Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2019 23:31:38 -0500
From: Bruce Turner <cbru49@gmail.com>
Subject: Left: Fourteen New Lessons

						Left
				  Fourteen New Lessons

I'm glad you're still with me as my characters begin a life some fear and
others have prepared for, for years.  I hope you are of a legal age in a
locale that allows you to read about men having sex with each other.  I
know there are some scenes that not everyone will appreciate, skip over a
scene if it is upsetting you, there is little chance it is a major plot
point and if it is it will be referenced again.  Remember this story is set
in the future after the STI's that affect our current population and HIV
have been eradicated.  Many other diseases have had vaccines so for the
most part everyone in the village is healthy.  Nifty survives on your
donations, please help as you can.

	Every previous time we had met with strangers we had seats for them
to occupy when we rode back to the Village but we had met three people and
only had the possibility of having two seats although I wasn't crazy about
having Jesus take a passenger on the Multistrada, he had been having
trouble with keeping it upright every time we had come to a rough patch in
the road.  I had been by the beach discussing the dilemma with Noel and
Joey, they suggested that possibly they could ride on ahead with two cycles
and return with one of the cars or trucks.  The road we had taken to the
lake from Pittsburg had been clear enough the car Joey had in the garage
should be able to make it at least that far.
	I explained to them if we were going to use a car we could just as
well take one from one of the houses, fill it with gas and go as close as
we could get to the village and then shuttle everyone to the village on the
cycles or in the back of one of the trucks.  Hieronymus and Chuck had been
systematically blocking the entries to the village by pushing deserted
vehicles into mass blockages including the sides of the roads.  After Noel
had explained the radiation situation I understood what their intentions
were.  Joey was the only one not driving a cycle so he and I went to find a
vehicle that could carry the four people and make it around the wrecks and
road blockages that we would encounter before getting to the ones made to
prevent entry to the village.
	"Roger, this is great.  I love riding on the Harley with you.  Why
don't we just take off for a few days and enjoy ourselves?"  Joey had
managed to force his hands beneath my leathers, one hand touching my left
nipple and the other stroking my cock.  I love riding down the road with
hands playing with me, I was tempted to take off.
	"That really sounds like fun but what are we supposed to do with
the strangers?  Leave Noel and Jesus outnumbered to take them to the
village?  I trust Franco and Isabella but that Anna worries me."
	"She doesn't act like she will fit in the village does she?  Maybe
we ought to deliver her to the old man in Pittsburg."  We both had a laugh
over that for a good twenty minutes.  I had pulled the Harley behind a
grouping of vacation houses that all had cars pulled alongside.  There was
a gas station less than a thousand feet across the road, Joey went looking
for a battery that had been left unconnected.  Even if it been on a charger
it would have been blown out.
	Along the journey from Maine to Midland and back to the village I
had been fortunate to find free-standing batteries that worked in whatever
vehicle we were attempting to use, mostly for the cycles but the Trucks had
all required new batteries and the few vehicles we had used locally in
Midland and St. Louis.  I had been carrying a charger in the saddlebags of
the Harley so that wasn't going to be the problem if we could find an
unconnected battery.  Some small gas stations had stopped stocking
batteries years earlier when Tesla had developed a longer lasting battery
that was widely used in most vehicles built within the last twenty-five
years, we had fortunately been able to find the older batteries that worked
after a few hours charge.
	"I've always wanted to ride around in a convertible.  Do you think
we can find one?"  Joey yelled back at me up the road.
	"I'm only going to help you look for a convertible if you give up
your ass over the seat of the cycle."  I had been fucked stretched over the
seat of a Harley when I was seventeen and ever since had thought of it as
one of the sexiest ways to dominate a man.  I hadn't had the chance to put
Joey over the cycle but now that we were alone, the need was running
rampant and my cock was seeping pre-cum at the hope.  I stripped off my
vest and T-shirt thinking about how the afternoon was going to go.
	I had checked out at least a dozen cars by the time Joey returned
guiding the first Hoverboard I had seen that wasn't destroyed by the EMP
that had hit Earth, the old battery weighed in at about thirty pounds so
for him to find a way to transport without carrying it was smart.  I hoped
the board had the same charging connectors as the batteries, not only would
the kids be happy to have it but I used to love riding one outside the
city.  We weren't able to get them past twenty miles per hour but even when
you are standing that can be a trick.
