After the Fall: Close and Confined (Taboo Erotica) (Eden Harem Book 1) (11 page)

CHAPTER 2

The trip to Pete’s house was just down the road and around the corner, but Dan took his time. He knew he was already late, and the weather was so nice that he found himself wanting to relax and enjoy it.

The street was surprisingly empty. There were cars parked on either side, which was common in his suburban neighborhood, but Dan didn’t see any other pedestrians. He brushed it off, and felt lucky and smart to be the only one outside, taking advantage of the nice weather.

Dan saw Pete’s car parked in the driveway of his friend’s house, and walked up to the door. He paused for a moment before knocking, preparing his apology in his head. He had flaked on Pete before, but never quite this badly.

He knocked on the door, and then waited. And waited. He knocked again, and looked back towards Pete’s driveway, confirming to himself that his friend definitely was home.

“Pete, come on man, I’m sorry!” Dan called up towards the window on the second floor that he recognized as the one looking out from his friend’s room. “My phone died! You know I have a hard time waking up without my alarm.”

He knocked again, expecting Pete’s mom to come to the door, at the very least. Dan thought about what he could do to make it up to his friend while he waited, drawing blank. Seconds went by, until Dan was sure that he’d been waiting outside for at least a couple of minutes. He knocked one more time, and then reached for the door handle.

“Alright Pete, I’m coming in!” he yelled. “I’m sorry man, it wasn’t my fault!”

The door wasn’t locked, and Dan took his shoes off as he walked into the spacious house of his friend. Pete’s family was affluent, and their abode was probably the largest on the block. They had been one of the first family’s around to really jump into VR simulations, buying the headsets years ago when they were still a novelty. Now everybody had them, with the exception of Dan and his mom.

“Pete? Mrs. Marsh?” Dan walked further into the house, closing the door behind him and feeling a little weird about just entering uninvited. He turned into the living room, and saw something that instantly caught his eye.

Pete’s mom was lying on the couch, a VR headset strapped onto her head. It looked like she had just woken up, and was wearing nothing more than a small silk robe over her big boobs and luscious thighs. Pete’s mom was ever so slightly on the curvy side, but was still more than hot enough to be considered one of the neighborhood MILFs.

“Oh, hey Mrs. Marsh,” said Dan. “Is Pete upstairs?”

She didn’t answer. It wasn’t unusual for someone inside a simulation to be totally immersed in it, essentially disconnected from the outside world, and Dan didn’t make anything out of it. He looked at her for a second longer, feeling his dick begin to get excited at the sight of his friend’s sexy mom, and then started to walk upstairs.

Pete’s room was at the end of the hall, and the door was open. Dan walked in and leaned against the door frame, folding his arms and looking at his friend. Pete had on a VR headset, and was sitting at his desk, transfixed by whatever simulation was running on the inside screen.

“Yo, Pete,” said Dan. “Pete!”

His friend didn’t move. Dan began to get a little irritated. If this was Pete’s way of getting back at him for standing him up that morning, the point was coming through, loud and clear.

“Fine, be that way,” said Dan. “I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to help myself to something out of your fridge.”

Dan made his way back downstairs, and walked through the living room, towards the kitchen. As he passed by Mrs. Marsh, he couldn’t resist glancing over one more time, and looking at her gorgeous body.

Pete’s mom was breathing heavily, her chest heaving up and down, and Dan noticed that her robe had opened up slightly, showing off a scandalous amount of cleavage. A small moan escaped her lips, and an electric chill shot through Dan’s loins as he realized that she could only be in one kind of simulation.

“No way…” he whispered. He drew closer to the couch, feeling his cock harden slightly as he watched Mrs. Marsh enjoying herself.

She was in an erotic simulation. By some estimates, eighty percent of the simulations on the VR market were erotic, the publishers raking in money in much the same way as the porn producers had in the late nineties and early twenty first century.

Dan was rock hard as he watched her. She was so caught up in the simulation, and though it made him feel like a bit of a pervert, he couldn’t resist taking things a little further. He reached out and slowly pulled the edge of her gown open a little more, until both of her perfect pink nipples had just barely come into view.

He glanced back towards the stairs. Pete was still in his room, leaving Dan alone with his friend’s gorgeous mom, as she got off to an erotic simulation. His cock ached within the confines of his jeans, and a very evil voice in his head told him that he should take care of it.

