blood ran cold, but she could feel her vagina opening at the thought of being taken by these savage youths. The sweat was both beguiling and terrible. She had to get Patrick away from there. She looked around wildly. Stupidly, they had hidden themselves in a dead end. The only way out was past Roy and David.

“Dave … Dave … you don’t want … to do this,” Patrick panted.

“David Riles.” David stepped closer to Roy, as if to show his allegiance.

“Donna, what do we do?” Patrick reached for her left hand and held it in his right as they watched the boys advance on them.

“I don’t know, Pat.” Donna could now smell the odor drifting off the perspiring predators as they closed in. Her will to resist, frail as it was, was fading.

“We’re friends, Dave. Remember? Roy?” Patrick squeezed Donna’s hand tighter. There was a whir of movement just past the pitching pistons. The doppelganger lady Patrick had seen at the hotel rushed into Roy and David’s backs. She moved with quickness and frightening liquidity. She was pale and naked, her small breasts lurched to the side as she closed in. Her beauty was undeniable, but it was all … wrong. Her arms trailed behind her, much too long and languid to be human.

“What the—” Roy felt something slither around his waist and lift him off his feet. A split second later, his body crashed into the masonry wall. A dull red throb fell over his vision. He was spun in the air and saw to his horror that the blond woman had somehow followed them in. And she now had both David and Roy dangling from snakelike, rubbery arms.

“Do not disturb Mother.” The Creature Smith, still wearing its Abby veil swung the intruders against the wall again. Its legs elongated, and moved along the floor.

“Let’s go, now.” Donna pulled Patrick. She could see that it meant to seize them with whatever its legs were becoming.

“Right.” Patrick bent down and hefted Donna’s duffle. He reached inside as he followed Donna around the melee. He couldn’t leave David to fight that thing with nothing, even if his friend’s brain had gone wonky. He pulled out Donna’s pocketknife. “Here, Dave, take it.” He tossed the folded blade up into the air toward David and watched his friend pick it out of the air like a forward pass.

“David Riles.” There was fear in those three syllables.

Patrick spared one glance back as he and Donna turned the corner of that narrow service alley. It looked for all the world like his friends were fighting a hydra. He desperately wanted to help, but knew that protecting Donna and ending the thing in the lake had to take priority. Not twenty seconds later, the sounds of the struggle behind them were subsumed by the noises of the machines. They found themselves in a wider area, with a great metal pipe running parallel to their path. Patrick pulled Donna to a halt. “We need to stop.”

“No, we need to go.” Donna’s voice cracked with the horror and urgency of the moment. She pulled, but couldn’t budge her skinny boyfriend.

“If we go, we’re just going to end up doing it again. I’m drenched in sweat and so are you.” Patrick let go of her hand and dropped the duffle. He rummaged through it until he found the small hatchet they’d used to force the lock on the door. He reached out and touched the pipe. He could feel the rushing water inside. It was cool under his fingers. Good. He raised the hatchet and brought it down on the pipe with a terrible clang. The metal dented under the blade.

“What are you doing?” Donna wondered if the day’s events had turned him insane.

“Sweat … Donna … sweat … is … the … enemy.” Each word was punctuated with a clang of hatchet on pipe. Finally, the metal gave way and a spray of cool water shot into the air above them.

“Oh.” Donna could feel the flames rising between her legs as she breathed in his scent, and she understood him. They’d never make it all the way to their goal all hot and sticky. She watched him wield the hatchet and open the pipe wider still. Now a great gush of water shot out at them. They both stepped into the high-pressure cascade and let the chill of it wash over them.

When he was thoroughly soaked, Patrick put the hatchet back in the bag and slung the duffel over his shoulder. He followed Donna away from their makeshift waterfall. He could see the outlines of her feminine form clearly through her saturated dress. While he admired her curves greatly, to his relief, he found he could now compartmentalize his carnal urges. “So, now we find the electrical.”