	"There were a dozen of the Hoverboards in the store beside the gas
station.  All of their batteries were out.  Want to take a ride?"
	"Let's see if that old T-Bird runs on the battery."
	When he saw the car I had pushed from a hidden garage his mouth
dropped open.  I knew he would like it.  "Now get your ass over there."
	Joey grinned when he saw me pull my hardening cock from the
leathers.  He almost dumped the battery in the saw grass in his rush to get
his pants off.  Most of the time he liked me forcing myself into him almost
as if I were raping him but putting him over the Harley seat was my scene
and I wanted it to last.  I teased his asshole with my cock until he was
begging my so loudly that I was afraid the echoes would be heard back at
the house where the others had remained.
	"If only you could give me children the way I gave you Jude, I
would fuck you all night.  You have been holding back and not allowing any
of the others to fuck you haven't you?"  Jesus had complained that Joey
hadn't been willing to give it up since I announced I was pregnant with
Jude.  He still fucked Tiffan and Jesus if they got in bed with us.  I
think I understood his feelings but I couldn't quite understand why fucking
the other guys was okay when allowing them to fuck him wasn't.  I had
thought about pulling the same game I had on Tony and Tiffan, not fucking
him until he gave it up to the others but for some reason I was more than
happy to be the only man fucking him.
	We didn't pay much attention to our surroundings or the time.  Once
we were finished fucking on the Harley, Joey dragged my by the cock to the
T-Bird crawled in the back and stretched out over the trunk.  "You had your
fantasy, now its time that you fulfill mine.  I want it hard and non-stop."
	What was I supposed to do?  We weren't really lovers but I would
say we were getting close and if he wanted fucked I was willing.  I was
ramming my cock all the way in and pulling all the way back so that he
could feel every bit of cock in his asshole.  He was making wonderful
noises that I had learned meant that he had shot a load while I was filling
his ass.  I was getting close to cumming myself when we heard a woman yell
that if we didn't want eaten we should get in the house.  A second later we
heard a wolf scrambling towards us over the side of the car.  I had taken
my leathers along as Joey dragged me to the car.  I was able to pull my
pistol just as the huge animal jumped.
	I think I was lucky, but shouldn't even the worst shot be able to
hit a target less than five feet away?  I did and he was wounded if not
badly enough to kill him instantly enough that blood sprayed over Joey and
I as his rear paws hit the seat and his snout grabbed onto my thigh.  I
took a second shot, why I was so calm must have to do with shock, and
knocked his body away.  I looked up and there were three more of the wolves
stalking us.
	"Where did that woman's voice come from?"
	"I'm in the house to your right.  Hurry or you're going to be
dinner."  As she said that I saw her throw what I thought was a smoking
stick.  It wasn't a stick, it was a dozen or so firecrackers strung
together and when they started firing the wolves backed away.  Joey helped
me to the house, up the three steps, across a wooden porch and to an old
sofa with a white blanket covering it.  She managed to get the door shut
just as the wolves clambered onto the porch.
	"Are you two complete idiots?  Not paying any attention to the
animals around here?  You're lucky you aren't wolf food."
	I wasn't paying too much attention to her, either.  The pain was
intense.  I was bleeding like crazy but when I looked down at Joey trying
to stop the bleeding knew that he would be able to since the femoral artery
wasn't spouting blood uncontrollably.  "Lady can you help me get this
bleeding stopped?"
	"I'll get you some towels."  With that she disappeared."
	"You'll be alright, Roger but we're going to need to get you to
Dr. Rhoda."  He had tied parts of the sheet around my leg tight enough to
stop the bleeding but not really uncomfortably.  I hoped he knew what he
was doing.
	"I found some alcohol in the bathroom and a little antiseptic but I
don't think there is enough of either to make sure he doesn't get infected.
You may as well just put him out of his misery."  What was I hearing?
	"NO.  He has children waiting for him to return.  I'll get him back
to our village."
	"There are more of you?"
	"Yes."  Only then did it occur to either Joey or I that she was
alone.
	"Ma'am, for saving his life we'd be glad to take you with us.
There are another twenty or so of us in the Village, they expect us back in
the next couple days."
	Joey was sly enough not to tell her that there were five of us up
the road.  It had been agreed upon when we left the village that if we met
strangers that we were not to give out our strength in numbers until we
were sure that whoever we had met was trustworthy.  I had to think we
should trust this woman but there was nothing to help us decide at that
point.