Dan started by just rubbing his dick through his pants, staring at Mrs. Marsh as he did. She was a very pretty woman, and on more than one occasion, she’d been the subject of his masturbatory fantasies. She was 35, the same age as Lana, and just like his mom, she had the body of a much younger woman.

His urges began to get more intense as he stared at his friend’s mom. Dan reached his free hand in and pulled her gown a little bit more open. The belt around the waist came loose, and it fell open completely. Dan had only been intending to expose a little more of her chest, but now the entire naked front of Mrs. Marsh’s body, including her perfect pink pussy, was on full display for him.

Dan glanced back up at the stairs. He was a little surprised that Pete still hadn’t realized that he was there, but figured that it might actually be a lucky break for him. He could feel how hard and eager his cock was, and the evil voice began to speak in his head again. He could jerk off quickly, and only take a second, it said to him.

He shook his head, almost in disbelief of what he was about to do, and then unzipped his pants. Touching Mrs. Marsh was totally out of the question, but if she and her son were in another world, there wasn’t any harm in enjoying himself, with himself.

He pulled his cock out through his boxer flap and began to stroke it, slowly at first. Mrs. Marsh let out another moan, and Dan took a closer look at her pussy. She was wet, and he imagined how good it would feel to push his cock up into her soft, slick cunt.

Dan was pumping his member faster. He brought it in close to the entrance of Mrs. Marsh’s pussy, as though he was tempting himself, and seeing how far he would go. He felt embarrassed, and incredibly guilty, but he also got a perverse thrill out of doing something so bad.

Mrs. Marsh suddenly bucked her hips up slightly, causing her pink slit to rub against the head of Dan’s cock. It felt amazing, and he was surprised that she didn’t feel the contact and take the headset off. The simulations, from what he had heard, could be realistic enough at times to fool the senses, even touch.

Dan didn’t want to take it any further, but Mrs. Marsh continued shifting, pushing her crotch up and sliding her cunt across his cock. She twisted her legs, and suddenly Dan realized that the head of his cock had slipped inside her, through no fault of his own.

It felt incredible, better than anything he had ever experienced before, and almost instantly he began to shoot off. Dan had the sense to pull back, but not before he’d already spurted once inside of her. The rest of his cum splattered onto Mrs. Marsh’s stomach, and then into his hand as he pulled back and felt reality crash down on him.

It was worse than anything he had done before, but it wasn’t technically sex, he told himself. He had just been up against her pussy. Mrs. Marsh had clearly been in an erotic simulation, and all he had done was create a fantasy of his own, one that had gone a little further than he’d intended.

Dan pulled her robe back over her, and then cleaned himself up in the bathroom. He splashed some water on his face and stared into the mirror, trying to come to terms with what he’d just done. He wondered if he’d ever be able to look at Mrs. Marsh the same way again.

He walked out of the bathroom with loud footsteps, figuring that it would be for the best if he could finally make them aware of his presence. He ran up the stairs, and walked back into Pete’s room.

“Alright buddy, it’s time for you to take that thing off,” he said. “Come on, we can still go play a game or two of racquetball if we hurry.”

He walked over to where his friend was in the chair and pulled the headset up and off of him. Pete still didn’t move. Dan swiveled the office chair he was sitting in around, and looked at him.

Pete’s eyes stared out blankly, not recognizing or acknowledging anything. Dan waved a hand in front of his face.

“Pete? Hello… anybody home?”

Pete didn’t say anything. Dan put the headset back on him, and then flicked the power switch off along the back of the unit. The little green sensor light that shone to signal that the machine was on didn’t even so much as waver.

Dan scratched his head, and began to feel a little scared. He reached for the cord that attached the unit to the wall and unplugged it. The green light was still on, which didn’t surprise him. The VR headsets had battery backups, and could also charge wirelessly if a house was equipped with remote electricity outlets, which Pete’s house most certainly was.

“What… the fuck?” Dan reached out and began shaking his friend by the shoulders. Nothing happened. He rushed into the upstairs bathroom and came back with a glass of water, which he splashed into Pete’s face and onto his lap. Still, nothing happened.

“Mrs. Marsh!” Dan ran down stairs and over to her. He was a little embarrassed by what he’d done before, but not enough to leave the situation be. He pulled her VR headset off her, and saw that her eyes looked exactly the same as her son’s.