“Right.” Donna nodded. “I think it might come in over there.” She looked over her shoulder. They had turned themselves around in that maze of a building, but she thought they were headed away from the blond horrors that had befallen Patrick’s friends. She didn’t think the creature would kill them. Probably just assert its control through some sort of mind alteration. With any luck, all that would be reversed once they killed the beast’s mother in the lake. “Come on.” She trotted along, her bare feet squelching on the metal floor below. Sure enough, the power lines were just ahead.

Colonel Rex Hastings looked over his sorry all-woman force. This was no way to greet the Russians. The man that had previously held his job had agreed, and had been redeployed after making his feelings known to the brass hats in Washington. Rex wasn’t going to make that mistake. But it didn’t mean he had to like it. With a stiff, mechanical gait, he walked out of one hotel room that had been turned into a temporary office, crossed the hall, and entered another. “Heard from Lieutenant Kerns?” He scowled at the pretty young woman manning the radio. They weren’t going to win a war with pretty young things.

“There’s too much static.” Lieutenant Hoffman looked up at him and adjusted her little hat so that it sat perfectly on her bun. “Last we heard was thirty-two minutes ago. All three jeeps were still in pursuit.”

Outside, the sound of screeching tires cut across the quiet afternoon, followed by the obvious crash of a wreck. Rex strode to the window and looked down. A civilian automobile had smashed into one of their transport trucks. Steam billowed out from under its hood. Rex noted the damage to the driver’s side door that didn’t seem to correspond to its present circumstance. Time for caution. “Service pistol, Lieutenant.” He held out his hand, still looking down. He felt the cool handle slide into his hand. Down below, a woman stumbled out of the driver’s side door of the automobile and moved around to the passenger side. He could see blood on her face. Another woman emerged from the vehicle’s rear door. “Arm yourselves and help those civilians.”

A rustle of pressed khaki skirts filled the room as the officers did as they were told. Rifles were picked up off the long table in an orderly, practiced fashion. Maybe these women would do after all. Rex followed them down to the parking lot.

“I’ll go get Mr. Farmer.” Sally called to her sister, as she tried to steady herself and remember the room number Donna had given them. “Tell the army people what happened.” She saw her sister’s bloody face nod as Adeline helped their mother from the car, and Sally raced off toward the hotel. Two minutes later, she huffed and puffed, face to face with Mr. Farmer. The man looked kindly at her as he held the door, trying to process what Sally had just told him.

“Let me get this straight. You are the big sister of our junior investigator? Donna has taken him to a nearby lake?” He rubbed his chin. “Of course. This lake wouldn’t happen to be the source of this town’s drinking water?”

Sally nodded.

“I don’t know why she didn’t tell me she was making her move on the thing. Well, what are we waiting for?” Mark went to the closet to grab his tool bag and saw that it was already gone. He shrugged, straightened his bowtie, threw on his coat, and raced out of the hotel room.

When Sally and Mark got to the parking lot, they found an exasperated Adeline trying to explain to the man in charge what was happening.

Rex interrupted the young woman. “We’re not interested in meteors, ma’am. Only Soviet spies. Did you see any Russians reconnoitering at the bottom of your lake?” He turned to his aide. “Call an ambulance for these women, the accident seems to have juggled their minds some.”

“Wait.” A wave of nausea hit Sally. She felt Mark’s steadying hand on her shoulder. “Your men.” She looked around at all the female faces in uniform. “I mean your women. Two of your jeeps crashed. We saw them on our way back. You need to get out there.”

“Lieutenant Hoffman, did you hear anything about crashing jeeps on the radio?” Rex didn’t like the way this was shaping up. They’d already lost several soldiers in odd accidents over the past several days.

“No … but I haven’t heard anything from any of the jeeps in some time.”

“Well, then. Get these women their ambulance. And let’s put together a rescue party,” Rex barked his orders. “We might as well check out that lake while we’re out there. Weapons ready, we’re not sure what the Reds have—”

“Colonel?” Mark hated to interrupt a man on a roll, but it seemed time to do so. He pointed out to the sidewalk, where a line of Portsmith women stood barring the entrance to their parking lot. All the women had queer expressions and faces turned slightly down, like wolves on the hunt. Even from this distance, Mark could see the sweat glisten on their foreheads as it caught the afternoon sun. “Oh, no,” he whispered under his breath.