	"How have you survived the last three years?"
	"Not by being stupid enough to let the wolves get me."  I deserved
that but Joey had deserved what he wanted even if it turned out badly.
	"Have you been living in this house?"  Joey was talking to her
while he still was working on my leg.  The pain had increased as the shock
of having been bitten wore off, I wanted a pain killer but there didn't
seem to be a way to ask for anything more than we had been given.  I
wondered if there was a bottle of liquor.
	"If we don't get you to Dr. Rhoda tonight you might lose use of
this leg."  It was the first thing that Joey had said that didn't make me
believe that all would be alright.  I could tell that I wasn't going to be
able to help him get the battery in the car.
	"Do you have a working vehicle, Ma'am?"
	"No.  I've been riding a bicycle during the day and laying low at
night."
	"Roger, how am I to get the car working?"
	"If you can find Noel he should be able to get it going, if not you
are going to have to prop me over the fender.  I don't know how much its
going to take, I thought we would have a day or so to get it going."
	"I can't drive the Harley."
	"I can tell, you don't drive a Harley, you ride one.  Do you think
you can get the battery in the car?"
	"I can try."  As he stood up I could see that I had lost a lot of
blood, his clothing was drenched.  I tried to sit up but I was too weak so
I remained laying on the sofa.
	"Take a pistol, protect yourself and get the rifle from the Harley.
Ma'am do you think you can shoot at the wolves it they start coming in
close while he works on the car?"
	"I have shot a few rifles when I was younger."  I hadn't been
paying that much attention to her, but when she said that I looked to the
corner of the room where she had moved away from us, she wasn't one hundred
like the old man in Pittsburg but she definitely was older than any of the
people in the village.
	"Once you get the battery in, Joey, check the gas and take the air
filter off.  You are going to need to prime the engine with a little
gasoline down the air intake but you need to be careful not to give it too
much."  I hoped that there wasn't anything wrong with the engine but there
was no way to tell without giving it a try.  I didn't know what to expect,
the car might have been sitting for years before the attack.
	They were quiet for at least a half hour before I heard the motor
try to turn over once, twice, then succeed.  Joey yelled out in surprise.
He tried to get the woman to come along but she said after three years she
thought she would rather spend her time alone.  I wished we had anything
with us that we could give her to help but we didn't have anymore than was
going to be needed to get us home.  If we had to depend on the gasoline
that had been left in the T-Bird we probably wouldn't have made it past the
end of the driveway.  Joey had found two cans of a newer gasoline that no
longer degraded as fast, basically not at all (thank you Shell engineers).
	Before we left we told Gabby that there were people up the road
less than a mile that would be waiting there for us to return.  If she
thought she might like company for a day or two she would be welcomed.
Noel would take in any one even if he thought they were dangerous and the
three new people wouldn't have a vote if Jesus and Noel saw her first.
Riding cross country in the T-Bird wasn't as pleasant as Joey had hoped,
the rear springs were shot and the engine didn't have enough power to wedge
its way between cars stuck in our way.  I remember passing out at least a
half dozen times as Joey fought the road with the T-Bird, he had tied me
into my seat so I didn't crash onto the floor or gear lever.  It was good
that he had, there were time I thought I'd fall out the door when he crept
around wrecks or wagons full of straw or hay that had turned over on the
road.
	We were at least coming at the village from a direction that had
yet to be intentionally blocked with wreckage.  There were times during the
night that I felt the car go into the drainage ditch alongside the road but
Joey didn't let it get stuck.  The sun was in my eyes when I heard Joey say
that we only had a few miles to go.  It had been a long night for him,
driving at least thirteen hours on roads that weren't clear enough for the
car.  I tried to reach over to give his leg a squeeze but my arm wouldn't
move.  Then I tried speaking but I didn't have a voice.
	He managed to find a path that allowed him to pull the T-Bird into
the garage.  When he untied the belts he had holding me in place he learned
I was not responding to anything he did.  Like any normal person he stated
yelling, perhaps thinking I was sleeping?  Then he tried to shake me but
even my eyes wouldn't open.  I don't know how long he left me there but
soon I felt lots of hands lifting me from the car and setting me on the
only gurney there had been in the med center.  I could hear Rhoda and feel
her prodding me but I was unable to respond even enough to lay down, not
sit in the same position I had been in the car for the entire trip.