“What the hell is going on?” Dan shook his head, and walked backwards, away from the couch and away from his friend’s mom. He felt his heart beginning to beat out of his chest, and forced himself to stay calm, and to breathe.

He walked back to the door of the house and went outside. There were still no cars driving by, and no pedestrians on the street, and now Dan was beginning to understand why.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me? Hello?”

Dan was jogging down the street, putting more energy in to calling out than into watching the ground underneath him. He tripped over a crack in the sidewalk that jutted up slightly and tumbled to the ground, scraping one of his hands as he stuck it out to break his fall.

It was windy out, and a plastic shopping bag blew in front of him. The sound of it folding and gently skipping across the cement was the only sound he could hear, other than his own heavy, panicked breathing.

“What’s going on? Is anyone out there?” Dan yelled at the top of his lungs, and then let out a desperate cry.

He ran over to the nearest house, one that belonged to an old man whose driveway he used to shovel in the winter, and began knocking frantically on the door. There was no response, and Dan glanced in the window only to see the man sitting in an easy chair, his eyes obscured by a VR headset.

“How can this be happening?” he muttered out loud.

Dan began walking quickly, back towards the family home. He knew that there were no VR headsets under their roof, but somehow it was impossible to completely be free of the fear that something might have happened to his mom. The regular logic of the world, the rules that typically held it all together and kept society running smoothly had been tossed out the window. Anything was possible.

“Mom!” Dan screamed as loud as could as he flung the front door open. “Mom! Are you okay, mom!”

There was no response. A heavy feeling took root in the deepest depths of his stomach, as though he’d been punched squarely in the gut. Dan sprinted up stairs, slipping down one of the steps with rushed, uneasy footing, and threw himself into his parent’s bedroom.

There was nobody inside. He checked, and double checked every square inch of the room. His mom was nowhere to be found. Dan wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or worried as he made his way back downstairs, scanning the living room and kitchen for any sign of her.

“… Dan?” The voice was faint, but he could hear it coming from outside.

“Mom!” Dan rushed out onto the front lawn and saw her running over, still in the casual t-shirt and leggings that she’d had on before.

“Oh my god, sweetie!” She wrapped him into a hug, and Dan squeezed her back so tightly that he was afraid he might be hurting her.

“Mom, everybody with the headsets, all of them, they’ve, they’ve…” Dan was stammering, unable to form a coherent sentence.

“I know, I saw!” said Lana. “I don’t know what’s going on!”

The two of them held onto each other tightly, as though they were afraid that one of the VR headsets would descend from the sky if they let go. Dan couldn’t help but think about how good she felt against him, her soft breasts and supple frame.

“Mom…” he said quietly. “You were right. All this time, you were right.”

Lana didn’t say anything back to him, and instead slowly leaned back, and ran her hand through his hair. She looked into his eyes and kissed him on the cheek, her lips hot and wet against Dan’s skin.

“I’m just so glad that you’re okay, honey,” she said. “I thought… I was so sure that something had happened.”

Dan thought back to his experience at Pete’s house, and what he’d done to Pete’s mom, and then blushed. Something had happened, but he was okay. They were both okay, and that was all that mattered at that moment.

“Have you seen anyone else?” he asked her. “Anyone else like us, who isn’t locked into one of those headsets?”

Lana shook her head, and grabbed onto both of Dan’s hands. He could see the fear in the look she gave him, but even more than that, he could see the love. She was still his mother, and having her there with him made a world of difference.

“Sweetie, I think this might have happened to everyone with their headsets,” said Lana. “I… just don’t understand it.”

“We never joined in and started using the simulations, there must be other people out the who haven’t, either.” Dan spoke the words in hope that they were true. He couldn’t think of a single person off the top of his head in their town, other than him and his mom, that didn’t own a VR headset.

“You’re right, honey,” said Lana. She smiled at him, and then hugged him again. This time, Dan was even more aware of how soft and sexy her body was. After what had happened at Pete’s house, it made him feel ashamed to be getting turned on from something as small as a hug from his own mom.

Dan sat down on the couch, still thinking hard about what they could do, what they should do. Lana wandered into the kitchen and began putting together a simple breakfast as though the habit was so deeply ingrained in her that even the end of the world couldn’t break her out of it.