“Excuse me.” Rex shouted out to them. “It was only a minor vehicular collision, please disperse. We are taking care of the situation.” He watched the woman take one step in unison toward their position at the hotel. It was well choreographed. Rex scrunched up his face, completely nonplussed. The onlookers took two more steps, perfectly timed again. And something was happening to them. Was he having a stroke, or were the women getting longer? Indeed, it seemed their arms melted in the sun. It was a most unnatural sight. “Russians,” Rex said out of the side of his mouth. “Weapons up,” he shouted. “Pick out your mirror. Don’t let them advance beyond the …” His orders abruptly stopped.

Adeline brought Susy over to her sister. “What’s happening?” Their mother’s head lolled a bit as she walked with Adeline’s arm around her shoulder.

“I don’t know.” Sally helped her sister with their mother and looked out as the women advanced on them. She didn’t recognize any of them. The three Lannits retreated toward the hotel. “Mr. Farmer? Maybe we should go the other way.” But he didn’t respond. In fact, the whole place was silent but for the heels of the women approaching. The soldiers looked over at their quiet colonel, their rifles raised, unsure what to do. “Mr. Farmer?” Sally couldn’t understand why he wasn’t moving. She turned to her sister. “Adeline?”

“Yeah.” Adeline’s voice was a nervous squeak.

“Take Mom out the back of the hotel. Walk toward home. Mr. Farmer and I will catch up in a minute.” Sally tried to control her breathing.

“But …”

“Go,” Sally hissed. The advancing women were now only fifteen feet away, and with each step they seemed to become less human. Sally heard her sister retreat with Susy, their footfalls echoing through the hotel’s open door and on down the hall. “Mr. Farmer?” Sally walked quickly back to where he stood stock still. His face had gone impassive and his was mumbling something about a lady. It was the same thing that had been happening to her father. She put an arm around him and backed him toward the hotel.

“Colonel?” One of the soldiers called out, her voice cutting through the eerie stillness.

The colonel did not respond. A second later, a shot rang out. And then another and another.

Sally watched horrified as the advancing women began to fall, green liquid spraying from their bodies. But there were many of them, and the ones that didn’t fall broke into a run. Sally backed into the hotel entrance, the door still standing wide open. She wanted to cover her ears. The whole parking lot seemed to ring like a giant bell. The first of the distorted women reached a soldier and lifted her into the air. Sally could barely hear the woman cry out over the ringing. A long, rubbery appendage slithered from the soldier’s attacker and snaked its way under the soldier’s skirt. Sally could see the soldier’s pretty face twist from terror to something else. Sally recognized that look. It was ecstasy. The gunfire died out, and soon the soldiers were all grappling with their attackers, losing the battle to keep those hideous things from between their legs.

“We really have to go, Mr. Farmer.” Eyes wide and trembling, Sally shut the door, pushed a chair in front of it, and pulled Mark down the hall. Even through the closed door she could hear the cacophony of noise that followed her. She knew exactly what she was hearing. A mad chorus of orgasms. She hurried to catch up with her sister and mother.

Roy wiped the green slime out his eyes and looked down at the blond abomination laying at his feet. David had jammed the knife into the side of her neck and a verdant flood gushed out of her. Thankfully, her eyes had gone glassy. Whatever that thing was, David had killed it.

“That clown, Patrick, left us to die.” Roy balled his fists.

“David Riles.” David bent down and pulled the knife from the creature. He wiped the green onto the front of his cardigan, which was already a mess where that thing had leaked all over him.

“Okay, let’s go get that little shit.” Roy stalked down the alley following the way Patrick had gone.

David trotted beside him, loosely holding the knife. “Little shit,” he agreed.

They came to a broken pipe spraying water. They both washed off the green slime.

Soaked, angry, and lost, Roy stepped out of the water and looked around him. Which way? He didn’t know how anything in that ghastly building worked, so he couldn’t figure out where Patrick might be headed. He knew David would be no help. He picked a direction and marched off to stop his idiot of a former friend and put him in his place. He listened closely to the thrum of the machinery around him, trying to pick up the sounds of saboteurs. With any luck, he’d find them soon.