	I heard Rhoda telling someone to rush me to the med center, the
bite was inflamed and needed immediate attention.  It was a good thing they
were able to lay me on my side for the bumpy ride to the med center or I
would have been in immense pain from the wound bouncing against the gurney.
They didn't even stop to take the seconds it would have taken to cover me
with a sheet.  You can't get much further from the med center than the
garage, I wanted to tell them to stop and give me time to catch my breath
but wasn't able to.  Rhoda saw that I was having trouble breathing and
shouted for Karen to run ahead of us and get oxygen ready.
	There was so much happening around me that I was unable to separate
it all from the background noise.  The pain in the my thigh had returned at
twice the intensity of when Gabby and Joey had stopped the bleeding.  It
was so bad I wasn't even sure I was glad to be alive, Tiffan caught up with
us as we were getting in the elevator and stayed with me.  His hand on my
shoulder felt cold.  Joey had my hand in his and it too felt cold.
	"We're going to need to get his temperature down as soon as he's in
the center.  There is a cold bath to the right of the door, head there
right away.
	"Give the nurse room to get the breathing equipment in here.  Karen
your only job is to be sure he keeps breathing.  If his throat closes down
we are going to have to put in a breathing tube and I don't want to have to
hurt him any more.
	"Joey, try to get his legs to stretch out.
	"Tiffan, if Joey needs you to massage his legs to get them to move
help him."  She was trying to get the wrappings Joey and Gabby had used to
untie and peal off my wounds.  Every time she pulled at one of the cloths I
could feel a welling of pain surge through my body with no way to get
expressed except through muscular waves that didn't help relieve it.
	"Joey, did you do anything for this wound in his ball sac?"
	"Cleaned away the blood and threw a patch on it so he wouldn't
bleed anymore."
	"Do you know what is stuck inside?"
	"I didn't know there was anything in there."  I remembered him
holding the gauze against my sac before passing out.  Was there something
in there that shouldn't be?
	"That's going to have to be the last thing we go for.  I'm going to
need to abrade each of the puncture wounds, they look like they are already
going necrotic.  Joey, wash the ones I'm not to yet, do anything you can do
to force the poison out of the wound."
	She shouldn't have expected Joey to start squeezing my thigh as
hard as he did but in mere seconds I could feel fluid seeping down my
flesh.  I don't know which hurt worse, the way he was squeezing at the
punctures or the way she was cutting and flushing at them.  It was good
that I couldn't speak or I would have been cursing them out or begging for
an anesthetic.  Rhoda had everyone around me lift me back to the operating
table away from the cold bath.  I had stopped feeling the difference in
temperature between the water and my skin mere minutes before she had me
moved.
	Rhoda was probably working on the fourth or fifth puncture wound
when I heard Karen urgently say that I was not breathing right.  How could
I be expected to breath right?  I still wasn't able to move any part of my
body consciously.  I wanted to breath but there was nothing I could do.
The tube she pushed down my throat didn't make an impression over the pain
I was already feeling.  Rhoda had been handed a local anesthetic by one of
the women that had been rummaging through the room searching for whatever
Rhoda said she needed.  The individual puncture wounds started to hurt less
but my muscles and joints hurt so badly I would have gladly stopped
breathing.
	"Okay, Roger hold on.  I only have the wound in your ball sac left
to work on.  I may have to open it a little to find out what the hard
object is."  The rest of my body hadn't relaxed at all at that point.  Joey
and Tiffan had managed to get the leg without the wound to straighten out
beneath me, the leg Rhoda had been working on was still frozen in a seated
position.  My arms hung uselessly where Joey had left them.  I wished he
would work on my back Rhoda had told him to avoid it so far, how was she
going to get to my sac?
	"Roger you have swollen up about three times your normal size.  I
could barely feel her hand holding my balls but I knew she had them in her
fingers.  If there is as much poison in here as there was around the other
wounds we may have trouble saving your testicles.  I wanted to stop here
from digging in my ball sac the way she had my thigh but with a tube in my
throat I was no closer to speaking than I had been when I was hauled into
the village.
	I sincerely hoped she didn't hand me over to Joey.  If he squeezed
my balls as hard as he had squeezed my thigh I was sure he would pop a nut.