She made them sausage and egg sandwiches, and the two ate silently, occasionally speaking up to bolster each other’s spirits. Dan felt almost like he was caught inside of a dream, one that was too bizarre and strange to snap himself out of.

“Wait, do you hear that?” Dan had just finished his sandwich and held his hand up, signaling for his mom to listen.

“What…?” asked Lana.

Dan recognized the sound, and bolted out of his seat.

“That’s a car!” he yelled. “That’s a moving car!”

He rushed over towards the door and charged outside. Off in the distance he could make out the shape of a black sedan speeding down the road their house was on. Dan rushed into the street and began waving his arms, not even considering for a moment what would happen if the driver didn’t see him.

The driver did, and slowed to the side of the road in front of the house. Lana had joined Dan outside, and she looked as though she was on the verge of hysteria. Dan ran up to the driver’s side window and peered inside.

A woman in her mid-thirties sat in the front seat, wearing glasses and medium sized hoop earrings. She had big breasts, which were clad in a low cut black blouse with the vaguest hint of a red bra underneath. Over that, she wore a white lab coat, and as she opened the door and stepped out, she straightened out behind her.

“How unexpected,” she said as she looked at Dan and Lana. “Were your VR headsets broken when the message went out this morning?”

Dan stared at her, too surprised to know how to respond.

“Broken?” asked Lana. “No, we never had any.”

The woman gave them a skeptical look, and then let out a small laugh.

“Figures. The only people that survive an AI’s takeover by default are the extreme techno luddites.”

Dan furrowed his brow.

“What are you talking about?” he asked her.

The woman looked as though she hadn’t heard him. She looked at her wristwatch, and old school, analog model, and then glanced up at the sun.

“Is there anything in your house that you’re going to need in the immediate future?” she asked them.

Dan looked over at his mom, who shook her head.

“Then come on, climb in,” said the woman. “I’ll explain as much as I can on the way.”

“On the way where?” asked Lana.

“To safety, or at least as close as we can get, given the circumstances.”

Dan looked at his mom for a long moment. He could tell that she didn’t fully trust the woman, but he could also see that she was worried. She finally nodded, and the woman instantly climbed back into the driver’s seat.

“Get in,” she said.

Lana took the front passenger’s seat, and Dan climbed into the back. The second he had his seatbelt on, the woman slammed her foot down on the gas, rocketing the car forward with more speed than Dan had ever seen a car move with on their sleepy, suburban road.

“My name is Dr. Caitlyn Chase,” said the woman. “You can call me Dr. Caitlyn.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” said Lana. “I’m Lana, and this is my son, Dan.”

“Dan and Lana.” Dr. Caitlyn laughed, and then looked away from the road and towards Dan’s mom. “Under these circumstances, it’s very nice to meet you indeed.”

Dan was still shocked by how empty the road was, and how carelessly Dr. Caitlyn hurtled them down it. The entire town felt as though it had been abandoned, left to its own fate by the people who’d once inhabited it.

“We don’t know what’s going on,” said Lana. “Is there anything you can tell us? Please?”

Dr. Caitlyn slowed the car down. There was a stoplight ahead of them that flashed from yellow to red, and strangely, she stopped for it. She turned at the wheel so that she was looking at both of them, and then sighed.

“Something terrible has happened,” said Dr. Caitlyn. “I’m a researcher, and my focus for the past couple of years has been on AI and its future impact on human society. It’s funny, this entire situation… it’s something that a couple of people in my field have been warning about for a long time. I guess we should have listened.”

“We’ve seen the people with the headsets on,” said Dan. “How is it possible? They’re all blank, as though they were vegetables.”

“The VR headsets only have basic neuro analyzing capabilities,” said Dr. Caitlyn. “Most likely the AI that’s doing this figured out a way to lock people in using visual stimuli.”

“Wait, you’re saying that this is a computer?” asked Lana. “How is that possible?”

The light turned green, and the doctor slammed on the gas again.

“I don’t have answers to all your questions,” said Dr. Caitlyn. “I’ll have a better idea of what’s going on once I get a chance to take a close look at an active headset.”

“Where are we going?” asked Dan.

“To the one place that makes sense to take refuge at in a post-apocalyptic world,” said Dr. Caitlyn, with a smile. “To the mall.”

EI: Erotic Intelligence
by
Anya Merchant