I tried to make myself more available to her hands but nothing I tried
worked.  "Roger, try not moving: I am going to have to make a slit in your
sac to release the venom, if you move too much I'm going to be bathing more
than your testicles in the venom.  You really don't want that."  I thought
she must be thinking it would pour over my cock.
	That was the last I remember hearing.  It was two days before I
came out of the shock I was suffering and was able to speak.  I was
surprised to see Noel on one side of the bed and Joey the other.
Unfortunately, I was still unable to move anything other than my mouth,
even that was only opening enough for me to talk softly and mostly be
misunderstood.  It was like Joey had never released my hand but as I looked
around the room I realized he was on the opposite side he had been when
Rhoda had cut into me the final time, before I lost all consciousness.  His
hand didn't feel as cold as it had.
	Looking with only my eyes, I couldn't turn my head, I asked Noel,
"How?"
	"He gave me the whole tale of how he and Joey had searched for
another vehicle until at the end of Lake Bob Sandlin they had found another
Monster truck, one with the extended cab and articulated tail-gate.  They
had intended to bring everyone back to the village and allow them to sort
out where they wanted to live after seeing how we planned on surviving the
next attack.  Gabby had heard Jesus mention the old man we had left in
Pittsburg and asked if there was a possibility that they might take her
there to meet him and if they could stand each other leave her there.  They
had laughed at the minimal requirement she was going to put on the man and
town but took her there in case the man had changed his mind about going
with them.
	Noel admitted that by that time they were hoping they could push
Anna out of the truck and speed off.  Neither of them would say much about
her except that she wouldn't accept that neither of them was interested in
fathering the baby she carried.  I sort of understood her need to have a
father figure for the baby but wasn't Franco the one that had impregnated
her?  Couldn't he stand with her?
	Other than twenty minutes when he had skipped out of the bedroom
and gone with Jesus outside to fuck, France hadn't left Isabella's side.
They told everyone there wasn't a problem but when loading the trucks Noel
saw that Belle was not moving very well.  He didn't know if it had anything
to do with her pregnancy, if they had been fucking that much or she had
hurt her hip and leg.  In Pittsburg Belle hadn't left the truck, Gabby
hadn't liked the old man but surprisingly he and Anna hadn't stopped
talking once she saw all the food stocked in the restaurant.  Franco told
them on their way out of town that Anna was a fair cook so the old man
would get a good bargain for sharing his food.  He was slightly sad at
leaving a child behind but no one told him that the area would soon be
saturated in radiation so he thought they might get to visit the child
someday.
	Even while unconscious my mind must have been working.  When Joey
went to find Rhoda I asked Noel about the reason many of the advances of
the last sixty years were not functioning as well as some of those from
earlier times.  We discussed electronics and our inability to get the sat
phones operating.
	"Roger, have you noticed anything extremely odd about the thousands
of piles of ashes we have seen?"
	"None of the bodies seemed to be moving?"
	"There is that.  But have you seen any jewelry?  Out of thousands
of people wouldn't you expect at least a quarter to be wearing wedding
rings and half necklaces of some type?"  I could tell it wasn't a
rhetorical question but I didn't have an answer.
	"What does that have to do with our electronics?"
	"I wasn't sure until we toured the museum in Pittsburg again.  None
of the exhibits that had once had any precious metal in them was whole.
The glass case that displayed the founding couple's wedding rings was empty
but still locked.  As I walked around with the old man we found more
similar sights."
	"I took the phones apart as soon as we got back.  Sat phones use
gold and titanium, the metal had disappeared from inside of every phone I
opened.  I checked the cars that were in the garage when we arrived, the
small amounts of gold that were in the on-board computers wasn't there, I
guess we we might have known that if we had tried to start them up.  None
of the trucks we picked to use were new enough to have those parts although
that may have been why we weren't able to get some of the ones we wanted,
running.
	"The attack was to abscond with Earth's precious metals?"
	"Possibly.  Or that could just be a side effect of the attack on
humans."
	"I thought there was titanium in Harleys."
	"I checked the manual after I dismissed the phones as a lost cause.
They stopped using Titanium ten years ago when there was a worldwide panic
about the accessibility of enough of the metal to keep building phones."
	"Is there either metal or silver in the village?"
	"Once you are out of bed we will look, but there was supposed to be
a vault built under the village so those that bought into it would have
resources to start a new world.  None of us were left wearing any gold.
Even the married couples from the lower level don't have wedding rings, I
haven't asked but I would bet they disappeared."
	"So the only cars we are going to get running are what fifty years
old?"
	"Or built without computers like the snow plows."
 	"Now that you have that question solved how about starting in on
the wolves again, they seem to be getting more aggressive."
	"I think I need to leave that discussion to Dr. Rhoda."  Noel had
been a willing participant in killing the wolves that threatened the
village earlier so I had no idea what the doctor could say that would
change anything.
	"We have been keeping Ton and Dana away from here but I don't think
they are going to be willing to be detracted from seeing their father for
much longer.  Is it okay to have them see you like this?"
	"Rhoda, first."
	"That is probably best.  You should know if this is how you are
going to be for any amount of time before you speak to them."
	I had been trying to speak to him for at least a half hour but my
speech hadn't gotten any better or worse.  I had no idea if seeing me like
this would frighten the boys or calm them since they would know that I was
close by.  I wanted to see them, badly, so unless this was going to
frighten them I would have someone bring them to me.
	"How is my miracle patient?"  Why would she call me that, it was
just a wolf bite.
	"Better."
	"Well at least you can speak.  Have you been able to move any other
parts of your body?"  I had tried all my extremities.  Nothing!
	Looking at her I knew there was two things that were movable.
First, I closed my eyelids and she exclaimed that was good.  Then I made my
eyes shift from her side of my body to the other.
	"That's all."  I was a little depressed at the thought but she was
seemingly ecstatic.
	"Roger, it may take time and work but you will fully recuperate
from the toxins left in your body by the wolf."
	"They are poisonous?"
	"This wolf was.  Are you ready to hear this or should you rest?"
	"Talk."
	"The way your skin was turning necrotic made me wonder what was
happening.  Normally with a canine bite I would have been able to wash it
out, give you an antibiotic for a few days and you would have been alright.
I Have never seen rabies so I thought I better check to see if that was
what was infecting you.
	"The wolf left a type of poison that I was unable to name with all
this equipment."  She waved her arm around the room.
	"We were fortunate that there were some anti-venom serums stocked.
I mixed and matched hoping for the best.  I think we have saved your leg,
there will be some holes that won't ever fill in but you should still have
full use of the muscles."
	"Balls."
	"Well, that is a different story."  She must have seen a look of
panic on my face.  She snickered and then continued talking.
	"There was more venom left in the testicular sac than in all the
other bites, together.  I was worried we would lose your testicles and one
more addition to the genetic mix."  Sometimes she forgot that she was
talking to people not text books.
	"Did you save them?"  I couldn't feel them but would I normally?
	"Noel, hold him up so he can see his thighs.  Do you see where that
gauze is?"
	"I wasn't bit there."
	"No.  I had to take some skin to make a patch at the place the wolf
punctured the sac and left his canine tooth.  Most of the skin that was
holding the tooth was dead by the time I was able to remove the tooth.  I
was able to fashion a patch with your skin, it may not be quite as
sensitive as the original but at least your testicles aren't hanging down
to your knees."  I couldn't tell if she was joking about that last part but
I was glad she was as good at surgery as she was.
	"What have you learned from the tooth?"  I had a feeling that Noel
and she had been holding back on some information I should know.
	"I am going to wheel you over to the piece of black equipment to
your right.  Can you help me, Noel?  Now turn his head so he can look
directly at the screen."
	We waited while she turned the machine on and it warmed up.  The
lack of gold was one of the reasons that while Noel had been able to get
all the equipment in the med center working they were slower than anything
we were accustomed to using.  Twice I tried to get Rhoda to talk but she
shushed me until the monitor started to show colors.
	"When I first tried putting a sample from your wounds in for
Genetic Loci testing I received no response that made any sense.  I
remembered that Jesus had that wolf hide he used for a rug from the first
wolf he killed so I decided to check to see if there was a difference.  I
was not expecting to learn much, we had talked about the possibilities of
three different breeds of wolves being in Texas but so what if the one the
bit you was different from the one Jesus had killed?
	"So what?  A huge what."  She was busy adjusting the contrast and
coloring so I would be able to see better from below the monitor.
	"When I got a sample from Jesus' wolf I got what I expected 99% of
the DNA was like ours.  When I tried to match it with the wolf that bit you
I only had a 50% match.
	"Roger, that is an impossibility in any animal know to scientists
on Earth.  I ran the tests again at least five times without reaching any
other conclusions."
	"What conclusion?"
	"The wolf that bit you is not Earthly."  I lay there thinking about
what she was telling me without asking any of the thousands of questions
that she probably wouldn't have been able to answer anyway.
	"Did you check the samples against the Mutt in Noel's house?"
	"The comparison was about the same, 50% with a few genes
undetermined."  That would explain the wolves being everywhere we were,
either they were tracking us or they were part of a large invasion that was
scattered all over Earth.
	"Why hasn't the satellite picked up their existence?  It picked up
humans and alligators but no wolves.  Why?"
	"Noel?"
	"I can't answer that without examining one of them completely.
Anything I would say without a full examination would be a guess and most
likely wrong since I was wrong about what they are."
	"Do you think the next attack on the village will be from the
wolves?"  If their own were already here would who ever had hit the Earth
with the killer blast be willing to sacrifice them?  Or was that a human
idea?  How were we to defend ourselves if we didn't have an idea how they
think?
	"I know it is probably a stupid idea from all those stupid vampire,
werewolf, Zombie movies of my youth, but am I going to change from a human
into one of them?"  Was I a danger to my own children?  Would I have to be
put out of the village to keep it safe?
	"I think that is pretty fanciful on the movie maker's part but I
will need to keep checking your DNA to guarantee my science trumps their
fantasies.  The way your body is frozen may be telling us something about
the future but I can't tell what that might be.  Did you have any reason to
think you were pregnant when you were bit?"
	"No.  I suppose I could be, but there is no reason to expect it."
Joey had fucked me a few time since Jude was born so there was the
possibility.
	"I think that is good.  The chance of you changing is very slim,
but the possibility of an embryo changing is a different matter
altogether."  Great another worry to add to all that I already had.
	"After the boys come down you need to get s full nights sleep.
Tomorrow we will start trying to get your body back to normal.
	"The ties are so you don't hurt yourself in the case you try
rolling over."  I was too tired to argue, I hated the idea the boys would
see me tied down but I didn't think they would understand what they were
seeing anyway.  That was the first thing that actually made any other parts
of my body to move, I heard them coming through the doorway and turned my
head to see them running my way.
	Ton and Dana spent the next hour perched beside me on the hospital
bed where I had been moved after the operation.  They wanted me to get up
and take them outside but when I explained that I couldn't move tried
undoing the ties.  Rhoda tried to explain to them that it was more than the
ties, that my body wasn't doing what it was supposed to do.  One by one
they rested their heads on my chest.  I was happy to know I could feel
that.  They were still on the bed when I drifted off to sleep thinking I
had them in my arms.
	When I woke I growled at Karen that I was starving and if she
didn't get me something to eat I was going to eat her.  We both took it as
a joke but I wondered deep in my mind if there was some truth to what I had
said.  For three weeks all it seemed I did was eat and exercise under the
guidance of either Karen or Rhoda.  Every night before I went to sleep one
of the guys would bring the three boys to see me.  I was so happy the first
time I was able to pick them up I cried.  I knew it meant that I was on my
way back to fully functioning, all the stitches had healed and the Wound
Vac had made the skin transplant work almost too easily although it had
been two weeks before I had an erection.
	"Roger, I thought you didn't want to have another child?"
	"What?"  I hadn't been expecting to see the doctor, she said she
had to run some tests and then was going to spend time with her daughter.
	"Unless the venom that I couldn't remove from your body is
affecting your hormones I think you may be pregnant again.  The test I ran
is usually fairly accurate down to six weeks but I will run another test in
two weeks to assure you of the answer."
	"I barely get your permission to leave the village, end up here on
my back for a month and now you think I am going to start the whole damn
process again?  I've got to talk to Joey, I may want an abortion."
	"I don't have the equipment to do an abortion without doing the
same operation that I did to remove the twins and Jude.  We will have to
have a full discussion about the needs of the village and my moral stance
as a doctor when you come to a decision.  I know you hate being a walking
science experiment, but it might be important for us to learn what the
venom did to the embryo.  Can the aliens affect us in that way?  And
hundreds of other questions that I have heard Noel spouting.
	"I could be bearing an alien?"
	"Possibly a half breed?  Or one third?  Until we see how the embryo
is developing I can't even give you that much of an answer."
	"I want to join the rest of you, upstairs."
	"As long as you do rehab with Karen or I everyday."